Austerity is meant to focus desire, not kill desire

​Bhagavatam class at Radha Kunjabihari Mandir, Pune

So, this verse talks about the severe austerities performed by Dhruv Maharaj in his attempt to see Lord Hari so that he could gain a kingdom bigger than not just his father’s but than what was available to anyone in his illustrious dynasty. So, the specifics of the austerity, what he ate in which month and how much he ate, how he cut down his eating, all this can appear very daunting and Shri Prabhupada in his purport makes it clear two things that we don’t have to imitate him thankfully and secondly he says at the same time we can remember that we are insignificant as compared to Dhruv Maharaj and the austerities that he performed and in spiritual life there is an ongoing tussle between staying encouraged and staying honest, what do we mean by encouraged and honest? Now, if we are honest we can recognise that we all have many anarthas, we all try to live up to particular standards and quite often we struggle and falter when we try to live up to those particular standards, so what happens if we just focus on how we are right now then it can be very dishonest, this is what I am right now but if I focus only on what I am right now then that honesty can be sometimes too brutal to tolerate, it can be too discouraging, you know I have practised bhakti for so long and still I have this conditioning, still I have this desire, still I have this selfishness, still I have this ego, still I have this, this is not going away, so if we focus only on honesty then we may feel maybe there is no transformation happening, there is no transformation that will happen and that can lead to discouragement and in our practise of spiritual life, encouragement is the fuel for bhakti, encouragement is the fuel that enables us to move forward in our spiritual life, we all need to be encouraged, our spiritual masters are there, our gurujanas are there, our shastra is there, the deities are there, at the same time it is we who have to push ourselves forward, others can pull us for some time but they cannot keep pulling us for long, we have to have the inspiration, the motivation, the conviction to move on and that rests on encouragement, especially when people are suffering from diseases that are incurable, now incurable diseases are not necessarily terminal, incurable means a disease which is going to stay lifelong, whereas terminal means that disease which is going to end life, so not all incurable diseases are terminal, but some people when they are suffering from incurable diseases, if that affliction by that disease, it saps their morale, it makes them feel that what is the point to life, then the chances of recovery, the chances of survival itself decrease enormously, often people feel that money is what we want in life, I want money, and people may argue even if you come to spiritual life, you need money to go to yatras, you need money to go to temple, you need money to give donations, yes, we need money, yes, money is important, but in a money centred culture, sometimes we focus on the price of things and we forget the value of things, so the price of things means what they cost, so everything comes with a cost, nothing comes free in life, so we focus if our consciousness is very money centred, then we focus on the price of things, but the price of things is often not equivalent or even reflective of their value, sometimes because of some aggressive propaganda, some product may be priced at a very high cost, and the product may actually be very cheap, so there is actual intrinsic value of the thing and there is a price of thing, so now when we start practising spiritual life, at that time the value of things is what you need to focus on, we talk about valuables, valuables refer to say if we go somewhere, we tell don’t carry your valuables with you, if women are there, maybe don’t wear gold earrings, somebody might snatch them off or whatever, so those valuables keep them in locker, keep them carefully somewhere, so valuables usually we think of them as tangible things, which are to be kept at some place, now valuables are actually related with our values, now values determine what it is that we consider as valuable, now money is certainly something which is valuable and that it is valuable is undeniable, but the problem comes when money is seen not as a measure of value, but as the only measure of value, when money is the only thing that is considered value, in the Bhagavad Gita chapter 16 verses 30 and 40, Krishna talks about the demoniac mentality, when people start thinking that this way I got this much money and this way I will get that much money, and that person is standing in my way, I will knock them off, it is destroyed. Now, actually, if we try to do some devotional inferencing, speculation is basically when it is not based on Shastra, but when we root ourselves in Shastra and try to connect things, that is Shastra Mulak Anuman, which is called as Vichar, so Pratyaksha, Anuman and Shabda, sometimes Pratyaksha is in a direct sense perception, Anuman is inference with the mind and Shabda is scriptural teaching.
So, sometimes we think that Shabda is right and Pratyaksha and Anuman are wrong, that is not exactly correct, but Shabda is the final authority, but Pratyaksha and Anuman are also operational authorities. Now, when we are working in life, man, not just we are working in life, when in the Ramayana, they had to search for Sita, so how are they going to search for Sita? They are going to Taksha, where can I see Sita, where can I see Sita? And they need Anuman, we saw Ravana going in the southern direction, that is why Sita was in the southern direction. So, Pratyaksha and Anuman are not wrong.
Pratyaksha and Anuman, when they tell us something which contradicts Shabda, that is when we have to treat them with a degree of suspicion, degree of scepticism, even then they need not always be wrong. Pratyaksha and Anuman on one side and Shabda on other side can give us different conclusions without necessarily being contradictory, they can just be seeing things from different perspectives. For example, if you consider in Harvard’s 5th canto Cosmology, that cosmology, it is not just not understandable through today’s scientific perspective, it is not even understandable from the traditional astrological perspective.
That means, when say Vishwanath Chakrathakur calculates the horoscope of Krishna or he calculates the horoscope of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. So, even our own Gaudiya Vaishnava Acharyas, who fully accept the authority of the Bhagavatam, even when they are calculating for astrological purposes, they do not use the Bhagavatam’s cosmology. Because the Bhagavatam’s cosmology is not meant for any practical purpose.
For that they use the Jyotishya cosmology. So, there are two different versions of cosmology talked about in our scriptures. One is the Bhagavatam’s and the other is the Jyotishya cosmology.
Jyotishya Bhastra is what is used for astrology. So, they use Jyotishya cosmology. So, the point I am making here is Pratyaksha and Anuman are not necessarily wrong.
Pratyaksha and Anuman can show us things from one perspective and Shabda from another perspective. So, when Anuman is going out in search for Sita, at that time he is primarily relying on Pratyaksha. Okay, jump across the ocean.
Before they jump across the ocean, at that time when Jatayu’s brother Sampatti, who is wounded, who is immobilised, he tells them that, oh, although my body has become weak, still my eyes are strong. He is a vulture or a hawk. Actually, he is not exactly a vulture.
But he is something like a Rudra Deepak. So, he is a Rudra Deepak, the chief of the vultures. So, he says, eyes are very strong.
And he says, although I am across this ocean and Lanka is on the other side of the ocean, I can see Sita there. So, again, what is he saying? I can see. And the Vanaras become jubilant on him.
Oh, you are able to see? Then if we go there, we are also able to see. So, here, Dhruv Maharaj also, what is he aiming for? He is aiming to see the north. And for that, he is performing austerities.
And while he is performing austerities like this, the purpose with which he is performing is not necessarily spiritual. It is at this stage, it is a material purpose. The material purpose is he wants a very, very big thing.
But whatever be the purpose, he has come to the Lord, that is the positive hope-giving message of the Bhagavad Gita. I started by talking about how honesty can be very discouraging, but just being encouraged can be very utopian. We may be cut off from the reality of who we are, if we start thinking that, oh, everything is hunky-dory.
No. So, the, if you see Dhruv Maharaj, Dhruva, he is actually a, now we use the word Dhruv Maharaj, but at this particular point, he is not Maharaj. He is simply a 5-year-old boy.
He is Dhruva. So, the word Maharaj can be used in two senses. One is as a respectful sense of address for one who has power over territory.
And it is also, that is the king. Another is the person who is very, who has not just conquered external territory, but who has conquered internal territory, that is the senses and the mind. And Dhruv Maharaj is exhibiting his sense conquest in that sense over here.
So, in the Ramayana also, there is this principle of the need for encouragement. When Sita is abducted by Ravana, at that time, Ravana initially thinks, actually his plan, one after another, after another, his plans go bust. He thinks that, actually, I am so wealthy.
I am so fabulously wealthy that what woman can refuse me. So, initially, when he approaches Sita, he has this whole plan. He has Maricha take Sita, take Lakshman away and then take Ram away.
One of his purposes, he wants to avoid confrontation with Ram because he knows Ram is powerful. But another reason is, he wants to allure Sita and he feels that if there is a fight between Ram and him, Sita will become hostile to him. If he kills, he thinks I will kill Ram.
If I kill Ram and Sita sees me killing Ram, she will become hostile to me. So, what he does is, when he approaches Sita, he has, he basically does three things. First, whenever a man wants to proposition to a woman, what he does is, he praises her beauty.
He lavishly praises her beauty. And then, what he does, he praises his own strength, his own wealth, his own prowess, his own universal conquests. And then after that, when a man is proposing to a woman.
Now, actually, all this proposition is completely wrong. Ravana has no respect for the sanctity of marriage. Sita is already married.
