Did you ever have a realization that truly freaked you out? Like you hear it all the time, over and over again and intellectually you accept it, but then one day it just hits you like a ten-pound bag of potatoes to the face.
That happened to me the other day. We all know the “frog in the well” example. Srila Prabhupada uses it as an example many times. In case you need a refresher, here is a quotation from Science of Self Realization:
Then they are suffering from what we call “Doctor Frog’s philosophy.” There was once a frog who had lived all his life in a well. One day a friend visited him and informed him of the existence of the Atlantic Ocean.
“Oh, what is this Atlantic Ocean?” asked the frog in the well.
“It is a vast body of water,” his friend replied.
“How vast? ls it double the size of this well?”
“Oh, no, much larger,” his friend replied.
“How much larger? Ten times the size?”
In this way the frog went on calculating. But what was the possibility of his ever understanding the depths and far reaches of the great ocean? Our faculties, experience, and powers of speculation are always limited. The frog was always thinking in terms relative to his well. He had no power to think otherwise. Similarly, the scientists are estimating the Absolute Truth, the cause of all causes, with their imperfect senses and minds, and thus they are bound to be bewildered. The essential fault of the so-called scientists is that they have adopted the inductive process to arrive at their conclusions.
Pretty understandable, right? Modern science cannot evaluate what is beyond their limited material senses.
But then I started to think, we are all sitting in this well and evaluating our lives, the importance of our stuff with our limitted senses not realizing that there is a huge ocean out there. But we keep doing the same stuff over and over because we dont really get that there is something more than this. Someone comes along and says, “hey there is a whole spiritual world, in fact, of the entire creation, the material world is tiny and ridiculous.” and even though we keep hearing this, we keep trudging along in our weary routine lives, not really letting it sink in. Because if we did, what would we do? Everything we’ve ever known, everything we’ve ever strived for, would lose meaning. And that would really suck.
Well things matter to an extent. But not as much as we think. Like everything we’re doing is so temporary and replaceable. We try to fix it but the nature of material existence is that everything is temporary so nothing really lasts forever. You fix it, then it breaks.
So what can be done? We need to refocus our mentality. If everyone could refocus their understanding of the creation, that there is a vast ocean, more free and wonderful than you can possibly imagine, then everything we once considered mundane would suddenly have meaning.
Maybe Im wrong, I dont know. I kinda blew my own mind and Im confused and I want to talk to my Guru Maharaj. I feel like, everything I’ve ever done didnt really mean anything to me. I’ve always felt that way. But things happen and I just snapped right out of my zombie stupor and said “what am I doing with my life?!”
