Cataclysmic

Expressions researched:
"cataclysm" |"cataclysmic" |"cataclysms"

BG Chapters 1 - 6

BG 2.8, Purport:

The problems of material existence—birth, old age, disease and death—cannot be counteracted by accumulation of wealth and economic development. In many parts of the world there are states which are replete with all facilities of life, which are full of wealth and economically developed, yet the problems of material existence are still present. They are seeking peace in different ways, but they can achieve real happiness only if they consult Kṛṣṇa, or the Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam—which constitute the science of Kṛṣṇa—through the bona fide representative of Kṛṣṇa, the man in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

If economic development and material comforts could drive away one's lamentations for family, social, national or international inebrieties, then Arjuna would not have said that even an unrivaled kingdom on earth or supremacy like that of the demigods in the heavenly planets would be unable to drive away his lamentations. He sought, therefore, refuge in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and that is the right path for peace and harmony. Economic development or supremacy over the world can be finished at any moment by the cataclysms of material nature. Even elevation into a higher planetary situation, as men are now seeking on the moon planet, can also be finished at one stroke. The Bhagavad-gītā confirms this: kṣīṇe puṇye martya-lokaṁ viśanti. "When the results of pious activities are finished, one falls down again from the peak of happiness to the lowest status of life." Many politicians of the world have fallen down in that way. Such downfalls only constitute more causes for lamentation.

Therefore, if we want to curb lamentation for good, then we have to take shelter of Kṛṣṇa, as Arjuna is seeking to do. So Arjuna asked Kṛṣṇa to solve his problem definitely, and that is the way of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Renunciation Through Wisdom

Renunciation Through Wisdom 5.1:

Lord Govinda is the Supreme Personality, unsurpassable, the topmost being, the unlimited Godhead. He is known as Kṛṣṇa because He attracts everyone by His extraordinary transcendental pastimes. It is therefore unanimously accepted that all His other names and expansions are partial. As the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam declares, ete cāṁśa-kalāḥ puṁsaḥ kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam: (SB 1.3.28) "All these incarnations of Godhead are either plenary portions or portions of the plenary portions of the Lord, but Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the original Personality of Godhead."

Thus Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the original, beginningless, and supreme Personality of Godhead, and this material universe is simply part of His unlimited energy. We may now reject this material world as illusory, but one day, with Kṛṣṇa conscious vision, we will see its intimate connection with the Lord. In this stage of spiritual vision we will see material things as objects of neither exploitation nor rejection. Such transcendental vision is attained by the process of buddhi-yoga, or bhakti-yoga. We will then clearly see the truth of the following verse from the Brahma-saṁhitā (5.51):

agnir mahī gaganam ambu marud diśaś ca

kālas tathātma-manasīti jagat-trayāṇi

yasmād bhavanti vibhavanti viśanti yaṁ ca

govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi

The three worlds are composed of the nine elements, viz., fire, earth, ether, water, air, direction, time, soul, and mind. I adore the primeval Lord Govinda from whom they originate, in whom they exist and into whom they enter at the time of the universal cataclysm.

Once one is fixed in transcendental realization, all distress, lamentation, illusion, fear, and so on, are immediately eradicated. The soul is assailed by these miseries as long as he harbors the delusion that something exists outside of Kṛṣṇa. Therefore when one is situated in transcendence, one feels happiness even in this world. The mundane conception of life is a product of the three modes of material nature, which affect the mind and senses. But when one's vision is transformed through buddhi-yoga, one sees everything as having a direct link with Kṛṣṇa. The material elements, such as fire, water, ether, and mind, along with the directions, the soul, and time—everything material and spiritual, personal and impersonal—all reflect Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Being. When one reaches this state of realization, the dualities and illusion of sin and piety, happiness and distress, are dissolved by the ecstatic harmony of transcendence. In one Upaniṣad there is a statement that once a person experiences the happiness derived from Brahman realization, he no longer has anything to fear.

1968 Correspondence

Letter to Rayarama -- Los Angeles 19 November, 1968:

Regarding your prediction of cataclysmic earthquakes in this side of your country, your fear of my life is certainly natural. I was pet child of my father whom I lost in 1930, and since then nobody was taking care of me as affectionate son. But Krishna has sent me so many fathers to take care of me in a far distant place in USA. So I am fortunate enough that you are all so anxious, but we must always depend on Krishna. Rest assured that this nonsense idea of cataclysmic earthquakes will never take place. And even if it takes place, why should we be afraid of it? As soon as there is sign of such earthquake, we shall sit down together and chant Hare Krishna. So it will be a great opportunity of meeting death while chanting Hare Krishna. If one dies on sound condition of body and mind chanting Hare Krishna, he is the most fortunate man. There is a proverb in which it is said, "My dear royal prince, please do not die. My dear Brahmacari, you die immediately. My dear saintly person, you die or live it is all the same. My dear butcher, you do not die and do not live." So we are neither butcher nor royal prince, some of us are Brahmacaris, and some of us are supposed to be saintly persons, so if the Brahmacaris die, he immediately goes to Vaikuntha, and if the saintly person dies, he is all the same—he is engaged here in Krishna's work, and he will be engaged in Krishna's work there also. So don't bother about this earthquake business. Chant Hare Krishna peacefully and do your duty nicely. Of course, if there is such danger, I must take care like others. It is not good however unnecessarily risk my life, but I think the predictions given by so many astrologers are not very sound. I take your advice that as soon as there are series of minor tremors I must leave for your shelter.