Uddhava’s significance in the tenth canto, in the Bhagavatam and in our life

[Bhagavatam class at Govardhan Ecovillage, India]

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Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Uddhava’s devotion for Krishna. And especially I’ll talk of this in three parts. One is, I’ll talk about the significance of Uddhava in Krishna Leela.
Then the significance of Uddhava in the overall narrative of the Bhagavatam. And lastly, we’ll talk about how Uddhava, what we can learn from Uddhava’s example in our practice of bhakti. So now, Krishna Leela and Bhagavatam comes primarily in the 10th and 11th cantos.
Actually, 10th canto is mostly Krishna Leela. And 11th canto is, you can say, Krishna Shiksha, where Krishna speaks the Uddhava Geeta. And Uddhava is a very special character in the Bhagavatam because he signifies the connection between Mathura, Dwaraka and Vrindavan.
And in the Gopal Champu, which is an elaboration of the 10th canto of the Srimad Bhagavatam, done by Sri Yugoswami, there he describes how when Krishna came from Vrindavan to Mathura, among the first Mathuravasi with whom he bonded naturally was Uddhava. The natural friendship developed among them. And then Krishna realized that he had full intention of going back to Vrindavan as soon as Kamsa was here.
But the Yadus told him, you have to stay to protect us. And he couldn’t say no to them. So then he thought that, OK, there are some demons to be killed and I’ll kill them and I’ll go back.
But it’s like sometimes we think a project will take six months and then go on for six years. So for Krishna also, the project of killing the demons kept expanding. And then he realized that, hey, this is not getting over.
So then he thought that he knew the Vrajavasis would be traumatized by separation from him. And there are different kinds of disappointments in life. There is some disappointment, which is a hopeless disappointment.
That means something has gone wrong and it can never be fixed. But when there is hopeful disappointment, Let me say if somebody has in an accident been blinded. And then the doctors say that maybe you can do this treatment and your eyes will come back.
And they do the treatment and the eyes don’t come back. So we’ll try this treatment also. I met one devotee in America.
He’s got severe migraines. He told me he has tried 685 treatments till now. And still he’s known as the sickness Acharya of our movement.
He’s a senior Prabhupada disciple, guru and sanyasi. So it’s like if you have some disease and it’s not going to be cured, then just learn to live with it. But if you have hope it will be cured and then the hope rises and the hope shatters.
It’s even more painful. So for the Vrajavasis, it was like that because Krishna had said, I’ll come back. So they’re hoping Krishna will come back.
And Krishna was not coming back. So then what to do? Krishna was as afflicted by separation of the Vrajavasis as the Vrajavasis were afflicted in separation of them. And at that time, Krishna chose one particular person to go as his representative.
Who was that? There is a loving tension that Gopalachampu depicts between the Mathuravasis and the Vrajavasis. And the Mathuravasis are very possessive of Krishna. And they think they don’t want Krishna to even talk about Vrindavan.
Because they feel that if he talks, he’ll remember and if he remembers, then he will want to go. So he has nobody with whom he can talk about Vrindavan. And nobody understands him also.
But Uddhava alone understands him to some extent. And then he gives him a message to offer to the, especially the Gopis. And when Uddhava goes to Vrindavan, initially he’s thinking, okay, these people must be very special for Krishna, that Krishna is sending a message for them.
But then, when he actually goes there and he sees the extraordinary devotion of the Vrajavasis for Krishna, especially the Gopis for Krishna, then he’s stunned. Now generally, whenever we do any service, it is, if we are able to do that service well, it is easy to become proud of our service. I’ve done this service, I’ve got this success.
But we, as long as we stay in our shell, we think that I’m doing very big things. But then we go out and look in the big world. If you travel across the world or just meet devotees across the world, then you start realizing that whatever you are doing, however well, there is somebody who is doing that better than you.
And that creates some humility. So in Mathura, Uddhava was thinking that my devotion is very deep and I’m so intimate with Krishna. But then he realized that the intimacy that the Vrajavasis had with Krishna was unparalleled.
And he was nowhere near that. And seeing that, he was so stunned. He tried to console the Gopis.
He spoke about Krishna and he reminded them of Krishna. But while he was reminding them of Krishna also, he realized that actually they were much more absorbed in Krishna than he was absorbed in Krishna. And sometimes it happens that we give a class and the class was ecstatic.
And I think I didn’t feel ecstasy in the class. I only felt anxiety when they took the class. So, as all the Uddhava is speaking to the Gopis, but he is amazed to see the level of advancement of the Gopis.
And then he has this longing that I want to experience a glimpse, at least a glimpse of the extraordinary devotion of the Gopis. And he desires, he prays for that fervently. Now, we often pray, but our prayers can turn out to be quite dangerous.
