Haridasa Thakura’s glories 1, Transcendence amid Intolerance, HARI acronym

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This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Thank you very much for joining today. Today we are going to discuss about the Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Vedic Ved Thank you, very much for joining today and today I’ll be discussing about Haridasa Thakur’s heroic courage and compassion. So, this Power Point will also act like a whiteboard.
So I’ll type some things as we move forward and the approach I’m going to take is not just what Haridas Thakur did and how glorious it was, but we’ll try to understand the principles that empowered Haridas Thakur to do what he did and how we can access those principles. So today is the day when Haridas Thakur departed from this world and that departure pastime we’ll be discussing tomorrow. Today I’ll focus on one particular aspect of his Leela which illustrates a particular, which reveals his character and I’ll talk in terms of this.
His name is Haridas Thakur. So we don’t have the time to go through Haridas Thakur as a full acronym with his qualities. His qualities are endless, but we will focus on these four qualities.
How he is always happy, how he was always appreciative, how he was responsible and how he was intrepid. Intrepid means he was fearless and how generally when we look at saintly people, it’s how inspiring to see the saintliness, to see their devotion, but at the same time what happens is for us sometimes it may seem that it’s all very inaccessible. So there are two distinct things which we have that we could say in our spiritual life.
There are the stars and there are the stairs. So if you want to go say from here to there, from where we are to where this great saintly people are. So the stars is there, it’s high up.
I mean these are the stars for those on the spiritual path, the great saintly people and how they have acted. But what we, where we are is we are on the ground. So that is here.
So what we need is not just the stars, but the stairs. Stairs that will take us from here to there. So when we will be discussing these four qualities of Haridas Thakur, happy, appreciative, responsible and intrepid, we’ll be discussing them in two perspectives.
So the two perspectives we’ll be using is descriptive and prescriptive, two perspectives rather. That means we’ll be describing. So descriptive means we’ll be describing how Haridas Thakur, that is about saintliness of Haridas Thakur, how we exhibit these qualities and then we’ll talk about prescriptive.
Prescriptive means how we can imbibe, develop these qualities. What is it required for it? So in general scripture descriptors, we can say they are scriptural descriptions that are given. They are descriptive about the seers and they are prescriptive for the seekers.
So we all are seekers in our journey. So if you only see them as descriptive, oh they are great souls and I can never be like that. Yeah, that may be true.
It’s certainly right now that may seem unattainable for us. But there is a prescriptive aspect to it that how we can apply those qualities at our level in some small way. And to the extent we apply it, to that extent we grow.
So now with this, let’s look at the first virtue of happiness. So we know that Haridas Thakur was born in a Muslim family. But then he came to the area of Navdeep.
And then when he was in Navdeep, he just manifested such symptoms of ecstasy. We saw him dancing, singing, his body was exhibiting all the ashtavikas, when he would chant the holy names. And that was amazing, that was stunning.
Every culture has its own definitions of success. So every culture’s definition of success. So for example, in say today’s culture, what might be a definition of success? If somebody has a very expensive car, or somebody has a million followers on Facebook, or somebody has a huge house.
So mostly they’re materialistic definitions of success. But when there is a spiritual culture, then what happens over there is devotional ecstasy is the definition of success. If somebody exhibits the devotional ecstasy, then they go, this person is such a great saint.
This person is so great, so special. We want to know more about him. We want to connect with him and we want his blessings.
So Haridas Thakur, the symptoms of ecstasy that he exhibited, it was not just the common people, even the Brahmanas, those who were quite otherwise materialist, otherwise not that spiritually exalted, even they recognised that his ecstasy is extraordinary. And because of that, they just thronged toward him, that we’ll get his blessings, and he’s so close to God, and therefore we want his blessings. So because of that, what happened now? Everyone, including many Brahmanas, the Brahmanas are considered to be the most religious and highest in the society, but they flock to him for his blessings.
And then this got the ire of some people. They got angry. Who? Other Brahmanas got angry, who felt threatened by his success.
But when he was threatened, they felt threatened by his success and they tried to bring him down. And the most infamous way they tried to do it was by sending a prostitute to him. And he was unaffected.
Rather than a prostitute bringing him down, he brought her up. He brought her up. So that brings us, in general, this is the next point.
How do we know that somebody is happy? So I talked here about not just symptoms of ecstasy, because symptoms of ecstasy can sometimes be imitated. It’s not easy, but they are immutable. So there are, in the Chaitanya Charita Amrit, it is described how Sinhardas Thakur’s ecstasy, some other people tried to imitate.
And there was a snake charmer, and he was playing a, his song and a snake was dance, moving about, dancing, and this person came and started exhibiting ecstasy. And he thrashed him soundly, just imitating. So symptoms of ecstasy can be imitated.
But if we are really happy, it’s not just in the effusiveness of the ecstasy, that’s one aspect of it. But when we are really happy, then these two things happen, that the promise of pleasure doesn’t allure us, and the threat of pain, even threat to our life, doesn’t distract us. Because I am content with what I have.
The Bhagavad Gita says, yam labdhva cha param labham manyate na adhikam tatha. So how do we know Haridas Thakur was happy? He was so absorbed in happiness, that even when this extremely attractive prostitute came to him, he didn’t feel attracted by her. He was not even slightly allured by her.
His complete lack of interest in her amazed her. People would long to be with her and here she was offering herself and he was not coming to her at all. What has this person got? And she started chanting because she saw he was absorbed in chanting and then she became transformed.
So, the Bhakti Samrut Sindhu describes these two, that when one is not deviated by pleasure or pain, these two, indifference to pleasure, these things, these are non-imitable symptoms, symptoms of spiritual advancement. So how do we know somebody is actually experiencing ecstasy or experiencing higher spiritual absorption, spiritual happiness? Their symptoms of ecstasy are fine, but those may be imitated. But in the presence of temptation, especially in a setting where one may think that I can get away with this temptation, nobody will come to know about it.
And still one doesn’t succumb to the temptation. That means they really have something higher because of which they just don’t care for anything else. And the other is threat of pain.
So, we know Balidas Thakur was in a cave and in that cave there was a toxic snake over there and the fumes were such that nobody could come to visit him. And Chaitanya Bhagwat describes that the Ayurvedic doctors at that place felt that even he should not stay there, but he was completely unaffected. He had no fear.
He felt inside this cave remembering Krishna, chanting Krishna’s name. I have so much ecstasy. What is this snake? How does it matter to me? It makes no difference.
So, happiness is not just in the smiles, not just in the dances, not just in the hair standing up. Happiness is also seen in these two things. How one becomes indifferent to material pleasure and indifferent to material pain.
And Balidas Thakur exhibits this. This indifference to material pain will become later also. But now this is something which we know the story.
I said we’ll talk about the stars and then we’ll talk about the stairs. One of the challenges on the spiritual path is time and time the Bhagavatam says that we have to draw bhakti, we have to practise bhakti toward the Lord who is Adhokshaja. Who is Adhokshaja means he’s invisible to us.
So, because he’s invisible to us, it’s very difficult to love him. It’s very difficult to actually concentrate our heart’s desires on him. To what is visible, what is tangible, it’s much easier to direct our love, to connect our emotions.
So, Bhakti Yogena Adhokshaja, that is a big challenge. So, what happens is, what gives us that conviction that yes, this Krishna is real. Connecting with Krishna gives real happiness, far higher happiness than what is available through the senses.
That is not a very easy thing to do. Now, Krishna is very kind and he comes to us in ways which you can perceive through our senses as the deities, as the holy names, as the dhams, as the scriptures. Still, these do not give us that conviction as much as seeing how Krishna transforms those in whose hearts he manifests.
So, what do I mean by this? That how does a sadhaka get the faith that Krishna is real, love for Krishna is real, and love for Krishna gives real happiness that far supersedes all other happiness. That conviction comes, that access to divine love comes not just by going in front of the deities, not just by singing the holy names, not just by studying the scriptures, but by seeing how scriptures have transformed somebody who is devoted to scriptures, how the holy names transform someone who is chanting the holy names, how worshipping the deities transform someone who has given their life to worshipping the deities. So, by the examples of those who are transformed by Krishna manifesting in their hearts, that means when we see some devotees who are exhibiting and experiencing spiritual absorption, spiritual joy, spiritual happiness, not just through ecstasy, but also as an indifference to pleasure and indifference to pain, then that gives us conviction and that is why the Bhagavatam is so categorical in declaring that it is bhakti sanjayate bhakti.
It is bhakti means in the association of devotees that we get bhakti. Without that bhakti is impossible. It is just not possible to get bhakti without the association of devotees and that’s why here Ardas Thakur’s example is so important for us that he demonstrates that ecstasy and because of that everybody around him just they were attracted, they were captivated, they were completely convinced this is what I want in my life and how do I get it? I will submit to this great devotee.
So, that’s why it’s important that when they talk about devotees absorption, when they forget all body situations, temptations, tribulations by their immersion in Krishna, then love for Krishna and the happiness coming from love for Krishna becomes real for us. So, when we hear about Ardas Thakur and in the tradition of Ardas Thakur, there are many, many great devotees and even in our living tradition, there are devotees who are absorbed in Krishna. It is by the example of when we see the stars, the stars, we don’t reach the stars, but the stars give us the conviction that okay, I want to get there not just worship that it is but I want to get there and how do I get there? By associating with those devotees, by hearing about those great devotees and by trying to follow in their footsteps in our own small way.
So, generally if you say bhakti sanjayate bhakti that we want bhakti. Bhakti is what? One way to understand it is desire for Krishna. Now, how is desire for Krishna generated? Normally, we think of desires as linear.
Say, I am here and this desirable object is there and I see that. Say, we are walking along the road and we see some shop with some delicious eatables. Say, I want to buy that.
I want that. So, we see an object and we get the desire for that object. That is how we normally think desires are.
Krishna talks about dhyayato vishnayan pumsaha. At I, we contemplate on the desirable objects and we get desires. Yes, that is one way desires come.
Usually, desires like this come for objects that look externally attractive, that look attractive to the senses. Now, for example, if somebody shows us, you know, the Bhadrapurnima is coming and we are trying to distribute whole Bhagavatam sets and if somebody show, if we were not yet devotees and somebody showed us a full Bhagavatam set and you know, would you like to read this? This will take me a decade to read this. Who’s going to read this? It’s unless we are very spiritually inclined or we are really intellectually voracious in our reading.
Just seeing books will not get us, give us much of desire to read it. So, generally seeing something, seeing an object gives us desires for that object when that desire, when that object seems desirable to the senses. But if we consider Krishna Bhakti, how many people, how many of us thought of, we saw Bhagavad Gita and thought, oh, I’m going to fall in love with the Bhagavad Gita.
I want to read the Bhagavad Gita. It doesn’t happen that much. So, how do desirable objects come? How does this devotional desires come up? Actually, they come in a slightly different way.
They come by, these are, we can call this triangular desires. That means we may look at that object and, okay, maybe one day if I get some time, I’ll read it. So, but what happens is, if we see somebody savouring that desirable object, say, we associate some devotees so ecstatic with the wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita, they’re always getting new insights from it or somebody who loves the Bhagavatam and that they are narrating those stories on the Bhagavatam with great joy.
And then we say, okay, what is there in this book? If you are getting so much taste in it, there must be something special in it. And therefore, I want to experience it. So, in general, spiritual desires grow by triangular means only.
Material desires may grow linearly. We see an object and we get the desire for it. Actually, even material desires grow triangularly.
That’s why whenever, say, a company releases a new product, say, a company releases a new phone. So, when they release a new phone, quite often they’ll promote the phone and they’ll promote the phone by showing some celebrity. Oh, I use this phone.
This is so good. And then there may be so many phones and we may be attracted by looking at a phone or we may not be attracted. But when we see, oh, this person likes this phone, oh, I want to buy it.
So, many of the celebrities, whatever be their profession, they actually make more money through endorsements than even through their own profession. Cricketers, they don’t make as much, if a cricketer becomes very famous, they don’t make as many to cricket as they make through the endorsements they get. So, what happens there is, the companies are also tapping the triangularity of desires.
That somebody is, this person is famous or popular. If they endorse this product, we’ll buy it. That’s people’s psychology.
And this is especially true for bhakti, that unless we associate with those who have great taste for Krishna, it is very difficult for us to even desire that taste for Krishna. And Haridas Thakur, among the Vaishnavas in our tradition, he is Namacharya. Nobody had taste for holy name like him.
We can say, Lord Chaitanya is Radharani. Wouldn’t he have the greatest taste? Yes, of course, he’s in a different category. But even Chaitanya Mahaprabhu glorifies Haridas Thakur’s taste for the holy name.
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu would not be chanting hundreds of rounds every day the way Haridas Thakur is said to have been chanting. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was doing many other things. So, the point I’m making is that when we contemplate on how he had so much taste, or when we associate with devotees who have taste, that’s when our taste arises.
So, now we may say, oh, he’s enjoying so much happiness at a spiritual level. But I’m struggling with difficulties in my life. I’m struggling with temptations.
Yeah, that’s true. But the way out is to trigger our spiritual desires. And that happens by association of devotees.
So, this is what Haridas Thakur would do. We hear in Chaitanya Leela that wherever Chaitanya Mahaprabhu would go, he would just infuse people to chant and they would become ecstatic in chanting. Haridas Thakur would also do the same thing.
What exactly was happening over there? We can say they are great devotees and they had some mystical potency. Well, okay, even if it is mystical, what is the process by which it was happening? Basically, by seeing them, by seeing their devotion, by seeing their saintliness, by seeing their ecstasy, everybody would feel, I want to experience that. What is it all about? I want to please this devotee.
I want to get their blessings and maybe I’ll experience it. So, there’s all the triangularity of desires. And now that Chaitanya Leela is not just something to describe Chaitanya Charita Amrit.
Chaitanya Leela is what is happening in the Gaudiya Vaishya Sampradaya even now. So, we all can be a part of Chaitanya Leela and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s mercy, Haridas Thakur’s mercy, it comes through us through the woman that Shrila Prabhupada has provided us and in the association of devotees, especially if you associate with devotees who have great desire for Krishna, any particular manifestation of Krishna, it may be scripture, it may be deities, it may be holy name and from their association, we can also get this desire for Krishna. So, Haridas Thakur was happy and he was radiating happiness to everyone and that’s why people started just giving up all their rituals, all the brahminical rituals that were there, they stop it.
Why do we need all these things? We don’t need them and they start being ecstatic, becoming ecstatic. So, now that brings us to second part that is appreciative. Now, what do we mean by appreciative over here? So, he what happened as I said was Haridas Thakur because he was so spiritually potent, giving devotional ecstasy to everyone and all the brahmanas felt threatened by him and when they felt threatened by him, they try to tempt him earlier and they try to get him into trouble, but he was completely unaffected.
Then eventually the chanting became so ecstatic and the complaint went to the Muslim rulers over there, the Qazi and others. The Qazi went to the, Qazi is more like a religious authority and they went to the king from there and then the king, he summoned them and before he went to the king, just like before you go to a judge, the police comes, the police come to arrest a person. So, he was arrested.
Now, when he was arrested, he went to the jail and it’s interesting, this was, it’s described over there, the Chaitanya Bhagwat specific words are that there were many respectable people in the jail. So, respectable in jail, it’s, what does it mean? Why were they in jail? Now, that was the time of religious persecution. Anybody who was considered to be a threat by the government, by the Islamic government at that time, anybody was perceived as a threat or anybody is framed to be a threat, that person was immediately put in jail and there are many people in jail, but these were not hardcore, they were not hardcore criminals.
They were good people and yet they were in the jail. But when they heard that Haridas Thakur is coming, they became delighted. Why? Because they thought, we will get his association, his blessings.
So, even they, it’s amazing the culture that is described over there, that even people who were in jail, they knew the value of saintly people and because these people, we may say everybody there was not a good person, maybe, but these good people were so many over there, but their enthusiasm, it just created a current that swept everyone and all the people in the jail, but they pleaded with the jail authorities and said that, you know, please let us get one darshan of him at least. When he comes into the jail, we want to see him. So, what happened is that when Haridas Thakur came there into the jail, normally if somebody is arrested and taken to the jail, that’s a very embarrassing situation because most people will presume, oh you have been taken to jail, that means you are guilty and people want to hide.
You don’t want to, usually if you see in movies, if somebody’s going to jail or what happens, they cover their face. They don’t want the ignominy of the humiliation of the world knowing that they have been arrested. But here, Haridas Thakur, when he came into the jail, he was treated like a VIP.
You know, there was a huge gathering of people waiting to see him, waiting to welcome him. This is the inconceivable nature in which the Lord’s pastimes can work, that a person being arrested is welcomed in jail, not because that is like a big criminal don and all the people in the jail are his followers. No, he is a saintly person and the reputation of his saintliness is such a, so great that huge crowds waited with bated breath to see Haridas Thakur enter jail.
So, now that was his extraordinary devotional calibre and they were waiting and Haridas Thakur came and he looked at all of them and what happened was, they were beholding him. Haridas Thakur was a saintly person. He was also, he was very sublimely attractive.
So, they were all beholding him and Haridas Thakur was gently smiling at them and then he spoke enigmatic words. What did he speak? He said words which really shocked most of the people over there. He said, may you stay as you are.
So, what happened was, may you stay as you are. Now, from his audience perspective, the foremost thing in their consciousness was, oh, we are in a jail. Are you telling us to stay as we are over here? What a horrible thing to say.
No, that’s one of the worst things. If we visit somebody in jail, hope you get released quickly. Tell somebody, may you stay as you are.
So, what happened was, they were shocked and they were appalled, they were dismayed. Did we do something to offend him? Is it because of that he’s cursing us that we’ll stay in the jail forever? Then he smiled, he realised that they hadn’t understood his words. Then he, so it was not that he spoke those words to deceive them.
His consciousness was so transcendental that they were all in jail. That material position or something else in the background, he barely noticed it. What he saw was their devotional disposition.
They were so eager to see a saintly person. They were to receive him, to please him during the reception. They were chanting the holy names in the prison.
He said, so you are respecting devotees, you are chanting the holy names, you are eager for Krishna. This is what I see as the primary reality, as the primary reality. And that’s what he appreciated in them.
So, may you stay as you are means, may your disposition stay as it is now. And may your disposition stay as it is. So, that is the greatest benediction when devotees described that.
Krishnair matir astu. So, Krishnair matir astu. May your consciousness stay attracted to Krishna.
That is Krishnair matir ahu and Krishnair matir astu. So, for somebody who has attraction to Krishna, may your consciousness stay attracted toward Krishna. So, when he was giving this benediction, it was non-different from the standard Vaishnava benediction, Krishnair matir astu.
That was what he was saying, stay as you are. That means right now you are devoted to Krishna. So, may you stay devoted to Krishna.
So, he was so appreciative that in every situation, he saw only the manifestation of Krishna everywhere. Oh, these people are so well connected with Krishna. So, in general, it’s very easy to become critical of everything.
There are so many things wrong in the world. There are so many things wrong in our world. There are so many things wrong we can find in the devotee world.
And there are so many things we can find wrong with ourselves also. So, it’s easy to become critical. But becoming critical doesn’t really help us grow.
Yes, sometimes we may have to see what is wrong, but we need to focus on appreciating what is right and work on that. The more we are able to appreciate what is right, the more we can move ahead in life, the more we can do something constructive in our life. Otherwise, what happens is, it’s easy to be critical.
But what happens in that by being critical, we don’t learn much. We don’t grow much. Our mind just becomes filled with negativity.
In the Gita, Krishna says the godly people in 16.2 that they’re averse to criticising, averse to fault finding, averse to seeing the negative. So, even when he was in the prison, he didn’t think, oh, you people must have done some crimes because of you are in prison. I don’t want to associate with you.
He was not thinking like that. He was looking at the heart, he was looking at the disposition, and he was appreciative. Now, sometimes we may think, so this be appreciative means see whatever good we can find in those around us, in the situations around us, and even in ourselves.
When I say even in ourselves, what does that mean? It’s easy, especially if we’re trying to follow a spiritual path, which requires high standards, to say, you know, I fell short of this standard, I fell short of that standard, I didn’t do that, I didn’t do that, and we may start beating ourselves up, start beating ourselves up. That’s not very healthy. Then say, Krishna wants us to practise bhakti in a way that is actually the priti purvakam.
Krishna wants affectionate devotion, not fear-filled or guilt-induced devotion. So, fear-induced, if I don’t do this, I’ll get in trouble. Or, oh, you know, so for example, until today, many devotees try to chant more rounds, and maybe last year we chanted a lot of rounds, and this year we’re not able to chant because of some reason, and then we start feeling guilty, and if somebody pressurises us, don’t you have any gratitude? And they guilt us into doing good things.
In one sense, we may say it’s good, but guilt-induced devotion is not very pleasing to Krishna. Krishna says, bhajatam priti purvakam. These are not very pleasing to Krishna, fear-induced or guilt-induced devotion.
So, yes, we all are guilty of things at times, and there are things which we need to be afraid of. There are healthy fears also. But the point is that overall, if we are always looking at faults in ourselves, faults in others, and then we start practising bhakti, that will not be very positive.
So, we are appreciative. Okay, I may have so many faults, but still Krishna is so kind that he has kept me in the association of devotees, and I appreciate the opportunity that I have, and I will tap this opportunity. So, Krishna wants bhajatam priti purvakam, and that’s why as devotees we need to be appreciative.
There are many things wrong in life, and it’s not always possible to be grateful in all situations. Even if we can’t be grateful for all situations, we can be grateful in all situations. Now, what is the difference? For all situations means there are some times which are terrible.
Say, we get some terrible sickness, or somebody loses a job, or somebody in our family, we lose our job, or somebody in our family loses a job, or we lose a loved one. These are terrible situations. It’s difficult to be grateful for those situations, but we can be grateful in those situations.
How? By looking at what is right. Yes, the situation itself is bad, but in this situation also there are things that are right. Oh, you know, my health is going down.
But at least, whatever sickness I have, there’s a treatment available for that. I have a supportive family around me. I have a devotee community that is there for me.
I have this, I have that. So, what is Garudas Thakur demonstrating over here? He is telling, by telling these prisoners, where you stay as you are, he’s drawing their attention to what is right with them, and not what is wrong with them. That they are in a prison is something terribly wrong, and that’s what they are thinking.
