When I was in college, and I was trying to reach out the message of Krishna Consciousness to fellow students, one of the students junior to me would often tell me, “Bhaiyya, please arrange some session on satisfaction.”
And I would reply, “Yes, all our sessions are meant to attain satisfaction. You simply come and attend.”
I would think that why this fellow is after satisfaction. We have much more to offer than mere satisfaction. We have the means to award eternal happiness. Yet, I would refrain from directly commenting him that satisfaction is not the ultimate thing to be attained.
But actually, the essence and goal of spiritual life, as mentioned in Srimad Bhagavatam, is to perform unceasing and unmotivated devotional service to the Supreme Lord Krishna, ultimately leading to complete satisfaction of soul.
sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmo
yato bhaktir adhokṣaje
ahaituky apratihatā
yayātmā suprasīdati
Bhagavatam describes the end result as total satisfaction, and the means to attain it as bhakti.
In the current age, people’s minds have unlimited reasons to be dissatisfied. Students are dissatisfied with their teachers, parents are dissatisfied with the performance of their sons, and moreover spouses, states, and even countries are dissatisfied with one another.
The modern age facilitates various means to “satisfy” the needs and demands of our senses, not necessarily caring for the soul. There is an unlimited amount of data available on the internet, there are innumerable variety of foodstuffs available to pamper our taste buds, yet the soul remains dissatisfied.
The destination named “satisfaction” is doomed, and that proves there is a big problem in the means to attain it.
Some fortunate soul may turn to the path of bhakti to get satisfaction. And yes, bhakti has the means to get satisfied. Rather, only bhakti is THE means to get satisfied.
Yet, can it happen that one is not satisfied after coming to Krishna Consciousness?
Yes, it can! If the procedure is not followed rightly, the end result may differ from the expected result.
Let us explore a few causes:
1] Am I looking for My own SATISFACTION?
We start off with the right intentions in bhakti, but often lose the sight of goal. The goal is not satisfaction, the means is not satisfaction, rather the result is satisfaction.
But when we keep the basis of our advancement and happiness in Krishna Consciousness as self-satisfaction, then there is a problem.
Also, the parameters of our satisfaction can change on a day-to-day basis. When we are new in bhakti, we don’t have any expectations, either from Krishna, or from devotees. We are satisfied with small things.
As we grow up, we may start expecting favors, or rewards from Krishna. We may desire post or position from devotees. On a sunny day, we may pray to Krishna for rains, on a rainy day, we may expect the sun. And when it doesn’t happen, we may get dissatisfied as to why Krishna is not fulfilling our simple desires. One day we might desire a grand feast in the temple, on another day we might desire a grand ceremony in our glorification.
All these desires are sure to bring a great amount of dissatisfaction.
When we practice bhakti with a genuine heart, without wanting anything for oneself in return, then we can become satisfied. Also, when we try to serve, please and satisfy others, especially devotees and Krishna, then Krishna fills our heart with satisfaction.
2] Less of Krishna, more of MY thoughts and plans:
Vyasa tried everything to satisfy everyone using the best of his intelligence. He even wrote the Mahabharata and the Puranas for the less intelligent. He did this all having immense compassion in his heart. Yet, he was not satisfied.
The means he undertook to satisfy people was giving them lesser standards, offering them lesser knowledge and devotion. Therefore, when Narada approached Vyasa, he corrected him mentioning that he had glorified the four purusharthas more than glorifying bhakti.
When Vyasa focused on giving Krishna directly to people by absorbing himself in Krishna, he became totally content. And anyone who reads Srimad Bhagavatam, which is a product of Vyasa’s absorption in Krishna, he or she becomes content.
We must be convinced that if Krishna content is less in life, it has no power to bring about satisfaction. Shrila Prabhupada writes, “One cannot be cheerful by nature unless one is factually seated in self-realization, which is transcendental to the material body and mind.” SB 1.5.2 P
Indirectly, Narada told Vyasa that identifying yourself with your mind can never bring about satisfaction either to yourself or to others. When Krishna element is less in life, it cannot bring about satisfaction.
3] Am I Indulging in sense gratification to get satisfaction?
Many a times, I have seen devotees who justify sense gratification as THE means to DIGEST the overdose of Krishna consciousness. Or, they feel that if I have engaged in service 8 hours in a day, letting my senses loose for half an hour is no big thing.
Firstly, sense gratification is not a digestive pill for enhancing our progress, rather it’s like a laxative that will drain our Krishna Consciousness.
Secondly, no amount of sense gratification is “all right” as a token for having done lots of service!
Sometimes, we may think that satisfaction must be a natural outcome of sensual indulgence. But, Bhagavad Gita talks exactly the opposite.
ye hi saṁsparśa-jā bhogā
duḥkha-yonaya eva te
ādy-antavantaḥ kaunteya
na teṣu ramate budhaḥ
An intelligent person does not take part in the sources of misery, which are due to contact with the material senses. O son of Kuntī, such pleasures have a beginning and an end, and so the wise man does not delight in them. BG 5.22
4] Am I comparing with others?
Discontentment is a gift of modern social media. The more we compare with others, the more we are paving a way for dissatisfaction in our life. There will always be someone who will have more resources than us, who will be more accomplished than us, who will be more beautiful than us, who will have more of everything than us.
Krishna doesn’t see how much we have. He sees how much we utilize of what we have. If Krishna is not concerned about our greatness, why should we be?
By understanding our capacity and living upto it, we can be completely satisfied.
Spiritual Dissatisfaction:
Is there any space for being dissatisfied in bhakti? Yes, there is.
We can be and we must be dissatisfied in our attempts to serve, and in our quality of hearing and chanting.
When we are dissatisfied in this, we will try to give our best thus enabling Krishna to shower His mercy upon us.
