How should we pray in front of the Deities?

Transcript

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how should we pray when we see the deities Prabhupada gave a very amazing definition of Krishna Varshis of course he gave different definitions at different times in one lecture he says how do you know that you are Krishna Varshis he said when you go in front of Krishna in the temple and if you feel that Krishna is saying to you Krishna is asking you what are you doing for me if you feel that Krishna is asking you what are you doing for me then you are Krishna Varshis so Prabhupada gave a very practical action calling conception he is not saying always think of Krishna that is Krishna Varshis that is there but Prabhupada’s explanation was always very down to earth we have a relationship with Krishna and love means we want to do something for Krishna we want to do something for him so in general when we go in front of Krishna there are various things we can pray of course there are some scriptures we can memorize and recite like we have Govindamadhi Koshyam which is recited usually along with that we can memorize some verses but it is good to have something some element in our prayer which is directly related with our life that means if we are rendering service to Krishna then already our emotion, our consciousness our thought is invested in that and then when we connect that with Krishna it becomes much easier to put our heart into that prayer so we want to not just pray to Krishna but we want to put our heart into that prayer so that means firstly as I said if we are serving Krishna in some way we can offer prayers to Krishna about that this is what I was able to do now if I am going to give a class when I go into the details please give me the details so that I can speak properly whatever service we are going to do we can pray connected with that and if we put good thought in our service then usually the more specific a thing the stronger is the emotion that we generate that means now if we just see a outline sketch of someone okay that is some person but if we see more and more specific details then we say this is my old friend then some emotions are awake in general the more specific a thing is the stronger are the emotions associated with it similarly when we are offering prayers also the more specific a prayer is the more intense the stronger it will be Krishna let me always remember you that is a good prayer but then if there are certain situations when we struggle to remember Krishna when we feel tempted then if we pray regarding that temptation that specific situation then the emotion in that prayer will be more we will actually feel the urgency for the need of Krishna and that bhava which comes in Krishna says that as all people surrender to me Krishna says I reciprocate the more intensity of the emotion that is there the more will be Krishna’s reciprocation now sometimes some devotees are afraid to pray to Krishna because if I pray to Krishna Krishna doesn’t respond to my prayer then my faith in him will get disturbed so better let me pray this is one obstacle in prayer another obstacle can be that we may think that oh I am I am meant to pray I am meant to become a pure devotee so I should not pray to Krishna for material things and both these conceptions can actually impede our prayer life I will talk about both of them briefly first is that or let me take the second first that should we not pray to Krishna about our material life no yes we want to become pure devotees but we can’t become pure devotees without becoming devotees and being a devotee means having a relationship with Krishna so having a relationship with someone means that if something is burdening our heart we share that heart’s burden with someone whom we have a close relationship so even if something is in our material life which is burdening us we can always share that with Krishna offer Krishna this is what is worrying me very much my job, my career, my family my son, my daughter my spouse, whatever it may be we can certainly offer that prayer to Krishna and then Krishna whatever is your will give me the strength to act accordingly Prabhupada was asked one time what is the best prayer that you can offer Prabhupada said he gave different answers at different times one time he said that you should pray to Krishna give me always the strength to serve you give me always the strength to serve you so now talking about our specific situation can as I said bring more intensity into our prayer and can also unburden us because we are entrusting that problem to Krishna and Krishna’s hand is supremely competent hands that itself will give us a sense of relief of being unburdened now yes is this not pure devotion service not necessarily you know in the commentaries the Acharya has analysed that when Draupadi is being disrobed at that time she prays to Krishna for help now is this or when say Durvasa Muni comes and asks for so much food which they can’t provide, at that time she prays to Krishna so is this she is in danger, she is praying to Krishna at that time is this a material prayer or a spiritual prayer so he said that that was not the basis of her relationship with Krishna she was constantly devoted to Krishna and naturally when there