Bhakti Shastri (020) – Sri Isopanisad Mantra 16

Podcast

Hare Krishna. Welcome back to the last section of the Ishopanishad course. Today we’ll be studying Mantra 16.
This is a part of the last section of the Ishopanishad wherein prayers are being offered. So the 15th mantra had the prayer, please remove your blazing effulgence so that I can see your, behold your face. Now the same prayer is continued with a devotional element being added to it in terms of beseeching the mercy of the Lord further.
And we will see that more and more in the last two mantras. So let us look at Mantra 16. Pooshan, the word pooshan had come in the previous mantra also.
Pooshan is maintainer. So Rishi is philosopher, thinker. That the Lord is the original thinker.
Yama and Niyama are the starting of the yoga process. Yama means rules, regulatory principles. So Yama Raj is one who regulates.
So ultimately the Lord is Supreme Yama. Surya, Surya can mean sun, Surya can also mean the destination of the Suras. So he is the well-wisher, he is the protector, the maintainer of the Prajapatis.
Vyuha is kindly removed. Rashmin, the rays. The same prayer is continuing.
There is glorification of the Lord, how great that absolute truth is and then there is a beseechment, beseeching to the Lord. Please remove. Samoha, kindly Vyuha and Samoha, please remove.
Tejo yatte roopam. So now right in the Isha Upanishad we will see that there is the word roopam, there is form. So some people say that Upanishads talk about impersonalism.
They do talk about impersonalism but there is impersonalism also and if you look at the flow of thought, as it is moving towards its close, it is actually moving towards personal understanding. Tejo yatte roopam kalyanatamam. And what is the nature of that form? Kalyan is auspiciousness.
Kalyanatamam is most auspicious. Good, better, best. So there are degrees and superlatives.
Similarly Kalyan, Kalyantara and Kalyanatama. So it’s supremely auspicious. Tatte Pashyami.
So if there is any doubt whether this might, the roop might just be a metaphorical reference. No, it is a Tatte Pashyami. I want to see that form.
So there is a real form and that form is supremely auspicious and the sage is desiring to see that form. And then, Yo asav asav purushaha, soham asmi. Yo asav asav, as that person is, so am I. So as the sun is, like the sun, asav purushaha, soham asmi.
So that person is effulgent, supremely effulgent. And similarly, I am. So this mantra is an excellent example of achintya-bhedabhedin action.
The impersonalists will take only the soham asmi. Aham is I, so is that. Soham asmi, it means I am that.
So this they use to try to prove that actually the Absolute Truth is non-personal and I and the Absolute Truth are ultimately the same. So that is one aspect of the teaching of the Upanishads. But there is another aspect which is personalist and that is very clearly stated through roopam kalyanatamam pashyami.
So if we are to honestly represent the teachings of the Upanishads, then we have to see everything that they are saying, not just the part that agrees with our philosophy or with one’s own philosophy. So the impersonalists, they just take the part which agrees with their philosophy and neglect the other part or subordinate the other part by saying that it is vyavaharik and ours is paramarthik. This actually rips apart the shastra and this is not actually understanding shastra, it is imposing one’s own philosophy on shastra.
So here roopam kalyanatamam pashyami is there and soham asmi is also there. So how can the two be reconciled? That is through Shri Jitendra Mahaprabhu’s teaching of qualitative oneness and quantitative difference. Let us look at Shri Prabhupada’s translation.
O my lord, O pranimal philosopher, maintainer of the universe, O regulating principle, destination of the pure devotees, well-wisher of the progenitors of mankind, please remove the effulgence of your transcendental rays so that I can see your form of bliss. You are the eternal supreme personality of God. You are like unto the sun as am I. So here Shri Prabhupada’s translation makes it clear that what is being referred to is the qualitative oneness.
So let us look at the purport. So vyuharashmin Prabhupada talks about, please remove, please remove the effulgence. So he explains that beyond the Brahman is Bhagavan and then Prabhupada emphasises upon kalyanatama, the most auspicious.
