Bhakti Shastri (038) – The Nectar of Instruction Text 8

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Hare Krishna. Welcome back to the Nectar of Instruction. Today now we are entering deep into the heart of Gaudiya Vaishnava teachings where we will discuss about the residence in the holy dham and complete absorption in the advanced stages of devotion.
So let us look at the verse and then we’ll move forward and look at the purport. Tanna marupa charitadi sukirtananu smityo kramen rasana manasi niyojya tishthan vrajetadan ragi jananugami kalam nayed akhilam ity upadesha sarvam So tanna marupa charitadi sukirtananu that tan refers to that absolute truth, that Lord Krishna, his name, form and character. One engages oneself in sukirtananu, nicely engaging oneself in doing glorification of that and smityo.
So anusmityo refers to systematically cultivating the remembrance and kramena rasana manasi niyojya. So kramena means progressively, one engages one’s tongue and one engages one’s mind, niyojya, engaging. And how should one do? Tishthan vrajet, one situates oneself in Vrindavan dham, tad anuragi.
Tad anuragi means those who are having anuraga for Lord Krishna, those who are attached to Lord Krishna, tad anuragi jana. So those people, those devotees, exalted devotees who are attached to Lord Krishna, anugami, one becomes their followers. And in this way, kalam nayed akhilam, one should spend all of one’s time absorbed in engaging one’s mind and one’s tongue in the service of Krishna.
Iti upadesha saram. This is the essence of all advice. So in a sense, this verse completes the upadesha of Upadesha Amrit.
After this, in afterwards, it’s almost like there is a phala shruti, not so much shruti, but the glorification of vraja. So it just talks about how fortunate one is who can stay in vraja. And then it talks about govardhan of Vrindavan.
Govardhan and Radhakund should discuss in future classes. But the upadesha part of Upadesha Amrit more or less ends with this verse. And that’s why upadesha saram.
The essence of all advice is said to be this. So let us look at Srila Prabhupada’s translation. The essence of all advice is that one should utilise one’s full time, 24 hours a day, in nicely chanting and remembering the Lord’s divine name, transcendental form, qualities and eternal pastimes.
Thereby gradually engaging one’s tongue and mind. In this way, one should reside in vraja, Goloka Vrindavan dham and serve Krishna under the guidance of devotees. One should follow in the footsteps of the Lord’s beloved devotees who are deeply attached to his devotional service.
So the essence of all advice, Upadesha Saram, Prabhupada translates that as full time engagement, 24 hours a day in devotional service, following in the footsteps of a great Vrajavasi in Vrindavan. So let us look at what Srila Prabhupada says in his purport. So he starts with the basics for us and helps us move forward from those basics.
So first point, Srila Prabhupada starts his purport is, he focusses a lot on the mind. And he explains that what do we have to do, we have to train the mind. So there are two aspects to training, why to train and how to train.
And the purport of Srila Prabhupada is that the Krishna consciousness movement is especially meant to train the mind. This is a radical statement if you think about it. This doesn’t come in one of the seven purposes of ISKCON, that we want to train the mind of people.
But then whatever is to be achieved, whatever the purpose of ISKCON, to help, to teach people about God, Krishna systematically, to distribute literature, to erect a place for dedicated transcendental Vastanas of the Lord, to bring people together to a simpler life, which is centred more on God. So all that actually involves changing the way people think and that is training of the mind. So the primary contribution of the Krishna consciousness movement is not humanitarian.
It is not offering, say, food relief, although that also devotees do it through the ISKCON food relief programme. But primarily the focus is to train the mind. And the training of the mind is what the yoga is essentially supposed to do.
When we say yoga, it means to connect, to connect the soul with Krishna. Now how is the connection done? It is not a physical connection that we use rivets and screws to tighten. It is a connection which is based on a reorientation of the mind.
The mind wants to stay disconnected from Krishna because it is attracted to material things. So training the mind means that we get the mind to again become connected with Krishna. And when we get the mind to become inclined to Krishna, attracted to Krishna, and once we are attracted to Krishna, then naturally the perfection of yoga is attained, because we will be able to connect ourselves to Krishna.
So in 7.1 also Krishna says, So the purpose of yoga, the purpose of practising yoga is to get the mind to become attached to Krishna. So Sri Prabhupada’s purport focusses on the mind and he says the special purpose of the Krishna consciousness movement is to train the mind. So we can divide the purport in two parts, why to train and how to train.
So we will focus largely on why to train and we will discuss briefly about the, when Prabhupada talks about training here, he talks a lot about training at the advanced levels of devotion, which we will discuss briefly, but he will also discuss at a practical level at our stage in spiritual advancement, what we can do to train the mind. So why do we train? The first point is Prabhupada explains that the mind can be our friend or our enemy. So because the mind can act in both ways, if we want our own good, then we need to train the mind so that it will act as our friend.
Otherwise the mind will make us do things which will lead to our own ruination. So many people often talk about their own demons. There is a sports star who has a lot of talent and lot of potential, but somehow at the key moments chokes, that means becomes nervous and is not able to perform right in the key moments.
Sports star may say that, no I have a lot of demons and the demons are tormenting me. Now they are, they don’t really think there in terms of demons when they say some creatures with horns coming out of their head and teeth coming out of their mouth. There they basically say that there’s something within me which is dragging me down.
What is that something? So that something actually is the mind and the anarthas infecting the mind. So the mind can often act as our enemy. And why does it act as our enemy? It is because of the past impressions of material enjoyment that are impressed within it and the mind has got infatuated by those enjoyments.
And then not just the experience of enjoyment, but also the experience of trouble or the experience of anxiety, which make a person become very overwhelmed emotionally. So essentially we can say that the mind is affected by the modes and a person is too conditioned by the lower modes and choking under pressure or succumbing to temptation that will be more relevant to devotees. So all this self-defeating emotions that come up and sometimes overcome us, they all come because the mind is infected by the lower modes, passion, ignorance.
So what do we do? We have to get rid of those impressions. So Prabhupada says that the mind has many impressions, sometimes those impressions just come up and those impressions come up, one can get misled in wrong directions. So we will see in our spiritual life as Adharkas that the temptations can overpower us in two ways.
One is that externally a tempting object comes and it is so attractive that we get attracted to it and we may fall for it. The other is that internally suddenly desires come up. And when the desires come up, they catch us so strongly that although we want to resist, Arjuna describes the subjective feeling of a seeker or of a aspiring transcendentalist that at that time the seeker is having a conflict within the heart and the seeker does not want to succumb but still as if against one’s desires one is engaged in sin.
So the past impressions overwhelm us. Now of course we can fight back and we can resist but at certain times the impression is so overwhelming that it is almost impossible to resist it. So why does it happen and how can we deal with it? So it happens because there is deep within and in the mind there are impressions of our past indulgences and just as sometimes deep within a water fermentation happens and then because of some chemical process fermentation or whatever then suddenly bubbles start coming up on the surface.
Just like that there are desires deep in our mind and sometimes they suddenly come up and when those impressions come they can be very contrary to our moral and spiritual values and they can impel us to act wrongly. That’s why Prabhupada says that it can create a dangerous situation and ultimately what we think of at the time of death is going to determine where we will go. This is called as the law of last thought.
Whatever we think of at the time of death that’s what we attain. So if at the time of death we suddenly think of something which is undesirable then we may end up in an auspicious destination. Of course the mind generally at the time of death thinks of that object in which we got the greatest shelter during our lifetime because death is a time of great devastation, great fear.
So when there is devastation and fear one instinctively reaches for shelter. Where will one get the shelter? That varies according to person to person but whatever a person has experienced shelter in throughout one’s life that is what the mind will go to instinctively at the time of death. So if we are cultivated practising Krishna consciousness throughout our life then the mind will go towards Krishna consciousness.
Otherwise the mind will go in wrong directions. So how can the mind act as our enemy? Let us discuss that briefly over here. So before we can seriously impel ourselves to train the mind.
So we need conviction and we need commitment we discussed in our previous class to go for your material pleasure to spiritual pleasure. So conviction is required the mind can act as my enemy. Mind frequently does act as my enemy and therefore I need to deal with the mind properly.
So to understand how the mind may act as enemy we look at acronym MIND. We discuss four ways in which the mind can act in inimical ways. So look at the mind before you look with the mind.
So treat the mind as a separate person and look at the mind before you look with the mind. What this means is I will look at the acronym a little later. Let us look at the title over there.
This is actually a top title of a book which I hope to write in future. So look at the mind. So basically this means treat the mind as a separate person and now for example if I am speaking right now.
So you look at me and then you evaluate what is this person saying? Does this person this statement make sense? If I am saying look at the direction and normally if we know that person if we trust that person it is instinctive to look in that direction. But if we are driving a car and there is a neighbour says oh look at that there is a person sitting next to us in the side say look over there. Now even if we trust the person still if I am at holding a steering wheel I just cannot look here and there.
I have to look ahead and I will think I look ahead at the road and then afterwards cautiously I look in that direction and then if I do not know the person if I am driving a if I am driving a say a bus and suddenly a person says hey look there somebody just comes along. I do not know that person then if I am doing something important I will not really look at that thing. I first look at that person.
Is this person trustworthy? Is this person is it worth it to listen to this person and look at that whatever that person is saying? So like that when we hear things from a particular person and a person tells us to do something first we look at the person evaluate the credibility of that person and then decide whether we should do what the person is suggesting. So similarly look at the mind before you look with the mind means when the mind speaks something at that time we evaluate the credibility of the mind. Is this what is saying making sense and the mind often speaks lies in four major ways.
So if you have to understand what are the ways in which the mind can mislead us so for that purpose we need to look at the mind carefully. So by understanding okay these are the kind of lies that the mind speaks then when the mind is speaking something we can evaluate. Is it falling in these categories? If it is falling in these categories then I won’t listen and I will be cautious and I will evaluate whether it is lying right now and then if it is lying then I won’t listen otherwise I can do what the mind is saying.
So let’s look at these four categories and then we’ll understand how the mind can trick us not just in spiritual life the mind troubles and tricks us even in material life. In material life as I said a person who is a sports star and can hit the winning stroke at the last in the final season the other capacity the talent but then if the person chokes the mind whatever mind just overwhelms the person so much tension so much anxiety so much pressure that the person chokes and the person is not able to do at that time. So the mind can ruin us not just spiritually the mind can ruin us even materially and managing the mind means not only managing it for staying focused on our spiritual goals but say people get addicted to things.
What is that addiction? That is the mind when they were in some trouble or when they were just wanting some pleasure the mind misled them in a wrong direction and then the mind kept making them go in again and again the direction and then trapped them. So let’s look at the four ways in which the mind can trouble us. So the first is M is the mind magnifies problems.
The mind magnifies problems means that when there is a trouble the mind makes the trouble bigger than what it needs to be. How does this happen? The mind when it faces a problem generally now the problem is there and we have to deal with the problem but thinking of the problem doesn’t solve the problem. Thinking of the problem sometimes overthinking of the problem simply makes the problem bigger and bigger bigger than what it is bigger than what it needs to be and not only when we think about a problem the problem becomes bigger in our mind but we become smaller because we feel oh I can’t do anything about it this won’t work this won’t work this won’t work this won’t work this won’t work and we become overwhelmed.
So overthinking about a problem is like overcooking a rotten vegetable hoping that it will become good. If I go to a market and somehow I am sold I buy a rotten vegetable somebody just gives me a raw deal a bad deal and I buy a rotten vegetable. Now I am ready why did I get this rotten vegetable? So then what do I do? I take the rotten vegetable and I put it in my stove or my cooker on my on some vessel and then I start cooking.
A normal vegetable I cook for five minutes but I think that oh this is a rotten vegetable so I’ll cook it for 25 minutes. Now overcooking a rotten vegetable is not going to make it better. Similarly if there is a problem overthinking about the problem is not going to solve the problem.
Certainly we need to think about it about how to deal with it but that thing has to be done with a calm collected composed mind. If we when we are in hyper anxiety that time we think about a problem we just the mind goes round and round and round and we go round and round and round and then all that happens is we end up with a big headache or we end up with tension and we don’t really do anything constructive. So if some problem is there something has gone wrong so we have to understand what’s gone what’s happened has happened what’s gone wrong has gone wrong what can’t be changed can’t be changed but there is much that can be changed.
The present is there for me to do something constructive or the future is there for me to do constructive things about let me focus on that. So the mind magnifies problems in the sense that the mind keeps our thoughts glued to some problematic situation and makes us makes us worry makes us lament makes us feel morose makes us feel depressed and then in that way it just drains away our energy it sucks and saps our inner vigour and leaves us feeling very disempowered and helpless and dejected. So when a problem comes and when you start thinking too much about the problem you should think hey this is the mind it’s magnifying the problems.
So yes all of us have our own problems in life we can’t deny those problems but we also have to recognise that they are there whatever we can we’ll do to deal with them but just thinking about them too much is not going to solve the problems we don’t have to be problem conscious we should stay Krishna conscious and by being Krishna conscious then we think calmly how to deal with the problem. So this is one way in which the mind can act as our enemy. So don’t it is said that don’t tell God how big your problems are tell your problems how big God is.
So when we dwell on our problems then we go to God this problem is there do something about it do something about it but when we are praying to God also actually our thoughts are not about God our thoughts are about the problem. So we have problem conscious not Krishna conscious so rather than that we tell the problem how big God is. I mean we stay Krishna conscious and know that Krishna is on our side and that the problem is there I’ll deal with it.
So we should let the mind magnify problems and we recognise hey this is the mind magnifying the problems let me check it no no I will not let you trick I will not let you fool me I will not let you trap me. Then the mind imagines pleasures imagines pleasures means that the mind sees some object and then it goes into fantasy land thinking oh I’ll get this object and I’ll do this and I’ll enjoy and I’ll do this and I’ll do this and actually just saps so much of our energy. Many people waste so much of their thought and their time and their energy daydreaming.
So sometimes we are going on travelling for some programme and some young people are there you know they are just walking along the street and suddenly they imagine they’re as if throwing a ball or swimming a bat. So they’re walking along the road but they’re imagining oh I am I am a famous cricketer and it is the last ball of India’s match against Pakistan and I get the ball and I hit a sixer and I become a national hero by that. So this is just daydreaming.
So much of our time goes away daydreaming and the daydreaming can often be about either waste things waste thoughts or it can be about even sinful immoral thoughts. So this sort of fantasising is useless and when we catch our mind doing this then we understand you’re going to waste my time you’re going to waste my energy I won’t let this happen. So whenever the mind starts imagining pleasures now why shouldn’t we imagine pleasures because it’s not with not not just because those if the pleasures are sinful then even those thoughts are going to contaminate us and the thoughts may eventually gain a momentum which forces us to do the wrong things also.
But apart from that also even if the thoughts are not sinful but the point is that they are just distracting us towards things which are irrelevant to our essential interests. Now there is a difference from daydreaming is actually a vision. Now to have a vision like Srila Prabhupada said that there are temples there are devotees but time is separating us away from them.
So that is actually vision and that vision even when the when we have a vision then we are in control the mind is not in control that means you know we know this is the ultimate goal of my life and this is where I want to go and I will keep this vision so that I can have that as inspiration and as a lighthouse for me to move in this direction. So Prabhupada was not just having a vision of there working to the best of his capacity with whatever resources Prabhupada had even if the resources were very limited Prabhupada was working vigorously to use those resources and to share Krishna consciousness with others. So like that we have to be resourceful and the more resourceful we are the more spiritual advancement we will make.
So vision means it’s clearly well thought out and then we are in control when we think and shape the vision and then we are doing tangible things to move towards the vision but most of the time the mind just sees some sense object and then just goes into a fantasy spin thinking about how will I get this object and I’ll enjoy. So that is still waste of mental energy and then actually when the mind imagines pleasures along with that it magnifies problems also for example I’m going along I have a car and I’m going along with the car and then suddenly I see the latest car that has come so then the mind says oh I want that car and then we think how can I get that car I’ll have to take that so expensive I’ll have to take a loan what do I do with this car should I sell it how much will I get for it and if I purchase that car then yes people will look at me oh when I walk along then mouths will fall open eyes will become wide ah that’s so nice but then I’ll have to take a loan should I take a loan oh but if I get a raise in my salary it will be so good maybe I should take some other job or maybe I should take a lottery if I just win the lottery then I can purchase the car without any tension of loan also so like that the mind just takes in so many thoughts which are useless so often the point is that we have to have priorities clear my priority is to love and serve Krishna and to return back to Krishna that doesn’t mean that I have to live in poverty in this world but by continuously fantasising about things which are not really important for me I get some passing thought and start fantasising about so much of my mental energy gets wasted and so what happens is when I have the kind of fantasies and I don’t get those objects then that weakens me disheartens me I want that but I don’t get it what should I do what should I do what should I do and then you become discouraged by that you become de-energised by that you become irritated by that sometimes so as soon as the mind starts going on imagination drive check it stop it we don’t have to become the cheerleaders of our mind what are cheerleaders somebody else is performing and they are cheerleaders who are dancing to cheer that so sometimes the mind just thinks oh I’ll do this I’ll do this and he says very good very good very good no we don’t have to be cheerleaders of the mind we have to be the controllers of the mind and decide you go in this direction you don’t go in this direction so when the mind goes on fantasy drive we just check it and bring it back so it’s imagining things and third is the mind neglects opportunities so m i n d so n is neglects opportunities so how does the mind neglect opportunities the present is all that we have and all that we will ever have the present means the moment right now this is all that we have and what has happened in the past is gone we can’t do anything about what has happened in the past and what is there in the future that is not in our control right now we can’t do anything about what is in the future also if we are to do anything in our life that will have to be done in the present yes in the future I say I’ll do some things but when I when will I be able to do it in the future when the future becomes the present so the present is all that we have and all that we will ever have we’ll never have anything more than the present so the mind neglects opportunities in many ways but one of the primary ways is that the mind distracts our thoughts towards the past or towards the future and thereby the opportunity that is there in the at hand in the present the mind neglects that and not only that we have we have some things which we can do right now there are issues over which we can work and we can improve ourselves we can improve the situation we can improve our prospects but the mind neglects that and goes into thinking oh this is wrong that is wrong only if this were like this only if they were like that and in that way the mind neglects opportunities so in our spiritual life also with