Beware of the mind’s divide and rule strategy

A standard war strategy for defeating a strong enemy is divide and rule. The Bhagavad-gita (06.06) states that the mind can often act as our enemy. Acting inimically, it targets us with this strategy when we practice bhakti-yoga.

The Gita (18.78) indicates that the combination of the omnipotent Lord and the determined devotee, as represented by Arjuna, is a guarantor of victory. Recognizing the formidable nature of this combination, the mind tries to break it with the divide and rule strategy. Of course, it can’t delude Krishna, and it certainly can’t rule him. So the sole target of its divine and rule strategy is us. That is, it strives to disconnect us from Krishna by creating dissension and distance between us and him. A common way it disconnects us is by giving a misleading spin to the phases of tastelessness we sometimes undergo during our bhakti practice as seekers. Such phases come primarily due to the influence of the modes – influence that comes and goes like everything material.

But the mind makes us believe that such tastelessness will be our lifelong fate if we continue practicing bhakti. Being overwhelmed at such a burdensome prospect, we slacken our connection with Krishna, thus depriving ourselves of our vital access to the higher taste of spiritual love. And then we soon fall prey to the lures of lower pleasures that the wily mind promptly dangles before us.

To protect ourselves, we need to recognize that the “tastelessness will be endless” notion is the mind’s smokescreen to undermine our devotional practice. By discerning this strategy, we can strengthen our resolve to not let anything disconnect us from Krishna. When we stay firmly devoted, taste soon returns, often reinforced by the purification resulting from our determined practice, thus making our further march towards him sweeter and easier.

Waking up within a dream is not the same as waking up from the dream –

Sometimes while dreaming, we may see ourselves waking up and becoming more aware of things. Despite this increased awareness, we haven’t woken up.

For us as souls, embodied life is like a dream – just as a dream is temporary, so is our present life of misidentification with our material body. Significantly, within embodied existence, we can be at various levels of awareness. In the lower modes of passion and ignorance, we are often so infatuated with worldly pleasures or so dejected at not getting them that our awareness of even material reality remains fragmental. For example, alcoholics can become so obsessed with the next drink as to be unmindful of how their actions are hurting others or even themselves.

In contrast with the lower modes, the mode of goodness engenders holistic material awareness – we can better perceive our circumstances and the consequences of our actions. Yet, as long as we remain unaware of our spiritual identity, we are still spiritually asleep. So, the higher awareness of the mode of goodness is like waking up within the dream.

Pertinently, the Bhagavad-gita (14.06) indicates that the mode of goodness can bind us with knowledge – by making us complacent that we are more knowledgeable than others, it can take away our impetus to strive for spiritual awareness.

Nonetheless, the mode of goodness is conducive for realizing our spiritual identity, provided we strive for it. Gita wisdom prompts us towards such realization by enjoining the practice of yoga, especially bhakti-yoga. Practice of bhakti-yoga gives us higher spiritual taste that far supersedes the pleasure of material knowledgeableness. The transcendental lure of this taste inspires us to rise from waking up within the dream to waking up from the dream and relishing ecstatic eternal life of love with Krishna.

Don’t take life so personally

People who take everything personally are usually touchy. If they come up with an idea and someone points out a problem with it, they treat that objection as a personal attack on them. Driven by reactive emotions, they go into a hyper-defensive or hyper-offensive mode. Being unable or unwilling to learn from others’ inputs, they become obstacles for their own growth.
The problem becomes worse when they take life’s events personally. Thus, whenever things go wrong, they let that reversal become a statement about themselves: “I was born with a rotten destiny.” Or whenever they do something wrong, they make that mistake into a judgment of their self-worth: “I am good-for-nothing.”
Gita wisdom explains that misery is an inherent characteristic of the material world. So, the misery that befalls us is a part of the world’s nature – it is not necessarily a statement about us. Even if the misery is because of our past bad karma, still that karma doesn’t determine what we can do – or, more importantly, who we can be. If we let whatever happens in the course of life define us, we undermine our freedom to choose and grow.
Just as those who distance themselves from their ideas can take feedback objectively and improve themselves, similarly, when we learn to distance ourselves from events, we can respond constructively.

The Bhagavad-gita reinforces our capacity to thus distance ourselves by explaining our non-material identity as souls. The Gita (13.33) indicates that just as the sky being subtle is unaffected by the grosser things it contacts, we can stay unaffected amidst worldly dualities by contemplating our transcendental identity. Further, by practicing yoga, we can experience peace and power in our spiritual relationship with Krishna. Being thus spiritually sheltered, we can observe things from a detached non-threatened perspective and respond to problems with growth-promoting solutions.