So now he wants to experience the glimpse of the devotion of the Vrajavasis for Krishna. And Krishna orchestrates situations in an extraordinary, mystifying and agonizing way for that to happen. In an almost inconceivable way, all the Dwarkavasis are killed.
They are not killed, they kill each other. And then Krishna and Balaram also depart. And among all the Mathuravasis, now become Dwarkavasis, the only survivor is Uddhava.
And then Krishna is speaking this Uddhava Gita to him elaborately. And after speaking that, he tells, now you go to the sages. And go to the sages in the Himalayas and speak what I have spoken.
So now why Krishna had the Yadus disappear like this is very complex. There are multiple reasons for this. Our Acharya has explained it elaborately.
One reason is ultimately that however good life may be in this world, death is never pleasant. I write in the Bhagavad Gita every day on a website Gita Daily. So recently I wrote an article.
Even if we farewell in life, we still have to say farewell to life. Even if we farewell in life, everything goes wonderfully. But we have to say farewell, we have to give up everything.
So the Bhagavatam doesn’t flinch from the harsh realities of life. So even when Krishna is there in this world, the harshness of the world may be temporarily subsiding because of him. But ultimately it comes back.
So there are multiple reasons. But in our context, what is Krishna doing? Krishna is giving Uddhava an opportunity to experience love in separation similar to what he has seen the Gopis experience in separation from him. That’s why I said prayers can sometimes be dangerous.
So now when something terrible happens in our life, we need some context to make sense of it. What is happening? And the Bhagavatam essentially, the purpose of the Bhagavatam is to give us a fresher framework to look at things. So everybody is lost.
Uddhava has lost everyone. He was devoted to the Lord. The Lord is gone.
All his friends and other family members are all gone. He is utterly alone. At that time Krishna speaks the Uddhavita to him and tells him to go.
So the Uddhavita gives him a philosophical and devotional vision by which he can process what has happened. And he can appreciate that this is an opportunity for him to remember the Lord. And his understanding is revealed in this prayer.
These are practically the last words that Uddhava speaks. Elaborate Uddhavita is over. After this, now he is speaking this.
Krishna will speak a couple of verses and then the Uddhavita will end. So what is he saying over here? Namostu te Mahayogi. I offer my obeisances to you oh so great Yogi.
Now Yogis perform miracles. Krishna has performed many many miraculous pastimes. Generally we see in the conclusion of wherever there is an intimate description of Krishna, towards the end there is an opulent description of Krishna also.
To remind us that this is not just an ordinary person. In the Bhagavad Gita also towards the end, Yatra Yogeshwaraha Krishna. He is the lord of all mystic powers.
Namostu te Mahayogi. Prapannam Anushadhimam. I surrender to you.
And you please instruct me. What instruction does he want? He says that I have already got so much instruction. But I specifically ask him that you please guide me from within my heart.
He knows that overall the Gita’s instruction has ended. But now this is a prayer more for assimilation and application. I want that instruction by which unto your lotus feet.
My attraction towards you will flow seamlessly towards your lotus feet. This is the ultimate asset that any of us can have in our spiritual lives. And this is for the Gopis.
When they got separated from Krishna, their attraction to Krishna increased more and more. So similarly he is saying that now I am going to get separated from you. But please let my attraction to you increase more and more.
So separation does to love what wind does to fire. I was in California few months ago. And there was horrible forest fires over there.
There was a town, a nice resort town called Paradise. The whole of Paradise turned into hell practically. Everything burnt.
And there is a devotee who is a firefighter over there. So he is telling that actually when these huge fires come up, then the worst thing that can happen to them is winds come over them. If the winds come, the fire spreads so unpredictably.
And these are giant fires. Now often we from India, Indians have a very romanticized idea of America. In some ways of course comforts are more, but there are lots of other issues that are there.
So these forest fires are so savage when they come up. They can do nothing. So when the forest fires come, everything gets consumed.
So the example is that separation is to love as wind is to fire. That means when a devotee is separated from the Lord, that fans devotion. And then the devotion increases more and more and more.
However there is one important caveat in this. One important qualification and warning. What is that? This works only if the fire is like a forest fire.
If the fire is like a candle fire. And then wind comes. It will just get extinguished.
So if we think I will get separated from devotees and it will increase my separation and appreciation for devotees. Well, maybe, maybe not. We all need association.
Our desires develop in association. So for the Gopis, their love for Krishna was so great that they could think of nothing except Krishna. And when they were separated from Krishna, that love increased more and more.
And similarly for Uddhav also, his love for Krishna increased more and more. So that was Krishna’s plan and Uddhav was appreciating Krishna’s plan. And appreciating Krishna’s plan, now he is praying that please let me play my part in your plan.
