When remembrance of Krishna is so sweet, why is it compared to a sword?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna question when the remembrance of Krishna is so sweet why does the Bhagavatam compare it to a sword the Bhagavatam says that remembrance of Krishna is like a sword by which one cuts the knots of karma answer yes the remembrance of Krishna is definitely sweet and it is that sweetness which frees us from the illusion of the sweetness of material pleasures and that’s how it cuts our attachments so the attribute of sweetness and the attribute of its sharpness like a sword are not contradictory because when we say that our material attachments bind us there are no literal ropes which are binding us to our sense objects an alcoholic is not bound to a bottle of alcohol by a physical rope now what is it that is binding actually that binding is the binding force is the illusion of the sweetness of that sense object so because the alcoholic thing the alcohol is so delicious I want it no matter what the price I have to pay I want it so that as long as that appears sweet and as long as that that is the way our the alcoholics craving need for sweetness is fulfilled the alcoholic will stay bound but when we cultivate remembrance of Krishna and we become purified by that remembrance then we start tasting the remembrance of Krishna as increasingly sweet even when we are not pure at times also when we are either with very advanced devotees or with very expert devotees if they are very advanced devotees then by their spiritual potency they manifest Krishna’s sweetness if they are very expert devotees then even by their material expertise they manifest some aspect of Krishna’s sweetness they basically attract people to Krishna somebody can sing very nicely somebody can speak very nicely somebody can decorate their duties very nicely so they also attract people to Krishna so either way when we get connected to Krishna through the association of devotees and through our own practice of bhakti we start tasting the sweetness of Krishna and when we the more we taste the sweetness of Krishna we get the experience of Krishna and the experience of Krishna is so fulfilling so enriching that we feel that I don’t need any other experiences why do I need them we become detached from other things and that’s how we give up the craving for other things which had earlier seemed sweet to us or even if they still seem sweet to us we can resist that craving by concentrating on the remembrance of Krishna so that’s how the remembrance of Krishna can act like a soul for us so that means there are two different things one is we are relishing the taste of Krishna as Krishna talks about and we are absorbed in Krishna at that time there is no temptation at all but then that is the stage which Krishna talks about when he talks about the qualities of Brahmana, Shama, this peaceful mind, the mind is absorbed in Krishna there is no agitation but then sometimes the mind gets agitated and we feel pulled towards the sense objects so at that time Krishna says we have to practice Dhamma, Dhamma is sense control so we have to determinedly refuse to indulge in physical level even if and we are actually attracted in the mental level how do we do that for that we use the sword of the remembrance of Krishna that means when our mind is filled with memories of the sweetness of the sense objects we at that time intensely start remembering Krishna in whatever way is accessible, possible, relishable for us we chant his holy names we look, take darshan of the deities we hear some kirtans, we read some philosophical points which we have read, we recite some verses somehow they fix the mind on Krishna so what are we doing by this at this time when the ropes of our material desires of our of the recollections of the sweetness of sense gratification are dragging us towards sense objects again at that time there is a rope between us and the sense object pulling us at that time if we somehow remember Krishna then we are like warriors or swinging the sword round and round and round and we are cutting off those attachments and if we keep chanting intensely if we keep remembering Krishna intensely then those ropes will get completely cut off now illusion may keep casting its rope again and again we have to keep relentlessly fighting and cutting off the ropes and when we finally cut off the ropes illusion loses its temptation because first what will happen is when we cut off the ropes, cut off the ropes again and again basically how do we cut off how does remembrance of Krishna act as a sword and cut off by giving us an alternative higher source of pleasure in Krishna, now initially even if we don’t get pleasure in remembering Krishna still we should keep remembering Krishna using our intelligence and at the very least that remembrance of Krishna will soon start giving us relief because once we start getting pulled by the sense objects it’s a torment we think that sense gratification is pleasure but actually it is just a relief from a unnecessary torment now we expose ourselves to sense objects and then when the desires come we start feeling tormented by the pull, by the tug by the pinch within us and then in order to get relief from the torment we indulge in sense gratification so if we start observing ourselves in Krishna then at the very least we get relief from the torment the sword cuts off the ropes metaphorically speaking and then we get relief and the more we keep remembering Krishna then the sword itself we can say in a sense transforms into a sweet and as we release the sweet then whatever sweetness the sense objects have promised us they no longer allure us and we become absorbed in Krishna so that’s how the sharpness and the sweetness of the remembrance of Krishna can both protect us and keep us steadily on the path back to Krishna