Vandanam – Understanding the dynamics of prayer

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
among the nine realms of devotional service on Vandanam, the process of praying. So I’ll take a stop in four parts.
First I’ll talk about the universal principle of praying. Then I’ll take some sample prayers from the Bhagavatam and the Murudvipalvi as well as from the Lord Vishnu tradition. And then in the third part, I’ll focus on the special mode of the prayers that the Acharyas and the Lord Vishnu Sampradaya have offered.
And then we’ll conclude by talking some practical things about how, when and why we can pray. So prayer is the universal language of the human heart for communicating with the divine heart. It is the universal language irrespective of whichever culture, whichever nation, whichever intellectual, social background people they belong to.
There is a language that cuts across all boundaries. And that language is the language of prayer by which the human heart connects with the divine heart. So the principle of prayer is observed by anthropologists.
Anthropologists are specialists who study especially the human culture. So they have found that whether it is primitive cultures or what we in today’s world view consider as primitive cultures or their progressive cultures, the urge to pray to some reality higher than us, stronger than us, that is almost universal. So in fact, so inclusive is the scope of prayer that now in the western world and slowly in India, there is an increasingly aggressive atheistic movement.
So these atheists they have made prayers for atheists. Now if a person is an atheist but does not believe in God, then whom are you going to pray to? So their answer is that prayer is a psychological phenomenon by which you benefit. So why should we atheists be deprived of the benefit? We don’t believe in any reality.
So the point here is, this could be taken in two ways. One is that there is no reality beyond to whom we are praying. But praying is just an activity that we do and it makes us feel good.
So with this disposition, the atheists, they pray and they are not praying to any God. They are actually just trying to supplement their feelings and worries and things like that. However, if we see in nature, every deep urge that we have, it has a contributor.
We are thirst. Water exists to fulfill the thirst. We have hunger.
Food exists to fulfill that need for to fulfill that hunger. So whichever are our universal longings or needs, there is a fulfillment in nature. So even from the point of logical inference, the very fact in the human heart, irrespective of culture and irrespective of even theological orientation, irrespective of whether a person is a priest or atheist, irrespective of that, the human heart longs to connect with something higher than itself.
Then, it’s a reasonable case to infer that there could be a higher reality with which we are longing to connect. And that is why when we try to connect with some higher reality, it gives us some solace. It gives us some strength, some satisfaction.
So the benefits of praying, scientists try to do some surveys to check how much, check whether objectively people are benefited by this. And there have been many studies and in general, the results have been quite intriguing. So one thing is that every individual person is different.
So again, theists and atheists will tout their own studies to try to prove how prayer is quoted or prayer is not quoted. So, I’ll start with how atheists write and then we’ll come to theists. So there was some study done in England where it was found that if people are in a hospital, and if they are told that there are 50 people, 100 people praying for you, so if they are praying for them, then they found that their condition became worse.
So, and this was only one study, but what happened? So now, this way they have prayed as a bad effect. What is this? But then, actually speaking, another study was done, and at that time they found that these people, you know, when they thought that 50 people are praying for me, that means I must be very sick. And that created a negative impression.
So, if we just take the activity of prayer out of the culture of caring, then we do not reflect properly what the benefit or the lack of benefit of prayer is. Now, it’s interesting that at one level atheists will say that healing is simply a biological phenomenon. And praying, how is that going to help? It’s not going to help.
But then, if some study comes up which says that praying is going to harm them, then they say that praying is bad. So, you cannot have it both ways. Either the psychological and the spiritual affects the physical, or it doesn’t affect the physical.
So, there are three dimensions to our existence. There is the physical, there is the psychological, and the spiritual. So, when people try to find out empirically whether praying benefits.
So, what they are trying to do is they are trying to see if the spiritual affects the physical. But what is neglected in this is the psychological domain. So, the way we feel, our emotions significantly affect our health.
So, people who have a pessimistic or negative disposition, it is well known that the breath dies. This leads to the secretion of certain chemicals in the brain, which actually promote the prolonging of sickness. And people who have a positive attitude, it leads to the promotion of their health.
So, there are other surveys, of course. The problem with this is that the spiritual is not being reflected in the physical, the psychological is reflected in the physical. That the people felt, oh, I must be very sick.
And that created a problem. But there are other surveys where it was found that rather than others praying for that person, if that person oneself prayed, then two things happen. Firstly, that people themselves felt much calmer.
And even from a biological point of view, if the person’s emotions are not in agitation, then the body breathing takes place faster. But more importantly, when people were a part of a community, there was a massive book, one of the most well-researched books published by the Oxford University, called the Handbook of Religion and Health. And that book, they found that both the longevity and the quality of people’s life improved when they had not just a one-time prayer, but a committed spiritual practice.
In general, it was found that religious believers lived between 7 to 11 years longer than their non-religion counterparts. Not only that, their overall sense of well-being was much more positive. And of course, we have to say that usually people who have a spiritual orientation, they don’t fall prey to bad habits.
Or if they are in bad habits, they recover, they break free from them much easier, much faster. So, rather than seeing praying as an isolated activity, and we try to… If we just do praying as an isolated activity independent of the overall culture, normally we use the word culture to refer to the kind of dress people wear, the kind of words people use, the kind of houses they live in. We talk about this as culture.
That is true at one level. But, to understand the deeper input of culture, we can look at another usage of culture. In biology, we have bacteria culture, yeast culture.
What does that mean? That is a biochemical environment in which that particular microbe will grow. So, bacteria culture means this environmental bacteria will grow. So, human culture by correspondence will mean that environment in which the human qualities of people will grow.
