Author: Purushottam Nitai Das

When hungry a child not only cries but tries to put anything and everything in his tiny little mouth. Once fed, he becomes quiet and either peacefully plays or simply sleeps. Our hungry heart also always create tantrum like a child. A mother is aware of her child’s wants but we are unaware about our heart’s needs.  Being constantly starved our heart soon makes our life miserable. And we anxiously search for the elixir to calm the angry heart. But none of our attempts completely succeeds.  Our solutions are mostly old fashioned.  We try to stuff it up with lots of money, loads of worldly things and tonnes of pride and prestige.  The carnal pleasure in this world is celebrated and so many go for it thinking it to be the mother of all happiness. These attempts instead of satisfying the heart makes it more agitated. It’s like drinking salty sea water upon being thirsty. Not just the taste is disgusting but it increases our thirst.

Satisfaction and material opulence is not synonymous. Duryodhana is the best case study. He had succeeded in driving out Pandavas, though cunningly, out of the kingdom.  And Pandavas lived frugally in the jungle in huts made of wood and mud but they were peaceful and non- complaining. But Duryodhana in spite of having all the comforts and luxury in his palace was in abject misery and in constant anxiety.  Why? Because his heart was filled with envy, hatred and arrogance. Whilst the Pandavas were happy as love and piety dominated their heart.  Love satisfies our heart and not lust. Satisfaction calms our heart and not material cravings. 

Rupa Goswami and Sananta Goswami voluntarily gave up their high profile job, luxurious house and all the money. Instead they donned tattered clothes, lived under the trees in Vrindavan and begged for living.  But still they were million times more happy and content then the wealthiest person of this world. Why? Because they remained completely absorbed in chanting the holy names of the Lord and sharing the beautiful message of Krishna through words and actions. Material attachment weakens our heart whilst spiritual affection strengthens it.  Great minds in the past and holy scriptures have always spoken about the futility of material cravings. Then why to waste our invaluable life running after worldly things?  Instead let us take a bold decision, step out from the material mindset and look towards Krishna. Our arid heart would soon be over flooded with love and the gate leading to perennial pleasure would wide open.

Lord Jagannath on his way to the chariot

Smt. Mamata Banerjee, West Bengal Chief Minister, at Rath Yatra Pandal

Smt. Mamata Banerjee, Chief Minister of West Bengal performing arati of Lord Jagannath, Lord Baladeva and Subhdra Devi

Lord Jagannath on the majestic chariot

Anger can put our life in danger. It can ruin our career and jeopardise our future. Anger is a negative energy and so wise men since eons have been very vocal about the need of reining on this monster. A person in anger loses his power of discrimination and fails to understand what is right and wrong.  Overpowered by anger he takes irrational decisions which negatively impact his life.  His rashness and rudeness puts off even his near and dear ones. He loses people’s trust, respect of others and finally self respect. Sudden bout of anger is many times sufficient enough to cause considerable damage to one’s life.  An angry man never has any true friend. He neither does good to himself nor to others.

Krishna in Gita 2.63 explains in detail how anger leads to ones ultimate fall down, “From anger, complete delusion arises, and from delusion bewilderment of memory. When memory is bewildered, intelligence is lost, and when intelligence is lost one falls down again into the material pool.”  So next time before given in to anger we should contemplate on Krishna’s words of wisdom for our own benefit.

Published in ISKCON NEWS.
http://iskconnews.org/spiritual-desire-will-take-us-to-spiritual-world,4447/

                                                     Photo Credits: www.iskcondesiretree.net

“The most surprising thing of this world is that everyone sees every other person is dying but they never think that they would also die one day.” These words of wisdom were spoken by Yudhisthira, the righteous India ruler who is revered worldwide for his honesty and intelligence. How true this statement is!  As mortal beings our right to exist can be taken away at any moment.  All our aims, ambitions, goals, desires, material positions and possessions we have to leave behind and we (as souls) will move to a new destination.

As a product pack has an expiry day written on it; similarly our body comes with an expiry date. For each of us the expiry date is different but it is guaranteed that one day our body will certainly perish. Death is painful not just for the one who dies but also for his near and dear ones. Although death comes to us without any intimation but we can’t complain that we were never informed about it. All the sacred Vedic literatures have been loudly informing us that this world is not a permanent place for us to live. In Gita Krishna says that this world is temporary and filled with miseries – duhkhalayam asasvatam (Bhagavad Gita 8.15).

