Madhurya Kadambini. Lecture 3
Bhakti Vijnana Goswami · 2020
Chapters
Invocation prayers and introductory mantras
Om ajñāna-timirāndhasya jñānāñjana-śalākayā cakṣun unmīlītaṁ yena tasmai śrī-gurave namaḥ śrī-caitanya-mano-'bhīṣṭaṁ sthāpitaṁ yena bhū-tale svayaṁ rūpaḥ kadā mahyaṁ dadāti sva-padāntikam
vande 'haṁ śrī-guroḥ śrī-yuta-pada-kamalaṁ śrī-gurūn vaiṣṇavāṁś ca śrī-rūpaṁ sāgrajātaṁ saha-gaṇa-ragunāṁvītam taṁ sājīvam sādvaitaṁ sāvadhūtaṁ parijana-sahitaṁ kṛṣṇa-caitanya-devaṁ śrī-rādhā-kṛṣṇa-pādaṁ saha-gaṇa-lalitā-śrī-viśākhānvitāṁś ca
he kṛṣṇa karuṇā-sindho dīna-bandhu jagat-pate gopiśa gopikā-kānta rādhā-kānta namo 'stu te tapta-kāñcana-gaurāṅgi rādhe vṛndāvaneśvari vṛṣabhānu-sutā-devī praṇamāmi hari-priye
vāñchā-kalpatarubhyaś ca kṛpā-sindhubhya eva ca patitānāṁ pāvanebhyo vaiṣṇavebhyo namo namaḥ śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu-nityānanda śrī-advaita-śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda
hare kṛṣṇa hare kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa hare hare hare rāma hare rāma rāma rāma hare hare
ājānu-laṁbita-bujau kanaka-sāṅkau saṅkīrtanaika-pitarau kamalāyatākṣau viśvambharau dvija-varau yuga-dharma-pālau vande jagat-priya-karau karuṇāvatārau Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Ramahare Hare Ajanu Landita Bujokna Kavadatu Sankirtanaika Pitarokamala Taksha, Vishwambaro Jabaru Gudharma Palu Van De Jagat Priya Karu Karunavatara, Yum tahishi Mamavachimu Mamprasuptam Sanji Vayatekila Shakti Darah
Swadana, Anyamscha Hastacharana Sramanat Vagadim Hare
Purpose of studying Madhurya-kadambini
Krishna. So dear students of Sanyas College and other listeners, I'm uh happy to be with you again for our third session on Madhuri Kadambini.
And from the very beginning, I told you that I will not be in a hurry to cover the whole book because it's an important book and uh we have to really uh dwell uh and meditate deeply on the words of Srila Viswana Chakravati Thakur because he is explaining in very minute details what is happening in our heart and in our lives, when we start practicing bhakti.
And it's not so smooth. Oftentimes, we repeat after Srila Prabhupada that Pasav Bhakti is easy and joyful. It is indeed easy and joyful in one sense.
But at the same time, the internal obstacle, the scale of the internal obstacles remains and we have to overcome these obstacles.
And for that we have to know the intricacies and know very well the obstacles which we meet.
So we more or less cursory covered the first chapter where Viswana Chakravart Thakur was explaining the independent and self-manifested nature of bhakti.
And basically, in gist, his main message was that bhakti has to be obtained from the heart of a devotee.
And it's special good fortune of a soul to get in touch with such a devotee who can give bhakti. And bhakti can only be given from heart to heart.
And in the second chapter, he started describing the initial stages of bhakti, covering śraddhā, sādhu-saṅga, and bhajana kriyā, and to a certain extent anartha-nivṛtti, anartha-nivṛtti will be the subject of the third chapter.
And he is explaining in more details how this śraddhā-bhakti appears, and also, uh, why the path of bhakti starts with śraddhā. Here I want to make a very important footnote, so to speak, to what we have already said.
Because we said that and oftentimes we are saying, we say that bhakti is the qualification, oh sorry, śraddhā is the qualification to practice bhakti. It's not correct.
It's not hundred percent correct because you can practice bhakti without having any faith. Bhakti is such a powerful process that it doesn't require faith to practice it.
Anyone can practice bhakti, and so many people practice bhakti. As we said, one of the characteristics of bhakti, it's all pervading, it's everywhere.
And basically, everyone practices some sort of bhakti or some sort of devotional service. And most of the people who practice this sort of bhakti, they don't have faith in bhakti, in the process of bhakti.
So faith, śraddhā, is the qualification to practice uttama bhakti or ananya bhakti, undeviated devotional service.
You can practice bhakti without faith, but you cannot practice ananya bhakti, Uttama bhakti, pure devotional service, undeviated devotional service without faith. That's the difference.
Faith serves like a lens which concentrates your endeavors and because the powerful faith is there your endeavors become channeled into this one channel and for that you require faith.
Without faith you can be practicing bhakti, you can be practicing so many other things and ultimately your energy will be dissipated to many different channels. But faith helps you to channel your energy in one channel in one way and uh helps you to practice in this way the devotional service, undeviated devotional service.
Development of faith through sadhu-sanga
So I want to reiterate a few things from the last lecture, because it's very important how Shastriya Shraddha or Real Shraddha appears in the heart.
Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī says, commenting this famous verse from the 10th canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam about the power of associating with devotees Bhava Pavarga Brahmatova Yadabhaved Janasitarh at shouda satsama gamah, satsangamo Yarhitadhaiva satgatu paravaresha tway jayate matih.
In this verse, it is said that as soon as we meet with the devotees, already the path of liberation is open for us. And the main result of meeting with the devotees is twai jayate matihi.
The main result of meeting with the devotees is that we obtain a certain form of intelligence. Intelligence which is directed towards the Supreme Lord. That's the effect, that's the result.
When we meet with the devotees, all of a sudden our intelligence, our mind will be directed towards the Supreme Lord. And Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī commenting on this verse, he says, Satsaṅgena Ratyankura Rupaiva Matirjayataiti.
By the association with sadhu satsangamena, the desire to do Krishna Bhajana, Ratyankura, Rupaiva Matihi, this Mati, this special sort of intelligence which comes to us, special sort of understanding what we are supposed to do in life is coming to us, and this intelligence tells us you should do bhajan.
You should do Ratyankura, this little ankur, little sprout of this rati attachment to the Supreme Lord, comes just by even the moment of association, therefore it is said Lava Matra Saddhu Sangha Sarvasastra Hoi Khoi.
So uh I also last time uh kind of described how the Shastriya Shraddha appears because you know Shraddha is the first stage.
And all the acharyas that define Shraddha first stage as the implicit phase into the meaning of the Shastra. So, how this can happen? How is it possible?
How is it from the outset, you can develop this implicit faith in the statements of shastras. What it means? Does it mean this initial śraddhā, or it means niṣṭhā, the firm faith.
No, it means also initial śraddhā. So how it appears, we have to understand. It appears in stages. First first, we meet with the devotee and the respect, certain veneration, towards the devotee appears within the heart.
We see a representative of a different species of life. We see a devotee and we see his demeanor, we see his behavior, we see his attitude towards others.
And moreover, by this initial sympathy or initial respect which we can develop towards this dignified human being, we also come in touch with his bhakti, with the bhakti in his heart.
And we feel, literally feel, his selflessness. And because we feel his selflessness, his spirit of sacrifice, his desire to help, even at the cost of his own comforts and everything else.
We come in touch with his bhakti because this is the qualities which Bhakti gives to a human being. And by coming in touch with this, we actually become transformed.
I like very much the story which Giriraj Maharaj tells about his first meeting with Srila Prabhupada when he came as a student. And before that, he was in a campus and he was in some sort
of involved in different esoteric practices, yoga this, yoga that, visiting different lectures of some sannyasis, svamis, or whatever. And he asked Srila Prabhupada, you know, what is this? How you distinguish?
Because everyone says this is the best. My path is the best. Follow me. So he asked Srila Prabhupada after the lecture: how do you know that this is a genuine guru? This is a genuine sadhu?
And Prabhupada he gave a very unexpected in one sense answer. He says it really depends what you want. If you want to become a servant of God or if you want to become God.
And Giriraj Maharaj says that immediately it struck him because uh uh uh uh uh in his hostel uh in his room in the hostel uh there was a big poster uh uh you should become God once Wami saying something like And when Prabhupada answered this, he realized that he sees his heart.
And you know, so in other words, Prabhupada answered you know your choice how you develop faith in a spiritual master will be depending on what you want. If you want to become God yourself, then you will accordingly choose somebody who will teach you how to become God.
And Prabhupada then of course smashed this idea. He said that Krishna has always been God and will always be. And if you're not God now, you don't have much chances to become one.
So this initial respect which a devotee commands, not demands, but commands, bring some beginning śraddhā, because śraddhā means respect, Śrīla Prabhupāda tells that if we just like devotees, this is already śraddhayā, this is some sort of faith in this path.
And then by developing this respect, you will start hearing this particular person with a specific attitude, which will give you the understanding of Shastra.
If you listen to the same person with challenging spirit with some sort of neglectful spirit, looking, overlooking him or whatever, trying to not overlooking, but you know, look with some, how you say this, with some haughtiness in the heart. Listen with some challenge, you know what is he saying?
You know, he's saying like also, Giriraj Maharaj tells a story, Prabhupada went to a program, public program in Harvard University, and there were so many questions after the lecture. And one student raised their hand and asked Prabhupada, have you seen God? And Prabhupada said, if I tell you, yes, I have seen God, will you believe me?
And the person said, no, I will not. He said, then why should you ask this question? You already said you will not believe it. So what's the use?
So if you listen with this sort of attitude, you will never be able to understand what Sadhu is supposed to. Sadhu is bringing to you. What is the message of the sadhu?
But if you develop the proper attitude, then gradually, gradually you will get the understanding of the shastra. You will listen by retaining the essence of what is being said.
You know, when we listen with this other attitude, we don't extract the essence. We only superficially engage in the process of hearing. We are not really grasping the proper essence.
And that's the second stage of developing this Shastriya Shraddha.
Then what will happen when you listen for some time the same sādhu? And it's essential, Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī says that initially you may listen many different sadhus, but then when your heart becomes attracted to one particular person, to his presentation, then you should limit yourself.
You shouldn't listen to too many. After some time, you may again resume this habit of listening many, but in the initial stage, when you want to develop real shrada, you have to listen to one person.
Because by listening to one person you will be able to create a coherent system. The knowledge of the shastras will not remain a chaotic collection of different facts or different quotes or whatever, because the
person who is telling you having this coherent system, complete, wholesome system with different connections between different uh parts of this understanding. And you will be able to get this coherent system.
And by that your doubts will dissipate. Because initially, naturally, we have many doubts within the core of our hearts. Because we want to enjoy in this world, and so many doubts may be there.
But you listen, you stick listening, one person, and by listening to one person, you ultimately develop a very systematic understanding of shastra. And by developing this systematic understanding of shastra,
you will get the firm faith in devotional service, in the process of devotional service. Very firm faith in the meaning of shastra. And then the next stage you will surrender yourself.
Because surrendering is a very fearful process. Before you have firm faith it's very difficult to surrender. You always will uh keep some sort of, you know, some sort of um uh how you say this ye
you will not be able to surrender to one person. Like Arjuna initially in Bhagavad-gītā.
In Bhagavad-gītā initially he says, śiṣyas te 'haṁ śādhi māṁ tvāṁ prapannam. immediately he says, no, Nayosya Govinda, but I'm not going to fight. So this initial surrender, it's conditional surrender.
But when you get the complete understanding of Shastra, then your surrender will become more mature, more complete.
And in this way you will be able to practice bhakti fearlessly without the fear that you're losing something else, that you're losing something valuable in the life, that you are pursuing some path which ultimately will not bring you to the goal.
No, the firm faith will bring you to the stage of surrender. The stage of surrender will give you the desire to act actively,
as we said, this is a very important characteristic of śraddhā. You will act very consistently because also you will get the hope to achieve goal.
The systematic understanding of Shastra will give you a very clear understanding of what is the goal and very clear path to achieve the goal. And then with this, you get the goal.
You know that even if you don't get the goal, if you don't achieve the goal in this life, you will achieve it in the next life. Because there is no loss and diminution. You know, I will reach to this goal, that's for sure.
And then after that, a person gives up his selfishness, he stops acting for his own benefit, for his own selfish benefits, for artha, he gives up dambha.
And then the next uh stage, very important stage which I mentioned is that he stops offending other devotees.
That's a result of firm faith in the process of devotional service and into the import of shastra and the meaning of the shastra. So it's a sort of stretched process.
It doesn't come immediately, but ultimately, this phase is a very glorious thing, and therefore we have complete right to say that when we attain the Shastriashradha in a real sense, then it's already a great achievement.
We should not undermine this achievement because all the essential elements of bhakti are there in this śraddhā, which is the first stage. Bhakti can only come from this kind of śraddhā.
It it will never be developed from other kinds of Shraddha because uh you know the uh the result is the uh the consequences in the cause.
So the cause should be should contain the result of it. So this Shraddha is very important.
Qualifications of a faithful guru
Therefore, I spent a lot of time by describing this and reiterating this again. And then also, very important: see who is capable who among the sadhus can give you this Shraddha.
Because we say, api cet sudurācāro bhajate mām ananya-bhāk sādhur eva sa mantavyaḥ Eva Samantha. He is Sadhu, even he performs all kinds of sinful activities.
Does it mean that by developing by associating with such a sadhu who performs all kinds of abominable activities, but still has a firm faith into devotional service, we can develop faith. No. That's the good news.
Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī discriminates. He says that may be sādhu, there may be sādhottama, and there may be mahat, the greatest uh sort of sadhu. He said that the sadhu who can uh help us to develop faith in the process of devotional service has to behave perfectly. He has to be a perfect gentleman. His sadachar should be unquestionable.
The others people, they also sadhus, we respect them.
Because they are firmly determined to achieve the goal, they are practicing devotional service, but if we see that they are not really following all the details of Vaishnava Sadachar. They are not gurus.
They are sadhus, but they are not gurus. And they will not help us to develop this face.
On the contrary, they may undermine our face in the process of devotional service because we will see this external behavior without understanding the internal determination to practice devotional service.
So we should carefully avoid, especially in the beginning, associating with such people who are not, who don't have integrity and who don't follow very strictly Vaishnava Sadachar.
And therefore, Vishwana Chakravati Thakur he concludes this section by saying that there is Swabhaviki Shraddha. The Shraddha which will develop naturally when you associate with sad of the highest calibre.
Satam Prasanga Mahavirya sam vido. So Tajoshanam Ashva Pavargam Vartmanishradara Tir Bhaktira Nukramishati. So that will be very smooth and And Ashu Apavargam Vartmani.
