Bhagavatam-daily 229 – 11.11.35 – Let spiritual sound shape your inner and outer world

Shrimad bhagavatam 11.35 krishna is continuing here his description of the process of bhakti and here he says that by hearing about me hearing my stories my pastimes with faith our contemplation is largely a function of our perception unless we are very spiritually advanced it is very difficult for us to distance ourselves from our surroundings and what we see what we hear, what we smell what we touch, what we taste this determines our thoughts to a great extent and that’s why we need to be very careful in reorienting our perception so that it pushes our contemplation in the spiritual direction now reorienting our perception has two parts to it primarily we arrange to surround ourselves with as many spiritual perceptions as possible we arrange to as much as possible take our heart and soul to let our heart and soul take in spiritual impressions images of krishna the images of the keys of krishna the keys of krishna and other such intense spiritual sound vibrations and spiritual perceptions which will naturally push our contemplation in the devotional direction towards krishna so when we act in this way it is easy for us to stay progressive in our spiritual journey because then we are not battling against the enemy constantly rather we are battling the enemy while staying in home territory now of course we cannot always stay in home territory we have to go out in the world for our various services where we will have to be somewhat like in a kabaddi mode where the kabaddi player who enters into the enemy territory knows that i am in the enemy territory and i have to be careful not to let myself be checked and choked by the problems that i am facing by the tempting scenarios and objects that may surround me if i take in their perception then i will be trapped but if i refuse to take in their perception if i refuse to take in means yes the perceptions may enter into our circle but we refuse to dwell on them then we can avoid getting overwhelmed rather we can keep moving onwards in our devotional journey towards krishna with steadiness because we will be selecting so for example if we are going on our own we may look here and there and see the various sense objects around we may look up and around and see the billboards where also again sense objects are depicted and that way we will practically propel ourselves into illusion because those perceptions will stimulate our imagination and drag it in dangerous directions on the other hand if we minimize our exposure to those perceptions and instead stay focused on whatever purposes we have to do while acting in the world then we will not be so caught not so agitated and more importantly we need to very enthusiastically act choose those perceptions that will direct and deepen our spiritual contemplations so when we strive to move towards krishna it is not just a matter of hypothetical sentimental or theoretical change it is a matter also of practical change in the way we shape our world and then we shape our world not just mentally through the impressions that we form from our perceptions but we shape our world also by the perceptions to which we expose ourselves when we live in the world so for example a good homemaker would want to arrange her house in a way that gives a comforting, aesthetically appealing and uplifting, comfy feel so we do a person who is opening an office to cater to an upper class clientele will want to bolster the confidence among the clientele that actually they have come to the right place and so they so they will try to have the furniture and the layout and the background and the whole design in such a way that the upper class clientele feel that yes we are at a good place we are at a place where our interest will be taken care of similarly devotees too need to shape their perceptions and one of the most powerful perception shapers is hearing when we hear about Krishna by such hearing our both outer and inner worlds get reshaped why? because firstly the inner world what we hear, what we contemplate that redefines our the way we look at life it redefines the way we live in the world and the way we strive to aspire for things in this world so hearing reshapes our inner world and hearing reshapes our outer world too because in hearing we learn to see that actually it is Krishna who is the centre of all of reality and to the extent we devote ourselves to Krishna to that extent we will be able to perceive and relish that’s the centrality of Krishna in our inner life so that’s for the sake of our spiritual advancement and for the sake of our ultimate growth towards love for Krishna it is vital for us to hear regularly and let the hearing shape our inner world and we should also shape our external world so that we have abundant facilities for hearing one is of course we go to classes and hear but apart from that nowadays with technology we have so many ways in which we can make sound vibration accessible for ourselves and if we make our sound vibration accessible like this then we will always be joyfully situated in our bhakti and energised