Sunday, July 21st, 2013
→ The Walking Monk

Light in the Night

Calgary, Alberta

Sleep was not going to be an easy task last evening. It became a blessing in disguise. I pulled myself off the mattress and ambled my way outside at the east end of Calgary when I opened my eyes to a marvelous display of the northern lights – explosions of light energy flashing about against the sky’s backdrop. It’s nature’s exhibitions like this that puts one in awe, and perhaps even reverence towards the Maker or Creator.

I had trekked along on a bike trail that looped when I spotted this wonder by nature. The trail ended up at a retail strip area where I came upon a nightclub which pulsated some rave music. Through a window I could see young folks gyrating to the gutsy thump of the music as the lights flashed with diverse colours meant to heighten the ecstasy of it all.

Little did the dancers know that something much more exciting was happening from above. When I actually passed by the main door of the club, a crowd was ‘hanging out’ on the street level mildly intoxicated. They could also not see the wondrous display from heaven. For them the center of life was encircled around the nightclub. At night time street lights naturally blur or obscure what is in the sky, and that includes the northern lights which I understand is a play of the sun’s rays within an electromagnetic field in the ether.

Hey, the club dancers were really missing something and I guess in a way I felt for them. What seemed to be more important to them is finding themselves within some conjugal relationship. Okay, so be it. Meanwhile, my connection with nature’s light show and its source became more than a beautiful momentary reality, it’s something to be appreciated.

10 KM

Monday, July 22nd, 2013
→ The Walking Monk

The Not Yet Named Summer Tour

Hamilton, Ontario

Our short little bhakti road show in the prairies had been completed and we had flown back to Toronto on the previous day. Now, a second tour began, but this time it’s the replacement of the annual youth bus tour that I’ve been on for the last several summers. Kapil, a young bank employee from Alberta came to be chauffer and coordinator to a 12 seater van for a fun tour through Ontario and Quebec. We filled the seats with what I consider to be future leaders for our spiritual mission. I’ll be there for a week as well as Kapil whom we refer to affectionately as Captain Kapil or Cap Kap for short.

My time with Cap Kap and passengers is an investment for the future. Let these young folks have a good experience, fun and discipline mixed together in a spiritual environment. We have two boys from Florida, three girls from Montreal and four boys from Ontario. This is an opportunity for a younger set to get to know a monk more, and me them.

We took to a speed boat along with Korean tourists in the Niagara River through class 5 waves. We took to viewing the falls in full admiration of them. We finally finished with a rich meal at the home of Giri Jadhava, a dear friend who was my captain for travelling on the sankirtan mission in the early 70s. We all cooled down in a swimming pool and he and I reminisced about our days on the road including an amiable encounter with the legendary Vishnujan Swami, a pioneer amongst Krishna monks when we stopped in Baltimore, that was sweet.

Our crew is musical and so we have already begun to take full advantage of their gifted natures by encouraging kirtan, a panacea for the age.

Let there be mantra power that endures throughout the generations.

5 KM

Sunday, July 21st, 2013
→ The Walking Monk

Light in the Night

Calgary, Alberta

Sleep was not going to be an easy task last evening. It became a blessing in disguise. I pulled myself off the mattress and ambled my way outside at the east end of Calgary when I opened my eyes to a marvelous display of the northern lights – explosions of light energy flashing about against the sky’s backdrop. It’s nature’s exhibitions like this that puts one in awe, and perhaps even reverence towards the Maker or Creator.

I had trekked along on a bike trail that looped when I spotted this wonder by nature. The trail ended up at a retail strip area where I came upon a nightclub which pulsated some rave music. Through a window I could see young folks gyrating to the gutsy thump of the music as the lights flashed with diverse colours meant to heighten the ecstasy of it all.

Little did the dancers know that something much more exciting was happening from above. When I actually passed by the main door of the club, a crowd was ‘hanging out’ on the street level mildly intoxicated. They could also not see the wondrous display from heaven. For them the center of life was encircled around the nightclub. At night time street lights naturally blur or obscure what is in the sky, and that includes the northern lights which I understand is a play of the sun’s rays within an electromagnetic field in the ether.