Don’t lose the purpose of living for the sake of living

The purpose of living refers to the thing that brings meaning and fulfillment to our life. Living refers to the process of earning a livelihood.

Frequently, what starts off as earning a livelihood often morphs into a pursuit of prestige – all the more so in today’s status-driven materialistic culture. The culture makes us believe that if we are not indulging in the activities that it deems trendy, we are not living at all. But indulgence in such activities doesn’t provide fulfillment – it provides at best some titillation for the ego. And even that titillation is short-lived because soon someone usurps the prestige we thought was our own. Or our present level of prestige no longer titillates enough, and we start craving and slaving for more. Thus, we end up doing scores of trendy things that don’t truly matter to us – that, in fact, keep us from doing the things that matter to us. The Bhagavad-gita (16.16) indicates that such consumption of our consciousness in multiple things entraps us in a network of illusion.

The problem is not seeking a respectable living. The problem is becoming so obsessed with the culture’s fickle notion of prestige as to neglect our purpose of living.

What is our purpose of living? At a material level, our purpose will naturally vary according to our specific God-given talents and resources. But we are not just our talents and resources – we are at our core souls, parts of Krishna. And e can find the deepest fulfillment in loving and serving him. So, our ultimate purpose is to nourish our love for him firstly by engaging in direct devotional activities, and secondly by using our talents and resources in a mood of service to him. Such devotional utilization of our assets will grant us life’s supreme fulfillment

The modes are not monochrome, but are multi-level

The Bhagavad-gita (17.04) analyzes different kinds of worship according to the modes: people in sattva-guna (mode of goodness) worship the gods; people in rajo-guna (mode of passion), demoniac beings; and people in tamo-guna (mode of ignorance), ghostly beings.

How can this analysis be reconciled with the well-known Puranic classification given in the Matsya and other Puranas: sattvika Puranas delineate the worship of Vishnu; rajasika Puranas, the worship of Brahma; and tamasika Puranas, the worship of Shiva?

Following scripture and worshiping a scripturally-described higher being requires a basic level of goodness, which is what the Gita verse stresses. Simultaneously, Vedic scriptures strive to accommodate as many people as possible within the broad house of dharma. So, they delineate various objects of worship to attract people at varying levels of consciousness, which is what the Puranic hierarchy refers to.

Thus, all worshipers of the gods are in goodness; but Vishnu-worshipers are in goodness goodness; Brahma-worshipers, in passion goodness; and Shiva-worshipers in ignorance goodness. Overall, each mode is not monochrome, but has shades corresponding to different levels of consciousness within that mode. So, to deride all worshipers of the gods as belonging to the lower modes is simplistic and inaccurate.

By appreciating the modes’ multi-level nature, we can reconcile other seemingly contradictory scriptural assertions. For example, all animals are said to be in tamo-guna, yet they are also classified according to the modes: cows are said to be in goodness; tigers, in passion; and monkeys, in ignorance. Or consider the two kinds of scriptural references to cows. Many references cherish them as special among animals, but some references treat them as symbols of ignorance – for example, the Srimad Bhagavatam (10.84.13) compares ignorant people to cows and donkeys.

By appreciating the mode’s multi-level nature, we can both avoid passing blanket value judgments and reconcile apparent contradictions.

Being saintly is not a substitute for being sensible

Some people think that being saintly is impractical in the real world. But the Bhagavad-gita reveals a pragmatic standard of saintliness. At the Gita’s start (01.45), Arjuna wanted to adopt what he thought was the saintly standard: nonviolence even in the face of murderous aggression.

Given that we live amidst increasing inundation by news of global violence, we may find Arjuna’s stand appealing. In fact, Arjuna’s side had, before the war, explored and exhausted all avenues for a reasonable nonviolent resolution. But their opponents had remained unremittingly malevolent.

For protectors of an invaded state, staying nonviolent with such ruthless aggressors is worse that suicidal. Why? Because the aggressors would destroy not just the protectors but also the general population. For example, if the world had been nonviolent with the Nazis, their concentration camps wouldn’t have remained concentrated around Germany alone, but would have been replicated globally.

Reflecting such hard-eyed realism, the Gita rejectsunconditional pacifism as the standard of saintliness. Its standard is harmonization of the human will with the divine will (18.73). Since God is everyone’s benefactor and is the wisest of all, doing his will is the best course of action. While his will is not always clear, the first step towards knowing it is clear enough: striving to connect ourselves with him, as Arjuna did by turning to Krishna for guidance and as we can do by turning to Krishna’s words.

How we do his will will vary according to our social position, as the Gita indicates in its class-based character analysis (18.42-44). While nonviolence is a laudable quality, it befits the educator class more than the warrior class, who need to fearlessly counter violence with violence.By equipping ourselves with Gita wisdom, we all can learn how in our specific situations to be both saintly and sensible.

All noes are not created equal By Chaitanya Charan Das

We often instinctively resent whenever we are told no to something that we wish to do. Such resentment is understandable because we equate the no with a deprivation and we naturally don’t want to be deprived.

But such instinctive emotions often blind us to the reality that all noes are not created equal. That is, all noes are not the noes of deprivation – some may well be the noes of protection. When a patient is told not to eat certain food that no is different from, say, racist discrimination that doesn’t let people of certain races to enter some hotels. The noes of deprivation are usually born of discrimination and misconception, whereas the noes of protection are born of a long-term vision that stems from education, a vision that is not always available to everyone.

Children who throw a tantrum when told not to eat too many chocolates don’t understand that they will suffer the consequence of spoilt teeth – a consequence that the no protects them from. They need to grow up to see the no to be a no of protection, not of deprivation.

Similarly, when Gita wisdom offers some regulations that discourage us from certain indulgences, that’s because it wants to protect us from the entanglement and affliction that results due to ensuing attachments. The Gita (02.61) points to the positive focus of the Gita: fixing the mind on Krishna. Gita wisdom explains that the highest happiness is found in the remembrance of Krishna, remembrance that is made difficult by obsession with worldly gratification and is made easier by regulation of such gratification and the redirection of our desires from the world to Krishna.

So, rather than extrapolating on the Gita the noes of deprivation we may have encountered in our lives, if we can open-mindedly approach it, we will realize that its noes of protection and spiritual redirection are dramatically different.

Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 06

Don’t relax the treatment just because the symptoms have disappeared by

Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 06

When germs of a deadly disease such as tuberculosis infect us and give rise to manifest symptoms of sickness, we take treatment immediately and diligently. But often after some treatment, if the symptoms disappear, we presume that we have recovered, and we discontinue the treatment. However, the germs have only been silenced, not eliminated. When we stop the treatment prematurely, they re-surface, sometimes in stronger strains such as resistant-TB.

The same principle applies to our spiritual healing too. Gita wisdom explains that we are presently in a spiritually sick condition, being infected by the germs of selfish desires. These germs misdirect our natural quest for happiness from the selfless spiritual level to the selfish material level: from delighting as souls in loving and serving Krishna, the eternal Lord of our heart, to seeking pleasure in possessing and controlling worldly things. When such selfish desires become too forceful and impel us to immoral, anti-devotional activities, we feel tormented and start taking the treatment of devotional service, striving to absorb ourselves in Krishna. Such absorption provides us higher intelligence and taste, thus enabling us to resist those tempting and tormenting desires.

But when those desires subside, we tend to relax our devotional practices, doing them mechanically and lackadaisically. Due to not connecting with Krishna, we no longer relish higher happiness. And the germs of selfish desires re-surface and propel us towards lower indulgences once again.

Thankfully, those germs can never become resistant to Krishna. But we may become habituated to perfunctory performance of devotional service. Due to the obstructing force of this habit, we find it difficult to absorb ourselves in Krishna, even when we want to. To prevent such unnecessary resistance, we need to, as the Bhagavad-gita (06.24) urges, reject all selfish desires and stay constantly absorbed in spiritual consciousness.

Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 16

We need to evolve if we are not to dissolve by Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 16

The news periodically features scenarios of imminent environmental super-disasters. While some such prophecies may well be exaggerated, there’s little doubt that the environment is on a grave downslide. This downslide will cause a gradual dissolution of humanity by pollution of water, air and food; dying of rivers, aridification of land – factors that have already disturbed, disrupted or even displaced millions. Dissolution is also a kind of destruction, but it is gradual and doesn’t have the drama and trauma associated with sudden, massive destruction.

While climate change is a complex issue with multiple causes, there’s little doubt that indiscriminate human exploitation of nature is a primary cause.

