Beyond sentimentality to sentiments
Disclaimer: This transcript was generated using AI and may contain occasional errors or inaccuracies.
Thank you for the kind and elaborate introduction. My long introduction only shows my big false ego. And excuse me for that.
We're happy to be there. I'd love to speak to you all with all of you. So today, since Gaur Purnima is coming up, I was planning to speak on the topic of sentiments and sentimentality.
Based on, especially the teachings and the example of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. So, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is considered to be the Maha Vatanyaya Avatar, the supremely merciful incarnation. He has descended to this world to give the highest gift to the most unqualified people.
In India, IITs are considered top colleges. So, now to get into IIT requires students to be excellent in their studies. Suppose somebody comes and says that the doors of IIT are open for any and every student.
Anybody can get admission over there. That would be extraordinary. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is giving us access to the highest realm of the spiritual world and he's opening it up to everyone.
You will see who is qualified, who is not qualified, what is the right place, what is not the right place. Normally, if there is a wealthy person and that person is charitable, that is good. If you go to a wealthy person who is charitable, that person is likely to give a lot of charity.
But if that wealthy person is not just charitable but is extremely happy, at that time that person will give even more charity. If that person is not just charitable and happy but is just maddened with happiness, then that person will not even be aware what I am giving and may give even the most precious thing to everyone. So the Supreme Lord Krishna is like a wealthy and charitable person.
He always gives freely to everyone. Prahlad Maharaj says in his press, So he says, my dear Lord, what difficulty is there for you to free people from material existence? Because you, just by your desire, you create the material world, you maintain the material world, you destroy the material world. So for to destroy the bondage of one condition, so that is no difficulty for you.
You can do it any moment. But he says that you don't do it because we don't want you to do it. But we try to express our desire by serving your servants, then you will surely free us from bondage.
So the Lord himself is very merciful. Prahlad Maharaj there uses the word, normally we talk of the Lord as Bhakta Vatsala. He is the lover of his devotees.
But Prahlad Maharaj out of his transcendent humility says that my dear Lord, you are not just Bhakta Vatsala, you are Krupana Vatsala. He says you are merciful not just to the devoted, but even to those who are miserly. You are devoted to them also.
You are beneficial, not devoted, you are beneficial to them also. So this is the Lord who is by nature very merciful. But when that same Supreme Lord, he takes on the mood of Srimati Radharani.
He is Krishna. He takes the mood and the complexion, the disposition and the complexion of Srimati Radharani. And in Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu's life, he just as he evolved physically in his Leela, his names also evolved.
He was born with the name Nimai or Vishwambhar. When he grew up and became a scholar, he was called Nimai Pandit. When he started into sannyas later, he got the name Shri Krishna Chaitanya.
Now, when later on he started manifesting extraordinary ecstasy, at that time people understood that who he is actually. That he is the Supreme Prabhu who is manifesting the supreme bhava of Srimati Radharani. The bhava means emotion.
And there are various levels of emotion that are demonstrated by various devotees. The topmost, the zenith of all such emotions is demonstrated by Srimati Radharani, which is called as Mahabhava. So, when the Mahabhava is demonstrated by the Prabhu, then he becomes Mahaprabhu.
That is how Shri Chaitanya, Shri Krishna Chaitanya, he got the appellate, he got the title Mahaprabhu. And then he was celebrated as Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Now, Shri Prabhupada explains in the teachings of Lord Chaitanya that Shri Krishna Chaitanya, this literally can be translated into English as Krishna Consciousness, Chaitanya is a variant of Chetana.
So, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, his name was Shri Krishna Chaitanya and he was also personified Krishna Consciousness. Whatever he would do, wherever he would go, especially in the later half of his life, he was constantly conscious of Krishna. Not just conscious of Krishna, but absorbed in Krishna.
So, such a supreme personality of Godhead, when he tastes the love of Srimati Radharani, normally when there is a relationship, say there is A, there is B, and there is a relationship between A and B. And even if there is a loving relationship, the two people in that relationship, they are tasting that relationship from different poles of the relationship. Say a man and a woman love each other. The man is on the male side, the woman is on the female side.
A mother loves her child. The mother is on the older side, the guardian side. The child is on the ward side.
So, in any relationship, there are two sides. And the persons, based on where they are situated, they experience the relationship differently. So, the same person when he is a child and he experiences a relationship with the father.
That is the father-son relationship where he is the son. But when that same person grows up and he has a son, then he experiences the father-son relationship, but at that time he is at the level of the father. So, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, he is Krishna himself.
And as Krishna, he is experiencing the devotee-lord relationship from the side of the lord. And he finds that he is getting happiness, but actually he finds that his devotees are getting far greater ecstasy than what he is getting. And he says, how is this? He says, sabasukh sagar sabaguna agar.
He says, Krishna is said to be the reservoir of all happiness. So, how is it that others are experiencing happiness more than him? Krishna feels as if in this relationship of the devotee and the lord, he has been deprived. He feels that the devotees are getting the better end of the relationship.
So, suppose something, to give a rough example, suppose there is a patriarch, a father, who passes away and he gives his inheritance to two of his children, say two sons are there. And he has two companies and one company gives to one son, second company to the other son. Now, if one company is working very well and is prospering, the other company is, well, in other words, bankruptcy.
Second son may feel, why did I get this company? He may feel that I got a roddy in the inheritance. So, similarly, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu here feels that, actually, in the relationship with the devotee, I have got the poordy. My devotees are gaining greater happiness than what I am gaining.
So, how is that? Actually, Krishna's Karajaswamy explains this in his Chaitanya Charita Amrita that Krishna is Prema Vishaya. He is the object of love. Whereas Radharani is Prema Ashraya.
She is the reservoir of love and Krishna is the object of love. So, if we have a lamp and the lamp shows light to others. So, if there is a lamp here, then the lamp will give light everywhere.
But underneath the lamp, there will not be light. There will be darkness. The light will go everywhere, but underneath it, there will be no light.
So, similarly, Krishna, he gives light to everyone. His happiness radiates out to everyone. But he does not get that much happiness.
So, because of which, Krishna desires to enjoy, he wants to taste the relationship from the other side. He wants to take the role of a devotee. And thus, when he comes to Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, he experiences ecstasy of the kind he has never experienced before.
And when he experiences such ecstasy, at that time, he feels. He just becomes repeatedly, the word that is in the CC is Prem Onmad. So, Onmad is madness.
Prema is love. Prem Onmad is the madness of love. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu just becomes mad in love for Krishna.
And in that madness, whoever comes in contact with him, he just blesses them with the treasure of love of Krishna. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's magnanimity is actually a result of his mania. He is so intoxicated, so maddened by love, that he is not even aware who is in front of him.