When will you get out of prison? When will you get out of prison? But he’s saying, don’t. That is not your primary reality. Our primary reality is not the things we live with, not the places we live in.
Our primary reality is the thoughts we live with. Our primary reality is the purposes we live for. And he’s saying, now you’re living for a higher purpose.
You’re living for Krishna, and that is worth being grateful for. So, being in jail, that’s nothing to be grateful for. But being in a devotional situation is something to be grateful for, and he’s seeing that, and he’s appreciating that.
So, for all of us, this statement of Garudas Thakur, it’s not just a statement. It illustrates his saintliness, but it also illustrates a principle that we can learn to focus on. What are we focussing on? So, as I said, if we focus on what is wrong in our life, we can all say many things that are wrong in our life.
And if we focus on our externals, there are many things wrong in our externals. The quality of our life is not determined by the things we live with, but the thoughts we live with. Krishna consciousness is a matter of consciousness.
It’s internal. It transforms our consciousness and makes us happy. And the quality of life is not determined by the places we live in.
It is determined by the purposes we live for. So, there are two things Haridas Thakur is observing in these prisoners. He’s saying that, what thoughts are you living with? Living with thoughts of Krishna, thoughts of Krishna’s devotees, that eagerness is there within you.
That is what I appreciate. May you stay like this. And then what are the purposes you live for? At this place, you’re living for the purpose.
When will you get the association of a devotee? Eager for that. That is far more important than the place where you are living. The purposes we live for are far more important.
Actually, Prabhupada was like that. When the devotees got a grand temple in New York at one time. We had 11 story temple and the devotees had made a grand room for Prabhupada.
And when Prabhupada came to that room, Prabhupada was happy and says, this is just like my room in Radha Damodar temple. And the devotees were surprised. Those of us who have visited Radha Damodar temple, it’s a small room.
It’s a fairly small room and there’s another place where there is another kitchen. This was a grand room in a skyscraper building. So, Prabhupada was not seeing the externals.
External things are similar between the two rooms. But Prabhupada was seeing the purpose. In that room, I was serving Krishna.
I was speaking about Krishna. I was writing about Krishna and that is what I’m going to do over here. So, this room is just like that.
So, Prabhupada also had that vision that Haridas Thakur had, that actually we, the quality of our life is determined not by the places we live in, but by the purposes we live for. So, Haridas Thakur has told the prisoners that may you stay as you are. So, all of us, if we want to want enthusiasm in our life and we all need enthusiasm to face life’s challenges and to move ahead in our bhakti, then we need to be appreciative.
Not that we turn a blind eye towards everything that is wrong. Sometimes we need to fix the things that are wrong and need to focus on them at those times. But overall, we need to find out things to be appreciative of, things to be grateful for.
At the end of our chanting, sometimes we feel, oh, today my chanting was so poor and I’m never going to become a good chanter. Instead, you can say, Krishna, I was so distracted today, but still, you’re still keeping me at your lotus feet. You’re still giving me the opportunity to chant the holy names.
Thank you very much for giving me this opportunity. Thank you for accepting this offering. I did all this poor offering.
Please accept it, Krishna. I thank you for giving me this opportunity. So, even when we are not able to focus in our bhakti, if we can have an appreciative attitude, that is what Krishna will see and Krishna will appreciate.
So, the taste for the holy name is not something magical. So, focus in chanting. It will come gradually and it may be there, it may not be there.
So, Krishna sees not just our emotions during our chanting, he also sees our feelings about our feelings. What do I mean by this? It’s not just play of words. That means, say, if we, while chanting, we feel bored.
So, we just feel this is just every day I have to do this. And how long can I keep doing it? I just can’t continue it. And I just want this to be over with.
There are times when we feel like that. We have a mind which is quite, Bhakti Sahasra Dakora says, I always remember that you’re constantly associating with a non-devotee and the non-devotee is your own mind. So, we may feel bored while chanting.
But when we are feeling bored, so that is, so this is, I saw this feeling during chanting is that we are feeling bored. But what is our feeling about our feeling? That means, when we feel bored, what do we think? How can I just get this chanting over with and get on with the next thing in my life? Or Krishna, I know the holy name is supremely tasty, but somehow because of my uncontrolled mind, I’m not able to taste this holy name. Krishna, please help me.
Please let me chant. So, when we don’t give into the boredom, we try to refuse and reject the boredom. We try to oppose the boredom.
We oppose it. And Krishna sees that. So, some devotee may have no struggle in their chanting and may sit erect, fully awake and clearly enunciating the names.
And then he said the chanting is very good. Yes, it may be good. But are they actually earnestly calling out to Krishna? Some other devotee, their mind is wandering.
They’re feeling no taste. They’re feeling bored. But during that, in their heart, they say, Krishna, I don’t want to feel like this.
I want taste for your holy name. Please let me, please give me some taste. Please give me some strength.
Please let me chant well. Please forgive me that I’m so distracted. So, if we don’t give into the boredom, we oppose it.
We humbly beseech Krishna. So, Krishna sees our feeling about our feeling and he appreciates that. So, we can always be appreciative that, yeah, I’m not able to get taste.
So, I can’t appreciate the holy name right now. No, I still can. I know intellectually the holy name is glorious.
So, I appreciate that despite my tastelessness, I still have the opportunity. So, don’t look at the externals. Look at the internals.
And even in the internals, our mind is not always controllable. But beyond the mind is our heart. Beyond the mind is our Atma, who we are.
So, in the mind, feelings will come and go. But as the Atma, if we maintain our intention, Krishna, I want to connect with you. That is what Krishna will see.
So, a devotional disposition, Haridas Thakur says, may you stay as you are. And that is this glorious blessing that he’s offering. So, then now, what happens is he’s responsible.
What do you mean by responsible? In this context, so Haridas Thakur is put in jail for some time. And in the jail, he inspires an enlivence. All the prisoners who chant the holy name have become devotionally surcharged.
And then he’s summoned into the court. And when he’s summoned into the court, at that time, there are so many people who are there. They want to watch what is going to happen.
So, he has popular support over there. Now, not all of them are allowed inside. But sometimes, there is a high profile person being tried in court.
Then many people come outside as a show of support. Now, the king was known to be a tyrant. And yet, Haridas Thakur was so beloved by everyone that people came to support him.
And the Qazi said that this person, he was born a Muslim, but he has now become a heretic. He has started chanting the names of the Hindu gods. And this is a sin.
He needs to be punished. And now Haridas Thakur, it’s almost seemed as if he was audacious. But when all these accusations were related to him, what did he say? His first reaction was, just see how the Lord’s Maya works.
And then he started speaking. Now, when he’s speaking, he was speaking out of a sense of spiritual responsibility that these people are in such Maya. I want them to come out of Maya.
And thus, he saw it as his responsibility to speak that which would get them out of Maya, that which would get them out of Maya. And what did he speak at that time? He said that there is now, there is one God. He said the one God inspires different people to approach him in different ways.
And then he said, if you consider, so the Lord is in my heart and he’s inspiring me to worship. Then he says, if you consider that I am a Muslim worshipping a Hindu God, that is wrong. Then you give me the same punishment you would give to a Hindu who worship the Muslim God.
Now, we know that India is not under Islamic rule. But even today, most people would hesitate to speak something like this because of the backlash that might come. So, why was he speaking like this? Was he simply trying to agitate? His purpose was not to agitate.
His purpose was to educate. He was telling them that, he was showing them the fallacy in their own reasoning. That his understanding was that there is one God and there is one God who is being worshipped by everyone.
