What I’m Looking For

"O best of men, what is the use of Your destroying the entire world? After finding out Your sinful enemy, You should uproot him alone." (Lakshmana speaking to Lord Rama, Valmiki Ramayana, Aranya Kand, 66.21)

This statement was uttered by Lakshmana, the beautiful, compassionate, and kind incarnation of Lord Ananta Shesha Naga, the celestial serpent who serves as the resting place for all the planets of the world and also for Lord Vishnu, or God. Ananta means that which has no end, and in this context, it references the unlimited hoods possessed by Anantadeva. Lakshmana, as a powerful incarnation of this divine servant, similarly possesses a limitless desire to defend and protect Lord Rama, an incarnation of Vishnu.

Why would God need protecting? The Lord doesn’t require any security, but nevertheless, He enjoys receiving service from His devotees every now and then. God is the head honcho, the “top dog” in charge of everything. Naturally, the topmost person doesn’t require anything from anyone else, but he certainly likes to be complimented and praised from time to time. In pretty much any business, the boss isn’t a very popular person. This dislike is not personal; the boss is the person in charge, so naturally the subordinates will want to complain every now and then. Complaints aren’t lodged against those that are powerless; they will be directed at the person who has absolute authority or someone who has more power than the person doing the complaining. God is the ultimate authority, so it makes sense that people would lodge many complaints against Him, being unhappy that He put them into various unwanted circumstances.

As much as we may dislike our bosses, it is a reality that a business runs smoothly when the subordinates are properly serving the superiors. If every person was on an equal footing, nothing would get done because there would be an absence of leadership. If one worker were to ask another worker of equal status to perform some task, there is no guarantee that the job would get done. Equals have no authority over one another, so there is nothing stopping a person from refusing to do the task which was asked of them. When there is service offered to the superior, things run more efficiently, the subordinates are happy, and so is the boss.

“My dear Lord Krishna, I do not want material wealth from You, nor do I want followers, a beautiful wife or the results of fruitive activities. I only pray that by Your causeless mercy You give Me pure devotional service to You, life after life.” (Lord Chaitanya, Chaitanya Charitamrita, Antya 20.30)

The cohesiveness of a properly functioning work environment essentially mimics the operations of the universe in relation to God. The employer-employee relationship can serve as an analogy to the relationship between God and His devotees, but the paradigm isn’t exactly the same since there is an inherent expectation of reciprocation of service in the workplace. The employee serves the boss, provided that the boss gives payment. Since pure love for God doesn’t work this way, it is known as Krishna-prema. Prema can be translated to mean love, but it is even more purified than that. Prema means serving God without any desire for reciprocation. Lord Chaitanya, God’s most recent incarnation to appear on earth, kindly gave us the example of how to be a perfect devotee. Though He didn’t leave many written instructions, He offered a nice prayer which essentially says that He has no desire for any material opulences or fame. He simply desires to be engaged in the Lord’s service. This is the definition of prema.

Lakshmana, being a perfect devotee, also adopted this prema mentality. During the Treta Yuga, the second time period of creation, the original Personality of Godhead came to earth in the guise of a pious prince named Rama. The eldest son of the King of Ayodhya, Rama had many duties and responsibilities to tend to, including that of protecting His beautiful and chaste wife Sita Devi. On one unfortunate occasion, Sita was kidnapped from the forest by the Rakshasa demon Ravana. Rama and Lakshmana weren’t with her at the time, so they didn’t realize she was missing until after she had been taken away. Realizing that Sita was gone, Rama frantically searched for her whereabouts. Unable to find her, Rama gave way to lamentation, followed by anger. He was ready to destroy the entire world as punishment for Sita’s abduction. He couldn’t believe that someone would want to harm such a kind and peaceful person. Rama, being an exemplary government leader and warrior, was very generous. Prior to leaving for the forest, many brahmanas [priests] approached Him and asked for benedictions. Lord Rama kindly donated all His wealth to them, reminding the brahmanas that there was no limit to what He would give out in charity to those who depended on Him.

Lord Rama was angry at Himself for not being able to protect Sita, and He was also angry at all the other living entities who stood by and did nothing while she was taken away. The trees, flowers, deer, and other forms of life in the forest, with the exception of the bird Jatayu, did nothing as Sita was taken away. Now obviously Rama was a little aggrieved, so He wasn’t thinking rationally. These other life forms really had no ability to defend Sita, but the Lord’s sentiments remind us of an important fact. Any material body which has a soul inside it should be considered a form of life. There is no difference between the qualities of souls, just a difference in the types of bodies they occupy.

Since Rama was so angry, He was intent on firing a powerful arrow from His quiver that would destroy all of creation. Only God is capable of doing this. Through the perfect recitation of mantras, Rama’s arrows could pack the power of the greatest modern day nuclear weapon. At this time, Lakshmana stepped in and offered some sound words of advice. He reminded Rama that there was no reason to lament, nor was there any reason to destroy the whole world. After all, there was only one person responsible for Sita’s kidnapping, and thus only one person worthy of being sought out and punished.

When we hear of worshiping God and devotional service, it’s natural to conjure up images of prostrating before a deity, attending a church or temple, and reading scriptures. While these are all certainly components of devotional service, what really constitutes devotional life is love, or prema. By kindly offering instructions, Lakshmana was also engaging in devotional service, showing his pure love for his brother. Since God is the original person, He is also the original teacher, the first spiritual master. Thus no one is capable of instructing Him. Lakshmana indeed acknowledged this fact by reminding Rama that the instructions he was speaking were initially spoken by Rama Himself. More than anything else, Lakshmana was acting like a tape recorder in playback mode. A devotee’s intellect is capable of functioning like a portable music player which consists only of instructions given by the Lord. In this way, Lakshmana was an exemplary younger brother, warrior prince, teacher, and student.

What did Lord Rama do after receiving this advice? He kindly accepted the instructions of his brother and went about searching for Sita. Eventually the Lord would find what He was looking for. After defeating Ravana in a fair battle, the Lord finally rescued Sita and brought her to safety. Rama was so kind that He made sure to take Ravana on in an open battle. The Lord didn’t lob an arrow from thousands of feet away and destroy his kingdom. The evil elements in Ravana’s kingdom were eventually destroyed anyway by Hanuman and the other Vanaras helping Rama, but the Lord wanted to give Ravana an honest fight, a fair chance to win Sita.

These incidents can teach us so many lessons. We are all in a distressed condition, even if we are unaware of it. During the 1970s, when many Americans were turning to Krishna consciousness and becoming devotees, those who didn’t understand the movement would often say that the young boys were lost. “They didn’t know what to do in life, so they took up this strange religion where they shaved their heads and started chanting in airports.” This is certainly an interesting viewpoint, but it also begs the question of how someone who has nowhere to go can be considered lost.

