How to keep our spiritual life fresh

[Talk at the Bhakti Center, New York, USA]

Video:

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna.
Thank you very much for coming today morning. And I’ll speak on the topic of how to maintain our taste in bhakti or how to regain taste if our taste seems to have gone down. How to maintain freshness in our spiritual life.
So I’ll talk about this in four parts. And each part, after each part, we’ll have a brief time for reflections or questions. And then we can move to the next part.
So when we look at, I’ll speak primarily based on 12.9 in the Bhagavad Gita, which Krishna says, He says, if you cannot be spontaneously absorbed in me, then practise sadhana bhakti by which you will gradually gain desire for me. You will gain taste for me. So we are all, we all seek newness, freshness.
It’s just natural human nature, you could say. It’s a tautology, natural nature, but it’s just that our nature can also, something which is unnatural can also seem natural to us over a period of time. For an alcoholic, drinking is unnatural for people, but it can become natural for them.
So we all seek newness. We all seek freshness. And we could, I classify this, how we seek newness and how it sometimes works, it sometimes does not work, how we can make it work.
So I’ll talk about four different things. So one is material, psychophysical, relational and spiritual. This is what I talk about.
Material means we want to have something new. We just want externally new things. People want to go to new places, buy new products, go to new houses and explore new relationships.
And when life becomes stale and boring, we try to do something new and you may get the zest back to life. There was a survey done in the Western world where people who are normally, who are reasonably healthy and wealthy, what was their emotional state? Were they happy, not so happy? And they found that 5% of the time such people who are reasonably healthy and wealthy, 5% of the time of their life they were happy. 5% of the time of their life they were unhappy.
And 90% of the time they were bored. 90% bored. So, in fact, most of the entertainment industry is actually an anti-boredom industry.
People are so bored with their lives that they just want something new. And technology now tries to provide us more and more action-packed entertainment, stimulation-packed entertainment. So, we may get newness by physically going to new places and doing new things.
Or we may try to get newness by trying to have new forms of entertainment. Now this, at the material level, when we seek newness through changing externals, the result of this is that although we get a sense of newness for some time, it doesn’t stay for long. It, the thing which seems very new today, after some time, it just loses its newness.
At the material level, it appears as if, say, it’s like some children, they see a new toy. I want this toy. And they’ll cry and bring the house down till they get that toy.
But after they get that toy, they play it for one or two days, for a few days. And this has become one of the many toys that they have. They don’t even notice it much.
The author who said that, he said that, he’s a mundane author, but he said that the things that occupy people’s mind the most is wealth and sex. And he says, both of them, my experience is, when you don’t have it, you are craving for it. But when you get it, you start thinking about other things.
So, there is something peculiar about material newness. Now, wealth, for example, is needed. It’s just a functional need of life.
But it’s not that just getting new new things will necessarily make us happy. It’s just because that newness does not last. However, we rely a lot on Pratyaksha Brahma, on our senses.
And that’s why we look for new things externally. And in general, the less the structure in our life, the greater the rupture the mind can cause in our life. The less the structure in our life, structure means, say, if somebody has, OK, morning I need to do this, afternoon I need to do this, evening I need to do this.
If there is some structure in our life, then the mind cannot cause so much rupture. Oh, I feel bored, I feel depressed, I just feel like doing this. There was a boy in Thailand, he was surfing the net continuously for 72 hours.
And while surfing the net for 72 hours, many people may do it. But he was doing it, he forgot to eat, he forgot to sleep, he forgot to drink also. After 72 hours, he just fainted, he crashed on his computer.
Fortunately, there was a neighbour, some other boy was there in the neighbourhood. He heard the crash and he came and he took him to the hospital and survived. So, here, the point I’m making is the search for newness.
It might be just, I want to click a new, look at some new site, look at some new video, look at some new movie, just consume hours and hours and hours. So, the less the structure in our life, the greater is the rupture. Rupture means, what we are meant to do, we may not just do anything and we may just do something else entirely.
The sense of the search for material newness actually traps us. There is a social critic who said, what is news? He says, news is the same old things happening to new people. So, yes, somebody was cheated here, an accident happened over here, something happened.
It’s the same old things but happening to new people. So, material newness, no matter how much we get it, it will not satisfy our longing for newness. Now, again, it’s not that material newness is bad.
It is just that, that cannot be the source of the fulfilment for our need for newness. Because we can just keep exploring endlessly and things appear new for a short while, while we have not experienced them. And as soon as we experience them, after that, it’s just over.
So, now, there is another kind of newness. I’ll talk about three levels, as I said. This is at the level of material newness.
Our society today promises us so many new things. But once we get there, after that, they no longer see me. And thus, we stay on an endless quest.
This, this, this, this, this. It just goes on and on and on and on. And we hope that just somewhere around the corner, something new I will find and that will make me happy.
But whatever we think is around the corner, that corner never arrives. Happiness just seems to be one purchase, one relationship, one pay raise away. And that’s how it stays always.
So, it’s not that the way the world is glamorising, we can get happiness that way. One of the biggest illusions or a few things make us as unhappy as the belief that everyone else is happy. But it doesn’t mean that we want everybody else to be unhappy.
It is just that the nature of the world is it’s a place of distress. But when we see movies, when we see TV, we see all these people smiling and laughing and seem to have a good time. And you start thinking, I alone am unhappy.
And that makes us crave more and more. Maybe I get this, maybe I get that, maybe I get that. So, there is the self-help industry, which publishes books on how to become happy.
And it’s been found that the book countries in which the self-help books are sold the most, those countries are rarely among the happiest countries in the world. So, somehow happiness seems to be illusive, whether we try new gadgets or even when we try, we try the new objects or we try new techniques. They seem to work for some time, some little newness comes, but afterwards it goes away.
So, any questions or comments at this point? Yeah. I just wanted to clarify, you said the more structure you have. The less structure we have.
The less structure we have, the more like we are getting bored. Is that right? I didn’t talk about bored. I talked about the less structure we have in our life, the more rupture, rupture means disruption, the more rupture the mind can cause in our life.
That means if somebody says, I just want to surf the net, I want to watch some movies. And that person has nothing to do. They may sit and watch movies for six hours, ten hours, one day, two days, five days.
And that whole schedule may just collapse. So, rupture can be caused if there is no structure in life. Actually, I don’t have a question, but people move to comment to your slides.
So, maybe you can move cushions if you are, I mean, if you have an empty cushion ahead of you. Thank you. Thank you.
Now, so now this is second part we’ll talk about is psychophysical or it’s bhautic, then swabhavik. I use Sanskrit words for this. Swabhavik means what is natural for us according to our body, mind, machine.
I’ll tell a story from the Mahabharata to illustrate this point. In the Mahabharata, the Pandavas, because there is a conspiracy against them to burn them alive, they flee to the forest. And after they flee to the forest, then they get the news from some sages.
And Aasudev also tells them that Draupadi’s swayamvar is going to happen. And then they come there for the swayamvar. And at that time, the swayamvar, swayamvar is a place where the girl is supposed to choose her own bride, her own groom.
So, swayamvar, where is the groom? Swayamvar is her own choice. But often the girl and her parents arrange the test. There is a test which they have to pass.
Whichever the groom is have to pass. They arrange the test in such a way that only the boy whom they want to marry, that boy will pass the test. So, you could say it like a rigged match or a fixed match.
But not rigged in an unethical sense. It’s just that, that’s how they would arrange for it. So, now, they arrange this competition in such a way that only Arjun could hit the target.
Such a difficult target where you look, there is a moving wheel and through the wheel above there was a fish. And you have to look down at the reflection of that and shoot up. And the arrow has to go through the, in between the spokes of the wheel and hit the, not just the fish, but the eye of the fish.
So, it’s extremely difficult. And all the kings and princes who had come there, assembled, they tried and they failed. And at that time Arjun was incognito.
So, he was in the garb of a Brahmin. And then when no Kshatriya could succeed, Arjun asked, are Brahmanas allowed to participate in this? And they were a little surprised. They thought the Brahmanas have come here to take charity from us, not to ask for our daughter.
So, okay. Then Dushyodhana, Draupadi’s brother, asked his father, he said, yes, Brahmanas are always respectable for us. This they can compete.
And then Arjun, right in front of everyone, just picked up the bow. And when he went to the bow, some people started mocking him. So, some of the Kshatriyas started saying, this Brahmana, he has lost his self-control.
