Srimad-Bhagavatam 4.31.10
Bhakti Vijnana Goswami · London · 2022
Chapters
Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate, oṁ namo bhagavate śrīve, nārāyaṇaṁ namaskṛtya naram caiva narottamaṁ, devīṁ sarasvīṁ tato jayam udīrayet.
Naṣṭa-prāyeṣv abhadreṣu nityaṁ bhāgavata-sevayā, bhagavaty uttama-śloke bhaktir bhavati naiṣṭhikī.
Yamprajantam anupetam apeta-kṛtyaṁ dvaipāyano viraha-kātara juhāva, putreti tanmayatayā taravo 'bhinedus taṁ sarva-bhūta-hṛdayaṁ munim ānato 'smi. tam sarva butahri dayam unimana tos me so
We read from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto 4, Chapter 31, Nārada instructs the Pracetas, text number 10.
Kiṁ janmabhiḥ tribhir va iha śukra-sāvitra-yajikaiḥ, karmabhir vātraiḥ proktair pumsaḥ api vibudhāyuṣā. umsaha, umsaha api. Vibudhya Vibdha Yosha, Vibdhāisha.
Kiṁ janmabhiḥ tribhir veha, kiṁ janmabhiḥ tribhir ve, janmabhiḥ, śukra-sāvitra-yajikaiḥ, śukra-sāvitra yajikaiḥ, śukra-sāvitra-yajikaiḥ.
Karmabhir vātraiḥ proktair, karmabhir vātraiḥ proktair, karmabhir vātraiḥ proktair, karmabhir vātraiḥ proktair, pumsaḥ api vibudhāyuṣā, pumsaḥ api vibudhāyuṣā,
kiṁ janmabhiḥ tribhir veha, śukra-sāvitra-yajikaiḥ, karmabhir vātraiḥ proktair, proktair, pumsaḥ api vibudhāyuṣā, kiṁ — what is the use? What is the use? Janmabhiḥ — of birth, of birth, tribhiḥ — three vā — or, iha — in
this world, śukra — by semen, sāvitra — by initiation, yajikaiḥ — by becoming a perfect brāhmaṇa, karmabhiḥ — by activities, by activities, vā — or, traiḥ — in the Vedas, proktaiḥ — instructed,
puṁsaḥ — of a human being, api — even vibudha — of the demigods, āyuṣā — with the duration of life. Translation: A civilized human being has three kinds of births.
The first birth is by pure father and mother, and this birth is called birth by semen. The next birth takes place when one is initiated by the spiritual master. And this birth is called Savitra.
The third birth, called Yagyka, takes place when one is given the opportunity to worship Lord Vishnu.
Despite the opportunities for attaining such birth even if one gets the lifespan of a demigod, if one does not actually engage in the service of the Lord, everything is useless.
Similarly, one's activities may be mundane or spiritual, but they are useless if they are not meant for satisfying the Lord. Purport by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada ki jaya.
The word Shakra Janma means taking birth by seminal discharge. Animals can take their birth in this way too. However, a human being can be reformed from the śukra janma as recommended in the Vedic civilization.
Before the birth takes place, or before father and mother unite, there is a ceremony called garbhādhāna-saṁskāra, which must be adopted.
This garbhādhāna-saṁskāra is especially recommended for higher castes, especially for brāhmaṇa caste.
It is said in the śāstras that if the garbhādhāna saṁskāra is not practiced among the higher castes, the entire family becomes śūdra.
It is also stated that in this age of Kali everyone is śūdra due to the absence of the garbhādhāna saṁskāra. This is the Vedic system.
According to Pāñcarātrika system, however, even though everyone is a śūdra due to the absence of garbhādhāna-saṁskāra, if a person has but a little tendency to become Krishna conscious, he should be given a chance to elevate himself to the transcendental platform of devotional service.
Our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement adopts this pāñcarātrika-vidhi as advised by Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī, who says: yathā kāñcanatāṁ yāti kāṁsyaṁ rasa-vidhānataḥ tathā dīkṣā vidhānena dvijatvaṁ jāyate nṛṇām.
