OCEAN OF NECTAR

Higher Satisfaction

By using the atom bomb America conquered Japan and intimidated the world. Superficially they enjoyed the pleasure of defeating the world, but that is only apparent. Internally the apprehension is there: “Reaction may come.” Such a disastrous action is self-condemned; a heinous crime. But it is just the collective result of our karma. None to blame.

To parody the old saying, “A bad workman quarrels with his stools.” As we eat, following our system, stools come. It is not the stools’ crime; they are a necessary product of the food. Karma is like stools: as we do, we earn the environment and the reaction; as we act, reactions similarly come, sometimes individually and sometimes collectively. They are like stools—all the results, the environment. We have earned such an environment.

So none to be blamed, but everywhere the grace of the Lord is to be traced. The Lord is always there, even in the worst period of our lives. He is waiting, waiting to help us. We must only look up for His grace. With sincerity, with all sincerity. He is everywhere, waiting: “My boy, look at Me. Don’t make much of the external environment. I am here, very near to you. You have cast your focus aside, you have cast your consciousness outside. Make it internal and you will find I am here. Make it above. You are looking down to secure servants and comforts, but if you look up, for existence higher than you, you will find Me in that plane. Look up! Don’t look down, searching for servants.”

You want to become a master and thus are searching for servants, hunting after things for your service. Take the opposite course, become a servant and search for your master, your Lord. Then you will be uplifted, taken up to a higher domain. If you want to live in a higher domain you will have to serve. If you want to be a master, then you will have to come down into the lower zone, where you can be a master.

This is neither exaggeration nor imagination, it is something scientific. You can enjoy only those that are of a lower position. So, by attempting to enjoy, mean association becomes inevitable. Only by preparing for higher service will you be able to come in contact with your soul’s higher position.

Sacrifice—by sacrifice you go up; by enjoying spirit you will have to go down. We are to understand what is exploitation, enjoyment, and what is higher service. Divine service is pure, and in that service there is also a pure type of joy, ecstasy. By giving we become gainers and by extorting we become losers. This scientific truth should be understood.

By robbing things someone can find superficial satisfaction, but underground there is some suspicion that the result won’t be very good: “The reaction will come to attack me.” To exploit by stealing provides some sort of enjoyment, but the big donors, patrons, give some charity and thereby also enjoy happiness. There is a difference in quality between these two sorts of happiness. We are to distinguish between them.

In different planes there are different conceptions of happiness, and a comparison is to be drawn between the qualitative differences in the pleasure derived. We are to conceive different planes of life. The life of higher service is divine life. The Absolute God is there. Everything is for Him. All these things are for His pleasure.

But in which way can we attain divine life? What is mundane? What is divine? We are to differentiate between them. We have to examine them in order to accept the divine life.

What is God? God is not an order supplier. If I am sick, “O God, cure my sickness!” If I am poor, “O God, give me money!” This kind of mercenary connection is not very happy, but still it has some meaning, because they think that there is some supernatural power, and that He can do wonders.

However, it is better if we want God and do not expect anything mundane from Him. To want God, who is the source of all this opulence. To want Him, and not anything else which you consider valuable. To depend on Him: “O Lord, give me what is good. I am an imperfect being. I do not know what is good and bad. Please, provide whatever You consider to be good for me.” This is an improvement.

But when we accept the creed of unalloyed service to the highest, that is the best: “I want You, my Lord, nothing else.” And what will be my connection with Him? Service. “I want only Your service.”

At the beginning we might think we are being losers, but ultimately we will gain. Apparently we are giving ourselves, we are sacrificing our selfish interests, but in the subtle sense we gain thereby. This ontological truth should be appreciated. It is neither a dogma, nor blind faith. It is based on higher unprejudiced reason.

Our life is unfulfilled and we want fulfillment, there is no doubt. But, what type of fulfillment should we hanker for, should we search after? We know we are in want, and at the same time we feel that we yearn to remove our want and obtain satisfaction. Everyone is like this. But how can we make progress from unfulfilled life towards fulfillment? That will take searching for God, searching after God.

The present civilization is searching after subtle power. They want to be masters of subtle potencies or powers to control the environment, to lord it over everything. These fellows are very eager to reign in hell. Satan said, “It is better to reign in hell than to serve in heaven.” These followers of Satan want to reign in hell, but we assert just the opposite: “It is better to serve in heaven than to reign in hell.” That is our aspiration; to serve in heaven, higher heaven. If we are to have a higher connection, we must approach Him as a small person. That cannot but be.

There, in the world of service, there is also gradual development from gross to subtle, from lower to higher degrees of independence and ecstasy. Love is such. Love gives independence to the servitors, when it is mixed with anuraga, free spiritual love.

In the lower stages, service is always controlled by the regulation of the scriptures, “Do this, don’t do that.” But as we progress towards our position in the higher plane, it becomes free. Your heart will ask you, “Do this.” No scripture will come to regulate you, but your heart will tell you what to do, what service you are to do.

When there is full faith that you are a bonafide servant, then the type of service will be left to your consideration: “Do whatever you feel to be best.” There will be no restriction upon you. It is the land of spontaneous service; you will do according to your inner sagacity, and that will be accepted. The hearty thing, the sincere flow of service. No thrust from outside, no regulation: “You must do this, you must not do that.” That sort of law will be withdrawn from you, when you reach the plane of spontaneous service.

After passing for some time through the process of regulated devotional service you will feel: “This higher plane is my own land. This is my home.” In that plane you will find the freedom, sweetness and comfort of your own home. All doubts will be cleared, eliminated. The previous tendencies will also disappear. Any lower propensity will vanish, and in the sealed portion of your heart, which can connect with the higher divinity, the seal will be broken. The inner wealth is there, within, but it is sealed. The seal will be broken and you will have full satisfaction in an all-loving engagement, in your eternal function, your sweet eternal function.

So, from uncertainty to surety; from dissatisfaction to satisfaction; from want to fulfillment. From the temporary conception we will come into the eternal flow. By eliminating the provincial and local flow we will come into the eternal flow of life. As we make advancement, our conception of Godhead will change. It will gradually come to the Krishna conception, because in the plane of love God comes as Krishna, descends as Krishna.

The renowned German scholar Max Muller commented that a single drop of the ocean of nectar contained within the sacred Upanishads of India could easily satiate the innermost hankerings of the whole universe.

The Kalisantarana Upanishad recommends the Hare Krishna maha-mantra as the most effective process of God realization, specially meant for the present age. This mantra can be chanted silently, mentally or aloud:

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.