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.