Obstacles on the spiritual path at the level of intelligence, mind and faith

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
And how much important are such things in our life? Thank you very much. I am in a devotional mood, trying to serve Krishna.
I hope over the next few days, I will be able to assist you in some small way. And I am grateful especially to the devotees who invited me and organised it. Not only that, but to my whole team.
And I am also grateful to all of you, who have come here today. I will give a brief talk and then we can have a long Varshanana session. I was asked to speak on the topic of overcoming obstacles in the spiritual path, specifically at the levels of the mind, the intelligence and faith.
This topic is based on Bhagavad Gita 5.17. This verse marks a significant transition in the flow of the Gita. So Krishna is speaking here. By investing your knowledge in that.
Krishna uses TAD. He is not specific, but he is describing the absolute truth over there. So invest your intelligence in the absolute truth.
The word Atma has many different meanings in different contexts. Here it refers to the mind. So invest your mind in the absolute truth.
Invest your faith in the absolute truth. And in this way, become devoted to the absolute truth. By this, what will happen? You will go to that destination from which one does not return.
And how will this happen? By acquiring of knowledge. Not just theoretical knowledge. This is transformation knowledge.
What is the transformation that knowledge will bring about? It will cleanse us of all impurities. By investing your intelligence, your mind and your faith in the absolute truth, and thus making the absolute truth your goal, you will attain an eternal destination because you will become cleansed by knowledge. So the fifth chapter is called as Karma Sanyasa Yoga.
Or as Shri Aurobhoy translates it as Karma Yoga Action Krishna Consciousness. And this verse, as I said, is very significant in the transition in the Gita. Because prior to this, Krishna has focused on the soul.
Bhagavad Gita as we know starts with Arjuna grieving about killing his relatives. And Krishna says that the soul is eternal, therefore you should not grieve. And then Krishna talks about how to act in knowledge of the soul.
And in the first six chapters of the Bhagavad Gita, the references to Krishna are sparse, are few. The only reference, for example, where Krishna talks about himself as the object of yoga, as the object of the control senses. In the initial chapters of the Gita, Krishna is primarily the teacher of sense control.
The teacher of mind control. But only in 2.61, in one fragment, in just one-fourth of one verse, he reveals that he is not just a teacher of sense control, he is also the object of the control senses. We control our senses and after that we fix the mind on Krishna.
And then again, the next reference to Krishna comes only in 3.30. So the first chapter is among the longest chapters. The second longest chapter in the Bhagavad Gita. The last 18th chapter is Moksha Vanyaasa Yoga, that is 78 verses.
The second chapter is Samkhya Yoga, or as Prabhupada translates based on Bhaktivinoda Thakur’s commentary, contents of the Gita summarised, that is 72 verses. Krishna does not talk about himself at all. The third chapter is only one verse where Krishna refers to himself, that is 3.30. That is, you offer the fruits of your work to me.
In the fourth chapter, there are several verses which refer to Krishna. That is directly where Krishna talks about himself as God. Primarily from 4.5 to 4.14. But that is not directly in Saraswati Gita.
In 4.4, Arjuna asks a question. And in response to that, Krishna talks about his own position. So essentially, Krishna is talking about knowledge of the soul.
And based on knowledge of the soul, how one can stay detached. Because I understand I am not matter. So matter cannot make me happy.
Therefore, I should not get entangled with matter. And that is the theme which goes on in the fifth chapter also. So it is here from 5.17, the transition begins.
And this will be developed fully from 7.1 to 12.20. Where the focus of the Gita shifts from the soul to the Supreme Soul. From the Atma to the Paramatma. And in this verse, Krishna is talking about that shift.
So if you see the prior verses, Krishna talks about how you understand that you are different from the body. And stay detached. So 5.13, he says, just as in this room, so many people will come in from the door.
Somebody might go out from some door. Now that doesn’t directly affect us. Similarly, the senses are like doors to the body.
What comes inside the senses, what goes out of the senses, that doesn’t matter to you. Krishna says, stay detached like that. But, the Acharya explains, Vishwanath Chakraborty’s commentary explains, that just contemplating that I am not the body, I am the soul, does not make spiritual advancement very easy.
Because we just have an intellectualised conception of the soul. And it is very difficult to meditate from that. So if we have an alternative higher object of meditation, then spiritual progress becomes much easier.
And this verse talks about that absolute truth. Now Krishna refers to himself here in the third person, that absolute truth. Why is that? There are places in the Bhagavad Gita where Krishna refers to himself as Ma and then there are places in the Bhagavad Gita where he refers to the absolute truth in third person.
For example, 18.62, 18.66 is the famous verse where Krishna says, You have all varieties of truth and surrender to me. But just four verses earlier, in 18.62, Krishna talks about the same point, but he says, Surrender to that absolute truth. So here Krishna refers to himself in the third person.
Why is this? Sometimes in the first person Krishna refers to himself, sometimes in third person. The primary reason is Krishna is speaking the Gita, not just from the seer’s perspective. He is speaking from the seeker’s perspective.
