Five levels of Vedic Knowledge

That we stop searching for happiness.

Today we will discuss briefly about the science of sound. Earlier we discussed how the sambandha jnana that is given in Krishna consciousness is far superior to what is available in other traditions or other revelations. So, in that we discussed various aspects about the revelation in the spiritual world.

What does God do in the spiritual world? Yesterday we discussed about how God interacts with the material world. Today we will discuss about how a soul can raise himself from the material to the spiritual level. This takes us to the abhidhaya stage.

So, abhidhaya is the process by which we achieve the goal. So, in the Vedic sadhana, sound is central. And tapping the power of sound is developed into a very sophisticated science.

Prabhupada gives a simple example of the power of sound when he says that when we are sleeping the other senses are inactive. But sound can awaken a person. Similarly, they said sound can awaken from our current state of slumber.

So, we know that there are different levels of consciousness. Consciousness that we are in currently is called as jagruti. Then, when we go to sleep, we have a dream that is called as sopna.

Below that, there is deep dreamless sleep that is called as sushanti. And above these is turya or samadhi. So, currently our consciousness mostly goes between jagruti and sopna.

And sometimes we go to sushanti. But rarely. So, just as sound, this is an ordinary material sound, can wake a person from sopna to jagruti.

Like that, divine sound can wake a person from jagruti to turya. So, let's write this once again. Our current state is jagruti.

Below that is sopna. Below that is sushanti. And above this is turya.

So now, by ordinary sound, one can come from here to here. And by shabda, one can go from here to here. Now, sound can be of two types.

There is noise and there is speech. So, noise is also sound. But, it is meaningless sound.

When the sound is not carrying any meaning, but it just creates some irritation, that is called a noise. When the sound conveys something meaningful, then it is called a speech. Even music, when it conveys something meaningful, it is called a speech or it comes in that particular category.

So, modern rock music is just noise. It is not in that category of speech. But, when we talk about shabda, shabda is higher than speech also.

Why? Because when we say speech is meaningful, it is only materially meaningful. Whereas, when we talk about shabda, shabda is spiritually meaningful. And the bhagavatam makes a difference.

śrotavyādī rājendra nūnāṁ saṅkī sahasraśa apasyatā mādhavattam gṛheṣu gṛhamedhinām śrotavyādī rājendra O king, O king of kings, rājendra, śukadeva, svāmī, śalī, prakṣit, mahārāja, and ordinary people have thousands of subjects to discuss about. nūnāṁ saṅkī sahasraśa But, all of them are apasyatā nūnāṁ saṅkī There is no spiritual understanding that develops by such. Therefore, what has he said? śrotavyādī śrīhāparhā What is the topmost subject to study about? That is, to talk about the Supreme Lord.

So, that is divine shabda. Divine shabda can take us to the highest level of consciousness where God becomes a tangible reality for us. Now, there are different ways of analysing the power of sound.

There is another way where there are four levels of sound corresponding to these four levels of consciousness. That is, paśyanti parā madhyamaya daikhāya That is a very difficult subject. So, I will focus on this because this is easier to understand for us.

As per the terminology, we know about it. So, basically, sound can raise the soul from its spiritual slumber. So, now, by the name of Jai Bhushan, in the Vedānta Samantaka, explains that there are three ways of acquiring valid knowledge.

And these three are pratyakṣa, anumāna and shabda. So, it is not that pratyakṣa and anumāna are invalid. Pratyakṣa and anumāna are also valid, but they are not completely valid.

For example, if we find that something is stolen from our voice, or there is no shabda to tell us who has stolen it, then what do we do? Did I see anyone going into that room? Pratyakṣa. Who all could have gone with us? Who all has that mentality? Are there any neighbours who do like that? We do anumāna. So, we use pratyakṣa and anumāna all the time.

It is not that when we have to clean, then we do the hair bit. Okay, for this much sweet rice, I should put this much sugar. And if I don't know, we do anumāna.

We do it all the time. But in both these cases, if you see, we are doing it for what purpose? We are cooking so that we can serve Krishna. We can offer food to Krishna.

