I Ain't Come From No Monkey

I saw something the other day that kind of threw me off. Someone made a comment that we are animals, and we have to remember this when considering our needs. I deeply disagree with this statement. As human beings, we have been given the special opportunity to become self realized, an animal does not have such a privilege, as human beings we have been given free will where as an animal acts only by instinct, under the laws of nature. Although I believe we all come from the same source, to say that we are by nature no different than an animal is  bred of ignorance and just another example of the mental speculation based off of patterns, which in today's modern world is called science. Now despite the fact that we are not animals, through our conditioning we have developed animal characteristics. Animals work according to their needs in terms of eating, sleeping, mating and defending, ironically as we become more "civilized" these 4 things seem to be growing as the most important factors in human life. But it wasn't always like this. once upon a time "less advanced" civilizations such as the Aztecs, Essenes, Native Americans, Pre-imperialism India etc, put the emphasis on advancing in understanding of the universe, the human mind, consciousness and God. However because these civilizations didn't have the proper animalistic requirements such as aristocratic food, fabulous palaces, fancy clothing to attract a mate, or huge armies, those who did deemed them generally incompetent and forced their way of living in and the other out. Now one example of the animal Characteristics that we have come to adopt, is to fear what we don't understand. Bhakti Vidyapurna Swami gives the example that if you raise a dog in an all Caucasian neighborhood, when it sees an African American, it will start to bark uncontrollably, and visa versa, if you raise a dog in an all African American neighborhood it will lose it's sense of comfort and begin to bark upon seeing a Caucasian person. We see this constantly in a place like America, people who do not appear to a certain person to be "normal" are ostracized and often barked at from a distance like the dog. However it wasn't always like this. When the Europeans first came to America, the Native Americans did not bark at them from a distance, they showed them how to grow food so that they could survive in the winter. Quite uncivilized. When the Europeans first came to India, the Indians did not bark or run away in fear, they instead agreed to trade with them in a way that both could be mutually benefitted. but of course the Europeans being so civilized felt it their duty to manipulate and practically enslaved the Indians, exploiting their natural resources and diminishing their beautiful culture. Quite civilized. One point that needs to be made is that animals having a basic instinct that allows for equilibrium within an ecosystem, only take what they need. In our "civilized" world we have now come to the point where it's natural to act like the good old Europeans and take as we please, according to our desires. This way of thinking and acting makes us worse than animals. The world is arranged in such a way that if all take as they need instead of as they please, there is peace and thus all other living beings on the planet follow this simple and effective universal rule. There is however besides humans, one exception to this way of action which is naturally followed by all other species. The exception is cancer. Cancer takes and takes and takes until the body it inhabits can no longer continue to function and dies. We have become a cancer to the earth, a cancer to one another and ultimately a cancer to ourselves, due to our idea that the more we get, the happier we are, is this civilized? No this is toxic, this is a diseased mentality. We have come to believe that only once we reach a certain position will we be happy, however only when we realize our position can we be happy, otherwise by continuing to take and take we are only adding fuel to the fire and increasing the severity of our sickness. This disease must be treated with a steady diet of transcendental knowledge derived from the texts worshiped by civilizations who were actually civilized and realized the important things in life. These people were self satisfied, they rejoiced within instead of endlessly searching for satisfaction in a world that they correctly perceived as only temporary and thus in a sense illusory. Most people are captivated by this illusion, most people run desperately after the mirage of an oasis in the desert of mundane material existence. These fruits seen in the mirage can never satisfy our natural craving for satisfaction. Only the ripened fruits found in such texts as the Bhagavad Gita and Srimad Bhagavatam have the ability to satiate our thirst. Thus we must dig deep within ourselves, we must not once but constantly ask if we are acting with an animalistic mentality, or even something worse. We must seek knowledge from the Vedas which are the source of all knowledge. Only through understanding the inner workings of the world  and beyond may we go through life properly, and become closer to the stage that we were meant to achieve, self realization. If not we sink down, finding ourselves behaving more and more like beasts until our diseased mentality forces us into a life of void, a life without any life at all. 

