When the holy name is self-fulfilling, why do we need other things such as elaborate analysis of the mind?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Thank you. Hare Hare Krishna.
Mahamantra, the holy name, is self-fulfilling. And if that is true, then why would we ever have to think about various aspects like intentions, what is my selection of people etc. If it is self-fulfilling, if I do 16 rounds, which is the only material activities that we focus on not doing, then after that everything else should happen on its own.
I mean, like the exact activity, right? We can talk about the third abhyantya etc. But I don’t think even that one should be done intentionally because as Krishna says, we are a body, it’s like a machine that goes on. So even in Krishna’s service, that should happen on its own.
And the only difference is that I will do it on my own. But we are trying to spiritual track. The holy name should be able to carry us forward.
We should have a deep intention. So if the holy name is self-fulfilling, then do we have to worry about things like intention? Shouldn’t all this just happen automatically? Bhakti is a process of developing a relationship with Krishna. And developing that relationship means that we express our love for Krishna with all that we have.
So we express our love for Krishna by chanting the holy names. And we express our love for Krishna by other talents that he has given us. If he has given us introspective mind, if he has given us analytical skills, we use them in Krishna’s service.
If he has given us musical ability, we use them in Krishna’s service. Prabhupada himself told that chanting 16 rounds is what is important. But then he wrote so many books.
Now why did he encourage devotees to go out and distribute books? He could have just said, you know, just chant Hare Krishna. So he encouraged devotees to distribute books. He encouraged yatras.
So bhakti is not meant to be restrictive. Bhakti is about a connection with Krishna. And different people have different natures.
So if we feel inspired to chant, I can chant 64 rounds or I can chant 16 rounds, I can do it attentively. And that is leading to transformation. If I have anger, my anger is going up by chanting.
That’s wonderful. If that is not happening, I may say it has to happen. Fine, but I’ve been chanting for so many years, it’s not happening.
Then what do I do? It’s not necessary that that means that chanting is not working or nor does it necessarily mean that I’m not chanting properly. It may be that I’m not chanting properly, but this is what I can do right now. So we have to see with the existing resources that I have, how can I best serve Krishna? So if I have a tendency to be pessimistic, and that’s my habitual tendency, what happens is the mind is very deceptive.
And sometimes it may just take certain aspects of the philosophy. So I have a pessimistic mind from my past conditionings. And then I hear about the philosophy of this world, Dukkha Leva Shashvatam.
And then I start justifying my pessimism based on the philosophy. The philosophy is not pessimistic. If Shri Prabhupada is pessimistic, how could he at the age of 70 have gone all the way abroad? So the way the mind works is that sometimes we may be doing devotional activities, but we may be just projecting our material conditioning over that.
So sometimes we have to catch the mind. So it’s rather than stereotyping devotion that this Chanting 16 rounds should work. Yes, Chanting 16 rounds is important.
And if it works, wonderful. But if it doesn’t work, that does not mean that we are disqualified as devotees. We can find out how can I serve Krishna? And there are not just those who have become devotees.
When we have analytical, introspective, rational kind of presentation of bhakti, there are many people of that nature who will be attracted to Krishna. If you tell them just chant Hare Krishna, they may not be attracted to Krishna. So we have to see that bhakti is not just one circle where inside are devotees, outside are non-devotees.
Bhakti is like a series of concentric circles of expanding radii. And different devotees can be situated in these different circles. They are all going towards Krishna.
Some devotees may connect with Krishna primarily through chanting. Some may connect primarily through kirtans. Some may connect primarily through deity worship.
Some may connect primarily through scripture study and analysis and studying and teaching. Some may connect through Buddhist tradition. And we see that whatever service I have to do to Krishna, how can I do it the best? How can I do it the best? So if that improvement can happen by chanting, well and good.
If that improvement can happen by some other feature, some other kind of thought exercises or practical skill development, we are doing it for the service of Krishna. And Srila Prabhupada was working with his editors. Jaya Jyotmahal was one of his primary editors.
So he did some editing of his books and then Prabhupada told him, do what you are doing and train others. Now editing is a grammatical skill. Now do we, if I don’t know English grammar, is it by chanting Hare Krishna I learn English grammar? Well I may, but what if I don’t? We cannot consider that the spiritual is the replacement for the material.
