Meditating on Unlimited Bliss at 37,000 Feet

It's Sunday afternoon at 12:33 pm. We just completed two days of preaching Krishna consciousness in Reno and Carson City, Nevada. We're cruising at 37,000 feet from Reno, Nevada on our way to Austin, Texas. The flight is for over three hours. This gives me a good chance to get some reflecting and writing done. Since I am not allowed to use my laptop computer during take off and landing I carry a pocket edition of Srila Prabhupada's Bhagavad-gita As It Is for study at those times. Today during take off I meditated on Chapter 5, Text 21. It is an extremely profound verse:

bahya-sparsesv asaktatma
vindaty atmani yat sukham
sa brahma-yoga-yuktatma
sukham aksayam asnute

"Such a liberated person is not attracted to material sense pleasure but is always in trance, enjoying the pleasure within. In this way the self-realized person enjoys unlimited happiness, for he concentrates on the Supreme."
---Bhagavad-gita 5.21

The self-realized soul is relishing so much pleasure within that he is not attracted to anything of this material world. It is not that he is artificially restraining his senses from sense gratification. Krishna consciousness enlivens him so much that he would not give it up even for all the wealth of this entire universe. His mind constantly and naturally gravitates to Krishna or God because there he derives billions and trillions more enlivenment than anything this world has to offer.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari

Gambling Fever Madness Slot Machines at the Reno Airport

Gambling Fever Madness Slot Machines at the Reno Airport

Answers According to the Vedic Version:

Question: Is Guru Really Required?

In the scriptures, it is mentioned that a Guru can help an aspiring devotee to get the right information to reach Krishna, by providing answers to questions that the aspiring devotee might have. But what is the need of a Guru to a person who already knows answers to all his/her questions?

For example, a person who has properly read the books and articles written by, Srila Prabhupada and people like you, would have all their questions answered already. For such people, there is no more any need of a Guru as they have already got all the questions answered. In other words, they don't need to know anything more from the Guru would-be.

Another point I would like to make is that, for a person who is 100% committed to Krishna, the onus of getting the right Guru lies more with Krishna than the person himself/herself. When he/she is ready for it, the Guru would come to his/her doorstep on his/her own. If the Guru never came, then Krishna never intended for it.

Warm Regards,
Your admirer and supporter

Answer: Don't Take Without Giving

We must always remember that Krishna says not only to inquire from the spiritual master. In the same verse in which he instructs us to inquire from the spiritual master, he also tells us that we must also serve the spiritual master.

tad viddhi pranipatena
pariprasnena sevaya
upadeksyanti te jnanam
jnaninas tattva-darsinah

"Just try to learn the truth by approaching a spiritual master. Inquire from him submissively and render service unto him. The self-realized souls can impart knowledge unto you because they have seen the truth."i
---Bhagavad-gita 4.34

It is not a loving thing to do, to take knowledge from the spiritual master without giving him service in return. Without the exchange of love between the master and the student, transcendental realization will not take place. The knowledge gleaned will only remain book knowledge and the student will gradually lose interest in the knowledge because for him it will become dry and tasteless.

Krishna is sending the guru for everyone. But the poor souls of Kali Yuga are so blind that they are not able to take advantage of Krishna's mercy in the form of the spiritual master that He has sent them.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari

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