Madhurya Kadambini. Lecture 2
Bhakti Vijnana Goswami · 2020
Chapters
Opening invocation prayers
Oh Magyanati Mirandasyam Jnanam Jana Salakaya Chaksu Nidamina, Tasmai Sri Gura Venaham, Sri Chaitanyama Bisham, Stapitamjale, Swamrupakem, Tadadatiatis Swapadantikam Vandiham
Sri Guru, Sriutapadakamalam, Sri Guru Vaisnavam Sha, Sriupam Sagrajatam, Sahaganaragunatam Vitam Sadivam, Sadvaitam Savadutam paridana sahitam Krishna Caitania Devam Sri Rama Krishnapadam, Shanaganalita,
Sri Visaka Vitams, Ekrishna Karuna Sindho, Dinabandhu Jagatpate, Gopesa Gopikakanta, Radakantanamus tute Taptakanchanagurangi, Radevrindava Neshwari Vrisabanu Sutevi Pranamahien,
Vancha, Paturve, Kripa sind du becha, patitambavaneb, Vaishnavyamuna, Sri Krishna Caitanya, Prabhunitananda, Sri Dvaitara Srivassadigura Bhakta Brindam Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hari Rama Rama Rama Hari Hari Ajanu
Vambi Bujoka Vadatu Sankirtanaya Kapitaroka Malay taksa, viswambarodvi Javaru Yuga Dharma Pala, Vandeja Gatpriya Karov Karunavataru,
Yuntak Pravishi Mamavachimam Prasupta, Sanji Vayatakila Shakti Daraswadamna Anjamatu Gadim, Pranamu Bhagawate Puru Satu Vam. Swah Prasi da tam dyan du butani si vammi to So
So Hare Krishna to all the uh listeners of this uh little seminar uh on Maduria Kadambini uh off Viswanatchakravati Thakur.
And yesterday we started the description of this book by Explaining Mangalacharana, which is very relevant to all of us. The revered author of the book explains that the mercy of Lord Chaitanya is like the shower of rain.
And this shower of rain is capable of transforming our heart, which is now like a desert, due to the scorching heat of lust, of selfish desires.
And he started from the first shower of rain which is a theoretical description of Bhakti and general understanding of what Bhakti is. And the whole idea is to prove that Bhakti is not of this world.
Bhakti is Mahashakti of the Lord Himself, and by some amazing good fortune, we come in contact with this Mahashakti, which creates transformation of our heart from the very beginning.
Self-manifested nature of devotional service
Gives us energy, enlivens us, makes us very humble, and so many other amazing things happening under the influence of this Mahashakti, of this great energy of the Lord.
And of course, his main point was how this Bhakti comes to us. Bhakti is self-manifested. It's of the same nature as the Lord because it's direct energy of the Lord.
It's his own manifestation, his svarūpa śakti, the energy of his svarūpa. So it has the same nature as the Lord Himself. It means that it's self-manifested. There is no material cause behind its manifestation.
Not our piety, not our good qualities is the cause of its manifestation. Only the mercy of the Lord which is coming through the great devotee of the Lord.
And we have to be very clear about this because sometimes people think they have bhakti. And at the same time, there is no change of the heart.
The heart remains the same, the same selfish desire desires are raging in the heart because they don't know the secret how to obtain the bhakti.
Bhakti can only be obtained by the mercy of a devotee who is partial and he can give his mercy to somebody and he doesn't have to give it to everyone. He can give to somebody whom he likes.
Like today I was listening to Śrīla Prabhupāda's lecture. And it's a public lecture for outside people.
And at the end of the lecture, he looks probably in the boy, at the boy, a very young person, and asks, Oh, you're coming second time. You're a real devotee. You came alone without your parents. Very good, very good.
So that's the mercy.
All of a sudden, Śrīla Prabhupāda picked up one person from the audience and, uh, and I, it is very clear from the tone of his voice and everything else that he's very pleased, without any reason, causelessly pleased.
So that bhakti, which is in the heart of a pure devotee, starts acting, and for sure it will have an effect on this particular person. And we have to be very clear that that's the way.
Bhakti is only coming from heart to heart. It's an infectious disease which can be obtained only through the very close contact. You cannot download bhakti from the internet. You cannot search bhakti by Google.
Google is not a suitable instrument to get bhakti. Internet is not really giving you bhakti. It may give you some sort of suragat form of bhakti, some pseudobhakti, which may even look a little bit like bhakti,
but in reality it's the transformation of the heart from the very beginning, and that's what Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura has explained in the first chapter of this book.
And the whole point of this first chapter is to make us akanta bhaktas to give us this understanding that bhakti is the most valuable thing in the world, and there is absolutely
no use of wasting our energy and time pursuing some other goals. It's a complete tragedy. And therefore, he ends this chapter with this very stern statement from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam: that somebody who doesn't who
is not engaged in bhakti? He's less than human. He is—he's an animal. So that's that's a very fanatical sectarian statement, but that's the way we are. To make us understand, to make it clear, to give us the bold that
this is what we're supposed to do. We should try to obtain this amazing energy of the Lord. And we should do whatever is within our power to get
Introduction to the second shower
in touch in contact with this energy. So the second shower is the second chapter of this book, Second Shower of Mercy of Lord Caitanya describes śraddhā, faith, it describes sādhu-saṅga, the association
of devotees, and it describes bhajana-kriyā, initial stage of bhajana-kriyā, which Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura states is inevitably unstable. To distinguish it from the niṣṭhā stage where our bhajana-kriyā
or attempts to serve the Lord become stable. Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī does not call this third stage bhajana because it's not bhajana yet. It's bhajana kriya. It's some sort of something similar by form,
but not the same by essence. It's kriya.
It's an attempt to do bhajana. It's not bhajana. It's not service to the Lord yet. But it's something which looks pretty similar to the service, therefore it's called Bhajana- kriyā.
So these three first stages mentioned in these two verses of Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu by Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī are described in great detail in this second chapter of Madhurya Kādambinī, and we will start with this ādau śraddhā.
In the beginning, there should be śraddhā. The devotional service starts with śraddhā and not any śraddhā, not any faith, but a very specific kind of faith which
contains inside kṛpā, which is actually the partial manifestation of brahma, which is a little particle of premā as we spoke yesterday. Because there are so many varieties of faith in this world,
Lord Krishna by describing different kinds of faith, he said, śraddhāmayo 'yaṁ puruṣo, every living entity, every human being, consists of faith. Our existence is based on faith. So faith is not a big achievement.
And when Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī says ādau śraddhā in the beginning there is faith, he clearly means a certain kind of faith, and we have to really understand.
It's not that we, you know, we become complacent and say, yeah, I have a faith. Everyone has faith in something. What is the nature of our faith?
This is what we should very carefully analyze with the help of Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura and distinguish whether we have genuine faith or it may be mixed faith or maybe material faith.
So let's do it, and it's it's a very important and interesting exercise because it may shake us and take us out from this complacency
Sanskrit etymology and meanings of shraddha
which we as conditioned living entities we tend to be situated in.
So basically, it's interesting the etymology first of the word śraddhā, which is not mentioned by Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, but nevertheless is important for us. It's coming from these two roots: śrat and dhā.
Śrat means the same as sat. And sat basically means existence. Sat means truth. Of course, there is another explanation of the etymology of the word śraddhā. Śrat means hṛd, hṛdi, the heart.
But let's take the first explanation that śrat is the derivation from the root sat existence. śraddhā, and dhā means of course from the root dṛ, to hold, to uphold, to support.
So the first explanation of the word śraddhā is something which helps us to continue with our existence, which supports or upholds our existence. It's a very interesting concept because we
can see in reality that śraddhā of faith is basically reproducing our way of existence. Everyone has, and that's what Krishna means when he says in Bhagavad-gītā, śraddhānuyā puruṣo, that everyone has some faith.
And this faith reproduces the same sort of existence. He believes in certain things, he does certain things in which he believes.
And in this way, he reproduces his situation in the existence in this material world and therefore he is stuck in the particular combination of the guṇas. And the mechanism for this is śraddhā. He believes in it.
Everyone believes that he knows how to live. It's amazing.
Somebody may be a completely degraded person, he may be a bum in the street, and nevertheless, if you talk to him, he will try to convince you that this is the way to live. This is the proper way to live.
And he will have some arguments, very convincing arguments, at least convincing for himself, not necessarily for anyone else. So, and everyone has some defense mechanism which protects the way he lives.
You know, whether it's you know rājasic person, sāttvik person, tāmasik person, they all exist or live the way they person, they all exist or live the way they live because they have śraddhā.
And therefore, this concept śraddhā or śraddhā is very important. Something which maintains our existence. If we take the meaning of the word sat as truths,
then we get a completely different concept of faith which we actually are seeking for. In the higher sense, śraddhā is something which helps us to hold the truths or to be connected with the truth.
The real śraddhā which we are talking about, not the conventional śraddhā which everyone has is the desire to be connected with this truth, the understanding that the truth exists and the truth upholds our existence.
that's uh that's the other uh thing and the other explanation of this word śraddhā. And if we take the root shrat as chrat heart, uh then shradha means basically the conviction within our heart.
This is uh shraddha means uh where we invest our heart, where we place our heart, because dream means to place upon. So you know if we believe in something, we invest our heart into the thing which we believe.
If we really have a strong faith, we will really put our heart in what we believe.
Categories of faith in Srimad Bhagavatam
So that's the concept of Shraddha according to Sanskrit etymology. And of course, Krishna himself in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in 11th Kanto he says that there are four kinds of Shraddha.
Sattviki shraddha and he says Satviki shraddha means Adhyatmiki Shraddha. Satviki shraddha means the faith in something spiritual. Adhyatmiki means something spiritual.
Like we, if we take New Age, these people they believe in something spiritual. They may not know what is this spiritual, but they do have some belief that there is something spiritual.
Therefore, they call themselves spiritual people as opposed to religious people who are lower class of people. So it's satviki, it's material faith in something spiritual, not necessarily something very clear.
And then Krishna says that karma shraddha to rajasī uh that if you believe in uh karma if you believe in your ability to act in your ability to uh achieve success in your ability to become happy by your own actions, then your Shraddha is Rajasic.
And if you believe in Adharma, that's Tamasik Shraddha. If you really believe that you become basically this is the belief how to become happy. If you believe that you become happy by some sort of esoteric practice which,
is in connection with something spiritual, your shraddha is satviki. If you believe that you become happy by your action, your shraddha is rajasiki.
If you believe that you become happy by doing some sort of a dharma, and you insist that by doing a dharma, you know this is the way to live.
This is the way to ultimately achieve happiness, even though you again and again and again are baffled in your attempts to become happy by this adharmic means, improper means.
If you believe in it, then you have tamasiki shraddha. But Krishna says, matsevayam to nirguna, but if you believe in my service, matsevayam. Not in me. That would be if we just believe in God, it's sattvikish.
But if we believe matsevayam in service to Krishna to very concrete form of the Lord. Matssevayam to nirguṇa.
Refuting Mayavada philosophy to cultivate devotion
This is nirguṇa kind of śraddhā which is being described in this particular chapter. So let's go further.
Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura starts this chapter by mentioning that there is another book which is called Aiśvarya-kādambinī. But this Aiśvarī Kādambinī is not. And it's interesting why he mentions this.
He says that in Aiśvarī Kādambinī he is defeating Māyāvāda philosophy. Which is very important for why he is mentioning this book
in Madhurya Kādambinī because before we really get the sweetness, uh, the showers of the sweetness of the mercy of Lord Caitanya, before we understand this concept of the sweetness, we really have to remove this main obstacle for devotion,
which is Māyāvāda philosophy, which precludes us to obtain the śraddhā in the service of the Lord, because according to māyā philosophy, there is nobody to serve. Because I am the Lord.
Service is not real, service is māyā. So we cannot really obtain śraddhā in the service of the Lord unless we are converted into a devotee.
And because we're all māyāvādīs, we're all little bit māyāvādīs, little māyāvādīs, in our personal dealings and everything else.
Therefore this book, which unfortunately is lost, would be very important beginning before starting with Māhurya Kadambini, we should clearly study Aiśvarya-kādambinī or understand that God is real.
And we are tiny small particles, and therefore our devotion or service to the Lord is also real.
But anyway, going further from this, Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura makes immediately. It's a very concentrated book, so uh therefore please bear with me. I I'm not going to rush in explaining this book, because
every word is full of meaning of Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura. So he says that first and foremost what is happening when we
obtain śraddhā is that our śraddhā first the first statement which he makes after that is that the bhakti appears in the field of the senses. It's a very important statement.
In the invocation, he says that the bhakti should nourish the field of my heart. But here is he's more specific, he says that bhakti first appears in the senses. What does it mean?
It means that the senses change their nature. Because now at this moment of time our senses are habitually connected with the matter and have the taste for matter.
And when bhakti makes its appearance, it makes its appearance in the senses, and there is already from the very beginning transformation in our senses.
Our tongue develops different taste before we used to, some of us used to like meat, and all of a sudden we're disgusted with the taste of meat, our eyes are habituated in enjoying certain scenes or certain forms, and all of a sudden we kind of lose interest in this.
So bhakti immediately from the very beginning start changing our reciprocation with the world, because senses are the channels through which we reciprocated with the Lord.
So he says: he makes the first statement: Bhakti appears in the senses and devotees and its root, the root of this bhakti, immediately in the field of the senses when the bhakti takes its root, her root in the field of the senses, the root of bhakti is this desire to do something favorable for the Lord.
So that's connected with the previous statement when we said that Nirguna Bhakti Nirguna Shraddha is Shraddha in the service of the Lord.
So, what happens when we get in connection with when we get in touch with this energy of the Lord, immediately some strange desire to do something for the Lord, something favorable for the Lord, appears within the senses.
We get some sort of attachment.
It's amazing, like people they touch or taste prasāda for the first time, and then immediately they get some attraction to this taste of prasāda. It means that there is some change in their taste and the senses because taking prasāda is the service to the Lord.
So immediately little little desire to do something favorable for the Lord, to take his prasāda appears in the senses from the very beginning.
So that's where we ended our class yesterday when, Prangovinda Prabhu asked about this: what is bhakti?
Three manifestations of favorable devotional desire
So, from the very beginning, the root of bhakti, or root of Shraddha, from the very beginning, there is some sort of anukulyatmaka or desire to do something good for the Lord.
And this desire to do something favorable for the Lord, it fully blossoms on the stage of Bhava and it takes forms of three desires.
Vishaya Kunukulyatmaka I told it last time, but I will explain in a little more detail today. Tada nukula nuga tata tatspriha and Tada nubuva Anubava hetulla sama eggnava visha priyata.
So he says that uh and this is again from the very beginning. What is love? And śraddhā is uh an atom of love, an atom of prema. First, when we love somebody, the first desire appears with- within our heart.
We want that this person would be happy, we wish him well. In this way, then, hatred is the opposite of love because when we develop some hate, we wish somebody else bad.
We really wish that something pretty cool will happen with him, something inauspicious will happen with him. But if we develop some little attachment in this case, some little
attachment to the Lord from the very beginning, then Anukulyatmaka, the very essence of this feeling is that I wish that he would be happy. He would be happy with me.
Like, for example, you know, love of the Lord is a very high concept.
But if we develop some love, you know, if we develop some sort of not even love in the beginning, but some sort of respect to a devotee, to a spiritual master, to a sādhu, and then the first is desire: let him be happy.
