Obedience to Moral Law

[ancient_paztriot]

Syamasundara dasa: According to Locke's utilitarian ethic, happiness is the greatest good, and obedience to the moral law results in happiness.

 

Srila Prabhupada: But the difficulty is that here in this material world, happiness is temporary. And even if we follow moral laws, other people will give us trouble. there are people who don't care whether you are moral or immoral. Bhagavad-gita confirms that this is not a place of happiness. duhkhalayam asasvatam. “This temporary world is full of miseries.” (Bg. 8.15) therefore we have to find where real happiness ixists. That is the spiritual world. Happiness here is only another illusiion. It is not possible. If Krsna Himself says that this is a place of misery, how can we find happiness here? In Bhagavad-gita, Krsna speaks of real happiness:

 

sukham atyantikam yat tad

buddhi-grahyam atindriyam

vetti yatra na caivayam

sthitas calati tattvatah

 

“In that joyous state, one is situated in boundless transcendental happiness, and enjoys himself through transcendental senses. Established thus, one never departs from the truth, and upon gaining this, he thinks there is no greater gain.” (Bg. 6.21) Real happiness is beyond the senses. It is atindriyya. In other words, we have to purify our senses in order to attain it. The is also confirmed by Åsabhadeva:

 

nayam deho deha-bhajam nrloke

kastan kaman arhate vid-bhujam ye

tapo divyam putraka yena sattvam

suddhyed yasmad brahma-saukhyam tv anantam

 

“Of all the living entities who have accepted material bodies in this world, one who has been awarded this human form should not work hard day and night for sense gratification, which is available even for dogs and hogs that eat stool. One should engage in penance and austerity to attain the divine position of devotional service. By such activity, one’s heart is purified, and when one attains this position, he attains eternal, blissful life, which is transcendental to material happiness and which continues forever.” (Bhag 5.5.1) Presently, our existence is impure. If a man is suffering from jaundice, he tastes sweet things as bitter. In order to taste real happiness, we hace to purify our senses. Materialists think that as soon as they have sexual intercourse, they will be happy, but that is not real happiness. We cannot even enjoy that happiness. The conclusion is that we should not seek happiness like cats, dogs, and hogs, but as human beings. This means tapasya, purification of the senses. First we must be cured of this material disease, then we can taste real happiness in our healthy life. A sane man knows that he is spirit soul covered by a material coating. So let this coating be washed away by devotional service. Tat-paratvena nirmalam (Narada-pancaratra). When we engage in devotional service, we remove the false coating, and our real sense emerge. We enjoy those real senses by by serving Krsna.