Srimad-Bhagavatam Meditation: 8.11.8

It is once again time for our weekly/bi-weekly meditation on the ripened fruit of the tree of Vedic knowledge, the Srimad-Bhagavatam.

I humbly ask you to read first the translation and Bhaktivedanta purport to today's verse, from the 8th Canto, Eleventh Chapter, Eighth Verse.

tad idaḿ kāla-raśanaḿ
jagat paśyanti sūrayaḥ
na hṛṣyanti na śocanti
tatra yūyam apaṇḍitāḥ

Seeing the movements of time, those who are cognizant of the real truth neither rejoice nor lament for different circumstances. Therefore, because you are jubilant due to your victory, you should be considered not very learned.

This verse brings up one of my sticking points in my very limited understanding of the science of Krsna consciousness, which is stated more directly in Verse 56 from Chapter 2 of the Bhagavad Gita. In essence, I understand the necessity of steadiness of mind in all situations, and I understand the need to avoid letting distress get the better of my soul, but what is wrong is being happy or being jubilant when Krsna mercifully allows things to go your way.

One of the wise mothers of New Vrindaban, Arcana Prabhu, explained this verse in her class last Tuesday, and her enlightened outlook finally helped bring some clarity on this issue into my very muddy brain. She explained that happiness and distress on the material platform are certainly things to be avoided, and that the only happiness that we can relish and that will do us any benefit is on the transcendental platform. The soul must feel jubilation, not just the body.

Of course, for one like myself, who certainly has spent most of life hopelessly addicted to making my bodily frame comfortable and happy, to get to that platform of the true soulful jubilee looms like a task that my naive simple little self will never be able to accomplish, especially in this Chris Fici body.

Here I have to catch myself, and remember that I am part of a very fortunate group of people who are actively receiving the mercy of Lord Caitanya, who came to this world 500 years ago on the beautiful dust of India to freely distribute love of God, and I have to remember that every day I am chanting the Hare Krsna maha-mantra (Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare), which is prescribed by the timeless Vedas as the easiest way in this age of quarrel and hypocrisy to become truly self-realized and truly selfless in spreading this spiritual bliss to each and everyone I meet.

The foundation of all this is the practicing of the Four Regulative Principles (no meat-eating, no intoxication, no illicit sex, no gambling) as laid down by Srila Prabhupada as he began ISKCON 40 years ago. One of my latest realization is that by following these principles, I have actually begun to gain the freedom I have always desired, a freedom I have looked for in politics, drugs, books, music, etc, but which has always painfully eluded me.

Giving up so many things that I certainly enjoyed doing may seem on the surface as leading only to a closing up of my self-worth and self-esteem, but by willfully taking part in this austerity, I am finding myself sharper, more confident, and more motivated to do all tasks big and small. I feel lighter, quicker, and stronger. I begin to see the whole future open up before me as a path of incredible challenge and reward, and for the first time in my life I am grounded and ready to go.

This all boils down to fine-tuning the parts of my self that will allow me to become the kind of vessel of truth that Krsna needs me to be on this particular planet at this particular time. After so much trouble, I have finally got my torch lit, and I can begin to actually see my own path. The funny thing is that when I use my torch to help light others' path, my own torch gets brighter, and my own path gets less rocky.

So much of my life has been spent trying to make myself happy, to hole up and avoid the responsibility of this state of being, to use this human body and mind and intelligence to uncover my soul and to help uncover your soul. Now, as I stand still watching the sun poke up over the horizon, or as I dance like a madman to the sounds of the Holy Name, or as I speak of Krsna and watch Him blossom in someone else's heart, I actually taste real happiness, of which I have only tasted before in fleeting moments of blinding intimacy that never lasted long enough.

This real happiness, this smile of the spirit, comes when one is able to tune one's self, like a humming tuning fork, to the reality of devotion to the Lord, to the sound of His name, and to the actions in serving the lotus feet of His devotees. It is so simple, so sublime, yet because we are so covered by our bodily and mental mis-conceptions, it is so difficult as well. We are so fortunate and un-fortunate at the same time, and we must never forget both of these aspects of our current state of being.

Examine yourself. What makes you happy. Is it something that satisfies only on the surface level of your own bodily comfort, or is it something that goes deeper, and opens you up to moving beyond any and all selfish conceptions. We must define our lives by the satisfaction of the soul, or we are lost.

Now or never, as I said so much in the past year to myself as the definitions of my life changed in so many dramatic ways and forms. Your soul is the one saying "Now!", so just listen, and then that first real smile may come across your face.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Meditation: 1.7.5 (Part 2)

Scroll down to read Part 1, or just click here.

It is once again time for our weekly/bi-weekly meditation on the ripened fruit of the tree of Vedic knowledge, the Srimad-Bhagavatam.

I humbly ask you to read first the translation and Bhaktivedanta purport to today's verse, from the 1st Canto, Seventh Chapter, Fifth Verse.

yayā sammohito jīva
ātmānaḿ tri-guṇātmakam
paro 'pi manute 'narthaḿ
tat-kṛtaḿ cābhipadyate

Due to this external energy, the living entity, although transcendental to the three modes of material nature, thinks of himself as a material product and thus undergoes the reactions of material miseries.

A very famous example of the intense mercy of the Lord came in the final months of the life of one of our dearest saints, Bhakta Tirtha Swami. As he dealt with the final stages of terminal cancer, Krsna was actually feeling so much love for him that he decided to purify him of any remaining material attachments by letting him face and pass one final, very challenging, but incredibly rewarding test.

So many devotees who experienced his final pastimes in his direct presence realized that their own devotional life was actually being affected in the most positive way. The powerful experience of seeing and hearing from a pure devotee in the direct process of going back to Godhead, being used by Krsna as a vessel for all to see the temporary nature of the body and the eternal nature of the spirit, allowed a real sense of re-committment and renewal to come back into the lives of all involved.

Throughout the process, Bhakta Tirtha Swami repeatedly said, despite the bodily pain he was feeling, that he could not have been more grateful to have been allowed to be of so much benefit to those who came to him in love. It was the exclamation point to his ideal example that we should all follow.

In a more common example, for those in the throes of the various types of addiction, the difficult circumstances involved can often lead to a personal enlightenment that could never come to someone who never faces any serious challenges. Indeed, we are all addicted to the idea that we are our body, and unless we face up to and overcome the serious challenges that are involved with breaking this bodily addiction, we will never be truly happy. We cannot blame maya, for she is just acting a vessel of mercy in the Lord's hands. She is tied to Krsna as we are tied to Krsna. We cannot blame Krsna either. He is always with us, guiding us, pushing us, and desiring for us to return to His side more so than we ever realize.

Prabhupada says "that eternal relation between the Lord and the living being is transcendental, otherwise the Lord would not have taken the trouble to reclaim the conditioned souls from the clutches of māyā." This is the foundation of Krsna's causeless mercy. Like a lover after a stormy fight, we huff away for a few moments, determined never to return, but the pull is too strong. We must go back! Difficult circumstances will be arranged before the original condition is restored, so that we fully understand our own foolishness.

The beat-down of boot-camp that this material life is is not meant to be comfortable. We have to go kicking and screaming back. This life is for some serious learning, and the sufferings imposed by maya are a very powerful teacher. We must understand what she is actually trying to tell us, and when we are finally able to reach our head and hand above the surface of this ocean of misery, we must take grasp of His hand reaching down to pull us out. He is always there, waiting, and by serious endeavor and prayer, we will get back to Him. This is the real promise, and the real goal of our lives

The Real Solution to Global Warming?

To the hope of many and the chagrin of the few, the pressing demands of our looming earthly environmental crisis are finally seeping like an inevitable flood into the mainstream of cultural thought across the world.

However, as my favorite quotemaster-prabhu Madhava Gosh says, while the rest of the world agrees that global warming is a genuine phenomenon and wonders if we are doing enough to curtail its frightening forecasts, here in the U.S we're still trying to deciding if global warming is real news or a mass Hollywood conspiracy.

