How can I celebrate my birthday spiritually?
Podcast
Transcript
This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Thank you. So, if it is my birthday, what is the better way for enjoying, apart from just taking food, which involves going to a party and spending money and spending time and going there, coming back.
See, our deepest need is love, care, appreciation. We all want to love and be loved. Now, often when we use the word love in today’s culture, people think of love only in terms of romantic or sexual love.
But that is not usual, that is not the only form of love. Our longing for romantic love stems from our innermost need for relationships. So, yes, there can be many different relationships in life.
And when our relationships are based on a worldview of materialism, then people value us not for who we are, but for what we have. If I am wealthy, I have many friends. If I become poor, all my friends go.
So, on the other hand, if we are among spiritualists who have a spiritual worldview, then they appreciate us for who we essentially are. We are souls, spiritual beings. And they appreciate us for our essence, not for our possessions.
If the possessions are there, we can use them. But when we understand that there is someone who loves me for who I am, then that gives us the greatest satisfaction. So, anything that helps us to gain a greater sense of spiritual connectedness, to gain a greater realization of love at the spiritual level, that is the most auspicious.
So, among devotees, we celebrate birthdays by appreciating each other, not just by giving cards or not just by going to parties. Devotees may also come and have some feast or some prasad, but essentially devotees appreciate each other. And that appreciation is not just flattery.
It is from the heart we appreciate what this person means, what this person has done for me, how this person has changed my life. And when we start seeing that, you know, we do count in some small way, but we are valued, we are cared for, that is a source of great conviction for us. And ultimately, the Bhagavad Gita tells us that God’s love for us is supremely unconditional.
No matter what happens, no matter what we do, right or wrong, God is always there in our heart. Krishna says in 15.15, the Bhagavad Gita, that I am there in the hearts of all living beings. So, as our greatest benefactor, Krishna is always there in our heart and is always eager for us to turn towards Him, to connect with Him.
And when we practice meditation, practice devotion, we realize His love more and more. And that gives us the greatest reassurance, greatest security, greatest strength to march onwards confidently in our life. The best way to celebrate whatever you want to celebrate, whether it is birthdays or whether it is some other occasion, we have done well in our exams, we have got a new house, whatever we have done in our life, if we center it on God and connect with God, then that joy doesn’t stay limited to only that particular occasion.
Rather, the joy of that occasion becomes connected with the supreme eternal joy of devotion. So, various activities that we do in our life, celebratory activities, we can continue them, but we can spiritualize them by bringing God in the center. Does this answer your question? Thank you.