Six limbs of surrender 4 – Offering ourselves by accepting ourselves

[Bhagavatam class at Bhakti Sanga Japa conference, USA]

Video:

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna Dandavat, Chaitanya Charandas here. Can you hear me? Thank you. So we have been discussing the six limbs of surrender and in the first session I talked about how surrender can be compared with a military general’s defeated general surrender to the victorious general or it can be compared to a patient surrendering to a doctor and also how a lover surrenders to the beloved that is the third metaphor which I discussed in later class briefly.
So the medical metaphor was what I explored in the first session. In the second session I talked about accepting the favourable and avoiding the unfavourable and how that is the active dimension of surrender. It’s something which you have to constantly keep doing.
It’s action and with respect to our association, with respect to our the philosophy, we focus on that which is favourable and in yesterday’s session I talked about how we need a how can we have that faith that Krishna is our protector when protection may not seem to be apparent. So I talked about Krishna can be we don’t see Krishna as the cause of our suffering because there is multiple factors involved. There is God’s will, there is free will and there is evil.
So Krishna is not the cause of our suffering. Sometimes Krishna can be the cure for our suffering but even when he is not the cure he can be the shield amid the suffering. He can be the comforter amid the suffering.
So for Draupadi he was the cure, for Parikshit he was the shield. So now today I’ll talk about that was the next two elements. Today I’ll talk about the last two elements.
So Atma is self, Nikshepa. Offering our entire self to Krishna and Karpanya. Understanding that we are worthless without Krishna.
We are weak, we are powerless without Krishna. So here I will talk mainly about the, I’ll relate this with again with Anukulya Sankalpa, Pratikulya Sevarajanam. Although those are actions and the last four are dispositions but I’ll talk about how we need to have a healthy conception about ourselves and this healthy conception means that we don’t beat ourselves down in the name of humility.
In our devotee circles we usually talk about not puffing ourselves up with pride, that’s of course with ego, that’s of course very important and that’s an ever-present danger. But we may mistake humility to self-flagellation, to beating oneself, oh I am useless, I am worthless, I am good for nothing, I am so fallen. That is not always, that is not the way humility will enhance our devotion.
So the idea over here is that let’s consider this Atma-Nikshepa, we want to offer our entire being to Krishna, understanding that without such offering, that without connecting myself with Krishna, I am worthless. So let’s consider in some other offering we are doing, say if we’re cooking some food and offering to Krishna. Now we might not have very opulent food to offer, like say Sudama’s family, they didn’t have much opulent food but so they had them just some chipped rice and they took it and offered it and they also couldn’t pack it in any grand pack, it was just a simple cloth, it was bound together.
But still they took it and they offered it to Krishna. Sudama took it, his wife gave it to him and he took it and offered it. So Krishna also says that I accept even simple things that are offered.
Patram pushpam phalam to yam yo me bhaktya prayacchati tadham bhaktya upahritam ashnami pretatmanah. This is something as simple as a fruit, a flower or even a glass of water or a leaf I will accept if you offer it to me with devotion. What this means is that while we have humility, it’s definitely required, humility doesn’t mean that we just keep beating ourselves down.
The point is that we also want to pick ourselves up and offer ourselves, offer ourselves at the very best that we can. Suppose we have simple food and we don’t have the money to purchase good food but at least what we could do I have simple food but let me put it on the cleanest plate that I have and let me offer that simple food. So that’s what we would do even if we can’t buy expensive food for a guest or even for Krishna offering on the altar.
We would try to put it on the cleanest plate. So similarly when we are to offer ourselves to Krishna we need to understand that each one of us has significance because we are parts of Krishna. Krishna has eternally made us his part.
So at one level we understand that we are insignificant because there are so many, the world is so big, the universe is so big, the material existence is so big and there are so many parts of Krishna but still every part counts. Every one of us is a part of Krishna, a part so precious that Krishna decides to personally represent in our heart as the super soul. So if suppose we don’t consider something worth offering then we might not cook also very well.