“Whatever state of being one remembers when he quits his body, that state he will attain without fail.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 8.6)

Those who don’t know they are lost, the karmis, think that life is going swell for them. Life may indeed be fine in a material sense, but what will happen to their souls after death? We all make plans for the future, either the next day, month, or year, but what about the afterlife? How many of us plan out where our soul will end up next? “Who knows where we go after death? Why should I concern myself with something that is unexplainable?” Karma refers to actions which develop the material body, the outer covering of the soul. Basically anything we do to better our material condition can be considered part of karmic activity, or fruitive action. The rewards of life can be grouped into three general categories: artha [economic development], kama [sense gratification], and dharma [religiosity]. We can think of karmic life as the search for a sea of gold. “One day I will have enough money so that I won’t have to worry about eating, sleeping, or paying bills. Then I will be able to gratify my senses and be happy.”

“The living entity in the material world carries his different conceptions of life from one body to another as the air carries aromas.” (Lord Krishna, Bg. 15.8)

In this search for the sea of gold, we often find ourselves in cold situations. We find something that we think will make us happy, but it turns out to be the source of so much pain in the end. Even those who are rich and famous find struggles in life. Dharma, artha, and kama aren’t guaranteed to provide us any real happiness, for they only aim to please the material body, a body which is destined for destruction. Upon destruction of the current body, a new one is molded based on a person’s desires and work. So in this sense, we can say those who don’t devote themselves to God are actually the ones who are lost. The greatest obstacle towards success lies in the fact that most of us don’t realize that we are lost, for we are unaware of the intended destination.

How do we alleviate the situation? How do we find the right path in life? Just like in Lord Rama’s case, there is something impeding our success, an enemy who has caused us pain. This enemy is known as maya, or the illusory energy of the material world. Maya means “that which is not”; hence she causes us to think we’ll be happy associating with her, when in reality we really won’t. In order to find the proper path to rescue our soul, we have to defeat the soldiers of maya’s army: lust, greed, and anger. One who can control their senses is known as dhira, or sober, and can thus better understand the position of the soul and how it relates to God.

The great authorities, the pure devotees of Krishna, tell us to take up devotional service. We must commit ourselves to regularly chanting, “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare”, and avoid the four pillars of sinful life: meat eating, gambling, illicit sex, and intoxication. Our execution of devotional service must be unmotivated and uninterrupted. Unmotivated in this context means without any personal desire. For example, we shouldn’t worship God in hopes of a return reward such as material wealth. We can most certainly be motivated in our service, for without desire no one would take any action. But our motivation must be on the spiritual level, where we maintain a desire to serve the Lord to the best of our abilities.

After Rama defeated Ravana, His reward was the safe rescue of His wife. In a similar manner, our reward for executing devotional service is that God will be in our life all the time. Once we get Him, we should never let Him go; devotional service should remain our occupation eternally. This was the example set by Lakshmana, Sita, and Hanuman. They are eternally existing, and their only business is to go wherever Rama goes, or wherever His name is chanted. Thus by taking up devotional service, not only will we find God, but the great devotees will find us as well.

What’s the Use

"O best of men, what is the use of Your destroying the entire world? After finding out Your sinful enemy, you should uproot him alone." (Lakshmana speaking to Lord Rama, Valmiki Ramayana, Aranya Kand, 66.21)

Our days are filled with many unnecessary activities, even if we aren’t able to identify them as such. For every action that we perform, we should consider the intended benefit. What is the use of performing so many activities if all they do is take up time? Time is precious, and our lifespan is very short in the grand scheme of things. Therefore it is better to take up activities which will further our condition than to waste time on idle talk and nonsense activities.

The usefulness of an activity can vary depending on a person’s angle of vision. Let’s take the lives of children for example. As adults, we would never think of running around and playing all day. Children pick up the simplest toys and become enamored with them for a few days, but then after that, they jump to another toy. For their viewing pleasure, animated films and educational programs are presented. As adults, these sorts of things don’t entertain us because they don’t serve any purpose. We understand that playing with toys all day is simply a waste of time. We would rather spend our time studying to earn an advanced degree, or working hard to earn a living. Such activity is known as karma, or work performed with a desired fruitive result in mind. Juxtaposing these two mindsets, we see that the difference between children and adults is intelligence. A higher level of intelligence guides a person in the right direction with respect to what actions should be done and what shouldn’t.

As we advance from childhood to young adulthood, our activities certainly do change and our intelligence advances. But this doesn’t mean that all our activities suddenly become pure, or that we stop wasting time on unnecessary engagements. For example, one thing we often waste our time on is hate. Hatred stems from jealousy, which has as its root the idea that someone else shouldn’t be allowed to enjoy. “Who does such and such person think they are? I can’t believe they have so much money. I can’t believe they were able to score such a beautiful wife. I can’t stand that person.” The “hated” are usually those who are successful in life, or those we deem to be more fortunate than ourselves.

Since we live in an advanced technological age, the number of outlets for this hatred has increased. The nightly newscasts are filled with various forms of this hatred, though the stories are sometimes presented to us as serious news. In media outlets, the hatred is usually directed at those people in power: wealthy executives, politicians, famous celebrities, successful businesses, etc. An intelligent person realizes, however, that hatred of others is simply a waste of time. This hatred does not get us anywhere, nor does it advance our condition. It does nothing to increase our intelligence. The Vedas say that all material activities can be classified into one of three distinct modes: goodness, passion, and ignorance. Any activity which is done with proper consideration of right and wrong and which leads to the advancement of one’s intelligence is considered to be in the mode of goodness.

“The manifestations of the mode of goodness can be experienced when all the gates of the body are illuminated by knowledge.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 14.11)

Lord Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is so kind that He has given us the blueprint for behavior. Instead of just telling us what should be done and what shouldn’t, He gives us a scientific understanding of the activities that we already perform. This is another reason why no one can be smarter than God. Though the famous Bhagavad-gita, the Song of God, was spoken by Lord Krishna almost five thousand years ago, the instructions still apply to the people of this age. Moreover, the instructions will still apply millions of years into the future. This is what it means to be Absolute. Lord Krishna is the Absolute Truth because information that is taken from Him, or is derived from His teachings, never becomes false. Truths can be relative depending on the exact circumstances and the intended result; thus we can’t really consider any theory or philosophy to be absolute. With Krishna, however, we get the highest truths, those which are beyond contradiction.

Understanding that God is the Absolute Truth is not a very easy thing. We all tend to think of ourselves as being very intelligent. This mindset stays with us throughout our lifetime. When we are younger, we obviously don’t know very much compared to what we know as adults. Yet as youngsters, we certainly thought our parents and authority figures were unintelligent from time to time. As adults, we often look back on our childhood memories and think, “Wow, what was I thinking? I can’t believe how stupid I was back then.” Nevertheless, even with this realization, we still think that we know it all, or that even if we don’t, we’ll figure our way out of problems.

