Understanding Truth Beyond Temporary Designations
On Desire
On Blessing
On Puja
Bhagavad-Gita
Mode of Goodness Environment Elevates Us
Relationship on the Platform of Truth
Vedic Solution to Environmental Pollution
On Enlightenment
Origin of Love
February 16, 2013
To understand the greatness of God is a very special sacred ornament to our lives. It carries us above all sectarian differences and illusions. The constitutional position of the spirit soul is that we are servants of God, the Absolute Truth. In this world we have become so forgetful of our true spiritual natures and of our relationship with the Supreme. We act in so many ways by which the bondage of illuson is more and more perpetuated. Very few people truely endeavor to understand the truth. Often times intelligent...
February 13, 2013
The whole reason why there is suffering in this world is selfishness. We are so much concerned with me or mine. Its the anchor that keeps us in this world birth after birth. Even if we are chanting the holy name and reading the Bhagavatam we may still have materialistic desires. Why? Does the process work? Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Maharaja was asked the same question. He told the story of the marriage party. A newly married couple had to take an overnight boat ride and it was already dark. The boatman...
February 9, 2013
What is a blessing? Different people have a different understanding of what really a blessing is. Getting a good grade, a nice husband or wife, or money. Actually, everything, potentially, is a blessing if we recognize it. If we don’t recognize a blessing and reciprocate properly then what appears to be a blessing could be a curse. Sometimes you beg for a blessing, you get it and it ruins your life. Yet the real blessing that the soul is looking for is the blessing of a connection with God’s love....
January 24, 2013
Performing puja is a meditation, a way of absorbing our body, mind and words in the Divine and aligning ourselves with God. It is a method of cultivating gratitude and love and an expression of the desire to transform our character. A devotional ritual is like an envelope for sending a message to God. The value of an envelope depends on the letter inside. What is our message? To get something we want or an unselfish offering of love? The answer is critical, as it determines whether a ritual is...
January 23, 2013
At Kurukshetra, under the very banyan tree where Krishna originally spoke to Arjuna, I had read the Bhagavad Gita. I had read many spiritual texts in my travels but the Gita struck me as a book that was so highly practical. I read that Krishna spoke to his disciple Arjuna who was about to shrink from his calling in the face of insurmountable obstacles. The Gita had been spoken on a battlefield because life itself is a battle, where evil perpetually attacks good and our sacred ideals are destined to...
January 21, 2013
It is important to surround ourselves by the mode of goodness (sattva guna) which will induce us to go deeper into our spiritual practice. The environment affects our mind as everything has a particular influence to the world. In the past, when people lived more naturally, they were more subtly aware of all realities around them. But as we move more away from a refined and sensitive lifestyle we become crude in our perception and can’t tell what’s happening around us. We become numb and not aware of how things...
January 17, 2013
Bhakti means relationships as that is what fulfills the deepest needs of the heart. Things cannot fill that vacuum. You can have a house, nice clothes etc., but they cannot in anyway give fulfillment to the heart – only the mind and senses. What gives fulfillment to the heart is satisfying relationships. When relationships are frustrated, life is frustrated and people take shelter of non-living things such as money, objects and intoxication or if not with people then with animals. Our propensity is to love and we need to place it somewhere. In...
January 12, 2013
If we deal properly with consciousness then we can realistically deal with the problems of this world. Otherwise we are just doing patchwork. The cause of all the pollution in the world is polluted consciousness. Because our minds are highly polluted with toxic greed. What is the nature of this greed? It can never be satisfied. The Vedic solution is to learn how to be content and satisfied with simple things – simple living high thinking. Earth is our mother and the natural resources are sacred, they are God’s energy...
January 10, 2013
Enlightenment is a vivid, constant awareness of the world as inherently divine, of life as a loving partnership with God, and of every moment as a call to extend love to everyone and everything around us. The miseries and tragedies of the world are a challenge to see that divinity within even the most adverse circumstances. The spiritual world is within each of us. It is not that we have to die to realize it. According to the Vedas, God is seated beside our soul. As we approach the Lord,...
January 7, 2013
People are very attracted to achieve spiritual knowledge but the purpose of knowledge culminates in love. We are all looking for spiritual satisfaction but unless our service to the Lord is unconditional and uninterrupted it will not bring real satisfaction to the heart. So unless knowledge culminates in love it is superficial. It does not touch the soul but entertains the mind, intelligence and false ego. Yet what is the origin of that love, where does it come from and how to achieve it? Krishna expands Himself as Radharani who is...