Call of Duty

 

You may think of duty as activities one is obliged to perform as a part of their job. You are to do it no matter what and it does not matter whether you like it or not, because at the end of the day there will be a paycheck coming to you in the mail. Many interpret the meaning of duty simply to be some menial work one is required to do in order to earn their livelihood. If you google “duty,” one of the definitions provided is simply, “a task or action that one is required to perform.”

 

Of course, duty has a higher meaning as well: a sense of moral or legal obligation to act in certain way. Acting morally per one’s codes of justice may not necessarily elicit monetary gain; in fact, the result could be the opposite. When desires of monetary gain are not our primary modus operandi for acting in the world, we can live in accordance with our true values. However, many people hold different moral values, so how can we know if we are acting from a universal truth rather than a personal mental speculation? Furthermore, what is legal in one area of God’s green Earth may be illegal in another. So is following the law in a particular jurisdiction within a particular country really acting in duty? There must be laws transcendental to these personal and societal regulations. We can only take pleasure in a sublime sense of satisfaction from being aligned with higher self-evident principles, that govern the Universe. 

 

The definitions of duty aforementioned found in the standard dictionary are shallow and unsatisfactory. This is because they don’t rest on sabda-brahma but instead on mental speculations. Here is how His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada defines different types of duty:

 

There are two kinds of sva-dharmas, specific duties. As long as one is not liberated, one has to perform the duties of his particular body in accordance with religious principles in order to achieve liberation. When one is liberated, one's sva-dharma—specific duty—becomes spiritual and is not in the material bodily concept. (BG 2.31, purport)

 

Duty is often defined as obligations towards somebody else – the family, community, state, country, society, and so on, emanating from the kinship one feels in their day-to-day relationships to humanity at large. This is certainly true; we hear from Bhagavatam that from the moment we are born we have incurred many debts to our parents, to the great sages, to the demigods, etc. Everyone has a particular duty and society can run smoothly only when its members perform their duties properly. Interwoven with this concept is the more important idea - that we have duty to ourselves as spirit souls, parts and parcels of Krishna. Our most important duty is to remember our true self and to be true to ourselves. When this duty is our first priority, all subordinate duties will automatically follow. 

 

Çré Caitanya Mahäprabhu confirms, jévera ’svarüpa’ haya—kåñëera nitya-däsa: [Cc. Madhya 20.108]. ”Every living entity is an eternal part, an eternal servant, of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.” (CC Adi 17.123, purport)

 

The Vedic concept of duty is not simply working a boring job you have to do for survival, a blurry moral folklore that changes constantly, or selling your talents to a corporation in an exercise of willful exploitation like the majority of people do in contemporary society. Instead, duty is a sacred responsibility bestowed upon us coming from the Supreme Lord Himself. When done properly and sincerely, this duty will purify you and reinstall you in your original position of sat-cit-ananda, eternally in the blissful spiritual world. As Srila Prabhupada often insisted, Krishna consciousness is not an artificial imposition on the human being. It is already there, lying dormant within in our hearts. The process of sadhana-bhakti is the wake-up call for us to give up the darkness and come to the light. 

 

Pure love for Krsna is eternally established in the hearts of the living entities. It is not something to be gained from another source. When the heart is purified by hearing and chanting, this love naturally awakens. (CC Madhya, 22.107)

 

The purpose of duty is to understand our true position, to see the ultimate goal, and to adopt the proper method for attaining it. It is similar to what the modern self-help Gurus advertise: think what would be the ideal you in 5-10 years time from now, figure the appropriate steps forward and just focus on attaining the goal - your ideal self, the best version of you. Only problem is that neither them, nor their clients, have a clear understanding of what the supreme goal of life is.

 

We, on the other hand, have the tremendous good fortune to know the truth. As pretentious as it sounds, let us remember that is not some new-age truth that we have concocted ourselves. On the contrary, this spiritual knowledge is a great science that has been passed down in disciplic succession and practiced for thousands of years, starting with the Supreme Lord Himself. His desire is to spread this knowledge all across Earth with the goal of relieving all living entities from unnecessary suffering. Thus, we have a great responsibility to share this knowledge with all. 

 

So, what are we doing with this knowledge? Do we apply it ourselves properly? Do we enthusiastically share it with others? After reading the many great books left by Srila Prabhupada, our problem is no longer that we are in ignorance; our challenge is to move from theoretical understanding to dynamic practical application. Our most burning issue should be: when will we finally start doing what we know we should have been doing all along?

 

We should try to accept our most important duty, the process of sadhana-bhakti, as our saving grace. We should see it as it is - as our way back to home, back to Krishna, back to our true identity. If we perform it properly according to the instructions of Srila Prabhupada, gradually our work will evolve from a boring and troublesome chore to a natural and spontaneous joy. This spontaneous expression of pure love is the way of the advanced devotees. For example, mother Yasoda does not have to turn the alarm on in order to wake up in the morning to perform her service to Krishna. She does not use the snooze button either. Rather she gets up ecstatically, beaming at the opportunity to serve and love Krishna. This is the stage when duty is performed out of spontaneous love. This is the stage we should all aspire for. 

