Guru Questions

Can one love, without loving themselves first? / What can I do for Krishna? Is intention enough? / Any advice for bringing kids on pilgrimage? / How does a swami become a swami?

“A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep.” - Saul Bellow / How deep is my need for illusion? / Our home is the spiritual world / Plato’s allegory - Life as we know it, is like being chained in a cave and forced to watch shadows of reality projected on a stone wall / Who am I, among Plato’s cave dwellers? / things in the physical world are flawed reflection of the ideal forms in the spiritual world / Is there a source of light that will reveal the falsity in even our most basic assumptions? / physicists speak of a real world behind the world of perception and change / when the living entity wants to enjoy himself, he falls down into the material world / how we both fall and never fall, from the spiritual world / you should try to realize the meaning of what I have said through cit-samadhi, spiritual meditation

SB 4.28.54

how to relieve the world’s suffering / spiritual knowledge as a way of checking the imbalance of values in life, and achieving real unity and peace / “The more directly one aims to maximize pleasure and avoid pain, the more likely one is to produce instead a life bereft of depth, meaning and community.” - Emily Esfahani Smith / the Supersoul isn’t a judge, He’s a friend / how many burials or funeral pyres of our loved ones have we witnessed in our many lifetimes? / funeral pyre renunciation / how many times have we heard that voice and ignored it? / desiring earthly enjoyments, we’ve become attached / we’re allowed to unfollow whoever we want 

in life’s most difficult moments, when one feels most alone, we may hear the voice of God within / we have an eternal friend in the heart / we’re still far away from our original home / we’ve been traveling in different forms throughout this material world / we’ve forgotten our spiritual life and have been placed in various miserable conditions / our sense of identity shifts from one body to another / we’re in the process of remembering what we are / formula to hear God - follow the instructions of a master - and then God will instruct you in the heart / just because there’s lots of fool’s gold doesn’t mean there isn’t any real gold 

perceiving the spiritual world in the material world / whatever our view of reality is, it’s going to be far out, and require faith / taking a picture in the heart / when our interests merge with those of the Supersoul / the practice of the disciple - serving with love and affection, giving up sensual enjoyments, renunciation, austerity, peace and steadiness / the disciple cries when the guru leaves /  the disciple and guru are live together eternally through the instructions  

What’s happening in the Spiritual World? / Are feelings of unworthiness on the Bhakti path common? / What is Hare Krishna 2.0?

Broken Pickers - We’re attracted to the Causes of Our Suffering

Krishna disguises himself as a boatman / Krishna disguises himself as a snake doctor / Are we attracted to things that are causing suffering? / the meaning of life is as simple as fixing our broken picker / the king develops attraction to Krishna through austere yoga / dharma is meant for developing attraction to Krishna - SB. 2.2.8 / the distinction between the soul and the Supersoul / we are the witness in the body - doing nothing / don’t trust your instincts 

old death-defying India vs new materially developed India / how the king became fixed in spirit - austerity, learning, regulative principles, self-control / practical ways to include austerity in our lives / Sri Chaitanya gave the highest spiritual sentiments to the most dented cans / Krishna is everything.” Bhagavad-gita 7.19 / “For those whose minds are attached to the unmanifested, impersonal feature of the Supreme, advancement is very troublesome.” Bhagavad-gita 12.5

the biggest cause of my distress is planning for happiness / beware of being the enjoyer in Vrindavan / if you come in a mood of service it’s like you’re already liberated / material indulgence always ends in indigestion / me first mentality is like Lord of the Flies / happiness through service is the peace formula / all there is within the universe for satisfying one’s senses cannot satisfy a person who’s senses are uncontrolled / if your happiness is from your ego,  prepare for pain / contentment opens you up to deeper spirituality / association is everything