I came across a very interesting mail from a devotee. We need to be very careful in this direction if we are serious for spiritual advancement. This is really good food for thought.

" Regularly watching TV and movies: there are two main defects in this activity, whether they’re done regularly or even occasionally.

The first is that this media always includes intoxication, graphic sex life, violence, and gambling.Therefore watching it means to break the regulative principles. What reason do we have that we would go out of our way to observe and watch these activities of Kali-yuga when already it’s difficult enough to stay away from it, when even walking down the street, going into a shop or going out on harinama or sankirtana, these things are bombarding us and challenge the consciousness of a serious practitioner. So why would I want to bring these things into my own home, to give ideas to children?

Answer: because people have material desires and they give into them.

I’ll come back to that in a moment.

The second defect is that anything you see makes an impression in the heart. So the rampant violence, sex, intoxication, bad language, immoral behavior, irreverence for the real values of life, and fairytale worlds like Spiderman jumping off buildings and flying through the air, these make an impression in the heart, and when they do they become a source of meditation, something to meditate on, because these impressions will come out at a later time. Not only as a reflection of the mind but something that creates seeds of material desires in the heart and which will also water existing seeds of desire in the heart.

So it is a very detrimental practice. But back to the first point, breaking principles. Initiated devotees vow to follow regulative principles. When referring to brahmacaris and sannyasis in this regard, we say that even in the mind if one contemplates these things he is breaking the principles. But while grhasthas might have license, they only have that within their own marriage situation. They don’t have a license to view sexual activities or these other things. So for them to contemplate it, to view it, to enjoy it: it’s all breaking the principles.

How then can an initiated devotee do these things with a clear conscience?

And what is the effect of breaking the regulative principles? We commit sin. And by committing sin, we complicate our spiritual lives, entangle ourselves in material existence, and suffer from the results of that sin.

By committing sin there’s an effect in the mind, and that is that sinful thoughts linger in heart. They come up like bubbles from the mud and become the source of other sinful desires, which then become the result of further sinful acts. Ultimately what devotees see on TV and in movies, they’ll end up doing.

If they see infidelity, they’ll end up doing it. If they see violence or other activities, they’ll do that. When they become bewildered thinking materialism, egoism, pride in the material body is the ultimate goal, they become more body conscious and egotistical.

All these things strangle the creeper of devotional service and make one’s devotional life more or less null and void. Why do they do this? Well, obviously because they’re not doing what they should be, which is chanting Hare Krishna and hearing Srimad Bhagavatam and Caitanya-caritamrita. They’re not doing those activities without offense and they’re not doing them enough. And so they don’t have enough spiritual strength to resist the social pressure from those who are doing these things, nor do they have the strength to resist the inner desires that are still there in conditioned souls"

Hello Friends,

Back on blogging after a long time. This time I have got a very nice poem written by my 11 year old nehew "Akshat Goel" who has moved to Mumbai 2 yaers ago. He has expressed his thoughts in this poem so nicely that I could not stop sharing it with all of you.

When I moved to Mumbai,
I wasn't happy and thought to move back.
With no friends,I roamed around the town,
It was lively and full of spirit, I found.

Soon monsoon came and it heavily rained,
Turned into a flood with overflowing drains.
Choked roads,submerged bridges and uprooted trees,
Displaced people with no choice but to wad in water knee deep.

I was anxious,I was disturbed,
Thought its not safe.
And asked my dad to move back,
But the spirit of Mumbai just held me back.

I started settling and had few friends,
I played and even went out with them.

Then I heard about serial blasts in the trains,
Left behind were wrecked trains and deadly blood stains.
Scattered belongings,cries and shrieks of distraught people,
This act of brutality is simply not acceptable.

I was scared, I was unnerved
Thought its not safe.
And asked my dad to move back,
But the spirit of Mumbai again held me back.

I was settled and had many friends,
One fine evening,I saw a news flash.

It was a heinous terrorist attack,
Innocent people got caught into their trap.
Grenades,gun battle and mass destruction were only to be seen,
They aimed annihilation but our brave men overcame fidayeens.

I was shaken, I was shattered,
Thought its not safe.
And asked my dad to move back,
But the strong spirit of Mumbai held me back.

This 'Spirit Of Mumbai' showed me a track,
I shall never go back,I shall never go back.

This is really a god gifted talent to write such a nice poem in such short age.

Well, this seems to be very strange topic but It is a very important question each one of us should ask to ourself and then change our behaviour accordingly. I am raising this question because of a recent discussion that happened between me and one of my roommates.

