{"id":326,"date":"2014-08-19T15:25:00","date_gmt":"2014-08-19T09:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.iskconbangalore.org\/blog\/\/?p=326"},"modified":"2022-01-24T18:46:07","modified_gmt":"2022-01-24T13:16:07","slug":"only-krishna-can-give-us-liberation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iskconbangalore.org\/blog\/only-krishna-can-give-us-liberation\/","title":{"rendered":"Only Krishna can give us liberation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Maya entices us to run after material happiness. Only Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead can release us from this trap.<\/p>\n

\"lord<\/p>\n

rajya-kamo manun devan
\nnirrtim tv abhicaran yajet
\nkama-kamo yajet somam
\nakamah purusam param<\/em><\/p>\n

TRANSLATION<\/h4>\n

One who desires domination over a kingdom or an empire should worship the Manus. One who desires victory over an enemy should worship the demons, and one who desires sense gratification should worship the moon. But one who desires nothing of material enjoyment should worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead.<\/p>\n

The list of material desires that people seek is continuing. Coming under the influence of material energy means, coming under the influence of maya \u2013 we have a weakness for material enjoyment. Prabhupada has repeatedly taught us that material enjoyment means \u2013 enjoyment which is independent of Krishna. In the material world everyone is living in forgetfulness of Krishna and is running after varieties of sense gratification.<\/p>\n

Giving up desire for material enjoyment does not mean an attempt to give up specific material desires. We need to understand the root contamination in our desiring capacity. We fall more into maya and so many varieties of desires are there, our mind gets bewildered. There is one common desire that is fueling all these desires from the soul; which is a hope that \u2013 I can enjoy independent of Krishna.<\/p>\n

In Krishna consciousness we are trying to cure the disease, the baho roga at the root through the medicine of the holy name, by chanting the Hare Krishna maha mantra. As Chaitanya<\/a> Mahaprabhu says \u2013 you take this aushadhi to wake up from the lap of maya. We are trapped in this body, we want liberation and only Mukunda, Krishna can give us that liberation. We have to cure our desire for material enjoyment, it is very deep.<\/p>\n

Sometimes the Mayavadis give up all kinds of desire for material enjoyment but they won\u2019t give up their desire to be independent. He doesn\u2019t think that he is part and parcel of God. This has to be cured at the spirit level. The consciousness is contaminated by this particular attitude of ignorance which is not in accordance with what is naturally enjoyed by the living entity in the spiritual world.<\/p>\n

Our spirit soul is driven from one problem to another by maya. We have to shake ourselves by the words of a pure devotee, Srila Prabhupada<\/span><\/a> and stop this running; it is kala that is making us run. Sit back and look into your own heart and by the association of pure devotees, sadhu sanga, this anartha of independent enjoyment \u2013 I will do what I want. It doesn\u2019t look like a sense gratification but that is the deepest contamination. That freedom is only available for Krishna, He is transcendental, He is the proprietor of everything. If He wants, you will get advanced overnight. But He has to decide \u2013 mam eva ye prapadyante mayam etam taranti te<\/em> \u2013 then we are free. At that time maya will just exit, and daivi prakruti<\/em> will overtake.<\/p>\n

\"prasadam-krishna\"<\/p>\n

The material body will have so many urges, when the urge comes to eat, I go and eat. If you eat Krishna prasadam in a regulated way, it is not sense gratification. I have got eyes, I like to appreciate beautiful things – is that maya? No, that is not maya because beauty comes from the spiritual world. In the material world all beauty is projection through our own consciousness. Since it is in our spiritual memory and we have forgotten Krishna, maya is taking advantage of our spiritual memory of beautiful things on to the material world. Appreciation of beauty is coming from the mind, which in turn is coming from the soul. Sattva guna does not necessarily mean giving up desires for material enjoyment. In pure devotional service, the root desire for material enjoyment is being removed by the mercy of a pure devotee who makes us understand it is foolish to pursue any material desires. We are abusing our spiritual nature, maya induces us. We all have the capacity to appreciate beauty and enjoy it but that is done independent of Krishna.<\/p>\n

Prabhupada gives a nice example of liquid beauty \u2013 Once a man fell in love with a beautiful girl, who tried to resist the man\u2019s advances. When he persisted, she requested that he wait for seven days, after which she would accept him. During the next seven days, the girl took a strong purgative and repeatedly passed stool and vomited. She stored the refuse in buckets. Thus \u201cthe so-called beautiful girl became lean, thin like a skeleton and turned blackish in complexion. The man appeared on the scene well dressed and asked the waiting girl, about the beautiful girl who called him there. The man could not recognize the waiting girl as the same beautiful girl whom he was asking for.<\/p>\n

At last the girl told the powerful man the story of her beauty and told him that she had separated the ingredients of her beauty and stored them up in the reservoirs. He was directed to the store of loose stool and liquid vomit which were emanating unbearable bad smell and thus the whole story of beauty liquid was disclosed to him. Beautiful memories, beautiful human beings beautiful sceneries \u2013 the spiritual world is full of that and in the material world it is perverted reflection of all those things. For a moment it appears to be of the same quality as the spiritual beauty, but when you go and contact in reality \u2013 punah punas carvita carvananam<\/em> \u2013 it is just dead matter, a mirage in the desert, it does not exist but it appears to exist.<\/p>\n

\"Srila-Bhaktisiddhanta-Saraswati-Thakura\"<\/p>\n

Similarly in the material world there is only pleasure in running after a pleasurable object. We should tell ourselves a million times just like Bhakti Siddhantha Saraswati Thakur<\/span><\/a> says \u2013 beat the mind with the shoes \u2013 you are not independent. I either serve Krishna or I serve maya, there is no choice. The truth is that we are constantly servant, which is our dharma. So we take up the service of the Supreme Lord through the pure devotees and follow their instructions. We work hard till we die, no other desire than desire of the Lord. Krishna will feel some compassion \u2013 this man is constantly struggling to control his urges according to My direction.<\/p>\n

Good association is very powerful; it can change our subtle body. Similarly asat sanga<\/em> \u2013 wrong association can deposit nonsense in our mind. We have to be extremely careful with our conscious mind how to choose our association, that makes us, our spiritual life a successful or failure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Maya entices us to run after material happiness. Only Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead can release us from this trap. rajya-kamo manun devan nirrtim tv abhicaran yajet kama-kamo yajet somam akamah purusam param TRANSLATION One who desires domination over a kingdom or an empire should worship the Manus. One who desires victory over an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-326","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-timeless-wisdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iskconbangalore.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iskconbangalore.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iskconbangalore.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iskconbangalore.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iskconbangalore.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.iskconbangalore.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6426,"href":"https:\/\/www.iskconbangalore.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326\/revisions\/6426"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iskconbangalore.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iskconbangalore.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iskconbangalore.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iskconbangalore.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}