George Harrison 1973

"Don't know what I'm doing here, but I hope to see much clearer, after living in the material world...

Hope to get out of this place, by the Lord Sri Krishna's grace....

5,000 years ago in India, Sri Krishna, the All-Attractive Personality of Godhead spoke to his dear friend and student Arjuna the following for the benefit of all humanity, past, present and future.
Bhagavad Gita offers timeless wisdom treasured by transcendentalist from both the East and West.

Bg 6.20-23
The stage of perfection is called trance, or samādhi, when one's mind is completely restrained from material mental activities by practice of yoga*. This is characterized by one's ability to see the self by the pure mind and to relish and rejoice in the self. In that joyous state, one is situated in boundless transcendental happiness and enjoys himself through transcendental senses. Established thus, one never departs from the truth, and upon gaining this he thinks there is no greater gain. Being situated in such a position, one is never shaken, even in the midst of greatest difficulty. This indeed is actual freedom from all miseries arising from material contact.

Bg 6.47
And of all yogīs, the one with great faith who always abides in Me, thinks of Me within himself and renders transcendental loving service to Me – he is the most intimately united with Me in yoga and is the highest of all. That is My opinion.

*Yoga is defined as a means to re-connect to the Supreme Lord; we are already actually connected but somehow have forgotten that eternal connection. There are different types of yoga, or ways to re-connect with the Supreme cross-culturally, using different approaches and language. Anyone who is attempting to reach out to God through any bona-fide religious process, is considered a yogi.

Spiritual acts and cultures are intended to reveal different types of relationships one may have with God - the Absolute Truth from which everything emanates.

It can be noted that offering prayers, music and service to the Lord, is also a type yoga called Bhakti - a direct process of re-connecting to the Supreme through devotional offerings from the heart.

A person from any religious tradition who is sincerely striving to re-connect with the Supreme Lord, by offering heartfelt loving service, is also performing Bhakti-yoga. "A rose by any other name..."

Bg 10.1
The Supreme Lord said: My dear friend, mighty-armed Arjuna, listen again to My supreme word, which I shall impart to you for your benefit and which will give you great joy.
Bg 10.10
To those who are constantly devoted and worship Me with love, I give the understanding by which they can come to Me.
Bg 10.11
Out of compassion for them, I, dwelling in their hearts, destroy with the shining lamp of knowledge the darkness born of ignorance.

MORE Bhagavad Gita

Note: One may ask, what is the process of offering service to the Supreme? Different practices in religious frameworks are revealed according to the time and place and circumstance; the goal of all ideally being learning how to love God, and know oneself as a part and parcel of the Supreme.

Love of Godhead is already naturally dormant in the heart; it just needs to be uncovered. Like  removing dust from a mirror, the real self and God can reflectively seen by internal vision - once the dust of delusion and misconception are cheerfully cleared by spiritual practice and grace.

To love, means you mus know who you are loving, so the Supreme reveals himself through various means - such appearing personally in different ages and places - or by sending a messenger/saint to represent Him - or speaking directly from within one's own heart.

According the sincerity level of each person, the Supreme Lord arranges a specific level of instruction and like-minded association to manifest for each seeking soul, custom fit for that soul's journey.

In the Vedic tradition, nine processes of surrender and service have been recommended by sages and scriptures - the first three of which are: Hearing of the Supreme (Sravanam), Speaking or chanting singing the glories of the Supreme (Kirtanam), and remembering the Supreme (Smaranam) as much as possble. A highly recommend, simple and sublime method of performing all three services, is by repeating (silently or aloud this maha-mantra prayer):

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama Hare Hare

This prayer uses holy names to address the Supreme Being as the All-attractive Source of Divine Love (Krishna), He who is also the Source of all spiritual strength and happiness (Rama).

Prayer is asking to be engaged in divine service of the Source of Love and Strength and Happiness, by the agency of the Lord's internal spiritual potency (Hare).

As with all sincere prayer and meditation, even a few minutes a day of this chanting process is a divinely safe and powerful practice for allowing one to gradually feel the uplifting grace and loving presence of the Supreme Lord, within and without.

Bg 9.1
This knowledge is the king of education, the most secret of all secrets. It is the purest knowledge, and because it gives direct perception of the self by realization, it is the perfection of religion. It is everlasting, and it is joyfully performed.

