Pornography is another name of catastrophe

Sex is a natural instinct of all species of life, nature has given this facility with some pleasure involved in it so that all species could continue their existence. Everyone is engaged in sex and especially humans seek more pleasure in sex, but it's not meant for enjoyment, it's just a bodily function. Today's society and civilisation too much focuses on sex which is just insignificant part of our life and purpose. They have taken this sex life so seriously that industries producing sexual literatures, pornographic videos and cinemas are earning in billions. 40% of information available on Internet is about sex.

One interviewer asked Prabhupad that why he is so strict about sex life, if sex is natural? Prabhupad replied by saying,"if the sex is natural then pregnancy is also natural, why you are using unnatural means (contraceptives) to avoid pregnancy? Have sex and take responsibility of children by raising them in God consciousness" by this answer we can understand that religion is not against sex life, in fact it's given by God himself. Lord says in Gita(7.12),"I am sex life which is not contrary to religious principles". So satisfaction of our desires in religious way is allowed by scriptures, but greatest myth in the society is that sex can make us happy, so they try to adjust and increase their sex life to become happy but opposite is true, more one engages in sex life more entangled he becomes.

But modern society forgetting this principles they try to enjoy senses unrestrictedly ignoring the God, they get addicted to sense enjoyment, and advertisement for this pleasure is given by pornography but it's not real therefore attempts for sexual enjoyments increasingly results in depression and frustration still people fail to recognise the limits of sex enjoyment. They feel that my wrong approach is cause of dissatisfaction and they seek they help of misguided people who guide them on 'improving sex life'. So many people are caught by the net of pornography, they are misusing their intelligence and energy, more one watches it that increases their desire to see it more and experiment it, just like fire is not extinguished by putting oil into it. Watching such kinds of movies reduces our respect for opposite gender and we see them through the eyes of lust.

Our sexual desire is actually perverted reflection of heart's deepest longing for Lord Krishna, if we just knew this we could be all happy, but in darkness of rampant civilisation which only talks about sense enjoyment it has become difficult for us to realise this fact. By watching pornography or indulging into sex makes us forgetful of our eternal identity as being soul, one starts feeling he is this temporary body(which gets attached by old age and death) and satisfaction of body is his ultimate aim. So in conclusion one thing we need to understand that sex life can't give us pleasure but only increases our troubles (unless used for religious cause to produce children), only God can give us real pleasure because we are not this body and flesh but we are souls, soul is happy in presence of super soul and nothing else including sex and pornography!

Article by Rupesh Gauranga Dasa 
Sent by iskcondesiretree.com

Give up that information which doesn't make any transformation

There is no dearth of information in world. One can access every kind of information with the help of technology, so much data, so much knowledge available of practically everything, all kinds of sciences, technologies, how to do this or that everything available.

After all what's the use of so much information if there is no transformation in heart and mind, and man continues to behave like an animal. Knowledge is meant for transform the person. I remember When I was in hostel, there also lived many scholars who were doing their PhD, but I observed their lifestyle they were so addicted to smoking and drinking, in fact some of them would visit brothels, I was bewildered by seeing these things, I was thinking they are scholars and they must be having some knowledge of what's right and what's wrong but no...so I concluded material education will teach you how to earn and stay alive but not how to live with morality.

 Many so called spiritual societies also provide knowledge and information but authenticity of that you can see by transformation and behaviour of followers, material information won't make any transformation as well as speculative scriptures and religions too. I would observe one lady who was big preacher of particular spiritual group, she would give powerful classes to become happy and mesmerised peoples, but her personal life was horrible, she was miserable in her family life, she wouldn't treat and care for her kids and husband properly, but she would make a nice show of her happiness, I realised she was hypocrite she was not practicing what was she speaking, and there are so many like this, thy are sharing their information without practical transformation of their own heart.

Authentic scriptural information(as given in Gita and Bhagavatam) has potency to make transformation, long ago there was a hunter named Mrigari, he would enjoy killing of animals and would like to see their sufferings. When he was preached by Narada in devotional matters, he followed Narada's words, soon his heart was transformed. Once he was running to offer obeisances at the feet of Narda but while running he was concerned about hurting an ant. The person who enjoyed killing previously now was concerned about small ants, that's the transformation due to power of Bhakti. In conclusion my appeal to you is that give up following speculative and unauthorised spirituality but take a shelter of guru who is coming in the proper parampara(discipline succession) learn from him, follow him, then there will be positive result else it will be only time and energy wastage.

Article by Rupesh Gauranga Dasa 
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Honeymoon is over now take marriage seriously

Honeymoon means husband and wife goes for enjoyment for some time after their marriage, but honeymoon is not long lasting one has to take give up only enjoyment tendencies by becoming aware about serious marriage responsibilities like taking care of children, raising them, earning money, gaining name in society etc just imagine what if one doesn't return back from honeymoon? people will call him insane. Similarly soul has got this rare form of human life if he use that only for enjoyment without becoming aware of his serious responsibility then he is considered to be insane according to scriptures.

What's the responsibility of soul? To free himself from illusory material world and attain shelter of God. In fact Bhagavat mahapuran(3.31) explains that soul himself praises and prays to the God while he is in the womb of his mother he says,“without being agitated any more, I shall deliver myself from the darkness of nescience with the help of my friend, clear consciousness. Simply by keeping the lotus feet of Lord Viṣṇu in my mind, I shall be saved from entering into the wombs of many mothers for repeated birth and death”. But due to pain involved in birth process as he comes out of womb he forgets everything which was promised to the God. He is pampered by parents and soon starts feeling I am the enjoyer of the world becoming forgetful of real responsibility he just keeps satisfying senses sometimes by feeding them, by watching nice things, by smelling, by touching soft things etc.

Human birth is full of responsibilities, we are indebted to parents, demigods, sages, ancestors, society, government etc but greatest responsibility is be aware of our constitutional position as servant of God. We had enough enjoyment in this life as well as past life now it's time to do something serious, but this seriousness is really not so serious but easy and simple. One just need to chant God's name and hear His glories to purify our heart and existence, God has invested all His potencies in His names and one can easily access Him just by chanting.

Turning to spirituality doesn't mean stop enjoying, but it means start real enjoyment, in fact Lord Sri Chaitanya also says in His Shikshastak prayers, 'Anandambudhi Vardhanam Pratipadam', chanting holy names is a process in which at everystep your bliss will increase, you will enjoy the nectar eternally. So one need to make attempt to chant holy names regularly and seriously keeping aside his illusory sense pleasures then one can taste real spiritual pleasure.

Article by Rupesh Gauranga Dasa
Sent by iskcondesiretree.com

Sairat or Svarat

Few months ago there was a regional Marathi movie in India named 'Sairat' which became super duper hit, as any other film it was of course a love story but it was presented in new way which attracted many to it. A hero from lower class and poor background fells in love with daughter of rich politician and land lord of village. Both run away to marry with each other and start living in some remote village, land lord's honour was killed due to their marriage, he somehow or other finds out them and kills both of them, very sad end! Actually we are misled by lust on the name of love,there is big difference between love and lust, lust means trying to satisfy the own senses and love means giving pleasure to others sacrificing our own.

Sairat means uncontrolled and wild mind(as explained by Saint Ramdas in one of his poetry). Uncontrolled mind creates only havoc, mind directs the senses and appeals for sense enjoyment, as we see in this movie a teen aged boy gets attracted to a girl and without thinking for his family which has raised him he leaves them to be with this girl for love without bothering for consequences, so strong are the senses and mind. Similar thing Gita speaks(2.67),“As a strong wind sweeps away a boat on the water, even one of the roaming senses on which the mind focuses can carry away a man’s intelligence”. Whoever listens to the uncontrolled mind his end is really sad as seen in movie, but movie doesn't offer any conclusion and hope for this sadness.

Bhagavat mahapuran explains various similar love stories where end was really sad but it offers mindblowing hope for suffering soul. King Pururava felt in love with heavenly damsel Urvashi, both enjoyed for many many years together but one day she left and Pururava was devastated, he became mad but in due course of time renunciation raised in his heart and he became self realised knowing the temporary and illusory nature of this world, body, senses and mind, he understood the supreme soul(God) and achieved the peace. He speaks,"one should never let one's senses associate with sense objects and even intelligent person shouldn't trust mind"(11.26.24). Bhagavat also says, A soul gets attracted for sense pleasure with woman for deriving little happiness but gets chastised by her protector(5.14.22), similar thing happened in movie.

