How devotion makes the insurmountable ocean of material desires insignificant

[Brahmachari class at ISKCON, Sydney, Australia on Bhagavatam 10.3.30-33]

Video:

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So, thank you very much for your attention and participation.
So, I’ll speak today on the Bhagavatam. In the first canto, in the 10th canto rather, there are four verses which talk about the glory of the Lord’s lotus feet. And these verses focus on the theme of how those who take shelter of the Lord’s lotus feet, they go beyond illusion.
So, these are verses which are prayers offered by the devatas to Krishna when he’s in the womb of mother Devaki. And therein, so the mood of those prayers is that actually you are the source of the supreme shelter. And how your lotus feet can take us beyond all illusion.
So, I’ll talk about these verses, four verses, and then I’ll talk about how as devotees, sadhakas, in our spiritual life, what does seeking shelter of Krishna mean? So, the setting here is that Krishna is in the womb of mother Devaki. And at that time, while he’s in the womb of mother Devaki, and devatas have come in invisible form over there, and devatas are offering prayers to Krishna. So, this is 10 to 30 to 33, four verses.
So, it is said here that, you, O Lord, are the lotus-eyed one. You are the ultimate existence. You are the foundation of all existence that is there.
When with one pointed consciousness in samadhi, one fixes their consciousness on you, then what happens? Then in this way, they’re taking shelter of your lotus feet. Your lotus feet become like a boat. This is the boat that is used by many, many great souls.
And as soon as they get into this boat, they take shelter of this boat. What happened? This is, Bhavaabdhi is the ocean of material existence. Go Vatsapada is like the footprint of a calf.
So, a cow itself has a small footprint, not a very big footprint. But a calf will have a tiny footprint. They said that the ocean of material existence becomes diminished to a tiny padal that might be created when there is muddy ground and a calf puts foot on it.
It’s a small hole in the ground or small depression in the ground and whatever water is there. So, the point is that the ocean is almost insurmountable. Even with the best of efforts to swim across the ocean is very difficult.
On the other hand, to swim across, to step across a small padal which is created by the footprint of a calf, that is not just leave alone insurmountable, that is insignificant. We may not even notice it. Walk along, we see that foot is there and just move on.
So, it’s insignificant. So, the idea is that the shelter of the Lord can make the insurmountable insignificant. So, it’s interesting this metaphor.
What it is saying is, this ocean is very large, but as soon as we get into the boat, the boat, it is not said so much that the boat helps us cross over the ocean, rather the boat itself shrinks the ocean. And then we can easily cross over it. So, what does this ocean actually refer to? The bhava abdhi, it refers, if you look at the literal translation, it is the ocean of material existence.
Now, what is this ocean made up of? If you consider, sometimes we may hear, we may say this is the spiritual world, this is the material world. So, geographically, like say China is above India or Canada is above America, you might think it’s like this. This is the material world.
This is the limit and then that is the spiritual world. But the spiritual world exists not just at a different location, it exists at a different level of reality. So, for the sake of depicting in our universal depictions, we may say, okay, this is the material world here, this is spiritual world here.
But spiritual world is primarily a matter of consciousness. So, to go to the spiritual world, it’s not that the soul has to cover a large amount of physical distance. It is more the distance that has been covered, is not the distance in terms of physical location, it is in terms of the heart’s disposition.
Now, our heart has to become disposed towards Krishna. So, this vast ocean, which keeps us away from Krishna, is actually the ocean of our own desires. Ocean of the desires that we have and the ocean of the desires that the world creates within us.
All these desires keep us away from Krishna. And sometimes an ocean is still, relatively speaking, and sometimes the ocean becomes stormy. Similarly, our consciousness has many desires within it.
Sometimes those desires are relatively calm, we don’t feel so angry, we don’t feel so lusty, we don’t feel so greedy. But sometimes storms come up. So, then it becomes, we might be going in a boat particular way and the storm comes and then, hey, even against our will, it swept away in some other direction.
So, we get overturned also. So, like that, waves come in this ocean. So, the ocean of material existence is primarily, it’s not a physical ocean, it is the ocean of our material desires.
And when they said that by taking shelter of Krishna, that ocean shrinks into a small size. What it means is that when we take shelter of Krishna, that shelter of Krishna itself gives us such a higher taste. It gives us such fulfilment.
Hey, this is so relishable. Why do I need anything else in my life? Why am I craving for this or that or that? So, as long as we don’t take shelter of Krishna at our feet, the material world and its temptations appear so wonderful that we feel, how can I give it up? But once we enter into that boat, once we take shelter of Krishna lotus feet, then that gives us a higher taste. Prahlad Maharaj says that, again, there are also similar metaphors there.
He says that, I am not agitated. Vaitarani is supposed to be the river that separates the material and the spiritual world. So, he says, I am not agitated about how I will cross over this ocean.
That means, how I will go to the spiritual world, I am not agitated about that. Why not? Tvad vīrya gāyan mahāmṛta-magnacittaḥ Tvad vīrya gāyan, when I start glorifying you, I experience what? Mahāmṛta. It’s such nectar.
