As sparks of the Supreme Spirit, each individual has a measure of independence and free will; a perspective allowing one to interpret the information one's senses channel to one's mind, allowing for various meanings. One's perspective can change over the years, or even moment to moment.

How one sees and interprets the world varies according to the lenses of one's ego (both real and imaginary), one's intelligence (the level of information one has), and one's mind (which receives constant sensual input).

For example, one's ego could see this park meadow as a place showing the beauty of nature and it's Creator, or just as a place to walk one's dog, or as a place needing to be bulldozed to make way for commercial enterprise.

One's intelligence may see this scene as something created by the divine, and feel a responsibility of stewardship. One could see the seasonal beauty but knowing in winter, the flowers, grass and leaves, will all be gone. One could also see it as a place of possible mosquito bites, Lyme disease, or coyotes roaming at night. 

One's mind could make a snap judgement whether this meadow was either good or bad, useful or useless, according to one's ego view and information on hand.

Taking a step back in this case, one's perspective changes, or adds new dimensions.

One may think of the man-made boundaries - who owns this land, what purpose does it serve, and is it possible to buy or use the space beyond one's own domain.

One may feel imprisoned by limitations - things which may block ones access.

One may feel the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, or feel unsatisfied with one's present allotment.

In so many ways, one projects onto the outward environment, one's internal state of being and awareness - through the filters of one's ego, intelligence and mind/senses.

Pivoting perspective once again and looking south, more opportunities for projection become an option.

One may see creativity and life in nature on one side, and man's manipulation of material resources on another.

One may feel protected from nature perhaps, or confined by circumstances and feel boxed in by man-made structures.

One may see natural beauty diminishing and hitting a blank wall, while trying to achieve a more convenient and tidy life.

There are many possibilities how one sees the world moment by moment, influenced by the ego, intelligence, and senses.

Bhagavd Gita Chapter 7, Text 1-8

"Now hear, O son of Pṛthā [Arjuna], how by practicing yoga in full consciousness of Me, with mind attached to Me, you can know Me in full, free from doubt.
I shall now declare unto you in full this knowledge both phenomenal and noumenal, by knowing which there shall remain nothing further to be known.
Out of many thousands among men, one may endeavor for perfection, and of those who have achieved perfection, hardly one knows Me in truth.
Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intelligence and false ego—altogether these eight comprise My separated material energies.
Besides this inferior nature, O mighty-armed Arjuna, there is a superior energy of Mine, which are all living entities who are struggling with material nature and are sustaining the universe.
Of all that is material and all that is spiritual in this world, know for certain that I am both its origin and dissolution.
O conquerer of wealth [Arjuna], there is no Truth superior to Me. Everything rests upon Me, as pearls are strung on a thread.
O son of Kuntī [Arjuna], I am the taste of water, the light of the sun and the moon, the syllable om in the Vedic mantras; I am the sound in ether and ability in man."

The above verses instruct how one can mediate on the Supreme Lord with one's body, mind, and spirit, as revealed by the Lord personally. Sri Krishna is the original teacher or guru, instructing his friend and disciple Arjuna. In one sense God is inconceivable to the conditioned mind and senses, but when the body, mind, and senses are purified by holy sound as given by God/Source, then transcendence begins through the same agencies of body, mind, and spirit.

When one meditates on and perceives that the energy and personality of the Supreme Source of all life and energy, is not only reflected and conscious on all levels of creation, but is connected though the hearts off all living entities, then an ever-clearer vision of the relationship of both God and each individual can be experienced.

This can begin by just by consciously observing the light of the sun and the moon, or by hearing and repeating sacred sounds - such as "Om", "Hare Krishna" or offering other sincere prayers.

By beginning to understand that everything and everyone is connected by Source energy, on both material and spiritual levels  as "pearls are strung on a thread" is clear vision.  That God's energy is present as the unseen element underlying the sub-atomic realm as well as all planetary systems is divine knowledge, revealed by Source.   Also seeing that all of one's abilities are both God-given and can be removed at any time as well by the will of the Supreme, are deep meditations that can bring one closer to seeing God everywhere. Gradually one can perceive the Supreme Lord within as a companion in the heart, and also without as divine energetic presence, as one's senses are purified.

