Three Responses To The Exact Same Climate Conditions

By krishnasmercy on May 31, 2024 • ( 0 )

“The real form of this tree cannot be perceived in this world. No one can understand where it ends, where it begins, or where its foundation is. But with determination one must cut down this tree with the weapon of detachment. So doing, one must seek that place from which, having once gone, one never returns, and there surrender to that Supreme Personality of Godhead from whom everything has begun and in whom everything is abiding since time immemorial.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 15.3-4)

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न रूपम् अस्येह तथोपलभ्यते
नान्तो न चादिर् न च सम्प्रतिष्ठा
अश्वत्थम् एनं सु-विरूढ-मूलम्
असङ्ग-शस्त्रेण दृढेन छित्त्वा
ततः पदं तत् परिमार्गितव्यं
यस्मिन् गता न निवर्तन्ति भूयः
तम् एव चाद्यं पुरुषं प्रपद्ये
यतः प्रवृत्तिः प्रसृता पुराणी

na rūpam asyeha tathopalabhyate
nānto na cādir na ca sampratiṣṭhā
aśvattham enaṁ su-virūḍha-mūlam
asaṅga-śastreṇa dṛḍhena chittvā
tataḥ padaṁ tat parimārgitavyaṁ
yasmin gatā na nivartanti bhūyaḥ
tam eva cādyaṁ puruṣaṁ prapadye
yataḥ pravṛttiḥ prasṛtā purāṇī

1. It feels like summer

“Oh man, I have to take my jacket off. It is way too hot today. The afternoon temperature is around sixty degrees Fahrenheit. For this time of year, that is really high. It feels like summer. Maybe we can go outside and play some games. But not for too long, of course. Otherwise, we will get tired.”

2. It feels like winter

“Oh man, time to break out the heavy jackets. I am serious. It feels really cold outside. We are not used to this temperature. Sixty-five at this time of year is unseasonable. I wonder where we even stored our jackets. I think they are kept away in a closet somewhere. This is really crazy; I can barely feel my fingertips. Perhaps we should start a campfire.”

3. It feels no different

“Umm, that is a strange question to ask. The weather is the same as it always is. I didn’t notice anything different. That is one of the appeals to living in this part of the world. You basically get a steady climate. Everyone is used to it. No one is complaining.”

…

In Vishnu Purana, Prahlada Maharaja explains to his classmates that the happiness we experience is not genuine. It is not the real thing. It is like someone tricking us into being happy. That illusion is from within; it is one of the four principal defects inherited at the time of birth.

From the above review, we see exactly how that illusion manifests. The happiness and distress are based on a juxtaposition. Distress from the removal of comfort, peace, calm, quiet, or steadiness. Happiness from the removal of the distress. The experience is something like being taken for a ride. The rollercoaster goes up and then quickly back down. Just when you think you are safe, there is a sudden jolt in the opposite direction.

Using Sanskrit terms, the experience is like swinging on a pendulum that has bhoga and tyaga on opposite ends. One second I want to indulge. I want to enjoy. At another moment, I want to renounce. It could be walking away from that very thing that I first chose to indulge.

There are two takeaways from receiving this deep insight, which is supported by acharyas like His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. The first idea to contemplate is that we should learn to tolerate the changes. The sudden burst of cold that we feel from the change in temperature. The scorching heat of the summer. The shift to a tropical climate, with the increased humidity and the frequent, uninvited visitors known as mosquitoes.

We should learn to tolerate these in the manner of the changing seasons. This recommendation is from Shri Krishna, as well, offered to the disciple named Arjuna. If we think about it, there is no other way. If we were to cry and lament at every unfavorable change, nothing would ever get done. Everyone would be sitting at home, lost in depression, succumbing to despair.

मात्रा-स्पर्शास् तु कौन्तेय
शीतोष्ण-सुख-दुःख-दाः
आगमापायिनो ऽनित्यास्
तांस् तितिक्षस्व भारत

mātrā-sparśās tu kaunteya
śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkha-dāḥ
āgamāpāyino ‘nityās
tāṁs titikṣasva bhārata

“O son of Kunti, the nonpermanent appearance of happiness and distress, and their disappearance in due course, are like the appearance and disappearance of winter and summer seasons. They arise from sense perception, O scion of Bharata, and one must learn to tolerate them without being disturbed.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 2.14)

The second takeaway is that we should not settle for this kind of happiness. A sane person would not consider it a valuable achievement to simply turn off the annoying noise. If my leg heals after it was previously broken, this is a decent start, a source of temporary relief, but I should not consider this to be the highest perfection in life.

We should seek permanent happiness. The kind of sukha that is not based on conditions. The soul already has this kind of happiness. The soul is what identifies us. We are individual souls, jivatma. Though we are different from one another in identity, we have the same constitutional makeup.

One aspect to that makeup is ananda. The soul is blissful. This is its nature. Nothing can remove this property, in the manner that nothing can destroy the soul. There is no way for anyone to really kill me; nor can I forever eliminate you.

न जायते म्रियते वा कदाचिन्
नायं भूत्वा भविता वा न भूयः
अजो नित्यः शाश्वतो ऽयं पुराणो
न हन्यते हन्यमाने शरीरे

na jāyate mriyate vā kadācin
nāyaṁ bhūtvā bhavitā vā na bhūyaḥ
ajo nityaḥ śāśvato ‘yaṁ purāṇo
na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre

“For the soul there is never birth nor death. Nor, having once been, does he ever cease to be. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing, undying and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 2.20)

There is a place that has ananda. It has happiness which is not based on conditions. Rather, that happiness is the condition. It is the way of living. Since shifting of a temporary body is absent, there is no leaving that place. It is the final destination, though also the original one. The way towards that destination is dharma, and therefore dharma can be found in every period of time. It is taught by the likes of Prahlada in the Daitya kingdom. Even today, in the dark age of Kali, saintly people follow in the line of Arjuna.