Sunday, July 24th, 2016

Sunday, July 24^th, 2016

Des Moines, Iowa

Conversation in Flight

I sat next to Mike on the plane back to the States and we got to talking.  He works with the mining industry.  We spoke about that and I could see that now, at 55, he’s feeling good about his years of work with his company, his being a loyal husband and father, and that it’s something worth reflecting on.  He seemed content about life’s pursuits.

What about his spiritual side?  He asked me about my Krishna consciousness and my vocation as a monk. Admittedly, it’s a different approach to life from his, and I suppose you could say I spoke with a similar kind of pride about my years in the monastic order, as he expressed with a wholesome pride about his career.

“Have you ever wondered,” I asked him, “where all this leads to, all this living, all this working hard, and for what?  Do we live just to survive?”

I wasn’t sure if he had some belief in God, a higher power or what?  He did say that he’s spent hours of conversation with his wife on the topic of destiny, or the aspect of wonderment over the aim and puzzle of existence itself.

He was curious about my belief and so I began speaking about our sacred text, the “Bhagavad-gita,” the “Song of the Divine,” and how Lord Krishna spoke to His warrior friend, Arjuna, about picking up his low spirit and remaining firm to the sense of duty on two levels—to the body, and secondly to the self (the soul).

To Mike I explained about these two obligations and that the balance is highly important in our life as a Krishna devotee.

May the Source be with you!

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