Ending Well

It always arrives. We plan for the day, for the event, for the celebration - and then it’s over. And so too for 2022. We think, how did that happen? Where did the time go? Yet here we are, moved along by invisible time.

We often don’t like to think of endings, but we should always plan to end well. Whether it’s a book or play, a conversation or a letter, a life or a love, finish it on a good note. While it is the ending of one thing, it is simply the start of another. By ending well it sets us up for a good beginning.

One of the practices of a Krishna devotee is ‘to leave the place cleaner than we find it’. Talk about an ending! Imagine if we all did that - we were so conscious that our presence somewhere left that place better. Imagine if that is how we treated the earth planet, our home? Imagine if that is how we were to leave anywhere and everywhere?

And I’ll end this blog with the closing verses of three of the most important books in our Bhakti tradition. Sweet, deep, and powerful - take them with you as we end 2022 and look forward to a wonderful 2023:

Wherever there is Kṛṣṇa, the master of all mystics, and wherever there is Arjuna, the supreme archer, there will also certainly be opulence, victory, extraordinary power, and morality. That is my opinion. Bhagavad-gita 18.78

I offer my respectful obeisances unto the Supreme Lord, Hari, the congregational chanting of whose holy names destroys all sinful reactions, and the offering of obeisances unto whom relieves all material suffering. Srimad Bhagavatam 12.13.23

Realized devotees are like bumblebees maddened by their own mellows at Kṛṣṇa’s lotus feet. The scent of those lotus feet perfumes the entire world. Who is the realized soul that could give them up? Caitanya-caritamrita Antya 20.158