All posts

Life is given

Being takes the form of giving.

We are most fully in existence, most fully present, most fully ourselves, most authentic, pure and real, when we are giving. This is perhaps why we experience life as most meaningful, purposeful, and worthwhile when we are kind and generous with each other. 

Nothing true or lasting about what we are, concerns what we have, what we had or might some day have. To ‘have’ means to be formed by what we at some earlier time did not have. It is to be determined by something we have acquired, which by something we in some future moment will no longer have, either because we consume it, lose it, destroy it, or simply because it withers away.  

Continue reading →

Check yourself!

To be alive is to navigate a million thoughts, feelings and sensations. To live is to awaken to consciousness in medias res, cast into existence with no understanding of how we got here, or where we are to go. We do not live, we discover ourselves as living.

What is living? What is alive? In the Bhakti tradition, a living being is called a jīva, a ‘living entity’. The word ‘jīva’ says not one, but two things. We are, and we are alive. What is the difference between being and being alive?

Spiritual practice means following a path from moment to moment, from step to step, from experience to experience, from breath to breath. Every instant presents us with a crossroad, a choice, an intention. Where is my head? Where is my heart? What are my intentions? What are my circumstances?

Continue reading →

What is śṛńgāra?

śṛńgāra [love, pleasure or delight that emerges between lovers, ornamentation] 

In the poems and prayers of the Bhakti tradition, śṛńgāra leads a sweet yet mysterious double-life. 

On the one hand, in the spiritual tradition where jewels, trimmings, and decorations meet our eyes every day, śṛńgāra is ornamentation. On the other hand, through the Bhakti practice of serving and nurturing divine love (prema), śṛńgāra refers to the deepest and sweetest emotion experienced by the heart.   

How is this double-meaning possible? Only in the practice of Bhakti.

In the most evolved expressions of this practice, the two meanings of śṛńgāra shift seamlessly. The brilliant verses of Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, for example, move quickly from one meaning to the other. 

Continue reading →

A taste for chanting

O Lord! You have given us many names of Yours to chant, investing them with all Your transcendental power, and there are no strict regulations as to when to chant or remember these names. Such is Your mercy, O Lord, but I am so unfortunate that I have not taste for this chanting.

Śrī Śikṣāṣṭakam, Verse 2

The Vedic story of the cosmic birth tells that at its creation the universe takes the form of sound. The purest energy of sound was not created and will never perish. It is an eternal vibration. It precedes the creation and will forever outlast it. The Truth of the universe is this sound vibration. Not because it is a message of truth about what is already there. But because this sonic energy, this Truth, is reality itself. 

According to the Vedic story, the ancient ṛṣis, the enlightened seers and seekers of the Vedic tradition, entered into states of profound meditation, tuned their souls to the vibrations of the cosmos and heard these eternal sounds. 

Continue reading →

Bhāva and rasa

Of all the ideas that guide us in devotional practice, bhāva and rasa are the most subtle, profound, and intimate. They describe the two purest functions of the heart: the way our heart relates to the world in its purest form (bhāva) and the flavour of the soul’s pure and natural love for the Divine (rasa).

The best English translation of ‘bhāva’ is perhaps ‘mood’. And yet there is an important difference between our everyday mood and our spiritual mood (bhāva).

In material consciousness, our mood refers to our general emotional state of mind, temperament, or attitude. Our material mood influences the temporary emotions we experience, which are shaped by the temporary conditions of the material world, our thoughts, or our bodies. Thus we speak of being in a ‘good’ mood (cheerful, excited, calm) and being in a ‘bad’ mood (grumpy, gloomy, anxious), all of which are based on our relation with our bodies and our minds.

Continue reading →

What is mercy?

kṛpa [compassion, mercy, grace, or kindness] 

Mercy is widely understood as a key element for success in spiritual practice. It is said that the spiritual path we are on can only lead to its ultimate goal with the ‘help’ of mercy—be it Ishvarakṛpa, Daivakṛpa, Gurukṛpa, and so on. It seems that our spiritual ambitions can only be fulfilled through the compassion and grace of external powers.

This leads us to ask: How do I receive mercy? What are the requirements? Are there specific conditions? Should I offer gifts to the deities? Should I make special efforts to please the guru?

This transactional way of thinking—‘I can get mercy if I give that—confuses us, if only because the material gifts we might give would only bring material satisfaction to whoever receives them. Spiritual contentment is unattainable by material means. 

Mercy is not a trade-off. Mercy is not even a thing that could be traded for something else, something that the ‘worthy’ will receive and the ‘unworthy’ will not, be it from God or guru. 

Continue reading →

We pray

In Bhakti-sādhana, the practice of cultivating an inner life of devotion, we commonly say that devotional service consists of nine different activities: hearing, chanting, remembering, serving, worshiping, obeying, maintaining friendship, surrendering, and praying.

But why do we pray? Who do we pray to? What do we pray for?

To pray is most often understood as addressing a request to some supernatural being—a request that cannot be satisfied by mundane means. Either the request is beyond our material reach, or directly impossible. Our expectation in praying is that the request will be granted by some agency beyond our knowledge, beyond our experience, beyond our control.

Continue reading →

What is sambandha?

sambandha [connection, relationship, union, association] 

In Caitanya-Caṛtāmṛta, Caitanya Mahāprabhu explains: ’One’s relationship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead [sambandha], activities in terms of that relationship [abhidheya], and the ultimate goal of life [prayojana] — these three subjects are explained in every aphorism of the Vedānta-sūtra, for they form the culmination of the entire Vedānta philosophy’ (Ādi-līlā 7.146).

In other words, every word on every page of every book in the spiritual tradition of Bhakti yoga contains these essential elements. The first and most important of these is sambandha (relation). 

Where do these two kinds of relationships meet? 

In mundane language, the word sambandha has ordinary associations. It refers to family relationships, working associations, contracts that form connections to objects, property, and so on. 

But in spiritual experience sambandha refers to the mystery of spiritual relationships.

Continue reading →