How devotion is like a good habit – and how it is more than a good habit

[Bhagavatam class at Bhakti Sanga Japa conference, USA]

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Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna. So today we are discussing on the Srimad Bhagavatam Canto 4 We are discussing the Prithu Maharaj pastime Canto 4 and this is text 31. So I will use this text to speak on a theme The text is of how devotion is like a good habit and how it is more than a good habit Canto 4 So the example is given of how the Ganga Just as the Ganga cleanses those who bathe in it similarly bhakti cleanses Those who cleanses the hearts of those who practise bhakti So I’ll focus on the theme here of how does bhakti cleanse our heart So I will speak on this topic of Firstly how devotion is like a good habit then second how devotion is more than a good habit and how thirdly how we can use the Knowledge of how a habit works to practise devotion And how we need to go beyond the understanding of how habit works to practise devotion So, let’s begin the first point is that devotion is like a good habit So basically this is a question that often comes up especially in outreach to new people They say that okay.
You say devotion transforms people But then there are so many other techniques that also transform people Some people practise mindfulness some people practise vipashyana Some people do so many other things and they also feel benefited by that They also feel transformed by that Hare krishna is there a disturbance Can am I audible to everyone? Okay Please mute the phone So devotion So what is the difference between the two? if other things can also sometimes help people to give up bad habits help people to control anger help people to relieve stress And we say devotion can also do all this so devotion. So if can Can somebody say that I’m practising some good habits and they also have the same effect as devotion. So what is the difference? So we are integrated beings presently there’s a body the mind and the soul And the body and mind are largely creatures of habit And when we are practising devotion with our body and mind then naturally The mechanics of how the body and mind works will also work with respect to devotion So basically, how does a habit work? We can say that a habit is formed when there is a particular action which we do And if we do it repeatedly If we do the action repeatedly then that action forms an impression within our mind And that impression comes up as a proposition Proposition do it again and if we Hare krishna Hare krishna Yes Is it better is it better now Yes Now is it better Is it better now Okay, okay, thank you so I was talking about how Devotion works like a habit because we are practising devotion with our body and mind And the body and mind are basically creatures of habit so Any habit how it works is there is Action there is an impression within the mind and then that impression comes as a proposition to do the same thing again So if somebody takes alcohol say let’s consider how a bad habit is formed Then that alcohol They drink once twice thrice each time they drink next time the prompting to drink becomes stronger Because that impression is stored in the mind and that impression comes up as a proposition So here we could conceive the mind like a software programme Where our choices are recorded as preferences like a browser Where we visit a particular site that’s stored and the preferences And then it comes back again as a choice So If somebody say repeatedly visits some site like sports.com And then they come to a spiritual programme and then they want to Watch something spiritual And they want to search for spirituality.com But as soon as they type SP immediately sports.com comes because that’s what has been stored in the preferences So similarly for us Habits are formed by these three things action impression proposition And when this becomes faster and faster so So when a habit is deep-rooted that means the action and the proposition comes so forcefully so swiftly That we don’t even think about resisting it we just do it So now is devotion also like a habit say for example Somebody is addicted to television Or net surfing And then they decide that oh, okay, this is wasting a lot of my time So somebody is facing a lot of time on facebook now facebook Uh Facebook is the refuge of people who refuse to face books Students who don’t want to study just spend a lot of time on facebook say Now if you decide that, okay, they don’t want to spend time on facebook They want to face books they want to study They start making a habit of studying and maybe they give up facebook by that or decrease their infatuation with it So they had in their mind there was an impression of whenever they have some spare time.
Let’s go to facebook But now they formed another habit They maybe do it once twice Um psychologists say that if you do 20 anything repeatedly For 21 days it becomes like a habit Of course the strength of the habit may vary but we just repeat it again and again and again Then that forms an impression And that impression will come up as a proposition so This is how people by repeatedly doing something can form a habit about that thing And in devotion also we do things repeatedly So is it that okay? Every day say we chant the holy names or we study shastra or we do our puja And by that that becomes a habit and that’s That’s what bhakti is bhakti is just another good habit Now, of course some people may say it is not even a good habit some people may say that you’re wasting time So that’s of course materialistic or atheistic people will say that but generally cultured people will recognise that okay It’s good that you do this But is it just a good habit? So so this part was in bhakti the activities that we do resemble the way we might cultivate a good habit Wake up in the morning every day. Okay cultivate a habit and that becomes habitual And we start doing it. So bhakti does have a lot of actions in it, which we do repeatedly and that’s how They become a habit so when this happens When bhakti becomes a habit At that time you might say that this is nothing more than a good habit so It is a habit, but it is more than a habit.