So, praying, when it is separated from the overall culture, it may or may not have its benefits. At least the benefits may not be manifested at an empirically measurable level. But, when praying is seen as an integral part of a culture, and the culture has its underlying worldview.
So, here if people don’t believe in God, or doubt the existence of God, and at that time they are praying, yes, some benefit will be there. But, one of the biggest challenges or problems we could say of the modern or post-modern way of looking at things is to try to quantify everything in empirical terms. So, now, if we see, quantify everything in empirical terms, measurable terms.
Now, if a person is sick, the whole field of medicine is meant to treat people of pain. But, there is really no tangible empirical scale to measure pain. If a person goes to a dentist and the dentist is pulling out the tooth, tell me how much pain you have.
5 decibels, 7 decibels, you can’t quantify pain like that. There may be scales of pain, but those scales of pain are more like inferences from the inferences from certain observed things in the body. You cannot really quantify pain.
Similarly, the solace that people experience from prayer, rather than focusing on its empirical quantification, we can focus on the inner upliftment, inner empowerment, the inner relief that people get through prayer. So, prayer is the way in which, so what I said is the statistics about prayer benefiting have been there, but more importantly, when people live a part of our overall culture, then there is much more benefit and much more empirically demonstrable benefit. So, moving forward from this general principle of prayer and its beneficial effects, now let’s look at the principle of prayer as it is manifested in the Bhagavad Gita.
The Srimad Bhagavatam itself starts with a very universalist understanding of God. So, there is a long verse, the important point is So, the absolute truth is the source of everything. And the Bhagavatam concludes with Let me meditate on the absolute truth, on the conclusion of the first verse.
So, when I was sharing in the broad Bhagavad study, he has written a full book as a commentary on just the first verse of the Bhagavad. A full book on just one verse. So, the point is the Bhagavatam gives a very universal understanding of God.
One who is the source of everything. One by whom truth is manifested, one through whom illusion is manifested. Suppose, someone is reading a book and a person gets lost in the book.
Now, when we see that person, so deeply lost in the book, now how do we understand that? One thing we can infer is, Oh! The author, there must be a good author. That’s why the author has written the subject in such a way that this person is absorbed. So, similarly, the Bhagavatam gives us such an inclusive appreciation of God.
At one level, we can see how in the Bhagavatam there are people who are utterly devoted to God. So, by that we can understand how attractive God must be. That people are ready to leave everything for the sake of God.
But in the converse way, what the Bhagavatam tells us is, that if people are completely lost in illusion, who has created that illusion? That is also created by God. So, even in the power of illusion, we see the power of the law of illusion. So, the Bhagavatam offers us that inclusive appreciation of God.
It’s like, I was in Melbourne, so one devotee asked a question there, that you see that there are wrong choices and right choices. So, why is it that in this world, the wrong choices are always more than the right choices? I told, that’s always the way any multiple choice exam. You know, if we have a multiple choice paper, there is one right answer and three or four wrong answers.
Now, we could, if we just have this presumption of a number of alternatives, as a basis of judging fairness of the exam, then we could make a court case against the exam. My probability of getting the right answer is only 20%. And 20% is fake.
But the point is, that the purpose of the exam is to test whether we have learned prior. So that you can choose a right answer. So, the wide varieties of alternatives that are there in this world, they reflect the variety of human desires.
So, because we have a number of desires, so in this world, the number of things are there, options for us to act on our desires. But just as a teacher gives education, by age, he can tell, this is the right answer, and these are not the right choices. Similarly, the same lord who has provided all these various options, he has also given us scripture and the living tradition of scriptural teachers, from whom we know what is the right option.
And then, by that, we can make the right choices. Kamalak Kamyak. So, in the Vishnu Sastra, it says that the lord is the fulfiller of desire and lord is the ultimate object of desire.
That means, that whatever desire we may have, if it is fulfilled, it is fulfilled by the grace of the lord. But, this fulfillment of desire is not the ultimate aspiration. It is not the most valuable thing that he gave.
The lord himself is the most valuable thing. So, Krishna is Krishna’s greatest blessing. Krishna himself, the revelation of Krishna in our heart, his all-embracingness, that is Krishna’s greatest blessing.
So, the Bhagavatam, the point I was making, when you talk about prayer, so I started with, how in the Atheistic culture, they just keep the activity of prayer and there is not much, they completely remove the person to whom you are praying. And in general culture, many times people go to a temple and quite often they hold their hands and pray fervently, but after you come out, they ask, whom did you pray to? Someone was there, I don’t know who it was. Many times, people just don’t really care.
Who is there on the altar? Maybe somebody is there and that person will help me. But the Bhagavatam’s focus, if you see, is on explaining who is the object of prayer. And sometimes, because of this, you know, if you read some of the prayers in the Bhagavatam, maybe Brahma’s prayers for creative energy, the Sanskrit prayers are there, they are so long and so complex.
And you wonder, okay, what is the prayer over here? You are beyond the modes, you are the grantor of liberation, you are the abode of all the mystics and deities. So there is so much glorification. Where is the prayer over here? Sometimes when we send emails to devotees, so at that time, we start with dear Rahu, dear Mataji, please accept my humble obeisances, all blessings of Prabhupada.
Most of the time when we receive that mail, we don’t even read that, please accept my humble obeisances, all blessings of Prabhupada. We just go to the next part. So, now what happens is, it’s like in the Bhagavatam, we just see this initial prelude and we wonder, where is the message? So we just get caught in that.
So the Bhagavatam prayers basically do three things. They convey the position of the Lord. They reflect the character of the prayerer.
There is no word like this in English, it’s a neologism. Prayerer, one who prays. And then, they express the emotion of the prayerer.
So, first is, they convey the position of the Lord. And this itself takes a long time. The Bhagavatam develops the position of the Lord because there is so much ambiguity about that.
Then after that, there is the character of the person who is praying. That is reflected. And then after that comes the emotion.
And we will see in the Bhagavatam, the people who are praying. There is a wide variety of people who pray. And we will look at a few samples.
But, irrespective of this variety, there is the variety in the individuality of the person. But at the same time, the heart’s longing is so intense and so immediately actually we can connect with it once we come to that point. So, we will start with the sixth canto.
That is the story of a demon, Vritrasura. Now, Vritrasura as it is Asura, means a demon. So, Vritrasura is one who Aavruta.
Aavruta means to spread out. So, one who pervaded the whole of space. Such a giant demon that the enemies, when they would see it, they would get scared.
Indra is the king of the Devatas. But Indra used his formidable weapon and hurled it at Vritrasura. He caught it and hurled it back.
And hurled it back. And it’s one thing to hit your enemy. But Indra has a giant elephant.
And not only was Indra thrown back, but Indra’s elephant itself was thrown back. Indra thought, the only use of fighting was such a person. How can you fight? Now, sometimes in cricket, there is a one-sided match.
So, whatever you bowl, the batsman is just hitting for sixes and fours and sixes and fours. At the end of it, the bowler says, what is the use of bowling? Whatever I bowl, I’m going to get hit. So, the bowler just goes through the motions, waiting for the day to end.
Indra felt, what is the use of fighting? What is the strength to go through the motions? And interestingly, at that time, Vritrasura started encouraging Indra. And Vritrasura said, you have got a weapon from Vishnu. Don’t you have faith in Vishnu? It’s interesting that Indra is instructing Devatas to have faith in Vishnu.
So, the Bhagavatam beautifully takes us beyond externals. From the external point of view, Devatas are much higher than Asuras. But the Bhagavatam goes beyond social position to inner disposition.
And from the point of inner disposition, Vritrasura’s heart is exposed to Vishnu. And he is devoted to Vishnu. And here is this giant demon who is, if we see the picture of Vritrasura, his eyes are fierce.
And if Vritrasura came in the temple, we would not think of him as a Vaishnava. What kind of person has this come? So, this Vritrasura comes and he is fighting and Indra finally uses his weapon and locks off his arm and at that time he starts offering prayers. First of all, he looks so fearsome and then his body is now a bloody mess, his arms have been locked off and at that time he is offering prayers.
And what does he pray? So, he prays, gives three metaphors known from nature to explain the longing of his heart for the Lord. And he says that A bird who is just very tender whose wings have not yet developed has not actually become a full bird. The bird cannot fly.
A baby bird just as a baby bird depends for everything on its mother and longs. When will my mother come back? When will my mother offer me her shade? When will my mother offer me food and comfort? Just as a baby bird longs for the mother, similarly my Lord, I long for you. My heart, my heart longs for you Lord.
Actually, a baby bird is so tender and so tiny and here is a giant demon fighting on a war field and you see that the heart’s emotion is utterly demotion. And then the next example he uses So, Vishwanath Chaturthi explains that he is thinking yes, the baby bird is passing. We will just wait for the mother to come.
But no, I am not going to wait. I want the other. So, he gives the example of just as a calf when a calf gets the udders of the cow and is drinking milk, sometimes the cow starts moving and the calf keeps holding on to the udder.
Holding on, holding on. So, like that This hungry calf holds on to the mother’s udder. So, like that, my dear Lord, I long for you.
So, it’s not just a longing, but it’s also a seeking, it’s also a holding. And then Vishwanath This is just as a lover waits for a beloved. So, if the husband is gone and sometimes the wife is longing, when will he come back? As a lover waits for a beloved.
So, now, here, there is not just a longing or a holding there is also serving. There is service that is there. Mano, I long to serve you, Lord.
So, here Rudrasur he is reflecting his heart on the deathbed. The Bhagavatam, many of its prayers are actually offered on the deathbed. Because we see that the Bhagavatam is spoken to someone who is near death.
So, Parikshit is about to die, Vishwanath Maharaj, and therefore there are so many examples in the Bhagavatam which describe this kind of prayer. So, here, Rudrasur knows that I am going to die. But what he is saying is not that let my death be peaceful or let my death be averted, let there be some miraculous cure.
No, nothing of that sort. He says, my dear Lord, I long to serve you. Now, in this case, in this canto, actually Rudrasur prays and Rudrasur dies.
He is not, he doesn’t survive. In the eighth canto, there is another prayer offered to another person who is close to death. And he is saved.
That is Gajendra. So, when Gajendra offers prayer, Gajendra is this giant elephant. Okay, normally, we do not think of an elephant as a prayerer.
There are elephants and they are used as chariots or carriers. They are carriers for the Lord in processions. But the Bhagavatam takes us beyond external bodily form to the inner heart.
So, bhakti is the universal knowledge of the soul. And bhakti cannot be suppressed by anything. Even the loss of a human body cannot suppress something.
So, there are two different things here. One is the soul has not been a human. Soul is a sub-human body.
In the sub-human body, the soul cannot connect with God. Cannot connect with absolute truth. By an act of conscious volition.
