“May Mother Ganges Bless You Today”
Going anywhere outside the Guru Karishni Camp was a challenge because there was a veritable flood of humanity outside its confines: an estimated 64 million people were descending upon the Mela to bathe on February 4th, the most auspicious bathing day.
When we start exploring life’s spiritual side, we may hesitate to commit ourselves to any particular spiritual path: “Won’t that make me close-minded and incapable of appreciating other paths?”
Unless we are on a total media fast, we have likely heard of the notion of tidying our home with the KonMari method of asking the question of our belongings - ‘does this spark joy for me?’. If not, we thank it for being in our life and bid it farewell. What’s powerful about this is the experience of personalism.
A poem written by Gaurangi Dasi in New Mayapur, France in 2005.
Musician Jahnavi Harrison enters a world of sacred plants revealing that, in many religious traditions, plants are seen as spiritually symbolic – sometimes acting as intermediaries with the divine world.
Consciousness is our most immediate experience. Yet, when it comes to studying consciousness beyond one’s own conscious experience, we can only study circumstantial evidence.
As an aspiring devotee of Krishna, I face a moral problem: I am pro-dairy but anti-cruelty and anti-slaughter, and I know that the dairy industry and the slaughter industry are partners in cruelty and killing.
Most times we can’t make up our mind. Even when we do, we keep changing our mind. When there are challenges, we lose our mind.
When Prabhupada was asked by his disciple Vishal, “Should the wife do whatever the husband says?” Prabhupada replied, “And you should be so arrogant?”
When we practice bhakti, we often expect to become freed from problems. And if that expectation is not met, we become disheartened.
Those who read Cowherd Boys Nectar will find in it nourishment, opening of the heart, and delight, often all at once. Dasaratha-Suta’s introductory essays help the reader understand the worship of Krsna in transcendental friendship in the context of Gaudiya Vaisnava thought and practice.
I don’t propose to have the absolute answer or cure for cancer but I will go out on a limb and say that the following twelve tips will absolutely help you avoid it.
The idea of activism – of being a part of some cause that helps makes things better in the world – is increasingly catching on. It has become much cooler than what it was a few decades ago, when greed ruled the roost.
If I want to place an intention, I need to focus my attention. But then, where is my heart? Where do I place my affection?
In a holistic and visionary way, what are the deepest needs and hungers of family, of community, of society, of the world? We know when women’s voices are silenced a door opens for children and women themselves to become abused.
Oh my Lord of golden limbs / Raised hands / And love drunk eyes, / Cause a revolution / In my heart!
Our time with japa is super important. A serious student of bhakti, the practice of self-realization in relationship with Krishna, will take a vow to chant a set number of rounds every day.
"I am Yours now, so please, take me / where you will, teach me about / eternity and other things of / consequence..."
Balance is a key component of the bhakti practice - the art of remembering Krishna and our relationship with him. When our life goes to the extremes - it can overwhelm us and move us away from that remembrance.
We long to be free. And we long for love. Yet love and freedom don’t seem to go together.
The word “soul” sometimes refers non-literally to the things that matter the most to us. Such a non-literal usage features in the phrase “to sell one’s soul.”
Have you heard it said these days that the secret to happiness is to lower your expectations? It makes sense, doesn’t it? We often put so much pressure on ourselves or each other, due to our unnecessary or overblown expectations.
When something upsets us, we can remind ourselves: “Yes, this is the material world, and this is bound to happen. When a stone drops into water, it will get wet. When a soul drops into the material world, it will experience miseries."
Hinduism contains probably the most lucid exposition of the distinction between body, mind and soul; and it also asserts that each of us should have the opportunity to enjoy good health, the full span of life and the use of all our physical and mental faculties. These philosophical issues are often assumed to be opposing and, indeed, some individuals may be extreme in their personal outlook.
