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Three Basic Views Of The World . Radhanath Swami: There are…

Three Basic Views Of The World .
Radhanath Swami: There are three basic views of the world we live in. One is the very materialistic view wherein people see this world as the only real reality. Another is that world is an entirely an illusion, and the third is the best of view, that the world is the sacred property of God. It is real but it is temporary in its manifestations.
Now the conception that the world is the only true reality leaves one with the consciousness that it really doesn’t matter what we do as long as we get what we want. If we hurt people, if we trample on moral values, ethical principles, if we get money, fame, power, sensual and emotional pleasures, its all justified because as that saying goes, “eat drink and be merry because tomorrow may never come”. When we believe that this world is the only reality then even our so called moral principles are built on a very weak foundation because when temptation and fear come, why not break our moral and ethical values if I can get something better. Then we become victimized by greed, envy, lust, anger, arrogance and illusion. We see it so prevalent in the world today. This conception that if it feels good now it doesn’t really matter what else. What matters is me. So much is based upon what makes me happy, what can I acquire what I can call “mine”. In other words, its a world that is so much conquered by this tendency of selfishness and egoism, and so much of that is born from the conception that the world is the only reality.

Another conception is that the whole world is nothing but an illusion. It doesn’t actually even exist. The truth is real but the whole world is an illusion. For those who are thinking like this it is a good impetus for liberation after death because if the world is an illusion it doesn’t matter if we live or die, what matters is that somehow or other we get out of it as soon as possible. Now the environmental and ecological conditions of the world today is extremely precarious. This philosophy that this world is an illusion, if we see all these environmental issues happening, who cares. It doesn’t exist. Let everyone pollute the rivers and air because this world is an illusion. Our impetus is to just get out of this crazy contaminated condemned world and what we really leave behind doesn’t really matter because this world is an illusion. Where is the call for action within the world we live. The call of action is only to get out.

But then we have the Vaisnava philosopy of Srimad Bhagavatam and Bhagavad-gita, that Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Vallabhacarya, Ramanujacarya, Madhvacharya, all these great souls taught. They taught om purnam adah purnam idam according to Sri Isopanisad. The Absolute Truth is the source of everything that exists. It is perfect and compete and everything eminating from the Absolute Truth is all perfect and complete. The material world and the spiritual world – everything is coming from Krishna. Sarvaloka mahesvaram, Krishna says in Bhagavad-gita, this whole world is God’s property. If we see it in this way we are free from that greed, envy, lust and anger because we understand I am not the proprietor, I am the caretaker. If we see someone else doing well we celebrate their good fortune because we understand we are all brothers and sisters, we are all spirit souls, children of God. We are not envious. Exploitation is the symptom of the disease of the selfish egoistic heart. Compassion is the symptom of a person who has actually found inner fulfillment within their hearts.

So this is so important for the world to understand today – that we must build our lives and relationships with other living beings, humans and other species of life, with Mother Earth and the environment on the principle that everything is sacred.

Maya means the energy of God and maya is categorized in two ways: mahamaya and yogamaya. It’s the same energy. This whole material world is God’s energy. All the manifestations within this energy are under the influence of time and therefore are temporary and under the three modes of goodness, passion and ignorance. The spiritual energy is sat-cit-ananda, eternal, full of knowledge and full of bliss. But what is the difference between these energies? It really is under the basis of our perception. If we see this world as God’s energy, as Krishna’s property then we are seeing it in its true spiritual nature. But if we don’t see it in relationship to God then we see it as” this is mine, this is yours”. This results in so much conflict. But true religion is meant to unite people not divide people. These religions are all manifestations of God’s grace on humanity to come to this earth to give us an understanding how we are all children of God. Wherever there is life there is a sacred child of God. Everything is the property of God and we are meant to be a family to utilize it properly.

This conception understands that everything in this world is meant to be used for the purpose of seva, or unselfish service. It is our sacred duty to God to honor and respect everything in this world as his sacred property and to use it in a spirit of service. If you own a business, own a house, have a family, have wealth, property, it’s all the property of God and used in harmony with God’s will which is to keep it all very very pure as far as possible. So in order to engineer a better world it has to begin by engineering a proper preceptive and realization of the world. Engineering our own inner consciousness to the degree we actually understand the beauty and the love and the greatness of Krishna, to that degree we will actually love Krishna and we will see everything in this world as a beautiful opportunity to serve Krishna and to elevate people’s lives and consciousness. – Radhanath Swami

Can I get out of here?

admin Brahamananda Das 0

I sent a telegram to Prabhupada saying, “Can I get out of here?”

Brahmananda: In 1971 Prabhupada was having big public programs in India, and one evening an Arya Samajist challenged Prabhupada. He said, “Oh, Swamiji, you have come to India with your western chelas, but we know all these things. This is our culture. Better you go to the other places and do your work there. All right, you have been to the West, but what about the Muslim countries? What about Pakistan?

You should go to Pakistan and preach there. Make them devotees.” This was in a public pandal with thousands of people. Prabhupada said, “You are challenging us to go?” The man said, “Yes. I challenge you. You must go to Pakistan.” Prabhupada said, “All right. We will go.”

Prabhupada wrote a letter to me, “Immediately go to West Pakistan.” He also wrote to Gargamuni, “Immediately go to East Pakistan.” We got these letters and we left the next day. I didn’t have any money. Somebody paid for the bus from Florida to New York. Gargamuni had money so he flew. I had to go by overland to India— hitchhiking, buses, trains, whatever way I could go.

At that time a war was starting. Prabhupada found out about the war and the hostilities between Pakistan and India afterwards and then wrote a second letter saying, “I don’t advise you to go at this time.”

But we never got that letter. We had already left. We walked right into a war situation. It was difficult, but we were preaching and trying to do something. I was in Karachi. North of Karachi is the Singh Desert, the hottest place in the world, averaging 125 degrees. It was May, the hottest month, and I was sick with dysentery.

I had no books, people were spitting on me on the street, threatening to put a knife in my back. When we had kirtan, people would rub off our tilak and spit. What a situation!

Then a report appeared in the Pakistani and Indian newspapers saying, “Four Hare Krishna Missionaries Shot.” In Bombay, Karandhar showed Prabhupada the newspaper report. It didn’t give any names.

Gargamuni was with Pusta in the east, and I was with Jagannivas in the west. There were four of us. Prabhupada was very disturbed. He thought that we had been shot.

I sent a telegram to Prabhupada saying, “Can I get out of here?” Prabhupada sent a telegram back, “Come immediately, Bhaktivedanta Swami.” Four words. Those were the best four words. To get out of the country was a big thing. Somehow we were able to get out. I came to Bombay and went to the Akash Ganga Building where Prabhupada was staying.

When I walked into his room, Prabhupada immediately got up, came over, put his arms around me and hugged me to his chest. He was putting his hands all over me just like a mother would touch her child if she thinks that he has been hurt. The mother wants to see that the child is still intact.
–Brahmananda dasa

What is the Difficulty? Some Help with Making New Year’s Resolutions

admin MahatamaDas evolution, new year, resolution 0

By Mahatma das

Since the new year is around the corner, it’s natural to talk about new year’s resolutions. You might be thinking about doing something you’ve put off or making some changes for the new year. You might even be making the same resolutions you made last year at this time. Or maybe you just don’t make them anymore because you never follow through on them anyway.

“There’s hope”

Do You Just Want It or Are You Committed to Get It?

Srila Prabhupada cites Dhruva Maharaja as a perfect example of determination. He says that we should be as determined to be Krsna conscious as Dhruva was to see Krsna. Dhurva was willing to undergo any austerity to see Krsna. We learn from this that there’s a big difference between wanting something and being committed to achieving it. This is the difference between determination in the mode of ignorance and determination in the mode of goodness. In the mode of ignorance determination doesn’t get past the dreaming stage. In the mode of goodness determination is unbreakable and sustained by constant self control.

Have you ever thought it would be nice to achieve something – but then not do much about it? If you have, you probably didn’t achieve it. However, have you ever committed yourself to achieving something no matter what the cost? If you have, it’s likely you succeeded. So if you make a new year’s resolution and are not committed to achieving it, there’s a really good chance you won’t follow though.

There can be many reasons why you wouldn’t commit, but one of the most common is to think you can’t do it. We often tend to minimize our own abilities and thus see many of our goals as difficult or impossible to achieve. Yet it’s more often the case that we are qualified to do it and either we haven’t tried hard enough or we simply haven’t learned how to do it (BTW, successful people as a class are not super talented and don’t have super high IQ’s).

“Determination”

Although there may be many obstacles on the path of the sincere devotee who is preaching the glories of the Lord, such obstacles increase the determination of the devotee. Therefore, according to Srila Jiva Goswami , the continuous obstacles presented by the demigods form a kind of ladder or stairway upon which the devotee steadily progresses back to the kingdom of God.

