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Author: Marc

 

 

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IT CAN BE REVIVED

The spiritual consciousness of the sleeping conditioned soul can be revieved by the transcendental sound of the maha-mantra:

Spiritual existence is eternal, whereas the body is not. It is said that the spiritual atmosphere is avyakta, unmanifest. How, then, can it be manifest for us? Making the unmanifest manifest is this very process, of Krsna consciousness. According to Padma Purana,

atah sri-krsna-namadi
na bhaved grahyam indriyaih
sevonmukhe hi jihvadau
svayam eva sphuraty adah
[Cc. Madhya 17.136]

"No one can understand Krsna as He is by the blunt material senses. But He reveals Himself to the devotees, being pleased with them for their transcendental loving service unto Him."

In this verse, the word indriyaih means "the senses." We have five senses for gathering knowledge (eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and skin), and five senses for working (voice, hands, legs, genitals, and anus). These ten senses are under the control of the mind. It is stated in this verse that with these dull material senses, we cannot understand Krsna's name, form, and so forth. Why is this? Krsna is completely spiritual, and He is also absolute. Therefore His name, form, qualities, and paraphernalia are also spiritual.

Due to material conditioning, or material bondage, we cannot presently understand what is spiritual, but this ignorance can be removed by chanting Hare Krsna. If a man is sleeping, he can be awakened by sound vibration. You can call him, "Come on, it's time to get up!" Although the person is unconscious, hearing is so prominent that even a sleeping man can be awakened by sound vibration. Similarly, overpowered by this material conditioning, our spiritual consciousness is presently sleeping, but it can be revived by this transcendental vibration of Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.

The Path of Perfection

GIVE MORE THAN YOU RECEIVE

Ultimately, what shapes the meaning and value of our lives is not what we get but what we give.

If we can have a goal to find a way to add more value to people's lives, then we will not have to worry about success.

If we are constantly trying to make a give-and-take deal, we will struggle to prosper, both internally and externally.

Someone said, "The secret to living is giving."

We are not created to be selfish, yet we are.

But we can change this by a sincere, conscious effort.

We can achieve and get things, but deep down in our souls we have an urge to give and serve, not just to take.

If each day we can sincerely try to give something valuable to people around us, we will experience a life of deeper meaning and greater joy.

DO YOU LIMIT YOURSELF BY THE WAY YOU THINK?

Most of the spiritual and success literature I know of teach us that we can improve our life if we change the way we think.

The mind that we posses is very powerful, and it has three main functions: thinking, feeling and willing (desiring). Bhagavad-gita teaches us that we are not the mind but the soul, who is above the mind and who has an ability to control the mind.

So we can positively influence all these three functions by the power of our intelligence and free will. We have an ability to observe these functions as if they belong to someone else. If that is true, then we can also use our power of choice to choose how we think, feel and will.

Intelligence that we posses and the soul that we are, are superior to the mind and therefore are stronger and can control it. It is simply a question of practice.

The mind is best controlled by the spiritual content. It can be a mantra or a prayer that we chant, it can be a story or a verse of wisdom, it can be a powerful question that completely re-directs our thinking to something positive, inspiring, enlightening, and uplifting.

Briefly speaking, you can choose to think, feel and will as a wise or saintly person, or choose to think, etc., as an ignorant and degraded man. The way you think influences your actions and your reactions to what you experience in life and therefore it influences your results and your happiness.

So the first task is to control the mind by engaging it positively with spiritual themes and activities.

CIVILIZATION

Life's aim is self-realization — and Lord Visnu — not the skyscrapers. This piling of stones and woods, this is not very intelligent work. Piling the woods and stones and earth is there already as big mountains and hills. You do the business of a porter, carry it out, and put it high, heap it in one place, and it becomes a skyscraper building. If you are simply proud of these heaps of stones and wood and iron, that is not civilization. Civilization is that the living entity who is using these resources must know what is his actual business.

This piling of stones and wood is done also by the birds. They also pick up, according to their strength, some twigs, and they make a nest. That intelligence is there. The rat also, he makes a subway. (devotees laugh) So this is not very intelligent work, to imitate the rats, the birds, the cats, and the dogs. That is not civilization.

Civilization means self-realization, "What I am? Why I am forced to die? I do not like to die." To know this, that is civilization. When all these inquiries will come into one's mind,like: "I do not wish to die. Why death is there, forced upon me? I am forced to die. I do not wish to be diseased. Why disease comes upon me?" When this "why" questions comes, that is humanity. And if a man remains dull, "All right, let me die," then he's cat and dog. That's all. If there is no "Why?" then he's a cat and dog.

So human civilization does not mean piling of woods and stones. Human civilization means brahma-jijñāsā, inquiry.

- Srila Prabhupada