krishna lounge

Talk by Mahat @ Krishna Lounge on February 21, 2008

A verse from the Bhagavad Gita says that the very place from which we derive pleasure is where the senses meet with the sense objects. That place we consider the source of happiness. The tongue eats something palatable, the eyes look beautiful things and the hands touch something. All this is pleasing. But according to the Bhagavad Gita these places are the very places of frustration and misery. In the beginning the sensation is always pleasing but the nature of sensual pleasure is that it does not satisfy. We have to re-indulge in it.

I remember, as a kid I chewed a gum. (I got from my mom–what I thought a lot of money–and bought whole bunch of chewing gums). So juicy and sweet, I really enjoyed it. However, after few minutes, the gum became hard with all the sugar gone. Then, I had to pop another one. Every new piece of chewing gum was a source of pleasure, but every time the pleasure would diminish. Eventually it turned into frustration. This is a simple and innocent example. An extreme example would be taking drugs, shooting heroin, or something worse, where at first you feel great euphoria, like new horizons have just opened to your sensual experience; but after some time, everyone knows, it turns into misery. People know this intuitively and they are compromising with this principle. They begin with the sensual gratification, but never let it go out of control. As soon the things start sinking too low, or out of control, they stop. But this is tricky. Many of us have been on this path and know things can easily go out of control. Therefore people try to find some kind of a middle ground.

However, in the present society and its culture it is difficult to find middle ground. The situation tends to take us from one extreme to the other. The economic situation is such that you can’t, as people used to even in this country, work little and live a simple life. Nowadays, if you work a little, you end up being homeless. When I came to this country, I was surprised to see so many homeless people living in cars, crashing out two nights at friend’s house, few nights on the beach, then some bushes, back to the car and so on. This is because the economical situation demands that you fully apply yourself to the process of earning money– otherwise you are out of the game. A simple life is not encouraged. It’s not impossible, but it is much harder than it used to be. Spiritual practitioners also find it difficult because of temptations.

Let’s look at crime. Previously, bad behavior in school was to stick chewing gum underneath the table. The teacher would get all upset. Nowadays, the problems are different: kids bring guns to schools, pornography is easily accessible. You want to indulge a little bit in some kind of material pleasures, but then there is Best Buy and these huge stores that are simply meant to entice you, to take away your attention all the way to, as far down as you can imagine, until it reaches the solid rock bottom.

For spiritual practitioners or those who are walking the spiritual path, it is very difficult to live like this because if they don’t apply themselves fully to spiritual development, they will be devoured by materialism. Their attention, flow of energy and endeavor will either go fully into spiritual or go down into materialistic life.

Now, we could look at this as something bad or a big challenge, but the Vedas say we live in a blessed age. Of all the ages and different phases of history of this planet, this is the best. If you apply yourself to the spiritual process you will meet with abundant results. In the Vedas there is a mantra describing this age, it says: wherever we look everything is wrong–war over here, exploitation over there, murdering, and killing poor animals, torturing plants, destroying environment…exploitations, corrupt governments – big mess! Still, there is one good quality: simply by engaging in kirtan, kirtanam eva krishnasya, one can mukta (rise or free oneself) beyond attachment to worldliness, simply by sincere kirtan. Kirtan is the recommended spiritual practice for this age. Previously people used to meditate, and meditation didn’t mean to sit down for ten minutes and hold your nose, or when an eighty year old fellow lifts his leg a little bit and calls it yoga. No. Yoga and meditation meant to go into the forest, without health insurance, without pension, without anyone around (besides ferocious animals). You sit down and you meditate for twenty hours a day. For one hour you take care of the body, bathe, rest, and that’s it. That is meditation. Nowadays, even a little bit of kirtan, if one chants, there will be an abundance of spiritual results.

The age in which we are living is polarizing, forcing individual to go fully materialistic or fully spiritual. It is difficult to hold some middle ground. A serious practitioner has experienced this in the modern age. On our temple’s website www.krishnasd.com, the most visited page is monks. To pick the lifestyle of a monk is a radical step. It is radical to just forget about and turn away from everything. I mean, it’s beautiful–many of us did it and it is wonderful. I’ve had nothing but fun for the last fifteen years. But it is a radical change. You begin a totally new life. Not only me, but many others did it because it is very difficult to keep the middle ground in this age.

If you take up spiritual life seriously then it is super beneficial. The reason why I initially took up spiritual life was because of utter dissatisfaction. I couldn’t find pleasure in material activities. As a matter of fact they pained me. Still, I didn’t apply myself to spiritual practices, until my parents kicked me out of the house. Since I had no income, I was thinking: “What should I do?” and then I took up spiritual practices seriously. Philosophically, the material life just didn’t add up. Anyone who is thoughtful can understand there is no purpose to material life. What do you think of a thing that has no purpose? We call it trash, because it has no purpose. There is no purpose to material life. You just live till you croak. But spiritual life is purposeful. The philosophy, the reason for living is that there is some mission to your existence. That is spiritual perfection.

You could say that was terrible, I was kicked out of the house, suffered so much. But on the other hand you could say it was beneficial. I think it was the best thing that had ever happened to me. So we can look at this age from two perspectives: as tempting or encouraging. It really depends on how we take it.

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Kirtan:

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A few pix:

The excerpt from Srimad Bhagavatam that was read last week:

Therefore meat-eating is prohibited. But people have become so sinful that they do not consider, “When I was young this cow supplied her blood in the form of milk to feed me, to keep me alive. But now that l am grown up, I am so ungrateful that I am going to kill her and eat her flesh.” This is the advancement of modern education: that people have learned how to kill their mother.

The basic principle of economic development is centered on land and cows. The necessities of human society are food grains, fruits, milk, minerals, clothing, wood, etc. One requires all these items to fulfill the material needs of the body. Certainly one does not require flesh and fish or iron tools and machinery.

Human civilizations should depend on the production of material nature without artificially attempting economic development to turn the world into a chaos of artificial greed and power only for the purpose of artificial luxuries and sense gratification. This is but the life of dogs and hogs.

Grains and vegetables can sumptuously feed a man and animals, and a fatty cow delivers enough milk to supply a man sumptuously with vigor and vitality. If there is enough milk, enough grains, enough fruit, enough cotton, enough silk and enough jewels, then why do the people need cinemas, houses of prostitution, slaughterhouses, etc.?

What is the need of an artificial luxurious life of cinema, cars, radio, flesh and hotels? Has this civilization produced anything but quarreling individually and nationally? Has this civilization enhanced the cause of equality and fraternity by sending thousands of men into a hellish factory and the war fields at the whims of a particular man?

It is said here that the cows used to moisten the pasturing land with milk because their milk bags were fatty and the animals were joyful. Do they not require, therefore, proper protection for a joyful life by being fed with a sufficient quantity of grass in the field? Why should men kill cows for their selfish purposes? Why should man not be satisfied with grains, fruits and milk, which, combined together, can produce hundreds and thousands of palatable dishes. Why are there slaughterhouses all over the world to kill innocent animals?