Nectar of Instruction (10)
Transcript
This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
sweet Krishna Krishna Krishna Krishna Krishna Krishna Krishna Krishna Krishna Krishna Okhe Shri Radho Kutha Kanta, Radha Kanta Namaskar Tatra Kamsa Nithyananda, Prabhme Vrindavaneshwari Kamsa Kamsa Kirti, Pranami Dharipriya Kamsa Kalpate Vishnu, Sita Simbhudhya Hemachal Kuntanam Patle, Mahishmavirbhau Lama Namaha Jai Shri Krishna, Jai Shri Krishna, Prabhu Nityananda Shri Vrindavaneshwari, Vrindavaneshwari Shri Vamsa Adi Guruvayur Bhakti Vrindavan Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare Hare Rama, Hare Rama Rama Rama, Hare Hare Hare Krishna So, we are starting with the picture of instruction So, I will start today by first focussing on the importance of the book picture of instruction between Amar and Arya canon The word canon means, it refers to the books that are considered standard or important within a particular tradition So, we all belong to the Bhagavad Gita tradition Krishna consciousness movement is a modern expression of this ancient tradition and we will look at the significance of this book So, I will talk about its significance in three ways First way, I will talk about its significance within the Bhagavad Gita tradition Second, I will talk about its significance along the books which the Bhagavad Gita wrote Third, I will talk about its significance in terms of the application in our lives and in the education within Bhakti Shastra So, the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition it essentially began with Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu So, the message of Krishna consciousness is already there in the Vedic literature that the special memory of Bhakti was taught by Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu fused very expressively 500 years ago and he entrusted the systematisation of his teachings to the six disciples After Chaitanya Mahaprabhu he had four groups of disciples and the first the first Gaurakalena Pashtun that was home to Chaitanya and all these came from four parts one of them came from Vrindavan a second group was from Bengal so Vrindavan were the Goswamis and the followers Bengal was Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Avyadacharya was Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and the disciples then Orissa were the followers of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and others and the Vrindavan was Chaitanya Mahaprabhu now among these four groups the intellectual systematisation of the tradition was entrusted to the Goswamis so the Goswamis wrote down numerous books and the books that they wrote down became the foundation for all future generations of devotees so therefore now among the books that they wrote there are various kinds of books so one of the books is you see in spiritual life we need two essential things spiritual life has beliefs and there are practises so beliefs refers to our understanding of the theory and practises refers to how we apply it in our life so in general how I take the sessions is that I have a PPT today I have not started the PPT but I have a PPT in which I explain the points which I speak and then as I speak I also elaborate on those points so today the topic that I am going to focus on is how these four books are important four books which we study in Bhakti Shastra and among them especially how the vector of instruction is important so as I said there are beliefs and there are practises there is philosophy and there is sadhana so philosophy to a large extent is like theory sadhana is like the practise so in spiritual life scriptures if you want to understand what is the role that they play in our life there are several examples that we can use scriptures are like a map they are like a recipe they are like a prescription so I will take these three and explain each of these can be one point to the role of scripture. The common point about map, recipe and prescription is that the theoretical knowledge is not a map when I came here I had a map while travelling knowing the map didn’t make me take the journey knowing the map is the preliminary knowledge by which I can take the journey so scriptures provide us the map this is the material world, that is the spiritual world this is the way along with the map it is we who have to take the journey so the map example is used to convey how we have to take a journey of transformation then the recipe example recipe also if I know clearly how to cook say rasmalai that does not give me the taste of rasmalai for that I not only need to know the name of all the ingredients and condiments I actually need to mix them together then I will have a dish similarly the scriptures give us various elements for example we have in the other book of Dr. Samit Sindhu and I will describe how we progress so know all this that in and of itself doesn’t give you the taste of it so in a sense we have to cook our consciousness by the practise of devotional service and then we taste rasam so the first talks about a journey where we are moving from the material world to the spiritual world the second example of recipe talks about the inner transformation inner transformation by which our inner sweetness will manifest because our recipe is cooked very nicely and sweetness we taste and notice and a similar example applies to prescription, doctor’s prescription is now that doctor’s prescription conveys an additional point when we are generally cooking in a recipe you have a recipe you cook but the doctor’s prescription, the doctor’s role is also very important so like that while we are applying when we are applying the scriptures, the guru’s role is very important guru guides us on how to apply so now on these if you see you have bhagavad gita, you have we have some other two books, lecture of devotion and lecture of instruction so if you look at these four books what essentially these four books do these four books one by one will take us towards the realisation of Krishna so we show Krishna generally the Upanishads are considered to be the bastions, bastions means the strongholds of esoteric spiritual knowledge and often the malayawadis say that the Upanishads talk about impersonation katramasi, katramasi aham brahmasmi, brahjana and brahman, so this kind of quote we have tried to show how the absolute truth is explained in the impersonalistic books so Srila Prabhupada takes Isopanishad and if you read the Isopanishad practically throughout the book, Srila Prabhupada doesn’t use the word Krishna even once he uses the word god he uses the word lord he uses the word absolute truth, he uses the word brahman he doesn’t use the word Krishna not because he is going into impersonalist territory using their terminology and recruiting their philosophy so what Srila Prabhupada is doing is, he is going into enemy territory, so India goes into that Indian recruiting goes to Pakistan and recruits Pakistan in Pakistan so what Srila Prabhupada does is he goes into the territory that is considered traditionally impersonalist stronghold and there he recruits impersonals so then after Isopanishad we have the Bhagavad Gita the Bhagavad Gita very unambiguously establishes Krishna’s existence now that means the Isopanishad establishes the absolute truth of the person the Bhagavad Gita gives us the identity