Svarat means one who is fully independent, are we fully independent? No...we have to follow so may codes and laws and breaking of law or trying to be independent will cause severe punishments as seen in movie. Lord is Svarat , He is fully independent, He can do anything and everything. We can't imitate Him but we can follow Him, His teachings given in Gita, then only our end will be happy end. In conclusion If we keep running for pleasure as dictated by mind and senses(Sairat) we won't be happy and satisfied at all but if we follow as dictated by God(Svarat) then there are 101% chances of being happy while living, while leaving the world and after death as exemplified by King Purarava and many others.

Article by Rupesh Gauranga Dasa

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Technically efficient but morally deficient

On September 3rd at Jaipur's most crowded place(Sindhi camp), while crossing the road poor beggar was hit by heavy vehicle and died there itself. As he lay on the road, people ignored him and passed him by instead of helping him and calling police or the ambulance. A few vehicles ran over his body and police was informed much later. It's so painful even to read that over dead body several vehicles were running. We have become so desensitised and have lost all humanity and sympathy, even neighbor may starve, but we don't care for it.

We have all technical abilities, whole world lies in our pocket in the form of mobile, we can get connected to anywhere and everywhere with that, such a fast commutation systems we have developed, jet plane..metro...talgo trains, everything is automated in our industries, what a technological advancement which was never seen in history, but we have lost the human qualities like to be kind, merciful, offering helping hand for needy and poor, truthfulness etc. In the company of robot our hearts also became like robot, without feelings. We don't feel anything when someone is dying. In fact most of the technology is used in killing, so much bombing and shooting at innocent people, simply shameful. Prabhupad says,"On the street, in your front, if somebody’s being killed, nobody will take care; he’ll go on. There is no mercifulness. Even the mother has no mercifulness, killing the child. This is Kali-yuga."

Just see so many slaughter houses we have opened, billions of animals are murdered daily, trillions of fishes are killed in ocean and no one speaks, so many animals are tortured in labs under the name of scientific research. Humans have really desensitised, demons described in our scriptures were also not so much cruel like today's humans. But people are receiving reactions of their karmas from material nature, those who kill they will be killed. Today each country has the fear of nuclear weapon of other countries, everyone is living in fear, no one is peaceful due to technology.

World gives much importance to technology leaving morality aside but technology without moral codes is like giving knife in the hands of monkey which will only cause destruction. Culture and religion sustains morality, religion is established by God himself. Everything belongs to God and is to be used in his service, as we progress in love for God, we will love all of God’s creatures and respect the rights of others, including animals, this is highest form of morality, also it's stated that when one serves God all good qualities of demigods like sympathy, mercifulness invoked in his heart. So technology won't create peace but morality based on God consciousness only can establish the peace in the world.

Article by Rupesh Gauranga Dasa
Sent by iskcondesiretree.com

Your Taste buds are not meant for tasting blood

Just few day later of Eid, a pic was circulated on social media showing father tasting blood of holy cow with his little daughter. It only represented humans have become worst and desensitised than animals, killing own mother to taste her flesh. We are not meant to eat the flesh, if we observe our body carefully we will see that we are similar to herbivores animals. In nature every animal will eat its prescribed food, cow and other herbivores will eat grass, carnivores will eat other animals they don't cross their laws, but human...he never follows any law, he opens slaughter houses and kills billions of animals for satisfying taste buds.

Prabhupad says,"There are always animal killers and animal eaters in human society because less civilized people are accustomed to eating meat. In Vedic civilization, meat-eaters are advised to kill an animal for the goddess Kali or a similar demigod. This is in order not to give the animal
unnecessary pain, as slaughterhouses do. In the balidana sacrifice to a demigod, it is recommended to cut the throat of an animal with one slice. This should be done on a dark-moon night, and the painful noises expressed by the animal at the time of being slaughtered are not to be heard by anyone. There are also many other restrictions. Slaughter is only allowed once a month, and the killer of the animal has to suffer similar pains in his next life. At the present moment, so-called civilized men do not sacrifice animals to a deity in a religious or ritualistic way. They openly kill animals daily by the thousands for no purpose other than the satisfaction of the tongue. Because of this the entire world is suffering in so many ways. Politicians are unnecessarily declaring war, and, according to the stringent laws of material nature, massacres are taking place between nations."

We have so many verities of food to eat vegetables, beans, grains, milk, in fact we can make 200 types of sweets just from milk which we get from cow. Some religions states when there is an emergency then it's acceptable that one eats meat but meat of lower animals and not of cow. Cow killing is always prohibited.

Even after understanding scriptural injunction if one doesn't want to give up eating meat then he receives severe punishments. Prabhupad continues,"God is very kind. If you want to eat animals, then He'll give you full facility. God will give you the body of a tiger in your next life so that you can eat flesh very freely. "Why are you maintaining slaughterhouses? I'll give you fangs and claws. Now eat." So the meat-eaters are awaiting such punishment. The animal-eaters become tigers, wolves, cats, and dogs in their next life-to get more facility."

Article by Rupesh Gauranga Dasa

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How we spend our days is how we spend our lives

If we assume average lifespan of person is 80 years, this is equivalent to 954 months or 29037 days. I will break down the time to show you that how less time we have for most important activity in life. On average people spend one-third of their lives asleep, which is 318 months. Person goes to school and then homework, tuitions which counts 8 hrs/day means 43 months are gone in learning. 128 months of your life we spend working. 13 months are utilised in toilets. 6 years goes in eating. Then getting ready, housing, learning driving, waiting for trains and other services takes our lot of time. We waste 10 years in watching television then much time lost in shopping, entertainment. Now only 200 months in our hands, but we spend the first twelve years of your life just taking it easy and doing nothing, which makes our time left to live even smaller, so effectively we have only 56 months to do something constructive in life. This was the calculation considering lifespan of 80 years, in India it's 67 years. All other activities will take their time although lifespan is decreased, due to that effective lifespan is hardly 35-40 months for Indians.

Now just observe our daily life, we get up, get ready, then go to work, after work some time spend in leisure, then we eat and watch tv and go to bed, nothing significant we are doing throughout the day. We are doing similar activities which animals are also doing. Are we special than them if yes then  in what sense? Yes, we are special because we have got purpose and intelligence to perfect human life but we can see that we have really less time to perfect our lives.

Once Srila Prabhupada asked Mr. Sethi what he did during the day, starting from when he woke up in the morning. Mr. Sethi began, “I get up, brush my teeth, take my bath, have a cup of tea and a piece of toast, read the newspaper, and go to work.” Srila Prabhupada said, “What is the difference between you and a pig?” Mr. Sethi thought about it and seemed to agree. So he asked Prabhupada, “What should I do?” And Prabhupada replied, “You should invite the devotees to home early every Sunday morning to do hari-nama-sankirtana, and then you should feed them sumptuous prasada.”

Mr. Sethi was convinced that just doing daily chores won't make his life successful but he need to invoke the presence of God in life by chanting and hearing His names and glories daily, else life will just pass and one day end will come. So don't become one of those who just came to this world and went away without doing anything good for their ultimate benefit nor for others. Include the God in daily activities, become aware of His presence, offer Him results and purify our lives, that's Bhakti, it's not something difficult, there is no need to give up anything Bhakti means just adding God to your life and when you spend our day in this God conscious way we feel real satisfaction at the end of day and at end of the life.

Article by Rupesh Gauranga Dasa 
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Why there no school for Politicians?

If you want to become doctor, engineer, lawyer, CA etc you need to go to school and then you have to do specialised graduation from authorised institutions and universities. But we never heard that there is institute which teaches politicians how to do politics. There was a joke which said, first ranker of college joins IIT and becomes engineer, those who get 2nd class they do MBA and become manager of those engineers, those who get 3rd class they open business and make managers their employees and control them, but those who get 4th class they become politicians and control all of the rest.

Actually there should be school for politicians, they are the leaders of the nation, they are leading billions of people if they are not trained properly they will create havoc in the life of people. Because to help and serve people they join politics but by seeing money and facilities their mind changes and they forget helping people and use money for their own selfish interests, many examples we can give where politicians were indulged in scams and earning unlawful money. ₹70 lakh crores are deposited in Swiss bank and more than 70% amount belongs to politicians which is earned by scams. Most of them are also part of sex rackets and owners of slaughter houses, their own senses are uncontrolled how they will lead people? They will only exploit people.

