Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 14

The fundamental negative thinking is thinking that happiness is to be found only in matter by Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 14

Nowadays many books urge us to think positive. Certainly, we shouldn’t shackle and cripple ourselves by negative thinking. But to tap positive thinking properly, we need to go beyond materialism, beyond the assumption that happiness can be found only in matter. Why? Because negative thinking is inherent to materialism.

Negative thinking keeps our vision riveted to dark possibilities. Similarly, materialistic thinking keeps our vision riveted to material objects, limiting our perception of reality to the arena of matter, where our hopes for happiness are bound to be frustrated sooner or later. Material things are by their very nature temporary, whereas we long for lasting happiness. Gita wisdom explains that this longing comes from our spiritual core: the soul, which being eternal longs for eternal fulfillment. Material reality being perishable is incapable of living up to our expectations of happiness.

By giving matter monopoly over our conceptions of happiness, we lock ourselves in a doomed pursuit – seeking the lasting in the fleeting.

What makes us spiritual beings seek pleasure in temporary material things? The illusion induced by subtle material forces known as modes – they distort our perceptions according to the desires we have entertained in the past. The Gita (14.20) states that those who transcend the modes go beyond the miseries of material existence.

For transcending the modes, the most efficacious way is bhakti-yoga. It enables us to find happiness in loving and serving Krishna, the all-attractive, all-loving supreme person. By thus providing us higher spiritual happiness, bhakti-yoga empowers us to engage material things without being enamored by them. And by living in the light of Krishna’s love, we embrace the highest positive thinking because, no matter what negative things happen to us, his love, being unfailing and unflinching, always shelters, encourages and empowers us.

The world determines our situations, but we determine our emotions

Suppose we get caught in a traffic jam and get late for an appointment. We may naturally feel irritated.

Such an emotion is natural, but it is not inevitable. That is, specific situations don’t have to necessarily lead to specific emotions. Though we can’t always control our situations, we can train ourselves to control the emotions that comprise and shape our response to those situations.

The Bhagavad-gita (13.21) indicates that material nature is the substratum on which the chain of cause and effect unfolds. So, the chain of events that led to the jam and to our finding ourselves at that place at that time – that chain occurs in the arena of nature that we frequently can’t control. Significantly, the same verse also states that the cause of our pleasure and pain is our desire to enjoy, or more generically, our definition of enjoyment. This implies that by revising that definition, we can free ourselves from the cycle of associated emotional binaries such as pleasure and pain.

If we have defined our success or happiness in terms of the impression we make on others, then the delay will drive us wild. However, if we have an enlightened self-conception of ourselves as spiritual beings who can’t be injured by anything worldly, then we won’t let the situation steal our cool. No doubt, we will still be concerned, but we won’t be disturbed. With a due sense of responsibility, we will call the person whom we were to meet, explain our predicament, apologize if necessary, and do whatever is needed to deal with the complication, maybe re-schedule the appointment.

Essentially, by meditating on our spiritual identity when confronted with worldly ups and downs, we can increase the distance between our situations and our emotions, thereby empowering ourselves to respond intelligently, not impulsively.

Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 18.

Krishna doesn’t cause our worldly wandering – he frees us from the cause of that wandering by Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 18.

Some people claim, “ The Bhagavad-gita teaches that we humans have no free will, being just puppets in God’s hands. They often quote the Gita (18.61): the Lord causes all living beings to wander (bhraamayan).”

But the same Gita asks us just two verses later (18.63) to deliberate on its message and then do as we desire. This call implies that we have the capacity to desire, deliberate and decide.

How to reconcile these two contradictory-seeming statements? By understanding the context. Earlier (18.60), the Gita has stated that we are all bound to act according to our nature, wherein nature refers to our varna or occupational orientation. Arjuna being a kshatriya cannot act for long like a brahmana.

But even when we act according to our nature, an ethical battle still rages in our heart: our lower side impels us to act adharmically, whereas our higher side inspires us to act dharmically. A kshatriya, for example, can be exploitative or protective. To strengthen our higher side, we need to link with the highest reality, God, who is the controller of all of material nature, including the impressions that comprise our lower side. So we can resist our lower side by taking shelter of him, as the next verse (18.62) exhorts.

With this background, we can understand that Krishna causes us to wander not in the sense that he forces us to act dharmically or adharmically, but in the sense that he supervises the system that provides us these alternative trajectories. Srila Prabhupada in his commentary insightfully renders “bhraamayan” as “directs the wanderings.”

Being the director, Krishna can guide and empower us to transcend the pulls of our lower side, thereby ending the cause of our wandering and transforming that wandering into a pilgrimage to him.

Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 05.

Revelation is the foundation for the ultimate revolution by Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 05.

When social or financial conditions are felt as intolerable, people rise in revolution against the powers that be. Such revolutions can bring about dramatic political change in terms of the disempowered gaining power, but they hardly ever bring about any sustainable positive change in terms of people in general gaining peace and happiness. Why? Because power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Consider, for example, the aftermath of the Russian revolution, when communism became the ruling ideology. Though communist ideology held that power should lie with the people, still even in communist USSR, some people – the rulers – were more equal than others: the ruled. The rulers often had fabulous luxuries, while the ruled lived equally – in equal penury.

The only revolution that can bring about sustainable change is the revolution of consciousness – the revolution that changes people’s desires from grabbing to sharing, from selfish to selfless, and from material to spiritual. We can best bring out this inner revolution by harmonizing ourselves with revelation, the guiding word of God.

The Bhagavad-gita (05.29)indicates that God is our greatest well-wisher, and that knowing him as such grants us the supreme peace. When we mold our life according to his guidance, devotional contact with him purifies us. Thus, we are able to bring out the best within us, thereby making the best contribution without. Of course, for society to change, a significant number of people, especially influential people, need to harmonize themselves with God. That’s why Gita wisdom was traditionally transmitted to and through saintly kings (04.02).

Even if reaching such people may not presently be in our power, still Gita wisdom can help us find peace and fulfillment in today’s agitating and unsatisfactory environment, and, through our example and words, share that inner treasure with others, thereby spreading ripples of positive change.

Ask the question that underlies all questions by Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 02

Children who ask questions are frequently appreciated for their healthy curiosity. But given how many things there are to know in the world and how the process of questioning can go on endlessly, over time the children’s guides and even the children themselves try to restrict the questioning to relevant questions – questions about things that matter, not questions about anything and everything.

Still, even while focusing on relevant questions, we often overlook the most relevant question – the question that underlies all questions. That question pertains to our place and purpose in the world: “Who am I? And what am I meant to do in life?” The culture around us usually assigns us roles and sets us goals. And such roles and goals shape for us, consciously or subconsciously, our place and purpose.

Only when life’s upheavals shake us severely do we question whether our assigned or assumed roles and goals coincide with our actual place and purpose. The Bhagavad-gita begins with such a conceptual shake-up within Arjuna, who already had an influential place and consequential purpose. But he recognized that while pursuing the purpose of a warrior bent on victory or heaven, neither kind of success – earthly sovereignty or heavenly prosperity – would free him from grief (02.08).

At such a moment of profound cognitive dissonance, Arjuna asked Krishna for guidance (02.07). Significantly, he asked not a contextual question whether he should fight or not, but a universal question: “What is my dharma?” Dharma refers not merely to some religious or social code, but to the course of action that enables us to realize our complete potential – material and spiritual. Thus, Arjuna’s question could be rephrased as, “What is my place and purpose in life?”

The universality of Arjuna’s question and Krishna’s response makes their conversation, though spoken millennia ago, eminently relevant even today.

Don’t believe the phantoms created by the mind – believe Krishna by Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 18

If children see a horror movie featuring phantoms, they may become fearful of, say, dark places, dreading that some deadly phantom may spring from some unseen corner.

We may reassure them that such phantoms being imaginary shouldn’t be taken seriously. But we may ourselves be taking seriously the phantoms created by our mind. It may imagine things going terribly wrong and everything falling apart, leaving us disgraced and destitute.

No doubt, things can go wrong in real-life. But we also have the power to respond rightly to them. However, when the mind starts playing a horror movie within us, it summarily hands us the role of victim-in-chief, wherein we are too paralyzed to do anything or, worse still, whatever we do seems to only make things worse. By paying attention to and thus unwittingly believing the mind’s phantoms, we distract, dishearten and disempower ourselves, leaving ourselves incapable of constructive action in the present.

Gita wisdom can help us exorcise the mind’s phantoms. Its philosophical insight that we are indestructible souls reassures us that we at our core are beyond being harmed by anything material, even if the mind’s phantoms do materialize in future. The Gita’s guidelines for practicing yoga, especially bhakti-yoga, can purify us of our weaknesses, especially our gullibility in believing the mind. By devotional purification, we develop the distance from the mind to evaluate its ideas objectively. So, when it starts playing a horror movie, we can recognize that the ghastly scenarios it depicts are just phantasmagorias. More importantly, bhakti-yoga helps us experience Krishna’s solacing presence, thereby inspiring us to put our faith in him instead of in the mind’s phantoms. Pertinently, the Bhagavad-gita (18.58) assures that if we just become conscious of Krishna, he will take us beyond all problems – even the problem of the mind’s phantoms.

Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 08

The Gita is optimistic about what matters most by Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 08

If a doctor declares that a particular limb of a patient is incurable and needs to be amputated, someone might deem him pessimistic. But if his prognosis about the post-amputation recovery of the patient is positive, then he may actually be optimistic about what matters most – the patient’s overall health.

