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Archive for the 'Monday Morning Greetings' Category

Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #4 – Believers and the Elephant in the Room: Tackling the Challenge of Evil

January 20th, 2025

Believers and the Elephant in the Room: Tackling the Challenge of Evil [1]

At the age of twenty-one Jeff, my youngest cousin, was mercilessly beaten to death by the local police in a Midwest jail for no reason. His crime: He had asthma and was Jewish. From what the family could gather, it was Jeff’s first day of law school and due to his asthma, he sat near the window in the library to help with his breathing. When the school librarian told him to move because the window seats were reserved for upperclassmen, he refused due to his health and out of principle; the place was nearly empty. When he repeatedly denied the librarian’s demands she summoned the local police. They eagerly hauled off this city boy from Los Angeles to jail, and unfortunately he never again saw the light of day again. He died in jail. His parents and his three older sisters, who loved Jeff practically more than their own lives, were devastated. This sort of suffering and loss is all too common in this world. And it leads us to consider the elephant in the room for theistic belief, sometimes called the problem of evil. If God is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnibenevolent, why then when He knows about it, has the power to do something about it, and is supremely good does he allow such cruelty to continue? The existence of evil thus logically contradicts the existence of God. Or does it? Below is my attempt at theodicy: answering the challenge that if God exists, why does He permit evil?

 

Explanation I: One good argument doesn’t necessarily prove one’s point. One must weigh the cumulative evidence or arguments.

 

There may be very strong evidence or argument that one has committed murder, but that is not enough to convict a person. There also may be very strong arguments that one is innocent. The jury must come to a fair conclusion based on the cumulative evidence. Similarly, the argument against God from the reality of evil is a strong argument, but to come to a fair conclusion one must weigh the cumulative evidence. I would posit that the arguments for God’s existence are very strong, stronger than the problem of evil. Just one of the arguments below called “Monkey on a Typewriter”:

 

It is more probable that a monkey on a typewriter by chance produced the complete works of William Shakespeare or the Encyclopedia Britannica than this world happens by chance. And if you think about it, as I write this very article, every word scribed that fits into a sentence, or anything in the world that moves with reason or order, at every second increases exponentially the improbability that this world has happened by chance. And if the probability of the world having arisen by chance is as close to nil as mathematically possible and ever increasingly so, then the account of the world wherein God creates it has far more power to explain the nature of the world than the denial of God and its consequent randomness. Therefore, the argument by evil, although strong, cannot in itself establish the verdict that God does not exist.

 

Explanation II: The argument for evil itself proves the existence of God.

 

By recognizing the existence of evil we are acknowledging that objective moral values exist, which seems to far more point to the existence of God than to deny His existence. If everything ultimately is just particles of matter moving randomly then on what basis can any action be judged moral, and if everything is deterministic how can anyone be held morally accountable? In other words, our capacity to deem something genuinely good or morally evil requires an acknowledgement of something transcendent that is morally meaningful (God), otherwise moral judgments, even concerning the most horrendous actions, become reduced to subjective expressions of cultural conditioning or personal preference simply based on chance and consequent evolution. Even the most hardened atheists shudder to fully embrace the consequence of atheism where even the most horrendous actions are deterministic and not objectively wrong. Therefore the existence of evil, rather than denying God, points to His existence.

 

Explanation III: The acceptance of free will includes the choice for evil.

 

Love, which is the supreme ethic, requires freedom and thus the possibility of wrong choice—even evil. Thus rather than evil negating the possibility of God, evil affirms God’s existence because it is a world of humanity and not compliant or forced “good”. Simply put, God allows sin (moral evil) at the cost of freedom and that is His perfection. There are many reasonable arguments, both simple and complex, by substantial religionists and philosophers that deal with this train of response to the problem of evil. They are a little beyond the scope of this paper, but I recommend researching them. [2]

 

Although there is some weight to the argument of free will, I can also conceive some challenges to the argument by a conception of an all-powerful God who somehow is able to create a free choice and consequent love without the possibility for evil,[3] which is why I like the argument given by Leibniz as a complimentary one. It follows.

 

Explanation IV: The world God created is the best possible of all worlds.[4]

 

Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura gave a similar reason to one posited above by Leibniz. He argued that God would not be complete as the enjoyer of all energies if He didn’t also have the experience of exchanging with the material energy. On the surface, this argument may make God look self-serving or callous, but I think there is a sense to it that I would purport as follows: The material world allows for the beauty of compassion, mercy, forgiveness, and the special flavor of a soul’s personal triumph over suffering that enhances God’s manifestation rather than contradicts His existence.

 

Explanation V: Soul-making theodicy and the law of karma. [5]

 

Evil only negates the existence of God if you look at the world from the very selfish perspective of affirming God’s goodness only when it serves our enjoyment and control. Judging God in that way is like a spoiled child evaluating his parent’s character based on the rewards and punishments he receives. In a similar way, evil and suffering is best understood by looking at the world from God’s perspective, which judges what is ultimately good, not what superficially rewards or punishes. In traditional Indian thought this perspective falls under the conception of the law of karma, which sees and even tries to prove that whatever happens to one, even if painful, are perfect conditions created by God to rectify one’s behavior for the purpose of everlasting joy. At least one serious about spiritual life should be able to connect the trials and tribulations in one’s life to his or her personal growth and then to project that onto the world. Evil does not therefore a priori negate the existence of God’s benevolence. It is a tough pill to swallow, but all traditional Indian philosophies, even if they disagree fundamentally on many core points, agree on this one: There is a moral force called the law of karma that is Absolute and ultimately good, even when one is on the receiving end of cruelty.

 

Explanation VI: Humility

 

It is one thing to equate suffering with growth and renewal, but what about pointless suffering? Does not pointless suffering challenge the existence of God? Bhīṣmadeva answered a similar question when enlightening Yudhiṣṭhira. I like his answer from a traditional Indian philosophical perspective: “No one can understand the inexplicable will of the Lord.”[6] As we have been entangled in this world since time immemorial, it is not possible to estimate our level of misconception and what it takes for the Lord to enlighten us. I think anyone on a genuine spiritual path cannot help but be amazed at the sheer number of constant and unending painful life lessons that one has endured that have helped expand one’s present awareness, lessons that one had absolutely no ability to comprehend at the time they occurred. So basically the answer to seemingly pointless suffering is to humbly accept that we lack the capacity to understand what we need, or to fully ever understand God’s will.

 

The elephant in the room—the problem of evil: Acknowledge it. Confront it. The theistic conclusion still stands.

 

 


[1] I have been busy organizing our 19th annual Puri retreat. Please enjoy this article originally posted on March 26, 2018.

[2] Alvin Plantinga’s summary of his argument for free will: A world containing creatures who are significantly free (and freely perform more good than evil actions) is more valuable, all else being equal, than a world containing no free creatures at all. Now God can create free creatures, but He can’t cause or determine them to do only what is right. For if He does so, then they aren’t significantly free after all; they do not do what is right freely. To create creatures capable of moral good, therefore, He must create creatures capable of moral evil; and He can’t give these creatures the freedom to perform evil and at the same time prevent them from doing so. As it turned out, sadly enough, some of the free creatures God created went wrong in the exercise of their freedom; this is the source of moral evil. The fact that free creatures sometimes go wrong, however, counts neither against God’s omnipotence nor against His goodness; for He could have forestalled the occurrence of moral evil only by removing the possibility of moral good.

[3] In Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism we have the concept of Śrī Rādhā and her eternal associates, who are the embodiment of the highest love, but have no choice of choosing evil.

[4] Gottfried Wilhelm (von) Leibniz, 17th century German Philosopher

[5] John Hick developed what is called “soul-making” theodicy in which he argued that God allows evil and suffering in the world in order to develop humans into virtuous creatures capable of following His will.

[6] Bhāg. 1.9.16

Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #3 – Do You Believe in Miracles?!

January 13th, 2025

Do You Believe in Miracles?![1]

 

When something miraculous happens, we have two mutually exclusive choices to explain it. Either its cause is supernatural or within the scope of known natural laws. For example, the famous magician David Copperfield made the Statue of Liberty disappear. His audience was blown away, but when later it was discovered how he did it, it was clear that it was just a brilliantly orchestrated stunt.

 

But does that mean that all “miracles” have an explanation within the laws of nature? In this post I will explain at least some miracles in my own life that don’t seem to have a natural explanation. You can be the judge about which approach provides the best way to understand them: Are they miracles, events not explicable by scientific laws, or just natural occurrences?

 

The mystic jaundice doctor

 

In Vrindavan, there was a simple sādhu named Shyama Sakhi who cured jaundice by chanting mantras and pouring water over the afflicted. As the water turned yellow, the jaundice would wash away, so he claimed. Many people I knew gave testimony backing his claim. Despite their claims, I remained skeptical until a visit to Bangalore one summer when I completely lost my appetite and began to sleep all day. I was forced to immediately accept medical help because in three days I had a non-refundable ticket for the forty-eight-hour train ride back to Vrindavan for an extremely important meeting. The doctor checked me thoroughly and pronounced his diagnosis: “You have a very severe case of jaundice and must rest for a minimum of three weeks!” I wasn’t happy when he also nixed my travels plans. The train ride was much too dangerous for someone in my condition, he emphatically informed me. By providence, that afternoon I met a local person visiting our ashram who was informed of my condition. He told me of a simple middle-class housewife who could cure jaundice. I was desperate and I made an appointment to see her that afternoon. I remember this very ordinary housewife splashing water over my eyes. The water turned yellow, and soon I was free of jaundice. Within a day I was eating samosas and was able to return to Vrindavan as scheduled! Seems like a miracle to me.

 

The mystic rasagullā

 

In 1974, my college roommate invited me to visit him at ISKCON Dallas during my summer break from graduate school. We had met devotees four years earlier together. While he immediately joined, I hesitated. Despite my own conviction in bhakti, I was unable to make the decision to become a “devotee.” In those days, for a man that meant shaving up and moving into the ashram. By fortune, however, just a week after I arrived in Dallas, Śrīla Prabhupāda was also visiting the temple. He invited all the devotees to his room to distribute prasādam to them. I remember waiting on a long line for my turn to enter. The whole time I was fervently praying for the strength to fully surrender, but still the obstacles seemed insurmountable. I concluded that despite my desire to join, that there was just no way I could become a devotee. When my turn came, I walked respectfully into Śrīla Prabhupāda’s room, paid my obeisances, stretched out my hand and received a rasagullā directly from his hand. The minute I bit into it, all doubts were gone and I decided to stay and move into the ashram. I was shocked. How did that happen? Certainly, those without my faith could offer so many natural explanations based on their study of psychology. I know my mind, however. The change was just so sudden, so beyond my reasoning at the time, and the transformation so timed with that one bite, that the only plausible explanation is the inconceivable mercy of God’s devotee.

