There are four stages of advancement of human civilization. These are religiosity, economic development, sense gratification and liberation. By practicing religiosity, there comes economic development. From economic development, there is facility for sense gratification.
For those who are thoughtful, excessive sense gratification may lead to the desire for liberation, or merging into the existence of the Supreme. Liberation is meant for those who have no more interest in religious ritualistic ceremonies, economic development and sense gratification, but not everyone even comes to a place of desiring liberation. However, this liberation is still on the platform of mundane desire, based on the false identification of the body and the mind with the self, who is by constitution the eternal and transcendent soul.
This liberation is considered the topmost process of cheating, for in that position, there is no question of developing loving service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Śrī Krishna. It is therefore a subtle form of sense gratification. There may be some temporary sense of relief from the pangs of material frustration, but it does not last, and this liberation is actually described in the Vedic literatures as the subtlest form of atheism.
Thus, the four-fold process of religiosity, economic development, sense gratification, and liberation, being on the platform of the mundane, is a source of discontent, because it does not reconnect us to our natural, eternal and joyful relationship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead in full loving exchanges. It cannot invite real pleasure to satisfy the needs of the pleasure-seeking soul.
Religion of the mundane realm is of several divisions. These are fruitive work, knowledge, development of mystic powers, and worship. Fruitive work, even with superficial religious ceremonials performed with the goal of increasing the material condition, can only at best offer some temporary boon, but will never relieve the performer of the sufferings of birth, death, disease, and old age.
Following the path of knowledge and mystic powers can only lead to uncertain results, as knowledge will only be speculative unless it is linked to the wisdom of transcendence, and the pursuit for mystic powers is extremely entangling and also gives impermanent results.
The path of worshiping demigods and the impersonal form of the Lord is fueled by an intense desire for sense gratification. The rituals are complex and there may be some temporary result, which will not be satisfactory to any sane person who is seeking the highest possible pleasure.
What these paths have in common is they are pursued by those who want to elevate their material position and they cannot produce any permanent effect. None of these processes can offer relief from the sufferings of this world caused by our own minds and body, other living beings, and those that are called “acts of God.”
Real pleasure is derived only from endeavoring to satisfy the transcendental senses of the Supreme Lord. As the Lord is satisfied, the servant becomes satisfied by the Lord’s pleasure. This entry into transcendental reciprocation is possible only by accepting the instructions of the bonafide spiritual guide. The process of religion described in the transcendental literatures such as the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and relayed by proper spiritual authority is able to give the adherents permanent relief from the miseries of material existence. The proper spiritual guide and the authentic Vedic literatures have no interest in propounding mundane religiosity or liberation. Their only interest is to propagate the development of reawakening our dormant love of Godhead.
The true essence of religion is to re-unite with the Lord in loving reciprocation. Any religion that has at its core to learn to love God is real religion, but we see that religion today has generally devolved into some ritual of attendance, ceremonials, lip service, dogma, hypocrisy, pretentiousness, and even propaganda. It is often hard to find the essence under the growing veil of social acceptance and its judgements and constraints. This means that a sincere seeker of the Absolute Truth may feel quite isolated, as participating in any organized religion has failed to satisfy the yearnings of the heart.
When there is a real spiritual teacher, the Lord can be known, as this person acts to expose and take down false religion. This real spiritual teacher is not some fanatical upholder of outdated principles, as the organizations may claim as they strive for acceptance and support by the ever more degraded “mainstream” society. Organized religion disregards, rejects and discredits the real spiritual teachers, and thus becomes devoid of life. The preacher of real religion also cannot act within an institution, being constrained by it, and thus will not place himself in that situation.
Śrīla Prabhupāda and his spiritual master Śrīla Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Maharāja, both formed organizations through which to teach and spread real religion. They counted on the purity of their followers to carry forth within that structure for the sake of the spiritual upliftment of the world. Any mission needs structure, any army needs organization, that is obvious, but when the structure or organization is given precedence over the intended mission, it becomes irrelevant or even an enemy of the original purpose.
At the onset, an organization may have had honorable intentions. However, by the nature of the world and under the influence of those who are motivated by personal gain and desire for power and position, that organization will eventually degrade and become its own worst enemy in the propagation of what it was initially formed to accomplish. In fact, especially in the case of religious institutions, there has historically been the development of such vile criminal activity that the common offender could hardly even imagine existed. Crime and abuse in the name of God, in the name of religion, in the name of Truth, is the worst violation that a surrendered heart could ever bear. It is the worst betrayal possible in this world.
Yet, the propagation of real religious principles must go on. His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, at great personal endeavor, gifted human society with the transcendental literatures that are meant to be the “law books” for the next 10,000 years. These literatures are coming down in a pure lineage from the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself, and they cut through the myriad of false teachings so prevalent today with the brilliant sword of clarity and Divine truth. They introduce us to the eternal realm while pointing out the fallacies of material existence. The philosophy is rich and easy to understand and apply, and it acts upon the non-envious heart to invoke tangible spiritual progress. It is free of mundane speculation and sentimentality, and serves as a powerful invitation, for those who are willing to take it, to reunite the heart in love with the Supreme Lover, the Godhead Himself. If even a small percentage of the population accepts these teachings, and with no personal motivation shares them with others, there will very soon develop a great flood of love of Godhead, which is the only solution to the miseries of this world.
Śrīla Prabhupāda told us that his attempt to propagate the Krishna Consciousness movement all over the world is the only remedy that can bring about a peaceful and happy life. Where are we to find this? In our own homes, to start, with family members and like-minded friends, in devout, autonomous, and empowered small groups, free of the inhibitory shackles of false spiritual authority, with Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books and the chanting of the Lord’s Holy Names as both personal meditation and group song, as the basis of our very existence. Where it goes from there, only the Lord knows, but He has plans that are far greater than we are. The strong foundation must begin with us and those around us, in willing alignment with the Lord’s desire that all humanity be granted the greatest gift of again becoming aligned with Him in pure spiritual joy.
