Bhakti Shastri (035) – The Nectar of Instruction Text 5, Part 2

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Hare Krishna Welcome back to the lecture of instruction we are continuing now with the text Dikshet Krishnetiya Sigritam Manasa Adriyetam so we will discuss a few points there are lot of important points which Shila Prabhupada makes in his purport so I will discuss a few points let us look at this powerpoint over here so we see we discussed most of it but here we will see in bottom how a person interacts with Uttam Adhikari so we go with faith and we enquire, when we enquire we associate and we serve so it is said that there is, we enquire and when we enquire we become more close, we learn association and then in association we serve and when we serve a person our faith in that person increases again and greater faith we make more deeper more intimate enquiries and then that deepens the relationship, that association becomes even deeper so faith, enquiry, association service, it goes on cyclically like that ever deepening cycle it is said that actually when we associate it to the Mahabhagavata it is a true leader a true leader is one who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way a true leader is one who knows the way that means this is the way I should go and not only knows the way, actually after knowing the way, often going along the way is not easy it requires a lot of struggle, the leader sets the example and goes the way and then actually goes through the journey which one has to go through and then finally shows the way this is how you should go so this is actually the characteristic of a true leader and we see this in Srila Prabhupada in the way he lived and shared Krishna consciousness with others so a leader is one who knows the way Srila Prabhupada he internalised the Vedic scriptures based on hearing from his spiritual master, studying his spiritual master’s books and studying the previous Acharya’s books in addition of course to living right from his early childhood in a very devotional atmosphere that was very carefully protected and cultivated by his devout father Gaur Mohande whom Srila Prabhupada calls in his Krishna book as a pure devotee and then he also talked about he also learned what he had learned in a cultural sense from his father he learned in a philosophical sense from his spiritual father his Bhakta Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur and then with those both those assets Srila Prabhupada he actually knew the way and he knew, now here we are not talking about Srila Prabhupada as a person who descended from the spiritual world that is there definitely Srila Prabhupada has spoken that on intimate occasions to a few of his disciples that Krishna ascended from the spiritual world but Srila Prabhupada never claimed that that was the basis of his authority for preaching he said my authority for preaching is because my spiritual masters instructed me to and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s prophecy is already there and fulfilling the prophecy of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is the responsibility of every soul so of every follower of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu ultimately every soul because every soul is a follower of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu but at least those who have accepted Chaitanya Mahaprabhu as their worshipable lord it is their responsibility to fulfil their prophecy, actually Prabhupada would say that one time in an intimate meeting with his god brothers his god brothers were trying to, one of his god brothers was saying this whole Pruthvi maybe at that time people thought Pruthvi was just India and so all over India the holy name will be chanted and Bhaktsanthi Thakur has already done that Prabhupada said no actually Pruthvi means the whole world and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu said it will happen so at that time Bhaktsanthi Thakur was ailing and he was, he would not have lived for very long, so then the devotees who will do that, so Prabhupada became brave and said some fool will do it some fool will do it what does that mean? Prabhupada said that if we just have too much faith in our rational intelligence how will this happen, how will that happen, how will that happen then our rational intelligence will make us think that sharing Krishna consciousness in this Kali Yuga is mission impossible it’s not possible who is going to hear but when we base our thinking not just on our logic but on faith in Krishna and on the transcendental logic that with Krishna everything is possible and whoever chooses to become an instrument of Krishna, Krishna can empower that person, so with this faith when we work then we understand that sharing Krishna consciousness and the subsequent spread of Krishna consciousness all over the world is not mission impossible actually it is mission unstoppable because who can stop Krishna Krishna is all powerful and it is his mission and it will spread all over the world so Srila Prabhupada said that some fool will do it, so what he meant by that fool was one doesn’t have too much faith in one’s own logic and rationality of how it will be possible one just does what one can and then Krishna makes the arrangements so we see it is said that there are various definitions of faith, one general understanding of faith is faith is to take one step up a staircase when we can’t see the full staircase take one step at a time one step at a time along the direction that Krishna wants us to go just keep taking one step, one step one step and then Krishna will reveal the way to us, so Srila Prabhupada knew the way means it was not that he knew exactly when he will when he will go to New York what will happen when he will go to New York and how he will meet different people and they will become devotees and how he will send them all over the world, Srila Prabhupada had a vision in the sense that not a mystical vision but a vision in the sense that deep faith which also led to visualisation within his heart that actually there are temples, there are devotees just time is separating us from them so of course you could call it a mystical vision also but the point was Srila Prabhupada he knew the way, not in the details but in the broad principle of faith what Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is saying has to happen, so he knew the way and then not only did he knew the way, so a devotee can be passive, oh it is Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s prophecy, he is supreme lord, he will fulfil it, no a devotee doesn’t think like that a devotee thinks I have to do it, no if I love my lord then his words making them true is my responsibility that’s what a devotee that’s the meaning of surrender, that’s the meaning of dedication, that’s the meaning of commitment, that’s what Krishna tells Arjuna fight, and what does Arjuna say Srila Prabhupada says in a lecture that Arjuna doesn’t say, oh