Talk on Leadership by Archana Krishnamurthy

Invitation for Gita Homa on Jan 2, 2016 at Devagiri Venkateshwara Temple, BSK 2nd Stage

CLC is happy to announce the conducting of Gita Homa by Sri Narasingha Chaitanya Matha on 2nd January 2016 at Devagiri Venkateshwara Temple, Banshankari 2nd Stage, Bangalore. All are invited!

Seating is limited and hence kindly confirm your participation in advance by sending as sms to 9686036182 or writing an email to consciouslivingcenterblr@gmail.com. 

You can also participate in the homa as a Yajamana, basically meaning that you can also do the HOMA yourself and take the benefit of the same. Women can also participate in this Homa alone. Contribution required to participate as Yajamana is Rs.1500/- (per couple or per person if individually participating) and you will receive prasad along with a free copy of Bhagavad Gita in English/Kannada. For more details you can call +91 9880314024 / +91 7899433013.

Bring in auspiciousness for yourself and all your loved ones this new year with Gita Homa!

Srila Bhakti Pramod Puri Maharaja - If you have not heard of him, you are missing something

Today is the disappearance day of one of my Param Guru's Srila Bhakti Pramod Puri Maharaja. On this special occasion, I wish to share with all of you what a great personality he was and share some of his great contributions. I am sharing here his biography as mentioned by my Guru ji Srila Bhakti Gaurava Narasingha Maharaja. We are all blessed to be touched by the lives of such great personalities. For me he has been a living example of humility and wisdom. Sharing my good fortune with one and all here....

In the early years of this century, Srila Prabhupada Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Thakura set into motion a devotional revival that rapidly spread through Bengal, India, and eventually the world. He put into question the very foundations of present-day theistic thought in a way that has little comparison anywhere in the spiritual record, East or West. Through him, the world was awakened to the teachings of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and the movement of pure devotion, suddha bhakti.

In orchestrating this modern bhakti revolution, Srila Prabhupada gathered some of the greatest spiritual luminaries in contemporary history into his circle. Such a convergence of exalted spiritual personalities can only be compared to the coming together of Sri Chaitanya’s direct followers in the sixteenth century. One of the devotional giants who entered Srila Prabhupada’s orbit was His Divine Grace Bhakti Promode Puri Goswami Maharaja.

We cannot describe the life of Srila Puri Goswami Maharaja without emphasizing his contribution to the spiritual movement in which he was so integrally involved. The depth of his accomplishments cannot be fathomed outside the context of Sri Gaudiya Math. With his fellow godbrothers, he shared an indomitable faith in the service of his Guru and the message of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. This service was the sole purpose and highest aspiration of his being. This conviction led him to spend his entire life in the pursuit of Srila Prabhupada and Mahaprabhu’s pleasure and the fulfillment of their desires. If we examine his life in this setting, we will see more than just numbers, dates, places and names. We will see how he embodied the very life current that his spiritual preceptors came to give the world.

Srila Puri Goswami Maharaja took birth in the village of Ganganandapur in Jessore district (in present-day Bangla Desh), on October 8, 1898. His parents, Tarini Charan Chakravarti and Srimati Ram Rangini Devi, named him Sri Promode Bhushan Chakravarti. During his childhood, he met his vartma-pradarsaka guru (“one who opens the door to the path of devotion”), Srila Bhakti Ratna Thakura, a godbrother and siksha disciple of Thakura Bhaktivinoda, the legendary architect of the present Gaudiya Vaishnava movement. Through Bhakti Ratna Thakura he was introduced to Sajjana-tosani, Bhaktivinoda Thakura’s own Vaishnava periodical, which was filled with Bhaktivinoda’s commentaries and holy teachings. In this way Srila Puri Maharaja became familiar with the seminal works of the suddha bhaktitradition, such as Chaitanya Charitamrita, Chaitanya Bhagavata and the Srimad Bhagavatam. It was also through Bhakti Ratna Thakura that he first learned of his future guru, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Prabhupada.

Srila Puri Maharaja was still a young university student when he first came before Srila Prabhupada at the Yoga Pith in Sri Mayapur in 1915. It was a significant occasion, for Srila Prabhupada’s diksha guru, Paramahamsa Thakura Srimad Gaura Kishor Das Babaji, had entered his eternal abode only the day before. Srila Puri Maharaja often recounted that as soon as he saw Srila Prabhupada and paid his obeisances to him for the first time, he knew in his heart that this was his spiritual master. Some years later, on the auspicious day of Sri Krishna Janmastami in 1923, he accepted both Harinam and mantra diksha from Srila Prabhupada and was given the name Pranavananda Brahmachari.

