Remember that life is a gift

I was reading the news about terrorist attacks all around the world. The one in Kenya struck me specially. Seeing the number of lives lost in such an attack was heartbreaking to say the least. But, there was a positive lesson that I learned from it. Realising that there are some who are called to Lord Krishna early made me want to make my life here on earth even more meaningful. How can we make our lives meaningful? You may ask this question, as have I on many occasions. Life itself is a gift. Every morning that we wake up, every moment that we are alive is a gift to us from God. We should spend our time here doing things that will please him. What might that be? We should use our talent, our skills, our strengths, our blessings to help others. I remember once explaining to someone that things are not as important as people. You may think that this is obvious but let me tell you the circumstances under which I had to remind that person of this. One friend, let's call her Naina, was at another friend's house. Let's call the friend whose house it was Meera. So Meera invited Naina over to spend the night. They were having a grand time watching movies, baking cookies and just enjoying their slumber party. After a while Naina and Meera were painting their nails and Naina, even after being warned by Meera, did not move from the carpeted area and spilled her lime green nailpolish all over Meera's pure white carpet. Meera was in fact furious. She shouted at Naina and called her terrible names. Naina was very apologetic but also terribly hurt. She burst into tears and left Meera's home. Meera, at first felt no remorse for this and called me on the phone to complain about the incident. I was upset about hearing Meera's reaction. You see, Meera is my cousin and I felt that she had treated Naina badly. I explained to her that the right thing to do would have been to make Naina feel welcome and that it was a simple accident which, even if could not be rectified, could be hidden by perhaps a rug or a piece of furniture being placed over the stain. Meera settled down from her high temper and felt incredible remorse for the fact that she had driven her own best friend from her home. She called Naina but as you might imagine, Naina was still hurt and refused to answer the phone. The positive side of the story is that eventually they were able to reconcile their friendship but Naina confided in me that she will not be able to forget the incident and that she feels that I am responsible for Meera apologising and she was hurt that Meera did not do so on her own. I assured her of Meera's remorse but Naina said she cannot ever forget the incident. I took that as a lesson to myself also, you may apologise to someone you have hurt but the person is not likely to forget what happened. They may forgive you but forgetting is quite difficult. I know that my initial topic has been strayed from a a little in this retelling of the story but the underlying thing that I would like to say and emphasise is that helping others and caring for others is the most important thing. We were all put on this earth to make it a better place than when we first came. I think that we all need to be reminded of that and to try every single day to help others, to be a good person and to live the life that Lord Krishna would want us to live. The picture I chose is one that I love - it shows Baby Krishna looking at us in a way that makes me think that he is seeing into our every thought. I just want us all to remember that He does see our every thought all the time. Jai Shree Krishna!

Asking for forgiveness...and remembering not to repeat the mistake

We all know about asking for forgiveness after we have done something wrong. We truly feel remorse when we realise that we have hurt those who love us. We feel guilty and upset when something goes wrong as a result of a bad decision we made. When that happens we ask for forgiveness from the person who has been wronged and from Kanha. However, we have to remember that although there is a saying that we should 'forgive and forget' that the forgetfulness does not come easily to most person. even if they do forgive us, they are not likely to forget. We also should not forget our mistakes. We should remember that when we ask for forgiveness, the other person and Kanha are expecting us to never repeat the same mistake. So, those of us who ask for forgiveness are expected to never repeat the mistake again. When we ask for forgiveness we should learn from the mistake we made and when we forgive we should forget the mistake the other person made. However, as I mentioned before, forgetting may not be as easy as it sounds. In reality if we cannot forget the mistake the other has made or whatever they have done to hurt us, we should try to learn from the other person's mistake. We should try to alter our behaviour so that we never commit that mistake and so never hurt others in that way. So in summary, the lessons to be learned are: 1. Admit when you are wrong and ask for forgiveness - many times we are too proud to admit that we were in fact wrong and we damage relationships further by failing to admit that. 2. Ask for forgiveness and learn from the mistake so that we never commit it again. 3. Forgive and learn and do not bring up the other person's mistake to hurt them. Again, sometimes we forgive and then we remind the person of what they did. This is hurtful and in itself is wrong since it displays that we did not really forgive the person. I chose the picture showing Kanha offering us some of His butter because to me this is the ultimate act of forgiveness to us, that He still wants us to partake of His prasad. Overall we should remember that Kanha forgives us but He expects better of us in the future. He expects us to do what is right and to be good people and to want to be good people above all else. Let us change our attitudes a little today so that we do not have to ask for forgiveness as much. Jai Shri Krishna!

