What is most important in Your Life?

Hare Krishna ! Pranams to Bhagavan Sri Krishna and Bhaktas,

" What is most important in Your Life? ".This was a question raised in a seminar . Except one Person, everyone answered , "My Family" . That person mentioned, "My faith in Sri Krishna" .

Yes. Bhakti or faith to Sri Krishna , is the most important thing in a Krishna-bhakta's life . He/She too loves own family but Bhakti is more important than it . Worldly benefits such as a loving family are only Bhagavan's gift to His Bhakta. While the materialists consider Family as the greatest asset, to a Bhakta His/Her Ishta-deva Sri Krishna is the most precious Asset .

On His part, Bhagavan Sri Krishna is most compassionate to His Bhakta ; and describes self as *Bhakta-dasa*. See for instance, pure Krishna-bhaktas like Prahlada , Ambareesa and Dhruva , Hanuman, Arjuna, etc. None in this universe could beat any of them . In spite of reaching such a supreme position, they ever remained loyal to Bhagavan and never deviated from Krishna's principles. Such an ultimate focus, commitment and loyalty can not be seen in any other religious path including Hinduism .

Bhagavan Sri Krishna declares in Bhagavad Gita ( 9.22-26) :

•  "However, for those who are always absorbed in thoughts of Me ( Krishna), and who worship Me with one-pointed devotion by every means, I Myself attend to their needs (i.e., achieve what they lack and preserve what they have) .
•  Those who worship `other devatas' ( Siva, etc) with faith, actually worship Me alone, but in a way that is unauthorized.
•  I . Krishna is the only master and enjoyer of all Yajnas, but the worshipers of `other Devatas' do not recognize Me in this true nature. Therefore, they fall from Me and repeatedly wander in the cycle of birth and death.
•  Those who worship `other Devatas' go to the planets of the Devatas, those who worship the Ancestors go to the planet of the Ancestors, those who worship the spirits and ghosts go to the planet of the spirits and ghosts. but, those who worship Me will definitely come to Me alone.
•  Whosoever offers to Me with bhakti , a leaf, a flower, a fruit or even water; I will delightfully accept that offering in PERSON ."

Please chant Hare Krishna Mahamantra :

Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

and be happy !!!

Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya!!!!

Why Most People Miss Spiritual Bliss?

The Bhagavad-gita (15.11) states, “The transcendentalists who strive to situate themselves on the spiritual platform can see the soul clearly. But others who are not spiritually situated cannot see the soul, even if they try, because their consciousness is misdirected.”
Let’s understand the blinding effect of misdirected vision with an example. If somebody stares at the back side of a canvas, he will never be able to appreciate the painting, no matter how long he scrutinizes it. Nor will he understand why connoisseurs of art are delighting over the painting; indeed he will call them crazy. Suppose the art connoisseurs are in minority; how will they communicate the beauty of the painting to the unsympathetic majority?
Like the art connoisseurs in our hypothetical example, the spiritual connoisseurs– the devotees who delight in remembering their beloved Lord, Sri Krishna – are considered strange, even crazy, by others. The joy they derive in singing the praises of their Lord – often in public kirtans – is, for the onlookers, interesting but incomprehensible. Even scholars who do doctorates in religion fail to experience, despite their years of scrutinizing study, a drop of the ocean of joy that the devotees experience in a few moments of devotional-musical festivity.
Why this difference?
This mystery of the simultaneous accessibility and inaccessibility of the spiritual realm is unraveled in the above Gita verse. For those situated on the material platform, pursuing worldly pleasures and possessions, their infatuation with matter blinds them to spiritual reality. Even if they study spiritual literature, their minds being filled with dreams and schemes for materialistic enjoyment, they are unable to see anything higher. Their endeavors to understand spirituality are in vain like the attempts of a blind man to see by squinting and straining his eyes.
But the blind man can see, if he follows the doctor’s process. Similarly aspiring spiritualist can experience spiritual bliss by redirecting their consciousness from matter to spirit. This redirection entails:

1. Avoiding materially entangling activities:
Four activities that especially entangle our minds in matter, as mentioned in the Srimad Bhagavatam, are gambling, intoxication, meat-eating and illicit sex. By eschewing these activities, we will find our consciousness becoming clearer and sharper to perceive spiritual truths.

2. Maximizing spiritually absorbing activities:
Mantra meditation – especially attentive, devotional contemplation on the sound of the mantras comprised of the names of God like the Hare Krishna mahamantra – connects us practically and joyfully with God, the reservoir of all spiritual bliss.
By regularly following this process, we can, figuratively speaking, turn our vision from the back of the canvas to the front.