Oh, I am his relation, this, you also taste this. And he just blesses them with that supreme love. So, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's purpose and perfection of his descent is to elevate everyone to the topmost levels of loving ecstasy.
Love is actually a very commonplace and at the same time, very mysterious phenomenon. Most people talk about love as a feeling. Love, something just happened to me.
In movies, they often show that a boy sees a girl, a girl sees a boy. And they say, you know, there's love at first sight. Yes, there may be some feelings that come at first sight, but the relationship will depend not on what is the feeling at first sight, but relationship will depend on what is the feeling after many sights.
So, a stable relationship requires not just the feelings to be there initially. Yes, there may be feelings initially, that's okay. But the feelings need to be sustained.
And for the feelings to be sustained, there are certain choices to be made. In the Bhagavad Gita, in 17th chapter, Krishna talks about the austerity of the body, the mind, our speech and the mind. And in that, he says that satisfaction, satisfaction is an austerity of the mind.
Now, we often say, I'm feeling satisfied. Or we may say, I'm not feeling satisfied. So, in this case, we treat satisfaction as an emotion.
And it's true, satisfaction is an emotion. You may feel satisfied, you may not feel satisfied. But satisfaction is not just an emotion.
Satisfaction is also a decision. Satisfaction is also a decision. What does it mean? Suppose, I'm having a feast.
And I've got a nice feast, there's puris, pakoras and there is a sweet. But then, if instead of looking at the feast that is in front of me and relishing that, I look at all the other items that are there. And if I keep my eyes on that, what is going to happen? No matter what I have, I'm going to be dissatisfied.
Suppose, to extend this example further, that suppose, say there is a program after which there is a feast. But it's a special kind of feast where everybody has got different items. So, you have a feast, he has a feast, I have a feast.
But all of us have different items in our plate. And we, instead of looking at all the items in our plate, we're looking at everyone else's plate. Hey, he has that, she has that, I don't have that, I don't have that, I don't have that.
Now, although we have a lot, we will be dissatisfied. In this case, if we want to avoid dissatisfaction, what we need to do? We need to focus on what we have. So, if we focus on what we have and we see, this is also tasty, this is also wonderful, then there will be satisfaction.
So, the emotion of satisfaction will come when we make the decision of satisfaction. The decision of satisfaction means, yes, this is what is there in my plate. I'll not look here and there and everywhere for what I have.
I'll focus on what I have. So, satisfaction is not just an emotion that happens. Satisfaction is an emotion that can also be chosen by a decision.
By the decision to look at and focus on what we have and to not look and focus at what we don't have. Just as satisfaction is a decision and the emotion follows a decision. Similarly, love is also not just an emotion.
It is a decision. The whole process that Shri Shaitanya Mahaprabhu gives. So, we are talking, I give the example of love at first sight, about how relationships happen in the material world, the material life.
But just as the sustenance of a relationship requires that the feelings be cultivated, not that the feelings just happen. So, similarly, for the relationship with Krishna to be established, the feelings have to be cultivated. So, the difference between sentiments and sentimentality.
Sentiments are desirable. Sentiments are essential. In fact, the whole process of bhakti is a process of developing sentiments.
It is a process of learning to feel attracted to Krishna. So, sentiments are desirable and essential. But sentimentality, that means we are just puppets of our emotions.
If I feel like coming to the temple, I will come to the temple. If I don't feel like coming to the temple, I won't come to the temple. If I feel like chanting, I will chant 64 rounds.
If I don't feel like chanting, I will not even chant one round. So, our mind goes up and down. In geometry, there are sine waves.
Sine waves keep going up and down, up and down. So, like that, our mind keeps going up and down. It is attracted to one thing and it is repelled from that thing.
Sometimes we are chanting and sometimes we are chanting, chanting. We take out the beads. Are there 108 beads or has somebody made 1008 beads over here? It is not getting over.
Mala doesn't seem to be getting over only. So, what happens? Because this is basically that our mind sometimes gets hooked into certain negative perceptions. So, sentimentality means we are just driven by our emotions.
And sentiments are in that sense, if we consider a vehicle, in a vehicle, there is the driver who is sitting in the vehicle. And then for the running of the vehicle, there is a fuel. And with that vehicle, we will go to a particular destination.
So, now, how should the vehicle work? The vehicle should have some fuel. Then the driver should be able to expert, should be expert enough to know how to drive the car, say, to the destination. So, when we are practicing bhakti, we understand that sentiments are our destination.
If we consider that we are going on a path, we are driving on a car, then when we are driving on the car, sentiments are our destination. We do want to feel attracted towards Krishna. We want to be not just attracted, we want to be absorbed in Krishna.
But sentimentality means that, that which is supposed to be the goal. We make that into the fuel. So, we drive the car.
For driving the car, we need fuel. So, the fuel for our motion, if that is only our emotion, then sometimes our emotions will take us towards Krishna. And sometimes we just take a U-turn.
And we'll go in the opposite direction. And again, we'll take a U-turn. And at our level, how things work is, yes, Krishna is good.
But Maya is also not bad. So, we sometimes go this way, sometimes go that way. And in that way, we don't move forward.
So, A, sentimentality means, that which is meant to be the goal, we make that the fuel for the journey. So, now, sentiments are something which we develop gradually by the practice of bhakti. We can't have sentiments right now.
And the Bhagavad Gita explains that our current inner life is subject to the three modes. When I read the Bhagavad Gita for the first time, this concept of the modes was one of the most fascinating things I read. So, what exactly is the modes? Most of us probably would not have heard the word modes in a philosophical context, mode of passion, mode of living.
We have that sort of things. But what is this modes? What we do know is the moods. We all have our moods.
Sometimes I feel like doing something, sometimes I don't feel like doing something. So, what is it that causes our moods? The Bhagavad Gita explains that is the modes. So, the modes are among various things.
The modes are subtle forces that shape the interaction between consciousness and matter. Modes are subtle forces that shape the interaction between consciousness and matter. That means, say, if people are in a theater and they are watching a movie, and suddenly there is a fire, fire.
So, different people will react differently. Some people who are in Tamil Nadu, they will just get petrified, fire. They will get frozen completely, incapable of doing anything.
Some people are in passion, they will become panicky and they will be a stampede. They will all run towards the door to escape from it. Many times in crowded places, when there is some threat or there is some danger, the bigger danger is not just from the fire, it is often from the stampede.
So, in the anxiety to rush out, just charge on others, others fall down and others stampede on them and go on. That causes a lot of casualties unnecessarily. So, people are in passion.
So, Krishna describes in the Bhagavad Gita, So, he describes prakasha as the characteristic of goodness, pravrtti as the characteristic of passion and moha as the characteristic of ignorance, 16.21, 14.21. So, what it means is in ignorance, there is neither illumination nor action. There is just delusion. In passion, there is action without illumination.
