Damodarashtakam 4 – Seeing God as the supreme desirable, not just as the source of all desirables
Thank you very much for coming today and as it is the sacred month of Kartik I will talk today about a song that we sing daily during this month of Kartik which is that Damodar Ashtakam so I am actually taking an eight part series on the Damodar Ashtakam, one on each verse I am taking it in different parts of America but today I will speak on the fourth verse, of course each class is self contained in itself so how we will do it is we will recite each line do we have sheets or most of you know the Damodar Ashtakam? so we will just you have phones? yeah you have phones so you can have it so the Damodar Ashtakam is one of the most beautiful poetic compositions that glorify Krishna and the idea is that we all are looking for happiness and there are different ways in which we all can find happiness what the Hare Krishna Hare Krishna so we are all looking for happiness and there are different kinds of happiness in the world and what the Bhakti tradition tells us the highest happiness is when we connect with the highest source of happiness just like if we have a if it's hot and we have a small fan like a small baby fan is there it can give us a little air there is a bigger fan it can give us more air sometimes there is a huge fan maybe half a dozen people can stand under the fan and all of them can get cool by that so the if we want to feel cool the bigger the fan the greater the source of greater it is the source of cool air so similarly when we are looking for happiness in the world then there are many sources of happiness but if we can connect with the greatest source of happiness we get the greatest happiness so this verse describes how we can connect with that supreme source of happiness so God is infinite and infinite means that he also has infinite happiness within Satyam Anantam Param Sukham the Upanishads say that he is the unlimited eternal reality who is the source of all happiness so Damodarashtakam describes the past time of Krishna wherein Krishna becomes bound so this is a very sweet and endearing vision of divinity God has two aspects to him his greatness and his sweetness when we come to know how great someone is then that creates some submission say if we are having some discussion or argument with someone about something and then we come to know that person has actually a PhD and has studied 30 years in that subject if they are an authority then actually that creates some submission so understanding God's greatness creates submission towards him but a personal relationship is based not just on submission need to take it there usually I ask whether I am audible so let me know if once it resumes whether I am audible or not so let's recite this line till then Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare am I better audible now to everyone thank you so if you want a personal relationship with someone it's not just their greatness if we appreciate someone's greatness we might become their fan but a fan doesn't have really a personal relationship with their hero there is a distant admiration if you want a personal relationship it's based not just on appreciating that person's greatness but also their sweetness so the bhakti tradition reveals how the ultimate reality is supremely sweet Krishna is God but in this past time of Damodar he becomes so conquered by his devotees love that he becomes bound by that and God is a supreme conqueror he cannot be conquered by anyone at all but somebody might be a champion boxer and they might be so powerful that any competitor just one punch and opponent is knocked out and yet this champion boxer might have a might have a son or a nephew or a grandson and then they say let's wrestle and while they are wrestling then this small child just punches boxer falls down I defeated you, I defeated you nobody can defeat that person but out of love the champion boxer acts as if they are defeated and that is endearing in its own way so Krishna is the supreme lord he cannot be be controlled by anyone conquered by anyone but Krishna is bound by mother Yashoda sthita grevam damodaram bhakti baddham he is bound by devotion and this vision of God as such an all attractive, all loving person is so endearing that Satyavadpuri in this composition is now asking for a benediction there are 8 verses in the Damodarashtakam as the name Ashtaka itself suggests so the first two verses you could say describe the past time how Krishna tries to run away and is caught and is bound then the remaining verses are first there is a narration of the past time and then there is exposition based on the past time is an analysis what is actually going on over here the third verse says that this past time is so ecstatic the devotees ananda kunde they get inundated in pools of ecstasy and in the fourth verse is a meditation on what to ask the lord what can we bring to him so lets recite those of you who have we will recite one line and we will discuss the meaning and then we will recite it again varam deva moksha na moksha vadhimba janya brune hamvare sadapiha so ok yeah ok so varam deva oh god you are the giver of benedictions in general most people they don't think about god shri prabhupada writes in one of his books on the way to krishna that all knowledge comes from god but all knowledge doesn't begin with god begin from god what it means is that ultimately the insight the inspiration that we get there have a divine source but it is not that one day suddenly a person wakes up and starts thinking about god it is we look at the world around us and either the things in the world or the events in the world events involve people they prompt us to think about god so you might look at a beautiful sky on a starlit night and ask where did all this come from that happens in some people more often than not for all of us it is when we are trying to do something in life and after sometime we realise that hey I am not able to do this getting this thing done getting this desire fulfilled is not in my power alone that is the time we start thinking about some higher reality some higher reality maybe there is someone out there I had a friend in my college, he was an atheist and we used to have quite vibrant discussions and eventually I became a monk, a brahmachari and after 20-25 years he called me and he said I want to do a puja I said what happened did you have a change of heart he said no he was a software engineer he said I am starting my own startup and he said in case god exists I don't want him to create any trouble for me so he said I am taking insurance I will have this kind of insurance also so usually for us we don't think of god directly when we function in the world there are some things in our control and many things not in our control and then we start thinking maybe the things that are not in my control are they under someone's control and maybe if they are in someone's control, maybe that person if I please them, if I appease that person, then that person will make things work out well for me so it's not suddenly we think about god, we think about the world and based on that our thoughts may go to someone who is beyond, and usually