respect to this past apart from this past and future so now we can learn from the past and we can prepare for the future but this should be done when we are in the mood of goodness and when we can we are in control of our mind then we take the mind behind and think okay what can I do how can I learn from this and similarly when we are in control of the mind we go towards the future okay in the future I can do these these things but if we are not in control if the mind is in control then we just do lamentation or we do fantasising and neither of them are useful so we have to be in control of mind mind will make us neglect so many opportunities generally the mind makes us live as if life is a practise run for next time that means I have to do something right now this is just a practise not very important the future what I do will be important no the present moment is important this is this is true in material life actually whatever we call as practise run that prepares us for the eventual run but in spiritual life actually every moment is important because every moment Krishna is there in our heart and every moment we have an opportunity to remember Krishna every moment we have an opportunity to go closer to Krishna by the choices that we make whether we stay God conscious or we stay God unconscious so therefore when we understand that every moment is important every moment is precious then we ensure that we don’t let the mind neglect opportunities and the mind even in our practise of spiritual life we have to see what are our opportunities and focus on them okay this is what I can do this is what I can do let me do these things but the mind always makes us think oh I can’t do that I didn’t do that you see how the mind tricks us is if we are doing some service the mind says oh you’re not studying scriptures you are not chanting the holy names you’re not doing things properly what is the use of service but then when we are chanting the mind makes us think oh you’re not doing service you’re just chanting in chanting you’re saying oh Krishna please engage in your service but when you get service you don’t do service what is the use and so similarly the nature of the mind is it always thinks about what it doesn’t have and makes us dissatisfied so we shouldn’t succumb to this so when I’m chanting I just focus on chanting don’t bother about what are the services I have to do don’t bother about other things just focus on chanting similarly when we are studying see how the mind travels at the spiritual study is that often the mind says oh I don’t get time to study I don’t get time to study I don’t get time to study but when we get time to study the mind says last night you did not sleep enough you know you should sleep now so what happens is the mind just doesn’t want to work hard at the thing that is there at hand so rather than focussing on the thing that is there at hand the mind takes the path of least resistance the easy way out by complaining about the problems that are the things that are wrong in my life oh I don’t get time to study I don’t get time to study okay whatever time I get to study scripture let me study scripture in that time and if I use that time properly I show Krishna my sincerity Krishna will give me the intelligence to make more time and Krishna will even change my circumstances so that I’ll get more time so we want more time for our various activities but lamenting about that doesn’t solve the so whatever is at hand we do that and when we do that and what happens is then whatever is not in our hands Krishna takes care of that so neglects opportunities means it’s there are certain things which are in our control and there are certain things which are not in our control so when we focus on what we can change by that we show Krishna the sincerity of our intentions and then Krishna helps us face that which can’t be changed or Krishna may even change that which we can’t change but we should if we just focus on that which we can’t change then we simply disempower ourselves we simply weaken ourselves and then we lose the opportunity to change the things which we could have changed so I can’t make sure that I’ll chant all my 16 rounds attentively but I can try my best to chant this mantra attentively so if we focus on what we can change that is the opportunity that is there for us at each moment we do that and then in the future other things also progressively will change so rather than thinking oh I don’t get time to study the philosophy okay right now I’m studying right now I’m hearing a class right now I’m attending here attentively and if I keep hearing attentively like this and gradually gradually gradually I will be able to build my understanding and over a period of months and years I will have a wonderful scriptural understanding deep systematic coherent that’s how we all come it all has to do one step at a time one step at a time so we should neglect the opportunity that we have so what does the mind do mind makes us think about all the things that are wrong in our life and doesn’t allow us to focus on the things which we can do which we can change and the D is the mind denies realities denies realities means that the mind refuses to acknowledge that the problem is with itself the reality is that the mind may say oh Krishna doesn’t care Krishna just happy performing past times I’m struggling over here Krishna doesn’t help me the mind comes up with three kinds of falsities where it’s denial of reality one is it says it blames Krishna oh Krishna doesn’t help or it may say oh this chanting doesn’t work this process of bhakti yoga is not powerful enough in chanting for so long nothing happens a third kind of denial is that I am too fallen I am so fallen that nothing there’s no hope for me so all these are falsities which the mind is promote which is inducing us to believe and it is denying the reality what is the reality the reality that Krishna loves us Krishna loves us so much that he’s there in our heart waiting for us to turn towards him and he’s waiting waiting for so many lifetimes and the reality is that bhakti is supremely potent we just have to practise bhakti enthusiastically and the reality also is that nobody is so fallen that