So, this proposition business is wrong itself already. But still, what he does, rather than treating Ravana as the husband of Sita, he treats Ram like another suitor. He says, Ram, he is a beggar.
Why do you want to stay with him? Come with me. And when Sita just scornfully rejects him, his mentality is completely money-minded. So, he just can’t process.
How can anyone reject like this? So, I think maybe she is just too infatuated with Ram. So, he abducts her forcibly. And as soon as he takes her to Lanka, what he does is, he takes her on a tour of his palace.
After she sees how truly wealthy I am, and not just bragging, I am actually wealthy. He says, you know, I got this necklace from here and I got this garland from here. I got the chandelier from here and I got this from there.
And he is just bragging and bragging and bragging. And Sita is not even paying any attention to him. He just can’t digest this.
How is it possible that I am offering her so much wealth and she is living in such poverty? How can she reject me? So, normally, in police enquiries, when they find a particular criminal is not ready to give answers. So, they have a strategy called as a good cop, bad cop strategy. Good cop, bad cop means what? There are two cops, both of them are working together.
But they act as having completely different needs. So, one cop comes along. Where is he? Where is he? Where you kept the stash? Who are your associates? Tell me.
I don’t know. Slap him. Slap him.
Beat him. Threaten him. No, I will cut off.
I will cut off all your fingernails and pull them out. I will slap you, slap you till the skin turns red. And then after he is shaken and battered, this bad cop goes away.
And then after sometime, the good cop, hey, what happened? What did you do? You know, if this good cop comes along. So, if I had been there, I would have stopped him. No.
So, I take this medicine, apply this medicine, I will help you apply it. And when he is doing this, you see, I want to help you. But this other person, he is in search of these criminals.
You give us some evidence, then I will make sure that you will beat him. And then he says no. And he goes away and again the bad cop comes.
And so, if both of them act bad, then this person steals themselves. And then they just get beaten up. But when they have these two, a good cop and a bad cop, then it is a time tested strategy that the person weakens.
And the person weakens. So, what he did was, he told Sita, he wanted Sita actually to live in his own palace. But Sita said that I am with my husband Ram and Ram is being told, Ram is living in the forest.
So, I will not live in any palace. So, keep me in a forest. Ram himself was very strict about this also.
After Ram had Sugriva enthroned as the king, Sugriva told you come and stay in Kishkindha with me. He says no. My sentence is not just to live outside Ayodhya, it is to live in a forest.
So, Ram lived in the Kishkindha forest and Sita lived in the Ashokavatika. So, while Sita was living in Ashokavatika, at that time, they had this good cop, bad cop. So, what he had, he had some, Ravana had some demonesses who were hideous looking.
Now, they had horns coming out at all twisted angles from their heads and some tooth coming out and their bodies were distorted, their bodies were all distended. So, they were, you know, if the Yamadutas came in female form, they were something like that. This is just scary even to look at.
And they would go and threaten and they would say, Ravana, he is simply impatient with you, but if he wants, with one blow he can kill you and next moment he will consume you for breakfast. They all threatened her so much and she would threaten, threaten, threaten. And then he had some other Rakshasis.
One of them was, who was, Trijata, he was Vibhishana s wife and others, they were told to be good cops, but they were truly good cops. So, what happened was, they just, they were supposed to encourage her, console her and tell her also to persuade her to surrender to Rama. But over time, many times there was this illusion.
So, from Sita, we see Dhruva Maharaj here fasting very honorously, fasting with great austerity so that he can see the Lord. Sita was also living in a state of great austerity to see her Lord. There are, of course, many differences between the two, but the point of austerity, the point of austerity is not self-torture.
The point of austerity is self-transcendence. Self-torture means, I just beat myself up, beat myself up, beat myself up. There are, especially, there is one sect of the Muslims who do the self-flagellation.
They just beat themselves up. So, that history goes back that one of the descendants of Muhammad Ali, he was supposed to be protected and they were all supposed to go and protect him at the time of the war. But they all chickened out and he was brutally killed.
And because they let him die, they atone for that by beating themselves now. So, now, this kind of self-beating oneself up, that is, in English, it is called masochism. Masochism means to get some kind of pleasure in causing pain to oneself.
Sadism is the opposite of that, that is to get pleasure in causing pain to others. So, Murgari was a sadist in one sense. He got some perverse pleasure in seeing how the animals meet a very torturous end.
