finding shelter in the service of devotees
Haribol Hanumat Presaka Swami Maharaja,
Please accept my obeisances,
All glories to Srila Prabhupada
I apoligize Maharaj, the counter I meant was the one at the little Idaho gift shop I work at. Sometimes I meet interesting people, doctors, salesmen, travelers, teachers and traveling morman missionary sisters. I also meet lots of young great students with bright scholarships, education, future, 3.8-4.0 GPA's.. infinitely better potential servants of his divine graces blessings. Funny though I made an agreement with these Morman missionary sisters that if I read a bit of the book of morman by Mr. Joseph Smith, then they'd investigate what Hare Krsna, ISKCON is. I think those who go out to teach and preach positively about God for service to their spiritual masters are the best and bravest people in the three worlds.. ... <img alt="laugh" height="23" src="http://hps-d6.monkeywarrior.com/sites/all/libraries/ckeditor/plugins/smiley/images/teeth_smile.png" title="laugh" width="23" />
Killing cows, abortion and super-bowl football.. I can think of a hundred different things relating or like these, in a sense they all pollute the heart. It's funny how for years I've never personally understood what a heart is. In songs, poetry.. etc. No clue what Jesus spoke in the bible or our acharyas were writing, what sastra says about the heart. When I don't feel what everyone else is feeling, I just assumed its some deeper sentiment inside the mind, all emotions/desires are bottled in the mind. Reminds me of a nice test my Psych. 101 teacher gave our class last semester, a chart to color/write where you felt emotions all over your body, to get a better perspective of yourself through understanding where you feel all your emotions.
It seems there are, infact other human beings who have softer hearts that can feel + desire and some maybe like me who also do not (at all or sometimes) ? Thats probably why ruthless torturer/murders are often called heartless monsters. Perhaps Kali-Yuga is the age of real heart disease? Hardening or polluting the heart from sinful activites, thus forgetting it. Then becoming atheistic and eventually losing all compassion for others inside our minds?
I wanted to inquire, Maharaj, if learning sanskrit IS a good use of time in service? I've heard some devotee opinions that we are not meant to become sanskrit scholars, but I felt a pull in my mind that I want to be able to understand sanskrit. So far it's actually pretty easy to read (you can read some derivitaves like hindi/nepali too if you learn the devanagari alphabet). Understanding the meaning of every word and conjuction + grammar is tough though.
HpS - Its good for some devotees. Prabhupada says that Nanda Maharaja could not read nor write, what to speak of the girls. He would hire some educated fool to do it for him.
But the girls, the gopis, new everyitng about the cosmos etc because they went to classes by the Brahmanas, saw puppet shows etc. So it might be good for you. You can get nice study materials from krsnaculture.com. We are using them and starting next Sunday.
Bhakta Reilly