Let him be happy with me, let me do something which will be pleasing to him. And then but that's little you know first just general desire, let him be happy. Let something good happen to him, let him be.
Yeah, let him be happy. But then Tada no Kulia nugata ta spriha. When we want to come closer to Him, we have desire Tatspriha to do something which He will like.
You know when we get some attachment to somebody then it's natural to develop desire to be near him and do something which he will like and then the natural outcome of it is the third desire, Tata Anubhava Hetulla Samaya Jnana Vishesha Pri, Jnana Vishesha.
The special Anubhava, the special experience of Jnana Vishesha and the special understanding which is Ulla Samai, which is very how to say very exciting. The exciting the the feeling of excitement uh which we get uh when we see that he is happy.
He is happy and we become excited because he is happy. So this is what Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura says from the very beginning. When we come in touch with Bhakti, this sort of attitude towards the Lord develops in us.
We know that the root of material existence is vaiimukata, the indifference to the Lord. We turned away from the Lord and we basically don't care. We only care about ourselves.
So Bhakti from the very beginning turns us towards the Lord, and this very soft feeling appears in the heart. Oh, I wish that the Lord would be happy with me. I wish to do something which will be pleasing to him.
And when we experience that he is really happy, we become excited by His happiness with us. We're doing something which He likes and we become happy because of this.
So, and then Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura in the beginning he says that the devotee becomes madhu-vrata and dṛḍha-vrata. He understands that this is what I'm supposed to do. I don't want to do anything else.
I don't want to waste my time with this for anything else. This is what I want to achieve.
Experiencing happiness by pleasing the Lord
I want to do something which will be pleasing to the Lord and I want to experience this happiness.
Like Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī, who explains this in great detail in Bhakti-sandarbha, he says that ultimately the ultimate goal of life is happiness. But bhakti is a very special way to obtain happiness.
It's the way to obtain happiness by making somebody whom we love happy. And this is the most powerful way of obtaining happiness in this world.
So, and then Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura says that then the bhakti, when this bhakti comes in touch with our senses in this way, grows in the field of our senses, then it acts like sparsamani, like touchstone, like the philosophical philosopher's stone, which turns iron into gold.
The iron of our senses which are now attached to abominable things of this world, to abominable enjoyments of this world, to drugs, to sex, to meat, to all kinds of stuff. They change the nature.
And that's the miracle which happens with everyone. You know, sometimes we tend to underestimate the extent of the transformation which already has taken place within our heart.
It's definitely the mercy of the sweetness of the Lord coming to us through the discipline successions through the mercy of Śrīla Prabhupāda.
And it's also interesting that uh in Sanskrit the word priti uh it's um uh you you cannot say uh like in English or in Russian, I love the Lord. When the Lord is an objective case.
In Sanskrit we can only say I love in the Lord. Or my love is in the Lord. It's in locative case in Sanskrit.
So basically we love it perhaps within our heart, and we place it within the Lord, and we want to see Him happy. This is what it is.
And this sort of happiness or this sort of experience, this sort of bhakti we can only get from the heart of a devotee.
That's a very important point to reiterate from the last chapter or from the last lecture, that bhakti changes the heart, which is completely used to obtain happiness, but being happy ourselves. This is how we are programmed.
We think that the only way to become happy is to behave in such a way that you know the my senses are pleased. That I am happy, my senses are pleased. This is the happiness.
So immediately when we come in contact with bhakti, within the heart of a devotee, this change takes place. And we should definitely read Śrīla Prabhupāda-līlāmṛta to see how it works.
The devotees who came in contact with Śrīla Prabhupāda, they saw and experienced his complete selflessness.
And because this selflessness was so touching to their heart, then this revolution was in the heart, this complete change of the heart also took place within their heart.
They saw how he behaves, how he is completely absorbed in his desire to serve his spiritual master and his desire to serve other people and his desire to serve the Lord to fulfill the desire of Lord Chaitanya.
When they saw this complete total selflessness, purity of the heart, and at the same time experienced the happiness which Śrīla Prabhupāda himself experienced. Because by doing this, you obtain this happiness which is there in the Lord.
You know that the Lord is pleased with you, therefore you're pleased and you're completely happy. So by coming close and seeing this, we can get this transformation within our heart, and we uh the resolution will come within our heart.
I also want to be like this. And that's why we cannot really get bhakti from any other source. We have to have this experience.
Like Prabhupāda in the beginning he was washing the you know he was cooking, uh he was leading the kīrtana, he was giving the lecture and then uh he was feeding everyone and then everyone would leave and he would wash their plates. He was doing everything from beginning to end.
Without even saying anything that, you know, please help me, you know, who you think you are, you are just dirty hippies. Help me, pure devotee. No, he was just doing it.
And then ultimately, after you know a few months, somebody approached him and said, Maybe I can help you. And Prabhupada says, Yes, I was waiting for it. When somebody comes. But this is how it works.
First, you have to have this experience, and then it means that bhakti already touched your heart, and it means that the seed of bhakti is there.
Therefore, from the very beginning, Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura says this, is the root. The root of faith is this selflessness.
And you know, whatever little selflessness we obtain in the society of devotees is our great fortune. And if we stick to our desire to you know keep our selfish attitude, then this is our misfortune.
Distinguishing pure faith from distorted faith
So but it's also very important at this stage, even though we only studied one sentence from the second chapter of Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, second chapter of Madhurya Kādambinī.
At this stage, it's also very important to understand that the seed which we obtain may be of different nature.
Sometimes people from the very beginning, they come to bhakti movement by you know coming in talk in contact with somebody who may not be so pure.
And they get some Shraddha, some faith in Bhakti, they may even start chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, they may even start following some regulative principles.
But from the oututset, from the very beginning, they have a different desire, not desire to please the Lord. They start doing this because they have some sort of selfish desire to fulfill.
Because they were preached in such a way. I know sometimes sometimes I hear very strange preaching techniques.
Once I was in one gathering of devotees and they were explaining how, how by practicing bhakti all their material desires were fulfilled and they were cheering and inspiring others.
Let's do Bhakti. Bhakti is great. It's very good. One Mataji, an enthusiastic Mataji, came and she said, Oh, I was so miserable before I became a devotee, and now all my desires are fulfilled. Hare Krishna ki jaya.
So that means that there is no touch with bhakti, that the seed is different. It's a genetically modified seed. It's not really bhakti, it's G-Mol.
So and Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī calls this sort of bhakti or siddha bhakti or face pratibimba ābhasa or chāyā ābhasa. You know, Pratibimba, especially pratibimba, is when we come with some other
desires, and Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, in his Bhakti-tattva-viveka, he stresses one point.
He says it's a very severe, serious mistake to think that pratibimba-śraddhā with the desire to achieve something else can be turned into real śraddhā just by practice of bhakti.
It will never be turned into something else. It will always remain pratibimba, and we will only practice bhakti to obtain either bhakti or mukti, either material enjoyment or mukti, liberation. So therefore, again.
There is no other way, there is no other way, there is no other way. We have to see it, we have to experience their dedication, their absorption in bhakti, and their happiness in being absorbed in bhakti, and then only we can obtain real faith.
So So uh uh having said this, and it's basically uh
very important what Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura says in the beginning: he says that bhakti is like sparśa-maṇi, the touchstone. Because the idea is that bhakti and only bhakti can completely transform the person.
And we can see it and experience it that the selfish person, you know, of course the famous example is Mṛgāri the Hunter, who was transformed by bhakti of Nārada Muni, by coming in talk in contact with Nārada Muni.
You know, but the idea is that when we love somebody, even in the material sense, we come close to this person, and this love or desire to please this person forces us to manifest the best qualities. The change takes place in our heart in a very natural way because we want to please somebody and therefore we behave in a very nice way.
you know for the time being he or she doesn't know that we have some other qualities. Then we lose this love and then some other qualities of ours also become manifestable. That's how we cheat.
