From sentimentalism to sentiment 2 – FEEL acronym – Expression and Learning
We will continue our discussion on from Sentimentalism to Sentiments. Till now I talked about how we can move from, we will be discussing the acronym P, so from fickleness to firmness and from experience to education. So now let's move on from Exhibition to Expression.
Many times people, if we go for Harinam Kirtan on the streets, people ask, why do you have to exhibit your devotion like this to the whole world? Devotion is a matter of the heart. Devotion is just a matter of the heart, you focus on that. Yes, devotion is a matter of the heart, no doubt.
But what is in the heart needs to be expressed and there is a difference between expression and exhibition. Now, in every relationship that we have, emotion needs to be expressed. If say, in a family, the husband is just staying at home, lounging, watching TV, playing some video games and the wife says, you know, we need to get the grocery, we need some money.
He says, I love you. Okay, then go and get a job and earn some money. No, I love you.
Or say, the husband comes back from office and the husband is tired and hungry and then the wife says, I love you. Okay, I'm hungry. I love you.
I'm hungry. I love you. Well, love is fine, but depending on whatever situation we are in, love has to be expressed through the appropriate actions.
Emotion that is not expressed is, who can know whether the emotion is there or not. So, it may be there, it may not be there. So, those who see that, oh, keep your devotion only in the heart, they themselves don't follow that with respect to any other field of their life.
Everywhere, devotion has to be love, emotion, whatever is expressed. Now, there's a difference between expressing emotion and exhibiting emotion. Expression is for the object of love.
Exhibition is for the world. So, when we express our devotion, we want to connect more with the Lord. When we exhibit our devotion, that is, we simply want the admiration of the world.
Like earlier, I said that people who just imitate that they have advanced emotions and they pretend to have tears in their eyes, they want to exhibit their devotion so that they can attract the world's attention. That is not our purpose. Our purpose is expression of emotion.
Gaurakrishna Das Babaji, the grand spiritual master of Srila Prabhupada, would give an example to illustrate the difference between expression of emotion and exhibition of emotion. He says that if a woman is pregnant and she is in the final stages of labour, when she is about to deliver, at that time, as the baby is coming out, she may cry, she may scream at that time. Now, when she screams, everybody runs over there, pays attention, the doctors, the midwives, others, they all come and help.
And through those cries, actually, a child is going to appear. Now, if some other woman who is not pregnant, she also starts screaming like that. She may scream and yell, but no child is going to be produced by that.
So, similarly, he says those who have authentic devotion, when they express that emotion, the devotion actually increases. There is a product, there is a fruit of that expression. And the fruit of that expression is the deepening of the devotion.
So, when great devotees chant and dance and sing in ecstasy, by that their ecstasy increases. But those who are just faking the devotion, they are simply exhibiting the devotion, they are like the woman who is not pregnant at all. No matter how much they fake the emotion, that's not going to lead to any deepening of the emotion.
So, now, the expression of emotion can lead to a deeper experience of the emotion and can lead also to the enrichment of the emotion. So, this is where the people often say that we want free love. Now, there is a sexual revolution after which people say that, oh, we just want to, there is free love.
I can love anyone, everyone, no restrictions, that is the idea. Now, actually, the word free love is an oxymoron. Oxymoron is an English figure of speech, which refers to two contradictory words brought together.
Like say, if we say, this person is a brilliant fool. What do you mean? Is he brilliant or is he foolish? Or it's said that suicide is an act of courageous cowardice. Courageous cowardice.
Normally, courage and cowardice are opposite. So, many times when people, somebody feels they are committing suicide, say, they go and lie down in the tracks of a train. And I am going to end my life.
And then as they hear the sound of the train coming, they get up and go away. Maybe next time. So, actually, to end one's life also requires courage.
But when a soldier is fighting on the war field and is laying down the life, that is martyrdom. That is glorious. They are laying down their life for a higher cause.
But if somebody lays down their life, gives up their life because of frustration, that inability to face life's problems is cowardice. So, courageous cowardice is two opposite words you have brought together. That's oxymoron.
That's the English word oxymoron. So, free love is actually an oxymoron. Because whenever a love is there, love is a limiter of freedom.
Love by its very nature limits freedom. You see, in any relationship, say a man and a woman, before they are married, they can go anywhere, they can do anything, they can have any kind of relationships. But if they get married, then that love leads to the limiting of the freedom.
But it's not just a limiter of freedom. It is also the fulfiller of freedom. What do we want freedom for? We want freedom so that we can experience deeper, richer emotions.
Say, when a couple get married, they have a child. Now, the child, as soon as the child is there, the parents, they might be able to do so many things before, but when the child comes, they have to pay so much attention to the child. And even after paying so much attention to the child, children sometimes don't obey, children do have their own minds, and they do so many things which disrupt the parents.
So, in a sense, having children limits the parents. But then, it also fulfils them. As they help, as they see a new life appear and grow, and become a wonderful person, that fulfils them.
Now, many parents, when their children don't obey them, don't listen to them, defy them, they feel exasperated. But how many parents would want to replace their child with an obedient robot? You know, you could get a robot, but where is the love in that? You just get a robot and you could get that robot even to look like you. But there is no reciprocation about that.
So, actually, the limitation in freedom is there when there is love, but there is also the fulfilment of freedom. So, when we let ourselves be just wildly directed by emotions, then that emotion, that love doesn't really stay love. If we do not accept the limitation, then there is no fulfilment.
It's just like if there is a battery, and that battery light is diffused everywhere, then we can't see much clearly. But when the battery light is focused, then we can see something. So, similarly, love has to be limited to be focused.
When we love Krishna, at one level, the love appears to be limited. But at another level, it is not limited. Because Krishna is the well-wisher of everyone.
Krishna is the whole and everyone is a part of Krishna. So, when we love Krishna, actually, by our love for Krishna, gradually we develop love for everyone. And that's how we grow in our devotion.
