The essence of the spiritual world and of spiritual life is not location but disposition

[Talk at Bhakti House, Jacksonville, USA]

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Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna. Do we go over everything verse by verse or how do you do it? We read the word to word translation and the translation in Purpura or we just study it? So usually what we do, we read the English translation and then we go on to the fluff and then we’ll choose a verse and then a Purpura.
So then we’ll say the Sanskrit and the Purpura like that. Okay, fine. So in this section, I’ll just read, talk a few basic things and then we’ll move on.
So the spiritual world and the material world, their difference is not just in location. It is primarily in disposition. Sometimes when we look at a map of the universe, at that time we may see that, okay, this is the material world, this is the border and this is the spiritual world.
Yes, and now because we are depicting it in three-dimensional space, let’s say we depict it like that. But it’s not like say America is here and Canada is here. So they’re not geographical neighbours because the two exist in different levels of existence.
So another simple example to illustrate this is that, say, if we consider India and America, they are almost antipodal, opposite sides of the earth. So if you ask people in India and you ask people in America, where is heaven? They will say up. But their up are two opposite directions.
So which is the up? So that is not, when we talk about heaven being up, it is not a geographical up simply. It is more up in terms of karma, in terms of consciousness. So similarly, the spiritual world is not just located in geographical continuity or geographical proximity to the material world.
It is a different level of existence. That does not mean that it is not objective reality. It just means that it is an objective reality of a different kind.
So for depicting purposes, we may say, okay, this is the border where the material world ends and this is where spiritual world begins. But it is not that by, if somehow we could acquire the power, say, even if there is some border between India, between, say, America and Canada, if somebody could force their way inside, they would get there. But it is not that there are some guards or fences just stopping us physically from entering into the spiritual world.
Now we may even enter the spiritual world, but we may not, we will not be able to experience or relish the spiritual world unless we have the right disposition. So spiritual, attaining the spiritual world is not just a matter of transportation to a particular location. It is a matter of elevation to a particular disposition.
So transportation to a particular location means that, this is described in the ninth canto of Srimad Bhagavatam, Durvasa Muni goes to the spiritual world. But he doesn’t, he can’t stay there. So what is needed is elevation to a particular disposition to attain the spiritual world.
So he goes there, but there also he is concerned about himself and he goes all the way to the spiritual world to pray to Vishnu, please protect me. And then Lord Vishnu tells him that I cannot protect you, you offended my devotee, you have to go and seek forgiveness from the devotee. When you do that, then you will attain me, then you will be forgiven.
And eventually when he realises the glory of a devotee, glory of those who are devoted to the Lord, that is where his consciousness becomes more spiritualised. So that mood of, that disposition that is required for the spiritual world, that is the illustrated over here, yasmimstapasumanaso bahumanayanti, so bahumanayanti means to offer great respect. Now there are many plants which give rich results in terms of, some plants are very beautiful in giving fruits, they are beautiful and very attractive flowers are there.
Some plants themselves look very good, some plants they give delicious fruits. So if we look at things from a material perspective, then we could say that there are many plants which are more valuable than a tulsi. Tulsi we may say, okay what does it give? It doesn’t have any flowers which look very attractive directly as compared to say rose or other flowers.
If we look at fruits, tulsi doesn’t give fruits also. So in fact there was one Indian supposedly spiritual leader, he said why are Indians obsessed with tulsi? He said if at all you like to grow something, grow eggplants, you’ll get something to eat by that. What will you get by growing tulsi? So they, of course subsequently researchers have done some research and found that tulsi has great medicinal value and tulsi is used in many medicines and that has been medically also documented.
But although the medical value is there, the medical value is not why tulsi is valued or worshipped in the tradition. Tulsi is revered in the tradition. So there are different views of looking at the material and the spiritual.
Many times people try to evaluate everything spiritual from a material perspective. So why should we become vegetarian? Oh you know because it is healthier for the body. Why should we fast? Oh because fasting helps you to decrease the weight.
Fasting is good for giving the body a rest so that we can heal. Now it is true that living spiritually also provides some material benefits. But if you are constantly evaluating everything spiritual from the perspective of the material benefit that it provides, then we are not understanding the spiritual in its own right.
So the spiritual in its own right has its own value because spiritual existence is separate from material existence. That is the existence that is eternal and that is the existence that is ultimately fulfilling. So as long as we are constantly evaluating the spiritual in terms of the material, our spiritual life will stay unsteady based on the unsteadiness in our material life.
To the extent our material life is going on well, if we are reasonably well situated spiritually, we will go on nicely in spiritual life. Sometimes stability in material life may also lead to complacency in the spiritual life. Yeah everything is fine.
You know Krishna, you are happy there. I am happy here. Complacency, yeah.
So that can also happen where material stability, so basically the relationship between the material and the spiritual, it can work out in different ways. Sometimes when there is material stability, that may lead to spiritual intensity. Now my material life is well settled.
Now let me focus on my spiritual life. But material stability can also lead to spiritual complacency. That can, you know, okay, why do I need Krishna? I am happy over here.
Similarly, material adversity, sometimes it may make some people take shelter of Krishna more, more intense, pray to Krishna. And in the Chaitanya Charita Amrit, it is described that before Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Nimai was born, he had an elder brother. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was Vishwambhar, his elder brother was Vishwaroop.
And before Vishwaroop was born, Jagannath Mishra and Hrishchimatha, both of them, they went through several children who did not happen. And it says, Govinda kare visheshya bhajan. So when that happened, then actually they intensified their devotion to Govinda.
And when that intensification of the devotion happened, then they had two glorious sons. So at the same time, the same situation, so material adversity can lead to spiritual intensity. That, you know, I need Krishna’s mercy more.
But material adversity can also lead to spiritual apathy or even spiritual antipathy. You know, why is God doing this to me? I am doing so much for God. So in that sense, the correlation between material and spiritual life is not always predictable.
How a change in material life will change our spiritual life or spiritual disposition, that will vary from person to person. And the key point which I am making here is that we can’t separate the two. If my health is spoiled, I may not be able to chant properly.
I may not be able to practise bhakti properly. So the material will affect the spiritual. But if we are evaluating the material or are evaluating the spiritual through the material, then we will never be steady.
So, yes, the material life does matter and in a practical sense, we don’t have to constantly be differentiating between the material and the spiritual. In a practical sense, our whole life is meant for serving Krishna. So yes, if there is some instability in my job, if my health is going up and down, that’s going to affect my service to Krishna also.
So the material does affect the spiritual. So as devotees, we don’t have to constantly keep differentiating. No, this is material, this is spiritual.
This is spiritual, I will pray to Krishna for this. This is material, I won’t pray to Krishna for this. No, how can we avoid that? By seeing that actually the material and the spiritual, ultimately the differentiation, how are we doing it? Spiritual, is it that if I am speaking about Krishna, I am singing about Krishna, that is spiritual and say I am giving a presentation in my office to my colleagues, that is material.
Yeah, that could be one way of differentiating. But, you know, I could be giving a presentation about Krishna for egoistic purposes and I am eager that, you know, how many people are going to praise me after this. What is going to be the name, fame, glory, I am going to get out of it.
And somebody else may be actually giving a presentation in office, but they may be thinking that, you know, this is my job. My job is I am serving Krishna. And this is how I am earning my living.
This is how I am able to serve Krishna. And I am doing this as a service to Krishna. So, the essential difference between material and spiritual is not just in terms of action, it’s in terms of intention.
So, if I have an attitude of service, then everything becomes spiritual. So, whatever we do, if we do it with the attitude of service, then it is all spiritual. And so, from a functional perspective, we don’t have to be constantly differentiating.
Is this material? Is this spiritual? Say, if we are having a philosophical class and if there is a joke in the class, before laughing, I start thinking, am I laughing for Krishna’s pleasure or my pleasure? No, we will paralyse ourselves. No, it’s in the context of Krishnamukti. That’s wonderful.
So, the important thing is, again, I am going back to the same point, this has a spiritual world and material world, the differentiation is not just in terms of location, it’s in terms of disposition. Similarly, the difference between the material and the spiritual in terms of the activity that we do in our life, it’s also not just in terms of actions or the externals of the actions, it’s under the internal intention, the internal disposition. So, what is this disposition which characterises the spiritual world or which spiritualises our action in this world? That is the disposition of service, disposition of humility, of respectfulness.
Now, sometimes we think about humility, it can seem a little painful, you know, if I think of humility as, I am good for nothing, I am fallen, I am useless, that may seem to be very, very hurting for our ego. But humility is not about putting ourselves down. The essence of humility is praising Krishna.
Actually, Krishna is already high up, we realise that he is high up. And so, in that sense, becoming respectful is the least painful way of becoming humble. So, if sometimes some people, whenever you meet them, they start off, you know, I am so fallen, I am so this, I am so that.
After some time, it just becomes like old tune, which is just going on again and again. Well, but if somebody, we meet them and they are really concerned about taking care, what can I do for you? How can I help you? If they are attentive, they are respectful, through that, they may not be saying constantly, I am fallen, I am this, but they are giving attention. If they are offering for service, then that itself is a sign of respectfulness.
So, being respectful to others is a sign of humility. It is the easiest way we can actually develop humility just by trying to become respectful. It is not easy, because the ego wants ourselves to be the centre.
But rather than putting ourselves down, we just try to give attention to the other person. That is the way we can become humble, less painful. And again, the mood is here.
Okay, if I say, I am very fallen, I am very fallen. Okay, good. Okay, but what service am I doing to Krishna by saying, I am fallen, I am fallen.
Our point is that we are servants of Krishna. I mean, we want to serve Him. So, when we offer respects to others, that is the way we are serving.
So, here it is said that there are many other flowering plants. Lily is one of the plants described. Lily is very beautiful.
But they are all offering their respects to Tulsi. Why are they offering respects to Tulsi? Because they know that she is very devoted to the Lord. She is very dear to the Lord.
So, actually, one of the consistent themes of the Bhagavatam is that devotion supersedes everything else. I was going to use the word devotion trumps everything else. But that word has acquired a particular connotation.