Then he says how Bhagavan is the most auspicious realisation. There are levels of auspiciousness but Bhagavan is the most auspicious realisation. Then pushan, maintainer, the how the lord specially maintains the devotees and in general maintains everyone and everything else.
Soham asmi, how the living entity is one yet different from the lord. We’ll discuss jnana a little bit on this while analysing this. And the favour of the lord sought by this prayer is fulfilled in pure devotional service.
Prabhupada makes this profound point in the conclusion of this purport. So let us look at these points one by one. Vyuharashmin, beyond Brahman is Bhagavan.
So the fundamental difference between impersonalism and personalism is that both consider that their own conception is the absolute, is the highest reality. So impersonalists consider Brahman to be the highest reality and they say when form is imposed on Brahman or form is accepted by Brahman then Bhagavan appears. So their idea is Brahman is higher and Bhagavan is lower because something is added to Brahman and then Bhagavan comes.
But what is added is illusory, what is added is temporary. Whereas the Vaishnava understanding is that Bhagavan is the highest truth and when some aspect of the absolute truth is not understood, so sat, chit, ananda, when chit and ananda aspects of the absolute truth are not properly comprehended, they don’t, practically the only sat aspect is comprehended, at that time one sees the Brahman. So if you look at scriptures they do talk about Brahman and they talk about Bhagavan also.
But prominently whether it is the Upanishads or whether it is the Puranas or even the original Vedas there are lots and lots of prayers and those prayers indicate that there is a higher reality to whom one is praying and some people say yes this is true but ultimately one has to go beyond that conception of higher reality to merge into that, that whatever conception of absolute truth they are cherishing. But this notion is not really subordinated, substantiated by scripture, it has to be extrapolated from scripture. So we discussed there are several verses, I am the support of Brahman, so I am the foundation and something which rests on me that is Brahman.
So in that sense Bhagavan is higher and Brahman is something which is resting on him. So if you consider these two conceptions, when something is imposed on Brahman then Bhagavan comes or something is supported by Bhagavan that is what Brahman is. So something that is dependent on Brahman, there is a partial manifestation of Bhagavan that is Brahman.
So Bhagavad Gita supports this conception, 14.1 says, Brahmanohi pratishtham, that actually I am the foundation of Brahman. So Bhagavan is the higher reality and if we compare the two, the conception of impersonalism seems to be intellectually appealing because there are no forms, there is no personality, there is just oneness. However, it strips the absolute truth of one of the attributes, that is the absolute truth which I have formed.
So actually from the intellectual point of view also the conception of Brahman as the absolute truth may have its appeal but it is not complete. The absolute truth has something missing and beyond that the absolute truth loses all emotional appeal because it is just a dry abstract conception basically, just consciousness with no reciprocation, no activities. Then it has very little appeal for the art and that’s why even within impersonalism, many impersonals encourage bhakti as a lower level path of realisation for lesser world people.
But that is not what the scriptures teach, scriptures teach that bhakti is to be continued till the end, avyayam, Krishna says, 9.2 in the Bhagavad Gita. Rajya vidya rajyabuhiyam, pavitramitam uttamam pratyaksha bhagamam dharmam, susukham kartum avyayam, susukham kartum avyayam, it’s imperishable. So now let us try to understand how Bhagavan is the most auspicious realisation.
So Bhagavan is the highest and the best destination. He is Kalyanatama, He is most auspicious because He is highest, He is higher than Brahman, He is supreme realisation. So He is the most glorious destination.
Those who go to Brahman, they cannot actually be eternally satisfied in Brahman because there is no reciprocation, there is no real satisfaction for the heart over there. But beyond Brahman is Bhagavan and in Bhagavan one becomes completely satisfied. So He is the highest and the best destination.
So He is the highest because Bhagavan is beyond Brahman and Bhagavan is the best because there the heart’s longing for love is eternally and completely satisfied. So that’s why, yad gatvanani vartante tad dhama paramam mama, Krishna repeatedly assures that when we return back to His abode, then we will not come back again here because that is the eternal destination. And then another reason why is Kalyanatama is that actually He helps devotees by bestowing His grace.
By bestowing His grace, He enables His devotees to rise to a higher level of understanding, to make rapid spiritual advancement and to return back to Him. So if all of us envision ourselves as having fallen inside a well, so now if I have to come out of the well, I need a way out. So if a rope is extended down to me, I hold on to the rope and somebody pulls me out, then I can come out quite easily.
If I have just to find some footholds and handholds, finger holds on the side wall of the well and pull myself out, it will be extremely difficult. So that, putting my hands and legs on the wall and trying to find my way out, that is like making spiritual advancement by one’s own mental concoctions, by one’s own concocted methods. One can climb, but extremely difficult and a very large possibility that one will fall back.
Now, practising spiritual life according to the method given in the scriptures is like using the rope, but even the rope can be used in two ways. One is the bhaktas, they hold on to the rope and they beg to the person outside, please pull me out. That means the devotees practise the personal devotion service, but they beg to the Lord, please help me advance, please enable me to advance.
The jnanis and the yogis, because for them Bhagwan is not the ultimate reality, they want to go to the reality beyond Bhagwan, so they often don’t pray to Bhagwan, so they hold on to the rope, but instead of asking the person to pull out, they try to climb up the rope. So the effort is much more laborious. The rope represents a scriptural process.
So trying to climb without the rope is trying to rise spiritually without any authorised process. Trying to climb the rope, but not asking the Lord for help is like following a process other than bhakti. So it’s more complex, it’s possible, but it’s difficult.
So again and again the scriptures say that bhakti is easy, the other processes are difficult. In the whole Bhagavad Gita, there’s only one verse where Krishna says that this process is easy and he says that clearly with respect to bhakti, with respect to fixing the mind on Him and serving Him. 8.14 he says, So he says, unto that person, and easily obtain, labha is to gain, su-labha is easily gain.
Yet Krishna also says that the person who attains Him, who comes to Him is in the same, it’s in the previous chapter, in the 19th verse Krishna has such a person as durlabha. So he says, This is a word by Krishna, it is the word mahatma. Here it’s very clearly understood that Krishna is referring to a devotee, one who worships Him without considering any other supreme goal.
But Krishna uses this word mahatma and he describes the characteristics of that mahatma earlier, this is 9.13, before that in 7.19 Krishna says, So one who understands Vasudeva to be everything, one who understands that, one who does bhajanti ananya manaso, one pointedly worship Vasudeva, which is durlabha. So Krishna says that one who knows Him is durlabha, but on the other hand he says to know Him is su-labha. So how is it that actually the process by which He is su-labha, those who attain Him are still durlabha? Because of the misconceptions of people on the spiritual path, because of the preconceptions and misconceptions of people.
Although bhakti can enable people to rise to the highest destination, many people minimise bhakti to be something simplistic. So that’s why they do not follow it. But the Lord personally helps His devotees and that’s why they can make rapid advancement.
So now how does the mercy of the Lord come about? Actually, you know, in the spiritual path, when we practise bhakti, there is knowledge, there is taste and there is grace. So let’s understand this thing, knowledge. So we get spiritual knowledge, I am not the body, I am the soul.
Therefore I should not get into material enjoyment. Material enjoyment is temporary. It will increase my bodily consciousness and entangle me in this material existence.
So knowledge itself is revolutionary for many people. Because there are many people who since their childhood never knew that they were not the body. And when they come to know, it’s like thunderbolt hitting them.
It shakes up their previous worldview and illuminates in them a new light, a new hope, a new love for a better, higher, richer life. So knowledge itself is powerful. But after knowledge comes taste.
It’s one thing to know intellectually that I’m not the body and the soul. But still it is not easy to relish life at the spiritual level. Just saying I’m not the body, I’m the soul, I’m not the body, I’m the soul, I’m not the body, I’m the soul.