God’s plan is going to work in everyone’s life. But for it to work in our life, we also have to work. Otherwise Lord’s plan will work in spite of us, it will work around us, but we will be left out of it.
So for the Lord’s plan to work, we also need to work. And for us to work means we need the strength for that, we need the wisdom for that. So here he is praying, my dear Lord, please give me retraction to you.
So this is Uddhava’s significance that this love and separation is being demonstrated. It is a summit of devotion that the Gopis are exhibiting and which Uddhava has witnessed. Now Uddhava is getting a glimpse of that.
And that’s how Krishna is fulfilling the desire of Uddhava. And Krishna is, now Uddhava is much more analytical and intellectual. So for some people, we all have different psychologies.
For some people, emotions follow thoughts. For some people, thoughts follow emotions. For some people, first they feel and then they think.
For some people, they think first and then they feel. Now for the Gopis, this is spontaneous love for Krishna. Just the remembrance of Krishna triggers great emotions.
However, Uddhava is much more analytical. So Krishna has given him elaborate analytical description of various philosophical thoughts all culminating in bhakti. And finally he is telling him, now he has got that foundation.
With that foundation, then the take-off can happen. So a transcendental journey of the heart toward Krishna, that is what is ultimately required. And different people may need different support systems for that.
For some people, they just come into a very devotional atmosphere and they feel uplifted by that. For some people, they hear a lot of classes and then they feel uplifted by that. We all are all, we are in a plane.
And we are riding this plane, we are driving this plane, which is meant to take off toward Krishna. So we have to find out what ensures that our plane takes off. And different planes are of different natures.
They have different mechanisms and different ways they fly. I was in Cincinnati, there is a devotee who is one of the big design engineers for Boeing. So he took me to the plant where all these planes are manufactured.
So actually different planes, if you use the take-off mechanism of one plane for another plane, that plane will be grounded forever. Each plane has its own take-off mechanism. So similarly for us, for us to take off for Krishna, we have to find out what is the take-off mechanism that works for us.
Otherwise we might just go through the motions of bhakti. But we may not go through to the emotions of bhakti. We don’t just want to go through the motions.
We want to go through to the emotions. So it’s our responsibility to find out what will get us to take off. So Krishna has recognized that Uddhava needs a philosophical boost.
And that’s what he has provided him through the Uddhavita. And then he is taking off on his devotion. So this is the first part, that the significance of Uddhava in Krishna Nila Pranayama.
The second part is the significance of Uddhava in the Bhagavatam. The Bhagavatam is an extraordinary book. Because, one western commentator on Bhagavatam said, I have never seen any book which is as obsessed with death as is the Bhagavatam.
And yes, that is true at one level. Because serious philosophy begins with an encounter with death. Now philosophy can just be like something for intellectual entertainment, or simulation, that is fine.
But when we encounter death at close quarters, that’s when we really think of what is it that matters. Philosophy literally means phili and so forth. Phili is love and so forth is truth.
So philosophy is basically love of truth. Now there are many truths in life. We have some bank balance, we have some strength, we have some looks, we have some positions and possessions.
All these are truths. But they are truths which don’t last for very long. So then what is it that really lasts? What is it that really matters? So to understand that, we need to understand what doesn’t matter.
Or what won’t matter eventually. And death is what reveals to us what doesn’t matter. That’s why it jolts our attention.
And makes us look elsewhere. So the Bhagavatam begins with this theme of Parikshit Maharaj about to die in seven days. And Shukdev Goswami giving him absorption in Krishna to sound vibrations.
But if we consider there is death and there is separation. And death and separation are in many ways similar. Because when we talk about separation, that means everything that is dear to us is taken away from us.
That’s when we feel separation. If we don’t like someone and that person goes away. We don’t really feel separation from that person.
We feel relief. Say goodbye and good riddance. So when we are deeply attached to something and we lose that, that’s when we feel separation.
And especially if we are very strongly emotionally invested in that and then we lose it. It’s agony. So separation is like a death.
When Krishna says, In 134 when he is saying that for those who have been honored, dishonor is worse than death. What does he mean by that? That separation from honor is worse than death. Dishonor is essentially separation from honor.
For somebody who has wealth and they lose that wealth, that separation from wealth is unbearable. So each of us may have certain things we are attached to. So death and separation are similar things.
And if we see in the Bhagavatam, this mood of separation is throughout the Bhagavatam. In fact, the sages who have assembled in Nainisharanya, they are all in a sense experiencing separation. Because Krishna had just been there on the planet and then he has departed.
So the whole of Bhagavatam is spoken in the shadow of separation from Krishna. In the shadow of separation from Krishna. It’s like say if somebody has lived through the Indian independence struggle.
Now most of their generation is quite old or is dead. But then for them it is a traumatic event. It’s ingrained in their memory.