is danger a devotee will turn towards Krishna so when we say that there is contaminated or devotional service or there is mixed devotional service that means that actually the devotional service is largely dependent on the times when we are in trouble Krishna I am in trouble help me help me Krishna my trouble is resolved thank you bye bye so if that is what is happening that is not a very high standard of bhakti but if we are practicing sadhana bhakti steadily within that even in our material life some problems come up and they start troubling us the whole purpose of bhakti is to get Krishna into our heart now if an anxiety has filled our heart and we decide I will not talk about this anxiety to Krishna I will not pray about this anxiety to Krishna then the anxiety is already in the heart then how will Krishna enter the heart at all whatever prayers we offer they will be very mechanical and superficial in general when we offer what is in our heart to Krishna then we give that part of our heart to Krishna just like if we have a very serious problem we just talk about that problem with someone and that person hears us that itself creates a bond between us and that person so like that whenever whatever is in our heart we offer it to Krishna then by that we give a place to Krishna in our heart just like it is said that we should give charity to Krishna what is the purpose of giving charity we want to offer our heart to Krishna but right now our heart is attached to too many things so when we can’t offer our heart to Krishna we offer what is in our heart to Krishna and one thing that is in our heart is money so when we offer money to Krishna what happens by that that part of our heart we give Krishna a place in our heart so similarly it’s not that we have to divorce our material life from the practice of bhakti we shouldn’t make our bhakti dependent only on on the peaceful and happy arrangement of our material life yes we want to practice bhakti irrespective of what is going on in our material life but if they are upset now surely we can pray that is the first point second point is sometimes devotees pray to Krishna but they are afraid if Krishna doesn’t fulfil my prayer then my faith will get disturbed so better not pray only but Rupa Goswami explains Vandanam prayer in a significantly different way from what is the normal understanding of prayer or not just normal if you see the Bhagavatam itself often prayer is thought of as we praise God and then we ask something from Him that is fine that is one way of praying but if you see the Govindam Adi Purusham prayers the whole Brahma Samhita prayers which are there Brahmaji is not asking for anything it is simply glorification and among the nine limbs of bhakti that that Rupa Goswami talks about he talks about bhakti about Vandanam about prayer as one of the limbs of bhakti now if we see Shravanam Kirtanam Smaranam Vandanam like this now after we do Shravanam do we expect any result after we do Kirtanam after we do Smaranam we don’t expect any result so the Bhagavatam tells us that we should do Shravanam Kirtanam Smaranam for developing our relationship with Krishna similarly we pray Vandanam for developing our relationship with Krishna so it is irrespective of whether whatever we pray for is God or not irrespective of that just by praying our relationship with Krishna will develop and that is actually a far more enduring result than the solution of the specific problem that we might be having that problem may be also solved by Krishna’s medicine but the important thing is if we understand that praying we should not the activity of praying need not be left on whether a particular prayer is fulfilled or not prayer is a way we connect with Krishna and that connection is not meant for giving something in return even if we don’t get something still we are getting the connection Shravanam Smaranam Vandanam connect us with Krishna similarly Vandanam also connects us with Krishna and when we see prayer in that way that prayer is something for connecting with Krishna a whole inner universe will open for us a whole inner universe where we can actually be it’s advanced stage but still it’s not impossibly advanced stage that we can actually have a inter our mind is always passing comments about things as soon as we see someone going along this person’s dress is old or this person is like this this person like that our mind keeps passing comments continuously so once we develop that habit of praying to Krishna whatever the mind starts thinking negatively about we can convert that into a prayer we hear some verses in scripture then we can convert that into a prayer Krishna help me get realization of this verse so actually speaking if we just remove prayer from its presumed purpose purpose of getting the result now when we think that purpose of prayer is to get a result then we limit the scope of prayer so when we remove that restricted purpose and see prayer as a means of connecting with Krishna then our whole bhaktic our whole conception of bhakti and our whole experience of bhakti can expand so that what to speak of only when we in front of the deities even when we are not in front of the deities we can we pray to Krishna who is always there in our heart with us thank you very much