 

The miracle of coincidence

 

I have written about this several times. I met devotees at a Sunday feast in Los Angeles, became inspired, and the next day with my friends headed up to San Francisco on Highway 1 singing Hare Krishna. Our first stop was a Chinese restaurant. When we left the restaurant, the devotees were right outside chanting in a lively kirtan. We joined in. That evening the only place we could find to sleep was the parking lot of a football stadium adjacent to Golden Gate Park. There was only one Hare Krishna Center in the whole city. Somehow the back door of that storefront temple opened to that parking lot and by coincidence we parked our car directly under their window! The rest is history, so to speak. I became a devotee.[2] An excerpt from an article where I describe this incident:

 

“Basically, I argue that if one carefully studies his own life he will find a synchronicity between certain events, or ‘meaningful coincidences’ as Carl Jung defined it, whose probability of occurrence was so small that it was far more likely that the cause of those events rests beyond any random occurrence under the laws of nature. What makes those events even more improbable is the link between those external events and our inner life, as if those events were personally directed towards helping us grow.”

 

In summary, the best explanation for the preponderance of the occurrence of mutual coincidences in my life, and a devout life in general, is so far beyond the explanation of chance, that the best explanation for them rests outside the laws of nature.

 

The miracle of fine tuning

 

This is a big topic and a more general one, but it involves a miracle in our life, nonetheless. Basically, the universe is extremely fine-tuned for the appearance of life. Many favorable, but unlikely, conditions, are met. The probability of all those conditions happening by chance is likely under 1 in 10120. The conditional probability of life arising by chance should be set close to zero. So yes, the existence of a fine-tuned universe supporting our existence itself is just a miracle. And the best explanation is God.

 

Do You Believe in Miracles?!

 


[1] This is a relatively famous quote spoken in 1980, but perhaps not for someone born after 1965 not in the USA. Anyone in my audience also know the source?

[2] https://wavesofdevotion.com/2016/06/13/an-original-argument-for-the-existence-of-god/

 

Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #2 – How Intellectuals Found God

January 6th, 2025

In my senior year of high school, Joseph Zogby, my English teacher, asked the students to write an essay on Voltaire’s quotation, “If God did not exist it would be necessary to invent him.” Looking back, it seemed Mr. Zogby wanted to indoctrinate us with his own values. I fell for the bait. I wrote what I thought was a brilliant essay showing how God was a concept born of convenience. It all but reconfirmed in my heart the intellectual ethos of the ‘60s—religion was just the opiate of the people.

 

It appears that times have changed. People are again turning to God. From 2019 there has been almost an eighty per cent increase in converts to orthodox Christianity.[1] One of the largest Christian revival meetings in US history took place just recently at Ashbury University in Kentucky and it was led almost entirely by young people.[2] It has also been my own experience that more and more people are turning to God after years of turning away.

 

What convinced me of this revival more than anything else was my observation that even many modern intellectuals, those who were previously against God, were turning to Him. This was confirmed for me by a very interesting article I read in The Free Press titled “How Intellectuals Found God”[3] which told the story of prominent intellectuals coming into the theistic fold.

 

Matthew Crawford is a best-selling author and respected philosopher. At the beginning of his career, he seemed to be the typical American academic who in his own words “was impressed, as a young man, with Nietzsche’s critique of Christianity.”

 

Thirty-five years later, however:

 

“I liken it sometimes to a psychedelic experience. You feel like you’ve gained access to some layer of reality, but you just weren’t seeing it.

 

“A lot of very thoughtful people who once believed reason and science could explain everything—why we’re here, what comes after we’re gone, what it all means—are now feeling a genuine hunger for something more,” he said.

 

“There has to be a larger order that comprehends us and makes a demand on us,” Crawford added. “It’s clear that we can’t live without a sense of meaning beyond ourselves.”

 

The article also charted other prominent intellectuals’ spiritual growth:

 

Johnathan Haidt, New York University psychologist and best-selling author, although perhaps not a convert, reaffirmed this phenomenon in his own way. “There is a God-shaped hole in every human heart, and I believe it was put there by evolution.”

 

Jordan Peterson, world renowned academic, philosopher and biblical scholar, and author of the New York Times’ recent best seller We Who Wrestle with God: Perceptions of the Divine, never directly declared his faith in God, although he was pressed on the matter several times. Recently, however, in an interview, he finally acknowledged it: “I would say God is hyper-real, God is the reality upon which all reality depends.”

 

In this way, the article traced the way of ten prominent thoughtful people, previously agnostic at best, who have “reasoned their way to God”.

 

At this point of the Monday Morning Greetings, and near the deadline to get it to my editor, a question arose in my mind.  “What’s the focus here and how is it relevant to your audience, those of the path of bhakti?” My take:

 

It is always edifying when reading a well thought out piece that confirms an observation of one’s own—in this case, that the Western intellectual world is more and more turning to God. I am not surprised. The Western world has increasingly descended into chaos under the direction of atheistic and post-modern thought. It has become increasingly obvious to thoughtful people that such chaos and suffering are caused by straying from a rational order represented by the teachings or words (logos) of God-centered wisdom traditions. Reflecting on that idea—and I am sure that they are not unaware of the harm also caused by religious fanaticism—they looked back at a prior world which in many ways had more of a semblance of order and harmony.

 

This revival should also give solace to those following the bhakti tradition. We are taught that even at the stage of perfection, when one no longer has personal suffering, we will still suffer, but only for the suffering of others. It is thus good news to hear that especially in the West, where society has been increasingly deprived of the experience of God, with secular reasoning taking its place, that more intellectual leaders are finding God. And perhaps we can all even become brothers-in-arms “to deliver the Western countries, which are filled with impersonalism and voidism,” which is our spiritual master’s stated mission.

 


[1] https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1722890523/saintconstantineorg/wwfz57wzdrdkx7tj1xu1/ConvertstoOrthodoxy.pdf

[2] https://www.thefp.com/p/why-students-in-kentucky-have-been

[3] https://www.thefp.com/p/how-intellectuals-found-god-ayaan-hirsi-ali-peter-thiel-jordan-peterson

 

Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #1 – Happy 9th Birthday Monday Morning Greetings!

December 30th, 2024

Every year I celebrate the birthday of Monday Morning Greetings, January 4, 2016, by dedicating my post on the Monday closest to the New Year to an aspect of the process of my writing.

 

This year I will discuss my voice in writing, the consistent style or personality in my composition. Looking at it from just a slightly different perspective, when you read my posts, I hope my voice comes through as if you were personally hearing me speak. Are you hearing my voice now?

 

In the “Zonal Ācārya Days” they had a unique arrangement in the Krishna Balaram Mandir in Vrindavan for the morning Bhāgavatam class. Towering over the vyāsāsana for the Bhāgavatam speaker was an adjacent and bigger marble vyāsāsana. If in attendance, one of the eleven “ācāryas” would sit there facing the audience. One day during my class, Bhavananda, the local ācārya, was sitting next to me. He is certainly, to say the least, a flamboyant and dramatic person. That day he really liked my class. Immediately after it was finished, he raised both hands above his head with palms out and fingers gently moving back and forth. He pointed towards the audience and declared in the confident mood and voice of a born and bred New Yorker (although I think he is from Jersey City just across the Hudson River):

 

“I like Dhanurdhara Swami because he is from New York, Jewish, and a devotee!”

 

He paused and then with even more drama declared:

 

“In that order!”

 

I hope my readers hear my “voice” in my writing, but not in that order. I am first and foremost a devotee and from Vrindavan, and I hope that voice drowns out my Brooklyn accent, which I am told persists a bit after almost fifty years in Vrindavan. I am also karmically packaged from New York and if you also hear that voice, so be it, especially if it flavors my overall voice in writing in Krishna’s service.

 

The most important point is that I and the regular readers of Monday Morning Greetings have been together for many years. You hear my voice every week and thus know me and I guess we are all therefore friends. I don’t write from a distance. I share my life, and even a little of my struggles, which I hope makes my writing somewhat authentic.

 

A few other observations about my writing:

 

Writing is like giving birth to a child. It also takes birth after labor and when it is born, there is great joy. For parents to get the joy of parenthood they must wait nine months in addition to enduring the labor of the mother during birth, and to produce a book and get that joy takes even longer, sometimes years. What I like about my writing is that I don’t have to wait to get that joy. I get it every week by giving birth to Monday Morning Greetings. I therefore thank you for lending me your time by reading it. Now I will reveal something personal about Monday Morning Greetings that you may find interesting.

 

I have a penchant for branding. Do you know where I got the title for this weekly publication?

 

Well, before Krishna consciousness I was, like many Americans, a sports junkie, so to speak. I especially enjoyed the football (not soccer) games on Sunday. The person with the most responsibility in directing the football team during the game is the quarterback. When someone criticizes or gives advice about a game after it has been played, that person is therefore called a Monday-morning quarterback. The term has become a general term for someone who passes judgment on and criticizes something after the event. Now, I am not exactly doing that in Monday Morning Greetings, but I got the name after a famous football column called “Monday-Morning Quarterback” which reviewed the games each Monday, a day after they were played. When branding my column, I thought the appearance of the column on Monday would help people greet the coming week with some wisdom teachings rather than something mundane. Monday Morning Greetings, like Monday-morning quarterback, seemed to me a catchy title. I think it works.

 

I think the main voice I would like the reader to hear is a devotional intellectual who shares his realizations on relevant topics from devotional practice to societal issues, mostly within a spiritual movement. Sometimes, like this week, it becomes more personal, and perhaps you hear that voice today more prominently.

 

Well, I am a proud father. Happy ninth birthday, Monday Morning Greetings![1]

 


[1] Every week Rathi Krishna sends me a list of people who clicked on my articles so that I get a sense of the audience and some people occasionally write me to appreciate or comment on an article. It helps me to know my audience. I see on the list many people I met years ago. If any of the readers would like to drop me a line and say hello or introduce themselves, I welcome that, and this is the time. Perhaps some could even pick out an article they especially liked and explain why. They are all listed on www.wavesofdevotion.com.

