03 January 2012

KKSblog.com - The purpose of the Proprietor part 2

KKSblog.com - The purpose of the Proprietor part 2

The purpose of the Proprietor part 2

Posted: 02 Jan 2012 03:45 PM PST

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Dec 2011, Sasolburg, Johannesburg, South Africa)

Animals are different, since they are acting upon instinct and nature, and therefore there is no accountability. In the Vedic or the eastern context we speak of karma (the law of action and reaction) and that every action has a reaction. So it is explained that whatever is happening to us today is the result of previous karma (previous actions). So in this way nothing is exactly happening by chance, but things are happening due to what we have done in the past…. that is the idea of karma, and with our actions of today we are creating the future – we are influencing the future.

So that is interesting – that our actions have reactions. Well, when I first heard that, I found it very interesting and you also see it in the west, and: 'as you sow you shall reap'. It is coming back in the cross-cultural scriptures, and I noticed that the man is the architect of destiny. From there of course spirituality comes in. Understanding that the Supreme proprietor is everything and certainly not the human being. When you enter into a nature reserve, then you see some animals behind fences because human beings are in control, and they decide where some animals go and which one goes where. Maybe in previous times lions were also found here, but not anymore, since we decided that they don't go well together with our picnic spot, and so therefore, there are no more lions.

Mankind tends to control and take control. We are governing the entire planet, but it is said in the Bhagavad-Gita Gita that we cannot claim proprietorship, since if we do this then we are over stepping our boundaries. For instance, what if you found a piece of land and put a fence around it and claimed it as yours? We call that squatters and so on. So the point is that the land was here long before us. The land was here and different people came at different times and claimed this land as theirs…. and again and again people claimed:

"This is my land…. it is mine!"

But for how long? We have seen many big empires that so much power that is now faded away. It looks like that once the British were everywhere but these days they are less and less…. and that England is not doing so well. It is economically struggling…. quite a bit. When you visit there, then you see that. Especially outside of London, life is not at all economically as comfortable as it is in South Africa, where life in many ways is not bad at all…. if I look at it in my travels. So we are seeing that empires come up and disappear, and that history has shown many empires………………………………………Therefore in the thirteen chapter of the Bhagavad-Gita Gita it is making the point that:

'Man is not the proprietor of this world. Man is the caretaker.'

As human beings, we are the caretakers and not proprietors! That is the concept of the Vedic literature, and as human beings, one should be acting in this world on behalf of God and His interest, His values and be like an agent. A caretaker is like an agent. He is supposed to represent his proprietor…obviously, yes everyone has some independence and that is not a problem, but it cannot be excessive and it cannot go against the purposes of the proprietor!

The purpose of the Proprietor part 1

Posted: 02 Jan 2012 03:01 PM PST

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Dec 2011, Sasolburg, Johannesburg, South Africa)

It is said that according to the behaviour of people, nature will respond. So Vedic culture says that the behaviour of nature is directly relating to the behaviour of people on the planet, which is something that I have never thought of before. It had never occurred to me that there might be a co-relation. But yes, and the reason is of course is because nature has a divine origin, and behind it is the Supreme Lord, and everything in this world is going on under the control of the Supreme Lord. As the Bhagavad-Gita Gita explains:

'Not a blade of grass moves without the will of the Lord'.

It is not that He is personally involved with every aspect of it, and that He has a super computer to control 'R' for rain and 'S' for sun…. or turn up the wind a little. No, these things are simply going on by His will, by His desire. He doesn't need to sit in the control room and make sure that nature has it cause. But still nature is acting according to a divine plan. So in nature one can see a divine blue print…a kind of a divine plan behind nature, and in that way when I sit here in this little reserve, then naturally I am reminded of that spiritual aspect behind everything.

One doesn't exclude the other. We are very much here in this location. It's not that we are not in this world…. we are! It's not that spiritual life means that we do not deal with this world. Of course, we deal with this world – we live in this world, and we take care of it, but it's not the all and everything…. it's not that that's all there is…. just working and every once in a while a holiday is taken…. we just have some leisure time, and enjoy having a picnic, or whatever people have…. and that there's nothing more.

Generally speaking it doesn't really matter in what tradition of the world we are looking, but basically whether we are looking at the European tradition where Christianity became very prominent..or whether we look at a Middle Eastern tradition where Islam became predominant….or we are looking at a more Asian tradition where Hinduism became is predominant…. or even far Asia where Buddhist tradition are more prevalent…whatever it maybe, we are finding that in all these kinds of traditions the human form of life is recognised to be in a unique position amongst all other forms of life! The human form of life is standing out in that sense. In the human form of life one is held responsible for one's actions, which is sort of a common understanding.

Spiritual solutions to global crisis

Posted: 02 Jan 2012 05:53 AM PST

Kadamba Kanana Swami
(26 December 2011, Sasolburg, Johannesburg, South Africa)

 

Irreligion leads to materialism, selfishness and ultimately a world where man takes it that he is the proprietor. But unfortunately, disputes will arise between different proprietors that will create tension and war. Therefore irreligion, on the long-run, is not going to benefit society. There are many arguments for that, for example, the ecological issues. If you want to really improve the environmental issues, the difficulty is that you have to get people into the spirit of making sacrifice because there is profit to make.

Ok, maybe I cause some pollution but I make a lot of money. So, how could I let that go? And, you know, I don't live so close to the factory that it bothers me personally. I make sure that I live in a nice area.

That's how it works in the world… what to do!? So in all these environmental conferences, generally speaking, the topic comes up that we have to change the mood of people to a different spirit and how can we create this kind of mood of sacrifice. Inevitably, someone raises the point that only spirituality can really motivate people to make such a sacrifice. So that's an ecological argument in favour of religion.

Some years ago in Manila, in the HIV conference, the point made was that the condom campaign had not worked. It had not really stopped the spreading of HIV and abstinence was the only thing. So then again, how can you get to that abstinence? Unless there is some spirituality, it's very difficult… otherwise how can people be motivated towards that.

We see that on many fronts where the world is facing serious difficulties, that actually a spiritual orientation is offering practical solutions.

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