Bhagavad-gita 8.5. Essence of Sadhana
Bhakti Vijnana Goswami · Dubai · 2016
Chapters
Opening remarks and overview of sadhana
Hare Krishna. It's a big honor for me to speak in front of all of you. I've been several times to Dubai so far and it's always a very special experience for me, especially this Friday programs. Juma programs.
So and what I thought Shivalu probably told me to speak something and I thought that I will speak about the essence of sadhana. What is the meaning of sadhana and what is supposed to happen with us
and how to perform sadhana properly because sadhana is a very special gift of very culture to the world. This very concept of sadhana or spiritual practice is a very prominent feature of the original Vedic culture.
So I wanted to describe a little bit the science behind Sadhana. And I will chant we will chant together the fifth versus the eighth chapter.
Because the eighth chapter is called attaining the supreme, which implies sadhana. If any chapter of Bhagavad-gītā deals with the practice as such, that's the eighth chapter.
Therefore, it's very important for us to understand the meaning of this chapter in general and in particular this verse which we will chant together.
Antakale, antakale, cha mam eva, smaran, muktva kalevaram, ja, prayati, sha madbavam Yati na asti atra samsayah, antakalechamameva Smaranmuktva Kalevaram, Jahprayati Samad Bhava, Yati nastyatra samsaya, antakale chamameva,
Smarammuktva kalevaram Ja, prayati samadbhavan, praya, ja ti na stia tra samsaya, Antakale chamameva, Smarammuktva Kalevaram, Yahprayati Samadbhava, prayati sama, yatira samsayah, sam.
Antakale at the end of life cha also Mam me Eva certainly Smarana Remembering Mukva Quitting Kalevaram The Body Ya hiati Ghost Sahavam My Nature yati achieves na not there is atraere samsia doubt translation.
And whoever at the end of his life quits his body remembering me alone at once attains my nature. Of this, there is no doubt. In this verse, the importance of Krishna consciousness is stressed.
Anyone who quits his body in Krishna consciousness is at once transferred to the transcendental nature of the Supreme Lord. The Supreme Lord is the purest of pure.
Therefore, anyone who is constantly Krishna conscious is also the purest of the pure. The word smaran, remembering is important.
Remembrance of Krishna is not possible for the impure soul who has not practiced Krishna consciousness in devotional service. Therefore, one should practice Krishna consciousness from the very beginning of life.
If one wants to achieve success at the end of his life, the progress the process of remembering Krishna is essential.
Therefore, one should constantly, incessantly chant the Mahā-mantra Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare. Lord Chaitanya has advised that one has to be uh
advised that one be as tolerant as a tree, taror api sahiṣṇunā. There may be so many impediments for a person who is chanting Hare Krishna.
Nonetheless, tolerating all these impediments, one should continue to chant Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.
So that at the end of one's life one can have the full benefit of Krishna consciousness. Antakāle ca mām evāṁ smaran muktvā kalevaram yaḥ prayāti sa mad-bhāvaṁ yāti nāstyatra saṁśayaḥ. Nastyatra Samsaya.
And whoever at the end of his life, he quits his body remembering me alone at once attains my nature; of this, there is no doubt.
Namaḥ oṁ viṣṇu-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tale śrīmate bhaktivedānta- svāmin iti nāmine namas te sārasvate deve gaura-vāṇī- प्रचारिणे nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi-pāścātya-deśa-tāriṇe vāñchā-kalpatarubhyaḥ ca kṛpā-sindhubhyaḥ eva ca patitānāṁ pāvanebhyo vaiṣṇavebhyo namo namaḥ
vanchakalpatarubhyas cha, kripasindhubya vacha, patitanampavane Byod, vaiṣṇavyonaha, Sri Krishna Chaitanya, Prabunitananda, Sri Dvaitahara Sri Sadhi Gora Bhakta Brinda Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Rama,
Hale Rama, Rama, Rama, Hale Hale, Ajanu Lamjita Buddhok na Kabadatu, Sankirtanaika Pitarokamalay Taksa,
Material success versus ultimate spiritual success
Vishwam Brod, Vja Warjuga Dharma Palu Van Deja Gat Priya Karu Karu Navataru, Randah Persi, Mamma Vach, Mampra Suktam, Sandivaya, Tekila Shakti Darah Swadana ania amstya hasta charana sravana dba gadim pranamu bhagavate purusa i dupamista
As I said, in this eighth chapter of Bhagavad-gītā, Krishna is describing the process and the goal of our attainment. Ultimately, he is describing the perfection of our life, the ultimate success which we all should achieve.
