The Colossal Fool


(Gist of my introductory talk on May 1 program for those who couldn’t make it)
In Shreemad Bhagwat (a text equal in importance to the Gita) Uddhav, a close friend and devotee of Lord Krishna, once asked Him, “Bhagwan, who is the greatest fool in the universe?” the Lord replied, “One who considers himself to be just his body, senses, mind, thoughts is a colossal fool.” By this definition, we all (atleast me first) are PhDs in foolishness. Nowhere in any school, college, university, Stanford, Harvard, CA Institute, IIMs, etc. is the education given about “Who I Am.” This self – knowledge is given only and only in a spiritual discourse. Imagine we spend our whole life not knowing who we really are. We cannot be what we can see, feel, think. Since, we can know our thoughts (what we are thinking), we cannot be those thoughts/mind. My yoga teacher Ms. Sanjana beautifully says, “We are the space of awareness like the sky in which thoughts (like clouds) arise.”
And imagine the highest paradox or irony. We call them mad or foolish who go for Satsangh to know who they really are. When we call them mad, aren’t we directly contradicting what the Lord has said above about who is mad in His opinion? And yet, we go to Temples, do Pooja of the same Lord Krishna, celebrate His birthday, an consider ourselves to be His devotees. The blessed few who want to know that they are not the body/mind complex and therefore go to Satsangh are called Mad and stupid by us who are totally identified with our body and are therefore Mad by Krishna’s definition. What can be more strange? We have all the time in the world to do everything (study, job, marry, travel, children, wealth, factories, marry our children to get them “unsettled” (sorry settled), worry, stress, envy, go to ICU thereby, and die), but no time to find out “Who am I,” “Where did I come from,” “Where will I go after death,” “What is the purpose of this life and living,” “What do I really want by doing whatever I do or did all my life.” And it is only in a human birth, that we can know all this. And yet, we waste this priceless opportunity in just “eating, drinking, and being merry.”
Well, the merciful Lord is very gentle and kind to call us fools. We are much more than just that, aren’t we?

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