“Our dear friend Yashoda, your son sometimes comes to our houses before the milking of the cows and releases the calves, and when the master of the house becomes angry, your son merely smiles. Sometimes He devises some process by which He steals palatable curd, butter and milk, which He then eats and drinks. When the monkeys assemble, He divides it with them, and when the monkeys have their bellies so full that they won’t take more, He breaks the pots. Sometimes, if He gets no opportunity to steal butter or milk from a house, He will be angry at the householders, and for His revenge He will agitate the small children by pinching them. Then, when the children begin crying, Krishna will go away.” (Shrimad Bhagavatam, 10.8.29)

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वत्सान् मुञ्चन् क्‍वचिदसमये क्रोशसञ्जातहास:
स्तेयं स्वाद्वत्त्यथ दधिपय: कल्पितै: स्तेययोगै:
मर्कान् भोक्ष्यन् विभजति स चेन्नात्ति भाण्डं भिन्नत्ति
द्रव्यालाभे सगृहकुपितो यात्युपक्रोश्य तोकान्

vatsān muñcan kvacid asamaye krośa-sañjāta-hāsaḥ
steyaṁ svādv atty atha dadhi-payaḥ kalpitaiḥ steya-yogaiḥ
markān bhokṣyan vibhajati sa cen nātti bhāṇḍaṁ bhinnatti
dravyālābhe sagṛha-kupito yāty upakrośya tokān

“Perhaps it has always been this way, but we are only noticing it more now. There is widespread corruption across all institutions at a level that can no longer be suppressed. Whenever we see a press conference with law enforcement officials, the first instinct is to think that they are lying. We do not take them seriously. Some of these people involved in public health are actually trying to kill a majority of the population. They know that we know that they are lying to us, but they are shameless in the delivery of their fraudulent recommendations.

“I heard someone recently put the entire corrupt system into a basket known as nihilism. I had to look up the term for clarification, but I get the general idea. It is this belief that the world is terrible, that there is nothing really good. There is no truth to follow. So just let everything burn. If people die, no big deal. If property gets destroyed, what difference does it really make? Why try to save people if being alive only means continued misery?

“I do not want to argue on the merits. Let the philosophy stand for a moment. These people are not happy. They have run for the exits, in a sense. Is not the science of self-realization similar in its conclusion? You are supposedly presenting truths, tattva, but just see the pessimism. This world is maya. This world is illusion. You are not the body. The future is the same misery for as long as birth continues.

“Why would anyone be motivated to do good if you are putting good and bad on an equal level? If spirit is what identifies us, what is the need to do anything with matter? Do you see what I am saying? Why is your philosophy not as fatalistic as the subtle nihilism ruling the world today?”

तद् विद्धि प्रणिपातेन
परिप्रश्नेन सेवया
उपदेक्ष्यन्ति ते ज्ञानं
ज्ञानिनस् तत्त्व-दर्शिनः

tad viddhi praṇipātena
paripraśnena sevayā
upadekṣyanti te jñānaṁ
jñāninas tattva-darśinaḥ

“Just try to learn the truth by approaching a spiritual master. Inquire from him submissively and render service unto him. The self-realized soul can impart knowledge unto you because he has seen the truth.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 4.34)

The truths are indeed tattva. This is the way to learn. We approach someone who has seen the truth. The Sanskrit is tattva-darshi. Shri Krishna offers the recommendation within Bhagavad-gita, to underscore the importance of what the conversation with Arjuna meant. The celebrated bow-warrior of the Pandava family is approaching the original tattva-darshi, the one who establishes truth to begin with. Krishna is the highest truth, in fact. Everything rests on Him, like pearls carefully placed together on a thread.

मत्तः परतरं नान्यत्
किञ्चिद् अस्ति धनञ्जय
मयि सर्वम् इदं प्रोतं
सूत्रे मणि-गणा इव

mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat
kiñcid asti dhanañjaya
mayi sarvam idaṁ protaṁ
sūtre maṇi-gaṇā iva

“O conquerer of wealth [Arjuna], there is no Truth superior to Me. Everything rests upon Me, as pearls are strung on a thread.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 7.7)

In the beginning of the period of instruction, there is emphasis on the negative. This is to shake us out of our ways, which likely date back many past births. We follow kama from before we can remember. Everyone around us is doing the same. This kama is based on the illusion of identifying with the body. This kama can only lead to unhappiness and grief, shoka. Kama is the root of our problems.

