by Pandava bandhava das
We all know that we are not this body. Most of
the time, however, this is merely a theoretical understanding. It is not
realized knowledge, not yet. Most of the time we, though accepting that we are
not the body but the spirit soul, act in a way that is pleasing to the body and disregard the soul. Of course there is provision for
that, it is called varnasrama. Varnasrama provides the appropriate lifestyle
for people who know that they are not the body, but are still attached to the
bodily concept. Varnasrama gives opportunity to such people to apply this
knowledge in their life and to not only accept that they are the soul, but to
start acting as a soul. The same applies to sadhana bhakti.
For example when the alarm goes off at 4 AM we are given the opportunity to act as a spirit soul, get up our body, shower, put on
fresh clothes and tilaka and attend the Mangala Arati. When we take the vow to follow the
regulative principles we are given the opportunity to act on the platform of
the soul. When we are asked to go out on the cold street to distribute Srila
Prabhupada’s books, thus ignoring the protests of our mind, this is also an
invitation to turn our theoretical knowledge into realization by acting in our
natural capacity as a spirit soul, a servant of Krisna, svarupena vyavastitih.
What is required in order to advance spiritually is a healthy dose of stretching our
limits beyond our zone of comfort. That is why we have days like ekadasi, the mother of devotion, festival days when we fast and perform
more service, months like the Kartik or the Prabhupada marathon. These are
opportunities to act more on the platform of the soul and less on the bodily
platform, it is a chance to realize that we are not
going to die if we don’t eat and drink for one day, that
we are not going to die if we do a little extra service. It pulls us out of the bodily consciousness and brings
us to the threshold of raga
bhakti.
We do not always take these opportunities very
eagerly. This is because we are still attached to the bodily pleasures. In
other words, we are still attached to the
illusion that we are matter. We do not often spend a
lot of time contemplating on our spiritual identity either. The proof of this is that when we hear the
words “we are not this body” in a lecture, they often feel painfully boring. That is not interesting. We would
rather hear some new stories (of course we forget
that we would be able
to actually appreciate such
nectar stories only when we realize our spiritual identity). Why isn't it
interesting to hear that “we are not this body”? Because it is not important to
us; we rarely take the time to contemplate on this, therefore we are not
interested. Life is quite OK as it is, why bother so much? On the other hand,
if you often think about solving a problem that you consider important, then
any information or realization how to solve it, any help from a fellow who struggles with the same issue, is of great
interest to you.
So we are still on the bodily platform and we
are not always super eager to move forward to the spiritual platform. Why do we hear then so often the “We are not
this body, Prabhu” excuse, and quite often from the very type of people who
find the same utterance boring when they hear it in a lecture?
Here is the trick, instead of using this “maha
vakya” as an inspiration to advance spiritually, some decide to use it as an
excuse to deepen their material identification by warding off all attempts to
challenge and purify their material conditioned nature. That sounds like a
paradox, which it is; this is precisely the problem. Instead of being used as an impetus for
overcoming one’s conditioned nature, as a motivation to get out there and
preach boldly the Mahaprabhu’s message, “We are not this body” has been used it to justify our unwillingness to do so. It has
been used to justify claims for socially prestigious positions of authority and
power, dhanam, janam, sundarim,
precisely the things a devotee should avoid.
For example, “We are not this body, Prabhu, so
I can do anything I desire, my material qualification does not matter, because
again, we are not this body. I can be a Guru, I can be the TP, I can give the
class at the Sunday feast, I can dress the deities for the festival, I can cook
for the Deities, I can lead the
kirtan…” It is curious that we only hear claims for services that are socially
prestigious. We never hear, “We are not this body, so I demand to be allowed to
clean the toilets in the brahmacari asram, to wash the pots after the Sunday
Feast, to wake up the Deities the morning after the big festival when nobody is there,
to get in the sankirtan van and to travel for couple of months straight
distributing Srila Prabhupada’s books meanwhile taking shower in the cold
outside…” No, we don’t hear that interpretation of “We are not this body”.
In other words, some want to use this statement as an excuse for acting whimsically
without following the rules all the while forgetting that while we are not the
body, the body is the body and will still act in the way prescribed for it by
Krishna, and that as long
as we identify with it we will also follow its
dictation.
Another popular term used in the same way is
yukta vairagya. However, the definition of yukta vairagya is:
anasaktasya visayan yatharthan upayunjataha nirbandha krsna sambandhe yukta vairagya ucyate
When one is not attached to anything but at
the same time accepts everything in relation to Krishna, one is rightly situated above possessiveness.
Yukta vairagya is just the practical
application of acintya-bhedabheda-tattva. It is the practical solution as to what a spirit soul
should do in the material world. We are souls in a material body; we do so-called material
activities but with detachment and the desire to please the Lord. Not
that we use yukta vairagya to facilitate our false identity of a controller and enjoyer. I am not
this body so I can do anything I desire. For example, imagine Mother Yasoda
says, “I am tired of staying in the kitchen. I want to do the yajna. I am not
this body.” Of course she is her body. But this is precisely the point here;
even those who are their bodies, follow their particular nature because this is
pleasing for Krishna.
So at one point we will have to give up our
material identity, no matter how expertly we defend it. Spiritual instructions
are meant for spiritual advancement, we should not use them to cover up and
rationalize our material attachments.
How do you advance? You put your foot on the
next step, your other foot still being
on the lower step but you are willing to advance, so you then put both of your feet on the next step. That means at one point you have to reject your
attachments which keep you on the lower levels. As Krsna says in Bhagavad-gita asanga sastrena
drydena cittva.
So we should use sastra and dharma for
spiritual advancement, not for rationalizing our material attachments.
Intelligence is given to us to understand and apply the
Vedas in our life. To have material
attachments is OK, we all have them. But to hold on to them and to profess that it is OK to have them, in
other words to say that kevala bhakti is the same as misra bhakti, is a
philosophical deviation and should be avoided. We should remember that Srila
Prabhupada was lenient with sensual fall downs, but he was very strict with
philosophical deviations.
