Krishna Lounge discussion. Questions/Answers/Comments section begins at 11:00 min.

Talk by Mahat, given on the Christmas day in 2011.

http://www.16rounds.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/christmas-tension.mp3

This is something worth meditating on during the holiday season when “things” tend to come into the focus of (too)many.

“The temporary forms of matter are symbols of ignorance and frustration for the conditioned souls who covet them.”

-From the commentary on Srimad Bhagavatam 11.28.6-7

The Distilled Way of Living

How more is less and less is more and where does spiritual life fit in. Discussion by Mahat at the Krishna Lounge.

The soul of man, left to its own natural level, is a potentially lucid crystal left in darkness. It is perfect in its own nature, but it lacks something that it can only receive from outside and above itself. But when the light shines in it, it becomes in a manner transformed into light and seems to lose its nature in the splendor of a higher nature, the nature of the light that is in it.

So the natural goodness of man, his capacity for love which must always be in some sense selfish if it remains in the natural order, becomes transfigured and transformed when the Love of God shines in it. What happens when a man loses himself completely in the Divine Life within him? This perfection is only for those who are called the saints – for those rather who are the saints and who live in the light of God alone. For the ones who are called saints by human opinion on earth may very well be devils, and their light may very well be darkness. For as far as the light of God is concerned, we are owls. It blinds us and as soon as it strikes us we are in darkness. People who look like saints to us are very often not so, and those who do not look like saints very often are. And the greatest saints are sometimes the most obscure.

-Thomas Merton

“Although shadows, echoes, and mirages are only illusory reflections of real things, such reflections do cause a semblance of meaningful or comprehensible perception. In the same way, although the identification of the soul with the material body, mind, and ego is illusory, this identification generates fear within the individual.” – Srimad Bhagavatam 11.28.5

Thomas Merton & Dalai Lama

The shortcomings of one’s intellect and the need for transcendental help are discussed by Thomas Merton in the following quote:

“I think that if there is one truth that people need to learn, in the world, it is this: the intellect is only theoretically independent of desire and appetite in ordinary, actual practice. It is constantly being blinded and perverted by the ends and aims of passion, and the evidence it presents to us with such a show of impartiality and objectivity is fraught with interest and propaganda. We have become marvelous at self-delusion; all the more so, because we have gone to such trouble to convince ourselves of our own absolute infallibility. The desires of the flesh – and by that I mean not only sinful desires, but even the ordinary, normal appetites for comfort and ease and human respect, are fruitful sources of every kind of error and misjudgment, and because we have these yearnings in us, our intellects present to us everything distorted and accommodated to the norms of our desire.

And therefore, even when we are acting with the best of intentions, and imagine that we are doing great good, we may be actually doing tremendous material harm and contradicting all our good intentions. There are ways that seem to men to be good, the end whereof is in the depths of hell.

The only answer to the problem is grace, grace, docility to grace.”

“There is one easy weapon with which the mind can be conquered — NEGLECT. The mind is always telling us to do this or that; therefore we should be very expert in disobeying the mind’s orders. Gradually the mind should be trained to obey the orders of the soul. It is not that one should obey the orders of the mind. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura used to say that to control the mind one should beat it with shoes many times just after awakening and again before going to sleep. In this way one can control the mind. If one does not do so, one is doomed to follow the dictations of the mind. Another bona fide process is to abide strictly by the orders of the spiritual master and engage in service to God. Then the mind will be automatically controlled. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu has instructed: ‘When one receives the seed of devotional service by the mercy of the guru and Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, one’s real life begins. If one abides by the orders of the spiritual master, by the grace of Krishna he is freed from service to the mind.’”

-From Srila Prabhupada’s commentary on Srimad Bhagavatam 5.11.17

There is a lot about the Wall Street occupiers and their message one can sympathize with. The commonality of their ideals is so ubiquitous that it makes it natural for many to identify with the movement. Even I, a monk who is keeping somewhat of a distance from much of what is going on in the society, am feeling a dose of attraction. As a friend and fellow monk of mine wrote, commenting about the Occupy Wall Street movement:

“I feel the pain of my own parents’ financial troubles. I feel the pain of so many people from the wasted city of Detroit, where I grew up and honed my roots. I feel the pain of people just like me, just like you, who have found that precepts of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” as guaranteed in The Declaration of Independence, are a cruel joke laid upon them. I look at many of the young people saddled with college and credit-card debt and I also feel gratitude for my current shelter as a monk, which has allowed me to keep a certain space from being plunged into that kind of angst; an angst which is visceral and existential all at once. Most of all I feel that there are people who are done with being stuck with the survival of the fittest. The 99% are people who are sick of being manipulated and exploited by the 1% who, by all appearances on the surface and underneath, are rigging the system and benefiting beyond any sense of means and decency by a dependence on the inherent shocks and chaos programmed into the system itself.”

By now, similar “Occupy Wall Street” protests have spread to 36 American States. Even the people in England and Canada have joined in.