Why? because devotion is An impression from outside that activates an inclination from inside Say somebody in india was a sports was a cricket fan and they come to america and america Everybody is say baseball fans and the student in college gets affected by the environment and becomes a baseball fan So is it simply like that? Okay, we were in the association of materialistic people and we were materialist. We came in the association of devotees and we became devotees So it’s not just like that because if we consider internally The soul the spiritual essence of who we are it has nothing to do either with cricket or with baseball Both are results of impressions Formed by association by the external situation by the external actions That we are doing or are exposed to actions of others and then those impressions lead to propositions And the same person who might have been a passionate cricket fan in india becomes a passionate baseball fan in america So this is uh, this is how one’s habits may change I’m using the word habit in a very generic sense to refer to any behaviour that is repeated and Uh spontaneous for us so Devotion is an impression from outside when we go we go to the temple. That’s it.
We get an impression from outside We chant we’re holding the beads in our hands. It’s an impression from outside but the difference is That the devotion is also an inclination from inside an inclination because Devotion is connected with the soul devotion Is the potential of the soul? The soul has an innate potential to love krishna Now prabhupada quoted the verse that nitya siddha krishna prema sadhya kabuna Shravanadi So now different commentators in the in the tradition have explained this verse differently so when prabhupada uses the word that Love for krishna is dormant in the heart of all living beings And if there is a hearing and an association Translation sometimes Um make things a little fuzzy Because there are many things which are spoken in a particular way in a language And in another language that sense may not come out Now when we use the word dormancy Dormancy like somebody’s asleep and they wake up So that means the full energy to think to act to Analyse that is there but it’s just inactive. That’s the that’s the sense of dormancy now Krishna prema is not dormant in that sense.
So dormancy is full potential full Capacity is there. It’s just not active But then if you see the overall metaphor is of a bhaktilata beej in the bhagavatam bhaktilata beej means that one is actually There’s a creeper of devotion and it Eventually the seed and the seed grows It has to be protected. It has to be nourished and eventually it grows into a tree Which gives the fruits of love of god? So here if we see the seed Is the seed a dormant fruit? Well, you could say that But a more precise way might be that in english if you want to word it that the seed Has the potentiality of the fruit within it and this potentiality has to be developed So devotion is similarly a potential of the soul That every soul has the potential to love krishna And now you cannot say that every soul has the potential to love cricket or baseball or anything like that It has got nothing to do with it So with respect to any worldly thing, it is the outer situation that activates the outer the outer Action the outer impression the perception of the stimulation comes from outside The stimulation creates an impression and that impression prompts an action But devotion goes right to the soul.
So it’s an outer inclination That act as an outer impression that activates an inner inclination Devotion is something which the soul is innately potential as innate potential for and thus Devotion goes beyond the mechanics of how the body and mind works Because devotion activates the soul It triggers that soul’s latent potential for spiritual perception for spiritual realisation And that’s how Devotion is more than a good habit So when we consider the how does devotion purify the heart the verse here says that The devotion devotion purifies the heart And the example is that Ganga Cleanses those who bathe in it So is devotion like an external flow and the external flow cleanses whatever dirt is in our heart Yes, it is like that, but it is more than that It is More than just an external flow cleansing our heart Of the dirt there. It is an external flow that actually Just like water can at one level clean the dirt from Any area but if that In that area the soil is fertile And there are seeds Sown over there then Growth of a particular thing will be there But the soil is not fertile and there are no seeds over there. Nothing will grow over there Even if there is cleaning of the surface If the soil is not fertile Growth may not happen of growth say if you want a mango to grow over there Now if the soil is not conducive of growing mangoes we could say oh there is so much dirt over here mangoes can’t grow over here Well, even if you remove the dirt still mangoes will not grow because the soil is not fertile So basically Devotion is more than a habit because more than a good habit Because any habit will go to the level of the body and the mind But devotion goes to the level of the soul And activates the dominant potential of the soul to turn toward Krishna and So, yes as far as stress relief is concerned as far as the de-addiction is concerned As far as peace of mind is concerned.
