Bhakti Shastri (022) – Sri Isopanisad Mantra 18

Podcast

Today we come to the conclusion of the Ishopanishad study. We’ll discuss the 18th mantra and before that we will just have a quick overview of the Ishopanishad to see how we have traced the journey and then we will recap this at the end again. So let’s look at the Ishopanishad.
Basically it has five broad sections. In the first section, the message is we should live in harmony with the Ishwara. In the second section, we are told that we have to develop spiritual vision to understand that Ishwara.
And then subsequent is explaining how to develop that spiritual vision. First is we have to have the right Vidya, then we have to do the right Upasana and then we have to do the right Yajna. The last four mantras are prayers.
So in this last section, the first two mantras were more or less, first mantra was clearly, please take me from the impersonal effulgence to the personal lord, personal supreme. And then after that were prayers asking for the removal of the obstacles in the devotional path. So the last mantra is also a similar prayer.
So the Lord is glorified with various epithets, Agne. So you are, O Lord, are as powerful as fire. It says fire can burn everything.
You can burn all the impurities within my heart. So all of us, it’s not a prayer just for myself, it’s a prayer on behalf of all living beings. Please take me to you, path for reaching you.
All of us, you are aware of all my actions, O Lord. So in all these obstacles that are there, please remove them. All hindrances.
Bhushtham means again and again in front of you. I offer words of obeisances to you. So the paraphrase is, O Lord, who are like fire, you know all my actions.
Please kindly lead me on the right path. Whatever obstacles are there, please remove them. I offer my obeisances to you.
This is the Krishna Prabhupada’s translation. O my Lord, as powerful as fire, O omnipotent one, now I offer you all obeisances. Prabhupada translates as all obeisances.
Falling on the ground at your feet, O my Lord, please lead me on the right path to reach you. And since you know all that I have done in the past, please free me from the reactions to my sins so that there be no hindrance to my progress. So it’s a prayer, not just for maintenance of oneself in this world.
Most people feel that the purpose of God’s existence is to help me in this world, which is true. God is ready to help us in this world also. But ultimately, God wants to take us out of this world, back to Him.
So many prayers are God provide me the things that I need here. But here the prayer is different. It is, O God, I want to come back to you and please remove the obstacles from this path.
So it’s a spiritually evolved prayer. And it’s a prayer which is very much devotional in its mood and content. Let us look at Srila Prabhupada’s purport.
So in the first paragraph, Srila Prabhupada explains how obstacles in the spiritual path originate. And then one has to overcome these obstacles and thereafter achieve perfection. So for achieving perfection, there is a gradual way and there is a quick way.
So Srila Prabhupada outlines both those ways. And then after recommending the quick way, Srila Prabhupada explains that how that quick way on the path of devotional service is facilitated by the omnipotence of the Lord, how the omnipotent Lord guides a devotee. So let’s look at this.
Srila Prabhupada writes that actually the Lord addresses fire because He can burn anything into ashes, including the sins of the surrendered soul. But now when we are practising spiritual life, our past reactions, they come upon us to cause us misery. They cause us misery in two ways.
One is external as the problems that we face in our life. We may get sick. We may lose our job.
We may have some problems in society where we are living and we may even have to leave from that place at some time. We may have to relocate because of certain situations. So all these are external problems.
Along with that, we may also get internal problems. Our own lust, anger, greed, envy, pride, illusion, these may rise up and they may drag us away from Krishna. These are also sinful reactions.
So our sinful reactions come at, there’s a physical reaction to sinful actions and there’s a psychological reaction. The physical reaction often comes as external problems. Psychological reaction comes as internal problems.
Now we often see the physical reactions in other lives, but we don’t see the psychological reactions in their lives unless they become expressed through physical changes of behaviour. And that is why we often feel that I alone am struggling. I have so many conditionings to fight with.
Other devotees seem to be so happily practising devotional service. Why is devotional service such a struggle for me alone? It’s not for me alone. All of us are in the same boat.
The waves of conditionings come and hit everybody who is in the boat and whoever is in that boat will get shaken. Similarly, the waves of past conditionings hit all of us. We are in the boat of material existence.
We all have a material mind and all of us will be affected. But often the passions and thoughts that go on in the mind are not expressed till one actually is unable to control them. That means they get expressed physically and then they come out.
So then we may see that a person may have lust, anger, greed inside and that may be tormenting the person. But when that is expressed then we see, we may call that as a slip or a fall. A slip is just like when a person is walking and there’s a slight slip, the person is almost like falling, but then the person restores the balance.