 

One may ask, why it is so hard to perform our duty properly? What is the problem? Why do I need an alarm clock to get up for Mangala Aarti? Arjuna asks similar question Krishna in Bhagavad-gita. We all know the answer:

 

The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: It is lust only, Arjuna, which is born of contact with the material mode of passion and later transformed into wrath, and which is the all-devouring sinful enemy of this world. (BG 3.37)

 

We have the call of duty and the call of lust. Whenever put under pressure by Maya, we are supposed to take shelter in our prime duty – the chanting of the Hare Krishna Mantra – even more vigorously. If we surrender to the Holy Name we will gain enough strength to avoid falling down and this will give us confidence to act in the same way when the future challenges arise. If we do this we will be above the modes of material nature and will be properly situated to begin the real devotional service:

 

One who engages in full devotional service, unfailing in all circumstances, at once transcends the modes of material nature and thus comes to the level of Brahman. (BG 14.26)

 

Even our material duties in varnasrama should be performed with the ultimate goal in mind. Otherwise they are just waste of time:

 

The occupational activities a man performs according to his own position are only so much useless labor if they do not provoke attraction for the message of the Personality of Godhead. All occupational engagements are certainly meant for ultimate liberation. They should never be performed for material gain. Furthermore, according to sages, one who is engaged in the ultimate occupational service should never use material gain to cultivate sense gratification. Life's desires should never be directed toward sense gratification. One should desire only a healthy life, or self-preservation, since a human being is meant for inquiry about the Absolute Truth. Nothing else should be the goal of one's works.  (SB 1.2.8-10)

 

Srila Prabhupada comments:

 

“Seekers of the Absolute Truth are never allured by unnecessary engagements in sense gratification because the serious students seeking the Absolute Truth are always overwhelmed with the work of researching the Truth. In every sphere of life, therefore, the ultimate end must be seeking after the Absolute Truth, and that sort of engagement will make one happy because he will be less engaged in varieties of sense gratification.”

 

God is God

If there is God He must ultimately be a person. This is the same like saying, “If there is a God, He must be God”. Of course, many people would not agree with this; some of them don’t believe in God at all; many, though accepting His existence, don’t think that He is actually a person. 

There are various reasons to deny God as He is, but they can all be summed up as various degrees of impiety, which result in a lack of spiritual insight, or as Srila Prabhupada likes to put it, in “poor fund of knowledge”. Bhagavatam confirms that the same Supreme Personality of Godhead is perceived differently according to the level of advancement of the observer. The neophytes see Him only as Brahman, the all-pervading absolute, the more advanced see Him as Paramatma, the Controller and Witness in the hearts of all living beings; the most advanced see Him in full, as the Supreme Person, the source and shelter of Brahman and Paramatma. 

To accept that God is a person means to accept that He is the Supreme Controller and Enjoyer and that we are meant to serve His enjoyment. This is a hard blow for the materialist because it strikes at the very core of his beliefs – the conviction that he is God.  This is envious denial of reality. The materialist is not actually opposed to the idea that there could be a Personal God, in fact, as the example of Hiranyakasipu showed, he would very much appreciate to be such a God; what he doesn’t like is that God is someone other than him. Therefore the statement “There is no God” actually translates as “There is no other God than Me. You should not have other gods than Me, because I am an angry and jealous God”. 

Of course, this envy towards a Personal God, and even to oneself as part of God, is usually cloaked in various seemingly lofty and logical arguments, for example the classical misconception that personhood would impose limitations on God. “God is all-powerful, all pervading, and all-knowing”, the argument goes, “therefore He does not suffer the confines of a form, name, body, activities; these are all material designations we impose on Him. God is absolute; therefore, He is beyond all such labels.” You see, our purva paksi wants us to believe that his motives are noble – he wants to save the transcendent dignity of God from being degraded to a mundane, trivial entity. It all sounds sound and logical, there is only one problem, however: it is not true. It is a falsehood in both the motivation behind the argument and in the argument itself. 

Krsna explains in the Bhagavad-gita that the mode of ignorance turns everything upside down – irreligion is taken to be religion, and religion is considered irreligion. Actual imposition of limitations is precisely the insistence that God is impersonal. In fact, it is the ultimate limitation one could impose on somebody, because there is literarily nothing that this fictional “non-person” entity can do, besides existing as a theoretical construct in someone’s mental speculation. The devotees know that the transcendental qualities of the Lord are unlimited. The envious want to cancel them all. Being a “non-person” factually means to be non-existent; no wonder that the mayavadis are called covered Buddhists. In his purport to BG 16.8 Srila Prabhupada writes:

“According to them, everything is void, and whatever manifestation exists is due to our ignorance in perception. They take it for granted that all manifestation of diversity is a display of ignorance, just as in a dream we may create so many things which actually have no existence. Then when we are awake we shall see that everything is simply a dream. But factually, although the demons say that life is a dream, they are very expert in enjoying this dream. And so, instead of acquiring knowledge, they become more and more implicated in their dreamland.”