We are trying to retrieve Krishna's wealth. So, pratyakṣa and anumāna are useful for dealing with the material world. But they cannot tell us the purpose of life in the material world.

The purpose of life, we come to know from shabda. And then after we know the purpose of life from shabda, then to fulfil that purpose of life, just as we can use wealth, just as we can use science, just as we can use Hinduism, so like that we can use pratyakṣa and anumāna also. So our approach to pratyakṣa and anumāna is the approach of Shukta Vairāgya.

So, we don't rely on pratyakṣa and anumāna, just as a devotee doesn't rely on money, or doesn't rely on science. His approach is, yes, my goal is to serve Krishna. And through pratyakṣa and anumāna also, I can serve Krishna.

So, now, at the pratyakṣa level, this pratyakṣa is not exactly the same as ordinary pratyakṣa. That means, at the first level, the conditioned soul, pratyakṣa, with his own senses, hears the sound from the spiritual master. So, many times people have asked this question, you know, if you say that the spiritual knowledge, material senses are defective, then how can we get perfect knowledge with the material senses? So, there are different ways of answering this question.

One way of answering is, that we are not saying that the material senses are useless. The material senses are not capable of determining knowledge by themselves. But the material senses are capable of receiving knowledge.

What is the difference, just like if there is a machine? Then, if I have to monkey around with the machine, press this button, pull this lever, touch it over here, I will probably spoil the machine. So, with my own unguided senses, I will not be able to determine how to use the machine. But, if somebody comes and tells me, okay, this is the way you operate the machine.

Press this button, pull this lever, then move this rod. Then, take my hand, and it is guided according to the direction of someone you know. The hand can be used to operate the machine.

So, we don't say senses are useless. Senses cannot determine knowledge. But, they can surely receive knowledge.

That's one level of understanding. When we say our senses are detective, it's not that they are useless. Right? Another level of understanding is that the senses can actually begin the process of realising spiritual knowledge.

But, once we realise spiritual knowledge, there is a higher perception that is available. So, perception is First, we literally, with our senses, with our ears, we hear from the spiritual master. With our eyes, we see the spiritual master.

And, we are inspired by his example. And, actually, spiritual knowledge is not theoretical. It is practical.

Spiritual knowledge begins with acharya. In fact, one who does acharya perfectly is called as acharya. And, that person is a spiritual master.

So, there are many academic scholars who may do PhDs in Bhagavad Gita and Vedanta Sutra and all these things. But, their knowledge does not even begin if they are not doing acharya. So, acharya means, we have to follow the four regulative principles and do some sadhana, chanting the holy name, things like that.

Now, if this is acharya, how do we do acharya? It's with our senses. Isn't it? We restrain the senses from sense gratification. We engage the senses in bhakti.

So, protection means what? We hear with our senses, we see with our senses, and then we engage the senses. So, all this is happening at the protection level. And, although we say that Vani and Vapu are equivalent when we talk about the association of the spiritual master.

But, still, the Vapu has its own inspiration. Why? Because, when we are at the condition stage, we want to see. We want to see.

And, we actually practically see in our own preaching also. We will preach a lot of philosophy, but when we take boys to Mayapur, and they see with their senses. So, what happens? That leads to a much deeper conviction.

So, therefore, protection means engaging the senses according to the direction of the spiritual master. Practically speaking, it means surrendering the senses to the service of the spiritual master. So, we tailor protection faculties for the service of the lord.

And, what is the example of this in the Srimad Bhagavatam? Ambarish Maharaj. So, at the protection level, we engage all our senses in the spiritual cause, in the service of the spiritual master. And, by hearing from the spiritual master, then, we start seeing according to the guidance of the spiritual master.

That is called paraksha. Paraksha means towards, aksha means senses. So, that knowledge is directed towards the senses.

Paraksha means another eyes. That means, we go in front of the spiritual master and say, this is Krishna. This is something like Shastra Chakshu.

When you say Shastra Chakshu, that means see with the eyes of scriptures. Prabhupada gives a simple example of this. Suppose, we are in India and you call up your friend in America.

Here it is night. And, is the sun shining over there? We ask our friend. He says, oh yes, it is so warm and soothing over here.

