Meaninglessness in Omaha

[Sarva gattah]

The following insight of the Godless materialistic youth of the world in the 21st century is written by Sri Clayton prabhu

 

I have been thinking about that tortured kid in Omaha, who shot all those people and then himself. He was complaining about the meaninglessness of his life - the only meaning he could come up with was to kill, then commit suicide. I have never had that kind of perception - I have been through some very rough times, including a stint of homelessness, but I never found life meaningless, and not because of some corny reason like my ‘faith in God’ - for a number of years I was an atheist! Perhaps I always had a problem to be engaged with - perhaps my difficult relationship with my parents kept me engaged in life - there was always hope that things would get better.

 

One could say that such an intricate creation as the human body and mind is never without meaning—while living. As soon as the soul departs, tho, it is simply a lump of meat to be consigned to the grave or the fire and forgotten’but while living it is very meaningful.

 

Srila Prabhupada, the great acarya of the Gaudiya-Madhva Sampradaya, the Chaitanya school of self-realization, explains the purpose of it all very simply: ‘The material creation is a chance for the conditioned souls to return back Home, back to Godhead’.

 

There are several words here: ‘material creation’ ‘conditioned souls’ and ‘return Home’.

 

‘Material creation’ means what is perceived with our present senses. There are 8,400,000 species of life, and we may take next birth in any of them according to our karma. These worlds expand upwards as Bhur Bhuvah Swaha, Maha Janah Tapaha Satyam, planets where many demigods and sages live, and they expand downwards, also. Besides these, there are the Spiritual Worlds, which are uncreated, and where the residents are perfect and infallible. The material Universes, trillions of them, are only ?? part of the total manifestation. The remaining ?? are in the spiritual world, where Krishna (God) also has His Abode.

 

‘Conditioned souls'’we have been around an inconceivably long time’trillions of years wandering up and down in the material creations, sometimes a god, sometimes a dog, a tree. A fish, a blade of grass’and in the process, we have acquired habits of being, tastes’we have become conditioned to material life. This is the real theory of evolution’not that the bodies are evolving, but the souls are evolving through different bodies’the bodies are just there, like compartments in a train’lst class, 2d class, 3d class, etc., and according to our capacity to ‘pay’, we get a certain body’but this is not a very good process— we want to get out of this birth, old age, disease, and death and go to the deathless world from which there is no coming back to this martya lok (world of death).

 

If we can get out (and we have that assurance) we should try to get out of this plane and go ‘back Home’.

 

The human form of life is ideally suited for this venture’our very form is based on the two-handed Form of Krishna’the difference is, our bodies are made of ignorance, whereas Krishna’s Form, and that of His incarnations and expansions. Is made of Eternity, Knowledge, and Bliss.

 

This material world has been compared to an ocean of nescience and to a forest fire—the spiritual master is compared to a great raincloud that puts out the blazing fire of material life—and he has been compared to the captain of a great boat (Mahayana) that can cross the ocean of nescience very easily, we simply have to get into the boat by accepting him as our Guide.

 

Now some would say, the Christians say the same thing about Jesus’what is the difference? The difference is many centuries of speculation and doctrines hammered out because of politics and without knowledge of God’otherwise, Jesus is also our spiritual master, as is St Paul and Prophet Muhammed—but we find the purest thing, aside from the Bible and the Qu’ran, in the beautiful Srimad Bhagavatam, the ‘mature fruit of the desire tree of the Vedas’.

 

The master of that scripture is the real master, the Jagad Guru (Teacher of the whole Universe). ‘He is the guru of everyone’ the only difference is that some accept him, whereas others do not,’ Srimad Bhagavatam throws out all kinds of ‘kaitava dharma'’cheating religions—this means we are not given the best thing, but are sidetracked into philanthropy, humanitarianism, or liberation, which is compared to a black python coming to devour us. Or, we join some sort of ‘prosperity religion”’pray and grow rich’. Or, we accept many small gods for small favors and neglect the High God. There are many more forms of religious cheatingness.

 

The soul is simply thirsting for love and affection’power or knowledge will not be satisfactory. Lasting love and affection, however, cannot be found here in the world of death. The greatest spiritual masters come to give us, to connect us with that raso vai sah, the emporium of rasa (taste mellow), the Supreme Personality of Godhead Who is sweetness personified, and who alone can satisfy our thirst for love and sweetness eternally

 

We want a relationship with that Blue Boy which is more than ‘going to Heaven’ to be with departed loved ones’of course, God can do anything He wants’He can elevate quite ordinary people to His Abode if He wants, but I think He is not such a fool’what we have attained here, we can’t expect much more there, in terms of our relationship with Him’Jesus Himself said, ‘not everybody that says to me Lord, Lord will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but he that does the will of my Father’. And this will is clearly given in Bhagavad Gita As It Is’it has to be worked out in the heart, under expert guidance.

