Hand out

It seems to be in human nature to challenge the elements, even at the risk of life and limb. Climbing Mount Everest is a perennial favourite, even though it has so far claimed over 200 lives. I can’t say I have it on my personal list of things to do before I die, but I kind of understand why some people would be attracted. The sense of achievement in overcoming eight mile high obstacles; in tolerating tremendous hardship to accomplish one’s goals, which of course can prove a useful asset in today’s tough world.

While I can admire such indomitable spirit, I would question where it can best be applied. Vedic knowledge tells us that the attempt to overcome nature by bodily and mental strength is ultimately doomed to failure. In the Bhagavad-gita Krishna describes the material energy as “insurmountable”. Although we may conquer the tallest mountains, or even plunge down to the bottom of the deepest seas, at the end of the day we are still bound by stringent material laws that we cannot overcome. Even as we undertake our heroic exploits we must still respect such laws. The Law of Gravity, for example, is a serious factor to be considered when ascending mountains. Under the water is the rigid condition that we cannot breathe without mechanical assistance. When we soar off into space in our efforts to reach other planets we face so many universal laws that limit us to being hardly able to go beyond our own moon, what to speak of the immense vastness of the cosmos that lies out there.

Closer to home are the awkward problems of birth, old age, disease and death that stare us in the face and are impossible to avoid. These are the primary conditions imposed upon this world, laws that bind us all, and when we are not tackling mighty challenges such as pedalling across the Atlantic, we are fully engaged with those difficulties. Indeed human endeavour is all about trying to counteract the conditions of this world and achieve some sort of security and comfort. Without such endeavours, in the shape of science, technology and constant hard work, we would soon be overcome by all kinds of trouble.

The simple reason for this is that we do not belong in this world. We are spiritual beings who belong in the spiritual atmosphere. When we are within matter we are like fish out of water. Krishna says, “The living entities in this conditioned world are my eternal fragmental parts. Due to conditioned life in material bodies they are struggling very hard.”

The struggle comes when we try to independently defeat the conditions of this world without reaching out to God. All of the laws we face here are made by him. That should be obvious; can there be any laws that have no maker and indeed no one upholding them? This world is under God’s infallible laws and it is a futile endeavour to try to overcome them in defiance of his power. We simply become further entangled in their complexities, just as a person who tries to break the state laws will only fall foul of still more conditions. As the famous quote goes, we cannot break divine laws, we can only break ourselves against them in the attempt. Our only hope is to abide by those laws and accept their creator as our well wishing Lord.

This is where our real challenge lies and where we should apply our heroism. The great obstacle to divine surrender is the false ego of wanting to be independent enjoyers of this world, of wanting to conquer and exploit it for our selfish ends. One great Vaishnava saint said in a poem, “So push thy onward march, O soul/against an evil deed/that stands with soldiers hate and lust/a hero be indeed.”

Lust and hate, along with their cohorts greed, anger and illusion, are formidable foes, and defeating them can sometimes seem a Himalayan task. But Krishna assures us that success is certain if we constantly seek his shelter. The divine helicopter of his mercy will extract us from our struggle and take us to his eternally blissful abode.

Gita 6.32 with Janaki

SB 2.3.12 A

SB 2.3.12 B

SB 2.3.12 C

SB 2.3.12 D

SB 2.3.12 E

SB 2.3.12 F

SB 2.3.12 G

SB 2.3.12 h

SB 2.3.12 I

SB 2.3.12 J

SB 2.3.12 K

Introduction pg 15

My spiritual master Srila Prabhupada was once asked to speak to a group of school children. “Who is the most intelligent student here?” he asked. A sea of modest blank faces stared back but eventually one child was thrust forward by his obliging friends and Prabhupada said to him, “Please point to your head.”

The bemused boy, expecting a sterner examination of his intellectual powers, duly complied. His next challenge was to point to his arm, followed by his leg, stomach and chest. Having sailed through all these tests he was finally asked by Prabhupada to point to his self. The boy raised his finger and turned it inwards but then hesitated. Where indeed was the self?

It was perhaps no surprise that the student was perplexed. The puzzle of understanding who we are has vexed the greatest minds for millennia. Even the avowed materialist Thomas Huxley, known as ‘Darwin’s bulldog’ for his fierce advocacy of evolution, once said, “It seems to me pretty plain that there is a third thing in the universe, to wit, consciousness, which I cannot see to be matter or force or any conceivable modification of either.”

Well, at least there I would concur with the good Mr Huxley. So would Krishna in the Bhagavad-gita where he explains that the self or consciousness is different from the body it inhabits. In fact all of us regularly refer to that difference. “My body, my mind”, – there is a duality, a difference between the seer and the seen. Plainly the young lad taking Prabhupada’s test had realised this as his finger hovered over his chest and he understood that it was not really him, the actual person.

Krishna helps us directly perceive this by describing how the body constantly changes but the self is still the same. We all see it happening. I was looking wistfully at a photo of myself at the age of twenty the other day, slim, fit and bursting with life. Where is that body now? Certainly not occupied by me today, as the mirror mercilessly confirms when I dare glance at it. But I am certainly the same person that I was then. Only the vehicle has changed, not the driver.

