We are the world’s purpose, but the world is not our purpose by Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 07,

The Bhagavad-gita (07.05) makes the intriguing statement that the living entities sustain the world. The statement is intriguing because we know that we don’t control the things that sustain the world – the timely rising of the sun, the inexorable flowing of rivers or the cycling of the seasons, for example. Further, the Gita itself mentions at many places (e.g. 15.17) that Krishna is the sustainer of the world.

Then in what sense do we sustain the world?

Not in the sense that we are the cause of its existence, but in the sense that we are the purpose of its existence, similar to the way patients are the purpose for a hospital’s existence.

We sustain the world not in the sense that we are the cause of its existence, but in the sense that we are the purpose of its existence.

Just as patients don’t run the hospital, we don’t run the world. But just as the hospital exists as a facility to heal patients physically, the world exists as a facility to heal us spiritually – to help us redirect our love from matter to Krishna.

And though the hospital is meant for patients, the patients are not meant for the hospital. That is, they are not meant to live forever in the hospital – they are meant for healthy, happy living at home and they are meant to use their hospital stay to cure themselves. Similarly, though the world is meant for us, we are not meant for the world – we are meant not to seek permanent enjoyable shelter in this world, but to use our stay here to cure ourselves by practicing bhakti yoga and thus attain a spiritually healthy, eternally happy life with Krishna in the spiritual world. That’s why the same Gita later (08.15) labels this world as temporary and miserable, and glorifies as great souls those who by sustained devotional practice go beyond it to Krishna’s abode.

The heart of knowledge is the knowledge of the heart by Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 18.

Towards the end of the Bhagavad-gita (18.64), Krishna announces that he will share the most confidential knowledge (sarva guhyatama).

Confidential knowledge (guhya) refers to the knowledge of our actual identity as souls, knowledge that is unknown to most people. Krishna shares this knowledge in the Gita’s second chapter.

More confidential knowledge (guhya-tara) refers to the knowledge of the various processes for realizing the soul. This knowledge is more confidential because proper processes for self-realization are known only to a few among those who know about the soul. Krishna shares this knowledge from the second to the eighteenth chapters.

The most confidential knowledge is the knowledge of the best path for self-realization, bhakti-yoga. Krishna, after having shared it earlier, especially in the ninth chapter, emphatically repeats it in the Gita’s next two verses (18.65-66). Why is this knowledge the most confidential?

Let’s consider three reasons.

 Bhakti-yoga infuses our spiritual quest with the energy of love, our heart’s strongest and purest emotion, and the even greater energy of Krishna’s omnipotent mercy.

Firstly, it activates the innermost core of our being, the heart, which in its pure state expresses the divine emotions of the soul. In the pursuit of transcendence, karma-yoga engages primarily the body; jnana-yoga, primarily the intelligence; and dhyana-yoga, primarily the mind. But bhakti-yoga, by triggering the heart’s latent transcendental emotions, engages our entire being, because body, mind and intelligence all ultimately follow the heart.

Secondly, bhakti-yoga takes us beyond the impersonal Brahman and the neutral Supersoul to the all-loving Supreme Person, Krishna – the rarely realized zenith of transcendence.

Thirdly, bhakti-yoga stimulates the innermost human and divine emotions. It infuses our spiritual quest with the energy of love, our heart’s strongest and purest emotion, and the even greater energy of Krishna’s omnipotent mercy.

Thus the heart of knowledge – the most confidential knowledge – is the knowledge of the heart, the knowledge of establishing the most intense heart-to-heart connection between the human heart and the divine heart.

Frustration is unavoidable, but hopelessness isn’t by Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 02

We feel frustrated when things go wrong. While such frustrations are unavoidable for everyone, they become accentuated to the level of hopeless frustrations for those who hold a materialistic conception of life.

Such materialists may find some way ahead through life’s routine frustrations, but sooner or later life will force upon them frustrations that bring their life-journey to dead ends – unalterable, inescapable, imminent dead ends. For example, what can they do if they are diagnosed with a terminal disease? Not much, except watch helplessly as the body, which they have treasured as the be-all and the end-all of their existence, wastes away on its doomed journey to death.

