Playing with the material energy (Sankhya #20)
Although we are practicing Krsna consciousness and hearing spiritual instructions for many years, we often don't really have a desire to leave this material world.
« SANKHYA, The Philosophy of Lord Kapila
Playing with the material energy
In chapter 30, Lord Kapila describes the negative results of sinful activities. The problem with material activities connected with sense gratification is that they are almost always sinful and thus result in quite painful results in the long run. We receive the human form of life as an opportunity to realize our eternal position as servants of Krsna. It is a great blessing, but it also entails great responsibility. The danger starts when we become enamored by the opportunities of material sense gratification offered by our current body and forget about the goal of life. Studying the adverse results of our actions is part of the process of development of knowledge that can free us from this material world.
Although we are practicing Krsna consciousness and hearing spiritual instructions, perhaps for many years, we often don't really have a desire to leave this material world. Of course, we understand that it would be nice to be with Krsna in the spiritual world, sitting under the kalpa-vriksa trees, never having to fear death and disease, but at the same time, we may feel that this material world is not so bad and don’t really feel a sense of urgency to leave it.
When a person who is really suffering in life comes in contact with Krsna consciousness, often he or she starts practicing very seriously. Because of the past suffering, there is an understanding that the material world is not a good place and thus one has a strong impetus to get out of it. Even the austerity of living in a temple, waking up early to attend morning programs, sharing a room with others, fasting on festival days, and going out daily on harinama or book distribution may not be perceived as something difficult in the beginning.
However, as one practices spiritual life, the past karma is cleared, and life improves. One doesn't suffer as much as before, and often there is even a sense of satisfaction. This is one of the early results of chanting the holy names, but it is also a test.
Because one's previous karma is cleared, the material suffering subsides. Simultaneously, there is a feeling of internal satisfaction that comes from the contact with the mode of goodness. In this platform, the material world stops looking like such a terrible place. It's like the material energy saying to us "See, you wanted to become free because your life was miserable, what about having another go as a first-class prisoner?"
At this point, one usually starts to remember whatever material attachments he or she still has, and starts to forget about how painful it was in the past. At this point there is a strong urge to go back to material life, at least partially, to continue chanting Hare Krsna while trying to enjoy a little more. One can then settle into just living piously, enjoying the pleasures of life, but at the same time continue chanting and following basic regulative principles. At this point, the material world stops looking like such a dangerous place and one has the impetus to continue playing with it. There is no urgency to go back to Godhead.
This is a trap into which most of us fall at some point in our spiritual lives. Many will later come out of it, and become serious in spiritual life again, while others may just continue like this until the end and have to accept another body. It comes from two misunderstandings about the nature of this material world.
The first misunderstanding is the idea that we can safely play a little with Maya without risks. Maya is so powerful that even great sages like Mārkaṇḍeya Rishi and Narada Muni came under illusion after requesting the Lord to show them the power of the illusory potency.
The story of Mārkaṇḍeya Ṛṣi is narrated in the 12th canto of Srimad Bhagavatam. After practicing austerities for six manvantaras, he became so fixed in his spiritual practice and so powerful that he could defeat Kamadeva (the Cupid) and his associates when they came to test him. When later he had the opportunity to meet with Nara-Nārāyaṇa Ṛṣi, he asked for an unusual benediction: to see the power of the Lord’s illusory energy. He was curious to understand the exact process by which Maya, the illusory potency of the Lord, puts the souls into illusion.
The Lord, in the form of Nara-Nārāyaṇa Ṛṣi, mildly smiled, understanding that beholding the full power Maya would just bring grief to the Ṛṣi, but since it was his desire, he agreed and then left.
After this, Mārkaṇḍeya Ṛṣi continued his practice of austerities and worship. One day, as he was offering his evening prayers, the water of devastation suddenly flooded the three worlds. Somehow, time passed imperceptibly and it was already the end of the day of Brahma. Not only did he experience the destruction of the universe, but for many millions of years Mārkaṇḍeya Ṛṣi struggled alone in these turbulent waters. It's described that he was tormented by hunger and thirst, attacked by gigantic aquatic animals, and battered by the wind and waves. In this way, he became absorbed in fighting for his life and completely forgot who he was or why he had fallen into this ocean. Over time he became completely exhausted. He completely lost his sense of direction and could not even discern the sky from the earth. At this point, he was just trying to survive. It's described that "Sometimes he felt lamentation, bewilderment, misery, happiness or fear, and at other times he experienced such terrible illness and pain that he felt himself dying."
Mārkaṇḍeya Ṛṣi asked the Lord to experience the potency of the illusory energy, and by the Lord's arrangement, he was able to experience this struggle in the cosmic ocean for an extremely long period, just like a living being has to struggle life after life for his existence in this material world, forgotten of his real eternal position.
