DEFINING SPIRITUAL HEALTH
There is a great disease known as bhava-roga, or the disease of material existence. From the Bhagavad-gītā, we understand that there are two types of existential realms — the spiritual and the material. The spiritual world, also known as the Vaikuṇṭha realm or the kingdom of God, is eternal and free, and this material world, also known as the Durgā realm, is temporary and conditional.
The denizens of the Vaikuṇṭha realm are spiritually healthy and they associate with the Supreme Lord in His various blissful pastimes. The spiritually healthy state of the pure spirit soul is defined by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, the great incarnation of Kṛṣṇa as a saint in medieval India, as follows: jīvera ‘svarūpa’ haya — kṛṣṇera ‘nitya-dāsa’(Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā 20.108), to be an eternal loving servant of Kṛṣṇa.
The individual spirit soul, being part and parcel of the Supreme Lord, is a minute sample of the Supreme Lord just as much as a spark is of the fire or a drop is of the ocean. The Supreme Lord enjoys complete independence. We have the same quality of independence but only to a very minute degree. Basically, we can only choose between cooperating with Kṛṣṇa for His pleasure and not doing so.
DEFINING THE DISEASE
When the individual soul’s minute independence is misused and he persists to lord it over nature, trying to be a competitor of the Supreme Lord, the Supreme Lord, reluctantly yet mercifully, grants him the facility to do so within this material world. Thus, since time immemorial, the souls in the material world have been infected with this desire to lord it over the material nature. This is called bhava-roga.
As we know, any disease is always painful. This disease is no different. In fact, this is the mother of all other diseases. All other diseases are only symptoms of this real disease. The gamut of material miseries ranging from an insignifcant, subtle anxiety right up to the ultimate distress of death are the result of our material existence. The material body itself is an infection on the pure soul. Just as a boil is an infection and is not supposed to be there, a spirit soul is not supposed to take on a material body.
FUTILE REMEDIES
Anyway, now that we arein this material world, we should understand that we are all afflicted with this deadly disease of bhava-roga. Everyone is trying to treat it. We are all constantly combating the unending stream of distresses that the material life is hurling at us. That is the struggle for existence. In fact, everyone wants a happy life, not the miserable life that the material world offers. And they try in many different ways to counteract the material miseries. But all the remedies they come up with fall way short in curing this fatal disease. At best, they prove only to be momentary pain relievers. But ultimately the disease gets the better of us and devours us. In this way, we have been tossed and hurled around this material universe in various species of life for trillions upon trillions of years.
UNDERSTANDING THE ANATOMY
However, there is a very effective antidote — Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Let us scientifically understand how the disease is contracted and how it can be effectively counteracted with Kṛṣṇa consciousness in such a way that there is no relapse of it so that we can regain our spiritual vitality and escape this material world and return to the spiritual world to blissfully associate with Kṛṣṇa in His pastimes.
Just as a doctor needs to understand the anatomy of a human body first, we also need to understand the anatomy of our material existence. This information is given in the Bhagavad-gītā. The perceivable body is called the gross body which is made up of the five elements namely earth, water, fire, air and ether. The subtle body, which is finer, comprises the mind, intelligence and false ego. False ego refers to bodily identification which means to misidentify ourselves with our material body. Encaged within these two coverings, both gross and subtle, is the pure spirit soul.
THE THREE MODES
Then there are the three modes of material nature — sattva(goodness), rajaḥ(passion) and tamaḥ(ignorance). The pure spirit soul is transcendental to these three modes. But when he associates with these modes, he becomes infected with their qualities. In the Bhagavad-gītā (13.22), it is clearly stated: kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo ’sya sad-asad-yoni-janmasu— by associating with the modes of material nature, we are infected with their qualities and hence we take on a suitable body infected with just the right mix of the three modes that represents our consciousness.
In the 14th chapter of the Bhagavad-gītā (14.14-15), our travel after death is explained as follows: “When one dies in the mode of goodness, he attains to the pure higher planets. When one dies in the mode of passion, he takes birth among those engaged in fruitive activities; and when one dies in the mode of ignorance, he takes birth in the animal kingdom.” A similar statement is found in the 8th chapter of the Bhagavad-gītā (8.6) as follows: “Whatever state of being one remembers when he quits his body, that state he will attain without fail.”
IDENTIFYING THE GERMS
How exactly does the soul contact the modes? And what exactly happens when we contact them? Everything that exists in this material world is a product of the three modes of material nature. The food we eat, the work we perform, the friends we make, the people we admire, the habits we acquire, the penance we undergo, the charity we give away, practically everything that our senses and working organs interact with are influenced by the three modes.
If I associate with smokers and drunkards, I may one day become one of them. If I associate with a diseased person, I may also catch the disease. Similarly, as we associate with the modes of material nature, so we develop our desires and hence our qualities.