So, but when we practise tapasya and bhakti, the point is not masochism. It is not that we cause pain to ourselves and in that pain we get some pleasure. The purpose of austerity is to focus and fortify our desire.
The purpose of austerity is to focus and fortify. Fortify means to strengthen, to intensify our desire. Now, our desires keep going in so many different directions.
There was one survey done. Nowadays, a lot of people are concerned about obesity. So, a lot of awareness goes into eating and dietary choices.
So, people were asked, how many food-related choices do you make every day? Should I eat this or should I eat this much or should I eat this that much? So, on average people said around 15 choices. But actually when they went over the day, they found, this is in America, they found they made 217 choices. Because there are so many choices that happen below our conscious awareness.
I see an advertisement, maybe I should eat, maybe I should not eat it. There is a debate that goes on. Or we see somebody else eating something, then maybe I can purchase that and eat that also.
Especially if you go to a hotel, then there are so many things over there. We are eating something, but we are often quite caught in seeing who is eating what, who is eating what. And then there are so many choices just go on in the mind.
So, how many choices and desires go on in the mind. So, all these desires, they distract our consciousness. And we may not even be aware of this at a conscious level.
At a subconscious level, the desire is going in that direction, the desire is going in that direction, the desire is going in that direction. And that way, the desire gets dissipated. Dissipated means it gets wasted.
So, desire is actually the soul’s great power. This bhakti process, Prabhupada writes in a parapon that bhakti is not meant to kill desire, it is meant to cure desire. And if the desire is cured, that means it becomes healthy.
And healthy means it becomes strong. So, our desires presently are caught in this and that and that and that and so many things. So, when we perform austerity, if we focus on what I am not going to do, I am not going to eat this, I am not going to watch this, I am not going to touch this, I am not going to do this.
So, if we focus only on what we are not going to do, that causes pain. And Krishna uses the word also, pain. In 2.15, he says that when we don’t indulge in sense gratification, it appears as if our senses are starving.
So, that is not the focus. The focus is in bhakti to fix the consciousness of Krishna. And when we cut off other channels, okay, all ekadashi, I am not going to eat any grains, then all the dissipation of desires that is happening on that day, that does not happen.
And then when the dissipation of desire does not happen, the desires have to go somewhere. So, then that desire becomes concentrated on Krishna. And thus the longing for Krishna increases more and more.
Now, in the case of Dhruva Maharaj, he was trying to create that longing for Krishna and process it or channel, funnel it through his austerity. In the case of Sita, it was not that she was consciously performing austerity. For her, it was simply that life itself was pointless without Ram.
Now, even if she was offered some good food, what’s the point of it? I don’t want to eat this. And she was living in simple fare and wearing simple dress and living in like a mendicant basically. She was living like ascetic, a female ascetic.
And through it all, her longing for Ram was increasing more and more and more. And it was that longing for Ram which kept her alive. She would long ago have given up her life.
In one, there are many striking similarities between the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Many differences also, but there are many similarities. And one of the similarities is in the mood of the Gopis in separation with Krishna and the mood of Sita in separation from Ram.
So, when Sita was separated from Ram, she was longing for him. And in her longing, what was happening was, through her fervent desire, the longing was becoming stronger and stronger. And in that longing, she was experiencing the presence of Ram.
And if we see, one of the most beautiful sections of Ramayana is called Sundarkand. And in Sundarkand, some people say one of the names of Hanuman in his childhood was Sunda. And that’s why this is called Sundarkand.
Another understanding is that the beauty of devotion is manifest in this kind. Actually, in this whole Sundarkand, Lord Ram is practically absent. Ram in the beginning gives Hanuman an instruction to search for Sita and he gives his signet.
And at the end, he comes back. At the end, Hanuman comes back and tells that Sita has been found. But apart from that, Ram is not there.
But the climax in terms of emotional intensity that happens in Sundarkand, when the consort of Ram and the servant of Ram, they meet each other. Both of them are separated from Ram and then both of them meet. So, for Sita, it’s a tapasya.
It’s a tapasya that she is separated from Ram. And she intensifies her longing for Ram in that separation. And then Hanuman comes there and eventually, after some time, Ram himself comes over there.
And then there is a reunion. So, the austerity, there is the principle and there is the practise. The principle is that the austerity is meant to focus and fortify our desire.
