From The Heart
Have you heard kirtan leaders say“Chant from the heart!”? What do they mean by this?
I fear that not being anchored to you
I will so easily be swept away
Like each tiny flower.
When we function in the world, our desires direct our vision, consciously or subconsciously.
On Radhasthami, I remembered how Lord Krishna lived in the magnificent city of Dwaraka, after leaving the simple village of Vrndavan. Amidst the opulence of Dwaraka, He was longing for the simple village life, and the love of the unsophisticated residents there, especially Sri Radha.
Is there anyone of us who want to suffer? How many of us want to be insulted by others? How many of us want to be separated from our loved ones? But almost all of us go through these phases in our life and most of the time we find we are so helpless to do anything, we silently weep.
Whether it’s the coldest pre-dawn hours of winter, or the staggering heat of May and June, the external conditions in Vrindavan are far from perfect.
When we forget that divine connectivity and try to harness nature for our separate and selfish purposes, she sometimes unleashes her divine fury.
In general, accepting criticism is the ability to stay strong and to expand. Today people cannot handle criticism. Even the thought of it throws their status quo out of control.
Some people say, “Everything is God’s plan.” Is it really? Are our mistakes his plan? If some people become alcoholics or commit suicide, did God plan that they ruin their lives?
Srila Prabhupada's role as a social innovator is sometimes overlooked when we speak about Krishna consciousness. It deserves greater emphasis.
“Truth isn’t truth.” Recently Rudy Giuliani uttered this statement on a television interview. It bewildered some and angered others. What was Giuliani trying to say?
While navigating through life’s inevitable challenges, we often increase our burdens by uncritically accepting prevailing definitions of success as our life’s goals.
Absolute privacy is a myth. Modern technology with its security cameras, internet cookies and shopping-lists from our loyalty cards ensures that we are now more highly monitored than ever before.
The concept of tolerating difficulty is fast disappearing from the modern dictionary.
There is an astonishing correspondence in the descriptions of universal time and planetary measurements in both ancient Hindu scriptures and modern scientific calculations. But, the conclusions they reach are very different.
We don’t like to lose things. If a choice entails some loss, we recoil from it. Such recoiling can make us miss out on choices that involve initial losses but lead to eventual gains.
Vrindavana is like a hall of fame. Everywhere you turn there are stories, landmarks and temples commemorating the saintly people who lived here. Ironically, they never wanted any fame.
The Sages of the East describe the paradoxical demeanor of perfected spiritualists: harder than a thunderbolt, and simultaneously softer than a rose.
At first view, it was “breathtaking,” she said. But the closer you get, the less impressive it looks.
I was dressed in my devotional attire when I arrived at Newark airport en route to the Sadhu Sanga Retreat in Boone, N.C. I reflected that the mood in America on Memorial Day was markedly different than it was in Russia on Victory Day.
Achievers often talk about the courage needed to dream big and to work untiringly for actualizing the dream.
Vrindavana has an open door policy. Just take a stroll around the village lanes and someone will invite you in for a meal somewhere. It’s a stark contrast to our modern world, which is closed up and shut tight.
Life sometimes brings us to a dead end. In the face of overwhelming obstacles, everything seems lost. We feel as if we have lost our way completely, not knowing where to go or what to do.
We sometimes need to confront people who hold views different from ours. If their view is incorrect, we may need to correct them. Sometimes however, they stay stuck to their opinions.
When we face perplexities or adversities, we may protest, “Why is this happening to me?” And if we accept God as the supreme controller, we may protest against him, “Why are you letting this happen?”