So, why are you so worked up? That God may inspire a Muslim to worship in a Hindu way, a Hindu to Muslim, worship in a Muslim way, that doesn’t matter. Now, so what happens is the idea of heresy, that is, there is no Sanskrit word for heresy. Heresy means what? It’s not a Vedic concept.
When somebody is heretical, that means the person has a violent devilish rejection of truth and that person has rejected truth and they have embraced the way given by the devil. So, the Vedic understanding is not heresy. There is upadharma, there is apadharma and even there is adharma.
But all of these are considered incomplete understandings of the truth, inadequacies in reaching the complete truth. So, they are not considered like violent or devilish rejection of the truths. So, but that is a concept in some religions which has a little bit insular.
So, he was telling that there is one God. Why are you getting so agitated? So, actually what Ayudhya Staple speaks over there is the basis of for healthy interfaith dialogue, for healthy interfaith understanding. So, he was telling that why was he speaking like this? It was not arrogance.
He had confidence. He was secure in his faith and his practise. He knew this is what my Lord has inspired to me.
This is what inspired me to do and this is what I will do. His intent was not to agitate but to educate. So, he was trying to get the people who were caught in the narrow-minded understanding to broaden their understanding and he succeeded.
But how he succeeded is remarkable. Now, he was not being as audacious. So, the Qazi was furious and he said that what he’s speaking is nonsense.
You see Prahlad when Rinagash asked him, what is the source of your power? And Prahlad seems audacious and he says the source of my power is the same as the source of your power and is also the same as the source of the source of your power. Your power has come from Brahma and Brahma’s power comes from Vishnu and my power also comes from Vishnu. So, he was trying to educate Hiranyakashipu.
He was not trying to agitate him but some people may think it can come off as agitation. So, he’s trying to get him out of a narrow-minded conception. So, let’s try to understand what is this narrow-minded conception and how one can come out of it.
There are different religions in the world and we can, with respect to different religions in the world, what attitude can be there towards religious diversity? One attitude can be exclusivism. That means only my path is right. If somebody says only my path is right, the problem with that is it comes off as very narrow-minded.
If God is unlimited, why should the path to God be limited to only one path and why should one particular religion or tradition have a monopoly on God? That doesn’t sound very logical and exclusivism can very easily lead to fanaticism. That means you follow our God, you follow our way, otherwise you’re going to go to hell and not only that, not only are you going to go to hell, we will help you get there faster. So, that can lead, this exclusivism can very easily lead to intolerance.
But the other extreme is pluralism. We say all paths are right. Now, this may sound very good, but really are all paths right? If all paths are right, then one among all the paths is this path.
If all is a complete set of all paths, within that is that there is one path which says only my path is right. So, if pluralism is right, if all paths are right, then this path also has to be right because among all paths is the one path that only my path is right. But if exclusivism is right, then pluralism can’t be right.
So, pluralism, it sounds good and as a culture, as a country might be pluralistic, but in terms of philosophy, pluralism doesn’t make logical sense. So, the Bhagavad Gita understanding, the Gaudiya understanding which Haridas Thakur was communicating is what is called as inclusivism. Inclusivism means that there is one path, one common purpose and that includes many paths.
So, the purpose is there is one God, we are all seeking that one God and that God draws us, that God inspires us in different ways. So, we are all going toward that one God, one common purpose and that includes many paths. So, Haridas Thakur was trying to tell this to the king.
Let’s try to understand it through some diagrams, some other visual illustrations. So, if you consider a metaphor of climbing up a mountain. So, at the bottom of the mountain is material consciousness.
So, at this level, people are mostly self-centred, thinking of sensual pleasures and worldly possessions and at the top of the mountain is spiritual consciousness. Here, there is love of God. Here, there is absorption.
Here, there is selflessness. Here, there is spiritual ecstasy. So, now, we want to go from the bottom of the mountain to the top of the mountain.
So, various traditions, religious traditions, they are actually having a common purpose or common journey from the bottom of the mountain to the top of the mountain, from material consciousness to spiritual consciousness. So, now some people are exclusivist, my way or the highway. So, they are attached more to the path than to the purpose.
If the purpose is to go to the top of the mountain, there may be different ways in which you can go to the top of the mountain. But they are attached more to the path than to the purpose. So, what happens is? So, Haridas Thakur’s persecutors were from this category and he was telling when this is not the reality.
So, now there is the other path could be exclusivism is only my path is right. Then we have pluralism. Pluralism is all paths are right.
But are all paths really right? All paths are not going to the top of the mountain. Some just go up and come down. Some just keep go up and keep going round and round.
Some go two third up. Some go only half the way up. Some may even go away from the mountain.
So, to say all paths are right is not right. Here, people are just attached to feeling good. I feel good about what I am doing and I let you feel good about what you are doing.
They are attached neither to the purpose nor to the path. So, whereas inclusivism can lead to intolerance, pluralism can lead to impotence. Impotence means there is no potency, there is no power, there is no transformation that happens.
So, what we have, what Haridas Thakur was telling is inclusivism. Inclusivism means people who are at the bottom of the mountain, the top of the mountain if you envision there is there is the supreme over here, he may call people up, some people he may call up from this path and some people he may call up from this path. The point is that if a person is being called up from a particular path, then let them follow that path.
So, inclusivism means many paths to the same purpose and in this case, the person is attached more to the purpose than to the path. So, with this framework, now let’s understand what Haridas Thakur was saying. It was not just provoke, as I said, he was not provoking or agitating, he was educating.
So, he was saying that if you think that I have done something wrong as a person born a Muslim, now I am taking the Hindu path to go up to God, then give me the same punishment as you would give to somebody who’s a, so I was here, say this is the Islamic path, this is the, now the word Hindu is used in the Vedic, in the Chaitanya Chaitanya Amrit and Chaitanya Bhagwat, largely to differentiate from those who are non-Vedic. So, he is saying that if I was here, say this is the Islamic path, this is the Hindu path, let’s use the word Hindu for the time being, the Vedic path, the Vaishnav path, the Bhakti path. So, you are saying that I gave this up and I have come here and I am going up from here.
If you think this is wrong, what I did is wrong, then give me the same punishment as you would give somebody who was here and they came from here to here and started going up from here. Somebody was a Hindu and they became a Muslim and now they are going up by the Muslim path. That is not punishable, that they are going up towards God is laudable, that is laudable.
So, he was trying to broaden their conceptions that why are you being so narrow-minded. Ultimately, we are pursuing the same one God but they wouldn’t accept and the king actually was not as intolerant as the Qazi. The king told the Qazi that you just confess your wrongs as per your tradition and then you’ll be forgiven.
He said no. He said that my heart, just like Prahlad says, naturally I am attracted to Krishna. So, he said that I just can’t stop chanting the holy names.
Even if you cut my body, all the pieces of my body will continue chanting the holy names. Now again, this is not a statement of defiance. This is not that I don’t care for your authority.
He’s not simply being defiant for the sake of being defiant. He’s just telling that devotion to Krishna is just the fabric of his very being. He cannot separate it from who he is.
So, he’s just saying this is how my Lord has attracted me. This is how the Lord has attracted me. I can’t do anything about it.
So, at that point, the king decided that he should be punished. So, this is unfortunate that there are many people who instead of going up by their path, all that they do is they keep going round and round the bottom of the mountain and keep pulling down people from the other path and beating them for going up by those paths. This is foolish and tragic.
If somebody else is going up by another path, let them go up by their path and we are going up by our path. So now, of course, does this mean that all paths are entirely equal? Not exactly. This is a whole big subject.
