“Without Love of Krishna whatever arrangement we make, whatever spiritual realization we gain, even mystic powers, even liberation, we are like fish trying to be happy outside of the sea. You can imagine you are happy if you have all phantasmagoric devices around you. But a fish can never find real satisfaction laying in the hot sand nor can spirit soul find satisfaction in any material arrangement. That is contrary to our eternal nature, which is to eternally be swimming in the nectar of devotion, the nectar of ecstatic Love.”
-Radhanath Swami
The ancient yogic texts of India teach that all the problems of the modern world arise from a lack of self-awareness. For example, if a fish declares himself to be an iguana and proceeds to beach himself in an attempt to live on land, he would have quite a traumatic experience. A fish belongs in water. Similarly, our life is often painful, because as spiritual beings we live in an atmosphere of matter, where we don’t belong. In a world saturated with the hot tar of anger, greed and hypocrisy, our natural, loving nature is smothered and repressed. But we have a choice. We can surpass the pollution and help others do the same. Just as the quiet lotus rises above the muck and blossoms in a gentle fit of rebellion against her habitat, we too can breach the sludge.
This world seems to spit out new pickles daily. Massive wars are leaving countries in ruin. Colleges have driven America's youth into 1.2 trillion dollars of debt.¹ The second leading cause of death for our generation: suicide.² I'll stop here. Sorry for the gloom. But the case is clear; there is something fundamentally wrong with the world we live in. And, to cut to the crux, there's something fundamentally wrong with the way we’re living life.
Nemo, our beached friend, realizes he is indeed a fish so he flaps his dinky fins and returns to the sea. In no time he’s merrily paddling about in his natural habitat, satisfied. As soon as Nemo realized his true identity— a clownfish who belongs in the freakin’ ocean— he steadily flipped and flopped home toward his natural habitat. Similarly, we also have some self-realization to accomplish, and when we do, we’ll understand we’re not the body we live in, but a spiritual being. And as a spiritual being, we’ll realize we can't feel completely content in a non-spiritual atmosphere. Simply by understanding, and acting according to our natural loving nature, we rise above like the lotus.
This development of self awareness through loving action is called bhakti yoga. It is not a religion. It is a universal process of self realization applicable to any philosophy. How? Because the soul is not a Jew or a Muslim or a Scientologist; the soul is a part of God. Love is the nature of the Divine thus the soul is meant for loving exchange. So this love is within all of our hearts. We see it manifest in all the movies we watch, songs we hear and books we read. Bhakti yoga is the cultivation and expression of that love. It's not sentiment; it's science. The science of self realization.
Fish are aquatic beings. If Nemo’s swimming, Nemo’s happy. Souls are beings of love. If we are loving we are happy. ABC,123.
I'm not satisfied with toddling about the fishbowl of modern society. (More like one of those fish bags from a West Harrison meatball festival). But rather than becoming some poop-chucking hermit, I see it wiser for us to join together for a more natural (and less smelly) cause. Namely, love. Love is not some ethereal pixie dust like that sprinkled throughout chick flicks, but an absolute, soul-stirring power. By realizing our spiritual nature and acting on it, we can snap the levees and flood the world with the brisk water of awakening. The more self-aware we become, the more our life’s purpose is revealed. And as we slowly enter the ocean of our true calling, the dry sands of our suffering naturally dissipate. We are the future; the time is now. There's a rich, sultry aroma moving with the wind nowadays—smells like revolution.
1
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-07/student-loan-interest-rates-rise-for-2014-2015-school-year.html" \t "_blank" http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-07/student-loan-interest-rates-rise-for-2014-2015-school-year.html
2
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/10/09/suicide-mental-health-prevention-research/15276353/" \t "_blank" http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/10/09/suicide-mental-health-prevention-research/15276353/
