Lessons from 'JIO' is 'MARO'

Jio sim became talk of the town(and whole nation) as soon as Ambani made service available for everyone. Practically everyone was running to grab the Jio sims from stores, there were long queues seen in front of mobile stores, those who received it were so happy and blissful as if they are seeing God face to face. Jio is offering so many benefits, you can make free calls, free SMSs, free roaming everywhere, free wifi data, free 4G services till December 3rd, LTE calls, what else you want in life,amazing isn't it?

I was just thinking how someone can become so benevolent that he is offering everything for free, I studied little deep and found out there is some catch. Until and unless you purchase some data plan you won't be able to make any call or send a single sms, the night defined by Jio is 2am-5am unlike usual service providers from 11pm-7am, one popular misconception is Jio provides 1GB data for only rs 50 but this data is not cellular it's wifi data you need to search places where Jio is providing hotspot and avail this service there only, when you are downloading something big speed drastically goes down. It's 4G is poor than any other service providers. Many times call is unreachable and doesn't get connected to person. In conclusion Jio users are not happy at all.

Then I could make some conclusions with spiritual lessons out of it, hope it will make relevance to you.
M- material nature(Maya) doesn't offer anything for free, you need to pay some hidden costs or some 'conditions apply' just like Jio sim. Material pleasure doesn't come for free one need to struggle and toil hard to get it and to keep it with himself.

A- accept the whole package, just like when you buy Jio sim you can't tell, 'I just want free voice calls and free SMSs, I don't want data plan which is payable', no...you have to accept both. Similarly material world is full of duality there is no complete happiness and whatever happiness is there it comes in packaged form including misery.

R - recreation in this world is simply a dream, people were on 7th sky when they received Jio sim but it only increased their anxiety.

O- only person who is ready to share his wealth, bliss and resources with us is non other than God. Everyone other than Lord and his devotees are simply selfish for their own bliss forgetting oasis for real bliss is Krishna Himself.

By Rupesh Gauranga Dasa

*Ae Dil 'Nahi' Hai Mushkil- if You read Gita daily*

Dil means heart (or sometimes mind) which is always filled with the desires which in turn give rise to emotions like happiness, depression, fear, anger, disgust, trust etc. Sometimes this emotional outburst of heart is very difficult to control by any means. Generally when mind gets unsettled people take help of various techniques of  trying to engage mind in different things like counting numbers in reverse order, talking to friends, playing games, exercise etc. yes these various  methods to keep heart and mind calm helps but not permanently, these methods just suppresses the emotions but when again it gets chance it outbursts causing more destruction e.g. when people doesn't get what they want, especially opposite sex they kill themselves or sometimes they kill a lover. Don't suppress the emotions, deal and dovetail them properly.

'Ae Dil Hai Mushkil' movie's story revolves about triangular love, their break ups, relationships and in short hero gets confused over a thought that out of two which girl to choose as life partner also he is pained due to heart breaks from loved one. Similarly many times much more serious situations arises in our life thus we get confused not knowing which one to be prioritised e.g. my parents or my wife, my business or family members etc. A expert software engineer knows well how to deal with computer hangs, similarly an expert mind technologist knows how to deal with these feelings and emotions causing pain to heart, how to become a expert software engineer? (Actually Only humans have problem controlling emotions, we never have heard any animal or plant going to psychiatrist or committing suicide.)

5000 years ago Arjuna was also confused on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, which was biggest battle played in history of mankind, he couldn't decide between his duties, responsibilities and relationships. His own near and dear one's were standing against him to kill him. His mighty bow slipped from his hands, senses started trembling and skin started burning, he started giving different logical reasons for not fighting, it was outburst of his emotions and he was unable to control them but Lord help him to recover by speaking the Bhagavad Gita. Knowledge frees us from bondage may that be physical or mental thus after listening to these great teachings his weak mental health became strong thus he agreed to fight.

What did Lord Krishna tell Arjuna? Did He teach him martial arts? No...He taught him how to fight, how to fight battle with our inner enemies lead by lust, anger, greed, Lord gave the perfect description of where these enemies are hiding and how to win over them, Lord taught him desire management and on top of that He taught subjects of self realisation and devotional service, practicing which is aim of human life and this is neither taught in any movie nor university. Lord gave him knowledge best of both the worlds, he won the kingdom and attained heavens at the end of life. So rather than suppressing or fulfilling emotions by some superficial way or running away from them better deal with them with the help of Gita and its knowledge then to control mind and heart won't be a difficult task.