So, devotion supersedes everything else. So, externally, if we see in the Bhagavatam, there are many places those who are considered socially higher. Say, for example, the same pastime of Dhruvasamuni and Ambarish Maharaj.
Dhruvasamuni is a Sanyasi. He is a Brahmana. Ambarish Maharaj is a Kshatriya.
So, socially, Dhruvasamuni is higher than Ambarish Maharaj. But the Bhagavatam shows that actually Ambarish Maharaj is a greater devotee. So, devotion inverts normal hierarchies.
That matter, even a more dramatic inversion is, there is the story of Uttarasur and Indra. Indra is the king of the Gods and Uttarasur is a demon. So, normally, the Gods defeat the demons and the Gods are considered good, the demons are considered bad.
So, the Bhagavatam inverts the hierarchy. It shows that actually, Uttarasur is a far greater devotee than Indra or is far greater because he is more devoted. And this is most graphically illustrated in the 10th Canto where the Gopis, who are simple village cowherd girls, they are celebrated as the greatest devotees.
And Krishna himself says that, I cannot repay the service that you have done. So, Krishna, as far as I have seen that, Krishna doesn’t say this directly to anyone else in the Bhagavatam. So, actually, it is devotion that supersedes everything else.
And yes, plants may have flowers, plants may have fruits, but in the spiritual world, although these externals are important in the sense that everybody wants to make offerings to Krishna. So, the flowers try to be as beautiful as possible. In the Gopal Champu, which is a book describing Krishna Leela, written by Jiva Goswami, he says that whenever Krishna walks through the forest, every single blade of grass is conscious.
And that blade of grass tries to become as soft as possible so that Krishna will have the most soothing experience. So, whenever Krishna comes in a particular area, the wind blows just in the right way so that Krishna feels soothed. So, the Gopis, when Krishna goes outside to the forest, at that Atatiyat Bhavan, Ahani Kaana Naam.
So, the Gopis, when Krishna goes out in the forest, they are not able to see him and they feel very distressed. But they meditate at that time, who all are seeing him? And the Gopis envision a very delightful competition. They say that when Krishna goes out in the forest, the sun is very eager to have the darshan of Krishna.
And the sun is very eager to have the darshan of Krishna. At that time, the sun starts looking at Krishna and the sun starts blazing brightly. And when the sun starts blazing brightly, at that time, the cloud starts thinking, I have to do some service to Krishna.
So, the cloud comes in the way and the cloud blocks the sun. And the cloud is thinking, I want to serve Krishna. I want to offer shade to Krishna.
And the sun feels, I am not able to see Krishna. So, the sun starts blazing brighter. And the cloud starts getting condensed because of that.
And gentle soothing drops of rain come on Krishna. Not shower, but just drops so that there is comfort. And then as the cloud gets dissipated, then the sun comes.
And as the sun comes, the drops that are there, the drops evaporate. So, the drops cool, they comfort and then they evaporate. But as soon as the sun starts becoming somewhat uncomfortably hot, immediately another set of clouds comes.
And that cloud again blocks. They say in this way, sometimes the sun has darshan of Krishna, sometimes the sun doesn’t have darshan of Krishna. And the sun is not simply of, I should have darshan of Krishna.
Sun also wants to serve Krishna. So, when he says that, oh, there’s water over there, sun tries to remove the water. So, like that, in the spiritual world, everybody is conscious and everybody is trying to serve Krishna.
So, that’s why the grass, when it’s going to serve, it wants to be as soft as possible. So, the flowers and the fruits, they also want to be as the flowers, only as beautiful as possible for Krishna. The fruits, they want to be as delicious as possible for Krishna.
So, everybody wants to serve Krishna. And still, although everybody makes the best offerings, we could say from the external perspective, but still they all recognise that Tulsi has the greatest devotion. So, even if there is no direct offering being made, of course, Tulsi leaves themselves are very sacred and Krishna likes to have Tulsi leaves at his feet.
Tulsi is an expansion of Vrindadevi. Vrindadevi, she expands as Tulsi. So, in that sense, Tulsi actually is taking care of whole of Vrindavan.
She is the goddess who arranges for the various facilities of Vrindavan. So, you cannot say that materially she is not doing anything, but in that particular manifestation is Tulsi. Even if nothing is being offered significantly, still actually, Krishna goes on… Yeah, no, it’s a recycling day.
They only come two weeks and we’re like, overflowed. Recycling? Recycling, okay. You want to go and come? Oh, I’m so sorry.
That’s fine. This is third canto, 15th chapter, Description of the Kingdom of God, text 20. So, this is all a list of different flowers, different trees, flowering plants that are there in the spiritual world.
So, the Lord, he garlands himself with Tulsi leaves. So, her austerity is, Sumanaso, the good-minded, Vaikuntha, Vaikuntha-minded, Prabhupada translated. Sumanaso, good-minded is a literal translation.
Prabhupada also gives us an essential translation over here when he says, Vaikuntha-minded. He is the Pasumanaso, Bahumanayanti. They offer great respects.
No problem. So, till what time should I go on? Maybe another 5-10 minutes. Sure.
