“How can we describe God or understand His glories? It is not possible. God is unlimited. Regardless of our finite limitations, however, we can express our own feelings and say, “My God, my Lord.” This will be accepted. Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu teaches us to pray in this way:
ayi nanda-tanuja kinkaram
patitam mam visame bhavambudhau
krpaya tava pada-pankaja-
sthita-dhuli-sadrsam vicintaya
“O son of Maharaja Nanda, I am Your eternal servitor, and although I am so, somehow or other I have fallen in the ocean of birth and death. please, therefore, pick me up from this ocean of death and fix me as one of the atoms at Your lotus feet.” (Siksastaka 5)
This should be the standard of prayer; we should only want to be placed as one of the atoms at Krishna’s lotus feet to render service unto Him. Everyone is praying to God with some interest, but even if we pray to God, “Give me some money, give me some relief, a nice house, a nice wife, or nice food,” that is also good.
Yet this is not to the standard of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s prayer. Our only prayer should be that the Lord enable us to serve Him birth after birth. Our prayer should be, “Dear Lord, You are so great that I want to engage in Your service. I have been serving all these rascals, and I am not satisfied. Now I have come to You. please engage me in Your service.”
This is the last word in prayer. Some people complain that when they pray to God they do not feel His presence. We should know that this is due to our incapacities, not God’s. There are two conceptions of presence–the physical conception and the vibrational conception. The physical conception is temporary, whereas the vibrational conception is eternal.
When we enjoy or relish the vibration of Krishna’s teachings in Bhagavad-gita, or when we chant Hare Krishna, we should know that by those vibrations He is immediately present. He is absolute, and because of this His vibration is just as important as His physical presence.
When we feel separation from Krishna or the spiritual master, we should just try to remember their words of instructions, and we will no longer feel that separation. Such association with Krishna and the spiritual master should be association by vibration, not physical presence.
That is real association. We put so much stress on seeing, but when Krishna was present on this earth, so many people saw Him and did not realize that He is God; so what is the advantage of seeing? By seeing Krishna, we will not understand Him, but by listening carefully to His teachings, we can come to the platform of understanding.
We can touch Krishna immediately by sound vibration; therefore we should give more stress to the sound vibration of Krishna and of the spiritual master–then we’ll feel happy and won’t feel separation.”
i always wondered what the tattva was behind the phrase speck of dust. Today i found this regarding the two times daily worship of Srimate Tulasi Maharani, which His Divine Grace Srila AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada instituted in all his Temples:
“Devotee: I was listening to a lecture saying, “We have a desire to be just a speck of dust at the lotus feet of Krsna.”
Srila Gour Govinda Swami: Yes, that is dasya-bhava.
Devotee: That seems like a long distance from…
Srila Gour Govinda Swami: Yes. This is also tattva. We are dasas, servants. Do you understand? We are servants, and servitorship is based on love. Without love you can not become a real servant. Do you understand?
krsna-premera ei eka apurva prabhava guru-sama-laghuke karaya dasya-bhava [Caitanya-caritamrta, Adi-lila, 6.53]
Love for Krsna has this one unique effect: it imbues superiors, equals and inferiors with the spirit of service to Lord Krsna.
This is the wonderful effect of Krsna-prema, it makes everybody servant. It is based on love. One who is gurujan, a superior, he is a servant of Krsna. One who is equal, he is a servant and one who is inferior – all become servants. The example is Nanda Maharaja and Mother Yasoda, they are superiors. They say, “We are servants.” The cowherd boys who are equal to Krsna they say, “We are servants.” Do you understand? It is all in Caitanya-caritamrta and Tenth Canto of the Srimad-Bhagavatam, you will find it mentioned there.
In this madhurya-rasa the gopis and Radharani, they say, “We are servants,” kinkari. And Rukmini, Satyabhama and the wives in Dvaraka, they also say, “We are kinkari.” They all say we are servants. Do you understand?”
“So this servitorship is everywhere. It is in all rasas. Do you understand me? Therefore, please accept me as a speck of dust at Your lotus feet is there, yes, because the mood of servitor is everywhere. It is in all rasas. But according to rasa-vicara, rasa-sambandha, we have this desire, to elevate ourselves to that madhurya-rasa, therefore we offer prayer to Tulasi Devi. We have developed such desire and therefore we pray to Tulasi Devi. Only if Tulasi Devi showers this mercy, then it is possible, otherwise it is not possible. Do you understand? So we worship Tulasi, both morning and evening and offer this prayer.
Why you will worship Tulasi? Because if Tulasi Devi showers mercy then it will be possible to enter into madhurya-rasa, otherwise it is not possible. So we worship Tulasi. Mahaprabhu gives the highest rasa. It is madhurya-rasa”
“Srila Gour Govinda Swami: you should be enjoyed, a maid servant. Do you understand? That prayer is with Tulasi Devi. The fourth verse, seva-adhikara diye koro nija dasi, please give me this right to serve and make me one of your maid servants, then I’ll have access to the kunja and be able to serve, otherwise I cannot have access.
This is a prayer for the highest thing, the last rasa, a prayer for madhurya-rasa. It’s a question of madhurya-rasa. Do you understand? So this desire we have and if you deserve, if you’re so anxious… so eager, always offering prayers, if Tulasi Devi will fulfill your desire, then your rasa will be changed. Your rasa will be changed from dasya, sakhya, vatsalya to madhurya, maybe. Do you understand me?.
–from the Srila Gour Govinda Swami website.