So the seeker, say who is a Karma Yogi or a Gyan Yogi, that Karma Yogi or Gyan Yogi does not know that the ultimate absolute truth is Krishna. So from the seeker’s point of view, there is some absolute truth who I should meditate on. So when the seeker is a Bhakti Yogi, Krishna says meditate on me.
But when Krishna is talking about a seeker who is a Karma Yogi, who is a Gyan Yogi, who is a Dhyana Yogi, who does not know the absolute truth, then Krishna uses a third person reference. Meditate on that absolute truth. So here Krishna is using that third person reference because this section is talking about Karma Yoga.
And he is saying meditate on that absolute truth. And by this what will happen? Krishna says you will get the knowledge that will purify you, Gyan Nirdhuta Kalmashaha, and by that you will attain the supreme destination. Gacchanti Apunaravrtti.
So normally knowledge is thought of as an intellectual product. I apply my intelligence and then I get knowledge. But interestingly Krishna says that here the knowledge that will purify us, Gyan Nirdhuta Kalmashaha, that is not just an intellectual product.
Krishna says that we have to offer our whole being. And then he says, you offer, invest your intelligence, Tad bundhayat, Tad Atmanas, invest your mind, and then Tad Nishtas, invest your faith. And in this way you will devote yourself to Tad Parayana.
And then you will come to me. So our topic today is based on these three first elements. Tad bundhayat, Tad Atmanas, Tad Nishtas.
So what are the reasons why we should invest our intelligence, our mind, and our faith in Krishna? And what are the obstacles in trying to invest ourselves thus? In the world there are many different scarcities. I am coming from India, Nepal, there was a devastating earthquake. And there is a great shortage of food and other resources.
Apart from that, there may be some areas where there is shortage of water. There is shortage of medicine. There are various kinds of shortages in this world.
However, the greatest shortage is the shortage of a satisfying object of thought. People don’t have anything satisfying to think about. And because of not having a satisfying object of thought, people are in constant anxiety.
In fact, tomorrow I am going to give a talk. The topic is the anxiety epidemic. We have abundant material necessities.
Yes, there are definitely people who don’t have any material necessities. But even the people who have material necessities, quite often they don’t have a satisfying object of thought. And whatever we think about, often that ends up increasing our anxiety, increasing our agitation.
And that’s why the fundamental need for getting satisfaction in life is to have a satisfying object of thought. Just as when we want to build a family, one of the first things that we require is a home. So whenever we go out, we may have to go for a job or some work or school or whatever, shopping, we come back home.
And we feel comfortable, we feel secure, we feel safe when we return home. In fact, that’s why the phrase in English is feel at home. Feel at home means feel comfortable.
So we create a home for our body. But what about a home for our consciousness? A home for our thoughts? A object of thought, where when we think about it, we feel at home. We feel peaceful, we feel secure, we feel satisfied.
So the Bhagavad Gita states, The same example is used. Pantha is path. Pantha is one who travels on a path.
So the traveller, a weary traveller after a long journey, when such a traveller comes back home, that traveller feels so peaceful, so joyful, so comfortable, so safe. So it is said that a purified soul, Here also the same root word is used in this. Same thing.
So one who has been purified, dhautatma purushya krishna, such a person, Such a person never gives up the lotus feet of Krishna. Why? Because by meditating on Krishna, one becomes free from all anxiety. Not just anxiety, any kind of distress.
That is the speciality of Krishna, of making Krishna as the home of our heart, as the home of our inner world. I write articles. Sometimes I write poems also.
So one of the poems I wrote is from an article, Smiling Faces, Crying Hearts. So you know in materialistic society, people celebrate by cheers. They have drinks and they say cheers.
So quite often, this is just a facade. Their hearts are filled with fears. Their hearts are filled with fears.
Their minds are pierced by desires. Their minds are pierced by desires. They are on the verge of tears.
And they say cheers. So from the external point of view, it may all seem very comfortable and cosy. But internally, there are these two forces.
There are anxieties and there are desires, which rip us apart. And they don’t allow us to be peaceful. So we meditate on Krishna, not just as a provider of things.
That is one level of meditating on God. We go to God and God, as Prabhupada would say that, the Christians, Prabhupada was respectful to Christians. At the same time, he would point out that the mainstream version of Christianity doesn’t focus much on God.
It focusses on man. So father, thou art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, give us our daily bread. Now there are some Christian theologians who explain that bread has a very sophisticated meaning.
But for the common people, it is just that, oh father, give us our daily bread. So Prabhupada would say, yes, it is good that people are going to God for bread. But then such a prayer shows not their love for God, but their love for bread.
So if I can get bread from some other source, then there is no need to go to God. So of course, any way we go to God, that is good. But we undersell ourselves when we go to God for anything material.
Because the material thing cannot actually provide a shelter. Cannot provide, as I said, a satisfying object of thought. And this is the commonplace mysticism of bhakti.