Or a fall means the person just completely sprawls on the ground. So like that we may all have slips and falls in our spiritual life. When there are slips and falls, these are because of the past conditionings taking control or rather we letting the past conditionings take control.
No one can blame the past conditionings for the present fall. Why is that? Because blaming the past conditionings for a fall is like blaming gravity for the sinking of a ship. If a ship or a boat sinks in an ocean, is gravity responsible for the sinking? We can say yes, but gravity is there for all the boats that are going in the ocean.
It is not that gravity has some vendetta against a particular boat and gravity causes sinking of that boat alone. No, gravity is there for all boats, it’s pulling all the boats down. But if the boat is managed carefully, then the boat will not sink.
So gravity we could say is responsible for the sinking of a boat. But gravity is the ultimate cause. Gravity is a common cause that is there for everyone, not the ultimate cause.
Ultimately the ultimate cause for everything is Krishna. So it is not that Krishna causes the fall along of anyone. It is there are laws of material nature and if we don’t follow the laws or we don’t do the necessary things to protect ourselves from the laws, then we will fall.
So if there is a hole in the boat and then because of that water comes in and the boat sinks, we can’t blame gravity for the sinking of the boat. Who has to be blamed? The person who caused the hole or the person who let the hole sink. So similarly we can never blame our conditionings for our falls.
The process of devotional service is like a boat and we are in the middle ocean and in the middle ocean we will be dragged down by our conditionings. But once we are situated in the boat of devotional service, then in that boat we are safe. In that boat we are safe.
The Bhagavad Gita says that the boat of transcendental knowledge is so potent, so wonderful that no matter how sinful a person may be, in that person can cross over the ocean. He says that So in 4.36 Krishna says No matter how sinful a person may be, even that person is the most sinful of all sinners. He says The person who situates himself in the love of his boat of knowledge, the spiritual knowledge, culminates in devotional service.
The best of spiritual knowledge is Raja Vidya, as Krishna tells in 9.2. So once a person is situated in the boat of transcendental knowledge, then One will be able to cross over the ocean of miseries, the ocean of material existence which is filled with miseries. So the boat is competent enough to take us across. And once we are in the boat, gravity can’t pull us down, unless we make a mess while we are in the boat.
If we jump out of the boat, or we make a hole in the boat, or we start shaking the boat, we don’t carefully navigate the boat. There are various ways. One is that I just jump out of the boat.
Another is that I create a hole in the boat. Another is that in the ocean there might be giant waves coming. And instead of navigating carefully, I just take the boat into a storm.
And then the wave just overturns the boat. So what are we referring to in these situations? The first is, we just give up the process of devotional service and go away. That’s like jumping out of the boat.
Then we fall back into the ocean, we are dragged on. Another is that while practising devotional service, we privately, secretly keep indulging in sinful activities. That’s like creating holes in the boat.
And we go right into a storm. That’s like going into a tempting situation, even when we know we are practising devotional service, but within the purview of practising devotional service, we still go into tempting situations which we know are dangerous for us. So then what happens is, although we are practising devotional service, the boat is strong.
But we may not, just because the boat is strong doesn’t mean that we can go into a storm and still survive. Actually, we have to be intelligent. If the storm comes of its own accord and we have to take shelter of Krishna and He will protect us.
But if we ourselves go into a storm, that means we carelessly go into a tempting situation where we know that we are likely to get provoked, then it’s quite likely that we’ll fall off. That the boat will overturn and we’ll fall back. So in all these situations, gravity can’t be blamed.
It is we who need to take the responsibility. Therefore, the important point is that we have a process that can protect us. And the obstacles will come because of our past sinful reactions.
When these obstacles come, at that time, how do we deal with them? We deal with them by taking greater shelter of Krishna. So we are not alone in the boat. Krishna is there in the form of the spiritual master.
And the spiritual master is there through his other representatives also. There is Guru, Sadhu, Shastra. So when the storms start coming, at that time we have to take shelter of Guru, Sadhu, Shastra, pray to Krishna, connect with the Chaitya Guru within the Supersoul, and learn how to deal with the situation.
Otherwise, we will be overcome by the conditionings. But when we are overcome, it is not that we are just passive victims. No, we are also responsible.
Because those conditionings cannot overcome us unless we consent. Actually, when the mind presents temptations, the mind can only propose. It cannot impose.
Mind can say, do this, do that, do this, do that. But ultimately, it is we who choose to do that. So the ultimate responsibility is ours.
