Understanding the six stages of anartha nivrutti or inner purification – 2

[Seminar at Bhakti Lounge, Wellington, New Zealand]

Video

Powerpoint:
https://www.slideshare.net/Ccdrns/understanding-the-six-stages-of-inner-purification-or-anartha-nivrutti

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So, we continue with the third part. So, I’ll try to complete all of it in the next, say, 45 minutes, and then we’ll try to have question-answers after that.
So, if you have any questions, you can either write and give it to me, or I won’t break for questions, is that okay? So that we can complete everything. So, now, as I said, these 6 stages, they’re not necessarily sequential, and they’re not necessarily like watertight compartments. Because ultimately, we’re dealing with the inner territory, and the inner territory is not like physical territory where this area ends and that area begins.
So, there can be some overlap in the understanding of the concepts. But, broadly speaking, we’ll see the categories. So, viewed vikalpa.
The word vikalpa means alternative. So, like the mind is sankalpa, vikalpa. I want this, I don’t want this.
I don’t want this, what can I take? So, viewed vikalpa means constantly looking for some alternatives. So, this is related with the mood swings itself, but in the mood swing, the idea is you feel like doing this, and then you feel not like doing it. But in the viewed vikalpa, it is more like I know I have to do this, but is there some way I can get out of this? It’s like, like some people say, I have asked over 500 people for advice, but not one person has given me the advice I wanted.
So, maybe then, the advice you want is not the advice you need. But, that’s why nobody is giving that. So, somehow we are looking for alternatives to what we know we should be doing.
So, viewed vikalpa is that way. This is tough, is there some easier way to get around this? And if there is no other way, if there is no easier way, then I think, I’ll do this when I get inspiration to do it. Now, inspiration, it’s wonderful when it is there, but actually, inspiration is very unreliable.
If you wait for inspiration, then we are waiters, we are not seekers, we are not devotees. So, we can just keep waiting. I think I mentioned this last year also when I had come that the Nobel laureate author W. Somerset Maugham, he was asked, do you write every day or do you write when you are inspired? He said, do you write only when you are inspired? He said, I write only when I am inspired and I make sure inspiration arrives every morning at 9 am.
Now, what does this mean? It just means that, actually, anything worthwhile that we have to do, it is our effort and there is something higher just to come upon us. But when that higher will come, when it will not come, we don’t know. We need to keep doing our part.
So, sometimes when something feels tough, we are looking for alternatives, somehow I can get out of this, somehow I can get out of this. But often we’ll find that the effort in trying to get out of it, if you just apply that much effort to doing it, you’ll get along with doing it. But the mind, in the Bhagavad Gita also, 18th chapter, it says, that which tastes like poison in the beginning, yathad agre vishamiva pariname amrutopamam will taste like nectar in the end.
So, we could go, means, if you want to connect these three, the first is basically that, yeah, I can do it. I am going to do it. Anybody who is not doing it is a fool.
It’s terrible, it’s fallen. Then is, I sometimes feel like doing it, sometimes I just don’t feel like doing it. It’s going up and down.
The third is, well, okay, I know I have to do it, but how can I get out of it? See, there are creative people and there are lazy people. But actually this categorization is wrong. Because lazy people are also very creative.
They are creative in coming up with excuses. Oh, I can’t do it because of this, I can’t do it because of this, I can’t do it because of this. So, vyudevi kalpa, rather than waiting for alternatives, just get along with it.
Now, another reason why we look for alternatives is also, we want to be perfect. But perfectionism is a serial killer on high heels. That means, perfectionism kills humility, it kills spontaneity, it kills creativity.
If I am going to do it, I am going to do it perfectly. If not, I will not do it at all. No, we don’t have to be like that.
Krishna wants our best. Krishna doesn’t want the perfect from us. We do what we can with our capacity.
There are many bhakti poets, who have talked about, who talk about Krishna, that there are different birds, which fly to different heights in the sky. So, I fly according to my capacity. The sky is like the glory, unlimited glories of Krishna.
I will glorify Krishna according to my capacity. So, there is a Maharashtrian devotee poet, he says that, a swan can swim on the lake very gracefully. Float very gracefully.
But that does not mean, that other aquatics don’t have a right to swim. They may not be that graceful, their movement might be that small, but they can also move. So, like that, we don’t have to think that, when I am going to do it, I am going to do a particular activity in bhakti, I have to do it perfectly.
I might just struggle to do it, and barely do it, but that’s what I can do. So, often when we are looking for alternatives, it’s because, we have set up a particular idea of, how I should be doing something. And if I am not able to do that, we just can’t digest the idea.
So, now sometimes what happens is, these are all frames of analysis, by which we can end our looking for alternatives. So, why am I looking for alternatives? Because I think I can’t do this so well. Well, I don’t have to do this necessarily the perfect way, let me do it as well as I can.
And similarly, sometimes we feel that, I don’t want to do this because, it’s too much trouble. Now, yes, it might be trouble, but we can turn the thought process around, and say, okay, I want to do something else which is enjoyable, which is pleasure. But actually, we all want pleasure, but it’s not just pleasure that we want.
Pleasure is actually too cheap, a purpose to make our life meaningful. Why is that? What do I mean by that? So, suppose, does anyone like humor? I mean, who doesn’t like humor? Obviously, everyone likes humor. But suppose somebody told you, that from tomorrow onwards, you have no professional obligations, no family obligations, for the rest of your life, just watch comedy shows and enjoy.
How many people would enjoy that? Maybe for a few hours. After that, we want something to do. So, we just don’t want pleasure, we want meaningful pleasure.
So, if just pleasure is what we are looking for, we would soon get bored with pleasure also. So, when we feel that, I am doing this and there is no pleasure in this, there is so much trouble. So, why am I looking for alternative? Because there is no pleasure in this.
But, is it simply pleasure that I am looking for? If we keep looking for pleasure, soon it becomes meaningless. Yes, we all want pleasure, but we want pleasure as a by-product of doing something meaningful. If you look at the most fulfilling moments in our life, it is not necessarily, it is very rarely the moments when we went out to get some pleasure.
It’s when we started doing something stimulating, something worthwhile, and then we faced some challenges in that, and then we overcame those challenges. Those are the most cherished, treasured moments of our life. So, if the mind says there is no pleasure in this, why should I do it? Okay.
But, is it simply pleasure that I am looking for? No, I am looking for something meaningful in my life. So, pleasure is best experienced as a by-product, not a product. Means, if I am doing something valuable, something meaningful, and from that I get pleasure as a by-product, that is the most fulfilling.
But, if you start doing something for pleasure itself, then, after some time, we will usually start doing things which are like going along the path of least resistance, those which are very easy to do, and soon they will become very boring, they will become meaningless. So, these are various ways in which this mind’s search for alternatives, we can stop it. Yes, if I have to do it, let me not wait for inspiration, let me just not seek perfection in doing what I am doing, and let me not bother about whether I am getting pleasure or not.
If I have to do this, let me just do it. One of the easiest ways to make ourselves unhappy is to ask our mind, Are you happy? Now, the mind will never be satisfied. Even if we went to paradise, the mind will say, Yes, but… So, the mind is perpetually dissatisfied.
Now, of course, that doesn’t mean we don’t consider whether we are happy or unhappy, but there is considering that in the mode of goodness, it’s considering in the mode of passion, considering in the mode of ignorance. If we are running around doing things in passion, or if we are already depressed, or we are already disturbed by something that has happened, and that time we start thinking whether I am happy, we will never be able to get a realistic answer. So, when we are in a calm frame of mind, that time we can look at what direction my life is going in.
But if I am confronted with something which I have to do right now, and that time I start thinking, Oh, this is so unhappy, this is so miserable, this is so terrible. That’s just we letting our mind carry us away. So, vyuda vikalpa means, when I have to do something which is tough, let me just get on with it, instead of trying to look for shortcuts.
And yes, if it is incompatible, next time when I have to do it, before that, in a calm frame of mind I will think, should I be doing this or should I be doing something else? But if we have to do something, and at that time we start dragging our feet, we just make things more miserable for ourselves. So, with respect to Krishna Consciousness, as long as we are looking for alternatives to Krishna Consciousness, we can’t commit to Krishna Consciousness. Going back to that earlier point of, there is poison in the beginning, nectar in the end.
So, if we don’t go through the poison, we can’t get to the nectar. And vyuda vikalpa, what it does is, the search for alternatives, this is poison, let me not, let me avoid it. But then if I avoid, if I am not ready to go through the poison, we never come to the nectar.
And conversely, many of the other things, the sensual pleasures, they are like nectar in the beginning, but poison in the end. vishyendriya sanyogad yathagagriya amrtaupam pariname vishyamivadatsukam rajasamskritam 1838 Krishna says, that which tastes like nectar will taste like poison. So this way we can avoid, this mind’s frantic search for alternatives.
Then vishaya sangraha, vishaya sangraha means, it’s battling with temptation. So now to battle with temptation, when we say, we decide I am not going to do a particular thing. And then the temptation comes and we end up succumbing to that.
And we might just again feel, oh, I am so, I have no willpower, I have no determination, I am so fallen, I am so conditioned. This kind of thinking is not very helpful. But trying to analyze and understand what exactly happened, that can give us a map for dealing with future situations.
So broadly, when we are dealing with temptation, we can say that our consciousness can go through various stages. So there is a safe zone, where there is, we are not even thinking of indulging in a particular thing. But then there is a temptation zone.
Where that thought starts entering. Maybe I should do it, maybe I should not do it. And we start.
The temptation zone is where, it’s like, say, if we are walking along a road on top of a mountain. But we are reasonably far away from the cliff. So we are walking along.
But temptation zone means, we have come near the edge of the cliff. We are not looking down from the cliff. We are not falling off the cliff.
But we have come near the edge of the cliff. And then suddenly, a sudden stormy wind might come and push us off also. So temptation zone is where we have started entertaining ideas.
Maybe I should do this, maybe I should not do this. And then indulgence zone is where we relapse, we succumb. So another way to understand this is that when we are in the safe zone, at that time, if some desire also comes in, resisting that is easier.
But once it has come in temptation zone, resisting it requires more effort. And by the time it’s come near indulgence, then to say no to it is much much more difficult. Most of you know this chariot body example.
So in that chariot body example, who is the charioteer? Sorry? Intelligence. Who are the horses? Senses. And what is the mind over there? Brains.
So now, considering this example itself, if the horse is going on the straight road, and is going straight ahead at the safe zone. But then the horse maybe sees some juicy vegetable on the side of the road. But there is a big ditch in between.
And the horse doesn’t see that at all. Now as soon as the horse sees that, the horse starts going in that direction. And now when the horse starts running in that direction, starts moving in that direction, if the charioteer is alert, the charioteer quickly catches the horse.
And pulls. Pulls the horse in straight direction. And then the horse again starts coming back on track.
So safe zone is the horse is straight moving on the road. Temptation zone is where the horse starts looking at something off the road, and starts going. Starts thinking of going or starts moving in that direction.
Now the more the horse starts moving, the horse momentum starts increasing. And initially the horse just eyes or head has gone in that direction, the charioteer pulls the reins, it comes back faster. Come back on track.
But the more the horse has started moving, the more at that time, the momentum is acquired, and the charioteer will have to exercise more. So that means from the temptation zone, as we keep moving towards the indulgence zones, there to pull back becomes much more difficult. So if we could, when we are dealing with the particular sense object that we have to deal with, if we could, now we can’t always stay in safe zone.
Because the world is filled with temptations. But when our consciousness starts moving in the temptation zone, if we notice that, and check it at that time itself, the horse is going in that direction, then just pull it back. Pull it back on track.
It’s much easier. So the best way to deal with temptation is to not deal with temptation. So just not contemplate too much on it.
But if that happens, now this is not irreversible. That means even if somebody has gone to the indulgence zone, still they can come back again. They can come back to safe zone and start.
But at least overall, we can understand our own consciousness. So when I am in safe zone, when I am now gliding towards the indulgence zone. And for all of us, so this is another way to understand the same thing.
If you look at our consciousness, it’s not that the desires are constantly present very high. There is, we get the urges, and the urges have surges. Sometimes the urge just zooms up.
So it’s like you can see, suddenly zooms up. Now when it zooms up, it rises up. It was almost irresistible at that time.
When it appears irresistible, what do we do? We might just succumb at that time. But if we, if suppose some temptation comes and the urge rises up and we succumb, and then we become very disheartened by that. But then, that doesn’t help us much because this surges will come like, they will keep coming intermittently.
So maybe when the surge comes, we can’t resist it. But that doesn’t necessarily mean we are always full. If they say the surge comes once, and then maybe after that it comes after one week, after 10 days, after 15 days, or somebody is very much, maybe it comes once a day or whatever, the surge comes.
But what am I doing in between the surges? If at that time we are trying to strengthen ourselves, we are persisting in our practice of bhakti, then that itself will strengthen us. So even if we can’t resist our urges, we can persist between our urges. We can persist between our urges.
But sometimes what happens, we can’t resist the urge, and we become so depressed by that, we start beating ourselves, I am so fallen, I am so fallen, I am so fallen. And even then, in between, we could concentrate on our chanting, we could try to study the philosophy, we could try to do something to purify ourselves, but even in that we are disheartened. We don’t do that wholeheartedly.
Next time when the surge comes, again we succumb to it. But okay, it happened, it’s happened, I couldn’t resist at that time, but now can I connect myself with Krishna? So don’t let the surges dishearten us so much, that when those surges are not there, at that time also we stay disheartened. We connect with Krishna, and try to practice bhakti wholeheartedly.
So that means, what I am saying is, if you go back to the previous example, sometimes, suddenly you have to be pulled from the safe zone to the temptation zone to the indulgence zone. And you have to succumb. But it’s not that, that is the pull which is constantly going to be there for us always.
So therefore, if that has happened, okay, not that it is inconsequential, but that doesn’t mean that that has to define me and dishearten me constantly. Okay, now I am not that way. Now let me try to practice bhakti as well as I can.
Let me keep myself in the safe zone. Let me try to strengthen myself over there. So that’s, that’s this thing.
Persistence. The second point is, create obstacles. Create obstacles means, if you are in the safe zone and there is some temptation zone, then see if you could create some obstacle between that.
Or if you are in the temptation zone, from the temptation zone to the indulgence zone, see if you could create some obstacle between that. What could be an obstacle be? Obstacle can be something as simple as that that particular indulgence is not that easily available to us. So, I am going to speak this probably in tomorrow evening class, but I will mention it here, that I was, I spoke at Google recently when I was in Silicon Valley.
And there, Google, they had a problem with their employees that their health insurance costs were ballooning. And one reason was lot of, lot of their employees were having obesity related issues. So, they consulted some experts and one of the, one of the advisors, they gave an advice that in your, in your cafeteria, in the restaurant, whatever, whatever desserts are there, chocolates, sweets, everything, just cover them with non-transparent paper.
And just by doing that, they found almost 30% of the consumption of desserts decreased. Now, from their perspective, that meant that, you know, people, that their health insurance costs were saved. They’re happy with that.
So, the point I’m making is that sometimes just the temptation being a little less accessible, we have different kinds of desires. Some desire is casual desires. Casual desires means, okay, I feel like doing this and if it’s available, I’ll do it.
And if it’s not available, forget it. It doesn’t matter. Sometimes, of course, the desires are not casual desires.
They are like very overpowering desires. And then, what to speak of going to get it, we might go from one part of the world to another part of the world to do it also. That’s different.
And those we have to, those are very deep-rooted conditions which you have to deal with. But many times the casual desires are there. If there is some simple obstacle between the two, say, then we might not do it.
So, say we are studying Shastra. And that time, we start feeling a little bored. You know, maybe let me look at my phone.
Has any new message come on my phone? And we pick it up and look for one message and another message and another message. Maybe we get a notification. Your friend has updated their Facebook profile photo.