Now, why are we talking about this? Here we are talking about the principle of, there is exhibition of love and there is expression of love. So, nowadays, as the culture is becoming more and more materialistic, to some extent it is becoming more and more exhibitionistic also. People want to, people often exhibit their sensuality in public.
And they call it love. But quite often, we find that those very people who exhibit their sensuality in public, after some time they also exhibit their animosity in public. One of my friends is a marriage counsellor.
He is actually a marriage counsellor. His experience is that those relationships that are formed with intense emotion, intense affection initially, after a few months, it's almost you can predict with almost 100% frequency, they will go through a phase of intense aversion. So, when there is exhibition of emotion, there is exhibition of one kind of emotion, there will be exhibition of another kind of emotion.
So, the focus of the emotion is not just, when we are trying to practise bhakti, we don't want to express, we want to express the emotion, not exhibit the emotion. So, when we are going on Harnam Sankirtan, that's not an exhibition of it, that's just an expression of our emotion. And you say, why are we doing it in public? Because we know that hearing Krishna's holy name will purify everyone.
And we complete this. So, Krishna's, hearing Krishna's name will purify everyone. Some people may do bhakti in a very exhibitionistic way.
That is a limitation of their devotion. But for most of us, it is, the exhibition part might be there. But the expression of what is there in our heart, or what we desire to be there in our heart, that is what will take us towards Krishna gradually.
And for this to happen, there are many people who are of this school called spiritual but not religious. They say, I don't want any rituals, I don't want any dogmas, I don't want any externals, I just want to be open, I want to be spiritual, I want to experience something. So, the intent of the spiritual but not religious crowd is often good.
They have been put off by the narrow-mindedness of religionists. They have been put off by the fanaticism of some religionists. I was in Texas and I saw, in front of me there is a car which is going and the car bumper, there is a sticker.
It says, Oh God, please save me from your creatures. Normally, God saves through his creatures. But the creatures are holier than thou, are condescending, are hell and brimstone kind of creatures.
I don't want anything to do with these people. So, many times when people see this narrow-mindedness, they want to stay away from religion. So, they have their experience, that's fine.
We can understand that experience, where they are coming from. But spiritual is not just a state of awareness. It is also a level of reality.
Talk about physical, mental and spiritual. So, now to rise to the spiritual level of reality, we have to follow a process. If we don't follow the process, then whatever we call as spiritual, it will be very ephemeral, it will come and go.
And when we understand religion properly, religion is the way to becoming spiritual. So, if we consider, there is a mountain. And the bottom of the mountain is material consciousness.
The top of the mountain is spiritual consciousness. And the path of the mountain is a religion. There can be different religions.
There can be different specific rituals that people may do to raise their consciousness upwards. But if somebody does not do any rituals at all, that doesn't necessarily mean that they are already spiritual. They might just stay materialistic.
When there are certain rituals that are recommended in bhakti, sometimes words themselves acquire negative connotations. So, in today's world, the word ritual itself has a negative connotation. Don't be ritualistic.
So, we could use the word practises. When there are some practises, the purpose of those practises is to raise our consciousness from the material level to the spiritual level. So, if we understand this, the spiritual level is like the healthy, is like the spiritually healthy level.
The material level of consciousness is the spiritually unhealthy level. So, if somebody says, I want to be spiritual but not religious, then they are saying like, I want to be healthy, but I don't want to take any treatment. I don't want to take any treatment.
Yes, it's really good to want to be healthy is good. But if you are sick, you have to take a treatment to become healthy. So, rituals or practises are means by which you can rise from material consciousness to spiritual consciousness.
Let me give you a simple example. So, suppose right now, I lie back, I lean back, I put my hands behind my head, I put my feet on this desk, and while lying that, I say, I am feeling very humble now. That very posture is bossy.
It is almost impossible to feel humble in that posture. So, the physical condition affects our mental disposition. So, when we come in front of the deities and we bow down, some people may do it ritualistically.
But bowing down, offering respects, this actually creates a mood of reverence. It creates the appropriate mood of respect. So, the rituals are means towards the emotions.
The rituals themselves do not indicate the presence of emotion, but the rituals can be two things. They can either express the emotion if it is present, or they can help us to experience the emotion if it is not present. That means, say, if we come to the temple and start doing kirtan, sometimes we already feel so much devotion that we happily do kirtans.
But sometimes we don't feel at all devotional, but if we start doing kirtans, trying to be as prayerful as possible, then gradually that kirtan, singing that will make us feel devotional. So, the practises are, this is material consciousness, this is spiritual consciousness, the practises help us to rise to spiritual consciousness. So, when we come in front of the Deities and bow down, what is the purpose of bowing down before the Deities? At one level, it is to express our subordination, our submission, our humility.
For great devotees, they are so much in love of Krishna. Very advanced saints, when they behold the darshan of Krishna, they just seeing Krishna, they get so much ecstasy that they faint. Yatane Mahaprabhu, when he first saw Jagannath, he came charging in and he is running towards Jagannath, he fainted in ecstasy.
The Acharyas tell us, the great saints faint and fall. If we cannot faint, we at least fall. So, we express our devotion by that action.
So, here the point is that bowing down in front of the Deities, this is the expression of our devotion. And by that expression, we can experience the devotion better. So, we have to be religious to be spiritual.
Spiritual is the top of the mountain. Religious is the path to the top of the mountain. When religion becomes fanatical, at that time people are saying, this is the only path to the top of the mountain.
And all other paths are wrong. Some people spend their whole life going round and round at the bottom of the hill, pulling everybody down from all other paths. But they themselves don't rise up any path at all.
So, yes, there can be some fanatical people who say, this is the only path. That fanaticism is unfortunate. But there has to be a path to go up to the mountain.
Otherwise, how will we get up? So, there has to be expression of devotion. And the practises that we have, they offer us a structure by which we can express the emotion. Even in material life, there are so many rituals.
When we meet people, we shake hands. Now, what is shaking hands? It's a ritual. Isn't it? It's a ritual.
Ritual of greeting. When people have birthdays, they have a cake, they light a candle, they blow the candle. Now, that's a ritual.
And what do you get by blowing the candle, actually? Actually, if you see history, it's not even just a ritual, it's a superstition. There is some ancient Scandinavian myth that whenever a child grows, that every year on the birthday of a child, some evil spirit will possess that child. And therefore, and their idea was that if you light a candle and blow the candle, that evil spirit will go away.
So, now, in today's scientific world view, we don't even believe in evil spirits. But still, we are doing that. It's almost a universal practise.
So, what has happened? It's a ritual. So, rituals are there in every aspect of life. Every walk of life there are rituals.
When we see the national flag, we are expected to salute. When the national anthem is being chanted, we are expected to stand attention. So, these are all rituals.
But these rituals help us to express emotions properly. There can be two problems. One is the rejection of the ritual entirely.
I won't do any ritual. Then the emotion will never come. The other is, one does the ritual, but without even trying to have an emotion.
Then that ritual will not serve any purpose. So, that is, if you consider, these are examples of what the Upadesha Amrit calls Niyamagraha. Niyamagraha means rejecting the rule itself or following the rule without understanding the purpose of the rule.
So, we don't want to exhibit our devotion for the whole world to know. But we do want to express our devotion so that we can better connect with Krishna. Now, how is this related to sentimentalism and sentiments? So, when there is exhibition of devotion, then when people feel these people are just putting on a show for everyone to see, then general people think these people are sentimental.
They don't have any substance in them. So, people in general can get alienated. In India, many times when there is Bhagavad Katha, the Bhagavad Kathakars often, they mix some practical wisdom, some Ayurveda, some yoga, some breathing exercises, all that they mix and they give.
So, once a Bhagavad Kathakar gave a class, and while he was giving the class, he was speaking Sudama Leela, and in between he started speaking about potatoes. Potatoes. And he says, potatoes are so bad for health.
Potatoes should never be eaten. They cause so much vaat in the body. This, this, this.
And after the Bhagavad Katha, there was prasad, and in the prasad there was potatoes. So, there, those who were serving, then the preacher was also taking prasad. So, there the preacher, those who were serving, because they had potatoes, they served everyone.
They didn't have any other sabji. But those who were serving, they didn't serve the preacher, the potato. They said, serve me also.
He said, but just now you said that potatoes are bad for health. He says, that is for the asasana. That is for the speaker's podium.
I want potatoes now. So, if someone makes a big show of things but doesn't practise it, then people will reject that sentimentalism. That is sentimentalism.
On the other hand, even if we also practise bhakti just to show the world, then when we are alone, then we stop practising bhakti. Then also we will not connect with Krishna. So, we want to connect with Krishna.
So, there is expression of devotion which is healthy. Exhibition is unhealthy. And by understanding the purpose of the practises, we will ensure that we can do the practises in a way that we express.
We don't exhibit. Now, sometimes, if a particular practise is not helpful in expressing devotion, then we may decide that I will not do this practise. Actually, Prabhupada came to India after he brought his western disciples.
And he told his disciples, in America at that time the devotees would go on Harinam Kirtan and they would distribute books. And when they did that in Bengal, at that time they found that some people, some Indians, they were throwing coins at the devotees. And the devotees had never such experience.
So, they came back and told Prabhupada. And Prabhupada said that in Bengal, Vaishnavism is seen as a poor man's religion. Or a poor man's excuse for religion.
Many people who are poor, they just go around doing kirtans. And they ask for some, they want some money. They are like beggars who sing.
Sometimes in India, also in Mumbai and other places we see some locals. Nowadays, of course, some people do kirtans, but many people sing Bollywood songs. And they give for free entertainment and they say, give us some money.
So, Prabhupada said that this is, we don't want to be lumped with these people. So, Prabhupada says, stop doing Harinam. So, Harinam Kirtan is an essential part of our Bhakti tradition.
But if at a particular time, a particular practise is not leading to the intended result, then we have to recognise the purpose and make sure that the purpose is being fulfilled. And we may have to adopt a different practise for that. So, we have to be open.
So, we be religious to be spiritual means, we have to follow some practise to raise our consciousness to spiritual level. Now, which practise it may be, it may vary from place to place, from situation to situation. Bhaktisiddhanta Thakur, he was quite a, in many ways a radical person.
Whatever was required to attract people to Krishna, he would do that. And he had his theistic exhibitions. Theistic exhibitions were the huge grounds he would hire.
And he would have on those grounds, beautiful dioramas of Krishna's pastimes, Lord Chaitanya's pastimes and various Bhakti themes. And people would come to see that. But that was, the devotional part was one part of the theistic exhibition.
Along with that, he would invite scientists, educationists, social workers. And they would also come and put up their own stalls in the exhibition. And they would exhibit the latest scientific advances, they would expect, they would give some health awareness about infectious diseases.
Now, many people would say, this is just mundane, why are you doing this? But Bhaktisiddhanta Thakur said that to see that, people will come and they come there, they will see our devotional exhibitions also. If we just say it's spiritual, nobody may come or very few people may come. So then Bhaktisiddhanta Thakur gave the example that if somebody wants to bathe in the Ganga, then they have to go to where the Ganga is flowing and bathe over there.
And say somebody has had a family tradition of generation after generation people go and bathe in the Ganga. And they go to a particular spot and they offer their obeisances and they take a dip in the Ganga over there. But if the path of the Ganga changes, if the path of the Ganga changes, the rivers, if you look at their history, sometimes their paths can change dramatically.
And whole civilisations can sometimes get end if a river suddenly changes. Currently historians say that the Indus valley civilisation that was there, that is an offshoot of the Vedic civilisation that was there 5000 years ago, the Mahabharata, that changed because the Indus river that was there, it suddenly changed its path. So Bhaktisiddhanta Thakur said that if somebody wants to go and take a bath in a river, then they have to go where the river is flowing right now.
