Tum Hi Ho (You Are The One)

We all love love stories, don't we? The idyllic romances shown on the big screen swell our hearts with the hope that one day, we too would have a fairy-tale romance.. Despite nursing multiple heartbreaks and tolerating the wounds inflicted by our 'lovers', we remain drunk on the wine of love hoping that one day it would extricate us from our miserable existence. (Read: Wounded in Love?)

Few realize the love they are searching for is not be found in this world. Some of us know this intuitively. This explains why we love being in 'love' more than we love our partners. Love is God. God is Love. When you are in love, the nectar that you feel is actually a tiny taste of what 'true love' really is.

As Srila Prabhupada explains lucidly...

"The basic principle of the living condition is that we have a general tendency to love someone. No one can live without loving some one else. This propensity is present in every living being. The missing piece, however, is where to direct our love so that everyone is included and can be happy. At the present moment, human society teaches one to love his country or family or his personal self, but there is no information on where to direct the loving propensity so that everyone will be happy. We have failed to create peace and harmony in human society, even by such great attempts as the United Nations or our economic and scientific progress, because we have missed this point. That missing point can be found in awakening the our original love for Krishna(God). If we learn how to love Krishna then it is easy to immediately and simultaneously love every living being. It is like pouring water on the root of the tree-all parts of the tree are nourished. Or supplying foodstuffs to the stomach-all parts of the body are nourished. When we are situated in that position we can enjoy a blissful life"

Ultimately all religion boils down to this: love of God....  And this love is more intimate and special than the love of this world, which is just a perverted reflection of this very divine love. This is not a love to be indulged in every Sunday in a church or temple, but a love to be relished every moment of our lives. Faith is required here. You trust your spouses, don't you? Even though they are imperfect beings and many times hurt you with their insensitivity and callousness. Compared to this God is the perfect being and knows the heart of every person in this world. With our welfare always on his mind, even when we think he 'hurts' us, its something very good hidden in it. God wants nothing from us but to share with us the love he has for us...

This lyrics of this soulful track actually extrapolates the deep and all consuming love we need to have for our Lord....

Tum Hi Ho (You Are The One)

Movie: Aashiqui 2

Music: Mithoon

Singer: Arijit Singh

Lyrics

Hum tere bin ab reh nahin sakte
Tere bina kyaa vajood meraa

I can't live without you now,

What's my existence without you..

Tujh se judaa gar ho jaayenge
To khud se hi ho jaayenge judaa

If I get separated from you,

I'll be separated from my own self..

Kyonki tum hi ho
Ab tum hi ho
Zindagi, ab tum hi ho
Chain bhi, meraa dard bhi
Meri aashiqui ab tum hi ho

Because you alone are,

Now you only are,

life. You're my life.

My peace, and my pain,

you alone are my love..

Teraa meraa rishtaa hai kaisaa
Ik pal door gawaaraa nahi
Tere liye har roz hain jeete
Tujh ko diyaa meraa waqt sabhi
Koi lamhaa meraa naa ho tere binaa
Har saans pe naam teraa

How's this relationship of ours,

I don't like distance of even a moment

Every day, I live for you

All my time is for you..

There shouldn't be a moment of mine without you,

There is your name on every breath..

Tere liye hi jiyaa main

Khud ko jo yoon de diya hai

Teri wafaa ne mujh ko sambhaalaa

Saare ghamon ko dil se nikaala

Tere saath mera hai naseeb juDaa

Tujhe paa ke adhoora naa raha

For you, I lived

I have given myself (to you)

Your faith [actually means 'my love for you' here] took care of me

Took all the sorrows from (my) heart

With you my fate is attached,

Getting you, Nothing is incomplete (within me, I got completed)..

Madness in love

Chaos of life blurring away

O my dear lord Krishna,

The more I contemplate on you, my lord.. the more attached I'm becoming to you everyday.. It is like my lord.. the background of my life is getting more and more blurred each day and my focus turning to you.. O lord.. in everything and in every person and in every situation I search for you..Those things O Lord which don't carry your fragrance, I'm inclined to reject right away..

