Equal opportunity provider

Guru Maharaj used to often mention in his lectures that Maya devi is an equal opportunity provider, and doesn't spare anyone. I felt that this was so relevant to the recently concluded Valentine's day celebrations held at my daughter's school. While, casually glancing at the cards and candies it did seem cute. On deeper introspection it just was another consumerist propaganda targetting these 5 and 6 year olds, promoting Dora, Barbie and Spider man as icons.

While i hardly knew about Valentine's day till in my Masters course, (Really, i am not a fossil but time does seem to be racing past) they are getting exposed to something totally unnecessary at such a young age! Though not overly worried about this event it makes me ponder about the absurdity and impersonalism hiding under the glossy packaged hearts.

My daughter, not to be left behind got into activity mode and made a card replete with cakes, cookies and flowers and who was this for? It was for Baladeva. She has taken a liking to Baladeva and thought she would present Him with a card. I was happy to say the least, for, i was listening to a class on Nityananda Prabhu's appearance day where the speaker (which happened to be by my husband) was mentioning about acquiring the mercy of Nityananda Rama or Balarama in destroying Hridaya durbalya or weakness of the heart. He was saying how one has to approach Balarama specifically to weed out this weakness of the heart and rid it of all the evil propensities and the misconceptions associated with mundane existance. In order to be free from this it requires strength and special effort and who else is a reservoir of strength other than Balarama. I pray to Him that he protect this desire in her heart and carry it forward to her future years in time so that she remains untouched by the lure of these materialistic misconceptions.

Today when i was reading my e-mail, where i receive a message from the yahoo groups Srilaprabhupada nectar, every day, i read this from Prabhupada to one of his disciples "Krishna is very merciful to His sincere devotees, but also we have to remember that maya is very strong. Therefore, we have to always be engaged in serving Krishna. At every moment we should be doing this or that service for Krishna's transcendental pleasure. If we do not remember this, then maya is right there to grab us. It all depends upon our leaning towards Krishna or towards maya. If you lean towards Krishna, you will be in Krishna consciousness; and if you lean towards maya, then you will be captivated by material nature. Krishna and maya are just like light and shadow which are directly next to one another. If you move a little this way, you are in light and there is no question of shadow. But if you move a little the other way, you are in darkness. So if we remember to always be engaged in Krishna's service, then there will be no maya and everything will be all right. Please always remember this great secret of advancement in Krishna consciousness."

Now as a parent the onus is on me that i make sure that we serve Krishna and Balarama every single day, to water this sprout of love and devotion.