Beauty

Vital

Innocence

The Beauty of Commitment

by Pragosa dasa

Recently my wandering mind has been toying with the idea of life without commitments, life free from the gravity of responsibility towards others. On one level (the level my mind was focusing on) it is quite an appealing idea. After all, commitment and responsibility can have the tendency to increase stress and anxiety in ones life, and the more commitments one makes, the more stressful ones life can often be. Sometimes the burden of these commitments can seem to be weighing us down to the degree that we feel we can't take any more, we need a change. Understanding this, I had some sympathy with my mind as to the motive for the fanciful idea of seeking liberation from the shackles of commitment. However, given the reality of my life as it is at the present time, I concluded that this would in fact be a huge wrench for me, if I were to follow through the wish of my mind, so further reflection on this issue seemed at the very least a common sense thing to do.

The first question I asked myself was: Okay, let's assume I free myself from all commitments that I have, what then would life, my life, be like? Could I guarantee myself that it would be an improvement? Who knows perhaps it would be even worse, perhaps life might not be worth living! These were possibilities that I couldn't dismiss without further investigation. One example of life without commitments is when we're born. At that point in time we appear to have no responsibilities, no commitments, but on the other hand we're totally dependent on our parents. We have no independence, no say in what goes on around us, no input into the issues that effect our lives. So if I were to again revert to a commitment free existence, would I become as helpless as a baby? The first commitment that I can remember taking on in my life was, ironically enough, a source of great achievement and pride, proving to my parents that I could do something on my own. The case in point was when I joined a local football team. If you didn't show the commitment to turn up for training two nights a week then you didn't play for the team at the weekend. (The team manager felt that the commitment to training was so important that if his best players didn't turn up for training he would play his lesser players who did turn up in the weekend matches and leave out the stars. I can remember this very well as that's the only way I got to play on the team!)

So the concept of committing oneself, even from a very young age, was seen as a very important thing, something that was fundamental to our development as we grew and found our place in the world. And so from boyhood to youth. As a teenager probably my only serious commitment was to be a rebel, an agitator, but because that commitment was essentially a negative one my life became very disorientated, and I drifted for a number of years, indulging in all sorts of selfish sense-gratifying exploits in an attempt to be happy. Of course as all devotees know only too well, this selfish, self-centred approach brings only more misery and suffering (which I eventually came to realise).

The next meaningful commitment I accepted in my life was the most important one that I will ever take on. My commitment to Srila Prabhupada and my spiritual master Satsvarupa Maharaja to chant 16 rounds of the Hare Krsna mantra daily, and to follow the four regulative principles. Although the senses are strong, one realization that I almost immediately had was that this selfless approach of trying to serve other devotees was far more rewarding in the happiness stakes compared to serving ones own senses. After four or five years living in the temple and 'doing the needful', my focus on the simple austere life started to falter and it wasn't too long before I was faced with my next big commitment - marriage. If my vows to my spiritual master are the most important commitment that I will ever take on, then my commitment to marriage surely comes in second.

As Srila Prabhupada says "Even when the sex is licit, (marriage) then you still have to take care of your wife, and you also have to take care of your children, and be always in anxiety about their food and clothing, their education, their upliftment, and so on and so forth." [Morning walk, Johannesburg, South Africa, October 18th 1975]

So all these commitments are there, but of course I also have my commitments to ISKCON, Srila Prabhupada's preaching movement. And of course these commitments are so easy to increase, as there is always more that I can do to help the preaching. But it is also important that we don't take on too many commitments, firstly because to take something on and not fulfil it is very dissatisfying to all concerned, particularly oneself. And secondly we are only human and if we do take on too much it will become stressful, perhaps ultimately leading to health problems etc. So it would seem that certainly if we are feeling bogged down or even claustrophobic by the responsibility of commitments to others, then yes, there is no harm in 'pacing' ourselves better, or in 'restructuring' our commitments, making our life more manageable. On the other hand because we all need meaningful relationships (indeed without meaningful spiritual relationships our lives are essentially a waste of time) we cannot abandon our commitments to others however appealing it may seem from time to time. This principle of not abandoning our commitments or duties or dharma is very much endorsed by vedic society. Indeed vedic society would not have functioned or even existed without people adhering to their dharma. And as in vedic society we also perform our duties as a means to making advancement on the spiritual path, without these duties or commitments to Krsna and his devotees our lives would be rudderless.

"Perform your prescribed duty, for doing so is better than not working. One cannot even maintain one's physical body without work." [Bhagavad-Gita 3.8]

These very commitments are central to us making progress in spiritual life, because they are the means by which we can develop loving relationships with the devotees, they are both the foundation, the building blocks and the cement of our relationships. So without commitment there will be no relationships and by default one would become an impersonalist. So from thinking about some temporary relief that I might receive from ditching my commitments, I'm seeing that actually I should not only be respectful toward my commitments but see them as a wonderful thing because without them I would have no devotee friends, and no devotional relationship with Krsna. As Prabhupada once said "Where is the question of love if you don't do what I tell you". So as a sadhana bhakta my love for Krsna will be shown through my commitment to his movement and his devotees and gradually through these commitments I will be able to develop that love for Krsna and His devotees. It is only when I have tasted this lovethat I will experience the happiness that I'm foolishly thinking I might get by forsaking the very thing that will bring me to this goal - commitment.

So in conclusion all I can say is all glories to commitments, commitments ki jai!

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare