Hari Aum.
The celebration of the birthday of Lord Krishna is coming up in two days time. Based on the Vedic lunar calendar, the date falls on August 26 this year.
A very happy Janmashtami to all readers. May Lord Krishna bless us all with the capacity to keep up our spiritual practices. May He bless us and the whole world with devotion and spiritual wisdom.
As usual, in celebration of Janmashtami, the books on the life of Lord Krishna that I had written a few years ago will be available for free download from Amazon for a period of five days (i.e. August 26th- 30th inclusive, starting from 12 am PDT). Please see below for the link. (There are four books in total. The last book, Yogeshwara, contains the Uddhava Gita.)
Just to say, I am currently in the process of preparing my next installment of the Ramayana series for this blog (was hoping to have published it by now but was unable to due to travel and then getting Covid-- was not as bad as two years ago but still fairly unpleasant).
On a public health note, please keep an eye out for your local government/ medical advice regarding the Mpox virus-- as many of you may be aware, this was declared a 'public health emergency of global concern' by the WHO around ten days ago. There is obviously no need to panic but common sense is needed-- and this would mean keeping an eye on the situation and following our local public health guidelines regarding taking preventative measures etc.
This is a UN article on the subject:
On a more positive note, I am glad to say that I passed my recent dance exam (with actually quite decent marks to my surprise!) and received some encouraging feedback from my teacher. I have been therefore been permitted to continue my studies and progress to the next year which I am happy about (of course, 'happy' can be a strong word after a two-hour class of what can feel almost like military training but still!)
In the midst of viruses, wars and various other troublesome issues on this planet, I feel it is very important to maintain one's sanity through a combination of spiritual practice and enjoyable hobbies!
Speaking of wars, there unfortunately seems to be no sign of any of them abating currently. Let us therefore continue our prayers for the relief of suffering and the general wellbeing of everyone. May sanity prevail, however long it takes.
In accordance with the advice of Gurus of all spiritual traditions, let us do daily chanting and singing of the names of whichever deity we like for our own wellbeing and that of everyone.
Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya.
Om Namo Narayanaya.
May Lord Krishna bless us all.
Hari Aum Tat Sat.
P.S. I watched the 'Kalki 2898 AD' movie on Netflix a few days ago and found it quite interesting (not too pleased that the sequel will only be released in three years time though!).
It paints a very grim and grisly picture of a future Earth at a much later stage in Kali yuga, the present spiritual age of quarrels and war (unfortunately our scriptures, the Puranas, do describe a significant deterioration over time). The Earth is shown to be devoid of clean air or water or even sunshine. And then, of course, an avatar of Narayana appears-- this avatar is called Kalki (the one yet to come in this spiritual age; His name is pronounced as "Cull-key").
After watching this movie, I felt extremely grateful for the simple things in life that I often take for granted, such as drinking water, relatively clean air, sunshine and plants! This movie really reminds one that we cannot take anything in life for granted.
Unfortunately, the depressing reality of our world today is that there are places where people currently suffer intensely in a way that is not far-off from that portrayed in the movie. This is why our Gurus tell us to keep up spiritual practice every day, no matter what happens within or without in our lives.
The mantra of God gives protection to us and to others-- that is a simple fact of life according to them (and many of us would have found this to be true in our own experience of life).
It is also useful to remind ourselves that, although there is much that is negative about this Kali yuga, our Puranas declare that this is the best time (of all yugas) to be born as a human being.
No other yuga/period of time produces such rapid results from spiritual practice as this one (we are still talking about decades of practice though, of course-- just not thousands of years of practice as the longer-lived people of previous ages were apparantly expected to do!). It would be nice to make full use of our current birth in this Kali yuga and thus attain the spiritual goal (and hopefully not be compelled to be reborn at a later stage when the situation is likely to be much worse than it is at present).
On that note, I am still continuing my current purascharana at a steady seven malas per day. And I'm also keeping up some singing/bhajan/kirtan and devotional dance as part of my worship as this combination currently seems to work for me.
I hope and pray that you too are keeping up your own daily spiritual practice and that this is going well.
Om Namo Narayanaya.
Hari Aum Tat Sat
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