Will that make a person really satisfied? It’s difficult. It can certainly calm the mind down and it can bring a sense of detachment. But actually, as far as satisfaction is concerned, one needs to act at the spiritual level.
It’s like the example is given that suppose somebody is a billionaire. Now the person just thinks I’m a billionaire, I’m a billionaire, I’m a billionaire, I’m a billionaire. Will that make the person happy? Well, maybe for some time you think, oh, I’m a billionaire.
I was a pauper, now I’ve become a billionaire. But actually the person wants to be happy and the person has to act at the platform of being a billionaire. You can travel here, you can go there, you can do that.
And we’re talking now from the point of view of material enjoyment. But even for material enjoyment, one has to act on the platform to be able to enjoy. From the ultimate point of view, of course, material enjoyment is false.
It’s temporary. Prabhupada writes that service to the senses is misleading and degrading. It is misleading.
It promises happiness but doesn’t lead to happiness. And not only that, it is degrading because it drags us down to lower modes and lower consciousness and eventually lower destinations. So just as a person in material life also needs to act on the platform of wealth to enjoy the wealth, similarly, we have to act on the spiritual platform to actually experience the reality that we are spiritual beings.
So after that knowledge has to come taste. That taste comes when we practise devotion service because we are acting on the platform of the soul. When we act on the platform of the soul and serve Krishna, because serving Krishna is the eternal nature of the soul, maimam shojivaloke, Gita 15.7 says, then that gives us a taste.
And beyond taste, there is knowledge, not the body and soul, there is a taste which comes by engaging in devotional activity at the spiritual level and beyond that there is mercy or grace. So when we are practising devotional service, just engagement in devotional service itself gives some kind of taste. Prabhupada writes that even the mechanical chanting of the holy names, if done diligently, can lead to the subsiding of the miseries of mortal existence.
The mechanical chanting, if it is done determinately, can calm down the moods of passion ignorance. It may not grant us love of God, but even if I’m feeling agitated by lust or greed or anger, if I just start chanting, start remembering Krishna, then that will bring my mind to goodness at the very least. It can take me to transcendence also, it can bring me at least to goodness if I just keep doing it.
So even the mechanical chanting brings one benefit. So one comes to the mode of goodness where one feels sukha, because sukha is a characteristic of the mode of goodness. And then as one moves to transcendence, one experiences even greater sukha.
So the Lord helps devotees by bestowing his mercy. Mercy means when we are practising devotional service, there are times when we suddenly get moments of realisation, illumination, ecstasy, deep fulfilment. Those are one aspect of the grace of the Lord.
So in this way, by this triple impetus, through knowledge, through taste and through grace, knowledge that I’m not the body, through taste that oh if I serve Krishna there’s so much happiness and mercy, on some moments actually I just feel over flooded with happiness. So all this comes when we devote ourselves to Bhagavan. We don’t get all this if we devote ourselves to Paramatma or Brahman.
That is another way of looking how Bhagavan is Kalyanatama. Now Srila Prabhupada takes you from his commentary and elaborately explains the word Bhagavan, what does it mean and how does it come into the picture here. So he explains what bhagva means.
So here, the first syllable of the word Bhagavan bh has two meanings. One who fully maintains, the second is guardian. So bh is bharta.
Bharta can be maintainer, bharta can be guardian. That is the root. Then ga, second syllable means guide, leader or creator.
So that is gamyate, one who takes to a particular destination. Syllable van indicates that every being lives in him and he also lives in every being. So here, Jiva Goswami is giving a different etymological explanation of the word Bhagavan as compared to the standard one.
The standard expression is bhaga and vana. Bhaga is opulences and vana is one who is possessor of opulences. So here he takes it, bh refers to maintainer, ga refers to leader or guide and one who maintains and guides and vana actually refers to how that person maintains and guides.
So vana here is taken not as a possessor, vana is related with the word vas, to reside. So van means one who resides in. So the Supreme Lord is so wonderful that everything resides in him and he resides in everything.