Prabhupada praying in temple

I'm especially desirous of associating with your pure devotees my lord.. Nothing is better than their association..In my present circumstances, the only way to physically associate with your devotees, my lord, is to go to your temple..opened by the ISKCON.. lord..great are your devotees..giving this chance to come to you to every person..but going to the temple is many times not convenient.. that leaves me with the company of His Divine Grace A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada's books and the kirtan (Congregational chanting of the lord's holy name) recordings on my cellphone.

Mirabai singing the lord's glories

Maybe that explains my dear lord.. why I'm increasingly becoming enamored by your devotee of the highest order..Mirabai.. Again and again Lord.. I read her many compositions.. trying to understand her love for you my lord.. but it seems almost impossible.. for she herself proclaims...it is not possible for anyone to understand her except for the person who is in her shoes..i.e. with a love for you my lord that matches the intensity of hers..her love is pure madness.. although colloquial wisdom proclaims that people do become a little mad in love.. being sport for things they never favored earlier..enjoying life as it unfurls.. If the love affairs of the mundane world can produce such marvelous changes in a person.. what to speak of divine love, where the object of love is not a flesh and bone human being, but you my lord yourself..and its never a one-sided love affair.. o dear lord.. its just pure bliss when you reciprocate.. you blow my breath away.. your ways are as miraculous as you are..

*If this sounds like fiction to you.. I urge you to put aside your misgivings and give it a try.. faith can be the greatest asset of a person.. if you have faith in thy lord.. you have everything.. Let us pray to the lord to keep our faith steady.. and never let it waver..*

Now hear it from Mirabai.. ..in this transcendental composition..

I am mad with Love
I am mad with love
And no one understands my plight.
Only the wounded
Understand the agonies of the wounded,
When the fire rages in the heart.
Only the jeweler knows the value of the jewel,
Not the one who lets it go.
In pain I wander from door to door,
But could not find a doctor.
Says Mira: Harken, my Master,
Mira's pain will subside
When Shyam comes as the doctor.

- Mirabai

*Here Harken and Shyam refers to Lord Krishna, and are among a few of the many names used to address him*

Jai Mirabai!
Jai Shri Krishna!

Jai Prabhupada!

My guru.. my teacher.. His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada: Founder Acharya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON).. if I'm honest with myself.. If today I am so attached to my lord Krishna and crave his presence each single moment of the day, its all because of Prabhupada's books and his English translations of important vedic literature like the Bhagavad Gita As it is, Srimad Bhagavatam, Sri Brahma Samhita,  Sri Chaitanya Caritamrta and many more. Moreover he had the ability to distill the great wisdom in those books into few palatable drops of his public lectures.. Blessed are the people fortunate to hear him or read the great books he left behind...
His ultimate message was just to instill  love of Godhead in every human being as evident from this lecture...