Not where the river was flowing when their ancestors were there. If they go there, their ancestors all went there. But if there is no water over there, what is the point of going there? So his point was tradition is important.
But tradition's importance is to help us enhance our devotion. So tradition is like the flow of the river. Devotion is like bathing in the river.
Tradition is like going to a particular spot to bathe in the river. Devotion is like bathing in the river. But if a particular place now there is no water, then we have to go where the water is.
So practises may sometimes need to be adapted according to time, place and circumstance. Say in the past people would go in the forest to hear from the sages. Now there are very few forests only in most part of the world.
There are very few people who want to go to the forest. And even if people want to go to the forest, there are very few sages in the forest. Now in today's world we may sit at our homes and we may hear spiritual wisdom through the internet.
We may see some classes, we may hear some classes. So somebody may say, what is spiritual? You are sitting in front of a computer and watching it. But the Ganga is flowing this way right now.
So where the Ganga is flowing, that's where we have to go. So if we become totally dismissive of the rituals, that is a problem. Because there is no pathway to go to the top.
But if we just get attached to the ritual or the practise and don't understand the purpose, then we just keep doing the practise but it will not take us towards Krishna. So sentimentality can come in both ways. We just become hooked to a particular practise and do it even if it is not serving the purpose.
Or sentimentality can lead to aversion. This is pointless, why do it? Just give it up. So both ways it's a problem.
Sentiment means we understand the purpose and we pursue that purpose through the appropriate practises. And the last part now, from lamenting to learning. When we practise Bhakti, it is very easy actually to get overcome by negative emotions.
Why is that? Because at first glance some people may start thinking that our philosophy is very pessimistic. The philosophy says that actually this world is a place of misery. Yes that is true but what is the point of that? So devotion is beyond material optimism but it is beyond material pessimism also.
There is material consciousness which itself is the problem. And Bhakti involves focussing on Krishna and he is the source of the supreme spiritual optimism. I will explain what I mean by this.
That pessimism means, sometimes people ask, do you see the glass as half empty or as half full? One of my friends was telling me, when somebody asks me this question, the only feeling I get is, is the glass having enough water to throw on the person who is asking it. So the idea is that, yes we should look at the glass as half empty, as half full and not half empty. That is fine.
But still we are looking at that same glass only. Bhakti is not just about looking at the world. It is about looking beyond the world to Krishna.
We look beyond the world to Krishna. And Bhakti is about lifting our vision to a higher reality. Not just looking at the positive in the present reality.
Yes, we do want to look at the positive also. But that is not the focus. The focus is, look beyond the positive and the negative to the spiritual, to the transcendent.
However, if we do not understand this transcendental aspect of Bhakti, then we may misconstrue some of the emotions that are involved in Bhakti. So for example, as I said, people, we hear that this world is a place of misery. Now what does it mean practically? At the start of the Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna is in tears.
He is in great misery. His eyes are overflowing with tears. Now does Krishna tell Arjuna, this world is a place of misery, you are in misery, so stay miserable.
That, that is not at all the purpose of Krishna. Actually Krishna speaks the Bhagavad Gita by which Arjuna becomes encouraged and by the end of the Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna's composure is restored. सितोस्मि गत सन्देह करिषे वच्णम् दव.
सितोस्मि, I have become well situated now. When the Bhagavad Gita says, this world is दुखालय, if you look at the verse also, it's 8.15, it's a very interesting verse. What the verse essentially says is, मामुपेक्य पुनर्जन्म दुखालेम शाश्वतं नाप्नुवन्धि महात्माना संसिद्धिं परमाम्गता.
The verse says that those who devote themselves to me, they will not return to this temporary and distressful world, but will attain my eternal abode. The stress of the verse is not that this world is a place of misery. The stress of this verse is the potency of Bhakti to take us to a higher destination.
So in that sense, this verse is not pessimistic. It's actually optimistic. Misery is a fact of the world, but it is not the purpose of the world.
What is the difference between it's a fact and a purpose? It's like a hospital. In a hospital, pain is just a fact. People are sick and sick people are in pain.
But pain is not the purpose of the hospital. It's not all the medical staff is there with torture instruments to increase pain for the world. No.
Actually in the hospital, there is a whole mechanism to heal the patients. So similarly, when we are told by Krishna this world is a place of distress, the point is this world is like a hospital. Take the Bhakti treatment and get cured.
That is the stress of the Bhagavad Gita. Take the Bhakti treatment and get cured. So if we obsess too much on the negative, oh this is bad, this is bad, this is bad, this is bad, then we do not connect to the positive.
Sometimes when we start practising Bhakti and then initially when we hear about the philosophy, it can be very powerful. And then many devotees get some temporary surges of renunciation. I just want to renounce everything.
I want to give up my job, I want to give up my family. I just want to practise Bhakti. I remember when I was doing college preaching in India about 15-17 years ago, there was one college student, just in the first or second year of his college, he was an engineer in a top engineering college, in IIT he was.
So he came to me and said that, no actually, this whole material knowledge is temporary. Prabhupada said these colleges are a splinter of slaughterhouses. I just want to give up my education and I want to become a Brahmachari.
So I said, right now you can complete your education. You are just new to devotion. Practise, you complete your education.
Generally what we encourage people is that you complete your education, complete your family responsibilities, take care of the marriage of your sisters, arrange some financial security for your parents and then if you feel inspired then you can join. Don't be sentimental about this. And once he came, second time he came, I told him, no wait.
And then the third time he came, he said, I am going to become a Brahmachari, I am going to join the temple. I said, no you should not do this. He said, I want to dedicate my life to Krishna and you are obstructing me in that.
So just as Bali Maharaj rejected Shukracharya, I reject you. So, in the 9th canto of Srimad Bhagavatam, 8th, 9th canto, there is a story, Bali Maharaj wanted to surrender everything to Vishnu and Shukracharya told him, don't do it. So he was drawing from scripture to try to justify his point.
