Compiled by Damaghosa dasa (Seattle, USA)
Krishna book – Subduing Kaliya
… Kaliya felt great anger within his heart, and thus he grabbed Krishna with his mighty coils. Seeing the incredible way in which Krishna was enveloped in the coils of the serpent, the affectionate cowherd boys and inhabitants of Vrindavana immediately became stunned out of fear. .. All the cows, bulls and small calves became overwhelmed with grief, and they began to look at Him with great anxiety. Out of fear they could only cry in agony and stand erect on the bank, unable to help their beloved Krishna. While this scene was taking place on the bank of the Yamuna, there were ill omens manifest. The earth trembled, meteors fell from the sky, and the bodies of men shivered. All these are indications of great immediate danger.
In all the above statements, It is found that both good and bad omens occur in nature on occasion. What is this for? Why even pay attention to this? When in school, it is always a better outcome after taking a test, if we have prepared ourself, rather than paying attention to what is going on around us. Being Krishna Conscious means being conscious of Krishna, who is Everything.
—————————————————
Teachings of Lord Kapila Verse 21 : Purport :
Human life is meant for yajna, sacrifice for the satisfaction of the Supreme Person. We may perfect our activities, but our success lies in satisfying Krishna by our talents. Presently we may be attached to material activity, but we should transfer that attachment to a sadhu. Then our lives will be successful. Presently we are attached to money, women, nice houses, country, society, friends, family and so forth. This attachment is called arjanam pashu. The word pashu means “rope.” When we are bound with a rope, we are helpless, and now we are bound by the gunas, or the three modes of material nature. The word guna also means “rope.” We cannot free ourselves, for we are conditioned. We cannot move freely without the sanction of the supreme authority. It is generally said that not a blade of grass moves without God’s sanction. Similarly, we cannot do anything without the supervision of a superior authority.
Prabhupada: You cannot eat anything, even grass, without the sanction of God, what to speak of fish and others. You cannot eat even a piece of grass. Īśāvāsyam idaṁ sarvaṁ yat kiñca jagatyāṁ jagat, tena tyaktena bhuñjīthā [Īśo mantra 1]. Everything belongs to God. You can simply enjoy after being sanctioned by God. Otherwise not. This is real philosophy. Everything belongs… Just like in this room, it is supposed that everything belongs to me. Even my students, they ask, "May I take this?" They have got right to take, but still, they ask. Similarly, you cannot touch anything—everything belongs to God—without His sanction. This is God consciousness.
Krishna tells us in Bhagavad Gita 3.27-"The bewildered spirit soul, under the influence of the three modes of material nature,thinks himself to be the doer of activities, which are in actuality carried out by nature"
Also In the Bhagavad Gita 9.10 ,Krishna tells us–This material nature is working under My direction, O son of Kunti, and it is producing all moving and unmoving beings. By its rule this manifestation is created and annihilated again and again.
Srila Prabhupada himself, I am told, did not prefer to travel on Thursdays, and if he did, the bags would be packed and put outside his door on Wednesday. A pure devotee is not under the control of the material energy, yet out of respect for the demigods, and Krishna's supreme arrangements, would honor this universal law.
Some Conclusions:
From the above selection of quotes we can understand a little, how this thing we call "life", is obviously very intricately arranged by the Supreme Controller. Srila Prabhupada in one place mentions we should be able to sense an "arrangement" behind everything because nothing happens by chance or accident-a word not even found in the sanskrit dictionary. Once Sir Issac Newton, the famous physicist made a mock-up model of the universe which was impressive and an atheist friend of his came to see it, and asked him- who made this? Newton replied-nobody-it just happened by chance ! The friend insisted somebody had to make it. Newton, said no, it was just chance that all those materials came together not a person at all. Finally Newton said, to his exasperated friend, if you can accept that this small insignificant universal model had to be made by a person, then why can't you accept that this larger universe was made similarly by a person?? Typical Newtonian logic.
Just by carefully observing things happening in nature,which is so ordered, we can see somewhat, a superior hand or controller behind life. When we say power, there must always be someone who is powerful, or who controls that power. Energy means there must be someone who is Energetic.Electricity comes to us through millions of wires, but there is a man or person behind it all who throws the switch. Omens are meant to help us see the future, "good" or "bad" and also by seeing these omens we can also see that nothing can take place without some superior arrangement, by some superior "power". We are but a very tiny part of the cosmos, playing out our own tiny part and interacting continually with so many other tiny "parts". And all this interaction taken together is called "life", of which we understand very little of how things are going on.
Srila Prabhupada also explains how the demigods are controlling everything even our eyelids which blink. Everyone to some degree is a controller – a man is controlled by his wife, or the wife is controlled by her husband, the children controlled by the parents, citizens controlled by the state government, and ultimately when we go further and further as to who is the greatest of controllers, we will find that one person who is not controlled by anyone that is God, Krishna.
So by observing omens, and knowing that nothing happens without the sanction of the Supreme Controller, Krishna, this leads us to becoming eventually, God Conscious, or Krishna Conscious and finally properly concluding we should act under His control. Acting under this control, means we regain our original constitutional position of eternality, full consciousness or knowledge, and Ananda-blissfulness.