Krishna in the Heart Will Always Guide Us

I was sitting here reading a PDF version of "Heart and Halo" (a collection of discoures given by His Divine Grace Srila B.R. Sridhar Maharaja) and just came across this paragraph:

"The day in which we do not find any saint, or have any discussion about the real purpose of life, the inner life, the inner substance, that day we are the loser. Be conscious of that. In all respects, in any way possible, mind your own lesson, mind your own interest, find your own self. Be unmindful towards the external world and circumstances and dive deep into the reality, the inner world. Find your inner self and the inner world where you live, where your inner self is living. Try to find your Home, to go back to God, back to Home. Your energy must be utilized for going Home, and not for wandering in the other land, the land of death. Try to avoid the land of death at any cost; always try to find the eternal soil, that soil to which you belong. Try to understand what is your Home and why it is your Home. Home comfort: what does it mean? It means our birth-place – the place where we are born."

After what I posted last night regarding the topic of death, I found this to be quite pertinent and a direct message from Krishna sitting within my heart.

Death Is Our Foundation

My reflections inevitably always come back to death. After all, how can we ignore the fact that everything we're experiencing right now (from our body, to our mind, to our favorite sensory enjoyment) is all temporary? Yet somehow we go on living each day like death will never come.

The other evening I was out taking my daughter for a walk. I could see giant, flat screen TVs in almost every window that we passed. I saw people pulling into their parking spots and dredging into their homes, most likely coming home from a long day of work. It got me thinking about how, as human beings, we waste so much time doing absolutely nothing of importance or meaning. We wake up, get ready for work, work all day, drive home and watch TV. Some people crack open a beer or drink a glass or wine to dull the harsh reality of living a repetitive, unfulfilling life, just to get by and make it through to the next day.

Then I thought to myself, "But if this is considered "wasting time", then how should human beings be spending their time? What is really important and meaningful?" The reply that came into my mind was "spiritual pursuits". Well, what does that even mean? Praying? Reading scriptures? Talking about God and the soul with others? Sure, maybe all of those things. Somehow, some way, directing our thoughts and consciousness towards our life beyond this material reality that we're experiencing.

Maybe it's because we never think about dying that we don't consider spiritual life or spiritual pursuits important. Unfortunately, just because we ignore it, the reality of death won't go away. Our physical body is born to die. It's dying at every moment. Every day we take another step towards its demise. And yet how do we spend our time preparing for that moment?

There are of course many schools of thought about what happens after death. It takes faith to accept any one of them, because really we can't verify any of the claims. All we know for certain is that death is inevitable and that this life is temporary. That should be enough to push us towards trying to find out some kind of answers...but ironically we end up going on with our daily life and concerns like we'll be here forever.