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mani@srirangam.esd.sgi.com (Mani Varadarajan) wrote:
>Rather than regarding the world as Brahman's "lilavibhUti",
>and a potentially blissful place, Madhudvisa dasa writes:
>> This world is a truly miserable place. One is forced to spend a painful
>> nine months within his mothers womb, of course he is unconscious for the
>> first seven months, but after that it is painful. Then there is birth. So
>> painful that he forgets everything from the past...
>Would it be better if we remembered our entire past? All the
>horrifying bad things that we've done, all the sentimental things,
>all the relatives of previous lives who have died? It seems
>a merciful act of God that we do not remember everything.
>We simply do not have the understanding to deal with it.
It is maya's mercy that we forget. Otherwise we wouldn't be so eager to
line up for the same punishment again! This world is temporary, but we are
eternal spirit souls, our nature is different. We are sat, cit and ananda
while this place is asat, achit and nirananda. Just the opposite. We are
full of pleasure, full of knowledge and ful of bliss but this place is
full of ignorance, full of anxiety and temporary. So it is unnatural for
us. It is not our home. Our home is with Krishna in the spiritual world:
paras tasmat tu bhavo 'nyo
'vyakto 'vyaktat sanatanah
yah sa sarvesu bhutesu
nasyatsu na vinasyati
"Yet there is another nature, which is eternal and transcendental to this
manifested and unmanifested matter. It is supreme and is never
annihilated. When all in this world is annihilated, that part remains as
it is." (Bhagavad-gita 8.20)
>> Then there is disease.
>> No one wants to get sick -- but we do... Then old age. We want to remain
>> young with full energy and vitality to enjoy the world but, although we
>> remain "young at heart" we see our body gradually becoming old and
>> useless.
>[Various other problems of earthly life deleted]
>Why do you confuse the body and the self? This is the fundamental
>mistake you are making in your analysis. Given the understanding
>that all this "misery" is due to our confusion of the body and
>the self, what is there to be miserable about?
You have analyzed the position correctly. Almost everyone here, in the
material world, is making this fundamental mistake, identifing themselves
with their bodies. But we are not these material bodies, we are the
eternal spirit soul within. The body is a covering only. Our disease is in
trying to enjoy the covering and neglecting the needs of the soul
If we can be cured of this disease of identifying with the body our
material existence is finished. A devotee fully engaged in the service of
his bonafide spiritual master and Krishna is no longer in the material
world. He is transcendental to the pains and pleasures that are naturally
coming and going like the waves of the ocean. For this reason devotees do
not ask Krishna for anything except to be engaged in the service of His
servants. Srila Rupa Goswami has written:
"I am not a brahmana, I am not a ksatriya, I am not a vaisya or a sudra.
Nor am I a brahmacari, a householder, a vanaprastha or a sannyasi. I
identify Myself only as the servant of the servant of the servant of the
lotus feet of Lord Sri Krishna, the maintainer of the gopis. He is like an
ocean of nectar. and He is the cause of universal transcendental bliss. He
is always existing with brillance" (Padyavali 74)
>After passing
>through this first stage of understanding, and then realizing
>that the Highest Self is the ground of all this, how can the
>world be miserable?
The material world is still miserable, there's no question about that. I
have described some of the miseries... There are many, but a self-realized
soul is not in the material world, that is the main point. His
consciousness is always fixed on the lotus feet of Krishna. It doesn't
matter where he is physically. If he is in heaven or if he is in hell it
is all the same, his business is to serve Krishna, that is all. And there
is great transcendentat ecstasy in serving Krishna... But he doesn't serve
Krishna for his own benefit. He is pleased when Krishna is pleased and he
is distresses if Krishna is not pleased.
> Rather, it is filled with the grandeur of
>God. According to all the great acharyas of yore, cultivating
>this spirit, seeing "sarvam khalv idam brahma" is a critical step
>in yoga.
Of course on can see Krishna in the material world. A devotee sees
everything in connection with Krishna. For him everything is Krishna's
energy:
atha va bahunaitena
kim jnatena tavarjuna
vistabhyaham idam krtsnam
ekamsena sthito jagat
"But what need is there, Arjuna, for all this detailed knowledge? With a
single fragment of Myself I pervade and support this entire universe."
(Bhagavad-gita 10.42)
"My Lord, I consider Your Lordship to be eternal time, the supreme
controller, without beginning and end, the all-pervasive one. In
distributing Your mercy You are equal to everyone. The dissensions between
living beings are due to social intercourse." (Queen Kunti in Srimad
Bhagavatam 1.8.28)
"Kuntidevi knew that Krishna was neither her nephew nor an ordinary family
member of her parental house. She knew perfectly well that Krishna is the
primeval Lord who lives in everyone's heart as the Supersoul, Paramatma.
Another name of the Paramatma feature of the Lord is kala, or eternal
time. Eternal time is the witness of all our actions, good and bad, and
thus resultant reactions are destined by Him. It is no use saying that we
do not know why we are suffering. We may forget the misdeed for which we
may suffer at this present moment, but we must remember that Paramatma is
our constant companion and therefore He knows everything -- past, present
and future. And because the Paramatma feature of Lord Krishna destines all
actions and reactions, He is the supreme controller also. Without His
sanction not a blade of grass can move. The living beings are given as
much freedom as they deserve, and misuse of that freedom is the cause of
suffering. The devotees of the Lord do not misuse their freedom. Others,
who misuse their freedom are put into miseries destined by the eternal
kala. The kala offers the conditioned souls both happiness and miseries.
It is predestined by eternal time. As we have miseries uncalled for, so we
may have happiness also without being asked, for they are predestined by
kala. No one is therefore either an enemy or friend of the Lord. Everyone
is suffering or enjoying the result of his own destiny.
Srila Prabhupada ki Jaya!
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Hare Krishna!
Your servant,
Madhudvisa dasa
(madhudvisa@krishna.org) /sudarsana
All glories to His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada!
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