Why do we need go to Temple, when we say that God is everywhere?

ISKCON Temple Melbourne

Why do we turn on a Fan when air is everywhere? Because, even though air is present everywhere, you cannot feel its presence everywhere. Especially, when it is a hot or humid day, we need that air to be blown so that we get relief. Similarly, water is everywhere but, when we feel thirsty, to quench the thirst, we take water stored in a water filter or tap or something. Though, God is everywhere and within ourselves as Paramatma (Super Soul), we go to Mandir or temple to see him physically with our eyes. The personal aspect of deity form of God is something where everyone feels personally reciprocated. Depending on the level of our faith and surrender, God reciprocates. That is why, while some see the God in the temple as an Idol made of stone or metal, others perceive him as a person. They understand that since God is all powerful and can manifest through any form he likes, even though he is form is completely spiritual, because of his mercy and the love and devotion of a devotee, he agrees to manifest in the deity form and accepts the services and gives his blessings. But, even though a deity is made out of a material substance like a stone, metal etc, when the deity is installed as per the prescribed methods of Vedic scriptures like Pancharatrika Vidhi, he comes and resides in the deity form. Just like an iron rod, kept in the fire after a while becomes as good as a fire, the deity made up of material substance becomes spiritual. One more important point to note is that, manifestation of a deity is a mercy form that enables a devotee to offer their services. Surely, the Supreme Lord is completely spiritual full of Sat, Chit and Ananda that is eternity, knowledge and bliss. So, why doesn’t the deity when sometimes apparently, disrespected by some hooligans keep quiet and does not respond. That is some paranormal activity like, the Deity form doesn’t break up or shower thunderbolts on the miscreants? Because, God does not bother responding to those people and no way affected and he simply withdraws himself from the deity form. Then, we also see so many instances of deities responding to the devotee’s request like, the deity of Sakshi Gopal of Vrindavan walked all the way to Orrisa to give a witness statement to his devotee.

ISKCON Temple Melbourne

ye yatha mam prapadyante tams tathaiva bhajamy aham: as they surrender unto Me—I reward accordingly. (Bhagavad Gita 4:11)

Then, the other aspects come into picture like, the way a temple is built, as per vasthu shastra, generally temples have this Yantras or the Copper and Brass plates with Bija Akshara or the sacred sounds inscribed on them and they are worshipped for number of days with certain mantras and finally, they are installed just below the deity in the temples. So, the whole idea is, as soon as one enters a temple which is a power house of spiritual, positive vibrations will immediately give solace to the troubled hearts of the people. Ultimately, it is the love and devotion of a devotees which makes certain temples special and so to say powerful, because that is what Lord actually see and expects from someone as he says in Bhagavad Gita 9.11

" patram puspam phalam toyam

yo me bhaktya prayacchati

tad aham bhakty-upahrtam

asnami prayatatmanah. If one offers Me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower, fruit a water, I will accept it.

(P.S:My answer to someones question on Quora)
Another P.S: “I love you when you bow in your mosque, kneel in your temple, pray in your church. For you and I are sons of one religion, and it is the spirit.” ― Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

YOLO-You live only once? By Devamrita Swami

One life is all you get? Just as the baby has a future, the child has a future, the adult has a future, the old person has a future, and similarly the deceased person also has a future. Our not remembering our past life or having no perception of a future life is no proof that there is no life after this one. The bhakti yoga texts inform us that the hallmark of a real human civilisation is to understand that the spirit soul does not perish and that we should have the concern - what will my next body be?

Devamrita Swami

Here is a short,eloquent talk by Devamrita Swami. YOLO stands for You only live once, a completely wrong notion that crept into the modern generation.Watch this and you will love it.
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1418204581589106&id=108896615853249

Lessons from a Taxi Driver

“That’s it my friend. I lost everything and took me a lot to get back to normal. I still love my family but, now with matters related to business and money, I don’t take their advice”, declared the cheerful, happy looking African brother driving the Taxi.

This is the story of a Taxi driver I met recently. I was on my way to the Melbourne Airport and here are some excerpts of our talk.

He is in his early thirty’s and told me that he came to Australia about 7 years ago. He worked hard, did lot of odd jobs, drove taxi and earned some hard bucks. He took the advice of his family members and relatives and invested in a business. Unfortunately,

It turned out to be a wrong choice and he literally lost everything.

“It’s not that they wanted me to cheat me, lose my money or something but, they simply don’t know the proper details. They heard from someone in a gathering or dinner and believed the words and passed on the message. In fact forced me to do it. It’s like one blind man leading the other blind and we both fell in the ditch”.Hahaha, he laughed heartily.

I looked at him with admiration and empathy. I appreciated his courage and strength that he had in overcoming the disaster. What is more impressive is that, he is not being resentful, fretting, fuming or cursing anyone.

Who is a Guru

I started thinking. Yes, there could be so many people trying to give us advice on so many things based on their own experiences and situations they came across in life.”Atmavan Manyatae Jagat –“Everyone looks at the world with their own eyes and their own way. Basing on their nature, temperament they perceive things differently. It’s as if, if one has a color film on his eyes say, yellow – the whole world looks yellow to them. Do this, do that, I know it did wonders etc. So, it is so important to take advice from right people and right sources. If you want to invest in shares, real estate or stock market, you do your own research, learn about the subject and then approach the people who are right and qualified people in that field. But, then there are so many people in the market, out there claiming to be experts, authentic and genuine? We need to use our intelligence, find out what qualifications so and so person has, what is his affiliation or firm that he is working with, what about the other subject matter books, magazines talk about this subject. And, does it all match up? Like, our own research through books, qualifications of the person, the organisation that he is associated with and then, the personal behavior or the qualities the person exhibits in real life. And, it becomes even more important in and matters related to spiritual life. It is said that spiritual life is compared to walking on a razors edge. We cannot do it whimsically and because, someone else your friend is doing it. It’s interesting that, same things that needs to be looked at while dealing with matters like investing in a business etc. It’s called the three point check of spiritual life – Guru, Sadhu and Shastra.

The most important step in spiritual life is taking shelter of a Spiritual Master who is coming in a line of bonafide discipilic succession. What this means is that someone who is claiming to be a Guru is a genuine and has qualifications like, always engaged in the service of God, who speaks from the Vedic scriptures and words of other spiritual Masters above him. If he speaks anything different, they need to be reconciled with the words of Vedic scriptures and other Gurus above him called as Sadhus.

 I have some interesting feedback of why or how someone follow or accepted a certain Guru. Because, lives in Himalayas for six months in a year, because he speaks very logically, because of his attire so on. As stated in Bhagavad Gita,4.34

tad viddhi pranipatena

pariprasnena sevaya

upadeksyanti te jnanam

jnaninas tattva-darsinah . Just try to learn the truth by approaching a spiritual master. Inquire from him submissively and render service unto him. The self-realized soul can impart knowledge unto you because he has seen the truth.

        “Hi Mate, which terminal you need to go to”? The words of my taxi driver friend brought me back to the senses. I took my luggage hurriedly, paid the fare and with real feelings in my heart, thanked the driver for the drive and sharing his story. For the last 30 mins or so, we talked about so many things starting from, weather, footy, cricket, stock market, real estate etc. but, out of all the things, I last conversation about taking advice from the right people, right source touched my heart. Ultimately, we are accountable for our actions and the results that come.

It is said that, there are three types of people.

One who learns by hearing – considered first class.

One who learns by experience – considered second class.

One who does not learn even after experiencing – the Third class. I guess, I am a mix of all these classes, sometimes first, second and third.

Do you have a problem in life?

Do you have a problem in life? Of course, who does not have problems and yes, we worry about them. We are constantly worrying about the past, present and future. But, here is a simple formula. When you have a problem in life, you actually have only two possibilities I,e either there is a solution for the problem or there is no solution problem. If there is a solution to the problem, then why worry about it? And, if there is no solution to the problem, then why worry about it? Because, you can’t do anything about it anyway. Talking about problems, what is a problem? For some people, everything in their life is a problem. Right from possibility of World War three, Global Warming etc. This is where the concept of Circle of concern and circle of influence comes. Stephen Convey defines that the circle of influence is where a person has some control or the things, one can do something about like, Personal health, career, profession, and children and not worry about things like, the weather, National Debt, Politics etc. While it is good to be aware of these things and do your part as Human being like, not using plastic bags or using bio degradable ones and work your way steadily to increase your circle of influence, like become the President of USA of something.

Transport Problem

Remember this, the thinker is always greater than the thought which means, you are more than your problems and you can always rise above them. What does this mean? I remember myself few years ago started to trek/climb this famous Tirumala Tirupathi Balaji or Lord Venkateshwara Swamy hills which is a bit of austerity and involves walking the 11 Kilometres on a bare foot. The walk starting from Alipiri or the foothills, at Tirupati town involves crossing the hills, climbing about 3500 steps and takes about 3 to 4 hrs for a normal healthy person. One of the formidable hill to climb starts roughly from 2800^th step and the hill is really steep. This is called the “mokalaparvatham" referring to some devotees actually climb in their knees. So, I reached this place and I am already exhausted by then and looked at this tall, imposing Mountain Peak and wondered, “ How am I going to make this?. However, I continued and when I made it to the top, it was a rewarding experience. I felt spiritually uplifted and happy.

