Learning prayerfulness based on Bhagavatam prayers

[School of Bhakti – Easter Online Retreat Day 2]

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Thank you Thank you everyone for joining today And I will speak today on the topic of The prayers and we will do this in three broad parts First is that I will be discussing briefly about prayers And then the major part of the class will be Examples of prayers from the Bhagavatam So from various cantos of the Bhagavatam We will discuss the prayers offered by various prominent characters And with respect to discussing these prayers We will see how that applies to our life And the last part will be question answers So if you have during the course of the class If you have any questions regarding a specific point spoken in the class Some point is not clear You could send that question to us And if it fits in I will answer at that time itself If the point is not clear otherwise At the end we will have time for question answers So what is prayer? Now if you look at generally The general understanding of prayer It is that when we live in the world Sooner or later we realise That the world is far bigger than us And that for either getting the things we want to get Or for preventing the things that we don’t want That is not entirely in our control So there is some unknown beyond us That controls that And prayer is seen at one level As a means of pleasing that unknown Of propitiating or satisfying that unknown And thereby these two things That which we want we will get it And that which we don’t want we will be able to avoid it And Lord Maharaj talks about this That in this world that which is freer We want sanyoga with that We want to get it We want to connect with it But unfortunately what we get is vyoga with it And that which is apriya, that which we don’t want Unfortunately we have sanyoga with it, we get it So we all work to get the desirable and avoid the undesirable And when we recognise that by my own power I can’t do this So some higher power So for example in the current corona crisis context We pray that maybe some medication, some vaccine will be developed Some cure will be developed And that cure will become widely accessible That is one level Another is that I shouldn’t be careless That I shouldn’t come in contact with somebody who will pass me the infection My loved ones will not get the infection So prayer is generally seen in these two terms To evoke a higher power To either gain the desirable or avoid the undesirable This is a valid and a valuable conception of prayer The Bhagavatam has a more evolved understanding of prayer Prayer is defined in the Bhagavatam as one of the limbs of bhakti Again quoting Prahlad Maharaj He tells his friends So he says that these are nine activities which characterise devotion These are the nine activities which are the symptoms Like now the word symptom is associated with pathology Symptoms can be of various things Based on a person’s address we can understand which country they come from Accent can be a symptom of their origin Symptom basically is an indicator So devotion is a state of the heart How do we know that devotion is there in the heart? These are the nine symptoms So Shravanam, Kirtanam, Vishnu Speaking about Krishna, hearing about Krishna Smaranam, Padasevanam, bringing Krishna Serving is lot of speed Archanam, Vandanam, Dasyam So Archanam is doing puja And Vandanam is offering prayers So like that it goes on, nine limbs are there So here in the Bhagavatam’s understanding of prayer Prayer is seen as one of the limbs of bhakti And what is the result of the practise of the limbs of bhakti? It is Kriyeta, Bhagavat, Yadda, Anmanye, Gita Muttamam By this our attraction to the Lord, our absorption in the Lord increases So prayer is seen in the Bhagavatam as a means to connect with Krishna It is seen not primarily as a means to get something done But to just connect with the Lord and absorb ourselves in the Lord Now of course at a practical level also certain results may come of prayer But quite often if we visualise prayer as a means to get God to do certain things for us Then we always stay on a shaky platform If I pray and if what I want is not given then what does that mean? Does that mean that God doesn’t listen to my prayers? Or does it mean that God doesn’t exist? God doesn’t care at all? So if we see the fulfilment of prayer primarily in terms of getting the thing that we have sought Then that may keep us unsteady But the Bhagavatam assumes fulfilment of prayer in terms of a deeper absorption in the Lord So this reconceptualization of prayer is important If we want to see prayer as a means of, as a limbo bhakti for growing in bhakti So we will, with this brief introduction to prayer, we will see how this dynamic plays out These two understandings, dynamic means two understandings of prayer The prayer as a means to get things done and the prayer as a means to connect with the Lord How this plays out in the various prayers offered in the Bhagavatam So I will discuss eight prominent characters I will speak roughly each of them for about five to ten minutes So I will analyse each prayer in terms of three things The context, who is offering and in what situation are they offering The content, often the prayers are quite long But I will be taking one representative prayer from there The content which represents the mood of that character And then we look at the consequence What is the result of offering that prayer? So this will help us better understand the mood of the Bhagavatam And thereby we can move forward and try to assimilate that mood ourselves So let’s begin with the first major prayer in the Bhagavatam, that is Kunti’s prayer And this is 1825 So we will be displaying this also in our You will probably see this in the slide description So Kunti’s prayer, the mood in Kunti’s prayer is this that My dear Lord, let the calamities come upon me So that your remembrance also comes So if this is displayed to you, you can go to 1825 In the Veda base and I will recite this verse If possible you can follow, otherwise we will just discuss it Vipada Santu Taha Shashvat Tatra Tatra Jagat Guru Bhavato Darshanam Yatsyad Apu Narbhavan Darshanam This is one of the most extraordinary prayers In the general analysis of prayers And this illustrates very dramatically the mood of the Bhagavatam So let’s look at the 3 point framework that we will be using The context, the content and the consequence The context is that the Pandavas have fought a terrible war After suffering terrible atrocities at the hands of the Kauravas And it’s significant in the Bhagavatam It’s first prayer is not from the perspective, is not offered by the Pandavas It’s offered by Kunti Kunti in some ways is in the sidelines That when a war is going on Now in the current crisis a war is going on in terms of the health issue So there are medical workers who are in the front lines, they are like front line warriors And now those who are in the sidelines at one level they don’t get much credit Because they don’t seem to be doing anything that dramatic At the same time the anxiety is there So Kunti Maharani has seen more or less the entire life of the Pandavas from the sidelines She saw them, first time she went with them into the forest When the attempt was made to burn all of them And then second time when they were exiled It was Vidura who said to Drishti that Kunti has become quite aged now It will be difficult for her to sustain the austerity of her life Let her stay with me And Drishti agrees So then the Pandavas stay in the forest and then While she stayed at home and then the war is going on She is still with Vidura At the end of the war Pandavas experience Just when they are about to have the long-sought and the long-fought victory At that time there is the bitterness of despair What is that? Their five sons are killed And at that point it’s a heart-shattered victory So then finally Drishti is installed as the king Although it’s a hollow victory In English the word is pyrrhic victory Pyrrhic victory means where the victory seems to at least cost more than what it wins What is got by it and is not as much as what is lost for getting it So then Krishna is about to depart And as Krishna is about to depart Kunti rushes out Krishna is on his chariot And Kunti is on the ground near him And she offers this prayer There are a whole series of prayers that she offers Now she knows at one level Krishna is about to go And her heart is torn In devotion there are two distinct we could say drives One is a devotee has, a devotee is an individual As an individual a devotee has one’s own inspiration About how they want to serve Krishna At the same time the devotee also has the desire to submit to Krishna’s will as an expression of devotion and surrender That means that Krishna I accept your will And whatever you want me to do I will do it for your sake On the other side Krishna this is what I want to do for you Now both are aspects of devotion And so Kunti Maharaj at one level she feels that my dear lord I want you to stay, I want you to stay here I don’t want you to go That’s the mood in her heart But at the same time she doesn’t want to interfere with the lord’s plan And as she is caught in this tension Her heart goes deeper Generally whenever there is a tension between two ways of thinking Two ways of wanting to function Either that tension can cause something to snap Two people want to do things in different ways And then just go apart Or if you don’t want it to snap You have to go deeper So what is it that you really want? Somebody says let’s hold this programme Somebody says no no don’t hold this programme right now What do both of us actually want? We ultimately want to serve Krishna, we want to glorify Krishna Now this can be between two devotees But it can be within one devotee also this tension So what should I do? So should I just submit to Krishna’s will? Or I want to do something for Krishna What do we do? We go deeper So Kunti Maharaj goes deeper And she says what is it that I really long for? What are the moments that I treasure the most in my life? The moments that I treasure the most Are the moments when I experience Krishna’s presence There is a difference between Krishna’s presence And experiencing Krishna’s presence Duryodhana saw Krishna Krishna was present in front of Duryodhana In the assembly when Krishna had gone as a peace messenger But he did not, Duryodhana did not experience Krishna’s presence So Krishna’s presence is experienced When we realise the irrelevance, the insignificance Of everything that is These things don’t matter What matters is Krishna and Krishna alone And Kunti Maharaj says That experience I got When I went through distresses Vipada, Santuta, Shashvat Vipada So many times when you experience calamity It was at that time That I felt your presence the most Our consciousness can be caught in so many things I want this, I don’t want that But sometimes we realise none of these matter That is sometimes when such a big catastrophe comes upon us That all our calculations of what I should do, what I should not do Is just revealed as inconsequential So adversity helps us to sense Krishna’s presence Because adversity helps us to see The futility of focussing on other things That is Kunti Maharaj’s prayer Right now actually a catastrophic war has ended And hopefully there will be a period of comfort and safety for them ahead And when this period of comfort and safety is about to start Kunti Maharaj is saying that Let these calamities come again and again Why is she praying this? Because in those calamities she will experience Krishna’s presence Of course Krishna’s presence Can be experienced independent of calamities also But she is praying that this is when I have experienced Krishna’s presence the most Therefore this is what I want to do Am I audible? Or is there any problem? Very audible and very clearly visible Wonderful, thank you Okay, thank you So the context is this The content is this extraordinary request Whatever increases my capacity to experience your presence Let that happen And what is the consequence of this prayer? It is quite intriguing It is said that Krishna smiles at Kunti Krishna smiles at Kunti that entrancing smile That can captivate the whole world So that smile indicates that Krishna has accepted Kunti’s Kunti’s devotional offering Krishna has understood her heart And accepted the offering of her heart This is So rather than There is no problem and Kunti is praying for problems But she is not praying for problems She is praying for that which will give her the presence of the Lord So we can also look in our life What are the situations? What are the stimuli? Which give us the presence of the Lord Which make us feel the presence of the Lord the most And we pray for those situations Those stimuli in our lives And bhavato darshanam yaksha apunar avadarshanam That is Kunti’s prayer This is the eighth chapter of the first canto Then we go to the next chapter And the next chapter is a very different setting Here in this particular, in the eighth chapter Kunti is standing and Krishna is on his chariot Whereas in the next chapter The person offering the prayer is lying down And Krishna is standing It is odd that normally we stand in front of a respectable person And that person is comfortably seated But this is an extraordinary setting This is the situation of Bheeshma Pitamah Bheeshma is lying on a half bed And again the three point framework Context, content and consequence So the context is Bheeshma had iksha mrityu He could leave his body whenever he wanted And on the tenth day When he fell Because of the combined attack of Arjuna and Shukrini It was excruciatingly painful to have Hundreds of arrows piercing through his body It’s one thing to have an arrow Piercing through the body But when that arrow itself forms the bed for you That means our whole body weight is resting on those arrows And these arrows are constantly piercing So it’s not just a one time wound But it’s a constant pain Why did Bheeshma choose To not adopt To not utilise the The blessing of iksha mrityu And immediately depart from the world He did not because He wanted to see Krishna’s pastime coming to a conclusion He wanted to see Dharma and bhakti becoming victorious And from within the heart Krishna inspired him that you have one more service remaining And that service was that Yudhisthira who had become disheartened And Bheeshma spoke to him And Bheeshma restored his morale And that warrior who was apparently defeated By somebody far younger to him Arjuna defeated Bheeshma But Krishna gave Bheeshma the supreme glory Showing although you are a Kshatriya You might have been defeated at the level of a Kshatriya But you are not just a Kshatriya You are also a Pandita You are such a great scholar That where all the greatest sages of the world were defeated That they couldn’t persuade Yudhisthira You were able to persuade him So Krishna wanted to hang Hang this supreme glory to his devotee Before he departed And as Krishna inspired Bheeshma from within his heart To live on And now that has been done And then after that Bheeshma is about to depart So then when he is about to depart he offers some prayers So let’s look at one of the prayers that he offers This is 1938 This is very difficult to recite so I will only recite it So he is saying my dear lord Among all the prayers that have been offered in history This is one of the most extraordinary prayers Normally nobody thinks of God in an adversarial role We don’t think of God as our opponent, God as our enemy But he is not only thinking about God in that role But he is relishing that That is one of his last memories So he is thinking My dear lord I remember That how my arrows When I shot them at you The fight was so fierce That your hair became scattered Your forehead was covered with sweat and with blood Bheeshma’s arrows were aimed for Arjuna Some of the arrows went and hit Krishna And Krishna was wounded So the devotee Has caused wounds to Krishna And then what has happened First of all Bheeshma said how can a devotee wound Krishna That itself is extraordinary But not only that Next thing is Prasabham abhisasar madhavadhartham Atatainome That you oh lord Started charging toward me like an aggressor And madhavadhartham You came to kill me In a prasabham Furious uncontrolled way The word prasabham is used in the Bhagavad Gita To talk about how the senses can be wild That prasabham That The senses can wildly drag a person away So here similarly Krishna is so wild Uncontrollable with anger He is charging and he says That lord is the lord I want to meditate on That is the lord That lord is the giver of meditation He says let my consciousness flow toward that lord So it’s interesting Our Acharya described that Bheeshma Has actually more or less closed He is beholding the lord But he is also entering into internal consciousness So he is offering prayers to Krishna But he is also seeing Krishna as the ultimate reality And thus his prayers are not just in the second person They are in the third person May that lord May that lord Be the object of my meditation Let my consciousness flow toward him So this is a This illustrates something very Revealing Normally when problems are there in the world How do we see those problems So one vision Kunti says is Let the problems come but I’ll remember you So the problems are here Krishna is here When the problems come we focus on Krishna more and more The other vision is That Krishna himself comes as the problems upon us When that happens How can here Krishna has come to attack And Krishna has come to kill him How does that how do we see that Actually Bhishma understands that whatever the lord does Is supremely auspicious Whatever he does is for our ultimate goal And if he is coming as an aggressor That is his leela And let him come as an aggressor But I simply want to remember you oh lord In fact if you consider During the moments during our final moments What would we want to remember It is actually the things that we treasure the most about our life Those which are the most cherished moment That’s what we would want to remember And here he is talking about those moments One such moment he says my dear lord You When you came as an aggressor toward me I cherish that memory let me remember that So the Bhagavatam operates at a different level of reality At a practical level of reality Krishna was coming as an aggressor With a chakra to behead Bhishma But Bhishma was seeing at another level Although this chakra is coming But beyond that It is Krishna has come Krishna is coming to deliver me So although my body will be destroyed My soul will be elevated My soul will be liberated So as the Bhagavatam shows We when we have distresses coming in our lives We cannot afford to let our vision be reduced to that distress alone Now why is the distress coming Is Krishna coming as a distress It is very difficult for us to see that way But we don’t let our vision get reduced to that distress We see beyond that Ultimately Krishna has a distress may come and hit my body But through it my soul will rise toward Krishna And that is what is most important So a vision of God as an aggressor Is cherished because by that vision The extraordinary nature of the relationship between Krishna and Bhishma In the mood of valour Of fighting That is relished And through that the absorption of the Lord will come And through that Bhishma may transcend material existence So that is what is the consequence of this prayer It is said that after offering this prayer Bhishma just becomes silent Just becomes silent That means he actually departs from this world And attains the eternal infinite spiritual world So here there is not so much a prayer that Krishna change something at the material level But Krishna grant him absorption And Krishna does provide him that absorption So there is no prayer that let death not come upon me Or let the pain go away No it is just let me be absorbed in your Lord And through that absorption there is liberation that comes So that is the second prayer Now we could go over all the characters But I am specifically talking about certain characters Whose prayers display something revealing Especially revealing for us So now let us go to the 6th canto of the Shilambhagavatam Where there is There is Prithrasur who is offering prayers So this is a well known prayer And if possible you can recite it with me Ajatapakshaiva ma dharamkhagaha Ajatapakshaiva ma dharamkhagaha Sanyam yatha vatsatarah sudarthaha Sanyam yatha vatsatarah sudarthaha Sanyam yatha Then Priyam priyeva vishutam vichanna Priyam priyeva vishutam vichanna Mano aravenla chididrukshate tvam Mano aravenla chididrukshate tvam So here Prithrasur is praying My dear Lord Ajatapakshaiva It’s like a newly born bird Longs for his mother to come and give him food Sanyam yatha vatsatarah sudarthaha This is a baby he holds that Just as a baby cow A cow holds on to the cow’s udder So that it can get milk Or just as a lover longs for her beloved to return Similarly my dear Lord My mind, my heart longs to be united with you So this prayer itself is So sweet and moving Drawing such intimate metaphors from nature Metaphors describing intimate love But what is significant is Who is offering this prayer It is a demon It is Prithrasur Now Prithrasur was such a ferocious demon That when he charged on to the battlefield The soldiers on the side of the demigods were terrorised And they just dropped their weapons and fled He could just charge upon them and crush them under his feet And in fact the very name Prithrasur indicates He was so large that it would appear as if he has covered the whole sky And nothing can be seen apart from him He was a giant demon And he is fighting the final battle of his life And not only is he fighting the final battle He is actually losing the battle Prithrasur’s pastime is extraordinary To depict how spiritual wisdom can arise In the most unlikeliest of settings The Bhagavatam will describe later Because the curiosity of Parishad Maharaj will be intrigued How did this demon offer such prayers And then his previous life will be told afterward As Chitraketu Maharaj The point is Chitraketu was cursed by Parvati Devi Because of a misunderstanding And she became a demon And when he was a demon He was acting just like a demon And in this particular chapter itself His mood changes drastically Initially he is furious with Indra And he tells Indra You are a Gurugana You are a Brahma Gana You are a Bratra Gana That you are the killer of your Guru The same person was performing Yagya for you You killed him You killed a Brahmana And you killed the one Who was my brother And therefore I will kill you And then on your corpse When I perform the last rites of my brother I offer water Then I will attain peace So it is brutal Kshatriya revenge seems to be there over there And in fact When he attacks Indra so fiercely Indra feels I can’t fight against this person And Indra becomes rejected So Rudrasura says come on He says fight and He says you have So at one level first he is saying I am going to kill you But when he sees Indra paralysed He says you fight And he says don’t you know that you have this weapon This From the Dvijji’s remains By the Vishnu’s arrangement This weapon is going to kill me Don’t you have faith Shoot this weapon and kill me And then suddenly He actually instructs Indra And after instructing Indra Then suddenly his vision shifts So there are dramatic shifts in his consciousness Not just shifts Quantum leaps in his consciousness First the Kshatriya warrior I am going to destroy you Then when he is not ready to fight He tells Indra Have faith in Vishnu Vishnu has a plan Vishnu has given you this weapon Shoot their weapon and kill me Kill me Who will ever tell an enemy like that Kill me Usually a warrior may tell an enemy that Come on fight And I will destroy your pride Sometimes you may want to fight So that it will be thrilling Some excitement will be there Kill me He is boosting that morale He will do something like that And after that Then although he is on the war field Suddenly it’s almost as if Ritrasir is not on the war field Ritrasir starts speaking with the lord It’s as if he is directly sensing the presence of the lord And he is offering prayers So Indra is stunned What’s happening over here First he is stunned Who is this enemy who is so powerful That my best weapons don’t work against him Then he is asking who is this person Who is speaking such profound wisdom to me And then he starts thinking Who is this person who is Who is in the working field but not in the battle field So here It’s in the roughness of war That The tenderness of his heart is being revealed And with that tender heart he is offering prayers To even think of sentiments like this For a warrior Accustomed to brutal fighting And to blood and gore To even think of Just like a baby bird longs for the mother Just like a calf longs for a cow These metaphors are themselves so sweet How does one think of such metaphors It’s because Whatever be the outer Hurly burly Whatever be the Toughness of life Externally The heart is tender internally So for Vritrasur When there is that imminent Confrontation with death At that time The spiritual impressions from the past life Just awaken They awaken And when they awaken He is thinking I just don’t want to live I don’t want to live I want to leave I want to attain you oh lord And thus he offers his prayer That I want to come to you So he is praying That Indra has got this weapon which will kill me Let him not kill me He is not saying let me kill him He is praying I just want to come to you So for us When we are practising bhakti Sometimes life is stuck externally Sometimes Actually life is always stuck But sometimes the toughness becomes Very evident The varnishings that are there around The toughness of life The problems of life They are uncovered And then you can see life in its In its naked brutality So when that happens What do we do? At that time we need to Persevere And how do we persevere? By remembering that Ultimately our heart’s relationship with the lord Is what matters So in bhakti When we are practising bhakti In the material world We need a tough skin We need a tough hide But within that tough skin We need to have a tender heart Although we may be in the midst of the world Sometimes Doing big things And fighting big battles Sutras demonstrates how the heart can be kept tender So This is something Which is a very special Blessing of the lord And it’s a special aspiration of the heart Especially It’s so easy When we are just functioning At the practical level And because we are living in the world And we are serving in the world We do have to have practical calculations Okay this person is doing this wrong This person is doing this right This person is just not responsible enough Sometimes we have to make the judgments at the practical level But We can’t afford To let that be our vision alone So Prabhupada When he was When he would preach he would speak strongly To Protect Protect devotees from getting Any kind of misconception And sometimes he spoke strongly even against his god brothers Because He didn’t want his disciples To get confused Because he gave them some instruction And god brothers gave them some other instruction They got confused and they would just give up the practise So he spoke strongly sometimes against his god brothers Also to protect his disciples But During his last days when Prabhupada Was in Vrindavan At that time He folded his hands His god brothers came to meet him during his last days He folded his hands as much as he could In his weak condition and he said that You know I beg forgiveness from all of you For the sake of preaching so many things That have been spoken But he said you are all venerable Vrindavan’s And I seek forgiveness from you So for us We can also pray For the tenderness of the heart Which Vritrasur is demonstrating And Again what is the Result of this prayer Vritrasur’s prayer Result is that Vritrasur He becomes absorbed in the lord And Indra comes to attack him And Indra attacks And when Indra comes to attack Vritrasur simply swallows him And Indra has to Fight and fight from inside To break through Vritrasur’s tough body and come out But By that time Vritrasur is already departed from the world He is absorbed in the lord And he has attained the lord So again we see that the material Adversity is not It is not Avoided But What has happened is it is transcended By the prayer that is offered to the lord So this is Vritrasur’s prayer So Let’s move on to the Canto now Celebrated prayers Which probably many of us will discuss More now that Shri Krishna is going to come soon So again A well known prayer from the 9th canto Chanting Prahlad Maharaj is offering prayers And among all the prayers in the Bhagavatam This is among the At least the prayers that we have discussed This is the only prayer which is offered Where there is no imminent danger. If we discuss all the prayers till now, there is great danger, there is great distress.
Whereas this is a prayer that is offered when there is great celebration. Of course, what is the celebration? That Lord Narasimhadev has appeared and delivered, destroyed Hiranyakashyapu and of course delivered him. And now Prahlad is emerged not just as a survivor but as a victor, as a glorious devotee.
So there is of course some danger, some apprehension because Narasimhadev is furious. However, Narasimhadev’s fury is not about Prahlad. The Acharyas explain that when the Devatas offered prayers and quite beautiful prayers to Narasimha, why was the Lord not satisfied with the prayers? Because the Lord doesn’t want to just see prayers, he wants to see actions.
So Lord Narasimha said that when my devotee Prahlad was being persecuted, you neither protected him nor did you protest about it. No protection, no protect. He didn’t protect, didn’t protest.
So now you are trying to please me with your prayers. I am not going to be pleased by your prayers. So then Brahmaji sends Prahlad himself and Prahlad offers prayers and immediately the Lord who is like a fierce lawyer and becomes like a gentle pussy cat, so sweetly purring and he blesses Prahlad on his head by touching him and the Lord becomes so peaceful and joyful.
Just from the first prayer that Prahlad starts offering, it’s a dramatic transformation. And as Prahlad continues offering his prayers, what happens? It moves on and it’s amazing that he is, there is no, in none of the prayers is there any kind of celebratory or exultant tone that I did this, I stood strong and I ensured that the tyranny of Hiranyakashipu has ended and now I am perfectly happy. All that he says instead is that my dear Lord, I am, that he is simply, humbly, permanently, purely praying to the Lord and that is the extraordinary nature of Prahlad’s prayers.
In this particular prayer, what does he say? That now Prahlad is not thinking, my dear Lord, the Lord is going to make me the successor of the king and I will be the king. No, he is thinking that I was born in a demoniac family and I have demoniac association, how will I be able to transcend it? How will I be able to attain liberation? And then he remembers what he himself did. He starts thinking that, okay, what I did just now, at the same thing I can continue in future also.
And what was it that he did? Now he knows that he is going to be enthroned as the king and all the royal pomp and prosperity will come upon him. And how will he resist that temptation? He says that I will not think about my pleasure or my trouble. I will think about glorifying you and purifying others.
So, I am not agitated about how I will get out of this world. The world can be obstructed in two ways. One is through temptations, the other is through tribulations.
Temptation, oh there is so much enjoyable, why do you want to give up this world? Tribulations, oh there is so much trouble, how can you even turn towards God? You have to address these troubles first. So, in the past, Prahlad had so many tribulations. His teachers were chastising him, his father had himself sent assassins to try to assassinate him and his father himself tried to assassinate him.
So, he says that how did I overcome all this, all that, how did I overcome? Vadbirgayan Mahamrita Magna Chittaha. Vadbirgayan, I sang your glories, oh Lord. And Mahamrita, in glorifying you, there is so much nectar.
Magna Chittaha, my consciousness is completely absorbed in you, oh Lord, and being absorbed in you, Magna Chittaha, I just don’t feel that there is any difficulty of transcending the material world. So, he realises this absorption in the Lord by which he was able to resist the world’s tribulations, by that same thing he will be able to resist the world’s temptations also. So, although at a material level there is no danger for Prahlad, Prahlad is thinking the danger is, oh I will get power and prosperity, that will become a danger for me.
He says no, if I can absorb myself in glorifying you, then there is not a danger for me. Vadbirgayan Mahamrita Magna Chittaha, Magna Chittaha. And then he says further, what happens? Chotchetato Bhimukha Chetra Sati Niyarthan, that this glorifying you is such a nectar, but as compared to that nectar, everything else seems insignificant.
In fact, not only does it seem insignificant, it seems like a burden, the pleasures of this world. And normally, when we see say people partying or enjoying, we may think, oh I can’t do this, I am not able to do that. So, we feel as if we are missing something.
But a devotee who has got taste for glorifying Krishna, the devotee doesn’t feel, oh I am missing that. Rather, a devotee feels that those who are pursuing sense objects, oh they are missing Krishna. What are they pursuing? They are getting some pleasure, but there is so much trouble in that.
Maya Sukhaya Bharam, it’s a big burden. Pujvato Bhimudam. So, Prahlad is thinking, that just as before, when he was in his Gurukul, he was simply glorifying the Lord, but it was not narcissistic kind of glorification, self-centred, concerned about one’s own elevation.
He was glorifying the Lord in a way that could attract and elevate others. Who were the others? His fellow students. So, he says, now I will use the source of the state and do the same thing.
So, all the people who are ignorant, let me elevate them. So, we want to glorify the Lord, but we want to glorify the Lord in a way that purifies and elevates others. And that is actually the responsibility of a devotee who wants to do any kind of outreach.
Prabhupada said that his purports were his devotional ecstasies. Sometimes if we read his purports, we may feel that he is speaking basic philosophy or he is refuting misconceptions. He is not speaking so much devotional things.
He of course speaks a lot of devotional things. But sometimes we may feel, when we compare the volume of what he has written, that the basics are a lot. Prabhupada’s ecstasy was not just in going off into some other realm, thinking about Krishna and Vrindavan.
Prabhupada’s ecstasy was in considering what are the misconceptions that obstruct people from coming to Krishna and how I can remove these misconceptions. That was Prabhupada’s compassion. So, his ecstasy was not in what gives me ecstasy, but in what will give Krishna ecstasy.
What will give Krishna ecstasy is to see souls come closer to him. So, to have the obstacles that stop souls from coming to him be removed. And Prabhupada’s purports try to do that.
So, we glorify the Lord in a way that purifies others. And in fact, this is something which we all can do, especially in a situation like this. We think of, in this situation, how to cross over the Vaitarani Ocean, Vaitarani River, which is the river that blocks the material and spiritual worlds.
Now, how will we ever cross over this Corona Ocean? When will this crisis end? How will we cross over it? But if we can actually absorb ourselves in glorifying the Lord, we will find that, in that glorification, in our own glorification, especially if we try to glorify the Lord in a way that can help us, definitely, we will find that we will get an absorption that will lead us to… So, this is Prahlad’s prayer. Now, we go to the 8th Canto. There is another dramatic prayer offered by Gajendra.
jīviṣe nāhaṁ ihaṁ yākiṁ jīviṣe nāhaṁ ihaṁ yākiṁ antar bahiṣṭhā vṛtebhyayoniya antar bahiṣṭhā vṛtebhyayoniya icchāmi kālena nayasya vṛtlavas icchāmi kālena nayasya vṛtlavas tasyātmalokā vṛnasya mokṣaṁ tasyātmalokā vṛnasya mokṣaṁ So, here is jīviṣe nāhaṁ ihaṁ yākiṁ I do not desire to live, O Lord, antar bahiṣṭhā vṛtebhyayoniya that in this world, external and internal I have come covered by ignorance. icchāmi What do I desire then? kālena nayasya vṛtlavas I desire the destruction mokṣaṁ the liberation from that which is not destroyed by time. tasyātmalokā vṛnasya lokāvartha that which covers my consciousness the ignorance of material existence may that be destroyed.
