Being in shelter or Within Laksman Rekha
Hare Krsna Prabhuji Dandvat Pranam <div>
I was contemplating on how to understand what does ‘being in shelter of Guru, Shastras and Lotus feet of Lord Sri Krsna’ actually mean.
I remembered one of the pastimes in Ramayana, wherein, Sita Mata was instructed by Lord Laxman to be within Laxman Rekha so she remains safe and protected, while both Sri Ram and Laxman were away from their kutir.
However, she crossed the rekha to give food to Ravana (disguised as sadhu), who then captured her.
Ravana is like an embodiment of all qualities listed in BG 6.6 I.e kāma, krodha, mada, moha, mātsarya and bhaya.
We can draw an analogy here that if there is a downward trend in the devotional service practices, it could mean that we have crossed ‘Laxman Rekha’, I.e denied taking shelter of Guru, Shastras, Sadhus.
Here in my case, it usually happens when i try to chant rounds more than 16 using my own will power as the driving factor (under the mode of passion) without taking the blessings of Guru. Doing extra rounds on one’s own strength is like, we are keeping oneself in the centre and not God. Instead of pleasing Guru, we are pleasing ourselves. That ‘I’ did 64 rounds today, pride creeps in, ie. Maya has taken the control of us.
Then isn’t the blessings of Guru is like Laxman Rekha. The more the shelter or mercy we have, the wider the perimeter of Rekha and further away are the effects of Maya.
Similarly, Srila Prabhupada has also drawn Laxman Rekha in the form of doing min 16 rounds, dont’s 4 regulative principles, and do’s ABCD. These practices will protect us from Maya. If we deviate, Maya starts influencing us.
This was about following Srila Prabhupada minimal instructions.
Now, when I tried to increase the severity of these practices like doing extra rounds, doing nirjala on every ekadashis, these practices actually doesn’t long last, and we struggle very hard to keep up with the severe practices and eventually fallback to the min as set by Srila Prabhupadaji.
So doing devotional service on our own strength doesn’t actually last long and tapasya fails.
My DS was easy in the beginning 1-2 yrs, which could be due to that Maya was playing tricks on us, by giving us that feeling of being in the top of world, sense of achievement, that yes , I can do extra rounds daily , I can follow severe practices and so on..
So, even after several years of practice, we still don’t get the Naam ruci. This could be due to that we were practicing DS outside the Laxman rekha.
Isn’t then doing devotional service on one’s own strength is like practicing without keeping Guru and God in the centre. Because here the motivation is not love towards God or pleasing Guru, but it’s other way round, we want to please ourselves more and more. There is expectation in our practice.
Then questions arise that for doing DS for 10, 20, 30 yrs why I didn’t get the taste of Holy name and our faith dwindles.
Lord Nityanand Prabhu and Laxman are both avatars of Lord Balaram, who is our Adi Guru. So, as long as we have the mercy of Lord Balaram, our devotional service is fully protected from the effects of Maya and we can make quick uninterrupted progress in devotional services.
Laxman rekha or the circle of shelter of Guru Parampara, plays a very very pivotal role in our spiritual progress, without which we will be simply go nowhere.
Denying shelter is like walking in the rain with umbrella closed.
Laxman rekha is equivalent to min 16 rounds, 4 don’t and 4 dos, devotee associations by being inseva engagement, Vaisnav etiquette and so on.
Prabhuji, I just thought of sharing my realizations with you for my own purification only.
My sincere apologies and please correct me or chastise me so I always remain under your shelter.
Ys,
Ravindra Keshaw Botkar
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