What is The Right 'age' to start your devotional practice?

"Having attained the human form, we do not realize how precious it is. We indulge ourselves in material pleasures for sensual gratification. We devote our full attention to our family and their needs. When somebody asks a little boy/girl to do devotion, he/she replies – this is not the age to start devotion. There is still time and we can do that when we are old. When you ask a young person to do devotion, he/she flatly refuses and says that it is for old people and life is for enjoying.

When you ask a middle age person to do devotion, he/she replies that there is still time for it after retirement. Now is the time to earn money, enjoy life and look after the welfare of the family. By the time retirement comes, many ailments plague the body and there is very little strength left in the body, thereby making it difficult to perform devotion.

We forget the fact that death can come to anybody at any age at any time.

It is ironical that a father, who is taking son's body for burial, does not think about his own death, though the reality may be that he dies of a heart attack on his way to the cremation ground.

Life is very uncertain. Do not think that you will live in this human form forever.

Whatever your age is, start doing devotion!!!"

Let us remember what our Guru has taught us?

He himself had taught us to practice the presence of God and Guru with us at all times. In concurrence with his teachings, let us remain steadfast in the conviction that, although we cannot see him with our material eyes, he continues to stay in our midst, noting our every thought and action, and showering his grace as we strive to walk the path he revealed to us. We should strongly reaffirm our resolve to implement his every Instruction for purifying our hearts and for pushing forward his mission. This is the most befitting way of showing our respect to him

What they have given to humankind during their stay in our world can never be sufficiently eulogize in words; the whole planet shall remain indebted to them for their gift of Love. We offer our respectful obeisance’s unto our Spiritual Master, who has opened our eyes, which were blinded by the darkness of ignorance, with the torchlight of knowledge…....   

Tips to encourage Devotion in Kids!!!!

1) Think Krishna to be your best friend and imagine that you are playing, walking with Him. Do all actions keeping Him with you. When you are alone, just think of Krishna and do not feel lonely. Keep in mind that He is always there with you, helps and protects you every moment.

2) When you are doing your homework, imagine He is sitting next to you and helping you.

3) You must believe in Him and believe that He will surely help you. He is always yours. He talks to you in your mind. Krishna never forgets you even for a single moment. The coolest thing is that nobody will know you are talking!

4) Don't think, "When I grow up, I will start remembering God." Start now.

5) Chant the Name of "Radhey Shyam" constantly and silently. Say "Radhey" within your mind when you breathe in, and say "Shyam" within your mind when you breathe out.

6) Avoid bad company.

7) Every night before retiring to bed, recall and count the number of wrong deeds you committed for the day and pray for forgiveness, whether it was done knowingly or unknowingly. Resolve to correct yourself and not to commit the same mistake again.

8) Give respect to everyone. Never fight with others and hurt anyone by your bad behavior. Realize that God resides in everyone's heart.

9) Never feel lonely or alone. Don't get angry. Try to be nice to everyone.

10 Simple Tips to live an Inspired Spiritual Life!

Inspiration has such amazing power. Inspiration boosts our enthusiasm to exert our physical,mental and intellectual faculties to the utmost. Inspiration gives us the optimism to joyfully pursue in our endeavors till we reach the goal. It makes even the biggest hurdles appear puny.

Let ponder over the many ways of building our level of inspiration, to lead an inspired life, filled with devotion to God and Guru.

1. Everyday revise and contemplate upon the Divine knowledge you have received from the Guru and the Vedic Scriptures.

2. Look on the human form as a rare opportunity granted to the soul, and consider its every moment as very precious for reaching the goal.

3. Realize how rare it is to find a true Guru and the proper path. Firmly decide to utilize this golden chance to the maximum.

4. Intensify your detachment by deciding that the world is not yours, nor is there any happiness in it.

5. Stir up your hunger for God by thinking that you are a tiny part of him, and to love and serve him is the highest goal of your life.

6. Deeply yearn to possess the wonderful Divine virtues such as humility and giving, which will naturally develop with selfless Divine love.

7. Read about the great Saints, and derive inspiration from their complete absorption in God  and faith in Him.

8. Keep a spiritual dairy; note in it the inspirational thoughts you come across; and then revise them daily whenever you get the time.

9. Choose to be inspired by exercising your free will and forcing the intellect and mind in that direction, giving up laziness and laxity.

10. See other sadhaks and goad yourself, "We both joined the satsang at the same time. If he has so progressed rapidly, I must do the same "Material jealousy pulls down our consciousness. But if jealousy is spiritualized, it becomes constructive

and inspires us to move ahead.    

Why are we here in this world?

-"Once, I was giving a lecture in a town. There was a college boy, who had heard my lectures and was staying with me during his vacation. After the lecture we went for a walk. He asked me the question, "Swamiji, why are we here in this world?"

I wondered how to answer this question. There was a cinema hall in front and the night show had begun. I asked him, "Do you have money for the tickets?" He said, "Yes." I said, "Buy two tickets." He replied, "Swamiji you will see the movie!" I answered, "Let's see it with you today." So, he purchased the tickets. We were a little late. We entered the hall. It was very dark except for the screen. The gateman usher us in with his torch and with a narrow beam of light, inspected our tickets, and indicated to walk down the stairs, and said, "Sit on those two empty seats." We went and sat down there.

Now, the movie had begun. The college boy immediately engrossed himself in what was happening on the screen. It was very attractive, beautiful lights, so many colors moving at such a fast speed. Fifteen minutes went by. Now, the boy forgot that I am sitting next to him. I said, "Hey! Listen to me." The boy said, "Don't disturb." I caught his hand and gave him a jerk. Then he replied, "O Swamiji!" Now he realized. Then I asked him, "Why have we come here?" The boy didn't have any answer. Fifteen minutes ago he had asked me this question. "Let us go out; now you get the answer to your question,"

I said:"In the cinema hall you had lost total contact with reality and forgotten who are you? What are you doing? What is the goal of your life? There was some white light that was falling from the projector bulb and you identified that light as reality. "This is the hero; this is the heroine; that is villain; this is an airplane." In other words you had fallen in to illusion. What was the reason for this illusion?

 The reason was the fact that there was darkness in the hall. Because of that darkness you were engulfed in illusion. Suppose, the manager came and switched on the light. Immediately, the illusion would be dispelled and you will start thinking, "Where are my slippers; Where are my shoes; Has my handkerchief fallen down? Let me be the first to reach the car stand." The illusion would be dispelled. So, the cause of illusion was lack of light."

Similarly, God is All-light, All-knowledge, and we have lost our contact with Him. We have turned our backs towards Him. Now, turning our backs to light we have been engulfed by the darkness of Maya, the material energy of God. This material energy has made us forget our own nature. All the souls are under the influence of Maya since eternity. However, the true identity of a soul is that it is an eternal servant of Shree Krishna. Being the eternal soul we are thinking that we are material bodies. And thinking of ourselves as the body, our goal has become bodily pleasure. How to give happiness to this body? For that we are running in this world. That is the reason we are in this world."

How to teach and train mind that there is no happiness in the material world?

-There are innumerable things in the world, and each thing has endless varieties. If you try to experiencing everything first before deciding that there is no happiness in it, your whole life pass in this endeavor.

-There are people who run after money all their lives, and yet do not decide that it does not have the happiness they are seeking. Again, if you finally do come to the conclusion that the world is not a place of happiness, but the mind doubts whether or not there is happiness in God, then what will you do?

-As human beings, God has bestowed us with subtle intellects that can make this decision even without experience. Broadly, the intellects of living beings can be classified into four categories:

(1)        The lowest is the intellect of an insect. It is attracted to the fire. On coming near the flame, it gets burnt. But it does not learn from the experience, and commits the same mistake repeatedly.

(2)       The intellect of a cat is subtler. If it sits on a hot place, it learns from its experience. In future, it refuses even to sit on a cold plate, in apprehension that it may get burnt.

(3)       The intellect of sheep is even subtler. It has never been attacked by a wolf. But the moment it sees a wolf, it perceives impending danger and runs for its life.

(4)       The intellect of human is even subtler. Merely by intellectual discrimination, without seeing or experiencing, they are expected to reach the conclusion that there is no happiness in the world.

-Actually, everyone has had experience of the world to a lesser or greater extent. We made the desires of the senses and strived hard to satisfy them.  What was the experience each time? For a moment the desire is quenched, but then it arose again with redoubled intensity. This is the nature of all worldly desires, whether they are teeny-weeny cravings that you have made innumerable times in your lives or the bigger desires that loom more largely on your mind. The principle is exactly same. So we should utilize our experience to date, to reach a blanket conclusion about the nature of all worldly desires. That is what God expects us to do, and that is the instruction of the scriptures…….  

Importance of Human Life...

We, the Sadhaks (devotees) should always keep in mind that whatever good we are doing is all due to the grace of the Guru and God. Otherwise, we have been bound by maya, awfully attached to the wordly possessions, absolutely worthless, having hideous ideas, full of dirt and filth from time immemorial.