when we think about god it is for the purpose of what he can do for us it is, most people they are not interested in god personally in the biblical tradition in the bible there is the prayer oh father lord be thy name, give us our daily bread actually the prophet would say that it's good that people are going to god and praying but this prayer shows their love for bread not love for god and if bread can be god by other means, then what is the need for god and that's what is happening, in the western world especially most people are not worried about their bread they may be worried about their butter but most people feel I don't need god like one of the fastest growing, you could say religious denominations is what is called as nuns means which religion do you belong to? nun, I just don't care about it because they feel god is irrelevant for them I was in London and I was giving a talk does god exist? so the organisers told me that this topic is not very relevant for people so then what they said if god exists, so what? so how is it relevant to me? so when our our power to get the things that we want increases then we feel why do I need some divine power but nowadays many people turn to god because of some other reason I was in Australia and there was an interfaith discussion and the topic was why has god not died till now? now what does it mean? why has god not died till now? the idea is that there are since the last 150 years there have been thinkers who have been predicting the death of god Friedrich Nietzsche was a prominent German philosopher and he said famously god is dead what he meant was that that the the basis for belief in an idea like god has been destroyed by the advancement of science and that's why nobody can believe in god and that's what many thinkers are thinking that many materialistic ideas thinkers think that god that as science advances, as technology advances people will reject god but that has not happened the way they expected it seems religion has tremendous staying power it has tremendous resilience, America is among the world's most, western world among the most religious countries there is a resurgence of religion in Russia after the fall of communism, India is very religious, the middle east of course is religious so why is this happening? the reason is that nowadays especially in the western world god is not presented especially by the Christians as a cosmic supplier because cosmic supplier will give you your bread, but nowadays god is presented as a cosmic therapist you go to god, you will become peaceful, your agitation, your anxiety all of it will go away, you will become peaceful and with everything that we have, even with our big big technology it's not easy to get peace and that's why what happens is that people are agitated and then they want some relief so basically the point I am making is that we are interested we are interested not so much in god but in what god gives us and that's why whenever people talk about god they talk about some benediction, oh god what will you give me, so in this prayer Satyavrat Muni is saying what is it that I want he says varamdeva oh lord you are the giver of benedictions and may give this, may give that and varamdeva moksha now there are different degrees of desires also so most people desire something in the world maybe give me a give me this car give me this, give me that so many, it's like a you could have a laundry list for many people religion is a cheaper substitute for shopping I have to go and shop, just go and tell god in this vision of religion what happens, it's a very commercialised idea, business idea god I will do this for you and you do this for me and when this idea is there, it becomes very utilitarian once a person he took a bought a lottery and it was for it was for 1 million dollars and he said oh god if I win this lottery I will donate half of it to you and then he waited and waited and then it was after one week the result was going to come and the result came he was a winner he was elated, yes I won and then he stopped and looked actually he had got the second prize so he had won how much half of it half a million he thought about it and he went to the temple and he said oh god you are so clever you took your share before I won so what happens here that just as in business people try to give the least and get the most so we might do something like that with religion also so when we see god as the giver of desirables then it is the desirables that interest us not the giver but a spiritual advancement to grow spiritually means to gradually understand that god is the giver of desirables but also god is the supreme desirable he is the supreme desirable if we can become attracted to him become absorbed in him that is the supreme happiness so different people have different kinds of desires that some people have this desire that oh I want this I want that but some people understand gradually that this whole business of fulfilling desires never brings fulfilment I fulfil this desire and then the desires are like a hydra headed monster one desire is fulfilled and ten desires come out and then ten more desires come out and then somebody might say I just want freedom from all desires that is moksha moksha is a state when we are liberated from eternal existence we can get some idea of moksha say like somebody wants to maybe have a maybe they are very poor and they can't afford it they want to drink but they can't even afford a drink and then they get a drink and they get another drink and they get another drink and somehow they earn money also they can spend it but they become alcoholics after that instead of alcoholism what happens first the drinker takes a drink then the drink takes a drink and then the drink takes the drinker so it's a snowball effect so eventually somebody becomes alcoholic and then they say initially their desire was I just want enough money to get one more drink but when they become addicted then they realise I just want to be free from this desire I don't want the desire to drink also so that is indicative of the desire for liberation sometimes we have we want the freedom for fulfilling our desires and there are two kinds of freedom one is we are free for desires and the other is we are free from desires free for desires means somebody say oh you should not drink we may have parents who tell us don't drink or we may have our social cultural religious rules which restrict a particular activity we say I want to be free from all this and I want to enjoy that's one kind of freedom financial freedom, cultural freedom but actually that freedom leads to entanglement because you get attached but then there is another kind of freedom where not free for desires but free from desires and yaga chanti manantaram that state is a state of peace so imagine two people are going they are staying together at a place maybe in a hostel or something like that and this is their workplace and in between there is a bar now one of them has never drunk and has no inclination to drink the other person is drunk repeatedly and the desire keeps tormenting them and the first person goes by, they may not even notice the bar along them other person gets, I want to drink no I can't drink, I don't want to, I want to there is so much torment so freedom from desire is a big relief so that is often desired by some people and that is called as moksha, moksha is freedom from the desires that bind us to this world and then when we are freed like this then we get liberated from the world and many people who are serious spiritual seekers they seek liberation, they seek moksha it requires some amount of maturity even to recognise that we are bound just like if somebody is a little drunk then they realise maybe they drank a little bit in the bar, I cannot drive they say you can drive or maybe I will go in a cab or something like that when a person is little drunk they are aware but if a person is very drunk then somebody tells them don't, you shouldn't drive I shouldn't drive somebody is too drunk they don't even understand that they are drunk so similarly we are all bound but if we are too bound then we don't even realise we are bound so it requires a little little decrease in intoxication to understand that I am intoxicated if it is heavily intoxicated then they don't understand that so most people are so intoxicated by the hope of worldly pleasures that they only ask God for many desirables give me this, give me that, give me that but people who become a little elevated and Satyavrat Muni the sage who is composing this is an elevated sage so they, they don't ask God for various desirables they ask God for freedom from desire but he is saying I don't want that I don't want that at all then is there something higher so there are basically you could say two worlds there is the material world and there is the spiritual world, there is the material level of reality and spiritual level of reality you could envision this as a negative axis and a positive axis so negative axis is where all the worldly desires drag and drive us and liberation is like the zero point where we are free from desires now as I said the freedom from desires can give us relief but itself it doesn't give my joy why is that? because that is based on a misdiagnosis suppose somebody has got arthritis and any movement of the body causes them pain they just move there constant pain then they may think I just want to stop moving I can just stop moving I will be free from pain now it's true firstly it's very difficult to stop moving and if they stop moving they will become free from pain but what after that? after that they want to move the pain is apparently caused by the motion but actually it is caused by the disease when the disease is removed they can move and they can feel no pain in fact they can move and do things and they do constructive things it can give joy so it's based on a misdiagnosis the pain is caused not by the motion but by the disease and when somebody wants to stop motion to be free from pain that's a misdiagnosis similarly the bhakti tradition tells us to think that desire entangles me therefore I just want to be free from desires that's a misdiagnosis desires are not a problem misdirected desires are the problem to be conscious is to be desirous each one of us is a conscious being and consciousness means we observe, we experience we analyse and then naturally we desire this is good, it's not so good so we can't kill desires, we can't get rid of desires in fact to want to get rid of desires is also a desire it's like to say I want to give up all desires it's a self contradictory statement it's like somebody says I don't know a single word of English what's wrong? you already spoke seven words of English so to say I want to be free from all desires well that's already want means a desire so we can't actually be free from desires, so that's why moksha vadhim avadhim means something bigger than moksha varam devamoksham na moksha vadhim va what is higher than liberation this is the negative axis, this is the positive axis, then material world and the spiritual world the spiritual world is where we eternally belong and in the spiritual world the devotee and the lord live together in an eternal bond of ecstasy and that is what we all long for actually if we just went back maybe 150 200 years into the past whether it was India or whether it was Middle East, whether it was Russia or whether it was America whether it was Europe, everywhere people had this understanding that this world is a place of transition this world is not the ultimate destination by living in this world we are meant to go to another world and that world is life's ultimate purpose however in the last 150-200 years with the advancement of science and technology people rejected this idea of a spiritual paradise and they replaced it with the dream of a technological paradise so we all want a better world a better life and the world's theistic traditions told us there is a better world and we can by purification and devotion attain that world now today technology has in many ways created a lot of comforts but definitely those comforts have not created paradise paradise is not a place where people will be depressed people will be worried people will be suicidal and that has increased enormously in today's world so something is seriously wrong so there is the hope for a better world is always there that is fulfilled by rising to the spiritual level so moksha vadhim means that there is negative axis, there is zero, there is a positive axis it says that I don't want to go to the spiritual world also this is strange, moksha vadhim is going to the spiritual world why do we want that so the spiritual world is not just a location sometimes some of you may have seen some may be the Srimad Bhagavatam or some other the universe is depicted as a diagram and then we might get this idea this is the material world and this is the spiritual world it is like this is America and this is Canada so the spiritual world is not just at a different location it is at a different level of reality it is a different level of consciousness to go there it is not just a matter of physical transportation it is a matter of elevation of consciousness what makes the spiritual world special is not just the location like some places say we are not very far from Hawaii or this California there are some places which are extremely beautiful and that location itself is special so the spiritual world is not just a place it is not a matter of location it is a matter of disposition it is we need to have the right consciousness what is that consciousness that consciousness is actually attraction to the person who presides in the spiritual world that is God Krishna when we have love for Krishna and that love for Krishna when you go to the spiritual world and there is everybody else who is devoted to Krishna and there is great joy over there if somehow we could go to the spiritual world and then we go to the spiritual world and then we ask ok what happened about the impeachment who won the elections what is the cricket score what is the stock market prices well nobody would be interested in that and we would get bored over there so going to the spiritual world is a matter of developing the consciousness it is a matter of developing devotion to the lord and that lord this is the material world this is the spiritual world so we go to the spiritual world not just by physical transportation but by emotional redirection by redirecting our emotions from the world to the source of the world, the lord and that very lord is present in this world Krishna when he descends to this world, the word avatar means one who descends avatariti, the avatar so when he descends to this world then he is saying why do I need to go to the spiritual world varamdeva moksha na moksha vadhimva na chanyam raneham vareshagati in the spiritual world one may have different specific desires I want to relate to the lord in this way or that way he says I don't want any of this vareshagati that twice he asserts it is not that he has some doubts whether the lord can fulfil the benediction or not sometimes we may want some help, we may go to a bank and apply for some loan but it is a small bank, you may think this bank doesn't have so much loan to give to me so so it is not like that he twice asserts varamdeva you are the giver of benediction and then also he says vareshagati among all those who can give benedictions you are the greatest and yet I do not want these benedictions from you so there is you could say a build up I don't want this, I don't want this I don't want this, then what do you want that will be described in the next verse so let's recite this verse once again and then we will go to the next verse varamdeva moksham na mokshavadhimva na janyam bruneham vareshagatiha nidam tevakornatar gopalabalam sadame manasya virastham kimanyai he says idam te this, vakornatar gopalabalam oh oh this form there is a figure of speech in English called as oxymoron oxymoron is where two opposite ideas are brought together suppose somebody tells us something that was brilliantly stupid what? is it brilliant or stupid? brilliantly stupid so two ideas come together suicide it is said is an act of courageous cowardice why courageous cowardice? sometimes people plan to commit suicide say somebody I am going to lie down on the path of a train and then if the train goes over my body I am going to end my life and they lie down on the cart I lie down on tracks they hear the train sound and they get up another day so at one level it requires courage to end one's life but if one is ending one's life because of frustration because of not having the spine to deal with life's problems then that is cowardice that's why it is courageous cowardice so similarly here there is an oxymoron there is a nath means master and gopalabalam gopalabalam is a child, a cowherd boy now normally the idea of a master would mean somebody who is like a wealthy merchant or a powerful king but he is saying you are my master and you are a cowherd boy so maybe at least a cowherd king or a cowherd leader could be a master how can somebody who is just a mere boy and that too not a very a cowherd boy how is he the nath so he is saying this form of the lord of you who are the supreme master who has become a cowherd boy vipurnatha gopalabalam now why is it that krishna takes the form of a cowherd boy so krishna is the all attractive supreme lord but he desires the reciprocation of love and for the reciprocation of love whatever is required he does that just like talking about the boxer earlier the champion boxer might just act as if he is playing with a child and get knocked down by the child why? because he wants to reciprocate love so krishna is supreme but the infinite becomes finite so that he can reciprocate love with other finite beings if god comes in infinite form how do you develop a personal relationship if you say god is infinite like the sky somebody might say oh i love the sky but what do you do with that love how do you express it practically you can look in admiration at the sky but that's about it admiration and awe but beyond that there is not much we can do so here krishna although he is god he takes the form of a small cowherd boy and this is leela leela means that god conceals his divinity leela is like a play or a pastime where krishna conceals his divinity so that love can go forward unimpeded we are constantly conscious oh this person is so great we can't reciprocate it if we know somebody is a very powerful person president of america or the head of the army, head of the police and then we can't really deal in a very friendly way with them because no if we constantly remember their position we will be fearful so krishna doesn't want that so he conceals his divinity and he takes the form of a small boy now why a cowherd boy he takes the form of a small boy so that those devotees who want to reciprocate love with him as a parent they can be facilitated so the normal idea is god is the parent and we are the children but god wants to reciprocate all the flavours of relationships that we relish in the world so we have a relationship with the parent, we have a relationship with the children we have a relationship with friends, we have siblings so god wants a full gamut of relationships and thus he takes the role of a small child and now why a cowherd boy you can understand a boy because he wants to facilitate love by concealing his divinity but why a cowherd boy because krishna loves cows now why does krishna love cows well krishna is a person and a person means person has preferences, person has likes so krishna now you could say cows are so simple, so sweet so sublime, they are like mothers and they give milk, all that is true and more than that krishna is a person, he has his choice so he loves cows because cows are so lovable and he does the role of a cowherd boy, so he models how god in his role doesn't delight in opulence he delights in simplicity he delights in proximity to nature so he is a cowherd boy so he is saying this form of yours as a cowherd boy and not just a cowherd boy he has described that form as that form will be described further in the next verse but what does he say damte vapurnatha gopalabhadam sadami let it always be manasya abhirajtam that let it always be manifest in my heart and let my mind and heart be filled with the remembrance of that kimanyan what else can i desire what else is worth the desire i simply want to remember your lord, now this is a very elevated prayer, at the same time it is not that difficult to understand, we have four basic needs in life we need food we need water, we need air and we need someone to blame because what happens, these necessities even if we get them, they don't satisfy us, and we are not satisfied then, i need someone to blame why am i not satisfied so we actually, we have physical needs, they are important but we need something more there has been many studies which correlated say now physical needs we can say that they are fulfilled when we have money so there are many studies which have correlated which have tried to study the relationship between wealth and happiness and it is interesting if we consider wealth, happiness and the y axis, we have a graph happiness on the y axis and wealth on the x axis then, many studies have found it is straight correlation as your wealth increases your happiness increases is that true yes, it is true but only up to a particular point, if a person's basic needs are not being met, your person doesn't have food, your