The mysticism is when we think of something extraordinarily special. But bhakti makes mysticism commonplace. How is that? That anybody who chants the name of Krishna, anybody who hears the pastimes of Krishna, anybody who meditates on Krishna can experience some kind of uplifting.
Just thinking about Krishna, hearing about Krishna, one feels a sort of strength, a sort of solace, a sort of satisfaction. And that actually indicates to us that this is Krishna. This is God who shelters our experience.
It’s like if there is a small baby. The baby is sleeping in her room and it’s very cold at night. The baby is half asleep and she is very newborn.
She may not even understand the concept of my mother. She drinks milk from her mother. She feels very happy when her mother takes care of her.
But she does not understand. She is sleeping and she is trembling. And the mother comes along and the mother puts a blanket on the baby.
Now the mother turns on the heater. Now the baby doesn’t understand at a conscious level, oh this is my mother. She has put a blanket over me.
But she feels comfort. So that comfort indicates at the subconscious level, yes there is my mother and she loves me and her love is manifested through this comforting protective blanket that has been put across. So when the baby is asleep she cannot see or perceive the mother.
Similarly, we as souls are spiritually asleep. And at our current level of consciousness we can’t perceive Krishna. But when we experience solace, strength, security, shelter in the remembrance of Krishna.
We can understand that to be a representation at our level of Krishna’s love for us. So just as for the blanket and the warmth of the blanket represents for the baby the blanket and its warmth represents the mother’s love. Similarly at our level of awareness the security, the satisfaction, the shelter that we experience in remembrance of Krishna that is an evidence of the love of Krishna which is manifested thus to us.
So Krishna is the supremely satisfying object of thought. And the Bhagavad Gita while later on describing the qualities of a devotee in the twelfth chapter uses a beautiful antithesis aniketaha sthirmateer Antithesis is the placing together of two opposite ideas. So aniketaha means one who has no home.
Niketaha is home. Aniketaha is one who has no home. And sthirmateer sthirmateer is the consciousness is fixed.
So Krishna is saying over here well for my devotee, my devotee may not have no home externally for the body but my devotee has a home for his heart for her heart and that home is my devotee’s feet. Aniketaha sthirmateer So we practise bhakti if we understand, if we associate with devotees and understand the purpose of practising bhakti then that is primarily because we want Krishna to become the default object of our thought. Sometimes devotees ask me how can I think of Krishna always? It’s not practical.
Yes, initially it’s not practical. But we have to begin somewhere. Just like when we have a home it’s not that we are always going to be in the home.
But no matter where ever we are, we know I can always come back home and I can experience the shelter. So like that, devotees there is some time when we are chanting when we are hearing, when we are worshipping the deity at that time we fix our consciousness in Krishna. And other times our consciousness goes to various places.
We have a job, we have family, we have various concerns. Consciousness goes there but just as soon as our work is done we come back home. So like that we bring our consciousness back to Krishna.
So when I said we make Krishna the home for our heart what does that mean? The heart is itself not gross. And making a home for the heart doesn’t literally mean constructing anything physically. Rather it means deconstructing our preconceptions of what is our greatest object of love.
Now home for the heart means essentially the object of love. Whatever we love the most, that is what we by default think about. Just a few months ago the cricket world cup was going on.
The world cup finals was in Australia itself. So I didn’t go for programmes. You know there are young people, they are walking on the street and they are imagining I am the next Sachin Tendulkar.
Moving the bat around and swinging. So what is happening? Physically they may be on a football in India but mentally they are in some cricket stadium on the pitch hitting the match winning sixer. So whatever we are attached to, whatever is our object of love that becomes our default object of thought.
So essentially making Krishna the home of our heart means that we make Krishna the object of our love. The foremost object of our love. And when that happens then naturally we may think about other things but our thoughts will come back to Krishna.
So when will this happen? When we invest our consciousness in Krishna. How do we invest our consciousness? Through our mind, through our intelligence and through our faith. Now, gyan nirdhoop the Kalma says, this knowledge will purify us of our contaminations.
So the contaminations are what prevent us from fixing our consciousness on Krishna. Just as for a magnet or for iron filing, it is natural to be attracted to a magnet. Similarly for the soul, it is natural to be attracted to Krishna.
But just as iron filing and rustic may not be attracted to a magnet. Similarly when our consciousness is covered by contaminations, it is not attracted to Krishna. So those contaminations have to be removed.
And that removal happens by investing our consciousness in Krishna. So that is Buddha. Spiritual life actually begins with the intelligence.
Because it is only by intelligence that we can think that there is something more to life, beyond what I am living right now. If you look at a typical materialistic person’s life story. Now it is W, W, W, W. Not three W’s, not the world wide variable.
This is W, W, W, W. What are the four W’s? Go on, go on, go on. I want this, I want that, I want that. Nothing comes to me.
So the next is work, work, work, work. I have to get that, I have to get that, I have to get that. Work, work, work.