So, here, So, Sumanasa is, Manasa is mind. Su is good. So, Sumanasa means, Prabhupada translated that as good-minded.
Now, he gives two translations over there. Another translation is Vaikuntha-minded. So, Vaikuntha-minded means that, again, as I started by talking about how the mind is not just, the spiritual world is not just a matter of location.
It’s a matter of disposition. And the essential transition that is required for going to the spiritual world is the change of disposition. Yes, if our position is, say, more closer to a temple or more closer to a holy place, that can help in the change of disposition.
But that alone is not enough. Sometimes when people go and live in a holy place like Vrindavan or Mayapur, and these are actually manifestations of the spiritual world in the material world. So, when people go and live in holy places like this, that can be very helpful because the atmosphere, it can be more spiritual there.
And it can help us to remember Krishna more. But there’s no guarantee. Sometimes we may go to the, go to holy places like Vrindavan or Mayapur.
We may locate ourselves over there physically. But if we do not have the right disposition, then we may actually get no benefit of living in a spiritual world. So, the holy places which are manifested in the world, say places like Vrindavan or Mayapur, they are abodes of devotion, but they can also become abodes of deviation.
Because there we may go and if we do not get the right association, we get deviated from Krishna. We may get deviated by other understandings or just materialism. There are many people who live on, live in the dhams, but they are materialistic in their consciousness.
So, there is living on the dham and living in the dham. Two different things. Living on the dham is a matter of just geographical… Dham, dham is a holy place.
It’s a place of pilgrimage. So, it’s like, it’s a place, it is where the Lord resides, dham. So, there is living on the dham and living in the dham.
So, living on the dham means just geographically going to the place and staying over there. Living in the dham means entering into the consciousness of that place. So, without that consciousness, even if we go there, we will not be benefited much.
Nisumananda, as it is said, the residents of Vaikuntha offer respects to Tulasi because they are Vaikuntha minded. Their mind has become like the residents of Vaikuntha. That means the mind is essentially attached to Krishna.
The mind is focused on trying to serve Krishna. In fact, the whole process of yoga, Krishna says, culminates in this, culminates in making the mind attached to Krishna. So, in 6.47 he states that among all yogis, the topmost are those who are constantly meditating on him.
yoginampisarvesham madgatenantaratmana shraddhavan bhajateyumam samayuktatmamanam That’s 6.47. And then 7.1, the next verse onwards, he gives, there in the 6th chapter, he has talked about how one can progress only through Ashtang Yoga, rise to the perfection and that perfection is to have the mind fixed on Krishna. But then from the 7th chapter in the Bhagavad Gita, he gives an alternative way to rise to that perfection and that is through the process of bhakti. And there also he says, mayi asakta manah partha.
The perfection is to make the mind attached to me. yogam yunjan madhashrayah asamshayam samagramma yatha ghyasisita shrunam So Arjuna, here now, by practising the process of yoga, by taking shelter of me, he will understand me free from doubts and thus your mind will become attached to me. So when we hear about Krishna, when we serve Krishna, then the whole purpose is to make our mind attached to Krishna.
And if our mind becomes attached to Krishna, then we are in a sense already in the spiritual world. In 12.8 in the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says, mayeva manadhatva mayi buddhim niveshaya nivasishyasi mayeva atha urdhvam na samshayaha. He says mayeva manadhatva, if your mind is fixed on me, mayi buddhim niveshaya, if your intelligence is directed towards me, then nivasishyasi mayeva, you’re already living in me, atha urdhvam na samshayaha.
Of this there is no doubt. So for those whose disposition, whose inner world is fixed in Krishna, it’s not, attaining Krishna is not a possibility or eventuality in the future for them. They are already in a sense attained Krishna.
That is the state what is called as jivanmukta. Jivanmukta means that they are living right now, but they are liberated. They are not attached to the world, but they are attached to Krishna.
So thereafter that, at the time of death, there is what is called as videhamukti. That is jivanmukti is we are living, but we have no desire to enjoy the world. Our desire is simply to serve Krishna.
Our primary attachment is to Krishna. And videhamukti means by its own past arrangement, the body is going to live for a particular amount of time and then the body falls. And when the body falls, the soul goes back to the spiritual world.
So sometimes we may feel very discouraged that, oh I have so much to advance. The spiritual world is so far away. And will we ever advance to the very elevated spiritual states that are talked about in scriptures? But the spiritual world is not a matter of geographical distance.
The essence of the spiritual world, Krishna is there very close to us in our own hearts. And in that sense, if we turn towards Krishna, then we can experience Krishna even now. So you know how far Krishna is from us? It is said that Krishna is just one thought away from us.
So think about him and he is there. He is there but you just don’t feel his presence because you are not thinking about him. So when we understand that the spiritual world is essentially a matter of disposition, then we focus on cultivating that devotional disposition.
And with that devotional disposition, we will have that mood of service. So in the material life, there will be ups and downs. For everyone it is there.
Even we see Srila Prabhupada’s life, he had so much difficulties at the material level. So practically everybody’s life we see, all the great devotees, they have difficulties. But what keeps them persevering is that they don’t evaluate the spiritual through the material.