Similarly, when the Bhagavad-gita (08.15) declares the world to be a place of misery, some people deem it pessimistic. However, this declaration needs to be seen in the light of its overall worldview. The same Gita also explains that matter is peripheral to our essential identity as souls. We are meant for eternal happiness at the spiritual level in a loving relationship with Krishna. Our present entanglement in a material body comprises an existential incompatibility: we eternal spiritual beings are seeking pleasure in temporary material things. This incompatibility and its concomitant suffering stems from our underlying infatuation with matter. Thus, from the perspective of the soul, matter far from being an integral limb that needs to be amputated, is an unnecessary baggage that needs to be shed.

And though the Gita deems the world miserable, it recommends not apathetic rejection of the world, but responsible renunciation – not a random hacking off of the diseased limb, but a careful amputation that promotes bodily healing. Hence the Gita’s paradoxical call to Arjuna to fight for establishing dharma, order, in the very world that it deems miserable. It concludes by exhorting us to live according to the dharma of bhakti that progressively attaches us to Krishna, the source of all happiness, and detaches us from the world. And it assures that the process of bhakti is joyful (09.02), granting us access to spiritual happiness even while we are in the material world.

Thus, the Gita is optimistic about what matters most – our quest for happiness.

The heart is a nursery, not a factory by Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 10

Some critics of bhakti, on seeing how devotees look similar, accuse that the bhakti movement mass-produces cultural clone, as does a factory.

However, such a criticism can be sustained only by those who stick to first-impressions. If they just observed closely, they will realize that bhakti-yoga treats the heart not like a factory, but like a nursery, where special plants are carefully cultivated.

Our heart is like a nursery wherein we want to cultivate refined emotions. The most refined of such emotions is love and the topmost of all forms of love is love for Krishna because he is our loving Lord eternally. Further, as he is the source and sustainer of everything, when we learn to love him, our love expands through him to include our loved ones too in a spiritual circle of love.

To convey how such love can blossom in our heart by the consistent practice of bhakti-yoga, bhakti savants often use the metaphor of a creeper of devotion. Just as a creeper needs to be carefully protected and watered, so too do we need to protect our heart from anti-devotional forces and nourish it with devotionally potent stimuli that increase our attraction for Krishna.

For providing such protection and nutrition efficaciously, the bhakti tradition provides certain cultural proscriptions and prescriptions in terms of dress, food, appearance and so forth. However, what takes the devotee onwards spiritually is the individually cultivated desire to love and serve and please Krishna, as the Bhagavad-gita (10.10) indicates. So, as each devotee adopts the externally similar cultural practices, the adoption of such practices and the nourishment of inner devotion bring out the latent spiritual individuality of the practitioner. As the heart blossoms increasingly with divine love, the pure individuality manifests fully in an ecstatic eternal relationship with the Supreme Individual.

Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 18

The mind can make us give up the wonderful for the dreadful by Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 18

Suppose we are at a buffet meal in which one item is delicious and another is tasteless. If someone misinformed us and filled our plate and our mouth with the tasteless item, we would feel angry, wouldn’t we?

But when the mind does something similar internally, we often don’t even protest. The practice of bhakti-yoga is relishable, whereas the pursuit of sensual pleasures is tasteless. Yet the mind takes us away from the relishable to the tasteless by distorting our perception.

The Bhagavad-gita, while analyzing the nature of various pleasures, explains that higher spiritual happiness seems like poison initially, but turns out to be like nectar eventually (18.37). In contrast, lower sensual indulgences seem like nectar initially, but turns out to be like poison eventually (18.38). The more we practice bhakti-yoga and become purified, the more we can quickly go through the initial poison phase in seeking higher happiness and relish absorption in Krishna. And the more we relish such happiness, the more we find sensual pleasures tasteless. Even if we indulge in them, our memory, be it conscious or subconscious, of the higher happiness exposes sensual pleasures to be comparatively superficial and insubstantial.

Still, the mind, being infatuated with sensual pleasures, distorts our perception. It aggressively reminds us of the initial nectar and, by glamorizing and magnifying that nectar, it makes us give up the wonderful service of Krishna for sensual pursuits. Such pursuits are dreadful not just because of their eventual karmic consequences but also because they turn out to be anti-climaxes, thereby exposing us to be terribly gullible for having given up so much for so little.

By regularly studying scripture and by cultivating remembrance of Krishna diligently, thus reinforcing our memory of its sublime sweetness, we can protect ourselves from the mind’s misinformation campaign.

Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 05.

Tolerance means withstanding the presence without succumbing to the influence by Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 05.

Suppose we have a disagreeable neighbor. We can’t evict him, but we don’t have to waste our time quarreling with him. We do the needful to prevent him from damaging our property, but beyond that we just neglect him.

Turn this scenario inwards and we have lust, the disagreeable presence in our consciousness. The Gita (03.40) states that lust resides in our senses, mind and intelligence. From there, it deludes us into believing that sense objects are sources of immense pleasure.

The Gita (05.22) explains how lust’s promises are false: sensual pleasures are temporary – and are trajectories to misery. But even after we intellectually understand why lust’s presence is unwelcome, we can’t drive it out entirely because the impressions from our past sensual indulgence can’t be eradicated overnight. So, the Gita (05.23) recommends that we tolerate lust, that is, endure its presence without succumbing to its influence.

Tolerating lust centers on not paying it any more attention than essential. Whenever it becomes prominent in our consciousness, like the neighbor intruding into our premises, we, using the weapons of Krishna’s wisdom, his name and essentially his remembrance, force it to retreat.

But at other times we focus on keeping ourselves constructively engaged and just neglect lust. In our quest for happiness, we consciously choose as our guide Krishna instead of lust. Being thus guided, we engage in directly devotional activities and re-envision our worldly responsibilities as services to Krishna. By such devotional absorption, we become increasingly purified and connect more deeply with Krishna, who is the reservoir of infinite happiness. Thus, we relish profound spiritual fulfillment, which substantially decreases our craving for sensual pleasures, automatically rendering ineffectual lust’s attempts to allure us. Aptly, the same Gita verse (05.23) as

sures that tolerating lust and staying engaged in yoga will keep us happy.

Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 16, Text 08

Belief founded in the illusion of all belief is an illusion by Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 16, Text 08

Many atheists try to thrust their belief system on people by misappropriating the prestige of science. For example, they hold that in the past when people lived in forests in constant danger, the idea of a protector-God gave them confidence in their struggle for survival. So evolution wired our human brains to believe in God. Evolution has shaped our human brain for promoting survival, not for discerning truth. That’s why the masses don’t understand that belief in God is simply an illusion that is now redundant.

Among the many fallacies in this argument, let’s focus on just the most fundamental: it’s foundationlessness. If evolution (granting for argument’s sake that it is the determiner of our beliefs) has not shaped the human brain for discerning truth, then how have atheists’ brains been able to discern the “truth” of atheism? No way.

More fundamentally, if all beliefs are just a result of the way our brains fire in response to the struggle for survival, then why should the set of neuronal firings that corresponds with belief in atheism be true? No reason. Indeed, this worldview renders all belief unreliable. When the atheistic reductionsitic worldview is taken to its epistemological conclusion, it makes the quest for truth illusory and futile. Presciently, the Bhagavad-gita (16.08) cautions that the ungodly propagate foundationless worldviews.

In marked contrast, the theistic worldview has the supremely reliable foundation: God. He has given our human brains the capacity for not just surviving, but also discerning truth. And to guide us in the pursuit of truth, he has also given us scripture, which reveals timeless principles for living and learning. When we base our life on the foundation of God and his word, we live in the light of truth – a light that exposes the folly of godless truth-claims.

Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 18

When a baby bird tries to come out of its shell, it has to strain and stretch to crack the shell. When its wing comes partially out of the crack, the shell often recoils, trapping and wounding its wing. Without getting cowed, the bird keeps exerting till finally the shell breaks apart. This struggle is painful, but it is also fruitful: that exertion exercises and develops its muscles so that they can eventually carry its body in flight in the sky.

Similarly, we are all covered by the shell of materialistic beliefs and behaviors that restrict our search for happiness to the material level, wherein we get at best temporary unfulfilling pleasure. But we are eternal souls who have the potential to attain everlasting fulfillment by learning to love the all-attractive Supreme Krishna. To realize that potential, we need to break through the shell of materialism.

To realize our potential for eternal spiritual happiness, we need to break through the shell of materialistic beliefs and behaviours.

Like a bird’s breaking its shell, our breaking materialism’s shell is a struggle: painful but fruitful. Giving up anti-spiritual materialistic indulgences and training our consciousness to focus on spiritual reality can be painful. But when by diligent practice of bhakti-yoga our consciousness becomes attached to the highest spiritual reality Krishna, we relish constant fulfillment. Pertinently, the Bhagavad-gita (18.37) states that enlightened happiness tastes like poison initially but like nectar ultimately.

Significantly, we have a major advantage over the bird. It doesn’t know what exists outside the shell, but we can know: by studying scriptural descriptions of spiritual reality and by associating with saintly devotees joyfully situated in spiritual consciousness. By getting inspiration from such study and association, and from our own occasional spiritual experiences coming from diligent bhakti practice, we can determinedly break through materialism’s shell and thereafter, by relishing devotional happiness, fly in the sky of spiritual consciousness towards Krishna’s supreme abode.