Some devotee can come and give some Gopalsa Prasad. There is a connection that happens there. But by its own intention, a soul in an animal body cannot connect with God.
But the soul has come to a human body, practiced bhakti, had some connection with God and then because of some reason, falls back to the animal body. At that time, now, normally speaking, the Bhagavatam also says, swalpa upke sarvasya traite mahato bhaya. In 2.48 it says that, even if a person practices a little bhakti, then that person will not fall back from the human form to the lower forms.
But here, we see in the canto also, that Bharat Maharaj becomes a deer. So, what is essential is, not the form, but the consciousness. Bharat Maharaj uses the human form but does not use human consciousness.
He still has human consciousness. That’s why he continues his spiritual seeking even in an animal body. So, if there has been a contact with God and if there is a loss of human body, that contact will exist and that prompting to search for God will continue.
But, it may manifest or not manifest at particular times. So, in the case of Gacchendra, he was the king of the elephants. Giant elephant and he was leading his herd of elephants with she-elephants and baby elephants and suddenly out of nowhere he was bathing and sporting in the river and suddenly a crocodile just caught him and he just couldn’t get out no matter how much he tried.
Normally, you would have thought that this crocodile can just kick it off. But this was no ordinary crocodile. And at that time, he prayed.
He prayed to Lord Vishnu. And then, many prayers that he offers, but as he is praying, at that time, initially, the prayer starts off as a desperate call for help. Save my life.
Of course, he starts with philosophy describing the God’s position and the Bhagavad Gita describes how the elephant has such understanding of the philosophy. So, it is that understanding stored in the subtle body and ultimately it is related to the soul. See, there are physical assets which we can’t take from one body to another.
Whatever wealth we accumulate, whatever social position we accumulate, we cannot take from one body to another. But as we move from grosser to subtler, for example, if we develop certain psychological dispositions, so, our disposition in this life will determine our destination in the next life. There is a broad principle.
But within that also, if a person is very absorbed in a particular subject, there are one of the unsolved mysteries of science is of childhood prodigies. Some people are just brilliant in mathematics. Some people are just brilliant painters.
Not people, all children. And according to empirical science, everything comes from your genes. But then if you look at no father, no grandfather, no mother, no grandmother, nobody in their dynasty was such a great painter.
So, where did this painting skill come from? Actually, yes, some things are determined by the body, some things are determined by the genes. But there is also, if a person has cultivated painting talent, that inclination can go on in the next life. So, in the case of Vajendra, he had practiced bhakti in a previous life and those, not just the emotion of devotion, but also the philosophical understanding that underlay devotion.
That also, you know, yajah par banjah, rajam manu shiksha, what I had learned in his previous life, he now spoke in this life. And as he was praying, initially, his prayer started with glorifying the position of the Lord and then essentially what it was, save me, O Lord. But then as he realized, even if I am released from this crocodile, now there is a danger and I am asking the Lord to come and release me from this crocodile, but still, I am caught by the crocodile of illusion.
I am caught by the crocodile of the misconceptions about who I am and what is the source of happiness. And even if this danger goes away, that danger will still remain. And actually, that danger is much more dangerous.
And then, maa drupad prapanna pashupashan mokshanaya muktaya bhumi karunaya namo layaya He starts praying, I am caught in pashupash. I am caught in the pashu, the shackle or the noose, pashu. Now, pashu, at a specific level, can refer to the body of an elephant, which is an animal body, which is God.
But also, it can refer to, in a broad sense, to the body that makes us slave to our animal desires, to the urges for something different. So, any material body, which subjects us to the animal conception of life, that can be called pashupash. So, he is saying, please, pashupashya vimokshanaya, O Lord, release me from the ignorance of the body conception of life.
muktaya bhumi karunaya namo layaya So, he says, why should the Lord liberate? Because he is liberated. You are liberated, so you are free. But then the Lord says, I have tried to free you so many times, but you have never been interested.
He says, bhumi karunaya, your mercy is so great. You, please have mercy. I have tried so many times in the past also.
O layaya, O layaya means, my Lord, you never become tired. You never become exhausted. You are always trying to help.
You are always wanting to help others. In the Vedanta Sutra, in the Govinda Vashya commentary, he quotes from the Puranas and he describes that when the soul prays to the Lord and fervently tries to devote oneself to the Lord, when the soul calls out the name of the Lord, the Lord becomes so pleased by that, that the Lord comes on his Garga angel as he came to Gajendra and takes up that soul from particular existence, seats him on Garga next to him and takes him off existence. Now, you see here, this is the prayer that Gajendra was offering.
He has released him from particular existence. And what did the Lord do? The Lord came and released him from Pashupashya. But the Lord, Gajendra, what happened over there is, by that act of prayer, Gajendra became purified.
He got darshan of the Lord. He became completely purified by that. So here we see, Bhagavatam wants us to go beyond external appearances, whether there is a demon or whether there is an elephant.
In the first canto, there is the example of Kunti Maharaj. And now, her prayers are the first little prayers, the Bhagavatam from 1.8.18 to 43, 26 verses. And the most amazing thing about her prayer is the confusion.
Normally speaking, we often go to God because we need something. We want something and we think, I don’t have the power to do it. God has the power to do it.
So, we go to God to appeal for something. But then, if one goes to God to contact with God, purifies one. So Kunti Maharaj, when she is starting her prayer, she is thinking Krishna is going to leave us.
I cannot tolerate separation from Krishna. She gives many reasons, extremely difficult. Krishna, if you go away, there are so many enemies still there, they may attack us, who will protect us.
