Tattva

Understanding the Spiritual Aspect of the Human Being

“At present, human society is being misled by leaders who are blind, for they do not know the aim and objective of human life, which is self-realization and the reestablishment of our lost relationship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead…” –A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada-Founder/Acarya of ISKCON

One can believe in God or not but this is for anyone who wants to know the true purpose of being a human. As humans we all believe deeply in our atomic soul that there is something that is running this universe, something that is running our daily lives and our activities. The things we did in the past, the things we do now, the mistakes we learn from, the motivation or thought that we must do something or something must be done for our own sake or for someone’s sake is vital. The truth is that we are all interconnected; when one proposes a thought in a discussion, someone else might be thinking the same thing, as basic as that thought might be…the forces of nature, the law of nature allow us as humans to bring all those likeminded together to achieve a feat or a goal. Those in a given profession, for example those in the medical field, regardless of where they are born, brought up, went to school, etc., are brought together by the laws of nature to one place to do one common good, perhaps in a particular situation to save someone’s life. Sometimes people discover an epiphany, “Perhaps this is why God has brought me here or this was my purpose.” We as living creatures have a purpose and the universal laws of nature bring those with the same purpose together to perform an action.

As we live in a material world consumed by materialistic objects in every way, we cheat ourselves and blind ourselves from what our true common purpose is as humans, that is to go back to serve the Creator who has created us. That is the force that put us together, gave us the mind, the personality, the actions, the thoughts to be who we are today or who we are going to be. It is the duty of every human being to understand his constitutional position with God and to act accordingly. We sometimes tend to say, “There is no God” or “I am God” or even “I don’t care for God.” But in actuality this challenging spirit will not save us. God is there, and we can see Him at every moment. As Prabhupada would say, if God isn’t there the Sun would not be setting, the tides would not rise, the Earth would not orbit the Sun, and we would not be here. It is because of all these peaceful processes that we need to recognize the importance of the force in nature, the Supreme Being behind this force. There are different features of the Supreme Personality of Godhead because He is the original root of the entire cosmic manifestation. In one sense it is not possible for us to escape Him for our destinies and fate are controlled by Him.

We must always remember that human life is attained only after an evolution of many millions of years in the cycle of transmigration of the spirit soul. In this particular form of life, the economic questions are more easily solved than the lower, animal forms. There are dogs, pigs, cows, horses and so on, whose economic necessities are just as important to them as ours are to us, but the economic questions of these animals and others are solved under primitive conditions, whereas the human being is given all the facilities and resources for leading a comfortable life by the laws of nature. We should ask ourselves the questions, why is a man given a better chance to live than all those other animals? Why are we at this time, in this position, with all these things? Prabhupada gives the example of why a highly posted government officer is given better facilities for a comfortable life than an ordinary clerk? The answer is very simple: the important officer has to uphold duties of a more responsible nature than those of an ordinary clerk. Similarly, the human being has to maintain and uphold higher duties than the animals, which are always busy filling their hungry stomachs. But by the laws of nature, the modern animalistic standard of civilization has only increased the problems of filling the stomach. When we approach some of these polished animals for spiritual life, they say that they only want to work for the satisfaction of their stomachs and that there is no necessity of inquiring about the Supreme Being.

Thus, we as humans need to value our human life and the lives of others. We need to work towards valuing each other’s thoughts and feelings; we need to try to make a difference in the lives of those in need. There are helpless children and woman, dying and suffering. There are people out there living in fear and pain. There are genocides taking place that are going unnoticed. We argue over laws, we argue about the political situations, we say we keep doing “what is good for our country and for the people,” however, in my opinion, if we can get rid of “our country” and work for the welfare as not the citizens of a nation but as Citizens of Humanity and truly understand the importance of each other’s lives, this is when we can break barriers and save millions of lives. Religions, ethnicities, countries, languages, and everything else that make each of us different can remain as they are. but as humans our true goal should be one and the same and that is help ourselves by helping each other.

The goal for each one of us is to conquer ourselves and our minds before we conquer the world. We are given this human form of life not just to work hard like the animals out there, but to attain the highest perfection of life. It is of course true that no human can achieve perfection but our goal is to achieve perfection. It is when we truly understand our own purpose and understand our own personal motives that we can use such motives for the betterment of the community. If we do not want that perfection then we will have to work very hard, for we will be forced to by the laws of nature. Our present economic crisis shows that we are going to have to work harder and harder. This process has already begun, and every year the necessity for harder work for fewer wages will increase. We are given this human form to behave civilized not as animals. Anything we do besides being civilized and humane men and women, we are portraying animalism. Animals have no restrictions whereas humans have certain restrictions. Yet human beings are not meant to work hard like animals, and if a man fails to uphold his duties as a human being, in Hinduism we call this Dharma, he is forced to transmigrate to the lower species of life by the laws of nature of this we say Karma and the process of Reincarnation. Everything we do in our lives is up to us but what we do and where we will go is called Karma-Kanda.