And here in ISKCON, as we'll find out in one relevant workshop ("How the Styrofoam Plate Monster Ate The Hare Krsna Movement.") from Tapahpunja Prabhu at the upcoming 2007 Festival of Inspiration, we are missing the boat on institutionally being a lead example of how the world can practically sustain itself for the benefit of all those yet to come.

We can begin by urging all we meet to please stop consuming the flesh of Mother Cow and all her animal associates, for turning to vegetarianism is a real solution to global warming.

Indeed, it is animal agriculture and the cattle industry which is actually contributing far more harm to our environment than all the gas-guzzling automobiles put together.

Here are some relevant stats to spread about. Animal agriculture is responsible for 18% of the world's greenhouse-gas emissions measured in CO2, as opposed to 13.5% from all forms of transportation.

It produces 65% of human-related nitrous oxide (which has 296 times the global warming potential of CO₂) and 37% of all human-induced methane (which is 23 times as warming as CO₂).

It also generates 64% of the ammonia, which contributes to acid rain and acidification of ecosystems.

The Case Against Meat is staggering, and to put it plain, most people are just simply uninformed, rather than unwilling. I find it personally disturbing that in this current climate where the issue of environmental abuse becomes more and more mainstream, we still refuse en masse to consider that our own diets, rather than our cars or our smokestacks, are the root problem of a very frightening future.

As writer Dan Brook says in his article "Another Inconvenient Truth: Meat is a Global Warming Issue": "Vegetarianism is literally about life and death — for each of us individually and for all of us together. Eating animals simultaneously contributes to a multitude of tragedies: the animals’ suffering and death; the ill-health and early death of people; the unsustainable overuse of oil, water, land, topsoil, grain, labor and other vital resources; environmental destruction, including deforestation, species extinction, mono-cropping and global warming; the legitimacy of force and violence; the mis-allocation of capital, skills, land and other assets; vast inefficiencies in the economy; tremendous waste; massive inequalities in the world; the continuation of world hunger and mass starvation; the transmission and spread of dangerous diseases; and moral failure in so-called civilized societies. Vegetarianism is an antidote to all of these unnecessary tragedies."

As devotees of Krishna, our responsibilities should extend well beyond just giving out a little prasad and taking a little donation. In other words, we can't just make people comfortable. We have to exhibit true compassion by informing them of the proper ways of utilizing this body and utilizing this planet.Spreading the gospel of vegetarianism through our living devotional examples in temples and homes across this fragile world is a very potent way of allowing people a true gateway to spiritual life. There are already many wonderful examples within ISKCON of true environmental cutting-edge service. If we can make this a institutional priority, then we will be getting much more of an increasingly concerned world's attention in this time of great global change. Srila Prabhupada, with the incredible inspiration of his vision of self-sufficient and self-realized farm communities providing the framework for the return to varnasrama, is just the pure soul so many intelligent and responsible people of all stripes need to meet to be provided with the necessary vision to get us on the ark and over to the other side.

Opening Act

Reporting from New Vrindaban, its absolutely warm and peaceful. Everybody you know and see brings a smile and a joke. If you get in the right frame of mind, you can actually realize there is nothing to fear, and the taste of the Lord becomes vivid and real.

On Friday night, Caitanya and I made our weekly sojourn into Pittsburgh to the campuses of Carnegie-Mellon and U-Pitt. We were the opening act for well-known alternative rock act Spoon, who was performing a free show on the campus of CMU to celebrate the last day of classes.

Now, by opening act, I don't mean we stormed the stage, although we thought about it. Actually, we did nice, humble kirtan in one of the big public corridors leading out to the campus area where the concert was being held. Most everyone going to and coming from the show got a chance to hear the Holy Name of Krsna, and many directly appreciated. We even got a nice contact from a successful yoga studio in town, and we hope to do some transcendental business with them as our programs in Pittsburgh continue to evolve and become more solid.

It is very interesting to observe the material modes of nature (goodness, passion, and ignorance) as the many varied college students walked by us. Some ignored our kirtan, some danced, some smiled, and some dropped some change our way. In any case, it is our sacred duty as young devotees to hit the streets with sounds and books, and we are always looking for dynamic ways to do so.