We may consult various reference books or even seek the guidance of our friends and family, but no one will be able to give us absolute information except God. Since Krishna is kind enough to share this information with others, we can also approach one of His bona fide representatives, the spiritual master, and be able to learn about the Supreme Truth. In the Hindu tradition, as part of the funeral rites, friends and family of the departed will chant “Ram Nam Satya Hai” as the person’s body is being cremated. This Hindi saying means that Lord Rama, one of Krishna’s primary expansions, is the Truth. This is actually a wonderful tradition, because it reminds everyone of the meaning of life. When a person dies, it’s obviously a sad occasion, but the friends and family of the departed aren’t necessarily depressed over the fact that the deceased’s life of sense gratification has ended. Rather, they are concerned with the future destination of the soul. By chanting the holy name of Rama and declaring it to be the only truth, well-wishers hope that the departed soul will be taken directly to God’s spiritual realm.

“Whoever, at the time of death, quits his body, remembering Me alone, at once attains My nature. Of this there is no doubt.” (Lord Krishna, Bg. 8.5)

The advanced intelligence of the human being should be used towards acquiring knowledge, and since Krishna is the Absolute Truth, it would stand to reason that all activities should be geared towards learning about Him. This is where the mode of goodness comes in. Of all the material modes, the mode of goodness is considered the highest because it leads to the acquisition of spiritual knowledge. The more acts we perform in goodness, the closer we come to realizing that we are spirit souls and not our bodies.

So where does hatred and jealousy fit into this? Does hatred help us understand the nature of the soul? Quite the contrary, hatred rooted in jealousy only further increases our delusion. The delusion starts with the idea that another person is not entitled to enjoy their own property, possessions, and family life. Every person should be satisfied with his or her allotment in life, since everything acquired is a result of prior work. This work may have been performed in the current lifetime, or in a previous one. On a higher level of understanding, everything actually belongs to God. This means that if we see a rich person, it is to be understood that Krishna has allowed them to borrow some of His wealth.

Since God is the original owner of everything, shouldn’t we use all of our possessions towards pleasing Him? Activity performed under this mindset is in shuddha-sattva, or the mode of pure goodness. This mode transcends all three modes of material nature, and anyone associating with it automatically goes back home, back to Godhead, at the time of death. When we encounter hateful comments made about others, we should understand that those spewing the hate are simply wasting their time.

Aside from indulging in hatred and idle gossip, we see that people often discuss Lord Krishna, Lord Rama, Sita Devi, or other divine figures in public. Sometimes the talk is of the positive nature, but many times it also resembles the same hatred shown towards ordinary human beings. We’ll see that people will criticize Lord Krishna for certain activities He performed while He was on earth, or we’ll see people bash Lord Rama for leaving Sita Devi at Valmiki’s ashrama towards the end of their time on earth. People will even argue against Krishna’s statements found in the Bhagavad-gita, or Sita Devi’s statements found in the Ramayana. “Oh I don’t think I agree with this. Sita would never think such things. Lord Rama would never subscribe to this.”

What’s ironic is that these comments are made in response to direct quotations made by the divine figures in question. Such criticisms and idle gossip are more than just wastes of time; they are downright dangerous. To understand Lord Krishna, we simply have to listen to the words He has spoken. If we don’t understand something He says, we should consult an authority figure, someone who knows Krishna. The same holds true for issues relating to Lord Rama, Sita Devi, Hanuman, Radharani, etc. The authority figures have put forth the proper interpretations and meanings as it relates to the great scriptures.

Idle gossip, unnecessary hatred, and speculating about Krishna are certainly all wastes of time, but sometimes things aren’t so black and white. There are times when it is necessary to criticize or punish genuine miscreants, while at other times it is better to turn the other cheek. How are we to decipher what activity should be undertaken and what shouldn’t? This is where the devotee of Krishna comes in. The devotee of God has seen the light and thus engages all their time in positive activities, those things which lead to the emancipation of the soul. In times of trouble, we simply need to consult such devotees, either in person or by referencing their written instructions, and abide by their counsel.

One such devotee was Lakshmana, the younger brother of Lord Rama. Many thousands of years ago, during the Treta Yuga, Lord Rama, the handsome and pious prince of Ayodhya, roamed this earth along with His three younger brothers and wife, Sita Devi. Lakshmana was one of Rama’s brothers, and he was also the one closest to the Lord. On one unfortunate occasion, Sita was kidnapped from the forest by the Rakshasa demon Ravana. Upon realizing that Sita was missing from their cottage, Rama and Lakshmana frantically searched for the princess’s whereabouts, but they were unsuccessful in finding her. Seeing that Sita was gone, Rama gave way to sadness. God loves His devotees so much, so if He sees that something bad has happened to them, He most certainly feels sadness.

“The highly renowned Rama rages into a fury against those who dare brave against Him. He is extremely powerful, for He can completely stop the onset of a pulsing river simply by using His arrows. Shriman Rama can bring down all the stars, planets, and the sky itself by use of His arrows. He is even capable of saving the earth if it should collapse. The illustrious Rama, if He wanted to, could deluge the whole world by breaking apart the shorelines of the seas. With His arrows, He can resist the onset of the oceans and the wind. After withdrawing the whole world into Himself, that highly renowned best of men, by virtue of His powers, is capable of again creating the whole world with all its creatures.” (Akampana speaking to Ravana, Valmiki Ramayana, Aranya Kand, 31.23-26)

Rama’s sadness quickly turned to anger. Since He was God Himself, the Lord was capable of destroying the whole world and then recreating it. In this instance, Rama was ready to show off His destructive powers. He was set on destroying the entire world as revenge for Sita’s kidnap. To quell his brother’s anger, Lakshmana stepped in and offered some sound words of advice. Lakshmana essentially said, “Don’t lament, for every person meets with good and bad fortune. If Sita is dead, there is still no reason to deviate from the path of dharma, or occupational duty.” His teachings were strikingly similar to those given by Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad-gita.

In the above referenced quote, Lakshmana is giving his final instruction, which asks the rhetorical question of what is to be gained by destroying the whole world. This is certainly an appropriate question since the rest of the world had nothing to do with Sita’s kidnap. Moreover, killing every living entity wouldn’t bring Sita back to the cottage. Lakshmana advises Rama to instead focus His efforts on achieving His desired goal of Sita’s rescue through the killing of His enemy. Lord Rama certainly appreciated this advice very much. Lakshmana is so dear to Rama that the Lord created this specific circumstance so that future generations could marvel at His younger brother’s words and relish them at the same time. For this we are extremely grateful. Hearing these loving words from Lakshmana certainly brings great joy to our hearts.

So what can we take away from Lakshmana’s teachings? The first thing we can do is apply the same test to all of our activities. Whenever we undertake an activity, we should ask ourselves, “Of what use is this? What will I gain by doing this?” If we were all to think along these lines, surely there would be less hatred around the world. People would think twice before they spewed unnecessary hatred and gossip. The second piece to this puzzle is to figure out what action should be performed in lieu of the unnecessary action we are avoiding.

The answer to this can also be found from Lakshmana’s words of wisdom. Lord Rama was advised to act according to His prescribed duties as a warrior and eldest son of the King of Ayodhya. Thus it was Rama’s duty to provide protection to the innocent, to search for Sita, and to kill His enemies. In the same manner, every living entity’s occupational duty is to be a loving servant of the Supreme Lord. The exact nature of this service can vary, but the sentiment should always be the same. We should work to please the Lord; performing those activities which will help us better understand Him. We should transcend the mode of goodness by engaging exclusively in acts of devotion. This will make our time spent on earth worth it.

