CC.Adi-lila 5.22
Bhakti Vijnana Goswami · South Africa · 2006
Chapters
Verse recitation from Brahma Samhita
Jadvaita Chandra Jai Gorubhta Brinda, Jaita Chanda Jai Gorubhrinda. Jajai Shaitana Jainitananda, Jaananda, Jaidvaita Chandra Jai Gurubhakta Vrinda. Varading Sri Shitanya Cheritamita Diddela. Chapter 5, the glorious of Lord Nityananda Balaram, Text 22.
Chintama ni prakarasadma Sukal Pavriksha, Chintama karasadma sukalpa riksha. Laksha vriteshu Suradira bipalayant, Lakshmi Sahasata Sambrama Sevamana, Laksmi Sāsra Satasambrama Sebraam Govindamadipurusam Tamaham Jani, Govinda Madi Purusambajami, Chintamani prakarasadmas, Chintamani prakarasadmas, Lakshavriteshu Suravira Vipalayanta, Lakshmi Suravira Vipayantam, Lakshmi Sahasrasam Brahma Savyamana, Lakshmi Sastrasamra Savyamana. Govindamadi Purusam Tamahambajani. Govindamadi Purusam Shintamani Touchstone Prakar Groups made of Sadhmaso Sadmasu in a boats Kalpavrikshaw Pavriksha of desire trees. Laksha by millions. Avriteshu surrounded. Surrounded. Surahi Surabi Kaos Abhipalayantam Tending Lakshmi Lakshmi of Goddesses of Fortune Sahasra of thousands of thousands. Shata by hundreds. Sambrahman Brahma with great respect. Savya mananaam being served. Govinda Govinda Adipurusamurusam the original personal person Him Aham I Vajami Bajami Worship Translation I worship Garinda, the Primal Lord, the first progenitor, who is standing cows yielding all desires in a boat built of spiritual gems and surrounded by millions of purpose trees. He is always served with great reverence and affection by hundreds and thousands of goddesses of fortune.
Continuation of the poor by his divine grace Asi Bhaktividanta Swami Prabhupada. The full opulence of the internal potency of Godhead is always resplendent in Vaikunthaloka, where goddesses of fortune are ever increasingly attached to serving the lotus feet of the personality of Godhead. These goddesses of fortune, accompanied by their friends, always create a festive atmosphere of transcendental myth. Always singing the glories of the Lord, they are not silent, even for a moment.
There are unlimited Vaikuntha planets in the spiritual sky, and the ratio of these planets to the material planets in the material sky is three to one. Thus the poor materialist is busy making political adjustments on a planet that is most insignificant in God's creation.
To say nothing of this planet Earth, the whole universe, with innumerable planets throughout the galaxies is comparable to a single mustard seed in a bag full of mustard seeds.
But the poor materialist makes plans to live comfortably here and thus waste his valuable human energy in something that is doomed to frustration.
Instead of wasting his time with business speculations with business speculations, he should seek the life of plain living and high spiritual thinking and thus save himself from perpetual materialistic unrest.
Even if a materialist wants to enjoy developed material facilities, he can transfer himself to planets where he can experience material pleasures much more advanced than those available on earth.
The best plan is to prepare oneself to return to the spiritual sky after leaving the body.
However, if one is intent on enjoying material facilities, one can transfer himself to the other planets in the material sky by utilizing yogic powers.
Velocity of the mind and soul
The playful spaceships of the astronauts are but childish entertainments and are of no use for this purpose.
The Ashtanga Yoga system is a materialistic art of controlling air by transferring it from the stomach to the navel, and from the navel to the heart, and from the heart to collarbone, and from there to the eyeballs and from there to the cerebrum and from there to any desired planet.
The velocities of air and light are taken into consideration by the material scientist, but he has no information of the velocity of the mind and intelligence.
We have some limited experience of the velocity of the mind because in a moment we can transfer our minds to the places hundreds and thousands of miles away.
Intelligence is even finer. Finer than intelligence is the soul which is not matter like mind and intelligence but is spirit or antimatter.
The soul is hundreds of thousands of times finer and more powerful than intelligence. We can thus only imagine the velocity of the soul in its travelling from one planet to another.
Needless to say, the soul travels by its own strength and not with help of any kind of material vehicle.
The bestial civilization of eating, sleeping, fearing, and sense gratifying has misled modern men into forgetting how powerful a soul he has.
As we have already described, the soul is the spiritual spark many, many times more illuminating, dazzling and powerful than the sun, moon or electricity.
Human life is spoiled when man does not realize his real identity with his soul, with his soul. Lord Chaitanya appeared with Lord Nityananda to save men from this type of misleading civilization.
Śrīla Prabhupāda kī jaya. The purport is being continued for a few more pages. Nama oṁ Pada Krishna pristah Ghutarishamati Bhaktividanta Swami Nitina mini masthara swati devi Gurava N pracharini nirviche sumya badhi pach chatade sha tari banchakalpataravish Chakripasindhu Devacha Patitanam Pavanevy Namma, Jasri Krishna Chaitana, Pavanitananda, Sriadvaita Gadata, Srivasa De Gaura Bhakta Vrinda Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. Thank you.
Tamaham Bajani I worship Gavinda the primeval Lord, the first progenitor, who is standing cows yielding all desires in a boat built with spiritual gems and surrounded by millions of purpose trees. He is always served with great reverence and affection by hundreds and thousands of goddesses of fortune.
So in this fifth chapter, the glories of Lord Nityananda Balaram are being described in a very unusual way.
This series of verses where the spiritual world is described here is the comment of Krishna Daskali Raj on the eighth verse of his Mangalacharanatu, Sri Chaitanya Chiritambita, where he takes the verses from the diary of Swarubdamadhargoswami.
Swarub Dhamma Dhar Goswami in his Kadacha, in his notes, which he wrote very briefly during his personal association with Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, which is basically his realization of the nature of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.
He describes the innermost secrets of bhakti. And uh uh Krishna Daskaviraj Gaswami takes these verses as the basis for the whole Chaitanya Cheritamrita, as the spiritual and philosophical basis for Chaitanya Cheritamrita.
