Remember Krishna

 

Remember Krishna at the time of death and you will be freed from the cycle of birth and death. We all know this. Such a simple solution and Krishna guarantees that he will take care of life after death. Then why chant every day? Why the association of devotees? Why read books about Krishna?

The answer is simple, we cannot remember Krishna while dying. Our condition is such that, except Krishna, everything else around us will become important on death bed. We are so attached to the material world in this Kaliyuga (especially in the 21st century, thanks to the advancement in technology and social media which keeps us almost isolated from spiritual Jigyasa)

So, the next question is, to what extent should we give up all our material desires and surrender to Krishna? The straight forward answer is, FULLY. But, for those like me who cannot elevate self to consciousness like Srila Prabhupada, this is an impossible task. During my initial years of sadhana, I used to think to just give up education, parents, material accumulation, etc. Yes, that did not happen and I failed terribly. This is called Phalgu Vairagya, false renunciation. I understood that I am not as spiritual conscious as I used to believe. This leads to another question, how can I renunciate? Well, there is an alternative, and it is very convenient too.

Whatever material accumulation we gain, they are all equal to zeroes in a spiritual context. But the same accumulation could be something if Krishna is placed in the front. Eg: no matter how many zeroes we place next to each other, they will always be zero. But the moment we add ONE in front, the value suddenly changes. That ONE is Krishna. So, there is no need to give up the material world, just keep Krishna as a focus point. Just remember that living life in the material world is like playing the game of Kabaddi. There is risk involved when you want to touch as many opponents as you see around. The chance of you coming back to line becomes very thin. Similarly, whatever we see around us, desiring, aspiring, and gathering them will put us at risk to forget Krishna. However, if we remember to get back to Krishna and always think about it, we are still safe.

Conclusion: Following regulative principles and chanting 16 rounds along with reading Prabhupada books and the association of devotees is the easiest way to remember Krishna.