House of Mirrors

Free the People from the Fire

Seekers

People seeking liberation and spiritual knowledge, even Krishna-lila, so often seem to have some vague, speculative idea of what they think it will be like for them as their process unfolds, perhaps assuming that after exerting some undisclosed amount of renunciation and effort to chant, worship deities, etc, some extreme mystical experience will instantly transport them into a spiritual environment, or a hole in the material world will develop whereupon they will be blessed with a vision of the spiritual world and having realised spiritual pastimes, they will experience continual, overwhelming happiness, or some other similar, self-seeking, nonsensical idea, a product of the material imagination.

Despite the efforts and intention of these people seeking to find the spiritual realm, they will never find it by any such method, since the pure spirit world, especially Krishna-lila, is not attainable via emphirical study and logical analysis of the mind and senses, nor even by meditation, yoga, nor reading of the scriptures, one even needs to go beyond namaparadha to realise the full benefits.

The abovementioned method of spiritual development, ironically, flies in the face of the teachings of those who are actually spiritually realised, who indicate that the process of self realisation is one of personal transformation, from an exploitative mood to one of loving one and all without condition.

Meanwhile, I'm Still Thinkin' *
Meanwhile, we live in a world that is a house of mirrors wherein we see that people are out to cause us mischief and we treat them according to their "crime" since we find it impossible to love such mean spirited, ignoble persons, preferring instead to treat them with disrespect, even outright disdain and opposition. In this world we accept as friends those who treat us well and for the most part we treat them well in an act of reciprocity. We treat them to a degree of kindness but we ourselves remain our own priority.

We fail to understand that the way we are treated is an outcome that we have earned by our own mood toward others.

Lots of people in this world of mirrors, wish to know and often speculate as to the nature of love, ignoring the obvious gaps and faults that pervade their own "love". Yet despite their efforts, a definition of love remains elusive. It's not particularly difficult to understand why this is so.

Love Street
Imagine living in a world where everyone is intensely loving. A world without envy, a world where there is no competition to exploit others for our own happiness. There is no war, no sarcastic disrespect, no need to outdo others to prove one's right to be respected, no biting insects, no locksmiths, no need of insurance policies, lawyers nor prisons, since only those whose intent is to love to the most extreme degree are entitled to access this world.

Constast our pathetic, current world of mirrors with real love, of which it could be said, is where one's priority in life is the willingness to accept the happiness of all others as one's own most urgent responsibility.

Sri Guru
Our own Srila Gurudeva has this loving mood and intent. As his disciples, it behooves us to follow in his footsteps. If one has this attitude toward others, in all it's purity, since Krsna Himself is motivated by this same, benign mentality, surely then the beautiful threefold bending form of Sri Shyamasundara would instantly appear before us, eagerly seeking our association.

Joy to all beings
 



* "Meanwhile, I'm still thinkin'." is a line from the song Little Queenie by Chuck Berry