(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 08 February 2013, Bhakti Dhama, Bratislava, Slovak)
So, like I said before, the road to freedom is the path of responsibility.
And what is responsibility? There are different levels. There is responsibility in our jobs, responsibility at home, responsibility in society and so on. But those things are secondary because they are just about surviving and maybe in a nice way, if possible. But that’s not what the human form of life is all about. The Vedic scriptures say “athato brahma jijnasa” (Vedanta Sutra 1.1.1). Now that you have the human form of life, you must enquire into the Absolute Truth.
“dharmeṇa hīna paśubhiḥ samānāḥ” – that without looking for absolute truth, the human being is the same as an animal. “āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithunaṁ ca” – eating, mating, sleeping and defending. These things animals do and these are things that human beings do. But, the human being is meant for dharma or enquiry into the Absolute Truth. Enquiry as to what is the goal of life; what is the origin of life? Why is there happiness and distress in this world? What is the meaning of it all?
Is it just coincidence? Just biology or chemistry? Just some molecules? Oh, you have very nice molecules. Why do we love some molecules more than other molecules? Have you thought about that? “Oh, yes. Lovely combination of molecules. The way you carry all the chemicals in the right places. You know, it just brings some biochemical reactions in my brain. When you look like that, electricity is going in my brain.” (laughing)
And so there are some who are trying explain all human emotions and experiences as just biochemical or electrical signals and so on within a machine. But we have some questions. Why are people writing poetry? Why poetry about the sunrise and the beautiful blue sky? It’s just gas and light. Why get all poetic about things?
When I was reading the biography of Charles Darwin, the evolutionist, exactly that point came up. Because he said, “These days, I cannot tolerate art anymore”. You know, he was British and he said, “Even Shakespeare is too much!” So, you know, because his point was that this is all nonsense. This whole idea of poetry and art, was all nonsense. Reality is only chemicals. That’s all. It’s a little dry. And even Darwin said, “But sometimes, sometimes I miss, I miss some, some sense of beautiful music.”
So yes, why are such sentiments there in living beings? Something doesn’t seem to be right in this theory of only chemicals or evolution. It doesn’t seem to have anything to do with our heart. And therefore it’s not satisfying. Not for long. The soul is by nature joyful. That is what is described in the Vedic scripture. The soul never dies. The soul is eternally engaged in pleasure activities in the spiritual world.
Well, if I look at my own psychology, then I must admit, that is exactly what I want. If I’m very honest, actually, I want to always enjoy. All the time. Yeah, where do you get that in this world? “I can’t get no satisfaction and I try and I try” (singing). This is a very famous song of the Rolling Stones. I’m not sure if they’re still in their 70’s or if they’re approaching 80 but one thing is for sure, the Rolling Stones never gave up. They took lots of drugs and when their blood was all toxic from all the drugs, they went on a dialysis machine to purify the blood so that they could do it again. “But I can’t get no satisfaction. And I try and I try. But I can’t get no satisfaction.”
So, this is the situation. So I find them to be interesting guinea pigs. You know guinea pigs? They are used in the laboratory for the experiments. The Stones are interesting guinea pigs. Because in the experiment of human beings trying to be satisfied more than anyone else, they were still not satisfied. And I had the same experience, not that I was as crazy as the Rolling Stones but I was also not satisfied. But then, then came the message, that if you walk the path of responsibility, then you can be liberated!