Seeing the beauty of Draupadi, he has forgotten his position. They started jeering him. But effortlessly he picked up the bow, shot the arrow and hit the target.
Everybody was stunned. And then when Drupada allowed him to participate, he really didn’t expect that he would be able to hit. But once he hit the target, he got the hand of Draupadi and Draupadi offered her garland to him.
And then they left. Now, Drupada, as a concerned father, was worried. Who are these? So, he wanted to know about them.
So, he sent his son, Hrishyadyumna, to meet them. And he told him, please come to our palace. We would like to offer all of you a feast.
And when they came, he invited them to a big hall. And there was some sitting arrangement where they could sit. On other side, there was a big table.
And Drupada and Hrishyadyumna, they said, you can just relax over here, we will come in a few minutes. And they sat down. And as they sat down, they looked around in the room and they saw this table.
And on this table, there were various objects kept. So, on one side were scriptures, sacred books. Next to that were various weapons.
Next to that were ploughs and other instrument used for farming and cow protection. And then there were various tools which artisans might use. So, the idea was that there are, this is what Brahmanas, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras, they may use, all that was kept over there.
And the Pandavas, they looked around, they got up and they walked all of them in unison straight to the weapons. And then they picked up the weapons and said, this arrow, this bow is like this. This bow is strong.
They pulled the string and said, this string is firm. And they picked up the sword and they looked at the mace. And within moments, they were lost in discussion.
Comparing the strength of the various weapons and comparing them with the previous weapons that they had used. And through a small hole in the wall, Drupada and Dhrishtadyumna were watching and they started smiling. They said, they are not Brahmanas.
They are warriors. They are Kshatriyas. So, basically, all of us, based on our innate nature, are attracted to certain things.
So, what we note automatically or what we notice automatically, we need to note consciously. To understand what is our nature. It’s not just dividing into four categories.
The important thing is to understand what is our natural attraction. So, what we notice automatically. As soon as some people, if they enter into a room, they may come to somebody’s house and look at the house and within moments they will tell.
Okay, if you move this painting like this, you move this sofa here, you put this curtain here, this house will look much better. And somebody has stayed for one year in that house, they turn, don’t think of that. So, some people are just innately gifted.
In, you could call it visual aesthetics or room aesthetics. Some people are naturally good at music. Sometimes some children, they just pick up a kartal and nobody has to tell them, just start playing it.
So, all of us have some natural gifts. I am very interested in language. I am a writer.
So, whenever I enter into any place, even if it be a temple, I become, I look at all the notices over there. And I become a self-appointed proofreader. Looking if there are any typos anywhere, any mistakes.
So, now, it’s just that these are things, there are certain things according to our nature, which naturally automatically interest us. And if we do these, we can do it joyfully. Something which is not of natural interest to us, for us to do that, we can do it, but it requires effort.
Each one of us has a body-mind that is naturally equipped, interested, inclined towards doing certain things. And if we consider the traditional culture of India, even in the past, not very very few people were actually pure devotees. Most people were pious.
We could have three levels. There is spirituality, piety and impiety. So, piety is a life of normal, life of virtue.
It’s not a life of pure devotion, but honesty, morality, life of values and virtues. Bhakti, which is pure spirituality, is complete love for Krishna. And impiety is a life of immorality, licentiousness and selfishness.
So, in the past, broadly speaking, most people lived piously. Not everyone. There were impious people also.
But the point I am making is that even if we consider an idyllic past in India or the Vedic past, Satyuga also, if we talk about it, it is not that everybody was purely devoted to Krishna. But people in general were pious. And at that time, the point of Varanashram, Varanashram is the traditional division of society into four classes.
The point of it was not so much a division of society as compatible engagement. As compatible engagement. Whatever is a person’s strength, whatever is a person’s interest, if they are engaged accordingly, they can be productive materially and they can grow spiritually.
They can get some material satisfaction. They can make some material contribution. And they can move forward.
Doing dharma by which they can grow spiritually. So, this, in general, I’ll conclude with talking about the spiritual taste. But to get spiritual taste takes a long, long time.
It’s not easy. Spiritual taste means directly taste for Krishna. Just hear about Krishna.
Chant about Krishna. Become absorbed in Krishna. That taste takes lifetimes of purification to come.
So, for steady practise of bhakti, if we can find some service which is according to our nature, then we can be fulfilled. We can be stimulated. We can be satisfied in that service.
Because that is something which we naturally like to do. Now, Sri Prabhupada also talks about this at quite a few places. At one level, Prabhupada talks about just surrender to the spiritual master, surrender to Krishna and do what you are told to do.
I’ll talk about that in the next level when I talk about relational taste. But before that, let me complete this. So, there is a, in Prabhupada Nectar, there is a striking pastime where there is a disciple of Prabhupada, Rochin Prabhu.
Rochin Prabhu lives in Alachua and I met him couple of times also. He also told me the same story again, what is there. So, he was in England.
And at that time, England was the European headquarters of the Krishna Consciousness Movement. In London, basically. And devotees from different parts, from Germany, from France, from Netherlands, they had all come there and they were giving their various reports of how the outreach is growing over there.
And Rochin Prabhu was sitting and observing all these devotee leaders coming and giving their reports. And he struck him that everyone has something to do for Sri Prabhupada. But I don’t have anything.
So, then he approached Prabhupada and said, Prabhupada, what can I do for you? And Prabhupada looked at him and said, what do you want to do for Krishna? No, Prabhupada, whatever you tell me, I’ll do that. So, Prabhupada said, no, what do you want to do for Krishna? He is amazed, Prabhupada testing me, am I surrendering up? He says, no, Prabhupada, whatever you tell me, I’ll do it. So, Prabhupada said, understand our philosophy.
So, our philosophy means to find out what we like to do and to do it for Krishna. To find out what we like to do and to do it for Krishna. So, I never thought like that.
So, Prabhupada, I’ve got to think about it. And Prabhupada said, OK. And then a couple of days later he came and said, Prabhupada, since my childhood, I’d like to do craft work, make some things.
So, I thought we have these Mridangas which you get from India and often they break. It’s very difficult to get new ones. So, he said, I was thinking I can find some material here in the west and make Mridangas which are unbreakable.
And Prabhupada said, yes, your western godbrothers are very passionate. So, he said, make Mridangas, make Mridangas such that even if they throw it down, it will not break. And through that he got a whole lifetime of service.
Started making various items, traditional items using locally available materials, traditional devotional items. So, this is, Prabhupada says, find out what you like to do and do it for Krishna. So, this is actually what we can do sustainably.
Because something is what we like to do, then we get taste in that. In general, whenever we do something, there is some satisfaction we get when we attain some success. When we get some recognition, some fame or at least some remuneration.
And these things have their own value. But sometimes they may come, sometimes they may not come. So, if we can understand what our nature is and then have at least one service which is according to that, then our spiritual life will not become stale.
Because other aspects of our spiritual life are such that, say, if we are chanting Hare Krishna, sometimes chanting will feel wonderful, sometimes we feel like, oh, I am getting so much peace, I am feeling so strong by chanting. I just want to keep chanting. Chanting should never end.
But most of the times we feel, chanting never ends. Sometimes we take our beads out of our beedi bhai. Instead of hundred and eight beads, are there thousand and eight beads over here? This is not ending.
So, we do want spiritual taste, but we have to be real in our spiritual life. And being real means acknowledging where we are right now. So, if we can find out something which we like to do and then do it for Krishna, then that can give us a steady pace in our spiritual life.
Now, that brings us to the question, how do we find out what is our nature? How do we find out what is the service that will inspire us? So, for this, it’s important that we don’t go along with the moods of our mind. If we ask our mind, OK, what is the service that I am naturally meant to do? What is the service that is according to my nature? The mind will say, whatever service you are doing right now, that is not your nature. That means the mind will keep us dissatisfied no matter what we are doing.
Even if there is something which we like to do, it will always be joyful. So, we can’t just count on our mind. Our moods will go up and down.
But there is something which draws naturally. For me, writing is like that. I get absorbed in writing quite easily.
But there are times when writing is torture. Yes, I want to write and no idea is coming or whatever I am writing I feel is not good enough. Or I think it is good enough and then somebody else says it’s just trash.
And it’s agony. There is an author who said that, somebody, a friend asked him, writing is a very comfortable career, isn’t it? You sit in an AC room and type in front of a computer all day. So, he said, yes, writing is very easy.
