A life-changing experience climbing a mountain on the bus tour.
My dear friends, fellow bus tourees, today we will have an extra ordinary adventure, climbing this mountain. It will be a life-changing experience for many of you, especially if you succeed and make it to the top. Once we reach the top, we will discuss some essential instructions from Bhagavad-gita that will hopefully stay with you for the rest of your life – as they will be deeply engrained upon your conscious memory through this exercise.
Are you ready to have this experience?
Here are the simple instructions. Everyone please take with you your backpack, along with sufficient water, some prasadam snacks, your japa beads, and your Bhagavad-gita.
Along the way, as we climb the mountain path, please collect as many pretty-looking pebbles and stones as you can find and carry. Stuff your pockets. Stuff your back packs. When we get to the top, you will use your pebbles and stones in a very important exercise and discussion about the future of your life.
As we progress up the mountain, please stop from time to time and wait for others to catch up who are slower than you. During the times when you stop to wait for others, please re-hydrate, eat a little snack, and feel free to search for some extra special pebbles and stones that will distinguish your collection from others.
(Halfway up the mountain… )
So, let’s take a look. How are you all doing? Tell me about your collections… Nice.
(At the top of the mountain…)
Okay, you’ve made it! Congratulations! Welcome to the top of this grand mountain on planet Earth, a small speck on Krishna’s universal form.
How was it? What were some of your challenges? Did you feel like turning back at any time? What strategies did you employ to convince your mind to keep on going?
Life is like that sometimes… success often means to keep on going along a good path, even when the going gets tough. But that’s not the main point we came up here to talk about.
You’re probably wondering by now about the grand significance of your collection of pebbles and stones. Please go ahead and pile them up in front of you so we can all see and admire them.
Would anyone like to share about the glories of their collection? Any pebbles or stones that stand out from the rest and are particularly interesting?
(After some comparison…)
The riddle revealed.
Please take out your Bhagavad-gitas and turn to Chapter 6, text number 8.
Would someone like to read the verse, translation and purport? Please listen carefully – as if your life depended on what is about to be said. This book is over two million years old… about as old as this mountain, and is still relevant today. So it’s very special. Observe intense silence so you catch every word of what Lord Krishna is saying, and what Srila Prabhupada explains in the purport.
jnana-vijnana-triptatma
kuta-stho vijitendriyah
yukta ity ucyate yogi
sama-loshtrasma-kancanah
SYNONYMS
jnana -- by acquired knowledge; vijnana -- and realized knowledge; tripta -- satisfied; atma -- a living entity; kuta-sthah -- spiritually situated; vijita-indriyah -- sensually controlled; yuktah -- competent for self-realization; iti -- thus; ucyate -- is said; yogi -- a mystic; sama -- equipoised; loshtra -- pebbles; asma -- stone; kancanah -- gold.
TRANSLATION
A person is said to be established in self-realization and is called a yogi [or mystic] when he is fully satisfied by virtue of acquired knowledge and realization. Such a person is situated in transcendence and is self-controlled. He sees everything -- whether it be pebbles, stones or gold -- as the same.
PURPORT
Book knowledge without realization of the Supreme Truth is useless. This is stated as follows:
atah sri-krishna-namadi
na bhaved grahyam indriyaih
sevonmukhe hi jihvadau
svayam eva sphuraty adah
"No one can understand the transcendental nature of the name, form, quality and pastimes of Sri Krishna through his materially contaminated senses. Only when one becomes spiritually saturated by transcendental service to the Lord are the transcendental name, form, quality and pastimes of the Lord revealed to him." (Bhakti-rasamrita-sindhu 1.2.234)
This Bhagavad-gita is the science of Krishna consciousness. No one can become Krishna conscious simply by mundane scholarship. One must be fortunate enough to associate with a person who is in pure consciousness. A Krishna conscious person has realized knowledge, by the grace of Krishna, because he is satisfied with pure devotional service. By realized knowledge, one becomes perfect. By transcendental knowledge one can remain steady in his convictions, but by mere academic knowledge one can be easily deluded and confused by apparent contradictions. It is the realized soul who is actually self-controlled, because he is surrendered to Krishna. He is transcendental because he has nothing to do with mundane scholarship. For him mundane scholarship and mental speculation, which may be as good as gold to others, are of no greater value than pebbles or stones.