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

Let's start Diwali cleaning...

Diwali is around the corner and we can see that people have started preparations to welcome this grand festival of bliss and joy. Preparations includes cleaning the home, making delicious food items, lightening the balcony with lanterns, shopping and so many other things. Cleaning is the important part because it's said, gods and especially Lakshmi(goddess of fortune) resides in the neat and clean home during these days and blesses people living in the home. Cleaning the whole house means a lot of work. It requires lot of energy and active minds. We wonder where to start our cleaning from and how to end this as soon as possible without straining ourselves.

Just like we do house cleaning to invite Lakshmi, we need to clean up our hearts to invoke the mercy of God, husband of Lakshmi, if we want blessing of Lakshmidevi for longer time on us. Our home gets dirty over a period of time if not cleaned regularly similarly our heart and mind have become dirty with the wrong conditionings and nasty thoughts from time immemorial on top of that we haven't done any cleaning from so many years, in fact we were ignorant of its dirtiness. We won't invite guest to our broken and dirty home in similar way we can't invite Lord who is all pure to our polluted heart, we need to clean it.

But how to clean the heart? By drinking more healthy juices or Himalayan water? No...only God has capacity to clean up our hearts. His holy name is best cleansing agent(detergent) and He is best of all cleaners. Although being the lord of everything he cleanses up our heart just like a servant who cleanse a home. Motivational and inspirational talks can help us to suppress pollutants(envy, ego, arrogance etc) of heart for some time but there can be blast of suppressed garbage, it has to be burned completely with the mercy of God which acts like a fire.

Just like while cleaning dirts falls upon head and without discouragement we continue the work and in this way soon whole home becomes cleaned similarly when we chant all nasty and lusty thoughts which were accumulated from many past lives may come up on the surface of mind causing agitation of it but without stopping we need to continue our work of chanting and soon it get relived from pollutants, cleaning will take time according to dirt accumulation, so determination is very important in this process of cleaning. In conclusion Lakshmi is wife of lord, she always follows her husband who always resides in clean and pure heart, so during this Diwali if you want grace of Lakshmi let's engage little heart cleaning too!!

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

Let's lighten up our hearts in this Diwali

Different people have different perceptions about festivals, someone takes it as mere holiday, for someone it's a break from daily routines and schedules, for someone it's a sleeping day, somebody just enjoys the special feast of festival, some are happy by meeting with relatives after long duration etc. Especially Diwali is everyone's favourite due to its long vacations, delicious food items and lightening of surroundings with fancy lanterns and fire crackers.

This lightening of lamps during Diwali is of course a holy ritual but apart from that it gives a significant message and that is, to introspect our dark heart and lighten it with lamp of transcendental knowledge. Jealousy, hatred, envy, arrogance, lust, greed etc these are some symptoms of dark heart and everyone of us has dark side of heart. Where can one avail this knowledge which can eradicate this darkness? Which school or college teaches about that? This knowledge is not a syllabus of ordinary books but It's given in only our scriptures like Gita and Bhagavatam and can be received by the grace of God and genuine spiritualists. Peculiarity of this knowledge is its revealed into the heart of the student so an illiterate can also avail the benefits.

The glories of our scripture is that they focus more into our heart than out side surrounding, Gita although spoken on battlefield, Lord didn't mentioned anything about martial arts or fighting techniques but it was all about how to fight inner war with our bad conditionings. Bhagavad Gita compare transcendental knowledge to, the Sun, a boat and blazing fire(BG Ch 4). Just like Sun dissipates the darkness, this knowledge dissipates the darkness of ignorance similarly just like a boat helps one to cross over the river this knowledge can help us to cross over the river of birth and death and just like fire turns wood into ashes this knowledge burns all sins.

This transcendental knowledge acquiring process is very easy for devotees, those who are lovingly serving God invokes the compassion of lord sooner. Krishna says in Gita(BG10.11),“To show them special mercy, I, dwelling in their hearts, destroy with the shining lamp of knowledge the darkness born of ignorance.” In conclusion during festivals we are concerned about cleanliness and lightening of home so that it will look attractive to ourselves and to the guests, similarly we need to work on the cleanliness and lightening of our polluted and dark heart not with the electrical bulbs but with powerful holy names of God, thus it will look attractive to supreme guest, the God!!

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

What's Your Roaming Plan ?

