Gita 05.24 Meditation is the way to the inner world – cherish the inner world to relish meditation

Urges that promise pleasure and stay onwards in our journey to Krishna. Thank you.

In this verse in the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna is talking about making inner happiness as our life's foremost goal. The person who takes inner happiness is one who relaxes and rejoices within. The word aaraam in Hindi means relaxation, aaraam karo.

In Sanskrit the word aaraam antaraaraamas. Raama means to one who gives happiness, who is a reservoir of happiness. So, antaraaraamas means one whose happiness comes from within, one who gets happiness within.

So, actually both words are similar, but there is a difference in the degree. Aaraam is considered a higher level of happiness, positive enjoyment. And one whose light is within.

Now what does this mean? Actually, the light of a person's life refers to what is most lighted in the dreams and ambitions of a person. So, a mother may say to her child, you are the light of my life. That means that you are my future, you are my dream, you are my aspiration.

I want to see you grow, I want to see you become happy. So, businessmen who has worked very hard and built a business empire may say that this business is the light of my life. That means that is the part of the life which is illuminate the brightest and which is practically at the center of the heart of a person.

So, Krishna is telling over here, Anta Jyoti, that we should make our light in words. So, what is there in words? These words come in the fifth chapter, which is Karma Yoga, Karma Sanyasa Yoga specifically. Ropat will translate that as Karma Yoga, action of Krishna consciousness.

In this chapter, Krishna focuses on the Karma Yogi attaining impersonal liberation. But this principle applies for all paths. So, as devotees, when we are chanting the holy names, making our goal in words is very important.

As long as our goal remains outwards, chanting will seem a burden, a waste of time, something to just got over with. It won't be seen as the most important aspect of our life. So, certainly devotees don't just withdraw inside into the away from the world and into their hearts.

We also have external goals. We have external goals according to our material responsibilities and we also have external goals in our service to Krishna at a practical level. And these goals do deserve our time and attention.

But there needs to be also in our schedule some time for inner goals. And for that inner goal is actually the remembrance of Krishna. And for us to move in words, to seek happiness in words, the holy name is the most potent means.

Krishna is present in the heart and Krishna manifests to us through the sound of the holy name. And the sound of the holy name can take our consciousness in words. And by taking our consciousness in words, it enables us to move in words.

To connect with Krishna at a deeper, richer, sweeter level. So, when we are chanting and we find our mind being troubled, being distracted, feeling irritated by the amount of time that is going in chanting or by the fact that we are not able to concentrate and so we feel that maybe this chanting is just a waste of time. At such times, it is good to remember that chanting is the most important time that we are spending for our inner goal.

And inner goal is life's supreme goal. To go closer to Krishna by remembering him, develop love for him and then eventually return back to him. So, at the time of chanting, a little bit of philosophical contemplation about a temporary nature, temporal and transitory nature of material existence.

And similarly, the eternal and ecstatic nature of our relationship with Krishna, this philosophical contemplation, along with intellectual contemplation on the glory of the holy name as the means to redirect our consciousness in words, this can help us to focus on the chanting of the holy names determinately. And that way,.