Worshiping Radha Krishna – Part 4

Ishton men Radha Krishna Govinda Radhey,
Bhavon men madhurya shreshta bata dey.

(Part 4 – Synopsis of a talk given by Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj on January 17, 2011, in Bhakti Dham, Mangadh, India, explaining this new kirtan verse)

After God realisation one does not continue to have material desires.

Bhidyate hridayagranthish-chidyante sarva sanshayah.
Ksheeyante chasya karmani tasmin drishte paravare.

This verse is found in the Mundak Upanishad 2/2/8, Yogashika Upanishad 5/45, Saraswati-darshan Upanishad 32, Bhagwatam 1/2/21 and 11/20/30. It says that after God realisation, one’s mayic ignorance is destroyed. As a result, all of one’s material desires are eliminated. Really, after experiencing such great divine bliss, why would one continue to have material desires? God’s bliss is unlimited. Worldly happiness has no comparison to this.

So there can be nothing more foolish than to ask God to fulfill your material desires. To say one’s desires were fulfilled by God is utter nonsense. If they were  fulfilled, this was bound to happen anyway according to one’s karmic destiny. We wrongly give God the credit for this.

Further, if we have material desires, this only means we have not yet understood the ABCs of spiritual philosophy. We are still confused about whether happiness is in the world or in God. This is the very first stage of understanding. And if one realises that there is no happiness in the world  including up to Brahma’s abode, then why would we ask God for the world? Why don’t we pray to God to realise God?

Urvashi

Once God went to the celestial abodes. Indra welcomed Him with great respect, “God has come to my kingdom!” When He was leaving, God said to Indra, “Son, ask for a boon.” Indra said, “Please give me such a woman whose beauty has never been equalled in the past nor will be in the future.” God smiled and thought, “I can’t believe what a foolish request this is. What does he lack here in the celestial abodes? The most beautiful maidens are already here.” Celestial gods have so much power they could  produce thousands of such maidens simply by thought.

But to fulfill Indra’s desire, God produced thousands of extraordinarily beautiful women and said, “Choose one from among these.” Indra only saw the very first maiden and said, “I choose that one.” Her name was Urvashi. Indra took her to his Guru, Brihaspati. Brihaspati said to Indra, “Who have you brought with you? This isn’t Indrani, your wife.” Indra sheepishly said, “Oh, well, God appeared today… and… He said I could ask for something…” Brihaspati said, “What? You have given your Guru a bad name! You asked for this from God?”

So when the emperor of the celestial abodes can make this kind of mistake, how much more foolish are those who go to the temple and pray to God for the fulfillment of their material desires?

The defeat of Abhimanyu

Even if God Himself where to appear before you, He will not fulfill such prayers. What is it that God could give? Take a look at history.

Even Abhimanyu, who was sinless, had to die. Although Veda Vyas, a descension of God, performed Abhimanyu’s marriange, and Abhimanyu’s uncle was Lord Krishna, who was supreme God, and his father was Arjuna, a true saint, decension of Nar-Narayana and knower of the Bhagavad Gita, no one could save him. Why not? What is death to God? Is anything impossible for Him to do? Surely He could have saved him.

Yet, when Arjuna was weeping after Abhimanyu’s death, He asked Lord Krishna, “Please let me see him just once.” Even at that time, Lord Krishna couldn’t bring him back. He said, “One’s time of death is determined by the destiny created by one’s actions. I do not interfere in this.”

So unlike Abhimanyu, when you have no relationship with Lord Krishna, what will you receive by asking Him to fulfill your desires?

Even Lord Ram’s father, Dasharath, had to die. Lord Ram Ram did not save him, even though He saved thousands of monkeys killed in the battle of Lanka. This is because when one’s destined time of death has come, he must go. We can’t do anything to alter this. Then why do we hope that merely by asking God to fulfill our material demands He will do so?