person doesn't have a place to stay then, if somebody is hungry and then they get some money it's great joy, it's great relief so up to a particular point where people's basic needs are not met, wealth is proportional to happiness but beyond that how much money we are making doesn't determine our happiness what we are making with money determines our happiness once you have money, what are you doing with it what are the values for which you are living what are the purposes for which one is living that determines happiness so, we all need, at a physical level, we have certain needs and they are important they need to be dealt with but beyond that what we most fundamentally need is a satisfying object of thought we need a satisfying object of thought something I think about which will make me peaceful, which will make me joyful and this need today is so great and that need is not being fulfilled in the past when society maybe 20, 30 or 50 years ago when society was more structured people had their family, people had their social circles people had their their place in the world and that gave them some satisfaction but today all those some of those structures are falling I was in New Zealand about 4-5 months ago and I often in my when I give seminars to new people, especially I talk about how social fabric is falling apart and one of the sad things I talk about is how the divorce rates are increasing so the divorce in New Zealand told me don't quote this I said, why? Do people get offended by that? He said, no, because it's not true I said, divorce rates are not increasing? He said, yes Why? Because marriage rates are decreasing So people just find marriage too entangling, so they just live together so the point is that if somebody has some place where they can call as home then there is some satisfying object of thought of course, now even at home there can be conflicts and there is not a very satisfying object of thought always, but at least some satisfying object of thought is there but when the structures that bring order to people's life, they are disrupted then the mind has no place to call as home and the mind becomes very restless and that is why because the mind needs some satisfying object of thought that's why today entertainment has become such an obsessive thing for people entertainment has always been a part of human society but today it is obsessive people spend millions and millions of dollars on just entertainment say a thousand years later if somebody wanted to study the 21st century and they wanted to know what is the typical artefact of the 21st century so probably one of the most characteristic artefacts would be movies so many movies are produced in millions of dollars so many and so expensive why? because people need some satisfying object of thought and that ok, somehow just turn on some TV, turn on your phone, get on the internet and just watch and forget about the emptiness of life so this need, it cannot be denied but entertainment is basically like a pain medication it doesn't really satisfy us, like when we take pain medication, it covers the pain it doesn't cure the pain similarly entertainment, what it does is it just numbs us to the emptiness of our life and after that again we want more entertainment, maybe more more intrusive, more aggressive more explicit entertainment because that is not really addressing the issue so the most satisfying object of thought is Krishna Krishna is unlimited he is unlimited, he is unlimitedly attractive and he is unlimitedly satisfying so when he is praying over here let this form always remain in my heart, let me always think about it, so this is actually the this is the desire that can bring the greatest happiness, I started by saying about how we all desire happiness and we may desire different sources of happiness, the greater the source of happiness, the greater happiness we will get, so why is Krishna the greatest source of happiness, because if we can become habituated to thinking about Krishna then we can think about him forever, he has unlimited pastimes, each of those pastimes has unlimited depth and in thinking about him we will never tyre we will always have ecstatic satisfaction one of the last lines of this ashtakam is that my dear lord you perform unlimited pastimes and I just want to absorb myself in them so here Satyavatman is praying my dear lord let me become absorbed in you, let my mind become attached to you this is the prayer that will bring the richest reward for us the reward of, if our mind becomes attached to him, the lord manifests always in our hearts then we will always be satisfied life will always have its ups and downs, but if you are eternally strengthened, if you are eternally enriched then life's problems life's disturbances won't disturb us that much I can tell you this example, remembrance of the lord or absorption of our consciousness in the lord is like an unsinkable ship the world we live in is like a stormy ocean and the stormy ocean we can't stop stormy waves from coming sometimes the ocean may be peaceful, but soon it will become stormy so if we think that my life will become comfortable and then I will become happy yes, then we can try that but it will be futile yes, we can maybe increase our comfort to some level, but more important than trying to find a peaceful place in the ocean, is to find a ship and get into that ship, so similarly for us, we may try to create, maybe get a better job, get a better house improve our relationships all these things are important but they are all like trying to find a more peaceful place in the ocean what we need most importantly is, get into the ship and absorption in Krishna is like an unsinkable ship if we can get into that ship, then life the storms, even if they hit us, they won't hurt us that much and then we try to practise our bhakti, if we are practising our bhakti, if we expect God to give us a stormless sea we will soon be disappointed does God even care for me, I am praying and nothing is happening but instead of that, yes, when storms are there we can actually, you know, nobody wants storms and we can pray for the storms to go but we don't base our relationship with the Lord on his removing the storms from our life, we base our relationship with him on getting into that unsinkable ship, so whatever problems we have, if we pray my dear Lord, let my consciousness become attached to you, let my consciousness become absorbed in you then, even if there is no release from problems, we will still experience relief amidst problems release for problems is when the storm goes away relief amid problem is when we ascent into the ship the unsinkable unsinkable ship, that is Krishna Consciousness, that is absorbed here in Krishna so, that is what we all aspire to do by coming in the association of devotees and practising sadhana bhakti everyday that we try to practise sadhana bhakti we are making our mind more and more attached to Krishna initially bhakti has to be practised conscientiously yes, our mind may go here there, everywhere, we bring it back to Krishna but if we keep doing that, as we practise conscientious bhakti, gradually it will start becoming spontaneous the devotion that is conscientious now, will become spontaneous and when it gradually becomes spontaneous, then we can be joyfully absorbed in Krishna and when we are joyfully absorbed in Krishna then, we will be able to weather all of life's storms and the ship of absorption in Krishna, will ultimately take us to destination Krishna, to Krishna's eternal abode which is forever free from all storms and Ramadhanashtakam reminds us of this destiny that awaits all of us, that beckons all of us and toward which we can advance, with every single day, with every act of bhakti that we do, we are progressing toward our eternal abode so, I'll summarise what I spoke today I spoke on the topic of understanding the Lord as the supreme desirable, based on this fourth verse of Ramadhanashtakam we don't start suddenly thinking about God one day when we function in the world and are not able to get what we desire then we think that maybe God will be the source of the desire, that's when we start thinking about God, and it's good to think about God in any way but at that time, we are interested not in God, but in what God gives, and that is a preliminary relationship with God a more advanced relationship is when we become interested in God and we become interested in God when we understand how interesting and fascinating and endearing a person he is and that is revealed in the bhakti tradition that God does not delight in his Godhood, but he delights in the reciprocation of love and thus, he conceals his Godhood so that he can enjoy a rich gamut of relationships with his devotees the infinite becomes finite so God's, understanding God's greatness brings submission understanding God's sweetness brings affection and submission and affection both combined are serious devotion a committed devotion and I talked about how, here Siddharth Muni is praying God is the giver of benedictions he doesn't ask for any of the benedictions that people ask for, give me so many desirable things because he is a sage and sages are limited enough to understand that getting desirables is not as desirable as getting freedom from desire so that is the state of liberation but even the desire for liberation is also a desire you cannot be free from desires and it is based on a misdiagnosis thinking that desires are the cause of problems whereas it is the misdirected desire that are the cause of problems pain is caused not by motion but by disease so then what is beyond the state of desirelessness of liberation is the spiritual world that's the negative axis and the positive axis but he says I don't want to go to the spiritual world also why? because going to the spiritual world is not just a matter of physical relocation, it is a matter of emotional redirection that we need to direct our heart from the world to the lord and to do that we need to become attracted to the lord and if that lord is present here then what is the need to go there he says I just want to behold you oh lord and then I talked about how that we may desire many things in the world and when we desire those things there are things which are needed for our existence but beyond that our mind tends to grumble, we need someone to blame because the mind never finds a satisfying object of thought and that's why entertainment is manically pursued by people because the structures that provided people some peace in their lives in the past they have also been rapidly dismantled into this world so the supreme satisfying object of thought is Krishna if we can develop our devotion to him then we can be satisfied wherever he may be life in this world is like being in a stormy ocean we can't stop the storms and expecting god to stop the storms is an unrealistic expectation but what we can do is get into the ship, the unsinkable ship of absorption in the lord and that ship can not only shelter us amid the storms of the world but it can also take us to the shelter beyond the stormy ocean of the world so by practising conscientious devotion we can experience relief amid the stress even if we don't experience relief from the stress and gradually as the conscientious devotion becomes spontaneous we can become joyful even in this world and ultimately attain Krishna beyond this world thank you very much Hare Krishna so any questions or comments? sometimes we have desires and then after that we can have a fear to lose something what we desired before and then in the future if we want to practise our spiritual path this fear we can also experience in the spiritual life that I'm trying to separate the real from being this, this and this, I'm serving Krishna all my life but maybe there is not that much advancement in the spiritual life and we have fear so by redirecting our desires are we going to become free from the fear? so by redirecting our desires towards Krishna will we become free from fear? we may even have fear that I will never become purified, I may never attain Krishna we can fear in spiritual life also the we could say that desire and fear are two sides of the same coin whether there will be desire there will be fear for example Mother Yashoda she is very fearful if I don't feed Krishna he will starve he may die when Krishna becomes too naughty she wants to discipline him because she is afraid that if Krishna gets his reputation that he is naughty he steals and he is a thief then Krishna is just a small baby right, Mother Yashoda is having fear if Krishna develops his reputation then when he grows up who will give their daughter in marriage to him? so who will marry him? so now wherever there is love fear is a part of it but what does that fear do? that fear increases her absorption in Krishna so fear itself is not a bad thing ultimately the negative axis and the positive axis if we consider in the positive axis there is a full gamut of relationship with Krishna and it is we could say forgetfulness of Krishna is for the soul poison and remembrance of Krishna is like nectar however you can have sweet poison and you can have bitter nectar so sometimes forgetfulness of Krishna can seem very enjoyable especially if you get a lot of worldly things to enjoy this is wonderful I want this but that sweet sweet poison is only sweet for a short time in 1838 Bhagavata Krishna says that which tastes like nectar in the beginning will be like poison in the end so conversely with respect to Krishna remembrance of Krishna is always like nectar but when that remembrance of Krishna is with Krishna present in front of us with Krishna reciprocating love with us that's like sweet nectar but when there is uncertainty about the safety of Krishna about the reciprocation of Krishna there is anxiety but that anxiety is like bitter nectar it is nectar only why because we are thinking about Krishna and thinking about Krishna is always auspicious so as devotees if we want to be only free from fear then where is the scope for a service over there like Prabhupada when he was in Vrindavan he was living peacefully visiting the various temples, chanting the holy names writing the Bhagavata commentaries when he came to America there was anxiety but he took that anxiety for the service of Krishna so for each of us should we strive to be free from fear so it's not that we court fear, obviously not but