KNOWLEDGE AND MISERY

 

In Bhagavad-Gita the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krsna, defines transcendental knowledge as follows:

 

"In this world, there is nothing so sublime and pure as transcendental knowledge. Such knowledge is the mature fruit of mysticism. And one who has become accomplished in the practice of devotional service enjoys this knowledge within himself in due course of time.”

BG 4.39

 

"This knowledge is the king of education, the most secret of all secrets. It is the purest knowledge, and because it gives direct perception of the self by realization, it is the perfection of religion. It is everlasting, and it is JOYFULLY performed.”

BG 9.2

 

 

In these wonderful slokas of the Bhagavad-Gita it is clearly defined what is the symptom of true enlightenment: happiness.

 

In midst of His poverty, in midst of His hallucinated disciples, materially spoken in most awkward circumstances, Srila Prabhupada demonstrated transcendental happiness, which is completely unknown to those who are materially motivated, considering themselves karmis, jnanis or even yogis.

Their tormented images create an impression that anything transcendental must be accompanied by pain. Indeed, first comes tapasya, renunciation, then knowledge can be revealed. That is true even for material types of knowledge, which cannot be called knowledge in Krsna conscious sense, but is mere accumulation of data or information. Nevertheless, Krsna conscious renunciation means simply renouncing the sources of misery and the result can be only... happiness.

 

Not knowing this, people don’t consider Krsna conscious knowledge to be so attractive, as it is often presented by those who don’t have it.

The pain of such “preachers” is well known to all those who were in name of Christianity confronted with the tormented images of their co called divinities for hundreds of years, including the ghastly image of their guru whom they learned to worship nailed on the cross, bleeding for their sins. Being raised in fear only, without any tangible higher taste, they learned spiritual life to be understood this way.

 

Indeed, FEAR is the tool for demons and kanistha adhikaris to keep those subdued they tend to exploit. First creating fear and then offering their own shelter is the policy of the demonic ones.

 

Those who truly follow the “regulative principles of freedom” cannot be subdued by such demonic mentalities, and are therefore classified by materialists as dangerous and anarchistic.

 

Material happiness is derived from bodily concepts, aiming for satisfaction of the senses, including a strive for social dominance and ability to control others. Using the example of day and night, Bhagavad-Gita clearly defines these to be sources of misery. What is day for one is night for the other. This is the basic division line between real devotee and a real materialist.

 

It is not the level of academically acquired “knowledge” or social status as advocated today by some pseudo vaisnavas, which defines position one operates from. The appearance of those who are obsessed by externalities speaks for itself. Their miserable darkened faces, expressing pain of failed material expectations, are a documentary on its own how misguided they are.

 

Srila Prabhupada preached by His natural amazing happiness, even His words contained most controversial statements from material point of view, defining the whole direction material society is going to as being wrong. He called the society of today being suicidal and entirely misguided.

In His Caitanya Caritamrta purports He defines those who profess as vaisnavas, but are entirely materially motivated, as being asara or useless.

 

We all joined by the happiness, better to say ecstasy, exhibited by those who fully surrendered to the mission of Srila Prabhupada. Leaving the material concepts behind, we were free to dance in the kirtans, which were of such dynamic nature that we couldn’t stop. The images of pain inflicted chanters of today, who drain the Holy Name for the cause of their social appearance are a demonstration of their materially conceived “Krsna consciousness”. They are filled with tensity, fear and moroseness in name of "going inside while leaving the outside”. For Srila Prabhupada there was no distinction between “inside” and “outside”. Once absorbed in Krsna consciousness everything was of transcendental nature.

 

This “mentally sifted” Holy Name still has its effect, but it can be chanted lifetime after lifetime without any direct result, hopefully bringing the chanter to the level of purifying chanting so he may realize the uselessness of his material expectations. Such offensive chanting is like igniting fire while simultaneously pouring water on it. The result is lots of smoke. Such chanter can taste something, but his taste is like the taste of a man who is tasting nectarean food through a piece of cloth covering his tongue. Therefore, such chanter easily abandons the whole process of purification considering it ineffective while becoming again some sort of humanist, altruist or simply low profile hedonist.

 

How different are the lives of those who are in tune with Srila Prabhupada’s mission, thinking about the welfare of the misguided ones, abstaining from association of materially motivated ones and preaching purely on basis of Srila Prabhupada’s books, distributing them in large quantities.

 

Such devotee vaisnavas have no other choice than to become ecstatic even in midst of their tapasya filled lives. For the humanity at large, it is their happiness which attracts others, not the academically acquired “knowledge”, which kanistha adhikari type of individuals can turn into some sort of a theatrical stage, serving their social performance.

 

When joining 1972 I was simply swept away by small group of devotees, who evidently had nothing to offer materially, but who were the happiest people I met in my life. Even some of them certainly were highly mentally troubled individuals, still they were happily defying their karmic coverings while being fully absorbed in the service of Srila Prabhupada.

It didn’t took me long to discover where the source of their happiness was. The image of Srila Prabhupada was seen everywhere, even at the banners carried on hare nama parties who poured into the streets in large numbers.

 

There are only two kinds of beings who can be happy in this world: those blessed by the guru parampara and those who are totally covered by illusory energy. Finally, only those who are blessed can remain happy while those totally covered proceed to lower species of life.

 

And so the prove of real advancement in Krsna consciousness is evident: happiness, which stimulates the ecstatic chanter to increase his performance in the service to the mission Srila Prabhupada entrusted to us.

 

Once a painter presented a picture to Srila Prabhupada of Krsna moaning about the loss of His father Vasudeva, killed in illusory way.

 

Srila Prabhupada objected. Bewildered, the devotee asked how it is possible to paint Krsna moaning without Him appearing miserable. Srila Prabhupada’s answer revealed the essence of Krsna consciousness: “Yes, Krsna was moaning, but He was still ecstatic!” Such is the nature of Krsna consciousness.

 

If anybody wants to find out the difference between real vaisnava and kanistha adhikari or a demon, it is at this point. Even not smiling all the time, the vaisnava is ecstatic and the mayavadi despite his self-satisfied grin is miserable.

 

Let us not to be deceived.