spiritual life is about giving

Spiritual life is about giving. I never saw spiritual life in this way. I always meditate on my own performance and self but never think how much I can give and am willing to offer myself unconditionally.

I am starting to realize that to give without questioning takes a big heart. This person in the video talks about how even a burning candle gives without asking. Srila Prabhupada once said that a zero has no value but when it stands next to a one, it has some value. Similarly as jivatmas (zero) we have no value but when we serve the Supreme Lord (one) in devotion, our existence has meaning just as a zero next to a one. What is this service we talk about…it is about giving oneself for the betterment of others. Srila Prabhupada, hence, said “know good, then do good”.

Yes…hospitals, schools and other amenities are good but what is that eternal good we can ever do for someone - that is offering them the knowledge about God and engaging them in the service of God thus relieving them of all suffering and pain . That is the highest welfare we can ever do for someone and for that we have to be ready to give and expect none in return.

This video (10 mins) reflects my sentiment and I am amazed how close he represents Srila Prabhupada’s teachings about Krishna Consciousness.

Hare Krishna

computerized God

As many have observed, modern science has become a religion, at least for Western man. Like other religions, it has a priesthood, roughly organized on hierarchical lines. It has temples, shrines, and rituals and it has a body of canons. And. like other religions, it has its own mythology. One myth in particular states that if, say, by experiment a scientific theory is confronted in reality with a single contradiction, one piece of discontinuing evidence, then that theory is automatically set aside and a new theory that takes the contradiction into account is adopted. This is not the way science actually works.

In fact, some people have the same type of very deep faith in modern science that others do in their respective religions. This faith in science, grounded in its own dogma, leads to a defense of scientific theories far beyond the time any disconfirming evidence is unearthed. Moreover, disconfirming evidence is generally not incorporated into the body of science in an open-minded way but by an elaboration of the already existing edifice (as, for example, by adding epicycles) and generally in a way in which the resulting structure of science and its procedures excludes the possibility of putting the enterprise itself in jeopardy. In other words, modem science has made itself immune to falsification in any terms the true believer will admit into argument.

- Prof. J. Weizenbaum Ph.D. - computer scientist, MIT professor, and leading proponent of Artificial Intelligence (authored the famous ELIZA program

Vedic Planetarium

3d animation can be seen in the link below

http://www.sastradana.com/html/video/mayapur_vedicplanetarium2.htm

the glory of a true master

Things are in a constant flux in this material world. What we know as truth yesterday necessarily isn’t the same today. This is true in my personal life. How I was is nothing close to how I am. My close friends and my mother would surely be a testament for that statement. It is something like the difference between night and day. For daylight to occur and break the darkness of night, we need the mighty sun to rise in the horizon.

The sun that rose in my dark heart was the sun of Srila Prabhupada. He rose to dispel all inertia within my heart and gave me a positive momentum towards life. Forever, I am indebted to that Sun named Srila Prabhupada. He has shown a golden avenue of bright sunshine where darkness fears to tread. Now, it is up to me to steadily advance in that golden path of light. That golden path is the path of Krishna Consciousness initiated by Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu who is Krishna Himself in the mood of a devotee. His appearance day is tomorrow!

The glory of a true master is to show the right path by leading from front, and the glory of a true follower is to faithfully tread that path behind the master. I sincerely wish to be that true follower.

Hare Krishna

Instructions from His Divine Grace

April 6th, 1976

During his walk at the Ranga Gardens today Srila Prabhupada answered questions about the tendency of devotees to wear extra paraphernalia like Radha Kunda clay beads, tulasi beads interspaced with silver or gold beads, and items like the used sacred threads from the Deities, which they wrap around their wrists.

Srila Prabhupada said that the Deity threads should not be worn. It is becoming a fad throughout the Society, and the practice should be stopped. He quoted another of his very apt Bengali sayings: "A crow eats stool; but young crows eat more stool!" He said there is always a tendency, at the slightest opportunity, to revert back to being like "hippies." We should not allow it, he said. If that happens, whatever prestige we have so far will all be finished.

From the "A Transcendental Diary Vol 1" by HG Hari Sauri dasa

the eternal journey

If lines, color and shapes can tell a story...below is a series of pictures designed and created by my wife depicting the journey of the soul. (please click images for enlarged view)

na jāyate mriyate vā kadācin
nāyaḿ bhūtvā bhavitā vā na bhūyaḥ
ajo nityaḥ śāśvato 'yaḿ purāṇo
na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre
BG 2.20

For the soul there is neither birth nor death at any time. He has not come into being, does not come into being, and will not come into being. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain.

dehino 'smin yathā dehe
kaumāraḿ yauvanaḿ jarā
tathā dehāntara-prāptir
dhīras tatra na muhyati
BG 2.13

As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change.

man-manā bhava mad-bhakto
mad-yājī māḿ namaskuru
mām evaiṣyasi satyaḿ te
pratijāne priyo 'si me
BG 18.65

Always think of Me, become My devotee, worship Me and offer your homage unto Me. Thus you will come to Me without fail. I promise you this because you are My very dear friend.

art of living

A good artist is one who takes basic raw materials and creates something very, very beautiful. A good artist can take some dyes, some minerals from the ground and make it into paint; a good artist can take the bark of trees and make it into canvas, a cloth cotton and by combining them they make beautiful, beautiful painting. Another type of artist will take a piece of crude stone from the mountain and crave it to a beautiful, beautiful deity or a statue; another artist will just take musical notes; Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La, Ti, Do; these seven notes and the notes between those notes and with those notes he will make a whole symphony, beautiful, beautiful song. Another artist will take just going to a jungle or a field and make it into a beautiful architectural masterpiece of gardens, homes and parks. So really what an artist is one who takes a very crude more or less useless raw materials and makes it into something so wonderful, which has a tremendous value. If you go to France there is a museum, the painting of Mona Lisa; the canvas is probably not worth more than a few marks and the paint that was used was not worth more than a couple of marks but because Leonardo De Vinci took this paint and took this canvas and put them together in such a wonderful way now that little combination of canvas and paper and paint, that is worth a few marks in materials, is worth 100s of millions of dollars; the big piece of stone is not worth so much but when Michael Angelo carved this big statue, it is worth 100s of millions of dollars, there is no price, they cannot even buy it because of what he did with it. So this is the glory of an artist, to take crude materials which are worth practically nothing and to make it something that is very, very priceless.

So Krsna is explaining here what is the art of all work or in another words the art of living. In this world people are eating, sleeping, mating and defending. There are scholars, there are warriors and politicians, there are farmers and there are businessmen and there are workers who are doing their occupation but ultimately all that they are doing and the materials that they are using are worthless. Whatever a person does in this world in their work, whatever they earn, through the power of time by the time of death everything is taken away and all is left is a one big zero. But a devotee lives in the same world and engages in the same type of activities but because he knows the art of offering it to Krsna everything that he does is of a priceless eternal bound; it cannot even be estimated by any of this wealth in this world.

H H Radhanath Swami Maharaj