Enlightenment doesn’t terminate devotion, but culminates in it by Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 18.

Some impersonalists say, “Enlightenment terminates devotion. As long as we are conditioned and are habituated to thinking about forms, we can conceive the Absolute Truth as having form and cultivate devotion to him. But when we become enlightened, we will realize that we are ourselves God and will go beyond devotion.”

Such thinking appeals to the ego because the ego wants to be the greatest and God is the greatest being. However, devotion-terminating conceptions of enlightenment are actually unenlightened conceptions because they contradict scripture and misdiagnose our innermost longing: our longing for love.

Seekers on becoming enlightened don’t give up devotion, but upgrade it to pure devotion.

To gain a sense of scriptural testimony on this subject, consider for example the Bhagavad-gita’s consistent description of the enlightened. It (07.19) declares that the enlightened (jnanavan) surrender to Krishna, understanding him to be everything. The Gita’s philosophy illumines the import of “everything” when applied to Krishna – he is the highest embodiment of everything we aspire for in our quest for beauty, love and joy. No wonder seekers on becoming enlightened don’t give up devotion, but upgrade it to pure devotion.

The Gita (18.54) reiterates this post-enlightened status of pure devotion. The preceding verses (18.49-53) delineate how a jnana-yogi practices and progresses towards enlightenment. This verse (18.54) describes the enlightened: they are equipoised towards all things and all people. Then it concludes by declaring that those thus enlightened attain pure devotion to Krishna.

Gita wisdom explains that our longing for love and the concomitant attraction to form are natural, not delusional. Our present attraction to worldly forms is a misdirection from attraction to Krishna’s all-attractive form. Enlightenment removes the various impurities that cause this misdirection. So, the enlightened devote themselves to Krishna in his personal manifestation because they find him naturally, sublimely, irresistibly attractive.

Thus, enlightenment leads to not the termination of devotion, but its elevation to pure devotion.

http://www.gitadaily.com/2015/05/30/enlightenment-doesnt-terminate-devotion-but-culminates-in-it-2/

Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita

To best work with the mind, first work on the mindby Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita

Every device requires basic maintenance for smooth functioning. Otherwise, like a woodcutter working with a blunt axe, the device-user may well toil inefficiently, putting in double the work and getting half the output.

Among the many devices we use, our mind is one of the most complex, subtle and potent. Yet because it exists within us, we may not think of it as something distinct from us, as a device that can work efficiently or inefficiently or even destructively. But the mind is indeed a psychological device that interfaces between us souls and our bodies. The Bhagavad-gita(15.09) indicates that the mind is the central coordinating point for the senses. It integrates the information about the outer world provided by the senses and presents that information to the soul. And it channels the soul’s intention to the senses, which express that intention through action in the outer world.

Due to its continuous contact with the external world, the mind often gets contaminated, even clogged, with the dust of worldly desires.

Due to its continuous contact with the external world, the mind often gets contaminated, even clogged, with the dust of worldly desires. With our mind thus congested, we find ourselves repeatedly distracted by, for example, fancies about petty indulgences or frustrations about trivial inconveniences. As our mental energy gets dissipated, we end up under-performing or even self-destructing.

To perform more effectively, we need to invest quality time in mental maintenance. The best way to clean the mind is by meditating on the purest reality, God, Krishna, who is accessible through the sacred sound of mantras. By starting our day with mantra meditation that provides non-material nourishment, we can create a foundation of mental clarity on which to build our day’s performance.

When we thus train ourselves to work first on the mind through daily meditation, we will work best with the mind, often surprising ourselves with our focus and fruitfulness.

Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 02

We can’t avoid perceiving sense objects, but we can avoid pursuing themby Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 02

We live in a world filled with tempting sense objects, yet spiritual growth requires us to resist temptations. Are we being asked the impossible?

