PRAY acronym: Revisiting our conceptions about praying

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna.
So today morning, we are discussing the conclusion of this pastime of Sudama. And Sudama has had a blissful time meeting Krishna, being with Krishna, being extraordinarily honoured by Krishna. And then when he returns, he finds his house dramatically transformed.
Instead of his house, there is palace, instead of a desolate place, there are many male and female servants. And he is amazed, what is this? Initially, he is not able to recognise what has happened. Sometimes if we have been, say, in a childhood, lived in some place, and then after 10, 15, 20 years, we go to that place, there is so much change over there, that we may not be able to recognise.
What is this? Instead of a house there, there is a big skyscraper here, or instead of just a simple alley, there is a big expressway here. When there is a huge change in topography, it causes a bewilderment of the psychology. Our mind and our mind’s attitude depend on the steadiness of outer perceptions.
We function in the world by expecting some level of consistency and order. So, when instead of external consistency, we experience not just change, but sudden and drastic change, then that causes befuddlement. So, now if that change is positive, that is nice.
But still, that change, it takes us time to orient ourselves to it. na sato vidyate bhavo na bhavo vidyate satah Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita, while talking about the defining characteristics of matter and spirit, he says, matter is that which is constantly changing, and spirit is that which is unchanging. So, because we as souls are spiritual beings, so we are eternal, and we expect some level of consistency and steadiness in our life, and we project that which is natural to the spirit, we project that as an expectation on matter.
And we expect things around us to stay steady. And of course, to some extent, living in sattva guna means, living as conducting our life in such a way that we create a certain level of steadiness in our life around us. So, to the extent there is some amount of steadiness in our life, there is some orderliness in our life, to that extent we can pursue higher things.
Otherwise, the constant disorderliness in our life itself creates anxiety and saps our mental energy. So, it’s a natural individual expectation, and it’s also a social responsibility. To create a certain level of order, Krishna says, dharma samsthapanarthaya sambhavami yuga.
He comes to establish dharma. So, dharma is basically, it is material order, so that there can be a return to spiritual order. Return to spiritual order means that we become devoted to Krishna.
Now, to become devoted to Krishna, to some extent, there is a material orderliness is helpful. And Krishna comes to establish that material orderliness, so that the souls can strive for spiritual order. So, of course, here, there is not a disturbance in the sense of something negative.
There is a wonderful change, but still it takes time for Sudama to process it. And that’s why he says, it’s a verse he uses, mam samanam. So, mam samanam is actually both a general Sanskrit word as well as a philosophical term.
So, mam samanam basically means deep thinking. Just like in English, you may have the word meditation. Meditation can refer to just deep thinking or meditation can refer to a specific process by which one goes into deep thought.
A state of trance. So, like that, mam samanam is at one level, just a deep level of reflection and another level, mamamsa is also a philosophical mode of reflecting on the nature of the world. So, karma mamamsa means where the deep contemplation about the nature of action.
Where the word mamamsa is more commonly used in terms of jnana and one goes deep into thought. So, he started contemplating what is going on. What did he see over here? He saw men and women, but the speciality of these men and women was amara prabha.
They had effulgence like that of the devatas. Those were amara. The Vedas use the word amara to refer to the devatas.
And Upanishads explain that actually amara, although it means immortal in the Sanskrit sense, in the semantic sense, it is more of a perception of immortality than a realisation of immortality. There are four levels of being. Those on the earth are called as martya.
Those in the heavens are called as amara. Those who live at the level of Brahma, that is, who live for the lifetime of Brahma, they are called as chiranjeevi. And beyond them all is nitya.
So, only nitya is eternal. Amara is not eternal. Amara is not the realisation of eternality.
It is more of perception of eternality. That as compared to the life we have here, which is a few decades, compared to that the life in heaven is so large that it is called as amara, immortal. Now, amara prabha.
So, the celestials, they have an actual effulgence to their being. And that is not normally seen in mortals. So, when he saw this, he understood this is not just any ordinary transformation.