And then, even if we work, even if we earn, still we may not get what we want. Or even if we get something, we may lose it. So there is worry, worry, worry.
And then, no matter how much we worry, sooner or later things are taken away from us. People in their youth lose their health to gain wealth. And then the middle layer in their old age, they lose their wealth to regain their health.
And at the end they lose both their health and their wealth. So, the last W is weep. We lose everything.
So, want, want, want. Work, work, work. Worry, worry, worry.
Weep, weep, weep. So this is the unfortunate life story of a materialistic person. But, it requires a certain amount of intelligence to ask the question, is there something beyond this? If you look at the, if you look at even the world and the universe and think how it came about.
If we don’t have a spiritual paradigm, then what is the story? Like I talked about the story of a life, of a human being. What is the story of the universe? The story is three sentences. Nothing existed because of nothing.
Nothing erupted because of nothing. And, from that nothing, because of something, everything came. This doesn’t make any sense.
So, whether we talk about our own life or whether we talk about the universe, it requires a certain level of intelligence to think beyond. What more is there to life? Once we start enquiring what is there beyond, then there is spiritual wisdom in culture which guide us. So, this guide us to make our start.
And not just a start, even continuing on the journey requires intelligence. So, Jiva Goswami explains in the Santarbhaj that for the Siddha, for the pure devotee, it is Preeti that keeps the devotee fixed in Krishna. Because the devotee naturally loves Krishna, so always the devotee is in Krishna.
But for the Sadhaka, it is the Buddhi that keeps the Sadhaka fixed in Krishna. It is our intelligence which helps us understand. Yes, I am attracted to this thing, I am attracted to that thing, I am attracted to that thing, but all these things, they only give some temporary pleasure.
So, I want something eternal. We use our intelligence to understand Krishna’s message, understand Krishna’s glory and to make him our foremost object of thought. Then, the Atmanas.
So, now, in the case of intelligence, there are doubts that come. I will talk about doubts when I come back. Let me just analyse this.
So, there are two kinds of doubts. There are intellectual doubts and there are hard doubts. I will come to both of them.
But the obstacle at the level of intelligence is intellectual doubts. Then, there is the Atmanas. Then, we fix the mind on Krishna.
Now, many times the Bhagavad Gita says, fix the mind only. Here, interestingly, Krishna is saying, first invest the intelligence, then invest the mind. Why is that? Because the mind is restless.
And the mind will not itself very easily get fixed. But before we can fix the mind, we can fix the intelligence. So, again, going back to the mother-child metaphor in a different context here.
If a child is sick, at that time, the mother will take the child to a doctor and then the mother, the doctor, when the doctor gives the medicine, the medicine is meant for the child while the doctor will give the medicine to the mother. And it’s the mother’s responsibility to make sure that the child takes the medicine. So, like that, the mind is like a child.
Krishna uses many times the word chanchala. Chanchala is an adjective often used in Sanskrit for children and is also used for the mind. So, our mind is going to be like a child.
But our intelligence has to become like a parrot. And with the intelligence, so when we go to a doctor, the doctor is a spiritual master, the doctor is ultimately Krishna. And he gives us the medicine.
The medicine of the whole universe. The medicine of his remembrance. So, now, when the spiritual master instructs, guides, just like the doctor guides the mother, similarly the spiritual master instructs our intelligence.
And then it is our responsibility to make sure that we take the medicine of the remembrance of Krishna. Just like the mother’s responsibility to give the medicine to the child. So, we have to become like the parent of our mind.
Just like a mother is there, now if the mother leaves the child on a bed, the child just comes to the edge of the bed and falls down. Now, that’s to be expected. It’s to be expected because children of my age are restless.
So, the mothers are prepared. You have beds with high side raises or mothers keep an eye on the child. So, rather than getting discouraged, the mind goes here and there.
We expect that. And we prepare. So, the obstacle at the level of the mind is desire.
The mind is filled with desires. I want to eat this. I want to enjoy this.
I want to watch that. I want to do this. And these desires keep the mind going here and there.
So, with our intelligence, we can evaluate whether desire is worth investing our time or energy on. And accordingly, we can control that. So, tad atatmanas.
That is invest, fix the mind on me. That’s the second stage. Third stage is tanishthas.
And have faith in me. And what is that faith? Tatparayana. The faith is that you make me your goal.
There are various levels of faith. There can be the faith that yes, I believe that God will be my provider. But that is not the kind of faith Krishna is talking about.
That God is my goal. Tatparayana. Now, this as I talked about is the faith of the heart.
There is faith of the head and there is faith of the heart. Tatparayana. Then we make Krishna the goal.
So, these are the three faculties which we can invest. Our intelligence, our mind and our heart or our faith. So, now coming to the obstacles.
As I said, there are head doubts or there are brain doubts. That means there are questions which are scripture itself has a wide variety of knowledge. And there are different aspects in scripture about which one may get questions.
So, for example, sometimes there are astronomical figures talking about scripture. So, it is said that the residents of Dwaraka they numbered in millions and billions in huge numbers. So, now our sceptical, logical mind may get a question.
How is it possible? There can be so many people there. So, Narayana Srila Prabhupada would ask this question. He said Prabhupada, let me tell the scholars that Bhagavatam says that there are so many people in Dwaraka.
And they laugh at us. Where were their houses? Where were their washrooms? How were they living? So, now Prabhupada would have said Krishna can do anything. Krishna can conceive.
That’s true at one level. Prabhupada was expert at answering according to the level. So, Prabhupada said among all thousands of verses in the Bhagavatam was it the only thing that you found to speak to scholars? So, the point is that actually there are important things and there are subordinate things.
A simple example to illustrate what is important and what is not important. If I am a patient and if I want a doctor for treatment at that time before I decide to take a treatment I cannot expect to get a degree in medicine. If I start asking questions about everything in the treatment probably before I get the treatment I will die also.
So, certainly we have to have some amount of discretion and some amount of discrimination when we go to a doctor. But the primary discrimination that we have the word discrimination has a negative connotation. We could use discernment.
The primary discernment we have is does the doctor’s medicine make sense? And more importantly does the medicine work? So, handouts are like if a patient goes to a doctor and starts asking about every single device in the hospital. What does it mean? Ok, it’s good to be curious. But when you are sick it’s more important to take the medicine.
So, like that when we have doubts, we certainly the Christian conscious philosophy answers questions more than any other philosophy. One of my friends is a devotee in western days. He publishes my articles in a western newspaper.
So, he told me that he has become quite a prominent figure. So, there was a Christian preacher over there. He was giving a talk and he was telling how everyone except Jesus is from the dead.
So, he was naming various organisations various religions. One of the things he said is even if there are Hare Krishnas, who can answer every question that you have still not answer the coming question. So, now of course these Christians also they are modern minded, broad minded Christians.
The point is that even those who criticise Hare Krishnas, they also know that we have lot of answers. So, yes the Christian conscious philosophy does answer lot of questions. At the same time there is as we say when you go to a doctor, the primary purpose is to take their treatment.
So, like that if we have many many questions about many things which are not directly relevant to our practise then we can keep them in a bracket and wait for the right time when we can ask those questions. There are certain important questions about the process of Christian consciousness, about the core principles of Christian consciousness. If I have a doubt whether I am not the body, I am the soul.
That is something which I have to seriously address. But if somebody goes into 5th kanto cosmology and starts asking questions now 5th kanto cosmology is actually from a celestial level. It is a divine cosmology that has been described.
So, the purpose of the Bhagavata is not to give us cosmological knowledge. It is to give us spiritual knowledge. But while giving spiritual knowledge, the Bhagavatam also refers to the cosmos and describes how in the universe everywhere dharma is being practised.
Everywhere people are devoted towards. The purpose of the Bhagavatam is to show how dharma permeates the universe. It is not to give a description of the universe.
So, if you have some questions about say the Bhagavatam’s cosmology put it in a neutral bracket. And later on when there are some devotees who are expert in those fields we can ask those questions. So, when we get doubts, head doubts as I said, at that time we have to ourselves evaluate what is the level of these doubts.
What is the level means? How important are they for me right now? So, if I am in a particular field or I want to make that field my specialisation, then we can go deep into those doubts. Otherwise, it is not very important to try to get an answer to every question. Important questions about the core principles of bhakti, we get answers.
So, often just put the doubts aside, wait for a right person, right forum where we ask the questions, get the answers. But don’t let those doubts nag us constantly. Because sometimes we say, how can I put my doubts aside like this? The simple fact is that when we are not putting our doubts aside, how can you have a belief like this? Nowadays in today’s world, the word belief is often criticised like this.
How can you believe something like this? No. So, even if you say that I am not going to believe this, still I believe. When I am not believing shastra, I am still believing.
All that I am believing is my doubts in shastra. Isn’t it? So, disbelief is not an option at all. This belief is also a belief.
It’s also a belief. And what we are doing is we are believing our doubts. So, we can’t avoid believing.
All that we can do is choose what to believe and what to doubt. Just put aside certain doubts. And there are special devotees who can answer certain questions in specific fields.
That’s with respect to the obstacle with respect to the intelligence. Now, the obstacle with respect to the mind. As I said, it is primarily desire.
Now, the fundamental problem that comes with respect to desires is that we often have two approaches. One is that if I am going to be pure, there should not be any desires only in my heart. And the other is, if there are desires in my heart, then let’s just let me indulge in them.
Now, both are extremes. Why? Because the nature of the mind is that it changes slowly. It’s like a mother can understand the value of education.
For the child to understand the value of education is going to take time. So, like that, the mind has experienced various pleasurable objects of this world. And although they have been little pleasurable, still the mind keeps on experiencing them again and again and again.
And the mind experiences Krishna and has great satisfaction in Krishna. But still, the mind, by its habit, goes back to the worldly objects. So, at that time, what do we do? Rather than expecting that the temptation and the desires will go away, we need to understand that the mind can only propose.