क्रोधाद् भवति सम्मोहः
सम्मोहात् स्मृति-विभ्रमः
स्मृति-भ्रंशाद् बुद्धि-नाशो
बुद्धि-नाशात् प्रणश्यति

krodhād bhavati sammohaḥ
sammohāt smṛti-vibhramaḥ
smṛti-bhraṁśād buddhi-nāśo
buddhi-nāśāt praṇaśyati

“From anger, delusion arises, and from delusion bewilderment of memory. When memory is bewildered, intelligence is lost, and when intelligence is lost, one falls down again into the material pool.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 2.63)

There is pessimism in the beginning, but eternal optimism in the end. The flow is similar to the happiness in the mode of goodness. The quick wins in life are not really worth it, if assessed against the complete timeline. When we struggle a little in the beginning, though, to reach for something better, we benefit in the long run.

यत् तद् अग्रे विषम् इव
परिणामे ’मृतोपमम्
तत् सुखं सात्त्विकं प्रोक्तम्
आत्म-बुद्धि-प्रसाद-जम्

yat tad agre viṣam iva
pariṇāme ’mṛtopamam
tat sukhaṁ sāttvikaṁ proktam
ātma-buddhi-prasāda-jam

“That which in the beginning may be just like poison but at the end is just like nectar and which awakens one to self-realization is said to be happiness in the mode of goodness.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 18.37)

The resemblance to nihilism applies only if we reject matter outright, if we think that there is no other way. If we pursue nirvana, or the end of everything. If our focus remains on the nirakara aspect of spirituality, which lacks features. If we think of Divinity only as nirguna, which is without distinguishable characteristics.

The impersonalist branch of Vedic study has this sort of fatalistic outlook, wherein everything gets relegated to maya, or illusion. Of course, the same could then accurately apply to the Mayavadi teacher himself, thereby relegating his own philosophy to maya.

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu appeared within this world to make prominent the eternal truth of achintya-bhedabheda-tattva. This is the philosophy of simultaneous oneness and difference between the living entities and God. Maya is the ignorance standing in between their realization of Brahman. That identification with Brahman has a corresponding occupation, which is known as dharma. This dharma is always positive. It is not fatalistic, miserable, or hopeless. Rather, the corresponding bliss is so wonderful that the experience is a continuous progression, with no end in sight. That dharma is therefore accurately described as sanatana; it has no beginning and no end.

The Supreme Personality of Godhead is the object of dharma. He is the beneficiary of the devotional service. He is a person, with features. There is a shloka in Shrimad Bhagavatam wherein the Supreme Lord explains His position with respect to time. This explanation is offered to Lord Brahma, the creator. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu explains that the Sanskrit word “aham” is used three times in the shloka, for the purpose of emphasis. “Aham” always refers to a person. It can never refer to someone or something that does not exist.

ये ‘बिग्रह’ नाहि माने, ‘निराकार’ माने
तारे तिरस्करिबारे करिला निर्धारणे

ye ‘vigraha’ nāhi māne, ‘nirākāra’ māne
tāre tiraskaribāre karilā nirdhāraṇe

“Impersonalists do not accept the personal feature of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The Personality of Godhead is stressed in this verse in order to impress upon them the necessity of accepting Him. Therefore the word ‘aham’ is mentioned three times. To stress something important, one repeats it three times.” (Chaitanya Charitamrita, Madhya 25.115)

A person teaches the creator. A person institutes dharma. A person is the object of worship for the people trying to reinstate the culture of dharma, both at the personal level and throughout a society, with encouragement and support. Everything we have and do will be washed away with time, but service to God the person is eternal. That is the greatest reason to be optimistic, to feel enthusiastic in having found the precious human birth.

One person may be disillusioned with this world. Another person thinks there is no point. Yet another is focused only on removing the identification with matter. The person in knowledge, who has seen the truth, tattva, always meditates on the source of everything. They see Him as the most potent force, in convening all the planets to work together to make a functioning universe. They also see Him as the adorable and mischievous child of Yashoda roaming through the sacred land of Vrindavana, breaking and entering to take what He feels belongs to Him, against the mild protests of the residents wishing to protect their butter.

In Closing:

Nothing of this world is true,
Applying to life and experiences too.

Nihilism declaring that no purpose at all,
Is not same in your tradition to call?

Dreamlike indeed indicative of reflection,
But truth upon careful inspection.

Seen as most widespread and potent force,
But also as child stealing butter in course.

Categories: questions

Tags: atheism, dailyprompt, nihilism, poem, poems, poetry, religion