Importance of celibacy in the world’s spiritual traditions

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
I was thinking of speaking a little bit about what it means to be a brahmachari or a monk in today’s world from a broader perspective. Firstly, within the world, then specifically within our tradition, I don’t know much about your present situation, but essentially the challenge is similar everywhere. So I’ll talk about that and then I’ll talk a little bit about studying Shastra.
Because my primary source of strength and service is centred on Shastric studies, speaking and writing. So, in general, throughout history, there are always people who have above-average spiritual urges. These above-average spiritual urges may come just naturally.
As Vishwanath Chaturthi Kapoor says, there are two ways that this adhyatmic growth becomes. This is swabhavakhi and balenutparita. Swabhavakhi means naturally, that means from a previous life, a person has some connection with God and wants to move onwards.
And the second is balenutparita. Somebody meets a very inspiring person, a great saint and that brings out the spiritual inclination. So, when there are people with above-average spiritual urge, then how is that to be harmonised with the remaining social structure? In general, two systems have been there in the world.
One is division of lifespan and second is division of society into groups of people. And in the Vedic tradition, both have been done to some extent. So, division of lifespan means, in most religious traditions, like nowadays, marriage is like a treadmill that people keep climbing on again and again.
One marriage doesn’t work, try a second marriage. Second marriage doesn’t work, try a third marriage. But in the past, people would marry and usually, if a spouse dies, if a person becomes a widow or a widower, most people would not want to marry again.
They would only say, okay, this life, let me focus on God. It’s not that everybody is spiritually inclined. No, definitely not.
But the understanding was that there is a purpose to life beyond just forming relationships in this world. And so, the idea was, okay, you have a householder life and then you focus more on God. In the world, the majority religion is Christianity.
And Islam is not very relevant for our discussion. So, I’ll primarily focus on how this monasticism is understood in the Christian world and how it is understood in the Dharmic traditions. Dharmic traditions include Vaishnavism also.
And to some extent, what is influential today is Buddhism. To some extent, there are impersonals also who are monks. I’ll just contrast the two of them and then I’ll talk a little bit about the situation.
So, in the Catholic tradition, the idea was that, okay, this relationship is over, focus on God. And they would have monks and nuns. And that’s how people focused on the relationship with God by dividing life into phases.
So, either a partner dies and then you focus more on God or you finish your duties. They may not have a formal division like Vanaprastha and Sanyasa Ashrams. But the understanding was that a greater part of life should be devoted to God.
Now, for others, there is also the division. So, one is chronological division. The other is sociological division where some people become monks right from childhood.
And not the other, maybe youth. And they live separate from society. And in the Catholic tradition, the monks are considered extremely important.
Because they said that, even today in most Catholic churches, they say that the rituals of sanctification, sacraments they call them, they have been performed by monks. And the fathers, usually pastors, main pastor is always a monk. And they say that because the monk has renounced the connection of relationship in this world and sacrificed the pleasure of flesh for the service of God.
So, the pastor stands above the congregation and becomes the link between God and the congregation. And that’s why the sacraments, sacraments means they have certain rituals and that’s like, you know, we have the japa mala. But at the time of initiation, the spiritual master chants the mantra.
And Bhaktivinoda Thakur says that the spiritual master invests the holy name in the mantra and gives to the disciple. So, like that, they have the idea of sacraments. And the sacrament can be invested by the monks.
That’s why in the Catholic tradition, they have that the main pastor, main pastor has to be a monk. Now, there has always been a reaction to this. Whenever there is monkhood, we will come to this in the dharmic tradition a little later.
In the Christian tradition, especially in mediaeval ages, some of the top leaders in terms of the monks, they often became morally corrupt. There are several popes, you know, who not only had sex, they had sex with variety of women, many women. And they had many illicit children also through that.
