Bygone Times

November 04, 2007.

It is Sunday evening in the middle of the Diwali Vacation. I have just returned from a nearby Botanical Garden, a typical family park where Sunday evenings are full of small children just freely enjoying themselves on the various play toys while the elders just sit around and relax. Some children were sliding down slides, some were swinging on swings, and some were just running around behind each other. The air was full of shouts and screams punctuating the general background of the loud murmuring sound made up of the various voices. The dust raised by all the playing kids permeated the air all around along with its typical fragrance.

The whole scene took me back to my childhood days which I have spent just like a lot of other children born in middle class families in India. I have grown up playing a lot of cricket and a lot of other sports. And typically, in school days, evening time is the play time! Lot of evenings I have spent playing my heart out and then later sitting around with buddies chatting away long into the night. It was one of our favorite pastimes. And therefore, the dusty fragrance of the evening and its feel are very much synonymous to those childhood memories of mine. In the garden today those memories were evoked just a little bit. But what really struck me was the unbridled fun the small kids were having.

Alas! Time waits for no one and its only a matter of time that these days whiz past us. Suddenly, one day some sights and sounds and smells evoke the memories of those bygone days and we start wishing that we were little kids again. Why? We long to experience once again that stress free life in which we are not entangled in the mesh of responsibilities that is so typical of adult life. When we are kids, we go to the park and just play to our heart’s content because we are not anxious about anything. We are totally dependent on our parents for everything, with full innocent faith that they will provide whatever is required for our well being. But as soon as we grow up we are expected to “stand on our own feet”. Now, we are expected to not be dependent on others, but others depend on us in one way or the other. That’s one way of saying that we are put into some kind of responsible position in which we are accountable to someone or the other for whatever we do. We are no longer free to do whatever we want and leave the rest to our parents. Our freedom is lost! So we yearn once again to become a kid who is fully dependent on the mercy of his parents and who has full innocent faith in their benevolence.

Well, what all I have written above is not really something new. One will find such a stream of thoughts in a lot of mundane literature which does talk a lot of times in a very nostalgic way about the passing away of good times. I have read a lot, and “bygone times” is quite a recurring theme in most popular literature. And in most of them one thing is common in one form or another – sorrow that that which was once, now is no more. While reading a lot, I observed that most of the very successful popular literature, prose or poetry, is based on some past or present sorrow. I reasoned that this was because sorrow is the strongest emotion felt by human beings, more acute that any kind of joy could evoke. This reasoning though sounded correct, was also a bit depressing. To figure out that the sorrows of life are more of a reality than the joys is not a pleasant discovery. But it must be true, otherwise why has the world not produced at least one compelling literature that is all about ever expanding joy? I know of great tragedies (in literature) but I don’t know of any great good fortune stories. I was really curious to find at least one literature that is based not on sorrow but on joy.

Lord Krishna has stamped this material world in the Bhagavad Gita as a temporary place full of misery. Indeed, one of the reasons of the misery in this material is its temporary nature. That which is dear to us will inevitably be separated from us sooner or later. Everyone is either lamenting for what he has lost or is fearful of losing what he currently possesses. The knowledge of the temporal nature of everything material in itself is not sufficient to give anyone happiness though. This knowledge alone can only depress one further and produce a negative outlook towards life in the knower. It is indeed better sometimes to have no knowledge instead of partial. Since most people only know this partial truth and do not know the solution to this problem, they tend to totally ignore the problem and try to cover it up by a lot of temporary pleasures pretending to be happy. Or they make mental adjustments and try to become indifferent to this partial truth which they consider as the ultimate. All this generally leads to the hedonistic self-destructive tendencies that are quite common in the modern man. This then is the plight of those bereft of the knowledge of the Supreme Absolute Truth – the eternal, all knowing, ever blissful Personality of Godhead - Lord Sri Krishna!

The other part of the knowledge that this material world is a place of a temporal nature is that there exists a place which is eternal and where the effect of time is conspicuous only by its absence. There the little baby Krishna never grows old and always immerses His mother Yashoda in an ocean of transcendental ecstatic maternal love. There the cowherd boy friends of Krishna never stop playing with Krishna in the forests and plains of Vrindavan. There everything is ever fresh and new. There is no question of becoming nostalgic about bygone good times because there time never goes by! Not only that, there everyone is a soul surrendered unto Krishna and is totally dependent on the mercy of Krishna without any pretensions about ones own position as the dependent. This then is similar to a small child’s total dependence on the benevolence of his parents and thus all the souls in the spiritual world experience unlimited freedom as explained earlier in this article. Of course, in the higher mellows of devotional service, this dependence on Krishna is covered up by Krishna’s mystical YogaMaya potency so that Krishna can enjoy beautiful intimate relationships with His surrendered devotees thus giving them and Himself immense joy. But this forgetfulness of dependence on Krishna is different from the forgetfulness of the pretentious souls of the material world. Having this complete knowledge does not depress one in this material world but inspires one to transcend the limitations of material existence and attain the spiritual world.

My curiosity about a literature based on ever increasing joy found its fruition when I came across the Srimad Bhagavatam. This is one great literature which speaks about the glorious qualities and pastimes of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and His unalloyed devotees. This literature was compiled on the basis of complete knowledge and quite fittingly is thus full of ever increasing transcendental joy. Thus, ignorance is only temporary bliss, partial knowledge is quite dangerous, and complete knowledge is complete eternal bliss.