 

So there are different colours of God, not precisely the same’Allah is one color, Jehovah another’but these are all facets of the diamond named Krishna. There may be many differences, but love is the same in all.

To become a saint is an impossible ambition in this Age’it is inconceivable’one runs right into the world’s idea of what a saint should be like’one should serve the poor all one’s life, like Mother Theresa, one should never raise one’s voice, never get angry, and so forth, then you can be what the world considers a saint.

 

Real sainthood has nothing to do with all that! ‘Sarva dharman parityaja mam ekam saranam vraja’ A real saint is one who does not care for religious formularies but is simply the servant of Krishna’s servant. And he has strong faith that thereby everything will be accomplished. The devotees of Srila Prabhupada are all saints, and they are a very variegated bunch, of a great variety of temperaments and devotional styles’they live for the benefit of others.

 

So why become a killer and a suicide? Why not become a saint? Free will is there. But we are easily misled by our minds, despite our so called ‘reason'’this is why we say, sastra, sadhu, Guru should be our guides, not the independent decision of mind and intellect. Everybody wants to ‘think for himself'’nobody wants to accept authority’so there is always ‘thinking for myself’ but within the guidelines of sastra, sadhu, and Guru’why? Because a blind man cannot cross a busy street by thinking it out for himself. These three direct in the same way, and we need another mental function besides thinking’namely, realizing. The Vedanta-sutra declares, ‘tarkaprathishthanat'’The Supreme Truth cannot be attained by argument and logic’the scope of our ‘thinking’ does not reach to the feet of the Transcendental Autocrat, Who is the Supreme Attractive Beauty, and our Best Friend.

 

by Sri Clayton prabhu Meaninglessness in Omaha

[bhaktajan]

BG 6.40—The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: Son of Prtha, a transcendentalist engaged in auspicious activities does not meet with destruction either in this world or in the spiritual world; one who does good, My friend, is never overcome by evil.

PURPORT

. . . The purport may be understood as follows. Humanity may be divided into two sections, namely, the regulated and the nonregulated. Those who are engaged simply in bestial sense gratifications without knowledge of their next life or spiritual salvation belong to the nonregulated section. And those who follow the principles of prescribed duties in the scriptures are classified amongst the regulated section. The nonregulated section, both civilized and noncivilized, educated and noneducated, strong and weak, are full of animal propensities. Their activities are never auspicious, because while enjoying the animal propensities of eating, sleeping, defending and mating, they perpetually remain in material existence, which is always miserable. On the other hand, those who are regulated by scriptural injunctions, and who thus rise gradually to <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:place w:st="on">Krishna</st1:place> consciousness, certainly progress in life. . . .

[Murali_Mohan_das]

Interesting article.

 

Meaning is one thing which you just can't buy at the mall.

[bhaktajan]

SB 3.14.24 Purport . . . Ghosts are bereft of a physical body because of their grievously sinful acts, such as suicide. The last resort of the ghostly characters in human society is to take shelter of suicide, either material or spiritual. Material suicide causes loss of the physical body, and spiritual suicide causes loss of the individual identity. . . . Lord Çiva, being very kind to the ghosts, sees that although they are condemned, they get physical bodies. He places them into the wombs of women who indulge in sexual intercourse regardless of the restrictions on time and circumstance. . . .

SB 4.9.6 Purport . . . Unless one is spiritually situated, all his activities are taken as a dead man’s activities or ghostly activities. . . .

SB 9.10.29 Purport —After giving up the body, one is transferred to another body, but sometimes, if one is too sinful, he is checked from transmigrating to another body, and thus he becomes a ghost. To save a diseased person from ghostly life, the funeral ceremony, or sraddha ceremony, as prescribed in authorized sastra, must be performed. . . .

SB 9.13.11 Purport . . . There are two kinds of spiritual bodies, as generally understood by common men. The term “spiritual body” is sometimes taken to refer to a ghostly body. An impious man who dies after sinful activities is sometimes condemned so that he cannot possess a gross material body of five material elements, but must live in a subtle body of mind, intelligence and ego. However, as explained in Bhagavad-gita, devotees can give up the material body and attain a spiritual body free from all material tinges, gross and subtle . . .

