Analyzing yoga and bhakti to keep practice in harmony with purpose

[Bhagavatam class at ISKCON, Perth, Australia]

Yes, Jain Master.
Hare Krishna. So today morning, we are discussing from the instructions of Kapil Dev on the process of devotional service. And herein, he describes how the devotees, especially the yogis who are devotionally disposed, are meant to meditate on the Supreme Lord.
And Prabhupada explains in his purport that that process of dhyan, which is there in yoga, can also be achieved by the bhaktas through the process of shravan and kirtan. So I’ll talk today about the similarities and differences between the process of yoga and the process of bhakti, and then the speciality of bhakti as has been talked about in the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition. The definition of yoga is given in the Yoga Sutra, Patanjali Yoga Sutra.
And it states over there, yoga’s chitta vritti nirodha. Chitta is consciousness, especially consciousness that is embodied in matter. Chitta vritti, vritti is the moment of consciousness, nirodha.
Nirodha means cessation or stopping. So when the moment of consciousness in the material realm stops, that is called as the perfection of yoga. So we can conceive that the soul in material world is like a person who is watching a movie.
And the person thinks this is going to be an enjoyable, what they call rom-com, romantic comedy, enjoyable movie. But then it turns out it’s a horror movie. And there’s a lot of distress, lot of misery that comes up.
But as the person keeps watching, watching, then when one movie gets over, the soul’s consciousness gets transported to another body. And then another movie starts. So purusha, the soul, gets prakriti sthohi, gets caught in the body.
And because of the desire to enjoy the products of the body, the soul suffers in material world. Now while the soul is suffering thus, at that time, if the soul can just stop watching the movie. Just like a child is sitting and watching a horror movie, and the mother is next to the child.
The child is safe. But as long as the child is caught in watching the horror movie, screaming, crying, trembling, fearful, the mother is right next to him but the child is not aware. So similarly, for us, the super soul is always next to us.
It’s right next to us in our own hearts. But because our consciousness is so consumed by what is happening on the screen of the mind, what is being displayed. So we do not perceive the super soul’s presence.
Now the process of yoga, it starts by sitting in postures, regulating breath and basically the whole process is to detach oneself from the whatever is going on in the movie. And whatever, slowly detach oneself, detach oneself. That’s why yogis are recommended that one should go to the forest.
Of course, modern yoga teachers say that is a peripheral rule. That is not a central rule. Central role is fixing the mind.
So now, in the process of yoga itself, one of the elements just talked about is that one should surrender to Vishnu. One should understand that he is the supreme and one should meditate on him. Just like if we are having a class in an ISKCON temple, we will say Shila Prabhupada said this.
Now in that class, we will not speak about who Shila Prabhupada is because that’s understood. Both the speaker knows and the audience knows. So similarly, in the Yoga Sutra, when Patanjali writes it, he assumes that people know what is Ishwara.
So he just says Ishwara pranidhana, that one has to surrender to the Ishwara. But who the Ishwara is, how to meditate on him, how to direct one’s consciousness towards him, that is not elaborated. It is presumed that the audience knows that.
So now based on this, because its focus is on the meditation on the absolute, on Ishwara, so it can be said to be quite clearly personal or theistic. Now on Patanjali Yoga Sutra, there is Vyasadev who has written a commentary. That’s interesting, the word Vyasa, it generically means editor.
So Vyasadev can refer to many different people who played the role of writing books or editing books. So whether the Vyasadev who wrote the commentary in the Patanjali Yoga Sutra is the same as the Vyasadev who wrote the Srimad Bhagavatam, that is open for discussion. Because in the Vedanta Sutra, at that time, the author of that is also Vyasadev who has compiled the Vedanta Sutra.
So now there Vyasadev actually refutes the Yoga Sutras. Basically what is Vedanta Sutra? There are six systems of philosophy in ancient India. Does anyone know which are the six systems? Okay, they are the founders.
The systems themselves? Nyaya. Okay, simple way to remember them is… Look, what is philosophy ultimately? Philosophy means philosophos. Philein is truth, sophos is love.
