The Wisdom Park

When O when will I become a Vaishnava... Who is humbler than a blade of grass and more tolerant than a tree, Free from any sense of hatred and animosity. When O when will I become a Vaishnava... Who is free from lust and greed, And from unwanted wants and needs. When O when will I become a Vaishnava... Who is free from pride and envy, And from wrong company. When O when will I become a Vaishnava... Who is ready to embrace other's sorrows as one's own, And not bother about sorrows of one's own. When O when will I become a Vaishnava... Who is ready to forgive and forget, And not be caught in Maya's net. When O when will I become a Vaishnava... Who is eager to offer respects to all, And expect none at all. When O when will I become a Vaishnava... Who chants the Holynames incessantly, With love, devotion and humility. When O when will I become a Vaishnava... Who considers everyone better than himself, And loves everyone more than oneself. When O when will I become a

"When love is lost, do not bow your head in sadness; instead, keep your head up high and gaze into Heaven for that is where your broken heart has been sent to heal." I am sure all of you'll have experienced a feeling of being let down by someone whom you loved and trusted, a feeling of heartbreak, a feeling of pain when people whom you loved didn't reciprocate back to leave you broken. This world is such that instances like these keep happening now and then. Sometimes they are intentional but many times unintentional. That's the nature of this world. Just like a forest fire sets off without anyone igniting it similarly, misunderstandings and heartbreaks happen even without intentionally creating them . In any case, these heart-pains leave their scar deep in our hearts. We all know and have experienced that the pain of the heart, emotional pain is more difficult to tolerate than physical pain. For physical pain, you can apply a balm or a band-aid or take painkill

There is an elderly and a blind devotee named Bilwa Mangal Das, who stays in our temple at ISKCON Belgavi, Karnataka. It's been many years since I have seen him but the memories and impression about him are still fresh and new. Some people with their character and nature tend to make a deep impression in your heart. He is surely one of them. I remember seeing him for one of our annual pilgrimage to Vrindavan, the holy land of Lord Krishna. He was very old but very enthusiastic like a little boy. He would literally run with excitement as we went to see one holy site after another. I was wondering what this person was so excited about. He couldn't see anything. For him everything and everyplace is the same - all dark. But still he was very excited. I was thinking for myself, "Even though I had the eyes to see and was less than half his age still I didn't have the enthusiasm and excitement that he had." I was convinced that I may have materially eyes but I defi

"Thus observing the beauty and opulence of Vrindavana's rainy season, a perennial source of great happiness, Lord Krishna offered all respect to that season, which was expanded from His own internal potency." - Srimad Bhagvatam 10.20.31 Every season and every time is a wonderful opportunity to meditate on the Lord and engage in His devotional service. But, rainy season is all the more special. With the summer gone and the rains come, a sense of newness and freshness comes in life. The weather is perfect for our Bhajan - cool and pleasant. Mother Nature is at her best with fresh green grass and fresh leaves. She is nourished and refreshed by the rains, encouraging us to nourish and refresh ourselves through the nectar shower of the Holynames. The external environment is now clean, bathed by the continuous rains signaling us to summon the clouds of Lord's mercy to rain in the landscape of our heart and thereby clean it. The traveling preachers, saints and devotee

"The mind is sharper and keener in seclusion and uninterrupted solitude. Originality thrives in seclusion free of outside influences beating upon us to cripple the creative mind. Be alone-that is the secret of invention: be alone, that is when ideas are born." - Nikola Tesla A few weeks ago, I had the good fortune of participating in the Dwarka-Somnath Yatra with nearly two hundred devotees from Goa. One of the many places we visited during this pilgrimage was the cave of Jambavan. Our scriptures mentioned that Jambavan, lived there for many years and it was in this cave that Lord Krishna and Jambavan had a fight and finally Jambavan surrendered to the Lord and gave his beautiful daughter, Jambavati in marriage to Him. The cave of Jambavan was very divine and extremely peaceful. Some devotees were suggesting to stay in this cave a little longer and chant the Holynames with focus. What more better place than to focus of the Supreme than a cave. No mundane interruptions, no

