The unchangeable truth

“That is truth. In that truth, there is real happiness. And there is nothing that could disturb that happiness.” – Radhanath Swami

My dear friends and brothers invited me to come here (Agra), and they told me there will be hundreds of people. And they worked so hard and they said, “It’s a very nice ride; you just come from the Delhi airport, and there is a beautiful highway that will take you right to Agra.”

So I was thinking, “Whatever…!”

“I never believe anybody when they talk about how nice it is going to be on the material platform. The only thing I believe is, if I don’t take shelter of Krishna in any situation, there is no purpose. So they gave me a really nice purpose.” – Radhanath Swami

Because we saw a sign – we drove for about an hour – we saw a sign ‘Agra – 141 kilometers.’ And the driver – because you know, I am from Mumbai, I don’t know the roads here; actually, I don’t even know the roads in Mumbai – but we were driving and he takes a turn. I said, “Are we in Agra? Why are you turning off the highway?” He didn’t say anything. He said, “No, no. We must go this way.” We went that way and we kept going on that way.

And soon we were in these totally dark fields, where nothing around but agricultural fields. The road there, about every half meter there was a hole about this big (makes a gesture). Is that kind of accurate? So I asked the driver, “Where is this nice highway?” He said, “Detour. We will catch the highway in two kilometres.”

Two hours! And every time he saw someone, he was asking, “Where is Agra highway?” In Hindi, “Where is Agra highway?” We were completely lost, totally lost. We didn’t know where we were; we didn’t know where to go. He kept asking and asking and asking. We get directions, and then we get different directions and different directions. It’s dark and it’s late, and finally after two hours, we get off this road. I wouldn’t call it a road. I would call it some sort of path of purification. And finally, we came to another road which was also… but not so much.

And where is Agra highway? “That way” So we go this way. We asked another one. “That way” So then we asked somebody else. He said, “That way”

So we go this way, this way, this way, this way, this way and we see the highway, but we can’t get on. How to get on? This is material world. It’s right in front of us but we can’t get on it. Very, very symbolic.

“It’s like truth and knowledge. It is right there in our hearts. But we don’t know how to get on it.” – Radhanath Swami

It’s right there. The highway was literally just a few meters from us and with a smooth nice eight lane. And we are just adjacent to it, and we are that far. We couldn’t get on it. So we asked some other directions and they said, “Where you came from, you have to go back ten kilometres. You are on the wrong way.” So we did that and finally we got on the highway. And then we came here.

So why am I telling this story? I guess because I have to get it out of me! But there is a philosophical reason too. There wasn’t even any fog out last night. And we were totally lost. So the ‘fog’ means the fog of not knowing who we are, where we are really supposed to go, and how to get there.

That, the Gita explains is knowledge. Tat param: “I am that eternal soul that is seeing through these eyes and hearing through these ears. I am sat-chid-ananda – I am eternal, full of knowledge, full of bliss. I am beyond birth, beyond death, beyond the vulnerable situations of this body and world. And I am part of Krishna. And there is love of Krishna within my heart. And this whole world is Krishna’s energy and this whole world can be a way that we express our love for Krishna.” That is truth. In that truth, there is real happiness.

“And there is nothing that could disturb that happiness. Rather, even the difficulties that come are an inspiration to turn inward and take shelter of that truth. And the nice times that happen in this world are opportunities to express what we have found there through our actions, through our words, through our thoughts.” – Radhanath Swami

That is tat param. That is truth. And nothing can change that truth.