In this world, people have different conceptions and different understandings of success. Somebody thinks success means I become rich. Many people think, success, I become rich.
Poor people think that success I should become rich. Rich people usually don't think so. And some people think that success of my life, I become famous.
And everyone loves me and everyone applauds me and claps me and chases after me and that's my autograph. Pretty stupid understanding of success, but many people have it. So many different ideas people have.
Some people think that success means that I have nice family life and everything is nice. And my wife is really like a goddess of fortune.
My question is, if you're not Nārāyaṇa, how will your wife become a goddess of fortune? people think that you know success means I have nice obedient children. As if there are obedient children in this world.
So many different ideas are there, but Krishna is speaking about the ultimate success. He says that the ultimate success, if we remember him at the end of our life, because he says, if you remember me, you attain madbava.
And in this he says, na asti samseha, nasti samseha. There is no doubt about it. If you remember about me at the end of your life, for sure, 100% guarantee
he gives all the insurance for this: you will come to me, you will attain my nature. And basically it means that your karma is finished. Because everything else, any other conception of success, means that you continue
with the vicious circle of your karma. You have certain karma, and this karma is recorded in your DNA. What is DNA? DNA is just your karma. Nothing else. This is this is what you have done.
Oh, astrology, it's recorded in your astrological chart. Mars is there, Rahu is there, Keto is there, Shani is there. And believe it or not, Shani is in everyone's chart.
I haven't seen a chart where there is no Śani, or there is no Rāhu, there is no Ketu. Some people say, you know, I want to have good karma. But how can you have good karma if Rāhu and Ketu and Śani are there?
So if you just do the same thing, it's a vicious circle. There is no real qualitative change. Qualitative leap, so to speak. It's just the same old thing. You know, birth, death, old age, disease, and again birth. And
still, people are so maddened, so infatuated by this fact that they want to achieve some temporary success. But Krishna says here is the real success. The real success is to get rid of your karma.
And this understanding of karma is unique for Vedic culture. As I said, as much as sadhana is unique, as much as the concept of dharma is unique, in the same way, this understanding of the law of karma,
uh very profound understanding which is there in Vedic culture, nowhere else to be found. Of course, in the Bible there is some sort of formulation of law of law, karma, as you sow, you shall reap.
So there is some understanding is there but nowhere it is so elaborately described what is your karma and how you will be able to get rid of karma.
And karma is a very interesting thing, you know, the other day, yesterday we were driving and Paramanand Prabhu asked me, you know, how much how much it is uh predetermined uh how much money I will earn or whatever.
So according uh I will open your secret eighty percent, 20% you can change, little bit here and there you can change.
But more or less, it is a general understanding among those people who study the law of karma, is that it's more or less 80% is fixed
and then what you will do during this life, how you behave yourself, how properly you behave. It may attract certain things, it may change something here and there. Of course, we are not talking about devotees now.
We are talking about normal people who try to become right and just and proper and behave themselves properly, then you can change, you can improve it, but more or less 80%, 75, 80%, or sometimes even more, it is fixed.
Example, I gave an example, and it's an interesting example how this works with the law of karma. When I was a little child, and perhaps the group of devotees from Dubai who went to Russia I? don't know.
If you went to Petergov, Petergov near St. Petersburg, where the fountains, where there are many fountains. You went?
Yes, so those devotees who were there know there is a King's Palace, Russian Tsar's Palace, very beautiful palace, and a huge park with many many hundreds of fountains, different shapes and forms and different different fountains.
And among those fountains there is a few fountains for children to play.