It’s such nectar that my consciousness gets completely absorbed in it. Magnacittaḥ, I am completely absorbed in it. I was in America, there’s a devotee who is a body language specialist.
So, he just observes people’s body language and he says, you read a person like a book. So, he was telling that some simple points he said that, if some, nowadays, of course, nobody sits in a, goes to a phone booth to make phone calls to anyone because everybody has their own mobiles. But the idea if somebody is talking on phone, and while talking on phone, they are also looking here, looking there, they are waving to someone, they are just looking everywhere else, that means that phone call is more like an official call they are making.
As an obligation, they have to make a call and they are giving half attention. But suppose, somebody is making a very important conversation. Maybe somebody is dating someone and that is definitely extremely important.
Or somebody is talking with a boss on a very important call. Then what happens? They turn away from everything else. The world may be going and they will turn towards the wall or they may close their eyes and plug one ear and put here, you know, completely the ear.
So, what happens? When something is important for us, we conscientiously make efforts to put all our consciousness in that. Or conversely, we absorb our consciousness in two situations. One is because something is important or because something is enjoyable.
If somebody is watching a TV programme and they are so caught in watching the TV and, you know, there is a cricket match is going on. So, sometimes in India, there are TVs, now, of course, there are phones, so people can watch live action. But in the past, there would be some shops and other people, they would actually put TVs outside.
And often there would be food vendors, some hotels or something like that. They would put some tables outside their homes, outside their offices, or their premises and put a TV over there. So, people would come and watch the TV and they will take snacks from them also.
So, it will become like business for them. So, now, sometimes, right in the middle of the street, somebody wants to go, no, no, no, don’t go. And we want to watch this, we want to miss the action even for one moment.
Like, you know, every single moment. So, once I was at the airport and when I came out of the airport in India, there was this TV like that. And I wanted to go, and the cricket match was going, no, no, wait, wait, wait.
And it will take just a few moments to go across. But they were like, the Gopis don’t want to miss the darshan of Krishna. The Gopis, they say, why are my eyes blinking? I don’t want to miss the darshan of Krishna for even one moment.
They were like that. I don’t want to miss Krishna’s darshan for even, the darshan of this cricket match for even one moment. So, we get absorbed either because we just like something or because something is extremely important for us.
You know, the soul is here, the soul’s consciousness goes through the intelligence and through the mind. Sometimes the two can be like one channel, sometimes the two can be parallel channels also. The mind is saying do this, intelligence can say don’t do that.
So, if something is very important, then we make sure, if you consider the consciousness to be like water, that is flowing, we will make sure that the consciousness flows through the channel of the intelligence. So, if something is important, I will focus on it. If tomorrow I have an exam and today is the last day I have to study, no matter what other distractions come, I will focus on it.
Today after one hour of exam, then I will study. For us, you know, if we have to study scripture, yeah, okay, so many books, we will study sometime. But if I am told, in 15 minutes you have to give a class on this verse, then the way I will read the purport will be very different from the way I will read, okay, I have to do some swadhya, I have to study every day, I should study half an hour, one hour.
So, when something’s importance is felt by us, then usually the importance is felt by the intelligence or something just gives pleasure. That is usually the channel of the mind. Now, of course, the mind that is purified, that gets attracted towards Krishna also.
The point which I am making over here is, overall, that we become absorbed either because we like something or we understand it is important. So, at our stage, there are some activities in bhakti which we may like and it will be relatively easy to get absorbed in them. But there will be many which we may not like constantly.
So, that is why it is very important to have our intelligence strong. And to the extent the intelligence is strong, to that extent, we will make sure that our consciousness goes through that activity towards Krishna. And basically, ensuring that our consciousness flows towards Krishna, that is like entering into the boat of Krishna’s lotus feet.
As long as our consciousness is outside Krishna, the whole material world will seem like an ocean which is filled with so many pleasures. I feel sometimes we may decide if, okay, I can reject this temptation, but I can reject it for one day, two days, one week. But can I reject it for one month, one year, ten years, a lifetime? That is impossible for me.
It’s like sometimes I feel I can swim, but you know I can swim for maybe half an hour, one hour, two hours. But if I have to keep swimming for the rest of my life, how can I keep swimming? I need some relief. So similarly for us, when temptations come, we feel that, okay, I can fight them for some time, but how can I fight it lifelong? So that, thinking of fighting something lifelong is just too long for the mind.
Then what happens is, lifelong, you can’t do it? Then, well, anyway, you’re going to do it tomorrow or the day after. Why don’t you do it today only? The mind will trickle like that. But if you understand that that which seems like an ocean, it will not actually be like an ocean if I absorb myself in Krishna.
We ourselves will experience at times that, say, we are very attracted by something, we feel tempted by something. Say, you know, I had an experience long, long ago. I knew one day after the morning programme, for breakfast, there’s going to be some very delicious item.
So, there around, so during japa, during guru puja, during mangala artha, just thinking about that. Not that I was craving for it, but just thought was there. And then, then there was, one devotee was supposed to give class, just another devotee from the ashram itself.
