How to enjoy the holiday season

Gauracandra · November 16, 2003

This week’s Srila Siddhaswarupananda television program is about how to enjoy the holiday season.

Audience Member: During the holiday season everyone is endeavoring for temporary happiness. How can one achieve eternal happiness. I think this is a good question for you to answer.

Srila Siddhaswarupananda: [laughter] This is a good question for me to answer. This guy is too much. Just a small question. [laughter] During the holidays everyone wants to be happy. We all say “Happy New Year”. From scripture we understand that the spirit soul is by nature eternally blissful. We are eternal in essence. And happiness is a natural part of the soul. Now why is it that 99% of the time we are unhappy and only 1% of the time we are happy? Because in this material world we are in a contradiction. The eternal spirit soul is trapped in a temporary material body. This is not natural. Its like a fish on land. The spirit soul belongs in the spiritual world, which is our real home, and there is no birth, disease, old age, and death. We can only be truly happy when we have developed our eternal relationship with the Supreme Soul and return to Him.

To be happy one must be resituated in their relationship with God. The problem is the eternal has connected with the temporary. Thus you develop an affection for a temporary material body and when they die, they are ripped away from you. This is very painful. But if you connect with the eternal, love for God will eternally satisfy you.

Audience Member: How did it happen…? I’m sure many here have experienced a hangover. How did we get into this unnatural position?

Srila Siddhaswarupananda: Why is the eternal spirit soul in the world of matter? Because we don’t want to serve God. So we go from one material body to the next, caught by the laws of time. The material body is the vehicle by which God gives us the choice to attempt to be God and Lord it over material nature. He allows us the choice that we don’t have to know Him. Until we give up our enviousness of God then we cannot return to Him. Until then you will continue to have hangovers, whether by alcohol or the hangover of losing a love affair.

Audience Member: You said that every seven years all the cells in the body are replaced. Why then does the body age?

Srila Siddhaswarupananda: Whatever the technical arrangements are that cause the body to age we cannot stop them. This is the law of time. Man will never be able to stop time as it is a law that can’t be conquered. But “Why, Why?” The law of time is the law of time. It is set in motion by God.

Audience Member: Is it offensive to Jesus Christ to give presents and have a Christmas tree?

Srila Siddhaswarupananda: Of course its not offensive to give presents to people. But on the day of the appearance of Jesus Christ we should not be hedonists. At least one day out of the year we should set aside to follow his instructions to love God. We should take what he teaches and not spend the time loving the worldly. Do not be in the illusion that all these material things will make you happy. All that glitter is the glitter of Mammon. Now the center of Christmas is the tree with all the toys underneath. If you are lucky there will be an angel on top of the tree. It is better that on Christmas day you read and hear scripture and sing God’s names. Congregational singing and chanting of God’s names. Have a big God party.

Some people will hear this and think “Oh you guys are so against having fun. Can’t you guys even have Christmas presents? You have to sit down and pray, huh?” No. Get out all of your musical instruments, your drums and electric guitars. Make a big feast. Then party until the cops come banging on your door for you to stop. Then just move the party to another house and continue till the cops come again. Get drunk on love of God. We get drunk but we don’t have hangovers. It is getting drunk with expanded consciousness not diminished consciousness with alcohol. We party all the time.