Hey, the club dancers were really missing something and I guess in a way I felt for them. What seemed to be more important to them is finding themselves within some conjugal relationship. Okay, so be it. Meanwhile, my connection with nature’s light show and its source became more than a beautiful momentary reality, it’s something to be appreciated.

10 KM

Monday, July 22nd, 2013
→ The Walking Monk

The Not Yet Named Summer Tour

Hamilton, Ontario

Our short little bhakti road show in the prairies had been completed and we had flown back to Toronto on the previous day. Now, a second tour began, but this time it’s the replacement of the annual youth bus tour that I’ve been on for the last several summers. Kapil, a young bank employee from Alberta came to be chauffer and coordinator to a 12 seater van for a fun tour through Ontario and Quebec. We filled the seats with what I consider to be future leaders for our spiritual mission. I’ll be there for a week as well as Kapil whom we refer to affectionately as Captain Kapil or Cap Kap for short.

My time with Cap Kap and passengers is an investment for the future. Let these young folks have a good experience, fun and discipline mixed together in a spiritual environment. We have two boys from Florida, three girls from Montreal and four boys from Ontario. This is an opportunity for a younger set to get to know a monk more, and me them.

We took to a speed boat along with Korean tourists in the Niagara River through class 5 waves. We took to viewing the falls in full admiration of them. We finally finished with a rich meal at the home of Giri Jadhava, a dear friend who was my captain for travelling on the sankirtan mission in the early 70s. We all cooled down in a swimming pool and he and I reminisced about our days on the road including an amiable encounter with the legendary Vishnujan Swami, a pioneer amongst Krishna monks when we stopped in Baltimore, that was sweet.

Our crew is musical and so we have already begun to take full advantage of their gifted natures by encouraging kirtan, a panacea for the age.

Let there be mantra power that endures throughout the generations.

5 KM

A prayer from the spiritual master
→ KKS Blog

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 12 July 2013, Fruska Gouranga, Serbia, Initiation lecture)

kks vrndavan 2013We have received the (holy) name a long time ago, right? The maha mantra has been with us for a long time. Still it is said that at the time of initiation, the spiritual master is giving us the harinama. And why is that?

You could sort of say it’s something like a birthday and you get the gift, open the box and then say that you already got that, “Gosh, I’m getting the harinama but I’ve got that years ago.”

But no, it is not like that. Actually, what is there now is that the spiritual master has rendered service to Krsna and with that service, he has purchased the mercy of Krsna. At the time of initiation, the spiritual master gives us the holy name along with his prayers to Krsna. He prays on our behalf to Krsna and says, “My dear Lord, please bestow your mercy upon this devotee.”

In this way, when we go before Krsna, we are not alone. We are not just judged on our own performance but we go with our spiritual master who has credit with Krsna so then, Krsna is inclined. Therefore, it is very important to have that prayer. The spiritual master’s prayer is not a one-time prayer, it is an ongoing prayer.

It stays with us throughout our spiritual life and at the end of our life, when we come before Krsna, are we going back or not? The big question, are we making it or not? The prayer of the spiritual master puts weight on the scale, more weight even than our own.

Therefore we say that more important in our spiritual life are the blessings from the spiritual master, the prayer from the spiritual master. That is the most powerful factor, therefore it is important to receive the harinama in this way!

 

A prayer from the spiritual master
→ KKS Blog

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 12 July 2013, Fruska Gouranga, Serbia, Initiation lecture)

kks vrndavan 2013We have received the (holy) name a long time ago, right? The maha mantra has been with us for a long time. Still it is said that at the time of initiation, the spiritual master is giving us the harinama. And why is that?

You could sort of say it’s something like a birthday and you get the gift, open the box and then say that you already got that, “Gosh, I’m getting the harinama but I’ve got that years ago.”