The Highest Gain

"O best of men, what is the use of Your destroying the entire world? After finding out Your sinful enemy, you should uproot him alone." (Lakshmana speaking to Lord Rama, Valmiki Ramayana, Aranya Kand, 66.21)

The wise never act on whims. Rather, they carefully study the results of potential actions and then decide whether the reward is worth the effort and the risk associated with the undertaking. Every action carries some risk to it, even something as simple as standing up. This is because every action performed on the material platform has a commensurate reaction. The fruits of action, karma-phalam, sometimes manifest immediately, while at other times they come to us in a future life. There is risk in every action because the results of our karma are unknown to us, and sometimes the results don’t last very long. Thus we never know exactly what might happen when we take on a certain task. To decide what should be done and what shouldn’t, we must carefully study the desired result and then also evaluate whether the resulting fruit is worth having.

So far this sounds somewhat cryptic, so let’s look at a few real life examples to gain a clearer understanding. The issue of violence is often discussed amongst the intelligentsia. The issue itself is quite polarizing, for people immediately jump to one side or the other. Some believe that violence is never necessary. They see the wars going on around them and just scratch their heads. “Why would young men want to kill one another? What is to be gained? Why can’t people just get along in peace? If one side were to commit themselves to nonviolence, then the rest of the world would soon follow.” The immediate results of violent action are easily perceptible. Violence, in its relation to war, leads to death, which signals the end of the current body’s material efforts. When someone dies, they no longer have the opportunity to take actions aimed at satisfying their senses. All ties of affection are immediately relinquished and the friends and family of the departed are left to mourn. Based on these negative consequences, we can understand why many people would be so opposed to violence.

In the paradigm of warfare, the people perpetrating the violence are hoping to achieve the end-goal of victory. Victory signals the defeat of the enemy, with their will to fight being removed. Surrender from the other side then hopefully leads to a peaceful condition for the victors, an end to hostilities. On the flip side, there are those who are in favor of nonviolence. The result of nonviolence is the absence of warfare. When there isn’t war, there will be peace. At the same time, however, aggressors will be let off the hook for any nefarious activity. For example, if one side wants to wage war in order to gain control over a certain tract of land, if the other side chooses nonviolence, naturally the aggressive side will claim victory and take the land for themselves. In this scenario, nonviolence, though saving lives, results in surrender, with the enemy taking over land that might not rightfully belong to them.

So which side does morality come down on? Are the proponents of war correct in believing that victory is a noble enough goal to make violence worth it? Or are the pacifists correct in asserting that the lack of violence makes surrendering worthwhile? In order to make a rational judgment in any situation, we have to evaluate the fruits of action. So far we have established what the fruits of action will be in both cases, but we haven’t ascribed any merit or demerit to them.

So how do we rate results? This material world is full of dualities. One person may enjoy spicy food, while another person may abhor it. One person may prefer the winter months due to the cold weather, while another person may enjoy the summer months for the bright sunshine and warm temperatures. How do we decide which viewpoint is correct? Is this even possible? It seems like everyone has different desires, and thus we see so many different kinds of work performed. Is there really a way to judge which action is virtuous and which isn’t?

“Those situated in the mode of goodness gradually go upward to the higher planets; those in the mode of passion live on the earthly planets; and those in the mode of ignorance go down to the hellish worlds.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 14.18)

According to the Vedas, the ancient scriptures of India, there is actually an easy way to decide whether a particular action should be performed or not. What has been described thus far is guna and karma. Guna is a Sanskrit word which refers to material qualities. Each living entity possesses a body composed of a combination of the three gunas of material nature: goodness, passion, and ignorance. In addition, every fruitive activity we perform, or karma, can also be filed under one of these three modes. When rating karmic activity, we usually associate pious acts as those which bring about “good” karma-phalam, or fruitive results. These activities fall under the mode of goodness. If we perform activities in the mode of goodness, we further the position of the material body, both in this life and in future ones. For example, if we faithfully study the Vedas and perform various sacrifices, we will ascend to the heavenly planets in the afterlife. Upon reaching this realm, one is given a heavenly body which allows them to enjoy a thousand times more than they can on earth.

The mode of passion brings about neutral results. For example, working hard simply for the acquisition of money and wealth can be thought of as an act of neutrality. Money is certainly required to maintain our lifestyle, but it quickly runs out, thus forcing us to repeat the cycle of work again. The mode of passion eventually leads to a neutral state in the afterlife. If a living entity is currently in a human body, through action in the mode of passion, they remain in an earthly body in the next life.

The mode of ignorance can be equated with “bad” karma. What we would characterize as “stupid” behavior is what the mode of ignorance consists of. Unnecessarily killing others, stealing, sleeping too much, constant intoxication, etc., all lead to demotion to a lower species in the next life. Thus one should avoid the mode of ignorance at all costs.

“When they have thus enjoyed heavenly sense pleasure, they return to this mortal planet again. Thus, through the Vedic principles, they achieve only flickering happiness.” (Lord Krishna, Bg. 9.21)

So it seems like we have the issue resolved. Simply act in the mode of goodness, and everything will be okay. Ah, but there is a catch. Though action in the mode of goodness leads to a heavenly body in the afterlife, one’s time in heaven is limited. Upon exhaustion of our good merits, we are forced to descend back to earth and go through the entire life cycle again. Goswami Tulsidas, the great devotee of Lord Rama, remarks that it is heard that after enjoying such great opulence in the heavenly kingdom, a person forgets about the time factor and their mortality. In this way, by becoming overly puffed up with pride and material enjoyment, knowledge of the truth gets covered up. Upon returning to earth, we’ll again have to deal with the issue of deciding what action should be performed and what shouldn’t. Those who possess a higher understanding of nature thus realize that even the mode of goodness leads to a neutral state. In this way, all activity of this material world can be considered equal in a sense, since the results of such action are only temporary.

“The branches of this tree extend downward and upward, nourished by the three modes of material nature. The twigs are the objects of the senses. This tree also has roots going down, and these are bound to the fruitive actions of human society.” (Lord Krishna, Bg. 15.2)

So does this mean that we all should do whatever we want because it doesn’t matter in the end? Beyond the material nature is a spiritual nature. Though the spiritual nature is free of gunas, or material qualities, there are still activities performed within it. Spirituality is full of variegatedness. The material world is simply a perverted reflection of the purified realm. The various actions and reactions of material life can be thought of as emanating from a tree which has its roots upwards. This inverted situation is the result of the perverted reflection. The spiritual world contains the actual tree, the purified version of activity and enjoyment. This means that our real business is to take up spiritual activities, those actions which transcend the modes of material nature. Why is it important to rise above the three modes of material nature? As mentioned before, when deciding on whether a particular action should be taken, we need to study both the desired result and its importance. So what are the results of taking to spiritual activity? Lord Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, states that anyone who acts towards pleasing Him, i.e. doing those things which will make God happy, will never have to take birth again. Such devotees will ascend immediately to Krishna’s spiritual realm after death. In this way, spiritual activity brings about the highest gain.

So what constitutes spiritual activity? In addition, does this mean that all the activities we are accustomed to performing are stupid? Sannyasis, or those in the renounced order of life, are often attached with this stigma of having a pessimistic outlook on life. The Vedas recommend that a person gradually progress through four spiritual stages, or ashramas, over the course of their lifetime. Sannyasa is the fourth and final stage where one completely renounces all ties to material life and sincerely engages in serving God. Service to God is known as bhakti-yoga, or devotional service. It involves many different processes such as chanting, hearing, remembering, and offering prayers.

A person who is in the renounced order of life will naturally look at material activity as being second class. They will see people engaging in activities like drinking, gambling, and eating meat and think that such people are simply wasting their time. A bona fide sannyasi is a pure devotee of Krishna, so they don’t simply criticize people for engaging in mundane activity; they view everything with respect to Krishna. A pure devotee puts forth suggestions on what should be done to correct improper behavior. An example of this benevolence was seen with Lakshmana, the younger brother of Lord Rama.

Many thousands of years ago, during the Treta Yuga, Lord Krishna incarnated on earth as Lord Rama, a valiant warrior prince, the eldest son of the King of Ayodhya. As part of His pastimes, Rama spent fourteen years in the forest, living as a vanaprasthi with His wife Sita Devi and younger brother Lakshmana. Vanaprastha is the ashrama right before sannyasa, and it is the stage where a person leaves their home and travels around with their wife, living off very little. What’s ironic is that when Rama left for the forest, He had only been married for twelve years and thus wasn’t necessarily ready for vanaprastha. The mendicant lifestyle was forced upon Him as a result of a request put forth by His step-mother Kaikeyi.

Nevertheless, God is the ultimate renunciate, so He had no problem roaming around like a hermit for fourteen years. Unfortunately, during the exile period, Sita would be kidnapped by the Rakshasa demon Ravana while Rama and Lakshmana were not by her side. Returning to their cottage, Rama saw that Sita was missing and gave way to lamentation. It is the duty of every husband to protect their wife under any and all circumstances. There is a great responsibility that comes with marriage; it is not simply a license to have sex. In the Vedic tradition, every institution and regulation is intended to provide spiritual wisdom and act as a gradual progression towards the end-goal of Krishna consciousness. Though Rama was God, He was playing the part of a human being, so He abided by all the Vedic samskaras, or reformatory processes.

When He saw that Sita was missing, Rama felt bad for several reasons. First, He loved Sita very much. That is the beauty of the relationship between God and His devotees. The devotees abandon all desires for worldly enjoyment and take exclusively to devotional service. The Lord, for His part, becomes beholden to the devotees through a bond of deep affection. Sita, being an incarnation of the goddess of fortune, was an exceptional devotee and a representation of Krishna’s pleasure potency, hladini-shakti. Rama cannot live without Sita, and Sita cannot live without Rama. Even in separation, the two are always thinking of each other.

Rama was also disappointed because He had failed to protect His wife. God can never fail in providing protection, but Rama was playing the part of a human being and thus acting like someone who commits mistakes from time to time. What did Rama do next? First, He started wandering through the neighboring woods, asking all the trees and flowers if they had seen Sita. His sadness then quickly turned to anger. The sweet and gentle Lord decided He would destroy the whole world as revenge for its allowing Sita to be kidnapped. At this moment, Lakshmana stepped in to offer some sound words of advice.

Though a younger brother, Lakshmana too was a perfect devotee and thus not afraid to offer His service to God. It is the natural mentality of the dependents to ask for service from their superiors. We often pray to God to do certain things for us. The devotees are a little advanced, and as such, they look for any opportunity to give service to the Lord. In Lakshmana’s case, seeing his brother in a precarious condition presented an opportunity to offer something worthwhile to Rama. What was the nature of Lakshmana’s service? He simply repeated sound words of advice that Rama had offered to him on many previous occasions. He reminded Rama that one should be steady in the execution of their prescribed duties, no matter the result. Even if Sita were dead, it would not be cause for lamentation because every person in life must meet both good and bad fortune.

In the above referenced quote, Lakshmana is asking what would be gained by destroying the world. Killing every living entity certainly wouldn’t bring Sita back, so the intended result itself was flawed. Lakshmana advised Rama to find out who took Sita and to then destroy them. The results of such activity would be the deserved punishment of the enemy and the hopeful rescue of Sita. Thus the intended results were in accordance with what Rama wanted. Moreover, by rescuing Sita, Rama would be performing His prescribed duties as a husband and prince. The Lord very much appreciated Lakshmana’s counsel, and in the end, He would do exactly what Lakshmana advised. Ravana would be found and defeated in battle, and Sita would be rescued.

We should apply the same criteria prior to taking up any activity. We should ask ourselves a series of questions. “What will the result of this action be? Is the result even something that I want? Can I choose a different course of action and achieve a more beneficial result?“ Luckily for us, we know that our ultimate objective is reconnecting with God, thus we can juxtapose the results of all activities with the ultimate result of returning back home, back to Godhead. For instance, if we apply this criterion towards the violence issue, we’d see that meat eating is completely unnecessary. Simply to satisfy the taste buds, we are sending innocent cows by the millions to the slaughterhouses each year. The positive result of satisfaction to our taste buds is short-lasting and also cancelled out by the negative reactions to our violence. In addition, meat eating does nothing to bring us closer to God.

Lord Rama, however, took to violence and was acting completely in line with dharma, or occupational duty. This is the easiest way to decide what our course of action should be. Each of us has prescribed duties to perform according to our qualities. If we perform these activities with detachment and, at the same time, engage in devotional service, our lives will be perfect. The highest gain in life is to have association with God and His devotees, so all our activities should be performed with this goal in mind.

The Spiritual Doctor

“O best of men, what is the use of Your destroying the entire world? After finding out Your sinful enemy, You should uproot him alone.” (Lakshmana speaking to Lord Rama, Valmiki Ramayana, Aranya Kand, 66.21)

Not only does love work in mysterious ways, but it makes us do crazy things. There is no denying this fact. The affection we feel for our loved ones can be so strong that it drives us to completely overlook rationality and the rules of propriety. When our feelings of attachment drive us close to the edge, we need someone who can help bring back our sanity. This person is our ever well-wishing friend, someone who saves us from ourselves.

Why does love lead us to madness? The ways of this world are quite mysterious, but it is undoubtedly true that love is the strongest emotion that we know. Love is an outgrowth of service; offering something of ourselves to someone else. The Vedas, the ancient scriptures of India, tell us that this penchant for service is derived from our natural disposition as loving servitors of the Supreme Lord. The soul residing within is inherently a part and parcel of the supreme whole known as God. Just as the sunshine has an original source, the sun, we living entities are like fragmental sparks emanating from the huge spiritual fire of energy known as God. These two entities, God and His fragmental parts, aren’t two randomly disjointed entities. There is an explicitly defined relationship between the two. One is superior, while the other is inferior. Thus it is the natural disposition of the inferior to be a servant of the superior. When this natural order of things is in place, both the inferior and the superior live together in harmony.