Krishna you are god, then you kill all the enemies I will just sit by the side and I will eat bhang I will drink bhang Prabhupada is making a caricature of pseudo-spiritualist over there, he says a devotee takes responsibility for Krishna’s mission, so Prabhupada had that sense of responsibility that Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s prophecy is my responsibility, actually Prabhupada went the way, a leader knows the way, he knew the way in the sense that he had the faith that it will happen and he knew that nothing can stop the lord’s will from actualising but he himself took the responsibility, he goes the way so Srila Prabhupada himself physically travelled in an extraordinary way for so many, such a long time in his life, such a long so vigorously at such an advanced stage and for long long time Srila Prabhupada went around the world 14 times almost in the last 10-11 years of his life even from a material point of view that is a remarkable feat and it was not just Srila Prabhupada travelling sightseeing, he was constantly busy he was barely sleeping for a few hours at night and sharing Krishna consciousness with enormous vigour so actually he went the way, he worked harder than anyone else we sometimes say that a pure devotee is empowered yes empowerment is there but empowerment doesn’t mean that there are no obstacles empowerment means even when there are obstacles the devotee perseveres and that in one sense the determination to go on is the empowerment and sometimes maybe in old movies you might have seen Ramayana on television was there so there is a Rakshasa will shoot an arrow and some Lord Ram or Lakshmana, somebody will shoot an arrow and both arrows come together and one arrow falls off so like that most often what happens is when we have some determination to serve Krishna and when some obstacle comes, the two arrows collide our determination falls off I can’t do it, leave it, it’s too complex too difficult but with Srila Prabhupada no matter how many big obstacles came everything just fell off and Srila Prabhupada went on, went on, went on so he went the way the kind of difficulty that Srila Prabhupada faced was unbelievable her difficulties were multiple at one level the difficulties were that his own body was ageing and he was weak, he was all alone and later on he got very dedicated devotees but even they had difficulties in following the spiritual standards they had difficulties in interrelating with each other they had difficulties in presenting Krishna consciousness to the world properly, they misrepresented sometimes then there were difficulties of being in a foreign country where devotees were labelled as cultists and then they had to fight court cases sometimes devotees were abducted, brainwashed so sometimes devotees were arrested and put in jail so there were actually multiple difficulties for Srila Prabhupada but he just went on indefatigably, tirelessly preaching, so he goes the way and then he shows the way Srila Prabhupada not only went on heroically preaching but he also shared how you should do it do as I have done and share Krishna consciousness with the world so he went the way and he showed the way actually Srila Prabhupada in one lecture says that not just one lecture, several places he says that this Krishna consciousness movement is practically invented by me invented by me doesn’t mean that it was concocted but invented in the sense that how people with cultural upbringing that was radically different from the traditional cultural upbringing how they could be engaged in devotional service how people who had never heard of Krishna how could they be inspired and engaged in such a way that they could give their life to Krishna Srila Prabhupada used tremendous devotional creativity for that Srila Prabhupada started Ratha Yatra, we discussed that earlier we like to do outlandish things and Srila Prabhupada started Ratha Yatra which was the most outlandish thing which they could think of dancing in the streets and not only that Srila Prabhupada started book distribution now the tradition was that Brahmacharis go out and beg, Srila Prabhupada said begging is not respectable so you go and give something and then ask for charity and book distribution became such a tremendous phenomenal means of not only sharing wisdom but also increasing the Lakshmi in the service of Krishna so Srila Prabhupada in India he came and he made life membership so Srila Prabhupada came up with many different schemes and plans by which not only to share Krishna consciousness but also to engage the devotees so he kept the principles the same the Sambandha Gyan he kept the same but the Abhidhaya Prabhupada was tremendously innovative in terms of how to get devotees to practise devotional service Sambandha is the philosophical understanding that I am a servant of Krishna, the basic philosophical knowledge Srila Prabhupada did not change Sambandha that is he kept the points very clear that I am the servant of Krishna that he did not change anyway but Abhidhaya how should we connect with Krishna Sambandha, Abhidhaya, Prayojana these are three primary aspects of actually of any process if a person wants to say see the advertisement and then okay there is a car advertisement and the person sees the car advertisement and the person thinks oh I want that car the car advertisement says enjoy this car and enjoy the envy in your neighbour’s eyes so it is actually a degraded standard thinking that my enjoyment will be the envy in another’s eyes but whatever person sees the car and the Sambandha is established oh I want that car so first we look at the object we come to know about that object and then we want to develop a relationship with that object then after that is Abhidhaya there is a process now I understood this is the object with which I want to develop a relationship how do I develop that relationship that is a process for that so I withdraw money from my bank and go to the car showroom and purchase the car, if I don’t have that then I work on my plan to get a loan if I can’t get a loan then I do savings and then based on that I mortgage something then I go to the car showroom and then I decide to purchase a car so Abhidhaya is the process by which we develop the Sambandha Sambandha is basically knowledge so Sambandha Krishna Bhakti Abhidhaya Prem Prayojan Chaitanya Charitambud and then what happens when I ride in the car and then when I go ride by my neighbour’s house I am about to enjoy the envy in his neighbour’s eyes and I find that he is riding in a more modern car than what I have got and then instead of enjoying the envy in his eyes he enjoys the envy in my eyes so it’s a distressing and devastating anticlimax for me so generally the prayojan in terms of happiness it’s almost always an anticlimax in material life but the principle is that in everything this is how we work Sambandha Abhidhaya Prayojan in movies they show that there is a boy and a girl and somehow they are travelling through a building and both of them get trapped in the same lift at the same time and the lift electricity goes off and they look at each other and when they touch each other they feel electric current is flowing through their body and they think we want to develop a Sambandha and then after that the whole movie where maybe the girl’s parents oppose the boy’s parents oppose and then there is fighting and there is misunderstanding and there are all kinds of complexities that is the whole thing is Abhidhaya and then the prayojan that they show is and they lived happily ever after now that prayojan is not true because actually nobody lives happily ever after we discussed how we say happily ever after this is exactly opposite of what Bhagavad Gita teaches Bhagavad Gita teaches so nobody lives ever after it’s Ashashvatam and this is Dukhalam so nobody lives happily but the point is this Sambandha Abhidhaya Prayojan is there everywhere so now Sambandha Prabhupada gave us the philosophical knowledge to explain how Krishna is the all attractive Supreme Lord and we have to develop a relationship with him so that’s Sambandha then Abhidhaya is how do I develop my relationship that is by the process of Bhakti so how is the process of Bhakti to be practised in the modern times that Prabhupada explains was his invention so many different ways he came up by which he could engage devotees and the Prayojan here is truly fulfilling it is love for Krishna which is a lasting and fulfilling asset which just keeps filling and flooding our heart with happiness for all of eternity so Srila Prabhupada showed the way how to engage devotees in Krishna’s service Srila Prabhupada in many ways was very creative always very faithful to the tradition but at the same time in terms of engaging devotees he was extremely innovative and he encouraged devotees to come up with different ideas of how you can share Krishna Consciousness so when the devotees were going to organise a pandal, a big pandal programme in Mumbai so at that time they did a lot of publicity blitz and then they made a big helium balloon and near VT CST station that was VT at that time they put the balloons, they made the balloons huge balloon suspended so that practically from any part of Mumbai people could see it in the sky and they will see this balloon and on that balloon was written Hare Krishna at that time the propaganda was such, people already knew what Hare Krishna meant, there is a Hare Krishna festival and advertisement of that and Prabhupada appreciated it so a leader is one who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way this was Srila Prabhupada and it is such an advanced devotee that we should aspire for the association of such an advanced devotee who is bhajana vigya, bhajana vigya means expert in bhajan expert in bhajan doesn’t just mean expert in remembering the esoteric pastimes of Radha and Krishna, that is there but the expertise that is relevant for a person who wants to fulfil Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s prophecy is how to expertly attract people to Krishna’s lotus feet and not just attract people but subsequently engage people in Krishna’s service, that was Srila Prabhupada’s bhajana vigya and he was purely devoted to Krishna, to nothing else that was how Prabhupada is in that category where devotees even today they long for his association and those who got association for a few moments of Srila Prabhupada that has become their permanent lifelong asset it’s a perennial treasure which they can draw back on and relish and cherish in their hearts and derive inspiration from it there is a devotee who met Srila Prabhupada and the only interaction he had was, Prabhupada was coming down to go for morning walk Prabhupada looked at him and said Jai, that’s all and this devotee felt, Prabhupada was appreciating encouraging and giving confidence Jai, you know that you have become a devotee Jai, you know whatever discouragements you have, you know that Krishna is supreme and you will be successful, Jai, so he says through that one expression Jai this devotee can draw unlimited purports and keep getting inspiration, so this is Nindadisu nirdam cherish the association Bhagavatam says that relishes the association of advanced devotees just as when the peacock sees the clouds are coming, then what happens? the peacock’s feathers just rise up in a beautiful blossom it starts dancing in joy, so like that when we get the association of advanced devotees we also become jubilant, so that’s how the advanced devotees when they speak words, they go into our heart and then we become purified by that and we make swift spiritual advancement when our hearts are attracted to such devotees we want to serve them and then because they want us to serve Krishna when we serve them essentially we are serving Krishna and that way we make rapid spiritual advancement now if we move forward and think about what are the characteristics of such advanced devotees so Prabhupada says Prabhupada as I discussed Bhaktivinoda Thakur says that Prabhupada quotes this Vaishnava is known by how many other Vaishnavas a person makes so yes is preaching success a sign of spiritual advancement? yes it is provided it is a result of not a substitute for inner fulfilment inner fulfilment what does this mean? inner fulfilment means that when we are practising Krishna consciousness we feel happy we feel satisfied we feel that I am very fortunate that I have come to know about the purpose of life that I have connected with Krishna and now I am on my way back to Krishna after losing myself for so many earlier lives so when we feel fulfilled internally it is not that we have no struggles we always have struggles as long as we are in Sadhaka stage we will all have struggles but actually this world is like a hospital and we are all like patients but we are all like patients who have been diagnosed correctly and are now being treated correctly so it is not that once the treatment starts automatically all pain goes away but certainly the pain decreases and already the pain decreases along with that the health also returns so a patient who has taken the treatment for some time can clearly see I may still have some pains but as compared to earlier my suffering is much lesser I am healthier now and that gives the patient the faith that this treatment works if I keep on taking this treatment then it will work more and I will become healthier till I become completely disease free so like that by the practise of devotional service we will all become disease free what is our disease? it is our material attachment it is bhava roga as the Bhagavatam calls it the disease of material existence which is caused by our material desires so this causes not only the miseries of birth, old age, disease and death not only the adhyatmik, adhibhautik, adhidaivik, taap but also causes the torment of the kshadvika, lust, anger, greed, envy, pride and illusion and by the practise of Krishna consciousness this is what we see lust, anger, greed, envy, pride and illusion start decreasing decreasing, decreasing we gain levels of self mastery which we had thought would have been impossible for us and then as we learn to live life according to scriptures then adhyatmik, adhibhautik, adhidaivik, kleshas also decrease because we learn how not to maximise conflicts but how to live harmoniously so we see that this process works we become more peaceful we become more joyful our life becomes more purposeful and meaningful so just as when a person is sick and has found a cure for the disease then whenever that person sees anybody else with that disease that person feels, oh, why are you suffering? please take this medicine, it works, it will cure you so when a person understands naturally the person wants to practise the method practise the process so similarly when we are sharing Krishna Consciousness we have experienced we have relished the transformational potency, the curative power of Krishna Consciousness and we see others are also suffering similarly so we want them also to relish the power and that’s why we talk about Krishna Consciousness we share Krishna Consciousness with others so when this is the motive then naturally our genuine conviction comes out and when a person speaks sincerely from their heart and also touches and transforms others’ heart then the preaching success is growing out of one’s inner fulfilment it is a result of one’s inner fulfilment and then naturally such a convinced person attracts many other people and when a person attracts many other people then the Krishna Consciousness movement spreads, so Srila Prabhupada was like that he was satisfied, he did not need anything completely satisfied in chanting Hare Krishna and sharing Krishna Consciousness and he attracted others, so many others so ideally preaching success should be a result of our inner fulfilment but in some cases preaching success can be a substitute for our inner fulfilment and that can be dangerous then it is not a sign of spiritual advancement see when we are getting inner fulfilment that itself means we are advancing spiritually because what is spiritual advancement? it means we are returning to our original nature as Satchitananda Atma is Satchitananda but the Atma cannot experience Ananda as long as the Atma is identifying with the Asat, Achit, Nirananda body so to make spiritual advancement means to distance ourselves from the body’s misidentification and to realise ourselves to be Satchitananda and of course we don’t realise, we are not just spiritualists who just want to understand ourselves as souls, we are devotees so devotees means we are not satisfied with just the Atma being Satchitananda we want to understand the Atma as a loving relationship with Krishna and in that loving relationship there is life’s greatest fulfilment so we want to realise this so if we make spiritual advancement that means we relish the joyful nature of the Atma and we relish the joy of loving Krishna and naturally we feel fulfilled by this but in some cases a person is not following the process properly person is not really remembering Krishna not striving for purification not practising Krishna consciousness seriously then one may not get purified if one is not getting purified then one doesn’t experience higher happiness, one doesn’t experience inner fulfilment and one needs happiness, so when we need happiness and we are not getting inner fulfilment then we seek outer glorification as a substitute for inner fulfilment I need happiness somewhere so if I am not getting it inside then I look for it outside and then Krishna becomes a tool for me to get external happiness actually we give up external happiness for Krishna’s sake but we use Bhakti and the knowledge that Krishna has given us the position that Krishna has given us as a tool for getting external happiness so we want to speak eloquently and effectively so that not that people become Krishna’s devotees yes that may happen but I should be praised I should have so many followers I should be famous as a person who has made so many devotees and my joy doesn’t come because others have become, so many people have become devotees my joy has come because I made them devotees and not only I made them devotees they are serving me now, they treat me like the representative of God and they obey my word so this is very sad when it happens because then the outer success is not coming as a result of inner fulfilment it is a substitute for inner fulfilment and such preaching success is not a sign of spiritual advancement it is actually it is a sign of spiritual danger that means when one wants to succeed externally for the sake of feeling a sense of self-worth and feeling a sense of fulfilment if our goal is just to succeed externally then we could have gone in material life and succeed externally there also one can succeed and one can get glorification from others, one can get praise, one can get medals but as devotees we come to Krishna Consciousness not for external success primarily we come primarily for internal success, for developing our relationship with Krishna now in Krishna Consciousness also there are many landmarks of external success Prabhupada would glorify those who distributed books very vigorously and would want to hear the scores of who distributed how many books so in that sense Prabhupada was quite eager to hear about external success also but at the same time Prabhupada asked what will please you the most the book distributors were very confident that Prabhupada will say book distribution pleases me the most but Prabhupada is crazy he said what will please me the most is when you love Krishna when you love Krishna so the books are all teaching us and everyone else that why we should love Krishna and how we should love Krishna so ultimately the goal of life is not just to become the world’s number one book distributor the goal of life is to love Krishna and to return to Krishna now because we love Krishna we want to share Krishna’s message with others and that’s why we want to distribute books so success in book distribution should flow out of our inner fulfilment in Krishna Consciousness and same applies to other projects also this is not to say that external success is not important and we shouldn’t have this vision if somebody is doing wonderful service you know that person has distributed a lot of books or gives very nice classes or has helped in building many big temples you know this person is just having external success and that person’s external success is a substitute for inner fulfilment we shouldn’t judge others like this we should use this for ourselves you know we don’t know what is happening between a person’s life between that person and Krishna even if that were true are we in a position to help that person if we are not then let’s not bother about it let’s focus on our purification and our connection with Krishna so for ourselves we can say that whether my spiritual advance whether I am feeling spiritual advancement and how do I know I am feeling spiritual advancement and I am internally satisfied in my relationship with Krishna and then I want to share that relationship now preaching success is one characteristic preaching doesn’t necessarily mean we have to sit on Vyasasana and we have to give classes that is one kind of preaching, preaching essentially means that we remove the obstacles between the conditioned soul and Krishna who is a preacher? preacher is one who removes the obstacles between the conditioned soul and Krishna so one obstacle is misconceptions, it’s ignorance and misconception, ignorance means one doesn’t know and misconception means one knows wrong things so ignorance and misconceptions this is one obstacle and when we give classes, when we speak the philosophy we are removing that one obstacle but there can be many other obstacles, there can be other obstacles say there is no culture where people can practise devotional service nicely, today’s materialistic culture is so anti-devotional that it becomes like a war just to practise the basic principles in such a culture so if some devotees are working very hard to build a community where devotees can get refuge from the materialistic culture and have a safe zone where they can practise spiritual life nicely, then building of that culture is also preaching so there also the obstacle of a hostile culture is being removed and when we are building up a culture, what all does the culture involve? most importantly culture involves devotional culture centred on the deities so the pujaris may not be giving classes but if they are serving the deities very diligently punctually and you are decorating them very beautifully and manifesting their all attractive beauty to the world then they are preaching if the cooks are cooking prasadam nicely and through that they are attracting people to come for the programmes in the temple, they are also preaching so actually speaking the whole Krishna conscious mission is essentially a mission of preaching because ultimately we are creating facilities and systems for people to become Krishna conscious for people to come closer and closer to Krishna now different devotees will have different inclinations, some devotees may directly want to be in preaching where they want to speak about Krishna they want to connect people with Krishna so there can be preachers, there can be speakers, there can be writers there can be counsellors there can be community builders they are all different kinds of preachers so they are all working in bringing the conditioned souls towards Krishna or even aspiring devotees sadhakas towards Krishna so all this is within the ambit of preaching and all of these will require bhajana vigya, expert is not required just in giving classes expert is required in many other fields bhajana vigya, one has to be expert in bhajana, bhajana means not just our own chanting but in helping, inspiring and guiding others to chant so Srila Prabhupada was like that and many of Srila Prabhupada’s followers are becoming like that by his mercy, by Krishna’s mercy by Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s mercy and when we associate with such devotees and we serve them then we make spiritual advancement by that so for our sake what we should see is although all activities are preaching but still there is a special joy in giving Krishna to others because there we see the potency of Krishna Consciousness coming out live if we share Krishna Consciousness with somebody and then that person’s life becomes transformed the heart becomes transformed then by that the person comes closer to Krishna then there is a great sense of fulfilment actually the journey of our life one level of treading the journey of life is, ok there are so many thorns in my path, I will remove the thorns from my path and I am busy remove this problem, remove this problem there are so many thorns on my life’s path and I am busy removing that that’s what we all have to do but there is a special joy in removing the thorns from the path of others and not just others who are directly connected with us our family members, our relatives but those actually with whom we are only connected through Krishna so if through the journey of our life due to our journey through life if the path of even one person through life becomes easier becomes smoother then that gives a great fulfilment to us now people may try to do it at a material level they think oh why my, sometimes people say that there is some starving child somewhere and I will sponsor the education and the food and the living of the child and that child’s life will become happier that’s a noble sentiment at the same time ultimately everyone is spiritually starving and if we try to help other people who are all ultimately children of Krishna they are lost children of Krishna they are all spiritually starving and we ease their path through life by giving them Krishna’s message in a loving and caring way then that gives a great sense of fulfilment to our life so actually what brings joy is selflessness if I am just concerned with removing the obstacles the thorns in my life’s path I have to do that but I am basically being centred on myself but only when I take my mind off myself and think of something nobler, think of something loftier then I get a deeper fulfilment, actually happiness is always a by-product, it is never a product happiness is always a by-product means that we don’t become happy by doing something to become happy something to become happy I think, oh I will watch this cricket match and then I will become happy I am watching this cricket match to become happy no, if I do that, then if my team loses I will feel like breaking the TV and there is no guarantee there is a fair probability that my favourite team will lose generally speaking, most of the time if we try to do something with the goal of becoming happy by doing the thing we will soon get bored with it real happiness comes it is not a product, it is a by-product by-product means when we dedicate ourselves to a cause higher than ourselves we commit ourselves to that and in that commitment in that selflessness in that dedication we consume ourselves, then as a by-product happiness comes along so happiness is always a by-product now there are many activities somebody can devote oneself to the nation to the social welfare humanitarian level somebody can devote themselves to art or music or scientific invention in all these there is some fulfilment but it is material and it is temporary but when we devote ourselves to Krishna we are devoting ourselves to a cause that is eternal our relationship with Krishna is eternal and therefore the fulfilment which will also come as a by-product is eternal so as sadhakas when we try to ease others journey through life then that selflessness it may not be easy to do that because others have difficulties and trying to solve their difficulties puts us also in difficulties