Oh, okay, what photo have they put? Then we start looking for that. And one photo, oh, this photo looks good. And look at another photo.
And then we had one hour for studying Shastra and one hour goes on Facebook then. So then, if at that time I decide, I’ll just, you know, maybe close the phone or maybe keep the phone away or put the phone in airplane mode or put the phone, sometimes there are apps which don’t allow you to connect with the internet for one hour or two hours or whatever. So, create some obstacles.
So, whatever way we are vulnerable, we create an obstacle over there. No obstacle is a surefire protection. But at least for the casual desires that come up, we can protect ourselves by that.
So, between the safe zone and temptation zone or between the temptation zone and indulgence zone, we can create obstacles by which we can’t go that easily. And the last point is, find anchors. Now, this is similar to healthier responses I talked about earlier.
But the point here is, say, if we are in a, we are swimming in an ocean or we are lost, we are floating in an ocean and waves come at that time. Now, if a strong wave is coming, it’s almost impossible to fight that wave. That wave comes, what can I do? I just get swept away by it.
But, if at that time, instead of trying to fight the wave, if there is some anchor and I hold on to that anchor. Now, when the wave hits, holding on to that anchor is also very difficult. It’s not that easy.
Now, I was in South India and I met one person who survived the big tsunami that had come in South India in 2004. So, he said he was on the coast and he saw this big wave coming and he started running. And he was looking behind and saw this wave coming and he just couldn’t do anything.
And suddenly, as he was running, the wave hit him and he was bang! Somehow the wave went and pushed him towards a tree. As it pushed him towards the tree, there was a branch and he caught the branch. And then he just held on to the branch and the water was coming and coming and hitting him.
Now, it was very exhausting to hold on to the branch but somehow he held on. And, although lot of devastation happened, because of holding on to the branch, he survived. So, the point here is that if you try to… Now, when a big tsunami-like wave is coming, we can’t stop it, obviously.
We can’t fight with it. But, if you can hold on to something which is relatively immovable, then that’s much easier. So, as I said earlier, happiness is best experienced as a by-product, not as a product.
Similarly, desires are best dealt with by not dealing with the desire, by dealing with something else. I’m getting this urge, I’ll not do it, I’ll not do it, I’ll not do it. If I say, I’ll not do it, I’ll not do it, I’ll not do it, we keep saying like that and our mind quietly comes with an eraser and then it erases the not.
I’ll not do it, I’ll not do it, I’ll do it. And, we end up doing it. So, focusing on the no, not part is not so helpful.
But, if you focus on holding on to some anchor, holding on to anchor can be… Okay, no matter how I feel, I’ll chant the holy names, I’ll just hear this kirtan, I’ll call out to Krishna, I will do this bhajan, I’ll sing this bhajan or whatever. Now, even that may not seem to help that much. Still, we might be shaken.
But, if we’re trying, if we’re focusing on holding on to the anchor, even if our hand slips, we can always catch the anchor again. So, while trying to deal with this sense objects, trying to resist temptations, the focus needn’t be on fighting against this temptation. The focus can be more on holding on to Krishna.
And, when we have that focus, then resisting temptations becomes relatively easier. So, that’s the fourth part now. That is Isha Sanghara.
Now, the fifth part is Niyamakshama. Niyamakshama means inability to stick to our resolutions. I’m going to do this.
I’m going to wake up in the morning. I’m going to chant my rounds attentively. I’m going to do this.
Like that we make rules. But, the important thing is if we’re not able to follow some resolutions, the Krishna consciousness is very inclusive. Inclusive means that Krishna consciousness is not just about following some standards.
It is essentially about consciousness. When we are in a particular situation, then following a particular standard might not be possible or practical at that time. If we look at Prabhupada’s Leela Amrit, the first volume describes Prabhupada’s life in India before he came to America and while he was in Grahastan he was practicing and he was trying to do machinery work also.
So, when Prabhupada was in the Allahabad area, he had his own pharmacy and it was like a part of a dispensary. So, there was this doctor who would prescribe the medicines and Prabhupada would prepare and give those medicines. So, in the Leela Amrit, there is this description of Srila Prabhupada as memory of Srila Prabhupada given by this doctor.
And he says, Prabhupada was not a sannyasi at that time, so he calls him Abhay Babu. His name was Abhay, so Abhay Babu. It’s clear to anyone that Abhay Babu was a deeply religious person.
But, at that time, the main thought on his mind was how can I earn more money? Now, why is that? Srila Prabhupada, at that time, he had daughters whom he had to get married, one of his sons was very sick, another son had graduated but he had not got a job. So, at that time, Prabhupada’s whole focus was how can I earn more money? Now, somebody might be from a very external perspective, you are thinking of money, money, money. But no, in that situation, that was what was required for him.
So, his focus, his purpose was ultimately to serve Krishna. But in that situation, he needed to do what he needed to do. So, we have to see that Krishna Consciousness is not simply a matter of sticking to a particular standard.
Of course, we want to stick to standards. It’s not just a matter of doing particular activities. Of course, we want to do particular activities.
But Krishna Consciousness is ultimately a matter of consciousness. And if we can’t succeed in Krishna Consciousness, then we can fail in Krishna Consciousness, not fail out of Krishna Consciousness. Now, what is the difference between fail in Krishna Consciousness and fail out of Krishna Consciousness? That means, fail out of Krishna Consciousness means somebody decides, I am going to do this.
In India, I have seen this, many young boys, when they come to the temple, they say, I want to become a brahmachari. I want to just renounce the world. I want to become a renunciate.
And they decide to do it. They try it for some time. And if they can’t do it, they think, I cannot practice.
I am not practicing bhakti at all. And yes, now they can become a grahastha. They can have their job.
They can have career. They can have family. They can practice bhakti.
But they have reduced bhakti down to this particular ashram, this particular way of practicing. And if they can’t do that, say, what is the use? Just gravitate back completely into materialism. Yesterday I talked about all or nothing.
So, Krishna Consciousness is not just about following a particular standard. Now, of course, being a grahastha is not a failure. But in their idea, in their worldview, they are thinking, this is success, this is failure.
Both are very respectable, time-honored ways of growing in Krishna Consciousness, both ashrams. But even if somebody is not able to follow a particular standard, so fail in Krishna Consciousness means that, Krishna, I wanted to do this, but I couldn’t do it. But I want to still serve you.
So, somebody might make a particular resolution. They can’t stick to it. But if that failure to stick to that resolution brings humility, then that humility can still take them closer to Krishna.
Suppose somebody, say, decides to fast on Ekadashi. I think next Ekadashi is what is called as Nirjala Ekadashi. Nirjala Ekadashi is when devotees try to fast without water on that particular Ekadashi.
So, somebody is trying to fast. And then they make a very strong resolution and they fast completely. And while they are fasting, they come to the kitchen.
And then they see who all is eating what. This person, so attached. This person, hopeless.
This person, glutton. Now, if that is their attitude, then their body is fasting, but their ego is feasting. Their ego is feasting.
And they are not really going towards Krishna much by their fasting. On the other hand, somebody might not be able to fast. They might take some food.
Saying, Krishna, my body is so conditioned, I can’t fast. But still I want to chant, I want to remember you. So sometimes, our strengths can become weaknesses and our weaknesses can become strengths.
What it means is, if our strengths, if our capacity to follow a particular resolution makes us proud, and the whole purpose of following resolutions is so that we can get free from distractions. The world is here, we are here, and Krishna is here. So we want to become free from the distractions so that we can focus on Krishna.
Just focus on Krishna. But sometimes, if our strictness in following resolutions, instead of making us undistractedly look up at Krishna, it makes us look proudly down at the world. Then we are following the resolutions, but we are not growing in Krishna consciousness.
So if following a resolution makes us proud, then that strength can become a weakness. Because we are not going closer to Krishna. On the other hand, if inability to follow a resolution, that’s a weakness, you could say.
