Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.20.18. The Importance of Studying the Scriptures
Bhakti Vijnana Goswami · 2021
Chapters
Recitation of introductory prayers and verse
Um namamo Bhagavatam Narayanamnamaskritya, Naramchaiva Narutamam, Naramchaiva Naruta Devi Saraswati, Tatojayamudiray, Nashtraya Swabadriso, Nityambhagavata Seva Bhagavatam shoke, bhakti bhate ni stiki, Yamprabrajandamanupetampetakritam dwaipayano virahakatarahajuhava putretitammayatayota vobine dustam sarvabutta ridayamuni manatos me.
So I will read today we will read today, uh, the text number 18 from the 20th chapter of the third canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam entitled Conversation between
Maitreya and Vidura sasarja, avidyam Pancha Parvanam Pamchapanam Agrataha Tamishramishram Anhatamishramishram Tamaha, mohaha, mahatamaha, Sassarjacha vidyam, sasanachaya vidam, sasarja chaya yavidyam, sassanachaya vidam Panchapam agrataha, panchapama magrata, panchaparva magrataha, pancha parvana magra, tamishram dhatamishramishramatamishram tamishramandamisramishamisam tamamoho mahatamahan Tamo Moho Mahatamahan Sasarjachayavidyamidyam Pancha Parvana Magrataha Pancha Magraha Tamishram Antatamishramisham Tamamoho mahatamaha, sasarja, created chayaya with his shadow, with his shadow, avidyam, ignorance, pancha parvanam, pancha Five varieties. Agrataha first of all tamishramishramishra andishramatamas Tamaha Tamas Tamas Moha Moha Mahatamaha Mahatamas. Mahamahatamas. Oh Mahamoha.
Translation and purports by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Śrīla Prabhupāda.
First of all, Brahma created from his shadow the coverings of ignorance of the conditioned souls. They are five in number and are called Tamishra, Andatamisra, Tamas, Moha and Maha Moha.
The conditioned souls or living entities who come to the material world to enjoy sense gratification are covered in the beginning by five different conditions.
The first condition is a covering of Tamishra or anger. Constitutionally each and every living entity has minute independence. It is misuse of that minute independence for the conditioned soul to think that he can enjoy like the Supreme Lord,
or to think, why shall I not be free in joy like the Supreme Lord? This forgetfulness of his constitutional position is due to anger or envy.
The living entity being eternally part and parcel servitor of the Supreme Lord can never by constitution be an equal enjoyer with the Lord.
When he forgets this, however, he tries to be one of one with him, his condition is called Tamishra. Even in the field of spiritual realization, this Tamishra mentality of the living entity is hard to overcome.
In trying to get out of the entanglement of material life, there are many who want to be one with the Supreme. Even in their transcendental activities, this lower grade mentality of Tamishra continues.
And the Tamishra involves considering death to be the ultimate end. The atheists generally say that the body is the self, and that everything is therefore ended with the end of the body.
Thus they want to enjoy material life as far as possible during the existence of the body. Their theory is as long as you live, you should live prosperously. Never mind whether you commit all kinds of so-called sins.
You must eat sumptuously, beg, borrow or steal, and if you think that by stealing and borrowing you are being entangled in sinful activities for which you will have to pay, then just forget that misconception because after death everything is finished.
No one is responsible for anything he does during this life. This atheistic conception of life is killing human civilization. For it is without knowledge of the continuation of eternal life.
This Andhatamishra ignorance is due to Tamas. The condition of not knowing anything about the spirit soul is called Tamas.
This material world is also generally called Tamas because 99% of its living entities are ignorant of their identity as soul. Almost everyone is thinking that he is this body.
He has no information of the spirit soul. Guided by this misconception, one always thinks this is my body and anything in relationship with this body is mine.
For such misguided living entities, sex life is the background of material existence.
Actually the conditioned souls in ignorance in this material world are simply guided by sex life and, as soon as they get the opportunity for sex life, they become attached to so-called home, motherland, children, wealth, and opulence.
As this attachment increase moha or the illusion of the bodily concept of life also increases. Thus the idea that I am this body and everything belongs to this body is mine also increases.
And as the world is put into more sectarian societies, families, and nationalities are created. They fight with one another.
Maha Moha means to be mad after material enjoyment, especially in this age of Kali, everyone is overwhelmed by the madness to accumulate peripheral for material enjoyment.
Welcome and introduction of speaker
These definitions are very nicely given in Vishnu Purana, wherein it is said, tamo avivekaha mohaksyat Antakkaranavib bramaha, mahamohastu Vigyeo Grammy Bhoga Sukhaisana Maranam Hyanda Tamishram Tamishram Krodha Uchyate Avidya Pancha A Parvasha Pradurbhuta Mahatmanaha.
Okay. But we have the Lamborghini now, but you should have so you can please a to have to have your association So behalf of the Sun Mahabhak Buratai team, the whole family of Mahavra Tala we want to warmly welcome you.
We have been all guide and uh uh neighbour and friend and uh so many so many years. So we are very grateful to you for your kindness and mercy to head as always. So we want to welcome you while I change Thank you.
Namam Vishnupadya Krishna Prishā Bhutari Srimati Bhaktividanta Swami Nitina mini namaste sara swa Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare Hare Krishna
Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hari Hare Rama Hari Rama Rama Rama Hare Hari Rambi to Bujoka
Nakavadatu Sankirtanaika Pitarokamalaya takwambaro dvija varu yoga dharma palavande ja katriya karu karunavataru, dandah pravisha mamavachamamamprasuptam sanjivaya takila sapti dara swadam anyamscha hasta charanasrav Pranamobhagavate Purushayatu Swasyastu Vishvasya Kalah Prasidatam de Butani Sivamnithudya Manascha Badrambajhata Dokshacha Hadesitamnamati Ratha Kare Krishna.
Understanding ignorance before finding solutions
Thank you for inviting me. And the topic which I was given by Brachsundar Prabhu is the importance of the study of the scriptures.
But I thought that rather than just giving some pep talk, uh, we should discuss a verse from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam which indicates the importance of the study of the scriptures.
Because in this particular verse of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, quite famous verse of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, where the condition of the living entities is described, it is very clearly said that everyone is ignorant and the only solution to the ignorance is knowledge given in the scriptures.
So first of all we have to very clearly understand our problem before we talk about solution.
Because the solution, the application of the solution will not be effective unless we really understand the depths of the problem which we are having.
Sometimes people they engage in some spiritual practice, but they engage in some spiritual practice half-heartedly.
They're not really investing their heart and their mind completely into this spiritual practice just because they don't understand that we are in serious problem.
You know, when people know that they are in serious problem, when people diagnosed with cancer, then they will try their best to counteract this problem because they know it's a serious problem.
So oftentimes our slackness of sadhana is due to ignorance of the seriousness of our condition in this material world.
We are not really completely serious about our spiritual practice because we don't understand how seriously we are engrossed in the matter.
And therefore, in the beginning of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, in the third canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, which is Sarga, elementary creation, it is said that the first creation which Lord Brahmā did to facilitate our existence in this material world was to create five layers of ignorance.
Pancha Parvani. It is it is a very common knowledge in Vaishnava circles.
In Madhvācārya they also say pañca-parvāṇi that this is the first condition and you know it basically means that every one of us is conditioned by the ignorance.
Om ajñāna-timirāndhasya. I am born not in ignorance, in very deep ignorance, in five-fold ignorance.
Five coverings mapped to yoga kleshas
And this is the constitution of my mind or my consciousness, my conditioned consciousness is deeply, deeply, deeply ignorant.
Basically, these five layers of ignorance is very closely are very closely related to panchaklesas, which is described in Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Avidya, Asmita, Ragadvesha, and Abhinivesha.
There is a very close correspondence between these five coverings of ignorance and five clashes. And why the concept of clash is important for us to understand, because
it is very clearly said in Yoga Sutra that all these varieties of ignorance which we all unfortunately deeply connected with, very intimately connected with, are the causes of suffering. Therefore, they are called Klesh.
This is the cause of suffering, and the only if this is the cause of suffering and if we want happiness, the only solution to the suffering is to get rid of the causes of suffering, which are the clashes, which are these coverings of ignorance.
So Śrīla Prabhupāda nicely explained this, and he also quotes Viṣṇu Purāṇa with which glosses all these concepts all this ideas or all this, you know substances which cover our consciousness. And the first is tamas.
Tamas aviveka. It is said in Viṣṇu Purāṇa. And that's basically the general avidya.
According to Yoga Sutra of Patanjali Muni, it's avidya which is uh the condition of the mind which cannot discriminate what is the truth and what is the uh falsity in this world.
Vyāsadeva, the commentator of Yoga Sutras, he says that Avidya basically means that we think that something which is not eternal, we think it is eternal, something which is impure we think it is pure, something which is not myself, we think it's myself and something which is the cause of suffering we think it's the cause it's the happiness.
So that's that's a vidya, that's the first thing, you know, complete total bewilderment. Totally bewildered. We think that something which will cause us suffering, we think it's happiness.
Something which is not me, we think it's me. Something which is not eternal, we think it will exist eternally. Something which is totally impure like this body, we think it's so nice.
some lipstick and you know cosmetics, and we think it's it's perfect, you know, it's so nice very good so there is no need to elaborate on this because it will take the whole rest of the class.
Defining tamas and asmita false ego
But that's that's the very beginning. That's the background. This tamas is the background of our existence, this general bewilderment, which we all have is unfortunately the the this this avidyā in which I am born.
Om ajñāna-timirāndhasya, I'm born completely in this. And then and then Asmita, Asmita means the false ego. uh this asmi, I am this. And this is moha, antaḥkaraṇa-vibhramaḥ. This uh you know after after having this general
ignorance, this general ignorance becomes more and more concrete, so you develop elaborate conception of who you are, which is wrong.
And Prabhupada used to say that this is the first mistake which we do, you know, and everything which we do after that, in our thinking process, everything which we do after that is mistaken, even if everything which we do after that is correct.
It's like if you do some calculation and you make a mistake in the very first step of your calculation. That no matter how correctly you do the rest of the calculation, the result will be wrong.
Because in the first step there is a mistake. So this is what is going on because of general ignorance we develop a very elaborate conception of who I am.
You know it's not the general ignorance. General ignorance is that I am this body. But then asmita is something much more grandiose. It's something really big.
I have you know M D and PhD and and Bhakti Shastri and Bhaktivai Bhav and whatnot. You know this is all me, you know. And I put it on my wall.
And you sometimes come to an office and you see the whole wall is, you know, and all this upadis. This is me, this is me, this is me, this is me, you know.
And there is some, you know, some some whatever, some prices. Totally useless. Trophis, trophies. Trophies, yeah, trophies, yeah. Completely useless stuff.
But you know, that's me, you know. I'm this trophy and I'm this piece of paper.
Uh you know, PhD and ABC and so on so forth. You know, the more the more letters you you put near your name, the more the more the better you feel.
You know, I am this. I am not just some insignificant living entity. I am very significant because I have too many letters around me. So that's asmita.
And therefore, everything else, all other calculations are wrong, totally wrong. All these calculations which we do, you know, people are very intelligent. They have, you know, huge IQ.
You know, I I never measured my IQ, it's probably quite mediocre, but you know, people have 200 IQ or 2000 IQ, I don't know what what is the measurement.
You know, the most intelligent people, they're totally, completely dysfunctional in this world.
They may be very intelligent, but because they don't know the reality of who I am, it's the whole life is just it's just a failure.
I recently read a little bit read from this book of Vishakadeviya, Her Memories of Srila Prabhupada. And she describes how she her journey, how she joined to Krishna consciousness.
She was a very ambitious student of photography. She was on her way to do great photographies. And of course, in every field you have a Shreshta. You have a great man who is, you know, your model and you want to follow.
And in her life, there was this, you know, some great photographer who was very famous and very uh you know well paid. All the big glossy magazines were competing to get his photographs and she was totally completely into him.
And he kind of liked her, she published her first book. So they they started associating closely and when she watched him she became disillusioned because you know in her mind he was great.
But when she saw that he's drinking and he's divorced three times and he's uh you know trying to get the fourth wife to be divorced in two years or something like this. She became disillusioned.
You know, all these so-called great people in this world, they are like this, you know. On the surface they're very shining, you know.
This achievement, that achievement, fame, name, glory, but they're very, I mean they're very unhappy inside. Because this mistake is there, this initial mistake is there and this is and therefore it's called moha.
You know, tamas creates moha, avidya creates
Development of mahamoha and tamishra
asmita, and then from asmita there is raga, and raga is you know there is you only have moha when you think what you are but then raga means mahamoha you know, initially you have moha, but moha very
quickly turns into mahamoha, the desire to enjoy in this material world. Because you made this mistake in the beginning, this foundational mistake, I am this body. Then from this very quickly the desire to enjoy creates
and that desire to enjoy creates mahamoha. You know, especially nowadays intoxication is so prominent. You know, you you are this body means body should enjoy how to enjoy the the strongest enjoyment is sex and drugs.
You know, either you have sex and this is kind of drug, or if you don't have sex, then you have drugs. And this is mahamoha. Before you only had moha, now you have mahamoha.
You're completely bewildered, you are totally, you are entangled, you are addicted to all this stuff. And then and then naturally from this Mahamoha the tamishra comes. Tamishra means dvesha.
You become you become disgusted, you become. I mean Dvesha means of course Prabhupada explains that all this impersonalistic conception of spiritual life is also a kind of Dvesha because you become completely frustrated.
Dvesha means total frustration. And actually this uh Mayavad conception, it's a sort of it's a very deep and perverted manifestation of the frustration of your existence. You basically want to kill yourself.
Prabhupada says it's a spiritual suicide.
When you don't want to exist anymore as an individual living entity, it's a deep frustration, and deep frustration is a result of this futile attempts to enjoy this material world.
So from raga, dvesha comes and dvesha, yes, Advaita Vedanta sort of understanding is a manifestation of dvesha because you're disillusioned with your disappointed with your individual condition.
You want to be God and it didn't work. You know, everyone in this world is just, you know, a big failure because everyone wants to be God and somehow or other it doesn't work. And therefore you're frustrated.
Because, you know, what is Dvesha? Dvesha means basically. Dvesha means that I want my way, but everything is just something else's way. It's never my way. It never works.
You know, this is the greatest proof of the existence of God because it never works the way we like. It's always something else. And therefore there must be somebody who likes the way it goes. So this somebody must be God.
So that's that's what it is and this is this is Tamishra. You become, Prabhupāda says, this anger, anger, you know, this is not the way I like. People they're so stressed.
There is such a great stress in the in this material world. The stress is just you know becoming more and more. Why?
Because uh people think that, you know, I achieve this and I achieve that, and we will do this, and this technological achievement will turn us into God. But it doesn't work, you know.
I'm almost God, you know, I'm I'm flying up and I'm going deep down and I am this and I am that, but somehow rather I'm frustrated.
So this is Tamishra, the natural reaction, the natural repulsion to the to our stupid attempts to imagine that I'm God here.
Andhatamishra and fear of death
And then, you know, Andhatamisra, when you're completely blinded, blinded by this fear of death.
And when people become, you know totally this Prabhupāda very nicely explains this that this Andhatamisra the fear of death uh forces somebody to commit all kinds of sinful activities.
And therefore, it becomes totally blinding experience. You know, even the drugs actually, it's not moha. I said that drugs is moha. No, drugs is I said that drugs is maha moha. Yes, it's moha moha.
Because, actually, drugs belong to the category of Andhatamisra because when people take drugs, the underlying psychology of taking drugs is you want to actually kill yourself because you are so afraid of death.
It's a very interesting and perverted psychology.
You know, when people are very much afraid, you know, when they when they're afraid of something, the torture of being afraid of something is too intolerable, and to get relief from this fear. They invoke the thing of which they are afraid and they want it to become now.
You know people are so afraid of death and it's too much torture to live under this fear of death. So therefore, they say let it finish quickly. Rather than live in this condition of fearing imminent death.
So it is said actually, it's very interesting that there was a
study and that uh you know, s sometimes people think n now they put uh into the packages of cigarettes all these horrible pictures. You know, th this is this is what's going to happen.
But actually nobody is afraid of this. Why? Because the underlying psychology of smoking cigarettes is I I want to I want to kill myself. Before that they were doing it secretly.
There was a study that if you put some skulls with the bones, very small skulls in the advertisement of the cigarettes. People look and subconsciously they see these skulls and they buy more cigarettes.
Actually, all these horrible pictures on the packages of the cigarettes, they only stimulate people to buy more cigarettes, not repulse them.
Because there is andhatamistra, this fear of death, maranam, as it is said here. It's glossed here that this is maranam. Maranam hi andhatamistram. So maranam means death.
the material existence and the opposite side of the same coin. You're so afraid of death that you want to invoke the death sooner, quicker.
And therefore Prabhupada says that these people, they are, you know, completely they become mad. And therefore this is the this is the crown crown ignorance.
You know, you start with general avidya, you go through asmita ragadvesha and then abhiniveśa is the thickest covering of ignorance. Anyway, so that's the prelude of the class.
Facing the severity of material conditioning
But really again we have to understand that our condition is serious. We should not be light-minded about this.
We shouldn't think that this is something, you know it's all this pessimistic Hare Krishna they're trying to scare us. No, it's it's serious. I mean it's serious. We are ignorant. We are fools.
We are fools and rascals as Prabhupada used to say. We are born. Everyone is born like this. This is the diagnosis.
And the better we understand how serious a diagnosis is, the better we understand that you know our condition here, our situation in this material world is very precarious.
Prabhupada used to say that you know once a Brahmacārī approached him and said, Prabhupada, I have no sex desire. I am completely free from sex desire.
Prabhupada looked at him with a lot of compassion and said, Maybe you should go to a doctor because he's an illusion. He has sex desire. But he doesn't understand that he has sex desire.
Prabhupada said that unless and until you have this material body, you will have lust. You will have sex desire.
And people are so ignorant they don't understand how you know how serious this condition, how deeply rooted this attachment to body is.
And therefore, we first have to really understand that this is the condition which we are in. We are in this body, we are spirit, soul, we have nothing to do with this body.
But in reality, we have everything to do with this body. We have nothing to do with the soul. Everything which we are concerned of is this body. And we are trying to counteract this by chanting mantra.
But the problem is that while we are chanting mantra, we are completely still absorbed in the concerns of our body.
We start chanting Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare and very soon you know there is no Rāma there is no Krishna there is no Hare you know it's only me and mine.
Aham Mameti Paramo. This is the tense offense of the holy name. Aham Mameti Paramo means I'm in the center. And you know we're trying to think about Krishna, but you know it just goes back. It bounces back.
It's like rubber, you know, you you stretch the rubber, but as soon as you and you you stretch the rubber you very conscientiously try to chant Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna
Krishna Hare Hare but you know little inattentiveness the rubber is stretched back, mama, mama. I am God. I am God. How I will be happy?
What will be my condition of happiness next moment today, in one week, after I get sannyās, after I become guru. All these things, you know, are our, you know, it's it and it's you know how we can chant?
What is what kind of chanting? This is the tense offense of the holy name, which is the foundational offense. Every uh every next offense is stemming from this offence. This is the root cause of all offences.
Aham-eti paramo, sāpy-asti aparādha-kṛt. So, you know, we have heard nāma-māhātmyam. We have heard so much glorification of nāma. But still we're thinking about ourselves. Aham-eti paramo. I am the main, I am the great.
So therefore, our practice are so weak. Therefore, our practice is not efficient.
You know, it is called, it is glorified that you know this is a very powerful practice, but because of the offenses, deeply rooted offenses, connected with the ignorance. Offense is the result of ignorance.
And because of this deeply rooted ignorance, we commit offenses and therefore our practice becomes very weak, not efficient.
And therefore it is said that we have to chant so many rounds and you know and you know of course we we chant You know, we we give the vowel. I will chant at least 16 rounds a day.
But in reality it's at most 16 rounds a day, not at least six roteenunds a day. But, you know, if we want to counteract this deeply rooted ignorance, uh you know, sixteen rounds is not enough.
If we are honest with ourselves. You know, you look at all these sādhus, you know, you go to this Vinod Bihari Baba or whatever.
They they chant, you know, they chant ten hours a day. Not because they are more ignorant than us. You know. We are very elevated. We don't need to chant many rounds.
They live the whole life, very pure life, and they chant, you know, ten rounds a day. That ten rounds. Ten hours. Ten twelve hours a day. You know, there was this Siddhababa nearby in Govindak, Manohar Das Bhabaji.
He was chanting five or six lakhs of Harinama day.
At one point he remembered six of his previous lives, which were devoted to sadhana and he understood that he failed in six previous lives and he said this life I will not fail so he was chanting six lakhs a day to counteract this deeply rooted ignorance.
So unless we understand what is our position. We will not be serious about the spiritual practice and our spiritual practice will become very weak and actually inefficient at the end of the day.
You know, there was this famous story when he was he was chanting his japa on the bank of Gavindakunda. For some time he was just sitting, there was no ashram at that time. He was sitting under the banyan tree.