And, just by hearing it, we can say, oh, the sun is there. Sun must be shining. Prabhupada gives the example of paraksha.

Paraksha means, we see with another eyes. Now, Bhaktivinoda Thakura does analysis of this in his writings also, in Shastra Chakshu, Vishnambhu, Jyotirma and other places. Now, he explains it slightly differently.

He says, there are two ways of acquiring knowledge. There is inductive and there is deductive. What is the difference between inductive and deductive? For example, if there is a big box, you got a big package of some grains, some flour.

So, now, you got a big package of flour. So, now, outside there is, you take out a handful of flour. We show this.

This flour is white in colour. And this flour comes from this bag. Therefore, the flour in this bag must also be white.

So, this is inductive method. Inductive method means, we observe the particular and from the particular, we move the general. So, you show me this flour.

And I observe, this flour is white. So, first premise is, when there is an argument made, there is what is called premise. The beginning step of the argument.

First premise is, this flour is white. Second premise is, this flour comes from this bag. Therefore, the flour in the bag is white.

This is inductive argument. Now, deductive argument is what? Inductive argument is, the flour in this bag is white. This flour comes from this bag.

Therefore, this flour must be white. So, deductive argument depends on authority. So, if the authority is authoritative, then deductive argument gives certainty.

Whereas, inductive argument cannot give certainty. Inductive argument will say that, this flour is white. This flour comes from this bag.

Therefore, this must be white. But no. Why do you want white on top, yellow in between and black in the bottom? We don't know.

So, Bhaktivinoda Thakur says that Satyaksha and Paroksha can also be inductive ways. Inductive ways means what? That somebody will say, oh, I have seen with my eyes. I have seen that America is very beautiful.

America is a very wonderful country to be in. And Paroksha, so many people have gone to America. They say, oh, America is so wonderful.

In fact, most people's desire for going to America comes from Paroksha. They don't see Satyaksha. Paroksha has a level of desire.

They see Satyaksha and then they are disappointed after that. They have nothing much great about it. But, so, Satyaksha and Paroksha can also be inductive ways of acquiring knowledge.

With our senses and other senses. But we are focussing here on how the Vedic method works. So, Paroksha means, this is called as indirect knowledge.

Indirect knowledge means we hear from the others. So, the spiritual master says, there is a spiritual world. And the spiritual world, there is Krishna, there is Radharani, there is a Gopi, there is a Sakha, and there are trees, they are all conscious, there is constant ecstasy over there.

We hear this and then we try to visualise it. Now, at this stage, Paroksha means, we have no experience of it, we have no realisation of it. But we just hear from another person and based on that we accept.

In a perpetual stage, we are not talking so much about something which is beyond sense perception. We are talking about that which is within sense perception. Just by seeing that which is within sense perception, we develop some faith.

So, just by seeing Mayapur Dham, seeing the beautiful ladies, seeing the devotees from all over the world, people develop faith. But then, they are saying, the devotees, the students hear about the spiritual world. And then, they develop attraction for that.

That is based on Paroksha. Paraksha. So, after Paroksha, now there is Aparoksha.

Aparoksha means, it is something like direct knowledge. Now, the direct knowledge is not yet about the spiritual world. It is about the material world.

That is what Aparoksha means. At this stage, what happens is, at once, Pratyaksha and Anuman are according to Sabda. And, when that happens, then by one's own senses, one starts getting realisations that confirm the spiritual world.

For example, all of us have always heard about accidents since our childhood. An accident, somebody dies. An accident, this happens.

An accident, that happens. But, that accidents convey that this world is a place of danger and death at every step. That we do not realise.

Accidents happen to others, but they won't happen to me. And, what is there to learn about it? Nothing is there to learn. It is just a matter of how cruel and arbitrary this world is.

But, when a devotee sees an accident happening, he understands. I have to become serious about my spiritual life. So, the same sense perception is there.

But, what has happened? Pratyaksha and Anuman have now become guided by Sabda. And, Pratyaksha and Anuman are guided by Sabda. Then, Aparoksha means, here, what we are talking about? Para means other.

Here, Apara means, you know, we have Parashakti and Aparashakti. So, we are not really talking about the spiritual realm. But, in the material realm, one starts getting realisations about spiritual truths.

In the material realm, one starts getting realisations of spiritual truths. Just like, you know, we meet some very wealthy person. And, when we see his house, we see his car, we think, oh, he must be so happy.

And, you go inside and say, actually, my son has gone to the Atlantic, he never calls me. My daughter has run away with some boy and I don't know where she is. My wife died last year and I am all alone in this big house.

Oh, wealth does not make me happy. A materialistic person goes there, oh, this person is alone. And, you know, a person with a greedy or violent mentality, he is alone.

I can attack and kill him and I can steal all his wealth also. The same knowledge, same knowledge you may hear, but you may see it entirely differently. Understand? So, the point is that when a devotee, like, it is usually very paradoxical, or even the Karmis, the non-devotees, materialists and the devotees, they know that youth is temporary.

So, what is the conclusion that the materialists arrive at? I saw one advertisement in Kolkata, you know. Freak out! Before you become a dirty old man. And, you are going to go old and you are going to enjoy.

Therefore, enjoy as much as you can before that. The same fact. As devotees, we understand youth is temporary.

We are not going to enjoy this way forever. Just give it up and try to achieve that. So, at the level of Aparoksha, there is sensory impression, there is mental thinking, but both of these are in accordance to Shabda.

And, by this one starts getting realisation of Shabda. And then, you can call this as direct knowledge or you can call it as realised knowledge. And, Adhokshaja is revealed knowledge.

Now, what happens in revealed knowledge? And so, from this stage onwards, one's spiritual perception starts developing. So, spiritual perception means what? Actually, the soul has its own senses. In the spiritual world, the soul has a Swaroopa.

The soul is in the form of a Swaroopa. And the Swaroopa has eyes, ears, and all the senses like we have. Of course, all of them are made of Chitta Shakti.

Chitta Shakti. Krishna Samhita. Chitta Shakti means everything in the spiritual world is conscious.

So, do we have mind, intelligence, ego over there in the spiritual world? Yes. We have to think. We have to analyse.

So, mind, intelligence are there. But none of them are material. None of them cause illusion.

They are all spiritual. So, there, with those spiritual senses, we see Krishna, we touch Krishna, we serve Krishna. So, those same senses are there now also.

But the same Swaroopa has become sort of unmanifest in a BJ form now. But as one comes to the Adhoksha level, then the spiritual senses of the soul start getting awakened. And one starts having spiritual perception.

Spiritual perception. Now, how does this happen? Human evolution gives an interesting example to explain this. He says that we have this concept of virtual reality.

Now, what is virtual reality? Virtual reality means we sit in front of a computer or some high-tech device and then somebody is driving a car. So, there is a person in the, there is a car in the video game or in the virtual world. Virtual reality is often used to train pilots.

Because, especially the fighter pilots. Then, there are no wars in which they can do simulations. They cannot send untrained pilots in an actual war.

And you cannot create a war to train a pilot. So, what do they do? They have simulations. So, in simulations, the pilot sits in a seat, which is just like an aeroplane pilot seat.

And then he has all the levers, he has those devices on his ears and eyes. And not only his eyes are like that, but even his ears feel exactly like he is in a plane. And then, he has to guide.

So, he is actually identifying with the pilot who is there in the virtual plane, the simulated reality. And then, let us imagine he is shooting a missile at a plane and how he evades it, how he moves forward, how accurately he drops the bomb. All those skills are tested.

So, this is simulation. That is why we made a video called Simulation Words. A beautiful video.

It illustrates this point. So, now, suppose somebody is sitting and playing a video game in which he is driving a car. So, when he is driving the car, he is identifying with the person who is driving the car.

And what happens in simulated reality, you also have some sort of gears in front of you. You also have ear pads which give you the feeling that actually the air is whistling in the ears. You move the gear and the car moves accordingly, faster or slower.

Move the steering wheel, the car moves left or right. So, now, when this is happening, if all the senses of this person are just focused on the virtual reality, he will completely forget the other world beyond it. So, in fact, imagine if somebody is sitting in front of the video game and he is playing the video game and if there is sort of a black cover, like a tunnel, between this face and that video game, virtual reality.

