Authenticity Superficiality Purity – Understanding the difference

People in general want to know especially in the west whether you are authentic in what you are doing that means people are fed up with religious rituals being practiced just for the sake of the practice that means you go to a temple or go to a church just because it is your culture your tradition or just because without really examining or accepting the beliefs one just goes to the practices and when you are going through the practices also one is actually not really exploring something spiritual so that religion has become a bad word today spirituality is a good word um i was with bhakti marga maharaj in canada and he said there are especially if you want to preach to western people there is a there is a dirty dozen words which people don’t like to use word like sin hell preach preach itself is sounds to be like a very moralizing self-righteous word and one of the words there in that context also is religion somehow it has acquired a very strong negative connotation the word spiritual has a positive connotation but religion has a very negative connotation their ideas when we are somebody’s religious they are just ritualistic superstitious dogmatic um sometimes even irrational and violent with all such connotations um who would want to actually practice religion there’s a whole large group of people who self-identify themselves as sbnr spiritual but not religious the word spiritual signifies open-mindedness willingness to explore deeper aspects of life now when we strive to practice bhakti bhakti also has many many practices which we do on a daily basis and sometimes we do it because we don’t feel like doing it and even when we don’t feel like doing it we do it like we that is the whole meaning of sadhana bhakti we do it even when we don’t feel like doing it there is voluntary there is force like i say in a job we don’t feel like working over time am i audible to everyone in a job we don’t feel like working over time but we work because we are forced by circum by a circumstance you know we would not have that job we would be fired from the job if you wouldn’t work so that kind of work is um that’s that’s force and because today’s ethos is very much in terms of freedom so anything that conveys any kind of force is a strict no-no and when people people say that why should anyone be forced to do anything now sadhana bhakti is actually an activity of voluntary force we do often things not because someone externally is forcing us to do it although sometimes that kind of pressure may come because of devotee association but in bhakti we we learn to redefine external and internal superficial and authentic so now that means at a materialistic level or at a spirit not necessarily materialistic in a bad thing the spiritually uninformed level people think of superficial means you internally are thinking of something else but externally are making a show of something else so that sort of thing is is seen as superficially hypocritical and bhaktivinoda thakur and bhaktivinoda thakur would strongly condemn that they would say that somebody is a kalir chela kalir chela means a agent of kali a person wears the external garb of a garb of a devotee but then is is lustily searching for opportunities for sense gratification so we can see our existence at three levels there is the physical there is the mental and the spiritual at the physical level we do certain activities at the mental level if we are contemplating something else entirely krishna also says this is a person more than fooling the world krishna says they are fooling themselves krishna says both the person who is externally making a show of religious activities but is internally contemplating sense of duties that person is externally uh is is deluding the world but more importantly that person is oneself deluded why is that why are they deluded because they are not growing spiritually they are simply making a show and they’re fooling themselves though we may fool others in terms of making them think that um we are religious people but we are also fooling ourselves by thinking that in fooling others we are being successful because as long as we are not connecting with krishna uh we are actually being superficial and we are we are not going anywhere spiritually but anyway but the more important point which i was making is that beyond the emotional level beyond the mental level is the spiritual level and sometimes we understand the importance of something spiritual but at the same time our emotions don’t go along with that so that means if you consider three levels of existence um that physically say we are chanting mentally we don’t feel at all like chanting but spiritually we know this is important but somehow our feelings are not going along with it so this sort of practice of bhakti cannot be called as superficial because yes at an external level we are doing something which you are not feeling internally but the internal mind is also external to the soul so actually that feeling that i don’t want to practice bhakti that this is boring why am i doing this that itself is superficial to the soul and krishna says that in the bhagavad-gita in the 14th chapter when he talks about the three modes of material nature he says that we need to um that those people who have transited the modes they see whatever is happening in the um emotions even coming in the mind as superficial to them that they understand that this these different emotions that are coming in the mind sometimes i feel alive and sometimes i feel uh feel lusty greedy sometimes i just feel lazy so all these are just coming by the modes and they don’t affect me as the soul and therefore i will persevere no matter what i’m not they’re situated at the spiritual level they’re not shaken by the modes so in this sense actually if we consider that i won’t do something because i don’t feel like doing it what am i doing essentially by that i am that means i am going to do what i feel like doing and our feelings are often very fickle so and we feel like doing one thing today and we don’t feel like doing that same thing again tomorrow so if we simply do what we feel like doing that is being superficial the real substantial activity in life is to do that which a real authentic activity in our life we consider superficiality the opposite can be authenticity superficiality opposite can be substantiality so that which is opposite is that which opposite to superficial is that which actually resonates with our core so sometimes yes our actions and emotions may not be in agreement and if we totally identify with the emotions and we just do the actions for so that is superficial but going deeper sometimes our emotions may not harmonize with our intentions you say we want to do students may want to start to make their intentions to study for the exam but they don’t feel like studying so we want to practice some devotional activities but we don’t we don’t feel like doing it so there is an inner conflict between our emotions and our intentions and then being superficial means to go along with our emotions and let our intentions be sabotaged being substantial means sticking to the intentions that reflect the substance of who we are we are souls parts of krishna and krishna is the ultimate substantial principle so bhakti the way in bhakti the way to authenticity is by make not simply by doing what we feel like doing but by doing that way that which uncovers our authentic self and this difference between understanding of what is superficial and what is authentic that comes when we actually appreciate the philosophy the the three-level model of the self redefines our conception of superficiality and thus helps us to go deeper into so actually when we practice bhakti when even when we don’t feel like doing it we’re not being superficial we rather we are launching a two-pronged attack on superficiality to how two-pronged attack that is the emotion is coming from the mind but at our core at the spiritual level we have an intention that is an internal attack and externally we go we engage in the actions that action also becomes like an attack this true pronged attack on the on the superficial emotions i don’t feel like doing it but still i do it so i’m going to i’m determined to do this and i engage in it then what happens gradually those feelings decrease and that’s what krishna implies when he says that that which tastes like poison in the beginning will taste like nectar in the end so in the practice of bhakti if we are determined then even if we don’t feel like doing something gradually we start feeling like doing it and we will go we will relish the nectar of bhakti so to summarize when people say that i are that you are being superficial when you don’t when you do something which you don’t feel like doing and this is just doing extroverted is being being religious and actually exploring something is spiritual but the way to spirituality is to to study spiritual state is by steady practice of purification study practice of sadhana bhakti and yes today’s culture is against force or against force but what about because they feel force is against freedom but what about the force that grants freedom bhakti involves sadhana bhakti involves voluntary force which will grant us freedom from the flickering emotions of the mind so we with the gita’s model of the self we redefine superficial rather than thinking that the emotions internal are what we are and external actions are superficial we see that actually our existence three level body mind and soul and our emotions can also be superficial to the core of who we are that is the soul therefore by practicing bhakti even when we don’t feel like doing it we are not being superficial rather we are recognizing that the mind’s emotions are superficial and we are pursuing the path to authenticity to realizing who we are authentically as our souls by launching a two-pronged attack on the superficial emotions internally by persisting in our intention to realize ourselves and externally by engaging in the actions that will give us that realization so thus what tastes like poison in the beginning i don’t feel like doing it will gradually become like nectar where we feel like connecting with krishna and we realize that connection with