THE EVERLASTING CHRISTMAS GIFT:

 

Merry Christmas Friends & Family.

Audio: https://www.dropbox.com/s/he7385rh1s05n6n/THE%20EVERLASTING%20CHRISTMAS%20GIFT.m4a?dl=0

During the Christmas holidays (or any other religious festivals, birthdays parties or any good occasions) we have received many gifts 🎁 from our families & friends....(or bought gifts for someone) starting from toys 🧸 , bikes 🚲 , candies 🍭 , books 📚, shoes 👞 , clothes, gadgets, cars, furnitures......a long list. Unfortunately, each & every gift we have received or bought for someone gets broken down or outdated over time. Whatever we have in our possession now is temporary; nothing lasts forever. 

Is there any valuable gift we have bought or have in our possession which is useful forever & never gets outdated? Yes, there is one Everlasting Gift—Bible, Quran, Torah, Tripitaka, Agama, Guru Granth Sahib, Gita or any other Scriptures...we should have in our lives.

I am happy to share a few lines of wisdom from my Everlasting Christmas Gift—Gita. By the way today is also an auspicious day of Gita Jayanti on which day (Mokshada Ekadashi) Gita was spoken by Lord Krishna.

1. Regulate the Lifestyle: It is healthy for us & our family to live a regulated life meaning balancing our eating, sleeping, recreation and work. There is happiness in the Mode of Goodness lifestyle. Yes, we should work hard & stretch our boundaries to do more & achieve more, but at the same time, pay attention to our limitations & health. Don’t sacrifice your family & health for wealth. Bend yourself, but don’t break your self.

Bg 6.17 — He who is regulated in his habits of eating, sleeping, recreation and work can mitigate all material pains by practicing the yoga system.

1. Duty without Expectation: We should do our prescribed duty either as a parent, child, spouse, student, teacher, friend, colleague, employee, employer....etc, but don’t expect anything in return & remain detached from the result. When we expect anything in return, we set ourselves up for misery.

Bg 2.47 — You have a right to perform your prescribed duty, but you are not entitled to the fruits of action. Never consider yourself the cause of the results of your activities, and never be attached to not doing your duty. 

1. Be prepared for miseries in our lives: All life on Planet Earth 🌍 wants to be happy & peaceful all the time. Unfortunately happy moments can not last for long time due to duality nature of the material world meaning everything rotates in a cycle like.....Illness-Recovery, Birth-Death, Success-Failure, Praise- Criticism, Winter-Summer, Happiness- Sorrowness....etc. The material miseries are unavoidable, unstoppable and sometimes come unexpectedly. Spiritual wisdom will help us to swallow & digest the Pill of Miseries..LOL... 😂.

TEXT 14: 2.14: O son of Kuntī, the nonpermanent appearance of happiness and distress, and their disappearance in due course, are like the appearance and disappearance of winter and summer seasons. They arise from sense perception, O scion of Bharata, and one must learn to tolerate them without being disturbed.

1. Don’t Compete with others: Don’t compare & compete with others. Every one of us has a different mindset & passion to do good for our family & society. Be yourself but continue to improve yourself. Don’t expect a fish to climb the tree or a bunny to swim. Everyone is a genius in their own way.

Bg 3.35 — It is far better to discharge one’s prescribed duties, even though faultily, than another’s duties perfectly. Destruction in the course of performing one’s own duty is better than engaging in another’s duties, for to follow another’s path is dangerous.

1. Sweet & Encouraging Speech: Our relationships, enthusiasm, success and overall direction of the life shape up by the sweet, beneficial & stimulating words we hear from our loved ones or we speak for our loved ones & others.

Bg 17.15 — Austerity of speech consists in speaking words that are truthful, pleasing, beneficial, and not agitating to others, and also in regularly reciting Vedic literature. Vedabase.io

Out of 700 verses from Gita, by implementing only these 5 verses in our lives, we can be on the right track. 

MERRY CHRISTMAS.

THANK YOU. 