So for the next 10, 20, 30 years, that is the prominent event. Independence, the separation, the trauma, the emotion, everything. So people live in the shadow of that.
Yes. In various countries there are different events which cast a long shadow after that event also. So the Bhagavatam is spoken in the shadow of the separation from Krishna.
Like the whole purpose of the Bhagavatam is what? That puranarka-adunoditah kalaunashtha-dushamesha That Krishna is departed from this world and everybody is dark. The Bhagavatam is going to deal with that darkness by giving light. So now this light is not just the light of philosophical knowledge.
Actually it is a light of devotional emotion. It is a light of how the attraction toward Krishna and absorption in Krishna can be maintained even in separation from him. And we see this theme of separation repeatedly right from the first canto of the Bhagavatam itself.
Krishna appears in the 7th chapter of the first canto and 8th chapter immediately is Kunti spreads. And Kunti is about to experience separation from Krishna. And that first major prayer in the Bhagavatam concludes with something similar to this prayer.
tvayi me anandi vishaya mater madhupate sakre patimudh dvahata dardha gange bhau gham udalvate rati syar anapali Let my attachment flow toward you just like she is saying let my attraction flow toward you as the Ganga is flowing toward the ocean. So now the example of Ganga flowing toward the ocean has two meanings to it. When a Ganga is flowing toward the ocean nothing holds the Ganga back and the Ganga holds nothing back.
No matter what obstacle comes somehow or other it keeps moving. And the Ganga doesn’t think okay I will let 90% of my water flow 10% I will keep it with me as a backup plan. So at one level you could say pure devotion means there is no planning.
Completely offer ourselves to Krishna. Of course within the offering of ourselves to Krishna there can be plan A plan B plans. Prabhupada was very resourceful.
Okay this didn’t work out I will try this. But Prabhupada had no plan apart from the plan of serving Krishna. How to serve Krishna that will vary from person to person.
From situation to situation. But here that theme which comes in the first canto then again after that it comes in the 8th chapter it comes in the 9th chapter. And 9th chapter is what? Bhishma’s separation.
Bhishma’s separation is not just that Krishna is going away from him but he is going away. Separation can happen both ways. The Lord can go away from us or we can go away from the Lord.
So he is on his deathbed and he will depart from the world. And there also he offers beautiful prayers and his mood essentially is my dear Lord I want to be absorbed in you. You are unborn you have appeared in this world.
Please let me be absorbed in you. And then the overall Shrimad Bhagavatam is about how when we are separated from something which is of great value to us. We turn towards the Lord.
So Bhishma is going to lose his life but his prayer is not let my life come back. Let my attraction towards the Lord be. And similarly throughout the Bhagavatam there are souls who experience separation from something of great value.
Dhruva experiences separation from the affection of his father. And not just a small separation but the utter rejection that he experiences. And still he stays focused.
Instead he gets absorbed in the Lord by the guidance of Narad Muni. The sixth canto we have Chitra Ketu. He is a devotee and he is a respectable person.
But in one moment he loses his respectable position and becomes a demon. It’s very difficult for us to even conceive of what he could have gone through at that time. It’s almost like suppose somebody is in a very respectable position in a devotee community.
And then suddenly some rumors start and gossip starts. And then that person can’t even show their face in the devotee community. Gossip is terrible.
It’s like Prajal Bhai. You know when gossip happens? Gossip happens when we hear something we like about someone we don’t like. Oh really? He is like that? We hear something we like about someone we don’t like.
Then immediately gossip starts. And sometimes this gossip can become so widespread, so malicious. Nowadays with internet available that before a person can respond to a gossip, the gossip has gone all over the world.
Some people think that their sole devotional service is spreading gossip. It’s like they are full time service litigants. So what happens? You become completely isolated.
You can’t even show your face in the devotee community. So when he became like that, it’s complete rejection for Chitra Ketu Dhritarashtra. He lost everything.
Similarly, Prahalad is a small boy. And for a child, nothing is more important than the love of the parents. And to suddenly lose that, it’s so difficult.
It’s extremely difficult. One thing is to have an absent parent. That’s quite common in the Western world.
Many children, one out of two children almost, one out of two or three children are raised in single parent families. But it is one thing to have an absent parent. But it is quite another to have an abusive parent.
And even abusive parent is not as bad as a murderous parent. So he had a father who was out to murder him. And then also, so there are many things that are important for us in life.
And when they are taken away from us, it’s unbearable. But the Bhagavatam shows how when such things happen, how the great devotees take shelter of the Lord. One of the oldest philosophical questions is, this is, I’m mixing the second and third part of the class, how devout devotion is relevant to us.
