Faith by Vishnujana Swami

[Pankaja_Dasa]

 

 

~ Bhagavad-Gita Class ~

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chapter 4, verse 40

 

 

 

 

ajnash chashraddhadhanash cha samshayatma vinashyati</FONT> nayam loko

 

'sti na paro na sukam samshayatmanah</FONT></DIV></DIV>

 

 

 

But the ignorant and faithless persons who doubt the revealed scriptures

surely do not attain Supreme consciousness. For the doubting soul there is

happiness neither in this world nor in the next.

 

 

 

 

"Very important verse - 'For the doubting soul

there is happiness neither in this world nor in the next.' The scripture denotes

reality; doubting denotes relativity. As long as one is involved in the

relativity there is a vacancy in his heart. That means one doesn't know oneself

or ones relationship with God, or what the purpose of the material world is, why

everything is going on. One cannot answer these questions when asked. So this

vacancy of the heart is due to being caught up in the relativity of material

existance. It's a frustration which underlies the limitation of our association

with senses and relationships in this material world. We become frustrated

because in our childhood we wanted things we couldn't get, and we became

frustrated, you see. And as we grow up again the same thing, same thing, same

thing, and gradually instead of throwing a tantrum we learn how to control

ourselves a little bit and we make a mental adjustment to the fact that we're

not able to fulfill our desires. However, people want to fulfill their desires

just as much; its just that they suppress throwing a tantrum, for a child it is

alright to throw a tantrum. </FONT></P>

So, material life is frustrating because it deals

with the relativity of my limited senses trying to lord it over other limited

objects that I have no control over. It is like a little child - he's trying to

grasp a ball, "It's my ball, it's my ball," another child takes it away or it

rolls out into the street... you see. A young boy wants to go out and play and

his mother's telling him, "No, you have to go to school," so he begins crying,

"No, I don't want to go to school, I wanna play!" We're not meant to have to go

to school, you see, in our spiritual constitutional position. So, this is the

problem of material existence. It's a very frustrating experience for the soul,

as Krishna says in Bhagavad-Gita, "All these living entities are My

parts and parcels, and they are struggling hard with this machine of the

material energy." They are struggling very hard with this machine. This body is

a machine. It's a car, and we are struggling with it, trying to comb its hair,

brush its teeth, you see the girls trying to make their hair look nice,

someone's trying to keep their teeth together, somone's getting his teeth fixed,

someone else is doing this and another person is trying to do so many things to

keep this body together, but ultimately it's frustrating because this body just

is not under our control. It's under the control of the laws of nature, laws of

time, etc. </FONT></P>

So relativity of existence creates doubt. One

doesn't know that there is any Absolute Truth. In fact, one becomes so

frustrated seeing so many different kinds of religions and so many different

approaches, apparent contridictions, and one becomes doubtful if there is any

such thing. This is the hurdle one has to cross over to advance in spiritual

life. The mental plane is a very difficult plane to become detached from. We're

so attached to our minds and thoughts. We identify. We think, "Yes, these are my

thoughts," but we don't think anything that is our, you see. It's all been

impressed upon us - nobody feels anything independently, nobody thinks anything

independently, and nobody does anything independently. Thinking, feeling,

willing and acting are controlled either by the illusory energy of God or

directly by God Himself... or by your Spiritual Master if you surrender to a

Spiritual Master. </FONT></P>

No one is doing and thinking, feeling, willing

anything independently - it's all being controlled. So until one surrenders unto

a bonafide Spiritual Master, until one surrenders to God, his senses, his mind,

his intelligence, his thinking, feeling, willing, acting are all dictated by the

modes of material nature, you see, by the illusory energy. And, therefore, he

sees nothing but relativity. Nothing but relativity. He can't imagine there

being an absolute realm, where everything is eternal, full of bliss and

knowledge. He can't imagine having an absolute body of the same nature, or

relating in a loving relationship as lover of God, child of God, friend of God,

mother of God, in that spiritual realm. These things seem completely off the

track. Completely out of his reality of going to the football game or whatever

he is going to do. But this is reality; scripture is giving us reality, you see.

But, due to our doubt, due to our faithlessness, we're seeing everything in

relativity, and therefore we're unhappy, therefore we're frustrated trying to

struggle to control this relative world. </FONT></P>

The scripture says that this world is

jagat - it's temporary. It appears to be real, but it's real only for a few

moments and then it vanishes. Being the energy of Krishna, it must be real

because God is real - whatever emanates from Him is also real - but it's

temporarily real, you see. So what we're seeing, what we're thinking is real is

actually simply like a film show going on. You know how when you go in the

cinema you become fooled by the screen into thinking that there's a boat,

there's this, and you get this emotional thing over this simple, dimensional

phantasmagoria. People come in the movie and they're crying, you know, it's

thinking how the boy loved the girl or how this and that, it's all a

phantasmagoria. Nothing is going on at all except someone is controlling their

minds by presenting them a few pictures taken all in a row and printing them, on

and on, and it looks like there's something alive on the screen. Similarly, this

whole material manifestation is nothing but a few elements, earth, air, fire,

water, ether, mind, intelligence and ego, and a few other things - the sense,

the sense objects, the interaction, the aggregate, lust, greed, etc - all these

elements, twenty-four altogether, are put together in various combinations and

they present this entire phantasmagoria of the material world. and everybody is

fooled into allowing themselves and their consciousness to be absorbed in this

phantasmagoria, just like people are fooled in the cinema show, to be absorbed

in something and then take it as reality. And they get emotional about it, they

start crying over it, it's my body, it's my wife, it's my family, this, that.

And it becomes a whole illusory scene in material existence. </FONT></P>

 

 

Dhira</FONT>,

a sober man, is one who sees all this through scripture, because according to

scripture it's just a few elements put together by the illusory energy, and it's

meant to trap those that are unaware of their relationship with God. But, one

who knows his relationship with God can use this same illusory energy in the

service of God and turn it into spirit. Matter engaged in the service of spirit

regains its spiritual quality, you see. Just like iron in connection with fire

gains the quality of fire - heat, light, etc. for all practical purposes it's

fire. Similarly, matter engaged in the service of spirit acts as spirit. It

invokes eternity, it invokes knowledge, it invokes bliss. </FONT></P>

Just like we're using this bus - it's matter, but

it's invoking eternity, it's invoking knowledge, it's invoking bliss. One can

say that all these jewels, etc. are simply a temporary phantasmagoria, but it's

invoking knowledge of Krishna, it's invoking bliss of loving</FONT> Krishna. The food, you may say, is regular food - I put it

in my mouth, it comes out as stool a few hours later; it's just like any other

food, you see, but if you eat this prasadam you find it invokes eternity, it

invokes knowledge, and it invokes bliss. And what we're saying is nothing but

sound, which is another material element, but if you keep hearing this sound, if

you keep hearing these words, then it invokes eternity, knowledge and bliss. See

how to judge a thing by its result, not by its apparent attributes. What appears

to be material, when engaged in the service of the Lord, is actually as good as

the spiritual world. So we're not living in the material world. We've realized

that, those of us that are advancing in Krishna Consciousness, we're

no</FONT>t living in this material world - we're

living in eternity, knowledge and bliss. That platform of realization is

mentioned - Prabhupada says one should therefore follow in the footsteps of

great acharyas who are in the disciplic succession, and thereby obtain

success. You can attain to this platform if you follow in the footsteps of great

liberated souls..."</FONT></P></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>

 

 

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