SB 01.05.35 – Knowledge will emerge from devotion – focus on chanting

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
thank you that karma which is done for bhagwat pritoshanam for the satisfaction of our lord jnanam yathad adheenam hi adheen means subordinate that means which it results from so knowledge automatically comes by that and bhakti yoga samanvitam when bhakti yoga is performed the knowledge comes automatically so here Narada Muni is telling Vyasadev that he should compile a literature that exclusively focuses on bhakti yoga and he has already talked about how karmakanda is inadequate it is jugup-sitam prabhupada translated as abominable because it keeps people bound in material existence and through his own example he is told how he got knowledge through bhakti he served the devotees and by that all knowledge came in his heart and he has become such a enlightened an enlightening sage so that is through his own example and through his analysis he is telling that that when we work for the pleasure of the supreme lord bhagwat toshanam pritoshanam when we work for his pleasure then the consequence of that is that automatically we will get whatever is needed all other resources will follow including the resource of knowledge does this mean that we shouldn’t study independently study scripture no when we study scripture also our attitude is not of intellectual conquest but it is of intellectual submission it is of intellectual of devotional service done through the medium of the intellect so intellectual conquest means that we think that okay this subject is here this concept is here and i have to fit it into my intellect and i will stretch my intellect i’ll compress the subject i’ll analyze it and by that i will put it into my intellectual compartment in her in its right place and that way i will conquer this concept so like that if we try to understand scripture we will not be able to understand scripture to understand it we have to submit ourselves to the supreme lord and bhakti involves also using the intelligence in fact the very fact that there are so many bhakti scriptures and they involve serious question answers bhagavad gita concludes in bhakti but it is serious philosophy and even in the bhagavatam there are many pastimes but there is also serious philosophy so krishna in the uddhava gita also concludes with bhakti but before coming to the before talking about bhakti he also talks a lot of philosophy in fact all the philosophy is building up and contributing to the glorification of bhakti so what is deciding what is decidingly different between the process of jnana as a separate independent process and the cultivation of knowledge within the devotional path is the attitude the attitude is of submission krishna these are your words i will study them for your pleasure for your service and for my own purification and to the extent you give me understanding i will use it understanding in your service so the defining attitude of a devotee is one of service it is not of intellectual conquest and actually the same attitude we can have even while chanting chanting is highly in one sense non-intellectual activity even we could say anti-intellectual activity not anti-intellectual in the sense that it is done by non-intellectuals rather chanting when we do we are just repeating the same sound again and again and again and unless we have a taste for hearing the sound of the holy name we will find chanting very difficult especially those people who have a lot of intellectual appetite they always need some concept to churn with their intellects so chanting can appear very empty and boring and burdensome so at that time the attitude has to be of serving krishna but while serving krishna we can also have the attitude that okay even in chanting i will try to use my intelligence in your service so firstly as much as possible we try to keep our intellect fixed on just the calm conviction or at least the intellectual acceptance that krishna is non-different from his name and krishna is manifesting now so let me receive him and if they if we can just stay in this consciousness we will be able to do a lot for krishna and we will be for krishna in the sense that we will be able to render good service to krishna when he manifests the holy name and we will be able to purify ourselves and we will be able to advance but if we find it very difficult to be just to keep our intellect intelligence or intellect fixed in just the simple contemplation that krishna is non-different from his name of course it’s not a simple it’s a profound point but if we don’t have much realization of it then we don’t even have realization of its profundity and at that time we find it unabsorbing and again we may find ourselves getting distracted so there are chanting experts who recommend that we can have a circle a point of concentration and a circle of concentration so if there are other friends who are also chanting with us then their presence can be sobering for us along with that if our mind cannot stay fixed on the holy name we can make ourselves a circle around that point of the holy name and decide what all can be placed in that circle and the things that are placed in that circle should be such that they help our thoughts to come back to the holy name so some verses which say glorify in the holy name and especially speak the glories in a distinctive way if you memorize the verses and keep them at the background of our consciousness while we fall while we are seeing the while we are trying to chant but are seeing that the mind is going away then by churning on those verses by keeping those verses in their imports their meanings within the circle of contemplation we will be able to get rid of that distraction and we’ll be able to serve Krishna the best of our capacity in our situation