{"id":160,"date":"2007-06-29T23:37:35","date_gmt":"2007-06-29T23:37:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/?p=160"},"modified":"2013-10-06T23:39:30","modified_gmt":"2013-10-06T23:39:30","slug":"part-4-being-focused-cont","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/part-4-being-focused-cont\/","title":{"rendered":"Part 4: Being Focused, cont."},"content":{"rendered":"

———————-Being Focused – Novi Sad, Serbia – June 29_2008————<\/span><\/p>\n

The question was also raised about association with devotees. We might find that certain types of association; even with sincere devotees diverts us
\nfrom our focus.<\/span><\/p>\n

The key is to strengthen our focus, and to help others understand that their
\nneeds are not really being met by being unfocused. In fact when I encounter
\nassociation that would tend to divert me, by remembering my goals this
\nchallenge helps me focus more.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is similar to when one is attempting to some athletic skill. Without
\nincreasing the difficulty in the attempt, the strength is not increased.
\nWeight lifters have to keep increasing the amount of weight that they are
\nattempting to lift in order to build bigger muscles.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, in other words we should welcome challenges as they facilitate us in
\ngoing inside our own hearts and refocusing on our goals<\/span><\/p>\n

What steps can we take to strengthen our focus? Let me go back to the
\nexample of the vegetarian society that I visited in Croatia (my visit to
\nthis society started this whole topic of being focused).<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the first things I noticed as I looked around their office were
\npictures of various animals that had been mistreated by humans in the
\ncosmetic industry, food industry, pet industry, sport industry etc. There
\nwere also various slogans around the room which basically stated the same theme: “Save the animals from torture.”<\/span><\/p>\n

It was more than a verbal statement though. The combination of the pictures and words went right to the heart and evoked in all present a feeling of disgust and desire to help due to the natural human need for compassion (that is in everyone’s heart).<\/span><\/p>\n

In other words one’s mission has to go beyond words and be implanted in one’s heart. In addition it should be very very simple, and one should constantly
\nremember it.<\/span><\/p>\n

I know that I stated previously in this blog about being focused and that I
\nexpressed my mission as follows:<\/span><\/p>\n

———————————-
\nMy personal mission is to realize my eternal relationship with Krishna and
\nthereby develop love for Him and all His parts and parcels. My interpersonal
\nmission is to serve Srila Prabhupada’s mission eternally by helping the
\ndevotees and society at large develop a compassionate loving Krishna
\nconscious society.<\/span><\/p>\n

Upon further contemplation I find a need to state my mission more
\nconcisely-something like: “Serve Prabhupada and Love Krishna.” Of course by
\nusing this short statement I will naturally understand that by loving
\nKrishna I mean to realize my relationship with him and love Him and all his
\nparts and parcels. Similarly I will naturally understand “serving
\nPrabhupada” means to help develop his mission as a compassionate mission.<\/span><\/p>\n

The short statement makes it almost like a mantra that I can effectively
\ncontinually meditate on during the day.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the business world they generally put the mission statement on the walls
\nof their offices and factories to remind them of what they are there for.
\nThis way they are continually reminded of their goals. The most successful
\nbusiness are the best at doing this.<\/span><\/p>\n

In any case our personal mission statement (and society mission statement
\ntoo) can not simply be words and thoughts. It has to go deep to the heart.
\nTherefore each and every individual has to come up with one for
\nherself\/himself.<\/span><\/p>\n

Krishna consciousness is extremely personal. As long as we are feeling with
\nour brains the true expression and recognition of our nature, Krishna’s
\nnature and our relationships will never be fully understood.<\/span><\/p>\n

I was just reading something very interesting this morning about Vaisnava
\nhistorical literature. Vaisnava historians are not that concerned with
\nchronology (dates) and super detailed external facts but rather they are
\nconcerned with the siddhanta and Bhava. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati
\nThakur even states about one of the foremost Vaisnava historical
\nliteratures: “the historical significance of Bhakti-ratnakara is ati alpa —
\n‘very small’.” Yet he arranged for the publication and wide distribution of
\nthis book because this book contains the important things for devotees:
\nsiddhanta, Bhava and information about the holy places in the Navadvipa
\narea.<\/span><\/p>\n

We are usually looking for something that is precise in a scientific sense.
\nWe spend years learning dates of historical personalities (like Columbus who
\nin 1492 went to the “new world”), yet we never really learn about them; we
\nonly learn of them and externally what they did. Of course to learn about
\nthe inner most heart of Columbus would not be helpful for us!<\/span><\/p>\n

But to learn about the inner most heart of a Vaisnava would inspire us
\ntremendously towards pure devotional service to Krishna. The inner most
\nheart of a Vaisnava is filled with emotions that can only be hinted at with
\nwords.<\/span><\/p>\n

Words that describe bhavas are ascriptive rather than descriptive. A
\ndescriptive phrase is one for example that describes a particular objective
\nof an object-for example, “that desk is black.” An ascriptive word points to
\nsomething that can be understood with the heart and is a rough approximation
\nat best, such as “I am sad,” or the overused one by devotees: “That
\n[prasadam, kirtan, class, etc.] was ecstatic.<\/span><\/p>\n

In other words spirituality and our mission in life has to be heartfelt and
\nwords can be used to reach the heart, but words are not the heart.<\/span><\/p>\n


\n——-end of blog on being focused——————–
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

———————-Being Focused – Novi Sad, Serbia – June 29_2008———— The question was also raised about association with devotees. We might find that certain types of association; even with sincere devotees diverts us from our focus. The key is to strengthen our focus, and to help others understand that their needs are not really being met 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":[46,50,17,27,47,14],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160"}],"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=160"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":162,"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160\/revisions\/162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}