seeing the whole elephant

Old diary excerpt: 

I have to give credit to Srila Prabhupada. He taught me all the good there is in other beliefs, not just the incompleteness or what's missing which is what would mostly make up the differences. He helped me arrive at the conclusion that Krishna consciousness contains not only what every other belief has that is truth, but it gives the view of the whole forest from above the trees, including how all the other beliefs fit in.

It's like seeing the whole elephant. We may all be blind and each of us is trying to understand one part of an elephant, in other words we are spiritually blind, but we may have our own little truth or realization of one part of the whole truth. It may not be perfect, it may not be complete, but we have something to hold onto, to sustain us. That is until we meet a genuine guru like Prabhupada. A rare jewel who can see the whole elephant and reveal it to one who sincerely wants to see also. Then our truth becomes full realization. We can see the bigger picture. It is no longer distorted but crystal clear.

I mean, to learn to read we go to a teacher, right? So how should something as important as understanding spirit be any different? Some say the truth is within you; you don't need a teacher, but ironically that person has taken the position of a teacher!

Actually, we have a conditioned mind and senses, unable to penetrate the Absolute Truth. Lifetimes of conditioning. That is, until we meet one who can see what is what. We are bound, so we need the help of the unbound. The unbound can reveal to us our original spiritual nature, the transcendental position.

THE BLIND MEN AND THE ELEPHANT 

 It was six men of Hindustan 

To learning much inclined, 

Who went to see the Elephant 

(Though all of them were blind) 

That each by observation 

Might satisfy the mind. 

 The first approached the Elephant 

And happening to fall 

Against his broad and sturdy side 

At once began to bawl:

 "Bless me, it seems the Elephant 

Is very like a wall". 

 The second, feeling of his tusk, Cried, 

"Ho! What have we here 

So very round and smooth and sharp? 

To me 'tis mighty clear 

This wonder of an Elephant 

Is very like a spear". 

 The third approached the animal, 

And happening to take 

The squirming trunk within his hands, 

Then boldly up and spake: 

"I see," quoth he, "the Elephant 

Is very like a snake." 

 The Fourth reached out an eager hand, 

And felt about the knee. 

“What most this wondrous beast is like 

Is mighty plain," quoth he;

 "'Tis clear enough the Elephant 

Is very like a tree!" 

 The Fifth, who chanced to touch the ear, 

Said: "E'en the blindest man 

Can tell what this resembles most; 

Deny the fact who can, 

This marvel of an Elephant 

Is very like a fan!" 

 The Sixth no sooner had begun 

About the beast to grope, 

Than, seizing on the swinging tail 

That fell within his scope, 

"I see," quoth he, 

"the Elephant Is very like a rope!" 

 And so these men of Hindustan 

Disputed loud and long, 

Each in his own opinion 

Exceeding stiff and strong, 

Though each was partly in the right 

And all were in the wrong. 

 So oft in theologic wars, 

The disputants, I ween, 

Rail on in utter ignorance 

Of what each other mean, 

And prate about an Elephant 

Not one of them has seen! 

—John Godfrey Saxe

a reflection of reality

Old diary excerpt:

"The manifestation of the world is not accepted as false; it is accepted as real, but temporary. It is likened unto a cloud which moves across the sky, or the coming of the rainy season, which nourishes grains. As soon as the rainy season is over and as soon as the cloud goes away, all the crops which were nourished by the rain dry up. Similarly, this material manifestation takes place at a certain interval, stays for a while and then disappears." -Bhagavad Gita As It Is Intro

 Material nature is real but temporary. Real means eternal. Krishna is eternal and thus so are His energies. This was touched upon in a previous post "Divine Nature".

And Bhagavad gita. Verse 2.16 says, "Those who are seers of the truth have concluded that of the nonexistent [matter] there is no endurance and of the eternal [spirit] there is no change. This they have concluded by studying the nature of both."

Understanding the word "nonexistent", translated from the word "asat" in Sanskrit, is tricky. Nonexistent means a reflection of reality. Material nature is therefore a reflection or shadow. It is comparable to a photograph. Although charming it evidently pales in comparison to the actual experience being pictured. That's because it is confined within a time frame. Only a moment is captured, a reflection of the real thing. Similarly, the material energy, controlled by time, cannot compete in comparison, for anyone experienced with the Lord's spiritual nature.

It is sometimes compared to a dream. Only because of identifying with or absorption in the dream do we suffer. "The Mäyäväda (impersonal) philosophy  explains this phenomenal world to be false, but the experienced Vaisnavas do not agree. They know that the phenomenal world is a temporary manifestation, but it is not false. A dream that we see at night is certainly false, but a horrible dream affects the person seeing it. The soul's fear or fatigue is not factual, but as long as one is immersed in the illusory bodily conception, one is affected by such false dreams. When dreaming, it is not possible to avoid the actual facts, and the conditioned soul is forced to suffer due to his dream. A waterpot is made of earth and is temporary. Actually there is no waterpot; there is simply earth. However, as long as the waterpot can contain water, we can use it in that way. It cannot be said to be absolutely false." - Srimad Bhagavatam 5.10.21p

pleasant unpleasant

Old diary excerpt:

Today's question was "Does God get jealous?", referring to a statement in the Bible.

According to the Vedic view, there is transcendental emotion; everything in this world is a reflection of the real thing, yet contaminated by the modes of material nature. Transcendental emotion is always in relation to Krishna. Thus, even the unpleasant emotions are pleasant or sometimes described as "bitter sweet".

Here's an example from Sri Brhad Bhagavatamrta, "As Uddhava meditated on the great fortune of Krishna's devotees, he felt undeserving. He experienced the essential devotional prerequisite of dainya, utter humility. Uddhava was next confronted by the bhava of jealousy, intolerance of other's good fortune. This transcendental jealousy, however, was sattvika, born from pure goodness. ..Therefore it was a cause of joy. Having no trace of hatred, this ecstatic jealousy gave no distress to Uddhava or anyone else. Rather, in this jealousy he entered even deeper into the trance of his attraction to Krishna"

And there are many many examples of transcendental emotions displayed by The Supreme Lord Himself. When Lord Rama became angry at the ocean for not giving way to Lanka, Prabhupada commented, "The impersonalists will see havoc in this red-hot sentiment of the Lord because they want to see negation in perfection.... Due to a poor fund of knowledge, they do not realize that the sentiment of the Absolute Person is transcendental to all mundane concepts of quality and quantity.... As it is said in the beginning of the Srimad-Bhägavatam, the Absolute Truth is the source of everything, so the Absolute Person cannot be devoid of the sentiments that are reflected in the temporary mundane world. Rather, the different sentiments found in the Absolute, either in anger or in mercy, have the same qualitative influence, or, in other words, there is no mundane difference of value because these sentiments are all on the absolute plane. Such sentiments are definitely not absent in the Absolute, as the impersonalists think, making their mundane estimation of the transcendental world."

Also in verse 13.15 of Gita Prabhupada explains, "The Supreme Lord, although the source of all the senses of the living entities, doesn't have material senses like they have. Actually, the individual souls have spiritual senses, but in conditioned life they are covered with the material elements, and therefore the sense activities are exhibited through matter. The Supreme Lord's senses are not so covered. His senses are transcendental and are therefore called nirguna. Guna means the material modes, but His senses are without material covering (or material quality)."

Endeavor vs Fate

An old diary excerpt:

There is a story about three fishes. A problem came up. One fish acted immediately to solve the problem. The second fish waited until he absolutely had to do something and the emergency caused quick thinking that solved it . Third fish said, " What will be will be", and left everything to fate. Third fish perished.

Why? Because although "What will be will be" is a valid statement, it only is true after the endeavor. We still have to make decisions and endeavor correctly. Fate comes afterwards. For example, a person may endeavor properly but have bad fate because of past sinful reactions acting up and interfering. A war may break out or one loses everything from legal problems. Sastra actually says legal problem and disease are two types of karma. Similarly, even if person endeavors in bad ways, unexpected good can come due to past pious activities (along with the new karmic bill!).

And Krishna conscious endeavor means whatever is unfavorable for spiritual progress is rejected and whatever is favorable is accepted, instead of wasting time trying to counteract endless sinful reactions. 

We cannot fix material nature. We can only spiritualize our consciousness and let Krsna protect us from our remaining fate. A priority therefore is daily keep our connection to Krsna, but also dealing as necessary with whatever interferes rather than being fatalistic. That is the consciousness. And when problems don't work out despite our honest endeavor toward what is favorable to our priorities, it means Krsna must have other plans. We must trust in Lord with all our hearts. He is all good. Everything is meant to work out for our good.