We want to make our desire for Krishna stronger. It is going in so many different directions. You focus it on Krishna.
And in the specific practise, which will enable us to focus the desire, that can make. So, for us, it means simply we don’t have to fast like this. We can simply fast on Ekadashi.
And Ekadashi also, we don’t have to fast fully. We can fast at whatever level is comfortable for us. But the point is, we have to, our source of austerity, there is in the process of bhakti, there is standardisation and there is individualisation.
I will conclude with this point. And then we can have some question answers or comments if there are any. In the process of bhakti, there is standardisation and there is individualisation.
Standardisation means that there are certain standard practises, we chant the holy names, we come to the temple, we study the scriptures. All this is the standard process of bhakti. And this is important.
At the same time, now if I have a machine gun, now I have a machine gun that is very good. But if there is a thief, I have to point the machine gun at the thief and shoot the thief. Just keep shooting everywhere.
There may be a chance that the thief will be hit. But it may take a long time. So, in the process of bhakti also, the remembrance of Krishna, the chanting of the holy names, it’s like the machine gun.
And if you just keep chanting, we will become cleansed. But if we are also aware, what is the thief that is stealing our bhakti? What is the specific anartha that is troubling me? And then we direct our practises towards countering that anartha. Then that is like using the machine gun specifically to shoot them.
So, we all have to find out what are the things that take our consciousness away from Krishna. It is not the same for everyone. Broadly, things can be similar.
But for somebody it can be money, somebody it can be food, somebody it can be prestige, somebody it can be fame, for different people it can be different things. So, we find out what it is that takes our consciousness away from Krishna and then we combat that. So, that is the individualisation of the process of bhakti.
And in the Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu, there is a term used which is called uddhipan. Uddhipan is actually spiritual stimulus. So, uddhipan means that something that stimulates spiritual emotion within us.
So, for example, if I find that whenever thoughts of money come up, I get very agitated. Then what do I do? I do not think about money? That is not possible. We have to think about money.
We live in this world, we have to think about money. We have to earn money, we have to deal with money. But then when the thoughts get too agitated, I need to redirect my thoughts towards something higher, towards Krishna.
Then we find out within the broad process of bhakti, what it is that quickly takes our thoughts towards Krishna. And that will be our uddhipan. So, for example, some people it might be just, they find kirtans.
I can immediately absorb my thoughts. For some other people, it may be shloka recitation. For some other people, it might be darshan of deities.
Not just deities, maybe some particular darshan of deities you might be able to connect with very well. So, we find out how it is that we are able to connect with Krishna. And we treasure that.
So, if you find a particular darshan, when we see that particular darshan, we feel very attracted. We keep that in our phone, keep that with us constantly. And whenever we feel agitated, pray to take darshan and pray to that particular form of Krishna.
Or if you find some particular verses inspiring, we memorise those verses or keep those verses with ourselves and repeat those verses. So, by this, we try to channel our consciousness towards Krishna whenever it is rushing away towards worldly things. And in that way, we can make sure that while living in this world, we are not swept away by the world.
We do not have to renounce the world and perform austerities the way Dhruv Maharaj is performing over here. But while living in the world, if we keep ourselves in the process that takes us towards Krishna and find out specifically what are the things that channel our consciousness towards Krishna, then we can move onwards steadily. And that connection with Krishna which we have through particular persons, that will keep us encouraged and ensure we will not get discouraged when we have problems.
We will all have problems. But if we can connect with Krishna in some way, then we feel, ah yes, this gives me security, this gives me strength, this gives me some satisfaction. Then I connect myself, I absorb myself in Krishna that way.
Then you feel the process of bhakti works. By that, we can elevate our consciousness. And as our consciousness gets elevated upwards, then the problems which are there in life, the problems may still remain.
But they do not appear so Herculean. Now, if I am in front of a 100 story building, I seem like a tiny dwarf in front of it. But if I am in an aeroplane above that 100 story building, the 100 story building is still that big only.
But now it appears small. So like that, when we are not connected with Krishna, problems appear huge. But when we connect ourselves with Krishna through the standardised as well as the individualised process of bhakti, when our consciousness rises up, when the consciousness rises up, then from there we can see that actually this is not such a big thing.
This will be dealt with. So for Dhruv Maharaj, things start off from a very wrong thing. Now his father pays no attention, his stepmother actively derides him, his father neglects him, and his own mother admits helplessness in helping him.