Like that she gives reasons. But her heart is out. Cannot tolerate separation from Krishna.
And then, the conclusion of her prayer is, she starts off her prayer by wanting to stop Krishna from leaving. But, the end of her prayer is that my dear Lord, even if you go or you don’t go, let my heart always go towards you. My dear Lord, let my heart always move towards you.
Without going towards anything else. Bless all your inner beings. Let my consciousness flow towards you.
Now, there is in the Katha Upanishad, the metaphor which impersonalists often use, they say that just as the river flows into the ocean, merges into the ocean, so like that the soul will merge into the Absolute. But Kunti Maharaj is not talking about merging. She is talking about meeting.
Let my heart constantly flow towards you. Constantly let my heart go towards you. And let there be not a merging of being, but a meeting of emotions, a meeting of heart.
Just as a river, if you consider a river, reduce the river down to drops, then the drop goes into the ocean. But if you consider a river as an entity, it constantly flows towards the ocean. So like that, let my heart flow constantly towards you.
Now, in this prayer, when Kunti Maharaj offers, the significant thing is, she doesn’t ask anything more of the Lord. And interestingly, after that, the Lord also does not respond. In Bhagavad Gita, Krishna has a smile, being pleased with her prayers, and he departed.
So, we see Kunti, she is a royal lady, she is a in the royal food family. And she is now in a situation where her beloved Lord is departing her. And what is her character? She is recognizing that Krishna’s shelter can always be there with her irrespective of whether he is there or not.
So let that shelter be there. And for that shelter to be there, let me always be there with her. Let my consciousness go towards her.
Now, in the Bhagavatam, the whole Bhagavatam is building towards the 10th chapter. Out of the 325 chapters, 90 chapters are in the 10th canto. And one-third to almost the whole volume of the number of verses are in the 10th canto.
In the 10th canto, there are many prayers. And the climax of the whole Bhagavatam is in the Gopi Gita. In the Gopi Gita, the Gopis are separated from Krishna and there they are utterly devastated.
For the Gopis, when Krishna left them and departed, it was utterly heart-breaking. He describes the progression by which Krishna left. He says that initially, Krishna was with the Gopis and at an external level, he said the Gopis became proud, so Krishna left.
Actually, Kalkanapur goes with the heart of all the Gopis. Krishna is not saying anything. And he says what actually happened is that all the Gopis had great love for Krishna.
But they all knew that Radha’s love for Krishna is the greatest. And therefore, they wanted Krishna to demonstrate the speciality, the supremacy of Radha’s pathology. And that’s why they manifested pride.
And when Krishna departed, it is not so much because he saw the Gopis as proud, he wanted to demonstrate the speciality of Radha’s love for Krishna. And when Radha came, she saw Krishna is their only son. At one moment, she was delighted.
Oh, Krishna loves me so much. At another moment, he started thinking what will be the condition of Nitya, what will be the condition of Krishna? What will be the condition of all the Sakhis without Krishna? How will they be able to live without Krishna? How can I enjoy Krishna’s association when they are all suffering? And that’s why, when Krishna was taking Radha deep into the forest, at that time, Radha was in faint tiredness. She said, Krishna, I am very tired.
If you want me to go any further, I can’t walk any further. Now, at that time, Krishna understood Radha very well. Radha was thinking that if we are going so fast, the other Gopis are not going to catch up with us.
But if I somehow slow Krishna down, then the other Gopis can catch up with us. So, she wanted Krishna to slow down. And at that time, when Krishna saw this, Krishna externally manifested anger.
And he said, oh, because this is jungle, so I can’t get a palanquin from you. So, I’ll carry you on my back. And then, Radha was surprised to see this.
Look at Krishna. Krishna suddenly disappeared. And when Krishna disappeared, Radha was utterly devastated.
She fell in a swoon over there. And the other Gopis were wondering, where is Krishna now? They could see from the footprint that somebody was there with Krishna. Who was this special Gopi? They were discussing the identity of Krishna.
And some of the Gopis manifested a transient jealousy. Who is this special person? But then as they moved forwards, and then they saw here this Radha Nandi lying in a swoon of all their agony. All their, whatever emotions were there, they realized that she is also the same agony that we are.
And whatever jealousy had there disappeared. And then they brought Radha Nandi back to consciousness. And then she told what had happened.
And they all went deep into the forest trying to search for Krishna, call out to Krishna. And they went so deep in that even the moonlight and the starlight couldn’t penetrate. The Gopis couldn’t see the one foot ahead of them.
And they said, we can’t find Krishna over here. So then they came out of the forest. And coming out of the forest, they sat on the banks of Jamuna.
And there they started offering the desperate longing of their heart in the Gopi prayers. Now, J. K. Goswami, in his Gopal Champu, has an elaborate analysis of each prayer. Gopal Champu and other books also.
And basically, he correlates each prayer with the character of each Gopi. And he says, this Gopi has this characteristic, and this prayer, this is me. Therefore, among the various prayers, this prayer is offered by this Gopi.
This prayer is offered by this Gopi. This prayer is offered by this Gopi. Now, in all the other prayers in the Bhagavatam, in the major prayers, there is a singular Ukundi Uvacha.
Or there is Gajendra Uvacha. But here, in the Gopi he started, Shri Gopya Uju. So, Uvacha is singular.
Uju is plural. So now, is it that sometimes the small children, they memorize some papers and they all recite the papers together, in chorus. So, is it like all the Gopis were reciting all the verses in chorus together? No.