 

Monday Morning Greetings 2024 #52 – My Greatest Fear

December 23rd, 2024

Well, maybe not the greatest fear. The Gītā explains that the greatest fear is losing this rare human birth which gives us the ability to turn to God. Fortunately, that’s not my worry. This guarantees that one on the path of God is protected from losing that precious opportunity. So, what is my greatest fear?

 

Presently, I am reading the first chapter of the Tenth Canto. I am up to the part where Vasudeva is trying to pacify Kaṁsa. Kaṁsa is threatening Vasudeva’s wife Devakī because her eighth child is predicted to be the cause of his death. Vasudeva, an expert diplomat, unsuccessfully tries many approaches to assuage Kaṁsa’s fear. One of his last attempts is the use of philosophy. He briefly explains to Kaṁsa transmigration of the soul. This body is not all in all, he explains. What we do in this life, and especially the mental state we develop, creates our next body. You will not therefore solve anything by killing Devakī. Rather, the heinous activity of killing your sister, and especially your envy of her, will carry you to a body in your next life racked with even more misfortune and fear.

 

What really struck me in this section, even more than the verses, was how this point was developed in Śrīla Prabhupāda’s commentaries. Here’s the gist of it:

 

“At the time of death, according to his mental condition, the living being is carried by the subtle body, consisting of mind, intelligence and ego, to another gross body.” Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.1 40, purport

 

Of course, I knew this already, but Śrīla Prabhupāda’s purports, and the conviction with which he spoke, forced me to examine more closely all that I am doing and the consciousness in which it is done. If even my devotional activities sometimes get subtly mixed with motive, then what is the quality of consciousness in which I lead my daily life? Am I actually creating the proper mental state to carry me to a spiritual body in the future?

 

If you look at all this soberly and honestly this is scary business. But aren’t devotees supposed to be fearless? Yes, but it seems this is the one fear that devotees should have.

 

“A pure devotee is always fearful of material existence. No one knows what will happen next, for one may have to change his body at any moment (tathā dehāntara-prāpti). Knowing this fact, a pure devotee acts in such a way that he will not have his life spoiled by being obliged to accept another body and undergo the tribulations of material existence.” Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.2.6, purport

 

Of course, there is the promise in Gītā that Śrī Krishna will provide what his devotees lack and preserve what they have. Didn’t Śrīla Prabhupāda promise that he would deliver his sincere devotees who adhere to their vows and serve his mission and isn’t Lord Caitanya the deliverer of the most fallen? There’s an abundance of mercy, undeserved kindness, in serving the mission of God’s pure devotee. I truly believe that, but it is also true that normally only a pure mind attracts God’s full mercy and carries one to the best spiritual destination. That’s what I am reading today in purport after purport by Śrīla Prabhupāda. Isn’t it better I look at my life in that way rather than expecting “an honorary degree” or “free ticket.”

 

My conclusion is that I would be a fool to just wait for mercy to elevate me to my desired destination. I must be cognizant of what I do and how I think and pray that my sincerest effort attracts the Lord’s mercy and grants my spiritual wishes. That is my greatest hope and failure my greatest fear.

 

 

Monday Morning Greetings 2024 #51 – The Battle for Our Souls

December 16th, 2024

The Battle for Our Souls[1]

 

The success of yoga depends on our ability to focus our attention on a particular object. Never in history has there been so much competition for that attention. Perhaps the biggest competitor for our attention, and thus our spiritual life, is social media. Here’s a short analysis as to why.[2]

 

A successful business markets a product. How then did Big Tech become one of the most successful commercial enterprises in history overnight if it’s available for free? The answer is simple: we are the product. Big Tech markets us to advertisers. We are a valuable commodity because advertisers seek certainty in sales, and the extraordinary amount of data Big Tech collects on us ensures them that certainty. Whoever learns the science of utilizing the vast data of our preferences and proclivities will be, without doubt, successful in sales. Such predictability is obviously the advertiser’s and businessman’s dream.

 

I think we all already know this to some extent. What I don’t think we know is the extent to which they are able to control us. Simply put, we are dealing with behavior-changing geniuses. They have perfected the science of recording the gradual and imperceptible changes of what we think, what we do, and how to market things not to help us but to fill their pockets. Perhaps even more frightening is that as they collect more and more data over time, their prediction models on each of us becomes increasingly refined, enabling them to not only control us for commercial purposes but also to inculcate their own materialistic values.

 

There are obvious ramifications and a basic conflict in all this for those with a spiritual goal. On one side we stand, trying to mold our attention towards a culture of selflessness and devotion, and on the other side stands a business model geared to get as much of our attention as possible for the purpose of inflating our ego and greed. Just see the juxtaposition. While the whole purpose of yoga is to quell the frivolous fluctuations of the mind, the purpose behind social media is to exponentially increase them. It is a battle for our souls. May Lord Krishna save us.

 

“There are only two industries that call their customers ‘users’: illegal drugs and software.”—Edward Tufte

 


[1] This is a new edit of a Monday Morning Greetings originally published December 27, 2021.

[2] Much of my analysis comes from the documentary The Social Dilemma.

 

Monday Morning Greetings 2024 #50 – Where There is no Circumference, the Center is Everywhere

December 9th, 2024

Recently, I was gifted a beautiful deity of Śrīla Prabhupāda. In fact, I think most of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s disciples were gifted one by the brilliant devotees in Russia who developed this project.

