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.

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!”

These quotes are taken from The Light Of The Bhagavata, a book written by Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami way back in 1961. It is intriguing to witness today the relevance of those thoughts.

Trade is meant only for transporting surplus produce to places where the produce is scanty. But when traders become too greedy and materialistic they take to large-scale commerce and industry and allure the poor agriculturalist to unsanitary industrial towns with a false hope of earning more money. The industrialist and the capitalist do not want the farmer to remain at home, satisfied with his agricultural produce. When the farmers are satisfied by a luxuriant growth of food grains, the capitalist becomes gloomy at heart. But the real fact is that humanity must depend on agriculture and subsist on agricultural produce.

No one can produce rice and wheat in big iron factories. The industrialist goes to the villagers to purchase the food grains he is unable to produce in his factory. The poor agriculturalist takes advances from the capitalist and sells his produce at a lower price. Hence when food grains are produced abundantly the farmers become financially stronger, and thus the capitalist becomes morose at being unable to exploit them.

Agriculture is the noblest profession. It makes society happy, wealthy, healthy, honest, and spiritually advanced for a better life, even after death.

COMMENTS FROM FACEBOOK:

Leonardo Daniel Henry: Monsanto, DuPont, and Tyson etc. The list goes on forever!

Pancha Tattva Dasa: Yes, Monsanto. The Industrialist has now found a way to exploit the agriculturalist by controlling the seeds. Demons!

Only in a country where the average citizen sees 3,000 advertisements a day encouraging them to lick, stick, wear, tear, smoke, suck, nip and tuck until the cows come home can a group of people sitting in a public park be called courageous. America’s consumption-based frenzy has been agitated to such a state by the State, that a couple people doing nothing can and has become a whole lot of something.

“Awh S@#t Man!? They killed Frank?!” All heads in the camp whipped around and eyes were suddenly fixed on the hysterical man with a cell phone in his hand. A stream of expletives gushed from his mouth, with brief interludes of tamer words like “Frank,” “why?” and “how?” Almost as quickly as the heads had turned, three men came jogging with an urgency defying the stereotype of men who lived ‘out of doors,’ and soon our belligerent, bereaved friend was screaming “I’m COOL! I’M COOL!!” in a tone that didn’t help his case. The three men, apparently Judge, Jury and Jailor, came to the conclusion that this man was in fact not ‘COOL’ and they escorted him out of the otherwise public park.

This incident happened upon my second trip to Occupy Detroit’s camp. It was a sunny, unseasonably warm Tuesday afternoon in Detroit Michigan’s prophetically named Grand Circus Park. Grand Circus Park is the token green space of the only 4 blocks within the 143 sq. mile city that visitors bother to venture anymore. Within these 4 blocks, one can access the new pro baseball and football stadiums (Comerica Park and Ford Field respectively,) the Detroit Opera House, the famous Fox Theater and all the accompanying bars and restaurants that cater to the patrons of these establishments. A city with 30% unemployment would certainly have time to enjoy all such bread and circus, but who would have the money? The Suburbanites of course! Convenient access to all major highways at this epicenter of entertainment allow for residents of the deliciously affluent suburban doughnut surrounding Detroit to come and enjoy all the big city fun without ever having to see any of the big city blight that the once mighty ‘D’ is now famous for.

Indeed this small strip of Woodward Ave, the Wall Street of the working man, is all that’s left of
Detroit’s glory days. Largely thanks to union organization, the Motor City was richest in the world based on per-capita income (circa 1950). Detroit is now the buckle of the rust belt. The story is somewhat familiar by now, and the right or wrong of the details doesn’t matter so much. The jobs that were there in 1959 went to machines or Malaysians by 1999, and all the people that could afford to move out did so… and it was assumed all those who stayed were either stuck or stupid.

Catholic priest joins the protests in Detroit

But at least this little chunk of Woodward, with its quaint, open stores, glass windows and functioning street lights, is a place where those who quit on Detroit could come and forget why they’d forgotten about the city. That was the case: at least, until the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ movement took hold smack in the middle of this mirage o’ merriment.

Folks here in Detroit are very thankful for the Occupy Movement. Rather than Detroit being considered a social anomaly, Occupiers across the land are waking people up to the reality of the Motor City being the canary in America’s coalmine. Occupiers understand a country that spends $38,000 per year on each prisoner in its penitentiaries and $8,000 a year on each student in its schools is not operating with the best interest of all its citizens in mind. Occupiers understand the system is designed to keep the 1% in progressively growing power through a network of financial institutions, media outlets and government policies. (Possession of cocaine, for example, which is the drug of the rich, is a misdemeanor, while the possession of crack, the drug of the poor, is a felony.) These are truths the American populace in general is slowly coming to realize, and the Occupiers should be commended for being some of the first to collectively say they want nothing to do with this sorry state of affairs.

This is actually the movements strength, inaction. Only in a country where the average citizen sees 3,000 advertisements a day encouraging them to lick, stick, wear, tear, smoke, suck, nip and tuck until the cows come home can a group of people sitting in a public park be called courageous. America’s consumption-based frenzy has been agitated to such a state by the State, that a couple people doing nothing can and has become a whole lot of something.

But this loitering for liberty can only last so long. America is watching, and absorbing. American was designed to absorb, or to “control the causes of faction” as James Madison put it in his 10th Federalist Paper. Faction was the greatest fear of the Federalist debaters who ultimately won out in the argument for America’s foundational structure. Federalists said that “big government means little people can never be too dangerous, they’ll kill each other before they can become strong enough to kill us.” Shocking that such a system was adopted by the men who were already in power… Thomas Jefferson and his Anti-Federalists were given a concession, the Bill of Rights. Jefferson said the beauty of the 2nd Amendment was that ‘it will not be needed until they try to take it.’ He understood their would again come a day when ‘we’ would be ‘they.’

Upon my first visit to Occupy Detroit, a few days before I saw ‘Frank’s’ grieving friend, I strode into camp optimistic and confident. I felt very grateful for the opportunity to share bhakti-yoga with these progressive thinkers. Expecting to find a park full of souls searching for meaning, truth and justice in this bankrupt world, I had a bag full of Bhagavad-gitas and a mridanga on my back, ready for spiritual dialogue.

The Bhagavad-gita As it Is is pure spiritual knowledge, infallible logic explaining the science of the soul. The mridanga is a double-headed drum that creates an intoxicating sound perfectly suited to accompany the congregational singing and chanting of God’s ecstatic holy names. For the average bread and beer American, this spiritual potency descending through mother India can often be too much. However, it is just what the doctor ordered for people who realize they are not what they own. Occupy Detroit, I thought, would be like preaching to fish in a barrel. But instead of coming upon the languid, bohemian scene I had hoped and prayed for… I arrived at camp during a committee meeting. Jefferson would be pleased…

Nathan was speaking. A burly, bearded, ‘outdoorsy’ type… and was offering a summary of his sub-committee’s, the ‘Get S@#t Done Team’s’ efforts over the past week. Nathan’s crew proved to be aptly eponymous. Through their efforts, the local plumbers union had volunteered all the necessary time and resources for repairing the bathrooms that Occupiers were being permitted to use by a local business. The local electricians union had pledged $1,000 plus cable and wire to ‘improve camp infrastructure’ and they were in talks about developing a system to heat the tents of all Occupiers through the coming winter. ‘Infrastructure?!’ Now it was my turn to use expletives.

Taking a look around, I saw a few of the knappy-headed vagabonds whom I thought would comprise the majority of the Occupy population. There seemed to be a few people who, if given the chance, would let me know how long it’d been since they’d showered with an air of accomplishment in their voice. But far outnumbering the couchsurf-protesters were the 20 and 30 somethings dressed in ‘casual Friday’ clothes, as though they themselves had just left work. This was, I realized, the case… as it was 7 o’clock when I came upon camp.

I learned the crux of that, and every meeting, was the week’s demonstrations. On the docket this week was a proposal for everyone to march to a bridge that connects Detroit with Canada. The bridge is privately owned by a man the committee heads gave a long list of reasons not to like. It was unanimously decided that on the following Thursday, Occupy Detroit would be taking up space near the bridge in an effort to draw attention to the proprietor’s improprieties.

The meeting culminated with a clear delineation of those individuals who would be performing ‘civil disobedience’ i.e. ‘getting arrested,’ and those individuals who would be occupying until they were asked not to. Naturally the casual Friday crowd would be bowing out graciously when the boys in blue arrived.
And who could blame them? Especially in a city like Detroit, when 30% unemployment has a 1/3 of the city wondering how they’re going to eat… who’s going to throw away work just to try and piss off a guy who makes more money in a week than you will in a lifetime? Upon realizing this, I affirmed my own desire to be there in Grand Circus Park and also confirmed my fears about the Occupy Movement.

Srila Prabhupada writes in his commentary on the Bhagavad-gita (5.25): “A person engaged only in ministering to the physical welfare of human society cannot factually help. Temporary relief of the external body and mind is not satisfactory.” In other words, if Occupiers focus solely on the material circumstance of our current situation… the war is already lost.