So, that is his prayer over here. So, again let’s look at the same three three level application that context, content and consequence and this is an instructive prayer for many of us but because the prayer doesn’t start as a pure devotional prayer prayer becomes, it starts as a circumstantial prayer and then it becomes a transcendental prayer. Circumstantially what has happened? Gajendra was living prosperously he was enjoying life, he was powerful, he was prosperous and he had come to take a bath in the river, the lake below the Trikuta mountain and so all all regal opulence and prosperity surrounding him and suddenly this crocodile came and caught him.
You know, most of us most of us and the world we live in has been similarly caught by this crocodile of the coronavirus most unexpected and initially when it came we thought hey, it’s just some epidemic in some remote part of the world most of us probably had not even heard the name Wuhan before this. It will come, it will stay, it will go I don’t have to bother about it but I was in Australia at that time and I also thought that okay it is there I gave some classes while in Australia but I didn’t think that I’ll have to I had to do anything about it but then from Australia I went to New Zealand and things started becoming more and more extreme then I had to cut down my tour and come back to India otherwise I would have been locked there so initially when the problem came we thought it might be a small problem somewhere but then it just Gajendra thought that hey, this is a crocodile I can just toss it off and he tried to toss it off he couldn’t toss it, he tried to crush it, he couldn’t crush it crocodile is a tough shell so what do you do, what did he do at that time he fought and fought and fought and then he realised I can’t do anything so then he turned and prayed to the lord now initially the prayer was because I can’t win this I can’t win this battle on my own so let me pray to the lord but as he was praying to the lord the praying itself is purifying sometimes you guys may feel that oh if I have some material problem should I pray for the resolution of that material problem the point is that a devotee doesn’t make it a habit as Prabhupada said you don’t want to trouble the lord by pestering for give me this remove this from my life, remove that from my life a devotee’s mood is I want to serve the lord I don’t want to trouble, I don’t want the lord to serve me so in that sense a devotee’s mood is that we don’t trouble the lord by repeatedly requesting him this or that at the same time we have a relationship with the lord or at least we want to have a relationship with the lord and that means Gajendra’s prayer started as I am in trouble I need some help, whom do I turn to for help his prayer initially starts of a circumstantial prayer or rather a prayer for relief from the circumstantial situation but then as he keeps praying the philosophy that he had learned the spiritual impressions that he had acquired in his previous life as the king Indrajumna, they all came back to him and thus as the prayer progresses more and more and more it becomes more and more spiritually evolved and there is no such prayer he says my dear lord please help me get rid of this crocodile, rather he says in this prayer actually what I want you to free me from is from the material existence itself he says right now I am caught by this crocodile and that’s why I am praying to you but I realise even before that I was caught by something what was I caught by, I was caught by the crocodile material ignorance of my sins of maya and one crocodile has made me feel how uncomfortable I am, how miserable I am other crocodile had caught me and made me think how comfortable and how happy I am how prosperous and how successful I am but both of them are these crocodiles he says just by the linear passage of time spiritual realisation won’t come the linear passage of time in the horizontal domain doesn’t lead to any spiritual realisation for spiritual realisation to come there has to be conscious effort so my dear lord his mood in saying here is oh that circumstance was comfortable I didn’t remember you, now this circumstance is terrible I am remembering you now if you free me from this then again the circumstance will become comfortable and again I will forget you so I don’t want the disagreement this ignorance will not go away just by the passage of time and change of circumstance ignorance is what needs to go away and that ignorance my dear lord will go away by your mercy so please lord have mercy on me I do not wish to live in this ignorant body in this material existence so it is a prayer for liberation from material consciousness not from a particular material danger and we all hope that this crisis will get over and go back to our life life returns to normal but actually do we want our life to simply return to normal or do we want our life to get a higher consciousness than what it was normally and if life returns back to normal that’s good if we have been practising bhakti seriously but if not we have not been really connecting with Krishna very seriously we are casual about it then this circumstance will come and it can give us the power to intensify our bhakti but if our prayers are focused on Krishna how will this circumstance end when will it end if that is what impels us to pray that’s good somehow or the other turn towards the lord and pray to him it’s good that we pray but the important thing is that prayers may start from the situation but prayers should not remain stuck about the situation alone beyond the specific problems we have in the material world our being in the material world our being in material consciousness itself is the problem and our prayers can rise up so as Kajendra’s prayers rose so here he is saying I just want to be free from material existence and please free me from that so this is the 8th kanto now we move to the 10th kanto so just a question how much time do we have I have 3 prayers from the 10th kanto or I’ll just go last straight to the prayer from the from the gopika so each prayer may probably take 10 minutes or 10 minutes how do you want me to go ahead we can go easily for another 15 minutes from you would that cover the 3 prayers 15 minutes you think I’ll try to speak them a little briefly then ok thank you so this is a well known prayer 10.14.8 Upadhyay would quote it quite often 10.14.8 Upadhyay would quote it quite often so here Brahmaji’s praying it’s interesting what Brahmaji did was he tried to test Krishna is Krishna really God Krishna is just small cowherd boy is he really God he sets a test but Krishna outwits him then he says my dear lord it’s not my position to test you rather he says every situation the mood of this verse is that my dear lord every situation in life is a opportunity even a distressful situation is actually a test from you to come closer to you so what is the way to pass the test that will come rather than questioning why I am such a good devotee why is this difficulty coming in my life rather he says you see with the eyes of knowledge what is the lord’s mercy the lord’s mercy is not that the difficulty is coming the lord’s mercy is that he is giving us the opportunity to turn toward him amid that difficulty so we can’t be grateful for all situations but we can be grateful in all situations we can’t be grateful for all situations because sometimes situations are terrible what is there to be grateful for in the situation but we can be grateful in all situations how? by not letting our consciousness be caught in that situation alone ok the situation is terrible but there is so much good that came in my life in the past so many things are right in my life right now and by Krishna’s plan something will come in the future which will be good so so whatever I am getting is actually a result of my own choices there are basically two ways to live in this world one way is to think that when problems come that I did something which caused the problems and the world is unfair and brutal and the world is causing these problems to me the second way might seem very easy this person did like this that person did like that so then it seems easy but actually it is just empowering if there is something wrong with the world then what can I do about it I can blame the world but what can I do for fixing it good luck trying to change the world then you just have no power or very very little power to change the world but if there is something which I did wrong if this is in some way a result of that then maybe there is something I can do to fix it so of course what can we do to fix the fix a crisis as big as a global pandemic it’s true we can’t individually do much but each one of us can do at our level so Krishna is present in our hearts and when we turn to him when we turn to him offering our speech our heart, our body in our endeavours all in the mood of surrender of submission of devotion if we just can live like this basically if we can just live non resentfully if we can live devotionally, if we can live gratefully like Krishna said Brahmaji is saying over here if I just live like this my dear lord I will attain nirjiveta yo muktipade sadaiva heart so if we consider this prayer it is offered and he has offended Krishna by taking his cowards boyfriend and cows away from him but now he is offering prayers my dear lord please forgive me please deliver me and if I can just remember lifelong that I want to turn towards you, I want to stay connected with you then I will attain your abode, I will attain muktipada muktipada is the one at whose feet mukti resides, that is the supreme lord I will attain you, I will become my my right in this world nirjiveta yo muktipade sadaiva heart the consequence of this prayer is actually the lord doesn’t do anything, the lord just hears this prayer and he departs, so Brahmaji understands that my prayer has been accepted so here it’s more of a mistake he has done which has led to complications and he is seeking forgiveness for it so even in any situation that we are in we can say, is there something which I have done wrong, is there something which I can fix, if I take responsibility then I can be a part of the change, I can do something better I can do something to improve the situation, if we try according to our capacity, the lord can empower us beyond our capacity also, if we do what we can, the lord will empower us to do what we can’t and then so I will skip the Indra prayers and I will go to the Gopi prayer now so this is 10.31.11 10.31.11 10.31.11 10.31.11 10.31.11 10.31.11 10.31.11 10.31.11 10.31.11 gopis are praying over here again the context and the consequence the context is Krishna played the flute and called the Gopis to come to him to perform Rastila with him and when he came and they came to him they had some sweet interactions and some dalliances but then suddenly Krishna disappeared and actually I have a series in the Gopi Gita each verse we analyse all the verses they are having one unspoken prayer an intense calling of the heart never explicitly say that in any verse but that is what all the verses are saying what is that saying Krishna please come back Krishna has disappeared and the Gopis are saying Krishna so right from the first verse first verse is that the praying Krishna ever since you descended into this world and Vraja has become the lord of fortune because the goddess of fortune has come over here and yet in this abode of fortune where the goddess of fortune resides we are experiencing the supreme misfortune of being bereaved of your association Krishna please come back please come back so that is the Gopis prayer to Krishna and it’s such an extraordinary prayer but because that same prayer is offered from different angles so initially Gopis say Krishna our life is dedicated to you so please come back but in this in this particular verse the Gopis are making an extraordinary extraordinary request what are they saying Krishna when you go to the forest when you go into the forest to graze at that time we start thinking that oh lord your lotus feet are so like a lotus and we oh master we think that what has happened to those lotus feet there are thorns there are pebbles they may pierce your feet and when we think of they piercing your tender lotus feet we feel as if our heart is being ripped apart our heart is being ripped apart oh lord and therefore we can’t bear it Krishna please come back so they’re saying Krishna not there thinking that because of us because of becoming upset with us you’re going to the forest and thus we are causing pain to you and that’s why we then our actions are causing pain to you we can’t bear it Krishna please come back and later verse Krishna you come back we will comfort your lotus feet by placing them on our bosoms how the Gopis themselves know just a few verses earlier they have said Krishna you dance on Kalia the Gopis are in a poetic way they are saying Krishna you offer these lotus feet to Kalia who is such an envious snake if you offer those to him those feet to us but the point is they know that Krishna danced on Kalia and Kalia was a deadly demoniac snake and if Krishna’s feet Kalia’s hundreds of hooves were simultaneously try to bite him then those feet how are they going to be hurt by just some twigs or some thorns it’s not how love thinks now for love even the smallest discomfort of the object of love is big and unbearable the Gopis are saying Krishna please come back it will no longer be in pain here the mood of the Gopis prayer is that not that we are in we are devastated it is true that they are devastated because Krishna has gone away from them it’s the Gopi situation is actually most extreme of all situations all these characters we discussed among them Gopis are considered the topmost devotees why because the Gopis they gave up everything for Krishna and then Krishna gave them up and it is unimaginably unbearable Gopis gave up everything and Krishna called them to the forest and that time the Gopis gave up everything and came to Krishna and though they came to Krishna giving up everything what happened Krishna gave them up Krishna left them all alone so it’s kind of rejection if we are in a particular relationship one person rejects us we get shaken by it’s even more difficult to face rejection from the world itself but sometimes it may happen that we may reject the world so that we can turn toward the Lord of the world but when we reject the world and turn toward the Lord and the Lord rejects us apparently how do we continue at that time in Narada Bhakti Sutra it said and also Bhishma Pudam also said that love is really test the test of love is that it doesn’t break so if anybody has a justification for turning away from God the Gopis had the ultimate justification Krishna we gave up everything for you and what have you done you have given us up in a very literal sense the Gopis are all alone in the forest and there is no one over there they came only for Krishna and Anandavan temple describes how the Gopis when they came they came and Krishna disappeared and they started frantically searching for Krishna they were searching here there and they went deep into the Vrindavan forest it was night it was Sharad Purnima it was the moon was there but as they went deeper and deeper into the forest it was so thick and the Gopis look at their own hand they couldn’t see their hand the darkness was so much when they realised we can’t find Krishna simply by searching for him then they came out of the forest and sat on the banks of the Yamuna and that is where they all offer this prayer so if anybody has a justification for giving up devotion the Gopis had a supreme justification they tried and Krishna just abandoned them they sacrificed everything for Krishna and Krishna just gave them up. These prayers where Krishna entered deepest into their hearts and the end of these prayers is that Krishna comes back and there are very sweet dalliances between Krishna and Krishna this is one chapter, this is 31st chapter, 33rd chapter the rasa dance to perform.
