SB 01.05.33 – Chanting appears ordinary but is extraordinary – see with the eyes of knowledge

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
shreemad bhagavatam 1533 so here narad bhoomi after telling the story of how he himself was elevated by the process of devotion is now telling a general principle in the previous words he stated that devotion is the treatment in therapy for the conditioned soul who’s caught up in material existence but the question may come up that actually devotional service involves doing activities in the material world and if one is doing activities in the material world then how is one going to be liberated because one is doing the very very similar activities and activities that are very similar to those which were causing bondage so in general it is easier for people to some people at least to think that renouncing the world practicing jnana yoga it does seem as if one is doing something for liberation because now person has moved away from everything entangling in this world but devotion doesn’t seem to be exactly like that it seems to be very similar to material activities so nargun is giving an example that something the same thing if done in a somewhat different way can produce a different result not just a different result opposite result a result that counters the earlier result so if one drinks too much milk then that upsets the stomach and causes loose motion when such a thing happens one way of treating it is to take curd curd cuts down the loose motion and gets the stomach back to health now curd is actually nothing but milk it’s some transformation where transformation is the insertion of some acid or some transforming agent which makes milk into curd so here milk refers to the material activities that we are doing and curd refers to the devotional activities so the difference between the two is primarily a difference of intention in material activities one wants to be the enjoyer one wants to be a possessor one wants to be the controller whereas in material that’s the situation in material life whereas in devotional life one simply wants to be the servant one wants to serve Krishna and please Krishna in whatever way is possible now sometimes it will happen that though we may want to convey a proper message but still if we have been brought up in a very conservative sort of background then we’ll expect a commitment to that kind of orthodoxy even within the temple community that we are in and orthodoxy is not feasible then we even start offending those devotees so this applies especially to the power of sound normally in the world many of the sounds allure us towards material enjoyment in fact the Bhagavatam also use the word Shruti Shukha the Shukha that is promised in the Shruti, Shruti refers to the especially the Vedas which talk about heavenly pleasures the very same sound which is the cause of our delusion and bondage can become the source of our enlightenment and liberation if the sound is transformed instead of the sound being related with the things of this world if that sound is the sound related with Krishna and when we expose ourselves to this sound by hearing the Kirtans by hearing the scriptures and when we ourselves also invoke that sound by ourselves chanting the holy names at external level dancing speaking may not seem to be dramatically different from what materialistic people are doing in fact it may seem strikingly similar but the difference is that it is centered on Krishna and it is connected with our soul and because it is connected with our spiritual identity it elevates us so to the extent we remember this glory and facility that Bhakti has offered glory that through activity itself just by changing the nature of that activity can liberate us and the facility because activity is natural for us so to that extent we feel inspired normally when we are doing something extraordinary we feel a little bit of impetus and inspiration that’s why when devotees go for yatras they know consciously that oh now we are going to do something spiritual so even if some austerity is involved they are ready to do it because that’s something special something out of the way something extraordinary similarly if we take up some very adventurous activity climbing up a mountain or something like that people get a sense of excitement because of the speciality of that activity and that also brings enthusiasm and determination the idea that this is something special so because we do chanting every day some may think it is not special but actually the speciality is not just in the a frequency with which we do an activity speciality is also in the potency of that activity and whatever effect a person might get by renouncing the world a far greater effect a person can get even while staying in this world if that person just chants Hare Krishna so say some so far greater the results than externally dramatic singing renunciation so far greater the results are available through the simple activity of chanting so if we remember that although I am doing this frequently that does not make it any less special it still remains special because its potency is special and then we can get the inspiration the impetus to invest ourselves more to put in more determination and to concentrate and then this magical transformational liberational potency of bhakti will manifest in our hearts thank you