That this is something extraordinary. There is some higher force, something higher power acting over here. It is not just some person wins a lottery, gets some money and builds a big house and hires some servants.
It is not like that. These people who were there, they had amara prabha. So, they had been arranged by some higher, some arrangement higher than the human.
And when he contemplates how has this happened? And pratigrahanan. Pratigrahanan means they accepted. So, they greeted him accordingly.
So, Vishwachandra Thakur explains that normally there is an etiquette. When some person who is like the owner, he is there, he acknowledges someone and then those people approach and talk with him or greet him or offer their respects to him. So, when initially he came in, this is the first time all these, we could say the employees, in today’s language, all servants, they were first time meeting their master.
They were little tense, you know, how all these disposition, what will he say, how will he look at us. So, they did not know how to approach him first. And when they saw that Sudama had also become reflexive, deep, they did not know how to respond.
Now, when we meet someone new, usually we all have certain kinds of rituals. And rituals give a structure for our actions. So, for example, when we meet someone, you know, in today’s culture, people may shake hands.
You know, in traditional culture, we may fold hands. But the idea is when we meet someone, if we do not know how to, if there is no structure, there is no ritual, then we do not know what to do at that time. So, they did not know this was a unique situation for them.
The first time they are going to encounter their master. And they did not know how to respond. So, what was the thought process that Sudama went through internally? He said, maam saman.
He thought, oh, all this. He just thought, he thought fast. He is a Brahmana after all.
So, he has a capacity to think deeply and swiftly. So, he thought and he understood, oh, this is all the arrangement of Krishna. Krishna has arranged all this for me.
And therefore, if he has done this for me, I should accept this. So, then when that decision manifested in the expression, then the servants also saw, oh, yeah, he is accepting. Then they went forward and Pratikrahanam.
So, then they also offered their respects to him. And in this way, they greeted him. Normally, music and dance is a way of celebration.
And celebration can be of various occasions. So, in this case, if somebody who is a very influential, wealthy person, say a king comes back from a victorious campaign, at that time, then there is celebration for welcoming the king. So, there is gita vade na bhugesa.
But say the king has come back and when the king has come back, although the king has won the war, if some dear general has been badly wounded or something like that, the king may not be in a celebratory mood. So, the celebration does not start immediately at that time. So, they have to sense the mood of the king.
Similarly, here, when they saw that Sudama, normally when a person has gone away and then a person comes back home, there is happiness in meeting one’s loved ones. But when they saw that Sudama was so grave, you know, he did not see, he was in thought. So, they did not know how to respond.
But when they saw that Sudama is now accepting us, he basically accepted the will of the Lord. And he accepted the will of the Lord, they also became cheerful and they started celebrating, welcoming him back home. Although it was not exactly, the location was the same, but the structure was entirely different.
And in the next verses, we will describe how his wife came and she also welcomed him. So, here we see that in this particular pastime, Krishna answers an unasked prayer. Krishna answers an unasked prayer that Sudama, he goes because his wife requests him to go to meet Krishna and ask for some help.
But Sudama, in his delight in meeting Krishna, never asks for any such help. And yet, Krishna rewards him profusely. And rewards him in such a way that all his needs are taken care of for the rest of his life.
More than his needs are taken care of. So, I will speak on this topic of prayer. And how praying as a limb of bhakti is actually different from praying as is generally understood.
Or praying as a part of the Karmakanda level of worship. So, talking in terms of an acronym pray, P-R-A-Y, we will take four points about it. So, normally, when we think of praying, so, people generally think of praying, their idea of praying is that, okay, there are things which are not in my control, and I need to get them done.
So, I will ask God to help me do it. And so, people come to the temples and then they pray, especially, you know, I say in the time of May or June when the final exams are there, the student population in the temple increases. It is not that the month of May is specially conducive for bhakti.
It is that at that time there is the need felt for whatever help one may get. And because of that people may approach God. Now, any way one approaches God is good.
