Krishna consciousness is to feel the presence of Krishna in his absence

[Bhagavatam class at ISKCON, Sydney, Australia]

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Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna I am grateful to be here amongst all of you once again at the lotus feet of their lordships and I will be speaking today on this very emotionally riveting section from the Srimad Bhagavatam where the theme that is the highlight of the Bhagavatam is being brought about.
The Bhagavatam is essentially a devotional text and the mood of the devotion is most intensely manifested when there is separation and union after separation. So for the devotees of Dwarka they have been separated from the lord for very long and now they have come back now the lord has come back they are expressing their gratitude at the same time they are expressing their sorrow the lord was away for so long and in this their expression what they say completes and then the lord responds by glancing lovingly at all of them. So I will speak on the broad theme of how Krishna consciousness means to feel the presence of the lord in his absence.
So I will talk on three points. First point is how love means there has to be desire but without demanding. Love means desiring without demanding.
Second point I will speak is how there is intensity in devotion which comes by the alteration of union and separation. And lastly I will talk about how Chaitanya Mahaprabhu embodies that mood briefly. So the theme is Krishna consciousness.
What does it mean? It means to be conscious of Krishna as the literal word is. Krishna consciousness for us as sadhakas in the material world it functionally means to feel the presence of Krishna in his absence. Now we could talk about this at a philosophical level as well as at a personal level.
At a philosophical level Krishna is never absent anywhere. Krishna is Sarvasya Chaham Hrithi Sandhi Vishto. He is present in the hearts of everyone at all times.
So in that sense he is always present. But in a personal sense we may not feel his presence. So when we don’t feel his presence at that time the art, the skill, the practise, the process by which we can start sensing his presence.
That is Krishna consciousness. So Krishna is always present but we don’t feel his presence. The means by which we can start feeling his presence is the process of Krishna consciousness.
So for us Krishna consciousness is the process by which we will become conscious of Krishna. Whereas for the pure devotees Krishna consciousness is their natural default state. Now in Krishna consciousness in the practise or the process of Krishna consciousness what exactly is going on? Actually we as souls are in the material world.
Our consciousness is caught at the material level and at the material level there is there is always the possibility of distress. It can be because of storms coming out in the outer world, physical or metaphorical. Storms can literally come.
Right now a terrible storm has thrown across South Africa. They say it’s one of the worst in recorded human history. Millions of people have been rendered homeless.
So terrible storms can come physically but metaphorically storms can come. That means such things come in our lives and they just shake us up completely. There can be a relationship crisis.
There can be a financial upheaval. These are also storms that come in. And correspondingly when the storms come out come out externally come into our lives externally corresponding to them or independent of them.
Storms can arise inside us. So our own desires can grow wild. Throughout human history people have recognised that there is something much bigger going on than what we are aware of in our own lives.
In the Greek tradition it was said that we are the playthings of the gods. We are the playthings of the gods means that the gods can do with us whatever they want and we just move like playthings. And the idea that there is a god of anger.
There is a god of desire. There is a god of envy. In their tradition the word god is used for any higher being.
So it could be god. It could be demon also. So suddenly that being possesses us and at one moment we are a little normal.
Next moment we start feeling lusty, angry, greedy. Nowadays it’s variety of mental health problems, depression, loneliness low self-esteem. So now there are so many forces inside us which can arise at any moment.
It’s almost like at a psychological level we are like a loose unity of many diverse forces within us. And imagine if there is something like a closed room. So there are two people who are talking and one person is outside the room and the other person is inside the room.
And they are talking. But inside the room there is not one person. Inside the room there are multiple people.
And the person, there is a negotiation going on between the two of them. But the person inside and the person outside are talking. The person outside is one person.
But the person inside there are 5-6 people and to different questions who responds you don’t know. And say in the negotiation some person is very conciliatory another person is very confrontational. So inside that closed box who will respond at what moment the outside person doesn’t know.