As bell metal, when mixed with mercury, is transformed in gold, a person, even though not golden pure, can be transformed into a brāhmaṇa or dvija simply by the initiation process.
Thus, if one is initiated by a proper person, he can be accepted as twice born immediately.
In our Krishna consciousness movement, we therefore offer the student this first initiation and allow him to chant the Hare Krishna Mahamantra.
By chanting the Hare Krishna Mahamantra regularly and following the regulative principles, one becomes qualified to be initiated as a brāhmaṇa.
Because unless one is a qualified brāhmaṇa, he cannot be allowed to worship Lord Vishnu. This is called Yagyaka Janma.
In our Krishna consciousness society, unless one is twice initiated, first by chanting Hare Krishna and second by the Gāyatrī Mantra, he is not allowed to enter the kitchen or deity room to execute duties.
However, when one is elevated to the platform on which he can worship the deity, his previous birth does not matter. Kim janmābhis tribhir veha, sāraḥ sāvitra yājñikaḥ, karma-bīrvā-tyāji-proktaiḥ, puṁso vividh-aṁśuṣu.
A civilized human being has three kinds of births. The first birth is by pure father, by a pure father and mother. And this birth is called birth by semen.
The next birth takes place when one is initiated by the spiritual master, and this is called savitra. The third birth called yājñika takes place when one is given the opportunity to worship Lord Vishnu.
Despite the opportunities for attaining such births, even if one gets the lifespan of a demigod, if one does not actually engage in the service of the Lord, everything is useless.
Similarly, one's activities may be mundane or spiritual, but they are useless if they are not meant for satisfying the Lord. Śrīla Prabhupāda ki jaya!
Namaḥ oṁ viṣṇu-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tale śrīmate bhaktivedānta-swāmin iti nāmine. Namaste sārasvate deve gaura-vāṇī-pracāriṇe, nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi-pāścātya-deśa-tāriṇe.
vāñchā-kalpatarubhyaḥ ca kṛpā-sindhubhya eva ca patitānāṁ pāvanebhyo vaiṣṇavebhyo namo namaḥ Jaya Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Prabhupāda Nityānanda Śrī Advaita Gadādhara Śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare Namaḥ te
The futility of material existence
putra-mātra-svarūpaṁ rūpaṁ tasyāgragraja-rūpurim mathurāṁ gostavatī, rādhā-kuṇḍa-girivaramā rādhikā mādhavaśaṁ prāpto yasya pratīte kṛpayā, śrī-guru-dhāmnas tasmi yāntaḥ pradiś mamāva
śrīmāṁṁ prasuptaṁ sañjīvayatīva śakti-dharāk sva-dhāmna, aṅghri-hasta-caraṇa- śravaṇatva-gauri-prānandam avya śaitamno matirā hare Krishna Krishna So today we have special Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam class and therefore I have chosen this verse where Nārada Muni is speaking about the futility of human births and activities if one is not really becoming a servant of the Lord.
Because what is the use of these births and activities? If ultimately everything will be ended by death, and you will have to start everything from the scratch.
You don't know who you were, what you were doing, and you start everything and you start crawling on your knees and suckling the breast of your mother and becoming completely humiliated by your own mistakes.
Actually, this cycle of births and death is very humiliating for the soul. It really kind of shows us that we are doing something wrong.
If we are forced to get birth again and again and again and to die again and again and again. You know this this life is is extremely humiliating.
You're humiliated when you're sick, when you're completely incapacitated, you don't know you know how to move, you're humiliated when you're a little child, you're humiliated when you're dying, totally completely helpless in this condition.
And this is again, this is to show a proud human being that something is wrong in his pride.
He can be very proud, but the uh the way of life in this material uh world is such that actually Krishna shows us that our pride is useless,
that it's it's completely baseless, it doesn't have any strong it's just really humiliating. Just to push us in the right direction. Krishna is doing this because of his mercy.
He is pushing us in the right direction because he knows that we cannot be really happy by pretending to be the Lord and master of this world.
And therefore here Nārada Muni says, kim īgha janmabhiḥ, What is the use of this Janma? kim karmabhiḥ?
What is the use of this karma in this material world if you're not really elevating yourself to the level when you can clearly associate with the Supreme Lord.
Worship of the Lord is called upasana and upasana means being very close to the Lord.
You cannot really worship the Lord or worship anyone if you are too far. And the material life and material consciousness is taking us very far away from the Lord.
So the actual purpose of this human form of life is to come closer to the Supreme Lord, to be able to worship Him in a real sense, not in a formal sense.
You know, there is some statue and I'm doing some ritual, you know. No. The purpose of human life is to become closer and for that the uh the special signs uh is adopted in the Vedas.
You know the three births which are being described here by Nārada Muni is actually there is a great science behind Muni is actually there is a great science behind them.
Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that even the first births in this material world, if it is performed properly, it prepares you to become closer to the Lord.
The science of Garbhadhana samskara
It prepares you to take your consciousness out of this body in a good sense, not to be completely totally absorbed in the bodily consciousness. If the proper process by father and mother,
but pure father and mother as Śrīla Prabhupāda translates, if the proper process is followed, which is called Garbhādhāna-saṁskāra, then this sexual relationship between mother and father does not become too much absorbing for them and because their consciousness is not on a bodily platform at the moment of sexual relationship, which is extremely difficult, which is almost impossible because the very act of sexual relationship is very much absorbing and placing our consciousness on the level of the body.
But the special science behind the Garbhādhāna-saṁskāra is actually teaching us how to engage in sex and not to be completely engrossed in this matter.
And because the consciousness of mother and father are not on the level of their body or on the level of the matter, then the child from the very inception, from the conception, from the very first moment of coming, uh he's not or she or whoever, you know, it I don't know From the very beginning he, she or it is not very uh very uh much absorbed in the bodily consciousness.
From the birth, you can have this advantage if you follow this great science. You can have this advantage of not being on a bodily platform. You don't have to.
You know, that's the beauty of human birth because in a human birth this is the first birth when you can really you have this facility not to be completely 100% absorbed in the body.
Everyone else, every other species of life, if the soul takes birth in any other species of life, he, she or it is completely absorbed in the level of the body and completely dictated by the body. Body actually enslaves the soul in any other species of life.
We become the space, the slave of this particular body because we cannot really we don't have facility to behave in a different way. You know, if we are a cat, we can only meow. We can't become a Brahman a cat and meditate on the Lord. We have to meditate on a piece of meat.
There is no other object of meditation, if you take birth as a cat. There is no choice. There is no freedom. Really, there is no freedom.
The first body which gives us certain freedom, which we usually don't actually use, we misuse this freedom, is the human body.
And but this great science of Garbhadāna-saṁskāra is actually teaching how to create the proper children. It's amazing how people are creating children without even being conscious what they're doing.
This is the foundation of human civilization to produce children in a conscious way, not by being driven by these crazy passions which are destroying our consciousness and from the very beginning, destroying the consciousness of the child.
So this is what people are doing nowadays, and therefore Srila Prabhupada, he I mean in a very in a very impolite way would say that the modern civilization, the civilization of cats and dogs, it may sound very rough, but it's true because there is not much difference between animals and humans from
the way they're being conceived, from the way they are taking birth in this uh in this world. And therefore, uh there is very little chance for them to become
Brahman or to become — we hear stories of great saints who were saints from their childhood. They were not really absorbed, like Śukadeva Gosvāmī.
Śukadeva Gosvāmī was not absorbed in this body. He didn't have bodily consciousness at all.
Developing inclination for spiritual life
From the very birth, and that's entirely possible, but of course, it's very difficult nowadays. But then Prabhupada explains that there is another opportunity which we all have.
If one has a little inclination, as Prabhupāda puts in the purport, even if one has a little spark of inclination to become Krishna conscious. You know, it's very difficult to get this inclination.
In a natural way, it's not possible because you know because of our nature. Because the nature which we acquired by being produced in a very ugly way does not give us this facility, does not give us this inclination.
Therefore Prabhupada says even one has a little inclination. You know if we would have the proper consciousness from the very beginning then the inclination would be full-fledged, not the little inclination.