Because before we understand this very clearly, we will not be able to proceed. This is the very foundation upon which our Krishna consciousness has to be built.
And here, glories of Lord Nityananda are being described who is the predominating deity of the Sat or Sandini potency of the Lord. We know that the spiritual existence is based on Satchitananda.
And three Shaktis, or three main potencies which compose the spiritual existence is Sandini, Sandit, and Khladini Shakti. And Lord Balaram onityananda Prabhu is the deity, predominating deity of Sandini Shakti.
Lord Krishna himself is the deity of Sandvit Shakti or Chit Shakti. And Shrimati Radharani is the predominating deity of the Chladini Shakti or the pleasure potency of the Lord.
So therefore while describing the nature of Lord Balaram or Lord Nityananda for this uh particular matter, uh uh inevitably you have to describe the nature of the spiritual world or the existence of the spiritual existence. Because the spiritual existence is more or less manifestation of his nature.
And the seventh verse it is said that he is ananta. Ananta means unlimited and unlimited means he is serving the Lord in unlimited varieties of ways.
And one way of his service to the Lord is to create the scene for the lilac for the past times.
This is uh what Lord Nityānanda is doing, this is what uh Ananta Śeṣa is doing in this material world, this is what Lord Balarama original Saṅkarṣaṇa is doing in the spiritual world.
He is doing this, he's creating the stage for this performance. And he's serving as the stage, as the as the space or existence for the Lord to perform his pastimes, his pleasure pastimes.
And uh uh this uh therefore subpotency is is so important as any other potency. And uh uh for us, what is the significance
there for us is that because we're also existing in one sense in this material stage, which is also manifestation of the energy of Sat.
Material existence and fear of death
But because it's covered by this illusory conception of us pretending to be the Lord, it becomes Asat.
Śrīla Prabhupāda very beautifully explains in the introduction to Bhagavad-gītā that our very existence is conducted in the atmosphere of non-existence. And that's the main tragedy.
That's the main problem of our existence. Because it's being conducted in the atmosphere of non-existence.
And then Prabhupada says, he says a very beautifully, he says that we're not meant to be threatened by non-existence.
The whole problem of our existence is that we know that sooner or later we stop existing, at least in this particular environment in this body in this uh surroundings and uh and uh this is the main fear of the human being.
In Yoga Sūtra Patanjali he, says that when he explains the abhiniveśa, is the most subtle kleśa or most subtle cause of suffering for the human beings. He says there are five causes of suffering, and the first one is the
grossest one is the ignorance but then when it uh takes the most miserable form it becomes abhiniveśa and abhiniveśa means fear of death. It's desire to live, desire to cling to this existence and fear of death.
And while explaining the nature of this kleśa, of this abhiniveśa, he says that no one is exempt of it. Even the wisest people on this earth are fearing of this.
And moreover, he says, or actually, Vyāsadeva, who is the commenting on his Yoga Sūtra. He says that this fear of death, which is instinctive. You don't have to teach anyone to fear this.
Somebody he's maybe you know two days old. He may be a cockroach who is totally stupid, but he's already feeling fear of death. This is this is in the blood.
And Vyāsadeva says that this is actually the proof of our repeated existence. Because we have undergone this experience of death, which is the most miserable experience in this world. And because we have undergone it again and again and again and we know how miserable it is, how horrible it is to live this existence. We have the fear.
We have the fear from the very birth and we're already feeling that you know at one point I will stop existing in this particular form and shape. And that's the main problem which we have, which everyone has.
And therefore, while describing the nature of Lord Nityānanda, more or less, Kṛṣṇa Dāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī is inviting us from this measurable existence, from this temporary existence in this material world, which has the beginning and end, and again beginning and again and again, and which is basically the vicious circle.
He says, welcome. This is a little advertisement. If you want to fulfill all your desires, here it is. This is the land that you can fulfill all your desires because it's made of the touchstone. Chintamani.
It's full of consciousness. This money, uh, which is it made of, is conscious: cintāmaṇi-prakara-sadmasu, kalpa-vṛkṣa, kalpa-vṛkṣa means all your desires can be fulfilled.
Transforming consciousness to reach spiritual sky
Uh and uh there the Lord is standing with his cows.
So this is the point, and Prabhupāda, this section of the purport which we read, he says that Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityānanda come in here to give the full display of the spiritual existence to us and to make it possible for us to transfer ourselves to the spiritual existence because it is very difficult. It's not so easy.
For that you really have to totally completely overhaul your whole consciousness. The consciousness has to be, you know, completely changed.
Because at this particular moment our consciousness is suitable for us living in this material world.
And unless and until the consciousness is not radically changed, to be suitable to the atmosphere of the spiritual world, we will not be able to transfer ourselves there.
Śrīla Prabhupāda actually is in this purport giving a lot of stress to the travel, to the before and the previous section he was saying about spiritual airplanes uh which are there and uh they're traveling in the spiritual atmosphere. Here he says you can travel from one planet to another planet.
And basically the travelling means it's not it doesn't mean that you just you know get a visa somehow or other and you know mechanically transfer yourself. Traveling means you change your consciousness.
Because each and every planet, this is why in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam the different planets are being described.
This is one of the topics of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, the structure of the universe. Because the structure of the universe is the structure of different levels of consciousness. Basically, different planets stanam stanam stanam
by kunta vijaya Sukadev Gaswami is explaining that uh stanam which one which is one of the topic of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is this Vaikuṇṭha Vijaya.
It's basically the description of the different levels of consciousness within this universe in order for us to understand that the highest level highest possible level of existence and highest planet which we have to strive
for is Vaikuṇṭha, but for that to travel to Vaikuṇṭha, to travel with the speed of the soul, which Śrīla Prabhupāda is so little bit sarcastically even describes, to travel with the speed of the soul, uh you have to be the soul.
You have to have the consciousness of the soul or the consciousness of Vaikuṇṭha. This is the only way to achieve Vaikuṇṭha. You cannot achieve Vaikuṇṭha by mechanical base or even by the yoga practices.
Even though Śrīla Prabhupāda says you can, but normally yogis they don't reach the spiritual atmosphere because this is not their goal. They're still remaining within this material atmosphere.