Everything resides in him means that ultimately all of existence is sheltered within his energy. Everything resides in him. At the same time, he also resides in everything.
How is that possible? Because he enters everything as the super soul. He is inside everything. So in this way, he is inside everything, everything is inside him.
This sort of play of words is called in English as chiasmus. Chiasmus means the two parts of the sentence are done in such a way that they interplay. So like earlier I gave an example, a devotee, nothing holds a devotee back, a devotee holds nothing back.
So that indicates the devotee serves Krishna wholeheartedly without any internal or external limitations. Similarly, the Lord resides in everything and everything resides in him. This is the chiasmus.
So let us move forward after discussing the meaning of the word Bhagavan. So he has devotees who are bestowing his grace. Now let us see this favourite word of the Mayavadi, Soham.
So actually one has to move from Soham realisation to Dasoham realisation. Dasoham means I am the Das. So actually speaking, the Mayavadis, they emphasise oneness and quality.
That is true. The scriptures do emphasise oneness and quality at times. But that doesn’t deny difference in quantity.
Because the scriptures at other places do talk about how we are infinitesimal and the Lord is infinite. So by denying this difference in quality, we misrepresent the scriptures. So how does one move from Soham to Dasoham? Actually as long as one is attached to one’s false ego and one wants to think that I will be great, I want to be great, then and if spiritual realm becomes a means to pursue one’s own agenda of wanting to become great, then it is very difficult for such a person to come to Dasoham.
But if one practises spiritual life to understand what is the ultimate reality actually, what is the highest truth and how can I achieve that highest truth, then such a person can rise to the realisation of Soham to Dasoham. So now, generally speaking, the idea of Soham, I am that, this is considered to be a Jnani realisation. That those who are Jnanis, they come and they study the scripture, they speculate, they contemplate and then they come to the idea, oh Soham, I am that.
Many Jnanis feel that when they will realise that, that will be their Eureka moment. Eureka moment means, Eureka is a phrase used, which is used by Archimedes when he discovered the principle of special gravity. He was in a top bend, suddenly he just jumped out without any clothes, Eureka, Eureka.
So since that time, Eureka moment means a moment when one gets some sudden realisation, such a brilliant realisation and one forgets everything else. Some insight, spark of insight lights within us, illuminating everything at that particular time. So the impersonalist Mayavadis think that their Eureka moment will be when they can say with realisation, Soham.
So that may be a brilliant moment for them, but actually that is an incomplete realisation. And the complete realisation is yes, I am like that absolute truth, but the devotee’s Eureka moment is when the devotee actually entirely accepts. Dasoham, I am the servant of the Lord and let me serve him by serving his servants.
So let’s look at the Jnana which is Anukul to Bhakti and the Jnana that is Pratikul to Bhakti. So this is based on the Jiva Goswami’s writing in Durgam Sangamani Tika as well as the other books. So Tika means a commentary or sometimes it refers to a commentary on a commentary.
So Rupa Goswami has written Bhakti Rasamrut Sindhu and Jiva Goswami has commented on it, called the Durgam Sangamani Tika and Bhanu Maharaj has translated that into English. There he describes Jnana can refer to three things, Atma Jnana, Ishwara Jnana and Aikatva Jnana. So essentially Jnana refers to spiritual reality.
So in the spiritual reality, there is a soul and there is absolute truth, there is Ishwara. So Atma Jnana, Ishwara Jnana, both are important for the devotees but the devotees reject Aikatva Jnana. So after I understand I am the Atma, after I understand there is God, to think the V2 of us are one, that is something which is according to Vaishnavas a disastrous misunderstanding.
So Vaishnavas reject the Aikatva Jnana and they focus on the Jnana that will bring the Atma closer to Ishwara. So how will that happen? So why is Jnana pratikul to Bhakti? Three reasons. Constitution, application and destination.