Now, Sri Prabhupada explains in the Purport that actually, when we do this kind of vikarma, so this last sentence in the Purport, first paragraph, such vikarma is enacted by the illusory living entity simply for sense gratification. And thus such activities become hindrances on the spiritual path. Hindrances, they obstruct us.
Just like the waves, the holes, the waves in the ocean, the holes in the boat, they all obstruct the boat in moving forward. Now Sri Prabhupada explains that now how does one overcome all this? There are two ways. One is the gradual way and one is the rapid way.
So what is the gradual way? The gradual way is that one starts cultivating brahminical culture. So one is born in a society where there is overall spiritual orientation and one starts developing good qualities. Sri Prabhupada here is talking about the process of gradual purification, which he will elaborate in the first verse of the lecture of instruction also, which we will discuss in our future classes.
Essentially the gradual process involves striving vigorously to cultivate various qualities. Prabhupada talks about It’s a long list. So one practises tapasya, one does brahmacharya, one follows rules, one keeps cleanliness and by all these one tries to become purified.
This is important. But this is the gradual way. However this gradual way is difficult because it may take a long long time.
The quick way is to take shelter of Krishna, is to connect with the spiritual master and with the help of the spiritual master learn the process of devotional service. So once we learn the process of devotional service then by the mercy of Krishna we become purified much faster than by our own efforts to cultivate good qualities. So the Bhagavatam gives the example that trying to remove material desires and metal contaminations from our consciousness is like trying to remove fog.
Now fog is all around and fog makes it very difficult for us to see. But then what do we do with the fog? We can’t just blow air at the fog. We can’t catch the fog and try to throw it aside.
Even if I take a flashlight and try to see through the fog we will be able to see a little distance. But if the sun rises then what happens is the fog just dissipates. Similarly agham dhunvanti karasnena niharam ivabhaskarah We describe that when we develop devotion to Lord Vishnu and chant His holy names agham dhunvanti karasnena agham is sins aghasura was a sinful demon so agham dhunvanti they all become cleansed karasnena completely niharam ivabhaskarah just as fog is removed by the rising of the bhaskarah So the quick way is to invoke the presence of the Lord in our heart the gradual way is that we consciously try to cultivate good qualities the quick way is we rapidly try to invoke the presence of the Lord in our heart and either way the goal is to become purified the goal is to manifest the godliness within but the quicker way because it relies more on the strength of the Lord and not just on our own strength it is easier, it is more effective Now what all does this involve? Let’s look at it now So Aushila Prabhupada talks about how a person may fall in one’s spiritual life if one is not careful Let’s look at this This is an important point to understand There are three trajectories that we can see in this So if one practises akarma, that is devotional service then by akarma one can have rapid elevation by practising devotional service by the mercy of Krishna it’s like an elevator which takes us up swiftly another way is the path of karma here karma means karma kanda so karma kanda gradually purifies us we follow the rules and regulations and by that we go to heavens it’s a slow way up it takes a long long time to eventually become liberated that is also one way for elevation now apart from that there is vikarma vikarma is sinful activity and vikarma takes us down so adhoga chandita Krishna described in the 14th chapter by practising vikarma one becomes degraded and then goes to the lower direction lower species, lower planets, like that so now among these today if we see most people are engaged in vikarma we often use the word karmis to refer to materialistic non devotees the word karmi has a very negative connotation within devotee circles currently but actually the word karmi in the vedic context has a positive connotation it’s a karma kandi today materialistic people are not karmis they are all actually vikarmis so of course we shouldn’t talk in a negative way towards anyone our goal is not to laugh at people our goal is to laugh with people laugh at people means we think I am so superior you are so ha ha ha not laugh at people laugh with people means we elevate them and bring them to Krishna consciousness and then we chant and dance and we laugh with them not that laugh with people means we go down to their level and we do sinful activities with them and laugh with them not that but our goal is we should not be contemptful of anyone if we are morally and spiritually in a better situation than others that’s because Krishna has given us his mercy it’s not that we deserve anything Krishna causelessly gave his mercy to us if devotees had been the way we are if we are laughing contemptuously at karmis if devotees had been laughing at us like that then how would we have got the opportunity to become devotees therefore our goal is not to laugh at others our goal is to laugh with others by elevating them to devotional service so we use the word karma or karmis in a negative sense so yes we want to differentiate ourselves from karmis we don’t want to become materialistic but that doesn’t mean that we should look down upon materialistic people we have to understand that they are also souls they are also dear to Krishna and if we have the capacity we try to get them towards Krishna but at the same time we don’t want to get dragged away so we have to have some level of protection for our bhakti but in protecting our bhakti we shouldn’t develop a sense of moral