Five forms of material ignorance
So this is the question of how to achieve this.
And the beginning of Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Śrīla Prabhupāda explains in the first chapter of Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Śrīla Prabhupāda explains, commenting on the verse, but it is said
that Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityānanda are coming here to dispel all kinds of ignorance. Śrīla Prabhupāda quotes a verse from Udyoga-parva of Mahābhārata. But he says that there are five kinds of ignorance in this world.
And basically, Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityānanda are coming to dispel this for us to change our consciousness. And he says there is this five kinds of ignorance which starts from the identification with the material body.
This is the first and grossest the original ādi-avidyā. This is the original avidyā or original form of ignorance which we all are victims of. So he says this is the first one.
And then he says the second one, which is very logically coming from the first one. First one we identify ourselves with the body. Mind is body. Fine. You know, everyone is is doing this.
Sometimes devotees they complain, you know, Prabhupada, you know, some people complain. Śrīla Prabhupāda he repeats again and again and again and again. You're not this body, you're not this body, you're not this body.
You know why? Why so much? Because I personally think that he doesn't repeat it often enough because despite of all these repetitions we don't understand this. This is a very deeply rooted consciousness. Very deeply rooted.
We are this body. What else are we? We are this body. We look in the mirror, we don't think we are spirit soul. We think, oh, this is nice. Looks nice.
You know, this skin disease, as Prabhupāda said, identification with the body, which is the disease of the material soul, is very deeply rooted, extremely deeply rooted.
And it's more or less reinforced this consciousness is reinforced by our daily exercise of enjoyment.
Because we have this daily exercise, we eat, you know, and we you know this is enjoyment and this is this is the proof I'm this body. Because if I'm not this body, how I can enjoy this?
This is again goes to the same vicious circle.
So Prabhupāda says that the second form or the second shape of the the second variety of ignorance which is logically stemming from the first one is that we think that the standard of enjoyment is material enjoyment.
That enjoyment means material enjoyment. That there is no other form of enjoyment. That enjoyment means you just you have to squeeze out your flesh and see what happens.
You know, you have to really, you know, take it to the limits and you know experience everything which this flesh can give you, and this is the material enjoyment.
And then he says again, uh the next kind of ignorance, which is again very logically coming from the second one, is that uh you become anxious in anxiety because of this misidentification with the body, and then trying to enjoy this body
to the maximum possible extent with such a gusto, you know, which all the people are doing.
Yesterday I wasn't actually I speaking from the experience, yesterday we were on this beach, you know, and you can see this display of we were not different of course, we were doing the same thing.
So we were we were taking our bodies and trying to experience something, thinking that this is the pleasure. And because of this pleasure, you know, people they become extremely anxious. They are always in anxiety.
I need it, I need it, I need it, I need it. Somebody is enjoying this way. I also need to enjoy this way. This is how envy works. You know, you see somebody is enjoying. This is how actually advertisement works.
Advertisement, they show how people enjoy something. And they you know somebody is chewing something and you say, I also have to chew the same thing. So th this is you know it becomes contagious.
They show you something which is supposedly very attractive and you look at this and you think, oh yeah, right, this is the way to go. This is life. So this is anxiety. This is actually anxiety.
Anxiety to get more enjoyment. More enjoyment that you may even deserve, you know. They show you, they display you different kinds of enjoyment, and you think, yeah, yeah, yeah. I have to get it. I will not be fulfilled.
My life will be failure if I don't experience this enjoyment or that enjoyment. And because of this anxiety, there is the next kind of ignorance.
And this is all ignorance, this is all manifestation of Avidya which Lord Chaitanya is coming to dispel. And the next kind of problem, or ignorance, or manifestation of ignorance,
because it's the same, is that you you lament. Because you you never will be able to experience the material pleasures to the full extent and it's always there is always some problem.
And the more you try to experience the material enjoyment, the more problems is there. You know, you you are you're doomed to have problems. The more you try.
You know, you try and try and try and th this you know, lamentation is coming. And this is again, this is a very severe reason cause uh of our ignorance of our uh mm problem in this material world.
When we become first anxious and then sad, morose, desperate. And in this desperation we forget everything. This is basically very severe cause of ignorance and therefore
in the beginning of Bhagavad-gītā if you remember Lord Krishna is saying again and again and again to Arjuna, Natvamshachita Marhasi, you're not meant to be desperate. You're not meant to lament.
This is this is beyond you. This is something which is not really you you didn't deserve it. You degraded yourself. This is the problem. We degraded our soul to this state of lamentation. By nature, the soul is ever blissful.
By nature, the soul is so blissful that it's just unbelievable. But we degraded ourselves to this condition of lamentation and we don't know what to do and we're lamenting and we're sitting there, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I'm sad. And you become depressed, you become paralyzed.
This is this is why uh Lord Krishna in the beginning of Bhagavad Gita he's fighting with this depression of Arjuna because he knows when you're depressed you cannot do anything. You're just depressed.
You know, this is your mission in life to be depressed. So that's sitting there you know or you're going to a doctor, please give me some pill to get rid of this depression of this lamentation which is which is ignorance.
And then the fifth, the final form of uh ignorance in this description
of Mahābhārata Udyoga-parva, which Prabhupāda quotes in the beginning of Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta is that, uh, to think that there is anything in this world besides absolute truth. To think that there is anything else, and you have to strive to anything else. So that's basically the description of our condition, of our lamentable condition, of our horrible condition in this material world.
But that would be again depressing when we hear these descriptions of the spiritual world and we know that we are in a completely different state of existence, we have to know how to go from here to there.
This is the most important.
Developing eyes of love for perception
The most important thing is to know how to reach from here to there. And in the in the previous verse actually it was described.
Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī in the previous verse, he says: premānetri dekhi tāra svarūpa-prakāśa prakāśa. gopa-gopī-saṅge yaṅhā kṛṣṇa-rādī-lāsa. He said premānetri to
go to the spiritual world, you have to develop this premānetrī. Premānetrī means the eyes of love. Now we have this material eyes, which is the eyes of envy. The material eyes is the instrument of mātsarya, of envy.
