Understanding attachment detachment commitment 3 – Devotion as emotion disposition and cultivation

[Evening program at Atlanta, USA]

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna.
Thank you very much for coming today evening. And today, the concluding part of our Beyond Attachment and Detachment to Commitment. So, I’ll quickly mention what I spoke last two days.
First day, I spoke on the theme of understanding what detachment actually is. Frustration is not renunciation. Aversion to commitment is not detachment.
To actually have detachment and the fruit of detachment, we have to consider the intent, the content and the consequence. And then yesterday we discussed about. So, when we say that, yeah, we shouldn’t have, we shouldn’t have false detachment, that does not mean attachment is fine.
Yesterday we discussed the problem with attachment. Attachment makes us hard hearted and detachment is not cold heartedness or hard heartedness. Attachment is level headedness where we don’t let our emotions determine our actions.
We have a rational side and emotional side and we make sure that the two are in balance. And we concluded by discussing how when we have detachment, then we can pursue our long term goals without letting short term impulses come in our way. So, today we’ll discuss about devotion, which is essentially neither attachment nor detachment.
It is a commitment. I’ll talk about this in three parts. Devotion as emotion, devotion as disposition and devotion as cultivation.
So, devotion as cultivation is the bridge from devotion as emotion to devotion as disposition. So, devotion as emotion means that whenever or sometimes not whenever, sometimes when we go to a temple or we participate in the kirtan, we take darshan, we feel something in our heart. We feel some sublime peace, some ineffable joy, which makes us feel that actually there’s something special going on over here.
And that devotion as emotion is something which almost everyone, not everyone, but a large number of people have experienced. By the start of the 20th century, and especially the middle of the 20th century, many people expected that religion will soon die. So, Friedrich Nietzsche was a German philosopher who said that God is dead.
He proclaimed that in the middle of the 19th century. And then there are a series of thinkers, especially in the Western world, who attacked religion in different ways. So, the expectation was that God, people will recognize that, or people will feel that God, belief in God is unscientific, it is irrational, it is sentimental and they will give it up.
But far from that happening, all over the world, there has been a resurgence in religion. Now, America is considered to be one of, although America is highly materialistic, also considered one of the most religious countries in the world. Especially if you go to the Bible Belt, a lot of Christians.
Here when you are talking about religious, we are just talking in general about those who understand that there is something more than the material to life. So, why has this happened? This is because thousands of people in different ways have experienced the spiritual, have experienced something which challenges the materialistic conception of life. Just three days ago, before I came here, I was in Jacksonville and I was speaking to students of the North Florida State University.
And there I spoke on the topic of near-death experiences. And there itself, there was a gathering of around 20-25 mostly American students, boys and girls. There itself three of them said that they had had near-death experiences.
So they had seen themselves outside of their body. So that reflects, one out of every ten Americans it is said has had a near-death experience. And near-death experience is just one genre.
Some people during meditation, they experience something or even during the routine phase of life, suddenly they start feeling that some experience they have by which they feel there is something more to life. And in this way, through such experiences, many people get this emotion. Now I am generalizing this emotion.
It is not necessarily devotion. It is just experience of something higher. Something which we don’t ordinarily experience.
It may be just awe on seeing the majesty of nature. It may be a sense of insignificance on looking through telescope and seeing at the vastness of the space. It may be a sense of wonder on seeing the beauty, on seeing say the artistry of the creation in nature, of seeing beautiful butterflies, seeing beautiful flowers.
So there are many ways in which people feel there is something more. And that devotion as an emotion is what keeps people of some kind of spiritual bent of mind. And this is emotion which comes occasionally, unpredictably.
And often it is unrepeatably. It just comes and it goes. But even a few moments can transform people’s lives.
At least transform their conceptions to some extent. So devotion as an emotion is something which just comes upon us sometime or other. And within the process of Bhakti Yoga also we experience it.
Now for those who are materialistic, even the experience of devotion as an emotion is good. Because they feel there is something more than matter to my life. But there are some people, some special people for whom devotion is not an emotion.
It is a disposition. That means sometimes they feel there is something more to life and they start exploring it. There are some people who just are constantly looking for what is more in their life.
The first is that they get some experience by which they feel there is something more to life. Something more than just earning money, having a family, enjoying life. There is something more.
But there are some people who are consciously searching for something more. They feel there has to be something more. Many of us feel that if we get suffering in our life, say if we get cancer or we lose a loved one or we just have a financial catastrophe, that is a great suffering.
And it is a great suffering. But actually the greatest suffering in this world is not losing things. The greatest suffering in the world is losing purpose.
Losing purpose means, say if people live for materialistic enjoyment and then they get the enjoyment and afterwards there is nothing here. What more to do in life? What more to do in life? Nowadays there is a culture of free sexuality. And because of that many teenagers, by the time they just come to the age of 19, 20, they have experienced practically everything that can be experienced at the sensual level.
And then if they don’t get guided in just the desperate attempt to experience something more, they go down into depravity, they go into drugs, because inherently we are made to look for something more. So some people have this disposition where they look for something more. And those are very special.
So I was saying that when whatever we have aspired to, whatever we have considered as going to be the most enjoyable, the most wonderful thing in my life, if we get that, to not get that is suffering. But to get that and to realize that it’s nothing great, that is actually a greater suffering. It is not a suffering in a physical sense where a person doesn’t have food, clothing, shelter.
But it is suffering in the sense of loss of purpose. What is life meant for? So there are people who go through this crisis of purpose in their life. Especially there is what people call as a midlife crisis.
We come to around 40, 45 and most of our youth and energy is gone now. And what have I achieved in my life? People start thinking about this. So the reason is that the goals that we had set for ourselves, if we don’t achieve them, there is suffering.
But if we achieve them and then we realize that what more now? Actually, if we are not discerning, if we are not careful and thoughtful, then what happens? We achieve one goal and then society sets another goal. And then another goal and another goal. So it is said that the problem with the rat race is that even if you win the rat race, you still remain a rat.
So for me, it is mentioned that I got 2350 out of 2400 in GRE. So for me since my childhood, my goal was to be a topper. Actually, when I gave GRE also, it was not so much that I was enamored about coming to America.
It was more that I wanted to be number one. That was the main thing I wanted. And then, so I was always among the toppers, second, third, fourth in my class or in my division.
But never, I was first also sometimes, but I was joined first. I was never the first. So that was like my dream since childhood.
I wanted to do that. And I was very interested in English as a language. One of my childhood hobbies was, I used to just sit with a dictionary and memorize words.
I liked to do that. So then when I gave GRE, I just naturally did very well. And I was not only first in my college, I was first in the history of my college.
I was first in the whole state of Maharashtra. I thought now I’m going to be so happy. And I was happy for some time.
But after that, I just realized that looking at the mark sheet doesn’t give any real pleasure. It is only when someone comes and congratulates, then you feel, yes. And then two or three of my friends, they just didn’t congratulate me.
I just, you know, don’t you know what I have achieved? Why are you not congratulating me? I was disgusted with the way my thoughts were going. I said, now what is this? Instead of becoming happy, I have become more dependent for happiness on others. Now whenever I meet someone, if they don’t congratulate me, far from feeling happy, I feel agitated.
What is this? And then at that time, there must be something else in life. And then after that, this GRE exam keeps happening every few months. So another student, he got, he gave the exam and he got 2360.
And when I heard that, the first thought that came in my mind is, I’ll give GRE again, I’ll get 2370. Then I started thinking, what am I doing? Okay, there is another exam, I can do another exam. But then where is the end to this? So at that time, somehow by Krishna’s mercy, a devotee came and gave me the Bhagavad Gita.
So I was just ripe at that time. If it had been a little earlier, probably I would have been too fascinated with academic success to take it seriously. So at that time I just suffered a loss of purpose.
What am I living for? Because that which I had set as the goal of my life, after achieving it also, I found that it was an anticlimax. So there is something which we want to achieve. So what happens is, there are some people for whom devotion is a disposition.
That means they don’t necessarily go through the frustration in material life to seek spiritual life. You just somehow get it. There has to be something more.
This is not what I want to live for. Now there is nothing wrong in pursuing material life and pursuing material success. But it is that getting consumed by that and restricting our aspirations in life only to that.
That is what is the problem. Money is important in life for everyone. But money is what we live with.
Money is not what we live for. Money is a means for living. It is an important means for living.
But unfortunately in a materialistic society, what is the means for living becomes the purpose for living. And then it is an endless treadmill. Like it’s a rat race that never ends.
So those people who are like this, they just get it right in the beginning. For them, devotion is a disposition. They immediately look higher and they seek something spiritual in their lives.
If we see Shri Ram Prabhupada’s life and the way he met many of his early disciples or many of his leading disciples now, many of those disciples were actually seekers. They had already started looking in a serious sense, searching for God, searching for higher meaning in life. Some of them went practically all over the world searching for God.
Now most of us, we didn’t go out searching for God. It’s mostly devotees came out searching for us. So those for whom devotion is a disposition, even if they are not born devotees, but as soon as they get a contact with devotion, just take off.
Just take off. And then naturally they have been looking for something higher. When they come in contact with Krishna, they get naturally attracted towards Krishna.
And for such people, the practice of bhakti becomes joyful, constantly joyful in a sense because there is no inner temptation or inner distraction to battle with. They are naturally attracted to something higher and now they have found the highest reality. So then it is, at least in terms of internal struggle, there is no struggle.
Externally, for everyone, there is struggle in this world. But when there is devotion as a disposition, then more or less our spiritual advancement and eventual spiritual liberation is guaranteed. Because when something is a disposition, that means our thoughts naturally go in that direction.
And if our thoughts are naturally going towards Krishna, then we will think about Krishna in our life and we will think of Krishna at the time of our death. Anta kaale cha maameva sparanmukta vaakalevaram. In 8.5 Krishna says that, if you think of me at the time of death, they will attain me.
So in a sense, for all of us, we have experienced devotion as emotion. Now, some of us may already be at the level of devotion as disposition. But most of us are not there.
That is, I am not there. I am far away from it. So now how do we go from devotion as emotion to devotion as disposition? Devotion as something which we feel, which makes us want to explore something higher in life, to constantly being focused on the higher in our life, naturally.
So that is cultivation. That’s what we talk about, devotion as cultivation. Rupa Goswami is one of the prominent Acharyas, the leading disciple of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.
And he has written a book called Bhaktira Samal Sindhu. And there he talks about, he defines bhakti and there he talks about it primarily as cultivation. Anyabhilashita shunyam jnanakarmādhyanur anāvṛtam anukūlyena kṛṣṇānu śīlaṇaṁ bhaktiruttama It’s an elaborate definition.
And I will focus only on the part of śīlaṇaṁ. Śīlaṇaṁ means cultivation. So anuśīlaṇaṁ, systematic cultivation.
Prabhupāda writes in Upper Code in the Nectar of Instruction that devotion is not some imaginative ecstasy or some sentimental longing. It is actually, its foreground is practical activity. So cultivation means that it is something which we conscientiously do.
Like say, many people cultivate a garden in their backyard. They want to have some flowers or fruits or vegetables. Now when we cultivate something, there is a conscious effort.
That is we sow seeds, we get fertile soil and then we water it, we may fence it to protect it. It’s a conscious effort by which that desired vegetation grows. Now without any effort also some vegetation will grow.
But mostly that will be weeds. If you want some desired vegetation to grow, that requires cultivation. So like that, even without doing something, we will all develop some disposition.
We have some disposition and it will grow on its own. So we may get attracted to one thing or the other. In this world there are so many things which we may get attached to.
But if we want to have something desirable to which we want to get attached, that will require a cultivation. So now some people feel that actually devotion is love. And love is something that just happens.
Is love something that is to be… how do you cultivate love? The idea is that we meet someone and this is the Bollywood or Hollywood conception of love. You meet someone and as soon as you see them, electric current goes through your body. And then after that you feel, yes, this is the person for me.
So the idea is that love is something which just happens. So is love a matter of… if you select, contemplate and decide, I’m going to love this person, then is that really love? You feel it’s artificial, it’s mechanical. Actually it’s not necessarily like that.
The point is that even if we say that there is attraction, say a man, a boy and a girl, they see each other and they are attracted to each other. And they feel that they love each other. So initially there is an attraction.
So there may be what is called love at first sight. But the sustainability of the relationship depends not so much on what one feels on the first sight, but it depends on what one feels after many sights. So initially there will be attraction, but initial attraction is not going to be always there.
And after that, whether the relationship will go on or not, that will depend on how much there is commitment in the relationship. Commitment means when we come close to another person, initially we have seen their good side and attracted to it. Then we see their other side also.
And then we have to adjust and they still have a good side, but the other side is also there and we have to adjust and then gradually the relationship develops. So initial attraction, if it is there, it is good. But that initial attractor is no guarantor of a happy or sustainable relationship.
It is just a beginning point. And it is also not necessarily the only or the best beginning point. There can be initial attraction, but there is a lot of study of psychology and the study of the psychology of love.
And there psychologists say that romance has a bench life of around 12 months. What that means is that in our body, in our brain, when people fall in love with each other, basically there are certain hormones that are generated in the brain. Dopamine and serotonin, these are the primary chemicals that generate which gives very strong feelings.
So when people fall in love, at that time, these hormones are generated. And that’s why they feel excited. Electric current is going through my body or whatever.
They feel that. But these hormones, they are generated for about one year. And after that the hormonal secretion goes down.
That is just the natural way the neurobiology works, the biology of the brain works. So after that, whether the relationship will continue or not, that depends on the mutual commitment. So initially there will be a hormonal drive that attracts people together.
But afterwards, it will require cultivation for the relationship to be sustainable. And if there is no cultivation, the same two people who initially they are ready to fight with the whole world to be together. They say, I cannot live without him or her.
Initially they fight with the whole world to come together. But then afterwards, they start fighting with each other. Initially, I cannot live without you.
They say, I cannot live with you. So why does that happen? Because that relationship never graduated from the feelings that come to the feelings that are cultivated. It may happen that feelings come, feelings of attraction come initially.
And if they come, that’s good. But eventually the relationship will have to depend on, even when the feelings don’t come, they have to be cultivated. So any sustainable relationship, it requires both of these things.
Feelings have to come, but along with that, feelings also need to be cultivated. So same way in the process of bhakti, where we are developing a relationship with the Supreme Person, with Krishna. So there will be feelings that do come.
When we participate in kirtans, when we take darshan, when we go to a holy place, pilgrimage, when we meet great saintly people. So we do feel something special. But for our bhakti to be steady, we can’t just rely on feelings that come.
We have to have feelings that we cultivate. And cultivating feelings means that we do the actions that will bring forth the feelings. So some people who rely only on the feelings, they basically feel their way to actions.
Feel their way to actions means, if I feel like going to a temple, then I take my car and go to a temple. So feel their way to actions. But that is good if it happens.
But cultivation means we have to also act our way to the feelings. Not just feel our way to the actions. That means when we feel like it, we do it.
Rather we act our way to the feelings. That means we do the actions by which the feelings will come. So what does it mean? Do the actions.
There are many practices in bhakti. So for example, when we come in a temple, we bow down in front of the lord. We chant his holy names.
We do japa. These are all actions. And some people say this whole japa business that you do, just chant the name again and again and again.
Most of the time you are struggling not to sleep. You are bored. And you say this is meditation.
I don’t see any meditation over here. You just, what is happening over here? Just counting numbers over there. Yes, it could be that we are counting numbers.
But the point is, even in that counting numbers, there is a connection with Krishna. So Krishna himself says in the Bhagavad Gita in 12.8 to 12.12 in the Bhagavad Gita, the 12th chapter is called as Bhakti Yoga. And in that, he describes various levels at which bhakti can be practiced.
So 12.8 is devotion as disposition. This is where the whole mind and intelligence are absorbed in Krishna. mayyeva manadatsva may buddhim nivesaya nivasishyasi mayyeva ataurdham na samshaya Krishna says that if your mind is fixed in me, your intelligence is absorbed in me, then you are already living in me.
You are already living in me. Of this there is no doubt. Because for such people, their inner body is absorbed in Krishna.
And it’s only a matter of time when they will be also uniting with Krishna. After talking about this devotion as disposition, then he talks in the next verse 12.9 about devotion as a cultivation. ata chittam samadhatum na shakno sima isthiram abhyasa yogena tato mam icchaptum dhananjaya This is ata chittam samadhatum.
If however your consciousness is not absorbed in you, you cannot absorb yourself in me, you do not get samadhi, then na shakno sima isthiram, if you can’t do this, then what you should do? abhyasa yogena tato abhyasa yoga Abhyasa yoga means practice, practice again and again. What will happen by this? mam icchaptum dhananjaya mam icchaptum You will get the desire to attain. So now, essentially if you have desire for Krishna, we will be absorbed in Krishna because Krishna is there.
The problem with us is that we are chanting Krishna’s names, but we don’t have the desire for Krishna. That’s why we are not able to absorb ourselves in him. If we get the desire for him, then we will be naturally absorbed in him.
So Krishna is saying here, just do the activities again and again. abhyasa yogena tato, do it repeatedly. And by that repetition, even if it is mechanical, still that is beneficial.
So by repeated exposure, we will, repeated contact with Krishna through the practices of bhakti, we will move closer to Krishna. So sometimes, nowadays in today’s world, people are very much against rituals. They say, no, you should give up all rituals.
There were, in the last 3-4 years, there were two Bollywood movies which became very popular and they are basically mocking rituals. There was an OMG movie and then there was PK. So there is a lot of questions about religion and I have addressed those questions in two books which I have written.
One is OMG, re-answering the questions. And the second was, for this PK I wrote, GK for PK. So GK for PK is, GK is three levels.
GK is general knowledge, God knowledge and Gita knowledge. So I took the various questions over there which I raised in that movie and I answered, in those movies and I answered them. So they say that, what is the point of rituals? Now if you see, actually rituals are not there only in religion.
Rituals are there in every field of life. Now when we meet people, we shake hands. Shaking hands is a ritual.
What is a ritual? Ritual is basically an action that gives structure for expressing an emotion. When we meet someone, we want to express a cordial form of greeting to them. We shake hands.
So it’s an action that gives structure to an emotion. Sometimes if two business rivals are meeting, they may be shaking hands but they may be thinking of backstabbing the other person. There is no cordiality at all.
There is only animosity. So in that case, the handshake becomes not only superficial, it becomes hypocritical. And there are people who just shake hands so coldly.
But even when that happens, even if the ritual is done superficially or hypocritically, we don’t say, now give up all handshaking. We don’t do that. Because the handshake expresses emotion of greeting.
So rituals are required in every walk of life. Or for that example, when there are birthdays, we blow candles. Actually, what is the point in blowing a candle? What is the point of it all? If you go back in the history, you’ll find it actually comes from a Scandinavian superstition.
In Europe, they had an idea that for every year that a person ages, that person is that much vulnerable to that many evil spirits entering into the person. So every candle that you blow, that is that evil spirit is being snuffed out. So now, there is no rational basis to this idea.
But still, so many people do it. And they love it. They love it.
It’s a ritual. So the purpose, the significance, the meaning has been forgotten. But people are still doing it.
So from the Vedic perspective, you know, having a birthday celebration, cutting a cake, offering cake to each other, that is fine. That is basically bhunkte bhojate chaiva. You know, we offer food, we take food.
Generally, if devotees celebrate birthdays, devotees don’t blow candles. Because fire is considered auspicious. And fire should not be extinguished.
And if fire is at all to be extinguished, fire is always extinguished with our hands, not with our saliva. So that is not considered very clean. But anyway, the point is that even in routine material life as well as special material life, routine material life is shaking hands, special occasions in material life is birthdays.
There are rituals everywhere. So rituals themselves are not the problem. In fact, rituals are essential in life.
So in bhakti, we have rituals that are meant to act as means for expressing devotional emotions. So when you go in front of the Lord and we bow down, at that time, by bowing down, we get a feeling of reverence. And in bhakti, actually, the rituals all have a rational philosophical basis.
So the whole understanding is that the body and the mind are connected. And certain ways in which we conduct the body, that affects the emotions. Say for example, now, if I put my hand, leg on this chair, stretch my leg forward, I lean back like this.
I say, I am feeling very humble now. By position, this posture is actually a bossy posture. I can feel humble, but I have to go against what the body is telling me and try to cultivate the feeling of humility.
So there are certain bodily positions, bodily actions, which are conducive to certain emotions. So in bhakti, whenever there are rituals, the rituals are not just pointless or mindless. The rituals have a point.
And when we do them mindfully, then that point is served. So the rituals are done in a way that we express and experience emotion. So we express and experience both.
So when we go in the temple, we bow down in front of the Lord. Now for the pure devotees, actually when the Lord gives darshan, they are so much attracted to Krishna. Oh, my beloved Lord has come.
But they faint in ecstasy and they fall down. For us it is told, even if you don’t faint, you fall down. Bow down before the Lord.
The idea is, by this, so if we have devotion, the ritual helps us to express the emotion. If we don’t have devotion, by the ritual, we will experience the emotion. So rituals do both.
They express emotion when it is present and they help us to experience the emotion when it is not present. So for example, if we are doing kirtans, we just come distracted from somewhere and a lot of thoughts are going on in our mind. So we may not feel any emotion at that time.
But just start singing. As we start singing once, twice, thrice, slowly our minds are getting connected. And then we start experiencing emotion.
Or sometimes we may come to a program and we may already feel, Oh, you know, Krishna, I need you. I want to connect with you. As soon as we come over there, we already have a devotional disposition.
We have devotional feelings and we express that emotion. So rituals serve both purposes. They express emotion and they help us to experience emotion.
And then by investing our consciousness, by investing whatever emotions we have in those rituals, what happens is the devotion becomes enriched. So whatever emotion, we may feel a little devotion when we do kirtans, but actually when we do the kirtans, the devotion deepens, the devotion strengthens, the devotion sweetens. This is how the emotions become enriched.
And so the rituals, they are not simply pointless or mindless. They are very purposeful. And doing rituals in bhakti, that is how bhakti is cultivated.
Bhakti is a cultivation. Now how exactly does repeatedly doing an activity, repeatedly chanting the holy names, repeatedly coming and hearing Krishna katha, repeatedly going to temple, how does that lead to the development of bhakti? So I’ll talk about this from three perspectives and then I’ll conclude and you can have question answers. So basically repetition itself leads to attraction.
That is a normal human psychological principle. Say a person becomes alcoholic. Initially first time they drink.
It’s not a very pleasant thing. But second time, third time, fourth time, just by repetition gradually the attraction comes. Or say somebody comes from India.
India is mad for cricket. But if you go to Americans, for them cricket refers only to an insect. Most of them do not even know what cricket is.
Here in America people are mad for baseball. It’s similar but it’s you could say the American avatar of cricket. It’s different.
So now say an Indian may come to America. Indian may know nothing about baseball. But say that Indian boy stays in a hostel and there all the other boys are just mad after baseball.
And when the Indian boy came, he did not know anything about baseball. But after six months, he is mad for baseball. So what has happened? Just repetition.
He has his friends talking. He hears others talking. And that repetition leads to attraction.
Just repeated exposure to something. Especially repeated exposure to not just that activity. That Indian boy just happened and saw baseball being played somewhere.
That might lead to some interest and attraction. But if he had some friend, some co-student, and he says how attached that he is to baseball. How much emotionally involved he is in baseball.
Then that creates attraction. So when we do repetition, repetition itself leads to attraction. It’s a normal human principle of psychology.
But that happens through the triangularity of desires. What do I mean by triangularity? See, our desires are not just linear. Linear desire means, say, right now we are sitting and we know after this there is prasad.
And say we get the fragrance of a gulab jamun. And what happens? We are here and the gulab jamun is there. Just our desire goes to that.
So linear desire means from us the desire goes to the object and we start desiring it. So some desires grow in a linear way. But many desires go in a triangular way.
Triangular way means, as I give the example of baseball. Or say, there are some video games, people become just mad after video games. A few months ago there was this video game that came out, Pokemon Go.
And people just went mad after that. Everywhere on the street they were searching for this Pokemon and trying to catch it. There were some road accidents also happened because of that.
Now initially, when this game came out, people say, what is this? Nothing special about it. But then, say, some students see some other students playing that game. What is this? They are completely lost in it.