The biggest scam ever pulled by Wall Street has nothing to do with Mortgage Rates or Crude Oil Prices. The most awful thing those men and any man could ever do is encourage a fellow human to think they are simply the body and nothing more. If we think we are merely a bag of blood, bones and piss, we can be coerced into dedicating all our precious time here on Earth to maintaining that sack of flesh. If that’s all we are, that’s all we got… then that’s all we should do.

But if that’s the case, then why would the collective attention of the world be set on a few people sitting in a park? Why would such seemingly insignificant inaction draw so much attention from individuals whose real interest should be the affordability of botox? Because we are more than the skin we are in. Our consciousness can transcend, as Srila Prabhupada put it, ‘the external body and mind’ if it is properly cultivated. Our creativity, our potency, our supreme potential goes so much beyond the name on our jeans or size of their inseam.

This is what I stand for when I visit occupy, and what could be captured from this inspiring movement is a sincere effort as a society to nurture and encourage authentic spiritual growth outside the limiting concepts of man, woman, old, young, black, white, wall street, main street… Though I understand the sentiment behind standing next to bridges and outside banks; ultimately such protesters are like a farmer who paints his barn and then expects the crops to grow. If we don’t address the real issue at hand, we are likely to not see a change that lasts the winter.

Having more choices, although valued, actually makes life more confusing, complex, and just plain convoluted. What should be a simple process becomes a stressful consideration of so many features or varieties, with the purpose of the device becoming lost. Our true needs have become covered over by so-called modern conveniences.

Though I have spoken about this often, it is important enough to devote a whole blog to it.

Why?

The reason this is important is because we live in a time when the way many companies make money is by getting the population obsessed with technological or other unique gadgets—supposedly to make life better, but actually resulting in more complicated life and people less satisfied. This is outlined in a book I have titled, “When More is Less— The Paradox of Choice” in which having more choices, although valued, actually makes life more confusing, complex, and just plain convoluted. What should be a simple process becomes a stressful consideration of so many features or varieties, with the purpose of the device becoming lost. Our true needs have become covered over by so-called “modern conveniences”.

Why does one have to have a better phone with more apps and features than their perfectly good, not very old one? It is only because companies are dictating what is “cool” or necessary to be better than others who don’t have their product. People become blinded by false substitutes for their real needs, created by companies seeking to exploit people for their profit. “Cool”, being better or “improving life” has replaced intelligent discussion, introspection and seeing the bigger picture; a common sense which isn’t very common today. When companies and their media have control over the direction of our aspirations we are in serious
trouble of losing peace of mind and simple happiness.

This mentality of being dissatisfied and seeking to fulfill it through material goods is called in Sanskrit “raja guna,” or the quality of passion by which modern materialistic society runs. The symptoms of the quality or “mode of passion” are great attachment, fruitive activity, intense endeavor, uncontrollable desire and hankering. These qualities by themselves are not helpful in uncovering the spiritual urge of human beings and bringing the fulfillment everyone naturally wants. Material lust is compared in the Bhagavad-Gita to a blazing fire which can never be extinguished simply by adding more fuel of desires and selfishness.

Now I am not against capitalism per say— every system has its good and bad points and can be constructively used or abused— but consumerism is really a type of enslavement in its harshest form, or something like an addiction where more and newer is craved. In the 1950’s in the United States consumerism was actually promoted by some national leaders as a way to keep people busy and prevent them from causing trouble to the nation. Unfortunately, consumerism, though superficially keeping people busy, caused them great dissatisfaction. This dissatisfaction fermented into the development of the counter-culture of the ‘60s youth which valued simple living and renunciation of materialism.

When we become ruled not by genuine needs but by unrealistic emotional wants or views of personal grandeur we will only become frustrated. Our wants never end if fueled by the promise of more enjoyment in the future. Beyond material happiness, real lasting happiness comes from the soul and understanding its spiritual food, quite apart from any physical necessities.

Unfortunately, happiness has not been promoted as a state of inner being, but rather as dependent on external conditions or things to be obtained (from a company’s product or service). Interestingly being satisfied is not considered good for a nation’s economy where three-fourths of its money comes from consumer spending. Companies need consumers to thirst for the products they make. If people are simple and satisfied they won’t be good consumers. Companies only exist to make a profit even, if people would be happier with fewer things and more time for relationships, and for those on spiritual paths—more time for self-realization and service to God and others.