At the time, Sri Gaudiya Math was rapidly establishing itself as a bona fide manifestation of Indian religious culture and transforming the caste-conscious socio-religious world of Hinduism. Srila Prabhupada Saraswati Thakura was bringing together his intimate associates to share the wealth of Sri Krishna sankirtana. He had accepted tridandi sannyasa in 1918 and by the early 1920’s had already assumed a formidable position in the Bengali spiritual firmament. He was fearless when it came to upholding true religious principles. The students and practitioners of the Gaudiya Math aligned themselves with this attitude and led most exemplary lives of devotion, imbued with austerity, discipline and in-depth scriptural learning. This high standard of religious life was the hallmark of Sri Gaudiya Math and would be the thread that guided all of Srila Prabhupada’s disciples, including Srimad Puri Goswami Maharaja.

The keystone of success in devotion is to perfectly hear the holy words spoken by one’s spiritual preceptor. Srila Prabhupada would often say, “All that is required of you is that you lend me your ears.” Srila Puri Maharaja was fully committed to this maxim. He had the great good fortune to associate closely with Srila Prabhupada for thirteen years and during that time he served him personally by recording his lectures and conversations, which were later published. The greater part of Srila Prabhupada’s spoken words we are left with today come from the transcriptions of these notes. At the same time, Srila Puri Maharaja cultivated a deep knowledge of the Vaishnava scriptures, with the result that he became a veritable storehouse of the wealth of the preceptorial line coming from Sri Chaitanya and his followers. This led him to become one of the most prolific writers and influential teachers in all of Gaudiya Vaishnava history. His writings reflect the disciplined eye of a scholar who expresses with grace and directness the purest scriptural conclusions supported by his own uncommonly profound realization.

Following Srila Prabhupada’s directives, our Gurudeva edited, wrote for, published and helped distribute countless spiritual publications. He was initially inspired and directed by Srila Prabhupada to start writing and contributing articles to the Gaudiya magazine, the backbone of the Gaudiya Math’s missionary work. For seven years he served as a proofreader and as one of its primary editors. In 1926, he was charged with running the world’s only daily Vaishnava newspaper, Dainika Nadiya Prakasa. He held this service for two years, publishing all of his preceptor’s daily discourses along with articles by fellow students and other contemporaries. His service and learning did not pass unnoticed by Srila Prabhupada who awarded him the titles of maha-mahopadesaka (“great instructor”) and pratna-vidyalankara (“keeper of the wisdom of the ancient scriptural lore”).

After the disappearance of his Gurudeva in 1937, Srila Puri Maharaja continued his vocation of spreading the teachings of Sri Chaitanya through the Gaudiya magazine, first out of the Bagh Bazaar Gaudiya Math and then later the Sri Chaitanya Math in Mayapur. After he founded the Sri Chaitanya Gaudiya Math, Srila Puri Goswami Maharaja’s godbrother, Srimad Bhakti Dayita Madhava Maharaja, invited him to head the editorial board of Chaitanya Vani magazine in 1964. Puri Maharaja served in this capacity for thirty-three years, furthering his life’s work of preserving the teachings of his spiritual lineage. Through Chaitanya Vani, he continued to make a deep impact on the devotional world.

In all, our venerable teacher’s wisdom is embodied in over sixty years of writings on Vaishnava philosophy and theology. He penned a rich variety of texts, bringing the Bhagavata dharma to life through hundreds of poems, essays, narratives, diaries, editorials and personal letters, thus creating a storehouse of the wealth of pure devotion for his disciples and the world at large.

In 1942, Srila Prabhupada appeared to Srila Puri Maharaja in a dream vision and imparted to him the sannyasa mantra, ordering him to accept the renounced order. After accepting tridandi-sannyasa from his godbrother Bhakti Gaurava Vaikhanasa Maharaja in Champahati in August of 1946, he toured parts of India with other godbrothers such as Bhakti Hridoy Bon Maharaja and Bhakti Dayita Madhava Maharaja. In the meantime, he continued to write and lecture with dedication. At the behest of his godbrother Tridandi Swami Bhakti Vilasa Tirtha Maharaja, he also served for seven years as chief pujarifor the Yoga Pitha temple, the birthsite of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

Srila Puri Maharaja took up a more solitary life of worship in the 1950’s. He moved to a humble cottage on the banks of the Ganges in Ambika Kalna. The king of Burdwan was extremely impressed by his saintly ascetic character and, on the appearance day of Srimati Radharani in 1958, presented him with the ancient Ananta Vasudeva temple in Kalna.

In 1989, at the age of 91, Srila Puri Goswami Maharaja established the Sri Gopinatha Gaudiya Math in Ishodyan, Sri Mayapur, for the service of their divine lordships, Sri Sri Gaura-Gadadhara, Jagannatha Deva, Radha-Gopinatha and Lakshmi-Narasingha Deva. In the following years, he established other temples in Jagannatha Puri, Vrindavana, Calcutta and Midnapore.

Srila Puri Maharaja taught through his every action. He excelled in all aspects of devotional practice and there was perhaps no area in which he did not exhibit utmost expertise, diligence and foresight. This ranged from his encyclopedic knowledge of scripture, to maintaining the printing press, to his beautiful singing of kirtan. He was especially recognized for his sensitivity and attention to detail in the performance of deity worship and devotional rites and was thus widely called upon to be the head priest in most of the Gaudiya Matha’s deity installations and ceremonial functions. He was rarely known to rest; his service was an uninterrupted flow. Even in his later years, he would remain awake, writing and chanting through the night while all his youthful disciples were still asleep. When his personal servants came in the morning, they would inevitably find him awake and chanting the Holy Name, arisen before everyone else in the ashrama.

Srila Bhakti Promode Puri Maharaja had outstanding love for his godbrothers and was inspired in his glorification of others. He found richness in everyone he met. He had the quality of making one feel so much wanted and their life so much valued. At the same time, he paid the least attention to himself. He was an emblem of humility and simplicity, and his generosity of spirit and kindness touched the hearts of the whole Vaishnava community. Among his lifetime, intimate companions were Srila Bhakti Rakshaka Sridhara Deva Goswami Maharaja, Srila Bhakti Prajnan Keshava Maharaja, and Srila Akinchan Krishna Das Babaji Maharaja. Toward the end of his sojourn in this world, he was honored by the Gaudiya Vaishnava community for his learning, long life of service and devotion and made president of the World Vaishnava Association in 1995.

“He has love for his Guru; and let it be known that his life is one with his words.” This tribute, coming from Srila Prabhupada himself, is the most revealing statement about Srila Puri Goswami Maharaja’s personality and qualities. He gave credit for all of his accomplishments to the mercy of his Gurudeva alone. Through the blessings of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Thakura, Srila Bhakti Promode Puri Maharaja attracted the hearts of so many to the Bhagavata religion. People from so many different backgrounds and countries found in him a true spiritual guide and shelter. He upheld the principles of pure Vaishnavism and delineated the path of saranagati. He so embodied pure devotion and service to his spiritual master that one of his disciples once remarked that he was able to “silently lay down Srila Prabhupada’s entire siddhanta.”

We are greatly indebted to His Divine Grace for his gift–a lifetime of pure devotion, spanning over a century, which we can aspire for, learn from, and discuss about for our own spiritual nourishment. Srila Puri Maharaja departed this world for the eternal abode in the predawn hours of Narayana Chaturdasi, October 21, 1999, one day before the Rasa Purnima. His divine body was transported from Jagannatha Puri to the Gopinatha Gaudiya Matha in Ishodyan and there placed in his eternal samadhi shrine. Prior to his departure from this world, Srila Puri Goswami Maharaja appointed his intimate disciple, Sripada Bhakti Bibudha Bodhayan Maharaja as his successor and President-acharya of Sri Gopinatha Gaudiya Matha.

In years to come as more of his words and vision are translated, the world outside of Bengal and India will come to know the spirit of the true Vaishnava religion that he tirelessly shared. May the gentle rain of nectar of his perfect teachings continue to bring auspiciousness into this world. [From Of Love & Separation]

Are you living consciously?

Are you living consciously? 

What does it really mean? 

Yes, this is one of the questions I get asked back when I ask the first question. 

Let me explain in very simple terms. 

Living consciously basically means living with awareness. Being awake every moment. 

Now, you may be wondering how should you know if you are OR not? What are the signs? Correct! Good job, you are the on the right track of thinking. 

We have to become conscious of a few things to know that. For example, 

Who are we? What are we doing? Why are we doing what we are doing? What is the purpose of our life? Why are we even living? 

Once we have these simple basic answers, we can consciously make decisions in our life for what we should do, why we should do, how we should do etc. 