Respond to sensual fire not with fright but with fight by Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 03

Suppose a novice firefighter is faced with the task of dousing a huge fire. The sight of the conflagration may overwhelm him – instead of raising the water hose to extinguish the fire, he may drop it in panic. A seasoned firefighter may also feel apprehensive on seeing the fire, but soon the training and experience triggers within him the necessary actions for fighting it. And the more seasoned the firefighter, the quicker will be the activation of the right reflexes.

The Bhagavad-gita (03.39) compares lust to a fire. This sensual fire burns down our intelligence, conscience and devotion, thereby impelling us towards immoral indulgences.

Sensual fire burns down our intelligence, conscience and devotion, thereby impelling us towards immoral indulgences.

Our daily diligent practice of bhakti is our firefighting training. And our experiences of the ultimate frustration resulting from sense gratification and the eventual fulfillment coming from devotional absorption are our firefighting experience. This training and experience progressively make us seasoned spiritual firefighters. The defining difference between novice and seasoned spiritual firefighters is in their response to sensual fire.

When we are spiritual novices, we respond to the triggering of sensual fire with fear and resignation. Imagining the desire to be too strong to resist, we give in to it. But the more we become seasoned through diligent bhakti practice, the more we respond to the fire with not trepidation but determination. We quickly use the hose of absorption in higher, devotional engagements to douse the fire of lower desire.

Even if our reflexes presently impel us towards sense gratification instead of devotion, every moment that we strive to absorb ourselves in Krishna during our directly devotional activities, we are retraining our reflexes. The more diligently we engage in this retraining, the more quickly we will be able to respond to the sensual fire with fighting spirit and douse it, by determinedly absorbing ourselves in Krishna.

Fear is not the problem – fear of what comes after fear

Fear is a natural human response to danger. When seen as an impetus to be cautious, fear can check us from recklessly charging into danger. In such situations, fear is not only natural but also desirable. This positive role of fear is conveyed in sayings such as, “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.”

But fear often degenerates into panic, wherein we get carried away by our imagination. In the horror movie broadcast by our mind, we see the possibility of danger transmogrifying into the inevitability of disaster. That dystopian imagination may overwhelm us emotionally and paralyze us physically, thereby putting us in the clutches of a full-fledged panic attack.

In the horror movie broadcast by our mind, we see the possibility of danger transmogrifying into the inevitability of disaster.

For example, we may see a terrible road accident. The resulting fear can prompt us to take necessary precautions such as putting on the seat belt and avoiding over-speeding. But if we let our fear-fueled imagination run wild, we become sitting ducks for a panic attack. TheBhagavad-gita (18.35) indicates that habitual fearfulness characterizes determination in the mode of ignorance. Such misdirected determination impels us to hold on to negative thought-patterns despite knowing that they are irrational and injurious.

To prevent the fear stimulus from triggering a panic reaction, we can strengthen our intelligence by practicing bhakti-yoga diligently. Of course, bhakti’s main gift is to connect us with Krishna, whose remembrance provides the supreme security and is the best counter for anxiety. Additionally, bhakti sharpens our intelligence and curbs our mind so that the intelligence replaces our mind as the default determiner of our actions. By intelligently evaluating the situation, we can take effective steps to minimize the possibility of danger.

Thus, we don’t need to get worked up about panic attacks – we just need to work for curbing the imagination that allows panic to attack us.

Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 04.

Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 04.

When we are watching TV and suddenly the image and sound goes off, we may presume that the problem is in transmission. But if we find that our neighbor’s TV is still working well, then we understand the problem is not in transmission, but in reception.

The process of disseminating scriptural knowledge is something like TV transmission. At the dawn of creation or at other cosmically consequential moments, Krishna transmits the current of wisdom to exalted spiritual seers who transmit it down through a lineage of similarly exalted spiritual seers. These seers receive that wisdom not just in head but also in their heart, thereby becoming linked in a bond of love with their teachers and ultimately the original and supreme teacher Krishna. Such seers internalize, exemplify and share that wisdom with others, thus continuing the transmission. The Bhagavad-gita (04.01-02) points to such transcendental transmission of wisdom, but then cautions that the wisdom in the course of time tends to gets lost (04.03). Yet time itself is not the cause of the interruption, for Krishna states in the same verse that he is going to restore the transmission at that very time.

The problem is in the reception. The Gita (04.10) lists the reception blockers: attachment (“I don’t care about this spiritual stuff; I want to enjoy here-and-now”), apprehension (“I don’t know what’s out there; how can I court the danger of exploring?”) and anger (“Different people have different philosophies – who knows what’s right? Best to forget this whole spiritual business.”) Even if we aren’t getting reception, the transmission continues and transforms, as demonstrated through the examples of many successful seekers (04.10).

By continuing to study scripture in saintly and learned association, we can remove the reception-blockers and gradually relish Krishna’s wisdom and its culmination: eternal ecstatic love.

