Krsna's Teachings

Last week someone was given the choice of knowing the spiritual and getting the right answers in a very slow and tedious way or a quick fix solution for her issues and you have guessed it right...she opted for the quick fix! Spiritual does not offer any wham bam thank you ma'am solutions. Even the Gods have to wait for eternity till they can get to the ultimate goal in their being so what about humans who have no patience for anything at all? Let us say you have a problem with finding a spouse, a job, a change in life or whatever that is troubling you, I am sure you need a quick fix for your issue. Hence these great people who can tell you how to go about doing some vedic pooja or wearing some talisman or going to some weird temple works for you. Your answers are right in front of your nose so it works for your life. Just like someone asked me for a transfer in his job and got it. I never heard from him again since he got what he wanted. But what about the spiritual growth? That wa...

He chipped off the toe from the idol of Krishna and the trustees of the temple were beyond consolation. They wanted the poor fellow thrown out but what to do about the hurt Krishna? Ramakrishna came up with the solution. He could fix the foot and everything would be alright. He reasoned that if the son in law of the household had a problem with something would you dump him and get a new one? Not a chance. You would repair the foot and have the statue reinstalled. But hey, today I find Him in the temple located at the rear end with a new Krishna in His place. Does it mean if you find a defect in Me, you would find a replacement of Me? And relegate me to the back office? Sure, that's what happens to all of us. We loose our positions in the batting order, then we loose our place in the teams also. So the lesson of the day is- Never go with a broken foot! Hide it anyway if you are hurt. And don't put the foot in the door! Life offers you such solutions. The politician who cannot ga...

Krishnaspeak. I hid from the gopis many a times and made fun of them. Sometimes it was not in jest but to make them understand the real meaning of love. Once I waited upon them in the bushes close to the grooves of Vrindavan and they came in search of me. I waited for a long time and then Radha appeared calling out to me-Kanha! I couldn't bear to see Her that way so I just walked out in my Varaha avatara and they all shrieked out. They implored me to return back to my original state, which I did. It was real fun to see them scamper in fear. Later on I again returned to hide from them before the performance of the raas. They were very rude with me. They pulled my cheeks and hands and jumped all over me. The Gopi's did it out of their love for me but I had to tell them that it is important to be gentle in love and not drag each other down. I left them suddenly and then as usual Radha came in. She took me far away from the maddening crowd and just wanted to hog me all to herself. ...

Today the headlines screamed about this great philanthropist who has come to India to give back to the world. I am appalled at the way people give donations and yet want the whole world to talk about. Once a man told Ramakrishna Paramhamsa that he wanted to build schools and hospitals for the poor so that he could give back to society. Ramakrishna got very wild on him and asked him what does he think of himself? He said that if God wants to make hospitals for the poor He will make them. What need is there for this egotist person to ask Ramakrishna if he could donate to build a hospital! Now the difficulty here is why would such a great persona say such things about someone doing a kind act of helping the needy. For that you will have to understand what actually happens. Remember in this world every act that you do, you get back in return in the same coin.If you take Rs.100 from someone, you have to return that too in the same way. If I buy an item worth Rs.200, I have to give Rs.200 in...

There are people in this world who can only think of God when they are in deep trouble. Take the case of a woman undergoing a very difficult divorce or marriage. A man who has been stuck up in a rut at work or is not getting a job worth his mettle. A young boy who has just been dumped by his girlfriend or a young woman who got cheated by her beau. Someone who has a very difficult operation, an incurable disease or just an affliction which does not seem to go away. A young student who is appearing for his examination or an interview. There are many more such examples when we think of God and pray to Him with reverence and our fervent prayers are for success. These folks think of Him only because they are in trouble and need help. Otherwise do they even think of Him ever? There seems to be no need for them to think or call on Him when things are going fine.I can just call these people very self centered and selfish to the core. Now take the case of God. He is all loving being and takes a...