If we are able to do something good, if a tear trickles from our eyes for God, if we have some good word and noble feeling for the Guru, we must conclude that it is all due to the Guru's grace.

If he had not given us the spiritual knowledge, if he had not bestowed his love upon us, how could we be inclined to go good things in life? So, do not ever give credit to yourself. It will only give rise to egoism. Egoism takes away humility. Once humility is gone the castle of bhakti or devotion will come crashing down. Life will be filled with vices in no time. So, if you have done some noble deeds, YOU MUST BE THANKFUL TO THE GURU with whose grace alone you are able to do such things. This will save you from the vice of egoism.

We must always keep in mind that if we had not met the Guru, if he had not shown us the way, and had not given us his love and affection, we would not have inclined towards God.

On the other hand, if we have done something wrong, have been negligent in doing the right thing, or have committed some crime, we should hold ourselves responsible for that, so that we could realize our mistakes and we would not repeat them.

We should attribute our good deeds to the God's grace and the grace of the Guru and for all the wrongs that we may have done, we should hold ourselves responsible.

O My Mind!! This Golden chance of Human Life is passing away……

अरे मन! अवसर बीत्यो जात.

Even Brahma, Vishnu and Shankar are under the influence of Time, then where do you stand? Having received this priceless human body which is desired even by the celestial gods, why are you wasting it in worldly pleasures? Like a deaf and blind person, you neither listen to saints nor see the reality of material world. You simply remain infatuated by the pleasures of senses. 

Now I will do, now I will start doing devotion, saying like this, you keep on procrastinating, for which you will have to repent. Jagadguru Shri Kriplauji Maharaj says that “Annihilation takes place within a fraction of a second. Then on what basis are you so overconfident?”   

O mind! Life is a matter of a few days only.

अरे मन! चार दिना की बात......

This human form is like a full moon night which will soon be over, and again the dark night will come. You are sleeping in ignorance, unaware of the fact that the passage of time is continuously shortening your life.

You are not willing to leave your sleep, even though you are perpetually being beaten by the objects of your desires. Once the opportunity to redeem yourself in this human form is missed, you will have to rotate in the cycle of life and death in 8.4 million forms of life. Then you will rub your hands helplessly and regret. 

Kripaluji Maharaj says, ”Listen to the words of rasik saints and surrender to the lotus feet of the merciful divine couple, ’Radha Krishna’.”

Let us remember what our Guru has taught us!!!!

He himself had taught us to practice the presence of God and Guru with us at all times. In concurrence with his teachings, let us remain steadfast in the conviction that, although we cannot see him with our material eyes, he continues to stay in our midst, noting our every thought and action, and showering his grace as we strive to walk the path he revealed to us. We should strongly reaffirm our resolve to implement his every Instruction for purifying our hearts and for pushing forward his mission. This is the most befitting way of showing our respect to him

What they have given to humankind during their stay in our world can never be sufficiently eulogize in words; the whole planet shall remain indebted to them for their gift of Love. We offer our respectful obeisance’s unto our Spiritual Master, who has opened our eyes, which were blinded by the darkness of ignorance, with the torchlight of knowledge…....   

In the writing of some Christian saints, emphasis is laid on contemplation. What is its place in devotional practice of the Hindu religion?

Contemplation is called Chintan, or Manan, in the Vedas. It means repeatedly bringing any aspect of Divine knowledge to the intellect. First, we hear the knowledge of the scriptures from the Guru; this is called Śhravaṇ. Then we contemplate on what we have heard or read; this is called Chintan. This Chintan or contemplation helps to strengthen the knowledge in the intellect. It is one of the most potent means of illuminating the intellect with the light of Divine knowledge.

 The power of chintan is such that if it is misutilized, it becomes chintā (worry), and it can lead suicide. Let us say that a student fails in his school final examination. Hundreds of other students fail too, but this student starts contemplating, "What will I do now? How will I show my face to my parents? What will my friends say? Life is not worth living. It is useless to exist. It is better that I die." This thought process goes out of control to such an extent that the student commits suicide. His class-fellows wonder what happened that made him take such a drastic step? This was all a result of misdirected contemplation.