In a June 18, 2010 article in the Washington Post entitled “USA: The World’s Drug Addict,” it was outlined that the US, with only 5% of the world’s population, consumes 25% of the world’s resources. A more astonishing statistic though is that this same minority population consumes 65% of the world’s illegal drugs. How is this for a testimony that material goods don’t make one happy? It would be assumed by conventional wisdom that a country with a high standard of material enjoyment and prosperity would be the most happy and least in need of drugs. However, this “formula” for success is obviously greatly lacking and based on faulty assumptions.

When companies and their media have control over the direction of our aspirations we are in serious trouble

It is interesting that the current recession in the US and many places in the world has caused some people to reevaluate their lives, their spending, and what is really important. Thrift and saving money were common virtues which went out of fashion many years ago after decades of material prosperity and excess. With the economic downturn (certainly a recession and perhaps a depression), the old values are gaining popularity and acceptance. This was elaborated in the article, “The Leap to Cheap” in the AARP magazine. The article’s author, Jeff Yeager, who also has two books on this topic, such as “The Cheapskate Next Door”, traveled all over the USA to interview 300 people he dubbed his “miser advisers” who outlined how they get more for less, and have a lifestyle of doing without, or getting used items instead of new.

Some onlookers have concluded that people tend to become thrifty when forced by economic hardship, while spending freely in better times. This observation is in line with Srila Prabhupada’s “Nectar of Devotion”, in which he cites that people tend to alternate between material enjoyment and renunciation. In fact these polarities fuel much of material life and even spiritual pursuits, where people become frustrated with sensual pleasure and give up the world by cultivating knowledge of the soul. Without bhakti-yoga, the yoga of philosophy and devotion, we can’t remain steady in our life’s direction or convictions and have to alternate between overindulgence and doing without, or between work and vacation.

On the other hand, some people consider that the importance of thrift and savings will likely become a permanent value for many. Time will tell of course, yet those who have simplified their lives tend to realize the many unexpected benefits. They find what really makes them happy—and it is not simply “things,” but relationships, peace, spirituality, volunteering, and time to devote to them. Thus, thrift, for those who employ it, is more about knowing what is cherished and skipping the rest. This simplicity of living can also be favorable for spiritual cultivation which can be fostered by the thoughtfulness generated by a peaceful mind.

Time and money are often considered as important yet sometimes conflicting goals, yet of the two, time is more important. And counter intuitive to our overspending culture is the realization of a formula that “spending less money creates more time”. One may have millions of dollars yet receive little of the hoped-for benefit. Though working so hard to “improve” one’s perceived status or estate, what is the use if one never has time for God, seeing one’s family or even going home! What a cruel irony and perfect example of the meaning of “maya,” the Vedic name for the force of material illusion, or “that which is not”. The biggest allure of this force is not our present standard of enjoyment, but the promise of future happiness, akin to the proverbial carrot before the donkey. This promise runs the modern materialist engine: “Although you are not happy now you will be with this product!”

Getting out of the mood of intense greed and hankering for improving one’s standard of material comfort and prosperity by needless consumption can be the beginning stage to realizing happiness, but not the end.

However pleasant any material situation is, the nature of the world is change and deterioration. Our happy life will eventually be the cause of our suffering. Never-the-less we find that every person wants to be everlastingly happy without having to give up their loving relationships and standard of living. One of life’s secrets is that the desire for lasting fulfillment actually comes from the eternal soul and can only be fulfilled by spiritual means. Our soul’s nature is being full of knowledge and blissfulness by our eternal constitution of service to God.

So our problem is not just making material adjustments to be happy, but is realizing our eternal joyful nature as souls. Though we have to keep body and soul together by some kind of activity, our lasting happiness is beyond the physical plane, on the dimension of the soul who is a part of God, or Krishna. Therefore, reviving our eternal consciousness is the real solution to life’s apparent problems and suffering.

Krishna consciousness, or bhakti-yoga, is the process of converting our illusion of trying to be the lords of all we survey to one of being the joyful eternal servants of all with God in the lead. It means we wake up to our real self, a lover of God. That is our normal, happy life and is far, far away from our hankering for the next computer system or technological marvel. All the Vedic texts (such as the Bhagavad-gita and the Srimad Bhagavatam) are meant to teach us how to do this, and those who follow this path share their experience and happiness with whoever is interested. Although life normally appears very ordinary, it becomes extraordinary when we see the hand of Krishna everywhere. It is possible to develop such a vision through prayer, spiritual practice and saintly association. Be blessed and find your true spiritual lasting happiness.