superiority by which we look down upon others because the more we look down upon others the less we can actually help them because even if we say I want to help you but when we are looking down at others nobody wants to feel looked down and people feel devalued in this way they just think of us as religious fanatics who imagine themselves to be morally superior and then they are not attracted to devotees at all although Krishna consciousness is very attractive it’s joyful but it has to be presented in a way that is respectful we have the example of Prabhupada he says I take a blade of grass in my mouth and I fall at your feet you are a great person please take shelter of the mercy of Lord Chaitanya so our current discussion focusses on our karma, karma and vikarma so today most people are engaged in vikarma we ourselves have engaged in vikarma in the past and who knows we might be struggling with some vikarma even today we might be engaging in it while practising bhakti also then there is karma we are doing some moral religious activities for our bodily maintenance we are doing our worldly professions and then there is these are moral and legal that’s karma and then there is bhakti which we are practising that is akarma now a devotee is familial, social, professional physical activities are all of them also akarma? or are they karma? or are they vikarma? actually it will depend on the devotee’s consciousness if the devotee’s whole life is orientated towards serving Krishna then whatever else is done that is just contributing to that purpose the devotee considers the home to be a temple maybe the devotee is working in a company the devotee considers that work as just a means to glorify the lord in his house and to serve those who are the servants of the lord in the house so if one’s consciousness is of service then the other activities also become devotional service if one gives charity one does devotional service, sadhana properly then other activities also get spiritualised now vikarma in terms of breaking the four relative principles we strictly avoid but some other vikarma that is there we will not be able to avoid because this world is after all a contaminated place Krishna gives the example that just as fire is covered by smoke similarly in this world we cannot avoid some contaminations so the important point is that the devotee keeps avoiding vikarma as much as possible and even the karma that the devotee is doing the moral, religious, ethical responsibility that are there the devotee tries to spiritualise them as much as possible and in this way we become elevated so when we practise akarma and we get elevated then even on this rapid path we face challenges what are the challenges? challenges are it may appear sometimes that a devotee falls down so Bhaktivinoda Thakur explains that actually when a devotee falls we have to understand what exactly is happening there are these three activities akarma, karma and vikarma so now earlier the devotee’s karma might have been vikarma that means the devotee might be engaged in some profession that involves some immoral activities some anti-spiritual activities some sinful activities and the devotee might have been habituated to doing that now the devotee is trying to become spiritual so now instead of considering these three categories let’s consider these two as two categories that means one is the devotional activities spiritual activities for our purification and the other is our material activities for our bodily maintenance and our engagement with society whatever we have so now these two some of it may be inevitably sinful some of it may be conscientiously moral and some of it may be in between sometimes some things are very exemplary moral some things are sinful so that means these two are like a spectrum over here but it’s like this is spiritual both of these are material so now when we are doing both of these at this time when we are doing these material activities the real challenge is that during doing these activities one may be dragged down towards sin because both are material activities there is karma and there is vikarma while doing karma one may fall to vikarma so Bhaktivinoda Thakur explains that while doing worldly activities a devotee may sometimes get dragged to sin and how does such a devotee become protected then? just by the practise of devotional service by the practise of devotional service one gets strength one gets determination one gets intelligence and by that one can pull oneself out of the traps into which the world tempts a person so till one has become strong enough in devotional service sometimes there may be occasional relapses relapses into sin that may happen so if a devotee is steadily practising devotional service then those relapses should be overlooked and the devotee should be encouraged to continue practising devotional service so let’s look at this further now so Narashtra Prabhupada gives a very fascinating understanding of the omnipotence of the Lord so normally we think of the omnipotence of the Lord the Lord can create mountains and He can lift mountains the Lord can lift planets He can float everything but so Prabhupada explains what is the omnipotence of the Lord? such is the omnipotence of the Lord He can make a man born in a Brahmana family as degraded as a low born dog-eater and He can also make a low born dog-eater superior to a qualified Brahmana simply on the strength of devotional service so here Prabhupada is talking about the omnipotence of the Lord not in terms of the physical or material feats of action that the Lord may do he is talking in terms of the transformation of the heart that He can bring about so even a very low born person by the power of bhakti that person can become very very elevated and exalted how does that happen? because Krishna is lifting that person up you remember we discussed yesterday about last time about how there is a rope a person is in a well and there is a rope now there is a person outside who is holding the rope pulls out the rope and the person below is holding and the person below can in a few minutes only come out entirely of the rope or entirely out of the well by the pull of the person outside similarly we may be very very degraded if we just hold on to the rope of devotional service we become amazed oh how much purer I have become so have we actually become pure? yes we have become pure but what has made us pure is not our own strength or determination it is Krishna’s grace even if I have almost fully come out of the well but at that time I let go of the rope then what will happen? gravity still exists whether I am at the bottom of the rope or at the top of the rope gravity still exists if I let go of the rope if I don’t do my job gravity will do its job and gravity’s job is it will drag me down so rather than blaming oh I was practising devotional service for so long and I thought I had made so much advancement how did I fall back? actually our job is to constantly keep practising devotional service Krishna described in 6.26 wherever and whenever the mind wanders bring it back under control that’s his expectation from us mind will wander, bring it back so we will make advancement by this but even if we are advanced if we let go of the rope then we will fall back so the omnipotence of the Lord Prabhupada explained in two ways that the Lord is so powerful that even a person who is at the bottom of the lake the Lord can just pull that person out so like that even if a person is very degraded in the Vedic culture a dog-eater is considered to be a very low class person because dog itself is considered to be a low class animal and eating any kind of flesh is frowned upon but dog flesh is considered to be also abominable so therefore dog-eater is considered to be a low class person so the idea is not a casteist value judgement but the dog-eating is indicative of the mentality of a person because a person’s consciousness is low down so therefore that person eats such things so that person can become saintly why? because that is the omnipotence of the Lord now how is it that Shri Prabhupada says he can make a man born in a Brahmana family as degraded as a dog-eater does the Lord want to make somebody degraded? does the Lord want somebody to fall down? why is Prabhupada saying that he can make? is it the Lord who makes somebody like that? actually the Lord doesn’t deliberately make anyone fall but the Lord illustrates the power powers that are there in material nature so ultimately even maya shakti is Krishna’s shakti and when maya pulls a person down maya is also acting by Krishna’s energy only so maya’s energy is also Krishna’s energy and what Shri Prabhupada wants to illustrate over here is that even if a Brahmana is saintly that saintliness doesn’t come just by the independent endeavour of that Brahmana that has come by the grace of the Lord even if a person has come from the bottom of the well to the top of the well that doesn’t mean that the person is independently stayed at the top of the well as soon as the person loosens the hand on the rope the person falls down so similarly in Vedic society a Brahmana is considered very elevated but at the same time if the Brahmana does not practise dharma loses the hand on the rope of the mercy of the Lord the rope of devotional service, the rope of dharma then that even Brahmana will fall and that also illustrates the power of the Lord because it is maya that makes the person fall and maya is also the energy of Krishna so sometimes when our mind troubles us too much we may feel this mind is so terrible the mind is not allowing me to serve Krishna what should I do? the Bhagavatam 11th Canto in the Avanti Brahman section says that the God-like power of the mind the mind’s power is God-like the mind is extremely powerful as compared to us at present the mind appears much much more powerful and the only way the God-like power of the mind can be curbed is by taking shelter of a being who is not just God-like who is God that is the Supreme Lord so this is the mind’s power is also a reflection of God’s power because ultimately Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita Indriyana Manasyasmi that among the senses I am the mind so for a devotee when a person becomes purified and elevated that increases the faith in the devotee’s heart we see sometimes devotees from various backgrounds which might have been very contaminated they come forward and they start practising Krishna Consciousness they chant, dance, sing and become committed to Krishna’s mission we feel very heartened by that oh, bhakti is so wonderful and it’s so powerful that people all over the world are getting purified but sometimes we may see some senior devotees having problems and they may slip or fall from their standards and that can disturb us if bhakti is so powerful then how can such a person fall so actually if a person falls that should also increase our faith in the power of bhakti why? because what it indicates is no matter how big a person may be that person’s bigness is not independent of the power of bhakti that if a person gives up the shelter of bhakti, gives up the shelter of Krishna then no matter how elevated a person may be, that person will also fall so if we see a person who has gone to 20th floor using a lift oh, this lift can take a person right up to 20th floor say there is a 20th floor building or 200th floor building, a person has gone to 200th floor now if a person has gone to 200th floor but the person jumps out of the lift at that time then what is going to happen? gravity will take over and gravity will cause the person to fall so now just because the person is on 200th floor doesn’t mean the gravity is there is no gravity it is only when we go out of the earth’s gravitational pull then even if the person comes out, the person will float in space, will not be dragged down so we shouldn’t assume that we or