Misdirected Love
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Misdirected Love
Beauty is the universal attractive principle in this world. Everyone in this world is spontaneosuly attracted to anything beautiful. But unfortunately, all beauty in this world is untrue, in the sense that it is painfully fleeting. One moment a thing appears beautiful and the next moment that beauty vanishes. Such beauty therefore has no truth in it.
The question therefore begs itself: are ‘truth’ and ‘beauty’ compatible? One may say that the truth is not always beautiful; indeed, it is often unpleasant. How can one express truth and beauty at the same time?
We can emphatically assert that the actual truth, which is absolute, is always beautiful. The truth is so beautiful that it attracts everyone, including the truth itself. Truth is so beautiful that many sages, saints and devotees have left everything for the sake of the truth. Mahatma Gandhi dedicated his life to experimenting with truth. Every one of us has the urge to search for truth alone, for the absolute truth is not only all-beautiful, but also all-powerful, all-resourceful, all-famous, all-renounced and all-knowledgeable.
Unfortunately, 99% of the population is chasing after the mirage of untruth in the name of truth. We are actually attracted by the beauty of truth, but since time immemorial we have been habituated to love of untruth appearing like truth. Therefore, to the mundaner, “truth” and “beauty” are incompatible terms.
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The Mundane and the Supramundane
In modern society, the material body, which is simply a lump of flesh destined to become ashes or animal stool at death, is unfortunately mistaken to be the real personality and is given all importance. And the spirit soul—the driving force of every body—is altogether neglected due to blind absorption in bodily consciousness. The real substance (spirit soul) is forgotten; the shadow (body) is given all importance.
Ask yourself this question: Who am I? Am I this body or am I different from the body? While living, this body is filled with flesh, bones, stool and many more abominable substances and covered in a nice package of skin and after death, it turns into ashes or undergoes organic decay. Once a scientist analyzed all the chemicals present in the body and the ‘market cost’ of the components of the body put together was just Rs. 100/-.
Now it is a serious question: Am I this body? Or am I the soul, different from the body? A proper authoritative answer to the question can place you on the royal road back to the kingdom of God. Unfortunately the whole world is busy in the rat race of economic development for increasing the comforts of the body. This endeavor can be considered successful and fruitful if only we were these bodies; if we are not, then all efforts to amass wealth, acquire degrees, purchase bungalows etc., go in vain and get lost in the sands of time.
Come, let us try to understand the supra-mundate spiritual reality—the atma or the soul—which acts as the prime mover of the body through an interesting story.
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The story of liquid beauty
Once a man, who was very powerful and strongly built but whose character was very doubtful, fell in love with a beautiful girl. The girl was not only beautiful in appearance, but also saintly in character, and, as such, she did not like the man’s advances. The man, however, was insistent because of his lustful desires, and therefore the girl requested him to wait for only seven days, and she set a time after which he could meet her. The man agreed and, with great expectations, he began waiting for the appointed time. The saintly girl, however, in order to manifest the illusory beauty of the material body and the real beauty of absolute truth, adopted a very instructive method. She took very strong doses of laxatives and purgatives, and, for seven days, she continually passed loose stool and vomited all she ate. Moreover, she stored all the loose stool and vomit in suitable pots. As a result of the purgatives, the so-called beautiful girl became lean and thin like a skeleton, her complexion turned blackish, and her beautiful eyes sank into the sockets of her skull. Thus disfigured, she waited anxiously at the appointed hour to receive the eager man.
The man appeared on the scene well dressed and well behaved and asked the ugly girl waiting there about the beautiful girl he was to meet. The man could not recognize the girl he saw as the same beautiful girl for whom he was asking; indeed, although she repeatedly asserted her identity, beacuse of her pitiabile condition he was unable to recognize her.
At last the girl told her suitor that she had separated the ingredients of her beauty and stored them in pots. She also told him that he could enjoy those juices of beauty. When the mundane poetic man asked to see these juices of beauty, he was directed to the store of loose stool and liquid vomit, which were emanating an unbearably bad smell. Thus the whole story of the beauty-liquid was disclosed to him. Finally, by the grace of the saintly girl, this man of low character was able to distingugish between the shadow and the substance, and thus he came to his senses.
