How to overcome distraction and get restored on our spiritual journey By HG Chaitanya Charan Pr

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So, this is the problem. Now, when the world becomes small for us, naturally, the world’s ups and downs also become small for us. So, this is how, what happens is, when we are spiritually advanced, we become materially peaceful.
Life will keep going up and down, but we will become peaceful. And the question should become, okay, if I become equal, steady, peaceful, then where is the happiness going to come from? In one sense, in the world where there are dualities. Maybe you can bring this closer.
What are you doing? Sorry? Yeah, that has to be taken behind already. Okay, sure. So, we want the highs of life and we don’t want the lows.
If we are cricket fans, we want India to win and we don’t want India to lose. But we can’t say that, okay, when India wins, I’ll be very happy. When India loses, I’ll become detached from cricket.
Now, we may want to become detached, but we don’t become detached instantaneously. This will get frustrated. So, the thing is, we say, okay, I have become equal in my ups and downs.
Then where does my happiness come from? That happiness comes from our connection with Krishna. So, we become spiritually joyful. So, in two words, what is the benefit of spiritual growth? We become materially peaceful or we can say externally peaceful.
In terms of the externals of the world, we become peaceful. In our connection with Krishna, we become internally joyful. This is what we want to ultimately do by growing spiritually.
Now, how does this happen? So, the essential process for this is what Krishna describes in 6.35. It is abhyasena tu kaunteya, vairagyena chakraviyate. It is abhyasa. Now, these words are translated in different ways, in different contexts by different acharyas.
But broadly, what we can say is that abhyasa, our mind is such that whatever we expose our mind to, that starts becoming bigger and bigger and bigger in our mind. So, persistence. Abhyasa means we, that is persistence of exposure.
We expose our mind to Krishna more and more and more and more. Then Krishna will become bigger and bigger in our mind. And vairagya means abstinence.
Abstinence means we abstain from, we avoid, voluntarily. When we abstain from exposing the world to us or ourselves to the world, then the world starts becoming smaller and smaller. Nowadays, we are so much exposed to technology and to our phone and to social media, all kinds of fasting and karthika.
So, there is, you may have heard this word, digital detox. For some people this has been okay for one month, one week, even one day. I am not going to maybe not use my phone or not visit some news websites or not do this, not do that.
So, one of my friends told me, he says, one month I just decided not to see any news. And first few days it was very difficult. I am not saying we disconnected from the world.
Just giving an example, he said, after that, after first 4-5-6 days, if something bigger was happening, people would tell me anyway. We don’t really disconnect from the world. Well, I think that, okay, this political upheaval here, this thing there, that thing there, it just started becoming so much smaller for me.
It didn’t matter for me. Now, so the point is that, what we are exposed to, that becomes bigger. So, it could be movies, it could be sports, it could be stock market, whatever it is.
Whatever we are exposed to, that becomes bigger and bigger in our life. Whatever we are not exposed to, that starts becoming smaller and smaller. This is the principle, what we expose ourselves to, that becomes bigger.
What we take in our mind, it grows. So, essentially, these two principles, Abhyas and Vairagya, that is about how our mind works. So, you could say, whatever gets our attention, whatever gets our attention, gets us.
Gets us means, it fills our consciousness, it catches us. It becomes the biggest reality within us. It starts driving and defining us.
So, essentially, if we want to grow spiritually, what do we do? We create some kind of barrier or boundary by which we can abstain from the world. Between us and the world, try to create some kind of barrier or boundary. So, for example, when we start practising Bhakti seriously, we call the four agenda principles.
Now, the specific rules are important, but the underlying principle is more important. These activities represent things which may enter into our mind, consume our mind. And conversely, we try to create some bonds with Krishna by which there can be regular exposure.
So, we come to satsang, we do our sadhana. So, by regularly exposing ourselves to Krishna and by regularly refraining from exposure to the world, we will find that Krishna will start becoming bigger for us and the world will start becoming smaller for us. So, let’s look with this understanding of spiritual growth.
Let’s try to understand what happened in the story of Bharat Maharaj. So, Bharat Maharaj was a great king and he was virtuous and glorious and he was spiritually lustrous. And over a period of time, even when he was in youth, he felt that I have done enough in this world.
Now, I can entrust my responsibility to her. My successor, I can move on. So, we renounce the world.
Now, renunciation can be in two broad ways. At one level, it is a process. At another level, it is a fruit.
What do I mean by that? That renunciation is a process by which we deliberately do these two things. The abhyasa and vairagya. When we renounce the world in some way or the other, we are moving away from the stimuli that make the world bigger.
That’s why traditional renunciation is going to a forest, going to the Himalayas. If you just go to the Himalayas, as I said, there is a Rishikesh. Just the sheer size and the majesty of the mountains and the river, it just makes us realise how small we are and how small our concerns are.
And we just live here for a few decades. And then, as compared to that, even materialism, they think that we live for so much longer. So, we start seeing things in perspective and we start getting some attachment.
So, physically, renunciation is a process means that we go away from the things that will make the world big and we go towards the things that will make the world big, God big for us. So, in that sense, renunciation is a process. However, renunciation is also a fruit in the sense that renunciation naturally arises when a person starts feeling that nothing is really that big in this world.
There is not really much to achieve in this world. See, broadly, when the world is in front of us and God is above us, so, when do we turn? We could just be looking at the world and trying to enjoy the world and conquer the world. That would be materialism.
Now, when does somebody look at God? Broadly, there can be two reasons. One is that I am not good enough for the world. I am not good enough for the world.
That means, I don’t have enough wealth, I don’t have enough smarts, I don’t have enough looks, I don’t have enough contacts, relationships. So, I don’t have what it takes to make it in the world. And therefore, I need some help.
I need some higher power to help me. So, a student may be studying and his exam is very difficult. Oh God, please help me pass this exam.
So, what happens there is, I am not good enough for the world. And that is one reason why people may turn towards God. And Krishna talks about this in 760 in the first Vikatan.
Our family Artha and Artha. Oh, I don’t have enough wealth. I have too much troubles.
I can’t deal with it. The other reason is that the world is not good enough for me. Now, the world is not good enough for me is not an expression of ego.
It can be, but it is an expression of realisation. That whatever the world promises, it’s not substantial. There has to be something more to life.
There has to be something which is more enduring, more fulfilling. What the world promises can be very titillating, but it is futile. It just doesn’t have substance to it.
This is primarily the Jnani category. They have got some understanding, then some bigger reality, and that is what I want to teach. So, once we get this understanding, that renunciation actually begins, at least to some level, we start feeling that the world is not good enough for me.
Yeah, you know, I might have a wonderful relationship. I might have a great job. I might have good health.
