There are lot of predicaments for a person aspiring to be a sincere preceptor in this mundane world at the present moment because of the highly unfavourable circumstances and the rampous opposition by unscrupulous elements who do not want to change the status quo, just to hold their sway for their own selfish ends.
This post attempts to reflect on the challenges and solutions for a sincere preceptor in this modern world, attempting to uplift the thought process of the youth in particular at this moment or any thinking person in general for their betterment.
The purpose is to not to get carried over to the 99% majority and living in that state for the rest of the life.
The influence of the malaise’s introduced due to this present iron age of Kali that has infiltrated and ingrained into every system, that makes human beings entangled in all sorts of vices, causing deterioration and threatening their very own existence.
Surely no one is to be blamed for this, because all of us have been inheriting these qualities gradually over the 5000+ years through disciplic succession for generations through our parentage (LOL).
This has started to happen as soon as the disappearance of Lord Shri Krishna from this world after performing his pastimes.
Though Lord Shri Krishna has given us lots of transcendental literatures like Bhagavad Gita, Uddhava Gita through Srimad Bhagavatham etc. and also several others through His realised devotees and also through his very incarnation(s) itself as He lived His way of life to teach us how to actually live and not just exist just like living beings that lacks developed intelligence and consciousness.
But we are not realising the importance of these transcendental literatures and continue to live a life of zero purpose!
So many preceptors have come and gone since then and hardly an infinitesimal has picked up and grasped a miniscule of these thoughts – the less than 1% of the aspirers apply these teachings to their very life and also influence the people around them.
It is a clear fact that we have to change ourselves through our own efforts and none whatsoever can have any influence on this.
That is why this is called science of self-development, understanding of the self, science of self-realisation etc., because external influences can play only that much part
- as to kindle an introspection within ourselves to look out for the reasons of our sufferings,
- to seek that knowledge, that enable us to realise the reality of the actual situation,
- to strongly believe that we are living in an illusion,
- to understand that we are living in just a world of sugar coated bitter pills with adverse side effects,
- to observe and learn from the solutions that are already offered by this very material nature, though the same material nature acts as a deluding effect for those with poor fund of knowledge.
It’s like extracting out the thorn through another thorn though both are of the same nature, by understanding the discriminating nature of the same substance at different situations.
The following examples are worth to look and ponder for our own self-development:
- The blooming lotus surviving in filth, whose leaves never get tainted or touched by even a single drop of water though being in a muddy pool, illustrating how to live detached in this world of multiple distractions that inhibit the process of self-realisation.
- The swan that separates the water from the milk, illustrating the necessity to discriminate between knowledge and ignorance/nescience/illusion to attain a higher purpose.
- The tortoise that hides and withdraws into its shell immediately and completely under threatening situations and waits for a favourable situation, illustrating the aspect of proactiveness, control of senses, when to act/when not to act, when to react/when not to react and how to apply the knowledge to make any situation favourable.
- The deer that gets lured to the sweet sounds of the hunter and gets caught in the net / a frog that croaks only to be easily detected by the snake to become its prey, illustrating how the sense of sound (hear/produce) can lead to one’s own downfall if one does not have the knowledge to discriminate between its good and bad effects.
- The python that waits for its prey for days without any movement and gets satisfied with whatever that comes its way, illustrating full faith in nature/God for satisfying our basic needs and as human beings use the provided intelligence to work towards a higher purpose.
- The snake that gets into the residence of others residences like caves and ant hills without the necessity to construct one for its own, illustrating the aspect of living in a simple uncomplicated residence and lead a simple life to utilise time and energy for other productive purposes.
- The Koel bird that lays its eggs on the crow’s nest, illustrating the full faith in nature/God that even to protect its own progeny we need not actually endure that much undue pain because we are helpless in the laws of nature/God for its unpredictable nature and that the nature itself protects its helpless children.
- The chameleon that changes its colour to adapt to the surroundings, illustrating the importance of adapting to any adverse situation using one’s own intelligence and foresight.
- The male elephant that gets lured to the sight of the she-elephant to get into a trap set by the hunter, illustrating how getting attracted too much to the sense of sight and how too much attraction towards the opposite sex can lead to one’s own devastation.
- The camel that relishes the taste of its own blood when eating its food in the midst of thorns, illustrating our very self that undergoes unsurmountable pain, just for a little sense pleasures “gained” by being acted upon and getting associated with the three modes of material nature – goodness, passion and ignorance.
- The jack-ass that struggles through the day carrying huge burden for its master only to get beaten all the time, all for a small bunch of grass, that it could very well get on his own, grazing the pasturing grounds, illustrating the lack of inclination towards spiritual knowledge which is real knowledge and acting in utter foolishness similar to the ones who gets lured by the imperfect material knowledge that only causes to get entangled into material existence because this knowledge is meant only for gratifying the senses and not for any other higher purpose!
- The jack-ass gets repeatedly kicked by a she-ass when it requests for courtship, illustrating the tendency for males to get excessively attracted to females and getting dominated by them, just for getting little sensual pleasures, enduring ridicule, chastisement and being hen-pecked and finally getting gratified after being mortified (the puranjana saga in Srimad Bhagavatham is a great example of this). The concept of being hen-pecked and its impact on the process of self-realisation will be detailed in a later post.
- The ants and the bees cooperating in their activities with a marked sense of division of labour and self-sufficiency, illustrating living beings with insignificant brain size and insignificant brain mass can explain us a lot as to how to create and live in a organised society of perfect harmony – how the concept of Varnashrama System – the intellectual class, the military class, the mercantile class and the labour class working in unison through division of labour can be self-sufficient to achieve their intended purpose through Karma Yoga or acting selflessly without any expectation of reward to achieve a higher purpose.
The examples are just numerous to be mentioned and a lot of lessons could be learnt from them for our betterment by taking them as our preceptors or spiritual masters.
Our standard of living would not have been this pathetic now had we taken a leaf out of their book just by taking even one or two examples and apply it in our lives!
Still the attempts needs to be carried out for those 1% aspirers and by those 1% aspirers, it’s just because of them the world still exists despite its huge discrepancies and deficiencies.
It is a strong belief in our scriptures that even a single person has the potential to transform the future of this entire world for good.
In scriptures, the incarnations of Lord Maha Vishnu/Lord Shri Krishna are mentioned as Tri-Yuga.
In other words, the Lord incarnates as His personal form only in the first three yugas viz., Satya, Treta and Dwapara.
In Kali Yuga, He does not appear in His personal form because of its contaminated nature and appears only as a covered incarnation in the form of a devotee like Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu etc. and the propagation of devotional service through Sankirtana yoga or chanting of the holy name of the Lord because modes to realise the absolute truth suitable in other Yugas are just not suitable for the age of Kali because of its inherent nature.
Thus, sincere devotional service, applied with the knowledge of transcendental scriptures to teach the love of God is the only means to awaken the people in slumber in material existence in this age of darkness.
Thank you very much and best wishes for reading this entire post to the full…
Special acknowledgments with gratitude and references to the beautiful description of The Puranjana Saga by Hints to the Ancient Wisdom:
Spirituality is the only way to solace 