The Vedic View thru the eyes of Arci Edwards
Going Green on the Vedic Path
Two of the teachings I received from my teacher which shape my understanding of "Going Green" is "Simple Living and High Thinking", and "To live in the lap of nature and depend on Krishna (God)"
Simple living - let us meditate on that concept for a moment. Unencumbered, direct, uncomplicated, free-flowing, honest, modest, unproblematic, free from ostentatious displays. Here are a few antonyms of "simple" - knotty, tangled, torturous, complicated, mazy, thickening, multiplex, convoluted, difficult, hard. Is it any wonder that the greatest teachers throughout history have taught and exemplified simple living and high thinking.Click for more....
Simple living - let us meditate on that concept for a moment. Unencumbered, direct, uncomplicated, free-flowing, honest, modest, unproblematic, free from ostentatious displays. Here are a few antonyms of "simple" - knotty, tangled, torturous, complicated, mazy, thickening, multiplex, convoluted, difficult, hard. Is it any wonder that the greatest teachers throughout history have taught and exemplified simple living and high thinking.Click for more....
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Living in Peace on the Vedic Path
We are all anxious to attain peace in the material world. We have committees and coalitions, treaties and embargoes, peacekeeping missions outfitted with the best military gear, barbed-wire fences and high cement walls - and still, since the beginning of man, was there ever a time when there was peace on earth? History has proven that there is no material arrangement that can bring about lasting peace. It cannot - for the source of our disharmony exists on the spiritual plane and that is where we must look for a solution to restore balance individually and collectively.
It is explained in the Bhagavad-gita, 5.29:
bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ
sarva-loka-maheśvaram
suhṛdaṁ sarva-bhūtānāṁ
jñātvā māṁ śāntim ṛcchati
If we want shanti, peace, then we must know three things - God is the proprietor, God is the enjoyer, and He is the real friend.
Click for more....
It is explained in the Bhagavad-gita, 5.29:
bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ
sarva-loka-maheśvaram
suhṛdaṁ sarva-bhūtānāṁ
jñātvā māṁ śāntim ṛcchati
If we want shanti, peace, then we must know three things - God is the proprietor, God is the enjoyer, and He is the real friend.
Click for more....
Why "bad" things happen from the Vedic Path
I think it is rather safe to say that everyone, at least in our culture, has, at some time or another, either said or heard said "Why me? Why is this happening to me? I am a good person. I don't deserve this". My most memorable experience was 20 years ago when my mother was in the hospital awaiting surgery after a massive heart attack. My sisters and father were beside themselves with fear, anxiety and blame. They would lament, "Why is this happening to her. She never hurt a fly." That one statement revealed to me a plethora of illusion which I saw as the source of their despair. Over the next 7 months, as my mother dwindled in the hospital to her death due to surgical error, I witnessed first hand what happens to people when they can not answer the question: Why do bad things happen to good people? Their lives became pools of toxic waste - my one sister divorced her husband, my two other sisters estranged themselves from each other, and my father drank himself to death within two years. Although still a novice, by that time, I had been studying Vedic philosophy full time for about 4 years. The knowledge I had gained from those studies allowed me to see "bad" things from a different perspective, from a point of calm trust interlaced with peak moments of celebration - those same moments which my family experienced as the greatest suffering. It was the sword of knowledge - knowledge of the soul, of karma, of the Supreme Creator, Maintainer and Annihilator, the Supreme Personality of Godhead - which cut my illusions and released me from material suffering.Click for more....
Generosity on the Vedic Path
This month's Vedic view is offered thru the eyes of Arci Edwards.
Although the discussion on the round table is of generosity, I have come to see generosity as being intertwined in its existence with charity - generosity being the heart-space from which we give in charity, uninhibited by and unshackled from the fear of lack. It is not something that can be imitated, but rather comes naturally as a flower of realization and spiritual advancement. The more I have realized that everything belongs to God and is to be used in His service, and nothing, including my body, is owned by me, but rather that I am, at every moment, the recipient of charity, and someone somewhere has sacrificed something for me to exist at this moment as I am - the more fully generous I can be. A realized person will only take what is needed and share the rest with others, seeing all living entities as "brother" and "sister", all plants, animals, stones and people as divine sparks from the Divine Father. They will think, "I am simply the caretaker of this body and of those who share my world." I pray to realize this knowledge so I will be able to use the gifts bestowed upon me - knowledge, wealth, belongings, shelter, food, unconditional love - to uplift others, to have them leave richer than when they came - fuller, centered, satisfied, nourished - thereby making worthy the sacrifice of my benefactors.
Click for more....
Although the discussion on the round table is of generosity, I have come to see generosity as being intertwined in its existence with charity - generosity being the heart-space from which we give in charity, uninhibited by and unshackled from the fear of lack. It is not something that can be imitated, but rather comes naturally as a flower of realization and spiritual advancement. The more I have realized that everything belongs to God and is to be used in His service, and nothing, including my body, is owned by me, but rather that I am, at every moment, the recipient of charity, and someone somewhere has sacrificed something for me to exist at this moment as I am - the more fully generous I can be. A realized person will only take what is needed and share the rest with others, seeing all living entities as "brother" and "sister", all plants, animals, stones and people as divine sparks from the Divine Father. They will think, "I am simply the caretaker of this body and of those who share my world." I pray to realize this knowledge so I will be able to use the gifts bestowed upon me - knowledge, wealth, belongings, shelter, food, unconditional love - to uplift others, to have them leave richer than when they came - fuller, centered, satisfied, nourished - thereby making worthy the sacrifice of my benefactors.
Click for more....