Karnamrita das:
\nEvery step a prayer
\ngiving thanks I still walk,
\nevery breathe a question
\nwhen my love will awaken?<\/p>\n
At every moment life and
\ndeath are precariously balanced–
\nwe struggle to survive another
\nday before our body\u2019s demise.<\/p>\n
Sitting in the waiting room
\nan outpatient clinic
\namidst deteriorating aged bodies
\nduring my wife’s colonoscopy.<\/p>\n
A common procedure, certainly
\nyet it gives us pause
\nabout how temporary life is–
\nthat it can end unexpectedly.<\/p>\n
Especially as we age
\nour friends begin to die,
\nmany suddenly, with no warning
\nothers slowly by disease.<\/p>\n
My parents in-law
\nhave it much worse
\nretirement community living
\nseeing close friends die, frequent funerals.<\/p>\n
Facing death helps us live more fully–
\nnot a morbid preoccupation,
\nbut negative impetus for engaging
\nin Bhakti, a real solution for death.<\/p>\n
Birth, disease, old age, & death
\nfor the eternal soul unnatural
\nkept alive by our karma
\nby thinking we are the Enjoyer.<\/p>\n
After traversing the Universe
\nthrough all species going up,
\ndown, around all planets, dimensions
\nsince time immemorial–too long!<\/p>\n
The fortunate souls receive
\nwell-wishing from a saint
\nwhose blessings impart the Divine
\nseed of Bhakti, beginning the awakening.<\/p>\n
As we take a step toward Krishna
\nhe takes a thousand toward us
\nso great his love, that once embarking
\non bhakti, he never lets us go.<\/p>\n
Having begun our return to
\nthe Lord and love of our heart
\nhe carries what we lack
\npreserving what we have.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Karnamrita das: Every step a prayer giving thanks I still walk, every breathe a question when my love will awaken? At every moment life and death are precariously balanced– we struggle to survive another day before our body\u2019s demise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[92,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-karnamrita-dasa","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6895","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6895\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}