And it was winter time. And it was very cold and at one point his body started shivering. He couldn't pronounce mantra because there was too much cold.
You know, it was late at night and he was still didn't didn't finish his quarter. And um and his body started revolting against this and he said, Ah, this is what you're doing to me. Okay. And I will do something to you.
And he jumped into the cold water of Gavindakud. If you don't want to cooperate, if you don't want to chant this Hare Krishna mantra. You know this is what I will do to you. You better do what I want you to do.
So and he was splashing in this water and you know some sad who was sleeping at that time he woke up and he said, what's going on?
He said, you know, I'm just uh I'm just quarreling with my body which doesn't want which doesn't want to do the sadhana properly. You know, and we are not in this condition. We are nice and cozy.
Role of svadhyaya in kriya yoga
But uh so the the point which I'm trying to make is that we have to be serious about sadhana, we have to be really serious about sadhana. And for that, therefore the counterpart of this is Svadhyaya.
It is, you know, since we are making the parallels between Bhagavata philosophy and Yoga Sutra philosophy, it is said in the second, the first sutra of the second part, second paddle of Yoga Sutra is that tapas,
Svādhyāya īśvara-praṇidhāna kriyā-yoga. You know, and the idea here, it's very interesting. There is Patanjali Muni defines what is Kriya Yoga. And the first Pada is Samadhipada.
Samadhi Pada is for those people who already have concentrated mind.
If the mind is very pure, then you know you practice different means which are enumerated in the first Pada to calm the mind and to gain the deeper realization of reality.
But then he realizes that not everyone has the pure mind, not everyone has the concentrated and very pure mind, regulated mind.
And for them, for such people, which we belong to the same category, he says, yes, if you want to control your mind, which is very important, which is the preliminary condition for our proper chanting, for our proper sadhana.
Then the three things are recommended. One is tapas. Tapas means regulation on the level of body. And the second one is svādhyāya. Svādhyāya means the studying of the scriptures.
And the third one is īśvara-praṇidhāna, surrender to God. So this is, he says, this is Kriya Yoga, this is the means to quickly purify the mind from this condition. And we really have to understand what it means.
Because we're doing this. We're trying, we're going technically speaking from the yoga point of view, what we are doing is Kriya Yoga. Kriya Yoga means more active engagement in yoga.
Because we are not fit for, you know, sometimes devotees they imitate some, you know, aṣṭakālī-līlā-smaraṇa. You know, or you know, if you go to Rādhā-kuṇḍ, you get initiation into this yogapīṭha, yogapīṭha-na meditation. You know, they will tell you this is the yogapīṭha, this is the Divine Couple, this is you, you know, the mañjarī who is serving the Divine Couple, and this is the mañjarī who is serving this mañjarī, and this is the mañjarī who is serving that mañjarī, and this is and this is the mañjarī which is you who is so you just sit and meditate. You know, you try to do it.
And people are engaged in this mental game uselessly. It's a useless, it's a hopeless thing, you know, we're not meant to do this.
We're not meant to follow the first Pada of Yoga Sutra which is called Samadhi Pada because to do this aṣṭakālī, you know, meditation on your eternal service, you have to be completely, totally pure in mind.
Totally pure in mind. You know, and you know if you're meditating on this and and in the meantime also meditate on your sex life. This is ridiculous, you know. This is totally ridiculous. It's a mockery.
It's a shame, you know. If you're trying to do this, I'm doing aṣṭakālīyā-līlā-smaraṇa. What kind of aṣṭakālīyā-līlā-smaraṇa you can do?
For for such people who are not on this, who are not fit, who don't have adhikar for this kind of practices, this kriya yoga is there. And what is Kriya Yoga? Kriya Yoga means tapas, svādhyāya and Īśvara-praṇidhāna.
And Swadhyaya, studying of the scriptures, is the integral part of Kriya Yoga or Bhakti Yoga. Integral part. Why it is an integral part? You know, tapas of course means regulation on the level of body.
You know, you get up early, you you know, you you do your jaba at a certain time of the day, not while you're driving the you know your bike you chant your job you know uh especially in the West people, you know, they because the life is so intense, they changing most of the job by driving the car and especially because there are so many traffic jams.
So you anyway have nothing to do so this is uh car driving meditation on the Supreme Personality of God.
No, you do this is the tapas, you know, you get up early, you chant your mantra by sitting, not just by, you know, pacing like madman. And uh you regulate your eating this, and that.
Svadhyaya as scriptural study and japa
But then Svadhyaya is the austerity of the mind. Studying of the scriptures.
You know why it is so important because actually Vyāsadeva the commentator of Yoga Sutras he explains what svādhyāya means. Svādhyāya means technically speaking literally, if you translate literally, it means study of yourself.
But everyone knows that the conventional meaning of svādhyāya means the studying of the scriptures because how you study yourself. You know, I'm studying myself, you know, let me study myself. Yeah, who am I?
Bus, that's it. Not much is revealed to you. You know, if you want to study yourself, you should study scriptures because the scriptures is about yourself.
The scriptures is not about some, you know, Kardama Muni or you know Hiraṇyakaśipu. śipu. Haranyaka Shippu is you. It's not Hiranyaka Shippu. It's about you. It's Vadiya.
When you read about Hiranyika Shippu, you have to understand the scriptures is talking about you and the tendencies which are there in your mind. And you know, scripture is Svadhyaya.