Hare Krishna!

Trillions of dollars in economic stimulus dominate the world headlines, and the anxious minds of rich and poor alike. To ease this anxiety, we need much more than just external, temporary attempts at relief.

Rasanath Dasa, our good friend and spiritual guide from The East Village, New York, Temple community, explains from his own unique perspective, as a former member of the Wall Street elite , that we need to look into our hearts and find a place for A Spiritual Stimulus.

August 2nd, 2007. There was excitement in the air. The décor in the ballroom at the Times Square Hilton was exquisite. The crowd dressed in crisp business suits were busily shaking hands and introducing themselves as right on the center of the far wall the projector screen proudly displayed “Bank of America. Higher Standards.” As the fresh batch of MBAs from top business schools walked into the room, the mood was clear. The long-cherished dream of working on The Street (also known as Wall Street) had finally come true for the many aspiring bankers and traders.

As we settled down, my mind flashed back to the yesteryears. As a 9th grader, I was an ardent fan of Charlie Sheen in the 1987 film Wall Street. The momentum that was generated 14 years ago had finally met with success when I was later to become one of 13 associates about to start an exciting career in Investment Banking (oh, those big bonuses!) with the Technology and Media group of Bank of America. The Global Head of Investment Banking, Mr. Brian Brille, opened his address to my class with the statement, “You are all starting here at a very historic time….” Exhilarating!

Flash ahead -past the crowded ballroom and beyond the celebratory speeches. Flash ahead -to a day when the saxophone loudly played the title music of “The Titanic”. The faces of the people walking out of the building with card board boxes told the story. The moment was historic. September 8th, 2008 – I stood outside the Lehman Brothers building at 745 7th Avenue, as the street artist waved dry erase markers at passers-by, urging them to express “words of gratitude” on his painting of the Lehman Brothers CEO, Mr. Richard Fuld. The excitement was over, the bonuses had evaporated, and two Wall Street giants – Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers – had met their end. Those remaining had been severely battered.

It all seemed like a dream. Emotions ran high through my head as I walked past Times Square– disappointment, anger and embarrassment. As the newspapers played into the blame game voicing the opinions of the general public about the people working Wall Street, The Street had become something like a criminal’s haven overnight.

I felt it when I introduced myself to my neighbor on the Amtrak train, “Oh! You are one of the guys responsible for this mess,” he said with a wry smile. I had my own blame list too, which I used to defend myself. But something did not reconcile. I mean, I worked with many of these very people. They were good people, inspiring, driven to succeed, hard working and charitable too. What went wrong?

Over the last few months, some deep thinking, as well as some sobering and heart-felt conversations with empowerment gurus have seemed to provide the much needed answer. Consider it a long-term solution to a problem that had always existed through history and now had manifested itself in a different form – the problem of collective greed. Or more simply put, greed itself.

It seems like a regular Bible lesson – something that I had learned about as a 4 year old kid. Only it took me another 24 years to realize the unfathomable power of greed. Most of us seem unwilling to recognize the influence greed can have on us as individuals. When my cousin ardently pointed out that greed motivated my decision to take a job on The Street, I made light out of it. “Well, a little greed doesn’t matter much. After all, there are so many people out there who are doing the same. The world will come to a stop if we start thinking so idealistically!”

Greed, however, is an addiction – it starts out as an innocent desire to be comfortable and live comfortably. But somewhere along the way, instead of us controlling money and position, they begin to control and dictate our lives. As my ethics professor at Cornell University once put it, “Watch out when you tell yourself ‘I deserve it’!” And unfortunately there are hundreds of ways to justify self-indulgence– after all, logical rationalization seems to be the biggest gift that a college education gives to its graduates. But as greed grows stronger by the day, fed by our own justifications and inattention, it no longer remains as a guiding motivation in life. Greed becomes a way of life.

And when things are going good, greed is like a beautiful and lulling tune playing in the background of our lives, a song that seems too trivial to notice, as was my case during my brief stint on The Street. I unconsciously became part of a system that had been built on collective greed (after all the first “commodities” to trade on Wall Street in the early 17th century were human slaves!) A system I inadvertently helped glorify as I hummed along to greed’s sweet melody.

But when the music stops, reality dawns. Of course, it is only after all of the anger and frustration has been released that we are ready to honestly look inside our own selves. True, our individual contribution to this crisis may have been insignificant, but if we are not honestly spending time cleansing our own hearts of greed, we might as well just mentally prepare ourselves for much more of the same. As we vent our frustrations on the Thains, Fulds, and Madoffs during this crisis, it is also important to realize that they were just reflections of the very same greed within our hearts- perhaps only nurtured by more sophisticated and favorable education, power and circumstances than what we may have had. Really, it could have been any of us.

