Self Analysis - A Solution to all Problems

Friday, 17 July 2009 13:39 Written by TVD

ayur harati vai pumsam
udyann astam ca yann asau
tasyarte yat-ksano nita
uttama-loka-vartaya

"Both by rising and by setting, the sun decreases the duration of life of everyone, except one who utilizes the time by discussing topics of the all-good Personality of Godhead."

[Srimad-Bhagavatam 2.3.17]

As the verse says our duration decreases with every rising and setting, at the same time the unthinkable is fast approaching. It is said sometimes the living  entity forgets death but the death never forgets him. Its always on time.

But, the truth is that we as an individual spiritual entity do not change unlike our material bodies, thoughts, actions, and behaviors, which change with time.  But, we think we are changing because we are identifying ourselves with these changing objects but not with the spiritual person called spirit soul. We are living in a relative world. It is simple to conclude that we as a spiritual person do not belong to this world because we (spiritual person) are not changing unlike matter. But, in this world everything that is made up of matter undergoes change and finally ends in destruction. The bodies, that we are proud of, will get old, dwindle and finally perish. After death, people seeing the dead body might say, “Oh here is the body of the person, he is still here”. But we know that the person died because there is no presence of consciousness, which has been the source behind all interactions. So, whom are we referring to “the Person Body or the Person within the Body?”

 Some might argue, why should we ever care about it?  Let’s enjoy with what we have, and stop thinking about death?

 First of all, we are not aspiring to be negative in life. But that does not mean, one should try to ignore the inherent truth of our lives. Of course, in this case we are trying to ignore the inevitable facts. Generally, when people leave their homes for some higher purpose such as to go abroad for higher studies or to work, they generally are very eager. There is some amount of pain when we leave the close company of our family and friends. But this pain is easily overcome by the bright future, which we envision, either in desiring money or prestige. But just imagine if someone was forced to leave the company of his family forcefully, for no reason. We have seen such incidents and we know they are really painful to heart.

The reason we are bringing up this issue is to illustrate the point that if we do not have a good reason to die then our journey towards the eventual death will become more miserable. If we lose a wallet, shoes, car or house we are upset or sad, depending on how much we are attached or how much it is quantitatively related to us. Imagine something like this body, which has been our source of pleasure for whole life, not only in relating with others but also being perfectly cared, being taken away cruelly. If we honestly think about it, then we can realize what it is like. That is why old age is not easy, because we see death around the corner. It can be any age, because afterall old age technically means before death.

Some may question, It  has to happen anyway, why do we think about it and waste time? Let us whatever we are now. 

We should practically realize and get convinced that, life without God consciousness means a struggle not just in this human body but also in any body that we take birth. It may be a dog, hog, or even an insect body. We are just talking about death; we did not include many issues like painful birth, disease (not at ease), emotionally frustrating old age and many other day-to-day problems in life. Just think if one has to struggle like this over and over, when we have a better opportunity to stop this infinite loop.  We cannot even imagine undergoing such a struggle in an animal body. If we have observed our surroundings properly, we can see that the quality of life in the lower species is miserable. Observe an ant, or any insect, just clap they will run, why?

 Simple, it’s Fear. The lower the species, the lesser is the chance to be peaceful or at ease. Life will be filled up with anxiety. If we walk past by a dog, it will open its eye, no matter what time of the day it is. We know people can sleep much better than that. It is like giving us a plate full of wonderful meal with a sword hanging above our heads. Can we enjoy eating in such a condition?

 Bhagavad Gita teaches that two things are unavoidable for conditional soul (who is expecting happiness in this world). Those are fear and lamentation. Infact everything is mystically to get to that point only.

I think by now we must have realized what it means to be a human. It’s a privilege, isn’t it ?  It’s great,  but it also carries a great responsibility. It’s the best type of body one can imagine but with it comes responsibility. Bhagavad Gita teaches that if one does not properly utilize this human form of life and acts against the principles set by God (Dharma), he is going to bear the reactions of his action, which ultimately decides his future destination. And the result is, one will be forced to accept a body suitable to his consciousness.

We might say, what is the proof that we will take birth again ?

 There are lots of explanations given by great scientists, saintly people and God himself. So how can we ever deny. Do we ever study in science that energy can be destroyed? So how can a soul be destroyed? Doesn’t medical science prove us each and every cell of our body is replaced in seven years, and are we not still living? The theories of scientists have been changing rapidly, within a short period of time, but nobody could prove the statements of our scriptures as false. Our scriptures say earth is round and has seven continents, way before we found that out from our scientists. It gives step-by-step detail on the process of birth in the womb of mother and Medical science acknowledges it as truth.