So as a concerned father of all living beings, he constantly asks us to get out of this painful world which is characterized by repeated birth and death.  In Krishna’s kingdom, the spiritual world, there is no death, no disease and no suffering. There is unlimited happiness! And once we reach there we would never return again to this material world (Bhagavad Gita 15.6). It isn’t difficult to achieve that supreme destination. Krishna explains that by performing pure devotional service unto him we become eligible to go there (Bhagavad Gita 2.51).  In this age of Kaliyuga, the age of downfall, the process prescribed is chanting the holy names of the Lord like the Hare Krishna Mahamantra. This chant of deliverance will reawaken our dormant love for Krishna and cleanse our heart of all the impurities. And then upon leaving this body we won’t take birth in this material world again but will go back home back to Godhead. 

So, let us not waste our life in running after the things of this world which will be taken away from us at the time of death but instead we should strive to develop love of God which will guarantee us a transcendental future and supreme destination.  

Gradually we need to give up attraction for this material world and get attracted to the spiritual world. Then only there would be any possibility of returning back to the spiritual world, our original home.  In this age of Kaliyuga, the present age in which we are living, the process to go back to Godhead has been simplified. Chanting the Hare Krishna Mahamantra with sincerity and following the four regulative principles of no meat eating, no gambling, no intoxication and no illicit sex will qualify us to again gain the citizenship of Krishna’s abode.

But this would fructify only if we also nurture intense longing to go back there. Many a times our desire is to improve our material life through devotional activities. Our chanting becomes mechanical and we start expecting Krishna to help us in fulfilling our material desires.  We again get caught up in the vicious cycle of name, fame and money.  Material attachment keeps us back in this material world and our suffering prolongs.

So while practicing devotion we need to be very cautious and careful. We should regularly monitor ourselves especially our desires.  We should analyze if our desires are material or spiritual. The moment we find that our yearning is not for Krishna but something else then we should immediately take corrective measures and should steer ourselves again towards the path which will take us towards Krishna.

The cool rays of the sun, the excitement of the birds and the playful wind makes morning hours very soothing, comforting and relaxing.  Scriptures explain that morning is in the mode of goodness, afternoon is in the mode of passion and evening is in the mode of ignorance.  And the scriptures further say that morning is the best time to practice devotional life. During this time there are very less external distractions and the mind is calm and relaxed. So, one can peacefully and attentively chant the holy names of the Lord. It is true that one can chant the holy name of the Lord at any time in the day and if done with sincerity it would always have the same benefit.  But since almost all of us are sadhana bhaktas (practitioners) and not siddha bhaktas (realized souls) so we are required to practice our devotional life in a way wherein we can completely focus our mind on chanting. And the serene atmosphere of the morning hours helps in being more focussed during chanting which then effectively purifies our minds and senses of all impurities and takes us towards Krishna.  This is why Srila Prabhupada made morning devotional programs compulsory in all the Iskcon temples of the world.

A genuine devotee of Krishna is always active and never lethargic. He understands the value of life and the importance of time. He makes sure that even a single moment of his life is not wasted. Just see the life of Arjuna, he fought wholeheartedly with the Kauravas to establish religiosity. Hanuman and the monkey warriors enthusiastically worked to construct the Ram – Setu bridge. They were constantly and continuously assisting Lord Rama in his war against the demon Ravana. Devotional life doesn’t mean inaction; it actually means doing things as per Krishna’s instructions.

Krishna explicitly advises in Gita that a devotee needs to be hard working. In Gita 6.1 Krishna says that a person who does his prescribed duties as required is actually in the renounced order of life and not the one who doesn’t do any work. And our work should not be whimsical. We should perform only those activities which satisfy the Lord because Krishna has said that work done as sacrifice to Vishnu should only be performed (Bhagavad Gita 3.9). So, a devotee of Krishna always tries his best to be productive at each and every moment of his life and he works in such a way which pleases Krishna and brings him closer to Krishna.

“The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: One who is unattached to the fruits of his work and who works as he is obligated is in the renounced order of life, and he is the true mystic, not he who lights no fire and performs no duty.” B.G. 6.1