How can we survive the current Financial Tsunami?

BY HDG B.S. TIRTHA MAHARAJ

Far worse than the financial crisis we now face, was the crisis faced during the era of the war at Kurukshetra. The Bhagavad Gita presents a direct conversation between God (Krishna) and the living entity (Arjuna) before the start of the war, during the worst ever crisis for human beings.

This conversation is comprehensive, comprehensible and consummate. It covers all aspects that a person of this world is supposed to know, and every situation he can face. Apart from the core wisdom in Lord Krishna’s verbal imagery, it contains God’s direct instructions on how a person should conduct his affairs in this material world.

Regular and deeper study of this dynamic treatise gives one the required physical strength and mental fortitude to overcome the most trying situations in life, including the current crisis. Irresponsible and ostentatious lifestyles based on artificial, exaggerated necessities of life during the last 20 years by the West are the root cause of the current chaos.

The Financial Tsunami initially faced by the West and now impacting the world has a spin off effect all over the global financial system leaving irreparable damage. Financial wizards of the modern economy, torturing their tiny brains, have periodically devised different strategies, manipulating various aspects of fiscal planning to achieve and maintain an unhealthy monetary situation and a hollow boom throughout the world. But, today, the entire world suffers from a Financial Tsunami. This frenzied situation only proves the very old adage: ‘Man proposes, God disposes.'

Today’s financial hurricane has thoroughly exposed the hollowness of the intelligence of the so-called economic pundits who graduated from the famous universities of the world and managed the financial system. These so-called experts have neither ready answers nor an immediate resolution for the acute problems we now face. The worst affected are the most advanced countries of the West. This ignominious failure of the modern economy has triggered a chain reaction. Stock markets have tumbled, banks have collapsed and many are thrown out of jobs in countries around the globe.

Can we trust or feel safe with these securities? How can we trust any financial pundits any longer? The share markets and banking system assured us full security of the hard earned money of the blue and white collar workers, and businessmen, who deposited or invested with them. Now, they themselves are in deep trouble; indeed they face bankruptcy. They too, now feel insecure. Today, the average investor/depositor is more anxious about market fluctuations than about their blood pressure and glucose levels.

For a spiritually liberated person, the current crisis is no surprise at all because with all the deceptively projected economic progress, he can clearly see the ground reality that tells a different story. According to Indian history, during the era of the Mahabharata, five thousand years ago, people ate from golden plates and drank from silver cups. Today we use paper plates to eat and plastic cups to drink. Is this a sign of progress?

The very method of monetary transactions is based on false premises and a flawed system. The introduction of paper currency is the main defect of the system. In Vedic civilisation, people acquired life’s necessities on a barter basis. They traded by exchanging commodities without the use of money. Gold, silver, bronze, pearls and gems were considered wealth. Even today, they are the real wealth and not currency notes. Although the head of the banking system declares on every currency note that ‘I promise to pay....' we cannot trust this any more.

What is real security? The real security is Supreme Lord Krishna. No lesser person can give us security, not even the other heavenly gods. In the epic, the Mahabharata, when Draupadi was being disrobed openly in the court assembly, her five famous and able husbands, the Pandavas, could not come forward to rescue her from humiliation by her brothers-in-law, Duryodhana, Duhshasana and others. Even the responsible, senior family priest, Kripacharya, the religious guide of the clan; the indefatigable Bhishma Deva, the senior most member of the Kuru dynasty; Dronacharya, the professor of martial arts; Dhritarashtra, her father-in-law; and Gandhari, her mother-in-law, turned a blind eye and a deaf ear to her cries for help and were merely mute spectators. It was only the Supreme Lord Krishna, who protected her from the awkward situation and open insult.

Corroborating this, Prahlada Maharaja states in his prayers to the Supreme Lord Narasimha Deva, an incarnation of Krishna:

balasya neha sharanam pitarau nrisimha
nartasya chagadam udanvati majjato nauh
taptasya tat-pratividhir ya ihanjaseshtas
tavad vibho tanu-bhritam tvad-upekshitanam

Oh My Supreme Lord Nrisimhadeva! because of a bodily conception of life, embodied souls neglected and not cared for by You cannot do anything for their betterment. Whatever remedies they accept, although perhaps temporarily beneficial, are impermanent.

For example, a father and a mother cannot protect their child; a physician and  his medicines cannot relieve the suffering  of a patient; and a boat on the ocean  cannot save a drowning man. (S.B.7-9-19) Even in the presence of parents, a child can die of an accident. A very rich man who is diseased may be admitted into the world’s best hospital and engage expert physicians by paying exorbitant fees, but none of these can save him from impending death. Passengers thrown into the waters, mid-ocean from a sinking ship may get on to a boat available nearby but before they can heave a sigh of relief, the boat may capsize due to an unexpected storm, killing all of them.

