Planet ISKCON

SB 01.15.35 Attachment to Desires 2013-01-29

Lecture – Srimad Bhagavatam 1.15.35 Attachment to Desires 2013-01-29 Melbourne The Lord as a magician is eternally existent and is never vanquished in any circumstance.

The following is adapted from Google’s invitation to the talk:

People usually try to avoid death—both the topic and the event. And why should we contemplate death and dying—how can we profit? As a friend of our speaker said shortly before his death, “When you get this close to death, you see that it is not what you thought. All our life we fear it, but when you are this close you see that it is not the end; it is a portal to opportunities beckoning us, beyond which we are able to see our true existence and nature—that we are all actually entities that don’t pass away. It is not something negative or destructive; it is the opposite of that—hugely life affirming. Life is for learning lessons, and death is our best instructor to teach us the most important of lessons, because it reveals the essence and purpose of our life and throws a light on our real spiritual nature.”

In this talk, Giriraj Swami, author of Life’s Final Exam, will present experiences of people who left their bodies in a heightened state of consciousness, so that we can use their valuable insights to make the best out of the rest of our lives.

Bio:

Giriraj Swami is an author, spiritual leader, and founder of the Bhaktivedanta Hospice and the Vrindavan Institute of Palliative Care in India, whose mission is to provide patients the best possible physical, emotional, and spiritual care. He currently resides in Carpinteria, California, and lectures throughout the world on Vedic philosophy and practice.

When we fuel our car, we expect the fuel to last for a particular distance. If we get a low fuel signal prematurely, we will check if the indicator is malfunctioning.

We need to check similarly whenever we get an “I am hungry” signal between mealtimes. The hunger signal may be coming from not the depleted body but the tempted mind. The mind’s craving is a pseudo-hunger that masquerades as hunger.

The hunger signal may be coming from not the depleted body but the tempted mind.

Pseudo-hunger can mislead us because we want eating to be not just a filling activity but also a fulfilling activity. And there’s nothing wrong in wanting our food to taste good. We, unlike cars, are conscious, so we can’t equate our eating with putting the petrol pipe into a car’s fuel tank. Indeed, much of human culture centers on preparing, serving and savoring good food.

Nonetheless, pleasure is a supplementary purpose of eating – its primary purpose is nourishment. So, our pursuit of satisfaction in eating needs to be subordinated to or harmonized with nutrition. When we eat only to enjoy, we tend to eat too much or too opulently or too frequently, thereby disturbing the very bodily balance that eating was meant to restore.

What makes matters worse is the popular culture that aggressively glamorizes the taste of fast foods and other less-than-healthy eatables. Such ads aggravate the pseudo-hunger signals within us, eventually sentencing us to the increasingly widespread malaise of obesity and its associated health issues.

How can we unmask pseudo-hunger?

By its untimeliness and selectiveness.

Pseudo-hunger can be identified by its untimeliness and selectiveness.

If we feel hungry long before a mealtime, especially after we have eaten adequately at the previous meal and haven’t thereafter done anything unusually draining, then what is pushing us to grab a snack is pseudo-hunger. And if we feel pushed towards a pizza or a pakoda rather than just something to fill the stomach, then again the pusher is pseudo-hunger.

We can check our feelings better when we situate ourselves above them instead of being caught in their flow. The best way to raise ourselves above our feelings is by philosophical education and devotional meditation. Philosophical education helps us understand our actual identity as spiritual beings, souls, who exist above our bodily cars. And devotional meditation links us with God, Krishna, the reservoir of all happiness, and yields spiritual satisfaction, thereby making unhealthy bodily pleasures redundant.

Of course, education and meditation do much more than protect us from pseudo-hunger – they fulfill our heart’s hunger for lasting love by uniting us with the supremely loving and lovable person, Krishna. The Bhagavad-gita (06.17) declares that those who strive in their activities to be yukta (materially regulated and spiritually connected) eventually transcend all miseries.

The post Questions and answers at the Bhakti-fest on Sunday appeared first on SivaramaSwami.com.

Here’s a newsworthy event. A new Krishna-themed charity shop / thrift shop has opened up in a small town on the Thames river not too far from London. You can hear all about it in this short film.

https://flic.kr/s/aHsk3zmK8D

The post Saturday’s pictures from Bhakti-fest retreat on Prince Island appeared first on SivaramaSwami.com.

Turkish edited out and sorry if I edited out the English a bit.

The post Seminar on liberation through the modes of nature (Part 2) appeared first on SivaramaSwami.com.

The Following transcriptions have been uploaded

If the son practices bhakti, then will his non-devotee parents’ get a good next-life destination due to their son’s bhakti?

http://www.thespiritualscientist.com/2014/05/if-the-son-practices-bhakti-then-will-his-non-devotee-parents-get-a-good-next-life-destination-due-to-their-sons-bhakti/

How does attachment to result make us the cause of action, as the Gita 2.47 purport states?

http://www.thespiritualscientist.com/2014/05/how-does-attachment-to-result-make-us-the-cause-of-action-as-the-gita-2-47-purport-states/

During preaching, how important is it to provide relevant material information in addition to the paramapara’s message?

http://www.thespiritualscientist.com/2014/05/during-preaching-how-important-is-it-to-provide-relevant-material-information-in-addition-to-the-paramaparas-message/

Can we preach without using technology as such use can distract one from Krishna?

http://www.thespiritualscientist.com/2014/05/can-we-preach-without-using-technology-as-such-use-can-distract-one-from-krishna/

Value Education and Spirituality 3 - The Spiritual Foundation of Values 1 - The end is not the end

http://www.thespiritualscientist.com/2014/05/value-education-and-spirituality-3-the-spiritual-foundation-of-values-1-the-end-is-not-the-end/

Value Education and Spirituality 4 - The Spiritual Foundation of Values 2 - Karma shows the sense in life's seeming senselessness

http://www.thespiritualscientist.com/2014/05/value-education-and-spirituality-4-the-spiritual-foundation-of-values-2-karma-shows-the-sense-in-lifes-seeming-senselessness/

Value Education and Spirituality 1 - What we value determines our values - and our values determine our value

http://www.thespiritualscientist.com/2014/04/value-education-and-spirituality-1-what-we-value-determines-our-values-and-our-values-determine-our-value/

Value Education and Spirituality 2 - Our values serve as protecting fences and as focusing default settings

http://www.thespiritualscientist.com/2014/04/value-education-and-spirituality-2-our-values-serve-as-protecting-fences-and-as-focusing-default-settings/

Water and shower Abhishek of Radhashyamsunder on radhastami 2014 at ISKCON Vrindavan

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