81: Lamp of Knowledge

 

80: Freedom to Choose

CHAPTER 18, TEXT 60: Under illusion you are now declining to act according to My direction. But, compelled by the work born of your own nature, you will act all the same, O son of Kuntī.

In the beginning of the Bhagavad-gita Arjuna had a meltdown: faced with the prospect of killing his friends and family in the battle of Kurukshetra, he trembled, fell to his knees, and dropped his bow. He offered many reasons to his friend Lord Krishna to not fight in the battle of Kurukshetra. Objectively, his reasons were solid. Convincing. 

But if Arjuna was in so much emotional distress and his arguments were so solid, then why didn't he just walk away? I mean, it would've made sense.   

Nevertheless, something seemed to have nagged at Arjuna that his experience and perspective were not complete. 

So he asked his friend, Krishna, for guidance.

In response, Krishna spoke the entire Bhagavad-gita with the direction that yes, Arjuna should fight. 

As you can imagine, Arjuna's overwhelming desire to not fight and Krishna's strong urging to fight are at odds. Here, Krishna circles back to His friend's dilemma, stating with simple logic that he can either fight in this battle according to His (God's) direction or... he will "act all the same." 

Basically, Arjuna is bound to fight. The real question is under what energy will he be acting from - material or spiritual? 

This is a question for all of us. 

We're all bound to eat, sleep, and work in this world. Maybe our nature is to be a car mechanic, teacher, small business owner, a CEO, and usually our nature calls us to be a spouse - husband or wife - and parents - a father or mother. We're going to do these things, there's no escaping. "Escaping" implies that, well, I'm under the control or directive of something else. 

Prabhupad emphasizes that the nature of the soul is to be subordinate. He writes, "If one refuses to act under the direction of the Supreme Lord, then he is compelled to act by the modes in which he is situated." Note here how Prabhupad says "under the direction" and "compelled" - either way, the soul is not fully independent. 

Not fully independent. We still have some independence - we have our precious, priceless free will. 

We can choose which energy to be under - God's directive or the material creation's directive. One gives us greater freedom, one gives us greater bondage. The modes of nature are always binding us. Prabhupad writes that, "Everyone is under the spell of a particular combination of the modes of nature and is acting in that way." In America we value freedom to such a high degree, but Prabhupad is stating here that everyone is under the spell of the modes of nature. True freedom is an illusion as long as we're entangled in this world. 

Choosing spirit, though, opens the gateway to the deepest freedom. But to choose spirit is sometimes really, really hard. For Arjuna to choose to fight under Krishna's directive, instead of being roped in and moved around by his nature and the modes, is hard. It means that Arjuna needs to actually use the faculty of his free will to follow God's directive. If he doesn't follow God's directive, then he becomes a victim of circumstance - oh, well I was born with a certain nature, or my brothers forced me to fight, or I couldn't help myself. Arjuna thus becomes a victim of material nature, out of touch with his divine capacity to choose. 

But if Arjuna chooses to fight based on Krishna's directive, a difficult but conscious decision, he is no longer governed by his nature, or the circumstances of his family, or his emotions or mind. He is no longer a victim. Although Arjuna is still governed (by Krishna) he made a choice to be governed by divine will. Prabhupad writes, "But anyone who voluntarily engages himself under the direction of the Supreme Lord becomes glorious." The key word here is "voluntarily" - forcing oneself or being forced to be engaged under the direction of God means that the soul is not fully expressed. God may give His directions, but unless we accept those directions with our heart and soul, then we might as well be under material nature. But if we can access that free will, the gates of glory open wide - the glory of freedom, the glory of love. 

Full purport here: https://vedabase.io/en/library/bg/18/60/

65: Transcendental Bystander

 Arjuna asks three questions to Krishna (Chapter 14, Verse 21) and Krishna responds with the below verses (22-25), which are traditionally grouped together. I will be focusing on the words and phrases that I bold and underline.  

CHAPTER 14, TEXTS 22-25: The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: O son of Pāṇḍu, he who does not hate illumination, attachment and delusion when they are present or long for them when they disappear; who is unwavering and undisturbed through all these reactions of the material qualities, remaining neutral and transcendental, knowing that the modes alone are active; who is situated in the self and regards alike happiness and distress; who looks upon a lump of earth, a stone and a piece of gold with an equal eye; who is equal toward the desirable and the undesirable; who is steady, situated equally well in praise and blame, honor and dishonor; who treats alike both friend and enemy; and who has renounced all material activities – such a person is said to have transcended the modes of nature.

Talking about religion and saying the word "God" is now taboo. But the soul craves some kind of way to seek righteousness through reform and behavior. As a result, social and political issues and involvement seem to be the new religion. 

On the social level, there's the Me Too movement, Black Lives Matter, LGBTQ+ equality and pride, affirmative action, school shootings, abortion, and many more.

