By Shauna
“In the material world everyone is thinking how they will be happy. In the spiritual world, everyone is thinking how Krishna will be happy.” -Jayapataka Swami.
We’re here to find the highest goal, and our bodies are temporary, so why would that goal be to give ourselves happiness? I’m not saying we shouldn’t try to be happy, I’m simply saying the highest happiness is found in giving happiness to others. If we relate this to the gunas, tamasic happiness is finding joy in hurting others
We are spiritual beings having a human experience. Because we are spiritual, we are eternal, and existing in a constantly changing, impermanent world feels unnatural. This incongruity between our spiritual natures and the material nature can lead to subtle frustrations and dissatisfaction.
The desire to become attracted to the material world is perfectly reasonable because the material world is a perfect reflection of the spiritual world. All the vari
If a devotee were to ask, “Please bless me so that I’ll never take birth again in this horrible material world,” would this be asking for some kind of liberation? Hundreds of times, Srila Prabhupada encouraged us to “Go Back home, back to Godhead.” Would it be a form of boldness or naiveté to desire to come back to this world and serve by preaching?
That would depend on our level of perception and spiritual progress. There were times when some disciples indicated to Srila Prabhupada that they w
16 years ago, after graduating from UCL with a management degree, I opted to leave it aside and embrace monastic life instead. Ironically, it’s all come full circle; dealing with people, projects and practicalities is a sizable section on the modern monastic menu. I must have some management karma to burn off. Balancing spiritual immersion and practical politics, however, is incredibly challenging.
You have to be alert, streetwise, tuned in, and sensitive enough to deal with the complexities an
Just as a very good sweet will have something hidden inside of it, or a company will have the inner group of key people, the Gita has a core made up of four verses. These are called the Catur Sloki (catur = four, and sloki = verses), and they summarize the entire Gita.
The eighteen chapters of the Gita are themselves divided into 3 parts. The middle six chapters focus on bhakti and are “protected” on either side by teachings on karma-yoga (the first six chapters) and jnana yoga (the focus of th
From a very young age I knew that this life that I was living was not all that there was. I started searching to find what the perfection of life is. I was told that it was wealth, a big house or an expensive car, but with each step towards success, I was less and less happy.
Then I met some devotees who introduced our family to Krishna. I quickly forgot that all of these items were even on my bucket list. Instead, I was encouraged to search for ways to see Krishna in the world. Overwhelmingly,
When first learning of bhakti-yoga and exploring the meaning, I asked a lot of questions. One answer came to me without the need to ask any question. My mentor advised me to offer everything in service to Krishna, in a mood of devotion. This she explained, is the way back to remembering our love for Krishna and going home to Godhead.
There is an animation that really exposes the material happiness very nicely, it shows first on the picture some rats they are running then more rats are running, and at one point you see a whole group of rats running and gradually some of them start to wear clothes, tie and a suit but still running, and then they run on a railway platform and that train is just arriving and it’s full of rats. One come out and one squeezes in and they go to the city, and in the city there are many signs like fo
One day, I was in New York City and as I was walking, I saw a chapati machine. It was a first-class machine. The dough went into the top, made some balls and rollers, and made a nice round chapati. Then, it went into a hot plate, where an arm came and pushed the chapati into a hole with a slide and then the slide turned the chapati around and it fell on another hot disc below. And then the chapati was cooked on the other side. That’s the nature of chapati. They get cooked on both sides.
So, if
“This material world is certified by the Lord in the Bhagavad-gita as a dangerous place full of calamities. Less intelligent persons prepare plans to adjust to those calamities without knowing that the nature of this place is itself full of calamities. They have no information of the abode of the Lord, which is full of bliss and without trace of calamity. The duty of the sane person, therefore, is to be undisturbed by worldly calamities, which are sure to happen in all circumstances. Suffering