One naturally sees more clearly, as the clouds of ignorance dissipate through application of transcendent knowledge as given by Godhead, saints and scriptures.

Unseen forces control our lives at every moment. Time and gravity come to mind as potent yet unseen realities. Although we don't know the origin of time, we do know "Time and tide wait for no man."

Gravity is also mysterious as to it's origin, thought to be generated from visible mass/matter. Yet the sun, earth and the rest of our entire solar-system is being pulled through the universe,  apparently by a gravitational force created by invisible, "dark matter" - or alternatively by some other invisible unknown energy. No one is clear on the energy source, but the reality that the solar system as a unit is being dragged through space by a powerful energy source, is observably clear.

An honest scientist will admit that modern science has more questions than answers regarding the   universe we inhabit, as well as the microcosmic mysteries of even the human body we inhabit.

What can be said with certainty - proven by history, is that  each individual is stuck on earth for some time, and then ceases to be from the perspective of mundane vision.

As described in the Bhagavad Gita Ch 2.27 "For one who is born, death is certain, and for one who is dead, birth is certain.... ."

Some after death are reborn into a material body, and some are re-born into eternal spiritual bodies, depending on the quality of desires cultivated in one's life; either of material or spiritual grades.

The body one leaves behind may be burnt or buried, but one's personal energy in the form of unseen consciousness is said to transmigrate or continue on in another form of energy. This conclusion may be a matter of faith for some, or common sense for others, depending on one's paradigm of reality.

Some people only have faith or belief in what they can see with their own eyes. To those with no understanding of the unseen worlds and energies, when the body stops exhibiting living symptoms triggered by the invisible exit of the life force, that's the end of the story of life - "when you're dead, you're dead" is the conclusion of some.

Believing life to be a movie which starts with birth and ends with death, with unforeseeable ups and downs before a declining end, is "a hard way to go" as sung by the late great poet/singer/songwriter John Prine. He wrote the song below in 1971 with the refrain "Make me an angel that flies from Montgomery" which some say is prison slang, for requesting a pardon from the Governor with commutation of one's sentence in lock down - liberation from mundane incarceration of body / mind.

Certainly the individual spirit can also petition through song, prayer, meditation, asking the Supreme Spirit for something even more sublime - to be released from the cycle of repeated birth and death and regain one's eternal form of knowledge and bliss; thus gaining a body of pure consciousness capable of serving the Supreme Lord in a reciprocal loving mood which deepens throughout eternity.

Being stuck in the viewpoint that this one life is the all and all, proposes a dilemma; even if one's  plans are successful, one has to leave all that so-called success behind at the time of death.

Consciousness as the symptom of the spirit, is energy that is never destroyed, it simply changes form. Knowing this to be true, one loses the fear of death, and engages in eternal acts of service.

Sri Krishna mentions in the Bhagavad-Gita:2.13,20,22,29 4.9,10,11 18.56

As the embodied soul continually passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. The self-realized soul is not bewildered by such a change.
For the soul there is never birth nor death. Nor, having once been, does he ever cease to be. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing, undying and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain.
As a person puts on new garments, giving up old ones, similarly, the soul accepts new material bodies, giving up the old and useless ones.
Some look on the soul as amazing, some describe him as amazing, and some hear of him as amazing, while others, even after hearing about him, cannot understand him at all.
Being freed from attachment, fear and anger, being fully absorbed in Me and taking refuge in Me, many, many persons in the past became purified by knowledge of Me—and thus they all attained transcendental love for Me.
One who knows the transcendental nature of My appearance and activities does not, upon leaving the body, take his birth again in this material world, but attains My eternal abode, O Arjuna.
Though engaged in all kinds of activities, My devotee, under My protection, reaches the eternal and imperishable abode by My grace.

One recommended way to experience gradually growing deeper levels of consciousness is by prayer/meditating/chanting of sacred hymns and sound. This can be done internally and silently, or softly spoken so only the chanter can hear the sound (japa meditation) or by singing (choir/kirtan).

