Let samskaras takes us beyond our scars

[Bhagavatam class at ISKCON, Juhu, Mumbai]

Video:

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
I’m grateful to be here amongst all of you today. I apologise for being somewhat late.
We got caught in the traffic. So here, the pastime of Vamana Dev is being described and described how the birthday ceremony was performed. Actually, Prabhupada elaborates on how birthday ceremony and other ceremonies were performed in the Vedic tradition, not just for the Lord, but in general, for everyone.
So, I’ll speak today on the topic of how samskaras are meant to take us beyond our scars. Samskara and scar. So, scar basically refers to some mark that is there.
Somebody gets burnt, then a mark is formed on the body. Now, physical scars can be easily seen, but there are also emotional scars, mental scars. And, these are basically the impressions that are formed in our mind.
And, we carry many impressions from our many previous lives into this life. And these impressions, they press us to act in particular ways. So, I was in London a few months ago and I met, I was doing a youth programme.
So, there were two people who had come. They were identical twins. Now, among twins also, there are bizygotic twins and monozygotic twins.
That means, sometimes, say, one zygote splits into two and then two twins are formed from that. So, in that case, the two are not genetically similar, they are genetically identical. It’s 100% genes are identical.
And yet, these two twins, their personalities were very different. So, I was explaining how this, so, I was talking about this phenomena and they just happened to be there at that time. So, I was talking about how monozygotic twins show that our personality doesn’t come simply from our genes or our body.
The two people who are genetically identical and yet their personalities differ. One of them was an introvert, the other was an extrovert. One of them was very artistic, the other person was not at all artistic.
One of them was very unorganised, the other was very organised. So, where are these differences coming from? The body is not just in physical appearance the same, but in genetic structural identity. So, that comes from, not the body, but the soul.
And not exactly the soul, but what the soul carries around it. So, when the soul goes from one body to another body, along with the soul, the subtle body goes. And the subtle body is the place where impressions are formed.
So, every single thing that we do, it doesn’t just lead to some action and karmic reaction, but also leads to some kind of impression being formed on the mind. And when we keep doing something repeatedly, or when we experience something very forcefully in terms of emotions, then that impression becomes deep-rooted in our psyche. The psyche is just another word for the mind.
So, these impressions prompt us to act in particular ways. Some people are just very short-tempered. Even as a child, some children are very peaceful, and some children they just cry so much and demand so much they bring the whole house down, unless what they want is done for them.
So, how does this happen? It is the parents may not be short-tempered also. Broadly speaking, we can explain our behaviour from multiple factors. One is upbringing.
Why do we behave the way we do? Different people behave differently because their upbringing is a particular way. Beyond upbringing, there is association. We may have a pious upbringing, but if our association is bad, then we may also become bad.
I was just a few months ago in Yale. I was talking with a science and spirituality professor who had come there. I was speaking on science, spirituality and self-improvement.
He was telling that they were talking about ethics and spirituality. They did some experiment where they found that they had some tests done, some exam had to be done. On the computer, they had to write the answers.
And they made the system in such a way that the previous person whose answers had been given, they were already there. They were not deleted. Same computer, different people come and give the answers.
So, if the previous person was good, the answers would already be there over there. So, you could see. And they told you delete whatever is the previous screen and then use it.
So, in this case, when somebody, one person saw, they’re sitting there and you’re looking at other person, he’s just copying the answers from the previous one. So, what they found is that if one person starts doing something wrong, then seeing that person do that wrong thing, others start doing it. So, if there are some rules which one person can break, we see this person is breaking and getting away with it.
Then others also start breaking it. So, they say that our dishonest association can make even honest people dishonest. In this way, we are shaped a lot by our association.
So, our behaviour is shaped by our upbringing and our association. Of course, we all do have free will. And the upbringing and the association push us to act in particular ways.
But they don’t force us. We can push back. But whether we will want to push back and how much we will have the capacity to push back, that is not always certain.
