{"id":114,"date":"2007-04-07T20:58:49","date_gmt":"2007-04-07T20:58:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/?p=114"},"modified":"2013-10-01T20:59:39","modified_gmt":"2013-10-01T20:59:39","slug":"anarthas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/anarthas\/","title":{"rendered":"Anarthas"},"content":{"rendered":"

April 30, 2007<\/span><\/p>\n

Today is Lord Nrisimha’s appearance. I appeal to Krishna in that form to
\neradicate the anarthas in my heart so that I can perform pure devotional
\nservice. Those anarthas are our real enemies, not external personalities who
\nare themselves suffering under the law of the material energy.<\/span><\/p>\n

Prahlad M never prayed for the Lord to kill His father, nor did he pray for
\nexternal protection. His prayers were for pure devotional service and
\nsurprisingly enough for the welfare of those who attempted to torture him.<\/span><\/p>\n

I look on Prahlad as a perfect example of Vaisnava tolerance, mercy and
\npurity. Even when the Lord offered him anything that he wanted, he first
\ndeclined stating that he was not a merchant-that is someone who was doing
\nservice in exchange for something. Then Prahlad asked for someone, but not
\nfor himself. Prahlad was overcome with compassion and empathy for the fallen
\nconditioned souls especially his father, and Prahlad asked the Lord to give
\nthem His mercy.<\/span><\/p>\n

Prahlad never got angry with any of the persons who were attacking him. He
\nnever considered any of them to be his enemies. Amazing! Prahlad is a great
\nsource of inspiration for me.<\/span><\/p>\n

One the subject of anarthas: We often think that if we pray to Lord Nrsimha
\nor Lord Nityananda the anarthas will go away automatically; that is one day
\nwe will wake up with no anarthas. That is not the process. We pray to the
\nLord to eradicate the anarthas, yes, and he gives us the strength, and
\nintelligence to do so, but we must actually work on it too. We see in the
\nGita that there are 5 factors in any action. So our endeavor (one of the
\nfactors) must be there. It will be a struggle but we will be successful.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another thing about the anarthas is that we should think in a positive way
\nabout getting rid of them. If we simply concentrate on the anarthas in a
\nnegative way they get more prominent. For example if my meditation is: “I
\nmust not eat so much,” my meditation is simply on the negative of eating too
\nmuch and controlling the tongue becomes a bigger struggle as the emphasis is
\non eating too much. If we approach the matter in a positive way saying that
\nI will eat the right amount because it will be pleasing to Krishna, I will
\nbe healthier for serving, etc, then it becomes easier to control the tongue.<\/span><\/p>\n

The same thing with the regulative principles. We should not see them simply
\nas negatives but as a means to accomplish what we want in life (to be Kcon).
\nIn fact the regulative principles are sometimes described as the “regulative
\nprinciples of freedom.” So we should be thinking-“I want to be free,
\ntherefore I choose to follow these principles,” rather than “I have to
\nfollow the principles.”<\/span><\/p>\n

When we do something for a positive purpose, Krishna consciousness becomes
\nmuch easier. Practically everything we do should be done for a positive
\npurpose and we should learn the art of phrasing things positively instead of
\nnegatively. For example I go to Mongal Aroti because I want to please
\nKrishna and Prabhupada, not because I “have” to.<\/span><\/p>\n

You don’t have to do anything. We do have free will. Krishna did not say in
\nthe Gita to Arjuna that he “had to” serve Him. He said to him that he had a
\nchoice.<\/span><\/p>\n

Also to function because of guilt is a destructive way of thinking.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, it is a joyful process of getting rid of the anartha, because in this
\nway we can achieve our goal. It is like enjoying living in a clean, orderly
\nhouse. I know that after the devotees clean my room every day (I am expert
\nin creating a mess), I feel very happy. Perhaps I should learn to clean my
\nown room. Sannyasis get a little lazy!!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

April 30, 2007 Today is Lord Nrisimha’s appearance. I appeal to Krishna in that form to eradicate the anarthas in my heart so that I can perform pure devotional service. Those anarthas are our real enemies, not external personalities who are themselves suffering under the law of the material energy. Prahlad M never prayed for read more>><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":116,"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114\/revisions\/116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}