Disorder has invaded all our relations

Posted by dinesh

Extracted from an article "With Krsna in the Peaceable Kıngdom"

By Ravindra Svarupa Das

The material body of every living being is animated by a spiritual soul, who is the eternal offspring of Krsna. Each souls individual history of good or bad deeds causes him to become fastened into a higher or lower body, yet all souls remain in essence equal as children of God. God never forgets them, and a godly person, Krsna tells us, sees all animate beings as spritually equal sparks of the divine (Bg.5.18).

But if we forgt God and consequently develop eclipsed material vision, the transcen- dental unity of the eludes us. Once we have become estranged from Krsna, we become estranged from all other living beings-even those of our own kind. thesymptom of our divorce from God is our inability to sustain peaceful, harmonious, loving realtions with others. We incessantly make war upon our fellow humans, and we wantonly prey upon innocent animals, needlessly slaughtering them for food. At the same time we feel a need to rectify all our reationships—within our own families and communities, among races and nations, and between humans and subhumans.

Yet the disorder that has invaded all our relations is a symptom of one central enduring dislocation—our severance from God. Only when that is repaired will the disruption between ourselves and all other beings be healed.

Best Regards

Dinesh

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The ungrateful heart is not so great

Posted by dinesh

One time a saint observed a candala walking along the road was sprinkling water on the path to purify before his every step. This was kinda strange and so the saint approached him and asked the reason. The Candala told its sinful to walk along the path where an ungrateful person has walked over. Even a candala feels he gets sin to touch the earth that was walked over by an ungrateful person.

The following is quite impersonal but is ultimately about connecting to the nature and the creator indirectly.

"From The Secret Daily Teachings Mobile App

Begin your day by feeling grateful. Be grateful for the bed you just slept in, the roof over your head, the carpet or floor under your feet, the running water, the soap, your shower, your toothbrush, your clothes, your shoes, the refrigerator that keeps your food cold, the car that you drive, your job, your friends. Be grateful for the stores that make it so easy to buy the things you need, the restaurants, the utilities, services, and electrical appliances that make your life effortless. Be grateful for the magazines and the books that you read. Be grateful for the chair that you sit on, and the pavement that you walk on. Be grateful for the weather, the sun, the sky, the birds, the trees, the grass, the rain, and the flowers.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

May the joy be with you,
Rhonda Byrne"

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Don't use the axe of criticism where the scalpel of correction is needed

Posted by dinesh

Check out this video on YouTube:

http://youtu.be/gNYIzDK1cBA

Best Regards
Dinesh

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50 yrs later!

Posted by dinesh

I happened to think deeply about my existence. If we think about it, we can see how limited our time really is in this body.

"Before giving up this present body, if one is able to tolerate the urges of the material senses and check the force of desire and anger, he is well situated and is happy in this world"- BG#5.23

We are drowned into our desires which are like a reflection of our mind. It is this mind which is carrying us to different conceptions of material life as confirmed in the Bhagavad Gita.

"The living entity in the material world carries his different conceptions of life from one body to another as the air carries aromas. Thus he takes one kind of body and again quits it to take another"- BG#15.8

It's the mind which enjoys pleasure and suffers the pain. 50 yrs later, I won't be in this body nor would my friends or so called relatives who are expansions of this body. Even if some of us make it beyond 50yrs it would be like an invalid body which won't support normal life. If I won't live in this city of nine gates, beyond 50yrs why should I endeavor so much to care this body taking all my lifetime. This world is a perfect jail and unless we develop intense greed to attain Krishna, He could never be bought. Intense greed is the price to develop Bhakti and purchase Krsna.

Srila Rupa Gosvami, wrote, "Pure devotional service in Krishna consciousness cannot be had even by pious activity in hundreds and thousands of lives. It can be attained only by paying one price – that is intense greed to obtain it. If it is available somewhere, one must purchase it without delay." (Padyavali 14).

Quote starts:

"Following in the mood of Srila Rupa Gosvami, the Vaisnava saint Srila Narottama das Thakura has explained how any tendency that is an obstruction to our spiritual advancement can be transformed by relating it to Lord Krishna. He specifically describes how the 'six enemies' of lust, anger, greed, illusion, envy and pride can be conquered: "I will engage lust, anger, greed, illusion, envy and pride in their proper places. In this way, I will defeat the enemies and with ecstasy in my heart, I will worship Govinda without difficulty. I will engage my lust in eagerness to serve Krishna and I will use my anger against those who are envious of the devotees.

I will be greedy to hear the topics of Hari in the association of the devotees. I will be illusioned if I fail to achieve my worshipable Lord and I will feel proud to chant the glories of Krishna. In this way, I will engage them in their respective duties." (Prema Bhakti-candrika 2.9-10).