 But it is up to us to follow the purification process, so that this life's entanglement will not continue next life as karma and mess up our good intentions. Endeavor is more important than fate, especially Krishna conscious endeavor to finally put an end to fate and have Krsna as our personal protector instead.

conversation with a cat

An old diary excerpt:

  
One day back in Dallas, I startled a baby bird hiding within a pile of laundry. The little bird frantically ran out the back door into the yard, but a cat was hiding there behind a tree and caught it immediately. I chased the cat, but within seconds I saw the small creature was hanging lifeless within its jaws.

At first I felt very angry, "How can you be so cruel, you stupid cat! That poor baby bird. I hate you!"

But when I calmed down, I remembered that this is the food cat's are allowed to eat by nature's law, and besides, what can you say to a cat? "Hey, you should be a vegetarian. It's a lot kinder you know?"

But that's only possible with a thoughtful human being. Someone may be a meat eater, but if you tell them  that meat eating is sinful and they take your good advice and become vegetarian,  Srila Prabhupada calls such persons "innocent demoniac." We may not know better at first, but when given good instruction we take it.

A very good example of innocent person who was demoniac was Mrgrari the hunter. He half-killed animals for sport because that's how he was taught by his father and grandfather, but when sage Narada walked by and pointed out his error and how he'd have to pay for his actions with future karma, Mrgrari became fearful and immediately surrendered to Narada as a disciple.

Some time later, by the association of saintly Narada and following his instructions how to become Krishna conscious, Mrgrari's heart became so softened he didn't even want to step on any ants unnecessarily.

So a human being is supposed to know better. We are supposed to find out what is right and what is wrong in this lifetime. Bhagavad gita 16.24 says, "One should therefore understand what is duty and what is not duty by the regulations of the scriptures. Knowing such rules and regulations, one should act so that he may gradually be elevated."

Otherwise the Vedas say we are krpana. Krpana means "miserly". A miser doesn't know how to utilize properly his wealth. This human body is of great value. It is a gift from Krishna and mother nature to question our suffering and find our way out of the cycle of birth, death, old age and disease.That way we won't have to end up in a cat body that can't reason properly or feel sympathy for a baby bird.

The Tree of Life

An old diary excerpt:

The story of Adam and Eve makes sense as an allegory presented by the Bible writers to teach the fundamental differences between matter and spirit and the fall and redemption of the soul. Their usage of the example of the "tree of life" is very interesting to me because in the Bhagavad gita 15th chapter is described a tree that is standing on the bank of a body of water and in the water is a reflection of that tree. The tree itself represents life and the reflection is an illusion although it appears to be the actual tree.

This tree of good and evil (the source of all duality) is said to rest on our desire. In other words, as Eve and Adam represents the typical human being, we get to choose from this "tree of life" what "life" we want to follow- the spiritual life (reality) or the material life (the reflection).

In India the serpent is commonly found in the banyan tree which is the kind of tree described in the Bhagavad gita, and the serpent is well  known in Vedic circles to represent envy, and it is interesting that causeless envy is taught to be the reason a soul abandons the Lord and tries to imitate Him instead. In this world which is like the kingdom of God without God, we see that all the fallen souls, everyone, wants to be lord of all he surveys, no matter how little it is that he has to control. Everyone wants to be the proprietor, the enjoyer, the best, the richest, the most beautiful, the strongest, most intelligent, etc. and that conception can be extended to whatever is connected to the body such as family, nation, religion, etc.

 But this desire can only be fulfilled by God creating an illusion that it is so, like when a mother hands a mirror to her child who wants the moon and he sees a reflection and is pacified . That's where maya's job comes in and is also the purpose of the material creation.

Thus the material world is like a playground for the rebellious until their misuse of their minute independence is rectified. God is supremely independent, but "made in His image" we have some independence ourselves, namely choice to love God or not. Choice must be there because that is what gives meaning to love. Maya's job therefore  is to keep us thinking we are in control when actually we are being controlled every moment, when actually we are always serving, we are in the position of servitude, especially  bound to this material body and senses. Yet we were designed to cooperate with the Lord, not to comptete. We simply have forgotten our actual position, due to desire, the base where the tree of life stands.

