The purpose of pilgrimage is to hear from the saintly persons residing in a holy place. The following is a conversation with Srila Sridhar Maharaj and three European students searching India for truth.
Sridhar Maharaj: Why have you come to India?
Student: For pilgrimage. We came to visit the holy places like Nabadwip, Vrndavan, and Jagannath Puri. That was the main reason we came to India.
Sridhar Maharaj: How have you come to know all these things? By books?
Student: Yes, by the books of Srila Prabhupad.
Sridhar Maharaj: What book?
Student: Bhagavad-gita.
Sridhar Maharaj: Oh. The Bhagavad-gita As It Is by Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaj.
Student: Yes.
Sridhar Maharaj: Many years ago, a German scholar expressed his opinion that Bhagavad-gita is the highest spiritual literature. His point was that Bhagavad-gita clearly advises us not to try to correct our environment, but to correct ourselves, to adjust with the environment. That is the key to the advice of Bhagavad-gita: «Cure thyself.» We have no power to bring about changes in the environment. That is arranged by the divine will. Our environment, the sum total of all the forces acting outside us, is irremovable. We have no ability to interfere with our environment; that will only be a useless loss of energy. Rather, we must try to correct ourselves so that we can adjust with the circumstances outside us: this is the key to our success in life (tat Te ’nukampam susamiksamano). We have our duty to perform, but we must not aspire after the results of our activities; the results depend on Krishna (karmany evadhikaras te ma phalesu kadachana). We make our contribution; at the same time, thousands of millions of others are contributing, creating the environment. So, we must do our duty, but we will have to accept the ultimate result as best because it is arranged by the Absolute. There are so many results to our individual activities, but we must see how the Absolute will harmonise everything and adjust ourselves accordingly.
Our responsibility lies only in discharging our duty. We must never aspire after any definite environment; the environment will go on in its own way. We have no power to change it. Rather, we must try our best to change our own self so that we may come in harmony with the environment.
Our responsibility is never in enjoying the results of our actions. Because we work for a particular result and don’t obtain it, should we be discouraged? No. We should go on doing our own duty. Whatever we contribute should be offered to the Infinite, and the Infinite will mold the results in His own way. Krishna says, «Never aspire after any particular result for your action. At the same time, don’t be idle. Don’t be worthless. Go on discharging your duty without depending on any outside consequence.»
Student: Will we have to remember Krishna while we are doing this?
Sridhar Maharaj: Yes. Then we will be able to come in connection with Krishna, and gradually we will come to realise that our environment is friendly to us. When the reactions of our previous actions disappear, we will find that every wave is carrying good news to us. When our egoistic attitude vanishes, we will find ourself in the midst of sweet waves all around. We should try to do away with whatever wrong we have done hitherto. We must do our duty and never expect any definite result, but cast it towards the Infinite.
And then one day will come when our egoistic feeling will dissolve and from within, our real self, a member of the infinite world, will spring up and awaken, and we will find ourselves in the sweet waves of that environment. There, everything is sweet. The breeze is sweet, the water is sweet, the trees are sweet, whatever we come in contact with is sweet, sweet, sweet.
Our internal ego is our enemy, and to dissolve that ego, we must do our duty as we think fit, but never expect any response according to our will. If we adopt this karma-yoga, then in no time we will find that the wrong ego, which was always expecting something crooked for its selfish purpose, has vanished, the broad, wide ego within has come out, and we are in harmony with the whole universe. The harmonious world will appear before us, and the cover of selfish desires will disappear.
The cause of our disease is not outside us, but within us. A paramahamsa Vaisnava, a saint of the highest platform, sees that everything is all right. He finds nothing to complain about. When one can see that everything is good and sweet to the furthest extreme, he comes to live in the plane of Divinity. Our false ego creates only disturbance, and that ego should be dissolved. We should not think that the environment is our enemy. We must try hard to detect God’s grace in whatever comes to us, even if it comes as an apparent enemy. Everything is the grace of the Lord, but we can’t see it; rather, we see the opposite. The dirt is in our eyes.
Actually, everything is divine. It is all the grace of the Lord. The disease is in our eyes. We are diseased, and if the disease is cured, we shall find that we are in the midst of a gracious world. Only the coverings of desire deceive us from having a real estimation of the world. A bona fide student of the devotional school will accept such an attitude towards the environment and towards the Lord. We have to think that God’s will is everywhere. Even a blade of grass cannot move without the sanction of the Supreme Authority. Every detail is detected and controlled by Him. We have to look upon the environment with optimism. The pessimism is within us. Our ego is responsible for all sorts of evil.