bhakti cannot elevate me to think that I am so fallen that even Krishna cannot elevate me is actually perverse false ego see normal false ego is to think I am so great perverse false ego is to think that I am so fallen but either way it’s false ego only because it’s I centredness true ego is Krishna centredness I am a servant of Krishna let me serve Krishna so I centredness is I am like this so I am so good is is one kind of false ego and I am so bad is perverse false ego so actually we don’t want any kind of false ego we want true ego true ego I am a servant of Krishna let me serve Krishna so the mind denies reality what is the reality the reality is that there is opportunity I have to just take the opportunity and I can make spiritual advancement I can make I can change myself I can become a better devotee that is the reality the reality is that the problem is in the mind the mind itself is the problem you know in the shri madhya bhagavatam there is a there are two non-brahmanas there’s one avadhut brahmana which is talked about in seventh canto whose teachings are talked about in seventh canto and then there’s avanti brahmana who’s talked about by lord Krishna in his teachings to uddhava in the eleventh canto and this avanti brahmana he says that he faces a lot of problems in life and at the end he says that ultimately the cause of all my problems is the mind so the mind blames the blame game and denies the reality mind says oh god is a problem this process is a problem I myself the problem and the mind is I is not mind is not saying I is the problem it says you are the problem mind says you are so fallen that you cannot be elevated no the problem is the mind is having a discouragement mind is having disorientation misdirection so if you purify the mind actually speaking we can all make spiritual advancement so it denies ultimately the ultimate denial is the mind denies the reality that we are suffering in material existence yes there is this problem this problem this problem but the mind denies that the material existence itself is a problem that material existence itself is a state of misery and one has to get out of material existence that the mind doesn’t accept the mind doesn’t accept the fact that we are all going to die although we only accept at one level that life is temporary and we are going to die but somehow the mind makes us think oh death is not going to happen today or tomorrow it’s a long time away for you until then you have to do a lot of things the mind denies the reality that it can come anytime and therefore that which is most important for us that should also be made the most urgent for us so when we talk about the reality of death that is not to make us paranoid I’m walking along some terrorist may explode a bomb and I’m like oh death is not meant to make us fearful and trembling and that is not the purpose of thinking about death the purpose of thinking about death is to make us raise our consciousness from the material to the spiritual and to make us seriously practise the process of spiritual life by which we can rise to the spiritual level of consciousness so death is also a reality and when we acknowledge it seriously then we get an impetus to turn towards Krishna through that so these are all the ways in which the mind can mislead us and in fact not just can mislead us the mind has been misleading us like this for many lifetimes and when we have recognised the mind has been acting as my enemy then we get the conviction no no longer will I be cheated by the mind no longer will I be fooled by the mind enough is enough now I’m going to be intelligent and whenever the mind tries to trick me I’ll identify and I will check the trick so actually the more we chant Hare Krishna attentively the more we study the philosophy the more we rise to the goodness the mode of goodness and we rise towards transcendence and then we can catch the mind when the mind starts playing its tricks mind starts taking us in wrong directions and hey this is the mind acting I will not let it let it trick me so in that way we can check the mind so it’s extremely important for us as sadhakas to learn to control the mind and how do we control the mind we control the mind first of all it begins by recognising that the mind is going out of control the mind is tricking me when I understand it then I can bring the mind under control now moving forward Srila Prabhupada explains in the paraport that so he says that yes we have to control the mind the process of controlling the mind is by practising devotional service and while practising devotional service in this paraport or in this verse also Rupa Goswami recommends that we go to Vrindavan and in Vrindavan practise devotional service under a Vrajavasi so at one level this is talking about Raga Anuga Bhakti so actually there is Raga Anuga and Raga Atmika Bhakti we’ll discuss about this elaborately in which is also written by Rupa Goswami so here what is being talked about primarily is that we have to make spiritual advancement and how do we for making spiritual advancement we need models so a devotee who is absorbed in love for Krishna when we get the example of that devotee model ourselves on that devotee then we make tangible spiritual advancement so ideally in the Bhakti Samsang we’ll discuss this is being just referred to what this means is that devotees are very advanced when they understand that in the spiritual Swaroopa that okay actually this is my Swaroopa when they get that understanding then they understand okay my spiritual leader for example say somebody when we have a very advanced stage of spiritual life then we will understand that okay this is my Swaroopa and then I am my leader is say Lalita Devi, Lalita Sakhi is the leader of my group and I am meant to serve under her and then she has a particular mood and I want to assist in that mood so then so the mood in which she is serving Krishna one meditates on that and one assimilates that mood internalises that mood and then serves Krishna in that mood so these are very advanced stages of devotion and although they are described by our Acharyas in literary like say in very many books which are called as which have the common title of Smarana Paddhati so Acharyas like say Gopal Guru Goswami and others have described this but from the time of Bhaktivinod and especially from the time of Sudhanshu Thakur they have described that this Raga Marga is very exalted and we shouldn’t we can’t prematurely rush into Raga Marga so we focus on practising Vaidhi Bhakti so we’ll discuss about all this in Bhakti Sambit Sindhu but the point is for us that is refers to Shila Prabhupada that Shila Prabhupada is attached to Krishna and Shila Prabhupada enabled all of us to become attracted to Krishna so some devotees feel that Shila Prabhupada did not talk too much about advanced past times of Vrindavan of Krishna and Radharani so has Shila Prabhupada actually given us the esoteric Gaudiya teachings actually Shila Prabhupada has given us the process by which we can get all those esoteric Gaudiya teachings also in our spiritual in our spiritual gradual spiritual advancement but the esoteric Gaudiya teachings or the real Gaudiya mood is not just of remembering Radharani Krishna. Remembering Radharani Krishna is important but more important than just remembering Radharani Krishna is remembering Radharani Krishna in a way that is pleasing to them in a way that is pleasing to them now if we just prematurely meditate on intimate pastimes of Radharani Krishna then that can degrade us we’ll discuss about this later but Shila Prabhupada in the sense that he assimilated the mood of selfless service the mood of selfless service is what specialises the Vrajvasi what is the distinctive characterising the characteristic of the Vrajvasis so the Gopis were ready to go to hell for all of eternity just to relieve Krishna’s headache for one moment that is the exalted nature of their love for Krishna and we see that mood of selfless sacrifice and service in Shila Prabhupada that Shila Prabhupada was happily living in Vrindavan as a Sanyasi that was a perfection of life which most people aspired for most people most people are religiously inclined they think they know that going to retiring to Vrindavan and staying in Vrindavan is going to play holy place like that and staying there is a way to perfect one’s life because one stays in the final days of one’s life in a spiritual vibrant atmosphere by that the chances of one’s remembering Krishna at the time of death increase and if one remembers Krishna at the time of death one goes back to Krishna so and actually many pious Hindus think of doing this but they never get the courage to do this only so Vanaprastha and Sanyas many people are not able to practise that seriously so Shila Prabhupada had already done that he had left his home and gone to Vrindavan and he could have attained perfection there but Shila Prabhupada gave it all up just as the Gopis when Krishna called them the Gopis gave up their home and they went to Krishna similarly Shila Prabhupada took the instruction of his spiritual master preaching the language language preach all over the world and taking that instruction Shila Prabhupada travelled everywhere at the age advanced age of 69 he went to America last 12 years of his life vigorously tirelessly preaching he so he exhibited through his actions the mood selfless sacrifice that is the essence of Vrindavan and by that he has attracted so many people to Krishna lotus feet so what we get from Shila Prabhupada is that mood of selfless sacrifice and if we internalise that mood we will make rapid spiritual advancement Shila Prabhupada said that how do we enter into Radha Krishna Bhakti into intimate mood of Radha Krishna by being their selfless servants and that’s why Shila Prabhupada said that by assisting in the Krishna consciousness movement doing various different kinds of services by this we are making spiritual advancement and gradually we will enter into the advanced pastimes by this so first we can’t we just by contemplating on those advanced pastimes we can’t enter into them we have to cultivate the right mood and that right mood comes by purification and Shila Prabhupada has given us preaching he has given us sadhana he has given us the temples the sangha by all this we become purified and the more we become purified the more we make spiritual advancement by that so therefore this is the process of purification that we aspire for we should aspire to follow and if we follow aspire to follow this process of purification systematically then the advanced stages of devotion will gradually progressively manifest so we focus on internalising what Shila Prabhupada has given us so he is the who is our model and he is the model for all his scorned devotees now for his scorned devotees we have our spiritual master also but we have to understand that our spiritual master is not independent of Shila Prabhupada our spiritual master is representing Shila Prabhupada to us so Prabhupada’s mercy comes to us in many ways it comes to us one way is through our spiritual master another central way for all his scorned devotees is that it comes through Shila Prabhupada’s books so another way is that it comes through the ISKCON managerial structure through the GBC so all these three the spiritual master the books of Shila Prabhupada and the managerial institutional structure of ISKCON or through all these we are getting Shila Prabhupada’s mercy they are all there by Shila Prabhupada’s mercy and Shila Prabhupada himself is giving us the mercy of the previous Acharyas ultimately Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Krishna so when we internalise Shila Prabhupada’s teachings and follow them faithfully then so all his scorned devotees are actually following the Shila Prabhupada and that’s how they are internalising this instruction and now it is said one should live in Vrindavan so does this mean that Rupa Goswami is saying everybody should leave everything else that they are doing and come to live in Vrindavan no we see that Rupa Goswami himself taught Jiva Goswami and Jiva Goswami taught he had his shiksha disciples Srinivasa Acharya and Arutam Das Thakur and Shaman Pandit now all of those three had this they were they had been mostly from Bengal Orissa area and they had been sent by the disciples to be trained through Jiva Goswami so when they will be trained by Jiva Goswami after