Happy holidays! Here in Canada, its time to race off to the marketplace to spend your honestly earned money on Christmas gifts. Time to drive that beautiful new Mazda car down to the bank, this the latest model shining in its full glory. Time to show your love for your family by buying them the things they want but usually cannot afford. Time for that special dinner, those evenings sipping wine and holiday spirits, warm and secure against the frozen northern snows. Time to watch and groan as the Calgary Flames go down in flames at the hockey arena.
But is this paradise for real? When one uses the things of this world, including even air and water, one accrues a debt. Just like going for a stay at the Hilton hotel; you owe for what you have used, everyone must pay, no one rides for free. In exactly this way, each of us accumulates debt to the demigods who are responsible for supplying life’s necessities, by arrangement of Krsna. You cannot run out on the bill, because there are so many witnesses to your consumption. You must pay.
Who do most of us work for? Most work for big companies whose job it is to make a profit, often at the expense of third world economies and using limited resources, thus mortgaging the world’s future and exploiting those less fortunate. That beautiful car actually is stolen, and the thief will be punished. The metal, rubber, gasoline; all these are Krsna’s, not your’s. This vehicle represents a big step backwards, an increase in the degree of debt to the demigods and the Supreme Lord. The so-called advancement is a step into debt, it is a step backwards into deeper karma. Your car-boosted ego draws you deeper into the illusion that you are the enjoyer, the eternal, the lord of all you survey. At least, you are better than Jones who drives an old Ford!
The family relation is at best temporary. These soldiers against a lonely existence will soon enough be gone, the kids will move out, the wife, if she remains chaste, will still eventually also grow old and decrepid and die, and Lord knows where the two of you will end up. You accept this, but cannot change anything, you think. Your love is misplaced, for all will be gone at the time of death. And before then, you may cry bitter tears as the children use legal methods to divest you of your life’s savings. They no longer respect you, but wish you dead so they can finally seize your wealth. That Christmas dinner consists of dead animals, for which karma you will have to reincarnate as a Kentucky fried ! You incur sin for your intoxication, then fight with your wife because you are too drunk to think clearly. Your hockey team loses, driving home the imperfect nature of the world around you, your vulnerability.
Your string of assets, lined up like so many zeros, need that special One in front to make them really valuable. But this science of putting Krsna in the front is unknown to you. Thinking oneself the controller and enjoyer, one’s senses alert for any opportunity for enjoyment, one makes tremendous advancement towards repeated births and deaths. And thus the conditioned atheist and enjoyer wanna-be slips deeper into the night…
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