If say I have got a fracture of my hand. Now chanting Hare Krishna can help me transcend the pain. I won’t be so obsessed.
I can absorb my consciousness in Krishna and I will feel less pain. But chanting Hare Krishna is not going to heal the fracture. I have to go, I am going towards what you are saying, that I will have to go to a doctor and get it treated.
So with respect to physical, I can easily understand. If it is physical structural damage, like I talked about grammatical linguistic skills, I understand that this is a part of something material and bhakti is spiritual. So for improving the material, I need to function at the material level.
Now while functioning at the material level, also bhakti may help me. You know, I may have to go to a doctor and somehow I may find a very good doctor and the doctor treats me very well. Or I want to learn English and I get associated with a devotee teacher and they teach me English and grammar.
That’s fine. But we understand for these material things, I need to have some material skill development. Now when it comes to the mind, the mind is in between the body and the soul.
So the mind is ultimately purified by the Holy Name. Intermediately or immediately, whether it will be pacified or not, that will vary from person to person. And if in the immediate or the intermediate stages, somebody needs something as a help, so that their mind becomes more amenable to the process of bhakti, then we don’t have to see the spiritual and the mental as competitive.
Bhakti is the ultimate solution. We can’t claim that bhakti is always the immediate solution also. The immediate solution means, say if I am hungry, or let’s take a more extreme example.
If I wake up early morning and chant 64 rounds attentively, will that 64 rounds of chanting remove the bad breath of my mouth if I have not brushed my teeth? Even if it is pure chanting, to get pure breath, I have to brush my teeth. Isn’t it? So the point which I am making is that there is the physical, the mental and the spiritual. And bhakti works at the spiritual level.
Bhakti can work at the physical level also sometimes. Krishna can do something miraculous. Bhakti can work at the mental level also.
But we don’t demand from Krishna that it has to work at this level. And we don’t demand from the sadhaka that you cannot do anything else to be able to work at this level. Now Prabhupada himself preferred Ayurveda for treating his body.
He said it is from the Vedic body of knowledge. But Prabhupada did not insist on that. He said the body is a tool.
If allopathy works, use allopathy. Make sure the body is functional and work towards Krishna. So same way, what should not happen is through all this introspection and analysis, we start thinking this is the ultimate solution.
And we don’t need chanting. We don’t need Krishna bhakti. If we start thinking of this as the ultimate solution, then it’s a serious problem.
But we see that that is the ultimate solution and for that I can be helped by these things. With Arjuna, after hearing the Bhagavad Gita, fought the Kurukshetra war. Did Arjuna win the Kurukshetra war by the knowledge of the Bhagavad Gita or by the knowledge of archery that he had learnt throughout his life? Sir, my take was that he actually didn’t even fight.
All the arrows looked like Krishna’s rasas were actually killing him. That’s what Babri said when he was watching them. So it was Bhagavad Gita not his material capability.
You cannot say that it was not his material capability. It was his material capability used in Krishna’s service. Krishna was the ultimate doer.
Krishna was not the immediate doer. Prabhupada told us that my books are written by Krishna. But then Prabhupada did not put Krishna as the author of the books.
Isn’t it? So, can you… No, what does as it is mean? Yeah, but Krishna is the ultimate cause. Krishna, Prabhupada is the instrument. Otherwise we would have a Mayavada that through Prabhupada’s books we know only Krishna and we know nothing about Prabhupada.
No, Prabhupada is a pure devotee. A pure devotee is also a person. Prabhupada’s personality comes out through his books.
If we say it is only Krishna writing through his books then that means Prabhupada is not there in his books also. That is like we reduce Prabhupada to a zero and only Krishna is there. That’s Mayavada.
Is it not true, Prabhupada, that whatever we know about Prabhupada is because of his connection to Krishna and if there is any part of Prabhupada that is not connected to Krishna then it is not worth knowing? Is there any part of Prabhupada that is not connected to Krishna? The point here is Prabhupada’s intent was always to serve Krishna. In that sense, his whole life is connected with Krishna. But is it that… Say, now Prabhupada loved kachoris.
