The opportunities and dangers of living in holy places

A feature of living in holy places is that the frontier between the material and spiritual becomes much thinner. By definition, holy places are like portals where the material and spiritual connect.

We all understand that Krsna has two energies: the spiritual energy and the material energy. We are currently under the material energy, and the whole idea of Krsna Consciousness is to move to the spiritual energy.

When we are living in a materialistic city such as Moscow or New York, it's quite easy to differentiate between what is material and what is spiritual. Apart from the few devotees and temples, we will not find many spiritual things in such places. The choice thus becomes clear. In such a situation, it's normal that we value the association of the few devotees who are available and look for some spiritual relief. Even if we choose to go back to our materialistic lives, it's easy to understand that we are in Maya and we need to do something about it.

A feature of living in holy places, however, is that the frontier between the material and spiritual becomes much thinner. By definition, holy places are like portals where the material and spiritual worlds connect. Of course, we can access the spiritual dimension anywhere if we have the proper consciousness, but in holy places like Vrindavana and Mayapur, the spiritual dimension is much more accessible, and even a neophyte can experience it. However, at the same time, there is the material dimension with all its faults.

Holy places are very powerful places where both the spiritual influence and the material influence are amplified. Devotees who are sincere in their spiritual path are thus nourished and stimulated to perform spiritual activities, but conversely, materialists often become even more materialistic. A saint living in a holy place becomes even more saintly, but a sinner becomes an even greater sinner.

The potency of the holy places amplifies the free will of the soul, making us go much faster in whatever of the two ways we choose. Apart from sinful activities, offenses performed in holy places are also by nature much more serious. Living in holy places one can very easily go back to Godhead, but on the other hand, he can also easily go to hell. Both paths are widely open.

Our experience in holy places is also influenced by what we focus our vision on. With both the material and the spiritual realities connected, our experience completely depends on which one we focus on. There are a lot of spiritual facilities and the opportunity to associate with pure devotees practically at every step, but at the same time there are a lot of questionable things going on always (remember, people, have the choice of acting under the spiritual or material energies) and our experience largely depends on what we focus on.

Two persons may have completely opposite experiences while visiting Vrindavana, for example. One may see all the pure devotees and their service to Krsna, while another may see all the dirty, monkeys, hogs, and dogs.

Successfully living in a holy place thus depends a lot on one's consciousness. The usual recommendation is that at first, we should go to visit for a few days or weeks, instead of planning to stay for a long time. The point is that when we are just visiting is easy to overlook the terrible material aspects and focus on the spiritual aspects of the dhama, but the longer we stay, the easier it is to take everything for granted and just focus on the negatives. When this happens, our consciousness becomes entrapped in the material energy, and we can't appreciate anything at all. At this point, it's better to leave.

We can see how this is powerful even over internet. Many good things happen in Mayapur and Vrindavana all the time. So many advanced devotees live there, and many others visit regularly. There is the possibility of having a daily darshan of the deities, and so on. However, many miss all of this and instead focus on the negatives, developing a morbid taste in discussing the sordid details of everything terrible that ever happened there.

There is already a cosmic department in charge of punishing sinners. One who comes to a holy place in order to abuse or cheat others will have for sure to answer for his actions there. Unless one is involved with the management or has the duty of protecting others, there is no need to pollute our minds with constant meditation on such things.

Neophytes usually can't see beyond the material institution, and they thus easily lose faith when they discover that (like all material institutions) it has many faults. Devotees who are capable of going deep in their practice, however, can see that, being the imperfect institution, there are devotees who are engaged in chanting, discussing about Krsna, and performing service together. This is the real spiritual institution that only those who are capable of seeing beyond bricks, money, positions, and politics are capable of experiencing. One who focuses on the faults of the material institution is thus blocked from having access to the spiritual institution behind it. This is actually one of the obstacles maya puts in our way.

Even when Krsna was personally present on this planet, demons used to daily attack Vrindavana. Putana assumed the form of a beautiful woman to deceive the Vravavasis and get close to Krsna with the purpose of killing the baby. At a certain point, even Indra tried to commit genocide against the Vrajavasis.

When Krsna was there, the attacks of the demons were short-lived, but now they have more opportunities for executing their activities. We should have in mind, however, that Krsna is still present and He is perfectly competent to protect His devotees.

The best protection we can have against the negatives is to just focus on the positives. If we become strongly connected with the spiritual side, all the problems and dangers of the material side will not be able to affect us, and we will be able to live a happy life in Krsna Consciousness and go back to Godhead. If, on the other hand, we just focus on the negatives, we will end up being forced to stay in this material world, and it may not even be in a pleasant situation.

If you read this article to the end, give it a like. Let me know you have been here. If you have questions, use the comments; they may become the topic for another article.