Author Archives: Chaitanya Charan

Gita Jayanti special_ Gita’s message for hope amid hardship
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Chaitanya Charan · Gita Jayanti Special Gita’s Message For Hope Amid Hardship

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On the sacred occasion of Gita Jayanti, I would like to contemplate how the Bhagavad-gita’s message is immensely relevant to all of us because it is a message of hope amid hardship. I will talk about it in terms of three key terms and one broad context.
The Gita’s purpose
Jiva Goswami explains that we can understand the essence of a book by looking at what comes in the start and what comes in the end.
The first instructive words spoken by Krishna in Bhagavad-gita are in (02.11). Before that, he has spoken in (01.25), (02.02), and (02.03), but those are more descriptive or indicative or friendly words. The first instructive philosophical words come in (02.11).
aśocyān anvaśocas tvaṁ
prajñā-vādāṁś ca bhāṣase
gatāsūn agatāsūṁś ca
nānuśocanti paṇḍitāḥ
So, the first word ‘aśocyān’ means ‘not worth lamenting.’
And the last instructive word spoken by Krishna is (18.66). He speaks some more verses afterward, which are the glorification of the Gita, and he asks Arjuna a question in his concluding verse in (18.72), but the last instructing words are (18.66).
sarva-dharmān parityajya
mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja
ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo
mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ
‘mā śucaḥ’ means do not lament.
In essence, the Gita starts by saying that whatever we are lamenting is not worth lamenting; whatever we are in agony about or distressed about is not worth getting distressed about. And lastly, it says do not be distressed. This is akin to a doctor telling a patient who is terribly upset about something, “Oh! I am in so much pain. I might have cancer. I might be going to die.” The doctor says, “This is not worth worrying.” Then the doctor explains why it is not worth worrying, and finally concludes by saying, “Do not worry.”
So how does the Gita give us this message that the things that we are getting disturbed are not worth getting so disturbed up about?
I will explain the Gita’s message in three T’s. Let’s look at the first T
Temporariness
The Gita states that the things that get us worked up are all temporary.
mātrā-sparśās tu kaunteya (02.14)
The Gita says the contact between the senses and the sense objects just comes and goes. The thing that is disturbing us today, six months later or one year later, we will not be so disturbed about it. How do we know that? We can look back at something that disturbed us one year ago or five years ago; we may not even remember that thing. If we have some journal or if somebody tells us that we were so disturbed at that time about that thing, we will wonder: “Was it really worth getting so disturbed about?” Even the worst of problems that we may face whether they are in terms of health, relationships or finance, whatever it is – they all are temporary. Do not get too worked up about them, Krishna says. Does that mean that we do not care about anything at all? No, that brings us to the second T.
Timeless
Timeless is God […]

When Sukhdev Goswami is Radharani’s parrot, how can he be a monist?
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Chaitanya Charan · When Sukhdev Goswami Is Radharani’s Parrot, How Can He Be A Monist

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Question How can should they go swimming be a moonest as the baba mentions if he was rather aunties parrot in his previous life. And he monitors don’t get attracted to the Lord so how how did he become attracted towards the Lord?Also from part translates as a great devotee.

But then he also says he’s a bonus. So how do you understand this?

Yeah these I don’t think there is any easy answer but. My understanding is that.

What once passed has been does not necessarily immediately reflect in this life, that means say for example. We had the example of Jaya, Vijay there is a total associate of the Lord but they act as demons we can see that’s because of a curse that’s true, but still their past doesn’t immediately reflect in their lives, this would be Bhakti Vinod Thakur he was a manjari but then if you look at the way his life journey is when he very appears at a particular time he appears within that cultural and it literally cause and then he outgrows that cultural intellectually thoughts. So he becomes a respected member of the Bhadra loca and then he goes beyondtThe orientation of the Bhadra loca either look down at India traditional culture or to look only towards universalist holistic impersonalist kind of tne non literal metaphorical kind of readings of that tradition. He becomes a Gaudiya Vaishnava. So similarly that Sukadeva Goswami is a eternal associate of the Lord as a parrot of Radharani,that reality doesn’t have to necessarily reflect immediately in the way he appears in this world.

By the Lord’s arrangement, for teaching particular particular people at particular times or at what is a particular lessons the if the Lord’s devotee might appear to be covered in particular ways and their journey of uncovering of their conditioning can become the guiding light for others. So Bhakti Vinod Thakhur journey from Bhadra loca member to a Gaudiya Vaishnava and inspired many others also to at least explore Gaiduya vaishnavism if not commit to them.

So similarly, in general the impersonalist tendency is the the common tendency especially among those who are renounciates without common it is still there. So for those who are of that orientation when they hear about Sukadeva Goswami’s journey from impersonalism toward personalism, then they become inspired by that.

So the manifestation of the unconditioning or the manifestation of the removal of the conditioning is what is indicative of the journey in this life not It’s a journey of the soul over multiple lifetimes.

So for us condition souls, our unconditioning if we use that unconditioning word or removal of conditioning continues or multiple lifetimes but for great devotees, in this life they are going to some condition and then they come out of their condition so it cannot even call conditioning in the normal sense of the word because it is by the Lord’s arrangement and not because […]

If the spiritual master does not know about the service of a disciple, then how does the disciple get the spiritual master’s mercy?
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Chaitanya Charan · If TheSpiritualMasterDoesNot KnowAboutTheServiceOfADisciple,Then HowheGetTheSpiritual Master’s Mercy

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Question – If a devotee is serving diligently, but the devotee’s service is not visible to the spiritual master, and another devotee is serving not so regularly, but very visibly in front of the spiritual master, and the mercy comes by the pleasing of the spiritual master, how does a devotee whose service is not visible get mercy?

Answer – Whenever we talk about the spiritual master, there are two distinct things, there is the person and the principle – the vyakti and the tattva . Or it can be termed as vapu seva and vani seva. Whenever we are trying to relate with the spiritual master, we need to know which aspect is going to come into play in that instance. Whenever the spiritual master is readily available for us, and we have an opportunity to do some service, we certainly need to grab that opportunity and try to serve and please the spiritual master. At the same time, this should not degenerate to a cheap attempt to somehow catch the attention of the spiritual master. Ultimately, it is a matter of developing a relationship with Krishna, and that relationship means doing everything that is required to be done in a relationship. If we are trying to serve earnestly, then we need to have the confidence that the spiritual master (as the principle) is non-different from Krishna. Even if our spiritual master is not consciously aware of the service that we are doing, but the services are being done by the disciples; then we should know that Krishna is noting that service and Krishna will give his mercy. That is why, when we see the spiritual master only as a person, the danger is we do not see the connection of the spiritual master with Krishna, and we think that the spiritual master’s pleasure is dependent on their knowing what the disciple has been doing specifically. We can see in our movement’s short history that there were many devotees who served visibly and prominently during Prabhupada’s time, and several of them had difficulties by which they discontinued their service later on. And many of the leaders of our movement now, who are clearly very dedicated and elevated in their realization, they had very little or no interaction directly with Srila Prabhupada, and still, we see their elevated spiritual stature, and their personal dedication to Srila Prabhupada also. How does this come about? It comes about by the principle of serving Krishna, and knowing that Krishna is noting the service. So, when the emphasis is there on the spiritual master, that – yasya prasadad bhagavat-prasado
yasyaprasadan na gatiḥ kuto pi (Sri Gurvastakam Verse 7) that by the spiritual master’s mercy, Krishna’s mercy comes and with his displeasure, Krishna’s mercy would not come; what that means is that we don’t make it an impersonal transaction, but we understand and emphasize the personal dimension of the relationship, and at the same time, we also recognize that […]

I was born in another Vaishnava tradition, but I find Krishna consciousness more logical; if I take to Krishna consciousness ,am I being unfaithful to my birth tradition?
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Chaitanya Charan · Iwasborn inanother VaishnavaTraditionif I taketo Krishnaconsciousness,amunfaithfultomybirthtradition

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Question – I was born in another Vaishnava tradition, but I find Krishna consciousness more logical; if I take to Krishna consciousness ,am I being unfaithful to my birth tradition?

Answer – I wouldn’t use the word unfaithful because ultimately it is one God who is manifesting his outreach, his mercy through various paths.
We can consider the example of a mountain and different paths leading to the top of the mountain. The top of the mountain is Krishna or spiritual consciousness and the bottom of the mountain is where we are, material consciousness. We are all meant to rise upward from where we are. Srila Prabhupada said Jesus Christ is like our Guru because he had so much love of God that he was ready to sacrifice his life to become a martyr for the sake of God. Now that does not mean we accept everything that Christianity says but the principle of love of God is something which is universal and is there in various traditions. God is not the monopoly of any religion just like there is no single path which leads to the top of a mountain. Having said that, each path of the mountain can have its positives and negatives.

Some path may be very slippery, some path may be very rocky, some path may be through a thick forest. From each path, at the bottom, we get some glimpse of what is at the top and the most important thing is that the glimpse should be attractive enough for us, to want to rise, upward. There are two essential things, sadhan – the path and sadhya – the object or what are we going to attain by following the path? In other words, the path and the purpose.

When we say Pushti marg, it is a venerated Vishnu tradition and there have been many great saints in that tradition and the tradition of Krishna Bhakti has been preserved in thousands and thousands and millions of families by the pushti marg tradition across India and across the world and the families or the descendants practising this marg have migrated everywhere. We fully respect that tradition and this respect should be rightfully offered.

At the same time, in different traditions, the emphasis is different. Generally in most of India, often there is a greater emphasis on the ritualistic aspect of bhakti or religion rather than the philosophical aspect and the ritualistic aspect is what often appeals to older generations – the parents and the grandparents. They feel at home, thinking that this is what our predecessors did. They feel connected with their past and they get a sense of security and continuity. Of course, they are also connecting with Krishna through this to the degree they are investing their heart in the rituals. But the point is, this ritualistic aspect of bhakti is not very appealing to the younger generation and that is why when Srila Prabhupada started the Krishna Consciousness Movement, he said the […]

How can we dedicate more of our wealth and time to serve Krishna when those are needed for our family responsibilities?
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Chaitanya Charan · How Can We Dedicate More Of Our Wealth&Time To Serve Krishna WhenThoseForOurFamily Responsibilities

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Question: How can we dedicate more of our Lakshmi __ for the service of Krishna or time or resources in general when we also need them, we have a family to take care of and we have our responsibilities?

Answer: First thing is that we needn’t bifurcate Bhakti like this, that taking care of family is mundane and serving Krishna is spiritual. Taking care of our family is also a part of our service to Krishna. There is direct service and there is indirect service.

So, in 12.8-12 in the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna gives multiple levels at which we can practice Bhakti. So, 12.8 is just absorb yourself in me and live in me, Krishna says. 12.9, he says if you can’t do that, then just try to fix your mind on me. 12.10, he says that if you can’t do that, then work for me, and the acharyas have explained that working for me can be at two levels. One is that you work directly, do some voluntary service for Krishna, and then indirectly we work and offer the fruits of our work to Krishna. So that could mean giving charity, that could mean, that could also include, Krishna says, sva-karmana tam abhyarchya. Even our work itself we can do in a mode of service to Krishna, taking care of family. We see them not just as our family but as Krishna’s children or Krishna’s parts in our care and then we serve them by executing our responsibilities diligently.

Of course, Krishna also says that we should strive to rise to a higher level of service as much as possible. That means we try to become spontaneously absorbed in him. So, definitely if we can spend more time and energy and resources in directly serving Krishna, that is better. But it is not that only that is service and this is not service. Everything that we do can be redefined in the mode of service to Krishna and that is essentially Krishna consciousness. Krishna consciousness does not mean or rather having faith in Krishna does not mean giving up our intelligence. God has given us our intelligence so that we can use it in His service, and faith means going in the direction of the intelligence and being ready to go further also. It is not going in a direction opposite to that of intelligence. That means just like in our professional career, if we are in business or we are starting some enterprise, then we take calculated risks. So, we are using our intelligence and we feel this risk is worthwhile. It is worth taking, it is a reasonable risk. Some people go slightly beyond that and nobody can be foolhardy…I mean just taking risks without any thinking at all. So, in some ways, […]

Can material analytics about strategies and spiritual dependence on Krishna go together?
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Chaitanya Charan · Can Material Analytics About Strategies And Spiritual Dependence On Krishna Go Together

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Question: During online outreach if we rely on say YouTube guidelines or analytics or view counts then does that take away from our dependence on Krishna?And Krishnas arrangement whatever he makes for our outreach.

Answer:Yes, that’s certainly a possibility which we need to be cautious about guard against.

But it doesn’t have to be that.

Using our intelligence.Using contemporary strategic planning methods.And retaining our dependence on Krishna.Sentillions and dependence don’t have to be mutually exclusive.If you consider right going back to the time of the Mahabharata.

