I am Chaitanya Charan, a spiritual author and a lover of words. I have loved words for as long as I remember. One of my favorite childhood hobbies was picking up a dictionary and memorizing words.
During my youth, I discovered another defining dimension of my life: the spiritual side. While I was pursuing an engineering degree in electronics and telecommunication, I stumbled across the Bhagavad-gita and thereafter other spiritual classics of the Indian dharmic traditions. So inspired was I by the wisdom therein that after completing my degree and working briefly as a software engineer in a multinational company, I decided to dedicate my life to studying and sharing their wisdom. For over two decades now, I have been contributing as a traveling monk, speaking all over the world on spiritual topics. For nearly a decade, I have also been authoring the world’s only daily blog on the Bhagavad-gita (gitadaily.com).
Over the years, I have tried various ways to integrate my spiritual and verbal inspirations. This blog is my latest attempt. Herein, I hope to present one contemporary word daily, illustrated in a spiritual context. In attempting this integration, I am inspired by a quote from my foremost spiritual teacher, Srila Prabhupada: “Words are the best way to save us from forgetting Krishna. Always think of the right words to use for serving Krishna.”
Each word that I use may have many different meanings. I will focus on one meaning and illustrate it with three example sentences: one based on Ramayana, one on Mahabharata and one on Bhagavad-gita.
A core spiritual principle, especially in the tradition of bhakti-yoga that I follow, is to always remember the Lord. One time-honored way to remember the Divine is by remembering his pastimes and his message. The sentences based on the epics can help us in remembering his pastimes and the sentence based on the Gita can help in remembering his message.
I hope reading these words and their usages helps you in integrating your spiritual and linguistic growth — just as it has helped me in mine.