We might be half-hearted in serving it properly and then that offering if some guests come to our house and we are offering them poor food with a poor attitude then that will jar much more, the attitude will jar much more than the food. So similarly yes you know if I had this talent, if I had this self-control, if I had this tolerance I might have been so much better that’s okay but this is how I am and I accept myself and I offer myself to Krishna. So such self-acceptance is vital.
Self-acceptance doesn’t mean that the way I am, I am wonderful, I am perfect. No, it means yes there’s a lot I could improve but the way I am, I am still offerable to Krishna. The way I am, I still can do something to offer myself to Krishna.
Everyone is intrinsically a part of Krishna. Everyone has that that privilege which Krishna has given us and when we have this self-acceptance at Krishna this is what I am and offer myself to you. So in this case we could say surrender means surrender means to do what we can with what we have now.
I repeat surrender means to do what we can with what we have now. So Krishna I am so conditioned that I cannot, I am trapped with such a body-mind, I have such a social situation, such a family situation, such a financial situation. I can’t do this, this, this, this.
There’s so little I can do but this is what I can do and this is what I will do. Maybe in future when the situation becomes better I will much more but right now this is what I will do. So surrender means accepting ourselves so that we can go about offering ourselves to Krishna.
Sometimes in our own mind if we have not accepted ourselves we are just beating ourselves. We are so worthless, we are so good for nothing. Then much of our energy is going in beating ourselves and in being beaten by ourselves and then very little of our energy is left to even offer to Krishna.
So we have our conditionings and we have weaknesses but we don’t we don’t have to whitewash ourselves and imagine that I am so great that I can be a great devotee of Krishna. But yes however I am still Krishna accepts me and let me offer myself to him. So this is Atmaniksha.
Before we can offer ourselves we need to accept ourselves and it’s like say somebody tells us say we are we are going from here to Vrindavan for yatra and somebody tells us can you just take this and offer this to Krishna Balram in Vrindavan offer this whatever if there’s some food we can carry or some necklace or something like that. Now if we think that that is not worthy enough to be carried you know what is this such a tiny thing such a bad bad quality thing you cannot give it to Krishna cannot offer it to Krishna then we may not even accept it to carry it or even if we carry it we might lose it on the way or even we carry it we won’t mishandle it it might get spoiled and even if you carry it and all the way and offer it well what our attitude will still be negative so we won’t get much credit of having carried something to offer to Krishna. So one so similarly we can apply that to ourselves the most fundamental resource that we all have for offering to Krishna is we ourselves and yes as a part of we ourselves or extending from we ourselves we have our wealth we have our talents we have our contacts we have our qualities we have the various services that we can do that we are doing but through it all it’s actually we are offering ourselves to Krishna.
So we need to accept ourselves that yes despite my limitations I am I can offer myself to Krishna. We see Bhaktivinoda Thakur and others they have such they as you could say almost abject humility in their songs and my life is filled with sin of course their life isn’t filled with sin at all but that is the way they are thinking about themselves and despite thinking about themselves the conclusion is not that oh there is no hope for me that Krishna apart from you there is no hope for me that means they are they are not so hopeless that they think even Krishna that Krishna is not a hope rather they still they have the firm faith that Krishna is the hope. So going back to the medical metaphor you know first I talked about how we need to have faith that the doctor can cure us and that’s that’s yesterday’s talk that is but along with that we also have to have the faith that I am curable that and that is what is being talked about in this Atmanikship and Karpani that Krishna you that you know I am going to offer myself to you if somebody even before going to hospital believes that before going to doctor believes that okay my disease is terminal there’s no cure available then how will they offer themselves to the doctor so on one side there is a faith required that I am curable so that is Atmanikship I’m going to offer myself and Karpani is that okay without Krishna there is no cure so there is definitely an awareness of the gravity of the situation but there is also an awareness of the possibility of rectifying the situation so Atmanikship and Karpani now sometimes now I am talking about all this in the context of Sharanagati sometimes our mind may be an entirely different zone where we may not even think I am sick we think everything is fine with me now if that is the illusion we are in then we need some strong philosophical education so that’s like maybe our ego has become so strong that we think that I’m comfortable in the world I’m okay then we need some strong treatment in that case also so it’s like when a person is a little drunk then they have gone to a bar they’re drunk they’ve taken a few too many drinks and