Now please turn to Bhagavad-gita, Chapter 13, texts 8-12.
Humility; pridelessness; nonviolence; tolerance; simplicity; approaching a bona fide spiritual master; cleanliness; steadiness; self-control; renunciation of the objects of sense gratification; absence of false ego; the perception of the evil of birth, death, old age and disease; detachment; freedom from entanglement with children, wife, home and the rest; even-mindedness amid pleasant and unpleasant events; constant and unalloyed devotion to Me; aspiring to live in a solitary place; detachment from the general mass of people; accepting the importance of self-realization; and philosophical search for the Absolute Truth — all these I declare to be knowledge, and besides this whatever there may be is ignorance.
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So what is being said here? Lord Sri Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, our Dearmost Friend and Eternal Well-wisher, is giving us some advice on what is valuable in life, and what is not.
Self-realization, transcendental knowledge (about our eternal relationship with Krishna), realized knowledge (Krishna consciousness and devotional service) is valuable, and as Srila Prabhupada explains in the purport of the first verse we read, the association of a Krishna conscious person who has realized knowledge being satisfied with pure devotional service. This is the most valuable thing. This is the secret of success. THE SECRET! Now you know.
Because we are eternal spiritual living entities, by constitution joyful in service to Krishna, our temporary entrapment in these temporary bodies in this temporary material world on this temporarily manifest mountain in this temporarily manifest country is … temporary, transient, will end soon, and is therefore of not much importance in the grand scheme of our eternal life and relationship with Krishna.
Mundane scholarship – what is mundane scholarship in this context? Everything we learn about the ways and means of this temporary world, how to manipulate this world, how to do business in this world, how to make lots of money and exploit others in this temporary material world… how to enjoy temporary sense gratification in this world… this is mundane scholarship, or ignorance (according to the second verse we read.) All that relates to the temporary nature of this world, which is compared elsewhere in the Bhagavad-gita to a prison house meant to reform us truant living entities. The knowledge of how to live happily in this prison house is mundane scholarship, or ignorance. Everything we learn in public school, high school, college, has only to do with this temporary body and mundane world and how to stay here and exploit it for temporary sense gratification. This is mundane scholarship.
The devotee of Krishna, by engaging us in pure devotional service, gives us the way and the means out of this temporary existence, the way out of this prison house, placing us back into our eternal life of bliss and knowledge, serving our beautiful Lordships Sri Sri Radha-Krishna, the divine couple. The Bhagavad-gita, spoken by Lord Krishna Himself, is the most valuable book in this world – our most prized possession – because it contains the entire science of Krishna consciousness – all there is to know that is of real importance, in one beautiful, concise book. Imagine if God sat down to write a book and somehow you got a hold of that book. What would you do with it?
In contrast, all the riches, gold and mundane knowledge of this material world are compared to pebbles and stones. And how proud we are of our collection of pebbles and stones.
Now, with your permission, I’d like to expand on what we heard earlier, about Krishna Consciouseness being the MOST VALUABLE THING. I’d like to share with you a very special dialogue of Questions and Answers between Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Sri Ramananda Raya on this topic. If you pay close attention, these words can forever change your life. Seriously and sincerely. Please listen with rapt attention.
Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya 8.244-260: Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu asked the questions, and Sri Ramananda Raya gave the answers. In this way they were engaged in discussion throughout the night.
On one occasion the Lord inquired, "Of all types of education, which is the most important?" Ramananda Raya replied, "No education is important other than the transcendental devotional service of Krishna."
Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu then asked Ramananda Raya, "Out of all glorious activities, which is the most glorious?" Ramananda Raya replied, "That person who is reputed to be a devotee of Lord Krishna enjoys the utmost fame and glory."
Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu asked, "Of the many capitalists who possess great riches, who is the topmost?" Ramananda Raya replied, "He who is richest in love for Radha and Krishna is the greatest capitalist."
Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu asked, "Of all kinds of distress, what is the most painful?" Sri Ramananda Raya replied, "Apart from separation from the devotee of Krishna, I know of no unbearable unhappiness."
Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu then inquired, "Out of all liberated persons, who should be accepted as the greatest?" Ramananda Raya replied, "He who has love for Krishna has attained the topmost liberation."
Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu next asked Ramananda Raya, "Among many songs, which song is to be considered the actual religion of the living entity?" Ramananda Raya replied, "That song describing the loving affairs of Sri Radha and Krishna is superior to all other songs."
Then Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu asked, "Out of all auspicious and beneficial activities, which is best for the living entity?" Ramananda Raya replied, "The only auspicious activity is association with the devotees of Krishna."
Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu asked, "What should all living entities constantly remember?" Ramananda Raya replied, "The chief objects of remembrance are always the Lord's holy name, qualities and pastimes."
Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu further inquired, "Out of many types of meditation, which is required for all living entities?" Srila Ramananda Raya replied, "The chief duty of every living entity is to meditate upon the lotus feet of Radha and Krishna."
Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu asked, "Where should the living entity live, abandoning all other places?" Ramananda Raya replied, "He should live in the holy place known as Vrindavana or Vrajabhumi, where the Lord performed His rasa dance."
Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu asked, "Out of all topics people listen to, which is best for all living entities?" Ramananda Raya replied, "Hearing about the loving affairs between Radha and Krishna is most pleasing to the ear."
Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu asked, "Among all worshipable objects, which is the chief?" Ramananda Raya replied, "The chief worshipable object is the holy name of Radha and Krishna, the Hare Krishna mantra."
"And what is the destination of those who desire liberation and those who desire sense gratification?" Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu asked. Ramananda Raya replied, "Those who attempt to merge into the existence of the Supreme Lord will have to accept bodies like those of trees. And those who are overly inclined toward sense gratification will attain the bodies of demigods."
Ramananda Raya continued, "Those who are devoid of all transcendental mellows are like the crows that suck the juice from the bitter fruits of the nimba tree of knowledge, whereas those who enjoy mellows are like the cuckoos who eat the buds of the mango tree of love of Godhead."
Ramananda Raya concluded, "The unfortunate empiric philosophers taste the dry process of philosophical knowledge, whereas the devotees regularly drink the nectar of love of Krishna. Therefore they are the most fortunate of all."
In this way Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Ramananda Raya passed the whole night relishing the mellows of krishna-katha, topics about Krishna. While they were chanting, dancing and crying, the night ended.
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Discussion. What are your thoughts about this topic so far?
(At the end of the discussion.)
So now, what I’d like you all to do, is to slowly make your way back down this mountain and give your prized collection of pebbles and stones, which you endeavored so hard to acquire on the way up, a proper and deserving resting place, appropriate to their value. I’d like to you to take them one by one, as you slowly walk down the mountain, and meditate on each as you throw it into the wind, by the wayside… meditate how each of these pebbles and stones represents some mundane knowledge and scholarship that you may have acquired, that you may have been particularly proud of, and of what value it is, ultimately, in the grand scheme of things. Send your pebbles and stones into the wind – bidding farewell to those things that you once thought were of value… and keep close to you your copy of Bhagavad-gita, your guidebook to Krishna consciousness – REAL LIFE - and cherish it. Read it. Study it. Memorize it backwards and forwards. This beautiful gift of Transcendental Knowledge - Krishna consciousness, spoken by Lord Krishna Himself, is of real value in this world. Along with the association of Krishna conscious devotees who can engage our bodies, minds and senses in Krishna’s pure devotional service.
Is it clear? Don’t throw the pebbles and stones all out at once. Please do this mindfully, with concentration. Meditate on each pebble as you give it back to the mountain you took it from, and think about its significance, and which aspect of mundane knowledge, education and scholarship it represents for you. Think about the statements of Lord Krishna and the wise yogis… who compare mundane education and scholarship and even all the gold in this prison house material world (i.e. material wealth, money and riches) to nothing more valuable than pebbles and stones.
Think about the temporary nature of success and achievements in this material world. Think about how you’ve been here for millions of lifetimes and how in this one life, you have been blessed with transcendental knowledge and the association of devotees of Krishna. In this life you have a chance to stop the cultivation of ignorance, darkness, and take to the process of Krishna consciousness, full of light and eternal bliss. Count your blessings as you rid yourself of your material possessions, your pebbles and stones, the baggage weighing you down.
See you at the bottom of the mountain with your Bhagavad-gitas… and a little bit more self-realized by the time you get back on the bus.