Sometimes other habits may also provide that other activities may also provide that The scriptures don’t say that devotion is the sole way to peace of mind Or devotion is the sole way to give up bad habits It is ultimately Peace of mind doesn’t come just by having a peaceful mind peace of mind comes by having faith in Krishna And by turning our heart and soul toward Krishna and yes Purification is one particular bad habit You might give up but still the fundamental bad habit for the soul is that the soul is attached to material things And that is going to cause disaster at the time of death immense distress So we need to consider That devotion works also at a spiritual level. So that was the second point The first point was how devotion is like a habit. There are external impressions which lead to propositions to repeat But how devotion is more than a good habit that is devotion activates the Soul’s potential for loving Krishna.
So it’s an outer impression that activates an inner potential and inner inclination Then the third point will be so how devotion works like a habit Or rather when we are practising devotion There is like the there is the knowledge of habits that we can use And there’s knowledge that is more than a habit also we can use So when we are practising bhakti If we try to develop a see devotion as cultivating a good habit Then we see this Bhagwateeruttama shloke So here the idea is said that So nitya is talking about regularity it is talking about habit Just study serve the bhagavata. It is not even study the bhagavata It is not adhyayan. It is not even pathan.
It is sevaya. Yes, we want to study But we study not in the mood of conquering the bhagavatam with our intelligence But we study in the mood of serving the bhagavatam with our intelligence so it is regular service So by regular service to the bhagavatam we will get purified we will get cleansed and Bhakti will arise So if we repeatedly expose ourselves to devotional impressions by such exposure to devotional impressions We will move closer and closer to krishna till we eventually attain krishna That means we become completely absorbed in him That’s one level so whenever we want to practise bhakti say if we want to Make the habit of studying shastra regularly Let me just decide. Okay.
I’ll read one verse every day Just to make it a habit one verse how much time it might take just five minutes Okay, let me do it for five minutes Of course, we want to do more we can do more but the point here is regularity Whether it is we read daily whether we read weekly for a fixed number of hours Whatever it is if we do it regularly, it will become a habit So when something becomes a habit, we just start doing it We just make time for it So the power of the habit propels us now I have been writing on the bhagavad-gita daily now for about eight years Since 2011 I started So gita daily I have been writing and somehow although I travel I have sometimes a lot of programmes a lot of hectic things But I spend about an hour or so to write every day on the gita That becomes like a class I am giving every day. It’s a writing class Actually written classes are very different from spoken classes in a spoken class The speaker speaks for one hour and the audience hears for one hour in a written class The The speaker or the author writes for one hour and the reader reads in two minutes or three minutes So it’s the amount of effort which is putting for the speaker. The author is much greater and the amount from the Reader is much lesser It is said that what is written without effort is read without pleasure If the author doesn’t put in that effort and the reader doesn’t enjoy it doesn’t even understand it.
It is read without pleasure anyway, the point i’m making here is that I have now this I have been able to do regularly. There are many other books. I want to write Okay, is it better now i’m holding it right in front of my mouth Okay, can you hear me now can you hear me now Okay, thank you So now but there’s some other writing that i’m trying to do there are books I want to write But because there’s no habit of that so whenever I get time I do it sometimes I’m able to do sometimes I’m not able to do so That which has become habitual no matter how busy I am Somehow i’m able to make time for it, but that which is not habitual My other writing that is not happening because the power of habit is not supporting me.
I’m trying to work on it So recently I decided that i’ll write six minutes every day Now why six minutes sometimes the mind may say six minutes is not enough you will not be able to write anything in six minutes So six minutes is not so large that I have to think. Oh, what am I going to write? I don’t have to sprint. You can always have some idea that I can write for six minutes And six minutes is not so small that nothing can be written So I found that if I just write six minutes every day, I’m able to write between 100 to 200 words And it’s of course very rough draft, but some idea is there So that’s the habit I’m trying to cultivate to do my other writing so for all of us The bhakti works as a habit and if we make something as a habit, then they that can be very powerful for us So whether it is say we make a habit of going for a weekly programme Then on some weeks when we don’t have a programme we feel like something is missing in our life It’s become a habit And it’s good that it’s a habit So bhakti works like a habit and if we don’t feel like doing it prabhupada will also say Even if you don’t feel like doing it just do it So because devotion is an emotion we often think that I should feel like doing it But sadhana bhakti means we don’t feel our way to actions.
