“O son of Kunti [Arjuna], I am the taste of water, the light of the sun and the moon, the syllable om in the Vedic mantras; I am the sound in ether and ability in man.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 7.8)

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रसो ऽहम् अप्सु कौन्तेय
प्रभास्मि शशि-सूर्ययोः
प्रणवः सर्व-वेदेषु
शब्दः खे पौरुषं नृषु

raso ‘ham apsu kaunteya
prabhāsmi śaśi-sūryayoḥ
praṇavaḥ sarva-vedeṣu
śabdaḥ khe pauruṣaṁ nṛṣu

They told you this was the better way. They rhetorically asked why you were content with throwing your money away each month, on that rent payment. Buy your own place, was the emphatic recommendation. You will feel much better, in the long run. In the worst case, you can always sell the house, usually turning a profit. What is there to lose? Well, on this particular day you finally had enough. If you could gather all of those informal advisers in a single room, you would be screaming at them, nonstop. At the same time, your frustration quietly takes you to a more peaceful place, wherein you gain further appreciation for not only the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but also His representative.

The weather is changing. Those large snowbanks are finally gone. They stood long enough, that’s for sure. What a winter! People often ask how you can survive the cold weather in your area. You try to explain that it is not necessarily the total snowfall each year that matters. It is the conditions immediately following the snowstorm that make an impact. These past few months were terrible, as the daily high temperatures remained below the freezing point right after a blizzard. This kept the snow in place. You could not walk outside around the neighborhood. You could barely find places to park when running errands. You slipped and fell on your driveway when trying to disperse melting salts.

All is good now, as the summer is approaching. On this particularly hot afternoon, you decide to turn on the air conditioning in the home. It is the first run of the season. After about an hour you notice that the upstairs is not cooling off. The fan is certainly running from the indoor system. There is a sound. You go to check outside. To your dismay, the central unit itself is not turned on. Something must be wrong. You call the repair place and they are kind enough to send someone out immediately.

The repair people arrive promptly and after a few minutes of checking, they deliver the bad news. The unit needs to be replaced. This is the one that cools the upstairs of the house. Since the downstairs unit is about as old, it should probably be replaced at the same time. Moreover, the heating system uses the furnaces that originally came with the home. The expert informs you that you were lucky thus far, in that the machines typically do not last that long. They go back into their truck, run some numbers, and return with an estimate.

At this point, what can you really do? The family will complain nonstop about the heat. They cannot go through the entire summer without air conditioning. They are not willing to make the sacrifice of sleeping downstairs for a night or two. You do what any self-respecting husband in that position would do: you reach for the checkbook. This is going to cost you. Isn’t owning a home great?

Now for the silver lining. This incident happens to remind you of something you once heard from His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. You see, the sun has been emitting heat and light since before anyone can remember. Since prior to the onset of recorded observation. Through books. Through words printed on leaves. Even through tradition passed down by word of mouth. The sun was there for it all. You could call it the great witness, but it did more than sit in the background fixed in a position of neutrality. The sun behaved just as it does now. The sun never changes, in fact.

Despite burning for so long, the sun does not look to be lacking energy. It is like the reserves never get depleted. But where do those reserves come from? Who is filling the tank, so to speak? Never mind, as we can consider God to be superior to the sun. He would have to be, in fact. If He is inferior to anyone, then He is not God. As Vedanta-sutra explains, everything has God as the source. The Sanskrit is janmady asya yatah.

“The words janmady asya [SB 1.1.1] suggest that the source of all production, maintenance or destruction is the same supreme conscious person. Even in our present experience we can know that nothing is generated from inert matter, but inert matter can be generated from the living entity.” (Shrila Prabhupada, Shrimad Bhagavatam, Introduction)

If the comparatively inferior sun never runs out of energy, it means that the superior source of the sun must also have the same property. Indeed, Bhagavad-gita confirms this truth, wherein Shri Krishna reveals that He is the light of the sun. The light is the energy of the sun. Krishna is that light. Krishna is the light of the entire universe, in fact. As Krishna is inexhaustible, avyayam, so the devotion practiced in His honor can continue without stopping. There may be a change of body, but the individual continues in their output like a light that never burns out. This is one way to understand the transcendental nature of bhakti-yoga.

महात्मानस् तु मां पार्थ
दैवीं प्रकृतिम् आश्रिताः
भजन्त्य् अनन्य-मनसो
ज्ञात्वा भूतादिम् अव्ययम्

mahātmānas tu māṁ pārtha
daivīṁ prakṛtim āśritāḥ
bhajanty ananya-manaso
jñātvā bhūtādim avyayam

“O son of Pritha, those who are not deluded, the great souls, are under the protection of the divine nature. They are fully engaged in devotional service because they know Me as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, original and inexhaustible.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 9.13)

In Closing:

When to devotion’s path turning,
Like a light forever burning.

Because property thus inherited,
From Krishna infinitely merited.

Of potency and glories too,
Light of amazing sun who.

Which until now providing heat and light,
At winter’s end most amazing sight.

Categories: stories

Tags: dailyprompt, hare krishna, poem, poems, poetry, stories