9/11 - These days many people speak about the terror attack that changed the world as we knew it. I was also reflecting on this day and I remember quite well how I was just about to go to the temple, packing my suitcase for a two weeks stay at the brahmacari Ashrama, which would eventually lead to me joining the temple. All of a sudden, my friend who was watching TV, called out: „Hey look at this, unbelievable, you must see this! “ I became curious, ran into the living room and could not believe my eyes. Seeing the aircrafts crashing into the New Yorker Twin Tower I concluded - yes, this world is a crazy place, it is time to join the Hare Krishna Movement and get serious about spiritual life!
On that Sunday a devotee gave a talk on a spiritual perspective of this event. I was quite impressed by that talk and in today’s blog I would like to simply share some of these points:
Everyone speaks about the terror attack of New York. The whole world is in anxiety, in fear of terrorism. Understandable, but from the spiritual point of view, there is another danger that is much more threatening to every one of us. They are the six enemies within our hearts. They are the actual terrorists. It’s our own heart that is the birthplace of all violence in the world.
Vedic scriptures describe that there are six enemies in the heart of a conditioned soul: kama - Lust, krodha - Anger, lobha - Greed, moha - illusion, mada - pride and matsarya - envy. These six unwanted qualities are the terrorists we should be afraid of, the enemies we should try to protect ourselves from.
Because of ahankar, the false ego, I identify myself with this body. As a spiritual soul I am by nature pleasure seeking, but if I wrongly identify with the material body and try to seek pleasure through the senses, original love is turned into lust. Driven by lust, we try to find pleasure in this temporary world and when our desires remain unfulfilled we become angry. If someone else gets what I wanted I become envious and if I finally get what I want I am still not satisfied because greed will push me to want more and more. Thus I am influenced by the six enemies of the soul and can`t find any peace of mind.
What’s the solution? Srila Narottama Dasa Thakur has given us some hints on how to deal with the six enemies and how sadhu-sanga is what we really need:
I shall fight with lust, anger, bewilderment, greed, madness, envy and pride. Defeating them, I will become blissful at heart, and I will easily become able to worship Lord Govinda.
Lust I will engage in offering the fruits of my work to Lord Krsna. Anger I will direct towards the enemies of the devotees. Greed I will engage by being greedy to hear the topics of Lord Hari in the association of the saintly devotees. Bewilderment will be manifested because I cannot immediately attain my worshipable Lord. Madness will be there when I madly glorify the transcendental attributes of Lord Krsna. In this way I will engage each of these in the service of Lord Krsna.
If lust is not controlled, then it becomes the breeding ground for a host of vices and checks one’s advancement on the path of devotional service. However, if one stays in the association of the saintly devotees, then that association will carry him beyond the influence of lust, anger, and their friends. (1)
_____________________________________________________________________
1 - From Srila Narottama dasa Thakura`s Sri Prema-bhakti-candrika