So this prayer invokes the presence of Krishna. Now of course 40th chapter Akrura will come and Krishna will depart so the Gopis prayer it gets Krishna back but again Krishna leaves the point is externally Krishna may or may not be there with us but in the very act of praying to Krishna the Gopis and Radha Rani in one prayer says that this is in the Padya Vali that Krishna when you are present I see you at one place but when you are away I prefer your absence to your presence that is the mood of intense devotion of intense love. So for us in the material world we all when we try to practise bhakti we do some sacrifices we give up some pleasures we sometimes have to code the displeasure of some of our family some of our relatives some of our society itself may be against our devotional values and we sacrifice we sacrifice certain things for Krishna but then when difficulties come upon us we think Krishna I am sacrificing so much and I don’t want anything but I just only want you but even going to you seems to be difficult.
We may do something amid this crisis we can’t even go to the temple and we go to the temple and sometimes in the temple itself it may happen that danger comes upon us sometimes infection comes upon us we say Krishna I did all this for you and this is what I am getting in return but no what we are getting in return is an opportunity for deeper absorption in Krishna. Circumstantially what happens in the material world is temporary but what that circumstance that can have eternal result what it causes to happen in our heart if the circumstances make us turn toward Krishna the connection with Krishna the experience of Krishna that we develop again at that time that can be our enduring asset after circumstance changes the same intensity may not be there but even once we experience that intensity the memory of that intensity will stay in our hearts and that memory will pull us again and again toward that deeper intensity again to experience it again and that’s how ecstatic absorption in him pulls us toward him. So adversity is an opportunity to gain the intense experience of Krishna and thus propel ourselves toward him.
Krishna disappeared from the gopis externally but he entered deeper into their hearts and similarly for each one of us Krishna can enter deeper into our hearts to whatever adversity we might face in our lives and that is the Bhagavatam’s culmination. Even when we are rejected by God we stay connected with God. The gopis keep praying Krishna please come back please come back and they kept their devotions glory is that it survives even rejection by God and of course we will never be tested to that extent but whatever be the test that we have if we can remember the mood of the prayers of the various of the gopis and of the various Bhagavatam characters then by understanding that mood we can see that our situation is neither that difficult as theirs were but neither is it that different beyond the specifications the kind of problems that we are facing are somewhat similar.
We can try to recite their prayers if possible remember their prayers and internalise that mood of prayer and thus whatever be our circumstance the circumstance can from circumstance to transcendence our journey can happen through prayers. So I will summarise I spoke today on the topic of praying so normally or in conventional religion I think for us either give us something desirable or avoid something undesirable. In bhakti prayer is seen as a means to connect deeper with the Lord to increase our attraction to him not so much to get him to do some things for us.
In among prayers as understood conventionally and in terms of Bhagavatam we discussed seven examples of prayers. I talked about Kunti’s prayers because it is not just the presence of Krishna that leads to the experience of Krishna it is the realisation of the significance of other things that leads to the experience of Krishna. So difficulties make me realise that everything else that I value so much it is not that valuable.
Krishna alone is valuable therefore let the difficulties come thereby I will remember you, I will experience you. Bhishma prays that my dear Lord that I remember you as the form in which you are attacking me. So although external Lord is attacking him that attack is an expression of an extraordinary flavour of devotion that they had and Bhishma sees in that attack of the Lord the triumph of devotion and thus he remembers that and he is praying my dear Lord please let me remember you even if externally you are coming as an attacker toward me let my consciousness go toward you internally and thus I may attain you.
Then I talked about Sutrasa that although there is extraordinary toughness in terms of externally he is a warrior fighting on a battlefield internally he is offering tender love of his heart just as a baby bird waits for a mother bird let me, I long for you Lord. So for him although externally he was in demoniac form and he was acting in a demoniac way but that situation stimulated the remembrance from his past life of who he was and his consciousness rose from treating Indra as an enemy whom he was going to destroy to seeing Indra as a part of the Lord’s plan to and therefore he encouraged Indra and then his vision shifted completely from Indra to the Lord. So we may have to be tough externally, we have to have, we have to have a tough skin, a thick skin but inside that we need to keep a tender heart.
Then I discussed about Prahlad’s prayers. So Prahlad’s prayer was primarily that my dear Lord now when the prosperity is going to come before me how will I resist, how will I resist that and he says the same way that I resisted earlier the prayer there is please let me become absorbed in your glories. Now we can ourselves become absorbed in his glories but that becomes much more relishable and beneficial when we try to glorify the Lord in a way that benefits others.
So once we start glorifying Krishna then we will not feel that oh this person is having discomfort and this person is having displeasure. No, they are missing this glorification that I have. Let me, let me glorize.
In Gajendra’s prayer I discussed about how the prayer we didn’t start as a pure devotional prayer. We can see prayer also as a means to purification. I can’t defeat this crocodile, what should I do? I pray to the Lord.
But then as he is saying that right now this crocodile has caught me in a vice. Even before this a crocodile of material existence has caught me and that vice is comfortable but still it’s a trap. So please free me from this material existence and the Lord listens to his prayer and liberates him.
In Brahma’s prayer we discussed how although he had committed a mistake he said my dear Lord and you give me, I accept it because it’s my response, it’s my mistake, I accept it. But I want to stay connected with you. I want to stay devoted to you.
So we can live either as the universe is unfair or we are doing something wrong. We are doing, if you consider we are doing something wrong, although it feels good. So if we just stay, whatever happens in the world we stay devotionally connected, then it’s, see actually the Lord as our right daibhav and lastly I talk about the Gopis.
Their example is the topmost because they, pain can come from various ways in this world but then pain comes directly from the Lord. They rejected the world for the Lord’s sake and then the Lord seemed to reject them but still they stayed devoted. So although the Lord seemed to go away externally but internally he went deeper and deeper into their hearts and that is the example of devotion that our tradition has held closest to its heart and we too can pray based on all these examples from circumstances to transcendence, a ladder or elevator can be formed through the activity of praying.
Thank you very much. Hare Krishna. Are there any questions or comments? Thank you so much.
It is as usual an exemplary class. I mean I think you’re just an amazing speaker, not only a speaker but you relate so well and you know you say things so casually but they have so deep meaning. We can’t be grateful for all situations but we can be grateful in all situations and that’s such a profound message that we don’t we take it so lightly.
There are a lot of questions and there are about 203 participants. So if everybody is okay with this I’m going to request that we can extend the session for some time so that we can get our questions answered. So I’m going to start off by asking the question.
This question is from Raj Patel, Prabhu. He says that we know that Krishna loves us dearly and always does what is very best for us. So please can Prabhuji explain the real purpose behind prayer? Okay.
So if we know that Krishna loves us always and does whatever is best for us then what is the need to pray? As I said prayer is not to get Krishna to do something for us. Prayer is to connect us with him. In some ways our human relationships can help us understand the dynamic of our relationship with Krishna also.
Suppose there is some situation where we are facing some difficulty and we just feel it like a big burden and then we just go and speak with someone and that person hears us. They may not be in any position to solve that issue. They may not be in a position to even give us some guidance because that situation is just such a thing that there is very little that we can do.
But just sharing our heart unburdens us. It doesn’t just unburden us but it makes us feel more connected with that person because we have shared our heart. So similarly for us if we see praying as a limb of bhakti so praying is not just to get Krishna to do something because as I said Krishna knows what is best for us.
