Krsna's Teachings

What does it mean to give selflessly? Now that we are at the end of the year and a new beginning is just round the corner, let us do some good deeds. When you agree with me and say that I truly want to do something nice, then open your heart and just GIVE, give and give.  So now you want to know what to give and how? As I said give with an open loving heart to the truly deserving. You think I am talking about being charitable and wanting to donate. Yes, that too! To make you understand the action of giving selflessly, I will give you certain examples here.  A young man comes to your house fully drenched from the rain, would you give him your raincoat or rain jacket? Even an old one lying in the cupboard would serve the purpose. Do you think this is an act of giving?  You realize when you open your fathers wardrobe that there are a couple of brand new jackets which you have given him as gift in the last 7-8 years and they are unused. You know there are a couple of young men who don'

"Listen, learn and live the lesson," is the toughest spiritual lesson anyone can get. It's not easy to achieve spiritual success of realization or liberation because man never does these three things in life.  When will man learn? How many times have I said the same stuff to him but it doesn't affect him at all. Why doesn't he listen to me? Does he think I am his enemy? I am only interested in his growth and yet he doesn't understand that. When will he understand?  I feel like giving up on him and just not bother with him. It is so frustrating to see him waste his life away. If only he were to listen to me, he would go places. I am fed-up with him. Sometimes I wish there was an easier method of teaching him, then he would have understood. But I do really take pain and efforts to push him but nothing shakes him up from his stupor and inertia. Someday he will understand but till then what can be done? I just have to wait it out and pray to God that he learns.  H

You stumble, you fall and then you learn! Till you don't fall down, you won't learn. I have heard people say this so many times that it is no longer potent. No human being understands the true worth of these words till it is too late.  As a young man or a woman, you want to race life faster and faster. Little realizing that you are growing towards a point wherein you have to do everything by yourself. When young, you think that you don't need to do anything at all and everything happens on its own accord. Like cooking food, putting your clothes away, clearing the bed or the kitchen, buying groceries or daily needs, paying bills in time, clearing your taxes, attending family functions and many more.  Also, if you are a man you won't know the problems of a woman and if you are a girl you may not be aware of the issues of men. Never having bought tampons or sanitary napkins, gone to a gynecologist or experienced cramps or premenstrual symptoms or menopause, a man doesn'

We have all faced this dilemma of shortage of time. We want to do certain things in life which are extremely important but we can't find time to do them. We are always running after things and never able to catch them. Why does that happen?  Let us look at our normal life and you will realize how we have very little time left to do certain things. A man or woman gets up, does the morning ablutions and runs to work. Comes back extremely tired and just wants to rest or sleep. Where can these busy people find time to do anything at all?  Then a few years after marriage, there is hardly anytime to even have a sexual intercourse. Everything becomes a burden and time consuming affair. It is as if you have to write a calendar appointment to do something important. That too, it becomes a chore so you mostly give it up. Or get on with it as an obligation and finish it very quickly.  Look at the Thanksgiving day or Christmas abroad, Diwali or Dusshera day in India, it has just lost its charm

The word of God is being disputed today. I was reading somewhere that the holy books like Bible or Bhagvad Gita which are considered the words of God, today, has changed over the years so it can't be word of God. There has been tremendous amount of manipulation by adding stuff or removing some things which are wrong in recent times so how would that be the true word of God? This is mentioned by some scholars.   Take for instance the story of stoning of the lady wasn't there in the Bible in the beginning but later it got added. Similarly there was no story of Jesus rising from the dead so how could it be true? These are supposed to be some addendum to the original texts. In the Bhagvad Gita also the people who disown Krsna think that He was just some king who was glorified as God. What is the truth here? Those who comment on it are already biased and don't want to listen to any kind of reasoning or the truth. They have already made up their mind that the holy books are fake

We love to possess things!  You are going away for a few weeks and you need to lock your house down. Do you know what it takes to shut and secure every little thing in the house?  It's a very lengthy preparation when you are away for some time. You get your stuff in order. Pay off all your pending bills including your electricity and phone bills. Your news vendor needs to be told about not dropping them during that time. Your milkman or egg/ fish vendor, if you have one needs to be informed. Your car has to be serviced and charged up, otherwise the battery won't come alive when you return.  Your doors and windows are secured. Your fridge has to be emptied and your water mains and electrical mains have to be shut down. Your gas connection has to be disconnected and kept away.  If you have kids, you have to take leave of absence from school or college if you are going during the class times. Vacations are different since the occasion is joyous in most cases, you prepare a truck l

