What's going wrong is that we approach God to fulfill our desires instead of His desires

There are many billions of people throughout the world who consider themselves religious. Generally each of them adheres to a particular religious tradition, which is in many ways similar and also in many ways different from other religious traditions. Often, they consider that their tradition is the only valid tradition, and that others who are not participants in their tradition are lost souls condemned to be denied access to the kingdom of God. In this way, they fail to see the true universal nature of religion. Unfortunately this exclusivist mentality leads to increasing chaos and conflict in a world that is already too much overburdened by chaos and conflict. Religion is supposed to be God's gift to man so that he can have a heaven on earth and qualify to return to God's kingdom upon leaving his current body. So what is going wrong? And what can be done to change it?

What's going wrong is that we approach God to fulfill our desires instead of His desires. In other words we approach Him with our contaminated consciousness of subtly considering ourselves to be the Supreme. We place ourselves over Him by asking Him to serve us instead of us serving Him. This is selfishness, not selflessness. And this is what is going wrong in the hearts of practically everyone who approaches God. To change this we must teach that selfless service to Supreme Person is the only way that one can experience genuine complete happiness. If the hand wants to get nourishment, it must give the food to the belly. God is like the belly and we are like the hand. So we must give everything to God. In this way, we will be the best servants of God and all living beings including ourselves.

So, the universal religion is pure selfless service to the Supreme Person, the source of all existence. The language of the universal religion takes different shapes according to the different traditions. But when one goes deep enough into any one tradition, he will arrive at exactly the same conclusion as anyone else who follows his own religious tradition deeply enough. Therefore instead of getting side tracked by the differences of the religious traditions, we should immediately try to capture the pure essence of religion, the universal religion of pure, unadulterated, selfless, loving service for the Supreme Person.

The difficulty is that we currently have a drastic shortage of enlightened teachers on this planet who are fully tuned into the original, pure essence of religion, the universal religion of pure selfless devotion to God. An enlightened teacher is someone who has gone deep enough into his own tradition to find the one universal root of all traditions. He is a teacher who has fully realized the one universal or absolute truth underlying all relative truths. If planet earth had a sufficient abundance of such enlightened teachers in each tradition, there could be instituted a global educational system which would easily bring to this tattered global society a truly profound golden era of peace, prosperity, and happiness for all.

This is the day that we are praying and crying for, Lord. May it come soon! May it come soon! May it come soon!


Explained By Sankarshan Das Adhikari

Every position in this material world is last class

Every position in this material world is last class. Everyone here is struggling hard to be in the best possible position, but they do not realize that even the topmost positions in this material world are last class because at the time of death everyone has to die, just like a dog has to die. So why struggle so hard to achieve a false first class position? It is better to get upgraded from last class to the real and perpetual first class position of pure devotional service. There is no position like pure devotional service because in this position of pure bhakti, Krishna or God--the supreme owner, controller, and enjoyer of everything--becomes your personal property. No one has better facility for living life to its fullest than Krishna's pure devotee. Even Krishna Himself becomes His own devotee in order the taste the first class pleasure.

As Explainrd by Sankarshan Das Adhikari

We must inquire what is the Absolute Truth.

When we travel by airplane, we sit with some other passengers for an hour or two and then after landing we separate from each other, never to meet again. Therefore we do not take our temporary relationships with the other passengers very seriously, and we do not feel there is anything wrong with completely forgetting about them. We accept this as a normal part of everyday existence. But yet even though our relationship with friends and family is also temporary just like our "airplane relationships", we take these relationships as something eternal. Why is this? This is due to the influence of maya, the illusory energy.

This is the underlying mistake that it makes it impossible for us to taste genuine permanent happiness. We build these castles made of sand failing to see that very soon they will be washed into the sea. We cannot experience genuine happiness by basing it on something that is temporary, because our actual nature is that we are eternal.

If we want actual happiness we must inquire into that which is permanent. We must inquire what is the Absolute Truth. But we live in such a society where practically no one is interested in such things. This was observed by Sripad Shankaracharya as follows:

balasya tavad krida-saktah
tarunas tavad taruni-raktah
vrddhas tavad cinta-magnah
parame brahmani ko 'pi na lagnah

"Children are playing. Young boys are after young girls. And the old men are always in anxiety about what it is be done. Nobody is interested in the Absolute Truth."

There is no reason for us to be the herd mentality of foolishly going along with the mass psychosis. It is wise and expedient us for us to see beyond the everyday life of so-called happiness to the real happiness of the spirit-soul in a loving relationship with the Supreme Spirit, Lord Sri Krishna.

We should realize that our relationships in this world are nothing more than "airplane relationships" and should focus our energies on developing a permanent relationship with the Supreme Person.

Taught by His Grace Sriman Sankarshan Das Adhikari