any other devotees in that place where they are beyond the gravity pull of material desires certainly we shouldn’t think about that for ourselves so then we will not be dragged down by the gravity pull but we will be held, we will stay up as long as we stay in the lift or as long as we hold on to the boat, to the rope so this is the omnipotence for a devotee, the fall of even senior devotees, what it proves is, if sometimes such a thing unfortunately happens it proves the potency of devotional service we will find out if we enquire, investigate that that devotee must have done something wrong some limb of devotional service did not practise properly and because of which the problems came up so that means the problem is not the potency of devotional service, the problem is the carelessness and tapping the potency of devotional service it is the negligence in practising devotional service attentively so now that lord with all his omnipotence is situated in our heart and from our heart he is ready to use all his omnipotence to purify us and to free us from material existence, let’s look at this now, so the omnipotence of the lord means what? we should have more faith in his ability than doubt about our own inability what does this mean? we understand that I have my disqualifications, I have lust, I have anger, all these things and because of that I have my doubts about whether I can practise devotional service or not but the omnipotence of the lord means whatever be my limitations Krishna’s strength is greater than my limitations and if we are too self-conscious conscious always of I have this conditioning, I have that conditioning how will I practise devotional service that’s how we will stay trapped but if we practise diligently knowing that ultimately Krishna is omnipotent and he will help me if I just try to serve him sincerely then that will shift our focus from our own limitations to Krishna and once we are fixed on Krishna then just thinking of Krishna trying to serve Krishna, trying to love Krishna all that lifts us up, all that gives us strength, so to tap the omnipotence of the lord we need to have more faith in his ability than doubt about our own inability so we are disqualified we are unable but that is because we are trying alone, when we try with Krishna then we can succeed so now when we fight the battle against Narathas Prabhupada explains that the devotee who is fighting is actually helped by the lord so so Prabhupada explains that Swapadamulam, the lord is in the heart and when he sees that somebody is worshipping my lotus feet this person is lovingly serving the lord at that time what happens, Priyasya can refer to the devotee as thinking that the lord is Priya and Priyasya can also refer to the lord thinking my devotee is already Priya to me and how is the devotee serving? this devotee this sadhaka gives up everything else giving all other inclinations this person serves lord Hari and then somehow, occasionally this person falls patitam, falls to what? Vikarma, to bad activities then dhunoti sarvam radhisannivistaha the lord is right next to the person in the heart and the lord will do dhunoti the lord will remove the impurities and how? sarvam all the impurities will be removed so what is required? one gives up other bhavas one gives up other inclinations and tries to serve Krishna intelligently therefore these sort of verses should give us faith that Krishna wants to help us Krishna as we discussed earlier he is present in our heart not to catch us but to coach us he wants to help us grow so when we fight a battle against Narathas we will go through these four stages understanding these stages analytically helps us to understand where we are situated and how we can move forward so the first stage is helpless defeat we try to fight with our conditionings and we actually don’t even try when we are told that we have to fight no meat-eating, no gambling, no intoxication no illicit sex, we say no Krishna consciousness only, forget it so you feel it is impossible to live without these things at the first stage when we are helplessly defeated even now when we are practising sadhakas there may be some conditionings in which we are helplessly defeated we feel it is not possible to fight against them then there is struggle and defeat that means the devotee decides that actually I am not going to fall for this, I will fight determinedly makes resolutions, prays chants and then when the temptation comes the devotee struggles, fights but somehow the devotee falls for it so this is struggle and defeat here this is definitely better than the earlier stage because one is at least putting up a fight, one is not succumbing to temptations passively one is certainly not delighting in those temptations at least those sinful temptations that are there, struggle and defeat is one level, then there is struggle and success so here one thinks ok, what is my goal my goal is not to enjoy these worldly things, my goal is to go back to Krishna so whatever is required for my achieving my goal, I will do that come what may so here also struggle is there but overall gradually a person moves to success, so in general in our spiritual life, we oscillate between stages 2 and 3 most devotees who start practising devotional service in a few years, they become strong enough to give up the gross sinful activities at least with respect to regulative principles at a gross level one doesn’t have to face the prospect of helpless defeat but one does face this struggle face the challenge in the next 2 stages, one struggles but is defeated, one struggles and is sometimes succeeded so how can we move from the 2nd stage to the 3rd stage before that let’s look at the 4th stage, the 4th stage is effortless success, that means at this stage a devotee has just lost the inclination for the temptation so all of us may have some temptations which drag us presently but the more we become purified, the more the dragging stops because