Three special results of loving Krishna – PSI: Purification Satisfaction Illumination (Bhagavatam 1.2.14)

Srimad Bhagavatam class at ISKCON, Phoenix

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Therefore indicates that this is a follow-up or a conclusion from what was stated earlier. We will see what that was. Therefore, with one-pointed intelligence, with one-pointed attention, Bhagavan Sattvatampati, that Lord who is the protector of the devotees, he should be heard, spoken, should be meditated on and should be worshipped constantly.
Now the previous verse has stated that therefore the purpose of all activities is satisfying Lord Hari. Now we can’t satisfy someone if we don’t think about that person. Thinking about that person, by thinking we can understand, okay, this person likes this, does not like this.
This person, if I do this, this person will be displeased if I do this thing. So the very basic level of love, of loving someone is thinking about that person. If we hardly ever think of someone and then when we say, oh I love you so much, if we don’t talk about that person, if we don’t, when we think about someone, then that actually orients our mental life in a way that can be a relationship with that person.
So here it is said, tasma, therefore, if the ultimate purpose of life, as Shri Prabhupada says, is to realise the Absolute Truth, is to please the Supreme Lord and to fall in complete love with Him, then the way to do it is by fixing the mind on Him. And the Bhagavatam does not leave you fixing the mind to merely some abstract meditation, no, no, the concrete activities. Hear about Him, speak about Him, worship Him, meditate on Him.
So it’s interesting, it’s talking about ekhe na manasa, but it doesn’t leave the activity at the level of manasa. It doesn’t say, okay, you think of Him always in the mind. Think of Him always in the mind, speak about Him, hear about Him, worship Him and meditate on Him, dheya and pujyas.
So here we will look at three points about what is the speciality of directing our love towards the Supreme Lord. We all have a natural longing to love and to be loved. And all the novels, all the movies, one of their central themes is love.
So the scriptures tell us that we should direct our love towards the Supreme Lord. Now why is that? So based on the subsequent verses, we’ll discuss three points. This is met as an acronym, P.S.I. What happens when we learn to love the Lord? There is purification, satisfaction and illumination.
Purification, that’s what the next verse mentions immediately, 1.2.15. yad anudhya sinha yuktaha karma bhante nibandhanam chintanti kovidastasya kona kurya katharatim yad anudhya, meditating on Him, this verse, use the word dheya, dheya, pujyas, meditate on Him. And the next verse says, yad anudhya sinha, if anudhya, systematically one meditates on Him, then that anudhya, that meditation is like a aasi, it’s like a sword, yad anudhya sinha yuktaha. So here the Bhagavatam is giving us the imagery of a spiritual warrior, somebody who goes around, sword fighting.
So yuktaha, equipped with the sword of remembrance, what should one do with that? karma granthi nibandhanam, karma granthi, the knot of karma, that ties us in this world. chintanti, one cuts through, kovidastasya, therefore where is that wise person who will, kona kurya katharatim, who will not take joy in hearing about the Supreme Lord. So it says that, so the thought flow in this verse is, His remembrance is like a sword which can free us from the shackle of karma.
Therefore who will not happily hear about Him, who will not take taste in hearing about Him, because we will get the substance for remembering Him by hearing about Him. So now why is remembrance of Krishna like a sword? Before that we may ask why do I need a sword also? People, nowadays we live in a world where everybody wants freedom, everybody wants independence and that’s a natural human desire. But often when we talk about independence, there is a great misunderstanding, that people think that independence means to do whatever I want to do, whenever I want to do, however I want to.
I think that is freedom. But actually there are two kinds of freedom, there is freedom for and there is freedom from. Freedom for doing something, which is what everybody glamorises, but there is another kind of equally if not more important that is freedom from.
If somebody says, I want to, why do you have so many rules, don’t eat this, don’t eat this, don’t eat this. I want to be free to eat whatever I want, whenever I want, wherever I want. Fine, that is one level of freedom.