Now, after that, he went and joined the temple and he stayed in the temple as a Brahmachari for about one year and then he said, in this one year, I have done enough bhakti for my whole lifetime. So, not only did he stop bhakti, not only did he give up his renounced order, but he stopped practise of bhakti also. So what happens, sometimes sentiment, if we are sentimental, we might just get too caught up by the negativity, oh this world is temporary, this world is, all this is ignorance, all this is illusion.
Yes, at one level, we could say it is illusion, but there is a process to come out of illusion and we have to follow the process properly. So, by sentimentality, we might just jump towards the renounced order or by sentimentality, we might become averse towards material things. Now, aversion is also a distraction in devotion.
Just as attachment is a distraction in devotion, similarly, aversion is a distraction. Say, if somebody comes to a temple, but in the temple, they are attached to someone, materially attached, say, and they are trying to pursue a relationship with that person or whatever. When they come to the temple, their consciousness is not towards the deity also.
Has this person come? So, attachment can divert them from devotion. But then, if there is aversion, if you are quarrelled with someone, if you are angry with someone, and then we enter into the temple and we are taking darshan of the lord, and we just hear the voice of that person. Immediately, such anger, why is this person here, this person is such a terrible person.
Our mind starts just brushing off on a movie. I will do this, I will do that, how dare this person do this, I want to tell everyone how terrible the person is. So, then also we get carried away, isn't it? So, aversion is also a distraction in devotion.
The Bhagavatam in the 11th canto tells us that, Uddhava Gita, Krishna tells Uddhava that, naati sakto naapi nirvinno. It says that don't be too attached or be too averse. It says be balanced and practise bhakti.
So, if we start thinking that this world is a terrible place, this world is a miserable place, well, okay, but this is the world where we are in right now. And this is the world where we have to serve. So, we can't have too many negative emotions towards the world because ultimately, bhakti is performed in this world.
When Srila Prabhupada came from India to America, if he wanted to have a negative attitude, he would have said people are so degraded in America. Actually, when many of the hippies who were introduced, who were the first people who were introduced to bhakti, from the Indian perspective, from the traditional Indian Brahminical perspective, the western world itself is considered a degraded place. But the hippies were considered degraded even by western standards.
So, from Prabhupada's perspective, you could say they are degraded square, isn't it? But Prabhupada did not look down upon them. Prabhupada never condescending towards them. Prabhupada saw the spiritual potential of devotion, so that they had an interest in devotion.
And he was affectionate, he was kind, he was loving. And many of the disciples of Prabhupada, they felt more loved by Prabhupada than by anyone else in their lives. So, Prabhupada was not averse.
We can take some statements of Prabhupada and then we become averse. So, we have to have proper understanding. For most of us, we want to attain Krishna's abode.
But for most of us, it is by going through this world that we attain Krishna's world. It is not by rejecting this world. I'll conclude with one point that there is, there are karmis, there are jnanis and there are bhaktas.
So, the karmis glamorise the world. Those who are materialists, oh, this is so enjoyable, that is so enjoyable, we just make this arrangement, we'll enjoy life. So, the materialists glamorise the world.
The jnanis, jnanis are the impersonal spiritualists, the impersonalists. They often demonise the world. This world is full of illusion.
This world is temptation. This world is a dreadful place. It is a treacherous place.
So, the karmis just turn towards the world. The jnanis turn away from the world. Whereas the devotees, they don't glamorise the world, they don't demonise the world.
They utilise the world. We utilise the world in the service of the source of the world. So, for us as sadhakas, whatever situation we are in, we need to be optimistic that, okay, the situation may look very terrible for me, but this is the situation which, by Krishna's arrangement ultimately, I am in this situation.
So, how can I serve Krishna in this situation? Sometimes we find ourselves in a very incompatible situation devotionally. Our job may be very demanding. Sometimes our family members may not be practising bhakti.
Sometimes the spiritual community where we are, you might find that devotees are not that warm or receptive, whatever. You might feel that our situation is not very conducive to devotion. And that can fill us with negativity also.
That, oh, this is so terrible, this is so terrible, this is so terrible. Now, objectively speaking, it may be that some situations are favourable to devotion, some situations are unfavourable to devotion. However, actually our growth in devotion depends not on the situation, it depends on the intention.
If an unfavourable situation can strengthen our intention for serving Krishna, then actually through that we may grow much more than in a favourable situation where we take everything for granted. Say, if we stay far, if we stay far away from the temple, far away from devotees, and that's why we feel I cannot go to the temple, I cannot go, I cannot have so much association. And now that's a geographical limitation.
But then when we come in association, we treasure every moment. We try to take in as much Krishna conscious impulses as possible. And then even when we are not there, we are longing for it, we are cherishing it.
Then actually we can grow in our bhakti by that. On the other hand, somebody who comes regularly to the temple, but that person comes to the temple and simply finds faults with everyone else. Sometimes our japa is like a radar japa.
Radar japa means during chanting, we don't miss anything that anyone is doing. This person is looking at their mobile. This person is sleeping.
This person is pronouncing incorrectly. This person is sightseeing. This person is spacing out.
We don't miss anything except the holy name. So somebody might actually have abundant spiritual stimulus, but they may not be focussing on Krishna. They are focussing on so many other things.
So when the unfavourable devotional situation is there for us, at that time, yes, we can pray to Krishna that please make the situation more favourable so that I can serve more. But we don't make our devotion conditional to that prayer, fulfilment of that prayer. And we don't beat ourselves up also.
Why did this happen? Why did this happen? Now why is my situation like this? No, accept the situation and try to serve within that situation. If we can maintain the intention to serve Krishna, then that itself will take us towards Krishna. Serving towards Krishna is not just by physically going to a temple.
This is by no means to minimise going to the temple. By no means to minimise the practical doing of devotional activities. But sometimes if you are not able to do, we don't have to lament.
And say, okay, how can I serve Krishna in this situation? Learn about that. If we have that mood of learning, then we'll find that there is so much opportunity for us to connect with Krishna in every situation. Thus we can steadily move towards Krishna rather than stay wallowing in negativity.