But the point is praying is to connect with him. And now how do we connect with him? We can connect sometimes we just don’t consider our situation at all and just offer some standard prayers which are given in scripture. That is good.
However we want to invest our emotion also and quite often our emotions are caught in our current situations. Our emotions are not so readily activated towards the transcendental reality unconnected with our immediate situations. So that’s why it’s important that we consider that factor also.
So something is burdening us. We pray to Krishna not so much that he removes that burden for us. That can be a small part of the prayer but the essence is that we connect with him.
And sometimes the circumstance like it happened for Gajendra just in the act of praying our consciousness will rise from circumstantial to transcendental. So praying can help us feel the presence of Krishna even if we don’t practically see a change in the situation but the change in our disposition itself can be consequential also. So broadly I said three things.
Praying helps us to become connected with Krishna so itself raises our consciousness about situations. Second is that praying helps us come closer to Krishna and become more connected with him. So just when we pray to Krishna itself raises our consciousness about our situation and that decreases the burden of the situation on us.
Then praying also connects us with Krishna and that’s why we go closer to him. And third is so it’s from the circumstantial we rise upward, so the circumstances are the burden on us, we rise upward toward Krishna so that we feel connected and attracted to him. And thirdly the more we are connected with him, Krishna can guide us from within.
So Krishna will always do the best for us but we also need to do the best for ourselves. And sometimes that connection with Krishna can give us the calmness, the clarity, the composure by which we can do the best tasks. So in those three ways, elevation, connection and illumination that our consciousness gets elevated, it gets connected by him from within so that we can do our part more judiciously.
That’s how prayer can help us. You added another beautiful point which I can say is number four on the Prahlad Mahaj prayers that we glorify the Lord in a way that purifies others. So just by praying we can glorify others as well and we can purify them.
By glorifying the Lord we can purify them. So that’s a beautiful point. I’m coming to the next question.
This is such a long list but I’m going to go one by one. So this is a question from Ananda Vrindavan Dasi Mataji and I read out the question, My deepest respect unto you. You are an invaluable gem in my life.
I listen to your classes daily. You have helped me so many times, even in my worst of crisis. I feel forever indebted to you.
So that was to you. And the question was, I have a habit to pray only to Krishna, not to other avatars or other guru. Somehow it’s easier for me to be fixed to one person I’m praying.
Should I change that to be more in line with our philosophy not to go straight to Krishna? So if you feel inspired only to pray to Krishna, is that okay or should we pray to others? There is certain amount of individuality in bhakti. And the important thing is to be spiritually connected. So we offer our respects to all the venerable personalities in our tradition.
So it can be our spiritual master, our parampara, acharyas. We are feeling connected with Krishna now. We feel attracted to him.
We feel that we can pray to him. We see that not just because I am so special or I am so pure. But rather we feel connected to all these acharyas.
Everyone who is connected to Krishna, that’s why I’m connected with him. So it’s on special days, say on Govardhan Purnima or Ram Navami. We can put it as special forms of the Lord also.
But there is an Achintya Bhedabhed in this. That all the avatars, all the manifestations of the Lord are ultimately one. So if we are attracted to one particular manifestation, that’s wonderful.
It’s not that we have to stop that and pray to someone else. We see that all these are ultimately one Lord manifesting in different ways, at different levels, to get us connected towards him. So we don’t minimise or disrespect or deliberately neglect the other manifestations of the Divine.
But if we are attracted to a specific manifestation, that’s perfectly fine. We see this in the Chaitanya Chavitamrit. When Lord Chaitanya came to specifically talk about love for Krishna, when Murari Gupta, who is Hanuman, he said, my heart just goes to Ram, it doesn’t go to Krishna.
Or even Anupama, the brother of Upanishad and Goswami said that, I can only pray to Ram, I can’t pray to Krishna. The Lord appreciated their devotion. So that is even for, even in the presence of the Lord, if somebody is attracted towards Lord Chaitanya, somebody is attracted towards Ram and Lord accepts that.
So certainly, whichever manifestation we are attracted to, we see that as the Lord’s mercy. Now as we tap that, we become more and more absorbed in him. The next question is from Rajesh Solanki.
Hare Krishna, in the current pandemic, we have seen the Lord as an aggressor, where devotees have passed away due to COVID-19. So do we see it in the same light as Bhishma, where the body has been destroyed, but soul is achieving a better position? Okay, so in the current situation, when we see that the Lord is aggressor, and devotees are departing because of the infections, like Bhishma, the Lord had said. With respect to this, we have to see what vision is anukul.
In bhakti, anukul is kalpa and pathikul is varjanam. We accept that it is favourable and avoid that it is unfavourable. That means that if the vision that it is Krishna who came in this form, and although the form was painful, the form was distressing, but it is Krishna who came and took us, took the soul to a higher destination.
If that is the vision that boosts our devotion, then we can have that. But if we can’t see Krishna in this form, it becomes too disorienting for us. And we see that material nature will act in a particular way, but beyond the actions of material nature, Krishna acts.
So the material nature acts on the body, Krishna acts on the soul. So there are different ways in which adversity can be seen. Broadly, it is Krishna comes at the adversity.
So Krishna is the cause of the distress, or rather Krishna is the cure amid the distress, or the cure of the distress, or Krishna is the comforter amid the distress. So Krishna is the cure of the distress means, say, in future, when some scientists discover some vaccines or some cure for this, we appreciate their dedication and their intelligence, but we also understand it is Krishna, who has a super soul in their hearts, is giving them that intelligence. So, buddhir buddhim tamasvi.
So Krishna can manifest as the cure. Krishna can also manifest as the comfort, as the shelter, as the inner strength amid the distress. Krishna can be the, we can see Krishna as the cause of the distress also.
So, if you see in the Bhagavatam, although Bhishma is seeing Krishna, he is remembering Krishna in that form, he is also telling Yudhishthira Maharaj, before this particular incident, in the same chapter earlier, he is thinking, you know, what is the cause of your distress? What is the cause of your distress? He says, you had Krishna with you, you had Bhishma also powerful, Bhima also powerful, Arjuna also powerful, Arjuna also an expert archer and Yudhishthira Dharmaraj, how could all this happen to you? So, he tries to give you different reasons and then after that he says, tasya anvihito rajan, tasya anvihito. There Prabhupada translates something very deeply, it is a profound translation, he says, everything is within Krishna’s plan. Prabhupada doesn’t say over there, everything is Krishna’s plan.
What is the difference, everything is within Krishna’s plan, everything is Krishna’s plan? In this world, we all have free will and sometimes some people may misuse their free will and cause some bad things to happen. So, maybe the Chinese government was careless or complacent or did some cover up because of the pandemic spread all over the world. So, that is the incompetence of that government when say Draupadi was being dishonoured.
There is no description in scripture that Draupadi ever saw Krishna coming as Dushasan to pull away her robes. No, there was a horrendous thing happening to her and she saw Krishna not as the cause of the suffering but as the cure of the suffering, he turned away towards Krishna. So, there is, but on the other hand he says, Prahlad Parikshit, Parikshit Maharaj says that Vishnu has come as the snake bird to bite me and to take me towards him.
So, different devotees in different situations can have different visions. So, we have to see what is Anukul. So, everything is within Krishna’s plan means that it is not necessary that Krishna is the immediate cause of a particular suffering.
It might be somebody’s misuse of their free will. Dushasan’s and Duryodhana’s and Karna’s brutality because of which Draupadi has been disrobed. Krishna came as the cure in that situation.
So, we see whatever is the vision that is favourable for our devotion, we adopt that vision. Generally, we see Krishna either as the cure for our suffering ultimately or we see him as the comforter amid that suffering. There is no description, for example, when Prabhupada was walking on the streets of Delhi and a cow came and hit him.
Prabhupada didn’t say that, oh, this is Krishna who has come. Prabhupada later on says that while he was lying on the street, then there was a passer-by who was going on in the car and that happened to be his old acquaintance. Oh, this is Abhay Babu and he took him.
So, that was Krishna’s plan. Prabhupada did not say that Krishna came as that cow. Krishna came as the person who helped him and rescued him at that time.
So, we have to see the vision that is favourable for our devotion and adopt that vision. So, that’s about really having the faith in these words, isn’t it, Prabhupada? So, if we have the faith, then obviously we can see him always as the comforter. I move on to the question about… If we just try to immerse ourselves in the practise of bhakti, it is difficult at that time when some disaster has come upon us.
But in some ways, the potency of bhakti to give us the experience of Krishna is not limited to our faith in Krishna. Naturally, if our faith in Krishna is strong, then we will connect with Krishna quickly and deeply and we will experience it. But even if we have our doubts, even if an atheist comes to a temple and starts hearing the kirtan, the atheist can experience the peace of mind.
So, they may attribute it just to the place and the celebrations or whatever. They may not attribute it to divinity. So, it’s not that faith and experience are two distinct things.
It’s that sometimes faith is there in the beginning and then we practise bhakti and we experience Krishna. Or sometimes we experience Krishna and that inspires us to practise bhakti and then our faith deepens. So, the common element in both of these things is the practise of bhakti.
So, sometimes faith inspires us to practise bhakti and gives us experience. Sometimes experience inspires us to practise bhakti and deepens our faith. But if we just practise bhakti, then both faith and experience will come gradually.
So, Swamiji, I was asking the question about the power of the prayer. And people have some doubts sometimes about whether the power of the prayer actually works. And this question comes from my dear wife, Kirti Radhika Devi Dasi.
The question is, a lot of devotees have prayed for those devotees who fell ill with this virus at the current crisis. Most of them recovered, but some of them left their bodies, sadly. We hear that the prayers worked, but what happened to those prayers which didn’t work? You know that Krishna… Okay.
I just lost you. Are you still there? Last sentence, what do you say? Can you hear me? Yeah. Okay, I’ll repeat the question.
