By Hansadutta das
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Text 25
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Do not try to contend with or
strike friendship with enemies, friends, offspring or relatives. Just
see the Supreme Self within everything and cast off in all
circumstances the ignorance that separates us from Him.
Generally, everyone is engaged in making a distinction
between friends and enemies, relatives and countrymen. In this way,
according to our bodily designation and mental concoction, we create a
material situation in which we suffer and enjoy in relationship with
so-called friends, relatives and countrymen. Actually, all these
designations are illusory, because they are generated out of the bodily
concept of life. A living entity is an eternal servant of Krishna, and
as such, he has no friends and no enemies. His only duty is to render
transcendental loving service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead,
Krishna. But because the living entity has turned away from the service
of Krishna and is trying to act independently, he has been put into the
material atmosphere in order to enjoy and suffer according to his work.
In the material existence, every living entity is working to enjoy the
fruit of his labor. That is called karma. It is this attitude
or enjoying mood which is the source of all suffering for the living
entity. A living entity has nothing to work for, because by nature he
is eternal. He is by nature joyful and full of knowledge, but due to
his envious attitude, his joyful life, knowledge and eternal existence
are covered by maya (illusion).
iccha-dvesha samutthena
dvandva-mohena bharata
"Every living entity is born into delusion,
overcome by the dualities of desire and hate." (Bhagavad-gita
7.27)
It is taken for granted that everyone who takes birth in
the material world is in ignorance. Everyone here is in darkness,
because if one were in knowledge and established in his relationship
with Krishna, he would not be put into the material condition, just as
a healthy person is not admitted into the hospital, nor a law-abiding
citizen confined in prison.
Only criminals go to prison. Only diseased men go to the hospital.
Similarly,
only sinful, envious living entities are born into the material world.
Therefore,
the material world is a place where everyone is more or less engaged in
sinful activities.
The basis of all sinful activities is envy of the
Supreme. The conditioned souls are trying to avoid service to Krishna.
The conditioned soul is engaged in lording it over material nature.
Every conditioned soul has a twofold consciousness: he thinks, "I am
the creator, and I am the enjoyer." He thinks that everything is made
for his sense gratification. In that consciousness, the living entity
is acting in various species of life, sometimes as an animal, sometimes
as a human being, sometimes as a demigod. But in all conditions of
life, he suffers four kinds of miseries: birth, death, old age and
disease. According to his mental concoction, the living entity creates
friends and enemies, relatives and countrymen, but
in fact it is just imagination. It is just a creation of the mind.
The living entity actually has no friends and no
enemies.
In Bhagavad-gita (6.5-6) it is said, "The mind is the
best
friend of the living entity, and the mind is his enemy as well; for one
who
has controlled his mind, it is the best of friends, and for one who has
failed
to control his mind, it is the worst enemy." In dreams we sometimes
imagine
we are being eaten by a tiger, or our head is being cut, or we are
falling
from a high place, or we have found a great treasure. Sometimes we
dream
that we have become a king with ministers, horses, a palace and queens.
But
in fact there is neither danger nor fortune. Everything is a mental
concoction only. Similarly, in the conditional existence, everything is
merely a creation of the external energy. Nothing has any real
substance. Whatever we see in
conditional life is created at some time and will be dissolved at some
time.
In Bhagavad-gita (8.4) Krishna says,
"Material nature is endlessly mutable." "For one who is born, it is
certain he will die, and for one who has died, it is certain he will be
born again." (Bhagavad-gita 2.27)
Everything material is considered to be illusion, and
although we say that the material creation is illusion, it is at the
same time real, but real only for a short time--temporarily real. What
a man
sees in dreams is illusion, though the effects of his dreams are
sometimes very real. While dreaming, a man actually experiences pain,
so much so that he cries out with tears actually coming from his eyes.
Sometimes while dreaming a man sees a beautiful woman, and while
embracing her, he actually discharges semen, although there is no real
woman. The reactions of his dreams are quite real.
Similarly, although this body and all its paraphernalia
and relationships are illusory, or temporary, we unavoidably experience
pain.
We experience certain types of pleasure also, but ultimately
everything--the pain, the pleasure, everything--will be frustrated,
because the objects of
our pain and pleasure have no permanent existence. This body and its
relationships
of friends, countrymen and relatives are all vanquished in time.
Behind the bodily manifestation there is the soul. In
the human form of life, a person is supposed to understand the
difference between the body and the soul. One is supposed to pursue a
life of Krishna consciousness and get free from the ignorance of the
bodily conception. As
long as one remains rooted in the bodily concept of life, he has to
suffer. The body is the source of all our sufferings, and thus the
Vedic literature advises us that we should get out of the bodily
concept. We should come to
the spiritual platform and be reinstated in our spiritual life.
Just as there are material activities, there are also
spiritual activities. They are known as bhakti-yoga. Anyone in
any
position of life can be engaged in bhakti-yoga, and this
engagement
immediately counteracts the pernicious effects of sinful activities.
Without
being situated in devotional service, whatever a person does is
ultimately sinful, just as a person who doesn't abide by the laws and
orders of the government
must naturally be a criminal. He may be a big criminal or a small
criminal,
but unless he acts according to the laws and orders of the government,
he
must be doing something illegal. Similarly, a human being is supposed
to
act only according to the injunctions of the shastras. When he
neglects the shastras, then naturally he becomes sinful. Sinful
life means that one has to suffer the reactions of sinful activities.
Krishna consciousness is a very important movement,
because it teaches people how to live in the material world, but at the
same
time act on the spiritual platform. That way, when this term of
material activity comes to an end, one can be liberated and go home,
back to Godhead, and enjoy his original, eternal, blissful life of
knowledge.
The real friend is Krishna. Suhridam
sarva-bhutanam (Bhagavad-gita 5.29): Krishna is
everyone's friend. Krishna is the bhoktaram yajña-tapasam,
the recipient or beneficiary of all kinds of penance and austerity. (
Bhagavad-gita 5.29) Whatever work a person undertakes, the
result of that work actually belongs to Krishna, because Krishna is bhoktaram
yajña-tapasam/sarva-loka maheshvaram. Krishna is the
landlord, or the proprietor of all the planets, and He is the master of
all the living entities on all planets. As such, whatever the servants
produce on the land of the master is the property
of the master.
suhridam sarva bhutanam
jñatva mam shantim ricchati
(Bhagavad-gita 5.29)
One who knows these three truths about Krishna and one's relationship
with Krishna can be
shantim (peaceful). Peace and prosperity in
human society depend on understanding our eternal relationship with
Krishna. Nothing belongs to anyone at any time, anywhere. Whatever we
produce is always meant to satisfy Krishna, because every living entity
is part and parcel of Krishna. In fact, we have no enemies and no
friends. We are all in the same family. We are all servants of the
Supreme Personality of Godhead. This understanding is the only way to
peaceful life and anything outside of this automatically creates
dissension, disunity and misery.
Everyone should be educated in the Vedic principles.
Just as children are taught the principles of reading, writing and
arithmetic, children should be taught the principles of Krishna
consciousness. Then only can human society actually realize the much
wanted peace and prosperity now missing in modern civilization. Hare
Krishna.
