Krsna's Teachings

There is a story of my Guru. He was called by a devotee for lunch at his home. Being very poor his wife asked him why he had to invite someone when they did not have anything to eat for their own family? The poor peasant said that to call the Guru home is a great honor. She gathered some greens from the creeper outside her house and cooked them for the Guru. He had his meal alone and blessed the couple and kids and while going out of the house, he just plucked the creeper out and walked away. The wife was aghast and started to curse the Guru for destroying the only source of food for the family. The husband said that since it is done by his Guru, then there must be something auspicious about it. So he tried to replant the creeper and when he dug up that place, he found a pot of gold there. When you give selflessly without any motivation to such Godly people or those who do not have any such devious or ulterior motives, then such an act pays dividends to you. Remember, it is important t...

Someone called me to talk about the path that they follow and asked me which path did I profess or follow? I told her that all path lead to the same mountain top. If we have to climb Mount Everest, we can climb from whichever side of the mountain that we want to. From east, west,north or south face. So considering that, we need to start looking out for reaching the summit from our own path.The one who takes you up or leads you by hand is called the Guru. He knows each and every obstacle or facilitation on the way.He know when you need to stop for the night and take enough rest. He has done this routine before so He knows about the path. If you slip along the way, He lends his hand and takes you through. There are specialists of a particular path so they can only show you the summit from their side but the One who stays at the top on the summit can see on all side and can help the climber by his knowledge about that path that he is climbing on. So these super teachers are the Sadguru...

We spend time on every other thing in life. When we are young we spend time playing, studying, fighting, watching television and so on. As we move on to youth, we spend time searching for job, getting one, settling down in life. Later we get married, have time for loving someone, have children and then get into the stream of family life. As we move further, we bother about money, time, fame, career, savings and children's future and our retirement. When we retire then we really wonder where life has slipped by. We mull on the past times and still watch television, go for walks, chat with friends, sit idly and go for holidays. Now you tell me when do we ever think of God or that power which gives us everything? Hardly a few times do we think of Him. When it is some festival, when we go on pilgrimages, some treks, sometimes when we visit places of worship or just when we pray for some few moments in life. The most important time for us is when we need something desperately that we vi...

I was watching a video of Steve Jobs today and I felt he is repeating all that the others have dished out earlier but then why is he so successful and not all the others who watch that video and take inspiration from it? The first thing to note is he is successful so he is giving that talk and not you. He gave some reasons for his success. First is his disease which can kill him instantly. See, if we too have a sword hanging on our heads of death and not seeing tomorrow we will also do what is necessary to win. Secondly, if the parent looses the child just because it is kidnapped, will he not do what it takes to get it back? So when his baby called Apple Computers got kidnapped he fought back to get it back. So it means we too have to get to that stage in life when it is so important to us that we do only that and nothing else. Then we will be successful like Steve Jobs. I am reminded of a story from puranas where the disciple asks the Guru why he couldn't see God? The Guru replies...

Everyone comes across a very difficult situation now and then in life. It really seems a great hurdle for us to overcome and we feel very much down and out. But have you noticed we all hang on and continue with life and overcome that issue somewhere down the line. Later it just becomes one of those episodes to talk about or brag about if we have really pulled it off. See life from the future perspective and you will find that all these problems are necessary for the change in our lives. Just the way when you have to go to Interlaken from say Mysore. There is no straight path to that place. You gotta get to Chennai or Mumbai and change a flight for a destination in Switzerland from where you may have to take another bus or a rope way to get there. Now at every juncture, you got to wait it out and it is not necessary that there may be a connecting transport immediately. So we have to have patience and persevere to get to that heavenly place. Similarly in life there are certain junctures ...

We all love romance and love stories. Some of the love stories that I have enjoyed are Pretty Woman, You've Got Mail, Serendipity, Notting Hill, Runaway Bride, PS I Love You, When Harry met sally, Jab We Met, Chupke Chupke, Cheeni Kam and I guess so many that I just swoon over the way in which it ends and all is well. But then there are some that leave such incomplete and bitter taste that I wonder why should they make it to the romantic lists. Movies like Lost In Translation, Up In The Air, Before Sunrise leave me just empty and tired. They want us to imagine what would have happened to the lovey dovey couple. But why should all these movies end that way? I know you may say get real but are we not suckers for such sweet endings in almost everything. Okay, those of you who do not agree can write another blog and berate me if you like. But I prefer my movies to be gooey and full of mush all over with really nice endings. An incomplete ending where the hero and heroine go away in two...

Now that the interest in spiritual has been generated in us, the questions which troubles us are which books should we consider as important for our spiritual growth? There are so many of them to choose from and all talk of different things so you will get confused.The Christians have the Bible, the Muslims have the Koran, the Jews have the Torah but the Hindus have so many of them. For the Hindus the list begins with the Vedas and end up with the saints dairies like the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna to Sai Satcharitra! This topic came to me since we tend to read a holy book during the month of Shravan. There are books which are handed down to us by verbal or vocal rending and there are the ones which got written. The Shrutis and the Smritis. Then the holy folks also wrote a ton of material which sometimes sounds so enormous that we just look at it and feel very small. Just the case of Shankaracharya's literature would fill up an entire shelf.Then what is written about Osho or J.Krishn...

