Re: Advice for the Youth and Students

Respected Swamiji and all Vaisnavas,

     Nityananda Gauranga Hare Krishna! Please accept my respectful obeisances!

     Even things which we only do in the mind actually affect other souls and in this way we commit offenses against other souls in our own sense gratificatory pursuits. From personal talks with devotees like Hadai dasa prabhu, I see that when one is on the platform of realisation one really starts seeing every soul as a devotee. We look beyond the sleeping situation and recognise souls for what they really are. For a first class devotee every body including the ants in the house are devotees. On the relative level there may be various gradations of living entities, but on the absolute platform everybody is seen as a devotee. So there can be no way we can even think of committing offenses to other souls by our acts.

      The more advanced one gets, the more humble one becomes. A devotee never thinks himself to be a devotee, he thinks everybody else as a devotee! So on the absolute point of view we feel lower than everyone and that is what is real humility. On the relative point of view our offenses against other jivas appears to be on the same level as swatting a mosquito. But when a devotee of the Lord tells us what is the absolute viewpoint, then the effect is totally different.  When we start seeing other souls as devotees by constitution and forgive them for their limitations, we go beyond all these designations and see that their real position is actually in the Lord's party in the spiritual world.

      At that time if we remember our offenses to those souls, we are truly horrified and ashamed because when we see their devotional every single offence that we did mentally, physically, etc.etc, every one of those offenses to jivas appears to us as offenses to other Vaisnavas, and truly heinious sins. Everyone is more qualified and better and we are lower than all of them. That is why I reacted so strongly because when Hadai dasa prabhu told me what the jivas really are, I considered every jiva aparadha to be a Vaisnava aparadha of the worst kind. That thought was like really being blasted with a shotgun at point blank range.

       So our mental fantasies are really offences towards other souls. And from the Absolute point of view, we see that every soul is and deserves to be a devotee. So when we put two and two together, the shotgun becomes a gigantic cannon. When we really consider that, "Oh everyone is also a devotee spiritually...", we simply cannot commit an offence to them. It really makes the attack against the illicit sex mentality extremely piercing and hits squarely with devastating effect.

       I appeal to all sadhakas that please look beyond all those material designations and surrender to the Lord and start seeing the jiva within every type of body and recognise it for what it really is -- a devotee. When you see that insect you will never feel like squashing it, but you will certainly feel like going and whispering Nityananda to it so that it becomes purified by hearing and becomes a devotee in its next birth. When you see that woman/man as a devotee, you will never dream of committing an offense to her/him, but you will treat them with respect in a mood of humility.

       When you see that the Lord is with every soul and add in the third factor that he is watching it, you will certainly spit at that sex urge and only surrender to His lotus feet. You recognise the jiva to be a devotee and the Lord right beside watching all we do. We cannot think of committing such an offence before the Lord and rather we become very eager to take that jiva standing before us to the lotus feet of the Lord standing beside that soul.

        Merely knowing that we are offending souls is only 25% of the attack. But when we see souls as devotees, the mentality of illicit sex is blasted 100% to the ground. And when we know the Lord watches, that mentality will disintegrate as though hit with a million times more force and we only feel that we are serving the other jivas and that we must take them to the feet of the Supreme Lord. I did that to a moth which was sitting on the window and chanted Nityananda to it and it died just as I thought myself surrendering to the Lord. It was delivered from that insects body and eventually it will become a devotee.

       So I end my essay by addressing all youngsters and students and all others facing the problem of illicit sex that its certainly Not Right in any manner. It is not natural and these acts of masturbation just show that society has become so hyper-desperate for getting some happiness in this horrible and miserable material world. Its a cry for help really. Our nature is to be eternally blissful and illicit sex is Completely and totally opposed to this nature. It is only right that we seek pleasure, but that pleasure that we seek without knowing what it is can never be found in the material world. That happiness is spiritual and that  will only come when we surrender to the Supreme Lord more and more. And that surrender is achieved by chanting his Holy names,

       Nityananda! Gauranga!

       Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare!

In your service,

Srinath

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