Then what will happen is he is not able to perceive anything else. So, by that, his consciousness gets riveted entirely to that illusion. And he forgets the reality apart from it.

So, that riveting of the consciousness to the illusion takes place to the false ego. So, the false ego causes the… So, the soul is like the person playing the video game and the intelligence… I don't want to analyse the whole analogy, just state it right now. The intelligence is like the character who is actually, say, driving the vehicle.

And the mind is like the screen on which that is happening. And all the sensory inputs are coming to the mind. So, basically, as long as the false ego is very strong, the person cannot perceive anything else.

So, his friend might be sitting right next to him. But he says, because he is riveted to that illusion on the screen, he cannot perceive anything else. But, if that false ego starts breaking, then he can turn, he can see, oh, my friend is here.

So, similarly, samānubhikṣe puruṣo nirmazno, niśeṣo cittimuhiyamānaḥ that the Paramātmā is sitting right next to us, but we are deaf and blind to his presence. He speaks, the Lord… When we are purified, we can hear the Lord speaking. The Lord speaks all the time, but when we are not purified, we cannot hear His speaking.

He is right next to us, but we are deaf and blind to His presence. So, actually, when that riveting that is happening to the TV screen or the computer screen, that is broken or that is taken away, he turns around, oh, he says, my friend is here all the time. So, like that, the soul's spiritual senses awaken.

The soul's spiritual senses are not exactly awakened. The soul becomes aware that I have an existence separate from the body. And when that awakening comes to him, that awareness comes to him, he turns, oh, the Supersoul is here.

So, aprākṛta, now what is aprākṛta means? Prakṛti is material. Aprākṛta means not material, beyond the range of matter. So, all these three, the soul's perception had not gone beyond matter.

What had happened was, he was putting faith and taking realisation of the spiritual fruits. But he was not directly seeing with his senses. So, at the before aprākṛta, adhokṣaja, the adhokṣaja level means what? The sense perception and the noise perception becomes unimportant.

Because once you see that, oh, I have a real life beyond the movie, beyond the virtual reality, what happens in the virtual reality doesn't matter so much. Because I have an entirely different life. So, that's why when Prabhupāda's whole business collapsed, Prabhupāda just laughed.

Why? Because that was not important for him. What was important was service to Kṛṣṇa. So, adhokṣaja means that the knowledge from sense perception is pushed on.

Adhokṣaja is also the name of Kṛṣṇa. Because he is beyond his own perception. But at the adhokṣaja level of consciousness, sense perception, knowledge of sense perception becomes unimportant.

So, spiritual revelation starts taking place. And a prakṛta is called as spiritual knowledge or it is also called as divya prakṛtyakṣa. Divya prakṛtyakṣa means what? Divine perception or spiritual perception.

So, we have the example of the Goswamis. Listen to this. So, Rūpa Goswami was seeing the pastime of Rādhārāṇī and he was laughing.

Somebody else was going by and he was laughing at me. Rāmānanda Goswami, by his divya prakṛtyakṣa, he actually ate sweet rice and he got indigestion. Now, this is exactly what is happening.

At the divine level, there is experience. There is perception, there is experience, there is reciprocation. Whereas, at the material level, the body has to be hazardous because the soul is different from the body.

So, this is the goal of life. At this stage, one develops full love for Kṛṣṇa and one tastes the holiness being constantly made. So, now, this journey, how does it happen? It happens by śabda.

This journey over the different levels of consciousness happens by śabda. So, when we hear the divine sound vibration that is vibrated by the spiritual master, that is vibrated as the holy name, as the songs and the prayers, when we hear that, that enters into our consciousness and that leads us upward gradually, step by step by step. And then, this sound has the potential to take us to the highest realms of reality.

That's why the Vedānta Sūtra gives a lot of elaborate philosophical analysis, but it all concludes in anāvṛttiḥ śabdād. Anāvṛttiḥ. Now, the word āvṛtti can be related to āvarata or āvarani.

Āvarata means to come back. You know, Kṛṣṇa says, punarāvṛtti no arjuna, he comes back again. And anāvṛtti no, he doesn't come back.

