Daily-Bhagavatam 60 – 11.07.50 – Focus more on reciprocation than renunciation

Thank you Gobhir gaiva gopatihi Gunai gunan upadate So here the Avadhuta brahmana Is describing what he learnt From the sun Gobhir gaiva gopatihi Gopati Refers to the sun Gobhir refers to With its rays Gaiva, just as the sun Takes Water With its sun rays From one place Say the ocean or the river Then later discharges it At another place And in the form of Rains Similarly they said that Gunai gunan upadate That the wise Person accepts the sense objects From people Yatha kaalam And at the right time Gives them up And thus The yogi doesn't become Entangled Just as the sun doesn't lose its effulgence Or its Heat or warmth Of fire because of Taking water, similarly The yogi also doesn't become Contaminated Doesn't lose purity Now It's interesting, you may wonder The yogi has announced the world Why does the yogi have to Accept The sense objects at all Here of course The sense object does not mean Any object for sexual gratification It just refers to for example A yogi may get a lot Of food in charity The yogi may take the food And then later on When somebody comes to him He may give that food to that person So the idea The important point is Emphasized by this verse is That when there is no attachment Then there is no entanglement Even when there is Contact with the sense objects So Interestingly The sun is not just contacting The sun is acting as an active agent For the transition That means The water from one place Goes to the other place Because of the action of the sun Similarly The yogis Can act as Agents for The corrective transfer of wealth This doesn't mean The yogis have to become administrators In the government But for example Hanuman was a bhakti yogi And as a bhakti yogi He Arranged for Sita To be returned to Ram He fought the war Prior to that He went as a messenger And the purpose of it all was To enable Sita to be united with Ram So Sita was with Ram And Hanuman arranged for Or facilitated Endeavor To arrange For Sita to be reunited with Ram Now that is of course supremely glorious And that is pure devotional service That is simply pure devotional service That is directly uniting The energy of the lord with the lord Here What is talked about is That One sees the resources of the world As ultimately belonging to the lord Meant for the lord And when one Gets those resources And uses them for the appropriate purpose At the right time So Shri Prabhupada did not approve Of the Fake renunciation The palgo vairagya In which one doesn't accept it all So There is a Mythological Almost legendary anecdote about An impersonal swami Who couldn't sleep at night Because somebody had kept A coin under his bed And then this anecdote Became popular How detached is he that he could not even sleep With contact with money Prabhupada said This palgo vairagya One is simply self-centered thinking That I don't want to be Entangled with money But What about People who are suffering in this world And what about The fact that ultimately All wealth belongs to Krishna Prabhupada would sometimes just take Extremely provocative Postures and positions And he would say that If somebody gives me Lakshmi with one hand I will stretch out the other hand to ask for more Lakshmi The whole idea is that the devotee is very eager To serve Krishna And in that eagerness the devotee May speak things which May not be spoken in other places At other times To understand the glories of the deities Which we are beholding They Are Actually Manifesting For us an opportunity To Become attracted to them And by that attraction to them Become detached from worldly things And thereby Function as agents of change Agents of social change Of course at the spiritual level That means we share Krishna's Spiritual wisdom with others as much as possible Then Actually the soul can Stay disentangled And at the same time Stay Engaged In Doing something constructive in this world Krishna Prabhupada would often say that Now when he went to America His disciples They offered Whatever they had actually Many of them were hippies So they had practically nothing to offer But when they saw How much Prabhupada was giving to them So They Offered their very life to Prabhupada And Prabhupada Engaged them in Krishna's service During one initiation ceremony Prabhupada Just got the list of the names of his disciples Not initiation ceremony The ashram ceremony of his spiritual master Prabhupada just got Asked for the list of all his disciples And he said that He read out the name of the list of disciples And he said this is my The idea was this is my offering to My spiritual master So sometimes devotees would give Some very valuable Thing, some golden watch Something like that to Prabhupada And seeing that as a token Of their affection, Prabhupada would accept it But then a few days later He was Pleased with some disciple, some devotee Disciple had done some service and Prabhupada wanted to give him He would just give that golden watch And that would become a precious memento For that disciple Not just because It was made of gold But because it manifested Prabhupada's blessing and Prabhupada's affection So if Prabhupada said that I will not accept any gifts Then neither the disciple Who gave that gift would have the joy Of having made some offering to the spiritual master Nor would the devotee who had received Their gift got the Opportunity to receive Some Memento of Prabhupada's mercy So in that sense In Devotion we focus More on reciprocation Than on renunciation And therefore We see All this is what All this is centered on Reciprocation So We When we receive gifts And when we give gifts We shouldn't think that as just sentimental Or mundane We should see the Heart that is Making these gifts and of course there has to be The heart otherwise it just becomes a ritual And the focus should not be on Okay how valuable is the gift somebody has given But actually It should be more of Conveyance of heart to heart appreciation And that way We can all Become bound together horizontally In our vertical relationship with Krishna That means Krishna is above and we all want to Connect with him But unless we have direct Personal realization of Krishna's all attractiveness To stay fixed In our vertical relationship with Krishna Through all the ups and downs of life Life is not easy But if we are also horizontally connected with other devotees In bonds of affection Then those bonds of affection Will hold us Fast and steady When the world's ups and downs Start shaking us And that way We can keep Marching or we can keep Steady in our devotional service And keep marching on towards Krishna So We see Worldly resources Worldly things as Not just worldly But as objects by which to serve Krishna So That can happen in various ways By using those resources To share Krishna consciousness with others By using those resources To express our affection for devotees And by using Those resources in various other ways Basically Ourselves go closer to Krishna To help others go closer to Krishna And to join with others At a spiritual level In our shared relationship.