This, this is how you use the material eyes. You know, you look at somebody, he's enjoying.
There are only two ways to do to deal with this problem: either to spoil his enjoyment so that he would lament or somehow or other to grab this enjoyment to enjoy myself. So this is mātsarya-netra.
This is the netra, the eyes of envy which we have. In this material world, the envy is ruling supreme. This is the supreme controller of this world, the envy, within the hearts of every living being.
And in the spiritual world the love is the supreme ruler. So, he says, Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī says: premānetri dekhi tāra svarūpa-prakāśa.
You can see this svarūpa-prakāśa, you can see this original form, which is actually your own form. And you can see your own form, you can see the form of God, you can see the form of the spiritual world by premānetrī.
So now the next question is of course how to achieve or to acquire this premānetrī. And if I have a few more minutes, when should I finish actually? No one.
Huh? Uh, so, uh, in the next few minutes I will try to uh say a few words on on this regard. How how it is how it is achievable, how the change of consciousness is achievable by the process of bhakti.
It is described in a very interesting way in our Vaishnava literature, and that there are five levels of consciousness. Five levels of knowledge and five levels of consciousness corresponding to this knowledge.
And there are certain processes for each and every level of consciousness which is there, which is described. This is five methods of knowledge, so to speak, five means of knowledge or five processes of knowledge.
The lowest one is pratyaksha. Pratyaksha means you see with your own eyes. The eyes of envy. This matsari netra. You look, you know, and with these eyes. And ice is the symbol of other senses.
When the eyes is uh when they speak about the eyes, because the eyes are the most powerful knowledge-acquiring sense. All other senses are implied. The four others are included in this eyes.
So this pratyaksha, your own experience is very frustratingly limited. This is definitely means to know. And people are mad. People want to know.
This is w when the people trying to enjoy or experience something, this is their uh inherent uh urge for the knowledge. They want to know.
Because by nature we are sat cheat and ananda, and cheat means I want to know, I want to experience, I want to expand my experience. So the first method of process of knowledge is pratiaks, which is frustratingly limited.
Then there is second, which is, and this pratiaks is common for human beings and for animals. Animals they can only know through pratyaksha.
And living beings or human beings who are experiencing life on the level of pratyaksa are not different from animals. Sometimes people get offended.
There was one there is one anti-cult person in Russia. He's very ferocious person.
And what he read all Prabhupada's books, or at least quite a few of them, with the like Shishupala, with the with this desire to find faults. So he noted down all the faults and he's always saying, you know, the Swami Prabhupada. He is a he's a hater.
You know, he is he's so hateful person. He always says, You are like cats and dogs, cats and dogs. And he said he's offending our Russian people because he's saying they're like cats and dogs. So but uh this is a fact.
If the human beings are on this level of Pratyaksha and this whole existence is just uh experienced through the senses. It's just it's animal existence. Cats and dogs, yeah, that's what the cats and dogs are doing.
And if human beings are the same there, you know, why you should be offended? you should be happy. Uh you know. Actually cats and dogs are more happy. They don't have depression at least.
They don't go to the doctors, they're just enjoying the senses. But because you have depression uh because you're not fulfilled, because you want to expand your experience.
So the next level of knowledge or the next process of knowledge is called paroksha, which means indirect knowledge which basically means that you know through the mind. And the first level you know through the senses, and the second level you know through the mind, and basically means you read something.
You read and while reading you're expanding your experience, the sphere of experience. So you uh you're knowing through the experience of others more or less. You heard it through the speech of somebody,
somebody described, oh I went there and I was so nice. And you also feel oh that's what so nice, yes. So this is paroksha, uh and this is comparable,
uh there is this wakeful state, and wakeful state is the level of pratyaksha when we experience through our senses. Then in a dreaming state, this is paroksha knowledge. When we experience through the mind.
In a dreaming state we also travel somewhere. You know I travel in my dreams somewhere in some horrible place and then there are some nightmares happening with me. So this is paroksha. And then the next stage is aparoxha.
And then aparoksha means direct knowledge.
Because before that it's indirect, the knowledge that the soul is experiencing, the experiencer is the soul, because it's the particle of cit-śakti. But uh in this material world you experience through the senses, through the matter, and this is indirect, this is pratyaksha, then you experience through the mind, it's also indirect, it's also kind of perverted.
It's more expanded but still it's it's not really anything glorious, you know.
Direct soul experience through internal meditation
You read about this kind of stuff and that kind of stuff and you you know see through the eyes of other people and you feel good but it's still ridiculous.
So Paroksha Aparoksha Aparoksa level of knowledge is the first stage of transcendental knowledge where you have the first glimpse of transcendental reality. When you directly experience it with your soul, I'm spirit soul, and the spirit soul means spirit soul.
And this is the level of knowledge, or this is the experience which people obtain through meditation.
This is not the uh external knowledge, this is the internal knowledge of the soul, when the soul at one point experienced the joy of its own existence, which is not dependent on any material circumstances or environment.
Like one person told me, he was with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. And he said, you know, we were doing meditation for hours. He was very highly placed in the hierarchy of this Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
And he said, for sometimes we were doing you know meditation for hours and sometimes the sādhanā was twenty-four hours a day. And it was such a blissful experience.
I had this you know this sometime few few times during this meditation I experienced this light this light of the spirit this brahmajyoti I was it was so overwhelming I said this was this was the best.
She said before I was taking drugs this was the best drugs. But then she said then I came to the kīrtana and I realized that this guy is no better. So, uh
basically and this uh this uh uh direct knowledge of the soul, direct experience of the soul is the negation of all material experience. When you come to the point of the negation of material variety.
Before that, on a low lay level you experience this material variety but then from that point it comes to the point all material experiences come to one point it's like all the all the race, all these varieties are coming from one point.
Even scientists they say that there was explosion. What exploded? When they say what exploded they said there was one point. This little point exploded. You know what was this point? They don't know.
But uh but it's a fact and that uh this is this is the uh the point which we have to cross to go to the spiritual world.
Because this is the point, the point which they're speaking about, the point which exploded into this material variety of this material world, is this margin of between the spiritual world and material world.