When we talk about willpower, will is something that everyone has. There’s a difference between will and willpower. So, will is something which everyone has.
But willpower refers to how powerful are wills. For example, I want to go in a particular direction. Now, if I am walking along and there is a tree fallen along the way.
If I have the power, then I will push aside the tree and move on. But if I don’t have that power, I cannot go this way. There’s a roadblock.
And I think that I cannot go there because there’s a roadblock. So, like that, all of us have will. But how powerful is that will that varies from person to person? There’s a British thinker, Mark Twain, he said that giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world.
I have done it over a hundred times. So, if I have given up smoking a hundred times, what does it mean? I gave up smoking but smoking didn’t give me up. So, I gave it up and I took it up again.
I gave it up and took it up again. So, basically, the problem is that our past impressions, they prompt us to act in particular ways. Do this, do this, do this, do this.
Radha Raas Bihari Bhagwan ki jai. And it’s very difficult to resist that. So, samskaras are meant to create positive impressions within us.
Scars, I started talking about scars and samskaras. So, scars are what physically deform us. Scars at an emotional level, they make our inner world tilted in particular ways or tilted against particular things.
So, some people may have phobias. Just extremely scared of certain things. So, that is also at the level of the mind, the fear is there.
Some people, arachnophobia is a very common phobia in the western world. People are just madly afraid of spiders. So, they start screaming as you see a spider.
Now, a spider is not a very harmful creature. Not very dangerous. But, there’s tremendous fear over there.
So, this is an impression that is there in the mind which just makes a person behave in a particular way. So, there is stimulus externally and then there is response. In between the stimulus and the response, there are three stages.
We perceive the stimulus, then we process the stimulus and then we pursue a particular course of action. Pursue means we take it in. Then we process.
Okay, what should I do now? And then we pursue. That means do a particular thing. So, perceiving, processing and pursuing, these three things are what a healthy mind should be able to do properly.
But, when a person is scarred in a particular way, their mind is impressed in a particular way, then these three things happen in an improper way. Say, suppose this is a house and this is an office and say there are two people who are going to the office. One of them is an alcoholic and the other is a sober person.
And along the way there is a bar. So, when both of them are passing by, for the alcoholic, as soon as they perceive a bar, there is pleasure there, let me go and drink. And then, even if that person has made a resolution no, I don’t want to drink.
But, the processing will happen in such a way that the impression will push that person to act in a particular way. And it is very difficult for that person to resist. And then, they are going straight to the office, but instead they will pursue a different course of action.
They will go into the bar and start drinking. So, our impressions create inclinations. Now, inclinations, say if this floor is inclined like this, then if water falls on the floor, automatically, water will flow in this direction.
Even if we don’t want it to flow in that direction, still it will flow that way. Because, that’s the inclination. So, similarly, our now, this floor may be straight, but if, say it’s not a small floor, but it’s a wooden board, a huge object is put on it.
And that object may cause that floor to tilt. And then, that is a flat floor has now become a tilted floor. And then, the water will move along the direction of the tilt.
So, similarly for us, when we go through different experiences, say for a person, no, say a person who is living a sober life, but that person drank alcohol again and again and became alcoholic. Then, what happens? Then, the floor becomes inclined like this. So, it’s like on the, if you consider the consciousness or the mind to be like a floor, and a big object falls on it.
It causes the floor to tilt. And then, when it tilts, then, just, it is that naturally, the water will flow in that direction. So, once impressions are formed in the consciousness, then automatically, the consciousness starts flowing in that direction.
Even if that person doesn’t want it to. I’m not going to do this. But, the consciousness will flow in that direction.
Because, that is the nature of impressions. Impressions cause inclinations in our consciousness. And, consciousness naturally, effortlessly flows wherever the inclinations.
So, when people become addicted, so, addiction is not just a particular uncontrollable behaviour. So, addiction, nowadays, people think of it as a disease. Because, somebody is addicted, it is almost as if their willpower is lost.