This is very vividly explained in Bhagavad-gītā (2.62) as follows:
dhyāyato viṣayān puṁsaḥ
saṅgas teṣūpajāyate
saṅgāt sañjāyate kāmaḥ
“While contemplating the objects of the senses, a person develops attachment for them, and from such attachment lust develops.” Lust refers to the desire to enjoy what we survey. Our mind creates an image of what we perceive with our senses and that image is called a thought. Such thoughts give rise to desires.
In the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam (11.23.44), a learned brāhmaṇamakes an interesting observation:
manaḥ sva-liṅgaṁ parigṛhya kāmān
juṣan nibaddho guṇa-saṅgato ’sau
“I, the infinitesimal spirit soul, have embraced the mind which is the mirror reflecting the image of the material world. Thus I have become engaged in enjoying objects of desire and am entangled due to contact with the modes of nature.”
Now, we have a clue. The affections or emotions that we develop for the objects that we perceive etch a mental image. These images are the germs which afflict us and continue our term within this material world. So if one fills his mind with images of his dear wife, then there is a very good chance of his thinking of his wife at the time of death and in the next life, he becomes a woman. Similarly, if one thinks of his pet dog all the time, then he is running the risk of becoming a dog in his next life.
AUGMENTING THE DISEASE
Here, we would like to add something. The merciful Lord, in order to help us forget our excessive attachment for this material world, created a powerful healer called forgetfulness. He mentioned in the Bhagavad-gītā (15.15) that He is the cause of knowledge, remembrance and forgetfulness.
With time, which is another feature of the Supreme Lord (Bhagavad-gītā 11.32), our memories fade and our attachments become somewhat slackened. But with the invention of photography and videography, we can refresh our memories of all the things we ought to forget. So, we are actually increasing our attachment for this material world with all that imagery.
THE ANTIDOTE
How to cure this acute disease? The answer is to simply change the subject with which the mind or the senses interact. If all our senses can be made to interact with Kṛṣṇa and thus the mind can be filled with thoughts of Kṛṣṇa, then that attachment becomes the cause for liberation. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. The mind is apt to become attached. That cannot be changed. Therefore, the Vaiṣṇava philosophy does not advocate detachment per se. Rather, attachment to Kṛṣṇa is advocated as suggested by Kṛṣṇa Himself in the Bhagavad-gītā (7.1): mayy āsakta-manāḥ pārtha, or man-manā bhava mad-bhaktaḥ(9.34, 18.65).
Mahārāja Ambarīṣa epitomized such attachment to Kṛṣṇa by engaging every part of his body in relation to Kṛṣṇa so that his mind is filled with extensive imagery only of Kṛṣṇa. His life is explained in Śrīmad Bhāgavatam (9.4.18-20) as follows: “Mahārāja Ambarīṣa always engaged his mind in meditating upon the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, his words in describing the glories of the Lord, his hands in cleansing the Lord’s temple, and his ears in hearing the words spoken by Kṛṣṇa or about Kṛṣṇa. He engaged his eyes in seeing the Deity of Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa’s temples and Kṛṣṇa’s places like Mathurā and Vṛndāvana, he engaged his sense of touch in touching the bodies of the Lord’s devotees, he engaged his sense of smell in smelling the fragrance of tulasī offered to the Lord, and he engaged his tongue in tasting the Lord’s prasāda. He engaged his legs in walking to the holy places and temples of the Lord, his head in bowing down before the Lord, and all his desires in serving the Lord, twenty-four hours a day. Indeed, Mahārāja Ambarīṣa never desired anything for his own sense gratification. He engaged all his senses in devotional service, in various engagements related to the Lord. This is the way to increase attachment for the Lord and be completely free from all material desires.”
One may not immediately be able to do everything that Mahārāja Ambarīṣa did but one can start by chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra:
hare kṛṣṇa hare kṛṣṇa
kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa hare hare
hare rāma hare rāma
rāma rāma hare hare
That will eventually lead one to complete perfection. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu explained the effect of chanting as ceto-darpaṇa mārjanam: cleansing the mirror of the mind.
Another activity that perfectly complements the chanting is hearing or reading about Kṛṣṇa from authentic Vedic literature like the Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad Bhāgavatam. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu very much stressed the importance of these two complementary activities of śravaṇaṁ(hearing) and kīrtanaṁ(chanting). It is highly effective and just suitable for this age of Kali. One can quickly develop attachment for Kṛṣṇa by this process and slacken his attachment to this material world. Thus, with only Kṛṣṇa remaining in his mind at the time of death, he returns home, back to Godhead as confirmed by Lord Kṛṣṇa Himself in the Bhagavad-gītā (8.5) as follows:
anta-kāle ca mām eva
smaran muktvā kalevaram
yaḥ prayāti sa mad-bhāvaṁ
yāti nāsty atra saṁśayaḥ
“And whoever, at the time of death, quits his body, remembering Me alone, at once attains My nature. Of this there is no doubt.”
At our temple, we freely offer the sublime facility to congregate and hear about Kṛṣṇa and chant His name along with other services like cleansing the temple, etc. We invite you to kindly take advantage of this valuable opportunity and easily cure the otherwise incurable disease of bhava-roga. [End]
