Hard-core materialists and atheists like to judge the original Vedic social system according to the values and prejudice, they have been taught in the Western culture they grew up in. But the Vedic social system - varnashram dharma - is to be found all over the world.
Krishna says:
According to the three modes of material nature and the work associated with them, the four divisions of human society are created by Me. And although I am the creator of this system, you should know that I am yet the nondoer, being unchangeable. (Bg. 4.13)
In all human societies one can observe four types of human beings - the worker-type (skilled or unskilled), the merchant and business-type, the worrior and statesman-type, and the intellectual, priest or philosopher-type.
These four human types are to be found in all societies, and the varnashram social system, or the caste-system as it is infamously called, is merely a scientific description and organization of these different human types in society.
It is noteworthy, that Krishna says that the different human types are not to be determined by birth, but by one's ability and bodily tendency. Besides, before the Americans after WWII replaced the old traditions with their Coca-cola and Hollywood culture, people in Europe followed the varnashram system. The Church gave direction and defined the moral and ethics. The king ruled and enforced. The merchants and farmers traded, grew food, and created economy, and the worker, artist, and musician worked and entertained.
That the Church by time became corrupt and abused its power, is a different matter. The same thing happened in the Varnashrama social system in India, where the brahmins began to misuse and distort the system.
In an ideal society, the state governs in accordance with the directions of the sages and priests. But modern society is being run by the economy. It's the merchants who rule society and establishes its values and norms. That's why modern society is on its way over the brink.
Society can be likened to a body. The brahmins (the intelletual, the philosopher, the sage, the priest, and the teacher) are the head of the body. The Kshatriyas (the warrior, the king, the politician, military, and police) are the arms. The vaishyas (the farmer, the merchant, and the banker) are the belly; and the shudras (the worker, the skilled worker, the artist, the musician, the actor, and everyone who serves the other castes) are the legs.
The body is meant to be directed by the head. The function of the arms is to protect the body. The stomack's function is to nourish the body and distribute energy, and the function of the legs is to move the body here and there.
The modern Coca-cola society is a culture that is run by the belly. The merchants are in charge. It ought to be the head, but the modern society is more or less head-less. Or the head is governed by money. The present social body is bereft of a goal in life and long term-vision. It just stumbles along according to the dictation of its senses. Such a society, harmful and destructive as it is, naturally won't be allowed to dominate the world for long.
Nature is quite capable of regulating herself. That's why at the present moment, the modern western civilization is in the process of being demolished by nature. It is too harmful and destructive to nature and her inhabitants to be allowed to go on.
Krishna says:
This material nature, which is one of My energies, is working under My direction, O son of Kunti, producing all moving and nonmoving beings. Under its rule this manifestation is created and annihilated again and again. (Bg. 9.10)
January 16, 2011
January 3, 2011
Everyone is suffering
Everybody is suffering in material existence. The bottom line of existence in a material body is lamentation and suffering. That's how Krishna has designed this world. Why? Because He wants us back with Him.
Whatever good karma you may have as a result of previous pious activities, it all ends in birth and death and in between there is disease and old age. Nobody can escape it except by Krishna's help.
And we are slaves of our senses and mind. Only Krishna can reinstate us in real happiness. Real happiness is that happiness that never ends. The material world is bad because, seen from the point of view of our real existence as an eternal soul, it is all illusory and ends in death.
We need religion to connect with Krishna and experience the eternal reality. Re-legio, from Latin, means to re-connect. That's where the word Lego comes from - I connect. Funny enough, the word yoga, from Sanskrit, means the same - to connect.
The material world is not real, not because it doesn't exist, but because it is temporary. In the eternal existence of your real self, what you do in this life, all the pleasure and pain you experience, all your values and love for family, society and friends - it all takes place in a few seconds. This life in a material body is no more important or right or noble than what the ants are doing on your lawn.
And why is this important to know? Because otherwise we will remain trapped in samsara, the endless cycle of birth and death.
Our present reality is only what we have been taught and trained up to believe. There is another eternal reality which we can connect to by Krishna's grace. We may not want that. We may want to stay in samsara. And Krishna will make arrangement for that, too.