Arjuna.Did land strategy.Before especially the.Kurupshit raw and every morning.They would have a.Planning meeting and every evening after the war got over.For that day, they would have the review meeting.And the planned who would be confronting which enemy.

So war is extremely serious business and without strategy it’s unlikely that one can be effective leave alone successful.

So.Physically also.

His whole vision of going to the west.When things are not working out in India.Was strategic planning.And it did work, of course, it’s not that in the west, he got success immediately.I was in a certainly not that.In the profit not Arjuna were not dependent on Krishna.

Profile would often tell devotees, double it.With respect to book distribution, he said that I will come to the temples where there is maximum solution being done.And that way.

He felt that he would be able to.Encourage devotees to distribute more and more books.

Now, it is true that.Somebody would have got so consumed by Buddha distribution that they forgot other things. Sometimes they would try to.Sabotage other people devotees book distribution, so that they could be the ones who distribute the maximum number of books.

That certainly was.Counterproductive and anti-spiritual.

What to speak of entity devotional.

Krishna is pleased by the offering of our heart and Krishna provides us facilities.For us to make that offering.At the same time is a matter of the heart.It’s not just a matter of the heart.Because that heart is to be expressed in this world.And while expressing in this world.

A certain level of competence in certain level of success are essential.If we want.Our service to benefit the world.So if we consider.

Sharing spiritual wisdom to be like.Sharing a spiritual therapy or treatment to people who are sick with everybody in the material world being sick with materialism though, they may not be sick of materialism.That means they don’t think that materialism is the cause of the problem, they don’t want to give it up but still materialism is a part of their problem.

Then we should then we are meant to be like the medical support staff.With surgeons doctors nurses whatever who are meant to heal people.Now.The more people are healed.The more it is fulfilling for us but then healing has to be a holistic parameters not just that we give some pain medication cover up the pain and people say that I feel good and now we are successful.

So,If medical research shows that particular ways of treating people.Particular methods and modalities.Are more effective […]

Israel-Hamas Conflict – Bhagvad Gita Perspective
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Chaitanya Charan · Israel-Hamas Conflict | Bhagvad Gita Perspective | Chaitanya Charan

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The Bhagavad Gita perspective on the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Social media and mainstream media is now filled with images of thousands of missiles being sent by the Hamas, which is the Palestinian extremist group in the Gaza Strip, attacking Israel in various cities. How do we see this terrible conflict with which thousands of people have been killed and uncountable number of people have been taken hostages, and the conflict seems to be on the verge of escalating?

I’ll talk about it from three different points, three Ns. The first N is the Nature of the violence, second is the Necessity for confrontational approaches, and last is Need for approaches beyond the confrontational. So first, while violence is an unfortunate and unavoidable part of life in this world, at the same time, the Bhagavad Gita is very careful in ensuring that violence is used within limits.

The Kshatriyas are a specially trained class of people who are meant to protect others from harm and to use force if required for that purpose. They are meant Kshatriya. They are meant to protect others from hurt and Kshatriyas never attack civilians.

That’s why the Kurukshetra war was fought at a particular designated venue, namely Kurukshetra, where the civilians were neither targeted nor killed. But the terrorist violence that we are seeing in these current attacks where missiles are launched indiscriminately, including largely on civilian targets and territories, is the antithesis of Kshatriya violence, where unarmed and unprepared, unsuspecting civilians alone are targeted for the purpose of creating fear and intimidation and terror. So, such violence against civilians needs to be condemned in the strongest possible terms.

The second point is the necessity of confrontational approaches at times. While we all would like that conflicts be minimized or avoided or resolved by peaceful means, the reality is that sometimes some people are so maddened by their hunger for power, by their memories of grievance and the cravings for vengeance, or by their extreme ideologies, that they essentially become wicked, and that means that there is no talking sense with them.

In fact, trying to have a peaceful negotiation with such elements ends up essentially appeasing them, and appeasing people who are wicked only empowers and emboldens them to do far worse things in the future. That’s how in one way the Second World War escalated with Victor Chamberlain, the British premier, appeasing Hitler repeatedly while his expansionist activities engulfed much of Europe. So, appeasement will not work with extremist elements, and the need for confrontational approaches to weed out such elements has to be acknowledged. This in fact is the purpose of Kshatriyas.

The Bhagavad Gita says that when such approaches are required, Kshatriyas, the warrior class, they are the martial protectors of society, they do not flinch from violence. They are ready to fight where it is required. Having said that, the third point is […]