Mail Archive

seven worlds

• Subject: seven worlds
• From: Vasudeva
• Date: Sat Jul 29 07:15:41 1995
• Message-Id: id631

X-Attachments:

>BUY MORE WAR BONDS.
>
>

Dear Vasudeva

Yes. We are certainly at war with maya! There is really no
alternative. We can fight maya or serve her...

Srimad Bhagavatam 1.2.28-29
Madhudvisa dasa July 28 1995

"In the revealed scriptures the ultimate object of Knowledge is Sri Krishna, the
Personality of
Godhead. The purpose of performing sacrifices is to please Him, yoga is for
realizing Him and
all fruitive  activities are ultimately rewarded by Him only. He is supreme
knowledge and all
severe austerities are performed to know Him. Religion, dharma, is rendered in
loving service
unto Him. He is the supreme goal of life."

Here we see all spiritual activities are meant for realizing Vasudeva, Krishna.
Krishna is the
Supreme Personality of Godhead, the name Krishna means the "all-attractive
person". So
Krishna is a person and we are also people but Krishna is the supreme person.
Krishna is nitya
and all of us are nityanam, it means there are many of us but there is only one
Krishna. The is
one Vedic verse: nitya nityanam cetanas cetananam, it means Krishna is the
singular person
who is supplying all necessities to all other persons. We are like Krishna in
quality but we are
very small and Krishna is very great. We are tiny and He is infinite. The analogy
of the ocean
and the drop of sea-water is given. If you analyze a drop of sea-water you can
determine the
proportion of salt and different chemicals in it and in this way you can come to
some conclusion
of the situation of the entire ocean because the drop of sea-water is a sample of
the ocean.
Similarly we are samples of Krishna, we are tiny infinitesimal particles of
Krishna. We are
individuals eternally and Krishna is also an individual eternally.

Krishna is eternal, He has no beginning or end, and we are also eternal, we have
no beginning
or end. We have accepted these material bodies and are identifying with these
material bodies
thinking, "I am an Australian man,  I am an American man, I am an English man."
But our
bodies are temporary things. The bodies are born at a certain point in time, the
bodies get old
and ultimately they will die. We are changing our body all the time, we start with
a childs body,
then we get a boys body, then we get a mans body, then an old mans body and then
we have to
leave this body. So the body is always changing, but the soul remains the same.
The soul is the
passenger in the machine of the body. Krishna describes this in the Bhagavad-gita.

dehino 'smin yatha dehe
kaumaram yauvanam jara
tatha dehantara-praptir
dhiras tatra na muhyati



"As the embodied soul continually passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to
old age, the
soul similarly passes into another body at death. The self-realized soul is not
bewildered by such
a change."

The idea is we are changing bodies all the time but the soul, the person, the
spirit is the same.
He does not change. Therefore the purpose of our life here is not to try and make
a comfortable
arrangement for things connected to the temporary body. If we analyze the body we
will find
many senses, and the different senses can be satisfied in different ways. Our eyes
always want
to see something very beautiful, the tongue wants to taste very delicious foods,
the hands want
to touch something nice, soft,  our genitals want to be satisfied by sex life.
These are the
demands of the body. To some extent we have to fulfill the bodily demands, we have
to eat
something, we have to sleep sometime, we have to look after the body to a certain
extent, but
that is not the main purpose of human life. The main purpose of human life is to
get off the
bodily platform and understand, "I am not this body, I am the spirit soul, I am
the person within
and my business is to serve Krishna."