But should you want to experience the real reality - your eternal relationship with Krishna, then you can also do that. It's an opportunity that is only available to the soul in the human life-form. All other life-forms - fish, plants, insects, reptiles, birds, and animals are all busy trying to enjoy their bodies, eating, sleeping, mating, and defending.
Even better is to connect with the Absolute Truth and the eal purpose of life. Whatever nice experiences you have in your body - sex, friendship, work, aspirations and so on, becomes like pieces of broken glass when compared to the pleasure that lies in connecting with Krishna.
Most religions don't reveal the original, complete version of God, but the Vaishnava-religion does. It is the only religion on the planet that has complete information about God. Nowhere else will we be able to learn who God is, and what He wants with us. It is a very rare opportunity in the human form of life to obtain this knowledge. Eating, sleeping, mating, and defending we can do in any life-form. Cock-roaches also have sex.
Krishna is a fact that can be experienced by anyone who engages in the proper method.
Krishna says:
My dear Arjuna, because you are never envious of Me, I shall impart to you this most confidential knowledge and realization, knowing which you shall be relieved of the miseries of material existence. (Bg. 9.1)
The Blind Masses
For the first time in history the broad masses have been given a voice in the public... via internet.
The broad masses don't understand how they are being manipulater and controlled by the ruling powers. Either privately or publically they simply express the dominating reality-version and philosophy of the times.
It has never before happened that illusion, ignorance and sin was spread far and wide to the public. Ones sinful activities and ignorance was kept to oneself. They weren't used to create public opinion. In earlier times, when people were more enlightened, the rallying around glorifying illusory, animalistic principles did not exist.
Since the society was ruled by godly powers, the public was being educated in spiritual pinciples. The population was not being told that there is no meaning to life - it's just about getting ahead and get the best out of it, the short time there is to one's dsiposal.
It's quite obvious that if the majority of people believe that this is the only life they have and will ever get, then it becomes a race to succeed. You think this is the only chance you'll ever get to enjoy your material body.
But ths whole set up is to make people into good consumers. If you tell people that the highest goal of life is to ean money and spend it, you create good consumers. People who are educated in the real meaning of life, does not make for good consumers, and that is not wanted in a consumer society.
Imagine what a culture it would make, if the majority of people were convinced of the fact that this present live is just one out of billion of lives we have been through in the 8.400.000 species of life. Vi have tried repeatedly to become satisfied by fulfilling basic bodily and mental needs.
The needs of the body is to eat, sleep, mate, and defend. And the needs of the mind is the longing for name, fame, and position in society. You want to be somebody.
Those desires are inherent in all humans. It's not something we can escape. That type of desires are called material desires. It is bodily lust. The body is material, the mind is material, so therefore the desires and lust to fulfill their desires are considered material.
Material desires are selfish. Oneself is the center for one's needs. The selfishness can be either contracted to oneself, or it can be extended to one's family, friends, and society, but one's own body is always the center of one's activities.
Material desires are nothing but distortions of the self's real desires to serve Krishna. One can eat for Krishna, sleep for Krishna, mate for Krishna, and defend for Krishna. That's what a proper human culture should educate its population in. When the majority of people agree to serve the same whole, Krishna, then it creates greater unity and feeling of belonging in the people.
In stead of seeing everyone else as a body different from yourself, you see them as a soul, the same as you. In this way all feelings of racism, social differences, and national pride are eradicated, because all souls are equal, parts and parcels of the same whole.
But now a days people are educated to just get ahead as best they can, because there is nothing else, and there never will be anything else - this life is your only chance to get your desires fulfilled.
Instead of centering people around God, people are centered around what? a flag, a piece of cloth. Does it get more meaningless and illusory than that? There are actually people who are willing to die for their nation, but this nation is nothing but a temporary bodily identity. In the eternal existence of the soul it lasts a few seconds. Thus, everything that enforces our bodily identity are established by ungodly powers.
A society in which the majority of people think they are their bodies, is a sick society. Spiritually sick. We know everything materially but spiritually we are in the dark. We have forgotten how blissful it is to serve Krishha. That's our disease - to be absorbed in sensegratification.
