anxiety

Everyone has a blazing fire within his heart-a blazing fire of anxiety. That is the nature of material existence. Always, everyone has anxiety; no one is free from it. Even a small bird has anxiety. If you give the small bird some grains to eat, he'll eat them, but he won't eat very peacefully. He'll look this way and that way-"Is somebody coming to kill me?" This is material existence. Everyone, even a president like Mr. Nixon, is full of anxieties. What to speak of others. Even Gandhi, in our country-he was full of anxiety. All politicians are full of anxiety. They may hold a very exalted post, but still the material disease-anxiety-is there. So if you want to be anxiety-less, then you must take shelter of the guru, the spiritual master. And the test of the guru is that by following his instructions you'll be free from anxiety. This is the test. Don't try to find a cheap guru or a fashionable guru. Just as you sometimes keep a dog as a fashion, if you want to keep a guru as a fashion-"I have a guru"-that will not help. You must accept a guru who can extinguish the blazing fire of anxiety within your heart. That is the first test of the guru. (More...)

So anyway, cintam aparimeyam ca, that should be transferred to krsna-cinta. Satatam kirtayanto mam yatantas ca drdha-vratah [Bg 9.14]. If you always be busy in glorifying or chanting the holy name of the Lord, then your cinta, anxiety, is transferred. By same cinta... Cinta will go on; you cannot stop it. Mind you cannot stop thinking even for a moment, either you shall think of this material life or you shall think of Krsna. So the Krsna consciousness means instead of thinking of this material life, you think of Krsna. Thinking is not to be stopped. That is not possible. You cannot stop thinking even for a moment. Simply you have to practice. Instead of thinking these material things, you think of Krsna. That is wanted. (More...)

So, this word hrt-tapa upasamani... Hrt means heart, and tapa means miseries or burning, heat. Tapa means burning heat. If there is fire and there is heat, sometimes it is intolerable. So hrt-tapa means the burning fire blazing within the heart. So that is always. Anyone who is in this material world, he has got this disease, burning fire within the heart, anyone. That means severe anxiety, everyone. Even a small bird, he is also full of anxiety. You give him some grains, it will come, it will eat; at the same time, it will look this way, that way, this way, full of anxiety. Although there is food, he is eating, still, there is anxiety, "Somebody may come, kill me." So everyone is full of anxiety. That is the material nature. Nobody can say, "I have no anxiety." That is not possible. If he says like that, he is a liar. That is not possible. Is anyone here who can say that he or she has no anxiety? (More...)

So you cannot become free from anxiety by taking shelter of anything material. That is not possible. Sada samudvigna-dhiyam asad-grahat [SB 7.5.5]. Asat and sat. Sat means eternal, and asat means temporary. So we are eternal. Na hanyate hanyamane sarire [Bg 2.20]. We are not annihilated after the annihilation or destruction of this body. Therefore we have to take shelter of the eternal. Then we'll be happy. And so long we shall take shelter of the temporary thing, asat, this material world, material society, friendship, love, state, community, nation-anything you take, they are not permanent-so you cannot be happy. But if you take shelter for security at the lotus feet of the Supreme, then you are actually secure. (More...)