It is easy to say, but difficult to follow. I am in the same boat with everyone else, or I may even be behind, but thinking in the right direction will help us to go in the right direction.   

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MY SPIRITUAL INSPIRATION , SOURCE & THE GURUS:

I am inspired to hear & read the Vedic Scriptures by regularly listening to Sri Pandurang Shashtri Athvale, also known as Dadaji (speaks on Srimad Bhagavad Gita, Veda based discourses & western philosophy) and the association of Swadhyay Parivar every Sunday in Swadhya Kendra. 

I also hear and read the discourses & literature on Vedic thoughts from Srila Prabhupada, his disciples & grand disciples ( HH Bhakti Rasamitra Swami, HH Chaitanya Charandas Prabhu, Shubha Vilas Prabhu, Vraja Vihari Dasa, Sutapa Das, Amarnath Dasa, HH Bhakticharu Swami, HH Urmila Devi Dasi, HH Sivarama Swami, HH Radhanath Swami, HH Romapada Swami, Lal Govind Prabhu (Gujarati & Hindi), Prahalad Maharaj in Surat (Gujarati) .......and many more from ISKCON......). 

FYI: A good source of Vedic literature: Vedabase.com Srimad Bhagavad Gita is the essence & Srimad Bhagavatam (SB) is the nectar of all Vedic scriptures. Repeatedly hearing/reading & meditating the Scriptures, Eating Sanctified Pure Food and Chanting or Hearing the Vedic Mantras are nourishing to our heart (Soul), transcendental to our consciousness, purifying to our senses and thus helps us to overcome our weaknesses or deficiencies. Yes, we do have good qualities within us but there is always a room for improvement.

It is always a good idea to share our good thoughts & knowledge with others. Thanks to the Facebook & Social media for providing me the platform. Of course I use Smartphone & Google search to collect some data. 

Besides my parents, wife, teachers, family & friends GREATFUL to EVERYONE WHO HAVE CONTRIBUTED in MY LIFE. Hopefully my enthusiasm will continue by Grace of the Guru & God (Krishna , Absolute Truth).

NOTE:

Many times a word Hearing is used instead of Listening when it comes to the Scriptures. Because Scriptures are so potent that simply by Hearing them even if you don’t try to interpret or analyze or understand them still there will be passive positive effects on our mind & senses.

We can follow either the Quran, Bible,Torah, Tripitaka-Buddhism, Agama-Jainism, Guru Granth Sahib-Sikhism, Gita or any other Philosophy which makes sense to us, purifies us, elevates our consciousness and qualifies us to understand God and instill the love of God & his creation. (whichever way we can understand God — either Personal with many names or Impersonal as an universal consciousness & energy).

Don’t try to understand God by Name, Religion or Depiction (means image, picture...etc) but try to understand him by the Definition through Scriptures. The Transcendental subject of God & his creation cannot be understood by mental speculation. Some times people ask why God is Supreme? It is just like asking why is the circle circular? Just by definition, the circle is circular. Similarly by definition, God is unborn, complete, unlimited, infinite, eternal, the Absolute Truth the source of everything, cause of all causes. 

I see God, besides the above mentioned qualities, as an eternal living person (not a abstract or some kind of light) known by the name KRISHNA meaning one who attracts everyone has also MANY other NAMES, forms, abodes, incarnations, activities, qualities, associates, is full of wisdom, bliss, and the cause of all causes.

Here Lord says in Gita

Bg 9.17 — I am the father of this universe, the mother, the support and the grandsire. I am the object of knowledge, the purifier and the syllable oṁ. I am also the Ṛg, the Sāma and the Yajur Vedas.

TEXT 18: Gita 9.18: I am the goal, the sustainer, the master, the witness, the abode, the refuge and the most dear friend. I am the creation and the annihilation, the basis of everything, the resting place and the eternal seed.

Bg:13-12:— Accepting the importance of self-realization; and philosophical search for the Absolute Truth ( God ) – all these I declare to be knowledge, and besides this whatever there may be is ignorance. ( Vedabase.com ).