Date: 12/9/22

Good morning Darren.

Yesterday you raised an interesting question asking if I thought Kenny wanted to be a millionaire, an ambition of yours.

In reply I told you ”You might be surprised.” But I was actually answering the question a little differently than you might think.

I assumed your ambition to become a millionaire was due to your thinking it would bring you some measure of happiness. This is what everyone wants and is seeking through various means. More precisely, what everyone wants is sat, cit, ananda: eternity, knowledge and bliss. My reply about Kenny, ”You might be surprised.” was not meant to directly address his ambition to become a millionaire but, rather, the reason one wants to become a millionaire. It was meant to mean ”Just as you want eternity, knowledge and joyfulness, so does he.”

Another of your ambitions is to create a ”peace center” and I agree with you it should be done with the intention of encouraging the development of internal peace, not external cessation of conflict, which can never be achieved in this world. But peace is secondary to the most primary innate desire of the jiva (soul). What every jiva is seeking is pleasure. That is the principal ambition of every jiva and lies at the heart of every action he takes.

Peace is not pleasure. Peace is the absence of pain. It would be better for you to create a ”pleasure center”, although I would not call it that as it will be mistaken for something that is entirely mundane and sinful.

It will be better still if you help us in our attempt to promote Krishna Consciousness through our center which already exists for this purpose and can provide the necessary teachers, books, education and activities that are needed.

Krishna (God) is the reservoir of all pleasure. Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. All things come from Him, as He is the creator of all that is. Being the embodiment of eternal knowledge and bliss, the things we want most, our only access to these things in fullness is through a loving relationship with Him. That is the only sure means to come to the platform of sat, cit, ananda the platform of Krishna Consciousness.

One who has attained Krishna Consciousness does not look favorably on the ambition to achieve peace. As I stated previously peace is simply a state of being where there is no pain. That cannot be a permanent state of consciousness because it is something like a deep sleep while under the influence of an anesthetic. An anesthetic is used to temporarily block pain, such as during an operation, with the expectation that one will soon come again to a normal state of being. The normal state is one of activity, where we are able to pursue our desires to find happiness, especially through loving exchanges with others. A normal person does not want to be permanently anesthetized. He accepts it only as a temporary condition so that his health can be restored to the point where he can again pursue his goals. The same is true for the state of peace or liberation (known in Sanskrit as brahman realization). Those who have attained this state of consciousness do not remain there because it is not fully satisfying. They leave that position of ‘aloneness’ to again pursue relationships with others following their primal desire to love and be loved.

The highest goal for all humanity is Krishna Consciousness, the consciousness of loving, and being loved by, Sri Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Our mission is to help as many as possible attain Krishna Consciousness. We know how to do it and invite your help in developing our center for Krishna Consciousness rather than expending your energy developing a new center for peace which will fall short of promoting the ultimate goal for all humanity, the attainment of sat, cit, ananda (eternity, knowledge and bliss).

I pray you will consider all this with care and attention and look forward to your reply.

Sincerely,

Swami B.K. Giri