You can catastrophically think of anything worse for a small child. And yet through it all, what is going to happen? Something wonderful is going to happen. He is going to get darshan of the Supreme Lord.
So it is said that God can ride straight even with a crooked line. Even if the line is crooked, God can ride straight with it. So that is what the Lord is going to do through Dhruv Maharaj.
And although things have gone so terribly wrong for him and right now also he is going through a lot of austerities, but eventually things will work out wonderfully for him. So in some other case, I started by talking about how he is performing so much austerity and then we see scriptural standards which are very, very high, then we may get discouraged. So bhakti means we have to balance between honesty and encouragement.
If we only focus on how I am right now, with brutal honesty, that can be very discouraging. But if we only focus on everything is nice, then we do not work on our Narakas. And the way we balance between the two is basically by focussing on Krishna.
And in that connection, I discussed in the Ramayan of how Ravana he tried to seduce Sita and the way he tried to allure her was by bragging off and showing his wealth, but Sita was not at all interested. Then he used the good cop, bad cop attitude. So I talked about the good cop, bad cop thing, because that is how the mind sometimes works.
Now good cop means everything is alright, now you are following bhakti for a long time, now just relax a little bit. And you relax and then you are smashed. Bad cop means actually you are good for nothing.
You are not practising bhakti, you are just making a show. Anyway, you are not going to get purified. That is how there is an explicit attack and there is an indirect attack.
In both ways, the mind tries to get us down. But then if we stay connected with Krishna, the purpose of austerity is not self-torture, but self-transcendence. Self-transcendence means at the level of material consciousness, the self is either too proud of oneself or too sorry for oneself.
But we transcend this duality and we focus on Krishna. And austerity is meant to focus and fortify our desires for Krishna. Normally our desires get dissipated to so many things.
I talked about how subconsciously there are so many food choices which we keep making, which we are not even consciously aware of. So like that, when we decide certain things I am not going to do, all those choices get shut off and then we can focus more on Krishna. And I conclude by talking about the standardisation and the individualisation of the process of bhakti.
Just by practising the standard process, we have to see what are my conditions. And like a machine gun needs to be used not just to do some random shooting, but to shoot the enemy like that. We use the machine gun of bhakti, of the remembrance of Krishna to counter our specific anarthas.
And we find out what is our uddhipanth, what is it that quickly takes our consciousness towards Krishna. And we have that and we can move steadily towards Krishna while even being in this material world, because we will be in the flow of bhakti even when we are in this material world. Thank you very much.
Are there any comments, questions? Or you can repeat the question, I will repeat the question. Thank you very much for a nice presentation on this one. This verse comes timely because we are not preparing ourselves for the auto-illusory direction.
So, with respect to that, which is new, you mentioned that, actually, seeing through this particular pastime way, as it is progressing, like Guru Maharaj kept on improving, month by month, he kept on improving his level of austerity. Apparently, Narada Puri did not give any such instruction. He just gave general instruction, as you said, the standards of devotional service, the deity worship process, pranamam bhagavata vasudeva, chanting and all that.
But it was Dhruva who made a conscious effort to improve himself. So, that means that he himself endeavoured towards that particular direction. So, I want to know that as we are also moving ahead, as years are passing, so what is the impetus for an advancing sadhaka to advance towards the level of his austerities, so that he also keeps on improving? Because many of the austerities cannot be imposed but inspired.
So, then what is that inspiration by which we can keep on improving in our samadhi? So, here we see Guru Maharaj kept increasing austerity, although Narada Puri did not instruct him to do that. So, how can we as sadhakas also keep increasing our austerities? So, all of us need to choose our battles. We all have many battles to fight.
Now, I can say that I can improve my chanting, or I can improve my Shastra study, I can improve my devotional relationships, or I have this service, I want to do more in this service. Now, if we try to improve everything, it will become such an unbearable burden that we will not even maintain what we are doing. The burden will crush us.
So, we may have to choose, this is the battle which is the most important for me, this is the battle which I will fight. And what that battle will be, that is up to the individual. Once we are following the basic standards of bhakti, then which particular aspect of bhakti to intensify further? Some devotees may get a lot of strength by their chanting, some others may get by Shastric study, some others may get by being with devotees and counselling them and guiding them, whatever.
Different devotees may get that in different ways. So, the point is that we cannot keep stretching ourselves infinitely. The body and mind are made in a particular way, they are machines, and machines cannot be stretched beyond a particular limit.