At the same time, this level of approaching God creates a certain level of uncertainty. That when we pray to God for getting certain things, and at that time, whether we get that or not, that is uncertain. And that creates not just uncertainty about the result, but it also creates uncertainty about the nature of our relationship with God and even the uncertainty about the reality of God itself in people’s minds.
That if my prayers are not answered, then maybe God doesn’t exist. Now, for sadhakas, for us sadhakas who are trying to practise bhakti, and they are trying to rise to parabhakti, pure devotion, often when we pray, there is a dilemma. Now, should we pray to Krishna for something that we feel is important for us? Is it material? Is it spiritual? Is it with the realm of pure bhakti? So, actually, the first thing we need to recognise is the way the Bhagavatam defines prayer is that it is a limb of bhakti.
śravaṇāṁ dīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ smaraṇaṁ pāda-sevanam arcanam vandanam dāsyam sākhyam ātma-nivedanam So, these nine limbs of bhakti are there. iti puṁsārpita-viṣṇo bhakti-ścena-navalakṣaṇa kriyeta bhagavaty-addhā tan manyedita-muttamam So, kriyeta bhagavaty-addhā. These nine activities we all do.
Hearing about someone, speaking about someone, remembering that person, and if especially that person is famous, then there are ways in which things equivalent to worshipping of that person are done. So, we do all this, but when all these are done for Viṣṇu, then they are the symptoms of bhakti. Navalakṣaṇa, there are nine characteristics of bhakti.
Now, this is actually a redefinition of prayer. They said normally prayer is thought of as something which we do to beseech God to do something for us. But here, the Bhāgavatam is defining prayer as a limb of bhakti.
And what does this mean if we compare it with other limbs of bhakti? Say for example, hearing is there or remembering is there. Now, the purpose of hearing or remembering is not to get something done. When we hear about Krishna, yes, we get a deeper understanding of Krishna.
When we remember Krishna, we go closer to Krishna. But the purpose of hearing or remembering is not to get something done. Similarly, the way the Bhāgavatam defines prayer is that it is not a tool to get something done.
It is a means to connect with Krishna. It is a means to become purified by connecting with Krishna. So, when we hear about Krishna, that hearing itself purifies us.
At the end of this class, we may get some points which we may want to meditate on or we may not get. But just the fact that we get in contact with Krishna through the process of hearing, that purifies us. So, purification, if we understand, this is the purpose of our practise of bhakti, including our practise of prayer.
Then the uncertainty that comes by being too invested in the results, too invested in the expectation about the results, that uncertainty can be avoided. We can recognise that just as I do various activities for bhakti, similarly, for purification, just as I do various activities, similarly, let me also pray for my purification. Now, purification has various aspects to it.
One of the important aspects of purification is the silencing of the mind’s one-way conversation. Everything that is happening, the mind is constantly commenting about it. It’s like this.
It shouldn’t be like this. Why did this happen? Oh, the world is rotten. People are just like this.
Actually, practically every single thing that is happening, our mind is constantly commenting about it. And usually, if we are not conscious of what is happening, then we grant the mind monopoly over our inner conversation. That means in the mind, I say something, you know, people just don’t care.
No, it’s like this. They are like that. No one cares for me.
I work so hard, but no one appreciates. The mind speaks so many things and we give it monopoly over the inner conversation. Monopoly means, there are two people at a table, but only one person is speaking all the time.
Then if there are other people who are hearing, then they just get to hear that one person’s side of the story and they don’t get to hear the other person’s side. So, what happens? The mind is like a chatterbox. It just keeps speaking, keeps speaking, keeps speaking.
The mind is subtle, so the mind speech is also subtle. But there is a speech that is going on constantly. And then we give in our inner world monopoly to the mind.
Then the mind keeps speaking, keeps speaking, and gradually we start believing what the mind keeps speaking. And the mind often spouts these unworthy desires. Come on, go there, do this, touch this, enjoy this, have that.
And then we accept those desires as our desires. So, the mind in that way makes us impure. So, the mind is filled with impure impressions and the mind projects those impressions on us.