We study scriptures because by this we study ourselves, we understand who I am. But Vyāsadeva, he says a very interesting thing. He says that Svadhyaya means not only studying the scriptures, Svadhyaya means also japa.
Svādhyāya actually has two integral inseparable parts. Svādhyāya means chanting japa and studying the scriptures. If you only chant japa and don't study the scriptures, you will fail.
If you only study the scriptures and don't chant japa, you will also fail. Swadhyaya, to do Svadhyaya properly, you chant japa and you think about the scriptures while you're chanting japa.
You try to get the inspiration for chanting japa while studying the scriptures. When not studying the scriptures for the sake of studying scriptures. We are studying the scriptures for the sake of properly chanting japa.
And we have to really understand that you know that the ultimate means of success is Harinam. But to successfully chant the holy name, you have to study the scriptures
because otherwise you will be thinking about yourselves and you will be committing this offense of the holy name, the ten offenses of the holy name. Aham-ādi-paramo. I am the Supreme. I am the most important.
Everyone else should really think about me and serve me and do whatever I like, you know. This is aham-ādi-param. But if we study the scriptures, then inspiration comes, the understanding who Krishna is comes.
Rewiring the mind through scriptural study
And then when we chant, we will chant with feeling, we will chant about Krishna, not about ourselves. You know, when we chant mechanically, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, it basically means I'm thinking about myself.
But if we study the scriptures and if our mind is programmed by the scriptures, what does it mean when we study the scriptures? When we study scriptures, it means we are programming our mind in a certain way,
we are rewiring our mind. Our mind is wired in a certain way.
There are certain circuits in our mind, neural circuits, different circuits through which our thought, which is electric impulse in the mind, in the in the brain. You know, there are certain circuits and they are already established.
The circuits are established. These neurocircuits, neural chains which are there. And you know, when we think, we usually think according to already established circuits. This is called conditioning.
We are conditioned by the condition of our brain. You know, it's very difficult for us to think something new, especially when we become old. When we are young, it's still possible to program our mind.
But when we become old, you know, it's the same thoughts which we thought for 30 plus years. And it all comes to us, you know, how I'm how I can become happy in this material world.
Basically, that's the circuits which are there. And I will become happy like this or like that. So when we study the scriptures, the new circuits are being created. Especially when we study deeply.
On the level of neuroscience, this is what is going on. We are creating the new ways of thinking. What is scriptures?
Scriptures are, shastras are certain way of seeing the world, certain Certain way of connecting the realities or the phenomena of this world according to the spiritual vision of the saints, of Vyāsadeva, Śukadeva Gosvāmī.
You know, they are seeing the world in a certain way. We are seeing the world in a certain way disjointed. You know, how we're seeing the world. We're seeing the world, you know this is something which I can enjoy.
We look at this something and we see isolate this certain thing to to enjoy it. So what scriptures give?
The scriptures give a completely different worldview, completely different picture of the realities of the world, how they interconnected with each other. And how God is behind everything.
You know, this is the beautiful vision which we have to obtain, but there is no other way to obtain this vision, this understanding, or this picture, unless we read the scriptures, where this complete picture of the world is being presented to us in a very wholesome way.
Because otherwise we always interact with the realities. And while interacting with the realities in the old way, how we used to interact with the realities, we only reinforce our wrong understanding of reality.
You know, the moment we go out, the moment we go out from this class, we start interacting in the wrong way with the reality. And it basically means only reinforcing our conditioned personality.
So to change our conditioned personality and to facilitate the proper chanting of the japa, we have to study the scriptures, and there is no other way than to study the scriptures.
Then at one point we will become śāstra-cakṣu. That's the idea of studying these scriptures. We will see the world through the eyes of śāstra and our eyes, cakṣu will become the eyes of the scriptures.
But unless it becomes, you know, our eyes become the eyes of the śāstra, unless we become śāstra-cakṣu,
then at this point we don't need to study the scriptures, Because everything which we'll see in the world will confirm the scriptures, will only remind us the scriptures.
We will see something and we will remember a shloka. You know, like Prabhupada in his life, you know, when somebody robbed his factory and he became a bankrupt basically.
so he chanted Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam śloka, you know. Instead of lamenting, yasyāham anugṛhṇāmi hariṣye tad-dhanaṁ śanaiḥ, I am gradually taking his wealth, the wealth of somebody who is serious in this.
So this this means that you know something is happening to you, and instead of doing your conditioned reaction, becoming angry or becoming elated, you chant the shloka from the scriptures and you say, oh yeah, this is what is happening with me.
I'm a fool number one. This is this is the appropriate shloka from the scriptures. And this way, when you're on this level, you don't need to study the scriptures. You're done. Study the scriptures.
Gopis, they never studied the scriptures. You never read about gopis, you know, who are engaged in Swadhyaya.
If you are perfected, you just chant the holy name, you just sing the holy name, you just, you know, you just, you know, you're done.
Internalizing scriptures instead of reading fruitlessly
But unless until this point is reached in your spiritual practices, when you are completely immersed into this into into the realities presented in the scriptures then the studying, deep studying of the scriptures and thinking about scriptures, not just mechanically studying the scriptures.
Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura gives a very beautiful [speech] in his essay on Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Bhagavatam, he makes a very beautiful and amazing striking point in the very beginning.