our purpose is not simply to be free from fear our purpose is to serve Krishna and for serving Krishna if sometimes some planning is required some anticipating of future problems and dealing with problems is required that simply indicates our seriousness about how we want to serve Krishna so yes you could say even fear can sometimes go beyond manageable limits it means that all of us when we take responsibility whenever there is responsibility there is anxiety because that's natural responsibility brings anxiety but there is responsibility that is manageable and there is responsibility that is unmanageable if if somebody tells me to give a class on the Bhagavad Gita or the Bhagavatam well, I can do that I have studied those books but if somebody tells me to give a class on say the fluid mechanics used in satellites well maybe I studied that 25 years ago, I don't remember anything that will cause anxiety so we have to see whenever we are in a particular situation are we taking up are we biting more than what we can chew then if that is happening we need to downsize a little bit so we need to have fear that is manageable we don't simply try to avoid fear nor do we try to embrace fear we focus on our purpose and we pursue that purpose to the extent that that is manageable for us if we do it that way then even the fear will intensify our devotion and as far as the fear whether we are advancing or not whether we will advance or not we need to manage that intelligently if we start feeling discouraged then we need to turn and look back we can look back at how far we have come and each one of us we will see that if we have been practising bhakti for a few years our life has changed to assess future advancement also we have to be careful that sometimes we look at our desires and our emotions that I still feel angry I still feel envious am I really advancing our desires and our emotions are very flickering and we can't base our assessment of our spiritual advancement on our feelings our emotions, our desires and what do we base it on on our values have our values changed in the past maybe if maybe worldly desires started increasing within me I would think that if somebody say has desires and if they say oh yes I want more I want to be angry, I want to yell at others I want to control them, I want to dominate them but now when I get angry I don't want to be angry I want to fight it, I want to restrain it so if you look at change of values that has definitely happened, change of values means basically what do we value now the most each one of us we are valued, we may not constantly value Krishna the most but overall if we have to make life choices Krishna will definitely be an important priority for us so if you look at change of values we will see there is advancement we can't judge our spiritual advancement on a day to day basis or a moment to moment basis that's too fickle parameter just like small babies are there, small children they don't eat food and their mother tells them you take this milk or you take this healthy food and then you become strong and muscular and maybe the child drinks one full glass of milk and then measures the bicep I have not become muscular what is this you are lying no the mother is not lying growth is gradual so similarly we need to look at our own spiritual advancement in a gradual way in terms of seeing what is it that we value and you will see that we are advancing it don't just base it too much on the emotions or the desires that keep coming and going can I answer your question yes ma'am so people say bad karma, good karma what is good karma to me may be a bad karma to others and we also say a thought itself is a karma so when we were talking about a thought how powerful it is, we need a satisfying thought that's why we think about Krishna so we have a satisfying thought so that itself is a karma okay okay so is satisfying thought also is a karma and then is thinking about Krishna also karma if we need a satisfying object of thought let's look at what we mean by the word karma first of all the idea behind karma is that we are responsible for our actions we all live in a hole bigger than ourselves for example we drive on a road, drive a car on a road then we are participating in a hole that is a road transport system that is bigger than ourselves and if we are participating in that hole we need to play our part properly we need to follow the rules if we don't follow the rules while driving then we endanger ourselves and we endanger others sometimes at that particular time cops are not there we might get away for sometime but eventually we will get caught so we could say karma is like traffic rules we live in a world which is far bigger than ourselves and we need to play our part harmoniously so if we follow the rules then we can get to our destination if not we create problems for ourselves so bad karma is when we live in a disruptive way when we live in a disruptive way then bad karma so now good and bad they can have multiple meanings when specifically we use the word good and bad karma in the bhakti context what it means is if we seek good results at the material level that is what is related to good karma good karma will give us good material results bad karma will give bad material results say somebody is thirsty and we give them a glass of water and we quench their thirst that is good karma and the result of that could be in our future lives we are born in a place where we never have water shortage it is a simplified understanding but say that is the principle if somebody is thirsty and they want to drink a glass of water and we maliciously knock off that bottle from their hands that is bad karma so now maybe we are born in a place where there is a lot of water shortage and we have to experience the agony of thirst repeatedly over there so now beyond this beyond this good karma and bad karma it is ultimately if we try to raise our consciousness to the spiritual level then that is called as there is you could say su-karma, vi-karma and a-karma a-karma is not inaction a-karma is action that produces no material reaction so when we try to practise bhakti and increase our devotion to Krishna we are practising a-karma so that is not going to bind us that is not going to bind us in positive or negative that elevates and liberates us ok so anyone last? Hare Krishna how do you prove that Krishna is supreme? ok good question so how do we prove to a kid that Krishna is supreme? there are different kinds of proofs say if I tell you that the temperature in India right now is 35 degree Celsius in Mumbai now you can go and google and check or you can call somebody in India and you can check that there are objective ways to check that but if if I ask you did your mother love you? of course what is the proof? now you cannot give a scientific proof of that with all our scientific advancement I talk about how I have a whole seminar on science and spirituality of course science is the study of matter and spirituality is the study of what matters what is it really important in life? science can use immense amount of information but what is the information that is important for us? that is spirituality studies so with all the advancement