This path to Apavarga to liberation in Bhakti, in love, will become very clear, very open to you. If you can say like this, will become open to you, and Shradharati and Bhakti or Prema will develop in a very quick way.
So that's Swabhaviki way, natural way to develop Shraddha. And why it is Swabhaviki? Because the sadhu of this caliber, he also very naturally performs this bhakti.
And his sort of you know naturality, I don't know if you can say like this, but his sort of natural approach towards Bhakti also comes to our heart.
We can see that he can become very happy, he can become very relaxed by practicing Bhakti, it's not something really you know such a struggle. Like Prabhupada, he was a very relaxed person.
I heard one story about Prabhupada. He came to France and he was traveling for a long time and many, many devotees came,
you know, a few hundred devotees came to here and Prabhupada satan Vyasasana. He said a few words and then he started dozing.
He started sleeping right there on the sassana. And then you know he comfortably lay down. So he was very relaxed. He was not tense because you know it was his way of living.
And therefore, also, for us, this natural attitude towards bhakti becomes natural. We imbibe this natural attitude towards bhakti and understanding of bhakti also becomes very natural.
Whereas the other kind of Shraddha is balatad-patita when we force ourselves to practice bhakti, and yes, we have some faith, but this faith is socially determined,
and there is some social pressure, and we basically want to remain in the society of devotees. And for that we practice bhakti.
Our main motivation is not bhakti itself, but a desire to be uh uh in uh in this uh association of devotees, and this faith doesn't go too far. As I said, that the natural faith will very quickly dissipate our doubts.
Stages of sadhu-sanga and bhajana-kriya
But this sort of faith, the doubts will always be lingering as a saving grace for us to somehow rather to justify ourselves to deviate from the path of bhakti.
And then Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura, of course, described sadhu-sanga. What sadhu-sanga means? Sadhu-sanga means guru-sanga. We accept this devotee as a guru who created this sort of faith in us.
We take formal initiation from him. And we inquire from him about Vaisnava sadacara. That's a very important point. He will have to tell us: "This is your sadhana, this is what you should do."
And that's why during the initiation we give the vow to follow four regulative principles. That's why Vaisnava sadacara, which according to the tradition, Srila Prabhupada established in this context, we obtain.
So this Vaisnava sadacara from that point on will become our firm determination to follow this Vaisnava sadacara, because that's the part of our contract, so to speak, spiritual contract.
And we, yeah, and as I said, that this will bring us to the society of loving devotees, association with whom will help us to develop certain mood.
Very important thing is that the sadhu-sanga means developing certain mood. Shraddha mostly means developing certain understanding of shastra.
But sadhu-sanga helps us to develop mood, the service mood, service attitude, and a special mood of service towards the Supreme Lord.
It may be, you know, it's the initial tinge of this bhava which will be developed on later stages of our spiritual development. It may be śānta-rasa or it may be vātsalya-rasa or it may be mādhurya- rasa.
It's very subtle. It may not be so pronounced. It doesn't mean that you know. But still, you can feel the mood of a person, and you can feel the mood of his associates, the devotees around him,
and you're attracted to this mood and by associating with this Guru and his devotees, you also develop similar attitudes, similar moods, similar mood of service, similar way of servicing
because this is you know how we want to serve. And service always implies certain emotional element in it. If it's only intellectually driven, it's not service in the proper sense of the word.
So there is the there would be some sort of emotional component to it. And this emotional component, this is what we learn on the second stage of Sadhu Sangha by associating with similarly
minded devotees who are loving, snigdha. They have some sneha towards us, they have some sympathy towards us and they help us to develop this devotional mood.
So that's the three elements, three essential elements of this sadhu sangha stage: initiation, Vaishnava Sadachar, inquiry into Vaishnava Sadachar, and trying to learn Vaishnava Sadacharya and follow strictly the principles of devotional service of the saintly behavior in devotional past.
And then uh learning how to associate with with the similarly minded devotees and how to extract uh the best things from them by serving them and by imbibing their mood.
And then Bhajanakriya comes, as I already said, that this Bhajanakriya means in one sense, in a good sense, an imitation of a bhajana. That's why it's it the third stage doesn't call bhajana, it's called bhajana kriya.
You just you perform something which looks like bhajana, but uh you're not capable of doing bhajana because you have still obstacles. And these obstacles basically, the forces which pull you in a different direction.
These anarthas which we have on this stage of spiritual development is nothing but very powerful saṁskāras within our heart which tells us to enjoy in a certain way, which gives us some desire to be independent.
And it's a completely different sort of samskara.
Because on the sadhana-bhakti we try to develop dependency on the devotees, we try to develop submissive attitude, humility, whereas all these samskaras they tell us you should become proud, you should become the best of all, you should become independent on this thing.
So therefore, this Bhajanakriya is a war. It's a battle, internal battle, which everyone has to experience. These two forces, one force, I understand because I have Shraddha.
And it's firm Shraddha in the import of the Shastra. I already understand this is what I need.
And at the same time, I see the reality of my heart, the desires which are there, and inevitably there will be some conflict or internal contradiction which we will have to resolve.
And therefore, this stage of bhajana-kriya, Srila Bhaktivinoda, oh sorry, Srila Viswanatha Cakravarti Thakura in Madhurya-kadamambini calls anartha-nivṛtti-bhajana-kriya, unstable bhajana-kriya. It cannot be stable just because there is an internal conflict.
And sometimes we fall prey to these other forces which force us to do something which is contrary to bhakti. Sometimes due to the mercy of devotees we kind
of become re-established in the path of bhakti, but then again we may fall down.
Internal struggle during unstable devotional practice
So this battle is there. And Viswanatha Cakravarti Thakura very beautifully describes this battle and this stages of instability and
each stage of this instability on the path of bhakti is a particular mixture of these two tendencies.
Our previous material tendencies and our spiritual tendencies would be spiritual tendencies or desire to develop spiritually. So when they come in contact in a certain way, we become uh
we come to a certain stage of instability and Srila Viswanatha Cakravarti Thakura lists six stages or six yes six stages of instability or six steps, six elements of this battle, internal battle.
So let's uh go through them one by one.
I'm sorry, card of this. But I will try to give some insight of how it is very practical to us, and I will also cite some Prabhupāda's letters or some stories from his preaching, which illustrates very clearly how it takes place in the life of neophyte devotees.
So it all starts, as we know from Utsahamai when one becomes very enthusiastic about bhakti.
The initial stage is full of enthusiasm, you're just bubbling of enthusiasm, you're just a little ball of enthusiasm and energy, and you want to convert the whole world into devotional
service and because the world is stupid and doesn't want to be converted then you try to convert your relatives and that creates a clash because there will be some conflict. So this this initial enthusiasm
It's basically these six stages of instability, six weaknesses, which we will have to overcome, six uh periods of weaknesses, of weakness. And uh we start with this first one uh which apparently
uh looks like you know somebody is a very fixed devotee, he is so enthusiastic, he is following everything so strictly.
So it looks like he is very strong as a devotee, but this is a period of weakness, of deeply hidden internal weakness, which he tries to hide not only from other people, but from himself as well.
Because he has faith, he has belief in this process, he wants to become like this, like it is described in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, he wants to become like I don't know, Dhruva Mahārāja or some pure devotee.
But at the same time, he understands that he has some other desires and he tries to hide these desires by pretending to be very firm and very enthusiastic.
And it's a natural enthusiasm in one sense, but at the same time it's unnatural. It's basically fanatical enthusiasm. One becomes a fanatic from the very beginning and that is I mean rarely avoidable stage.
