RRR – Reprobate Rescued and Reformed – Lessons from Ajamila Pastime

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Adati Svapadantikam Andeham Shri Guru Shriyuta Padakamalam Shri Gurun Vaishnavamsha Shri Roopam Sakrajatam Sahagan Raghunathan Vitham Tam Sajeevam Sadhvaitam Savadhootham Parijana Sahitam Krishna Chaitanya Devam Shri Radha Krishna Padaan Sahagan Lalita Shri Vishakhan Vithamsha Nama Om Vishnupadaya Krishna Prashtaya Bhutale Shrimate Bhaktivedanta Swami Itinamine Namaste Saraswati Deve Gauravani Pracharine Nirvishesha Shunyavadi Ashyatya Deshatarine Namo Mahavadanyaiva Krishna Prema Pradayate Krishnaya Krishna Chaitanya Namne Gauratvise Namaha Hey Krishna Karunasindho Veena Bandho Jagatpate Gopesh Gopika Kanta Radha Kanta Namostute Dabdakaanchina Gaurangi Radhe Vrindavaneshwari Vishabhano Sute Devi Pranamami Hari Priya Pancha Kalbhata Ruhyasya Prapasindhubhya Evacha Patitanam Pavanebhyo Vaishnavebhyo Namo Namaha Jai Shri Krishna Chaitanya Prabhu Nityananda Dwaita Gadadhara Siva Sadhika Urya Bhakta Vrinda Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare Hare Krishna This is an enactment of the pastime of Ajamila.
It’s very stirring. And the pastime itself is one of the most important pastimes in the whole Srimad Bhagavatam. It’s one of the most important because it demonstrates the power of the holy name.
The Srimad Bhagavatam talks about various subjects over its thousands and thousands of verses and they are all centred on devotion. And in many of the pastimes, the characters take shelter of the holy name. But a whole pastime centred on the power of the holy name is distinctive in that that distinction belongs to the Ajamila pastime.
So, I’ll talk about this pastime in terms of three Rs. So, reprobation, rescue and reformation. So, a reprobate is a person who never reforms himself, who is very, very degraded.
That means a person who falls away and falls to such depths in terms of lowness that it seems almost a person is irredeemable. So, that’s the first part. Then we’ll talk about rescue, how the holy name rescued the Ajamila and then we’ll talk about the reformation of Ajamila that happened.
So, the material world is so made that there is danger at every step. There is, of course, physical danger. There may be accident, there may be earthquake, there may be heart attack.
But these, as far as the spiritual path are concerned, they are not as dangerous as the dangers which are posed internally by temptations. See, if this is the spiritual journey, then there are two distractions. One is the distraction of pain and the other is a distraction of pleasure.
So, it is said bad times test our faith and so do good times. Bad times test our faith because at that time we feel, I’m serving God, why is there such trouble coming in my life? So, we naturally may doubt whether God really cares for us or even whether God exists in bad times. Bad times test our faith, no doubt.
But good times also test our faith and good times test our faith more sometimes. Why? When there are good times, at that time we are forced to choose between the good of this world and God. Okay, there is pleasure in this world, there is comfort in this world and there is God.
So, often this choice is much more difficult to make because when on one side there is evil and there is depravity, there is degradation and then the other side there is God, it’s easy to choose. This is bad, this is good. But when there are degrees, when the material world also there is pleasure available and then there is the higher pleasure.
So, to give up the material pleasure and choose spiritual pleasure is a challenge. So, temptations are in that sense a greater danger than even tribulations. Tribulations are troubles.
So, tribulations are a danger and temptations are also a danger. But among the two, temptations and tribulations, tribulations are not as dangerous as temptations. Why? Because for a devotee, example, a tribulation comes along, some accident happens.
You know, even if a person dies at a particular time, now certainly the death is unfortunate and we lose the association of that devotee if something like that happens. But then such a thing is happening as a karmic reaction and that is actually exhausting the karma that is there. Whereas, when temptation comes, at that time if we fall to it, we are creating further karma.
So, actually it is said that, and I write this daily articles in the Bhagavad Gita. So, one article about, should we be happy when we are happy? What does it mean? Actually, when we are happy materially, what is actually happening? We are happy materially, we are exhausting our good karma. So, in that sense, we are, whatever we are enjoying materially, whatever the stockpile of enjoyment is going to go away.
On the other hand, when we are suffering, what is happening? We are exhausting our bad karma. So, in that sense, actually the material point of view, should we be happy when we are actually happy? Because whenever you are happy, basically the platform on which we are happy, that is getting exhausted, that is getting depleted. For example, if I am sitting here and at this time it is somebody chipping away at the camera, the legs of this chair, what is going to happen? I am sitting here, but actually I am going to fall.
So, it is like that. So, at the material level, the good and bad, Bhadra, Bhadra Gyan, Ei Sabha Mano Dharma, it is all an illusion. Because Ei Bhala, Ei Manda, Ei Sabha Brahma, always is an illusion.
And this is good, this is bad. But still, the good can often be a greater temptation. Now, by good, I do not necessarily mean the morally good.
By good, I simply mean that which is pleasant, that which is pleasurable. So, Ajamil was leading the path of virtue and then he was tempted. And when temptations come, actually, how do temptations allure us? Temptations allure us by persuading us that we are missing something.
We are missing something. There is so much enjoyment level, why are you missing it? And that way, Ajamil was living a very virtuous and idealistic life in many ways. But when he was allured, it just got suckered away, got suckered away.
So, now if we look at the sixth canto, the pastime of Ajamil is told in the context of freeing a person from sins. The fifth canto ends with the description of the hellish planets, the sufferings thereof, of the sinful. When Shukadeva Goswami is asked by Parikshit Maharaj, how can a person be free from sinful reactions so that the person can be saved from hell? And as an answer to this question, interestingly, actually, actually, Shukadeva Goswami does not describe a pastime which involves a sinful person.
He starts by describing a person who is very virtuous. He describes a person who is very virtuous and that person gets dragged down to sin. So, what is the reason for choosing this kind of example? Because he wants to illustrate that actually in this world, virtue alone is not a protection.
Virtue alone. Virtue means morality, goodness, goodness at a material level. That alone is not an adequate protection.
Now, Ajamil certainly had some devotional inclinations. But initially, Ajamil was not a serious practising devotee. Sometimes it is depicted like that.
But if you look at the Acharya’s commentaries, the primary focus is he was a brahmana. He was a brahmana with good qualities. And one aspect of brahmanical life is also devotion.
Actually, in the 18th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, when Lord Krishna describes the qualities of a brahmana, he does not mention bhakti as a quality. शमोधमा तपश्योतं शान्तिरार्जमेवच ज्ञानं विज्ञानमास्तिक्यं ब्रह्मकर्म स्वभावजं So, there is no bhakti mentioned. There is mind control, sense control, austerity, straightforwardness, tolerance, knowledge, realisation and faith.
So, what does this mean? Actually, we can see examples of brahmanas like Shukracharya who were not devotees. In fact, they were opposed to, he was opposed in many ways to Vamanadeva. But still he is considered a brahmana.
So, a brahmana, just like Shudra, Vaishya, Kshatriya brahmana, this is based on material, psychophysical nature. Now, of course, everybody in a proper spiritual society will be devotees. But the intrinsic quality of a brahmana is that the brahmana has faith in scripture and scripture teaches multi-level spirituality.
So, the brahmana may not necessarily have faith in devotion. So, we have Shukracharya having faith in the power of yajnas. He asked Bali Maharaj to do Vishwajit yajna by which he would be able to stay in power as the king of heavens.
So, he had faith in the power of sacrifice. But that was more of karmakanda level. That was not so much bhakti level.
So, Ajamil certainly had knowledge of the Supreme Lord. He had inclination towards bhakti. But he was not a serious practising bhakta.
He was not a serious sadhaka either. He was a brahmana doing brahmanical duty in which bhakti is also a small element. But then he was allured, just dragged away, dragged away.
So, now our eyes are like heat-seeking machines. Now, they’re looking for sensual heat and it’s peculiar. You know, we talk about, Krishna talks about dushpuren anale nature.
Krishna says that the lust burns like fire. But actually speaking, the peculiarity of lust as compared to an ordinary fire is that normally whenever some place becomes hot, for example, if there is a hot fire, what happens is we move away from it. Because it feels uncomfortable.
However, the heat of lust is such that the more we feel the heat, the more closer we move to it. We don’t move further away from the source of heat. Why? Because there is the illusion that by going closer, we will get pleasure.
You know, even in the movies, they also recognise that it is like a fire. So, movies, they have songs like saavan jo aag lagaye. So, they have that idea that this fire.
But their idea is that by gratifying the senses, the fire will get extinguished. However, the fire only blazes further. So, the fact that unfulfilled desire burns like a fire, that is universally accepted by materialists as well as spiritualists.
The fire of desire is something which is felt by everyone. But the solution that is proposed by materialists and spiritualists is entirely different. So, the materialists think that the fire of desire, when we indulge in it, then it will become satiated.
But actually, it won’t. It just blazes further away. Because when you put fuel in it, the fuel and fire, it goes further.
So, Ajahn Amell, initially he knew what he was doing was wrong. But actually, as he moved further, further, further, he got obsessed. So, Krishna describes the sequence of fall in 2.62 and 63.
You see, the mind is very treacherous. The mind is not just a liar, it is also a traitor. Now, liar is a person who just speaks lies.
But a traitor is a person who first attracts our trust and then betrays our trust. So, the mind is not just a liar, but it is also a traitor. So, how does the mind do this? Actually speaking, have any of you heard of a ventriloquist? Now, ventriloquist is some sort of artist who can project the voice.
So, for example, if I were a ventriloquist, I’m sitting here and speaking, but it would appear as if Jiyu Daya Prabhu is sitting there, he’s speaking. My voice will come from there. So, that is art, ventriloquism.
And a lot of in circus and movies, sometimes this is shown. So, what happens is, one person is speaking, but others think that somebody else is only speaking. So, this is how often dummies are made to speak.
When a dummy is moving his voice, there’s only a dummy, but the dummy is just moving his lips, but it appears as if the voice is coming from there. So, actually, the mind is an expert ventriloquist. What the mind does it? When the mind speaks, we think that it is I who am speaking.
And we accept ownership of the mind’s desires. They’re not our desires, they are the mind’s desires. So, let’s understand this.
These eight stages that Krishna talks about in the second chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, 2.62-63. Let’s see how the mind ventriloquises us, mind’s ventriloquism deludes us. So, this is first, it all begins with contemplation. So, when there is contemplation, then there is this attraction.
So, when we contemplate on the sense objects, the mind says, it’s nice, it’s nice. Then, the mind says, isn’t that nice? So, at this stage, the mind is speaking in second person. As the mind is here, I am here, isn’t that nice? We start thinking.
And then, then as we come to then there is there is first contemplation, then there is attraction, then there is obsession. Kamaha is a very strong desire, is obsession. So, when there is obsession, at that time, I want it.
So, what has happened is, at this stage, when we get obsessed by the desire, basically, it no longer remains the mind’s desire. It starts becoming like our desire. It comes like, I want it.
So, it’s not just somebody else proposing, but we start accepting the proposal. Like a salesperson comes along and tells, we want it. So, once the salesperson pursues us, then we start endeavouring to get it.
So, that’s what happened. Ajamil, he saw that prostitute and Shudra and Shudrani embracing and doing all sorts of things. So, then contemplation, attraction, then there is obsession.
After obsession, what happens? Kaamath krodho bhi jayate. So, there is, yes, there is frustration. Now, sometimes there is anger.
What is this anger at this stage? This anger is, who can stop me from enjoying? So, this is infuriation. The person becomes infuriated. Who can stop me from enjoying? And whatever rules are there, whatever people are there, whatever factors are there, that are stopping, there is rage.
There is anger. There is infuriation. And then after that, Drodha dhvati sammoha.
At that time, from that anger comes delusion. So, delusion means, one just gets confused. What is right? What is wrong? I don’t know.
And then, so at this stage, there is indecision. Indecision means, one doesn’t know what is right, what is wrong. But after that, then there is, sammohat tuti viddhamaha suti brahmashad buddhi nasho and buddhi nashad pranashyati.
So, then what happens is, from delusion comes oblivion. Oblivion means, forgetfulness. So, at this stage, at the stage of delusion, what I should do is, I am unclear.
But oblivion means, whatever good instruction that I have heard, from guru, sadhu, shastra, it’s like a, a delete button gets pressed on that. So, there is a delete button, everything gets wiped out. And then, when there is delusion, after that there is, suti brahmashad buddhi nasho.
So, after oblivion, there is perversion. Actually, one just loses one’s intelligence. And after perversion, there is pranashyati, there is destruction.
This is how, actually this chain of fall happens. And it all begins with a very simple thing. It’s just a, contemplation.
So, you know, sometimes we see a snowball. At the top of a mountain, a small piece of snow starts sliding down. When it starts sliding down, it is very small.
And if a person were there at the top of the mountain, that person could just, he just move the leg a little bit, that small piece of snow will crack apart and fall away. That will be the end of it. But as the snowball, as the snow starts rolling down the ground, it starts accumulating more and more and more snow.
And as it’s going down, down, down, down, down, by the time it comes to the bottom of the hill, it’s become a giant snowball. And, if a person comes across it, that person can get flattened completely. So, it is a snow, same snowball, that could have been crushed by a person at the top of the mountain, top of the hill.
When it comes down, it crushes the person. So, at the stage of dhyayato, things are like that tiny piece of snow that is moving down. But by the level of buddhinashad, it has become a giant snowball that will crush a person.
So, the earlier a person can avoid, the better it is. The earlier we break the snowball, it is easier to break it. The later, the more difficult it is.
So, when, when this world tempts us with pleasure, then it is critical for us to remember that this pleasure is not meant to give us pleasure. The pleasure is meant to trap us. This is something which is so important to remember.
The pleasure is not meant to give us pleasure. The pleasure is meant to put us in prison. The pleasure is meant to trap us.
Just like when there is a bait. A bait is there at the end of a fishing hook. And that bait is not meant to give food to the fish.
Isn’t it? That bait is meant to trap the fish. Or if there is a mouse trap with some cheese in it. The cheese is there.
But the purpose of the cheese is not to give food to the mouse. The purpose of the cheese is to trap the mouse. Similarly, the purpose of the pleasures of this world is not to actually give us pleasure, but it is to trap us.
So, it is by Shastra, by scripture that we see the hook, the invisible hook behind the bait. If we don’t have scripture, then all that we see is just the bait. And we go catch it and we get caught.
So, it is said that whatever catches our attention, catches us. Whatever catches our attention, catches us. So, wherever we give our attention, our whole consciousness goes over there.
And where our consciousness goes, we go over there and then we get trapped. So, if Krishna catches our attention, then we will get caught by Krishna. That is auspicious.
But if we get caught by the sense objects, then they will catch us. If our attention is caught by the sense objects, then we get caught. So, whatever catches our attention, catches us.
It’s a very important sutra to remember. And that’s why we have to be attentive about what we are giving our attention to. We have to be conscious of our consciousness.
We have to be conscious, what am I being conscious of? So, what happened was Ajamil, he was in the instil life of virtue, but that image caught him, got his attention and then after that, that image caught him. Now, we can see how Ajamil, he lived in a society where the kind of activity that he was doing was recognised as debauchery. Debauchery means immorality.
It was known to be sinful, it was known to be immoral and yet he got dragged away. So, when he started courting that society girl, at that time, his wife, his parents, they all gave him good advice. They all tried to counsel him.
He was a Brahmana, esteemed member of the society. Other people tried to give him good advice, but nothing worked. Nothing worked.
And as we discussed, when maya attacks, sarva-dharman parityajya mayam ekam sharanam vraja that’s what happens. What happens is, the person gets so caught, that person forgets all dharma. A dharma of a husband to the wife, dharma of a son to the parents, the dharma of a Brahmana to society, everything is forgotten.
You just surrender to maya. Why? Because when we let maya in, maya catches us. So, as I said, whatever catches our attention, catches us.
So, actually this indicates how cautious we need to be in our practise of spiritual life. Sometimes you may feel that, oh actually, I don’t know why Ajayawal fell away. One scene he saw, I have seen so many scenes, nothing happens.
There are so many scenes which we see on the roads. And sometimes we see in movies, on television, on the computer. You know, nothing happens to me.
So, does that mean that we are more sense-controlled than Ajayamal? No. Actually, it is not that we are more sense-controlled than Ajayamal. It is that we are more desensitised than Ajayamal.
What does desensitised mean? Actually, when a cloth is white, now one black spot immediately shines out on it. But when the cloth is filled with hundreds of black spots, one more black spot doesn’t make any difference. So, what has happened is that, actually speaking, we have exposed ourselves to so much garbage that when more garbage comes along, it doesn’t seem to make any visible difference, in a tangible difference.
However, that doesn’t mean that it is not making a difference. Every single garbage, every single particle of garbage that we are exposing ourselves to, that is going to be lodged in our mind. And we will have to do the work of purifying it.
It’s not going to go away. So, even if there is no immediate fall that happens, that what happens is that garbage is going to be there in the mind and we will have to clean it. Now, suppose a maha-cleaning has to be done.
We know that after cleaning this hall, at least two hours for me to clean everything. And if before that, I spend two hours bringing dirt into the room, then I’ll have to spend so much more effort. So, if we want to become pure-hearted, all this garbage that is there in the mind, we have to remove it.
And even if it seems sometimes that, okay, some exposure is there, nothing is happening by that. But at the very least, what is happening is our mind is getting more contaminated. And we will have a long, hard work of decontaminating it in the future.
And also another thing that is there is that there are multiple factors involved in how we get agitated. See, our karmic reactions come to us in many ways. One is that we face problems externally.
But sometimes the karmic reaction comes also as agitation internally. See, when there is a still pond, the still pond can become agitated in two ways. One is that somebody throws a stone from outside.
Another is that there is sometimes this fermentation happens, something happens at the bottom of the lake. The bubbles start coming. So both ways, the calm of the storm can get agitated, calm of the pond can get agitated.
So like that, sometimes we’ll find that we become agitated because of external provocations. And sometimes we get agitated even when there are no external provocations. Sometimes, suddenly something seems to come out from the mind deep.
We start getting agitated. So when the external provocation comes, that means what is happening? The sense objects are coming to us. But when the internal provocations come, then we go to the sense objects.
But either way, there is trouble. So even if there is no immediate trouble that happens when we get exposed to such things, what is happening is those impressions are going deep inside and they may come up at any time. And when they come up, they will agitate us.
That’s why we shouldn’t think that just because I’m getting exposed and nothing is happening, nothing is happening at tangible level, that means nothing is happening. Of course, in our culture, we can say that we cannot avoid exposure to provocative images. Yes, that is true.
But there is difference in the level of exposure. That means that when we’re walking along the road, we can’t walk along with closed eyes. But one glance, that is fine.
We just can’t avoid it. But there are two glances, three glances, four glances. Then that is not just for the sake of looking where we are going.
That is for the sake of looking where we should not be going. So what happens is, often what starts off as a glance, that becomes a stare. And when it becomes a stare, then we get into the glare of Maya.
When we stare at the sense object, Maya glares at us. And then Maya glares and that is very inauspicious. So actually speaking, as much as possible, we can avoid.
We can’t avoid completely, but we can certainly avoid unnecessary provocation. So what Ajamil pastime illustrates at the first level, the first hour is deprogrammed. How? No, no, no.
It can completely desensitise a person. The person just loses all sense of spirituality, all sense of morality, all sense of integrity, all sense of dignity also. For a Brahmana, what does Ajamil do later on? He starts robbing people, plundering people, to earn a living.
For a Brahmana to do something like that, he’s lost all sense of dignity. Dignity and integrity. Leave alone morality and spirituality.
Integrity means, see, dignity means how society respects us. Integrity means how we respect ourselves. To fall down in the eyes of the world is not as bad as to fall down in our own eyes.
Now we want to be something. We have certain values that we want to hold sacred. But how lust can blind a person that one loses one’s spirituality, one loses one’s morality, one loses one’s integrity, one loses one’s dignity.
Everything one loses. That’s how lust completely blinds a person. So Ajamil actually became a reprobate.
So that’s how, that’s the terrible power of lust. And actually it is, in many ways, it is safe to be afraid. It is safe to err on the side of caution with respect to dealing with lust.
Actually Prabhupada would say my only regret is my disciples are not sufficiently afraid of maya. So maya can just drag a person down. And this kind of story of Ajamil, we may say that this is an ancient story.
Yes, Ajamil itself is an ancient story. But the idea, but the basic principle of men getting caught and pulled down through temptations of lust is something which is pervasive. You know, nowadays there is this whole porn industry.
So the whole pornographic industry, actually, you know, it is so widespread. I wrote an article about this when the gang rape was there. So actually this is so widespread that the revenue, that the earnings from the porn industry is more in America itself is more than the earnings from football, baseball and basketball, all three combined together.
And these three are among the world’s highest paying sports. So all the franchises for football, basketball, baseball, their wealth combined together is less than the revenue that people make through pornography. And if so much money is being made, that means so much money is being spent.
The people who are spending so much money for this, imagine how addicted they must be. And you know, the danger of pornography as compared to other things, pornographic addiction, as compared to other forms of addiction, is that for other forms of addiction, one has to go, alcoholic has to go to alcoholic. Somebody has to go to a drug dealer who is addicted to drugs.
But with respect to this, because it’s not a physical object, it can come right into our houses, right into our hostels, right into our rooms. In fact, through the internet, the sales of the whole thing are at the maximum. So in one sense, it is the most dangerous of all addictions.
Why? Because we are vulnerable to it everywhere. We don’t have to go out and search for it. Actually, for all other forms of addiction, generally, we will have to go out and search for it.
But actually, with respect to this form of exposure, actually, we have to often spend time, energy, and money to avoid it. Many times people have to have some… People don’t want to be addicted to these things, but they get addicted. Then they have to have internet filters that costs money, that costs time, it costs energy.
So, actually speaking, as I said, other addictions, they require us to spend time, energy, and money to get them. Often in this case, often we have to spend time, energy, and money to avoid them. So it is very dangerous.
And we have to be extremely cautious. And whatever precautions are required, we take that to avoid getting trapped in this. so what is what Ajamil Fastan is talking about, it is not just that specific form of a Brahmana getting degraded to a low class person.
That may have happened long ago. But that basic principle of the male attraction to the female form being used to trap people that is very much alive today. And in fact, we could say it is more alive than ever before in human history.
So we have to be extremely careful. And after that, there is, first is reprobate, second is, R is rescue. So we see that actually Ajamil was somehow degraded, but how was he rescued? He was rescued by the power of the holy name.
So no matter how deeply we fall, Krishna can rescue us from any and every situation. So Krishna manifested as the holy name, as Narayan, at the moment of his greatest need. So the Bhagavata assures us that whatever bhakti we perform, it is never lost.
Even little bhakti can save us from great danger. So for Ajamil, he had done some little bhakti as a Brahmana. And then when he named his son as Narayan, just by uttering the name Narayan, he did some bhakti.
And both of that helped him at the moment of his greatest danger. The Yamadutas were coming to drag him away to his due hellish punishments. At that time, he just unconsciously uttered the name Narayan.
So our Acharyas describe that the thoughtfulness of Ajamil was very interesting. He was not chanting offensively in the sense that he was not thinking, oh, I’m chanting Narayan, that will counter my sinful reaction. So chanting was not offensive.
But when we initially saw the Yamadutas, he was frightened. And normally speaking, at the times of great fear, our mind naturally grows to that to which we are the most attached. That in which we have experienced pleasure, in which we have experienced comfort, in which we experience shelter.
So he was very attached to his child. And that’s why Narayan he called out. Now, when he called out Narayan, his intention was to call out to his own son.
But as he called out the word Narayan, in his mind, he thought, what is this child going to do? What is this child Narayan going to do? As he uttered the word Narayan, his mind also went back to the Lord Narayan, whom he had worshipped in his childhood. And then Rameshwara was appeared. And they rescued him.
Now, in our case, it may not be so dramatic. We hope that it is not so dramatic. We don’t have to see the Yamadutas, actually speaking.
You know, we had a diorama in one temple. And there is a display of Yamadutas. If you don’t believe them, you will meet them.
So, actually speaking, there are realities in this world, which are not at all pleasant. And it’s best that we avoid them. But actually speaking, for us also, the holy name can rescue us.
That means when there is a temptation, when we feel agitated, when we feel troubled, at that time, uttering the holy name can calm us down. For us, it may not happen so dramatically. It may not happen that the Yamadutas come and they rescue us.
But actually, the end result can be equally consequential. When temptations come, they can drag us down. At the moment of temptation, if we call out the name of Krishna, that calling out the name of Krishna can save us.
Now, how does the calling out of the name of Krishna save us? It happens at multiple levels. See, Srila Prabhupada explains that even the mechanical chanting of the holy names can protect us from maya. Why? Of course, it cannot permanently protect us from maya.
Even the mechanical chanting, just chant the Hare Krishna mantra. What happens is that just gives the mind some alternative object for thought. So when the mind is caught in the thought of the temptations, at that time, the more we think, the deeper we sink into the temptations.
But if you just start chanting, at that time, the mind gets an alternative object for thought. And just that itself checks our getting dragged down in temptation. And because this is not just any ordinary alternative object of thought, this is actually the Supreme Lord.
So the connection with the Supreme Lord lifts us up also. So that’s how, actually, whenever we feel agitated, whenever we feel troubled, what we need to do is, we need to take shelter of Krishna, chant the holiness. So there are, this has to, you know, when there are firefighters, they develop reflex actions.
Reflex action means, reflex action means some action that happens reflexively. So there are reflexive actions and there is a reflective action. Reflective action means the action which happens after thoughtful contemplation.
And reflexive action is that which happens instinctively, by habit. So for example, if I’m sitting here, suddenly I feel heat on the backside. Maybe there is fire, maybe there’s something biting me.
So I don’t have to think for this. So like that, as devotees, you know, we have to develop our spiritual reflexes. That means when the temptations come, immediately we move away from it.
We move away from it. So however, that reflexive action will come only after there is reflective action. Reflective action means, I think.
So I philosophically do reflection. I contemplate and understand, convince myself that this is going to, this pleasure is just a drag. It is going to drag me down.
Actually, when the scriptures tell, यही संस्परिष्य जान धोगा दक्खयो नयेवते When the scriptures tell, sense gratification leads to misery. Now all of us secretly disbelieve it. Now what do we do? Secretly disbelieve it.
How is that possible? Oh, sense gratification leads to pleasure. Where is the misery in it? So actually, we may even quote the verse. I’m not talking we in a charitable sense to refer to all of you.
I’m talking about myself also. Now we may quote the verse. यही संस्परिष्य जान धोगा दक्खयो नयेवते But internally, we have too much faith in Maya.
We have too much faith in Maya. We think that Krishna is good. Maya is also not bad, you know.
I should not be fanatical, you know. Little Krishna, little Maya is also okay. Then I’ll be balanced.
So actually, that is not a balance. We have our material propensity. Then we can act according to our material propensity.
But when it comes to lust, anger, greed, envy, pride and illusion, actually, we cannot really be balanced in it. It’s very difficult. There are dharmic limits, definitely.
But in general, if a person is going to be married before the marriage, then it’s very dangerous to get involved in it. So the balance is actually the zero state before that. So what happens is we secretly disbelieve the scriptures and the scriptures tell us that sense gratification leads to misery.
So this private disbelief has to be beaten down by private contemplation. You know, I have to contemplate. Is it really true that sense gratification leads to misery? Let me look back at my own experiences.
All of us have had experiences of how sense gratification, when you do it, initially there is pleasure. But after that, there is frustration. There’s frustration because there is so little pleasure.
You do so much effort and the pleasure is so little and it ends so soon. After that, there’s frustration because of guilt. Why did I do that? I should not have done that.
And there is frustration again because the desire has become stronger. It keeps tempting us. So there is frustration at three levels.
First, the frustration is the pleasure was so little. Then there is frustration because of guilt. Why did I do the same thing? Why did I fall down like that? And then there is a further frustration.
Why are these desires coming again and again and again? So actually, simply there is suffering. But then we have to do private contemplation, not contemplation of the sense objects, not contemplation of sense gratification, contemplation on the consequences of sense gratification. So by that, we can beat down our private disbelief so that internally we are convinced that sense gratification needs to be so.
And we shouldn’t think that this conviction one time if we get it, it will be there all the time. This is a battle which we have to fight every day. So every day we have to reinforce our conviction.
This leads to suffering. This is not a source of pleasure. So then when Krishna comes to rescue us, we will want to be rescued.
See, Maya is so cunning that when we are offered a lifeline, we think that the lifeline is a handcuff. You know what a handcuff is? Something which is to arrest, to limit. Lifeline is to save.
So when Krishna is offering us the holy name, when Krishna is offering us bhakti yoga, that is a lifeline. When we are caught in the material existence, we are dragged down by our material desires, that is actually when Krishna offers us bhakti, that is a lifeline. But Maya can so distort our intelligence that the lifeline appears to be like a handcuff.
Why do I have to chant? Why do I have to practise all these rules and regulations? Why do I have to do all this? It can be completely distorted. So then we are drowning and the lifeline is offered, we think it’s a handcuff, we don’t take it. We sink further.
That’s why we have to, when Krishna is ready to rescue us, but are we ready to be rescued? Krishna wants to help us, but do we want to help ourselves? That is the… So Ajayamil, throughout his life, he was not ready to be a helper. But towards the end, when he saw the Yamunikar, then he realised, I need help. And then he took it.
And then the last part was reformation. So reformation is, Ajayamil was rescued at the time of great danger, but afterwards, he showed his sincerity. That is by reforming himself.
You know, he left the sinful life and then he practised serious sadhana vakti. And that’s how he became reformed. And then, after 12 years of practise, and then you have 88, almost, I’d say several years of practise, basically.
After several years of practise, then the Vishuddhas came and then they took him back to Godhead. So reformation is something which has to be done by conscious choice. Every time there is temptation, I say no to it.
That’s how I reform myself. So sometimes we feel discouraged. Again and again, I’m going off track.
But rather than becoming discouraged, we should become determined. But the mind may stray away, but let it not stay away. The mind may stray away.
We can’t avoid the straying away of the mind. The mind may stray away, but let it not stay away. Krishna says this in Bhagavad Gita, yato yato nishchalati manas chanchalam astiram yata sthato niyam yaitat atmanye vabhasham nayet yato yato, wherever and whenever.
Yato yato, Krishna uses twice. So that refers to wherever and whenever. So the mind may wander away when I’m in the temple.
When I’m supposed to be thinking of Krishna, I’m thinking of something else. I’m right in front of deities, but I’m thinking of something else. Wherever, whenever.
In the early morning, in such a sattvic atmosphere, still the mind goes in the nonsense. Wherever and whenever the mind wanders, Krishna says bring it back. So let the mind may stray away, but let it not stay away.
The straying away, we can’t stop. We say it’s straying away, we can bring it back under it. So we shouldn’t, when we talk about all these high standards, sometimes we feel that I’m so fallen that I’m not able to practise bhakti.
That is also a trap of mine. The feeling that I’m very fallen, what happens is that makes us not want to fight only. And if we don’t fight, how can we win? Imagine there are two warriors who are coming to fight.
And suppose there are two boxers fighting. And suddenly one of the boxers, he just brings a big blow. And the other person has fallen down.
Now, at that person, at that time when the boxer has fallen down, what should the boxer do? Actually, he’s taken a shock. So look around, maybe look at his fans, look at his coach. Come on, get up, you can fight.
He looks at the, now if we imagine, if he just asks the other boxer only, would he be able to defeat you? No. So what happens is, first the mind only locks us down. And then we ask the mind only, will I be able to overcome the condition? Mind is a nailer, just shut up.
So when we are locked down, at that time we shouldn’t consult the mind. We should consult scripture. We should consult devotees.
We should consult guru. We should consult Krishna in the heart. Then we will become encouraged.
So it’s possible that we may stray away, but we shouldn’t stay away. When we stray away, if we think, oh, this is just the way I am. This is the way I’m going to live.
I can never bring the mind under control. Then we will stay away. But Krishna tells, Krishna tells, Krishna accepts the fact the mind will land there.
But Krishna says, if the mind strays away, bring it back. Don’t let it stay. So actually speaking, when an aeroplane flies, actually 90% of the time, the aeroplane is off course.
If the aeroplane is coming from Calcutta to Mumbai, or Calcutta to Pune, I just came a few days ago. So 90% of the time, the aeroplane is off course. Why? Because in the atmosphere, the aeroplane cannot go in a straight line.
There are clouds, there are atmospheric disturbances, there are winds. So by its very nature, the aeroplane goes off course. It goes off course.
Then if it is 90% of the time off course, then how does the aeroplane reach the destination? That is because the pilot vigilantly brings the aeroplane back on course. Goes off course, brings it back off course. Goes off course, brings it back on course.
And that’s how the pilot reaches the destination. So now, no matter how powerful the technology, no technology can actually counter all the effects of the atmosphere. So we can’t expect that the plane will be 100% of the time on course.
But what we can do is, when it goes off course, we can bring it back. The same with ourselves. When we are practising spiritual life, we cannot expect that all the time I will be on the straight course to Krishna.
At least not in our consciousness. We go this way. Then as soon as you become aware, oh, I’ve gone off course, bring us back on course.
I’ve gone off course, bring us back on course. So it is through this process, going off course, coming on course. Going off course, coming on course.
That’s how we make spiritual life better. So that’s why, even if the mind goes in the wrong directions, we shouldn’t think, oh, the mind has gone in the wrong direction, that means I also have to go in the wrong direction. That means this is the way I am only.
And let me just go and do everything. So the mind may go in the wrong direction, but we understand this is the nature of the mind. So let me bring it back.
Let me bring it back. And when we do it this way, then we will stay on track. We will make spiritual advancement.
So the reformation is a matter of continuous conscious cultivation. Reformation is a matter of continuous conscious cultivation. That means continuously and consciously.
Mind goes off, bring it back. Goes off, bring it back. Goes off, bring it back.
And this way we stay on our journey to Krishna. So by the process of bhakti yoga, no matter how much we have fallen, that doesn’t matter. Actually, no matter how deep we have fallen, we can rise by the power of bhakti.
Because bhakti is extremely powerful. In fact, bhakti is definitely much more powerful than any anartha. So we just have to access that power.
When we access that power, we are going to become free from the anarthas. So I’ll conclude with one anecdote from nature. So actually, when elephants are trapped and trained, they are often bred.
And when a baby elephant is born, a baby elephant is tied by a shackle to a pole. And the baby elephant pulls and pulls and pulls. But the baby elephant doesn’t have much train.
And when the baby elephant pulls, the shackle simply hurts the leg. And the leg starts bleeding. And after some time, the baby elephant gives up.
What happens is, baby elephant has experienced so many times, I have pulled and pulled. And every time I have pulled, I simply got hurt. So therefore, there’s no use of pulling.
But as the elephant is growing, growing, growing, the same elephant when he goes in the jungle, same elephant goes actually and there are brute trees. He’s carrying whole trees. So the same elephant comes back to the shed.
At that time, the shackle is put around the elephant. What happens? Stop, stop. Now the shackle is only tied to a pole.
The elephant can just uproot the whole pole entirely. But because of past pain and past failures, the elephant has stopped fighting. And that is the cause that it stays trapped.
So what has happened with us also, we, in the initial stages of our bhakti, we are, even sometimes if we are morally inclined, before we come to bhakti also, we try to fight with the temptations. And what happens when we try to fight? We only get beaten up. When we try to resist, we feel that anyway, after resisting also, I’m going to follow.
So why resist? So that’s how we stop resisting. But every time that, every day that we’re chanting Hare Krishna, every day that we’re practising spiritual life, we are, in a sense, nourishing ourselves spiritually. And we are becoming stronger and stronger.
So, when the shackle is put around us, when the pash of asha catches us, at that time, you don’t think, now I’m trapped. We can break free. So rather than losing hope in Krishna’s power, we should lose hope in maya’s power.
What does hope in maya’s power mean? Hope that maya will sometime make me happy. Maya will never make us happy. So Krishna, on the other hand, will surely make us free.
And he will make us happy. So that way, Vishwanath Chakrakar says, in the purport, I mean, our Acharya described in the purport of vihaya kaman yaha sarvan kumam sharati nispruha that vihaya kaman, which means free from material desires. So he says, it is very important for a sadhaka to lose faith in material desires.
Generally, we talk about gaining faith in Krishna. But he also says, you have to lose faith in material desires. What does that mean? Material desires will come.
But when I lose faith in them, that means I don’t take them very seriously. We shouldn’t expect that just because I have become a devotee, the mind will not come up with material desires. Because the mind is basically maya’s internal advertising agent.
The mind is maya’s internal advertising agent. Now, what happens is, there are so many advertisements outside, if you go on the roads. Just because I have become a devotee, the advertising agencies are not going to stop advertising.
They will keep advertising. But when my values change, when I become a devotee, then I don’t just gawk at the advertisements with my mouth open and wind up dreaming. I don’t even look at them, I just go ahead.
So, what has happened is, the same advertisements are there. But now, I have lost faith in the advertisement. It’s not going to make me happy.
These are just a bunch of lies. It’s meant to. I just fooled them.
It said there are lies, there are bigger lies, and there are advertisements. So, what happens is, the advertisements continue, but we lose faith in them. So, similarly, what happens is, the mind will continue to do its advertising business.
The mind will keep advertising what it desires, even when we become devotees. We can’t expect the mind to change its nature overnight. But we should lose faith.
This is not going to make me happy. I tried this many, many times in this life, many times in my previous lives. It has never made me happy.
Just as we lose faith in the external advertising agents, similarly, we should lose faith in the internal advertising agent. And then we can be steady. But instead, if you lose faith in Krishna, if you lose hope in the process of devotional service, then we will stay forever.
But by cultivating our faith in Krishna, and by losing our faith in the mind, then we can make steady advancement, and we can return back to Krishna. So, I’ll summarise, and then you can have question answers. So, I talked about three main points, reprobate, rescue, and reformation.
So, reprobate, I talked about how good times test us, sorry, bad times test us, and good times also test us. So, when pleasure comes, if the pleasures of this world are not meant to give us pleasure, they are meant to trap us. There is an invisible bait behind it.
And I discussed how the mind traps us by making us identify with its desires. It’s like a ventriloquist. And so, we need to be aware.
We need to actually disbelieve. When we disbelieve the scriptures, the scriptures tell us that there is sense gratification leads to misery. We have to battle that disbelief.
So, then we discussed about, we discussed this in the part of rescue. So, no matter how much we have fallen, Krishna can rescue us. And Krishna can take us out, just as he rescued Ajami.
But, we should want to be rescued. We should not mistake the lifeline to be a handcuff. We should not think the rules are restricting us.
The rules are protecting us. The rules are not restricting us, they are protecting us. And lastly, we discussed about reformation.
Reformation is a matter of conscious, constant cultivation. So, just as the mind may stray away, but let it not stay. And a paraplane will go off course, but bring it back on course.
And this way, instead of losing hope that I will get reformed, we should lose hope in how long will I continue with this material? Lose faith in the material desires, just as we lose faith in the external advertising agencies. And then we can march ahead individually. We have some questions.
The mic also, if some of you want to ask questions, you can ask. Thank you, Mr. Prabhuji. Thank you very much for a wonderful class.
My question was about the Vyayata Vishayan, Mr. Prabhuji. The cycle. Sometimes we see that, suppose in case of a love failure, a person is rejected in love or he is dumped.
But then, if he is a sadist, then he reaches the stage of Buddha Nash. His memory, he has reached the oblivion. But sometimes some people, they plan very nicely to take revenge.
They plan everything so nicely, like for example, using sharp ice to kill, that there will be no evidence of the weapon which was used for killing. This requires a lot of intelligence. So in this case, how can we say that oblivion led to loss of intelligence? Because intelligence is used anyway.
Yes. Sometimes, people are frustrated in their love also, they may be frustrated in their desire, lusty desires. They may use intelligence to take revenge.
So how can we say that intelligence is lost? Actually, the Acharyas describe that there is material intelligence and there is spiritual intelligence. Material intelligence is what we get by our own karma. It’s a part of the body.
So, that intelligence cannot liberate us from material existence. That’s why, in the third Kantakshin with Bhagavatam, actually it is said that material intelligence comes from the mode of passion. And it is said the mind comes from the mode of goodness.
Why? Because goodness is connected with maintenance. So the mind maintains our material existence. Whereas, the material intelligence what is passion does creation.
So the intelligence, the material intelligence creates new plans for getting material enjoyment. So the material intelligence doesn’t rescue us from material existence. Actually, it traps us.
So, when Krishna talks about contemplation destroying intelligence, he is not talking about material intelligence getting destroyed. You know, people may be materially very intelligent. There are many, many, there are philosophers, there are scientists who are materially very intelligent.
But when it comes to sense control, they just drag down by their desires. So here Krishna is talking about spiritual intelligence. Spiritual intelligence is the capacity to discriminate between material and spiritual, between temporary and eternal, between right and wrong.
So it is that intelligence that is destroyed. Actually, for sense gratification also, person requires intelligence. But that intelligence is material intelligence.
And that intelligence sometimes goes into a hyperactive mode. Sometimes people, people maybe say they, they want to surf some sites on the net, and then they very intelligently delete all traces of what they have surfed. That requires intelligence.
But Swaja Prabhupada writes in a letter that we are meant to use our intelligence to control our enjoying mentality, but we are used to enjoying intelligently. So he’s referring here to material intelligence. So material intelligence we use to cover our tracks after we enjoy.
So on the other hand, spiritual intelligence ensures that we don’t go on those tracks. So we also chant the holy name. And what is the difference between our chanting and Ajaman’s chanting of the holy names? Yes, our chanting is also affected.
But the scriptures give us examples. They give us dramatic examples to illustrate the extraordinary power of the holy name. So that extraordinary power can sometimes be manifested in one dramatic incident as in the case of Ajamil.
And that same extraordinary power can be manifested for others over a period of time. The end result is the same. So by our, now it is not that Ajamil’s one chanting of the holy name purified his enjoyment.
Actually, what happened at that time was he was saved from hellish suffering. But afterwards, he chose to reform himself. So at that time, he seriously chanted the holy names.
So both Shukdev Goswami and the Prabhupada, at the conclusion of the past time say, the mood of a devotee is, that is illustrated by both of them. It says, if Ajamil by chanting once the name of the Lord unconsciously got so much benefit, then if we chant consciously throughout our life 16 rounds, will we not get the same benefit? Surely we will. So what should our mood be is that Krishna is God.
Krishna is merciful. But we don’t demand his mercy. Sculptures make you dramatic examples of how in certain cases, he may exhibit his mercy in extraordinary ways.
And those extraordinary examples of mercy, how does a devotee respond to them? The devotee doesn’t demand that I should also get that extraordinary mercy. The devotee’s mood is that there is such extraordinary displays of mercy of the Lord reinforces the devotee’s faith in the ordinary process of devotee’s life. That is, if the Lord can exhibit so much mercy, then I must be chilled with it.
So devotee doesn’t demand that I will also do like that. I also should get that kind of mercy. What the devotee says is, Lord is so merciful, how can I give up such mercy? Uddhava says that when he’s remembering Lord Krishna’s mercy, so he’s saying that actually how merciful is Krishna that even Putana who came to kill him, he delivered her.
How can I give such a service to such a Lord? He doesn’t think, if I also go and try to kill Krishna, Krishna will deliver me also. That is a completely non-devotional move. The devotee’s mood is, through all the pastimes of Krishna, we want to reinforce our devotional attitude.
So our goal ultimately is not just to be saved from sins. Our goal is to love Krishna. It’s very important to understand.
Our goal is not just to be saved from sins. Our goal is to love Krishna. And by seeing this extraordinary manifestation of Krishna’s mercy, our desire to love Krishna should increase.
That’s the right attitude in taking these pastimes. So our chanting of the holy names is also effective. And the effect we will see gradually.
But we chant the holy names not just because we want the effect. We chant the holy names because we want to express our love for Krishna. And as per Krishna’s will, in his plan, in his time, he will also give us extraordinary mercy and purify our heart and manifest pure love for him over there.
The person does a misdeed which is really shameful and doesn’t tell his guru about this because it may result in loss of trust and he will not be able to match his match his eyes with his guru. What should he do? Could he correct it? Can’t he correct it without telling guru? This will depend on time, place, circumstances. Generally, we should not be ashamed of revealing whatever problems we have to a guru because the guru is not there to punish us.
The guru is there to help us. It is just like a person has a disease and the person thinks, how can I tell about the disease to my doctor? Well, if you don’t tell about the disease to doctor, how will the doctor help us? How will doctor cure us? So we should be sure that it is not just confessing or not confessing that is going to cure us. It is the medicine that is going to cure us.
But the confessing helps us to understand in what way we need to take the treatment. Sometimes we may need a more intense dose. Sometimes we may need to change our services, change our situation if again and again, we are falling prey to the same thing.
So in general, we shouldn’t be wanting to hide things from the spiritual master just because of the considerations of shame. We should be considering, how best can I be cured? Because just by concealing it, it is not likely that that anartha is going to go away. Anartha is still there and it is going to come again.
So the important point is not just confessing or not confessing. The important point is that we should stay on track to be cured. And often that is best done when the patient tells the doctor the extent of the disease.
How can we control our mind so that we don’t get agitated at our level? Generally speaking, all of us have to become observers of our mind. And we have to find out what all are our provocative stimuli. And we should guard ourselves from those stimuli as much as possible.
As I said, clear it out, keep it out, turn away from it. Now we find out first of all, what are our provocative stimuli? What are the things that provoke me? Then, okay, if I have some images, some books, some sites, clear it out on my computer, clear it out. Clear it out, keep it out.
And when we can’t do that, whenever it breaks, let’s go turn away from it. But it all begins with, first of all, finding out what agitates our mind. So we find out what are our provocative stimuli and then we make a plan how we can stay away from those stimuli.
How we can either get rid of those stimuli or stay away from those stimuli. And then to the extent we don’t give provocative stimuli to the mind, that extent the mind will lose its provocative energy. And the mind will calm down, calm down.
It will happen gradually. So we have to become careful observers. What is it that provokes us and how can we keep away from it? Then the mind will not become so agitated.
As you said that we need contemplation on a daily basis. It is not that by doing contemplation, we are contemplating on sense objects also. Yes, that’s why when we contemplate, we don’t contemplate specifically on those aspects which provoke us.
So I was giving a class about this Mohini Murthy pastime. So it’s telling that Mohini Murthy, when Lord appeared in Mohini Murthy, she was devastatingly beautiful. She was devastatingly beautiful.
So I said, because we don’t want to be devastated, so I’ll skip the description of the beauty and I’ll describe the devastation. So what happens is, we have to be careful what we contemplate on. So in general, it’s not that we have to contemplate on, when you say contemplate on the consequences of sense gratification, it’s not that we have to think, what did I do and what happened at that time? Actually speaking, we contemplate on scripture primarily.
We memorise some verses, we talk about nature of sense pleasure, and we repeat those verses. So actually speaking, if we are in the mode of passion, then what happens is, see whenever we engage in sense gratification, that has led to trouble. But when we are in passion, we will just remember the initial pleasure and forget the eventual trouble.
When we are in goodness, only when we are in goodness, we can see that the pleasure was so little and the trouble was so great. That’s why when we say contemplate, it’s not contemplating on our past experiences. It’s primarily contemplating on scripture.
Scriptural verses, scriptural points, and meditating on them, remembering them. And then, sometimes we can, to reinforce that conviction, we can think of our past experiences also. But it’s not so much experiences that we contemplate on.
The Delhi repish should be hanged or should be given Hare Krishna mantra. In general, in general, the capital punishment is not shied away in Vedic culture. If people are sinful, especially if they are murderers, then capital punishment can be given to them.
So, the Brahman Samhita talks about Atataina. Atataina is those who are aggressors. And all the aggressors are those who abduct a woman, especially a wife.
And such people can be killed and there is no sinful reaction to them. At the same time, it is not that all the scriptural rules can be directly applied in this situation. There are time, place, circumstances, considerations.
So, they should be given the means to become purified. But that doesn’t mean that the punishment shouldn’t be given. Punishment is also required for reformation.
So, if they are ready to take the Hare Krishna mantra, that is good. But punishment is required so that people also recognise the consequences of wrongdoing. So, that means, there are two different aspects to it.
One is the severity of the punishment and the method of reformation and the means of reformation. So, in today’s judicial system, there is no method for reformation that is given. There is only punishment that is given.
So, the extent of the punishment that will vary according to time, place, circumstances. Certainly, those who are brutally raping like this, they deserve very severe punishment. Because there’s something which is atrocious, very abominable.
So, the specific, it will have, we will require a proper Kshatriya body to be guided by Brahmanas to actually decide it. We can’t just make absolute statements about these things. But also, along with punishment, method of reformation should be given at least to those who are open to reformation.
Can we conclude now, boy? Okay, okay, fine. So, this is, we will have remaining questions later on. Thank you very much.
Hare Krishna, I’m sure you would never want to conclude, but because this is material world, there is a consideration of time. Because we need to vacate this place