training what did Jiva Goswami tell them go back go back to Bengal and Orissa and preach actually for them they had come to Vrindavan they were studying Jiva Goswami and they were so satisfied in there but when they were told leave Vrindavan and go they were at one level aghast now when will we again see Vrindavan when will we see our beloved spiritual teacher but that instruction actually led to the tremendous expansion of Gaudiya Vaishnavas in Bengal and Orissa because all three were very powerful preachers and they created not only preach themselves but they created a legacy of preachers so the point is Jiva Goswami was initiated by Rupa Goswami in many ways he was like the primary intellectual successor of the of Rupa Goswami and now he told his disciples his shiksha disciples to leave Vrindavan so is he defying it over here it is being said so yes one has to understand that Vraja is not just a place it’s also a moon so Srila Prabhupada did he leave Vrindavan when in 1965 he went to America Srila Prabhupada did not leave Vrindavan now actually Srila Prabhupada carried Vrindavan in his heart and wherever he establishes concenters he has and he has given us he replicated Vrindavan over there and has given us the knowledge by which you can keep replicating Vrindavan now we can take a devotee out of Vrindavan but we cannot take Vrindavan out of a devotee we cannot take Vrindavan out of a devotee that means a devotee’s heart is always at Krishna’s lotus feet thinking about Krishna’s message thinking about Krishna’s mission thinking about Krishna these are also ways in which we’re thinking about Krishna only and Srila Prabhupada was always thinking about Krishna’s message and Krishna’s mission and he was fulfilling that so that fulfilling Krishna’s mission is actually the essential thing which all the Vrajavasis are doing so that is what Srila Prabhupada has taught us to do so the mission that the Vrajavasis are fulfilling may be different from the mission that we are fulfilling the mission is that they are all participating Krishna’s pastimes and they want to fulfil Krishna’s specific desires within his pastimes but the mission which we are fulfilling is also the mission which Lord Krishna has given through Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is that you know spread the holy name in every town and village become Krishna conscious learn to love Krishna so this is all the mission that the Lord has given and fulfilling it is the way we will make spiritual advancement so the way we live in Vraja is not necessarily by leaving home and going to Vrindavan or leaving our specific temple and going to Vrindavan but it is by internalising the mood of selfless service and dedicating ourselves to fulfilling Krishna’s mission and internal and practising and sharing Krishna’s message through our own lives and through our contributions our life itself is the greatest contribution but through our lives and through our services that we do we through our services that means we live as exemplary devotees in our family in our community in the broader society we set a good example and by that we don’t just restrict Vrindavan to a particular place but we spread the mood of Vrindavan wherever we go.
Now this it is described progressively one engages one’s tongue and one engages one’s mind and then one becomes absorbed so Bhakti Siddhanta Sri Dhakul in his writings quotes certain things which Prabhupada also elaborates so let’s look at what Bhakti Siddhanta Sri Dhakul says he talks about four stages basically there is Shravan Dasha, there is Varana Dasha, there is Smaran Dasha and there is Sampatti Dasha. So what are these Dashas? Shravan Dasha refers to the stage when we are hearing the philosophy. So first we hear the philosophy and by hearing the philosophy we gradually move forward.
So in the neophyte stage one should always engage in this is called Shravan Dasha, the stage of hearing. This is what is most important for us to do. So Srila Prabhupada has given us Krishna Conscious Movement and there are Bhagavatam classes, there are outreach programmes and now through internet there’s so much opportunity for hearing wherever we are.
Then gradually one starts interlacing that is called the one attain by constantly hearing one attains the Varana Dasha. Varana means then one that is one is internalising this. So one is theoretically here, the second is to internalise, assimilate it.
So Varana Dasha. So after Varana then there is a Smarana. So Prabhupada explains over there that what happens is when remembrance uninterrupted is called as Anusmruti or when one attains Smaran Dasha.
So it becomes concentrated as meditation and then eventually when this Smarana implodes and at that stage you can perfectly and clearly understand the relationship with Krishna that is Sampatti Dasha. That is the perfection of life. So what does Sampatti Dasha refer to? Sampatti Dasha refers to actually our coming to know about who we are in the spiritual world.
Attaining an S.N.Swarupa and returning back to Swarupa. But all this is progressing. So it all begins with Sravana.
So when we hear, we regularly we have to give hearing an adequately important priority in our spiritual life. So when we keep hearing regularly then gradually our subtle body becomes Krishna-ized by that hearing because what we hear goes inside and it stays inside. So that is the Varana Dasha when our body starts getting spiritualised.
When we keep thinking about Krishna more and more that is Varana Dasha and then after Varana Dasha then once we accept it we remember it more and more. Then we go to actually Smarana Dasha. So that remembrance becomes habitual and then after that there is Sampatti.
So these are all progressive stages and by this we will all make spiritual advancement. So what the process of Krishna consciousness we have been given if we just practise it diligently then all these exalted levels of consciousness will be revealed to us and that is how we will make spiritual advancement. This is what is the Ugnesha Saara Kramena progressively.
Progressively engage the tongue and engage the mind under the guidance of exalted devotee and by imbibing the mood of Vrindavan and by that one can attain perfection.