Лекция совместно с Шачинанданой Свами
Bhakti Vijnana Goswami · Moscow · 2008
Chapters
The soul's marginal position
I want to first of all speak about freedom, spiritual freedom.
See, according to the eternal shaastras of India, the living entity is in a borderline position. A moving borderline position. Moving it's moving, that means it can change positions. To express it more clearly, we are either under the control of the material energy or free and in the spiritual energy.
We are a soul, a spiritual soul, full of bliss in a material body, which is just the opposite of bliss. Do we want to live as free souls or as limited and controlled human beings?
This borderline position has been very nicely expressed with a little analogy, which I had a chance to experience when I was in South Africa.
As you well know, between the land and the ocean there is a thin line which is sometimes splashed over by the waters of the ocean and sometimes free—that is, is dried by the sun and by the air.
As little children we all love to play on this piece of land, this borderline. It was a line of adventure. We would sing children songs and run on the edge of the beach. Then a wave came.
And we would run towards the land to remain in the dry space. And then the wave would flow back. And we were drawn toward the ocean. This is very much... This analogy describes very much our own situation in this world.
We are free! We have to be careful. Someone who walks on the border has to be very careful. When I was in Durban, I wanted to walk just near to the ocean on this dry border line.
Being overwhelmed by material energy
In the ocean, there were surfers and whales and ships. And I was on the dry border line. But one time! All of a sudden I was up to my hips in water. My dear devotees, this happens very often. We walk through this world.
In our spiritual freedom, we feel very happy. But then we come too close to māyā. We are too close to the material energy. We have We are totally covered by the material energy. Our faith in Krishna gets covered over.
We are no longer enthusiastic for kīrtana. We lose our faith. We don't believe that it is possible to build a huge temple for Radamadova in Moscow. Ммм, the material energy has covered us!
And now our heart is full with material desires! Which burn like fire! And the more we try to satisfy them, the more they burn and burn and burn! Yes, we are taṭasthā-śakti, that is on the border. Yes, we have freedom.
Yes, it is not necessary for us to be overwhelmed by māyā. But if we are not careful, māyā will overwhelm us. And we burn and burn and burn.
Devotees delivering messages of freedom
Do you know what I am talking about? Whenever Krishna sees that His devotees have become overwhelmed by māyā, He makes an arrangement. He sends his dear devotees into the world.
And the devotee reminds those who are māyā-hata, that means killed by māyā, who are brought into forgetfulness: Oh, there is Krishna! There's the land of freedom. You can choose this land.
You can dance in the land of freedom together with the Lord.
And when we listen to these merciful messages, which are given by the devotees into this world, we all of a sudden see a clear path, a path of light which leads out of the ocean of māyā. We more and more lose our heaviness.
And we begin to dance in joy. And we begin to dance with joy. But sometimes our path is a little difficult. He looked a little bit like Paramātmā. Please, rise, Paramātmā. Пожалуйста, встаньте. Good looking, intelligent.
Are you rich, Paramātmā? Not very. So this young man liked antique things. And of all the antique things he especially liked teacups.
Teacups, he felt, could all tell their own story because so many lips had touched the teacups. Lips which were filled full of stories themselves.
Once this young man thought, I wish I would meet a teacup which could talk to me and tell me all the stories of the lips which have drunken from it. Thinking like this, this young man visited Novi Sad, a town in Serbia.
There is an old fortress. A fortress which the Serbians had built in order to fight with the Turkish invaders. So the young man went into the antique shop and asked the salesman there: Do you have teacups? I like teacups.
And the old man in the antique shop said: Yes, I have one teacup for you. He gave the teacup into the hands of the young man. And went to another part of the shop.
Shaping clay through heat and pain
All of a sudden the teacup started to speak! There was a time when I was not a teacup. Yes, I was lying before this fortress in the earth. Then I was lying for thousands of years in the earth.
I was often covered with blood by the battles. One day my master came. He took me out of the earth. Brought me home on his table. Threw me on the table. Then he took his hands.
He kneaded me! I screamed out: Wait! What are you doing? Who gives you the right to deal so brutally with me? My master only smiled at me. Then he took me on a potter's wheel. And whirled me around. I felt like vomiting.
And I said: Leave me alone, please! My master only smiled at me and said: Not yet! You are not yet ready! And he shaped me! Put me into a hot oven and started to burn me! I looked through the little hole.
I said it's much too hot! Let me out of here! My master only smiled at me and said: Not yet, you are not yet ready! Then he took me out after some time.
Placed me on a shelf and started to paint me with colors, which were so strong that it suffocated my breath! Please, mercy, leave me alone, I'm choking to death! He only smiled at me.
And said: Not yet. You are not yet ready. What was next? The next thing which came was a second oven, which was double as hot! I almost felt this is the end of me! Я кричала. Mercy! Милость, gibi, jovo! Take me out!
But he said, not yet. You're not yet ready. You're not yet ready. He placed me on the shelf. I waited what would be next. After some time he came to the shelf and took me. He smiled at me.
He said: Now you are ready. Now you can be of service. It was in your interest that I took you out of the earth when you were clay before this fortress. You didn't understand that I had to need you.
If I wouldn't have taken the air out of you, then you would have cracked in the oven.
If I wouldn't have placed you on the potter's wheel and turned you around and around and around, you would never have taken on this beautiful shape! If I would not have placed you in the hot oven, you would never have become hard!
You would never have been able to resist the challenges of life! I just imagine I would have left you as you are and would not have painted you with colors.
How colorless your life would have been! You always screamed: Let me go! Let me go! Do you now understand why I said: Not yet! You are not yet ready?' Of gratitude.
The young man said to the salesman: I want to buy this teacup! Euros? Is that enough? The salesman said, young man, don't be so excited. There's only one tea cup like this. I don't have all the four which build a service.
You can have it for 50¢.
Finding purpose in life's difficulties
Take $100,100, what is it? Whenever he felt some... Test, he knew! It was just God preparing him for life! Sometimes he screams: Why are you doing this to me? When he married once, his son was dying in a car accident.
The young man who was now old, he said: Why are you doing this to me, God? Leave me alone! But then he remembered the teacup who had said, to whom the master had said, you are not yet ready, not yet.
And sometimes the young man who was now an old man, cried tears of gratitude. Because the teacup had taught him a lesson! The lesson that difficulties are necessary for our growth and our maturity!
We don't become mature without taking lessons in the school of life. The lessons of the tea cup. My dear devotees, when some difficulties come in your way. Don't say leave me alone, Krishna! Understand that Krishna is doing!
Please understand that Krishna is doing this to prepare you for eternal life! Whenever things don't go the way you wish them to go. Don't ask the question why. Ask the question what can I learn from this?
Someone who accepts obstacles and difficulties in his life and continues to worship Krishna, understanding that this is necessary for him to learn, he will buy his place or earn his place in the eternal kingdom of God.
I'm saying this because, my dear devotees, all of us feel that the time where we can offer Krishna beautiful temple in Moscow comes closer.
However, I know in my heart that before something great happens in our lives, we always have to be prepared for this great thing.
The analogy before ordinary glean - glean means clay - before ordinary clay can become a beautiful teacup, some work has to be done on the clay.
Before we can dance in the freedom of the spiritual world to Krishna's flute, some work has to be done on our hearts. The devotees can help us to do this work, and certainly Krishna will help us to do this work.
This is my little message. The teacup has spoken.
Discovering the permanent address of God
I wish you all the best. Мараш had said I had three messages. I wanted to get away without the third message. если Махараджа wants to hear the third message, I will say it. Is it alright with you?
Once Nārada Muni came to Krishna and asked him, my dear Krishna, where is your permanent address? Нарада-муни knew that the Lord would sometimes move here and there, and now wanted to know if there is
a permanent address of God. You want to have my permanent email address? My permanent address? Nārada Muni listen. And Krishna told him first where he is not permanently. He said: I'm not in the Kingdom of God, Vaikuṇṭha.
I'm not even in the hearts of the Meditating Yogi. I am wherever my devotees come together and sing the glories of my holy name. I was thinking very deeply about this event.
And I feel there is some very deep wisdom for us in Moscow in this event. And we have to sing together. The glories of the Lord. All of you should form groups, where you meet regularly.
Чайтанья Махапрабху would tell to the people: as many as you can gather on one door step, they should come together and they should sing. Come together! Don't be isolated! Sing the holy names!
Then Krishna will be attracted and appear in our lives. It's so simple. This is Krishna's permanent address, where devotees come and sing together! You can meet Him there!
It's a yuga-dharma, the the dharma of the age to come and to kīrtana, glorify Krishna together. Sometimes, see, in other ages in satya-yuga there was also the chanting of Hare Rāma going on.
Could call Krishna into the lives. Therefore, they engaged in very complicated and extended and difficult meditations of yoga trunks. But in the age of Kali we should not doubt. We anyways have no other chance!
We should put our difficult natures on the side. Even better, we should put them in the toilet and And we should just simply come together. And in an uncomplicated way glorify Krishna.
And I believe that Krishna wants to see this step in our lives. That we form groups, that we gather on the step of our door. A a a a a door, maybe six slim people can sit and five fat people can sit.
Idea is small groups, а? Five, six, seven. In our neighbourhood. And form a circle of friends, a spiritual circle.
And I think when this common spirit of love and brotherhood comes in the devotees of Moscow, then Radha Madhava will become attracted. Then Rādhā-Madhava will make their permanent address in Moscow.
Summary of the three key messages
This is a little what I'm thinking. So, three messages today. Первое. We are the borderline shakti.
We can decide whether or not we want to be in the material energy fully under the control of the loss of material nature, or we want to be free in the spiritual atmosphere. Второе послание.
When we feel overwhelmed by difficulties in our lives, we should not despair, we should have hope. Shaped by the hands of a merciful master. Have you translated this? Shaped by the hands of a merciful Yes, good.
Third message. We should learn to share, we should make a circle of spiritual friends. Maybe through the bhakti riksha system, maybe through the counselor system. Maybe without a system.
Just inviting regularly friends to our house. Today my heart is very happy. One I told you. Брахмананда Пури is one of the old heroes of spreading Krishna consciousness in Russia. He sits there in the corner.
Would you mind to just rise, Prabhu, that the young people can see you? Only now, one Брахмананда Пуриджи has printed the first books. Maybe you all have a book and you got a book, which Брахмананда Пури printed.
It is well possible! He is a hero! Он наш One of our heroes! So, we are very happy that Brahmānanda Purī has been so kind to grace this sacred event of the Sunday Feast!
He knows where in Russia there are few gold bars waiting for the Temple of Rādhā-Madhava. Thank you, thank you, Hare Krishna! Ok. Namo oṁ viṣṇu-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tale, śrīmate bhaktivedānta-svāmin iti nāmine.
Namaste sarasvati deve gaura-vāṇī- प्रचारિਣೇ, nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi-pāścātya-deśa-tāriṇe. Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare. Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.
Yantaḥ praviśya mama vācam imām prasuptām sajīvayaty akhila-śakti-dharaḥ sva-dhāmnā, anyāṁś ca hasta-caraṇa-śravaṇa-tvag-ādīn prāṇān namo bhagavate puruṣāya tubhyam.