Priorities will get set automatically. Balanced life will happen quite automatically without special effort. We will be able to see what causes stress. How important it is for us to continue with that activity and accordingly set things in the right perspective creating perfect balance in our life all by our conscious selves.

Makes sense? Great! However, am sure most of you are now thinking on the first basic question – WHO ARE WE? Try to start answering this question – however, one condition – DO NOT USE INFORMATION GIVEN TO YOU BY OTHERS ON HOW YOU HAVE TO BE KNOWN LIKE YOUR NAME OR WHAT YOU HAVE STUDIED OR WHAT IS YOUR DESIGNATION TO DEFINE YOURSELF. You are of course not your name, not your qualification and not your designation. You are much more than that….and you know that! Come on, so take a paper and pen and start writing down who that real you is? 

Hmmmm….finding yourself quite lost? 

Right, and guess what? 

We were living all our life so far without even having an answer for WHO WE ARE? 

How meaningless can we get? Anyhow, better late than never. Let’s get started. Let’s figure out and to begin with for most of us finding the answers to the basic question of who we are and what is the purpose of our life may in itself become the purpose of life. 

Fair enough….let’s start there. So, finding out Who Am I and What is the Purpose of My Life is the Purpose of My Life ☺ Sounds complicated but as you know, it is not! That is what it is, that is where we are. Congratulations for arriving here.

Now, once you know what you want to do, you need to find out how to get there. No one else can do it for you. You have to do it yourself. Now, this is not as difficult also as it may seem. Depending on what we wanted to do so far, we figured out what we should read, where we should go to study, who we should talk to, who will be the right teachers and did all the research using our intelligence and made all the sacrifices and effort to get there and got there. We have to do just the same. 

So, get started friends. All the best! 

If you need some help in this amazing journey of life or wish to share your journey of a conscious life, feel free to write to me. My name is Archana and I am the founder of Conscious Living Center which is a forum for online and offline programs on conscious living. You can reach me on consciouslivingcenterblr@gmail.com

Become Conscious and Spread Consciousness!

WHAT IS THE USE OF THIS MATRERIAL WORLD -PART 1

WHAT IS THE USE OF THIS MATRERIAL WORLD part 1, by Dhiralalita (after her guardians)
WE TOIL AND TOIL AWAY, WHAT FOR?
This world is like a prison camp. It is not our original abode. It is meant for certain purposes. After that we are to proceed to our original home. This world is not a desirable place. It is not good to be enticed to stay here for a long time, forgetting our original abode, where we stay with God, back home back to Godhead. We are the eternal servants of God (Bhagavan). When we decide to lord it over the universe we are allowed these facilities for temporary purposes. But they do not serve our eternal purposes. It would be better to seek out a place where we can find real peace. Here, on this plane, we are always liable to be disturbed. By these disturbances Providence wants to teach us that the world is not our eternal habitation, but that real peace is to be found in Him, God. Being thus troubled we will naturally like to go back to the original place. 

Life in this world should be conducted peacefully instead of in the spirit of retaliation. We should learn to suffer all these things by submitting to His Holy Wishes. If we do so we may have that very peace here. It is because we are ambitious to dominate that we are brought here. If we require more than we are allowed, we are in trouble in this world. We are better off going back to our own position, to our only Friend: The Supreme Personality of Godhead. He is the only resort of all our needs and desires. But if we take the burden upon ourselves to run into the wrong direction, we run into troubles in the shape of our daily transactions. We should not be so tempted. The world’s beauty and daily offers are meant to delude us to think this world to be a comfortable place. But this just an illusion, all real improvement should lead to Godhead. It should give us all useful things by which to get rid of these temptations. As we are men and women we should lend our ears to know about the better situation of the transcendental world where the best aspects of the Reality are exhibited. Here in this world we suffer from the difficulties of our eclipsed vision. It is, therefore, better to look after that spiritual region, our original position, by the side of God.
(To be continued)

Comment by one of my followers: You are GOD dreaming you...asleep dreaming this dream ..how do I get back to GOD...you are god now let the GOD wake up in you...its all Good..

Answer: We are one and different from God, i.e. one in quality, different in quantity. Your statements about being God is not supported by shastra
( scriptures).
However the concept of being one but different from God is supported by the Vedantah Sutra and the upanishads:
om purnam adah purnam idam
purnat purnam udacyate
purnasya purnam adaya
purnam evavasisyate

TRANSLATION

The Personality of Godhead is perfect and complete, and because He is completely perfect, all emanations from Him, such as this phenomenal world, are perfectly equipped as complete wholes. Whatever is produced of the Complete Whole is also complete in itself. Because He is the Complete Whole, even though so many complete units emanate from Him, He remains the complete balance.

then verse 7:

One who always sees all living entities as spiritual sparks, in quality one with the Lord, becomes a true knower of things. What, then, can be illusion or anxiety for him?