Wishing everyone,
Peace, Love, Introspection, and Ever-Increasing Happiness

A mantra is a repeated prayer to free the mind from the constant barrage of input from the material senses, and thus reveal a deeper experiential level of spiritual reality transcending time and space.

When a mantra or prayer includes the holy names of God, the transcendent space is created in the mind and heart by God's vibrational presence; just as one naturally experiences light and heat, when standing close to fire.

Just as the surface of a calm lake can reflect the distant stars in the night sky, a calmed mind can deeply reflect on and experience, the existence of God within and without.

Without controlling and purifying one's own mind however, the reflections in the mind will mostly reflect sensual input of a temporary nature, rather than the higher octaves of the mind and spirit.

The prayers and meditations of all genuine spiritual traditions are powerfully important and resonate with their respective practitioners meant to invoke a connection with the grace of the Supreme.

The "Hare Krishna" Maha-Mantra is specifically meant for this modern age of quarrel and materialism. The silent recitation, soft chanting or collective singing of this mantra, has no hard and fast rules and can be freely practiced by anyone, anywhere. 

Whether one has all material desires, no material desires or is seeking liberation from the cycle of birth and death, this mantra is supremely effective for all spiritual seekers (SEe Bg 4.11 Purport).

This mantra asks the internal spiritual power of Supreme Lord (Hare), who is All-Attractive (Krishna) and the source of all pleasure and strength (Rama), to please engage on in purely spiritual activities of eternal loving service.

Just as watering the root of the tree benefits the tree including all the leaves and branches, so by cultivating one's loving connecting with Source, all levels of one's being are fully nourished.

By consciously and willingly offering service in love to the Supreme Lord and His devotees, one's actual purpose, identity and eternal ecstatic function is realized and revealed from within the heart.

We are sparks of the Supreme Spirit meant for exchanging divine loving mellows. This can be personally validated and realized by regularly chanting this particularly potent Hare Krishna Maha-Mantra, as recommended for this age.

You are cordially invited to hear and chant the Maha-Mantra - silently or aloud - to compliment whatever spiritual practice may inspire your devotion to the Supreme Lord.

Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare
Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare

More information can be found on the Symphony of Spirit homepage found HERE.

Peace In and Peace Out.

Comments/Inspirations/Suggestions

Click the arrow below hear chanting of the Hare Krishna Maha-Mantra, recorded in the holy city of Vrndavan, India, with an accompanying slide show from different temples in India and California.

From the "Song of God" (Bhagavad-Gita) the Supreme Personality of Godhead said:

BG 10.10: To those who are constantly devoted to serving Me with love, I give the understanding by which they can come to Me.

BG 10.11: To show them special mercy, I, dwelling in their hearts, destroy with the shining lamp of knowledge the darkness born of ignorance.

BG 18.58: If you become conscious of Me, you will pass over all the obstacles of conditioned life by My grace. If, however, you do not work in such consciousness but act through false ego, not hearing Me, you will be lost.


BG 18.61: The Supreme Lord is situated in everyone's heart, O Arjuna, and is directing the wanderings of all living entities, who are seated as on a machine, made of the material energy.

BG 18.62: O scion of Bharata, surrender unto Him utterly. By His grace you will attain transcendental peace and the supreme and eternal abode.

BG 18.63: Thus I have explained to you knowledge still more confidential. Deliberate on this fully, and then do what you wish to do.

BG 18.64: Because you are My very dear friend, I am speaking to you My supreme instruction, the most confidential knowledge of all. Hear this from Me, for it is for your benefit.

BG 18.65: Always think of Me, become My devotee, worship Me and offer your homage unto Me. Thus you will come to Me without fail. I promise you this because you are My very dear friend.

BG 18.66: Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions. Do not fear.

(Clicking on the Blue Verse Numbers above, will take you to the full purport explanation and VedaBase site)

In nature we observe that when approaching maturity, a male lion cub is forced to leave the pride to make his own way in the world. It also seems to be a natural call of spirit, when we are faced with making singular decisions on the direction of our life’s journey. We may be blessed with good support systems such as a loving family and trusted friends, but adulthood usually means choosing and acting individually on what we think will be best for our own physical, mental and spiritual health, then integrating those choices into our circle of family and friends, along with any wider sphere of influence we may have.