But suddenly, it happened that some visiting devotee came up. And this devotee is a brilliant speaker. And so at that time, before the class, I was thinking, when will this class get over? I will get this breakfast.
But then the devotee started giving that class. It was such a fascinating class. Actually, the whole class got over and then somehow, and the devotee bonded very well.
So after the class, both of us sat and we were having question answer for two hours. He also forgot the breakfast, I also forgot the breakfast. So, it’s not so much that I had taste for Krishna, but I was just giving that as an example that if something catches our attention, then we forget it.
So that’s why, if we stay outside that boat and look at how big the ocean is, we will feel overcoming temptation is impossible. It just can’t be done. But if you just get into the boat, that means, if I just observe just from a clinical, detached, outsider perspective, we feel, you know, what is this Krishna conscious going to do? This material world with so many material pleasures, such a long material life.
How can I live without all this? But, if instead of trying to be an outsider in Krishna Bhakti, that means staying outside the world, becoming an insider in Krishna Bhakti means actually taking shelter of Krishna, actually ensuring that our consciousness moves in the direction of Krishna. Whether it is through something we like in Bhakti or whether it is through the intellectual conviction about the importance of the practise of Bhakti, then we will experience that actually, yes, you know, what is the big deal about it? What is there to be tempted in all this? This is itself wonderful. This is what I want to live for.
This is far more relishable. So, that’s In this way, when we take shelter of the Lord Lotus Feet, then what do the Lord Lotus Feet do? They make the insurmountable material ocean into insignificant. So, our material desires may seem like oceanic.
Like in the ocean, one wave comes, another wave comes, another wave comes and the waves seem endless. पंकज्य पलाश विलाश भक्त्या कर्माशयन्गतितं उद्गृतियंति संता तद्वन्रिक्तमतयो यत्यो नरागस् स्रोतो गनस्तमरणं भजवासु देवं The Bhagavatam says that if we consider our consciousness to be like an ocean, then waves of material desires will keep coming in it. And if we think we will wait for those waves to go away, if we think I want a dry coast, well, the coastline is never going to be dry.
Even if we dry the coast, again some waves are going to come in. So similarly, if we expect that our consciousness will become free from material desires, that they say it’s like रिक्तमतयो मति is consciousness, रिक्त means empty. If we think that I will empty my consciousness of material desires, either I will strive for that or I will wait for that.
That is not going to happen. What we should do? यत्पादपंकजः पलाशः विलासः बक्त्या That learn to delight in the lotus feet of Lord Hari. यत्पादपंकजः, lotus feet, पलाशः, विलासः, there is a rhyming पलाशः विलासः, विलासः means to delight in.
So delight in the lotus feet of Lord Hari. And how do we do that? स्रोतो गनस्तमरणं भजवासु देवं भजवासु देवं Don’t wait for the waves of these material desires to stop. Whether the waves are coming or going, just keep practising bhakti.
Just keep practising bhakti. If I just stay outside the boat and look at how giant this wave is, and I think this boat is so small, what is this boat going to do against this wave? Maybe it will make no sense. But get into this boat, then the wave will become.
It’s not that big, it’s manageable. So all of us can look back in our own lives, at times when we were not conscious of Krishna, and we felt very agitated. And then we became conscious of Krishna, and the agitation went down.
And that will give us some inkling of this, at how the ocean can shrink into a puddle, by the investment of the consciousness in Krishna. And then in the next verse, so this is the 30th verse, 10.2.30, 10.2.31 talks about how what do the great souls do? One mystical characteristic of this ocean is that, of this boat is that, it shrinks the ocean into a puddle. The next mysterious characteristic is said that, The mercy of the great souls is that, such that, you know, that this material ocean is very difficult to cross over.
These great souls, they get into this boat, and they cross over. But the wonderful thing is, that when they cross over, they leave the boat behind, for others to go over. This material ocean is otherwise Bhima, it is fierce ocean.
they are indefatigably the well-wishers of everyone. And, they take the boat of your lotus feet, they themselves cross over the ocean, but they keep the boat behind. And normally, if a ship is sinking, you know, all ships have some boats with them, through which people can escape, if the boat sinks.
But no ship can carry enough number of boats for all the passengers. It is quite difficult usually. The ship will get very boarded.
So then once it becomes clear that ship is sinking, then sometimes there is almost like a riot on the ship to catch hold of the boat. I want to save my life. And people sometimes, there are occasions when the ship is drowning, now people fight with each other and kill each other, so that they can get on the boat first.
I am going to die, before that I will kill you, and I will make sure that I survive. So, especially when a ship is sinking, a boat becomes priceless. And if somebody says, I will take this boat, I will go to the land, and I will send someone back or I will come back.
Well, the boat may not stay till then. So, the ship may drown before that. So, the boat’s value becomes, a boat is equal to living.
And not having a boat is equal to dying. So, the boat is very valuable. So, if somebody takes the boat away, and the other person is drowned.
But the devotee is such that, they take the boat, they cross over, but they keep the boat for others. Now, what does this mean? Metaphorically, it’s an attractive metaphor. You know, boat is a mystical boat.
