The Struggle of a Why Yes Man

Actually, the constitutional position of the living entities are that he is eternally servant of God. That is his position. He's meant for that purpose, but he forgets. So that forgetfulness is also janmādy asya yataḥ [SB 1.1.1], the Supreme. Why? Because he wanted to forget.

 

kṛṣṇa-bahirmukha hañā bhoga vāñchā kare

nikaṭa-stha māyā tāre jāpaṭiyā dhare

 (Prema-vivarta)

 

Just like sometimes we imitate. Somebody, I think he is very much enjoying, so I also think, "Why not I enjoy like him?" This is natural. We have got independence to think like that. Similarly, when the living entities, whose business is to serve Kṛṣṇa, when he wants to become Kṛṣṇa, when he wants to become God, although he is dog, still, when he wants to imitate, he is immediately put into the clutches of māyā. "All right. You enjoy. Try yourself. Try yourself to become God."

 

(Srila Prabhupada’s lecture on Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.5.1-4 --  New Vrindaban, May 22, 1969)

 

So Kṛṣṇa is telling us everything in the Bhagavad-gītā. Now it is up to us to accept His leadership or not. If we accept His leadership, then we are free from this material bondage, and if we do not accept, then we can do whatever we... Kṛṣṇa does not interfere with our independence. That is a fact.

 

(Srila Prabhupada’s lecture on Bhagavad-gītā 4.11 -- New York, July 27, 1966)

 

 

for this reason krsna manifests out of his own energy a limited version of the unlimited world. it is just like a trailer for a new movie. it gives you a hint of what the unlimited world is about, but it's not complete.

 

The reflection of the sun from a mirror is nothing but light within darkness. Thus although it is not exactly sunlight, without the sunlight the reflection would be impossible. Similarly, the varieties of this world would be impossible unless there were a real prototype in the spiritual world. The Māyāvādī philosopher cannot understand this, but a real philosopher must be convinced that light is not possible at all without a background of sunlight. Thus the jugglery of words used by the Māyāvādī philosopher to prove that this material world is false may amaze inexperienced children, but a man with full knowledge knows perfectly well that there cannot be any existence without Kṛṣṇa.

 

(SB 7.15.58 purport (first edition))

 

 

the why yes then, out of his free travels into the limited world to have an illusion of being supremely unlimited. in order to not disturb such an illusion with reality, krsna, out of love for the absurdly rebellious why yes man covers this world in darkness. when you think about it, it is only becuz of the sun that we're able to see. if the sun, (whose rays are coming from Krsna's all-pervading transcendental body) was not here, the universe, earth, everything would be in total darkness. therefore the natural state of the universe we can see at night-it is dark. The unlimited spiritual sky full of unlimited varieties which is beyond the darkness would disturb our play on Gods here in the material world. So this is one way how Krsna takes care of our whimsical need to have an illusion of His non-existence.

but there's also another type of darkness krsna covers us with called ignorance. we are presently enveloped in gross ignorance called the material body. the material body covers the pure feelings of the soul and limits us to what is called "bodily conception of life" or animalism. this is due to material body being insentient. the difference between sentient and insentient is that while the sentient has feelings, the insentient doesn't. we can cut through a piece of furniture, there will be no protest. if however, we take a saw and cut off someone's leg, he will not exactly giggle. furniture is dead, the person with a cut-off leg is alive.

our body is actually dead matter, but it becomes feelable due to the widely spread blood stream.

that you can test right now by blocking your veins on your wrist and then banging your hand against the computer table and feeling nothing. blood is thus providing us with a hallucination that body feels and in this way we are foolishly enjoying the so-called feelings of touch, taste, smell, sight and sound, while our pure self is completely aloof from both the senses and the objects of the senses.  the generator of blood is the heart and that's where you are situated right now. please note that whenever we are called by name, we tend to point to our chest and say: you mean me? it is from the heart this robot structure called material body is being manipulated.

 

According to the Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad, this atomic soul is situated in the heart of every living entity, and because the measurement of the atomic soul is beyond the power of appreciation of the material scientists, some of them assert foolishly that there is no soul. The individual atomic soul is definitely there in the heart along with the Supersoul, and thus all the energies of bodily movement are emanating from this part of the body. The corpuscles which carry the oxygen from the lungs gather energy from the soul. When the soul passes away from this position, activity of the blood, generating fusion, ceases. Medical science accepts the importance of the red corpuscles, but it cannot ascertain that the source of the energy is the soul. Medical science, however, does admit that the heart is the seat of all energies of the body.

 

(Bg 2.17 purport)

 

this manipulation of the body is going on through the agency of the mind and intelligence. these are also part of ignorance we are covered by, but as opposed to the earthly body, these are more subtle and more sophisticated. the mind for example has two functions: acceptance and rejection. this we can see very nicely when people are invited for a krsna related meeting. in the beginning they usually say yes I'm coming (acceptance), but then all of a sudden just a few minutes before the krsna related meeting takes place, for some mysterious reason, a person suffering under the dictate of the mind completely rejects the idea of coming and instead decides to go to a not exactly krsna related meeting instead. (rejection) then later on, after a few days, when we meet him/her, he/she pretends that a promise to come actually never took place and talk to us about non-related subject matters such as how are you and what are you up to. when we inform such individual about another upcoming Krsna related gathering, he/she very eagerly again promises to come. this is again due to the influence of the mind(accepting). our mind-controlled friend usually goes through this cycle several times, sometimes even a few years, or lifetimes before he/she actually makes it to the transcendental meeting. When the person actually makes it to the meeting, he/she might still reject the philosophy of krsna calling it dogmatic, too much about krsna, non-free, too conservative, faith-based or by other ill names and decide to never come back at first. the mind slave then calls us a few days after apologizes for offenses and asks: when is the next party? Of course, he/she doesn’t come anymore, unless you call him/her again. simultaneously, the devotees although in treatment being also still quite on the mental platform themselves are also going through the tortures of the mind: will this person come? (acceptance) should i cook a big feast or not? no, this guy will never come. did you see how roughly he was handling the bhagavadgita when i was showing him the pictures in it?(rejection) so yoga basically means to get out of mental platform and just do one thing and stick with it heaven or hell. if you promise to come, then come. if you don't want to come, don't come kind of thingy. Real yogi is therefore not a joker. Depending on what he decides to do he can become a great artist or scientist, but he can also end up like HItler or Stalin, and then of course someone has to shoot him.  lol

 

Mind, unless you control the mind, in the beginning it is said a man must elevate himself by his own mind. Mind is the driver. The body is the chariot or car. So just like if you call your, ask your driver, "Please get me into Kṛṣṇa consciousness temple." The driver will bring you here. And if you ask your driver, "Please get me in that liquor house." The driver will drive you there. The driver's business is to drive you wherever you like. Similarly your mind is the driver. If you can control—but if the driver takes your license, that wherever he likes he will take you. Then you're gone. Then your driver is your enemy. But if your driver acts on your order, then he's your friend. So actually the yoga system means to control the mind in such a way that he will act as your friend, not as your enemy.

 

Bhagavad-gītā 6.2-5 -- Los Angeles, February 14, 1969

 

Such is the power of the mind when you control it. Mind can be tamed very easily through the Hare Krsna chanting. Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare focusing your mind on the chant instead of letting it fly here and there remember when we were on holiday in Italy last year kind of thing.

 

Suppose you are trying to concentrate your mind on Kṛṣṇa, and your mind is diverted, going somewhere, in some cinema house. So you should withdraw, "Not there, please, here." This is practice of yoga. Not to allow the mind to go away from Kṛṣṇa. If you can practice this simply. Don't allow the mind to go away from Kṛṣṇa and because we cannot fix up our mind sitting in one place in Kṛṣṇa, that requires very high training. To sit down in a place and always fix up in Kṛṣṇa the mind, that is not very easy job. One who is not practiced to it, if he simply imitates, then he will be confused. We have to engage ourself always in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Everything we do must be dovetailed in Kṛṣṇa. Our usual activities should be molded that it has to do everything for Kṛṣṇa. Then your mind will be fixed up in Kṛṣṇa. Artificially when you are not advanced if you try to fix up your mind in Kṛṣṇa, that yoga practice as it is recommended here, that you have to sit down in this way, straight, you have to concentrate your eyesight on the tip of the nose in a secluded sacred place. But where are these chances? At the present moment, where is the chance of all these facilities?

Therefore this is the only method. That you chant loudly and hear. Hare Kṛṣṇa. If your mind is in other things it will be forced to concentrate on the sound vibration "Kṛṣṇa." You haven't got to withdraw your mind from other, automatically it will be withdrawn because the sound is there. (sound of car going by) Just like the motor car sound is going on. Automatically your attention is diverted there. Similarly if we chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, so automatically my mind will be fixed up. Otherwise I'm accustomed to fix up my mind in so many things. So yoga practice means to withdraw the mind and again fix up in Kṛṣṇa. So this vibration of chanting automatically helps us in that yoga practice.