Our actions are determined by our conceptions. As long as humanity defines its progress in terms of its ability to dominate material nature, it will find striving to live in harmony with nature regressive and unpalatable. And human attitude towards nature is not just an issue for governmental bodies and corporate giants. They exploit nature because their customers – we – want what they facilitate or produce: the objects for selfish gratification obtained by exploiting nature. And we cannot but want such objects as long as we believe that we will get happiness by gratifying our senses. The Bhagavad-gita (16.09) states that those who are driven by a materialistic conception of life engage in self-destructive and world-destructive activities.

While political and macro-economic measures for dealing with climate change are not much in our power, still something significant is: our own spiritual evolution. To evolve spiritually means to raise our consciousness and correspondingly our conception of happiness. When we realize our spiritual nature and relish higher happiness thereof through yogic processes for non-material enrichment, we will stop craving and consuming the products of natural exploitation, thereby cutting off the fuel for the disruptive interference in natural balances.

Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 09

Devotion molds our heart and service shapes our life by Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 09

Bhakti-yoga is a symbiosis of inner emotion and outer action. The Bhagavad-gita (09.13-14) points to these inner and outer dimensions. Devotees are internally fixed in Krishna, knowing his position and living in his shelter (09.13). And they are externally dedicated to glorifying, worshiping and serving him (09.14).

These dual dimensions are encapsulated in Srila Prabhupada’s English rendition of bhakti as “devotional service:” Devotion conveys the inner emotion; and service, the outer action. Internally, devotion molds our heart, making it a fit place for Krishna to reside and reign. Diligent practice of bhakti-yoga drives out the impurities, infatuations and whatever else may have captured our affections – whatever may have usurped the place of the Lord of our heart. And parallel to the expulsion of such substitutes – in fact, propelling their expulsion – bhakti-yoga invokes the increasing inner presence and perception of Krishna.

Externally, service shapes our life, making us tangibly connected with him through practical acts that express our devotion, or at least our aspiration for devotion. As our feelings can be unpredictable, we may sometimes not feel devotion. Still, we can, by making concrete commitments to serve him, place ourselves in the association and situation that increase our exposure to stimuli connected with him. And that exposure, along with his mercy that we attract by serving him determinedly, stimulates and strengthens our inner feelings of devotion.

Significantly, devotion and service inter-relate symbiotically. The more we cultivate devotion internally by remembering Krishna, praying to him and directing our emotions towards him, the more we feel inspired to serve him externally. And the more we thus expose ourselves to outer devotional stimuli, the more that stimulation nourishes our inner devotion, inspiring us to serve him more. Overall, this symbiosis enables us to find increasing satisfaction in Krishna through both our inner and outer connections.

Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 03

Lust allures men with pleasure and women with power by Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 03

Men sometimes accuse women of dressing provocatively. Women sometimes accuse men of seeing women just as sex objects.

Taking the discussion beyond such blame games, the Bhagavad-gita (03.40) states that lust is present in everyone’s senses, mind and intelligence.

Lust allures men with pleasure, making them believe that sex is the gateway to life’s greatest happiness. When they believe this lie, men see women as sex objects.

Lust allures women with power – it makes them crave the thrill of captivating men by parading their assets.

Certainly, women can’t be blamed for men’s actions. If men commit sexual crimes, they are responsible, because the lust that made them do such things didn’t come from their female victims; it was present in them as a result of their own past indulgences, and they chose to act on it.

And conversely, men can’t beblamed for women’s actions. If women argue that men are attracted to only those women who exhibit their contours and so they too have to do that to gain attention, then they perpetuate the same objectification that they object to – whatever attention they may thus garner will be as sex objects, not as sentient persons.

The Gita’s gender-neutral delineation of lust’s location underscores that men and women are not opponents, victimizing each other. Rather, both are potential victims of lust – and should be partners in fighting it.

Gita wisdom explains that we are neither male nor female but are spiritual beings – and we can find lasting happiness by realizing our trans-sexual spiritual love for Krishna, the all-attractive, the all-loving Supreme. By taking individual responsibility for conducting ourselves in ways that decrease the feverishly high sexual temperature in our culture, we can further our spiritual growth and progress towards relishing the highest happiness – happiness that lust promises but never delivers.

Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 07

Don’t use a gold slab as a shade against sunburn by Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 07

Suppose a tribal who has never heard of gold is walking under the hot sun and suddenly finds a gold slab that had been buried there by someone long ago. But not knowing what the value of gold, this person uses it as a shade against the hot sun.