Sishiradal Gokulananda kicha, shi, siddharam laksmandhanaman, shi gornitaya kija You know, nevertheless,
uh even now there are people with some inclination towards spiritual life, but in reality this inclination is coming because we are meeting devotees.
We see somebody who is living completely differently and nevertheless despite of you know being dressed in a bad shit, he seems to be very happy, you know.
And you start wondering what's going on, you know, what kind of person he is.
So by meeting with the devotees and seeing their, as Prabhupada would say, bright faces and being impressed by their otherworldliness, by their different nature, which is which can be clearly seen. You know, I met I meet so many people and they always say, you know, that when we first met devotees we felt something special. There is definitely something special about devotees.
So we can get this inclination or this idea that maybe there is something more to life than just to eat, sleep and be merry and ultimately die despite of all these futile endeavors to be happy in this material world.
So So we may have this idea that there is something more to life, that there is higher mission and higher uh consciousness which I should acquire and this is by getting this inclination ultimately we can get the next janma which is called savitra janma.
And this savitra jhana, which is initiation, is called second initiation, or no, it's called second birth, is called second birth and then there is third birth which is called yagyaka janma.
So the human being, civilized human being, can have three births in this material world. The first birth is by father and mother, the second birth by spiritual master who gives him some enlightenment.
This association, which gives us some idea that we should develop higher consciousness, it's called Savitra because from the name of sun god Savitur, because by this birth we are supposed to get enlightenment.
As much as the sun is shining very brightly on the sky and giving us some clear consciousness. By meeting with the devotees and getting the second initiation, we are supposed to be enlightened.
The second dose is for enlightenment, is for getting the higher consciousness and getting the more clear and more broad picture of what is going on in this material world.
And Śrīla Prabhupāda by quoting Hari-bhakti-vilāsa by Sanātana Gosvāmī from Sam Tantra, Vilas by Sanatna Gaswami from Sam Tantra, he compares this second birth with alchemical process.
Yatha Kancha Natam Yati Kamsiam Rasa Rasa Vidhanataha it's literally if we translate it literally it's it's the alchemistry. Rasa means Mercury and Vidhanataha is a special process.
If by adopting very special process, you can mix Kamsya, Kamsia means bell metal as Prabhupāda translated, it's bronze or whatever.
So by mixing this bell metal with mercury through special very scientific again, very scientific process. You can turn bell metal into gold.
And of course, again, nowadays it's very difficult, you know you may try to get the bell metal and mix it with mercury, but uh you know nothing will happen really, because it's not so easy to turn the bell metal into gold.
And therefore, it is specifically says you should adopt certain vidhi, you should adopt certain process, and it is said in the similar way Tatha Diksha Vidhana through the process of Diksha through a very scientific process of this one can get second birth uh dvidvam uhyatenrinam
the human being can become dvidya he is born again uh not uh in the body, not as the body, but as a spirit soul, within the
body, with very clear, distinct consciousness that I am not this body, I am just absorber of what the body is doing. I'm just a witness. I am Sakshi. That's what the second birth means.
Instead of being the doer, instead of misusing the body and trying to enjoy the body and the energy which is given to you in this body, you become the absorber. You just witness what is going on in the body and you become very happy absorber because you're not disturbed by all these activities of the body.
So that's the meaning of the second birth, and as Śrīla Prabhupāda is explaining it, it's an alchemical process.
First samskara of repentance
And this process is called in Pañcarātra, according to Pañcarātra-vidhi, is called pañca-saṁskāra.
So and this is a very beautiful concept, very beautiful idea, how to turn gradually to turn your consciousness away from the body.
At this moment of time, we have to admit very clearly: despite all our endeavors, despite of this nice philosophy, I'm not this body, you know, this philosophy, uh, we can remember about this philosophy only during Bhāgavatam class if we are lucky and we are not sleeping during Bhāgavatam class, which is not always the case, so, but, uh, uh, you know, we're still pretty much, uh, bodily conscious.