For both lion cubs and a human offspring, survival through the beginning stages of life depends on the nurturing and protection provided by parental or tribal caregivers. Before long, awkward adolescence arrives when we are confronted with processing and prioritizing our individual needs, desires and beliefs, perhaps in resolution or conflict with our tribal relations. At some point, we may feel the need call on our inner strength to walk alone for some time and in some ways, in order to be true to ourselves and inner voice. It makes sense as one has to find and love oneself first, in order to bring our integrated being into any type of partnership with others, what to speak of loving God.

USA TODAY on October 9, 2012 reported that the “Nones” – a group of people that do not consider themselves affiliated with any single organized religion - represent 19.3% of the American population as reported by the Pew Forum on Religious and Public life. The “Nones”, have replaced the Protestants as the second biggest group in America behind the Catholics, in regards to religious identity. 

Interestingly, this does not mean that this demographic holds no spiritual values or beliefs. According to the report, only 2.4% are atheists and 3.3% are agnostic. The study also finds that 68% believe at least somewhat in God or a higher power, 41% say they pray, 23% consider religion at least somewhat important in their life.

We may have had all types of fear installed in our programming through our tribal relations, when just surviving was our first and foremost concern. But once realizing that our soul will survive any temporary scarcity, abundance and even death, we can freely make choices based spiritual integrity and knowledge - even if everyone in our tribe advises us to hold onto fear-based survival models and instincts. 

Decisions and actions based on spiritual knowledge and integrity are pivotal benchmarks, which bring us closer to our life’s goal of spiritual congruity, as opposed to mere survival in a jungle-like landscape of broken dreams and broken promises. 

Although we are surrounded by 7 billion people on earth, as well as by God in His ever-present feature, it is said that we are born alone and die alone. We are actually never alone in a spiritual sense or even material sense, but may feel totally alone when having to decide on a course of action in life that we know will serve our best interests. But that’s not always a bad thing. We all personally bear the results of the actions we perform, and sometimes leaving the security of outdated tribal values is required for personal spiritual growth and freedom, so if you need to, all I'm saying is, walk on and be better for it! Someone "up there" as the song lyrics mention, will definitely find you!

Master magicians when performing illusions, often use misdirection to focus the observer’s attention away from the real mechanics used to execute the illusions. 

Aside from being misdirected by professionals preying on our simplistic acceptance of what appears to be true, we may be misdirected by our own mechanical vision of who and what we think we are, due to lack of spiritual vision.

We mostly define ourselves as our bodies, and how our body is related to other bodies. We usually let the body’s gender, family, friends, job, social position, politics and nationality, define a huge part of who we think we are, independent of the role that our life-giving spirit plays.

We may go through the stages of being children, parents, lovers, haters, workers, non-workers, believers, non-believers, party members, non-party members, in-crowders or outcasts, but our intelligence is misdirected if we identify solely with such circumstantial designations.  

As we play those roles related to our bodies, our changing assignments are usually so absorbing that we forget we have a spiritual identity, independent of our temporary material mask.

To paraphrase William Shakespeare, all world is a stage and we are merely players - but we are mostly all lost in our own bodily parts, so to speak. All parts do have purpose however, which realize full potential when mindfully dedicated to the service of the Supreme Spirit.

Ancient wisdom reminds us there is a great Source of everlasting love and joy to experience; from a Source sitting as close as our own hearts. The Supreme Spirit is waiting for us to open up to the vast spiritual potential always on offer from both within and without.
That spiritual presence and magic once revealed, signals the death-defying end of good and bad mundane earthly drama, replacing it with a backstage pass to an all-good spiritual reality, as manifested from the Lord within.

Nora Jones covers Behind That Locked Door

"Why are you still crying? Your pain is now through
Please forget those teardrops, Let me take them from you
The love you are blessed with, This world's waiting for
So let out your heart, please, please, From behind that locked door..

All spiritual faiths agree we are spiritual beings that live beyond the inevitable destruction of our mortal coils. We will move on to a future existence according to what we desire and deserve.

The key to not being fooled by the magical props on our present material stage, is to act in spiritual knowledge, knowing service to the Supreme along with all creation is a fountain of spiritual joy.

With our spiritual ego defining our true roles as active players in a symphony of spiritual love and service, our previously self-centered performances soon transform into spiritual, love-sustaining activities, performed daily.