We act our way to feelings Feel our way to actions means I feel like doing this. So I’ll do it But act our way to feelings means I’ll do this and the feeling will follow So that is where we are actually tapping the dynamic power of Habits when Just when prabhupada says even if you don’t feel like dancing in kirtan Just raise your hands just sing just dance and gradually the feeling will come So he’s talking about tapping the power of habit over there. Just act your way to feelings Now apart from that There is also a transcend so when we are practising bhakti if we just do the things mechanically also Gradually purification will result but I quoted this was nashtra praya issue.
Now the word there is any kind of praya issue It’s praya means Almost all most of it. It’s not all of it So jaya and prabhupada writes in the purport over there that even the mechanical Engagement In The devotional activities of hearing and chanting will purify us just repeatedly if we Hear about krishna if we chant about krishna that will bring us To us to at least a significant level of goodness and towards a favourable inclination toward devotion We see some pious people. They love to recite me bhagavad-gita verses vishnu sahasranam And that is just like a habit they do it then the rest of their life.
They may not be very devoted But that’s a habit and they keep doing it and that key that gives them some pleasure Because they are now reaping the fruit of a good habit So for all of us we can tap the power of my habit by just making it a regular discipline But I’ll do it no matter whether I feel like it or I don’t feel like it and gradually the feeling will come gradually It will become a habit But bhakti is more than a habit So while we are doing something repeatedly, we also need to know that there is the element of mercy over there Which is extremely important So earlier so i’m talking about this in two different ways I talked about how at the level of we practise in bhakti with the body and the mind bhakti Is like any other habit. It’s mechanical you do action. It forms the impression impression use a proposition And the proposition leads to action that action leads to an impression Impression leads to proposition proposition leads to action Repetition of the action.
That’s how Habits are formed. That’s how bhakti also works at the level of the body and the mind But at the level of soul something more is happening So earlier I talked about The aspect of how the soul has a dormant potential for loving god and that is activated by the practise of bhakti So It’s not just You could say that If we consider the mind like a like a Whiteboard So on the mind something is written and we erase it and we write something else It’s not the mind is not exactly like a whiteboard because you cannot erase whatever is written on it It is there is no eraser for the mind But what can be done is you can overwrite it So it’s like if a wall is covered with graffiti Sometimes people may try to delete the graffiti, but it’s too difficult Then they might just over paint the wall So the impressions that we form in the mind they cannot be Erased they cannot be scratched out, but they can be overwritten So the more we give devotional impressions the more The older impressions go deep into the background in some old houses And sometimes there are multiple layers of paint that have been done So if you try to scratch out one paint you find another layer of paint over there Scratch out that paint you might find these traces not all the paint but traces of that paint So like that we can overwrite whatever material mundane over paint or overwrite whatever mundane impressions have been there with spiritual impressions But bhakti is not just like that at the level of spirituality. There is a soul and there is Krishna so So What does when we are practising bhakti at one level we are doing the mechanical activities for cultivating a good habit But also at another level we are cultivating a personal relationship with Krishna and that personal relationship with Krishna means that we are trying to please him and If he is pleased he can unleash his omnipotence He can he is supremely merciful and if his omnipotence is unleashed Then what happens? Then he can He can do things which within a moment that which that which we can’t do even in a lifetime So basically There are still we certain have we have certain indulgences we have certain things which were done in the past And those past habits past we often call them as conditionings those conditionings keep haunting us even now So when those conditionings haunt us, they are like ghosts coming from the past And they keep pushing us.
They keep pushing us to this to this to this And we want to say no, but we are unable to say no But what Krishna can do is Krishna’s personal intervention Can In one moment just Diffuse the force of the past conditioning The conditioning might be there But its force won’t be there The That means say sometimes it we look at our temptations also sometimes say At We have eaten some meal, but then suddenly We get what is called a snack attack We are attacked by the desire to have a snack Now sometimes the snack attack is mild I say I don’t want to eat it just forget it But sometimes the snack attack is so strong That even if you’re doing some work, we just become restless not get up and search for some food. I have to eat something right now Now sometimes this might be genuine hunger. Sometimes it might be pseudo hunger Now if it is pseudo hunger Then sometimes this attack the snack attack the strength of the snack attack is weak and can be resisted Sometimes the attack of the strength of the snake snack attack is very strong So similarly we can say that for each one of us The past conditionings attack us sometimes it’s strong and sometimes it’s weak So what Krishna can do if his mercy intervenes? Is that the attack of the past conditionings can suddenly become weak the impression won’t get erased But but the proposition coming from the impression may not be very forceful Although considering the maybe how long in the past we may indulge in it That proposition Could have been much more forceful, but by Krishna’s mercy It does not come to us with his full force it just comes like a mild attack that can be resisted and by Krishna’s mercy also, what can happen is that the the positive proposition comes to us with much greater force so the positive proposition means That say we start developing a habit.
We start trying to develop a habit of studying Shastra And suddenly we get a taste for it and Now we might be reading some other books and we might get we might generally be good readers And whichever book we read we develop a taste for that kind of reading especially with good reading But then suddenly we find that we get a such attraction for the Bhagavatam for Bhagavad Gita for Shastra in general that It’s a taste over there as the Bhagavatam said Yad Rasamrta Triptasya So if we get taste for the Bhagavatam Then there’s then if that taste is so overpowering that there is no other taste That allures us after that So Yad Rasamrta Triptasya So by Krishna’s mercy when we are trying to cultivate good habits he can increase the force of the Proposition for that good habit much much more Than what it would be if it was simply by mechanical repetition and thus Bhakti is much bhakti works like a good habit, but it works like much more than a good habit Because it involves Attracting and activating the mercy of Krishna And because this mercy now how important is mercy how important is endeavour Hmm you could say in terms of we taking responsibility We could we can work as if 99% of it is Our endeavour and one percent is mercy It’s like just like when mother Yashoda was trying to tie Krishna She was putting in her own effort So as far as trying to develop bhakti habits We can treat bhakti like a habit and do our best to develop the bhakti habits So in terms of our endeavour We see it like we don’t If we think oh some people say When I feel attraction to Krishna when Krishna gives me that taste then I will chant Well, Krishna is waiting us to pass his test. The test is are we serious? Are we sincere? Are we practising bhakti for our pleasure or his pleasure? So if we are waiting for taste and we say only when I get taste I will chant that means we have already failed Krishna’s test The test is that we practise bhakti selflessly. That means even if I don’t get taste still I’ll practise So if we think like that, oh when I get the taste I will do bhakti.
That’s a little too Yeah, that shows we are not serious about our devotion so in terms of seriousness of devotion means We try to cultivate the bhakti habits as seriously as possible And we don’t demand grace. We don’t demand Krishna’s intervention in terms of sudden revelation of taste or sudden decrease of conditioning But we keep doing according to our capacity But in terms of the results, we know that Krishna can act magically and transform things And that’s why I met so many people across the world who said that when they started practising bhakti Just yesterday I met someone he said that he had been trying to give up smoking for a long time Western person and he said his health was being threatened because of his smoking And he was trying for 15 years. He couldn’t give it up and when started practising bhakti in just 15 days He just gave it up and never got the desire So we all have probably experienced some conditioning which has fell away So effortlessly by the practise of bhakti And there are some conditioning which are not falling away which are making us fall away Again and again at least fall down if not fall away Fall down means we can’t follow the standards.
Fall away means we just give up trying to follow the standards. We give up bhakti itself So we may fall down Because of our past conditionings, but we don’t have to fall away because of them We fall away when we give up the attempt to try to cultivate good habits. We fall down when occasionally our bad habits overcome us But the point i’m making here is that we all have experienced how bhakti does work much better than any other Strategy we might have used to give a bad habit because krishna’s mercy is involved over there However, krishna’s mercy is causeless causeless means that The cause is too less for the effect It doesn’t mean there is no cause our endeavour is a cause but it is not the complete cause We endeavour but krishna is not obligated to respond to our endeavour And what krishna gives in mercy it is too big As a reciprocation for the thing that we are doing that means of course It’s it’s not it’s that causeless doesn’t mean that there is no cause it means that the cause is not the sole cause of the effect the cause is only a tiny part Prabhupada is the example for this that Suppose somebody is suppose somebody is Say there A man a person is man is feeding some he said he this happened on the morning walk that a person is feeding ducks Prabhupada saw that and there’s one duck was quacking very loudly And as he’s quacking loudly The man was giving more crumbs to that duck So prabhupada said that this is how mercy works if we if we endeavour more if we call out to krishna more krishna will give us more mercy Now the man is not obligated to give the uh to feed a duck more just because it is quacking more So the quacking is not the cause of the food being received But the cause causing the loud quacking more quacking than others is is a part of the cause It’s the in that person’s choice that person’s compassion Person that’s they are giving more so bhakti is like a habit but bhakti is more than a habit The more than a habit part is not in our control That is mercy and that we leave it to krishna But the habit part in our control and we do that to our capacity And if you understand this we do the mechanical part and leave the personal part to krishna We’ll find that bhakti will transform our lives sometimes gradually subtly sometimes dramatically and hugely But consistently we will be on the path of purification and transformation culminating in spontaneous spontaneous wholehearted attraction to krishna So i’ll summarise I spoke on the topic of how bhakti I spoke on the topic of how devotion Is like a habit and is more than a habit So Some people may say that the same positive transformation that come by devotion can come by other methods also So is devotion just like another good habit? Well, we discussed in four parts first is Devotion is like a good habit because we are practising devotion through our body and mind and the body and mind function in particular ways So essentially how a habit is formed is four steps action impression proposition and repetition We do something that creates we visit a particular website That is stored in our browser history And then next time when we type any letters Corresponding that we type SP if you visited sports and we type SP Even if you want to go to spirituality sports comes up So proposition comes up and then the action is repeated by that you might go to sports again So this applies for good things and bad things so in that sense the body and mind are value neutral Whatever we expose to it, it will start getting impressed and repeating it So in this sense devotion and so Bhakti works like a habit in the sense that we try to cultivate good habits.
We try to go in association We try to do our japa. We try to do our puja. We try to do our swadhyay.
We try to cultivate habits for this but bhakti is more than a good habit because it is going to Activate the soul the soul has a dormant soul has a potential to love krishna Just like the ground has the has the fertility soil has the fertility to raise crops so The soul doesn’t have any dormant any latent potential to say love cricket or to love workouts or to love anything else But so devotion is an outer impression that activates an inner inclination So the external activities of devotion they gradually activate the soul And That’s why devotion is much more than a good habit it is it’s not like so If there’s graffiti on a wall, we might we can’t erase it So similarly our mind is like a wall with graffiti. We can’t erase the impressions, but we can over paint it but bhakti is like a over paint that actually suppose some wall is made of some very sophisticated technology that You know when a particular material is applied on it from inside also the wall starts giving out something which cleanses it So it’s like that. It’s outer cleanser and which activates the inner cleanser and That’s how bhakti works much more than a habit And then I talked about how when we are practising bhakti we can keep both things in mind That we try to cultivate the habit of devotion that means instead of Instead of feeling our way to action.
That means today I feel like chanting. So I’ll chant. I don’t feel I won’t we Act our way to feelings That means we do the action and gradually the feeling will come.
So that is the essence of sadhana bhakti We don’t rely on our emotion, but rather we just We cultivate the habit cultivate the action And that’s what We serve the bhagavatam regularly and by that attraction to krishna and Elimination of unorthos will start happening But then bhakti is Bhakti works like a good habit. It works like something more also. Why? Because when we do something good that action gets impressed and a proposition comes And something which you might have done earlier that proposition goes in the background But when krishna’s mercy intervenes He can suddenly decrease the force of the past proposition And that’s why People who struggle to give up a particular habit before they started practising bhakti after practising suddenly give up that habit easily within a few days So and krishna can also reveal taste By which the positive proposition starts coming with much greater force That’s what we call as taste in bhakti Now when in to conclude when we’re practising bhakti we treat bhakti like a habit in the sense that We don’t leave it to just our feelings we do it diligently So while doing it we consider 91% of it is my habit and my doing it 1% is mercy But in terms of the result the transformation that will happen Our endeavour might just be like 1% and krishna’s mercy might be 99% The duck’s quacking is not the cause of the man giving the phone It’s independent but related.
So The bhakti is causeless in the sense that the cause is too less for the result of bhakti But when we understand both of these so some days If you practise bhakti almost mechanically doing it as a habit that will also purify us gradually And some days krishna’s mercy is revealed in our life and we experience dramatic transformation And gradually or rapidly we will keep moving onwards towards krishna If you understand the dynamics of how bhakti works Thank you very much. Hare krishna Are there any questions or comments? Thank you so much for the wonderful class very nice points and instructions I request all the devotees if they have any questions or comments There was at one point in your talk um where I couldn’t hear so well, but it sounded like you were trying to make a distinction between Um potential of Yeah potential and dormancy Yeah, can you can you repeat that yes definitely so what is the difference between potential and dormancy Basically If a person is sleeping we say they are dormant that means Their intelligence their energy their maturity. It’s all there.
It’s just inactive right now That is dormancy. Everything is there. It’s just inactive Whereas potential means say for example a seed of a mango has the potential for a mango fruit Now it’s not that the whole mango is already there the potential for it is there And many external ingredients are required the passage passage of time is required And careful cultivation is required So if we see so you could say Potential and dormancy are somewhat similar, but dormancy simply means like like one switch It’s off it becomes on and full it’s fully there, but potential means it’s systematic cultivation It’s that’s why devotion is conscious continuous cultivation and we see that the mood in the metaphor of The bhakti lata peach the creeper of devotional service.
There is seed which has to be consciously and continuously cultivated till the love of fruit of love of god can be unleashed So that is the difference between dormancy and potentiality so I made that I made that difference because There are some traditional gaudiya devotees Who say that this idea that love for krishna is dormant in the heart. That is not what scripture says It’s not love love of krishna is not dormant love for krishna has to be developed so So the point I was making is that it’s true both are true And prabhupada uses the word dormancy prabhupada uses dormancy in the sense of potentiality in nectar of devotion prabhupada gives the example that That say a child already has the potential to walk but the parents need to train the child and the child learns to walk So prabhupada uses the word dormancy. He uses it in the sense of potentiality Okay Yes, that’s a very beautiful clarification.
So thank you so much Hare krishna Yeah, so you talked about developing that habit and you gave that example like reading just one shloka or one I mean translation, uh, maybe in a day uh Uh, I I know like a few years back I developed that habit like I was so Encouraged to see that gita daily and I was thinking like I will read this one, uh, at least every day I will read that and And for maybe one or two years I I did that and after that I don’t know what happened and there are so many things to read and then Though that habit just went away. So what went wrong there? Okay, so Now if you had some habit of say regularly reading shastra Reading something based on shastra, but then we after doing it for one or two years we lose that habit. So what went wrong? Generally every habit needs to be Nourished and sometimes you might find that a particular habit We that there are broadly three possibilities with respect to a habit that When we are cultivating a habit we do it and it goes on lifelong That’s one way the other way is we we have a particular habit and After some time you start feeling that No, i’m not getting much out of this habit That means that okay i’m putting in some effort.
But what are the returns i’m getting the returns will not be much And that’s why I may feel it’s not worth it The third could be that we we may take the returns for granted That is yeah, this is there I can do it anytime And then we don’t value Value the habit or what the value what the habit is giving us and then we lose the habit so that means we get we do a particular habit and It gives us something valuable and then we value the habit also The second is we do a habit, but it doesn’t give us something valuable and that’s why we stop valuing it As we stop doing it The third is that we do a habit it gives us something of value but we stop valuing it and then we give up the habit So we have to see for ourselves Which category particular thing is in Now as all of us are individuals and all of us are inspired by things according to our individuality So and what inspires us may also change over time So maybe at a particular phase in our life, we are very inspired to study the bhagavad-gita Maybe a few years down the line We might be inspired by Bhagavatam maybe by CC Chaitanya Charita Amrit, but then later on you might feel oh I thought I knew the bhagavad-gita. I don’t know it made me feel inspired that way So we also have to see the bigger picture of where we are And if we have a habit Hmm It’s good to take periodic stock and see whether we are getting something out of the habit And if you’re getting it then to remind ourselves of that Sometimes in our good habits, they become a part of our culture And that is good but then our culture is So much a part of us That we are not even aware of it Our culture is almost like our blood The only time we notice our blood is when we start losing it When blood starts sipping like dripping out from some wound falling out on hey what happened So like that our culture We start noticing it only when we start losing it So just like say many Indians when they come to america and they may just they may not be very religious or spiritual or anything like that, but After they get married settle down then they they start becoming more concerned Oh, our children are not getting our culture. We need to pass it on So when they see that oh this culture is getting lost not in their own actions But in the probable actions of their children That’s when they notice it So quite often for us even when we have good habits If we don’t remind ourselves of the value of those good habits Then gradually we start losing those habits And then sometimes we get a sudden reminder.