That means we do something first and then we think what should I have done. Whereas in goodness, there is illumination first, then there is action. So, a person in goodness will say, oh fire, let me look, where is the fire extinguisher? Person go towards the fire, even if everybody is running in one direction, that person go to the fire extinguisher and extinguish the fire.
So, they say some people make things happen, some people watch things happen and some people wonder what happened. So, that is a rough correlate of goodness, passion and ignorance. So, the people in goodness, they think and they make, let me do this, let me do this, think and do, they make things happen.
People in passion, they want to do one thing and they try energetically to do one thing. But because they are thoughtless in doing that one thing, they make this mistake, they make that mess, they make a complication there. This is going wrong, that is going wrong, that is going wrong, what is happening? And others are just in a state of stupor.
What happened, they do not even know. So, the point is that at our level right of consciousness, our emotions are often determined by the modes. And at this stage, if we make the emotions or the sentiments the fuel of our bhakti, then because the emotions keep changing, we will not be able to move forward in our bhakti study.
Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, when he was in Vrindavan, Vrindavan was the most cherished goal of Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. From the moment he manifested devotion to Krishna, the first time he had darshan of Krishna, Kanaya Natya, at that time he desired, I want to go to Vrindavan. But somehow various circumstances restricted him.
And when he took sannyas, at that time also he wanted to go to Vrindavan. But still he was restricted because Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu said, Vrindavan is so far away. If you want to go to the place where Krishna is, then please go to Jagannath Puri.
Jagannath Puri is practically like a next door home for us. It's just two rooms in the same house. So, I will always keep getting your news.
Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, although a sannyasi, he obliged his mother. And he gave up his cherished dream of going to Jagannath Puri. Of going to Vrindavan.
And we see that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's sannyas is described, hinted at, is described in the 17th chapter of the Adilla, the first, last chapter of the Adilla. And then, after that, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's travel to Vrindavan is described in the 16th, 17th, 18th chapters. So, in between the 15 chapters happened, several years passed, actually before Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was able to go.
He is constantly longing to go to Vrindavan. And in fact, there also the devotees stop him in various ways. So, in the 16th chapter of the Adilla says, Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu plans to travel to Vrindavan.
But the devotees say, please wait for Athyatra. Lord waits for Athyatra. Please, there is one more festival.
Wait for that festival. And one more festival. One more festival.
And like that, the devotees delay him for two years. And finally, Lord Chaitanya says, if I keep listening to you, you will never allow me to go. He says, please, I beg a charity from you.
Please let me go. Then they allow. In one chapter, thereafter I describe, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu travels to Vrindavan.
That's the 17th chapter. And the 18th chapter is, Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu actually in Vrindavan. So, the background I am giving for all this is, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was constantly longing to be in Vrindavan and to see Krishna.
So, even when he was going to Vrindavan, it is said that he is Sarva Krishna Maya Jagat. The whole universe was filled with Krishna for him. And that's why, wherever he would see, if he would see a river, he would think that the river is Jamuna.
If he would see any hill, he would think that the hill is Govardhan. If he would see any forest, he would think it is Vrindavan. He was completely absorbed in thoughts of Krishna.
There is one person, when I was telling this past time, he asked a question. He said that if Chaitanya Mahaprabhu thought a forest to be Vrindavan, then does that mean that he committed a mistake? He is God. How can he commit a mistake? So, I explained that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu saw that forest as Vrindavan, but he did not stop there.
He still continued to go to Vrindavan. So, what is it? When we consider the realm of Bhakti, more important than factual accuracy is transcendental absorption. So, it is not that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu forgot that there is a Vrindavan that I am supposed to go to.
But the fact is, his anticipation of seeing Vrindavan was so great that the internal anticipation came out as external perception. Sometimes there are people who are mad alcoholics. You know, every bottle they think it must be alcohol bottle.
So, people, when they are very, very addicted to something, in the material world also, they interpret everything according to their mode of perception. So, this, of course, is a distortion of reality. But in the case of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, it is the most elevated reality.
In the material world, when people strongly desire something, they interpret everything to support their vision. So, once there was an anti-alcoholic campaigner and he wanted to inspire people to give up alcohol. So, he would give a lot of talks, but still people would keep drinking.
So, he said, now I will do a demonstration. So, he gave a fiery talk and he said, now I will demonstrate to you how dangerous alcohol is. And he brought a bottle of alcohol and he had trapped a small insect in a box.
He just opened the box and flung the insect into the bottle. And the insect wiggled around for a few moments and then it just sank down, the bottle dead. And he looked at people.
He said, so, what does this imply? So, the implication was clear to all the people. None of them wanted to admit how dangerous alcohol was. They just started looking around.
There was one alcoholic who was smiling brightly. So, what do you learn? He raises his hand. He says, when I drink alcohol, all the germs in my stomach will die.
So, actually, our intelligence is driven by our desire. Our intelligence is driven by our desire. So, if we have a very strong desire for something, we will interpret everything in accordance with that desire.
So, atheists sometimes ask, say, if God has provided rains so that we, humanity, can have water. Then they ask, why has God provided rains in the ocean? So, the ocean doesn't need water. So, why has God provided rains over the ocean? Yes.
The one supreme law maintains everyone's desires. The desires, kaman, the word is not used here, means. Krishna doesn't just maintain everyone according to their needs.
Krishna maintains everyone according to their desires. That means that if somebody wants to be an atheist, Krishna provides them reasons to be an atheist. So, why has God provided rains on the oceans? So that atheists can ask this question and stay atheistic.
Say, if there is a room and if there is a big house in which one room is unclean and all the other rooms are clean, then what will we understand? Now, there is somebody who is maintaining this house. But for some reason, that person has not maintained this particular corner of the house. Isn't it? Now, the presence of order requires an order maker, order establisher.
So, if a room has 20 rooms and 19 rooms are well maintained, one room is not well maintained. To point out that one room and say, therefore, this house has no order maintainer. Now, that is being obtuse to the extreme.
Because look at all the other 19 rooms. So, maybe that 20th room was kept unclean for some reason that we don't know of. So, like that, God in this world, there is so much order in so many aspects of life.
But if there is some lack of order in some aspects of life, that is because Krishna, he gives room for people to be atheists, if that's what they want to do. He gives room. So, if somebody wants to truly follow the evidence where it leads, one can very easily infer the existence of a transcendental intelligence.
But if one wants to be defiant, one can do that also. So, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, we are discussing how, when he is observing everything and seeing everything in connection with Krishna, what is happening in his case? His desire for seeing Krishna is so strong that he is seeing everything in connection with Krishna. Now, what is the difference? Somebody may say, a person who wants to drink alcohol, that person sees everything in connection with alcohol.
And a person who wants to see Krishna, that person sees everything in connection with Krishna. Now, is there any difference? Yes, there is a big difference. Because the connection with alcohol is simply an imagination.
Because the whole world is not connected with alcohol. But the connection with Krishna is an understanding of reality. Because everything is actually connected with Krishna.
Every single thing in this world, whatever it is, it is all connected with Krishna. Srila Prabhupada, in one lecture, he says that, if you can just see this connection with Krishna of everything, even if you are not able to practice bhakti, we will advance in our devotion and we will start practicing bhakti. And he gives an extremely provocative example for this.
He says, Krishna says, rasoham kshikante, that I am the taste of water. So, now he says, you can generalize that it is liquidity, that the taste of all liquids comes from Krishna. So, even the taste of wine comes from Krishna.
So, Prabhupada says, if there is a drunkard who is not able to give up drinking, somehow, if the drunkard just thinks that this taste of this wine is Krishna, then he says, just by thinking like this, the drunkard will one day become a great devotee. Now, it is not that, Prabhupada is very careful, he is not saying that by drinking wine, he will become a great devotee. He is saying, by thinking of Krishna while drinking wine, he will gradually start realizing, okay, this wine gives me some pleasure, but thinking about Krishna gives me greater pleasure.
So, that means, there are certain things in this world which make us Krishna unconscious. We may, there may be some people who look very beautiful and seeing them, we get into maya and forget Krishna. All of us have our own favorite brands of maya.
What attracts us, each of us will vary from object to object. So, now, whatever attracts us in this world, if we can see where is the attractive potential of this coming from, it is actually coming from Krishna. So, now, in the Ramayana, when Ravana comes to kidnap Sita, actually, his initial intention is not to kidnap Sita.
Why? Because he knows that he has been cursed because of which he cannot forcibly violate a woman. So, he wants to, he wants to persuade, he wants to seduce Sita. And that's why he goes to this whole plan.
He thinks that maybe if I fight with Rama, I can kill Rama. But if in front of Sita, I kill Rama, then Sita will be so upset, she will be so angry, she will not accept me. Therefore, he wants to have Rama sidetracked.
And that's why he sends Maricha to lure him away. And then after that, when Sita comes in front of, when he comes in front of Sita, he uses a three-pronged strategy to try to seduce Sita. First thing is, he brazes himself.
He says, I am the king of the Rakshasas. I have a whole kingdom that is made of gold. There is no one in the universe who has as much wealth as I have.
You know, he thinks Sita is just like an ordinary woman. You know, if she says, the man is very wealthy, he will become attracted to her. And second thing, he realizes Sita is not at all impressed by all this.
So, then he starts criticizing Rama. He says, what has this Rama given you? What has this Rama given you? Because you married him and you are living in a forest because of it. And he says, even after 14 years, what is the guarantee that you will get the kingdom back? No, Rama has no army.
Bharata has the army. If he doesn't give you the kingdom, what will you do? So, he tries to create insecurity. He doesn't even think that Sita is actually already married to Rama.
So, he has no respect for the sanctity of marriage. Third thing he does is, he tries to flatter Sita for her beauty. If a woman is praised for her beauty, then she will become more amenable to me.
So, he uses a very interesting way of glorifying Sita. He says, he first describes her beauty and then he concludes, no Sita, I think that after the creator made you, he must have retired. Because he cannot make anyone more beautiful than you.
So, the interesting thing that struck me when I read this is, that even Ravana recognizes that he did not make Sita's beauty. There was a creator who made her beauty. But he is thinking the creator made her beautiful for me.
So, this is the self-centered mentality. So, he is thinking of the creator, but he is not thinking of the creator in a sense of being the person to whom everything should be offered. He is thinking of the creator as the provider of enjoyable objects for me.
So, you know, Krishna, he performs pastimes in the spiritual world and he plays his flute. And he plays his flute to invite us all to come and join his pastimes in the spiritual world. But the conditioned soul, he tells Krishna, I want to perform pastimes here and you come here and assist me in my pastimes.
I want to do this, I want to do that and you help me in that. So, Ravana was thinking that Sita is created so that he could enjoy in this world, he could perform pastimes here. So, the thing is that he was seeing Sita, he was in the proximity of Rama.
But still, what happened? He was not Ram conscious, he was not Krishna conscious. Because he was seeing the beauty separated from the source. So, to see the connection of the beauty with the source, that is Krishna consciousness.
So, we are discussing here about how Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, he was filled with transcendental sentiments, wherein, whatever he would see, he would see Lord Chaitanya, he would see Krishna over there. And yet, although he was filled with sentiments, he still remembered, yes, this is not Vrindavan, I have to move on towards Vrindavan. And finally, 18th chapter in the Madhya Lila of Chaitanya Charitamrta describes how Lord Chaitanya comes to Vrindavan.
And then he is completely flooded with ecstasy over there. Constantly, just waves of ecstasy that are flowing through his body, raising him to higher and higher levels of spiritual emotion. And when Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is seeing Krishna everywhere like this, at that time, his servant, Pallabhadra Bhattacharya comes, and he says that, I have heard, I have heard that Krishna is giving darshan on Kaliya every night in the Yamuna.
And I want to go and see Krishna. Now, it is described, the same Chaitanya Mahaprabhu who is actually seeing Krishna everywhere, when Pallabhadra Bhattacharya says this, what does Chaitanya Mahaprabhu do? Premera chapat, slaps him. He says, what happened? He says, why have you become a fool? He says, you are a learned pandit, you are a brahmana.
How are you believing all this nonsense? Don't you know that Lord Krishna doesn't descend in Kali Yuga? Why do you believe in such things? So now, it's amazing that Pallabhadra Bhattacharya is right with Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and despite being with him, what happens? He gets captivated. He says, but I want to go and see. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu says, nothing to do it.
And then, after a couple of days, then some other saintly people come to meet Lord Chaitanya. And then Lord Chaitanya, when Pallabhadra is still hearing, he says, people are saying that there is Krishna on Kaliya in Yamuna. Have you heard about it? He says, yeah, yeah, yeah.
He says, we have investigated and we found that actually there was a fisherman and the fisherman was fishing in Kaliya. And because it was cold, so he was putting a blanket on his head. And he was also using a torch.
So people thought that the blanket was the hood of Kaliya and the torch was the jewels on his hood. And he was in a boat and they saw that the boat is the body of Kaliya. So, they were laughing.
I look at Pallabhadra, Pallabhadra became very impressed. So, here we see, even when Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is filled with spiritual ecstasy, where he's constantly seeing Krishna, still he doesn't get carried away by sentimentality. Rather, he protects Pallabhadra Pattacharya from the path of sentimentality.
So, I'll conclude with one or two pastimes of Srila Prabhupada. And we can have a few question answers. Actually, Prabhupada, he was in Vrindavan, the highest abode.
And that was a time when India was quite pious. And many elderly people would leave their homes and go to some holy places like Kashi or Shikesh or Vrindavan and they would reside there. And the Brajivasis thought that Prabhupada is also like that.