Finally, after this long period of suffering, he came upon a small island on this ocean of devastation, where a banyan tree grew. On a branch on the northeast portion of that tree, he saw a small boy laying down on top of a leaf sucking the toe of His foot. This infant boy was no one but Krsna himself, executing His pastime of sucking His own toe during the devastation of the universe. When he approached the baby, he saw himself being inhaled inside his body, just like a mosquito. Mārkaṇḍeya Ṛṣi then saw the universe again as it was before, with the Earth and other planets arranged in the sky, oceans, mountains, and so on. However, as the baby exhaled, he was put back into the ocean of dissolution. In that ocean, he again saw the island with the banyan tree, and the same boy laying on top of the leaf. Understanding that this boy was the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the Ṛṣi ran to embrace Him, but as he came close, the boy disappeared, together with the island, the banyan tree, and the ocean. Suddenly, Mārkaṇḍeya found himself back in his own hermitage, just as before.
In his book Maya, The Divine Energy Of The Supreme, Bhakti Purusottama Swami tells another similar story, when Narada Muni asked Lord Vishnu to show him the power of his illusory energy.
As a response to his request, the Lord invited him for a walk, and while in a forest Narada Suddenly felt very thirsty. Lord Vishnu pointed to a nearby river and told Narada he could go there and drink and He would wait. Narada excused himself and promised to return quickly.
He arrived at the river and prepared to drink water with his joined pals when a girl appeared and asked him to instead come to her house, where they had some nice pure water. Narada accepted the invitation and was served very nicely by the girl and her father, who received Narada with all the respect deserved by a great Sadhu. When Narada became pleased with their service attitude and asked if there was anything he could do for them, the father humbly asked him to marry his daughter and become his son-in-law. Attracted by the beauty of the girl and at the same time obliged by their service, Narada agreed.
Narada spent many years involved in family affairs and had a few children with the girl, who served him as a faithful wife. However, one day there was a great storm, and the river overflowed, inundating the village. The children fell into the water and were pitifully drowning. The wife jumped in to try to save them, just to be defeated by the power of the currents and also start drowning herself. Narada jumped into the river to try to save his family, but he was also overpowered by the currents and started drowning. When he was almost dying, he somehow remembered the Lord and loudly called: Vishnu!
Suddenly he was back on the bank of the river where everything started. Immediately he remembered that he had left Lord Vishnu waiting for such a long time and hurried back to Him. Lord Vishnu smiled and asked if he now understood.
The story of Mārkaṇḍeya Ṛṣi illustrates how the illusory potency of Krsna is powerful, counteracting our tendency to have a romantic view of the material world as a place where we can safely satisfy our desires. There is nothing for us here apart from the continuous struggle for existence that Mārkaṇḍeya Ṛṣi experienced in his ordeal in the ocean. There is no safety margin, the smallest mistake can result in billions of years of struggle in a very long sequence of births.
The story of Narada Muni, in turn, gives us a sample of how one can fall under the grip of material energy and forget Krsna for a long time. Of course, Narada is an eternally perfect soul, and he never falls into Maya like us. However, because he specifically asked, Lord Vishnu gave him a demonstration of how Maya is powerful.
Srila Prabhupada explains that even if one takes birth in a good family in his next life there is no guarantee that he will become serious in the spiritual path since birth in a good family also entitles one to many material opportunities. The only real guarantee we can have is to be serious now.
We then come to the second misunderstanding: failing to understand the real nature of this material world. The idea of continuing living in this material world as a pious person, or pious devotee, or maybe as a demigod, enjoying beautiful women or beautiful men may not sound so bad, but the problem is that these are very small, privileged classes. The absolute majority of the souls in the material world live in the lower species, such as animals, plants, insects, microorganisms, and so on. Living as a demigod may not sound so bad, but living as a cockroach is a completely different story. One may think that he or she can remain in a privileged position in life after life by doing the right things, but all it takes is a small mistake to go back all the way down to the lower species. One may take his next birth in a wealthy family and become a materialist, or one may offend some pure devotee for example, and once one falls back into the lower species the way back is extremely long.
In Vedic cosmology, we study that time passes very fast for the demigods on the high planets, and it goes progressively slowly the lower we go. A demigod lives for a whole manvantara (306.72 million years), but in his perception, this is somehow like 100 years for us. On the other hand, many insects and bacteria live for just one day, and in their perception, this amount of time also equals 100 years. Time passes so slowly for them because such entities have to endure trillions of lives until they have a new opportunity in human life. This means that if we become demigods we will enjoy what we will perceive as 100 years, but if we fall into the lower species we will have to endure what we will perceive as hundreds of trillions of years in very harsh conditions until we come back to where we are now. It's not worth the risk.
The material world works in such a way that almost everyone is suffering in the lower species just to maintain a few privileged souls living as human beings and demigods. We can just try to calculate the volume of food and other resources we use during our lives: this is all produced by trillions of living beings living in the lower species.
It's like a five-star hotel where thousands work in very harsh conditions to maintain the luxuries of a few guests. The real nature of this material world is not the comfortable (or not so comfortable) life we have now, but the perpetual struggle for existence in the lower species. It's a nasty place, and a small mistake can put us back in the meat grinder. A trip into Maya is not worth the risk. Our place is not here.
