Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 12

The spiritual may be unfamiliar but it’s not unnatural by Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 12,

When we travel through an unfamiliar place, we often feel uncomfortable. Similarly, when we explore spirituality, we may feel uncomfortable because the concepts or customs may be unfamiliar, with the level of our discomfort depending on our background. Such discomfort may make us think, “All this spiritual stuff is unnatural for me.”

However, such thinking conflates the unfamiliar with the unnatural. The spiritual level of reality may be unfamiliar, but it is never unnatural, for the spiritual is the natural basis of all perception, including the perception that something is familiar or unfamiliar. Perception requires consciousness; so, matter being unconscious can’t be the source of perception. Gita wisdom explains that consciousness comes from the non-material spark of spirit within us, the soul, which is the actual person, the real me. The material body is our temporary outer covering and the material world is our temporary outer arena.

We will find bhakti experiences of Krishna so fulfilling, enriching and transforming that we will realize that Krishna consciousness is neither unnatural nor unfamiliar, but is our home territory.

Thus, it is matter that is foreign to us, not spirit. And even if presently the spiritual seems unfamiliar, we can familiarize ourselves with it intellectually and experientially: intellectually by studying Gita wisdom, and experientially by practicing yoga, especially bhakti-yoga. This yoga of love is a time-tested process that delivers experience of the highest spiritual reality: the all-attractive Supreme, the natural Lord of our heart, Krishna. Over time, we will find bhakti experiences of Krishna so fulfilling, enriching and transforming that we will realize that Krishna consciousness is neither unnatural nor unfamiliar, but is our home territory. Further, we will realize that thoughts disconnected from Krishna are foreign terrain – sooner or later, they leave us hankering or lamenting about external sources of pleasure.

By diligent bhakti practice, we will become so sheltered in Krishna that even if we are externally in unfamiliar situations, we will still feel at home internally (Bhagavad-gita 12.19: aniketah sthira-matir).