Lust and the Dance of Krishna

By Bhakta Arthur

“If one becomes Krishna conscious, then he can give up this heart disease; otherwise this disease of lusty desires will continue, and one cannot have peace in his mind.”

bhaktim param bhagirathi pratilabhya kamam
hrd-rogam asv apahinaty acirena dhirah

Srimad Bhagavatam 10.33.39

He found his mind on his first birthday, surrounded by giants and bright colored balls of light. He suddenly realized the giants and balloons were there for him and because of him. His shrieks of laughter filled the room when he found his mind. When he was two his mind found its creativity, joy and happiness. When he was four he was punished and he found pain and suffering because he could not understand what he did wrong. At six, the bull calf he loved and nurtured was killed for food by his father. He loved Billy the bull and stayed with him everyday. At night he would sneak out into the pasture and sleep curled up with the bull. When Billy was killed his mind found hate, anger, fear, revenge and horror. And when he was thirteen he found freedom by running away from his farm in California to San Francisco.

He was sitting on the corner of Market and Powell streets playing his guitar for spare change while Hare Krishna followers danced and sang on the other side of the street where the cable cars ended their journey. A beautiful girl, wearing a black lace dress, approached him and his labrador puppy. She told him she was a witch and she had been watching him for days. She then told him she wanted to have sex with him and take his dog when they were through and that if he didn't have sex with her or give her his dog she would place a curse on him and his hair would fall out, his face would break out in sores and he would become sick. He looked across the street at the Hare Krishna dancers dancing away in ecstasy, but the girl had him captive. That day his mind discovered lust and fear of the unknown. He had sex, and then lost his dog, and he found his mind’s decline.

The years moved by and all he knew was lust. He lusted for women, power, money, adventure; everything he did was based on lust. He longed for that peace he had found where the Krishnas danced and cable cars turned. He lost his mind and found his lustful ego. Ego took his mind away and replaced it with desires never fulfilled, hungers never satisfied, thirsts never quenched and goals never realized.

One night at the end of his life he dreamt of the dancers of the Lord Krishna across the street from where the cable cars turn around. He suddenly found his mind watching intently. He stepped across the street and as his last breath left his body his mind took up the dance and he whispered "Hare Krishna." Lord Krishna came to him and smiled, saying, “It is never to late to call on Me, but your sure took your sweet time,” as He took his hand and they danced and danced and danced.