So when you withdraw your senses and you try to concentrate within and you try to experience your soul as it is, without any uh exterior kind of means of experiencing this world, you're coming to this point of unified experience.
You know everything is coming from this one point. And I'm coming from this fine point. This is this the point is the foundation of all experiences. And this is basically what uh Buddhist or other people they uh they
achieve with their meditation. This one point, no variety, but it's blissful. But then, you know, if you if you know mathematics, you know that this this is always coming from one point and it's kind like race.
But then you know if it reaches one point and then they say that's it. You reached one point, that's it. You became this point. Because this is just a point and you know everyone is a point and you merge in this point.
So this is the paroksha-gyan. But then from there, there is the spiritual variety. And the spiritual variety is being described in this verse, cintāmaṇi-prakara-sadmasu kalpa-vṛkṣa. And this is the problem.
Because the problem here there are two more levels of experience or knowledge which we have to acquire and we have to know the means of acquiring this. The lowest level of spiritual experience is called aparokṣa.
The next one is called adhokṣaja. And adhokṣaja, there are different ways of translating this.
But one very beautiful way of translating this: adha means down. Aksha means eyes. Ja means something which is born from the eyes.
Adhokṣaja means the level of knowledge or the level of experience where you push down all your material experiences. You kicked it down. Sometimes Krishna, this is the name of Krishna, Adhokṣaja.
And they say that this is specifically the name of Krishna who kicked the Śakaṭāsura. He was lying down under the cart and he kicked with his little leg and this whole cart exploded.
Inconceivable nature of aprakrita spiritual variety
So basically adhokṣaja is the level of experience where all your experience of material life is totally pushed down. There is nothing which you can experience by your own eyes, but there is still this experience of spiritual variety which is coming down on its own will.
And that's the main problem. This uh for a few minutes I will elaborate on this problem. This is next. That this is basically there is no means to know this. There is no means. Because it's causeless.
It has to come down on you. It has to be revealed. Uh Upaniṣads they are very emphatic of this.
In Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad it is said, nāyam ātmā pravacanena labhyo na medhayā na bahunā śrutena — you cannot know the soul, you cannot know ātmā, you cannot know God, you cannot have the experience of spiritual world by any material means.
Nayamatma Pravachanan Allah. You can speak about this very eloquently. It doesn't help. You can hear about this. Nabahuna Srutena. You can study the shruti, this is also included there.
You know that you can have a very genius mind. It doesn't help. It doesn't come into the sphere of your experience uh unless it's uh it wants to do it. It's just being revealed without any cause, without any good cause.
It just comes to you, comes down to you. And all of a sudden you are there in the spiritual world. So there are these two levels of spiritual experience which are the real spiritual experience, Both have to be revealed.
Both can be known only through the process of revelation. One is this adho-gata level, the level of Vaikuṇṭha, and the other one is aprākṛta. And this is also very interesting term, Aprakrit.
Aprakrit means that this is something which is not Prakrit. Our experience here is Prakrit. But then the highest level of experience is aprākṛta. And one can ask, why is it called Aprakrit?
Because you already left this prakriti experience far beyond you, behind you.
Why all of a sudden the highest level is called aprākṛta, or aprākṛta, because it's deceivingly similar to the prakriti experience. And this is the danger.
The highest level of experience which is described here in this verse is called aprākṛta because it's it's you you can very easily mix it with our experience in this world. It's simple. Krishna is living there.
And Krishna is a simple guy. You know, and sometimes I I know many devotees have these doubts and I I was asked many times in a very confidential manner does he really exist?
After so many years of chanting, does Kṛṣṇa really exist? You mean to say that he is like this? This is actually this is actually the wonder of spiritual world and spiritual existence.
Even Lord Brahmā in the Tenth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, after this Brahma-vimohana-līlā, he comes to Kṛṣṇa. Leela he comes to the to Krishna. And he sees this little boy Krishna. And Krishna, you know, he can care less.
There is some this four-headed creature in front of him, and this four-headed creature is k is crying. The tears are coming from his eyes, eight ey And
what he says in all his prayers Lord Brahma says, I cannot understand you, please. Please forgive me because I just thought you so ordinary.
Actually it is it is explained that what blew Brahma's mind is that Krishna was eating something, he was keeping some food, morsel of food in his hand.
But what really blew Brahma's mind is that he was keeping it in the left hand. Because Brahma is a very cultured you know, he's from very culture and you cannot take it with the left hand. Left hand is mūcī, you know.
And here is somebody who is supposed to be the Supreme Lord and you know,
he's he's he's he's dirty, he's with this, you know, dust of the cows and he is this with this, you know, stupid stupid peacock feather there which is nothing special you know and with this very simple garland and he's and more moreover he's eating with his left hand.
This is too much, you know. Brahma was totally disgusted. He said, let's check him out. Is it really true?
So when when he comes down and when he begs forgiveness from Krishna, he says, no immediate hebrava Pushella Saddam Bara. He said, I can't I can't understand you. You know, it's you're too simple for me to understand.
Because Brahma is very complicated. He is the creator. And what he sees, he sees that here is somebody who is so simple, but at the same time he is the Supreme Lord.
So what is actually being said there that the highest level of spiritual experience is aprākṛta. It's so apparently deceivingly simple, but at the same time it's the highest. It's the highest possible thing.
Krishna is tending cows. And the cows, you know, cows the is the lowest position in the human society. Cowherds are not very intellectual, they're not very, you know, and uh I know one I I I had an experience.
Um there is one lady philosopher. This is very strange combination. Ladies they're usually not philosophers. But there is and sometimes nowadays in Kali Yuga there are ladies philosophers. So she comes.
And every time when I go to one city she comes to see me. And it always comes to the same point.
She says, You mean to say that God is tending cows? You know, this is too much. I cannot accept this. I can accept everything, but not this, you know. I asked what else he could do? Please tell me.
This is nice to tell cows. But this is so far beyond, this is too far out. This is so far out. She says, I'm asking, what is your conception of God? She says, He's a big mirror.
It's a big mirror, you know, hanging somewhere there in the universe. You come to this mirror and you look at this mirror. This is what they can relate to. But when it is expressed, and not only them.