We are inclusive, but still there is inclusive primacy. Primacy means there is something special about our tradition. What is it that is special about our tradition? We have a clear understanding of our condition.
That means, why are we at the bottom of the mountain? Why are we suffering in material existence? That is because we are souls and we are bound by our karma from the past. But those religions which do not accept reincarnation, for them to explain, say, why small children suffer, why some babies are born with sickness or in born poverty or some children go through a lot of sufferings, it’s very difficult for them to explain that. So, why we are at the bottom of the mountain and why we are going through what we are going through? The philosophy of karma and reincarnation explains this very clearly.
Then there may be, so what we are saying is, going back to the previous, sorry, here, now there may be different paths up the mountain. But does that mean all the paths are just identical? No. Now, this path, some paths may be a little more slippery, some paths may be a little more rocky, some paths may be a little more winding, some paths may be very straight and smooth.
All the paths are going up the mountain and they have the same purpose. That doesn’t mean all paths are the same. So, from the path that, what is speciality of the Gaudiya Vaishnava path? We are clear, okay, why am I here? It is not because God is cruel, God is discriminatory and God has put me over here.
It is because of my own past karma. If I change my karma, I can create a better future for myself. If I act more responsibly, I can have a brighter future.
So, at the first point. And then, beauty of the destination, that means, if say, there is one path up the mountain where the whole path is covered by thick trees, you can’t even see a little distance ahead, what to speak of the top of the mountain. There is another path which is quite clear and you can see the beautiful mountain peak and the dazzling sights over there.
And that draws the attention, oh, I want to go there, I want to see that. So, beauty of the destination. So, the Krishna conception of divinity.
And Krishna is such a beautiful conception of God. He is a person who becomes a charioteer for his devotees. He is a person who carries his friends on his shoulders.
He is a person who frees, tormented by separation from his devotees, who longs for Vrindavan. The call of duty takes away from Vrindavan. He loves the love of his devotees so much that he himself becomes a devotee to experience that love.
That conception of divinity is incredibly beautiful. There are no parallels to that beauty of the conception of divinity. So, the beauty of the destination is there.
And then accessibility of the process. That means, as we know, Kaliyuga, the Yugadharma is the holy name. So, we have the access, various traditions have the holy names, their holy names, but we have the holy name which is of the most intimate manifestation of divinity, Krishna and the holy name which is also the part of the Yugadharma.
So, it’s extremely potent. So, we have these three conditions which make our path special. But special doesn’t mean the only right path.
Special doesn’t mean that it is the only supreme, it is the supreme path. It is special. And now other religious traditions may also have their reasoning by which they may try to say that their path is special.
And they have a right to say that. But what Aridas Thakur was saying is that instead of saying one path is right and other path is wrong, see the fact that I am being drawn to God. And if I am being drawn to God, what is the problem? But they didn’t accept it.
So, they decided that he would be beaten in the marketplaces. So, he took responsibility to educate them. But they did not accept that responsibility, unfortunately.
And that brings us to the last point. He was intrepid. So, trepidation means trembling, fear.
So, intrepid means no trembling, no fear. So, Aridas Thakur was completely fearless. And then, so what happened over there was they decided to give him brutal punishment.
And what is the brutal punishment? That he would be beaten in 22 marketplaces. Now, in today’s world, there is a lot of opposition even to capital punishment. That killing somebody itself, should the government kill anyone at all and capital punishment is opposed.
But even in among capital punishment, when somebody is to be killed, there are different ways to kill. So, for example, nowadays when capital punishment is given, the way, at least the way it is done in America is, there is three course medicine given. What first a person is given, like a sedative.
Then they are given a muscle relaxant. And then they are given a poison. So, sedative means what happens, the person goes to sleep.
And then muscle relaxant means what happens is, even the poison comes and the body starts reacting. For people who are watching also, there is nothing shocking. It’s not that the person vomits.
It’s not that the person starts trembling. It’s like a very peaceful kind of death. So, the idea is that all shock value from there is removed.
So, now, because that is all, it is a punishment. It is almost like a painless death that is given. Now, we could say, there could be say, you shoot a bullet, shoot or cut off head with sword.
Now, these are shocking. These are painful. But at least they are in one moment.
At one moment, the event happens, the arrow goes to the body, the bullet goes to the head, the sword goes to the cuts of the neck, it’s over. So, that is not that painful. So, but if we consider burning, burning is extremely painful.
That why is it painful? Because the body keeps burning and it can burn for a long time. And it can burn for a long time. And when it keeps burning for a long time, what happens over there is bad.
So, along that point, people scream and it’s horrible when that happens. So, it’s not at all a pleasant thing to experience. And that’s why one of my friends is a firefighter in America.
So, he told me that he was, he actually, he was not there, but his colleagues were there in the twin towers happened. So, at that time, he told me that they saw people from the twin towers, when they saw the fire, just leapt out of the fire. Because they thought that just having the body, fire burn our bodies far worse than having, then just falling down and crashing to our death.
And worse than burning is crucifixion. This was what was done to Jesus. Why? Because nails are put into the body and feel the excruciating pain, but it doesn’t kill immediately.
Sometimes a person has been crucified, they may stay for hours over there. And then flogging to death, that is the most painful. Why is it flogging to death is so painful? Because it’s like a person is being, first of all, is a drag through the road.
Crucifixion might also happen in public, burning might happen in public, but this is one place that people have come to see. But flogging to death means a person is being dragged. And while they’re being dragged, they’re being beaten and beaten.
So, they’re being humiliated. They’re being made an exhibit in front of the public to everyone. And they’re being beaten till their body can take it no more.
And then they die. So, it’s probably among the most brutal forms of punishment. Even if you’re killing somebody, to flog somebody to death is probably the worst death that anybody can get.
So, Haridas Thakur was sentenced to that. So, it was horrible. The worst kind of death somebody can get.
And what happened was he was completely unaffected. Chaitanya Bhagwat says that Hanuman, Haridas Thakur has just been dragged through the streets of Navdeep. It was like Hanuman was dragged through the streets of Lanka.
He had been bound. He was being beaten. He was being kicked.
He was being berated. He was being humiliated. But just as Hanuman was absorbed in remembering Lord Ram and chanting Lord Ram’s names.
Similarly, Haridas Thakur was absorbed in remembering and chanting Lord Krishna’s names. And he remained unaffected. And what happened was, it was incredible that he survived.
People just beating one or two marketplaces, that would be unbearable. And they would either capitulate and say, oh, I admit whatever crimes I have done. I confess.
Please forgive me. Whatever it takes, forgive me, or they will die. But Haridas Thakur, what happened? He survived all the 22 marketplaces.
Now, later on in the Mahaprakashila, Lord Chaitanya reveals, how did Haridas Thakur survive? Because Lord Chaitanya says, I threw my body around you and I embraced you and I took all the blows that were hit at you. And Lord Chaitanya took the upper cloth and he shows his back has all the welter marks of flogging. Haridas Thakur faints in ecstasy at that time on seeing the love of Lord Chaitanya.
Now, of course, this does not mean that Haridas Thakur has no credit over there. It was because Haridas Thakur was so unflinching. It was because Haridas Thakur was so fearless.
Because Haridas Thakur was so determined, that inspired Lord Chaitanya to come and cover himself. And Lord Chaitanya also says that I could have come and killed all those who are flogging you. But while they were beating you, while they were beating you, what were you doing? You were praying that they be forgiven and your prayer for their forgiveness stopped my chakra, stopped my chakra for doing anything to them.