It cannot impose. The mind can only propose. Mind can say, do this, do this, do this, do this.
But we have the option of saying no. How do we have the option to say no? Imagine the car is being driven. Now, if say, I am the driver of a car and next to me there is a child.
Or say, the mother is driving the car and there is a child. The child is very restless. The child says, Mama, see this.
Mama, see this. Mama, see this. And the mother starts looking at all and the child is pointing at it.
The vehicle will be, that’s it. So, what does the mother do? The mother neglects the child. And the child makes a little noise and afterwards it becomes silent.
So, like that, we are like the driver in the car. And the mind is like the child next to us. Come on, see this.
Eat this. Go there. Go there.
So, the mind is going to propose. But the child cannot push the mother off and take the steering wheel towards us. So, the mind cannot impose.
The mind can only propose. It is only when we accept the propositions of the mind, then we indulge in those things. So, by recognising this, that the mind is not in control.
We are in control. Then, we can learn to say no to the mind. Temptations will come.
We don’t have to welcome. Temptations are going to come anyway. But we don’t have to say yes to temptations.
So, one of the fundamental ways of dealing with desire is not indulgence nor is it abstinence. It is not that every desire that we indulge in it. Nor is it that we expect that the desire will completely disappear.
It should be eradicated. Krishna says, Tolerate desires. Tolerate.
Now, the challenge that comes in tolerating is that often we focus on that which we are saying no to. So, if we dwell on the object that we are not meant to enjoy, then what happens? Whatever we dwell on, the mind fantasises more and more and more. So, what was just a casual attraction soon becomes a consuming obsession.
And something that a person did not even know about. You know, maybe 5 years ago, 10 years ago, a person did not even know about it. But why 5 years? Bad habits or addictions can be formed within months.
Something which a person did not know about a few months ago, a few months later the person will feel like, I can’t live without it. All that has happened is that tolerance was not there. So, we dwelt on it, dwelt on it and it became bigger and bigger and bigger.
So, if we just don’t dwell on it, then it will become smaller. But we can’t not dwell on it. What we need again is positive object of thought.
So, as I said, our goal is to make Krishna our home, our supremely satisfying object of thought. But as long as our mind is caught with other things, often when we fix the mind on Krishna also, Krishna doesn’t feel very satisfied. So, for that time, there is sadhana bhakti.
Sadhana bhakti means we make Krishna as our object of thought by discipline. So, even if I don’t feel satisfaction thinking of Krishna, at the very least, in thinking of Krishna, there is safety. If we just think, I should not do this, I should not do this, I should not do this, there is only dissatisfaction.
Because we feel deprived. Oh, there is some pleasure, and I’m not supposed to do it. But if we turn towards Krishna, gradually we start experiencing satisfaction.
And Prahlad Maharaj says, tvadveena gāyena mahāpṛta-pagnacitta. Aha! He says, My dear Lord, when I sing your glories, it is like I’m experiencing an ocean of happiness. And when the ocean of happiness is experienced, then, I feel, generally speaking as devotees, when we practise Krishna Consciousness, we may always get that thought, Oh, there are people who are enjoying so much, I’m missing so much.
But Prahlad Maharaj is an advanced devotee, and he is relishing Krishna Bhakti, and he is not feeling, Oh, I’m missing so much, and they are enjoying. He is feeling, they are missing so much, but I’m enjoying. So, therefore, I feel pity for them, and I want to share what I’m enjoying with them.
So, actually, if you focus on Krishna, saying no to anything is never pleasurable. It is an austerity which you may have to do. But if you are focused on saying no, then, that no, oh, maybe no, maybe yes, NO! So, gradually, the no will become not just a yes, but it will become no.
Why? Because you are dwelling on that. The whole focus is, that we purposefully dwell on Krishna. And when we dwell on Krishna, then gradually, we find that there is satisfaction in meditating on Krishna.
So, that is, the way we deal with desires is not that we indulge in them, or not that we expect that they will disappear, but we learn to tolerate it. And tolerate it by focussing on Krishna. And then last is, put faith in Krishna.
Make Krishna. Invest your faith in him. Make him your devotee.
So now, Vishwanath Chaturvedi Thakur, in his book Madhuri Kantar Kadambini, analyses arrogantly, what is the source of faith. And he gives various sources. But he says, primarily, Bhakti comes from Bhaktas.
Bhakti, Sanjayate Bhakti. The Bhagavad Gita says in 11th chapter. So, it is by the association of devotees that we get faith.
And if somebody seems to have a lot of faith and doesn’t seem to be depending much on association, all that it means is, that person had a lot of association in the previous life. And that’s why that person has faith. But faith comes primarily by association.
So, now, if we see, there are 9 stages of Bhakti that are described by Rupa Goswami in Bhakta Samhita Sindhu. And I talked about the head doubt, and now I am going to talk about the heart doubt. So, head doubt is what he talks about when he talks about Adav Shraddha.