Usually everyone goes through this weakness and you know become a fanatic of this um of this path so to speak.
And ah what is more important again also one very important thing about these six stages of weaknesses is that all these six stages of weaknesses are signs of immaturity in devotional service.
Immaturity of our spiritual ego, as I said, because the process of devotional service is the process of maturation of our ego, ego as a servant.
So when somebody has immature ego, he has difficulties in entering into meaningful relationship with other people.
The somebody who has very mature ego, it's very easy for him to develop a meaningful relationship with other people, which are full of service attitude, desire to do, which are good, which are very satisfying.
But when somebody is immature, it's very difficult because his ego is very flimsy, it's very vulnerable yet. It's not yet formed.
Therefore, these six stages of aniṣṭhita-bhajana-kriyā are also very problematic stages in our association with other people and with devotees. In each stage of this development, we have certain problems in being incorporated in the society of devotees.
So that's what is going on, and that's the problem which everyone encounters on this particular stage of spiritual development.
Unstable practice through fanatical enthusiasm
So, first is as I said, Utzachamai, or this enthusiasm uh fanaticism. Yeah this uh fanaticism initial fanaticism.
It's basically the reason for this fanaticism is that we believe, we have firm belief, but we have very little real spiritual experience.
We don't really have yet happiness of which devotional service brings, and therefore we try to compensate this lack of experience by the excess of external activities.
And we think that by doing this external activities, we manifest ourselves as a very fixed up devotee and so on so forth.
And basically even though it's enthusiasm and enthusiasm is good, Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī says, utsāhān niścayād dhairyāt. But unfortunately, this initial enthusiasm is based on ignorance. It's ignorant enthusiasm.
And because it's ignorant enthusiasm, it's not really good and
it creates some undesirable consequences, like ruined relationship with relatives, ruined relationship with other people, with other devotees, because you think I'm the best devotee.
I always suspected it, but now it's confirmed. You know, I look around, I don't see anyone who is so fixed up, who is following so strictly. I'm the only one who is following so strictly. This is the sort of attitude.
And therefore, Vishwana Chakravati Thakur he gave the example of a Brahmana boy who just starts learning Sanskrit and grammar, and he gets little first success, and then he starts looking down at other people and say, you know, oh yeah, yeah, I'm the best.
And this is more or less the manifestation of pride because the pride is a very essential quality of a person who is materially conditioned. And therefore, we bring this pride into the path of devotional service and we try to manifest this pride by being excessively enthusiastic, so to speak.
Yeah, I'm a very rare soul. You know, usually people they listen to some few lectures and they become, you know, I already know everything.
And uh they become very enthusiastic preachers and God knows what they preach and what it is but you know they they really want
to preach There is even a book in this con. It's called You Can Preach. And the whole meaning of this book that you have to start preaching from the outside. It's true in one sense, but also we have to be very responsible. Preaching is not an easy thing.
So this oversli enthusiastic overs devoters they can ruin so many people.
They actually ruined the reputation of our society because they cheated so many people uh under the banner of preaching under the pretext of preaching, and so on so forth.
So Śrīla Prabhupāda speaks about this fanatical attitude.
In Bhagavad-gītā, in the third chapter of Bhagavad-gītā, he speaks about this and he said: if you simply stick to your own religious ritualistic principles, don't try to understand the philosophy of everything, then you become fanatic.
It's a lecture on Bhagavad-gītā. Then you become fanatic.
So it's basically this initial enthusiasm is also very rigid stance towards rituals and firm belief in the rituals without deep understanding the meaning of what you're doing.
And Prabhupada gave a very beautiful definition of fanatic, which is the same as this first stage of aniṣṭha-bhajana kriyā utsāhamay. Fanatic means dull-headed rascal. This is what it means. You're not very bright yet.
Unstable practice through fluctuating enthusiasm
So, and there is some sort of internal conflict, as I say which one one tries to hide. So then what goes next is ghanatara according to Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, sometimes it's ghana. Gana means very dense.
And sometimes it's sTural, it's very lightly shaky. It's not very dense. So sometimes it's dense, sometimes your practice becomes dense, and sometimes you become very negligent toward your bhakti.
And it basically means that because you develop this habit to hide behind the mechanistic ritualistic practice of devotional service and you equate devotional service with this mechanistic practice of devotional service.
As Prabhupāda says, you're hiding from Kṛṣṇa consciousness behind Krishna Consciousness.
I don't remember exactly how he says it's in one purport in the first chapter of Bhagavad-gītā, Prabhupāda says that Arjuna was trying to escape from Krishna consciousness by hiding behind Krishna consciousness.
He's putting Kṛṣṇa consciousness in front, but he's trying to escape Krishna consciousness internally.
So because you developed this habit and you equated Krishna consciousness with the ritualistic, not very deep practice of Krishna consciousness, your practice becomes very dry. It doesn't bring you satisfaction.
And because it doesn't bring you satisfaction, it's not going very deep, then this stage of Gana Tarala comes into being because sometimes you are enthusiastic, sometimes you lose enthusiasm.
And basically, it means that you are very much dependent on the praise which other devotees give to you. If other devotees are praising you, you become conditioned on the appreciation of other devotees.
If other devotees say, oh Jai, Jai, you distributed so many books, you are so such a nice devotee, you are doing this and that, then you become enthusiastic. I remember very clearly when the
first group of Russian devotees came to India, it was in 1989, there was a big group of these devotees. And there was one devotee. He was very enthusiastic. He was really enthusiastic.
When he would lead kīrtana, you know, he would inspire everyone. He was beating the drum, mṛdaṅga and chanting so loudly, and he was just you know smiling.
But as soon as somebody else would start leading kīrtana, he would become really morose. You would look at him and you would say, something is wrong, you know, you're sick or what. So this Ganatarala.
Sometimes you're enthusiastic if you are being appreciated if other people praise you, and then immediately you lose enthusiasm, especially if somebody chastises you. Especially if your guru chastises you.
Who he thinks he is? What right does he have? You know it's a very ungrateful sort of business to chastise somebody. You know, if somebody says something which you don't like, it's really you know devotional service.
You really think you know why did I choose this society maybe I should go somewhere else
really people do think like this and but because they have this Drihavrata because they have faith they, still remain, they can go through this stage, which is which is a difficult stage in development.
And Prabhupada says actually, then when uh one um uh does this uh sadhana bhakti in a mechanical way uh then it becomes very difficult task.
If you perform this Mangalarati, Shil Prabhupada says, nicely, then your routine work of the day begins very nicely. So you should be very much careful about it. Know that it has become a hacknate engagement.
You feel like that, then gradually it will be. If you feel like that, then gradually you will be lost. If you feel that this is just some burden which you have to do, then gradually you will lose this.
If you feel like that, but if you feel here is a routine work, duty, so that I keep fit myself to devotional service. Therefore these things are introduced. So it's next stage actually is a certain attitude
towards our routine duties in devotional service. We have to really understand how by performing this sadhana I am bringing myself closer to the goal. And if I lose this sight of the goal, then it will be very
difficult and I will become conditioned from the praises of other devotees
Unstable practice through indecisive choices
and from the appreciation and from so many other things which is not very good. The next stage is very interesting, and Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura goes into
very long and protracted explanation of the next stage, which is called vyūha-vikalpa. And vyūha-vikalpa means choosing between different possibilities. You see the different possibilities, and you are undecided.
