BG 9-30

 A

Bhagavad-Gita 9.30

api cet su-durācāro

bhajate mām ananya-bhāk

sādhur eva sa mantavyaḥ

samyag vyavasito hi saḥ

"Even one who sins but turns to me,

Is saintly, for his heart is free.

Steadfast in devotion, all faults, he will transcend,

And relish fully the love that knows no end."

You look beyond my actions, which are often driven by conditionings that I find difficult to combat and conquer. You see beyond such conditioned actions to my intentions, which I strive to keep pure, humble, and service-oriented.

Even when my conditionings impel me toward non-devotional or even anti-devotional emotions or actions, your love remains steadfast. O Lord, please let your proclamation of unflinching love never become a justification or rationalization for continuing in my weaknesses and wrongdoings. Instead, let it serve as an inspiration and motivation for me to rectify my wrongdoings and fortify myself to rise beyond my weaknesses.

Through your proclamation, you have shown your unwavering commitment to love me always. Let me, through my purification, demonstrate my commitment to reciprocate that love.

Help me to direct my love toward you—not just with intentions that I hold sacred in my heart, but also with emotions that become steady in my mind, and actions that become consistent in my life. Let all these be centered on you, directed toward you, and devoted to you in every way.

a

B COX

The constancy of the speed of light requires that we give up the age-old notion that simultaneity is a universal concept that everyone, regardless of their state of motion, agrees upon. The universal clock previously envisioned to dispassionately tick off identical seconds here on earth and on Mars and on Jupiter and in the Andromeda galaxy and in each and every nook and cranny of the cosmos does not exist. On the contrary, observers in relative motion will not agree on which events occur at the same time. Once again, the reason that this conclusion—a bona fide characteristic of the world we inhabit—is so unfamiliar is that the effects are extremely small when the speeds involved are those commonly encountered in everyday experience.

A