In the previous ages it would happen that Brahmanas(the intelligent class of society) would guide the king to take decisions. Whenever the king was unrighteous they would change him. There is wonderful story of King Vena in Bhagavat Puran, the king was very cruel and would loot people, everyone was frustrated with his decisions and personal behaviour, at that time the people in general were in a dangerous position due to an irresponsible king on one side and thieves and rogues on the other. Then one day all sages came together and thought we made him King to set a state in order to give protection to citizens and he is not listening to our advice and insulting Lord Vishnu then by power of mantra they killed him and by churning his body they created Prithu Maharaj who was benevolent King, his name was later given to the earth 'Prithvi'.

But now we don't find such powerful Brahmanas existing to control atrocities created by leaders, we don't know who guides current leaders to take decisions for benefit of country. This school will teach them how to remain clean in character and control senses despite of presence of money and sense pleasure on the basis of revealed scriptures, just examine our scriptures are full of narrations and character of nobel kings like Yudhistir, Dhruva, Prithu, Lord Ramchandra, Bharat, Yayati and many others when they will listen and follow these kings they will learn how to run the society for benefit of everyone.

Article by Rupesh Gauranga Dasa
Sent by iskcondesiretree.com

Advertisements - legalised lying

Advertising is an audio or visual form of marketing communication that employs an openly sponsored, nonpersonal message to promote or sell a product, service or idea. There are multiple mediums of advertising TV, Internet, newspapers, billboards. TV is one of the most expensive medium of advertising, The average cost of a single thirty-second television spot during football game(2014) reached US$4 million. Indian advertising companies have turnover of ₹63000 crores annually. Famous beverages companies like PepsiCo and Coca Cola spends $3 billions annually for promoting product. So much money and intelligence is spent over to attract people to products(which are many times unnecessary).

As some of the scholars say, advertising is nothing but fooling people by creating unnecessary necessities. Few decades ago Indians would use salt, coal powder to brush their teeth, foreign companies came and convinced us to use toothpastes, later they added salt and coal to pastes saying this is best for your teeth. The things which we were using previously for free they sell it for money through the medium of advertising, and there are multiple examples like this, this is the power of advertising. We have never heard someone won in Olympic by drinking bornvita or horlics. If we analyse carefully, we will find that needful things like food grains and beans,vegetables, water, air, sunlight are  never advertised.

Advertisements gives false promises, use this product, this service and you will be happy, what they show in cover pic that never happens. Illusory potency of lord(Maya Shakti) also gives similar promises to make us happy, she poses herself more beautiful than God himself, but conditions apply, she traps us into miserable world at the same time one need to work hard to get pleasures which are promised.

Advertising is nothing but alluring people by bombarding unnecessary things to wash their brains, so one day they end up buying those things. Gita 2.62 speaks about similar thing, "While contemplating the objects of the senses, a person develops attachment for them, and from such attachment lust develops, and from lust anger arises". When person is bombarded with same thing again and again(contemplation) he feels I am lacking this, I must get this to be happy(that's attachment), but it's a false promise. Real pleasure doesn't lie in that and then one gets frustrated and turns to other products thinking that will give me pleasure and that's why companies are ready to pay thousands of crores for 30 sec adds because they know nature of mind to some extent(although they haven't read Gita). So let's not get trapped into it and waste our money by buying those unnecessary necessities.

Article by Rupesh Gauranga Dasa

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Make a Living but don't forget to Make a Life

I was born and brought up in Mumbai. After graduation I was placed in college as lecturer, I was simultaneously happy and miserable. Miserable because job was at little far distance from my home(it would take 45 mins to reach). Then someone told me, you are most fortunate because many people travel for 4 hrs from home to reach their job and again to reach home it takes 4 hrs, I was horrified by hearing this because one third of their day is wasted in travelling only, another 1/3 at job and remaining for sleeping and maintaining the body(In Mumbai minimum time spend in travelling is 2 hr) and holidays are gone in seeking entertainment. People are just working and working day in and day out, they get so much consumed in their daily routine that they forget and hardly thinks about to make their life, they forget what's the true goal of life.

Man is spending so much time just to make his living, just to earn money so that he can eat nicely, sleep nicely, enjoy nicely and protect himself nicely, as if he don't have any other purpose of life. Just work till body becomes invalid and then rest in old age till death arrives. But if you observe properly such kind of life even animals also lives, in fact they live better life than us. They don't have to travel like us, they are regulated and thus healthy, they obtain food somehow or other but without much difficulty, they also protect themselves, so many similarities. In what way humans differs from animals?

Human can have purpose in life, animals can't because their intelligence is just meant to search food and fulfill basic needs of life and that's their goal of life. But humans have higher purpose in life and that is to attain love of God, and that's why human form is awarded to us, to inquire truths of life, purpose of life...any one can make a living, what's a big deal in that, Animal population is more than us, and some of them eat tremendously but we never find them going to offices and running always to maintain their living. The God provides for everyone, these animals are proof of that.

Yes off course we have to work hard to make our living, even lord whenever He comes to this world He also teaches by His example that work is necessary but we shouldn't waste our prime time of youth only in working till we get old and invalid, we also need to make our life. And life means purpose, without purpose their is no meaning to life. We must ponder over questions about life like why I am suffering? Why I am not getting success even after working so hard? What's the death? What will happen to me after death? Why I took birth? So on and so forth. So if we are not inquiring about this then we are surely wasting our life.

Article by Rupesh Gauranga Dasa

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Piece of land won't give you Peace of mind

Few days before Pakistani terrorist attacked our Indian army in early morning at Uri, our 20 soldiers martyred and 4 terrorist were killed. Before that there was attack at Pathankot and many times our neighbouring country had send uncounted terrorists to terrorise people living in nation. After the recent attack at Uri their army chief said, at any cost we will take this land of Kashmir, in fact I just heard that in their nation when new soldier joins the army they ask him to take a pledge that, 'I will give my life and soul to win the Kashmir and I will take a revenge of 1971 Indo-Pak war'. I was just thinking why so much trouble pakistani's are taking to get Kashmir, what lies in Kashmir, why can't they be happy in whatever land they have obtained by legal means? They are not able to get control over their own country's internal politics, poverty, illiteracy, health issues, justice, human rights and so many other issues, how they will take care of this extra land.

Poor country like Pakistan also spends $7.7 billions annually on army (pensions and nuclear budgets are excluded). So much can be done for country's development if this money is fully dovetailed in service of people directly, as discussed above so many problems they have to tackle with, what's the surety that Kashmir(some extra piece of land) will give them peace?

There is mention of wonderful pastime in Bhagavat mahapuran(8th canto 19 ch) of Lord Vaman(dwarf incarnation of Lord). He asked for 3 paces of land from King Bali, who was the king not only of this world but of entire universe including heavens. King started laughing and said to Him,"Your intelligence is insufficient. Thus You are not very prudent in regard to Your self-interest. I am able to give You an entire island because I am the proprietor of the three divisions of the universe. Ask something more." Vaman replied,"those whose senses are uncontrolled they can not be satisfied by provision of 3 worlds, if I am not satisfied with 3 paces of land then surely I won't be satisfied by possessing island. Even I posses one island I would hanker for other." Bali could understand his mistake, although he was the king of universe he was hankering to conquer another universe, his heart was not content, and when heart is not content there is no possibility of satisfaction and peace.

As we see in past so many kings tried to conquer over the piece of land, they massacred people to win land, but what happened finally, land is still here but where these people have gone? Were they actually satisfied after winning land? I am not against the protection of country's borders and safety of nation's people but there is no means in unnecessarily troubling other nation for some piece of land better get connected to lord and experience peace of mind and heart. Hankering for things of this world only shows the immaturity in our spiritual lives. Everyone can live in peace when God consciousness pervades everywhere. So let's work together to bring people more closer to The God and become peaceful!!

Article by Rupesh Gauranga Dasa
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Desire Management course

We have so many management study institutes, but none of them teaches the most important course of life to manage desires in fact we have been taught from childhood how to fulfil our wishes somehow or other. It's nature of mind to be flickering and constantly hovering over the sense objects for enjoyment and due to uncontrolled mind desires arises in the heart. When desire takes prominent place one try to fulfill the desires anyhow, when desires are fulfilled one feels happy and if not one is miserable. But desires are like fire more you feed it more it becomes, for an example child desires to play a video game and if he is not controlled by his parents he can play it throughout the day, forgetting his real aim to study and pass, similarly we may also get engaged in only fulfilling of our desires through tour life forgetting real aim of human life.