Lord Brahmā says I cannot relate to it either. I'm sorry. It's too simple for me. So this is how you can understand this. Lord Brahmā cannot understand this. Nobody can understand this.
Lord Krishna says in Upaniṣads, again and again, the verses after verses after verses, it is said in Upaniṣads, you cannot know God. You cannot know ātmā. It's inconceivable.
It can only be, you know, somehow or other descend upon you. But what it means? What does it mean for us? Does it mean for us that we have to sit and wait when it comes to us, you know? When does it come? You know.
Can we do something? So that's the point. That's actually the whole lecture I was trying to say this and I finally say this and finish my lecture. Sorry for keeping you so long.
But this is the most hopeful part of the lecture.
Because uh the point is that even though and this is why uh this is actually my little purport to this last part of this mm purport where Prabhupāda says that Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityānanda are coming here to dispel our ignorance and coming here to save us, to save us from this grossest type of ignorance. They're coming here to give us the way, to get rid of all our problems altogether and to achieve this highest form of spiritual experience.
So what is it if it's self-manifest, if it's causeless? And we know it's causeless.
The spiritual experience, bhakti is causeless, right? Ahaituky apratihatā. Bhakti is causeless. The Lord is causeless himself. His mercy is causeless. What it means?
You know it means that basically I cannot do anything to achieve this bhakti, right? Because it's causeless. If you say that I have to do something to achieve bhakti, it means it has a cause. But it's causeless.
It's swarat, it's independent. It can come, it cannot come.
And, uh, it makes it very difficult to understand for us, uh, you know, what we're supposed to do then, you know, shall we do something or shall we not do something? And when we hear this that bhakti is causeless.
We start understanding. Yeah, now I understand why I don't have bhakti, because it didn't come to me, you know, but you know if you only stop at this level, then it's kind of useless.
To say about something that this is causeless, it means that you cannot do anything about it.
And it basically means that either you have to be depressed for the rest of your life, because you cannot do anything or you just do something else which is within the sphere of your influence.
Even Krishna says, uh, you know, why you should lament about something which is beyond your sphere of your influence. You have to do something which is, uh, within the sphere of your influence.
So if bhakti just has to descend upon us and we cannot do anything to get it, uh, then it's useless.
Achieving divine love through sadhana bhakti
It's a useless statement, but the good news is that we can and
this is, this is what I, I wanted to say how to actually achieve this experience. To achieve this experience, uh, Rūpa Gosvāmī and Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, they go out of their way to explain that there is sādhana or there are ways which you have to do to achieve love.
This experience of spiritual world, this is the most blissful, the most amazing experience which is there, which everyone has to hanker.
Vaikuṇṭha-vijayate, this highest place of spiritual conquest is achievable by your own endeavors. In a sense, it is achievable. And the whole Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu is how to achieve it.
And Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura in Madhurya-kādambinī, he explains in the first verse, in the first shower of Madhurya-kādambinī, in a very clever way, he explains that bhakti-āsa and jātayā bhakti.
Bhakti is independent, but it means that it's coming from bhakti. And it means that bhava, or this experience of love,
which opens your eyes to the amazing spiritual experience, experience of spiritual world, is achievable through sadhana. Because sadhana belongs to the category of bhakti already.
And this sadhana is special and this is please give me one more chance to say this. That the sadhana, how it is, how it is the means to achieve this love. It is explained by Rūpa Gosvāmī.
I cannot I don't have time to do this in a very elaborate way, but it's very It is interesting how it is explained in in uh in Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu. It is explained um in Mādhurya-kādambinī, it explains the stages.
And this is the normal way which everyone has to go. The normal way first to acquire Shraddha. And from Shraddha you get initiation, sadhu Sangha. Sadhu Sangha means Guru Sangha.
You get association with the saints and you listen to them. And then Bhajanakriya, you perform your process of devotional service.
And then at one point, after bhajana-kriyā, gradually the heart is being purified from all these desires. And this is the standard way to achieve power.
But we have to know for this to work, we have to really remember about the goal. Because this is the difference. There are other ways to achieve bhakti, but they are not recommended ways.
In the Shastras there are many instances or examples of how people achieved bhakti. Like Pūtanā achieved bhakti. This is also a way to achieve bhakti.
You go to Krishna and you try to feed him with your breast which is poison and you push it in his throat. And then you achieve bhakti. No need to go all this sadhana and this and that. Just try to poison Kṛṣṇa.
No, it doesn't work. It's not a common way. In actually it's interesting. In Śrī Sampradaya, Rāmānuja, he gives a definition of bhakti. And this definition of bhakti which Rāmānuja gives is the words of Mārīca demon.
Mārīca demon when he was kicked up kicked by Rāma. Rāma, you know, once he pushed an arrow into this Mārīca and Mārīca he flew for many many yojans and he tells to Ravana, he shares his experiences of Bhakti with Ravana.
And he says, Mārīca says, since that time when I was hit by the arrow of Lord Rāma, I see Lord Rāma behind every tree. I look in the tree, I see he must be hiding behind this. He says, this is the this is bhakti.
Bhakti means that you see the Lord everywhere. Bhakti means you see you see the human being. And you see the human being but you know that the Lord is in within his heart. This is bhakti.
And you approach human beings, not just like a nasty, dirty, envious person who is around you and who is somehow rather you know total hindrance to your progress of bhakti.
But you see him as somebody who who carries the Lord within his heart. So this is Bhakti and the general way to achieve bhakti is through bhakti.
And the bhakti starts from the very beginning, śraddhā, it starts from the first, when we acquire faith and uh when we build our experiences upon this faith foundation, foundation of śraddhā, and we when we engage in uh sādhana bhakti, then gradually, gradually, gradually, uh bhāva bhakti will come.
But for bhāva to come, we have to remember that this is the goal.
Conscious versus mechanical practice in sadhana
And the difference, and this is the very last statement which I will make,
because Śrīla Prabhupāda is speaking here about yoga sādhana. Oh, this karma sādhana is there. So many sādhanas are there. The difference between bhakti sādhana and any other sādhana is that you have to be really conscious about it.
