Krsna's Teachings

Man lives on hope! Another plane vanishes. We all have hopes. We all wish so much that the flight returns and the people aboard are found safe and sound. That is hope. We all live on hope.  Don't we hope for the best even in the worst possible scenario? When we know that there is even the faintest of chances for success, we hope for the best.  Man hopes that the deformed fetus that is struggling to survive lives. We hope the new year brings cheer and lots of happiness for your beloved. We visualize the coming season will be wonderful. We pray that the student sitting for exam has an easy answer paper. We hope the results will be good. We all hope that you get a good job with good salary. We pin our hopes that the slave gets his freedom. We hope that God listens to our prayers. The movie producer hopes his picture is a hit. The girl thinks she has the magic recipe for weight reduction. He hopes he will win the lottery this time.  Hope is a big word with four letters. It ha...

Now for the year in review!  Everyone during the course of the final week at the end of the year or the beginning of new year retrospect and review the year gone by. Some are good memories and some are terrible. Some we want to remember and some to forget.  We all do that because we want to find value in that year. The memories are daunting since they are very fresh. How does one find value in the memories? You look at the things that have brought about a good change and appreciate it and those which have shown us the downside we wish to erase and learn from those mistakes.  Some of the things we want to avoid are relatives or friends with whom we have fallen off. Some lovers whom we left behind. Some dreams which were destroyed during the course of the year. Some victories like the ones which provide you with enthusiasm or impetus to pursue further the given subject.  Some holidays and reunions are very touching and some draw our breath and dry our palates. Anger we...

Apologetic negations! "No, I don't know."" I am sorry." Why does a person always start most of their sentences with these words? Are they programmed to be apologetic in almost everything. Why can they not start the sentence with a positive?  We have always learnt that if you give yourself negations, then everything in this world will be denied for you. So when someone says- I can't do this! Aren't they saying that they are incapable of doing something and that they can never attempt the same.  Atheists deny God so come whatever may, how can they ever find God ever? Similarly, the fanatics believe their God is the only true God, so when will they find the God who has created everything including those who believe in devils, other gods or in nothing? When someone has closed all the doors how can they find anything open? That is called loss of faith and hope.  If you deny yourself the power to know yourself, how will you know? You have been given so many fa...

The story of the devoted king and his Guru.  Why does the Guru do what He does? Can anyone be sure why or wherefore He does it? No one can fathom the reasons for what He does. Then why does the petty mind of humans come in the way? I shall tell you one story here.  Once upon a time there was a king. He had a Guru who was the highest amongst the sages.  He believed in the Guru and everyone felt that the king was mad enough to throw his wealth away on Him. The king revered the Guru so much so that every time he met his Guru, he spent a fortune on gifts and celebrations. One day a pious person came to meet the Guru. At the same time the king happened to visit the Sage. The Guru immediately told the king to appoint this unknown god loving person as his prime minister.  The king did not hesitate and instantly gave the command appointing the pious person as his kingdoms prime minister. What the king didn't know was that this person suffered from leprosy. Though he was cure...

Is that the true Guru and the disciple here? Yesterday, I was told how students from a big university treat their teachers with disrespect and disdain. The teacher pleads with his students to come to class the next day so that he could distribute the marks cards. No body cares for the teacher anymore.  Similar situation is faced by the spiritual Masters too. They are treated worse than the school teachers or college professors. No respect is given to them and they are obliged to become crass creatures who beg students to learn. Being Kaliyuga they are subjected to such derogatory life.  Being engrossed in the material world, the disciples today are filled up with their duties to material. Earning their living and raising their family are primary modes of their life. Teaching such disciples is the toughest thing in the world. Since overcoming their bodies and senses, mind and intellect becomes very difficult. On top of it their past tendencies which we call as vasanas has becom...

