I donot have any qualification on writing on Krishna Consciousness as it is so huge, with so profound subject knowledge and I am nothing but a toddler in that area. I pray to Lord Nitai Gour Chandra for his mercy and blessings that whatever I write here is in line with disciplic succession and also is pleasing to both Devotees ,Sr Vaishnavas and non Devotees as well.
The purpose of this article is to express our experience of first year of Krishna Consciousness and also encourage more and more non Devotees to chose this wonderful journey.
We chanced meet one very senior devotee & mataji ,in our housing society during book distribution program some time in Nov 2021 and collected first volume of "Krsna". It took some time for me to read the book ..but as I continue to go through different chapters a new perspective came to my mind of Krsna whom till then, I used to consider Him another mythological Kings /Gods amidst of 33 Cr Hindu Gods.. But the book depicted a chapter of Akrura taking back Krsna and Balarama to Mathura and I became very emotional . The book inspired me to read more topics, but we had to visit USA and spent some time there. While in USA during one personal difficult situation I felt unconscious and later in India the doctors diagnosed it to be because of too much stress. It open a new thought process in my mind as I needed to find a solution. On return to India we were desperately looking for Prabhuji ,but we did not collect their phone number and very difficult to contact. Lord Krsna might have different plan as during March 22 ,we got a call from Mataji for joining Discover Yourself (DYS) program at their home and our journey started.
Discover Yourself program designed by ISKCON and lucidly explained by Prabhuji and in conjunction with the book with same subject written by HG RadheShyam Prabhu changed our whole perception. As we slowly started realising that my stress are meaningless as I am not at all the enjoyer or doer rather just a media through whom Krsna gets things done. So my worry,my anxiety etc is creation of my mind because of identity crisis. Both me and my wife became so much attracted to this that in addition to the Home program , we started visiting Camp Temple ISKCON every Saturday and sometimes other temples as well. and collected numerous books from Jeevdaya and started reading. Sometime in April 22 we were fortunate to receive Japa mala from Prabhuji and was trained of Mantra meditation. Like all new things I was very lethargic in adopting new life- style but regular attending Devotee Association in Vishal Nagar temple of ISKCON,Home program and never the less countless You tube videos shown to me by my wife & I agreed to try at least.For first week I used to dose off/leave in between and could not complete more than 6 rounds.. but slowly Krsna was so merciful He moulded me to groove and in a fortnight time I could complete 16 rounds. We developed more attraction to Sattvic food and topics related to Krsna,Shastra and started feeling distaste towards Non Veg Food ,mundane topics discussion,Gossiping etc. Prabhuji ,who is now our Mentor, has been so kind and tolerant to me and my nonsense questions and without his continue guidance I would have left long time back. Our gratitude to many other Senior Vaishnavas including some luminaries in Vaishnab Societies & many others in ISKCON Mayapur,Vrindavan,Pune,Mumbai . All have encouraged us whenever we have met,guided us and without their kind gesture we might have stopped long time back . Because of their mercy we have started feeling that we have found a new family all together.
My wife has been a strong support for me as we practice KC together and she being an dedicated sadhika herself does not allow me to skip any of my daily routine and I think regularity helps a lot. In between my Mom-in-law visited us and she being herself in Spiritual path for many years guided us as well.
By Lord's mercy we also joined a course on a Sattvic Movement and Yoga system from another institution which taught us different lifestyle based on plant based diet and modified Yoga practice, .Coupled with this new practice , from Oct22 onwards we are chanting between 3:45AM -5:15 AM,singing Shikshastakam,doing Puja and also reading Bhagavat Gita in the evening and Kirtanas and by Lord mercy till now we have not missed a single day . Very soon we started developing distaste on all regular TV program ,Movies and I disconnected Amazon Prime and Netflix from my phone , unsubscribed to majority of the news debate channel..have put most of the Whatsapp Groups on abeyance as I find no taste in the general topics .. the transformation is such ,that during our recent Kolkata and Puri trip despite of seeing so many Bengali restaurants , we had no intention to every touching any fish item or world famous Darjeeling tea.
DYS and Bhagavad Gita classes conducted by Prabhuji have let us know the true identity of us,how we can be true Happy and that too for eternity, True Miseries and way to avoid, Duties as per Shastra, Maya and their bondage,Spiritual World and its attributes, feeling Krishna's mercy everywhere,Humility,Tolerance , and other 26 qualities as per Gita and many more.
We learnt an important lesson that Purpose of Life is to work towards going back to Godhead and for this Husband and Wife should work as a team to work keeping Krsna in centre and serving Guru and Devotees and chant Holy Name all the time.
By adopting KC following positive benefits I have seen:
because of leaving all dead food my weight has reduced considerably and Gastric trouble vanished
my concentration has increased considerably.
Business issues ,how so ever stressful it may be, do not bother me much anymore.
recently we had a serious personal issue, which lingered for past 4 month and this new realisation has helped us to tackle it without any anxiety.
whenever we find time we spend time on Krsna books/songs and that calm our mind and also I get deep sleep
Participation in Book distribution has helped me reduction of Huge False Ego and
attitude of Serving every one and aspire to be a servitor of Lord.
My humble appeal through this note to all of you is to give Krishna Consciousness a try,the experience is worth it.
Hare Krishna!
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