Now to be a follower of Prabhupada is it that all of us have to love kachoris? Not necessarily. Is it that Prabhupada had a particular way of pronouncing English? Is it that all of us, in order to be faithful followers of Prabhupada have to pronounce English in that way? Prabhupada pronounced Sanskrit verses in a Bengali way. Once one Hindu scholar asked him, Swami, you pronounce Sanskrit verses in a very Bengali way.
Prabhupada said, what can I do? I am a Bengali. What do you expect from me, Prabhupada? So, in intent, Prabhupada was purely devoted to Krishna. At the same time, Prabhupada was also an individual person in his own right.
And similarly, of course, Prabhupada was purely focused on Krishna. We are also purely focused on Krishna. But still, bhakti is not about denying our individuality.
It is about using our individuality fully for the service of Krishna. And for that purpose, different people, because they are individuals, they will use their individuality in different ways to serve Krishna. I have never understood this part of using individuality.
My only question was, do we have to explicitly try to introduce our individuality to serve Krishna or will it implicitly happen because we are following the basic tenets of bhakti? That’s what I was getting at. In other words, I should not worry about what my intentions are. If my intention is and my innate capability is to serve Krishna through deity service, I should properly come out and Krishna will be with me and we should be able to perceive that.
That’s what I was getting at. So will our individuality come automatically or do I have to consciously do that? I think you did point out very well earlier when you said that it should not become overwhelming. We should understand that this is an internal step.
I think you very well pointed that out. My fear is that if we too much worry about these individuality aspects, like intentions, sensual force, selection, we should actually rely on Krishna. This is a good question.
If we rely on this kind of analysis and introspection, is it that we are not having trust in Krishna? It could be, but it can also be that we see even the capacity for introspection as a gift from Krishna. That this is somebody has musical ability. They can use that musical ability to go closer to Krishna or they can use that musical ability to become proud and go away from Krishna.
So the musical ability is a gift from Krishna. But whether it will take us to Krishna or not, that’s up to them. Sometimes what may happen is that we may use God to stay away from God.
That means, you know, I have some relation issues with someone and I am burning in anger at someone and I have to do something to practically resolve it. Maybe talk with them, have some talk with some senior devotee, they talk with them and they try to resolve that issue. But instead of that, I just forget everything and chant 64 rounds, chant 128 rounds.
Now, if that is helping me, that is good. But if I’m chanting that as a means of escaping from that situation, then that may not be very helpful for my spiritual growth. Chanting is always helpful.
But how much is my consciousness connecting with Krishna through that? That is important. There are many situations where Prabhupada did not encourage devotees to just give up their services and do extra chanting. He said, continue your service.
So I’m saying that our intention should become purified automatically. But if it is not happening, we have to be introspective enough to check what is going on. And if it is naturally happening, it’s wonderful.
For those who can chant Hare Krishna and be happy, it’s wonderful. But there is a chanting Hare Krishna and they are not happy. What do you do? There are issues of the mind.
And they have to be dealt with. So we can’t live in denial. You are right.
But I was thinking we should live in denial. I think the story should say that. Saying that if you cannot get excitement or whatever out of 64 rounds, then you do 128.
And if that means you cannot eat food, then continue doing it till you get it. In brief, our intention should be on perseverance, on patience, not trying to resolve the intermediate. And if the intermediate has to happen, let Krishna manifest.
But the point is, do everything for Krishna. If I’m trying to get God to move away from God, then if it’s by deficient self-fulfilling, that’s what the word deficient means, then it should resolve on its own. Otherwise it’s not wholesome, it’s not purna.
There is something lacking in it. If it requires some effort. And I understand what you’re getting at.
But I was hoping that this being the golden age of Kali Buddha, this being the highest possible benediction coming from Krishna himself, this is something that some people have been giving, should be able to solve things on its own. Prabhupada said that in 40 years people do get to perfection. And people who caught on it early should be able to get that.
So that’s what I was getting at. Hopefully we should have to use our brain. Because if we do that, one of Prabhupada’s statements is, we use our mind and mind is material.
When you do something material, that can lead to speculation. So it could also lead astray. That said, I do agree with what you said, sir.
Thanks a lot. Sorry if I kept going. Please pardon my offences, sir.