Contemplating Srila Vyasadeva's Holistic View

[suchandra 1]

Greetings from sunny Alachua/Florida, "I understand the feeling of Vyasadeva, when he felt there was something missing in his life...."

Could be that this was the reason how the Srimad-Bhagavatam came into being.

 

A Theological Look at Reality

By Hari, December 22, 2007

"When experience and realization meet in the core of our hearts, the foundation of our lives is unshakable. How theology and feeling combine to create harmony in compatible resonance with the external world is a marvelous subject. We discuss this from the vedic point of view in relation to reality being in the now."

 

Today I have been inspired to speak about a subject that is unusual. The subject is unusual in the sense that it might be considered - how to put it - very personal again. Its personal because naturally everything that I speak about here comes from the heart but filtered through my intelligence, filtered through my consciousness which has knowledge as all consciousness does. Now as I have shared with you many times what I speak about here, what I write about in the forums, will always be a product of my personal realization unless I say it is not specifically. This realization is born of my experience, but as time goes by, my realizations transform, my experiences transform and I grow because of them. Now the obvious conclusion from this, is that nothing I am saying is absolute in any sense. It is my realization right now, it is my… it is the expression of the product of my cumulative experience right now. It is not that because I have realized it, even if I have realized it very deeply it is an eternal realization.

 

Therefore you are listening to or you read the expressions of my consciousness at the present time. Now the title of today’s lecture, which I most say was given to me rather than I cooked it up myself, is: ‘A Theological Look at Reality’. Now there are many interesting and fascinating aspects to this, there are many fascinating aspects to this. What I find interesting about the concept of looking at reality from a theological point of view, is that it allows theology to be relevant to reality. What I like about the idea of looking at reality from a theological point of view, is that it allows theology to come in terms with, come to the level of reality, the reality that we live within.

 

I have seen, we have all seen, that theology can be divorced from reality in the since that it is a philosophy or a structure that is far beyond our world. Indeed it is the definition of another world and from that world this world comes into being. And that’s ok. I mean after all its good to link the Divine with the sometimes called profane, meaning this material existence. Yet I would like to, in this discussion, merge the distinctions. I would like to bring the divergent opposites together in one unit. Now that’s my experience its something that I will want to share with you as part of my experience. Last week we talked about ‘Outside-In versus Inside-Out’ and I did it in the context of defining very carefully exactly how I feel about spirituality. Now that’s all right. I mean defining reality in terms of oneself is naturally what we all do all the time. Its just that some people do it subconsciously, some people define their own reality as a negation of that which they see around them. My personal inclination is integration. I want to integrate that which is part of my reality. That which is part of the what I would like to call universal reality together. It is important for me, I suppose it is important for everybody, to make sense of the world around them. I find in this world one of the major difficulties that we all have is connecting our beliefs, or connecting our other worldly experiences, connecting our spirituality, with that which is right here right now. I have seen how people struggle with the now, some people by just working hard in the now and having a belief of the hereafter.

 

Such people have neither the now, they have neither the hereafter because they are in a process of constant stress and longing for something else than what they have. And they are struggling hard to try to be something else than what they are right now. So in a theological look at reality, reality becomes an equal partner. A personality, not a personality but a part of existence which is essential for the… for life itself. Now I know no one better, no one more capable of expressing that present than Ekhard Tolle. Now he is probably the most erudite, concise speaker and writer I’ve ever read or heard. He is totally clear about what he understands and he knows precisely how to express it. That’s a very rare gift. And in his world famous books starting with ” The power of now”, he is presenting how the reality of existence, the spiritual existence all exists now. Its not something that exists later, its not something that exists if, its something that is here now right before us, right within us. And it is our responsibility to capture that now.

 

Now how does one do that when ones existence or ones life is constantly in conflict with the now? I’m not sure that the concept of conflict is part of what he would be speaking about when he speaks about the now. What he speaks about is removing that conflict by integrating the now, integrating the present within ones consciousness and embracing that fully. And that is fabulous, that is just absolutely wonderful. But something is missing. Not that something is missing in him, not that his life is missing something. But the way I perceive what he is saying, the way I react to what he is saying, the way I feel about what he is saying makes me feel something is missing. Now in his consciousness, his spirituality is a complete whole and it works wonderfully for him. But when my consciousness integrates with his words it is filed with respect, it is filed with aw at his expression. And I follow what he is saying, I mean I think its great what he is saying up to a point. And I would like to speak about that because it leads me further into our discussion today. In my consciousness what all those wonderful things he is saying should lead to warmth, warmth, like you know there is cold and there is warm, warmth. Now that’s just the way I feel I mean most people if not all people I don’t know who I know its not all but most people would not feel like that. But he is saying its perfect everything is perfect and all is perfect yet when there comes a certain point where I feel naturally the next step would be warmth, he remains on that level of that kind of perfection.

 

And I can see very clearly this enormous difference between us. I agree with all of this analysis, all of the analyses that he makes, all of the conclusions that he makes, the methodology that he uses its all great. But there is one little point makes me go …like that. Now maybe that’s my problem, maybe that’s my defect but its how I feel. And its how I feel, and its such a feeling even though its like one little thing that immediately changes my perception of him. Every time I read it I go I’m in aw I go I honestly can understand how a person can be so empowered to express himself as this men. And the depths of his wisdom is enormous. But I actually have realized the meaning of the term, a grain of sand in the sweet rice. A grain of sand in the sweet rice, this little grain, this little something that you got this great taste and than all of a sudden you go crunch. And its so incompatible you can’t deal with it.

 

Now again I’m very sensitive to this things I mean I can’t even eat a green lived vegetable if part of the stock is there. I can understand the different between the crunchy and the kind of the soft, slimy staff I can’t take that contrast. I look at the combinations of certain colors and I go no, no, no that cannot be. So I’m aware I have certain extremely problematic sensitivities. So therefore I am not trying to say this is what I am explaining now about the sand in the sweet rice, this is not like the factual delineation of reality there. But I feel something is missing and I feel that’s something that is missing is that something that should go from all of this fabulous wisdom to warmth. When I think about this I understand more about, not because there is a analogize situation, but because I understand the feeling of Vyasadeva, when he felt there was something missing in his life, and I don’t think its wrong for me to compare my feelings to his feelings I am a person he is a person Vyasadeva the is we cannot make any comparison.

 

I understand how he felt when he had so with so much endeavor, and so much work delineated all of this Vedic literatures for such a long time. But he felt something was not complete, there was something missing. Now when you find out what he did he was into writing about the Bhagavatam. But because Vyasadeva was such a holistic personality he still went through a complete description from his point of view of the entire creation and within that placed Krishna’s life. And therefore in my own life I feel the same way in that sense that, ok warmth is missing. Warmth needs to be there but it only makes sense within the context of reality, within the context of right now. So therefore I do not take that warmth or that love or that interaction with the Supreme for example, and make it as the predominating aspect of the now. Yet it is the predominating aspect in the sense of it being the fundamental core of my existence. Here you’ve got even when you speak about Vyasadeva or anyone who perfectly expresses things, you’ve got a very wonderful wisdom, a very wonderful expression, it is fine. But it doesn’t make sense, it doesn’t fit. It doesn’t work together until you got that heart within it.