All that you do is sit in front of a computer and glare at the screen till drops of blood form on your forehead. So, even the service that we like to do will have its difficult moments. And if you are simply going by what feels good when I do it, then even the service which we are naturally inclined to do, that will also not feel good sometimes.
So, we can’t just rely on our emotion of the moment. But overall, if you look at our life steadily, whatever service we may be doing, we may have different services in our life and we can look at overall, Krishna says, guna karma vibhavashya. Guna and karma, that is quality and activity.
So, I translate this into English as inner comfort and outer competence. That means that is something which I’m doing, I feel comfortable doing it. And not only do I feel comfortable doing it, but I’m competent in doing it.
So, competence in terms of the external quality of the output and comfort is in terms of how I feel doing it. And overall, that is what we feel on a general basis. Our mind’s mood will be there going up and down.
But overall, we find there are certain services which we find that we don’t need to be pushed to do them. There are some services which we have to be told once, twice, thrice, four times. And then we will drag our feet and do those services.
But there are some services which we just, even without telling, we’ll do them. So, if you find some service like that, it’s a great blessing. And then that can give us steady states in our spiritual life.
So, this was the traditional system of Varanashram where a brahmana, an intellectual, would work in an intellectual field. Vaishya would work in the field of making money, raising money. The material world, as we have talked earlier, it’s a distressful place.
Everybody faces problems. However, if society is divided harmoniously, not in terms of caste division, but in terms of compatible engagement for people, then although everybody has to face problems, people can face the problems which they like to face. What does that mean, like to face? Say, if somebody is of a brahminical nature, intellectual, and we tell them, we ask them, I want to give a class.
And I know somewhere in the Bhagavatam, there is a verse which says that if it’s a matter of life or death, then you can even speak lies to save your life. So, can you find out where the verse is? A brahmana will be stimulated, yeah. Where can it be? Which pastime can this be? You know, in the 8th canto, there is a story where Bali Maharaj has told a speaker falsehood.
So, his guru tells him to do that. Maybe it’s over there. Where is it? Vasudeva also speaks, doesn’t tell Kamsa that my son is actually wandering down.
Maybe it’s there. So, he will stimulate, look here, look there, do some research. And they will feel it’s a sense of challenge.
Many times in self-help, positive thinking books, they say that don’t think of your problems as problems. See your problems as challenges. Now, it’s a good advice, but it can work only when that problem is something which we like to face.
Otherwise, the problem will be a burden. So, a brahmana will feel stimulated. On the other hand, if somebody is a Vaishya, and in that Vaishya, we tell them.
So, the Vaishya, if we tell them that, can you find such a verse from the Bhagavatam? Vaishya will say, there are thousands of verses in the Bhagavatam. Where will I search? Just give the class without quoting the verse. Who is going to notice it? So, towards intellectual work, a Vaishya will have a very functional attitude.
Just get it done. On the other hand, if a Vaishya is told, we want to build a new temple and we need to raise 5 million dollars for that. Now, I have got something to do.
Otherwise, there is nothing in the temple. What do I do? But, if you tell a brahmana, you have to build a new temple and raise 5 million dollars. The brahmana will say, after you build such a big temple, you are only going to discuss Shastra over there.
Just discuss it now. What is the big deal? So, in general, the principle is that the service seems to be too much of a burden, if it is too incompatible with our nature. And we start feeling tasteless if too many of our services are incompatible with our nature.
I will talk about this in the next time. But, broadly speaking, there will be some services, nobody in the world can actually do, in today’s world at least, nobody can do everything according to their nature. Even if somebody is an author, they love to write and even if they become a writer, they love to write, but they have to promote their book now.
They have to go on speaking tour. There are so many other things they may not like to do. So, everybody, nobody will be able to do everything according to their nature.
But, there are some things in our life which give us strength. And there are some things which take strength. So, there are some services which we love to do.
And some services, we think, we give a sigh of relief when it is done. So, now the services which we find difficult to do, if they become too many, and there are too few services that we like to do, then that is when we start feeling drained, we start feeling tasteless. So, we need a healthy balance by which there is at least some service or some services which we have a natural taste for.
And then the other services which we have to do, we can still do them as a duty for our purification. So, finding this out requires introspection. Introspection and consultation.
Introspection means we look at ourselves and say, what are the services which I look forward to make? And consultation. Sometimes we will be good at something, but we might just take it for granted. Yes, it is anodic.
But somebody else may tell you, you are so good at this. You can take this and you can focus on this. So, that is where if we have some guides, if we have some friends, if we have some mentors, then they can tell us, So, through consultation and introspection, we can find out a service that is natural for us.
And that will become a source of steady taste for us in our spiritual life. Any comments or questions about this at this point? Yeah. So, if you are doing something materially, I also write in a quick form.
And I had a lot of feelings about being allowed to do that because I thought it would be so much fun. And I have to admit a lot of it because I have a split in the temple when I am so out in the world. So, so much of my ego is in it.
And when I think about writing, a lot of it is about material success, ego. Can you speak a little bit about, if you are not doing a direct temple service, how you are doing it? Are you doing a seemingly material thing? And is it just asking Krishna? You know, some tools to bring Krishna consciousness into it instead of just material, like money. Yeah.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you.
Yeah, I will listen to that. So, if we are good at a particular field, say in writing or performing, but there it’s all about achievement, ego and money. So, how do we bring Krishna into something which is not being directly done as a temple service, but is more of a career for us? Broadly speaking, if you consider Bhaktanath Thakur, one of his longings, he said that I long for the time when high court judges would be Vaishnavas, would be devotees.
They would be wearing tilak and they would be doing their administrative duties. Now, if you consider, how is this going to happen? If it is going to happen, one way could be that devotees become so influential that devotees form a government. Devotees rule a country and then they appoint devotees as judges.
That may happen, but that doesn’t seem to be a possibility in the near future. Now, we have difficulty enough managing our own movement. What to speak of managing the world or managing a country, isn’t it? It’s quite difficult.
The other could be that devotees become so competent in their particular fields that even secular governments, they recognise the competence of a devotee and the devotional faith of a devotee is a personal matter. They are not going to be concerned about that, positively or negatively, but they see the material competence of a devotee and they appoint a devotee to become a high court judge. Bhaktanath Thakur himself followed that chart.
He was at a time when the British government was ruling India and the Britishers had a very strong bias against Indians. They thought Indians are low class, unintelligent people. Like Rudyard Kipling had a famous poem where he said that it is the white man’s burden to civilise the African, the brown and the black people.
So, they considered him uncivilised. But Bhaktanath Thakur by the sheer competence of his work was able to excel and he rose to a very high position in the judicial hierarchy over there. So, if, I feel there are three broad possibilities, that somebody, for most people, their job and their career is primarily functional.
I just need something to earn a livelihood, have a position and have a, carry on my material life. So, like many students in India study engineering. But very few are really interested in engineering.
That’s just a way to a career for them. So, then, in that situation, somebody may not go very deep into it. You do what is required and grow in a career in a reasonable way, whatever is required.
But for some people, they have a passion for the field. Even when I was studying engineering, I could see that in every class there were, out of a class of 50, there were five students who were into studies and not just into studies so that they would get marks. They really loved the subject.
Now, for such people to be told that this is just material, this is just material and they become devotees. This is material, give it up and practise Bhakti. That is violence to them.
That is where their whole consciousness is invested. And such people, their consciousness will naturally be there and they can absorb themselves in it and they can excel in it. Arjun was like that with archery.
Day and night, he would just be thinking of how to excel in his archery skills. And then he was able to use it for Krishna’s service. But when he was practising his archery, he probably didn’t have an idea that in future there is going to be a dharma yuddha, a war for the sake of dharma in which I will be able to use my archery skills.
He was just good at that. It was a part of his Kshatriya dharma. He was a Kshatriya and he excelled in it.
So, in principle, for us, if we have been gifted in some area, then to pursue that wholeheartedly is not contrary to the principles of Bhakti. If we can see that these talents or these interests are gifts given by Krishna to me. So, if this is a gift given by Krishna to me and with this gift I am meant to make a contribution.
With some services we can make a direct contribution. Say, if somebody knows how to sing, how to speak, they may be able to directly use it in Krishna’s service. Some things may not be so directly usable in Krishna’s service.
