Nourishing the creeper of devotion 1 – The danger of becoming religious but not spiritual

[Chaitanya Charitamrita class at ISKCON, London, UK]

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna I am grateful to be here at the lotus feet of Anileshwar and all of you and I will speak on the topic of nourishing the creeper of devotion the Bhakti Vata Beach so I will speak in four classes about this theme and In today’s class I will focus on the background, both the conceptual and the historical background where this conversation is being spoken. This is a conversation in the Chaitanjali Tamil Nadu between Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Shri Arupa Goswami. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had several major conversations with his associates.
Some of those conversations were primarily about philosophical truths and how they are to be understood. So, for example, he had two conversations with Prakashanth Saraswati and Saruhundra Tacharya and they focused primarily on raising people from impersonal understanding into personal understanding. Then he had conversations with Shri Arupa Goswami and Shri Arupa Goswami and those conversations focused primarily on practising devotional service and on expounding the concept of God, Ishwara, His many manifestations and how He lives everywhere.
And he had a conversation with Ramananda Rai which focused primarily on the esoteric aspects of pure devotional service. So, you could say that in spiritual life there is sambandha, abhidheya and prayojan. What is it that I am going to develop a relationship with if let me decide I want to travel around and I need a good car.
So, then I decide I want to develop a relationship with a car. So, that is I want to be the owner of a car. The sambandha requires object, the relationship with what? Okay, I want a relationship with a car.
Then there is a process for getting that. That is called prayojan. Okay, if I want to get a car, how do I get it? I have to look at various cars, select the cars and then I have to arrange for the finances.
And then arranging the process by which you get the car is abhidheya. And then after that, prayojan is the fruit. So, if I drive in the car and then driving happily, comfortably, proudly.
I saw once an advertisement of a car. It showed a young man driving a car and a young girl looking at him with admiring eyes. And there is another young man behind, glaring, envious.
And the ad was, buy this car and enjoy the envy in your neighbour’s eyes. So, there the prayojan, the fruit is the pleasure we get. Pleasure of either owning something ourselves and seeing others admiration or seeing others envy.
Anything in life you need to do, there are these three costs. Okay, what is it that I want to develop a relationship? And how am I going to do it? And what is the result I am going to get from it? But the problem with any prayojan, any fruit in this world is that, okay, I may enjoy the admiration, the envy in other’s eyes when I have a new car. But sooner or later they want to get a new car which will be better than mine.
And then all my happiness goes away and then they enjoy the envy in mine. So, in this way, although we may follow this process, the fruit is not lasting. It is quite short-lived.
So, what is it that we can develop a relationship with which will give us a lasting fruit? That the bhakti tradition explains is the Supreme Lord. Sambandha we need to develop with him. He is all-attractive.
In fact, everything that is attractive in this world manifests the spark of his attractiveness. yad yad vibhuti mat sattvam srimad-urjitame vava tattva devavudhacchitvam mamate jyomsya sambhava He says, whatever is attractive in this world, mamate jyomsya, it’s just a spark of my splendour. So, it’s significant that Krishna does not deny that there are attractive things in this world.
And they may trigger our desires. Krishna says, whatever attractiveness is there and whatever pleasure we may get from it, it’s like a drop. Whereas, he is the full ocean.
If we get attracted to him, then we will get lasting happiness. Oceanic happiness. Now, when we say we want to develop a relationship with Krishna, So, what exactly is a relationship? A relationship is basically a bond of emotions.
There will be a blood relationship between people. Say, two brothers born in the same family. Or, there may be a bond that may happen because people work together.
Sometimes say, soldiers fight the war together. Then, they come very close to each other because they watch each other’s back. Their life depends on each other.
So, sometimes we may have a bond because of blood. Sometimes we may have a bond because of working together. Sometimes we develop a bond because we form a relationship together.
People get married. So, either way, whether it is because of blood or because of job work or because of a formal relationship, the bond’s essence is there is an emotional connect. The emotions have to connect.
Otherwise, sometimes two brothers may be born in the same family, but they may end up being the worst enemies of each other. So, when we talk about developing a relationship, it essentially means that there has to be an emotional connect that has to be established. And that emotional connect is what bhakti is indirectly towards the Supreme Lord.
If I understand that Krishna is all-attractive, then prayojan is the process of how I will develop my emotional connect with the Supreme. So, our emotions are always with us. Our emotions are one of our defining characteristics.
The defining characteristic of the soul is consciousness. And when we have consciousness, we observe the world around us. We think about it and we feel about it.
So, we could say that we have these two fundamental energies, rationality and emotionality. We observe, analyse. This is like this.
So, we could say analysis is a little more objective and unfeeling. Whereas, when we are approaching it aesthetically, then it’s based more on feelings. If somebody wants to study a beautiful rose, somebody could study that with a botanical eye.