of that person it tells us that absolute truth of the person is Krishna in the 15th and 19th year of Bhagavad Gita Krishna says Purushottama, he understands he is Purushottama, he is Purushottama, he knows everything there is nothing more left of the person to be so the Bhagavad Gita enables us to know the identity of that person and after that the nature of devotion which enables us to understand the beauty of Krishna the Bhagavad Gita also gives us some clues that there are no there are no verses like that in the Bhagavad Gita in the Bhagavad Gita primarily identity of God is established very unambiguously, of course Krishna’s Bhaktavata syllabus come out in the Bhagavad Gita in many places in that sense also Krishna’s beauty is coming out but the elaborate explanation of Krishna’s beauty in an analytical as well as an aesthetic way that comes in Bhakti Prasannam Vatsyendu now Bhakti Prasannam Vatsyendu tells us about what are the, how Krishna is beautiful and what all are the rasas that can be experienced when we serve Krishna and it goes elaborately into the various forms of Bhakti the 64 items of Bhakti that are talked about in Bhakti Prasannam Vatsyendu and it’s a very intricate book, Lakshmi Prabhupada has given it as nature of devotion in a summary study and if you read Sanskrit when you look at Brahmamsa Namanitika is the commentary on nature of devotion by Jiva Swami the book has been commented extensively by various Acharyas in our tradition so it’s a very beautiful exposition of the glory of Krishna the all attractive person and the glory of Bhakti as we all encompass in process the process that enables everyone and the lecture of instruction enables us to practise Bhakti from a down to earth way to the sky level it starts from a very practical level it starts and then it moves forward right up to Radha so the lecture of devotion it also this principles of Bhakti also this practises of Bhakti is the glory of Bhagawan so in that sense lecture of devotion and lecture of instruction are similar but in terms of practical application for sadhukas the lecture of instruction gives a lot of instructions that are relevant for us as seekers as beginners and seekers in spiritual path and although the number of verses in this book is small these verses are foundational for the study practises so generally speaking in practise spiritual life the scriptures are the guidelines for us in this world people generally act based on four factors what are these four factors four factors there are four factors culture, tradition mood and behaviour culture means everyone does it so people may go to college and start smoking and drinking everyone does it that’s why that’s one basis on which we do it other is tradition we always done it so people do some people go to some place and there is a pizza our generation is individual so tradition is we always do it what is mood mood means it feels good it feels good so I do it and fourth is behaviour it makes sense so generally speaking if you look at our actions we base them on one of these four factors or may be more than one sometimes two may also come together but these are all valid as basis for choosing our actions but one of these are infallible culture may be wrong, tradition may be wrong our moods can be unreliable and sometimes reason although it is powerful reason is also limited because reason our capacity to reason is finite God is infinite therefore we can’t understand God with reason and that’s why these are all lighthouses that are moving sometimes if there is a ship which is coming to the coast the lighthouse is in a safe area the ship comes and whenever the lighthouse shifts and it goes to a rocky area the ship that comes in will crash and get destroyed these are lighthouses that shift sometimes they tell us the right thing sometimes they tell us the wrong thing that’s why these are not the lighthouses we can rely on the scripture is our ultimate authority the scripture is the lighthouse that never changes the scripture is our ultimate authority and the scripture has many parts to it Sri Sri Abandha Vidyadarshi in his book called Bheem Vibhashya which is a commentary on the Vedanta Sutra he explains how scripture statements are of various types for example Krishna may say that Krishna may know my story Bhagavad Gita is saying I have the world in my universal form now there are statements like this where Krishna is informing explaining, analysing among all the statements in scriptures the most important are the statements which are in scriptures the doctor may give a lot of analysis say the infection is spreading and the germs are here all this analysis is important but if a patient wants to remember something as most important and what the doctor has spoken that is in the scripture what should you do so for example Bhagavad Gita there is no direct instruction information there is a body there is a soul but in the other hand this is a instruction this is a instruction which we have called variety definition so among in the scripture there are various statements among those statements the most important statements which are instructions because they if you remember that that part of scripture we can get the benefit of the scriptures so this book is lecture of instruction that means it is the convinced practical application of the scriptures so that you can become transparent and liberated so that’s why it is instruction and it is a lecture of instruction so today’s instruction that will enable us to taste the nature of scripture is lecture of love confession that’s why this is a very important book I will repeat this point of the progression what is the issue of Krishna Guru we have to understand the absolute truth of the person so Bhagavad Gita gives us the identity of that person as Krishna so lecture of devotion gives us the beauty of that person how attractive Krishna is and lecture of instruction tells us about the accessibility of that person how we can access that person through a practical process of devotion itself a practical process of love confession so we will start with the introduction and as we discuss the introduction we will, the way we will do this study is we will read paragraphs and then we will discuss on them and wherever some elaboration is required I will add it now when Sri Krishna Gita wrote the lecture of instruction and devotees were publishing it Prabhupada had published it it was of course called as school press and then they gave the name book to the bank so initially the devotees saw the content of the book and they thought this is a book for devotees so they printed a very small 500,000 copies they printed and then Prabhupada they gave a copy to Prabhupada, he said how many copies you printed they told a small one Prabhupada said that is small so Prabhupada thought this book is for devotees he said we want the whole world to become devotees so they printed large quantity, he said this is a book it is meant for devotees but the instructions that are there will benefit even new devotees so Sri Krishna Gita’s mood in presenting the lecture of instruction was to help how first of all scripture is a vast body of knowledge in which the most important is the instructions so that’s what will transform us analysis is no doubt important, philosophy is important, that will make us understand how I should follow the instructions for example doctor says you are taking this medicine 2 times a day what difference will it make all the medicines are going to take once I understand how serious the disease is all the analysis of the seriousness of the disease is for what purpose to make sure that I take the medicine so we do need to study the philosophy so the purpose of having the philosophy is to make people apply the instructions Sri Krishna has to apply the philosophy so for example it says so he says don’t be lazy about the philosophy siddhanta bali means all this is done we are here to finish ourself we don’t need to do it now don’t be lazy why? by this your mind will become fixed it means philosophy is ultimately there to help us fix the mind what Sri Prabhupada does in his purpose is that he takes the instructions which are given in very short shlokas by Guru Goswami and he gives a philosophical understanding as well as a current day application for this instructions so let’s start who would like to read? you can read from your book or you can read from here we will read loudly and clearly and then we will discuss it so it’s interesting Sri Prabhupada is not saying that Sri Krishna does not conduct a mass supervision or Vatsyayanath’s supervision or Bhaktivinoda’s supervision he does Swami’s supervision and why does he do Swami’s supervision? because Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu entrusted Sri Prabhupada Swami with the primary responsibility of systematising our tradition when Sri Krishna was older Sri Prabhupada Swami went to the shelter of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu first and Sri Krishna that’s why Sri Krishna was arrested so Sri Krishna was the older among the two brothers Sri Prabhupada Swami felt that you were taking shelter of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu first so you became initiate first you are my senior brother and that’s why he considered him to be the leader and that’s why when Sri Prabhupada Swami came initiation he came to Swami and Swami said you want to meet Sri Prabhupada Swami so Sri Prabhupada Swami is considered to be the primary among the Swamis and he standardised our tradition that’s why Sri Prabhupada is saying that the Krishna conscious movement is under Sri Prabhupada Swami and as I said Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had multiple disciples so although when Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Mukna, Goswami and other disciples went to Vrindavan before Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu before the Swamis but the Goswamis received special mercy and that’s why everybody accepted them as the primary leaders so now Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s disciples if you see Chaitanya Mahaprabhu did not directly initiate anyone in Mahabhigya Mahabhigya? yes he inspired them to chant but he did not initiate anyone directly so one of the chief among disciples are the Goswamis many of them were senior and more advanced indirectly but they were not directly initiated by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu so now therefore Sri Narottam Das Thakur now if you see the generations Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is in essence the first generation then the Goswamis were like his followers the second generation and then Narottam Das Thakur is the third generation how third generation? where were Shiksha disciples at? Narottam Das was Shiksha disciple at Jiva Goswami, correct so now Narottam Das Thakur is verifying his the generation that he had he was a great spiritual master so in a sense actually he was verifying he had the six Goswamis, they were all spiritual masters therefore Sri Narottam Das Thakur has sung Rupa Raghunatha Padeva Jayapati Prabhava Mujhava Srinu Devapuri so then I have an attraction to the legacy of Rupa and Raghunatha then I will understand the pastimes of Radha and Krishna so what does this mean? actually the pastimes of Radha and Krishna are extremely easy to misunderstand they are extremely difficult to understand and extremely easy to misunderstand so why are they easy to misunderstand? because they seem very similar to mundane tribal affairs and that’s why actually if you want to understand the history, first of all you have to understand how they are conjugated and Rupa Goswami’s literature very curiously explains the difference between material and spiritual by which we rise beyond the material so when I am eager to understand the literature given by the Goswamis then I shall be able to understand the tribal and tribal affairs of Radha and Krishna so how does it work? you remember in the Bhagavad Gita Krishna explains, indicates how this world is a reflection of the spiritual world does anyone know the verse? in the Bhagavad Gita? is it Basavete Sivarthi? yes Shobhana Ashvattham Praharam Shambham Krishnam 15.1 in the Bhagavad Gita Krishna says that the tree whose roots are downwards and whose sorry roots are upward and whose shoots are downwards so in such a tree we see the reflection so what does he indicate by this? now if I see a reflection and if a mango on the top of the tree what is on top will appear lowest in the lot so with that the Radha and Krishna pastimes are highest in the spiritual world and they appear the lowest in this reflection because they appear like not only male-female affairs but they appear as of illicit male-female affairs so now if you see somebody comes to a river and just sees the reflection you think there is a mango and the person’s vision is blocked so that the person doesn’t see the real tree the eyes are glued to the reflection so what will happen is the person will jump into the river and try to get the mango in the reflection, he will never get it even if he smashes his head against some rocks underwater he will never get it so if a person has to jump into the river to get the real mango what all has to happen? first of all the vision has to stop looking at the reflection and start looking at the reality so in our case what happens is that we not only mistake the reflection to be the reality it’s bad if I see the reflection and think that to be the reality that means how do I make a new attraction in this world if we mistake that to be a reality that is bad enough but actually what we do is we not only mistake the reflection to be the reality but we also mistake the reality to be a reflection what does that mean? that means not only do we think the real attraction in this world is the actual thing even in the Radhakrishna pastimes they are also like this therefore the first thing that we have to do if we want to understand the reality is to stop looking at the reflection and shift the view to the reality stop looking at the reflection means to go and look in time even in the present and that is exemplified by the Goswamis the Goswamis were utterly renounced so they show how this reflection is not at all worthy of the attention they show this view of immeasurable wealth and accepted copies for the sake of the individual so what they did by their example is they completely rejected the reflection and then Radhakrishna Patal Vrindabhai Purna Nanda Namaskar it’s a mess for the actual Vasu, Radha and Krishna so what does it mean? if that was what the male female was attracted to then these two people enjoyed it but they completely renounced it and became mad for Radhakrishna’s pastimes that indicates that that is something entirely different so how it is different the Goswamis have explained that’s why to the extent we understand the literature of the Goswamis then we will understand the difference between the reality and the reflection and we will reject the reflection and turn towards the reality so Jitendra Mahaprabhu appeared in order to destroy from human society the benediction of the saints of Krishna you know all over the world people talk about love of God all over the world means in all the religious traditions of the world love of God is mentioned in the highest at least in the spiritual traditions but the analytical description of how to develop love that is so clearly described only in the Gandhian tradition generally when people talk about love in the written world they talk about it’s mostly related to attraction like a glass largely based on hormones it is basically a glass and there also they talk about when something spontaneously happens we fall in love with something there also the phrase is fall in love kannidhi pravipate na so all of us when a person is in love one has to fall in love one has to act to please the person whom you love so when a man falls in love with a woman the woman says annamabhava bhakato madhyaji mam namaskuru mam eva shashi suttyam te so you think of you always think of you you can do whatever you want then you will come to me then you will come to me so what we see in this world is a reflection of what is going on generally people think that love is something that happens spontaneously in the movies if a boy sees a girl he will see each other as if an electric current passes through their body and then they interact with each other so the whole idea of love has a systematically cultivated emotion is something which is extraordinary so actually if you look at the Abrahamic religion Christianity, Judaism, Islam they talk about love of God but these religions do not have anything like a sadhana sadhana is actually unique to the dharmic religions dharmic religions are what we call Hinduism to Hinduism sadhana is unique to the history traditions what do we mean by sadhana sadhana is a systematic sustained practise by which one gets spiritual realisation there is no such thing there is some Christians I will explain some of these points so we will talk about these points later however I will take the purpose of tomorrow onwards if you like the purpose of tomorrow you can discuss the points however in the sadhana it is systematic sustained practise for gaining spiritual realisation so in the Christian tradition they have when you go to a mosque go to a church or in Islam they have high pillars of Islam in charity, in namaz except Allah is the one and only God and I will talk to you in the high pillars actually on a daily regular basis a system for connecting with God and transforming oneself is important so sadhana is what actually means spiritual life a tangible transformation through our experience so otherwise without sadhana spiritual life is just simulated I believe in God I feel good when I go to a temple or I feel good when I go to a mosque or a church but then what happens sometimes I don’t feel good but with sadhana what happens is spiritual life becomes a tangible transformational experience now of course experiences can come to everyone somebody can go to yatra and get some experiences I can tell you miraculous examples of people that transform by the yatra that he leads people to so there are experiences like that but when people get those experiences steadily then you have to practise sadhana so sadhana is what gradually takes our consciousness to a different level so sadhana how it is to be practised that is how it is primarily described in Mahabharata now I am talking about this over here Rameshwaraprakash Chaitanya Mahaprabhu gave the science of Krishna to us so now how we will go through progressive emotions and ultimately come to the emotion of love of God this whole concept of this is the science of Krishna generally we don’t think of emotions as a science we just think of emotions as something that comes spontaneously and the way Bhagavad Gita is describing and the way it is structurally guiding it is the science which heals us starts to come to the nucleate, come to association with Sadhana Bhakti nucleate will develop, anathas will grow away so all this is a science and the science gradually transforms so it is a science of Krishna and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has given us this science now another question it is a science because there are several reasons so one reason is that it is step by step it is not just a spontaneous feeling, somebody feels love for Krishna somebody will feel love for Krishna no, step by step as one call it anybody can go from Shraddha to Prema and the second point is it is repeatable one of the fundamental characters of science is that it should be repeatable if I throw a stone up it will fall down, if you throw it, it will fall down if somebody from America throws it the stone will fall, repeatable so one of the characteristics of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s expression of bhakti is that it is repeatable anybody, any part of the world a person says, I am sorry Krishna, I am not doing service but I have achieved it one person will I have achieved it that’s why it is science of Krishna and actually Prabhupada translates, Prabhupada gives a subtitle for his book complete science of bhakti yoga it is a science because there is a systematic explanation of the transformational process Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has given us the science of bhakti yoga, science of Krishna so the most exalted of all the devotees of Lord Krishna of all the activities of Lord Krishna are his pastimes of conjugal love and peace so these are most exalted because the love that is exhibited over here is the most selfless whereas the gopis love Krishna, do you know the pastimes that the gopis were able to do they give their best to Krishna Krishna said, you do not have to go to him their love is completely selfless how do we understand the selflessness of the love why? not a person is able to do this how do I know that love is selfless now the parents may say to their son that I love you very much, son says I want to become a brahmachari, take it away so now what happens over there is, still the parents love their sons, but then we have so many expectations on their sons so there is love there, but that love is also selfless why does somebody has to tell his you know what is in our society, what will our relatives think what will happen to our prestige, what will happen to our honour, that becomes a major consideration for a woman in a traditional culture the greatest honour human gets the gopis love for Krishna is so selfless that on one side they are ready to go to hell for the sake of giving Krishna a little relief on the other hand when Krishna calls them for rasa rance, they are ready to go in the middle of the night and they are ready to sacrifice their chastity of course they are not unchaste because Krishna in the supreme law is the husband of all husbands and they are generally sponsored but people who misunderstand are ready to do that also gopis love is completely selfless supremely selfless and that’s why they are the most exalted gopis Chaitanya Mahaprabhu appeared in the name of Shri Nityananda Raja in the deaths of the gopis therefore to understand the mission of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and follow in his footsteps, one must very seriously follow in the footsteps of his Goswamis and he is the Sanatana Bhattaraguna, Suji, Bhopal Bhatta and Dasaraguna so what is Shri Nityananda Bhatta telling over here in the spiritual hierarchy over there gopis are the highest, among the gopis the Chaitanya Maharaj, Shri Nityananda Raja among the highest you know, this usage Shri Mati Radharani it is Srila Prabhupada’s unique origination you know Acharya before Shri Chandra Prabhupada has referred to Radharani in such amorphic terms so Jiva Goswami, he just used the word Radha and Nityananda Bhatta also used the word Radha in Jyotirmala now Shri Prabhupada because what had happened when Shri Nityananda Bhatta came along, Acharya started preaching, how there were so many sahajiyas and the sahajiyas they had very distorted ideas there was a whole whole branch of deviant religion called as Tantra and in Tantra actually there is right hand Tantra and left hand Tantra right hand Tantra is auspicious right hand Tantra is inauspicious in Tantra left hand Tantra is inauspicious left hand Tantra is the idea that everything material can be spiritualised right hand Tantra is there are certain material manifestations that can help us to unite with spirit for example, the deities left hand Tantra is anything material can be spiritualised if they have the idea, even sex can be spiritualised and they say when a man and a woman unite, actually they have the idea that when a man and a woman unite, actually Shiva and Shakti, they are united through us, and they are enjoying, because they are enjoying so through their pleasure we will make space for each other, a very perverted idea and that idea came into Gauravi, into the history and man and women started doing illicit activities they were saying that when we do the activities, actually Radha and Krishna are doing the activities it’s complete insanity so, once the bhakti sansa comes, the prabhupada did work he said that Radharani’s activities were exalted you can’t understand that so Shri Prabhupada used the word that people think that Radha is very cheap don’t think that Radha is an ordinary girl whom people can refer to in their immoral activities she is a supreme goddess of fortune, actually the goddess of fortune is Lakshmi Devi all the gopis are super goddesses of fortune why? because Lakshmi Devi couldn’t enter into Vrindavan, the gopis were there so Lakshmi Devi is the goddess of fortune, the gopis are super goddesses of fortune and Radharani is the supreme goddess of fortune so, goddess of fortune, super goddess of fortune, supreme goddess of fortune and that person you know, looked at her as cheap, that’s why he used the word, not just Radha not just Radharani, but supreme Radharani so, now this is not a rasabhasa Radha is a village girl cowherd girl, she is not the Rani, actually she is the supreme there are many pastimes which he goes down in, for example, which describes how the population of Radharani is scattered Radharani is the queen of Vrindavan she is establishing so Shri Prabhupada used this very disrespectful address he said, we don’t misunderstand we don’t consider that as material Shri Prabhupada is actually so cautious in his whole Bhagavad Gita even the name Radha comes only once in his whole Bhagavad Gita even the name Radha comes only once yes, in the introduction tat tat answer me, Radha Vrindavan is here why does Shri Prabhupada is so cautious people are not qualified this is not trespassing to advance Shri Prabhupada is telling this to the Rani so what Shri Prabhupada is telling is that Radharani is the highest devotee and she has come as Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Radharani’s associate has come as the associate Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the Goswamis so just as the associates of Radharani and meet the other Sakhis and Manjuris and other Gopis in the service of Radha Krishna similarly the associate Chaitanya Mahaprabhu will teach us how to serve Krishna that’s how the Goswamis are helping us to serve Krishna and enter into the spiritual world gradually yes would you like to read so if any of you have any questions please feel free to ask whenever you have those any time you have questions feel free to ask so now as I said that I was talking about Radha’s cultivation and Radha’s spontaneous so what about when you cultivate spontaneous Radha, actually we come to the level of spontaneous Radha that is Radhana Bhakti by the practise of Swadhinananda so if you see the scriptures do talk about Radhana Bhakti but then what is the definition of Bhakti that is given and in Indian Krishna Shiyaman Bhakti Shiyaman is culturing or cultivation so right now we can’t rely on our feelings alone because currently our feelings are like a sine wave if we rely on a sine wave we will go into a sine wave that will happen when we rely on our feelings then sometimes we will feel very high sometimes we will feel low and when we feel low we will go into waves or something like that so right now we need to be cautious about this right now Bhakti is a cultivation cultivation means the word cultivation is generally used with respect to farming to cultivate crops, so what do we do in cultivation we plough the land we sow the seeds we protect the farm and gradually the crops will grow so generally one of the uses is cultivation for the garden there is a watering of the Bhakti Lata there is a watering of the Bhakti Lata so right now in the process of Bhakti our focus is primarily on Bhakti so we put aside our feelings of course if we get devotional feelings, elliptic darshan and dance in few films it’s wonderful we see this as a glimpse of what we are going to get in the future but right now we don’t rely on our feelings as the parameters of our guides for us we need to become right now we are in the process and gradually the feelings will become more and more studied and more and more deep so surely our goal is sponsor this love it will come but right now we can’t depend on spontaneity right now we focus on spontaneity any other questions? so any comments? please feel free to comment correct, critique whatever you feel appropriate so now he gave us Ritesh Nambra so that we may become pure Vaishnavas Shri Satyanarayana Prabhu as well as his devotees they have given us guidelines, instructions so now Shri Prabhupada will give a till now what has Shri Prabhupada done? in this purport the first few paragraphs are introducing the author and now Shri Prabhupada will introduce the book so these two paragraphs are the introduction of the author so in all spiritual affairs one’s first duty is to control his mind and senses unless one controls his mind and senses one cannot make any advance in spiritual life so one’s first duty is to control the mind and senses actually why is this necessary? because spiritual life is a awakening to a higher consciousness awakening to a higher consciousness so as long as our consciousness is caught up in material things we cannot perceive higher things so when we control our mind and senses then we can perceive a higher reality in the example explained the super soul is present right next to us in the heart he is in the heart but we are right now blind and deaf to his presence we can’t see him we can’t hear him why is that? because we are caught up in the endless parade of the sense objects and the promises of sense pleasure that this material world offers us so to understand this we can consider a person say watching a TV and the person is so absorbed in watching the TV that the person is sitting next to a friend is sitting next to him and the person completely feels different he is so absorbed in watching the TV so to better understand this we can use the example of virtual reality some of you may have heard of flight simulations remember? pilots have to train for fighting after flying especially fighter pilots then you saw that every time you can try send a Indian pilot to Pakistan actually and if he makes a mistake you can’t experiment there are simulations so simulations almost create the same reality but it’s all in the computer world so in this sense the material world is like a simulation, a high tech simulation now if you look at the disciples the scientific disciples Richard A. Thomson the title of the book is Maya the world as a virtual reality it’s a very scientific explanation of how this whole world is like a virtual reality so basically the point is as long as a person is absorbed in the movie the person’s ability is to be other people are sitting next to you so like that as long as we are caught in the material world we become blind to spirituality that’s why if you see when people watch a movie they do two things, first is they switch off the lights you become blind to the other reality then you switch on the other lights switch on the illusion so what you want to say is we can’t close down the illusion but we decrease our entanglement in the illusion then what happens is our higher perception decreases as long as a person is caught up in the movie and if the movie looks very good or promises something very good then there is not much chance of turning towards the reality so Vishwakrishna Shankaracharya is an interesting example for this point why we need to control our mind and senses he says imagine there is a dancer who is doing a dance performance and the audience has come to see her dance performance but this dancer she has only a few limited dancing steps she moves her hands, she moves her legs she moves her head, she moves her legs and she goes on doing her dancing steps and then what happens is after the dancing steps are over the audience is going to go but she doesn’t want the audience to go so as soon as she sees the audience is getting a little distracted, she restarts moving her hands and legs in a new way and the audience goes, oh there is something new is coming but then she doesn’t know actually the new steps, so although she moves her hands and legs slightly, soon after that she falls back into her old steps and then the audience goes on dancing so immediately she dances, she does some new steps new steps, new movements they are not new dances, because she doesn’t know new dances so what happens is he says that actually this dancer is struggling, it’s making her anxious and the audience is the patient, the jinn so the the dancer knows only limited dance steps similarly the pleasures of natural existence are only limited the eating, sleeping, waiting, defending there is nothing beyond this it’s all in the chalana, but they all come in new garbs in new alluring forms and that’s why we keep going back and forth, so it’s a new form, new colour, new package new attraction, they are actually in the same location and as long as we think there is something new there we won’t come out of it so when we regulate the senses what happens is, no matter how much new is there, we won’t come out of it so regulation helps us to come out of the illusion regulation what does it do, it helps us to come out of the illusion, illusion is that I cannot give the illusion completely, my entanglement with the illusion, I’ll keep it in the illusion, so controlling the mind and senses means we slowly start coming out of the illusion and then we become aware of the reality, that’s the first step is to control the mind and senses even more categorical that one cannot make any advance in the spiritual life without controlling the mind and senses so everyone in this world is engrossed in the modes of passion and ignorance one must promote himself to the platform of ignorance, that’s why one has to follow the instructions of the Buddha and so on, you see this is ignorance, this is passion, this is so now one can practise bhakti from any level so this is the linear progression, from the lower node to the higher one, however bhakti is so merciful that it progresses like this I can be Tanaguna, I can be Vajaguna, I can be Satguru, but anywhere I can start the process of bhakti my person, I just went to America when I was 50 years totally independent everyone they started chanting Hare Krishna so bhakti is so merciful that one can start practising bhakti from any level 9.32 and 33 Krishna described in the Bhagavad Gita how bhakti can elevate a person to any level 9.33 9.33 9.33 9.33 9.33 9.33 9.33 9.33 9.33 9.33 9.33 9.33 9.33 9.33 9.33 9.33 9.33 9.33 9.33 9.33 9.33 9.33 9.33 9.33 9.33 9.33 9.33 9.33 9.33 9.33 9.33 9.33 9.33 9.33 9.33 9.33 9.33 9.33 9.33 9.33 9.33 9.33 9.33 9.33 9.33 9.33 9.33 9.33 9.33 9.33 9.33 9.33 9.33 9.33 Then we become guided internally.
See, all of us have a super soul in our life. And the super soul is our inner guide. But currently, we are not connected to the super soul.
When we come to goodness, we start becoming connected to the super soul. And then he guides us. So it becomes easier for us to know his laws and his visions.
His vision, purpose for us. So, the purpose of sense control is so that we come to the goodness. And goodness is not that we reject gurus or jastras.
But the gurus are instructions supplemented by the instructions of the super soul. It is to guide us to the super soul. Now, Maheshwara Prabhupada says, Everyone’s own Krishna consciousness depends on the attitude of the follower.
So now, in modern society, the word attitude is very popular. You have the right attitude. Positive attitude.
Now, what is Prabhupada referring to by the attitude over here? He says, now if you want to look at it, you have to look at what Prabhupada means by the attitude. Look at the previous sentence and look at the sentence after that. Now, generally, meaning always has to be understood in the context.
If you don’t know the context, then a complete wrong meaning can come out. See, there are automatic programmes which do translation. You know the translator is there, sir.
See, there is history of computing. Now, if one doesn’t know the context, one just looks at the meanings of the word and tries to do translation. So, the history of computing may be an example of how translation can go absolutely wrong.
See, in the Bhagavad Gita, there is a statement, The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. So, what does this statement mean? That actually the person wants to practise spiritual life. The person wants to become devoted to God.
But the temptations of the flesh drag the person down. The flesh drags the person down. So, using a computer programme, all the computer programme says, Okay, what is the meaning of this word? What is the meaning of this word? In the dictionary, and then they translated this into Russian.
And then, in the Russian statement, what it became, the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. The translated statement became, The vodka is strong, but the meat is rotten. So, vodka, as you know, is a Russian word.
So, spirit, actually here it is referring to intent, motivation. The spirit became vodka, and the spirit is willing, the vodka is strong, and the flesh is weak, the meat is rotten. So, actually, why is this thing happening? Because here we are just using literal dictionary meaning, without looking at the context.
We look at what is said before and after, and we will understand it is not referring to that at all. Vodka, it is referring to, it is a practise of spiritual life. So, you know, the word attitude is very common in Indian society also.
What Srila Prabhupada is referring to that, the attitude, if you want to understand that, you have to look at the context. What is Srila Prabhupada saying before, and what is he saying after. If you look at what he is saying before, he is talking about sense control, he is talking about coming to the mode of goodness, and he is saying after that, a follower of the Krishna consciousness movement should become a perfect Goswami.
And Krishna is another one of the Swamis. That means, what is the attitude Srila Prabhupada is talking about? He is saying that the attitude that I have to become sense control. So, for example, if you want to say, if you want to become sense control, I can’t do that.
So, Prabhupada is saying that that is a pessimistic view. If you want to make spiritual advancement, you have to have the attitude, that I want to become sense control, and I can become sense control. For advancement, it depends on that.
If you, in the beginning, want to say it is not possible if I want to become sense control, then that negative attitude itself is sabotage. It will wreck our efforts to become spiritual advance. So, it is not easy to become sense control, but it is possible.
If practise persists, it is definitely possible. And the attitude should be, yes, I want to become spiritual advancement. That means, I want to become sense control.
To the extent we have an attitude, a positive attitude, I want to become sense control. You know, even in something that has been made as medicine, the researchers have found that the humour of a patient depends significantly on the attitude. When a patient feels unloved, uncared, unloved, when a patient doesn’t have much reason to live, when a patient has dark, and dreary, and lecherous thoughts, then such patients take much longer to get cured.
And they arrive at a patient who is loved, and cared, and valued, because he wants to live. When the positive attitude, the positive desire to live, then the person’s healing takes place much faster. In fact, there is a famous doctor who has said that actually, the whole business of a doctor is to entertain the patient while the body cures itself.
The whole business of the doctor is to entertain the patient while the body cures itself. What happens is, the body itself has a healing mechanism. Even when there comes a fracture, so when there is a fracture, we say that the doctor has to do a surgery.
But even after the doctor does the surgery, what does the surgery actually do? If two bones are broken apart, the doctors, the surgery puts the two bones in the right position. But after that, the journey of the bones cannot be done by surgery. The doctors may put some more incisors and the two bones are aligned in the right position.
But the journey has to be done by nature itself. So, all healing is done by the body itself. All the doctors in the medicine business, they assist the healer.
So, if insanity as mundane as bodily medicine, attitude will fall. If the patient wants to get cured, the patient gets cured fast. Similarly, in spiritual life also, when we want to become spiritual, when we want to become spiritual, that is a positive step for our spiritual development.
The other devotees can push us. Other devotees can inspire us. Shri Prabhupada has asked, he gave an example, how much can other devotees push us in our future? He said that sometimes when a person is driving at some point, he is going to go to the bus stop.
So, when he goes to the bus stop, he will get a big bus. Sometimes the bus doesn’t start. He is happy that he will have two-three other people.
They will all push the bus. They push the bus, push the bus, and when the bus is pushed, what happens? After some time, he is inside. He goes up and starts.
So, now imagine, now what is happening is, when people from outside are pushing, inside also the driver, the driver is also trying to move the steering wheel, put the wheel in position, keep the right position, and he is also trying to start the bus. So, internally, the driver is trying to start the bus. Externally, the others are pushing, and the bus starts off.
So, Prabhupada says, you know, it’s like that, for us also. Now, others can push it externally, just like a vehicle can be pushed, so that they can start off. But actually, imagine if somebody is pushing the bus externally, and inside the person has switched off the ignition, and is pressing the brakes.
Then what will happen? People will say, we don’t want to, we don’t want to, we’ll give up. So, Prabhupada says that, how much can others push us? He says, they can push us only when we want to make an advancement, but there are some obstacles. If we want, if we are ourselves obstructing the advancement, others can’t push us to do it.
Do you understand? Imagine. So, ultimately, that others will definitely help us, as it’s our responsibility. And our responsibility is to do it.
So, our attitude is very important. Maybe one of the very amazing aspects which we have to look at, is that, to solve the spiritual potential problem. And, and, that’s very difficult.
You know, many of Shravakas, Gaudapada, Nagarjuna, everybody, they give lectures on Yamanas. They are so slow. We are going to be, we cannot practise Krishna.
Vishwakubhikar saw their fallen condition. He saw, and, and, their fallen condition. See, their fallen condition is, if you see, if you look at this Narasimha Bhagavad Karma by Prabhupada, what is he saying? Vajasthana Bhavay Sabhachana They are all covered by the Lord of Death.
But then he is saying, Var Vara Shravana Kare Dheera Hariyamana If you keep hearing again and again, it will become so. So, Vishwakubhikar saw, beyond all the passion, he didn’t lose, he didn’t lose. And he saw the spiritual potential.
So, this is the qualification of a doctor. A doctor should not just see the sickness, a doctor should also see the potential for health. A doctor should see not just the sickness but the potential for health.
And that is condition. So, when Vishwakubhikar decides that he is Anupama Prabhu, he is our condition director, and I want to ask him the question he wrote, he wrote, Vishwakubhikar, you gave us faith that however fallen our condition, the power of bhakti can rectify our fallen condition. So, that faith is very, very important.
Most people will be like, we are also fallen, we can’t do anything. But, Vishwakubhikar had faith in the process of bhakti, and Vishwakubhikar had faith in our bhakti. So, that is very important.
It’s not just that we are having faith that I will become successful. No. It’s not just our faith in ourselves.
The bhakti is not based on self-confidence. If you talk about self-confidence, but even within yourself. So, how can you have confidence? The confidence is actually not self-confidence, it is illusion confidence.
So, the conception of self is illusion. Our faith that we can become self-confident, we can become spiritually advanced, it is not based on our own attainments. It is based on our faith in the process of bhakti.
By the process of bhakti, even I can become self-confident. So, that attitude is that, what is Prabhupada talking about? I have to become pure. I have to become self-confident.
By the process of bhakti, I have to take my process of bhakti, by which I can become self-confident. So, this one I am going to cover in my next video. So, any questions about this video? We have a few minutes remaining.
Are you saying that is there an opposite of lack of enthusiasm than extreme enthusiasm? Excessive enthusiasm, is that also possible? Anybody asking? Is excessive enthusiasm possible? Actually, doing sadhana does not require enthusiasm. And, excessive enthusiasm would mean that we do the unbalanced work. Like they say, our work, our work also should be consistently done, with cahar, yadashi.
So, we have to sleep adequately, eat adequately, take care of our body. So, if we start neglecting that, then we are not going to sustain what we are doing right now. So, excessive enthusiasm can be as we will talk about later as prayas, like disproportionate endeavour.
It’s possible. But, in general, if it’s, we are practising the rules of bhakti properly, then the enthusiasm will be channelised. Sometimes, we just do some activity and neglect other activities.
That is disproportionate enthusiasm and imbalanced. And, that may not be very good. So, if you think, surely we need enthusiasm, no doubt.
But, we need to have balance in our enthusiasm. In the context of Prabhupada, where he says that if you don’t take care of your health, in the future, even if you are enthusiastic to Krishna, still you will not be able to serve Krishna. If you wanted to not go out, so, of course, I can still serve Krishna by remembering Krishna.
But, service is a, in this world, in this mission, I will not be able to do that. So, if excessive enthusiasm is also possible, then it will be that more and more prayers. That’s also a danger.
But, if you are practising the various means of bhakti, then that is, a danger is taking care of you. Okay. So, bus driver is waiting sometimes that can have a problem with his mind.
So, he’s mind go up and down. But, even when the mind is going to go down, there are certain limits which you should not cross. For example, if somebody is a devotee then the limit should not take a person beyond the four available limits.
Person is a brahmachari, then there are certain code of conduct which follow the brahmacharis. So, within that the mood will be better. And then, you just have to think about it.
When the bounds will never be permanent. Sometimes, you may feel like breaking them. So, it’s possible.
And if we have discovered what are things that we like in the world, then we can think about things that we like the world. So, we can think about things that we like in the world. So, we can about that we like in the world.
So, we can think about things that we like in the world. So, we can about we like in the So, we can think about things that we the world. we can think about things that we in So, we can things that we like world.
So, we can think about that we like in the world. So, we like the world. So, about that we like in the world.
So, we can think about things we in the world. So, can about things we like in the world. So, can think about that we like So, we can think about that we like in the world.
So, can think about that we like in the So, can think about like the world. So, about that we like in the world. So, we about like in world.
Suppose somebody has got malnutrition, he is on a willpower, out of control, he will torture himself. So, if I have got some disease, the disease cannot be cured just by willpower. For curing a disease, willpower is important, but willpower should be coupled with a process.
There is a process given by the doctor that will cure, and to follow that process I need some willpower. Similarly, now we have uncontrolled senses. To become controlled in our senses, this willpower alone is not enough.
No, when the blast comes, I will not shut up. That willpower will simply be prepared. The process is, don’t just say, fill the mind with Krishna.
Fill the mind with Krishna, then it will be cured. So, what Prabhupada is saying is, to become sense-controlled, it is not just about willpower. He is talking about, to follow the process given by Rupa Goswami.
And, he has given many books. There is the Prasada Shuddha, Vedanta Madhya, Vedanta Madhya. But in Videsha Angad, it is the first instruction from the five devotees.
And if you follow these instructions very strictly, then it will be easier to make one of your own life successful. So, to the extent we, actually it is interesting, that the stricter we are, the easier life becomes. And, the laxer we are, the tougher life becomes.
Why is that? It is a legal process. It is the history of Sadhana Bhakti. So, generally we will take it easy on the gurus.
Then my life will be easy. But what happens? The stricter we are, the easier life becomes. Why? Because, when we are strict, the mind stays peaceful.
When I am strictly chanting Hare Krishna, studying the scriptures, then the mind becomes still. The mind becomes calm. On the other hand, when I am laxer.
I don’t need to lax. Let me see these things. Let me do this.
Do that. Do that. It feels as if, I am having it easy.
Or, what if the laxer we are, the tougher life becomes, because the mind stays uncontrolled and wide. So, we will also observe. If you read Sadhana Bhakti properly, and we chant nicely, learn the philosophy nicely, the mind stays calm.
Then life becomes easy. So, our purpose is, by the practise of these gurus, our practise will become, it will be easier to make spiritual advance. So, it’s a paradox.
Gurus seem to make life difficult, but actually they make life easy. So, the gurus help us to control our mind. So, tomorrow we will start the discussion of the first verse of Vaishyamrit.
If you have any questions on this, you can take this question. We will start our discussion tomorrow with the questions asked. Thank you very much.