Skip to main content

THE MYSTERY OF LIFE

Today morning one of our very senior devotee from our Goa congregation, H.G. Gopanand Prabhu left his body. His life has been a glorious one, fully dedicated to practicing the principles of Krishna consciousness. Sitting near his body and chanting the Holynames in this final journey of his, I was wondering about the mystery of life. His body was appearing as if deep in sleep but this is such a sleep that one doesn't wake up from. What kind of mysterious life has God made! The body appears living but in actuality has no life of it's own. We realise the truth of this statement only when the soul leaves the body.
Participating in the departure ceremonies of so many devotees has left me a little wiser and sober in choosing the priorities of life. Life is such a mystery that we learn more about life from death than from life itself. Other than investing time and energy in Krishna consciousness, rest is just a vain. As they say, we need to learn to keep the main thing as the main thing. In this world of endless distractions and attractions, it is so crucial to keep focused on our main business.
I sincerely pray that the good and devoted soul of Gopanand Prabhu, attain shelter at the lotus feet of Lord Sri Krishna, His worshippable Lord and may we, who are still alive with a few more years to go, to meet our final destination always remember these two beautiful and meaningful verses from Sri Kevalashtakam and live our life in accordance to them -

ābrahmā-stamba-paryantaḿ
sarvaḿ māyā-mayaḿ jagat
satyaḿ satyaḿ punaḥ satyaḿ
harer nāmaiva kevalam

"The entire universe, from exalted Brahma down to the lowly clump of grass, is a product of the illusory energy of the Supreme Lord. The only thing that is reality, reality, again I say reality is the chanting of the Holynames. The holy name of Sri Hari alone is everything."

niḥśvāse nāhi viśvāsaḥ
kadā ruddho bhaviṣyati
kīrtanīya mato bālyād
harer nāmaiva kevalam
"There is no certainty when the last breath will come and put an abrupt halt to all one’s material plans; therefore, it is wise to always practice chanting from very childhood. The holy name of Sri Hari alone is everything."

- Achyut Gopal Das

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

HAPPINESS WITHOUT REASONS

Everyday there is a different reason for not being happy. Someday, it is 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 a mood. Someday, it's because a plan of ours didn't work out....and the list goes on and on. Very rarely are we happy. All these reasons are valid and true. But the question is 'when will there be a day when the mind will offer no reasons to be happy?' 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, will we be happy? 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.  Happiness, joy, peace or love are unconditional, which means that they are not dependent on any conditions. Waiting for the perfect condition to be happy or peaceful is a gre...
Post a Comment
Read more

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...
Post a Comment
Read more

MANEUVERING THROUGH DISTRACTIONS

"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...
Post a Comment
Read more