So, as a reaction to this, and many other problems in the Catholic church, protestantism came up in the Catholic, the Christian reformation. And one of the trends within the protestant movement is that monkhood is a source of great evil. Because when people become monks, then they are suppressing their natural urges.
And therefore, they end up doing terrible things. So, in most protestant denominations, they don’t have any monks at all. So, they are all pastors or couples.
And protestantism is also spreading, but protestantism has largely been more this worldly. Because in general, if in a congregation, there are not people who are totally devoted to God, then the focus on God as a goal distinct from this world gets diminished. Because those who renounce the world, they have no goal in this world.
And seeing that example, people feel inspired also to seek another worldly goal. So, during this, when this reformation was going on, the protestants and Catholics, they all got different countries as their heads. So, Italy, Spain, Portugal, these were Catholics.
France, Britain, Germany, they are protestants. And there was severe war. So, many of the protestants, because the Catholic Church was still very powerful, they fled and they came to America.
And they developed America. Now, because protestantism had rejected many of the evils in Catholic Church, but along with that, they also rejected the monasticism. So, their ethos became very worldly.
And the protestant church very much embodies the values of dharmapakam. Their idea is, our worldly success proves our godliness. Because we are so godly, so God is giving us all this prosperity.
So, in fact, the Britishers also reaction like that. Because they had the Anglican Church, which is also protestant church. And they had the idea, because we are so, which is devoted to God, that’s why God is blessing us by enabling us to conquer so many parts of the world.
So, in general, when a religion rejects the monastic order, then it becomes quite worldly. Like Prabhupada said in the first canto, first chapter itself, that in dharmarthakama, if people find that they can get artha without dharma, then they give up dharma also. So, over a period of time, America became very prosperous.
And to some extent, the protestant ethos, the protestant ethos is, that God’s glory is seen in the prosperity that we achieve in this world. And because of that, the protestants do work hard in this world. And we see the effect of the westernised culture.
In the westernised culture, we see that people are materially very well organised. Even if most of you come from India, you see that if you go to India, things seem to be so materially mismatched. So, one of the things that in the around 18th, 19th century, when Ralph Waldo Emerson and others read Bhagavad Gita and they appreciated, there are many spiritual aspirants who came to India.
And when they saw the poverty, the misery, the mess in India, they just couldn’t link how are these people so lofty in their thoughts and so filthy in their lives. The philosophical insight in the Upanishads, in the Gita, they are so lofty. So, completely messy in their real life.
How is this? What happened? This couldn’t digest it. I will come to this point again later. But the point I am making is that in general, most religions, Christianity, Catholic Church has its influence even today.
But Protestants have spread much much more. They are quite strongly evangelical, much more than Catholic Church. And the Protestant ethos is largely dharmarthakam.
And that’s why religion today is largely reduced to the idea that it is something which will keep you moral, keep you good, so that you can have the good life. So, good life means, as in the good life we call in America, you have a nice family, you have a nice job, you have a nice home, nice children. That’s a good life.
And religion is primarily meant to contribute to the good life. And Islam, of course, I won’t go deep into it, Islam is radically, at least mainstream Islam is radically against monkhood. There are many reasons for it.
The main challenge which Islam faces is that in most religions, certainly in the Vedic tradition, the spiritual power and the political power were always kept separate. The Brahmanas had spiritual power, the Kshatriyas had political power. Even in Christianity, the spiritual power was Jesus, the political power was primarily with Paul.
Paul was one of his apostles who actually spread Christianity very far and wide. But in Islam, the centre of spiritual power and political power was same, Muhammad. And subsequent generations of Muslims, they all looked up to follow Muhammad.
But they have followed primarily his example of political power, not the example of spiritual power. So, Muhammad would go to caves and meditate on God. That sort of thing very few people do.
See, how Muhammad planned and schemed and conspired to win territories. What he did, whatever it took to win the land for Allah. That’s what they follow.