We expect to live for a very long time, say about 70 to 80 years. Now who has told you that you will be alive for that long a period? We spend all our childhood and youth playing mischief, studying for career, getting ready for an adult life and we do not have time for any other thing. Only when our parents tell us to go to places of worship or say some prayers, that we do it but without understanding any head or tail about it. Later our grand parents or some other person teaches us or tells stories about some religious kind. We understand that if we do bad stuff or commit sins we will have to face God wrath and go to hell to atone for it, so we refrain from performing such acts. If we do some nice deeds we will get benefits and God will be pleased with us. Then as we grow up fall in love, try for a job, work for someone, get beaten up by society and pursue a wild goose for money and fame and then we meet failures in life....then we retrospect and wonder whether there is some God or no...

The trilogy of blogs on Eat Pray Love ends with the term Love. The term is used loosely for all relationships from mother-child,husband-wife to boy-girl relationships. We always say-I love you to all and sundry. What we are actually talking about is the bonding that we have with another being. But here the bond is between the spiritual beings. Spiritually we all come from the same source and hence we are bonded by that one force called Love. The separation happens due to divisions in the universe by the power called maya. Maya is the delusion which causes us to think of our human nature and makes each and everything different than us. Maya separates the man from a woman, mother from a wife,husband from a father...though all are one. The separation is due to color, skin, sex, caste, regions or countries, relationships, servant and master and finally God from man. Though all of us are from the same source, we tend to differ and understand that we are actually flesh and blood human beings...

In my last article I wrote about eating healthy and in this with the continuation from the last I will tell you why praying is important. You have heard that if a lie is told many times, it becomes a truth. Or if the insect who keeps on looking at the moth intently then transforms into a butterfly. This is from a holy text. What it means is that if you keep on saying somethings very regularly, it will become a habit with you and then it will happen as if on its own. Prayers are the same.When you repeat some words on a continuous basis they will take shape in your mind and become permanent. Just the way a Guru gives a mantra diksha and tells you to repeat the same words all the time.These are charged words and they make an impact on our inner being. Words carry a lot of potency which you will surely know. If someone calls you an idiot, won't it hurt you? In the same way when someone praises you, you feel very good! So these words carry a name or some invocation which rings bells wit...

The movie Eat Pray Love might evoke a strange response as to why should we eat,pray and love....for ourselves? Here I shall give you the spiritual take on why it is necessary for us to eat healthy. First and foremost the bodies that we have can be divided into 5 koshas or layers.I am sure you have heard of those Russian Dolls and how they fit into each one on top of the other one. In the same way the outermost body is called the Food Body or Annamaya kosha. We need to take care of this outer body very well otherwise some problems may occur on the inside also. So eating healthy food is a must for us. eating healthy does not mean that we have to be a vegan or vegetarian but it means that we should ensure the food is good to eat and as fresh as possible without any foreign bodies contaminating it. Now the staunch will say that it is not right to eat animals. But even the Gods have eaten them so why do we have to deny that. Animal sacrifices are mentioned in almost every other holy book. E...

Have you seen thousands standing in front of the idol telling Him their wishes and praying for solutions or just thanking Him for granting their fervent desires? There are thousands of temples, churches and other holy places where they repose their faith in that deity or image or a wall to help them get to their wishes! Now if they were to not get their wish granted in the manner it was wished for then delusion sets in and discontentment follows. You may have also heard a lot of people attributing their cures of some strange illnesses or overcoming financial difficulties to some strange person who maybe wearing a white or an orange robe and asking them to practice some strange ritual or a body contortion exercise or giving out some potions to quell their anxieties. Most of the time the cure or some exercise works and sometimes it doesn't. They then attribute it to miracle cures and repose Godliness in that human being. But let us say the same cure is granted by some hospital or som...

Yesterday I was talking about how we have to let go of our kids and make them independent in life. Here I will tell you real life instances of girls who entered womanhood and how the world treated them. This fine young woman reached the age of 18 and in a few days she packed her bag right in front of her parents and told them that she is walking out on them. They were aghast at this strange behavior and followed her outside begging her not to leave them. Her grandmother was standing outside who immediately told them to follow her to the police station. They reached the police station only to be told that their only daughter had filed a complaint with them to restrain them from taking her away. The police showed their helplessness since she is legally an adult and she can do what she wants to with her life so if she wants to stay independently ,she could. The parents today are repentant of the ways in which they had treated their daughter. She had made it very clear that she disliked th...

Yesterday, a company executive asked me a question which is so regular with most of the newer disciples that I just felt that I should write a few lines on it. Why am I so dissatisfied with my job and life? Why can I not find peace and happiness? Here is my take on the above query. When we are young we have set a goal in front of us to get to...maybe it is to be the richest person in the world,maybe to get married and settle down to a great family and start one also,maybe to become rich and famous,maybe to join politics and become the Prime Minister of India and so on. Now as we enter our 30's or 40's we realize that all those were great dreams that we had. The mundane life is dragging us down....grocery from the stores, school fees,relatives and friends, weekend activities, work,work and work, property matters, diseases and sicknesses, deaths in family, price rises and family budgets. You can name them all and still be so wistful that we just do not see the end to all these mu...