By changing our externals our internals is not going to change. By wearing dhoti - kurta, our desires are not going to change. By wearing a Vaishnava tilak, our desires are not going to change. Yes, the external appearance of a devotee is an important aspect of Bhakti and it does have some effect on our consciousness but it is not the all in all of being a devotee. The real challenge is to bring changes from within. Donning the dress of a devotee externally is difficult but not that difficult - the real difficultly is in donning the attire of a devotee internally because who we are is not a product of our externals but our internals. God doesn't see our externals, He is more interested in our internals. The world may be impressed with the externals but God is impressed only by the internals. A devotee is not a person of form but a person of substance. Our internals change not by changing our externals but by working on changing our internals. - Achyut Gopal Das

Ever thought of the number of clothes we have worn and discarded since our childhood. Do we have any track of them? Ever thought of the number of shoes and slippers we have worn and discarded since our childhood. Do we have any track of them? These questions may seem quite stupid, childish and irrelevant to our present situation, isn't it! Wait a minute before you brush aside these questions, might be there is some wisdom in them. Let's see.... THE FIRST LAYER OF WISDOM The first and the obvious (may not be so obvious to many. Life is such that what is supposed to be obvious is not always obvious.) layer of wisdom is to be grateful for all these facilities we had been and have been given access to. It may appear too simple to be grateful for all the clothes and shoes we wore. Ya, but true gratitude is about being grateful for simple little things in life. Believe me, all these things that we took for granted, millions of people didn't get access to or don't have acces

" Krishna's love for us is far greater than our love for Him. " Ever wondered why Lord Krishna's deity in most temples are in a standing position? Because, the Lord feels that if my devotee calls for me in his moment of distress, I should be ready and not have to waste getting up. Mind you, the deity of the Lord is not a mere replica of the Lord but the Lord Himself. Can you imagine this - the Lord is personally standing on His legs for such a long time eagerly waiting for all of us. For us to stand for even sometime feels painful. But the Lord is ready to tolerate any inconvenience for the convenience of His devotees, tolerate any distress to help mitigate distress of His devotees. This is the loving mood of the Lord. He is more eager to give Himself to us than we are to give ourselves to Him.   Just this simple aspect of the deity of the Lord standing has such deep meaning and significance in our life if we can see it in the right perspective. Everything the

" When faults in others misguide and delude you – have patience, introspect, find faults in yourself. Know that others cannot harm you unless you harm yourself. " - Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur One time when Jesus was in Jerusalem, he saw some people chasing a prostitute and trying to stone her to death. When Jesus stopped them and asked them why they were doing so. They replied that it is mentioned in the laws of the scriptures that one who commits adultery must be stoned to death. They said that they had caught her red handed and were just following the law. When they asked Jesus his opinion he replied, "Yes, you can very much stone this lady to death but one who hasn't sinned in his life can cast the stone on her." One by one, everyone put down the stone in their hands and quietly walked away. This lady fell at the feet of Jesus and surrendered to him. Jesus told this lady to not commit sin again and walked away.  The compassion of Jesus

"Chanting attentively is not a matter of circumstance but a matter of choice." Everyday there is a different reason to not to be chant attentively. Someday, it's because someone hurt us and we keep thinking about it, someday our health is not good. Someday, it's simply because we are not in mood. Someday, it's because a plan of ours didn't work out....And the list goes on and on. Very rarely do we chant attentively. All these reasons are valid and true. But the question is "When will there be a day when the mind will stop offering reasons to not chant attentively?" Material world is a place of continuous drama and happenings and the mind knows how to perfectly en cash on it. Even if all our problems went away, the mind will not allow us to chant attentively.....a new set of problems will come or even if there are no further problems, the mind will make one. After all, it's expert at it - creating problems where none exists. CHANTING BEYOND

"To show compassion to others in this world is the greatest way of pleasing the Supreme Lord." - Radhanath Swami. Compassion is one of the core quality of a civilized and a refined person. And for a spiritual practitioner who wants to experience higher levels of consciousness and please the Supreme Consciousness, the quality of compassion is of utmost importance. Compassion is defined in the Oxford dictionary as "a strong feeling of sympathy for people who are suffering and a desire to help them." In the Sanskrit language, compassion is denoted by several words - daya, karuna, kripa. Chankaya Pandit, one of the greatest scholars of India mentions that "the ability to see other's suffering as one's own" (aatmavat manyate jagat) as one of the main characteristics of one in knowledge. In the same mood, the Vaishnava acharyas define a devotee as "one who becomes sad seeing the sadness of others" (para dukha dukhi) . If we study the Vedi