Oh, hey, I was doing this what happened? Why did I give it up? So, you know usually unless there is something Like say in the case of Ajamil a fall happened very suddenly But many of us we have good habits and sometimes the loss of those good habits is not a sudden deprivation But a subtle diminution Slowly slowly slowly it just goes down So it’s very rare that maya acts in a way that She tells us you’re practising krishna bhakti. Just give it up So that’s that can happen sometimes when some very gross And very powerful temptation comes in our life, but usually maya acts more subtly not by No Acts more subtly by simply changing our priorities That means if krishna was number one or number two priority maya says make it three make it four make it five And then krishna becomes our hundredth or ten thousand priority after some time So we have to see what has happened in our particular case and then if we even our habits If we take periodic stock of them and if they are good habits worth cultivating then we We value them. We remind ourselves of their value Then we will not not lose them Without even realising that we are losing them Does it answer your question? Yes.
Yes. Prabhu. Thank you.
Thank you. Very nice explanation Prabhu All right. Thank you Any one last question Is Is Okay So if your mother is She has been following a different path and now she’s in the last stages So sometimes you put the mahamantra sometimes you put some other mantra Uh, what is it? Is that is that the right thing see in in relationships like this Uh, the right thing has to be Has to be determined just by exploration There is no absolute right thing In the sense that It’s not a matter of just philosophical correctness it’s a matter of Personal acceptance and personal effectiveness Every soul has free will And we have to respect their emotions their choices And if There are different ways of looking at this uh If they can if she can hear the harikrishna mahamantra more and more that is best is krishna who is being remembered and is krishna who Who has the potency to purify This is a whole different class about when people worship something else Or someone else or whatever See there are within the practise of bhakti.
There are three aspects What are within the practise of religion you could say not just bhakti, you know It is what we do With what conception we do and How we do it So, you know some people might just do some sai kirtan and they chant and they seem to be in ecstasy I guess chanting the names of something some names which are not even mentioned in scripture as far as the authorised scriptures go So now what is happening over here? actually It is To some extent our minds are very powerful And emotion of our mind can also create a certain experience for us So somebody is worshipping a particular particular Say god man or particular a particular teacher And they consider that teacher to be divine Their emotion also creates their experience apart from whatever the philosophical reality creating that experience Yes So our minds are very powerful and just like if we imagine the food that we want to eat That will also cause our tongue to water and then That food is right in front of us that will also cause our tongue to water So so even when somebody is worshipping someone who is not a not a Not the supreme But if they have the mood of devotion the mind has the power to create that emotion now that emotion For the in terms of their experience it is real But in terms of elevating the consciousness to transcendence Because that emotion is not triggered by a transcendental Stimulus It will not have that effect That is not something which is experienced immediately or that difference is not something which experienced immediately. However That’s why I said, you know what we do with what conception we do All that is also important So if somebody is habituated to chanting or hearing a mantra of a particular teacher Then if that has what has given them peace of mind previously Now then suddenly stopping that might cause a lot of agitation for them And if that is going to happen, then it’s better that we because at that time We don’t want to entirely disrespect their wishes also so We might put the Hare Krishna Maha Mantra, but if they are habituated to something else and they feel Agitated because we are not giving them that and we are imposing our faith on them Then that agitation that resentment Will block them from even receiving the Hare Krishna Maha Mantra gracefully And ultimately Krishna wants us to go back to him. Krishna wants us to if not go to him at least go closer to him But that is when we want to go closer to him It is bhajatam priti purvakam It is with affection It is not bhajatam say grana purvakam It’s if you have that’s not really devotion So we have to respect their wishes And if sometimes there they’re getting some experience of peace by that Then that’s okay as you what you’re doing is fine.
Sometimes Hare Krishna Maha Mantra sometimes some other mantra If they don’t mind it then Having the Hare Krishna Maha Mantra is better But it’s not that the key thing is that We have to respect what they are What their choice is And what it is that they want to experience. We can’t just impose what we are doing in the name of That this is the reality and that is not You have to be sensitive Does it answer your question? Yes, Prabhuji, my mother is 85 years old and she lost her memory. She is an anxiety patient And Prabhuji, she loves to hear L.G. Lal going Prabhuji’s class every day Five to six hours in our language, Gujarati language and from childhood we worship that to Gopal Bhalla Pacharya So she is also singing Hare Krishna Maha Mantra But I think that that’s why I am keeping her Maha Mantra and my Maha Mantra together.
She is happily singing Hare Krishna Maha Mantra Pray for her. She is suffering a lot from last two months Hare Krishna, best wishes and prayers Yes, Prabhuji, your answer is It’s really worth it So shall we stop here? Yes, so thank you very much We can start again. Thank you very much