Urban Monk: Exploring Karma, Consciousness, and the Divine

by Gadadhara Pandit Dasa

The Bhagavad Gita tells us that the material world is a temporary place in which nothing is permanent and that all we possess will eventually be taken away from us—every relationship, every possession, even our very bodies. Therefore, we shouldn’t become overly attached to anything; otherwise, that very attachment will lead to pain and suffering.

He named his company after my birth name, Pankaj, and called it, “Pankaj International.” In Sanskrit, Pankaj is another name for lotus flower.

The Bhagavad Gita was spoken five-thousand years ago to Arjuna who was sitting on a chariot, but the advice Krishna offers in response to the problems of humanity are timeless.

It’s possible that one needs to be in a certain frame of mind in order to grasp spiritual truths. Intellectually, we can comprehend spiritual knowledge, but without a crisis or real need for answers, the messages won’t sink in to a point where they will change our lives.

The Gita also emphasizes that everything in the material world is temporary. Everything we acquire through our hard work will eventually diminish in quality and value. Gain and loss, victory and defeat are the dichotomies of the world of matter. All matter—clothes, cars, houses, gadgets, and even our bodies—must decay and eventually disappear. Even our relationships can lose their charm after some years. Ultimately, death will separate us from everything we own and love.

There is a German proverb in that says, “The last coat you wear will have no pockets.” We come into this world naked, and that’s exactly how we will leave. Holding onto the temporary things of this world is like trying to hold water in one’s hands.

The other concept that resonated with me at the time was karma. I was vaguely familiar with the idea that what you do comes back to you, but I had never really pondered it in much depth. The Gita explained that almost everything that happens in our lives is a product of our actions, either from this life or from previous lives.

the vegetarian diet prescribed by the bhakti tradition of Hinduism, which meant avoiding all types of meats, fish, and eggs. Milk wasn’t banned because it doesn’t have the potential for life as eggs do.

One of the principle teachings of Hinduism is Ahimsa, or non-violence. It emphasizes the need to recognize life in all species and to respect that life as much as we would respect human life.

In the seventh chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna explains that there are four types of people who approach Him: those who are distressed, those seeking money, the inquisitive, and the wise. I was one of the distressed.

Difficulties teach us patience, tolerance, acceptance, and ultimately that we’re not in complete control of our lives.

Some of the greatest teachers within Hinduism demonstrated by example that our soul can experience the greatest spiritual growth during challenging times; they also demonstrated that we can actually thank God for the difficulty.

Suffering can be a state of mind. How much we suffer from a situation, in one sense, really depends on us, but no matter how much we try to avoid it, it’s going to make its way into our lives. Knowing this, we should live our lives so that we’re able to grow from it.

Putting on the robes to attend the morning service wasn’t an easy task. These aren’t simple robes you just throw on like a gown. It’s called a dhoti. There’s a whole elaborate system of pleating them and wrapping them around, pulling them between your legs, and tucking them in towards the back. The cloth is around eight to twelve feet in length and about four to five feet in height. It took me almost 15 minutes to put it on.

Then I had to place the sacred markings, or tilak. The tilak is formed from hardened clay-like substances obtained from the different holy places in India. They consist of two vertical lines going from in between the eyebrows to the top of the forehead. The bottom portion of these lines meet to form a “u” shape. These lines represent the footprint of God, indicating that we are placing God’s feet on our head. On the upper portion of the nose, there’s an arrow-like design pointing downward. This represents the leaf of the Tulsi plant, which is very dear to Krishna.

Shri Chaitanya, a fifteenth century saint of the Bhakti tradition, encouraged his followers to “become more humble than a blade of grass, more tolerant than a tree, to offer all respects to others, and to expect none in return.” His successors have elaborated on the meaning of this passage. A blade of grass is stepped on, but without complaining it continues to offer comfort to the individual. A tree stands tolerating the winter and summer seasons while continuing to offer all that it has to anyone and everyone. One pursuing spiritual truths is encouraged to become “more” tolerant than the tree.

The opposite of humility is pride. Pride makes us feel superior to others. It makes one think that they are in control of their life and the things around them. However, without developing a humble character, one can’t really know God. If we feel that we know everything or that we can figure everything out empirically, then the doors that reveal spiritual truths will remain closed to us.

Another senior monk, who shared the role of temple president, very humorously asked me if I knew what the term “ABCD” stood for. Being a bit confused by his question, I professed my ignorance. With a big smile on his face, he said “American Born Confused Desi.” “Desi” refers to one who is of Asian-Indian origin. I could only smile and see how easily he had realized that this was very much my situation. This is the term Indians in India use to describe their American counterparts.

The Bhagavad Gita describes the tendency of the mind as follows: For him who has conquered the mind, the mind is the best of friends; but for one who has failed to do so, his mind will remain the greatest enemy.

First of all, we have to acknowledge that we have a mind and that we are not the mind. Second, we need to be able to admit that we have very little control over the mind's activities. Thirdly, we need to know that we're never going to have complete control over the mind.

The mantra used was: Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare A lot of mantras are to one god or goddess, but this mantra was calling out to a couple, Radha and Krishna, also known as the divine couple. The word “Hare” calls out to the feminine potency and motherly nature of God known as Radha. Krishna, which means “all-attractive,” refers to the masculine energy of God. Rama is a description of God known as “the reservoir of all pleasure.” So, one who chants this mantra is connecting with God’s feminine and masculine aspects.

The goal is to audibly recite the mantra loud enough to be able to hear it. This allows the names of God to enter the mind and penetrate into the soul. This union of the mantra with the soul is called yoga. As the connection grows stronger, the envy, greed, pride, lust, and illusion that I’m this physical body starts to fade away, revealing our true spiritual identity as spiritual beings.

There’s a great description in the movie The Matrix, where Morpheus, while talking to Neo explains: “You were born into bondage…born into a prison that you cannot smell, taste, or touch—a prison for your mind.” So why is a prison needed for the mind? The answer can be found by analyzing the nature of our thoughts. Most of us have had thoughts that we would be ashamed to share with others. Perhaps we’ve even wondered how is it that we’re even capable of having such violent and criminal thoughts. Fortunately, our actions are limited due to the capacity of the body; otherwise, we would end up getting others and ourselves into a lot of trouble.

The body and the material world are like prisons for the soul and mind because we want so much more than what the material body can offer.

The act of having to keep the mind focused as it wanders is a wonderful type of exercise for the mind. The mind is free flowing all day long. Just like anything worth accomplishing in life, it takes discipline to try to focus the mind on the mantra. The mind is so clever that it runs off to another thought and can be gone for a while before we realize that it’s gone. The Bhagavad Gita explains: From wherever the mind wanders due to its flickering and unsteady nature, one must certainly withdraw it and bring it back under the control of the self.

The sixth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita gives good guidelines on the characteristics of a quality teacher: A person is considered still further advanced when he regards honest well-wishers, affectionate benefactors, the neutral, mediators, the envious, friends and enemies, the pious and the sinners all with an equal mind. As a lamp in a windless place does not waver, so the transcendentalist, whose mind is controlled, remains always steady in his meditation on the transcendent self.

His name was Radhanath Swami, and he had a story like no other I had ever heard. He was an American born Jew who grew up in the suburbs of Chicago.

The adventures he underwent, the teachers and guides he met and studied with, and the practices he engaged in are elaborately described in his autobiography The Journey Home. He now runs a temple called the Radha-Gopinath Temple, located near Chowpatty beach in Mumbai. It houses almost 200 monks and serves a congregation of over 5,000 members. He has inspired a food relief program, which serves 200,000 under-privileged kids in and around Mumbai on a daily basis.

Vrindavana, the birthplace of Krishna.

Custom says that when you’re in a holy place for the purpose of performing a pilgrimage, you walk barefoot.

Once the mind has a set and purposeful intention, it has a better chance at avoiding distraction.

The feminine aspect of the divine is called Radharani.

Radharani descended from the spiritual realm shortly after Krishna, approximately 5,000 years ago.

The word Radha comes from the Sanskrit verbal roots “radh,” which means to worship, and “rani,” which means queen, so Radharani can be literally translated to mean “the queen of worship.” In some texts, she is described as “the supreme goddess who can be worshipped by everyone. She is the protector of all, and she is the mother of the entire universe.”

God is not just male, and according to some Vedic scriptures, God has both masculine and feminine expansions. In the 10th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna alludes to his feminine traits, “Among women I am fame, fortune, fine speech, memory, intelligence, steadfastness and patience.”

However, in some of the more esoteric texts such as the Puranas and the Chaitanya-Caritamrita, it explains that the complete manifestation of God includes his feminine counterpart, Radha. Inconceivably, they are both one and separate, as Krishna expanded himself into two for the purpose of exchanging love. There is a beautiful description in the Chaitanya-Caritamrita, which gives us a window into the connection between Radha and Krishna: Sri Radha is the full power, and Lord Krishna is the possessor of full power. The two are not different, as evidenced by the revealed scriptures. They are indeed the same, just as musk and its scent are inseparable, or as fire and its heat are non-different. Thus Radha and Krishna are one, yet they have taken two forms to enjoy the mellows of pastimes.