And basically these fountains is you know, they're playing and, all of a sudden the water starts coming, and they start ah yelling and you know, running away, and then again no water.
So there is a particular fountain which is called stones.
And the stones are there, many stones, and children are running and playing and you know trying to push these stones and all of a sudden water comes and everyone just yells and runs away and then again no water.
And then again they slowly slowly come and try to touch and their idea is that when I touch a particular stone then the water comes.
And I remember very clearly I was there and I I always thought, you know, it's me who touched the particular stone, this proper stone. It's because of me.
And I'm sure all other children who were playing there, they also had this idea. It's me. I know. I know.
And next time you run there and you know this particular stone and you try to touch it, but somehow or other it doesn't work immediately. But you still try it and again it works.
And you have this impression: yeah, I know. I found the secret.
And when I became an adult and I came to this and I saw this scene and the children were playing and they were running and yelling and the water were coming and going and then I saw one little man he was sitting on the bench. Totally unnoticed, you know he's sitting nearby and he had little thing underneath his feet and he would turn it and then the water would come. And then he would turn it back and the water subsided.
So and every children, every child would think that's me. And he's sitting there and thinking, yeah, yeah, but it's actually me.
So Krishna is sitting there and pulling the strings of our karma and we think it's me. It's because of me. I know the secret. I know how to behave. It worked. You know, and then you try it again. And it doesn't work.
And you wonder why? It worked first time. But it worked not because you did it. Because Krishna pulled the string.
Ego as the cause of karma
Because the law of karma which he created creates this situation and we're foolish enough, we're very foolish, we think it works. I mean it's not that we shouldn't work hard. We should work hard uh in order to Krishna to push the button. But uh still, you know what I want to say is that we shouldn't invest ego in it.
Why do we create karma? The very reason of karma, why karma is there? The very reason of karma is that because we invest our ego in our action. If we do the same action without ego, the karma would not be there.
That's exactly what Krishna is trying to teach us. How to lead the life which will not create karma, which will not create any bad consequences for you. No ego. I am not the doer. Krishna is the doer.
I am doing something on behalf of him. I am doing it as his agent, not as independent agent. This agency which is ego. Ego is the agency. I am the agent. I'm doer. I'm the doer. So that what creates karma, nothing else.
You know, the famous example which is given there, you know, somebody is riding on a train. And you know he's riding in a train and then he puts all his luggage on his head.
And he says, I am helping the train to carry my luggage. No. You are working yourself out, that's for sure. You become completely ah and you you feel you know I'm helping the train. No, just put it down. No problem.
Train will carry it. So some people they're so emotionally burdened. Because of this ego. I'm doing this.
You should do the same, but you should know you are in a train, in a train of your karma, and uh the train will carry you to the destination.
In the meantime, don't try to overburden you by this useless idea that I'm doing it, I'm doing it. Try to do the real thing. And the real thing is sādhana-bhakti. Because what is there is there.
You are carried by the train, so many, you know, you will stop in a certain places.
Only in a certain places you will stop and you will get some Belpuri or and some people will give you chai, chai, chai, and you know, tomato soup or whatever they give there.
So you will get what you're supposed to get in the train. But uh at this, in the meantime, use this time, very important time, to achieve something very significant.
And this significant of what you are supposed to achieve is described by Krishna in this verse. The significant thing which will make difference. Anything else doesn't make any difference.
Anything else is just, it's the same, you know, the same old thing, you know, you will get some veg cotlets or whatever is there in the train. It doesn't make so much difference.
Remembrance of God in spiritual practice
But what makes difference is to remember about God. This point of remembrance, I wanted to say a few words about this. This point of remembrance is crucial.
Because it is said, satataṁ smartavyaṁ viṣṇur vismārtavyaṁ na jātucit.
all the spiritual practice which is there, whatever you take, any spiritual practice which is there in Sriti Shastra, in Dharma Shastra, in Tantra Shastra, whatever shastra you take, whatever spiritual practice is there, whatever ritual is there, the goal is one.