But if that makes us feel more humble, that makes us more dependent on Krishna, that makes us call out to Krishna more, that makes us appreciate more those who are following resolutions strictly, then that weakness can become a strength. So that’s why I said, failure in Krishna consciousness and failure out of Krishna consciousness. Failure out of Krishna consciousness means, because I am not able to do this, so I just give it up completely.
No, we don’t have to do that. We may fall down, but we don’t have to fall away. Fall down means we are on a particular path, but we fall down over there.
Fall away means we just give up the path. We don’t have to give up the path, no matter what happens. Krishna also says in the Bhagavad Gita, Even if my devotee does some terrible wrong thing, if that person is still determined to serve me, Krishna says this person is a good person, saintly person.
In 9.31 he says, next verse, that soon that person will become virtuous and my devotee will never perish. Krishna assures that. So we do want to follow rules, but we don’t want to reduce Krishna consciousness down to only a following of rules.
Rules are important, but consciousness is even more important. And the rules are meant to help us to develop the consciousness. But if somehow not following a particular rule makes us so disheartened that the consciousness also goes away, then that is not healthy.
Okay, I can’t follow this. That doesn’t mean everything is alright. Yes, I am not at that level, but still I can be conscious of Krishna at my level.
And gradually as you become purified, you will come to the level of following more strictly also, following better. So inability to follow rules is a defect, it is not a disqualification. Defect, it’s a defect, yes.
You could follow rules, that’s good, but disqualification means you are out now. You cannot be a part of this. In bhakti, we may be unqualified, but we are never disqualified.
Krishna never says, get out now. Krishna is always with us in our hearts. And in fact, you could say that there is nothing that we can ever do that can make Krishna stop loving us.
We might do terribly wrong things, but there is nothing that we can ever do that will make Krishna stop loving us. Krishna says, you are such a terrible person, I am going to leave your heart and go away now. No, Krishna says, Paramatma is always there in the heart.
Sarvasya chaaham, Rudhisanyam ishto. In 1861 he says, I am there in the hearts of every single person always. In this way, we can make sure that we try to follow the rules, but if we can’t, we try to maintain the consciousness at least.
And the last is Tarang Rangini. Tarang Rangini has said, delighting in bhakti’s fringe benefits. So, when we practice bhakti, we, especially, if we have become somewhat accomplished in the practice of bhakti for some time, then we start getting various results.
So, one of them might be popularity. Everybody starts respecting us. Everybody starts praising us.
And then we start practicing bhakti not for Krishna, but for the praise. Or it might be his productivity. Oh, you are able to do so much.
You are able to distribute so many books. You are able to… The mind is saying, Oh, you are able to roll so many chapatis so fast. The mind can become proud of anything.
Sometimes what happens, when we are trying to serve Krishna, we may find that we get some kind of empowerment because of that. And we are able to do things far better than what we were able to do. And if we can, that’s wonderful.
But we are not practicing bhakti just because we want popularity or productivity. Ultimately, what we want is purity. We want our heart to become purified.
We want to become more connected with Krishna. So, if popularity comes, we accept it and we offer it to Krishna. It’s not that we reject it, but that we offer it to Krishna.
It’s Krishna’s mercy. It’s my spiritual master’s mercy. It’s the Vaishnava’s mercy.
And by their grace, I am able to do something. So, if we start delighting in that, in the fringe benefit of bhakti, then we get that, but we won’t get Krishna. Because we get obsessed with that.
I want more and more and more. If somebody praises me, then how many people are praising me more? Why is this person not praising me? Is this person envious of me? We can get into a whole zone where we just lose track of our purpose. So, there is, we want to share Krishna bhakti with others, but our outer preaching about Krishna should be because of our inner reaching toward Krishna.
So, we feel so, we feel enriched, we feel satisfied in our practice of bhakti and we want everyone else. This is so wonderful. You also practice it.
But sometimes internally we are thinking, this is so dreadful. I don’t like this. Devotees are terrible.
This is terrible. This is so difficult. But then, what happens, we are not internally connected with Krishna, we are not internally getting any taste in Krishna, and then we need some taste somewhere.
So then, we go out and do a lot of service to prove to the world, to get taste only in that. So, if somebody gives a class, and their whole purpose of giving the class is to impress the audience, to say how brilliant I am. And sometimes it may happen that their audience may be remembering Krishna, but the speaker may not be remembering Krishna at all.
Because the speaker is thinking how impressively I am speaking about Krishna. So, it’s I-centeredness, not Krishna-centeredness. So, we want to be vigorous externally, but that vigor should be, largely speaking, a result of our inner connection with Krishna.
But if we simply get caught in the external results, then that will also be a big distraction from the path of Krishna. So, anarthas can be, so utsahamai and taranga rangani can be some similar. Utsahamai also is like exhibition.
But that initial is making a show of what I am doing. But here, it is, I am doing it, and I am getting some results of doing it, and I am delighting in the results alone. So, Prabhupada, he was so enthusiastic about sharing Krishna bhakti, that even when nobody was coming for his program, still he was an unknown swami, still he was translating the Bhagavatam, he was talking about Krishna to people.
And even when he was a swami with millions of followers across the world, still he was doing the same thing. He did not delight in the prestige and the pleasure, prestige and the position, he delighted in his remembrance of Krishna. One of the Prabhupada’s disciples tells a memory that when Prabhupada’s Vyasa Puja was being performed in Mayapur, at that time there were devotees who were singing Jai Shila Prabhupada, doing his aarti, somebody was washing his lotus feet, and Prabhupada was speaking something.
So, the devotee was fanning Prabhupada, spear closing, what was Prabhupada saying? Prabhupada was saying to himself, Krishna, just see how your dog is being worshipped. So, Prabhupada was not thinking, I am such a great person, just see how these people are respecting my greatness. He was thinking, Krishna, I am your servant, I am your dog, just see how your dog is being worshipped.
So, Prabhupada was remembering Krishna at that time. So, we all would like to go in that direction, toward Krishna, our consciousness should go toward Krishna. And if we get some external results, that we see that as an indication that this is the direction in which I can do more service.
This is where maybe Krishna has endowed me in this way, so I can do more service in this direction. But it is not just the results or the praise that I want. I ultimately want to serve Krishna, I want to connect with Krishna.
In that mood, we can become more steady in Bhakti. And if sometimes there is no Taranga, that means the waves don’t come, that we don’t get the praise, but still we will be able to move on steadily in our practice of devotion. So, I will summarize what I spoke today.
So, I spoke today on this topic of the six stages of Anarthaneya Bhakti. And we talked about how what is given in the Bhagavatam is expanded in the Bhakti Saamsindhu and that is further expanded in the Madhavika Adambali. And these six stages are not just, not necessarily linear and they are not necessarily discrete, but they are broad indications of the inner territory which we need to navigate till we go from the Bhajana Kriya to Nishtha.
From our practice of devotion to overcome the Anarthas, to come to steady, fixed devotion. So, we talked about Utsahamayi, where a person is over-enthusiastic to show others what I am doing and to judge others for what they are not doing. It’s like instead of climbing up the mountain of spiritual consciousness, one is brandishing to others the path I am following and pulling others down also.
So, to avoid being, to be understanding and not condescending, we need to see that the distance between abstinence and indulgence is not the same for everyone. So, for me it might be a straight line, for somebody they might have to climb a mountain in between based on what impressions they might have in their consciousness. So, that way we can avoid judgmentality.
Then I talked about Ghanatarla, where mood swings keep happening. So, when these mood swings happen, we understand that this is the way the mind is. We can’t avoid the mood swings, but we can come up with healthier ways to deal with discomfort.
When discomfort comes as a default response, which leads to indulgence, and then which leads to again lower consciousness and again we become vulnerable to discomfort. But if you find out amid discomfort, we first of all learn to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. Understanding that discomfort is not a catastrophe, it’s not a disaster.
Just like in cold weather I’ll feel cold, so the material world is a place of distress, so discomfort will come. So, we find out something in bhakti, which we like to do. So, the bhakti circle and the thing of circle we like to do.