See beyond the provision to the provider

A newborn infant sees everything as potential food. It suckles the mother’s breasts and sees it as a source of nourishment. Only after some growth does it realize that that milk comes from a person, who is a source of love too. Even on growing up a bit, the child may see the love of parents only in terms of the toys they provide. On growing up, the child sees their love as a distinct reality independent of what they give or don’t give.

A similar shift of vision from the provision to the provider characterizes the maturation of our relationship with our supreme parent God.The Bhagavad-gita (07.16) mentions the desirous as one of the four categories of people who approach Krishna. Significantly, the Gita thereafter outlines their spiritual evolution without specifying whether their desires are fulfilled or not. This silence doesn’t mean that their need isn’t fulfilled when they approach Krishna – it just means that the Gita’s stress is not on material gratification but on spiritual evolution.

Pertinently, Gita commentators mention prince Dhruva as a prime example of the desirous. His desire for a kingdom was indeed fulfilled, but that didn’t fulfill him – he felt fulfilled only by the awakening in his heart of pure devotion for Krishna.

Similarly, the Gita (07.19) points to the gradual multi-life progression to pure devotion of materially-minded worshipers: they realize that Krishna is everything. While this realization may seem far away from us, even now we can realize by diligently practicing bhakti-yoga that Krishna by providing us the opportunity to remember him provides us shelter, strength and satisfaction, irrespective of whether our desires are fulfilled or not. By shifting our focus from the provision to the provider, we can relish the one provision that will never run out of stock – the opportunity to remember Krishna.

Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 05

When conviction is weak, determination can’t be strong by Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 05

We often make resolutions to give up our self-defeating indulgences. And when we fail to stick to those resolutions, we often blame our poor determination. But quite often the problem may not be with our determination; it may be with our conviction.

Suppose we are traveling on a road and come to a crossroad and take a particular turn. If we are not convinced that we have taken the right turn, we will drive slowly and hesitantly due to the apprehension that we may need to turn back at any moment.

Similarly, if we are ourselves not convinced about the necessity of our resolutions, we will be half-hearted about sticking to them.

That’s why when we are faced with weak determination, we need to be strengthen our underlying conviction by studying scripture and by using our scripturally-guided intelligence to recollect our experiences that reinforce our conviction. Conviction refers more to how we perceive and what we believe. Determination refers more to what we want to do and how strongly we want to do it. Determination is a matter of intention, whereas conviction is a matter of perception. If our conviction is weak, then our determination can’t be strong. Because then our determination is based not on our own inner assessment of things, but on outer expectations of what we should be doing or not doing. While outer pushers can be helpful in boosting our determination, they can’t be a substitute for the inner force that comes from conviction. Pertinently, the Bhagavad-gita (05.22) states that the wise can see that sensory indulgences lead to misery and so they don’t participate in them.

By regular scriptural study and recollection of our own realizations of those scriptural teachings, we can strengthen our conviction is strong, thereby bringing an inner indefatigable drive to our determination.

Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita .

The natural is not necessarily desirable by Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita .

The Bhagavad-gita (11.29) while describing how the warriors on the Kurukshetra battlefield were doomed compares some of them to moths rushing towards fire. Commentators explain that through this example of volitional self-destruction, the Gita points to warri

ors like the evil Duryodhana who brought about their own destruction by their depravity. The Gita (11.28) contrasts them with warriors like Bhishma who were circumstantially pushed into the war such reluctant warriors were like rivers that are pushed towards an ocean by the higher forces of nature.

Of course, some people may argue that the moths too were acting naturally their nature impelled them towards the fire. Such arguers had predecessors even at the time of the Mahabharata. During the peace negotiations before the war, Duryodhana, when reproached for his depravity, countered that he was simply acting according to his own nature: When the Creator had given him his nature, what was his fault?

The moth doesn’t have the intelligence to recognize the disastrous consequences of its attraction to fire. But we have the intelligence to foresee such consequences of giving in to our lower nature.

The fault with this argument is that the Creator has also given us scripture which educates us that we humans have a dual nature: a higher nobler nature coming from our spiritual essence and a lower baser nature coming from our psychophysical mechanism with its many past impressions. Further, the Creator has given us the intelligence to understand that we should choose and strengthen our higher nature, for it will bring out the best within us. And we should reject and weaken our lower nature, for it will bring out the worst within us.

The moth doesn’t have the intelligence to recognize the disastrous consequences of its attraction to fire. But we have the intelligence to foresee such consequences of giving in to our lower nature. By learning from scripture, we can avoid falling for the “natural equals desirable” sophistry and train our intelligence to make healthy choices, thereby promoting our ultimate good.

Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 11

The natural is not necessarily desirable by Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 11

The Bhagavad-gita (11.29) while describing how the warriors on the Kurukshetra battlefield were doomed compares some of them to moths rushing towards fire. Commentators explain that through this example of volitional self-destruction, the Gita points to warriors like the evil Duryodhana who brought about their own destruction by their depravity. The Gita (11.28) contrasts them with warriors like Bhishma who were circumstantially pushed into the war such reluctant warriors were like rivers that are pushed towards an ocean by the higher forces of nature.

Of course, some people may argue that the moths too were acting naturally their nature impelled them towards the fire. Such arguers had predecessors even at the time of the Mahabharata. During the peace negotiations before the war, Duryodhana, when reproached for his depravity, countered that he was simply acting according to his own nature: When the Creator had given him his nature, what was his fault?

The moth doesn’t have the intelligence to recognize the disastrous consequences of its attraction to fire. But we have the intelligence to foresee such consequences of giving in to our lower nature.

The fault with this argument is that the Creator has also given us scripture which educates us that we humans have a dual nature: a higher nobler nature coming from our spiritual essence and a lower baser nature coming from our psychophysical mechanism with its many past impressions. Further, the Creator has given us the intelligence to understand that we should choose and strengthen our higher nature, for it will bring out the best within us. And we should reject and weaken our lower nature, for it will bring out the worst within us.

The moth doesn’t have the intelligence to recognize the disastrous consequences of its attraction to fire. But we have the intelligence to foresee such consequences of giving in to our lower nature. By learning from scripture, we can avoid falling for the “natural equals desirable” sophistry and train our intelligence to make healthy choices, thereby promoting our ultimate good.

Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 15

Krishna is nearest – let us make him dearest by Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 15

When someone loves us, they may express that love with a tight hug, wanting to come as close as possible to us. But no one can come as close to us as Krishna, for he is close not just to our body but to us as souls, being present in our heart in his Supersoul manifestation. And he’s closest to us for not just a few moments, but for all of eternity.

Moreover, his love is manifest by not just his presence but also his beneficence. The Bhagavad-gita (15.15) indicates that he is present in the hearts of each one of us, giving us the necessary guidance for making healthy choices. Of course, he gives due deference to our independence, so he reveals his presence and shares his guidance only to the extent that we want it. According to our desires, he gives us the requisite knowledge externally through scripture, and remembrance and forgetfulness internally through his Supersoul manifestation.

Making Krishna our dearest means giving to our devotional activities serious commitment similar to, if not greater than, what we give to our most important worldly relationships.

To realize his love, we need to reciprocate by making him the dearest to us. Making Krishna our dearest doesn’t mean neglecting or rejecting our worldly relationships; it means connecting those relationships with our spiritual relationship with him, that is, seeing our loved ones as primarily connected with him and secondarily connected with us.

More importantly, making Krishna our dearest means giving to our devotional activities serious commitment similar to, if not greater than, what we give to our most important worldly relationships. By such committed practice of bhakti-yoga, we show Krishna our serious intent to love him. And he reciprocates by revealing his all-attractiveness, thereby attracting us more and more. This symbiosis of our commitment and his revelation gradually culminates in our enthroning him as our dearest Lord and his flooding our heart with the ecstasy of immortal love.

Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 15

The rest of me is no rest for me by Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 15

The “rest of me” refers to our physical and mental side – the two other levels of our present three-level existence as embodied souls. Our body and mind are constitutionally separate from us; they are material, whereas we are spiritual. Yet they are, at least for the present life, inseparably linked with us, being indispensable parts of the mechanism we need for functioning in the material world, where we presently reside.

But the body and mind are no rest for us in the sense that they don’t offer a peaceful place for our consciousness to relax. As long as our consciousness stays at the physical or mental levels, it is agitated by various insatiable material desires. Such desires misdirect and frustrate our innate quest for happiness because we eternal spiritual beings can never be satisfied with temporary material things.

 As long as our consciousness stays at the physical or mental levels, it is agitated by various insatiable material desires.

Despite being thus frustrated, we keep seeking material pleasures because we often don’t know of or don’t have access to any higher source of happiness. Due to this misdirected and frustrated searching, our material existence becomes an endless struggle, as the Bhagavad-gita (15.07) points out.

Even when we understand our spiritual identity and start seeking spiritual realization, still our senses and the mind tend to stick to their old patterns of seeking pleasure in matter. As long as we let our consciousness rest by default in the body or the mind, it will find no rest.

Thankfully, an alternative resting place for the consciousness is made eminently accessible by the process of bhakti-yoga. That alternative is Krishna, whose parts we are and who is meant to be the eternal Lord of our heart. When we habituate ourselves by the diligent practice of bhakti to rest our consciousness in Krishna, then we find a reliable, relishable and indestructible resting place.

Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 06

Let scripture lead beyond the head’s complexity to the heart’s simplicity by Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 06

The heart’s simplicity refers to, in the context of spiritual life, the simple love of the heart for Krishna, the uncomplicated faith that just by learning to love him, we can overcome all obstacles and attain life’s supreme perfection.

