Living in Peace on the Vedic Path
click for more discussions fromThe Vedic View thru the eyes of Arci Edwards
We are all anxious to attain peace in the material world. We have committees and coalitions, treaties and embargoes, peacekeeping missions outfitted with the best military gear, barbed-wire fences and high cement walls - and still, since the beginning of man, was there ever a time when there was peace on earth? History has proven that there is no material arrangement that can bring about lasting peace. It cannot - for the source of our disharmony exists on the spiritual plane and that is where we must look for a solution to restore balance individually and collectively.
It is explained in the Bhagavad-gita, 5.29:
bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ
sarva-loka-maheśvaram
suhṛdaṁ sarva-bhūtānāṁ
jñātvā māṁ śāntim ṛcchati
If we want shanti, peace, then we must know three things - God is the proprietor, God is the enjoyer, and He is the real friend.
Out of our foolishness, we are claiming things that do not belong to us as "ours". We spend countless hours amassing "our" possessions and even more defending our claim to them, always in anxiety that someone or something will take them from us. Someone comes toward them, and we are ready to draw arms. Dividing lines, borders, fences, walls, shelves in the bathroom cabinet - all to demarcate the vast expanse of my proprietorship! Someone comes to the land where I live and I declare, "This is my land. I am an American. America is mine." This land I call "mine" was here 50 years before me - 500 years, 10,000, 10,000,000 years before me and it will be here 10,000,000 years after me, yet I have the audacity to think myself the proprietor and call it "mine". My lifespan isn't even a blip in time, so when did I become the proprietor? When I bought it from someone who claimed that they were the proprietor? This land was not here before them? It was not here before Bethabara was settled in 1753? Did the Moravians bring it with them? From the food in my fridg, to the clothes on my back, to the child that I birthed, to the earth beneath my feet, the skys above my head, and the totality of my body - although I proclaim the opposite to be true, they are not "mine". The actual proprietor is God. It belongs to Him. It all belongs to Him.
Imagine if we gave up our false claims of proprietorship; if we acknowledged God as the sole proprietor (soul proprietor - ooo, just couldn't help myself). If illusory proprietorship did NOT spur us on in an endless game to acquire more and more, or to maintain our shaky grasp and control at any price, as if the one with the most at the end of the game wins immortality - Would there be any excuse for war? If we accepted every man, woman, and child; every lamb, cow, and seal; every butterfly, worm and daffodil - and our very selves - as belonging to the Beloved Creator whose very breath blows throw their lungs, who springs forth from a spark of His splendor - would there be any room for hatred? greed? exploitation? Would we so nonchalantly take the life of another and declare it "food" simply to satisfy the bumps on the back of our tongue? What WOULD we have to fight over? All of our defensive, combative positions would lay in waste at the feet of the true Proprietor. Here is a simple test to find out what we are or are not the proprietor of: If we cannot take it with us at the time of death - it's not ours. I don't know about you, but for me that pretty much covers just about everything I now falsely call "mine". I can hear the voices countering - Do we just let people take our things? Do we not care for them? Do we not tend to them? Do we renounce it all into the streets and become a beggar? No, (well, that last one about becoming a beggar IS an option) but true renunciation means to recognize, to acknowledge the true Proprietor and to be MORE diligent to joyfully use everything in His service. Maintain your house so you can have gatherings where transcendental topics are discussed. Grow your gardens so you can have beautiful flowers to offer to Him. Teach your children the science of God consciousness so they can grow to know Him. Maintain the body so that it may carry out numerous activities of glorification of Him. Use it all for Him - because He is the Supreme Proprietor and the Supreme Enjoyer.
Recognizing and acknowledging the Divine Beloved as the Supreme Enjoyer is another component in this peace formula. We mistakenly think that "I am the enjoyer". We are a part and parcel of God, just as the hand is a part and parcel of the body. The hand might think it can enjoy an apple independently from the body, but it will not gain any true benefit from it until it surrenders the apple to the body. Once the apple is digested, then the hand can truly benefit from it. And not only the hand, but the eyes, and legs, and skin - the whole body benefits from the sacrifice the hand performed. Similarly, as long as we try to enjoy separate from God, we will never be satisfied. It is not until we act for His pleasure that we will truly enjoy, and not just us, but all living entities as well. By pouring water on the root of the tree, all of the leaves are nourished. By offering the fruits of our activities to the Supreme Enjoyer, we will all become joyful. Please do not consider the Lord as some big, fat cat, sitting back, pimping us out and making profit on our hard labor; nor as some envious authority who needs to control us because He feels threatened by us. We have become so jaded by false leaders of secular and non-secular societies and pretend mini gods who exploit our sacrifices out of greed and envy, that the thought of working for another's enjoyment seems archaic, demoralizing and slave-like. But please do not lump Him in, remember that He is the perfection of love, the reservoir of all pleasure and He wants nothing more than to swim with us in waves of ecstasy. And to do that, we must kick out these illusory conceptions which keep us separated from the divine unity. Enjoy, yes! but in relationship with the Supreme Enjoyer, not in illusory separation from Him. It is beneath us to take what is His and try to enjoy it in some dark corner of teh material world. Take what is His and use it in His service, take Him by the hand and joyously run through the streets glorifying His name and qualities and enter into the long-awaited loving relationship with Our Dear Most Friend.
The Supreme Beloved is the most kind-hearted friend of everyone. Graham Schweig, (my Harvard PhD sanskrit scholar author yogi friend) in his Bhagavad-gita, The Beloved Lord's Secret Love Song, translates this section in the above verse even deeper: suhrdam, the innermost heart; sarva-bhutanam, of all beings. The Divine is "intimately present in the heart of all beings as "the innermost heart" - the supreme Self within the self, the closest companion of all creatures." It is not that He creates and then has nothing to do with us, like some sperm donor. No, He becomes our companion and accompanies us through our various adventures in different bodies. Because He created every living entity every living entity is His child. He cares for every one of us equally - his sons and daughters who can speak, His sons and daughters who cannot, those who walk on two legs, those who walk on four and those who remain rooted in one place. We may be the friend to some; we may even take up the cause of a particular group - (just type "friends of" into google. There are friends of animals, of the High Line (a railroad), of trees, libraries, world food program, the river, the earth - there are actually 1,390,000,000 results for "friends of" .) How can we be a friend to all. Only the Lord is a friend of ALL. There are unlimited living entities, and He is taking care of all of them. From the thousands of giant elephants in Africa to the thousands of tiny ants under one stone in the yard where I stay - who is supplying their necessities? God is supplying - out of love. So where is the need for anxiety? Everything we need is already being completely provided for us.
So, this is the formula for attaining lasting peace as outlined in the Bhagavad-gita - a love song sung by God Himself to His dear friends, offered in order to dispel our illusion, alleviate our anxiety and immerse us in love of God. Everything we see and do not see belongs to our Dear Most Friend and when we are in full consciousness of this fact, being diligent in our care, mindful in our use of His creation for His pleasure, then the kingdom of God will be at hand, and Peace will take up residency in our hearts. In fact, there will be no room for anything BUT peace. It is this simple.
It is explained in the Bhagavad-gita, 5.29:
bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ
sarva-loka-maheśvaram
suhṛdaṁ sarva-bhūtānāṁ
jñātvā māṁ śāntim ṛcchati
If we want shanti, peace, then we must know three things - God is the proprietor, God is the enjoyer, and He is the real friend.
Out of our foolishness, we are claiming things that do not belong to us as "ours". We spend countless hours amassing "our" possessions and even more defending our claim to them, always in anxiety that someone or something will take them from us. Someone comes toward them, and we are ready to draw arms. Dividing lines, borders, fences, walls, shelves in the bathroom cabinet - all to demarcate the vast expanse of my proprietorship! Someone comes to the land where I live and I declare, "This is my land. I am an American. America is mine." This land I call "mine" was here 50 years before me - 500 years, 10,000, 10,000,000 years before me and it will be here 10,000,000 years after me, yet I have the audacity to think myself the proprietor and call it "mine". My lifespan isn't even a blip in time, so when did I become the proprietor? When I bought it from someone who claimed that they were the proprietor? This land was not here before them? It was not here before Bethabara was settled in 1753? Did the Moravians bring it with them? From the food in my fridg, to the clothes on my back, to the child that I birthed, to the earth beneath my feet, the skys above my head, and the totality of my body - although I proclaim the opposite to be true, they are not "mine". The actual proprietor is God. It belongs to Him. It all belongs to Him.