Spiritual expressions from the heart is recognized in many religious traditions, and is explained nicely by Jahnavi Harrison, who was born into the Bhakti Yoga tradition and has practiced sacred sound meditation throughout her life. With intro by Jay Shetty, this session was in London in 2015.

When considering one's spiritual identity and constitution, ancient wisdom texts reveal that each soul is a unit of transcendent consciousness and simultaneously part of a unified greater whole.

Just as a particle of sunlight individually shines, being radiated from the sun, each individual is a quanta of spiritual light radiated from a single Universal/God/Source.

Further revealed is that each spark of consciousness in it's pure form, has a non-material essence or constitutional position and function. Freed from material conditioning, each spirit/soul has a non-material body formed of eternity, knowledge and bliss - a body and personality of pure spirit.

The individual spirit/soul's constitution is a vehicle of transcendent knowledge, containing realization of both self and Source. Each soul, expanded like sunlight, has the purpose and function to dance in loving harmony with Godhead - the fountainhead of all personal and energetic manifestations.

As constitutional sparks of the Supreme Spirit, we are made in the image of God as mentioned in the Bible as well as Eastern conceptions. We embody the same divine characteristics as the Supreme,  but in minute quantity when compared with the totality of Godhead/Source.

As the Supreme Lord is supremely independent, so each soul also carries a minute amount of God-given independence and some freedom of choice.

Because we are inextricably part of a greater system of spiritual unity, even when we fall into the illusion of apparent separation from spirit - due to material embodiment, we can choose to re-ignite our constitutional spiritual identity, freedom and qualities.

This happens when we remember our essential purpose - that we were created for expanding love.

Understanding who the Supreme is, and how to love Him, is revealed internally and externally by the numerous mystic agencies of the Supreme. Described by some as the Holy Spirit, and by others  indwelling Lord in the heart or the Supersoul sitting next to the individual soul, divine downloads can be received through the medium of one's consciousness. The same consistent message can also be received from empowered spiritual guides and genuine scriptures.

There are many branches of the Vedic scriptures recorded in Sanskrit 5,000 years ago One branch is the Upanishads, containing the Sri Isopanisad, Below are a few of the 18 verses of this Upanishad translated below by a modern day saint and spiritual master, AC Bhaktivedanta Swami. (1896-1977)

Invocation
oṁ pūrṇam adaḥ pūrṇam idaṁ
pūrṇāt pūrṇam udacyate
pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya
pūrṇam evāvaśiṣyate
TRANSLATION
The Personality of Godhead is perfect and complete, and because He is completely perfect, all emanations from Him, such as this phenomenal world, are perfectly equipped as complete wholes. Whatever is produced of the Complete Whole is also complete in itself. Because He is the Complete Whole, even though so many complete units emanate from Him, He remains the complete balance.
                                Sri Sri Radha-Krishna
Mantra 1
Everything animate or inanimate that is within the universe is controlled and owned by the Lord. One should therefore accept only those things necessary for himself, which are set aside as his quota, and one should not accept other things, knowing well to whom they belong.
Mantra 2
One may aspire to live for hundreds of years if he continuously goes on working in that way, for that sort of work will not bind him to the law of karma. There is no alternative to this way for man.
Mantra 5
The Supreme Lord walks and does not walk. He is far away, but He is very near as well. He is within everything, and yet He is outside of everything.
Mantra 6
He who sees everything in relation to the Supreme Lord, who sees all living entities as His parts and parcels, and who sees the Supreme Lord within everything never hates anything or any being.
Mantra 7
One who always sees all living entities as spiritual sparks, in quality one with the Lord, becomes a true knower of things. What, then, can be illusion or anxiety for him?
Mantra 8
Such a person must factually know the greatest of all, the Personality of Godhead, who is unembodied, omniscient, beyond reproach, without veins, pure and uncontaminated, the self-sufficient philosopher who has been fulfilling everyone's desire since time immemorial.
Mantra 11
Only one who can learn the process of nescience and that of transcendental knowledge side by side can transcend the influence of repeated birth and death and enjoy the full blessings of immortality.
Mantra 16
O my Lord, O primeval philosopher, maintainer of the universe, O regulating principle, destination of the pure devotees, well-wisher of the progenitors of mankind, please remove the effulgence of Your transcendental rays so that I can see Your form of bliss. You are the eternal Supreme Personality of Godhead, like unto the sun, as am I.