Initially, you put a little faith. What is this Bhakti stuff? What is this God? What is this soul? I want to know. And one begins with that.
With a little faith. Prabhupada often translates this initial faith as favourable curiosity. Let me know about what it is.
And then, Adav Shraddha, and then Sadhu Sangha. Become an association of devotees. We ask questions, we get answers.
Then, Bhajana Kriya. We start practising Bhakti Yoga. And then, Anartha Nivrtti.
Anartha Nivrtti is the purification in the heart happens. The purification in the heart means that the anger, the greed, the lust, all this starts going down. And this is something which anyone and everyone in any part of the world can experience.
That by the chanting of the holy names, by the remembrance of Krishna, the lust, anger, greed, anger, anger, they do go down. And all of us in our own life, we can think, we may all have had some habits, which we might have thought irresistible before. But now, we may feel not much attraction.
For example, many devotees might have been used to eating meat earlier. And there are many temptations in this world, but very few devotees actually fall for the temptation of eating meat. Literally, Prasadam is the higher taste.
So what happens is, meat is just one example, there can be different examples. We can ourselves think of something which we found irresistible earlier, and then over a period of time, it becomes tolerable. And then it is not even noticeable.
It doesn’t matter. So, this transformation has happened in our own lives. Or if you are very new to Bhakti, if you just practise, it will happen in our own life.
And this is the testimony in our own heart of the potency of Bhakti. So, by the association of devotee, I said, Shraddha, as Anartha Nivrtti happens, Anartha Nivrtti is the undesirable cravings of the heart go away, then it becomes Nishtha. Nishtha is strong faith.
Vishwanath Kedavra gives the example that at the stage of Shraddha, faith is like a banana tree. Kidneys will be shaken. By the stage of Nishtha, it is like a banyan tree.
Nothing can shake it. So, this happened because we have ourselves experienced purification. Just like when you go to doctor, if you take the medicine and it cures us, then the faith in the doctor becomes very strong.
So, similarly, when we talk about faith, first we understand the philosophy, but then when we practise the process, we experience the transformation in the heart. And it’s very important for us to meditate regularly on the benefits of Krishna Consciousness that we have experienced in our own lives. The whole process of Bhakti is to make our memory our treasure.
It is to make our memory our treasure. As I said, we want to satisfy the object of thought. So, if we have experienced some transformation because of Krishna Consciousness, it’s important that we consciously cultivate that remembrance.
Because that will reinforce our faith. If we have had some deep spiritual experiences, say we went on yatra to some holy place, we associated with some advanced devotees, we participated in some ecstatic kirtans, we had some very heart-rending darshans, we heard some very philosophical, penetrating points, whatever it is that has inspired us, we treasure that. And these are the destiny of our own heart.
As I said, faith comes from the association of devotees. But ultimately, faith is stabilised by the transformation that we experience in our own heart. And because our heart is internal and the world is external and our consciousness is often externally directed, often we lay a lot of stock on externals.
Now, we say that yes, faith comes from the association of devotees. But sometimes it may well happen that some devotees may behave in an uninspiring way. Now, whatever may be the reason for that, I am not going to do that.
There may be equals, there may be seniors, there may be juniors. Everybody is battling their own conditionings and it may happen. So then, where do we get our faith from at that time? So we have to remember that association of devotees is not an end in itself.
Association of devotees for the purpose of person and Krishna is real association. Krishna, in all his manifestations, is like a Kalpataru. It’s like a desire tree.
So, if somebody comes in the association of devotees for, you come to Krishna’s movement because we want honour, yes, even if you become a CEO in a company, when you come in the company, Krishna is not going to come and offer obeisances to you. Come and devotee, few years we are around, we become advanced, people start offering obeisances. So, if we want gratification for the ego, we can get a lot of gratification for the ego in the association of devotees also, in Krishna’s movement also.
If we want wealth, we want power, we can get that. If we want controversies, we can get more controversies in the outside world also. And, among the many things that we can get in the association of devotees, one thing is, we can get Krishna also.
So, if we forget why we are coming in the association of devotees, then, even in the association, our faith can get damaged. Because not all devotees are at the same level. Vishnu Achyut Thakur says that, there are many many devotees who chant the holy names, but if they don’t inspire us to become devoted to Krishna, then we don’t have to necessarily associate intimately with them.
It’s not that we have to disrespect them, but we have a purpose why we are coming here. It’s like, if you go to a hospital, there are different patients who are at different levels of being cured. But they all have their different diseases.
So, if we forget the purpose of going to the hospital, just taking treatment, and just mix with all the other patients, we might get their infections. So, what we need to do? We go to the hospital primarily to get cured, and then we associate with other patients, oh, you know, you faced this treatment, you had this problem, and how did you deal with the side effects, or how did you do this, how did you do that? We may not know. But the purpose has to be kept in mind.
So, as I said, the doubts of the heart, if we experience the potency of Krishna Bhakti in our life, and all of us do experience it sometime or the other. So, once we experience it, those experiences, we have to leave them the fuel for our onwards progress in Bhakti. Remembering those experiences, we move onwards.