So, I couldn’t do anything to stop them from beating you. I couldn’t punish them. So, what could I do? I had to use my own body to shield you.
But the point is that he survived and those who flogged him were in shock. How did he survive? They said that the king will kill us if you don’t die. Because he will think that we failed in our duty.
He won’t believe that Haridas Thakur was well built, he was attractive, but he was not like a big warrior whose body could tolerate great blows and even warriors would not be able to tolerate beating on 22 market places. So, he said that he will think, the king will think that we didn’t do our duty properly and that’s why you survived. So, Haridas Thakur said he was so compassionate.
He said, okay, if my living is a problem for me, just see how I die. And he closed his eyes and he went into Samadhi. And he went into such a deep level of Samadhi that even his breathing stopped completely.
And then they thought that what to do with him, he’s dead. So, they reported the Qazi and the Qazi said we should not bury him because if we bury him, if he has given the last rites according to our religion, then it’s like we are accepting he belonged to our religion and he will get a, he will go to heaven and such a person should not go to heaven. Such was his hatred that even after death, he didn’t want to do any good for him.
So, he said throw him into the river. So, Haridas Thakur’s body was thrown into the river and his body just floated gracefully by the grace of the Lord. And then after some time, he just came back to consciousness and he walked out and he walked straight into the city where the Qazi was there.
And he went straight to the Qazi, actually went straight to the king’s place. So, now everybody who saw there was stunned. Oh, you must be a real saint that oh God must have protected you, something higher must have protected you.
That was the miracle and that is a miracle, no doubt. But from a devotee’s perspective, that his body was protected was not the real miracle. That his consciousness was protected was the bigger miracle because the body will perish sooner or later and we see in tomorrow’s pastime, we will see that the body did perish.
But the miracle is that the consciousness was protected, that he never lost faith, he never stopped remembering Krishna through it all and that was extraordinary. Now what happened is that the wisdom, the wisdom that he spoke, that didn’t convince the king much, the Muslim king. But when they saw a miracle, they were convinced.
So, for most people to convince them about supramaterial realities, that means there is something beyond matter, there is a higher deity, there is a higher God. So, he talked about how both of us are taking the taking path toward God. Why are you so opposed to my taking that path? So, he was thinking that that path is heretical, that path is wrong.
But when he saw that Haridasa was protected, he said, oh really, maybe there’s something special going on over here. Maybe he’s also on the path to God. Therefore, he respected it.
So, most people need miracles. Just wisdom doesn’t work. Now, just wisdom doesn’t work.
If you look at Shri Prabhupada, essentially, if you read the books that Prabhupada wrote before he went to America, Easy Journey to Other Planets or the Back to God article that he wrote and the lectures that he gave at that, the message that he was giving before Prabhupada went to America, Prabhupada’s message before going abroad and after coming back from abroad was essentially the same. But while Prabhupada was in India for 30-40 years trying to preach, nobody took him seriously. But when he came back from America, people took him seriously.
Why? Prabhupada did not perform miracles like say producing some ash or doing this or doing that. Prabhupada did something far more dramatically miraculous. What was it? That he inspired the westerners, those who had ruled India to take up bhakti.
So, it was very dramatic in Indian terms. Those who had white people who had ruled India, now they were taking up Indian culture, they were taking up Indian wisdom, they were taking up Indian practises. That was a big miracle for them.
Sometimes Prabhupada used the word that I made hippies into happies. Of course, not all of Prabhupada’s followers were hippies. Even within the American counterculture, hippies were a very small denomination.
But they were there. So, it was that miracle that convinced people. Now, technically it is not a miracle.
Okay, people change the way of living. It was not that some mountain was lifted up or something like that. But from people’s perspective and from objective perspective also, for most people it is so inconceivable that western people start practising bhakti like this.
That was the miracle that they saw and that’s transformed them. So, most people they can’t have faith in Shabda Pramana. They don’t have faith in wisdom.
They need to see wisdom demonstrated practically in terms of something dramatic. Now, we don’t have the power to create miracles. But the miracle that we can show is maybe our own transformed life.
If we start being more kind, more tolerant, more helpful, people see that, oh, you have changed and you’ve changed, started chanting Hare Krishna. You’ve changed for the better. Oh, there’s something special about chanting.
So, it may not be a miraculous change. But the point is people need some empirical evidence. You may say Shabda Pramana is infallible.
But people need something pratyaksha to see. So, Haridas Thakur provided them that, Prabhupada provided them that and we can see what we can provide according to our capacity to help people become transformed. So, our devotee’s attitude towards miracles is Yukta Vairagya.
Devotees don’t base their faith on miracles. Yeah, if somebody can show some miracles, what’s the big deal about it? There’s nothing big about it. Prabhupada was quite nonchalant about miracles.
So was Bhakti Sahasra Thakur. So, the point is people like to see something miraculous, something dramatic. And that’s why one of Prabhupada’s projects was, when he came back to India, he wanted to build the Juhu temple, grand temple.
If you look at the history of India, this whole tradition, if you look at the mediaeval history of India, there was a tradition of kings building grand temples. But after that, during the British rule, hardly any temples were built. It was when Prabhupada came to India, Prabhupada started building big temples.
Then many other religious teachers and religious organisers also started building big temples. Now, of course, there are many, many big temples. But for Prabhupada, that was also a visible demonstration.
It would attract people. So, now what is Yukta Vairagya towards miracles means? One extreme would be to consider that miracles are the sole evidence of spirituality. You show me some miracles, only then I’ll accept you.
The other extreme is to reject the very possibility of miracles. Anybody who claims to have done some miracles, no, that person is, you are being superstitious, you are being irrational, I reject you. But a more balanced attitude is, we see miracles as pointers to the ultimate reality, Krishna.
So, and Krishna is the source of all miracles and is himself the supreme miracle. Why? He is the supreme God, yet he becomes a charioteer of his devotees. How Krishna’s humility is there, that is itself a great miracle.
It captivates the heart. So, devotee’s attitude is, if miracles can be shown, wonderful. But that’s not the point.
The miracle was not that Haridas Thakur survived the flogging. The miracle was that Haridas Thakur’s faith survived the flogging. The faith remained unaffected.
Even if he had perished at that time, that the fact he remembered the Lord was glorious. So, what happens over here is, his fearlessness is glorious. Let me say, how can we develop that fearlessness? In general, this is the last point which we can conclude, that fear arises when we are attached to something that can be taken away from us.
So, it may be our health, it may be our wealth, it may be our relatives, it may be our position, whatever it is. When we are attached to something that is taken away, that can be taken away from us, that’s when fear comes up. But a devotee is attached to the Lord and the Lord is in the heart of the devotee.
Therefore, a devotee has no fear that, okay, everything else in the world may be taken away, but the Lord is there with me. Now, of course, the devotee has fear. Prabhupada would say that, my regret is that my disciples are not sufficiently fearful of Maya.
But what is that fear? So, here I say that Krishna in our heart can’t be taken away except by Maya. So, that means Krishna can’t be taken away means what? It’s not that Maya is going to drag the Paramatma out of our heart, but Maya actually takes away our consciousness away from Krishna. So, a devotee who is attached to Krishna, that devotee has no fear.
But because we are not at that level, we all need to be afraid. But apart from that fear that something may be taken away from Krishna, a devotee has no fear. And the fear that something may be taken, that even Krishna will be taken away or things close to, things about Krishna will be taken away from me, how do we deal with that? How do we move from fear to faith? Being fearless is not the same as being reckless.