What is the goal? Remember God and never forget about Him. Sarvavidhi-niṣedhāsyur etayor eva kiṅkarāḥ. They're all serving this purpose. That's the only purpose. And that's exactly what Krishna is saying here.
And that's exactly what he is explaining in the 11th Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Well, it's not him, it's one of the agendras, but anyway.
So there is a beautiful verse in the 11th Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, which is very fundamental to our practices. Our smriti becomes our memory, our power to remember God becomes perverted. Viparyaya.
And because it becomes viparyaya, we remember all other things we don't remember about God. Dvitīyābhiniveśa. Bhayam.
And because because of this dvitīyābhiniveśa, because our consciousness is absorbed in something secondary, not primary.
We don't remember about God who is the prime principle of this life and we remember about everything else. We remember so many things in our life.
And he says, viparīta-smṛti, our smṛti becomes perverted and therefore we are constantly in fear. Dvaya Bayam ditiya. We are ultimately in fear. That's why our depression is there. We don't know what's going to happen.
Oil crisis is there. My goodness, oil crisis, wow, an economic crisis, an ecological crisis, and war in Syria, and war in somewhere else, and this terrorist and this and that. And ultimately, we are afraid of death.
Everyone is afraid of death. Whether you believe that you're afraid of death or not, sometimes people say, I'm not afraid of death. He's not afraid of death, but he's afraid of being fired from the war. It's the same.
It's it's different. All fears which we have in this life is actually coming from this fear of death that everything will be finished. And why we have this fear? Because we don't remember about God.
And Krishna Himself says, if you remember about God at the time of death, then you will come to me. You will not be fearful even at the time of death.
Overcoming fear of death through constant remembrance
Death is a very fearful time. Believe it or not. And every one of us knows, every one of us has a lot of experience Actually, this is what Vyāsadeva is explaining in his commentary to Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.
He explains that why everyone has the fear of death because everyone already experienced death. How we can fear something which we didn't experience.
He says this is the proof of punarjanma, the proof of reincarnation. The very fact that everyone is so fearful, even a little cockroach is fearful of death.
Even a little baby who is totally unconscious, he's fearful of death. Because it's there in our memory how how painful it is to give up everything.
How painful it is to change the whole situation and to undergo such a painful transformation. Therefore, Krishna says there is only one real success in life, and this real success is to remember him at the time of death.
But how to remember him at the time of death? He explains in the next verse, not in the next verse, in the verse after this, but he said, Tasmat Sarveju Kalishiu Mamma Nusmara Yudicha.
He says that to remember me at the time of this, yes, to remember me at the time of death, it's not enough just to know that I have to remember about Krishna at the time of death. Sometimes people think that they can cheat God.
That they can really at the time of this and sometimes they read this story about Ajamil. And I - sometimes people even call their son Nārāyaṇa to reenact this pastime.
You know, there is a nice funny story about one man uh who was a complete nonsense. He was a sinner number one, and he was doing all kinds of nonsense in life. But then he read this story about Ajamil and he thought, oh, that's a good idea.
Let me call my young son, younger son, Nārāyaṇa. And then I will remember Nārāyaṇa at the time of death. So he called his younger son Nārāyaṇa, and his elder son he called
Guruhu or something like this, some not a very spiritual name. So at the time of death, when he was dying, he told his brother: You, please bring my son Nārāyaṇa to my deathbed so that I will see him and I will call him.
That was his idea, because he really thought it's a good idea, you know, just to remember this. And so his brother brought his young son Nārāyaṇa to him and he looked at him and said,
Hey, you, uh the younger brother of Duruhu, what are you doing here? So now the point of this story is that you cannot cheat God.
It's not that you know you do nonsense all your life and all your life and then at the very moment of this you will remember God. Not possible. Therefore, Krishna himself says, sadā tadd-bhāva-bhāvitaḥ.
He says that you know if you want to really remember me about, uh, at the at the time of death, you should cultivate this bhāva always, sadā tadd-bhāva-bhāvitaḥ, you should always try to remember, uh,
me. And here Srila Prabhupada explains this. He says basically that this is, uh, this is the praxis. This is.
He says: it's not possible to remember about God for somebody who didn't practice Krishna consciousness in his life. Krishna consciousness cannot be practiced at the moment of death.
At the moment of death, you can only practice death. There is nothing else you can practice at that time.
And whatever you achieved during your lifetime, whatever memory you have during your lifetime, whatever saṁskāras you have, the strongest saṁskāra will surface in your brain. Whatever has the most power uh in it, uh that will surface.
And if you practice Krishna consciousness uh whole your life, then definitely you will remember about God and this moment of your life and the moment of death. It is very important to understand this principle.
It's a science.
King Kula Shekhar he always he also says Krishna Tvadiya Padapapanka Chanjaratnam Pradyava May Vishatavana Sarah Raja Hamsa, Pranapprayana, Samayekapavata Pitti Kantava Rodhana Viddos Maranam Kutaste, Pranapprayana, when my prana will be coming out of my body.
Pranapprayana Samaya, Kappa Vata Pita, everything will be disturbed. Your mind will be disturbed because your body will be very disturbed. Your body will be a mess.
We all know how difficult it is to remember about Krishna when we have some physical pain. Little pain in your finger. Or my goodness, toothache! You don't remember about Krishna, you only remember about your tooth.
Your whole consciousness is there in your tooth. And you think, you know, my God. So uh i it's like this and it's just one little tooth. Just imagine what's going to happen if your whole body is a mess. Kappa wata pita.
It's very difficult to control mind even during your lifetime. Is it easy to control your mind now? No. How you can control your mind at the time of death? There is only one way to do it, spiritual practice.
And the essence, we have to be very clear about this: the essence of spiritual practice is to try to remember about Krishna all the time. Tasmat Sarvesu Kalishu Mama Nusmar Yudhya. You fight, Krishna says.
Mama Nusmar, anusmara means constantly remember about me. Mamma Nusmara and fight. Sarvesu Kalesu Mama Nusmara Yudecha. Please give me Maya Arpita. Please give me your mind and your intelligence.
Your memory and which is there in intelligence should be given to me.
Clearing material impressions through chanting
So if we are talking about spiritual practices, let me say a few words about the proper spiritual practice. The spiritual practice. What is the goal of spiritual practice? The goal is to remember, right?
But why we cannot remember immediately? We read Bhagavad-gītā, we read Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, few stories. Why we can't remember about Krishna?
Because There are too many other things in our in our brain, right? In our memory, there are so many subject matters to remember. So the first goal of spiritual practice is to remove the unwanted things from our mind.
It's to deactivate all those saṁskāras which are there. And therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu says that's the first effect of The first effect of chanting is that all these saṁskāras they become a little less active.
In our life when we have all these memories and saṁskāras and you know it's it's very difficult to remember about Krishna because we remember about somebody else.
If somebody else told you you are a fool you will only remember this person. You will have dreams about him. You will remember him day and night.
How dare he say that I'm fool or I'm bad or I'm mad, you know somebody some fool told you that you are a fool and you are fool because you remember about him.
Yeah, it's a proof that we're fool because we only remember about this, we don't remember about God, you know. What difference does it make? You will die anyway and he will die.
If you are too much worried about this, just think he will also die, don't worry. But you should worry what is there in your consciousness, and we have this consciousness, this very sensitive consciousness.
What I want to say is that we are very impressible people. And usually we remember something which has come to us with some emotion attached. Why do we remember this you know foolish person who offended us?
Because at that time our ego reacted emotionally. And this strong emotional reaction made such a deep saṁ- scar in our mind, such a deep memory, because the emotion is so strong.
You know, we usually only think, only remember those things, either which we repeat all the time. And therefore it is said if you want to remember something, you have to repeat it again and again and again. And that works.
That creates saṁskāra, a very deep impression or something which is attached with the emotions. Because this is emotions which gives the energy to saṁskāra. The karma which we commit, why the karma is so persistent?
Why karma follows us life after life, after life, runs after us, and we cannot really escape it because there is some energy.
When we create certain actions, and uh if emotion is attached to this action, then this action creates very energetic very filled with energy saṁskāra and this saṁskāra will demand will actually modify our behavior change our behavior.
So the first thing which spiritual practice has to do, and we have to be very clear about this, the first thing which spiritual practice will have to do is to remove the unwanted saṁskāras.
And therefore, Caitanya Mahāprabhu says, ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam, the mirror of our mind will be cleared by this chanting Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rāma. And
as I said, it's a very scientific process. We really have to be, you know, we shouldn't be blind believers. Blind belief is not good. Śrīla Prabhupāda explains this in Bhagavad-gītā.
He says that blind belief is blind faith is useless. So we have to really understand how it works. And we can see, you know, if we chant the Holy Name and if we chant it properly,
the point of my little talk is how to do it properly. If we chant the Holy Name properly, we see that the memories are still there about our past experiences, but they are not so persistent.
They are not coming again and again and again. They're not really uh chasing after us, they are not really haunting us. Why the past is called bhūta-kāla? Because it's bhūta. And bhūta is is after us, haunting us.
Our past is haunting us. Did you notice it? So if we try to do if we do spiritual practice properly for sure 100% guaranteed, then this uh haunting past uh will lose its power over us. What does it mean?
It basically means that saṁskāra is still there, the memory is still there, but it's not active anymore. The problem with active saṁskāra, if it's there, it pushes us, it really forces us to act even against our will as
Arjuna speaks in Bhagavad-gītā, he says that, you know, what is this force which is pushing me to act even if I don't want to act. And this this force is the memory which is there in form of desire.
Krishna will answer, kāma eṣa krodha eṣa rajo-guṇa-samudbhavah. This is kāma, desire. But desire is coming from memory, from saṁskāras. When saṁskāra becomes vāsanā, and vāsanā means very deep saṁskāra. Habit.
Tendency which is there. The feature of your character. When vāsanā has, when saṁskāra becomes habit, becomes vāsanā, then it will push you to do, you will become a slave of this vāsanā. And that's a very strong desire.
So what happens when you chant, when you chant the holy name, then uh this uh this This memory which is there, this saṁskāra or vāsanā which is there becomes weaker. Or becomes disconnected.
Those of you who work with computers or who know how computers work and, I'm sure there's plenty of you who do this, they know when you erase file from the disk. Does it erase the file? No. No, the file is there.
What does it erase? Index. Index. Index by which you connect, but which you can find this file.
So exactly the same thing is happening when you chant the holy name, indexes of all files becoming erased. And if you want to recover these files, you can recover it, right?
You go to Dustbin and there are so many files are there, you know. And they're there, they're lying there just in case you need them.
But basically, when you chant the holy name, then this index is removed and uh it's not easily accessible anymore.
When when you have this active memory the active memory means uh practically that you can very easily access to any file which is in use so to speak. They are active.
But what the holy name does it basically pushes them aside, makes them not so active. You know you have all these saṁskāras of lust, and greed and anger. And sometimes when people feel that they are losing this,
they become really afraid and they say, no, no, not now, not now, please. But the first thing which we uh uh when we approach God, how we approach him? What is the first name we chant? Hari. Right? Hari. Hari. Hare.
It means who? One who takes away the unwanted things. We tell him please take away all this garbage which is there in my dustbin. And then when he tries it, we say, no, no, not now.
I may still need it. It's always like this. And that is called offence to the holy name. It is actually the last offense. When we attach to all our conceptions, I and mine.
If you know the list of the ten offenses, we know that the last offense is to be attached to all these concepts which are there. And we're all guilty of this offense.
Subconsciously, we are attached to our ideas, to our saṁskāras, to our ways of doing things.
Developing spiritual impressions through devotional service
And therefore, as I said, the first thing which spiritual practice has to do is to remove unwanted things and then it should create new saṁskāras, spiritual saṁskāras, which will ultimately penetrate the soul.
It should create bhakti saṁskāras. It deactivates the material saṁskāras, makes them little not so active. But then it also side by side creates spiritual saṁskāras, bhakti saṁskāras, saṁskāras of bhakti.
