Ringing in the New Year 2025!

A year past leaves so many memories & realizations to reflect and learn. We are sometimes so much engrossed in executing our material duties & desires that we forget the whole purpose of this human form of life–our spiritual identification & duties

 

As long as we are in this material world, happiness & distress will come and go. So, we should not be disturbed by them. Our real business is trying for self-realization. That must go on; it must not stop. Self-realization is the goal of human life. Suffering & so-called happiness will go on as long as we have a material body, but we must come to the knowledge that “I am not the body; I am a spirit soul. I have gotten this body because of my past activities. That is knowledge!

 

As we wade through our lives, we do not realize

 

nūnaṁ pramattaḥ kurute vikarma
yad indriya-prītaya āpṛṇoti
na sādhu manye yata ātmano ’yam
asann api kleśada āsa dehaḥ

 

People who act only for sense gratification are certainly mad, and they perform all kinds of abominable activities. In this way they ensure their transmigration from body to body perpetually and thus experience all kinds of miseries. We do not understand that the body is always kleśada—it always gives us pain. For the time being we may feel some pleasure, but actually the body is a reservoir of pain

 

Asking about the ultimate cause of our suffering is called brahma-jijñāsā, inquiry into the Absolute Truth. As it is said in the beginning of the Vedānta-sūtra, athāto brahma jijñāsā: “Having gotten the human form of life, one should inquire about Brahman, the Absolute Truth.” So, we should take advantage of the human form of life. We should not live like animals, without any inquiry into the Absolute Truth, without trying to find out how to stop our miserable material life

 

Of course, we are actually trying to stop our own miseries, by working so hard in the struggle for existence. Why do we try to get money? Because we think, “If I get money, my distress will be mitigated.” So, the struggle for existence is going on, and everyone is trying to become happy by getting sense gratification. But sense gratification is not real happiness. Real happiness is spiritual happiness, which comes from serving the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa. That is happiness. Material happiness is simply perverted happiness.

 

Material happiness is like the mirage of water in the desert. In the desert there is no water, but when a thirsty animal sees the mirage of water in the desert, he runs after it & dies. We know that there is no water in the desert, that the “water” is just a reflection of the sunshine—but animals do not know this. Similarly, human life means to give up looking for happiness through sense gratification, which is just like a mirage in the desert, and to try for spiritual happiness

 

We can start from wherever we are. There is absolutely no need to leave anything but dovetailing everything in the service of the Supreme Lord. As He says

 

yat karoṣi yad aśnāsi yaj juhoṣi dadāsi yat
yat tapasyasi kaunteya tat kuruṣva mad-arpaṇam

 

Whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer or give away, and whatever austerities you perform–do that, O son of Kuntī, as an offering to Me

 

Thus, it is the duty of everyone to mold his life in such a way that he will not forget Kṛṣṇa in any circumstance. Everyone has to work for maintenance of his body & soul together, and Kṛṣṇa recommends herein that one should work for Him. Everyone has to eat something to live; therefore, he should accept the remnants of foodstuffs offered to Kṛṣṇa. Any civilized man has to perform some religious ritualistic ceremonies; therefore, Kṛṣṇa recommends, “Do it for Me,” and this is called arcana. Everyone has a tendency to give something in charity; Kṛṣṇa says, “Give it to Me,” and this means that all surplus money accumulated should be utilized in furthering the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement

 

Let’s make a small start & see big benefits!

 

Happy New Year 2025 to all my fellow Linkediners!

 

Thoughts? #gameoflife