Willpower is never entirely lost. But, if the floor has become inclined, then, by default, the water will flow in that direction. If somebody is an alcoholic, one devotee recently was telling me that his brother was an alcoholic, and then, they had to, they become so creative, somehow or the other, they have to get alcohol.
So, they will just find some way to smuggle in, even if you keep them in a closed container, they will smuggle in alcohol from somewhere. If there is a medicine bottle, they will throw the medicine away and put alcohol in that and drink it. What happens at that time, that the intelligence, which is meant to control the mind, Shri Prabhupada writes, we are meant to use the intelligence to control the enjoying mentality.
But, we are used to enjoying intelligently. So, we use the intelligence to fulfil that desire. So, now, when the floor is inclined in this way, it becomes almost impossible to stop the water flow in that direction.
So, we all come with different impressions from our past life. And then, those impressions create inclinations of our consciousness. Now, not all inclinations are bad.
Some of, basically, Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Shudra, these are four broad human types. They are not castes. Caste is more of a western terminology, which is used and it conveys sectarianism.
But, this is a human type. This is a kind of body and mind that people have. Now, if you see, physically, all of them have a human body.
So, where is the Brahmana tendency, Kshatriya tendency, Vaishya tendency, Shudra tendency situated? It is in the mind. Their mind is impressed in a particular way. Krishna says in the third chapter, 34th, 35th verses, he analyses this section.
And he says, the way your inclinations of a Kshatriya are, you are going to act that way. What can repression accomplish? So, now somebody may say, okay, then I am lusty, I am angry, I am greedy. What can repression accomplish? No, Krishna is not talking about that over there.
We could say, that in our mind, the impressions, they are of two types. We could call them as vritti and vasana. Or a rough English equivalent could be instincts and impulses.
So, in both instincts and impulses, we act without conscious thought. But when we act according to our impulses, we act in a harmful way. Whereas, when we act according to our instincts, we act in a beneficial way.
Say, if I touch my hand to this mic stand, and suppose there is some electric current in this mic stand. Now, when I touch it, immediately my hand moves away. I don’t think consciously, oh, this electric current, if it goes to my body, it will kill me.
Now, that is, instinctively, the right action happens. So, all living beings have been given some instincts, which are essential for their survival. One of the strong evidences of a higher intelligence being present or being gifted to all living beings is, which points to the existence of God, is what we call as bird migration.
Now, when birds migrate from one place to another, at that time, it’s amazing how they know where to go. If we take a bird, cover it, put it in a sack, and take it 500 miles away, and then release it. There are some birds which just go up, turn round and round and round a few times, and then straight go back to where their nest is.
Now, if we were kidnapped and dropped in some strange place, without asking someone or without consulting Google Maps, we would not know where to go. So, how do these birds know? This is instinct. Instinct means, we could say, programmed intelligence.
So, all of us have certain instincts. So, Akshatriya has those instincts of management, of leadership. A Brahmana has intellectual instincts.
And they just do the right thing at that time. So, there’s a famous mathematician in India, Sakuntala Devi. She would just multiply 13 digit numbers within moments and give the result.
And she’s asked, how do you get the answer? You don’t multiply and carry over. No, I just get the answer. So, like that, we all have certain instincts where we just get certain things.
Some of us may have an instinct for music. Some of us may have an instinct for housekeeping. Some of us may have an instinct for language.
So, this is what we are naturally good at. So, as soon as you come into a place, somebody who has a very good housekeeping instinct, as soon as they come into a place, they say, maybe this is kept here, this will look better. Somebody who has a language instinct, as soon as they see something, they’ll say, hey, this spelling is wrong.
This could be constructed like this. So, basically, instincts are programmed intelligence which help us to see things quickly and understand them without conscious exercise of our intelligence. In contrast, impulses are also unthinkingly done, but they are destructive.
