CHAPTER 4, TEXT 10: Being freed from attachment, fear and anger, being fully absorbed in Me and taking refuge in Me, many, many persons in the past became purified by knowledge of Me – and thus they all attained transcendental love for Me.
Attachment, fear, and anger - these are all experiences that keep us from truly loving another person.
We can all admit that human beings are very attached to the body, and having physical health and beauty is a baseline for enjoying anything. Think about it - can we truly enjoy a day at the beach if we're covered in itchy, weepy sores? We need physical health to enjoy. Or can we feel fully confident in ourselves on our wedding day if our face is covered in red, pus-filled acne? We need physical beauty to enjoy.
As human beings, we're very attached to enjoying through the body and maintaining the body, but paradoxically we also understand that it's "perishable, full of ignorance, and completely miserable" - we've all had the equivalent experience of weepy sores and angry acne. So while we're attached to the body, we're also repulsed by it. If this is what it means to be a person - to be embodied and miserable - then there is no way that God is a person with an actual body. In fact, we "cannot even imagine that there is a transcendental body which is imperishable, full of knowledge, and eternally blissful." It's simply beyond our imagination! Thus, the attachment to the body and the conception that God cannot be a person (with a body) prevents us from truly loving God. After all, love must be exchanged between persons.
Therein lies our problem: love must be exchanged between persons. Prabhupad writes that "the conception of retaining the personality after liberation from matter frightens [materialistic people]". When I read this, naturally I considered myself a materialistic person and I wondered, Why? Why would retaining my personality after death / in heaven / in liberation frighten me so deeply?
And I reflected - I'm afraid to love.
Love is frightening.
When love is exchanged with another person, there is every possibility that I will be torn up and destroyed. Either the other person is indifferent to me (agonizing), betrays me (heart-shattering), or simply dies (total desolation). From the perspective of fear, love looks like a lose-lose situation that only ends with pain. Thus fear keeps us from pursuing or exchanging love with each other and especially with the Lord.
As for anger keeping us from loving God, sometimes all of this consideration about attachment and fear and personhood and liberation is just too much. There are so many religions and sects and doctrines and scriptures that some people just throw their hands in the air and scream from lack of understanding and frustration. Thus, "Being embarrassed by so many theories and by contradictions of various types of philosophical speculation, [people] become disgusted or angry and foolishly conclude that there is no supreme cause and that everything is ultimately void." This seems to be the only conclusion that such frustrated people can reach - throw it all out. Throw out all of the religions and doctrines and scriptures. I'm sure we can all relate with the experience of wanting to reach a very lofty goal, but the path to get there is sometimes so difficult, or so complex, or so painful, that in disgust we blame the lofty goal and discount it as not being worth it anyway. Similarly, the most worthy, loftiest goal - to give and receive pure love - is a path fraught with so many difficulties, complexities, and pain, that sometimes it's just too much. Throw in the towel.
But all of these people, those that are mired in attachment, fear, and anger, "are in a diseased condition of life." These people are not "out there." These people are right here, these people are US. WE are diseased. Surely we can identify with experiencing attachment, fear, and anger on the spiritual path to attain the highest destiny of our soul, to love and be loved. But that goal is so lofty, so high, that often we stumble and fall into a diseased condition.
But Krishna says that when we are freed of attachment, fear, and anger, we can attain love of God. In fact, He gives us hope by saying that "many, many persons in the past" engaged in the process of purifying their hearts to exchange love with Him. There is hope!
How do we get free of these stages of material consciousness? Srila Prabhupad writes, "One has to take complete shelter of the Lord, guided by the bona fide spiritual master, and follow the disciplines and regulative principles of devotional life." This is the path: take shelter of God and a teacher, and follow regulative principles. If we do so with sincerity, we can be safeguarded against the disease of attachment, fear, and anger and open our hearts to our highest destiny.
Full purport by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupad: https://vedabase.io/en/library/bg/4/10/
Attachment, fear, and anger - these are all experiences that keep us from truly loving another person.
We can all admit that human beings are very attached to the body, and having physical health and beauty is a baseline for enjoying anything. Think about it - can we truly enjoy a day at the beach if we're covered in itchy, weepy sores? We need physical health to enjoy. Or can we feel fully confident in ourselves on our wedding day if our face is covered in red, pus-filled acne? We need physical beauty to enjoy.
As human beings, we're very attached to enjoying through the body and maintaining the body, but paradoxically we also understand that it's "perishable, full of ignorance, and completely miserable" - we've all had the equivalent experience of weepy sores and angry acne. So while we're attached to the body, we're also repulsed by it. If this is what it means to be a person - to be embodied and miserable - then there is no way that God is a person with an actual body. In fact, we "cannot even imagine that there is a transcendental body which is imperishable, full of knowledge, and eternally blissful." It's simply beyond our imagination! Thus, the attachment to the body and the conception that God cannot be a person (with a body) prevents us from truly loving God. After all, love must be exchanged between persons.
Therein lies our problem: love must be exchanged between persons. Prabhupad writes that "the conception of retaining the personality after liberation from matter frightens [materialistic people]". When I read this, naturally I considered myself a materialistic person and I wondered, Why? Why would retaining my personality after death / in heaven / in liberation frighten me so deeply?
And I reflected - I'm afraid to love.
Love is frightening.
When love is exchanged with another person, there is every possibility that I will be torn up and destroyed. Either the other person is indifferent to me (agonizing), betrays me (heart-shattering), or simply dies (total desolation). From the perspective of fear, love looks like a lose-lose situation that only ends with pain. Thus fear keeps us from pursuing or exchanging love with each other and especially with the Lord.
As for anger keeping us from loving God, sometimes all of this consideration about attachment and fear and personhood and liberation is just too much. There are so many religions and sects and doctrines and scriptures that some people just throw their hands in the air and scream from lack of understanding and frustration. Thus, "Being embarrassed by so many theories and by contradictions of various types of philosophical speculation, [people] become disgusted or angry and foolishly conclude that there is no supreme cause and that everything is ultimately void." This seems to be the only conclusion that such frustrated people can reach - throw it all out. Throw out all of the religions and doctrines and scriptures. I'm sure we can all relate with the experience of wanting to reach a very lofty goal, but the path to get there is sometimes so difficult, or so complex, or so painful, that in disgust we blame the lofty goal and discount it as not being worth it anyway. Similarly, the most worthy, loftiest goal - to give and receive pure love - is a path fraught with so many difficulties, complexities, and pain, that sometimes it's just too much. Throw in the towel.
But all of these people, those that are mired in attachment, fear, and anger, "are in a diseased condition of life." These people are not "out there." These people are right here, these people are US. WE are diseased. Surely we can identify with experiencing attachment, fear, and anger on the spiritual path to attain the highest destiny of our soul, to love and be loved. But that goal is so lofty, so high, that often we stumble and fall into a diseased condition.
But Krishna says that when we are freed of attachment, fear, and anger, we can attain love of God. In fact, He gives us hope by saying that "many, many persons in the past" engaged in the process of purifying their hearts to exchange love with Him. There is hope!
How do we get free of these stages of material consciousness? Srila Prabhupad writes, "One has to take complete shelter of the Lord, guided by the bona fide spiritual master, and follow the disciplines and regulative principles of devotional life." This is the path: take shelter of God and a teacher, and follow regulative principles. If we do so with sincerity, we can be safeguarded against the disease of attachment, fear, and anger and open our hearts to our highest destiny.
Full purport by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupad: https://vedabase.io/en/library/bg/4/10/
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