So, purification at the very level means, first, that we stop the mind’s projection. And secondly, the mind stops projecting. Both levels are there.
First is, at least when the mind is projecting, come on, do this, enjoy this, no, I am not going to do this. So, we start countering that. And secondly, as the mind becomes purified, as the mind starts understanding that, oh, this is, I am so infatuated with all this, but this really doesn’t bring any happiness.
So, there is, normally if we see, Krishna is fighting a war on the, Krishna is guiding Arjuna to fight a war on the battlefield. And in the war, he talks about how you need to, you cannot be chicken-hearted, Arjuna. You have to fight and you have to kill your enemies.
But Krishna does not talk about killing the mind. The mind is something which is a vital tool for us, for acting in this world. The soul is spiritual, the world around us is gross matter.
The mind is an essential intermediary for the soul to act in this world. So, there is basically, we cannot kill the mind. We have to control the mind and then we have to convert the mind.
First is control. Control means when the mind starts saying this, saying this, saying this, okay, we don’t let it get control over us. And second is, we want to convert the mind.
Change the mind’s way of thinking. So, purification essentially means that actually the way the mind thinks, that changes. So, there is, this is what happens when we pray to Krishna.
So, when we pray to Krishna, we invoke a presence, the presence of someone much higher. Someone who is supremely pure. Pavitranam pavitram yo mangalanam cha mangalam.
That he is supremely pure among all pure. Sometimes the word Pavitra and Mangala are used as equivalents. But there is a subtle difference between the two.
That pure is, Mangala is that which is auspicious, that which will bring positivity, that which will bring good in the future. Pavitra is that which is pure even now. So, the presence of Krishna brings purity now and it brings auspiciousness in future.
Now, when we pray to Krishna, at that time, if we see prayer as a means for purification, not a means for getting something done, then we will be able to avoid the uncertainty that is associated with prayer and we can focus. So, Sudama, when he went there, he went because his wife asked him to go. But once he went there, he did not focus throughout on thinking, okay, how will I ask Krishna, what will Krishna give me or not.
He focused primarily on connecting with Krishna. And that brings us to the next R aspect. P-R-A, why pray? R is relationship.
Now, when we think about Krishna, we say Krishna is purifying. But Krishna is not an object. Krishna is a person.
Sometimes there is a tendency that there are certain metaphors. For example, we may say that say God is like a touchstone. Krishna is a touchstone.
Whoever he touches, their heart becomes transformed, their heart becomes purified. That’s true. Prabhupada is considered to be a touchstone.
He created not just gold, but he created so many touchstones. That is true. These are insentient metaphors.
And God is not insentient. In theology, the term that is used for this is called, for God’s sentience is called possibility. That possible means that God has the capacity, God is not unfeeling in the sense of being beyond feeling.
God has emotions. God is a person. So, when we approach Krishna, it is for the purpose of not just getting purified in the sense that say if I am feeling hot, I go to a place where there is AC and I feel cool.
No, it’s not like that. Purification is a reciprocation between two persons. There is a relationship involved over there.
And Prahlad Maharaj, when he starts in the 7th canto, in the 9th chapter of the 7th canto, the 8th canto is the appearance, 8th chapter of the 7th canto is the appearance of Narasimhadev and end of the reign of terror of Hiranyakashipu. And from the 9th chapter, Prahlad Maharaj starts offering prayers. And when he offers prayers, one of the prayers that he offers is, in one sense, we could say a response to an earlier prayer that Indra has offered.
So, Indra, before in the 8th chapter, towards the end, the various devatas have offered prayers. And those prayers have not really pacified Lord Narasimhadev. Now, yes, if we talk about purification, by offering prayers to the Supreme Lord, they themselves have become purified.
That is true. But there the Lord has not been satisfied. So, Indra, he prays that, basically, a paraphrase of this prayer is that because Hiranyakashipu was so scary, he was such a tyrant, that our hearts were dominated with fear of him.
And because we were so fearful, we were not able to serve you properly. Now, O Lord, that you have removed this scourge, now we will be able to serve and worship you properly. But Prahlad Maharaj, when he prays, he actually, one of his prayers is, My dear Lord, I am not afraid of you.
And then he says that, by his actions, he has also shown that he was not afraid of Hiranyakashipu. Devatas, they were far away, and still they were afraid of Hiranyakashipu. Prahlad was staying in the same house as Hiranyakashipu.
And still, and actually, once the devatas accepted defeat, Hiranyakashipu didn’t try to kill the devatas. He wanted to have them as evidences of his dominion over them, of his domination over them. So, on the other hand, Hiranyakashipu had tried to have Prahlad assassinated.
And still, Prahlad was not fearful. So, that, actually it is described by the Acharyas that, that when devatas offered prayers, the Lord was not satisfied by those prayers. There are several reasons for this, but, first is that the Lord was, it is not that the prayers did not satisfy the Lord.
It was the actions which they had done that did not satisfy the Lord. What were the actions that, when Prahlad was being tormented, at that time, the devatas neither protected him nor protested against him. And now they were offering nice prayers, but because they had not acted at that time, so the Lord was not very pleased with them.
And when Prahlad offered prayers, then the Lord was satisfied. Because the Lord does not just see the world that we are offering in prayer, he also sees how we are living. So, prayer is not just, as I said, it is a matter of developing a relationship with the Lord.
And usually, when we live in this world, there is the, there is a whole circle of things that are of concern to us. And then there is the world of, there is a universe of parabhakti, of pure devotion. And sometimes, some things intersect in this.
But there are many things which are not in the circle of devotion, of pure devotion. So, we are thinking, okay, I have some problem. If I pray to Krishna, is this material, is this spiritual? Should I pray to Krishna or not? If we see this as a process of developing a relationship with Krishna, then, if something is burdening us, we can surely share that with Krishna.
But that should not be the only extent of our relationship with Krishna. In the approach to prayer, there are two extremes. One is the Karmakanda extreme, where people have nothing to do with God unless they want something from God.
So, basically, God is treated as simply a desire-fulfiller, where who God is and what God, God is not treated as a person at all, practically speaking. It’s a very depersonalised way of God, simply as a, as something, some arrangement that fulfils desires. So, where our relationship with God is restricted only to what, what we want, that is not a very, that is not a very natural relationship, actually.
It’s not a relationship at all. It’s basically, as Prahlad Narayan says, it’s basically business. Now, that is undesirable, but if we artificially try to go to the level where we connect with Krishna only at the level of pure emotion, then because many things matter to us right now, we will not be able to connect with Krishna.
No, we cannot become pure devotees without becoming devotees. We cannot become, we cannot come to the level of having a selfless relationship without having a relationship. So, if there are things that matter to us and we, there are many things which matter to us which may not be directly devotional, but still, because they matter to us, we can submit them in an appeal of prayer to Krishna, but we don’t base our relationship on that.
And if something is burdening us, the whole process of bhakti is to bring Krishna into our heart. But right now, there are many other things in our heart. So, now what do we do about them? There are many other things in our heart and we can’t just get them out of the heart immediately.
Purification takes time. So, in that period, we aspire to have Krishna in our heart, but at the same time, the other things are there in our heart, we offer them to Krishna. That is, Krishna, this is what I am worried about.
This is what is troubling me. Please, Krishna, guide me as to how I should act. So, now, normally if we have some trouble and if somebody hears our troubles, then even if they are not able to offer a solution to our problem, just the fact that they heard, that gives us a sense of relief.
That unburdens our heart. Similarly, when some things are burdening our heart, if we offer them in a mood of prayer to Krishna, then that unburdens us. That brings Krishna closer to us.
So, that deepens our relationship with Krishna. So, our sadhana bhakti, the diligent practise of the limbs of bhakti, sadhana bhakti that we do, that takes us, that propels us towards a relationship of pure love, towards a relationship of pure love, of para bhakti towards Krishna. But apart from the limbs of sadhana bhakti, there are many other activities which we do in our life.