The concept of oneness with God is incorrect because the part cannot be equal to the whole. Knowledge that one is one in quality yet different in quantity is correct transcendental knowledge leading one to become full in himself, having nothing to aspire to or lament over. 

Referring to Shastras is called Pramana or proof, support. For those who do not know, the vedas are very old and go back far in time. You can shoot from your head, speculate forever but who will listen? However, when a group of great saints, Vaishnavas, speak those truths, then it is called revealed scriptures, not man made. It comes from the Original source, it comes from the divine. Try to read the Bhagavad Gita by example and see what it speaks: it explains the soul, it explains God, or the absolute truth, and it explains the relationship with the Supreme, Bhagavan. It is very easy to use words, but to live what you speak is the most difficult, especially in these times where the world is very tempting with its movies, music, literature, technology at its best. So I live what I speak of, I practice Bhakti, and therefore I have a bit more weight doing this.
This is a big topic worth many more talks!
Please feel free to comment!

Watch: PM Modi's speech at British Parliament - standing ovation - proud moment for every Indian. Thank you Mr Prime Minister!

PM Narendra Modi at Wembley Stadium - Full Speech (MODI in UK) - A Conscious Leader!

Bhagavad Gita - Chapter 2

Hope you all had a blast this Deepawali and those of you who bought Bhagavad Gita have started reading! Starting anything in this auspicious month of Karthik is the best thing to do - so, don't let it pass this year without you making an effort to become a conscious soul.

So, I wish to this time write about my take on the Chapter 2 of Bhagavad Gita which is titled Sankhya Yoga which literally means The Yoga of Analysis.

This is the Chapter where the Supreme Lord Sri Krishna referred to as Sri Bhagavan has started speaking to Arjuna about the supreme knowledge and according to me - has said it all. Later chapters are more like explaining ways to adopt the teachings of this chapter in ones life.

This chapter, as the name suggests, also is the beginning of mention of different kinds of YOGA and this one is presented for the analytical mind in a very logical and matter of fact manner.

Sri Krishna is explaining the ultimate goal of life and ways to achieve it. He has also mentioned all that we should stay away from and all that is necessary for us to practice. This is truly like the manual to live and Chapter 2 is the summary of the manual.

We will all agree that we all are looking for happiness and in this Chapter Sri Krishna says in Verse 66 - One who is bereft of self control cannot attain wisdom. Without wisdom one can never meditate. One who cannot meditate cannot achieve peace, and without peace how can one attain happiness?

So, here is the secret to achieving happiness in life revealed by none other than the Supreme Lord. However, it also tells us, why we are struggling with it. We seem to be looking for it in the wrong place and in the wrong way. We can either read this and understand or go our way and realize this someday sometime sooner or later.

This also makes us ponder why we have never been taught any of this which is so important for happiness ever in our lives? Instead of controlling our senses, we are in fact taught all our life to exploit our senses and we are told we will be able to find happiness by doing so......MAYA!! Not correct and the creator of the Universe and all of us is HIMSELF ascertaining this fact here.

So, our parents, teachers and everybody in the society we come across seems to be serving MAYA or should I say are in MAYA! They themselves are in illusion (that is what Maya means literally) and hence we cannot blame them, we can only sympathise with them and pray that they come out of this Maya and surrender themselves to the real knowledge as explained above without further damaging themselves and others. The best way for us to help them is to help ourselves first and become an example for them to follow.

Usually we can relate to Arjuna in the sense that he seems to be asking the questions we wish to ask or at least should wish to ask. However, right in the beginning, it is mentioned that he knew what is his natural propensity was, which I am not sure many of us know. This is very important. He knew he was naturally a warrior, not because he was born in a kshatriya family or just because he knew how to fight but because he knew that was his dharma or natural propensity. This is important to know since based on our natural propensity, we need to pick the path that suits us best to go to the level next to where we are.

Arjuna was advised to fight and after hearing all the knowledge, he decided to fight because that was the right thing to do for him. But if he were to be a Brahmana for example, the same would probably not have applied. Hence, we need to really introspect and know what is our natural propensity. This is where spirituality gets interesting for me.