Trusting Kanha at all times

There are times in our lives when things do not go as we would have liked. As human beings we tend to look for someone to blame for things going badly for us. However, doing this is wrong. We should not blame anyone and we definitely should not blame Kanha and accuse Him of not helping us or taking care of us. Many times people blame their parents, spouses, those closest to them. This is hurtful to those people who love us and care for us the most. Think about how you would feel if they start blaming you for things over which you have no control but that have affected them negatively. We should always try to treat others the way we ourselves would like to be treated. We should remember that Kanha is our friend, guide, protector. He is not a distant being far-removed from us. Instead He is always with us in every thing we do, all the time. He should be our dearest friend and our most trusted confidante. When we begin to fully trust in His plan, His power and His will then things will begin to work out for us and, even if they do not go the way we planned, we will begin to see that His plan is better than ours. The picture I have included is of Srimati Radharani - she was the ultimate devotee to Kanha, she trusted Him above all else and lived her life devoted to Him only. Let us learn from her devotion and trust Kanha always. I want to end with this quote: "When one's intelligence, mind, faith and refuge are all fixed in the Supreme, then one becomes fully cleansed of misgivings through complete knowledge and thus proceeds straight on the path of liberation." Srimad Bhagavad Gita Chapter 5 Shloka 17. Jai Shri Krishna!

Remembering to tell Kanha 'thank you'...

'Thank you' is such an important phrase. It illustrates that we appreciate what someone has done for us. We tend to forget to say it to those who mean the most to us and in some cases, we have actually said that we should not say 'thank you' to those closest to us because it illustrates distance in a relationship. Those closest to us do things for us out of love and duty not for thanks. However, I still believe that we should thank them to let them know that we appreciate all that they have done for us and will continue to do for us. And who does the most for us? Kanha of course. He is ALWAYS with us and this is something that we should remember. He sees everything that we do - good and bad. We have to remember that and when we do we will start doing right instead of wrong. We will follow His path naturally and we will accomplish and achieve what He meant us to achieve. Let us all join in saying 'thank you' to Kanha today. Jai Shri Krishna!

Starting a new chapter

First let me apologise to my readers for posting so infrequently over the past two months. I do hope that you can all forgive me and that we can have a more productive month this time. Every time its a new month there is the potential for a new beginning. Well, every single day is really a chance for a new beginning. Kanha is with us all the time and every single moment becomes a chance for a new beginning. Kanha always knows what is needed by us and for us. He sends himself and His messengers to watch over and protect us. He keeps us safe at all times and He give us strength and power to succeed and to achieve. Let us all thank Kanha for being in our lives today. Jai Shri Krishna!

Being true to yourself

Yesterday I was talking to a friend and we were discussing how important it is to be true to yourself. She was relating an incident where she tried to change her behaviour to please someone else and that she was unable to keep the change for good because she didn't want to and she wanted to be true to herself. I told her that pretending to be something you are not will never last because your true nature will always emerge in the end. People must want to change and be comfortable with such changes in their lives if they really have to change their attitudes, behaviours, ways of thinking in general. Kanha helps us to be true to ourselves and if we pray to Him with open hearts He will show us how to be true to ourselves and always be happy. Jai Shri Krishna!

Doing the right thing

This post is linked to the previous one on turning over a new leaf. Sometimes doing the right thing is not always the easy decision. In fact many times doing the right thing is a lot harder than doing the wrong thing. Doing the right thing requires effort on our part to conquer our own fears and those of the people around us. Sometimes doing the right thing means sacrificing something that we would have liked to have or felt that we deserved. But, in the end Kanha will reward us many times more for doing what was right and He will help us to recover from the disappointment and perhaps hurt that we experience when we deny ourselves something to do the right thing. For example, if we are suffering from high cholesterol or heart disease or kidney disease or many other illnesses we will not be allowed to consume certain foods that make us happy. But, by doing the right thing we are taking care of ourselves for the long run. Kanha will reward us with good health and minimum pain. He will help us to heal and He will keep us safe. Let us try to do the right thing in little ways in our lives, even today. Jai Shri Krishna!