So, because Islam is largely this worldly, because it has followed Muhammad’s primarily political example. So, in Islam, there is not much monkhood. Now, coming to the dharmic traditions.
In the dharmic traditions, if you see in Varanasi, both divisions are there. There is division chronologically of life. And there is also in terms of demography itself.
Some people can be monks and some people can be householders. So, when actually Prabhupada, if you see within the Zoroastrian sampradaya, coming specifically to our sampradaya, that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu himself was a sannyasi. But none of his followers took sannyas directly.
If you see, broadly speaking, the Bengali and Oriya Vaishnavas, they are mostly grahasthas. Almost everyone. And the Vrindavan Vaishnavas, they are mostly sannyas, renunciates.
But originally, because Rupan Sanathan Goswami had circumstantially converted to Islam, so, according to the caste standards at that time, they were not eligible for sannyas. Because they had become sort of, in the conventional Brahminic life, they had become contaminated. So, then they had renounced the world, but the Brahminical standards held that they could not take sannyas.
So, then they took an alternative form of renunciation, that is, Babaji. And because they were the foremost among the renunciates, among Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s followers, subsequent generations of renunciates felt that if they have not taken sannyas, if they have taken only Babaji renunciation, then we should also take Babaji. So, that’s how, in the Gaudiya tradition, rather than the sannyas ashram, although Chaitanya Mahaprabhu did take sannyas, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu never specifically banned sannyas, but it was the Babaji vesht rather than sannyas which became more standardised.
And it was, for the first time, sannyas ashram was re-instituted within our sampradaya, the Bhakti Sanskrit. Now, there are various reasons for that. As I said that, first the Protestants came to India, and after that Catholics also came to India.
And the Catholics had, when the Catholics started evangelising in India, they had their monks and they had their nuns. Especially the nuns, even some of you may have been in convent schools, they would have principals who are usually nuns, or some teachers who are nuns. So, they basically brought a lot of respect for organised renounced order.
The Babaji’s were disorganised. And then before that, Swami Vivekananda went to Chicago and he sort of presented the whole Chicago conference, that was there where he said, my dear brothers and sisters, and he was very appreciated. That was actually done to, because the Christians wanted to glorify their own religion.
But what happened, he brought a lot of respectability for monkhood, for the sannyasa, specifically. Not just in the western eyes, but even in India. Because for Indians, if anybody is respected in the west, then that person becomes very respectable.
So, then Bhakti Sanskriti Akhut took that circumstance, that because of the Christians, Christian organised orders, as well as the impersonalists getting some respect. Bhakti Sanskriti Akhut took that and he reintroduced, or rather, not reintroduced, recommenced. It was already there.
But he recommenced the renounced order in Agampada. And then he gave sannyasa to many of his disciples. And then, of course, he had disciples who were rahasthas, and his disciples were sannyasis.
Now, when Shri Prabhupada went to the west, he started the ashrams. Now, if you see within the Christian conscious movement, there is, as of now, we have, Prabhupada wanted Varna ashram. But how the Varna division is to be made, that is very unclear for most people.
How it is going to be done is not known. As far as the ashram division is concerned, brahmachari, grahastha and sannyasa ashrams are clear. Vanaprastha is still not so clear.
Sometimes there are informal vanaprasthas who just renounce, just get retired from their job and work from their home. Some people are official vanaprastha where they wear saffron and they no longer stay in their home but stay in a temple or some other ashram. But the brahmachari ashram plays in ISKCON a substantially different role than what was played originally in the tradition.
Originally, brahmacharis are meant to be students. But within the Christian conscious movement, brahmacharis soon become teachers. So, now, this is for many reasons.
Most of it is that necessity. We live in a preaching movement and there are not many teachers available. So, relatively speaking, brahmacharis are likely to have more time than grahasthas to study scripture, to understand and to teach scripture.
So, now, when we live in today’s society, the, as I said, going back to the Catholics, now more and more there is increasing demand in the Catholic church that scrap the demand, scrap the need that the pastor, the main pastor has to be a monk. Because there are many churches where there is no monk available. So, who will do the sacraments at that time? So, overall, the renounced orders are facing challenges whichever part of the world it may be or whichever religion it may be.
But within Krishna consciousness, we have the advantage that although the principle of bhakti may be there in other religions, but the principle of bhakti gives a very strong higher taste, easily accessible, relatively easily accessible higher taste by the mercy of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu through the process of Krishna bhakti as he has revealed. And that higher taste is a great strength. Ravindra Saru Prabhu once, he has written a very nice article, How I was saved from being saved.
So, he writes about how once he went to, he was invited to address a Catholic seminary or a Christian seminary, where there were these boys, young boys, who were trained to become pastors, priests. And they were supposed to be monks. And he gave a brief talk.
And he saw that when he told them about chanting of the holy names, they were ready to chant. He saw there were sincere spiritual seekers. And then, so, he gave his talk, finished the talk.
And then after that, the class got over and a few of them stood around him to talk with him. And suddenly he noticed one of them took out a cigarette and started smoking. These were supposed to be fathers, monks, and he started smoking.
And as they were talking, Ravindra Saru Prabhu just casually asked, is it so difficult for you to give up smoking? So, he said, I was shocked by the reply and the vehemence with which he gave the reply. So, this pastor, he said, if I could just take a girl out on Saturday night, I wouldn’t have smoked this damn thing. So, then he asked.
He said that, you know, yes, there are Brahmacharis in our movement also, but he had never experienced such vehemence towards any restriction. Then he enquired about their life. And he writes in his article, you know, he said, I felt pity for them when I heard about their lifestyle.
He said that they had some classes in the morning, some classes in the evening. And most of the day was free. And in their monastic houses, they had television, they had magazines, and there was, although they were expected to be not having sexual contact, there was no rigid structure for restricting their interaction with women.
And of course, there was nothing sattvic about their diet. They would eat meat, they would take wine also. So, he said, with such steamy life, it is impossible for anyone to be celibate.
So, I felt that they were being cheated. Cheated not by any system intentionally, but they had a sincere spiritual urge, but they were not being provided a facility where that spiritual urge could be expressed. If a person is given idle time, if a person is given exposure to all sorts of media, where there is going to be sensory stimulation, there is no regulation in diet.
See, celibacy or monkhood or brahmacharya cannot be divorced from the lifestyle. The whole lifestyle is materialistic. And then he said, okay, just one change, just be a celibate.
And it’s not just one change that can be done like that. It doesn’t work. So, he did, how I was saved from being saved because, see, this childhood, he was also initiated and Christians they have, when you accept Jesus as your saviour, you are saved.
He said, if I had been saved at that time, I would have become like them. But by Prabhupada’s birthday, I was saved from being saved. Double quotes.
I can say it with double quotes. So, the point which I am going to make is that, that actually we have the facility to gain access to the higher taste and to not only protect but to grow in our devotion and renunciation. But we have to take advantage of that facility.
That means many things. But most importantly, it means that we have to take responsibility for our spiritual advancement. And we have to do what it takes for us to grow in our spiritual life.
To protect our renunciation and to move forward in our renunciation. We can’t, yes, there is supportive system and in different temples, the level of support might be less or might be more. Now, there is a circumstantial element to it and there is a transcendental element to it.
Circumstantially, yes. Yesterday I was talking with Gopal Desh who said, no, the way brahmacharis, the way brahmacharis have to live here, the way brahmacharis live in India, it’s like brahmacharis are protected babies in India. Here you are like out, you have much more exposure.
So, that is circumstantial. Of course, there are temptations there also, no doubt. And there is protection here also.
But relatively speaking, there may be more challenge here and that could be at one level circumstantial. The culture here is different. The temple’s emphasis may be different.
The service requirement may be different. But beyond the circumstantial, bhakti also means to see the transcendent. If you only see the circumstance, then how are we different from materials? Materials also need a circumstance.
That means we understand that beyond the circumstantial arrangement, there is a transcendental arrangement of Krishna. Krishna has allowed this situation to happen and if I try to serve Krishna in this situation, Krishna will enable me to grow. So, in general, in our life, many things may be wrong, many things will go wrong in future.
At such times, ask not why this? Ask how now? Ask not why this means? Why is this facility not there? Why it is like this? Why it is like that? Why did this happen? Why is this devotee like that? The why questions, especially with respect to the situation that we face in the world. They really don’t have any lasting answers. We can say it’s because of karma.
But that’s not a very satisfactory answer in terms of giving us solace. But if you just shift to how now? Okay, this is the situation I am in. How best can I serve Krishna in this situation? Then that can actually help us to shift our mental focus from resentment to opportunity.
Why this? Why this again? This is wrong. This is wrong. This is wrong.
We feel resentful because of that. How now? Okay, this is the situation. How can I serve Krishna in this situation? And then when we move onwards, one of the most inspiring aspects of bhakti is that when we try to serve Krishna, when we actually see the truth of the dhami buddhi yogam tam nirmahopayantam.
Krishna will use intelligence how we can move closer to him. How we can try to serve him more and more. How we can find forums by which we can find opportunities.
For example, a brahmachari, we may have a desire to study shastra. But we don’t have time. But then if you have the desire, Krishna will, you will find this, you maintain the desire, and suddenly some change will happen, some circumstance will come about and you will get more opportunity.
It may not happen immediately, but it will happen. So, circumstance can limit our actions. But unfortunately, we let circumstance weaken our intention itself.
I have a desire to study shastra, but so many times I don’t have time. Circumstance may weaken my action. But when we get frustrated by circumstance, then we let it weaken our intention itself.
I will never be able to study shastra. And then, when we don’t have desire, then why should Krishna reciprocate? So, rather than blaming the circumstance or be resentful of circumstance, we see beyond the circumstantial to the transcendental. When we see that, then we will, over a period of time, find out opportunities and Krishna will change the situation or Krishna will use the intelligence to work within the adapted existing situations to move onwards towards him.
I will give a couple of examples of this. Both ways. You know, I had polio from my childhood.
One of the main hesitations I had in learning brahmacharya ashram was that I would be able to maintain the pace. The lifestyle of brahmacharya ashram is quite austere. That’s what devotees also asked me.
At temple, Radheshyam asked me, will you be able to manage this? I said that, yes. I never needed any special facility when I was in school and college. At that time, I was much healthier.
So, then for my first 10-11 years, I lived in the ashram itself. And with whatever facility, other devotees had same facilities. But then afterwards, I had an accident.
I slipped and fell. My legs practically broke apart. And after, doctor told, now you cannot move around much.
So, earlier I used to travel quite a lot and reach a new classes. Doctor told, you cannot travel so much. So, I was thinking, that time I was doing some writing.
But writing was not my main service. My main service was travelling and preaching. So, I was wondering, what will I do if I don’t travel and preach? Then I was in India, there is a Bhaktivanta hospital run by devotees.
So, I was in that hospital. And through the hospital, I was giving a class on Skype. There were some students in Bangalore.
I was giving a class. And while giving, I was speaking on 6 opulence of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. And I just closed my eyes and kept speaking.
And I spoke for 15-20 minutes almost. And then suddenly, I heard a Skype call ringing. And I opened my eyes and then I realised that about a minute after I closed my eyes, the internet connection had gone.
And for 15-20 minutes, I had been speaking and there was no audience. My initial reaction was, I have wasted my time. But then somehow, Krishna Mahasaya had called me.
I thought. I was in ecstasy speaking about Krishna. I was absorbed.
It struck me, for speaking about Krishna, I don’t need an audience. So, that gave me the idea that I can just, I used to answer questions. Whenever I would go to any place, one of my main services was not just giving classes but answering questions.
So, I thought so many people have questions, I can just record their answers and put them on the net. So, at that time, no one was doing that like that. But I started that and I got such a huge response.
And then I started the Bhakti Shastri course which is online. And then I started giving lectures also directly online which then devotees use for, like this PK movie had come. Then I just gave some answers and many devotees found it very useful.
So, you know, when I got the fracture, I did not know that I would start online preaching afterwards. But I said, hello, it is there to glorify Krishna. And somehow, at that time also, now I think back, a normal human reaction was just to say, no, Bhakti means Bhakti.
Somehow, somehow Krishna gave that information at that time, that all the buddhi, yoga and all. I was just able to think in a different way. So, in general, if we try to serve Krishna, if we don’t let our circumstance weaken our intention, then Krishna will facilitate the fulfilment of our intention.
And our intention is devotional, somehow Krishna will do it. Maybe not immediately, maybe it will take some time. But Krishna will work it out.
And unfortunately, the nature of the mind is that it just wants some excuse to make us relax in Abha. So, then it will find immediately, this is a problem. How can you be serious with the situation? And once we become, we lose our seriousness, then the problems increase more and more.
Because then we don’t, when we lose our seriousness, then we don’t get higher taste. Once we don’t get higher taste, then again the lower tastes start rising more and more. And then the inner battle becomes quite unbearable.
So, overall, with respect to coming to, I’ll not go much into that, but I’ll come to the point of Shastric study. In Abha, for us, there will be many different services. And again, one of the challenges of the mind is that it will complain, oh, you don’t have time to study Shastra.
You don’t have time to study Shastra. You don’t have time to study Shastra. You have so many services.
But then, suppose you are given a full day with nothing to do. Just study Shastra. Within one or two hours, the mind will get bored.
This is too much. You can’t do it. So, although I like to read, I like to study, but I also cannot just study throughout the day.
I have to write. I have to speak. I have to do some variety.
So, there are very very few devotees who if all their services are taken away and they are just given the service of studying Shastra, will be able to sustain it. That means, the same mind which now blames us, we have too many services, so we are not able to study Shastra, the same mind will later trouble us, oh, life is so boring, all day studying. How are you going to do that? You need some variety, isn’t it? So, that means, the mind will find reason to be dissatisfied whatever we are doing.
We have too many services, the mind will find reason to be dissatisfied and you don’t have time to study Shastra. And, if we have lot of time to study Shastra, Shastra is so boring. We may not say that directly, but the fan force keeps saying the same thing again and again.
Oh, many times I have read this. Then if I study something technical also, people are not intelligent enough to understand. So, why should I trouble my intelligent friend to understand it also? So, basically, the mind will always find some reason to keep us dissatisfied.
So, rather than listening to the mind, if we just focus on using the time that we have, whatever time we have, we use it to study Shastra. Then we will find that Krishna will arrange according to our need, according to the circumstance, to give us more facility for studying Shastra. And we can study Shastra for various purposes.
Of course, as I said, the primary role of brahmacharis in our movement is as teachers. But not everybody may necessarily become a teacher of the same kind. Some devotees may become teachers who study Shastra and teach Bhakti Shastri, Vaibhav, Bhakti Vaibhav.
They really go deep into Shastra and they teach Shastra. Others may become teachers where their focus is not so much on going deep into Shastra, but on cultivating people. On developing a relationship, on building a programme where what you need more is capacity to understand and present the basic concepts.
And then build relationships. So, different devotees may grow in different ways. And one challenge with respect to, this applies not only to study Shastra, but in general to anything is, when we live in very close quarters, then often, because we are observing others, we just can’t avoid comparing ourselves with others.
Mind is compared. And then we may think, oh, this devotee is studying Shastra so much, this devotee is not studying anything. This devotee is in this position of, this devotee is in this negative position, this devotee doesn’t have any position.
So, often we get caught up in externals too much. We, when we come to the ashram, yes, we can compare others to gain inspiration. Every morning this devotee wakes up and does sadhana very strictly.
Let me also try to do that. That is fine. That is good.
But that comparison is either making us feel insecure or is making us feel envious about another person. Or, thirdly, third possibility, it makes us feel superior to another person. Then, that sort of comparison is detrimental for our life.
Although we are living together, ultimately each of us has a relationship with each other. So, for example, when we do Shastric study, how study of Shastra will inspire you will be different from how it will inspire me. So, for me, say, it may be reading the Sanskrit, understanding Sanskrit words, memorising the verses.
That’s what may inspire me. For you, it may be that you get your primary inspiration from hearing the classes of your spiritual master. For someone else, it may be hearing systematic classes in a particular course.
You know, sir, Bhakti Shastra, you know, beginning to end you hear. That’s what inspires you. For someone else, Shastric study may inspire in a different way.
You just read one purport and contemplate on it and analyse it. And some devotee, I know one devotee, you know, for every 15 minutes that he reads, he writes down for five minutes. Prabhupada said, you know, you present your message in my words.
My message in your words. So, what he says is that he doesn’t feel as if I have studied and understood Shastra, still I write it down. So, he feels very nourished.
So, you read only 15 minutes, but after reading 15 minutes, five minutes he will write down his own words. When I try to write down, I am forced to think what is it that I read. And it becomes more thought provoking, more absorbing.
And at the end of that reading he feels, now I got something which I can talk with others, which I can use in my classes. So, there may not be any stereotype. Like some day somebody will say that, oh, this person, we joined together, but he is in the seventh canto, I am only in the second canto.
Well, when we are going to die, Krishna Ram would ask, which canto are you on? Krishna Ram would ask whether we are remembering Krishna. Certainly we want to read Bhagavatam, we want to read Srishti. But the important point is, not just how much we read, but on how much what we read inspires us.
How much what we read transforms us, how much what we read energises us so that we can practise bhakti and share Krishna with others. So, that’s why, A, if you find that some devotees can read very fast and you have to read slowly, there is no need for such comparisons. If a devotee reads fast, fine.
Some devotees may be able to memorise a lot of verses. And we find that, oh God, me to memorise verses is a big headache. Yes, some verses it’s good to memorise, but it’s not that memorising verses itself is necessary.
Prabhupada was, a devotee asked Prabhupada, should we study Sanskrit, Prabhupada? So, Prabhupada encouraged some devotee scholars to study Sanskrit. So, that is one’s interest, that is one’s service, that’s good. But Prabhupada said, otherwise, he said, you know, there are these Gujarati baniyas, businessmen.
So, they know that their sons, their grandsons, they are going to continue their business. And they have flourishing business, they earn a lot of money. See, when they say, it was at that time, it will not be true now, he says, when you send them to school, he says, their goal is not to make them doctored in mathematics.
You should know enough maths so that you will count your money. So, he said, like that, you should know enough Sanskrit so that you can recite verses. You don’t have to become a Sanskrit pandit.
So, certainly, Prabhupada was not disapproving. My point is that, it’s not that we have to memorise the verses or we have to learn Sanskrit in order to advance in life. If you can do it and if you feel inspired to do it, wonderful.
But if you can’t, or if it becomes, rather than being an inspiration, it feels like a burden, then for our basic, if you go to Gujarati course, you have to memorise some verses. That’s fine. But you don’t have to go beyond that.
So, we all have different abilities. And some devotees have certain abilities more visibly than others. Some devotees are able to see very nicely.
Some devotees are able to speak very fluently. Some devotees are able to be so organised. One, two, three, four.
So, we can all see around us and we all go through different moods. So, when we are proud, we will see, I am better than this person. I am better than this person.
