Summary: Ep. 16 Spiritual Practice and the State of the World<br> How do we live a spiritual life in today’s political climate?<br> “When Maharajji was around physically… something was going on, some upheaval, political problems, and one of His devotees came to Him and said, “Oh, if there was only a king like King Janaka”, who, in the history of India, was an enlightened King, you know? “If there was only someone like Janaka to fix up all this political stuff.” Maharajji said, “there’s a King greater than Janaka now who is taking care of all this.” There is somebody running the show. “And if it has to go this way now, let it go.” That doesn’t mean we don’t do everything we have to do in regard to this, but the most important thing is to remember that, when you take your last breath, whatever karmas you have, whatever programs are still running in there, are going to keep running into your next incarnation. So you do your best work right now…” – Krishna Das<br> Q: When Maharajji was around physically, one of His, something was going on, some upheaval, political problems and one of His devotees came to Him and said, “Oh, if there was only a king like King Janaka”, who, in the history of India, was an enlightened King, you know? “If there was only someone like Janaka to fix up all this political stuff.” Maharajji said, “there’s a King greater than Janaka now who is taking care of all this.” There is somebody running the show. “And if it has to go this way now, let it go.” That doesn’t mean we don’t do everything we have to do in regards to this, but the most important thing is to remember that, when you take your last breath, whatever karmas you have, whatever programs are still running in there, are going to keep running into your next incarnation. So you do your best work right now and difficult times, it shows us a lot, but it’s very difficult. You don’t have to solve the whole thing, but just be aware that there’s an inner and an outer and what you can have some say about, on one hand, is your inner and whatever you can control on the outer, you can do, too. But if you do it with anger, like I always hated John Lennon, “Give Peace A Chance.” He was just an angry motherfucker. He was an angry cranky drug addict motherfucker and he would sing, “Give Peace a Chance,”damn. You know he was arguing with you. I’m telling you, “Give Peace a chance, goddammit.” That’s what it sounded like to me and you know, there’s no peace in that. It was a nice, “give peace a chance and let me shoot up later, ok?” “And if I can’t get my stuff, I’m gonna kill you.” It’s not real. That whole gloss of culture is just completely bullshit, you know? People cover up their stuff and they act like this, but that’s not really helping anybody. He didn’t deal with his demons until much later. Let’s deal with our demons now. And luckily, we’re getting a lot of help with that. So, who knows what’s going to happen. Nobody knows what’s going to happen. It’s horrible. Most people I hang out with agree, it’s not very pleasant, but there a lot of people who are just as happy as pigs in shit. This is what they wanted. They finally got it. It’s kind of humbling, you know, to recognize that so much of America wanted this. Enough to make it happen. So, we’ll do what we can to try to get it back to, or get it forward to another way that we think is better for us and everybody. We’ll do that but at the same time, we can’t lose sight that every minute is right here. If we’re lost in blind reaction to this stuff, we’re just creating more suffering for ourselves and others. Period. You know? I sneak little peaks at things and I go, “Aw, shit.” So, I don’t bring politics into this stuff because I think, this is what I do, right? And everybody’s welcome. If I say, I’m for this one or that one, that’s just my own personal thing, but this is not personal. Everybody should feel welcome to come sing and that’s, I feel very strongly about that. I’m not,