Oh, this is a stamen, this is a carpel, this is an androsium, this is a gynosium. Now, okay, that’s one way to study it. But in that process, one will not relish much of this beauty, the artistry, the sweetness of the rose.
But if somebody approaches it from an aesthetic perspective, Oh, this looks so beautiful, this colour is so nice, this is so fragrant. So, if we want to develop a relationship with someone, if we offer them a rose and they say, Oh, this is from this species. They start analysing the rose like a botanist.
Then the emotional connect won’t develop by that. So, I have to analyse from an aesthetic perspective what the rose is and what it represents. Similarly, the absolute truth can be approached in two ways, the analytical way and the aesthetic way.
Analytically, when we approach the absolute truth, the idea is that, okay, there is so much illusion in this world. What do we mean by illusion? There are so many things in the world which promise pleasure, but actually when we experience them, they don’t give that much pleasure. And often they cause a lot of trouble also.
So, when we see this, we start thinking, Okay, what is it that is causing me so much trouble? What is it that is misleading me? And then we see that it’s all attributes. It’s the form, it’s the colour, it’s the shape, it’s the smell, it’s the taste. People get hooked to alcohol.
Now, why? It’s because how it tastes and how it makes them feel. It makes them feel high. But then it makes them feel high for some time, but then it gets them blown out.
They get a hangover, they get healthy shoes, they slander their money. But the point is that in the world, when we approach it just based on feelings, which is how things make us feel, then often we get misled. So, spiritualists across the world, when they want to look for something beyond the world, see the world’s most defining characteristic is the characteristic of, as I said, colour, shape, taste, fragrance, all these.
And these allure us and then they entangle us. They entice and entangle us. So, the way out of these is by looking for something which will not entangle us.
And so, by extrapolation, most people think that if the material has having these attributes, which allure and entangle, the spiritual should not have these attributes. And that is how people come to the idea of spiritual as the non-personal. So, they get that idea because people start searching for spirituality because at the material level they feel deluded.
And then whatever it is that is deluding them at the material level, they think if I have to go beyond illusion, then the spiritual should not have that. So, if form is very attractive in this world and attraction to the form is one of the primary causes of bondage, then they think that, okay, if I want to go beyond the illusion, if I want to go beyond the bondage, I want to go to the spiritual, then the spiritual should not have the form. So, they extrapolate from this world experience to the other world.
And this is the analytical approach. And it is valuable, no doubt. At least in understanding that I need to see something beyond the world.
Just like a botanist’s way of studying a flower is also valuable. It has its purpose. The Bhagavatam begins with this non-personal meditation.
The mood of dhimahi. Satyam param dhimahi. Let me meditate on that absolute truth.
Just two verses later, this is 1.1.1 is satyam param dhimahi. But 1.1.3 is, pibat bhagat tasamalayam muhur ahau rasika bhumi bhavukaha. Just drink the nectar, drink the rasa of what? Of the all-attractive supreme person.
And become a rasika. One who tastes special delicacies. Rasika is, you can translate various, in English we call it as an aesthetic.
One who can relish aesthetic things. And relishing something aesthetic requires some qualification. Vishwanath Chaturthi gives the example that suppose somebody is dancing Bharatanatyam.
Now Bharatanatyam is a traditional form of Indian dance in which there is a very beautiful, elegant movement of the body. But it is not just movement of the body, which is elegant and artistic. It is also deeply meaningful.
Meaningful in the sense that through the dance, through the movement of the hands, the legs, the body, some incident is being conveyed. Say, some character might be depicting Krishna’s stealing butter. And Mother Yudhisthira’s chastising him.
So then the character who is performing Bharatanatyam will sometimes play the role of Krishna, sometimes play the role of Yashoda. They will be doing all the gestures. Now, if the observers, the spectators, the audience is watching, they can watch it at different levels.
If they think that, hey, this is just nice dance. If they do not know in advance what is being depicted, then they will think, hey, this is just nice dance. This is just attractive dance.
But now, some people are even at a more mundane, materialistic level of consciousness. They might not even see the attractive dance. They might not even see the artistry of the dance.
All that they might see is, oh, this is an attractive person. And they might get sensually attracted to that person. So there could be, the dance is there, which is being done.
So they could be attracted to somebody in the mode of passion. They might be attracted sensually towards the dance. Somebody that is more in the mode of goodness, they might be attracted to the artistry of the dance.
But, somebody who knows the pastimes of Krishna, then they are not just looking at the movements of the hands and the legs. They are not just looking at the artistry of those movements. But they are also understanding, hey, what does this gesture mean? Oh, Krishna being fearful.
So, what happens for them, their level of appreciation of the dance is of a different category entirely. Now, how does this happen? It happens because they already have the knowledge. So, when there is first some knowledge, and then one observes and appreciates, this is what becoming a rasika is.
When the Bhagavatam says, become a rasika, it means to relish rasa in relationship with Krishna. So, earlier I talked about the analytical and aesthetic approach. So, it is not that the aesthetic approach is non-intellectual or anti-intellectual.
