The Vedic Model for Human Behaviour - Scientific, Practical, Joyful, Liberating

The Vedic Model for Human Behaviour - Scientific, Practical, Joyful, Liberating

Many well-meaning philosophers have tried to explain human behaviour in order to alleviate human suffering and enhance human happiness. They came up with models for understanding human behaviour based on some tenets which they tried to prove as being fundamental.

The Vedic scriptures also provide us fundamental tenets and present a model for understanding human behaviour in this world. The fundamental tenet is that we are all spiritual eternal beings currently limited in our ability to experience happiness by the covering of our temporary material bodies. This dynamics of opposites - the soul trying to find lasting happiness in the world of temporariness - is precisely the struggle of humankind.

Even our non-gross abilities like thinking, feeling, willing are conditioned by our contact with this realm of temporariness. For example, the desires of the mind when it sees existence as eternal are different from the desires when it sees existence as temporary.

Thus, based on the Vedic model, the therapy for human suffering is education and practices that reestablish the soul in its original conviction of being an eternal being having only superficial and temporal connection with this material world.

The true Vedic lifestyle has this foundation. It is practical because it understands the current entanglements and inclinations and instincts of the soul conditioned by this temporary world. At the same time it tries to extricate the soul by providing a regulated lifestyle that doesn't let instincts get the better of intelligence. The regulated lifestyle has optimal room for the expression of natural instincts while in the process reducing the inclination for them.

Obviously this lifestyle has to be conducted under the supervision of an expert who understands the extent of material entanglement of each soul and customises the regulation accordingly.

The reasonable man will do well to consider the Vedic model rather than embracing the many models based on observations and experiments merely from this material sphere.

The Happier of the Two; Enjoyment and Satisfaction

Those who think that there is nothing beyond their current lifetime, try to enjoy to the fullest with their senses. They are always striving to make arrangements for enjoying using their senses, because, after all, they believe, there is just one lifetime, live it fully! Eat, drink, enjoy!

On the other hand, those who believe that life is eternal and can perceive the current body as a temporary and troublesome dress for the soul, try to mould their life around spiritual principles. They strive to train their mind to be satisfied with minimum sensual dependencies by engaging it in joyful and satisfying spiritual activities. Note that spiritual activities also engage the senses fully, without being fundamentally dependent on them for enjoyment. Since the senses and body are temporary, what's the point in depending on them direly?

One kind seeks enjoyment, and the other seeks satisfaction. Assuming that both attain what they seek, who will be happier?

https://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/10/9

mac-cittā mad-gata-prāṇā
bodhayantaḥ parasparam
kathayantaś ca māṁ nityaṁ
tuṣyanti ca ramanti ca

Translation: 

The thoughts of My pure devotees dwell in Me, their lives are fully devoted to My service, and they derive great satisfaction and bliss from always enlightening one another and conversing about Me.

The Keys of Introspection / The Beginning

One takes interest in things beyond ordinary sense perception only when one realizes that there is no intrinsic value in the unlimited manifestations of the combinations of tangible elements - no value, because they are all temporary.

Only the keys of introspection open the doors to such contemplation. Of course, the journey of enlightenment doesn't end here; there are still many more egoistic barriers to destroy and cross before we accept and harmonize ourselves with the eternal truths. But still, the beginning is always an important milestone, for there is no end before a beginning.

https://www.vedabase.com/en/bg/5/22

ye hi saṁsparśa-jā bhogā
duḥkha-yonaya eva te
ādy-antavantaḥ kaunteya
na teṣu ramate budhaḥ

Translation: 

An intelligent person does not take part in the sources of misery, which are due to contact with the material senses. O son of Kuntī, such pleasures have a beginning and an end, and so the wise man does not delight in them.

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.

Temporary and Eternal Benefits

Hare Krishna.

The success of the teachers of bodily exercises and of some mental peace techniques is further proof that people in general in this Kali Yuga are very much in the bodily consciousness.

Keeping the body and mind healthy is definitely good and one cant find fault in the purpose of these teachers. However, their teachings are also based on (at least make some reference to) Vedic literature, and hence the general mass of people can sometimes mistake them as being highly spiritual, though the people are not really aware of the science of the spirit (soul).

Disappointingly, these teachers do not make any serious attempt to let their followers know about the soul, and continue to focus on their propaganda of how to keep the body and mind healthy! Don't these teachers know about the supreme importance of the science of the soul?

With these stream of thoughts, the following questions arise : Are these teachers ignorant of the science of the soul? Or is it that they are aware but are afraid that if they preach the science of the soul, their own position will come under threat?

Any serious student of the Vedas knows that the Vedas talk about getting people out of the cycle of birth and death! Just keeping body and mind healthy is not going to get you out of this cycle. No matter how much you try, the body is going to die, get diseased, give old age pangs, and get a next birth. No matter what (new?) techniques you use, there is going to be misery in this world!

Does anyone have to tell us this? Don't we already know from our own lives? Isn't it the duty of these (so-called?) Vedic teachers to let people know these things? Shouldn't these teachers use their commanding position to awaken people from their slumber of spiritual ignorance? If they are not doing this, then can we really say that they are totally pure at heart?

Why are these teachers trying to convince people that there can actually be any happiness in this material world? Haven't they read the Bhagavad Gita where Krishna declares that this material world is "dukkhalayam, ashasvatam", i.e. a place of miseries and temporary?

As opposed to that, we can see how amazingly well ISKCON is serving everyone by serving Krishna (God) Himself! One can easily see that devotees of the Lord all very happy, with significantly less mental stress and anxieties, and always bubbling with enthusiasm. Because
of following a regulated life, they are quite away from diseases too. Of course, as long as one is in the material world, one has to suffer, no matter what you do...

The point is that even ISKCON followers get all the benefits that others promise. However, ISKCON provides more! It works on the spiritual platform! It nourishes spiritual development! It caters to the real need of the self (soul) apart from the needs of the body and mind.

And ultimately it takes us closer and closer to the real goal of life, liberation from the cycle of birth and death. In fact, it does more than that! It takes us closer and closer to attaining Love of God, in front of which, liberation is considered as an insignificant side-effect!

So, the choice is ours! Are we going to run after temporary bodily (and of the mind) benefits, or after eternal spiritual benefits?

Hare Krishna!

Your servant in Krishna Consciousness,
Abhijit.