Envy of God – the Supreme Enjoyer and Controller – is so profound, that it denies to Him all the pleasures the envious materialists are hankering for. “God is not the Enjoyer and Controller; I am the Controller and Enjoyer, tat tvam asi.” Thus when all so-called noble considerations are put aside, what the mayavadis actually do, is trying to render God impotent. Our Acharyas compare their arguments to the arrows, which the demons shoot in an attempt to destroy Krsna’s body. The demons try to cut the Lord’s transcendental limbs in order to prove that He is simply a mortal like all of us; similarly, the mayavadi philosophers try to prove that Krsna’s body, name, entourage, and pastimes are simply an illusion. Therefore, Krsna calls them fools:

"Fools deride Me when I descend in the human form. They do not know My transcendental nature as the Supreme Lord of all that be." (BG 9.11)

  

Srila Prabhupada makes an interesting observation in this regard:

"His [Krsna’s] designation as kala in disguise is significant. He is not at all dangerous, but He is the transcendental form of eternity, knowledge and bliss. For the devotees His factual form is disclosed, and for the nondevotees He appears as kala-rupa, which is His causal form. This causal form of the Lord is not at all pleasing to the asuras, and therefore they think of the Lord as formless in order to feel secure that they will not be vanquished by the Lord."

As Schopenhauer wrote, “Our passions become the axioms of our philosophies.” Nietzsche added that all theories are just unconscious self-diagnosis of a particular mental sickness. The nature of that sickness should be clear by now – it is the root cause of all other deceases – the perverted desire to kill God and to become God. One way to try to accomplish this is to proclaim that God is dead, as did Nietzsche. Another way is to say that He is not a person. 

The truth on the matter is very simple: God does not suffer the defect of being impersonal. The fact that His transcendental qualities attract the liberated souls and enthuse them to assist in His blissful pastimes is the very proof that the He is the highest aspect of the Absolute Truth.

Why would you confuse the sweet tri-banga form of Syamasundara, His transcendental qualities, His intimate devotees, His pastimes which constitute the ultimate information of the Vedas, all of which are the very proof that Bhagavan is the highest aspect of the Absolute Truth, with an imposition of limitation on Him? It is hard to understand why someone would do that, especially taking in consideration that the personal relationships are considered the highest value even amongst the majority of materialists. One could argue that material relationships based on material qualities are temporary and imperfect, even painful; that may be, but should we deny to the all-powerful God the ability to have eternal and blissful spiritual relationships with all his parts and parcels? In order to find the answer to this mystery we should perhaps re-read Bhagavad-Gita 18.32 and 9.11. And remember the key word – envy. When Maya detects that the soul is envious of Krsna, she puts him in illusion and he starts to imagine, just as Paundraka did, that it is him who is the supreme controller and enjoyer. 

But there is no other God than God. He is saktiman, the enjoyer and controller of all energies, which facilitate His pastimes. Not surprisingly, the Lord’s sakti becomes another target for the mayavadis’ assaults in their pursuit to become God by attesting that God is impersonal. It is a well-known fact that the mayavadis have become who they are because of frustration and deep resentment born of their utter failure to be the Enjoyer. And here is Krsna, the real enjoyer, eternally enjoying His internal potency, hladini sakti, experiencing ever fresh, ever increasing spiritual bliss. Following the perverted logic “If I can’t do it, it can’t be done”, the mayavadis reached the astounding conclusion that Krsna, the Supreme Energetic, the source of everything, janmadi asya yatah, cannot have energies, or if He has them, they are just a temporary, illusory appearance, Maya. Again, they would have us believe that this conclusion is a result of their commendable ambition to protect the absolute, unchanging nature of God against the ever-changing flow of His energies. The reality, as revealed by Srila Prabhupada, is quite different:

"A person can create many things by the transformation of his energy. For example, a businessman transforms his energy by establishing many big factories or business organizations, yet he remains a person although his energy has been transformed into these many factories or business concerns. The Mayavadi philosophers do not understand this simple fact. Their tiny brains and poor fund of knowledge cannot afford them sufficient enlightenment to realize that when a man’s energy is transformed, the man himself is not transformed but remains the same person." (CC Adi, 7.121, purport)

The Mayavadis are envious of Bhagavan, thus they are considered offenders: mayavadi Krsna aparadhi. Sri Isopanisad states that they are heading to the darkest regions of the Universe. 

What is the position of those, who accept that God is a person, but only in theory, without real knowledge about His personality?

They might be considered a little more advanced than the staunch Mayavadis, because they accept a personal God, but since the whole purpose of accepting the Personal God is to reestablish our loving relationship with Him, and since attaining this objective is not actually possible without scientific knowledge about Him, the lack of such knowledge will permit only very meager advancement.  

There are many such pious people who believe in God, offer prayers, and follow some of the rituals of their faith. However, to the proportion they don’t have access to the positive scientific knowledge of Bhagavan, they will perform their worship as a matter of social obligation and family tradition. This worship will inevitably be performed as a matter of duty rather than out of spontaneous inspiration, and as such it will lack the intensity required to deepen their relationship with God and thus break free from the shackles of material attachments. 

Many of these pious people will agree in theory that the ultimate goal of life is to develop our natural love of God. But you can’t love somebody in theory, especially if you don’t really know Him. You can experience respect and reverence to such a person, or fear, but pure unalloyed love of God is quite a different matter. Love is very personal, at times even a painfully personal matter. If we want to fall in love with somebody we should first accept that he or she is truly a person and then we should come in contact with his lovable personal characteristics, which serve as udipana, a stimuli, for further development of our feelings. 

The Mayavadis argue that such personal qualities of God are actually Maya, illusion. The pious adherents to different faiths accept them nominally, but God’s personality is ultimately shrouded in mystery and any attempts to unveil it are often seen as a blasphemy. God is not just Brahman or Paramatma, He is ultimately Bhagavan, the source of Brahman and Paramatma. Similarly, Bhagavan is not just the Lord all-mighty who is to be served in the mood of owe and reverence. He not only exists and controls everything; He is, above all else, the Supreme Enjoyer. His greatest enjoinment is to serve His pure devotees. In His highest spiritual mood in His most intimate abode God becomes a disciple and devotee of His devotees. Thus when Krsna says in the Bhagavad-gita sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam saranam vraja, abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me, He does not demand a surrender as a tyrant does; rather, Krsna urges us to come up to the real standard of personal relationships where alone we can be happy, a standard of selfless love expressed through service, which He has maintained all along. Krsna invites us to become qualified to be His close associates. 

When the devotee becomes fully aware of Krsna’s enchanting qualities, amongst which His mercy for His devotees is foremost, he melts in love for Him. All insignificant material desires are removed from the heart just as a strong wind sweeps away dry leaves. Then the devotee’s pure love attracts Krsna:

“The profuse release of fragrance of the flower of bhava invites Madhusudhana to appear there…Scented by the fragrance of bhava, all the emotions of the heart become like the oil of liquefied bunches of sesame seeds, at once fit to smear on all the limbs of the Lord.” (Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura, Madhurya Kadambini)

On that advanced level of devotional service the devotee is spontaneously attracted to Krsna, just as “iron attracted by a magnetic stone moves automatically toward the magnet”. Such impulsive, natural affection for the Lord is possible neither for the mayavadis, nor for the so-called pious mundane religionists. The only way that leads beyond this dry, materialistic approach toward God, is the process of vaidhi bhakti, regulated devotional service. But in order to accept this process one has to have a sufficient credit of spiritual piety, which will allow him to truly accept a Personal God. If he doesn’t have such credit he will think that any suggestion of personal traits in the Supreme is offensive. Such a person will be forced to follow certain type of  kaitava dharma, or cheating religion. He will necessarily lack strong spiritual taste and will perform his worship thinking not about God but about the material rewards that the worship provides. He will want to go to heaven not to serve God, but to enjoy heavenly pleasures, and he will be convinced that this is the final goal of religion.

What is the final goal of religion, the ultimate need of the soul? 

"The need of the spirit soul is that he wants to get out of the limited sphere of material bondage and fulfil his desire for complete freedom. He wants to get out of the covered walls of the greater universe. He wants to see the free light and the spirit. That complete freedom is achieved when he meets the complete spirit, the Personality of Godhead. There is a dormant affection for God within everyone; spiritual existence is manifested through the gross body and mind in the form of perverted affection for gross and subtle matter. Therefore we have to engage ourselves in occupational engagements that will evoke our divine consciousness. This is possible only by hearing and chanting the divine activities of the Supreme Lord, and any occupational activity which does not help one to achieve attachment for hearing and chanting the transcendental message of Godhead is said herein to be simply a waste of time." (SB 1.2.8, purport)

Thus the inherent need of the soul is to love and serve God unconditionally; as long as that need is not met we will never be happy. Therefore, we should not deprive God of His personal qualities, otherwise there will be nobody to love and serve and we will have to resort to the cheap material substitute of love, or, even worse, will become mayavadis. In both cases we will be stuck either as open offenders, or as boring so-called pious people who use God as a provider for material possessions and a doorman to heaven.  

We crave for happiness and we naturally seek it in personal relationships. The problem is that on the material plane all such relationships are temporary, unfulfilling, and are ultimately a source of misery. However, we cannot give up our quest for happiness through relationships, because it is our inherent nature, it defines who we are.  We have to reawaken our eternal loving relationship with Krishna and reclaim our own spontaneous affection for Him. Then only will we be able to break free from our material attachments. 

The goal of Bhagavad-gita

Srila Prabhupada defines dharma as one’s inherent nature. In Srimad-Bhagavatam (6.3.19) it is stated: dharmam tu saksad bhagavat-pranitam, “The principles of religion [dharma] are initiated by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and no one else, including the sages and demigods, can manufacture any such principles.” By following dharma, we satisfy the Lord and thus attain material and spiritual advancement. The best, of course, is to follow dharma simply because it is pleasing for the Lord, not because of the material piety we will acquire. In any case, Dharma is so important that when it is neglected the Lord Himself comes to reestablish it (BG 4.7).

