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Showing posts from May, 2018

LOSING ONESELF TO GAIN ONESELF

The theory of oneness with God is something that is not very appealing to Vaishnavas, in fact it is the one thing that they vehemently oppose. But the oneness I am talking is not about loosing our soul - it's about gaining it. Losing oneself in any activity means to fully absorb ourselves into it or as they say, "to get into it fully". In the pages of the Srimad Bhagvatam there is mention of an Avadhoot Brahman who had 24 gurus. One of his guru was an arrow maker. This arrow maker was so absorbed in sharpening his arrow that he didn't even recognize the entourage of the King passing by. The Brahman learnt the quality of absorption from this arrow maker. If there is one word that is of utmost importance in spiritual life - it is ABSORPTION. In order to truly experience happiness in spiritual life, we need to fully absorb ourselves into the practice - kind of forget our present identity . We identify with so many things that we are not - our various aspects...

CONDITIONED yet DETERMINED - FALLEN yet HOPEFUL

Courage is sometimes the silent voice at the end of the day that says - "I'll try again tomorrow." - Shubha Vilas Life is all about learning the art of balance . Balancing various aspects of our lives be it our physical, social, spiritual or professional life can itself be a struggle, what to speak of balancing opposite forces in our hearts. Lord Krishna explains in the 16th Chapter of Bhagvad-Gita entitled 'The Divine and Demonic Natures", the opposite qualities of these two natures and how there is constant struggle between these two forces. The interesting part is that both these natures exist within us. That's the reality of being a conditioned soul. Life is about, how we nourish the good within us and deal with the bad. Just like a magnetic field is held between two opposite poles, similarly the truth is many times held between two opposite forces. Answers to questions in life lies in the middle, not in extremes. Coming back to our topic - how d...