Find a overlap and try to keep that accessible to us, so that by that we can move towards stability from those mood swings. And if a direct devotional stimulus is not available, or is not working, then we can have a pro-devotional stimulus, something sattva guna also. Then I talked in this session about four things quickly.
So, what was the first thing I talked? Anyone remember? We talked about four things. Anyone remember the names? What was the last one? Yes, now. Tarangirangini.
Before that was? Niyamakshama. Inability to follow rules. Before that was? Vishaya sangra.
That is combating the sense objects. And before that was? Mudavikalpa. Mudavikalpa, yeah, thank you.
Mudavikalpa is looking for alternatives. When we know I have to do something, but can I find a way out of it? So, to avoid that, what we could do is, don’t wait for inspiration. Just work with what you have.
Don’t look for perfectionism. Just do what you can. And while doing something, we know that if you just go through the initial poison, the nectar will come.
So, that’s how we can stop looking for alternatives by just continuing on. Then, with respect to Vishaya sangra, I talked about when we are combating sense objects, we understand that there are various zones. So, as far as possible, stay in the safe zone.
If you are going to a temptation zone, then checking, the best way to deal with temptation is to not deal with temptation. Check it earlier. The horse looking in the other direction, stop it at that time.
But, if still we have a tendency to go in that direction, then we try to, the surges might come, and don’t beat yourself up if you get overpowered at that time. But, what we do between the urges, between them, we can persist and strengthen ourselves. And, when the surges also come, if we can create some obstacles, then casual desires that come, we will be able to resist it because the obstacles will stop us from getting to it.
And then, by that time, the urge will have passed. And, if still the urges keep coming, we can try to find an anchor. So, if the waves hit us, we don’t fight the waves, but we try to hold on to an anchor, something which we can hold on to in the practice of Krishna Bhakti.
Then, we say, Niyamakshama, inability to follow rules. I have talked about how. Rules following is important, but more important is consciousness.
If we can’t succeed in Krishna Consciousness, we can fail in Krishna Consciousness, not out of Krishna Consciousness. So, inability to follow rules is a weakness, but if that brings humility, then it can become a strength. And, the ability to follow rules is a strength, but if that brings pride, that can become a weakness.
And, lastly, I talk of Taranga Rangani, that Bhakti practice will bring some fruits. We might become popular, we might become more productive than earlier, but we don’t delight in that productivity or popularity. We focus on connecting with Krishna.
If these come, we offer them to Krishna, we see them as indicators, that maybe I have been gifted in some way by which I can do service in this direction. But, if we focus on connecting with Krishna, we try to share Krishna, not because we want the world’s appreciation, or world’s praise, but rather because we are connecting with Krishna, we are so happy that we want others also to be happy. Then, even if sometimes other out results don’t come, we’ll be able to move onwards steadily.
So, thank you very much. Hare Krishna. So, where are the questions? Does someone want to process the questions or should I go through them? Okay, okay.
This is, How do we have a healthy attitude towards grahastha transition and raising children, etc.? In general, there are two aspects in bhakti that whenever we are practicing something, it is good to have commitment to that practice. And for having commitment, sometimes we may study shastra and analyze things in a way that brings focus. This is the best thing to do.
It’s like many times people ask this question that in Christianity it is said that Jesus is the only way. Now, is that, if we accept that Jesus is also, as Prabhupada said, our guru, he is the son of God, then why is that given in the Bible? Actually, it’s not just in the Bible. If you want to say Krishna also, sarva-dharman-vritya-yamam ekam saranam acyutam, just surrender to me alone, he is saying.
So there are statements like this which can sound exclusive statements. But they are meant to create focus. They are not meant to reject everything else.
Per se, for all time. Just like if a patient is very confused and they come to a doctor. And when they come to a doctor, at that time, the doctor starts giving them understanding and prescription and the patient starts saying, but you know I went to this doctor and the doctor said that.
And then I had gone to that doctor and that doctor said that. And I had gone to that doctor and that doctor said that. Then the doctor will say, just forget everything that you have heard from other doctors.
Just take what I am telling you. Now that doesn’t mean all the other doctors are wrong. All that it means is that at this point, this is what you need to do.
So similarly for us, when we are in a particular ashram, say if we are in the brahmachari ashram or the brahmacharini ashram, whichever. So at that time, we will probably hear the whole philosophy presented in a way as if this is the best way to practice. And yes, it is the best for us at that time.
But that doesn’t mean that is the best way for all time. If somebody is in another ashram, there somebody might be practicing differently. In fact, what to speak of somebody, initially Prabhupada, you know, his gaudy, amate God brothers thought that Prabhupada is not a very serious devotee.
His God brothers were thinking, if he is serious devotee, he will join us full time in the temple. What is he doing business over there? Prabhupada, Prabhupada’s God, spiritual master saw and said, he will do everything in his time. You leave him alone.
So if you just get, so those of his God brothers who were in the renounced order, they had this idea, renounced order is the highest. Why is he not here? But Krishna has a plan for everyone’s spiritual growth. And everyone will move forward accordingly.
So one way to understand is that, Krishna’s mercy is accessible to everyone. From our place, at our pace, we access the grace. So from our place, at our pace, we access the grace.
So now, sometimes you might be in a place where we can access that grace a lot. Where there is not many distractions. But in another place, it might be in a different way.
So, it’s important that, we recognize that each ashram has its own way of serving Krishna. And, each ashram has to be appropriately respected in its own position. So, when we are in the brahmacharya ashram or the brahmacharya ashram, that time it’s wonderful to have, as I said, full time service.
But if somebody is transitioning from the ashram, then that is also serving Krishna, but in a different way. At that time, if two people are coming together for a lifelong relationship, then the two people have to understand each other, connect with each other. And then together, they serve Krishna as a team.
And, the way, so, the needs of, like Prabhupada, he, when he met his spiritual master, in 1922, he said, he felt that, if I had not been married, I could have immediately surrendered to my spiritual master. He said, but now, it will be an injustice. So, Prabhupada continued in the ashram and he did the responsibilities over there.
He did not neglect them, thinking that, oh, to be a serious devotee means, forget my business, I’ll just go to the temple and serve over there. No, he was doing his responsibilities. And, Prabhupada did it as much as he could till the age, almost till the age of 50, 55.
And, eventually, he renounced. So, in each ashram, there is a time-honored way in which one can practice bhakti. one has to, the Bhagavatam is a book of the principles of bhakti.
At the same time, the Bhagavatam is spoken to a person who is about to die. And, that’s why the whole orientation of the Bhagavatam is from that perspective. Say, if somebody was doing a lot of book distribution, a lot of preaching, a lot of managing, a lot of fundraising, and then, they, they are diagnosed with terminal cancer.
And then, maybe they have only a few months to live. Now, okay, what about this project? How are you going to raise funds for that project? What about it? Guys, don’t think about all that now. Now just hear about Krishna.
Now just focus on Krishna. So, at that point, they are going to exclusively, it’s best that they exclusively focus on Krishna. But suppose somebody young, healthy, energetic, and they say, oh, I just want to go to Vrindavan or Mayapur, I’ll chant 128 rounds every day.
No, don’t do that. Not at this stage. And now, you pursue your service, whatever you want to do, pursue your career, and practice bhakti.
So, the way, although at one level, although at one level, we can say we may die at any moment, is true. But at the same time, if we want to do anything worthwhile in life, we have to learn to it, we have to commit to it. Now Arjun, when he was practicing archery, he was committed to the practice of archery.
He was, learned everything every day, and focused on it, and then practiced. And that’s how he became an expert archer. So, we could say, the same principles that are given in the Bhagavatam, of practicing bhakti, they’re also given in the Mahabharata.
In the Mahabharata, Narada Muni comes to meet Yudhishthira Maharaj. The first question that Narada Muni asks Yudhishthira is, that, he doesn’t just simply ask, how are you? He says, he says, how are you pursuing, religion, profit, and pleasure? So, religion, profit, and pleasure, we could say, dharma, artha, and kama. And he tells him that, don’t pursue religion, at the, at the, expense of profit and pleasure.