But that freedom, what is its result? Every time we indulge in the desire to eat, the desire becomes stronger. The asha, the desire for enjoyment becomes a pash and it shackles. It shackles a person and drags a person from here and there and everywhere.
I am writing a book on de-addiction, on how spirituality frees one from addiction. So, reading the account of one addict, alcoholic, how he realised that actually I am bound. One night he was just in his home sleeping and in the middle of the night he got an urge to drink and then he went to his fridge, his cupboard, he saw there were no drinks over there.
So, then he came out, took his car and got into his car and he found his car didn’t work. That desire was so strong that he went to a nearby beer shop and then when he went there, he found to his dismay that the beer that he wanted was not there. Now, he had to walk several blocks in the middle of the night, everyone else and he was just going along and suddenly he slipped on the ground and fell heavily.
As he fell on the ground, he just looked up and he saw all around these buildings with people with all lights off and he started thinking, what am I doing? Everyone around is sleeping peacefully in their house and here I am, dragged half across town by the desire to drink something. How am I free? Desire is being pulled, pulled, pulled, pulled. So, often what people call as freedom to do, that ends in force to have to do.
We think that I will do what I want to do but eventually that desire becomes stronger and stronger. Indulgence in a desire makes that shackle thicker, tighter and sharper. Thicker means every indulgence adds a strain to it and not only lengthens, it shortens.
That means, one is dragged more forcefully and sharper means one cannot resist it. Somebody was never, say, this is the home, this is the office and between there is alcohol bar. Somebody who has never drunk alcohol, that person will not even notice the bar but one who is drunk, then every time that person passes the bar, one thinks, oh, I should go and drink and if that person becomes more and more alcohol, the urge becomes stronger and the moment the person comes out of the house, the mind has already gone into the bar thinking I will get up and then when the pull, when the rope becomes tighter, there are people, there are addicts, when they wake up, the first thing they think is alcohol.
So, it is like, you know, you are pulled out not only from your house but right from the bed out of sleep. So, this is bondage. So, we are bound by our very desires.
Now, so we are bound and suppose somebody is like being, say, some ropes are, noose has been put around that person and being dragged. So, that person gets a sword and the sword, he can cut off that rope. So, what is this sword which cuts off? How? That is said is, it is remembrance of Krishna.
So, how does remembrance of Krishna act like a sword? The objects of this world, they shackle us by promising us pleasure, by alluring us with the promise of pleasure and when we remember Krishna, that remembrance gives us a higher two things, a higher taste and higher intelligence. So, by the higher intelligence, we will talk about this a little later, but by this combination of the higher intelligence and higher taste, we can resist the temptation. If we are empty internally, if we are not getting any satisfaction internally, then whatever external pleasure, allure comes before us, we will fall for it, we will be tempted by it.
But if you are satisfied internally, then we would not bother about it. If a person is a millionaire and sees one penny lying on the ground, it does not matter. One will not get captivated by it.
But if a person is a beggar with nothing, then a penny will be a big thing, person will want to grab it immediately. So, like that, when we are like paupers internally, then any pleasure that comes along, that will captivate us. But when we are like millionaires, we have the presence of Krishna in our heart, we are satisfied internally, then external pleasures would entrap us.
So, the remembrance of Krishna, first of all, helps us to understand that external pleasure just like a penny. There is nothing great about it. And further, it helps us, so that is like getting the higher intelligence.
And further, the remembrance of Krishna connects us internally with him and enables us to experience higher happiness. Sukhena brahma samsparisham atyantam sukha-vashnate. In the Bhagavad Gita 6th chapter, Krishna says in the 27th, 28th verse is that sukhena brahma samsparisham, when we connect with the absolute truth, then atyantam sukha-vashnate, the ultimate happiness that we get.
So, this is the swore, this remembrance of Krishna acts like a swore by severing the hold of external desires on us. So, here is the first, so this is essentially purification. I was saying that what are the special results that come by directing our love towards Krishna.