But no, it is not like that. Actually, what is there now is that the spiritual master has rendered service to Krsna and with that service, he has purchased the mercy of Krsna. At the time of initiation, the spiritual master gives us the holy name along with his prayers to Krsna. He prays on our behalf to Krsna and says, “My dear Lord, please bestow your mercy upon this devotee.”

In this way, when we go before Krsna, we are not alone. We are not just judged on our own performance but we go with our spiritual master who has credit with Krsna so then, Krsna is inclined. Therefore, it is very important to have that prayer. The spiritual master’s prayer is not a one-time prayer, it is an ongoing prayer.

It stays with us throughout our spiritual life and at the end of our life, when we come before Krsna, are we going back or not? The big question, are we making it or not? The prayer of the spiritual master puts weight on the scale, more weight even than our own.

Therefore we say that more important in our spiritual life are the blessings from the spiritual master, the prayer from the spiritual master. That is the most powerful factor, therefore it is important to receive the harinama in this way!

 

Building Trust Within ISKCON
→ Gita Coaching

By Akrura Dasa on 17 Jun 2008
ISKCON NEWS
http://news.iskcon.org/building-trust-within-iskcon,558/

Srila Prabhupada wanted us to serve together based on love and trust. Here are some reflections on building trust and some ideas that may be helpful to our temples and projects.

Most organizations are not aware of the enormous cost of low trust, and because they have no means of measuring its impact, they have little motivation to seriously address it. To compound the problem, many people feel like helpless victims of the problems in their organizations and see no clear way to influence their leaders.

In this article, we offer specific, powerful things we can do that can profoundly impact the level of trust in our relationships, our teams, our families, and our movement in general.

Is trust really necessary in life, work or service today? Can we succeed without it?

I believe that we cannot succeed without trust. It is not only important, it is absolutely vital. For instance, even when we are buying gasoline, we trust that we are getting quality fuel; we trust that the prices are within the market; and we trust that our money will be accepted by that person. There are so many elements to the simplest transaction that require trust. But we are sometimes unaware of those implicit elements. Trust is the lifeblood of all relationships, of all transactions, and is fundamental to everything in life.

What are evidences of a low-trust environment?

Low-trust environments are filled with hidden agendas, a lot of political games, interpersonal conflict, interdepartmental rivalries, and people bad-mouthing each other behind their backs while sweet-talking them to their faces.

With low trust, we get a lot of rules and regulations that take the place of human judgment and creativity; we also see that people are disempowered. They will not be on the same page about what’s important. Ultimately, the culture will become driven by urgency rather than importance because everyone is in it only or mostly for themselves and for their own agenda.

What is low trust costing organizations?

Low trust has a huge tax associated with it. It creates a culture of toxicity, just like we have toxins in our body. Imagine what it costs a body to be full of poison. That is what a low-trust culture is – it’s full of poison. We see people embracing and promulgating what can be called the six metastasizing emotional cancers. Metastasize means they send their cancer cells through the body, mind, and spirit of a person. They also spread through relationships.

These cancers are criticizing, complaining, comparing, competing, contending, and cynicism. (By competing, I don’t mean the healthy competition where we are competing to do more service to Krsna or please devotees but competition based on envy and false pride.) These emotional cancers are the forces that literally undermine and eventually destroy relationships. On the other hand, trust helps to make things possible.

If we want to overcome these six cancers, it seems we need a lot of work, in order to build and maintain trust. We may rightly ask, is it worth the effort?

I think it’s absolutely worth it. It’s the most supremely important thing we can do to get the confidence of another person by being true to our commitments, by clarifying expectations, by treating people with kindness and respect, and by learning to be transparent about the information we have so that people trust it and we can almost speak to them in verbal shorthand. We hardly even have to finish sentences when there’s high trust.

Trust speeds up achievement. Without it, everything gets bogged down, slows down; people protect themselves, they think defensively, and they gather other people around them to form cliques. These cliques then judge other cliques, which only compounds the low-trust situation, slows down everything, and levies a huge tax on all human interactions and transactions.

So what behaviours increase trust and is it a skill we can learn?

