Are You Really LIVING IT UP?

BY HDG B.S. TIRTHA MAHARAJ

Our idea of living it up is what we call 'the good life'. It is all directed to satisfying our physical senses. His Divine Grace B.S. Tirtha Maharaj shows that the living it up really means starting on a totally different path.

Untiring and relentless attempts have always been in the making to explore and unravel the mysteries about the origin of the world we live in. The space scientists, despite their many failures, continue in their efforts to reach out to space to find out what exists there. Thus, to conquer and exploit nature and its resources has always been the hallmark of all scientific aims and discoveries. A perverse mind, not satisfied with the very limited potential that this world affords, is extremely eager to know about the possibility of existence of a more sublime - a realm that offers higher and more refined standards of the enjoyment of our senses.

To enjoy oneself is the innate tendency of any living being, no matter what the conditions. Therefore, under the influence of illusory material energy, we are simply intoxicated with various mundane pleasures to continually ensure the enjoyment of our senses. We strive very hard for material prosperity, not realizing that our life is very short. In the rapidly changing global scenario, the ubiquitous Western culture has introduced a new dimension in the way people think, behave and live their lives today.

The urbanites brought up in huge metropolises always want to live it up. This is based on irrational exuberance, ostentatious display and self-aggrandizement. They hanker after endless enjoyment. Their idea of enjoyment is to drive flashy cars, dress flamboyantly, partying beyond midnight, toasting in champagne and dancing without the slightest inhibition with others’ spouses or sometimes with strangers. Bereft of any sense of morality, both men and women, live it up with brazen abandonment. These products of an elite promiscuous society have no compunction when it comes to gratifying their senses - be it sex, alcohol or gambling. This, they imagine, is enjoyment.

In the rural areas and villages, it happens differently. Compared to their sophisticated counterparts of big cities, due to illiteracy and lack of basic amenities, the permissive and immoral dealings of the village folks are conducted in a clandestine manner. Lustful men think that an element of secrecy always enhances the pleasure sensations in licentious dealings. Thus, our society is now irreparably ruptured owing to lack of spiritual awareness.

The activities one performs in the current life leave an indelible imprint on the mind. Such mental impressions form the basis for the nature that we inherit in our future lives. This is called sanskara. This, in turn breeds vasana - a tendency to enjoy the same type of objects experienced in past lives. This is what keeps a living being in bondage for ever.

Among all the animate and inanimate species of life, it is the human life that is specifically meant for acquiring and attaining spiritual liberty. The scriptures identify the four basic functions of all  human beings as ahara, nidra, bhaya, mainthunancha samanam etad pashubhih naranam, or eating sleeping, fearing (and the consequent desire of defending oneself) and mating. These functions are common among humans, beasts and birds. However, only in the human form, these functions are carried out in an intelligent and a sophisticated manner that yields the highest standards of enjoyment, comfort and security.

As long as human beings are interested in these four basic activities, they are only on the animal level. Although the people have a human body, their mentality reveals only animal instincts. Therefore, there are always quarrels, enmity and competition between man and man, community and community, nation and nation. The spirit of competition arises from envy. Hence, there is continuous rivalry for sense gratification.

In today’s unethical and money grasping world, in which we live, trying to gratify sensuality without any discretion is nothing but an animal mentality. This shows we are a slave to our senses, a servant of our bodily impulses. We say, arrest this attitude and learn to say 'No' when the senses make demands. There lies our strength. Pleasures born of sensual contact with their objects do not endure. This we have to understand. We say, 'Don’t ignite your senses, learn to subdue them'.

Real enjoyment lies in restraining our sense and not in indulgence. A person who has control over his senses is an intelligent person. He can live peacefully even within this realm of illusion or Maya. When we talk of control, we don’t mean repression, we mean regulation. We may cater to the demand of the senses only at the bare minimum level so that desires do not aggravate. As human beings, we should not lose sight of the main goal of life which is God realization. This necessitates subjugation of senses. Greedy senses disturb the mind and a disturbed mind lacks the
ability to focus on spiritual discipline.

To completely destroy all desires for enjoyment is impossible, because a desireless man is a dead man. When one attempts to starve the senses, they become restive. Perceiving a favourable situation, according to the Gita (2/60), the impetuous senses can forcibly carry away the mind of even a discriminating person. Again, the Gita (2/67) informs us that when the mind collaborates with one of the wandering senses in its pursuit, they jointly ignore reasonings of the intelligence. The senses, mind and intelligence are the seats of lust. Lust is the greatest enemy of the living being. A man, in the grip of lust, listens to the dictates of passion and not reason.

In an unholy eagerness for stimulating the senses, most people engage in four major vices: illicit physical connection of men and women outside scripturally sanctioned marriage, slaughtering animals for eating their flesh, gambling of all sorts, and consuming intoxicating drinks, eatables and smoking. Unless one is purged of these major sins to start with, attempting to approach God through any other means is absolutely useless. These sinful propensities constitute the sole motivating impetus to strive hard for one’s economic prosperity. People do not know that if they
sincerely take to spiritual practices to satisfy God, the material well-being will follow automatically. Today, we are experiencing material progress but it is bereft of God consciousness. Thus, it has created havoc in the entire human society all over the world. In the absence of a proper concept of God and seeking the perfect spiritual knowledge as in the Gita, the perverted teachings of pseudo religious leaders, and by distorting the original statements of the scriptures, we have only abetted the diabolic attempts of the atheists to misguide and misdirect the general populace
towards gradual ruin and disaster.

Sinful people can never experience God. Enjoying oneself through any material sense, independent of the Supreme Lord Krishna, is a sin because it is an imitative temperament. The Supreme Lord Krishna is the actual enjoyer as revealed in the Gita. Our position is that we are the eternal servants of the Lord. This attitude of service has become degraded to the propensity to enjoy. Such a propensity arises from a physical conception of life and the physical conception is due to ignorance. No one can truly enjoy themselves in this material world. Real enjoyment is only possible when one is engaged in the service of the Lord in this world or in the spiritual realm.

Enjoyment in this world is a mere sensuality based on misidentification of the body as the self. At the same time, denying sensuality altogether is the negative conception of liberation. There is a higher stage beyond these two conceptions that affords us to experience a transcendental pleasure that is free from both mundane inebriety as well as impersonal liberation. That is Krishna consciousness.

The Supreme Lord Krishna says anityam asukham lokam imam prapya bhajasva mam. This means that after having obtained a human birth in this temporary and miserable world, engage in loving service unto Me. This is the real technique for real enjoyment. A person running a high temperature cannot enjoy a sumptuous meal. Similarly, a conditioned soul in this world cannot really enjoy anything here. Any idea of enjoyment is nothing but sheer illusion. The net result is only miseries. Service to the Supreme Lord Krishna is the perfection of religion. It is always joyfully performed. Complete surrender and service to the Supreme Lord Krishna is the only source of eternal enjoyment because the joy of service continues in the spiritual world even after one’s death. This is the only way we can truly live it up.