So what is the aspect of Jnana that makes it pratikul? Pratikul means unfavourable to Bhakti. So in the constitution, the in constitution means what it is made up of. Oneness denies eternality of Bhakti because if Bhakta and Bhagwan are ultimately going to become one, then what is the goal, what is the point ultimately in devoting myself and calling out selflessly, my dear Lord, please serve you, please allow me to serve you, please have mercy on me.
So it all becomes unnecessary. So it denies the eternality of Bhakti. So that’s why there are many prayers in the Bhagavatam where devotees say that my dear Lord, I would prefer even going to hell if I got the opportunity to chant your glories than to go to heaven or a better destination if I was deprived of the association of your devotees and the opportunity to render devotional service.
Why? Because devotee relishes Bhakti and to lose Bhakti is the greatest disaster for a devotee. In order to not face that, to not want to go through a disaster, devotee prays, I will even accept the disaster of liberation. I’ll accept the disaster of living on material existence because in that at least I’ll have the opportunity to practise devotional service.
In liberation I don’t even get that opportunity. In application, Jnana, what does it do? It leads to a hardening of the heart. Hardening of the heart because in Jnana one is constantly trying to analyse, evaluate and then decide.
So because of this analysis and evaluation, in every single relationship, every single interaction, every single past significant interactions also, by this one just starts becoming too objective, too clinical, too detached, too dispositive and one starts focussing at that time on, I am not the body, I am the soul, that person is not the body, that is soul and like that one becomes very, one sentiments dry up. For example, if a devotee is sick and that devotee needs some water, needs some medicine, needs some special food and you say, Prabhu, you are not your body, why are you paying so much attention to the body? It’s maya. So actually, our speaking like this is maya.
That person may or may not be in maya but to think that philosophy is to be applied in such an insensitive and coarse way, that is a serious misunderstanding. Yes, definitely somebody is sick, a person should feel responsible that I don’t want to restrain bodily consciousness, I want to rise out of it. That is a person’s responsibility and we should provide education by which the person feels like that when the challenge comes in his or her life.
But that does not mean that we harden our hearts towards them. If we are trying to practise bhakti, we have to have soft hearts and to have soft hearts towards Krishna, we have to have soft heart at least towards his devotees, if not all, at least some devotees. So because in application one has to be utterly unsentimental, so the path of gyana leads to hardening of the heart and it leads to unpratikund bhakti.
Then in destination, it’s merging. So now merging means end of bhakti. That’s why a devotee gives up the urge to merge.
A devotee says, I have no urge to merge, my dear lord. I simply want to serve you. My dear lord, I want your birth, I want your bhakti again and again, no matter how many times I have to come to metal existence, I want your bhakti.
So now this is the gyan that is pratikund in constitution, in application and in destination. But Yugoslavia also explains that all gyan does not have to be like that. There can be gyan that is anukuld bhakti also and that can also, that anukulda is based on whether that gyan enhances one’s bhakti, that gyan enables one to come closer to Krishna.
This is a different kind of gyan that does help one to do that. That’s its constitution, application and destination as shown over here. So in constitution, the subordination of the soul is emphasised.
At the same time, it is explained that the soul is a part of Krishna. It’s a part of Krishna and the soul is accepted as a part of Krishna and that knowledge emphasises how I am part and he’s the whole and without him I can’t be happy. Then that encourages bhakti, that inspires a person to start practising spiritual life.
And then application, now this is a problem with jnana. If I understand everybody is a soul, everybody is already liberated, then I don’t have to do anything to try to deliver people now. Of course, some jnanis may still do that, but actually a jnani considers that the present existence is illusory and just by catering to this illusory existence, one will not be able to make spiritual advancement, which is true in one sense, but another sense, for a devotee at least, this existence is not just simply mundane, it has been used for Krishna’s service.
So by serving the devotees, by serving Krishna, one can go beyond material existence. So application of bhakti stabilises the mind’s restlessness. And then lastly is the aspect of destination.