The same power of contemplation, if properly directed, can lead to God-realization. We could repeatedly think, "Shree Krishna alone is mine. He is so kind and merciful. He has been sitting in my heart since endless lifetimes. He is my eternal Father, Mother, Friend and Master." Such contemplation will elevate the mind to sublime heights, enhance love for God, and boost devotional sentiments. For example, we are naturally attracted to people's qualities, but God has unlimited qualities and yet our mind feels no attraction towards Him. This is because we have never thought deeply about them. If we repeatedly think how beautiful He is, how merciful He is, etc, our love for God will grow rapidly. Contemplation is thus an important part of the daily spiritual practice.

What is The Right 'age' to start your devotional practice?

"Having attained the human form, we do not realize how precious it is. We indulge ourselves in material pleasures for sensual gratification. We devote our full attention to our family and their needs. When somebody asks a little boy/girl to do devotion, he/she replies – this is not the age to start devotion. There is still time and we can do that when we are old. When you ask a young person to do devotion, he/she flatly refuses and says that it is for old people and life is for enjoying.

When you ask a middle age person to do devotion, he/she replies that there is still time for it after retirement. Now is the time to earn money, enjoy life and look after the welfare of the family. By the time retirement comes, many ailments plague the body and there is very little strength left in the body, thereby making it difficult to perform devotion.

We forget the fact that death can come to anybody at any age at any time.

It is ironical that a father, who is taking son's body for burial, does not think about his own death, though the reality may be that he dies of a heart attack on his way to the cremation ground.

Life is very uncertain. Do not think that you will live in this human form forever.

Whatever your age is, start doing devotion!!!"

Why did God create souls and bring us into the world, where there is so much of suffering and miseries?

To answer your question, let me tell you a story. There was once a very rich man, who had a fifteen-year old son. One day, the son was alone in his father's office, when he saw a fifteen-year old newspaper. It had an article titled, "Billionaire adopts orphan child." The boy was stunned to see his father's name mentioned there. When his father returned, the son accosted him, "Father is this article true?" The father replied, "My son! It is true." "Does that mean I am not your child?" "That is right, you are not my child." The son was shocked. "Then why did you adopt me?" The father explained, "Son, I am a billionaire. I had no shortage of money, and everything that money could buy. However, I did not have anyone with whom I could share my wealth. I adopted you so that I could give you everything I possess." Similarly, God is perfect and complete in himself, and the possessor of unlimited opulences. He creates us so that he may be able to share all that he possesses with us. However, he can only do so when we truly love him. Those souls, who have learnt to love God, are with him in his eternal abode. We conditioned souls are here in the material realm because we have turned our backs towards him. God hopes and waits for the day when we too will perfect our love for him and attain him for the rest of eternity.

What should we do to get a human birth again in our next life?

There are 8.4 million species of life in existence. In the species below human beings-animals, birds, fishes, insects, birds, etc-there is no free will. Hence, upon death the soul is naturally and sequentially promoted to the next species. But human beings possess the free will to act according to their volition, and hence, they are responsible for their actions. Their next birth is decided by their karmas in the present life. The facility to do karmas is given to the human species, not for animal-like activities, but for God-realization. The scriptures state:                            आहार निद्रा भय मैथुनंम च सामान्यमेतत् पशुभिर्नराणाम .  "Eating, sleeping, defending and mating are activities that animals can do as well as humans." The human form is special because in it we can attain God. If however, some human being focuses his or her consciousness merely on eating, then the body of a pig becomes more suitable for such a person, and the soul is allotted that body in its next life. If someone makes sleeping the goal of life, God says that the body of a polar bear is more suitable for such a consciousness and allots it in the next life. In this manner, one of the factors determining our next birth is our consciousness at the time of death. Another factor determining our next life is the Law of Karma…….. The Garud Purana states :                                         ऊर्ध्वागतिस्तु  धर्मेण अधर्मेण ह्यधोगतिः   “The one who performs pious deeds goes to the higher abodes in the next life; one who does sinful activities is demoted to the hellish abodes.””As you sow, that shall you also reap” is what the BIBLE also says. However, the Law of karma and the determination of consciousness are so complex that we cannot analyze and determine our next birth by ourselves. The all-knowing God alone has the ability to determine and allot it to us…….

Why are we here in this world?

-"Once, I was giving a lecture in a town. There was a college boy, who had heard my lectures and was staying with me during his vacation. After the lecture we went for a walk. He asked me the question, "Swamiji, why are we here in this world?"

I wondered how to answer this question. There was a cinema hall in front and the night show had begun. I asked him, "Do you have money for the tickets?" He said, "Yes." I said, "Buy two tickets." He replied, "Swamiji you will see the movie!" I answered, "Let's see it with you today." So, he purchased the tickets. We were a little late. We entered the hall. It was very dark except for the screen. The gateman usher us in with his torch and with a narrow beam of light, inspected our tickets, and indicated to walk down the stairs, and said, "Sit on those two empty seats." We went and sat down there.