Everyone makes resolutions for the new year. Even hypocrites who say it is not their new year or religious fanatics who believe their new year is still sometime away.  Who cares what resolution you make! Neither you nor anyone! Yet, you still go ahead and suggest some changes in your attitude or your targets or goals settings.  Let us understand that even if you have vowed to not tell lies or  do some exercises, you are surely not going to do that. So then why bother? Can anyone change your inherent nature or your obnoxious habits? If you are attuned to lie all the time, you will do the same. Why would you want to change your ways or lifestyle?  Take the case of smokers or drinkers. They make resolutions every now and then to refrain from smoking or drinking. Do they keep the word? Rarely does one keep ones promise. Surely, they do not count their word so much otherwise they would have kept it truthfully.  Inherent nature makes one behave in a particular manner....

Where did the good old times go? The things we were used to no longer exist and to find a replacement for the old becomes very tough. This is our way of exasperation and frustration, which makes us say that we miss the good old days or the stuff we were so accustomed to.  Getting acclimatized to the new methods or gadgets, systems or people is very tough for the uninitiated. You will find this phenomenon whenever you buy the newer phones or computers, whose technology differs.  Though it becomes relatively easier to navigate the new devices or systems but for some people it appears like climbing Mount Impossible.  When we graduated to push button phones from the old analog pieces and later to cellphones. The cellphones too have undergone numerous changes right from the push button type to swipe screens and now it may appear to graduate to voice prompt or some other. Similarly, when we moved on from the age old hard keyed Remington typewriters to the IBM Selectric to deskt...

No one listens! Why don't they listen? You keep on telling them and still they never listen. It's no use talking you say, because any which way no one will listen. So why talk and waste your breath?  Yours is a sage's advice and still no one takes it. You know that you have gone through similar situations and made mistakes. So you don't want the others to do the same. So out of your goodness, you want these people not to repeat your type of mistakes. It has been costly mistakes and you have been suffering because of them. So you don't want these folks to err, so you want to help them. But no one wants to do that. Their big fat ego comes in the way and they never for once listen to your sagacious advice.  After they did that several times, you have stopped telling them anything. They don't care for you and neither do you give a damn if they are alive or not. You feel sad for them so many times that you go and open your mouth to genuinely stop them and again commi...

I am very busy. I have too many things to do. There is no time for some other things to be done. I wish there were more than 24 hours in a day. I am very tired and I just need a holiday. I am sure you have heard all of the above in your daily life.  Now analyze the same person from your own perspective. She got up at around 9am. Had tea for one whole hour. Read newspaper. Went inside the kitchen after her morning ablutions. Cooked some simple stuff and then proceeded to serve the family members by afternoon. Took the afternoon snooze. The maid came and cleaned the house and went away. Got up late evening. Had another beverage and made and ate some snacks. Went to the neighbors and chatted. Husband came and served dinner. Went to bed, made love and slept off to wake up again next day after he had gone to work. Now she says she is very tired.  Look at him now. He got up, did his morning ablutions, had breakfast of cereals and went to work. Entered office, spoke to multiple peopl...

Relationships reach dead end very soon.  Now what is there to talk about? There is hardly anything to discus in our lives anymore. These statements are usual in a marriage after a couple of years. Today, married folks hardly speak much. They have closed their communication window. There is no love left.  In arranged marriages, there is hardly any discussion since both the partners hardly know each other. To explore each other takes time. To build confidence in each other itself is tough. Then to discus private lives or the past is very difficult. Either of them have no clue how they will be accepted by the other. Hence they both prefer silence. Later, once the child comes into the picture, there is no time to talk. What is left of life is to discus mundane family matters and sometimes office. Once in a while it is holiday time. That too is fraught with pressures of money or time. So people get used to their lifestyle which hardly has any true love whatsoever.  Those who g...

The festivals come and go. We are full of celebrations then and later the spirit vanishes. The enthusiasm dies down the moment the festival closes for the day. We get back to our mundane world once again. Why does the spirit die?  When the man got created in the womb, he was living in a world full of darkness and waters. There was inertia and inactivity. There was only the occasional gurgle and movement. Till whole of the nine months, the child inside never experienced any movement at all. It was just a small one. Once it was born, the activity happened. Later, the activity again became inactive. Our original state is inactivity alone. So how can we expect to be active all the time? Man has got created from inactive elements and his natural tendency is inactivity. So he tends to move towards a state of becoming inactive once again. It's the same principle of the pendulum. It swings till there is motion or momentum. Once the momentum wanes the pendulum comes to rest. It's then i...

What does God do for me? Often you have wondered when it is mentioned that God doesn't interfere in the working of this world and otherwise you believe God does everything. So which of it is true?  Both the statements are true. The divine doesn't interfere in anything that is happening around you. You can see that statement is true when even after multiple fervent prayers, the object is never achieved. You pray for your parent to survive. He suffers from a debilitating disease and you have gone and prayed fervently to God. But nothing happens and the parent dies. You ask the question to God, why couldn't He save the parent? Didn't you pray hard? Weren't your prayers understood by Him? He is said to be kind and compassionate and yet it doesn't show you that side of His nature! So your faith is shaken. You ask some religious person and they answer that God is compassionate so He took away your and your parents' pain. They say, He knows best what is right for y...

Everyone needs motivation. Reading about Prozac today, I was wondering how come there aren't any drugs for motivation? The world needs motivation constantly since a person can become demotivated even before you could spell the word.  To get into a state of depression and demotivation is the easiest thing for a man to do. The toughest thing is to stay highly motivated all the time. We are prone to feeling in the dumps more often than feeling great. The euphoria of any achievement lasts for a very short time. Once you get the medal and celebration time is over, what do you do except sulk? You know you have reached the end of the enjoyment and there is none thereafter. Similar is pain. There is a threshold of pain and once you have reached it you exult. Take the case of a woman undergoing delivery. The factor called pain is at it's peak but once the child is delivered she goes in relaxation.  The same goes for sex. The drive for sex is very high till the ejaculation happens and t...

In the battle with tamas and inertia, you say, I want to win! I want to see light and victory. I need that desperately!  Do you really want to get out of the shrift you are in? Are you ready to do everything possible in this world to win? You will surely answer me that you want to and that you are ready!  Next what happens is a repetition of the old. You get up and get going. You tell everyone that they should help you get to your goals and they should encourage. Then you make resolutions and lay ground rules to achieve that impossible goal. You set the alarm clocks, buy new stationary and set new timetables, get a new tool kit or a computer program, decide on a diet plan, create funding, start exercises, et al. Everything is raring to give you the ultimate thrust towards victory.  While on the planning page, you sit and dream about the money you will make or the glory that you will have. You think about public profiles, publicity, honor and accolades you will get. Your d...

The fairy tale ending always appeals to our child like mind. The truth could never be told, you say! There are many times in life when you have to tell lies for a greater purpose. But there are times when you have to be brutally honest with your answers. That time you should know that you are talking to an adult, whereas otherwise you are speaking to a innocent child or an ignorant human!  Like the time your kid asks you when is the tooth fairy coming? Or the time when she is expecting gifts from Santa Claus. Do you think you can tell her then that there is no Santa, no Harry Potter, Bugs Bunny, Superman, Spider-Man or some such mythical creature? Do you want to break her heart by telling her these are only unreal things? No! At such times even you have to tell her simple untruths.   Just imagine telling her that all these are stories and there is no real such person. You may just destroy her spirit or belief in beautiful things. Her faith will be shattered and she may be a bo...

Everyone is behind a mask! Why do humans put up appearances in front of others? Why are we such hypocrites and behave in such goody goody manner, when we should be at each other's throat? We love to enact a loving scene in front of the press or our friends whereas if these people were to know the truth, we would be going hammer and tongs at each other.  Every other day you find sleazy gossip about someone or the other having an affair with someone else and then the original couple making up. Does it mean they are doing it to not pay alimony, harm their children, make their parents or relatives believe everything is hunky dory? Or are they trying to mend and use the broken crockery? But why would you want to use a broken crockery, even when it has cracked end to end?  I still remember a person putting up a charade that everything is perfect and fine even after knowingly getting into a relationship with an outsider. This went on for nearly a year then to keep up the appearances ...