You don't know which possibility to choose. He takes an example of somebody who wants to get married at one point and and then he changes his mind and he wants to remain a brahmacārī or sannyāsī,
and then he changes his mind and he says, no, it's better to be married. And then he changes his mind. And then he says, no, it's better to become a sannyāsī. And Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura explains this vyūha-vikalpa
in a very humorous way, and he shows how this is śāstrīya-śraddhā, because in every stage of his indecisiveness he quotes a śāstra? He is not speculating himself.
It's not a taste speculation, but it's a speculation on the basis of śāstra. What should I take? Why? Because even though he has firm faith in śāstra, he understood what śāstra means,
what śāstra wants him to do, but he doesn't really understand the balance between different statements of the śāstras. He doesn't understand what fits to him, to his particular situation, and what is against his adhikāra.
And therefore, Guru is so necessary on this stage because one becomes really mental in this stage of spiritual development. And he's trying to define the priorities in his life. And he cannot define the priorities.
What should I do? Should I do book distribution or should I do street harinam? Should I just develop a nice family or should I, you know, preach all over the world? Or should I, you know, do something else?
So many possibilities he has, so many, and he doesn't know what to do really. So this vyavahāra-vikalpa, the stage of indecisiveness is a very important stage of our spiritual development.
And again, it may be Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura only gives this one example. Should I become renounced or should I remain as a gṛhastha, householder and practice devotional service in this stage?
But it can be: should I be engaged in business or should I give up my business and do something simple, not to be too much engaged in this?
It can be, you know, should I get some flat and rent out this flat and go to Mayapur to perform bhajan or should I be actively involved in this life? Should I, you know, study śāstras? Or should I chant more rounds?
Should I do two parikramas a day or three parikramas a day or... And so many other possibilities are there which are colliding within ours and we're trying to understand what we should do.
So basically, we will not go into details of Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's description, although it's also described in stages.
He doesn't describe, he describes the initial stage of these doubts, then the more developed stage of this doubt, more developed stage of this doubt.
Ultimately, you know, he decides to become a sannyāsī, and then he becomes, he decides to become a sannyāsī. This is very relevant to this particular group of people.
He has a firm decision: I'll become a sannyāsī. And then he takes sannyāsa and then gets married. So that's his final decision.
And Prabhupāda was saying this: this is not the first time. Prabhupāda said that so many people wanted to become sannyāsīs. He gave them sannyāsa, then they got married. And it's basically Prabhupāda, he says in one conversation, all the behind the sex life there are so many troubles. Still the rascals do not cease.
Either illicit sex or legal sex, legal sex you beget children, and there are so many troubles. You have to raise them nicely, you have to give them education,
you must be situated in distinct something that is the duty of father. Otherwise, he would go on begetting like cats and dogs, no responsibility. Just like some of our students. Immediately married.
And again, give me sannyasa. What is this? Irresponsible. That's all. Irresponsibility. So basically, it's very interesting what is behind this stage of instability.
As I said, each of the six stages of instability is a particular battle which we have to win within ourselves.
And the first battle is the battle with our humble position as a new devotee, whereas we want to pretend and to project ourselves as a great devotee, and therefore we take this attitude of complete enthusiasm and devotional service.
Second stage, overdependence on the opinion of other people and mechanical sadhana which doesn't bring satisfaction. Third battle is the battle to avoid responsibility.
Devotional service means to take responsibility for our own life, for the life of other people, for some particular service. But we want to avoid responsibilities and therefore we're flip-flopping.
We're taking one possibility, then another possibility, then another possibility. We're basically again hiding from the responsibilities. Therefore, Prabhupāda says it's irresponsible.
You take something, you make an act, but you don't want to deal with the consequences. Therefore, you use śāstra as the pretext to justify opposite action. And that's it.
And, uh, there is another quote from Śrīla Prabhupāda. So this is this is the first time in our institution a Babaji he's talking about some some of his student who has become a Babaji. So it is not to be imitated.
It is the paramahaṁsa stage when one is very mature in sannyāsa life for that, not for ordinary person, don't request: give me sannyas. Give me Babaji. Don't do that. This is not a fashion.
It is a stage of realization, that's all. So basically, if you have this sort of doubts, it means that you should not not fall prej av this initial attitude to have responsibility.
Sanja means very grav responsability, very serious responsibility, and very difficult one too, because you become always under the spotlight, everyone is looking at you, and you have to really show the example, example of your scholarship, example of your preaching and everything.
So better not to be in a hurry and really make this decision with full understanding of the consequences.
And that's why this Sanyas College is so good and this particular section is also very relevant for all of us, those who already have become sannyasis, who want to become sannyasi, it's it's it's not an easy thing.
Unstable practice through sense enjoyment
So the forourth stage is also very interesting. It's Vishya Sangraha basically means sangraha means battle Battle with the desire for sense enjoyment. It's interesting that it doesn't come first.
Initially, one can really kind of overcome or neglect different desires of saṁskāras because you know the new life of devotional service brings so much so much excitement in one sense.
But then at one point the old saṁskāras become really prominent, really prominent. And they surface one after another, and the battle starts. And Vishwana Chakravat Thakur gives a very uh very innocent example.
He he says that you know somebody somebody wants to take sweets and And he is giving he doesn't he doesn't want to to take swets but then he falls prey of this weakness. But there are much less innocent.
Saṁskārs which are there. And det är very pofable visajas this po poisonous material enjoyments. This material enjoyment or the objects of material enjoyment are called visha. Vishha Vishha means poison.
So every attractive material enjoyment has poison inside it. And this poison, when we were engaged, if we were engaged in this sort of enjoyment, this poison is inside us.
So it surfaces because of this churning due to the practice of devotional service, this poison of previous material enjoyment, previous habits surfaces like during the churning of the milk ocean. And it becomes a very intense struggle. And basically, this stage of development, spiritual development, means some sort of hypocrisy.
Because one may fall prey to this. And Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura says that he does fall prey every now and then of the previous habits, because cause he knows that sense objects are against his attachment to the Lord.
He knows that by smoking cigarettes or smoking ganja or taking some drugs or engaging in illicit sex relationship he just he more or less puts the obstacle between himself and the Lord.
Prabhupada said: don't make this cigarette as an obstacle. This little cigarette can become a huge obstacle between you and the Lord. Because you cannot have split attachments.
You either attached to Māyā or you are attached to the Lord. You cannot be attached to both.
So you have to choose between these two attachments, and because uh this uh choice becomes very difficult uh at this stage of spiritual development, uh there is some sort of internal uh duality and hypocrisy, and sometimes one goes in this direction and then he regrets, like it is said in 11th canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. He knows that kāma is duḥkhātmaka, that the very essence of kāma of sense enjoyment is duḥkha. He knows that sense enjoyment ultimately brings grief, unhappiness.
But parityāgāpy aniśvaraḥ. Parityāgāpy aniśvaraḥ, but he cannot give it up completely. Parityaga. Parityāga means tyāga means to give up. Parityaga means to give up completely. Totally. Once and for all. He cannot do it.
Parityāgāpy aniśvaraḥ. Even though he knows vedā duḥkhātmakān kāmān. And therefore juṣamāṇas tat-kāmān, therefore he engages in this juṣamāṇas tat-kāmān. He follows his desire.
But then śraddhālur dṛḍha-niścayaḥ. But he continues with the bhajana of the Supreme Lord with śraddhā, śraddhālur, and he has dṛḍha-niścaya, he tries to do it. But he also, he becomes very remorseful in this regard.
So basically that means that with some times in the path of devotional service, the previous habits appear and we commit some sinful activities.