Don’t pursue profit, at the expense of religion and pleasure. And don’t pursue pleasure, at the expense of, religion and profit. That means, dharma, artha, kama, you could say, broadly speaking, for a devotee, in the grahastha ashram, dharma could refer to the, temple, artha can refer to the office, the workplace, and, kama, kama is not the sensual desire, it’s holistic material well-being, that can refer to the home.
So, you know, pursue all of them in balance. And, a natural part of grahastha ashram is having children. So, some devotees may decide not to have children, and that is, the way they feel inspired to Sir Krishna.
But the general way, in which, throughout history, even those who have been in the grahastha ashram also saw this, a natural aspect of grahastha ashram is, to have children. Prabhupada would say, putraheenam grahasunyam. Without children, household life is, just like empty.
And, that is also a way of serving Krishna. We may not be able to serve Krishna directly, in terms of, say, coming to a temple, and distributing books, or something like that. But, there are different ways of serving, and, different ways of growing through service.
It’s often, much more difficult, ultimately, bhakti is about becoming, coming out of self-consciousness. Coming out of self-centeredness, and becoming Krishna-centered. Now, we could do it in different ways.
Sometimes, when we are in a committed relationship with someone, that itself forces us, oh, I can’t keep thinking about myself. I will think about somebody else. And then, when somebody has children, then they have to think about the children.
So, that is also, expansion in consciousness. When somebody is thinking that this child is sent by Krishna to me, then, taking care of the children is also service to Krishna. So, and often in terms of the growth, in selflessness, the growth in responsibility, that might, actually require more commitment, than, just going to the temple and doing services.
Of course, it’s wonderful to go to the temple and do services. But, we have to see that, taking care of children is also a very important service. And that also helps us to grow.
It’s, it’s much easier, to love humanity, than to love human beings. That means, it’s much easier, it’s much easier to go and meet people on the streets, and, good morning, how are you, be polite with them. It’s much, much difficult to, come home and be with people regularly and be polite with them.
Isn’t it? So, in many ways, it is that, if we consider, bhakti is not just about doing services, it’s about developing humility, developing tolerance, developing respectfulness. So, often it is, serious committed relationship, every relationship begins, with the hope that we will be controllers. And every relationship gives us the realization, I am not the controller.
So, in that way, it brings humility to us. So, there are different ways of serving Krishna, and if we consider raising children also as a service to Krishna, and that is how, service has always been done in the past. And, that’s how we will also grow in bhakti.
There is, there is, we could say, adharma, aparadharma and paradharma. Adharma is irreligiosity, aparadharma is material religiosity, and paradharma is spiritual religiosity. So, sometimes, anything that is not spiritual religiosity, we equate all of it together.
But it is not true. Aparadharma and adharma are two very different things. Adharma is wrong doing, sinful living.
Aparadharma is virtuous living at the material level. Now, of course, for a devotee, even taking care of one’s family, taking care of children, it’s not just material. Because a devotee is doing it in the mode of service to Krishna.
And, if we can, if we can see that this is also a way in which I’ll grow in selflessness and tolerance and humility, then it can also be seen as a very valuable service to Krishna. So, the healthy attitude is that, if I’m in a particular ashram, whatever are the ways of serving Krishna in that ashram, I adopt that. And each person can decide how best to serve Krishna, but it’s not that if somebody decides to serve Krishna in a particular way, they should judge others and consider that is lower and this is higher.
It’s everyone is inspired and directed, driven to serve Krishna in a particular way, and we are all moving toward Krishna. It’s if we start looking down at somebody who is serving Krishna in a different way, then we are focusing more on their material side than on their spiritual side. Then where is our Krishna consciousness? Krishna consciousness means to see the Krishna element in everyone.
If we are not seeing that, then we might think that we are being strict, but we are actually not being so Krishna conscious. So, see how everybody is serving Krishna. That is the healthy attitude in Krishna consciousness.
I hope the other questions are not that long for an answer. But this was quite an important question, so I felt that it should take some time. So, how in Srimad Bhagavatam, Shukadeva Goswami is speaking while Vyasadeva is hearing.
So, how do you as devotees advance and reconcile social etiquette and position with service opportunity when they conflict? That means, if we are to do some service and there is some other senior devotee who is also there, generally there is seniority, there should always be respect. But respect doesn’t necessarily mean that just because somebody is senior, they will necessarily have the competence or the skill for a particular service. Now, what we can see is, if we are given a particular service and there is a senior devotee over there, we can seek the blessings of the senior devotee or at least acknowledge the presence of the senior devotee and offer our respects to them and then do that service.
Sometimes there can be different purposes. Sometimes we might, some services might require a particular material ability more and we might have that material ability more. Sometimes, we might even be able to do that service better than a senior devotee.
But there is one thing, doing a service better, but another thing is having that consciousness better. So, we might be able to do a service better than someone else, but that doesn’t automatically make us more advanced devotees. So, as long as we understand that this is just for a particular role in a particular place, we won’t become proud and we can acknowledge that devotee and continue the service.
Okay, this is another difficult question. If Krishna helps his devotees to come to him, why do some devotees go through so much pain to leave their material body? Can we leave material body peacefully or through sudden accident? Basically, for a devotee, it is not that the nature of material nature is going to change. That means the material world is a place of distress.
So, sometimes bad things happen in the world. And the scriptures do talk about how Hanuman heroically went into Lanka and came back victorious. But the same Ramayana also talks about how Jetayu was killed by Ravan.
The same Mahabharata which talks about Arjun winning against the Kauravas also talks about Abhimanyu being killed. So, the nature of material nature doesn’t change. So, in the material world, sometimes accidents happen, sometimes terrible diseases happen.
Now, we may say where is Krishna present in this for a devotee? Krishna’s presence is not so much in removing problems from a devotee’s life, but it is more in raising a devotee above problems. So, that means a devotee may suffer at an external or physical level, but if the devotee is absorbed in Krishna, his suffering won’t be that much. So, if some devotee is suffering, rather than thinking why is this devotee suffering, we can say, how can I help this devotee at this stage? Maybe I can offer some support, maybe I can offer some way to help that devotee remember Krishna.
So, Krishna’s help is there, but it can come in different ways. And sometimes when devotees go through even, say, painful situations, it is quite often that through that devotees also grow in their Krishna consciousness. Because it’s when the body is in pain and at that time we remember Krishna, then we realize that the pain is there, but Krishna consciousness can raise us above that body’s pain.
And that can give us great conviction. So, why does a particular devotee have to go through a particular situation? That is very difficult to know, because we don’t know what Krishna’s plan is, what all anybody has done in their previous life. If a devotee is in pain, we can simply see that as an opportunity for us to do some service.
And what is that service? Ultimately, the best service we can do is to help others also to be conscious of Krishna. And sometimes the most extraordinary experiences of the potency of bhakti come out when we see devotees in pain, but still being Krishna conscious. And I was in Mayapur when Anastha Prabhupada’s disciples, Sridhar Maharaj, he departed from the world.
Now, he was known as the Jolly Swami. So, he had severe liver issues. And when we were with him, he had a lot of problems.
So, he was just joking. He says, in India, we have the Indian Petroleum Company. He says, you know, if the Indian Petroleum Company can come and start a plant in my stomach.
He was joking about his sickness. And then, he spent his last few years and for last few months in Mayapur, surrounded by devotees. And in very graceful consciousness, he departed from the world.
So, although the pain was there, but his consciousness set a great example for devotees. So, now, as far as our particular, when we die, when we die peacefully or through sudden accident, it’s more important than how we die is what we remember. So, if we are striving to remember Krishna as much as possible in the routine course of our life, whatever may come in future, the remembrance of Krishna will shield us.
The remembrance of Krishna is the best way we can prepare. So, it’s like, if somebody is, somebody is, say, with a stick hitting somebody on the hand, and if they are wearing a thick glove, then although that thick glove, although the stick is hitting, and a stick’s hitting might create a big noise, but if the glove is there, the person won’t feel hurt. So, similarly, for us, if we wear the glove of Krishna consciousness, then life’s blows will hit, but they won’t hurt.