they realise I can’t walk um so recently I was in Chicago and a devotee where we had a programme and a devotee was driving me back so we were going passing by passing through a hotel a big five-star hotel and there there was a old man who just waved to us and he was talking in a slurred speech so I initially thought that you know this is probably a drunk I had never seen like a drunk on the streets just waving doddering so this devotee immediately stopped the car and he said you know what happens can you just take me to the front side you know I came out here I can’t walk now so he was drunk then the person was older probably 70 80 or something like that so that devotee and I we helped him get to the car and he was like a client in that car and a customer in that big five-star hotel itself and he was elderly so we just got him into the car and took him across to the front gate or just like a few but he could walk that much also and then he walked in from there the guard came and helped him so the point is if somebody is a little drunk they are aware that they are drunk and then they seek help but if somebody is heavily drunk then even if somebody comes to help them and say oh that I am drunk ah fine get lost or something like that they will not even acknowledge they are drunk that’s how drunk they are so the same way you know we are all fallen it’s like we are in a drunk state and we need help but if we don’t think we are fallen then we are really fallen it’s like we are so drunk that we are not even aware we are drunk so that’s a different zone and if we were in that zone we wouldn’t even be talking about surrender so I won’t explore that that we sometimes if we have put ourselves raise ourselves too high we need to bring ourselves down a few pegs so that we are not so full of ourselves not so proud but when we are talking about surrender we need these two ways of looking at ourselves that I am curable and without taking a cure without administering the medicine this could be terrible so so that the dual aspects of the hope that if I take if I take a medicine I can be cured if I don’t it can be disastrous so therefore we can both ways be impelled to surrender to Krishna to take the medicine and in our context to surrender to Krishna so humility it is like I’m worthless I am hopeless it’s primarily it’s who I’m hopeless without Krishna so I was talking about Bhaktivinoda Thakur they talk about such abject humility but none of that abject humility stops Bhaktivinoda Thakur from saying Krishna you are my hope and beyond you there is no hope but it is this thing that I am so fallen that even Krishna can’t help me so surrender requires that that understanding that I am curable atmaniksha so I’ll offer my whole being to you Krishna that you can take I might be like a I might just be like a just some garbage which has fallen the road but an expert person can even take take various items of garbage and make something useful out of it Prabhupada says how an expert musician can maybe take a coconut shell take a stick take a cloth which is lying on the ground take some string which is lying on the ground and pick it up and make that into a and play some music with those four things so like that Krishna is expert to to cure us to make us make us pure to make us spiritual to make us wonderful so when we have this attitude toward ourselves that I’m curable but I need I need to seriously but without the cure without taking the cure this is going to be terrible then we can move forward so this is yesterday I talked about one x one part of Sharanagati is what Jesus says that you know let die will be done I whatever you do oh lord I accept it to me Sarveshwareshwara says you are the you are the supreme controller and your will reign supreme that’s that’s one aspect of surrender so basically yesterday I talked about how there are some things in our control and there are many things beyond our control so in the overall way things outside of us are happening we accept Krishna whatever is your will I accept it let die will be done but then there are some things in my control and for those uh we have Krishna’s Arjuna’s mood in the Bhagavad Gita I will do your will now of course when we say that I will do your will how much we can do Krishna’s will that may vary now Arjuna can fight against a whole army he’s such a illustrious warrior now we might be able to do something very small and less as compared to that but each of us can do our things so I will do your will means okay it may be according to my capacity like earlier I said surrender means to do what we can with what we have now so what we so whatever I can do let me do that and here it is good for at least for some time when to treat ourselves to look at ourselves from outside perspective treat yourself like someone we are responsible for that means if we were guiding someone in their spiritual life then how would we guide them to move toward Krishna if you know you’re going the situation going through the situation you can do this you can try this so we can do the have that attitude that okay I am here this is here what can I do so treat yourself like someone you care for someone you’re responsible for someone you value someone you value not just in the sense that oh you’re perfect but rather you have potential see it’s like our mind is always going to be like a child but our intelligence has to be like a parent now parents when they value their children there are two aspects to that that at one level the parents need to accept the