I might have nice family and children. I might be respected in society. Now, many people may not even get all these things.
But even though you get all these things, there has to be something more. Or, we may get one or two of our dreams, and then we may realise, hmm, I can just keep chasing dreams, but this dream didn’t really fulfil me. Next dream is also going to be like that.
So, the world is not good enough for me. So, when this realisation comes, it’s a great bliss. When I was growing up, my goal in life was always to be first in my class.
And I was always among the first, but I was never the first. So, when I gave my GRE exam, since my childhood, I loved English language. And I had a maternal uncle who had his own company in America, and he did not have any sons.
So, he wanted me to come there and inherit his company. So, I gave the GRE exam, and that time, I came not just first in my class. I was first in, not just university, I was first in the history of my college.
I was first in Pune University at that time. But I was first in Maharashtra. So, I was on top of the world.
Yahoo! Great thing! Good timing! But then, after a few minutes, I realised, that just looking at the mark sheet does not really give much happiness. And how long are we going to keep looking at it? It is only when others congratulate that you feel happy. And then, I was a celebrity in my college for some time.
Everybody was congratulating me. But then, somehow it happened that one after another, three of my friends forgot to congratulate me. Congratulate me.
Congratulate me. So, when the first friend forgot, I was annoyed. When the second friend forgot, I was irritated.
What is going on? The third friend forgot, I was enraged. But still, I didn’t want to sound like a pathetic person. I asked, why are you not congratulating me? So, at that time, it was almost as if I had an out-of-body experience.
Not a literal out-of-body experience. But I felt as if I was looking at myself from above. Wait a minute.
You thought that this academic achievement will make you happy. This is what you wanted to do throughout your life. But instead of becoming happy, you just become more dependent on others for your happiness.
In the past, you could just hang out with your friends. But now, you have become so needy for their congratulations. Without that, far from being happy, you are restless.
You are agitated. So, I started looking ahead at my life. And whatever achievements I had thought of.
That maybe I’ll go to America, I’ll get a PhD, I’ll get some academic awards. I’ll write some papers in the scientific journal. I might write my own books.
So, whatever. I thought, would any of these free me from this external neediness for appreciation, recognition, praise? I just want to see. As soon as I explore it.
Is there something that can provide inner good? So, I can’t say I had that realisation for a long time. But at that time, I had got this inkling of a realisation. That what the world had set as a goal for me.
Becoming an academic achiever. That is not good enough. There has to be something more.
So, for all of us, if we reflect on our lives, we get this sense. There has to be something more to life. Some people get it in young youth.
Some people get it in old age. Some people have to go through many lifetimes before they get it. That is Bahunam, Janmanam.
But it is not that we don’t get it. It is that when we get it, we don’t let it register with us. See, when one thing doesn’t work out, instead of thinking that the world is not good enough for me, we start thinking, okay, this thing in the world is not good enough for me.
That thing will be good enough for me. And that thing will be good enough for me. And that’s how we keep chasing things in the world.
So, when this renunciation… So, for Bharat Maharaj, he was the king. But that renunciation is not even good enough. There has to be something more in life.
And that’s how he renounced the world. And just went straight to the forest. And started sitting down in meditation, in spiritual practise.
So, spiritual practise means avyasa and prilakya. That he was absorbed in chanting Vedic mantras, in meditating on the Lord, in focussing on spiritual practises. And the world started becoming smaller and smaller.
He came to a very spiritually exalted state by his rigorous spiritual practise. And then, something happened. Which was seemingly something very small, but it suddenly, or it over time, became very big.
See, this process of the world being small, and the world being large, and the world becoming small, God being small, and God becoming big. At one level, this is a process on which you want to go. But it is a reversible process.
The spiritual journey is not irreversible. If, instead of persisting in exposing ourselves to Krishna, to higher spiritual realities, we start exposing ourselves to the world, then, that will start becoming bigger and bigger. So, for him, this started in a relatively harmless way.
It was not only harmless, it was actually kind and helpful. What happened was, see, temptation can come in various ways. But, it comes according to the area where we are most vulnerable.
Say, A, we have never drunk alcohol in our life. And somebody comes and says, let’s go to a bar and drink. We say, if you think I am going to come, then you really need to go to a bar and get lost.
I mean, we are not going to do that. So, if temptation comes in ways that you easily reject, then that is not really a temptation at all. So, if somebody is almost in, you can say, near Shuddha Sattva, that is above transcendence, above the modes of near transcendence.
And the mode nearest to it is Sattva. Then after that is Rajas. Then after that is Tamas.
So, generally, the temptations that trouble us the most are the temptations that are near the level of consciousness we are in. So, if somebody is in Tamas, then, if we tell them, you know, Rupa Goswami has said, don’t read too many books, otherwise you will get distracted. That is not a problem for me.
So, they don’t read any books at all. So, reading too many books is a temptation for somebody who is in Sattva Guna. Isn’t it? For somebody who is in Tamas Guna, the temptation might be too much sleeping, you know, too much getting into daydreaming and fantasising and things like that.
So, in Tamas Guna, the nearest temptation might be simply daydreaming, oversleeping. Now, if somebody is just a, is, say, an alcoholic and is trying to recover from alcoholism, then alcohol, intoxication might be their temptation. There was a British playwright, he said that, Oscar Wilde said, giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world.
I have done it over a hundred times. So, I gave up smoking, but smoking did give me up. So, now, if we are in Draja Guna, then, there are corresponding temptations.
A person in Draja Guna will not be tempted by oversleeping. Because there is so much rajas. Sleep is not so much spiritual as sleeping.
You should sleep, minimise your sleep. So, there, the temptation might be forward. I want to gain more and more power.
Or, it could be sensual pleasure. Now, exercise is good, but there is also now, see, the mind is such that it can get addicted to anything. There is something called exercise addiction.
You get a compulsive need for exercising. Without that, you just can’t function. Such people, exercise becomes their drug, getaway drug.
And now, they may do it to an excessive degree, and then they get distracted by that. They can damage their body. Now, if somebody is in Sattva Guna, their temptations may be different.
Like I said, reading too many books, fiddling around with too many ideas, that may be a temptation on the spiritual path. So, knowledge, jnan, to Arjuna Krishna, since the Bhagavad Gita is in Sattva Guna, sukh-sangeen-badnadi jnan-sangeen-janak That, happiness. How can happiness? Here, happiness means that a sense of superiority or complacency.
I am better than everyone else. I am not being dragged around by the cravings. See, sometimes if we are in Rajo Guna, and we are being pulled by our cravings, then, in trying to not get pulled away by the cravings, we will call out for Krishna.
But if somebody is related to Sattva Guna, they are not troubled by their mind, by their senses, and the need to call out for Krishna will also not come. I am just better than others. So, Bharat Maharaj, in which mode did the temptation come to him? What do you think? Sattva Guna.
Yes. So, for Bharat Maharaj, the temptation came in the form of compassion. Now, you say, how can compassion get removed? Compassion itself is not a temptation.
But, the way it got him. See, he was a Kshatriya. Kshatriya means he was a natural protector.
Anybody who is in danger should protect them. And, when he saw he was sitting and meditating on the banks of the river, and he saw this beautiful tiger who was running away. He was about to leap across the river.
And, as the deer was about to leap across the river, he could see that. That deer was a female deer and she was pregnant. And then, suddenly, the tiger roared in the forest.
The tiger was probably chasing this deer. And the deer panicked. And, although she had left it there, somehow, because of the panic and the fear and the running away, the exertion, she had a sudden delivery.
And then, the deer fell on the other side, but the baby deer fell in the river. And, while the deer was watching, the mother deer was watching. She just withered and died in front of him.
Now, it is a natural kind of compassion. Oh, this baby deer is in so much trouble. Immediately, Bharat Maharaj leapt into the river and rescued it.
Now, this was a natural and essential act of compassion. Now, we may be doing our meditation, but, if somebody is losing their life, wanting to help them at that time, that is a perfectly good thing to do. So, what happened there afterwards? She started thinking.
Dad, this deer has no money. It is just a small deer. So, I need to maintain this deer.
So, there is a difference between, in one sense, protector and maintainer. So, protector can be when there is danger. But, maintainer it almost becomes like a always be there.
So, the temptation came that, okay, now I have saved the life of this deer. I need to take care of this deer. So, it was his own Kshatriya tendency.
Kshatriyas are meant to be kings. And, as kings, they are meant to protect and they are meant to maintain. So, that Kshatriya tendency is actually a good tendency for a person who is a Kshatriya.
If Kshatriyas don’t have the tendency to maintain, to take care, to provide for, then, the Praja, the citizens, will suffer terribly. So, now, at that level, the Rajas that is there in Kshatriyas, it is good. Kshatriyas are too detached.
You know, the citizens come and say, Oh, we are starving. You know, Kshatriyas say, this world is dukkha, they are very lucky to have a nation. The citizens will say, we don’t know whether this world is dukkha or not, but your kingdom is dukkha.
We are leaving from here. We will emigrate. There is so much immigration from poorer countries to wealthier countries.
Why? Because, many reasons, but quite often the poorer countries are not so well managed. So, for Kshatriyas, to be a maintainer is very important. But, for him, two things were there.
First was, he had already renounced his role of a Kshatriya. So, what may be desirable and even essential in one ashram and in one role can become undesirable and even lethal in another ashram, in another role. So, in one sense, as our roles change, the same thing, being a maintainer, that was desirable and even essential in his role as Kshatriya.
But, now, in his role as a renunciate, traditionally, Kshatriyas would not take sannyas. They would be vanaprastha. But, in his role as a renunciate, he renounced or retired order.
That was undesirable. Not just undesirable, it became lethal for him. So, what started happening, he said, I will be the protector and the maintainer of this state.
And, parenting is more than a full-time job. Especially, the baby is very small. I go to America every year.
I am also in India for four, five, six months travelling. So, when the COVID pandemic was there, there were devotees and friends who had babies during COVID. Generally, in America, getting help is very difficult.
So, often they get their family to come from India to there. And, those devotees who did not have anyone at that time, nobody coming from the extended family to be there, and that became very difficult. Extremely difficult to take care of them.
There is some psychological study also that COVID baby they don’t go out. So, they are somewhat psychologically inhibited. So, my brother had a child during COVID.
And, initially, he would just be scared around people. And, he seemed to be socially, not inhibited, but socially very restrained and awkward. And then, after the pandemic ended, after one and a half years, they brought him to India.
And, he saw so many people everywhere. They go to America, like, on the streets, sometimes you can meet an entire one man, you don’t see any one person. And, it’s just quite a large country with not so much population.
Initially, he was scared. But, he came to India, stayed for two months, when he went back to America, his wife was like, what did you do? He has become so socially outgoing and cheerful. What miracle did you do? So, the point is that, just being around people helps him to grow.
So, it’s not just having somebody to take care of the baby when the baby is crying. Just for small children to be around someone, it is essential. So, the point I made is when Bharat Maharaj took the role of being like a parent for his baby deer, then that started becoming his full-time occupation.
It started occupying and preoccupying his mind. And, so much so that it started distracting him from his spirituality. So, as he started getting more and more consumed, now the deer grew up.
You see, in animal kingdom, people have all kinds of strange arguments to justify whatever they want to. So, the human mind is such that the human mind can come up with arguments to justify whatever it wants to. So, So, for example, there was a devotee who was working in a software company in America, in Connecticut.
And, they had getting to know each other. So, sometimes when you want to get to know each other, you just ask random questions to people. What is your favourite book? What is your favourite movie? What is this? What is that? So, one of the questions that they had was that if you were to reincarnate, which animal would you like to reincarnate as? So, after the survey they asked, you know, which was your, that’s the survey question they liked.
So, they said, it’s mostly American people, so they said, more than 70% people said this was the most thought provoking question. And then he said, dog, cat, because those are the favourite animals for people. So, now what happens is that either when you have no human connection, or we are not able to connect with humans, there are no people around us, or the people around us are not the kind of people you want to be with.
I was in California and I went for a programme and there was a car with a bumper sticker. The more I get to know people, the more I love my dog. So, people are undeniable, people disappoint us, people betray us.
So, better love my dog. Radhesh, you have written a book called Your Best Friend. In America, when they saw you, they said, why has a dog written a book about dog care? Because their assumption was your best friend is a dog.
So, anyway, the point is that we all need affection. And in the West, for whatever reasons, culturally, socially, whatever, the relationships are not very deep, not very strong. So, people seek affection and reciprocation at times.
So, in this case, Bharat Maharaj had no one around him, and he started taking care of the pet dog. Dog, what of it? Deer. So, he started taking care of the deer, and things started to go more and more towards the deer.
So, now, the point is that in nature, the arrangement is such that most species don’t require as much care for their progeny as human beings do. So, the point I was making is that the mind comes up with various arguments. So, people aspire to be like animals.
They say, oh, my dog has been such a comfortable life. My dog has no anxiety, my cat has no anxiety. So, one argument, not only do people don’t get married, they even trivialise the idea of marriage.
They say, why do we have to get married? You know, no animal in nature gets married. So, why should we humans restrict ourselves in some old-fashioned, pre-scientific, dogmatic ways? there are people who, not only they choose not to get married, they consider marriage itself as an evil institution. So, now, the point over here is that from a biological perspective, there is a phenomenon called pair bonding.
Pair bonding means that the male and the female who are going to begin a child, it could be any species, they have a bond with each other. Now, there are 40 rituals among animals also. But, the greater the care that the progeny requires, the more important the pair bonding is.
In some species, it is the male and the female unite and then the eggs are born and the female sits on the eggs and sometimes the babies grow. And they move on. Sometimes the fish, the mother doesn’t even have to take care of them.
So, there are different things. But among all species, the human species, the human progeny requires more care than any other species. And, that is why, in human society, the pair bonding between the male and the female is so important.
And that pair bonding is sanctified, is given religious faith and authority through the ritual of marriage. Without that, even the period of pregnancy for the progeny, generally mammals, they are pregnant for a long time. But in humans, the pregnancy is far longer than any other species.
And, the female needs protection at least during the pregnancy. And even after that. So, the point is that what applies to nature does not always apply to humans.
Because we humans are in many ways different. And of course, the ultimate spiritual purpose is that the man and woman come together ultimately to come closer to God and to bring their children closer to God. But even from the spiritual purpose side, even from the biological perspective, the marriage is a bond that makes sure that the pair bonding happens and the progeny is kept together.
And that is why our society is in western society marriage is being trivialised and neglected or rejected. One thing that is happening, the birth rate is going down. And many people in India are worried about population increasing.
In the west, the population is decreasing. And that’s population implosion. That is a great threat.
And countries like America and Europe, if there had been no immigrants, then they would have had a huge problem with even continuing basic survival. So, in Italy now, they have got a whole system. The Pope has said that if any family has more than three children, and the Pope is like the highest religious authority, the Pope has said, I will come personally for the baptism of your children.
So, imagine, in our moment, a Sanyasi or Guru said, I will come for the namakaran of your child. If you have above certain limits. But the point is that sometimes, we cannot draw lessons from the animal world and apply to the human world.
Conversely, we cannot take emotions applicable to the human world and apply to the animal world. In the west, yoga has become very popular. So, I was in the Government Eco-Village a couple of years ago, and I met one person.
He said, so what do you do? I am a yoga teacher. Yoga teacher? No, yoga teacher. He says, what is yoga? He says, yoga with dogs.
It’s a whole discipline itself. I stretch my hands, and my dog stretches its paws. I do shirsas, and dog also does shirsas.
There is training for that. And actually, Doga teachers get paid much more than yoga teachers also. I want to do everything with my animals.
And if there are Doga teachers, then there are Koga teachers also. What is Koga? Cows. So, the point is that quite often, what we apply to humans, when we start developing affection for animals, we start applying to animals also.
So, there are dog therapists also. And my dog is feeling depressed. How can you know that your dog is feeling depressed? How are you going to counsel your dog? But anyway, so, what happened is that in the animal kingdom, animals don’t require, the animal progeny does not require as much maintenance as human progeny requires.
But Bharat Maharaj, having been a protector of humans, he started applying that same tendency to the dog. Therefore, animal babies don’t need much care. So, his caring for that baby started becoming excessive.
It started becoming a distracting animal. So, this is Krishna talks about this in 8.5 8.5 and 6, he is talking about this. Now, the other principle that even little spiritual practise, that is, not only never lost, it can save us from great danger.
Protects from great danger, which is the verse? Yes, Svalpavapiyasa Dharmasya Trayate Mahato Bhaya 2.40 in the Bhagavad Gita. Now, the Acharyas explain what does this Trayate Mahato Bhaya mean? Saves from great danger. Which danger does it refer to? Yes, losing the human form of life, which actually is so valuable for us to grow spiritually and ultimately come out of the cycle of birth and death.
So, even a little spiritual practise will ensure that we do not go out of the group of life. But, the other principle is that whatever we remember at the time of death, that’s what we forget. So, now, for Bharat Maharaj, he remembered a year, he became a hero.
So, we can say 8.5 and 6 is true. But then, what about 2.40? Is that false? He had not done a little spiritual practise. Svalpavapiyasa Dharmasya, he had done a lot of spiritual practise.
To renounce the world when he was a kid, in youth, and to dedicate himself to spiritual practise. So, is that not true? Was that lost? Now, see, that principle applied to him uniquely. He got a dear body.
But, it was, he did not get no dear consciousness. He retained human consciousness in a dear body. So, that is how that, when we say that we will not lose a human form, sometimes we may lose, it will come to attach to something.
But, even in animal forms, now, there are two distinct things over here. In animal form, sometimes we say that dharmohitesha mariko vishesh, that it is the search for meaning and purpose that differentiates humans from animals. Ultimately, it is the spiritual search that differentiates humans from animals.
Now, in the animal form, spiritual life, or spiritual exploration, spiritual journey, it can’t be started. Started means voluntarily started. Now, somebody may, a dog might be there in a temple, and the dog gets some prasad or something like that, then there is some agyamsukha.
So, spiritual journey cannot be started, but the spiritual journey can be continued. If it has already been started in the previous life, then, even if the person goes down to an animal life, it can be continued. So, there is a book written by Janardhan Maharaj called Animals in Krishna Consciousness.
So, it describes various temples where there are some animals which just so amazingly spiritually attracted. In Malaysia, we had a temple and there was a dog. Every evening at dawn, the dog would come outside and just stand near the door and behold the darshan.
And somebody would kick the dog away or shoot the dog and the dog would go away and sit at a distance. And then eventually, all the devotees said, this is a devotee dog. So, spiritual life can be continued in an animal body.
I gave this class in America and then one devotee came to me and says, I think my dog is a devotee dog. So, any philosopher here, we can use it to justify what we want to do. I have adopted a pet and my pet is actually a devotee dog.
But the point is, spiritual progress is never lost. So, as a deer, he remembered his previous life. He remembered that he had got the devotee dog.
And therefore, what did he do? He became extremely careful. He did not fool around like other deer. He needed grass for eating.
But he didn’t just go where he would get the best grass. He would stay near the hermitages of the sages. And whatever grass was available there, he would be satisfied with that.
And he would hear the many mantras being chanted. He would stay in the sanctified atmosphere. And then, he spent his entire life like that.
When he departed, when he was born in his next life, then what happened was, he was born in his next life in a Brahminical family. Now, it’s interesting, in the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says that when somebody spiritually advanced or somebody started practising spiritual life, chuchilam shrimatam ye nogo vrishlom jayat. So, Krishna describes that there are two possibilities.
That somebody who has done little spiritual advancement, little spiritual growth, and somebody who has done a lot of spiritual growth in his life, they are given opportunities to continue that in their next life. So, when a little spiritual growth is there, then what happens is, they go to heaven first, where whatever material desires are remaining, those desires get fulfilled for them. And then, what happens? They come back to the earth.
And they come back either in a wealthy family or a wise family. Brahman chuchilam shrimatam means, what happens is, they are wealthy, they don’t have to worry so much about this basic maintenance of life. If they grow up in a literally pure environment, then, now they don’t have any contaminations from their previous life.
Whatever conditionings are there, those have been dealt with by their going to heaven and coming back. But they don’t get conditionings unwittingly while they are growing up in the earth. So, where we are born matters a lot.
There are, in the west, there was this notion that oh, babies fall sick because they don’t get proteins. And to get proteins, it’s like a big notion slowly it has gone down, that small babies, even before they can eat food, one of the first food that was given to them after mother’s milk, it was not cow’s milk, was liquefied beef. Because they said, oh, cow’s milk is not as nutritious.
You take beef and liquefy it. That’s more nutritious. Medical industry can sometimes be quite a… Einstein said that, science is a wonderful thing, as long as you don’t have to earn a livelihood through it.
So, big pharma and big food and all these, when they become industrialised, they become quite damaging. Anyway, my point, I am giving an example, depending on the culture that we are born in, certain habits just become natural. Somebody grows in a family where everybody is drinking alcohol, everybody is taking drugs, everybody is eating meat, it just becomes natural.
If somebody is born in a good family, then what happens? Without their wanting to, they don’t get any unnecessary conditionings because of the way they are brought up. Now the other is, that the person is born in a spiritually serious family. Dheemataan.
So, when they are born in a spiritually serious family, right from the childhood itself, or even from the birth itself, or even before birth, the food that the mother is eating is prasad, the mother is hearing and speaking about Krishna, the child gets very spiritually supportive vibrations to continue on his spiritual journey. Now, in the case of Bharat Maharaj, what happens is a little interesting. Now, which of these two categories would he fall in? Little or lot? Lot.
So, he didn’t have to go to heaven. So, now he was born in a brahminical family, but it was interesting, the brahminical family was, you could say, more religious than spiritual. That means they were more into rituals, they were more into, you know, you have to do this, do this, this is the way to live, this is not the way to live.
They were not that spiritual. But the point is, life is complex and Krishna gives certain trajectory to us that is to indicate that our spiritual growth will never be lost. But in real life, things can be complicated.
You may say that somebody is born in a devotional inclined family, or very serious devotee family, wonderful. But then, in that devotee family there is a separation. Then what happens? You get, because of your spiritual practise, one may get a spiritually inclined family, born in a family.
But then, because of some negative karma from the past, one may have to grow up in a fractured family, in a broken family. So, real life is often complicated. But through it all, Krishna is giving us opportunities to come close to him.
So, for him, what happened was, his father was trying to train him to become a good Brahmin. But he saw these kind of rituals. At one level, they are good.
It is good to follow rituals nicely. But they can become a Sattvic distraction. Now, people can do rituals for many purposes.
Some people may do rituals just so that they can show others how pious I am. So, in Mumbai, we have a Juhu temple, which is very close to the area. It is called as Bollywood.
So, many movie stars come there, especially in Narmahashtami, for festivals. So, when they come, after that, they put up their Instagram. I went for Narmahashtami production.
Narmahashtami, Juhu temple, whatever. Now, when they are coming to the temple, are they coming to have darshan or are they coming to give darshan? Laughter Now, who knows? We don’t want to judge them. But the second is also possible.
Somebody may do some rituals more for showing to others. For some people, when they practise religion, their purpose can be cosmetic. So, religion is like a cultural, social cosmetic.
Oh, you are so religious. It makes me look good in people’s eyes. So, some people may practise it actually for spiritual growth.
Why do I come to the temple? Not so that people will think I am a Jaipayasan. I come because I want to come to the temple. So, rituals can also be a certain distraction.
Now, if somebody wants to get respect among people who don’t believe in God, who are completely mentalistic, and telling them, I went to a temple. What’s wrong with you? Why did you go to a temple? Something like that. So, you are seeking respect also among pious people only, to some extent.
That’s why I am calling this a subject temptation. We may do rituals, but more not so much for coming closer to God. It is to gain respect in society.
How nicely I do the rituals. So, he noticed that. He noticed that as he was growing up, his rituals could distract him.
And that’s why whatever would be the normal way of living by which he would get respect in society. He deliberately started doing that. He deliberately chose not to accept the path that would lead him to respect for his piety.
His father didn’t understand what was going on in his mind. How will you be responsible Brahmana? How will you own your livelihood? How will you move on? He just didn’t care. But he just didn’t care.
And then his father departed from the world. His other siblings started saying, He is good for nothing. He is a disgrace for us.
He doesn’t follow the proper practises. He is not properly clean. He doesn’t do what is expected from him.
So, then they just abandoned him. He was rejected. And he started wandering in the forest.
Now, for someone to lose their parent and then to be rejected by one’s own siblings, it could be a disaster. But he saw it not as a disaster. He saw it from those things which would make the world bigger in his eyes.
He focused on those things which would ensure that the spiritual father, the ultimate Lord would be taken. And then, finally, when he met King Rahula, the teachings that he gives over there, that whole incident is something which many of you have heard of it. So, I won’t go into it.
About how he was completely unafraid of Rahula. He was more concerned about not hurting a man than he was about offending a king. So, it’s inconceivable.
He was just so concerned that I don’t want to do some bad karma by hurting a man, by killing a man. So, if this king gets angry and he punishes me, I will just exhaust the past karma of mine and accept it. So, he was so very careful.
See, that is also fear is not always a bad thing. Sometimes you don’t be fearless. But fearless does not mean reckless.
Fearless, see, fear we all have certain fears. So, for most of us, the fear is of bad karma coming towards. That means, oh, you know, I am just moving along on the road and some car hits me.
Or one day I go to doctor and doctor tells me about cancer. That, you know, maybe some karma from my past will suddenly hit me. Oh! So, that is the fear that most people have.
And it’s understandable fear. We are going through our life and we don’t want some unknown bad karma to hit us. But for those who are really wise, for them, the real fear is, I don’t want to do any bad karma.
That, wise people, if bad karma hits me, all that it means, it’s not a good thing, but all that it means is my past bad karma is getting depleted and exhausted. But if I do bad karma, then, what is going to happen is, I am going to prolong my routine existence. So, for him, stepping on an ant was he doing bad karma.
I didn’t want to do that at all. On the other hand, being punished by the king. So, if he was punished by the king, that would be bad karma coming to him.
So, he was not afraid of that. So, that itself, his priority shows his level of spirituality. His level of spirituality.
Normally, the king would be very big in a person’s eyes and the ant would be not noticeable. So, Prabhupada would say that, he would say, you are not sufficiently afraid of maya. If you are not afraid of maya, means what? By maya’s temptations, we may end up doing some bad.
That is what we want to avoid. So, he seeing his utter fearlessness, initially, the king thought he was a crazy person. But then he spoke profound words of wisdom.
And his words of wisdom did such that, Prabhupada was not a typical middle-class man. He, was also going to hero but along the way, he found this strange wandering person, was one of the most enlightened person in the world. And the potency of his spirituality, of Dada Parampara’s spirituality was seen that, his words completely enlightened the king.
So, not only did he ensure that the world remained big for him, or rather, the world remained small for him, he could infuse that consciousness in others also. So, in one sense, the process remains the same. If we go away from Krishna, or we deviated from Krishna for some reason, the process remains the same.
Expose ourselves to Krishna more and more, and expose ourselves to the world in that sense. And when we do this, regularly, we will move forward towards Krishna state. And if we are in association, this relatively becomes easier.
Because in association, exposing our, everybody else is trying to, if at good association that is, everybody is trying to focus on Krishna, then we can also focus on Krishna. And, if you start getting too caught in material world, material things, then there are people around us, conductors, models, good characters. That’s how we all can be protected.
So, I’ll summarise what we discussed today. Broadly, I discussed five points. First was we discussed what is spiritual growth.
That is, initially the world is big and God is small. Eventually, the world becomes big and God becomes small. The world becomes small and God becomes big.
And how does this happen? This happens through Abhyas and Vairagya. That Abhyas means persistence. We persist in exposing ourselves to Krishna and abstinence in exposing ourselves to the world.
So, persistence can be done through making bonds. Like we take initiation vows. That’s the bond.
And abstinence is through boundaries. These are things I am not going to do. So, then we discussed about Bharat Maharaj’s life.
How pronunciation occurs. So, pronunciation can be a process that we choose. That is, but it can also be a fruit that arises within us.
Naturally, someone feels renounced. So, when we choose the process, that is what we do, this persistence and abstinence consciously. We talked about, again, how, you know, this pronunciation is not the feeling, I am not good enough for the world.
I am not good enough for the world. That is not exactly enunciation. That is more of frustration.
That, oh, I am not good enough. I want to do this but I can’t do it. Enunciation is, the world is not good enough for me.
That, whatever the world promises, that’s just not so good. I am not going to spend my life pursuing that. Then when we discuss renouncing the world, then I talked about temptations.
You know, how temptations come according to our level of consciousness. So, if our consciousness is sattva, rajas or tamas, then the temptations that will come to us, in tamas, it might be intoxication, oversleeping. In rajas, it will be power and sensual pleasure.
In sattva, it might be reading too much or it can be even compassion. So, now, for Bharat Maharaj, the temptation came in sattva. Now, what exactly was the temptation? It was, protecting was not wrong.
Protecting was a good thing to do at that particular time. But then, taking on the role of maintaining. I discussed elaborately, what happened was, human emotion was applied on an animal.
Like I talked about this yoga and yoga, that we can’t take from animals and apply these to humans. I talked about pair bonding is necessary for humans for taking care of children. And we cannot apply on animals what is applied to humans.
So, that it became lifelong maintaining. And that was a problem for him. That’s how he got distracted.
Then we talked about how in real life, finally, so, our post-mortem, our next life destination, what determines that? So, we talked about how in real life, two principles apply. So, 8.6, 8.56 is what, what we remember at the time of death, that’s what we will attain. And then, 2.40 is, spiritual work will never be lost.
So, what happened was, when these two are in opposite simile. So, what happens is, he got a dear body, but with human consciousness. So, spiritual life, spiritual journey cannot be started in animal life.
But it can continue in animal life. Then we discussed about how in his next life, what did he do? For him, sattvic temptation came in the form of rituals. That rituals, if you become into the rituals very good, then what happens, you get a lot of respect and piousness.
He said, I don’t want this. So, he, he deliberately rejected those rituals. Neglected, rejected rituals.
And that’s what he ensured was, he did not get caught in the world. He focused on transcendence. And finally, his spiritual potency was seen in his bringing, inspiring, inspiring spirituality in someone who was in a position he had been in two lives ago.
Spirituality in a kingdom. So, for all of us, we need to focus on these two principles of persistence and abstinence. Whatever, sometimes you may get deviated, but if you persist and abstain, then that will take us ultimately to transcendence.
Even if you sometimes take U-turns or divergence, keep persisting and exposing ourselves to Krishna and abstaining from exposing ourselves to the world. This is supported by association. So, through association, we can even do these things.
Like the acronym PAT. We can pat ourselves on the back, encouraging ourselves, not condemning ourselves if we slip and fall. Just persist and abstain and we will all transcend.
Thank you very much. Hare Krishna. Are there any questions or comments? Do you have a mic? Hare Krishna Guruji.
Thank you for the wonderful performance. Don’t make the world wait for me. It’s funny you mentioned that Kshatriyas, we don’t go for monasticism, we don’t take sannyas.
That’s one point. Another thing that you mentioned compassion, that we want to do something for you. Maintenance, assistance, attachment.
That I want something from you for myself. I am more interested in other person’s spiritual advancement more than my spiritual advancement. And then he is more interested in his spiritual advancement.
So, how can we identify the difference between these things? Good questions. So, let me start with the second question. See, the key test is that ultimately we can only assist.
You know, we can’t control people. This is what we can do, this is what we can’t do. When Krishna says, Vimrishcheta dasheshena ethechita, to deliberate and do as you desire.
So, when we even when we want others to make good decisions, ultimately it is for them to be convinced. If they don’t want to do it, we can’t force them. So, I care for you.
But one aspect of caring for others is caring for their autonomy. Acknowledging that Krishna has his own community and we have to respect it. Without that, we cannot just override.
So, if they are not ready to take some spirituality or not ready to take a spirituality at the pace at which we want to, then we have to let go. So, what happens is that everyone is making this negotiation in their life. Right now, I want to care for my present me and I want to care for my potential me.
Like a child. A child may just want to play. The parents in class keep playing all day.
The parents care for the potential child. You can do so much more in the future. So, now if we care only for the present me, then what will happen is, we will stagnate.
I mean, okay, I want to enjoy it. I just want to be comfortable. We can stagnate or we can even de-stagnate.
But if somebody cares only for the potential me, then what happens is, we will suffocate. Because I am not able to do anything. I just feel crushed.
You know, I remember somebody would say, I want you to go back to Godhead. And then he would say, in trying to make my future life happy or make my present life unbearably miserable. You know, he said, no, but it’s for your good.
Okay, it’s for the good. But Yuktaha means, what will be Yuktaha? It will be different people. Different people at different levels of consciousness.
Based on their previous life, based on their present condition or whatever. So, we need to find a balance where they are satisfied at least to some degree in the present. And, in the present also, there is some happiness.
Not complete indulgence, but there has to be some happiness in the present. And potential also, there is happiness. So, how exactly to attain that balance? So, if you force somebody to do something, we might have that authority where we are going to force them for some time.
So, each person has to arrive at that balance. How much to care for the present way and how much to care for the future. We can’t make that decision for them.
We can only make that decision for ourselves. so that’s the answer to the second question. Now, how do we let go? If we are under the decision, this is their decision, not my decision, that sometimes people have to learn through their own experiences.
You know, we can’t we can’t force wisdom onto somebody. Wisdom has to come to them by their own growth, by their own choice. There is also a problem with religious fanaticism.
You know, you can put a gun in front of somebody and convert somebody. But that doesn’t bring shraddha, that doesn’t bring faith, that doesn’t bring bhakti. So, it is voluntary.
You have to pursue it. You can only pursue it to some degree. And, what was the first question you said? So, what about the question you asked? You mentioned that Kshatriyas go for one person, they don’t take sanyas.
So, what’s the balance here? It’s not necessarily the dynamics, it’s just that sanyas is a very elevated ashram, and those who have lived in a very high level comfort are not ready to take up the austerity of sanyas life. So, they take it as a ritual, not as a sanyas ashram. But it doesn’t mean that it has to be absolute.
The idea was that if you are a Kshatriya in this life, you become a Brahmana in this life. Now, after you become a Brahmana in this life, then you will attain sanyas, and then you will get moksha. So, it was seen as a multi-lifetime process.
In the bhakti tradition, it is somewhat different. From whichever ashram we are in, Mami is for the Pashyantya, and Yogi is for the Supapriya. From whichever ashram one is in, they be on the Paramahamsa.
So, the sanyas there, and the sanyas in the Vishnu tradition is slightly different. So, there are many examples of three aspects. Daksha, Kama, Sattva.
So, can you say, the 4th canto, Daksha, Kama, Sattva. The 1st canto by Kama, Kama, Sattva. The 6th canto by Kama, Kama, Sattva.
Good point. I heard something similar. Karnamuni exemplifies coming from Sattva to Bhakti.
Nirmaharaj exemplifies coming from Vajas to Bhakti. And Uttarasu exemplifies coming from Kamas to Bhakti. Of course, you can go to Uttarasu’s previous life, and then he was already exhausted.
He wasn’t even born, at least in that lifetime. And suddenly, he had a spiritual awakening. So, it’s a nice analysis.
Good point. Thank you. Thank you for the wonderful presentation.
So, you were speaking about the manifestation. Nowadays, they call it the law of attraction also. So, what is your take on this concept? You speak a lot about this.
See, what has happened is, I have a whole class on this, especially the scientists, but quickly, I’ll mention it over here, that in the history of science, if you consider the recent history, there was a time when there was the whole theory of behaviourism, that the mind was made irrelevant. That basically, we are just behavioural creatures. There’s a stimulus, there’s a response.
There’s a stimulus, there’s a response. And the animals can be reconditioned in particular ways. You just change the stimulus, the response will change.
So, what is inside doesn’t matter. Just change the stimulus, the response will change. So, basically, that was a very physicalist vision of the human being.
Mind was considered largely unimportant. But then, we, somebody may grow up in a very good family, they have all good stimulus, but they make bad choices. Somebody may grow up in a criminal neighbourhood, and still they may become good citizens.
So, we are not just stimulus-response creatures. We bring something from inside. There’s free will, and there’s also purvayana samskara.
Both of them are there. So, the mind is not irrelevant. But what has happened is, that now, it has gone to the other extreme.
The mind is not just irrelevant, it is omnipotent. That, the mind doesn’t matter, it’s irrelevant or important over here. What is going on inside doesn’t matter.
Just do this thing, this will happen, at a physical level. So, the law of interaction, it is more manifested in things going on this other extreme. If you desire something, that will happen.
Now, at a practical level, people say, age is just a matter of… age is just a… age is just a number. And, there is some truth to that. If somebody is always saying, I have grown old, I have grown old, I have grown old, that will deplete them.
But, you know, age is definitely not just a number. Isn’t it? It’s like, if somebody is a sports player, playing a 43 or a cricket player, plays very well at 43 or 43, you say, age is just a number. Well, you are saying age is just a number because that is a relevant number for that person.
Isn’t it so? Even that player can’t play as well as 43 as they are playing at 23 or 33. So, age is a reality. But, it is… doubt does… we cannot change by our mind actual physical realities.
If I say, I’m not going to die, I’m not going to die, I’m not going to die, death will come, messengers of death will come, you are already dead now. So, that’s not going to work. But, the mind is potent.
It is not omnipotent, but it is potent. Among the five factors of action, Krishna says, cheshta is also one of them. So, the endeavour that we do, that endeavour could be physical practise, but it calls for mental orientation.
So, there are books like The Power of Positive Thinking or whatever. Does our thinking affect what we do? Of course it affects. But, can it change any and every reality? Is it like a magic wand that can free us from all problems? No.
So, if we visualise something, does that mean that that thing will happen? Well, not necessarily. What went wrong? Will it happen necessarily? Not always. But, if you see, in 2.41, Krishna says, Focus on one goal.
How do you focus on one goal? It is by visualising. Visualise a goal. That’s important.
The Upanisads say, there are temples filled with devotees. Only time is important. So, that is visualisation.
Now, the same Gita also says in 2.47, don’t be attached to results. Because, in one sense, we may visualise a particular goal. But, just our visualisation, or even just our endeavour alone is not going to bring the result.
There is destiny. And sometimes destiny may not be there. So, manifestation does matter.
Manifesting in the sense of visualising the reality that we would like to have. That is very important. But, that does not mean that we can create that reality in confidence.
So, we have to be recognising that the mind has power. And we want to leverage the power of the mind. But, we can’t assume that the mind is omnipotent.
That is where the idea of manifesting becomes mistaken. Thank you. It depends.
There can be different ways in which we are persisting and connecting with Krishna. So, it is not that Arjuna was constantly, singularly focused on Krishna when he was fighting the war. There is no reference in the Mahabharata that Arjuna was shooting arms.
Hare Krishna! Hare Krishna! Vishwa Krishna! Hare Krishna! No. When he is fighting the war, it is a serious business. He is focused on fighting.
So, there are times when our focus on Krishna is through Krishna being the ultimate purpose of our life. So, for us, we cannot avoid in one sense exposing ourselves to the world also. But, it is that if I am here, Krishna is here and the world is here.
So, what we do is, for us, bhakti is in both ways. For us, our sadhana is the time when we directly connect with Krishna. And our seva is the way we connect with Krishna through the world.
So, we need to do both. Our sadhana is what you can say is world transcending devotion. We turn away from the world to directly focus on Krishna.
That is world transcending devotion. Our seva is world transforming devotion. We want to work in this world to change somethings in the world.
It could be our home, it could be our temple, it could be our particular area of service. It could make a change in the country. So, now, we cannot be doing sadhana constantly because we have responsibilities in the world and even if we didn’t have responsibilities, we may not have the capacity to just constantly transcend the world.
At the same time, we cannot get so caught in transforming the world because we want to remember that through the world I am going towards Krishna. If we don’t have some sufficient time to be directly connected with Krishna, then what will happen is we won’t have that Krishna impressed within us and when we are engaging in the world, we will remember I need to connect with Krishna wholeheartedly. That’s why sadhana and seva, we need to balance.
Our family life, taking care of our family, our job, all those also activities, they are not for us. They are more indirect forms of seva. So, Krishna talks about this in 12.9 that And in 12.10, he talks about You work for me.
We do both of these things. We learn in 12.10. Thank you. Do we have time for more? One last question and then if there is any question, I will talk to you directly.
Not in all cases. You told that you were not able to see Krishna. But then you saw him on the river in the field and animals were coming and just animals were coming and just eating the food and he was just glorifying it.
And then when the food was planted, it had replenished all the grains. Miraculously. These things happen.
But the principle I would say is there is a specific and there is a principle. The specific may or may not be reputable. But the principle is that we should not think that we are the maintainers.
It’s Krishna who maintains. But there are times when Krishna may want to maintain through us. And suppose Krishna may want to maintain independent of us.
So, it depends. So, when a parent is taking care of the child, he doesn’t think I am the maintainer. Krishna is maintaining through me.
I am an instrument of Krishna. So, should all parents follow Srila Swami? No parents should take care of the child. Is that the absolute principle you want to follow? No.
Why have Dharamadhi Samskara? Why have Shobhi Samskara, Namakara Samskara and all that? So, these are examples from which we can take a principle. Generally, in any tradition there are extraordinary examples. But they cannot be literally replicated.
So, Prabhupada himself, when he met his Guru, met his Guruji master, Prabhupada says that now that he was married, he had a five-tailed child. He said, if I had not been married, I would have joined my spiritual master mission immediately. But he said, now I felt it would be unfair.
So, Prabhupada knew it would be unfair. But I cannot survive that. So, there is a principle over there which is very much valid.
But the specifics, we have to consider time-based. Is something not clear to you? How do you imagine when somebody is faced with some sort of situation? Even though they are Ajahn Yahya, there are times when somebody has found it difficult. Well, one has to be honest.
Are we at that level of consciousness? If we are, some people may be. But they have that conviction that the Lord will take care of it. And they won’t hold it against the Lord because the Lord doesn’t take care.
But otherwise, we may feel betrayed by the Lord. We may feel, I did so much and that didn’t happen. So, we live in a different world.
We have to consider time-based approaches. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu didn’t want to meet Buddha, Buddha was timeless. World War of America, Prabhupada cut down that tour to meet Indira Gandhi.
So, why did Prabhupada do that? A lot of people follow Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. No, that circumstance was different in that particular situation. Mahaprabhu felt that if he met as the king, people will think that he is a materialistic person.
And that would impede his stature, his reputation, his perception in society. In today’s world, if a nuncy gets to meet a head of state, that would increase the reputation. Isn’t it? Not decrease.
Oh, this person has met the head of state of the country. Must be a special person. So, today, we live in a different world.
In the past, there was more or less Varanasi kind of structure, wasn’t it? So, if somebody announced, then others also would take care. Krishna would take care through many different means. And today that kind of Varanasi structure is not there.
So, if we have to announce, we need to consider what are the arrangements practically done to take care of things. So, there are exceptional saints who are exceptional. Generally, scripture or tradition, they teach through extreme, there are always extreme examples, extreme examples of both positives and negatives.
Like, extreme example of Ajaman is by chanting one name of Narayana. Was liberated from at least the clutches of death at that time. Now, after hearing that, did Paritik Maharaj say, Hey, you know, just shut up.
No need to speak anything more. When Daksha comes, I’ll chant one Narayana. No need for you to hear from me.
He took that as a lesson. He said, you know, Narayana is so merciful, if one chanting of the name is, if I life long focus, how much more will you get? So, the extreme examples are not meant to standardise the extreme. That, this is how everyone has done.
That’s not the point of the examples. It is to emphasise the standard. That, the standard is, that we all do life long chanting.
And if one name of Narayana can do so much good, then life long chanting will definitely do some good. That’s what we want to focus on. So, there are various things in life which we consider.
Prabhupada himself showed by his example. And we have today, when we want to renounce also, we take care of the family responsibilities, provide some financial support for the family, and then renounce what we want. Why? Because it’s a different situation.
Generally, Narayana, in our movement, it’s a grasta, modulik, sanyas. They have to get the consent of their wife. They want to be responsible for it, at least at some level.
So, I would say, we live in a particular society and we have to consider multiple factors in scripture. So, we are we are also a movement that is in the world and we are trying to reach out to the world. If it was a preacher who was trying to preach to people, then the perception matters a lot.
So, what may happen is that somebody may, out of genuine renunciation, may actually renounce the world. Somebody else may renounce it just out of irresponsibility. And others may follow that way.
So, we don’t want to set a wrong example for others also. So, we have to neshikara matra has to be considered and applied. The story is that he had a newborn baby and he was like, I have to take care of the baby.
It was Arjuna’s child. Lizard, na? That was Arjuna’s child? Arjuna’s child is Yogakshema Mohammed. So, basically what happened, he saw a lizard.
Arjuna’s son, commentator. Yeah. So, basically he saw that.
Yeah, he had a child. He and the wife were expecting a child. There was a lizard.
There was a lizard and the lizard it gave a baby and the baby fell down. It fell down and landed on its feet. And there was an insect nearby.
The baby bird just threw out its tongue and caught the insect and ate it. And he said that Krishna can arrange for this baby lizard to be taken care of. Krishna can arrange for my baby also to be taken care of.
So, I don’t have to stay on and renounce the world. Good question. I also had to look for a primary source for it.
I have heard in classes but I had to look for a primary source. I have not heard it for a very long time. Thank you very much.