If we don’t direct contemplation fascination and dedication to Krishna wherever they get directed will become our addiction

Transcript

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we cannot give up worship we simply direct our worship from God to a substitute of God substitute to God when we look at the world around us we see people attached even addicted to so many things that’s for example we have people addicted to the word addiction was traditionally associated with alcohol that’s why there are organizations like Alcoholics Anonymous which were intended to help people to get rid of their addiction but then now there are there is drug addiction then there is internet addiction there is phone addiction, there is TV addiction there is pornography addiction there is even food addiction there is addiction to overeating so like that there are many different forms of addiction these various forms of addiction in various ways they basically impel people to chase after certain things now if you consider worship of God and what is done by the great devotees, the saints we could say there is there are some standard features there is contemplation, there is fascination and there is dedication so that means devotees the lovers of God they constantly think about God wherever they are they are thinking about God contemplation and there is fascination there is not just attraction but there is fascination they are so eager to know about God that whatever happens they feel attracted they feel that they just need to connect with they just want to know more and more about God whether it is Krishna or whether it is Jesus whatever be the name of God in their tradition they are just attracted towards transcendence so this is not infatuation, infatuation refers to something that comes and it is often quite superficial it stays for some time and it goes but the fascination is transformation so when we are fascinated by something when we redirect our life, we transform ourselves so that we can become more and more devoted to that particular thing and thus we move closer and closer in our devotion to that object that person so as in the case of those who are fascinated with God to God and it is not just a matter of thinking or wanting to know more there is also an element of doing more, there is dedication so dedication means that the worshipper, the devotee, especially the advanced devotee, the saint takes a lot of effort to dedicate one’s resources, its time, money energy, intelligence abilities all in the service of the Lord so so this move from a Bhaktivinoda Thakur song is universal among those devoted to God, my dear Lord whatever is mine my mind, my body, my house, my family members my everything I offer it to you Lord so in the case of worship one is ready to give up everything for the purpose of devoting oneself to the Lord and yet one feels that I am not doing enough I should be doing more and more and more these characteristics when they are directed towards an otherworldly object, towards God they lead to our elevation and liberation but those same characteristics we may think this is very rare, such saints are not easy to find and yes at one level that is true but another level this principle of being overwhelmingly attracted to something that principle is universal and we will see it among people who are materialistic also they may not have much connection with God some of them may even disbelieve God they may reject God but still they have something else towards which their heart and body are directed so their contemplation their fascination and their dedication are directed towards the object of their addiction especially in the case of addicts so when somebody is addicted, say a person is addicted to alcohol then that person thinks constantly about alcohol, when will I get to drink next where might there be alcohol person may be sitting in office and doing one’s work but at that time their thoughts are not on their work their thoughts are on something else their thoughts are on their object of addiction so I had gone there, there was this particular whiskey there, there was this wine there, there was this brandy there and then maybe there is some over here also maybe I can go and get that so the thoughts constantly go towards that and even if that person is trying to resist that habit and then they are haunted by thoughts keep coming, so there is contemplation now of course there is a major major difference when contemplation fascination and dedication are directed towards God and when they are directed towards anything other than God, especially something, when they are directed towards something which is in the lower modes such as alcohol so contemplation, fascination and dedication directed towards God they bring peace, they bring joy, they bring meaning to life they bring fulfillment but when those same things are directed towards alcohol they yield the opposite result as for example we will see that when a person is devoted to something which is not that worthy of devotion when a person is captivated by some early objects, say alcoholic is captivated by alcohol and the contemplation of alcohol actually causes agitation it strips away one’s peace of mind in contrast when there is contemplation on Krishna that brings pacification Oh Lord please bless me please if I can just fix my mind on you my mind will become peaceful when we fix the mind on Krishna, when we accept that I am a servant of Krishna then that brings immense peace to the mind a person who is materially attached who is not just attached but also addicted when there is fascination towards material things it leads inevitably to frustration because we end up consumed by this desire and that desire and whereas Krishna is unlimited and because he is unlimited so fascination with him can give us unending satisfaction but such is not the case with worldly gratification in the case of worldly gratification there is actually a very little pleasure but we keep craving, dreaming that maybe this bottle of wine did not this bottle of alcohol did not give me pleasure maybe next bottle will give me and that kind of irrational hoping against hope keeps us in illusion it doesn’t allow us to move ahead our mind gets locked in that particular object whereas we are physically free but our mind is driven not just by the power of our thoughts but by the power of our emotions and our emotions are very forceful so by the power of our emotions we are driven towards certain objects and when we are thus driven there is practically nothing that we can do to avoid captivation just totally maddened by that irrational obsession this fascination we could call it obsession the word fascination usually has a positive connotation the word obsession has a negative connotation but whatever be the connotation the important point is that there is the direction of the heart in a forceful way towards that object when we are thus captivated we end up unable to overcome the force and beyond such fascination there is also dedication dedication means that just as an alcoholic just as a devotee is dedicated to God an alcoholic is dedicated to alcohol just as a devotee a worshipper is ready to give up everything for the sake of God an alcoholic is ready to give up everything for the sake of alcohol and thus the person gets consumed ready to give up their money their prestige when they drink compulsively people act in an insane way speak and do stupid things and because of that they lose their health when they become alcoholics compulsively sometimes their relationships become brittle and broken their loved ones leave them they are ready to give it all up for the sake of alcohol they may not think consciously that I am giving this up for this but at that time in such a compulsive pull that they are left with no options just get dragged over there of course from a philosophical perspective we always have free will but the way we use our free will the scope of that free will can become very constricted and the alcoholic may not have the ability to resist alcohol in a practical sense because of the fascination, because of the obsession so addiction is also a form of dedication but it is a degrading self-destructive form of addiction we talked about how contemplation, fascination and dedication when directed towards God lead to elevation and liberation but when these same things contemplation, fascination, dedication they are directed to something else because of addiction then that leads to degradation and that leads to bondage so the person becomes more and more bound when we understand in principle that the human heart cannot live without worship if one does not worship God then one will end up worshipping a bottle of alcohol or something else whatever it may be we will find some substitute for God and direct our contemplation, fascination and dedication towards that object now whatever it is that is attracting us that manifests a spark of Krishna’s splendor Krishna is all attractive and Bhagavad Gita 10.41 says that everything attractive manifests a spark of my splendor Krishna says so if we are not attracted to the whole then because we have to be attracted to something we will be attracted to a spark and based on our cultural conception our cultural situation, our mental conceptions which spark we may be attracted to that will vary some people may be attracted to a spark that is in the mode of goodness they may become fascinated with reading books and acquiring information somebody may get fascinated with money he is earning more and more money that is more or less in the mode of passion and in the mode of ignorance somebody may be captivated by alcohol so by recognizing that we are the principle of devotion which involves contemplation, fascination and dedication that is universal but the result of the devotion depends on what we are devoted to using our intelligence if we recognize that it is God Krishna who is the supremely worthy object of devotion we try to practice bhakti yoga according to our capacity and redirect our heart from the spark to the whole and even when while we are being while we are trying to direct our heart towards the whole if our heart gets pulled towards the spark because of our past conditionings then we remember even then that actually this is also Krishna Prabhupada says that if an alcoholic thinks that the taste of alcohol is Krishna even by that the alcoholic will move closer to Krishna and one day become a devotee of Krishna not by drinking alcohol but by thinking of Krishna that way so if we can see Krishna even in the things that make us unconscious of Krishna then that contemplation of Krishna will inspire us to intensify the process which will make us directly conscious of Krishna and as we direct our contemplation fascination and dedication towards Krishna we will find that the grip of our addictions on us will become lesser and lesser and we will over time by the consistent connection with Krishna break free from those addictions and become filled and fulfilled with our absorption in Krishna Thank you