oldchakra.com

Let the Sun Shine
by Karuna Das

Dear Chakra,

I was very pleased to read Maharani Devi Dasi's article "The Misuse of Blind Following." This is exactly the line of thought I was trying to bring forth. Srila Prabhupada has warned us repeatedly about the danger of trying to make this a perfect world. It has been exactly the promotion of gender and race equality based on the body which has brought forth a disguised form of legal abuse. As for example the liberal use of women's bodies in outdoors promoting materialism and immoral lives or the low salaries being paid in some countries which are much less than would actually cost to maintain a servant in such a way he would feel happy and motivated to seek for spiritual truth.

Once we establish the truth of Lord's Krsna's words that this world is "tvad" dual, and thus that whether we like it or not there will always be best and worst. That this world is "dukhalayam" and "asasvatam"; then we can start to become really serious about Srila Prabhupada's statement that this is no place for a gentleman. We will then be dealing not with the symptom but with the cause of our arrogance which is the identification with the material body. Our effort will then be directed towards solving something which can indeed be solved which is the problem of abuse and not the problem of equality.

Yesterday I was taking the bus home after work here in my country and someone asking for a contribution and belonging to a social welfare group distributed some postcards to collect donations with them. My postcard had the image of a "shyam" baby with two angel wings sprouting from his back. I bought the postcard and have kept it with me to always make me remember that no matter what kind of body we are looking at female, male, the third gender, fair complexion, dark complexion, whatever..., we should always be trying to see the saintly angel who is sitting in the heart of that body covered by the dark layers of this material existence. Following Srila Prabhupada's footsteps and those of our own diksha and siksha spiritual masters, of male and female gender, of dark and fair complexion, our real challenge must be that of bringing that angel back out into the light again.

Seeking to always remain as a servant of the servants,

Your servant,
Karuna Das

© CHAKRA 2 November 2001