So, anāvṛttiḥ śabdād means, by śabda, you will rise to consciousness, by which you will never come back again. That was what the slogans which the devotees make to attract the happiness. Stay high forever.

Stay high. Go high. By drunk, they will go high, but they will come down and go lower than whatever they are.

But stay high forever. So, anāvṛttiḥ śabdād. Anāvṛtti, if you relate the word āvṛtti with the word āvarana, covering, anāvṛttiḥ, that means the covering will be removed.

But it will happen by śabda. That's why the important point is that one hears śabda very attentively and seriously, and receives the śabda in one's heart. And to the extent one does that, to the extent the śabda reveals its power.

So, now somebody may wonder, how can all this happen by sound? Now, what is śabda? Śabda, to the material senses, it appears just like material sound. Because it's vibrated to the same senses that we are all using. Material people are also using the same senses.

We are also using the same senses. But then how can this awaken? I was telling you in the morning today, one thing is the sound itself is divine. But the second thing is, there's a divine desire.

So, what do we get from the spiritual master? We get from the spiritual master these two things. We hear the divine sound. That is important.

But thousands of people heard Śrīla Prabhupāda. Not thousands, millions of people heard Śrīla Prabhupāda. But not all of them became purified.

Not all of them became devotees, or serious devotees, or even pure devotees. Why? Because the spiritual master not only gives us divine sound, he gives us divine desire. And the whole process of bhakti is centred around transforming our desires.

So, the process of jñāna means to give up material desires. So, process of bhakti means to not just give up material desires, but to replace material desires with spiritual desires. So, guru-mukha-padma-vākya-citta-te-kori-āyakya ārena-kori-ho-mani-āśa So, when we say guru-mukha-padma-vākya-citta-te-kori-āyakya what does that mean? That means two things.

That means we hear and cherish the instruction of the spiritual master. But, so what does shabda do? Shabda basically contains instructions. It may contain information, it may contain analysis, but ultimately it contains instructions.

And as per that instruction, ārena-kori-ho-āśa that means what? Not give up all desires, give up all other desires. And take the desire of the spiritual master as one's own desire. When that is done, ārena-kori-ho-mani-āśa citta-te-kori-āyakya then this competition of divine sound and divine desire brings about a divine transformation in a person's heart.

And in a person's life. Entirely. So, Nagarjuna Sarovar wrote a beautiful offering to Śrīla Prabhupāda.

He said, Prabhupāda, what is the legacy that is passed down in parampara? What is it that the spiritual master gives in parampara to the disciple? So, he said, as far as you and your spiritual master are concerned, materially you did not get anything from your spiritual master. So, Śrīla Prabhupāda had a huge organisation. Actually, there were 64 Gaudiya Mahārāja.

And there were three outside also. One in London, one in Montreal, one in Rangoon. And they had a huge property.

The Utsadana Jyotisham temple was glorious. So, now, all that legacy of the spiritual master, in terms of property, in terms of disciples, in terms of money, none of that Prabhupāda got. Those who got it, unfortunately, they quarrel with among themselves and they didn't do much.

So, what was the actual legacy of the spiritual master? The legacy that we get from the spiritual master is the desire to serve Kṛṣṇa. And that was the legacy that Prabhupāda took. At one time, Prabhupāda came to Māyāpur.

At that time in Māyāpur, so, you know, our place is not exactly at Yoga Veda. It is a little ahead of Yoga Veda. So, when Prabhupāda came, he came to stay to our… and he was living there.

Some of his godbrothers criticised him. He said, why did he… Now, he is coming to Māyāpur. He should come to the birthplace of Māyāpur.

Birthplace of Lord Caitanya. Why is he not coming there? It will surprise you. So, Prabhupāda replied, where Lord Caitanya came is not as important as why Lord Caitanya came.

Where he came, it is important. It is not unimportant, but more important is why he came. So, why he came is So, that why I am fulfilling that.

So, Prabhupāda once, you know, some of his godbrothers were criticising him. So, Prabhupāda told Tamāla Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja, he said that, you know, you go and ask those of his disciples, who has opened more temples than what I have opened? Who has made more disciples than what I have made? Who has written more books than what I have written? And Prabhupāda became very clear. He said, that I have inherited… What was the legacy? He did not get any temples.

He did not get any books. He did not get any disciples. But what he got from this spiritual master was that desire.

So, how did he get that desire? That desire came through shabda. So, shabda, we may think it is something mystical. What is shabda? How do I receive it? But the essence of shabda is the instruction which transforms our desires.

So, Prabhupāda took that as his life and soul. He said, I have inherited the legacy of my spiritual master. So, at one time, Prabhupāda was quite unhappy actually with his godbrothers.

Why? Because they were criticising him very often. So, he said that, can't they see that actually what I am preaching is not different from what they are preaching. And what we are preaching is not different from what our Guru Mahārāja wanted to preach.

So, if our Guru Mahārāja is acting through me, then why are they envious of me? They cannot even see the connection between what I am doing and what they and their spiritual master wanted to do. So, actually there is one legacy which is passed on in the paramparā. In the paramparā, sometimes somebody may ask me, you see the paramparā, the words are normally passed on as it is.

But what do you mean as it is? You see, Prabhupāda's language is different. Prabhupāda's language is different. It is not verbatim repetition.

What is essentially passed down is, Śrotra Mahārāja explains in Satsang Shadow, that the paramparā is a link of hearts. It is a link of hearts. It is not a link of brains.

It is not that, you know, the Guru and the disciple, the disciple is not like a 100% verbatim repeating computer. Whatever the Guru has spoken, repeating. No, it is not like that.

How is the Guru and the disciple, their hearts? What is the linkage? It is a linkage of hearts. The Guru's desire is to serve Kṛṣṇa. And the disciple's desire is to serve Kṛṣṇa.

In this way, their hearts become linked. Now, how to serve Kṛṣṇa, what are the practicalities to do? Bhaktisiddhānta Ṭhākura did not give ground in the shadow of women. Prabhupāda gave ground in the shadow of women.

But why? Because the rest of the women were also more dynamic and what happened was, basically, if you tell them to just stay at home, they cannot do that, because their whole training is different. For them, he said, OK, you take the chair and you take three choices. So, now, if you see in the Rāmāyaṇa also, it is described that when Hanuman was in the Ashok Vatika, at that time, he was sitting under a tree, which was right next to a river, and he thought it was evening time.

He said, if Mother Sita is here, surely, she will come here to do her sundrāvaṇḍa. What does that mean? Mother Sita was doing her sundrāvaṇḍa. That means, it is not that something Prabhupāda introduced something new.

Actually, spiritual opportunities are equal for men and women, but eventually, because of whatever reasons, the culture got lost. So, the principle here is that it is not that the disciple will exactly do all the things the same as the spiritual master. But the desire is the same.

And everybody has their nature, everybody has their talents, everybody has their likings. And according to that, they will preach. So, there are surely differences between the spiritual master and the disciple.

But there is no difference in desire. There will be difference in how to live in the desire. And how to preach.

So, how to bring people closer to Kṛṣṇa and Mother Sita. So, therefore, the essential thing that śabda does is transform our desires. Now, can ordinary śabda also, can ordinary sound transform desires? Yes, it can.

It can. Somebody, you know, we go to the hostel, and everybody is talking about the cricket match. You know, this person is in form, he is in good form, but he is not in good form, and you know, this is like this, and like this.

And what happens? Hey, I don't want this cricket match. We also get that desire. So, transforming of desire is possible by sound mind.

And that we see all the time. But, transforming of desires from material to spiritual is not possible just by ordinary sound. For that, there has to be divine sound.

So, why divine sound? Ordinary people, say, academic scholars or mundane scholars may also read Bhagavad Gita. And Bhagavad Gita is śabda. But because they are not reading Bhagavad Gita, in parampara from a guru, they don't receive the divine desire.

And although śabda is there, there is no divine desire that comes under śabda. And therefore, there is no transforming issue. So, the essence in Vedic culture, knowledge is valued not for its informational content, but for its transformational potency.

What you know is not as important as what is the effect on you or for him. What you know is not as important as what is the effect on you or for him. You may know a lot about Krishna, but you have no love for Krishna.

