Is Krishna-bhakti universal when it is so specific?

[Bhagavatam class on 1.2.28-29 at Krishna House, Gainesville, USA]

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Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
so this Divinity and Divine Service chapter 2 of the first canto of Srimad Bhagavatam is one of the most quoted chapters by Ishwara Prabhupada and this chapter gives the fundamental principles of bhakti and it concludes very specifically by declaring what is the ultimate goal of everything the sages at Naimisharanya have assembled to ask what it is that is the essence of scriptures, what it is that is the ultimate goal of life, they have asked a series of six questions and those questions will be answered either specifically briefly and they will be answered elaborately later but here the conclusion is given in a rhetorically powerful way so there are various aspects to religious and spiritual growth that are talked about in the Vedic context and these can be at one level seen as specific, another level they can be seen as universal so today I will speak on the topic of can Krishna consciousness be universal when it is so specific you worship one particular God, you have one particular mantra, you have one particular process, so how are you universal so can universality and specificity go together that’s what we will discuss today now let’s look briefly at what are the list of activities that are talked about which are said the goal for them is Vasudev Vasudeva Paraveda the word Veda refers to the Vedic texts which are the sacred texts considered as scriptures in the Indian tradition now Veda also has a more universal meaning, Prabhupada sometimes uses Veda to refer to knowledge or sources of knowledge so Vasudeva Paraveda means among all objects to be known it is Vasudev who is supremely to be known in 15.15 Bhagavad Gita Krishna says Vedaisya Sarvair Ahameva Vedya so what I am doing over here is I am taking the same word explaining it specifically as it is understood in the Vedic context and also generically as it can be understood in a more universal context so we all have different objects which we can know and the ultimate noble object is Vasudev the word Vasudev itself can be seen specifically and universally Vasudev specifically refers to the son of Vasudev Vasudev was the father of Krishna and his son is Vasudev so that refers specifically to one particular person generically the word Vasudev refers to all pervading that which exists everywhere so Vasudev refers to all pervading so the idea is a person named Vasudev he has great power as if all pervading so the words can be seen specifically and generically or universally Vasudev Paraveda Vasudev Paramakaha Makaha is sacrifices now specifically sacrifices can refer to the fire sacrifices that were performed in the Vedic context where people put people lit a sacred fire put ghee and other offerings into it and these were considered means by which people could worship the absolute now this may seem to be like a very sectarian activity which was done by some people in the past when the devotees first time did fire sacrifice in America it was sensational nobody had done, chanting was fine but doing a fire sacrifice and what happened was the neighbourhood people called the fire and fire police what is this smoke coming out of this house it can seem very alien but if we go beyond the specific to what is the principle the principle is Krishna talks in the Bhagavad Gita that in 3.12 in the Bhagavad Gita he says that when we offer to the Gods worship and the paraphernalia through which we offer worship then they give us what we need and in this way there is mutual cooperation and prosperity so the principle is when we offer in a sacred sacrifice some valuable items, it may be ghee, it may be grains it may be silk, there are other items offered, it may at our level seem to be just going waste just burn to ashes but fire is considered to be a means by which the human, the terrestrial and the celestial realms are mediated the Rig Veda says that among the Devatas, the highest of Vishnu and the nearest is Agni and in between are the other Devatas, so Agni becomes the medium fire becomes the medium by which the sacrifice we are giving is passed on to the Devatas so to understand how this happens we need to look beyond the specifics to the principle see, every relationship is based on some exchange if a person who doesn’t know anything about digital economy a tribal comes to a city and we go to a bank where we deposit and we have a big pile of money just give it to the bank and all that we get is something is written in our passbook see, you lost the money you had so much money, it just went away it’s not gone away, it’s there so, we if somebody is not educated about the digital economy they will just see you lost and what did you get in return so like that similarly, if we are not aware of how Agni acts as a medium of exchange see, I put into the fire, it just got burnt what was achieved by it but no, Agni is a means by which what we are doing what we could use for our pleasure, we offer for higher purpose so rather than looking at the specifics, we can look at the universal the universal principle of sacrifice is there in all traditions the sacrifice means, we give up something which is for our pleasure for some higher purpose for some higher cause a mother who has a child she wakes up in the middle of the night and the child is crying to comfort her why? because it’s sacrifice it gives us the pleasure of sleeping for the purpose of comforting