Prior to Krishna Consciousness, I investigated different spiritual paths. When I came to the Tibetan Buddhist – I investigated and read their literature and came across the Biography of Milarepa who is one of their great leading mystics. So I was reading the life of Milarepa and I read that Milarepa lived in a cave throughout his life and he was daily only eating grass soup. The result was the he turned green! (laughter). When I read that I thought… I just felt that: “It cannot be…it cannot be, that this is God’s desire, that it is pleasing to Him that we eat grass soup to a point where we turn green” (laughter), “Then the Lord is pleased!”I felt that something was not right here! This is not right. How can this be? What kind of God takes pleasure in seeing that people live in such an artificial way?
I read more about Tibetan Buddhist and then I read that some ascetics would enter into the cave and that they would take a vow to go into that cave for 8 years – 10 years… 12 years. They would brick up the cave from the outside.
There’s a little tunnel and some water through the cave and also a little tunnel for food.
Well imagine you are in a cave like that – bricked up!
Well I see 3 possibilities; One is you die. Well then there’s no problem, you are already in your grave – everything is taken care of! (laughter), so that’s fine.
The other option is you go mad, also you are in isolation so you cannot harm anyone. And the third option might be that you become self realized.
That’s a poor level of self realization. That was their process, Which was a rigid process …such a rigid process - So artificial, so unnatural and practically impossible. Who would sign for that? I wouldn’t:
“ Brick me up – no thanks! Very kind of you to offer but I will let it go”.
Then Krishna Consciousness stands out as so superior because Krishna Consciousness takes the good of the material world and we can utilise that. Not excessive – but in the mode of goodness – in a controlled way!
(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Canberra, October 2010)
