Bedtime Stories
You’ve got to be kidding! Happily ever after? For me? Are you just trying to be cruel?
This is an example of what we may be inspired to say if we were told - as burnt out adults struggling to keep body, mind and soul together - that our lives could be perfect and that all our desires could soon be fulfilled.
We may reach the point of such disillusioned exclamations at some point in life, when it has become abundantly clear to us that those childhood myths and stories are just that - myths and stories that are simply designed to pacify and entertain.
Those epics that so enlivened our imaginations and exploded vibrant colours of possibility into our hearts in earlier times, are rapidly and unceremoniously abandoned for the more pressing struggles of life.
We may even think of them as nonsense and only the realm of the immature child.
At best, we may consider that these fairytales hold some moral value with useful guiding principles by which to instruct the younger generation, and of course we would be right about that.
Children from time immemorial have grown up with fantastical stories of evildoers, demons and witches, who are consistently defeated by their formidable foes - the beautiful, bright, loving, intelligent, pure and noble princes and princesses that steal the show and their hearts.
It was Einstein who said “ If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.”
The child then dreams the bedtime stories into reality and may even have imaginary friends to help him or her on their own playful escapades to victory and happiness.
Childs play is after all, an expression of their consciousness and desires.
But why?
The Truth About Fairytales
Why do we have fairytales at all? Why is there a multibillion dollar film and literature industry around blockbuster epics of fantastical worlds and realities - designed for the consumption of both children and adults?
To break your suspense, the reason is…. that it’s hard to bear a world that is full of difficulty and despair.
A world that robs us of our imagination, that is full of suffering and that steals away our precious time just so we can survive and function in a state of relative sanity.
It’s not always easy being a human being on planet earth!
But the real, deeper reason we are so fascinated with worlds and realities beyond our own is that we inherently belong somewhere else.
We don’t actually belong in this world and our difficulties are a reflection of us being a fish out of water.
We actually belong to a place where there is no suffering. We belong to a reality that is not a burden to carry or endure, but rather a reason to sing and dance with love and blissful hearts.
Well if we belong there, then why are we here? Simple question really!
This is where an informed and intelligent world view is essential for us to grasp our place in this world.
Such a world view helps us understand the answers to fundamental questions such as: who am I? Why am I here and what is my purpose?
We need to know these truths otherwise we are just going around in circles, coming and going without really ever knowing why.
The Work of Love
Why do we wake up and go to work? Why do we get married and have kids? Why do we create things? Why do we want to be happy?
In a very tiny nutshell, the reason is that we are all spiritual beings in human bodies.
The Bhakti Yoga world view expands on this important concept and has detailed answers to every question that an enquiring human being could hope to ask.
For example, our bodies change as we go from life to life in the process of reincarnation, but we, our spiritual essence, our soul, remains unchanged.
The reason we come back life after life is that we have some work to do, because the goal of life is to break out of this cycle of repeated birth and death once and for all and reach the ultimate destination that is our real home.
This work that we have to do is the work of love. We have to first discover it within ourselves and water that delicate creeper of love at the very roots until it breaches the heavens and naturally belongs somewhere else.
Many talk about ‘love’ and ‘oneness’ and similar concepts and at times it just seems like a bit of a cliche really, with all that love and light!
However know this… love is your origin, your unmistakable reality and your ultimate destination.
We just forgot, that’s all.
Most of us don’t even know what real love is - I speak of the real love of the unconditional, divine, ecstatic variety between the individual soul and the supreme soul of all, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna who has infinite other names.
And for those who are concerned that God is a man and not a woman, this one’s for you - Krishna in His perfection and infinite completeness has a divine feminine counterpart who is even greater than Himself.
The Secret of Evolution
You may in fact very much like planet earth and all that it has to offer and this is because it is a part of Krishna’s energy and that’s why it’s attractive, but Krishna has something far better waiting for us, if we choose to connect with Him in love and evolve our consciousness.
Real evolution is spiritual evolution. Who cares about the evolution of species!? We’ll all be gone before we can see anything of that nature come to pass.
However evolution of consciousness is what we can feel and experience, real time. It’s tangible and can take us beyond all the species of the cosmos, into the realms of love, where we all belong.
The philosophy, culture, principles, lifestyle and practice of Bhakti Yoga is there to remind you of this seemingly fantastical reality - to jog your memory and to wake you up to the happiness that is rightfully yours.
It tells us the secrets of our real identity and purpose - things that no one ever tells you about!
And that is simply because they don’t know.
We all have a chance to break out of this kind of ignorance and claim our rightful spiritual inheritance which no one can ever take away from us.
Soon enough, that happily ever after scenario that seemed simply childs play, becomes our vibrant, living reality.
Boldly declare your intention of love and get your illuminating spiritual knowledge today!
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You can find out a lot more concise information by checking out my videos containing secrets of the ancient, timeless knowledge of Bhakti Yoga - literally at your fingertips.
The Bookshelf is also a good place to start the Bhakti Yoga magic.
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A fabulous way to connect to similar minds and hearts is to find an international Bhakti Yoga Centre near you (Branches of ISKCON - The International Society of Krishna Consciousness), where you can speak to an experienced yoga practitioner and receive personal guidance.
If you would like to explore how you can incorporate Bhakti Yoga into your life in a balanced and harmonious way, and feel you would benefit from one on one support, you are welcome to book a Discovery Session with me, Rasika Manjari to see if we can work together to help you achieve your spiritual goals.
See you at the New World.