In our current condition, we are unaware or forgetful of this natural order. Thus our penchant for service gets shifted elsewhere, i.e. to friends, family, and paramours. Since this desire for service is so strong, it leads to the formation of attachment and bonds that are tough to break. Along with the desire for service comes the desire to please the object of our affection. There are two primary effects of our strong attachments. The first effect is seen through our desire to protect our loved ones and to ensure their well-being at all times. A poignant example of this was seen with the kshatriya warrior, Arjuna, some five thousand years ago.

“It is better to live in this world by begging than to live at the cost of the lives of great souls who are my teachers. Even though they are avaricious, they are nonetheless superiors. If they are killed, our spoils will be tainted with blood.” (Arjuna speaking to Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 2.5)

The Bhagavad-gita is one of the most famous religious books in history. Known as The Song of God, the Gita contains the essence of Vedic wisdom. Though the Gita is considered a religious scripture, it is essentially just a transcript of a conversation that took place in real life between Lord Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and His cousin Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra. On the eve of a great war that was to see millions of soldiers killed, the lead warrior for the side of the Pandavas, Arjuna, gave way to lamentation and fear. Arjuna became hesitant to fight because he didn’t want to see his friends and family members, who were fighting for the opposing army, put into any type of danger or discomfort.

For a warrior, this wasn’t customary behavior. Being in an army means having to kill the enemy in fair combat. If a fighter is reluctant to fight, it stands to reason that he won’t be very successful in killing enemies, which is the essence of war. War is a terrible thing that should be avoided at all costs. However, once a war starts, the objectives are quite simple: kill people and break things. The more people you kill from the opposing side and the more of their stuff you break, the more likely you are to win. Why would Arjuna, the greatest bow warrior of his time, not want to fight? The opposing side, the Kauravas, consisted of Arjuna’s cousins, grandfather, and spiritual guide. Arjuna didn’t want to hurt loved ones simply to gain a kingdom. His affection for the material well-being of his family members superseded his desire for victory.

In Arjuna’s case, the negative effect of love and affection was unnecessary soft-heartedness. The other negative effect of intense love is extreme anger and rage, which is the polar opposite of extreme kindness. While love makes us feel for our fellow loved ones, it also makes us angry at anyone who causes them any harm. An example of this was seen with Lord Rama many thousands of years ago. In the Bhagavad-gita, Lord Krishna unequivocally establishes that He is the Supreme Lord and that all other forms of Godhead emanate from Him. In fact, He displayed His terrible universal form to Arjuna; a form which was so awe-inspiring that Arjuna, out of fear, asked Krishna to reassume His original two-handed form.

Though Krishna is the original form of Godhead, He personally descends to earth in other forms from time to time. During the Treta Yuga, the second time period of creation, the Lord appeared as a handsome and pious kshatriya warrior named Rama. Since Rama was God, it made sense that His fighting abilities were unmatched. Though a great warrior, Rama underwent many hardships throughout His life. This was all done for the benefit of others, thus showing Rama’s magnanimous nature. On one occasion, Rama’s beautiful wife, Sita Devi, was kidnapped while the couple was residing in the forest. If a person is in God’s company, no one can harm them. This is because God is the ultimate protector, someone who is undefeated in battle. This was also the case with Rama, but due to a diversion set up by the demon Ravana, the Lord was somehow lured away from Sita’s side. In Rama’s absence, Ravana came and forcibly took Sita away.

It should be noted that Sita’s kidnapping actually occurred due to the desire of the demigods. Ravana was a great demon, and though Rama appeared on earth to kill him, the Lord still needed an excuse before He could attack. Lord Rama’s vow was to always abide by dharma, or established religious codes. This meant that He never wanted to act in an impious manner, for as the eldest son of a great king, others would follow His example. With Sita’s kidnap, Rama had the excuse He needed to go after Ravana and kill him. In the meantime, however, Rama played the part of an ordinary human being, giving way to lamentation and anger after realizing that His wife was missing.

Upon returning to the couple’s cottage, Rama noticed that Sita was missing, and immediately He gave way to lamentation. He started roaming through the neighboring woods, asking the trees and flowers if they had seen His beloved wife. The Lord is so kind and sweet that He never allows anyone’s love for Him to go in vain. No one in this world can love Rama more than Sita does, and by the same token, no one can love Sita more than Rama does. Thus the Lord kindly reciprocated the love shown to Him by Sita by giving way to excessive lamentation. After the sadness came anger. The Lord was ready to destroy the entire world as revenge for Sita’s kidnap. In His mind, all the neighboring creatures and celestial figures just sat idly by and allowed Ravana to perform his dastardly deed. Thus every living entity in the world was liable for Sita’s kidnap.

We can certainly relate to the incident with Arjuna. In today’s day and age, it is becoming fashionable for parents to be friends with their kids. Children are seen as equals, being allowed to have televisions and video game systems in their room. Children can talk back to their parents, as that is all part of the friendly relationship. This desire to be friends with your children is an outgrowth of the strong affection that parents feel. Being a parent means having to impose strict rules, a practice which results in your kids hating you from time to time. No one wants to see their loved ones in pain, so being a good parent requires emotional strength and the doling out of tough love.

By the same token, we can also relate to the incident involving Lord Rama. It just takes one bad experience to turn our moods sour. If something bad happens to us or to a loved one, we can lose rationality and start to blame others for our problems. For example, say we are travelling to a foreign country like France. If we have a bad experience at a hotel or in a restaurant, we might be tempted to lump all French people with the incident. “Oh I hate French people. I’m never going to France again.” Now obviously this isn’t rational thinking because there are bad apples wherever you go. Moreover, it is this type of irrational thinking that leads to destructive practices such as racism, bigotry, and sexism.

“O descendant of Bharata, he who dwells in the body is eternal and can never be slain. Therefore you need not grieve for any creature.” (Lord Krishna, Bg. 2.30)

In the end, both Arjuna and Rama ended up regaining their senses and continuing with their prescribed duties. How were they able to collect themselves? They enlisted the help of their spiritual guides. In Arjuna’s case, his spiritual master was Lord Krishna. The Lord advised Arjuna to give up his false attachment, born out of unnecessary affection. It was surely a nice gesture on Arjuna’s part, but in reality, nothing would be gained by not fighting. It was Arjuna’s duty as a warrior to fight nobly for his side, for his family had the rightful claim on the kingdom. Moreover, every person’s karma is determined by their own deeds, so there is no need to worry about whether a person will be materially benefitted by a specific action or not. Even if his enemies were to die in battle, Arjuna still wouldn’t be to blame, for the soul is eternal and can never be slain. Armed with these facts, Arjuna decided to stand up and fight.

