Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #21 – Some Somber Quotes on Death

May 25th, 2026

“What is death but a change of body?”

 

I woke up to a startling message. Śrīla Prabhupāda was suddenly returning from Hrishikesh where he had been trying to recover his health. He was coming today to Vrindavan to leave the world.

 

We soon sat somberly in his room at the feet of our master

 

Due to his health, Śrīla Prabhupāda sat in a chair to the left of where he usually sat cross-legged in front of his desk. It seemed all the residents of the project were there, about thirty at the time.

 

His spoke solemnly. What struck me was not just what he said, but the conviction with which he said it.

 

“If one is to leave world, let him come to Vrindavan. Everything is here, the Yamunā, the white sands of Ramaṇa-reti… but what is death, but a change of body?” He then quoted the Gītā:

 

“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.” (Bhagavad-gītā 2.13)

 

We were there months later in the same room witnessing his passing. It was obvious to those who were there: he was not bewildered by such a change!

 

“Don’t think this won’t happen to you!”

 

Śrīla Prabhupāda’s disciples surrounded his bed during his last days. Lying on his back, he turned his head to them slowly and relayed an important message: “Don’t think this won’t happen to you!”

 

I don’t think many of us took heed of his warning then. How could we? Hardly one of us was more than thirty. Fear of death leads to our avoidance of thoughts of mortality. This tendency is just too ingrained in human psychology for the spiritually immature to avoid.

 

But now?! Are we foolish enough to maintain that illusion in the face of the fact that most of those who stood by his bed are now gone? And every week another spiritual brother or sister seems to leave.

 

“The pain of death is not the physical pain, for either the body goes into a coma, or one is given drugs to dull the pain. The real pain of death is losing one’s attachments.”

 

About thirty years ago, I was having a philosophical discussion with a Vaiṣṇava scholar in Vrindavan. I don’t remember specifically what our discussion was about, but when he said the above it struck me deeply.

 

Even now, if I lost the smallest thing, say my cell phone, I would be in anxiety. Imagine, however, the pain of losing everything at once, including your material identity and everyone you know and love. Indeed, the real pain of death is losing all one’s attachments at once.

 

“The more you transform your life from the material to the spiritual domain, the less you become afraid of death. A person who lives a truly spiritual life has no fear of death.”

 

This quote from Tolstoy hit me. It fits perfectly after the previous quotation.

 

When we perform activities of devotion such as chanting the holy names of God, because they are activities of the soul, they give us the realization that the activities we are doing and the identity in which they are done do not end with the body. We become fearless.

 

In contrast, when we perform material activities solely based on bodily identification, the activities we are doing, and the identity in which we are doing them, end at death. We become filled with duality and fear.

 

“Death is the illusion of material existence.”

 

Years ago, I began to deeply study the Yoga-sūtra and teach this text in yoga studios around New York. One important point I gleaned from the study was that all our problems are perceptual — how we see things — and not actual, how they are. I thought the best example of this was our apparently biggest problem, death. I searched for a good way to express my realization to my audience. I composed the above statement.

 

“What is death but another birthday?”

 

I seem to recall Śrīla Prabhupāda saying this, but I am not certain of its origins. Śrīla Prabhupāda could have said it. It perfectly combines his depth of realization with his sense of humor. And it’s also not an idea foreign to great spiritual teachings:

 

“The day which we fear as our last is but the birthday of eternity.” (Seneca)

 

 

Monday Morning Greetings 2026 #20 – Paradox in Bhakti I — The Agony is the Ecstasy

May 18th, 2026

Often when Śrīla Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī describes Śrī Caitanya’s feelings at the height of His devotion, he describes His intense anguish. Without skipping a beat, he then characterizes those same feelings of devotion as the highest ecstasy.

 

“In this way, Lord Caitanya used to revel in ecstasy day after day and exhibit these ecstasies before Svarūpa and Rāmānanda Rāya. Externally there appeared severe tribulation, as if He were suffering from poisonous effects, but internally He was experiencing bliss. This is characteristic of transcendental love of Kṛṣṇa.” — Śrīla Prabhupāda, Śrī Caitanya-caritāmta, Madhya-līlā 2.50

 

The simultaneous experience of intense suffering and bliss? If you are confused, don’t feel bad. We are told by Śrīla Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī that even those elevated in knowledge and devotion cannot comprehend these things.

 

“Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s emotion of transcendental madness in separation from Kṛṣṇa is very deep and mysterious. Even though one is very advanced and learned, he cannot understand it.” Antya-līlā 14.5

 

When teaching the Caitanya-caritāmta, I was therefore faced with a dilemma. If even those advanced and learned cannot understand Śrī Caitanya’s transcendental madness, then how could I explain it in a way that wasn’t totally confusing? Śrīla Prabhupāda, however, encourages us to try to come to at least a preliminary level of understanding.

 

“Unless one is a very highly advanced devotee, he cannot understand these intricate feelings. The author of Śrī Caitanya-caritāmta, however, has tried to explain this divyonmāda as far as possible, and it is our duty simply to appreciate it as far as possible.”Śrīla Prabhupāda, Caitanya-caritāmta, Antya-līlā 14.37, purport

 

So, although I can’t hope to fully grasp these subjects now, I will try to appreciate these complex topics as far as possible by describing three ways in which suffering and happiness may coincide in this world.

 

In the experience of watching drama

 

The purpose of drama is to theatrically portray an all-consuming emotion (rasa) so that the audience experiences the same emotion. Thus, when a drama is successful, we experience the same feelings as the protagonists of the drama, whether those feelings are romantic, chivalrous or horrific, but in an uplifting way. Thus, regardless of the emotion, even when negative, we simultaneously enjoy the drama.

 

For example, if the drama portrays the negative experience of tragedy, we counterintuitively enjoy the drama. I think that’s a perfect example of the combination of opposing emotions that might offer somewhat of a reference to help us appreciate the juxtaposition of the anguish and ecstatic bliss in the spiritual world.

 

In the trials endured in devotion and love

 

I remember many times in my service to Śrīla Prabhupāda that I endured difficult austerity. But at the same moment I felt satisfaction and joy because I thought he would be pleased. Such harmony of opposing emotions in the acts of love and devotion is another way we can at least fathom a realm where the opposing emotions of suffering and bliss join.

 

In the accomplishment of work

 

I watched a very interesting lecture on happiness by Harvard Business School professor Arthur Brooks. In his studies on happiness, one of the main components is the sense of accomplishment in the struggle to complete some meaningful work. Often great athletes train vigorously but enjoy the sense of accomplishment even while undergoing pain. Again, when struggle is connected to some benefit there can be simultaneous pain and pleasure, so why not in the spiritual realm?

 

We can never fully fathom the juxtaposition of Śrī Caitanya’s intense agony of separation and the immeasurable bliss it engenders. My service as a teacher of bhakti philosophy impelled me, however, to make some sense of it by upamāna (analogy) as far as possible. I still must acknowledge, however, that unless we attain that spiritual realm it is impossible to fully grasp the height of Śrī Caitanya’s divine love.

 

 

Monday Morning Greetings 2026 #19 – The Origin of the Living Entity and the Limits of Reason

May 11th, 2026

A natural inquiry that comes up in almost all spiritual traditions concerns the origin of the living entity in this dark world. All moka traditions — Vedic, Buddhist, and Jain — universally profess that our condition here in ignorance is beginningless or eternal.

 

The Judeo-Christian traditions, in contrast, hold that the material world, and consequent ignorance, is not eternal but has a creative beginning point that is followed by a “fall theory,” which begins with Adam’s tumble from a position of innocence.

 

Śrīla Prabhupāda seems to have indicated at different times propositions about this subject that support both theories, although the propositions are mutually exclusive. In other words, if one is true, the other cannot be.

 

So, which is a better explanation of the origin of the conditioned soul’s ignorance?

 

From the standpoint of reason, neither. Both propositions as to the origin of the jiva are problematic within the parameters of human reasoning.

 

To think that the soul has been eternally in bondage for no fault of its own seems ontologically unreasonable and cruel. On the other hand, if the living entity fell from the spiritual world, doesn’t that contradict our understanding of the unspoiled nature of that reality?

 

Here’s another way to understand how any theory discussing the origin of the living entity in this world cannot be supported by reason. I argue as follows.

