"Sometimes the longest journey we make is the sixteen inches from our heads to our hearts." - Elena Avila
Coming
December 2019 marks 20 years of my consistent and daily chanting of 16
rounds of the Hare Krishna Maha-mantra, one of the prerequisite for a
committed practitioner of Krishna consciousness. I started, chanting 16
rounds in December of 1999 and now, 20 years have passed by so quickly. One
thing that helps me, be focused in spiritual life is watching the
passing of the imperceptible time. How weeks turn into months, how
months turn into years and how years turn into decades is a great wonder
of life.
This
article is in no way to glorify my two decades of chanting Hare Krishna
but it is just meant to share my little thoughts and my
little experiences in my spiritual life at this junction in life. I feel
so grateful to Krishna and His wonderful devotees who have been
extremely kind to me by showering their grace on me and thus helping me
sustain my spiritual life for so many years. I know that without the
grace of God and His devotees, it is impossible to chant Hare Krishna
even for one day, what to speak of so many years. Srila Prabhupada
would always remind devotees that Maya is extremely strong and
impeccable. It is not within our power to resist her forces. Thus, we
need to feel very humble, helpless and constantly seek and plead for the
mercy of God and His devotees. Without their mercy we have no other
hope.
I am also
extremely grateful for all the wonderful and exciting opportunities to
serve, that I was blessed with. I got to be part of so many successful
projects and events in the course of pushing on this great movement of
compassion. I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to serve so many
elevated and sincere lovers of God. I am so grateful to visit so many
holyplaces in the company of holy devotees, chanting and hearing the
holy Katha of the Lord. I also feel blessed to have gone through so many
difficult tests and challenges in my spiritual life, which have helped
me become a little humble, a little mature and a little wise.
At
this junction in my spiritual life, as I feel grateful for all the
wonderful things, I also feel simultaneously a little shameful and
regretful for all the time I wasted in wasteful mental imagination,
sheer laziness and in wasteful mundane engagements. I strongly feel that
I could have advanced to a much higher spiritual stage than the stage I
am at present. If I was more focused in my spiritual life all these
years, I could have gone more deeper into my understanding of
scriptures, developed genuine attachment to the chanting of the
Holynames of Krishna and performed greater services to Guru and
Gauranga. Now, that the time that is gone is gone and can't be relieved
again; the least I can do, is to be more focused in my spiritual journey
from this point on firstly, to make up for the spiritual time lost in
the last 20 years and secondly, so that 20 years from now, I can be
proud and unregretful of my life. Seeking your blessings and good wishes
for my journey ahead.
- Achyut Gopal Das
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