Mind-work of the Most Fallen # 1

Or On A Death of a Young body
O

I.
This news came to me late yesterday afternoon, telling of a high schoolmate’s death by brain tumor. She was roughly thirty, probably having the best of her life in the nearby Australian continent. I just said “Ay, sus.”


It would have had a mellower effect should this news be told fifty years in the future. Deaths hit us most when it happens early; striking us always with chest-wrenching awe. This was one of those instances when a certain “clarity” falls over you like epiphany. Like a wiper running through moist windshield. And it was raining, gloomy, when this officemate related the news while struggling to open her umbrella, and we were tired as it was past 5, and it just added to the effect. It called forth a communal black phenomena. It’s as if something is not right, or dying young is a mistake. How can we explain it—it’s hard to explain. Hard in a sense that we are suddenly left hanging when we were always ahead of the “dead”, dying somewhere in her old age—or the natural manner of how death is supposed to be...and that is when her life is, must be, “through.”


I was saying something like “...we can never really plan certain things...” but the person to whom I was saying this, just left me point blank, back to her office to probably get another thing to cover herself with from the rain. What I was saying was: It’s really not for us to plan things. We don’t know anything in the end. And the end is simply the end of everything we can do, overcome or comprehend. I probably asked about how the parents were doing, and Precy’s answer was a bland raised shoulder, and a similarly gray stare at nothing.


It was my turn to brave the late afternoon “ambon” and sloshed down the street to the tricycle terminal.


I was in the padyak, singing Govindam Adi Purusham, when I repeated to myself that I may be lucky to Know. No, I am lucky to Know—what really transpired in this “heavy” incident. Cecile, the kind, as Precy poignantly remembered the dead in the middle of her news, is not in that box her family is taking home from the airport, she’s somewhere else in this drizzle. Her relatives are only taking home sadness, and the icon of their misery. And I thanked Radha and Govinda endlessly, by softly chanting their names as the padyak passed through silvery tenements, and night’s coming, that when this sadness comes to me sooner or later, I have a shelter.


A tiger kills and comforts with its mouth. It carries its cub to safety by seemingly “biting” it; similarly it hunts by pressing its teeth on the neck of its prey. The significance of this image is this: To the devotee, the “bite” of God is protection, to the non-devotee, it is death.
It does not mean that Death does not come to the devotee. Death comes to all. But as the devotee knows God’s names, God’s address, God’s nature, he knows Where to go and Who to approach. I guess these are the only means by which we can endure the experience of dying.

II.
With one bleak moment all of the happy memories of this place we call world is wiped out. Some of us calls this getting older or becoming wiser...but to those who are true, simply calls this misery. We wanted to live and be happy, instead what we get is sadness and death. We want to get rich and be comfortable, instead what we get are money problems and fatigue.


When I am in this tone people ask me, so what should we do? And I say, “know who you are” as our greatest teachers preach. If I am blind of what I am, I am only trying to enjoy the lightlessness in my eyes which obviously will not make me happy. There are a lot of things beyond just trying to live “happy” world-wise. Most people we know, dub themselves ”seekers.” They seek high and low for a little taste of bliss. And so it is our fate in this world. But isn’t it just logical, before looking for something, to know first to whom our object of search will be for? Is it for your mind, your body or for you, the soul within these bodies?


Once you know which “mouth” to feed, then you start seeking, for now you know what food you must sow and reap. Let us not waste time by trying to solve these mysteries with ourselves. Let us humbly accept our weaknesses and end mentally speculating what the universe is, what life is. The first step to a sensible life is to accept that we do not know, and from that sought a Guide, who knows.
But a guide should be bona fide. And a bona fide guide is one who has accepted a guide also, who also accepted a guide, so on and so forth, tracing back to God Himself. This is called disciplic succession, a teaching that comes down to us from the Supreme Source. This is the only way, teaching should be.


For example I can only reach where you are if you will give me your name, your address and certain information about yourself. Otherwise, no matter how hard I try to speculate who you are, what you are, I will never be able to reach you. The same with God. It is true that God and His servants walked this world, to give us these information. Jesus was one of the most known in the western world. But because of our unpurified hearts it was hard for us to recognize Him and His devotees. When Krishna appeared in this world He was defamed by envious persons as an ordinary man. And Jesus was even crucified.


It is simply true that those pure at heart should feel blessed, “for they will see God.” And our hearts will be purified only if it comes in contact with a purifier. God said in the Bhagavad Gita, that I am the Supreme Purifier, and because He is non-different from His Names, we should chant HARE KRISHNA HARE KRISHNA KRISHNA KRISHNA HARE HARE/ HARE RAMA HARE RAMA RAMA RAMA HARE HARE in our beads or through kirtan to be purified. This is the only way for this yuga or age:


Harer Nama Harer Nama Harer Namaiva kevalam kalua nasty eva nasty eva gathir anyata
“Chant the the Holy Names (of God), chant the Holy Names, chant the Holy Names, in this age of quarrel and confusion, there is no other way, there is no other way, there is no other way!”


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Radha blessed me with this reminder on the very day of her Appearance. So I pray to Her, as I pray to my Spiritual Master, that She accept me as Her loving servant, that I may then be qualified to approach Her beloved Krishna, and be re-united with Him in loving devotion. Haribol!


September 8, 2008.