Uh, so, uh, the gradual process is called pañca-saṁskāra, and it consists of five distinct stages. which, uh, each of these stages plays a very important Which uh each of these stages plays a very important role in the transformation of the soul, of the consciousness of the soul.
The first stage is called tapa. And Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, he wrote a very beautiful essay about this pañca-saṁskāra because he knew that he was preparing the grounds for this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, and he knew that this will be the main process for people in Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. How to really transform the consciousness, how to withdraw the consciousness from the bodily level.
And the first stage of withdrawal from the
bodily level is called tapa. Tapa means literally fire, or, yeah. And in the gross manifestation of this tapa is when the guru in other traditions would place an iron stamp into the fire and then put the stamp on your shoulders.
That's how the initiation is being done in other sampradayas. They literally do this, you know. They put this into the fire and put on your shoulder the sign of chakra and shankha.
Luckily we are not in other sampradāya in this. But basically the the idea of this is that uh you know
you think that this is material body, but actually this is the body which, uh, which is, which belongs to the Lord, and therefore the symbols of the Lord are stamped on your body.
But Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says that people by doing this gross ritual, they forget the subtle idea behind this ritual.
He explains that the idea behind this tapa saṁskāra, the first saṁskāra, is anutāpa. The Sanskrit word for repentance is called anutāpa. And anutāpa means repentance, and
we all know when we repent, when we regret about our previous activities and previous you know deeds, sinful activities, there is some sort of fire within our heart.
So this is the real meaning of first saṁskāra, tapa saṁskāra. If you want to be initiated, you should start here at this point. You should look back at your births.
And you should regret, and you should very clearly see that you wasted a lot of your time. You wasted a lot of your time in useless pursuit of happiness in this material world.
You wasted a lot of your time in trying to become happy through sinful means. You wasted a lot of your time by you know trying some other things in this material world.
So this regret, this fire of regret, is the beginning stage of turning your consciousness from the body. Without this regret, uh, you're doomed to be absorbed in bodily consciousness.
Because again, uh, we're given this facility of this body, and it's it's very tempting to use this body in the way which everyone in this material world is using this body.
So unless you really understand that something is wrong with it, that this sort of activity or this sort of life is not bringing me anywhere.
It's only giving me the pains of suffering in this world and disease, and it prolongs my suffering, my rotting in this world. So the first stage is regret, and actually, this is the stage which we should experience.
What I want to say is that initiation does not take place at the moment when a mystical guru sits on Vyasasana and gives mystically charged chanting beads to a mystically inclined disciple. That's not the process.
It's a very rational process and this process starts way before the initiation ceremony. Actually, the real second janma, second birth starts when you obtain faith in Krishna.
When you obtain Shraddha and this Shraddha means you have the faith that there is God and you belong to God and you are very intimately connected with God and by having this
face, you regret about your past activities, about your past life, and not one past life, about your many past lives, which you wasted, you know because uh when you
have this faith uh in uh in God then uh the uh the after effect, not after effect, side effect of faith is always repentance. You know, there is no meaning in faith if you're not repenting.
Your faith is very formal and not really deep, you know, like sometimes people say, you know, I believe in God. And what is the meaning of I believe in God? Nothing.
You know, I believe in God means that, you know, I I don't have to do anything, you know, I'm already saved. You know, because because I believe in in Hare Kṛṣṇa. You know, I don't need to do anything.
You know, I just believe. No, belief, faith, it's an obligation. It's really certain emotional state and the part of this emotional state...
Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says that actually the faith has certain emotional content and there are two major emotional emotions which are included into this concept of faith.
One is regret or repentance, and another one is enthusiasm. God is there. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says, what is the use of your faith if it doesn't give you enthusiasm?
And we all know, you know, that you know the in the beginning devotees when they obtain faith they they become very enthusiastic and this then you know when they become senior devotees, you know, somehow or other they they become really morose because they probably they really understand the seriousness of this Krishna consciousness business.
No. In reality, you know, in reality, if we lose enthusiasm, it means that our faith is slackened. Actually that there is something wrong.
If the enthusiasm is uh is waning, it means that uh you know something is wrong with our faith. It means that we are doing something wrong and therefore we are not getting this you know proper emotions from our execution of devotional service.
