Five Frustrations In Seeing Things Not Utilized Properly

“…the word pavarga signifies our struggle for existence and our meeting with defeat, exhaustion, bondage, fearfulness and, at last, death. Apavarga means that which can nullify all of these material conditions. Krishna is said to be the giver of apavarga, the path of liberation.” (Shrila Prabhupada, The Nectar of Devotion, Ch 59)

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1. The television is made for watching

“What in the world is going on here?  No wonder the remote control barely works.  I have been pressing these buttons so hard and nothing.  It is all that stuff blocking the view.  Why are you placing items on the stand?  You have plenty of space elsewhere.  Do you not understand what the television is for?”

2. The floor is made for walking

“What in the world is going on here?  I swear, I have to look down.  For every step.  At every moment.  I risk running into a wall and splitting my head open.  But that is the landscape, no pun intended.  Why is there so much stuff just thrown about?  The floor is there for a reason.  It is not a repository for junk.  Get rid of this stuff or at least organize it.  My goodness!”

3. The door is made for opening

“Well, would you look at that?  As if the television and floor weren’t bad enough, now this door can barely open.  I wanted to do some laundry today.  I can barely get into the room.  You try opening the door and there is resistance.  With all the stuff blocking the way, you can’t use something that is sitting there, waiting to be used.  What in the world is going on here?”

4. The food is made for eating

“Every single time.  No joke.  I predicted it.  I had not rigged a contraption beforehand; trust me.  This is the sadness of the situation.  There is so much food piled up that as soon as you open the door stuff falls out.  Keep in mind that only one person lives here.  You can try throwing stuff out, but then the garbage container is already full.  It is the mode of ignorance to the extreme.  Here is a thought. If there is food, how about you try eating it?  Instead, you have created a monument for these things.  It is disgusting, if you ask me.”

5. The individual eternal is made for serving the chief eternal

“The Upanishadic verse runs as follows: nityo nityanam chetanash chetananam. The purport is that amongst all the living entities, both conditioned and liberated, there is one supreme living personality, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who maintains them and gives them all the facility of enjoyment according to different work.” (Shrila Prabhupada, Bhagavad-gita, 15.17 Purport)

The acharya is emphatic for a reason.  They are not simply going along, following blindly, in the shadow of an exalted leader.  They are not looking to criticize, to find fault, or to put others down.  They are not bored and only feel alive when out in the field, speaking in front of attentive, albeit bewildered audiences.  There is a purpose.  There is an objective.

The root cause can be found in a teaching from the Upanishads.  This teaching says that the living beings are eternal.  They are individual instances of a life force, chetana.  Amongst those eternals, there is a chief.  That individual, supreme eternal is actually maintaining all of the other individual eternals.  This is one way to understand the concept of Divinity.  God is eternal.  The living beings are eternal.  God is the chief eternal.

The natural extension of that relationship is service.  This is the best use of the vibrancy in the individual eternals.  They should be serving the chief eternal.  The exact language used, the specific books read, or the places of worship are not that important.  The key factor is the connection.  The Sanskrit word is yoga.  The scientific truth of the relationship of the individuals towards the chief is dharma.  It is the dharma of the individuals to serve the chief.  Any other path is adharma.  It is the opposite of dharma.  It goes against the nature of the individual.

The representative of the chief eternal asks questions along the following lines:

“Just what exactly are you doing?  Do you not see that your entire life is being spoiled?  Why do you continue to fall further into this pit of hopelessness, despair, and defeat?  Liberation is known as apavarga.  You should look to negate all of the horrible factors of a material existence.  You know better.  You have intelligence.  You should utilize that intelligence.  Otherwise, that spark will turn elsewhere.  Your efforts will be dedicated towards unprofitable ventures, anartha.  Listen to the eternal truth of sanatana-dharma.  This is not religion.  This is not faith.  This is who you actually are.”

Indeed, Bhagavad-gita confirms that realignment with dharma is not easy.  It might be many lifetimes before a person finds their way again.  Nevertheless, the transformation can still take place in a second.  As Goswami Tulsidas reveals, that transformation can also change the nature of past lives.  All of that time we think we have wasted, those moments spoiled and gone forever, can be part of the great story of liberation, in meeting the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

बिगरी जनम अनेक की सुधरै अबहीं आजु
होहि राम को नाम जपु तुलसी तजि कुसमाजु

bigarī janama aneka kī sudharai abahīṃ āju
hohi rāma ko nāma japu tulasī taji kusamāju

“The many past births you spoiled can be rectified right now, today, if you start chanting Shri Rama’s holy name and renounce bad association, says Tulsi.” (Dohavali, 22)

In Closing:

Junk in heaps piled upon,
Just what exactly going on?

The fridge with food distended,
But items for proper use intended.

For life experience apply the same,
Soul with purpose to human birth came.

Such that transcendence finally to know,
And towards eternal shelter to go.