Actually there are 2 types of desires, material desires and spiritual desires. Material desires are temporary and have the full potency to engage one in material world for life after life but spiritual desires liberates us. Material desires can't be fulfilled ever, they keeps increasing as we discussed about fire. But it doesn't mean you shouldn't satisfy your desires, one should know how to control also. When one tastes something higher, lower desires are automatically subdued just like when one eats full meal he won't hanker for burger or some street food. Artificial repression of desires will ultimately fail for slightest thought to enjoy senses will agitate person to gratify his senses, we need some solid solution to control desires.

Scriptures are filled with cases of desire management, how devotees managed and subdued their material desires to fulfill their spiritual desires. There is famous example of King Pururava, he felt in love with heavenly damsel Urvashi. Both of them enjoyed together for many years but Pururava was unsatisfied till the end, similar thing happened with King Yayati and Devyani, both enjoyed each other's association in heavenly gardens but still there was sense of incompleteness. Fulfilling desires couldn't give them real happiness, in fact they got in trouble and became miserable.

Lord speaks in Gita(BG 2.70),"A person who is not disturbed by the incessant flow of desires – that enter like rivers into the ocean, which is ever being filled but is always still – can alone achieve peace, and not the man who strives to satisfy such desires". So one who actually striving to satisfy his material desires he won't be satisfied ever, he will always be agitated. How to control desires? Only those who are devotees of lord they are satisfied in loving service of God, they are steady like ocean, therefore can enjoy full peace. We can't be ever without desires, also desires can bound or liberate us, so we have to manage our desires in such a way that our desires rather than binding us will liberate us!!

Article by Rupesh Gauranga Dasa 

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Attachment to Chappals

I can never forget that scene while traveling in ac coach of train, during night I saw one middle aged but kind of rich person locked his all suitcases properly and took his old floaters with him to upper seat and slept with it keeping them under his head as pillow. They provide pillow in ac coach but he kept own chappals as pillow, I was wondering why? Then realised, he was fearful that someone may steal it(he was attached to his broken chappals). The same chappals which were used for going to public toilets hundreds of times, he kept under his head. This nature of attachment, which is not worthy we give importance to it.

People are so attached to their things, their own body, family, money, property, possession but they forgets one day it's all going to be taken away by time. Those who are attached more they suffer more when the things to which they are attached most are taken away, there is no sanity in being overly attached to temporary things of the world. Buddha says,"to be free from suffering means to be free from attachments".

There are material attachments and spiritual attachments, spiritual attachments makes us free from materials. But material attachments bounds us to this material world. There are many stories in scriptures given to illustrate this point. King Bharat became very attached to deer and due to that he took birth as deer, Prabhupad would also tell the story of person who was too attached to his house and after death he took birth near house as snake to protect the house, but his own sons of last life killed him thinking he will bite us.

Lord speaks in Gita(2.62),"While contemplating the objects of the senses, a person develops attachment for them, and from such attachment lust develops, and from lust anger arises". And consequences of anger is always dangerous, one eventually looses the intelligence and again comes to material world, so it's all starts with contemplation and attachment. We have to be very careful and be detached, detachment doesn't mean start hating, it means to understand to whom everything belongs(God) and take care of those things as caretaker and use as a proprietor. Tenant always knows that home doesn't belong to me so even home is taken away he is not so miserable but if tenant is thinking I am the owner of flat and when home is taken away that pain is really greater. Attachment to the God creates real detachment. So in conclusion when we want to walk ahead we have to leave behind the earth where we stand, similarly if we want to progress in spiritual lives we have to leave behind lower attachments which binds us!!

Article by Rupesh Gauranga Dasa 
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'Self made man' is also made by God

There is wonderful story which I recently heard, we know in the Kurukshetra war Pandavas were victorious, they were really happy and joyful. While returning back from battlefield they heard the loud laughter which was coming from particular banyan tree. Being astonished they all rushed towards tree, there was a head of demon called Barbarika hanging on the tree. Barbarika was the grandson of Bhima and Hidimba. Hidimba had told him that, when you will be killed by lord Krishna that will be success of your life. So he was waiting for this moment, when Kurukshetra war was about to start he took the side of Duryodhana and vowed to kill 5 Pandavas, when Lord came to know that he killed Barbarika but while dying he prayed to the Lord that, I want to see whole war kindly bless me, Lord fulfilled his wish, now he was watching whole war from that banyan tree. When Pandavas approached him, they asked,"hey, you have seen the whole war, please tell us who was the most chivalrous and brave amongst us, who was the most powerful?", he started laughing more loudly, they asked what happened, Barbarika replied, "actually none of you were powerful or chivalrous, actually it was krishna's Sudarshan which protected you from most powerful Bhishma, Drona and Karna. You would be dead if Krishna wouldn't be there". Pandavas realised their mistake. This is our mistake too, we also want to take credits for ourselves and we forget about God but he is the only doer and we are just an instrument.

'Self made man' is a person who was born poor but who achieved great economic condition on his own strength without taking help from anyone, according to them they have created their own fortune. Many of them are atheist and agnostics and feel that we only can change our destiny, there is no need to depend upon God for anything. No, their thinking is completely wrong...everything comes from God, even body which they are using for hard work is given by God, intelligence is given by God, did self made man get their bodies and intelligence by their own from market? No...

In fact when Arjuna was returning from Dwarka to Hastinapur with the wives of Lord Krishna, he was defeated by simple cowherd boys. He was thinking, "I, unto whom all kings bow their head. The gandiva is same, the chariot is also same even I am the same Arjuna, how I am defeated by simple gopas?", He realised that when lord was there everything had power now lord has left everything has become powerless, including me. So one has to understand Krishna is the source of all power and one shouldn't be proud of his abilities or skills.

Lord speaks in Gita(BG 3.27),"The bewildered spirit soul, under the influence of the three modes of material nature, thinks himself to be the doer of activities, which are in actuality carried out by nature". The spiritualist completely know lord is controlling everything but ignorant person thinks,'I am the door' and takes credit for everything forgetting the suprem God, but this is all under the influence of false ego(which is also the property of God), He does not know that the mechanism of the body is produced by material nature, which works under the supervision of the Supreme Lord. So one should not become proud of his own success and skills but understand that ingredients to get that success were also given by the God. In conclusion actually there is nothing like a self made man but actually everyone is made by God, so let's be grateful to Him!!

Article by Rupeshgauranga Dasa
Sent by iskcondesiretree.com

If you want to be happy...be!!

'If you want to be happy, be happy', this is very famous statement of Leo Tolstoy. Actually no one is stopping us from being happy. There was one beggar who would seat on wooden box and beg, one day no one gave him a single penny and he was really frustrated. By seeing his condition one gentleman approached to him, Berger thought now he will give me some money. But man asked him, 'have you ever opened this box?' He replied, 'no, why should I open the old wooden box, I am using it for seating'. On the order of man beggar opened the box and he found chunk of gold which solved his problems and made him rich. This is our condition too...we are also having happiness within us but we are searching it outside just like a beggar.

To become happy is goal of life everyone is trying for that. People earn more money, try to get more properties, they work hard to ultimately become happy. It's said, spiritualist takes pleasure in own self whereas materialist searches for pleasure outside. We are responsible for our own happiness if we depend upon others we will always be disappointed. Comparing with others, trying to impress others are some of the things which steals our happiness, let's be ourselves only don't compare, everyone individual is different with different sets of skills, each one of us is very special creation of God, just realise that and be grateful to Him, grateful heart is happy heart.

It's said,'happiness doesn't depend upon anything except our mental attitude'. Happiness is reflected on face and body but it's actually state of heart, when the heart is content then automatically one is happy. But when heart is not content even though everything is provided to it, it will miserable, just see happy people are not always rich and vice a versa.