And although they can also be, they are at one level incorporated as limbs of bhakti, but even if they are not directly connected with Krishna, if we see that we have a relationship with Krishna, which is not just limited to the activities of direct devotion. Our relationship with Krishna is, it encompasses all our being. And then we focus on prayer as a means of developing the relationship with Krishna.
The A is Affirmation. Affirmation means that actually, when we pray to Krishna, that connection with Krishna that we establish in prayer, that itself affirms to us the reality of, we may not pursue the reality of Krishna, but we can pursue the reality of the relief that comes from remembrance of Krishna. There is a pratyaksha avagamam dharmyam su-sukham kartumam.
Krishna says pratyaksha avagamam dharmyam. In 9.2 in the Bhagavad Gita he says that the process of bhakti gives us direct realisation. So what is that realisation? That realisation is that there is a higher reality there are various levels of this realisation of course, but at our level, the realisation is that there is a higher reality which is beyond the agitating and disturbing reality of this world.
prashantamanasam dhyayanam yoginam sukham uttama upaiti sham virajasam brahma bhutam kalmasham In 6.27 in the Bhagavad Gita Krishna says that the yogi in 25 and 26 years talked about the yogi practising trying to fix the mind in higher spiritual reality and then what happens? prashantamanasam dhyayanam prashantamanasam the mind becomes peaceful. How does it happen? yoginam sukham uttamam the yogi experiences transcendental happiness and what is the result of that? upaiti sham virajasam virajasam the mode of passion which is there in us which creates agitation constant unrelenting agitation is created by the mode of passion so upaiti sham virajasam the rajas becomes pacified and brahma bhutam kalmasham we understand our own spiritual identity so actually in the Bhagavad Gita 6.28, 29 and 30 they describe progressively higher spiritual realisations so 6.28 describes Brahman realisation 6.29 describes Paramatma realisation and 6.30 describes Bhagavan realisation that’s of course a different subject but the point here is that even a generic awareness that there is an unchanging spiritual reality beyond this agitating material reality that itself is possible so affirmation means that for us as sadhakas when we start practising the process of upaiti we start realising more and more that when we pray to Krishna if our prayer is centred on getting things done then we won’t experience this relief because our whole consciousness is focused on whether that particular thing happens or not sometimes the way the world works the way Krishna works is we may shake an apple tree and a mango may fall what that means is that we go with a particular trouble we go with a particular prayer and if we are caught in a certain kind of expectation this is the way things should be solved the child is hungry and child goes oh there is an apple tree, I want apple the child is shaking the apple tree and no apples are falling but from a neighbouring tree a mango has fallen down and by eating that mango a child’s hunger will be satisfied but because the child is so caught in expecting the apple to fall a child misses the fall of the mango similarly sometimes when we go and pray to Krishna Krishna may answer our prayers but often we expect and demand an answer on our attempts and when that is the expectation the answer comes and sometimes the answer may be better than what we expected also but because our perception is limited by our expectation our perception is often limited by our expectation we expect things to be in a particular way then if we say if we go to the airport to receive some visiting senior devotees coming and then we are expecting that person is a sanyasi and they are supposed to come we expect them in saffron but they are coming from a country where you cannot wear saffron so they are in general dress and then we go and see we are expecting somebody in saffron and then that person comes and they knock on our head oh I didn’t know so what has happened is our perception was limited by our expectation we were expecting somebody in saffron but that same person came and came right next to us but we saw but we did not see why? because our perception was limited by our expectation so when we think of prayer primarily as a tool for getting things done then our perception then our perception limits our expectation or rather I could put it other way it works both ways our expectation limits our perception we don’t see things apart from what we are expecting to see so now when that happens even when Krishna answers our prayer we don’t notice the answer but rather when our focus is on raising our consciousness to the spiritual level when we pray to Krishna to come in his presence to develop a relationship with him to become purified then we realise the affirmation that Krishna is real and there is real relief in the remembrance of Krishna when that happens as our consciousness rises to a higher spiritual level our perception