This man’s position was similar to the position of every one of us who is attracted by false, material beauty. The girl mentioned above had a beautifully developed material body in accordance with the desires of her mind, but actually she was apart from that temporary material body and mind. She was, in fact, a spiritual spark, and so also was the lover who was attracted by her false skin.
Mundane intellectuals and atheists, however, are deluded by the outward beauty and attraction of the relative truth and are unaware of the spiritual spark, which is both truth and beauty at the same time. The spiritual spark is so beautiful that, when it leaves the so-called beautiful body, which in fact is full of stool and vomit, no one wants to touch that body, even if it is decorated with a costly costume.
We are all pursuing a false, relative truth, which is incompatible with real beauty. The actual truth, however, is permanently beautiful, retaining the same standard of beauty for innumerable years. That spiritual spark is indestructible. The beauty of teh outer skin can be destroyed in just a few hours merely by doses of strong purgatives, but the beauty of truth is indestructible and always the same.
This story can be an eye opener to the modern youths, who are misguided by the roaring propaganda of the materialistic civilization. Let us take a break from our hectic lives, sit leisurely for a while and think introspectively about what we are living for.
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Modern civilization – cage polishing culture
Once, a rich lady bought a gold plated cage for her parrot. She became so absorbed in polishing the cage that she forgot to feed the parrot within the cage, and consequently, the parrot became very weak. The body can be compared to the cage and the soul—the living principle—can be compared to the parrot in the cage. So, if someone takes very good care of the cage by polishing it clean, but ignores the needs of the parrot, then the whole purpose of keeping the parrot in the cage is defeated. Jesus asked, “What profiteth a man if he gains the whole world yet suffers the loss of his eternal soul?
Today’s society is centered on increasing one’s necessities by depending more and more on machines and technological gadgets. People are making unimaginably elaborate arrangements for bodily comforts and luxuries but spiritually everyone is starving and hence everyone is suffering. Just as a car needs petrol for running and the driver needs food, similarly our material body needs food for sustenance and our soul has to be fed spiritual food—spiritual knowledge and spiritual engagement. The human body is awarded with special intelligence to inquire about the Absolute Truth. And such inquiry is essential, because it alone can satisfy the soul. Therefore, one should work only to earn one’s sustenance and spend the balance time, energy and resources in understanding the ultimate goal of life and freeing oneself from the cycle of birth and death.
At this stage, some foolish persons may argue, “I am not interested in spirituality. I don’t care whether the soul exists or not. I will simply live my own way and enjoy life.” But the fact is that no one is allowed to live peacefully in this world unless he cultivates spiritual knowledge.
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Problems—real and relative
Everyone in this world faces varieties of problems. We are living in a strange relative world. After Diwali, there may be a long queue of toothache patients outside the dentist’s clinic. But the patient’s pain is the dentist’s joy. Thus one man’s food is another man’s poison. These problems are relative, that is, they may be of concern to one but not to another.
A problem can be considered real if it fulfills the following three criteria:
ï‚· It is common to all.
ï‚· Nobody wants it.
ï‚· Nobody can avoid it.
In this light, the real problems of life are birth, old age, disease and death and the threefold miseries, namely
Miseries caused by one’s own bmind and body (adhyatmika) e.g. stress, depression, backache, etc.
Miseries caused by other living entities (adhibhautika) e.g. envious competitors, mosquitoes, germs, etc.
Miseries caused by natrue (adhidavika) eg.g floods, famines, earthquakes, etc.
Birth: Birthi is an extremely painful periodd for the living entity. For ten long months the human fetus lies cramped within the darkness of the womb, suffering severely, scorched by the mother’s gastric fire, constantly jolted by sudden movements, and feeling constant pressure form being contained n the small sack, which surrounds the body int he womb. This tight, constricting pocket forces the chlid,’s back to rach constantly like a bow. Further, hungry worms int he abdominal cavity torment the unborn child. Thec hild passesstol and urine in the same pocket. After some time the same stool and urnie, mixed with his hair, becomes his food. Such is the misery of birth.