the child so sacrifice is in human relationships as well as in other aspects of life in other religious traditions also the fire sacrifice may not be there but the principle of sacrifice is universal Vasudeva Paramakha Vasudeva Parayoga Parayoga Yoga, as Srila Prabhupada explains in the Purport is the means for connection connection with higher spiritual reality that Yoga may have specific limbs sitting in particular asanas, regulating one’s breath and the purpose is connecting with something higher now we may different traditions may have different means for establishing this connection so yoga is broadly a little bit is more of a contemplative way of connection worship is a more active way of connection we go to a temple, we go to a church we do certain activities of worship, yoga is relatively more contemplative even if we look in the western tradition, the Christian tradition there were mystics who would retreat into solitude and they would meditate in solitude to try to get some higher understanding the principle that we need to connect with some higher reality that is universal in all spiritual traditions so Saint Augustine said that we are made for God and our hearts find no peace our hearts find no rest till they rest in him so our hearts find no rest so this is the principle of connection so we are all trying to connect with different objects now some of us want to connect with a new car some of us want to connect with a new phone some of us want to connect with a new partner now these are all connections we are establishing para para yoga the supreme connection that we should establish is with Vasudev because he is the eternal object of love only by connecting with him will we find enduring satisfaction so specific in these traditions the methods of how connection we establish may be, but the purpose is universal similarly Vasudeva paraha kriyaha kriyaha is as Prabhupada says fruitive activities that we do various kinds of activities so that we will, forms of worship we will get some results sometimes people may fast they want a particular, they want somebody’s health to improve, they may do some austerity, they may fast they may offer some some donation, some charity whatever different activities we do so now, all these kriyas have particular goals, in the Vedic tradition there was something called putra kama ishti yajna, that is somebody doesn’t have a child, they want to get a child and they do a sacrifice for that, so there is a particular purpose for doing this each sacrifice, each religious activity, makha refers specifically to sacrifice, kriyaha refers to any other ritual that may be performed for a particular purpose so when these rituals are performed they have specific purposes but the universal purpose of all of them is ultimately to know Vasudeva is to attain Vasudeva so this is again universal, in various religions people may do particular practises for getting particular results but it’s understood that ultimate goal is to love God, when Jesus was also asked what is the ultimate commandment he said that to love God with all thy heart and all thy soul so that principle that God is the supreme object of whatever we do that is then universal if you go further Vasudeva param jnanam so param jnanam means that among all the, whatever is the knowledge that we acquire the supreme thing to know that is Vasudeva there is a conversation of Srila Prabhupada where he is talking with professor Benford and Prabhupada says so what is the current scientific knowledge about the soul and professor Benford he says currently we have no scientific knowledge about the soul and Prabhupada then therefore you have no knowledge he says no Swamiji he says scientific knowledge is a different category of knowledge he says for example now we know how they were walking in a garden walking in a park, so he says now we know how this grass grows, there are two big volumes of books about how this grass grows so Prabhupada replied even without your volumes the grass was growing he says no if god did not want us to study this grass why did he put the grass there so Prabhupada says my point is you study the grass and forget the god who put the grass there so the point is not that we don’t study the sources of, study the objects in this world, but what is the objective suppose somebody is in a jail now inside the jail you can study about ok what is the wall made of what is the floor made of, what are the bars made of what is the lock made of but what is the purpose, is to get out of the jail isn’t it, you don’t want to just stay and study that for the sake of study so like that we can study any field now somebody can decide to do a PhD in the design of mic stands ok what should be their weight, what should be their colour, what should be their composition, you can do but it’s fine but what is the ultimate purpose one of my friends he has done is he came to America and he did his PhD in digestive systems of Alaskan mosquitoes laughing fine ok we can study anything that we want but then if we spend so many years studying the digestive system of Alaskan mosquitoes we may remember that at the time of death laughing and then we may become a germ inside Alaskan mosquito digestive system in our next life so we become a germ there, what we think about constantly we will remember that so therefore the point is not to not study but what is the purpose of study otherwise we can get so caught in specifics I just keep studying this this and just go deeper and deeper into one field so we have specialisation we have super specialisation and then