Daily-Bhagavatam 63 – 11.07.53 – Don’t settle down into psuedo-security

Stay fixed in our march to Krishna.

Krishna had made a nest in a tree and a female pigeon who was his wife, she was like his half, as we say better half in English. He dwelled for some time, for some years. So here Avadhut Brahmana is speaking to Maharaja Yadu and is describing what he has learnt from his various gurus.

So here in particular he is describing what he has learnt from a pigeon. The lesson was mentioned in the previous verse, excessive attachment leads to misery and how that happens is depicted over here in the story. So one of the striking things when we study Ethology, Ethology is the study of animals of various species in the natural habitat is that their behaviour is in so many ways similar to human behaviour.

Just as we build a house, so the animals also build a house, so animals of course here refers to birds, they have made a nest and they also have a mate, just like we have. Now we may have formalisation of the relationship through marriage, the animals may not have a ritual like that but they do have their mating rituals, they even have courting rituals and sometimes powerful males may fight with each other to get an attractive female in that species. So here this particular pigeon, it is described that he had settled down in his life, he had a home, he had a spouse and he was living there, was residing there for some years.

So it means he was comfortably and to his thinking safely settled in life. So we will see how suddenly a danger and a disaster came up upon him, shattering the illusion of safety. In the next verses we will see this but here let us focus on this theme of how we tend to make material security and material comfort as the benchmarks of successful life.

That means if somebody has got a good job, somebody has got a good family, we tend to think oh this person is successful, however this is a mistaken definition of success when it is applied to human beings. Human beings have not just aparadharma but also paradharma. If we define success only in material or bodily terms then we reduce ourselves to the level of animals.

Some people may say that actually we are animals only, so what is the difference? There is no reduction, it is only a reversion to what is natural but actually what is natural is determined not just by what our bodily nature is but also by what our spiritual nature is. In the animal species there is no opportunity for the spiritual nature to express itself and therefore they act simply according to their bodily nature. So for them to consider having a nest, having a mate to be a successful understander because they don't have the intelligence to know anything better but we humans have the intelligence and along with that gift of intelligence we have the responsibility to explore life's spiritual dimension.

That means what is natural for us humans shouldn't be reduced to only what is bodily natural. We need to also include what is spiritually natural and that is the soul's relationship with Krishna and the soul's natural eternal love for Krishna which can be revived and by that revival we move onwards towards eternal life in relationship with Krishna. Now when we work in trying to achieve success only at the bodily level then we neglect our spiritual nature and thereby we deprive ourselves of access to spiritual happiness and consequently not only do we stay stuck at the material level but we also bind ourselves more and more at the material level.

It's because whereas the pigeon will try to make a nest and try to have a mate and maybe lay some eggs and eventually have some offspring. We humans essentially do the same. In form what we do is the same but in appearance we try to improve things.

So we are able to perceive that actually whatever arrangements we make for security and satisfaction at the material level they are inadequate. So we try to make better arrangements. That's why whereas a pigeon needs just the same grass or the same grains day after day, month after year, year after year.

We humans want to get some better foodstuffs to it and similarly we want to improve our residences from a slum to a flat to a row house to a palace to a mansion to a villa and so forth like that. And the more we are able to improve these arrangements we think that that is success. We think we are being successful.

Yes bodily needs have to be satisfied but we don't have to make the satisfaction of bodily needs the purpose of our life. What we subconsciously recognize that actually material security and material comfort does not really bring fulfillment because deep within we have a longing for something more. And though we may not consciously recognize it or consciously acknowledge this but still a gnawing sense of dissatisfaction of emptiness gnaws at our vitals.

It robs us of happiness and ultimately whatever material arrangement for security we have made we find that arrangement shattered by the vicissitudes of time by the changes that time brings about in our life. And we end up disheartened even devastated depending on how much our arrangements for security and comfort in this world get devastated. We may lose a loved one, we may ourselves get an incurable disease, we may suffer crippling and impoverishing financial losses and in this way we end up suffering.

But if we rather than accepting the animal level definition of success in our life we become more true to our human nature. Actually our nature is spiritual as souls but in the human bodies a human nature we refer to both our bodily nature and our spiritual nature. So when we become true to both then we don't settle down imagining security and comfort in material life.

Yes we do our duties and we do strive for basic level security and comfort in life but that is not for the purpose of settling down that is for the purpose of rising up. Rising up means that we use the material stability that is there in our life to focus our consciousness on Krishna and to elevate our consciousness thereby by practicing bhakti yoga. And the more we thus elevate our consciousness the more we experience actual security and satisfaction by our proximity with Krishna.

So rather than settling down into pseudo comfort and pseudo security we can focus our energy on rising up to experience real security and real satisfaction in our spiritual relationship with Krishna. Those who don't do so and those who seek only material security and comfort they will get not only they lose spiritual security and comfort but they also don't actually find material security and comfort because whatever arrangement they make that can be and that will be disrupted at any moment by the unpredictable movements of this world as happened in the life of this Kapota, the pigeon which will be described in the next courses. Thank you.