Hey, what are you doing this? They also watch it. After some time, so what has happened is just seeing the Pokemon Go doesn’t lead to attraction. It’s not a linear attraction.
The desire doesn’t grow linearly. What happens is, they see someone else playing the Pokemon. And by seeing that person playing the Pokemon, their attraction grows.
I also want to play it. So generally, in bhakti, our desires grow much more triangularly than linearly. That means, linearly means, say, how many of us, we saw Bhagavad Gita.
I want to read it. I want to understand it. I want to make this the guidebook of my life.
For a few, it might happen. But for most of us, we associate with some devotees and they have studied the Bhagavad Gita and they love the Bhagavad Gita. They live the Bhagavad Gita.
They find fresh insights in the Gita. And then by seeing their attraction to the Gita, seeing their devotion to the Gita, there must be something special in this book. Let me also read it.
Let me also understand it. So in bhakti, generally our desires grow triangular. So by associating with those who have desire for Krishna, our desire increases.
So when we talk about repetition, repetition is itself beneficial. But repetition in association is especially beneficial. So when we chant the holy names, when we study scripture, when we do it in association, the triangularity of desire works in our favor.
So repetition itself leads to attraction. That’s one principle. Another point is that how does bhakti get cultivated by doing the activities of bhakti again and again? The second is purification.
Purification means that we at our core are souls. And the soul has a natural attraction towards Krishna. That natural attraction is presently not manifest because of impurities.
Just like iron filings are naturally attracted towards a magnet. But if the iron gets rusted, then it is not attracted to a magnet. Once we remove the rust, the iron will again become attracted.
So similarly at present our consciousness is covered over by the rust of impurities. There is lust, anger, greed, envy, pride, illusion, various kinds of anarthas are there. Because of which we don’t feel attracted to Krishna.
So when we connect with Krishna, when we chant Krishna’s name, when we take Krishna darshan, Krishna is all pure and He is all purifying. Pavitranam pavitram yo mangalanam cha mangalam. He is the most pure among all purifying objects.
He is the most auspicious among all auspicious objects. So contact with the all pure purifies us. And that’s how our attraction to Krishna emerges again.
It becomes manifest. So when say a boy starts getting attracted to baseball, it is not that there is a natural attraction of that person towards baseball. There is something which is artificial which happens because of exposure repeatedly.
That principle also works in bhakti. Just by repeated exposure there is attraction. But there is something much more that is working.
That is we have a natural attraction towards Krishna. So some people say that this bhakti business is not for me. That you practice bhakti, I am not interested in bhakti.
I don’t have that inclination. Nowadays people try to talk everything in terms of genes. Some people say my wife has a god gene but I don’t have that gene.
So let her go to the temple, I will not go to the temple. It’s not like that. Everybody has a soul natural attraction towards Krishna.
It is just that it may be less manifest, it may be more manifest. The covering on it may be greater in some people, the covering on it may be lesser in some people. But by contact with Krishna that covering gets removed, the impurities go away.
And thus the natural attraction towards Krishna emerges. So when we repeatedly expose ourselves to Krishna, we are getting purified. And thus our attraction to Krishna becomes stronger and stronger.
And the third is that there is revelation. Krishna is all attractive. And as we keep practicing bhakti, as we keep pleasing Him, then Krishna reveals His all attractiveness to us.
So when Krishna reveals His all attractiveness, then the heart gets completely charmed by Him. Krishna is so sublimely attractive that for those who can get a glimpse of His attractiveness, then there is just nothing else which can attract the heart. Itar raga vismaranam ranam The gopis, they say that Krishna when He becomes attracted to you, what happens is that actually everything else gets forgotten.
Everything else. There is attraction to Krishna. Once that manifests, then the gopis say that atatiyat bhava ahanikananam tritiyugayate tvam pashyatam kutilakuntalay shrimukhamjate jaraudikshatam pakshmakrudrsham Krishna, every morning when you go to the forest, now for us, we watch you till the last moment and you disappear into the horizon.
And every moment of the day when we can’t see you, that is like a millennia. tritiyugayate tvam pashyatam Because we are not able to see you. And finally when you come back and we are able to behold you, we are drinking the nectar of your beautiful form with our eyes.
And what happens? Our eyes blink. And for us the blinking of the eyes is like the destruction of the whole world. We can’t bear it.
One moment of separation from you. jaraudikshatam pakshmakrudrsham How foolish is this creator Brahma that he made eyes that blink? Actually, once I was going to a flight and then outside the airport at the entrance they had put a TV and some cricket match was going on. So the road pathway was in between and there were people who were watching.
And I was just waiting to go across and I walk a little slowly. So they just didn’t want to miss even one moment of the action. So I wanted to walk.
No, no, wait, wait, wait, wait. So this is the perverted reflection of the Gopis. The Gopis didn’t want to miss seeing Krishna.
People don’t want to miss watching cricket. So tamapashyatam, you don’t see you. There is so much attraction to Krishna that you just can’t bear being separated from Krishna for even one moment.
So that is when Krishna reveals his all attractiveness. In the end, just completely get charmed by him. So that is the revelation.
So when we practice bhakti, there are three things which are working. That just the repeated activity itself engenders attraction. Along with that, because there is a soul’s actual attraction towards Krishna, that also leads to purification.
That there is purification that happens by contact with Krishna and that also leads to attraction to him. And Krishna himself being pleased by our practice of bhakti, he reveals his all attractiveness. And when he reveals that, sometimes when we are just chanting, we feel such strength and such sublimity in chanting.
Just want to go on and on and on. So that is actually, some ways Krishna is revealing himself to us. So at our stage, we also get some glimpses of bhakti.
And actually, I’ll just conclude this with one point now. I answer many questions on my website, thespiritualscientist.com. So one person asked a question to me. He says, when we go for yatras, we go to Vrindavan, Mayapur, we feel so much devotion over there.
All our materialistic cravings, we forget them. So, but then when we come back, all those come back again. So, is it that when we go to yatra, we make advancement and then when we come back, we do regression? You know, we go ahead and then we go back again.
So if that is going to happen, then what do we actually get by going to pilgrimage? So I explained that. It is not that we make advancement and we make regress. Rather, it is in the association of devotees, Jiva Goswami explains in the Bhakti Sandarbha, that even neophyte devotees, when they are in the association of advanced devotees, even they can experience advanced devotional actions.
So it is not that we have made advancement and we have come back. Rather, it is in that association we get experience of something which we are not yet entitled to experience. It’s a glimpse of what lies ahead for us.
And in the association of devotees, that glimpse comes. But when the association of devotees is not there, that glimpse goes away. It is not that we have regressed.
Rather, we have returned to where we are but with the memory of what lies ahead. So we can cherish those memories and use them to keep moving forward. Even when we go through some dry phases in our spiritual life, when the devotion as an emotion doesn’t come, when we feel tasteless, at that time we can remember that we had also experienced the taste.
Taste is there. It may just not be present right now. But if I just keep practicing Bhakti, it will manifest.
And this way when we persevere, we will become more and more purified. As we become purified, we become more and more attracted towards Krishna. Devotion becomes a disposition for us.
And when it becomes a disposition, then even in this world, Bhakti becomes joyful. When in this world, we start realizing that wherever I am, Krishna is there for me. I can just chant His name.
I can remember Him. And I can experience Krishna. And as Bhakti becomes joyful in this world, and then at the end of our life, we attain Krishna.
Because we have shown through our life, through our actions that Krishna is, I want you. And naturally, at the end of our life, we will attain Him. So I’ll summarize.
I spoke today about how devotion is three little things. Does anyone remember? Emotion, disposition and cultivation. Yeah, thank you.
So in emotion, I discussed about how people all over the world, millions have experienced something higher. Something that is not explainable in terms of materialistic worldview. So many skeptics and atheists said that religion will die.
But it has not died because people in general have experienced something higher. And that emotion which just comes upon them without any effort on their part, that reminds them there is something more in their life. For us also, we also, while doing the activities of Bhakti, we experience some rich, sublime emotion.
And that is good. That is the starting point we could say for Bhakti. When there are advanced devotees for whom devotion is a disposition.
Disposition means that they are naturally attracted towards Krishna. So when they are naturally attracted, it means that they don’t, for them it is not, it is naturally, they just, they are not thinking there is something higher. They are actually focusing on that which is higher.
And that devotion, for those whom devotion is a disposition, they just naturally move towards Krishna. So, there is, we all suffer different losses in life. But the most agonizing loss is the loss of purpose.
That what we live for, we find that there is no point in it. I thought it was so wonderful, but I got it and it’s an anticlimax. And what do I do next? If we are in a materialistic association, then materialistic association will set up another goal for us.
And just keep pursuing it. So, even if we win the rat race, we still remain rats. But if we recognize at that time there is something more in life, then we will turn towards the higher aspect of life.
But there are some people who have already got it. And for them devotion is a disposition. So we also want that.
And to go from devotion as an emotion to devotion as a disposition, there is cultivation. Cultivation means conscious effort is required. So, we talk about, in any relationship, people say we fall in love.
Love is an emotion that can happen to us. But for the relationship to be sustainable, love is also an emotion that will need to be cultivated. Romance is a bench life of about 12 months.
Initially the hormonal attraction that is there, that lasts for about a year. But afterwards the relationship will depend on how much consciously the attraction and the affection is cultivated. The same principle applies in our relationship with Krishna.
We may feel some emotion and that is good whenever we feel it. But we need to consciously cultivate the emotion towards Krishna. It’s not that we just feel our way to actions.
That means we do the actions of bhakti when we feel like it. But rather we act our way to the feelings. By doing the actions of bhakti, the feelings will come.
In that connection we discuss rituals. Rituals are not necessarily pointless or mindless. In materialistic life, we discuss the rituals of shaking hands and blowing a candle.
So, in bhakti the rituals are designed in such a way that the physical actions will cultivate the appropriate mental emotions. Just like by bowing down we feel humility and reverence. And in bhakti when we do the practices of bhakti consistently, then the attraction to Krishna emerges.
And that happens through three ways. First is simply repetition leads to attraction. That’s a normal human psychological principle.
Say how a person becomes alcoholic or a person becomes a baseball fan. Just repeated exposure. And repetition especially in association is most powerful.
We talked about our desires are not just linear but also triangular. So by seeing somebody who is absorbed in the Gita, relishing the Gita, our attraction for Bhagavad Gita will increase. And then devotion, the cultivation also happens through not just repetition but also through purification.
So the soul has a natural attraction towards Krishna like a magnet, like iron file is attracted to the magnet. And when the rust of impurities is removed by contact with all pure Krishna, then our attraction naturally emerges. So bhakti is not just like any other activity.
People may say you just chant, you just do any activity repeatedly, you’ll get attracted to it. But bhakti is much more than that. That is soul’s natural attraction towards Krishna that manifests.
And thirdly is Krishna himself is all-attractive. And when we practice bhakti, he reveals his all-attractiveness. And I give the example of the gopis.
How completely captivated someone can be when they get a glimpse of Krishna’s all-attractiveness. They can’t tolerate even one moment of the blinking of the eyes. That much visual separation from Krishna they can’t tolerate.
And lastly concluded by saying that when we practice bhakti, we go through the process of repetition, purification and revelation by which we will surely become attracted towards Krishna. And ultimately when our disposition becomes emotional, then our destination will be eternal. Thank you very much.
Hare Krishna. The topic was beyond attachment and detachment to commitment. So the way I linked it all is that sometimes people, when they come to spiritual life, they have two extremes.
They think that I have to give up all my attachments and that’s why they feel I will not practice spiritual life. Otherwise it is that they think spiritual life means just becoming detached from everything. And in the name of detachment, they become irresponsible.
So we address both these notions. What does it mean when you practice spiritual life? The essence in bhakti is neither attachment nor detachment. It is commitment.
So the attachment to worldly things, they limit us. They often bring out the worst within us. They make us controlled by the people to whom we are attached.
And that can often be undesirable. But in bhakti our focus is not so much on rejecting the attachment. It is more on spiritualizing the attachment.
So detachment, if it means just giving up everything, then we may, if we are doing that because of frustration, that oh this is so difficult, this is not working out, so I give it up. Then today we give up material things out of frustration. Tomorrow we start practicing bhakti and there also things don’t seem to be working out, we’ll give that up also.
So we will not grow by detachment, by just simply giving up things. Bhakti is not so much about giving up as it is about taking up. We take up the process which attracts us to Krishna.
So in that sense, the essence of bhakti is commitment. It is neither we go beyond attachment and detachment towards commitment. And when we understand bhakti as commitment, we don’t focus so much on rejecting the material for accepting the spiritual.
Rather we recognize that ultimately the essence of spiritual is an attitude of service. That I am meant to serve Krishna. And I can serve Krishna through directly devotional activities.
And I can serve Krishna also through my family responsibilities, through my profession, through my job. Krishna says we can make our work also into worship. So we see the material and spiritual as simply one continuum of increasing selflessness.
So when we have any commitment in material life, whether it is to our job, whether it is to our family, that forces us to put something other than our own mind and our feelings first. And that itself is a growth in selflessness. And the ultimate expansion of the selflessness is when we put Krishna first.
And when we learn to love Krishna. So the same process of commitment, if we exercise it in material life, that same culture of commitment, that will help us to become committed in spiritual life also. And in that way we can grow towards Krishna.
Thank you. So are there any questions or comments? Yeah. So Pandit Ramachandran asked me a question in the afternoon.
So I said that is an important question. So I’ll answer now. So he said that when if some devotees, they practice bhakti throughout their life.
And how can we know for sure that they go back to Godhead? This question? Actually, firstly, if we are looking for empirical proof in terms of observational proof, what to speak of going back to Godhead? We cannot even have empirical proof that Godhead exists. Isn’t it? We can’t even have that empirical proof that the soul exists. Empirical in terms of observer.
So the word proof has different meanings. Now what to speak of the soul exists in terms of empirical proof or proof in the terms of language of science or mathematics. Now even you and I exist, it cannot be proven.
Your body and my body exists, it can be certain. It occupies certain space, it occupies certain mass. But you as a personality, you as a person, where does that exist? Is it here? Is it here? From the point of material analysis, the whole idea of personality itself is not provable.
So the idea of proof, strict proof, which we apply, then we will disprove ourselves out of existence. What to speak of disproving God? So there is a different way to infer this. What is that way? That is actually, even in science, this method is used.
Sometimes we just say science is about experiments. And we do the same thing repeatedly, experiment, and by that we come to a conclusion. But not all science is experiment.
When science also goes to talk about origins, how the universe came about. Scientists cannot make the universe come about again to show or to do experiment. So there they don’t use the method of repeated experimentation is called as induction.
In mathematics, when there is mathematical proof that is offered, that is called as deduction. The 3 plus 4 is 7. That is simply a mathematical rule. We don’t need experiments to do it.
It is just simply, by definition it is like that. But if I drop a stone, it will fall. This is a matter of experimentation.
So we do experiments again and again and when the same thing happens again and again, we say, this is what will happen. That is called induction. But when science talks about origins, we can’t do induction over there.
We can’t do any experiment to show how the universe came about or how life came about. Scientists use a different form of reasoning called as abduction. Abduction doesn’t mean kidnapping.
It’s a different meaning. Abduction actually means, it’s abductive form of reasoning. It means inference to the best explanation.
It’s inference to the best explanation. Say that this is what is actually done in most crime novels or detective novels. Say there is a room in which you find that there is a person who has been murdered.
At three o’clock in the afternoon, the person was alive. Nine o’clock somebody went in. They found he was dead.
You find out who all came in that room. You have a camera at the door. The four-year-old boy who came in.
He could not have pushed the knife into that person’s belly. There is a 70-year-old grandmother who came in. She also did not have that strength.
There is a 25-year-old butler who came there. Probably he must have killed. So now you cannot, when detection is done, again we can’t repeat.
We can’t tell the butler, please kill him again so that we can catch you on camera. Can’t do that. It’s an inference to best explanation.
So same way, inference to best explanation means from different ways of reasoning we come to one concurrent conclusion. And by that we understand, this is what is likely to happen. So same way, if we consider, Baldevidya Bhushan actually analyzes this in the last verse of the Govinda Bhashya commentary on the Vedanta Sutra.