Sorry, philein is love, sophos is truth. So love of truth, philosophy is that. So to understand the six systems of philosophy, what happens is people look at the world around them.
I want to know what is the reality. So I look at the world and then I try to break down the world into its components. And the world can be broken down into its components in two ways.
One is what is called, in modern science it is called the elemental theory of matter. And the second is called the atomic theory of matter. You can break matter into its fundamental elements.
So for example, by elements we refer to the, like in science there are elements. We have elements, compounds and things like that. In the Vedic concept, elements means earth, water, fire, air, ether.
So everything is made of these elements. So when you break matter into these elements, it leads to the philosophy of Sankhya. So in search for truth, we try to break the observed world into its components.
Another way to break the world into its components is to look at, not just elements, you break down the elements further, ultimately everything is made up of molecules. So when you break atom into, observed reality into elements, that is Sankhya. When we break it into fundamental molecular components, that is Mimamsa.
This is a very broad understanding. I am not going to go into technicalities at all. But the principle is, then after that, I want to… So in Mimamsa, basically we break it down into fundamental molecules and molecular particles.
But the idea is, this whole world from the molecular level is controlled by some beings. So if we want to live happily over here, then we need to harmonise with those higher beings. And it is thought that in Mimamsa, the laws of nature are considered supreme.
And even the Devatas are considered to be subordinate to those laws. So when mantras are chanted, it is considered that the Devatas are also in control. If you chant a mantra, the Devatas have to come.
So Mimamsa considers the laws to be the supreme. Now Karma, Mimamsa, then there is… I understand that matter is breakable into its components. But what is beyond matter? How can I understand that? So for that, there is yoga.
Yoga involves disciplines by which one can raise one’s consciousness. And one can try to understand what is the higher level of reality. So beyond that, as some of you said, is Nyaya.
Now Nyaya is basically logic. So Nyaya is, at one level, by logic one can try to come to conclusions, or we can use logic in other systems of thought. So originally, these systems of thought were progressive.
One after another, after another, it culminated in Vedanta. So we have Karma, we have Nyaya, we have Yoga, we have Vaisheshika, sorry, we have Sankhya. So we culminate in Vedanta.
So now we have Vaisheshika and Mimamsa is there. So Vaisheshika is the atomic theory of matter. Mimamsa is the idea that actually we have higher beings who we need to control.
Vedanta is what is the ultimate end of knowledge. So yes, matter, you can break it into its components as elements. You can break it further down into molecules.
But beyond all this, there are laws which are controlling them. So try to harmonise with the laws. But beyond the laws, what is there? There must be something.
That you can try to find out through Yoga. Now through all this, one has to do reasoning. That reasoning is Nyaya.
But through it all, one culminates in Bhakti. So Bhakti is what Vedanta Sutra ultimately talks about. Vedanta says, what is the ultimate reality? Beyond this observed reality, what is the ultimate reality? Now as I said, these systems of thought were progressive originally.
But over the centuries, Baldevidya Bhushan explains in his commentary on the Vedanta Sutra, that some of the sages, they became illusioned. And they started claiming that their system of thought alone is supreme. And those which were meant to be progressive, they became competitive.
And when they became competitive, so at that time, Vyasadev wrote the Vedanta Sutra. And in that, he refutes all the other systems of thought. So he refutes Sankhya also.
He refutes Yoga also. Over there. Now what he is refuting is not that the systems of thought, this form of reasoning is not false.
But the conclusion that has arrived from that, that is wrong. So now, in the Bhagavatam, in this section of the Bhagavatam, the third canto, Kapila’s teachings, Sankhya and Yoga, both are depicted. Sankhya we see previously, but material elements were analysed.
And Yoga was explained. So Sankhya and Yoga, both are shown to culminate in Bhakti. So the Bhagavatam, its driving motive is, okay, what is the duty of a person about to die? And the conclusion is that fix the mind on the Supreme Lord.