In Lord Rama’s case, His spiritual master was His younger brother Lakshmana. It is quite ironic actually, for Lakshmana viewed Rama as a father. Nevertheless, true love sometimes involves saying unpleasant things for the benefit of your loved one. This was the case with Lakshmana. In the popular American television sitcom, Everybody Loves Raymond, one of the main characters on the show, Frank Barone, is known for being outspoken and unafraid to say what’s on his mind. Playing the grandfather on the show, Frank believes in toughness and calling it like it is. If a person is acting weak or is hesitating unnecessarily, Frank will tell them to quit their crying and to suck it up. “Stop your pitter patter, Nancy. Stop crying and get back to work.”, are two of his famous phrases.

This was essentially the instruction that Lakshmana gave to Rama, but in a sweeter way. As the ever well-wishing younger brother, Lakshmana would have been justified in sitting back and letting his brother go off the deep end. But as a great devotee of the Lord, Lakshmana loved Rama so much that he wouldn’t let Him deviate from the virtuous path. Lakshmana offered some sound words of advice, basically telling Rama that there was no reason to lament. Even if Sita were dead, there would be no justification for giving up the performance of prescribed duties. Even the great celestials suffer defeat every now and then, what to say of ordinary men.

In the above referenced statement, Lakshmana is concluding His words of wisdom. Here he is putting forth a rhetorical question relating to Rama’s desire to destroy the whole world. If the Lord did kill everyone in revenge, what would be gained? It still wouldn’t bring Sita back, and it would also put a black mark on Rama’s reputation and that of His family. Rama very much appreciated this advice, since He knew that Lakshmana only had His best interests at heart. In fact, Lakshmana even reiterated the fact that the things he was saying actually originated from Rama. This is most certainly true, for God is the original spiritual master, the fountainhead of all instruction. Formerly, Rama had offered the same instruction to Lakshmana and His three other brothers. Thus we see that Lakshmana was both a great student and a great teacher.

The lesson here is that we all fall down from the righteous path every now and then. Our great affection and natural inclination to serve others will result in these momentary lapses of judgment. As we saw with Arjuna and Rama, it is very important to surround ourselves with godly people. Lord Krishna is God, and anyone who acts on His behalf and serves Him in a loving way can be considered godly. Krishna is Bhagavan and those who serve Him are bhagavata. It is very important to always surround ourselves with Bhagavan if we can or, at the very least, bhagavata. Our attachments are difficult to give up, so it’s always good to keep a spiritual doctor on hand to cure us of our ailments.

You Gotta Believe

"O best of the Ikshvakus, considering Your powerful divine and human capabilities, please strive for the destruction of Your enemies." (Lakshmana speaking to Lord Rama, Valmiki Ramayana, Aranya Kand, 66.20)

We appreciate the people who believe in us. Life is a constant tug of war between happiness and distress, so there are bound to be ups and downs that we have to go through. The downs can really leave us doubting our abilities and our chances for success. To get through these tough times, we require outside intervention and the support of our friends and family members. Of all our well-wishers, those who believe in our abilities stand out the most. These are the people we are greatly indebted and most obliged to. Though it may not always appear this way, bona fide spiritual leaders actually believe in all of us; they know that each one of us is capable of achieving spiritual perfection. Our business is to trust these leaders to guide us to the promise land, for their belief in us is a prerequisite for success.

To understand this point better, let us look at some of the more popular inspirational movies of recent times. These are the movies that give us goose bumps at the end, the ones that leave us feeling inspired after having watched them. During the 1980s, several of these movies became very popular. Top Gun, The Karate Kid, and Hoosiers were especially inspirational. The storylines were generally the same: an underdog taking on a challenge that seemed too big for him to handle. After struggling and failing several times, the movie dramatically concludes with the underdog emerging victorious. We can relate to these movies because we have been in many situations where we were the underdog. Who among us hasn’t struggled? Who hasn’t felt like giving up when the chips were down? But we know that we can’t give up, because quitters never win.

The characters in these movies go through similar struggles. For example, in The Karate Kid, the main character learns karate in an unconventional manner through interacting with an elderly friend. Eventually the student enters a karate competition, where all his competitors have been trained in top-notch karate schools. There is even a moment when it looks like the character will be unable to continue in the tournament due to an injury. But it is through inspiration and belief that the character finally overcomes all obstacles.

This type of story inspires us because we know that winning isn’t easy. When we are shooting for a lofty goal, many people will come up to us and tell us that we can’t do it. “Oh you’re too small; you’re not smart enough; you don’t have enough talent”, etc. The naysayers seem to outweigh the well-wishers, and as soon as we encounter a little duress and failure, we start to believe what our critics tell us. In order to be successful, we need people in our corner who have faith in us; people who genuinely believe that we have what it takes to be successful. Bereft of such association, success will be hard to come by. Most of us are not born leaders or self-starters. We require motivation, inspiration, and guidance in the initial phases of an endeavor.

When an actor wins a prestigious award, such as an Oscar, they usually thank all the people that helped them in their career. They also will usually thank a specific teacher for believing in them. The same holds true with successful athletes. When a player wins a prestigious title, it is not uncommon to see them cry. This is because, at that moment, they realize how difficult it was to get to the pinnacle of their field. They also realize that if it weren’t for the people who believed in them, they wouldn’t have achieved success.

Though there are varieties of material endeavors, aspiring to become a perfect transcendentalist may be the most difficult task of all. We are currently in an environment which is not conducive to spiritual life. The Vedas tell us that this world is governed by an illusory force known as maya. Maya means “that which is not”; hence the illusion. The world we live in is full of things that appear to be beneficial to us, while in fact they are more harmful than anything else. There are so many examples of maya’s influence, but we can study something as basic as sex life to see the pattern. The desire to have sex is a natural urge for the human being as well as the animal species. Having the urge and acting on it are two different things. When we act on an impulse, it doesn’t mean that there will always be a positive result. For example, if we are stricken with the chicken pox, the urge is to scratch the infected areas on the body. But we also know that if we do scratch, our relief will only be temporary, while we will increase the likelihood of developing scars in the future. Scratching can also increase the risk of acquiring secondary infections to the swollen areas.

Sex life is similar in this regard. If we act on every sexual impulse, we are likely to encounter unintended side effects. The most obvious unintended consequence of sex life is pregnancy. If a young girl gets pregnant, she must completely turn her life around. Raising a child is a full-time responsibility, something which parents have to worry about for at least the first eighteen years of a child’s life. So we see that a simple act of having sex can lead to a much greater, unintended responsibility. This is how maya works. She fools us into taking something to be what it is not.

Though the material world is full of illusion, the spiritual world is not. Everything there is exactly how it seems. This is why God is referred to as the Supreme Absolute Truth, meaning there is no duplicity in His dealings, attributes, or residences. Since we are constitutionally spirit, we are meant to associate with this Truth; our destiny is to free ourselves from illusion. Knowing that we should be with God is one thing, but actually achieving that objective is another. We are currently in a conditioned state and under the spell of maya. This spell is difficult to break out of, so we require some help.