The last sutra is Anavrtti Shabda. Anavrtti Shabda. Shabda means scripture.
Anavrtti. Aavrtti means to come back. Anavrtti means one will never come back.
So Shabda, scripture says that one will not return. And there he gives analysis of various kinds. He says that actually the Lord is so eager for the devotee to come to Him that the Lord accompanies him in this world and is constantly waiting to help the devotee turn towards Him.
So if that Lord who has not forsaken the soul, even when the soul has forsaken the Lord, for so many lifetimes we turn away from Krishna but Krishna doesn’t abandon us. So that Lord who has not forsaken the soul for so many lifetimes and the soul has forsaken Him, if that soul now turns towards the Lord and practices bhakti towards that Lord, how can that Lord forsake such a soul now? If He had to forsake, if He had to give up, He would have given up earlier. Why now? So He will never forsake the devotee.
Then second point he says is, what is the purpose of this world? The purpose of this world ultimately is to help us to direct our love towards Krishna and attain Krishna. It is not that Krishna wants to keep us in this world. It is our own desires to enjoy in this world that keep us in this world.
So if a devotee has practiced bhakti diligently, a devotee has shown Krishna the desire to attain Him, then the purpose of this world is already served. Why would Krishna keep a devotee in this world? Krishna doesn’t want to. Krishna’s whole purpose in being in this world is to help us to come from this world to Him.
And another point is that Krishna has directly promised this in His scriptures also. That if you practice bhakti diligently, you will come to Him. So beyond that, we have that famous pastime of Ramanacharya.
Suppose a devotee is not able to remember the Lord at the time of death, then what will happen is the Lord will remember the devotee and the Lord will give remembrance. So we shouldn’t think of the remembrance of Krishna simply as a mental function. When you talk about remembering Krishna, it’s like say, you know, I sit here and I remember India.
That’s a mental function. That is also done. But when it comes to the practice of bhakti for a devotee, the remembrance of Krishna is a spiritual manifestation.
If we think of remembering Krishna simply as a mental function, sometimes people may say that, I will just do all kind of worldly enjoyment throughout my life and when I’ve had enough enjoyment, then I’ll take a gun in my head and Hare Krishna and shoot the gun. I’ll remember Krishna and go back to Krishna. It’s not that simple.
We can’t trick Krishna like that. Because we may say Hare Krishna, but if throughout our life we have cultivated mental attachment, we’ll not be able to remember Krishna. And the whole point of recollection, it’s not again just an action.
It’s a disposition. It’s a spiritual manifestation. That’s why when Krishna says first in 8.5, if you remember me at the time of death, you’ll come to me.
In 8.6, he gives general principle. Whatever you remember at the time of death, you’ll attain that. And 8.7, he again gives the application of that.
Therefore he says, throughout your life you try to remember me. Always remember me, you’ll come to me. So, we understand that Krishna is a God of mercy.
And if we do our part in trying to practice bhakti diligently as well as we can, Krishna will do his part. So we don’t have to worry too much about what will happen at the time of death or what will happen to us after death. What is important is what we do before death.
If we keep practicing bhakti diligently, Krishna will always do his part. And the way we understand that some devotee has gone back to Godhead or not, it is simply by looking at the life of that devotee. The devotees practice bhakti diligently.
Then what reason does Krishna have to keep such a devotee in this material world? And if Krishna wants that devotee to do some service in the material world, then that devotee is there by Krishna’s desire, not one’s own desire. And if somebody is by Krishna’s desire, then that person is so surrendered to Krishna, and they are already practically in the spiritual world itself. So this is how we, with respect to the post-mortem destination of a devotee, is the inference to the best explanation.
Is that from the point of view of seeing of the purpose of the material world, from the point of view of Krishna’s always being with us as a super soul, from the point of view of Krishna’s explicit assurance, from the point of view of the soul’s natural attraction towards Krishna being developed, the purpose of life being served. From all these points of view, we can conclude that a devotee who has devoted one’s life to Krishna will attain Krishna. Does this answer your question? Thank you.
Hare Krishna. We go on. Any other questions? Yes, Mataji.
We have to cultivate love for each other. There is also a relation between a child and a mother. They don’t have to cultivate love for each other.
It comes very naturally. Our relationship with God is like our parents. Why do we have that natural love for God? Why do we have to go through this process of repetition, bhakti and revelation and purification? Why is it that when we know that our relationship with God is like our mother and father, why is it so difficult and why Krishna puts us in this situation where we have to cultivate and persevere and persevere? Nice question.
So, in a relationship between a man and a woman, the attraction has to be cultivated after the initial infatuation phase, but in a mother-child relationship, the attraction is natural. So isn’t our relationship with Krishna that of a child and a mother? Why don’t we have natural attraction towards them? Why do we have to go through tests and persevere through them? Yes, our relationship with Krishna is actually not simply reducible to any relationship in this world. It is like a parent relationship, but there are also many flavors to the relationship.
There is that famous verse which says, Dear Lord, You are my mother, You are my father, You are my brother, You are my friend, You are my wealth, You are my learning, You are my everything. So, there are different relationships in this world with which we can compare to get a sense of our relationship with Krishna. In fact, all relationships in this world, they reflect to some extent the relationship with Krishna.
So Krishna’s relationship, our relationship with Krishna is much deeper. So, in different contexts, different metaphors may be used to illustrate different aspects of our relationship with Krishna. Now, with respect to the cultivation aspect as contrasted with the spontaneous aspect.
Yes, it is Krishna is our parent and we are his children. The difference is that we are like rebellious children. We are like children who don’t think of ourselves as children.
We think that I already know everything. That we, most of the time when people come to God, they want to have a partnership with God. And the terms of the partnership is, God, you know, I have this problem and this is the solution to this problem.
And you please make the solution work. So, that means the terms of the partnership with God are, my intelligence, your power. So, I have already solved the problem, you just have to implement it.
So, my intelligence and your power. It doesn’t work like that. So, we don’t have that childlike faith in Krishna because we think that we know a lot.
So, we are not in that mood of a child. Although conceptually we may accept that yes, Krishna is God, is our father, but practically we don’t have that conception. So, then that conception has to be developed.
So, with respect to a mother and a child, in this very life, we see that the child, the mother cares for the child first inside her own body and then with her own body’s milk and then afterwards also so much intimacy. Child also sees that, I need my mother. So, that practical expression and experience of that love is there, whereas that is not there for us with Krishna.
Krishna is invisible and he is invisible by intention. Because this world is meant for people who want to be without God, who want to enjoy without God. So, we have to, that’s why cultivate the relationship with Krishna.
And as we practice bhakti, that childlike faith in Krishna will also come over a period of time. So, we see Shrila Prabhupada at one level, like a very powerful Acharya, smashing misconceptions of people, firmly speaking the message of the absolute truth. But that same Shrila Prabhupada, if we see in the Markine Bhagavad Dharma, the poem which he composed on the ship Jaladuta when he was going to America, what does he say? Krishna, you make my words understandable to them.
alankruta koribara khamata tomar But you have the capacity to make my words understandable to them. He says, Prabhupada is simply depending on Krishna. aani aache jadee prabhu aamare na chaate na chao na chao prabhu na chao se mate kashtere putali jatha na chao se mate So, Prabhupada says that, my dear Lord, if you have brought me here to dance, just make me dance, make me dance.
Just like a puppet is made to dance, you make me dance, oh Lord. So, there is just complete childlike dependence on Krishna. Krishna, you do whatever you want with me.
So, there is that aspect also. When we become purified, we feel the dependence on Krishna. But when we are functioning in a particular role, we act responsibly according to that role.
Now, the purpose, why we have to cultivate, why we have to go through tests is just to show Krishna what is it that we want. I was in Melbourne last year and there one devotee asked a question after the class. We say that we have to give up the bad option and choose the good option in this world.
The good thing is bhakti ultimately. But why is it that there are so many bad options? And the good option is so few. So, I explained that is how it is always in any multiple choice exam.
And out of five options, four are the wrong options. And one option is the right option. Now, if the choice were simply based on, the correct choice is simply a matter of probability.
Then we could say the teacher has rigged the odds against the student. Because the probability of getting the right answer is only 20%. And 20% is not passing marks.