Quote Ends

Look at this, look at that, all are pitfalls trapping me in this world every moment. No use to look anywhere but within to hear the call of my Lord. My own desire to enjoy here is a noose that kills my soul life after life. There's a lot of things that happen in our life which sometimes creates a moral conflict and because of being in dualities it drives us crazy to go nuts and get lost. In the Mahabharata, Bhismadev had a moral conflict when Draupadi was pleading for help as she was disrobed by the Kauravas and so he had a hard time making a decision and couldn't help her. Similarly life throws us into many such situations which makes us feel totally drowned in life of sorrows.

"O Arjuna. Be transcendental to all of them. Be free from all dualities and from all anxieties for gain and safety, and be established in the Self." -BG#2.45

"Purport: As long as the material body exists, there are actions and reactions in the material modes. One has to learn tolerance in the face of dualities such as happiness and distress, or cold and warmth, and by tolerating such dualities become free from anxieties regarding gain and loss. This transcendental position is achieved in full Kṛṣṇa consciousness when one is fully dependant on the good will of Kṛṣṇa"

There's no use to waste time in talking about other people's mistakes or how we were ill treated or how we were not understood, despite our constant efforts to make them understand. In the middle of the ocean, what can you do if there is a storm? Only tolerate and try to see how soon you can get out of the ocean. This material life is such a deep ocean where all of us are trapped. We are running out of time to make a chance to get back home out of this ocean which has got ferocious animals that can eat us alive.

Best Regards

Dinesh

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Direct service or Directed service?

Posted by dinesh

Dependency on Krishna in every situation every time every moment makes the difference. Even at workplace. If we rely totally on our strength - may be our intellect or influence or wealth or words or deeds in every activity, we may get disappointed looking for the positive results all the time. If you take the example of Duryodhana, he was puffed up with his strength because all powerful warriors(who never got defeated in battle) were on his side. He was certain about victory. The pandavas had only limited resources, but their refuge was only Krsna in any circumstance. Positive or negative outcome, if we are dependent on Krsna we will be free from attachment, fear, anger( BG#4.10- http://vedabase.net/bg/4/10/en1) and that is the way to liberate our conditioned consciousness. We are not changing our activity but the consciousness. Both Pandavas and Kauravas performed the same act of fighting but the cause and consciousness was different. Pandavas also lost their sons and soldiers in the battle. In my personal realization, when my spiritual life (chanting, controlling senses and mind, surrendered humble consciousness ) was better, I was able to tackle the hardest problems at work or at any other situation with less anxiety about results. It's like we associate everything we see in the world with Krsna in order to remember him as we perform our duties.(BG 6.30

http://vedabase.net/bg/6/30/en). Jatayu the bird who fought with Ravana to save mother Sita was a failure in his attempt but ultimately He was recognized by Lord Ram for his service. The Lord even performed his cremation with His own hands which is victory!!!

If we change our world inside, the way the outside world interacts with us will be certainly different. Many devotees have had those realizations even when dealing with outside world, how Krishna reciprocates with us via every person and every situation. Krishna is controlling the wanderings of all the souls in these machines of body life after life by giving them these facilities of body mind senses and material nature according to what they deserve. Not that he is doing all the activities that the soul desires nor is he responsible for the reactions of our actions. He is a facilitator, observer & one who sanctions.(BG#4.14 - http://vedabase.net/bg/4/14/en1)

Varnashrama dharma(assuming we are performing something close to it) is a gradual process to have regulated sense gratification and at the same time performing sacrifices to please the Lord. The ground rule is "Always remember Krsna, Never forget Krsna". This principle overrides all Vedic rituals, any rules and regulations.

Krishna has given us the resources. Pulling the plug is about changing the consciousness & not the work itself. Currently our consciousness is contaminated by material motivations. The defect of Fruitive work is it makes us loose interest in devotional service. So we should rise above the mentality of Fruitive work(if I do this I will get that, according to Vedic rituals). (BG#2.44 http://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/2/44).

Direct devotional service will be working for Krsna like building a temple or website or fixing a computer that is being used for His service, spreading His message to the world by preaching, book distribution, Sankirtan, Cooking for Him in full consciousness of Krsna. Amount of faith on the Lord also matters in Bhakti Yoga. I wanted to talk about direct devotional service to clearly discriminate what we are currently doing and where we have to get to. We are not there yet but we are taking every chance to do direct devotional services every now and then in every possible way even now.

For now we will see the facilities we get as His mercy and proceed(which is also a way to remember Him) Eventually the goal is to attain complete unalloyed love for Him. Currently we don't have love for Him. So now we are practicing to slowly increase our love for God by this process of Bhakti yoga along with our duties of maintenance based on religious principles. Nature of this world is we got to do some work to maintain the body with soul. So we got to do some work anyway regardless of whether we like it or not, regardless of we are devotee or not devotee. There comes a time when we have to plan to reduce our varnashrama duties and increase directly serving the Lord in every way with spontaneous love at our hear. That's the final goal in our life we are all waiting for.....(BG#9.34 http://vedabase.net/bg/9/34/en1)