So, when one is to relish the dance in Bharatanatyam, one has to have knowledge. And that knowledge requires some intellectual understanding. So, we could say, something is non-intellectual means you don’t need intelligence for that.
Or something is anti-intellectual. That is, actually you believe something is unbelievable, which is an anti-intellectual. Say, we have some cartoon movies with all kinds of fantastic things being depicted.
Then, what people say, when some fictional things are being depicted, they say, movie has to be able to create suspension of disbelief in the audience. How can this happen? The audience will not be able to enjoy it. So, anti-intellectual means you have to stop using your intellect because nothing makes sense.
You can only enjoy. Stop thinking, start enjoying. That is how much of the entertainment today is.
So, we could say non-intellectual means, I am just reading, there is not much involvement in the head. I am just observing. Say, if somebody is watching some sports match, this is happening, that is happening.
This is passively. So, there is non-anti-intellectual, there is non-intellectual and there is trans-intellectual. Trans-intellectual means, intellect is required, but something more than the intellect is also required.
So, the bhakti way of appreciating the Lord is trans-intellectual. Philosophy is very much there, but the philosophy is used as a foundation, as a background for the direction of the heart and that direction of the heart is what brings the devotional conduct. So, that means, when we hear about Krishna Leela or when we observe the deities of Krishna, when we sing the holy names, when we practise bhakti, at that time, the bhagavad-gita becomes a rasika, becomes an ascetic, becomes a connoisseur of pleasure.
How will that happen? First of all, we have to have philosophical knowledge to understand what is going on. Just as the spectator watching the Bharatanatyam has to have the background knowledge. And then, based on that, one has to discern.
Oh, this is what is happening over there. So, now, by this, the Bhagavad-gita has become a relish of Krishna Leela, of Krishna Naam, Krishna Rupa, of all these attributes related with Krishna. So, the connection with our topic, nourishing the Bhakti Lata Beach, which we are discussing over here, this verse is talking about how when the creeper of devotion is being nourished, one has to differentiate between the creeper and the release.
So, that differentiation requires knowledge. So, I started by talking about how there is, in every field of activity, there is sambandha, abhidheya and prayoja. You understand? With whom I am going to develop a relationship.
So, and then, how do I develop the relationship? So, how do we develop the relationship? I talk about that that process is trans-intellectual. The Bhagavatam guides us. It has philosophy.
It guides us within the philosophy, but it takes us beyond the philosophy to an experience of the heart. So, that experience of the heart, how it happens, that is explained here using a metaphor. And that metaphor is the creeper of devotion.
So, a few verses ago, the famous verse comes up over here. pramanda-bhramite kauna-bhagya-vanajit kuru-krishna-prasad-e-paye bhakti-lata-bheej So, among all the souls who are wandering in the material world, a few are fortunate, and those souls get the opportunity to practise bhakti. So, bhakti-lata-bheej, the seed of the creeper of devotion.
When all of us, all of us, as I said, emotionality, emotions are inherent part of who we are. But often our emotions are directed in many directions in this world. They may be directed towards sports, they may be directed towards money, they may be directed towards sensual enjoyment.
So, the emotions are directed towards various things. And as the emotions are directed in this way, accordingly we get some pleasure, and eventually we get a lot of trouble. The whole process of bhakti-yoga is to get our emotional energy to become directed towards the Lord.
And this requires the following of a process. Just like if there is ground, there will always be some vegetation growing on it, unless it’s a complete desert. Some vegetation or the other will be growing on the ground.
But mostly that vegetation will be weeds. Now, generally we won’t have mangoes or other flourishing trees growing on their own. Mostly it’s grass and weeds that grows on its own.
Sometimes it’s a forest, lush green, and there has been many, many fruit trees before, and the fruit trees may reproduce. But generally, if you want something valuable to be grown, it requires conscious cultivation. In the history of humanity, agriculture is considered to be a significant step forward.
Because agriculture required conscious cultivation of the land. You have to sow the seeds, plant the seeds, and then harvest it. So, similarly, with J. H. N. Kumar talks about cultivating.
So, our emotions are naturally going to be directed towards something or the other. There are always going to be emotions, and those emotions are going to grow. But we want our emotions to be directed towards the Supreme Lord.
And that requires conscious cultivation. So, the whole process of Bhakti Yoga is the process of channelling our emotional energy. So, now, here Chaitanya Mahaprabhu uses the metaphor of Bhakti Lata Beach, of a creeper of devotion.
The idea is that this requires a conscious effort. It requires conscious cultivation. The main point of the metaphor of the creeper of devotion is conscious cultivation.
Conscious cultivation means that sometimes people ask, if we just channel Krishna, is Bhakti automatic? If we channel Krishna, will we automatically advance? It’s not exactly automatic. Just like if we get into a car, and we associate people who drive cars as experts, will we automatically learn driving? Well, you could say it’s automatic in the sense that by seeing everyone else driving a car, we’ll also get the desire to drive a car. And by observing how others are driving, we can also learn how to drive.
But it is we who have to conscientiously put in the effort. So, in Bhakti, association is important. Practising the activities of devotion is important.
But at the same time, it is we who have to direct our emotional energy towards the Supreme. If we don’t direct our emotional energy towards Krishna, then we won’t move forward. So, in that sense, Bhakti is not automatic.
It is conscientious. It is something which you have to conscientiously direct our emotional energy towards Krishna. Prabhupada writes in the Krishna book, and something similar in the book on devotion also, he says that we need to perform the activities of devotional service with a longing for Krishna, with a desire to connect with Krishna.
Then it will grow. So, initially when we practise Bhakti, we often come to Krishna for the motive of practising Bhakti. And all of us have the potential to practise Bhakti.
Just like the land has the potential to grow seeds. The land has to be fertile. Otherwise, no matter how much seeds we sow and how much cultivation we do, nothing will grow over there.
The potentiality has to be there in the land. Then the cultivation will work. So, all living beings have a potentiality.
So, the soil of the heart is inherently capable of the growth of devotion. But that doesn’t mean devotion will grow automatically. It has to be consciously cultivated.
When we are… Here, the defining metaphor is here, that while we are getting the creeper to grow, at that time some weeds may come over there. So, when we are practising Bhakti, at that time also our emotions may get misdirected elsewhere. So, for example, if I come to the temple.
I come here to remember Krishna. But in the temple, if I become very intensely attached to someone or intensely averse to someone, if you get spiritually attached to devotees, devotees will remind us of Krishna. And that attachment is auspicious.
It’s good. It’s favourable. But if I become materially attached to someone, when I come to the temple, I am not thinking about Krishna, I am thinking about that person.
Or if I become averse to someone, if I quarrel with someone and I know they are going to be there in the temple. And when we come to the temple, when we are not thinking about Krishna, we are thinking about them. Even if we are taking darshan of Krishna, suddenly we hear them in the background.
What is this person doing there? Why are they here? What are they going to do? I want to get back at them. So, Krishna will be in front of us, in our eyes. But in one moment, it gets stimulus.
We may hear them speaking one word and that just starts off in our mind a boost. They did this and I am going to do this. How could they have done this? We are completely distracted.
So, at that time, if our emotions get entangled with someone else, either through attachment or through aversion, and the emotions won’t be available for going towards Krishna. So similarly, the creepers, the creeper of devotion, can be choked by the by the weeds of non-devotional or anti-devotional things. So, when these weeds come up, they take away our emotional energy.
And when they take away our emotional energy, then it is no longer available for offering to Krishna. So, we have to be vigilant that when I am practising bhakti, it is not just the external practise that is important. The external practise is very important, but the external practise is meant for an internal purpose.
We will take various metaphors to illustrate this point. A metaphor which I will develop in tomorrow’s class more is say a channel of water. If we have got some water flowing and if the water is flowing in this direction.
Now, here we have got some valuable electronic items or something. We don’t want the water to go here. We want the water to go there.
So, then what do we need to do? We need to block the water, maybe create some blockage over here and then create a passage over there. And once we create the passage over there, then the water will start moving. Now, if there is no passage over there, getting the water to push in that direction is very difficult.
So, if this is a flat floor and there is a groove over here, where the water can move this way and there is no groove there, then the water to move in that direction is very difficult. If a groove is there, the groove makes it much easier for the water to go in that direction. So, similarly we could say that in our consciousness, in our subtle body, in our mind, there are already channels for our consciousness, for our emotional energy to move.
So, somebody say alcoholic, then in their consciousness there is already a deep and broad groove, a big channel by which their consciousness moves towards alcohol. As soon as they see a bottle, immediately, I want it, when can I get it? I had it last time, I want to get it now. Immediately the emotions start moving in that direction.
So, there are some channels which are already there in our consciousness. And when we are practising bhakti, we want to create a fresh channel by which our consciousness will move towards Krishna. So, for this to happen, while we are practising bhakti, say, if we create a channel by which the water is moving in this direction, but if the channel has some breakages and water instead of going in this direction starts going here, starts going there, starts going there, and if we just keep constructing the channel, constructing the channel, but we don’t fix the leakages, then we will be building the channel, but the water will not be flowing along the channel.
The water will flow in other directions. So, building the channel, we could say, is like doing the external activities of devotion. And making sure that the water flows along the way is like internally applying our consciousness to do those activities, internally trying to connect with Krishna.
If we are chanting Hare Krishna regularly, we are coming to the temple regularly, this is like we are creating a groove in our consciousness. Just even the physical activity done again and again is valuable, because at least we are coming in a spiritual environment. But suppose we have a… sometimes there are rivers or there are riverbeds, but the riverbeds go dry.
The riverbed is there, but there is no water in the river. The river is a wanderer. So, like that, we may focus a lot on creating the riverbed or creating a path for the river.