we have super super specialisation one time I had very severe tuberculosis so I had tuberculosis in my stomach something suspected in the chest also in the lungs area it was primarily in the lungs it was suspected it had gone to the digestive system also so I went to a specialist and then he looked at he looked at the reports and everything he said yes you have got some infection below which is in your digestive system which is problematic and we will treat it I asked him what about the major infection which is there in the lungs he says you know my study is below the diaphragm my study is only below the diaphragm for that you have to go to some other doctor now at one level this is fine the specialisation but sometimes if you just get too caught in one thing somebody if my digestive there is an infection in my below the diaphragm and the doctor tries to do some surgery to heal that but in that process the doctor cuts the lungs or cuts the heart and then we have what operation successful, patient dead isn’t it so we may have so much knowledge about one subject but then if you don’t have knowledge about the overall purpose of life then it becomes like operation successful patient dead people may have enormous amounts of knowledge of things but they don’t have any understanding of life’s ultimate purpose and thus they get frustrated that if you don’t see knowledge in connection with the ultimate purpose of knowledge so then the knowledge that we acquire even if it is very interesting ultimately it doesn’t bring satisfaction to the heart when I was studying in college my dream was to become a space research scientist I wanted to become a astrophysicist so in Pune where I was studying there was a there was a India’s prominent space research centre, it is called IUCA ISRO is one, IUCA is another so I went there to meet a scientist now this scientist, he was from my college, he passed around 10-15 years ago and he had a double PhD from America and he was doing post-doctoral research over there and then I had a very you could say almost a romantic conception of knowledge, in the sense that when we explore the mysteries of space and it is so exciting so much discovery we will make and there is so much excitement and so much thrill in that and then I went to talk with him he was very intelligent, I was interested in black holes at that time, so I talked with him and he told, he was open to doing research in black holes only, so I was very fascinated by what he was uncovering but I found peculiarly that we were talking, he was on his computer explaining this, what this means, what this means and throughout it all, he was continuously smoking he was smoking, he just couldn’t stop smoking and then I had gone to his house to talk with him, so his wife was also there and his wife was also a PhD she was a PhD in mathematics and then at that time she noticed that and I was repeatedly looking at his I was trying to be polite and not look but I was a little taken aback so I was looking, he was continuously smoking then his wife just facetiously laughed, you know, I told him so many times, don’t smoke so much but he just keeps smoking so then, her tone was a little facetious so I was a little surprised and I looked at her and she took out a cigarette and she also started smoking this was the first time I had seen a female smoking in real life seen in movies but not in real life so I was taken aback I said that if space research is such an exciting field of knowledge why does someone want to smoke so the point is that if we may have intelligence, we may pursue knowledge, but if that knowledge is not pursued in a broader context if there is no ultimate purpose then that knowledge doesn’t bring fulfilment and then we seek fulfilment elsewhere, we seek excitement elsewhere, we seek titillation elsewhere and we may end up smoking smoking is not a major smoking is not a major vice, if somebody is a great scientist they are a great scientist, that’s fine but the point is, yes, if somebody has done important work in science, that’s appreciable but the point is, is it bringing fulfilment to a person so it’s not bringing fulfilment so Vasudeva Paramgyanam the ultimate knowledge, whatever we study it’s only when we connect with Vasudev then there is satisfaction if we don’t connect with Vasudev then it doesn’t bring satisfaction so this will be illustrated later in the Bhagavatam itself when Vyasadev composes he puts down all the Vedic literature monumental amount of intellectual work that he does and still he is dissatisfied it’s only when he glorifies the Supreme Lord by speaking the Bhagavatam that he gets satisfaction Vasudeva Param Tapah Vasudev is the supreme austerity the principle of austerity is also universal some kind of fasting some kind of penance people go on pilgrimages to distant places they walk long distances different traditions have some idea of physical abnegation we deny ourselves our bodily needs the purpose is not here self-torture the purpose is self-transcendence the point is not just to torture ourselves by denying bodily needs the point is to raise the consciousness upwards to something higher so when we are fasting our focus is on why am I fasting and that way we grow spiritually so Vasudeva Param Tapah then Vasudeva Paro Dharma so one of the Dharma is the various religious practises might be there, what is the purpose of all these religious practises, it is to attain Vasudeva so the word Para is often contrasted with the word Apara Para means spiritual or transcendental Apara means material or mundane Srila Prabhupada many of the lectures that he gave in America they focus on how you are not the body or the soul and how we should practise Krishna Bhakti, now many of his lectures which he gave in India in Hindi a common theme over there is that he focusses on the difference between Para Dharma and Apara Dharma in America he saw he was speaking to godless people, unspiritual people and he is focused on the fundamentals of spirituality in India he was speaking primarily to religious people but these people were religious but they were as Bhaktivinoda Thakur says they were pious materialists they were not spiritualists so he focused on Apara Dharma means mundane religiosity I worship god and god takes care of my life in this world so the point is not to go towards god, the point is not to develop love for god the point is to have a comfortable life here a religious and comfortable life over here so Prabhupada repeatedly was speaking this is not the purpose of life, it’s a higher purpose we have to devote ourselves to god we have to attain god so we may practise the religion but religion may be for worldly purposes but here it’s called Vasudeva Para Dharma religion is not for living a comfortable pious life here religion is for attaining god and Vasudeva Paragati in case any other process is left then he says whatever we may be doing the goal is Vasudeva Paragati the ultimate goal now immediately we may have specific goals say for example now we are having this class, we may have an immediate goal I want to say explain a particular concept, you want to understand a particular book or a particular passage so for all the activities that we may do we may have an immediate purpose so now after the class we’ll have prasad, so there’s an immediate purpose we want to relieve our hunger that’s fine, so the immediate purpose and the ultimate purpose they don’t have to be contradictory they can go in parallel so that means that if I’m going to eat food I will eat food, that’s hunger but if I eat food that is offered to Krishna then the immediate purpose of hunger is also served, of mitigating the hunger is served and the ultimate purpose of of moving closer to Krishna through our consciousness through consuming, through honouring the prasad which has been offered, the bhoga that has been offered to Krishna the food that is offered to Krishna, that is also served so here throughout we’ll see the describer para that all these activities may have specific purposes when we go to school or go to university we study, we cannot say oh why am I studying here, I’m studying here Vasudev is my goal we have studied a particular field, we have to study those subjects, but our purpose is Vasudev our purpose is to connect with the Supreme Lord, when we have this understanding then we won’t get caught in the specific forms, we will focus on the essential purpose so for example if in a considered traditional setting there may be two gurus who are teaching their disciples mathematics and one is sitting under a mango tree another is sitting under an apple tree and to teach maths one guru may take up three mangoes over here five mangoes here, how much are they eight mangoes, so three plus five is eight another guru may take up four apples and three apples and say how much is it, four plus three is seven so the point is to teach mathematics the tool used for teaching may be apples or mangoes or something else entirely the tool is not important what is taught through that tool is important so similarly for raising human consciousness to the spiritual level from the material level in different traditions there can be different means so the specific forms of sacrifice of austerity, of dharma of yoga, they can vary in different traditions but their purpose is one so if you focus on the purpose that of raising human consciousness, then we will see the commonality if you look at the process then you will see there is so much difference you are doing like this, you are doing like this now the processes can not only be different the processes can even be opposite at times say consider traffic rules whenever I come from India to America if somebody else is driving me, I always go towards the driver seat because in India the driver seat is actually the passenger seat so I go towards the right or go towards the left now if you see in America we drive towards the right in India we drive on the left now the rules are not just different they are opposite but the purpose is the same the purpose is what? to regulate traffic so that people can move smoothly so similarly the specific practises the specific processes may vary if you focus on the purpose then we will see the commonality this brings to one more point that when we talk about purpose not everyone knows the purpose or pursues the purpose so sometimes people practise a religion not for the purpose of knowing God or going closer to God they practise it for their own purposes once people from three different religions went to their God and they worshipped God they prayed to God all these religions were fighting so the follower of religion A said Oh God please destroy the followers of religion B the follower of religion B went and said Oh God please destroy the followers of religion A the follower of religion C went Oh God I don’t want anything for myself please fulfil the prayers of the followers of religions A and B laughing actually here if we are asking God to destroy someone just because their faith appears to be different from ours then we are having a very sectarian conception of God we are thinking this is my God and they are they are not included in the fold of the mercy of God so we may be practising religion but if we have forgotten the purpose of religion we may not only forget it we may defeat the purpose of religion a police person may have a gun and a terrorist may have a gun the gun is the same but the purposes can be entirely opposite a police person may use a gun for protecting and a terrorist may use the gun for killing so here earlier I said that there can be different processes but they all have the same purpose the purpose when we are talking about purpose that is the original or the intended purpose but when purpose is not intrinsically fixed in activity that means I may I may do a I may go to a temple and pray but I am praying for the destruction of someone now purpose of praying is not destroying someone, purpose of praying is to go closer to God so like that if I consider the process if I consider a gun and compare it with a particular religious ritual so we have examples in the Vedic context of demons who perform great austerities but their purpose was that is to destroy whoever I touch I should be able to destroy so they are doing religious activities but they are not doing it for the purpose of going closer to God they may be doing it for the purpose which is opposed to the purpose of God so when we say there is commonality the commonality is in the original intended purpose it may not be in the present purpose terrorists may talk about God and transcendentalists may talk about God but the God of the terrorists and the God of the transcendentalists may not be one what do I mean by this isn’t God one yes God is one but God as conceived by the terrorists may just be a projection of their own ego he is not a real God who is revealed in scriptures basically some people think that think of God, God is simply a projection of their ego and God hates those whom they hate it is as simple as that for example people of this religion they hate people of all other religion because in their religion it is said that all these people are infidels but you will see that they don’t just hate people of other religions they hate people of their own religion if their belief slightly differs from their own so the point here is that religion and God can become simply projections of one’s own ego and when that happens then what one is worshipping is not actually God it is just simply one’s own ego so here I will conclude with one last point about how the conception of Vasudev is it sectarian or is it universal you may say that you have one particular form of God you worship God as a person playing a flute with bluish black complexion, this is not revealed in the other religions so how can you say that this is a universal conception of God this is a sectarian conception we have come up with this so to address this there are different ways, Prabhupada would address it he says we have the depiction of God and we have the definition of God so when people find the depiction objectionable, they feel sectarian go back to the definition the definition is Prabhupada would say that God is a person who is all powerful, all wealthy all strong all knowing, what are the other three opulences, all beautiful all renounced all famous now will any tradition say that our God is not powerful he is powerless our God is dumb nobody is going to say that so if we look at the attributes of God we look at the definition of God we start with that then we will see the definition essentially is the same in the Bible it is said, I am the alpha and the omega of all things Krishna says among letters, I am the first letter I am the beginning, the middle and the end of all things so if we look at the definitional attributes of God we will find that they are universal and from Prabhupada would say this is the definition of God and here we have a person who fits this definition we have a person Krishna who is all beautiful, who is all powerful all strong all wealthy now if you have a better conception of God, we will accept that but they don’t have a better conception of God so the point here is if people get put off by the depiction, we come back to the definition and the definition is universal now from the definition to the revelation or from the definition to the depiction requires either revelation where it comes down from above, it is revealed in scriptures or it requires realisation where we progress spiritually and we realise so most people they will agree with the definition of God as described in the Vedic text because that is universal but when it comes to depiction they may say oh no, does God can be depicted this way or God should not be depicted at all, so let’s not focus on the depiction in the initial stages, focus on the definition and then when we talk about revelation, yes in certain religious traditions God may be revealed in particular ways, He may be revealed in other ways in different traditions, so we need to have an inclusiveness, there is a famous quote of Bhaktivinoda Thakur where he says that if we go to a place of worship of some other religious tradition and we see God being worshipped over there, he says what should be our response we should stay there in a mood of reverence contemplating that here the God whom I worship is manifest in a form different from what I know so I can’t appreciate this form but still thinking that that my God, the God whom I worship is so merciful that in order to attract people of a different disposition He has manifested in a different way, thinking about how magnanimous my Lord is, my devotion to