What can be extreme end of a friendship? Well, I think It can extend upto marriage(In western society now-a-days man-man and girl-girl marriages are also happening)

Some people may say this is possible and some may say this is not possible. Let us start with the friendship between two boys or two girls. In that friendship both friends can be very intimate and share so many things between them, however friends can be just friends superficially for courtsy.

Here I would like to give one example: In my MCA college there were 50 students batch and we 4 boys were sharing an apartment. Since we four were sharing the apartment so we generally used to share our lives happy and sad moments amongst us. This makes a relatively tight bond amongst us as compared to our other batchmates. Though I was friend of other batchmates also but I was a bit more to my apartment-mates. This is deapth of relation of friendship that make it extreme i.e. level of intimacy.

I guess same thing should happen in every kind of friendship but then what is different betwen the friendship of a boy and girl?

According to my friend if there are one boy and girl roaming around together, then this mean there is an affair between them but I have different opinion.

Two friends(either boys or girls) used to roam around in college and city together but that does not mean that they are having extreme case of friendship and hence same way if one boy and one girl are friends and they are roaming around, then it does not necessarily mean that they are having an affair or and extreme case of friendship.

In any kind of friendship if boy and girl and roaming around and they are not trying to hide themselves from others then this must be called a normal friendship and if they are trying to pass time in solitude together only, then It must something more than friendship.

In India, the social environment is a bit different and our thinking in India is also a bit traditional where we think that If a boy and girl are roaming around together then they may have affair and this creates a some kind of social pressure on friends. If people see a boy and a girl together then people start talking about those two people behind them and they become topic of gossip in office or college canteens.

Due to this pressure friends may soemtime try to avoid that they must not be seen together and this cretaes further problems as I have mentioned in my old blog titled "How to lead a peaceful life".

As per Vedic Literrature, It is very dangerous to stay with a person of opposite gender in a secluded place. It is recommended in Vedic Literature that a girl and boy should remain in gurukul before his/her marriage away from opposite gender. This will help them to be in Bramcharya Ashram. But in today's society It is not done like that and causing so many problems in today's society.

In conclusion, I would say that It is also possible for a boy and girl to be simply friends but we should be very careful in such friendships. We should not stay with opposite gender friends alone. I mean there must be more than two people always in such a meeting. We should keep on checking our level of intimacy constantly and try to be in some defined limit which will help us to win good friends for forever.

May Krishna bless all with true knowledge.

Your comments are welcome.....on ashish_its@yahoo.co.in

Well, This is a reminder post for me.

Sometimes in our life we commit some mistake and then we wish if we could go in the past and could change those instances.

Even a small mistake done can create a big problem in our life after sometime even in the same life time but sometimes it may take even more than one life.

For example: If we have done wrongdoing today then sometime later someone knowing that may blackmail you for that and asked you to do some more wrong doing and in this way we got trapped in quagmire of wrongdoing and then we have to suffer for reactions of each of them. This happens in case of ciminals but sometimes small mistakes can also be harmful like that.

"For every action there is equal and opposite reaction" is well know third law of Newton in physics. This also applies in the field of spirituality on every karma we do.

So we should be very careful in our day to day activity. We should not do anything that we need to hide from others and even we ourself feel ashamed of. If we follow this principle, then I think we will be leading a very peaceful life.

In spite of knowing this, if someone do some mistake then that is not a mistake but a blunder. "Saying is easy than done"

I know this but in spite of that I have done some blunders in my life. Those mistakes might be small but though done knowingly so they become blunder. I must confess this and I am really remourseful about them and feeling that if I could get a second chance to correct my mistakes. I wish if I could do something as an atonement for those acts but in this age of Kaliyuga Hari Nam Sankirtan is considered to be the medicine of everything but we should not do sinful acts thinking that we will do some sankirtan and get rid of those sins.

I guess everyone at some point of time in their life may have commited mistakes but we should learn from our mistkes and keep on moving forward in our life and ready to accept the result of our mistakes. We should not complain to GOD about the bad things happening to our life as this is result of our past karma only. What we can do it Hari Naam Sankirtan which is medicine of every problem and pray to GOD to get HIS/HER true love in our hearts.

May Lord Krishna shower his causeless mercy on me to understand and implement the above mentioned principle in my life. It is said that in actual life there is no second chance so we need to be very careful in all of our endevours. May Krishna bless all with true knowledge.

Hari Bol... Happy Reading... Comments are welcome.