I am better than this person. The mind works in such a way, whichever nartha it presently has, it magnifies that. So, if the nartha of pride is there, I will see all the reasons how I am better than others.
And if the nartha of depression, I am going through depression right now. And all that I will see is, this devotee is better than me in this, this devotee is better than me in this, this devotee is better than me in this. I am good for nothing.
I am good for nothing. So, I will conclude with this last point. Humility is, I am so fallen.
So, our ego is so subtle that even when I say I am so fallen, the ego shifts our focus from fallen to I. So, what starts off as humility ends as self-pity. So, we just become self-centred. Oh, things are so bad with me.
I am this, I am that. And Krishna doesn’t see. If Krishna had wanted talented people to be his devotees, Krishna would have inspired all talented people to become his devotees.
Krishna would have inspired, given all of us talents. Krishna wants our heart. Krishna doesn’t necessarily need our talents.
The talents are there, we can use them. And if we don’t have them, actually all of us have some talents, we just have to discover them. But some devotees may have visibly more talents, others may have visibly less.
It doesn’t matter so much. As far as our service is concerned, our connection with Krishna is concerned, that doesn’t depend on what talent we have. It depends on whether the intention to serve Krishna is there.
So, basically the best way to avoid comparison is by remembering our purpose. If our goal had just been to become the number one in some field, I won’t, then we could have well continued in our careers and tried to become number one there. But now that we have come here, we have come here not to become number one.
We have come here to become Krishna, become devotees of Krishna. So, while serving him, if Krishna makes us the number one guru-studa, Krishna makes us the number one kirtan here, Krishna makes us the number one guru-studa, that’s fine. But that’s, we will accept that as mercy, as a further facility by which we can serve him more.
But that’s not what we need to do. So, this is one major challenge when we live in closed quarters that we can get into this high, excessive comparison mentality. But if we avoid that and focus on whatever we have and use it in Krishna’s service, we can actually march on quite nicely.
I will summarise the seven questions. I started mainly by talking about how for people with above average spiritual urges, either there is a chronological division of human life or there is a sociological division of society. And I talked about how the Catholics and Protestants, how they split apart.
One of the reasons was Catholics accepted the monks whereas Protestants didn’t. And the point of that discussion was that all over the world. So, in Protestants, monasticism was already eliminated.
When Catholicism, it is right now alive. And the other reason is that Islam doesn’t have it. So, in our tradition, Shaitan Mahaprabhu took sannyas, after Babaji Vesh, from Bhakti Sanyasi Thakur again, sannyas and then the saffron cloth basically.
Babaji Vesh essentially is white cloth, but with a particular kind of dress. And the saffron cloth came back again with Bhakti Sanyasi Thakur. And instead of Prabhupada, the way he instituted ISKCON, it was mostly in a culture where people had no spiritual knowledge.
So, in Bhakti Sanyasi Thakur’s time it was sannyasis were teachers, brahmacharis were assistants. But in ISKCON, quite often brahmacharis themselves have to be teachers. So, we are in different situation.
And although the challenges may be more for us, we understand that behind the challenges is Krishna. And the greater the challenge we face and go through, the greater the reward that Krishna will give us. So, in that sense, there is a possibility for greater advancement when there is greater difficulty.
And then I discussed about two main aspects. One is about clearly focus on not letting our circumstance weaken our intention. If we have the intention, Krishna will eventually give us circumstance by which we can serve him.
And then I talked about how avoiding comparison by knowing that we have not come here to gain some position. Even some material position within a spiritual sense. We have come here simply to learn to grow spiritually, to learn to love Krishna.
And that’s why the, if we avoid this comparison, then we can actually move peacefully. And I talked especially about that. How we have the facility for getting higher, how I was saved from being saved.
But we have to take responsibility for tapping that facility by which we can keep ourselves absorbed in Krishna and move onwards. Thank you very much. Are there any questions?