What may be needed in this time of crisis, along with a monetary solution to bail us out of it, is a program to help us monitor, take personal responsibility for, and possibly eliminate greed from our hearts– a Spiritual Stimulus, if I may call it. We all want to see this situation change, but to prevent this situation from reoccurring, we need a deeper change. As Mahatma Gandhi wonderfully said, “Be the change you wish to see in the world!” How we do it, time will tell. But let us use this time to at least resolve to rid our hearts of the pollution of greed. It can be a big step in creating a better world for our children.

The modern economic system, being driven by materialistic incentives and measured by production and consumption, is deliberately designed by vested interests to create insatiable desires. Obviously, the more people buy, the more money is made by the sellers. When these sellers are primarily motivated by short-term profit, which is the case today, the overall effect on society is negative. This is well known in academic circles. Lester Brown of the Earth Policy Institute wrote: “Our global civilization today is on an economic path that is environmentally unsustainable, a path that is leading us toward economic decline and collapse.” Robert Lane noted in his book Loss of Happiness in Market Democracies that many people in advanced market democracies throughout the world are haunted by the specter of unhappiness and depression. Does affluence + choice = well-being? Daniel Kahneman, Nobel Laureate in Economics, noted that affluence is on the rise but happiness is declining, an effect he calls the “Affluence-Happiness Paradox.” We are paying a high price for materialism: higher anxiety, depression, drug & alcohol use (not to mention abuse); lower self-actualization, vitality, and satisfaction.

Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky of Princeton University have pointed out another interesting paradox: increased choice among ma­terial objects leads to decreased happiness. This is because choosing one option means foregoing others: the wider the range of choice, the deeper the sense of loss. Losses make us hurt more than gains make us feel good. We should also keep in mind the phenomenon of adaptation: the joy of possessing an item declines with time. People consistently misestimate how long good experiences will make them feel good and how long bad experiences will make them feel bad, according to studies by Daniel T. Gilbert of Harvard University and Timothy D. Wilson of the University of Virginia. The greater the expectation, the greater the frustration is about a poor choice. Barry Schwartz wrote in his revolutionary book The Tyranny of Choice: “With group after group of people, varying in age (including young adolescents), gender, educational level, geographic location, race and socioeconomic status, we have found a strong correlation between maximizing and measures of depression.” Ed Diener and Martin Seligman noted in their book Beyond Money: “In stark contrast to the improvement in economic statistics over the past 50 years, there is strong evidence that the incidence of depression has increased enormously over the same time period. This is a very revealing paradox.” Barry Schwartz said that a point is reached at which an increased range of choice brings increased misery rather than increased opportunity. It seems that American society has already passed that point. According to a study at Columbia University: “Evidence is mounting that subjective and, in several cases, even objective well-being may be negatively affected by choice proliferation; policy makers should consider when and how much choice to give in various public realms.”

Are We Raping Our Planet?

According to the Worldwatch Institute, 33% of the planet’s natural resources have been consumed in the last 30 years, 25% of the fifty recent wars and armed conflicts have involved a struggle for control of natural resources, 4% of the US’ original forests are left, 80% of the planet’s original forests are gone, 40% of US rivers are undrinkable, 30% of the kids in parts of the Congo now have had to drop out of school to mine coltan (used in electronics), globally 200,000 people a day move into cities to live in slums and work in toxic industries that release 4 billion lbs of toxins a year (breast milk contains the highest levels of many toxins), 40% of ocean areas are strongly polluted and only 4% remain pristine. Dr. Halpern wrote in the prestigious Science Magazine (February 15, 2008) “I study this stuff all the time and didn’t expect the impacts to be as pervasive as we found.” Hawken and coworkers revealed in Natural Capitalism: “There is no longer any serious scientific dispute that the decline in every living system in the world has reached an extraordinary threshold.” According to the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), there are 1.2 million fatalities on the job each year (3,300 deaths per day), and 160 million new cases of work-related diseases. The Worldwatch Institute also reported that in 1960 the Gross Domestic Product (the total market value of all final goods and services produced in a country in a given year) of the 20 richest countries was 18 times greater than that of the 20 poorest countries. By 1995, the gap between the richest and poorest nations had more than doubled to 37 times.