The metaphor that can be helpful is a Trust Bank Account. It’s like a financial bank account into which we can make deposits and take withdrawals. And if we get into a situation where we are constantly making withdrawals - the kinds that we mentioned above - we get an overdrawn Trust Bank Account. And we all know what happens with a bank relationship when we have an overdrawn account. It kills our freedom, our flexibility, and our credit capacity.

Building trust is not just a skill we can learn, it is a character trait that we have to develop. It is not a technique we can just pick up. We have to be trustworthy in our heart and sincere about what our real intentions are so that we can be transparent. We’re not fearful of being “found out” doing something in the dark when we’re proclaiming something else in the light.

The most important of all deposits into the Trust Bank Account of trust is empathy, because empathy, or listening to another within his or her frame of reference, tells us what the important deposits are to that person. Every person is different. So we have to figure out what is important to them - how do they interpret kindness, consideration, and respect? How do they interpret making and keeping promises? How do they interpret any other positive deposit in the Trust Bank Account?

This is all a function of empathy, and it is the same with our family members, our associates in the service or business, or our customers. The key is to always develop a relationship that produces mutual benefit. In order to do that, we have to deeply listen to other people to find out what the benefit is for them.

If we lose someone’s trust, is it possible to regain it, and how?

It is possible to regain their trust, but to be able to do so, we have to right the wrongs we’ve done; we have to apologize; we have to seek forgiveness; we have to try to make reconciliation in every way we can. But if we are in a state of denial and don’t have the humility to admit that we’ve made a mistake, then we’ve just taken another withdrawal and people will come to not trust our apologies and our asking for forgiveness.

In conclusion, high trust will be possible between people who are trustworthy, who posses both high character traits and competence to get things done well. So, in order to increase trust within ISKCON, we need to start with ourselves, working on becoming a trustworthy person.
Serious devotees’ trust is important to us, because if they trust us, we can get more Krsna’s mercy and be empowered to preach Krsna consciousness more effectively.

To learn more how to apply the ideas from this article, please contact Gita Coaching on akrura@gmail.com 

Building Trust Within ISKCON
→ GITA COACHING

By Akrura Dasa on 17 Jun 2008
ISKCON NEWS
http://news.iskcon.org/building-trust-within-iskcon,558/

Srila Prabhupada wanted us to serve together based on love and trust. Here are some reflections on building trust and some ideas that may be helpful to our temples and projects.

Most organizations are not aware of the enormous cost of low trust, and because they have no means of measuring its impact, they have little motivation to seriously address it. To compound the problem, many people feel like helpless victims of the problems in their organizations and see no clear way to influence their leaders.

In this article, we offer specific, powerful things we can do that can profoundly impact the level of trust in our relationships, our teams, our families, and our movement in general.

Is trust really necessary in life, work or service today? Can we succeed without it?

I believe that we cannot succeed without trust. It is not only important, it is absolutely vital. For instance, even when we are buying gasoline, we trust that we are getting quality fuel; we trust that the prices are within the market; and we trust that our money will be accepted by that person. There are so many elements to the simplest transaction that require trust. But we are sometimes unaware of those implicit elements. Trust is the lifeblood of all relationships, of all transactions, and is fundamental to everything in life.

What are evidences of a low-trust environment?

Low-trust environments are filled with hidden agendas, a lot of political games, interpersonal conflict, interdepartmental rivalries, and people bad-mouthing each other behind their backs while sweet-talking them to their faces.

With low trust, we get a lot of rules and regulations that take the place of human judgment and creativity; we also see that people are disempowered. They will not be on the same page about what’s important. Ultimately, the culture will become driven by urgency rather than importance because everyone is in it only or mostly for themselves and for their own agenda.

What is low trust costing organizations?

Low trust has a huge tax associated with it. It creates a culture of toxicity, just like we have toxins in our body. Imagine what it costs a body to be full of poison. That is what a low-trust culture is – it’s full of poison. We see people embracing and promulgating what can be called the six metastasizing emotional cancers. Metastasize means they send their cancer cells through the body, mind, and spirit of a person. They also spread through relationships.