No, but abstinence can seem an impossible demand if we don’t understand the vital difference between perceiving sense objects and pursuing sense objects. Though we can’t avoid perceiving sense objects, we can avoid pursuing them if we don’t let our imagination transform perceptions into obsessions.

The Bhagavad-gita (02.70) points to the subtle but critical difference between pursuing and perceiving through its enigmatic usage of the alliterative compound word kama-kami, desire of desire. Here the second desire refers to the inward flow of desire, that is, the flow of alluring sensory impressions into our consciousness. And the first desire refers to the outward flow of desire, that is, the flow of our intention to indulge in those objects.

Urging us to not become a desirer of desire, the Gita verse offers us the metaphor of an ocean staying undisturbed despite the flow of rivers into it.

The ocean stays undisturbed despite the flow of rivers into it because the water in the ocean is far greater than that in the rivers. Similarly, we can stay undisturbed when we have within us a reservoir that offers far greater happiness than what is promised by the sense objects. The best such source is Krishna, the all-attractive supreme person who loves us eternally and who can fill us with oceanic love and the resulting happiness if we just open our heart to him by the diligent practice of bhakti.

When we start seeking and savoring devotional happiness, then we can perceive sense objects without being goaded to pursue them because we won’t feel deprived by not indulging in them, for we will feel fulfilled in Krishna.

Chaitanya Charan

Eat food made of plants, not food made in plants by Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 17

Food made of plants is both spiritually and physically congenial. Spiritually it shows due reverence for the Creator by minimizing violence to his creation, by avoiding the killing of animals for the satisfaction of our palate. Physically, it comprises the most healthy human diet, as is being increasingly confirmed by many scientific surveys.

Yet the same scientific acumen that endorses food made of plants is being misused to replace it with food made in plants, hi-tech food processing units. Several well-researched books such as Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us by Pulitzer-prize winning journalist Michael Moss report how consumers are being caught by their tongues, akin to fishes caught by baits. Many food-selling corporates use sophisticated brain sensors to determine what levels of tongue titillating ingredients such as salt, sugar and food trigger the most excitement, as demonstrated by peak activation in the brain’s gustatory cortex. Exploiting such neurological findings, food giants get consumers hooked by hiking the levels of these tongue titillators in their products, even when such levels are known to be unhealthy.

The Bhagavad-gita (17.09) deems food that offers excessive sensory stimulation food in the mode of passion – and warns that indulgence in such food leads to distress and disease. Echoing the Gita, many surveys have shown that the current epidemic of obesity and other food-induced health disorders are caused by increased intake of artificial food.

In contrast with such passionate food, food in goodness is food that is harmonious with our nature – evidently, food made of plants. Significantly, the Gita’s food recommendation goes beyond sattvika food to spiritual food or prasad, food spiritualized by being offered in devotion to the supreme spiritual reality Krishna. Such devotionally sanctified food has the potential to be physically nourishing and spiritually liberating – it’s the complete package.

Spiritual knowledge transforms hopeless end into endless hope by Chaitanya Charan Das

Death is the hopeless end of all our aspirations of success and happiness at the material level of reality. At that final moment of our life, all that we have accumulated and aspired for is taken away from us irrevocably.

Indeed, the finality of death is so grim, so cruel, and so hopeless that we often prefer not to think about it at all. Just as an ostrich hopes to evade danger by putting its head into an owl, so too do we hope to evade the hopeless end of death. But just as the ostrich’s strategy fails, so does our strategy.

For countering death’s ghastly finality, spiritual knowledge offers us a more fruitful strategy: raise our consciousness to the level of reality that is beyond destruction – spiritual level. We are at our core souls, indestructible spiritual beings. The Bhagavad-gita (02.30) declares that the soul which pervades and animates all living beings is indestructible.

For us as souls, death is not a termination, but a transition – not the termination of our very existence, but the transition of our existence from one level to another. Understanding this changes our vision of life: life is not doomed to end, but is destined for endlessness.