that we have in science we can measure a person's heart beat we can measure their platelets their RBCs, WBCs but we don't have anything like a lavometer so how do you prove that your mother loves you? the proof of that is not an objective parameter that can be measured and verified there are different ways what is called as inferential logic we make inferences at that time when I was sick my mother stayed awake all night to take care of me at that time when I was in big trouble because of another sickness and we needed a lot of money mother was ready to sell all her ornaments just for getting that this, this, this we can think of more than dozen incidents from which we can infer that my mother loved so there are different ways of proving different things so we can't have the same parameter of proof for everything now as far as Krishna's divinity is concerned if we look at scripture as a source there can be different ways of doing this let's make it two parts first of all the authority of scripture and then the divinity of Krishna so as far as the authority of scripture is concerned now how do we know that they are not written by some person in the past well we were not there in the past so we can't have that objective but what do they tell us basically if we look at life around us our basic needs are provided for we have we need water, we need air we need food, we need light these are provided for now if some higher arrangement has provided us with the things we need to live with then one very important thing which we also need is knowledge is what we live with and what we live for what is the purpose of life is somebody going to provide us that knowledge say if we are staying at a particular place and maybe they are not so well to do and we don't have any means of transportation and suddenly we find that outside our house there is a elegant car and only their car, there are spare tyres with it and there is a lot of spare fuel with it who will give this car if they went to all the trouble of giving this car they will give me a map, they will give me some address where am I meant to go isn't it so if God has provided us with the means to live then God will also provide us the meaning of life means without meaning is meaningless, giving a car without any map what is the purpose of the car so we could reasonably say that the knowledge about the purpose of living will be provided and that is included something like a map or a guide book or a manual for operating a car, for going to destination now if some book some ancient book, wisdom text is said by some people to be the to be the guide book for life like a map for our travel now how do we know whether a particular book is a guide book how do we know if we have a device that this is a manual for the device it is basically by two things first the manual helps us to make it sensible and it's verifiable it helps us make better sense of the device this button is this, this button is this if a map is for real it will describe oh this territory is called this, this landmark is this, this landmark is this and then it is verifiable in the sense that if I use that manual the device works better similarly if I take a map and I drive a car I can go to it will come here, it will come here, it will come here it will come here, it will come here so basically if you look at scripture as a guide book provided by the divine for us to live then if we study the Bhagavad Gita for example we will find does it help us to make better sense of life yes if you study the Bhagavad Gita you will find it does and does living according to the Bhagavad Gita make our life better does it, so that way this is not a it's not a mathematically refutable proof but it's a reasonable inference now beyond that the specific point about Krishna's divinity if you want to ask the the Bhakti tradition it uses the objective definition of God it says that some people ask if God created everything who created God that question sounds logical only as long as you don't understand the definition of God the definition of God is he is the source of everything the cause of all causes that if if we trace back this came from this, this came from this, this came from this where does this stop and wherever that stops that is God so if somebody asks who made God that's like asking who made a circle circular but nobody made a circle circular the circle is by definition circular similarly if there was a maker of God the maker of God would be God so wherever that chain stops that is God so now okay maybe there is a cause of all causes how do we know that is Krishna so that is again it gives an objective description of God, not just definition cause of all causes but also description description is that God is a person who is all attractive there are broadly six opulences six attractive qualities when we are attracted to someone because they are good looking they are wealthy they are intelligent they are powerful they are famous and the six opulences they are renounced now you say who is attracted to renounced people well we may not be attracted to renunciation but we are all attracted to the fruit of renunciation the fruit of renunciation is peace if somebody is renounced they are peaceful and whenever there are disturbing situations and somebody stays very calm and composed everybody admires this person stays they stay calm so basically these are the things we are attracted to any tradition if you go to no tradition no religious tradition will say that my God is ugly no tradition will say my God is a weak link so everybody God is all powerful, all strong, all wise all beautiful so now this is these are the objective characteristics of God now is there a person who fits this well somebody walks into this room and they say I am the president of America they say did you come out of institution we will we will probably not believe it but if we find that they have the capacity they can order the American army, the American navy if they have those powers they order and the army goes and attacks somebody or whatever say ok then maybe you are the president so similarly there are the objective characteristics of God that are described and then the bhakti tradition offers us a person here is a person who is supremely beautiful supremely wise who is extraordinarily powerful so here is the characteristics of a person and here is the person who has those characteristics so that's how we can say this is at the very least again from inference this is a reasonable inference to say that this is the divine and Prabhupada would often say that you talk with people from other traditions if you have a better conception of divinity then tell us about it but most of the traditions all traditions talk about love of God but very few traditions actually describe how God is lovable the personal description of God is not there so in that way through a chain of inferences we can talk about Krishna's divinity now how we will explain this to your child is a challenge for you but I think children are also often more intelligent than what we give them credit to so if you talk about this gradual inferential logic it's not that inaccessible thank you so thank you very much thank you.