But there can come a time in future when that may be usable. Or indirectly also, if a person is a devotee and they are, they do well in their field, in their professional field and people want to know what makes you tick. And then they come to know what a devotee’s faith, the devotee presents it appropriately.
This is what keeps me calm. This is what keeps me focused. This is what gives me a purpose to my life.
And then they can be attracted to Krishna through that. So, we can, the intention can be spiritual if we understand that this interest is a gift. There are three levels.
To have ability is a gift. To know that we have ability is a greater gift. Because many people have some ability but they don’t even know it.
But to know that our ability is a gift is the greatest gift. To know that my ability is not just mine. It is a gift given by Krishna to me.
So, if we have that attitude then this is something which Krishna has given me. Let me use it in Krishna’s service. So, it requires practise, it requires commitment.
And we do it, there is a certain amount of ego which might come in. But if we are, if we, there is exclusive devotion and there is inclusive devotion. Exclusive devotion means we come to a temple, we come to satsang, we do our puja, we do our sadhana.
That is directly connected with Krishna. Inclusive devotion means our job, our career. We see, we do all those also in a devotional mode.
So, if we give adequate time for exclusive devotion then we develop a personal sense of connection with Krishna. We have an attitude of service. And then that service attitude can be carried into the rest of our life.
And we can, if we do not have time for this exclusive devotion, if we are only doing what we like to do and that’s all that we do, then what will happen is the sense that I am the doer will become dominant. And we will forget Krishna. We may start.
If I like to sing and that is all that I do, I don’t associate with devotees, I don’t directly connect with Krishna, then slowly I will forget that this is coming from Krishna and this is meant for Krishna. But if we give due time for exclusive devotion, then we can practise inclusive devotion. And that is where most of our life energy, lifetime will be.
Does that answer your question? Thank you. So, let’s move on to the third part now. So, I talked about what would be a material sense of newness.
Second is, I talked about psychophysical or natural, svabhavaki. So, bhautik svabhavaki. And then third I talked about is relational newness or relational freshness.
Relational freshness doesn’t mean that we have to explore new new new relationships all the time. What it means is that sometimes we just love someone so much, that relationship is so strong that for that person we will do anything. Generally, at the start of any spiritual movement, there is a charismatic founder.
And that charismatic founder attracts people so much that people are ready to lay down everything else for them. At the start of Christianity, there was Jesus. He walked through villages and there was a fisherman.
And he told him, why are you fishing? A fish. He says, follow me and you can transform human beings. You become a fisherman of men.
Get people to order. And he just left everything and came with him. So, that is charisma.
And Srila Prabhupada also had that charisma. Srila Prabhupada could just attract people so much that people who loved him, they were ready to do anything and everything for him. So, this relational attraction, this is called sammandik.
So, this we are talking about newness. Newness may come in a person’s life or a taste may come in a person’s life because they love somebody who is guiding them on the spiritual path. And for that person, they are ready to do anything.
So, I just get the association of that. We will get the association of that person in just a few minutes. That enlivens us.
Devotees, they will meet Prabhupada for just a few minutes and that will power them on for months and years together. So, this kind of relationship is important and if we have a relationship like this, it is a matter of great fortune. Especially in the early years of our spiritual life.
At that time, it’s important also to develop an ethos of submission. Submission means that we want to learn, we want to realise that I am a servant. Ultimately, I am a servant of Krishna and I serve Krishna by serving those who are close to Krishna.
So, initially, if we start, when we just come to bhakti initially, if we start becoming picky, I will do this service, I won’t do this service, this is not according to my nature, this is not according to my nature, this is not according to my nature, then we will not learn that ethos of submission. So, initially, it’s important that whatever service you are told to do, we do that. Our goal is, we want to please the devotees.
Now, it is not that later our goal is not to please the devotees, but it is initially, we don’t understand ourselves also very well. So, we just try to please the devotees, we try to internalise an attitude of service. And as we have internalised the attitude of service, then slowly we come to sattvahana.
We come to the mode of goodness. There is rajas, tamas and sattvahana. In rajas, I characterise my hyperactivity.
Do this, do this, do this. Whatever will give me fame, whatever will give me recognition, whatever will bring applause to me, I want to do that. Now, whether I actually like to do it or not, whether I am equipped to do it or not, doesn’t matter.
This is what I want to do because I want to get appreciation. I want to get. So, that’s the end.
That kind of hyperactivity is what is characteristic of rajas. Then tamas is lethargy. Lethargy, negativity.
If you are too much influenced by the mode of ignorance, we will look at all the abilities that we don’t have. Oh, this person is so good at this. This person is so good at this.
This person is so good at this. I don’t have any ability. I don’t have, I have no ability at all.
And we will go into the zone of self-pity. Sometimes, if two, three people who are into self-pity, they meet each other, then they have a pity party. Oh, nobody values me.
Nobody cares for me. Nobody even recognises me. Life is so bad.
They keep feeling sorry for themselves. This happens often because we are not looking at ourselves. We are looking only at others and we are seeing what we don’t have.
So, in general, the relational, if the Bhagavatam says, prasangam ajaram pasham, atmanah kavayo viduh. So, eve sadhusu kruto moksha-dhvaram abhavratam. That actually, prasangam ajaram pasham, that pasham, the attachment to the material is very difficult to give up.
But if you can direct that attachment towards a devotee, towards a sadhu, then it can open the doors to liberation. So, for us to have that kind of relationship with someone for whom we would be ready to do anything, that is a matter of a great fortune, a great blessing. Now, initially, the relationship may itself give us so much taste.
I just want to be in the presence of this person. So, I just want to talk with him. I was with one devotee who was managing a big temple and that devotee told me that for so many years I was having devotees who would volunteer for services and they would stay for some time and they would often stop volunteering.
So, we were having a very high turnover rate in volunteers. So, I was wondering what is going wrong. So, then this devotee told me that now I have realised that when people volunteer for service, they just want an excuse for talking with you.
Not that it’s a bad thing, but they want to be with someone. Why would somebody volunteer for something? Because they want some association, they want to be with someone. So, if somebody is a volunteer, if we just treat them functionally, do this, do this, do this, do this.
I don’t get any taste in it. I don’t like this so much. But if you understand that it’s a connection, it’s a relationship that needs to be developed.
And then there are, initially, there will be some devotees who inspire us a lot. I can do anything for this person. But over a period of years, as we keep practising Bhakti, what happens is that sometimes that spontaneous affection for a devotee may start getting tempered down.
It may be a spiritual master, it may be some senior Vaishnava. We all grow, we all go through, what we could say, the adolescence in our spiritual life. See, when children are newborn, for them their mother and father are like God.
Everything that they need the mother and father provide. They think the mother and father is perfect. And then as they start coming to their teenage, then they start seeing everything that is wrong with their mother and father.
No, they are like this, they are like this, they are like this, they are like this. And then, I was at the airport, I saw a bookstore. So, I saw a title of a book.
Where did my child go? So, I thought, is it a mystery novel about a child being kidnapped or something? But actually, it was a parenting guidebook. That when the child comes to teenage, my child was such a sweet, nice person. And now, he is sullen, uncommunicative.
Who is this person? Where did my child go? So, like that, we also go through, we may go through in our spiritual life, where we may consider some devotee to be such a great devotee. They are perfect in every way. And then we start seeing, ok, this is a problem.
This is a problem, this is a problem, this is a problem. And then we may find our appreciation for devotees going down. And this is a tough phase for us to navigate.
But if we weather through this, and generally, there is Mark Twain who said that, When I was fifteen, my father was a fool. Now I am twenty-five, and I am amazed how much the old guy has learned in the last ten years. So, generally, when the children also grow up, they start taking responsibility, maybe they start becoming parents, then they start seeing the parent’s perspective.
And then a more informed and refined appreciation comes up. So, like that, we may go through a phase where we may, you see, everybody around is a pure devotee, we think initially. And then as we keep practising bhakti, nobody seems to be a pure devotee.
Everybody has anarthas, everybody has conditionings. We just don’t feel inspired by anyone. But then as we keep practising bhakti, then we come to a level of healthy appreciation.
And that is where Bhaktivinoda Thakur says, we need like-minded association. Not just association, but like-minded association. Like-minded association means that we associate with devotees with whom we share some definition of success.
We share some definition of success. If some devotee’s definition of success is book distribution. How many books have you distributed? If somebody else is into study of shastra, understanding shastric concepts, teaching them, maybe becoming a bhakti shastra teacher, that book distribution devotee, what are you doing? How many books have you distributed? And the devotee is studying bhakti shastra, how many verses have you memorised? And the two may not be able to communicate at all.
So, in general, for us, initially that relational taste will come if we have some very senior devotee for whom we are ready to do anything. Now, if we have that devotee throughout our life, it’s wonderful. But sometimes that may not be there.
So, if our spiritual master may be available for us initially, may not be available afterwards. So, then relational taste would mean the taste, the association of like-minded devotees. So, if we love to study shastra, and then there is some other devotee who loves to study shastra.
And we can spend hours discussing. And that will give us so much taste. Everything else that we are doing in our life, it will fall in place.
Yes. This is what makes it worth it. And that, that kind of association, seeking that, getting that relational taste is also our responsibility.
Sometimes, a common problem which we feel is that no one understands me. No one understands me. The mind is, I am so lonely, nobody cares for me, no one understands me.
Actually, yes, we are a big community, we are a big movement, and there will be like-minded devotees. But it’s our responsibility to find them. And our responsibility to connect with them.
And then when we connect with them, then we will get that relational taste. And that relational taste, as we grow in our spiritual life, we will have our spiritual master and other guides, but they will not be that accessible. It is a lot, we have to start taking responsibility for our own spiritual advancement.
And that, if we have somebody who is like-minded, then that gives us taste. And that helps us to move forward in our spiritual life. So this is relational taste.
Any questions about this? Any comments? Yes, please. Happy to do your service. Probably a question at the end.
Thank you, that was really powerful, because in the beginning, you do get the association of some person that inspires you, but then over time, either your service doesn’t mesh with that person, or that person becomes really busy and has so many more responsibilities, that they can’t spend enough time with you, and they die in the future. So I think what you said really helped me contextualise that. My question was about like-minded devotees, and Vaishesh Kapoor, one of our mentors here at Bhakti Centre, he talks about how growth happens in the zone of discomfort.
So it doesn’t happen that everything is always super comfortable. So how do we make sure that we find not just like-minded devotees who reinforce what we think, but also push us to be better and better devotees? So that it’s not a good thing, or they’re just agreeing with us. They’re really taking us out of our zone of comfort and giving us that spiritual growth.
Is my power cord in your bag, any chance? Sorry, my laptop is about to discharge. No? No, a white power cord? That’s okay. Thank you.
Sorry for troubling you. Yeah, so this is an important question that if we stay in our comfort zone, then how will we advance? We also need an association of someone who pushes us out of our comfort zone. Yeah, so generally the word comfort has a negative connotation to it.
Don’t be in your comfort zone. At the same time, if we use the word compatibility, like Varanashram, they said a Brahmana needs Brahmanical engagement, that’s compatible engagement. So my understanding would be that if there is a comfort zone, there is a stretch zone, and there is a comfort zone, stretch zone and panic zone.
But now we need to come out of our comfort zone. But we need, you could say, a comfortable way to come out of our comfort zone. That means that if there is a basic foundation of stability, yes, so somebody is, you are accepted and valued as you are, but at the same time you can improve.
But if the basic foundation itself is insecure, then that person will be simply like drowning in the ocean, catching on to straws. So we don’t want to be like that. So Satvaguna has a characteristic of steadiness to it.
And that steadiness comes because the person is at peace with themselves. So I put it this way that when we are purely devoted, Shuddha Sattva means we are in harmony with Krishna. Sattva means we are in harmony with ourselves.
And both are required. We want to be in harmony with ourselves and we want to be in harmony with Krishna. So in general, if we have like-minded association, then that also actually pushes us.
If that devotee is also dedicated, that devotee is also committed in doing services, then we associate with them. I have a few devotees who study Shastra and it’s not just study Shastra, but study Shastra in a way that can be presented and talked with them. I feel so inspired.
I should also study this more. I should also think more about these issues more. I should also present it better.
So generally like-minded association will also push us. So now do we need to push ourselves outside of our comfort zone in terms of doing something which is not compatible for us? Well, sometimes it may be required. In general, there is the individual consideration and the institutional consideration.
So from the institution’s perspective, there are certain services which just need to be done. And if devotees become too picky, I don’t feel like doing this, I don’t feel like doing this, then it will be a problem. But at the same time, if devotees are lifelong treated simply from a utilitarian perspective, from a utilitarian perspective is, this is what is needed, you do this, this is what is needed, you do this, then there cannot be longevity.
So from an individual’s perspective, the devotee should be ready to do whatever service is asked to be done. Thank you. It’s a compatible cable.
Excellent, thank you. So from the individual’s perspective for longevity, it’s required that there be some kind of overall compatible engagement. And within compatible engagement also a devotee can stretch oneself.
Somebody likes to sing, they can learn more and more about singing. They can excel in that. Somebody likes to speak, they think of more and more, how can I speak better? Somebody likes to write, somebody likes to manage.
Everything within our particular area of experience. We can, we can excel in that. I just want to ask you, from your personal perspective, what has kept you throughout all these years in harmony with Krishna? Well, what has kept me in harmony with Krishna? I think I am far away from harmony with Krishna right now.
But I can say that. It is, for me writing and speaking is in some ways my nature. And probably if I had not been doing it for Krishna, I would have been doing it as a scientist writing, maybe as a scientist writing research papers and travelling and doing something like that.
So it’s by devotees mercy that I found that I’m doing all this for Krishna. I would say so. It did help me in my initial spiritual life that I had some devotees who encouraged me to stick to my nature.
So we have so many services which we can do. But I found that I like writing and I like speaking and my spiritual guides, they encourage me to stick to that. So I feel that is important.
But we all have our struggles. So it’s not that this challenge is not there. But if there is something which gives us strength, then that will keep us moving forward.
So that if you find a service which we feel inspired to do, which nobody needs to tell us to do that, but we’ll do it, then we can move forward in our spiritual life. So for me, I write on the Gita every day. I have a website called Gita Daily where I’ve been writing for almost seven, eight years.
And I write a small 300 word article. And I started it because in 2011, I was, I had a fracture and I couldn’t travel and preach at that time. So I needed some service.
So I found that there are almost a dozen Christian pastors who write in the Bible every day. There are almost half a dozen mullahs who write in the Quran every day. But nobody was writing on the Gita every day.
So I can talk with various leaders in our movement. But nobody had the time to do that. So then taking their blessings, I started that.
And another thing that inspired me at that time was that there was a very well-known American Christian pastor. And he has over a million subscribers in India. And he told that out of the million, he says only about a thousand or two thousand are Christians.
So it’s been that many Indians, even if they were Hindus or whatever, just want something pious to come to them on a daily basis. And because there’s nothing in the Bhagavad Gita, they were subscribing for this. So since then, I’ve been writing.
And now the Gita Daily Wisdom Facebook page is almost a million, preach a few people. So I feel that is one service. That is one service which I love to do every day.
And that kind of daily writing has kept me moving. That’s one thing. Thank you.
Yes, you can answer that. Can I just add something to the question that you showed last about like-minded association, and touching down on some of the terms. One thing that I’m reflecting on is that I think a key ingredient of like-minded association is that you understand the person to the best of your ability, and the other person understands you.
There’s this idea of feeling understood. And that doesn’t necessarily mean that the other person has to be similar to you in every way. That could be quite different.
You can be inspired by different services. But, you know, and I really like the point about sharing the definition of success. What really matters to you, the other person understands and honours.
And what really matters to them, you understand and honour. And the converse of that, I think, can be incredibly painful to be with people that you may have very superficial similarities with. Maybe they’re of the same institution, or got family, students in the same teacher.
But to feel very misunderstood or not understood is incredibly painful to me. Yeah, it’s very true. There’s nothing as discouraging in our spiritual life as being with people who can’t even understand our success.
Not necessarily in an egoistic sense, but they just don’t appreciate it at all. It can be incredibly painful, incredibly discouraging. When I started writing in India, the leading newspaper is Times of India.
And Times of India was the first paper to start a spiritual column. They called it speaking tree. And when I would read that, even 25, 30 years ago, before I was introduced to bhakti, I used to dream one day I’ll write for this.
And then I started writing as a brahmachari. And then after a few years of writing, I submitted some articles to speaking tree. And once an article got published, so you can make a dream come true for me.