Rather, they see that the spiritual material essence is serving Krishna. And that is, oh Krishna, how can I serve you? Naturally, bhakti is not about suppressing our desires. We all may have particular ways in which we want to serve Krishna.
So Srila Prabhupada told after around 1970s, he told his disciples that, my spiritual master told me to preach in the western world. And I have done that. Now he said, now I want to preach in India.
And he told, if you see the later years of his life, most of his American and western preaching was done by his disciples. And Prabhupada would visit. For a few months he would be there.
But he based himself in India. And he focused a lot of energy in building temples because he wanted not only the preaching mission to go on in the west, but he wanted the devotees to have base where they could spiritually rejuvenate themselves. And he felt the overall culture of India was most conducive for a solid foundation for our movement.
The point I am making is, not just the practical strategy, but even a pure devotee can have one’s own desires. And his spiritual master told me to preach in the west. I have done that.
Now I want to focus on India. So we all, we may say we are not pure devotees. That’s fine.
We all have our desires. We may have wanted, I want to serve Krishna in a particular way. And that may be, that desire may be coming from Krishna because of spiritual inspiration.
Or that may be just because of our inclination. Say for example, I decide I want to write a book on a particular topic. Now I say that the super soul has inspired me to write a book on this topic.
I wouldn’t claim anything like that. I say this topic interests me. I feel this is relevant for the audience.
So I may write on that topic. So now when we have a desire to serve Krishna, at that time, that desire may sometimes be fulfilled, sometimes it may not be fulfilled. So it is not that the fulfilment of our desire signifies that Krishna is pleased with us.
Nor is it that the frustration of our desire signifies that Krishna is displeased with us. It is not like that. It is a correlation.
As I said, the material and the spiritual, they correlate in unpredictable ways. There is a relationship. Sometimes the fulfilment of a desire may be something which increases my service to Krishna and that may be favourable.
But sometimes the fulfilment of a desire may infatuate me and may take me away from Krishna. So it is not that we cannot have our desires of how we would like to serve Krishna. It may be in terms of specific forms of service.
It may be in terms of specific facilities which you would like to have for service. But the important thing is that a devotee does not make one’s devotion conditional to the fulfilment of the desire. In the third canto of Srimad Bhagavatam, it is described how Kardam Muni, Kashyap Muni.
Kardam Muni is in the third canto. Kashyap Muni is here. So he has a desire to see the Supreme Lord.
Actually Prabhupada writes over there, a devotee desires to see the Lord, but devotee does not demand to see the Lord. Now if you don’t desire to see, then there is no devotion. Naturally you would desire to see the Lord.
But if you demand, I want to see the Lord, then again, then we are not really in the mood of service. So the desire to see signifies our devotion. But the non-demanding nature of the desire signifies service.
So desiring but non-demanding is the mood of devotional service. So same way, if we are practising bhakti, then we focus on the principle of serving Krishna. And with our God-given intelligence, with our inclination, with our inspiration, we may get, I want to serve Krishna in a particular way.
Yes, that’s perfectly fine. Our desires may come from our inspiration, it may come from our inclination, it may come from our intelligence. This is what I feel I should do.
It may just come from various circumstances. So when we are analysing what is material and spiritual, where something comes from is not as important as where it takes us. So a desire may sometimes seem to be material.
Many devotees from India, when they come to America, they feel, oh, America is more materialistic, and if we go into America, we may go into maya. Now that’s possible that they may go into illusion in America. But I have also seen many devotees, they became more serious after coming to America.
Because in India, often if they are connected with the temple, where there are a lot of devotees, and they don’t have so much facility for services, they may have services, but they don’t have so much responsible services. And thus they are not able to grow, they are able to make much more tangible contributions here. So geographically, they have come from a place which is dharma bhoomi to some other place.
But here they may intensify their emotion. So it can happen the other way, of course, also. Somebody may come here and say, there’s so much material comfort and enjoyment, why do I need Krishna? So it can, the material, their correlation can happen in different ways.
So I’ll conclude with one point about this, that broadly speaking, you know, there are three visions of spirituality and its relationship with materialism. One is what we would say rejection. That means material life is temporary, material life is distressful, and therefore, material life should be rejected for practising spiritual life.
That is, we could say the rejection conception of spirituality. The second is the complementation concept. Complementation, material life is good, but spiritual life is also important.
Material life alone will not lead to fulfilment. Material life, okay, it can provide some comfort, but if you really want a meaning, purpose, fulfilment in life, you need to have spiritual aspect of life. The third is that improvement.
Some people think, my spiritual life will improve my material life. So it can be at a very gross level where we have Protestant Christianity, which is, much of which is based on prosperity theology. That if we worship God, then God blesses us with prosperity.
And that has its offshoot, they think that the countries that are prosperous are blessed by God. The countries which are poor, they are actually, that their poverty is the proof of their lack of devotion. So that’s why they thought that India is so poor.
So we have to save India by Christianising India. So they evaluate spirituality entirely in material terms. Our spirituality should improve our material life.