Now, the movie had begun. The college boy immediately engrossed himself in what was happening on the screen. It was very attractive, beautiful lights, so many colors moving at such a fast speed. Fifteen minutes went by. Now, the boy forgot that I am sitting next to him. I said, "Hey! Listen to me." The boy said, "Don't disturb." I caught his hand and gave him a jerk. Then he replied, "O Swamiji!" Now he realized. Then I asked him, "Why have we come here?" The boy didn't have any answer. Fifteen minutes ago he had asked me this question. "Let us go out; now you get the answer to your question,"

I said:"In the cinema hall you had lost total contact with reality and forgotten who are you? What are you doing? What is the goal of your life? There was some white light that was falling from the projector bulb and you identified that light as reality. "This is the hero; this is the heroine; that is villain; this is an airplane." In other words you had fallen in to illusion. What was the reason for this illusion?

 The reason was the fact that there was darkness in the hall. Because of that darkness you were engulfed in illusion. Suppose, the manager came and switched on the light. Immediately, the illusion would be dispelled and you will start thinking, "Where are my slippers; Where are my shoes; Has my handkerchief fallen down? Let me be the first to reach the car stand." The illusion would be dispelled. So, the cause of illusion was lack of light."

Similarly, God is All-light, All-knowledge, and we have lost our contact with Him. We have turned our backs towards Him. Now, turning our backs to light we have been engulfed by the darkness of Maya, the material energy of God. This material energy has made us forget our own nature. All the souls are under the influence of Maya since eternity. However, the true identity of a soul is that it is an eternal servant of Shree Krishna. Being the eternal soul we are thinking that we are material bodies. And thinking of ourselves as the body, our goal has become bodily pleasure. How to give happiness to this body? For that we are running in this world. That is the reason we are in this world."

How to teach and train mind that there is no happiness in the material world?

-There are innumerable things in the world, and each thing has endless varieties. If you try to experiencing everything first before deciding that there is no happiness in it, your whole life pass in this endeavor.

-There are people who run after money all their lives, and yet do not decide that it does not have the happiness they are seeking. Again, if you finally do come to the conclusion that the world is not a place of happiness, but the mind doubts whether or not there is happiness in God, then what will you do?

-As human beings, God has bestowed us with subtle intellects that can make this decision even without experience. Broadly, the intellects of living beings can be classified into four categories:

(1)        The lowest is the intellect of an insect. It is attracted to the fire. On coming near the flame, it gets burnt. But it does not learn from the experience, and commits the same mistake repeatedly.

(2)       The intellect of a cat is subtler. If it sits on a hot place, it learns from its experience. In future, it refuses even to sit on a cold plate, in apprehension that it may get burnt.

(3)       The intellect of sheep is even subtler. It has never been attacked by a wolf. But the moment it sees a wolf, it perceives impending danger and runs for its life.

(4)       The intellect of human is even subtler. Merely by intellectual discrimination, without seeing or experiencing, they are expected to reach the conclusion that there is no happiness in the world.

-Actually, everyone has had experience of the world to a lesser or greater extent. We made the desires of the senses and strived hard to satisfy them.  What was the experience each time? For a moment the desire is quenched, but then it arose again with redoubled intensity. This is the nature of all worldly desires, whether they are teeny-weeny cravings that you have made innumerable times in your lives or the bigger desires that loom more largely on your mind. The principle is exactly same. So we should utilize our experience to date, to reach a blanket conclusion about the nature of all worldly desires. That is what God expects us to do, and that is the instruction of the scriptures…….  

What is the difference between worldly love and love for God?

A person who loves a worldly person always doubts, and is in constant dilemma wondering, "The one whom I love, does he love me or not? And if he does, how much does he love me?" We always get caught up in thoughts like this. This is because, in this world, no one shows real sentiments. Some pretend to show more love by writing many letters, while others hide and don't express at all. Also, we always try to show that we love the other person more than he loves us. But, all the while, internally we want the other to love us more than we love him. That is why the one who loves the world is mostly tense, and wonders whether or not the other person loves him.

In the spiritual realm, there are no such worries. If you would like to determine how much your ishta deva (the chosen form of God you worship) and your Guru loves you, just measure your love. He loves you as much as you love Him. If you love Him less, then He also loves you little. If you love Him more, then He will also love you to the same extent.