Two interesting quotes by Albert Einstein on Problem solving.

“If I had an hour to solve a problem I'd spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions.”

"We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them”. What this means is that we need to expand our consciousness and thinking that goes out of the imagined and virtual box that we ourselves have created. Change our way of looking at things that makes them look smaller.

Krishna Farm - A Voyage of Spiritual discovery

Krishna Farm is a thriving Hare Krishna community located in Eungella, NSW. It is actually the border town of NSW and it is closer to Gold coast an Half an hour drive from the Gold Coast Airport. Murwillumbah is the closest town to the Farm is about 15 minutes’ drive. 

I visited the farm recently with my family and stayed for few days during the Easter Holidays.

Tweed River flowing across in the Farm

Situated amongst beautiful hills and valleys, the Krishna Farm is an amazing place to visit, stay and relax.

A Cow at the Farm

Temple on the Farm

A beautiful Pond - View from the Cabin

A Peacock Spotted near the temple premises

Kookaburra - a Friendly local visitor

Misty day

Near the Entrance to the Farm

Below is the review, which I wrote for the Accommodation in the Trip Adviser. I am hoping to write a full length article about the Farm, its activities etc. Stay tuned...

I stayed at this wonderful accommodation in the month of April 2017 with my family and loved every moment of it. The cabin is cute, comfortable and had all the basic amenities. The views from the cottage are beautiful overlooking a small lake. The location of the cottage is perfect, close to the nearby town Murwillumbah. Two minutes’ walk to the cottage was the temple. Anyone can visit the place, attend the temple morning programs like prayers, greeting the deities, a class based on Vedic wisdom, have a sumptuous, tasty breakfast, explore the farm which is filled with beautiful forest, a river that one can walk to and take bath. The place is filled with a wonderful spiritual vibrations and the residents of the farm community are happy, chirpy and helpful. If you are lucky you can have some rare visitors to your cabin, like a Kookaburra. My kids are thrilled to have one visit us in the cabin. We are also lucky to see couple of beautiful peacocks in the temple surrounds. Days passed like minutes and overall it is a spiritually uplifting and serene atmosphere. The cabin reminded me of a book called Walden or Life in the woods written by noted transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau. My kids and even I wanted to stay there forever but, we had to come back to Melbourne to face the reality. I am looking forward to going there again to stay for one more holiday. By the way, there is no Wi-Fi in the room but, you can get it at the temple office by requesting them.

Benefits of Chanting Hanuman Chalisa

Someone asked me these questions on Quora,and here are my answers. 

1.Is it true that praying to Lord Hanuman or chanting the Hanuman Chalisa every day will not get you the person you love? Till what extent is this true and why? Because it always happens that all that I ask for comes true except my wishes related to love or relationships.

So many people have already given wonderful answers and their experiences that I feel that, I don’t need to answer this. However, I will try to put some of my thoughts about this question i,e without repeating what others already said.There are different ways of looking at this question,

Firstly, Lord Hanuman is the personification of servitor-ship - Dasyam to Lord Rama. Asta Siddhis, the eight super natural powers and Nava Nidhis - nine of the greatest treasures are given to him by Mother Sita Devi and yet, he choose to remain a humble servant of Lord Rama. Thus, he has power to do anything and fulfil any desires of people who worship him. But, it may be inappropriate to ask him for desires like this. For example, once a person went to a Sanyasi / Saint and asked his advice or blessing to make some woman to surrender to him. The saint said, if I had known this - why I would become a Sanyasi. I would have become a family man.

Secondly, the parent knows what is good for their child. If the child goes to their father and asks him for a Cigarette the father immediately slaps or try to discipline the child. Or, if the child asks for something unreasonable, like 1000 rupees for buying chocolates, the father would not give him.

It is said that marriages are made in heaven. May be true or not, but sometimes it looks like that. Sometimes, we don’t understand or can’t see the full picture.

Please, refer to the below blog post,

http://ausram.blogspot.com.au/2014/09/this-is-one-of-my-favorite-from.html

Also, it is said that to get results, firstly the endeavour or effort should be there. From your side, what efforts or actions you are taking to make the other person pleased, happy with you. Mere sentiment or silent adoration will not work. Then, once you do your part, the mercy from Lord Hanuman flows.