Through the process of reincarnation, those who are born in well-to-do families solve the problem of having to find sufficient food from the beginning of life, which is close to the life of an animal, and later a comparatively easier and more comfortable way of life can be led. Being so situated, one has a good chance to make progress in spiritual realization, but as ill luck would have it, due to the influence of the present Iron Age (which is full of machines and mechanical technology) wealthy people are often misguided for sense enjoyment, and they forget the chance they have for spiritual enlightenment. There are people of royalty around the world, there are billionaires all over the world who control the markets, there are aristocrats in every country, there are celebrities and so on, but as we see on VH1’s “the Fabulous life of…” many of them spend millions of dollars on material things that only cause them to go infinite in their spending. But they never realize the value of having such a position, which is when they abuse their wealth, and obscure the true purpose of the power they are given. We are meant to solve the ultimate problems of life which arise due to the laws of nature. Civilization is static unless there is spiritual movement. The soul moves the body, and the living body moves the world. We are concerned about the body, but we have no knowledge of the spirit that is moving that body. Without the spirit, the body is motionless or dead. The human body is an excellent vehicle by which we can reach eternal life. Prabhupada clearly puts it, “…it is a rare and very important boat for crossing over the ocean of nescience which is material existence. On this boat there is the service of an expert boatman, the spiritual master. By divine grace, the boat plies the water in a favorable wind. With all these auspicious factors, who would not take the opportunity to cross over the ocean of nescience?”

There is certainly a great deal of comfort in the first class coach of a train, but if the train does not move toward its destination, what is the benefit of an air-conditioned compartment? Contemporary society is much too concerned with making the material body comfortable and luxurious. We live in an Age of Information in which we are all concerned about the advancement of science, in this field or that field but not in our own life. We think that acquiring material things in life is the only advancement and that by having this or that we are better than others. In all truth, no one has information of the real destination of life, which is to go back to the Supreme Being. We must not just remain seated in a comfortable compartment; we should see whether or not our vehicle is moving toward its real destination. By being consumed with material aspects of life we forget the spiritual aspect, we forget to value our soul which is the most important goal of life. There is no ultimate benefit in making the material body comfortable at the expense of forgetting the prime necessity of life, which is to regain our lost spiritual identity.

We need to lead lives that are good for our soul and the society around us, we need to do things that benefit our lives and the longevity of our lives, keeping ourselves as pure as possible in every way so that we may continue to help and benefit those in need, those less fortunate around us. Given the opportunity to go to college, attain education to educate ourselves, and being presented a job so that we can live lives that are comfortable to us is all done only for one purpose, to use the fortunate lives presented to us by the Creator, whoever He is, to help those around us and help ourselves. Those thoughtful of themselves and those around us and who fulfill the purpose of life, Dharma, do his or her duty is someone that sets an example as a human being and gives true meaning to the existence of his/her soul. The work I have been doing the past few months with Bhutanese refugees has brought me to this conclusion about life. It made me understand that I am truly thankful for what I am given and have. Perhaps, we shall realize that to have this human form in the first place is to perform our duty of helping our civilization. That we must help others, by this we help ourselves, our soul, which is eternal. By helping better something that is eternal in this world and not concentrating on our material body we give true meaning to our lives.

Whether you believe in God, a Force, or a Spirit, think about your life…what can YOU do to make your life better, selflessly, and what can YOU do to help those around you, again selflessly? Think about the importance of spiritual identity, from a spiritual point of view if you can escape the desires that your senses constantly are attracted to and detach from the material things that make you temporarily happy and realize this, if you can concentrate on those immaterial aspects of life, one’s soul in his/her material body can achieve immaterial, eternal self-satisfaction and happiness. It is only a matter of understanding and realizing who we really are and by doing that we can understand others through such self-realization all of us can work toward helping each other.

Gayatri Mantra
AUM BHOOR BHUWAH SWAHA,
TAT SAVITUR VARENYAM
BHARGO DEVASAYA DHEEMAHI
DHIYO YO NAHA PRACHODAYAT

Translation
Oh God! Thou art the Giver of Life,
Remover of pain and sorrow,
The Bestower of happiness,
Oh! Creator of the Universe,
May we receive thy supreme sin-destroying light,
May Thou guide our intellect in the right direction.

Sai is an undergraduate student at Case Western Reserve University. He is majoring in mechanical and aerospace engineering with a minor in astronomy. He is also a varsity cross country and indoor and outdoor track runner for his university. He is the founder and president of CWRU Hindu YUVA.

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This entry was posted on Monday, June 1st, 2009 at 12:02 am and is filed under Reflections. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.