But then there are so many other systems of thought. What about them? Bhagavatam shows that, okay, whatever other system of thought is there, its purpose ultimately is to fix the mind on the Supreme. So here, it is said that by Sankhya analysis, so Sankhya and Yoga are sometimes combined together.
Sankhya is the metaphysical analysis, Yoga is more of the practise. So by which one comes to the level of meditating on the Ishwara within. And who is that Ishwara? So those who consider Yoga to be separate school of thought, they argue that actually Yoga is non-theistic.
Yoga doesn’t talk about God. In the western world, Yoga has become very popular now. And it’s amazing how religious traditions or religious practises can change.
Traditionally, Yoga was practised primarily by male renunciates who wanted to transcend the world. Nowadays, in the west especially, Yoga is practised by young females who want to look good so that they can attract others in the world. So, there is a practise and there is a purpose.
So in fact, one of the most popular books on Yoga is Yoga for Sex. That’s the title of the book itself. So, what happens over there is, the purpose of Yoga is to transcend the world.
But people have taken just the form, the practise is there, but the purpose is completely lost. And the reason I was talking about this is, that when Yoga is practised in the western world, there are some teachers of Yoga who want to appear non-sectarian. They want everyone to practise Yoga.
And they say actually Yoga is not Hindu. Yoga is not Vedic. Yoga is a system of practise that was developed even before Hinduism came about, even before Hindu gods started being worshipped.
And they want to disconnect Yoga from its roots so that it will appear universal. And others, many Hindu teachers and Hindu leaders, they say actually if something is coming from the Hindu tradition, you should give credit to that. So, now there is a big academic war going on between the two.
Because what has happened is, initially, Yoga has health benefits, but they are side benefits. They are not the purpose of Yoga. Now because of the health benefits, because everybody is interested in material improvement, so many Christians started practising Yoga.
And many Catholic churches and the Evangelical churches, they declared that Yoga is actually something coming from the Satan. And it’s demonic and it should never be practised. But they found that when they started telling people to reject Yoga, people started rejecting them.
So then, most Christian traditions, many Christian contemporary traditions, they have now revised their position and they have come up with something called Christian Yoga. So, Christian Yoga is what? It is basically the idea that Yoga is simply a non-denominational practise. Just like you can have Christian meditation, you can have Islamic meditation or Sikh meditation.
Meditation is a practise. Now, you can do it with a world view, an ideology which is drawn from any tradition. So, Yoga is simply a set of practises.
And then, they have Christian Yoga. Now, in the Western world, there are people who are very great animal lovers. So now, there is a form of Yoga which has… The Christian Yoga, we say it is not heard of, but okay, Yoga, if you consider non-sectarian, it can be brought together with Christianity.
But there is a form of Yoga which has absolutely no precedence in the tradition. That is called as Doga. Doga is what? Yoga with dogs.
People love their dogs so much, they say, I want to do everything with my dogs. So, if I want to do Yoga, I want my dog also to do Yoga. So, actually, there are whole Doga teachers.
And the Doga teachers, they train the master of the dog and the dog both together. So, here, the purpose is completely forgotten. In fact, there are Doga competitions also.
Now, which dog and master can perform the best Yoga together? So, here, there is a practise and there is a purpose. When the purpose is forgotten, then the practise can be used or abused for any purpose that the human mind can come up with. So, the Bhagavatam, thousands of years ago, is stressing the purpose.
Yes, even in the… So, what we can see in the modern times is, we could say that it’s shocking. How could this happen? You know, how can people do something ridiculous? But actually, it’s not just in the modern times. In the tradition also, there have always been deviants.
If sometimes we have an idea that, oh, India, everybody was a devotee. No, it was never like that. In fact, if you consider from the 5th century BC to 5th century AD, the maximum number of books that were written propagating atheism were written in Sanskrit.
Sanskrit, we consider such a sacred language. But Buddhism and Jainism, they became very influential. They initially started off as mass religions who taught in Pali and Prakrit, the local languages.