Old age: There is no indescribable suffering in old age. No one wants to grow old. But tby the power of inevitable time, everyone is forced to grw old. No one cares for an old man. His relatives are contantly thinking, when will this old man pass away? This is teh harsh reality. An aged person becomes an unwanted burden in the family. These days many youngsters prefer putting their old parent sand grand parents in old age homes. There these old people don’t et any love. so they tryto love cats and dogs in order to have something to live for besides having to helplessly endure the intolerable mental agony of neglect and disrespect, the old are also inflicted by their bodies with an ever-increasing variety of painful and debilitating diseases.
Disease: Today people are proud that medical science has prolonged the average human life span. But the fact is that we may be living longer than our ancestors, but we are not happier than them. By prolonging our life, we are only increasing our pain. There are so many different kinds of diseases. Though medical science is trying to find out remedies for them, medical history shows that by the time science finds the cure for one disease, another, even more deadly disease comes up, as has happened in the case of cancer, syphilis, gonorrhea, AIDS, etc. We may cure one disease for sometime, but we can not cure disesase per se. The pain suffered through diseasse is a common experience for everyone and needs no explanation.
Death: In the Garuda Purana, one of the ancient Vedic scriptures, it is mentioned that death is extremely paniful and the dying person experiences a pain that is equivalent to the simultaneous biting of 40,000 scorpions. The great sage Kapila informs his mother abouth the ghastly nature of the death experience, “in that diseased condidion the dying person’s eyes bulge due to the pressure of air from within, and his glands become congested with mucus. He has difficulty breathing, and there is a rattling sound within his throat... thus he dies most pathetically” [Srimad Bhagvatam 3.30.16-18]. The soul is so habituated to living in the body that he must be forced out by the laws of ntaure at the time fo death. Just as a person suffers greatly when he is forcibly evicted from his home, similarly the soul suffers immentsely when he is focibly kicked out of the body. In nature, we see that even the tiniest creatures display the most amazing abilities and techniques for escaping death when their lives are threatened. But as death is inevitable for all living being, so are the fear and pain associated with it.
So it is very improtant to percieve the evils of birth, old age, disease and death.
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The threefold miseries of material nature
Some people may argue, “The problems of birth, old age, disease and death come only once in a while. We can just ignore tham and enjoy life for the remaining time.” But over and above these four unsolvable problems, at every moment also, everyone is suffering due to at least one of the three miseries. These are:
ï‚· Miseries caused by one’s own mind and body (adhyatmika klesha): the body and the mind cause numerous problems. Some examples are: Every third American is forced to consult a psychiatrist due to mental frustration. In old age, the deteriorating body gives varieties of problems. For example, once a person grows beyond 80 years, he can neither sit nor stand without agonizing back pain.
ï‚· Miseries caused by other living entities (adhibhautika klesha): Even if you have a healthy body and mind, others will not let you live in peace even if everything is nicely arranged in your life, some other living entity, such as your enemy, boss, colleague relative, family member or friend, or, if no one else, then a mosquito or a virus, is sure to make your life miserable. For example, sometimes we see even so-called educated people in cities fighting in the court for a common verandah outside tehir flats for years together. Thus the lives of both odf them become miserable due to the unnecessary anxiety caused by the other praty.
ï‚· Miseries caused by nature (adhidaivika klesha): Floods, droughts, famines, earthquakes, hurricanes etc are devastating calamities imposed upon us through the agency of nature. Even if these come only occasionally, they wreck havock whenever they come. And moreover, we are being constantly tormented by the changes in the weather such as scorching heat, freezing cold, untimely rains, and so on.
Who can say that they are not being harrassed twenty-four hours by these problems,? Any intelligent person will naturally ask: why are these miseries imposed upon ME?