I was so happy. Now, when I came and told other brahmachari friends, oh, my article got published in speaking tree. And one of them, they all looked at me and said, how does a tree speak? So, most of them were not even reading newspapers at all.
They had no understanding. But what is going on over here? But then soon after that, Jaydev Maharaj came there to Pune. And then I was translating his classes into Hindi.
Then I was talking with him after that. I told him, Maharaj, I’m writing and I’ve got some articles published. He says, where? Show it to me.
And I showed it to him and he was so happy, lavishly appreciative. And then I asked him, Maharaj, how can I improve my writing? So he said, he gave me a long list of books. This was maybe 2002, early days.
That time we didn’t have much internet in India. There was no Amazon. So, I said, these are all western authors.
How will I get them? So, then after a few months later, Govind Prabhu called me from Mumbai and he said, I was in America. I met Jaydev Maharaj. And he has sent some books on writing for you.
So, Maharaj went to America. He remembered that I needed his books and he sent. So, I felt so validated by that.
So, as rightly said, we need someone who will appreciate what we are doing. Even if it’s one or two people, even if we meet them occasionally. But otherwise, it’s extremely painful.
It’s extremely discouraging. And it can be totally alienating also. Just, I don’t belong here.
So, we all, just because we have Krishna in common, doesn’t necessarily mean we will immediately feel a sense of commonality. Yes, that is there. But if say we are all alone on a flight and we meet some devotee.
It’s so nice. We can talk something with them. But at the functional level, Krishna is a transcendental commonality.
But we need some other commonality which also works with us at a functional level. Thank you. Yes.
So, I think that’s what we have to recognise first. Even a speaker on the street can be much more traditional than somebody who is without material knowledge. We need that type of, you know, thinking in our modern society.
That, oh, he is intelligent or he knows scriptures or so many shlokas. He might be more advanced. But if he is just doing for the self-pleasure, for the delusion, he might be not as dear to Krishna as that speaker on the street.
He is very emotional. That is true. He might not have that, you know, you know, qualifications, you know, to be recognised by him.
Yeah, that is true. Actually, just as in material society, certain careers may be glamorised. Say, in India, engineering and medicine are glamorised.
Everybody wants to go in, whether they are interested in it, they are competent, not at all. They are just pushed into it. So, like that in bhakti also, certain services get glamorised.
And everybody feels, I have to do this service. So, maybe in the early years of our movement, it was Buddhist distribution. Now, it may be preaching in terms of speaking or it might be in terms of kirtans.
Kirtanis are also quite glamorised. So, there are certain services that are glamorised. Buddhists are of course still now also glamorised.
But we may rush towards doing that service because that is what we think is a successful devotee or that is what we think is an ideal devotee. But one of the things which, especially, I have almost 20 years in India. I didn’t travel outside India and now I have been travelling across for several years.
So, one of the things I understood is that Krishna consciousness is far bigger than our conceptions of Krishna consciousness. So, there are thousands and thousands of ways in which somebody can be deeply Krishna conscious and I may have no inkling of that at all. So, generally if we go by external stereotypes, this is what a devotee, this is how I feel.
So, then we actually may leave ourselves behind in the sense that we may start doing something which is alien to our nature. But if we understand that ultimately I have to offer myself to Krishna. I cannot offer someone else to Krishna.
It is I, it is my heart, it is my body, it is my mind. This is the resource which I have to offer to Krishna. So, how best can I do that? And if we accept ourselves, then we can actually offer ourselves.
If we are resenting ourselves, thinking I should be like this, I should be like that, I should be like that, then it becomes very difficult for us to do what we are meant to do. Now, some of us, Krishna may want us to have a very visible, much praised and recognised service for him. Some of us, Krishna may want us to do a smaller service.
We have a story in the Ramayana of how Hanuman was there and a squirrel was there. From Hanuman’s perspective, both of them were equally valued. Although, from a practical perspective, Hanuman was contributing much more.
But from the personal, relational perspective, Lord Rama was appreciating both. So, we need to learn to accept ourselves. If Krishna had wanted us to be someone else, he would have made someone else.
Isn’t it? So, Krishna has made me me and Krishna has made me you. So, we don’t have to become someone else to become a devotee. We have to become the best that we can be and be a devotee.
Thank you. So, the last is, of course, spiritual or devotional taste, adhyatmik. So, I talked about the material, the psychophysical or natural, then I talked about relational and lastly spiritual.
Spiritual taste is what primarily is talked about in our bhakti scriptures. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu wanted to hear Prahlad Maharaj’s pastimes hundreds of times, Dhruv Maharaj’s pastimes hundreds of times. Endlessly they want to hear about Krishna.
Endlessly they want to relish Krishna. We have the Damodar Mantra got over. So, we have Satyavrat Muni praying that I just want to behold this form of Krishna unendingly.
So, this spiritual taste is, we could say, the ultimate perfection for a devotee. But even within that there is personal taste and there is personal inclination. That means different devotees may relish different aspects of Krishna.
Some devotees may love the Bhagavatam. Some devotees may love Chaitanya Chakravartam. With respect to worshipping the deities, some devotees may personally connect with Dhyanaprabhu.
Some devotees may connect with Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Some devotees may connect with Radharani. Some devotees may connect with Krishna.
There is individuality even in the realm of pure spirituality. So, this pure spiritual taste is very far away from me. So, I can’t speak much about it.
But I will speak about one concept which Rupa Goswami talks about in his book Ujjwala Neelamani. The Rupa Goswami’s first book which most of us read is Bhaktira Samaj Sindhu. And a further advanced treatise on the concept of rasa is given in the Ujjwala Neelamani.
And there he uses the word called Uddipan. Uddipan is spiritual stimulus. That which reminds us of Krishna.
So, now we could say when we come to a temple, all these beautiful pictures of Krishna is Uddipan. The deities of Krishna is Uddipan. The devotees of Krishna are also Uddipan, the spiritual stimulus.
At the same time, we will find that not all things in bhakti remind us of Krishna with equal intensity. For some of us, even when we take darshan of Krishna, if Krishna is dressed in a particular way, maybe a particular colour, a particular style, we get captivated by that. Or if kirtan is sung, if Hare Krishna mantra is also sung, but sometimes it is sung in a particular tune.
And we love that. And sometimes it is sung in some other tune, okay, let’s go with that. We don’t find, we are not so attracted to that.
Now, we could say this is material, but it’s not. It’s very directly about Krishna. With respect to hearing classes, all of us, we find that we just connect with a particular devotee.
Things make sense for me. Things fall in place for me. So, for us, in our spiritual life, there is a standard process of sadhana bhakti.
We have chanting of our japa, we have various activities we do in sadhana bhakti. And these are important for us to have purification. However, these activities may not give us inspiration immediately or constantly.
So that if we can find out what is our vipana, what is a spiritual stimulus that directs our thoughts towards Krishna. And then we keep that accessible for us. Then that will ensure that we can move our consciousness towards Krishna nicely.
That means that if this is a circle of things which I like to do, this is a circle of things about bhakti, directly bhakti, is there some place where these two circles intersect? So, if there is some particular tune which you like, then when we come in front of Krishna and then say that kirtan is going on that tune, then we feel very absorbed in Krishna. So, then for us to make those uddhipan accessible to ourselves is our initiative. It’s our responsibility.
So, as I said, I am very much of a verbal person. So, when I take darshan of the deities, then if I recite some verses, then I actually feel connected to Krishna. That Lord whom I am glorifying through these verses, that Lord is present over here.
There are times when I take darshan and I can remember one week ago I took darshan of Krishna. I may forget which dress Krishna was dressed in. But I will remember which verse I recited at that time.
So, now, of course, I would like to remember Krishna’s dress also, Krishna’s personality. But it’s just, again, something that comes naturally for us. So, if we have something which helps us connect with Krishna, then that is very helpful for us to feel that personal connect with Krishna.
So, once I gave a class in India on this topic and I talked about how memorising verses and reciting verses can help us to connect with Krishna. Thank you. So, I spoke this once in a class.
And then after two, three days, one devotee came and told me, he says, I am having a big problem. I said, what happened? He said that you told that we should memorise verses and then we can recite those verses in front of Krishna. I said, I tried that.
And he said, normally when I go in front of Krishna, I see his beautiful form. I feel so much bhakti. But now when you told me to memorise verses, thinking of verses causes me so much tension that whatever bhakti is there, it goes away from me.
