The Wisdom Park

“ We are like islands in the sea, separate on the surface but CONNECTED in the deep. ” – William James Today morning as I was walking and chanting, I saw an ant crushed under someone's feet, struggling to survive. I bent low to see the struggle of this ant, I could feel it's pain. It was the same kind of pain, I would go through. I felt CONNECTED. Somehow, the world is such that pain connects us to each other more than pleasure. And again, in the evening while traveling in the bus from Verna to Panjim, I was observing all the people in the bus, everyone struggling in their own lives just to make ends meet. I could empathize a bit with their struggles. Again, I felt CONNECTED. We all may have different stories but within all these variegated stories is the common story of struggle. While suffering, we all suffer equally. Therefore, let us feel for others, let us empathize with others, let us pray for others and let us help others because after all, we are all CONNECTED

" We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. "   - Aristotle I generally don't like to speak about myself, I am a very shy person in that sense. But here, I would like to share a small story from my life just to make an important point. You see, most lessons we need to learn are stored in our past, we just need to visit it once in a while to refresh the lessons learnt without getting caught up in it. THE EXPERIENCE OF EXCELLENCE I started chanting 16 rounds of the Hare Krishna Maha-mantra and became committed to spiritual life, towards the end of my 11th std. This was way back in 1999. During this time, there were few dozen devotees in ISKCON, all over Goa. When I entered 12th std, I decided to focus fully on my studies and top the college. I thought, this would be the best way to preach to all my friends - by showing them how spiritual life helps one achieve success in life. And, it was also the best way to protect my spiritual life ami

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

I came to stay in our ISKCON Vasco ashram for a while. I bought only one pair of dhoti - kurta other than what I was wearing thinking that I will keep going back and forth to our Panjim ashram, where I usually stay. But, it so happened that I didn't get any chance of going to Panjim for the last 20 days and somehow, I didn't find the need for it too. I guess, I have learnt to happily manage with just two pairs of dhoti - kurta. It was quite a revelation for me - that it is possible to be happy with less. Life is actually so simple but we unnecessarily complicate it with "unnecessary wants" which we think are "necessary needs ". Simple instances like this, makes us realize the meaning of the above statement. Many years ago, I had heard a saying which goes like this - reduce your wants and feel like a King or increase your wants and feel like a beggar . Isn't it so true and meaningful? Life is meant to be lived in such a way that our material necessitie

“ If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right. ” Two months ago, I had visited a small town in South India for a few days. As I was on my way to this place from the airport, a funeral procession carrying a dead body crossed right in front of me. Just halfway through my stay, as I was sitting beside a shop, out of the blue another death procession crossed inches away from me. What's more interesting is, as I was leaving this town another death procession crossed my way. I was thinking - "Oh God, what is the message for me!". The story doesn't end here, as I reached Goa, a friend of mine who came to pick me up gave me another news of the departure of one of our congregation member's mother-in-law. That same night, another elderly congregation lady and a close college friend of mine passed away. The message was very clear - Death can come at any moment. The story doesn't stop here either - the news of death keeps happen