The generic uses Shri Gopya Uju that expresses how the Gopis were exhibiting unity in diversity. Every Gopi is an individual. But at the same time, every Gopi is also having the same common feeling of intense separation with Krishna.
And each Gopi is desperately calling out Krishna, please come. Krishna, please come soon. And they are longing for Krishna to come.
And they are all adding the pitch of their emotion to try to get Krishna to come. And when they offer prayers in the Gopi Gita, there is a fascinating interplay of the understanding of Krishna’s divinity and a longing for Krishna’s intimacy. So, at one level, the Gopis understand Krishna is God.
And he is such a great person to be taken cheap. But then, immediately after that, there is also the longing. We want Krishna.
We want Krishna not as our Lord, not as God. We want him as our Lord. So, we know the famous prayer where the Gopis say that, Krishna, now you are in the forest.
And we are agonized that you are in the forest. Now, normally, you have left me and gone. So, that will be the cause of the agony.
But the Gopis are thinking something else. They are not thinking that Krishna left us and gone. But, they are thinking … … … … … … Your feet are as beautiful, as soft, as tender as a lotus.
… Those Gopis think … … … … … … … … … … … … … Now, in the same Gopi Gita, just a few verses before, the Gopis have described how Krishna with his feet, some dude will call you. Pranatakamadam Pranatadehinam Paapakarishanam Vrucharamugam Shriniketanam Vanifanarpitam Tepadampujam Kulkumcheshuna Kundiruchayam Gopi is arrayed at these feet so at one level these feet they know that all people, all sinful activities can be destroyed sinful reactions can be destroyed by going down to these feet these feet are the shelter of the goddess of fortune these feet they are saying you offer them to Kali Gopis are very poetically describing here you offer them to Kali and he subdued Kali Gopis know that Krishna subdued has the power to subdue Kali and what are they doing? they are saying Krishna your feet will be blessed so when there is love there is this interplay between the divinity and the intimacy there is understanding of God’s greatness and there is understanding of wanting to serve the lord so the Gopis they are saying Krishna how can we tolerate the fact that your feet have been pierced so the last prayer of the Gopis is again the same thing they are saying that Krishna you are in the forest and you are wandering in the forest and our heart is torn by this and the result of this prayer is that Krishna returns now in the Gopikita here there is a very beautiful portion so when the heart’s emotions are being expressed there are several things one is as I said to reflect the emotion to express the emotion but also like that the character of the person is also the character of the prayerer also comes up when the prayer is offered so if you see the Gopis in their offering prayers each of these prayers has this poetic alliteration Pranam Tande Hinnam Paap Karshan Purpur so like that most of the verses the first letter of each half line is the same and like this this poetic ornaments these are used by many poets when they are offering prayers because the whole mood of praying is that whatever is the best that I can offer I offer to the lord so if a person has artistic ability, poetic ability musical ability whatever ability is there he will use that to glorify the lord so there is a book written by the Goswamis called Chitra Kavitwani and Chitra Kavitwani is they have written poetry verses or prayers which are actually following intricate grammatical rules so normally when we speak our primary concern is to convey the meaning but when somebody is an expert in language they use the expertise of language also to glorify and ornament the lord there are Vaishnav poets who have written books the whole book if you read it from front to back it tells the story of Ramayana if you read it from back to front it tells the story of the Mahabharata so how can you do that? it’s called palindrome in English so it’s very difficult to write a whole book like that so prayer is not just an activity that is an isolation that’s one thing prayer is an expression of one’s own being now in the Gaudiya Vaishnav tradition Bhakti Rasamundra’s Sindhu is a primary book for Bhakti and for the foundations of Bhakti and there Rupa Goswami describes that prayer involves three phases you can call it three types of prayer or if you look at the Sanskrit three phases of prayer now there is an understanding of the lord’s position there is an understanding of our emotion and there is the interplay or the reciprocation of emotion so Sampradanapnika prayers is the first category of prayer that is where God’s position is talked about for example if we have the prayers of Brahma Samhita that we recited there are one answer there is no asking anything from God there is this Govindamadipurusham tamaham bhajami oh my lord I offer you obeisance to you so I worship you in Sanskrit I adore you and there is expressing the position of the lord and then there is expressing one’s own fallen one’s own fallen position that is Daini Bodhika prayers so we can understand this mode of praying by a simple comparison with Daini when somebody used to beg oh you are so wealthy, you are so charitable you are so powerful, you are this or that after that, oh I have not eaten for 3 days I am still a student if you say I just had a feast please give me some alms so that is Daini Bodhika Daini Bodhika is oh my lord I am so fallen Matulyonastipapatmanapra Dijikashchanam Pariharepilajyam Kindruyapurushottama Sahur Purana no one as sinful as me no one as offensive as me and actually if I try to make a list of my sins and offenses it is so long that I just simply feel mortified I have become silent and then there is a Lal Samay Lal Samay is a longing, a spiritual longing a longing for connection between the soul and the Supreme so now Rupa Goswami when he talks about prayers because Goswami has compiled a book called Padyavadi where the different poetic works of different Acharyas different Varshanas, they are combined together and put in one place Bhaktivinoda Thakur and Narottam Das Thakur these are the two primary poets in our tradition many other poets have also been there but for these two Acharyas their works are available for us in a relatively large number now Bhaktivinoda Thakur was, if you look at it historically he revived the Gaudiya Mishra tradition after it had become unmanifest for some time and one of the things he did was that he used the popular tunes and the popular form of poetry that was in Bengal at that time and he composed Vaishna songs filled with philosophical and devotional poetry in those same tunes and lyrics and in that way, people who were anyway attracted to music and singing he conveyed such an emotion so he has written two books one of them is called Sharnam, many books but we are