How to make heart happy?, Gita says(BG 2.66),"One who is not connected with the Supreme [in Kṛṣṇa consciousness] can have neither transcendental intelligence nor a steady mind, without which there is no possibility of peace. And how can there be any happiness without peace?", it's so simple to understand that there is no possibility of happiness unless one is connected to the God. Just like when fish is in connection with river it feels comfortable similarly when a soul comes in connection with the super soul it experiences real happiness. The best way to connect to God in this age is to chant His names sincerely because God has invested all His potencies in His names, also it's said that one who chants God's name his transcendental  happiness increases at everystep and he can experience the nectarine bliss. In conclusion happiness is not something very rare or esoteric thing but it's really accessible if one has proper guidance to obtain it. So let's not waste our time but be happy immediately by gaining connection with Krishna by simple process of chanting His names!!

Article by Rupesh Gauranga Dasa

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Cooperation- need of spiritual journey

We all have heard a story of turtle and rabbit, how both decided to have a race to know who is more faster. as we know rabbit took a rest for a while and turtle won the race, moral of the story,'one who is slow and steady wins the race', but story doesn't end here. Next time they again decided to have race and rabbit was careful not to sleep during race and off course rabbit won the race, moral,'fast and steady always wins the race'. Story continues, this time turtle decided to have different route for race. Race started, rabbit started running very fast but he realised finishing point is beyond a river, he started thinking how to cross the river meanwhile turtle came he swam across river and reached the goal, moral,'identify your core competency and then change the playing field to suit your core competency'. Story doesn't end here, now this time they have become good friends, they thought last race could have been better, they decided to have race again but not as individual but as a team. Till the riverbank rabbit carried turtle on his back, turtle helped rabbit to cross the river and again rabbit carried turtle on his back till the finish point. Both felt great sense of satisfaction, moral,'alone we can do little but together we can do much more'.

If one wants to get engaged in good moral activities he must be association of people who have similar nature, in fact what to say of good activities even if someone wants to commit sinful actions one needs to cooperate(that's why there is gang of deco it's and robber), cooperation is needed everywhere, one can't function without it. We read in scripture how Lord himself told the demigods to cooperate with demons if they want to have the nectar.

In this age of Kali, where quarrel and hypocrisy present everywhere, it's very difficult to cooperate. The powerful enemy of cooperation is our own egos. We have to keep our egos and personal agendas aside while cooperating. Confrontation will create loose loose situation. Prabhupad would say,'united we stand, divided we fall', we each individual doesn't have potency to do anything meaningful. That's why yugavataar Chaitanya Mahaprabhu recommended Sankirtan Yajna, congregational chanting of holy name as a means of deliverance for this age.

It's become very easy to cooperate when centre is one, else there will be fight, just like if we throw a stone in still water of lake there are multiple waves of concentric circles but when another stone is thrown it also creates its own waves and both waves collides. So when we have God as a centre of our life then it becomes very easy to cooperate. In fact God becomes pleased by seeing cooperation. Bhagavat mahapuran explains the story of 100 prachetas, they performed penances together to please Lord. Lord appeared to them and congratulated them for their unity. Always there will be multiple reasons for not cooperating but cooperation will please the God and that's important than all other multiple reasons. It's said,'if you want to walk fast go alone but if you want to walk long go together'. And our spiritual journey is not short path it's long path, we need inspiration and guidance from others, unless we are in company of devotees and cooperating with them then it will become difficult to walk on this path for long. So let's cooperate for our own spiritual success and for pleasure of The God!!

Article by Rupeshgauranga Dasa 
Sent by iskcondesiretree.com

*Stay connected*

Once a man went to market to buy a water pump for his garden, he bought it and fixed it nicely. But next day he saw although everything g was fine water was not being pumped he was astonished and called immediately to shopkeeper, he started giving bad words to him calling him cheater and lier for giving faulty pump. Shopkeeper asked,"have you properly fixed all the parts, have you put inlet into well, have you primed the pump?", man replied,"off course". Then shopkeeper thought for a while and said,"have you plugged in the wire of pump, have you given power supply?", man realised his mistake he had forgotten to provide power supply which is most important. That's our mistake too, to become happy we do everything but we miss the power supply...connection to God!!

Everyone is in search of connection, may that be wifi connection, mobile signal, relationships because connection provides pleasure, sucurity and confidence. People want to be connected with their family, kids, parents, in laws etc. Connection is required everywhere, even pilot has to be connected with cabin crew members on ground, captain of ship has to be connected with crews on shore to get directions. It's said,'we were born with craving for connection', but many are ignorant about,'connection with whom, which connection will satisfy me the most?'

There are 3 kinds of connections, bodily or physical connection, mental connection and spiritual connection. Physical connection is gross and has high chances of breaking off, that's why we see many people who have connected to each other only on physical basis they part away after some time because other 2 connections are not present. Mental connection is like emotional bonding with someone, here even someone is far away still person feels his love and care. Actually to feel connected is basic human need. Human is social animal he need some connection with others. All these physical and mental connection are temporary because they are related to body, as soon as body is finished they are finished, but spiritual connection is strongest of all and it's eternal too!! Gita speaks,'everyone is part and parcel of God and in that way everyone is connected to Him', but under sway of ignorance we have lost this connection, so to set up this connection with every living being and with God is goal of human life.

Prabhupad once said,"when finger is hurt we feel so much pain because we are intimately connected with finger, similarly we have connection with Krishna and we are fallen, so He feels pain He comes down to relieve our pain." In this age of quarrel He appears as holy name which is non different from Him, so when we chant his name we are connected directly to Krishna. Connection to Krishna means connection to power supply of satisfaction and eternal happiness because He is reservoir of pleasure. So let's utilise our time to remain in connection with Krishna by simple method of chanting 'Hare Krishna', stay connected and be blessed!!

Article by Rupesh Gauranga Dasa
Sent by iskcondesiretree.com

*Pretender is an offender*

The current age is called as Kaliyuga which means the age of quarrel and hypocrisy where people want to show themselves what they are not. Every single day someone calls himself to be an Avatar of God and claims to cure all problems, this doesn't happen only in India but practically all over the world. On the name of faith healing, faith destroying is going on. So many babas, mullahs, healers have been accused for playing with simple people's faith and cheating them. These are the people who don't know even basics of their scriptures, but are very expert in pretending to be well learned in science of devotion and scriptures. World is made of cheaters and cheated.

People who make a show of their religion and devotion are many times hypocrites and use religion as source of their income, so many of the such pretenders have earned crores of dollars(they speaks about detachment but seems very attached to money). Gita says(BG 3.6),“One who restrains the senses of action but whose mind dwells on sense objects certainly deludes himself and is called a pretender.” So externally they are very expert in showing detachment but their mind is constantly hovering over the sensual enjoyment. As Prabhupad says, they make a show of their meditation and speaks about dry philosophy to bluff sophisticated followers, but according to this verse they are greatest cheaters, their mind is always impure. And because of such pretenders people's faith is also getting destroyed because their action doesn't follow their own words.

But God is not pleased with such pretenders He values genuine and sincere devotion more than anything may that be a simple householder. Lord speaks ahead(BG 3.7),“On the other hand, if a sincere person tries to control the active senses by the mind and begins karma-yoga [in Kṛṣṇa consciousness] without attachment, he is by far superior.” Prabhupad gives a very graphic example he says,“A sincere sweeper in the street is far better than the charlatan meditator who meditates only for the sake of making a living.” So one has to be very careful while choosing association, don't just look for eternality but try to look the internal character of person too. Better than the pretender is one who is sincerely doing his prescribed duties. So these pretenders are actually offenders at the feet of God.

Pretenders are those who have accepted religion as their money making business and we find so many of them still present in society. One has to be little intelligent to understand who is genuine and who is cheater, if one follows the cheater then he will be cheated because they can't free themselves from material bondage how they will free their followers. In conclusion be careful of religious pretenders because they can create havoc in your spiritual life...

Article by Rupesh Gauranga Dasa
Sent by iskcondesiretree.com

*Don't live to eat, eat to live*

It's said, way to man's heart is through his stomach. Some of people are so much foodie as if aim of their life is to keep eating different varieties of food. Many times their life is just centred around eating and that's why we find so many channels, shows and serials on TV related to food, showing how to prepare food and how to relish it. So many arrangements for eating, five star restaurants, food courts, dhabas, hotels and so many new food items they invent everyday to attract customers(there is special engineering branch for this). This is the only business which will be never under crisis because there will be always a demand for food. What not people eat to satisfy their tongue, they don't leave even their own foetus, dogs and cats (Yulin Dog Meat Festival, China). I remember one person while dying he was saying, I want to taste that pizza...

