Can you explain the significance of the ten offenses in practical terms?
Feel and what can we do practically to develop our relationship with Krishna and his holy name answer every the conception of an offence is meant to help us set up offence offence is what marks and limits and protects so if a child is going somewhere dangerous then the child can know that ok this is the fence of our house I can't go out of here if there is a physical fence which blocks then the physical fence protects from a person going too far away similarly we all need fences in terms of the actions that we do in our life and we need protections so the offences serve as fences that remind us where to draw the line and in that sense you can see the offences as guidelines as protectors so we don't have to be fearful of the offences rather you can see the offences as protecting us from something fearful and what is the underlying fearful thing the underlying fearful thing is that we may see the transcendental with mundane vision so normally we see everything with our material senses and Krishna is very kind see that he manifests himself at the material level also for us to approach him but although he approaches although he manifests at the material level he does not necessarily he is not material so that's why the idea that there is something more to reality than what we are perceiving it that understanding comes when we are able to move forward in our life and take things in us with a proper eyes of knowledge so we would say the offences primarily are protectors from approaching Krishna's extremely potent holy name with a material vision so with this background if we keep then we can understand the various offences in a very simple and accessible way now of course there is one offence which says to not give a mundane interpretation of the holy name if we consider the holy name to be just another sound which acts materially and we don't consider transcendental import of that sound in the of the movement when back to Godhead magazine it started the devotees asked Allen Ginsburg to write on the to write in the petition and then he wrote an article about how the joy of chanting he compared it with the joy of sexual orgasm and in his own way Allen Ginsburg purpose was to glorify Krishna but Prabhupada did not approve of that and he said that he said we should have devotees of Krishna writing about Krishna according to the tradition so now if somebody says that when you feel a particular sound vibration certain chemicals are stimulated and those brain chemicals make you feel peaceful the secretion of those brain chemicals is what makes you feel peaceful now this is completely a material explanation and the material explanation may be a part of the explanation because after all we say that prasad is transcendent but then prasad materially acts on us in the sense that somebody has diabetes and they take sweets subsequently creates some trouble for them it's not prasad but it's a kind of prasad the material aspect is not to be denied because repeating the same sound vibration in a meditative hypnotic way might bring some calmness but chanting brings out not just calmness but also not just peace but also purification and that purification can't be explained in mundane terms the freedom from lust, anger, greed, envy, pride, illusion something which is very powerful anyone can get from these more or less significantly these levels decrease as compared to what they are there earlier in people so therefore what we have seen is that there can be a material effect or there can be a materially measurable effect and a materially appreciable effect and there might be a material mechanism that could explain but love itself is not material and chanting is an expression of love and the holy name also helps us to enhance our love this transcendental aspect is something which each one of us needs to appreciate properly so similarly if we consider the offense of to instruct a faithless person about the glory of the holy name now how exactly would we go about defining a faithless person is it one who in a sense most people in the world are faithless so how would we apply that definition that so are we just by our speaking about Krishna committing an offense to Krishna's holy name especially if it's about Krishna's the glories of Krishna's pastimes no here also the point is that we need to speak it those glories in a way that people's faith increases not that people's skeptical questioning increases so that's for example if we start speaking about the little glories of the holy name to people who have no understanding of it they will only become skeptical and the overall effect will be counterproductive if you want the overall effect to be positive then we have to speak in a way that recognizes their level and we speak according to their level so that they can rise one step up from where they are so that we speak the glories of the holy name in a way that is intelligible to the audience not in a way that makes them more skeptical and alienates them so basically everybody has a level of faith or faithlessness and if we just treat the holy name as a material product this is the product this is the these are the benefits and this is the price yes we may speak like that but because the holy name is manifestation of Krishna the benefits of the same product may need to be explained differently to different people for example to a child a doctor will focus more on telling that the medicine is sweet rather than that the medicine will do this or that so the mechanism is true it's important but the stress of the doctor may not be on the material mechanism nor on the whole complicated way in which the disease will cure be cured with meditation this is sweet this will help you feel better this will take the pain away from your tummy take it and they will take it so basically speaking according to people's level is what is required and that is done and that is the protection from the ten offenses going further we could say that if we need protection we could deal with it in offenses we can look at with this broad framework we could understand what all are the offenses that we are likely to commit and how we can deal with those offenses so taking a few steps forward here if we look at each of the offenses one at a time we say to blaspheme the devotees who have dedicated their lives for propagating the holy name of the lord now the idea is that at a material vision we may see people of this devotee has this defect this devotee has that defect and after all everybody is a human being so everybody has their particular limitations now acknowledging the limitations is we can't be blind but obsessing over the limitations alone and not recognizing the transcendental purpose with which the devotees are working or for which the devotees are working that is material vision so the material vision of the devotees can sometimes make us can obstruct us in having a spiritual vision of the holy name that they are offering us so it's Prabhupada had a heavy Indian Bengali accent in his speech but the message that he gave was transcendental so by obsessing over the Bengali accent people would miss out on the transcendental message of course blasphemy could also mean that we deliberately put down a devotee with a desire to out of envy for that devotee we want to minimize that devotee so that certainly we want to avoid to consider the names of gods like it will be equal to or independent of the names of god Vishnu now here the idea is that again god is transcendental and his name is transcendental god is not just the best of all beings he is the basis of all beings whatever potency any other devta may have Krishna has that potency and Krishna has more potency so in fact all the potency of the devtas also comes from Krishna so when you understand this point that there is no one who is equal to Krishna so Krishna's power is not material it is transcendental in the material world we can say this person has this level of hierarchy and that person has that level but Krishna exists beyond the hierarchy because he is the supreme being he is the one being who is the source of all being and thus appreciating the transcendental position of Krishna can help us better appreciate the transcendence the transcendental potency of the holy name and that is stressed so now in today's world fans may chant the name of their favorite star and that may help to some extent they cheer themselves up they cheer the other person they cheer that fan so that the performance happens so that's fine as far as boosting morale is concerned for someone but or expressing one's appreciation for someone is concerned but there is no transcendental potency in that so recognizing the material nature of all other names and the transcendental nature of Krishna's names it comes that rests on understanding the transcendental position of Krishna it gives away the order of the spiritual master that means that again we consider the spiritual master to be just like another person and we think that okay I have an opinion you have your opinion Guru has his opinion sometimes I agree with the Guru sometimes I disagree with the Guru so when I disagree I disobey no the Guru is not just another person and the Guru's opinion is not just the opinion of another person the Guru is the person who will connect us with Krishna and the Guru needs to be properly respected without that respect we will end up depriving ourselves of the enormous potency of purification that the Guru can offer us so when we understand that I cannot undermine my spiritual master by disobeying but this doesn't mean that again how is the spiritual master connected with the holy name the spiritual master is the person who gives us the holy name just like when we go to a doctor if we are if we are going to if we think the doctor to be an ordinary person then we may not be able to use we may not be able to take the medicine of the doctor very seriously but if we understand that the doctor is a is a powerful is a very very potent is a very very experienced very very potent then that will inspire us take the medicine of the doctor much more seriously so like that appreciating the potency of the spiritual master helps us to appreciate the potency of the holy name to the extent we will see the spiritual we will see the holy name also in our ordinary way now if certain instructions given by the spiritual master are difficult for us to follow then we can discuss about how to go about following that instruction you see Prahlad Maharaj does that sorry Dhruv Maharaj does that he has given a particular instruction he says I can't do it his guru tells him just no I can't his guru appreciates and tells him ok meditate and he does that thereafter so we can we don't want to openly defiant of the spiritual master certainly not but that doesn't mean that we can't admit the issues that we have and take the input for how we can deal with those issues that is fine that we can certainly do so to disobey the instruction of the spiritual master is also an offence because we are seeing the holy name material and thereby we see the holy name also material to blaspheme the Vedic scriptures or scriptures in pursuance of the holy name again here the point is that it is the scripture in pursuance of the Vedic version rather so the scripture itself is giving us an opportunity to understand the glory of Krishna and understand the glory of Krishna's holy name so if we