Today, man has very little or no belief in God! No doubt, there are those diehard fanatics too at the other end of the spectrum.  Why doesn't my son believe in God? This question has been asked by many people nowadays. When I say son it could also mean a daughter. What could be the reason for disbelief or moving towards atheism? Parents are at wits end to try telling their kids to come with them to places of worship, but the children aren't responding positively.  Let me tell you the one single reason for that happening but first I will have to give you some background. The kids today are very intelligent and have clear logic. Things like faith or belief in some invisible being won't get their attention. They live in an age of modernization and technology. Everything works with the flip of a button or a tap on the screen.  These evolved kids or young people have learnt in school or college methods of arriving at conclusions with careful analysis and using perfect logic. Hav

Why is God so unfair? Why does God give to the undeserving and not to you? Why does the stupidest person end up with the most coveted trophy? When you hear the story of some young girl who came out of Instagram and told the truth, you are aghast and feel cheated. Again you hear about some candidate who has a couple of criminal cases against him and he gets elected you feel terrible.  We always think that the truth is right in our faces but that is unreal and the truth is incognito. A few years ago some vague villager was elected as the leader of a country. He was a village bumpkin given to vagaries of his own gullible nature. He dug his nose and snored away in the government houses in front of the glaring media. The media made a mincemeat out of him and yet he continued. He never had finesse or appeared suave anywhere.  In another instance during the Miss Universe contest the most undeserving candidate got the crown whereas the so called deserving one got the runners up crown. In some

Have you met failures in life?  You will surely tell me that you have and it had been the toughest time of your life to get over them.  To start with you may say it all began at birth. You might have been born in a very poor family or maybe a reasonably well off one. Yet, the mood is set for failures right at the beginning of time.  You may say that on an average I have seen 7-8 failures and 2-3 successes. Your ratio would correspond to any other normal person. But you always have believed that you are not normal and a very unique human being. Your justification would be simply that your life has been full of struggles and nothing fell in your lap ever. You were the most unluckiest of them all. Your best friend or enemies got things on a platter and they were the least deserving. Am I right in my assessment of your situation so far? Tell me, tell me!! So do you think these so called lucky people never meet failures? It happens everywhere, even in spiritual. Do you think I fell out of h

How does one find God? This is a subject I have never written about much but since you asked me a question I shall answer it.  Atheism is all about non belief in the supernatural being called God. The atheists have no fears or love for this invisible being and hence they don't have any motivation for belief in God.  It is like the fear of ghosts or demons. This is a season of Halloween and people generally celebrate the festival even if they don't believe in ghosts or ghouls by putting up decorations and playing trick or treat. Ask these people whether they believe in these things and they will laugh. Is it because they haven't met a ghost or or some other worldly creature, that they refuse to believe?  Today, we do stuff even if we don't have any faith in it. Like watching sci-fi movies and wondering whether these gadgets are actually there or not. Whether there is a Death Star or not! Or look at Harry Potter movies. Everyone feels like they are in the movies. But is i

The truth about truth.  I solemnly swear that I will be telling the truth and nothing but the truth.  You have heard the words before from numerous people. I swear by so and so that I am telling you the truth!  And do you believe in those words?  Do you believe in the words of a confirmed thief that he hasn't robbed someone?  Do you believe in the words of a politician when he swears by a holy book?  Would you trust a husband when he says he is truthful to his wife when his name was found on the recently leaked dating website? Would you trust your son who was found with his hand in the cookie jar? Would you trust your eyes when you go for a magic show?  At all times the answer is no!  Then why does a person say I trust you? When they know very well that there isn't anyone in this world who can be trusted.  We always tend to give the benefit of doubt to others. But we are not even sure whether they are telling the truth or not.  In a sensational murder case the couple were arres

"Why is it important to be with the Guru? Is physical presence so very important?"asked Ramakrishnaji.  Now the purport of the question was to know if there are any important reasons for being in close proximity to the Guru. Wouldn't it be easier to just think about Him and mentally worship Him?  Surely, you can do it that way. But the truth of the matter is how much would you be able to focus or get spiritual ken that way? Being a material worldly person always till you happen to meet your preceptor, the sadhak needs to be under the complete guidance of the Master, otherwise it would be very easy to slip down the mundane life path.  The material worldly life is full of pitfalls and every moment the great Maya is constantly egging you onwards towards a desire filled existence.  When you surrender to the Master, it is His job to take care of all your basic needs. You will never be falling short of your day to day existence. But when you strive in the material world with yo