Second samskara of Urdhva pundra
I don't know what to do, I only describe the first samskara and not even completely. And my time is already over. Anyway, I'll very quickly speak about the rest of um uh the other four samskaras.
You know the second one is called ūrdhva-puṇḍra and basically, it means tilak. And technically speaking, you're not supposed to put on tilak unless you are initiated by a spiritual master.
Of course Śrīla Prabhupāda is made merciful and from day one we are just you know putting some some semblance of a tilak on our forehead. You know it's uh uh it's usually quite quite strange creation in the beginning.
Like you know, there was Prabhupada disciple at Mattva Prabhu. He said that the tilak and he used to have So he used to have very bright and beautiful tiles all over his body, and he said
that usually people put tilak which uh which uh look like the rear end of a monkey so
but ūrdhva-puṇḍra tilak uh you know Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura once he was challenged in Jagannātha Purī, why he doesn't have tilak. He was a great vaiṣṇava by the time, but he was not formally initiated. And he said that you know I cannot have tilak because I don't have my spiritual master.
And there is actually a very important meaning behind
this statement of Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, because the real meaning of tilak of ūrdhva-puṇḍra, ūrdhva means up, and puṇḍra means tilak, ūrdhva-puṇḍra means the vertical tilak which we put on our forehead and all over the body, it basically shows the direction of our life.
It is supposed to remind us that we want to evolve, that we don't want to remain on this horizontal level of existence. Like some other people they put horizontal tilak. And it basically means I'm fine here, no problem.
You know, I don't need to go anywhere else.
But vertical tilak means I want to go somewhere else, and we need a spiritual master to be reminded that it's not just enough to get a new Sanskrit beautiful Sanskrit name, what is important is always remember about the goal of our endeavors.
Why do I chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra? Why do I do whatever I do in Krishna Consciousness Movement, I have to be always reminded, and the tendency is there to just do all the rituals mechanically.
You know, we all know you know uh yeah maṅgala-ārati saṁskāra no lady daloga yeah yeah maṅgala-ārati tick you know everything is fine.
No, but uh ūrdhva-puṇḍra means uh you have somebody whom you gave the right to remind you all the time: don't uh don't be satisfied uh with the level of consciousness you are in.
Be go higher. You're not meant to remain in this plane of consciousness. You're meant to develop your consciousness by this spiritual process. And you can only develop your consciousness by this spiritual process if you remember about the goal.
If you forget about the goal, the moment you forget about the goal, whatever you do, even if you do it properly, according to you know external from external point of view, it becomes just useless mechanical work.
When you emotionally disconnect it with the goal, when you don't believe in this goal and you don't really, you know, don't really plan to achieve this goal.
And you're just doing it, you know, you become a, you know, traditional vaiṣṇava. Congratulations. But we are not traditional sect.
We are supposed to remain enthusiastic Hare Krishna sect. Enthusiastic Hare Krishna devotees. And for that we need to remember about the goal.
And every time when we put on Tilak, this is the you know this is the reminder for us. I want to be with Krishna. I want to come to Krishna. I want to come closer to Krishna.
Third samskara of Nama
So that's the second samskara. The third samskara is called Nama samskara when the devotee gets new Nam and he gives the vow of chanting certain number of uh uh nam of uh Krishna's Nam.
And again uh that's in itself is a very important step. And uh this important step, if the first samskara actually is on the stage of Shraddha, the next samskara, Urdhva-puṇḍra, is actually the significance of sādhu-saṅga.
According to the Nectar of Devotion in Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu and Rūpa Gosvāmī explains the ādau śraddhā tataḥ sādhu-saṅga tato bhajana-kriyā tato 'nartha-nivṛttiḥ syāt.
So the next level is sādhu-saṅga when you hear the sādhu, and sādhu reminds you about the proper goal of your endeavors.
And the third saṁskāra is called nāma-saṁskāra when you become hear the sadhu, and sadhu reminds you about the proper goal of your endeavors.
