Harsha Shoka

Yugal Kishore Prabhu no longer drives because he has not renewed his driving license. That was his survival strategy. He does so much service that if he sits down for a minute it is almost guaranteed that he will fall asleep, so now he has to have someone to travel with him to do the driving.

Harsha Prabhu has become Yugala Kishore Prabhu's sidekick for the summer. He is a pharmacy student from MSU who is staying with with us for the summer. Anyhow today Harsha (joy) turned into the inevitable Shoka (lamentation) when he got us lost somewhere in the middle of Ohio.

Well, we eventually made in back to New Vrindaban. The drive was somewhat arduous because it took eight hours, about two hours longer than the normal six.

I realized that trying to be happy in the material world is like trying to be comfortable laying down the back seat seat of Toyota corolla while suffering from a back spasm. It is not possible.

In Srimad Bhagavatam there is the story of Maharaja Chitraketu. He wanted a son but all of this thousands of queens could not give birth. Anyhow he did a yajna, pleased the sages and they blessed him with a son, but they said this son would be the cause of great joy and great sorrow. So they named him Hasha Shoka.

Everyone was in ecstasy when the son was born. Everyone forgot about the prophecy that he would also cause grief. They addressed the child as Harsha, because Harsha Shoka is too long to pronounce. Little Harsha gave joy to everyone, except the rival queens who didn't like that Harsh's mother was getting all the attention from the king. So they poisoned the child. The child who was a cause of joy (harsha) now became a source of sorrow (shoka).

Of course the child represents all happiness in this world, any object that brings happiness is guaranteed to bring suffering at some point. So it is actually our attachment to happiness that is the cause of our suffering. How Ironic.

When Yugala Kishore Prabhu introduced me to Harsha, I said "Oh, Harsha Shoka."
He replied "No, only Harsha.'
But I knew it was only a matter of time.

ye hi samsparsa-ja bhoga
duhkha-yonaya eva te
ady-antavantah kaunteya
na tesu ramate budhah

An intelligent person does not take part in the sources of misery, which are due to contact with the material senses. O son of Kunti, such pleasures have a beginning and an end, and so the wise man does not delight in them. Bhagavad Gita 5.22