The head’s complexity refers to its tendency to not think straight, but to twist itself into detours and circles with many doubts and questions. The head is complicated due to our past conditionings as well as present circumstances, living as we do in a doubt-inducing culture.

Some of us may find complexity tiring, while others may find the absence of complexity boring.

Of course, the level of the head’s complexity varies from person to person. While some of us may find complexity tiring, others may find the absence of complexity boring. If our mind craves for complexity, we can’t just wish away that craving. Ultimately, it will be transcended when we persevere in our bhakti practice and experience that devotion, its simplicity notwithstanding, is genuinely sweet. But till then, due to the head’s inclination for intellectuality, we may find ourselves wondering whether bhakti is too simple and whether the path to the absolute truth can be so intellectually unstimulating.

Significantly however, bhakti, though simple in its essence, is by no means superficial or lacking intellectual depth. A serious study of bhakti philosophy, as revealed in scripture and explained by erudite devotees, introduces us to bhakti’s subtlety and profundity. Mining into the many levels of the glories of bhakti – and of the goal of bhakti, Krishna – is life’s most intellectually fulfilling endeavor. And it is devotionally energizing too, for it increases our inspiration to love and serve Krishna. Pertinently, Krishna declares in the Bhagavad-gita (18.70) that studying his message is intellectual worship of him.

By scripturally directing the head’s need for complexity towards bhakti’s profundity, we can realize that devotion for Krishna, though simple, is supremely sublime.

Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 05

The essence of liberation is not transportation but transformation by Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 05

Seekers sometimes worry whether at the end of their lives they will be liberated and thus attain Krishna’s abode.

While such a worry is definitely better than worldly worry about material prosperity and pleasure, still it can, like worldly worry, be distracting. Worrying about future liberation can make us feel insecure and dis-enthuse us in our present practice of bhakti.

The best way to counter such worry is by refining our understanding of liberation – its essence is not transportation, but transportation. We become liberated not when we enter the spiritual world, but when we enter spiritual consciousness. Spiritual consciousness is defined by detachment from the material and, more importantly, attachment to the spiritual, specifically the highest spiritual reality, Krishna. Without such spiritual consciousness, even if we somehow get to the spiritual world, we won’t be able to stay there. The Srimad Bhagavatam in its ninth canto describes how the yogi-sage Durvasa went to Vishnu’s abode, but couldn’t stay there because he didn’t have the requisite consciousness.

Understanding liberation to be essentially a matter of inner transformation is empowering; it shifts our focus from worry about the future to the opportunity in the present.

In contrast, if we transform our heart and develop the pure spiritual consciousness that is the essence of liberation, then, as the Bhagavad-gita (05.19) indicates, we are already liberated even while we are still physically in material existence. Once inner transformation is effected, outer transportation is guaranteed – it’s just a matter of time, something that will naturally happen when our present body’s lifespan is exhausted.

Understanding liberation to be essentially a matter of inner transformation is empowering; it shifts our focus from worry about the future to the opportunity in the present. Every moment is a chance to progress towards liberation if we just choose Krishna and service to him instead of worldly pleasures. And choosing Krishna ensures not only our eventual liberation but also our devotional absorption and satisfaction even in this life.

Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 13

Humility means to not let our ego come in the way of our purpose by Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 13

Humility is sometimes seen negatively, as something weakening or self-denigrating. However, real humility is empowering, for it frees us from dependence on others’ perceptions. Pertinently, the Bhagavad-gita (13.08), while deeming humility a laudable virtue, refers to it in terms of the absence of its opposite: as absence of the craving for honor (amaanitvam).

When we lack humility, we become puppets of our ego. The ego impels us to do or not do a thing based on whether doing it will bring us respect or not. And when someone doesn’t offer us the expected respect, the ego makes us crave for revenge, thus deviating us from our purpose of doing the things truly important for us.

Does that mean the humble don’t care whether others respect them? Not exactly. If someone disrespects them, they may notice it and as a natural human response may feel hurt by it. But humility empowers them to moderate their feelings so that their response doesn’t deviate them from their purpose.

Thus, for example, suppose we are sharing Krishna’s message with an inattentive audience. Ego may make us angry and even lash out, thereby alienating the audience. But humility will enable us to act appropriately so as to give them at least a positive impression of Krishna’s message and messenger, and to help them take baby steps forward from their spiritually infantile state. But still after the talk, we may decide to focus in future on other, more interested audiences – not because we want respect for ourselves, but because an inattentive audience prevents us from fulfilling our purpose of sharing Krishna’s message effectively.

Humility, by thus freeing us from being buffeted by others’ responses, empowers us to persevere even amidst challenging circumstances and fulfill our purpose to serve Krishna.