Belong (121 Reflections On Bhagvad-Gita)

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Chaitanya Charan is a monk and spiritual author. He has done his Electronics & Telecommunications Engineering from the Government College of Engineering, Pune. He secured 2350 out of 2400 in the GRE exam, bagging the top rank in Maharashtra.

He is a member of ISKCON's topmost intellectual body, the Shastric Advisory Council, and is the associate-editor of ISKCON's global magazine, Back to Godhead.

He travels all over the world giving talks on spirtual subjects.

He is the author of the world's only Gita-daily feature, wherein he writes daily a 300-word inspirational reflection on a verse from the Bhagavad-Gita. Till now he has written over 1200 Gita meditations that are posted on www. gitadaily.com and are read through daily feeds by thousands from all over the world.

His articles have been published in many national newspapers including Indian Express, Economic Times and Times of India in the Speaking Tree column. His writings in English have been translated into several foreign languages including German, Chinese and Romanian and several Indian languages including Kannada, Telgu, Bengali, Hindi and Marathi.

He is the author of eighteen books: ENERGY - Your Sutra for Positive Thinking; Science and Spirituality; The Spiritual Scientist series, volumes 1 and 2; Recession - Adversity or Opportunity?:Why do we need a temple?; Frequently Unanswered Questions; Idol Worship or Ideal Worship?: The Gita for Daily Enrichment; Oh My God! Re-answering the Questions; My Little Bhakti Companion: Timeless Insights on Today's Issues; 10 Leadership Sutras from Bhagavad-gita, GK for PKI. Prabhupada: The Moments that Made the Movement. The Eye to See the Belong and From Me to We: Reflections on Ramayana.

We all wish to belong to something special, something bigger than ourselves, something that makes us bigger than what we presently are When students get into IIT in India or into an Ivy League university in America, they sport T-shirts that proudly declare their belonging to that elite educational institute. Fans of a celebrity wear memorabilia that proclaims their belonging to that celebrity's fan club.

Our longing to belong also expresses itself indirectly in our longing for belongings. We frequently want more and more belongings not so much because they are functional necessities but because they are status symbols that will signal our belonging to an elite economic bracket. This theme is explored in a reflection in Belong entitled, "Our belonging is more important than our belongings."

Our belonging to special circles may boost our sense of self-worth, but we can't belong to any of them forever. Time will strip away everything, even our very body that is our basic belonging and is the basis of our belonging to various social, cultural or financial circles. Confronting this reality of total bereavement can trigger such profound existential agony that we prefer to live in denial.

Yet life thrusts upon us moments when we can no longer deny the insubstantiality of whatever we belong to. The Bhagavad-gita is spoken at such a moment of emotional and existential breakdown in Arjuna's life.

The Gita's fundamental teaching is that we are at our core indestructible spiritual beings-and that we belong eternally to the supreme and supremely lovable being, Krishna. The Gita (04.35) states that the knowledge acquired from spiritual seers enables us to see that all living beings are in Krishna and are Krishna's. In belonging to him, we realize our fullest potentials as pure spiritual beings endowed with gifts that come from him and take us to him in a circle of undying unfailing love. This theme of how belonging to Krishna elevates us is explored in the reflection, "Krishna is the master before whom we stand truly tall.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages