We all want to do something special, and thereby get some special happiness.
To get this happiness, we need to re-educate ourselves about what is actually extraordinary. Our culture aggressively glamorizes sensual pleasures, especially sex. This makes us believe that doing extraordinary things means to indulge in sensual pleasures in non-conventional ways such as in public view.
However, all sensual pleasures pander to the basic bodily drives for eating, sleeping, defending and especially mating. All living beings pander to these drives, so our indulging in them is utterly ordinary, nothing extraordinary.
Then what is actually extraordinary?
Spiritual love.
Among all species, we humans alone have the capacity to transcend bodily drives and seek non-physical fulfillment. Gita wisdom explains that the best such fulfillment comes through spiritual love. We are all immortal souls and can relish everlasting happiness by loving the supreme eternal being, Krishna. Grabbing the privileged opportunity offered by the human body to love Krishna is truly extraordinary.
The set of activities that kindle this love comprise the essence of religion. Unfortunately, many people treat religion as a pious tool for fulfilling bodily drives. Thus, they do the extraordinary for the ordinary.
No doubt, an aspect of religion – the tripartite program of dharma, artha and kama – guides us to do even the ordinary in a spiritually progressive way. But to reduce religion to a tool for bodily gratification is regressive; it makes us mistake religion to be impotent or irrelevant: impotent if we don’t get bodily pleasure through it; irrelevant if we get bodily pleasure without it. Worse still, this misunderstanding about the purpose of religion deprives us of its supreme gift: eternal happiness.
Those who do the extraordinary for the extraordinary are truly extraordinary, as the Bhagavad-gita (07.03) indicates. They alone relish life’s most extraordinary happiness.
Bhagavad Gita Chapter 07 Text 03
"Out of many thousands among men, one may endeavor for perfection, and of those who have achieved perfection, hardly one knows Me in truth."
Thank you pr for sharing this nice article…,
You have nicely explained the real purpose of religion.
No doubt , The article is very inspiring and based on truth.
But I don’t find any connection between the article and the Gita verse 7.03.
Can someone help me ???
The verse states very few people know Krishna. The article explains why: because they are too caught in gratifying bodily drives to seek transcendence (kashcid yatati siddhaye) or engaged with transcendence for non-transcendental purpose (kaschin mam vetti tattvatah).
ys
ccdas
PRABHUJI, YOU ARE TRULY EXTRAORDINARY FOR THE ARTICLES
PUTTING US IN THE PURIFICATION PROCESS AND ENHANCING OUR
DETERMINATION AND CONFIDENCE TO LIVE TO LEARN LOVING KRISHNA
Hare Krishna Prabhuji,
Please accept my humble obeisances
All glories to shrila Prabhupada.
I have been following your lectures for a while now and they are very much deep in vedic knowledge, clearly explain and easy to understand.
I would like to have your email address to communicate with you on regular basis since I am convince that to have pure devotee like you as SIKSHA GURU will help me to progress my spiritual life.
Hare Krishna !
Your humble servant,
Kiran
Thank you for your kind words.
You are welcome to ask questions either on this site or on thespiritualscientist.com and i will try to serve you in whatever way i can.
ys
ccdas
thank you pr ji for explaining the term ‘ extraordinary ” in relation to the spriritual platform.
thank you pr ji c c das for explaining the importance of human life and how to use this human form of life in the right way.
Thank you prabhuji, it explains what is extraordinary in relationship to trnsscental happiness.