Thus, this glorious movement of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Srila Prabhupada is providing me all that I always sought. My quest for the sublime has ended in my most fortunate discovery of His Divine Grace. Well, the quest might have ended but the journey has just begun. I have to go a long long way yet to attain the ultimate goal of life – Love of God, Krishna Prem!

Yours in the service of Krishna,
Abhijit.

Do You Want To Make a Difference?

Hare Krishna.

Sometimes a person goes into a state where he thinks that "What I am doing in life is so important!" Unfortunately, because of the tremendously competitive culture created by the media, those who do not think that what they are doing is "important" are very miserable. They get tortured by their mind thinking about how to do "something that matters", or "something that makes a difference". These phrases are thrown around so much now-a-days that everyone thinks that he should become a very special person. They all want to become like the cinema heroes who rescue the whole earth from devastation! Though people might not speak these thoughts out, and not display their anxiety to others, they are continuously being tortured by their minds in some degree or other. Please be honest and think about it for yourself. I'll be honest and let you all know that I used to think like this :-)

Earlier in my life, I felt strongly about being a great lover of the nation! I wanted to die on the battlefield fighting for my country! Then as I kept thinking about things (thats one benediction Krishna has given me, I think a lot.. ofcourse, He has given me my everything :) ), I realised, that perhaps dying in the battlefield is not the best way I can serve my country. Perhaps there are better ways.. like?

Well, being a huge sports fan, I decided: I will one day take it upon myself to win India an Olympic Gold Medal!" And I got all passionate about it. And my mind tortured me about it. "Abhijit, Do something! Help the world! Have a purpose in life! Dont just exist!" Hmmm... Well, I was miserable :)

So, I have been honest with you, see.

Sometimes people get obsessed with what they think is the perfect goal of their life. Especially if they are enjoying a lot of success in what they do. Typical examples are sportstars, who say "I want to win the cricket match for India.. thats as far as my spirituality goes". They think that they are making a profound statement! But actually, is that the case? And the fans will go gaga over this statement. "Wow! Indian cricket is in very safe hands!" And the next thing they know is that India is out of the World Cup! Lost to minnows!

Another example is the technocrats. They think that by making better and better machines, they are doing such a great service to humanity! And the driving force in their life is to produce better and better machines. And they think that this is my religion! Actually, all specialists in various fields consciously or subconsciously start thinking that what they are doing in life is the most important activity. They think that giving time to any other activity is a waste of time! For them, their activity is the goal of their existence.

And as I said, the flip side is that others who are not experts, or who are not doing some glamorous thing, feel that they must also do something.. and they suffer..

All this is not to say that one should not try to help others (and oneself :) ). However, any honest man will agree that humanity is suffering even today. Even if India wins the World Cup, the humanity will continue to suffer. Similarly, despite tremendous development in medical science, humanity continues to suffer newer and newer medical problems. Despite advancement in the aviaiton industry, flights continue to crash. Despite so many social work organisations, people continue to die of hunger. Further, how is going to Mars going to solve the suffering of the humanity? Even if we are successful in establishing a community on Mars, what is the proof that people will become happy because of that?

Therefore we see that no person ever in history has done something that has eradicated misery totally. Those who think that they will be the first are in illusion. And those who are miserable because they cannot make any such claims are also in illusion. Why not wake up from this dream? Why not take stock of the situation? Why not accept that there can be no end to the sufferings of this world? Why not be really honest?

Only when we accept this, will we search for an alternative. Only when one accepts the problem, can one try to solve it. But if one is just adamantly not accepting the reality, how can he be helped? But once we accept the reality, then, to our great relief, we will rediscover the sublime process of Bhakti (Devotional Service to Krishna). We wont have to invent anything, just apply! And our lives will become sublime. Those fortunate people who come in contact with the devotees of Krishna, and who sincerely follow the process, irrespective of their material state, find joy and happiness and purpose and meaning in their lives. History is the witness. ISKCON is the living legend :)

The reason I am writing this article is just to point out that it is very dangerous for us to get into such modes (thinking that our day-to-day activities are the end in themselves). These activities are superficial, because they are at the level of the body. If one gets involved with them too much, or one gets a lot of success in those activities, or one starts running after success in these activities (usually because of wanting to become heroes in the eyes of all.. because of watching too many movies and sports..), then there is a danger of totally forgetting the reality. Our existence will become like that of the frog in the well. Our field of activity will become restricted only to that particular activity. We will forget the higher truths. And we will become miserable.

In the modern world, these bodily activities and achievements have been portrayed so glamorously that even a sane man will lose his sanity and run after them. It is very important for all of us to safeguard against the contaminating and bewildering effects of the association with materialistic people and their ways. It is almost impossible to avoid such association in the modern world, but fortunately we have the infallible shelter of Srila Prabhupada and the Holy Name!

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare!

Let us once again and again and again and again be grateful to His Divine Grace Dearest Srila Prabhupada for what he has done for us. Let us once again pray to him that we never leave the service of his lotus feet.

Srila Prabhupada Ki Jai!!

Your servant, Abhijit.