Uncertainity

There's nothing worse than uncertainty. We live in a world where there is growing tendency to make all absolutes taboo. Everything is relative. Many argue that there is no absolute standard for right and wrong, truth or untruth. They say that whatever you feel is right and true, is right and true for you, and whatever anybody feels is right and true is right and true for him. Sometimes they put a condition "as long as you don't hurt anybody." But the meaning of not hurting somebody is quite differently interpreted for example by someone who is against abortion as opposed to someone is in favor of abortion. Some people have no qualms about advocating kindness to animals while at the same time they eat them. The problem is that when my "truth" overlaps your "truth," and we have a very disturbing distressful situation on our hands. Thus fighting is going on between family members, between neighbors, between communities, and between nations. This is all coming because there is no universally accepted standard of right and wrong/ truth and untruth. If someone tries to impose their brand of relative truth upon others claiming it as absolute, this does not solve the problem. In the Kali Yuga, the age of quarrel and hypocrisy, this is a very common phenomenon. Whoever has the most clout economically or politically will put forward their "ism" and as an absolute and try to use their economic and/or political clout to get everyone else accept it as absolute. But this is artificial and therefore it can stand, it cannot remain. If we are going to have actually solidity and certainty we must hear directly from God, without any distortion, as to what is the Absolute Truth. Out of His sweet kindness the Lord personally appeared on this material plane of existence 5,000 and carefully and clearly revealed what is the Absolute Truth to His most beloved disciple, Arjuna. After hearing Krishna's or God's revelation of the most confidential knowledge, Arjuna said to Krishna: param brahma param dhama pavitram paramam bhavan purusam sasvatam divyam adi-devam ajam vibhum "You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the ultimate abode, the purest, the Absolute Truth. You are the eternal, transcendental, original person, the unborn, the greatest." Bhagavad-gita 10.12 If the human society can follow the wonderful example of Arjuna, then were will be perfect peace and happiness throughout the entire globe. No one has to change his or her religion because religion is actually one, to love God. It doesn't matter if you call Him Krishna, Christ, Allah, or Jehovah. If one can give up the sinful activities of meat eating, illicit sex life, intoxication, and gambling and absorb themselves in chanting the names of the Lord, they will quickly achieve the supreme happiness of pure love of God.

Spiritual master "Guru"

It is not possible to enjoy this material world because it is a place of suffering. No matter what we may do to try to counteract the suffering conditions, we will continue to be hounded by so many varieties of suffering conditions. The solution for one problem creates another problem. The solution for that problem then creates another problem. In this way we can never come to an end of the sufferings of this material existence.

However there is a way to become completely free from all varieties of suffering conditions. What is that method? We simply have to wake up. We have to come out of the dreamlike state of material existence. This material body is really not me after all. It is simply a covering of the eternal all-blissful, all-knowing self.

So what is the method of waking up? We need to come into contact with a person who is already awakened. This is described in the Caitanya Caritamrita as follows:

brahmanda bhramite kona bhagyavan jiva
guru-krsna-prasade paya bhakti-lata-bija

"According to their karma, all living entities are wandering throughout the entire universe. Some of them are being elevated to the upper planetary systems, and some are going down into the lower planetary systems. Out of many millions of wandering living entities, one who is very fortunate gets an opportunity to associate with a bona fide spiritual master by the grace of Krishna. By the mercy of both Krishna and the spiritual master, such a person receives the seed of the creeper of devotional service."
---Caitanya Caritamrita, Madhya 19.151

So how does one become fortunate to associate with a bona fide spiritual master?

Krishna is very eager to bestow His mercy upon all living beings. As soon as someone desires the Lord's mercy He gives that living being the opportunity to meet a bona fide spiritual master. Such a sincere person is helped from within by Krishna and from without by the spiritual master. Both the Lord and the spiritual master are prepared to give all help to the living being who desires to become free from material bondage and thus easily bring about a total solution to all the problems of material existence.

Material world full of miseries

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This material world is described in the Bhagavad-gita as duhkhalayam, a place of misery. By living here we get daily first hand experience of the reality of this description. In spite of the fact that no one wants to get sick, get old, or die, everyone is forced to endure these miseries. Plus there are innumerable other miseries caused by the mind, other living beings, and nature.

So what can be done about all this suffering? In the Bhagavad-gita Lord Krishna declares that we have to be tolerant of the dualities of material existence.

matra-sparsas tu kaunteya
sitosna-sukha-duhkha-dah
agamapayino 'nityas
tams titiksasva bharata

"O son of Kunti, the nonpermanent appearance of happiness and distress, and their disappearance in due course, are like the appearance and disappearance of winter and summer seasons. They arise from sense perception, O scion of Bharata, and one must learn to tolerate them without being disturbed."
Bhagavad-gita 2.14

Even the body of a fully self-realized soul gets sick, gets old, and dies. Even such a soul has to face so many impediments caused by nature and other living beings. Therefore we must patiently endure so many difficult circumstances while we engage ourselves in serving the Lord's mission. These difficulties are a golden opportunity for us to endear ourselves to the Lord because the more we are willing to take trouble in executing the purpose of the Lord, the more we become recognized by the Lord. Difficulties are therefore welcomed by those who are learned in the transcendental science.

Am I this Body??

Are your eyes seeing, or are you seeing through your eyes? Are you ears hearing, or are you hearing through your ears? Is your skin feeling, or are you feeling through your skin? What is that body and who are you? By careful thoughtful analysis we can understand that this body is changing at every minute while I, the passenger within the body, remain the same. I was a little baby. I become a young boy, then a young man. Now I am middle aged and soon to be an old man. But all along through these many changes of body the "I" remains the same. Therefore it is not at all difficult to conclude that the self and the body are different from each other. They are not one and the same. Even though with careful thoughtful analysis our spiritual existence beyond the body is quite obvious, still we have developed a society based on economic development and sense gratification that constantly reinforces the false conception of "I am this body." Why do we as a society do this? Because it sells. The general mass of people will consistently spend their money based on the principle of what gratifies their material senses. Therefore advertising plays off of this tendency. The companies that can most successfully exploit the lower pull towards bodily consciousness become the most successful. This creates a downward cycle, a whirlpool that constantly sucks the modern day society into deeper and darker ignorance. Is there a light at the end of the tunnel? Yes. That light is the Bhagavad-gita. Therefore the Bhagavad-gita should be very widely distributed in every language of the world and should be required reading in every educational program. In the meantime at least we can become educated and free from the suffering position of bodily consciousness. And we can do the highest welfare work of sharing this liberating knowledge of the non-material nature of the self with as many people as possible.