But in this case, the idea is that we come in contact with the Lord.
We have some initial attraction to him or to his representative and then we come close to him and we start manifesting our best qualities. And we don't manifest our bad qualities.
Really, we know that we should not manifest our bad qualities. And ultimately, this becomes our nature.
Initial symptoms of devotional service
If we are long enough in contact with the Lord or with Bhakti with the representative of the Lord, then our nature will change because we will only manifest the best qualities.
And therefore, having said this, Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, he develops this metaphor.
The first is we have the field of our senses, the seed of bhakti comes to the field of our senses, it uh it takes the root, the root is the desire to please the Lord. And then it sprouts and the first two leaves unfold
from this sprout and this first two leaves is kleśaghnī-śubhadā. I will not explain in too much detail about this kleśaghnī śubhadā because it's quite well known and this kleśaghnī and śubhadā is explained in the nectar of devotion these two things.
But a few important things Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura adds to this description. We all know kleśaghnī is the destruction of kleśas or the causes of suffering.
And Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, as well as you know Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī in Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, they take the Yoga Sūtra of Patañjali to explain what is kleśas.
Avidyā, asmitā, rāga, dveṣa, abhiniveśāḥ, avidyā, asmitā, rāga, dveṣa, abhiniveśāḥ, the five kleśas, five causes of sufferings. And the idea here is that we all have this
how it is called in Yoga Sūtra of Patañjali, the field of ignorance. And the seeds of our karma are growing in this soil of ignorance.
Within our heart there is this avidyā the total totally covered knowledge, the knowledge which is completely wrong, perverted knowledge. Avidya. Avidyā. It's not the lack of knowledge. Lack of knowledge would not be so bad.
Avidya is a perverted knowledge. We do have knowledge, knowledge about ourselves, but it's completely wrong, knowledge about our happiness, about purity, impurity, about eternal, non-eternal. So this is all Avidya.
The seeds of our karma growing on the soil of Avidya because it's so fertile. And there are so many seeds. And we always harvest the crop of our karma, which is growing in the field of Avidya.
And the idea here is that Kleshagni means that
by practicing bhakti, pure devotional service, if it's pure, if it's not mixed with jñāna and karma. If it's not uh mixed with other desires uh like pratibimba uh if it's really pure then it will remove Avidya completely.
The other paths of spiritual understanding, they may remove certain desires like jñāna, you may become free from desires, but Avidya remains.
Other or yoga, other paths of spiritual realization they will not give you the complete removal of Avidya, but according to Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura of course Rūpa Gosvāmī in Bhakti Rasāmṛta Sindhu Aprārabdha Phalaṁ Pāpaṁ Kūṭa Bījaṁ Phalaṁ Mukhaṁ Kramaiṇāpi Praīyate Viṣṇu Bhakti Ratātmanām Bhakti tu Viṣṇu Gradually Kramaiṇāpi Prālīyate removes everything all kinds of karma phalaṁ pā... That's pretty uh clear and pretty known uh thing.
But what is more important is the second leaf which is coming little later.
In the beginning we experience this relief from karma to a certain extent, gradually, gradually, according to the intensity of our practice of bhakti, we feel relief of karma.
We feel that we become less and less dependent on the sinful desires which are still there. They they may be there, but we really feel that there is a relief.
We are not so controlled by these desires, by these sinful thoughts, which is the manifestation of our karma. But little later, the second leaf starts unfolding, which is śubhā-da, the obtaining auspiciousness.
The auspiciousness comes to our life due to bhakti. And this auspiciousness is coming in the form of developing new qualities. The old qualities which are the result of our karma, previous karma.
If this is bad qualities, bad habits, they become weaker and weaker and weaker, they stop controlling our lives.
You know some good qualities which we may have, functional qualities may still be there, but we only use these qualities. We are not the slaves of these qualities obtained by karma. We are not the slaves of karma.
We are masters of our karma. We only use something which is useful for devotional service and don't use something which is useless for devotional service.
But what is more important is that because of the practice of bhakti, and this is again an indication, this is a very important indication, whether we are practicing bhakti or not.
In the beginning I said that this desire to please the Lord is a very important indication whether Our śraddhā is real. Śraddhā, again, doesn't mean that we believe in God. Śraddhā doesn't mean that we believe in Krishna.
Śraddhā means that we believe that I can become happy by serving the Lord. And this is the only way to become happy. This is what śraddhā is.
If we believe in this, that I have to really put all my energy in the service of the Lord, starting with śravaṇaṁ, kīrtanaṁ, smaraṇaṁ, pāda-sevanam, arcanaṁ, vandanaṁ, dāsyaṁ, sakhyaṁ ātma-nivedanam, then we have some nirguṇa śraddhā.
But the next indication is of course we feel relief from our karma.
Good qualities born from devotional practice
And the next indication is this subhadā when the new quality appears to us, new qualities appear to us. Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, he lists these qualities. Subhadā. What is subhadā?
What is the good fortune which we obtain by practicing bhakti. It's a very interesting list. It's the list of 11 qualities, which he, of course,
elaborates or this is his explanation of yasyāsti bhaktir bhagavaty akiñcanā sarvair guṇais tatra samāsate surāḥ, this verse from the fifth canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, that whoever has akiñcana-bhakti or pure bhakti, all the qualities of the demigods come to him.
So, what are these qualities of the demigods? Or the qualities of the Supreme Lord Himself. What are these qualities? How the good fortune descends upon us by practicing bhakti.
It descends upon us because we develop naturally. Not in an unnatural way. Naturally, these qualities appear within our heart. We don't endeavor to obtain these qualities but we have to know about these qualities because if these qualities somehow or other do not appear, do not develop within our heart. It means that we are not practicing pure bhakti. We are practicing something else, but not pure bhakti.
Pure bhakti means durviṣaya-vigtṛṣṇā. First of all, the first quality or the effect of pure bhakti is vigtṛṣṇā, the lack of thirst, we are not really thirsty, durviṣaya, in enjoying bad things of this material world. This thirst subsides.
We don't have this, and then bhagavat-viṣaya-sātr̥ṣṇānukūla. On the contrary, we develop greed, Kṛṣṇa, or thirst, sātr̥ṣṇā, to do something which is pleasing to the Lord or which is in connection with the Lord.
Bhagavat-viṣaya. Simultaneously, these qualities appeared: very strong desire to do something good for the Lord.
And then kṛpā, kṛpā means mercy, then kṣamā forgiveness, satya truthfulness, śāralya, honesty or simplicity, one becomes very simple; śama, one becomes very peaceful. Dairya, one becomes very—how to say this? — tolerant, tolerant? No, determined. Gāmbhīrya, one becomes very serious, uh, not uh, how to say this, not very, um, lighthearted or whatever how you call it. Mānatva, the desire to, uh, respect other people, you know, real respect towards other people; and then 11th quality, amānitva, the humility.
So this is good fortune. These 11 qualities constitute the good fortune of a person, and if we analyze all these qualities, uh, we can understand the root of these qualities.
The root of these qualities is the detachment from the world. You know why we become cruel in the heart, why do we lie? Why do we become very complicated and very proud? Why we are always disturbed?
Why are we always trying to enjoy in this world and lose our seriousness? Why do we despise other people? Because of one reason: because we are attached to the happiness of this world.
And bhakti, uh, because, uh, it turns our consciousness within.
Manaś-rathena satīrthayato bahir, uh, if, uh, the, uh, chariot of your mind runs towards the vishayad, the objects of enjoyment in this world, then you develop all bad qualities.
And therefore, you really cannot talk about good qualities in somebody who is attached in this world. But if you becoming detached because your change the course of your energy, your energy is directed within
the heart, with the desire to please the Lord, then the only uh natural outcome is that you develop all this Subani, all these good amazing qualities of the Lord. Of the Lord and of the demigods.