 

What is the eight-centimeter deity made of?

 

Coins were collected from every country that Śrīla Prabhupāda visited and then they were melted together for the mold! The deity is even quaintly boxed so that when you open the box it reveals an altar where the open doors become two picture panels on each side. On the left side is Śrīla Prabhupāda in Tompkins Square Park in New York, and on the right is Śrīla Prabhupāda in Radha-Damodar in Vrindavan, which is especially inspiring for me.

 

Those places, New York and Vrindavan, are my prabhu-datta deśa, the place where the Lord or His devotee grants one residence to serve. In this case, they are the two places gifted to me for residence for my service to Śrīla Prabhupāda.

 

I carefully started to worship the deity in a simple way—massaging it with oil, bathing it in warm water and then offering flowers. I am not by my psychology mystical in orientation. That is, my ordinary life does not seem to be overly governed by spontaneous instincts. Rather, I usually more move forward in life after careful thought and a healthy skepticism.

 

But in my worship of this Śrīla Prabhupāda deity, I felt spontaneously a very strong presence of Śrīla Prabhupāda, bringing out my sambandha, my relationship with him, the energy of love we may all feel in relationship to another. I immediately thought of the quotation in the title above, by Blaise Pascal, the French Catholic writer, philosopher, and scientist.[1] It seemed somehow to connect with my strong realization that Śrīla Prabhupāda was there in his form.

 

I don’t know what exactly what Pascal meant by the quote, but I take it to mean that when one’s sense of reality goes beyond a conventional understanding or measure, then a conventional understanding based on that reality breaks down. In this case, the concept that all objects must have a center breaks down in context that there is no limit or circumference to space. Similarly, the conventional view that God has a specific location in the universe falters in the context of God being infinite or having no circumference. Rather because of this context we can only commune with or locate the Divine in this material world by the vehicle of faith, which is our conviction of the worthiness of a personal God, or His eternal associates with Him in His transcendental abode, and our response to them in devotion. Isn’t that our philosophy, that faith attracts the transcendental Lord or His eternal associates to appear in our hearts, or the deity, or anywhere within the material sphere, inspired by their devotee’s love?

 

When the great demon Hiraṇyakaśipu is furious with his son Prahlāda’s deep faith in God, he challenges him. Prahlāda had asserted that God is all-pervading and everywhere. In response, his father strikes a pillar in anger with his sword, demanding to know if God is there. The Lord in the form of Nṛsiṁha immediately appears there to protect His devotee.

 

The Brahma-saṁhitā also describes this phenomenon of God having no location in this world in a very vivid way, denying the accessibility of God by material means, even if one travels at the speed mind for millions of years.

 

So that is the theistic experience. One’s distance from God is determined by one’s faith, or lack thereof, and not by a physical distance. That was strongly my experience while focusing my faith and worship on the beautiful form of Śrīla Prabhupāda. I strongly felt Śrīla Prabhupāda’s presence there and why not? His presence is everywhere that his followers focus their faith, whether through his teachings, our service, or worship of His deity form. Because where there is no circumference, the center is everywhere.

 


[1] I do not recall where I first heard this quotation, but it was in a Vaiṣṇava lecture or book. When I researched the source I found various references.

Monday Morning Greetings 2024 #49 – Self-consciousness as the Root of All Suffering

December 2nd, 2024

I think I need here to first define my terms. By self-consciousness I don’t mean self-awareness where you realize or become aware of the self and therefore think of others before yourself in the mood of service. By self-consciousness, I am referring to the disposition of focusing on oneself without considering others. I like how Jordan Peterson, the sometimes controversial, but insightful psychologist puts it.

 

“Self-consciousness is so connected with negative emotion that they are not statistically distinguishable. And there is no difference between being concerned about yourself and suffering… To be concerned with yourself is connected with anxiety and shame and grief and disappointment.”

 

One other important clarification before I expand on the theme of today’s post. The criticism of self-consciousness as described here is not denying our responsibility to take care of our needs, or even our pleasure. It is rather challenging the mindset that seems to subtly plague us all, at least to some extent, that pleasure is the most important thing in one’s life.

 

I found it interesting that self-consciousness even statistically, or shall we say scientifically, relates to negative emotion and suffering. But I not surprised. Such a conception is foundational to the bhakti philosophical conclusions.

 

What is the root of suffering? Suffering is the natural result of going against nature—a kind of cosmic parental punishment to veer us back to our true and fulfilling self. In other words, by constitution we are meant for service and when we deny our nature we suffer like a fish out of water.

 

It is not hard to perceive how self-consciousness also relates to negative emotions. The objective of self-consciousness is to enjoy and control, a temper that contradicts our very nature and thus one that is doomed. Naturally this is followed by feelings of anxiety, disappointment, grief and shame.

 

The correlation of self-consciousness and suffering is not exclusive to the bhakti canon. It’s the basis of all spiritual traditions. I especially like how in one Buddhist text self-consciousness and self-awareness are compared:

 

“Pleasure is the happiness of a madman and happiness is the pleasure of a sage.”[1]

 

The plague of self-consciousness is also on the minds of the more contemporary aware. Tom Wolfe, the legendary journalist and contributing editor to New York in 1976 wrote an exposé of the self-consciousness of the post-war generation in a brilliant essay titled The Me Decade.[2] There he describes how a type of unapologetic hedonism was embraced by the young in the west at that time. I especially like the line:

 

“They will never understand duty above self.”