But then eventually, as they attracted more and more followers, then they started attracting intellectuals also. And then their intellectuals started presenting their teachings in Sanskrit. So, they wrote books refuting the existence of God because both of these traditions are essentially non-theistic.
They’re not atheistic, they’re non-theistic. We just don’t talk about God. But some of their teachers eventually became atheistic, rejecting God.
So, there has always been distortion that has happened. And the Bhagavatam is preparing us for the prevention of the divorce between the practise and the purpose by stressing that we are meant to remember Krishna. Unless we remember the Supreme, yoga is not of much use.
The sixth chapter purports, the Prabhupada writes that if during yoga we are meditating on some phantasmagoria, people say meditate on light, some people say meditate on the sound of silence. Meditate on the sound of silence. How do you meditate on the sound of silence? That is the heart.
I can’t do it. Yes, you need the mercy of the guru to do it. Nobody can meditate on the sound of silence actually.
But the whole system can be used for any purpose. Prabhupada says unless there is meditation on Vishnu, the process of yoga is actually simply a waste of time. So now, going back to the starting example, that yoga was meant for what? The child is watching the horror movie and then slowly the child’s consciousness comes off, looks away from the horror movie.
Now, looking away from the horror movie is good, at least we’re not getting horrified. But the point is, if one wants to be comforted, one has to look at one’s mother. Oh, my mother is right here with me.
My mother is comforting me. My mother is there to protect me. Then the child will become comforted.
Child will become pacified. So similarly, the point of spiritual practise is not just to go through elaborate exercises by which one comes to some kind of fantastical vision. The point is simply to connect with the Lord.
And what Srila Prabhupada says is, that connection with the Lord, if the ultimate purpose is to just to connect with the Lord, then by hearing about Him, by speaking about Him, we can also connect with Him. And we can connect more easily with Him. Because to go through the elaborate process of yoga is quite difficult.
But you can connect much more easily just by hearing. However, when we hear, when we speak about Krishna, what is our purpose? At one level, we can say that the yoga process, it ultimately leads to remembrance of the Lord. And the bhakti process can also lead to the remembrance of the Lord.
Srila Prabhupada wrote a book called the Topmost Yoga System. He talks about bhakti yoga is the topmost yoga. Now, yes, bhakti yoga is the topmost yoga.
But that does not necessarily mean that we are the topmost yogis automatically. There are many yogis who by practising yoga may actually be much more detached from what we are. I had gone to a yoga conference.
After that, I was talking with a yoga teacher. Now, he was a part of an international organisation. And they have like 700 centres all over the world.
But the organisation does not have a single property by its name. Not a single property by its name. They have… So I was talking with the teacher.
He said when he goes, he has a place where he stays. And they have like 500,000, 10,000 people come for the yoga exercises. He says, tomorrow if the people tell me, we don’t want you here, I’ll go away from here.
So he has nothing by his name. Not only he does not have… None of the yoga teachers in that tradition, some of them are monks, some of them are householders, none of them have any possession. The organisation itself has no property in its name.
So this is… They could get that, but they say that we don’t want to be entangled with the world. So the point here is that we can’t assume just because you’re practising bhakti, we are advanced. We can be advanced, but we may not be also.
If we are attached… So even in bhakti, while practising bhakti, we may practise bhakti, but we may forget the purpose of practising bhakti. Just as that can happen in yoga, it can happen in bhakti also. Now, of course, our purpose is not just to reject.
Now our purpose is to connect. So we see money not as maya, we see money as Lakshmi. And we use Lakshmi in Krishna’s service.
But at the same time, it’s very easy to… to seek a sense of power and prestige by doing devotional activities while forgetting the purpose. So once I had gone to Kumbh Mela and there I saw one sadhu or whatever. He was performing a yajna.
Beautiful Sanskrit mantras he was chanting. Many of us were quite impressed. And then he took out a bidi from his pocket and with the sacrificial fire, he lit the bidi and he started smoking.
So the practise is having fluent Sanskrit mantras better than what most of us would chant. But what is it? He’s still addicted to smoking and he’s using the sacrificial fire to light his bidi. So shocking.
So sometimes somebody may do the practises very well but the purpose may be completely forgotten. So it may happen to devotees. It may happen to karmakandis.
It may happen to yogis. The purpose is to remember Krishna. If you forget that purpose or somehow that purpose gets sidelined.
There are many people who actually… who speak on the Bhagavatam. Now again some of them are… they do Bhagavat Katha. Some of them are pure.
But many of them have a lot of mercenary motives. Material motives. I want fame.
I want money. I want prestige. They’re speaking about the Bhagavatam but their goal is not the Bhagavatam.
Their goal is fame in the world. Their goal is prestige in the world. Their goal is money.
When they have that, actually they’re speaking about Krishna and they may speak with great drama and flavour but they are not thinking about Krishna. They’re thinking about, okay, how many people can I attract? How many people can I impress? How many people can give how much donations? So if that is the purpose, then we will not… even when we are speaking about Krishna, we may not be going closer to Krishna by speaking about Krishna. So our purpose has to be clear.
In 5.17, the Bhagavad Gita says that our intelligence need to be fixed on Krishna. Tat Atmanas. Our mind needs to be fixed on Krishna.
Panishtas. Our faith should be in Krishna and most importantly, Tat Parayana. Krishna needs to be our goal.
So if Krishna is not the goal, then we may actually hear about the stories. Our mind may be involved. Our intelligence may also be involved but our goal is something else.
Then we will not make much spiritual advancement. So for us, the practise is important but the purpose is even more important. And when the purpose is to remember Krishna, then even if somebody is doing a practise that is apparently not devotional, still the purpose remains Krishna and one can make spiritual advancement.
So during his last days, Shri Prabhupada would encourage his disciples to strongly counter atheism. Now Prabhupada would be critiquing science and scientists but his purpose was not against science. He himself used technology quite a bit.
He had printing presses and he was proud of the way the books were produced competently. When Prabhupada criticised science, he was primarily criticising the atheism that was being propagated in the name of science. But Prabhupada was exposing atheistic theories and Tamal Krishna Maharaj came and said, Prabhupada was quite energetically talking to Bhakti Sao Udawada Maharaj and Tamal Krishna Maharaj thought that maybe Prabhupada is getting tired.
Prabhupada, would you like to have Kirtan? He thought, you know, Harinam, you can have some devotees singing Kirtan. Prabhupada said, what do you think we are doing right now? We are doing Kirtan right now. So Prabhupada considered that even refuting the atheism by which God’s existence is established, that is also Kirtan.
So somebody may say, okay, somebody is writing a paper for a scientific conference. Somebody is, you know, somebody is maybe doing something technical, scientific. It may not seem directly connected with Krishna.
But if the purpose is Krishna, then even that is Kirtan. So for us, when we are meant to practise Bhakti, it’s not just the activities that we do. Activities are very important.
The practises are important. But we have to see whether the practises are changing our purpose. Our purpose initially may be whatever it is.
Now, initially we may come to Krishna for whatever reason. But by the association of devotees, our purpose needs to change. To the extent our purpose becomes Krishna, to that extent, the practise will lead to the fruit.
By the end of our life, even if we don’t develop pure love for Krishna, if at least our love for Krishna becomes greater than our love for the world, then that is also a success of our spiritual practise, our devotional practise. And then Krishna will take us out of this world and we will attain Him. And that’s how we will be able to fulfil the purpose of the Bhagavatam just as Hariship Maharaj’s purpose was fulfilled by hearing the Bhagavatam.
So I’ll summarise. I spoke today about how there is the six systems of yoga that were there. They all had the purpose of gradually elevating one’s consciousness towards the Supreme, towards the highest reality.
And I talked about how here, the Bhagavatam is showing how yoga and Sankhya both are pointing ultimately towards meditation in the Supreme. So Vyasadeva has revealed a commentary on the Yoga Sutras, which is devotional. But Vyasadeva in the Vedanta Sutra has also refuted yoga.