And the tendency in us will be there to perform it mechanically. Why it is pleasing to the Lord? Why do we get the mercy of the Lord through this sādhana? Because it's not mechanical.
And therefore it's the way to obtain bhāva or love of God. We constantly strive to have this bhāva and we try to please the Lord and by doing this and we're trying to you know infuse consciousness within each and every action of us of ours.
Then only it will work. Then only bhāva will come and bhāva we will experience this love of God.
Whereas any other sādhana, yoga sādhana, karma sādhana, even jñāna sādhana is mechanical and therefore the Lord is never pleased with it.
It's ridiculous to suggest that the Lord is pleased uh you know by seeing somebody who is sitting in a lotus posture for three hours. They say this is the perfection.
If you can sit in in Padmasana for three hours this is perfection of yoga. But you know the Lord is looking at this and saying what this is a stupid guy he's wasting his
life trying to you know do this sādhana. So the difference is from the very beginning, and this is the actually the gist of this description of the letter of bhakti, is that it's conscious, not mechanical.
From the very first stage up to the highest stage of experience. Śraddhā is experience. Sadhu Sangha is experience when you are there, when you have to be present. You know, if you are just feeling dull as we usually are.
It's not sādhana. It's not.
The first point of sādhana is is guru bhakti, you have to develop guru means you have to be personal, you have to be personal. You have to invest your consciousness. You have to be there consciously.
And then you know bhajana-kriya means you push yourself to do it because it's against your nature, against your material nature, but still you push yourself to do it with the goal, with having
in mind the goal of achieving bhāva-bhakti, and then you know anartha-nivṛtti will come, and then niṣṭhā will come, and then all the problems will disappear, and then after that ruci, āsakti, bhāva, preman, you know, nice. But before that you Bow you know nice but before that you
know we have to really overcome this mechanical nature because we acquire this material mechanical nature and therefore we try to do everything mechanically without investing our heart and our consciousness and that's the main problem.
And that's what aparādha means. Aparādha means when you're mechanical. And when you perform bhakti in a mechanical way, it's an offensive way. And that's why the problems come.
So the only way, and this is Ravindaswaru Prabhu, he explained in a very beautiful way.
He said what is the difference between uh an aparādha stage of chanting, aparādha-nāma, nāmāparādha and uh and uh and clearing stage, nāmābhāsa?
He said the only the only difference is that nāmāparādha when they do it mechanically. When you do blah blah blah blah blah.
This is nāma-aparādha. And the only difference is that when you try to invest your consciousness within this process, trying to understand what you're doing, this is already ābhāsa, this is already clearing stage.
In other words, this is the stage of practice. This is where the practice becomes practice. Where the sadhana becomes sadhana.
Before that it's not sādhana, it's just it's just you know it's just your way of committing aparādhas. Instead of doing it there, you are doing it here.
So that's, but Lord Caitanya, he came and he brought this sādhana and he said, This is bhakti, and he gave he's so merciful that he gives the experience of this spiritual experience from the very beginning.
From the very beginning sometimes you you know, this again quoting this man who came, he said, I was in this, you know, he in the in this uh Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, he said,
you know, so much experiences I had, and then I came to a kīrtana. And this kirtan was for three hours, and I said, my goodness, I never had anything like this for three hours. And these guys have this every day.
You know, this is this is the real yoga. So you joined immediately. But when they do it in in a mechanical way, it loses the whole charm. It loses everything. Everything evaporates.
And it just comes down on our level of aparādha. So Lord Chaitanya came to give us this, you know amazing experience and we all can have it. No doubt about it. He is all merciful God, he already said it's yours.
You know, Patite Pavana the only the only the only reason, the only cause to get bhakti in this age of Kali is to be fallen. If you're fallen no problem, you can get. Patita Pavana head the tavaravana So if you're
fallen you have the qualification to get Bhakti but then you have to do something and that's what it is.
This experience of spiritual world is is ready there for you, but you know you have to make little endeavors to get it. I'm really sorry for such an unpass. Thank you very much.
Cultivating gratitude and conscious awareness
I guess we can snow. Can you explain the mechanical Mechanical means when we don't invest the consciousness. When the consciousness is absent.
you know the we are spirit soul and spirit soul means to be soul means to be conscious, right. But we are here in this material world we are more or less trained to be mechanical.
We think that this is the best way, you know, to do something in a very mechanical way because this is not no hassle.
You know the the you're look y you're smart if you can do something with with the l least resistance, you know, without any investing any any of your energy.
But the energy of the soul is that you you invest the consciousness there. So this is what not mechanical means. And uh if you just do it with your body, with your even with your mind. Mind is also a mechanism.
Mind is also kind of very stupid machine which is blah blah blah blah blah blah saying something there.
It's also mechanical, but uh at least if the attention is there and if the heart, if this if if the soul is alert, if the soul is there.
And you can see, you know, you can like for example, you can bow down in a mechanical way and it uh it it actually doesn't help so much. It's just a physical exercise.
It may help you, you know, to keep your body fit, you know. If if you do so many obeisances every day but it doesn't help. But uh in non-mechanical way when you when you do it with your body
but then as Lord Brahma said in the in this press uh in the fortieth chapter of the tenth canto, uh what is it? Uh what is this famous verse? Uh fit uh what is what is this? Um What is this verse?
The most famous verse about experiencing the fruits of our karma. That the devotee muktipadai sabhaya sadaya bhak. Tate nu kampam su samiksimana bujana evaat mahridaam vipakam.
And Lord Brahma said that if somebody while experiencing this life, and this is his recipe, while experiencing the problems of this life, he is always grateful to the Lord.
And gratefulness is actually the first step towards making our sadhana not mechanical. We don't we don't have love. No problem. Lord Krishna knows this. He he doesn't expect that all of a sudden you you have love.
But you have to be grateful. That you can have. The gratitude is the is the little simple thing. So what Brahma said there, you explaining what is not mechanical.
He is explaining that this that when you experience this all these suffering conditions of the life, at the same time you try to be grateful to the Lord and say thank you very
much by Khridvak Avapubir by your body paying obeisances by your vak by your speech paying obeisances when you speak about this and by your heart, by your consciousness. If you do this, if you're grateful to the Lord with this three, not just one or two, but with the three aspects of your being, then it's not mechanical, then the heart has to be involved into this to on a on a on a certain level at least of awareness The
Gopas are so much like they can carry Krishna on their backs and Krishna carries lamb on their backs. They give you ghana on Krishna. So So there's opportunity. So much opportunities.