And here they would see this Bhaktivedanta Swami. First he was Abhay Babu, then he took sannyas, then Vrindavan. And he was Abhay Babu.
At that time, he would come to Vrindavan and keep going out. He would come to Vrindavan and keep going out. They thought, what is this? He's come to Vrindavan, he'll stay here.
But then, when he became a sannyasi from Abhay Babu, he became Bhaktivedanta Swami. At that time, they thought, now he's taken sannyas, now he's renounced the whole world. But then they found, still he was going out again.
He used to regularly go to Delhi to print back-to-world and to distribute back-to-world. And then finally, they came to know that he's planning to go to America. And actually, many people came and actually dissuaded Prabhupada.
And they said, Swamiji, the perfection of life is to die in Vrindavan. You're already old. If you go at this age to America, what will happen? Why do you want to lose the fortune of leaving your body in Vrindavan just to go somewhere else? Even Sumati Maharaj, who sponsored Prabhupada's ship journey, she said to Prabhupada, Swamiji, you are so old and America is so cold.
So, Prabhupada firmly insisted. He said that more important than where we die is for what we live. My spiritual master has given me a mission.
And that mission is to share Krishna Consciousness all over the world. And for that purpose, wherever I go, if I'm following the instruction of my spiritual master, my spiritual master is with me and Krishna is with me. And wherever I am, that is where Krishna will be.
So, Sri Prabhupada, he, to external vision, left Vrindavan in 1965 to go to America. But actually, we may take a pure devotee out of a dham, but we can never take the dham out of a pure devotee. So, Prabhupada did not leave Vrindavan.
Prabhupada carried Vrindavan with him. And he carried Vrindavan and wherever he went, if there were receptive devotees, he blessed them, he empowered them and he had Vrindavan manifest over there. And there, the transcendental glories of Krishna, transcendental glories of Gauravatai, they manifested.
This is the 50th anniversary of the establishment of ISKCON. And all over the world, we are celebrating this. So, I have written a small book about Sri Prabhupada, the moments that made the moment.
In that book, I describe how Sri Prabhupada, with a transcendental vision, went continent to continent to continent, like a commander who wants to conquer more and more land. So, Sri Prabhupada first went to America. And the SO Prabhupada was asked one time, he said, his godbrothers, they had gone to England.
So, why did Sri Prabhupada go to America? So, Prabhupada, there were different reasons at different times. One reason, of course, was that by that time, by the 1960s, in 1940s, before the Second World War, Britain was still a big power in the world. It was ruling a large part of the world.
But after the Second World War, America became the major power in the world. So, Prabhupada naturally wanted to go to America. Prabhupada gave another reason.
He said, he said that my godbrothers had gone to England and they had failed. So, Prabhupada said that if I am, there was a chance that he could also have failed. He said, if I am going to fail, let me try in some other place and fail.
So, Prabhupada, he went to America first. And far from failing, he succeeded. He succeeded spectacularly.
Then he went to, he sent disciples to England and then he went to England. Then he brought disciples to India. From India, he went to Russia.
And Russia actually was not allowed to preach. The KGB was constantly watching him. And still, one young man came and met him.
And through that one young man, Prabhupada shared Krishna Bhakti with everyone. Then he came here to Australia. And when Prabhupada came to Australia, at that time, he realized that he did not have much time.
He would often say that I am an old man, I may leave at any time. So, he, when he installed the deities in Australia, he made an extraordinary prayer. It is something unprecedented in Vaishnava history.
Normally, devotees are trained to take care of the deities. Prabhupada installed the deities and he told the deities, you take care of the devotees. You give them the intelligence by which they will take care of you.
When we talk about risks, for example, if we are practicing Bhakti and if we go in non-devotee association, there is a risk that we may fall. That is a valid risk for us. For great devotee like Prabhupada, they are so advanced, for them there is no risk of falling.
But they also take risks. The risk they take is trusting those who may not be trustworthy. They are entrusting them.
Prabhupada entrusted young devotees to represent him, to share his message. How they would share, how well they would share, he could not know that. And still, he entrusted them the responsibility.
And that was actually because of his compassion. Actually, Prabhupada was so compassionate that somebody would say, this is metaphorical, but that was the mood when Prabhupada's disciples were sharing their memories, that, you know, if somebody told Prabhupada that, you know, I have lit one matchstick in my life, Prabhupada would say, okay, you take charge of the lighting department of the temple. So, Prabhupada received a small spark of desire to serve.
One of Prabhupada's disciples, Hayagriva Prabhu, he wrote that, we had written probably some articles, read some magazines, and Prabhupada told them, you run back to old magazines. He said, Prabhupada, we have never done anything except read a magazine. How can we run a magazine? So, Prabhupada, he told them, you pray to Krishna, we will guide you.
So, he says over there that, this was the potency of Prabhupada, that when Prabhupada told us, you pray to Krishna, he will help you, we felt that Krishna was the reality and Krishna would really help us. So, you know, I have one of my friends in another Vaishnava lineage, he says, you know, you Hare Krishnas, you got it all wrong. He says, you know, Radha, you have a double honorific for her.
You have Srimati and Rani. Srimati Radha Rani. But for Krishna, you have no honorific.
No Bhagwan Krishna, no Sri Krishna, no Param Purushottam Krishna, just Krishna. He says, how is that? So, actually, Prabhupada wanted us to develop a personal relationship with Krishna. And that was a speciality that, yes, Krishna, he did give us the philosophy by which we understood Krishna is God.
But there is an idea that God is not just remote, high up there. God is a living, loving person with whom we could relate. And, of course, he, as far as Radha Rani is concerned, the concept of the love between Radha and Krishna there is often very misunderstood.
And people have often a mundane conception of Radha. That's why Prabhupada used the double honorific. Srimati Radha Rani.
Don't think of her as an ordinary female. She's a supreme goddess. So, there is Lakshmi Devi, who is the goddess of fortune.
The Gopis are all greater than the Lakshmi. They are the super goddesses of fortune. And Srimati Radha Rani is the supreme goddess of fortune.
She's the highest. So, the point is, Prabhupada made Krishna very personal and accessible and relishable for us. And this was his magnanimity.
So, the same magnanimity that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu gave all over the country, Sri Prabhupada spread it far and wide all over the world. And it is by his mercy, as he is manifesting Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's mercy, that we all have the opportunity to practice and share Krishna Bhakti. So, the second point again of Sri Prabhupada's focus, not being driven by sentiments, not being driven by sentimentality.
When Sri Prabhupada came to Mayapur once, to some of his godbrothers, unfortunately, they were critical of him. Prabhupada went, he didn't go to the, he just passed straight by the yoga pit and he went to the temple of the Chandrodaya Mandir. Some of his godbrothers criticized, you have come to the dham of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and you did not come where Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was born.
What is this? So, Sri Prabhupada came to know about it. He said, where Lord Chaitanya appeared is not as important as why Lord Chaitanya appeared. He said, it is at the Mayapur Chandrodaya Mandir that the prophecy of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, that his holy name will spread afar and wide all over the world.
That is, it is from here that it is being fulfilled. This is not to minimize. Yes, if you go to Mayapur, we should go and take darshan of yoga pit.
But the point is that a devotee doesn't let one's bhakti be just wavered here and there by sentimentality. Devotee focuses on the principle of commitment. You know, if you are committed to serving Krishna, the sentiments will all come gradually.
And if you are not committed to serving Krishna, then the sentiments will come today and they will go tomorrow. They won't last for long. So, the essence of a relationship is not the feelings that we experience in the relationship.
It is the giving, it is the sacrificing, it is the doing that we do in the relationship. Srila Prabhupada's example was of that sacrifice. You know, Krishna plays his flute and the gopis give up everything and come to Krishna to serve him.
Similarly, Srila Prabhupada, the gopis, they gave up everything for Krishna's sake. So, similarly, Srila Prabhupada, what did he do? You know, he was a sannyasi. He was a person who was living in Vrindavan.
But because Chaitanya Mahaprabhu wanted the holy name to spread all over the world, Srila Prabhupada did sarva dharman parityaj. He gave up Vrindavan. He went to places where sannyasis were traditionally not roped just for the sake of fulfilling Lord Chaitanya's prophecy.
That is Srila Prabhupada's supreme sacrifice. So, he demonstrated that devotion is manifested not so much through a show of emotion as it is through dedication. So, when we are dedicated to Krishna, the emotions will automatically come.
But if we stay on emotions, then we will not have dedication. The emotions will also go. So, by striving for dedication in our service to Krishna, we will become purified.
As we move closer and closer to Krishna, as we come closer and closer to the goal, then deep transformation and fulfilling emotions will enrich our heart, flood our heart. And those emotions will eventually take us to the Supreme Lord Krishna. So, I'll summarize.
I started by talking about how we discussed in the topic of the difference between sentiments and sentimentality based on the pastime of Lord Chaitanya. So, sentiments are the gono bhakti. If you are going in a vehicle, there is a fuel, there is a car, there is a driver, and there is a destination.
So, sentiments are the gono bhakti. We want to be absorbed in love for Krishna. But sentimentality means we are driven by sentiments.
And we make sentiments the fuel of our bhakti. So, if we are driven by sentiments, then today I feel attracted to Krishna, tomorrow I don't feel attracted to Krishna. And then our bhakti journey, instead of being a straight onward journey, it becomes continuously u-turns.
Sometimes we go towards Krishna, sometimes we go away from Krishna. Then we discussed why presently our emotions keep going up and down. That's because our emotions are influenced by the modes.
So, the modes are subtle forces that shape the interaction between consciousness and matter. And they impel us to behave in particular ways, depending on which particular mode we are in at a particular time. So, we discussed how emotions are not just things that happen to us.
Emotions are the things that we can choose, that we can cultivate. Satisfaction is not just an emotion, it is also a decision. Similarly, love is not just something that happens.
Love is something which can be cultivated. And not just love at first sight, there has to be love after many sights. Then the relationship will go on.
So, that means with respect to our practice of bhakti, we need to, sometimes we feel very nice and sweet and devotional when we come to the temple. But that should not be the primary motive why we come to the temple. Our motive should be that I want to become purified.
And then these emotions will come more and more. So, we stay committed in the process of purification. In that connection, we discussed about Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's pastimes, where lifelong he was longing to go to Vrindavan.
And even before he came to Vrindavan, everywhere he was seeing Krishna. And then in that connection, we discussed how our intelligence is driven by our desires. And we interpret reality according to our desires.
So, people who are attached to something, they will see everything in relationship with their desires. But when people see everything in relationship with worldly objects, that is an illusion. But when we see everything in relationship with Krishna, that is illumination.
That is actually enlightenment. Because everything is intrinsically connected with Krishna. That same Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was longing to go towards Krishna constantly.
Even when he comes in Vrindavan, he is not carried away by the sentimental idea that, Oh, Krishna is giving darshan in Vrindavan. No, he chastises and then he corrects his own servant at that time. So, we saw that Prabhupada was not driven by sentiments.
Oh, I am an old man, I should always stay in Vrindavan. No, he considered Vrindavan is present where we are serving the most important Brajwasi in our life, that is our spiritual master. And that's why he travelled all over the world and he manifested Vrindavan wherever he went.
And his example was devotion is shown, not in the show of emotion, but it is in dedication. So, Prabhupada was dedicated to sharing Krishna consciousness all over the world. Similar to the sentiment of where Lord Chaitanya appeared, that is not as important as why Lord Chaitanya appeared.
So, if in our practice of bhakti, rather than feeling, we focus on giving, on committing ourselves to Krishna, giving ourselves to Krishna and his service, then enriching emotions of devotion will fill and flood our heart, not just occasionally, but as we become purified constantly. Thank you very much. Are there any questions or comments? Yes.
Okay. Good, interesting question. So, do the moods cause our moods or the moods cause our moods? Okay, there is a symbiotic relationship between the two.
First of all, we need to understand another example to say what are the moods actually. The mood that you could consider, the different moods are like, say different default programs in a computer. So, say if you want to surf the net, there are different browsers, there is Safari, there is Firefox, there is Chrome, there is Opera, whatever.
Now, each browser has its own features. So, rough example, I will modify the example as we move onwards. But so, if we choose a particular browser as our default browser, and whenever you click any link, automatically that browser will open.
We do not choose that browser at that time, we just click on the link, that browser gets opened. And then all our further browsing will happen through that browser. So, like that, you know, we have a particular default mood.
And whatever thinking we do, that is shaped by that mood. So, most of thinking, so if I am primarily in the mode of passion, then I will see almost everything in terms of gross material things, you know, wealth, sensuality, power, position. So, everything I will see from that filter.
So, all the desires, so the any desire coming in our mind, that is like a clickable link. As soon as the desire is clicked, we contemplate the desire, all our subsequent thinking will happen according to the mood that we are by defaulting. So, all of us have a default overall mood.
But within that things keep changing. Sometimes it will be more in goodness, sometimes more in passion, sometimes more in ignorance. So, now here, what is the initiator? Is it our mood that is the initiator or is it the mood that is the initiator? It can work out both ways.
That means if we see that sometimes desires come into our consciousness from outside. Sometimes we see some object and then we desire. Sometimes we see something delicious and we think I want to eat this.
And sometimes from inside our consciousness only desire comes. I want to eat this. So, sometimes in the 11th candidate described, sometimes the sense objects allure the senses towards the sense of, sometimes sense objects allure the senses.