Material desires are only a source of suffering, and to ask God to fulfill these is outright foolishness. This is also pure selfishness, sakamata. What is selflessness, niskhamata, will be described next.

(Continued in part 5)

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Actions of God and Saints

Hari Guru karma divya Govinda Radhey,
mayic budhi te agamya bate dey.

(Synopsis of a talk given by Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj on December 29, 2010, in Bhakti Dham, Mangarh, India, explaining this new kirtan verse)

The Vedas and scriptures and also Saints have said that there is no difference between God and His Saints.

Tasminstajjaney-bhedabhavat. (Narad Bhakti Darshan)

In some places in the scriptures, God has even regarded His devotee Saint as greater than Him. How astonishing!

Nirapeksham munim shantam… (Bhagwatam, 11/14/16)

Shri Krishna said to Uddhava, “When My Saints walk on the earth, I secretly walk behind them.” Uddhava wondered, “Why do You secretly follow them? It must be to protect them.” Shri Krishna said, “No, Uddhava, anubrajamyaham nityam puyeya, I do this so their footdust may fall on Me and purify Me. That is how loving My Saints are to Me.”

After God realisation, God bestows all His powers on the bhakta Saint. For this reason, the Saint’s actions also become divine. In other words, God Himself performs the Saint’s actions; the Saint from his side does nothing. Has a soul attained God realisation? If so, now he does nothing. And why should he do anything? He has attained everything.

When a pot is placed in water, while it is filling it makes a gurgling sound – bak, bak, bak… When it is completely full, it is silent. You can keep on dunking it under the water, but now it won’t make a sound.

There is some water that is naturally mixed in butter. When butter is heated to make ghee, it also makes a sound, pat-pat-pat… The reason for this is the water is being cooked off. When the butter is fully cooked and it becomes ghee, then this sound comes to an end. Now, no matter how much you heat the ghee, it may burn but it won’t make a sound.

Raw dough for puris

Frying puri

Fully cooked puri

Yet we have seen when people cook with ghee that it makes sounds. When does this happen? When you place raw dough in it. When this becomes a fully cooked puri, then the ghee once again is silent. If you put more raw dough in, then it will again make noise. The ghee itself is not making any noises; the ghee is causing the sound to come from the raw dough as it is cooking.

Arjuna and Hanuman killed thousands, but this wasn’t their own decision. They were following the order of Lord Krishna and Lord Ram for the salvation of the world. Both God and His Saints have performed great activities in the world. Prahlad ruled this world for 300 million years. They were great God realised Saints like this who performed worldly-looking actions like ours, but unlike our actions, their actions were not worldly at all.

Shri Krishna had 16,108 wives, and with each wife he had 10 children. These children in turn also had children. But in the midst of this, Shri Krishna had no attachment. In the end, even though the whole Yadav clan was destroyed, Shri Krishna remained ever-blissful.

How could lust, anger, greed, delusion and jealousy remain in a Saint’s heart after God realisation? If a Saint appears to exhibit these qualities after God realisation, it only for the spiritual upliftment of the souls, not for himself.

Our material intellects cannot understand this secret of a Saint’s actions. Why not? Look, if you slap someone, first you became very angry. Then an argument follows. Your anger escalates until it’s out of control and this ends with a slap. But Arjuna killed millions in the Mahabharat War with no anger at all. Instead, everywhere he only saw Shri Krishna. Hanuman saw only his beloved Lord Ram everywhere in the world.

We think, “How did they do it? I could never do that!” Yes, it is true that you couldn’t, but does that mean there is nothing beyond what you experience? You are bound by Maya; Saints are beyond Maya. You have limited powers and Saints have unlimited powers.

For this reason, in uncountable births we have seen uncountable descensions of supreme God and in spite of this we said, “This Krishna is nothing but a loafer. Day and night He keeps traipsing after girls.” When we saw a Saint like Surdas we said, “He visits a prostitute and afterwards he goes here and there playing his tanpura and chanting ‘Hare Ram Hare Ram’!”

Now that  these divine personalities have left this world, we worship them. While they were here, we tried to measure their divinity with our material intellect.

We were not able to understand them because we don’t have a divine intellect. As a result, we have always committed spiritual transgressions and caused our own spiritual downfall. We ruined the opportunity of a human birth. We have done this in uncountable births. We have met innumerable Saints and descensions of supreme God. God is not senior to us; like God, we have also existed eternally. Shri Krishna appeared 5,000 years ago on this earth. We were also living at that time.

Imagine, if we had the chance to associate with a divine descension in this birth, we would still try to measure his divinity using our material intellect. We would say, “Look, that person is eating and drinking just like I do. He also gets angry. He is also acting greedy. Well, what is the difference between me and him?” Someone else says, “Listen, I heard he is a descension of God!” We would say, “Rubbish!” And if we were to see any contrary behavior from that divine personality, we start heaping even more criticism on him.

For this reason, do not apply your intellect and try to analyse the actions of God or His Saints. Gaurang Mahaprabhu said,

Jar chitte Krishna prema karai uday,
Taro vakya kriya vigyena bhujhe.

The words and actions of the God realised Saint who has attained Shri Krishna’s divine love cannot be understood even by great intellects such as Brihaspati. Only when one achieves the same divine status and becomes a Saint will one understand.

God bestows worldly possesions on a soul. This is His grace. God destroys the worldly possessions of another. This is also His grace. We can only accept that one of these situations is the result of God’s grace, not both simultaneously.

After Prahlad attained God realisation, God told him, “Rule this earth for one manvantar (300 million years)” Prahlad said, “My Lord, you want me to do this for one whole manvantar?” God said, “Yes, you have to stay in the world this long.” Prahlad thought, “After attaining God’s bliss I have to remain in this rubbish heap of a world? Anyway, it is his order. It’s fine.” Otherwise, Prahlad might have said, “What nonsense is this? I attained God realisation. I’m going to Golok abode! Why should I stay here?” Because here one doesn’t see Saints like Prahlad. The world is full of selfish and ignorant mayic souls with material attachment. And in every age only a few true Saints are on this earth.

So, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu says that since we can’t understand the words and actions of God and His Saints, we should accept and follow their teachings. When we achieve their divine status, then we will understand everything.

A child of four years can’t yet understand how he is the child of both his mother and father. He wonders, “Why do they both call me ‘son’?” His mother and father also can’t explain this to him as he still is unacquainted with the facts of life and has no sensual desire. When he reaches 16 years of age and starts having these feelings, then he’ll realise, “Oh, so that’s how babies are born! Why didn’t they explain this to me before when I was younger? Instead they kept shooing me away and told me to stop talking nonsense!” Now his understanding comes naturally.

Similarly, when you arrive in the class of a God realised Saint, who even while performing action remains free from all karmic consequences, you will naturally understand. You do have some degree of understanding of this in the world, but you keep forgetting. When you love someone, you hug them to your chest. You hug your husband, wife, mother, father, sister, brother, and child. But the feeling you experience while hugging each of them is different.

A person is observing a man and woman hugging on the street. If he has a pure mind, he will have pure thoughts about this. If he has an impure mind, he will immediately criticise them, “Look at that promiscuous behavior! Hugging on the street!” What is the actual situation? A brother lost his sister for some days. When he finally found her, he couldn’t control his joy and embraced her. But the onlooker observing this is thinking something quite the opposite.

When we make such wrong appraisals of worldly behavior, then what would happen in our analysis of a Saint’s actions? We just cannot understand their actions. For this reason Chaitanya Mahaprabhu said not to apply one’s intellect in such areas that could lead to one’s spiritual downfall.

When you are studying in school, you don’t attempt to imitate the teachers. If a student sat in the teacher’s chair and made the teacher sit on the floor with the other students, what would happen when the teacher asks the imitation teacher a question? That child has no knowledge.

Thus we should always remain careful not to have a negative or judgemental attitude towards God and His Saints.

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Relationship of God and Guru-Part 2

(Continuation of a talk given by Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj on December 23, 2009, in Bhakti Dham, Mangarh, explaining a new kirtan verse)

In the Ramayana, Saint Tulsidas has said,
More man prabhu as vishvasa,
Ram te adhik Ram kar dasa.
The devotee Saint of supreme God is greater than God. In the Bhagwatam, Shri Krishna says, “The one who wants to become my divine devotee by practicing devotion to Me is ignorant. The one who is a devotee of My devotee Saints is extremely dear to Me. He alone can attain My divine love. My divine love is found in the care of such a Guru.”

God comes to reside in one’s heart only after it has become completely purified. Shri Krishna says in the Gita (9/22), “Surrender completely to Me and purify your heart and then I will come.” So who is the one who will do this dirty work of purifying the minds of the souls? God tells the souls to go to His Saints. They are the ones who will clean the hearts and minds of the souls. When the drawing room of one’s heart is perfectly clean, then God will come and reside there.

So Saints do such a big job for us. First, they make the souls correctly understand spiritual philosophy, such as who is the soul, who is God, what is Maya, what is the world, what is detachment, what is attachment. If the Saint didn’t make the souls understand this, even if God were standing before them, their experience of Him would amount to nothing. This is because God is divine; we can’t see Him. He is already residing in our hearts, but what difference has this made to us? He is also omnipresent, but how are we benefiting from this?

So first the Saint will teach correct spiritual knowledge, then He will teach practical devotion to the souls. He will sit with his disciples and teach them just as a primary school teacher sits with his students to teach them the alphabet. A teacher says, “Say ‘C’.” The child says, “C”. The teacher says, “Say ‘A’.” The child says, “A”. The teacher says, “Say ‘T’.” The child says, “T.” Then the teacher says, “Now say it all together, CAT.” The child says, “TAC.” The teacher says, “No! Not TAC! Say CAT.” Then the child will say “CAT.” This is how we were taught. Everybody was like this at the beginning. How much effort our primary school teachers exerted just to teach us one single word!

So your teachers have worked very hard to educate you from this age graduate school. In the world, they receive money for doing this. Whether you come to class or drop the class, it’s all the same to them. But Saints give us such knowledge in a short amount of time which is the essence of all the scriptures, and which we couldn’t learn on our own in thousands of years of study. If not, we would forever remain confused, because there are two contradictory points of view found in every scripture.

So the Guru gives us correct spiritual knowledge, shows us how to practice devotion, and upon the complete purification of our hearts, it is he alone who also graces us with divine love. Then our senses, mind and intellect are made divine. When a soul attains divine love, then even God Himself comes under the control of that devotee’s love.

God alone is supremely independent; all others existences are dependent. But after a soul attains God realisation, this definition of God becomes reversed. Only one power is independent – the God realised Saint; all others are dependent to him, even God Himself! Due to this, Shri Krishna declares, “I walk behind My devotee Saints so that I may be blessed by their footdust and be purified.” (Bhagwatam, 11/14/16).

In this way, it is correct that God is the greatest, it is also correct that God and the Saint are one, and from the point of view of our self-interest, the Saint is greater than God. We should feel particularly grateful to him because he delivered us to God and was with us from the very beginning until the very end.

When a child is born, under her father and mother’s care she is nurtured, educated, and taught skills and virtues. When she turns 18 years of age, a boy comes to interview her as a potential marriage partner. The father did all the hard work, from her birth until her 18th year and then gave her in marriage to the boy. The daughter simply encircled the ceremonial fire during her marriage ceremony and then left her parents home. So God is our eternal relation, but it is the Saint who exerts all the hard effort for the soul and then joins him with God. For this reason it is said that the Saint is greater than God. In this way, all three statements are true.