The deluding effect of material energy
"The Personality of Godhead said: As a mass of clouds does not know the powerful influence of the wind, a person engaged in material consciousness does not know the powerful strength of the time factor, by which he is being carried.
Whatever is produced by the materialist with great pain and labor for so-called happiness, the Supreme Personality, as the time factor, destroys, and for this reason the conditioned soul laments.
The misguided materialist does not know that his very body is impermanent and that the attractions of home, land and wealth, which are in relationship to that body, are also temporary. Out of ignorance only, he thinks that everything is permanent.
The living entity, in whatever species of life he appears, finds a particular type of satisfaction in that species, and he is never averse to being situated in such a condition.
The conditioned living entity is satisfied in his own particular species of life; while deluded by the covering influence of the illusory energy, he feels little inclined to cast off his body, even when in hell, for he takes delight in hellish enjoyment." (SB 3.30.1-5)
The influence of Maya is such that a soul can always find some kind of happiness in any position he is in, and thus never wants to leave such a position. Although Mārkaṇḍeya Ṛṣi suffered so severely during his struggle in the ocean, to the point of forgetting who he was or how he had fallen into such a position, at no point did he desire to give up his struggle. Even in this situation, he found some momentary happiness in the form of brief periods of relief from suffering, and because of this, he continued struggling to maintain his life for billions of years. Similarly, when Indra was cursed to become a pig on Earth, he became attached to his new home and lost the desire to return to the celestial planets.
Prabhupada makes a series of powerful points in his purports to these five verses:
a) We live for a limited amount of time and thus have to be attentive to make the best out of it. The limited amount of time we have in this life is an opportunity to become free from the influence of time, by completing our practice of Krsna consciousness. This should be our priority, otherwise, it is very easy to lose track of time while involved in material life and be carried away, just as clouds are carried by the wind.
b) All our effort in building and achieving things in this material world is ultimately in vain, because everything we worked so hard to achieve will be destroyed due to the influence of time. The few decades we live in this body are just an insignificant blip of time compared to eternity, but materialists take this time as being everything, without caring for what comes later. To avoid wasting our energy in this way, we need to understand our eternal nature and our eternal engagement in the spiritual platform.
c) The material world is not false, but it is illusory. Maya means to accept home, country, society, etc. as permanent, and forget about self-realization. Economic development under this false concept is just illusory. However, when we become Krsna Conscious, we can use economic development and all material resources for Krsna. When we do that, they bring us to real prosperity.
d) How is it that the soul can become attached even to very difficult, unpleasant material circumstances? That's due to the spell of māyā, the external energy. Maya has two features, āvaraṇātmikā and prakṣepātmikā.
By āvaraṇātmikā, Maya covers reality, creating a layer of ignorance that makes the soul misunderstand this word and his position in it. From the outside, we can understand that the life of a pig is miserable, but the pig thinks he is doing just fine. By the influence of this potency, the soul's knowledge becomes covered, and one becomes satisfied with whatever position he is put in, no matter how miserable, and never desires to leave his conditioned life. Even if offered a better position, or even if offered liberation from material entanglement and eternal life in the spiritual world with Krsna, still the soul is reluctant to leave.
By prakṣepātmikā Maya makes the soul actively chase different types of desires and attachments, which increases one's conditioning and makes him gradually go lower, in the direction of hell. Animal life is thus a necessary feature of this material world, a way to gradually recover the consciousness of the souls who become degraded, bringing them back to human life, albeit slowly. Another feature of prakṣepātmikā is that when one comes to the platform of self-realization and tries to break free, this potency tests him by creating distractions and doubts. If one is not determined, prakṣepātmikā will pull him back to material life and make him forget everything.
We can see that these two potencies work together. By their influence, souls can remain in the material world almost eternally. Practically speaking, the only way to get out is when a soul meets devotees and starts the process of devotional service. If one remains firmly under the shelter of the spiritual master, one can wake up from the influence of āvaraṇātmikā and resist the influence of prakṣepātmikā. In this way, one can finally break free. Otherwise, it is practically impossible to become free from the influence of Maya.
Prabhupada further explains the influence of these two features of Maya in his purport to CC Madhya 20.6:
"There are innumerable conditioned souls rotting in the material world, imprisoned by māyā under the spell of sense gratification. The living entity is so entranced by the spell of māyā that in conditioned life even a pig feels satisfied. There are two kinds of covering powers exhibited by māyā. One is called prakṣepātmikā, and the other is called āvaraṇātmikā. When one is determined to get out of material bondage, the prakṣepātmikā-śakti, the spell of diversion, impels one to remain in conditioned life fully satisfied by sense gratification. Due to the other power (āvaraṇātmikā), a conditioned soul feels satisfied even if he is rotting in the body of a pig or a worm in stool. To release a conditioned soul from material bondage is very difficult because the spell of māyā is so strong. Even when the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself descends to deliver conditioned souls, asking them to surrender unto Him, the conditioned souls do not agree to the Lord’s proposal. Therefore Śrī Sanātana Gosvāmī said, “Somehow or other, if one helps another gain release from the bondage of māyā, he is certainly recognized immediately by the Supreme Personality of Godhead."