This all qualities are there. So this is how this Subhada manifests and Vishnuchakravati Thakur, of course, says that please don't be in a hurry because it's a gradual process. We have to be very realistic.
Bhakti is a gradual process, bhakti parishano bhavovi Rakti, Anyatra Chaisha Trikaya Kalaha. He quotes this verse from the 11th canto of Shimad Bhagavatam,
which says that gradually, gradually, Prapadya Manya Syat Hashna Taksud like food. By taking food morsel by morsel, your hunger will become less and you become you become satisfied and you become nourished by this.
So it's a gradual process, but nevertheless, we have to have this indicator is very clear. Gradually, all these qualities have to appear within our heart.
At least we have to understand that I became more forgiving than I was before. Before I was less forgiving. Now I'm easily forgive. Or still I become a little bitter within my heart, but nevertheless, I'm easily forgiving.
I am more peaceful in my mind. I am more patient. I'm more ready to express my respect toward other people and I'm more humble. I may not be as humble as Haridas Thakur.
I may not be as tolerant as him and as forgiving as him. If somebody beats me what to speak on 22 marketplaces, but even a little bit, I may become irritated by this.
But nevertheless, still I don't keep grudges too long within my heart. So that's the gradual process of appearing auspiciousness due to the process of If real bhakti is there, Kleshagni will be there, Shubhada will be there. That's important.
And now Viswanachakravarti Thakur really starts explaining the faith. What is faith?
He first, in this part which we described so far, he explained the qualities of Sadhana Bhakti, which covers all the stages from Shraddha to Bhava, including Asakti.
From Shraddha to Asakti, all these stages, it's a gradual development of Subada, of auspicious qualities, gradual diminishment of negative qualities obtained due to our karma, gradual freedom or liberation from all these obstacles which are there within our heart. That's the gradual process.
So he didn't start describing Shraddha yet he gave general description of all these stages which belongs to Sadhana Bhakti.
And he said that the root of this sadhana bhakti from the very beginning is the desire to do something auspicious to the Lord.
Essential characteristics of authentic faith
Anukuliatmaka. But now, and this is real very important topic for today, he starts describing Shraddha, what is Shraddha?
Tatra Bhakti Adikari Nakh Prathamam Shraddha. The Shraddha first is the Adhikara qualification for bhakti. And then he says, Satcha tat tach shastrathed ridha pratyaya mai.
The first characteristic he gives two characteristics of real shradha of face the first characteristic of Shraddha is Shastrathy Dridha Pratyamai. It's a complete conviction in the meaning of the shastra. That's the first characteristic.
And the second characteristic of the face, in other words, if you have faith, what does it mean that you have faith?
It means that you're completely convinced that the shastra, the meaning of you understand the meaning of the shastra which, is bhakti, and you're convinced in this meaning that ultimately we have to practice bhakti.
And the second characteristics of Sraddha is pramiamana yatna yatna eka nidana rupa tat vishayakatvaika nirvaha rupa sadharas prihacha. The second charistiacterc of bhakti is the prakramyamana yatnaekani dana rupa.
Very serious solemn determination or aspiration to attentively follow the process of devotion as described in these scriptures. It's priha, it's desire to follow this Nirvaharupa Sadhara with a lot of respect.
In other words, Shraddha, real Shraddha always has these two things: we believe in something which is written in scriptures, and we want to follow this. Because oftentimes people make this mistake.
They think that belief is just belief. I just believe. That's it. Yeah, I believe. I have the faith. No, faith implies that you do something according to your faith.
And in this case if we believe in Shastra Artha, in the meaning of the Shastra, then we will try to follow whatever Shastra says to us with a lot of respect.
Nirvaharupa, Sadharas Priha, desire to follow it with adoration, with respect.
So in the beginning Adoshradai, in the beginning there should be some Shraddha of any process, but this is the special characteristic of Shraddha which we are talking about, which is transcendental?
It's interesting that in other words, what is Shraddha? Shraddha is a dynamic force. I quoted yesterday Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, he said: if you have faith, you will become very enthusiastic.
You will have a lot of enthusiasm or energy to do something. Amazing energy which you never had before.
This is and everyone, every devotee has this experience, you know, he obtains faith and all of a sudden, he gets a lot of energy and enthusiasm to do something. It vanishes after some time, but unfortunately.
But this phenomenon is there, and we all know this.
So it's very interesting that in Yoga Sutra, because we just quoted Yoga Sutra following Vishwana Chakravarthakur, there is another Yoga Sutra in Yoga Sutra of Patanjali, which describes the same sort of sequence or the chain of development. This is the 20th sutra of the first chapter of Yoga Sutra. I quoted it yesterday.
Sradha, Virya, and then Smriti, and then Samadhi, and then Pragya. There's five stages according to yoga.
And it's basically why I'm quoting this because it reflects something which we also have in our ladder, in our staircase of devotion. It starts with Shraddha. Shraddha gives you energy and therefore virya.
Virya means energy and therefore bhajana kriya. You start doing something very actively. From Shraddha comes bhajana kriya. Then, according to this sutra of Yoga Sutra, smriti comes.
Smriti means that you remember, you always keep your goal in front of you. You, you're not deviating on something else. And that's the uh in our case, that's niṣṭhā. Because niṣṭhā, when we always remember.
Before that, uh we may be running here and there, but we uh What is the goal of our endeavors? We have energy because of Shraddha. We have energy to do something, but we forget about the goal.
So when we reach the stage of Nishta stability, then we always keep the goal in front of us. That's smṛti in this sutra.
And then samadhi from nishta we come to bhāva, bhāva means complete absorption in the spiritual practice, in the service of the Lord.
And from samadhi, the higher stage is prajñā, means realization or direct experience of the Lord, which is prema in our case. But in the beginning there should be Shraddha.
We cannot really do anything else unless śraddhā is proper, the face is proper. Therefore, I'm spending so much time in this. And what is Shraddha? Shraddha also means the freedom of doubts.
Freedom of doubts because doubt in Sanskrit is called samshya. Samyakshayate it is samshya, something which you which puts you completely in sleep. Samyaksayate samshya. Something which makes you paralyzed. What is samshaya?
Samshya is this when your heart is split. You don't know what is right, what is wrong, which of the two possibilities is right. And therefore, you cannot do anything. Why I'm saying this?
Because again, śraddhā gives you the energy to act. Śraddhā is a dynamic active principle behind any action in devotional service.
So when we have doubts, like recently I got a letter. Every now and then I get such a letter, you know, the devotee expresses his doubts in the process of devotional service. And immediately he says, I cannot do anything. I have, you know, I don't know what to do. My mood is very bad and this and that.
So that's uh when we uh lose somehow or other face or when our face is covered over by ignorance then we immediately lose enthusiasm of doing anything. And we don't have any energy, we don't have any desire to do anything.
This is how it works. So therefore, Śrīla Vyāsadeva commenting in this sutra of Patañjali Yoga Sutra, he says that śraddhā means clarity of the mind. It's very interesting also if we think about it.
We come in contact with a devotee and all of a sudden we feel that everything becomes very clear. You know, when Śrīla Prabhupāda explains something, you know, we say, yes, it's very clear. It cannot be otherwise.
Of course, then the doubts may come back and again cloud our consciousness. But in the beginning, this clarity of the mind is there, and that means that this magic takes place,
that uh because of the contact with the pure devotee we become very very uh determined and we know the goal and this is the way and this is what we should do and we should not really waste our energy.
So that's the characteristic of śraddhā according to the first part of this definition which which Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura gives in this Madhurya Kādambinī.