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Main Kaun Mera Kaun Govinda Radhey

Main kaun mera kaun Govinda Radhey,
yah gyan keval ‘mera’ kara dey.

(New kirtan verse written by Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj on October 21, 2009, Bhakti Dham, Mangadh)

“Who am I?” “Who is mine?” You receive correct understanding of this only through the ones who are truly and eternally yours, God and the God realized Saints.

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Divine Grace

(Synopsis of a lecture given by Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj on September 22, 2009, in Golok Dham, New Delhi, India)

God only graces the souls. Except for this, He has no other work. If anyone ever asks you,”What does God do?” Your answer should be, “Grace.” All his other actions are a result of His desire to grace. His gracious nature forces Him to perform all other kinds of action.

The Gita (4/13) says that God has the title of “doing nothing while simultaneously doing everything”. He is the abode of two opposite and simultaneously existing characteristics. The Bhagwatam says that even the intellects of great scholars fail at this point when they hear or read about these contradictory characteristics of God.

The scriptures say that God has no desire. Only the one who has something to attain forms desires. God has nothing to attain so He doesn’t have any desire. He is also ever-existing, all-knowing and eternally happy. Why then should He have any desires? On the other hand, we are repositories of unending desires. So when God doesn’t have to achieve anything, then the question of His having desires doesn’t arise. But still He performs action.

For example, God created this universe. What was the reason? This is an important question. The Taitariya Upanishad says, “God is defined as the One who creates everything. All the living and non-living, sentient and insentient beings are maintained by Him, and at the time of mahapralay (final dissolution) of the universe, everything merges into Him.”

(1) God is atmaram. God is also referred to as atmaram, completely desireless. Why then did He create this impure, temporary, material and lifeless world? All of God’s qualities are the opposite of what is found in this creation!

God is the supreme enlivener, yet He created a lifeless world. God is an ocean of divine bliss, but there is not a single drop of true happiness in this world. When we entered this world, we made our start by shedding tears, and we keep on crying until our death time. But if God is not like this, then why did He create such a bad world? He should have at least created a nice world. After all, He is better than the best. What then was the reason for this material world?

(2) God is ajanma. God is called ajanma, eternally unborn. But still He appeared on this earth. What was the reason for this? The cause for an embodied soul’s rebirth is the consequence of his actions. But when God doesn’t perform actions at all, then how did He take birth? Why is He called “Nanda-kumar” (the son of Nanda), “Dasharath-kumar” (the son of Dasharath), “Vasudev-kumar” (the son of Vasudev) and so on? Is He the father of the eternal soul or is the soul His father? The Vedas say that each and every individual soul, from an ant to creator Brahma, are all His children. But God says, “No, Nanda was My father.” This is very odd!

(3) God is satyasankalp. The Katha Upanishad (2/3/3) and the Taitariya Upanishad (2/8) say the even death itself is scared of God. He is that great a destroyer. With one single thought, God causes uncountable worlds to merge into His being. He doesn’t have to do anything. He just thinks. So He is also called satyasankalp. Yet, on the other hand, when Shri Krishna was attacked by Jarasandha in Braj, He was so scared He ran from Braj and kept on running until He crossed India’s border and finally came to live on an island called Dwarika. These activities of God are very difficult to understand.

(4) He is poornkam. God is divinely contented, but in Braj He asks the souls for love. For example He performed the pastime of raas with the Gopis. These characteristics are completely opposite to each other. How is it possible for God to exhibit both of them?

God embodies several completely opposite characteristics. But in His original form He is always ever-existing, all-knowing, and ever-blissful (sat-chit-ananda). He actions may be contrary to His original nature, but He remains always established in His original nature.

