Again the suggestion is: chant like this, do this meditation on a regular basis, not just these few days we’ve been together. It takes a little determination on your part. It’s easy here when we’re all together and everyone’s doing it. To not do it, you would be the odd person, but when you leave here and you’re in the everyday world, you are the odd person if you do it! We have to start adjusting to the idea that we can’t be like everyone else and be spiritually successful.
There are two categories of people – the materialist and the spiritualist. It’s self-explanatory. The materialist is only interested in material life – material activities, material enjoyments, material success, etc. So if we are like that, we cannot be a spiritualist whose main purpose and focus in life is spiritual knowledge, spiritual growth, spiritual activity, spiritual advancement. We have to choose – which am I going to be? It’s not an immediate decision, it’s a gradual development. For some people it is immediate, but for most people it’s not. But the point is that in this category of spiritual life I can’t continue doing what everybody else does and still be a successful spiritualist.
I will be strongly encouraged, “Don’t do this!” Influential people in my life (it may be family, friends, husbands, wives, whatever) will encourage me, “Don’t do this!” So we have to have a little determination based on knowledge. This is what I, the spirit soul that I am, need in my life. This is important, this is what I need to actually find some peace, happiness and satisfaction. If I always remain under the influence of these materialistic conscious people, my life never changes and I’ll go through one more life, come to the end of that life and still remain on the wheel of birth and death. So why was I born?
When we enter the human form of life, we are born to inquire into the Absolute Truth. The purpose of the human form of life is for this purpose and this alone. You can enjoy the material world in all the other 8 400 000 species of life minus one. You can enjoy life in so many ways. Near here we have the Black sea and there are many people enjoying life in the Black sea. Yesterday some dolphins came by, they’re enjoying life as a dolphin. There are people enjoying life as different types of fish, on and on it goes. You can enjoy life as a bird, there are all kinds of sea gulls on the beach, they’re enjoying sea gull life. Anywhere you look, you see people involved in some type of material enjoying situation and actually it’s a better form of life to enjoy here.
The animals don’t have all these anxieties we do. There are a lot of cats living here on this property. I see them every day and they’re not having a hard time at all. They’re sleeping when they want to, they lay in the sun, they associate with one another, they’re out at night walking around, having a nice time, catching little things – ‘Oh, very good!’ People come and pet them, “Hello, Haribol!” They’re not sitting there and thinking, “Gee, how am I going to pay the rent? Man, I had a hard day at work today, the boss is such a guy… I hate this guy! And my wife is always nagging me. My car broke down.” They do not do that – “zzzzZZZ-PprRww-zZZzzzZZ…” (snoring sounds). And we, humans, “Oh, I’m cold, I’m hot, I’m sick…Ohhh…” So if you really want to enjoy the material world, this is not the body to do it in. This body is meant to worry in.
And it’s so frail, I mean it’s so fragile. If you know anything about animal life – let’s take a deer. He’s born today, tomorrow he can almost walk, one week later he’s walking around, he’s able to do things, he can eat his grass. He’s far on his way, if you throw him in the water, he swims out. Babies, human babies, what can they do? They can’t do anything, “Eee, eee” (baby crying sound) they’re helpless. You leave those guys, and they die. See, so fragile. Every little germ, “Oh, I got the virus! Oh, I got the flu! I got to go to the doctor. I got to take these pills. Oh, I got this disease! Oh, I got that disease! The bird flu’s coming!”
The deer however, no problems. They eat, they sleep, everything’s all right. It’s time of the year to mate, they mate. No marriage, no divorce, just “Ok, September, all right. Hey! Come here.”(Kiss sounds.) “Ok, see you later.” No child support, no education, no worries about the kids taking drugs, “What kid? Which one? This year, last year, the year before? Which one?” Mum’s Ok, one year later that kid’s gone, she has a new one and gets to play mum for a little while, and then he’s gone – no problem.