So, then I explained to him, I did not say that you should memorise verses. I was just giving verses as an example. So, the uddhipan is individual.
And there is a saying that the shoe that fits one leg, bites another leg. Shoe that fits one foot, bites another foot. So, the same uddhipan which may work for one person might act as a distraction or burden for someone.
Some devotees, they are very much into music. And they can sing Hare Krishna in such tunes. It’s amazing.
It’s impressive. But then their kirtan is not participation, their kirtan is a performance. You just observe them.
So, now, they may be able to get absorbed in Krishna through that. But if we try to absorb ourselves in Krishna, getting that tune itself might be very difficult for us. So, therefore, it is for us individually to find out what works as a uddhipan for us.
And if we find out even one, two uddhipans like this, and then we treasure them. We look back at our spiritual life. What were the times when we were most absorbed in Krishna? Maybe there was some kirtan, somebody did that and we are deeply absorbed in that kirtan.
Oh, this is wonderful. Then maybe we can keep a recording of that kirtan with us. And then whenever we feel a little down, we will play that kirtan with us.
And we all have had some sweet spiritual experiences. Sometimes when we have felt something sublime, in some way we have experienced Krishna. Maybe in the presence of a great devotee, maybe when we went to a dham, maybe when we had a beautiful darshan, maybe on some festivals.
But although we have all had such experiences, those experiences go into the background. Our mind presently is largely materialistically inclined. On the process of purifying it, but it is materialistically inclined.
And the result of that is that the mind remembers materially pleasurable experiences very easily. But spiritually pleasurable experiences, the mind tends to forget. Even when we have had them.
So, we need to consciously treasure them. If we have some very special experience, write it down. And so that we can look at it once again.
Or we have a photo of that. Have some way to cherish and treasure those spiritual experiences in our memory. And that can also serve as a uddhipan.
So when we have this uddhipan for us, which we have found, then even when we feel down, we can do that one thing. And that will slowly get us up. This is not a substitute for the standard process of sadhana bhakti.
But this is something which can spur us on when we feel down. Sometimes when we are chanting, if we are just chanting continuously, the mind can wander so much. And then we are just chanting, chanting, but our mind is wandering everywhere.
But suppose if, say, we love a particular darshan of Krishna, we have chanted few rounds and our mind is wandering, just pause for a few minutes, look at that picture of Krishna, pray to Krishna, we feel a personal connect, and then we chant again, the chanting will also connect. Through the chanting, we will connect more with the chanting, and through the chanting, we will connect more with Krishna. So, finding our uddhipan and then keeping that uddhipan accessible to us, it’s again our responsibility.
And this can slowly start giving us spiritual taste. And as we get the spiritual taste more and more, then even in devotional, direct devotional activities, we will be able to move towards Krishna. We will be able to move forwards in our absorption in Krishna.
Say some devotees, sometimes we are hearing classes, and after a few years of hearing classes, we start finding that, I know most of the points. So, what happens, the mind starts turning off. I know this, I know this, I know this.
Now, it’s true, we know this. However, what we want in Krishna bhakti is not just knowledge. What we want is absorption.
And absorption is a function of connection. When do we get absorbed in something? Say, we are reading some book. And, oh, I read this, it is like this.
We start visualising something. We have a conversation with someone. When do we get absorbed? They say one thing and we are able to connect this with this, this, this, this.
So, the more the present stimulus that we are getting, we are able to connect with other stimuli, the more we get absorbed. If what we are getting in the present, we are not able to connect with other stimuli inside us, then half of our consciousness with all those other stimuli, and only some is available here. So, if we have one puddipanna in our spiritual life, then we try to connect everything else with that.
So, if there is a particular pastime of Krishna which we love, maybe how Krishna came and rescued Draupadi, how Krishna rescued Gajendra, whatever. Then, when we hear other pastimes, we may have that pastime in our mind, but we may say, I know this pastime, I know this pastime. Some other pastime we are hearing, I have heard this pastime of Krishna dancing with Kaliya so many times.
I have heard this pastime so many times. But try to connect it. Okay, when was the last time that I heard it? Okay, it was in that class.
What was the theme of that class? What is the theme of this class? So, once we have one stable connection, then what happens? That gives us stability and we can make other connections. And that way, we can move forward in our Krishna Bhakti and start cultivating absorption. So, our puddipanna will become the centrepiece for our absorption.
Our spiritual stimulus, our particular spiritual stimulus, that if we keep it in the centre. Say, I know one devotee who just loves the Mahabharata. And then whatever past scripture he hears, okay, where is this in the Mahabharata? Instead of saying, oh, I know this.
Yeah, but is this going to be in the Mahabharata? Or what does the Mahabharata say about this subject? Okay, it says this, it says this. So, instead of letting the mind make us apathetic by saying, I know, just turn it around. Okay, when did I hear about this? How is this connected with what I treasure the most? If I ask that question, then we can absorb ourselves more and more.
And thus, that absorption will take us forward in our Krishna Bhakti. And Prabhupada also says in one lecture, and I conclude with this point that, Prabhupada gave a series of lectures on nectar of devotion in Vrindavan. And there in one lecture he says that this whole Krishna consciousness movement has been practically invented by me.
Now, this can seem like a very radical statement. This is practically invented by me. So, Prabhupada at one level said that I have not changed anything that my spiritual master gave me.
I am just like a postman, giving thing as it is. The cheque has come for you, I am giving it to you. And he said practically the whole Krishna consciousness movement has been invented by me.
What Prabhupada means by that is, he explains that, he is talking about this principle in Krishna Bhakti, somehow or the other remember Krishna. And Prabhupada says over there, it is the responsibility of the spiritual master to find ways and means by which the disciple can fix the mind on Krishna. So, when he says I have invented the Krishna consciousness movement, what he meant was that he has created means by which devotees can fix the mind on Krishna.
So, for example, home distribution, the way devotees did it at his time, it was not done like that in India. Prabhupada encouraged it, Prabhupada fanned it, Prabhupada inspired it. The way Ratha Yatra was done on the streets in Jnanapuris was one thing, but now Prabhupada inspired all over the world.
So, now just as what Prabhupada did, finding out ways and means by which one can fix the mind on Krishna. That is what we need to do for ourselves so that we can have our own means. So, what is the way in which I can fix the mind on Krishna? This doesn’t seem to work so well for me.
That doesn’t mean bhakti doesn’t work for me. It just means this particular limb of bhakti I am not able to connect with. But what can I connect with better? So, if we take the responsibility to find out ways and means by which we can fix the mind on Krishna, then we can march forward steadily in our spiritual life.
And taste in bhakti doesn’t have to be something like we are jumping and dancing in ecstasy. That is one kind of taste. But taste in bhakti is steady absorption.
This is what I am meant to do in my life. Even if the world recognises me or not, this is what I want to do. This is what I am inspired by.
And this is what I will keep doing. And that kind of, if we find our tudhipan, then we can keep doing that steadily. And thus, when the bhakta samsara states, we come to a state of thayi bhava.
Steady spiritual emotion. And that steady spiritual emotion will be the foundation by which we move forward towards Krishna in this life as well as in the life beyond this. So, I’ll summarise.
I spoke on the topic of how to keep our spiritual life fresh. I talked on four parts. The first part I talked about is how people seek freshness at the material level by just looking for new things, new gadgets, new houses, going to new places.
That can give us some freshness, newness, but that is temporary because the newness goes away very quickly. And then we stay on an endless search for newness which only leads to disappointment and frustration. Disappointment is also because of the search for new things.
But it disappoints always. Then I talked about seeking newness through our sabhava, through our psychophysical nature. The past time when the panda was gravitating towards the weapons, what we notice automatically, we should note consciously.
And then by that we can start to understand what is our nature. And to understand our nature, we can’t just rely on how we feel while doing something. Because our mind will say, whatever you are doing right now is not your nature.
But rather than that, while doing our various services, we look at which service we are comfortable doing and which service we are competent to do. And by that we can understand our nature. And for longevity in our bhakti, if we have a service that we naturally like to do, then that will give us the strength to move on.
And Varanashram’s point was not to divide people into castes, but to engage people in a way that they face the problems that they like to face. The problems which they will see as challenges, not as burdens. Then I talked about relational taste.
Initially we may have such great devotion to a particular Vaishnava that we feel I can do anything for him. And that mood of submission initially in our spiritual life is very good. And that’s how those religions are founded by the charismatic founder.