But then the correct choice is not a matter of probability. The correct choice is a matter of education. The teacher has taught, the student is expected to have studied.
And after the student has studied, then the student chooses, then the student is actually demonstrating what one has studied. So, at one level, when we are presented with multiple choices in life, sometimes we feel that actually, oh, I have to give up this. I have to give up that.
I have to give up that. It is so difficult. Yes, it is difficult.
But we grow in our bhakti just as when a student doesn’t select a wrong option, student selects the right option. And they both go together. So, we grow in our bhakti not just by directly selecting Krishna, we grow in bhakti also by rejecting the world’s distractions.
So, these are all, for a devotee, one sees it, and you have to see this, see the difficulties that we face. We see them as opportunities to express our devotion to Krishna. And in that way, we can go closer to him through whatever we are doing in life.
And by showing, the more we show Krishna that we want to choose him, the closer we go to him. Ultimately, we go to him entirely. So, here, to summarize, our relationship with Krishna cannot be equated with any one relationship in this world.
And for explaining different facets of that relationship, different metaphors are used. And to demonstrate the point that we are like the children of Krishna, but we don’t feel like childlike. We already think we know and we feel that even if I want God, I want God to do my things.
So, the process of bhakti or the process of purification in this world means that we use our grown-up intelligence. It’s not that we can go back. A grown-up person cannot become a child.
So, rather what we use our grown-up intelligence to make the right choice. So, the tests that we face in this world are like multiple choice exams, which are meant to help us show our devotion to Krishna. And just as every right choice means a student gets marks and goes towards passing, towards promotion.
So, like that, every time we choose Krishna, we are moving closer to him. We are moving towards attaining him. Does that answer your question? Thank you.
Hare Krishna. Yes, Mataji. You mentioned that repetition leads to attraction.
And one of the theories says that the repetition leads to attraction, but after it reaches a certain peak, it goes in inverse proportion. Just like if you keep eating the same sweet over and over again, and after some time it goes in inverse proportion. So, how is it that this theory fails in the end? Okay.
So, repetition leads to attraction, it is said. But then repetition also leads to satiation. You know, you get satiated by something.
That if you eat the same sweet again and again, enough now. We take one sweet, second sweet, third sweet. Somebody, after that, you know, they offer 10 sweet to us.
You also take some. It is not that we are concerned about them. It is just that we do not want now.
But we put it off as you also take some. So, the thing is that even if the satiation is there, it is temporary. That means the person eats some sweets and says enough.
But after one day, after two days, again the desire for the sweets comes back. So, even if simply repeated indulgence were to lead to satiation, and that is going to lead to detachment, it does not work like that. Temporarily there is enough, but again after that we want it.
So, that principle, whenever we do an activity repeatedly, actually the attachment to it increases. It is like, say, if a person is staying here, and his office is here, and in between there is an alcoholic bar. And they drink alcohol once.
And every time they pass by that bar, they will think, maybe I should go and drink. Maybe I should go and drink. And if that person drinks once, twice, thrice, four times, five times, at that time after drinking they say enough now.
But next time they pass by, again the desire will come. They keep drinking again and again, the next time, as soon as they get out of the house only they think, I have to go to the bar. Sometimes some people are so attached, that as soon as they wake up, the first thing they think about is alcohol.
So, what has happened is, by repeated indulgence, their desire is becoming stronger and stronger. So, same way, this principle, although temporarily, after indulgence there might be some satiation, but it is not detachment. This repetition actually increases the attraction, increases the attachment.
And same way, with the practice of Krishna Bhakti, sometimes, you know, if there is a long lecture, enough now, I want this to end. But if you develop a taste for Krishna Bhakti, I want to hear more. At that time, our physical and mental capacity may limit us.
The soul’s attraction towards Krishna is long lasting. But the physical and mental capacities will limit us. We feel exhausted.
But then after some time, again we feel attraction towards Krishna. So, over a period of time, this attraction towards Krishna will increase more and more. Thank you.
Hare Krishna. Yes. I have a question.
Is it supposed to reduce your emotions? Like, if somebody is sick, or like a death also, the level of emotions has gone down. Is that natural or? Okay. So, if some problem happens, some grief happens, some death happens, is the level of emotions goes down by the practice of Bhakti? Is that natural? Is that desirable? There are two different things.
One is that there is excessive emotion which works against us. When Abhimanyu is killed in the Kurukshetra war, at that time, Yudhishthira is devastated. Because Yudhishthira feels that actually the Chakravyuha was arranged to capture him.
He says, to save myself, I sent Abhimanyu there. And Abhimanyu was killed. So, he feels, I was responsible for his death.
So, at that time, when his grief struck, so Narada comes over there. And Narada tells him that, okay, give up this grief. Because grief achieves nothing other than to sap the energy of the grieving person.
So, there he talks about how grief is undesirable. But then, in that same next chapter, when Arjuna comes to know that Abhimanyu is passed away, Arjuna is shattered. He is crying pitilessly.
And Krishna doesn’t tell over there. You have forgotten the Bhagavad Gita? Bhagavad Gita says you are not the body, you are the soul. Krishna is sensitive over there.
So, there is natural expression of emotions. So, there are certain situations when emotions are natural. And if you don’t express the emotions, they will get repressed over there.
But it is, we are not meant to repress emotions. But it is also not that we are meant to wallow in emotions. Just keep grieving, keep grieving, keep grieving.
Something has gone wrong. That means we are just living in the past. So, if our emotionality has gone down, we have to see for ourselves, what is the overall effect of it in our life.
Is it making us more stabler? We were over emotional and now we have become more stabler. We don’t get so disturbed by things. And we are able to do what we are meant to do more effectively.
Because emotionality can interrupt us from our functioning. So, if that has happened, then the emotionality going down is good. But if you find that we are becoming cold hearted, then we have to understand that actually bhakti is also a matter of emotions.
So, if we see whatever we are doing in life, our relationships with others, that is also a service to Krishna. And as a service to Krishna, there are certain emotions which are appropriate. So, we don’t have to suppress the emotions.
So, the going down of worldly emotions is good. Because usually the tendency in the materialistic world is to have excessive emotions. But in the name of spiritual advancement, it is not that we are meant to suppress emotions.
It is not that a loved one passes away and I don’t shed one tear. And that proves how advanced I am. One time a person came to a sadhu and he said, I think I should become a sannyasi.
He says, why? He says, you know, my wife passed away, I did not cry one tear. So, the sannyasi told him, the purpose of becoming a sannyasi is to cry for Krishna. You can’t cry for your wife, how are you going to cry for Krishna? The point is, just hard heartedness is not the qualification for bhakti.
So, it is not that we are meant to suppress all our emotions. There are appropriate emotions which are desired at particular situations. So, we have to see and accordingly, if our emotionality is too high, it is good to get it down.
And bhakti will help us to get it down. And if our emotionality is too low, then even if we have to hike up the emotions by conceiving our relationships as a service to Krishna, we can invest the appropriate emotions in that relationship. Any other question? So, we spend a substantial part of our life in our workplace.
So, how can we make that work spiritual without offending our neighbor and without affecting our work? Yes. See, first of all, when we talk about making our work spiritual, it is primarily in intention. It is not necessary in action.
That was when Arjuna was fighting the Kurukshetra war. It was not at that time, every time he was putting an arrow on his bow. Hare Krishna! Hare Krishna! It was not like that.
At that time, he was actually fighting. He was planning, okay, this enemy is going to shoot like this, I will shoot like this. He was completely absorbed in the activity of fighting.
So, where was his devotion then? The devotion was in the intention. His intention is Krishna wants me to fight this war. And I will fight this war.
Now, if you see that way, Arjuna won the Kurukshetra war because he was a master archer. And how did he become a master archer? Again, it was not simply by chanting Hare Krishna. He practiced archery.
He practiced archery diligently. Do you know how diligently that? In the day time he would practice all day and night time also he would practice. That’s how he got the name Budhakrishna.
So, Arjuna was diligent even in his worldly profession. So, it is not that bhakti means that we simply consider our profession as worldly and try to neglect it and think this is not spiritual. The rest of it is spiritual.
No, whatever we are doing, we are meant to do it well. And so, if we are in a profession, first of all, our intention is to serve Krishna. How will that intention come? It is not just a sentiment.