The boat takes you across, but the boat remains over there, for others to go across. But what does it practically mean? Actually, Krishna’s lotus feet, as I said, basically we are to invest our consciousness in Krishna. Getting into that port means, investing our consciousness in Krishna.
And how do we invest our consciousness in Krishna? That is primarily by having, some way, a desire for Krishna. It all begins with some kind of desire. I mean, I like music, and this Hare Krishna music is good.
So, let me go apart a minute. A small desire is there. Or I like a devotee.
What that devotee does, I don’t like it so much, but I just like that devotee. So, in order to please that devotee, that devotee says, come to the temple, you know, chant some beads. Okay, I’ll chant.
Read some Bhagavad Gita. I’ll read the Bhagavad Gita. So, basically, somehow, the desire has to come.
So, having the desire for Krishna is the beginning of our entering into the boat of the lotus feet of Krishna. And when it is said that devotees cross over the ocean, but they leave the boat behind, that means that they create in others the desire to hear about Krishna, the desire to know Krishna. The desire to love Krishna.
In the first canto, it is said that when Suta Goswami and Parikshit Maharaj are discussing, at that time, it’s said that, Suta Goswami and Sita Naveen are discussing, they are saying that, So, for those of us who are destined to die, we are all on the path to death. And for those of us, Tulayam lave na pi, this is even a moment’s association, Bhagavad Sanghi Sanghasya, that is, even a moment’s association of a devotee is more precious than na svargam na punar bhavam. It is more precious than heaven or even liberation.
Now, what exactly makes a devotee’s association so precious? In a sense, you know, I live constantly with devotees. What is the big deal? Sometimes we serve senior devotees also, we stay with them for some time. But then what exactly is being talked about over here is, it’s not just association.
It is what can happen in that association. Now, in one moment of association, a devotee can inject within our heart the desire to serve Krishna. And that desire to serve Krishna can fuel us, propel us, energise us lifelong for the practise of bhakti.
It is the practise of bhakti will take us to Krishna. But the practise of bhakti, for that we need desire. And in one moment, a devotee can infuse that desire within us.
And because devotee’s desire to glorify Krishna is so much that actually, just by that association, one might get a desire which just goes on lifelong. So, Prabhupada met Bhakti Swami Sri Thakur how often? Probably at the most about 10 times throughout his life. And it is his first time he met, maybe a couple of hours meeting, where the two and four discussion they had.
That time he convinced him, you should go to the west and preach in the English language. And Prabhupada took that as his life mission. So, that interaction created desire within him, which went on lifelong.
When I was in America last time, just a few months ago, I went to what is called as the Sin City. Which is that? Las Vegas. So, it is interesting.
In Las Vegas temple, I met a devotee. There’s a small temple over there, which is coming and there’s a devotee, who is a cook over there. And that devotee is a Sanskrit scholar and a Bhagavatam scholar.
So, he is very learned in Bhagavatam. Memorised many verses. And actually, in the whole trip of America, I spent about an hour with that devotee.
And I got so much inspiration to study the Bhagavatam. So, he says that what he, he knows Sanskrit. So, he says there are many traditional Bhagavatam pandits.
What they do is, that in the month of Karthik, or they take some sacred month. And they decide that in this month, we are going to read the full Bhagavatam. And they read only Sanskrit.
But they say that if you, the Bhagavatam has 335 chapters. So, if you read 11 chapters every day, then in one month, you can complete the full Bhagavatam. I said, yeah, if you read only Sanskrit, it takes about, depending on how well you can read Sanskrit, it can take between 2 to 4, 4 and 2 to 4 or 6, 5 hours.
I said, that means if 5 hours you read a Bhagavatam every day, you can complete all 6, all 335 chapters. I never thought of it like that. Now, for us, at least, if you can’t do the Sanskrit, you can at least do the English.
I can read the Sanskrit reasonably well, not very fluently. But, I thought that next time, for next 2-3 years, our schedule is fixed. But right now, I start dreaming.
In some months, in my lifetime, in some month of Karthik, I want to cut off from everything and read the whole Bhagavatam in one month of Karthik. Then since that time, I started to memorise more Bhagavatam. I had memorised a lot of verses, but I did not.
Bhagavatam verses are not something which you can use in our daily classes for preaching. Because Bhagavatam is very devotional. And often we have to speak at a more practical, relational, emotional level.
But, I got so much inspiration with that. And this is not a very well-known devotee. He is a nice devotee.
But so, sometimes, the association of some devotee might just inject that spiritual desire within us. And I don’t know, maybe I’ll never meet him again also. But, I remember that, yeah, I should study the Bhagavatam.
So, like that, we may, for most of you, you may meet some devotee who is very enthusiastic about book distribution. And just that association may inspire you. And then that becomes a lifelong service.
So, when the devotees leave behind the boat, the boat represents basically the means by which our consciousness gets directed towards Krishna. So, the devotees primarily give us, in their association, the desire to serve Krishna, the desire to glorify Krishna. And if they give us that, then the boat is available for us.
If we see Srila Prabhupada himself, what did he get from his spiritual master? He got an instruction to serve Krishna, but he did not get any facility. The Gaudiya Math, Gaudiya Math was a big institution with a lot of resources, both financial and human. But those resources went to those who were the office bearers of the Gaudiya Math.