sometimes but when we try to do that through that selflessness, happiness comes as a by-product so we should all try to preach as much as possible Srila Prabhupada wanted that all devotees try to preach as much as possible now of course some of us may not be comfortable giving classes then we can preach in other ways basically we have to find some service which we can do for Krishna in which we flourish in our spiritual life and that service, if it is contributing to Krishna’s mission then that is also preaching so now Srila Prabhupada also talks in the Prakot about those who practise spiritual life seriously so he talks about Kanishta, Madhyama and Uttama so he says that what is the nature of Kanishta, Madhyama and Uttama so Adhikar and Adhikari so there is this classification is based on faith and knowledge and this is based on Chaitanya Charita which Prabhupada is quoting in the Prakot over here in the Kanishta the knowledge is very less and the faith is also very less and in the case of Madhyama the faith is deep but the knowledge is not so deep and in the case of Uttama the faith is also very deep and the knowledge is also very deep so Kanishta, at the level of Kanishta the practise is quite unsteady one may fall away at any time because one is at a beginning stage now when it comes to Madhyama stage one has actually started practising the process of devotional service and one has seen the potency in one’s own life how actually my heart gets purified, how I become happier and because of this internal assimilation this internal realisation of the process of bhakti one comes to the Madhyama level one becomes advanced and that’s why the faith is unshakeable now although the faith is strong, faith is unshakeable one may still not be very knowledgeable in terms of what? here Chaitanya Charita in terms of the Shastra Yukti in terms of argumentation based on scripture so as to present scripture effectively and to infuse Krishna Consciousness in others and to refute their misconceptions so here it is not just talking about intellectual knowledge it is talking about applicational knowledge by which you can transform people’s heart so a Madhyama Adhikari has faith it’s just like now when a person starts taking the treatment, a person doesn’t know what is the treatment all about and a person also doesn’t know whether the treatment will work or not doesn’t have faith that the treatment will work so there is no knowledge and there is no faith so that’s the Kanishta stage, initially one is practising then Madhyama stage means when one started taking the treatment one sees that this works this works very well then at that time one’s faith increases but still it is not that the patient who is being cured knows as much as a doctor does a patient may know ok this was the disease and this was the medicine and I take the medicine and I get cured one has basic knowledge but that doesn’t mean that the person is expert enough to be a doctor but suppose that person gets cured and the person feels oh this was such a potent process, it cured such a terrible disease I want to be a part of the treatment process not just as a recipient but as a distributor I want to be a doctor and I want to treat people then the person studies very deeply and then the person understands ok this is how the disease is diagnosed this is how the disease gets cured when you take the treatment so then the person becomes expert and then the person can give treatment so at that time a doctor has faith in the medicine process and also knowledge of how all the medical process works how all the treatment cures the person so similarly in this case a madhyama is a person who has seen the treatment working and that’s why the madhyama is happy yes the treatment works but the madhyama also has doubts not doubts in the sense that the madhyama doesn’t know in details how does the treatment work so by logic or by logical analysis certainly the broad philosophical outline is definitely known but if you study go deep into philosophy, there are so many different philosophies and there are so many subtleties of the philosophy and it also requires a very sharp awareness to understand what is to be applied where a doctor, it is not just that that one can just memorise the medical books and just replicate everything on time, place, circumstances, the doctor has to improvise ok this patient has this complication along with this disease so what should we do now and then the doctor prescribes so like that bhajana vigna so the madhyama keeps practising, observing sharing Krishna consciousness and then understands ok this person, we can bring this person to Krishna like this this person, we can bring this person to Krishna like this this person’s spiritual malady can be cured in this way that’s how the person becomes bhajana vigna so generally speaking we may say that actually knowledge comes before faith it’s very easy to acquire knowledge you just read some books there are so many scholars who have so much knowledge about Krishna but they don’t have any faith so then at an intellectual level knowledge comes before faith then why is it saying that here knowledge is coming after faith that we are talking about different kinds of knowledge when we talk about academic scholar the academic scholar’s knowledge is theoretical theoretical basic knowledge one has to have whereas the knowledge of a madhyama of a kuttama is not just theoretical it is transformational transformational not just in terms of how one’s own life is transformed but also in how one can transform other’s lives so when one understands this this is how other’s lives can also be transformed then that is a bhajana vigna that is advanced devotee so normally yes for asan spiritual life also we’ll read Prabhupada’s books and theoretical knowledge will come before the realisation of the faith but even after the knowledge has come and even after faith has come actually it takes time to understand in this situation how should I speak in this situation how should I deal with this devotee or how should I guide this person that takes years and years of experience and not just years and years of experience it also requires spiritual advancement it requires Krishna’s mercy that is a bhajana vigna that is advanced stage now adhikar and adhikari when we see so the kanishta if the kanishta devotee keeps practising devotional service then the shraddha will become strong and then they come to the madhyama stage if he keeps practising further then the person will become more advanced and come to the uttama stage gradually and this is how spiritual progression takes place for everyone now Prabhupada explains in the purport that he says even the characteristic of a person who wants to be initiated is that person should not be too interested in material life Prabhupada says that one should take a guru not for fashion one should take a guru for transformation not fashion that means some people especially nowadays the word guru has become trendy and people have their idea ok when they invite somebody to their home they say this is my TV this is my fridge this is my sofa, this is my kitchen this is my dog and this is my guru so people think this is a fashion to have a guru now this kind of attitude is very detrimental a guru is not a showpiece in our hall a guru is actually meant to show us the pieces in our heart and our heart is shattered by our anarthas how our love for Krishna is buried deep amid so many below so many conditionings and the guru is meant to help us bring that out so guru is actually like a heart surgeon and he cures the heart he cures our eyes, he gives us vision and then he purifies our heart so our eyes are closed by darkness and by applying the ointment of knowledge and using the surgical instruments of purification, the guru enables us to actually opens our eyes and helps us to see truly and with that spiritual master I offer obeisances so now Prabhupada explains what should be the attitude when a disciple goes to such a guru or goes seeking for a guru, a disciple should be interested in spiritual enquiry why shouldn’t you go to this spiritual master just to, I have this problem in life, I have this problem in life, I have this problem, how should I solve it yes, those problems are there and we may need guidance for solving them, but the important point is the whole material existence is problematic and when we go to a doctor, we may tell the symptoms ok, I have this symptom, this symptom this symptom, but a doctor will pay attention to the symptom, but a doctor will go to the root a doctor will say this is the cause and this is how you have to be treated so the guru may tell us some things the spiritual master may tell us some things for the symptomatic problems also, but the treatment addressing the root causes forgetfulness of Krishna and what the spiritual master provides us is the medicine for that we discussed earlier how all of us have forgotten Krishna, we are suffering from amnesia, so if a millionaire’s child is fallen in a valley because of an accident while going through a hill road and has forgotten everything and is struggling breaking trees and carrying logs, working as a wood cutter, slaving and then the sufferings at that level are real yes, there is pain in the back, there is excessive burden, there is tiredness but all those pains are superficial, if the billionaire’s son just remembers oh, I am the son of that wealthy father then we are lifted out of that suffering and go back to the father and all the sufferings will go away similarly we are having problems in material existence and those problems have to be dealt with at a material level but they are endless and if we let all our energy get caught in just dealing with these problems then because they are endless, we just keep staying on dealing with these problems life after life after life so, in material life the loose ends never end loose ends is an English phrase ok, this small sand, I have to fix it up I have to fix that up, I have to fix that up so, the loose ends you have to fix those up, the small small things that are wrong we fix them up, but the loose ends never end that means we keep fixing up things fixing up things and they keep getting unfixed they keep going wrong, we set them right they keep going wrong, so at a material level it’s endless, so we have put in energy we put in effort, whatever is appropriate but we also reserve some time and energy for making spiritual advancement so, we go to the spiritual master primarily for helping and dealing with our spiritual problems, our forgetfulness of Krishna so, when a person is ready for the transformation person is ready yes, my sufferings are because of being in material existence and I want to come out of this material existence then such a person becomes ready for practising spiritual life and Prabhupada says at such a time one can take initiation now we see as compared to many other movements, the initiation standards itself of Krishna Consciousness are very high now following the four 16 rounds from the materialistic standards this itself seems so forbiddingly high and for us this is the beginning, so what does it indicate, actually at one level you could say we are fanatically strict but that is not the point the point is that Krishna Consciousness has so much potency that although the standards are so high as compared to the general mass of people, still many people are practising it and the fact that people are able to practise it, demonstrates indicates that Krishna Consciousness does provide a higher taste so, Shri Prabhupada writes in his purport that there were these western boys and girls who were involved in all kinds of materialistic activities, some of them from very wealthy families but when they started practising Krishna Consciousness it gave them such a taste that they left everything else, and they came and stayed in the association of devotees sometimes in very much, very austere conditions and still they were practising devotional life and they were sharing devotional culture with everyone, devotional knowledge, devotional culture they went all over the world accepting immense austerity, sometimes even risking lives, Shri Prabhupada asked some of his disciples to go to Pakistan and preach, Pakistan being a Muslim country and hostile to Hinduism the public preaching was life was danger for life also, but the devotees did that so why? because they were getting a higher taste and that is, in a sense the demonstration of the potency of Krishna Consciousness so Prabhupada says when one is actually detached oneself from material life and is trying to attach oneself to spiritual life then at that time one can take initiation and then Prabhupada talks about the chanting of the holy names, how that is important there is a famous anecdote that it comes in Hare Krishna Excerpt and several other places I agree, Prabhupada told at initiation time that all of you should chant 64 rounds and devotees calculate 64 rounds it’s impossible it will take all day Prabhupada said ok, not 64, then 32 not 32, not possible it will take so many hours, all 16 and nothing less now when Prabhupada told us to chant 16 rounds and Prabhupada writes in the purport that he said that anybody who is not able to chant 64 rounds is fallen now Bhaktianswara Raghuram of course had multiple standards for Ganastha he expected to chant some number of rounds for those Sanyasis 64 rounds but the point which Prabhupada is making through this is that if we don’t have attraction to Krishna we are fallen the inability to chant a particular number of rounds indicates our fallen condition and we begin our spiritual advancement by accepting that we are fallen so by committedly chanting the holy names we keep taking the medicine when we take the medicine our focus is not on the taste now if we wanted taste we would go to a 5 star hotel, if we want taste we don’t go to a hospital if so, when we we will discuss about this in the