Lecture by His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada given at Los Angeles, July 5, 1971
Prabhupada: ...He (Chaitanya Mahaprabhu) was traveling in South India. He saw one brahmana reading Bhagavad-gita. And persons who knew him, that "That man was illiterate," it was not possible for him to read Bhagavad-gita... But still, he was trying to read it, and crying also. So while others were criticizing, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu came to him, "Brahmana, what you are reading?" So he could understand that "This person, He's not come here to criticize me. He's serious." So he talked seriously, "Sir, I am reading Bhagavad-gita. Unfortunately, I am illiterate." Now see. He is illiterate and he is reading Bhagavad-gita. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu inquired that "How is that, you're reading Bhagavad-gita and you say you are illiterate?" He said, "Yes, actually I am illiterate, but my Guru Maharaja asked me that 'You should read every day eighteen chapters.' So what can I do? (laughter) I have to carry out the order of my spiritual master. So I have simply taken this book. I am seeing it." Chaitanya Mahaprabhu said, "Oh, you are not seeing it, simply. You are crying also." "Yes, Sir, I am crying also." "Then if you are not reading, how you are crying?" "Sir, I am not reading, but I'm feeling." "What is that?" "As soon as I take this Bhagavad-gita in my hand, immediately I feel Krishna and Arjuna sitting on the same chariot, and Arjuna is ordering Krishna that 'You drive my chariot between the two soldiers,' and Krishna is driving. So I am simply feeling how Krishna is nice, that He can work as a servant of His devotee. When I feel like that, I cry, how Krishna is so kind." Chaitanya Mahaprabhu immediately embraced him, that "You are really studying Bhagavad-gita." So unless we develop our love for Krishna, there is no meaning of reading. And if we can develop our love for Krishna just like this brahmana, even without reading any book, that is wanted. Mayy asakta-manah. Therefore Krishna also confirms, mayy asakta-manah, "Simply by increasing attachment for Me." Mayy asakta-manah partha yogam yunjan mad-asrayah. Mad-asrayah. Mad-asrayah means "under the direction of Me or My representative." So one who performs this yoga system, how to increase love for Krishna, that's all, then you understand everything. The Vedas, they confirm it.
Yasmin vijnate sarvam evam vijnatam bhavanti.
If you simply understand Krishna, then everything will be understood. Because Krishna is everything, God is everything. To understand Krishna, simply this attachment... Mayy asakta-manah. Asakti means attachment. So our, this Krishna consciousness movement is... We are teaching people, our students especially, how to increase attachment for Krishna. Why this temple? They are feeling that "We are sitting in Krishna's presence. Krishna is so nicely dressed. I am dressing." Otherwise, from atheistic point of view, you see that "Why these people are bothering like this? They have taken a brass idol and wasting time after it?" They can say like that. Because they have no love for Krishna. But one who has love for Krishna, he sees, "Krishna is so kind. He's accepting my dressing. I am crowning. I am garlanding." That is a feeling. So the whole process is to increase our feeling of love for Krishna. That is required. Not anything else. Just (like the) gopis. They were not Vedantists. They were not scholars. They were village girls, and also low class. Brahmana, kshatriya, vaishya, the third class. The fourth class is the shudra. They were neither brahmana nor kshatriya. Vaishya.
Krsi-go-raksya-vanijyam
vaisya-karma svabhava-jam [Bg. 18.44].
Vaishyas, they have to take three kinds of profession: agriculture, trade, and cow protection. As the kshatriyas were meant for giving protection to the human being, the vaishyas are understood to give protection to the cows. Go-raksya. Go means cow; raksya means protection.That is their business. So these Vrindavana people, they were... Nanda Maharaja, he had 900,000s of cows, and he was a big man amongst the agriculturists. So they were ordinary men, agriculturists, taking care of the cows. They were not Vedantists, not philosopher, not scientist. Ordinary. But what is their credit? The credit is nobody could love Krishna excelling them. That was their credit. Therefore Chaitanya Mahaprabhu recommended,
ramya kacid upasana
vrajavadhu-vargena ya kalpita
"There is no comparison of the method of worship which was adopted by the damsels of Vraja." Unalloyed love for Krishna. No bargaining: "By loving Krishna, I shall become a big man, I shall become a great philosopher, or great scientist," or "I shall improve my material condition." These are anyabhilasita. And bhakti begins when one is devoid of all these material considerations. Anyabhilasita-sunyam
[Brs. anyabhilasita-sunyam
jnana-karmady-anavrtam
anukulyena krsnanu-
silanam bhaktir uttama
"One should render transcendental loving serviceto the Supreme Lord Krishna favorably and without desire for material profit or gain through fruitive activities or philosophical speculation. That is called pure devotional service." Bhakti- rasamrta-sindhu 1.1.111.1.11].
Sunyam means when one makes zero all these material desires.Jnana-karmady-anavrtam: [Cc. Madhya 19.167] even uncovered by the resultant action of philosophical speculation and fruitive activities. Everyone is working to get some result. That is called fruitive activities. So a pure devotee has no such desires. Anukulyena krsnanu-silanam. Their only business is how to please Krishna. That can be done by everyone, if he wants. Take, for example, if you want to please me, it does not require high education or great amount of riches or knowledge or beauty. Nothing. It is your business how to love me, how to please me. That you will know. So if we want to love Krishna, Krishna will let us know. Krishna is within you. Simply we have to decide that we shall love Krishna only. That is wanted Then everything is there.
Aradhito yadi haris tapasa tatah kim, naradhito yadi haris tapasa tatah kim [Narada-pancaratra] .
The kim word is used: "What is the use of?" That is kim. So the shastra says that if you have learned how to love Krishna, then what is the use of these books? There is no use. You can avoid anything, all this reading. But if you have actually developed your love for Krishna... And after reading all these books,philosophy, science, if you cannot love Krishna, then what is the use of it? Both ways. Useless. If you do not love, do not develop your love for God or Krishna, then what is the use of your philosophizing and scientific knowledge? This is all useless. And if you actually have learned how to love Krishna, or God, then there is (no) need of philosophy or science or books.So therefore the main point is how to develop. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu recommends this. Prema pumarth mahan. Our greatest success of life is how to love God, Krishna. That is greatest success. Now you can do it. But there is prescribed method, given by great acharyas. Just like in this temple we are doing. We are timely giving. The atheist will say, "Oh, these are so foolish that they are taking so much labor for preparing food and offering and wasting time. Best thing would have been to go to some club and enjoy wine and playing cards." They'll waste time in that way. We are not wasting, but they say we are wasting time. They will criticize. You see? They are prepared to waste time in a brothel, but if people are sitting nicely in a temple and talking of Krishna, serving Krishna, they will laugh. That is our position. So we have to become callous to all these criticisms. We have to go with our business, Krishna consciousness.
That's all.
Thank you. (end)


