“The Essence of the Gita” – Janmashtami Celebrations in London

London ( UK ): With a beautiful set of a young Krishna on a swing and an audience of about 280 people, Janmashtami was celebrated with great joy at Global Co-operation House in London.

BK Jaymini introduced this happy celebration of Sri Krishna’s birthday. She reminded everyone how 5,000 years later, this birth is still celebrated with a lot of splendour. We say the birthday of Krishna is a great day and he embodies the art of happiness and harmony.  BK Sudesh shared the significance of this, and why it is that ‘Every mother would like a child like him. Everyone would like a relationship with such a being’.

Vasantha performed a Bharatnatyam dance with great joy and intoxication with thoughts of Sri Krishna.

BK Jaymini introduced BK Sudesh as a senior teacher of the BKs who travels and serves tirelessly as a beautiful nightingale, always churning the spiritual knowledge and taking everyone into the experience of her sharings ….

 Below are some points shared by BK Sudesh Didi :

• Just as a seed is silent, it has potential. The seed can give rise to a huge tree that bears fruit. When there is difficulty we say it is the fruit of our actions but when there are elevated actions there is the feeling of success.
• It is remembered that the birth of Sri Krishna was in a jail …. but what was the power. The father was able to carry him out of the jail to safety.
• The impact of the soul on matter is an internal power that has an effect on matter.
• Light never fights with darkness. On the one hand there is the dark night, but then it is a matter of a second that the light comes on with a switch. So is my personal power switched on, or is the current not able to get through due to some leakage of waste or negative?
• Religions have become corrupt and the state of the soul has become degraded over time.
• God’s great versions come when there is extreme irreligiousness in the ancient land of Bharat, when religion has lost its power.
• The reality of the soul is living truth. There is fearlessness in living the truth and in this is bliss. This switches us from darkness to light.
• Krishna means … one who attracts the mind, and it was the light of attraction within him that is remembered. The beautiful and benevolent one. The One who attracts our heart through the Murli, the flute.
• One name he has is Shyamsundar, meaning the ugly and the beautiful one and this refers to him as coming into the cycle of day and night.
• The Gita is remembered as the wisdom given by God. Spirituality was imparted when the parents of Krishna were in the jail… the ancestor souls of the deities are remembered.
• The One who gives this knowledge is beyond the corporeal form. He is The Beautiful and Truthful one, The Benevolent one.
• The praise of Sri Krishna is sung with many names yet he is the same deity.
• Bharat is remembered as the land of abundance. From plentiful it became empty…. loveful and blissful to miserable. With righteousness again the power of truth is expressed.
• It was fear and attachment that put Krishna’s parents in jail. Attachment doesn’t allow us to move. In the name of love, attachment and control create problems.
• With the ability to realise the self we can learn about the cycle of time… Where have I come from and what is my purpose in life. To see the soul in the three aspects of time, to spin the cycle of self-realisation is a great power.
• In the Gita there are the armies of the Kauravs and Pandavs. The births of the kauravs were based on jealousy. There are many stories around this. Those who are attracted to wealth and possessions, position and power and don’t want God.
• This is how the story of the Mahabharat and the Gita begins. Duryodan came to Sri Krishna and Arjuna. Krishna asked Arjuna what is the reason for his visit but Duryodan wanted to speak first and asked for power and wealth. But Arjuna said he wanted God. Amongst the Kauravs and Pandavs there are the Aryans, the civilised. Arjuna didn’t want a battle.
• The Battle between the Kaurav’s and Pandavs is shown as a huge battle. It is the story of the battle on this field of action, on this planet….where both armies are present.
• The knowledge of the Gita is shared on the battlefield. All of us are on this field of battle. Those who simply wish to attain God belong to the Pandav Army. They are ones who take birth through spiritual understanding. There are the two aspects of the soul…the dark side and the light side. Knowledge is called light. Ignorance is called darkness.
• In order to destroy or end darkness God has to come to give us the light of knowledge. When there is this Mahabharat War happening all kinds of souls… There were only a handful of Pandavs.
• It is remembered that Sri Krishna ‘stole’ butter – what is this about assomeone so royal could steal? ..if we through introversion churn spiritual knowledge we experience ‘the essence’, the ‘butter’. God says that He shares the deep significance with those who listen and this happens in an incognito way…..’stealing’ is what is remembered by this…..taking the pure, gentle understanding and bringing pure qualities into life….
• It is the power of purity that attracts. The pure love and feeling and ability to ‘steal’ virtues….to do something quietly and without any show. Those who had power to imbibe virtues (the gopes and gopis), became his companions and played with him.
• As we realise we are the soul we can let go of the old clothes of the body and we become detached from the costume. The Supreme Soul is teaching us to let go of the consciousness of the body.
• God teaches us to focus our attention on light. The soul is light. There are many more stories of Sri Krishna celebrated in the form of rituals.
• We see him on the swing, sweet with all virtues and full with qualities.
• To transform and increase our qualities in life is an art. To become doubly non-violent is to become free from lust and anger and any violence whatsoever.
• Sri Krishna is praised as the doubly non-violent one.
• Vishnu is remembered as the dual form of Lakshmi and Narayan. Ones who change from ordinary woman and man.
• God comes in an ordinary old body, Brahma, to establish purity again in the world.
• He establishes the land of Truth. We need Him at this time, we need power in order to conquer Maya and learn how to spin the discus of self realisation.
• In order to destroy doubt and ego, Hanuman is remembered with the mace. One who imbibes spiritual qualities and has both authority and humility is like Hanuman. Self realisation is the power that destroys negativity.
• Through ones own powerful existence. When there is a sweet fragrance the bad odour is removed. The mace is a symbol of victory. We are the victorious souls who have come into the rosary of victory and are described as an army.

• To develop our lives spiritually we need first to live like a lotus, in this body conscious world, in the bog in which there are all the vices, the dirt of lust, greed, anger, ego, attachment….
• In every image of the deity they show the image of the lotus flower….the image of detachment. We are becoming conquerors of attachment and doubt also will subside. When there is faith in the intellect it is remembered there is victory.
• On the battlefield God Himself gives knowledge and at this time there is a need for knowledge. God Himself has to come to bring the day…..when human beings become full with vice the battle happens now. We are battling internally and others for property, authority and power…..Everyone is on some field of battle.
• The aim is to be victorious in the battle by staying in the original religion of the self by listening to His knowledge. Then we can stay in strength whilst coming into interaction with others. It is an internal war.
• When we praise One let us make that praise the decoration of our own lives and then we can swing in the swing of supersensuous joy, and experience ‘the butter’ of the virtues.
• We need knowledge to remove sorrow. One who listens to knowledge is Arjuna.
• The Supreme Father, the One who is beyond the physical form and is The Being of Light imparts the knowledge to him.
• Sri Krishna has love for the Shivaling…. He became Sri Krishna through his love of The Supreme Father.
• In the scriptures the spirituality was lost as ritual took over. So now God brings the spirituality behind the stories back. Shiva actually gives knowledge to human souls. We say ‘Manmanabhav’…. direct and connect your mind to God and imbibe divine sanskars. So the first knowledge of the Gita is that we are souls.
• When the soul is in the body it is a human being and when it is dead the body becomes a corpse. So various names are given to the chariot.

BK Jaymini thanked Sudesh Didi, as a mine of knowledge and then DADI JANKI graced the stage with her presence, to enjoy the ‘gopis’ dance beautifully performed by students of Raja Yoga, and to share her vibrations of peace with the gathering and give drishti ( divine vision ) to each one as they took toli (Holy sweet ) and blessings.