Therefore we come every Friday or every Saturday or every Sunday depending on the country. Therefore, we come to the temple to create saṁskāras. Therefore, we hear about God to create saṁskāras.
And what is most important, therefore we chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare, again to create very strong saṁskāras.
So that this saṁskāra is very much alive, and it is said actually by Rūpa Gosvāmī that this saṁskāra penetrates your soul when you reach the level of bhāva; in the beginning it's in your consciousness, in your citta.
But still it's very good to have this saṁskāra in your material consciousness. But ultimately when it becomes very deep and very profound and very strong, it reaches your soul.
And the ultimate goal of spiritual practice is this. Because we say that the goal of spiritual practice is to attain the level of bhava.
And the level of bhāva is that when the bhakti saṁskāra, when the practice, when the bhakti as a practice becomes your nature, it basically means when it reaches the soul, when it reaches the level of the soul.
But for that it has to be very, very strong. Otherwise it remains on the surface and it doesn't go very deep.
So basically, what it means, it means that whatever we do, we should do with very deep understanding of what we're doing. And try to help to form proper saṁskāras. When we chant the holy name, we should be very much aware.
Because if we are not aware while we're chanting what's happening, we just let all the old memories to surface. You know, which end we all know how it works. You know, it's exactly what happens with computer.
If you let the computer idle for some time, then what comes to the screen? Screen saver. We have plenty of screen savers in our memory.
And when we chant one screensaver and we know the so many screensavers I would have very nice. No, it's it's chanting is not about watching the screensavers. Chanting is about remembering Krishna.
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Hare Hare, Ram, Ram, Ram, Hare Krishna. And make our memory very strong, make our memory very profound. We're creating nice saṁskāras for bhakti.
And the most important thing which I again want to say is that sometimes when we practice improperly, then the improper samskaras are created. And it basically means that we will not reach Krishna.
Avoiding offenses to ensure spiritual progress
It will mean that we will be born again with this saṁskāras which we created, improper saṁskārs. Therefore, any spiritual practice consists of two things.
What you should do and what you should not do, what you should avoid. We know that in our bhakti practices we have to do sadhana and sadhana in shravanam kirtanam visnoksmaranam padas And
it starts with Shravanam and Kirtanam. Shravanaam and Kirtanam we have to do. This is our practice. This is a very powerful practice. And we should try to do it properly. It means that we should be very attentive.
Not just, you know, yes, yes, yes, very soon Sunday feast will be there. Prasadam, prasadam, yes, give me prasadam. Yeah, this is prasadam. Actually, this is what Arjuna says.
And the end of Bhagavad-gītā, he says, nasta mochos vrit I regained my memory. So the again the point of practice is to regain memory, which is covered now, and to dissipate illusion. This is the two points of practice.
Nasta-mohaḥ smṛtir labdhvā. And this is only possible by the mercy. By the mercy of Krishna and the mercy of devotees.
And when we do it properly, then it will come, and properly means we have to listen properly, we have to chant properly, means with attention, with awareness. Then very soon all the offenses, all the sins will go.
And what is the thing which is forbidden to us? Offences, right? We should do the practice and we should avoid offences.
Because what offenses do, they create wrong saṁskāras. They create improper saṁskāras. They make the impression of spiritual practice wrong.
You know, I know some people, they basically uh deprive uh the chanting of the power. If you're offensive, you don't feel the bliss of the chanting. I know so many people.
People they devotees they uh they complain to me and they say to me, you know, I I had such a nice time, I was chanting, it was so blissful, and then I offended somebody, it was all gone. And I cannot regain it. Why?
Because you did something improper, Krishna is not happy with you, devotees are not happy with you, and you create a wrong saṁskāra, which will be there in your consciousness for a long time, depriving you from the real experience, from the real experience of spiritual practice.
So we have to be very clear while we are practicing, then only we will reach Krishna. Like here Krishna says, yānti mad-bhāvam, you will reach, you will attain, you will come. Yānti mad-bhāvam. There is no doubt about it.
