This is Part Eleven of Unequivocal Rantings by a Collegiate Existentialist.
Recorded presentation coming soon...
The Highest Teaching
The world we live in is hell-bent on relative perceptions and personal gratification. So much so that it is offensive for anyone to claim an absolute truth based on service to God. It creates literal dissonance and discomfort in the minds of people. A perfect example is Lord Jesus Christ. He came solely to share love of God and he was crucified for it. In my own small way, I stand before you all and I speak boldly the message of Krishna Consciousness. I am sure many of you are thinking how proud or arrogant I am to claim that what I share is absolute authority. Conversely, I challenge you to consider the humility necessary to surrender a personally concocted world view and surrender to a supreme, absolute version of reality that is true without interpretation or subjective perspective.
This supreme authority does not come from the minds of imperfect souls like you and me. This knowledge is shared by personalities who are transcendental to this mentality of controlling and enjoying for personal gain. They did not have to come to this material world to have their mood anomaly checked. If you can intellectually understand that this world was made to give facility to us to play God, then it is easy to understand there are extraordinary souls who come, specifically sent by God, to teach us about Him. They also came here, to this material world, out of choice but not a choice to turn away from God. They chose to come to serve Him. Their only reason for coming here is to help us reawaken our original spiritual consciousness ultimately in relation to God.
These selfless personalities come in all traditions like the Buddha and Mohamed. However, each personality comes for a specific reason. In the education system there are teachers for kindergarten through middle school to high school and eventually to the highest academic spheres in the universities. The kindergarten teacher is no less important than the college professor because the student would not be able to comprehend graduate studies without the fundamentals. In the same way, these different holy personalities are all exalted; however, there are varying levels of knowledge that they each came to bring. What most saints of the past taught was not comprehensive. It was the right type and amount of knowledge for that time, place, and circumstance and serves to connect people ultimately to the most complete teaching.
For example, Lord Jesus Christ came to give peace to the hearts of men and that started with the rudimentary ABCs of love God and love thy neighbor as thyself. If one stops their education with learning the ABC’s they are missing the highest application of their knowledge. Overtime, as Christianity and other Abrahamic religious principles were adopted by sincere souls, not the politically motivated forced conversions, people’s hearts were ready to receive more. Jesus Christ himself says in John 16:12 “I have yet many things to say to you, but you are not able to bear them now…”
Krishna Consciousness gives the graduate level study of love of God. It contains the highest philosophy with detailed information on the workings of the material and spiritual universes, as well as that Supreme Personality who is the source of them both. Just 500 years ago the Lord Himself came as Lord Caitanya to inaugurate the congregational chanting of the Holy Name: Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare. Who can teach love of God better than God Himself?
In the Bhagavad-Gītā, or the Song of God, Śrī Krishna says to Arjuna, His friend and devotee, on the battlefield that “Whatever action is performed by a great man, common men follow in his footsteps.” (Bhagavad-Gītā Chapter 3 Text 21). So, this is the case with all these saints. They are extraordinary personalities, and we are inspired to follow in their footsteps by the standard they set with their character. In the Christian community there is a famous acronym in this connection, maybe you know it, “W.W.J.D.? What would Jesus do?”
All throughout history God sends His representatives to preach on His behalf, but He came Himself to give the highest connection to Him. What greater person to follow than God Himself? The fact of Lord Caitanya’s identity as the Supreme Personality of Godhead was predicted in the Śrīmad-Bhagavatām thousands of years before He advented and is confirmed by many modern devotee scholars. To the western ear the concept of God coming to this earth is foreign, unless it is in the conflation of the Son of God, Lord Jesus Christ, with God the Father. However, as with all transcendental topics, we must try to accept knowledge beyond our sense perception from authoritative sources, and the realization will come as we purify our hearts through the process.
The process Lord Caitanya gave, which was spread all over the world by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, is simple and sublime. All one needs to do is chant the mahā-mantra, dance in the congregational chanting parties, and feast on the sanctified foodstuffs offered to the Lord. Again, counter to what our preconceived notions are of spiritual life, the highest yoga to be performed in this age is not silent meditation or complicated body postures. It is a blissful process that is prescribed by the Lord Himself. Please consider acquiring the books by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda. Please take to the chanting of the Holy Names. As Lord Caitanya Himself says, “In this Age of Kali there is no other means, no other means, no other means, for self-realization than chanting the holy name, chanting the holy name, chanting the holy name of Lord Hari.”
Thank you very much, Hare Krishna.
This is Part Eleven of Unequivocal Rantings by a Collegiate Existentialist.
Recorded presentation coming soon...