Bhagavatam-daily 252 – 11.12.09 – Religious activities should increase our Krishna consciousness, not our self-consciousness

Disclaimer: This transcript was generated using AI and may contain occasional errors or inaccuracies.

One can move towards supreme perfection and attain Krishna. Thank you. Krishna is speaking here.
No, not. They will not attain me. I will not be attainable to them.
Even if they endeavour, means to fill with endeavour. Bhagavan means who is lots of opulences, possessor of opulences, filled with opulences. So, yajnavan similarly is filled with endeavours.
So, here it is stated that even if somebody endeavours a lot, still they will not attain Krishna. I am not attainable, Krishna says. And he gives here the list of the various paths that they may follow for trying to attain Krishna.
And the paths are the various standard activities for gaining piety within the broad Vedic culture, that is doing vratas, following vijayada vows, giving charity daan, even taking sanyas, doing analysis using sankhya, doing austerity using yoga. And Krishna says that none of these will enable you to attain me. So, therefore, the question here is how is it that all these processes which require a good amount of effort, taking sanyas, is not easy.
Similarly, giving daan is a laudable activity. So, why is Krishna saying that he cannot be attained by all these activities? Because Krishna is bhavagrahi. He doesn’t need our austerity.
He doesn’t need our charity. He doesn’t need anything from us. But when we try to serve him, it is we who are benefited.
And what he accepts in our service is our intention to serve. So, to the extent we cultivate a devotional intention, to that extent our service will please him. Yes, when these activities are done with a devotional intention, then they can also become a part of the broad process of bhakti.
So, within the process of bhakti, we can do austerities. We do ekadashi vrata. Within the process of bhakti, it is recommended that we give charity.
Within the process of bhakti, it is important that we do swadhyaya, we study shastra. Now, while we are doing these activities, yes, these are various forms that can please Krishna. But what pleases Krishna is not just the form, not just giving charity, but the mood in which we give charity.
When our mood is devotional, it is that mood that pleases Krishna. And it is that mood which we strive to cultivate in our lives when we endeavor to associate with devotees, to cultivate humility and to learn how to move onwards in our journey towards Krishna. Now, in the Chaitanya Charita Amrit, there is the example of the milk drinking brahmachari.
Milk is nutritious. Milk where taken with sugar can also be delicious. Of course, milk itself can be delicious for those who have a taste for it.
But if milk is the only diet, then it can be quite austere. And this brahmachari who is taking only milk was very austere. And still, despite his austerity, he could not please Lord Chaitanya.
In fact, Lord Chaitanya said that, do you think that your milk drinking will give you Krishna? That is an illusion if you think like that. But Mahaprabhu’s essential chastising, correcting message to him was that if merely living on milk was going to give you Krishna, then I would have lived like that for millions of lifetimes. So, later on when Chaitanya mahaprabhu chastised him, the brahmana responded with humility and gratitude for whatever darshan of Lord Chaitanya’s dancing that he had had while seeing in secret.
And Chaitanya mahaprabhu was not pleased by his austerity, but Chaitanya mahaprabhu was pleased by his humility. Now, that humility enabled him to stay focused in his purpose. It was not that he was arrogant and he was thinking that, oh, by my austerity I’ll capture Krishna.
No, he wanted to please Krishna and he had been thinking at that time that this austerity will be a way I’ll advance. But when he got the darshan of Lord Chaitanya, he understood how intoxicating, how thrilling, how mesmerizing. Where can anyone experience anything like this? I want to experience this more and more and more.
How can I experience it? Please, oh Lord, bless me so that I can experience it. And I surrender to you. Whatever you want, I will do.
That disposition of humble surrender, that was what pleased Lord Chaitanya. And the same principle applies to us. If we have the capacity to fast on Ekadashi and if we find that fasting uncool for our bhakti, if that fasting helps us to control our senses, if it helps us to become more focused on Krishna, then surely we can fast.
But we need to think that it is that fasting that will grant us Krishna. Actually, the fasting will enable us, if it can enable us to fix our mind more on Krishna, then that is good. If similarly various activities that are mentioned over here, if they are done as expressions of our devotion, then we can move closer to Krishna because Krishna accepts that devotion, that intention of devotion.
And if they are expressions of our ego, I am so austere, I am so learned, I am so renounced, I am so charitable. Then that I-centeredness, that I-consciousness will keep us far away from Krishna consciousness. So as sadhakas, whatever practices we do, we have to be introspective and alert to see whether those practices are increasing our I-consciousness because they are making us feel, oh you see how austere I am, you see how dharmic I am.
If they are making us I-centered, then we are missing the purpose of those practices and we need to correct ourselves in time so that we don’t get deluded. But by striving for Krishna consciousness, striving to appease Krishna, we can move closer to him and by the offering of our heart to him through these and other bhakti activities, various bhakti activities, we can definitely attain Krishna.