So many other things can be said, but in short keep chanting Hanuman Chalisa, worship Lord Rama of whom Hanuman is always serving and worshiping and at a suitable time, your sincere desires will fulfilled. As per my article above, have faith in God’s plan for you.

2. If you chant for Hanuman will it help you get over unrequited love, possibly even helping you get the courage and will to lead a celibate life?

Dear Chan,This an intresting question.There are so many dimensions to this question. Firstly, it is said that in pure or true love, one does not expect anything in return, including someone not reciprocating your feelings. It depends on the individual karma. For example, one of my friend during college days was in love (so called) with at least 5 girls. Each time, he would gather some courage to propose or convey his feelings, he would hear the news that, the girl who he was after was engaged to someone else. Today, my friend is happily married (arranged marriage) and leading a fulfilled life with wife, children etc. It is said that, in this world there is no true love. The closest one can see is that of a Mother and child. A mother goes through so much trouble to conceive a child, after that so many sleepless nights, looking after the baby, feeding him, taking care when the baby is sick etc. She does all this not because of some expectation that the child will grow up and do something for her, but out of pure love.

Coming back to your question of unrequited love - look at the situation from a different perspective. Maybe god has a different plan for you. And, yes Praying Hanuman will give you pure love for Hanuman, Ram and which in turn will give you strength to get over any obstacles in life. This too shall pass… (http://ausram.blogspot.com.au/2015/01/this-too-shall-pass.html)

Now coming to the courage and will to lead a celibate life. Hanumanji is a pure devotee and servant of Lord Ram, he can give you the courage to lead a celibate life. But, you have to be true to yourself and make a wise decision. The world is full of temptations and do you think, you will be and want to lead a celibate life, because someone did not reciprocate your life?

There is a nice pastime from Srimad Bhagavatham, where Gajendra the king of elephants was losing his strength and fight over a crocodile that caught him in the water. Why, because elephant is a land animal and for the crocodile water is the natural habitat and he is naturally stronger in water than the land animal elephant.

"That one has been found to be very weak in one place does not mean that he should stop fighting the crocodile of maya. One should take shelter of the lotus feet of Krishna, as we shall see Gajendra do, and at the same time one can be a gṛhastha if he is satisfied with sexual indulgence. There is no need to give up the fight. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu therefore recommended, sthane sthitah sruti-gatam tanu-van-manobhih. One may stay in whichever asrama is suitable for him; it is not essential that one take sannyasa. If one is sexually agitated, he can enter the gṛhastha-asrama. But one must continue fighting. For one who is not in a transcendental position, to take sannyasa artificially is not a very great credit. If sannyasa is not suitable, one may enter the gṛhastha-asrama and fight maya with great strength. But one should not give up the fighting and go away" - Purport by Srila Prabhupada.

Comfortable misery is still misery by Chaitanya Charan Das

We living in our AC homes and offices may pity people of the past who had to work outdoors, sweating profusely under the burning hot sun. Yet we don’t realize that despite our air-conditioners, we too end up sweating, not because of heat but because of stress.

The comforts that our contemporary techno-centered culture has provided us can be so infatuating as to blind us to its cost, especially when the cost is not as visible as the comfort. The comforts are visible because they are largely physical, whereas the costs are invisible because they are mostly psychological – increased anxiety, for example.

As long as people believe that better material things will make them happy, they hardly ever question whether the acquisition of comforts is actually making them happier. Craving and slaving to get comforts, they hardly give any thought to that pursuit’s flip side. That flip side stems from an uncritical adoption of a materialistic worldview, which makes people inordinately dependent on material things for their sense of self-worth and security. When faced with the uncertainties that characterize the ever-changing world of matter, they suffer enormous anxiety. Their physical comforts do little to remove their psychological misery – they end up comfortably miserable.

Gita wisdom explains that we are not physical creatures; we are spiritual beings. So, physical comforts can’t provide the security and satisfaction available in spiritual realization. Seeking material things keeps us dissatisfied (14.12) and sentences us to misery (14.16).

We don’t need to reject comforts, but we do need to realize that comforts can’t make us happy – only realizing our spiritual essence can. For gaining such realization, the most efficacious process is bhakti-yoga, for it connects us with the supreme spiritual reality, Krishna. When we practice bhakti-yoga diligently, we find a sublime inner security and satisfaction that doesn’t depend on external comfort.
Comfortable misery is still misery