So in application, bhakti stabilises because one understands, one gets intellectual understanding of the various devotional practises and that’s why one becomes more inspired to stay subordinate. And then lastly, we have in this comparison between jnana and bhakti, what is destination or what is the goal ultimately of jnana in the path of bhakti? It is enhanced appreciation of the Lord’s glories. One understands that the Lord is so great, let me devote myself to Him.
So here the glories are not just in terms of greatness, they are also in terms of sweetness, that Krishna is such a wonderful person, I want to love Him. So in this way, in constitution, in application and in destination, all three, jnana can be made uncool to bhakti. So Srila Prabhupada did emphasise philosophical knowledge.
Although he started preaching by chanting Hare Krishna and giving people ecstasy through chanting, he also talked about the bodily conception and how it was misleading and how one has to rise beyond the bodily conception. So by understanding this, one can move forward in one’s spiritual life. So Soham is an incomplete realisation.
The Soham is a complete realisation. And bhakti is so inclusive that we do not have to reject our attraction towards jnana, but we can harmonise that attraction if we have towards intellectualism, towards study, serious study of philosophy a lot, and trying to understand things. We can use it all to come towards Krishna through the process of bhakti.
So now, if we move forward, the favour of the Lord sought by this prayer is fulfilled in pure devotional service. What does this mean? It’s an interesting statement. What Srila Prabhupada is saying is that actually when one practises devotional service, then only, so as we are saying over here, the Lord can be known only by those who He favours and not by anyone else.
And whom does He favour? The Lord is not absolutely not partial or discriminatory. Whoever tries to serve the Lord, tries to please the Lord, the Lord favours that person. Such special favours are bestowed upon His pure devotees only.
Why? Because the pure devotees alone accept that the Lord is the ultimate person. The jnanis, the yogis, they consider the Lord to be a transitional person. That means they consider Brahman is the highest reality and the Lord is a temporary reality.
That’s why they cannot beseech wholeheartedly from the Lord even when the Lord appears. But Sri Shopanishad thus points to the favour of the Lord which is beyond the purview of the Brahmajyoti. So, beyond the purview of the Brahmajyoti means the Brahmajyoti cannot bless anyone.
Srila Prabhupada gives the example that the sky is very big, but if somebody says, O sky, I love you. What do you do with the sky? The sky is so vast, it’s everywhere. How does one love the sky, practically speaking? Similarly, Prabhupada says, Brahman is everywhere.
Now, beholding the sky may give me peace. Similarly, contemplating on the Brahman might give me some peace. But what we want is not just peace, we want love.
So, we get that love by the practise of bhakti or at least by the grace of devotees. So, whatever is the favour that is pointed to in this verse or which is begged for in this verse, that is beyond the Brahmajyoti. That means the Brahmajyoti cannot give this blessing.
Only that which is beyond Brahmajyoti will give a blessing and that is the Supreme Lord and His pure devotees. Now, in this verse, we’ll conclude by one more important point. Here, we’ll focus on discussing the point of how bhakti is the best process.
So, on one side, we pray to the Lord. So, when we pray to Him, we ask Him for some mercy, some benefits. So, how do we get those benefits? Actually, chanting of the Holy Name is simultaneously a prayer and a fulfilment of the prayer.
How is that? It is a prayer because we are asking the Lord, please engage me in Your service. Please, O Lord, engage me in Your service. Bhaktivinoda Thakur has explained that this is the mood in which we chant.
Now, while saying, please engage me in Your service, it’s also being said that, my dear Lord, please, it is also being said that, please purify me, please help me to return back to You, where I can serve You eternally. But while that is going to happen eventually, Krishna manifests Himself as the Holy Name. So, when Krishna manifests Himself as the Holy Name, at that time, we want to serve Krishna, Krishna has manifested as the Holy Name.
And by reciting the Name respectfully, by chanting it clearly, by hearing it attentively, we actually respect and worship Krishna and serve Him. So, in this way, chanting is both a prayer and a fulfilment of the prayer. It is prayer, please engage me in Your service.
