The Wisdom Park

One of the books I truly love is the JAPA book my Bhurijan Prabhu. It is such a practical, beautiful and deep book. It just makes so much sense and puts things in perspective. Here is a small extract from the book on, what is truly important in life. I am sure you will appreciate the deep wisdom of these simple words. "What is the significance of having proved ourselves right and someone else wrong? What is the significance of having achieved crowning success in this world? What is the significance of again dredging up those past pains and pleasures? In a thousand years - in even a hundred years - no one alive will remember that we ever existed. Even our names will have been forgotten! What contribution can we make during our brief life span that will actually stand the test of time? Try viewings success and failure, pain and pleasure, significance and insignificance from the perspective of Brahma's lifetime and then from eternity. What could be m...

"jīv jāgo, jīv jāgo, gauracānda bole kota nidrā jāo māyā-piśācīra kole" "Lord Gauranga is calling, "Wake up, sleeping souls! Wake up, sleeping souls! How long will you sleep in the lap of the witch called Maya?" - from a song by Bhaktivinode Thakur. When someone is fast asleep and he needs to woken up, there are two ways to do it. One is "a soft way" and the other, is "the hard way". The soft way is by making a sound or by ringing an alarm and the hard way is by shaking the person up till he wakes up. If the soft way doesn't work then one has to incorporate the hard way. Similarly, there are two ways in which we, the sleeping souls are woken up from our slumber of ignorance and illusion. The first and the soft way is when we wake up from illusion by hearing the sound of the truth, the sound of God, either in the form of His message or in the form of His Holynames. This sound vibration is called "shabda-bra...

Don't build your house in shifting sand, build it on a solid rock foundation." - Paraphrased from the teachings of Jesus Christ. As I close my eyes to chant japa and open my eyes a little while later, I notice that something has changed. Either someone who was chanting along has got up and left or someone new joins the chanting. As I close my eyes to chant in the Kirtan on the beach and open my eyes a little while later, I notice that the scene has changed. As I go outside Goa for a few days for any trip and come back, I notice that things have changed, some more development has happened. As I meet a child I know after a few years, I notice that he or she has gone through a lot of changes. Change after all is constant factor in this world. Just by observing life and being aware of the happenings around, one can learn about the truths of life. Srimad-bhagvatam mentions the story of a King called Muchukunda who once was summoned by the demigods to lea...

"The world will value us as long as we are valid. As soon as we become invalid, the world stops valuing us."  In the epic of Mahabharata, one of the most important and powerful leaders was Bhismadev. As long as he was active, fit and fine, everyone came to him for consultation and dependent on his performance, skill and valour but as soon as he became incapacitated and incapable of performing and delivering results being fatally wounded by the arrows of Arjuna, he sort of became irrelevant. No one depended on him, no one came to him for consultation. One who was visited by everyone and was the center of attraction, now hardly got visitors and became sidelined. The most crucial war of Kurukshetra continued on without Bhismadev, the most critical person. Life is such that everyone has to become outdated and irrelevant at some point or the other. No one, however powerful he or she may be can be in the limelight forever. History ultimately shows that how ever...

"Being grateful is a state of consciousness, a state awakened awareness. Are we grateful for every breath we breathe?" - Radhanath Swami Every opportunity that comes to us in life, we should learn to be grateful for. We can't take anything for granted. I recently got the opportunity to go to Mauritius and had a good experience there but, if it was not for Krishna's mercy, so many things could have gone wrong. It could have rained heavily and spoilt the experience. I could have got sick there and not been able to move out. The flight could have met with an accident. And the list can go on and on. There could have be "n" number of possibilities to disrupt my experience there.  We cannot take anything in life for granted. The difference between children and adults is this - the children take for granted whatever they get but a mature adult knows that things don't come that easily. A child is in the mood of demanding what he doesn...

I had the opportunity to visit Mauritius for a few days along with a few devotees from Goa. I am sharing my experience of being in this small island in the middle of the Indian Ocean for those who haven't had the opportunity to be here. Mauritius is very much like India or more specific, very much like Goa but it is definitely more beautiful than Goa.  THE BLUE ISLAND One of the most striking feature of this place that really stands out is the colour of the ocean here. The crystal blue, transparent, aqua, turquoise waters of it's ocean has the power to mesmerize anyone. No wonder, why people from all over the world flock to this island for recreation. God's wonders are just amazing. How He creates so many different oceans with so many different colours and shades. Speaking of the wonder of God, another wonder of this island is that at different places in this small island, the temperature and the climate is different. It is called micro-climate. ...

Mosquitoes are something that bother me and very often as an unconscious reflex action and many times as a conscious action, I catch myself killing many of them. This is just one of the many sins and offenses I commit, mentally, verbally and physically. How can I then not expect any reactions for these actions of mine. Why should I pray for a life of no difficulties. Rather, I should be praying to God to give me my quota of reactions so that I learn my lessons quickly and rectify my offensive and sinful mentality.  The Srimad-bhagvatam mentions the episode of King Pariksit garlanding Shamika Rsi with a dead snake due to being afflicted with unbearable hunger and anger which is very unusual of the tolerant and saintly King. What is commendable is his thought process as soon as he commits this offense.  The Srimad-bhagvatam 1.19.1-3 mentions it in this way - "While returning home, King Parīkṣit felt that the act he had commit...

"Attraction to distraction causes serious inhibition in one's devotion." When someone practices spiritual life sincerely, he or she is given all facilities for comfort and enjoyment. Why? For the simple reason that God wants to award the best of the best facilities for His sincere devotee.  But, it is the onus of the devotee to use these facilities carefully for rendering better and better service to the Lord and not get allured and strayed away from the path of unalloyed devotion to God because settling for anything other than service to God is settling for less than the best.  THE OCEAN OF DISTRACTION Therefore, it is so important for devotees to refocus on a daily basis by diligently reading scriptures, by sincerely offering heartfelt prayers, by rendering menial service and by humbly associating with saintly devotees and thus remind ourselves on, what is truly valuable and what is a mere distraction to achieve that which is truly valuable. The...

Take sometime to think about all the things you wanted to do in 2019 and is still undone.   Think about the state of your mental and emotional well-being at the end of 2019. Are you happy about it or do you want to change it for good as you enter 2020? Think about the spiritual advancement you have made in 2019. Do you think you could have advanced much more than you presently have?   How do you want to see yourself placed at the end of 2020   Let these questions act as catalysts and springboard for our thought process so that, we enter the year 2020 with razor sharp focus, unwavering clarity, passionate purpose and unending zeal to upgrade every aspect of our life like never before, break all dis empowering barriers that are holding us down and thus make 2020 a hallmark year in the journey of our life.

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 ...