At the beginning of Bhagavad-gita we see a competent person rejecting his dharma because of lack of faith. Arjuna is doubtful whether performance of dharma will actually produce happiness. The chastiser of enemies, Arjuna, refuses to chastise the enemies; instead, he declares: na yotsya iti govindam, “Govinda, I shall not fight”. At the end of the Gita that same Arjuna says: “My dear Krsna, O infallible one, my illusion is now gone. I have regained my memory by Your mercy. I am now firm and free from doubt and am prepared to act according to Your instructions.” Srila Prabhupada writes in his purport:

‘… he understood Krsna factually. So to study Bhagavad-gita is to understand Krsna factually. When a person is in full knowledge, he naturally surrenders to Krsna.’

How did the Lord convince Arjuna to fight? And, even prior to that, why did He want to convince him to fight in the first place? In other words, why was Krsna so insistent that jnana must lead to vijnana?  Why did He not just reveal some lofty esoteric truths leaving the mystery of existence intact? Why everything needed to be so precise and practical?

It is because Bhagavad-gita, and for that matter the whole Vedic tradition, is not just another theoretical philosophical treatise meant for the “entertainment of armchair speculators” whose highest value does not permit the existence of an absolute truth. The Gita is meant to clear up our doubts and misgivings and thus establish firm faith in Krsna’s instructions. Once this faith is established as an “irrevocable fact” we are supposed to apply it in our life and relish the blissful result of it. Therefore, the Lord declares surrender to Him as the highest truth, and the standard for proper understanding of the Gita is set by Arjuna himself. In the first of the catuh-sloki of the Gita the Lord states:

‘I am the source of all spiritual and material worlds. Everything emanates from Me. The wise who perfectly know this engage in My devotional service and worship Me with all their hearts.’

How did Krsna reestablish Arjuna’s faith and engaged him in devotional service? In chapter two, He imparts on him transcendental knowledge that uproots the anarthas – Krsna explains the inherent nature of the eternal spirit soul. When noticing that this knowledge, though appreciated by Arjuna, is insufficient to dispel his illusion, He proceeds by explaining its practical application. Krsna thus describes the practice of bhakti-yoga by first enumerating and elaborating upon its various aspects – karma, jnana, and dhyana (chapters 3-6), and then by showing how they should be understood and combined with proper consciousness (buddhi, or bhakti-yoga, chapters 7-12). In the last six chapters, Krsna imparts further knowledge about the practical application of bhakti-yoga by analyzing the difference between the field and its knower and how, though different from matter, the soul is conditioned by the modes of nature, which affect his faith and determine whether he is classified as demigod or a demon. Thus, the Lord establishes Arjuna’s firm faith (sraddha) and engages him in bhakti by asking him to forget all dharmas and just to surrender to Him. 

Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu defines sraddha as “confident, firm faith that by rendering transcendental loving service to Krsna one automatically performs all subsidiary activities. Such faith is favorable to the discharge of devotional service.” In other words faith is the conviction that only pure devotional service can truly satisfy the soul and that nothing else will do it. Neither karma, jnana, yoga, or their modern derivatives can satisfy the Lord and thus bring happiness for the soul.

This is because the actual standard of right and wrong is Krsna’s pleasure. Devotional service is the most pleasing for Him, therefore it is the ultimate value of life. Krsna confirms this in both Bhagavad-gita and Srimad Bhagavatam:

My dear Arjuna, only by undivided devotional service can I be understood as I am, standing before you, and can thus be seen directly. Only in this way can you enter into the mysteries of My understanding. (BG 11.55)

My dear Uddhava, the unalloyed devotional service rendered to Me by My devotees brings Me under their control. I cannot be thus controlled by those engaged in mystic yoga, Sankhya philosophy, pious work, Vedic study, austerity or renunciation. (SB 11.14.20)

Thus the ultimate criteria for proper and improper action depends on whether it is pleasing to Krsna. In material sense proper and improper are estimated on the basis of mundane religiosity, wealth, sense enjoyment and liberation. The Lord is the origin of the creation which therefore can be properly operated only by following His rules described in the Vedas. But if we only aim at pious manipulation of material energy this is not proper, and it is not proper because it is not pleasing for Krsna:

Prahlada Maharaja continued: One may possess wealth, an aristocratic family, beauty, austerity, education, sensory expertise, luster, influence, physical strength, diligence, intelligence and mystic yogic power, but I think that even by all these qualifications one cannot satisfy the Supreme Personality of Godhead. However, one can satisfy the Lord simply by devotional service. Gajendra did this, and thus the Lord was satisfied with him. (SB 7.9.9)

As pointed out by Srila Prabhupada in his introduction, Bhagavad-gita has five main topics: cit, acit, isvara, kala, and karma; the knowledge about these five tattvas is called sambandha-jnana. The instructions on how to use this knowledge in its various aspects (karma, jnana, dhyana, and ultimately bhakti-yoga – chapters 3-12) and the further technical details, which make its use comfortable (chapters 13-17) outline the abhideya-jnana. When all this is properly heard, contemplated upon, understood, and applied in practical life, one realizes that dharma has a value only when it is connected to Krsna (BG 18.65) and develops firm faith and one-pointed determination to follow Krsna’s instructions (BG 2.41) in order to please Him (18.66). This is called prayojana. 