Reinforcing the opinion that God alone is the real saviour, the saint, Narada Muni, enlightens Yudhisthira, explaining how no one else in this world can assure foolproof protection:
The saint, Narada Muni, enlightens Yudhisthira explaining:

kala-karma-gunadhino
deho ‘yam pancha-bhautikah
katham anyams tu gopayet
sarpa-grasto yatha param

This gross material body made of five elements is already under kala (the control of eternal time), karma (action) and guna (the modes of material nature). How then, can it, already being in the jaws of the serpent, protect others? (S.B.1-13-46)

Naradji reinforces the point that the position of every conditioned living being is that of a person caught in a serpent’s jaws. How can such a person provide security to others?

Everyone suffers or is happy in this world according to the result of one’s karma or action performed in previous lifetimes. Hence, we sometimes see that a person may perform good deeds in this life but is harassed by continuous miseries that repeatedly frustrate him, and being bewildered, he may even be sometimes instigated to stray away from the righteous path.

All of us are subjected to the influence of the modes (gunas) of material nature - sattva (goodness), rajah (passion) and tamah (ignorance). These affect our moods, behaviour, thought processes and general mindset. No one, including the various planetary rulers, can escape their effects within the entire universe. Above these is the time element, kala, which controls all the activities within the universe. No one, including the heavenly gods, can escape the onslaught of the great time factor. Time is the impersonal aspect of Krishna.

All of us, subject to such disadvantages, cannot save even ourselves from the assault of eternal time. Then why talk of providing security to others? In India, most people worship demigods. Even these very highly empowered demigods cannot offer complete security.

The mighty demon Ravana exhibited immense power. He was blessed by Lord Shiva. The foremost demon Hiranyakashipu, bestowed with unlimited prowess by Brahma, brought the whole universe under his control. When the Supreme Lord Shri Hari appeared in the forms of Ramchandra and Narasimhadeva to kill Ravana and Hiranyakashipu respectively, their demigod benefactors could not protect either, from the clutches of death.

Therefore, Shri Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita (18-66), mamekam sharanam vraja (Only surrender unto me). Why? He says, sarvapapebhyo mokshayishyami (I shall protect you from all sinful reactions). How is it that only Krishna can protect us and not the demigods? Again, Krishna says, in the Bhagavad Gita (10-2), aham adirhi devanam maharishinam (I am the source of all the demigods and sages). What is everlasting security?

This very idea is foolish because eventually everyone has to die. When we talk of security, the notion is the safety of the body. But the body has to be given up along with all the dear relatives and objects of belonging, at death, whether we like it or not. That is nature’s law. Rebuking Arjuna for his fallacious arguments and enabling him to realise this undeniable fact, the Lord says in Bhagavad Gita (2/27) jatasya hi dhuro mrityu (For one who has taken birth, death is certain).

This means that no one can exist everlastingly here. Then what everlasting security are we talking about? What is the real investment for our time and energy?

Vedanta, the scriptures that embody the final conclusions of Vedic teachings, through its very first sutra or aphorism says, athato brahma jijnasa (Thereafter, therefore, enquire about Brahman or god).' Thereafter’ means that the conditioned soul of this universe, after roaming the entire universe through various species of life, has now acquired a human body. ‘Therefore’ indicates that because the living entity has taken human birth, its only objective should be Brahma jijnasa, to enquire about the nature of Absolute Transcendental Truth, God.

Compared to birds and animals, human beings are endowed with sufficient energy and intelligence to enquire, investigate and realise their true identity as well as the ultimate source of all emanations, God. Both the living being and God are conscious spiritual entities. Hence, to know God and our eternal relationship with Him is the only task of living entities who have acquired human bodies. Our time and energy are well spent, if they are devoted to this aim and activity.

How should we invest our time and effort?
Whether we act piously or impiously in this world, it is meaningless in the ultimate sense, because any material action performed here will oblige us to return after death to enjoy or suffer the good or bad results in a new body. This means we have to take birth again, grow old, become diseased and ultimately die again. This will continue repeatedly. Therefore, the intelligent way of investing our time and effort is to seek a solution to put a stop to this cycle of repetitive birth and death.