So, there is, I was in Australia last year, so I met Gurujan Prabhu, this year also I met him, so we are continuing the same discussion more or less. So, Gurujan Prabhu told me that he is an introvert, I am also an introvert. So, introvert means people, it is not that they do not like to meet people, they cannot meet too many people, the social stamina gets exhausted.
So, I told him that is it that, Gurujan Prabhu for those of you who do not know, he is a very senior spiritual master in our movement, he has written classic commentaries on the, very nice commentary on the Bhagavad Gita, he has written a commentary on the Bhagavatam also. So, I asked him that is it that as we advance more and more, we transcend our nature? So, is it that say if a devotee is introvert, by practising bhakti for 40 years, is it an introvert will become extrovert? So, he told me actually, in youth, you have the passion to fight against your nature. As you grow older, you lose that passion.
So, that means, actually, for a devotee, as we become stabilised, initially, what happens in the passion is when Rajoguna is there, we want to achieve something and whatever it takes to achieve, I will do it. Whatever level of difficulty it is, it does not matter, somehow or the other, I will do it. But after some time, when you start practising, you start realising, okay, there is some sort of struggle, some sort of agitation, that is not worth it.
I go through so much trouble and what is the end result of it? We feel this battle is not really worth fighting for. So, we all gradually learn which battles are worth fighting for this. Now, I am not talking here in terms of defying anyone s instruction.
We are talking about a situation where we have been allocated some services and we are doing those services, but in terms of our own individual growth, what do we do? What do we focus on? So, we find that certain battles, fighting them is not just worth it for us. And some other battles we find that is really worth it. So, in a sense, he says, what I understood from his talk was that we, as we become purified, as we keep practising bhakti, it is not that we reject our nature, but rather, we connect more and more with Krishna through our nature.
So, we understand that I am different from my nature, but at the same time, I understand this is the nature that I have. So, I use it to connect with Krishna more. And so, you could say it is like, it is austerity within one s comfort zone.
What that means is that somebody is a Brahmin, that person likes to study. And on average, they study for 4 hours. But someday they do not, now they study for 8 hours.
That is austerity within their comfort zone. So, we all, when I am using the word comfort zone, I am not using it in a negative sense that of complacency and lethargy, but simply in the sense that that is something which you are comfortable with. So, for example, now we are sitting for class, say I am sitting to give class and you are sitting to give class.
Now, if I say that, you know, I will sit in a position that is very uncomfortable for me. Now, if I sit in the uncomfortable, maybe I can tolerate the pain, but that will simply be distracting. Now, within whatever situation we are, we try to sit as comfortably as possible, so that we can focus on something else.
So, that we can focus on the discussion of the philosophy that is going on, something similar. So, our nature becomes like the natural launching pad for taking our consciousness to a solution. So, if we observe ourselves, we, by observing ourselves, we learn that okay, these activities give me spiritual strength.
After doing these activities, I feel stronger, I feel stronger, I feel happier, I feel pure. And then those are the activities which we focus on. So, if we, one of the easiest ways to make oneself very insecure in bhakti is to associate with those whose standards are different from ours.
So, for example, if somebody is full into distribution, and we do not distribute books and we associate with them constantly, I am doing nothing. I am doing nothing and the mind is so cunning that from you are doing nothing, the mind says you are nothing. So, that is why Rupa Goswami says that, that you have to have like-minded devotee association.
So, that way, what is our nature, we learn gradually with the practise of bhakti. And nature does not necessarily have to be Brahman Satyavarshan. It can just be, this is what I naturally feel comfortable with.
And within that, we can become more austere, within that, we can become more focused. So, that is how in Mahaswami understanding, we can raise our standards of practising bhakti. We cannot just conform to some external standard and try to just rise higher, higher, higher.
That external standard is important for some basic practises so that we are doing that. But beyond that, when it is up to individual practise, Prabhupada also writes an introduction that once one has come to the mode of goodness, then how to advance further is revealed from within. Does that answer the question? Thank you very much.
Yes, sir. Thank you very much, Pallavi ji. Pallavi ji, I have this doubt.
Many times we feel encouraged to do austerity. Because austerity apparently seems to be a hard activity on the body, but it brings the quality of the soul. So, the mentality of being austerity to the mind is there.