So all of us are like that black box and inside us there are multiple voices. The voice of the mind, the voice of the intelligence, the voice of the ego, the voice of lust, of anger. So all these voices are there and of course beyond that the soul is there.
So now which voice will respond whom we don’t know. And the less integrated a person is. Integrated means what? There are all these voices inside.
But these voices they negotiate among each other. They discuss among each other and they present themselves as a united front. The more integrated a person is the more reliable they can be.
That means they have those voices but they learn to talk among each other and when they present a united front outside. Then the person is consistent. But to the extent a person is disintegrated that means there are too many voices and any voice can take over at any time.
Then that person can’t be reliable. They’ll say one thing today and do another thing a few minutes later, a few hours later, a few days later. So the difference between the divine and the demoniac is not in terms of the divine are free from last anger greed.
But they are relatively controlled. Whereas in the case of the demoniac it is the last anger greed that are relatively in control. They are not controlled.
So now we have all these forces going on within us and these forces can make us unconscious of Krishna at any moment. Of course there is a force within us which also wants to be conscious of Krishna and there are many forces which want to be unconscious of Krishna. And because for a long time they have listened to the forces that wanted us to be conscious of materialistic things.
So right now Krishna consciousness is not our default state of consciousness. Rather it is material consciousness. Consciousness of wealth, consciousness of sense pleasure, consciousness of sports.
So many things can be there like that. That is our default consciousness. And then to rise from that default consciousness which is filled with faults because it keeps us bound in the material world.
To rise from there to the level of Krishna consciousness. That is the challenge of the sadhaka. That is the challenge of the sadhaka that we want to we because of the various storms that come out externally upon us and the storms that come up internally within us.
When one voice takes over that voice can just dominate us and can seem like a storm. When a storm comes out externally or internally we become blinded to reality. Even physical reality.
What to speak of spiritual reality. That is why currently we are not conscious of Krishna. And to become conscious of Krishna is the challenge.
So while we don’t feel the consciousness of Krishna, in the absence of Krishna, how to become conscious of him? That is the challenge which we all face. So in this particular verse the residents of Dwarka are saying that, my dear lord, how can we live without you? How can we live without seeing your beautiful face? Without seeing your beautiful smile? Your face which is adorned by a beautiful smile. So this is they are saying that, how can we live without you? Similarly for us, how can we be conscious of Krishna when there is so many forces pulling us away from that? And the process of sadhana bhakti is meant to gradually acclimatise us towards the consciousness of Krishna.
So So somehow we can come in front of Krishna and he glances upon us. His cheerful glance, it can destroy all distresses. It can vanquish all distresses in life.
So Krishna’s cheerful smile, if it falls on us, then through that his attractiveness will manifest in us. And when that attractiveness manifests in us, our consciousness will get propelled upwards towards him. So there is a you could say ascending process of Krishna consciousness where we strive to mechanically fix the mind on Krishna.
Mind goes here, we bring it back. It goes here, we bring it back. It goes here, we bring it back.
That is the ascending process. But there is also a descending process of Krishna consciousness where Krishna reveals his attractiveness to us. Here, normally the ascending process, we are trying to get attracted.
We are trying to fix our mind on Krishna even if we don’t find Krishna that attractive right now. But that is the ascending process. And the descending process is where Krishna himself reveals his beauty.
So when that happens, then we become filled, become immersed in remembrance of Krishna almost effortlessly. In the Gopal Champu, these two are called as Smriti and Sfurti. Smriti is what we consciously endeavour to remember.
Sfurti is what is like a chain of thoughts that rushes into us, a flood of thoughts that rushes into us and fills us with remembrance of Krishna. So basically, this is the first point. Krishna consciousness means to strive to remember Krishna, to feel the presence of Krishna in his absence.
So after each point, I will have a brief break where any of you want to ask any questions or make any comments. Any questions or comments in this point? Which one? Okay. So how can we practically apply the principle of feeling the presence of Krishna in his absence? That feeling is not just sentimental.
It is spiritual. And that’s why it is that we just have to come in the presence of Krishna, in his manifestation. So we read his books, we associate with his devotees, we chant his holy names, basically place ourselves in the sound vibration surrounding, about Krishna.
And by that sound vibration, we will gradually become elevated. And that’s how eventually we will become purified. So just we, even if we don’t feel it right now, we just bring ourselves in the presence of Krishna, and by that just as sugarcane juice becomes sweeter for jaundice patient by repeated drinking, similarly that will happen.
Okay, so what can we do to get the blessings of Krishna, so that the descending process? It’s ultimately up to Krishna. We have to show Krishna that we want to be attracted to him. And for many many lifetimes, we have shown him by our actions that we are attracted to worldly things.
That’s why even when we show him for a day or two or a few hours or a few weeks, that may not be enough. So we have to consistently by our actions keep showing him that we want to be attracted to him. And then he will reveal his all attractiveness to us.
And of course it’s not that he is not revealed right now. Now he is revealed, otherwise we would not be able to sustain bhakti, sustain So it’s a gradual process. And that’s why it’s said the mercy is causeless.
So we can’t really do anything to cause it. But we can petition him. Just like Prabhupada gives the example if somebody is throwing crumbs at ducks, say in a lake.
That person may be charitable and throw crumbs at all the ducks. But if there are some ducks which quack very loudly, and beg very fervently, then the person might give more crumbs to that duck. So if we call out to Krishna more, and calling out doesn’t just mean chanting more loudly.
Calling out means we offer our whole being to Krishna with in whatever way we can, through our service, through our sadhana, whatever. So when we offer ourselves to Krishna more and more, as much as we can, then Krishna sees that that’s our calling. So Krishna’s response is reciprocal but not necessarily proportional.
It’s reciprocal. That means the more intensely we call, the more he’ll respond. But it’s not that I call this much, so Krishna will have to respond this much.
It’s not mathematical. Krishna is not a function of any, he’s not subordinate to any mathematical law. So Krishna sees what is best for us which are advancement and reciprocates accordingly.
So let’s move on to the second point. The first point is that Krishna consciousness means to feel the presence of Krishna in his absence. The second point is that love is a constant alteration of union and separation.
Loving relationship, loving reciprocation is a constant alteration of union and separation. If we look at the practise of bhakti in the spiritual world, there also the divine couple, Radha and Krishna, they are not always together. They want to be always together but circumstantially they can’t be.
And at times when they are not together, at that time, it is Krishna who it is the devotees longing for Krishna increases, Krishna’s longing for the devotee increases. So when there is union, there is great joy. When there is separation, there is great agony.
But amid the separation, there is a greater longing that comes up. The love intensifies and then union happens and there is greater relishing of the union. So although there is agony in separation but even in that separation there is greater intensification of the remembrance.
Krishna, I am not with you. I want to be with you. Please.
The devotee begs desperately. And that is of course a very exalted dynamic and I will talk about that tomorrow. But I am going to go to class but today, the point is that even in the spiritual world, the essence is not necessarily Krishna association that is constantly there.
It is Krishna consciousness that is constantly there. In the spiritual world, the big difference with the material and spiritual world is not that Krishna is 24 hours with everyone in the spiritual world. Even in the spiritual world, Krishna is not 24 hours with everyone.
Because each devotee has their own service and according to their service, they get to associate more with Krishna. But at different times, they don’t have association. Most of the times.
But what do they have is that everybody over there is very intensely and selflessly Krishna conscious. It is permeated with, the spiritual world is permeated with Krishna centred stimuli. Completely.
And therefore, remembrance of him is not just possible but it is natural and inevitable. So both internally the devotees are attracted to Krishna. Externally, there are various things which attract people to Krishna.
So there also the devotees are Krishna conscious in the sense that they feel the presence of Krishna in his absence because internally, externally there are so many stimuli. Now for us as sadhakas, the same dynamic will come. We talked just now about this ascending descending process of Krishna consciousness.
There are some occasions when we feel very strong, very deep, very firm, very very joyous in the practise of Krishna bhakti. You could say those are the moments when we are having some kind of union with Krishna. Krishna is manifesting and we are relishing his presence.
And there are some times when we just feel dry and dead in our spiritual life. Even if we are to chant, we can’t chant. Even if we are to do some service, we just can’t do that service.
It’s just too difficult. So at that time when we are overwhelmed like that, we have to see that this is a time when I am in separation from Krishna. Now of course, in the spiritual world it is because of the various nature of services and for the intensification of love that the separation occurs.
For us, when we feel distance from Krishna, it may just be because of our own moods influencing us negatively. So, we could say that Krishna is above good sakhatva, goodness in transcendence. There are three moods, sattva, rajas, tamas, goodness, passion, ignorance.
And when we are in goodness, we can feel Krishna to some extent. But in passion or ignorance, the further and further we go from Krishna. And sometimes it can appear as if we are light years away from Krishna.
So when we are in tamas, at that time we could say that we are having a separation from Krishna. And that separation can make us feel completely empty. So, sometimes when we are in tamas and we are trying to chant or we are trying to do some bhakti and we are not able to connect at all with Krishna, then it might be more helpful to try to come to sattva by some other means.
So, what does that mean? That means we can, if you are feeling very sleepy, just get up and wash your face. You are feeling sleepy, you are feeling lethargic, that’s in tamas. We wash our face and just brush, put some water and wipe it and what happens? That brings us to a little bit sattva.
Or if we are feeling very sleepy, just stand up or walk. Now walking might not be in sattva. Sitting might be in sattva, but sitting can also be in tamas.
Sitting can be in goodness, sitting can also be in ignorance. So walking can bring us in rajas. So rajas is better than tamas.
And although rajas doesn’t take us in consciousness towards Krishna, but the mode of passion can at least let us do activities that are connected with Krishna. If I am just drowsing, what is the use of that? I am incomplete in the mode of ignorance. If I am walking and chanting, I may not be very attentive, but at least I am chanting.
So we could say that there is there is there is action, there is reflection and then there is intention, there is devotion or attraction. So Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita in the 14th chapter in the three modes, he says that each mode has a defining characteristic. Prakasha, pravrutti and moha.
He says in 14.11 that the characteristics of the mode of goodness is sarva-dvareshu dehesmin prakasha-upajayate jnanam yadatada vidya viruddham sattva-vittyuttha. So prakasha is illumination or capacity for reflection. Illumination, clarity.
This is right, this is wrong. This is what will lead to good, this will lead to bad. It’s kind of illumination, that is prakasha.
That’s goodness. Then in passion is lobha-pravrutti-rarambha-karmanam asyamas-pruhara-yasyetani-jayante viruddhe-bharatarsabha This is pravrutti. Pravrutti is the urge to act.
I have to do this, I have to do that. I have to do that. Urge to act.
Sometimes even hyperactivity. That is the characteristic of the mode of passion. And ignorance is aprakasho-apravrtishcha-pramado mohe-vachata-masyetani-jayante viruddhe-kuru-nandana In 14.13, Krishna says that prakasha-apravrti.
There is neither illumination nor action. There is moha, simply illusion. So inaction.
No clear thinking, no constructive acting, just delusion. So basically the point I am making is that when we feel separation from Krishna as a sadhaka, that means not feel in the sense that we are longing for Krishna and not feeling his presence, but rather we don’t even feel any longing for Krishna. We just feel dead and numb internally.
So at that time, what has happened is our consciousness has gone too much into tamas, the mode of ignorance. And that’s why even if we do some, even if we place ourselves in some Krishna stimuli, it just doesn’t work. We don’t connect with Krishna.
So because the distance between ignorance and transcendence can be so big, it can seem light years away. So at that time, somehow pushing ourselves into some higher mode. Coming from tamas to rajas also is good.
Sleeping is walk. And deep breathing is also a way to calm the raging mind by regulating the breath. And that can also help in bringing us to sattva.
So when we come to sattva, then we may be able to better connect with Krishna. But this alteration of feeling down in the dumps and feeling high up in the heavens, this is just a normal process of Krishna bhakti wherein basically it’s like a sine wave. When the crest is there, we feel high in heavens.
When it’s tough, we feel down in the dumps. And that’s how our consciousness will be. But if we keep practising bhakti steadily, gradually what will happen is, the amplitude of this, the extreme of the crest and the troughs will not be that much.
And more importantly, the overall graph will be moving upwards. The crest and troughs will still be there, but initially the crest might be such that I might think I’m a pure devotee. And then the trough might be such that I think, does God even exist? What am I doing with all this for? But as we keep practising bhakti, the crest will not go so high and the trough will also not go so low.
So even when we feel some ecstasy, we’ll understand, oh, Krishna is so merciful. He’s giving me some advanced glimpse of advanced devotion. I mean, what is… Krishna has just given me a glimpse of that.
We won’t think I have become a pure devotee. But rather, Krishna has given me a glimpse of pure devotion. So that advanced glimpse will reassure us, but it won’t disorient us too much into thinking that we are pure devotees.
And similarly, even when we go down, we may not feel like doing anything, but it won’t be that we’ll think, what is the point of this Krishna bhakti? We’ll just think, oh, Krishna, I don’t want to feel like this. Please help me. So basically, the graph will keep moving upwards and the crests and troughs will keep becoming lesser in their extremities.
That’s how we will come to increasing steadiness in our Krishna consciousness. So rather than seeing the downs as something terrible, yes, they are unpleasant, but they are not unexpected. They are just expected as a part of sadhana bhakti.
And when we are down in the dumps, somehow we persevere, and eventually that… it’s just a sine wave. The trough will go. The trough is not going to stay on forever.
It’s soon going to go. So we will experience also this alteration of ups and downs or union or separation from Krishna in our sadhana bhakti stage also. So that is the second point that devotion or love means an alteration of feelings of union and separation from Krishna.
Any comments or questions about this? So let’s go to the last point now. The last point was that this is embodied by Shaitanya Mahaprabhu also in His pastimes. So where He is Krishna in the mood of Radharani, so He feels constantly the separation from Krishna that even when He was in Jagannath Puri that He couldn’t have darshan of Jagannath constantly.
That was His lament. He would feel the longing for Krishna in His absence. When He would have darshan of Jagannath He would become ecstatic.
When He would be chanting the Holy Names and He would hear the Holy Names He would get ecstatically absorbed in Krishna. So all this is where He is manifesting the joy of union and the agony of separation. Something similar is here in this particular pastime where it is said that present katham vayam nath chiroshite Oh Master How can we live? How can we jeevayam? How can we maintain our lives when you stay so far away from us? So Vishwanath Chakrapuri explains that actually because Krishna loved Arjun and the Pandavas so much the Mahabharata focusses more on the love between Krishna and Arjun.
The Bhagavatam focusses more on the dealings between Krishna and Yudhishthira. Of course there is Arjun also. But at least in terms of etiquette whenever Krishna meets, he meets Yudhishthira first.
And the Bhagavatam describes the remorse of Yudhishthira after the war gets over and Krishna is consoling him. So either way whether it is Yudhishthira or Arjun at different times different people have different needs. So whatever is needed the Lord provides them that.
So He is united with His devotees. With His devotees the Pandavas most of the time getting them out of trouble or strengthening them, guiding them. And thus He is not there for the Dwarkavasis most of the time.
And because of that they are saying, Oh Lord, how can we maintain our lives? That your glance is so beautiful that all distress can be removed. And interestingly now, what is the Lord’s response to their sincere longings? Are they saying that in a sense they are saying it but not directly saying it. They are not saying, Oh Lord, don’t travel so much.
If you travel constantly and if you are far away from home, then how will we how will we be able to live without you? And what does the Lord do? It’s interesting time and time again in the Bhagavatam when the devotees offer prayers, especially in the first canto, the Lord just does not respond much. Kunti offers such beautiful prayers just three chapters ago. And what is the Lord’s response? He says, No response.
Just offers a beautiful smile and moves on. So, when when somebody is making some request which you don’t want to say yes to or no to, you just give a smile. If somebody requests, please say, when somebody requests, please come again and you don’t want to say yes or no, just say Hare Krishna.
So, Hare Krishna can mean everything, whatever we want it to mean. So, what the Lord does is, the Lord does not, when Kuntiman is saying that, first she says, Oh dear Lord, please don’t go without you. How can we live? But then she concludes by saying, actually the Dwarkavasis also need you.
From her side also she is cognisant what the Dwarkavasis are expressing over here. She is also cognisant there that actually we are monopolising on the Lord’s time. Yes, they would love to have the time but we cannot monopolise it.
So, she says, finally Lord, please cut off my attachments. Even if I don’t have your presence always, let me have your presence. Sorry, even if we don’t have your presence, let me have attachment to you always.
Undistracted attachment to you. And that’s her concluding prayer. So, similarly, so then the Lord just smiles sweetly in response.
And, in a sense, his smile indicates that he accepts their prayers. He accepts their prayers. See, there is a difference between accepting a prayer and answering yes to a prayer.
Often, we feel that if the Lord doesn’t answer yes to our prayers, our prayer itself is worthless. But, actually, if the Lord accepts the prayer, that itself is a perfection. Because if the Lord accepts our prayer, then that means we are connected with him.
And that connection itself is a form of Krishna consciousness. So, the Lord may not necessarily do what we want him to do, but he will accept our prayer. So, there is desiring and demanding.
A devotee may also have desires. I want to do this service. I want to do that service.
I want to achieve this in Krishna’s service. That’s fine. A devotee desires, but a devotee does not demand.
Prabhupada says in the third canto of Srimad Bhagavatam, in a purport to that Kartamani section, that a devotee desires to have darshan of the Lord, but a devotee does not demand darshan of the Lord. So, just that expressing that desire through prayer can connect us with him. And the Lord will accept our prayer even if he doesn’t answer yes to that prayer.
Now, in this case, they are saying, without your glance, which removes all misery, how can we live? So, what is the response of the Lord? He says, Iti chodirita vachaha. He hears all these words which are spoken by the citizens. Rajanam bhaktavatsalah.
And he is bhaktavatsal, the lover of his devotees. In this case, we are talking about the devotees, the rajavasis, the Dwarkavasis, for his praja also. So, prajanam bhaktavatsalah chunvano anugraham dhrishtya.
He heard it and he became merciful. And what was the mercy, what form did the mercy take? Dhrishtya. They had said that without your glance, how can we live? And the Lord responds by offering them his glance.
He says, lovingly glances at everyone. Vithanvan praavishet puram. Vithanvan.
It’s that he distributed his glance. He glanced at everyone and that’s how they all feel enriched. And Krishna is in Vrindavan and every evening when he comes back after herding the cows, so Krishna and Balram are at the back.
They make sure that all the cows and cows are back and they are ahead of them so that everyone returns back. Krishna and Balram are at the back. At the rear end.
And then as they enter the village of Raja or the broad area of Raja where the houses, the homes are, then all the gopis come out in their houses, in the balconies or in the terraces and from there they are beholding Krishna. And as they are beholding Krishna, Krishna feels a little shy to look at the gopis in the presence of Balram because Balram is his older brother. So suddenly as Krishna and Balram are walking along, Krishna slows down.
Balram says, come on, let’s go home now. We’ll take a bath and mother is prepared a dinner for us. We can go and eat quickly.
Krishna says, you please go ahead. I’ll come slowly. And then Balram looks at Krishna, you’re sure? Yes.
Then Balram rushes off. As soon as Balram rushes off, Krishna feels liberated. And then as Krishna feels liberated, all the gopis, every single gopi, Krishna glances at each gopi.
And as I said earlier, so he distributes his glance to every single gopi. That gopi glances at Krishna and offers her love to Krishna through her glance. And Krishna, by his glance, accepts her glance and her love.
And by his glance, he offers his love back to them. And in this way, Krishna reciprocates simply by glances also. So here, as Krishna does in Vrindavan, that’s what Krishna is doing over here also.
He’s reciprocating with his devotees by offering them his love through his glance. So they had said, oh, without your glance destroys all distress. How can we live without you? So Krishna says, yes, I’ll offer my glance to you.
Be enriched by this. Similarly, for us, Krishna may not fulfil. So for them, their specific prayer that Krishna, oh, Krishna, don’t go away so much.
Stay with us. That is not fulfilled by Krishna. Krishna will go away again repeatedly.
In fact, after some time, Krishna even departs from the world. But, although that specific prayer is not fulfilled, their need of being enriched with Krishna Consciousness is fulfilled. Similarly, for us, our specific desire within Krishna Consciousness may sometimes not be fulfilled.
But, our desire for Krishna Consciousness will be fulfilled. That means that suppose we may desire, okay, I want to distribute books. I want to become a good singer.
I want to become a good speaker. All these are good desires. And we should have them and try to strengthen them.
And sometimes even if that particular desire is not fulfilled, but still through that desire we become conscious of Krishna. And Krishna will see our desire for being conscious of Him and He will reciprocate by giving us deepened Krishna Consciousness. And that deepened Krishna Consciousness is Krishna’s ultimate gift to all of us.
Ultimately the most valuable thing in this world is a satisfying object of thought. Our mind works as a generator of all kinds of distracting and destructive thoughts. So, if we have a satisfying object of thought, then the mind which is a thought factory, which is a thought factory, the mind is a thought factory which is producing continuously, thought factory of the mind is producing useless products.
Just like some factories, they produce something mean, there is a finished product, along with that there is a lot of pollution. And sometimes the pollution far outweighs the main product. So, similarly for us, our mind it is meant to do analysis and help us guide, help us function intelligently, but the mind produces a lot of pollution of unwanted thoughts.
And if we have Krishna within our consciousness as a supremely satisfying object of thought, then all other thoughts that are produced by the mind, they will be there and because Krishna is so attractive we will not dwell on those thoughts. And gradually, they will die their own natural death because of our not paying attention to them. Thoughts grow to the extent we pay attention to them.
And if we don’t pay attention to a thought, the thought will die out. So, for us, by the mercy of Krishna, we become attracted to him. If Krishna manifests within us as a satisfying object of thought, that itself will purify us and that itself will elevate and liberate us.
So, I will summarise. I spoke on the topic today of Krishna consciousness means to feel the presence of Krishna in his absence. First point was how today in this world we face many storms externally that can distract our consciousness and internally we face storms also.
It’s almost internally we are a composite of multiple personalities and like talking with somebody inside a closed room and there is not one person but there are five people. So, who is responding, we don’t know. And all of them speak in the same voice.
So, they speak in the same voice but their mood is completely different. So, like that, inside us there are multiple voices and which one takes over, we don’t know. So, the more integrated we become, the more reliable we will be.
So, because of these multiple voices, we become disconnected from Krishna and sadhana bhakti means that we strive to be conscious of Krishna in his absence. The second point was how to do that. First we understand that this feeling of sometimes being disconnected from Krishna is not unnatural.