And Prabhupada got nothing from that. But then Prabhupada not only replicated by creating an institution as big as the Gaudiya Math, he created an institution which is much, much bigger than the Gaudiya Math. So, what Srila Prabhupada got as a legacy from his spiritual master was that burning desire to serve Krishna, burning desire to glorify Krishna.
So, for us, the greatest asset in our spiritual life is this, the burning desire to glorify Krishna. And if we can get that through association, that is a treasure. So, devotees leave us with that.
This is the great mercy of the great souls by which they leave this behind. And the next two verses, these are themselves entirely different concepts. So, I’ll go through them briefly.
We will not be able to go in detail. The next verse is well-known. Prabhupada would often quote this.
So, the first verse says that the lotus feet are like a board which helps us cross over. Second, he said that it’s like a board which you cross over and you leave for others to cross over. And third says that, okay, if somebody doesn’t take shelter of that lotus feet, then what happens? Even if somebody, by the very laborious process of Jnana, by the process of Yoga or Jnana, by rejecting material desires, they come to the level of Jivanmukti.
Jivanmukti means that they have become detached from worldly pleasures. Because they do not take shelter of the Lord’s lotus feet. That they actually think that they have attained liberation, but they are not liberated.
And they fall back to conditioned life once again. They fall back to They do not give due respect to the lotus feet or the Lord. They do not take shelter of the Lord’s lotus feet.
So, then they fall back to the material world. Now, somebody may say, oh, you are saying those who don’t take shelter of Krishna’s lotus feet, they fall down. But then those who take shelter of Krishna’s lotus feet also fall down.
You have seen so many devotees also falling down. So, then the last verse in the series concludes with that. Tathāna te mādhava tāvaka hakvachit bharaśyanti mārgātvai baddha saurudhā tvayābhiguptāvicharanti nirbhaya vināyakāni kapamūḍhasuprabhau So, tathāna te.
No, it is not like that. It is not similar. mādhava tāvaka hakvachit mādhava tāvaka That is the alliteration in the last part of the mādhava.
Tāvaka is the associates. So, those who are the associates, those who are the devotees of Lord Hari, tathāna te, it is not like that. braśyanti mārgāt Even if they get deviated from the path of bhakti, still, baddha saurudhā Still their heart remains attached to Krishna.
There is the heart and there is the mind. Once we start practising Krishna bhakti, slowly but surely, the attraction for Krishna percolates into our heart. And because of the circumstances or the conditionings, some material desires may come up.
And those material desires may drag a person away from Krishna. But the heart remains attached to Krishna. Prabhupāda told one of his disciples who had visited Vrindavan, then he fell away from bhakti.
He says, because you chanted Krishna’s name in Vrindavan, Krishna will never forget you. And Krishna will not let you also forget him. Although you may forget temporarily, you will come back to him.
So a devotee who is connected with Krishna, they may go away. But still, because the taste for Krishna consciousness is there, they will come back. And in general, so that is occasional.
Sometimes it may happen a devotee goes away, but comes back soon. But Normally, the devotees wander fearlessly through material existence. Although the material world is very fearful, with so many temptations and tribulations, but Whatever obstacles come on their path, it is said that they just put their head on those obstacles, crush those obstacles and move on.
So putting the head means, sorry, put the foot on their obstacles. Put their foot on those obstacles. What does it mean? That means they rise above those obstacles.
The graphic example of this is Dhruva Maharaj, when he was about to leave his body. At that time, death personified came over there. And then Dhruva Maharaj put his foot on the head of that personified, climbed on to the Vaikuntha aeroplane and then went to the spiritual world.
So putting the foot on the head of someone here is not meant to humiliate that person. It is not meant to say that the devotees are arrogant or they disrespect him. And what it signifies is the devotees rise above the obstacles.
mat-cittaḥ sarva-dargaṇi mat-prasādaḥ tariṣṭhasi Krishna says, if you become conscious of me, you will cross over all obstacles by my grace. It doesn’t say the obstacles will not be present. They will be present, but we will raise our consciousness above them.
So in this way, the devotees who take shelter of the Lord’s lotus feet, they are protected. They rise above illusion and temptation and ultimately they attain Krishna. So if we can just become inspired to take shelter of those lotus feet, then whatever obstacles may come, that shelter will raise us above those obstacles and take us steadily on the journey to Krishna.
So I’ll summarise. I spoke about these four verses which talk about the prayers, which are the prayers by the devatas glorifying the lotus feet of Lord Krishna or Lord Vishnu. So the first prayer was yam to yambujākṣa, that all Lord’s lotus feet tadpāda-pōtena mahat-kṛtena kurvanti-gauvatsa-padambhavābhyam that this insurmountable material ocean becomes insignificant for those who take shelter of your lotus feet.
That was the major part of the class. I spoke of how the insurmountable ocean is not just the physical spread of material existence. It is primarily the innumerable material desires that we have.
Spiritual world is not to go to spiritual world. It’s not just a matter of location changing. It’s a matter of disposition changing.
So we may feel so many temptations coming from so many directions for so many years. How can I resist them? But instead of looking at the ocean, we focus on getting into the boat. The boat is Krishna’s lotus feet.
Getting into that boat means putting our consciousness in Krishna. As soon as we put our consciousness in Krishna, we start getting a higher taste. I say that padvīrya-gāyana-mahāmṛta-magnacitta, like a great nectar.
And then once you start relishing that nectar, all these temptations, all these troubles, they’re not that big deal. This is what life is all about. And I discuss how can we invest our consciousness in Krishna? Two ways.
First is by what we like. That’s what directs our consciousness and what we understand is important. So some limbs of bhakti we may like, but we also have to become convinced, nourishing our intelligence about how bhakti is important.
And then instead of staying like an outsider observer, we become an insider experiencer. As long as we stay an outsider observer, we’ll feel like bhakti is… It’s difficult to give up all these temptations of life and live. But when you become an insider experiencer, yeah, it’s no big deal.
I can do it. And then I talked about how this boat, the second verse was that the boat, samutthirya, they cross over this ocean, but they still keep the boat behind. So keeping the boat behind is vital for people to survive even when the ship is sinking.
So I talked about what does it mean to keep the boat behind? That means they take shelter of Krishna and they leave behind for us the desire to take shelter of Krishna. Even in the moment of association, a devotee can inject within our heart a desire to serve Krishna and that desire can propel us for months, years, even a whole lifetime. Prabhupada did not get any financial or human resources or the legacy from his spiritual master.
What he got in the few interactions that he had with the spiritual master was the desire to glorify Krishna. And that’s what took him across all the world and inspired so many people to come to Krishna. So similarly, some devotee may be delighting in the Bhagavatam and their association, you say, I also want to study the Bhagavatam.
And that desire can inspire us lifelong to study the Bhagavatam. So like that, we can look in association of devotees, not at all, this devotee has this fault, this devotee has that fault. It’s okay.
Everybody has faults. But in the association of devotees, the really treasured commodity is the desire to serve Krishna. If we get that, that will propel us lifelong.
And those who don’t take shelter of the Lord’s lotus feet, even if by great laborious effort, they become liberated. Again, the desire for pleasure, the desire for relationships, the desire for activity will bring them down even on the Jeevan Mukta stage to the material level. And the last is that actually, even if devotees fall away, because the desire to Krishna has entered into their heart, that experience of Krishna will remain and it will get them back to Krishna.
And in general, whatever obstacles come, devotion will raise them above those obstacles and will take them towards Krishna. So thank you very much. Hare Krishna.
Are there any questions or comments? Yes. Thank you for giving the time, Guruji. Haribol.
Part of this, you were mentioning about injecting Krishna consciousness, due to the association of two devotees, that one gets Krishna consciousness of desire, so Krishna gets injected in us. What can I do so that next time I associate with devotees, so that I can receive that quickly to others? Because I know that it’s coming, but I’m also doing something. Okay.
So what can we do so that while associating with devotees, we can get that desire? I wouldn’t say that it only depends on us. It definitely depends on us. I’d say there are many factors involved.
And I wouldn’t say that the desire has to come only from a pure devotee. Somebody may not be necessarily a very pure devotee, but they’re just enthusiastic devotees. That means they have some, I want to be famous as a great singer, but they have a great taste for singing for Krishna.
Now, we may, just by associating with them, we also get a taste. Sometimes, actually, I was at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. There’s a devotee who conducts that kind of programmes in America.
So he invited me to come. And there they said something very striking. They said that actually, you know, for alcoholics, the association of sober people is not particularly encouraging.
Because you don’t even know what I’m going through. So they have, they call it some friends, accountability partners or friends. So they say that the only accountability partners who work for us are formal alcoholics.
Because they know when the urge comes, what we are going through. So I was thinking, you know, that sober people, for them, are like pure devotees for us. Yeah, you are at such a level, you don’t even, you’re not going through the struggle that I’m going through.
Sometimes it may feel that we are not able to connect with pure devotees or sometimes it may appear as if what the pure devotees are saying doesn’t make sense to us. Because they may speak at a very high level. What they’re saying is principles of bhakti only, pure principles of bhakti.
But they may not seem relevant for us. So sometimes we may overvalue the association of pure devotees and not value enough the association of devotees around us. And that also, another point is that how do you know who is a pure devotee? It’s difficult for us to know.
So basically, I would say that any devotee who can infuse us with the desire to serve Krishna, it doesn’t have to be a pure devotee. And see, whenever this transmission is to happen, there are three things. There is the source of the transmission.
There is the receiver of the transmission. And there is the channel of the transmission. So the source can be any devotee.
It doesn’t have to necessarily be a pure devotee. The reception, we are the receivers of that. So we can try to have a more open, learning, submissive mood, at least a more receptive mood.
So generally, I feel that if we have a critical mood, a fault finding mood, then that closes that channel. And it is natural that after we live in a community of devotees for some time, we will see faults. Because there are faults also.
But we have to see them and then oversee them. Just like say, somebody, we are interacting, we meet somebody in the streets and they have a scar on their face. And when we look at the scar, we can’t not notice it.
But it’s not good manners to keep staring at the scar. Then we notice it, but then we keep talking as if we not noticed it. They also like it if we treat them like a normal person.
So similarly, we will notice the fault. But while associating with devotees, we just focus on, how can I get the desire to serve Krishna from them? If you focus on, how is this devotee connected with Krishna? What is this devotee’s inspiration for connecting with Krishna? And can that inspire me? So that non-critical attitude of appreciating that devotee’s connection with Krishna, that is what can make us receptive. And I would say channel means, to some extent at least, the transmitter and the receiver have to be like-minded.
So if, say, a devotee is very interested in book distribution and another devotee is very interested in Shastra study, then this devotee is interested in study of scripture, that devotee will be transmitting desire to study scripture. And that will not really, for a book distributor, that will be difficult to receive. It’s not both of them are doing wonderful service to Krishna.
Both of them are very important services to Krishna, but they’re different. So there has to be some similarity in what we are being inspired by and what we ourselves are doing. Or sometimes it may happen that somebody, our present service requires us to do a lot of book distribution.
But who knows, five years, ten years down the line, our service may change and we may have the responsibility of doing a lot of scriptural studies. Even then also we say, oh, this devotee is so young and so learned. So much delight in Shastra this devotee has.
I also want to have that. So even that memory can help us. So broadly speaking, like-mindedness, or to put it more precisely, similarity in the definition of success.
For some devotees, the success is how many books are distributed. For some devotees, how much funds you have raised for building temples. For someone it is, okay, how much Shastra have you learned? How many classes are you given? How much is your understanding of the subject? So different devotees can have different definitions of success in Bhakti also.
So if we learn to avoid the critical attitude and appreciate every devotee’s connection with Krishna, and look for like-minded devotee association, and then Krishna will arrange for some devotees some actions. Even they may not consciously do it also, but just seeing them may inspire us. And then we move forward in our Bhakti.
Thank you. Any other question? Yes, sir. You were talking about like, in the ocean sometimes waves come and storms come.
So sometimes, like a storm comes, and we know we have to take shelter of Krishna, and we try different things. But sometimes it seems like, you know, the different things we try, it’s not immediately working. What should we do? Yeah.
So if the things that we try to resist the stormy waves of material desires, they don’t work, then what do we do? Yeah. It is sometimes we get, boat may get toppled over. Then again, we have to wait till the boat turns over.
We have to keep swimming and flailing till then. Once the boat, then we can turn the boat over and then we can move back. Sometimes the storms will just be too much.
So it’s best if before the storm comes, we have found some anchor. Anchor is something which is very heavy, and the boat will be shaken by the waves, but the anchor will not be shaken by the waves. So anchor will mean something in Bhakti that gives us taste.
It means some devotees love deity worship. Some devotees love to do kirtans. Some devotees just love to study and recite the Bhagavatam.
So now, these devotees, they, when they are not doing these things, the storms may come. And the storm may be so forceful that they may feel, what can I do with my life now? I am such a foreign person, I am doing such things. But then, that, that I can’t give it up.
I must do, I want to do this. And even if during those stormy waves one gets swept away, after that the devotee comes back and resumes those activities. And by resuming that activity, slowly purification happens, taste emerges, and then gradually we can resist those forces that will come.
That means, to put this in another way, if we consider this is the graph of our consciousness, versus time. So this is our desire, this is time. So, there are times when sometimes in this graph, spikes will come up.
Suddenly desires will shoot up. And when those desires will shoot up, sometimes we may just be helpless. Sometimes some wrong things may also happen in that.
When I am talking about wrong things means, there are wrong things also within limits. It’s not that somebody has, does some grossly wrong things. There are levels of wrongness also.
So, if those spikes come and we are not able to resist, then it’s okay. I can’t do anything when the spikes come. But I can do a lot in between those surges of desires, in between those spikes.
So, if during those spikes, I keep beating myself, you know, I am such a fallen person, I am such a useless person, I am hopeless, why did I do that? Then what is happening? We are not strengthening ourselves, we are not purifying ourselves. And next time the spikes come, again the same thing will happen or something worse will happen. Instead, if in between those spikes, again we come back to the anchor.
Okay, let me chant, let me recite the Bhagavatam, let me worship the deity, let me do my service. Not that we deny the wound that has happened, not that we trivialise the wrong that has happened. But we understand that the best way to set the wrong right is to do the right with greater intensity.
It is not that I have to find something special else to do. So, we focus on reconnecting ourselves with Krishna vigorously. And by reconnecting ourselves with Krishna vigorously, gradually we will become purified.
And as the more we become purified, then even if the spikes come, we will have become stronger and we will be able to resist those spikes at that time. Did I answer your question? Thank you. Any one last question? Yes, from… Usually in prayers, in Bhagavatam, in different sections, generally when we, I mean our level of consciousness, when we go in front of the deity, which is the offer prayers, the offer prayers more and more, personal practical level, like my mind is disturbed, please help me, or this is the best for chanting and everything.