Why? Because yoga could be seen as one progressive system of thought culminating in Vedanta, which culminates in Bhakti. Then Vyasadeva is revealing how it culminates in Bhakti. That’s his commentary.
But when yoga is envisioned as competitive, as an alternative to Bhakti, then Vyasadeva is refuting that. The six systems move progressively. We look at the world, analyse what are its elements, that’s Sankhya.
Analyse what are its components in terms of atoms, that is Vaisheshika. Think of, okay, what are the principles controlling it? We look at the laws of nature and chant mantras to harmonise with those laws. That is Vimamsa.
Then we practise something to see, okay, what is beyond this world that we try to explore through yoga. And the reasoning that we do for all this purpose, that is Nyaya. And ultimately, what is the reality beyond this world, which is the source of the world? That is Vedanta.
So the purpose of yoga is ultimately to, like a person watching a movie, stop watching the horror movie and then turn to one’s mother, who’s there for one’s shelter and comfort. So yoga focus is first on just stop watching the TV. And then at the end, turn towards the Supreme.
So Bhakti directly means hearing about the Supreme. And then by that, we can connect with the Supreme. And thus the yoga’s purpose is fulfilled easily through Bhakti.
But in modern times, the practise of yoga has remained, but the purpose has been forgotten. That’s why we have yoga for enjoying the world rather than transcending the world. And we have yoga, which is considered to be non-religious.
And then we have other religions misappropriating yoga. Or there’s yoga. All sorts of things come up.
So when the purpose is forgotten, the practise can be misappropriated. And that can happen even in Bhakti. We may do the devotional activities, but we may do it, we may still be attached.
We can’t assume that we are advanced. Because we are following the topmost yoga, that doesn’t mean we are the topmost yogis. It depends on our consciousness.
So we have to remember that the practise of Bhakti is also for the purpose of Bhagawan, of remembering and absorbing ourselves in Bhagawan. To the extent we keep this practise, keep this purpose central, to that extent, the practise will purify us and elevate our affection, our attachment from the world to Krishna. That’s ensuring that we ultimately attain Krishna.
Thank you very much. Are there any questions or comments? Yes, ma’am. Okay.
So there is Shruti, Smriti and Nyaya. That is also one of the divisions. See, one thing we have to understand clearly that terms, there are terms and there are concepts.
And the same term can refer to different concepts. In English, I think that the word run has the maximum meanings. It has 675 meanings, one word.
So we could say term is verbal. Concept is intellectual. If you have a suitcase, the term is like the handle for the suitcase.
And the suitcase is the actual concept. Sometimes on the carousel, at one time my suitcase got broken. So when I was travelling, some devotee gave me a new suitcase.
And because it was in a haste, I forgot what the suitcase looked like. So I just only remembered the handle. So then when the carousel, the destination of the carousel came, we were taking out separate suitcases, you know, different suitcases.
Look, is this mine? Is this mine? Is this mine? So the point is, the handle was similar. But what was attached to that handle was quite different. So the handle is the term.
The concept is the suitcase. So the same handle, the same term can refer to different things at different times. So when we talk about Shruti, Smriti and Nyaya, these are not referring to systems of thought.
They are referring to categories of literature. So Nyaya is a system of thought. Nyaya is also a category of literature.
So in this category of literature as Nyaya, what it refers to is, in Shruti, there are basically, there are mantras which are revealed by, through the supreme, through the sages, by the supreme through the sages. And they are meant to be recited and they are largely about Karmakand, although there is Bhakti also, but largely Karmakand. Smriti is about pastimes, stories of the Lord and stories of his various devotees and his descendants.
Nyaya is a category of literature which focusses primarily on reasoning. It focusses primarily on very terse reasoning, very, very brief. So to give an example for how it could be, say if there is a study of neurology, brain science, then Shruti is like the do-it manual.
Do this, do this, do this, do this. Smriti is like the case studies. Okay, in this situation, this operation was done like this.
