{"id":63439,"date":"2018-06-18T08:54:45","date_gmt":"2018-06-18T06:54:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dandavats.tumblr.com\/post\/175001851686"},"modified":"2018-06-18T08:54:45","modified_gmt":"2018-06-18T06:54:45","slug":"everything-countsvaisesika-dasa-my-father-used-to-take-my","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=63439","title":{"rendered":"Everything Counts\nVaisesika Dasa: My father used to take my…"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Everything Counts
\nVaisesika Dasa: My father used to take my brother and me for regular backpacking excursions into the mountains of California, Wyoming, and Canada. To help us keep our backpacks as light as possible, my father would tell us as we packed: \u201cWatch out for the ounces and the pounds will watch out for themselves.\u201d
\nHis philosophy worked well.
\nBy carefully considering the relative importance and physical weight of each item before putting it into my backpack \u2013 no matter how insignificant the difference seemed at the time \u2013 the end result was that I brought just what I needed and appreciated the lightness of my backpack while hiking.
\nSince those days in the mountains, I\u2019ve found my father\u2019s backpacking advice to be equally applicable to the practice of bhakti yoga. That is, my decisions about apparently small matters and my attention to detail (or lack of it) bring larger-than-expected results over time in devotional service.
\nIn the Gita, Lord Krishna says:
\n\u201cGradually, step by step, one should become situated in trance by means of intelligence sustained by full conviction, and thus the mind should be fixed on the Self alone and should think of nothing else.\u201d (Bhagavad-gita 6.25)
\nKrishna\u2019s use of the words, \u201cgradually\u201d and \u201cstep by step\u201d mean that one\u2019s progress in bhakti comes in a series of small victories in controlling one\u2019s mind and senses.
\nOne has to win the seemingly insignificant battles that are right in front of one\u2019s nose. Each one counts.
\nAnd as the progressive bhakti yogi continues her winning ways, she is quietly, yet steadily promoted to the status of a truly advanced soul.
\nOm Tat Sat<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Everything Counts
\nVaisesika Dasa: My father used to take my brother and me for regular backpacking excursions into the mountains of California, Wyoming, and Canada. To help us keep our backpacks as light as possible, my father would tell us as we packed: “Watch out for the ounces and the pounds will watch out for themselves.”
\nHis philosophy worked well.
\nBy carefully considering the relative importance and physical weight of each item before putting it into my backpack – no matter how insignificant the difference seemed at the time – the end result was that I brought just what I needed and appreciated the lightness of my backpack while hiking.
\nSince those days in the mountains, I’ve found my father’s backpacking advice to be equally applicable to the practice of bhakti yoga. That is, my decisions about apparently small matters and my attention to detail (or lack of it) bring larger-than-expected results over time in devotional service.
\nIn the Gita, Lord Krishna says:
\n“Gradually, step by step, one should become situated in trance by means of intelligence sustained by full conviction, and thus the mind should be fixed on the Self alone and should think of nothing else.” (Bhagavad-gita 6.25)
\nKrishna’s use of the words, “gradually” and “step by step” mean that one’s progress in bhakti comes in a series of small victories in controlling one’s mind and senses.
\nOne has to win the seemingly insignificant battles that are right in front of one’s nose. Each one counts.
\nAnd as the progressive bhakti yogi continues her winning ways, she is quietly, yet steadily promoted to the status of a truly advanced soul.
\nOm Tat Sat<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10650,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[118],"tags":[152],"class_list":["post-63439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-recent-media","tag-nectar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10650"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=63439"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63439\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63440,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63439\/revisions\/63440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=63439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=63439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=63439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}