To elevate our understanding of life from endless to endless hopeful, we need to gain a further spiritual realization – the realization of eternal, unfailing love in the spiritual arena. We are not just eternal beings, but are also eternal parts of the supreme spiritual being, Krishna. He loves us eternally and in realizing his unfailing love, we gain undying hope. Understanding that he loves us always, irrespective of what we have or don’t have, what we do or don’t, who we are or aren’t, fills us with a hope that nothing can steal from us.

Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 02.

To think we are beyond danger is the greatest danger by Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 02.

When a boat is at sea, the danger of a storm exists constantly. If the boater becomes lulled into complacency by, say, the calm waters around, the next storm may turn out to be disastrous.

The Bhagavad-gita (02.67) warns that desire can sweep away our intelligence just as a wind can sweep away a boat. Significantly, whereas the boat doesn’t invite a stormy wind, we often invite a stormy desire. How? By contemplating carelessly on tempting sense objects, thereby letting our imagination expand a passing attraction into a consuming obsession (02.62-63).

When we successfully resist temptation a few times and when the water of our consciousness stays calm for some time, we may start thinking that we have become so advanced as to be beyond temptation.

To avoid such contemplation, we need to be alert to where our senses are wandering and check them when they go in unwholesome directions. We will cultivate alertness when we know that we are always in danger. But when we successfully resist temptation a few times and when the water of our consciousness stays calm for some time, we may start thinking that we have become so advanced as to be beyond temptation. Due to such complacency, we won’t stay alert and will unwittingly let our mind contemplate some alluring sense object that comes in our perception. That contemplation generates a forceful craving which sweeps away our intelligence and impels us to self-destruction.

To prevent danger from thus degenerating into disaster, we should never think that we are beyond danger. Won’t thinking constantly of possible danger make us paranoid? Not if we practice bhakti-yoga with its positive focus on remembering and serving Krishna. In bhakti-yoga, we focus on Krishna, not danger. But when lethargy or apathy or anything else makes us lax, we can use our awareness of danger for steeling our resolve to stay devotionally focused. Such absorption will guarantee not only our present safety but also our progress towards the supremely safe shore of Krishna’s eternal abode.

Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 15

Rift with God makes us drift with the mind by ChaitanyaCharan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 15

We are pleasure-seeking beings. And we are intrinsically the eternal parts of Krishna, as the Bhagavad-gita (15.07) states. Because Krishna is the all-attractive reservoir of all pleasure, we can best fulfill our longing for pleasure by connecting lovingly with him.

But when some things don’t go according to our plan, we may develop a rift with Krishna. We may resent him, slacken our devotional service and start looking elsewhere for pleasure. And the mind stands ever ready with numerous suggestions.

Because by a gradual drift, the mind has taken us far away from our conscience and intelligence, we end up viewing depraved pleasures as not just acceptable but even irresistible.

Knowing that our intelligence and conscience are not yet numbed, the mind usually doesn’t suggest gross temptations first. It often begins with saattvika pleasure-sources that seem cultured and refined, even if not Krishna-connected. As we settle into such godless happiness, it then presents raajasika temptations that promise more visible and tangible pleasure. And once we indulge in them, it presents taamasika indulgences that we wouldn’t even have considered earlier. But now because by a gradual drift, the mind has taken us far away from our conscience and intelligence, we end up viewing depraved pleasures as not just acceptable but even irresistible. Thus we sink to shocking lows in our vain search for pleasure. The search is vain because all substitutes for Krishna being ephemeral and peripheral to our spiritual essence leave us dissatisfied.

The best way to avoid being misled by the mind is to immediately repair any rift with Krishna or, better still, prevent it entirely. How? By reminding ourselves that even if specific things don’t work out in this world, Krishna as the otherworldly source of shelter and satisfaction remains always available to us through his holy name, Deity, scripture and other such divine manifestations. By absorbing ourselves in the manifestation that we find most relishable, we can, even amidst life’s ups and downs, stay always connected with him, safe and satisfied.

Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 18

Renunciation centers not on running away from the worlds but running towards God by Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 18

Some people say, “Those who can’t face the world’s problems run away from them by becoming renunciates.”

Sadly, it’s true that some people do take to renunciation for escaping from the world’s problems. However, the Bhagavad-gita doesn’t commend or even condone this kind of renunciation. It (18.08) mentions those who find work too troublesome for their body and try to evade that trouble by joining the renounced order. Declaring that such renunciation is in the mode of passion, it warns that these renunciates won’t get the fruits of renunciation.

The fruit of renunciation is the same as the ultimate fruit of life: everlasting spiritual happiness. We are at our core souls and are meant to relish a life of eternal love with the all-attractive supreme soul Krishna. The various orders of life – be they engaged or renounced – are meant to help us move towards Krishna.

Devotional service helps us realize that Krishna is more important than everything else in the world and that the happiness of loving and serving him is life’s only true happiness.

The best way to progress towards Krishna is bhakti-yoga. Devotional service helps us realize that Krishna is more important than everything else in the world and that the happiness of loving and serving him is life’s only true happiness. Bhakti being inclusive can be practiced in all orders of life (ashrams), but the focus on practicing bhakti can be much greater in the renounced order. Therein, most worldly entanglements get minimized, so seekers can run as fast as possible towards Krishna. However, if renunciates focus not on attaining Krishna, but on escaping from the world, they defeat the purpose of the renounced order.

Significantly, the renounced order serves a purpose greater than just facilitating the rapid progress of renunciates. Genuine renunciates who wholeheartedly live for seeking Krishna, savoring Krishna and sharing Krishna become living examples for everyone in society, reminding them that Krishna is for real and is life’s ultimate goal.

Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 18

Surrendering is not rejection of the intelligence, but its perfection by Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 18

Some people perceive devotion as anti-intellectual, as an abandonment of the intelligence for an abject surrender to God.

However, that is not the kind of devotion that the Bhagavad-gita espouses. At the Gita’s start (02.07) Arjuna surrenders to Krishna, yet Krishna doesn’t treat this surrender as a license for neglecting Arjuna’s intellectual concerns. Far from it, Krishna throughout the Gita strives to educate and elevate Arjuna’s intelligence. He patiently and cogently answers Arjuna’s many questions, even when they border on the challenging (04.04-05). And towards the Gita’s end (18.72), he specifically asks Arjuna whether his illusion and ignorance have been dispelled. The Gita commentator Vishvanath Chakravarti Thakura explains the subtext of Krishna’s enquiry: being concerned that Arjuna understand things properly, Krishna is willing to repeat his message partially or even fully. Such vigilant concern clearly demonstrates that the supreme teacher considers his student’s intelligence important, not redundant.

Philosophically speaking, surrendering doesn’t mean rejecting the intelligence, but integrating it. Such integration is evident in Arjuna’s response (18.73), wherein he states that his doubts have been resolved and his composure restored – and being thus intellectually convinced he is ready to do Krishna’s will.

No doubt, when we surrender to Krishna, we accept that some aspects of his glories and his energies are inconceivable. However, we accept this not by rejecting the intelligence, but by intelligently recognizing that Krishna is greater than our intelligence, which, like us, is finite. So it is only intelligent for us to admit that Krishna will have features that our intelligence won’t be able to figure out. Such an admission is not anti-intellectual, but is trans-intellectual.

Ultimately, devotional surrender catapults us to beyond intelligence’s reach to the summit of transcendence: eternal spiritual love for Krishna. And harmonizing our intelligence with that ascent is the intelligence’s perfection.

Act proactively, not reactively by Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 14

Acting proactively means acting according to our principles and purposes in both actions we initiate as well as the ways we respond to events. Acting reactively means to let our actions be determined by our mind’s fancies of the world’s fancies.