The first is purification. Purification means the impure desires, we are able to resist them. At one level, we resist those desires.
It means that they are there, but we say no to them. At another level, we reject those desires. Those desires just go away.
That may take time, but purification means essentially at least resistance to those desires. We don’t indulge in those desires and gradually the force of those desires is not felt as acutely on us as it was felt earlier. So, when we learn to love Krishna, this is the first result that we become purified.
This does not happen when we love anyone else. Yes, when we love others, that may sometimes inspire us to do the right thing. When the children love their parents, then the children will want to play, but they know my parents.
They are spending so much money for my education. They are putting in so much hard work to earn that money. I should study.
I should not waste my time. So, that any loving relationship can inspire us to do the right thing. That means, especially if those whom we love want us to do the right thing.
They are virtuous and they want us to do the right thing, but one thing is inspiration, other is empowerment. The two are not the same. I may feel like doing something, but that itself doesn’t enable me to do it.
Loving other, loving any person can inspire us to do the good things, but it may not empower us. That comes when we learn to love Krishna because Krishna alone is purifying. In the invocation of Vishnu, Sahasrara Ramana said, He is the most pure of all pure beings.
He is the most auspicious of all auspicious beings. So, purification is the first result and after that second is satisfaction that Krishna, that Bhagavatam talks about a few verses later. So, it says, the next verse it says, this way you cut off the desires.
Then there are two verses which talk about how do we practise bhakti. It says, serve the great souls. So, bhakti is not just about our relationship with Krishna.
So, many times people come to a temple and they worship God and then they go away. They don’t associate with those who are devoted to God. That is because their vision, their conception of God is limited.
They think God is there on the altar and I relate to Him by praying to Him. But when our conception of God expands, we understand that God is not just on the altar. The way my relationship with God depends not just on how I deal with God, how I approach God, but also on how I approach and relate with those who are related with God.
So, it is appreciation for devotees that raises a person, a seeker from the kanishta adhikari level to the madhyam adhikari level. So, that means, some people think that I just don’t want to be with anyone. I just want to alone think of God, alone love God.
Well, that is fine. At least there is a desire to love God, but that is not a sign of spiritual advancement. Spiritual advancement means we appreciate those who love God also or those who are striving to love God.
So, here it is said that those who are advanced devotees, devoted to God, we serve them. With faith we serve them. And second is, there are different forms of service we can do for devotees, but the most important service is hearing from them.
So, hearing from them, that is talked about in the next verse, śuṇvatāṁ suṭhākṛṣṇaṁ puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanaṁ hṛdhyānta-sthoya-vadrāṇi-vidhnoti-sura-ca-kāṃ By hearing about Him, He Himself purifies us. And then the verse which we recited today, naṣṭa-prāyeṣu, at the start of the class, naṣṭa-prāyeṣu mandreṣu vidyam bhāgavata-sevaya bhagavati-rutta-maśloke bhaktir bhavati naiṣṭhikī So, there is some bhakti initially, but the bhakti will become naiṣṭhikī. Naiṣṭhikī means very strong.
Prabhupāda translates that as an irrevocable fact. It becomes unseekably rooted in our consciousness, in our heart. So, the example which Viṣṇā Chakravartī Ṭhākura gives in the Madhurya Kadam Vidhi, for explaining naiṣṭhikī bhakti, is that initially there is anaiṣṭhikī bhakti.
So, he talks about nine stages of bhakti, and those can be correlated with these verses. So, initially, ādauṣaṭbhāsādhu-saṅga-vajana-kriyā, we have some faith. With that faith, we start practising bhakti.
Becoming an association of devotees, we start practising bhakti. Then, anartha-nivṛtti takes place. And after anartha-nivṛtti comes niṣṭhā.
So, niṣṭhā corresponds with what is talked over here as niṣṭhita-bhakti, or in this, bhaktir bhavati naiṣṭhikī. So, the difference is, the example he uses, at the stage of shraddhā, our faith is like a banana tree. Anybody can shake it, anyone can uproot it easily.