On the political level, there's the matter of Donald Trump being president, America's handling of its borders with Mexico, illegal immigrants, North Korea, involvement in the Paris Climate Agreement, voting, and many more.   

Of course, social and political issues overlap - Black Lives Matter is sometimes considered a political issue, the handling of illegal immigrants sometimes considered a social issue. In either case, in the past few years there seem to be marches and protests and riots on a regular basis; the people who participate are fighting for their voices and opinion to be heard, for a change to be made.

From what I have observed on social media and in person, the engagement with these issues escalates to an almost religious fervor. If one chooses to not engage with any or all of these issues, one runs the risk of being a "bystander" - one who just lets things happen without taking a stand for what is right. 

Krishna has a different perspective, though. 

In the previous verse, Arjuna has asked Krishna: What is the behavior of a person who has transcended the modes of nature?  

This fourteenth chapter has explored the modes of nature, specifically goodness, passion, and ignorance, and how they permeate this world and our existence. These modes are binding, even goodness. And so Arjuna is asking how to move beyond them. 

Yes, even goodness. 

Krishna replies that the symptom of one who has transcended these modes has "renounced all material activities." This could mean many things and this response could, quite frankly, be bewildering. But Prabhupad elaborates on this particular phrase in two sentences. 

In the first sentence, he says, "[The transcendentalist] is equally disposed and sees everything on an equal level because he knows perfectly well that he has nothing to do with material existence." This seeing everything on an "equal level" is key here, but what is important is to be able to see reality and then be on an equal level. If I deeply identify with being a woman, there is no way I can be equally disposed towards all. This goes for any material identity (such as race, age, sexual orientation, religious orientation, etc.). True equality and neutrality must come from a spiritually informed perspective that we are a spirit soul, that we have "nothing to do with material existence." That is spiritual reality and the foundation for an equal disposition. 

Prabhupad then specifically writes that a person who has renounced all material activities renounces connections to these ever-changing social and political issues. In the second sentence he writes, "Social and political issues do not affect him, because he knows the situation of temporary upheavals and disturbances." The material world is in constant flux, the modes of material nature in perpetual competition for supremacy (14.10). But our true, divine nature is not in flux - the soul and the Supersoul is steady, eternal, at peace. Getting deeply absorbed in the comings and goings of material problems is a never-ending, turbulent storm.  

For example, Donald Trump has been president for four years. The maximum term he could have held was eight years. People opposed him and supported him with feverish, religious fervor, but at the end of the day, his "reign" was four years, and if he had been voted into office for a second term, a maximum of eight years.  

Then the next upheaval would've come. 

Many of the issues listed earlier in this post have been under scrutiny for decades, but the past few years we've seen an explosion of talking about and shedding light on them. 

But they will come and they will go. This is not a pessimistic opinion dismissing important issues of the world. The statement that these issues will come and go is based on reality - social and political issues are temporary because they are born of the material world and the modes of nature. Material issues deal with the body, country borders, and the environment; for each of these issues there is a perpetual merry-go-round of goodness, passion, and ignorance fighting for supremacy. 

These are not issues of the soul. 

An important distinction to make here is that Krishna and Prabhupad are not recommending anyone to renounce material activities. Krishna and Prabhupad are describing the symptoms of a person who has transcended the modes of nature. 

So in this way, Arjuna could've asked the question flipped around: What is the behavior of a person who has not transcended the modes of nature?

And Krishna would've responded, logically, "He is deeply absorbed in material activities" and Prabhupad would've elaborated, "He is affected by social and political issues, thinking the problem to be permanent and that he must be the one to solve the problem." 

As a reader, we are now faced with a choice: which person do I want to be? 

Full purport here: https://vedabase.io/en/library/bg/14/22-25/

62: Illuminating Presence

CHAPTER 13, TEXT 34: O son of Bharata, as the sun alone illuminates all this universe, so does the living entity, one within the body, illuminate the entire body by consciousness.

So simple. 

So sublime. 

The sun is one, and yet it illuminates and animates the whole earth. A symptom that the sun exists is that we see light. 

Krishna says in this verse that similarly, the tiny spark of the soul illuminates the body. A symptom that the soul exists is that we experience consciousness. Prabhupad writes, "Thus consciousness is the proof of the presence of the soul, as sunshine or light is the proof of the presence of the sun." One may ask how  consciousness is "proof" of the presence of the soul - why are there no other ways to prove the presence of the soul - say a microscope? Of some kind of energy meter...? 

In the previous verse, Krishna compares the soul to the sky - how the sky mixes with everything and at the same time is aloof and is never contaminated. The purport reads, "Similarly, the living entity, even though situated in varieties of bodies, is aloof from them due to his subtle nature. Therefore it is impossible to see with the material eyes how the living entity is in contact with this body and how he is out of it after the destruction of the body. No one in science can ascertain this" (13.33). The very nature of the soul is subtle and immeasurable to some kind of microscope or energy meter. Trying to manufacture some method to directly perceive the soul is pointless. As Prabhupad mentions here, "no one in science can ascertain" the soul or how or when it moves and functions. The soul itself is subtle. 