To understand the difference, consider the metaphor of boaters facing a storm. If boaters have a destination they are determined to reach, then even if the storm constrains them to change course, they will as soon as the storm abates get back on course. If, on the other hand, they have no clear destination or no determination to reach there, they will drift whichever way the winds push them.

Being fully proactive requires rising beyond the influence of the modes that impel us towards reactive behavior, acting as if programmed by our conditionings.

Gita wisdom compares the material world to an ocean, wherein storms of desires can drive us off-course at any moment. Reactive people are driven by nature’s mode of passion, wherein, as the Bhagavad-gita (14.12) indicates, insatiable desires keep them flitting from one thing to the next. People in ignorance are even more reactive, with their reactions characterized by confusion, inaction and overall illusion (14.13).

People in goodness are proactive – the Gita (14.11) indicates that their senses are illumined with knowledge, implying that they know how to thoughtfully process the inputs coming from their senses and intelligently respond to them. Of course, being fully proactive requires rising beyond the influence of the modes that impel us towards reactive behavior, acting as if programmed by our conditionings. So only those who are transcendental, who can see the actions, perceptions and emotions triggered in the world and in the mind as the result of the modes (14.19), can be fully proactive.

Such a vision centers not on the rejection of the whole world and its stimuli as illusion but on learning to love the transcendental Lord and letting the desire to serve him shape all our choices.

Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 02

While knowledge curbs the senses, devotion conquers the senses by Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 02

Knowledge, specifically spiritual knowledge, helps us understand our spiritual identity and thereby recognize the necessity of controlling the senses that drag us towards material enjoyment and away from self-realization.

Yet spiritual knowledge alone is not enough. It tells us why sense control is good for us, but that doesn’t necessarily make sense control feel good. And we can’t go very far on the spiritual path if our feelings are constantly tripping us. That’s what happens when we base our spiritual journey on knowledge alone. The Bhagavad-gita (02.60) states that even knowledgeable seekers endeavoring for sense control are dragged down by the impetuous senses.

That’s why Gita wisdom goes beyond knowledge to devotion as the key for spiritual progress and success. Devotion connects us with Krishna, the all-attractive reservoir of all pleasure, and thus enables us to relish higher spiritual happiness that makes checking the lure of sensual pleasures much easier. Bhakti-yoga is sensory spirituality – it offers the senses satisfying spiritual engagement as in, say, beholding Krishna’s beautiful form, hearing his relishable pastimes and singing his sweet kirtans.

Significantly, while going beyond knowledge to devotion, the Gita doesn’t reject knowledge, but incorporates it within devotion. That knowledge is integral to devotion which guides us to redirect our heart towards Krishna and to spiritualize our actions in this world. The Gita provides us such knowledge. By studying it, we can curb the senses. And by devotionally focusing on Krishna, we can conquer the senses. The Gita (02.61) assures us that if we curb our senses (samyamya) and fix our consciousness on Krishna, we will be able to conquer the senses (vasha). The higher taste from devotion will replace the senses’ greed to enjoy sense objects with the longing to experience Krishna. The senses energized by this devotional longing will accelerate, not decelerate, our spiritual progress.

Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 15

Comprehension comes by the integration of visual perception with intellectual education by Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad GitaChapter 15

We usually consider our eyes as reliable sources of knowledge. In court cases, eyewitness testimonies are deemed strong evidence. Yet valuable as visual perception is, it can be misleading when the action being observed is complex and needs intellectual background to comprehend.

Suppose an eyewitness observed a doctor giving an injection to a patient. If the eyewitness were a child, he or she may see the doctor negatively, as the giver of a painful prick. A more mature observer would see the injection positively, as part of a treatment. But that may not be the case – nowadays with medically assisted suicides on the rise, that injection may well be lethal. Worse still, an unprincipled doctor bribed by greedy relatives might have administered that fatal injection to an unsuspecting patient.