It happened during Prabhupāda's time. This is an excerpt from Harishauri's Transcendental Diary.
It's about a story in ISKCON's temple, how the disciples of Srila Prabhupada became thieves and started committing some thievery in the temples, taking some money and using it for sense enjoyment.
It's, uh, it unfortunately happens. Uh because of economic hardships everywhere in India, the uh the incidence of thievery by low-class persons is fairly common, and even in our temples it's fairly frequent.
Even though condemnable, it is somehow rather understandable. But later Prabhupada made a telling comment. I thought it was just the Indians, but now the Westerners are stealing as well.
He was disgusted with the behavior of his wayward disciple. I will avoid telling the name. He told me very frankly, this is why this disciple has become a sannyāsī and he committed a thief. Theft. He committed a theft.
He committed, he collected a lot of money and took all this money and left the movement, even though he was a sannyāsī already.
And Prabhupāda says: this is why my godbrothers criticize. This man come and insist, give me sannyāsa. Give me sannyāsa. Why? What is the attraction? Then when they have it, they again fall down.
One becomes a first-class thief and woman hunter. Another goes back to his wife. What is the use of such sannyāsa? Caṭ-koṭi anyway.
He mentions the name of this sannyāsī disciple is intelligent and was doing very nicely in Africa. Now he's a third-class thief.
And then he quotes some other name of some other disciple, such and such was such a nice brahmacārī and sannyāsī. I was expecting him to do something wonderful. Now he is a demon. So this is how it works.
Nice brahmacārī, nice sannyāsī, preaching very nicely. And then this stage comes.
Because prematurely you take renunciation, you haven't really overcome all this internal struggle, and because this internal struggle is still there, then some fall down takes place.
And then there are some examples from the life of Gorki Shor Das Bhabaji. Somebody, some Brahmachari came to him and was serving him, was even cooking for him, and then he also committed a theft.
And, uh, and Gour Kishor Das Babaji, because he committed a theft and because he was cooking for him, he refused to eat anything. And he refused to eat any cooked food. And he started eating raw rice soaked in water.
Unstable practice through unrealistic vows
And you know, so it's not for the first time it happens. Some sort of hypocritical attitude due to this intense internal struggle which is not yet over on this stage of spiritual development.
And then the next two stages, the fifth and the sixth stage, are extremely important and relevant for everyone of us.
The next stage is the fourth was viṣaya-saṅgraha, and the next is niyama-ākama. The inability to keep the vows.
It basically means that one more or less overcame this unstable, more or less, these intense desires to enjoy, intense saṁskāras, they become weakened.
In yoga, this stage of saṁskāra is called tanu. Tanu means weakened saṁskāra. It's there, but it's very weak. It doesn't really trouble you. You can revive it if you want to enjoy, but basically
it's just laying there dormant and saying, you know, I'm here in this saṁskāra to a certain extent and became weak, and, uh, you became a little more strong in devotional service. more strong in devotional service.
And then the next stage comes when you start giving unrealistic vows. I will chant 2 lakhs of Hare Kṛṣṇa Mahā-mantra a day and not a single holy name less.
And then for some time you follow this vow, and you are very happy about this and you tell everyone, "You know, I did it, I made it," but then you cannot keep the vow.
So this is actually this stage of spiritual development is a hidden rivalry. We want to show everyone that we're better than other people. So again, the subtle pride.
It's all manifestation of pride, and the pride becomes more and more and more and more subtle in all these stages of instability in devotional service.
So why do you give unrealistic vows? Because you want to show others that you're better than them, that you're more advanced, and
you basically want to jump over your own head and show to yourself and to everyone else how advanced you are.
And Prabhupāda actually says that this is an inevitable stage in our spiritual development when we become envious of other God brothers and want to show that we are better than them. He writes in one letter.
So far I have studied Siddhaswarupa. I'll tell the name, it's famous. He is not a bad boy, but he has his own philosophy from the very beginning.
It is almost inevitable that there should be enviousness among the God brothers, just like amongst my Godbrothers.
Śrīla Prabhupāda gives an example of his elevated godbrothers who were disciples of Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura.
After the departure of Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī and even during his presence, very intense competition started, very fierce rivalry started.
You know, and we know when Prabhupāda left this competition on rivalry which was there, which was somewhat subdued due to his presence, also became very prominent at one point in all society, and everyone was trying to show that I'm more advanced.
And the desire was to show I'm advanced in devotional service. This, in one sense, it's a good desire.
But Prabhupada says it's almost inevitable that there should be enviousness among the God brothers, just like among my God brothers.
And Prabhupada, there was this story during Prabhupada's time when one of his disciples, an American devotee, black devotee, who went to Africa and was preaching there very nicely. But then he became disgusted with the misbehavior of other devotees.
Again, as I said, as I said in the beginning, all these stages they manifest certain troubles in relationship with other devotees because of the immature ego, because our spiritual ego is not mature enough.
We cannot really function properly in the relationship with devotees. Cannot really serve the devotees. Cannot really find the happiness in serving other devotees.
And therefore, we find ourselves in trouble with other devotees.
So, this is what happened with one of his disciples, who was really a good preacher, and but he became disgusted with other devotees. He saw that they follow very low standards and he wanted to follow very high standard.
He went to Māyāpur and he wanted to chant many laks a days, three laksa days, not less than this. And he asked Prabhupada, can he build a house on a tree.
He didn't want to associate with other devotees, so he wanted to have a house on a tree so that nobody would disturb his bhajan, so to speak. And Prabhupada says, you know, you will be living like a monkey on a tree.
You know, that was Prabhupada's comment. Nothing else. You know, he saw that he is doing something glorious, but Prabhupada immediately saw that there is some selfish interest behind this.
And it displays so for some time he was practicing bhajan in Māyāpur on a tree or somewhere in a field without associating with anyone. Then he again left and went to Nairobi back. Then he went back, came back to Vṛndāvana.
And he wrote a very nice, very interesting letter to Śrīla Prabhupāda. Please listen. It's very hilarious. He wrote to Śrīla Prabhupāda: I don't want to act whimsically and I only want to please you, Prabhupāda.
And then he says, we have no love for Krishna, but we have this attraction to serve Krishna as a servant of the confidential servant mates
By your mercy, we understand that we cannot go to Vṛndāvana by any ticket, so we are by the grace of Krishna trying to fix our mind on this service in Vṛndāvana.
This fixing of the mind is dependent on my chanting Krishna's names. And my chanting Krishna's names is simply dependent on your mercy because my God brothers do not like me chanting. Why they don't want like him chanting?
Because he has comp. competition. We do not want to commit offenses to our godbrothers.
Yet sometimes when I tell them I only want to hear about Krishna in Vṛndāvana or the glories of his holy name or qualities, some say we must talk of other things. They are more pure than my sinful self.
As far as this living entity, he only wants to hear or talk of Krishna. My God brothers, as far as I am concerned, are better and more advanced.
But because of my sinful condition, if you would allow me to chant these few extra rounds, read your books and render some small devotional service.
Maybe before leaving this body, Krishna will allow the sinful living entity to be elevated on the position of one of his loving servants.
It is our only desire to have our devotional creeper take shelter in Golok of Golok Vrindavana and to somehow or other please our spiritual master in Krishna. Śrīla Prabhupāda's reply to him was quite terse.
So, why did you leave Mayapur? If you are so expert in chanting? -> If you are so expert in chanting, Read my books and do some menial service. But why have you left Mayapur? You are restless. So what can be done?
