Glastonbury 2009

Ooh boy here we go again. Glastonbury is the king of festivals. 180,000 - 200,000 people every year. Having been for the past 11 years (bar 1) I can safely say with hand on my heart that I really do not see the attraction?? Right from the start as people lug their things for the week to the campsite, through the weekend, up until when they drag their possessions back up the hill (lucky if it's not a mud bath) to the car park, people look more like they are suffering than having a good time. However for me it really is nectar. As much as I don't look forward to this festival (my mind screams) when I am there the opportunities that arise for talking about self realization and the search for God (Krishna) seem unlimited. I meet some very nice people who are genuinely interested in a spiritual path and who I often see weeks after the festival to discus the books that I gave them and their experiences of the festival. Also each year I meet people who remember me from previous years and it now has become an annual reunion for us, I will miss them if they are not there this year.

Whether its sunny or caked in mud the books will fly out and I look forward to meeting up with old friends and making some new ones.

You can follow my exploits on twitter......

Maya's Promise

Most music festivals are an intense representation of what material life has to offer in terms of extreme sense gratification. Everything is heightened people really let loose.

The question, is this really all material energy has to offer me comes to the front of my mind whist selling books at the Download rock festival at Castle Donington.

IS THIS IT?????

There really didn't seem to be an awful lot there to be attracted to.

Sure there is intoxication, fraternal and conjugal experiences to be had as well as music to keep the senses occupied, but nothing to compare with the experience of chanting for a weekend with 100's of devotee's. I was reminded of the proverb of  how a dog who is being beaten thinks it is experiencing pleasure when the beating stops. In fact as the festival wore on even the people that had put all their faith into download where starting to look less and less like they were enjoying themselves and more and more like they were coming to the conclusion that they were in fact suffering.  I began to feel great compassion for these people.

They had  faith in the material energy, saved money for months and worked hard to have their enjoyment at this weekend of metal mayhem, only to have been let down. Dreams and hopes for the festival fading from peoples minds, anxiety and sadness replacing the early glint in the rockers eyes. What hope was there for them????? I concluded, Krishna is their only hope.

As I approached person after person with books on spiritual realization the relief  in some eyes became visible, they also realized that there is another option available to them to escape their material suffering, something that can give inner pleasure without the harsh punishment of Maya (the illusory material energy). They have the chance for experiencing a higher pleasure not limited by weather, money or time but a happiness that is unlimitedly deep in it's profound experiences.

So next time we are quick to believe Maya's promises remember the poor people of download rock festival and how they were being beaten like dogs in the search of some small amount of limited sensory pleasure.

Geeking Out

aaaahhhh never thought it would happen but after a very positive article in Time magazine I have succumbed to Twitter ( look to the bar for the link).

You can now follow my daily tweets if you want to. As I am off to distribute Krishna Conscious books at Download Rock festival this weekend I thought it may be an interesting start. After all a monk at a festival.......look out for the monk rocker (yeah bad joke I know). I will however still be maintaining this blog and posting twice a week as normal.

To Much Sunshine Part 2

So What is the alternative?? material life lets us down, our senses let us down, what hope do we have of being happy?????
Well the unfortunate thing is (as I'm finding out more and more) that there is no answer while we continue to look to the material for our enjoyment, peace of mind and sense of general well being. The material world just can't supply it no matter how hard we may want it to. If we look at the nature of the material world we can see that everything around us is of a temporary nature. Both the gross and the subtle don't last. It really is staring us in the face, it's that obvious. If we can see this then the real question we have to ask ourselves is do we really want to be free from this material condition of life.
Do we really want to step out of the matrix or are we actually just having a moan because things are not going our way at the moment and when our luck changes will we be more than happy to stay plugged in?

CAN WE LET GO???

The thing is spiritual life, like anything worth while, is not easy. It requires almost constant effort and dedication so we have to be convinced. In the ancient Vedic scripture, Bhagavad Gita, Krishna tells Arjuna there are four types of people that turn to a spiritual path. Those in distress, those who are in search of material satisfaction, The inquisitive and those in knowledge. Of these 4 krishna says the one who is in knowledge is the best platform from which to start on a quest for enlightenment. In other words if we are convinced that the material world can't bring us real pleasure and that conviction is based on knowledge rather than suffering, desires and a slight curiosity, then we stand the best chance of becoming free from the bondage of materialistic existence.........
What then I hear you ask?????

Surrender

Before I was a Hare krishna monk I had a few jobs. being a typical student I would work during the summer in factories, long hours, good money but absolutely brain numbing. The motivation was always the money and the fun I would have with it. Whenever things would be hard I would just think of the money, always the money.

Questions are coming into your head.......Where am I going with this, this doesn't follow on from the last one!!! ( no it doesn't but I am seeing the nature of blogging to be one that you have to write about what's on your mind rather than be to contrived.)

I always thought I was pretty surrendered, what ever was asked of me I would do. I have been to some very materially intense places selling Krishna Conscious books and worked very long hours getting projects together. (Be it painting walls in a yoga centre to staking pegs in muddy ground with a storm going off around me for 5 hours) etc etc. Boy was I wrong about being surrendered

Yesterday I had to work in a factory making cheesecakes. I really didn't want to, but I had to and today I have to go back. It's not something I am looking forward to and I realize, thats what surrender is, doing something not because you want to but because it will please some one else. Thats what you do when you want to show your love for someone isn't it?

Now the motivation isn't money it's that somehow it is pleasing to Krishna. And that is pretty much the secret to spiritual consciousness. It's not what you do but the consciousness behind it. Doing something to please Krishna.

So off I will go again this evening with the mood that making these cheesecakes, which will then be offered to krishna (making them karma free, spiritually energized  food known as Prasadam ), to sell all around Europe is pleasing to Krishna. My mind will scream, my body ache and I will carry on, not for money or material benefit but in the hope that my surrender makes God happy, and show Him that even though I rarely show it, I am trying to love Him again.

That, after all is the goal of life.

To Much Sunshine ????????

It's kinda funny that I still like football. I supported Man Utd since I was 4, struggled through the Ron Atkinson years then became a monk just when things were getting good. Sure I still keep track of what's happening but a worrying thing is happening, after the loss to Barca in the champions league final I wasn't upset. In fact I was pretty non plussed. Some one said there's always next year. Thats the point you win (or lose) then just go and do it again. I remember reading about the amount of athletes after winning gold at the Olympics who felt a huge sense of anti climax, like was all that effort worth it, that's it over. Now do it again.
That's material energies trick, convincing us that we can be satisfied in the material world when whatever pleasure we do get is sooo temporary. Yet we strive for the non permanent, put all of our energy into fleeting pleasures that we are never satisfied with, always wanting more but repeatedly being let down by the trust we put in our material senses to bring us happiness. Time to try some thing different for once................
To be continued
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