There Is More Trivia Now…

ancient_paztriot · January 26, 2004

…Than Ever Before in History

Hridayananda…

Now Krsna's first answer was ???, when someone has given up all selfish desires which are simply mental concoctions… mental, it's not real. It's just some mental invention. When you give up all these selfish desires, then it's understood you know something, You're on to something. Because the selfish desire is illusion. Why? Uh because there is no separation between my interest and Krsna's interest. There is no separation. Because I'm like the branch or twig of the tree and Krsna is like the root of the tree. So if something is good for the root, that goodness will spread to the whole tree.

Now we tend to think if it's good for me, it's good for God. Uh we tend to reverse this formula and think well if it feels good, then God must want me to do it, because otherwise why did God make it feel good? This is the basic modern philosophy. It's not a very well thought out philosophy. It's not well thought out because one can very quickly come to many… uh see many contradictions or many shortcomings in this what seems to be a very cute and handy modern philosophy… that if it feels good, God must want me to do it 'cause otherwise why would it feel good? The basic problem with this philosophy is that many things feel good in the beginning, but later they cause a disaster in our life. In fact, if everything that felt good actually was good for us, there would be no human suffering because everyone naturally takes whatever feels good. So no one would ever suffer. In other words, if there was a strict one-to-one equation there that if it feels good it's good for you and that formula always worked and there were no discrepancies or counter examples, then basically there would be no suffering whatsoever in the universe.

But we find exactly the opposite: there's hardly any happiness. There's… It seems like there's mostly suffering. In Los Angeles happiness is uh I didn't get mugged this month or no one… I wasn't a victim of a drive by shooting or I can afford a house. In other words in Los Angeles if you can afford a house, then you're you know one step away from heaven. And what's a house? It used to be in the old days in Los Angeles anyone can have a house, it was no big deal. Now no one… It is very difficult to get a house. So because it's very difficult people think it's a great thing. But actually all around the world people have houses. This is actually one of the most difficult places in the world to get a house. That means almost anywhere else in the world it's easier to get a house… People are happier because they can get a house. It's not that because your house cost $600,000 and the identical house cost $12,000 dollars in Iowa and maybe you know $5,000 dollars in Paraquay… I mean it's the same house. So anyway, apart from that there's so much suffering. So you take these two principles. One the one hand everyone wants what feels good and then there's so much suffering. So how does that happen?

Because obviously, there's a problem here in judgement. There's a problem in judgement. So things… All that glitters isn't gold. That simple old saying all that glitters isn't gold actually knocks the wind out of that modern hedonistic philosophy. In Socrates… I don't want to go too far. If you want… In Socrates, this is called the hedonic calculous, which simply means that Socrates would sometimes preach to people, try to get them to become more spiritual or interested in spiritual realization. He would say to them it's in your own interest. You have to calculate what actually, ultimately will make you feel good. So what will ultimately make us feel good? Children would never take medicine. So is it a fact that children would be happier by never taking medicine? Is that a fact? Because a child… very few children will take medicine. Very few children will spontaneously eat all the right foods. So is it a fact that a child you know ultimately in the long term, will be happier by eating any garbage he wants and never taking medicine and doing anything he wants? Will this ultimately make people happy? The answer of course is it won't. In fact most people, most of the things that most people do don't make them happy although they're trying to be happy.

