Being Focused-June 20, 2008

It has been almost one year since I wrote my last blog. During this last
year I have been thinking constantly about deepening my own Krishna
consciousness and facilitating others in their spiritual journey.

Both of these areas are very much connected. When one deepens their own
Krishna consciousness, natural compassion and love for all living entities
develops. Also the more we work to help others realize their true spiritual
nature, the more we deepen our own realizations.

So with this mind, I will try to continue on as regular a basis as possible
communicating my thoughts on compassion, compassionate strategies,
compassionate social structures, internal realizations, etc.

Yesterday I visited the headquarters for the Vegetarian Movement in Zagreb,
Croatia. The devotees were eager to introduce me to the leaders of this
movement as I am one of the few “Vegan” leaders in our society and therefore
be more readily acceptable to them.

I should mention why I am following a “Vegan” diet. I am perfectly aware of
the benefits of drinking cow milk and the emphasis on it in our philosophy.
I have no doubts about this as I have full faith in Vedic literatures and
the teachings of His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada.

My reasons for following this diet are purely ethical and emotional. Ethics
are an individual issue, as are emotions. Therefore I am not criticizing
anyone else for their choices, as long as they make their choices in life in
full recognition of the consequences not only to themselves but to others,
and are fully in touch with the emotional side of their being.

Oftentimes we hear emotions being decried as illusion or in devotee lingo as
“maya”, but they are an integral part of our self. Much of the study of
advanced spirituality is based on the study of emotions (bhavas). The
spiritual realm is a realm of these bhavas. I don’t claim to be experiencing
these advanced stages, but I am definitely interested in being fully
compassionate, and compassion is not just a theoretical or philosophical
concept. It must be emotion.

I explained during class the other day, that the reason I don’t take milk
products (or other animal based foods including honey) is that I can’t take
them. Why do I use the word “can’t”? Because I am blocked by strong emotions
and a sense of compassion (feelings and ethics). The very thought of eating
something that is the result of so much suffering (I am referring to how
milk is produced in the modern dairies which I don’t need to discuss in this
forum), intensifies my emotions (sorrow because of my love for other
entities) to such an extent that I find myself frozen with grief.

When I explain this in class the other day, some persons remarked that they
had never thought of it in this way before. My comment to them was that they
should get in touch with themselves and their own feelings not only about
this particular subject matter, but also about all the aspects of their
lives. It’s interesting that in a group dynamic one often becomes subject to
“group think.” Prabhupada on the other hand wanted individuals who were
independently thoughtful.

Ok. Back to the visit to the Vegetarian Society as the purpose of this blog
was to write about being focused.

When I walked into their headquarters, I was greeted very nicely by the
person in charge. However it was as if everyone else was ignoring me for
some reason or other. As sannyasi-guru I am accustomed to big receptions at
temple (outside the USA) so it was unusual to not have more attention.

Later on I realized that they were not ignoring me but were simply absorbed
in their work. They were all seated at their computers working on different
strategies to push their agenda (protecting animals from slaughter and other
types of mistreatment). I was amazed at their focus.

I was informed about their great success. Their website has over 4,000
visitors per day. They have effected major changes in the legal system of
Croatia including getting ciruses (in which wild animals are used as
performers) outlawed in the country. Also it is illegal to produce fur in
Croatia because of their efforts.

Later on I was informed that most of them worked as volunteers, and that the
ones that did get maintained were splitting on salary amongst 4 people to
save money for their mission. They were so intent upon saving money that
they were eating very little and depended on our (Hare Krishna) restaurant
to supply them with whatever food was leftover after we closed for the day.

I could see that they had a real passion for their mission. As I remarked to
the devotee who took me there. “Wow, if we had as much passion and
dedication to our mission, we could do miracles for Srila Prabhupada.”

What is the reason why we don’t generally find such dedication and passion
or to put it in a positive way; how can we develop the same or greater focus
and passion in our own work?
————————————-to be continued tomorrow——————————-