The Bhagavad-gita (15.10) exhorts us to understand the soul not by visual perception alone, but by the integration of visual perception with intellectual education.

Clearly, in complex cases, eyewitness testimony doesn’t tell much. Far more complex than medical matters are spiritual subjects. Naturally therefore the Bhagavad-gita (15.10) exhorts us to understand the soul not by visual perception alone, but by the integration of visual perception with intellectual education. The Gita uses an apt compound word: jnana-chakshushah (eyes of knowledge). When we educate our vision with spiritual knowledge, we see the consciousness that pervades the body as persuasive evidence of a non-material soul. After all, matter that is the building block of the body is unconscious, so it can’t be the source of consciousness.

Gita wisdom offers much more than this inferential comprehension of the soul – it also offers processes for accessing non-material modes of perception. If we follow the process of yoga, especially bhakti-yoga, for activating our latent capacity for spiritual perception, we gain increasing intellectual comprehension and spiritual realization. Being inspired by these insights, we march steadily on the yogic path till we perceive the spiritual realm in its full glory.

The spiritual in application leads to the spiritual in constitution by Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita.

The multiple senses of the word ‘spiritual’ can be confusing. For example, the material body is said to be radically different from the spiritual soul, and yet advanced spiritualists are said to see everything as spiritual.

The Bhagavad-gita in its second chapter differentiates between the body and the soul or more generically between matter and spirit. And yet the same Gita later (04.24) states that in the process of yajna, everything can be envisioned as spiritual (brahma). Is this a naïve imagining that everything is spiritual? No, as is evident from the verse’s concluding assertion that such seers will attain the spiritual destination. This assertion implies that though everything is spiritual, still there exists a distinctive spiritual destination to be attained.

To make sense of this, we need to first go back to the constitutional or compositional difference between spirit and matter. Spirit has the features of eternity, consciousness and bliss (sat-cit-anand) – features that are conspicuously absent in matter. Indeed, matter exhibits the utterly opposite characteristics: it is temporary, insentient and misery-inducing.

And yet despite such compositional difference, matter and spirit share a fundamental feature: they come from the same source, God. Both are Krishna’s energies. And they are both meant to be connected with their source. Of course, matter being unconscious can’t connect itself. But we conscious beings can connect ourselves by learning to love Krishna and we can connect matter with him by learning to lovingly use material things in his service. Spiritual savants see in matter its spiritual potential, its potential to be used in Krishna’s service. In this sense, they see everything as spiritual.

When we consciously and conscientiously use the material in the service of Krishna, we become increasingly conscious of him and thus realize our spiritual constitution as his eternal enlightened ecstatic parts.

Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 15

Defiance of God dooms us to dependence on matterby Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 15

Some people openly defy God and claim, “I am independent – I will do whatever I want and enjoy whichever way I choose to.”

While such an attitude is often lauded in today’s liberty-loving culture, not many people recognize that it actually curbs our liberty. When we reject God, we end up embracing a material conception of life, wherein we rely on our material body and material objects for enjoyment. As long as we identify ourselves with our body, we may not realize how dependent such an existence is. But when infection or injury reminds us of the body’s brittleness, we may wonder whether there is anything more to life beyond the body.

While misery and mortality are sobering pointers towards a trans-bodily dimension of life, a much more positive pointer is spiritual experience, especially the enriching experience of Krishna that can be had by the practice of bhakti-yoga. Once we taste such non-material happiness, we can look at our embodied existence with greater clarity and envision for ourselves a higher life not shackled by bodily weaknesses.

Indeed, once we start relishing spiritual happiness by devoting ourselves to Krishna, we realize that a life disconnected from him is actually a life of dependence, degradation and at times even depravity. The body offers meager pleasure, but when we know of no other pleasure, we crave and slave more and more for it, thus getting ripped away from our values. TheBhagavad-gita (15.07) aptly indicates that those who do not harmonize with Krishna struggle and suffer due to the mind and the senses.