Him in the form that I know is increasing so for example if we see Muslims doing Namaz these people are just religious fanatics we can think like that they are doing their religious worship so diligently so let me also do my religious worship diligently we don’t have to when we are insecure in our own faith then others faith threatens us when I am insecure, am I worshipping am I following the right path somebody else is following some other path and they are following it diligently maybe I am wrong maybe I should be following their path but if you understand that it is like climbing up a mountain and there are different ways to climb up the mountain you see this person is climbing up the mountain so diligently let me focus on climbing up the mountain by my way diligently, that way others faith need not make us insecure it can actually make us more secure more determined in following in our own faith so Vasudev when we see in terms of definition is a universal concept universal definition in terms of specific depiction it is specific but that requires revelation or realisation and for those who don’t have that we can focus on the definition so in that sense if we start with the universal aspects Krishna consciousness is universal it is for the elevation of human consciousness to the spiritual level and there is a specific path but we don’t say the specific path is the only path there are other paths for rising up also we follow this path and we find this path very effective in transforming ourselves and raising our consciousness so we follow it but our goal is to encourage others to follow that follow a path for moving closer to God so Prabhupada when he would move or talk with Christians if they were nominal Christians he would encourage them to start practising Krishna consciousness if they were committed Christians he would encourage them not to give up their faith and practise he would encourage them to become more serious in the practise of Christianity so our goal is not to just convert people horizontally from this path to that path if there is any conversion it is a vertical conversion to help people raise their consciousness upwards vertically from material to spiritual so we have a path and others may have a path also the point is are they raising their consciousness, are we raising our consciousness if we keep this focus then we can be committed without being conflicted, we can be committed to our path without being necessarily conflicting with other paths, so I will summarise what I spoke today I spoke about can Krishna consciousness be both, be universal when it is so specific and I discussed about these 8 forms, 8 religious forms that are talked about in this verse and how each of them can be understood specifically and generically so Veda can refer to the Vedic text or it can refer to general body of knowledge, the purpose of all of them is to know God Makaha can refer to specific sacrifices, fire sacrifices performed for specific purposes or it can refer to the principle of sacrifice which is that we give up something which is for our pleasure for a higher cause or similarly Vasudeva Paramakaha Vasudeva Para Yoga connection to something higher specific process in the Vedic tradition but there can be other processes the point is to connect to the reality beyond the mundane, Vasudeva Param Kriyaha different religious rituals, they have specific purposes, there is immediate purpose but there is ultimate purpose also, I spoke elaborately on Vasudeva Param Jnanam that we can go into depth of any one small branch of knowledge it’s an object of knowledge but if that isolates us from ultimate goal of knowledge is Krishna it will not bring fulfilment and then we get caught in lower pleasures but if we see the connection then we can pursue any branch of knowledge harmonising the immediate goal with the ultimate goal Tapaha, similarly austerity can be specific forms of fasting on the holy days within our tradition or in principle of fasting where the holy days may be different for different traditions Vasudeva Parodharmo that there is Aparadharma is material religion where God is used to make our life materially comfortable Parodharmo means God is the ultimate goal Vasudeva Paragati He is the supreme goal and I talked lastly about how there can be the purpose is common the process may be different even opposite, like traffic rules are opposite but the purpose of regulation of traffic is common but however the purpose is not ingrained in things. Purpose has to be understood by people.
Some people may worship God to have welfare for all living beings. Others may worship God to destroy others who do not agree with their faith. In such case, the God of the transcendentalist and the God of terrorist is not the same.
Their God is simply a projection of the human ego So we need to understand the purpose and pursue this purpose and if people find the particular depiction of God as sectarian, then we go from the depiction to the definition Krishna might the form of God might seem sectarian but we look at the definition all attractive with six opulences that is universal and thus you can see how Krishna Bhakti is specific in terms of offering us a particular path to climb up the mountain but is also universal because it talks about universal principles and universal purposes that can be achieved through different particular practises so we can be by understanding the specificity and universality we can be both committed to our path at the same time we can be appreciative of other paths Thank you very much. Hare Krishna