talking about books of prayers one is Sharnam Gati, the other is Gita Gati so in Sharnam Gati because we are coming to the concluding part we will discuss about how we can develop, how we can pray so now what Bhaktivinoda Thakur does is that he takes the elements of Sharnam Gati the six elements six elements are except that it is favourable, Gita is unfavourable normally people think of Sharnam Gati as something which is very passive, oh I surrendered to her yes, now Draupadi raises her hand and says surrender and in her case, surrender is actually becoming in one sense acknowledging one’s helplessness and becoming inactive but we see in the Bhagavad Gita also at the end of the Bhagavad Gita Krishna surrenders to Arjuna Arjuna surrenders to Krishna and when he surrenders what does he do he doesn’t raise his hand he raises his bow so he raises his bow and what does he say so surrender has not just a passive side to it or a pronouncing side to it it also has an embracing side to it the first two elements of surrender Adhukulyasa Sankalp Adhikulyase Vajna like Sangat Rasool Das if I don’t study and then if I say God I surrender to you will I pass in my exam well that is not surrender that is caricature because surrender begins with Adhukulyasa Sankalp Adhikulyase Vajna except that it is favourable so we have to study and then put aside those distractions which will interfere with us except the favourability of Adhikulyasa Sankalp so without doing the positive dynamic side of surrender where the onus is on us to do things if we consider surrender only as passive then that surrender will not be very deep rooted so he has there are almost 50-60 songs in Sharanagati so for 20-30 songs Adhikulyasa Sankalp all that is favourable how to accept that Adhikulyasa Vajna how can we reject that so now he takes these things so rather than praying now we can pray about the problem that we face in life and how those problems can be solved we can pray to Krishna like please solve these problems and that is one level of prayer and if we are in great distress because of troubles or something we can pray like that and we see the Bhagavatam also contains this prayer but if the prayer is only restricted to that level Krishna I have this problem please solve this Krishna I have this problem please solve this then we are using a gold slab as a shade to protect ourselves from sunburn sun is very hot so I use a gold slab as a shade gold slab is often not just a small shade if you use a gold slab probably you will get a mansion lifelong shade so like that if we use Krishna just for solving our petty problems then we can actually deprive a person of the much greater benefit that Krishna can give us so yes we have problems somehow or the other think of Krishna that is good even if for our problems we approach Krishna and see Krishna’s hand that is fine but the real problem is that we are caught in this world where we are forgetful of Krishna where we are disconnected from Krishna and our attempts to connect with Krishna are also thwarted either because of our external situations or because of our internal conditions so now what Bhaktivinoda Thakur says is so if we are in this material world Krishna is here one level is that Krishna whatever problems I am facing you please help me to solve these problems but that is a preliminary level of that another level is Krishna I want to reconnect with you I want to attain you and in that I am facing problems so please oh lord help me to overcome the obstacles overcome the obstacles in my devotional path so Bhaktivinoda Thakur’s whole poetry is based on this theme of connecting with Krishna and when you offer prayers the essential point as I started this talk was that prayer is a universal language where the human heart connects to the divine heart so when we look at either the Bhagavatin’s prayers or the Goswami’s prayers the important point is that we see these as templates by which we can connect with Krishna so when we see Vaishnava songs it’s not just important that we memorize the songs or that we repeat the songs what is important is that we connect with Krishna’s songs so it’s important that the emotions of our heart are expressed and the prayers the standard prayers that we have they are triggers for us to kindle those emotions in our own heart otherwise prayers we simply repeat the prayers and our heart hides behind the prayers now the prayer is meant to bring out our heart and connect with Krishna but if we just repeat the prayers then our heart stays hidden behind and we don’t connect with Krishna so as sadhakas the whole process of bhakti is articulation of the sadhana articulation means expression expression in words, expression in actions so articulation of the sadhana there is emotion in the heart but that emotion is to be expressed and that expression is the process of bhakti similarly there is articulation of prayers when we study the dharmakund we can see how the great devotees have articulated their prayers and we can also articulate our prayers accordingly so Prabhupada talks about two kinds of prayers one is we learn from the acharyas how they have prayed and we follow in their footsteps follow in their footsteps means we repeat their prayers but also we express our own hearts in action we are individuals, we have an individual relationship with Krishna so when we articulate our thoughts articulate means that as I said that we, there is a there is a dynamic reciprocal aspect in our relationship with Krishna this is the concluding part of the talk we are talking about here how Krishna is here, we are here and there are many things in our life which are just not in our hands now one thing is that Krishna, you take care of all that is not in our hands yes, at least acknowledging that it is in Krishna’s hands is good because say when a patient is in pain, the patient may think that oh I am in this pain and that pain and I don’t know what next pain is going to come but if the patient knows there is a doctor and the doctor is having a treatment plan things may go wrong from my side but actually from the doctor’s side they are going according to plan so at one level we pray that Krishna whatever is not in my control I hand it over to you so in our fight with our anarthas in our practice of bhakti whatever is not in our control I hand it over to you the devotee is so desperate to connect with Krishna that sometimes when we try to chant then the tongue becomes so lethargic the tongue just doesn’t want to chant I can say I don’t want to chant but I can’t say Hare Krishna it just becomes so so it has this it’s like Krishna Krishna seems to be like a big weight how can I chant? so Kulashankar Maharaj in a fascinating prayer normally the object of prayer is Krishna Krishna you please help me but devotee’s heart is so desperate Kulashankar Maharaj actually prays to his tongue he says he says I fold my hand in front of your tongue and I pray to you Krishna’s names are so