History mentions that there was the king who was so much attached to the eating that after one meal he would take some medicine to vomit that food, to get ready for another meal. It's also said 80% of diseases are due to improper eating habits, so this particular King died at very young age, his own food became poison for him. We find 4 common things between humans and animals, eating,sleeping, mating and defending. So if we also only engage ourselves in these 4 things then we are no better than animals. We have got prerogative of intelligence over the animals, which shouldn't be only used to taste the foodstuffs but to make spiritual enquiries.

Bhagavat purana explains, “Just as a fish, incited by the desire to enjoy his tongue, is fatally trapped on the fisherman’s hook, similarly, a foolish person is bewildered by the extremely disturbing urges of the tongue and thus is ruined.” Tongue is vary voracious and unconquerable but if tongue is controlled then all senses can be brought under control which is the aim of yoga sastra. The same food which we are enjoying can entangle us in this material world, so one has to understand what should I eat and what I shouldn't? Only eating shouldn't be our aim, Gita says one has to be regulated in eating habits.

Don't take me wrong I am not against eating but our scriptures explains eating can also become holy sacrifice, which can benefit us to attain higher realisations. 'Food for the body is not enough. There must be food for soul'-says Dorothy Day. What's this food for soul, it's Prasad, mercy of God. When we eat for our own enjoyment it's a sin but when we prepare food and offer it to God and then accept it as his mercy it's devotion, now this food is not only for body but it nourishes the soul too. There are so many examples showing just by eating food offered to Lord Krishna people attained highest perfection of life. So don't centre our life around only eating but also focus on goal of human life, that doesn't mean you don't eat but you honour Prasad to progress on devotion to Lord.

Article by Rupesh Gauranga Dasa 
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Is 'River of Blood' sign of religious heart?

The streets of Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka turned red on Eid-ul-Adha, a Muslim festival of sacrifice, after the blood of thousands of sheep, goats and cows slaughtered as offering combined with flood water. People in Dhaka shared pictures of the streets with blood-stained water on social media as a heavy spell of rains on Tuesday added to the problem in the city with poor drainage systems. Residents were seen walking through ankle-high water awashed with blood and animal remains. According to BBC Bengali, residents sacrificed 100,000 livestock this year, mainly on the streets or at underground garages in residential buildings. I was really horrified by seeing a young boy cutting the throat of poor animal in one of these pics.

None of the scriptures of any religion speaks about the killing of animals and states about sever reactions for killing innocent creatures. Religion has always talked about mercy and compassion towards others including beasts and birds. In fact if you see our previous leaders and kings, they always considered animals like their own citizens. King Parikshit released bull and cow from being beaten up by Shudra, Shivaji Maharaj protected the cows from being slaughtered by mullas and there are so many such examples. Even in Islam, mistreating an animal is considered a sin. The Quran and guidance from the Prophet Muhammad, as recorded in hadith, give many examples and directives about how Muslims should treat animals. In some of the places it says,“A good deed done to an animal is like a good deed done to a human being, while an act of cruelty to an animal is as bad as cruelty to a human being, Whoever is kind to the creatures of God, is kind to himself" -The Prophet Muhammad.

There are several quotations from Bhagavad Gita, Manu Samhita, Bible, Quran and other religious texts which forbids the animal killing, but some people had misinterpreted these holy scriptures and fooled people asking them to eat meat. It's a common sense to think, how can God will like his own children being killed and tortured? Also how much is it acceptable to kill someone for own tongue? Why to make our body as a tomb for other innocent creatures, they also have right to live, who are we and what right we have to kill them? Just because we have got little extra intelligence over animals, we exploited them...for us it may be just meal but for animals it's their life. Dying is not pleasurable it's hurts them tremendously, they also have the soul and feelings, those who take pleasure in slaughting just ask them to cut own finger a little and see how much pain is involved, now what to say of cutting someone's throat.

See animals as living being like all of us and not as food, care for them and just see how affectionately they also reciprocate. And if we still continue to kill them for our pleasure then nature will take revenge on behalf of them, Once Socrates said,'there will be war fields till the time slaughter houses exist in world'. How can someone kill 1 lakh animal in one city in one day on the name of religion? Slaughtering is not a religious act, it's a inhuman act, so it's not at all a sign of religious heart because religion has always taught about mercy and not cruelty!

Article by Rupesh Gauranga Dasa
Sent by iskcondesiretree.com

*Miss you Miss universe*

Miss Universe is an annual international beauty pageant that is run by the Miss Universe Organization.Along with its rival contests, Miss World and Miss Earth, this pageant is one of the most important and publicized beauty pageants in the world. It is held in more than 190 countries worldwide and seen by more than half a billion people annually. It's started in 1952, so many awards have been given to so many beauty queens of the world. But have you ever thought where are the beauty queens of early 60s, 70s and 80s?

Once Buddha was travelling from village to village for preaching. He came to one village and started preaching about his philosophy. A girl would stay in that village, she was really very beautiful, many kings had asked her hand in marriage but she had rejected all of them. She had little prideful heart of being very beautiful and charismatic. She came to Buddha with intention to allure him and break his vows of renunciation. Buddha asked he to get mirror, she thought,'why do I need to get mirror I am beautiful and everyone including me knows it, there isn't any need to confirm it'. Still she got mirror, Buddha asked her to see in mirror, she started laughing but she followed him, she was seeing her own image which was beautifully decorated. After few moments reflection changed, now there was middle aged lady, after few moments there was little old lady with wrinkles on the face and toothless mouth, after few moments she saw herself as very old lady lying on bed, then she saw how that old lady died and how people are burning her body in crematorium. She realised that body is just temporary and one day it will have end, she surrendered her life to Buddha.

So one has to understand that bodily beauty is just temporary, but the soul has the permanent beauty. Many marriages breaks down because they can't digest the fact that how my beautiful spouse is getting older over the years. Material body is perishable by nature, it may perish immediately or after some years, it's just a question of time. There is no chance of maintaining it indefinitely although one may apply so many body lotions and anti ageing soaps, destruction is nature of this body. So there shouldn't be any proud for being smart or charismatic or handsome, time will show us the reality of body.

The only beautiful person in the world is God himself. He is eternally beautiful with so many attractive qualities. In fact when he took the form of 'Mohini' to distract the demons, not only she distracted demons but some of the powerful demigods like lord shiva and others also started running after her in want of her, he forgot himself and didn't bothered about anything...shiva who once had burned the Cupid, now he was crazily following her, then lord showed His original form of Vishnu and shiva was cooled down. The conclusion is that material beauty is insignificant in front of Lord's. So my appeal to you is that don't just run after the fading beauty of this world but try to achieve Lord's grace which is trillion times more beautiful than any of this world, so when we do that we can go to spiritual world where we also will be awarded with our real beauty to serve the Lord as an eternal companion of Him.

Article by Rupesh Gauranga Dasa
Sent by Iskcondesiretree.com

*The main Focus is to remain Focused!!*

One person went to saintly person and asked him,"Maharaj you look self realised please give me some mantra to chant so that I can also attain salvation". Sadhu gave him mantra and asked him to chant this mantra daily on the banks of the river Yamuna. Person reconfirmed,"will this mantra work", sadhu replied,"off course, you just chant sincerely and seriously". Man immediately left for banks of Yamuna to practice his sadhana. He performed chanting for next 6 months but no results, he was frustrated. He came back to sadhu and said,"Maharaj this mantra is not working for me, what should I do now?", sadhu said,"tell me dear child what do you see while chanting?". Man replied,"I see waves of Yamuna, I see rising and Setting of sun and moon, I see birds flying, I see stars in the sky.", "what else","I see swans in water, I see different animals and so may other things". Sadhu said,"while chanting if you are watching birds and waves and stars, sun and moon, trees and animals how this chanting will help you to transform, be focused". Man learned his life lesson.

What to say of spirituality one can't be successful if he is not focused. The main reason for lack of taste and problems in both spiritual as well as material activity is not having focus. People do multiple activity to gain more results but effect is simply opposite better focus on one, focus means follow one course until one becomes successful. It's said when life gets blurry adjust your focus, so when tragedy comes be focused on goal.

I remember we would do an experiment with concave mirror. Mirror was held under sun's rays, the mirror would concentrate the Rays and gave the focused effect that burned the paper. Similarly with mind, when so many things are going inside there is no result, but when mind is focused on one particular activity better results can be obtained. Studies show that person who is interrupted takes 50% longer to accomplish the task, not only this but he makes up 50% more errors. When so many apps are opened in mobile phone, it drains the battery faster, similarly when so many things going in mind, that will only drain our energy faster!!