He says that there are readers of scriptures. But these readers of scriptures, he says, they're fruitless readers of scriptures.
They read the scriptures, but there is no fruit of their reading because the scripture does not become alive while they are reading the scripture. The scripture remains dead.
It's just something outside, and they mechanically read and read it again and read it again and nothing happens. There is no change in the brain structure. Why?
Because he says while reading the scriptures, you have to think about the scriptures deeply.
You don't need to, you know, you don't during initiation process we don't say I will read, you know, hundred pages a day or you know, 20 pages a day. You may read just one verse, you may read just one line.
Studying means you read one line and you think about this one line and you think what does it mean and how how is it connected with the whole reality I am dealing with, I am interacting with.
So that studying that what studying of scriptures means, you know, you just read this one verse and you think about this one verse.
You know, of course, you know, now we have syllabus and program, we have to, you know, you know, one chapter of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and then next chapter and then next chapter and you know by the fourth chapter you already forget what is what was there in the first chapter.
What to speak about, you know, twelve skant, you you you completely blank about the first cantus of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
Svadiya means you you study the scriptures and you study the realities through the through the lens of scriptures that's what it means. And then you will be able to really say that this is the otherwise
you you know Krishna is not very fond of Swadhyaya. He says, Nasadayati Mam Yoga, Nadharmam Ka is it, Nasadaya Nasankyam Dharma Mudhava, Naswhyaya? Tapasyah. Tapastyaga. Yeah.
He says y y you cannot understand me by the means of Swadhyaya. You cannot understand me uh by the means of yoga. You cannot understand me by tapasya, you cannot understand me by dharma, by practice, only bhakti.
So svadhyaya, if svyaya is an integral part of my bhakti. And if I understand that this is why I'm reading these scriptures, why I'm studying these scriptures, because I want ultimately to chant the holy name with feeling. That's the ultimate purpose of Svadhyaya.
If this is the you know the purpose of my Svadhya and it becomes a part of my bhakti. And if if I only study the scriptures just to show off how knowledgeable I am.
This is a very detrimental way of studying the scriptures.
Therefore, Nārada Muni says there's no need to read many books. You know, you shouldn't read too many books because you only become you know uh court pundit you know some somebody who is just you know quoting shastras le mm back and forth.
And very interestingly since I started with this yoga, but it's it's interesting. And ultimately Patanjali Muni he is a Vaishnava. You know, he's for īśvara-praṇidhāna, it's very clear. He says very interesting thing.
He says that svādhyāya is a part of Niyama section, you know this is a part of yoga. And he gives an achievement of every of every Yama and Niyama. He says what you achieve at the end.
And for Svadhyaya, he gives a beautiful thing, which is very much related to us.
He says svādhyāyāt, from svādhyāyāt. result of Svadhyaya, the real result of Svadhyaya is your close connection, Sampra Yoga, Sampra Yoga. Not just yoga, someprayoga.
Two prefixes are there, sam—complete, pra—very intense. Istevata samprayoga. The result, the proper result of sadhya is that you become very closely connected with your Ishta Devata, in our case with Krishna.
So that's the real purpose of svādhyāya. If we want to properly study the scriptures, we have to understand. This is the result which I will achieve at the ultimate end.
Some prayogaha, Ishta Devata Sampra Yogaha, the Deva of my heart, of my desire, the Deva which I want to achieve, I will achieve, I will establish the connection with him, you know, through the scriptural studies.
So that's how we should understand, uh, svādhyāya, why why we're studying svādhyāya. So that's why we're studying the scriptures, why we're studying Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Ultimately this is what we want.
Ishta Deva ta samprayoga, Swadhyayat Ishwad Ishta Devata Sampra Yogaha. So I guess that's it. It's 9 o'clock.
Meaning and application of isvara pranidana
I guess that's the topic which I was.
Yeah, the third element of Īśvara-praṇidhāna is surrender, śaraṇāgati. Basically means that you become completely surrendered to God and you accept the whatever is happening to you as the will of the Lord and you remain grateful and you uh follow the instruction of uh uh Lord Brahma who says Tatenukampam Susaniksamanam uh uh what is this Punjanavatmakritamvipakam Kri Dvagva Pupirvidananda Masti Jivetayomukti Pade Sadhaivax?
So you just basically you you become grateful whatever is happening with me is happening by the will of the Lord. This is Ishwara Pranidana.
You surrender to Him and you accept whatever He is doing to you with grateful heart and Khridvakpa Pudir Vidanana Masta you bow down to him. Pranidana means Pranidhana you Pranidana means pranipat.
You know, you're you're boiling down to him, but bowing down to him is on the uh should be done on the three levels, on the levels of our mind, on the level of our speech and on the level of our body.
Not only on the level of the body, but on the level of the mind and speech as well. You surrender yourself and you you bow down to him. You are in this condition.
I'm I'm you know I'm I'm the devotee, I'm the soul connected with the Lord. And that basically means we become humble.
We are not proud by our achievement, we are not proud by our studies of the scriptures, we are not proud by our external position as this and that in the society.
We are just surrender tiny little soul who are ready to do whatever is necessary. Thank you for your inspiring presentation.
Uh I just uh wanted to ask uh talking about Swathya, uh we see that the aspect of hearing from the seniors, uh senior devotees is there and also studying scriptures on our own uh studying scriptures by reading them I am to see.
