(Synopsis of a talk given by Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj in Ganganagar, Rajasthan, India, on November 27, 2009)
There are two kinds of living beings, mobile or char and immobile or achar. Mobile beings include animals, birds and thousands of other life forms like this that have freedom of movement. There are also immobile life forms like trees. All the living beings, regardless of their form, want to be free of suffering and to attain happiness. Each and every living being longs for happiness, from an ant to the creator, Brahma. Not only are humans desirous of happiness, but also celestial beings, because they also suffer. Those living beings that are lower forms than humans naturally suffer. Their mental power is very much less.
Hundreds of thousands of creatures live in water, so many animals live in the wild, and so many living beings exist in the open space. In comparison to these, the intelligence of a human being is much greater. This quality is called gyana shakti, the power of the intellect. With this power, a human is able to receive happiness by controlling other less developed beings. A dog is controlled by a human being, but when human faculties fail to detect evidence in a criminal case, the police use a dog. A human in a circus could even control a lion. We dominate all other living beings through the power of our intellect. We are so clever we could secretly figure out a scheme to rob a bank. How could a dog or donkey steal? Where could they run and hide? If a dog steals even a small piece of bread and runs away, fifty men will chase it to give it a beating. So everyone is suffering and everyone desires happiness, but only very few Saints like Surdas, Meera, Kabir, Tukaram and others have actually attained true happiness.
So why is there suffering? There is only reason: worldly desire. Our desire to attain something from this world. Why do we want the world? Because we believe our happiness will be proportional to how much of the world we receive. This is our confusion. We have caught this disease, and now we are stuck fulfilling our desires, and we do this by any means.
A person thinks, “I wish I had $100,000!” Did you get it? “Yes, I got it. But the cost of living is so high, what good is $100,000?” But before you were only wishing for $100,000. “I was mistaken. I should have at least $200,000.” He got $200,000, and went on to make a million, then a billion, then a trillion. But God is very compassionate. He made us all with the same size stomach, otherwise these people would consume everything! Those with great wealth are so tense they are unable to sleep properly. They have to take sleeping pills. But a beggar is able to sleep on a footpath and snore away. He has no concern what will happen tomorrow.
So this disease of desire is extremely great. Even if a person is a billionaire, he still possesses a limited amount of money. He still wouldn’t be able to buy an entire city like Ganganagar, even if he were the richest person in the world. Imagine if someone were the governor of this whole earth planet, he would still desire to enter the celestial abode, because he assumes there is more happiness over there. Celestial bodies never excrete any waste; instead they exude a perfumed fragrance. It’s not necessary for a celestial being to go to a shop to get what he wants. Simply by thinking, “Oh, rasgulla (an Indian sweet), come here!” it manifests. So even if a person governed this entire earth, he would think the happiness of this world is nothing in comparison to the happiness of the celestial abodes.
On this earth if a billionaire suddenly has the urge to eat rasgulla at midnight, he has to call his servant to go to the store to get it, but his servant will reply, “Sir, I’m sorry, but the shops are closed.” “So what?” “But sir, what should I do? Break the locks and enter? You will have to eat rasgulla tomorrow.” The billionare thinks, “Oh, well, I might as well sleep.”
Desires are never completely fulfilled, even if one goes to the celestial abodes. In fact, all of us have gone to the celestial abodes not thousands of times but uncountable times. A soul has been in existence since eternity, wandering in the 8.4 million species of life, and in the course of this, he has also wandered into the celestial abodes uncountable times. While there, we remained under the rule of Indra. Even at that time we thought, “If I could only become Indra then I would be completely happy!” Later we also became Indra, and we thought, “There is still one desire left in my heart…” This same Indra became attached to an earthly woman, Ahalya, who was the wife of Sage Gautam. You all must have read about this incident in the Ramayana. Even Indra remains afflicted by desire, anger, greed and delusion! This same Indra looks beyond his own abode and thinks, “I should become Brahma, then everything will be under my control!”
Think about this – when so many of these great personalities haven’t been able to rid themselves of this disease of desire, what do we expect will happen from fulfilling our desires for $100,000 or $200,000?
(Continued in Part 2)
© Jagadguru Kripalu Parishat and Bhakti Bliss, 2009
