New Book Helps ISKCON Devotees Grow Through Compassion
Revealing the Heart: The Practice of Compassion
A new book out this month promises to help readers deepen their spirituality and their relationships by being compassionate to both themselves and others. In Revealing The Heart: The Practice of Compassion, author Sukhavaha Dasi shares the story of her own personal struggles and transformation.
She explains how to progress in spiritual life and gain a deeper understanding of life in general by being deeply honest and carefully choosing words that are self-respecting and respectful of others.
Revealing the Heart uses language that makes sense to members of all faiths. “It’s about being a soul having the human experience, so it’s relevant whatever tradition we’re in,” Sukhavaha says.
But, she adds, “It does have a specific flavor for devotees, which makes it more potent and relevant for them.”
Indeed, Revealing the Heart could hold the key to making ISKCON a society that values people over projects. Specifically, it could help members to become more introspective, doing deep “self-work” that brings them to a more mature state in their spirituality and improves and heals their relationships.
The idea for the book came to Sukhavaha after she did exactly that for herself.
“After practicing Krishna consciousness for twenty-seven years—giving up everything, living in the temple, following the four regulative principles, and chanting my rounds—when I hit menopause, everything fell apart,” she says. “I thought, ‘How could this happen? I should be a pure devotee by now, not an angry, frustrated old lady. What happened here?’”
Sukhavaha began to work on herself, practicing introspection and taking seminars on various aspects of personal development. She integrated her new discoveries in compassionate communication with her Krishna conscious understanding. …