Okay, do this, do this, do this, do this. But if there is no water flowing along that riverbed, then it’s not of much use. Nowadays, there is a large class of people who self-identify themselves as spiritual but not religious.
Now, they say, I don’t want to be associated with any religious group. I don’t want to follow any idea. I don’t want to believe in any dogma.
I don’t want to do any blind set of rituals. I just want to experience. And one major reason people want to be spiritual but not religious is because they have seen many people who are religious but not spiritual.
When they see people who are religious but not spiritual, that puts them off. So, what does it mean, being religious but not spiritual? That means that people are very self-righteous and I am following this path. But actually, there is no development of virtues, no genuine attraction towards God, no deep spiritual experience.
So, when that happens, people get put off. There are people who are sometimes so sectarian that for them, identifying with their group is more important than focussing on the purpose of the group. What does that mean? That means, I belong to this group and therefore I am holy, therefore I am pure.
That’s all. No, but this group is meant to help us become pure. It’s like you construct the channel but there is no moving of water along the channel.
So, once there was a person who was on top of a bridge. He was about to jump off and commit suicide. Some other person was walking by and said, Hey, what are you doing? Get lost.
He said, no, no, don’t commit suicide. God loves you. How do you know that? He said, I am a Christian.
Oh, I am also a Christian. Oh, very good. God loves you.
Okay, which group of Christians? He said, I am a Protestant. Oh, I am also a Protestant. Oh, God.
Okay, which group of Protestants? I am a Baptist. Oh, I am also a Baptist. Oh, very good.
Okay, which group of Baptists? I am a Southern Baptist. Oh, I am also a Southern Baptist. Very good.
Okay, which group of Southern Baptists? He said, I am a Reformed Southern Baptist. Oh, you are a heathen? Jump off the bridge. So, the idea is that people can identify so much.
We may have 100 things in common, but one thing we see uncommon, and think, you are a non-believer. You are a heathen. So, imagine that kind of narrow-mindedness is there.
It’s easy to laugh at it when we see it in other people. But it may be there with us also. Somebody is a devotee, but they are initiated by some other spiritual master.
They are doing this. They are doing that. And we may just create a big difference.
So, what happens? In this case, the person is identifying themselves by the religion, not by the spirituality. So, when this kind of additive is there, then people get put off. And they say, I want to be spiritual but not religious.
So, going back to the channel example, being religious but not spiritual is like constructing the channel very well, but not having any water flow through the channel. And being spiritual but not religious is saying that I want the water to flow, but I have not constructed a channel. So, now, if there is no channel for the water to flow, it’s going to be very difficult.
So, even if we want to rise to spiritual level of consciousness, there has to be some pathway, there has to be some process. And that process will be our religion. So, when we are practising bhakti, at that time, if we are not careful, then we build the channel but we don’t block the leakages.
And the channel is built and we are very proud that I have built this channel. But the water is all going in different direction because of the leakages. That is like the weeds that are coming and the weeds take away the nourishment that is meant for the main creeper.
And the weeds grow but the creeper does not grow much. Similarly, it may happen to us that our spiritual, our emotional energy will not go towards Krishna even if we are practising bhakti if we are not vigilant in the practise of bhakti. So, this metaphor and the results of practising bhakti will be described in the future verses.
We’ll talk in future classes. I’ll summarise. I spoke today about how we can nourish the creeper of devotion.
And that connection I started by talking firstly about how all of us have emotional energy within us which is directed towards various things. And the bhakti tradition tells us directed towards the Supreme Lord. Then that will give us fulfilment.
I talked about we can approach the Lord in the analytical way or the aesthetic way. Like seeing a flower from a botanist’s perspective or from an artistic perspective. So, when God we approach from analytical perspective we think of the absolute as free from all the qualities of the world which captivate and delude.
And because personality, form, tastes, fragrance all these attributes attract and entangle. So, we say the absolute does not have all these. That’s why the non-personal conception is often the first stage in spiritual realisation.
But there is an aesthetic way of approaching Supreme Lord. And the aesthetic we discuss is not non-intellectual or anti-intellectual. It is trans-intellectual.
Just as if somebody is watching a Bharatanatyam dance they could just see it as a as a person to be they could see it sensually. They could see it artistically. Or we could say they could see it in its fullness.
They see the art but they also they have the knowledge when they see what is being depicted in the art also. So, similarly when we want to connect with Krishna it is a direction of the flow of our emotions towards Krishna. But that is based on the foundation of knowledge.
So, bhakti involves using our head so that we can find the right path to direct our heart. And in that the metaphor of the Bhakti Lata of the creeper of devotion says that this seed is to be planted in the heart. Another seed will grow and give love of God.
So, at the same time there are creepers and there are weeds in it. So, our emotional energy even when it is going towards Krishna it can go off in other directions. And we have to be constantly vigilant to make sure that it keeps going towards Krishna.
So, spiritual advancement is not automatic. It is conscientious. Automatically in a fertile field something will grow but the desired crops will not grow.
So, our emotional energy automatically goes somewhere. But if you want to go towards Krishna the conscious calculation is there. So, the other metaphor I use is of a channel.
Being a wanting to be spiritual but not religious is like wanting the water to flow in a particular direction but not building a channel in front of it. It is very difficult for the water to keep flowing. On the other hand being religious but not spiritual means building the channel but not ensuring that the water flows allowing leakages that cause the water to go elsewhere.
So, for us when we are practising bhakti if we get too caught in the external practises without cultivating the inner longing for Krishna then the emotional connect will not be established. And then we may also end up being religious but not spiritual. But when we have the knowledge and use that knowledge to vigilantly direct our consciousness towards Krishna then we our bhakti blossoms.
So, how this happens we will discuss in tomorrow’s session. Are there any questions or comments? You said you need the knowledge to cultivate emotion. Any suggestions or any practical experience how it happens? Because we know it has a lot of Krishna but it is not ordinary.
And we are constantly getting back myself and the words that I have to remember and use my soul but I don’t feel any practical… Okay. So, if you want to develop a love for Krishna and we know that we require knowledge for doing that so how can we do it practically? Knowledge can tell us where we should direct our emotions. But knowledge alone doesn’t determine where our emotions are directed.
So, therefore we need to develop even at our level some emotion some… find something which connects our emotions also with Krishna. Say, for example this is the circle of things which we like and this is the circle of things that comprise bhakti. So, we find somewhere this intersects.
That’s where our emotions can actually flow towards Krishna if somebody likes music. And then they may do various activities in bhakti but many of those activities they will do it as a discipline as austerity. But when it comes to music, kirtan, singing we just love it because their emotional energy naturally flows towards music.
So, what we are doing is that this will be a elaborate subject I will discuss in future class that there are two ways in which bhakti can be practised world engaging and world transcending. World transcending means the world is here and if my emotions go into the world they cannot go towards Krishna. Therefore, I stop the flow here and Krishna is here.
I want to get the emotions to flow towards Krishna. That is one understanding and yes if our emotions are going towards sensual or anti-devotional activities then this is the world rejecting kind of world transcending kind of devotional practise but it’s also that we are here the world is here and Krishna is here. Through the world we can go towards Krishna.
Through the world means that suppose I say I like music now music learning music practising music it’s a material skill but that material skill can be used for spiritual purpose. So my emotions will naturally go towards music but then through music I get them towards Krishna. If I am intellectual then I naturally like things which are phrased very cleverly good word plays good analysis of concepts and if an atheist does that about atheism I will get attracted towards that also.
If a materialist does that about materialism I will get attracted towards that also. If a devotee does that about Krishna I will get attracted towards Krishna also. So when we when our emotions flow to the world they need not always flow through the world to Krishna they can flow anywhere else also but we can consciously choose to get them to flow through the world towards Krishna.
So that’s why if you find some place where what we like and what comprises bhakti intersects then from there we can stimulate the flow of our emotions towards Krishna. So getting knowledge of Krishna also includes getting knowledge of ourselves and how best we can connect with Krishna. So the more we connect with ourselves the better we can connect with Krishna.
The more we understand ourselves the better we understand how we can offer ourselves to Krishna. Does that answer the question? Yes. You had a question.
Thank you very much. I have two questions but just based on the one that you just answered. First it seemed like you were saying that in order for an emotional attachment to Krishna to develop there had to be some intellectual knowledge.
But then you just said that you could use the world as something that you’re attached or attracted to in the world and that’s where your emotions flow to to get to Krishna. So I guess is it then because I was thinking that it seems that someone could theoretically be emotionally or you used the term earlier aesthetically attracted to Krishna. You know Krishna’s hair or Krishna’s clothes or where Krishna plays with food.
It isn’t necessarily the cultivation of knowledge but someone could become attached to Krishna just through the emotion. Does knowledge have to be emotionally attracted towards Krishna? Is knowledge required for attraction towards Krishna? It’s possible definitely that somebody gets attracted towards Krishna simply through emotions. There’s somebody somebody somebody there’s a musician who likes flute and musician who likes flute.
Oh Krishna is a God who plays flute. I want to know such a God and they get attracted towards that. They love to play flute and they start thinking about Krishna at that time.
So if if somebody is attracted through emotions that is good because at one level the operating principle for us in the practise of bhakti is somehow or other it’s a manakrishna. So if it’s through our emotion that’s also perfectly fine. The challenge is that the emotional attraction is not always sustainable.
Even the things which we like to do we don’t always like to do. Somebody may like oh I like to play flute but then if you want to become an expert flute player you may have to do hours and hours of practise. I don’t want to do this.
So then they will need to go beyond their emotions. Even in doing something which we like to do we can’t depend only on the mind’s liking because I don’t want to do it. So then they have to go beyond that liking and have a strong intention.
So similarly for us if our emotions connect us with Krishna that’s fortunate because that’s also one force which is supporting us in the flow of our consciousness towards Krishna. But if we leave it only on emotions then two things may happen. Sometimes that emotion may no longer be there because even things which we like we don’t always like.
And secondly as I said the emotional emotions are generally not very disturbing. So if I like music and tomorrow I find a devotee who sings very nicely, plays instruments very nicely, very nice. I’m attracted to that devotee.
But tomorrow if I find a non-devotee who sings and plays instruments much better than that I may go towards them. So if the flow of consciousness towards Krishna happens through emotions it is good but it’s only through emotions then it is likely to be interrupted or diverted. It will stop in itself but diverted elsewhere.
So knowledge ensures that the flow keeps happening. That’s why in the Bhagavad Gita Krishna repeatedly talks about mayi arpit manobuddh ma me vaisya samshaya. At least twice he uses this phrase.
Offer your mind and your intelligence to me. So offering the mind we could say broadly connotes with offering our emotionality to Krishna and offering the intelligence connotes with offering our rationality towards Krishna. So both faculties are used.
In different people each may be more. In emotional people the emotional might be more, rational might be less. In rational people the rational might be more and emotional might be less.
Both are required. Yes. How much? Thank you very much for answering my question.
Yes. Yes. Yes.
Yes. Yes. so any devotee has variance talents for expressing artistic aesthetics to Shri Krishna so connection to Krishna by expression of aesthetics.
Okay, if our connection to Krishna is through aesthetics and should devotees be developing in the aesthetic abilities so that they can connect with Krishna? Yes. We could have various talents. Yeah, we have talents.
Should we be developing those talents? Yeah. Yes, I would say that the development of talents should not take more priority than the development of devotion to the direct practises of bhakti. But that is also required.
If you see, in the Chaitanya Charita Amrit, there are many verses which talk about how a devotee is a kavi, is a poet. And the devotee should be able to glorify the Lord with artistic poetry. And the reason for that is when Chaitanya Mahaprabhu appeared in the 16th, between 16th century, at that time, Kavya and Natya, poetry and dramaturgy were very popular in that area of India.
In all over India, but especially in Bengal, Ursa area and Vrindavan area also. So then, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu stressed that the bhakti tradition be presented in that language. By language, I don’t mean verbal language.
In that cultural milieu, what was most prevalent. So now, do all of us have to compose poetry to be a devotee? There are verses like that. A devotee has to be an expert at composing poetry.
In the Goswami’s work, now the principle is important, not the specifics. At that time, that was the prevailing form. And devotees read it brilliantly.
There is a whole book called Chitra Kavita Vani. Chitra Kavita Vani is basically verses, Vani is speech, Kavita is poetry, Chitra is picture. So there are these verses which can be pictorially depicted.
So there are verses which are written like a circle, like a pentagon, like a hexagon. They are amazing verses which have verbal and visual artistry to them. So there is one verse he composes with just two letters in the whole verse.
There is a verse he describes, say, this describes Brahma’s Krishna stealing the garland of Gokul. So there are only two words here, cha and ra, two syllables. The whole verse is composed using this.
And these two syllables, it’s very difficult to do that. And there are verses he composes, you read it front, you read it back. You read it front, you read it back, it’s the same.
So in English, it’s called palindrome. So now, for him to do that, it was brilliant, but it also requires application of thought. I’ll describe in our tradition of the Jiva Goswami went to Varanasi to study Sanskrit under the existing top Sanskrit scholar of that time, although that scholar was a Mayavadi.
And then he composed brilliant works in Sanskrit. Gopal Champu is a masterpiece of Sanskrit composition also, apart from being a devotional composition. So as devotees, if we have certain talents, putting in the effort to develop those talents is definitely important.
And now when we use those talents in Krishna’s service, is the pleasure that we get and others get, is it material or is it spiritual? At our stage, it is a combination of both. I like wordplay and therefore I spend a lot of time in spending. You know, how could I play with words and explain this? And then some thoughts come out over there.
Then those thoughts I can remember, others also can remember. It’s not that the pleasure over there is entirely spiritual, but not that entirely material. It is material because we are doing some wordplay, but it is also spiritual because it is about Krishna.
So if the more devotees have material talents and devotees use those material talents for glorifying Krishna, then people who are attracted by those talents will also get attracted towards Krishna. So we need to spend time to develop those talents. At the same time, we have to develop those talents in a way that does not take us away from devotion.
That caution we have to take care of. Because at one level we can say that bhakti is something which you have to practise lifelong. And to sustain ourselves in a lifelong journey of devotion, we need something which we can practise lifelong.
The process of sadhana bhakti, we will practise with discipline. And as we keep practising intelligently, our taste for it will also increase. But still we have our whole life to live.