So this gets back to the problem of knowledge. The actual situation is although there is in a sense more information available you could say than every before… There is you know millions of books in the libraries. They cut down millions of acres of trees practically every day to print unlimited quantities of magazines on topical subjects and books. There's unlimited numbers of universities. There's just: there's probably more written language coming out, being churned out today than almost ever before. And yet perhaps people know less than they ever did about how to be happy. So somehow or other, this great explosion of information, does not correspond to an increase in significant knowledge. Significant knowledge would mean how can I be happy and who am I? Where have I come from? That's significant knowledge, knowledge that tells you something important about yourself, it tells you something important about the world, it helps you to be happy. That's significant knowledge. So there's no information than ever before, but most of it is trivial. So actually there is more trivia than every before in history. But as far as wisdom or significant knowledge, that's becoming a very scarce commodity. It's like trying to find good air in Southern California. So uh, we're uh you know… The modern civilization is breaking all previous records in trivia, but in terms of significant knowledge, it's… there's some problems. So signif… To know what will ultimately make you happy, you have to know what you are. And to know what you are means what is my pure state? What is my evolved state? Just like you can take a little acorn. You may not know it grows into an oak tree. But unless you know that you may not plant it. And you may not water it. So in the same way, uh our present… even assuming our present existence in a sense is a seed of some future superior existence, what is it a seed of? And what is the watering process? And what are we? What can we eventually be? And how do we get there? These things should be understood in human life. But they are not being discussed. People are not interested in these things. Or if they are, generally it is some type of glitzy or gimmicky new age thing, Well you know wear a triangle on your head or feel good about yourself or this or that. In other words… A pyramid. Not a triangle, a pyramid. Wear pyramid earrings or uh you know something. But as far as getting down to real basic understanding, What am I? Who am I? Where have I come from? What is God? What is my relationship to God? The example is given in the Bhagavatam, ???. Just as you water the root of a tree… So that root is Krsna or God.

So just as we are visible, God is also visible. I was hearing someone expounding his philosophy that God is the invisible God, invisible presence. Well why are you visible? Not only are people visible, they try to be as visible as possible. We try to maximize our visibility. Otherwise, why do people try to spend so many billions and trillions of dollars on cosmetics, clothes, fashion, cars? 'Cause they want to increase their visibility. And people you notice… In our culture, people walk by uh what do they call plate glass windows, they'll look in every window to see how do I look. Isn't it? You see people doing this. I… In Miami beach… This is a true story. They built a high rise condominium in Miami Beach and unfortunately they scrimp too much and they put in this slow elevator. So the condominiums were a little expensive, but the elevator was slow. So all these affluent people bought condo's and then they were getting a little aggravated because the elevator was slow. So they were getting all kinds of complaints. They made a feasibility study. It turned out that it would cost a fortune to replace it. It was a big mess. So then one person had a brilliant idea. They solved the problem for a few dollars. They just uh paneled all the walls of the elevator with mirrors. And there were no further complaints. There were no further complaints about the speed of the elevator because people are more than happy to look at themself. So in that way we are certainly visible. Why should we say God is invisible? Everyone wants to be beautiful. Why should you… Why should we claim God is not visible, God is not beautiful, God has not form? Uh this is a type of envy actually.

We say it's not envy, it's just philosophy because forms are limiting. But actually what is our attitude toward our own body? Our attitude towards our own body is we are always trying to increase it's ability and potential. We're trying to make our body more beautiful, we're trying to make our body stronger. Isn't it? I mean especially in Southern California. Isn't it? This is the world capitol of bodily improvement. So the very fact that we're always trying to uh improve our body means that we have faith that bodies can go places, that you can do things with bodies. And the problem now is I'm just not as beautiful as I could be. Or I'm not as strong as I could be. I'm not as healthy as I could be. But still there is that tendency to think that you can improve bodies. So when you get the most fabulously improved body, when you get a body which has no limitations, then what is that? Then you have a spiritual body. So uh we do have a type of faith in bodies in the modern civilization. But when it comes to God, we think Well He has no body. Then suddenly, we have no faith in bodies. We think bodies are useless, bodies are limiting, bodies… it can never really go to the heights.