Getting people to practise Sarva Dharma and Pratishtha. Just give up everything for that. At the same time, for sustainability, we will go from that childhood phase sometimes to adolescence where we start feeling that nobody is as great a devotee as I thought they were.
But then as we grow forwards, we come to adulthood where we have a mature appreciation of devotees. Yes, they have faults, but they also have their dedication to Krishna. And at that level, if we sometimes don’t have the association of our senior inspirers, then if we have like-minded association, somebody who shares a definition of success with us, then that can stimulate and energise us.
Because we feel understood value, and then we can be energised to move on. And lastly, I talked about spiritual taste, about Uddipan. What is it that particularly connects us with Krishna? We find that and we treasure that.
We keep that accessible to us. And not as a substitute or replacement to our standard sadhana bhakti, but as a spur within our standard practise of sadhana bhakti. By doing this, we can have a steady connection with Krishna.
And it is our responsibility to find out ways and means by which we can fix our mind on Krishna. And once we do this, in this life as well as in the next, we will move forward towards Krishna through absorption. Once we have a foundation of a connection with Krishna, then instead of saying, I know this, we try to, okay, where do I know about this? How does this connect with what matters to me? And that way, we can get the absorption which is a function of connection.
Thank you very much. Hare Krishna. Do we have time for a few questions? Any comments? Actually, I want to thank you.
Every time you come here and speak, your insights are very fresh and unique, and your perception and analysis of things is so valuable. And I was just appreciating, if I’m understanding this correctly, I was just appreciating the theme of the class. Time affects things, whether it’s our service, which has to do with our psychophysical nature, or our sangha, which has to do with our relationships, or our inspiration, which has to do with our spiritual, what keeps us going spiritually.
That time is going to affect that. And it seems like with the increase in time, the need to recognise the individuality increases. Yes.
Which is, if one just moves forward with that assumption from the beginning, well, how valuable is that to get over the bumps that come? Like, if you already understand that at a certain point, this is going to have to change, it’s going to have to become more individually tuned. Then what seems like a problem, it just becomes part of the evolution. And I remember my remarks to Mahakrishna Goswami.
As you were speaking about the relationship thing, hearing him say this just came back so clearly. He said that his experience was that his disciples, that after ten years or so, it would start to change. And being close to him, there wasn’t comfort zone, was like an unknown experience.
So, I can see what you’re saying is so insightful, that if one understands it, ten years of that kind of intensity, it’s going to have to shift in some way for almost anyone. And I can see sometimes devotees would retreat a little bit at that point. But it’s kind of understood that it’s going to evolve in a way.
That’s true. How valuable that is. And I just want to share also this idea about that in your early devotional life, basically you’re seeing no faults.
You’re seeing everyone as more advanced than yourself. Faults may be right there, and really you’re not even perceiving them. But then after some time, actually, you begin to perceive those faults.
But in an immature state, you’re actually magnifying the significance of those faults. But then in the mature state, you still see the faults. But actually, you’re minimising the importance of those faults.
Because you’re actually more generally appreciating the depth of devotion, or the rarity of devotion, whatever it is, that those faults now, it’s actually not so significant. Who cares about that? Look at who they are. I really just took so much from what you said, and that idea of how, you know, I think we have a tendency to do something until it doesn’t work anymore, and then just keep trying to do the same thing.
But if you know that it’s going to evolve, and you need to adjust to it, particularly if it has something to do with individuality, that can be so helpful to us. Thank you. Thank you.
Just make one point about this. Actually, one devotee put this in a very humorous way to me. The point is that it will be helpful for us if we recognise that our individuality will manifest again.
Our individuality will manifest more as we grow in our spiritual life. So this devotee told me, I’m just making up the name over here to keep his privacy. He said, when I became a devotee, I was Greg, and I gave up Greg, I rejected Greg to become Gaura.
But then he said, after 15 years, I found that Greg has come back. And what Greg liked, what Greg had as individuality. I said, I found, what is happening? Is it that I’m regressing in my spiritual life? But no, it’s just that, so initially when you start practising bhakti, okay, all my past life was a material life, it is an illusion, it is temporary, I give it up, and I practise bhakti.
Especially if somebody leaves the world and practises bhakti, it’s almost like that. But then you start realising that our spiritual life is not a rejection of our past. There are some aspects of the past which have to be rejected.
But our spiritual life is a continuation from our past. And we are, what we were in the past, that is what we are carrying into the present. So there is some amount of standardisation that is required when we join a movement.
Some objective standards are required. Say for example, for taking initiation, for taking up some responsibilities in the movement. So standardisation is required.
But standardisation is different from homogenisation. It is. Some standards are required.
But homogenisation means everybody has to be like this. When that homogenisation comes up, then people feel choked. They feel as if they have no space.
But then there is, within that standardisation, there is individuation. Each person manifests their individuality. So it’s like if we see in spiritual life, many people talk about unity and diversity.
There is diversity but there is unity. But if we see, yes, the material life there is diversity, then there is the unity of Brahman, where there are no qualities. But then in the spiritual world, there is a diversity within unity.
Everybody is centred on Krishna, but everybody is an individual in their service to Krishna. So like that, we initially have our own material individuality, which we give up and we start practising bhakti. So it’s like we seek the unity within diversity.
But as we grow spiritually, then there is also this diversity within unity, which we need to seek. I was reading some book by some western author and he said, even if… He was giving this point of how everything in this world is unique. He says, everything is unique.
And even if two… He says, two… two particles of sand, they are unique. He says, two leaves, they are unique. And then he gives an example, two Hare Krishna monks are also unique.
So for the world, everybody is dressed in the same way, same hairstyle. So that… External people may initially perceive that everything is one. But we may also perceive like that.
But we have to grow beyond that. So that’s true. If individuality is acknowledged right in the beginning, that will be helpful.
But sometimes within an organisation, because standardisation is required, that becomes emphasised too much. Yeah. Thank you.
Yes. You know, you mentioned about many people who understand our success and celebrate with us. I was thinking that as devotees and we form this community, each of us is a unit of this community, how important it is for us to appreciate the people we are with, the devotees we are with, and look for things to appreciate.
So not in an artificial way, not in a way of flattering, but in a genuine way of appreciating. And I think if we all ourselves strive to do that, then some of the roadblocks, in terms of like, hey, this person has this point, and that person has that point, will actually be overcome, because we just keep trying to notice. We try to be catching people doing right, as opposed to trying to catch people doing wrong.
That is true. You need to catch people doing right rather than wrong. I was at a Vaishnava memorial service for a devotee after he departed.
And after that, His Holiness Varanatha Maharaj spoke. And devotees poured out their hearts saying that how wonderful this devotee was. And then Maharaj spoke.
Maharaj also appreciated the devotee. And then Maharaj said, at the start he spoke, he said that, all of you spoke so, so beautifully about this Vaishnava. Maharaj then asked, how many of you spoke like this with him when he was alive? So many times, while the person is there with us, we tend to take them for granted.
So he is saying that if we had appreciated them at that time, we would have been so much encouraged and enlivened by that. So it’s very important actually, to appreciate. And appreciation is, is to the human heart, what fuel is for a vehicle.
If there is not enough appreciation, we just can’t move forward. We are relational creatures. And we need, not appreciation in the sense of ego, but appreciation in the sense that, acknowledging at least our existence.
Acknowledging our existence and our contribution. Otherwise we feel completely isolated. And devalued.
Thank you for that point of appreciation. Yes please. And then I made it.
And I just marvelled. I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but my point is I didn’t really know you. I thought, what is making this human being do this? Why is he giving so much time? We should be sitting there every day, just making time to talk to people that we don’t even know.
And I just want you to know how much it means. Especially, not just especially around the world, but especially if you’re not in Kabul. I mean that’s been my choice.
I need to associate more of it. It’s just this rope that you throw out every day. And especially more about making mistakes.
How does that help me? And just thank you so much. You’re a model that Krishna has become to do this. And I want to make sure that you do it.
How much I thank you. Thank you. Grateful for your service.
And thank you for sharing this. It is actually when we are writing and preaching, it is very difficult to know if it’s reaching anyone or not. So I give the example that writing is like a speaker is speaking and there is a opaque curtain between the speaker and the audience.
So you don’t even know if anyone is there or not. Thank you very much. And I’m grateful to you for this.
So thank you very much.