Stop believing in false gods when you are in a hopeless condition. They and their cronies will tell you to do some stuff to appease them to take you out of this rut you are in. These are the loan sharks who wait for you to loose everything. They are the devil in disguise, who will dangle you with goodies to entrap you and enslave you. Haven't you seen your own do vratams or severe austerities and extreme kind of worship and religious activities? You have seen people spend money like water for getting the right husbands, kids, jobs, whatnots!!! Every door seemed to have closed on you and nothing moves. There is not even a hint of hope and you have reached rock bottom. How many times have you come to this state and felt completely defeated? Lost at sea or completely demoralized!  Religious fanatics or false evangelists love to give you some fantastic stories about rising from the ashes, seeing a ray of hope or having a tiny light at the end of the tunnel. But most of the time they ar...

Looks can be deceptive!  When we hear people say- what you see is what you get, don't you think that if you see something like a fruit, you are buying that? But is that what you were seeking?  Today marketing is full of deceit and you can never make out with the wrapper whether the substance is real or fake. Just imagine your favorite ice cream is being enjoyed by you since a very long time and you come to know today that it is not even an ice cream then what would you say? It's deception and what is being sold to you is just a cold frothy substance. Next time read the ingredients on the pack and you will be shocked. It is a frozen gooey stuff that you believed was a nice cream but turns out into an aerated vegetable oil. Would you eat oil instead? No way, you will say but aren't you eating that?  Next go to fresh cows milk and find out if it's really fresh or even cows milk and you will be again shocked. Now that we have created a nice suspicion in your mind let me tak...

What happens when the senses become senseless? How much salt do you need in your food? Just a pinch of it, isn't it? It makes the food edible and tasty. Now ask how much sugar do you need in your food and the answer is not the same! Sugar is needed to make some stuff sweet and salt is added for taste. So the two differ in content and quantity too.  Some people do not have the capacity to eat sugar since they are diabetic. They have to regulate the sugar in their bodies so they are under medication. They have an insulin jab and then have a little sweet stuff to regulate. But most of the people can have regular sugar in their diets. Even a bottle of your favorite soft drink has nearly 40 grams of sugar.  This is not a lesson on foods and additives. This is a lesson on tastes in life and how we accept them. This is how we take in stuff in the world through our mind.  The tongue is an organ which can distinguish a taste and tell you how much it is. Whether the food has excess...

What is real and unreal? Sometimes it's so tough not to accuse someone in our life. Even though we know that the main culprit or perpetrator is that someone who is special to us.  There are many reasons for our behavior. It could be that we love that person dearly, have respect for him or her, owe something special to them, common sense tells us not to accuse them, societal norms, no certainty about our accusations, the position they carry in the hierarchy, belonging to a certain class or caste, stupidity of theirs or our own idiotic reasons, etcetera. Now you can put up your own reasons for shutting up.  By doing so sometimes we put our foot in our mouth or create a very disturbing situation in life. The people around you become disenchanted or loose their respect for you. Now I shall give you some examples to let you get an even idea about it.  Teachers in school sometimes are wrong in what they are teaching but as a mark of respect we shut up. Parents or elders are tak...

What would you do if you were trapped into submission by an attacker? Would you submit or fight or would you just be a passive being and let them get away with the heinous crime?  There are all kinds of people in this world. So expecting some to resist and others to allow is in our nature. Some of us are so mild mannered that we let others railroad us and bully us. Some are so aggressive that they fight tooth and nail to bring the other to justice or bring them to their knees.  The passive beings are always the butt of ridicule and bullying. Why do they allow others to do that to them, you may ask? Atrocities happen because the perpetrators seek out the submissive. These people are built like the predator type of animals. They thirst for seeking out an easy prey. Finding one is extremely easy since they hunt with precision of an owl or a bat in the darkness of human apathy.  Whenever there are atrocities, humans stay deliberately out of it. They see these instances happen...

Giving reasons are our forte! We all love to give reasons for everything that we can't do, don't want to do, forgotten to do or just waste away. So our mind has this great capacity to find out hundreds of reasons why we are not doing it.  Where do we learn that?  As a child we have given ourselves the leeway to find answers for all our misdoings. Even if we take up a candy found in someone's bag and have eaten it, we won't tell or we wouldn't own up to eating it. This is a kind of a defensive behavior and a method of getting past our silly crimes. We learn to tell white lies and stand up to ourselves when we feel suppressed.  As we grew up, this habit grew with us. So in studies too, when the chips were down, we came up with various unknown illnesses, disasters, deaths, shortages and what nots as reasons for failing to perform. Later, it continued in the job front when we met our first set of disappointments. Later we lost our jobs and so the easiest way of getting ...

Red rose is about love, pink is for like, white is for purity and yellow is for friendship. If colors could determine the emotions then what would make the blind man understand?  Someone telling him that the color of the rose he got from that admirer is yellow! But what if he has no knowledge about the essence of the colors or what they stand for? Everything seems a waste.  So when someone says it's important to express your feelings verbally, know that it's important to do so. Stop playing with symbolism since half of the world people are idiots. They are born dunces or have become one. So expressions in words and saying it straight is important. So if you love someone say it straight and don't beat round the rose bush! Don't you know that the people who are in love behave like perfect idiots and dunces?  Talking straight to God is also very important! So are prayers to God. You better express the wants perfectly in words without errors otherwise you may get into troub...

Failures are obstacles placed in the successful pathway of life. So what is the feeling that you would have when the one thing that you were actually working hard for slips out from your hands? Dejection or depression? Or would you work doubly hard to achieve that result once again? It all depends upon the way you look at it.  If your future depends upon the decision favoring you then you would go all out and get it. But if it doesn't mean much to you then you wouldn't be up to making amends.  It's the same thing when your deepest desire is not met. Maybe it's a seat in some fancy university or just an audition for some contest, you loosing it can cause you a lot of heartburn. Or your girlfriend walking away with your best friend and leaving you high and dry. The deepest feeling of incompetence and failure can be devastating for a few.  There are those who take it so much to heart that they end their lives and some take to alcohol or some other means of getting over the...

You are dispensable.  We all believe the world will come to a standstill or end if we are not there to solve its issues. The world of chaos is what you go back to once you are back from your journey. You have focused in your world so much that now when you have to refocus again on your mundane existence, everything seems to be out of place.  There is discipline or conformity where you work. You kept your stuff which may be utility, utensils or office stationary, perfectly in an ideal place and you went on an holiday or some official tour. You returned after a period of two to three weeks and find that the whole scheme of things are disturbed. You do not seem to find the simplest of the stuff. You always kept it in one particular place and now that doesn't exist.  Ever little thing seems to be out of place. You are not able to find your stuff anywhere. So what do you do?  You are angry and frustrated. You wonder which idiot was disturbing your stuff which was in a per...

What is responsive stupor? It is that which makes you unable to move or perform the silliest of the tasks in our day to day life! Why am I confused in life? Why don't I find what I want to do? Where am I going today? Do I really have any answers? You always say, I don't know what I am supposed to do. So help me please and show me some light. Tell me what I am to do! I have been racking my brain trying to think of some answers and still I don't have any. On top of it all my head hurts so much. I am having a stinking headache. I need a vacation. Can I run away somewhere? I wish I could have some answers!  This is the story of everyone's life so don't go and deny it. You have always found yourself in a completely disrupted state, confused beyond doubts and unable to focus on anything at all. You are always running away from the scene and wanting someone to give you answers.  People try such stupid and funny stuff to get answers. Sometimes even dangerous! People go to a...