On Krsna Janmastami, I would love to wish all my devotees and disciples a very happy and joyous occasion.  Love has been an integral part of Krsna's life journey. Love defined His association with every individual He interacted with, when on earth. Some people hated Him but His love never waned for that hating individual.  When we see the puranas or Krsna Leelas we will come to understand that even when someone exuded hatred, Krsna only oozed love for that person. In the Sriram avatar, He finally absorbed Ravana. Similarly in Krsna avatar, He did the same to Jarasandha and Shishupal. Dying at the hands of Krsna, Kamsa achieved the highest heavens.  Whether it is Chanda Munda, Jay Vijay, Ravana Kumbhakarna, Hiranyakashyapa Hiranyaksha, Jarasandha Shishupal, Krsna never for once showed enmity. On the contrary He fought with them with compassion finally killing them and absorbing them in His being.  Now a lesson in why they hate Krsna. It happens too innocuously and unknown to these d

Is this world lying? I was watching Morgan Freeman's science program in which he ended by saying that ask anyone the truth and it will be only a lie. I agree with him since everything is a lie in the domain of Maya. It's called Krsna's Maya and it is illusory.  So someone came up with the term-relative! Just as time is relative to the position on the planet earth. Wherever you are the time is correlated to the latitude and longitude, the position of the sun and so on. Night and day are determined by darkness and light. Then what happens in the land of the midnight sun? Or the Antarctic or the poles?  Likewise in our life also, we always tell the so called truth to others. It is relative to what you or the other wants to hear. Look at it this way, the ugliest of the child is the most beautiful to the mother. The husband or boyfriend is forced to call his ugly spouse or girlfriend as beautiful too. At other times the wife wrongfully says that her husband is like an Adonis or

We have heard everyone say the words from the Bhagvad Gita- "Non-violence in action, words and deeds!" These words have been grossly interpreted as an action which involves no violence, but you can use non-violent methods to get to your means or results.  Krsna never meant that you could use arm-twisting methods to make others succumb to your ways. He also never asked anyone to coerce others into submission. But when you hear the terms,"I got him to do without beating him," know that the individual has been blackmailed into doing things by non-violent methods.  Sometimes we hear parents tell you that it is not right for you to beat your children but use other non-violent methods in making them toe your line. There are parents in some parts of the world who use the stick method in teaching their children to do certain things and in other parts of the world there are people who have never even shouted the children down. They have talked them into submission. Which of

Health care is very important need for mankind. I still remember my mother saying some very strange words like," aale mati kole mati sutarache haath dande ghal kombda tujha phako ani maze dukho!" Now what it meant was that you get well and let all your troubles come to me. I felt alright immediately. Her magical words created wellness in me. How did that happen?  Mothers are very loving and they don't want you to fall sick or get hurt and if you do so they help you get over it by some such old wives tales.  Our old GP or General Physicians were like those mothers too. When you went to their dispensary they would welcome you with funny words. They will sit you down and ask about your family and friends. Tell you about something's happening around your village or city. Keeping you engrossed in some small talk they would examine you. The stethoscope probing your body, asking you to open your mouth wide, shining the torch in there and asking you to pull out your tongue, t

We heard the phrase- Ma ke hath ka khana! Are these words of some ad? All that seems so distant and faraway now! How sophistication has come to our lives! We open a can of condensed milk and make a sweet meat or a packet of noodles and boil it for few minutes! Lo and behold! Your dish is ready for consumption.  Ease and comfort has made us used to opening and popping stuff into microwave and relishing it. With the virtual paucity of time and lack of hands we have got accustomed to this method of living.  It must have all started with going to the jungles or vegetable patches to search for the right veggies. Collecting them and sorting out, washing and weeding them, cleaning and chopping, putting in the pot and stirring, simmering and sautéing, salting and tasting as the cooking went along. It must have been an extremely time consuming ordeal. Then the factor called comfort must have crept in which led to getting it readymade. But the spiral must have started in various avatars.  Then t

The United States Supreme Court has ruled that same sex marriages will be legit. Now, why is this news gaining so much prominence everywhere? North America and portions of Europe and Africa have legalized same sex marriages. Asia is yet to give its nod. That too will happen. So why did that happen? The answer is simply Kaliyuga.  Ma Kali rules this yuga or age as we call it. It defines the rise of women and the beginning of the end of the yugas. What are the things predicted in this yuga?  Man will no longer remain a man. He will be more feminine and androgynous in nature. He will not be able to give birth to future generations the way he was accustomed to. He will never be able to rule over women. On the contrary, he will have to become submissive and impotent in front of women. Btw, all this is not happening in one day but may take another few years, since this yuga has a balance of four hundred thousand years. It's believed Kaliyuga is about 4,32,000 years in sum total.  When a