So, for an alcoholic, the impulse is to drink. So, even if they resolve not to drink, as soon as some urge comes, oh, I’m bored, I’m depressed, I’m lonely, I need some relief, and immediately the hand will go to a bottle and they’ll drink it. So, our impulses make us act against our best interests.
In Europe and some other countries, there are welfare states. The welfare states means, if people don’t get jobs, then the government pays them dole maintenance. Now, many people get hooked to drugs and such people, the government gives them money for their maintenance, but they prefer to starve and take drugs.
Use the money which the government has given to take drugs. So, the impulse for drugs has become so forceful on them that they are ready to injure their own body, deprive their own body. So, when the mind becomes impressed with destructive impulses, then such a mind becomes the enemy not just of the soul, but also of the body.
The uncontrolled mind, it takes us away from Krishna, so it is the enemy of the soul. But the uncontrolled mind becomes the enemy even of the body. Because it makes us act in ways that are harmful to the body also.
So, now we all have certain impressions which are both instincts and impulses. Now, the instincts are to be channelled and used constructively. So, whatever we are good at, we do it more and more.
We can do constructive service, we can make positive contributions by that. The impulses need to be regulated. And the samskaras that are there, they are meant to do two things.
One is to understand our instincts and to purify our impulses. When the Pandavas married Draupadi, actually it was Arjuna who won her hand in Swayamvar, but then because of Kunti’s words, all the Pandavas married Draupadi. So, at that time, the Pandavas were incognito.
And Rupada wanted to know who are these people who have married my daughter. So, he invited them for a feast. And in the hall where the food was kept, food was going to be served, near that there is a long table and he kept different items over there.
On one side of the table he had kept some scriptures and some worship paraphernalia. Then he had kept some weapons. Then he kept some trade related things.
And then he kept some tools for crafts of artisans. The Pandavas came into the room, sat down, they looked around and then they saw the table and went straight to the table. And they picked up the weapons and they started discussing, this weapon is like this weapon, this weapon can do this, this weapon can’t do this.
And they became lost in discussion. And then, Draupada understood. Although they are dressed like Brahmanas, they are not Brahmanas.
They are Kshatriyas. So, the Pandavas are pure devotees. But even though they are pure devotees, they did not get attracted instinctively to Shastra.
They got instinctively attracted to Shastra. Why? Because that was their nature. So, similarly, we know say, when Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was born, he was asked to choose.
So, these kind of, these are also ceremonies, not exactly Samskaras. But basically, these kind of activities are meant to help us understand our instincts. So, the word Samskara can be specifically used for certain rituals that are performed at certain times in our life.
Generically, it can be used to refer to those things which form impressions on us. So, one way to understand our instincts is to note consciously what we notice subconsciously. To note consciously what we notice subconsciously.
So, if somebody comes into a room and immediately, this painting is so beautiful, this art is like this, maybe this could be made like this, this could be done like this. So, we don’t have to consciously observe to notice it, that’s what we notice automatically. So, what we notice subconsciously, if we note that consciously, then we will understand this is where my instinct lies.
And this is what I can do, this is what I am good at. So, what about the impressions which are impulses? They need to be purified. So, the purification of the impulses comes by exposing ourselves to pure stimuli.
The impure impressions have been formed because we have been exposed to impure stimuli. So, at one level, there are certain rites of passage that we do, which are meant to create positive impressions in the consciousness, in the psyche of the person. So, there is a rite from the Garbhadhan Samskara to the Antya Samskara.
All these, what are they meant for? They are meant to create positive impressions on the psyche. So that, if the floor has been inclined like this, by which the person’s thoughts are going to go in a particular way, if we give pure stimuli, then that impression will get at least partially rectified. Not entirely, but at least some countering influence will be there.
So, the impressions can refer to certain rites of passage, which are done at specific times in life. It can also refer to the broad activities of bhakti, which are meant to create conscious impressions. You know that, impressions connected with Krishna.
