The First Prerequisite to Remembering Krishna

— Article and Translations by Hari Parshad Das

The modern world with all its information overload and never ending deadlines can easily drive a person nuts. In such a crazy atmosphere, it is virtually impossible to think about Krishna.  Srila Rupa Goswami has therefore correctly quoted a verse in the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhuḥ (1.2.115) as follows:[perfectpullquote align="full" cite="" link="" color="" class="" size=""]"śokāmarṣādibhir bhāvair ākrāntaṁ yasya mānasam kathaṁ tatra mukundasya sphūrtti-sambhāvanā bhavet." Translation: How can there be even a slight possibility of a spontaneous remembrance of Lord Mukunda for a person whose mind is overtaken by feelings of lamentation, anger etc.? [/perfectpullquote]For this purpose, it is essential that anyone interested in serious remembrance of Krishna make a plan for cutting down the disturbances in their lives. The more we increase the temperature of material enjoyment, the greater is the resulting side--effect of disturbance in our lives. As soon as we start reducing the disturbance of material life, it becomes easier to sit down peacefully and remember Krishna.  At a certain point of time in our lives, we all have to decide — either to cultivate some serious remembrance of Krishna, or to spend our entire lives serving various causes of material disturbances.  If we end up selecting the latter, the possibility of remembering Krishna at the time of death reduces to a negligible value.  Srila Vishwanath Chakravarti Thakura quotes a verse in his Mādhurya-kādambinī:[perfectpullquote align="full" cite="" link="" color="" class="" size=""] "viṣayāviṣṭa-cittānāṁ viṣṇv-āveśaḥ sudūrataḥ vāruṇī-dig-gataṁ vastu vrajann aindrīṁ kim āpnuyāt ." Translation:  For those individuals whose minds are overtaken by material subject matters, the spontaneous remembrance of the Lord stays far away. [/perfectpullquote]How can an object lost in the west be found by searching for it in the east?