See, the operation was done like this. Whereas, Nyaya is like a live reporting of the discussion between two advanced neurosurgeons. They will have so much terminology going on that most audience will not even understand what they are discussing, isn’t it? So, what the Nyaya literature, Nyaya is a category, they contain very terse reasoning.
So, for example, it’s like there are two cases. Now, there is a verse in the Vedanta Sutra and now what is that verse referring to? It doesn’t tell only. It assumes.
Like some cases may be very famous among neurosurgeons. They just know it. And the commentators tell us, okay, this is referring to this passage from this Upanishad.
And then what is that passage? We hear that. And what is the discussion going on based on this? Okay, then we try to understand it. So, Nyaya there refers to a category of literature which is based on reasoning.
Okay, this past time says this. Therefore, logically this can’t be this, this, this. Therefore, it has to be this.
So, that means the word Nyaya can have three meanings. One first I said is that a system of thought. Second is a category of literature.
Now, when I talk about a system of thought, it refers to a whole philosophical system. But the third meaning is simply logic and reasoning. So, logic and reasoning is what is the driving theme of the Nyaya literature.
So, they are called Nyaya because they focus on reasoning through which they try to arrive at some philosophical conclusions. Does it answer your question? Oh, there are many other Sutras. Jaimini Sutra is there.
Of course, that is Vimamsa Sutra. That is Vimamsa Sutra. But Nyaya has its own genre of literature.
Any other questions, comments? Okay, last question. Yeah. We are talking about practise of yoga or practise of bhakti? Okay.
So, even we hear about the purpose, we find the practise difficult. Yes, that is natural. Just like when a child is trying to walk for the first time, the child cannot walk very easily.
Child will fall, get up, walk. That’s natural for us. Krishna says that even if one falls down to terrible activities, if one’s purpose is fixed, then one is to be considered saintly and soon one will become purified and one will be protected by Krishna.
So, there are three different things. There is inability to practise, there is unwillingness to practise, and there is ignorance about practise. The three are very different things.
I want to, but I cannot practise it. Second is, I don’t want to do this only. Third is, I don’t know what to do.
Fourth could also be, I don’t know why to do it. So, ignorance about practise can be there or ignorance about purpose of practise. So, for us, it’s inability to practise right now.
And ability is developed gradually. As we keep practising bhakti steadily, gradually our inner strength increases. And as our inner strength increases, then the lower desires, the mind, the senses, which are dragging us in other directions, they start becoming more and more manageable.
So, right now, we have been feeding our lower desires for many, many lifetimes. And even in this lifetime. So, the lower desires are like a giant.
And our bhakti is like a pygmy right now, like a tiny creature. So, our bhakti goes on nicely as long as that giant doesn’t come. When the giant comes, then our bhakti disappears.
But the wonderful thing, but the good thing is that, that giant is not there 24 hours a day. So, that giant lower desire will keep coming in between. But in between, before the lower desire comes up, shoots up, and then goes.
So, in between, what do we do? In between, if we keep practising bhakti as much as we can, that will purify us. And that purification means that pygmy-like bhakti that is there, that is also becoming stronger and stronger. So, as bhakti becomes stronger and stronger, gradually we’ll be able to overcome the giant.
And more importantly, even if that lower desire is like a giant, we have Krishna with us. So, Krishna can control it. So, on one side, if we keep nourishing our devotion, on another side, we don’t indulge excessively.
Some amount of indulgence may be unavoidable because when the desire comes, it may force us to do certain things. But if we don’t indulge excessively, we don’t violate the principles of dharma while indulging in it, then gradually that will also weaken the giant. So, then the practise will become easier.
So, bhakti is a gradual process and we just need to keep practising diligently, no matter how much. Okay, if I fall, I get up again and I keep moving onwards. And the mind and senses can make us fall down, but they can’t keep us down.
It’s only when we lose hard, then we stay down. So, if we rise again and keep rising up and keep moving on, we will grow by that. Thank you very much.
So, today morning we are discussing