Gopis say, you know, Larakrishna puts the his foot on our chest. This is much more intimate. And it seems to me that he always wants to be carried by Krishna on his shoulders. But Gopis they don't strive for this.
They want to put Krishna upon their just goes have very you know don't worry when you become gopy you will not regret Well sometime it will happen. May take some time, but um I don't know make
Uncovering spiritual identity through chanting
them speculating but um isn't another one to be correct and but serious sets um
can't be developed. It's just recovered, uncovered and then practiced. I don't know how is that true? So if one wants to be a copy but if one is peacock in the spiritual world, how do you become guru, Kaviraja
explains in Śrī Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu that when you chant the holy name, the holy name gives you everything.
Holy name is like a flower and it gradually you know blooms and when it's fully bloomed, then you can see the Lord, the form of the Lord and your own form. You don't have to speculate about this.
It was one devotee, one disciple of Srila Prabhupada, somebody gave him svarūpa siddhi and said you're a peacock in the spiritual world and so one morning he was found you know staying in this position and all and making strange sounds, some yes, but he's doing, he said I'm doing my sādhana, I'm the peacock in the spiritual world. It's pretty lousy, people.
This is they don't understand that the spiritual world is bhāva-jagat. Bhāva-jagat means that everything there is from bhāva. Bhāva means love. So this form of the beings is the form of their bhāva, of their love of God.
You know, this is the particular form. As much as our form is the form of our envy towards God, you know, this is the manifestation, the gross manifestation of our envy.
There every form which is there is as the manifestation of bhāva.
So when you develop bhāva while practicing sādhana-bhakti, you practice sādhana-bhakti, then you develop bhāva, this bhāva will have certain shape, this shape is yours. So you don't have to, I wasn't really worried about svarūpa-siddhi, I was just trying to find out because I'm interested in personal consciousness.
There's always been discussion that just chant. You just chant. You don't have to do anything, just chant. You don't have to do anything else. Everything else is just imagination.
You will, this is sahajiyā, that's what they think. They think that they can get to this level by the means of material mind.
This kind of thing is the imagination on the level of the mind. When you try to, you know, shape your mind in a certain way, this is not the way to achieve the spiritual experience. This is not the way.
And there is sādhana, elaborate sādhana, but we don't follow this because Jīva Gosvāmī he explained in Sandarbhas that there is a rāgānugā-bhakti level of sādhana and on a rāgānugā level you don't do all this smaraṇa stuff and this stuff, you just chant the holy name.
This is the sādhana and Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja in Caitanya-caritāmṛta explains this is the main limb of sādhana-bhakti is chanting the holy name. This is the main limb and the main means of attaining spiritual experience.
I don't want the answer to the question but but but obviously uh it's one developed the summary where is the developers but your question side how does one do it There is nothing problem. Just channel the holy name.
That's the problem. There is channel the holy name with your consciousness. Invest your consciousness within the chanting of the holy name and everything else is coming from this.
We don't get anything because we're not investing our consciousness into this process. That's the only problem.
Otherwise, when you invest the consciousness, then the bhāva will bloom within your heart very soon, very quickly. For some time some impediments will be there actually.
The one of the translation of the name by kuṇṭha, the name kuṇṭha one of the translations, kuṇṭha means impediments. Sometimes Prabhupāda says this is the place where there is no impediments.
Sometimes it is said kuṇṭha means limit, the place which is unlimited. This is the spiritual world. But kuṇṭha also means illusion. The place where there is no illusion.
Vaikuṇṭha means knowledge, when the uh the kuṇṭha or illusion uh is is totally uh eradicated from our uh heart. So we don't have an uh spiritual experience because we are in this world of kuṇṭha. Kuṇṭha means illusion.
We are in illusions. So to achieve Vaikuṇṭha we have to eradicate all these illusions. And the way to eradicate illusions to to overcome all the obstacles which are there which is kuṇṭha within our heart is this uh
when you chant and the obstacles are there, this is on the level of anartha-nivṛtti, which is hard, you're you're overcoming your anarthas.
But then when you reach the stage of niṣṭhā, there is no desire for all these lower things.
Dangers of premature esoteric speculation
Now this desire is because of some scars. Our lower nature is just pulling us and pushing us. So and if on this stage you start you know thinking about once Prabhupāda
was speaking with with somebody and one of his disciples asked, you know, what about svarūpa-siddhi? You know, Prabhupāda became so angry.
He said, y you're not even you're not even qualified to pronounce this word svarūpa-siddhi.
Yeah there are some m section of Gaudiya Vaiṣṇava society who are obsessed with this and they always speak about this and they speak about that but uh it's detrimental on the level of of um because uh
on this level when we are offensive. And offensive means we identify with the body. Like Prabhupāda said, that the dog is offensive. Why? Because he is passing urinal to the sea. Because he is identifying his he's stupid.
The word offensiveness or atheistic in in Sanskrit is called pāṣaṇḍatā. Pāṣaṇḍatā means you're like paśu. Paśu means animal.
When you behave like an animal, when you're mechanical, when you totally identify with the body, then, then you create all kinds of things. If on this level of existence we start uh talking about you
know gopīs this and gopīs that and this, this is, this is offensive. This is offensive. And we try to imagine this, it's like, you know, the, the, the, the spiritual world is such a delicate thing.
When, when Lord Caitanya was there, he was so strict about this. If somebody would create something about gopīs or whatever, Svarūpa Dāmodara would scream. And if there was little rasa-bhāsa, little unpleasant combination of the rasas, was totally completely rejected.
And who we are, what do we understand about this? You know, we're so gross. So there's no need for this.
Uh, what is, uh, relevant for us is to try to do sādhana in a proper way, to chant the holy names in the proper way. And then, then, gradually, gradually all the problems will be eradicated if we do it in a proper way.
Okay? Thank you very much. Okay. Thank you very much.