The more we accept that we are Krishna’s parts and that we need to love and serve him to be happy, the more we become enriched by higher happiness and the more we break free from our dependence on matter.

Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 07.

The modes make Krishna seem irrelevant and the world seem irresistible by Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 07.

Perception, or more specifically false perception, is the basis of illusion. The Bhagavad-gita(07.13) explains that we can’t know Krishna due to the delusion created by the modes. The working of the modes can be analyzed as having two primary effects: make Krishna seem irrelevant and make the world seem irresistible.

The illusion created by the modes doesn’t need to make us outrightly atheistic to keep us in its clutches, though it can do that too. But more frequently the modes operate more subtly – rather than making us think that God is non-existent, they make us think that he isn’t relevant, that he doesn’t matter.

The illusion of God’s irrelevance works hand-in-hand with another illusion: that of the world’s irresistibility. We are by our very nature pleasure-seeking beings. Gita wisdom explains that we are souls, spiritual beings meant to delight eternally in God, Krishna, who is the all-attractive reservoir of all pleasure. The notion that God is irrelevant implies also that he is not the source of our happiness. So we turn towards the default source of happiness, the world with its many promises of pleasure through its multifarious sense objects. Indeed, the more disconnected from God we become, the more worldly sense objects seem irresistible, thereby making us go further and further away from happiness in our very search for happiness.

Only by studying Gita wisdom seriously and purifying ourselves diligently through the practice of bhakti-yoga can we realize that Krishna far from being irrelevant is actually indispensable in our quest for happiness. Nothing can provide meaningful lasting satisfaction if it is not connected with him. The more such realizations inspire us to cement our spiritual connection with Krishna through selfless loving service, the more we find lasting happiness

Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 03

Deepen detachment by discernment by Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 03

Often when we are unable to resist our lower desires, we may blame ourselves for not being adequately detached.

While this may be true, we also need to recognize that detachment is not a virtue developed in isolation from our perceptions and emotions. As long as we think and feel that worldly pleasures are enjoyable, we cannot stay away from those pleasures for long. To change our external actions, we need to change our internal perceptions and emotions. That means, we need to reason and realize that worldly pleasures are not all that they are hyped to be, that spiritual devotion offers us a far more fulfilling way of satisfying our longing for happiness.

The philosophical reasoning and devotional realization that comprise the foundation of detachment can be called as discrimination or discernment, given the negative connotations associated with the word discrimination, as in racial discrimination. The Bhagavad-gita (03.36-43) analyzes how the lower desire of lust bewilders us and how we can battle it. After describing the modus operandi of lust, this section concludes with the call that we use our philosophical intelligence or discernment for conquering lust.

It is only by discernment that we can think, feel and accept that there exists higher happiness than that promised by lust, that detaching ourselves from lusty pleasures so as to attach ourselves to higher devotional pleasures is not deprivation, but is the path to real satisfaction.

Rather than using brute force or berating ourselves for lack of willpower necessary for detachment, we can strive to ensure that the edifice of detachment has a solid foundation in discernment. Instead of feeling frustrated that the edifice of our detachment crumbles repeatedly amidst the storm of temptation, we can intelligently strive to enhance our discernment by endeavoring to study Gita wisdom seriously and engage in purificatory devotional practices diligently

Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 06

The mind makes the exhausting seem exciting and the exciting seem exhausting by Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 06

The mind is often declared in scripture to be an enemy, as for example in the Bhagavad-gita (06.06). One way the mind acts inimically is by perverting our perception. In a war, an enemy often tricks its opponent into fighting inconsequential battles and thus drains it out by the time of consequential battles. The mind uses just such a strategy.

The mind makes the exhausting seem exciting: It impels us to crave and slave for temporary worldly pleasures by making them seem exciting, even irresistibly exciting. Actually, these pleasures last for just a few moments, though the hankering and lamenting that precedes and succeeds them extends for hours, years and even lifetimes. Overall, because the pleasure is so little, the labor for such pleasures is exhausting. Though we feel exhausted, still we can’t give it up because the mind goads us on by inducing within us an artificial sense of excitement about these pleasures – a sense that comes not so much from experience as from imagination.