The World Wildlife Fund, a global conservation organization, revealed in their Living Planet Report for the year 2006 that, according to current projections, humanity will be using two planets’ worth of natural resources by 2050 — if those resources have not run out by then. It also confirms the trend of biodiversity loss seen in previous Living Planet Reports. Already resources are depleting, with the report showing that vertebrate species populations have declined by about one-third in the 33 years from 1970 to 2003. At the same time, humanity’s ecological footprint —the demand people place upon the natural world—has increased to the point where the earth is unable to keep up in the struggle to regenerate. “We are in serious ecological overshoot, consuming resources faster than the earth can replace them,” said WWF’s international director James Leape. He added: “The consequences of this are predictable and dire. It is time to make some vital choices. Change that improves living standards while reducing our impact on the natural world will not be easy. The cities, power plants and homes we build today will either lock society into damaging over-consumption beyond our lifetimes, or begin to propel this and future generations towards sustainable living.” The Living Planet Report uses various data to compile two indicators of the earth’s well-being. The first, the Living Planet Index, measures biodiversity, based on trends in more than 3,600 populations of 1,300 vertebrate species around the world. In all, data for 695 terrestrial, 344 freshwater and 274 marine species were analyzed. Terrestrial species declined by 31 per cent, freshwater species by 28%, and marine species by 27%. The second index, the Ecological Footprint, measures humanity’s demand on the biosphere. Humanity’s footprint has more than tripled between 1961 and 2003. This report shows that our footprint exceeded biocapacity by 25% in 2003. The carbon dioxide footprint, from the use of fossil fuels, was the fastest growing component of our global footprint, increasing more than ninefold from 1961 to 2003. Countries of over a million people with the largest footprint, in global hectares per person, are the United Arab Emirates, the United States of America, Finland, Canada, Kuwait, Australia, Estonia, Sweden, New Zealand and Norway. China comes mid-way in world rankings, at number 69, but its growing economy and rapid development mean it has a key role in keeping the world on the path to sustainability. New, more comprehensive methodology identifies overfishing, industrial agriculture, urban sprawl and carbon emissions as the chief culprits driving ecological overshoot.

WWF’s conclusions are confirmed by another group called Redefining Progress, who found that humanity’s ecological footprint exceeds the earth’s biological capacity by nearly 40%, as revealed in their Footprint of Nations report. The ecological footprint—a concept refined over the past decade by Redefining Progress—is a measure of the amount of nature it takes to sustain a given population over the course of a year. By comparing a population’s footprint with its biological capacity, ecological footprint analysis suggests whether or not that population is living within its ecological means. If a population’s footprint exceeds its biological capacity, that population is said to be engaging in unsustainable ecological overshoot. According to the new Footprint of Nations report, humanity’s footprint is 57 acres per person while the earth’s biological capacity is just 41. “The ecological footprint is becoming an increasingly accurate tool for monitoring humanity’s impact on our planet’s vital life support systems. Our new results should heighten concern about ecological overshoot, and our new tools give the whole world the ability to understand and then to act,” said Michel Gelobter, Executive Director of Redefining Progress. RP’s new ecological footprint analysis underscores the need to act soon to curb a runaway greenhouse effect, an extinction rate approaching nearly 1,000 times the natural rate, and degradation of farmland, forests, fisheries, and pastures. The good news is that the largest single threat, climate change, is now being addressed by the Kyoto Protocol. The ecological footprint highlights the need to make even deeper cuts in our consumption of fossil-fuel-based energy and increase the speed of the transition to widespread renewable energy. The latest Footprint of Nations report is available online at www.ecologicalfootprint.org.

Victor Lebow said: “Our enormously productive economy… demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction, in consumption . . . [W]e need things consumed, burned up, replaced, and discarded at an ever-accelerating rate.” Gary Cross wrote in An All-Consuming Century: “The real winner of the century was consumerism. Visions of a political community of stable, shared values and active citizenship have given way to a dynamic but seemingly passive society of consumption in America, and increasingly across the globe.” The U.S. has 5% of the world’s population but consumes 30% of the world’s resources and creates 30% of the world’s waste. The average U.S. person now consumes twice as much as 50 years ago. If everybody consumed at U.S. rates, we would need 3 to 5 planets!

In summary, materialistic economics is based on exploitation, encourages unlimited consumption, is unsustainable, is divisive, focuses on individual material welfare, forces people to give up higher needs, thrives on lower materialistic tastes, leads to animalistic dealings and relationships, is harmful to oneself and other people, and produces irreversible damage to nature and biodiversity.

What Peace?

Green Economy to the Rescue?