PURPORT
The sun and its rays are one and the same qualitatively. Similarly, the Lord and the living entities are one and the same in quality. The sun is one, but the molecules of the sun's rays are innumerable. The sun's rays constitute part of the sun, and the sun and its rays conjointly constitute the complete sun. Within the sun itself resides the sun-god, and similarly within the supreme spiritual planet, Goloka Vṛndāvana, from which the brahmajyoti effulgence is emanating, the Lord enjoys His eternal pastimes, as verified in the Brahma-saṁhitā (5.29):
cintāmaṇi-prakara-sadmasu kalpa-vṛkṣa-
lakṣāvṛteṣu surabhīr abhipālayantam
lakṣmī-sahasra-śata-sambhrama-sevyamānaṁ
govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi
"I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, the first progenitor, who is tending the cows fulfilling all desires in abodes filled with spiritual gems and surrounded by millions of wish-fulfilling trees. He is always served with great reverence and affection by hundreds of thousands of Lakṣmīs, or goddesses of fortune."
The brahmajyoti is described in the Brahma-saṁhitā as the rays emanating from that supreme spiritual planet, Goloka Vṛndāvana, just as the sun's rays emanate from the sun globe. Until one surpasses the glare of the brahmajyoti, one cannot receive information of the land of the Lord. The impersonalist philosophers, blinded as they are by the dazzling brahmajyoti, can realize neither the factual abode of the Lord nor His transcendental form. Limited by their poor fund of knowledge, such impersonalist thinkers cannot understand the all-blissful transcendental form of Lord Kṛṣṇa. In this prayer, therefore, Śrī Īśopaniṣad petitions the Lord to remove the effulgent rays of the brahmajyoti so that the pure devotee can see His all-blissful transcendental form.

Mantra 18
O my Lord, as powerful as fire, O omnipotent one, now I offer You all obeisances, falling on the ground at Your feet. O my Lord, please lead me on the right path to reach You, and since You know all that I have done in the past, please free me from the reactions to my past sins so that there will be no hindrance to my progress.

The Original Divine Feminine and Divine Masculine Form - Srimati Radharani and Sri Krishna

Sometimes it is observed that one's individual struggles are reflected in the collective.

In the present age, we tend to forget that we were created with a purpose - to be an agent of love in union with Source of all creation.

Presently, the United States other countries are facing internal challenges of fundamental constitutional rights given to every citizen in respect to freedom of speech and other free-will choice options. Humankind has a history of the strong trying to enslave the weak, which continues to this day in various forms, using economic, political, social pressure as the slave-chains of choice.

By Vedic estimation, 5,000 years ago humankind entered the age of "Kali Yuga" known as the age of quarrel and hypocrisy, also known as the age of science and technology - which can also be infused with unfortunate quarrels and hypocrisy of various types in various arenas.

Presently, conflict between sexes, races, cultures, and nations are highly amplified and politicized by special interest elites, trying to achieve and propagandize their own agendas. Some media moguls subscribe to the policy of a self-entitled, perverted golden rule viewpoint: "those with the gold, make the rules".

Their intentional goal is that of subjugating others for fulfilling their own desires and whimsical plans. They happily think of themselves the Darwinian "fittest" entitled to devour the weak, rather than to uplift others through a spiritual vision of equality.

This is not new, but it seems our world may be at a turning point - and this is also not new as individual always have the sovereignty choose at every moment what is best in that moment.

Each individual armed with proper knowledge, has the option to reject  all selfish propaganda from competing outlets, in order to observe and function on the spiritual level. The spiritual level that is beyond skin color,  sexual identity, or social affiliations - which some external agents attempt to utilize to divide, conquer and contract individual sovereignty.

The spiritual level is one where the unified constitution of each individual is realized on the platform eternity, knowledge and bliss, fixed in a loving relationship with the Supreme Lord, and all creation.