It was also a gas to be with Caitanya. Him and I go back a ways to the hip streets of Ann Arbor, Michigan, and we are developing a sense of humor between us that is quite something to behold. We are hoping to do a show where we roll off our impressions of everyone who lives here at New Vrindaban. It's the best way we can show our love and appreciation.

One of the signs in front of the stage where Spoon played said "If you are visibly intoxicated, you will be asked to leave." Considering we were intoxicated with kirtan and the various spices of our transcendental humor, it was lucky we didn't end up in the slammer.

We ended the night well into the morning by joining our friends at the Oakland Tea House for their final program of the semester, talking and sharing spiritual insights until nearly 2am! We would once again like to thank all those who organize the Tea House for allowing us crazy monks to come up and share food and wonderful conversation. We hope to continue the fun next year, hopefully in conjunction with our planned Vegan cooking class which will begin in the fall.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Meditation: 1.7.5

It is once again time for our weekly/bi-weekly meditation on the ripened fruit of the tree of Vedic knowledge, the Srimad-Bhagavatam.

I humbly ask you to read first the translation and Bhaktivedanta purport to today's verse, from the 1st Canto, Seventh Chapter, Fifth Verse.

yayā sammohito jīva
ātmānaḿ tri-guṇātmakam
paro 'pi manute 'narthaḿ
tat-kṛtaḿ cābhipadyate

Due to this external energy, the living entity, although transcendental to the three modes of material nature, thinks of himself as a material product and thus undergoes the reactions of material miseries.

When I first encountered spirituality originating from the Eastern part of the world, in the form of Tibetan Buddhism, I was admittedly a bit turned off by being told that suffering was the first tenet of my current existence. I wanted candy canes and light shows, and instead I was being told that I was surrounded by an ocean of misery that was largely there because I chose it to be there.

As I have slowly matured in my spiritual life in this body, and have mercifully been provided the chance to practice in the Vaisnava tradition, I still flinch in disgust at this offering, no longer because of any philosophical misunderstanding, but because it is the truth. Simple, harsh, and universal.

In his purport, Prabhupada takes the outside-the-box approach when he writes that "The Lord does not interfere with the task of the illusory energy because such performances of the illusory energy are also necessary for reformation of the conditioned soul." We suffer as materially-oriented people because we are surrendered to the dictates of the illusory energy, being thrown here and there by our desires, pride, envy, lust, and hatred.

We are situated in this ocean of misery because we choose to be, because we want to be God ourself, instead of being in our natural position of lovingly serving Him by serving His pure devotees, which is where all actual bliss, knowledge, and eternity resides. So, this desire to lord everything ourselves is fulfilled as we are provided with a material body in a material world to try and shape things as we see fit.

The ever-present catch is that the illusory energy, or maya, is also given all facility to do with us as she sees fit. This is actually God's desire, for because we are of the same quality as Him, we have been given full independence to choose if we will serve Him or not. When we choose not to, God lets His great devotee maya go to work on us in an attempt to make us realize what we have truly chosen to do.

What Prabhupada is saying here is that while God actually facilitates this process of allowing us to lord over our actions, and subsequently suffer the reactions, in this material body, he allows maya to beat and kick us, and even kill us, in order for us to realize the incredible foolishness of our ignorance and forgetfulness.

As devotees, we, or we try, to be fully surrendered to the dictates of the Supreme Lord, Krsna. Often, the will of the Lord is for us to undergo very serious and painful situations, in order for us to quickly realize the futility of our material propensities. It is actually His strongest mercy, for at these times of crisis and conflict, the door opens much wider for us to truly jump through and get back home, to His lotus feet.

If we are comfortable, simply gliding along, not being challenged, we won't find the urgency we truly need to personally break out of this prison cycle of repeated birth-and-death. We will continue to think, in many gross and subtle ways, that this material condition is our natural condition, and we will continue to wander lost.

I'll continue with Part 2 of this meditation sometime in the next week, so please stay tuned. Hare Bol!