children as they are but the parents tell the child you are perfect right now well no the child has child doesn’t have perfection the child has potential and one part of the parent’s love is to feel make sure the child feels loud as they are right now but another part of the parent’s love is to also ensure that the child’s potential is manifested and whatever is required for the child’s potential to manifest the parents take responsibility to do that and sometimes it requires some pushing sometimes it requires some revoking sometimes it requires some discipline but at other times it requires encouraging it requires comforting sometimes it requires appreciating so we our mind is going to be like a child and we in the sense of our intelligence needs to become like a parent and okay this is where you are what can you do right now so with respect to surrender now to develop this positive like I am worth I’m worthwhile that means I am curable if you want to not worthwhile in the egoistic sense but I am curable if so I talked about two things atmanikshevan karpani that I am curable and without this cure there is no there there would be things are going to be terrible so this idea that I am responsible for someone that helps us to get this conception that I am curable that yes I can be cured but sorry the idea that I have to take responsibility for myself means that this is if this is not it will not taken things are going to be very serious so take responsibility make sure that we do what we can and how can we surrender to Krishna that is that I am curable that comes how do I believe that I am curable even if I see some improvement say if I had a fracture and there’s a lot of pain but earlier my hand was motionless now a little motion has returned in my fingers the pain may not have gone away but some motion has returned we see some sign of cure and not just motion has returned now motion doesn’t return automatically now if somebody had a fracture they have to exert to move their hands but when they exert they are able to move initially after the injury even if they exert they may not be able to but gradually the motion returns so basically when we come to surrender the way we surrender is set up some tangible thing we can do for Krishna okay Krishna I’m this terrible situation I’m powerless but this is all I can do maybe I decide that right now I’m feeling very much down and I can read one page of the Bhagavata every day for this for this Chaturmasya I’ll read one page of the Bhagavata okay that’s one page is doable or maybe one purport sometimes it might be one page sometimes half a page sometimes two pages whatever you decide that and every day if we do it now we may say one purport is very difficult okay then decide one verse one verse is possible one verse is surely possible and if I know but some days I’m so busy I can’t read even one verse or really maybe that’s that’s not I don’t know if anybody is that busy but even if they say like okay and some days I can’t read one verse the next day I’ll read two verses so in one week I’ll read seven verses it’s just baby steps here the important thing is not how much quantity we know but the point that we do something I thought I couldn’t do anything but I was able to do this and then that becomes like our evidence that yes we are curable I thought I couldn’t do this but I did this and that way what happens our we have tangible evidence about our curability so surrender means that we do small things that we can in a mode of service to Krishna small simple steps sss small simple steps nothing very complicated nothing very big just small simple steps sometimes devotees ask how do we read Srila Prabhupada’s books so there are different ways we can give answers one answer is simplest you know is pick up the book open the book place your eyes on the lines and move your eyes along the lines in the book that’s all there is to it so sometimes the mind makes a big fuss out of things just small simple steps so if we do that we’ll find that yes I can do and as we start saying we can do that that we are surrendering to Krishna and we are connecting with Krishna and then that increases our faith in our curability and then we feel inspired to surrender more and that’s how surrender grows more and more gradually and that’s how ultimately in a very practical way we can exhibit surrender to Krishna so this is how we can apply Sharanagati in our life so I’ll summarise what I spoke first in today’s class and then about what I overall the six limbs of Sharanagati how they can be put together and then we’ll have almost about 30 minutes 25-30 minutes for questions if any of you have we can ask there is one or two questions which already devotees messaged I’ll begin with them if there’s no question immediately coming so to summarise I spoke about in today’s talk about how we need to see ourselves Atmanikshepa Karpanya means that Krishna I offer my whole being to you and Karpanya without you I am worthless so in the context of the medical metaphor this means that I am curable Krishna and that without without taking a cure things are going to be terrible so we started by talking about our conception of ourselves is important just like we have a conception of God that he is he he’s protective then I have to have the conception that I am worth to be protected so all in one sense we are insignificant that there are innumerable parts of Krishna but yet we are significant because each one of us is a precious part of Krishna so precious that Krishna is personally present in our heart so if we are too proud that’s like if we don’t think we are fallen if we don’t think we are sick that we don’t need treatment then that’s like a person is so drunk that they don’t even realise they’re drunk that’s bad very bad but once we are sick if we start thinking I’m so sick that there’s no hope for me then we won’t take treatment so we are never so fallen that Krishna can’t lift us up and that so we are worth lifting up and Krishna can lift us up and if we don’t lift up we won’t if we don’t we are not lifted up we won’t just stay there we’ll glide down further and further so that understanding is important for us to move forward positively so to move forward positively means that we recognise our sickness and recognise our potential for healing for cure so it’s like a our mind is always going to be like a child we have to become like a parent to the child so sometimes the child needs to feel accepted valued loud as they are and sometimes the child needs to be pushed rebuked disciplined so that they can manifest their potential so depending on our situation we we have to treat ourselves like someone we are responsible for like say our child and then have the appropriate attitude toward ourselves which will we accept ourselves as we are and we also push ourselves so that we manifest our spiritual potential so we talked about when we we may we have to offer ourselves to Krishna that we have to believe that we are offerable even if the food that we are offering is simple more important than the food that is offered is the attitude which is the food offered so if somebody tells us to carry something valuable to Vrindavan from America we need to feel that it is valuable enough to offer to Krishna Balram in Vrindavan so we have to believe that we are worthy enough to be offered to Krishna not in the egoistic sense but in a sense of self-acceptance and self-valuation and with that with this healthy self-conception what do we do we understand that we take small simple steps surrender means to do what we can with what we have right now so we set some worthy goal for ourselves and take whatever steps are doable for us and the the doability of those steps becomes the evidence for our curability that we can show to our mind and then we can move forward confidently so surrender has we can move forward confidently towards surrendering to Krishna and in the big picture so surrender is the first two limbs that accept the favourable avoid the unfavourable that’s like a patient who is being who’s on treatment constantly choosing so that they can improve their health those in terms of dynamic actions and that requires a lot of proactivity and responsibility then I talked about when we are so we do what is what is favourable what is unfavourable avoid what is unfavourable while taking treatment accept the prescriptions avoid the proscriptions but then while we are doing this our actions are important but along with actions our conceptions are important so two primary conceptions conceptions about the doctor’s potency to cure and about the patient’s capacity to be cured that we are the patients so I talked about the doctor’s capacity to cure that Krishna will protect us but he’s already maintaining us so why will he not protect us and then our own curability that I talked about I talked about today so thank you very much are there any questions or comments yes to your question I can should I answer I remember that question should I directly answer it okay excellent so there’s a question which was asked in an earlier session about how do we separate the sin from the sinner so we love this love the sinner but we hate the sin so how do we go about doing that that was the question isn’t it okay so I answered that briefly but let’s look at two three examples let’s look firstly at such a Prabhupada’s example Prabhupada when he went to the west now some of us we may have this conception that Prabhupada was strong and uncompromising used strong words like fools and rascals very frequently but if you look at Prabhupada’s early disciples or not just all those who interacted with Prabhupada you know most of them said that they never felt as loved and valued by anyone as they had felt by Prabhupada even their many of them said our parents our friends our other teachers none of them valued and loved us as much as Prabhupada did so Mukunda Maharaj writes in his book Miracle on Second Avenue that he had heard the talk of many speakers before talks of many speakers but and he would like to after hearing the talk go backstage and see what the speaker was like in real life so when he went this time he went after the talk and he was delighted to see that Swami was actually interested in him that Swami had time to talk with him to hear what he was saying and and talk and really pay attention to him so he felt very respected and valued just by that so Prabhupada valued and respected even the hippies so what does that mean that means that he loved the sinners he did not make them feel judged and demeaned and rejected although they were doing many things which were seriously objectionable but Prabhupada did not reject them because of that Prabhupada valued and respected and accepted them in spite of what all that had happened so similarly so what was this acceptance based on he saw them as precious parts of Krishna at the same and that acceptance was what connected them with him that does not mean that Prabhupada flinched from talking about how what all they needed to do to become better so again I think the parent-child example which I gave in the class is helpful that the parents love the children but still the parents need to sometimes strongly tell the children you cannot do this and forbid certain actions especially those actions are dangerous for the children so that is also a part of love only when both parts are there and both parts are properly offered that one can move onwards in one’s life and do whatever is necessary so in our practical dealings with others now we have to consider if I consider the parent-child example there is an important aspect there that we have to see whether that is our relationship with someone if that is not the relationship then we may not we might just have to keep a distance from them if that is how we will practically apply this dynamic that will vary from person to person because the important thing is that each relationship is unique each relationship has its own dynamics like I said earlier sometimes a person might be drowning and we can’t really help them now the best thing we could do to help them is maybe call the lifeguard not jump ourselves to help them so if we see that every soul is is essentially a part of Krishna and as a part of Krishna every one of them is actually divine everyone is divine but currently their divinity is covered in such a way that actually it can damage me also not just damage others it can damage me also then we will be able to do we will be able to see it’s like a doctor and a sick patient now sometimes if we are not adequately protected we might get infected by it we care for the patient but it doesn’t mean that we indiscriminately assume that we will be the one who can cure the patient maybe we are not the one we don’t we are not equipped enough so we have to see what is the practical reality and act accordingly so this a child metaphor or a sick person metaphor are helpful we don’t hate the sickness but we do we don’t hate the sick person we do hate the sickness and we have to firstly make sure that we ourselves don’t get infected by their sickness and if it is not possible for us to see that difference then we need to sometimes and still we have to be in that relationship and we tend to see some person very negatively because of some things that they do then we have to see how that person is seen positively by someone else maybe some other people see that person positively and accordingly we hear from them okay i tend to so it’s like the person is here their their particular conditioning is here and their actions are here so what happens is we we just can’t see beyond their actions and their conditioning that make them do those actions to the soul the pure part of krishna so and we may have been hurt by their conditioning and their actions and it’s understandable but we are seeing from this perspective maybe somebody sees them from that perspective maybe their conditionings don’t matter so much to that person maybe they don’t come up as a prominent thing in the dynamic of that relationship so let’s try to see the person from a different perspective now every relationship it’s like offers a different mirror through which or a different window into a person say say you i talk with you or you talk with me you know we get to know each other but then say you talk with some other creature about me and then they tell about their interactions with you you get to know something else now of course they may have their biases they may have their they may be they may their their dynamic comes into the picture but just that we get a different window to the person how accurate that window is that we may have to see from person to person but that way if we are too fixated in our own perception of that person it is helpful to look to hear from other people who have got different experiences and that also helps us to separate the sin from the sinner and another thing that we could do for this purpose is to try to see not just that person but to see how maybe those whom we respect maybe our spiritual master maybe our spiritual guides how they see that person so often we interact with people based on only you do this to me i do this to you but if you see that okay this person is also connected with this person and how i deal with them also reflects how i deal with my spiritual master my spiritual guides whatever so that can also help us to regulate our actions and that way we can try to act appropriately does it answer the question okay well i wouldn’t go so far as to say correct yourself we all have different ways our mind works and we have to accept where we are and move forward so for some devotees it might be that you know studying for 5 10 minutes or 15 minutes might not nourish them and they may feel that you know i need quality time to get absorbed in scripture if that is the way we are then that’s fine we can read maybe one one and a half hours also whenever we get time see whatever we are able to do for krishna never minimise it we don’t want to maximise it and brandish that answer to the devotee but we don’t have to minimise it so if even for in a week we are able to read one and a half hours or one or two days or in a month we are able to read for a few hours on a few days that’s also good it’s better than not reading at all but uh if we maybe we could do both some days when we have the time and the inspiration we do more and some days we maintain the regularity so we have to find what nourishes ourselves the best so if you if for some devotees they may decide i will read five minutes