Thus, Bhagavad-gita is not just theoretical knowledge; rather, it aims at developing firm faith so that we may perform our devotional service with steadiness and determination. When we are steady in devotional service and on that basis develop taste for hearing krisna-katha, we will be able to appreciate and derive the true benefit from Srimad-Bhagavatam and relish Sri Caitanya-caritamrita.

Connecting with Transcendence by four beats

If you’ve ever watched a rock concert you know that often the drummer sets the pace of the next song by hitting his sticks four times. The conductor of an orchestra also waves the baton with a particular pace just before the music starts, which is enough for the experienced musicians to pick up the proper tempo. Similarly, prior to spiritual activities we set the proper mood; we adjust our tone and posture. And even if this preliminary setting of the pace is not done on a gross level, with the physical body, it must be done at least in the mind. At least mentally one should select a proper rhythmic pattern before playing and follow it through the entire song. That is, if you want to make good music. 

What is the significance of this? It means that we have to connect to a rhythm that is beyond and above the rhythm of the particular song we will pay. It existed before we began playing and singing, following its discipline, and it will continue to pulsate long after we finish our performance. In fact, it is eternal. We can see and feel its presence everywhere: in the rhythm of the sunrise and sunset, in the season’s changes, at our birthday parties, we can feel it in the beat of our heart. 

Ludwig Wittgenstein said that the meaning of the world should lie outside of it. In the same way, the rhythm of a song that pulsates inside it should be preexisting outside and beyond this particular song and beyond all material songs. It ultimately comes from the transcendental plane where the eternal love songs and rhythms of Radha and Krishna’a pastimes captivate the entire creation. 

This universal rhythm is independent of us. It does not necessarily conform to our goals; rather we have to obey it in order to attain pleasant result. There are many different beats that we can choose, but once chosen, we have to follow them precisely. And not only that: let us consider for a moment how do we choose the proper tempo and beat for a given melody. Many beats can barely do the job, few would be really appropriate, and one or two would be the perfect choice. Who sets these rules? They obviously existed long before we even conceived the idea of writing a song. We write the song in accord with them. 

How do you choose the beat that perfectly fits the melody? How do you choose the melody itself? And, if we want to go leave the musical metaphor for a second, how do you find the best chess move, which will seal your victory out of so many possibilities? How do you make the proper choice in life that will ensure your future success? 

There was a movie called “The legend of Bagger Vance” where the Guru, Mr. Bagger Vance (Bhagavan), was revealing the answer of these questions to his pupil R. Junuh (Arjuna). In essence, he taught him that there is only one perfect golf swing (R. Junuh was competing in a golf tournament, similarly to Arjuna who was about to fight in a war). “Observe your rival”, Bagger Vance insisted, while the R. Junuh’s competitor carefully prepared to strike the ball. “Notice how attentively he is searching for the proper movement, for the proper swing. There is only one swing that will get the ball inside the hole. It is already there, preexisting, eternally. Your job is to connect with it, to find it and to use it.” (Similarly Krishna told Arjuna in Bhagavad-gita, “You can only be an instrument in this battle”.)

In other words, out of so many different ways you can hit the ball there is only one way, which is the proper way. And it definitely is not our way, as Frank Sinatra famously sung; it is Krishna’s way.  Or, as Dr. Jordan Peterson likes to say, “there are practically unlimited variety of possible speculations regarding what and how it should be done; however, there are very limited ways by which you can actually act successfully in the world.” 

All the proper decisions already exist. That is, both in a general sense, and in our own individual situation. We just have to connect with those decisions. But here is the catch: they are not just there for us to use and exploit. This is not the cold, impersonal Universe existing in the brains of the atheistic mental speculators. In the world created by the Personal God, everything is personal. They are actually personal energies of God, Krishna. They will readily be at our disposal only of we use them in His service. Otherwise they will elude us and we will remain unsuccessful and unfulfilled. The perfect beat for our song, the perfect word and sentence in our essay, the perfect relationships will always be just around the corner, and never quite there. If we want to misuse Krishna’s energy for our selfish desires, Krishna’s energy will punish us. 

This is God’s world and He sets the rules. If we want to be successful we have to learn the rules and follow them. One such rule is that all beautiful things emanate from just a spark of his splendor and opulence. Our motive in the quest for success, and beauty, and opulence should be His pleasure only. 

Consciously or unconsciously, in order to create anything of value we have to connect to the source of everything. The four beats at the beginning of a song signify the establishment of such connection with the transcendence. This connection can be on different levels according to our qualification, but it must be there. Otherwise everything we try to produce will be just a failure. Failure, which is equally obvious for both devotees and atheists. The tower build in defiance of God’s laws will collapse in spite of the professed theism or atheism of the engineer who builds it. Bad music is bad music no matter if the composer, the musicians, or the audience are theists, atheists, agnostics, or whatever. As Krishna says in Gita, manusya Partha sarvashah, everyone follows my path. There is one path and we can only choose whether we want to follow it towards God or follow the same road in the opposite direction. These examples attempt to describe a reality which is far beyond a religious believe system. They portray not simply faith, but rather what the ancient Vedic authorities define as “dharma”, the inherent nature. This nature is eternal and does not depend on our opinions. 