treat the scripture ordinarily then we cannot appreciate the glory of the holy name that is revealed to the scripture so if we focus on this point that Krishna is here manifesting as the holy name and the glories are explained in the scripture then we can appreciate the scripture also with due reference and that will ensure that we won't get we won't take things in a mundane way and we won't let ourselves get caught by the vision where we see the holy name as ordinary going further if we look at the other offenses also the idea of offenses is so to consider the glory of the holy name of chanting it's not imagination so to give some interpretation of the next one 5th and 6th if we consider the difference between them is that in the 6th we accept the glory but while accepting the glory we give some interpretation oh this is like this this is like that and thus we end up not appreciating the opportunity that we have for going spiritually through the practice of bhakti so especially the chanting of the holy name so imagination means just deny that there is any glory at all and interpretation means we accept that there is potency but we reduce it to the mundane level where we don't go in for where we don't appreciate the transcendence of the divine lord and thus we stay stuck in our own conceptions not moving forwards towards appreciating and benefiting there are of course many examples which are given for these things of how we need to appreciate the glory of Krishna and how Krishna's holy name how to appreciate what exactly to do for appreciating all this each one of us will have to find out ourselves and and use this as a means for moving forwards in our spiritual life but the essential thing is we don't let ourselves see the transcendental in a material way to the extent we can avoid that to the extent we are safely situated on the spiritual track the important thing is we just make sure that we are situated on the spiritual track and thereby we are progressing we appreciate the potency of the holy name and with that potency we move onwards in our life now a very important offense which needs to be considered here is to commit sinful activities on the strength of the holy name that means we use the holy name as a tool for mediating our wrongdoings while continuing to do the wrongdoings we may have some conditions which may enable to because of which we may not be able to move forwards in our life in terms of entirely giving up the attachments that is okay but in principle we accept that there are some wrongdoings which I have to give up now exactly when and how I will be able to give up that may vary according to the circumstances but I will definitely strive to give them up that desire to give them up that endeavor to give them up is what will help us to move onwards to commit sinful activities while chanting the holy name is not the offense to commit sinful activities on the strength of the holy name that means we use the holy name as a justification or because I am chanting there is no problem no this activity is wrong and it needs to be given up if I am not able to give up I need to keep chanting purify myself and therefore give this up but the key thing is to keep chanting and to not use chanting as a tool for perpetuating one's wrong doings justifying one's wrong doings now here basically this leads to the second point that there is a way in the tradition by which if somebody has done some wrong doing we do atonement for that but atonement is a materially pious activity ok so just like a person has committed a crime they go and surrender to the police then voluntarily they do that then the punishment that they are going to get may be decreased similarly if we voluntarily accept that what we have done is wrong and we do atonement that is considered a good thing to do but the holy name is not like that it is not a pious activity also a pious activity gives us a good material result and that is not something the holy name gives us a transcendental result not a material result so understanding this point helps us move forward positively without giving in to the mundane vision of the holy name just as something materially good no it is not materially good it is transcendental and going further if we consider the last offense in this context to instruct a faithless person we already discussed to not have complete faith in chanting of the holy name to maintain material attachments so now this offense the idea here is that we want to see that Krishna is all attractive and Krishna is going to give us all the happiness that our heart longs for and we don't need to go anywhere else for seeking happiness but in our conditioning we may seek for happiness elsewhere so we want to be on the progressive spiritual path if we are not at the destination at least we should be on the journey toward the destination if we are along that journey then we will not get carried away by negativities we will move forward positively doing what is required step by step towards getting to the destination of material attachment and of course associated with this is the offense of to not be attentive now we could say that capacity for attention is not in our power always sometimes we can be attentive sometimes we can't be attentive but we strive to be attentive recognize the holiness Krishna manifesting and we should be able to connect with him wholeheartedly and appreciate his presence and try to serve him by our conscious attention to him so how much we are able to do it if we are willfully neglectful then it could be a problem but if we are striving to move forward steadily then we are on the progressive track so that's to conclude and summarize once again to see the transcendental as material is the essence of.