On Friday, October 7th, 2011, I headed to downtown San Diego to hang out with the San Diego occupiers and to possibly connect with some interesting, progressive-thinking individuals. I met a lot of folks who were just the type I admire: exuberant, thoughtful, creative, aggressive yet gentle, and happy.

Author (on the left) talking with & interviewing San Diego occupiers

The first person I interviewed was Bob. He was with the International Socialist Organization. Bob said, “We have seen ordinary people being hammered down. Right now is a period of economic turbulence, one in which ruling powers that be have decided that ordinary people should pay for it rather than those who caused the crisis – the people at the top of the society.”

The two of us chatted about socialism. I see socialism as something very human, natural, and noble. We both were marveling at how the 99% of the American populace were cheated for years by the 1%. The deception is so deep that even now most of the 99% folks equate socialism with something demonic, associate it with former communist Russia, and look to support capitalism, the system which clearly favors the 1%. Besides that, capitalism is a runaway train of materialism. It forces everyone to severely compete for their market share. It is a “no mercy” system where everyone is trying to step over everyone else. It is brutal and needlessly disturbing. People should rather learn to live simply, quiet their otherwise disturbed minds, and go deeper into life, rather than just skimming on the surface.

Another fellow I met there was expressing his disapproval of “the corporate influence over government and humanity,” as he put it. He had another good thing to say: “This country thinks that competition is good and that infinitely consuming the planet’s resources is not having any effect on us whatsoever. We, rather, want to propose that instead of putting profit before people, we put people before profit.”

“Another socialist idea,” I thought. Cool.

“We don’t think for ourselves a lot of the time. We think under the terms we’ve been told to think about. We have all these thoughts that are not ours.” a girl standing next to us joined in the conversation.

I interrupted, “However, don’t you think that is inevitably happening in every society? Whenever people try to organize themselves, group members tend to conform to the group’s ideals.”

At this point I remembered something George Orwell wrote in his work 1984. To anyone who knows anything about the history of this world, this should sound very familiar.

“Throughout recorded time there have been three kinds of people in the world: the High, the Middle, and the Low. They have been subdivided in many ways, they have borne countless different names, and their relative numbers, as well as their attitude towards one another, have varied from age to age: but the essential structure of society has never altered. Even after enormous upheavals and seemingly irrevocable changes, the same pattern has always reasserted itself, just as a gyroscope will always return to equilibrium, however far it is pushed one way or the other. The aims of these three groups are entirely irreconcilable. The aim of the High is to remain where they are. The aim of the Middle is to change places with the High. The aim of the Low, when they have an aim—for it is an abiding characteristic of the Low that they are too much crushed by drudgery to be more than intermittently conscious of anything outside their daily lives—is to abolish all distinctions and create a society in which all people shall be equal.

Thus throughout history the same struggle occurs over and over again. For long periods the High seem to be securely in power, but sooner or later there always comes a moment when they lose either their belief in themselves or their capacity to govern efficiently, or both. They are then overthrown by the Middle, who enlist the Low by lying to them that they are fighting for liberty and justice. As soon as they have reached their objective, the Middle thrust the Low back into their old position of servitude, and the Middle themselves become the High. Presently a new Middle group splits off from one of the other groups, or from both of them, and the struggle begins over again. Of the three groups, only the Low are never even temporarily successful in achieving their aims.

Throughout history there has been progress of a material kind. But no advance in wealth, no softening of manners, no reform or revolution has ever brought human equality an inch nearer. From the point of view of the Low, no historic change has ever meant much more than a change in the name of their masters.”

As I was thinking about this passage, my thoughts were interrupted by another guy standing in our small circle. He was saying that we should not just blame the rich because everyone makes decisions based on options given by our environment. Therefore we should strive to change the environment in order to change everyone, including the rich.

I was not too happy with how the conversation was developing. I felt we were dwelling too much on the details. Details merely run on the platform of principles; so detecting principles is way more important for me. The details of who stole what and how to prevent future theft, even though having its own merit, was somewhat of a superficial plane in my opinion. Principles first, details later. Otherwise you may end up successfully climbing a ladder just to find out that the ladder was resting on a wrong wall.

I asked everyone that was gathered if what they deliberated on was to be considered details, what would be the principles? Not too many liked this question. Some left the circle. In my experience, this often happens. Every time you try to get down to the deep principles, as if sensing a devil, some folks flee. Certain people are just determined to remain on the superficial platform. I wonder why? It might be a psychological thing. It might be that digging deep down to where the principles lie is to run the risk of discovering that which will demand our own personal change. Unless we are sincere seekers, we may opt to give up the truth in exchange for comfort. Pink Floyd sang, “Did they get you to trade cold comfort for change? Did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage?”