A child may just run into the middle of a road with many cars going through. That child is not fearless. That child is simply reckless.
And recklessness is not a sign of faith. So, somebody decides that we will build a big temple and we have no idea of how we will get the funds, how we will invent the temple. Krishna will take care of everything.
And that is not really faith. That may well be recklessness. When Prabhupada built the Vrindavan temple, he knew in Vrindavan, people are, it will be very difficult to get, you can’t do preaching in Vrindavan and cultivate people and get regular support for the temple.
So, while building the Vrindavan temple, Prabhupada also created MBT, where Prabhupada said that will be like a tourist destination for people, devotional tourists, devotee tourists. They will come, they will stay over there and they can pay for that. So, that will be like a regular source of revenue.
So, Prabhupada was never reckless. Prabhupada’s head was high up in the sky, but his feet were firmly on the ground. So, for Prabhupada, the fear that, oh, what if he gets a heart attack one day, what if he dies in America, that fear was not as prominent as, I had to fulfil the instruction of my spiritual master.
When Prabhupada met Sumti Moraji, based on her secretary’s advice, she said that, Swamiji, you are so old and America is so cold. My sister is telling me, you will die in America. You are like my father.
I can’t send you to your death. Prabhupada replied to her, if I am like your father and you are like my daughter, then will you not fulfil this last desire of your father? Will you not give me an opportunity to fulfil the instruction of my spiritual master? When she saw Prabhupada’s devotional intensity, her heart melted and she immediately made arrangements for Prabhupada. So, the point is, Prabhupada was not reckless.
Prabhupada had a purpose far bigger than fear. So, the way a devotee overcomes anxiety and fear is not by some magical, I become reckless or I just become blind to problems. We develop our devotion to Krishna and our service to Krishna becomes so important for us that that absorbs us.
And then even if there is danger, even if there is fear, a devotee is aware of that, but a devotee is not overpowered by that. And that’s how we overcome fear. So, at our level, the way we go beyond fear is by focussing on that purpose.
And Prabhupada told us that we make spiritual advancement by how much we take up responsibility for serving Krishna. That responsibility that we take up, that will be our purpose. Whatever small service we have, big service we have, take up that responsibility and that’s how we will grow.
So, by that, that fearlessness that Haridas Thakur had, what happened? When he went back, he didn’t think, oh, I just survived. If I go there, these people will attack, again attack me. No, he went back fearlessly and they were stunned.
How did he survive? That Kasi was, he was completely neglected by the king and the king told him, as much as, whatever way you want to chant and worship, God, you please do that. You are a truly saintly person. And if I offended you anyway, please forgive me.
So, this was his fearlessness. And that is something which we all can aspire for. So, Haridas Thakur is one of the greatest Acharyas in our tradition.
And there is so much inspiration to be had from his Leela. And tomorrow we will continue and we will discuss especially about how he faced the final exam of death and how Lord Chaitanya was with him. And especially we’ll discuss the theme of how the Lord loves us.
That comes out very intimately, how Lord Chaitanya reciprocates with Haridas Thakur at the time of his final moments. So, I’ll quickly summarise what we discussed today. Broadly, we discussed the glories of Haridas Thakur from the perspective of the acronym Hari.
So, we say that the virtues and the glories of great saints, they are like stars in the sky. But they can also be like stairs. We find small, small steps by which you can go up.
They are descriptive, but they can also be prescriptive for us to move ahead. So, four qualities we discussed. H is happiness.
His happiness was seen not just in his being devotionally ecstatic, which he was, but it is also seen that ecstasy can be imitated. But it is also seen by his indifference to promises of pleasure when the prostitute tempted him and the threats of pain when the snake was there, when this venomous snake was there in the same place with him. So, we talked about how that there is real happiness in the spiritual domain.
How does it become clear? How do we get the conviction that this all this is for real? It is when we see devotees, when we associate with devotees. Because in those whom we see the transformations because of love for God, because of spiritual ecstasy, when we see that, that’s what transforms us. In the worldly domain, for the things which we see, linear desires often grow linearly.
But Krishna is Adhokshaja, not perceivable senses. That’s why desire for Krishna doesn’t always grow linearly. It grows triangularly.
That’s why Bhakti Sanjayate Bhakti. The more we associate with devotees who have attraction to the things we want to get attracted to, then we will also have attraction for them. We want to get taste for Shastra, associate with devotees who have taste for Shastra.
Want taste for Harinam, associate with devotees who delight in the Harinam. That was the first part. His happiness was like a current which would go to everyone else.
Then he was appreciative. He was always appreciative of the opportunity to remember Krishna and to connect everything with Krishna. So that’s why when he came to the prison, he was not worried.
Oh, I’ve been put in jail and what will the world think of me? What will happen to my reputation? Even we saw the people over there. These are not these are criminals who are putting in. I just saw their disposition and said may you be as you may always be as you are.
So he saw the good in everything. So it’s easy to be critical but that will simply disempower us. So as devotees we need to always see the good in everything.
We can’t be grateful for all situations but we can be grateful in all situations by looking at what is good about that situation also. So Haridas Thakur’s indication was the quality of your life is determined not by the place you are in but the purpose you are living for. The present doesn’t matter.
Your devotional disposition is what matters. The things around us don’t matter as much as the thoughts inside us and Krishna consciousness can always give us extremely rich reservoir of thoughts and extremely empowering purposes for our life. So that was be appreciative.
Then discuss the third part was R was responsible. So when he saw when he was summoned before the king and the king threatened him, he didn’t, he’s not being audacious or arrogant. He’s just being confident and compassionate.
He felt he’s responsible to enlighten the king and then at the instruction that Haridas Thakur gave, we try to make sense of this in terms of the diagram. So the king, who was Muslim, he was operating under the paradigm of exclusivism. My way is the only way.
So that is one extreme. The other is pluralism is always are right. But inclusivism is like for going up mountain, there may be many parts of the mountain but that doesn’t mean all parts are right.
What it means is that there have to be a common purpose. So Haridas Thakur was telling, if I am left the bottom of the mountain from here, gone here and started going up from here, what’s wrong with that? Just trying to broaden his mind. It didn’t work but still he did his responsibility in terms of communicating to him.
And then his communication did have an effect but that was through later. The last I was intrepid. He was fearless and he was, we talked about when somebody is to be killed, capital punishment itself is bad.
But among all forms of capital punishments, flogging to that is probably the most painful and he was subjected to that and he remained unaffected. The miracle is not just that he remained unaffected, his body was protected but also his faith was protected. And then he acted as if he had died so that the guards would be saved.
And Jaidanth Mahaprabhu did not destroy the guards because Haridas Thakur was paying for them. And after that he came back again over there. And when the people and even the Muslims, king and others saw that he survived it all, he survived meeting in 22 marketplaces, he survived after being thrown into a river, then he said you must be a great saint.
It was something special. So most people need to see some miracles. So Prabhupada showed miracles in terms of transforming people into happies.
For us we can share wisdom but the miracle we can show is our own small transformation that can also be miraculous. So for all of us, we can pray to Haridas Thakur that these and many other illustrious virtues, devotional virtues that he has manifested, that he give us a drop of those virtues. He gives us taste for the holy name.
Even if we don’t have feeling, positive feeling for the holy name, at least let us have a positive grateful feeling for the chanting of the holy names. Even if we don’t have taste right now and gradually by that taste will come. And with the blessings of great Vaishnavas like Haridas Thakur, we all can develop the higher taste that can liberate us from material existence.
Thank you very much. Hare Krishna. Haridas Thakur ki Jai.
Thank you very much for joining today.