You will reach me. But how we will reach him, you know, let's say you're in a car. And Sadhana is a car. Sadhana is a very good car produced in Vaikuṇṭha factory. Yeah.
Sadhana is really a vehicle which can bring you to Krishna. For sure. Antakāla mām eva, at the end of your life, you will remember about Krishna, you will attain him. He says the car will come to destination.
But we all know that that uh to operate the car you have to do two things you have to push the gas right and you have to you have to release the brake right can you drive with the brake on?
Perhaps you can, but there will be a lot of smoke from the tires. You know, you brakes is on and you're but the brakes are on.
Offences is the brake. You know, when we chant that at the same time, the offensive mentality is there.
When we're not humble, when we're not tolerant, when we're not really practicing in a proper way, then it means that the break is there and uh there is only smoke coming.
Sometimes people complain, you know, I don't feel any progress, I don't feel any advancement. I'm chanting 20 years. My dear sir, you can chant 700 lifetimes without any effect.
This is said specifically in Sri Caitanya-caritāmṛta. No effect. If you continue doing offences, because your brakes are on. You're not really started your journey. You're still there. And the brakes are simple.
You are attached to your concept. Iron mind. This is a very subtle thing. We have to release these brakes. No, I am mine. I am Krishna's. Nothing is mine. Everything belongs to Krishna. What I'm doing, I am his servant.
I am his happy servant. Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna. Krishna, Krishna, Hare Hare. Hare Rāma.
But if you have this, all these fences there, if you have these brakes on, then uh it will be very difficult for you to reach the destination and ultimately you will not achieve it.
And therefore, Śrīla Prabhupāda in this purport, in this beautiful purport, he says you will not remember about Krishna if you didn't practice Krishna consciousness,
first you have to practice properly, and then he says, Tṛṇād api nicena, taror iva sahiṣṇunā, amāninā mānadena kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ. That's the proper chanting.
The proper chanting, if you have this proper frame of mind, proper mentality, you're humble and you're very tolerant, and you're ready to overcome all the impediments which will be there as a test of your sincerity. Krishna will send you many impediments.
People like to worship Ganesh because Ganesh removes impediments. And Krishna sends impediments. To make you stronger. To make you spiritually stronger.
To test your sincerity, you know we will have to undergo many impediments and it's nice, it's blissful. If we are determined and if we are together with devotees, then we will have proper consciousness.
And as we all know, if we are together with devotees, one has to be very tolerant like a tree. Because with devotees it's impossible not to be tolerant. You know, some sannyāsī from Russia comes and he gives a long class.
You have to tolerate this long, long overdue. This and that. So many points of tolerance are there. But yeah, that's that's bhakti. We have to take all these problems. But be very clear that this is the goal.
This is the real success. Everything else is failure. Any other goal which you will achieve is ultimately failure. And you will fail royally.
You will be depressed, you will be morose, you will be totally completely in distress in the time of death but if you remember about Krishna you will be the most blissful creature in this world So thank you very much.
Okay. Any Śiva Prabhu questions, or it's too late?
Question on heart transplants and individual karma
Śiva Prabhu, one question. One question. Yes, question, Mahārāja, that you said. technical. Mahārāja, as you said... So nowadays it is very prominent heart transformation. It is going now.
Suppose one heart of one body is coming another body. So the karmas of that body will transfer to this body karma.
The karma uh the question is when your heart is transplanted. Whether you get some karma of somebody else with the heart together. No, karma sticks not to the heart. Karma sticks to the agent.
It is said that karma is like karma is like a calf. If you get real calf, if you get a little cow, he will always find his mother. Even if there are so many other cows, he will only go to his mother.
Because he knows I am her. So it is said that karma is exactly like this. Karma knows to whom it belongs. See, it's not possible that somebody does something and somebody else will get the consequences. No.
The consequence will come to the agent. If you have this agent, say, I'm doing this, if you have this consciousness, I'm the doer, the results of your action will come only to you, not to anyone else.
Don't worry about heart transplantation. You may transplant your heart, you may transplant your head. Karma will stick to you.