So I wish to uh know Maharaj that how do we strike uh that balance because both the aspects have their own benefits uh when you read you are very thorough with the bramanas and everything and when you hear from senior Vaishnavas then uh with their realizations the understanding is very good and not just theoretical so how do we uh how do you see these both aspects?
How to should be balance? I I don't think there is a uh formula of balance. Uh I basically think it's very individual because some people are more studious
by nature, they have more sāttvik and more peaceful mind, and they can deeply absorb themselves in the studies and they can you know sit for three, four, five hours and study, and it's very enriching for them.
And they may not be so much dependent on the others' realizations. Still they are dependent, but for them the main angle of Swadhyaya would be to study the scriptures themselves.
Others they are more dependent on on the inspiration when because when you listen to somebody who is speaking and you know giving some realizations and everything. So they will be more dependent on this because they are less capable of just sitting for many hours and studying themselves.
They would rather rely on somebody else who studied it for many hours and then you know expresses it within 45 minutes and they're done. So So it really much depends on the individual case by case study.
Somebody will uh will hear more and will enrich his understanding by but even in this case you you have to be systematic in your hearing.
The problem of hearing you know when you study you usually study more systematically. You go to the book and you go, you know, verse by verse.
When you are hearing, you know, because you are going by inspiration, you're hearing from here and from there and from there and uh at the end of the day, you know, you have a complete chaos in your mind because you
heard this joke and that joke from this Maharaj and that mataji, you know all the jokes, but you don't know this scriptures.
Therefore, it's better, you know, if you want to hear, you should hear, but you should try to hear again in a systematic way, you know.
Either according to the scripture, you know, uh uh realizations or if somebody gives you a seminar, complete seminar, then you go through the seminar and you know try to again more systematically study rather than just you know trying to inspire yourself by listening to different anecdotes and jokes.
Just a small thing in this one. So this this is perfectly what you are saying.
So talking about the reading aspect also, one may end up reading something and just understand that text without understanding the context and the overall culture of rationalism and that particular aspect.
So this is where hearing from the realized souls who are also speaking very authentic shastra that comes in. Because oftentimes by one's own reading, what one understands it's just a text. Exactly. Exactly.
See, uh the tendency to isolate and to you know to uh to forget about the context is very much there in our mind because this is what we're used to. We are programmed to isolate something without seeing the context.
And because our mind is narrow, and therefore it's easy for us. Why the scientists they are so, you know, and the modern sciences they just isolate and isolate and isolate and study it.
Yeah, because this is what they can do. Their consciousness, their mind is not broad enough to see the context of the world. And of course, the idea of studying the scriptures is to understand the broader context.
As broad context as possible, because the scriptures give the broadest possible context by including God in the picture.
If you include God, and not only God, but you know Krishna, Vrindavan Krishna in the picture, you get the complete picture. Even if you only limit yourself Vishnu by Vishnu, you're not really having the complete picture.
So Caitanya Mahāprabhu's school of philosophy gives you the context.
And context, mm, you know, it's sambandha. The first thing which we should understand is sambandha, how everything is connected, how reality is interconnected.
Therefore, studying of the scriptures means to understand sambandha. So interconnection of different parts of reality and the connection with God, with the Supreme Lord.
And for that, yes, when we study separately, the tendency will be just to isolate, because it just feels good and it already confirms what you already know. So this is how usually it goes.
You get something, you know, you get something about women, you ask Brahmacharya and you get some nasty thing about women. And you know you become very inspired and you start preaching it. This is what Shastra says.
Forgetting the broader context of the whole more balanced picture and how it is. And for that, yes, sambandha means to understand the broad context of the scripture.
Proper attitude toward lila smarana practice
And the broader your context, the better your understanding, how interconnected realities of scriptures are. Thank you Maharaj for a wonderful lecture.
You spoke about smaraṇa in your lecture and, uh, many devotees including me have found some, uh, you know, relation remembering the the past steps of the Lord at a particular hour of the day. So is it recommended or not?
Because, uh, the books are chanting Hare Krishna is also mentioned Prabhupada answered to this question very beautifully. Somebody asked him, may I remember, may I remember about a particular līlā while I'm chanting?
Prabhupada said yes, but only if it comes spontaneously. So if you chant and spontaneously some līlā comes, fine, very beautiful. But if you try to mechanically concentrate your mind on this
particular practice, for that, even Jīva Gosvāmī in his Bhakti-sandarbha, he very clearly says that to practice smaraṇa, antaḥkaraṇa should be, uh, should be, uh, clean. The antaḥkaraṇa should be very pure. If your antaḥkaraṇa is pure, then you can only chant smaraṇa.
Before that, kīrtana, śravaṇa and kīrtana are recommended practices. To purify the mind. Before the antaḥkaraṇa is, is, uh, clean, you know, if, if it's spontaneously by some inspiration it comes, it's very good.
And Prabhupāda says this: mechanically you're trying to practice a particular practice which we may not be, you know, eligible to. And for that you need guidance.
You know, you ask any of these people if they are still there. You know that it's, it's, it's a science, how to do it. it, you know, it's a certain science.
There are many stories when, when people who tried to practice it and didn't get the proper guidance, they basically failed and they were looking for somebody who would teach them how to do it.
So it's not a cheap process, you know. Prabhupāda was not against this process. He was and Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī, they were against, you know, to make this process cheap, to make a mockery out of the whole process.
Otherwise it's a bona fide practice. All right. Thank you very much.