 

This week the concept that self-consciousness is the root of all suffering intrigued me. It’s certainly food for thought.

 

 


[1] This quote was referenced in a book Happiness by the renowned contemporary Buddhist, Matthieu Ricard. I don’t have the book with me and can’t give the exact reference.

[2] https://nymag.com/article/tom-wolfe-me-decade-third-great-awakening.html

 

Monday Morning Greetings 2024 #48 – Movement or Mission?

November 25th, 2024

Movement or Mission?[1]

 

In a discussion with a friend, he distinguished between the Hare Krishna Movement (its structure and organization) and its mission (its goals or objectives), stressing the importance of the mission: awakening our eternal relationship with Krishna. It was a passing remark in a brief discussion, but as I reflected on his statement, I was inspired to give it some more thought. It seems important to make a careful distinction between the concepts of “movement” and “mission” in order to balance their relative value. I would like to deepen my understanding of that relationship by first discussing the views of two scholars on the subject, beginning with the thoughts of the late Joseph T. O’Connell, one of the most prominent scholars of South Asian religion in the modern era.

 

Professor O’Connell defined the purpose of an institution as carrying its culture – what is right, real, and of value – into the future.[2] He further divided institutions into two divisions: hard institutions, where the values are preserved by a hierarchical management structure, and soft institutions, where the values are preserved more spontaneously through its teachers, devotional practices, and, most importantly, its sacred literatures. In the history of Caitanya Vaishnavism, both have had a role in preserving its culture, but the latter has proven to be more important, because it deals more exclusively with Sri Caitanya’s mission. An example of such prioritization is demonstrated in a fairly well-known exchange between Srila Prabhupada[3] and his guru, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati. His guru shared with him his concern about the terrible infighting that was occurring amongst his disciples over control of their lavish, newly built temple in Calcutta, and expressed his regret: “If I could sell this marble of this temple, and secure some money, and if I could print some books, that would have been better. That would have been better.” He then instructed Srila Prabhupada that, “if you ever get money, print books,” ensuring that his mission would be carried into the future. In other words, he prioritized the soft institution, where the mission is inherently embedded.

 

Richard Rohr is a Franciscan friar and a prominent spiritual teacher and author. In his book Falling Upward, he also makes a distinction between the external structures of an institution meant to support spiritual life and an institution’s core mission. However, he focuses on such distinctions not in terms of formal organizations, but in terms of how they are relevant in an individual’s personal life. To highlight that distinction, he outlines the journey of the hero as expressed in classical literature, which is inevitably divided into two parts of life. The first part, the external function of religion, is developing the structures of life to hold our internal development. We have all done that in our quest for stable family, suitable occupation, reasonable self-esteem, and supportive spiritual community. In the second part of the hero’s life, by destiny, these same structures that were necessary become an impediment and collapse. The hero is then forced to take full shelter of their spiritual essence, which becomes the second part of the hero or spiritual aspirant’s life. As one’s material protective agents break down, one is impelled forward in spiritual life, which is a phenomenon Rohr called “falling upwards.” I assume most reading this who are on a spiritual path have experienced how the unintended failure of aspects of our external support systems have impelled us to take shelter of the real purpose of those systems – our spiritual life – which perhaps we had neglected or not fully utilized.

 

I think I now understand more fully my friend’s concern. Hard Institutions are very important in preserving culture and facilitating spiritual life. Therefore, much energy must certainly be put into maintaining and promoting them. The objective of those institutions—and I think he was obviously referring to ISKCON, where he is a loyal and respected member—is the careful development of our spontaneous relationship with Krishna as outlined in the tradition’s sacred texts. That focus becomes more and more a necessity as the institution grows older and more stable, and its membership matures and ages. The tendency of spiritual institutions, however, is to make the maintenance and expansion of the hierarchical institution its main focus, and, in the process, lose sight of its purpose or mission, which is to bring its individual members back to Godhead. In the case of the Hare Krishna Movement, that means an increased focus on the devotional practices the tradition outlines to achieve that goal.

 

I appreciate my friend’s concern. I hope I added something to our discussion, because there is nothing more important to a spiritual movement than clarity about its mission.

 


[1] Originally published on February 8th, 2021.

[2] Joseph T O’Connell’s article on the subject:  https://gaudiyadiscussions.gaudiya.com/topic_1446.html

[3] Srila Bhaktisiddhanta is also known among his followers as Srila Prabhupada. In this article I refer to him as Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati and Srila A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, his disciple, as Srila Prabhupada, the honorific title that he is also known as.

