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Monday Morning Greetings 2022 #12 – Thus Spoke Me

March 21st, 2022

In my years of teaching the path of bhakti, I have come up with a few hopefully quotable sayings that perhaps are worthy to share. Well, here they are:

 

Destiny is the language of God.

God as Viṣṇu, the all-pervading one, witnesses all our activities. He then manifests as kāla, or time, to move the world around us according to the ignorance He has observed in our past activities to teach us the relevant lessons required to rectify those misconceptions. One’s destiny or karma is thus one of the main ways God speaks to enlighten us. As we are generally ignorant of exactly what God is telling us by our karma, He provides a dictionary of archetype karmic experiences to decipher His karmic language called śāstra. Still, as that language may be foreign to us, He further provides for our edification a teacher who knows śāstra and is thus proficient in understanding destiny, the language of God.

 

Rationalization is intelligence in the service of the false ego.

More than anything else the false ego is the desire for superiority—more than even the desire for sensual stimulation, which is why even the wealthiest people with full opportunity for sense gratification often still vie for high political positions. One of the greatest affronts to this desire for superiority is the acknowledgement of having been wrong, something most of us resist by the mechanism of rationalization, where the intelligence is used in the service of the false ego by creatively making excuses even for the most blatant of our mistakes.

 

Krishna is God with His guard down.

Letting one’s guard down is an English idiom meaning to become less guarded about potential danger. In terms of personal relationships, to let one’s guard down has the sense of making oneself vulnerable by not hiding one’s intimate self. God, or anyone else in a position of superiority for that matter, naturally guards His full or intimate nature from those who are subordinate, whether that nature is as a friend or a lover, out of consideration for the dependent’s desire for a formal or reverent relationship. God’s fullest manifestation is Krishna, where He is akhila-rasāmṛta-mūrti, the full embodiment of all intimate loving relationships. For those who have a more intimate relationship with Him, He thus sheds the guard of majesty and manifests His original form of a cowherd boy where He can reveal His intimate side. In other words, Krishna is God with His guard down.

 

Position covers personality. 

As mentioned above, the fullest manifestation of any person is not the height of their position, however great that may be, which in fact covers their fullest being as a lover, parent, or friend. Therefore, for God to fully manifest Himself in His original form as Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He does not overtly display Himself as the Supreme Controller, for position covers personality.

 

Happiness is a heart filled with devotion.

Years ago, while walking near the Yamuna, I met a simple gardener in Vrindavan. Unfortunately, his field of roses had been wiped out that year by the flooding of the Yamuna. He therefore started to share his woes with me, like how he lost almost 200,000 rupees, which was particularly difficult for him as he had four daughters and needed to provide money for their dowry.  As he was complaining, however, I noticed something a bit unusual considering what he was telling me. His eyes and many of his facial features were sparkling with a type of joy. I therefore inquired from him how, despite all his travails, he could be so happy. His answer was profound, almost mantra-like, and I have since quoted it numerous times: “Happiness is a heart filled with devotion!”

 

Thus spoke me!

 

 

 

 

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