Development of conviction in scripture
So let's talk a little bit more about this.
saccāṭā-śāstrārtha-dṛḍha-pratyayaḥ. So it's basically the same thing which Śrīla which Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu told Rūpa Gosvāmī: śraddhā-śabde—viśvāsa kahe suḍṛḍha niścaya kṛṣṇe bhakti kaile sarva-karma kṛta haya. Krishna Bhakti Kali Sarva Karma Kritahoi.
You know, śraddhā is this viśvāsa or the trust in the statements of the śāstra. So we have to know the meaning of the śāstra, and we have to be very clear about the meaning of the śāstra.
That's the beginning, and because from the very beginning we cannot be clear about the meaning of the śāstra. So, even before the clarity of the mind in the meaning of the śāstra comes our trust to
somebody who is preaching the śāstra. So the first step in developing śraddhā is our respect towards a devotee. That starts first. We start hearing him. Why?
Because we see somebody who is different from us. And we develop some sort of trust in this person. So that's the point number one. We trust the person, and because we trust the person, we want to hear what he has to say.
If somebody, if we don't trust, we don't want to hear what he has to say, because we know he's just lying. You know, if somebody is a habitual liar, you know we're not necessarily eager to hear what he has to say.
But if we have some trust in a person, in the integrity of a person. Then we will have developed the desire to listen to him.
And because of this desire we will listen with our listening will be with special quality, our listening will be very attentive.
And therefore, Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī giving the definition of śraddhā with a slightly different angle.
He says that śraddhā is this quality of the heart which helps us to understand the statements and the meaning of the shastra.
Please listen very carefully, even though you may not have trust in me, but that's an important point.
Before we get śāstrīya-viśvāsa, the trust in the meaning of the Shastra, we have to develop trust in the person who explains us Shastra.
And because of this, we will start listening to him or to her with a certain attitude, and this attitude will help us to understand the meaning of Shastra.
This is what Jīva Gosvāmī says in, uh, in 171st anuccheda of Bhakti-sandarbha.
That you know we may listen somebody, somebody is explaining shastra, but because we don't necessarily have the trust in this person, the the shastra, the meaning of the Shastra will not be revealed within our heart.
He will say proper things, but we will not be able to really understand this.
And sometimes we know this experience, we uh we heard many things, you know, and then we listen to somebody and he repeats something which we heard many times. And then this wow, aha moment comes. Yes, that's it, right.
Now I understand. And that means that Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī says that the meaning of the śāstra will stick within your heart. You will not forget this.
If you listen to somebody without śraddhā, then something comes in one ear and you know goes from another ear. Nothing remains. So śraddhā means first
you develop trust in a person, in his integrity, then you listen to him, and because of listening to him, you start understanding the meaning of the shastra, what shastra is saying.
And you really realize: yes, that's it. This is what I'm supposed to do. This is what it is. And therefore, as Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī says, and Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura says that śraddhā means śaraṇāgati.
When we develop this faith in the meaning of the śāstra, we surrender and we start practicing it and the main characteristic of śaraṇāgati is fearlessness.
We know that the Lord protects us, the Lord gives us whatever we need. We don't have to think about anything else. We should just practice. That's fearlessness, is the sign of śraddhā also.
So that's the next step because when we understand the meaning of śāstra we surrender to śāstra and we start practicing it without thinking, you know, yes, this is the true way, this is what we should do.
I don't have any doubts or fear. So again, I reiterate this whole path. It's not finished yet. First is respect to somebody who has bhakti. Then we listen and understand what he says. Then our doubts dissipate from the mind.
Then the very firm faith in the meaning of the śāstra appears within the heart, we understand the logic of the śāstra, how the śāstra is logical.
And then we surrender to śāstra, we start acting without looking, you know, behind, without regretting that I left something. And then from that, from this śaraṇāgati the desire to act appears.
That's the second part of this definition of śraddhā. So the first part is that we first develop firm faith, and this firm faith is developed through these different stages which I explain now.
So then the next stage comes. When we come to śaraṇāgati, śaraṇāgati means basically desire to act according to scriptures. Then the second part of this description in Mādhurya-kādambinī comes into play.
Prakram Yamana Yatnaika Nidana Rupa Tat Vishak Vishakatvaika Nirvahar Rupa Sadaras Prihacha. Very interesting word here is Nidana.
Nidāna rūpa, yatnaike, we're trying, we're endeavoring uh with a lot of respect uh to follow the prescription of the shastras. Nidana basically means diagnose. The shastra makes diagnose like doctor.
Doctor comes to you, takes your pulse, or takes your blood test, or whatever, and he says, This is your disease. And he makes the diagnose, and this is nidana. And then he makes the prescription according to your disease.
So this is what shastra is all about. Shastra gives the prescription. This is what you're supposed to do according to the disease condition which you have.
And then we start acting according to this prescription and we act as it is said here, sadara, we act with a lot of respect towards the Shastra. So that's the second part.
And together with it, what Shastra gives to us hope to achieve the goal. That's another feature of Shraddha. We very clearly understand through the interaction with the devotee, with the
pure devotee, the meaning of Shastra. And because this meaning is revealed within our heart, we surrender to it and we start acting, and we cannot really act if we don't have hope to achieve the goal.
We heard that Bhakti is so so beautiful, so amazing. So we have the hope. Sometimes this hope is really, really little disappearing kind of. But nevertheless, we read Shastra and again the hope is re-established.
We hear a devotee, like Śrīla Prabhupāda, for sure you will achieve premā, you know, the pure love of God. And then again the hope is reignited. That's another feature of Shraddha, of
real śraddhā, which we are talking about, of this nirguṇa śraddhā. And then it's very interesting. Uh you know basically this is explained in again in Bhakti-sandarbha how and the uh those who have faith they're acting.
They become very active and they're acting till they reach the goal. They are not really complacent and they will never satisfy till they reach the goal. Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī gives an example.
If somebody is looking for gold, he will not be satisfied with silver because he's looking for gold. So the sign of real śraddhā is that I'm going to get Kṛṣṇa in Vrindavan. Not even Lord Narayan in Vaikuntha.
We can see it in Brihat Bhagavadamrita how Gop Kumar was traveling and how he always felt that something is missing. So Shraddha means I will go to the end.
And please don't ask me to be satisfied with something less than the complete goal.
Even though he may not achieve a success, he may not be, he will he feels that I am not achieving success, but still, because of the Shraddha, dynamic force behind our endeavors, we endeavor again and again and again.
You know, we commit some mistakes, but still we continue with the practice of bhakti. That's what Shraddha means.
And therefore, Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī, he says very interesting thing, again, as a sign of Shraddha, as a feature of Shraddha. Somebody who has Shraddha, he never commits offenses, he never offends devotees.
He never offends great devotees. If somebody offends great devotees, he doesn't have shraddha. If you have shraddha, real shraddha in the Shastra Artha, the meaning of Shastra, you will never do this.
You will try to avoid it. You will become very reverential. You will actually see other people as the object of your adoration, especially all the pure devotees who are charyas.
If all those people who you know commit uh offenses, aparādhas in the internet, they don't have Shraddha, they lost Shraddha.
Then fortunately, in this condition, when they are not, you know, really even on the first stage of spiritual development, they somehow or other lost.
And then another feature of it somebody becomes selfless and he is not not acting for his own benefit.
He doesn't have any damba pratiṣṭhā, he is not very proud person, and he's only acting for the benefit of Krishna and his devotees for as the servant of his spiritual master. That's what Shraddha means.
And now we have to honestly ask ourselves: do we have Shradha or not? Is our Shraddha pure enough? All these features have to be there.
May not be in uh complete hundred percent developed form but at least they have to be there. This is uh this is the importance of this book, you know, to really see and analyze and do the introspection.
Because sometimes we take it for granted, yes I have Shraddha. No, sad-guṇa-niḥsāra, śraddhā is not a very cheap thing.
Difference between natural and forced faith
And you will never act against the prescription of the Shastras, orders of the Shastras. You will always act according to the Shastras.
