Transfiguration: Matter Into Spirit V2

(written Jan 25, 2019)

“The absolute truth, covered by maya is called matter”. As living entities in this material nature, it is a need for us to do material activities in order to stay alive. However, these material activities performed for sense gratification, keep one stuck in the material nature, birth after birth. Thus the so called material enjoyment is a very bad bargain. In the Srimad Bhagavatam, it is explained how the material nature itself can be used to free oneself from the repeated cycle of birth and death. “For example, milk preparations sometimes cause disorder of the bowels, but the very same milk converted into curd and mixed with some other remedial ingredients cures such disorders. Similarly, the threefold miseries of material existence cannot be mitigated simply by material activities.” The best way to make the best use of a bad bargain is to use everything in relation with the Supreme spiritual being. That is the way to treat our material diseases and elevate ourselves to the spiritual plane where there is no misery, no lamentation and no fear.

How do we perform our activities in consciousness of the Supreme Personality? By performing the said activity without any attachment to the results, and offering the results to the Lord. This is called akarma. When you perform material activities for the sole purpose of gratifying the senses, then the reactions of the activity will come back. Even doing good actions without any relation to Krishna can keep you back in the material nature, since you would have to come back in the next life in order to reap the benefits of doing those actions.

The secret to spiritual success is to employ so-called matter in the service of the spirit. The material nature of a thing once put in the service of the Lord is changed into spirit. We can learn how to do this by taking the shelter of a bonafide spiritual master. They are perfect example of people who don’t reject material things, nor lord over it. Instead, they use it in the service of Krishna. One who has realized that Krishna is the Supreme Proprietor, and uses everything in the service of Krishna sees no sinful or binding reactions. By doing this one not only eradicates the ill effects caused by the material nature, but one attains the biggest blessing of life which is no desire for sense gratification and attaining the love for Krsna.