“Engage your mind always in thinking of Me, offer obeisances and worship Me. Being completely absorbed in Me, surely you will come to Me.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 9.34)

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मन्-मना भव मद्-भक्तो
मद्-याजी मां नमस्कुरु
माम् एवैष्यसि युक्त्वैवम्
आत्मानं मत्-परायणः

man-manā bhava mad-bhakto
mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru
mām evaiṣyasi yuktvaivam
ātmānaṁ mat-parāyaṇaḥ

1. The elliptical squeaking

“Because of the situation of the world, and the madness the people have wholeheartedly accepted from liars and cheaters in high offices, working out at a gym is not really an option. We have one nearby. I have access to it. But the rules are that you must wear a face-covering the entire time. In other words, these so-called health experts are trying to kill people.

“I bought one of the exercise machines for myself and placed it in the basement in the home. A big investment, but what other option do I have? I hate maintaining things. I know the typical life cycle for these purchases. You have the excitement and anticipation in the beginning. You make all of these plans to use it. You can’t wait.

“Then, as time goes by the use becomes more infrequent. Pretty soon, it is simply another piece of furniture, sitting in the room and collecting dust. I am intent to not let that happen, so I have been exercising on it frequently.

“Well, recently the machine started squeaking. Nothing too loud, but it is still annoying. Someone came over to take a look. They actually took the entire machine apart. They went through so many tests, but no luck. The machine still squeaks.

“I was ready to toss the thing. I was making plans on a replacement. Purchase a better machine and have someone else buy this one. As a last resort, I called another repair specialist. They looked at the machine and immediately made a recommendation. They asked that I wipe down the two bars on the bottom. The connected pedals glide on its surface during use, back and forth.

“This seemed too simple a solution. I tried it, and of course it worked. No more squeaking. Who would have thought? I was ready to sell the thing and buy a new one. Goes to show you that sometimes the simplest option is the correct one.”

2. The program not installing

“I do not like rebooting my computer at home. I know people recommend staying up to date, to install patches for the operating system and the like, but from my experience these updates have not helped me much. I realize that in corporate environments there is no choice; you have to stay up to date in order to meet compliance regulations. You won’t get certified without this. Of course, voting machines seem to be the exception. You can have everything wrong with them, but local governments still use them (probably to cheat).

“Well, my home computer accidentally rebooted the other day. The battery inadvertently came out, which meant that I had to start up from the ‘off’ position the next time I used it. My fears were warranted. Suddenly, every program was taking forever to open. It didn’t matter which one. It was like something was blocking the execution.

“I tried every possible solution. Nothing was working. I even disabled so many services that automatically run. Finally, I rebooted the computer. Well, the slowness stopped. I could open every program again without issue. But suddenly, one of the main programs wasn’t working. I tried uninstalling, but then the subsequent install failed. The associated error message was not helpful.

“At a loss, I was prepared to buy a new computer. This one has been used for almost a decade. Think about that. Who says that you have to keep upgrading technology in order to keep up? I was distraught that I had to finally part with my favorite device. Moving everything over to a new machine is a painstaking task, as well.

“As a last resort, I decided to re-enable the services I had previously disabled. I then rebooted the machine. Voila! The problem application was now working. Everything was up and running. No issues. A crisis averted, and through a simple solution.”

…

The experience from these two encounters can correlate to the life experience itself, in the desperate search for lasting happiness. A new home won’t do it. Finding a life partner will only bring more responsibilities and difficulties. Moving to a new location brings a temporary halt to the sadness and despair.

Yet it is in the nature of the material world to find misery. It is a temporary place, after all. Though it remains manifest for billions of years, our stay in each instance of life, known as a birth, is small by comparison.

Bhagavad-gita provides the answer. It is a simple solution. Think of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Shri Krishna. Offer obeisances to Him and worship Him. This can be either informal or formal. Doing both is even more helpful, as the establishment of the temple provides valuable assistance and inspiration in terms of association with like-minded individuals.

The key is the mind, which is the conduit to consciousness. With the proper consciousness I can live happily at any place and at any time. The liberation which I assumed is only reserved for the afterlife can be mine today, right now. If I simply renounce bad association and chant the holy names, the words of Bhagavad-gita will ring true: Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.

In Closing:

Ready that computer to toss,
Tried everything now at a loss.

After rebooting suddenly slow,
That program never on to go.

But luckily solution came through,
A simple way now back to new.

Same with life for lasting meaning to come,
Just think of Krishna and devotee become.

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