If we are actually practicing bhakti, we are understanding the philosophy of bhakti, then we understand that Krishna is the goal of our life. We are doing sadhana nicely, then the sadhana strengthens our spiritual desire for Krishna. And then, so if we have adequate time for a sadhana, invest our time and intelligence in studying scripture, in chanting, then the spiritual intention becomes solidified in our heart.
And with that spiritual intention when we work, then that work, even if it is not explicitly spiritual, still it is spiritualized. That’s the first point with respect to the spiritualization of our work. It is primarily an intention.
Secondarily, it is not just an intention. It is also a result. So, what comes before, what comes after.
So, we are, especially, if we are earning money, we expect it to be charity. Charity is not just meant to be an activity. Charity is meant to be a mentality.
Some people say that now I am in a very difficult situation financially, so I will not give charity now. In the future, I will give a huge charity. Well, it is possible and if you can give a huge charity in future, that is good.
But the point is, charity is not just meant to be an activity. It is not that Krishna has considered how much, how big is the charity that you give. It is meant to be a mentality.
That what I have got is by Krishna’s mercy. So, out of a part of it, I will give to Krishna. See, it is a small amount.
It is a mentality that has been cultivated. And mentality is cultivated through habit. So, if we give a part of the fruits of our work to Krishna, that is also spiritualizing the work.
And additionally, while, so this is before and after, intention and result we talked about. While doing the activity also, we focus on doing the activity as well as we can. But at the same time, wherever it is possible, if we can create spiritual stimuli around us, that means we may have some wallpapers.
If we are working on a computer, we can have wallpapers of Krishna. Or if we are doing some non-intellectual work, then we can have some kirtans going on. If we are doing some mechanical work, we can hear some lectures also, whatever it is.
So, that practicality can be worked out according to time, place, circumstance. We can find out for ourselves what we can do in our situation. And so, as we keep trying to bring spirituality into our workplace, we will find there are newer and newer ways in which we can connect things with Krishna.
So, it can be very deep. Somebody may be a scientist and they are studying science and they are studying the complex equations and all this. They say, how is all of nature working so much according to mathematical equations? That is actually because God has made it like that.
So, we may go deep into the subject also and see the hand of God over there. Or we are just doing our work. It’s software coding.
You can’t see so much Krishna over there. But in the environment, we can put Krishna over there. So, that’s in the process.
And then lastly, we can also understand that through our work, we can glorify Krishna. I often go to colleges and do college programs. So, after a college program, one student asked me, you know, how can I preach to my other co-students? I told him that by studying well.
If you study well, there is no guarantee that your friends will become devotees. But if you don’t study well, there is a guarantee your friends will not become devotees. It’s anti-preaching because people will start thinking, oh, if I start becoming a devotee, then I become irresponsible in my studies.
And they don’t want to do that. So, we should see that actually people are observing us. And if we are doing our job well, people will say, this person is doing the job well also and this person is also spiritual.
What makes them click? And they will be attracted by that. So, just doing our job competently, even if there is nothing explicitly spiritual, you can see that also as a service. Because through our job, we are setting off vibrations.
People are forming impressions about who we are and what we are. So, even if there is nothing external, still our doing our job competently, that is also a service to Krishna. So, Krishna says, svakarmana tam abhyarcha siddhim nindati maanava.
By your work, worship me. And by worshipping me, you will attain me. So, it’s interesting this verse.
People translate this verse as, work is worship. Now, the Gita doesn’t say work is worship. It is not karma hi puja hai.
There is no verse like that in the Gita. It is svakarmana tam abhyarcha. It is by your work, worship me.
If we say, work itself is worship, then the donkey will be the greatest worshipper. A thief may say, I am robbing the bank and that is worship. Does it work like that? Krishna is saying, not that work is worship, but by your work, worship me.
That means, the first half of this verse is, yatha pravrttir bhutanaam yena sarvam idam tatam svakarmana tam abhyarcha siddhim nindati maanava. What it means is, first half is, from whom everything has come. And He who pervades everything.
That Lord you worship through your work. So, what this verse, the preceding part of the verse implies is, that God doesn’t just exist in the spiritual world. This whole world has come from Him.
And He exists in this world also. Therefore, through our work we can worship Him. That means, we see God’s presence in this world and through our actions we worship Him.
So, we say that what we are is God’s gift to us. What we become is our gift to God. So, we all have some talents, we all have some positions, some education, some skills.
So, we are meant to use that to make constructive contribution. So, our talents are meant to be used in Krishna’s service. Some talents can be directly usable in Krishna’s service.
We may sing, we may speak. It’s fine. But other talents we may use in our vocation, in our profession.
If we are doing well in that, what we become is our gift to Krishna. So, we don’t have to have this fragmented attitude that my office is not spiritual. That can also be spiritualized.
And if we have the right intention and we see our whole life not as fragmented but as integrated. So, even if we don’t speak directly about Krishna, we can speak about Krishna whenever it is appropriate. We can invite people to temples.
But we can let our actions speak. If we are competent, if we are responsible, we don’t have to be super competent. We don’t think that in the name of preaching at my workplace, I just work only, I don’t come to the temple.
No. Over a period of time as we practice bhakti, our mind also becomes calmer. We also start getting a sense of things better with the calmer mind.
And we can actually perform more effectively in even limited time. Because we don’t waste our time in so many things. Our thoughts are more in control.
So, even in the finite amount of time, we can do substantial amount of work. So, I talked about four things. First is primarily devotion is an intention.
Like Arjuna, when he was fighting, his purpose was to serve Krishna. Second is that in our work, we give the fruits of the work in charity. Charity is not just activity, it’s a mentality.
And thirdly, while doing the work, we can try to create whatever spiritual stimuli is possible. But fourthly, I said that work itself is a service. That if we are not doing the work properly, we are doing anti-preaching.
If we are doing the work properly, we are doing preaching. And the work itself is a way by which we can worship Krishna. What we are is Krishna’s gift to us and what we become is our gift to Krishna.
Thank you very much. Hare Krishna. So, thank you very much for your participation over the last three days.
And I have written some books. So, I’ll just tell a little bit about the books. Can you just get the books here? So, basically I have written a lot on the Gita.
There is this book Gita for Daily Enrichment, which is 365 articles on the Gita. So, each of them is just 300 words. So, you can read it in about three to four minutes.
And every day you can read one and you can give this as a gift also to others who sometimes feel the Bhagavad Gita is a very big book and I can’t read it. So, then they may just read one or two articles here and there they get interested and then they will read the full Bhagavad Gita also. This is Gita for Daily Enrichment.
And we have two other books. This and this book, this is Belong. It’s 121 articles on the Gita.
It’s shorter. They are different articles, but similar, but smaller one. Then Minded is another book on the Gita, but this is Minded.
That is especially suited for people who want to learn about the mind. So, there are seven verses on the Gita and on that there are 64 articles, which analyze the mind from different ways and explain how the Gita’s insights can help us to deal with the mind. This is on science and spirituality, which deals with how is there proof for the existence of God, about soul, the law of karma.
There are articles which deal with this. This is a series of articles I used to write in Indian newspapers like Times of India and Indian Express. These are articles, short articles.
Each article is on two pages. They are published in newspapers. They are here.
This is frequently unanswered questions. This is, say, what is the proof for incarnation? Is there a proof for existence of God? Or like that there are various questions, which are answered over here. So, these are basic questions and there are complex questions also.
Can God make a square circle? People ask all kinds of questions. Some of the questions are answered over here. I mentioned about these two movies.
I think for most of these we have only one one book each. So, this is GK for PK and this is OMG, re-answering the questions. And this is a small book.
Why do we need a temple? So, it is an acronym, T E M P L E, the five, six social contributions that a temple makes to society. So, people especially, they feel that there is no need to go to a temple. So, to help them appreciate the value of a temple, this is there.
So, apart from that, I have also got some pen drives. I answer a lot of questions on my website. 2000 questions when answered in one pen drive.
That is one pen drive. Then there are two other pen drives which is the full Bhakti Shastri course. That is there.
That is 160 lectures on Bhagavad Gita, Ishopanishad, Nectar of Instruction and Nectar of Devotion. So, if any of you want any of this, this is available. Thank you very much.
Hare Krishna.