This is Vaisnavism. If we can do this, then in no time, our disease will be cured, and we’ll be in the midst of infinite blissfulness. Our tendency at present is to cure what we see on the outside. We think, «I want everything to follow my control, my sweet will. When everything obeys me, then I will be happy.» But we must take just the opposite attitude. As Mahaprabhu has said:
trnad api sunichena taror api sahisnuna
amanina manadena kirtaniyah sada harih
We should create no resistance against our environment. Still, if some undesirable things come towards us, we should tolerate that with our utmost patience. And even if someone attacks us, we won’t become violent; we must practise forbearance to the extreme. We shall honour everyone; we will seek no honour.
In this way, with the least amount of energy and time, we can attain the highest goal: the plane where Krishna Himself is living. That is the most fundamental plane of existence. At that time, all the encasements covering the soul will vanish and die, and the inner soul will awaken and find that he is playing in a sweet wave, dancing and merry-making in Vrndavan with Krishna and His devotees. And what is Vrndavan? It is neither a fable nor a concocted story. The broadest and widest plane of the whole universe is beauty, sweetness, and blissfulness, and that is present in Vrndavan in all its fullness. We have to dive deep into that plane of reality.
Our ego has floated us on the surface of trouble in maya, illusion. Concoction and the search for selfish satisfaction have taken us here, and these must be dissolved once and for all. And then from within, our golden selves will come out, and we will find that we are in the plane of a happy dancing mood, with Krishna in Vrndavan.
In Hegelian language, this is called «self-determination». Self-determination means we must die to live. We must leave our material life and all our material habits; we have to die as we are if we want to have a real life. We must give up our false ego. Our material habits from different births are collected in the ego in subtle forms, not only from the experience of human birth, but even from animal births, tree births, and so many other births. Krishna consciousness means the wholesale dissolution of the false ego. That concocted, selfish figure within us is our enemy. The real self is hopelessly buried beneath the false ego. So great is the depth of our forgetfulness that we do not even know who we are. So, as the German philosopher Hegel said, we have to «die to live».
Reality is for itself and by itself. The world is not created for our selfish end; it has a universal end, and we are part and parcel of that. We must come to an understanding with the whole. The complete whole is Krishna and He is dancing, playing, and singing in His own way. We must enter into that harmonious dance.
Being infinitesimal, should we think that the Infinite must be controlled by us? That by our whim everything will go on? This is the most crooked, heinous object ever conceived, and we are suffering from such a disease. This is the real problem in society. Our enquiry should be aimed at solving this.
Student: Does this mean we have to give up material life completely?
Sridhar Maharaj: Not at once. Everyone must progress gradually, according to his own particular case. If one who has much affinity towards worldly life suddenly leaves that, he may not keep up his vows; he may go down again. So, according to personal capacity we must make gradual progress. That is to be taken into consideration, but still, we should always be eager to give up everything and devote ourselves exclusively to the highest duty. Those who have enough courage will jump into the unknown, thinking, «Krishna will protect me. I am jumping in the name of God. He is everywhere; He will take me on His lap.» With this idea, one who has real eagerness for the truth may leap forward.
Student: I have a problem. For ten years, I’ve tried to take up this process. For ten years, I have kept from eating meat, fish, and eggs. I avoid material things — I have no attraction for them. I have left all this behind. But there is one thing I want to give up and also I don’t want to give up. This is ganja (marijuana).
Sridhar Maharaj: That is a small thing. There are three real difficulties: the first is women, the second is money, and the third, good name and fame. These three are our enemies. Marijuana intoxication is a small thing. Anyone can give it up easily. But these three things are the fundamental aspiration of every animal, tree, bird, man, or god. These three are everywhere. But intoxication and other fleeting habits are very negligible things and can be conquered very easily.
As we have gradually come into the habit of intoxication, we have to come out — gradually, and not suddenly. Just after World War Two, we read in the newspaper that Goering, Hitler’s air general, was habituated to taking much intoxication. But when he was put into jail, no intoxication was supplied to him. He became sick, but treatment went on and he was cured. His disease was cured by the medicine. We also have seen so many opium-eaters who came here, joined the Temple, and gradually left their habit.
Many so-called sadhus smoke marijuana. It helps concentration, but that is the material mind. It disturbs faith. It is an enemy to faith. No material intoxication, but only faith can take us to our desired goal. The misguided souls think that marijuana, hashish, and so many other things can help us in our meditation. It may do something, but that is mundane and that will frustrate us in our time of need. These things cannot help us rise up very high.
