Skip to main content

THE PLEASURE RIDE OF LIFE

A few days back, I had to come from our Vasco center to our Panjim center. I took, three different vehicles to reach the destination. From the Vasco center, my friend dropped me to the Verna bus stop in a brand new, high end, air conditioned car. From there I took a crowded, government Kadamba bus to Panjim. The contrast of the previous ride in the comfortable car to this one was distance apart. At the Panjim bus stand, I was picked up by another colleague of mine in our old rundown car. Again, a huge contrast to the previous two vehicles. But, I thoroughly enjoyed all the three rides in the three different vehicles. Just in a short journey, three completely different situations.

Isn't life also something like this, where situations change completely and quickly! I reflected that our experience of life is not in the situation per se but in our interpretation of the situation. No situation, is entirely good or bad in and of itself - it is depends on our perception of the situation. As they say - our minds can make hell out of heaven or heaven out of hell. This is 200% true.

There is a super excellent verse of realisation spoken by a brahmana from Avanti after he was put in a humanly intolerable situation. This verse should be permanently etched in all our hearts. This verse appears in Srimad Bhagvatam 11.23.42 in which he tells us how our mind is the key to our experience of life -

nāyaḿ jano me sukha-duḥkha-hetur
na devatātmā graha-karma-kālāḥ
manaḥ paraḿ kāraṇam āmananti
saḿsāra-cakraḿ parivartayed yat

The brahmana said: "These people are not the cause of my happiness and distress. Neither are the demigods, my own body, the planets, my past work, or time. Rather, it is the mind alone that causes happiness and distress and perpetuates the rotation of material life."

There is another beautiful verse, in which Lord Shiva glorifies the equipoised nature of the devotee of Lord Krishna in seeing every situation of life. This verse appears in Srimad-Bhagvatam 6.17.28. Lord Shiva says -

nārāyaṇa-parāḥ sarve
na kutaścana bibhyati
svargāpavarga-narakeṣu
api tulyārtha-darśinaḥ

"Devotees solely engaged in the devotional service of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Nārāyaṇa, never fear any condition of life. For them the heavenly planets, liberation and the hellish planets are all the same, for such devotees are interested only in the service of the Lord."

For a devotee of Lord Krishna, any and every situation is a blissful one for in every situation he remembers the Holynames of Krishna. Krishna consciousness transforms an ordinary day into a festival, an ordinary excursion into an adventure, an ordinary ride into a pleasure ride and thus transforms this ordinary material world to the extraordinary spiritual world. That is the advantage of adding Krishna in the equation of our life. With Krishna by our side, fear and misery is left at the side and without Krishna by our side, fear and misery is right by our side - this is the verdict of even Lord Shiva.

You see, we don't have control of the circumstances just like I didn't have control of the vehicles I was riding in but, we do have full control of the consciousness we bring into a circumstance - that is fully in our hands. Lamenting and crying about our circumstances is not going to help us, working on raising our consciousness will definitely help us.

So, let us try to be happy and Krishna conscious in every situation and enjoy the different vehicles that are sent by God in our life and reach the Supreme destination of pure happiness and Krishna consciousness. In conclusion, let us remember that with the Lord of pleasure by our side, every ride of life becomes a pleasure ride which ultimately culminates in the Supreme destination of pleasure.

- Achyut Gopal Das

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

GOVARDHAN REFLECTION

While doing parikrama around Govardhan Hill, I was reflecting back on all the times I have performed Govardhan parikrama in the last so many years. I reflected that each time I have performed it, it was always with different devotees at different phases in my life. My companions during the parikrama and my situation during the parikrama were all different. The only similar factor in all these parikramas was Govardhan Himself. Being an eternal form of the Lord, He is always the same. The more we realize Krishna and His various forms to be the only constant factor in this changing world, we can seek our refuge in the Lord and experience shelter and stability in a changing world.   Srila Prabhupada, one time was sharing with the devotees life lessons connected to his visits to Jagannath Puri. He explained that, he came to Jagannath Puri for the first time as a small child along with his father. He then came as a young college student. Then as a yo...
Post a Comment
Read more

REQUEST TO & FROM A MOTHER

  Today on the occasion of Mother's Day, I went to meet the cow, our mother to wish her for Mother's Day and make a request to her. I requested her to shower her blessings and mercy on her children who are suffering so badly due to the deadly covid virus. The good news for all of us is that, she mercifully agreed to shower her heartfelt blessings, prayers, mercy on all her children. After all, that's the heart of a mother - always wanting and desiring best for her children. I was elated, my mission accomplished - now, the suffering of humanity will reduce. As I was leaving, the cow also had one personal request. She requested me with tears in her eyes to request her children not to abuse, exploit and slaughter her mercilessly. I could literally feel her pain and suffering as she made this request. This was the pain of a mother. Tears swelled up in my eyes. I didn't know what to reply her. I did tell her that I will pass on her request to her other children and I walked ...
Post a Comment
Read more

GETTING OUR ATTITUDES RIGHT

" Our altitude in life depends not on our aptitude but our attitude in life. " A few days ago was the appearance day of Sri Advait Acharya. Advaita Acharya is non different from Lord Vishnu and appeared as one of the most confidential associates of Lord Chaitanya. His life is filled with great lessons for all devotees in the line of Lord Chaitanya. Here are two most prominent and crucial lessons from His life that is very very important for devotees to understand. RIGHT ATTITUDE OF A PREACHER Advaita Acharya even though was Lord Vishnu Himself, still seeing the suffering condition of the human society, prayed to Lord Krishna to personally descend. Why? Because He thought, He was powerless to transform the hearts of the living entities. Just see, He Himself is the powerful Lord but still felt incapable. This is a true quality of a powerful preacher - he considers himself powerless and thus seeks and prays to access powers, higher than himself. By His earnest prayers, Lord Kr...
1 comment
Read more