So, for all of us, if we are striving to be conscious of Krishna, then even if that stick hits us, it won’t hurt us that much. But if we don’t wear that glove or we have the glove and we take it out, then when the stick hits, it will hurt us a lot. So, if we strive to be conscious of Krishna, now that is the best preparation for us and whatever way, whatever the future may bring for us.
See, we can’t know what the future holds, but we can know who holds the future. And if we hold on to that Lord, then He will hold on to us. He will hold us and He will help us go through the future.
In the ladder of love which I talked about in the 12th chapter of the Gita, if I am a neophyte, I will always think I am at the spontaneous absorption level. So, but how can we accept the level we are at and act? Yes, we might think that we are at the spontaneous level, but soon we will realize that we are not at that level. Because we will find that we can’t maintain that enthusiasm, we can’t maintain that attraction.
So, if we are thinking we are at the spontaneous level, then it’s mostly that we are right now at the Utsahamayi stage, where we are having a lot of enthusiasm. And it’s good to have enthusiasm, but the stages are not so much to even judge where I am with respect to where others are. It’s just to get more or less a context of the path that we are supposed to take.
And if we feel enthusiastic, we can be grateful to Krishna, and we can mind that enthusiasm to do more and more service. And it could be that some of us might have already practiced bhakti in a previous life, and we might be at the level of spontaneous devotion right now also. So, if that spontaneous attraction to Krishna is sustained, that’s wonderful.
But if it is not sustained, then we understand I am not at spontaneous level. Let me practice at what level I can. So, how do we maintain our Krishna conscious enthusiasm as we grow older? As I am growing older, I am losing my Krishna consciousness.
I wouldn’t say losing Krishna consciousness. It’s more of that we might not be able to do Krishna consciousness in the same way as we were doing in youth. Because the consciousness has to be expressed through the body.
So, if somebody grows older, then the body needs more rest or the body is more sickly. And then we might not be able to do the same level of service. That doesn’t necessarily mean that we are not being Krishna conscious.
In youth, we can just get the body to do what we want it to do. But as we grow older, we have to think about the body a lot more. To be conscious of the body is not to be in bodily consciousness.
To be bodily conscious means to be conscious only of the body, nothing else. But if the body has become weaker and we need to spend more time to be conscious of the body and its needs. But if we do it, because this is the body I have to serve Krishna, then what we could do is, as we grow older and we need to spend more time attending to the body, we can remind ourselves that this is the tool which Krishna has given me.
And whatever I need to do to take care of the tool, I’ll do that. Just like if some car, it needs a lot of attention to fix it so that we can drive it. But if that’s the only car I have, then I’ll have to take the time to fix the car so that I can drive it better.
And as long as our purpose is to drive to Krishna, then whatever time we are spending on the car, we shouldn’t see that as outside of the purpose of Krishna consciousness. So as our age increases, certainly the way in which we perform service may change. And we don’t have to feel guilty about that.
We just have to recognize that I have to adjust according to the kind of body that I have. It’s one thing to, at one level, it requires humility to accept our weaknesses. But it also requires humility to accept ourselves with our weaknesses.
It requires humility to say, oh, I can’t do this. But it also requires humility. I can’t do this, but still I’ll continue serving Krishna.
Because maybe when we were younger, we could do many more dynamic services. But now we can’t do that. So it might be that we have to take a slightly lower profile for serving Krishna.
But if we accept ourselves as limitations, that can also help us to develop humility and connect with Krishna more. So if we, yeah, this is, I think, a related point only. By practicing better self-care in terms of health and taking better time for sadhana, will that help us gradually develop more capacity to spend quality time with others and for cultivating others? Yes, definitely.
But it has to be in balance. What is the limit? If I say I’ll take care of my health and for that I’ll go every day to the gym for six hours. Well, that’s not in proportion.
If I say that I want to do sadhana, I want to study shastra, then I will speak. I want to study shastra so well that if anybody asks any question, I should always have that answer. Well, even somebody who’s been practicing bhakti for 30 years may not have answers to all questions.
So we keep it in proportion. We spend some time for studying shastra, spend some time taking care of health. And we also cultivate and spend time with others.
We don’t have to make this, this or this. It can be this and this. And the proportion can be adjusted.
Sometimes if the book distribution marathon is going on, then we spend more time on going out and distributing. At other times, we might spend more time on nourishing ourselves, reading more books. So it’s like if we are going on a road, the traffic is very high, we might go slower.
If the traffic is less, we might go faster. So like that we can adjust what we pay more attention to when. But overall, we can have a sense of balance.
OK, I’ll continue for five more minutes and I’ll try to come. Do you have any more questions or that’s it? That’s it. Yours also? Oh, OK.
How many? OK, how many are there? So Prabhupada says that bhakti yoga is the only way that makes me feel that Krishna consciousness is a sectarian path. I don’t think Prabhupada says in an exclusive sense that bhakti yoga is the only way. Prabhupada is saying bhakti yoga is the only way to attain Krishna.
Prabhupada is not saying bhakti yoga is the only way to grow spiritually. Other yogas also help us to grow spiritually. But if you want to attain Krishna, then you have to practice bhakti yoga.
If you want to, now Prabhupada is so inclusive that Prabhupada also said when some Christian monks came to meet him, priest came to meet him, he said that anybody who loves God, they will attain God. And Jesus Christ is also our guru. So we don’t have to necessarily highlight particular statements of Prabhupada.
We have to see that Prabhupada spoke different things in different contexts. And there is a universal aspect of Krishna consciousness, there is a confidential aspect of Krishna consciousness. So the confidential, if it is presented inappropriately, can come off as sectarian.
Confidential means that we say that attaining love for Krishna in the mood of Radharani, that is something which the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition has given us. And this is the confidential aspect. But the universal aspect is that love for God is not the monopoly of any particular tradition.
It is something which everybody can attain by following whatever process is there in their tradition. So the universal aspect is non-sectarian. And the confidential aspect, I wouldn’t use the word sectarian, it is more specific.
Confidential, each tradition will have its particular evolutions. And that’s what makes the, we don’t, that’s what makes the tradition special. So we want to talk about universal, but universal doesn’t mean everything is homogenous.
Like I talked about different paths to go up the mountain. It’s not that all paths are identical. There is individuality in every path.
And acknowledging that there is individuality in each path doesn’t mean we are talking about the path that we are sectarian. OK, so I told about how in the cooking class in America, someone gave, a devotee gave like a full dose of Krishna consciousness. So how did you approach that devotee afterwards and how did you rectify the situation with the guests? Well, I didn’t approach that devotee, but that devotee was much more senior to me.
And I just told the temple leader, the temple leader said that we will talk with them later. As far as that, as far as the people were concerned, we just told them that Krishna consciousness movement is a very big movement. And there are different devotees with different backgrounds, different frames of mind, different moods.
So you try to find out those devotees are like minded and connect with them. I think people are also, people also understand this point. If somebody wants to, within every community, there are people who are, who are pleasant.
There are people who are a little bit domineering. There are people who are of different kinds. So we don’t necessarily need to criticize a devotee, but you say that there are different devotees of different, different backgrounds, different moods.
So we need to find like minded devotees. So to get guidance from our seniors, we need to present our problems to them. But how can we avoid the fear of presenting our weaknesses to our mentors? I think it’s a gradual process of developing mutual trust.
It’s like, say, if we are alone at home and somebody knocks on the door, then we might first look to the people who is there. Then I don’t know if now it is in, sometimes in homes there is a chain. So you open the door, the chain, you can just see who is there, but the person can’t barge in.
Then gradually we open the door. So it’s a gradual process. You know, we, if we have a particular weakness, we might share some aspect of that weakness to them.
And then we see the reaction. It’s like we put the water in the, put the, maybe put a hand to see how cold the swimming pool is. Like that, we tell a little bit and see if, how can you do such a thing? If we get a very strong reaction, maybe then that’s not the best place to have the exchange of opening our heart.
