Skeptical of Skepticism

Skepticism is the philosophical position of doubting everything. In terms not being duped by false teachings it is certainly helpful to a certain point. But just as the existence of counterfeit money indicates the existence of real money, falsity indicate that somewhere there is actual truth.

If one is overly skeptical regarding money, he will never be able to accept money from anyone due his paranoia that all money is counterfeit. This is a highly unrealistic impractical position. Similarly if is one is overly skeptical regarding knowledge, he will never be able to accept anything as truth. But since truth exists, to take the philosophical position of the skeptics, to never accept anything as truth, would be ridiculous.

Science proposes to give us truth. But yet we do not see a consensus of opinion among scientists. What one scientists says is true, is said by another scientist to not be true. So how we will arrive at the truth? This is the most important question we can ask in this human form of life. Therefore the Vedanta Sutra enjoins:

athato brahma jijnasa

"The purpose of the human form of life is to understand what is the Absolute Truth."

So how will we arrive at the Absolute Truth? We are living within it at every minute. Therefore the Absolute Truth of existence can never be extinguished although it may be temporarily covered by ignorance. If we are very sincere to reconnect ourselves with that Absolute Truth, the Supreme Absolute Truth, dwelling within us, will bring us in contact with a bona fide spiritual master who will then fully reveal that Absolute Truth to us. When it comes to a direct experience of the Absolute Truth, skepticism would be a great hindrance for the progressive development of our intelligence. Therefore under such a circumstance it would be extremely foolish to hold onto our skepticism. Under such a circumstance skepticism must be abandoned.


The philosophy of skepticism dictates in the ultimate end that one must also doubt the validity of skepticism. When one reaches the precincts of the Absolute Truth to hold onto the crutch of skepticism is a gross violation of the principle of skepticism.
A Krishna conscious person is someone who has completely conquered over anxiety. Such a person has completely surrendered to Krishna and completely depends on Krishna for everything. Therefore he is totally fearless, 100% anxiety free.

How does someone who is currently in a state of anxiety become anxiety free? The answer is very simple. He must completely surrender himself to Lord Krishna. The difficulty is that we want to be free from anxiety, but we do not want to surrender to Krishna. This is called cheating. We want to purchase the diamond ring, but we do not want to pay for it. This will not work. If we want the diamond ring, we must pay for it. If we want to become completely free from anxiety, we have no choice except to completely surrender ourselves at the Lord's lotus feet.

A Great Challange

Remaining always in Krishna consciousness at every minute is a great challenge because we are presently situated in the midst of a non-Krishna conscious world. Our consciousness is developed according to the company that we keep. What sort of company is that? For most of us during a typical week this association is for the most part with non-devotees. When we are in the association of devotees it is relatively easy to stay fixed in Krishna consciousness, but when we are in the midst of non-devotees, those who have no interest at all in Krishna consciousness, it is a great challenge to always keep our minds fixed on Krishna. It is not at all easy. But staying always fixed in Krishna consciousness is essential if we want to achieve spiritual perfection, if we want to go back home, back to Godhead. So how, in spite of the handicap of non-Krishna conscious association, can we successfully remain beyond the influence of the material energy? Definitively answering this question is most essential if we want to make proper use of this rare human birth.

The technique for remaining always in Krishna consciousness is to never act for the purpose of sense gratification. We must always act for the satisfaction of Krishna. If we are working a job, that money must be spent for Krishna, in other words every penny must be spent in a Krishna conscious way. If besides our ongoing spiritual education we are getting a material education, that education must be for the purpose of enhancing our ability to serve Krishna in the future. It will not be possible for us to Krishna conscious, if we are acting for sense gratification. And it will be relatively easy for us to always be Krishna conscious when everything we do is for His pleasure.

So how do we make sure that everything we are doing is for Krishna's satisfaction? This is not easy because the material nature is always pulling us towards sense gratification and is trying to convince us to rationalize that what we are doing for sense gratification is actually for Krishna. This is a most dangerous trap indeed! This is why it is important for us to have the association of those who are solidly fixed in Krishna consciousness.

If we put ourselves under the scrutiny of the bona fide spiritual master, we can easily understand if we are acting purely for Krishna, or if we are still acting for our own personal sense gratification. Why is this? Because the spiritual master can easily see what is our motivation. The spiritual master is pleased when we act for Krishna, and he is not pleased when we act for personal sense gratification. Therefore to become solidly situated in Krishna consciousness we simply have to live in such a way that the spiritual master is always pleased with us. To please him all we have to do is inquire from him submissively how to render pleasing service unto him. By living our life in this way we will quickly and easily make progress along the spiritual pathway towards the ultimate perfectional stage of pure love of Godhead.

This should be the goal of all human beings.