So we just continue for a few more minutes. And then we'll take questions and answers. So it's okay if there are no more.
We'll do a round of questions and answers after the class. Thank you. So, if we see the history of the Krishna consciousness movement, there are so many times when Prabhupada faced so many obstacles.
And quite often it was through the obstacles that the movement spread. When Prabhupada was in Mumbai, in Juhu, I was just one week ago talking with Giriraj Maharaj. Giriraj Maharaj was writing a whole book on Prabhupada's Juhu project, how the Juhu temple was manifested.
So what happened was, initially the devotees, when they came to India, most of the dedicated followers of Prabhupada were non-Indians, they were western people. So they were, they attracted a lot of fascination. But still people had suspicion, you know, these are foreigners.
And some people were saying that these are CIA agents. And there was a lot of negativity there at that time. And when there was this Mr. N, he gave, he said that he will give money, land for a money, for a temple, at a cheap rate.
But then he found that he was not ready to, he took the money and he was not ready to give the land. And then he tried to threaten the devotees. He tried to, he tried to in many ways intimidate the devotees.
So at one time, he basically sent, he bribed the local municipality and then they sent their people to demolish the temple. It was a temporary structure. They had to demolish it.
And for the devotees it was devastating. They had given their life for serving Krishna and it seemed that everything seemed to be going away. Now, we could have said, this material world is a place of misery and things never work out.
But the devotees were resourceful. The devotees contacted various influential people that they knew. Actually Prabhupada had connected with them very well.
But when Prabhupada was not there, people, they were not able to similarly esteem Prabhupada's disciples. But at this time when they came and they told, this temple has been demolished. Then it was so many influential people in Mumbai and various parts of India, they arose in protest.
How can you demolish a temple like this? And within just a matter of couple of days, the whole tide of public opening turned in support of the devotees. And that which seemed to be a great danger, it actually turned and became a great opportunity. And that support then, that support led to the subsequent development of the project very wonderfully.
So at one level, that bad thing that happened, somebody came to demolish the temple. But through that, much much more good came. So for us, when we are in situations where we find that we are somehow, we are in a difficult situation, maybe it's materially, maybe it's spiritually, whatever it is.
If we see that Krishna has some plan over here, then we won't let negativity choke us internally. Yes, I wanted to do this, this is not working. But just as the Ganga always keeps moving towards the ocean, if not this way, this way.
If not this way, then this way. So a devotee is always, Krishna, I want to serve you. How can I serve you? This is my plan, but this is not working.
How can I serve you now? If we have that service attitude, then we will learn about the breadth of Krishna consciousness. Okay, I can't do this, but I can do this. In 2011, I was in the Juhu temple, and I was doing japa in the morning.
And somebody had spilled some water over there. And I didn't notice I was chanting. I just slipped on it.
And I had polio in my legs since childhood. At that time, I used to wear a calliper, a brace. And when I fell, that leg with the brace got badly twisted.
And I also had osteoporosis in the left leg. So it's almost like the thigh came out of the foot. It was a very bad fracture.
And after that, my doctor told me that, we did a long surgery and everything. The doctor told me that you should not travel anymore. Your body cannot take travel.
After that time, I was travelling only in India. But then, after that, once I was in the hospital, and my main service at that time was travelling and speaking. I was doing some writing, but travelling and speaking was my main service.
So I was somewhat disheartened. And one day, I was giving a class on Skype to some devotees, while in the hospital itself, while I was recovering. In the morning, I was giving a class.
And I was speaking about the six opulences of Lord Chaitanya. And I was speaking it as an audio class. And I became absorbed in the class.
And because the internet was not very good, so there was no video. So I just closed my eyes. And I kept speaking.
And I kept speaking for 15 minutes. And I opened my eyes, and I looked at my phone. I had almost like 30 missed calls.
And I looked at the sky, and I saw there was no connection. So, no connection. So what had happened, as soon as I closed my eyes, somehow the internet went off.
And I had been speaking for 15 minutes, with my eyes closed, but there was nobody hearing. And then, because I had put my phone on silent, the devotees had called me from there, but there was no way they could contact me. I was alone in that room.
And I was so irritated. I wasted 15 minutes of time speaking, with nobody hearing. But then, later that day, when I was journaling, that when I was speaking about Lord Chaitanya, speaking about Krishna, I was absorbed.
Then it struck me, that for speaking about Krishna, I don't need an audience. And it was that realisation, that helped me to start doing online outreach. Now many devotees do YouTube, Facebook Live, YouTube Live, and things like that, but that time, several years ago, I took a Bhakti Shastri course, I started answering questions online.
So, at one level, there was a physical limitation, that I couldn't go out. But through that, I found a whole new avenue for outreach. So sometimes, if we keep lamenting about something which has gone wrong, then we miss out on some other opportunity that Krishna may provide for us.
Of course, by Krishna's mercy, my health has recovered, and I am able to travel also now. And another thing is that, in many ways, travelling abroad, outside India, is much easier than travelling within India. But for all of us, when we are put in situations, where we feel obstructed and restricted, instead of lamenting about it, if we see that Krishna has some plan, how does Krishna want me to serve? Krishna, what can I do for you? We have that attitude that we will find that instead of just getting carried away by negative emotions, by the sentimentality, we will find a new way to connect with Krishna.
And we will become enriched with deeper and sweeter sentiments. So, the Bhagavad Gita talks about devotion that is world transforming. The Bhagavatam talks about devotion that is world transcending.
That means, Arjuna is told to fight a war so that he can establish Dharma in the world. But Shukadeva Goswami, Parikshit Maharaj, just forget the world, focus on Krishna. So, both are valid approaches for practising Bhakti.
But when we are in a particular role, we have to practise Bhakti accordingly. So, when Parikshit Maharaj was a king and when he heard the news that Kali is tormenting people, at that time Parikshit Maharaj did not say, Oh, everything is Krishna's plan. I just focused myself, and checked Kali.
So, when he was in that responsible position, he focused on world transformation. When he renounced the world, he focused on world transcendence. So, for us, we can see sometimes if we are doing a particular service and we are so choked in that service that we can't do anything.
That time, we focus on world transcendence. Just absorb ourselves in Krishna. Raise our consciousness upwards.
And maybe by that, some path will emerge that I am not doing anything practical. Sometimes our mind is so devilish that whatever we do, the mind will make us feel we should be doing something else. If we start taking our spiritual life very seriously, the mind will say, Hey, what about your professional life? What about your family life? Don't neglect that.
You have to be responsible. And we start doing that. Ultimately, all this is temporary.
This is so entangling. This is called bhakti. Can you tell? When I was doing that, you were telling me do this.
Now, when I am doing this, you are telling me do that. What do you want? Mind will say, I just want you to be miserable. I just want you to be miserable.
So, the nature of the mind is whatever situation we are in, the mind will keep us dissatisfied. So, rather than giving in to that dissatisfaction, we find some way to serve Krishna So, the material is the means to the spiritual for us. We utilise the world to serve Krishna.
And for us, when we are practising bhakti, the ultimate sentiment that we want is the sentiment of love for Krishna. And that love for Krishna can come for us if we just connect with him. Now, how far away from us is Krishna? You can say he is in the spiritual world, very far away.
It is Actually, Krishna is just one thought away from us. Just one thought away. If you just think about him, you can experience his presence.
Just think about him, he is there with us. So, no matter how many difficulties come in our life, instead of getting discouraged by those difficulties, we focus on Krishna. And then Krishna will show us the path ahead.
Krishna will guide us forwards. When we are given too much sentiments, we cannot give in to one emotion and then not give in to the other emotion. So, if in general we are giving in to a lot of emotions, then negative emotions also will get carried away by them also.
If somebody says somebody is mad for cricket and they jump in joy when India wins a cricket match and say India loses a cricket match, then we say I am detached from cricket. It won't work like that. So, if we get too excited by material positive emotions, then we will get too dejected by material negative emotions.
So, the way to avoid both is to become conscious of Krishna. And Krishna is just one thought away from us. If you become conscious of him, he will give us the steadiness, he will give us the clarity and we can move forwards in our life.
So, when we face problems which tend to fill us with negative emotions, we will feel that actually Krishna is bigger than the biggest problem. So, as it is said, don't tell, don't tell God how big your problems are. Tell your problems how big God is.
Tell your problems how big God is. So, focus on Krishna and you will find that Krishna will show us a way through all of life's negativity towards Him who is the source of the ultimate positivity. So, I will summarise.
I spoke about moving from sentimentalism to sentiments. The last two parts, we talked about the acronym FEEL. So, the second E was what? From Exhibition, Expression.
So, Exhibition means we just want to show the world how great a devotee I am. Expression means we want to connect with Krishna by the practise of our bhakti. So, any loving relationship, emotion is not just kept in the heart, it is expressed.
So, we do need to express our emotions to Krishna. When we exhibit, then we start becoming alienated from Krishna because our vision shifts to the world. So, we talked about rituals.
The word has a negative connotation. But rituals are basically practises that help us to raise our consciousness from the material level to the spiritual level. So, spiritual but not religious, those people are right in the sense that we shouldn't become narrow minded or dogmatic.
If that's what religion means, that's fine. But spiritual but not religious means that we will not practise anything at all. Then it's like saying that I want to be healthy but I don't want to take any treatment.
If you want to go up the mountain, we have to find a path and take the path up the mountain. So, I talked about how our physical postures affect our emotions. And there are rituals in every act of life, in every feature of life, every aspect of life.
Rituals give us a structure by which we can express emotions and we can experience emotions. So, by expressing emotions properly, we can move forward towards Krishna. And then I talked about two extremes with respect to rituals.
Just reject them by being sceptical and cynical about them or just adopt them without thinking of their purpose. That's Niyamagraha. So, if you understand the purpose, then you can fulfil the purpose by whatever practise helps.
Bhaktivinoda Saravakar said that we have to go and bathe where the Ganga is flowing right now, not where it was flowing in the past. And the last was L. L was for what? Lamenting to learning. So, if we get too caught up in our emotions, then sometimes our emotions can flood us with negativity.
And if we misconstrue the philosophy, then the philosophy that the philosophical point is that the world is a place of distress may aggravate our pessimism and distress. The distress is a fact of life, but it is not the fact of the world, but not the purpose of the world. It's like a hospital.
So, the Gita's focus is not on this world as a distressful place, but that by devoting ourselves to Krishna, we can go beyond the distressful place. The karmis glamorise the world. The jnanis demonise the world.
Bhaktas utilise the world. So, just as attachment can divert us from Krishna, aversion can also divert us. So, if we start feeling too negative about people, world, and our worldly relationships, worldly positions, then we have to avoid that aversion.
And how we avoid that aversion? By understanding that devotion is not just about action, it's also about intention. Sometimes our situations are obstructing us in our devotion. And in that situation, we may be able to intensify our desire, and that will lead to spiritual advancement.
So, the difficult situations can open new avenues for us to serve Krishna. The difficulties in the establishment of the Juhu temple, help Prabhupada and his followers to turn the tide of public opinion in favour of them. For me, the restriction of physical travel helped me to discover about digital outreach more and more.
So, for all of us, rather than lamenting about the limitations that we are in, we focus on connecting with Krishna, through whatever situation we are in. And we find that Krishna is always there to guide us. He is just one thought away from us.
So, rather than lamenting about the obstacles, rather than telling Krishna about how big our problems are, we focus on telling our problems how big Krishna is. Thank you very much. Hare Krishna.