We have 3 dimesions to us, physical, mental and spiritual - relating to body, mind and soul. It is important for us to become conscious or aware of all these three aspects, missing any one of these dimensions is not going to complete our journey of self-awareness.

We have been given a body and mind to suit the natural propensity of our soul. So, it is critical for us to understand where we are at the soul level to begin with. Of course, ultimately, we are all coming from the same plane and are travelling towards the same destination, however, we have taken different means and routes to travel and therefore, we need to figure out where are we in that journey and go forward. We cannot abruptly change our mode of travel (physical state) or route of travel (mental state).

We have to start from the spiritual state and then other things will adjust itself in due time. We have to do what we have to do based on where we are and what is most suitable for us. This is something no one can help us with. We have to find this out ourselves.

We can get some help on how to find out and we can get some confirmations enroute, but basically we have to be in the drivers seat. When the right time arrives, our spiritual master can help us showing the right direction and the Supreme Lord himself takes on the position of the Chauffeur ( as in the case of Arjuna - Sri Krishna became his Charioteer).

Wishing you all the best in this journey of becoming self-conscious! Write to me on consciouslivingcenterblr@gmail.com if you have any questions. You can join me on Skype or Google Hangout for weekly/monthly interactive sessions. Please do send me your feedback here or through email on how I can help you better.

Bhagavad Gita-Chapter 1-Part2

CLC

Bhagavad Gita - 1.2

Many of us have a phobia when it comes to spirituality and scriptures while we also simultaneously have regard and respect. This makes us not study and understand the subject but to almost have a sense of fear related to this or find it as a way to wash off our wrong-doings. We become hypocrites!

So, my attempt through these postings of Bhagavad Gita series is to remove the phobia and the fear and share some of my basic understandings on Bhagavad Gita so that I can help more of you to take up to reading this and getting benefitted from the amazing knowledge it provides.

It will be good for all of us to know that the whole book is in the form of question and answer and therefore is very easy to understand. It is almost like being witness to someone else asking everything we wanted to ask and getting to hear the answers for all of them from none other than God Himself!

In this post, I wish to share a bit of  my understanding on the first chapter of Bhagavad Gita. It is called Sainya Darshana, which means Observing the Armies on the Battlefield.

At the outset, we need to understand the meaning of the title of this chapter itself in its right perspective for today's age and time before proceeding any further. The title of this chapter is "Observing the Armies of the Battlefield'. So, let's first understand which is the Battlefield where this whole episode is happening. Because of lack of proper understanding of these kind of aspects, people are confused whether Bhagavad Gita and Mahabharata are part of our history or is it Mythology? Let's set this confusion to rest right in the beginning.

There are four different and specific planetary positions that create four specific types of effects on the life that exists in this Universe and these are cyclic in nature and are time bound, each lasting a few thousand years. These four periods are called "Yuga's" and these Yuga's are also referred to as "Kaala Chakra" - the Time Cycle. These four Yuga's are named Sat Yuga, Treta Yuga, Dwapar Yuga and Kali Yuga. These four planetary arrangements and their impact on the entire existence is even accepted historically and scientifically.

As we all know, we are presently in Kali Yuga. If you see the image below, we can see that there is a period when we are moving from Kali Yuga to Sat Yuga, which is a progressive state of being and there is a period when we are moving form Sat Yuga towards Kali Yuga through Treta Yuga and Dwapar Yuga which is a deteriorating phase.

I use the word 'progressive' and 'deteriorative' because of the nature of existence in these Yuga's. Sat Yuga, simply put, is a time when Sat or Truth is existing at its peak and all beings are in their truest nature which is all positive, all good and all beautiful. There is no bad side of anything in this period. Only good exists which is the purest, original, true form of all existence.

However, as we can see, nothing stays the same forever. Things are always changing and due to the very nature of this material world, all things are born, they grow, they deteriorate and then die before they are born again. Everything is consistently changing. Imagine a flower and you know what I mean here. A seed turns into a plant, a plant bears bud, bud blooms into a flower, flower performs its duty and fulfils its purpose of existence and then with time it dries up, withers away and dies. Of course, before it dies, it has transformed itself back into a seed to get into the whole process again.

