Needs, Loss, and Krishna
The evolution from seeing Krishna as the supplier of our needs to seeing him as our greatest need usually takes many lifetimes.
You have a 20-second window to make an impression – they stop, you size them up, put in a spiritual pitch, something interesting, inspirational and endearing, and wait for a reaction – hit, miss or blank… anything could happen! One thing is for sure – people are perceptive. They can sniff out any sense of superficiality, selfish motive, or insecurity within moments.
Hope, faith, inspiration and enthusiasm, which give us the hunger for life, are perhaps our most precious assets – if we have those, we have everything.
We all have heard the virtue of forgiveness a number of times. But we all know how difficult it is to forgive someone especially those who have intentionally tried to make our life miserable.
It’s easy to get boxed into our own little worlds, sealed in a bubble and oblivious to reality, losing perspective and drowning in ethereal thoughts.
"Why do I have to die? Why do I have to suffer? / But wait it will not. That minute is gone now and / then another and another takes its place."
2019 is gone. 2020 is in. Most of us are busy welcoming 2020, hoping that this year will bring unlimited happiness and will fulfil all our unfulfilled desires. We are also hoping that this year we should not be subjected to any types of miseries.
We all have stories about ourselves that become part of our identity, part of how we self-identify. These stories don’t just go away, or have to continue – but they don’t have to be a part of who I am.
"Can I walk the world in grace, in anonymous humility, offering myself to selflessly give, as an invisible guide, like the scent of roses?"
Love for the Lord is inherently present in us but due to our diseased condition we are not able to exhibit it or experience it now.
“It’s a subtle mind-shift between entertainment and appreciation” says our host Sakshi Gopal das, having greeted us all warmly this chilly Friday eve, 29th November 2019, “but let’s all appreciate what we owe George Harrison. Where would we be without him and the Beatles?"
It happens and will continue to happen - someone says something to us, or about us, and we feel the emotions rise. We get ‘bent out of shape’, can’t stop the replay in our mind, and practice all kinds of imaginary ways to respond to it.
Many a times we come across people who challenge us by asking, If God exists then why can’t we see him? But there are so many things in this world which we can’t see but we believe in its existence.
This morning I watched the sunrise and marveled. What a blessing to see it and experience awe. It should be a daily tonic - to stand and soak it in, this moment of majestic movement. One could call it living yoga, feeling deeply connected to the source of light, and life, for this small world.
The more we help others overcome worldly illusions by equipping them with spiritual insights and practices, the more we become spiritually absorbed ourselves and go beyond worldly illusions.
What makes some people resilient and some people weak? It’s primarily because of the way they look at things, especially when they go wrong.
Every single day, without fail, he cooks three huge meals, goes out onto the streets, and personally feeds the mendicants. “This is the happiness of my life” he said, “there is nothing else of value.”
Krishna took on giant form and ate all the offerings – and called for more. Feeling a little anxious, the farmers brought whatever else they could. More, he called. More! And once we have given everything, and God asks for yet more, then what happens? Are we left broken and alone, with nothing?
Those who relapse aren’t always witless or will-less, they are often weapon-less.
Lacking atma-tattva, or spiritual knowledge, we forget that the "soldiers" who are supposed to protect us - the government, our family, and the society - are fallible, and we rely on them excessively.
Ultimately, the difference between being nice and being naive boils down to adherence to dharma.
A poem by Ananda Vrindavan Dasi.
I want to help. Still, I know my limitations when it comes to rescuing people. So I tell them the only thing I know to be true.
A spiritual tradition is known by its luminaries. When one looks at a tradition in the abstract, much is missed, but if you look at the lives of people who live it on a daily basis, you see what the tradition is really all about.
