The Art of Spiritual Life

Details: 30 April 2004; Last Updated: 30 April 2004; Views: 6113

A memoir by Syamarani Dasi

[Sometimes devotees ask "Why do you sign every update email 'Thanks for your patience as we strive to serve you'"?
Well the answer is because PureBhakti.com is a work in progress, and sometimes there are areas that aren't as good as they could be or are missing altogether.

One big omission for quite some time has been the preview edition of Syamarani didi's upcoming memoir, "The Art of Spiritual Life" or ASL as we have been calling it. Some of the files for ASL were lost in the transition of websites last summer, and the presentation which was available previously is only now back on the site. There is a permanent link to ASL on the homepage, in the right hand column in the "Features" section. On the ASL page you can also download an Adobe PDF version of the preview edition of ASL.

I beg your forgiveness for being slow in fixing this. I hope to add the additional chapters that Syamarani didi has sent me for this presentation soon. Thanks for your patience as we strive to serve you. - Kishore Krishna dasa]

Preface

O respected reader, before endeavoring to present these memoirs, please allow me to offer my unlimited obeisances to my most worshipable diksa-guru, nitya-lila pravista om visnupada Sri Srimad Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. I also offer the same to my most worshipable siksa-guru, om visnupada Sri Srimad Bhaktivedanta Narayana Gosvami Maharaja, who continually increases my faith in Prabhupada.

Guru Maharaja, Sri Srimad Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada is an eternal associate of Sri Sri Radha and Krsna, an uttama-mahabhagavat devotee. In order to preach Krsna consciousness in this world, he played the role of a madhyama-adhikari devotee, who makes four distinctions in his dealings with others. He shows prema, love, for Bhagavan, he shows friendship in three ways to those devotees who are higher than him, those equal to him, and those less advanced than him; he shows mercy to those just approaching Krsna consciousness, and he neglects those who are against Krsna or His devotees. I was an example of a tiny jiva to whom he showed mercy, and the following is a summary of my experiences with him.