One of the oldest philosophical questions is, why do bad things happen to good people? I was in Canada, and one boy came to me, six-year-old boy. And he asked, why do bad things happen to good people? And normally when somebody asks this question at a personal level, you want to know what’s going on, where are they coming from? I said, what happened? He said, today morning I was shaking my milk with my biscuit, but my biscuit fell into the milk. So for him, that was a bad thing happening to a good person.
So different people have different ideas of what is a bad thing happening to good people. But this happens to everyone. So the Bhagavatam actually doesn’t go much into philosophy of karma.
In fact, as far as I have read the Ramayana, Mahabharata, Bhagavatam, nowhere have I seen somebody who is suffering, and somebody else comes and tells them, you are suffering because of your karma. That is very insensitive, it is inappropriate. Nobody tells like that.
Our purpose is to assist and comfort people when they are in distress. When Abhimanyu is killed, Krishna Ratan tells, it is Abhimanyu’s karma or your karma to Arjuna. What the Bhagavatam does is, rather than giving a philosophical explanation of the problem of evil, of why do bad things happen to good people, the Bhagavatam shifts.
Instead, what does it do? It demonstrates when bad things happen to good people, what do good people do? That is the thrust of the Bhagavatam. And all these people, terrible things are happening to them. But throughout, what are they doing? Getting shelter of the Lord.
Eighth Canto is there. Bali Maharaj gives up everything. He gives up his kingdom in charity.
And what does he get? He gets arrested for that. He gets scorned and cursed by his guru for that. But he says he won’t do it.
And the same narrative, it attains its culmination in the predicament of the gopis. Where the gopis, they give up everything for the Lord. And then the Lord gives them up.
When distress comes, from where the distress is coming determines how much it is bearable or unbearable. There is a difference between tragedy and evil. Tragedy is when something bad happens to us.
Say, we are driving a car and suddenly the car wheel gets punctured and our car crashes. And we meet with an accident and get fractured or something like that. That’s a tragedy.
But say we are driving a car and somebody comes in a truck and deliberately destroys our car. So they are deliberately out to destroy something. That is not just tragedy, that is evil.
Evil means to cause suffering for the sake of causing suffering. At a simpler level, we are going through a crowded area. And say somebody is walking by and they put their foot on our foot.
It’s painful. It’s a minor version of a tragedy. But suppose somebody sees that they have put their foot on our foot and they deliberately raise their foot and bang it down.
That tragedy you could say is like an accident. Evil is malicious. It’s intentional.
So when suffering is being intentionally inflicted by someone upon us, it becomes even more difficult to bear. Now for the Gopis, it is Krishna who leaves them and goes away. First in the Rasila and then later on he goes to Indra.
At that time, to maintain devotion to Krishna, how does one do that? When the person to whom we are devoted, that person is the cause of our suffering. How do we stay devoted at that time? That is the magnitude of the devotion of the Gopis to Krishna. And same principle is in Buddha.
Buddha is also going to experience great agony. But the solution to agony is absorption. Increase absorption in Krishna.
That’s the theme of the Bhagavatam. In Buddha, it’s demonstrating the same lesson that Parikshit also has to learn. Generally, whenever something bad happens to us, the mind makes us believe that nobody is having problems as big as you have.
Nobody is suffering as much as you are suffering. And the mind gets us alone and then it gets us. So now we see Parikshit, for him at least, he had made a small mistake and got a big problem because of that.
He was cursed to die in seven days. But if you look at all the stories in the Bhagavatam, most of these characters have done nothing wrong. We could have drew nothing as a normal parent’s desire of a child for a parent’s affection.
Prahlad was just being a devotee. Bali Maharaj, he was actually being a charitable person. The Gopis, they were ready to give up everything for Krishna.
And they had to suffer the agony of separation. What the Bhagavatam through its story is telling that, Oh Parikshit, you alone are not suffering. The others will suffer much, much more.
Don’t focus on life’s unfairness. Focus on Krishna’s worthlessness. Focus not on why life is so unfair to you.
Focus on how you are getting the opportunity to serve Krishna, to remember Krishna, to become absorbed in Krishna. And then, similarly, Uddhava is the last story where at least Shukdev Goswami is surrounded, and Parikshit Maharaj is surrounded by so many other people who are all going to speak to him. But Uddhava, everybody has left him.
No, he is alone and he has to go to a long distance with the sages. And later on, Uddhava is so traumatized, he walks and he falls and stumbles and he cries and he is blinded. And somehow he makes his way to the Himalayas.
Somehow he reaches. So, Parikshit Maharaj is assured that don’t, don’t, the English word is hyperventilate. Hyperventilate means react in emotionally extreme ways.
Yes, life is painful. Life is painful for everyone. Don’t hyperventilate about it.
And that is a lesson which can apply for all of us. Uddhava is going to lose everything, but he will be given the resources to absorb himself in Krishna. And for all of us in our lives, we have, we have many desires.