After seeing effect of Jio's market capture by offering various benefits to its customers all other telecom companies also reduced cost of their teriff plans to maintain loyal customers. They will be offering you the free roaming during this Diwali. Roaming means to use a cell phone network outside of a home service area as defined by a service plan, so if now you are moving to Delhi from Mumbai to enjoy your vacations you need not pay any extra money for calling in roaming zone.

Roaming also means wandering or to move on without purpose or plan. Soul who is individual part and parcel of the God, also roaming in these creation but he has purpose or plan which he has forgotten due to contact with material nature from time immemorial. Soul's eternal nature is to enjoy which he has forgotten and now wants to satisfy himself by fulfilling different desires. God who is sitting as a paramatma in the heart of every living entity senses these desires and makes conditions favourable to fulfill those desires. Due to those desires and karmas of past lives living entity sometimes takes birth amongst the demigods, sometimes amongst the human, aquatics, trees and so many other species.

So living entities roaming plans completely depends upon the activities performed in the human form of life, lower species of life like animals and trees haven't given any choices and thus no roaming plan for them. If someone performs good karmas then he is transferred to Heavens to enjoy where demigods dwell for long time duration however if karmas are sinful then One takes births in animal or tree species where one may get very less chances of enjoyment. Heavenly life also as said in Gita is temporary and after exhaustion of karma one need to come back as a human again to gain good roaming pack again by doing some pious activities.

As we discussed above results of all these roaming plans are only for some time, after expiry to gain facilities we need to recharge it again. Do you want to know one special roaming plan which will stop your roaming into different planets and give you better happiness than existing one? This special plan is recharged without paying high money but by practicing devotional service of Lord which is done by simply hearing and chanting of God's names. Even small recharge of this plan of Bhakti can save one from greatest danger. In conclusion by practicing these Bhakti processes you are stopping yourself from entering into higher and lower species of life(roaming) and recharging yourself to enter into the place of God for eternity!!

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

*When God becomes a Chauffeur....*

I remember when I showed Gita to one fellow who was totally unaware of Mahabharata( which is generally rare in India), he asked me the question by seeing the cover picture of Gita, "who is God, the person who is sitting on the chariot and ordering or one who is driving chariot or is there someone else other than these 2?", the question was normal because In various religions of world God is depicted as that Supreme Being who exists independent of the universe, who does not change, is absolute, transcends space and time, who is self-aware, who is all-knowing, ever present, and can accomplish whatever he desires to accomplish which means the supreme controller. People get bewildered by seeing God driving a chariot and think no..he can't be God.

Most of the times religions project Him like a superintendent of jail who is always ready with his staff to punish those who commit mistakes and ready to cast them into hell for eternity, as if He is the most cruel and don't have any work other than troubling. This knowledge of God is correct in one way but not complete. That's why we find many people have lost their faith in religious systems and the God. But the eternal and original religion of soul, Sanatan dharma presents God through the Vedic scriptures as most loving father who is ready to forgive his children and give them another chance to make improvements.

Lord's one of the name is 'Achyuta' which means He never fails in affection for His devotees, He is always protecting the devotee and his devotional service. During Mahabharata war Lord became peacemaker but that didn't work because Duryodhana wanted the war. Whole Narayani Sena was given to evil Duryodhana and Krishna remained with Arjuna with the vow of not lifting any weapon. Lord acted as charioteer for him. To become a chauffeur is not at all a prestigious job and no one will want to ever do such thing as to run by someone else's command. But Lord did that to show how much He loves His devotees to give us the hope to practice Bhakti. Arjuna was hitting Krishna with his legs to indicate where to take chariot but Lord didn't say a word, He kept assisting him in whole warfare till end...can you imagine the compassion of God!!

All qualities are found within Him with fullest extent. He is all perfectionist and thus He is perfect servant also towards His devotees, He wants to serve them just like a menial servant without any complaints, that's what He exhibited by becoming peacemaker and a charioteer. He is won only by power of love, He is perfect reciprocator of that love and never ditches a lover(which is generally seen in this world). Who chauffeur of our life? The contaminated intelligence is our driver currently, which make our defeat easy while fighting with conditionings of our nasty mind. In conclusion let's make the Lord as a chauffeur of our life and lead a victorious life as Arjuna.

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

Grand Theft Butter

For those who are/were addicted to games know very well that 'Grand Theft Auto' is an open world action-adventure video game series. Game is consisting of action-adventure, driving, third-person shooting, occasional role-playing, stealth, and racing elements. Player is given some mission with many obstacles, he has to face troubles and complete the mission, game is still so popular and addictive that developers have introduced 6th edition.

However popular or attractive game may be it just breaks away our connection with real world and we start searching for satisfaction in virtual world by winning matches or completing some imaginary targets. Especially games are so addictive, I remember my one of the classmate who would steal money of his parents to play games in cyber cafe, he would forget about everything and just spent his hours achieving so called 'goals'. Everyone has real mission, purpose of life and that is to develop love for Supreme Person, the God and at the end of this life enter into His real eternal abode but when one forgets real aim he runs after imaginary aims may that be games or something else.

How to develop Love for God? Who has time in modern world to practice Bhakti?...actually Bhakti is very simple, it's explained hearing the glories of God(Sravanam) is one of the easiest way to develop strong love and attachment to Him. We just need to give sincere aural reception to those who are spiritually advanced. When we listen to such nectarine pastimes of lord our hearts get freed from all misgivings of the world. There are unlimited pastimes of Lord and one of them is stealing of butter from houses of vrindavana gopis. Lords pastimes provides lots of fun to the hearers and simultaneously give the valuable lessons too!! These all pastimes are ever fresh and doesn't need any editions like games.

Mother Yashoda would make butter for Lord everyday but still He would go to the other gopis to eat their butter which would be kept many times on raised platform but still Lord Krishna and His friends by tricks would reach these pots, they broke pots and ate fresh butter. Similarly when our hearts gets churned with the process of Bhakti it becomes white and pure like butter there after wherever you hide it Lord will search for it and enter into it thus filling the heart with pure love for Him. This is positive addiction which is most desired by saintly people of all times. In conclusion we always like to hear about most chivalrous, dramatic, romantic stories of beautiful, powerful personalities and we search them in cimenams, movies, sports, games and everywhere except scriptures, but God has performed all kinds of activities, hearing of which can attract the hearts and has the power to fulfil all human emotions and keep us blissful and happy till the end of this life and after life for eternity.

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

Watch Your Watch

It's sounds so interesting to me when I ask my friends, "what are you doing" and they respond by saying, "nothing just doing T.P." means timepass, interesting about this is that even though you don't engage in timepass time is going to pass anyhow. Timepass way of passing a time in aimless or unproductive way and practically everyone does that. If you observe while travelling in a bus, in train, during breaks in workplace, in schools and colleges people are killing their time in various ways as if they have abundant time.

Once there was a highly elevated sage named 'Lomasha' who had been blessed by the Brahma to have long life. The boon was after every hundred years his one hair will fall off and in this way when all hairs fall off from his body he will die, means such a huge life. He was very austere, he would perform his sadhana under hot blazing sun, his one of disciple thought let me built a small hut for my guru he will be pleased. So he asked Lomasha, can I built hut for you so that you can perform sadhana peacefully, Rishi replied, don't waste time in building hut, life is so short, perform devotional service and go back to godhead.

We have to understand that we have less time to achieve perfection of human form of life, if we just utilise our time for eating, sleeping, mating and defending then hardly there are any chances of achieving goals. Watching the watch means becoming conscious of time, When one becomes conscious of running time then he can think of utilising time. Time passes so subtly and suddenly that we don't realise it has gone. You observe you life, it has passed just like a lightening, came and gone. Time is really very powerful, a filthy rich can become beggar overnight, a healthy can be diseased and powerful can become powerless within no time.

What is perfect utilisation of time? Using time in the service of personification of time that is God. When one engages in hearing and chanting of God's name regularly he becomes eligible to enter in the world where time is conspicuous by its presence. King Khatvanga realised that he was left with very short time he immediately freed himself from all responsibilities and engaged himself in the process of devotional service thus got elevated to planet of eternity and bliss, similarly king Pariksit was cursed to die within 7 days, he surrendered himself at the feet of Sukdev Goswami and engaged in hearing the glories of God. In conclusion remain always conscious of our watch(time) which is always running and rather than wasting it use our some time daily in loving service of God and His devotees so that we will be eligible to enter into His planet of eternity(Vaikunth).

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

Is God egomaniac?

People give different reasons for not surrendering unto God and one of their favourite reason is, God is egocentric, we don't want to worship egoistic God who always thinks of himself. Actually this is a result of not understanding spiritual subject matter perfectly and having wrong preoccupied notions for God's compassion and selflessness. Egomaniac is a person who thinks of himself as an very important man and does only whatever he wants without bothering for anyone else's opinion.