But in many places in Srimad Bhagavatam, we see during the prayers, they talk about performative elements and like how you are the lord of everything. Things which apparently look irrelevant or even roundabout, but how do we understand why devotees actually offer prayers? Good question. It is, the Bhagavatam’s prayers often seem to be like 24 elements of material nature or things like that, which don’t seem at all relevant to the immediate context which the devotee is going through.
So why do the devotees offer prayers like that? I’d say that every expression of devotion is also a product of that culture. So for example now, let’s take a simple example, suppose somebody has got, somebody has got some health issue, may be some specific health issue, say their blood pressure is very high or their platelet count is very low or WBC count is very low, because whatever it is, you know, now somebody while praying may make a very specific prayer, you know, please let my diabetes not go high, you know, please let my whatever, let my blood pressure not go high or whatever. Now somebody who is not trained in medical science, what is this blood pressure not to go high? What is that kind of prayer is this? So now it is a specific prayer, but what happens is that for a person who doesn’t know what blood pressure means, it just doesn’t make any sense.
So of course we may say, you know, should we offer such specific prayers to Krishna like, please let my blood pressure, but you know, yeah, if I got a fracture and the doctor says your fracture can be healed in three weeks, so it can take six weeks to heal. And this particular joint has to heal. So you may, if I have a medical background, let this joint heal quickly so that I can go out and do my services again.
So there can be specificity, which is a product of the particular culture and the particular knowledge that we have. So I would say that the system of Sankhya was very much an integral part of the worldview of people at that time. And because of that, it seems abstract for us, but it is not abstract for them.
Because that’s a part of their lived world. It’s a, that’s one thing. The second thing is also that usually if you see the prayers of the Bhagavatam, they lead from very universal principles to specific situations also.
Like just, I’m doing this Bhagavatam study online. So right now I’m on the 10th canto. So I was just speaking on every day.
Every day I do one or two recordings. So audio. So yesterday, just two, three days ago, I was, you know, that prayers of Vasudeva to Krishna.
So there he says that, Sushtvagre prakrityedam. Basically, he says that just as in the beginning of material existence, you, tri-guna-atmakam, you, you created this material world in the beginning. And then, tad anuya pravishta, apravishta pravishtayobhavesi.
That actually you remain transcendental, but it appears as if you have entered into this world. So similarly, he says, it appears as if you have entered into the womb of Devaki, but you have not entered. You are transcendental.
So now that part, second part is what brings the connection. There are six, there are 18 material elements in the beginning, the material world, from the material, from the material element, the material world emerges and the Lord enters into it. The Lord doesn’t enter into it.
The context is, has he entered into the womb or not entered into the womb? Sometimes if we look forward that way, then the flow becomes a little more clear. So there you, because this is a, it is a very much a part of their lived world. So those kind of thoughts naturally come.
So metaphors, there’s a, there’s a book written by sociologist, it’s called the metaphors we live by. So it talks about how in different cultures people use different metaphors. And those metaphors can tell us about the culture that a person is coming from.
So what happens is, because those times they lived in that culture, so that metaphor, that kind of metaphor or that kind of thinking comes naturally. And lastly, at least in the Bhagavatam, there is still a significant amount of, you could say, Aishwarya Bhav. Although the 10th canto of the Bhagavatam does talk about Madhurya, but even the 10th canto, at one level the sweetness of devotion is there throughout.
But the sweetness of Vraja is there only in a few chapters in the Bhagavatam. So remaining Bhagavatam does focus on how the Supreme Lord is great. And that’s why the Aishwarya, the greatness of the Lord, that is signified through remembrances of how this person, so for example, when Akura sees Krishna in the Yamuna, then he talks about how you are the source of all the avataras, it is from you the material world comes, you maintain it, after destruction it enters into you.
So the idea is that the devotees there are very much aware of Krishna’s greatness. So the Bhagavatam also is ensuring that just because God is appearing like one of us, we don’t mistake Him to be one of us. In the later Bhakti tradition, if you see the songs of Bhaktivinoda Thakura, Narottama Adasa Thakur, there devotion tends to become much more personalised.
So the Bengali songs and there was a renaissance of the Bhakti movement in the mediaeval times, around 12th, 13th century onwards you could say. So all over the Bhakti saints have written very much personal prayers to the Lord. So if that is what we can connect with, then singing Vaishnava songs is also, singing Vaishnava songs or taking some lines from Vaishnava songs or taking some passages even from translated versions of Vaishnava songs, that can also connect with Krishna.
So the important thing is that we while praying, we should be able to connect with Krishna. We don’t want to have a trivial informal connection with Krishna, we want to have a personal connection, but at the same time we have to be aware of Krishna’s position. So the Bhagavatam gives us a reminder that we have to be aware of Krishna’s position.
And the Vaishnava songs give us the emotional connect. So as I said, the emotional connect and the intellectual connect. The intellectual connect is remembering his position.
The emotional connect is the personal reciprocation. So we can create our personal blend, not create in the sense of concoct, but create in the sense that draw from various resources, draw from our realisations and our situations, and then offer the prayers that help us to connect with Krishna. So thank you very much.
Namo Namah. Hare Krishna. Namo Namah.
Hare Krishna.