Inner Fulfillment

· Part 1: Searching for the Solution ·

The innate principle of life is to save one’s own self, to become immortal, to come out of ignorance, and to become happy.

Our very existence is being threatened at every second here where we live, our knowledge is being threatened to be covered by ignorance, and we are always being threatened to be swallowed by misery. These are our standing enemies, our born enemies which are constantly threatening us. We must fight them in a scientific way and find out how to get free from them. They threaten our very existence, our very knowledge, and our very sense of happiness.

bhidyate hrdaya-granthis, chhidyante sarva-samsayah
ksiyante chasya karmani, mayi drste ‘khilatmani

(Srimad Bhagavatam, 11.20.30)

When we gain a proper solution, all questions will disappear. That which is almost impossible and unthinkable, we will gain such a solution from the ancient scripture Srimad Bhagavatam. Such a stage is possible. What is that?

Bhidyate hrdaya-granthis—all the ties within the heart will be unloosened. The heart is full of different bindings. We tie ourselves with this idea, that idea—thousands of ideas. We are tied down by “I like this, I like that, I like it.” But there is a certain type of knowledge that may descend within us that will cause all these bindings to be unloosened at once. At once we will find that so many ties are all unnecessary: so unloosen them, unloosen them all. They are our enemies. We thought them to be our friends and wanted to tie ourselves with them. Unloosen! Unloosen! Unloosen! They are not friends but are all enemies. Therefore, all the ties of the heart are to be broken off. Bhidyate hrdaya-granthis is in the first stage: to become free of the ties of activity (karma).

The layer of knowledge is the next stage, chhidyante sarva-samsayah: there are so many doubts, doubts after doubts, but just as mist disappears, all doubts will be cleared. There is such a stage: a plane free from all doubt.

The Upanisads also come and say:

yasmin jnate sarvamidam vijnatam bhavati
yasmin prapte sarvamidam praptam bhavati
tad vijijnasasva tadeva brahma

Enquiry is good, but enquire like a proper man, in a proper, scientific way. Search. Search for the particular thing which equates to the search of everything. Come to search that thing which will solve your entire problem. Searching after this, searching after the wants of A, searching after B, searching after C—dismiss all these mad ideas. Search only after the one thing that will satisfy everything. It is possible.

Yasmin jnate sarvamidam vijnatam bhavati—if we know that one point, everything is known. If we get that thing, everything is achieved. Is it possible? Yes, it is possible! And when we come to such faith, then it is real faith (sraddha). It is possible—there is the central truth. If we know that, everything is known. If we get that, everything is got. So, if you want to be a student, study such a thing of absolute characteristic, the grand characteristic, not partial. Search for the whole, the conception of the whole. That will take us to the understanding of the one ruling polarity, the one unity, the oneness of the whole: the idea that the whole of our conception is being controlled and ruled from one point. The One is the whole, and the One is the Master of the whole; and if I can be acquainted with that One, I will be acquainted with the whole.

We are to search for the Master of the conscious plane. Almost everything depends upon consciousness. External sensations and perceptions all depend upon consciousness. A ‘thing’ means a perception of the thing by the eye or by touch, etc. Everything that we experience in this world is a cluster of perceptions, sensations—and the whole thing is based on consciousness. So, we are to search for the Master, the King of the conscious world. We have no engagement in this mundane world except to search for the cause, the prime cause. In different stages of life there is a gradation of cause up to the land of beauty and love. We are to withdraw there. Back to God, back to home. Back to the centre.

Home means not only consciousness. Consciousness is only on the way. Just as on a long journey there are so many hostels along the way, similarly, consciousness is on the way to the land of love and beauty—to the land of Krishna. First, we must cross consciousness, then we shall find sweetness (anandam, rasam). Anandam is controlling, not consciousness. Consciousness is the basis, but the real hankering of all of us is for happiness, ecstasy (anandam, rasam). Rasa (beauty) is controlling, and that can satisfy our inner hankering—not jnana (knowledge) and not consciousness. Consciousness is not the integer. What to speak of this material energy, even consciousness cannot satisfy our inner hankering. Our inner hankering is for satisfaction, happiness, sweetness, love, beauty, and mercy. Really, the inner analysis of our heart shows that we are all hankering for sweetness, for rasa, but we are wandering hither and thither for that rasa, and, frustrated, we come back with a slap on our cheek. We are endlessly wandering in this way, dictated by the forces of the external nature. We are wandering hither and thither, but we will not find the proper thing by this process.

Fortunately, agents from the high level come to our relief. By various means, with or without us being aware of it, they inject some special news, which, when accumulated, creates such an energy in us that “I must go back to my home!” We are told that our home is such, and that our fortune is connected with such a form of life. We must return back there. That is the campaign of Krishna consciousness, and that is the land of Vrindavan, the happiest domain, the most extensive plane which includes everything. This world is a negligible part of that infinite world, the infinite ocean of sweetness. All may be accommodated in that infinite world.

It is not idolatry, not hypnotism, not sentimentalism, not emotionalism, but it is concrete fact as much as we want happiness. Materialists are searching and think they are getting something, but they become frustrated by money and women. What is apparent is not real. They are deceived in such a way all through their lives, more or less.

So, we are fortunate if we receive in our lives guidance from Krishna conscious friends, who endeavor to recruit us to that domain: “Come to your senses. Come to your normal position. Come to your home.” You are all misguided like crazy men, running hither and thither for happiness and pleasure, but you are not getting it, which is common. The wild-goose chase of scientific researchers is trying to furnish you with more comforts of the transient, flickering type, but such attempts are going in the opposite direction. They are inviting you to get more comforts by the help of a gross conception, but you will not find the real thing there. You will have to go inside. Home is necessary. Instead, you are being carried to a foreign land, dependent upon foreign things for your happiness. Real happiness does not depend on the supply of these physical comforts. It is within, and it is independent of anything. Stone and electricity cannot produce comfort for you. That which can give comfort is superior in comparison to one who is searching for comfort. That which is inferior to you in nature will not give you comfort—your thirst can be satisfied and fulfilled only from the higher region, not from the lower. Therefore, do not madly search for your comfort in the lower nature but direct your search to the higher realm and take guidance from those friends who endeavor to recruit you to that domain.

To heed this call is the real wealth of life of each and every one of us.

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CONTENTS

Preface

(1) Searching for the Solution

(2) The Vision of Goodness

(3) Happiness in Higher Thought

(4) The Happiest Form of Life

(5) A Labour of Love

(6) Homeward Bound

(7) The Land of Beauty

Epilogue: The Key to it All

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