By opening the heart to loving and serving God and His creation, we can re-route our misdirected love from matter to spirit - to serving spiritual truth and God as the Source of truth. We just need to unlock the door of our castle to feel the incoming and outgoing breezes of the Supreme's Lord's presence.

William Shakespeare - All the world's a stage (from As You Like It 2/7)

All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,



His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail

Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,

Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,

With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,

With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes

And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

Service is part of us, it's what we do. Service usually means using our time and skills in various ways, with expectation of various results. Wanting to get the most rewarding results for efforts is only natural. We generally serve for the rewards of satisfaction, love, money, honor, prestige or whatever we look to for satisfaction, or consider to be in our best self-interest.

At various times out of love or obligation we make active choices to serve our parents, teachers, spouses, children, employers, employees, country, concepts, ideals, or God.

To serve is such an integral part of our reality that "serve" when defined as a verb is used in 31 different ways (Dictionary.com). "Serve" used as a verb implies action or work. Accepting that we reap what we sow, our service has resultant/karmic reaction which plays out over time. Knowing that our actions can render positive or negative effects within our sphere of influence, we may need to self-check the quality of our motivations, actions, knowing that seeds of reactions being planted by our service. The quality of our actions, added to who and what we serve, surely have high-level impact on the quality of our life both now and in the future. 

Bob Dylan - Gotta Serve Somebody
"You may be an ambassador to England or France
You may like to gamble, you might like to dance
You may be the heavyweight champion of the world
You may be a socialite with a long string of pearls.

But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody,
It may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody."

Whether out of duty, love or for a paycheck, service  is always going on. Continuation of the service we offer usually depends upon getting the satisfaction, love or financial rewards we are expecting. Without adequate reciprocation, our service is generally dropped in favor of another more promising service and benefits. So we may wonder, what is the best service? 

As limited beings, we only have so much service to give.  We cannot please all the people all the time, and have valid personal needs to be serviced as well. We mostly all get through each day using whatever formula we may have inherited, modified or originated in hopes of getting the best results from the service we constantly render. As to methods of serving, there are various material and spiritual models to consider. 

A major game changer is to understand that whatever skill-set or ability we now posses can also be used to serve the Supreme Lord in a simple and loving way, with soul-satisfying results. The shift happens when realizing serving for only material gain has limited returns, while serving with spiritual motive to please God, holds an intangible but palpable quality of satisfaction as revealed from the Lord from within the heart.

The Almighty does not require our service, but when we willingly serve the Supreme's agenda, which is composed of increasing love personally and universally, our own spiritual purpose realized.

By participating in the symphony of spirit as orchestrated by the Lord, we share God's satisfaction. When God is pleased with our service, we automatically feel the spiritual connection and pleasure produced, because we are part and parcel of the Lord. A simple example follows of our hand in service to our whole body wherein the hand and the whole body shares in nourishment.

When the hand serves and feeds the mouth, the hand itself and the whole body benefits. If the hand foolishly decided to keep the food for itself to enjoy it separately from the mouth and body, the hand would eventually wither and die hungry. In the same way if we choose a model to materially serve only our own body, relatives, country or even planet without considering service to our Source, we may also wither and die unsatisfied. 

Service resulting in special spiritual satisfaction comes when realizing we are spiritual beings already connected to God as hands are already connected to the body. We are meant reach out to God through service, and be happily sustained by such efforts. By having a loving and willing service attitude towards the Lord, we find God also lovingly reaches back to us with abundant spiritual love, satisfaction and material sustenance in reciprocation to our efforts, and even more.

Service to God can take many forms. It can be serving the all-pervasive Lord by singing sacred prayers, hymns or mantras, or in quiet prayer/meditation. It can be offering food with prayers of thanks before eating. It can be holding gatherings to sing and share the glory of the Lord. It can be using one's talents and resources to build a building to worship in, for one's particular faith. It can be understanding that almost whatever work and service we now do, can mindfully be connected to the service of God, as mindful loving offering to the Supreme. Our connection to the Supreme spirit manifests through intentional dedication to serving God's purpose expanding love and of reciprocating spiritual love as part of the life we already lead. 

God is open for service. If our hearts and minds are equally as open, we can easily add Him to the list of people or ideals we already attempt to serve, with supremely liberating and sublime results.