Our philosophy is one-in-difference. There are obvious ways in which we [as devotees] are culturally different but there are also obvious ways in which we are not different. And it seems to me that in general, not only the success of our movement, but our own individual success of just being emotionally and spiritually healthy, our own success in having good lives, from our own perspective, depends upon our ability to make relevant distinctions. To be strongly fixed in ones spiritual life one obviously has to know whats better about a spiritual life than a material life. And one has to specifically understand whats better about spiritual life the way we are doing it. At the same time, according to Lord Caitanyas philosophy, it is equally important for us to understand the ways in which we are not different from other people. After all, Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gita that the symptom of the wise is not that they see what theyre doing is better than what everybody else is doing, he says the symptom of an enlightened person is that he sees the equality of everyone. It seems to me, in fact, that we who are claiming that everyone is part of God, should have the greatest powers of empathy. And percisely by that empathy, by feeling what others feel, by identifying at some level with everyone, by establishing the connection, we can elevate people. You cant lift someone up if youre not connected with them. So if this movement aims to lift up humanity, we better be connected to humanity. And how can there be a connection, when theres no sympathy? Do you like to be intimately connected to people that have no sympathy for you? Isnt that what Prabhupada did? He came to this world and connected to millions of people by his ability to enter everyones heart, to feel what they were feeling, to know what they were thinking, to self-evidently be their most caring friend. So therefore, if we only have the power to distinguish ourselves from other people and thats as far as we go - theres a word for that in the Bhagavatam, its called third class (mundane) devotee. So if we merely distinguish ourselves and do not see the oneness, if we dont feel how we are truly one with everyone - we dont get Krishna consiousness. (Hridayananda Maharaja, Los Angeles, 2003)
Posted on: Fri, 07 Mar 2014 10:13:42 +0000
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