You were chanting in Mayapur. Where ever you may live, you have to abide by the order of authority. Because you are restless, you are not fit for chanting absolutely.
So, very strong reply of Śrīla Prabhupāda that you know he's saying so many nice words. I am dependent on you.
I want to become a servant of the pure servant of Lord Krishna and develop the mood of the eternal associates of Vṛndāvana. But behind that, there is only one thing: I want to become better than others.
And I want to only speak about Krishna, and my godbrothers don't appreciate it. Basically, my godbrothers don't appreciate me and don't understand how I'm elevated.
Unstable practice through subtle prestige
So this niyama-ākṣāra is another pitfall on this path of devotional service. And yeah. And then the last sixth stage of this uh
Anartha-nivṛtti is Taraṅga-raṅgiṇī, the enjoyment uh on the waves. Taraṅga means waves, raṅgiṇī, you know you are kind of enjoying on the waves. It's basically that's the highest stage of instability.
The most subtle stage of internal instability, most subtle battle which is there within our heart, when the desire to serve Krishna is fighting with the desire to enjoy.
And ultimately, you know, at this stage, it's very difficult to avoid it because you are enjoying your achievements quote unquote in devotional service. You already achieved some stability.
You overcame already the stages of this viṣaya-vikalpa and niyama and niyama-ākṣāra and this saṅgraha, viṣaya-saṅgraha, all these stages are past. You achieve some stability.
For quite a long time, you practice devotional service, but still, this subtle pride is there. And people start praising you: you're so stable, you're so nice.
And Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī in Bhakti-rasāmṛta- sindhu says that the devotee who achieves some sort of stability becomes very attracted attractive. His attractiveness is very, very strong.
He wants to, you know, and and then it's very easy to try to exchange this attractiveness to some cheap material pleasures in this material world, subtle material pleasures like the enjoyment of the followers.
Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, He quotes an aphorism. He says it's a very ancient aphorism: janānurāga- prabhāvā hi sampadaḥ. That by the influence of this attractiveness.
When you attract other people, the followers, janānurāga-prabhāva, you have this prabhāva, the influence over other people, other people become your followers and it brings his and pada, it brings money to you.
And we all know how it works. You know, you become a devotee and you sainty, and all of a sudden everyone is just running towards you and bringing you some donation and bringing you some sort of gifts.
And it's very difficult to avoid this temptation not to enjoy this.
And Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, while describing the difficulties in devotional service, he says that this is actually one manifestation of Dhenukāsura: the desire to enjoy the fruits of one's devotional service.
I was doing, performing devotional service, I achieved certain stage of devotion, I became attractive. Why not enjoy it? I deserved it, isn't it? I worked hard. I already achieved so many you know wonderful things.
I know śāstra. I know so many other things. I chant very stably. So that's what is happening on this particular stage.
And if we are ambitious by nature, and you know, many of the devotees came from this ambitious sort of background, we wanted to get the best. I'm very ambitious person. And you know, so many other people too.
So if they have some certain ability to speak, influence other people, and if they achieve this stability, people start worshiping them more or less.
And if they start worshiping Him, then you know they become his followers, loyal followers, and he became a guru, and sometimes prematurely became a guru.
This particular stage of spiritual development, and Prabhupada will say this in some connection: it's actually desire to become a guru prematurely.
When you are not mature enough to digest all this worship and adoration, which is, you know, in one sense natural, when you become a guru, and when you use all these facilities for your own benefit, your own aggrandizement, your own enjoyment.
So that's a very relevant stage, and Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakur gives a very nice description of it.
And there is, I wanted to read an excerpt from a very nice letter which Prabhupada has written to one of the followers of Siddhasvarup, Ananda Maharaj, who was one of those very ambitious people.
He was a spiritual master before he became Prabhupada's disciple. He was sort of new age guru. He had followers. He became Prabhupada's disciple. He was very impressed by Śrīla Prabhupāda.
But then he always remained this profile of a guru. And he kind of subtly preached to others that he's special and he has this special position. And he attracted so many followers already within Prabhupada's movement.
Initially, all his former disciples became Prabhupada's disciples, but he retained the Santuraj.
And Prabhupada writes a letter to one of his followers who was saying that he is great, he is a great devotee. I want to follow only him, and I want to worship him, and I want to go to the spiritual world only with him and behind him, and to be in the spiritual world only with him.
So Prabhupada writes to him. But I think you have got the mistaken idea in this connection. You speak of a pure of pure devotee that he is Śaktyāveśa-avatāra, that we should obey Him only. These things are the wrong idea.
If anyone thinks like that, that a pure devotee should be obeyed and no one else, that means he is a nonsense. I will repeat this.
This is very beautiful. If anyone thinks like that that a pure devotee should be obeyed and no one else. That means he is a nonsense. We advise everyone to address one another as Prabhu. Prabhu means master.
So how the master should be disobeyed. Others are also pure devotees. All my disciples are pure devotees. Anyone sincerely serving the spiritual master is a pure devotee. It may be Siddhasvarūpa or others.
Ah, Siddhasvarūpa. Śrīla Prabhupāda uses this ah non-siddhasvarūpa. Ah, Siddhasvarūpa. This must be very clearly stated.
It's not only that your Siddhasvarūpa is a pure devotee and not others. He just calls your Siddhasvarūpa. He writes to his disciple who has become, you know, de facto a disciple of this Siddhasvarūpa.
And therefore he says, it's not that your Siddhasvarūpa is a pure devotee, not others. Do not try to make a faction. Siddhasvarūpa is a good soul, but others should not be misled.
Anyone who is surrendered to the spiritual master is a pure devotee, it doesn't matter if Siddhasvarūpa or non-siddhasvarūpa. Svarupa or non-sidasvarupa.
Amongst ourselves, we should respect others as Prabhu, master, one another. As soon as we distinguish here is a pure devotee, here is a non-pure devotee, that means I am a nonsense.
Why you only want to be in spiritual sky with Siddhasvarūpa? Why not all? If Siddhasvarūpa can go, why not everyone? Siddhasvarūpa will go, Śyāmasundara will also go, and others will go, we will have another ISKCON there.
So that's probably bad news for some. Again, as I said, the same sort of dynamic or manifestation of the immature ego, then you become prematurely spiritual master, you create your own followers.
You preach to them how you're special, how all kinds of miracles happen to you, and you know your Shalagram Shila steals the your sweets when you offer them and so many other stories you tell them or what was there.
And Prabhupāda, you know, he after that said: falsely one try to gain worship for himself as a saintly renounced person.
For ISKCON, Śrīla Prabhupāda was recently emphasized as probably from Hari-śauri, no, from Satsvarūpa Mahārāja. Yeah, from his book.
For ISKCON, Śrīla Prabhupāda has recently emphasized that sannyāsīs, other than the spiritual masters, should be offered obeisances only once when seeing them in the morning, also one does not take any's remnant except his spiritual masters.
So Prabhupada he saw how ambitious people among his leading disciples they started this you know fall prey of this thing you know went into this pitfall, and started enjoying the benefits of devotional service.
Attaining devotional stability through humility
And then some other quotes are there. So that's this description of Anishita Bhajana Kriya. And before going any further, we have to very clearly understand the sources of instability.
Reach the stability which means tṛṇād api su-nīcena, taroḥ iva sahiṣṇunā, amānī mānadena kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ.
The stage when we don't desire any respect to ourselves when we are ready to offer respect to anyone else when we are more tolerant than the tree, more humble than the blade of grass. That's niṣṭhā.
