Contentment
'Contentment' is one of the niyamas, the set of five personal observances that Patanjali lists in the second chapter of his Yoga-sutras. It's also a state of being that can be very hard to attain. How do we find real contentment?
How do we embrace pain? How do we overcome what we fear most?
Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s propaganda minister, put it well, “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”
With genuine spiritual advancement comes the capacity and capability to have friendly relationships with one and all.
Questions about statements from Srila Prabhupada concerning Hitler and the Jews.
When our children grow into teens, many of us find that inspiring them in Krishna consciousness becomes much harder. They are no longer enthusiastic to imitate us or join in with the devotional activities we initiate.
Maybe we tend to prioritise external achievements over internal purification – after all, that’s what gets the claps and nods from our social circle.
For us to persevere through life’s various challenges, we need the fundamental conviction that we can make a difference.
Sometimes, when we make a mistake and we regret it, that very feeling improves our relationship with the Holy Name.
Mahabharata is specifically meant to help us understand and appreciate the nuanced meanings and principles of dharma.
"O Mother Radhe / You are so sweet and strong.. / In most amazing and caring ways / Your compassion makes me feel I belong…"
We look for happiness on many levels; through our bodily faculties, through emotional comfort and through intelligence and ego.
A popular proverb is “Show Me Your Friends and I will Show You Your Future.” The people with whom we associate plays an important role in shaping our thoughts and our life.
"the boy asked wryly / 'Where can I put my foot now? / There isn't anywhere left to go somehow?'"
Srila Prabhupada explains that if you offer your sincere prayer into the hand of Sri Radha, she will recommend you to Him, saying, “this devotee is better than me, please accept her!
"In chanting you want to be so absorbed that you touch Krishna, that you touch the spiritual world and that when you have completed your chanting you will have a Krishna conscious fragrance or influence around you."
"Slow down, breathe and peer deeper into the mystery of the everyday."
Srila Prabhupada introduced us all to the path of bhakti yoga and the sublime benefits of chanting the holy names of Krishna in the form of the maha-mantra. With great humility, never taking undue personal credit for his accomplishments, Srila Prabhupada once expressed, “My only credit is that I have strictly followed the order of my guru.”
We are members of an institution meant for giving compassion to others, but are we each individually acting with compassion in our personal dealings?
"The boat of your lotus feet / Will get me across the ocean of life some day. / No matter come what may / In my heart you will stay...."
What chances am I missing? What opportunities am I throwing away by being casual, unthinking, lazy?
Just as the unexpected revealed Arjuna’s character, and by the Gita’s guidance, took him toward healthy choices, Gita wisdom can guide us wisely when we too encounter the unexpected.
With the rising and setting of sun / Time slowly slipping away / The touch of cool water as if speaking / Do you feel okay my friend?
The discomfort ISKCON faces due to the pandemic - individual and community-wise - is hardly comparable to the oppressions and torments of the past.
This is not a time to hold back or to put off what so deeply pains the heart, for the extent that you have loved, it is to that extent that you will feel a kind of pain that perhaps you’ve never experienced before.
