{"id":6926,"date":"2009-02-12T09:30:08","date_gmt":"2009-02-12T08:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=6926"},"modified":"2009-02-12T09:30:08","modified_gmt":"2009-02-12T08:30:08","slug":"krishna-consciousness-need-not-be-a-big-slog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=6926","title":{"rendered":"Krishna Consciousness Need Not Be A Big Slog"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Kesava Krsna Dasa<\/strong><\/p>\n

Do we want to live in Krishna consciousness, or are we happy simply to exist in Krishna consciousness? There is something called \u201ctreadmill\u201d yoga. One can walk and run for miles on a treadmill and sweat until one drops, but one is going nowhere in particular. Is there any wonder why the path of devotion appears to be an immense slog?<\/p>\n

Perhaps we set ourselves some ambitious goals in spiritual life, and having attained them, we rest on our laurels a little bit. If so, we could be viewing these goals as the end of the line, rather than as new starting points each time. We could also be struggling to uphold some basic principles and dwelling on them, as if we belong to the \u201cInternational Society for Celibate Consciousness\u201d.<\/p>\n

If we think we have joined the wrong mission, or are somewhat disorientated, this is understandable. \u201cIf, however, you do not work in such consciousness but act through false ego, not hearing Me, you will be lost\u201d (BG 18.58). ISKCON is the \u2018lost and found\u2019 department of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.<\/p>\n

We all want to be victorious in our devotional endeavours. But without spiritual strength all our sweet little victories of self-effort will turn to defeat, or at most, keep us hovering over the battleground of our lower passions. \u201cUnless providence is in our favour, we shall not be able to gain victory\u201d (SB 8.21-24). We have often been told we have to fight or defeat Maya, but there is a way to consider this proposal very carefully.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis human life is meant for victorious, to become victorious over the laws of material nature. Actually, we are trying for that purpose. The whole struggle is how to counteract the onslaught of material nature\u2026but what is the ultimate victory? The ultimate victory is how to conquer over birth, death, disease, and old age. That is the outcome, victory\u201d (SB 6.1.8 lecture, New York, July 22, 1971).<\/p>\n

While on our victory quests, we may have difficulty finding out which of our actions are caused by our own self-efforts, or by spiritual strength. Our gritty stamina alone could be the endurance factor, but it can only take us so far, for a certain amount of time. If this is so, then we have the wrong idea of how to fight for victory. Krishna consciousness is not about fighting this material world, but about using this world to our advantage.<\/p>\n

If we continue the self-effort fighting spirit, even for many years, the blissful path of devotion will remain a fearful avoidance complex producing little or no happiness. Then we wonder why we are surrounded by a lexicon of American ISKCON\u2019esque terms such as, \u201cI\u2019m fried\u201d, \u201cspaced-out\u201d, \u201cout to lunch\u201d, \u201ccrash pad\u201d, to name not very many. These terms serve a useful purpose as they take the place of venomous expletives. They should be called \u201cexpletive replacers\u201d.<\/p>\n

Fearful spiritual life can make us irritable, uptight, edgy, and ready to react to the slightest provocation, extra alert, and so on. We often sleep less to the point of going about in a daze, and nod off at important times of the day. The ominous sounding \u201ccrash pad\u201d may be our redeeming feature. The \u201ccrash pad\u201d always sounded as if there were a forbidden room somewhere in the ashrama that was well padded for safety reasons. If ever someone got unduly frustrated, he or she could put on a crash helmet, go inside the \u201ccrash pad\u201d, and dive bomb into the padded walls, all the while yelling, \u201cI\u2019m spaced out\u201d.<\/p>\n

It turned out that the \u201ccrash pad\u201d is a very doubtful looking mattress splayed out on the floor, usually in a sadhu forsaken haunted attic, or a boiler room. To make use of this mattress would certainly make one the 4037th person to lie on it. In light of the latest advance in the ever-changing medical field, less sleep means to harden our arteries. So these hidden places for \u201ccrashing out\u201d could be called \u201chealth beds\u201d as they, and the treadmill, will keep our arteries supple.<\/p>\n

Fearful spiritual practice can make us so serious that we believe we are pure devotees. Being too serious can overtake our natural springtime flow to the point of being embarrassingly solemn and critically glum, and which causes us to fret and scowl at any innocent transgression of morality. We do need to laugh more. Call it fun, call it medicine, or call it a funny way of being serious.<\/p>\n

So passion power spiritual practice, and treadmill-yoga are going to make us retreat while going forward. The deceiving nature of the strong gravitational pull of our self-efforts to exist in Krishna consciousness will always fall short without the mercy of the Lord. A change in consciousness is required to lessen the slog.<\/p>\n

Our aim for victory can best be achieved if we acknowledge the words of Lord Krishna who says; \u201cI am victory\u201d. This means that any victory we seek is His victory, not ours. Lord Krishna also says, \u201cI am morality\u201d. If our serious fearful nature makes us unusually righteous in terms of morality, then any claims to morality are also Krishna\u2019s, and not ours either.<\/p>\n

When Krishna says, \u201cI am the ability in man\u201d, it means that through the transparent via medium of the spiritual master, our ability to do anything in Krishna consciousness is given by Him. If our consciousness is raised to see that the Lord Himself is actually our effort in devotional service, and we become infinitely more dependent on Krishna, then perhaps the mercy will flow, and victory will be His, not ours.<\/p>\n

And while the mercy is flowing, I have always been curious to know why I had never heard the converse of these famous Iskcon\u2019esque expletive replacers. Surely, to be \u201cunfried\u201d, \u201cspaced in\u201d, and \u201cin for lunch\u201d must be spiritually quite chic. Therefore, I beg to be \u201cspaced in\u201d for all time.<\/p>\n

Your servant, Kesava Krsna Dasa \u2013 GRS.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Kesava Krsna Dasa<\/strong><\/p>\n

There is something called \u201ctreadmill\u201d yoga. One can walk and run for miles on a treadmill and sweat until one drops, but one is going nowhere in particular. Is there any wonder why the path of devotion appears to be an immense slog? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6926\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}