We have to reestablish our original consciousness. Our original consciousness is
Krishna
consciousness, our real consciousness. In our original consciousness we are in our
original
position which is sat [eternal], cit [full of knowledge] and ananda [full of
bliss]. That is our real
nature. We are eternally youthful, we are full of knowledge and we are full of
pleasure. But we
have come here to this material world and have taken on these material bodies
which are
exactly the opposite. They are asat, they are getting old, they are going to die.
It is a very
uncomfortable thing for us because the soul is eternally youthful but we have
taken on this
material body which is getting old and dying, so we are naturally uncomfortable,
it is not at all a
natural position for us to get old and die, we don't like it. Then we are acit.
The spiritual world is
cit, it means full of knowledge, but here our bodies are acit, full of ignorance,
we don't know
anything here. We are so full of ignorance that we can't understand anything that
is going on
around us. We have these big universities which are imparting so-called knowledge.
The
scientists are trying to understand the world around them through their process of
observation
and experiment, but it's all nonsense, it's all speculative knowledge, full of
faults and useless
actually. We are always trying to find some knowledge but here we are full of
ignorance. WE are
naturally full of knowledge so being full of ignorance is not a very nice thing
for us. The other
thing is this material world is nirananda, instead of it being ananda, full of
pleasure, it is full of
anxiety. Everybody knows it, we are full of anxiety at every moment. But this is
not the natural
position of the soul, his position is to be in full bliss, but if one is full of
anxiety where is the
bliss? So we can't be happy here in the material world.

When one tells people this world is a miserable place and one can't be happy here
it is

generally a very unpopular thing to say. I have discussed it in various places. I
even saw people
in our own group alt.religion.viasnava arguing the world was not a miserable
place! But this is
crazy. This world is full of suffering, it is even constructed as a place of
suffering. Krishna
describes in the Bhagavad-gita it is dhukalaym-asasvatam, it means a distressful,
miserable
place where repeated birth and death are going on. So we are in this miserable
place where
repeated birth and death are going on, but everybody is thinking it is a very
comfortable place, a
very happy place. But it's not at all. Everybody can see. If we just stand back
and look at what is
going on around us you can see people are suffering like anything . In the western
world we
have developed things and now many people have a lot of money and they are buying
nice cars
and nice houses and so many things but they are no happier than people were before
without
these things. This is also a very unpopular thing to say. If you tell people all
this technology, all
this advancement, has done nothing to make people happier, they become very upset,
but it is
true. People are not happier now than they were fifty years ago or five-hundred
years ago. We
have not solved any of the problems: birth, old-age, disease and death. The
disease hasn't
reduced either, even though we have so much advanced modern medicine there are
still so
many terrible diseases they can't cure. AIDS is a very big thing, people are dying
like anything,
cancer is there, there are so many problems, so many diseases, people are dying.
So disease
hasn't stopped. Now we have "invented" so many new ways to die! We have car
accidents,
plane crashes, bomb explosions and so many other things. War is still going on.
People are still
dying in war. So many problems are still there. We have not solved the problems.

Actually life is becoming more and more difficult. This technology is supposed to
bring us
happiness, but it is actually making life very painful. On one hand we have to
work very hard to
get the money to buy all the technology and on the other hand there are very few
jobs because
the computers are doing lots of the work... Many of the jobs have become very
degrading and
people are suffering.

In the Krishna consciousness movement we have to present an alternative. We have
to show
people life is meant to be centered around serving Krishna. But that's not all, we
have to show
people you can be happy serving Krishna. It is a joyful thing. Krishna
consciousness is a very
special thing, a very beautiful thing, because it means everybody can work
together with one
central goal, serving Krishna. So no matter what we do, instead of doing it for
ourselves, if we do
it for Krishna then we can cooperate with unlimited numbers of people working
together with the
same central goal. I can preach about Krishna, somebody is gardening for Krishna,
growing nice
vegetables and flowers for Krishna, somebody is cleaning Krishna's temple,
somebody is
worshipping the Deity of Krishna, somebody is going out on the street and
preaching about
Krishna, somebody is selling Srila Prabhupada's books about Krishna, somebody is
performing

Hari-Nam sankirtana, glorifying the holy name of Krishna. Even someone could be
doing an
ordinary job and giving the fruits of his labor to Krishna. All of these people
can work together
because we are all working for Krishna. That's the joy of Krishna consciousness.
It's susucam, a
very joyful thing. People are not going to join unless they see the devotees are
happy!