The Supreme Lord Krishna enlightens us in this connection in the Bhagavad Gita as follows:

janma karma cha me divyam
evam yo vetti tattvatah
tyaktva deham punar janma
naiti mam eti so ‘rjuna

One who knows the transcendental nature of My appearance and activities, does not, upon leaving the body, take birth again in this material world, but attains My eternal abode, O Arjuna. B.G. 4/9

anta-kale cha mam eva
smaran muktva kalevaram
yah prayati sa mad-bhavam
yati nasty atra samshayah

And whoever, at the time of death, quits his body, remembering Me alone, at once attains My nature. Of this there is no doubt. B.G. 8/5

mam upetya punar janma
duhkhalayam ashashvatam-
napnuvanti mahatmanah
samsiddhim paramam gatah

After attaining Me, the great souls, who are yogis in devotion, never return to this temporary world, which is full of miseries, because they have attained the highest perfection B.G. 8/15

abrahma-bhuvanal lokah
punar avartino ‘rjuna
mam upetya tu kaunteya
punar janma na vidyate

From the highest planet in the material world down to the lowest, all are places of misery wherein repeated birth and death take place. But the one who attains to My abode, O Son of Kunti, never takes birth again. B.G. 8/16

What other way is there to invest our time and effort other than following Krishna’s recommendations fruitfully?
Everyone is depressed in this meltdown, how can a person face this disaster? Generally, one thinks of God only in times of distress. It is therefore said that even ‘Adversity is the benediction of God'. Instead of getting depressed, which will not serve any useful purpose, one must take time to reflect on Lord Krishna and His essential teachings in the Bhagavad Gita. This will bring solace.
Unfortunately, although there is a Bhagavad Gita book in every pious Hindu home, people have merely made it a funeral scripture. They bring it out only when there is a death in the family. Only then a priest reads out a few texts from it; not even the relative(s) of the deceased. This is the tragedy.

If only we understand perfectly the deeper significance and implications of the Lord’s statement in the Bhagavad Gita (8/15): dukkhalayam ashashwatam, that the world is temporary and a place full of miseries, can we reconcile to the reality of the situation here. The Lord further exhorts us (2/56): dukkheshu anudvignamanah sukheshu vigata sprihah, to train ourselves gradually to stay undisturbed in times of crisis and not get elated during times of happiness, because no situation in life is permanent.

How do we fight depression? And with what?
The Supreme Lord of the gods, Krishna suggests in Bhagavad Gita (18/65): man mana bhava (Man, always think of Me), mad bhakto (become My devotee), mad yaji  (worship Me), mam namaskuru (offer obeisance to Me). This is a universal instruction. Anyone can follow this irrespective of one’s religion or beliefs. In today’s hectic lifestyle of delirious activities, the easiest way to implement this is to chant the holy names of the Lord:

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama Hare Hare.

This is because Krishna is not different from His names. There are no rigid rules about chanting this Mahamantra, nor any question of eligibility. No medicines of Allopathy or Homeopathy can rescue us from any type of depression - only Krishna can.

How can we adjust to a lower standard of living?
Simply by recalling the plight of the former leader of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, we can make adjustments in all circumstances. He had many grand palaces in which he lived but soon after the American invasion, he was forced to live, during the last stage of his life, in a hole below the earth like a snake or a rat. This can happen to anyone at any time.

Owing to a false sense of security and an imaginary sense of enjoyment, catering to an aggravated sensual appetite, we have unnecessarily raised our standard of living by an artificial attempt in a competitive spirit. We have to give up the mindset of false prestige and unnaturally acquired social status. We should revert to simple living and high thinking. Whether the president of a nation, a pilot, a cobbler or a computer operator, we should always remember that we are basically servants of Lord Krishna. This is our original and eternal status. This will help us to cope with any situation.

How can we live without the luxuries all of us are now accustomed to?
In India, we have heard the Ramayana from our childhood. We know that Lord Ramachandra instantly gave up his luxurious palace life and lived like a mendicant in the forest for fourteen years. His chaste consort, Mother Sita, too, despite being a young married woman, endured all the rigours and dangers of forest life. The other famous epic, the Mahabharata, also tells us that the five Pandava princes gave up the luxury of their palace and lived in exile in the forest, suffering many hardships. All these godly personalities are our ideals. If we have truly accepted them as such, we need to follow in their footsteps. Then why can’t we reconcile ourselves to the idea of a simple life? We have to give up our hypocrisies and realise ground realities. Our offices, homes, cars, shopping complexes and malls are all air-conditioned to give our body comfort. But, the fact is that this body is directly consigned to fire when we die. What is the difficulty in understanding this? Property owners generally claim that they own acres of land. This is an illusion because when they die, whether they are cremated or buried, the remains of the body mingle with the earth. This means the land owns us and not vice versa. What more clarity do we need to understand our actual status?