And the third samskara is called Nama Samskara when you become officially recognized as the servant of the Lord. And therefore, the new name is given.
The previous name was the name, you know, the previous name you were the Lord, you know, and you are you know the Lord of you know Macaulay or whatever you know there are so many lords here in England so and you are very closely associated with the previous name.
Therefore, the name should be changed. Your previous name means your previous identification, and this previous identity is the identity of the Lord of this material creation. So to again to turn your consciousness back into your proper spiritual identity, you have to adopt the new identity.
And the new identity is the identity of the servant. And therefore, this new name is given, and there is a very important addition to this new name, Das Odasi.
Usually people don't pay too much attention to this Das Odasi. But that's the main part of it. Now you are officially recognized. You are bona fide das. Before you are just imitation das. Now you are now you're real das.
But it means that I have to serve. Now it means that I have to perform any activity which I do in devotional service as the servant. Why do I chant?
Not because I want to get some you know high from it you know because it's some psychedelic activity you know. Why do I do kirtan?
Why do I hear uh Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam? Because I'm dāsa. I'm supposed to serve Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, I'm supposed to serve prasāda, I'm supposed to serve the Holy Name by chanting the Holy Name. That's my service.
And you know the initiation means you gradually, gradually get used to this very foreign concept that I am a servant, that I am, you know, as Bhakti Rakshak Sridhar Maharaj used to say, dāsa
actually, you know, we translate dāsa as a servant is a very polite way to translate this. Actually, dāsa means a slave. Now you are, you know Rādhā-Gokulānanda's slave. Nobody would love to have this.
But in reality it is like this. I'm losing my independence. And uh that's the concept of the slavery. You're not independent anymore. You're not free citizen of a free country.
You are now trying to transport your consciousness into the spiritual realm where everyone is completely surrendered to the Lord, totally, completely, 100% sold out to the Lord.
I belong to Him, and therefore I am His dāsa.
Fourth and fifth samskaras
That's the second, the third saṁskāra, nāma-saṁskāra. And the fourth saṁskāra is mantra saṁskāra, which is called here Yajaka samskara.
When you are given mantra uh which gives you qualification to perform concrete service and the and the saṁskāra you are just thus in general you are servant in general.
But when you're receiving mantra, it means that you become servant in a particular relationship with the Lord.
This is what is being explained by Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī. And Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī explains that mantra means divya-jñāna. And divya-jñāna means the relationship, the uh transcendental knowledge about your concrete relationship with the Lord.
So the qualification to serve the Supreme Personality of Godhead on the altar means that you are serving Him in a particular mood. Not in a very kind of mechanical or neglectful way.
But I'm a particular servant and I'm trying to invest some loving emotions into my service.
And that's what. That's what the second initiation means when we receive mantra from spiritual master, because the main mantra which we receive is Kāma-gāyatrī mantra.
And Kāma-gāyatrī mantra means that you know I'm I'm now lover of God and I'm trying to manifest this love in my real relationship with God. And that's actually the five, the fifth saṁskāra.
First, you just receive mantra and you try to cultivate this mantra by repeating this mantra in a very conscientious way every day, by meditating on the sound
this mantra in a very conscientious way every day, by meditating on the sound of the mantra, and then you get the fifth saṁskāra, which is yāga, which
And this final stage of initiation is supposed to reveal to you your spiritual identity.
This final stage of initiation, your initiation is only complete when you reach this final stage of initiation, when you understand what are the relationships between myself and God, and what I am supposed to do in this relationship.
And this is the final stage when your consciousness is completely absorbed in the spirit.
That's why through these five stages we are turning away our consciousness from matter, from body to spirit, to the spiritual reality and reality of our relationship with God.
That's how this process works and this is what Śrīla Prabhupāda explains in this purport and this is what is supposed to take place now but not only now.
It was supposed to take place before when we got some faith and it is supposed to take place after this particular moment when by chanting the holy name, chanting Gāyatrī mantra, and developing our service mood, we ultimately achieve the highest goal of our endeavors.
We come close to God. And that's what Upasana literally means when we worship God. So that's that's little uh little explanation of this process. Thank you very much.