A lot of devotees prayed for those devotees who were ill with virus. Most of them recovered, but some of them left their bodies. When someone got better, we hear prayers worked, but what happened to those prayers which didn’t work? And we know that Krishna does what he does best for us.
But still wanted to know, do our prayers have any or any potency at all? This is from Kirti Radhika Devi Dasi, my wife. Do our prayers have any potency? Because sometimes the prayers seem to work and the devotees recover, sometimes they don’t. Again, we have to see what is the definition for potency of prayers.
There is connecting us with Krishna, connecting others with Krishna. That is one definition of the potency of prayers. The other is that prayers bring about some transformation in this world.
So we see that even for somebody like Prabhupada, in the final days, the devotees were praying that Prabhupada stay on for a longer time. And because of the devotees’ fervent prayers, Prabhupada also agreed and he stayed on. He said, I will stay on and he had initially been fasting, not taking food, started taking food.
But then after some time, again he has deteriorated. A purport that a devotee desires, but a devotee doesn’t demand. If we don’t desire, then where is our devotion? But again, if we demand, then where is our service attitude? Bhakti is devotional service.
That’s why our prayers will always have potency in the sense that if we pray for someone, Krishna sees our prayers and Krishna blesses that person. And Krishna sees our concern for that person and that pleases Krishna. So we also get blessings when we pray for someone because we are expressing our selflessness in some way.
So prayers will always have the potency. But at the level in the material world, whether prayers will necessarily lead to a change, that is something which is ultimately in Krishna’s hand. The Mahabharata describes how Arjuna single-handedly penetrated into the Kaurava ranks and brought down Jaidrath.
Arjuna before that in Virat defeated the entire Kaurava army. But Abhimanyu did not survive. Similarly, Hanuman entered into Lanka and came back alive.
Jatayu, he was fighting against Ravan and it was in Jatayu’s territory. So Jatayu fell over there. The scriptures don’t really guarantee success or protection at the material level.
Because of either the devotional intention of someone or the devotional prayer of someone. But what they guarantee is that if that intention is there and the devotion connection is established through praying, then our consciousness will get elevated. So Abhimanyu attained an auspicious destination.
Jatayu attained an auspicious destination. The Lord himself performed his last rites. So in that sense, if we pray, the results of praying are always auspicious.
Whether those results will be manifested at the material level or not, we can’t always be sure. We can’t know for that for sure. Thank you, Prabhu.
This is a question between, is there a difference on the consequences of the reciprocation of prayers in two different settings? And this is from Shailesh Prabhu. That one set is that the set of prayers offered in distressing, helpless mood. And the other set is prayer offered in a grateful, happy and appreciative mood.
Is there a difference in the potency and reciprocation from these two sets? Okay, good question. Is there a difference in the potency of prayers that happen, that are offered in a distressful, helpless situation or in a comfortable, happy situation? Not necessarily. There are three levels.
You could say there is circumstantial devotion. There is intentional devotion. And there is transcendental devotion.
Circumstantial devotion means, oh, this situation is so much trouble. I can’t bear this, so I pray to Krishna. Transcendental devotion is that the heart is constantly absorbed in Krishna.
Circumstances don’t really matter much to me. Intentional devotion means, it is my intention not to go toward Krishna. It is my intention to connect with Krishna and to become absorbed in Him.
So it is not a transcendental, but it is not just circumstantial also. So essentially we grow spiritually when our devotion becomes intentional. Is it that circumstances can intensify our devotion? Yes, they can, but then the important thing is our consciousness has to rise.
Otherwise, the circumstantial prayer will be there as long as the circumstances are there. And then after that the circumstances go away and then we don’t feel the need to pray anymore. In the Bhagavatam 3rd Canto, there is the description of the child in the womb who prays to the Lord.
And one of the prayers is, I don’t want to come out of this womb because the maya is so strong, I will get trapped over there. But still, the child comes out of the womb. Now, is it that the Lord is not answering the prayer? No.
The point there is, that is a circumstantial prayer. So if we turn towards Krishna when we have no other options, it’s good, at least at that time we are turning towards Krishna. But that is not really a test of love.
It’s like say, a boy and a girl want to have a relationship and the boy approaches the girl and the girl says no. And then the girl afterwards comes back and says yes. Why? Because no other boy is ready to marry me.
Well, okay, that’s not really love. So if Krishna is just an option when no other option is there for us, it’s good that at least at that time we are approaching Krishna. But when other options are there and then we turn towards Krishna, that’s the test that we want Krishna for Krishna’s sake.
Not because we have nowhere else to go to. So the child is given that opportunity when he comes out of the womb. And similarly for us, this is quite a different dynamic.
At one level when Prabhupada was in India, Indians were so crippled by poverty at some level, so distracted by politics at another level, so enamoured by the West and its prosperity. Although Prabhupada was the same pure devotee, Prabhupada didn’t have much effect over there. Now in the West, when Prabhupada went, there was prosperity.
There was so much prosperity that people felt what is the point of this. So it was poverty did not, poverty in some ways made Indians unreceptive and prosperity made Americans receptive. Now is that a universal formula again? No.
It is not that everybody, in India also there were many people who were prosperous. They didn’t turn towards Krishna. For them Krishna was just one part of life, of a pious life, but not as the primary purpose of life.
So this all depends on the individual intention. So depending on how strong is our intention to connect with Krishna, the prayer will have that much potency. And for us, we shouldn’t think that because I am in a comfortable situation, my prayer will not be that effective.
Or because I am in a helpless situation and I have no other option, that’s why I am praying to Krishna. So my prayer will not be effective. At our level, yena kena prakaryena mana krishna nivesh chivit.
For us to offer transcendental prayers, it is much easier for us to have prayers that at least start from a circumstantial level and go towards the transcendental level. That means say, if we need something very much and then we get it. If we need a particular medication, we get the medication.
Or we want a particular admission in a particular college or a particular relationship to work out or whatever. If that works out and that’s why we feel very happy and grateful and that’s what inspires us to pray to Krishna, it’s good. At least we are turning towards Krishna and praying towards Krishna.
So of course we don’t want our consciousness to stay stuck at the material level. But it has to start from somewhere. So that it can, first there has to be expansion of consciousness.
Then there can be elevation of consciousness. I’ll repeat this. Our consciousness is currently caught at the material level.
First our consciousness has to expand from the material to the spiritual level. So the material is there but the spiritual also is there. Then gradually our consciousness will get elevated so that the material will not matter so much.
Our consciousness cannot suddenly just jump to the spiritual level. It has to expand to the material and spiritual level. Like we philosophically may say that I am not the body.
But when bodily pain is there, there is enormous, enormous trouble for us. So the journey toward realising I am not the body begins with realising I am more than the body. My body is important but there is something more also in my life that is important.
So I am more than the body is the expansion of consciousness. And I am not my body, that is the elevation of my consciousness. The body doesn’t matter to me at all.
That is a very advanced stage. So if it’s distress that makes us say we invested a lot in a particular relationship and then that relationship didn’t work out. Now that distress makes us Krishna, you are my only child, I need you.
If the distress is making us go toward Krishna, it’s also good. If a relationship we wanted it worked out and that makes us feel grateful and that makes us go toward Krishna, that’s also good. So basically we want to go from circumstantial toward intentional devotion.
And whichever circumstance makes us go toward Krishna, we accept that and we move forward. Does that answer your question? Thank you very much. And what’s happening is that the amazing amount of messages coming across, obviously glorifying your talk and thanking you so much.
So we just wanted to let the viewers know that if they would go on to the School of Bhakti Facebook page and write their review. This is obviously www.facebook.com slash SO Bhakti slash forward slash. So they can put their reviews or they can go on to this School of Bhakti website and they can put their reviews also.
That will also help us because you can appreciate the School of Bhakti team has done a herculean effort in the last six days to bring this together. Of course, the highest gratitude goes to the speakers like Chitendra and Prabhu who was the first one I contacted and he even did not say a word. No, I don’t think that exists in his dictionary.
He was so graceful to straight away say yes. Prabhuji, are you OK to carry on for a few more minutes because there are so many questions and I think participants don’t want to leave this chat. You have to carry on for a few minutes.
So the next. Sorry, can I go with the questions for you? Yes, we have 10 minutes more. Is that OK? Yeah, sure.
So the next question is from Atma Darshani Dasi Mataji, Hare Krishna, even the Lord. I think you answered this question in terms of the Lord’s and his incarnation so that I will skip that. And then there was this question from.
Yes, from Krishna Kantha Devi Dasi Mataji, I have a question. It seems that the Lord listened to those these devotees prayers as they were said advanced devotees. The prayers that you just enumerated these seven or eight prayers.
So her question is that they listen. Lord, listen to them because they were advanced devotees. How do we know that the Lord is listening to our prayers when we don’t even have a speck of bhakti compared to these devotees quoted? OK, so if we don’t have bhakti, does the Lord listen to our prayers? Does he listen to the prayers of advanced devotees, not ours? There is no such description of what I have seen in scripture that the Lord listens.
Can I just add this other question to this as well? Because it will be the same question that they could handle the calamities like that, but we are not so pure and have so many material attachments. So how do we get the strength to get that, face those calamities? OK. Yeah, so these are slightly different questions.
But let me just complete the first one that I haven’t seen anywhere that the Lord doesn’t hear prayers of those who are not pure. What is true is that the Lord reciprocates with us. So as all people are surrendered, we reciprocate accordingly.
Surrender is not necessarily like a one zero kind of thing. Sometimes even our surrender might be intense and the situations are really difficult for us. So the Lord is present in the hearts of everyone.
God is not present less in the hearts of the godless. He is present even in the hearts of the demoniac, what to speak of those who are devoted but not seriously devoted. There is a beautiful prayer in Pula Shekhar’s prayer.
So he says, my dear mind, don’t worry. Oh, you’ve done so many wrong things and you’re going to get so many bad consequences. You’ll go to hell.
