The Vedic way OF lIFE

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The Vedic way OF lIFE

Sunday, 04 February 2018 | Radhanath Swami

The Vedic solution to unhappiness is to learn to give, love, and be satisfied with the simple things that truly matter in life, writes RADHANATH SWAMI

A month into the New Year, we should be aware of the opportunities as well as the responsibilities that this moment brings upon us. According to climate experts, all the toxic waste — greenhouse effect, gases and synthetic chemicals in the ozone, etc — is making our planet a very polluted place. From the spiritual perspective, the collective karma is also polluted and therefore there will be reactions.

The Vedic solution always goes to the essential cause. What is the essential cause of everythingIJ It is consciousness. If we deal properly with consciousness, then we can substantially and realistically deal with the problems of this world. Otherwise, we are just doing patch work. The underlying cause of all the pollution in the world is polluted consciousness.

In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna explains from the perspective of the divine that there are eight material elements: earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intelligence, and  ego. Beyond this, there is a superior energy, the jiva, the source of consciousness which is the very foundational, sustaining force of creation. Consciousness is the sustaining force of creation. The reason for the ecological pollution is very simple, the pollution of consciousness — our minds are highly polluted with toxic greed.

THE nature of Greed

It can never be satisfied. In the Srimad Bhagavatam, Prahlad Maharaj explains that if you are hungry, you eat some food and you are satisfied. If you are thirsty, you drink some liquid and you are satisfied. If you are angry, you let it out or someone chastises you and you get the reaction to it, so your anger is subdued. But greed, even if you conquer, control and become the proprietor of everything in the whole universe, your greed will never be satisfied; it’s insatiable. It burns like fire — the more fuel you put in the harder it burns.

The Vedic solution is to learn how to be content and satisfied with simple things. Due to ignorance (or avidya), we try to find happiness in things, in stuff, but the soul is part of God.The soul, the heart need love. The only thing that can satisfy us is to love and be loved. Even in a very worldly sense, if you have everything else but if you don’t have someone to love and you are not loved by people there can be no real satisfaction because things cannot touch the heart. Sensual pleasures, mental pleasures do not touch the heart and satisfaction is not the thing of the mind, it’s not the thing of the flesh, it’s the thing of the heart. Our nature is to love God and in loving God we see every living being as part of God, we naturally love every living being. That brings contentment. Relationships bring satisfaction but unfortunately we become so obsessed that we try to find that satisfaction by accumulation and experiential interactions with things that we don’t have healthy, satisfying relationships. We don’t take responsibility for our relationships because we think that they are not very important. And in these so called developed countries, we find massive divorce rates, emotional trauma, and depression. WhyIJ People have things. But responsibilities, family values, relationships are compromised. And therefore their hearts are empty, their bank accounts may be overflowing but their hearts are empty. Their prestige and their fame may be sky rocketing without meaningful, deep loving relationships. Nothing can fill that kind of emptiness. We become greedy, we become lusty and when that lust is not satisfied, we become angry. If we get what we want, we become arrogant and if we don’t get what we want, we become envious and depressed. These are all just symptoms of a very sick and empty state of consciousness. In today’s world, the people who are the sickest, who are  quick to hurt other people in order to get ahead, are considered great heroes.

THE Simple liFE

But the Vedic solution is something very different. And that is to find substantial satisfaction within ‘simple living and high thinking.’ Whether you are living in a beautiful palace or in a straw hut or in a cave, if you are satisfied within, you will be happy. But if you are not satisfied within, you are really going to get bored in that cave. You are really going to be depressed about the straw hut and as far as the palace you are going to be in is concerned, there will be complete anxiety about everybody else who wants the palace and all the things that are going wrong in your palace and all the problems with the mortgage for the palace and everything going on inside. There can be no satisfaction.

Story of VamanaDev

When little Vamana Dev approached Bali Maharaj, He was a penniless little brahmana dwarf and he asked Bali “Give Me three steps of land.” Bali said, “Do you know who I amIJ I am the king, why three steps of landIJ I will give you houses, I will give you property, I will you a planet, I will give you everything you want; I have it.” Essentially, Vamana Dev said “What do you haveIJ I have nothing. But, I have peace of mind. I am happy. You have everything, but because you don’t have peace of mind you are miserable.” And Bali Maharaj couldn’t argue with that one. If you are not happy within yourself, you cannot be happy

no matter what you achieve. And if you are happy within yourself you are happy no matter what. If you can’t be satisfied with little, you can’t be satisfied with a lot  and that is an eternal principle.

THE Real wealth

So, Bhagavad Gita is not teaching poverty but at the same time it is teaching poverty. Poverty, but understood in a different way. We see Mahabharata, Srimad Bhagavatam, so many scriptures. Many of the great saints we read about are kings and queens, they have royal wealth but they are self-realized. They are perfect yogis because they don’t consider their wealth to be their own, they consider everything to be the property of God and they care for it and utilize it not only for their own well-being but for their families and for the world’s well-being. They are not greedy, they are generous and compassionate. So, we find kings and we find sadhus who just sleep on the banks of rivers. They both have the same wealth within.

THE HUMAN essence

Unless our consciousness returns to its original nature we will not be satisfied and farther humanity goes away from the essence of who we are. We have been endowed with a magnificent, incredibly creative brain by God. But the more we become entangled in the polluted consciousness, the more dangerous we become to our planet. Instead of using our consciousness to create a civilisation in harmony with our essence, we might instead end up using the immense power of our brain to destroy our planet.

The writer is an ISKCON spiritual guru

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