So, because of contamination that exists in the material nature, which for human beings is in the form of greed, pride, anger, jealousy, etc, we start seeing the bad side of us take birth. So, by the time we are into Treta Yuga, we are able to see that along with good, there are some bad. These bad people are referred to as Devils or Enemies of the Good. When they appear, they appear on different planets in Treta Yuga. That is why when we read about those times, there is a Deva Loka, there is a Daitya or Asura Loka or the Planet of Good and Planet of Bad. When this dual nature exists, then conflict starts and we hear of the wars between Deva's and Daitya's in Treta Yuga and the Asura's are always coming from a different Loka to trouble the Devata's in the Deva Loka.

With time progressing towards Dwapar Yuga, Asura's started appearing on the same planet as Deva's or the good and bad started co-existing on the same planet. So, we hear of war between Sri Rama and Ravana or between Sri Krishna and Kamsa, wherein both appeared on the same planet.

Then comes Kali Yuga and here the good and bad have merged into one and we can find both within each one of us! Therefore, in today's time, our conflicts are internal. Our battle is within us between our own good and bad side. Battlefield is our body and mind. Since, these two cannot co-exist peacefully, we are in a constant state of conflict or battle till we declare a war and one of the side within us wins. and of course, if we want happiness, we need to get our good side winning :-)

In order to understand our Battlefield better, I would like to share a few thoughts on that before concluding this post. In Bhagavad Gita, Battlefield was Kuru Kshetra. Kuru was a King and the Kshetra or place was named after him. Because the King represented righteousness the same place was also referred to as Dharma Kshetra. This is very interesting. As is later explained in Bhagavad Gita, Dharma means Duty. So, Dharma Kshetra means the place for performing your duty!

So, in today's context, our body and mind become our Dharma Kshetra, where we are constantly fighting our battle. The only way to stop this conflict and restlessness, is to learn what is good, what is our duty and strengthen that good side and perform our designated duty using the Dharma Kshetra we have been provided with. We have to become aware and conscious of our duty and do it with complete faith in our creator, like Arjuna did, and finally there will be a day in each of our lives when we will achieve bliss or ananda because there will be no more conflict and only good will exist.

So, before we get any further, which we will do tomorrow, let us now once again understand what does observing armies on the battlefield mean to us in today's context and try to reflect on it a bit.

If you have questions, or want to know more, please write to consciouslivingcenterblr@gmail.com. You can also buy Bhagavad Gita from www.gosai.com/chaitanya and read along while you read these posts! Be Conscious, Be Happy!

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What is Bhagavad Gita All About?

Bhagavad Gita, I would say, has two parts to it. One, it tells us everything we need to know to live the life we have received  - consciously. It helps us understand what life is all about, who are we, what is our purpose and accordingly make the right decisions and choices in life.

Secondly, it is an amazing handbook which provides us all the answers we may ever need. Sounds strange and almost impossible but it is true. That is why it is not an ordinary book. Whenever, we are at crossroads, which we often are in this life, and we are looking for help in choosing the right path, we can refer to this handbook.

Bhagavad Gita is therefore considered worthy of being worshipped. Bhagavad Gita is also referred to as a scripture that has the stature of a GURU. Once we read it and understand it, we know how true this statement is. However, it is important to know that we need to study this scripture under proper and authentic guidance. That is the only way to be sure to understand it properly.

Similar to all forms of knowledge, we need to find a master who is considered an expert on the subject concerned to be able to understand the subject properly. The scripture by itself is a passive Guru but an active Guru is needed to understand this subject in its depth. We should be able to discuss, ask questions, listen to their explanations and most importantly we should have their guidance to discipline ourselves to start adapting the learnings from Bhagavad Gita in our lives and get benefitted. Once again, an ashram or residence of Guru is like the University campus for studying the subject of spirituality. We have to do exactly what we do to find a school, college, university or a teacher when we wish to learn anything in this world - at least. After all, this is the greatest of the knowledge available to us. This knowledge enables us with life skills in its truest sense and helps us achieve the best there is to achieve, which is permanent state of bliss - ananda.

If you wish to find a Bhagavad Gita to read along with commentary/explanation, please visit www.gosai.com/chaitanya and you can order this book online.

You can also attend workshops on Bhagavad Gita conducted through Conscious Living Center (CLC) by Experts and Masters. This format enables you to connect to the experts and ask all the questions you may have directly. To know more about the online and offline programs being offered on Bhagavad Gita by CLC, please write to consciouslivingcenterblr@gmail.com. You will receive a revert within 2 working days! Wish you conscious moments :-)

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Why Should One Read Bhagavad Gita?

Best answer I ever heard to this question was this - "Because it is the manual that comes with the human species" :-) Basically, this meant that this is a book which tells us how we are meant to live, like any manual that comes with a gadget, tells us how we are supposed to use the gadget.