But actually, there is an infinite spiritual body. There is actually an infinite spiritual body uh which is everywhere, which exists in all times and which has unlimited powers and beauties and expands and has the whole… millions of universes inside of it. Image a body… let's say an average height like an average guy, sort of an average size body. But you can fit all the universes in it. And at the same time that all the universes are in that body, that body is in every atom of every universe. Now you can uh try Neutonian physics, quantum mechanics or whatever next new super-duper thing they come up with… and you can't figure that out… how you can have a body which is a medium sized body, and all the universes are inside of it, and at the same time that body is inside every atom of every universe that's inside of it. Plus alot of other things which we won't even mention here. So this is the spiritual body of Krsna. This is the spiritual body of Krsna.

Uh since here in California everyone is so much dedicated to bodies, ah we should learn about the supreme body, which is Krsna's spiritual body, and then you could actually make this a nice place. So here Arjuna, he actually got that power. He could see everything in Krsna's body. Arjuna's a very special person. We can also become special. Uh the opportunities there for everyone. Anyway, these are some of the points in this verse. So I'll stop here. Any questions? Yes?

Guest: ??? natural disaster because they can't account for or they don't have the content to uh explain the type of phenomenon ???. It seems like in Christianity when there's some kind of misery, whether uh wide-scale, small-scale, they say ???. Why doesn't Christianity have any reference to former lives and the laws of karma to attain like… why someone is born with deformities or why someone is killed in an accident? Why does Christianity for example you know ??? loose faith in religion and become atheistic and so forth?

Hridy: They may not have the answer. Actually, I would say that because of certain philosohical problems with traditional theologies in the West, and unnatural and very pronounced dichotomy has arisen between religion and philosophy. The very fact that in our culture these are like so far apart, you know ordinary philosophy and all that intellectuality. And uh religion… In fact in America it's almost like uh… like a cliche that on the one hand you have the liberals and the intellectuals and you have the… you know the born again people. And so it seems that intellectuality and this fervent religious commitment are practically opposing elements in the… you know in the reality of American society. So this I think is an artificial situation. Actually, there is very great philosophy on the theistic side. But because it has not been understood, therefore this artificial conflict has arisen. And Prabhupada himself said that uh religion without philosophy is sentimentalism. And of course religion without philosophy is just empty speculation. And that's also true.

Philosophy has become one of the abandoned subjects. You know there's always a few people that study it. But by and large, it's not a real happening field because it's pretty empty without some self-realization attached to it. Philosophy doesn't just mean like the mental Olympics, you know sort of like intellectual jousting where the different professors you know put down their mental lances and they charge each other on their horses and see if you can knock Dr. Abercrombie off his horse with your new theory. So this may entertain the professors themselves. They may find this entertaining and you know to their version of organized sports or whatever. Or it's how they sublimate human conflict. But it's not so interesting to most people in the world who are actually trying to understand the real situation in life.

So actually, the ideal combination is that you should have philosophy and real good thinking, you know real brain work. But it should be combined with a very sincere disciplined attempt to really purify the soul, purify the consciousness, understand the highest truth and really practice spiritual life. This combination is necessary.

gHari · January 28, 2004

Ancient one, his disciples would really relish these pieces you have transcribed.

ancient_paztriot · January 28, 2004

I have alot of respect for Hridayananda because of his knowledge and devotion to preach for many years.

He has expanded the vaisnava purports even farther with his detailed philosophical and scientific analysis.

I originally transcribed some of his abortion material which I sent to the supreme court justices back in the early '90s. Somehow that material has expanded into a hundered or more essays and has been an influential factor for creating the Windows website.

No, I'm not really promoting him. My experience is that he has fried many devotees (for whatever reason). There have been big mistakes. I just put the knowledge out there. It is about the knowledge in my mind.

But he should also be recognized for his highly successful preaching career. I consider most of his arguments self-evident and enlivening. I think he has provided alot of material that can't be duplicated by others.

Prabhupada and Hridyananda are the one-two punch of my website. I'm betting on them AND KRSNA to change the world. Yeah, I know it sounds ridiculous!

Hrydayananda is expert at presenting KC to the karmis on MERIT.