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This is the second in a series of essays called "Everything You Know is Wrong"
We have already discussed the fact that we are not this body -- see
Everything You Know is Wrong (About Your Body).
We are all engaged in occupational duties of different types according
to our bodies and minds, and our relation to nature. Bodily or mental
duties change, because we change our bodies. I am now a human being, and
next time, if I become some animal, or a demigod, my occupational duty
changes. If the body is born in India, one is feeling that "It is my
duty to serve my country." Similarly, an Englishman is thinking to serve
his country. The mind also changes according to body, or according to
mind the body becomes engaged in a particular duty. We are contaminated
by so many qualities of nature, and we are making our concoction,
manufacturing our duty. A drunkard, because he has mixed with the
quality of drunkards, he thinks, "Drinking is my duty." When you mix
with the teabaggers, then you become like the teabaggers: "Oh, it is my
duty to protest against the government." Otherwise you cannot stay in
the society of teabaggers. But these occupational duties are not para.
Para means transcendental, supreme.
After Krishna left the planet, the question was
dharmaḥ kaṁ śaraṇaṁ gataḥ.
"After departure of Krishna from this planet to His abode, under whom
was the real occupational duty entrusted?" Krishna gave the answer in
Bhagavad-gītā (18.66)
sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja:
"This is your real occupation. You have got some bodily occupation,
some mental occupation, some intellectual occupation, but you have to
give up all these things. Simply surrender unto Me. This is your real
occupation." Krishna descends to teach us this dharma, or occupational
duty. He has explained karma-yoga, jñāna-yoga, dhyāna-yoga. These are
all occupational duties of the body, of the mind, of intelligence. But
real occupation is the soul's surrender to Krishna, because the soul is
eternal. The body and mind are not eternal.
The bodies and minds of materialistic nondevotees seem to display the
symptoms of life, but this appearance is deceptive. Actually, the
conditioned soul has little control over his own bodily existence.
Against his will, he has to excrete waste, get sick from time to time,
and eventually age and die. And in his mind he unwillingly suffers
anger, hankering and lamentation. Lord Krishna describes this situation
as
yantrārūdhāni māyayā (Bhagavad-gītā 18.61), riding
helplessly as a passenger in a mechanical vehicle. The soul undoubtedly
is alive, and irrevocably so, but in his ignorance that inner life is
covered and forgotten. In its place, the automation of the external mind
and body carries out the dictates of the modes of nature, which force
one to act in a way altogether irrelevant to the dormant needs of the
soul. Calling out to the forgetful prisoners of illusion, the
Śvetāśvatara Upanisad (2.5) urges, "All you sons of immortality, hear,
you who once resided in the divine kingdom!"
So, on the one hand, what is normally viewed as living -- the
material body -- is in actuality a dead machine being manipulated by the
modes of nature. And on the other hand, what the materialist
condescendingly views as inert matter meant for exploitation is in its
unknown essence connected with a living intelligence vastly more potent
than his own. The Vedic civilization recognizes the intelligence behind
nature as belonging to demigods who preside over the various elements,
and ultimately to the Supreme Lord Himself. Matter, after all, cannot
act coherently without the impulse and guidance of a living force. As
Krishna states in Bhagavad-gītā (9.10),
"This material nature, which is one of My energies, is
working under My direction, O son of Kuntī, producing all moving and
nonmoving beings. Under its rule this manifestation is created and
annihilated again and again."
There are many thoughtful writers and creative philosophers, but despite
all their learning, if they cannot approach the Supreme Personality of
Godhead, they are simply useless mental speculators. There are many
sharply intelligent people in this material world, and they discover so
many things for sense gratification. They also analytically study all
the material elements, but despite their expert knowledge and expert
scientific analysis of the whole cosmic manifestation, their endeavors
are useless because they cannot understand the Supreme Personality of
Godhead.
Polluted intelligence has been compared to a prostitute. One who has
not purified his intelligence is said to be controlled by that
prostitute. As stated in Bhagavad-gītā (2.41), those who are actually
serious are conducted by one kind of intelligence, namely, intelligence
in Krishna consciousness. One who is not fixed in proper intelligence
discovers many modes of life. Thus involved in material activities, he
is exposed to the different modes of material nature and subjected to
varieties of so-called happiness and distress. If a man becomes the
husband of a prostitute, he cannot be happy, and similarly one who
follows the dictations of material intelligence and material
consciousness will never be happy.
One must judiciously understand the activities of material nature. As stated in Bhagavad-gītā (3.27)
"The bewildered spirit soul, under the influence of the
three modes of material nature, thinks himself to be the doer of
activities, which are in actuality carried out by nature."
It is like a bull tethered by a nose ring. The bull always thinks he's
in control, but he's being pulled by the nose this way and that. The
bull is being pulled in one direction, and the bull thinks "Let me go
this way." When the bull is pulled in the other direction, then the bull
thinks, "Let me go that way."
Although one follows the dictations of material nature, he happily
thinks himself the master or husband of material nature. Scientists, for
example, try to be the masters of material nature, life after life, not
caring to understand the Supreme Person, under whose direction
everything within this material world is moving. Trying to be the
masters of material nature, they are imitation gods who declare to the
public that scientific advancement will one day be able to avoid the
so-called control of God. In fact, however, the living being, unable to
control the rulings of God, is forced to associate with the prostitute
of polluted intelligence and accept various material bodies. As stated
in Bhagavad-gītā (13.22)
"The living entity in material nature thus follows the
ways of life, enjoying the three modes of nature. This is due to his
association with that material nature. Thus he meets with good and evil
amongst various species."
If one fully engages in temporary fruitive activities and does not solve this real problem, what profit will he gain?