“But you cannot see Me with your present eyes. Therefore I give to you divine eyes by which you can behold My mystic opulence.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 11.8)

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न तु मां शक्यसे द्रष्टुमनेनैव स्वचक्षुषा
दिव्यं ददामि ते चक्षु: पश्य मे योगमैश्वरम्

na tu māṁ śakyase draṣṭum
anenaiva sva-cakṣuṣā
divyaṁ dadāmi te cakṣuḥ
paśya me yogam aiśvaram

1. Pictures

“I have that song on my phone.  Give me a moment to pull it up.  I have to scroll through all of these pictures.  That is how the geniuses running these tech firms think people will operate efficiently.  We are too dumb to read words, you see.  We need these giant pictures on these tiny screens in order to find what we are looking for. Most of these pictures don’t even match a cover to an existing album. In other words, the pictures are worthless to the process.”

2. Icons

“Aren’t we so lucky today?  We used to be able to purchase the software one time and use it for as long as we liked.  Now, we have to pay the recurring subscription price, where we are forced to use the latest version of the software.  Everything is icons now.  It takes me forever to figure out how to do basic tasks.  That is because I have to now find the corresponding icon, hover over it, and hope to find a text equivalent.  Then, of course, many of the icons are hidden. How can I find something that I am not even sure exists? That is why I resort to searching online for the solution.”

3. Text

“Some of you are not old enough to remember, but back in the day there was something called the Dewey Decimal System.  It was associated with the card catalog at the local library.  They used this system to catalog books.  It was an easy way to look up a title or group of books that fell within a specific topic.  At the heart of such retrieval is text.  In other words, you read words, no pun intended.  Maybe numbers, printed as digits. That was good enough for mankind for thousands of years, but somehow, today, right now, we are so evolved that we cannot even be bothered to read words.  We are so advanced, you see.”

4. Sound

“I don’t need a picture.  I don’t need words.  I can tell by the sound.  That is how I remember someone.  If they call me on the phone, I don’t even need to look at the screen.  I can tell who they are in a matter of seconds.  The same applies to music, obviously.  Identifying animals in the wild.  I don’t know why people rely so much on images these days.  It is not necessary.”

…

Why so much emphasis on the maha-mantra?  Why do the teachers within the Vaishnava tradition of spirituality insist on reproducing the holy names?  Goswami Tulsidas says that this place is full of grief.  It is like the abode of shoka.  There is no hope for a permanent settlement.  That in itself makes the place miserable.  We look for something permanent, only to fail, repeatedly, at that.  The remedy is to say the name of Rama and give up bad association.

तब लगि कुसल न जीव कहुँ सपनेहुँ मन बिश्राम
जब लगि भजत न राम कहुँ सोकधाम तजि काम

taba lagi kusala na jīva kahum̐ sapanehum̐ mana biśrāma
jaba lagi bhajata na rāma kahum̐ sokadhāma taji kāma

“For as long as there is not devotion to Shri Rama and the release of material desires, which are like an abode of grief, the living being should not expect to find welfare and peace of mind, even in a dream.” (Dohavali, 131)

The bad association is easy to identify.  In essence, any person who is trying for a permanent settlement, in denial of the reality, will not help us out of shokadhama.  There is another side to the holy name, apart from rescue.  It is a way to connect with the Supreme Divinity.  That concept which is above and beyond the temporary, which is at the root of all intelligence, who knows everything there is and has the potency to solve any problem – can be accessed through the holy name.

माम् उपेत्य पुनर् जन्म
दुःखालयम् अशाश्वतम्
नाप्नुवन्ति महात्मानः
संसिद्धिं परमां गताः

mām upetya punar janma
duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam
nāpnuvanti mahātmānaḥ
saṁsiddhiṁ paramāṁ gatāḥ

“After attaining Me, the great souls, who are yogis in devotion, never return to this temporary world, which is full of miseries, because they have attained the highest perfection.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 8.15)

Aligning with the above reviewed methods of identification, the maha-mantra can be considered a way to look up God:  Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.  The retrieval has been properly indexed.  There is a specific sound that equates to the individuals represented by that sound.  This mantra accounts for both the energy and the energetic.  The two are like one, when in proper alignment.  True oneness is when the energy works for the interests of the energetic.  We say this mantra to find God, to connect with Him, and to remain fixed in our ideal position.

The argument can be made that the other methods of identification could apply.  Why not find God through a picture?  The issue here is understanding.  He might reveal Himself to us, in a painting, a statue, or a grand vision, but we have no idea what we are looking at.  Even the highly qualified bow-warrior named Arjuna required a special set of eyes in order to properly perceive the virat-rupa.

The general tendency is that images appeal to emotion and sounds appeal to intellect.  If you hear a speech as opposed to watching it.  If you listen to recorded instruction as opposed to sitting through a slide deck presentation.  Reading the book version of a story as opposed to watching the movie.  The tendency is to retain the knowledge better through sound.

In this regard, the Vedic tradition is helpful.  There is so much sound to access.  There are countless books.  If a person wanted, they could lift a single verse from Bhagavad-gita and meditate on it for an entire day.  They could repeat the same experience, day after day, through to the end of life.  They would never reach an end to the resulting bliss, precisely because the object of focus is Himself a limitless ocean of transcendental goodness.

In Closing:

Everything into pictures turned,
Slowly the knowledge returned.

As if population no longer can read,
Descent into ignorance indeed.

But perfect when to access the sound,
Like in sacred mantra found.

That day after day can repeat,
Retrieval of God complete.

Categories: the four

Tags: dailyprompt, god, hare krishna, poem, poems, poetry, research