every day but then the final just comes and goes and they’re not able to connect they’re not able to absorb then it may become like a ritual so then that is not advisable you we don’t want to just do something as a it is it is a ritual but it should also become spiritual for us it should transform us gradually so what is required for that each one of us can find out so if you find that you are nourished best by maybe reading one and a half hours then that is the small simple step for you make sure that you read for one and a half hours once in a week it’s of course better if you could read more daily so it’s not so much of correcting it’s just a matter of doing what nourishes you and sometimes in five minute ten minute reading something can also nourish us okay thank you yeah i don’t think there’s anyone else you can ask nothing so there is no mention of the word guru in the tadvidhi pranipatena verse and also it’s in plural it’s referred to gyanena sattva darshinaha so but we quote it as a prime reference on the gita for the good principle of surrendering to a guru well we have to understand that the bhagavad gita is a in some ways it’s an emergency book arjuna was on a battlefield and the battlefield you don’t have a lot of time for elaborate discussions so the the bhagavad gita gives concisely things which are essential for arjuna to understand now arjuna lived in a culture where he knew about all the paths of material life all the major parts of material life and spiritual life so arjuna’s question was not about how to follow a particular path it was which path to follow there are two different things it’s like you know should i take ayurveda or allopathy or naturopathy or unani or herbal medicine or whatever now if you want to take herbal medicine and there are whole books written for that and somebody already knows about these medicines but they think what treatment should so then at that time the discussion will be about which treatment to take not how a particular treatment is to be taken so in general for no path krishna goes too much into the details if you consider the path of yoga there is a six chapter but even there how much is krishna talking about specifics the yoga sutras of patanjali go much more into specifics than what the bhagavad gita goes if you consider bhakti now krishna doesn’t talk about the specifics of bhakti also see with respect to yoga krishna doesn’t talk about say the eight limbs krishna doesn’t specifically dig in it krishna talks about the states of the mind krishna doesn’t mention the ashtasiddhis similarly with respect to deity with respect to bhakti krishna doesn’t specifically mention about deity worship krishna doesn’t mention about avataras although the principle of avatar is there but the word avatar doesn’t come in the bhagavad gita the word archa vigraha or archa upasana doesn’t come in the bhagavad gita so the bhagavad gita is not about specifics of any path it is about the analysis of which path to follow that’s why the specifics specific terms or specific items of specific paths will not come in the bhagavad gita so krishna talks about the principle of offering food of whatever we take we should offer as offered to him but doesn’t get into specifics about which food to offer and which food to not offer that’s why if you want to specifically find a verse which says that these are the foods to be eaten and the foods to not be eaten you can have generic analysis in terms of goodness passion ignorance but krishna doesn’t talk specifics over there he doesn’t give a list of these are the food you shouldn’t take on ekadashi these are the food you should not take at all harjuna doesn’t mean all that so scripture has a part that is as a central code that is eternal but scripture is also given in a particular context and the context will inevitably shape the content so there are many things specifically in the bhagavad gita which are not mentioned and we shouldn’t consider that as a weakness that’s just a result of the context now coming to the specific point of the word guru not being there the the culture over there was such that if you the if you can look at the bhagavad gita as a part of the mahabharat then there is an immense reverence towards brahmanical culture over there in general and the pandavas even when they’re in the forest repeatedly sages are meeting them and they’re they are responding to the sages they are hearing from the sages learning from the sages it’s all very it’s very clear and uh that that’s very very clear and in general the traditional culture was what our movement is gradually moving toward that that this plural is very significant why because in our real life it’s not that we learn only from one guru we learn from many many gurus the the mahabharat itself is a hundred thousand verses but the mahabharat doesn’t spare even half a verse to tell us who is the guru of the pandavas it doesn’t you know we could say we ask names of their teachers drona is their martial guru dhaumya is their priest but who is their initiating guru that’s not so important because the guru is important but the principle of what the guru represents is even more important and the the pandavas they learn from so many people they learn from markandeya from narada from vyasa from parvatpuni from so many other sages and we see our movement started in a very historically anomalous unusual situation that prabhupada had to transplant a whole culture in a place where nobody knew about that culture and that’s why prabhupada was almost like