Skip to main content

Christmas Meditation

Every festival be it Christmas, Janmashtami or Diwali should simultaneously be a day of celebration and a day of contemplation. Christmas is as much about celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ as it is about remembering his life, his sacrifices and his teachings.



I thought of sharing a few teachings of Jesus Christ which when contemplated, practised and applied can truly make our lives meaningful.

What shall it profit a man, if he  gains the whole world and suffers the loss of his own soul?
  1. If God is all you have, you have all you need. 
  2. The kingdom of God is within your own hearts. 
  3. Knock and the door shall open, seek and you shall find.
  4. Don't build your treasures in this world - for it will be stolen by thieves, corroded by rust and rotten by time 
  5. If you have faith as much as a mustard seed and you tell a mountain to move - it will move.
  6. The meek and humble inherit the kingdom of God.
  7. Love God with all your heart and soul
  8. Love your neighbors as yourself.
  9. Those among you who is sinless can cast the first stone.
When Srila Prabhupada went to the West, one reporter asked him if he had come to America to convert Christians into Hindus. Prabhupada answered "No, I have come to make them better Christians". Whatever our religion may be, the true purpose of every religion is to help us develop our love for God.

So, on this joyous occasion of Christmas let us follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ and try to mould our lives in such a way that we can deepen our connection with God, develop genuine integrity and be an instrument of God's compassion and love in this world.

Wishing you a Merry Christmas.

- Achyut Gopal Das

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

SPEEDING UP BY SLOWING DOWN

If you want to increase the speed of your success in life then learn to slow down. One may argue, either you speed up or slow down, how can one speed up and slow down simultaneously. It looks like a contradiction. But often life is about reconciling opposites, finding the mid-point, the balance between two extremes. I would like to explain two meanings of ‘ slowing down ’. The first meaning of slowing down is to regularly take time to analyse, introspect and recheck our direction in life. Somehow in today's high-tech world where so much value and stress is given on speed, we many times overlook the direction of our life. As Stephen Covey, the famous author aptly put it by saying - ' The difference between a leader and manager is that, a manager is one who knows how to efficiently climb the ladder, but a leader is one who knows if the ladder is on the right wall. ' Most people spend their entire life in efficiently climbing the ' so called ' ladder of success only ...

RELAX YOUR WAY THROUGH LIFE

We all have problems in life, that's given but the question is - how do we deal with them? Generally when faced with difficulties, we panic and stress out, but this doesn't solve the problem rather aggravates it. The best way to deal with our problems is by being calm . How can one remain calm amidst problems? That's a question of practice. The point is unless we are calm we will not be able to see the problem for what it is, what to speak of solving it. Just like if a pond is agitated we can't see our reflection, similarly we can't see the obvious as long as our mind remains agitated. We always think that peace is obtained by solving our problems. That may be true but we forget that to solve our problems we need to be at peace first. This is something most of us don't get. By being calm and relaxed in face of a difficulty, we are placing ourselves in the mode of goodness and only in goodness can solutions come forth because the symptoms of the mode of g...

FROM THIS OCEAN TO THAT

A few days ago, there was our annual Ratha Yatra of Lord Jagannath in Panjim, the capital city of Goa. Lord Jagannath rode majestically in His majestic chariot in the most majestic street of Goa. It was a beautiful procession with devotees chanting and dancing enthusiastically for the pleasure of the Lord. Towards the end of the procession, it started to rain very heavily. Most devotees were still continuing to chant and dance undettered by the heavy down pour. But, I chose to shelter myself under the umbrella of one of my devotee friends. As we were standing by a tree and waiting for the rains to subside, I noticed the waters of the adjacent Mandovi river. It appeared very turbulent and agitated. It was a little fearful to look at. I was thinking, "If waters of a small river can be so agitating and fearful, how much more fearful and scary it will be to be in between the ocean with rain and storm in full swing." Even if you are in a huge ship still, in front of the massive ...