This can be at a more subtle level where people practise mindfulness meditation, or there are other forms of what they call a spirituality, which they think, oh, that will improve my attitude, will help me increase my self-control, it will help me to become more positive. I’ve seen, I was at the airport, they saw some book, Yoga for Sex, you know, Yoga for Better Sex. Now the purpose of yoga is actually its connection with Krishna.
Now, but people feel that, oh, why do yoga, you know, I’ll have better looks, I’ll have better health, so I can enjoy better. So what has happened? The spiritual is being used to improve the material. Now, among these three, in Krishna consciousness, often we focus on the first approach itself.
The material life is temporary, and we have to practise spiritual life. That’s the essential thing in life. And most of what goes on in the name of spirituality in the outer world today, it falls in the third category.
Most people become spiritual because they think that it will help me to improve my material life. Many of them, people who practise meditation. So many companies nowadays are having some kind of yoga exercises or meditation practises.
Their goal is not that they want their employees to be spiritual. They want their employees to perform more, you know, have less stress, have less health expenses, you know, do more work. So that is completely the spiritual as a tool for improving the material.
So there are these three visions. There’s the disconnection, there’s the rejection, complementation, and improvement. So now, the Bhagavatam is spoken to a person who is about to die.
That is Parikshit Maharaj. And he’s already decided that I’m not going to make any efforts to save my life. So in that sense, for him, it’s the rejection model.
So the Bhagavatam often focusses on how material life is filled with misery, and he just renounced the world. The Bhagavatam often talks about, it glorifies renunciates. Oh, he was so young, but he renounced the whole world.
He was so apathetic, so detached. And that is important because at that time for Parikshit Maharaj, he has to focus on renouncing the world. But we see the same Parikshit Maharaj earlier, when Kali is attacking a cow and a bull.
At that time, Parikshit Maharaj doesn’t say, oh, this world is dukkhal, this world is miserable, and Kali is causing some misery in this world. No. At that time, my dharma is to protect.
So he takes assertive action to protect the cow and the bull, because that is his dharma. So the Bhagavatam offers a vision of bhakti that is more world rejecting. The Bhagavad Gita offers a vision of bhakti which is much more world affirming.
Arjuna wants to renounce the world. Krishna says, no, you have a duty here in the world. You have to fight a war.
So which vision is important or which vision applies to us? It’s not that one vision is right and the other is wrong. We are all at different stages in our life and at different stages in our own personal application as well as in our sharing with others. You know, different ways in which bhakti can be applied.
Again, the mood is the mood of service. Say, if somebody is young and somebody is, you know, they had some bad relationship and they are frustrated. One time when one boy came to me and he says, you know, I’m thinking of becoming a brahmachari and by next week I’ll be deciding.
You hardly ever come to the temple also. So, how will you decide? What is going to happen next week? So he says, I have proposed to a girl. If she says no, I’m going to become a brahmachari.
Now, this is hardly a reason for becoming a brahmachari. If at all somebody wants to devote themselves to Krishna, that is because, not because they are frustrated with relationship in the world, it should be because of the attraction, dedication to Krishna. So, if say somebody like this says, I want to renounce the world or somebody says, I just want to go to Vrindavan.
I’ll live there. I’ll live on a tree. I’ll chant 64 rounds every day.
There is no need to do this. You stay here and you practise bhakti. You do your responsibilities and also practise bhakti.
So, at that time, we would encourage them to have a more engaged form of spirituality. Say, somebody has got cancer and it’s terminal, it’s incurable and they start worrying, oh, you know, I started this project, I was doing this service. I’ve heard about this, what about that? Then we will tell them, don’t worry about it.
You just focus on hearing and chanting about Krishna. Krishna will take care of everything else. Yes, you are doing the service to Krishna, but it is ultimately Krishna’s service.
Krishna will take care of it. So, depending on the situation, we may encourage someone to embrace more spirituality. Depending on situation, we may encourage someone to actually not prematurely embrace more spirituality.
So, in general, for our outreach, if we use the rejection model of spirituality, most people will reject spirituality. So, they are not interested in that. The complementing, initially when we start, we may have to start with the improvement model.
You know that, yes. And Prabhupada also does that sometimes. When Prabhupada was in India, he was talking to some businessman, he said, you know, I went to America with just 40 rupees, but now I have temples which are worth 40 crore rupees.
So, doing business with Krishna is good. Now, Prabhupada would sometimes use that as an initial attraction. So, generally for us, if we are living a long life ahead of us, where we have to plan and live, and the sustainable model is the complementation model.
That material life is important, it has its place, but it alone is not enough. So, here when I am talking about material and spiritual, I am talking more into the external differentiation. Say that, okay, we have our time for our job, our family, we have a time for Krishna.
So, we complement both in our life. And what unites both is the attitude of service. So, as we advance more and more, and as we come close to our life’s final exam, that is death, at that time, we will shift from the complementation to the rejection.
Nothing else matters. At the time of death, just forget everything else and focus only on Krishna. But right now also, we want to focus on Krishna, but we focus on Krishna through the various services that we are doing for Him.
