Everyone

It was business as usual at a Ramada Inn in New Jersey. The receptionist was busy at the front desk when suddenly a customer stormed through the door. While the receptionist assigned him a room, the man, who appeared angry, noticed a random book on the counter. He grabbed the book along with his room key.

The next morning, he emerged from his room peacefully, and gladly thanked the hotel’s manager for the book.

God is always joyful, and so is the living entity, a part of Him. Each of us is naturally characterized by our pleasure-seeking propensity (anandamayo ’bhyasat, Vedanta-sutra 1.1.12). In their attempts to pursue pleasure in this world, most people try to bring their senses in contact with enjoyable sense objects.

“I shall now declare unto you in full this knowledge, both phenomenal and numinous. This being known, nothing further shall remain for you to know.” – Bhagavad-gita 7.2

Stress, according to The World Health Organization, is the “health epidemic of the 21st century.” Demanding circumstances make us tense mentally, emotionally, and physically, and over time that tension takes a serious toll on our wellbeing. While there are many ways to deal with stress, one often overlooked and highly effective way is to cultivate a state of inner satisfaction.

My journey to India two years ago was punctuated by unexpected discoveries. Usually when I make the pilgrimage I focus on the holiest of holies: I visit Vrindavan, the land of Lord Krishna, in Uttar Pradesh, and Mayapur, the birthplace of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, in West Bengal. I often underestimate or even neglect the cities that get me there – Delhi and Kolkata, respectively. This time, however, Krishna had a different plan.

It’s a hot August day in New Vrindaban, West Virginia, and the sky above is azure blue. The emerald hills of Appalachia stretch out as far as the eye can see. Atop one, in front of the black-and-gold domes of Prabhupada’s Palace, a father-and-son team have been hard at work all summer. Today they’ve just installed the final wrought-iron railing for the steps leading up to the Palace.

Sri Sri Radha-Vallabha Temple, Chippiwada, Delhi, 1960, excerpt of visitors-book entry:

“Oh, God, I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams.” Shakespeare’s Hamlet, 2.2 (First Folio) This line from Hamlet nicely sums up the absurdity of our delusions of self-importance. I wrote this meditation on the importance of humility as part of my effort to shake my own delusions of knowledge and significance.

Imagine a prism held in sunlight. The rays of the sun pass through the prism, which separates the rays into the attractive colors of the rainbow. Some people are fascinated by one of the colors produced, while other people are attracted to a different color or even all the colors. Similarly, the verses and pastimes presented in the scriptures manifest various meanings, and in a particular instance some people may see or favor one meaning while others see various meanings.

What do we do when a promise we have given comes back to strangle us? What do we do when a loved one we have implicitly trusted acts like our worst enemy? What do we do when, at the very moment our dearest dreams are meant to come true, instead our worst nightmares come true?

The Valmiki Ramayana narrates how these questions confronted Dasharatha, the reigning monarch of Ayodhya, when his plans for succession were disastrously derailed.