Dharma comes before artha

 

This is the second time that I mentioned that I was preparing to leave for Canada three years ago and how I was nervous. Often before traveling to Bengal or elsewhere I would try to spend a few days at Priya Kunj. Baba even arranged for me to stay in a nearby house one time for a week. Usually though, I would stay in a guest house on the main entry road to Barsana a few hundred meters away. I often had to climb over the fence outside to get in at night because the kirtan would end at 11 when everyone at the guesthouse was already tucked away in their own quarters. I liked the top floor room at Radha Guest House, because I could work there nicely during the day in peace and privacy, but still get to observe the street  life down below. This time also I missed getting Babaji's association. On account of Covid I hadn't been to visit for the whole two years I was back. I get to see him on video, which is uploaded every day, but it's not the same. The last two years were weird, l;ike they were for nearly everyone, on account of the pandemic.
2019


I am running out of time before departure. I have butterflies. All this time seems to have been lost and now there are only seven days left. Now with just a few days left, I must go to Barsana. I will spend three days there completely off-line.

I haven't been to Barsana to see Binode Bihari Baba since Jiva Tirtha ended It was one of those inner inspirations that I did not follow. Jai Radhe!


2014

In the train to Kolkata. The train is full of Bengali babas and other Radha Kund tilaked sadhus and sadhvis.


2013

Love and Truth were lovers.
Love became the Love of Truth,
and Truth became the Truth of Love,
and together, they were True Love.

[These are things that don't last, but we are fortunate if we get a glimpse.]


2013

Dharma comes before artha. And if you have artha without dharma, it sucks anyway. So go for dharma first. In our case, the dharma is prema dharma. Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and all things will be given unto you. Behold the lilies of the field. They do not toil and yet no king is as finely arrayed. Do your dharma. Do your Radharani dharma. Do your dharma first, your artha will come from your dharma.

As to whether our duty is given or discovered: We are dependent almost entirely on a realm of possibilities that have come to us through the medium of words. If it is a question of the attitude of the speaker, etc., then you are simply bringing in other elements by which to assess the validity of the words. So we discover through hearing.




Comments

Prem Prakash said…
[These are things that don't last, but we are fortunate if we get a glimpse.] Those glimpses become our polestars.
Monday, 23 May, 2022
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