we get an inner drag the inner call of the lord towards Krishna and we cannot but fall in love with the lord who is calling us from within we cannot but not think about devotional service and practise devotional service if we start practising devotional service in this way then we slowly move from struggle and defeat to struggle and success and beyond that, the last stage is effortless success struggle and success means we feel that I will not be able to do this, what should I do we call devotees and we are unsteady about the whole thing should I do this, should I do that, should I do nothing about it just wait but then eventually when we make a decision then after that we focus on trying to apply that decision and when we try to apply that decision Krishna sends help to us Krishna’s help may come in the form of books Krishna’s help may come in the form of devotees it may come in the form of deities it may come in the form of the holy name, it may come in the form of dhams, it may come in the form of the future master or the counsellor and of course it may come in the form of the chaitra guru whatever form Krishna’s help comes we are grateful to that help and we try to learn from that help incorporate it in our life and try to improve ourselves in this way, the adventure in a devotee’s life is the adventure of continuous self-improvement the adventure need not be external although many devotees have adventures externalised also but in general the real excitement, the real magic of a devotee’s life is in the heart in the purification that takes place in the gradual control and conquest of the anarthas that happens so now what takes a person through these four stages, it is devotional nourishment as long as we are nourishing ourselves devotionally we are moving forward we are moving upward, we are moving closer to Krishna, so imagine that there are two people fighting and one of these is much stronger the other is weaker so there is lust and we are ourselves so when there is temptation that comes initially when we decide to confront initially we are actually like a kadi pehlwan, that means a very weakling sort of person and lust is like a powerful bodybuilder so when there is a confrontation between the two lust just sweeps us aside pushes us aside, brushes us aside knocking us down with a single punch, up out so what happens is that is the stage of helpless defeat but this person who is a weakling that person exercises regularly that person eats properly that person also develops strength so like that, when we are practising devotional service, we may all be in some manner of thoughts in the case of helpless defeat but if we keep practising everyday our hearing and chanting is like the food for the soul and this food makes us stronger and the stronger we become the more likely are chances to overcome our conditioning and to win the war against those conditionings so first we will go to struggle and defeat and then we will come to struggle and success so what is the key? again it is spiritual nourishment so we get spiritual nourishment regularly by chanting Hare Krishna and practising devotional service by rendering to Sri Krishna Prabhupada and to his disciples the best service that we can and slowly we get nourished we move forward and from struggle and defeat we move to struggle and success and finally there is effortless success effortless success means we don’t feel any temptation at all I give the example often that we might be eating meat earlier but very few devotees have to struggle with the regulative principle of no meat eating even when a person is going in a train or a plane and the neighbour is taking meat very few devotees may have to struggle with their tongue oh I want to eat that, no I will not eat that just the resolve is there, ok I won’t take prasad is what I will take these things I will not indulge in that’s what I have decided at the time of practising Krishna consciousness seriously and I am going to keep that so that way we don’t succumb to our conditionings because that commitment is there practising at the fourth level is not necessarily joyful it is just painful in one way because whenever anything promises enjoyment and then we say no to it the essential problem that happens is we have said no to our pleasure giving nature and when we say no to the pleasure giving nature that nature becomes even more hungry and demands pleasure but the process of bhakti is not about saying no to the pleasure giving nature it is about saying yes but in a more enlightened way yes we want pleasure, we can get pleasure but by loving and serving Krishna and for loving and serving Krishna we need humility so we slowly move forward up these levels so rather than feeling discouraged that we are at a lower stage we should simply understand which state I am at and see whether I can come to an effortless success and then take up that process so that gradually we rise upward and upwards this is the battle against which each one of us has to fight now when we fight this battle we shouldn’t stop the nourishment we stop the nourishment and even if we want we will not be able to continue, we will become weak so the important point is never give up why never give up? because now in the process of devotional service we give up because we feel we can’t succeed why waste my energy but in the spiritual life when we are practising devotional service we are always having the opportunity to practise devotional service at all times no matter what we do Krishna is always there in our heart and Krishna always gives us the opportunity we never lose till we lose hope it’s only when we decide I can’t do it and we ourselves put aside the sword there is a sword using which we can win against any enemy we have an invincible undefeatable sword with us but if we only put aside the sword then what happens and we start thinking I am in this battlefield this sword it is so heavy my dear hand it has got so tired now