ENROUTE TO THE SPIRITUAL WORLD

It is explained in the scriptures that on the route to the spiritual world, one will have to pass through the irresistibly attractive heavenly planets. Only very rare and fixed up souls are able to get ahead of these tests and boldly march ahead to the spiritual world. Most decide to take a break and engage in their rendezvous at the highly-eulogized heavenly pleasure gardens. Thinking about making my journey through these heavenly realms without getting stranded in these heavenly realms is a scary thought. My only hope is, if I meet some devotee in those realms who helps me stay inspired and focused on the path to the spiritual world with an unwavering mind by reminding me as to how close I am to see the Supreme Lord face to face.

At every step in our journey to the spiritual world, we are fully dependent on the association of the devotees of the Lord. Without their mercy and grace, we will be helplessly lost, being mesmerized and captivated by the attractive creations of the Lord that we will miss our golden chance to meet the All-attractive Supreme Creator of all creations.

- Achyut Gopal Das

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MAKE IT A POINT TO MAKE THE POINT

A few days ago, as I was traveling on the ferry that takes us to our ISKCON Center at Chodan island, a relatively young man approached me and started to talk to me. My Vaishnava (devotee) attire probably attracted him to me. He was asking me if I was a preist in a temple. To which I said "Yes". I asked him where he stays and what he does. He told me that he stays in Panjim and runs a chicken shop in Porvorim. I asked him his name and as I guessed, he happened to be a Muslim. I could see marks of dried up blood stains in different places in his shirt. I at once told him to try to switch his profession to one which involves less violence. I suggested to him to start a vegetable or a grocery shop. He seemed to be taken a little aback by what might have appeared to him to be a stange suggestion by a stranger. I told him that killing innocent animals is not right. They too have life and feelings like us. He was hearing me out. He then asked me, if one can eat chicken ...

GOD answers "KNEE MAIL" not EMAIL

I once heard a very interesting quote which said - " The distance between the problem and the solution is the distance between the knees and the ground. " It means that - when we are hit by a problem that seems too overwhelming, we need to hit the ground and offer our earnest prayer to God . This is called "Knee mail" - it is more faster and efficiently than email. You see, many problems can't be solved by us - they are too big for us but definitely not too big for God. When we bring God into our life by sincere, heartful prayers then problems eject out of our life. That is the power of prayers. The greatest power is to realize that we are powerless and thus seek refuge in the greatest power - the power of God. That is wisdom. This is the mood in which we offer our prayers, chant our rounds and participate in Kirtans - the mood of surrender. In Sanskrit it is called "sharanagati" or "prapannam" - it is the essence of all scriptures an...

THE BREATHING BELLOWS

Every morning when I wake up and notice my breathing and observe my chest swelling up and down being pumped with air, I invariably remember a verse from the Srimad-bhagvatam which states that our breathing is like the breathing of the bellows of a blacksmith. Both the bellow and our body is made of leather. The bellow may feel that it is breathing on it's own and is fully independent but, it does not know that as soon as the blacksmith stops pumping air in it, it will stop breathing and lay lifeless. Similarly, we may be proud of our breathing and our life and may feel fully independent but, we don't realise that as soon as God decides to stop pumping air into our system, our body will stop breathing and lay lifeless. What is there to be proud of when we don't even have control over our breath? We should be grateful to God for giving us the wonderful opportunity and gift to breathe and live. And, the way we express that gratitude is by using ...

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