And sometimes the senses are prompted to go and search for the sense objects because the desire comes internally. So, that means when we are talking about our moods, so if the desire is stimulated from within, from the past impressions that we are in, that we could say is our mood. It is by my mood, I went and do a particular activity, then I get into passion.
That is possible. But it is also possible that sometimes we are exposed to certain things. You know, we go into a passionate area and then we go to the passionate area.
Sometimes you go to a supermarket and then we go to purchase one thing and then we say maybe I can purchase this also. Maybe I can purchase this also. Just like there is alcoholism, there is another form of addiction which is called shopaholism.
Shopaholism means we just cannot stop shopping. Say shop till you drop. That is their idea.
So, what happens there? There I may go with a particular purpose to purchase one thing, but then the circumstances create the desire within us. The circumstance is passionate and the moods create the mood within me. So, it can work both ways.
And that sometimes the moods within us cause us to go and act in particular ways which subject us to certain moods. And sometimes the moods around us, they create certain moods within us. Is that clear? Yes.
Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? You explained that we should use the example that he gave, sentimentality as the fuel for a car.
So, in that way, how do we connect that to our practice of bhakti? Okay. So, I mentioned that we should not have, we should not have sentimentality as the fuel for our practice of bhakti because then we will have to keep making u-turns. But then when we have to practice bhakti, we do need sentiments.
So, how do we do that? Yes. Sentiments at our stage are also valuable. They are gifts from Krishna.
So, for example, if we come and take darshan of Krishna and we feel very devotional, that is a blessing from Krishna. Now, what becomes the problem is, if we base our bhakti on those feelings alone, those feelings don't come in, what is the point of practicing bhakti? We start thinking like this. If we get devotional feelings, that's wonderful.
And whenever we get devotional feelings, we need to cherish them. We need to treasure them. Then our mind has this tendency that if we engage in sense gratification, and the memories of sense gratification, the mind stores very prominently.
And that's why if we see some sense object, we go into instant samadhi. I'm so lost in it. But when it comes to Krishna, even after great effort, we don't go into any samadhi.
We struggle. That's simply because the mind is habituated to sense objects. So, we use the word inclination.
Inclination, it is also used in a physical sense, that if a road is inclined in a particular way, then water will flow on that way. So, by our repeated past indulgences, our mind is inclined towards sense gratification. That's why our thoughts naturally go there.
But by the practice of bhakti, consistent practice of bhakti, our mind will eventually become inclined towards Krishna. That will take time. But that's what purification is all about.
Now, within this stage of purification, whenever we experience devotional emotions, we need to cherish and treasure them. That means that maybe we can write it down or we can consciously recollect it. So, for example, sometimes we are chanting and we just feel completely dry in bhakti.
We just don't feel like chanting. At that time, if we remember past, when actually we had taste to chanting, when we really felt empowered, sometimes we chant and we feel Mahamantra is coming out and we feel resonant power at the time of chanting. So, we can remember those incidents, treasure those incidents.
And if we go for yatra and we get some very special experience, then we can write them down in some diary or something like that. Just like when we have sweet memories, we click photos of that. So, like that, sometimes when we have exalted emotions, if you write it down, then that is like a verbal snapshot of our mind.
A verbal snapshot of our mind's elevated emotions, whenever it is experienced. And then we can draw on those memories to push ourselves onwards in bhakti. Along with that, there is also the concept of uddhipan, which Bhakti Samyukta Sindhu uses.
Uddhipan means spiritual stimulus. So, all of us, we need to find out what is it that stimulates spiritual emotions within us. And we can find that out and do that more.
Some of us may like kirtans a lot. Then, you know, whenever we feel a little down in bhakti, we try to sing more kirtans, hear more kirtans. Some of us may like some darshan of the deities very much.
We can keep those photos with us constantly. Whenever we feel down, we can look at them. So, now the uddhipan for each of us may be different.
Because all of us are individuals. So, I, whenever I take darshan of the deities, if I can recite some prayers at that time, some verses, I feel connected with the deities. I can think, oh, this is the Lord of Glory I'm talking about.
And that Lord is manifested over here. So, once I spoke this in a class, when we take darshan, we can recite prayers. And then that way we can connect with Krishna.
And after that, one devotee came back after a couple of days and he said, that, you know, when I go in front of deities, that if I try to recollect a verse, that causes so much tension that all my bhakti goes away. So, the point is, what is a uddhipan for me may not be a uddhipan for someone else. That is, finding out what is our uddhipan is our personal responsibility.
Sometimes, some devotees sing kirtan in such long, twisted, ecstatic tunes, that then their kirtan is more a performance than a participation. It is observed. They get absorbed that way.
But if others think, I have to sing kirtan like this, they will not get absorbed that way. So, we all have to find out what it is that is our uddhipan. What are our spiritual stimuli? And we need to cherish those and cultivate them, have them ready at hand.
So, we can kindle some spiritual emotion. And that way, we do need emotions also for moving onwards in our bhakti. But emotions should not be our primary fuel at our stage.
Our stage of bhakti is called as vaidhi bhakti. Vaidhi means that we practice bhakti based on the vidhi, the instruction that we are getting from our spiritual master. So, we practice bhakti based on the instruction that we get from the spiritual master.
And the instruction, we need to use our intelligence to understand and become convinced about it. Then we practice it. But along with that, we do need emotions also.
Even if they are not there constantly. So, whenever there are emotions, we cherish them. And we try to maximize those emotions.
But sentimentality would mean that if there are no emotions, there is no practice of bhakti. Whereas sadhana bhakti means emotion or non-emotions, I practice bhakti. And whenever there are emotions, I am grateful for that.
Does it address your question? Thank you. Any other questions? Yes. So, what is the problem with aversion with sense objects? Actually, attraction and aversion are both essentially phases of material consciousness.
We are experiencing material emotions. When there is attraction, then that means there is attachment. Because this will give me pleasure.
And there is aversion. This is not giving me pleasure. That is aversion.
Now, both are very body-centered, self-centered visions of things. So, for example, sometimes people say that we are in love with each other. And I can't live without you.
Sometimes those same people who are initially madly in love, then they come close to each other, they start living, they start finding out, you know, this person has this problem, this person has that problem. And they say, earlier they say, I can't live without you. Now they say, I can't live with you.
Just go to the other extreme. This is what raga and visha. But they have this extremity, their emotions are extremely, moving like this extremely, and one cannot have sustainable relationships.
So, both of them are phases of material consciousness. And the whole message of the Bhagavad Gita is to rise to spiritual consciousness. So, we are not enamored, what the Bhagavad Gita asks us to do is, not be enamored that the world will give us pleasure, nor be disgusted with the world, thinking that it will cause me misery.
