Krishna Das – Ep.51 – Fate and Consciousness
On this episode of Pilgrim Heart, Krishna Das speaks on the nature of fate and consciousness.
Show Notes
Time, Nature and Fate (Opening) – Krishna Das reflects on a poem from the great poet and saint Tulsidas about free-will.
“We think we have free-will and so we act that way. Free-will means being able to make choices that are not conditioned by a previous situation. Free-will means being able to flow in any direction you want, not just the channels that we flow in habitually. It looks like free-will to us, but a lot of things look like a lot of things to us.”
Never Enough (8:35) – The Buddha taught that the nature of existence is pervasive satisfactoriness, which he called Dukkha. Nothing that we can do will ever be enough to change this. Krishna Das talks about the journey of accepting and moving beyond Dukkha.
Looking Back (19:25) – Krishna Das is asked about looking back at our lives in reflection. He talks about making space to clear our minds of the past and live in the moment.
“We think a lot, you know? We wake up in the morning and all day long we tell ourselves stories about everything that has happened. There is very little awareness there, but once you start making some space in that endless flow of thought you really start to crave that.”
In the Presence (35:10) – What is it like being in the presence of a being whose body is no longer there? Krishna Das shares what is like to have a connection to a great being, like Maharaj-Ji, even when the physical form has long passed.
“We are not the body, it’s a consciousness that is living temporarily in this broken down old car. The more you know that about yourself, the more that you can recognize that a great being is much more conscious than that. But we are so identified with our bodies that it is difficult to imagine what it would be if we weren’t.”
Jaya Hanuman (58:00) – Krishna Das closes with the Sundara Chalisa.