These cancers are criticizing, complaining, comparing, competing, contending, and cynicism. (By competing, I don’t mean the healthy competition where we are competing to do more service to Krsna or please devotees but competition based on envy and false pride.) These emotional cancers are the forces that literally undermine and eventually destroy relationships. On the other hand, trust helps to make things possible.

If we want to overcome these six cancers, it seems we need a lot of work, in order to build and maintain trust. We may rightly ask, is it worth the effort?

I think it’s absolutely worth it. It’s the most supremely important thing we can do to get the confidence of another person by being true to our commitments, by clarifying expectations, by treating people with kindness and respect, and by learning to be transparent about the information we have so that people trust it and we can almost speak to them in verbal shorthand. We hardly even have to finish sentences when there’s high trust.

Trust speeds up achievement. Without it, everything gets bogged down, slows down; people protect themselves, they think defensively, and they gather other people around them to form cliques. These cliques then judge other cliques, which only compounds the low-trust situation, slows down everything, and levies a huge tax on all human interactions and transactions.

So what behaviours increase trust and is it a skill we can learn?

The metaphor that can be helpful is a Trust Bank Account. It’s like a financial bank account into which we can make deposits and take withdrawals. And if we get into a situation where we are constantly making withdrawals - the kinds that we mentioned above - we get an overdrawn Trust Bank Account. And we all know what happens with a bank relationship when we have an overdrawn account. It kills our freedom, our flexibility, and our credit capacity.

Building trust is not just a skill we can learn, it is a character trait that we have to develop. It is not a technique we can just pick up. We have to be trustworthy in our heart and sincere about what our real intentions are so that we can be transparent. We’re not fearful of being “found out” doing something in the dark when we’re proclaiming something else in the light.

The most important of all deposits into the Trust Bank Account of trust is empathy, because empathy, or listening to another within his or her frame of reference, tells us what the important deposits are to that person. Every person is different. So we have to figure out what is important to them - how do they interpret kindness, consideration, and respect? How do they interpret making and keeping promises? How do they interpret any other positive deposit in the Trust Bank Account?

This is all a function of empathy, and it is the same with our family members, our associates in the service or business, or our customers. The key is to always develop a relationship that produces mutual benefit. In order to do that, we have to deeply listen to other people to find out what the benefit is for them.

If we lose someone’s trust, is it possible to regain it, and how?

It is possible to regain their trust, but to be able to do so, we have to right the wrongs we’ve done; we have to apologize; we have to seek forgiveness; we have to try to make reconciliation in every way we can. But if we are in a state of denial and don’t have the humility to admit that we’ve made a mistake, then we’ve just taken another withdrawal and people will come to not trust our apologies and our asking for forgiveness.

In conclusion, high trust will be possible between people who are trustworthy, who posses both high character traits and competence to get things done well. So, in order to increase trust within ISKCON, we need to start with ourselves, working on becoming a trustworthy person.
Serious devotees’ trust is important to us, because if they trust us, we can get more Krsna’s mercy and be empowered to preach Krsna consciousness more effectively.

To learn more how to apply the ideas from this article, please contact Gita Coaching on akrura@gmail.com 

to question
→ everyday gita

Verse 4.4: Arjuna said: The sun-god Vivasvān is senior by birth to You. How am I to understand that in the beginning You instructed this science to him?

In order to clarify doubt and truly understand something, two things are required:

One needs to inquire from the right person.

It's a two way street, although a strong case can be made that most of the responsibility falls on the one who is posing the question. That's because they are the ones who:


1) Have to formulate the appropriate question or else they might not get the answer they need.

2) Have the free will to choose (and accept) the person to get answers from.

Let's use a real life example to understand that a bit better. If you've ever been to a foreign country, you might have first hand experience of trying to get to a destination and having no clue where to go. In stopping someone on the street, the first question you might ask is not how to get to x, y, z destination but... "Are you from here?"

That question is an important one as it helps you (the tourist) to find out if you're asking a reputable source (i.e. one who is qualified to answer). Well...at least in my experience, it may help but doesn't necessarily guarantee that you will get the directions you require!

