When we practice bhakti culture in our temples or youth centers are we not practicing spiritual bhakti?
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So when we practice bhakti in our youth centers, we have a set of practices which are the culture.
So are we practicing cultural bhakti or are we practicing spiritual bhakti? See, the spiritual and the cultural are not opposite. At a spiritual level also there is culture. We are not saying rejecting the culture.
We are saying that we understand the culture. We don’t practice bhakti only because it is the culture. There is a pious or religious culture and there is a spiritual culture.
When there is a pious culture, that means that yes, Bhaktivinoda Thakur talks about this in his Chaitanya Shiksha Mantra. The people who are pious, they think there are many enjoyable things in life and religion is also one of them. There are many good things we do.
We have sports, we have movies, we have hiking, we have this, we have that and religion is also one of them. So, culture can also be a good, this is religious culture. Spiritual culture means that culture which helps us to spiritualize our consciousness.
Some practices may be similar. If you see generally a major difference between Hinduism as it exists in the broader Indian country and Krishna Bhakti as we practice within the Bhakti tradition is that for most people, most Hindus, Bhakti is a part of their life. But for us, Bhakti is our life.
Bhakti is our life means whatever we do, we see that in a mood of Bhakti. Our family, our jobs, our studies, everything. So, it’s not that we have to give up the culture.
Rather, the culture is important. But I am talking about what is the intention which we are practicing Bhakti. If I am staying in youth center and I wake up in the morning because everybody else is waking up and tomorrow I am not staying in the youth center, then I am staying alone and nobody is waking up.
Why should I wake up? No, I am waking up not just because everybody else is waking up. I am waking up because I want to go closer to Krishna and morning time is a very important time for coming closer to Krishna. So, if I have that understanding, then there is individual practice of Bhakti.
We have to have individual conviction for practicing Bhakti. But at the same time, the individual conviction alone cannot sustain Krishna always. We need community.
Prabhupada offered not just Krishna consciousness, he offered society for Krishna consciousness. Because to be Krishna conscious alone is very difficult. So, there could be different kinds of cultures.
There could be the materialistic culture which is godless, which is sensual, which is sinful. That is definitely against Bhakti. There is pious culture which is favorable to Bhakti, but they say don’t do too much Bhakti.
Little bit you can do. You don’t have to do 16 rounds. You know, just wake up and chant a few names of God.
That is enough. That is favorable, that is good. spiritual Bhakti means, spiritual culture would mean that, that cultural environment which inspires us to practice spiritual life seriously.
So, what Shri Prabhupada offers through the temples and through the centers associated with the temples, culture that is at the spiritual level. So, there is sensual culture, there is pious culture, there is spiritual culture. So, we definitely want spiritual culture.
What I was talking about cultural Bhakti means, Bhakti at the level of cultural piety. That is not a sustainable level. We want to rise from that to spiritual level.
But, at the spiritual level also, there is culture and we practice that. The culture is something which is present for everyone. Even people who are very materialistic, people who are very godless, say, when people have birth days, they blow candles.
That is their culture. So, culture is there everywhere. We are not rejecting culture.
We are saying that culture is not the sole motivation for our practice. It is our personal conviction, our personal intention, which can be inspired by the culture or obstructed by the culture. Bhakti is an individual process which is best practiced collectively.
But, it is an individual process. Does that answer your question?