Bhagavad Gita is actually one portion of the great epic Mahabharata - which means the GREAT BHARAT. Bhagavad Gita means the SONG BY GOD. God is our creator. This song is an instruction by our creator for all human beings on how to live life. I say human and not all living beings, because the ability to hear, assimilate and accordingly perform is available only in the human form. Once a Jiva or soul gets into the Kaala Chakra, where we are stuck in the nature's law of action and reaction, it is only in human life that we are able to break away from the same and transcend back to our home land. This is a place we are all visiting and we need to become conscious beings and return to our permanent homeland where our real happiness lies.

We can find some happiness here, but it is only temporary. Nothing stays forever. Everything is changing. It is a roller-coaster ride. We are screaming sometimes with joy, sometimes because we are scared and sometimes because we want it to stop. All we can do is scream and wish to stay happy on the ride forever - doesn't even seem like a realistic goal to aspire for - does it?

So, if anyone is looking for permanent happiness, Bhagavad Gita is the source to reach there.  It is part of the Veda's and Veda's are the oldest scriptures and source of all the other scriptures and man-made religion or belief system. So, this is the best way to directly go to the original source of knowledge to transcend from material life to spiritual life, from misery to bliss.

Please visit www.gosai.com/chaitanya to buy a copy of Bhagavad Gita with commentaries by Swami B G Narasingha, making it easy for all of us to connect and understand in these modern times!

Conscious Living

This topic of conscious living is something that has completely sucked me into it since I first heard of it about 15 years ago! Since then I have been spending considerable time in understanding what is consciousness all about. I have read a lot, spoken to a lot of people who claim to be living a conscious life and finally found someone about 12 years ago after meeting whom I was convinced to have reached a source from whom I can learn for life and am fortunate that he accepted me as a disciple. Jai Gurudev!

I wish to share with all of you some of those very fundamental reasons why one should learn about and live a conscious life.  Conscious means being aware. So, living consciously, simply means living in awareness. Now, the point is awareness of what? Awareness about self for example. We have been given all the complex abilities to understand our selves. However, how many of us can claim to be aware of ourselves? Do we know where did we come from? Do we know why we are here? Do we know where do we go after we die? Do we even know how to describe ourselves without using the names and designations that others have assigned us with in this world? If the answers to these questions are unclear, we need to first and foremost learn how to become self aware.

Now within this self, we have three separate level of consciousness to explore. We need to become body conscious, which is the first level. Then we need to become mind conscious, which is the second level. Finally, we need to become soul conscious, which is the third level.

When we say body conscious - let us see, what it means, it means becoming aware of every small detail of how our body functions. How we breathe, walk, talk, sit, talk...all of this and more. What are the things that it is comfortable with and what makes it uncomfortable. To know the purpose of this body. Remember, we come into this body and leave the body when we die. We are not the body. So, if I am being called Archana in this body then my name is Archana but I am not Archana. Please read the previous sentence a few times and try to understand the meaning of it. To explain it a bit further, when I was 5 year old, I looked and acted quite differently than how I am at 45. But it is my body and mind which has changed and not me. I am the same which was residing in that body of a 5 year old and is now residing in a  body of 45 year old.

Similarly, there is lot to understand when it comes to mind consciousness. For example, what is mind? Is it same as the brain or different? How does the mind function? What does the mind do? What is the purpose of the mind? Can we control the mind? And so on and so forth.

Same is true for soul consciousness. We need to understand what is a soul? Is individual soul and super soul same or different? If there is a soul in everyone, it is the same soul or different? What is the purpose of soul's existence? How can we identify ourselves with the soul? How can we understand the soul better? Are there different types of soul? And so on...

Human life is the only opportunity to become conscious. If we do not utilise this human birth, we may not have the opportunity for many many more life times when we may be born again but not necessarily in the human body. Then again, besides self consciousness, there is God consciousness too. Once we start understanding who we are, we do get introduced to our creator and the purpose He has created us for. In order to live seamlessly, we need to understand about our Creator and His Plans for us since at one point we have to accept that not everything is under our control. We get pulled and pushed in different directions by circumstances we do not understand. If we become conscious, then we start understanding it and then we can flow with the tide and not against it.

So, it makes sense to live a conscious life. If you are not conscious, you definitely are existing but not living. So, don't lose any more time and start living a conscious life. Always learn under able guidance. Don't try to be self taught expert especially in these matters. Best wishes for conscious moments!