Modern Society’s Pressure is Polarizing

Talk by Mahat @ Krishna Lounge on February 21, 2008

A verse from the Bhagavad Gita says that the very place from which we derive pleasure is where the senses meet with the sense objects. That place we consider the source of happiness. The tongue eats something palatable, the eyes look beautiful things and the hands touch something. All this is pleasing. But according to the Bhagavad Gita these places are the very places of frustration and misery. In the beginning the sensation is always pleasing but the nature of sensual pleasure is that it does not satisfy. We have to re-indulge in it.

I remember, as a kid I chewed a gum. (I got from my mom–what I thought a lot of money–and bought whole bunch of chewing gums). So juicy and sweet, I really enjoyed it. However, after few minutes, the gum became hard with all the sugar gone. Then, I had to pop another one. Every new piece of chewing gum was a source of pleasure, but every time the pleasure would diminish. Eventually it turned into frustration. This is a simple and innocent example. An extreme example would be taking drugs, shooting heroin, or something worse, where at first you feel great euphoria, like new horizons have just opened to your sensual experience; but after some time, everyone knows, it turns into misery. People know this intuitively and they are compromising with this principle. They begin with the sensual gratification, but never let it go out of control. As soon the things start sinking too low, or out of control, they stop. But this is tricky. Many of us have been on this path and know things can easily go out of control. Therefore people try to find some kind of a middle ground.

However, in the present society and its culture it is difficult to find middle ground. The situation tends to take us from one extreme to the other. The economic situation is such that you can’t, as people used to even in this country, work little and live a simple life. Nowadays, if you work a little, you end up being homeless. When I came to this country, I was surprised to see so many homeless people living in cars, crashing out two nights at friend’s house, few nights on the beach, then some bushes, back to the car and so on. This is because the economical situation demands that you fully apply yourself to the process of earning money– otherwise you are out of the game. A simple life is not encouraged. It’s not impossible, but it is much harder than it used to be. Spiritual practitioners also find it difficult because of temptations.

Let’s look at crime. Previously, bad behavior in school was to stick chewing gum underneath the table. The teacher would get all upset. Nowadays, the problems are different: kids bring guns to schools, pornography is easily accessible. You want to indulge a little bit in some kind of material pleasures, but then there is Best Buy and these huge stores that are simply meant to entice you, to take away your attention all the way to, as far down as you can imagine, until it reaches the solid rock bottom.

For spiritual practitioners or those who are walking the spiritual path, it is very difficult to live like this because if they don’t apply themselves fully to spiritual development, they will be devoured by materialism. Their attention, flow of energy and endeavor will either go fully into spiritual or go down into materialistic life.

Now, we could look at this as something bad or a big challenge, but the Vedas say we live in a blessed age. Of all the ages and different phases of history of this planet, this is the best. If you apply yourself to the spiritual process you will meet with abundant results. In the Vedas there is a mantra describing this age, it says: wherever we look everything is wrong–war over here, exploitation over there, murdering, and killing poor animals, torturing plants, destroying environment…exploitations, corrupt governments – big mess! Still, there is one good quality: simply by engaging in kirtan, kirtanam eva krishnasya, one can mukta (rise or free oneself) beyond attachment to worldliness, simply by sincere kirtan. Kirtan is the recommended spiritual practice for this age. Previously people used to meditate, and meditation didn’t mean to sit down for ten minutes and hold your nose, or when an eighty year old fellow lifts his leg a little bit and calls it yoga. No. Yoga and meditation meant to go into the forest, without health insurance, without pension, without anyone around (besides ferocious animals). You sit down and you meditate for twenty hours a day. For one hour you take care of the body, bathe, rest, and that’s it. That is meditation. Nowadays, even a little bit of kirtan, if one chants, there will be an abundance of spiritual results.

The age in which we are living is polarizing, forcing individual to go fully materialistic or fully spiritual. It is difficult to hold some middle ground. A serious practitioner has experienced this in the modern age. On our temple’s website www.krishnasd.com, the most visited page is monks. To pick the lifestyle of a monk is a radical step. It is radical to just forget about and turn away from everything. I mean, it’s beautiful–many of us did it and it is wonderful. I’ve had nothing but fun for the last fifteen years. But it is a radical change. You begin a totally new life. Not only me, but many others did it because it is very difficult to keep the middle ground in this age.

If you take up spiritual life seriously then it is super beneficial. The reason why I initially took up spiritual life was because of utter dissatisfaction. I couldn’t find pleasure in material activities. As a matter of fact they pained me. Still, I didn’t apply myself to spiritual practices, until my parents kicked me out of the house. Since I had no income, I was thinking: “What should I do?” and then I took up spiritual practices seriously. Philosophically, the material life just didn’t add up. Anyone who is thoughtful can understand there is no purpose to material life. What do you think of a thing that has no purpose? We call it trash, because it has no purpose. There is no purpose to material life. You just live till you croak. But spiritual life is purposeful. The philosophy, the reason for living is that there is some mission to your existence. That is spiritual perfection.

You could say that was terrible, I was kicked out of the house, suffered so much. But on the other hand you could say it was beneficial. I think it was the best thing that had ever happened to me. So we can look at this age from two perspectives: as tempting or encouraging. It really depends on how we take it.

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Kirtan:

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A few pix: