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.
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