Have Faith in me

In the scriptures, it is predicted that the time we are living in now or Kali Yuga will be the age of 1 quarrel, 2 hypocrisy and 3 faithlessness. This prediction is very easily justified in modern life. 1 Wars rage on throughout the world as well as those of a smaller scale in our own towns and cities. 2 Politicians who were always meant to be exemplary models of noble integrity and servitude towards the people they are responsible for have completely lost interest in our well being and instead hanker after power and economic advances at almost any cost. 3 Churches dwindle and often only facilitate the spiritual desires of our grandparents and many temples in India have become places for people to find a spouse as opposed to finding them self. However faith does not need to always be identified with religion, faith boils down to the belief in something that can't automatically be perceived by the five senses and mind. Thus for faith to grow In our current wayward and faltering frame of reference, we must first accept the fact that we do not know everything. Despite the fact that our intelligence is constantly offering what seems like reliable evidence that we have something figured out, ultimately until we become enlightened our senses can not be trusted. This is so because of our forgetfulness of our original nature. For example, originally we are whole and are satisfied only in offering love, but due to our forgetfulness we tend to crave material objects. This craving leads to misconception because of the most degrading and influential force in today's world, lust which manipulates the mind in such a way that one begins to justify his nonsensical desires.  The intelligence tells us that until we satisfy these desires our life is not complete and once we finally obtain the object of our obsession then we will be finally happy. A good visual of this would be the donkey who is motivated to carry heavy burdens great distances with sincere effort by dangling a carrot in front of it's face. The donkey has reverent conviction that he is close to the carrot, so close to happiness but in reality he was never any closer to receiving it, and in our case we only move further away. But as we begin to forget our false identity, the tendency of the senses to hanker after and misidentify material objects diminishes and we gradually become purified. This process of forgetting the donkey like characteristics we have developed and returning to our original state of being, which is full of knowledge, bliss and awareness can be set in motion by proper faith. Faith is the precursor to knowledge, without a little faith in the unknown we automatically shoot down all possibilities of something other than what we already accept to be factual. But the REAL fact is that most of the time what we accept to be factual is actually just an perverted reflection of the supreme truth. By maintaining faith in something greater than ourselves, something greater than the tv screen, we open the mind to new, refreshing experience and step off the roller coaster that appears entertaining at first but in the end makes us sick. However, there is a gulf of difference between faith and blind faith, blind faith entails complete surrender without a deeper understanding of what you are surrendering to. This practice is often adopted by those who are motivated by lust and only want some type of material gain (i.e. The donkey). But a faith in something transcendental that is cultivated through humility and understanding of our natural state as compared to the state we're in is the key to liberation. Thus I ask everyone to have faith in the power of selfless service to others, have faith in the ability of compassion to change the world, have faith in the fact that this life is meant for so much more than meets the eye, and lose faith in the idea that happiness comes from taking things for yourself as opposed to giving to others. 

I can no longer describe the experience I'm having in India in words. I am incredibly blessed to be having the association that I am having which I am quite unworthy of. Me and my Guru Maharaj who I am assisting, took a plane to Mayapur, one of the holiest places in India. I am surrounded by unexplainable beauty that emanates from the Forests and local animal life as well as the deep magnanimous energy which flows in abundance due to the presence of the holy Ganges River, the many saintly people who live here and those who have in the past, the incredible ISKCON Temple which houses gigantic deities as well as many pure devotees and the best kirtan on earth. Mayapur is another main center for ISKCON thus thousands of devotees from all over the world are here exchanging love for each other and especially for God. I will be here for about 2 weeks then I am off to the third most holy place in India, Puri for a Bhakti retreat before returning to my beloved Vrindavan until the end of February. I have been traveling very lightly for the past month, (2 dhotis, 3 shirts, a charter and many books) and no shoes as an austerity as well as to show respect to the holy land which I now hold so dear. It is amazing here, I hope eventually everyone can experience something that makes them deeply and sincerely question their own purpose. None of us are here to just acquire wealth, we all have a deeper calling but it is hard to see due to our environment in America. I hope as many people as possible can avoid the trap of materialistic life, it appeals to the senses at first, businesses are very good at ensuring that, but in the end it leads to misery, there is no doubt about it. We need to question what we've been told, we need to ask ourselves if what we're doing can lead to real, undying happiness, and we need to have courage to change in a society that is pushing everyone one direction. We need to do this now.