Devotion redefines death as not a hopeless dead end, but as a doorway to move closer to Krishna, provided we raise our consciousness.

The Bhagavad-gita’s spiritual insight that we are eternal, indestructible souls helps us understand that our existence is not limited to our bodily lifespan. We realize that we don’t have to limit the scope of our activities to the body, but can expand it to the spiritual level and include activities of devotional service to Krishna. Devotion by expanding our conception of life protects us from hopeless frustration. It redefines death as not a hopeless dead end, but as a doorway to move closer to Krishna, provided we raise our consciousness. The Bhagavad-gita (02.15) declares that those who stay equipoised amidst life’s ups and downs become eligible to attain life eternal.

As devotee-seekers, we will still face frustration due to the body, because the body is by nature temporary. Nonetheless, we can find some way to serve Krishna, for such service doesn’t depend on anything, even the body. Even if our body falls apart and goes to the verge of death, we can still serve him just by remembering him. Of course, to remember him then, we need to cultivate a healthy attachment to him by serving him enthusiastically and sincerely with whatever facilities we have now.

Death for the devoted is not destruction, but discharge by Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 08

Some people ask, “Devotees and non-devotees both have to die – so what’s the use of practicing spirituality with all its restrictions?”

That’s like asking: those who take treatment and those who don’t both have to go out of the hospital – so what’s the point of taking treatment?

The point is that the two will go to different destinations: those who take treatment will go back to normal healthy life, whereas those who don’t will go to the graveyard.

The world we live in is like a hospital. The disease we all suffer from is misdirection of our desires – though we are eternal spiritual beings, we are trying to enjoy temporary material things, getting in the process little pleasure and much suffering. Bhakti-yoga is the therapeutic process that cures our desires, redirecting them from matter to Krishna, who is the supreme eternal reality, the source of all happiness.

Death for non-devotees is not mere destruction; it is actually something scarier: total deprivation.

For those who reject the bhakti treatment, death is not mere destruction; it is actually something scarier: total deprivation. Destruction would mean the end of existence and with it the end of suffering. But non-devotees, like everyone else, are eternal souls. So at death they get separated from everything they have held dear. And unfortunately their misery doesn’t end with the deprivation – it extends to a post-mortem reaping of karmic consequences because in this life they usually seek pleasure through actions that comprise bad karma. Or in terms of our analogy they unwittingly complicate their disease and have to endure further suffering in their future bodies – till they finally take the bhakti treatment.

Devotees, on the other hand, get cured and attain the spiritually healthy state of eternal life with Krishna, as the Bhagavad-gita (08.15) indicates. Thus death for the devotees is not a scary destruction, but a happy discharge.

To understand God’s provision, first understand God’s vision by Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 09

People sometimes ask, “If I devote myself to God, will he provide for my needs?”

Yes, definitely; but to understand his provision, we need to first understand his vision.

God shares his vision with us through scripture. TheBhagavad-gita expands our vision of ourselves beyond the temporary material body to the eternal spiritual essence – the soul. As we are eternal, we are meant for something far better than struggling for survival in a death-filled world or at best struggling for pleasure in a misery-filled world – which is what provision at the material level essentially boils down to.

Just as a doctor may temporarily restrict patients from some food to expedite treatment, sometimes Krishna may temporarily withhold some things from us to expedite our spiritual recovery.

Krishna’s provision for us is something much better – the provision of the means to attain life eternal and with it joy eternal. That means is the process of yoga, culminating in bhakti-yoga, which is the easiest way to rise from material consciousness to spiritual consciousness.

Additionally, while we are in material existence, he provides for our material needs too. When he provides heat, light, air, water and food for all living beings, even those not devoted to him, won’t he provide for his devotees? He definitely will, as the Bhagavad-gita (09.22) assures.

But just as a doctor may temporarily restrict patients from some food to expedite treatment, sometimes Krishna may temporarily withhold some things from us to expedite our spiritual recovery. But at such times he will make himself especially available through his remembrance, thereby enabling us to realize how such remembrance enables us to tolerate and transcend worldly miseries. When we thus take shelter of him, we realize that absorption in him is our most fundamental necessity, our greatest solace, our ultimate shelter.

When we thus learn to see Krishna’s provision through a holistic vision of our core identity and our core necessity, we will understand that he never leaves us without provision.

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But those who always worship Me with exclusive devotion, meditating on My transcendental form—to them I carry what they lack, and I preserve what they have.

Doubt your doubts and believe your beliefs by Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 04

When we get doubts, the forces of illusion delude us further into thinking that our doubts are evidences of our intelligence: “I am not like all those gullible believers.”

Actually however, such thinking makes us a much more gullible believer. How? Because we end up believing our doubts – and believing them not just in a naïve way but also in a self-congratulatory way.

And believing our doubts makes us reject things as wrong, but it never reveals what is right – just as a patient who doubts every doctor rejects all prescriptions as wrong, but never knows the right treatment and stays sick.

Believing our doubts makes us reject things as wrong, but it never reveals what is right

If we want to learn what is right, we need to put faith somewhere. And the Bhagavad-gita is eminently faith-worthy. Firstly, it offers a coherent philosophy that answers life’s fundamental questions cogently. Secondly, it (04.39) also assures that if we put faith and mold our life according to its teachings, we will gain further, deeper knowledge. This knowledge refers not merely to intellectual knowledge but also to realized knowledge. That is, we will experience higher spiritual reality that is accessed by the purification and elevation of our consciousness brought about by yoga. The easiest and the most efficacious of all yogas is bhakti-yoga.

To successfully practice bhakti-yoga, we need to take the conscious and conscientious decision to believe our beliefs and doubt our doubts. Practically speaking, this means that we engage wholeheartedly in the things that nourish our faith and don’t dabble unnecessarily with the things that induce doubts. By such discerning practice, we will start relishing bhakti even during our seeker stage. Being buoyed by this taste, we will practice bhakti more enthusiastically till we become purified and ultimately realize the highest spiritual truth, Krishna – a realization that the Gita (07.01) states takes us beyond all doubts.

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A faithful man who is dedicated to transcendental knowledge and who subdues his senses is eligible to achieve such knowledge, and having achieved it he quickly attains the supreme spiritual peace.

Materialism makes the materialist non-existent and materialism meaningless by Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 16

People sometimes object to spirituality, saying, “It requires so much faith.”

Actually, everything requires faith.  Even materialism requires faith – the faith that we ourselves don’t exist.

According to materialism, matter is all that exists. So there is no ‘I’ who is the observer and experiencer of matter. Our sense of I-ness is an illusion that has somehow arisen out of the electrochemical firings of brain cells. So, when we believe in materialism, we are required to disbelieve in our own existence. Pertinently, the Bhagavad-gita (16.09:nashtaatmaano) indicates that materialists destroy their own soul.

As the philosophy of materialism is one such thought process that is nothing more than a meaningless stream of electrochemical signals, it is meaningless.

Significantly, the toll of materialism goes even further. If our sense of selfhood is an illusion, then our thought process is also an illusion – there is no I who is thinking; there’s just a series of electrochemical signals streaking through the brain. The results of that thought process being nothing more than just another electrochemical pattern are also meaningless. And as the philosophy of materialism is one such thought process, it too is meaningless.

Thus materialism requires us to believe in a self-destroying and meaning-destroying philosophy. Why don’t we realize these exorbitant faith demands of materialism? Because the masses today unthinkingly believe in materialism and we usually follow the masses with an uncritical herd mentality.

So if we have reservations about putting too much faith, then we shouldn’t put faith in materialism.

And though spirituality too requires faith, its faith demand is much more reasonable. Consciousness is categorically different from matter, being the experiencer of insentient matter. So positing that consciousness comes from a non-material source, the soul that is the ‘I’, is eminently reasonable. And Gita wisdom offers us yoga as a systematic process for elevating our consciousness and experientially verifying our spiritual identity, whereas materialism offers no such verifying process.

Therefore spirituality is much more faith-worthy than materialism

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Following such conclusions, the demoniac, who are lost to themselves and who have no intelligence, engage in unbeneficial, horrible works meant to destroy the world.