There are broadly three attitudes towards the world, the attitude of karma, the attitude of jnana and the attitude of bhakti. The attitude of the karma is to romanticize the world. That means, oh, there is so much pleasure in this world.
If I just do some adjustments, then we romanticize the world. Jnana goes to the other extreme and jnana demonizes the world. This world is full of entanglement, full of misery, full of danger.
The path of bhakti is to utilize the world. Don't romanticize it, don't demonize it. If something can be used in Krishna's service, we use them.
So, dvesha can actually become problematic. Suppose somebody thinks that Krishna lived in a forest, in a simple rural place, and that is where we should practice bhakti. And somebody becomes too averse to city life.
So, if one's service requires one to be in a city, that is where most of the outreach is going to happen. If somebody is averse, that might limit one's service. So, aversion is based on a self-centered vision of things, whereas bhakti asks us to have a Krishna-centered vision of things.
Now, of course, this does not mean that if we are averse to some things, we deliberately have to do those things. No, bhakti is not about making ourselves miserable. Bhakti is about keeping the focus on Krishna.
So, naturally, we may be attracted to some things, we may not be attracted to some things. So, a brahmana will not be attracted to money the same way as a vaishya is attracted to money. But that doesn't mean a brahmana is averse to money.
A brahmana is not that absorbed in money. So, we focus on the whole… So, Krishna talks about the second chapter. The third chapter also says, Indriyasya indriyasya arate, raga dvesha vyavasthita uptayor, naushamagache tau yasya parivantinam.
This raga and dvesha are there, but don't let them determine one's life, one's life trajectory. So, by keeping our life trajectory centered on how I can best serve Krishna, we can avoid succumbing to both raga and dvesha. Does it address the question? Thank you.
Yes, sir. Prabhu, you mentioned about our intelligence serves our desire. So, how can we develop and nurture good desires? Okay.
So, I mentioned that our intelligence is driven by our desires. So, how can we develop good desires so that our intelligence can also become healthy? Actually, it is not necessary that our intelligence is always driven by our desires. If the intelligence is strong, it can control the desires also.
Most of us know the chariot body metaphor. In the chariot body metaphor, the horses are the senses, the mind is the reins, the charioteer is the intelligence. Now, if say the horses are going along this track and suddenly on the side in a ditch, there are some fruits or vegetables that the horse sees and the horse wants to go there.
When the horse tries to go there, if the charioteer is alert, the charioteer will immediately pull the horse back and bring him under control. But if the charioteer is lazy, charioteer is pathetic, then the horse starts running. And then the faster the horse starts running, the greater its momentum and then the more effort and difficulty in getting the horse back on track or to get the horse in control.
So, like that, once our desire becomes stronger and stronger, then at that time for the intelligence to control it also becomes difficult. So, actually, there are different levels at which our desires may conquer our intelligence. One is the temporary overpowering of intelligence.
That means the desire just overpowers the intelligence and we do something wrong and then we wonder why did I do that. But there is, that is a temporary overpowering of intelligence. But in some cases, the desires can take over the intelligence itself.
That means the desire dominates the intelligence and fully uses the intelligence to fulfill itself. So, for example, people sometimes do something wrong and then they systematically go over hiding how to do it, hiding it so that nobody can catch it. So, there it is not just the desire overpowering the intelligence, it is the desire taking over the intelligence.
And that is very detrimental. So, what I was talking about is alcoholic. The example of alcohol is saying that wine will destroy the germs in our stomach.
That is example of not just desire temporarily overpowering the intelligence, it is desire taking over the intelligence. So, when that happens, that requires a substantial amount of re-education and purification. Usually, the intelligence is taken over, then those people usually have to go through the school of hard knocks.
They have to be beaten up and then they realize my intelligence is misdirected. But temporarily the intelligence is overcome and we fall for something. And afterwards, we hear something, we read something, we contemplate on our experience.
I did this because I thought I will get so much enjoyment, but what I got was so little. Then the intelligence awakens again. So, best is that we regularly hear scripture and keep our intelligence alert so that whenever some wrong desires come in, we immediately check them.
So, like the charioteer who is alert, pulls the horse back as soon as the horse starts going in the wrong direction. That is why regularly hearing scriptures is very helpful in keeping your intelligence strong. Now, with respect to desire itself, it is Bhakti Sanjayate Bhakti.
We get devotion by the association of devotees. So, if we want healthy desires, if we want spiritual desires, we need to associate with devotees who have strong spiritual desires. The association of devotees is not just physical proximity.
The essence of association is the transfer of desires. That was what Shri Prabhupada's special potency was. It was not just that he could go and give great lectures.
Prabhupada could create in people who had just a few days ago not even heard about Krishna, he could create in them the desire to give their life to Krishna. So, we need that kind of association. When we go in the association of devotees, by that association, we get the spiritual desire.
Yes, I should chant. Yes, I should study scriptures. I should share Krishna's message.
That is really vibrant association. So, if we do both, if we keep our intelligence alert, then if the intelligence is sometimes misled by wrong desires, it will guard and check them. And if you associate with devotees who have strong spiritual desires, then our intelligence, our desires will also propel the intelligence.
That means the horses, the charioteer can keep the horse on the right track. But if the horse itself becomes enthusiastic to go towards the right destination, the horse starts running fast. That's like our spiritual desires are energized when we march towards Krishna.
Does that answer your question? Yes. Thank you. Any other questions? What is the significance of Lord Chaitanya chastising his servant? Many things.
First and foremost is that just proximity to the Lord is no protection from illusion. Proximity to the Lord is no protection from illusion. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had made two predictions.
One was South India, other was North India. So, in South India, he went with Kala Krishna Das. North India, he went with Balabhadra Bhattacharya.
And both his servants had some problems. Of course, Kala Krishna Das had a much bigger problem. Kala Krishna Das was actually attracted by the women of some tribe called Bhattaris and he tried to go there.
And Chaitanya Mahaprabhu went and caught him by Ishika and brought him back. Balabhadra Bhattacharya did not fall into illusion to that extent. He just thought that he will have darshan of Krishna.
But either way, the magnitude of illusion which they went into was different. But the principle remains the same. Just by being close to the Lord, that doesn't itself mean we will be protected from illusion.
When we are to be close to the Lord, that means it is not just physical proximity, it is emotional affinity. Our heart needs to be attracted to Krishna. Then we are truly close to him.
And of course, Lord Chaitanya also wanted to teach us that we should always use Shastra and Shastra Chakshu in understanding who is an avatar or where there is a darshan of Krishna. We shouldn't get carried away by sentiments, by sentimentality rather, and think that, oh, anyone who is saying there is that darshan of Krishna, then we shouldn't necessarily believe that we get carried away. So we have to be guarded in that.
Does it address your question? Thank you. Any other questions? Thank you very much.