Mass prayer event at Orlando – August 29th 2009

Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

By the grace of Lord Sri Hari and our beloved Sathguru Maharaj, we gathered for a mass prayer at Visconti Maitland, Orlando on a Saturday evening (29th August 2009). Our sincere gratitude to Nirmal ji and Aparna ji, Rupali ji, Sambi ji and Vinotha ji for their selfless service in taking care of the minutest requirements, starting from booking a hall to arranging for food.

It was Friday the 28th of August, Narayanan ji of Boston arrived with the Padhukas of Guru ji.

On Saturday evening at 6:30 pm with the blessings of Madhuri Saki sametha Sri Premika Varadan and Guru ji, all devotees from different satsangs came to Visconti, Maitland for the mass prayer event. We started with Sukanya ji singing kirthans of Sri Rama and Sri Krishna followed by a couple of bhajans and then we had Nama Sankeerthan for 15 minutes.

Then Narayanan ji gave a wonderful discourse of the importance of Sadhu Sangha. He started by narrating the story from Srimad Bhagavatham of young boy Dhruva and highlighted how the sangha of a Guru is most required in our quest for God.

The stories went in a chain linking different incidents in the life of Mahans and stories in Srimad Bhagavatham that stresses on the importance of shravana and Bhagavan nama smarana. He cited several Alwar Pasurams such as “Apothaiku epothey soli Vaithen” and “Eetchuvai perithum venden arangama nagarul aanen” and “Kulam tharun selvan tharum… Narayana enum namam”. He also explained the conversation between Suka Muni and Praikshit Maharaj on the existence of Naraka. When Parikshit questions Suka Muni, if the Lord was compassion personified why does he want a soul to suffer in Naraka? Could he not forgive or give him another chance or provide a path for Prayachitha or atonement for the sins the soul might have committed? To this Suka Muni says how a soul is suffering the likes of Naraka right here, don’t we see people quarrelling and at times hurting each other with weapons? When we fry sweets and savories for festivals like Sri Jayanthi or Gokulastami sometimes a fly was fall into the hot oil and burn itself which is similar to the kumbi bhakam in naraka that a soul may undergo for some of his wrong deeds on earth. And regarding atonements he says if only God provided atonements to all the sins that people will first learn of the atonement and then commit the sin assuming that he can alleviate the sin if he performs the right atonement.

Narayan ji then narrated the story of Ajamila, one of the favorite stories of Guru ji. Ajamila, although being a great sinner called out to his 10th son Narayana during his last breath and hence Sri Hari sent his Dhivya Suris to bring the soul of Ajamila to Vaikunta. He explained the conversation between the Yama Dhuthas and the Dhivya Suris. Also took us to Yama loka to hear the conversation between the Yama Dhuthas and Yama Dharma Raja. Some of these conversations were very interesting and kept ringing back in our ears. Like how the Yama Dhuthas on reaching Yama loka ask Yama Dharma Raja if there was anybody superior to him or is it only Yama Dharma Raja who is superior. To which Yama Dharma Raja does not answer and questions them on why they have returned without the soul of Ajamila a sinner. The Yama Dhutas then tell him that Ajamila screamed and hence they could not bring his soul. Now Yama Dharma Raja laughs and says who does not scream while they are being brought to Yama loka, you Dhutas must have been used to such screaming by now and should have still brought Ajamila here. But the Yama Dhutas say that this particular scream was very different and they’ve not heard this before and as his screamed there were 4 Dhivya Suris who arrived to take his soul. So Yama Dharma Raja curiously asked what did Ajamila scream? And the Yama Dhutas replied that he screamed “Narayana”. Immediately Yama Dharma Raja rose from his aasana with hands raised over his head and then said, now I’ll answer your first question. Then he goes about to say how he is not independent and how Sriman Narayana is the most supreme being. Then the conversation between the Yama Dhutas and Yama Dharma Raja continues as they ask that as per out rules any sinner should be brought here to Yama Loka and put to sufferings and how can this be overridden by chanting the nama of the supreme being at the last breath? To this Yama Dharma Raja beautifully explains that above all these Dharma’s and Shastras we have a Dharma called the Bhagavatha Dharma which was known only to 12 people and now he explains this Dharma in the Srimad Bhagavatham.

So as per Bhagavatha Dharma, the moment a soul recites the Bhagavan Nama at its last breath it belongs to Lord Sri Hari and he will take the soul onto his fold forgiving all his misdoings in the past. So if reciting the Bhagavan Nama at the last breath is sufficient why then do we require to chant his names now and go to satsangs? Here Narayan ji explained how we may know about everything except 2 things in life that is When we would die and how we would die. So we never know whether during that last moment of our death we would have the conscious to call out to the lord. Hence we require this satsang starting as early and continuously through our lives because it is this satsang that will carry us safely in this kali yuga. There will be sorrows and joys to devotees who attend a satsang but they will be considered as mere blessings of the Lord and the sorrows will seem trivial as we would gain clarity on approaching every deed.

Talking about sorrows, Narayan ji also narrated the story of how in the initial days Vivekananda requested Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa to ask Kali matha to give him more money as he was was bogged down with several debts after his fathers death. To this Sri Ramakrishna replies that he cannot ask favors but he would bless Vivekananda such that he can request Kali matha directly and said that the same night Vivekananda can go to the temple and Kali math would give him darshan and then he can request for whatever he wanted. So that night Vivekananda decides what all he should ask Kali matha and went to the temple. But on seeing Kali matha he simply asked for “Bhakti, Jnana and Vairagya”. Upon returning the next day Sri Rama Krishna Paramahamsa asks if Kali fulfilled his wishes? And Vivekananda replied that he forgot to ask for his wishes. The Sri Ramakrishna says that he will grant him one more opportunity. So the second night Vivekananda goes but the same thing happens. And the same conversation follows between Sri Ramakrishna and Vivekananda. Now he is granted a 3rd opportunity and the same thing happens. Finally on the fourth day Sri Ramakrishna says he cannot grant him any more chances to meet Kali. To this Vivekananda replies that he does not require any more darshans of Kali as on the 3rd night’s darshan, though he remembered all his wishes, he still asked for “Bhakti, Jnana and Vairagya” because in front of these his problems and sorrows seemed trivial. This shows how the Guru’s sangha guides us and gives us the clarity to choose the highest and the best even when we are in deep sorrow.

Later Narayan ji sang Jananeshwar Maharaj’s Abhang “Kala vela Nama ucharitha nahi” Where he sins how by “he” merely chanting the names of the Lord can witness all his forefathers attaining vaikunta. The satsang was concluded with the chanting of Nama for another 5 minutes. Finally Narayan ji thanked every devotee for joining us that evening and sharing the glories of the lord. As a satsang is not a satsang unless we have more and more devotees blessing each other by narrating the glories so that others can do shravana and singing the names of the lord and performing smarana. At the end all the devotees offered flowers to Madhuri Saki Sametha Sri Premika Varadan and beloved Guru ji followed by distribution of fruits and prasad.