#Thread #Bhakti #Philosophy

AFTER ALL, WE'RE ALL RAPISTS.

(PS: This is a very radical thread. This is my understanding & viewpoint. However when the disease is too extreme i.e. materialism, then the medicine must also be radical).

Read at your own peril.

When I was younger and seeking spiritual knowledge I always felt distrubed by news of rape and torture. I believe in God and at that time I used to wonder that obviously God is supremely powerful, omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent and also compassionate then why can’t he just

stop when rape is happening? Instantly as a person tries to rape or torture someone they should be killed. I used to wonder that why if God is compassionate such acts are tolerated. I had faith that there must be an answer. My ignorance isn’t allowing me to see things clearly.

Any sincere spiritual seeker knows that often there appear to be contradictions but with the lamp of knowledge the contradictions disappear and one is able to see clearly how there was no contradiction but only a darkness created by one’s own ignorance. This contradiction of God

being compassionate and rape & torture existing in this world haunted my mind for quite sometime.

I later began studying Srimad Bhagvatam Canto 1, Bhagvad Gita As It Is and various other texts by Srila Prabhupada. Srila Prabhupada explains very well that as living spiritual

souls we’re eternally fragmental parts of the Supreme God Himself. We’re qualitatively similar to God but quantitatively different. Thus God’s qualities are present in us in minute quantities. God has two energies — material and spiritual (consciousness). That we’re conscious by

nature means we are part of the superior energy of God and matter is God’s inferior energy. As the fragmental superior energy our innate nature is to serve. However when our spirit of service is correctly utilized we’re happy and when incorrectly utilized we’re unhappy. We come

to the material world because we don’t want to serve God but instead serve ourselves. We are envious of God. We feel — why is He God, I want to be God instead. To fulfill this desire of ours we place ourselves in ignorance to forget God and to try our best to lord it over matter.

Instead of serving God we end up become eternal servants of Maya, the material energy. Incessantly, intoxicatedly, relentlessly pursuing sense gratification. Never feeling an ounce of true satisfaction or bliss. A desire completes and another arises. Forever restless, chasing

mirages, searching for an oasis in the scorching desert of materialism. Disillusioned and deluded.

If we want to enjoy, exploit and own material nature how does that make us any different from a rapist. Material nature doesn’t belong to us and this sense of owning and enjoying

is in itself the mentality of a rapist. A rapist never truly enjoys his victim. He simply succumbs to his insatiable urges and out of madness acts without being conscious of the impact of his actions, without ever considering why he is tormented by such urges in the first place.

A person who loves someone and when the one he loves, reciprocates and thus they share loving exchanges, that is the essence of true pleasure, not in forcefully trying to rape, own, exploit and enjoy. Similarly to love God, serve Him unconditionally and enjoy a loving

relationship with Him as He reciprocates our love, that is the essence of the greatest pleasure.

The scorching desert of materialism when drenched by the downpour of divine love transforms into the most wondrous verdant valley, full of varieties of trees, animals, fruits, lakes

and rivers. The clouds that bring about the downpour of divine love appear in our lives as our spiritual master, pure devotees, the nectar of texts that talk about divine love (such as Srimad Bhagvatam, Ramcharitmanas etc).

To ensure that this rain is permanent and prevent

droughts we must continuously light the divine fire yajna of Naam Japa which ensures that greater rains keep pouring and our valley gets even more fertile and beautiful, until it is so beautiful that Krsna Himself feels attracted to it and enters it to perform His divine pastimes

of which we can someday aspire to be a part.

I hope by the grace of my Guru my urge to own is transformed into the urge to serve the Lord. I hope that my urge to enjoy is transformed into becoming an instrument of God’s enjoyment. I hope my urge to exploit is transformed into

true surrender to Shri Ram. May my heart be transformed into eternal Saket Loka where Shri Ram always reigns supreme.

If you like what I’ve written it is only because all of that intellect is provided to me by the grace of Srila Prabhupada and other Vaishnava saints. If you dislike what I wrote it is only due to my own ignorance. However if you liked reading this, then I beseech to you buy books

written by Srila Prabhupada.

Jai Shri Ram