SB 11.23.61 – The way to freedom from misery is not by ending misery, but by rising beyond duality

Transcript

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thereby gaining strength can rejuvenate us and inspire us to again practice meditation wholeheartedly.
Thank you. Pranve naiva bhibhuvite This is the last verse of the chapter on the song of the Avanti Brahmana. And here Lord Krishna is concluding.
This song of the bhikshu, of the mendicant sannyasi, Brahma nishtham samahitah Brahma refers to the absolute truth. Nishtham can mean faith, but it can also mean which is based on, which is related to, which is connected with, which is Brahma nishtha, which talks about faith in the absolute truth, knowledge of the absolute truth. Samahitah, if one attentively dharayan shravan shranvan, one meditates, causes to hear or hears oneself.
Causes to hear means one speaks so that others can hear. One will not be affected by the dualities, will not be overwhelmed. One will never again be overwhelmed by the dualities.
Actually, in material existence, we are all afraid of sufferings. It can be dishonor, it can be financial losses, misunderstandings in relationships, it can be extremes, extremes of weather, too much heat, too much cold, like that. There are various problems that we may face and we are afraid of them.
However, we can’t deal with these fears merely by hoping that those negativities won’t come in our life. Yes, they may not come specifically, specific forms of negativities may not come, but in general, the negativity will come and if it will affect us to the extent we let ourselves be affected by the positivity also. That means to the extent we delight in honor, to that extent, we will become miserable in dishonor.
To the extent we enjoy pleasure at the bodily level, to that extent, we will suffer pain when it comes at the body level through disease or injury. Or any other such factor. So the way to become free from misery is not by hoping that misery doesn’t come, but by going beyond duality so that when misery comes, our consciousness is not caught at the material level and so we don’t feel miserable.
How will that happen? That happens through the intelligence and the practice of devotion. So this Avanti Brahmin song, it describes serious intellectual contemplation on the root cause of suffering, the identification of the mind’s central role in our entanglement in duality and then the turning away from material attachments, material things by fixing the mind on Krishna. So this process of intellectual analysis and devotional redirection can raise us beyond dualities and then we can go beyond the reach of misery.
So if a person is in the ocean, one cannot stop the flow of water in the ocean. But if we are in a boat above the ocean, we are less affected by it. And eventually when we are, say, airlifted out of the ocean, then we are no longer affected by it.
So the process of Bhakti Yoga, at the very least, provides us a boat which minimizes the effects of the ocean and eventually Krishna airlifts us out of this ocean, metal ocean, completely. So by contemplating on the philosophy of Krishna consciousness in general, we can go beyond dualities. And especially these dualities affect us and distract us when we are trying to take shelter of the holy name.
Because while chanting, the main challenge that we face is that either we are attracted and distracted by pleasure, what all we may be able to enjoy, or by pain, what all problems may come up. And both these distractions make us want to do something which should deal with them. Either we want to get the pleasure or avoid the problem.
So we have time at other times because when we are living at the material level, we can’t just neglect the material level. But knowing that ultimately the solution is to transcend duality and knowing that it is the process of Krishna consciousness that will help us to rise beyond dualities, we can give due attention and wholehearted reception to the holy name and put aside those hopes of pleasure and fears of problems and absorb ourselves in the holy name.