But then the problem is, we feel very encouraged to do austerity. And when the time comes to do austerity, the mind feels discouraged. The mind no more wants it.
So, how to deal with this discouragement as a dire need, the time when actually austerity is needed? So, when we actually have to do austerity, the mind starts saying no, no, how to deal with that. See, one of the best ways to deal with the mind is to have someone other than us, give us a second look at the mind. That means what? If we have any kind of committed activity that we are going to do.
I will talk a little bit, I am currently writing a book on the mind and Bhagavad Gita or mind as understood psychology and Bhagavad Gita’s conception of the mind. So, I will talk a couple of terms from psychology and then I will bring them to Bhagavad Gita. See, in de-addiction, people may be addicted to drugs or alcohol or whatever.
In de-addiction, one of the fundamental tenets that they say a person has to become free from addiction is they say you should have an accountability partner. An accountability partner means that somebody to whom you are accountable. So, if I get an urge to drink, if X is alcoholic and X gets an urge to drink.
Now, if I say no, I am not going to drink, I am not going to drink, I am not going to drink. So, that is just to say no, no, no, it is very difficult. But if they have an accountability partner, then just call them in front.
I am feeling very strong about that. Then, when X is over, remember, make this resolution like this, this, this, this, this. And then just getting that second person’s perspective helps.
And even if somehow the person has a relapse, but at least after that, do not cover it up, tell them honestly. And by that also, the next time you think, oh, I will have to tell this to them, okay, no, I did not feel so bad. And what happens is, if we just keep things between us and the mind, then the mind becomes like a black hole that sucks everything inside.
Everything, whatever resolution that we make, whatever determination we have, whatever purification that we acquire, all of that will be sucked in. But if we have some accountability partner, then that creates a distance between us and the mind. So, if you are going to make some resolutions, then it is all some to perform austerity, we do not have to go and broadcast the resolution to the whole world.
But we can surely tell it to some friends and not just everyone, even if we have one friend who can act as accountability partner for us. And then they are saying, you are planning to do this, how is it going? Actually, it is not going well, but now I will try. So, that accountability partner helps a lot.
That is the first thing. And so, for the accountability partner, basically, it can be our counsellor or it can be some devotee friend also, whom we understand and who understands us. The second is, we need to understand our own triggers and our own barriers.
Trigger means that different people, their desires get triggered by certain things. So, if I have made a resolution not to do a particular thing, then suddenly I may feel like doing it. But at that time, I may just have to battle to not do it.
But afterwards, if I look back and think what triggered the desire. So, we all have our triggers. And if we can identify those triggers, then we can keep a distance from those triggers.
So, for example, some alcoholic is there and then they know that if they party with their friends, maybe in a particular mood or a particular time or a particular setting, then that is when the desire to drink comes. And you know this is a trigger, try to avoid that trigger. So, all of us also have, no matter how fallen we are or how elevated we are, we have certain inner limits that we will not cross.
So, for example, say I will not lie to my spiritual master or I will not lie to this so and so person or I will not do this. Now, all of us, we have certain limits which we will not cross. And certain other limits we might cross also, maybe sometimes you have to speak like this, you have to speak like that, we will do that.
So, we should know what are the barriers that we will not cross and then bring those barriers between us and that particular temptation. See how that can be brought in. So, we have to find out, Prabhupada talks about a sense of honour.
A sense of honour means that if I make a word, I will keep it. So, we have to find out what it is that can act as a good barrier for us. So, that if we find out, that means, ideally speaking, we should never do immoral things, we should never do anti-devotional things.
But there are some things which we are wishy-washy about, sometimes we are loose about certain things. But there are certain things which are like absolute principle, this is something which I will never do. So, we find that out and try to use that in the process of work.
So, by having an accountability partner and by finding out our triggers, keeping away from those triggers and finding out our inviolable barriers and making sure that we stick to those barriers, that will help us in sticking to our resolutions. Okay. Thank you.
Yes, Mataji, you had a question. Yeah. You can come.
We will come back to you later if you have time. Hi Krishna Mataji. Sorry, I missed your lecture in Hindi.
Sorry. Yes, Mataji. Yeah, missed.
You can ask in Hindi. I will try to help you. You gave a very good lecture.
Your whole lecture had two lines. Please explain it in Hindi. And I have listened to your lecture.
All the Hindi articles for the whole week, since we have started, all the articles have been good. So, I did not understand, that is why I did not understand. Thank you very much.