Worship G O D or D O G

There are only two things in this world of danger that can satisfy a person striving for happiness. One is the materially engrossed person, that is only satisfied by sense gratification, which is based on the animal propensities of eating, sleeping, mating and defending. These four items are the animal instincts and they are both in humans and animal behaviour. The difference between animals is the human society is sophisticated in enjoying sense gratification whereas the animals have no rules to abide by. A dog may have sex in the park in public, whereas a human will be charged with indecency, if caught doing the same thing as a dog. Animals have no discretion in these matters. Humans must follow rules of behaviour. My guru A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami has described such humans as sophisticated cats and dogs. It may sound harsh but it is true. I was on a morning walk, with him in Toronto in 1976, at the don valley park. We had just purchased the Avenue Road church at Roxborough and Avenue Road just up from the Parliament buildings and he came to visit us and celebrate this Transcendental victory with his pure association. He had previously sent me a letter saying that this was a topmost triumph for Krishna that we had purchased this building for him and requested that I post: neon signs on the building to promote the holy name which I did. This building is a landmark in the city of Toronto because of its prestigious location. This building is an appropriate home for our deities Radha Gopinatha. What a statement of congratulations from the pure representative of Lord Chaitanya and the mission the Lord had established in the 15th century starting in Bengal India. It was predicted by him that his mission would spread to every town and village in the world. Today millions of people have passed by these signs we erected and chant the holy blame of Krishna. All glories to Srila Prabhupada! Unfortunately for many years the sign has been unserviced in indifference to our guru’s pleasure and purpose.  During the morning japa walk in Don Valley Park he stopped in front of a new sign that had been mounted in the park telling all the people who walk their dogs to stoop and scoop up the dogs stool the dogs left on the ground. I think this was the first time this kind of request has been finally introduced into the city of Toronto. We had a large crowd with him on the walk. I made no restrictions on who could attend the walk other than people arranging their own transportation. Prabhupada stopped suddenly and we all stopped with him and gathered around to hear what he was about to say Prabhupada. He took his cane and pointed to the sign and said “this is the difference between us and them” referring to the conditioned souls, “they serve dog and we serve God. Everyone in the small crowd of eager disciples laughed joyously as Prabhupada had a complete wonderful sense of humour. He continued on his walk and we all followed along in his footsteps relishing treasured moments in eternal time. So the second thing which can satisfy the human being for real happiness is serving God. When one is liberated through transcendental knowledge from the material modes of passion and ignorance, he or she is satisfied only by rendering loving service for the satisfaction of Krishna God Beng illusioned by the conditions of the external energy a human being falsely thinks he is being served but in reality, he is actually servant of his senses. He or she thinks I am these senses. No that is illusion. Just like people who live on the mental plain think they are the mind. Again wrong. The mind is a mechanical device made of material elements like thinking, feeling and willing. The mind is the topmost sense and controls the actions of the other five senses. The five senses are made of gross matter and the subtle body composed of the mind intelligence and false ego is also material but subtle. This is called the inferior energy. The spirit soul is part of the internal energy of God. That is who we are. Not the mind that bewilders us every day of our born lives. The purpose of the Gita spoken by Krishna to Arjuna, is to teach people who they actually are, and train their mind to rise up to the spiritual platform of existence, even while living in the confines of the material body. This is called in Sanskrit Jivan Mukta. It means to be liberated from material existence even while residing in the body of 9 gates. Being illusioned by the conditions of the external energy and falsely serving the senses driven by material desire centered around lust, anger, greed, pride, madness and intolerance, the conditioned soul suffers repeated birth and death When one learns the art of living from the lessons of a pure Devotee like A.C. Bhaktivedanta swami, that he is not the master of senses but is servant of the senses, only then can one become truly happy and not live a life of illusion for so-called material gain and self-cantered aggrandizement. Wake up spirit souls how long will we sleep in the lap of illusion. Good things automatically happen for the Devotie of the Lord by the sweet mercy of the Lord that is Krishna’s guarantee for his Devotee. Such hunger of the modern man for happiness can only be satisfied when he or she is situated in the immortality of devotional service to the supreme lord in devotional service. This service comes from the spiritual sky and could be present in a person’s life by following the strict instructions given to him by his guru and in my case his divine grace Bhaktivedanta Swami. Back to Godhead it’s time to make some serious changes in our life’s direction and worship God not dog. Simple for the simple difficult for the crooked they say. Hare Krishna. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!