Srimad Bhagavatam (1.17.38) advises that these five things should be rejected: dyutam, gambling or diplomacy; panam, intoxication, including tea, coffee, betel, and everything else; striyah, unlawful, illegal woman-love; suna, butchering; and the transaction of gold. Trade in gold makes one very apathetic towards progress in the line of faith. These five are very tempting.
What to speak of the mania that intoxication will help us in our meditation upon the transcendental, Devarsi Narad says, «Yamadibhir yoga-pathaih kama-lobha-hato muhuh: even what we acquire by meditation is temporary and has no permanent effect.» Only real faith in the line of pure devotion can help us.
Student: So, how can we develop our faith in Krishna consciousness?
Sridhar Maharaj: How have you come to conceive of Krishna consciousness?
Student: By reading Bhagavad-gita.
Sridhar Maharaj: Bhagavad-gita. From the scriptures. And the scriptures are written by whom? Some saint. So, the association of saints and the advice of scriptures are both necessary. The saint is the living scripture, and the scripture advises us in a passive way. A saint can actively approach us, and passively we may receive benefit from the scriptures. The association of the scriptures and the saints can help us achieve the ultimate realisation: sadhu-sastra-krpaya yadi Krsnonmukha haya. The saints are more powerful. Those who are living the life of the scriptural advice are scripture personified. In their association, and by their grace, we can imbibe such higher, subtle knowledge and faith.
All our experiences are futile in the attempt to attain the ultimate destination; only faith can lead us there. The spiritual world is far, far beyond the jurisdiction of our limited visual, aural, and mental experience. The experience of the eye, ear, and mind is very meagre and limited, but faith can rise up and pierce through this area and enter the transcendental realm.
Faith should be developed with the help of scriptures and saints. They will help us understand that the spiritual world is real and this world is unreal. At that time, this material world will be night to us, and that will be day. Presently, the eternal world is darkness to us, and we are awake in this mortal world. What is night to one is day to another. A saint is awake in some matter, and a dacoit (thief) is working in another plane. They are living in two separate worlds. A scientist is living in one world; a rowdy is living in another. One’s day is night to another. The ordinary persons cannot see what Einstein and Newton have seen, and what the ordinary man sees is ignored by a great man. So, we have to awaken our interest in that plane and ignore the interests of this plane.
Student: Many people are worried about nuclear war. They think it may come very soon.
Sridhar Maharaj: That is a point on a line, a line on a plane, a plane in a solid. So many times wars are coming and going; so many times the sun, the earth, and the solar systems disappear and again spring up. We are in the midst of such thought in eternity. This nuclear war is a tiny point — what of that? Individuals are dying at every moment. The earth will die; the whole human section will disappear. Let it be.
We must try to live in eternity, not any particular span of time or space. We must prepare ourselves for our eternal benefit, not for any temporary remedy. The sun, the moon, and all the planets appear and vanish: they die, and then again, they are created. Within such an eternity we have to live. Religion covers that aspect of our existence. We are told to view things from this standpoint: not only this body, but the human race, the animals, the trees, the entire earth, and even the sun, will all vanish and again spring up. Creation, dissolution, creation, dissolution — it will continue forever in the domain of misconception. At the same time, there is another world which is eternal; we are requested to enter there, to make our home in that plane which neither enters into the jaws of death nor suffers any change.
In the Bhagavad-gita (8.16), it is stated:
abrahma-bhuvanal lokah punar avartino ’rjuna
mam upetya tu kaunteya punar janma na vidyate
«Even Lord Brahma, the creator himself, has to die. Up to Brahmaloka, the highest planet in the material world, the whole material energy undergoes such changes.»
But if we can cross the area of misunderstanding and enter the area of proper understanding, then there is no creation or dissolution. That is eternal, and we are children of that soil. Our bodies and minds are children of this soil which comes and goes, which is created and then dies. We have to get out of this world of death.
We are in such an area. What is to be done? Try to get out. Try your best to get out of this mortal area. The saints inform us, «Come home dear friend; let us go home. Why are you suffering so much trouble unnecessarily in a foreign land? The spiritual world is real. This material world is unreal; springing and vanishing, coming and going — it is a farce! From the world of farce we must come to reality. Here in this material world there will be not only one war, but wars after wars, wars after wars.
There is a zone of nectar, and we are actually children of that nectar that does not die (srnvantu visve amrtasya putra). Somehow, we are misguided here, but really we are children of that soil which is eternal, where there is no birth or death. With a wide and broad heart, we have to approach there. This is declared by Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, and the Bhagavad-gita, the Upanisads, and the Srimad Bhagavatam all confirm the same thing. That is our very sweet, sweet home, and we must try our best to go back to God, back to home, and take others with us.