Who can help us? If we want to be successful in theater, sports, or broadcasting, it would make sense to approach someone who is already successful in the field. There are so many naysayers out there, but how many of them are actually successful? The nightly television newscasts are full of “experts” who give their opinions on a wide range of subjects, but how many of them actually know what they are talking about? Many of these experts have advanced degrees and thus acquire the title of “doctor”. There is certainly nothing wrong with receiving a formal education, but if we want to be successful in acting, should we approach someone who only has a PhD in theater, or should we talk to someone who is actually in the business? If we want to be a successful politician, should we take counsel from a person with a political science degree or someone who has actually ran for office and won?

The answers to these questions are fairly obvious, but the reason we ask them is to highlight a larger point. In order to be successful in spiritual life, we must approach someone who is not under the spell of maya. Our goal is to defeat maya and associate exclusively with the spiritual energy, thus it would make sense to consult with someone who has been successful in their fight against illusion. The Vedas tell us that the realized soul is known as the guru, or spiritual master. The term “guru” is used in many different contexts, but one of its meanings is “one who is heavy”. How is a guru heavy? What is the source of their weight? The bona fide guru carries the message of Lord Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Since God is absolute, there is no difference between Himself and His message. Thus the message of God represents the heaviest truth, or knowledge system, in existence. A person who carries this message also becomes heavy; they possess gravitas, or authority.

Since the spiritual master is a pure devotee of Krishna, they naturally will try to teach others how to become devotees. Since we are currently in a conditioned state, what the spiritual master initially tells us won’t be very pleasing to hear. They will tell us to give up the four primary activities of sinful life: meat eating, gambling, intoxication, and illicit sex. At first glance, this seems like a harsh restriction. “No drinking? No illicit sex? What am I going to do with my time?” Next, the guru advises the aspiring transcendentalist to take up bhakti-yoga, or devotional service. There are many dharmas, or religious systems, but the religion of love reigns supreme. Devotional service is the sublime engagement which automatically provides the rewards of all the other religious systems. This should make sense to us. After all, in the conditioned state, romantic love is held as the most pleasurable activity in life. Though this type of love may seem nice, it is still associated with maya, so there is illusion associated with it. When this love becomes purified, i.e. directed towards Krishna, it goes by the name of bhakti, or Krishna-prema.

Since the guru is heavy, he won’t sugarcoat his language. When reading the books of the great Vaishnava saints, we’ll often see that they refer to gross materialists, impersonalists, and enemies of God as mudhas, or rascals. “Anyone who is not a devotee of Krishna is a fool; Anyone who takes material nature to be the beginning and end of everything is certainly a rascal; Anyone who thinks that God is formless is a great miscreant.” Now these statements may seem off-putting to us at first, but they serve a distinct purpose. The first point that must be stressed is that these statements are all undoubtedly true. It may not be pleasing to hear, for many of these criticisms may apply to us or someone we know, but these statements are all rooted in fact.

“Don’t we need people to believe in us in order to achieve success? So how will any of us make progress if the spiritual master thinks that we are mudhas?” Actually, the bona fide spiritual master has more belief in us than anyone else we know. This may seem strange, but we have to understand the underlying reasoning behind the way the spiritual master teaches. The guru knows how hard it is to break free of the clutches of maya, so they will tell us the truth from the outset. Since the bona fide guru is a paramahamsa, they don’t view all individuals as mudhas and miscreants. They actually view every person as a pure devotee at heart. We are all meant to be God’s eternal servants, but currently we are forgetful of this fact. Thus the spiritual master takes it upon himself to remind us of the truth. They tell us that if we remain non-devotees in thoughts, words, and deeds, we are most certainly not very advanced. But we can quickly go from being a non-devotee to a devotee. In order to achieve this transformation, we have to have faith in the words of the spiritual master; our ever well-wisher.

The spiritual master believes in us, for they know what our true potential is. They know that each of us can achieve perfection in life by taking up devotional service. Cognizant of this fact, they remind us of the great qualities that we have. They don’t just criticize; they also highlight our good traits and tell us to use them to achieve spiritual perfection. This was the practice followed by Lakshmana, the younger brother of Lord Rama, many thousands of years ago.

Liberated transcendentalists tell us Krishna is the Absolute Truth and that He possesses all good qualities. This is nice to hear and we can certainly try to theoretically understand these facts, but it is much easier to learn by example. To facilitate this teaching method, the Lord personally appears on earth from time to time to show how real Truth manifests. One such appearance took place during the Treta Yuga, the second time period of creation, where Krishna incarnated as the pious prince of Ayodhya, Lord Rama. As part of His pastimes, Rama roamed through the forests for fourteen years alongside His wife, Sita Devi, and younger brother, Lakshmana. On one unfortunate occasion, Sita was kidnapped by the Rakshasa demon Ravana. Realizing that Sita was missing, Rama frantically searched for her in the forest, but was unable to find her. Fearing the worse, Rama gave way to lamentation and anger.

At this time, Lakshmana stepped in to offer some sound words of advice. God is the original spiritual master, and He chooses select individuals to impart spiritual instruction to. Lakshmana was one such individual, for as the younger brother, Lakshmana would often be instructed by Rama on all matters of life. But God likes to glorify His devotees from time to time, so He presents opportunities for them to shine. This was one such opportunity, where Lakshmana was afforded the chance to act as spiritual master to Rama. In essence, Lakshmana got to show off all that he had previously learned from Rama.

“One who is equal to friends and enemies, who is equiposed in honor and dishonor, heat and cold, happiness and distress, fame and infamy, who is always free from contamination, always silent and satisfied with anything, who doesn't care for any residence, who is fixed in knowledge and engaged in devotional service, is very dear to Me.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 12.18-19)

What were Lakshmana’s instructions? Initially, he mildly chastised Rama for giving way to lamentation. The first instruction given to aspiring transcendentalists of the Vedic tradition is that we are not our bodies. The soul is eternal and unchangeable, while the body is not. This means that a person is guaranteed to encounter ups and downs, gains and losses, as it relates to the body. The wise person does not let these events affect them. Lakshmana correctly pointed out that even if Sita were killed, it would be no reason to be taken off the righteous path. We should all perform our prescribed duties in life, not being attached to the results of our actions.

In the above referenced quote, Lakshmana is concluding his remarks. We see that even though he chastised Rama in the beginning, Lakshmana is reminding Rama of the great powers He possesses. Lakshmana is essentially telling Rama that he believed in Him. The Lord very much appreciated His younger brother’s words of advice. The Lord would go on to find Sita, defeat Ravana in battle, and triumphantly rescue her. Everything would end well.

All can also end well for us if we follow the advice of the Vaishnava spiritual masters. Our powers certainly aren’t as great as Rama’s, but we do have the ability to achieve spiritual perfection. The path won’t be easy, but we must be confident of the spiritual master’s belief in us. The great devotees of Krishna make no distinction between cast, gender, color, or creed. They know that all living entities are capable of reviving their dormant Krishna consciousness. The guru believes in us, but the question remains: do we believe in him?