An analogy will answer this question. In India, the law-abiding citizens are allowed to live happily in the country, but those who are criminals are under the control of indian government and the government provides all the necessary facilities to both of them. Although the criminal is put in the jail, still the government provides him food, clothing, shelter and even medication, but under punishment. Similarly the rebellious living entities, who are not ready to serve the Lord, are unfit to live in the kingdom of God. So they are sent to this material world which is exactly like a jail. God has provided us food, water, air, light, etc but all these facilities are provided under the punishment of the threefold miseries of the material nature.
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Scientific Solutions: Stopgap and Temporary
All endeavors made in science are meant to reduce the miseries of man and increase his comforts. A fan is used to reduce the misery of sweating. A grinder is used to avoid the misery of manual grinding. A motor cycle is used to avoid the misery of pedaling a cycle. These are simple examples. In a similar way, all advances in science, technology and medicine are aimed at putting an end to miseries or, at least, reducing them.
However, scientific advancement provides only temporary stopgap solutions to man’s problems; they once again come up to the surface in some other form. There is a very instructive story to explain this point. Once, a man got a boil on his body. A doctor gave him an ointment to apply on it. He applied it and got cured. He was happy. But after a few days, he got a similar boil in another part of this body. He again went to the doctor. The doctor asked him to keep applying the ointment whenever the boil came. But the suffering man asked the doctor, “That’s alright. But every time I get the boil, it lasts for a week and, throughout that week, I have to endure severe pain. Is there no way to put an end to this problem altogether?” The doctor kept mum, because he knew no permanent solution to the boil problem. The patient went to another doctor, who could understand the root-cause of the problem ― impurity in the blood. He treated the patient’s blood and the patient was permanently cured.
What do we infer from this example? Originally we are all spirit souls, but now, having come to this material world, we are identifying ourselves with the material body. Because of this misidentification, there are so many problems and science is seeking superficial solutions. But the problems keep repeating just as the patient had trouble with the boils again and again. This is because people do not know the root cause of the problem ― misidentification of oneself with matter. Due to such misidentification, the spirit soul is forced to undergo the cycle of repeated birth, old age, disease and death.
Can our modern science solve these real problems? No. Never! How can we be so confident that science can never offer solution to these problems? It is because science can offer only material solutions and no material adjustment or manipulation can stop these problems. Therefore, spiritual solution is the only way out. At best, science can offer temporary stopgap patch-up solutions ― nothing more.
Science may find techniques to patch up our grey hair with dyes and straighten the shrivelled skin with face-lifts to cover up old age. The cosmetic industry is booming due to fear of old age and the insurance industry is booming due to fear of death. We may use wigs, cosmetics, false tooth sets, cooling glasses, nail polishes, etc. But these are no solutions; they are only ‘covering up’ the harsh realities of life. The body is, after all, a dead corpse, which is bound to decay and die. Where is the solution to death, old age, disease, and repeated birth?
We can arrive at the solution to these problems only when we know the root cause of all existence, the source of all beauty and the absolute truth ― God. There is no other way to get out of these sufferings permanently.
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Our choice: Flickering pleasure or everlasting bliss
The whole world is trying to eliminate suffering and unlimitedly increase pleasure, but no matter how much they endeavor, the result is only suffering. Why? What is wrong? At least this repeated frustration can bring one to the platform of sanity, to the understanding that there must be some supreme controller who is conducting this world to behave in a particular way. A Godless civilization centered around a rat race for sense gratification can never bring about peace and harmony; it can only bring about war and dissatisfaction.
Have you observed carefully that God, through the agency of nature, is encouraging you when you do good things and discouraging you when you do bad things? We can show vivid examples to substantiate this. People who indulge in illicit sex get AIDS and lose all immunity in the body due to which they may die contracting even a minor disorder like cold or fever. People who take tobacco, liquor etc., undergo varieties of complications. These are evidences to show that God does not want them to indulge in these things. A sensible hoarding said, “Jhing ksanaachi vaat maranaachi.” This is a Marathi phrase, which means ‘Things like cigarette, drugs etc., may give a momentary kick or pleasure but they pave the road to death. On the other hand, those who perform mantra meditation and cultivate the virtuous qualities of humility, sense control, austerity, cleanliness, tolerance, honesty, etc., do not suffer from such complicated ailments. In fact, they achieve peace of mind and happiness. In the Vedas, God has given us a suitable program for the benefit of the body, the mind and the soul.