One of the guys who stayed with the conversation, a tall 22 year old with curly, long hair, attempted to answer the question. Answers following questions and questions following answers, we were getting deeper and deeper into the issue. Finally he said that the thing he was uncomfortable about, the thing he was rebelling against, was injustice, inconsistency, and lies. I said that physical pleasures are extremely seductive. Money and power, besides providing for such pleasures, also tame the beast of fear for bodily comfort and security. Remembering the above mentioned quote from George Orwell, I asked, “Even if the regime is toppled and replaced with a new one, a good and moral one, how do we make sure they don’t get contaminated by greed for money and power?” My conversation partner, obviously knowing that I am a monk and therefore focused primarily on internal, spiritual development, understood where this train was going. He lowered his head, for some reason, and said with a soft voice that the most important thing is individual internal purity and loyalty to the truth. That is the thing that is seldom taught anywhere in the modern society, and almost never instructed on a large scale and in an organized fashion. If one is rebelling against injustice, inconsistency, and lies, one should feel morally obliged to wipe those out of one’s own heart first. Dr. Martin Luther King said that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

"I met a lot of folks who were just the type I admire: exuberant, thoughtful, creative, aggressive yet gentle, and happy."

I propose that unless we are ready to be true and loyal to the truth, and if we do not make our internal, spiritual development the topmost priority, we are bound to find ourselves climbing a ladder that is resting on a wrong wall. Materialism is a lie, a disease, an inconsistency, it is gross, and it hurts. We ought to endeavor for an achievement that is categorically different. First things first, right?

Now I am reminded of something Tolstoy said, “There can be only one permanent revolution—a moral one: the regeneration of the inner man.”

Sukadeva Goswami, the speaker of the Srimad Bhagavatam said, “What is the value of a prolonged life which is wasted, inexperienced by years in this world? Better a moment of full consciousness, because that gives one a start in searching after his supreme interest.”

I think it is great that the Occupy movement is addressing a good number of lies and inconsistencies. I also hope that the movement does not stop at the mere economic level.

A vedic proverb says, “satyam jayate” – “truth is victory.” Or, as a friend of mine said, “truth works!”

On January 28th, 2011, the president of the United States, Barack Obama, publicly commenting about the then current events of political and civil unrest in Egypt, said the following:

“I want to be very clear in calling upon the Egyptian authorities to refrain from any violence against peaceful protestors. The people of Egypt have rights that are universal. That includes the right to peaceful assembly and association, the right to free speech, and the ability to determine their own destiny. These are human rights. And the United States will stand up for them everywhere.”

Less than a year later, all over the United States, hundreds of thousands of Americans, often inspired by the people of Egypt, started to gather in public places to practice everything Mr. Obama called “universal rights”. Such inalienable rights include peaceful assembly and association, the right to free speech, and the right to determine their own destiny.

How did the US government respond? They used brute force. In hundreds of American cities, police in riot gear brutally violated the peaceful protestors, physically hurting and arresting numerous people – young, old, healthy, and infirm, without discrimination.

Just as we were ready to print the December issue of the 16 Rounds magazine, police had shamelessly attacked a group of peaceful UC Davis students who had gathered on the campus. The incident was followed by a UC Davis students rally. Students demanded that the university’s chancellor, Linda Katehi, resign.
The incident in particular as well as numerous other similar actions by the police is an offense to the people of this country. The police department seems to rather be a department of mercenaries who work for the company called government. The ridiculous part is that the mercenaries are paid by the very people, the tax payers, whom they are brutally offending. This is a colossal injustice that none of us should be capable of tolerating.

So what are we to think about Mr. Obama?

Is he a liar and therefore yet another disgusting creature that does not lose sleep over the exhibition of grotesque forms of immorality? I can not say that, as I do not know him personally.

Perhaps he is a righteous person, but unable to do much. His hands might be “tied”. Perhaps he is just a puppet that those who are really running the show dangle before the eyes of the public. Even though this might be possible, I cannot say it with much certainty, as I am not intimately familiar with politics in such echelons.

I can, though, certainly say one thing – great injustice has been done, and if tolerated, it will yield to further injustice everywhere, including the government. Due to the tolerance of previous acts of injustice, we are witnessing gross forms of injustice now. Injustice and lies result in more injustice and lies.

Srila Prabhupada wrote, more than 30 years ago, the following:

“At the present moment the so-called executive heads are more or less selected from materially ambitious persons (read ‘materialists’) who simply look after their own personal interests; they have no spiritual education. In other words, the executive heads are fools and rascals in the strict sense of the terms, and the people in general are simple workers (shudras). This combination of fools and rascals and simple workers (shudras) cannot bring about peace and prosperity in this world. Therefore we find periodic upheavals in society in the forms of battles, communal riots, and fratricidal quarrels. Under these circumstances, not only are the leaders unable to lead the people toward liberation, but they cannot even give them peace of mind. In the Bhagavad-gita it is stated that anyone who lives on concocted ideas, without reference to the standard books of spiritual knowledge (shastras), never becomes successful and does not attain happiness or spiritual emancipation.”