What's my motive?

[Guest guest]

I nabbed this off another thread and hope Babhru doesn't mind my using it to start a new topic. I hope we can keep this front and center as it is so very important.

 

Why do I do what I do , say what I say? What's my motive?

 

When I look at this I become somewhat shaken. I can't answer the above questions with any degree of certainty. In fact why am I forming this post right now? I'm not sure. This should frighten us a bit. Most of us are quite lost to ourselves. We are just being carried along on the ocean of misery and now that that may have taken on the symblance of devotional serice we feel safe. Is that safety justified? Or are we laboring under a false sense of security? We is it so hard to be honest with even ourselves?

 

Here's the excerpt from Babhru's post that i think should be a topic unto itself.

 

Babhru: Here's an interesting issue: what does it mean to be a vaishnava in good standing? But perhpas that's another thread. I think what I had in mind was that in retrospect it's easy to rationalize all criticism of Kirtanananda. I know that I've often caught myself feeling comfortable with the ill feelings I had for him when he did or said things that pee'ed me off. But the real issue is what my motives were at the time--what my consciousness was. If there was something less than noble motivating my criticism, even if it was warranted, my devotional creeper would have been stunted. (Aha! That explains a lot!) For example, I watched Sudama Swami lead the charge against Bali Mardan in 1974. Bali was definitely deviating. But after he was gone, Sudama shortly gave up his sannyasa, deviated from the regulative principles of freedom, and became the target of the next attacks, led by Guru-kripa and Yashodanandan, as well as Jayatirtha. It wasn't too long before Guru-kripa's deviations caught up with him and he found himself in a Thai prison. Shortly after that, Jayatirtha's creeper was also in trouble, followed by his head. And the list goes on, and on, and on . . .

 

Any thoughts?

 

 

[theist]

I forgot to login

[stonehearted]

I thought it was going to be a game. /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[theist]

take off and become a six pager? I doubt it. We shall see. I liked the toppling sannyasin example. Dominos? Now there's a game.

[gHari]

I used to say that it's not what we do, but why we do it.

 

So we've been advised to purify the heart so our motivation will be correct. Sri Caitanya gave eight steps towards this end in His Siksastaka, the only message directly written by Him.

[Mxyzptlk]

Will it take off and become a six pager?

 

It's anyone's guess at this stage. However, I'm doing my part by adding this thought-provoking reply and bringing this thread back up to the top, where hopefully it will remain at least for a few minutes or so.

[theist]

that was good to do Mxzy, but whats your motive? Huh? whadda ya want? Nobody does somethin' for nuttin'.

 

Six pages may take awhile. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[Mxyzptlk]

My motive? Good question. I began to think long and hard about this, and after about 1 1/2 minutes, maybe even 2, I finally threw my arms up in the air in utter despair and softly said: "Ay caramba."

 

Then after another 30 seconds, I tried to dig deeper into my soul, some real gut-wrenching soul-searching, something which I've heard that others do, but something which I haven't yet tried--until now, and I finally realized my motive was quite simple. Not only that, but even sophomoric, perhaps bordering on juvenile. My motive? I was hoping to elicit a reply similar to yours so that I could have a good chuckle.

 

And it worked.

 

And for that I thank you. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[Mxyzptlk]

However, my motive (or at least one of them) in my followup reply above was to be the one who made the 28,000th posting in the Spiritual Discussions forums. (Just see how deep the false ego runs.) /images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

I don't know that 28,000 has any special significance. But it is a nice, round, even number. And if you add the integers, 2 + 8 and subtract it from 28,000, you get 27,900, which is divisible by 9: 27,900 divided by 9 = 3110.

 

[theist]

Yes laughter surely is acceptable. It must be. What else do we have at this point. But why, I must question, does the joke always seem to be on me? Hmmm...? Much to ponder.

 

I see you joined some others who are coming after me with mathematical postings. I never took you for an agreesive one Mxyz. Perhaps you have an underlying need to show me up in this regard? /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[LimitlessLight]

This is a good topic and a hard thing to pinpoint but i will try my motivation is to find a way to express the true nature of reality that has been overlooked throughout countless ages.The true nature of the atman the true nature of unity and liberation from the aggregates of natures influence.To be absolutlely free is to be situated in krisna conciousness obtain this obtain this obtain this then you can see then you can know then you can be the essential living truth about krisna.