SB 11.21.29-30: Those who are sworn to sense gratification cannot understand the confidential conclusion of Vedic knowledge as explained by <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Me.</st1:place></st1:State> Taking pleasure in violence, they cruelly slaughter innocent animals in sacrifice for their own sense gratification and thus worship demigods, forefathers and leaders among ghostly creatures. Such passion for violence, however, is never encouraged within the process of Vedic sacrifice.

SB 12.3.39-40: In the age of Kali, people’s minds will always be agitated. They will become emaciated by famine and taxation, my dear King, and will always be disturbed by fear of drought. They will lack adequate clothing, food and drink, will be unable to properly rest, have sex or bathe themselves, and will have no ornaments to decorate their bodies. In fact, the people of Kali-yuga will gradually come to appear like ghostly, haunted creatures.

PURPORT

The symptoms described here are already prevalent in many countries of the world and will gradually spread to other places engulfed by impiety and materialism.

SB 3.20.41: The ghosts and hobgoblins took possession of the body thrown off in the form of yawning by Brahma, the creator of the living entities. This is also known as the sleep which causes drooling. The hobgoblins and ghosts attack men who are impure, and their attack is spoken of as insanity.

PURPORT

The disease of insanity or being haunted by ghosts takes place in an unclean state of existence. Here it is clearly stated that when a man is fast asleep and saliva flows from his mouth and he remains unclean, ghosts then take advantage of his unclean state and haunt his body. In other words, those who drool while sleeping are considered unclean and are subject to be haunted by ghosts or to, go insane.

[Note from Bhaktajan: I have learned that two other states of consciousness subject one to be haunted, weak willed self-esteem, and, Unconsciousness or deep sleep derived from extreme intoxication]

SB 2.3.23: The person who has not at any time received the dust of the feet of the Lord’s pure devotee upon his head is certainly a dead body. And the person who has never experienced the aroma of the tulasé leaves from the lotus feet of the Lord is also a dead body, although breathing.

PURPORT

According to Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura, the breathing dead body is a ghost. When a man dies, he is called dead, but when he again appears in a subtle form not visible to our present vision and yet acts, such a dead body is called a ghost. Ghosts are always very bad elements, always creating a fearful situation for others. Similarly, the ghostlike nondevotees who have no respect for the pure devotees, nor for the Visnu Deity in the temples, create a fearful situation for the devotees at all times. The Lord never accepts any offering by such impure ghosts. There is a common saying that one should first love the dog of the beloved before one shows any loving sentiments for the beloved. . . .

SB 3.14.23: This particular time is most inauspicious because at this time the horrible-looking ghosts and constant companions of the lord of the ghosts are visible.

PURPORT

Kasyapa has already told his wife Diti to wait for a while, and now he warns her that failure to consider the particular time will result in punishment from the ghosts and evil spirits who move during this time, along with their master, Lord Rudra.

Krsna Book Chap 6 . . . Thus mother Yasoda chanted different names of Visnu to protect child Krsna’s different bodily parts. Mother Yaçodä was firmly convinced that she should protect her child from different kinds of evil spirits and ghosts . . . and similar other evil spirits, who cause persons to forget their own existence and give trouble to the life airs and the senses. Sometimes they appear in dreams and cause much perturbation; sometimes they appear as old women and suck the blood of small children. But no such ghosts and evil spirits can remain where there is chanting of the holy name of God. Mother Yasoda was firmly convinced of the Vedic injunctions about the importance of cows and the holy name of Visnu; therefore she took all shelter in the cows and the name of Visnu just to protect her child Krsna. . . .

[cbrahma]

The meaningless activities are those that just take us to another activity that take us to another activity etc.... all activities for physical survival are like that. One has to 'enjoy' bodily existence for any of it to have meaning.

What is surprising is that the young - who have the most capacity for enjoyment have the highest rate of suicide ( and homicide).

The few things that enrich us in this life are all intangible. Love and beauty though resisting mundane definition are essential for human happiness.

Everything else is a surrogate.

 

 

Love is not all:

It is not meat nor drink

Nor slumber nor a roof against the rain,

Nor yet a floating spar to men that sink

and rise and sink and rise and sink again.

Love cannot fill the thickened lung with breath

Nor clean the blood, nor set the fractured bone;

Yet many a man is making friends with death

even as I speak, for lack of love alone.

It well may be that in a difficult hour,

pinned down by need and moaning for release

or nagged by want past resolution's power,

I might be driven to sell your love for peace,

Or trade the memory of this night for food.

It may well be. I do not think I would. -- Edna St. Vincent Millay

 

 

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[gHari]

Darwinism leads to this meaningless.