57: Fight or Flight or...?

CHAPTER 13, TEXTS 1-2: Arjuna said: O my dear Kṛṣṇa, I wish to know about prakṛti [nature], puruṣa [the enjoyer], and the field and the knower of the field, and of knowledge and the object of knowledge. The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: This body, O son of Kuntī, is called the field, and one who knows this body is called the knower of the field.

Animals live in fear. 

Always. 

Think about it - for the most part, animals/aquatics/insects/etc. are eaten alive. If they are not eaten alive, they are always in fear of being eaten alive. Imagine that. You are still alive and conscious, and another animal is eating your body. 

Maybe this sounds graphic, but this is just the reality of the material world. 

Human beings are animals too, you know. 

Maybe we don't live in fear of being eaten alive (other than those villains in Indiana Jones movies) but our fear manifests in two basic ways:

Fight

or

Flight. 

Either ramp up the adrenaline and start arguing/kicking/screaming/punching or

Turn away from the conflict/problem/situation as soon as possible and run away as far as possible. 

Fight or flight. So often we operate in these two modes of existence. Fear manifests in countless ways in our physical, and emotional lives, often plaguing our mental health. 

But there is a third option: 

Observe. 

Don't fight. Don't take flight. 

Just be. Watch. Observe. 

In his book Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey writes how between stimulus and response, there is a space. Living a conscious, effective, and inspiring life sometimes boils down to a simple process: widening that space. Acting from that space. 

Instead of reacting out of fear - fighting it out or running away - stop, pause, and consider the situation. Make a decision from a place of clear knowledge and presence. 

Conscious life and indeed spiritual life begins when we realize that we *can* make a choice and not operate from some automatic fear reaction. Making conscious choices is waking up to the most powerful function of the soul - free will. 

Making choices begins with understanding that we each have a body, and within that body is a soul. In this verse of the Gita, Arjuna is inquiring about the field (ksetram) and the knower of the field (ksetra-jna). Prabhupad writes how the body is the field of activity for the conditioned soul, and "the person, who should not identify himself with the body, is called kṣetra-jña, the knower of the field." 

This is the crux of the matter: the understanding that I - the soul - am the witness. Prabhupad writes how even a child can understand that the body goes through so many changes, but the person inside of the body does not change. The soul is the witness. 

Here in this verse, it's clear that there is a difference between the body (the field) and the soul (the knower of the field). Prabhupad emphasizes that "The owner is distinctly ksetra-jna." The field may be destroyed, but the knower of the field continues to exist. There is no need to fear. 

Being a little removed from all the drama of life alleviates fear, because I understand that all the pain and horror and death is happening within the field, not to me, the soul, the knower of the field. 

Our greatest challenge of fear will come for us all one day: death. We probably wont be eaten alive, but we will definitely die - whether that is tomorrow or fifty years from now.

Do I fight against death? Do I run away from it and numb myself? 

Or do I observe?

That's my choice. 

Making this choice is the beginning of conscious living. 

Full purport here: https://vedabase.io/en/library/bg/13/1-2/

34: Make A Choice: IGNORE-ance or KNOW-ledge

CHAPTER 7, TEXT 15: Those miscreants who are grossly foolish, who are lowest among mankind, whose knowledge is stolen by illusion, and who partake of the atheistic nature of demons do not surrender unto Me.

CHAPTER 7, TEXT 16: O best among the Bhāratas, four kinds of pious men begin to render devotional service unto Me – the distressed, the desirer of wealth, the inquisitive, and he who is searching for knowledge of the Absolute.

One evening when I was thirteen years old in Hawaii, I smoked marijuana with a few of my friends at an abandoned hotel. We then went to the beach and laughed and played in the shimmering blue water in the setting sun.

The night set in fast. My friends went home and somehow I ended up at the beach alone. This was an age before cell phones, so I couldn't call my parents. I had no money for a payphone. Besides, I thought nervously, I didn't want my parents to catch whiff of anything I had been doing.

So... I walked home.

In the dark, along roads where headlights blinded me and whizzed by, through quiet streets up the mountain towards my house, I walked. I was coming off the high from the marijuana, and one side effect is to become paranoid. So walking in the dark my mind conjured monsters, ax-murderers, and ferocious beasts. You're just coming down from your high, Bhakti, get a grip, I told myself. But fear flooded my veins.

By the time I got home, the high (and the fear) had worn off. I walked through my front door exhausted to the core of my being - not only by the fear, but by my attempt to have fun. What a shallow, unreliable, and futile method to experience happiness. I had simply become miserable.

That night, I vowed to never smoke marijuana again, or take any other mind-altering substance.

The next morning, I opened up an old songbook, filled with prayers by the saints in the Vaishnava tradition. I wanted to know - what is real happiness? Surely these people had it figured out, and maybe their songs would show me the way.

That fateful evening when I was thirteen was so miserable for me that I decided to turn to God. I could  have just as easily shrugged off the miserable experience as a one-off event and kept on smoking marijuana and stumbling in the metaphorical dark. But somehow, I made a choice.

There must be more to life than this. 

Show me. 

Please. 

That choice set me on a lifelong path for the pursuit of truth and love.

These two verses from the Bhagavad-gita, verses 15 and 16 of Chapter 7, highlight in such piercingly clear ways the types of people who refuse to turn to Krishna and those who do turn to Krishna.

Below I arrayed my analysis of these two verses and the analogous types of people, which is based on the commentary by Baladev Vidyabhusan; I wove in Prabhupad's translation and commentary as well.

Ultimately, the greatest distinction between these types of people is those people who choose to ignore Krishna (and cultivate ignorance) and those who choose to know God (and cultivate true knowledge). I did  not only make the choice to know God when I was thirteen - my relationship with God and the way I turn to Him continues to evolve over time. I am called to choose on a regular basis: turn towards or turn away?

These verses are not meant to condemn, but are meant to give us the clarity to understand our own relationship with God and to ask the question: Which one of these am I?

And then - make a choice.

Full Purports by Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupad here for Verse 15: https://vedabase.io/en/library/bg/7/15/
and here for Verse 16: https://vedabase.io/en/library/bg/7/16/

23: Changing the World

CHAPTER 5, TEXT 2: The Personality of Godhead replied: The renunciation of work and work in devotion are both good for liberation. But, of the two, work in devotional service is better than renunciation of work.

All over the world -

Flights grounded.

Factories closed.

Vehicle traffic has been reduced to a trickle.

From the very beginning of this coronavirus pandemic, I have been consumed with curiosity: does this cessation of human activity have a positive impact on our environment? Is the air cleaner? Water clearer?

There are some facts to indicate that yes, there has been a change:

Measurements of nitrogen dioxide pollution in China

An image of clear water in Venice canals

But there is always a caveat in any report that there is a positive environmental impact because humans are retreating: the change is temporary.

Very temporary.

In fact, it has been shown in the past that when there have been shutdowns as a result of outbreaks or even economic depressions (and thus a slowing of production and transportation), there is always a rebound, and the pollution gets even worse than before - often called "revenge pollution."

Sure, it's admirable to step back and pause and let go of all of these unnecessary activities, like going to sports games, shopping for a summer dress, or vacations to Mexico (I'm charged with all of these!). But staying at home and watching Netflix/reading/cooking/snacking/sleeping/taking walks/Zoom conferencing with friends-coworkers-classmates can only go on for so long. The video above seems to romanticize all of these empty cities and roadways of the world and kind of sigh in disappointment that China is reemerging to go back to work.

But humans must work. At some point, humans must emerge, and we shall emerge with a vengeance, because after all, we need to make a living AND make up for lost time.

So just because human beings on an unprecedented global scale are retreating indoors does not mean that the world will change at all after this crisis. Srila Prabhupad writes in this purport that, "Without Kṛṣṇa consciousness, mere renunciation of fruitive activities does not actually purify the heart of a conditioned soul." This means that renouncing activities does not have long-lasting effects. The key phrase here is to "purify the heart" - the world has become so polluted because our hearts have become polluted. An example is of a thief who has gone to sleep - sure, he's not committing crimes while asleep so everything seems fine. But once he wakes up, because he has not purified his heart of the stealing mentality, he'll simply steal again.

That said, Krishna does emphasize in this verse that "the renunciation of work... is good for liberation." The purpose of renunciation of work is to stop the frenetic engagement in enjoyment and suffering in the material world. In this sense, we can experience "liberation." I can certainly attest for myself during this time of "lockdown" here in New York City (the epicenter of the coronavirus in the United States), that I experience a beautiful, quiet space to reflect upon my life, like sitting upon the shore of a silent, still lake.

Without reflecting upon the bigger meaning and purpose of life, though, ceasing work is useless. Prabhupad quotes verses from the Srimad Bhagavatam (5.5.4-6), and one line says, "One is considered to be a failure in life as long as he makes no inquiry about his real identity." Fascinating, no? The material perception of failure is very external: one became a drug addict, or a nobody, or a corrupt wealth businessman, or a prison convict. We certainly wouldn't consider a Harvard graduate, Nobel Prize winner, New York Times bestselling author, or director of worldwide charities a failure. But this verse is saying here that they're ALL failures - from the drug addict to the Nobel Prize winner - if they have not made any inquiry into their real identity as a spirit soul.

Sounds extreme, but the fact is that happiness and suffering come and go, come and go endlessly, and no matter which way we look at it, we're still stuck on the same merry-go-round of pain and pleasure, pain and pleasure.

This time of renunciation of work should not be romanticized. It is a special time to reflect inward; atatho brahma jijnasa - the time to inquire to about my true spiritual identity and purpose is now. This is real knowledge and true success.

That said, knowledge is not enough. Like the thief who eventually wakes up, I need to purify my heart and then act upon that purified knowledge. Prabhupad writes, "Jñāna (or knowledge that one is not this material body but spirit soul) is not sufficient for liberation. One has to act in the status of spirit soul, otherwise there is no escape from material bondage." In this way, the two must go hand in hand - knowledge and action. Only then can there be real change in the world.

Sure enough, the canals in Venice will become polluted again, the nitrogen dioxide pollution levels in China will rise again, and the whole machinery of this world will kick back into high, furious gear.

And the global temperature will continue to rise, and the Amazon rainforest will continue to be burned down, and the islands of plastic waste in the ocean will continue to expand.

But I have this precious opportunity right now, within my grasp, to purify my heart, find my purpose, to be able to go out into the world again to live with restraint and love. That is the greatest change I can make in the world.

Full purport for Chapter 5, Text 2 by Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupad here: https://vedabase.io/en/library/bg/5/2/