So, when we come and take darshan of the deities, when we come and hear the Bhagavatam, when we chant the Holy Names, all these create impressions. And what does this impression do? It leads to the reshaping of the floor of our psyche. Because inclined like this, gradually it will become inclined like this.
And that way, whatever impurities we have, they will start going away. And there are different things which will cause impressions at different times. So, here, Prabhupada says that the birthday ceremony was performed for Vamana and this is how it was performed in the Vedic culture.
So, one defining difference between the way birthdays are celebrated today and way it is celebrated in the past is in the past, the culture was more of giving and sharing. So, on birthdays, to give in charity. Whereas, now, it’s a culture of grabbing and receiving.
How many gifts do I get? Do I get this gift or do I not get this gift? Nowadays, responsible parents everywhere, East-West, are especially concerned about how their children grow up. So, there was a documentary made by BBC. An article about it came in New York Times.
They compared children who grew up in the West, in America, and children who grew up in Africa. So, children who grew up in America, they grew up with a high sense of entitlement. Entitlement means, I deserve this.
I deserve this. I deserve this. So, because they’ve grown up in relatively prosperous families.
So, I want the food of my choice. You have to give me this food. You have to give me this food.
And if you don’t give, they throw a tantrum. They are screaming, crying, and not only that, I want this toy of this choice right now. So, this entitlement mentality is very common, especially among children of the privileged.
Because we deserve it. And just children when they grow up, we may grow up in entitled families, but after we grow up, the world doesn’t treat us in an entitled way. So, when we stop getting, if in our childhood, we have always been getting whatever we wanted.
And when we grow up, we stop getting it. Then it becomes very disorienting. People get violent.
People get frustrated. People get depressed. Because the expectation has been set up that I will get what I want.
If I don’t get it, then it’s too bad. So, in contrast, they showed some children in Africa. So, there was an African safari that was going.
An African trip that was going. And from one village, they were going to another village. And there was a 10-year-old girl.
She went along with that. And nobody told her anything. When they put camp, she started arranging things, putting up the mattresses, clearing up the clothes, arranging for the plates for food.
Nobody told her anything. In the West, the children have to be reminded. Do this code.
Do this code. Do this code. And still they don’t do it.
So, why was that? Because the upbringing was different. The impressions were different. So, naturally, there is reciprocation.
We do something for someone. The other person does something for us. But the entitlement mentality means that we think that others should do much more for us and I will grudgingly do a little for them.
But the spiritual idea is that we are meant to serve. We are meant to contribute. In a broad sense, what is the difference between material consciousness and spiritual consciousness? Material consciousness means when we see a person, we think, what can this person do for me? Spiritual consciousness means what can I do for this person? How can I serve this person? How can I help this person come closer to Krishna? How can I help this person in the service of Krishna? So, the material consciousness and spiritual consciousness are defined by the grabbing or the giving.
So, same gets reflected in the birthdays also. So, I’ll conclude with one point. That I answer questions on my website, The Spiritual Scientist.
So, I ask a question, should devotees celebrate their birthdays? Or should devotee children celebrate their birthdays? And now, birthday celebration happens in a particular way in today’s world. And it’s a common part of the culture. So, people light cake, people have a cake, and they look, and they clap, and they sing.
Now, in the tradition, yagya was performed, there was a different way of celebrating birthdays. The important thing is, impressions happen both consciously and unconsciously. Unconsciously means, just being exposed to a pious situation purifies us.
It elevates us. It makes us attracted towards Krishna. And consciously also, when a particular ceremony is performed, we feel a sense of belonging, we feel love, we feel valued, we feel cared.
We feel a broader sense of community and that gives us a sense of belonging. We feel love. So, if a child is living in a community where everybody’s birthday is celebrated, and this child’s birthday is not celebrated, the child will feel unloved.
My parents don’t love me. My community doesn’t care for me. So, the birthday can be performed if it’s required, but it can be spiritualised.