As per the Vedas, this divine love with the Supreme originates in the original divine masculine form of Godhead known as Krishna. Krishna expands into the divine feminine form named Radharani, specifically for expressing and reciprocating love.

From these divine personalities, more male and female expansions flow, to populate the cosmos.

For the expansion of loving exchanges, Krishna expands Himself in unlimited forms with a variety of capacities, including individual small sparks of Godhead known as individual "jivas" or spirit souls such as you and I. You and I as divine sparks, are players in the divine symphony of spirit.

In the scope of eternity, as beings with a measure of free will, we can choose to harmonize in a cooperative sense and purpose of unity in love - or strike out on our own to imitate the Supreme Lord as a separate enjoyer in the bubble of our own little universe. For this facility of temporary separation from Godhead, the material cosmos and various forms of material bodies and planets become manifest as a matrix of material energetic qualities of goodness, passion and ignorance, which bind the spirit like ropes to the wheel of continual birth and death.

Since the cosmos is in continual phases of creation and destruction, no one can find lasting happiness or love in the changing illusion of separation from Godhead. Until deciding to return to one's eternal source and constitutional position of being a loving part and parcel of the Supreme whole, one remains stuck in the continual cycle of birth and death, revolving through various species of life.

One's constitutional, true spiritual ego/identity has all potential to experience that highest love, just beyond the veil of material misconceptions. When we are willing to reciprocate as vessels of unconditional love in a relationship to the all-pervading Supreme Lord, the door will open to gradually enter eternity which is full of variety, bliss and love, as offered and reciprocated by the Supreme Personality of Godhead who resides within and without.

May we all be steadfast in remembering our internal constitution, and the fundamentals of the values we hold dear - respecting one's own God-given free will, and rights of others to do the same.

The Star Spangled Banner
A Woodstock /
JIMI HENDRIX-style cover

The World Has Talent

We were all created by a loving Source, endowed with a special individual talent - talent meant to be perfected when offered in loving service to a greater reality.

Sometimes we sidetrack that potential for selfish ends. Other times we offer our talents freely with no expectation of return - which is the mood goodness, or more deeply the mood of the divine feminine energy, the personality Srimati Radharani, as described by Vedic texts.

Fortunately, the divine masculine form of Godhead, is eternally and infinitely grateful for any service offered, and never fails to respond to such a loving devotional mood. Thus Godhead, having unlimited names describing divine qualities, is sometimes described as Sri Krishna the "All-Attractive".

Even if in perhaps a shadow form in this world, the beautiful concept of unconditional love can inspire...

Little Wing by Jimi Hendrix:

..When I'm sad she comes to me
With a thousand smiles, she gives to me free
It's alright she says, it's alright..
Take anything you want from me

Performed by Eric Clapton, Sheryl Crow, - featuring a smokin' sax solo by Dave Sanborn :-)

Below is an offering written by former Beatle, George Harrison, performed in a tribute concert organized by Eric Clapton, celebrating his friend George on the year anniversary of his passing.

My sweet Lord....I really want to know you, I really wanna go with you, but it takes so long my Lord..
Halleluah...
.... Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare
Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama....

We are all here on earth in a physical body produced by our parents. We didn't independently appear on the scene by our own volition.

This is true on the conscious/energetic/soul level as well.

Consciousness as energy thrives at different levels and is never destroyed; it simply changes forms.

Ancient wisdom texts reveal that like photons - quanta of light having the sun as it's source, each being or quanta of consciousness is radiated from a much greater energetic, conscious Source.

How did I get here, and where am I going in the future, is a multi-leveled question worth looking into, whether one is young or old. Such questions can reveal valuable answers concerning one's body, mind, and soul They also reveal the perfection and purpose of life on earth - and beyond.

Funny but true...Buckaroo Bonzai (1984) "No matter where you go, there you are." 

In order to get to any new place,  physically or mentally, we have to know who we are, along with where we are, in order to get "there", when seeking how to get out of one situation, into a another one. Action over time plays out as karma, with mixed results automatically produced; choice of action and direction are something that we sometimes fail to consider, believing the future is mostly random and unpredictable, not fully owning up to how we may be contributing to it.