So how do we connect with the perfect source of all beautiful things, the most attractive person of all, Krishna? By chanting His holy name – Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. By singing about the glories of Krishna we become the perfect musician, and not only that, we become the perfect living being. We return to the pure spiritual realm where every word is a song and every step is a dance. There we are able to dive deep in the ocean of rasa. Countless beautiful tunes and rhythms will be our friends, and in their personal forms, will assist us in our endeavor to glorify the divine couple Radha Krishna with our pure love expressed through music.

The solution to all problems

If there is some [material] desire in his heart, then the devotee should continue his chanting, humbly recognising it, yet detesting it. In a short time the Lord will come into the heart, purify it of all desire, and accept the devotee's love.

Sri Krsna, the Personality of Godhead, who is the Paramatma [Supersoul] in everyone's heart and the benefactor of the truthful devotee, cleanses desire for material enjoyment from the heart of the devotee who has developed the urge to hear His messages, which are in themselves virtuous when properly heard and chanted.

Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, Sri Caitanya Siksamrita

Modern

Manu:

 

25.3 Doctrines to be rejected:

All those traditions (smriti) and those despicable systems of
philosophy, which are not based on the Veda, produce no reward after
death; for they are declared to be founded on Darkness. [v.12.95.]
All those (doctrines), differing from the (Veda), which spring up and
(soon) perish, are worthless and false, because they are of modern
date. [v.12.96.]

 

Srimad Bhagavatam:

 

O Supreme Personality of Godhead, all contradictions can be reconciled in You. O Lord, since You are the Supreme Person, the reservoir of unlimited spiritual qualities, the supreme controller, Your unlimited glories are inconceivable to the conditioned souls. Many modern theologians argue about right and wrong without knowing what is actually right. Their arguments are always false and their judgments inconclusive because they have no authorized evidence with which to gain knowledge of You. Because their minds are agitated by scriptures containing false conclusions, they are unable to understand the truth concerning You. Furthermore, because of polluted eagerness to arrive at the right conclusion, their theories are incapable of revealing You, who are transcendental to their material conceptions.[1] You are one without a second, and therefore in You contradictions like doing and not doing, happiness and distress, are not contradictory. Your potency is so great that it can do and undo anything as You like. With the help of that potency, what is impossible for You? Since there is no duality in Your constitutional position, You can do everything by the influence of Your energy.

 

PURPORT

 

The Supreme Personality of Godhead, being self-sufficient, is full of transcendental bliss (ätmäräma). He enjoys bliss in two ways—when He appears happy and when He appears distressed. Distinctions and contradictions are impossible in Him because only from Him have they emanated. The Supreme Personality of Godhead is the reservoir of all knowledge, all potency, all strength, opulence and influence. There is no limit to His powers. Since He is full in all transcendental attributes, nothing abominable from the material world can exist in Him. He is transcendental and spiritual, and therefore conceptions of material happiness and distress do not apply to Him.

 

We should not be astonished to find contradictions in the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Actually there are no contradictions. That is the meaning of His being supreme. Because He is all-powerful, He is not subject to the conditioned soul's arguments regarding His existence or nonexistence. He is pleased to protect His devotees by killing their enemies. He enjoys both the killing and the protecting.

Such freedom from duality applies not only to the Lord but also to His devotees. In Våndävana, the damsels of Vrajabhümi enjoy transcendental bliss in the company of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kåñëa, and they feel the same transcendental bliss in separation when Kåñëa and Balaräma leave Våndävana for Mathurä. There is no question of material pains or pleasures for either the Supreme Personality of Godhead or His pure devotees, although they are sometimes superficially said to be distressed or happy. One who is ätmäräma is blissful in both ways.

 

Nondevotees cannot understand the contradictions present in the Supreme Lord or His devotees. Therefore in Bhagavad-gétä the Lord says, bhaktyä mäm abhijänäti: [Bg. 18.55] the transcendental pastimes can be understood through devotional service; to nondevotees they are inconceivable. Acintyäù khalu ye bhävä na täàs tarkeëa yojayet: the Supreme Lord and His form, name, pastimes and paraphernalia are inconceivable to nondevotees, and one should not try to understand such realities simply by logical arguments. They will not bring one to the right conclusion about the Absolute Truth. (6.9.36)

---

[1] Nietzsche says in Beyond Good and Evil:

 

Suppose Truth is a woman, what then? Would’t have we not a good reason to suspect that all philosophers, insofar as they were dogmatists, had a poor understanding of women; that the dreadful seriousness and awkward pushiness with which they have so far habitually approached Truth are clumsy and inappropriate ways to win over a woman. It’s clear that Truth did not allow herself to be won over and all forms of dogmatism are nowadays standing there dismayed and disheartened, if they are standing at all.