Generally, devotees, we should not blow candles, especially not with our mouth. We consider fire to be sacred and the air that comes out from our mouth is not very sacred. So, we don’t blow candles.
In fact, light is considered auspicious. So, we don’t want to blow out the light. But, when devotees do birthday celebrations, what do we do? We may have a cake or we may not have a cake, but the important thing is, we have Hare Krishna Kirtan.
So, we spiritualise it so that Krishna becomes the impression. And, this creates an impact in a very deep way because Krishna becomes impressed in the consciousness. On top of that, if there’s a community which comes together, then the child feels loved, child feels cared.
So, we don’t have to necessarily reject certain cultural forms just because they were not present traditionally. The important thing is whether the purpose of that tradition is being served. A few months ago, I came from America.
So, I was talking with one Yogi who had come to India and gone to America. So, he and his wife were talking with them. So, they had just got married and gone to India and they had attended a wedding in India.
So, they said that one major difference that they felt most weddings in the West nowadays often legal ties happen. They just go to a court and sign. Sometimes, of course, the festivals are there.
They said that in India, wedding is sometimes a huge affair. Now, of course, sometimes it can just become too pompous and it can become an exhibition of one’s wealth and prowess. But, when a lot of people come and it’s a public function, then one thing that happens is the couple who are getting married, they are really married.
There are so many people who came and saw we went around the fire sacrifice and so the impression goes deep. Otherwise, you just two people have gone to a court and signed with a couple of witnesses. There’s no impression like, okay, this is done.
We can’t get along. Let’s split apart. So, the impressions act at both a conscious and subconscious level.
When the Vibhaha Yajna is done, then at that time, there are sacred impressions which are formed in the consciousness of both the partners which help them in their pursuit of dharmic life together thereafter. But, along with that, the whole setting creates a conscious impression also. So, for us, we all have certain impressions which we can use in Krishna’s service.
There are instincts and we have certain impressions, the impulses which we need to correct and by the practise of bhakti, we will be able to correct these impressions and specifically the more intensely we practise bhakti, the impulses will become smaller, weaker and weaker and we will be able to more steadily and smoothly move towards Krishna. And as our consciousness becomes inclined towards Krishna, then bhakti will become joyful. The inner struggle will become lesser and susukham karutmaham bhakti will be joyfully performed.
So, I’ll summarise. I spoke today about how samskaras take us beyond our scars. I started by talking about how our behaviours are shaped by the impressions in our mind.
Monozygotic twins are genetically identical and yet their personality is different. That comes from the impressions that are there in their minds from their previous lives. Our behaviour is shaped by our upbringing and our association.
But we also carry impressions from the past. The past impressions, this life’s upbringing, this life’s association, they all push us in particular directions. With our free will, we can counter-push.
All of us have will, but our willpower varies depending on how much the consciousness is inclined in particular ways. So, if a heavy object falls on a wooden floor, it will get tilted. Like that, if we indulge in a particular activity repeatedly, then that causes an inclination of our consciousness.
So, somebody who drinks alcohol repeatedly, for them, alcoholism doesn’t just remain a choice. It just becomes like a disease. It becomes a compulsion.
So, at that time, just free will alone is not enough. Free will has to be followed by a process. So, the floor has to be re-inclined back.
So, that is what samskaras are meant to do. Samskaras can refer, I talk about three broad things. One is the traditional rites of passage, which are meant to create auspiciousness.
Second is the broad genre of devotional activities, which connect us with all pure Krishna and thereby, they also reshape or reconstruct the floor of our psyche. And third is the situations or occasions where we feel valued, loved, cherished, and that inspires us to act properly, even when the impulses come. I talk about impressions are of two types, vrittis and vastanas.
Instincts and impulses. Instincts are programmed intelligence where we do the right thing without thinking. To understand our instincts, we can note consciously what we notice subconsciously.