 Also the apple that the serpent tempts Eve with fits well with what the Vedas call the desire for the fruits of one's labor or fruitive work. This is completely the opposite of our original spiritual nature to serve God and offer the fruits of action to Him alone. Also I find it interesting that there is an allegory from the Vedas that gives further insight in this connection and talks about another kind of tree. Prabhupada mentions it in his Bhagavad gita purport 2.22:

"The Vedas, like the Mundaka Upanisad (3.12), as well as the Svetäsvatara Upanisad (4.7), compare the soul and the Supersoul to two friendly birds sitting on the same tree (the material body). One of the birds (the individual atomic soul) is eating the fruit of the tree, and the other bird (Krishna) is simply watching His friend. Of these two birds—although they are the same in quality—one is captivated by the fruits of the material tree, while the other is simply witnessing the activities of His friend. Krishna is the witnessing bird, and Arjuna (the forgetful soul) is the eating bird. Although they are friends, one is still the master and the other is the servant. Forgetfulness of this relationship by the atomic soul is the cause of one's changing his position from one tree to another, or from one body to another. The jiva soul is struggling very hard on the tree of the material body, but as soon as he agrees to accept the other bird as the supreme spiritual master—as Arjuna agreed to do by voluntary surrender unto Krishna for instruction—the subordinate bird immediately becomes free from all lamentations."
Here's the original Sanskrit, the mother of all languages:
samäne vrkse puruso nimagno
'nisayä socati muhyamänah
justam yadä pasyaty anyam isam
asya mahimänam iti vita-sokah
"Although the two birds are in the same tree, the eating bird is fully engrossed with anxiety and moroseness as the enjoyer of the fruits of the tree. But if in some way or other he turns his face to his friend who is the Lord and knows His glories—at once the suffering bird becomes free from all anxieties. Arjuna has now turned his face towards his eternal friend, Krishna, and is understanding the Bhagavad-gitä from Him. And thus, hearing from Krishna, he can understand the supreme glories of the Lord and be free from lamentation."

 So the soul that comes to this world aspires to enjoy the fruits of his actions for himself or herself. He used to take pleasure in the Lord's pleasure, but now he wants it all for himself or to share it only with those connected to his material body in extended selfishness. Not others. We are talking about the most base, selfish human beings here. There are different grades of selfishness. I tried to point that out with Bhagavad gita earlier - the different coverings-  it is all based on desire. It is not that God covers one person more than another. He doesn't play favorites.

And it is only when a living being desires to go back to God- by coming in contact with the faithful lovers of God- and to reestablish his eternal link  with the Lord by devotional service (yoga) that he can get free from the chain of fruitive work and its results. A banyan tree as mentioned above is a very good example for symbolizing just how entangled we become in the actions and reactions of fruitive work in this world.

So I noticed that when Adam and Eve ate the fruit they immediately became self centered instead of God centered (they saw they were naked). They immediately became self conscious instead of God conscious. Their vision shifted.

That is all that changes and when we become respiritualized - in other words, when our souls become reawakened or "living" once again instead of "dead" or asleep-that is all that changes, too. That is why a self -realized soul may look and act exactly like a fruitive worker. Externally they appear the same but internally there is a shift back to the original consciousness before we fell from God's grace. The self realized acts for God, not for personal sense gratification or fruitive results.

(Yet there are also several verses Krishna gives for detecting the self realized person because their association must be sought out by all means.)

 We are actually in the spiritual world already, it is only time and desire that separates us. Everyone has an eternal, spiritual body in which to associate with God (which is revealed as one progresses spiritually). It doesn't float unless you want it to. It's transcendental form. The spiritual body has FORM because remember from the "tree of life" example above, the material is a reflection of the spiritual. Everything in this world is a REFLECTION of reality. This whole world is a reflection of the real spiritual world full of all varieties. Therefore the material body does not come from something formless. God is not formless either. We are made in His image- the Bible says that too- His two armed human-like form which is very rare to behold.

And in His abode they have activities, pastimes going on always because there are the faithful there that never fall down called nitya siddha or eternally liberated. Nitya buddha means the opposite- eternally conditioned. We been here so long no one can trace out the history, but when we reawaken it will be like waking from a bad dream because in the vision of eternal time, our time spent here will be like only a moment.