how long can I hold this sword I need to take care of my hand I just put this sword down it’s such a heavy burden I put the heart down and what happens I was just trying to take care of the muscles of the hand but then the enemy comes chops off the hand only so actually speaking if a warrior thinks that a weapon is a burden then the warrior will soon end in the graveyard similarly if you start thinking that the practise of devotional service the process of devotional service is a burden then we are putting aside our very defences our weapons for attacking and our shields for defending we are putting both of them aside then we will be slaughtered so actually speaking as long as we have our weapons we may get wounded but we will never be defeated a devotee may be checked but a devotee will never be checkmated checked means some place this is a block, this is a block but there is no end a devotee can never be permanently defeated because Krishna is always there in the heart and a devotee can always rise no matter how much the devotee has fallen maya can drag us down but she cannot keep us down it is we who keep ourselves down so we lose only when we lose hope but when we rise again with our hope not in us but in Krishna now Krishna has hope in us Krishna hasn’t lost hope on us for so many lifetimes for so many lifetimes Krishna has been accompanying us in our heart waiting for us to turn towards him and he has been patient we discussed earlier how he is ever waiting ever willing, ever working so if Krishna hasn’t lost hope on us for so many lifetimes why should we lose hope due to struggle for a few years in one short lifetime in Kali Yuga life is short in one sense that is a blessing because if you just practise yoga for one lifetime seriously enough then by Krishna’s mercy, Lord Chaitanya’s mercy Srila Prabhupada’s mercy we can become elevated even liberated in one short lifetime so we had a struggle but it’s relatively speaking not impossible struggle it’s definitely a possible struggle and it’s a glorious struggle because the fruit of that struggle is going to be eternal happiness so we should not lose hope no matter what happens Srila Prabhupada wrote to one Mataji devotee who was facing some difficulties and he said but as devotees we should not become discouraged because we operate on a different platform we operate on a platform where we want to love and serve Krishna and all the problems they just come and go, they are temporary we operate on a different platform so as devotees if we look at the world and if we look at the mind we will become discouraged because if we look at the world we will see there are so many opportunities for enjoyment how can I give them up and if we look at the mind we will see it’s going to create so many problems how can I keep practising how long can I keep fighting so as devotees we shouldn’t look at the world or look at the mind we should look at Krishna Krishna is so wonderful how long will I deprive myself of His association how long will I deprive myself of the joy of loving and serving such a wonderful person who already loves me why should I deprive myself like this so if we focus ourselves on Krishna keep our vision on Krishna then the mind and the world will still be there but their power to trouble us will become lesser because the more we think about them the more they get control on us and they weaken us but when we think about Krishna then that gives us strength and then we are able to resist the challenges that come from the mind and the world so essentially when we practise devotional service it is all a matter of our own determination it’s not that by our determination we will make spiritual advancement we make spiritual advancement by Krishna’s grace but for Krishna to give us grace there is some basic determination that we need to have just like the person in the well has to hold on to the rope so that the person outside can pull him out similarly we have to hold on to devotional service and if we hold on then there are wonderful things waiting for us then by Krishna’s grace what will happen is we will become purified and we will become liberated so Prabhupada describes the purport and he basically paraphrases the second canto of the first chapter and he says the devotee becomes fully enlightened by devotional service by practise of devotional service and thus he comes to know the path of the Lord and the way to attain Him as all doubts diminish he becomes a pure devotee so doubts this can be this Bhagavatam section is very illuminating starting from 1.2.6 to around 1.2.21 Krishna Prabhupada has given a series of lectures on this which is called Dharma, the way of transcendence and there it is described that by the steady practise of devotional service the lower modes subside then eventually all the attachments go away all doubts disappear one stops doing materialistic activities one gets spiritual vision one becomes a pure devotee this is a time honoured path which many many have tread and by the grace of the Acharyas that path has been laid out for us which we can also tread and we can also attain the supreme destination we can also pray to the Lord my dear Lord please take me on this Supat now you have brought me, there are so many paths in this world and I could have got lost in so many of these paths but by your mercy I have come to this Supat I have come to this good path, this path supremely auspicious path which will get me back to you so please allow me to move on this path please protect me when my conditionings come when the obstacles come let me stay fixed in your service and by your grace let me have the intelligence and the strength to keep moving onwards towards you so by praying to the Lord seeking his help and doing the best that we can we can all become purified and return back to Krishna thank you very much shri ishopanishad ki chaar, shila prabhupada ki chaar gaur bhakta vindaki chaar nithaya gaur premanandaya Hare Krishna.