So it’s not that we shouldn’t open our hearts, but we also need to have that, have that confidence that we will not be condemned, but we’ll be understood. So we can do it gradually and generally one way our mind tricks us is by thinking that we alone are so fallen. But actually everybody has problems.
Everybody has conditionings. And in general, if somebody has been practicing Krishna consciousness for some time, somebody has been guiding for some time, then they have seen various conditionings that people have gone through. So it’s not that they are going to hyperventilate about it.
It’s OK. So they, it’s often we think that the overreaction will come, but more often than not, those who are going to guide us, they are usually mature. And so we can do good gradually, step by step to explain it to them.
And that way we can open the heart. If we have a friend or loved one who is stuck in a lower state of mind or who is depressed, how can we bring them back or encourage them to take shelter of Krishna and not their mind? It’s usually by hearing. Let them speak.
Even people whom we think are very ordinary and maybe we say boring, if we just can get them to lower their guard, they will speak very interesting things. It’s generally, it’s interested people find everybody interesting. And boring people find everyone boring.
So ultimately everybody wants to be understood. So if when somebody is depressed, more often than not, we are eager to give them advice to come out of depression. And yes, sometimes advice also needs to be given, but sometimes just hearing and understanding needs to be given.
That person should feel that we are there with them and they feel valued by that. That itself can be a big help. And while hearing also, it’s good to try to not take ownership of that problem.
If somebody says, oh, this is my problem, that is my problem, then we hear it. And after hearing it, we can only ask them. So what do you think you can do about this? Now, what do you think you should do about this? When you ask it, what happens is, you are not denying the problem, but you are saying that you have the potential to deal with this problem.
It might be a small step to take, but start with that small step. So sometimes you may say, oh, there is nothing I can do about it. That’s not true.
How can you say it’s not true? There is nothing I can do about it. So, of course, this has to be done carefully, but maybe in a little humorous, lighter tone, you can do it. Then you say, I am powerless.
Oh, really? Is there anything? You are right now in a bad situation. Is there anything you can do to make the situation worse? What? I am in a terrible situation. Who will want to make it worse? No, nobody wants to make it worse, but can you do something which will make it worse? Of course.
No matter how bad any situation is, we all can make it worse. Isn’t it? So, I might have a fracture and I might be bedridden for the next one month. I might say I am powerless.
I might have a fracture in one leg. I can take a hammer and crack my other leg also. So, no matter how bad things are, we can always make them worse.
And if we can make them worse, that means we are not as powerless as we think. If we can make them worse, we can make them better also. So, generally hearing them and just trying to get them to think of what they can do to solve that problem.
Then gradually guiding them. Sometimes it is just a matter of understanding what it is. Many times when people complain that they have a headache, what they have actually is a stomach ache.
And they themselves don’t know they have a stomach ache. So, but if we just hear them in response, they also start understanding what their problem is. And then we can help to deal with the problem better.
So, of course, we have to do it in proportion. Because otherwise if they are very depressed and they make us also depressed, then that is not very helpful. But in general, hearing and helping them to understand the problem and to take responsibility for solving the problem.
Then we become a resource. If we think I will solve their depression, then that is not a very empowering attitude. But if we try to become a resource to help them understand their problem and solve their problem, then that’s a healthier way to help them come out of it.
Okay, last two questions. How to respond to devotees who if one of them for blessing says things like where it may not, well, it may not happen, Krishna may not fulfill it or worse that it may go opposite of what you want. Okay.
So if we ask somebody to bless us for doing something and they give like not a blessing, but a warning. Then what do we do? Yeah, it’s Krishna consciousness has two aspects to it. You could say broadly, you know, preaching means to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comforted.
To comfort the afflicted means somebody is in distress. We have to give them hope and strength and shelter. Yes, Krishna is there with you.
And somebody is comfortable. Oh, I’m happy. And what happiness? Death can come anytime, distress can come anytime.
So, you know, we have to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comforted. But sometimes we end up afflicting the afflicted. And then it’s not that it’s.
I remember I cringe at myself when I remember that memory. There’s one one friend of mine who was who was semi-favorable to bhakti and he was going through a lot of problems. And he came to me and told me all the problems he was going through.
And then I said, see, I’ve been telling you for so long this world is dukkha. Have you understood that the world is a place of misery? Have you understood right now? I told him, if you don’t understand this now, the misery will increase till you understand it. He never came back to talk with me after that.
It is a horrible thing that I did. And I thought, actually, I was helping him to understand the truth. But the point is that Krishna consciousness is not so much about speaking the truth as it is about attracting people to the truth.
So attracting people to the truth means when a particular person in a particular situation, what do you speak to them by which they can come closer to Krishna? So we might speak the right thing, but if we speak it at the wrong time, we alienate the person from Krishna. Once Shila Prabhupada had come to visit a temple in America. It was a small, it was like a condo on one side, the devotees were staying.
On the other side, there was an old lady staying. And that old lady, the devotees were just people who had been hippies earlier and become devotees. And Hare Krishna’s were very strange kind of people for them.
So and the devotees would do loud kirtans. So she had complained about them. And what happens for devotees, anybody who criticizes anything about bhakti, it’s very easy to say they are demons.
So when the devotees came there, Prabhupada told, they told Prabhupada, Prabhupada, our neighbor is a demon. And then Prabhupada had gone for a morning walk. And while coming back, Prabhupada instead of going back to the temple side, he went to the other side.
And then he knocked on the door and then she greeted him and Prabhupada talked with her for about 15 minutes. It was a typical old people talk. You know, how is your health? How are your children? How are things with you? So many things Prabhupada has talked.
And then after that Prabhupada left. And the devotees had a big unasked question mark on their face. And then Prabhupada said that sometimes old people get lonely.
And that’s why they become irritable. And Prabhupada left. And after that, that lady came and the devotees met that lady.
And she said that your Swami is such a nice person. And whatever complaints she had against the devotees, she withdrew them. So Prabhupada brought that lady closer to Krishna without speaking one word about Krishna.
So the point is that it’s important that according to time, place and circumstance, what is necessary to encourage a particular devotee, that be spoken. And if that is not happening, then it is unfortunate. And we just have to see that the devotee has good intentions, but not the appropriate application of the intention.
So we just maybe keep a distance with respect to that issue from them. Because sometimes some devotees, each devotee has a particular nature. And accordingly, they will speak or represent Krishna consciousness.
Everybody can learn sensitivity, but it’s not that everybody will learn sensitivity in the same way. And some devotees might feel that that is the way to present Krishna consciousness, which is okay. I remember one of my spiritual guides, it was his birthday.
I told him, wish you many happy returns of the day. What birthday? Whenever somebody tells me about the birthday, I remember what pains I must have experienced in my mother’s womb when I came out of the womb. After that, I never wished him.
So maybe that devotee wanted to teach detachment. Another devotee, he went to his spiritual master, not his spiritual master, his local temple leader. And he had just joined the temple and it was his first birthday.
So he went and said, Prabhu, today is my birthday. So how old is your stool bag? Now that devotee, he said, my temple brother was so compassionate to me. He freed me from whatever sentimental attachment I had to my birthday.
Now maybe that was the way it worked for that person, but it may not work for other people. So sometimes it is, sometimes we can see just, see certain devotees’ actions as not just meant for ourselves, not take it so personally, but sometimes we can just see it as Krishna consciousness can have so many flavors. And some flavors may just be completely unpalatable for us, but for somebody else, that’s what has worked for them, that’s what has worked, they have seen it working for somebody else.
So it’s, if somebody is very strong and very, somebody speaks in that particular way, then we can keep a distance from them with respect to that particular thing, understanding that this may not work with me, this does not work with me, but we don’t have to judge that person also, because each person has their own experience, their own perspective in Krishna consciousness. Overall, we have to find like-minded devotees and take encouragement of those like-minded, and share with those like-minded devotees and move on in our bhakti. So thank you very much.
Shri Prabhupada ki…