But when you come to the level of niṣṭhā, the faith is like a banyan tree. Nothing can shake it. And what is the difference? The difference is pratyakṣāvagama-dharmyam.
We have experienced internally the purification, the transformation within us by the practise of bhakti. It’s like, sometimes there are disputes between different medical practitioners. Say, allopaths may say, Ayurveda is just a quack.
Ayurveda is medical quackery. It doesn’t work. Now, they may have their reasons for making those arguments.
But, if somebody has taken Ayurvedic medicine and has become cured of a disease, then, for that person, whatever criticism comes, that won’t matter. Because, I’ve actually seen. I took this medicine and I got cured.
So, like that, atheists may give various arguments why God doesn’t exist. Rationalists may give various arguments why religion is all irrational. But for those who have experienced God’s presence, in terms of the purification of their heart, the transformation of their person, they, for them, as Prabhupada says, devotion becomes an irrevocable fact.
So, these are sometimes, atheists may make arguments which we may not be able to counter. But, that doesn’t disturb our faith. So, the point is, bhaktir bhavati naishtiki.
And what is the sashtiki bhakti? What is the bhakti bhakti naishtiki? That is mentioned in terms of the words in the next verse. tathā rajas tamo bhāva kāmalā labhādayas ceta kīntair anāviddham sthitaṁ sattve prasiddhati So, he has stated that purification means the influence of the lower modes goes away. And that influence, in terms of last greed.
When Prabhupada was asked, how do we know we are spiritually advancing? Prabhupada said that you don’t need anyone to tell you whether you are spiritually advancing or not. He said you can look within your heart and see how much you are tormented by worldly desires. If the torment of worldly desires is going down, that itself means you are advancing.
Becoming purified. cetair kīntair anāviddham The desires constantly drag us. They torture us.
It’s like sometimes a horse is goaded with either a whip or an elephant is goaded with an elephant coat. It’s sharp. Stinging pain comes.
And that forces the elephant or the horse to run. So like that, our desires goad us. Force us to do things.
Go here, do this, get this, eat this, watch this, touch this. So, when the lower modes start decreasing, cetair kīntair anāviddham We become free from these tormenting desires. And then, sthitaṁ sattve prasiddhati We become cheerful.
We become joyful. This is the second result of loving Krishna. That it brings satisfaction.
Purification and satisfaction. This satisfaction is steady satisfaction. Sometimes people ask, You say material life, material enjoyment, material happiness is temporary.
And spiritual happiness is eternal. But, for me, even spiritual happiness is temporary. Sometimes I come to the temple, sometimes I feel happy, sometimes I don’t feel happy.
Sometimes chanting feels like a big burden. Sometimes people are chanting and then take out the beads. Beads are not getting over only.
Does this have 108 beads or 1008 beads? Not getting over. So, we may say that spiritual happiness is also not permanent. So, Bhaktivinoda Thakur explains in Harinam Chintamani that our experience of spiritual happiness, spiritual happiness is eternal.
But our experience of spiritual happiness is presently interrupted by our conditions. Just like the sun always gives light. But if clouds come in between us and the sun, then we can’t see the sun’s light, nor feel the sun’s warmth.
The clouds are blocking. But if the clouds are removed, the sun will constantly shine, constantly come. So, sun is always luminous.
Based on what comes between us and the sun, based on where we are, we may not feel the sun’s warmth. Like that Krishna is always the source of happiness. But our conditionings block our connection with Krishna.
And because of which our experience of spiritual happiness is interrupted. It is temporal at present. But if we keep practising bhakti, that practise of bhakti dissipates the cloud of conditionings.
And then our connection with Krishna becomes steadier. And the steadier our connection with Krishna becomes, the sweeter our experience of bhakti becomes. So, here it is said that when we become free from the lower modes, then sthitam sattve prasidhati.
That means we have situated goodness, then prasidhati. Our practise of bhakti becomes joyful. Bhakti is accessible from any mode.
Even if a person is ignorant, a person may be drinking, and that person can come and join gatherings. And dance and be happy also in gatherings. But that will just be temporal.
Bhakti is accessible from any mode, but bhakti becomes relishable in goodness. Relishable steadily in goodness. So, it’s like saying a mother wants to offer some delicious juice to a child.
But the child is so restless, doesn’t want to drink it. Then the juice is delicious, and the juice enters the mouth, and goes to taste the tongue, and the child says, oh, this tastes great. But the child just doesn’t want to drink, doesn’t even want to taste.
The child is just moving the head like this, like this, like this. And the mother is trying to hold the head steady, and the child is moving the head. And the whole process of resistance consumes the consciousness of the child.
And the child can’t taste the drink much. So, like that, the remembrance of Krishna is like a flow of nectar. Mudhavahani.
Madhukshanti Vamudhavahani. Kulshetra Maharaj says, the remembrance of Krishna is like a flow of nectar. But our consciousness is being shaken constantly by the modes.
And that’s why we can’t relish it. But as we keep practising bhakti, as we become purified by the practise of bhakti, then as purification increases, satisfaction will also increase. So here it is, Pusitam Sattve Prasidhati.
And then what happens after that? That’s told in the next verse. Again the same point of prasanna is talked about. Evam Prasanna Manaso Bhagwat Bhakti Yogatah Bhagwat Tattva Vigyanam Mukta Sandasya Jayate So, Evam Prasanna Manaso.
When we have a cheerful disposition, we practise bhakti. Bhagwan Bhakti Yogatah Then we become connected with Bhagwan through the pursuit of bhakti yoga. Then what happens? Evam Prasanna Manaso Bhagwat Bhakti Yogatah Bhagwat Tattva Vigyanam The tattva of the absolute truth.
What God is. How he is to be known. That is Vigyanam.
This is knowledge which is realised. It is scientific knowledge. Scientific in the sense that it is empirically verifiable.
How is it verifiable? Empirically not in terms of our senses but empirically in terms of our experiences. So we experience the truth. So this is the process which is actually repeatable.
Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita in 4.10 that Mitragaveh Krodhamanmayamamapashutah Bahavogyanatapasah Kutamanbhavmagatah Bahavogyanatapasah Many in the past have become purified. Many have become liberated. So this is a repeatable process.
Anybody who follows the process of bhakti can get purified and can get higher perception. So there is higher spiritual perception that comes. That is illumination.
And that illumination is talked about in the next verse also. Vidyate Hridayatranti Shityante Sarvasamshaya Kshiyante Chasya Karmani Vrishtevatmanishvare So what happens when we become understand Bhagavad Tattva Vijnanam Mukta Sankhavasa become liberated. What does liberation mean? Vidyate Hridayatranti The attachments that bind us Vidyate they get completely cut off.
So earlier in the Sword of Remembrance we keep cutting off. See at our stage say a person was shackled by an enemy and a person uses a sword and cuts off. But then that enemy has another noose and throws the noose again.
And again the noose falls and catches. Then again what should he do? Take the sword and cut again. So like that, at our stage it’s a constant fight.
We can cut off the nooses of desires but those nooses will fall on us again and again. We have to keep fighting. But here when he is talking about when Suta Goswami is talking we go beyond the reach of material temptations.
Vidyate. Completely cut off. Vidyate Hridayatranti Chidhyante Sarvasamshaya Chidhyante All the doubts get eliminated.
Doubt the Bhagavatam says is a sign of intelligence. Only a wise person can doubt. A person who is foolish that person will believe anything that is told.
Advertisers show a car and they show a beautiful girl in front of the car. And a purchaser thinks if I get the car, I’ll get the girl also. Advertisers basically present fairytales.
And people believe them. So people don’t have the capacity to doubt. And that’s why in many countries advertisements targeted towards very small children are banned.