The Way Out, Is In - is wisdom which guides one towards the balance of mind, and heart.

By introspection, intuition, and considering knowledge revealed by accomplished sages and mystics, one  can "know thyself" as well as the Source of self, along with the source of freedom and love.

As always, change is upon us, but the year past and year ahead portend more pronounced changes than many of the years that have come before.

Many of us will seek to "get away" in a very different way as well - through conscious growth and establishing a spiritually guided trajectory which will reveal a safe and light-filled here-and- now, as well as time spent contributing to a brighter future ahead.

We face increasing strife from all sides nowadays it seems.... is it a message, a sign of the times, or perhaps both?

Sri Krishna in Bhagavad-gita describes to his friend and student Arjuna, the eternal nature of energy and consciousness. This conversation took place while Arjuna was preparing to fight a tumultuous battle - a political battle on one level, and a spiritual battle on another level which hosted friends and relatives on both sides - a pending individual battle looming symbolically and literally today as well.

The information revealed describes who we are, and how we got here, noted here in some key texts:

"Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings; nor in the future shall any of us cease to be."

"The living entities in this conditioned world are My eternal, fragmental parts. Due to conditioned life, they are struggling very hard with the six senses, which include the mind."

"The total material substance, called Brahman, is the source of birth, and it is that Brahman that I impregnate, making possible the births of all living beings, O son of Bharata.

"It should be understood that all species of life, O son of Kuntī, are made possible by birth in this material nature, and that I am the seed-giving father."

"The living entity in the material world carries his different conceptions of life from one body to another as the air carries aromas."

"The living entity, thus taking another gross body, obtains a certain type of ear, tongue, and nose and sense of touch, which are grouped about the mind. He thus enjoys a particular set of sense objects."

"The foolish cannot understand how a living entity can quit his body, nor can they understand what sort of body he enjoys under the spell of the modes of nature. But one whose eyes are trained in knowledge can see all this."

"Yet there is another nature, which is eternal and is transcendental to this manifested and unmanifested matter. It is supreme and is never annihilated. When all in this world is annihilated, that part remains as it is."

"That supreme abode is called unmanifested and infallible, and it is the supreme destination. When one goes there, he never comes back. That is My supreme abode."

"After attaining Me, the great souls, who are yogīs in devotion, never return to this temporary world, which is full of miseries, because they have attained the highest perfection."

"Before giving up this present body, if one is able to tolerate the urges of the material senses and check the force of desire and anger, he is a yogī and is happy in this world."

"One whose happiness is within, who is active within, who rejoices within and is illumined within, is actually the perfect mystic. He is liberated in the Supreme, and ultimately he attains the Supreme."

"After many births and deaths, he who is actually in knowledge surrenders unto Me, knowing Me to be the cause of all causes and all that is. Such a great soul is very rare."

",,, 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."

"One who is thus transcendentally situated at once realizes the Supreme Brahman. He never laments nor desires to have anything; he is equally disposed to every living entity. In that state he attains pure devotional service unto Me."

"Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reaction. Do not fear."


Bhagavad Gita Texts 2.12, 15.7, 14.3, 14.4, 15.8, 15.9, 15.10 8.20, 8.21, 8.15, 5.23, 5.24,7.19, 6.20-24 18.54 18.66

The story goes that during World War I, German prisoners held by the Japanese, sang Beethoven's Ode to Joy, the Choral in the last part of the 9th Symphony, to help ward off the despair of their plight and revive hope of a better day.

The Japanese admired this strength of spirit, and adopted this musical classic as part of their own, end of the year holiday season tradition, in the same spirit of renewal and hope, performed yearly.

Translation (Partial)

A spark of fire from heaven, Daughter from Elysium, Drunk with fire we dare to enter, Holy One, inside your shrine. Your magic power binds together, What we by custom wrench apart, All men will emerge as brothers, Where you rest your gentle wings....
 

....Be embraced, all you millions, Share this kiss with all the world! Way above the stars, brothers, There must live a loving father. Do you kneel down low, you millions? Do you see your maker, world? Search for Him above the stars, Above the stars He must be living."

Wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving and Holiday Season, from your SOS blogger.