12 tips to please Krishna and become very close to Him!
Two Questions from two devotees:
(1) “Plz reply me dat how cld i become very close to my lord Krishna?? What z d simplest way 2 get d blessings of my Lord??”
(2) “Hare Krishna Prabhuji…. I have a question in my mind and I hope you’ll help me in finding the answer… What will please the Lord Krishna more?? To do good things to humanity or chanting the mahamantra??”
REPLY:
Let us read 12 tips to please Krishna and become very close to Him!
If you like to please Krishna, you have to take steps to purify yourself by performing penances and sacrefice recommended for every yuga, at present, Kaliyuga. Your aim should be to serve Krishna, not to become equal to Krishna that is not possible. Anyway, let us take even serving Krishna directly in Goloka is being close to Him.
If one says “I will do anything, I will eat anything, I will speak anything,…. But, I must please Krishna”, it will not be possible.”
To please Krishna, we too must become innocent and pure like Krishna. If we have ego, jealousy, cheating mentality, the habit of killing and eating animals, we can not please Krishna.
(How should a Vaishnava live? Lord Caitanya’s advice! READ HERE!)
So, first, we must Sacrifice something and adopt something.
What are they? Read further:
In the previous yugas , we had to do many tough saadhanas like long penances, yagas, etc to please the Lord. But, it has been simplified for kaliyuga, as the life of people in this yuga is short.
Srila Prabhupada has given a perfect , well structured procedure for getting the mercy of Krishna. I have given some points below:
HOW TO PLEASE AND BECOME CLOSE TO KRISHNA?
(1) THE MOST IMPORTANT ACTIVITY THAT WILL PLEASE KRISHNA:
Among all the 12 tips to please Krishna, this is very important. If you like to easily please Krishna, please respect His devotees/ vaishnavas and offer pranams to them. Krishna loves His devotees much. So, if you honour and help His sincere and selfless devotees, Krishna gets pleased. To get the mercy of Krishna, you have to serve the vaishnavas. ONE CAN NEVER PLEASE KRISHNA IF HE DISRESPECTS VAISHNAVAS.
(2) Krishna lives in His Names in this kaliyuga. So, You must chant His Holy Name as much as possible. Srila Prabhupada recommended 16 rounds a day (16×108).
(WHY 16 ROUNDS OF CHANTING HARE KRISHNA IS RECOMMENDED? READ HERE!)
You can start from one or four round and improve stage by stage. Chanting His Holy Names is important since Krishna lives in His Names in this kaliyuga. All other rituals are second to CHANTING HARE KRISHNA IN KALIYUGA. That is why, immediately after you start to chant His Name, He personally WATCHES YOU.
(3) Sing His glories in temples and at home, if possible, along with devotees.
(4) Offer bhoga daily to Krishna. Never take food or any stuff without offering to Krishna. If you honour (eat) only prasadam (remnants of the bhoga offered to Krishna), you can find definite cleansing activity in your consciousness. Krishna enjoys our food if we offer all we prepare in our home to Him though everything in this material world is His property. He sees that love, not just the food.
(5) Krishna gets pleased when we sacrifice our unwanted qualities and activities for Him. A few examples of sacrifice:
(i) Sacrifice of our time for preparing food for Krishna.
(ii) sacrificing our bad qualities and sacrificing regular food to take only Prasadam. Because all, even ourselves are the properties of Krishna, in fact, we can not sacrifice anything for Krishna. Only when anything is our property, we can sacrifice for Krishna. But, we are sacrificing the properties of Krishna for pleasing Krishna. So, Krishna sees just our love that makes us to sacrifice something for Him.
(iii) There is a latest released & most popular movie in your T.V at 5 P.M in the evening on Sunday. But, you skip that movie and go for having darshan of Krishna in the nearby temple and take part in the lectures and kirtans. Here, you sacrifice the material pleasures given by this New Release movie and go to the temple. Krishna gets pleased as you have preferred Krishna to interesting latest movie. So, He becomes happy over your action.
(iv) We sacrifice some part of our regular food for Krishna on the day of Ekadasi and some other festivals.
(v) Sacrifice of friendship (except Hai , Hello for formality) with useless material friends.
These are a few examples for sacrifice. Develop association with vaishnavas and devotees in in temples.
(6) Krishna gets pleased if we give up all our bad qualities for coming up in His devotion. So, Strictly follow FOUR regulative principles: 1. No meat eating; 2.No gambling; 3. No intoxication and 4.No illicit sex. (No sex outside marriage)
(7) Avoid onion and garlic in food to avoid the domination of Rajo and thamo gunas.
(8) Observe Ekadasi fasts that will please Krishna and also keep your body in good health.
(9) Krishna says in the last chapter of Bhagavad Gita that those who preach His messages are very dear to Him. So, learn the books on Krishna. Distribute Srila Prabhupada’s books to the people. Srila Prabhupada too said that he prefers book distribution.
(10) Read the books of Srila Prabhupada daily again and again atleast for half an hour. Be always in touch with his books.
(11) Love Krishna; Believe that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Do all the above saadhanas WITH FULL FAITH THAT KRISHNA WILL ACCEPT THEM. Believe that Krishna will be pleased with your service. You too can feel changes in your consciousness and maturity and patience in all your activities.
(12) Krishna will be pleased if we surrender to Him without falling into the tricks of maya who is doing all her best to divert us from Lord and to engage us in the material life.
Hope these 12 tips to please Krishna have been very useful to you.
(Is it possible to please Krishna while doing our job of earning money? READ HERE!)