{"id":137,"date":"2007-05-25T22:51:55","date_gmt":"2007-05-25T22:51:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/?p=137"},"modified":"2014-10-11T11:45:02","modified_gmt":"2014-10-11T16:45:02","slug":"psychology-of-hiranyaksa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/psychology-of-hiranyaksa\/","title":{"rendered":"Psychology of Hiranyaksa"},"content":{"rendered":"

May 25, 2007<\/span><\/p>\n

I have been missing writing to the blog for a few days. I have been getting
\nmany letters of encouragement.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yesterday’s class was about the psychology of Hiranyaksa. Hiranyaksa means
\none who has his eyes always on gold! What a name.<\/span><\/p>\n

Many years ago when I first joined the movement I would feel a definite
\nantipathy towards persons like Hiranyaksa. Now I feel quite different
\n(hopefully I have not become a demon!). When I read about Hiranyaksa and his
\nilk I feel sorry for how they are suffering due to their great
\ndesires\/needs.<\/span><\/p>\n

So what we did today in class is to analyze the needs that Hiranyaksa had
\nthat caused him to have such emotional outbursts against God. These
\nemotional outbursts were actually unfortunate expressions of his unmet
\nneeds.<\/span><\/p>\n

What were Hiranyaksa’s needs?<\/span><\/p>\n

He needed autonomy for example. What he did not realize was that in this
\nmaterial world the spirit soul can never really fulfill its need for
\nautonomy as it is controlled at every step by the three modes of material
\nnature. The Gita teaches us this (Gita 3.5).<\/span><\/p>\n

The soul can never have absolute autonomy since the only autonomous person
\nis Krishna (and even He is controlled by Radha’s love). Krishna is Svarat or
\nindependent. Whereas we are dependent.<\/span><\/p>\n

But the need for autonomy is there in all of us and is a natural need; not
\nsomething that we should suppress.<\/span><\/p>\n

This need can be expressed in the proper way in the spiritual realm where we
\nget the opportunity to serve Krishna out of love.<\/span><\/p>\n

So in other word the need for autonomy is not bad, it is just that we should
\nunderstand how to properly fulfill it. Hiranyaksa’s problem was that he did
\nnot understand how to fulfill that need.<\/span><\/p>\n

Similarly with other needs; such as the need for love, nurturance, play,
\ncelebration, integrity, interdependence, spirituality, etc. We simply should
\nlearn how to properly satisfy these needs in Krishna consciousness,
\notherwise they will remain unsatisfied (burning like fire) and we will
\ncontinually be experiencing unpleasant emotions such as anger, confusion,
\nhopelessness, loneliness, envy, etc.<\/span><\/p>\n

Therefore when we have some negative feelings, we should not try to suppress
\nor repress these feelings. By suppression or repression the feelings either
\nbecome more pronounced our come out in some other way (sublimation) that
\ncause more pain.<\/span><\/p>\n

We should become more aware of the negative feelings when they rise to the
\nsurface and trace out what unfulfilled need we have that is the cause of
\nthose feelings. Then we can focus that need in a Krishna conscious way, and
\nthe negative feeling will be replaced with a positive feeling of confidence,
\njoyousness, optimism, etc.<\/span><\/p>\n

And when we hear of someone else having negative feelings we will understand
\nhow to help them understand the source of those feelings (unmet needs) and
\nhow to meet their needs properly.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pure Krishna consciousness is a celebration at every minute. It is as Srila
\nPrabhupada said a vacation for the soul-real play.<\/span><\/p>\n

By presenting Krishna consciousness without any ulterior motive we can
\nexhibit true integrity.<\/span><\/p>\n

By living in a society of advanced Vaisnavas we can rejoice in
\ninterdependence (notice I did not say dependence) as we experience
\nappreciation, consideration, empathy, etc.<\/span><\/p>\n

By taking shelter of Krishna all of our physical and spiritual needs will be
\ntaken care of by the Lord.<\/span><\/p>\n

By acting in harmony with the desires of Krishna we can experience real
\nspiritual communion; of the soul.<\/span><\/p>\n

What other needs can one have?<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

May 25, 2007 I have been missing writing to the blog for a few days. I have been getting many letters of encouragement. Yesterday’s class was about the psychology of Hiranyaksa. Hiranyaksa means one who has his eyes always on gold! What a name. Many years ago when I first joined the movement I would read more>><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[26,27,25],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":138,"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137\/revisions\/138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}