So this is the end of Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's description of what means śraddhā, and then he says that this Shradha is of two types. Svābhāvikī and balāt-otpādita. And he does not elaborate on this.
Svābhāvikī means very natural. This śāstrīya śraddhā, śāstrata-viśvāsa, the trust to the meaning of the śāstra, may be svābhāvikī. What does svābhāvikī mean?
It means that it's uh it's basically coming from the association with sādhus. When we are properly associating with sādhus, then this śraddhā naturally develops within the heart.
We listen to them, we listen to them with proper respect, and then gradually gradually different features of this Shraddha will appear without any extra endeavor.
And then balāt-otpādita means forced śraddhā. Sometimes when we don't have the association of devotees, of pure devotees, don't value the association of pure devotees. Don't understand that our spiritual development entirely dependent on this association.
Satāṁ prasaṅgān mama vīryasaṁvido, only in very close association with satām, with the sādhus, the stories about Krishna and the Krishna-kathā become vīrya, as Prabhupada explains in one of his lectures, they become like
samen. They fertilize our heart and they change our heart. Tāṁs tadvigatvā nidadhāti nityam, kṛṣṇa-kathā-śraddh-āratir bhaktir anukramiṣyati. Nukra Mishati.
So if we don't understand this then we act in a society of neophyte devotees. And we also kind of pretend that we have śraddhā, but we act as if we have śraddhā.
And we have śraddhā to a certain extent, but this śraddhā is not natural. It's balāt-otpādita.
You know, like when devotees are there, a society of devotees are there, we behave as a devotee, and when we are alone, we behave in a different way.
It basically means that our śraddhā is balāt-otpādita. And therefore, you know, during the festival, everyone is so happy, and everyone is jumping, and everyone is coming to kīrtana. But then you know in a normal way one doesn't have enthusiasm.
So it's a different kind of Shraddha which may also be there, and therefore Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura calls it Lokika Shraddha. Shraddha which is more or less forced by the social pressure.
The social pressure upon us is there. And even though we believe in the meaning of Shastra in which is bhakti and we practice bhakti to a certain extent.
We feel s uh certain pressure. It's not natural, it's not coming from within our heart.
This uh change of the heart uh didn't take place and, therefore Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura ends his description of this śraddhā by saying that it could be of two types, and naturally, what he wants to say to us, his message
Significance of sadhu sanga and initiation
to us is that we should try to obtain natural śraddhā which is coming from the association of devotees and
then he gives only one sentence about Sadhu Sangha basically he says that Sadhu Sangha means that when we come in contact with a devotee who gave us śraddhā, real śraddhā, then it's natural that we take initiation from this devotee.
And after taking initiation from this devotee, he describes the three steps which we should do what really sadhu sangha is.
Sadhu Sangha is we obtain śraddhā by listening to devotee. We take initiation from Him, it means that we surrender to Him. We say, I will do whatever you like, whatever you will tell me.
Then the next stage is: we ask what we are supposed to do. We get the instruction from a devotee about sadācāra, as Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura says.
He prescribes us certain way of living according to Shastra, but he selects. He says: this is the prescription of the shastra which you should do, and this you may neglect.
You know, this is important, this is the principle. So many other prescriptions don't really pay attention to this. This is what is important for you in your condition as a surrendered soul.
And then the next stage which Sadhu makes,
he brings us into the society of like-minded devotees who are favorable to us, who have this snigdha love for us, and who can nourish our bhāva, desired bhāva towards the Lord. Our spiritual master who created faith in us, he also creates a social the little society of devotees and he says, here is new member of your society.
Please accept him, please take care of him, please help him to develop spiritually. Please give him instruction.
So it's again this is an essential part of Sadhu Sangha, the second stage of spiritual development that our spiritual master introduces us into society of devotees, and we have to understand that this is the extension of his personality, and we have to value the society of devotees, our God brothers and God sisters as something very, very important for our spiritual development and behave accordingly in this society of devotees.
Balancing preaching strategies with absolute truth
So this is a little description which I gave. We have still some 15 minutes or so for questions. I have one question. Yes.
Um you mentioned that it is very important that we get right type of seed and you were comparing wrong seed with genetically modified seed and further you said that if we get a wrong seed in the first place then it is very difficult to change to the new seed.
I very much appreciate this point, but my confusion is that the other day in the series of the classes that we are having here, we were discussing that one speaker
said that the most important uh preaching strategy is to give people what they uh what are their needs, interests and concerns. Uh this appears to be in contrast to what presently you said.
So this is a little bit I I wish that I I request Maharaj that please comment on that because that's a very important point because it was stated this is the very crucial thing about preaching.
See what people like what but here we hear is not what people like but actually what Krishna likes to give. So can you can you find that? We definitely should say the truth. We should not try to please the people.
If we are obsessed with pleasing the people, it can go a little too far. But of course, we have to say something which is relevant to people. And there is a difference.
If we only try to please people and to say something which they want to hear, then it will be wrong. It's not a good preaching strategy.
We will only get the cheap followers with completely distorted understanding of what bhakti is and what it may bring.
So we have to give them real thing, but at the same time we have to make it's relevant for them. We have to somehow find the proper way of approaching them or explaining to them that this bhakti is relevant, is something which they need.
It's not that we say, you know, you practice bhakti and you become happy and well, happy we may say, but you know you will become happy the way you want to be happy.
You will become rich, you will become successful, you will become this. This this is not so good if we say this. And sometimes preachers do make this mistake and that creates obstacle
from the very beginning of our devotional path.
Therefore, we have to say something which is pleasing in the sense that this is something which is touching to people's heart, which is relevant, which answers their cherished desire, but at the same time it has to be true.
That's my only comment. It has to be true. It has to be relevant.
So I I guess uh this is what this devotee meant when he said that uh we should give something which they want. It means we we should give them bhakti which they want, but in such a way that they understand that they want it.
Not in such a way that they uh don't understand why you're talking about this. Thank you very much. Thank you so much for your very deep and insightful discourse.
Now taking forward this question, if somehow this person comes in contact with a pure devotee, then change the youth. Yes, if some of this person can come definitely, it can change uh into a real Shradan, no problem.
Uh but uh it may take because it's an obstacle from the very beginning he may not appreciate what pure devotee has to say because he will be looking for something else.
He came by being allured into getting something else, and then the pure devotees comes and says, you know, pure devotional service kij. And then the person says what are you talking about?
So he may come, you know, if he appreciates the pure devotee, he will But there will be some conflict in the beginning.
So it's we have to be very careful by being conscientious of which seeds we sow in the hearts of people, how we preach, how we present Krishna consciousness.
It has to be relevant, no doubt about it, but it has to be pure also.
Maharaj like if you do our uh uh introspection of our heart what kind of quality of śraddhā we have, and if these symptoms are not appearing, sometimes where to start the rectification process. Which focus upon?
You know the start. Start is the start is very simple: appreciation of a devotee. Respect for a devotee. That's the very initial point.
You know, to try to deepen our appreciation of what devotees have to say and what devotees bring to us that's the initial point.
Again and again listen and try to appreciate their message message verbal message which they speak and the message which they carry by being what they are, you know.
Appreciation of Śrīla Prabhupāda, what what he brought, you know, his personality.
Very good way of doing it is just to read Śrīla Prabhupāda-līlāmṛta or at least a braised version of it again and rekindle our appreciation towards the devotees and devotion and what devotion can do. Thank you.
Protecting and nurturing fragile faith
Thank you so much. Hare Krishna Maharaj. Such a nice class. Thank you so much for such a eye-opening class. It really fits what you describe as a an opportunity for introspection.
I have a question with regards to two types of śraddhā. One was the natural one, so bhakti, then the other was one forced faith.
And part of that you mentioned that it's due to social pressure that one is maybe is happy at the festivals and then after that they're down again.