One of the common factors among very successful people is that they all had tremendous obstacles to overcome. It was the problems they had to overcome that drove them to greater and greater heights.

In 1982 I went to Johannesburg, South Africa to be the temple president. When I first arrived I quickly learned that things had not been going well. It was a constant uphill battle just to keep things from falling apart. After some time I was finding it difficult to maintain my enthusiasm. One devotee suggested that it would be beneficial for me to read the Prabhupada lilamrita. As I read about all the struggles that Prabhupada faced in establishing, maintaining and pushing on Iskcon, I understood that if I allowed myself to become deterred by obstacles I would never be able to achieve anything significant. I then felt strongly that Krsna had put Prabhupada through so many difficulties in order that we have his example before us. Prabhupada faced the greatest challenges. And these challenges simply made him more determined.

How do you react when you are faced with repetitive challenges?

“Walking on the Head of the Obstacle”

In the previous chapter it was explained that although the demigods place obstacles in the path of the Lord’s devotees, by the mercy of the Supreme Lord the devotees are able to place their feet on the head of such obstacles and thus pass beyond them to the supreme destination.

You can tell the caliber of people by the amount of opposition it takes to discourage them. Obstacles will look large or small to you according to whether you are large or small. Did you know that legal immigrants – most of whom have fewer advantages over native-born Americans – are four times more likely to become millionaires? Therefore, we shouldn’t pray that Krsna put smaller obstacles in our way, but we should pray that he give us the strength to overcome the obstacles.

When Prabhupada told devotees how to deal with their problems (which was always to be more Krsna conscious), he would often say, “What is the difficulty?” He meant Krsna consciousness is the easily available solution and the only difficulty is not taking this solution.

“Change Doesn’t Come Easy”

Following through on a resolution usually entails making a change – and change is not always easy. If we don’t like something, we want to change it. The problem is we desire change for everyone other than ourselves! Changing ourselves often entails changing long standing habits, and that can be difficult. Did you know that when Columbus set sail for new lands most people thought the world was flat and that he was going to fall off the end of the planet? Of course that didn’t happen, proving that the world wasn’t really flat. Yet people were so resistant to change that most everyone kept on believing the world was flat while the younger generation was being taught in school that the world is round.

“From the Inside Out”

Unless you make a change within it’s unlikely that you will make a change without. One of the difficulties we face in changing is that we cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are. When you want something you’ve never had, you have to do something you’ve never done.

“Act like the person you want to become. Before you can do something, you first must be something.” (Goethe)

That can be scary. We tend to cling to what we know, even if we are not satisfied with it. Fear holds us back. Yet the only way to overcome the fear is to go out and do the very thing we are afraid of doing.

If you make new year’s resolutions, realize that you probably desire improvement – yet at the same time resist change. The problem is you cannot get one without having the other. The reality is that change is possible only if you want it bad enough. You are the way you are because that’s the way you want to be. If you really wanted to be any different you would be in the process of changing right now.

“Continually Commit”

One of the most important things to understand is that committing to change is not a one time affair. You must commit continually. I think a lot of us make the mistake of thinking we have committed to something when what we did was make a decision to change or commit, but not a decision to commit daily.

“Focus on Solutions”

If you make a resolution and have trouble following through and then start to become discouraged, you can do one of two things – and the one you choose will color your perspective. You can look to place the blame or you can look at yourself to discover your opportunities. The choice is yours. Life is usually 10 percent what happens to you and 90 percent how you react to it. So think what you can do, not what you can’t do. The more you hit roadblocks, the more you need to devise ways to get around them. Keep trying if something doesn’t work.The more you think about solutions, the more solutions you’ll come up with (dadami buddhi yogam tam).

Success is really just the ability to solve problems. Overcoming an obstacle is simply solving a problem. Every person has to face obstacles, make changes, and deal with problems. Successful people are just better than the average person at dealing with the same kinds of problems you and I face everyday.

So if you are dealing with difficult problems, imagine yourself sitting in front of Srila Prabhupada as he instructs you to be more determined to follow Krsna consciousness and then asks you, “What is the difficulty?” That one question can make the biggest problems appear insignificant.

“Exercise”

Here are some questions to answer that will help you move forward.

1) What specifically is holding you back from making or following through on a resolution?

2) What must you do to overcome what’s holding you back?

3) Which of these will you pursue, what will you do, and when (write down on your a calendar or daytimer what you will do and when you will do it)?

4) If you don’t get anywhere, go back to question one.