Page 70 - THE FOURTH DIMENSION
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1- The seducer or the sexual predator who tries to satisfy his lusty desires anytime
2- The actor who may portray hundreds of personas during his career
3- The revolutionary fighter who rebels and conquers and intensely lives
4- The artist whose imagery creates a particular way of seeing things
The three attitudes mentioned above are in direct contravention of spiritual truths. First, the constitutional
position of the human being is to carry out the order of the superior such as parents, teachers, police and
magistrates, government, spiritual teachers, and ultimately God. Everyone follows some authority. When a
person rebels against authorities, his decisions and actions become controlled by his own lust, anger, greed,
illusion, envy and insanity.
The greatest authority is Lord Krishna. Not following His authority or His bona fide representatives, the spiritual
masters, a person becomes entangled in the struggle for existence in this world. Camus, being a shallow
intellectual, did not understand that rejecting the authority of God makes one immediately subject to the laws
of karma by which he is responsible for every action whether performed knowingly or unknowingly. Ignorance
is no excuse when infringing on blind laws of nature.
The struggle for existence is absurd if we analyze correctly that the cause is willful neglect and forgetfulness of
God’s instructions. Camus’s advice is irresponsible and futile. Simply accepting and following Lord Krishna’s
teachings will immediately liberate one from the travails of material life. A person like Camus whose intelligence
was corrupted by prolonged sense gratification could not understand the simple fact spoken by Krishna that
“one who performs auspicious activity (Krishna Consciousness) is never overcome by evil.” (Bg 6.40) Krishna
Consciousness can free one from the meaningless, absurd life of material sense gratification and the hopeless
morass of atheism.
Secondly, the concept that one is absolutely free to think and behave according to one’s desires is absurd.
Every living entity is controlled by time, the laws of karma, the three modes of material nature, the four
defects, the three types of misery, birth, death, old age, disease, lust, anger, greed, envy, illusion, madness,
material desires and above all misconceptions about the purpose of life. One cannot claim to be free if he has
one misconception or one material desire. What to speak if one is overwhelmed with unlimited material
desires.
Camus claimed one should think and behave according to his desires. It really means to think and behave
according to one’s flawed speculations. This is a formula for a reckless and dangerous life. Just when Camus
was on the cusp of producing perhaps his most mature and significant literary works, he died in an
automobile accident.
For the atheists like Camus, they see God as death. Lord Krishna says, mrtyuh sarva-haras caham – I am all-
devouring death. (Bg 10.34) Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada has commented:
We are changing our form of life from one body to another, but if we want to understand God... That is
essential. So long we do not understand God, so long we do not go back to home, back to Godhead, our
struggle for existence will continue. Manaḥ ṣaṣṭhānīndriyāṇi prakṛti-sthāni karṣati [Bg. 15.7]. They struggle.
Everyone struggles hard to become happy, but that is not possible. Simply searching after, searching after
happiness, our time comes: "Finished. Your business is finished. Now get out." That is called death. So death is
also Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā, mṛtyuḥ sarva-haraś cāham [Bg. 10.34]. Mṛtyu, Kṛṣṇa, comes as
death. During your lifetime, if you do not understand Kṛṣṇa consciousness, this Kṛṣṇa will come as death and
take away everything what you have got. Sarva-haraḥ. Then your body, your family, your country, your bank,
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