In the scriptures the tendencies are called 'vasanas' which we are born with and those that we gather during our stay here in this creation. The tendencies never leave us during the lifetime. They can only be suppressed but never eradicated completely. The tendency to indulge in booze or cigarettes or sex does not even go away if we are brainwashed completely. A person who is used to sleeping late, telling lies often, procrastinating, bullshitting, gambling, womanizing, getting angry at the slightest provocation, copying, worrying, and many more are the tendencies which require herculean efforts to just suppress them! They just lie dormant for someday to again get roused. Our tendencies have a very peculiar way of rousing from deep sleep. They require some of the flimsiest reasons to get going. Take the case of drinking. The person can give the silliest of reason for again taking to drinks. Maybe a breakdown in relationship, a difficult day at work, a celebration or any such si...

We have always dragged on issues in life and carried on without addressing them properly for many reasons. Take the case of balding tires of your car. We say next time I shall change them and we continue on the old ones till they finally give in. The mixer in our kitchen has been malfunctioning for the last one year and we have knocked it tens of times and restarted it but haven't gone to change it. The idea that Japan is the weakest link in the earth faults and is prone to earthquakes has not changed the attitude of Japanese people to shift their nuclear power plants. Why do we wait for things to crystallize and then start to react at the n'th moment? In life also we wait for things to come to a complete halt before we look at them. Can we not begin in time and address the issues well in time so that we can save ourselves a lot of heartaches later on? Haven't we learnt in school- A stitch in time saves nine? Yet we continue with our apathetic attitude and procrastinate on ...

I know everyone will say that I have been there and experienced it too. Oranges are a plenty in our life and we seem to get them every season. Difficulties are a part and parcel of life and we face them time and again. When they do come we are stumped and don't know what to do with them. But have you realized that they just vanish away and then we are back again to face another one. The endless cycle goes on and we have become experts in facing them. We look at others and say- how come they have such a good life? How come they do not have to undergo such difficult times like us? The grass looks greener always on the other side but know that it is just another illusion. They too have many more difficulties than we can imagine. A boy ditches a girl and we think I just have been served an orange and we cry our heart out. But hey, the situation looks bleak enough for you but know that you just saved yourself more trouble. The after thought keep us company and we look over the trying ti...

There are always two sides of a coin. There are always two sides to an argument and yet we never look at the other side. In the material world we all have a biased view of life. When we get a promotion we feel so happy but when we get no increment in salary we get sad. These can be short lived if we are told that along with the promotion we have been relegated to the most unwanted department and the salary increase has not happened because we have been reassigned to another team where the perks are far greater than the salary. In both these cases our happiness and sadness are short lived. We fluctuate immediately into another state of mind. Now if your daughter comes to you telling you about the good marks she has got in her test papers, you feel elated but later when the marks are reversed due to some error, you are bound to feel let down. The sanction of a housing loan was of a bigger amount and later it was turned into a smaller amount leading you to a great distress. We have our mi...

Yesterday I was asked a very logical question by a CEO of a big company-What do you do for a living? I told him that I am a spiritualist and so he wanted to know how much I charge for my spiritualism! And I said 'no charges'. The next in line was what is it that I teach and where do I do that? I answered that I teach students to just go towards the Self and nothing beyond and that I do where I can- at the house of that student or at my place. He was flabbergasted and again asked if I teach yoga or meditation or any such thing. I said not at all and that my spiritual satsang does not contain hatha yoga or meditation at all. I am sure you too must be wondering if I am actually doing anything at all since I do not conduct spiritual classes or hatha yoga sessions. The path towards spiritual is all about Self Enquiry and not about hatha yoga or any such. Can you imagine the Christians, Muslims, Parsis or Sikhs or any other people from China or US or Europe actually do not follow muc...

There hasn't been a single person who can truly say that they have found God outside their own or in some strange places looking down at them. Take the case of Moses in the Bible, he found a burning bush and sounds or voices which commanded him. Take the case of the prophet and you will find that he too had visions or dreams. Take the case of Ramakrishna or Vivekananda too, they only experienced the divine and never met this God! Today when we are celebrating a religious festival called MahaShivaratri and everyone throngs to the Shiv mandir, you really wonder whom they are propitiating or praying to. So what is this God we seek and where do we find Him? The ones we pray to are called deities or manifestations of that divine in some form. We look at the stone lingam, black stone idol or the one on the cross and wonder whether that one will grant us our wishes and we pray fervently to that. Fortunately our wishes are granted most of the time and then our journey starts towards this m...