 

(Srila Prabhupada’s lecture on Bhagavad-gītā 6.25-29 -- Los Angeles, February 18, 1969)

 

There are many ways true, but the Hare Krsna mantra is the best and no one can beat it as it is specially empowered for this specific time according to the Vedic scriptures. Now, the instrument by which you control that wild beast called mind is called the intelligence and represents yet another covering of ignorance on the soul. Sounds pretty ironic, doesnt it? Intelligence is actually ignorance. What does it mean? It means that it's just an instrument. It is also insentient. It acts according to how you use it.

 

Intelligence is the immediate next-door neighbor of the spirit soul. Lusty intelligence influences the spirit soul to acquire the false ego and identify itself with matter, and thus with the mind and senses. The spirit soul becomes addicted to enjoying the material senses and mistakes this as true happiness.

 

Bg 3.40 purport

 

 

Intelligence is developed through acquiring knowledge. For example now, when you're reading this, I'm giving you reasons to chant Hare Krsna basically and if you ever try it(unless you already did, which is still cool cuz chanting is basically beyond intelligence), you will be probably remembering some of the points i'm mentioning here right now while you chant. So these are the different coverings. The most subtle and difficult to overcome covering of ignorance is our very identification with the body itself. It's called false ego. Ego is real cuz that's what we are -individual. We have feelings, freedom, fantasy, imagination, love, but all these are ending up being filtered through a fellow called false ego. The false ego is compared to knot by which the body and soul are tied together. In the Fourth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Twenty-second Chapter, verse 39, Sanat-kumāra says,

 

"My dear King, the false ego of a human being is so strong that it keeps him in material existence as if tied up by a strong rope. Only the devotees can cut off the knot of this strong rope very easily, by engaging themselves in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Others, who are not in Kṛṣṇa consciousness but are trying to become great mystics or great ritual performers, cannot advance like the devotees. Therefore, it is the duty of everyone to engage himself in the activities of Kṛṣṇa consciousness in order to be freed from the tight knot of false ego and engagement in material activities."

 

(NOD: Relief from Material Distress)

 

 

It's tied so tight that for most of the people never really make it beyond it. If we analyze people’s thoughts, they basically all relate to either gross body(sex, food, fight, eat), mind(accepting and rejecting ways on how to get those) or misused intelligence (how to get more). so it's pretty difficult to explain to them that there's someone like krsna actually existing.

 

Generally, people who are attached to the bodily conception of life are so absorbed in materialism that it is almost impossible for them to understand that there is a transcendental body which is imperishable, full of knowledge and eternally blissful.

 

Bg. 4.10 purport

 

the first thing the why yes man can think of is: why should i accept such nonsense? which is a disappointed version of: what can i get out of this? seeing that probably not much of the above-mentioned. this is due to why yes's almost eternal prostitute consciousness, which enables him to live the illusion of freedom in the world of unlimited limitations. because krsna is complete and unlimited he is also his material energy and becuz the why yes is in his illusory consciousness as well as in his original consciousness only a small particle of the complete krsna, he is eternally under his subjugation. in his original consciousness, such subjugation is out of free will in the same way as for example a lover surrenders himself/herself to his/her beloved, whereas in his illusory consciousness such subjugation is conditional and we can compare it to the example of a prostitute who has a sexual relationship with a client in exchange for money. the why yes is like a prostitute serving one person after another to get a false high of being God in return. by wanting to be a master he becomes a servant to another God-wannabe and thus suffers in a slavery relationship. nothing is free in this world as they say and therefore our mutual relationships are simply a bondage of illusory unity created by an absurd and therefore temporary agreement to give the false notion of superiority to one another and taking it in turns.

 

So this is material world means everyone is trying to become God. I am trying to become God, you are trying to become God. So there is competition between Gods. He has forgotten that he is dog, but he's trying to become God.

 

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.5.1-4 --  New Vrindaban, May 22, 1969

 

this world is therefore a fakeland or society of cheaters and cheated. this is the root cause of all our dissatisfaction with life and what we call happiness is a temporary forgetfulness of feeling it inside. If we truly want to establish unity, we have to give all our love to Krsna and we have to do it in Krsna consciousness in other words without expecting anything in return. This is the perfection and a why yes man can only achieve this if he becomes a why not man.