And our impulses can be corrected by the steady practise of bhakti, wherein the more we connect ourselves with Krishna, the floor of our consciousness will not only become tilted, improper tilting will go away, but it will get tilted towards Krishna, and then our bhakti practise will become joyful. Thank you very much. Hare Hare Krishna.
Do we have time? Okay. Yeah. Yes.
Hare Krishna. At the end, you were talking about devotional preparations. Devotional preparations.
But many times it happens that some person is having some invocation, he takes to devotional preparations also. So now he is practising also, at the same time, with a variety of actors, he doesn’t get very direct feeling of rectification of that invocation. Okay.
He likes devotional preparations also, and at the same time, he is like, he also has a case of motion sickness. So then, there is double amount of persons. Okay.
Yeah. So, the devotional preparations, do they actually, can they change all the inclinations that we have? Or is it sometimes some things just don’t get purified? So why does that happen like that? Not every inclination of the mind is changeable. Nor does it need to be changed.
Like I gave the example, the Pandavas were Kshatriyas. And they were not attracted spontaneously towards Shastra. They were attracted towards Shastra.
So we have our psychophysical nature, and it is possible that bhakti may change that. But that is not the standard. The standard process is we use our psychophysical nature to serve Krishna.
So, with respect to instincts, it may usually not happen that the instincts will change. So it is not necessary that a person with a Vaishya mentality will become a Brahmin. The Vaishya will also do Vaishya activity more Brahminically.
That means, the mode of goodness will be more, and they will do business with a broader sense. Every Varna activity can be done in different modes. When a Brahminical activity, intellectual activity can be done in Tamoguna.
Isn’t it? And Shudra activity can also be done with a significant component of support. So, it is not just the activity, it is the consciousness or the motivation with which we do it. That’s one thing.
With respect to the vasanas, with respect to the cravings that we have, ultimately, each one of us has to live with our own mind. We, nobody else can live our life for us. Our spiritual master, our spiritual guide, they can counsel us, but we have to live with our own mind.
And we have to find out what works best for our mind. The mind is like a child. And the child starts crying.
And the mother doesn’t have any standard formula which will work for all children. The same formula will not even work for the same child all the time. So, each mother has to find out, if my child is crying, how do I deal with that crying child? So, by crying child, I am referring to the mind’s cravings.
When the mind starts crying, craving, I want this, I want this, I want this, and then how do we deal with it? So, if certain conditionings are coming back again and again, we have to understand that the core of bhakti is connection with Krishna. Not disconnection with maya. Not disconnection with illusion.
The two go together, but the essence of bhakti is that we connect ourselves with Krishna. And, as long as we are connected with Krishna, we will keep moving forward in our spiritual life. Disconnecting ourselves from a particular conditioning may be difficult for us.
If we define our devotion in terms of renunciation, then that is a misunderstanding of what devotion is. Why? Because, if we consider the six opulences, wealth, strength, beauty, knowledge, fame, renunciation, like that. Now, if somebody is very beautiful, somebody is very intelligent, somebody is very wealthy, we understand that this is a result of past karma.
And, that wealth, beauty, knowledge, intelligence can be used in Krishna’s service. But, that wealth, beauty, intelligence are a result of past karma. So, just as wealth can result because of past karma, renunciation can also result because of past karma.
So, some people may, by their past karma, have a greater capacity for renunciation than others. Now, of course, bhakti can also lead to renunciation. So, specifically, by the practise of bhakti, anti-devotional activities in gross forms, it is relatively easy to give them up.
But, specific forms of renunciation, that may or may not happen for a devotee just by the practise of bhakti. Just like, is it that a non-intellectual devotee will suddenly become intellectual by the practise of bhakti? Maybe, maybe not. It doesn’t matter.
So, similarly, renunciation may not be possible for everyone. Renunciation, if we start thinking, renunciation is the centre point of definition of devotion. Then, somebody may just be renounced or detached because of past life’s karma.