God and God-realised Saints are beyond the reach of Maya. They have no relationship with mayic or material subjects. Saints attain such a state that even Maya can’t enter. They don’t have any desire or any need to perform action after reaching that state. They become fully satisfied. With nothing left to do for themselves, whatever the Saints’ do is only for the spiritual welfare of others. What could they do? In this regard, they are completely helpless. They have crossed the limits of Maya and attained divine happiness. Now they only grace the souls. Similarly, whatever God does is only to grace the souls.

Before creation, all the uncountable individual souls were in a dormant state within God’s own personality. God thought, “I must grace the souls.” Feeling compassion, His kripa shakti, power of grace, came forward, created the material world and placed the souls there so they would have the chance to do devotion and attain their ultimate goal: God. This was only God’s grace upon us.

After creating the world, He also made so many arrangements for our survival such as making available food, water, air, land, and so on. He didn’t do that for Himself. He created all these things only for us with His grace. His gracious nature compels Him to perform all these actions. His kripa shakti makes Him the servitor of His devotees. What can He do? He is completely helpless because gracing the ignorant souls is His nature.

On the other hand, we can’t grace anyone because we exclusively desire our own happiness. But God and the Saints exclusively think of and work for the welfare of others.

This is a brief description of divine grace.

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God is Causelessly Merciful – Part 1

(Synopsis of a talk given by Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj in Bhakti Dham, Mangarh, India, on September 15, 2009)

Great scholars and philosophers have pondered on how God is causelessly gracious. Causeless means to grace without a reason. In our world everyone is gracious with cause, no matter if it is our mother, father, son or neighbour. Gracing with cause is like a business transaction. We give something and in return we receive something from the other person.

For example, when we go to a store, we give money to the shopkeeper and in return he gives us the goods we require. He doesn’t give us a discount for that, rather he takes the full price. If the shopkeeper were asked to give something worth $2000 for $200, he would say, “Have you gone crazy? Get out of my store!” It is necessary to pay the full price. This condition exists everywhere in this world.

We did something for our mother, father, son, and so on. In return they graced us. This reciprocal business is found everywhere. As a result, people assume this also exists in the spiritual area. Those who practiced devotion and become Saints like Tulsi, Soor, Meera, Kabir, and others were graced by God. We didn’t practice God’s devotion but instead practiced devotion to the world. As a result, the consequence we received for this made us roam here and there in the 8.4 million life forms.

To receive a human birth is extremely rare. In the jungle there are so many creatures. They don’t have rooms, nor do they have any clothing or ready-made food, but still they continue to exist. They also have offspring and they experience all kinds of pains and suffering like we do. They also experience happiness as we do. A person eating a rasgulla (Indian sweet) experiences the same happiness that a cow receives by eating green grass. The quality of happiness in both these situations is comparable.

But what human beings have that is unique is a special power of knowledge. This power makes them capable of having their selfish desires fulfilled, even from animals! But, look at the poor condition of the wild animals, who have to move continuously from here to there just to get enough food, and in that, too, there is no certainty. In this, the less powerful creatures become prey for the more powerful animals. This is the scene all over the jungle. But,

Kabahunk karu karuna nar dehi,
deta isha binu hetu sanehi.

Saint Tulsidas says that the human body is precious and rare. This form is bestowed on a soul by God, who is causelessly gracious. Veda Vyas says that even the celestial gods, who are worshiped by humans, also long to receive a human body. They pray to God to receive a human form, which in comparison to their own, is extremely impure. A celestial body naturally exudes perfume and has a divine luster. It doesn’t age or produce sweat or any waste products. But still they desire a human body. Why? Because the freedom to perform action or karma is only bestowed on the human form. This is what makes us capable of attaining what we desire, divine happiness, and likewise what we don’t want, suffering. Producing consequences of action is possible only in the human body.

Again the same question arises. Is God gracious with cause? And what about those who give donations as charity? At least they must be causelessly gracious! No, they are not. They have faith in the Vedas and scriptures, which say that if you give charity in your present birth, you will receive ten times that in your next birth. You won’t wander here and there in search of a piece of bread. You will lead a comfortable life. This is the hidden, selfish desire of those who give charity.