I'd like to know how do we begin to assist devotees who through social pressure and materialists have become weak in their śraddhā and weak also in the śraddhā towards the spiritual master, the devotee who introduced them.
And now they are only depending on maybe some festival type of śraddhā to be inspired. First of all, thank you very much for bringing this point. Uh, śraddhā in the beginning is very fragile or tender.
Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura he compares this newly born śraddhā with the little baby girl. And he says that little baby is very tender and very susceptible to all kinds of diseases.
So initially, when our śraddhā is very weak, It's very new. It easily gets all kinds of infections, like you know, little children.
They very easily can get developed all kinds of diseases because the immune system is very weak. And they are not very strong, and the fire of digestion is not very strong. You know, if you have stronger fire of digestion, it may not be so difficult for you, but little children has to be protected in a similar way.
We have to protect our Shrada. By very carefully choosing our association and especially a close and intimate association. That's the first thing.
We have to be very very asat-saṅga-tyāga-vaiṣṇavācāra, the Vaiṣṇava is someone who is not associating with asat, with materialistic people not associating means not associating closely, not opening his heart.
That's one thing. Now, how to help if this happened, if the Shraddha becomes even more weak or some diseases there.
It basically means that you should really develop some relationship with such people in a very, very close and intimate way, in a very selfless way, you develop relationship with such people.
And if they understand that you are their well wisher unconditionally,
no matter what they may experience some difficulties, but nevertheless you as a preacher extend yourself extend your help and ready to help in their difficult situation then gradually gradually
they, their weakness of the heart will be gone, this disease will be, the śraddhā will be restored in their heart.
And of course, you know, by discussing with them śāstra, by you know coming back to the to the roots is very important, you know, asking them questions, trying to understand.
But basically it's through again through associations, through this selfless association uh with them when you're uh ready to help.
And sometimes yes, spiritual mastery may be far away, but you as the genuine well-wisher and friend can help to strengthen the śraddhā.
And of course, festivals are good because they have some real experience, some enthusiasm.
It's not that it's bad, but definitely we have to uh also uh you know give people some strength to practice outside of festival as well. Only through the genuine association, I would say. Thank you very much, James.
Hare Kṛṣṇa Maharaj. Maharaj uh thank you very much for this wonderful presentation. Feeling very fortunate. Maharaj, in the beginning you spoke about Āśvarya-kādambinī.
Like you said that it's connected to the tinge of Mayava. I uh happened to get this book, this uh No no, that's a different book.
You're talking about Aishwarya Kadambini by Baladeva Vidyabhushana, which is a completely different book. Yeah. He says that he wrote the book with the same name, but uh it it doesn't exist.
Importance of living guidance in devotion
The Aishwarya Kadambini which is available now is Baladeva Vidyabhushana's. Hare Krishna Maharaj. I listen. Please accept my obeisances. This is your servant as.
Thank you so much for your uh wonderful association your explanation. My question is uh regarding yesterday's topic and um today's very nice explanation as far as I understood.
Please could you confirm it this understanding or deepen it somehow?
Yesterday you explained about ṛtvik philosophy that śarana to Prabhupada is sufficient and apparently externally it's it looks like this: that what more should we desire if we please great Acharya, so bhakti from his heart will stabilize us and so on.
But today's explanation is very nice that if we reject devotees around us, we don't appreciate we but it looks like uh we we don't have uh śraddhā uh that's why it's kind of uh it is a kind of uh additional mercy for us when we appreciate Prabhupada's organs, we appreciate vaisnava practice, otherwise we kind of don't use this adventure is that correct understanding, but what is the lacking of this philosophy that um this is towards the Prabhupada, but it's it's what we'll what uh uh uh uh we uh all need we don't need other, yeah, this this basically this philosophy
or this sort of understanding is you know Prabhupada is great and disciples is a pure devotee. and disciples is a pure devotee. So what kind of glorification of Prabhupada is it?
You know, he's the great spiritual master who couldn't produce even one good disciple. So it's full of all kinds of contradictions, starting with this one. And ultimately, yes, if we appreciate Srila
Prabhupada, we can appreciate his influence upon other people and see how the devotion of Prabhupada is manifest in their hearts. And it does manifest in their hearts.
And if we will be able to understand how they uh cherish this devotion which they got from Śrīla Prabhupāda and how they practice it and gone further then you know there is no contradiction.
We we definitely uh should listen to Śrīla Prabhupāda and to serve Śrīla Prabhupāda his mission and appreciate his personality. At the same time, we have to understand his influence upon other people.
Otherwise, you know how he is great. If we only glorify Prabhupāda and denigrate or blaspheme all his followers, what kind of devotion it is?
And at one point, as I said, Shrada means saranagati. Saranagati means complete surrender. And surrender means, you know, you ask somebody what to do, and he says what to do. Because people don't do it.
Sometimes we can see it in our society sometimes people start following some regulations which Śrīla Prabhupāda never gave. In Hari-bhakti-vilāsa you can find so many regulations.
Śrīla Prabhupāda never gave these things for us to follow. But all of a sudden people started saying that you know this is the reason why we're not developing spiritually, this and that.
Again, uh because of lack of surrender. Surrender means complete faith in a particular person and his understanding of the Shastra. We listen to him, how he explains Shastra.
We understand Shastra because of him, we follow him. If we are the last authority to interpret Shastra, if we don't have anyone else, you know we might say Prabhupada, but Prabhupada, you know, Prabhupada is not there.
He cannot say to us you're wrong. We need somebody to say you're wrong, you're doing something wrong. Anyway, you know, they have their Shraddha. We don't have their ashradha, luckily we have our shraddha.
So our shraddha is Prabhupāda always says that you need a spiritual master. What kind of faith in spiritual master in Śrīla Prabhupāda it is if you by you know accepting him at the same time rejecting what he says?
He says in his books again and again and again, you need a living spiritual master.
But you say, yes, we accept Prabhupada, and then you know you take henceforward one word in the letter which is written by Tamal Krishna Maharaj from the words of Śrīla Prabhupāda. And this henceforward becomes the instruction which is which somehow or other negates all other thousands of instructions
which Śrīla Prabhupāda gave in his books. How is that? How is that proper? It's very strange.
Patience during gradual spiritual progress
Yeah. Okay. Can I ask this? Uh yeah, but it's already a little late. But anyway, if mm others don't mind, please.
So what's the proper way to understand the saying that this process is a gradual one and you should not be in a hurry? When we say this, like uh w what do you mean I mean how how can we put this
together it basically means that uh this is we are not supposed to to do any endeavors no no no I didn't say this you you know uh I am just repeating what Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura has
said, and he says by quoting this verse, Bhaktir hṛdy anubhavaḥ svataḥ siddha yaḥ, anyatra ca syād dṛka-kālaḥ, that we have to endeavor by eating, we have to endeavor by practicing,
but we know that by taking one morsel of food we may not be already completely nourished. We may not our hunger may not completely subsist from one morsel of food. We have to go on taking.
But from the very beginning we feel uh the difference. We feel that uh our hunger is less, uh hunger for material enjoyment is less. We have to be encouraged because sometimes people become discouraged. We have to go on.
Yes, uh, you know, we still have to go on uh with this process.
And uh gradually, gradually this uh hunger will subsist uh and the nourishment will take place more and more and more uh and uh the uh taste uh will never decrease.
The difference uh of this uh comparison with the bhakti, you know, with the food, when we eat food at one point we become apathetic to food, indifferent to food. But with bhakti we will never become indifferent.
But nourishment will become more and more and more. Hunger will subsist m uh ultimately completely at one point.
So not be in a hurry means not be desperate, not lose hope, not become hopeless or lose faith in the process, that not everything is coming at once. It means that we have to go on continue with our endeavors.
Okay, thank you very much. Śrīla Prabhupāda-kī jaya! Gaura-premanande!