Sathya Krishna Namcharita Adi verse also more, but when we are chanting the holy names our focus is on taking the medicine of the holy name and purifying ourselves by that and by this purification we will get cured and then we will naturally gain happiness but the important point is that we chant attentively and that is how so how do we serve the spiritual master the most important service of a disciple is the chanting of the holy names because that is the initiation for no other service are we taking vows but for initiation we take a vow in front of the sacred fire, in front of the Vaishnavas in front of the spiritual master, in front of the deities we take a vow that I will chant 16 rounds it’s an extremely important service and sometimes what happens is that this service nobody asks about it how is your chanting going, are you chanting well are you able to chant attentively are you able to complete your rounds in the morning and sometimes when some counsellors are there, the counsellors may ask but in general our interaction with devotees, once we get other services it becomes more functional did you do this, did you do that, did you go here did you do that, how many books did you distribute how is the programme going over there how many people are going to come so our interactions become very functional they are also important because the functions are centred on Krishna but we may feel that nobody is asking me about chanting therefore chanting is not so important but the point is chanting is the basic sustenance of our spiritual life it’s just like if somebody tells me ok now you have this car please can you bring this car to the programme over there, so now when people are telling, when I am told drive this car and bring it to the programme there it is implicit in that that I should drive carefully and not cause accident of the car so that is implied directly doesn’t have to tell, ok when you are driving don’t cause accident just go there, take the car there that is implied, so like that it’s not that every time a driver is told to drive all the basics of driving have to be reminded, it’s implied so like that when we are doing various services, the basics of spiritual life, it’s not that we will be told every time the basics of Chinese exchange rounds, following the regular principles these are basics and these are implied, so in our interaction with devotees we may not be told those many times but if you read Shila Prabhupada’s book, Prabhupada just keeps bringing them again and again he reminds us that this is important and just because devotees may not talk about it, doesn’t mean that it is not important, it is important it is foundational to our spiritual treatment and the important point is, in our context this is also Shushru Shaya our faithful service to the spiritual master, it is also centred on chanting if we are chanting attentively we are serving the spiritual master we are honouring the promise that we made to the spiritual master and by that we make steady spiritual advancement all the other services are also important but chanting is also an important service and as seekers, Shushru Shaya Bhajanamikhyam, we serve the spiritual master so every devotee you think that my spiritual master Hanshila Prabhupada, when he was here in his physical manifested presence for us they were carrying so much burden in the service of Krishna so they were carrying so much burden, so what should I do? Imagine if we are walking along and we see some senior devotee coming along, carrying a big bag so what will we do? Say Prabhuji, Maharaj, please let me carry the bag we see some senior devotees there naturally we will do that so like that, when we see somebody whom we respect, doing something difficult we want to unburden them as much as possible so same way, the spiritual master is carrying such a big burden of sharing Krishna conscious with so many people so a disciple should feel let me shoulder the burden of my spiritual master let me become committed let me become responsible, responsible not just for my spiritual life but responsible for sharing the responsibility of my spiritual master, shouldering it, a small fragment of it so a young devotee a new devotee, actually far from shouldering the burden, burden the shoulder what does it mean, burden the shoulder? that means that, oh goes to the spiritual master, I had this problem I had that problem, I had that problem devotees don’t care for me, this happened that happened, now if we have serious problems, we definitely have to discuss those but actually our attitude is also important, if you are always expecting things from others then others will never live up to our expectations and then we will always have problems but if we start getting involved in services then what happens, our focus shifts from expectation to contribution and when the focus shifts from expectation to contribution then, because there are so many expectations, then there is less frustration, there are less problems and because the focus is on contribution and we are trying to serve, then even if there are difficulties, then others will see that we are not so self-obsessed we are trying to make a positive contribution for the mission, they will help us so we should try to shoulder the burden of the spiritual master, not burden the shoulder just like when a small child is born and a child is growing, what does the child do? child, burden the shoulder of the mother mother has to carry the child around and that is fine, the mother will be happy to do that mother will love to do that, because she loves the child, so she may do it when the child is one, two, three five, but if the child becomes ten years old mother will carry me now now you have to walk on your own and if the child becomes twenty years old and the mother is carrying the luggage, the mother will say no, earlier you were carrying me, now you are telling me you have grown up similarly, now the love between the mother and the child is the same, in fact it can become deeper but the way in which it is expressed is different so initially any problem that we have, we go to the devotees I have this problem, I have that problem, I have that problem, how to deal with it and devotees will lovingly deal with it for us, so we are shouldering our burden we are burdening their shoulder but the test of our spiritual advancement is that as we grow up then instead of burdening their shoulder we shoulder their burden we don’t talk too much about our problems with them, because we just see them in perspective, in this life problems will come, problems will go, instead I try to take up services, I take up responsibilities and by that I make spiritual advancement we serve faithfully advanced devotees so in the next verse we will discuss about how when we are doing this kind of service to advanced devotees we should see them with spiritual vision not with material vision Thank you very much Sri Upadesha Amrit ki Jai Vishnu Prabhupada ki Jai Hare Krishna.