Да сънуваш че си се събудил

Наскоро прочетох есе на Георги Марков, големия български писател- дисидент, който някои наричат „българския Солженицин“. В есето ставаше дума за това как хората, в конкретния случай комунистите, предават своите идеали. Предават ги заради алчност, пари и власт. Или от страх. Тези, които откажат да ги предадат и остават верни, загиват или биват постепенно маргинализирани. Бавно изгасват забравени и изоставени от всички. Подигравани също.

Това е болезнена тема – загубването на вярата, потъпкването на идеалите. Особено за един идеалист. Както беше писал Вапцаров: „ако вземеш едно зрънце от моята вера ще ревна като ранена в сърцето пантера“. Вярата е нашата идентичност. Ако я загубим, губим себе си.

Обаче това е неизбежно. Ние сме обречени да губим и изграждаме наново вярата си в доброто и в човека докато не стигнем до Абсолютната Истина, Кришна. И дори след това пак продължаваме да преправяме и подобряваме картата на духовния свят в съответствие с нашите реализации.

Комунистите са вярвали, че жертват живота си за благото на хората; те са били убедени, че загиват за благородна идея. За да се реализира на практика една благородна идея има нужда от благородни хора. Как да създадем тези добри хора, които няма да злоупотребят с красивата идея?

Нито една материалистична теория няма задоволителен отговор на този въпрос. Не може и да има, защото в основата на материализма стои желанието за пълен контрол и егоистично наслаждение. Докато контролираме и се наслаждаваме ние неизбежно възприемаме другите не като личности, а като обекти, като фигури на шахматна дъска, които имат смисъл само ако задоволяват нашите прищевки. Истинският контролиращ и наслаждаващ се обаче е Бог, Кришна. Когато на едно място се съберат много фалшиви “богове” и най-благородната идея със сигурност ще бъде опорочена.

А дали тази идея е всъщност толкова благородна? Така изглежда на пръв поглед. Свобода, равенство, братство са били лозунгите на много революции и революционери. Разбира се, в името на тези светли идеали са извършвани много жестокости. Шрила Прабхупада назовава истинската причина за провала на всички опити за постигане на утопия:  революционерите искат да се наслаждават на царството на Бога, без да поканят Бога вътре.

В материалния смисъл това е възможно. Можеш да заграбиш чуждо имение например, да прогониш собственика-капиталист (кулак) и да се разположиш удобно вътре, в името на народа. Разбира се, това не значи, че ще живееш щастливо. Грозното лице на завистта, алчността, покварата и похотта ще се подаде въпреки идеализма на революционните повели и кодекси. Независимо каква материалистична утопия преследват и колко искрено вярват в нея, без пречистващото божествено присъствие хората не са по-различни от животни; човек за човека е вълк.

Революцинерите-утописти се вдъхновяват от идеалистичните си представи за съвършеното бъдеще. Но съвършено бъдеще се гради от съвършени хора. А човек става съвършен само ако служи на източника на Съвършенството и Красотата – Кришна.

Тъй като всичко така или иначе принадлежи на Бог, ако не признаваме неговата собственост и я узурпираме незаконно, ние сме престъпници, независимо колко възвишен е революционния ни идеал. Това е все едно шайка разбойници да ограбят банка и след това да започнат да умуват и да творят теории за справедливо и етично разпределение на плячката. Между престъпници мир и любов не може да има.

В своето есе Георги Марков описва със състрадание, примесено със съжаление, комунистите, които са се жертвали напразно за една неосъществена (неосъществима) утопия. Техните оцелели другари са използвали властта, за да наложат същия, ако не и още по-страшен терор. От удобната позиция на времето (есето е писано през 70-те години на миналия век) авторът може ясно да види и изобличи тяхната заблуда. Те са вярвали в една илюзия.

Но авторът не осъзнава, че самият той се намира в същата илюзия. Тоталитарният комунизъм в Източна Европа и Либералната Западна демокрация, въпреки че изглеждат противиположни, в крайна сметка са двете лица на една и съща монета. Те са два начина да се опитаме да се наслаждаваме на собствеността на Бога отделно и независимо от Него. Това, че става дума за една и съща концепция, се доказва от факта, че така наречените либерали лесно стават много консервативно и дори тоталитарно настроени, когато се изправят срещу различно мнение.

Това, че Марков е прозрял частично заблудата на комунистите, не го спасява от Мая, илюзорната енергия на Бога. Тя отстъпва само когато се отдадем на Кришна. Докато сме с материално съзнание, посочването на чуждата грешка не значи по необходимост, че ние сме безгрешни. Много от комунистите са разбрали своята грешка още през 50-60-те години. Хора като Марков разбират своята чак в момента на смъртта. Ако имат късмет.

Кришна казва: “Съгласно Моите инструкции, човек трябва да установи ума си единствено върху Мен. Ако, обаче, той продължава да вижда много различни ценности и цели в живота, вместо да вижда как всичко е в Мен, тогава, макар привидно да е буден, той всъщност сънува поради несъвършено знание, точно както някой може да сънува че се е събудил от сън.” (Шримад Бхагаватам 11.13.30)