This is the first point of the spiritual teachings in the Gita. Know thyself. You are not the body you inhabit and can never become happy merely by bodily enjoyment. That’s a lesson I’d like to see taught in more schools.

Wandering about in my religious robes the other day, I happened to pop into a grocer and the assistant, plainly of another faith, took one look at me and asserted, “Your book is wrong.” Somewhat taken aback I assured him I had not come to discuss the merits of my book and he calmed down, but continued to eye me suspiciously.

I had to laugh when I left the shop, but disagreements between religions are of course not always so funny. How many times do we hear the argument that religion causes more wars than anything else? Personally though I take issue with that claim. Fair enough, we do see more than enough conflicts over whose book is right, and even some over what is the right interpretation of the same book, but is this really about religion?

The actual meaning of the word from the original Latin is to link with God. This too is how the Bhagavad-gita defines it, as the means by which one can know and ultimately love God. So really when properly practiced religion should be about love not hate.

Hatred comes from somewhere else, from seeing others as different and somehow inferior to us. It might attach itself to a religious pretext, but it can just as easily be attached to race, nationality, politics or football. It springs from egoistic pride and spiritual practice is meant to destroy that, to take us to the point of seeing ourselves and all others as parts of the same Supreme Spirit. When through proper religious practice our love for God awakens then our love for all of God’s creation will also manifest.

If we hate in the name of religion we have surely missed the point. And it is a point espoused by virtually all faiths, this life is not the all-in-all, we are meant for eternal service to God, and all of us are his children, all equal in his eyes. There may be some differences in practice or other externals, but these are really only details. Why argue over that?

So during this week of World Religion Day we should try to remember the common essence of religion, the attainment of divine love, and if we must hate then let us hate the ignorance that causes us to fight over misunderstandings and trifles.

BG 4.7 para2 discussion

I didn’t make any new year resolutions, but I have been called upon recently to make some difficult lifestyle changes. Bouts of sinusitis have obliged me, under strict dietary advisement, to give up a range of foods including dairy products, wheat and various other items which had previously formed an integral part of my daily fare. Thus it is that I must now forgo the delights of cheese on toast, and indeed even toast itself. I wonder how long I can last.

Giving up things we like is not easy. There has to be a compelling reason, like not being able to breathe for example, which just about works for me. Or perhaps we will make some sacrifice now with the aim of achieving something superior in future. We operate on that principle quite often in life. We are prepared to undergo some immediate difficulty so that we can enjoy a later result. For example we might punish ourselves in the gym, driven on by a vision of that svelte and fit form we long for. As they say, no pain no gain.

This is good intelligence, to be proactive, delay gratification, keep in mind the future and see what will produce our enduring happiness rather than our immediate pleasure, which may actually result in longer term suffering.

This too is the principle of spiritual life, to be ultimately proactive and recognise what will secure our permanent happiness. Thankfully though, although spiritual practice leads to maximum gain, it does not require maximum pain. The Bhagavad-gita describes a path that is “fully joyful”, but like everything else there is a price to pay and some resolve is required. For example, instead of flopping down to read the paper or watch TV at the end of a hard day, which is a natural inclination, I take the time to hear and meditate upon divine instructions from scriptures like the Gita.

It requires some determination, for sure. The mind would rather indulge in material gratification, but I know that won’t make me happy. For me human life is meant for achieving the highest state of absolute happiness, and for that I am prepared to sacrifice a little bit of enjoyment now. We can achieve something unimaginably greater than that. The Gita says, “One who experiences the joy of self realisation feels there is no greater attainment and desires nothing more.” I reckon that beats even cheese on toast.

Krishna Dharma, Hare Krishna Priest and Author

Courage is a positive quality, but it might sometimes require judicious application. I remember at school seeing a friend being bullied by an older child. “Pick on someone your own size,” I blurted out. The bully looked at me, marginally bigger than my friend. “Fair enough”, he said with a smile and proceeded to turn his pugnacious attentions towards me.

A little painful but looking back I don’t regret it. Courage means standing up for what we believe to be right, even in the face of difficult consequences. I might have ignored the age old military wisdom to not challenge a superior foe, but I don’t think I was wrong to take a stand. I just needed reinforcements.

Since then I have had to take many more stands. Not of a physical nature thankfully, but I have often been called on to dig deep inside myself and find moral courage to make the choices I believed were right. As a young man I became a Hare Krishna monk, forswearing the lifestyle choices of all my peers, my family members and indeed myself up until that point. It was a radical step. Taking vows to give up intoxication, illicit sex, gambling and eating meat tends to separate you from the crowd a bit.

And over the years it has led to quite a few more assaults from bullies. Not of the school playground variety though. This has been an inner fight, about being true to myself. That has been the real challenge demanding my courage; having the strength to say no to my pugnacious mind and senses which constantly try to drag me away from the spiritual path. But I’ve been that way before and I know it is a dead end.

I believe real happiness comes when I take the harder choice and follow the guidance of God. That pleases him and when he is satisfied he showers blessings and we experience a sense of inner fulfillment. The flickering enjoyment of bodily indulgence can’t compare to that, in my experience. And even when we lose a battle, as we sometimes will, merely the attempt to fight the good fight pleases God and he reciprocates from within us. So I shall keep praying for the moral courage to make the right choices. I’ve had quite enough of being bullied by my insatiable senses.