My dear mind, don’t worry about these things. Oh Lord, who is he? He’s the enemy of sin. He’s not only the enemy of sin, the destroyer of sin, but he’s also the Lord of the goddess of fortune.
And then he says, this Lord, that even ordinary people who have really not much interest in him, even they approach the Lord and he fulfils their prayers. Now, how do we know that? Well, we know that millions and millions of people do approach photo temples, photo mosques. Now they must be getting something out of it.
Otherwise, why would they go? So surely at some level, in some ways, their prayers are being fulfilled. So he says, And even for general people, the Lord helps them in that time of distress. And those who are trying to serve him, why will the Lord not excuse their incidental faults? Why will the Lord not forgive them? Therefore, he says, what should you do? Just give up laziness.
Don’t be half-hearted in your devotion. Just be wholehearted. Bhakti is easy.
Don’t complicate it by thinking too much. Oh, I’m a pure, I’m not. Just remember the Lord.
So, our purity is what produces the Lord’s mercy. The Lord’s mercy is independent. And his mercy can come upon anyone.
And we just do our part and the Lord will do his part in whatever way he sees fit. So, now, as far as we not be advanced enough to face the calamities, yes, that is true. And that’s why we need the resources that work at our level.
Like I said, there can’t be elevation of consciousness, but there can be expansion of consciousness. If there can’t be elevation, there can at least be expansion. So, we can see in our situation how best we can move forward in our life.
So, I have a whole seminar on gratitude, which I can’t go into now, but quickly I’ll say that. When something bad happens in our life, it’s very difficult for us to see God’s hand in that bad thing that is happening. But what we can do is we can use an acronym called ACE.
Look for the good around the bad. If this bad thing is happening, this is a terrible disaster. But what are the other blessings in my life? What are the things that are right in my life? So many things can go wrong in so many people’s lives.
And our situation might be bad, but there are so many people whose situation is far worse. So, look for the good around the bad. Then look for the, that’s A. And C is look for the good to counter the bad.
Okay, this is a terrible disease. Okay, but maybe I have health insurance. I’m in a country where the health services are reasonably good.
I have a supportive devoted community around me. I have spiritual knowledge with me. Look for the good, not just the general good in your life, but the specific good that can help you to counter the bad.
And then E is emerge. Look for the good that may emerge from the bad. That’s a difficult situation, but it’s not that the present is permanent.
Present difficulty is there, it will stay for some time and it will go gradually. So, look for the good that may emerge from the bad. That way, when we see that, yes, in our situation also Krishna is providing us some resources to deal with that situation.
Then we won’t feel that helpless. Life is difficult. But if we turn toward Krishna, we get the strength to face that difficulty.
Life’s blows will hit us, but Krishna consciousness can become like a shield. All of the blows will hit, but they will not hurt that much. Oh, Krishna, the difficulties do come.
It’s not easy. The shelter of Krishna and see what Krishna has provided us. And it is easier to be conscious of Krishna and that can decrease the wounds of life.
This is the last question and this is coming from me directly. So we’ve got nine minutes to finish this session, but I would be grateful if you could answer this question. It’s twofold.
What are the components of prayer? That’s the first part. And the second part is when we pray, what should we be experiencing in our own heart? How how does we how do we feel the transformation? Do we feel just the lightening of the burden or do we actually feel anything more than that instantaneously? What should we be expecting and feeling within our heart practically? OK. Now, what should what are the components of prayer and what should we be feeling when we pray? Prabhupada said bhakti basically has three components.
There is bhakta, there is the devotee, there is the expression of devotion and there is an object of devotion. So there is a subject, expression and object. And those three are what are required in bhakti also.
Now, within specific prayer, there can be different components. If we consider Mangalacharan, it is also a prayer, but it is sort of a composition of a book. And then there are certain components in the Mangalacharan.
So broadly speaking, there are two distinct views of prayer. And we see both in our tradition. One is that that prayer is a standardised way of connecting with the Lord and focus on the standardised way and connect with the Lord that way.
That means we look at the prayers of the great devotees in the Bhagavatam or we look at the songs of the Vaishnavacharyas and we pray that way. One advantage of praying that way is also that when we say offer Kunti prayers, the Lord doesn’t just hear our prayers, but our prayers which are a repetition of Kunti’s prayers remind the Lord of Kunti Devi. And that remembrance of the Lord pleases him and softens his heart.
And then that pleasure of pleased description of the Lord also inspires us. I mean, we also get the fringe benefit of that. That’s the prayers are standardised and offer the standardised prayers.
That’s one way of looking at it. The other is the prayers ultimately the way by which the human heart connects with the divine heart. And whatever is the way to do that, we do that.
Prabhupada wrote his own Marthine Bhagavad Dharma when he was offering his prayers to the Lord and confronting the mission of sharing Krishna Bhakti in the West. So depending on individual nature, we may repeat the prayers of the Acharyas or we may compose our own prayers. So usually we will fall somewhere in between.
Sometimes when our own prayers come intensely, we don’t want to hide behind the prayer of Acharyas and not develop and connect our heart with the Lord. But sometimes when there is nothing in our heart at all, then at least having the structure of the prayer of the Acharyas, that can help us. So that way, that interesting component, it can be simply the repetition of Acharya’s prayers or it can be our own prayers.
And with respect to the, if you look at the example of the prayers offered in the Bhagavatam and offered in the Krishna Acharya songs, there is quite a large variety of the moods of the devotees and the specific components of their prayers that will vary. Now what should be the effect of the prayer? There is, our existence is three level, body, mind and soul. So what happens is that any connection with Krishna has always an effect in the spiritual level.
That is the soul becomes awakened. The connection with Krishna awakens the soul. That always happens.
But whether that effect will percolate down to the level of the mind or the body, that will vary. Like we discussed earlier, sometimes we prayed and some devotees got healed. So we could say the prayer’s effect percolated down to the level of the body.
But sometimes they may not. And sometimes similarly the effect of the prayer may not even percolate down to the level of the mind. That means sometimes we might be agitated and we pray and that praying may not lead to calmness.
Why is that? That is because at that particular time our mind might be so much in passion, in Rajoguna or Tamoguna, that the prayer might not seem to have an effect. Like we say, Krishna is like the sun and Maya is like darkness. That is true.
But suppose there is a very thick fog and we turn on a flashlight. Now sometimes the fog might be so thick that the beam of the flashlight doesn’t go more than half a feet or something like that. So sometimes the fog or the smog of Rajoguna and Tamoguna might be too strong.
And the effect might not be there. So I wouldn’t say that immediately when we offer prayers we will feel calm or we will feel enriched. We will feel uplifted.
Those things will happen but sometimes they may not happen immediately. So then we have to have a dynamic balance of, we could say, fixedness. Fixedness means even if I don’t feel anything still I will keep praying.
That is fixedness in the process. But resourcefulness means that our mind is fickle and we have to find some way or the other by which the mind can connect with Krishna. So sometimes, on some days, it may be that one prayer, say, we hear a particular prayer, maybe of Prahlad Maharaj or a particular line from a Vaishnava song and that resonates so much with us.
This is what I want to offer. And every day we might make a devotional offer. But we do that for two days, three days, one week and afterwards we feel, we offer that prayer and then we don’t feel anything.
Then our mind is like a child and if we make it a discipline that, okay, I am going to offer this set of prayers, maybe many devotees now in this particular time are offering Narasimha Kavaccha prayers. It’s good if we can offer that. If you offer those prayers, you might feel enlivened.
He is our protector. He will protect. But sometimes it may happen that although we offer that prayer, we may not feel connected.
If that is happening, then it is better that we have some room for flexibility for accommodating our mind. Because although on faith we understand things are happening at the spiritual level and we have been benefited, but we also want to experience things at a level that we can perceive. So that way we could decide something like maybe for, I am going to offer this prayer every day for a week.
And after a week, if I still feel inspired, I can offer the same prayer. Or we can decide maybe I will offer some other prayer that inspires me. We don’t want to change the prayers.
We are offering one prayer and we don’t feel anything. Halfway we drop the prayer and go to some other prayer. That may not be so advisable.
So we have to have that balance of fixedness and resourcefulness. So that although every time we may not experience the effect of the prayer in terms of the calming of the mind, it shouldn’t be that we never experience it. Because then it will just become like an empty ritual which will become a burden.
And then we will stop doing it. So basically when we connect with Krishna, we start feeling calm, we start feeling clear, we start feeling confident that Krishna is still in charge, Krishna is still in control. So that calmness, clarity, that confidence, all these come when we connect with Krishna.
It’s 3.30 and I’m sure it’s quite late at your place, about 8 o’clock in the evening there. On behalf of myself, the School of Bhakti and all the participants, we want to show our utmost gratitude to you. Not just for the class today, but what you have been doing over the decades to dissipate this wonderful knowledge.
But not only the knowledge which is written in books, but making it so much more relevant, and so much more accessible, and so much more understandable, that it becomes very practical in people’s mind to practise bhakti. And not only that you are staying in India, but travelling all over the world. Also, I would still urge the participants, if they have not visited the Spiritual Scientist website and the Gita Daily website, that’s a huge resource for finding anything and everything that you would probably need from Bhagavad Gita, and also from Srimad Bhagavatam.
You remain our continuous source of inspiration, Prabhu. And thank you so much for joining us, and especially at this difficult time. But with all these nectarean words, we feel very privileged that we are definitely already lifted in our consciousness, into our spiritual consciousness.
Thank you so much for joining us. Hare Krishna. Thank you for the support you deserve.
And thank you also for your resourcefulness in coming up with this idea of a virtual retreat. Many devotees across the world have been amazed to see not just that you organise a retreat, but you’ve got a galaxy of speakers to come. And I’m sure you’re going to have a full effect where many other devotees will also organise something virtually like this.
You’ve been a pioneer, and all my best wishes and prayers for you, as well as for the devotees, especially in London and UK, that Krishna gives you all the strength so that you can face the current difficulty and emerge stronger. Thank you very much.