In the Bhishma’s prayers to Krishna, in the 9th chapter of the first canto, the prayers begin by saying that, in this way, that great personality who had fought many wars and who had spoken on many subjects, he withdrew his consciousness from all those subjects and focused it on Krishna. So, because now he is going to die, exclusively focused on Krishna. Now he fought many wars, he spoke on many subjects, all that was also for serving Krishna only.
But at that time, in many different ways. Say, now we are serving Krishna, so we have to do so many things. We have to worry about recycling, we have to worry about finances, we have to worry about health, we have to worry about 100 other things, to worry about our jobs, so many things.
So, we shouldn’t necessarily reject this as this is material. It’s all a part of our service to Krishna. So, we give it its due importance.
But we don’t evaluate Krishna through all these things. You see that this is one way I’m serving Krishna. As long as I’m serving Krishna in this way, it’s important.
But if something doesn’t work out, I’ll find some other way to serve Krishna. So, I may want to, say, write a book and serve Krishna. And I think if I write a book and it gets published to a particular publisher, it will reach a large number of audience, but somehow it doesn’t work out.
Then, okay, if that service doesn’t work out, that is a service. I would like to do that service. I feel it is important, it will contribute to Krishna’s mission.
But if it doesn’t work out, then I’ll do some other service. So, a devotee is more attached to the principle of service than the form of service. So, I always want to serve Krishna.
And yes, I feel inspired to serve in this particular way. And I will try my best to make it work in that way. But if it doesn’t work in that way, fine, I’ll serve in some other way.
So, when we have this understanding that the principle of service is a form of service, and sometimes a particular form works or sometimes it doesn’t work out. So, Kunti Maharani says that, Ganga flows towards the ocean. Let my consciousness always flow towards you.
So, what that means is, we want our consciousness to flow towards Krishna. And we may want to flow it according to a particular channel. Now, I want to serve Krishna in this way.
So, I want the consciousness, the river to flow through this particular path. But suppose there’s a block over there. Now, that doesn’t mean, just because the block has come over there, that doesn’t mean the river can’t flow towards Krishna.
If the river thinks I have to flow only from here, then it will not be able to flow. But does everyone understand? My purpose is not just to flow along this path. My purpose is to flow towards Krishna.
So, then it will find some other path to flow towards Krishna. Sometimes it may go, if this is the path, go left, go right, go below, go above, or over time it just erodes and goes on. Or sometimes if the path is very good, the river sometimes has distributaries or tributaries, you know, they just fork.
They move forward in some other ways. So, it is true that sometimes certain externals may obstruct us, not just in our material life, but even our service to Krishna. So, in that sense, the externals are not irrelevant.
They are not unimportant. But they are not, the externals are not unimportant, but they are not so important that they should stop our service to Krishna. So, we try our best to change the externals so that we can keep serving.
But if that does not work out, then we find some other way to serve and we move on towards Krishna. So, by understanding that spiritual growth is more a matter of disposition and location, then the same principle applies also that a particular form of service, whether it works out or not, essentially is the intention of service. And if that intention is there, I will find some way or the other to keep serving Krishna.
So, I will summarise. I spoke today about how the spiritual world and material world, they are differentiated not so much by location, but by disposition. So, spiritual world and material world are not like Canada and America.
They are at a different level of existence. People in India and America both may say heaven is up, but the two ups are in opposite directions because the two are antipodal. So, the up is more in the sense of consciousness.
So, the spiritual world is differentiated from the material world because of the disposition of the residents and the disposition is the disposition of service, of respectfulness, of humility as manifested through attention for others. So, I talked about how Tulsi may not seem to have much material value in terms of the fruits or the flowers it gives. So, it has spiritual value because Tulsi is devoted to Krishna and Tulsi is dearer to Krishna.
So, Krishna, we as a garland of Tulsi, Krishna puts, we put Tulsi on the deities, we use Tulsi to offer to Krishna whatever food we have. So, Tulsi has its value. But if we evaluate the material through the spiritual, spiritual through the material, we will, we will think of the spiritual as, we will not be able to understand the value of the spiritual.
So, there is a relationship between material and spiritual. Sometimes material adversity can lead to spiritual intensity or it can lead to spiritual apathy. Sometimes material prosperity can lead to spiritual intensity or it can lead to spiritual complacency.
So, what determines that correlation, whether it will be positive or negative, it is dependent on our service attitude. If we see our relationship with Krishna as a defining centre of our life and then we see the material as a facility for serving Krishna, then we, if the material comes, we serve Krishna. If it does not come, we still keep serving Krishna.
So, at a functional level, we may differentiate, you know, this is material, this is spiritual. But essentially, it is a matter of intention. So, we do not have to constantly be analysing, this is my material life, this is my spiritual life.
We just permeate everything with the intention of service. And where something comes from is not as important as where something goes. So, a desire may come from our own inclination, our own, some divine inspiration.
It may come just based on our intelligence. But that does not matter. The important thing is where is it taking us.
So, if a particular desire, devotees can have their own desires, but the devotee desires but does not demand. Desire signifies devotion and the non-demanding nature signifies service. So, that way we can perform devotional service.
And I conclude by talking about these three conceptions of spirituality. What are they? Rejection, complementation and improvement. So, now, if we evaluate, if we consider spirituality in terms of rejection of material life, that is not practical for lifelong performance.
At the end of life, like Parikshit Maharaj is there or somebody is on near death, that is the rejection model. And if we focus on the improvement model, then also our spiritual life will be unsteady. Because if our spirituality does not improve our material life, then we will think what is the use of spirituality.
So, for long term, we have this complementation. And complementation means that we see that the spiritual and material are both a part of my service to Krishna. And with that mood when we function, then we will be able to move forwards through life’s ups and downs and finding some way to keep serving Krishna.
The form of service may or may not work out. But the purpose of service can always work out if we don’t become attached to that form. The Ganga wants to flow towards the ocean.
The ocean is like Krishna. And it would like to flow to a particular channel. But if it can’t, it will find some other channel to move towards Krishna.
And thus we can stay purposefully moving onwards in our bhakti through whatever comes in our material life. Thank you very much. Hare Krishna.
Hare Krishna. Any comments or questions? I have one. Do we have time? Depends.
7.45, what time do we have to be back? Should be fine. 8.00. 8.00 to 8.00. Would you like opium or pancakes? No, no. Anything? Okay, we’ll decide that.
Let’s finish the question first. The question is, in the mood of a Vaishnava, in living in this complementary or in the mood of synchronicity with the world, I sometimes get fixated on, okay, I’m a computer guy, I’m a farm guy, you know, and you feel like you’re locked into that particular profession. And in that profession, you know, they give you some resistance.
And so, there was a talk Kalakantapu gave, where he said that the advantage of being in the Vaishnava mood is that you’re not necessarily locked into one caste type of profession. You’re not locked into being a labourer or an administrator or a businessman or a Brahmin priest type person. And is this the mood? And can you give us some advice on how to navigate through that? Yeah.
So, sometimes we may get locked into our particular profession. Let’s say I’m a farmer, I’m a computer guy. So, as devotees, how can we not get locked in this? It’s not a matter of getting locked.
It’s a matter of seeing that I am bigger than my social role. So, yes, in this particular lifetime, in this particular phase of my life, I have specialised in this. So, I have some knowledge in this.
But I am a soul. And so, as a soul, I’m going on a multi-life journey. And this journey, I may play different roles at different times.
So, if we reduce our self-conception to our social role, then it becomes a problem. So, I may identify that I am an author, I’m a speaker. Now, this is not wrong.
But if that becomes our defining identity, see, there is a defining identity and there’s a functional identity. So, our defining identity is that I’m a part of Krishna. I am a servant of Krishna.
And as a functional identity, you know, even if we become devotees, even if we say become pure devotees, are we going to call each other, oh, servant of Krishna, come here. Oh, servant of Krishna, come here. We all have our names.
We all have our roles. We have all our pure spiritual identities also. So, it’s not that the functional identity is to be rejected.
But the functional identity should be integrated with the defining identity. That means, in an essay, I don’t know, in India, we play cricket. So, there may be a player who may sometimes bowl, who is all-rounder.
Sometimes they can bowl. Sometimes he can bat. Sometimes he may become just a fielder.
Sometimes he may act as a captain, if the captain is off the field. So, essentially that person is a cricketer. Whereas a cricket player, that person may do various roles.
So, sometimes somebody may bat aggressively, somebody may bat defensively. These are all different roles. But the person doesn’t think that I am this, I am a player.
So, like that, if you understand I’m a servant of Krishna and we don’t identify ourselves as that. Now, denying that, say, I am a computer, I am an author, that may deprive us of the opportunity to do a service that we feel good doing and that we are good at doing also. So, broadly, there are direct devotional activities, like say, chanting, studying scripture, worshipping the deities.
In these direct devotional activities, quite often, our functional role doesn’t matter so much. When I go and hear a class, it doesn’t matter whether I’m a computer guy or I’m a farmer. So, if these direct devotional activities, which we call a sadhana, see there is sadhana and there is seva.
So, as a seva, we may do a service, we may do various things. But sadhana is a spiritual practise. So, if our functional role starts taking so much of our consciousness that we start neglecting our sadhana and even na sadhana, constantly thinking only about that.
Naturally, we will think about that because that service is important for us. But if our functional role starts dominating our essential idea, our essential connection with Krishna, then it becomes a problem. But if we are doing our sadhana nicely, diligently, and along with that, we are also serving Krishna through whatever specific knowledge we have, specific skills we have, specific interests or talents we have, then we are actually serving Krishna in the most effective way.
And it’s good to sometimes associate with devotees who are doing entirely different services. We may naturally bond with those who are doing the same services because we have so much to share. But if we discuss, if we also bond with some other devotees, then that also opens our minds.
Oh, bhakti is much bigger. I am serving Krishna in this way. There’s so much more.
There’s a universe of devotion. And that way, we can see. So, it’s again like the ocean and the river.
This is the channel through which I am going towards the ocean. But that doesn’t mean this is the only channel. That doesn’t even mean that this is the only channel which I need to go through.
If somehow this channel gets blocked, I’ll find some other channel to move on towards Krishna. So, thank you very much.