Imagine if we gave up our false claims of proprietorship; if we acknowledged God as the sole proprietor (soul proprietor - ooo, just couldn't help myself). If illusory proprietorship did NOT spur us on in an endless game to acquire more and more, or to maintain our shaky grasp and control at any price, as if the one with the most at the end of the game wins immortality - Would there be any excuse for war? If we accepted every man, woman, and child; every lamb, cow, and seal; every butterfly, worm and daffodil - and our very selves - as belonging to the Beloved Creator whose very breath blows throw their lungs, who springs forth from a spark of His splendor - would there be any room for hatred? greed? exploitation? Would we so nonchalantly take the life of another and declare it "food" simply to satisfy the bumps on the back of our tongue? What WOULD we have to fight over? All of our defensive, combative positions would lay in waste at the feet of the true Proprietor. Here is a simple test to find out what we are or are not the proprietor of: If we cannot take it with us at the time of death - it's not ours. I don't know about you, but for me that pretty much covers just about everything I now falsely call "mine". I can hear the voices countering - Do we just let people take our things? Do we not care for them? Do we not tend to them? Do we renounce it all into the streets and become a beggar? No, (well, that last one about becoming a beggar IS an option) but true renunciation means to recognize, to acknowledge the true Proprietor and to be MORE diligent to joyfully use everything in His service. Maintain your house so you can have gatherings where transcendental topics are discussed. Grow your gardens so you can have beautiful flowers to offer to Him. Teach your children the science of God consciousness so they can grow to know Him. Maintain the body so that it may carry out numerous activities of glorification of Him. Use it all for Him - because He is the Supreme Proprietor and the Supreme Enjoyer.
Recognizing and acknowledging the Divine Beloved as the Supreme Enjoyer is another component in this peace formula. We mistakenly think that "I am the enjoyer". We are a part and parcel of God, just as the hand is a part and parcel of the body. The hand might think it can enjoy an apple independently from the body, but it will not gain any true benefit from it until it surrenders the apple to the body. Once the apple is digested, then the hand can truly benefit from it. And not only the hand, but the eyes, and legs, and skin - the whole body benefits from the sacrifice the hand performed. Similarly, as long as we try to enjoy separate from God, we will never be satisfied. It is not until we act for His pleasure that we will truly enjoy, and not just us, but all living entities as well. By pouring water on the root of the tree, all of the leaves are nourished. By offering the fruits of our activities to the Supreme Enjoyer, we will all become joyful. Please do not consider the Lord as some big, fat cat, sitting back, pimping us out and making profit on our hard labor; nor as some envious authority who needs to control us because He feels threatened by us. We have become so jaded by false leaders of secular and non-secular societies and pretend mini gods who exploit our sacrifices out of greed and envy, that the thought of working for another's enjoyment seems archaic, demoralizing and slave-like. But please do not lump Him in, remember that He is the perfection of love, the reservoir of all pleasure and He wants nothing more than to swim with us in waves of ecstasy. And to do that, we must kick out these illusory conceptions which keep us separated from the divine unity. Enjoy, yes! but in relationship with the Supreme Enjoyer, not in illusory separation from Him. It is beneath us to take what is His and try to enjoy it in some dark corner of teh material world. Take what is His and use it in His service, take Him by the hand and joyously run through the streets glorifying His name and qualities and enter into the long-awaited loving relationship with Our Dear Most Friend.
The Supreme Beloved is the most kind-hearted friend of everyone. Graham Schweig, (my Harvard PhD sanskrit scholar author yogi friend) in his Bhagavad-gita, The Beloved Lord's Secret Love Song, translates this section in the above verse even deeper: suhrdam, the innermost heart; sarva-bhutanam, of all beings. The Divine is "intimately present in the heart of all beings as "the innermost heart" - the supreme Self within the self, the closest companion of all creatures." It is not that He creates and then has nothing to do with us, like some sperm donor. No, He becomes our companion and accompanies us through our various adventures in different bodies. Because He created every living entity every living entity is His child. He cares for every one of us equally - his sons and daughters who can speak, His sons and daughters who cannot, those who walk on two legs, those who walk on four and those who remain rooted in one place. We may be the friend to some; we may even take up the cause of a particular group - (just type "friends of" into google. There are friends of animals, of the High Line (a railroad), of trees, libraries, world food program, the river, the earth - there are actually 1,390,000,000 results for "friends of" .) How can we be a friend to all. Only the Lord is a friend of ALL. There are unlimited living entities, and He is taking care of all of them. From the thousands of giant elephants in Africa to the thousands of tiny ants under one stone in the yard where I stay - who is supplying their necessities? God is supplying - out of love. So where is the need for anxiety? Everything we need is already being completely provided for us.
So, this is the formula for attaining lasting peace as outlined in the Bhagavad-gita - a love song sung by God Himself to His dear friends, offered in order to dispel our illusion, alleviate our anxiety and immerse us in love of God. Everything we see and do not see belongs to our Dear Most Friend and when we are in full consciousness of this fact, being diligent in our care, mindful in our use of His creation for His pleasure, then the kingdom of God will be at hand, and Peace will take up residency in our hearts. In fact, there will be no room for anything BUT peace. It is this simple.
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