And because Krishna manifests Himself as the Holy Name and He comes on our tongue, Prabhupada says, Krishna dances on our tongue when we chant the Holy Names. So, that means that He is giving us the opportunity to serve Him. So, chanting is both a prayer and the fulfilment of a prayer.
So, often we may think of the fulfilment of a prayer as something miraculous. What is the success of my chanting? Oh, I will see some mystical white light in my head. So, once some young girl in America, she says, Swamiji, when I chant this Hare Krishna, I can see a light in my head.
Prabhupada says, keep chanting, the light will go away. So, she was shocked. She thought, oh, Swamiji will say, oh, I am a great mystic seer, I am seeing a light in my head.
Prabhupada says, just don’t bother, chant Hare Krishna, light will go away. Why? Because the ultimate goal is not just to see some white light, it is to behold the beautiful form of Krishna and that requires purification. So, when we practise devotional service, we are not only praying to the Lord, but we are also receiving the response to our prayer.
The Lord’s response is not necessarily by doing some miracles, being with some mystical visions. You know, if miracles become the criteria, then circus will become the testing ground. Because circus is a place where different people come and do all sorts of things, stunts, which others can’t do.
So, if miracles are the criteria, you know, during kirtan, who dances more than others, whose tears are more than others, who has the most extraordinary, miraculous paranormal visions, you know, who can manifest in a four-handed form. So, these are not the criteria for spiritual advancement. These are actually, if they happen, they have happened to a few people, but even if they don’t happen, a person is devoted and committed to Krishna, that person will make spiritual advancement.
So, where miracles are the criteria, then circus becomes the testing ground and devotional service is definitely not a circus. It is actually a serious arena for purification. And that’s why when we pray to the Lord, please have mercy on me, what does the mercy mean? Prabhupada explains that the mercy is engagement in devotional service.
Because how are we protected from maya? How are we lifted up? Is it by some miraculous intervention of Krishna? That may happen on a few occasions, but generally it happens through Krishna’s grace coming through his extending as the person of devotional service. Just like when a person has fallen in a well, it’s not that somebody will jump into the well, pick up that person and put him in a palanki and then take him out. No.
What a person will do is, even the fact that the person gets a rope, all this person has to do is hold on to the rope and the person will be pulled out. That itself is a miracle. So we don’t have to expect supernatural events around us to give us faith that Krishna is there and Krishna performs miracles.
What we need is a simple understanding that God exists, God is my well-wisher and if I surrender myself to God, God will guide me to the right place in the right way forward. So if I have that faith that Krishna is my well-wisher and Krishna’s will manifest through his devotees, then I can go on in devotional service life long. So devotional service is itself the answer to a prayer.
The prayer is for the Lord’s favour and how the Lord’s favour comes? It comes in the form of devotional service. So when we render devotional service to Krishna, we are accepting the favour of the Lord and by accepting the favour of the Lord, we make spiritual advancement. So to summarise, we discussed first about how Brahman is lower and Bhagwan is the highest reality.
Although they are both manifest in the same absolute truth, Bhagwan manifests that absolute truth most fully. Then we discussed Kalyanatama, how the perception of the Lord is the most auspicious, far more auspicious than the ideas of God that are there in various traditions and the conceptions of the absolute truth that are there within the Vedic tradition also. And then Pooshan, we discussed how Bhar refers to philosopher, Bhar refers to maintainer, sustainer, Ga refers to guide and Vaan refers to possessor.
So the Lord maintains everyone, Pooshan we discussed. And then Soham to Das, Soham, that is the important part of the class, that instead of thinking that taking scripture and only that section which supports one’s own ideas, one takes the full section, takes personalist and impersonalist and reconciles them in a higher reality. And lastly we discussed how chanting itself, not a prayer, not just a prayer, but also it’s a response to a prayer, it’s the answer to a prayer and says the whole process of devotional service.
When we ask for Krishna, for mercy, he gives us devotional service and devotional service keeps us so busy that we stay protected from maya and that is the ultimate goal of life. Thank you very much.