* * *

 

A temple-goer wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper and complained that it made no sense to go to temple every Saturday.
 
"I've gone for 30 years now," he wrote, "and in that time I have heard something like 3,000 discourses. But for the life of me, I can't remember a single one of them. So, I think I'm wasting my time and the Swamijis are wasting theirs by giving discourses at all."
 
This started a real controversy in the "Letters to the Editor" column.
 
Much to the delight of the editor, it went on for weeks until someone wrote this clincher:
 
"I've been married for 30 years now. In that time, my wife has cooked some 32,000 meals. But for the life of me, I cannot recall the entire menu for a single one of those meals. But I do know this: They all nourished me and gave me the strength I needed to do my work. If my wife had not given me these meals, I would be physically dead today.
 
"Likewise, if I had not gone to temple for nourishment, I would be spiritually dead today!"
 
When you are DOWN to nothing. God is UP to something!
 
Faith sees the invisible, believes the incredible and receives the impossible!
 
Thank God for our physical AND our spiritual nourishment!
 
All right. Now that you're done reading, send it on!
 
Perhaps everyone should read this!
 
When Satan is knocking at your door, simply say, "Bhagawan Sri Krishna, could you get that please?"

 

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Spiritual Nuggets

 1. God wants spiritual fruit, not religious
                           nuts.

 2. Dear God: I have a problem. It's me.

 3. Growing old is inevitable, growing
                           up is optional.

 4. There is no key to happiness. The door is always open.

 5. Silence is often
                           misinterpreted, but never misquoted.

 6. Do the math. Count your blessings.

 7. Faith is the ability
                           to not panic.

 8. Laugh every day, it's like inner jogging.

 9. If you worry, you didn't pray. If
                           you pray, don't worry.

 10. As a child of God, prayer is kind of like calling home every day.

 11. Blessed are the flexible, for they
                           shall not be bent out of shape.

 12. The most important
                           things in your home are the people.

 13. When we get tangled up in our problems, be still.

 God wants us to be
                           still so that He can untangle the knot.

 14. A grudge is a heavy thing to carry.

 15. He who dies with
                           the most toys is still dead.

 16. We do not remember days, but moments. Life is moving too fast, so

 enjoy your precious moments.

 17. Nothing is real
                           to you until you experience it, otherwise it's just

hearsay.

                           18. It's all right to sit on your pity pot every now and again. Just be sure to

flush when you are done.

 19. Surviving and living your life successfully
                           requires courage. The goals

and dreams you're
                           seeking require courage and risk-taking. Learn from the

turtle ...it only makes progress when it sticks out its neck.

20. Life is uncertain; eat dessert first!.

21. Be more concerned
                           with your character than your reputation, because

your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what

others think you are.

QUOTES OF SUBSTANCE:

C. Rajagopalachari's famous opening remarks in introduction to M.S. Subbulakshmi's soulful rendition of Jagadguru Adi Sankaracharya's immortal devotional song Bhaja Govindam:

 

"Adi Sankaracharya wrote a number of Vedantic works for imparting knowledge of the self and  the universal spirit. He also composed a number of hymns to foster bhakti  in the hearts of men.

 

"One of these hymns is the famous Bhaja Govindam. The way of devotion is not different from the way of knowledge or gnaana.

 

"When intelligence matures and lodges securely in the mind, it becomes wisdom. When wisdom is integrated with life and issues out in action, it becomes bhakti. Knowledge, when it becomes fully mature, is bhakti. If it does not get transformed into bhakti, such knowledge is useless tinsel.

 

"To believe that gnaana and bhakti -- knowledge and devotion -- are different from each other is ignorance. If Sri Adi Sankara Himself, who drank the ocean of gnaana as easily as one sips water from the palm of one's hand, sang in His later years, hymns to develop devotion, it is enough to show that gnaana and bhakti are one and the same.

 

"Sri Sankara has packed into the Bhaja Govindam song, the substance of all Vedanta and set the oneness of gnaana and bhakti to melodious music."

 

* * *

 

Click here for the salient points of the satsangs from 09 May to 13 May.

 

Click here for the salient points of the satsangs from 14 May to 17 May.

 

Click here for the salient points of the Q&A session during Spiritual Picnic