And, they may think, I am spiritually advanced and others may think he is spiritually advanced, but they may not be. One of the greatest ironies of the past century was that the person who killed, who was responsible for the killing of the maximum number of people, that was Hitler, was a vegetarian. So, he never ate meat.
Does that mean that he was better than millions of people who eat meat? No. So, his detachment from meat was just because of some samskara that might have been there in him. So, we can’t just take detachment from something as the sole parameter of advancement.
So, we also indulge in certain habits because of different things. We don’t know. Some people may drink just because that helps them hang out with the cool crowd.
Now, if they come in devotee association and then they like devotee association, in this association, they don’t need to drink. Drinking just goes off immediately. But some people may drink as a means of stress relief.
When I feel depressed, when I feel stressed, when I feel worried, I just take a drink. Then, unless that person can find a different way to relieve their stress, then that, whenever they feel stressed, they will go back to drinking. Some people may indulge in some wrongdoing, not because of say, because they have a lot of lust.
But, it means just because they feel lonely. So, there is a behaviour and there is a need in there. So, if somebody was, say, drinking, somebody was, say, indulging in lust because of loneliness, then, it is not because of, it is not that the lust is so overpowering, it is just that loneliness or boredom is the problem.
So, unless that underlying need is addressed in some other healthier way, that behaviour will not go off so easily. So, there may be two different people who may be indulging in the same bad habit. One of them comes to bhakti and gives up that bad habit.
The other person is not able to give it up. That does not mean that bhakti is not working for this person, working for this person. It doesn’t necessarily mean that this person is less sincere than this person.
It may be just that both of them were indulging in that habit because that habit was serving different needs for them. So, what is the internal need and how that can be addressed in a healthy way, that may require some introspection. So, even if somebody is not able to give up something, the important thing is keep practising bhakti.
If we keep practising bhakti, we will get connected with Krishna and eventually we will be able to overcome it. So, if we, our mind can make us fall down, but it is we who keep ourselves down. That means we fall down, but we don’t have to stay down.
I fall down, I get up and move on in my spiritual life. We consider the graph of our consciousness with respect to time. Sometimes desire just spikes up.
Unbearable craving comes up and it is not possible to give it up at that time. And then after that we just feel, why did I do that? Why did I do that? Why did I do that? We keep beating ourselves up. And next time the spike comes, again we relax.
So, what we need to do is, when the spike comes, even if you are not able to resist it at that time, these strong desires, overpowering desires are not there 24 hours a day. They come, they stay, they go after that. They come after some time.
So, in between the spike and that spike, what am I doing? If during that time I am consistently connecting with Krishna, that will purify me. And if that spike is very strong, even if I am not able to overcome it, still I keep connecting with Krishna. Gradually I will become stronger.
And then I will be able to overcome that spike. So, even if we are not able to disconnect ourselves from Maya, we still keep connecting ourselves with Krishna and not worry too much about it. Try to do some introspection to see what need is being served.
That I can serve it in a different way. Check whether we are doing something wrong which we could do right. But if that is not happening, don’t worry too much.
Just connect with Krishna. That’s the most important thing. Krishna’s love for us is not based on who we are.
It is based on who He is. He is Surdham Sarvabhootanaam. Krishna is not just Bhaktavatsalak, He is also Krupanavatsalak.
So, therefore, even if somebody is not able to give up the Krupana mentality in a particular condition, still one can keep serving Krishna and gradually we will be able to overcome that weakness. Our greatest weakness is not lust, anger, greed. Our greatest weakness is our unwillingness to believe that Krishna loves us.
If we can just develop that faith and devotee association that Krishna loves me, Krishna is present in my heart, Krishna cares and Krishna will help me, then that faith will give us the strength to keep practising bhakti consistently no matter how much our conditioning struggles. And over a period of time, by the consistent practise of bhakti, that conditioning will go away. Thank you very much.
We’ll talk privately afterwards. Do you have any questions? Jai Gaur Prema Anandi.