Every religion, in essence, talks of a kingdom of God to which the soul belongs. The soul is constitutionally a resident of this eternal realm. The Supreme Lord is one amongst many souls, who are all subordinate to Him. Every soul is endowed with a minute, independence either to choose to love and serve God or to be independent of God and struggle for illusory so-called enjoyment in this material world. The souls in this world have chosen the second option.
Those who are willing to surrender to God through a bona fide spiritual master in disciplic succession (parampara), by following the instructions mentioned in the revealed scriptures, are called devotees and God personally takes charge of their protection and maintenance. And God’s external energy takes charge of punishing the other living entities. Just like any government has a prison department to deal with the criminals, God has created this material world for the rebellious souls to enjoy (or in illusion think they are enjoying). The soul being a part and parcel of God, can be happy only when he is serving God with love and devotion and not otherwise. The living being who desires to enjoy independent of God will never get satisfaction exactly like a fish out of water can never be satisfied with any amount of comforts. Only when the fish is put back in its original position in the water can it become completely happy. Similarly the spirit soul can be happy only in the spiritual world which is his original home. The so-called facilities and comforts of the material world can never satisfy the pure soul who is in search of eternal bliss through loving union with God.
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Material world ― A perverted reflection
In the Bhagavad gita, Krishna says that the material world is a perverted reflection of the spiritual world. Real society, friendship and love exist in the spiritual world ― but the material world is a temporary existence similar to a mirage in a desert. We are informed of this so that we may not wander like a restless foolish animal in search of water in a desert; no one can obtain water in the desert. This, however, does not mean that water is not available anywhere. Water is available in huge rivers and oceans. Similarly, the material world is a wrong place to search for happiness and such a search only leads to frustration. This, however, does not mean that nobody can find happiness anywhere. Real happiness lies in the spiritual world and can be achieved by loving surrender to God.
The spiritual world is like a mango tree on the bank of a river, which has many ripe mangoes hanging from it. The material world is like the perverted (upside down) reflection of that mango tree in the river waters. If a fool dives into the river in search of mangoes, can he obtain any mangoes? All that he will obtain is a broken head.
In the same way, this material world is a perverted reflection of the spiritual world. Therefore, one should not try to enjoy life through material sense gratification; instead one should intelligently regulate the senses in service to God and achieve everlasting spiritual pleasure.
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The goal of life: Purification of the heart & glorification of the lord
If we approach people and ask them, “What is the goal of your life? What do you want to achieve by all your endeavors?”, they will generally talk about their various materialistic plans having no connection whatsoever with the soul. It may even take them an entire lifetime to fulfill all those plans, but even if they somehow succeed, they will have to be leave everything behind at the time of death. The scriptures, therefore, explain that one’s main goal in life must be the purification of one’s heart of all contaminating desires against the will of Lord. We must essentially purify ourselves of the six primary misgivings (anarthas) in the heart - lust, anger, greed, pride, envy and illusion. As long as these misgivings continue to remain in our hearts it is impossible to develop divine and noble qualities. We should also glorify God with all our hearts, an activity that is natural for every living being.
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Seeing the everlasting truth & beauty face to face
When human society forgets its prime duty of serving God due to improper education, it fails in its endeavor for happiness and peace. The word ‘education’ comes from the Greek word ‘educare’, which means ‘to draw out that which is within’. True education, therefore, does not mean just imposing volumes of information into our brains, as is done in the modern times, it means to revive our original knowledge about ourselves, about God and our relationship with Him. When, due to ignorance, we di bit serve God, we are forced to serve mammon. Presently, we have forgotten our relation with God and hence we should learn the process of yoga, as described in the Vedic texts, by which we can revive our loving relation with the Supreme Lord. There are various processes like jnana yoga, ashtanga yoga etc., for attaining the Supreme, but in this age of Kali, which is described as the age of quarrel and hypocrisy, there is only one way - the chanting of the holy names of the Lord. This is confirmed in the Brhad-naradiya Purana:
Harer nama harer nama
harer namaiva kevalam |
kalau nastyva nastyva
nastyva gatir anyatha ||“In this age of Kali, the only process of self-realization is the chanting of the name of Lord Hari, the chanting of the name of Lord Hari, the chanting of the name of Lord Hari. There is no other way, there is no other way, there is no other way.”
There are hundreds and thousands of names of God and all of them are very powerful. But the Kali-santarana Upanishad specifically mentions a maha-mantra or, the great chant for deliverance, which is called the Hare Krishna maha-mantra:
HARE KRISHNA HARE KRISHNA
KRISHNA KRISHNA HARE HARE |
HARE RAMA HARE RAMA
RAMA RAMA HARE HARE ||The glory of this mahamantra is that it is non-different from the Lord Himself. In the material world, a substance and its name are different. For example the substance ‘water’ and the word ‘water’ are different; so a thirsty man may keep on yelling the word ‘water’ hundreds of times, but his thirst is not going to be quenched until someone brings him the substance ‘water’. On the contrary, his thirst is only going to increase. But in the spiritual realm, all living beings as well as the Supreme Lord are absolute. Thus the holy name of the Lord is non-different from Him, that is, by regularly chanting the holy names of the Lord, we can actually perceive His presence in those names.
Although the words in the maha mantra may appear to be a mere combination of some alphabets, nonetheless they are spiritu al seeds. Just like a child cannot understand how a 500-rupee currency note is different from ordinary paper, a common man may not appreciate the special spiritual potency of this holy vibration as compared to ordinary mundane words. Even if one is unable to understand the potency of the Hare Krishna maha mantra, still one can chant it and gain the benefit exactly like a patient who gets the benefit of the medicine administered by a doctor even if he does not know its potency.
The Supreme Lord is all-attractive. He is therefore supremely beautiful. When a living entity sees that Lord face to face, his tryst with eternal beauty is forever fulfilled. All his desires are fully satisfied and he lives an eternal life of bliss and knowledge.
Simply by the sincere chanting of the holy names of the Lord, one can achieve the ultimate goal of life of seeing everlasting beauty face to face. That stage is the perfection of one’s life. In that stage, one will feel boundless joy due to one’s loving relationship with the Lord and one will never depart from the truth even for a moment.
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Process of chanting Hare Krishna Maha-Mantra
Take the japa - mala in the right hand, holding it between the thumb and the middle finger the first finger is not used, as it is considered contaminated. Start at the bead next to the head bead.
Now chant the maha-mantra: Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare | Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare ||. Then move onto another bead. After chanting 108 times, you will again reach the head bead and will then have completed one mala or “round”. Now turn the beads around without crossing the head bead and start another round by again chanting sri krishna-caitanya prabhu nityananda sri-advaita gadadhara srivasadi-gaura-bhakta-vmda.
Chanting is simple but should be performed properly for best results. Chanting should be at least loud enough that a person next to the chanter can hear it. While chanting, concentrate on hearing the maha-mantra. This concentration is mantra meditation and is powerful for cleaning our hearts. It is difficult to stop the mind wandering but as with anything else practice makes perfect. Note that the mantra should be chanted distinctly so that each- syllable can be clearly heard.
The best time to chant is early in the morning (during the brahma-muhurta, the auspicious period before sunrise). One can chant in any situation - on a train, while going to work or waling on the street - but it is best to finish our fixed quota of chanting with full concentration early in the morning, before starting one’s routine daily activities.
HARE KRISHNA !
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If “truth” and “beauty” are incompatible terms, then the love to your mother is false. Therefore “truth” and “beauty” are compatible