 We now accept yoga, ayurveda and meditation as effective ways of keeping our body and mind in a healthy state. Infact, we see people are following such a lifestyle to lead their lives. But where are these coming from? Not from the theories of scientists, but they are from our holy scriptures. When we buy any product, we want to see reviews to make sure the product is top in its quality. If we use all our logic, which is also one way of scientific analysis, we will finally conclude that the words of scriptures are all true. Now this is just from logical point of view. There are thousands of people who have near death experiences, we cannot answer our illogical dreams, a blind man dreams about things, which he has never experienced in his life. It has been proved in a scientific study that blind men were dreaming about things, which they never saw in this life and some of them were blind from birth. There is no end to such examples, which prove that reincarnation is part of our life and not just a theory. Simply by seeing our father we can tell that his father is a human. So, how can one of such forefathers be a monkey, out of nowhere? Most people from same scientific faculty and education have problems in accepting such a theory. Now, how come we put so much faith in such a theory coming from an imperfect human mind? If that is our standard, then we have to put the same or more faith in God or Krishna, because he spoke spiritual science in Bhagavad Gita, which has been proved correct, time and again.

 Of course, there will always be a reason for someone who wants to live the way he desires and deny such simple truths. But that doesn’t change the ever-existing truth. Just like sun never rises from west, so also we are not our material bodies. Great scientists and philosophers like Newton, Einstein, Plato, Socrates etc. believed the truth behind reincarnation. Atleast we have to make an honest attempt to see what is the truth. It should become the most important thing for our future endeavoring.  Don’t we put faith in a doctor who prescribes a pill for our disease? We do not research. We accept it, because it is an authority. Similarly such great scriptures and God himself are our authority. So how can we imagine something else and believe it to be absolutely true. If thousand people say they see sun rising in west, can we accept?

 Now, why should we follow the principles of God?  This is an important question.

 Who is happier, one who lives in a prison or one who lives outside? Obvious answer is one who lives outside. But what qualifies him to be outside the prison? He must be a law-abiding citizen of the state where he lives. Imagine if we don’t have laws of state. It will be crazy. No law means there can be no peace. Now think, by following the principles of God, which are created by God himself, is it possible for any one to become unhappy? So, one who follows dharma or word of Lord Krsna in Bhagavad Gita is in a better position and such a person is blissful and peaceful and can in turn help others achieve that. What else does one need? And this is all possible by developing God or Krsna consciousness. Not by external dressing but by developing it internally.

 This God or Krsna consciousness is developed by our actions based on our free will. By employing our free will, we choose our destiny or atleast attract the mercy to get there. The actions, which we perform, guided by our thoughts, play a greater role in developing our consciousness. If we engage in selfish and immoral acts, contrary to principles of God, we will contaminate our consciousness with such acts. Consciousness is like a pure white cloth, whatever color we apply, it acquires that. And nature has a perfect arrangement, in terms of different bodies for each type of consciousness. Now, this human body is given to us to elevate this consciousness by achieving God realization and not just live like animals performing activities like eating, sleeping, mating and quarrelling. Some of these things are necessary but are not everything in life. We never see animals discussing about God or higher purpose in life. But we have this golden opportunity with this human form. If we just do same things as animals, then it is simply wasting this human form and inviting ourselves to degrade to lower form of life. It’s like one who joins as CEO but works and behaves like a beggar. It won’t be long time before such a person is fired from his job. 

 In this world we all struggle just to lose everything finally. We unfortunately cannot credit transfer our bank balance to next life. But, we being an eternal entity are not subjected to death, like our material bodies. Right now, this is enough to make us more anxious. Because we have been living in a dream world where we think, we are not accounted for our actions. But the truth is whether we choose to believe it or not, everything is recorded, just like our browsing of the Internet at work is tracked and logged by the network manager. It is very easy to die thinking I wont have to live again, but if we are living eternally as we will, then we better be very responsible for our actions. This very fear is what makes people, to intentionally ignore the naked truth regarding the existence of soul or distort the authority of God. Ignorance may be temporarily bliss but not for all time. We will get burnt, if we touch fire either knowingly or unknowingly. If we are infected with a disease, we will have to suffer from that disease. This is a fact. It is scientific. Similarly, if our consciousness infected with the particular type of the modes of nature, then we will have to suffer like that. If we choose to remain in ignorance, then we will get a body of lower species, which will suit our ignorance. This is the truth declared in scriptures.