What is the use? On the other hand, some devotees may literally just know a little bit about Krishna. But we see in our temple, there are some people who are not even educated. And there are well-educated people who come and listen probably hear lectures from them and take instructions and inspiration from them.

Why? Because what you know is not important. What is the effect on you or what you know? What is the effect on you is, what is the transformation that has been brought out. Now, this was what Balramji taught Michael Thomas Yusuf.

He knew a lot, but that knowledge had not brought about transformation in terms of application, in terms of development of qualities. And Balramji was very unhappy with that. Of course, Balramji was extremely famous.

He taught a very extreme example to us. But the principle is, what did Balramji say about that to him? He says, you are like an actor. All your learning of scripture is like an actor's memorisation of the script.

It's a very profound example. An actor may memorise the script fully and he may repeat it also perfectly. But that doesn't give you anything.

So, Rana Maharshi in one lecture, a very beautiful one, he says that you know, to memorise and speak philosophy just requires some good karma. But to believe and live the philosophy requires blessings. So, they are two very different things.

To memorise and speak philosophy just requires some good karma. If we have done some good karma in our past lives, then by that good karma we get a good memory. And by that we get good expression ability.

And by that we can speak. We can memorise and recite. That just requires some good karma.

But to believe and to live what we speak, what we memorise, that requires the blessings. And the blessings come by service. So, when we say we should have a service attitude, what does that mean? That means we have to transform our desire from the enjoying mentality to the serving mentality.

So, the whole focus is Shabda. And the whole focus of Shabda is transformation of desires. And as transformation of desires takes place, sound reveals its higher aspects to us.

As sound reveals the higher aspects to us, then we start experiencing the spiritual reality. And on the experience of spiritual reality, we start tasting spiritual reality. So, at the level of Adhoksha Uparakshita, one becomes fixed in spiritual truth.

Because the mind and the senses behave according to Shabda. That means, the senses, as soon as some tempting has object, normally the senses will groove to that object. But the senses are trained to go away from that object.

Similarly, the mind, it may concentrate on nasty thoughts. But when the mind gets trained, it will go away from those nasty thoughts. I should not do this.

So, mind and senses, when they start acting according to scripture, then they actually reach a significantly safe zone. Till then, it is very important for us to have an intelligence governing our life. Till our mind and senses are not acting according to Shabda, then at least our intelligence will act according to Shabda.

So, if you see, there is a chariot-body analogy in the Upanishads. And, there is Krishna and Arjuna on the chariot also. So, you see, everything is the same.

Only thing is that, for Arjuna, Krishna is the chariot. So now, how does Krishna manifest to us? Guru Sahasra Shastra. Caitanya Mahaprabhu says that, शाक्षात जीव नहे दूव ज्यान कथाति कृष्ण कथाति कृष्ण शिक्षागुरु कृष्ण महन्त अवर्थात So, what he says is, because the Jeeva cannot saakshaat see Chaita Guru in his heart, he cannot see Chaita Guru in his heart, therefore that Lord manifests externally as the Mahant, Shiksha Guru.

So, what we cannot see saakshaat, the Supersoul, that Supersoul manifests externally to our aakshaat, to our eyes as the Guru. And the Guru gives us instructions. So, we cannot change our desires immediately, but we can control and choose our desires.

We can't change our desires immediately. It's not that suddenly we see a sense object and say, oh, I have no desire for it. No, it won't happen.

But we can control and choose our desires. If this desire comes, no, I'll not let it go. Choose, this means, this desire is coming, let me choose it and develop it more and more.

And, actually, all this takes place through Shabda. Shabda gives us the knowledge and Shabda gives us the strength, both. You know, we need two things in spiritual life.

What to do and or rather, what I should do and I should know what is the right thing to do and I should have the strength to do the right thing. So, first of all, by Shabda, I get to know what is the right thing to do. And by the same Shabda, I also get the strength to do the right thing.

So, I'll conclude with my last point. Any questions on this? Otherwise, I'll mention one more point. So, what do we essentially get from the spiritual master? That is Shabda.

And Shabda has, as I said, Shabda has two things. Shabda gives us, at our stage,.