Even the desires to serve Krishna are there. I want to do this for Krishna. I want to do that for Krishna.
And it’s wonderful. Every spiritual desire is an asset for us in our spiritual journey. Because if that spiritual desire fills our heart, then material desires will go out of our heart.
But even our desires for what is desired for Krishna should not be desired more than Krishna. What is desired for Krishna? If we are doing some preaching program and we want a lot of people to come for that program. But we shouldn’t get so caught in desiring that.
And if that is not happening, we get agitated, we get frustrated. And then what is desired for Krishna? If that is desired more than Krishna, then that can also become a distraction for Krishna. Our strongest desire has to be for Krishna.
Of course, for most of us, the desire for Krishna will develop by desiring something for Krishna. It’s not so easy to have a desire directly for Krishna. I just have Bhagavatam, I want to absorb myself in Bhagavatam.
Well, it’s good if we can, but let me study the Bhagavatam, let me share the Bhagavatam. And for sharing the Bhagavatam, let me savour the Bhagavatam. Let me appreciate it, let me share it.
So if we understand that our ultimate purpose is absorption in Krishna, then no matter what happens, what is given to us or what is taken away from us, that won’t disturb us so much. Because we will have Krishna always with us. And that is the prayer that Uddhava is offering.
Here at the conclusion of the Uddhava Gita, there is a prayer that we all can offer to Krishna in the practice for bhakti. So I’ll summarize what I spoke today. I spoke broadly on the scheme of how, what is the significance of Uddhava in the 10th, in the King Krishnalila, in the Bhagavatam and in our bhakti life.
So in the 10th canto, Uddhava is an intimate associate of Krishna, who acts like a connector between Mathura-Dwaraka and Vrindavan. And that’s a exalted loving separation that he has observed and appreciated in the Gopis. Krishna is giving Uddhava an opportunity to experience that when he is separated from all the Dwarkavasis and from Krishna also.
So separation does to love what wind does to fire. It expands when the fire is already big. It extinguishes when the fire is small.
Uddhava’s fire of devotion is large. Separation is going to enlarge it further. And Uddhava is an analytical intellectual person.
So different planes require different things for takeoff. So Krishna has given him elaborate philosophy so that he can take off on his devotional journey. And we also need to find out what we need for takeoff in our spiritual journey.
And we acquire those resources. In the overall picture of the Bhagavatam, the Bhagavatam essentially is describing the mood of debt and separation. And when something of great value is taken away from us, then how do we deal with it? Parikshit is going to lose his life, Parikshit Maharaj.
And similarly, there are great devotees we discussed, who lose things which are very dear to them. And in all those situations, the devotees turn and become absorbed in the Lord. Rather than addressing the question, why do bad things happen to good people at a philosophical level, the Bhagavatam focuses on the question, what do good people do when bad things happen to them? And in our spiritual lives, when we are practicing bhakti, our ultimate purpose is absorption in Krishna.
And we may desire to do many things for Krishna, and that every spiritual desire is an asset, it’s a treasure. But what is desired for Krishna, shouldn’t be desired more than Krishna. A foremost desire, if you keep it absorption in Krishna, then what is given to us, what is taken away from us, neither of those will distract us from Krishna.
Thank you very much. Hare Krishna. I don’t think there’s any straightforward way to know that.
Basically, it’s not, I have a whole class on this topic of digital and analog conceptions of bhakti. What that means is, it’s not that it’s sincere or insincere. It’s more like, there are different levels of sincerity in our practice of bhakti.
So it’s not necessarily like zero one. There are levels, if you consider twelve, eight to twelve, Krishna is spontaneously absorbing, not spontaneously absorbed, then be conscientiously absorbed. If you can’t be conscientiously absorbed, you need to serve me.
If you can’t serve me, then work for me, work and give your fruits to me. If you can’t do that, then work and give your fruits to some good cause. At least get out of yourself, get out of self-obsession.
So Krishna is giving various levels that we can gradually reach to him. So rather than thinking about are we sincere or are we not sincere, we can focus on what is in our hands to do, and try to do that as much as we can. So if we just observe ourselves and think, we can easily list down three things that we can do better than what we are doing.
That can be infinite, but you can just list down three things which are doable. And just make a specific parallel, this is how I want to connect, I want to do this, please help me do this. And at least give me the strength to even start doing it.
So there is internal prayer, remembrance of Krishna, there is external action. So now, how genuine, how sincere, how pure the emotion is, there is no like if you have to drink water, you can maybe get a meter to check how pure the water is. But you can’t put a meter inside the heart to check how pure our heart is.
But what we can see is how our actions are. And there are so many things I am doing right, so many things I am doing wrong. But okay, this is something which is all, I think there is this much.
So if our actions overall are going in the right direction, and we are trying to get them in the right direction, when they go off also we try to get them back. It’s very difficult at our level to look at sincerity as a virtue that we can evaluate in our hearts. We can look at our actions and try to make our actions more sincere.
If we do that, then gradually sincerity will be cultivated. And another thing we can do is that we can also look at when non-devotional or anti-devotional emotions come up within us. And they will come up inevitably.
But when they come up, what do we do? Do we welcome them or do we try to avoid them? Do we try to pray, let this go away? Krishna sees not just our feelings, he sees also our feelings about our feelings. Sometimes I just don’t feel like chanting, I don’t feel like reading Bhagwat, I don’t feel like coming in the ashram. Okay, maybe that’s just the mind, the mind is a machine of its own, the mind works according to the moods.
Certain feelings, they will come. When those feelings come, how do we view them? Now I got this experience, I will not go. I don’t want this feeling.
I want to feel connected with Krishna. I want to feel devotion. So if we try to maintain it that way, then gradually that also is an indicator of our sincerity.
Just the presence of non-devotional feelings doesn’t mean lack of sincerity. Or just the presence of devotional feelings doesn’t mean the presence of sincerity. Because the feelings will keep changing.
It’s more that our overall attitude, our overall purpose, and our overall actions. That’s the best way to understand. So the statement is very wonderful.
Separation has to go on to where it has to hide. But if we analyze in the case of all the devotees who are very sincere, they are performing devotions and are very sincere, but they are taken out from the association of devotees because of their critical situation in their home or whatever. So is it separation happened by the mercy of God? After that, they lose their faith in God.
They cannot perform devotions like that. So how do you make this statement? So if somebody is, say, because of their family situation or something like that, has to go to the mosque of devotees and they lose their faith in bhakti. So in that case, what is separation done? Well, I also said the other possibility that separation can be like if our love is like a candle, then the wind of separation can extinguish it.
So now we don’t want to say that specifically to some devotee directly, but we all need some kind of support system so that we can continue practicing bhakti. And there is a positive side and there is a negative side. When there is association, then just the force of association helps us to keep moving along with the flow.
That everybody is doing, let me also do it. Now that’s good, but how much of it is coming from our heart and how much of it is coming from the desire to look good in the association of devotees? That is something that is not so easy to know. Because somebody is doing devotional service very nicely in the external sense, doesn’t necessarily mean that their heart is automatically getting purified.
So sometimes some people, when they go away from bhakti or go away from the association of devotees, then that is the time they may be re-evaluating their priorities. And they may feel, okay, this is the level, I can’t practice at this level. Now we don’t have to necessarily think that they have gone into maya.
We have to see that maybe they have to find out a way at which they can practice sustainably. And if it’s a lower level of siddhas, that’s okay. But they have got some taste of Krishna bhakti and they will arise to a higher level.
So our attitude needs to always be at one level, we want to protect our devotion. By the same time, we also want to protect ourselves from becoming judgmental towards others. So what is going on between them and Krishna, we do not know.
And yes, if we have some kind of support system that can be provided wherever devotees go, then that is good. That’s why while we are in association, it’s not just doing the activities of bhakti, but it’s also maintaining the relationships, strengthening the relationship together. That’s also important so that even if somebody goes away, they still stay in touch with a particular devotee.
And that way, if somebody is going through some difficulties, then they will not feel that, oh, I will be judged and rejected. If they have that feeling, then they will not even seek shelter, seek some assistance, seek some guidance. So we need to be at one level less judgmental about those devotees who go away.
At the same time, we also can see how some support system can be provided. It’s complicated. Some devotees go away from association and then they create their own association.
Some devotees go away from association and then they just seem to go away from devotion itself. It’s everybody at a particular level, everybody in a particular consciousness. So we can do the best that we can.
Thank you. Yes, ma’am. Let’s stop.
Sometimes we are trying to serve Krishna but we don’t get success. And sometimes something similar materialistic people do, even without much depth, they get a lot of success in that. Yeah.
Broadly speaking. Now. Let’s put it at two different levels.
So there are material principles that work in material nature. And there are spiritual principles that transcend material nature. So what do I mean by this? That there is, we are spiritual beings in physical bodies.
Say suppose somebody has got diabetes. And then they take maybe some pedha or laddus. This is prasad, this is Krishna.
How can I refuse this? It’s going to purify me. Yes, it will purify your soul. But it’s going to agitate your body.
So just because we are devotees doesn’t mean that Krishna is going to change the rules of the game for us. So the rules of the game means there are certain material principles that work, material laws which work. And things are going to work according to those laws.
So as devotees, now at the material level, we could say that when somebody is successful, there could be multiple causes. Something could be that they are just more talented. They have more contacts.