But we can perceive the soul through the symptoms of the soul, and the most obvious symptom is consciousness. We don't need fancy instruments or fancy scientific calculations to perceive the soul. The logic is simple: "When the soul is present in the body, there is consciousness all over the body, and as soon as the soul has passed from the body there is no more consciousness. 

"This can be easily understood by any intelligent man." 

Yes! The key word here is "easily" - this is easily understood! How is someone who has died referenced?

"She left us."

"He is gone."

"She is no longer with us."

Or maybe someone in grief, weeping at the bedside crying out, "Where are you?"

In all these situations, the body is right there. How is he or she "gone" or "no longer with us" and why would one say, "where are you?" if we can touch and see the body? 

The soul has gone, the soul is no longer with us, we are asking where the soul is. The soul is what illuminated the body with consciousness, like the sun illuminating the earth. "Therefore consciousness is not a product of the combinations of matter. It is the symptom of the living entity."

The living entity is not a product of matter - the soul is of a spiritual, divine nature. 

So simple. 

So sublime. 

The most reassuring part is that over and over again in the Gita and in other Vedic scriptures the soul is described as "eternal" and "undying", so when the soul "leaves" the body it's not like the soul is snuffed out like a candle, forever extinguished into oblivion. (This is a common belief of atheists.)

No. The soul leaves the body and moves on to another body. I mean, if the soul is eternal (and not just snuffed out) and it's not ready to go to heaven or back to God, what else would the soul do? The soul has a journey. Each body is a portion of the soul's journey.

I hope I can use this time wisely while my soul is in this current body. 

I hope to cultivate love and cleanse my heart, and seek God. 

I hope to live a life of purpose with each day, no matter how simple. 

And when the day comes when the lights go out forever on this life in this body and my soul travels on to my next destination, I hope the journey will take me ever closer to love and to God. 

Full purport here: https://vedabase.io/en/library/bg/13/34/

Day 31: A Really Good Question

CHAPTER 6, TEXT 38: O mighty-armed Kṛṣṇa, does not such a man, who is bewildered from the path of transcendence, fall away from both spiritual and material success and perish like a riven cloud, with no position in any sphere?

Arjuna has received instructions about the nature of the soul and  the supreme value of pursuing the spiritual path. These instructions are so logical and make so much sense, it's difficult to deny that the ultimate goal of human life is to set one's mind on Krishna and offer one's very self in devotional service.

But Arjuna has a doubt.

This goal is so high - love of God - that it seems unattainable.

So Arjuna is wondering - on behalf of all of us - if I fall from the spiritual path, where will I fall?

What's more, if one is on the spiritual path, then maybe material life is neglected. So not only would someone fail at spiritual life, s/he would fail at material life too. Double whammy! Prabhupad writes: "If the aspiring transcendentalist fails, then he apparently loses both ways; in other words, he can enjoy neither material happiness nor spiritual success." This is a lose-lose situation, and it's a possibility for each and every one of us:

Failure.

No progress, no success, no belonging, just...

You failed.

Prabhupad defines the term "riven cloud":  "A cloud in the sky sometimes deviates from a small cloud and joins a big one. But if it cannot join a big one, then it is blown away by the wind and becomes a nonentity in the vast sky." Note that the cloud may start off in a smaller cloud - this represents being in the material world, with relatively small goals and small aspirations. When a cloud breaks off to join a bigger cloud, this represents the soul's desire to achieve something much grander than itself. But when the cloud fails to belong in that spiritual place - the soul is "bewildered on the path of transcendence" - then it wanders and dissolves into nothingness. It belongs neither here nor there - it is "riven."

Arjuna's fears strike a deep chord. Not only do humans want to succeed in an endeavor, they also need to belong. Karyn Hall, Ph.D. writes in her article "Create a Sense of Belonging" in Psychology Today, "A sense of belonging is a human need, just like the need for food and shelter." The possibility that one may not belong anywhere and simply dissolve into a "nonentity" is a frightening prospect indeed. We're hardwired to be connected to something bigger than ourselves. But the problem is that we could fail to belong, and we could fail to succeed in life. 

In his question, Arjuna is expressing some of our deepest fears: failure and belonging nowhere.

Don't you notice that when a question is good, like, really good, we want to know the answer? Well, now we're set up. We want to know.

So let's lean in and hear what Krishna has to say.


Full Purport by Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupad here: https://vedabase.io/en/library/bg/6/38/

Hall, Karyn. “Create a Sense of Belonging.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 24 Mar. 2014, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/pieces-mind/201403/create-sense-belonging.

20: The Disease and The Cure

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/