Hare Krishna. Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev.
Few days back I read an interesting article about the life of eagles. The eagle can live for up to seventy years, for that it has to make a hard decision. After 40 years, its talons become weak and cannot grab prey. Its long and sharp beak also becomes bent. Its thick feather sticks to chest making it difficult to fly freely. Then the eagle is left with only two options, either to die or pass through a painful process of changes, which lasts five months. When the eagle nears forty, it flies to the top of the mountains and sets up a nest. Then it strikes it beak against a rock and pulls it out. It waits for new beak to grow. Meanwhile, it starts plucking out its talons. New talons start growing. Then the eagle plucks its old and thick feathers. When the painful process is completed it has to wait for five months to recover. After this it will fly once again and enjoy the new birth.
We see here in the above article that when the eagle voluntairly accepts the pains, then it is assured by the Lord to regain its original healthy position. In our life we always want to live in a comfortable zone and never want to take any discomforts or pains.The reality is that the more austerities we undergo when we are young, we would be more healthier in our old-age. Wishing for a comfortable life, we either use machines for grinding flour, washing clothes, cleaning the house or employ servants for the same and are dependent on vehicles even for travelling small distances. Such luxurious life makes us more and more lazy, so much so old-age becomes all the more difficult. All of us would have practically seen that our forefathers were all much healthier and lived a long life because they voluntarily accepted pains when they were young. But now-a-days because we are used to so much luxury right from childhood, even in 30s and 40s we are finding our lives very miserable.
Our beloved spiritual master H H Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj says that, "Always in our life we have to move from comfortable to uncomfortable zone, this will also keep you healthy for long in life. If you lead a sinful life in younger age don't expect a comfortable life in the old age." Maharaj lived this instruction 100%. Right from waking up early in the morning, cooking his own food, washing his own clothes, reading Srimad Bhagavatam for hours together using his one volume book (small font size without wearing glasses), writing down notes of shlokas, word-to-word equivalents, translations and purports in his diaries, travelling in buses, rickshaws, trains for long hours (in ordinary non-AC compartments), ignoring his inconveniences and giving spiritual counsel to help people in their life, travelling around the world so many times (many a times even without any personal assistants, even after suffering from paralytic attack) - the list is endless. Infact during the final days, Maharaj did not even choose to sleep in the bed in the hospital which had facility to adjust the position to sit and lie down comfortably, but he rather chose to sleep on a sofa. Even few days before he left this world, Maharaj washed his own clothes. So we see that everytime he chose to take uncomfortable situations, rejecting the comforts. All this was possible because Maharaj underwent all the austerities right from the beginning of his life and thats why Supreme Lord blessed him with 91 golden years and Maharaj used it to his fullest extent in Lord's service. In Bhagavad Gita verse 2.64 Lord Krishna says
raaga dvesha vimuktais tu / vishayaan indriyaish caran
aatma vashyair vidheyaatmaa / prasaadam adhigacchati
So when we lead a regulated life, we can get the mercy of the Lord. In the initial stages, we will feel that these regulations are taking us out of our comfort zones. But only when we move out of the comfort zone and follow a regulated life, we will become eligible recipients for the mercy of the Lord.
We should not think that it is not possible for us to follow the foot-steps of Maharaj. Krishna has blessed us with wonderful opportunity of human-birth and by mercy of Srila Prabhupada, Srila Gurudev and Lord Sri Krishna we have this gift of devotional service as well. So we should not misuse the available energy on useless activities, but use our energy in the service of the Lord. As our beloved Maharaj always quotes that without Krishna we are all zeros, but when we add one before zero, the number gets the value. Similarly if we add Krishna in our life and have Krishna as the centre of all our activities, then all merciful Lord will bless us with the strength and ability to serve Him nicely.
Thank you very much,
Param Purush Krishna Das,
Sharjah.
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