And the only cure for this disease is the name of Krishna. It doesn't matter whether one is a Christian, Hindu, Mohammedan or a Buddhist, the proces is the same - to sing, recite or meditate on Krishna's name. If one has some sectarian prejudice against the original name of God, Krishna, one can chant Jehova, Jahve, Allah, Jesus, Manito, Buddha, Om, or Ram, doesn't matter, the point is to chant God's name. If the population does that, the world will undoubtedly become a better place to be.
Krishna says:
My dear Arjuna, because you are never envious of Me, I shall impart to you this most confidential knowledge and realization, knowing which you shall be relieved of the miseries of material existence. (Bg. 9.1)
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)
The broad masses don't understand how they are being manipulater and controlled by the ruling powers. Either privately or publically they simply express the dominating reality-version and philosophy of the times.
It has never before happened that illusion, ignorance and sin was spread far and wide to the public. Ones sinful activities and ignorance was kept to oneself. They weren't used to create public opinion. In earlier times, when people were more enlightened, the rallying around glorifying illusory, animalistic principles did not exist.
Since the society was ruled by godly powers, the public was being educated in spiritual pinciples. The population was not being told that there is no meaning to life - it's just about getting ahead and get the best out of it, the short time there is to one's dsiposal.
It's quite obvious that if the majority of people believe that this is the only life they have and will ever get, then it becomes a race to succeed. You think this is the only chance you'll ever get to enjoy your material body.
But ths whole set up is to make people into good consumers. If you tell people that the highest goal of life is to ean money and spend it, you create good consumers. People who are educated in the real meaning of life, does not make for good consumers, and that is not wanted in a consumer society.
Imagine what a culture it would make, if the majority of people were convinced of the fact that this present live is just one out of billion of lives we have been through in the 8.400.000 species of life. Vi have tried repeatedly to become satisfied by fulfilling basic bodily and mental needs.
The needs of the body is to eat, sleep, mate, and defend. And the needs of the mind is the longing for name, fame, and position in society. You want to be somebody.
Those desires are inherent in all humans. It's not something we can escape. That type of desires are called material desires. It is bodily lust. The body is material, the mind is material, so therefore the desires and lust to fulfill their desires are considered material.
Material desires are selfish. Oneself is the center for one's needs. The selfishness can be either contracted to oneself, or it can be extended to one's family, friends, and society, but one's own body is always the center of one's activities.
Material desires are nothing but distortions of the self's real desires to serve Krishna. One can eat for Krishna, sleep for Krishna, mate for Krishna, and defend for Krishna. That's what a proper human culture should educate its population in. When the majority of people agree to serve the same whole, Krishna, then it creates greater unity and feeling of belonging in the people.
In stead of seeing everyone else as a body different from yourself, you see them as a soul, the same as you. In this way all feelings of racism, social differences, and national pride are eradicated, because all souls are equal, parts and parcels of the same whole.
But now a days people are educated to just get ahead as best they can, because there is nothing else, and there never will be anything else - this life is your only chance to get your desires fulfilled.
Instead of centering people around God, people are centered around what? a flag, a piece of cloth. Does it get more meaningless and illusory than that? There are actually people who are willing to die for their nation, but this nation is nothing but a temporary bodily identity. In the eternal existence of the soul it lasts a few seconds. Thus, everything that enforces our bodily identity are established by ungodly powers.
A society in which the majority of people think they are their bodies, is a sick society. Spiritually sick. We know everything materially but spiritually we are in the dark. We have forgotten how blissful it is to serve Krishha. That's our disease - to be absorbed in sensegratification.
And the only cure for this disease is the name of Krishna. It doesn't matter whether one is a Christian, Hindu, Mohammedan or a Buddhist, the proces is the same - to sing, recite or meditate on Krishna's name. If one has some sectarian prejudice against the original name of God, Krishna, one can chant Jehova, Jahve, Allah, Jesus, Manito, Buddha, Om, or Ram, doesn't matter, the point is to chant God's name. If the population does that, the world will undoubtedly become a better place to be.
Krishna says:
My dear Arjuna, because you are never envious of Me, I shall impart to you this most confidential knowledge and realization, knowing which you shall be relieved of the miseries of material existence. (Bg. 9.1)
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)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)