The earthly love closest to spiritual love is that of a mother towards her child. It is full of sacrifice and is completely selfless; it is without expectation. The feeling of love is derived from the service itself.

By eradicating selfishness and incorporating selflessness, the path of bhakti, or devotional service, prepares one’s heart and consciousness to understand and experience that divine love which exists between Radha and Krishna.

Vrindavana is the land of 5,000 temples, mostly dedicated to Krishna, and is located in an area of about 150 square miles. It’s approximately 90 miles south of Delhi.

I remember folding my hands while looking up at the altar at 4:30 a.m. in the morning, trying to muster up whatever devotion I could from the bottom of my heart, and getting shoved. There is nothing like a good shove at 4:30 in the morning to knock the devotion right out of your system.

The month of Kartik takes place during the middle to the end of October and spills into November. The dates are calculated according to the lunar calendar, and therefore change each year, but it’s usually during October and November. The reason there is such a frenzy in Vrindavana is because the scriptures and teachers of the past explain that any spiritual activities performed during this month in Vrindavana are multiplied 1,000 times by Krishna.

The first inch represents a devotee’s endeavor to love God and the other inch represents God’s mercy towards the devotee. In order to develop pure, unmotivated love for God, one has to use one’s free will to endeavor to love God and if one does, God will surely reciprocate.

I learned that the Gita is divided up into three sections of six chapters each – Karma (work) yoga, Bhakti (devotion) yoga, and Jnana (knowledge) yoga. I was surprised to learn that none of these three types of yoga had anything to do with the physical postures. The word yoga is derived from the Sanskrit “yuj,” which means to yoke, unite, or join. In a spiritual context, the word yoga means to unite the soul with God; thus, the three types of yoga mentioned in the Gita are three ways through which one can reach a union with Krishna, the speaker of the Gita. Chapter six of the Gita explains: A person is said to be elevated in yoga when, having renounced all material desires, he neither acts for sense gratification nor engages in fruitive activities. For one whose mind is unbridled, self-realization is difficult work. But he whose mind is controlled and who strives by appropriate means is assured of success. That is My opinion. The ancient histories are full of narratives in which individuals of all walks of life engage in physical yoga practice combined with breathing techniques to eventually pacify the mind so that it could meditate on God.

The word “bhakti” means devotion to God. Some teachers have expanded the meaning of “bhakti” to mean devotional service to God, believing that devotion to God is complete when complemented by service to God.

One Hindu scripture called the Srimad Bhagavatam suggests that nothing other than bhakti should be the goal of our lives. It’s further explained that we’ve been wandering through the various species of life, being born, growing old, and dying, millions and millions of times, and have finally attained a human form which affords us the capacity to inquire about the important questions of life: Who are we? What is God? What is our ultimate purpose? The human life is considered to be a gift because it allows us to not only ask the questions, but also engage in spiritual practices that can liberate the soul from the physical body and the material world.

Bhakti exists in all traditions of the world, and is not exclusive to Hinduism. Any tradition that teaches its practitioners to engage in loving service to the divine is teaching bhakti.

Vrindavana is known for its wild monkeys. The monkeys can be seen on the raised walls or swinging from tree to tree—they act as if they own the town.

one day I was standing in the middle of a narrow street lined with small houses, when a monkey jumped down in front of me, took my eyeglasses right off my face, and jumped up onto a balcony on the other side of the street. I could feel his fingers graze my face, but he didn’t scratch me. It happened so quickly that I was caught off guard, and it’s usually not a good idea to resist because they can get vicious very quickly. He sat on the balcony holding my glasses while looking down at me. I’m pretty blind without my glasses, so I was panicking and worrying that I would need to get a new pair. Fortunately, I was with a monk who had spent a lot of time in India, especially Vrindavana, and had become acquainted with the bargaining techniques of the monkeys. He quickly got a banana and threw it up to the monkey. The monkey happily grabbed the banana, dropped my glasses on the balcony, and took off. We knocked on the door of the house and the homeowner returned my glasses to me.

I was relishing this simple life. My mind felt so peaceful and quiet. I didn’t have a million thoughts running through it. Now, I could understand how our fast-paced Western lives, full of gadgets and activities, drive us to work ourselves into a frenzy. Our surroundings can disturb our minds.

I was horrified the first time I blew my nose after a day around Mumbai and saw black grit in the tissue. Some of the local monks said that walking around Mumbai for a day is like smoking a half a pack of cigarettes.