Or you could say actually sometimes success depends not just on their talent, their dedication, their vision. It also depends on their past karma. Some people just have good karma from their past and that’s how they succeed.
Now as devotees, is it that when a devotee is very successful in their preaching, is it necessarily because of their purity? It could be that some devotees just even before they became devotees, they just are charismatic people. And when they are devotees, they are charismatic. And they attract a lot of people.
Others, they are not that charismatic. So now if somebody is phenomenally successful as a preacher, now is it because of their purity which is coming from their bhakti? Or is it because of their charisma which is coming from their past karma? It’s very difficult to know this. Now we should always respect all devotees.
When somebody is successful, we should always respect them. Now Bhakti Swamiji Thakur at one level said that a test of a Vaishnava is how many Vaishnavas that person makes. But then Prabhupada also said that if you are going to sell gold, not many people are going to come.
And he said that. That’s why other spiritual teachers, often they will get many many followers. Prabhupada also got many, but still not as many as some other spiritual teachers who are giving something much more diluted.
So when we are striving to serve Krishna, we need to be very clear about what is our purpose. Our first purpose is that through the service, we connect with Krishna. That is our connection to Krishna.
And second is our contribution. This is what I want to contribute. Now there is a reciprocation from Krishna or reciprocation from the world, whichever way you want to look at it.
Now that is not in our control. We see the Bhagavad Gita has two endings. One is where Krishna speaks to Arjuna and Arjuna says Arjuna’s confusion, illusion all dissipated.
So Krishna’s delivery of the Bhagavad Gita to Arjuna is successful. But then the other part is, Sanjay speaks the same message to Dhritarashtra. And Dhritarashtra’s heart is not at all changed.
Dhritarashtra still remains attached to Duryodhana. And the war goes on over there. So you could say at one level Sanjay’s delivery of the message to Dhritarashtra is unsuccessful.
But that is the significance of the last five verses of the Bhagavad Gita. I have got a series of classes on those five verses. 74 to 78.
Where 76 and 77 he is describing That as I am remembering okay As I am remembering this message and I am remembering the Lord who delivered the message So he had that internal success. Even if the external success was not there. So the internal success was absorbed into Krishna.
So for all of us when we are trying to do some service yes we all need to make some strategies, some plans and do some assessment. Why am I not being successful? Can I do something better? But if we are doing our part and things are not clicking then we shouldn’t get too obsessed with that. Because sometimes factors beyond our endeavour and our planning are involved in getting that success.
So some devotees might be very wonderful very deep, very profound, very wonderful creatures but they may never become very celebrative. Some other devotees they just seem to be very simple, straightforward classes and they become immensely popular. Now why the difference? We don’t know really.
If we can use our intelligence to understand and we can learn something from it, wonderful. But if we can’t then we do our service for our connection with Krishna. And why is Krishna not giving us those results? In some places Krishna may change a particular devotee’s karma also.
That some devotees by their past karma are meant to be popular and they become devoted and they become popular as devotees. Some people by their karma are not meant to be that popular. Even they become devotees they don’t become that popular.
It’s possible. So we don’t have to the purpose of devotion is not popularity. It is purity, it is absorption in Krishna.
If we have that purpose clear then we won’t be so disturbed by it. Now we see in Sri Srila Prabhupada’s life for the first 35-40 years there was almost no success and then Krishna gave phenomenal success. But it is not that Prabhupada was doing the same thing again and again.
No Sir, this is not working. He tried in India, it’s not working. He tried something else.
He tried Back to God magazine, he tried writing books, he tried working with God’s brothers, he tried starting an institute, League of Devotees. And then eventually something clicked for him. So we need to at one level be resourceful in trying to analyze and understand how we can do our service better.
But at the same time while being resourceful in terms of the practical readjustment of our services so that they can become more effective we also need to be internally renounced that okay I am doing this ultimately for Krishna and what Krishna wants more than the than the offering of the result is the offering of our own heart and what we are doing is ultimately for offering our heart to Krishna and many devotees ask me how do we know what is our nature? Like if I am doing this service is this according to my nature? Now there is of course we can have an elaborate class on this but one simple way to know if something is according to our nature is if nobody appreciates it will you still want to do it? Now now of course we need human reciprocation but the point is there are some things which we just this is what I want to do if I am not going to do what am I going to do else? So if we can find some service like that then the service itself will give us so much joy of course if we get the results we get the reciprocation from others that is wonderful but we shouldn’t think that if we are not getting that that doesn’t mean our service is a failure necessarily it could be that Krishna has some other plan if we are still connected we are absorbing Krishna that’s wonderful so we will stop here thank you very much Rantraj Shrimad Bhagavatam ki Srila Prabhupada ki Gaur Bhakta Vrinda ki Sai Gaur Premam ki