Thank you. Prabhu, about this point of exhibition or expression, could it be that, like you said, at home sometimes, we may not even practise, but then we exhibit or show? But isn't it also that, like, if others are expecting us, just like in our society, we have a protocol, you know, how to behave in the temple, our practises. So, even though we may not have the full expression, we are exhibiting it because, like say, like Aditya Narayan has trained many people, they want to show him that they are following his instructions and his teachings.
You know, even if they don't have that full expression, all of us. So, you know how it raises us up, that we want to show that, yeah, I am following the standards and the way that devotees act. Thank you.
I was supposed to express that point. I forgot about that. Thank you for the question.
So, the question is that sometimes, by exhibiting, by doing a particular activity, we show others that we are following the standards, that can also inspire us to, or at least keeps us at the standards, keeps us at the standards and helps us to grow. Yes, there is, I would say there are many different ways in which the internal and external can be correlated. The best is when the external is an expression of the internal.
We have devotion for Krishna and we perform bhakti enthusiastically. That is the best. If that is not the case, then the external can be an expression of our desire for the internal.
I don't feel devotional, but I want to feel devotional. So, as I said, if we start doing kirtan, we start feeling devotional gradually. So, we do the external to, with a desire to develop the internal.
The third is, we do the external to pretend to the world that we have the internal and get whatever prestige that comes from that. In a pious society, if somebody acts as devoted, then they can get a lot of prestige in that society. So, we consider the external as expression, external as intention, and external as simply a show.
For most of us, we will be usually around the second level. And if we are in the association of devotees, where we practise bhakti not just to exhibit to others that I am practising bhakti, but also with the desire to have that devotional feeling. But then the association gives us a stimulus.
So, I won't use the word exhibition because the word exhibition has a negative connotation over there. It is, we are not just practising bhakti to show others. We want to ourselves practise bhakti, but often having an external sense of accountability.
It inspires us to do it more dedicatedly. So, if we know that others are observing me, and that inspires me to do the right thing, then that is good because our mind, when we are alone, we are often alone with our mind. And our mind can wreak havoc with our life.
So, it's like being alone with our worst enemy. So, therefore, being with someone else, if we are doing it just to show others, then that is a problem. But if we also want to do it, but somehow we are not able to resist our mind and keep doing it.
And having somebody else external to help us, external to whom we are accountable, or whom we want to set an example to. Sometimes the people around us may be our juniors also, but we want to set an example to them. Then that can also help us.
So, with the intention to develop the internal, if we do the external and we get some external support for that, that is actually very vital for seekers who are growing. It's said that when somebody is addicted to something, I was giving a talk to a group of people who are recovering from addiction in New Jersey sometime ago. It's said that in addiction, the opposite of addiction is not sobriety.
The opposite of addiction is connection. It is most time people become addicted, not just because the desire is so strong. The desire may be strong, but it is rather there is no one for them to connect with in their lives.
Connect in a non-judgemental way. So, if they can find somebody to connect with, then actually a lot of people can overcome their negativities. Portugal is the country in the world which has had the most dramatic success in helping people overcome drug addiction.
And what they did was they just legalised all drugs. And all the money that they were using to try to catch and penalise drug users, they started using it to educate and rehabilitate the drug users. So, they started telling about what are the harmful effects of drugs.
And they also started creating support systems. They said that if generally somebody is a drug user, people don't want to employ such a person for a job also. Because you might just go high, you might get others addicted.
So, the government said that if this person is a recovering drug user, if you employ him, we will pay half the salary. You pay only half the salary. So, they created proactive measures to integrate the addicts into society.
And by that they have had tremendous success. So, now this is just one example of the point that we need connection, we need association. So, the association is not just so that we make a show of things, but association helps us to become better accountable to ourselves.
And external accountability helps us develop a sense of internal accountability also. So, in that sense, it's positive. Does that answer your question? So, what made the public opinion change? Actually, Shrila Prabhupada himself was widely respected as a saintly person.
And his disciples were also seen as very extraordinary, very extraordinary in the sense that they were western people who had become dedicated to Prabhupada's mission. But at that time, the Cold War was going on. And India was aligned, although India was part of the non-alignment movement, but still practically India was aligned with the USSR.
And USA supported Pakistan quite a bit at that time. So, Indians had a lot of suspicion about America and Americans in general. But when the devotees actually came out and they said, they explained how we are trying to build a temple.
So, the whole cause of building a temple came into the public eye. And then articles were written about how these devotees had left so much material prosperity and they had come to dedicate their lives. And then not only that, when Prabhupada had gone to many, many influential people's houses and he had taken prasad, they had become life members.
But this was not known generally to the public. But when this temple was attempted to be demolished, at that time many of these influential people in India, they came out publicly in support of Prabhupada. Publicly in support of the Krishna Consciousness Movement.
And these were the opinion leaders in society at that time. And their public statements as well as the wider knowledge of the devotees' sacrifice and dedication, all that helped to change the tide of the public opinion. Did the devotees do anything specific? Did the devotees do anything specific? Yeah, I would say that they generally, devotees were just doing their own services in terms of they were making people life members, doing Harinam and building the temple.
But at the time when they tried to go broader to the media and specifically made a concerted effort to reach out to the media, to the newspapers, at that time they were not TV so much, but newspapers primarily. And through that, that broader outreach. There are different layers of outreach, levels of outreach.
Some outreach is meant to make people devotees. Some outreach can be just to create well-wishers. So in our movement, traditionally we have focused primarily on making devotees.
That's important. When Prabhupada started the Bhaktivedanta Institute, which was his wing for scientific outreach, he said the purpose of B.I. is to increase the prestige of his school. Now prestige is not in an egoistic sense.
It is just that there is a scientific basis to what we are practising. So Prabhupada did not really expect people who are committed to science to become devotees. They became, that's wonderful.
But that's not the immediate expectation. So if we do that broader outreach, when we create positive awareness of what we are doing, that also helps us in the long run to do the direct outreach also. So the devotees did that in a big way at that time.
Thank you very much. Shrila Prabhupada ki… Gaura Bhakta Vrinda ki… Mithai Gaur Premanandey…