But that qualifying question is an important one. It's easy to get answers to questions...

The difficulty lies in finding the right individual who is actually authorized to answer your question.

Krsna has already established himself as the appropriate person to teach the science of bhakti as described in Verse 4.1. Here, Arjuna is teaching all of us the art of questioning. He has heard Krsna out but still has a doubt and so he asks Krsna to clarify it.

This is where the subtleties of bhakti are revealed. After finding the right guide/teacher and formulating the appropriate question/s the most important thing is the attitude behind the questioning. Is it one of genuine curiosity and inquiry or one of arrogance? It's this attitude that actually determines how much knowledge is imparted from the bhakti yogi to the student.

These are three elements to perfecting the art of questioning - finding the right teacher, asking the right question and checking to see what your attitude is when asking it. Try them out and see how it works for you!

to question
→ everyday gita

Verse 4.4: Arjuna said: The sun-god Vivasvān is senior by birth to You. How am I to understand that in the beginning You instructed this science to him?

In order to clarify doubt and truly understand something, two things are required:

One needs to inquire from the right person.

It's a two way street, although a strong case can be made that most of the responsibility falls on the one who is posing the question. That's because they are the ones who:


1) Have to formulate the appropriate question or else they might not get the answer they need.

2) Have the free will to choose (and accept) the person to get answers from.

Let's use a real life example to understand that a bit better. If you've ever been to a foreign country, you might have first hand experience of trying to get to a destination and having no clue where to go. In stopping someone on the street, the first question you might ask is not how to get to x, y, z destination but... "Are you from here?"

That question is an important one as it helps you (the tourist) to find out if you're asking a reputable source (i.e. one who is qualified to answer). Well...at least in my experience, it may help but doesn't necessarily guarantee that you will get the directions you require!

But that qualifying question is an important one. It's easy to get answers to questions...

The difficulty lies in finding the right individual who is actually authorized to answer your question.

Krsna has already established himself as the appropriate person to teach the science of bhakti as described in Verse 4.1. Here, Arjuna is teaching all of us the art of questioning. He has heard Krsna out but still has a doubt and so he asks Krsna to clarify it.

This is where the subtleties of bhakti are revealed. After finding the right guide/teacher and formulating the appropriate question/s the most important thing is the attitude behind the questioning. Is it one of genuine curiosity and inquiry or one of arrogance? It's this attitude that actually determines how much knowledge is imparted from the bhakti yogi to the student.

These are three elements to perfecting the art of questioning - finding the right teacher, asking the right question and checking to see what your attitude is when asking it. Try them out and see how it works for you!

Gopinath’s Kids Camp – August 24, 2013
→ The Toronto Hare Krishna Blog!

Imagine a day full of games, laughter, delicious prasadam, chance to make new friends and especially, NO PARENTS! ISKCON Toronto is providing just that and more for the younger members of our community with the 6th Annual Gopinath's Kids Camp!

This year, the 5th Annual Gopinath's Kids Camp will be held on Saturday, August 24th from 8:30am-6:00pm, strictly for kids aged 4-12 years. The purpose of this one-day camp is to provide an opportunity to ignite the spiritual spark in our children while doing fun and interactive activities that they enjoy. In addition to outdoor games, some of the primary activities being planned for the day are a Mega Scavenger Hunt, fun cooking classes, learning how to play different musical instruments, sumptuous prasadam and many fond memories.

 All this and much more for registration fees of only $25! You can register at the temple or use our online form by clicking here (last day to register is August 17th). For further information, please don't hesitate to email us at info@torontokrishna.com.

Even A Child
→ travelingmonk.com

“There is no need to understand the language of the mantra, nor is there any need of mental speculation, nor any intellectual adjustment for chanting this maha-mantra. It springs automatically from the spiritual platform, and as such anyone can take part in this transcendental sound vibration without any previous qualification and dance in ecstasy. We [...]

