A year gone by....

So, going by the Gregorian calender, we are finishing a year today and starting a new one tomorrow. People are busy getting ready for all night parties to bring in the "new year". People also make resolutions for the new year and never keep them !

Looking from the vedic perspective, it isn't much. Each day gone by is basically one day closer to the end of our existence in the present body, that's all. Its nothing to get excited about. In the never stopping cycle of time, what significance can a year have ! Supreme Lord Krishna is the only master of Kala or eternal time. The present age, Kali yuga itself is 432,000 years and the catur-yuga cycle is 4,320,000 years ! One day of Brahma, the secondary creator, is 1000 yuga cycles long ! Brahma lives for 100 years based on the 1000 yuga cycle a day calculation. So, time is relative . What seems a long time for us is just normal for Lord Brahma. And this Brahma's lifetime is but a blink of the eye for the Supreme Lord !

So, new year or old year, let us resolve to chant better and become better devotees. We don't want another "new" material body, do we ?

Unlimited !!!

We all know that Krishna has unlimited potencies. And, we jivas, what do we posses in unlimited quantity ? We have unlimited wants. So, we have unlimited wants and the Lord has unlimited potencies, so it makes sense to surrender to Him, so that He can remove the unlimited wants and give us unlimited bliss instead !!! What to you think ?

akaamah sarva-kaamo vaa
moksha-kaama udaara-dhih
tivrena bhakti-yogena
yajeta purusham param

"Whether one is without desire [the condition of the devotees], or is desirous of all fruitive results, or is after liberation, one should with all efforts try to worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead for complete perfection, culminating in Krishna Consciousness." [Srimad Bhagavatam 2.3.10]

The festival season...

Its the festival season the world over. Its also the season for buy, buy, and buy more !!! The festival season has become an excuse for the consumer to indulge in his favorite pastime of buying things, not always necessary for him, but somehow made to feel that he cannot do without. Of course, we can blame the marketing industry for 'educating' us about what we need and why we cannot live without them. At the end of the day, its us who make the decision.

Once the season goes past as it always does, we realize that the things we did during the holiday season does not remain with us, the happiness was fleeting at best. More often than not, there will be some incident, something that came in the way of that fleeting feeling even. The fact remains that no amount of buying can make us happy.

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In this holiday season ISKCON does something wonderful. Its the Prabhupada book marathon season ! Devotees around the world engage in distributing Srila Prabhupada's books during this month with extra enthusiasm. As the holiday season is a time for people to "buy", the book distributors give them an opportunity to buy and gift something of enduring value - like a Bhagavad Gita. Anybody purchasing such a literature will receive the gift of their lifetime ! Its wonderful for both the distributor and the buyer.

Srila Prabhupada transcendental book marathon ki jai !!!