Because they say children don’t have the capacity to discern whether what advertisement is saying is true or not. So the point is to doubt requires intelligence. So doubt is a sign of intelligence.
But doubt is not the only sign of intelligence. Because if I keep doubting, what will happen? Doubt can tell me what is wrong. But doubt can never tell me what is right.
Anything I hear, this is wrong. And if a person is intelligent enough that person can actually find faults with any philosophy that is presented. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu himself demonstrated it.
He would take one philosophy and then he would using that defeat the opponent. And then he would take the opponent’s philosophy and defeat his own philosophy. So this with the intelligence we can play an expert game.
Now defeating this, defeating that, defeating that argument. So Ravindra Sohru Prabhu is one of Sri Prabhupada’s scholarly disciples. He wrote that he was studying doing academic study of religion.
And he said this became a game for all of us. That we could be sceptical about any philosophy that was presented. And then at one time I realised that, you know, most people would tell me my relatives were religious, that you are too sceptical.
But then one day I realised that I was not sceptical enough. How? I was sceptical about everything except scepticism. I was sceptical about everything except scepticism.
It means by scepticism I will never know what is right. Using doubt to acquire knowledge is like using immobility for motion. The two are contradictory.
Immobility cannot lead to motion. Similarly doubt cannot lead to knowledge. So at some point that’s why doubt is a sign of intelligence.
Doubt is not only a sign of intelligence. Eventually we have to practise something. We can practise it as a test case.
See if it works or not. But if we don’t practise we will never come to any conclusion at all. Narsila Prabhupada was once asked in New York Swamiji is your philosophy how is your philosophy different from Buddhism, from that of Buddha? So Prabhupada said, do you follow Buddha? I said follow Buddha, follow Jesus, follow Krishna, follow someone don’t just talk.
Don’t just talk. Because if we just keep talking we just create an intellectual platform and we never move to the experiential platform. If something is wrong we will find out it is wrong.
If it doesn’t work I will give it up. If it works fine I will continue it. So at this stage Chidyante Sarvasamsheya All doubts go away because one has got the experience of God within him.
And Chidyante Chasya Karmani So all selfish work, self-centred fruitive work which binds that Chidyante it stops. And Drishyateva Atma Eshwarya. We see the Atma to be the Eshwara.
Here it does not mean that Atma is the supreme Eshwara. Rather it means that Atma is the Eshwara of the body. That means we don’t have to be driven by our body, our mind, our senses.
Rather we can control them. And we can use them for our spiritual purposes. And therefore the section concludes by So, therefore the wise people constantly constantly they practise bhakti.
Kavayo and Nitya. These two words Nitya came in the verse which we discussed today. Nitya da.
Constantly. And Kavayo comes in the next verse. Kovida is wise people.
So, Joyfully they practise bhakti. What is this joyfulness? Even if we are not experiencing constant spiritual joy in our bhakti practise. If we understand how the process of bhakti works and that itself can bring joy.
How is that? As devotee suppose there are externally speaking even as devotees our condition is like materials. We also suffer from diseases. We may also suffer because of heat, cold.
We may also have trouble from colleagues. So, our adhyatmic, adhibhautic, adhidaivic relations will still be there for devotees also. But the difference is that devotees are not doing any further karma which will bring further reactions.
So, imagine there are two patients in hospital. One has not been diagnosed and no treatment has been prescribed. The other has been diagnosed correctly and a proper treatment has been prescribed.
Externally, both of them may be in pain and when both of them are in pain they may call out but one of them, the pain is going to decrease and is going to be eliminated. And the patient focusses on that Oh! I got the treatment now. I just continue taking it.
I will be cured. Then the patient will have positive attitude even in the presence of the pain. So, similarly, if we focus on the fact that bhakti is a process that has diagnosed our problem.
Why are we dissatisfied? Because we are disconnected from Krishna who is the source of all happiness. And start connecting ourselves with Krishna we will move forward and we will become happier. So, on a day to day basis we may not feel much transformation.