the be-all and end-all for his disciples and although his books contain internal principles his books were also written at a particular time in a particular context so prabhupada in many ways stresses the position of the guru much more than what is done in the tradition and that is because that was what was required for transplanting the tradition at that time we say vishwanath chakratakar quotes yasya prasadad bhagwat prasado and how he was devoted to his spiritual master yes that is true in terms of the bhava in terms of sentiment but vishwanath chakratakar in his bhagavad gita or bhagavatam commentaries he hardly ever quotes his spiritual master baldevid devushan in his vedanta sutra commentary never once quotes vishwanath chakratakar because you know he is writing vedanta sutra commentary to reach out to people the authorities from other traditions and they are going to accept not the authorities of our tradition they are going to accept universal authorities so he quotes from the upanishads he quotes from the puranas not so much on purana upanishads and bhagavad gita primary smritis so the guru the spiritual master is extremely important but but it is not the spiritual master is the be all and end all and nobody else matters we learn from many many gurus and that is how our situation is in our moment now we have our spiritual master but we learn from so many other vaishnavas also and in a sense the way ISKCON started was anomalous was was different from what is standard and as our movement is getting more and more established we are returning to what is the standard that there is there is that there is one spiritual master but there is respect for the gurus and that’s why vandeham shri guru shri uttapada kamalam shri gurun vaishnavas so we have many many teachers and we learn from all of them and that is the principle that krishna is presenting to arjuna in the bhagavad gita and that’s why that is that plural is there over there does it answer the question thank you is there any one more question or can we stop yes yes okay well how do we well it depends it’s not how do we recite various other prayers apart from the the holy names that it’s a in the practise of bhakti there is a lot of room for individuality there is standard process which we are practising but along with the standard process there are there is a there is abundant room for individuality so if we say for example even when we are chanting some some may some devotees may like to have a picture of radha krishna in front of them because they are the divine couple whom we are calling some devotees may like to have a picture of the spiritual master some devotees might like to have tulsi maharani some devotees may just like to have a printout of the hari krishna mahamantra some may just like to close their eyes whatever so in the in in bhakti there are principles and there are preferences the principles are central and few so for example we could say the five potential limbs of bhakti are talked about because they are principles or so the idea that we have to chant the holy names we have to worship the deities we have to study bhagavatam associate with devotees these are like principles but within the principles and even apart from the principles there are preferences so we have to study the bhagavatam but some devotees may just decide you know i want to go deep into one pastime in the bhagavatam i don’t want to just read the whole book i want to go deep into the past time and memorise many of the verses memorise many of the prayers and they may they may serve and worship the bhagavatam that way somebody else may say no i want to go bhagavatam is manifested i want to read the whole thing so later maybe i’ll go deep but i want to spread a wide right now which is also fine so um if we feel inspired if we feel inspired by reciting certain words sexual other prayers it’s wonderful that if that is the way we are connecting with krishna that’s excellent so you could maybe do that at a separate time and give some brief time or even if during chanting also if our mind starts wandering too much and they’re not able to focus then maybe just pause for a few minutes maybe recite one or two prayers from the separate section that we have and that creates a more devotional orientation and then start chanting again so to if somebody starts uh starts mandating the preferences then that will become fanatical no to start changing the principles will become sentimental it will not it will dilute us and we will contaminate we will get cut away from the tradition we’ll get cut away from the tradition but to start mandating on the preferences i don’t know that i am going to say on ekadashi no i chant 64 rounds so everybody else should also chant 64 rounds no 64 hours inspires you wonderful but i’m inspired by reading the bhagavatam i’m inspired by maybe by doing a lot of kirtan somebody else is inspired by reciting songs well ekadashi is a time for doing more bhakti how specifically we can’t mandate preferences so each of us has our preferences of course we can talk with some senior devotee who’s understanding who’s like-minded and they make sure that according to our preferences when we are going we are going in the right direction but each of these have each of us is an individual each of us is an individual relationship with krishna and individual means we will have individual preferences so those can also be used to flavour the devotional offering that we are making to krishna does it answer your question so thank you very much