Letting Go

Spiritual life is the opposite of material life. We have to let go of one to get the other. The built-in frustration of material endeavor forces us to let go. Being forced to let go materially always comes as a shock because we normally go on blissfully unaware of our past activities that are producing our present mentality and situation. As devotees, Krsna is directing us and, according to our capacity He allows us to deal with stuff that comes up from the past and through that process we grow towards Him.

The process of genuine introspection is not encouraged in the society in which we live and therefore in the bhakti, or devotional section of the Vedas, it is written that no one understands the dealings, activities and mentality of a real devotee of God. Actually, the more a devotee advances towards purity, the more he is misunderstood by the crowd and by their institutions, especially the religious ones.

Many of Krsna’s statements in the Bhagavad-gita are coded. They actually contain far more than it appears on the surface. For me, that is the beauty of the Gita, it is a never ending ocean of new realizations which spur my appreciation for Krsna’s supreme intelligence and His willingness to teach us the prerequisites of divine love. This is satisfying to my mind and especially to my heart. Krsna declares that he who studies the Gita worships Him by his intelligence (18.70). Thus, the Gita is not for fools and rascals who are bewildered by power, position and followers. Nor for the ones that think it is just a basic-level book and leave it aside to enter in the literature of the Gosvamis thinking it more advanced.