sweet please chant those names please chant those names similarly we have now we often recite this but actually if you see this song this is not a prayer to Krishna it is a conversation with the mind oh mind please fix yourself on Krishna so the point is somehow or the other connect with Krishna so we all have our individual anarthas and we have our individual battles to fight and we have to find out how best we can fight these battles so we take from Shastra whichever prayers inspire us the most whichever whichever Acharya’s songs or whatever inspires us the most and then we make them our own make them our own means we understand the emotions and express our emotions in an ocean if a boat is going there are multiple currents in the ocean say if we look at the Indian ocean there is some current coming from Australia towards India from Australia towards India another current going from India towards Australia like that there are multiple currents and they are like water streams that are going in different directions so if a boat is travelling then it is important for the boat to catch the right current so if a boat is going southwards from India towards Australia and the boat gets caught in the current which is coming from Australia towards India then there will be herculean effort required and that person will pull and pull row the boat and pull the oars and still very little movement will be there but that person will catch the current which is moving towards Australia then the boat will move much faster so like that if we consider it is in our own consciousness there are different currents there is some current which is going towards Krishna there is some current which is going away from Krishna there is some current which is wandering here and there so usually when we are here in class our mind just goes for walks just goes for walks and then someone laughs hey what was the joke I just did so the mind comes back so these are all currents and as Krishna says that vayu is vishkaram so now what happens is we have to find within our consciousness which are the currents which are going towards Krishna that means which are the stimuli is remembering which devonam remembering which devotees remembering which fast time remembering which acharya what triggers our emotions towards Krishna and then we situate ourselves more and more in that and as we situate ourselves more and more in that that power of prayer will empower us and we find our consciousness moving closer and closer to Krishna and eventually there is prayer and there is prayerfulness prayer is the activity of praying and prayerfulness is the movement that is continuity in general as devotees we strive for that movement of prayerfulness where it goes wherever we are it goes to be connected to Krishna and absorbed in him so for us Shri Raghupath’s prayer which he offers in Janputha this is the 50th anniversary 50th anniversary of Shri Raghupath’s going to that year that year long celebration was starting so Shri Raghupath was in Janputha he was in the ocean, he was alone he was penniless he was in poor health having suffered from heart attack going to a foreign land where he did not know anyone and at that time what is the prayer that he offers it is that my dear lord please make me dance as is your will make me dance so this is the prayer of surrender Shri Raghupath is saying that he is talking about make me dance just as a puppet is made to dance with a puppeteer my dear lord make me dance so this is again a significant example that a puppet is not passive although Shri Raghupath is talking about surrendering to the lord, it is an active surrender a puppet as per the puppeteer’s direction is moving so Shri Raghupath is not saying I surrender to you I give up everything, I go to Vrindavan and I surrender to you there are many people who did that and it is good, people can do that but the important thing is what is the lord is going to lead to us Shri Raghupath Shri Raghupath as Krishna has manifested through his spiritual master I should share Krishna’s message with the world so Shri Raghupath invent his moves make me dance so Shri Raghupath writes in the Krishna book that we are all dancing we are all dancing some of us are dancing to Maya’s tunes some of us are dancing to Krishna’s tunes and some of us don’t know which tune to dance to sometimes we join one dance and sometimes we join the other dance but this prayer here there is this simultaneous dependence of surrender to the lord also accepting of responsibility so sadhakas, this can be the more ideal lord we come in such complex situations in life, we don’t know what to do so Prabhupada writes intelligence means to know what to do when you don’t know what to do so what do you do when you don’t know what to do we connect with the lord we pray to him Krishna please guide me what to do so Prabhupada writes a devotee can be perplexed but a devotee is not discouraged perplexed means not knowing what to do discouraged means feeling like not doing anything at all so devotee is always determined I want to serve Krishna maybe in this situation I don’t know how to serve Krishna but I will keep praying, I will keep doing what I can and Krishna will guide me at one time faith means to take one step ahead when the full path is still not visible one step ahead one step ahead and we move onwards surrender is not just about raising our hand and giving up everything surrender is also about girding our arms and taking one step forward and as we take forward we pray to Krishna and Krishna will reciprocate I will give you the intelligence by which you can come back to me so I summarize I started by talking about how prayer is a universal language by which the human heart connects to the divine heart and the benefit of prayer is not so much in terms of the activity of praying but it is a part of a culture which connects the physical and psychological to the spiritual and then we discussed about how prayer in the Bhagavatam they focus on the object of prayer first and we need to understand that the object is important and then beyond that we look at what is the mood of the person for example in the Bhagavatam of Gajendra, Uttarasan, Kunti and the Gopis and all of them in diverse situations are offering prayers intense longing for the Lord and then we discussed in the Gau Gaya tradition how prayer involves the forming of the relationship accept Lord’s supreme position and then beg for his mercy and the prayer involves using all our faculties whatever we have to connect with the Lord and we concluded by discussing how there is this dynamic interplay of dependence and action so we depend on the Lord for things that are not in our control but at the same time we pray to the Lord that we get the strength to do what we can and this interplay is demonstrated Prabhupada Singh, my dear Lord please take me down thank you very much Prabhupada Ki Jai Applause Applause Prabhupada Ki Jai Prabhupada Ki Jai