Le Cow Quote Du Jour # 98 part 2

[Guest guest]

Dear Prabhus:

 

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

 

In this text, Srila Sukadeva Gosvami presents what would be for most of us,

an advanced conception of simple living and obviously, not many of us in

Westernized countries are ready for this. Because we are so heavily

conditioned, it becomes difficult to understand what is actually necessary.

Verses such as this help to put things into proper perspective. Why do we

find simple living so complicated? Why is it that Srila Prabhupada

prescribes plain living to save time for Krsna consciousness and yet we see

that it takes all day to do it?

 

Srila Prabhupada was not ignorant of what simple living entails. He had

abundant practical experience of it and saw it all around himself as well.

The fact is, most of the world's people are still living simply. The vast

majority of the earth's population is living a simple, agrarian lifestyle.

 

>From 1975-77 I traveled extensively in India. I participated in one of the

first Iskcon ox-cart padayatras. What I saw in the vast tracts of land

outside the cities was simple living exactly as Srila Prabhupada describes

it and just as it has been going on, unchanged for hundreds of thousands of

years. I saw most of India's one billion people living simple, happy,

religious lives unencumbered by so many artificial necessities. They

produced all their necessities locally without difficulty, and had abundant

free time. It was a most beautiful and attractive thing to see.

 

Why can't this work for us? I believe many of us are simply not satisfied

with the minimum necessities and lack faith in Guru and Krsna. Many of us

doubt that such a thing will work, that Krsna will provide for us, that by

following Srila Prabhupada's instuctions, we will have the real necessities

of life in abundance. In short, many of us are materially conditioned and

not very advanced in our Krsna consciousness.

 

Unfortunate and conditioned as some of us are, we cannot understand or take

up these instructions without substancial purification by lots of hearing,

chanting, etc. To regularly hear the words of Srila Prabhupada is an

extraordinarily potent means of coming quickly to that platform of purity.

 

Some of these instructions may seem impractical or unattainable, but I

believe that simply to hear them submissively is the first step toward the

realization of Srila Prabhupada's vision. Hare Krsna. Thank you for

accepting my humble service. Please forgive any offense on my part. I hope

this meets you in good health and I beg to remain,

 

Your servant,

Taraka dasa

 

Le Cow Quote Du Jour # 98 part 2:

 

TRANSLATION

When there are ample earthly flats to lie on, what is the necessity of cots

and beds? When one can use his own arms, what is the necessity of a pillow?

When one can use the palms of his hands, what is the necessity of varieties

of utensils? When there is ample covering, or the skins of trees, what is

the necessity of clothing?

 

PURPORT

The necessities of life for the protection and comfort of the body must not

be unnecessarily increased. Human energy is spoiled in a vain search after

such illusory happiness. If one is able to lie down on the floor, then why

should one endeavor to get a good bedstead or soft cushion to lie on? If one

can rest without any pillow and make use of the soft arms endowed by nature,

there is no necessity of searching after a pillow. If we make a study of the

general life of the animals, we can see that they have no intelligence for

building big houses, furniture, and other household paraphernalia, and yet

they maintain a healthy life by lying down on the open land. They do not

know how to cook or prepare foodstuff, yet they still live healthy lives

more easily than the human being. This does not mean that human civilization

should revert to animal life or that the human being should live naked in

the jungles without any culture, education and sense of morality. An

intelligent human cannot live the life of an animal; rather, man should try

to utilize his intelligence in arts and science, poetry and philosophy. In

such a way he can further the progressive march of human civilization. But

here the idea given by Srila Sukadeva Gosvami is that the reserve energy of

human life, which is far superior to that of animals, should simply he

utilized for self-realization. Advancement of human civilization must be

towards the goal of establishing our lost relationship with God, which is

not possible in any form of life other than the human. One must realize the

nullity of the material phenomenon, considering it a passing phantasmagoria,

and must endeavor to make a solution to the miseries of life.

Self-complacence with a polished type of animal civilization geared to sense

gratification is delusion, and such a "civilization" is not worthy of the

name. In pursuit of such false activities, a human being is in the clutches

of maya, or illusion. Great sages and saints in the days of yore were not

living in palatial buildings furnished with good furniture and so-called

amenities of life. They used to live in huts and groves and sit on the flat

ground, and yet they have left immense treasures of high knowledge with all

perfection. Srila Rupa Gosvami and Srila Sanatana Gosvami were high-ranking

ministers of state, but they were able to leave behind them immense writings

on transcendental knowledge, while residing only for one night underneath

one tree. They did not live even two nights under the same tree, and what to

speak of well-furnished rooms with modern amenities. And still they were

able to give us most important literatures of self-realization. So-called

comforts of life are not actually helpful for progressive civilization;

rather, they are detrimental to such progressive life. In the system of

sanatana-dharma, of four divisions of social life and four orders of

progressive realization, there are ample opportunities and sufficient

directions for a happy termination of the progressive life, and the sincere

followers are advised therein to accept a voluntary life of renunciation in

order to achieve the desired goal of life. If one is not accustomed to

abiding by the life of renunciation and self-abnegation from the beginning,

one should try to get into the habit at a later stage of life as recommended

by Srila Sukadeva Gosvami, and that will help one to achieve the desired

success.

 

>>> Ref. VedaBase => SB 2.2.4