Similarly, some people approach God for gaining relief from some problem in life. While praying to God can provide relief and the Bhagavad-gita (07.16) does laud such people as pious because they are approaching God instead of someone else for relief, just as it is fortunate that the tribal is using as an umbrella the gold slab – and not merely some other stone. Just as the tribal can later understand the value of gold, similarly the pious worshiper can understand the glory of God.

Still its gross underutilization to approach God for getting temporary relief from some worldly problem. The relief is going to be temporary because the world is a problem-filled place and some other problem will soon come up and start harassing us.

That’s why the Gita moves onwards in the same series to delineate such pious worshipers spiritual evolution by which they understand Krishna to be everything (07.19) – they see him as the supreme object of their love; their greatest benefactor and lover; the embodiment and fulfillment of all their heart’s aspirations for happiness. Still, the Gita cautions that such an evolution in one’s understanding of God can take many lifetimes.

Fortunately, if we get to associate with those who have made God the goal of their life – as contrasted with making him a tool to some other goal in life – then we too can by observing their wisdom, their joyfulness, their love feel inspired, enlightened and motivated to similarly raise our consciousness.

Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 07

Healing requires not just the expelling of germs, but primarily the boosting of immunity.

When germs infect us and we start feeling sick, we take treatment for driving out the germs. However, healing requires not just the driving out of germs but also the boosting of the body’s immunity; otherwise, the germs will infect us again, often sooner rather than later.

The same principle applies to our spiritual healing too. Gita wisdom explains that we are presently spiritually sick, being infected by the germs of self-centered desires. These germs misdirect our natural quest for happiness from the spiritual level – where we can delight in loving and serving Krishna – to the material level, where we seek pleasure in possessing and controlling temporary worldly things.

When these attachments start impelling us to sinful actions with their many complications, we become concerned and strive to free ourselves from them. Pertinently, the Bhagavad-gita (07.28) indicates that, to be situated in determined devotional service – our spiritually healthy state – we need to be free from sin.

While various yogas can act as antibiotics against worldly desires, bhakti-yoga alone acts as both an antibiotic and an immunity booster. It activates our heart’s natural longing to love Krishna and provides us multifarious practical ways for expressing and strengthening our budding attraction to him. As our heart and life becomes filled with Krishna, the germs of self-centered desires are automatically driven out. Thus, bhakti-yoga acts as an antibiotic.

More importantly, as our attraction to Krishna increases, loving and serving him becomes increasingly fulfilling. When our need for happiness is thus spiritually fulfilled, we no longer feel the need for spiritually-injurious worldly indulgences – thus, bhakti’s spiritual taste boosts our immunity against germs.

Given this paramount potency of bhakti, the Gita (18.66)concludes by urging us to surrender single-mindedly to Krishna, even if we may not yet free from sin.

Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 07, Text 14.

See nature not as the inflictor of misery, but as the instructor of incompatibility 

Traditionally, nature has been considered a mother who provides for life’s necessities. But some people characterize it negatively as a stepmother or even a witch because it periodically gives rise to devastating natural calamities.

The problem with such negative characterization is the unexamined assumption that this world is our home, and that nature should help us live comfortably here.

Gita wisdom explains that we are eternal souls meant to live a life of eternal love with Krishna in the spiritual world. Presently, because of our attachment to temporary material things, we are caught in the clutches of matter and have to suffer an existential incompatibility: seeking eternal happiness in the ephemeral.

The more we learn to love the eternal, the more we see matter as not a source of shelter or pleasure, but as a means to connect with the divine.

Just as bodily pain is a pointer to something being wrong in the body and a prod to seek a cure by going to a doctor, so too is the misery of material existence meant to be a pointer to our existential incompatibility and a prod to seek the supreme doctor Krishna. With his guidance, we learn how to attain compatibility by raising our consciousness from the material level to the spiritual level.

The Bhagavad-gita (07.14) states that material nature is insurmountable, but also assures that we can transcend her influence by surrendering to Krishna. Surrendered absorption in Krishna frees us from our obsession with matter, thereby taking us gradually beyond the destructible material arena. The more we learn to love the eternal, the more we see matter as not a source of shelter or pleasure, but as a means to connect with the divine. We learn to see worldly upheavals as spurs to intensify our seeking shelter in the spiritual. And being thus spiritually sheltered, we can deal with worldly upheavals more maturely so that we make the best of a bad bargain.