And if we can find some service which we feel inspired to do lifelong, then that is a very good guarantor that you will practise bhakti lifelong. So if somebody likes to preach, somebody likes to distribute books, then if they develop more skills about how to distribute books, they develop more skills about how to preach, then that helps them in moving towards Krishna. And not only moving towards Krishna, moving lifelong towards Krishna.
Even if tomorrow there is no one to follow me up, because I feel connected, I feel inspired to do this and I get some results, I feel more and more inspired to do it. We can go on. So definitely developing talents for Krishna’s service is also a service to Krishna.
Provided it does not take us away from other activities that comprise our service to Krishna. How much time? I do not want to delay. You had a question? So maybe tomorrow I will stop a little earlier.
I have no questions. My question is like what are the beings which obstruct the people of devotion and how do we know them and if we know whom to consult so that the emotion and consciousness is directly put into Krishna? You are asking questions later in the next class. I will briefly explain.
So what are the wheels and how can we identify them? As I said, anything that pulls our emotions away from Krishna, they are like the wheels. So for each of us it may be different things. Some people may get too attracted to money, to power, to position, to prestige when they are practising bhakti.
And when they come to the temple, they are not looking at Krishna to offer obeisances to Krishna. They are looking at who are offering obeisances to me. I am a senior devotee.
Who is recognising my seniority and who is not recognising my seniority? If that becomes a thrust of my consciousness, then my consciousness is getting misdirected. This is a very vivid example but this can happen in several ways. When interacting with devotees, I am not thinking how I can serve those devotees.
I am thinking, is this devotee respecting me for who I am or not? So then the consciousness, if it moves away from service, then the power, prestige, position, that is the misdirection that can be there. So each of us has to find out what it is that is misdirecting us. Broadly you can say it is bhukti-bhukti.
The desire for worldly enjoyment and the desire for liberation. We may say, I don’t want liberation. I don’t want to go to Brahman.
But liberation can also mean just freedom from misery. So when we are practising bhakti, our primary focus is how I can connect with Krishna. If my focus is how can I enjoy or how I can avoid trouble.
Sometimes some services will give us enjoyment. That’s fine. We accept that in the practise of bhakti.
And sometimes some services will involve accepting trouble. So then we have to accept that also. If you say, I will just keep avoiding.
If our primary focus is, I don’t want to do this. I don’t want to do this. Why? Because it’s too troublesome.
Yes, sometimes it’s so troublesome that we just get so disturbed that we can’t do anything. Then we may not do that service and we may ask somebody else to do it. But if our primary purpose becomes avoiding trouble, not connecting with Krishna, then that is the way we are expressing, we are giving in to the desire for liberation.
Liberation essentially is freedom from misery. So broadly we can see what is it that is captivating my emotions. So I talked earlier about attachment and aversion.
We are too attached to someone or too averse to someone. Then our emotions don’t go towards each other. So similarly, we can find out in the practise of bhakti what is consuming our emotions too much and not letting them focus on Krishna.
Now for identifying this, self-observation, coming to the mode of goodness is very helpful. And if we have some devotee guides, some devotees who understand us, then that is very helpful also. So basically, I am here, my mind is here.
And I look at everyone through the filter of my mind. If somebody speaks very nicely with me, then I think, why is this person speaking so nicely? They must want something from me. That’s what I think.
Now it may be like that, it may not be like that. The thing is that we see everyone through the filter of the mind. If somebody criticises me, this person must be envious of me.
They may be, or maybe they are ambitious and they want to protect me from some fault. I don’t know. We have to evaluate cases like this.
So if we have one devotee friend, one devotee guide, whom we don’t look at through the mind, rather we look at the mind through them. We look at the mind through them. I am thinking like this, but they are saying like this.
Maybe, maybe my thinking is not right. Now we say to be broad-minded. Now to be broad-minded means to understand that reality is broader than what my mind shows.
If it’s a narrow mind, it means I think reality is what I am seeing. That’s all. So if we have even one devotee friend or guide whom we can trust more than our mind, then we evaluate them through the mind.
And they should not just be judgemental. They need to understand us also. They need to understand our mind and they need to help us understand our mind.
If I am very intellectual, and I keep getting a lot of intellectual questions, if I go to a person who is non-intellectual, they will not even understand. Why do you get so many questions? Why are you such a doubter? Now that answer is not helpful to me at all. So they need to understand our mind.
Okay, you are intellectual, and somebody is intellectual. Okay, I understand. These kind of questions do come.
But then if they are not just intellectual, they are emotional. See, this is the way you are thinking. This is your mind and you are here.
So if we can have a mentor who understands our mind and who helps us understand our mind, then that is very helpful in identifying and removing the wheels of devotion. Okay? Thank you. So we will continue tomorrow.
I will try to finish early so that we can have questions at that time. Thank you very much. Chaitanya Chaitanya Amrit Ki Jai Shila Prabhupada Ki Jai Gaura Bhakta Vendaki Jai Gaura Vendaki Jai Hare Krishna