They say God made this universe for His pleasure, He made us for serving Him, He wants us to worship Him, glorify Him, praise Him, love Him? Why? Can't He be happy with Himself? And when they read Bhagavad Gita especially 10th ch. named 'Opulence of Supreme', where Lord declares His glories to Arjuna, Lord says,' I am the cause of everything and everyone including demigods, sages, patriarchs, surrender to me and I will freed you from sins, hear my glories that will give you pleasure. I am the best of everything and best of everyone. I am the controller in the form of time and nothing(living and non living) can exist without me'. At the end Lord says 'But this is just spark of my splendour, I am much more than I have explained', they get more convinced that God is egoistic because Krishna so many times use words like I..I..Me..Me...only Me and no one else etc.

People feel God is egomaniac because they think these are just false propagations by God just like any tom, dick and harry of footpath but no, Lord Krishna is not falsely boasting Himself in fact He proved His words in 11th ch. of Gita showing Universal form to Arjuna, where whatever He stated was visible in front of the eyes of Arjuna. A nice example is given, when a filthy rich, aristocratic person goes to a beggar and tells him that, 'I have 100 billion dollars, I have so many cars, I am owner of 10 bungalows, if you serve me I will give you food', but beggar refuses to surrender saying,'you are too egocentric'. Is rich person egomaniac? No...because he is telling truth. In fact beggar is egoistic of his filthy condition of life thus don't want to change it by surrendering. We are like that of beggar, helpless and hungry for true love but don't want to surrender being attach to our egos.

If you observe Lord Krishna's pastimes from Bhagavat Mahapuran, you will find several evidences of humility, selflessness and compassionate nature of Lord. Lord was learning under sandipani muni serving him menially, He was very respectful towards Brahmanas, He was collecting their left overs of food in Rajsuya sacrifice, He was charioteer of His devotee Arjuna, so many demons He liberated. In conclusion He is always concerned about us, about our happiness, He wants us to be back with Him in spiritual world and that's why so many times He Himself comes in different Avatars to reclaim us from material world. He sends his prophets, sons and saints to remind us of our fallen condition like that of beggar, who is the person other than God who wants to share His riches, His happiness and family with us, so rather than questioning about God's ego let's give up our egos and become member of His happy family.

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

Ras Lila: not a dance of Passion but act of Compassion

People do believe in God but their faith shakes up when some apparently controversial question arises in their mind. Some of the most controversial questions about Lord's pastimes are, Why He stole the clothes of young ladies? Why He married with so many women? Why He danced with young girls of Vrindavan in dead of night in middle of the forest? These questions only arises when there is no or less knowledge of omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent God, actually if they seek a help of proper spiritual authority then there is some hope of not loosing faith and also not having blind faith in whatever they are believing.

Ras Lila is not a dance of passion:
We, born and raised in the modern world where sex and vulgarity is the focus of everyone and everything, it's in films, it's in advertisements, it's there in magazine and everywhere. We are constantly bombarded with passionate acts and thoughts where self enjoyment is given priority. So when we go to temple and see deities of Radha and Krishna or hear about Their pastimes, our mind which is already filled with impure thoughts, projects the image of Their Divine Love as same as love between ordinary boy and girl. Yes Lord Krishna called all the gopis of Vrindavan in the dead of night to have dance but it wasn't as ordinary pub or disco bar dance, it was exchange of love between Lord and His devotees, there was not a tinge of selfishness which is always observed in so called love of this world.

Ras Lila is an act of compassion:
Scriptures explains us these gopis were exalted spiritualists who had asked Lord Rama that they want to serve Him in conjugal relationship, Lord fulfilled their desires compassionately when He appeared as Krishna. He expanded Himself into many forms and exchanged love with them individually expanding one night into thousands of years. Dance is an expression of love and happiness, isn't it? That's why we dance during happy moments of life or dance to become happy. Lord is calling us to have fun and blissful life with Him in His Kingdom Golok Vrindavan, He want to share this bliss with everyone. Ras Lila is an advertisement of the whole product of eternity and bliss.

The highest of all spiritual teachers and saints of world have glorified, relished and worshipped these Lilas with gopis as an epitome of Love for God. In conclusion before entering into such deep topics of love between Lord and gopis we should focus on our incapabilities to understand these thing, these topics are like post graduate studies which can't be offered to 1st std child for whom learning of A, B, C, D will beneficial at this stage. Similarly we are neophytes in spiritual understanding, for us now learning about God's greatness and our minuteness will be beneficial rather than directly jumping on Ras Lila.

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