And when we come in the association, we keep that focus in mind. Then we’ll keep moving onwards towards Krishna. So, the faith can be stabilised, by two things.
Association, that inspires and strengthens our faith. And recollection of the transformation that we have ourselves experienced. And by this, in this way, we invest our intelligence by getting important doubts answered, and other doubts relegated to a background for appropriate form where they can be answered.
By learning to tolerate desires, by focussing on Krishna, and by strengthening our faith, by associating with those who enhance our faith, and by remembering those things which are testimony to the validity of our faith. By remembering our spiritual experiences, by remembering our transformation, we can move onwards in our Bhakti. And we can also Kachanti Apunara Bhakti.
One of the challenges for our faith is that on a daily basis, even if we become advanced, still the routine problems of life are going to be there. There’s Adhyatmik, Adhipavitik, I don’t know in English are there. There’ll be misunderstanding, the weather will be inconvenient, our body may itself fall sick.
And periodically, last time, our greed might also make some appearance. So on a day-to-day basis, often we don’t experience, we don’t experience the transformation that we want, on a daily basis. Just like if a mother is caring for a child.
If everyday a mother stands next to a child with a metre, how much child has grown? Growth is not like that. Similarly, it’s not on a daily basis that we can experience our spiritual advancement. But just like everyday the mother feeds the child, cares for the child, the child is growing.
So like that, everyday we nourish our bhakti, we chant the holy names, we hear about Krishna, we serve Krishna, our bhakti is growing. But just as we cannot experience it tangibly on a daily basis, on a moment-to-moment basis, like transformation, so that may deter or decrease our faith. So we should not focus so much on whether my desires are changing or not.
We should focus on whether my values are changing or not. Values are changing means what do I consider important in my life? Sometimes you would ask, you know, I’m not able to chant attentively, what should I do? You know, maybe 5 years ago or 10 years ago, the question would be why should I chant? So, the very fact that I’m anxious, I’m not able to chant attentively, that indicates my value has changed. So a devotee shared his experience of how devotees values change.
So he said once he, no he said that twice in the temple hall, he forgot a very expensive camera. And afterwards he went back there, there were devotees doing kirtan, the camera was there as it is. And three times he forgot prasad in the temple.
When he went back, the prasad was not there. So, the values have changed for the devotees. So like that, if you just focus on your desire, what is happening when I chant in Hare Krishna? Is anything happening? A lot is happening.
So we focus on the change of values and thereby we bolster our faith. And then we move on out of this way, then Krishna says, Krishna says, Often there is a possibility that we may get discouraged. When we think that oh there are so many impurities in my heart, there are so many problems which I’m facing.
So at such times, we should meditate not on how far we are from Krishna, but we should meditate on how far we have come close to Krishna. What does it mean? Actually, if you consider the millions of species, and there are millions of souls in those species, among them humans are very few. Among those human beings, the number of human beings who enquire about spirituality are very few.
Among those human beings, those who come to a right spiritual path are fewer still. And those who not just come on the path, who start walking in a wrong path, they are even fewer. And to a large extent, we did not, most of us, at least I did not go out searching for Krishna.
No, devotees came searching for me. So, without our doing much, Krishna has brought us so far on the spiritual path. If we look at the general way materialistic people live today, the kind of goals that they have, the kind of, the utter state of godlessness in which they live.
One devotee was giving a class and he told, you are not your body. Then one person asked the question, if I am not my body, then whose body am I? The bodily conception is so entrenched. I am the body.
So, if I am not my body, then whose body am I? So, people have no spiritual knowledge at all. So, in such a situation, and we may laugh at that, but we may have been like that a few years ago. So, without doing much, Krishna has brought us so far on the spiritual path.
That Krishna, who has guided us, when we were not even trying to move towards it. Now we are trying to move towards it. So, that Krishna who has got us so far, will also take us a full distance.
So, if we start getting discouraged, you remember this. Don’t focus on how far we are from Krishna. Can think how far we have come already on the path to Krishna.
And thus we can take heart and keep moving onwards towards Krishna. So, I’ll summarise. I talked about how 5.17 marks a transition in shifting our focus from just detachment to a transcendental object of worship.
That transcendental object of worship is Krishna. So, we practise Krishna Bhakti not because we want God to provide for us. Yes, God will provide.
But we want to make Krishna our object of thought. The greatest scarcity in this world is a lack of a satisfying object of thought. And to make Krishna our default object of thought means to make him the supreme object of our love.
And to cleanse the impurities that misdirect our love towards other things. And for that cleansing, we need to invest our mind, our intelligence and our faith in Krishna. So, invest our intelligence first.
Investing our intelligence means that we enquire about the higher dimensions of life, higher aspects of life. And when we come to scripture, in scripture, the important issues, we get answers. And other curiosities that are there, we put them on the back burner.
Whenever there is appropriate force, we can seek answers.