 

There are only two choices for the nature of reality: it is either eternally existing, or it came into being out of nothing. Can we possibly conceive of something that has been eternally existing? That would mean that no matter how far back we go, ad infinitum, that reality can go back further. But on the other hand, how are we to conceive of a reality manifesting from nothing? Something from nothing? How does that make sense?

 

As both alternatives are unreasonable, yet one must be true, we can conclude that the nature of reality, however it came into being, must be inconceivable, beyond reason.

 

As it is reasonable to posit that the nature of God and reality are inconceivable, it is also reasonable that in trying to resolve all quandaries concerning an ultimate origin, we are bound to reach a roadblock in trying to understand their nature by reason only.

 

Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura elucidates this same point about the limits of reason in trying to describe such matters:

 

“I have explained all this to you in words, but you can only understand their true meaning to the extent that you have realized and experienced the unalloyed spiritual realm. I have just given you a glimpse; you should try to realize the meaning of what I said through spiritual meditation (cit-samādhi). You will not be able to understand these topics through mundane logic or debate. The more you can free your faculty of experience from material bondage, the more you will be able to experience the spiritual domain.”[1]

 

And that is why ultimately spiritual traditions never waste too much time on these topics:

 

“What is the use of such discussions? So whether you were in the Brahma-sāyujya or with Kṛṣṇa in His līlā, at the moment you are in neither, so the best policy is to develop your Kṛṣṇa consciousness and go there [back to Godhead]—never mind what is your origin.” (An addendum that Śrīla Prabhupāda wrote to a letter he penned to his disciple Madhudviṣa Dāsa in June of 1972.)

 

So, let’s be honest about the origin of the living entity in this dark world. It is fruitless trying to fully grasp its beginning.

 

 


[1] Jaiva Dharma by Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, translation and commentary by Śrīla B.V. Nārāyaṇa Mahārāja. Chapter 2, p.30.

 

Monday Morning Greetings 2026 #18 – I Just Can’t Stand Him!

May 4th, 2026

I Just Can’t Stand Him![1]

 

Did a devotee ever get on your nerves? I can’t imagine how many people I rubbed the wrong way. Sure, some people are malicious, but conflict is just the way of the world even among the well-intentioned. So how to view genuine devotees who disturb us, even those who in the name of service have violated our rights and hurt us? Some insights:

 

The fault is not the whole person

 

Everyone has strengths and weaknesses. Unfortunately, if someone acts in a way that disturbs us, we tend to see only their faults. A Vaiṣṇava, however, never falls into the trap of seeing one’s fault as the whole person. More important is to appreciate the sincerity and service of those who have given their life to God.

 

Vaiavas are judged by their inspired side, not by their ordinary dealings

 

Vaiṣṇavas are born in different types of families and, in general, have varied natures. Vaiṣṇavas, however, are not solely their karmic nature. More importantly, they are conduits through which Krishna manifests in their words and actions. Despite their nature and dealings which may rub us the wrong way and may even force that person to act improperly, we judge them more by their devotion.

 

There are different types of Vaiavas

 

Different shapes of metal immersed in a fire become equally hot and effulgent but retain their unique shape at the same time. Similarly, devotees who attain perfection all become devotionally effulgent while still retaining their distinct nature. A Vaiava therefore appreciates all Vaiavas, not just those who are like-minded or part of the same clan.

 

A Vaiava does not judge one by the past, or even by the present, but by his future or potential

 

Śrī Krishna speaks about this in the ninth chapter of the Bhagavad-gītā where He teaches that if a devotee who is fixed in devotional service accidentally makes a horrible mistake, he should still be seen as saintly because he will soon become righteous. Therefore, having faith that the path of bhakti will quickly bear fruit, we should not overly harp on the mistakes of devotees, and certainly not their past.

 

I am past seventy-five now. I am feeling an increased urgency to deepen my Krishna consciousness. I realize that to chant the holy name purely, I need to transcend the petty dualities of favoritism and hate remaining in my heart, especially as it involves my perception of devotees.

 

“I just can’t stand him!” There is nothing, however, more harmful than the shadow of resentment for covering our souls from the rays of God’s love.

 

 


[1] This post is based on a previous post I made on July 12, 2021, https://wavesofdevotion.com/2021/07/12/the-four-ways-in-which-a-vaisnava-sees-those-whose-mistakes-disturb-them/. It is substantially edited.