becomes less agitated we start thinking more clearly and then solutions emerge and the last aspect I will talk about is why is yes now often when we pray what we want is that we want God to say yes to our plans but the Bhagavad Gita actually ends with Arjuna saying yes to Krishna’s plans and it ends with Karishi Vachinam Daba in which Prabhupada was asked what is the best prayer that you can offer to Krishna Prabhupada said that if you pray to Krishna that give me the strength to serve you so strength to serve you means that whatever happens in life we say yes Krishna I don’t know what your plan is but please give me the strength to serve you so whatever happens in this world Krishna is always the Lord and we are always His servants if we just Krishna Das Ae Vishwas Korle do aara dukkhan so if we can focus on this reality and the process of bhakti and the process of prayer they bring our vision to alignment with these realities they remind us that Krishna is always the Lord that we are always His servants and then once our once our vision is fixed on these things then we can find out ok in this particular situation how can I serve Krishna so the principle of service if we stay fixed in that then the process of service how we may serve in particular situation that may vary if we are in good health we may serve in one way if we are sickly we may we may not be able to serve in that way but that doesn’t mean that we can’t connect with Krishna at all we can serve maybe in some other way so the important point is that we stay fixed in the principle of saying yes to Krishna that whatever happens Krishna will be my servant guide me as to how I can serve so Prabhupada if we see in his Markini Bhagavata Dharma the first line he says is that āche kichu kārya tabe ei anumāne nāhi geno anibena ei ugrasthāne he says Krishna there must be some reason why you have brought me here otherwise why would you get me to this terrible place for Prabhupada to come to America which is filled with the modes of passion and ignorance it is a ugrasthāne very few visitors coming to America will call it a ugrasthāne but that is Prabhupada’s transcendental vision but the point for us is Prabhupada is saying anumāne the word anumāne often we may translate it as guessing or speculating but in terms of philosophical unguided philosophical guesswork which is often contradictory to scripture that is what is reproached that is what to be avoided it is a physical conduct in our life so Prabhupada is saying Krishna I guess there must be some purpose why you have brought me here so it was not that when Prabhupada went to America every single thing was clear for him we say Prabhupada was empowered what does empowerment mean empowerment doesn’t mean that there was no perplexity empowerment doesn’t mean that there was no indecision there was no it was not that everything was crystal clear for Prabhupada when he went to America he did not know it was basically Prabhupada was like a warrior and he was trying out different strategies to see what would work so here he is saying Krishna I guess there must be some purpose for you purpose why you have brought me here and he concludes by saying that dance dance Prabhu dance with him dance with him he says that Krishna make me dance make me dance just as a puppet dances become my puppet here and let me make me dance Krishna so this is Prabhupada at that particular point he did not know how exactly he is going to manifest the Krishna consciousness movement but he is just taking one step forward one step forward one step forward sometimes in our life we see a dark way ahead and we think what should I do we see all the darkness and we become dejected but you know we have a small flashlight we can see one step ahead and take one step ahead and then the flashlight will show one step ahead and we can take one step ahead and we can step one step ahead and then we can move forwards so like that if we think about big big things sometimes we may get too overwhelmed but in terms of practical execution thinking about too many big things that can paralyse us if we think simply in terms of Krishna yes I want to serve you and in this particular situation just don’t know what to do but this is one thing I can do I can take one step forward I can take one step forward and as we keep doing that the path keeps becoming clearer the path keeps becoming clearer and thus we can keep moving onwards so the yes to Krishna it’s not necessarily or it’s rarely in terms of sometimes Krishna comes right in front of us and tells you go and do this service and then you say yes I will do it that is very dramatic and that may happen occasionally to some saints but actually what is required for Bhakti is the saying of yes on small small choices small small decisions you know the the life of sacrifice is actually far more challenging than the sacrifice of life I will conclude with this point that actually now suppose there is some great danger and we may say I will give up my life I will become a martyr so if some some faithless people come and want to destroy the temple and we say I will come in between and I will give up my life definitely it requires courage to lay down one’s life like that but that is some ok that is glorious but actually far more glorious is the life of sacrifice life of sacrifice means on a moment to moment basis we strive to choose to serve Krishna we sacrifice our mind’s wills we sacrifice our ego’s cushions and we try to serve Krishna and when we do that by that we will actually transformationally go towards Krishna and perceive Krishna as a real moving force and moving presence in our lives so the process of bhakti is not so much there is not so much of sacrificing our life as living the life of sacrifice so for Sudama he was actually I mentioned in my last class he was attached to being detached and for him and by deliberation he understood this is what Krishna wants me to do so he accepted that so that life of sacrifice is what is going to take us to Krishna even to help us sense his presence in this life also and ultimately attain him eventually so I will summarise I started by talking about how this pastime describes Sudama’s return and we discussed about the etiquette and how different people’s expectations how different people behave in different ways according to expectations and Sudama he contemplated and he accepted that this is what the lord wants me to do so I will accept it and accordingly his servants also reciprocated we discussed about the four levels of being martya amara chiranjiva and nitya and then we discussed primarily about how Krishna answered the unasked prayer of Sudama and in that connection we discussed the theme of prayer or in terms of the acronym pray P-R-A-Y so P was purification so rather than thinking of prayer as a means for getting something done from god and then subjecting ourselves to uncertainty whether we will get it or not we can see prayer as a limbo bhakti just by praying we will become purified so we don’t have to expect anything from Krishna just pray for purification then we discussed R as relationship that Krishna is not just an insentient object that has the capacity for purifying he is a person and we have to develop a relationship with Krishna and developing that relationship means avoiding both extremes one extreme is that we need to go to Krishna only for our concerns and other times we just forget that Krishna even exists that is a very self-centred relationship and then if we try to keep our relationship only in the realm of pure devotional service then it stays an artificial relationship because things which are of great importance to us things which have a big place in our heart when we don’t connect them with Krishna then we don’t give Krishna a big enough place in our heart so we offer if something is burdening us by praying to Krishna not in a demanding way that Krishna solve the problem but rather that in a way of simply deepening our relationship with Krishna we share that with Krishna and we will feel our heart unburdened and we will come closer to Krishna by praying to him in that way then we discussed A is Affirmation Affirmation of the reality of Krishna and more in more immediately the reality of the relief that comes from remembering Krishna so when we approach when we pray to Krishna if we are focused on expecting and demanding a particular result then our perception is limited by our expectation and when Krishna answers prayers in some other way we don’t notice it it’s like a child who asks who shakes apple tree and then doesn’t notice the mango falling but rather if we focus on prayer as a means for affirming the reality of Krishna the reality of the relief that comes from remembering Krishna then that relief raises our consciousness upwards that the rages in the mind agitation in the mind anxiety in the mind goes down and then with clear perception we can find out how best to work how best to function how best to act in the particular situation how Krishna may have answered our prayer and in that we discussed last was why is yes so prayer is not so much about getting God to say yes to our plans but it is more of our understanding God’s plan and saying yes to that and saying yes to God’s plan often involves a certain level of tentativeness I guess Krishna he must have some plan for me so even when we say what is God’s plan for me it’s not that we will have a full express way well lit for us to move forward even if the path is shrouded in darkness we have one step we just have a flashlight we take one step forward and the flashlight will one step forward so we keep doing whatever we can in a mode of service to Krishna and the path will be illumined and this requires not so much a dramatic sacrifice of life it requires a life of sacrifice our mind our ego it all keeps wanting us to take steps which take us away from Krishna but instead of that small small steps we take towards Krishna and that way we will start realising and relishing the presence of Krishna in our life even in this world so thank you very much are there any comments corrections questions dhantraj shrimadbhagavatam ki Shila Prabhupada ki Gaura Bhakta Vendaki Tai Gaura Prema Anand