Monday Morning Greetings 2024 #47 – The Mind of Śrīla Prabhupāda — Part Two

November 18th, 2024

Last week I wrote about the special features of Brahmā-vimohana-līlā. It was the last commentary Śrīla Prabhupāda wrote and the last pastime in the kaumāra-līlā phase of Krsna’s life. It emphasizes an essential siddhānta (philosophical conclusion) that readers need to understand before proceeding in their study of the Tenth Canto of the Bhāgavatam. Most importantly it shows Śrīla Prabhupāda’s almost superhuman and determined effort to complete it. While studying that līlā, I noticed something else—Śrīla Prabhupāda in his last days not only reveals the deep philosophical conclusions found there, but also provides a unique view of the world through his own eyes inspired by the story he was commenting on. Some examples:

 

The Beauty of Vrindavan

 

“Vṛndāvana forest is always filled with the chirping and cooing of birds like cuckoos (kokila), ducks (haṁsa) and cranes (sārasa), and it is also full of peacocks (mayūrākule). The same sounds and atmosphere still prevail in the area where our Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma temple is situated. Everyone who visits this temple is pleased to hear the chirping of the birds as described here (kūjat-kokila-haṁsa-sārasa).” (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.13.5, purport)

 

His Appreciation and Concern for the Society He Created

 

“Like the whorl of a lotus flower surrounded by its petals and leaves, Kṛṣṇa sat in the center, encircled by lines of His friends, who all looked very beautiful.” (Bhāgavatam 10.13.8)

 

Śrīla Prabhupāda comments:

 

“The present Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is an attempt to keep Kṛṣṇa in the center, for if this is done all activities will automatically become beautiful and blissful.” (Bhāgavatam 10.13.8, purport)

 

His Strong Desire to Establish the Scientific Basis of Krsna Consciousness

 

I was in Vrindavan during Śrīla Prabhupāda’s last days with us, when the Bhaktivedanta Institute held its first “Life Comes from Life” conference there. I was also there when his scientist disciples, who hosted and made presentations in the conference, came into his room directly from the conference’s closing ceremony to give Śrīla Prabhupāda a report. Obviously, they were still wearing their suits and ties, the attire they wore to the conference, instead of the robes that they would normally wear especially when seeing Śrīla Prabhupāda. When Śrīla Prabhupāda saw them in their suits, he immediately ordered Tamal Krishna Mahārāja, his secretary, to bring them chairs. His disciples, however, hesitated and responded that they were his students and happy to just sit at his feet. Śrīla Prabhupāda, however, insisted, “No, you are respected scientists!” indirectly expressing his appreciation for their service. Evidently, by his response the importance of this type of preaching was very much on his mind and that comes through in his purports to this chapter, specifically in the ones describing the moment Lord Brahmā became bewildered by Śrī Krishna’s mystic power. Śrīla Prabhupāda saw Brahmā’s pride and consequent bewilderment as analogous to the position of the modern-day atheistic scientists, who like Brahmā feel they can control or play God by their superior intelligence, but who are ultimately defeated.

 

“In a similar position are the scientists and philosophers who want to overcome the mystic power of Kṛṣṇa. They challenge Kṛṣṇa, saying, ‘What is God? We can do this, and we can do that.’ But the more they challenge Kṛṣṇa in this way, the more they are implicated in suffering. The lesson here is that we should not try to overcome Kṛṣṇa…instead of defeating Kṛṣṇa, Brahmā himself was defeated, for he could not understand what Kṛṣṇa was doing. Since Brahmā, the chief person within this universe, was so bewildered, what is to be said of so-called scientists and philosophers?” (Bhāgavatam 10.13.44, purport)

 

His Appreciation of His Empowerment by Krishna and the Consequent Success of his Movement

 

Verse 49 describes the Viṣṇu forms Krishna manifested when He duplicated all the cowherd boys and calves. There it is described that He was surrounded by devotees worshipping Him by bhūri-puṇya (the greatest pious activity) which Śrīla Prabhupāda translates as chanting and hearing. Śrīla Prabhupāda comments on the power of his saṅkīrtana movement:

 

“In our Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma Temple in Vṛndāvana, there is a tamāla tree that covers an entire corner of the courtyard. Before there was a temple the tree was lying neglected, but now it has developed very luxuriantly, covering the whole corner of the courtyard. This is a sign of bhūri-puṇya.” (Bhāgavatam 10.13.49, purport)

 

In the next verse the description continues:

 

“Those Viṣṇu forms, by Their pure smiling, which resembled the increasing light of the moon, and by the sidelong glances of Their reddish eyes, created and protected the desires of Their own devotees, as if by the modes of passion and goodness.” (Bhāgavatam 10.13.50)

 

In his purport Śrīla Prabhupāda references the commentary of Sanātana Gosvāmī to explain that although a pure devotee has no personal desires, the Lord’s glance enthuses such a devotee with a desire to perform devotional service which the Lord also maintains. This commentary apparently very much inspires Śrīla Prabhupāda and again he reflects on the wonderful temple he built in Vrindavan where he is residing:

 

“In Vṛndāvana there is a place where there was no temple, but a devotee desired, ‘Let there be a temple and sevā, devotional service.’ Therefore, what was once an empty corner has now become a place of pilgrimage. Such are the desires of a devotee.” (Bhāgavatam 10.13.50, purport)

 

His Desire for His devotees to Go Deeper in Krishna Consciousness

 

“Such purification can be achieved very easily by rādhā-kṛṣṇa-bhajana…”

(Bhāgavatam 10.13.53, purport)

 

 

This post is already too long for a Monday Morning Greeting. I could have given even more examples. In a previous post, I even argued that the very last sentence that Śrīla Prabhupāda wrote in the last commentary of the Brahmā-vimohana-līlā perfectly outlines his legacy—“The Significance of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Last Written Words”.

 

 

I pray this post helps to give one just a glimpse of what Śrīla Prabhupāda was thinking and seeing in his last days with us.

 

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