The mind makes the exciting seem exhausting: Spiritual happiness – happiness in harmony with our actual nature as souls meant for loving service to Krishna – is exciting because Krishna is infinitely attractive and remembering him is endlessly relishable and experiencing him is an ever-fresh experience. Indeed, pure devotees find Krishna so relishable that they want to keep immersing themselves in him again and again, more and more, for all of eternity. Unfortunately, the mind misleads us into believing that because devotional activities externally appear to be the same, they will be boring. Thus it exhausts us about such activities that are actually exciting.

By using scriptural wisdom to understand the tricky nature of the mind, we can desist from exhausting sensual indulgences and persist in exciting spiritual pursuits and thus attain lasting happiness.

Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita

Don’t just ask for decisions; ask for the education for making decisions by Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita

The Bhagavad-gita begins with Arjuna facing a specific problem: to fight or not to fight. This problem, though ethically entangling, asks for a straightforward decision: tell me what to do.

Yet when Arjuna surrenders to Krishna (02.07), he doesn’t ask merely for a what-to-do type answer. He goes to the root of the issue by asking about dharma, the universal principle that governs action. The nature of Arjuna’s question points to his sagacity even amidst perplexity. Though he is facing a wrenching problem – a problem of monumental proportional, catastrophic consequence and undeniable urgency – still he focuses not on a fix-it type solution, but on education for understanding the underlying principles that govern action and decision. Indeed, the metaphysical depth of the Gita’s discussion that is the key to its perennial relevance, as contrasted with its contextual relevance, stems from the universality of the issues it discusses.

We all face situations in which we need help in making decisions. While children are often told “Do this and don’t do this,” responsible parents know that they need to go further and train their children not just in doing the right thing but also learning the right reasoning to eventually become competent enough for deciding how to decide what the right thing to do it. That’s what the Gita does by providing us its universal principles centered on life’s timeless spiritual truths that underlie its ephemeral material appearances.

Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 16.

Growth for growth’s sake is cancerous by Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 16.

The idea of growth usually evokes positive images, yet when growth is disproportionate, it can be destructive. This is perhaps best illustrated in the growth of cancerous cells that can wreak havoc with the bodily functioning, sometimes even spelling its destruction. The normal growth of bodily cells contributes to the body’s functionality, but not their cancerous growth, which is essentially growth for growth’s sake.

The Bhagavad-gita (16.13-15) outlines how obsession with growth, specifically financial growth, can be similarly cancerous. Those who make the accumulation of wealth the driving purpose of their lives often cast aside all other values in that uni-dimensional pursuit. On the altar of Mammon, they let their morality, sensitivity and even humanity get slaughtered as they stoop even to the level of murder. Being intoxicated with maniac desires for wealth, they feel no compunction in eliminating anyone who stands in their way – rather, they feel a devilish, sadistic glee in exterminating competitors one by one, till they can reign supreme.

Wealth is a natural necessity of life, a necessity that is acknowledge in the Gita wisdom-tradition as one of the four purusha-arthas (meaningful goals) of life: dharma, artha, kama and moksha. All these four goals need to be pursued proportionately and harmoniously with life’s ultimate purpose of spiritual love, love for the supreme being, Krishna. When pursued thus, they are like the bodily parts that function synergistically. But when artha (financial gain) is pursued as life’s supreme goal, that growth becomes disruptive and destructive, akin to cancerous growth that destroys its host organism.

By studying Gita wisdom diligently and by practicingbhakti-yoga determinedly, we can keep spiritual wisdom and spiritual experience as our guide in ensuring proportionate growth in our life – growth that leads to our overall individual well-being, both material and spiritual, and also to our optimal social contribution.