We’re stuck in this whole trip, lifelong worries, “Oh, man…” So if you want to enjoy life, the human form is not for that. We’ve got to have all kinds of gadgets to enjoy, “Oh, I’ve got to have a television. No television? How can I live?” Then we stay up all night watching television, can’t go to sleep. But deer have no television, no worries trying to sleep – everything’s good.
The human form of life is meant for spiritual realization, that’s the function, that’s the purpose and that’s the greatest opportunity. Of all opportunities, that’s the greatest opportunity. The deer cannot do that. He’s stuck on the wheel of birth and death. When he dies, he will take another birth. He doesn’t know anything about spiritual life, that he’s spirit soul, about the Supreme Lord, about the spiritual world. No chance. He has no access. So really, it’s a lower form of life, it’s a lower birth. It’s described like that, it’s recognized – this is not a good birth because you cannot know the Absolute Truth.
So the most valuable birth that the soul can take is the human form. You have been given complete facility, intelligence, mind and all these facilities to learn the truth. If we don’t use the human form of life for this purpose, we simply spend this time in the human form of life living like an animal.
Animals have four propensities, they all do it – they eat, sleep, mate and defend. They have different equipment to do that with but they all do that. When we enter the human form of life we now have an opportunity to do the fifth thing. Not just eat, sleep, mate and defend but to realize the Absolute Truth, to realize I am spirit soul, to realize I am part and parcel of the Supreme Soul, that my eternal position is the servant of God. That’s who I am eternally, I can’t change it. This is who I am. I am the servant of the Supreme Lord. That will always be who I am, and then I can begin to learn how to reestablish that lost relationship.
So all we’ve got is a complete mess in the name of progress. And then we come to the end of our life and the question is:
-How did you use your life? What did you do with it?
-Oh, I developed this, I invented this, I bought this, I made a success here, I enjoyed this and this, I got my degrees and some important things.
-Did you use it for spiritual realization?
-Not interested.
-Ok, all you want is material enjoyment, then here is another birth as an animal so you can enjoy better. You didn’t use what you had, so why give it to you again?
Of course, this is not eternal damnation. We will get another chance. This is where this truth diverts from other teachings. It’s not a one-time thing and then heaven or hell. No, you’ll get another chance. After you circulate through however many lifetimes it is in these lower forms, eventually you’ll get another human form and the instruction will be the same: now is the time to inquire about the Absolute Truth. It might be thousands of years later, completely different era, everything’s different, but this question is still the same – will you inquire about the Absolute Truth? Maybe, maybe not, who is to say?
But the point is that we have the human form of life now. This is a rare event. Most souls taking birth do not get the human form. Look at this planet, how many people are in human bodies compared to people in other bodies? Walk into the forest alone, stand there quietly and observe, look around, what do you see? You see people in so many different tree bodies that you can’t begin to count them. And then here are all the little plants, and here are all the little bugs and insects, and some larger animals, on and on. Hundreds, thousands, millions of people around you, and you are one person in a human body.
Human birth is very rare. But we don’t understand this, we don’t know this, we have no idea what we have got. So we totally waste it and lose it. It’s said that the greatest fear is the fear of losing the human form of life. That’s the most sad thing, that’s the most tragic event because now I don’t have another chance for who knows how long. I had it, it went by like that, ‘Boom’ and it’s gone.
I don’t have time to waste, it’s gone. It is too late now. Here I am back in another dog body or cat body, or fish body, or whatever. I have no idea about anything. I am hungry, Ok, I eat whatever my food is for that body. I eat grass, or I eat berries, or I eat other fish, or I eat whatever. That’s all I know. “Oh, I’m tired,” and I go to sleep. That’s all I know, I don’t know anything else. As I said, if it’s the time of the year for procreation, I mate. Here comes my enemy and I run away, or I climb a tree, or I fly away, or I fight back with my fangs and claws, and that’s all, that’s it.