 But one might feel or say, do we need to leave everything and sit and meditate?

 Well the answer is a  “No”. If we read Bhagavad Gita we’ll know that Arjuna was a fighter before Bhagavad Gita was spoken, he remained a fighter throughout the episode. So, Bhagavad Gita is not teaching us to become a loser or an escapist, it is teaching us how to face challenges and become victorious in life. It is a teaching manual to guide us towards perfection of life, simply by changing our consciousness.

 Though it is true that we have to leave our present bodies at the end of this life, still we do not crave for it, because we know there is a better spiritual body awaiting us, which is not subjected to birth, death, old age and disease. Now, who will care for his rusty and broken bike if he is offered a Limo?  This is the glorious thing about godly life or in becoming God conscious. It is not a depressing life, where you work all life and everything is taken away forcefully from you and you have to do it all again. We are talking about an eternal life. Just by following the principles laid down by God, we can change the future of our present life and also the next. Even if we are not successful in realizing God completely, still the spiritual credit, which we endeavored for, will transfer from life to life, as promised by Lord Krsna in Gita. We can believe, disbelieve or ignore but the fact is that we will die; we will take birth, again and again. This will go on and on until we realize the fact that we don’t have to die.  Below is a story illustrating this point.

 Once there was an eagle, which lost her mother after birth. She was still an egg at that time. She was hatched by a hen and later grew up with chickens. Because of her association with them, she started thinking, she was one among them and started behaving and acting like them, though the outward appearance seem to be different. She never lifted her head to watch the sky where she was supposed to fly. People who saw her thought how stupid she was, until one saintly person made her realize by forcefully bending her head up and showing the sky. Immediately she realized her original attraction to it and flapped her wings and flew away. So also we, thinking ourselves as this body, we are trying to enjoy artificially but our enjoyment or happiness is like “time off” from suffering. Because we experience suffering most of the times, the moment we don’t suffer we think we are enjoying. But our scriptures declare real happiness is increasing bliss at every second and every moment of life. All we need is this little knowledge and the process of attaining this bliss. And this is what Bhagavad Gita is teaching us from ages.

The process of chanting the holy name of Supreme Personality of Godhead is the best medicine for this age of quarrel and hypocrisy, irrespective of what religion one is from. The real religion as taught by Srimad Bhagavatam, helps us to go beyond our mundane identification of being a Hindu, Muslim, and Christian etc. and connect with God directly in our eternal relationship. Just like Jesus is son of God, Muhammad is son of God and not a Christian or Muslim, similarly we are sons of God and are eternally related to Him. This is the real religion or Dharma, which teaches us, how to love God and each other in relation to Him. This is what every single prophet or Saint taught us, to purify ourselves by taking the name of God whether it is Krishna, Rama, Narayana, or Allah, Christ, Jehovah etc.

We might ask what is the proof of all these statements. We can humbly provide some episodes of truth about eternal life and power of holy name based on the teachings of great saints and also directly from scriptures. Many people can also do the same. But we will have to see the path ourselves, of course again based on guidance from scriptures and great teachers. Everything is scientific, not sentimental. The very symptom that we are breathing, digesting, and every other detail prove the presence of a creator. Creation without Creator is impossible. Its like saying we found a Mac book in the ocean. We know how sophisticated it is. And how can we ever think, that this human body or any species or perfect arrangement and orientation of planets in the solar system, with such a degree of sophistication can happen by chance. 

 Well, if we say it’s a chance, then we are discrediting the creator for his wonderful creation. Let us try to develop a little faith and experience what we are discussing here and then validate. So far we had full faith in words of people and press, now lets just put a fraction of that faith in the words of God and see the truth practically. We don’t have to leave anything, but just add God in our lives. Our scriptures promise us, that it will bring end to all types of miseries, depression and dissatisfaction and promote us to our original home or spiritual world.

 If not, all we are now, all we shall become, will all be past one day. Yes, death is cruel. Death is like teeth of cat experienced by a rat. But for a devotee of Lord, it is like teeth of cat, experienced by a kitty. For the rat it is hopelessness but for the kitty it is a source of new hope. Our scriptures give us scores and scores of such stories as examples.

 All we have to do is just open our mind and humbly start questioning. How can I develop my relationship with God?

Hare Krishna. Thank you very much.

 All Glories to Srila Prabhupada.