*Nobody could have articulated this better than Prabhupada, our guru. *

Jai Prabhupada!!
Jai Sri Krishna!

Govindam adi purusham!

A still from the animated movie "Little Krishna"

Govinda is another name for lord Krishna and means giver of pleasure to the cows and senses. The Lord's presence is so sweet that it can completely satisfy our senses unlike material sense objects which leave us wanting more and more. The Lord's pastimes as a child where he even played the role of a cowherd boy in the blessed land of Vrindavan are eternally blissful!

The following prayer is verse 30 and 32, Chapter 5 of Sri Brahma Samhita (prayers of creator Brahma to the Supreme Personality of Godhead Krishna) The translation of this ancient prayer is available to us only because of the grace of A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada: Founder Acharya of International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON). All his books are in the public domain and free to read.

SRI BRAHMA~SAMHITA

govindam adi-purusham tam aham bhajami
veṇuḿ kvaṇantam aravinda-dalāyatākṣam-
barhāvataḿsam asitāmbuda-sundarāńgam
kandarpa-koṭi-kamanīya-viśeṣa-śobhaḿ

I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, who is adept in playing on His flute, with blooming eyes like lotus petals with head decked with peacock's feather, with the figure of beauty tinged with the hue of blue clouds, and His unique loveliness charming millions of Cupids.

ańgāni yasya sakalendriya-vṛtti-manti
paśyanti pānti kalayanti ciraḿ jaganti
ānanda-cinmaya-sad-ujjvala-vigrahasya
govindam ādi-puruṣaḿ tam ahaḿ bhajāmi

I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, whose transcendental form is full of bliss, truth, substantiality and is thus full of the most dazzling splendor. Each of the limbs of that transcendental figure possesses in Himself, the full-fledged functions of all the organs, and eternally sees, maintains and manifests the infinite universes, both spiritual and mundane.

* This soundtrack produced and performed by George Harrison and featuring The London Radha Krishna Temple rose to number 16 in the UK singles record chart in 1970, and has become a timeless classic played daily in thousands of temples worldwide to greet the deities of Sri Sri Radha and Krishna in the morning. The album is now known as Goddess Of Fortune. *




Jai Prabhupada!
Jai Shri Krishna!