The Unnecessities of Life

[guru]

(ISKCON YOUTH FORUM - Pune - Spiritual Scientist)

 

Once Socrates was seen by his friends spending a long time in a market. Knowing his frugal nature, they teased him, "Even you have started dreaming about shopping." Socrates soberly replied, "I was observing all the unnecessary things that people buy."

 

We often think of necessity as a thing without which it is difficult, if not impossible, to live. In this sense, food, clothing, shelter are our necessities. But in a more positive holistic sense, a necessity is that which once satisfied makes us fully satisfied forever. Why do we always want more and more? Because it is our right and nature to have unlimited possessions by possessing the possessor of all possessions – God, Krishna. As the eternal spiritual children of God, our innermost need is the security and satisfaction that accompanies the devotional remembrance of our all-powerful all-loving Father. Just as the first need of a fish is water, the first need of our body is air, the first need of our own selves as souls is remembrance of God or more precisely, Krishna consciousness.

 

Many people today feel that they have no time for God or spiritual enquiry. But what makes them so busy? It is their own self-created pursuit of the unnecessities of life, which they imagine to be necessities due to their spiritual unawareness. Srila Prabhupada, the founder of ISKCON, succinctly summarizes this tragic entrapment, "If our endeavor is not to enquire about the Absolute Truth, we will simply increase our endeavor to satisfy our artificial needs." Today's world of hi-tech glamorous advertising portrays luxuries as necessities. Consequently, shopping has become not just a fashion, but an obsession. Possessing new things gives some pleasure, but sadly the charm of newness fades soon. What remains thereafter is the burden of maintenance, which demands time, energy, care and money. People today have tea-set, sofa set, multimedia set – and they are always up-set. An exasperated shopping addict stated his predicament poignantly, "Everything I own owns me." Nevertheless possessiveness retains its almost irresistible fascination. If people have little, they want a lot. And if they have a lot, they want a lot more.

 

But there is a better way to live. When we make God the wealth of our heart by chanting His holy names, then we become enlightened to use the wealth of the world to benefit ourselves and others. Let us therefore free ourselves from poverty of the heart and enrich ourselves with devotion and satisfaction.

 

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare