SB 01.05.31 – Cultivate knowledge to stimulate devotion

Transcript

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march steadily in our spiritual life back to him vasudeva that by this the supreme lord vasudeva one can know him one can understand even his energy his influence and thereby one can return to the supreme lord so here narada muni or narada boy narada muni is telling vasudeva about his experience of how he acquired spiritual knowledge and he’s describing the glory of that spiritual knowledge so that it can be shared with others by vasudeva as it was shared with narada muni by his teachers so normally it is devotion that takes us back to krishna why is it here said that it is knowledge that by this knowledge you will go back to krishna because without some basic knowledge how can there be devotion how can we love someone about whom we know nothing there has to be some knowledge at least and in fact with respect to krishna when we understand his glory his majesty his beauty he is then our love becomes strong and steady of course it is devotion which will take us back to krishna but jeeva swami talks in his bhakti samarasindhu’s commentary durgam sangamani how there is bhakti gyana there is knowledge that is favorable for devotion and that knowledge is based on an understanding of the intimacy and the intensity of the relationship between the soul and the lord and that knowledge fuels kindles strength intensifies our desire for having that loving relationship with krishna when we understand how we are meant for eternal love and when we see how other souls are relishing that life of eternal love then we feel inspired yes this is what i want to do and through the philosophy we understand how love for krishna is the supreme fulfillment of all our various aspirations for love understanding that also helps us to maximize our efforts to love krishna to rather not to redirect our love from worldly things towards krishna so this principle of knowledge acting as a supportive for the evolution of devotion is also applicable to our chanting when we understand more and more the glories of the holy name and we understand more and more the glory of the person whose name is so wonderfully powerfully uniquely holy when we understand who is the person we are calling for by the holy name and how that person hears every single call and how that person is will eventually respond in the best possible way for our good when we understand when we through scripture understand all this then we feel inspired very strongly to continue serving krishna through hearing and we continue on enthusiastically on the spiritual path so whenever we feel ourselves de-energized during our chanting it is good to remember the various inspiring thoughts in brief nuggets of wisdom which we can memorize and recollect sometimes shlokas may be difficult to memorize but we can even memorize just one line from the shloka and if that thought comes up to us when we are a little feeling weak or if you bring that thought forcefully you remember the part of the verse or that the import of the words phrased in a intellectually stimulating thought-provoking way and that can serve us in giving us a additional impetus for fixing our mind on krishna and thereby moving forwards towards krishna this is how knowledge stimulates us to follow the process that awakens devotion and in that way knowledge is conducive for devotion and we can use this tap this conducive nature of devotional knowledge to energize