Lord also speaks about focus in Gita(2.41), "Those who are on this path are resolute in purpose, and their aim is one. O beloved child of the Kurus, the intelligence of those who are irresolute is many-branched". Distraction is enemy of focus, it's said,'you will never reach your destination if you stop and throw stone at every dog who barks', so one need not to be so worried about petty obstacles in spiritual life and give up it but focus on the goal and strive for the association of those who also have the same goal, that will give us the strength to go on and on. Unless someone is focused he is simply wasting his time. So let's put our heart and soul into the activity(May that be material or spiritual) and be focused to get maximum benefit out of it!!

Article by Rupesh Gauranga Dasa 
Sent by Iskcondesiretree.com

*Nothing is Easy when you are Lazy*

During my college days, in hostel I would observe some of my classmates and one common peculiar thing among them was nobody could defeat them in sleeping. Some of them would sleep for 18 hours, some 16 hours every single day, then they would have to bunk the lectures which affected their studies and ultimately few of them failed in exams. It's said,'people who are in the comfort of enjoying inaction often pays high price in the end'. They would have the big alarm clock but mind's voice is more louder than alarm, which would say, "sleep for some more time...don't get up early...exam is after 2 months...don't worry...now you take rest".

Unless one is determined he can not go against the demands and proposals of mind, then everything becomes difficult for such person. Laziness may look very attractive and appealing but it's just sucks away our energy and time. Someone has said,'laziness will be the cause of your pain'. When one is lazy he gets into to the mode of postponing the things and loses all opportunities slowly...

When person gets introduced to spirituality due to partial knowledge he feels, now it's really easy I won't have do anything and I will depend upon God fully, But it doesn't work like that 'God helps to those who help themselves'. Even if we observe the examples from our scriptures we can find that every devotee had practically struggled to get the mercy of the Lord it wasn't an easy task. Just take the example of Pandavas, how much they struggled for their rights? Lord was with Arjuna during Kurukshetra battle, but lord didn't say,'Arjuna you rest now I will fight on behalf of you'...no, lord inspired him to fight by speaking Gita. See the example of Prabhupad, throughout the day he would manage temples and preach and at night he would translate the books, such a hard work at such advanced age!! So after coming to spirituality person becomes more hardworking and not lazy(as general people think).

Lord speaks in 6th ch that one has to be regulative in his habits of sleeping, eating, working and recreation. Unless one is regulated and determined he is no more than animal as prabhupad would sometime say. Laziness can be overcomed by practice and staying with those who are not lazy. What to say of spirituality one won't progress even materially when person is lazy.  Lack of the inspiration is main cause for laziness. Bhagavad Gita is the most inspirational song ever spoken, whoever picks it up and follow it he doesn't become lazy but becomes crazy to remain busy for the pleasure of God and humanity. In conclusion give up your laziness and adopt to the craziness to fulfill your material as well as spiritual dreams!!!

Article by Rupesh Gauranga Dasa 
Sent by Iskcondesiretree.com

*One sided Love Affair*

On Thursday, Mumbai court sentenced 25-year-old Ankur to death for an acid attack on 23-year-old nurse Preeti Rathi at Bandra Terminus in May, 2013. Her eyes, stomach and lungs were severely damaged when he threw two liters of sulfuric acid on her. She died a month later from her injuries in a hospital. Why did he throw acid on her? Because he was having one sided love affair with her, and when she rejected his proposal he raged with anger, followed her till Mumbai from Delhi to kill her. How can lover be the killer?

This is the nature of material world, where satisfaction of own personal senses has prioritised over other's, and if lover rejects the love then there is anger and frustration. One hardly bothers about loved one, but that's not love. Love means sacrifice, service to the lover, Being satisfied in satisfaction of loved one. Love is not force it's a choice of heart. Love is when other person's happiness is more important than our own. What goes on the name of love in today's world is simply lust and gratification of senses.

There is big difference between love and lust. It's like gold and iron both are metals but values are total different. Practically love doesn't exist in material world. Love exist in spiritual world between God and His devotees, whose only aim is to satisfy God unconditionally. There is no limit between their loving dealings. God is so loving that He has given free will to us, He never forces us to love Him. When we abandoned Him and came to this dirty material world He accompanied us as paramatma, He didn't say, "you people left me, now suffer", no... He respects free will, He never demanded surrender.

In fact He provided all necessities to all of us, not only this but those who deny his existence, He is taking care of them too!! He has provided all kinds of pleasure in all species of life, even in the life of pig, He is never envious of anyone but always compassionate and forgiving like true lover. So if we consider all these points we can find that He is the only 'One sided lover' because we never bothered to love Him. Just see His kindness He also never forced us to love Him, He just want to see us happy. This is real lover, not one who just want to exploit us. And when someone starts loving Him, He is ready to reciprocate with him. So it's our choice with whom we should fall in love, the Supreme person who is loving us unconditionally from time immemorial  or person who is after his own sense gratification which is full of conditions?

Article by Rupesh Gauranga Dasa
Sent by Iskcondesiretree.com

*Significance of Lord Ganesha in life of Sadhaka*

Generally 2 kinds of fanatics are seen in religious society, those who are devotee of God(Lord Vishnu) they don't believe in worship of any other demigods and other kind is of those who consider all Gods are same. But the real spiritualist knows the position of the God and demigods, and he knows the art of respecting everyone. What to say of demigods but they don't disrespect even an ant.

1)As other demigods like lord shiva and brahma, Ganeshji's position is also important in spiritual societies. We all know the story when Vyasdev was searching for proper person who can write all the scriptures, he was told by Brahmdev to ask Ganesh. Ganeshji agreed one one condition that when he writes Vyasdev should not stop for a moment, Vyas also made condition asking him to write every word after understanding. Ganeshji agreed. Both continued their work of narrating and writing for 6 years. He contemplated  then agreed and followed whatever Vyas said. Similarly sadhakas also should make a habit of reading, contemplating and following the scriptures.  

2)Ganeshji helps devotees to fight with the difficulties in spiritual life. We find in scriptures even some of the gopis worshipped Ganeshji. Sadhakas also can pray to him for his blessing to overcome difficulties, Ganeshji also sometimes called as incharge of intelligence or understanding, so we can ask from him that thing also so in better way we can understand scriptures written by him.

3)When lord shiva first cut Ganesh's head due to his offence, he was headless, then to please Parvati lord shiva fixed the head of elephant and revived Ganeshji. Generally elephants are called as dull headed, but Ganeshji accepted it without any complaints and made best use of his head(apparently dull headed by used his head in most intelligent way) this shows the his attitude of making best use of bad bargain without getting disturbed by circumstances. So sadhakas also try to convert adversity into opportunity by keeping serving the Lord as the goal.

Article by Rupesh Gauranga Dasa

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*Happy (real)Mother's Day*

Place of mother is very important in everyone's life because none can replace her place. Mother is known for her unadulterated love for her kids, and she is ready to do anything to see happiness of their face. She sacrifices her own youth(which is very dear to her) to have kid. In fact it's said we can find glimpse of God's pure love only in mother.

Mother is very kind in nature by heart she is ready to forgive her child for anything, someone just told me recently a story, there were well settled, cultured doctor couple in Middle East. But their child was evil minded, he got the association of similar people and his disease became worst, he would drink, smoke and did all nonsense activities.he started beating his old mother and father for money, neighbours complained against him to the police and he was in jail. This happened 5-6 times. Father released him from jail each time, son was frustrated and depressed and also realised his mistakes. One day he drank poison and attempted suicide but somehow or other he was saved but whole body below neck was paralysed. Father told his mother, 'leave him here in hospital, people will take care of him, so cruel he was to both of us'. Mother replied with the tears in her eyes, 'how can we do that, he is our own child however bad or evil he may be, I won't leave hospital till he gets cured'. And since past 2 months mother is staying in hospital waiting his son to get cured. This is mother's love. Father by nature is strict but mother is tender hearted, ready to forget all mistreatments given by child.

This is story of mother of one life time, in each lifetime we have different parents just imagine how much our eternal mother and father must be loving us? It's said God has the heart of not one or two but millions of mothers!! When God(Krishna) appears in His most tender hearted feminine(motherly) form, He is called as Radharani. She nourishes the devotee by her own love, spirituality or attaining mercy of Lord is simply impossible without Her grace. She is our real and eternal mother.

