I am endeavoring to write more often, in fewer words. Although, I admit that is a challenge, a number of devotees have told me that they find my blogs too long, and they have to read them in a few sittings. My wife also reminds me that I should write blogs no more than 500 words. There is so much content on the Internet, and people are so busy, and sometimes impatient due to the speed of today’s culture, that less is more. It is said in the Chaitanya Charitamrita, Adi-lila 1.106: “Essential truth spoken concisely is true eloquence.” Although I can’t say I am speaking “essential truth” in the highest sense, it is my humble attempt to speak what I consider important for those new to Krishna consciousness, as well as long standing devotees.
I am endeavoring to write more often, in fewer words. Although, I admit that is a challenge, a number of devotees have told me that they find my blogs too long, and they have to read them in a few sittings. My wife also reminds me that I should write blogs no more than 500 words. There is so much content on the Internet, and people are so busy, and sometimes impatient due to the speed of today’s culture, that less is more. It is said in the Chaitanya Charitamrita, Adi-lila 1.106: “Essential truth spoken concisely is true eloquence.” Although I can’t say I am speaking “essential truth” in the highest sense, it is my humble attempt to speak what I consider important for those new to Krishna consciousness, as well as long standing devotees.
My last blog, “On Being a Man”, was 1100 words, and I knew I should have broken it into two installments, but that was very difficult, even painful for me. In spite of this dilemma, I will do my best to give you shorter bite-sized blogs, and if they are too long—which for me, I think is often inevitable, I will put them into two parts. In the past I also put lots of pictures to break up my blogs, yet that ploy didn’t seem to accomplish my intention of making my longer blogs easier to digest. I was not able to hold your interest—alas!
Additionally, the readership of our Krishna.com blogs seems to have gone down since we moved to the updated site, which makes it harder for me to gauge my audience. Even though I consider myself a mediocre devotee (which I find greatly lamentable), never the less, I have a lot to say about many subject matters, from the perspective of an aspiring devotee of Krishna. As Prabhupada taught us, “A blind uncle, is better than no uncle”, or “Where there is no tree, a Castor seed tree is very big tree.” So I see myself like a Castor seed tree, though I have still have the audacity to share my spiritual life with you.
However, Prabhupada, in a discussion where he gave the castor seed tree analogy also said, “Why one should stress to become big tree? Here it is clearly said even if you are small tree, you can get perfection… And if he performs his duty nicely, then he also becomes perfect. So why artificially should he be called a brahmana? Let them do, according to shastra, the work of shudra, or vaishya. He’ll get the perfection. Perfection is not checked. But why artificially he should be made a brahmana or he should be made a sannyasi and fall down and become a ludicrous? That is the point. Better let him live in his position and become perfect. That’s good. That looks very nice. That is possible.”
Prabhupada also wanted his disciples to write, and I practically see the benefit of that. On the one hand my blogging is to fulfill his instruction to me to write, and on the other, I see it as my sacred duty to you—whoever you may be. Imperfect, I am, yet I see my qualification to be putting these words in front of you, is that to the best of my ability I am as real as possible, and share honest struggles and victories in relationship to bhakti or Krishna consciousness. I write in the mood of service to the devotees. If I can please the devotees, and lend a helping hand to those on, or coming to, the bhakti path, then I consider my service to my gurus will be accepted. Thank you for the opportunity. __/\__’O__