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Life is Short. Go For the
Lifeboat.
Life is very short,
especially in the Kali yuga. Even though we are supposed to live to be 100, hardly anyone makes it that far these days. You never know when you are going to meet with calamitous death from disease, a stroke
or a heart attack, an automobile accident, a terrorist attack, or from any other of a myriad of other possible means of untimely
death. Therefore, since life is very short we should try to squeeze as much Krishna bhakti as possible into each and every
24 hour period to maximize our chances of remembering Krishna at the time of death thus enabling ourselves to go back to home,
back to Godhead never to take birth again in this miserable world.
Some foolish people
criticize us for being pessimistic. If you are on a sinking ship, it is better
to know that you are sinking so you can abandon the ship and get into a lifeboat? Or is it better to ignore the fact that
you are sinking and go on naively trying to enjoy yourself on the ship? Is the
person who chooses the lifeboat a pessimist, or is he an optimist?
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
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Sanjay Krishna Panda
Don't Accept Counterfeit
Happiness
It is stated in the Vedic
wisdom: Ānandamayo 'bhyāsāt
"The Absolute Truth by nature is ānandamaya, always jubilant."
(Vedānta-sūtra
1.1.12)
Just as a drop of ocean
water is qualitatively one with the ocean, since we are part and parcel of the Absolute Truth our nature is also to be blissful
at every moment. Because we are thus naturally constituted to be blissful and
because at the same time we are currently trapped in a world which is miserable, we concoct in our minds the idea that we
are happy. In this connection one novelist aptly titled his work, "Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me." The idea of
being stuck in a world of misery is completely unacceptable to the living being. Therefore he must imagine himself to be happy,
much like the proverbial ostrich who sticks his head in the sand and thus imagines that he is protected from the predator
who is coming to kill him.
But why should we settle
for such inferior imagined happiness? Would we be willing to accept counterfeit
money in lieu of genuine money? No, of course not. So why should we accept counterfeit happiness when we can get real happiness by reawakening the dormant
enlightened consciousness which is right there within our hearts at this very minute?
This is real intelligence. This is called Krishna consciousness.
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
For more discussions visit
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Sanjay Krishna Panda
Much Ado About the Wrong
Thing
In today's world we make
a big, big fuss over things that are not of much significance. We waste our time indulging in so many varieties of non-essential
pursuits that do not benefit us either materially or spiritually. This wholesale
madness is going on because we have based our civilization on a false conception of the self. We consider the blood, flesh,
and bones, etc, which constitute the material body, to be the self. Nothing could be further from the truth. Do we consider
our cars to be ourselves? No, of course not. So why should we consider the car
known as the material body to be the self and ignore the driver who is seated on the driver's seat of the heart? A driver who puts gasoline and oil in his car but neglects to feed his body will very soon die from starvation. This is the present situation of our spiritually starved so-called civilization.
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
For more discussions visit
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Sanjay Krishna Panda
How to Realize the Absolute
Truth
One can never be satisfied
by any amount of speculative philosophy, so-called scientific knowledge, or sense pleasures of this mundane world. Unless
one is given a chance to hear, understand, and realize the actual knowledge of the universe, the self, and the Supreme Self,
he will never be satisfied. It does not matter how much one goes on watching television, listening to the radio, surfing the
Internet, attending movies, having sex, or reading the newspaper. He will always feel that something is ultimately lacking
in his consciousness. The fact is that no one can be satisfied by absorbing himself in the flickering sense gratification
pleasures of this material world, because such pleasures are incompatible with the innermost nature of the living being.
The transcendental Vedic
literatures can give the utmost satisfaction to the entire human civilization. This
is so because such literatures are describing in detail the reality which exists eternally behind the flickering screen of
this material world, and how one can enter into it, even while functioning expertly in one's ordinary day-to-day dealings.
These literatures connect one with his very atma or self, thus liberating him from false identification with the coverings
of the self, the gross and subtle material bodies. But as long as people remain less intelligent, they will take more interest
in the mirage of happiness offered by the material world, than the actual happiness that is available for them if they are
willing to open their minds to the Supreme Truth.
It is a great sadness for
those who have been blessed with transcendental knowledge to see how much people are foolishly suffering simply because they
are misinvesting their most valuable human energy. The human energy has to be spent one way or another. So why not spend it
properly by investing it in realizing the Absolute Truth? This realization is dormant in the all heart of all living entities
and is on the verge of awakening in the hearts of all human beings. If the human being can catalyze his enlightened consciousness
by association with enlightened Vedic knowledge such as the Srimad Bhagavatam and the Bhagavad-gita, or by the association
of an enlightened person, the bona fide spiritual master, then he can come out of the clouds of illusion and suffering and
fully realize his actual identity as an eternal servant of God. This is the purpose of the human form of life.
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
For more discussions visit
http://harekrishnaharekrishna.ning.com/forum/
Sanjay Krishna Panda
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