What’s the alternative? Some propose “the green economy,” whose virtues are said to include sustainability, equity, renewable energy, local economies, fair trade, recycling, and closed-loop production. Although a step forward from sheer materialism, the green economy fails to confront the root cause of the problem, which is consumption mania. Thomas Princen, Michael Maniates, and Ken Conca wrote in their book Confronting Consumption: “Much that is said today in the name of sustainability continues to stress the familiar environmental themes of population (too large), technology (not green enough), and economic growth (not enough of it in the right places). Consumption occasionally enters the discussion, but only in non-threatening ways, and most often in the form of calls for ‘green consumption’ or in support of some moral imperative to consume recycled or recyclable products. Much of this sustainable development talk steers clear of escalating consumption and, especially, the roots of such escalation.” Indeed, the green economy itself is a rapidly growing billion-dollar sector!

Moreover, the green economy’s proposed solutions are often accompanied by severe side effects. Consider biofuels, specifically ethanol. C. Ford Runge and Benjamin Senauer wrote in their article “How Biofuels Could Starve the Poor” in the journal Foreign Affairs (May/June 2007): “Biofuels have tied oil and food prices together in ways that could profoundly upset the relationships between food producers, consumers, and nations in the years ahead, with potentially devastating implications for both global poverty and food security.” Timothy Searchinger, a researcher in environment and economics at Princeton University, wrote in his article “Biofuels Deemed a Greenhouse Threat,” which was published in the NY Times: “Most of the biofuel that people are using or planning to use would probably increase greenhouse gases substantially.” Regarding solar power, Terrence J. Collins, an environmental expert and professor at Carnegie Mellon University, wrote in his article “Turning Glare into Watts,” which was published in the New York Times: “The one thing that’s eventually going to raise its head is desert biodiversity, and the land area itself.”

Aside from these problems, we must keep in mind the enormity of the crisis we face, as documented in detail earlier in this article. When we consider this enormity, it is apparent that Green Economy is ineffective and superficial. A final problem with the green economy is that it doesn’t address the lack of spiritual well-being. Clearly we need a fundamental change in consciousness!

←This image’s sarcastic title is “Consumerism Will Free This World.” The culture of consumerism is busy freeing us from nature by destroying it. The World Wildlife Fund, a global conservation organization, revealed in its “Living Planet Report” for the year 2006 that, according to current projections, humanity will be using two planets’ worth of natural resources by 2050 — if those resources have not run out by then. The question is, what is capable of checking the runaway material desires and attachments of the current world’s population? For the answer, read the last section of this article, entitled “SPIRITUAL ECONOMICS.”

Spiritual Economics

Consumption mania is eliminated when we realize that we are transcendental beings who are inherently different from our physical bodies. According to the Bhagavad-gita (2.59), through genuine meditation one experiences a pleasure superior to the greatest material pleasure, which means that one naturally loses interest in unnecessary material things. The Bhagavad-gita (2.62–63) further says: “While contemplating the objects of the senses, a person develops attachment for them, and from such attachment lust develops, and from lust anger arises. From anger, complete delusion arises, and from delusion bewilderment of memory. When memory is bewildered, intelligence is lost, and when intelligence is lost one falls down again into the material pool.” This cycle is avoided by genuine meditation.

Srila Prabhupada, founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, said, “By diverting attention to so many unwanted things, human energy is spoiled without achievement of spiritual realization, the prime necessity of human life. Advancement of material vision or material civilization is a great stumbling block for spiritual advancement. Such material advancement entangles the living being in the bondage of a material body, which is followed by all sorts of material miseries.”

Spiritual economics promotes the following desirable things: individual and collective material well-being, individual and collective spiritual well-being, positive psychology, occupations that satisfy psycho-physical needs, tools and methodologies to help people experience a higher pleasure, ideal self-sufficient communities, sustainable development, natural economics, simple life, social service, higher consciousness and activities, respect for nature, a focus on care and preservation, and nonviolence toward other humans, as well as animals and plants. Moreover, spiritual economics eliminates the following undesirable things: conflicts, personal and social imbalances, exploitation of the weak, materialism, social chaos, inequality, greed, scarcity, prejudice, discrimination, and unhealthy consumption. Keep in mind that real pleasure is in GIVING, not TAKING! But note that one who thinks himself a material product cannot stop thinking, fearing, and worrying about his material security, and thus the greed forces in the culture of TAKING and pushes out the culture of GIVING.

Ruins of a stunningle beautiful temple in the jungles of Cambodia now stand as a monument to a culture that strived for spiritual achievements.