The Supreme Personality of the Godhead Shri Krishna draws our attention to His statement in the Bhagavad Gita (5/22) in this connection:

ye hi samshparshaja bhoga
duhkha-yonaya eva te
ady-antavantah kaunteya
na teshu remate budhah

An intelligent person does not take part in the sources of misery, which are due to contact with the material senses. O Son of Kunti, such pleasures have a beginning and an end, and so the wise man does not delight in them. B.G. 5/22

In this world of duality and delusion, nothing appears alone. We may entertain the best hopes but should prepare ourselves for disappointments. The good is always accompanied by the bad and distress closely follows happiness. After a few successful achievements, we may be required to encounter failures. One may try very hard, clamouring for pleasures, but pain comes without seeking.

One should therefore, not become unnecessarily egoistic because of one’s exalted lineage, erudite scholarship, material opulence or handsome physique. Once we understand, imbibe and assimilate the facts about the illusory designations of this world, we can live peacefully in any situation.

What is the most secure investment in our lives?
As spirit souls, we are fragmental portions of Lord Krishna and our body is the composition of the five material elements  earth, water, fire, air and ether  which are the components of the Lord’s material energy. Thus, we owe our entire existence to Krishna. With this understanding, we should surrender and serve the Lord with love. This is the most secure investment.

Krishna’s other name is Hrishikesha. Hrishika means the senses and isha means controller. This means that Krishna is the controller of all our senses. Hence, offering loving devotional service to Krishna through our senses is called bhakti, hrishikena Hrishikesha sevanam bhaktiriti uchyate. We are unhappy because we try to engage our senses for our personal gratification.

After explaining all issues precisely and concisely at the battlefield of Kurukshetra, the Lord, at the end of the discourse in the Bhagavad Gita, left it to Arjuna to deliberate on the details and take a final decision about what he desired to do. As a friend and devotee of the Lord, Arjuna responded by saying, karishye vachanam tava (I shall execute all your instructions). This is called sharanagati (total surrender). Appreciating this, Krishna spoke assuringly in Bhagavad Gita (18/66)

sarva-dharman parityajya
mam ekam sharanam vraja
aham tvam sarva-papebhyo
mokshayishyami ma shuchah

Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all the sinful reactions. Do not fear. B.G.18/66

Through Arjuna, Lord Krishna gives His ultimate advice to all of us when the Supreme Lord says: ‘Give up all your imaginary sense of duty, responsibility and obligations based on the bodily concept of life and take exclusive refuge in Me'. This is the final guarantee. This is the real security. No other person in the material and/or the spiritual world can give such an assurance. For such a fully surrendered devotee, Krishna says: ‘I shall take care of you. I shall even save you from the effect of all your sins.'

Krishna is also known as Achyuta, the infallible. He never fails in His commitment or in fulfilling the desire of His fully surrendered devotees. He never fails. This means that such devotees do not need to fear for their sustenance and protection. Shunning all other superficial material activities, working exclusively for Krishna is the most secure investment.

Today, I am eating from a stainless steel plate. From tomorrow, if I start eating from a silver plate, people will say, ‘I am advanced'. How is that? The activity is the same, that of eating. Similarly, we think that eating and mating are the highest forms of happiness. A hog that eats garbage and copulates also has the same concepts.Then, how can we claim that we are advanced?

Real advancement is spiritual advancement.We should know that the driver is different from the car he drives. We clean the car regularly but neglect the necessities of the driver. We maintain our body, but have no knowledge about the soul. Then how are we advanced? The cage may be clean or dirty but the bird inside it must be fed properly. This is true advancement. Those who do not clearly understand the difference between the body and the soul, think falsely that they are identical and that they can find perfect happiness by gratifying our five physical senses. Hence, we hanker blindly for the enjoyment of our physical senses without understanding the real spiritual nature.

Human beings are always keen to build beautiful homes to live in and enjoy, but the result is ultimately fruitless and miserable. It is like fat rats. A rat is normally seen working hard to dig a big hole in the ground to live in it comfortably. But, invariably, a large, poisonous snake swallows the rat and enters the hole strenuously dug by the rat and stays there. Similarly, a man who is greatly attached to his body, toils very hard throughout his life, facing many obstacles, disappointments, failures and bottlenecks just to accumulate as much money as possible. He undergoes this great struggle to increase and provide security for his wife, children, grandchildren, relatives, friends, servants and others. But, he may not live to enjoy these luxuries and wealth. He dies leaving all his belongings, earned through many sufferings, to be enjoyed by his so-called affectionate family members with whom he may have no connection at all after his death. He merely meets fat rat’s fate.

It is common knowledge that an intelligent investor would always like to know what returns he is likely to obtain from an investment. When one works exclusively for Krishna, as in the case of Arjuna, the dividend he gets is that he will never return to this material world of miseries. Therefore, to cultivate Krishna Consciousness is the most secure investment.