Importance of Devotee care (eng-rus)
Bhakti Vijnana Goswami · Moscow · 2014
Chapters
Apologies and opening remarks
जय श्रृ कृष्ण चैतन्य प्रभु निता नंदा श्यद्वायता गदाथार शिवास्त्रि गोर भक्त वृण्धय.
हरे कृष्ण, हरे कृष्ण, कृष्ण, हरे हरे So, really speak? Yes. My English. First of all, I wanted to beg forgiveness from you for being little late.
went to Brahmacharyaashram, which, you know, divorce needed some care from me, so I thought I should go there.
Second of all, wanted to say that I'm very happy to to see all the changes which took place in my absence here.
I really didn't expect and I wanted to thank Vishnurata Prabhu, Sadhu Prabhu and all the devotees who worked so hard to do this place. Those who know what it was before know.
Those who don't know better, they don't know what it was before. I feel little awkward that I have to speak after Niranjan Maratha.
I'm sure he has already told you everything you need to know about the importance of devotee care. But I definitely know that in his heart the devoted care is the most important and the most treasured concept.
И it's very gladdening to the heart of every saint devotee to see that this concept is being established more and more in our society.
Здесь идея about helping each other, caring about each other, helping each other to grow spiritually was somewhat neglected in this con for some time, especially in the beginning, in the zeal of trying to spread Krishna consciousness all over the world.
In English there is a saying that charity starts at home. Somehow, rather, we wanted to do the charity for everyone, but neglected near and dear ones.
Sometimes, unfortunately, it happens in the material world that people are trying to do something good for others, but the closest relatives, members of the family are being neglected. But
the care about the spirit soul and the development of the spirit soul and the spiritual progress is the essential, is the very essence of bhakti.
Softness of heart in devotion
In the beginning, when the culture was different, it always amazed me, because the very nature of bhakti is the softness of the heart.
Śrīla Prabhupāda says that spiritual progress is measured by the degree of the softness of the heart. In the material life the heart becomes naturally hard.
And Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī says that, you know, you may have even clean heart, but if this heart is hard, then it's still not really bhakti. Vishila rupa kasama imguria.
He compares this state of clean heart, but hard heart with the diamond. But we know that bhakti doesn't start in śānta-rasa.
Real bhakti starts with service attitude, and service, basically, already means some kind of softness of the heart.
And he explains when the heart becomes completely ripened, and when the bhakti becomes completely developed, the heart becomes practically liquid.
And the essence of the heart comes out outside in the form of tears, because the heart is liquid.
You can see the examples of great devotees, who really cared about each other and had such a deep and close relationship with each other.
И мы have to be very clear that, actually, the goal of our spiritual development is to make our heart very, very soft. Prabhupāda came, и he manifested his soft heart, the softness of his heart. He...
Actually, who was in contact with Prabhupāda could feel his real, you know, care and the softness of his heart. No, no, no. Anyone who was in contact with Prabhupāda could feel the softness of his heart.
Śrīla Bhakti Nārāyaṇa Mahārāja told me that he explained how this parampara of soft hearts or devoted care is being carried on and we're not inventing anything.
Overcoming self-centeredness through bhakti
We're just trying to establish the very essence of bhakti in our society by establishing the care and close relationship between the devotees. When we're self centered, we cannot really care about others.
But bhakti means, you know, I'm not self-centered, I care about others, I see others, I take their pain, their pain is more acute in my heart than my own pain.
Когда мы были just concerned about our own salvation, our own liberation, you know, when we came to Krishna consciousness with this idea: I want to get rid of my sufferings, then it's not really bhakti.
It's the contamination of jñāna. Prabhupāda once mentioned, not once, but several times, that sometimes, you know, we confuse the bhakti with the desire of liberation.
But when we learn how to care about others, outside of the comfort zone of our egocentric consciousness, we will be able really to realize what is bhakti, and to feel what is bhakti inside.
And I'm so happy that, you know, so many people are doing this. You know, the whole room is full of these people. I'm so happy to see people. Whom I know that they are really giving out their hearts.
Exemplary care shown by senior vaishnavas
And, of course, Śrīla Niranjana Mahārāja is the most glaring example of this attitude and this this idea. Yesterday I'll reveal a little secret. I hope Mahārāja will forgive me.
Yesterday he told me that he came here to Moscow because he cares about all the divorcees here in Moscow. Ну, he didn't tell me this. I know he doesn't have to tell me this.
Anyway, so, what yesterday Mahārāja was telling me that he was he's so concerned about just two people in some other city that he's ready to fly from here, from Moscow, just to speak for maybe few hours with these two people, two disciples of his who have some difficulties.
He's ready to fly, you know, trouble, to go to the airports through traffic jams and, you know, to take the plane, to, you know, to go there, to speak these people and come back. Because he cares. He doesn't.
We may chant the holy name, we may do so many other things, but if we are concerned with ourselves and our well-being and mostly concerned that and even with our spiritual progress. If this is the main concern, this is not yet mature understanding of what bhakti is.
And Krishna will not be pleased with our chanting and our endeavors if he feels that we missed the very essence of bhakti. So I'm here with you only because Mahārāja cares about me.
And now that Niranjana Mahārāja, I feel this care of other people very and very grateful. But I'm sure that most of the devotees can say the same, that they're here because they felt this real genuine care. And that is...
This is bhakti. This is bhakti. So I don't know what else I can say. I just Yeah. And I know that the most...
That the very ardent desire was in the heart of Niranjana Mahārāja, was in my heart, within the heart of Angirāmuni and so many other people is that Dayāvān Prabhu, Sādhu Prabhu - that we have some very strong, well established and first and foremost, unified system of devoted care here. That the value of devoted care is very well established here in Moscow.
And, as Mahārāja said, this desire has come from proper heart, from heart to heart. And here is how bhakti is being transmitted, from heart to heart.
So, if we establish this desire to care about devotees deeply within our heart, it means we are in this parampara. If this desire is not there, something is wrong. Okay, thank you very much.