Yesterday also I had the same meditation, same desire, same distraction. Today also I have the same thing. Day to day we may not see any transformation in our lives.
But, if we feel discouraged, we should see how far we have come. Look back at our lives before we started practising bhakti, 5 years ago, 10 years ago. How we were and how we are now.
Many of the we may have had certain habits, certain indulgences which we would have found very difficult to give up at that time. By the practise of bhakti we have given that up. So, we have come a long way.
And how have we come this long? It is because the potency of bhakti has powered us on. So, if we feel sometimes a little down, we can look at how far we have come and recognise that bhakti has the potency to move us onwards. And by recognising this potency, we can paramayam udha, joyfully practise bhakti, kurvante atma prasad, again which is satisfying to the soul.
There is a beautiful cyclic sense to these verses. 1.2.6 started with atma prasad, atma prasidati, 1.2.6 1.2.6 1.2.6 1.2.6 Same thing. So, in this way bhakti can be joyfully practised even when we are not experiencing constant spiritual joy by remembering that we are on the path towards spiritual recovery and on the path towards experiencing constant spiritual joyfulness.
So, I’ll summarise. I started by talking about how this verse says that we should direct our loving propensity towards the supreme lord. And I said three reasons.
Why is that? Did anyone remember? P Purification Satisfaction. I was illumination. So, illumination.
So, purification. I explained that that all of us, we are enslaved by our desires. People may say free.
I want to be free to do what I want to do. But, that such freedom makes us attached to the objects of our attachment. And then we are dragged by the near and dear.
So, the objects bind us, drag us by promising us pleasure. Remembrance of Krishna gives us higher intelligence by which we understand, hey, this pleasure is nothing great. This is a temporary pleasure.
I don’t need to be driven by it. And it gives us higher taste. It reveals, oh, that’s a penny out there.
In my heart, there is a million dollars. There is Krishna source of all happiness. So, by that we can cut off.
And cutting off the lower impure desire, that itself is purification. So, loving Krishna offers purification. Then as we keep practising bhakti, then we experience more and more satisfaction.
Krishna is a source of constant, eternal happiness. But our connection with him is presently interrupted. Just like the sun’s light can be blocked by clouds or a child’s restlessness in moving the head can prevent the child from tasting the sweet juice the mother has offered.
Similarly, at present, because our consciousness is pulled here and there by the lower modes, because our consciousness is blocked by the conditionings, by the anarthas, so, we can’t relish Krishna bhakti. So, bhakti is accessible from any mode but it becomes relishable as we come to goodness. So, that is by the purification as we come to goodness, bhakti becomes more and more satisfying.
That is satisfaction. And then there is illumination. Illumination means we start perceiving spiritual reality ourselves.
So, I talked about how faith initially is like a banana tree but it becomes like a banyan tree when we experience the transformation. It’s like a patient who has been cured by a doctor’s medicine. Others may criticise the doctor and doubt doctor’s form of medicine.
The patient will not care. So, like that we become free from doubts when we experience God within our heart. And then doubt is a sign of intelligence in the sense that it can tell us, it can protect us from going on the wrong path.
But if we stick to doubt alone then we will never move on any path. So, we need to take a leap of faith at some time after intelligent evaluation. And when we practise, then we when we practise bhakti, it gives us experience.
And as the experience increases, our faith also increases. So, illumination means we understand that I don’t have to be a servant of my body, my mind, my senses. Rather, I by my connection with the Lord can orient my body, mind and senses in His service and therefore make them also participants in my spiritual journey rather than opponents of my spiritual journey.
And that way we can move onwards. So, even if we do not experience constant happiness, even if we go through the three kleshas in our life, if we remember that our situation is like a patient whose disease has been diagnosed and who has been given a proper medicine, then even in this case we can be joyful by remembering how far we have come. We can know that bhakti does work.
And if we keep practising it, it will work and propel us onwards towards Krishna. Thank you very much. Hare Krishna.
Are there any questions?