The Rebel in Me

Over our lifetime there may be many moments where we remember our first guru, our parents, and their instructions that come in a flash. We probably ignored many of the instructions when they were given. Or perhaps didn’t listen to their shared experiences, which were given so that we don’t make the same mistakes. That is the circle of life isn’t it? It’s been happening for lifetimes and generations with no end in sight. But it got me curious as to why is it so? Why at times are we so adamantly against taking instructions of any kind? What makes us rebel as a child, a teenager and now as an adult? Why don’t we want to take instructions as is?

Right from the beginning, as babies, we are helpless and have to take instructions from our parents.. But as we become small children we develop this sense of me and mine and a false ego which then carries along with us until we die (unless we do something about it). For example, as children, we are curious about fire and our parents teach us that fire is hot and can burn, so don’t touch it. But a child will still want to reach for the flames only to pull its hand back and cry. This instinct is good, to learn from experience, but sometimes a lot of time is wasted in life trying to learn everything by our own experiments instead of taking seasoned instructions ‘as is’ from our well-wishers. I’m not saying accept everything from everyone as blind faith, but to take instructions from our well-wishers is something we should consider. But who are our well-wishers? Lord Krishna is our supreme father and His true representative, Sri Gurudev, are our well-wishers. Generally, our parents are also our well-wishers, for our material lives especially.

We're spirit. We're souls. Most souls live happily with Krishna in the spiritual world. Krishna is the Supreme Being. Some souls—us—rebel against His authority and want to try to enjoy outside their relationship with Him. To fulfill—and reform—this unnatural desire, Krishna creates the material world. Source

SB 6.16.57

yad etad vismṛtaṁ puṁso
mad-bhāvaṁ bhinnam ātmanaḥ
tataḥ saṁsāra etasya
dehād deho mṛter mṛtiḥ

When a living entity, thinking himself different from Me, forgets his spiritual identity of qualitative oneness with Me in eternity, knowledge and bliss, his material, conditional life begins. In other words, instead of identifying his interest with Mine, he becomes interested in his bodily expansions like his wife, children and material possessions. In this way, by the influence of his actions, one body comes from another, and after one death, another death takes place. Source

It is clear that our rebellious nature is what got us here in the material cycle of birth and death. We continue to rebel against the Lord when He comes in the form of His teachings in scriptures and when He personally comes as the spiritual master. We are actually fish out of water, but we continue trying to enjoy this material world, trying to find happiness taking on different bodies. Bodies that are subject to disease, old age and death. But the Lord never abandons us. He travels with us as paramatma, our supersoul, always trying to guide us. Throughout the journey he can guide us through various channels which are considered our sikhsha guru, teachers in the form of parents, academic teachers, friends or it could be any living entity for that matter. We must be open to instructions coming our way. We must analyze if there is a message in something someone says. Sometimes a simple instruction can help us and save us from unnecessary heartache and headache in our material and spiritual pursuits. The openness should be such that one’s false ego does not come in the way of accepting a message that was meant for us. At the same time one must be very vigilant that no instruction should take us away from Krishna, only take us one step closer. Whether it’s an instruction to improve our bhajan, or whether it’s time-saving hacks to give us more time for devotional practices, we must be open minded about it. In everyone’s heart sits Krishna as supersoul, so it’s possible that instruction is for us.

Because we are here by choice, we cannot hold Krishna responsible for the suffering we must endure. Besides, in human life we always have the chance to give up our rebellious nature, cultivate our innate love for Krishna, and return to our home in the spiritual world. Source

After 20 years of chanting the Hare Krishna mahamantra, I am just starting to listen to and follow Gurudev’s instructions as well as the scriptural injunctions. It’s not to discourage anyone, we are all on our own path, and the time it will take to cleanse the mirror of the heart, the citta, the conditioned consciousness, will vary for everyone. It only takes one mantra to develop love for God, but it can take time to be without offenses and with full surrender. But the process is given by the acharyas, saints and sages. They have experienced all the stages that we are going through. All we have to do is follow their instructions and their path to get the results. Our citta will get cleansed over time by chanting the Hare Krishna mahamantra. The mahamantra will remove the false ego and the enjoying mentality, both of which give rise to this rebellious nature.

This rebellion filters through in all of our lives and keeps us from tasting the nectar waiting for us on the other side. Take a leap and take Gurudev’s words verbatim, then see the magic happen. See the doors open up to the spiritual world. Please chant incessantly!!

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama Hare Hare