It is there even in the spiritual world because there also the devotees don’t have constant association of Krishna but they have internally their hearts, they have lots of attraction for Krishna and externally there are lots of attractive objects connected with Krishna present and therefore everyone can remember Krishna very easily. Here, often it is because of moods that we feel very distanced from Krishna and deprived of Krishna but if our chanting is if we are doing bhakti but we are just feeling numb and dead, despite our practise of bhakti, then we can try to raise our consciousness from the mood of ignorance towards passion of goodness and that can be by just washing our face, walking, deep breathing and then as we raise our consciousness, then we can better connect with Krishna. So, but we don’t see it as something unnatural but it is just an alteration.
The sine waves will come and go but over a period of time, their amplitude will not be that extreme and their overall level will be rising. And last point I talked about is how this dynamic of love and separation that is what Chaitanya Mahaprabhu gives a gift to us and we desire but we don’t demand. If we desire to be conscious of Krishna, even in a particular way, but don’t demand that, then Krishna will fulfil our desire in his own way.
We will not necessarily get the particular thing we wanted in Krishna consciousness but we will get Krishna consciousness. Just as with Kunti Maharani, Krishna did not respond to her prayer with words but just smiled at her and that smile made him enter deeper into her heart. And similarly here, when the Varkasas are saying that Krishna, how can we live without you? Your glance… … … Your glance destroys all distresses.
And the Lord gives them his glance just as he gave to the Gopis in Vrindavan. And us, when the Lord glances upon us, when we stay connected with him and we receive his mercy, we try the descending process to try to connect with him and sometime he will by the descending process enrich us. When it is enriched, then we will become liberated and liberated.
We all need a satisfying object of thought and that is Krishna. Otherwise, our mind is like a tireless thought generator which keeps polluting us with all kinds of unwanted thoughts. So when Krishna manifests as the most satisfying object of thought, then we can neglect other thoughts and connect with Krishna and become absorbed in him.
So thank you very much. The last question. Okay.
So the Lord did not listen to Kunti’s request but he listened to Yudhishthira’s request. See, ultimately we can’t know why the Lord does what, but broadly speaking, we can look at the Acharya’s commentaries, we can look at the overall context and we can infer. So in the case of Kunti Maharani, it was more of a more of a emotional separation.
Oh, how can we live without you? But that is there for every devotee. But for Yudhishthira Maharaj, it was not just a feeling of separation but he was himself disconsolate because of the war. Because of the casual, because of the enormous bloodshed that had happened because of the war, which he felt he was responsible for.
And that’s why when the Lord stays on, he has a specific purpose to do. What does he do? First, the 9th chapter ends with Kunti Maharani’s prayers and then Yudhishthira’s request, the Lord stays. But the whole 10th chapter is about Yudhishthira’s lamentation and how various people try to, including the Lord, try to pacify him.
That’s the 8th chapter. And in the 9th chapter, it describes how everybody tries to console him but nobody succeeds and then they go to Vishwamitra. Actually, the 8th chapter also describes that.
So basically, the point is that Yudhishthira needs to be pacified. And the Lord serves multiple purposes. The Lord pacifies Yudhishthira, the Lord glorifies Bhishma, and the Lord also is there with Bhishma for him to depart in a glorious way.
And then he instructs all of us also about the ideal way of departure. So because there is a specific need over there, a generic need, every devotee wants association. So for example, if you want to talk with our spiritual master, I need your association, I need your association, I cannot live without your association.
Okay, what do you want? I just need your association. Well, okay, come and hear my classes, do some service. But if you have a specific question, if you have a specific issue that you want to deal with, so then the spiritual master or a senior devotee will give us time.
So Kuntibhaharani’s prayer is a general prayer of separation from the Lord. There is no specific danger or specific need that is there over there. And that’s why she also concludes, she realises that actually my need is there, but the Dwarkaasi need also is there.
That’s why she says, I just want to be attached to you. Whereas Yudhishthira, although he does not voice that specific need, just by his overall demeanour, it becomes clear that he is heavily burdened. And although he has in a sense agreed to become the king, but his heart is not in it.
So the Lord has to get him to get, put his heart into it. And because there is specific service, so the Lord stops. So thank you very much.