But there is a problem now in ISKCON. They are not joyful. It's because of bogus
leadership. We
need to have proper leadership. There has to be a pure devotee. They have ignored
Srila
Prabhupada's instructions and that is the problem. So the ISKCON devotees are
miserable now
because they are not following the instructions of the pure devotee, Srila
Prabhupada. So we
have to reestablish the instructions of Srila Prabhupada and understand what we
are trying to do
in the Hare Krishna movement is to practice pure devotional service. WE are not
very interested
in this mixed devotional service, coming to the temple on Sunday and just doing a
little service,
but this is not the best platform, it is a start of course, but we have to
dedicate our lives to
Krishna, we have to do everything for Krishna. In this way we can become pure
unalloyed
devotees of Krishna. This is Srila Prabhupada's mood. Prabhupada wanted devotees,
people
who were prepared to give everything, to surrender to Krishna. There may not be so
many, but
that doesn't matter but if we have a few pure devotees that will be a very
powerful force. Very
effective preaching.

The main thing is to always remember Krishna and to never forget Krishna. If we
can do that, if
we can always remember Krishna and never forget Krishna that is the perfection of
Krishna
consciousness. So we have to make changes in our life to enable us to always
remember
Krishna and never forget Krishna. It's not an easy thing to do if we live an
ordinary mundane life.
That's why Srila Prabhupada created the International Society for Krishna
Consciousness. It's
supposed to be an association of pure devotees. An association of people who have
no other
desire than to serve Krishna, to develop their love for Krishna. It is a place
where everyone can
come and take the association of pure devotees. That's the idea. So the devotees
in the HAre
Krishna temples have to have this mood of pure devotional service, always
remembering
Krishna. Srila Prabhupada gave us a very perfect program to help us to come to
this platform of
always remembering Krishna. So we have to follow the program. Every morning we
have to get
up before four and attend Mangal Arotik, chant sixteen rounds of Hare Krishna Hare
Krishna,
Krishna Krishna Hare Hare/ Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama Hare Hare, greet the
Deities,
worship Srila Prabhupada, hear the Srimad Bhagavatam class, see the Deities, take
dome
carinamrta, worship and water Tulasi, and then be engaged all the time, 24 hours,
serving
Krishna. Srila Prabhupada gave the perfect program to achieve this, book
distribution. We can
go out there on the street and spend our whole day asking people to take the books
and chant
Hare Krishna. This is perfect.


We have to be engaged in some way so 24 hours a day we can remember Krishna.
That's what
Krishna consciousness means! It is the perfection of life and the purpose of the
Hare Krishna
movement. Of course we can have do many congregational members and so on but the
devotees in the temple who are presenting themselves as devotees and preaching
have to be on
this platform, always remembering Krishna, never forgetting Krishna. They are pure
devotees,
people who have decided to give everything to Krishna.

Krishna consciousness is not a cheep thing. We are seeing nowadays people are
taking it very
cheeply but it's not so cheep. Krishna consciousness cannot be had just be coming
to the
Sunday feast, of course it is a very good thing, to come to the Sunday feast
regularly, but
devotees want to live in the association of devotees. Devotees don't like to
associate with the
materialists. That is one of the worst things. There is a place in the Sri
Caitanya-caritamrta
where Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu describes He would rather be locked up in a cage
with a wild
tiger than live in the association of materialistic persons. The association of
materialistic people
is so horrible because they are always involved in mundane things, mundane
talking, sex and so
many nonsense things, so to associate with them is hellish for the devotees. So if
one is a
devotee he will naturally want to live with the other devotees and dedicate his
life to serving
Krishna. So this is the idea. We need some serious people who want to surrender to
Krishna
and serve Krishna. Of course no one wants to. So we have to do it ourselves, taste
the nectar of
Krishna consciousness and preach, distribute prasadam and chant Hare Krishna. If
we are pure
then someone will be attracted. It doesn't matter if we are only a small band of
men. We can
just travel and preach and change the face of the earth!

Thank you very much. Hare Krishna!

• Prev: searching,,,
• Next: Re: Shivapicture?
• Alpha: Sudarsana Mail Archive - Alphabetical Index
• Date: Sudarsana Mail Archive - Date Index