For example, a mother selflessly nurtures her child for 20-25 years. What can a newborn baby do in return for its mother? But still the mother nurtures her baby with great difficulty. She seems to be selfless but actually she is not. She also has a hidden desire. Her desire may be that after her child becomes an adult and is earning money, that he will support and take care of her in her old age, and so on.

There is attachment and animosity everywhere. Just as children in a poor street sweeper’s house fight and quarrel over a few pennies, so do brothers in India’s richest families file court cases against each other over millions. Not only poor people are troubled, although the poor may think that everyone else is happy except themselves.

So then is God causelessly gracious? Yes, He is. How have people attained God realisation? Through devotion. What does devotion mean? What could we offer to God so that He would grant us the power to see Him? His form, knowledge and bliss are all divine. Even this material world belongs to Him. What could we offer to Him? Initially we have to practice devotion to attain Him, but how will we do this? With our mind – but our mind is also material, and whatever loving remembrance we practice will all be a product of our material imagination. So on what basis will He give us His divine vision?

There is nothing in the world that could be offered to God in exchange for being granted His divine vision. Our mind, intellect and body are all material. How could we pay for something divine with something material? Still, God has graced so many Saints with divine vision. How did that happen? This will be explained later.

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“Kripa Karu” Kirtan Explanation

(Synopsis of a talk by Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj given on August 10, 2009 in Bhakti Dham, Mangarh, explaining this kirtan verse)

There are three types of personalities – those under the control of Maya, those beyond or free from Maya, and the supreme controller of Maya, God.

Those who are under the control of Maya are all of us who are suffering due to the effects of time, the consequences of our actions, our nature, mental and physical pain, pain inflicted on us by others, and pain caused by our environment. When even the residents of the celestial abodes are unhappy, what could be said about the residents of this earth planet? Everyone is unhappy, agitated, dissatisfied and incomplete.

But that soul under Maya who attains God is called a Saint. He goes beyond Maya. Even though such a Saint lives in the world, he remains beyond all mayic suffering. He may become sick, but he does not experience suffering due to that. He may also die, but he does not experience the pain of death. His relatives may also die, but this doesn’t give him any emotional pain. He always remain absorbed in divine happiness.

Now a question arises. What is the difference between a soul under Maya and a Saint beyond Maya? The difference is that a soul under Maya does everything exclusively for his own happiness. The Vedas says that no wife does anything for her husband’s happiness, no husband does anything for his wife’s happiness, no child does anything for his father’s happiness, no father does anything for his child’s happiness, and so on. What does this mean? No one does anything for the happiness of another nor is he able to do anything. Everyone is selfish. What is their selfish desire? There is only one desire of all the uncountable souls in the uncountable worlds in this universe: spiritual happiness. That happiness is unlimited and never-ending.

Someone might say that he experiences happiness in this world. But the first attribute of this happiness is that it ends when a greater happiness is perceived.

For example, you are driving a simple Maruti car in India. You see a car coming towards you worth hundreds of thousands. The happiness you feel from your Maruti is reduced, “What kind of car is this! Now that’s a car… wow!” When we see someone who has a much more prestigious position than our own, the happiness we associate with our own position ends. Seeing a greater happiness in comparison to your own, makes your present happiness come to an end.

Secondly, regardless of from who or where we receive worldly happiness, it continuously decreases every moment. Initially you experience a lot of happiness from something. Slowly it reduces, becomes less, and then it comes to an end. You could even start to experience pain from the same object.

For example, a mother finds her son, who was missing for several days. The first time she hugs him, she hugs him tightly and experiences a lot of happiness. The second time she hugs him that pleasure is less. The third time she hugs him, it has reduced more. By the fourth time, she tells him, “Son, go outside and play.” Whether one is a king, a beggar or a holy man, everyone experiences this. Plus, everyone is deceiving each another by saying, “Everything is all right.” Not a single thing is right. Everything is wrong!