327. “See How I run” by Sarah McCarthy
→ 9 Days, 8 Nights

I was going through “See How I Run“, the blog of Sarah McCarthy (a leading editor of a magazine) who recently passed away due to Ovarian Cancer. She maintained her diary online through out her ordeal sharing her realizations and experiences with the world. Many of her posts have some very useful advice for those wanting to prevent cancer or those who have and looking for guidance. One such post was the recommendation of an anti-cancer book – Anti Cancer: A New Way of Life by Dr David Servan-Schreiber. I thought I would share her site and that book recommendation with my readers for their information too.

Just pondering more on death – it can happen anytime, to anyone, anywhere. It’s so important that we deeply understand the depth of death and how awareness of it can cause each one of us to make a positive impact in the world. It’s not at all necessary that one has to wait for old age to leave the body and till that time, we can enjoy as much as possible. Every human should use their intelligence and time to prepare for death – this includes maintaining affectionate relationships with one and all, undertake serious study and practice of spirituality and make a strong habit of eating clean, fresh, organic and vegetarian diet. This is just the basic foundation upon which we can build higher values. But it is a great way to start and finish one’s life.

 


Ulta Rath – The Lord returns home..
→ Mayapur.com

Please view the gallery: Ultha Rath Festival After Their sweet stay in Sundrachala (Mayapur) for seven days, Sri Jagannath, Baladeva and Subhadradevi went back to Nilachala (Rajapur). This year Ulta Ratha festival in Mayapur was a grand ceremony with many celebrities attending the occasion. HH Jayapataka Swami spoke on the significance of Ratha Yatra and [...]

The post Ulta Rath – The Lord returns home.. appeared first on Mayapur.com.

326. Lunch today – raw veggies in a roll
→ 9 Days, 8 Nights

Yup. Still thinking of that awesome lunch I had today. So important that we have raw veggies in our diet everyday.

Chapati bread with a filling of raw veggies – cabbage, tomato, radish, beetroot, coriander leaves and lemon juice. Few cooked chickpeas with a little salt. Drizzle the salad with sesame oil for that extra kick. Next time, I will use black salt instead.


The Gita is not self-contradictory, but self-revelatory (9.4-5)
→ The Spiritual Scientist

“That’s self-contradictory.” We may feel thus on reading some sections of the Bhagavad-gita. For example, the Gita (9.4) states, mat-sthani sarva bhutani “All of existence is situated in me.” And the next verse (9.5) states na ca mat sthani bhutani “Existence is not situated in me.”

Is the Gita self-contradictory?

No, it is self-revelatory.

Being the word of God, it is filled with his infinite wisdom. Just as Krishna can be understood only by his grace, so too the Gita. This doesn’t mean that while reading the Gita we send the intelligence on a vacation but that we complement it with devotion.

A defining devotional axiom is that Krishna being infinite is not limited to one manifestation. Though he remains essentially one, he has many manifestations who fulfill different purposes and accordingly manifest varying moods.

Krishna implicitly refers to his different manifestations while speaking different verses. In 9.4, he refers to the Supersoul who pervades and sustains the entire material existence. In 9.5, he refers to himself as Bhagavan, as the transcendental person who delights in loving reciprocations in the spiritual world and is not in the least burdened by the task of managing material existence.

That’s why we need to train ourselves to study the Gita with a devotional disposition, accepting that Krishna and his word are superior to our intelligence. The Gita points us in this direction when it caps the seeming self-contradiction in 9.5 with a celebratory proclamation: pashya me yogam aishvaram “Behold my mystical opulence.”

By the Gita’s gradual self-revelation, what had initially appeared exasperating for the head turns out to be stimulating for the heart. The more we let our head embrace the Gita’s profundity, the more we let our heart enter deeper into the loving embrace of Krishna for a life of endless love.

***

09.04-05: By Me, in My unmanifested form, this entire universe is pervaded. All beings are in Me, but I am not in them. And yet everything that is created does not rest in Me. Behold My mystic opulence! Although I am the maintainer of all living entities and although I am everywhere, I am not a part of this cosmic manifestation, for My Self is the very source of creation.