She is very merciful as explained by our scriptures, but there are recent pastimes too...Just 400 years before there was a treasurer of Radha Govind Temple, Jaipur named Jagannath Bhatt. He married to the girl named Kishori(one of the name of Radharani). He was very attached to her but by will of providence she died just after marriage. Jagannath was in great pain, he left his job, family, property and everything else, he was just roaming in city shouting in pain, "Kishori, kishori!!", he moved on to next city then next searching for his dear wife. Eventually he came to village called 'Barsana'(holy place of Radharani where she does her eternal pastimes, even today). He was yelling and crying out, "Kishori! Kishori!!", Radharani heard his cries and thought, 'he is calling me'...she appeared in front of Jagannath in her most beautiful transcendental form, he realised his wicked position just by mere darshan of Her. Soon he took shelter of sadhu in Barsana and wrote many bhajans and book on beauty and mercy of Radharani which he actually saw and experienced. So in conclusion our eternal mother still hear our cries perfectly and she is ready to help but the question is are we ready to cry out Her Names and surrender to Her? Today is Her appearance day, She is very happy today why not take opportunity of this golden moment and seek Her blessings!!!

Article by Rupesh Gauranga Dasa
Sent by Iskcondesiretree.com

What are you looking for, Fact or Impact ?

When it comes to the spirituality people starts asking the various questions, like what's the proof of Mahabharata actually did happen? What's the proof of Ramayan actually did happen, did Ayodhya, Mithila and Lanka actually exist? How Krishna had 16000 wives, where is their palace now? Did Ramsetu was build by Ram? What's the proof that Krishna's lifting of the Govardhan hill? Did Krishna tell Gita to Arjuna or it's someone's imagination? Vedic literatures are reality or just myth to teach us some lessons? And so many unlimited other questions...

In today's scientific world we have been taught to believe what we see or what has proofs, and everything else which doesn't have any proof is blind faith as they say. But we see many theories which scientists propose they also don't have any proof but are just accepted on the basis of faith. In our education also we learn many things and we accept them as it is. For eg how many of you were present for American civil war(1861-65), then world war I (1914-18), world war II(1939-45)?...none of us, but when asked in exam we write answers as if we were personally present there, because we accept these histories on the basis of faith, off course historians have provided all the facts and proofs of battles and wars.

But as far as my understanding goes I have never heard or seen someone whose life transformed because of studying these histories, although they are full with facts and figures, yes, one may get knowledge, information but no transformation. On the other side we have our scriptures like Ramayan, Mahabharata, Bhagavat Puran and many others are filled with the knowledge and information of God, just because His pastimes mentioned there are inconceivable, we should not reject them but accept on the basis of reasonable faith and not blind faith.

What's this reasonable faith?...I have seen many of those who accepted scriptures on basis of faith and practiced it, what an impact they had on their heart and lifestyle, it's simply unimaginable. I know many those who were meat eaters, gamblers, women hunters, smokers, drunkards before, left everything after coming in contact with God and His words(scriptures), they are totally transformed and living a pure life. Did anyone force them to leave bad habits aside? No...they had the impact on their hearts, when one tastes something higher the inclination for lower things automatically goes down. So scriptures may not provide you the facts and figures or you may get bewildered by seeing contradictions there, due to that your faith may get shaken up, during that time focus on the people who have practiced words of scriptures and observe their lifestyle that will restore our lost faith, off course we have sciences like astrology and all with which facts mentioned in scriptures can be proved. So let's not look for fact proof but focus on impact proof on people's heart.

Article by Rupesh Gauranga Dasa
Sent by Iskcondesiretree.com

*Overlook the 'look' but look into the 'heart'*

Most of us get attracted to those who are very beautiful and charismatic. According to many of us most beautiful and handsome people are in cinema industry or in sports like cricket , people get so much fascinated by these star's look that they want to offer their whole life to them. I know some of the women who were the fans of one particular Bollywood hero, when he got married they were all devastated, cried bitterly and fasted for two days. And vice a versa, many men cried when one of the heroin got married(may be they all were expecting she will marry with them).

But after all how many days this 'look' will sustain, time is very cruel, ruthless and he doesn't leave anyone, soon there will be wrinkles, toothless mouth, grey hairs and different symptoms of old age. So one has to understand this beauty is temporary and one should not run after temporary beauty, we often observe in college, boys have girlfriends and girls have boyfriends, on what basis they choose each other?...Simply 'look', he or she looks beautiful and can satisfy my senses nicely, that's all is their criteria. But that's not real beauty.

Real beauty is of heart, which lasts long even body gets old. Beautiful heart is full of divine qualities like compassion, gratefulness and love, it never demands it just wants to serve the others. Bodily beauty doesn't have these qualities and that's why we see those who are in love with others(on the basis of bodily beauty) they soon break apart, their relations are temporary. Again just take the example of superstars of Bollywood, so many times they keep changing relationships, partners and wives, hardly some of them are continuing with their actual married wife or husband, why? Are not they beautiful or handsome or rich? No...they lack the beauty of heart. It's not with only stars but practically everyone suffers from from this problem, people just go on external look that to see internal look of heart!!! Not just see the beauty but see the behaviour and observe the character of person and on that basis decide he/she is having good looks or not? what's the use of beauty when the person is cruel or full of hatred?

In conclusion I am not against the beauty and charisma of physical body but I value the internal beauty more. It's a bit difficult to find a person with both beauties together...but there is a person who is most beautiful and pure and sweet hearted too!! Who is He? He is God, Lord Krishna. In fact whoever associates with Him becomes beautiful both internally and externally too, He attracts millions of Cupid to Him and what to say of compassion He gives mercy even to those who comes to kill Him(Putana), where will we find such a person. So why to run after temporary 'looks' of this world if we have 'Lord Krishna' as the permanent beauty of eternal world!!

Article by Rupesh Gauranga Dasa
Sent by www.iskcondesiretree.com

*Why only Temple run, why not Run to the Temple!!*

There is no need to give any introduction of a called a 'Temple Run' because practically everyone has played it. In Temple Run, the player controls Guy Dangerous, an archaeologist who embarks on an adventure to seek an ancient and valuable golden idol from a temple in the Gardens of Bomarzo in Italy. Unfortunately, he does not realize that the temple is inhabited by a family of "demonic monkeys" who want to eat him. As the game is an endless running game, there is no end to the temple; the player plays until the character falls off the temple to his demise or is eaten by the crazed monkeys. Character can turn left or right, jump or slide under an object, while running he collects gold, red and blue coins, and thus tries to complete his adventure. I have practically seen in the midst of the crowd in local train, during lectures in colleges, during serious meetings, people play this game, so much craze!!

But after all game is game and have nothing to do with reality in fact it hampers your real life by distracting you from your work and relations. It only provides some entertainment and no real values. Good values only inculcated in the association of those who have these values, which gives strength to fight with the realities of life, game is just an imaginary journey with some problems but life has more real serious hurdles than games. Just like we practice the game again and again and  we can become master of it but we can't play with life again and again to master over it because human life is very rare, we don't know in next life which birth we will get. So the aim of game of life is to become successful in one attempt, that is to develop love for the God in this lifetime, without taking next chance.

So how to attain this goal of our real game, real aim is not attaining valuable golden idol but much more precious than that, attaining the Prema of God. One of the method as earlier described is to take association of those who have developed love for God, go to them, serve them, learn from them and they will teach you how to win this game. Temple is the best place where we can find such realised souls who have mastered over their game of life. Temple is like a hospital and we are all diseased due to our conditioning and vices of hearts. Doctors gives us medicines and prescriptions of how to take it, similarly the realised devotees will help us by giving their guidance and instructions to get cured of material disease. Temple also means there is deity of God in whose service we can be engaged to purify our senses.

Still in India we find many people visit temple everyday because they know, 'world will give me all information but temple will give me transformation of heart'. In Jaipur in early morning I actually saw many thousands of people running towards the temple to attend the Mangla Aarti of Lord 'Givind Devji'. It was so amazing experience which we can't get by playing temple run but we can get it by actually running to temple to greet the Lord. So let's not only play the temple run but let's run to the temple!!!

Article by Rupesh Gauranga Dasa
Sent by www.iskcondesiretree.com