Selfish desires, lust, anger, and so on surround us continuously, and our physical and mental pain are in addition to this, but still we keep on smiling.

So we have only one desire – to attain happiness. Why is this so? We are not the body, but the soul. The individual soul is a part or fragment of God’s personality. The soul does not die. Only the body dies. A part has a natural love for what it originates from, and it is bound to love it, no matter if one claims to be an atheist, a believer, or an adherent to any other philosophy.

Why do people commit suicide? Even this they do for happiness. Is it so? Yes. When a person becomes completely disheartened due to worldly suffering, he thinks, “It would be better if I die. At least I will be free.” He repeatedly thinks this and finally one day he commits suicide.

When we took birth, the first thing we did was make a demand. We cried. We took out all the pain we underwent during childbirth. We cried and our mother smiled, “Oh, my baby is alive!” She smiled, which proves she was selfish. We cried and asked for happiness, but we didn’t know whom to ask. Since then until now we have only been asking for happiness. For the sake of happiness, we have used so many methods and have spoken so many flowery words to dupe others just so that our self-interest could be fulfilled. But we were not able to find out exactly where happiness is.

In an ashram, everyone is blind. The residents can’t see each other. One blind person said to another, “Please bring me to the bathroom.” The second one thought, “I can’t see at all.” They started walking, and right away ran into the furniture and fell down. Similarly, we are all duping one another. We are all asking for happiness from each other – a wife from her husband, a husband from his wife, a mother from her child, the child from his mother. But when both are beggars, what are they going to give each other?

A true Saint who is beyond Maya possesses that true divine happiness. The definition of happiness is that once it is attained, it could never be taken away.

A man eats one rasgulla (an Indian sweet drenched in sweet syrup). He feels extremely good. He eats another. His happiness reduces somewhat. He eats a third – it reduces even more. He eats a fourth – it further reduces. By the fifth rasgulla he is telling his friend, “Please stop! I will vomit if I eat any more!”

Daily we tolerate harsh words and insults from those closest to us, but we still stick with them. Everyone’s condition is exactly the same. As long as the soul remains under Maya, he could only remain selfish. This is irrefutable. All of our actions and plans will only be for the achievement of happiness, and only when we go beyond Maya, will we become complete and fulfilled. That fufillment will last forever.

“Sada pashyanti surayah.
Tadvishnoh paramam padam.”

That enlightened Saint feels the whole world is a form of bliss. He sees bliss in everyone, and experiences it everywhere and all the time. So what will he do? He will selflessly love and grace the souls. He will do this because his selfish desires have come to an end. Now whatever he does will be for the sake of others. In the same way, God is also always showering His grace on the souls.

Innocent people such as ourselves could argue that if God graces everyone, then why aren’t we being graced? God’s says, “You just aren’t asking for it. Your condition is such that your mind, intellect and body are mayic and impure, but still you can’t ask for grace? Ask for it properly and I will give it to you.” The soul asks, “But how should I do that?” God answers, “The same way you did earlier, when you immediately cried as a new-born baby. Just cry and ask for My grace. Do not show your pride.”

We just verbally ask for God’s grace. We go to the temple and say, “Oh my Lord, You alone are Mother and Father,” while we are still attached to our physical mother and father. Along with this we also say that God is all-knowing! This kind of artificiality doesn’t succeed in the spiritual area, even if it succeeds all the time in the mayic area.

So we have to learn how to ask for God’s grace properly. In order to do that, we have to decide and believe that the world was created for the body. God is for the soul. The word is made of material elements and so is the body. But no one made the soul. Rather, it is a part of God’s divine personality.

So the day we learn how to ask for God’s grace properly, we will receive God’s grace. After that, the soul who becomes free from Maya will act only to spiritually uplift others.

© Radha Govinda Samiti and Bhakti Bliss

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