That's already a good platform. That's a safe platform. Before that, it's not safe.
And uh, Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura beautifully described all this instability and we can see this and basically when uh we don't resolve these problems which we inevitably face in the path of devotional service and these problems become institutionalized.
Like somebody prematurely becomes a spiritual master and that becomes fixed, institutionalized, then the problems of all his followers will be there. And we more or less fix these problems within the institution.
And when this problem becomes real big movement or institution, it becomes Sampradaya. What is Appa Sampradaya? Appasampradaya is nothing but institutionalized problems.
The problems of leaders which become institutionalized. That's what we have to avoid.
Luckily, we have Śrīla Prabhupāda, his glorious example, his teachings, and his personal example, how he perfectly behaved himself in different situations. He showed to us what to do.
And we should follow Him very very strictly. Actually, His example for us is even more important than the śāstra, because we cannot interpret śāstra ourselves.
When we start interpreting śāstra ourselves according to our whims, it basically means we are, you know, subtly following our own anarthas and we try to adjust śāstra to ourselves.
But the example of sādhu, therefore, Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura when he says about these three sources of pramāṇa. He says first sādhu, then śāstra, then guru. Sadhu Shastra Guru Vakya. Chitati Kori Aikya.
So he first emphasizes very strongly the example of a sādhu, previous devotee of Acharya, who sets by his behavior, the standard.
And only by following him very strictly will we be able to overcome all these pitfalls in the path of devotional service. And therefore you know this devotion to a guru is very important. We are personal movement.
Bhakti is very personal. It means that we have to have personal relationship.
And before we develop the stage of Nishta, achieve the stage of Nishta, there will be difficulties and troubles in associating with other people, unfortunately. Because we are proud.
And the pride will manifest in one way or another, and then it will somehow or other, uh, how to say this, uh, spoil our relationship with other devotees and make them, you know, a little not so stable.
So that's why it is. And I reformulated this six crisis of instability in regard to the relationship with one's guru. Because we also can see that in relationship with Gurus sometimes people become very restless.
It was it has always been there. There were such disciples during Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupada's time, there were such disciples during Prabhupada's time.
You know, some of his Sanskrit editors came to him and said, Please bless me to find a pure devotee, uh, bona fide spiritual master, and Śrīla Prabhupāda said to him, Yes, I bless you to go to hell.
So that was his blessing. So we sometimes can see that this sort of unsteadiness or restlessness. Due to this aniṣṭhitā nature of psychology, this restless mind is manifest in our relationship with Guru.
So in the first stage, utsāhamaya, a devotee starts listening to his guru and then he develops this utsāhamaya and he says, Yeah, I know this everything, you know, I know everything. I know almost the same as he. I can quote even better quotes and everything.
And you know, I follow śāstra sometimes even more strictly than him. So I'm better. And in the second stage, ghana-tarā, one develops this attitude, he doesn't inspire me. It means anymore. He doesn't inspire me anymore.
It means something is wrong with him. You know, because on the second stage one loses enthusiasm. Before he was so inspired, then he loses enthusiasm and he says, yes, something is wrong with my guru.
He doesn't inspire me anymore. And then Vudavikalpa, of course, one starts thinking, maybe I have chosen the wrong guru. It's probably the wrong guru. That's why I have all these problems.
If I have chosen the right guru, I probably would be better off. So this is the third stage. The fourth stage, when one feels this very intense desire for sense enjoyment and he cannot overcome this desire, he blames guru.
And he says, Guru, and I heard this so many times. Guru didn't help me to get rid of my problems and anarthas. He didn't give me the proper method. He didn't teach me how to get rid of all these problems.
That's why I'm in this situation. And then on the fifth stage, when this spirit of competitiveness, rivalry develops, when one achieves a certain stage of stability. One says, oh, my guru doesn't follow very high vows.
I should find somebody who is more elevated than him. I should go to some other holy place and find somebody who is following higher standards of devotional service.
And then the sixth stage is very simple: I'm guru myself, so what to do, I'm already there. So that's uh how you can reinterpret these stages or translate these stages in relationship to the spiritual master.
So I think I should finish here. We still have a couple of minutes left before our time is off. Uh, is there any question or uh or we should stop? Yes.
from Shraddhā. Two kinds of Shraddhā. Yes, it's two kinds of Shraddhā. Yes. Svābhāvikī and uh balātkāra-pāditā, that's the classification of Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda in Madhurya-kādambinī.
And Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī, he classifies differently. He says that it's shastriya sraddha or um lokika sraddha or samajika sraddha. Lokika he says in Bhakti-sandarbha. But it's basically the same thing. Thank you very much.
Hare Krishna. Thank you very much for the class. Uh just would like to find out the reference for the letter that the devotee from Nairobi, I think it is uh in Hari-sauri. Uh Hari-sauri's, let me see. This should be.
Yes, it's Hari-sauri one second. Yeah. It's the Transcendental Diary of Hari-sauri. Volume number one. The date is twenty fifth of February 76.
He quotes this letter from this devotee who preached in Nairobi and then went to Mayapur and then went back to Nairobi and then went, came to Vrindavan.
Uh, Madhurya, just had a question. You were speaking about responsibility and commitment. And what kind of occurred to me was that at the moment many of us are in a situation where we're in a temple or a certain community
where we have a specific service responsibility, and therefore to some extent that responsibility and commitment comes because we're very much accountable to something very specific.
But as we make a transition towards uh sannyasa and we're moving away from managerial commitments or specific posts or positions within a temple and we're traveling, we're visiting yatras more.
Can you just say something about how we can ensure that we still maintain that responsibility and commitment because sometimes it can be that we do a lot of preaching but we may not be taking responsibility for the development of the movement in a in a very tangible way.
Thank you very much. It's a very nice question. Therefore, in this uh recent years, the sannyasis they get some mission. Uh and that's basically some task which they are supposed to perform, uh, to take the responsibility.
Sannyasi doesn't mean that you just preach and don't take any particular responsibility. It's actually a very grave responsibility to preach
because when we open our mouths, it means that we more or less telling people that we f we ourselves are acting to what we are supposed to say, what we're saying.
So, our first and foremost responsibility is of course our sadhana, our performing of devotional service and studying. That's first and foremost responsibility of a sannyasi.
But also we have to take personal responsibility because what will happen inevitably when we preach, people will become inspired, they will develop some sort of personal relationship with us and we have to take responsibility for their spiritual development, helping them selflessly to develop spiritually.
It's not that we just travel here and there and get donation and fly to another destination. If somebody develops faith because of our preaching, we have to continue cultivating these people. That's the most important.
And another one is that when we come to the temple, we are servants of uh the temple president, those people who uh took responsibility locally, and our duty is to ask them what we are supposed to say.
It's not that we are self-manifest acharya and we know better what to say.
Sometimes people they create mess by their preaching because you know the those people who know particular situation very nicely, they know the mentality, they know the problems of the people, they try to you know emphasize certain things to help people to overcome their difficulties and then somebody else comes and starts preaching something which is in discord with the work more or less negates the diligent work which the local authorities were doing.
That's definitely disservice. That creates chaos in the minds of people because, as sannyāsīs, you carry some authority, people will listen to you, people will take you seriously. So that's the proper etiquette.
We are servants, we come to the temple as a servant. Therefore, we have to come to local authorities to say, here I am. How can I serve you?
This is the etiquette which Śrīla Prabhupāda established when there was initially this problem or clash between Sannyasis and the householders' temple presidents. He said Sannyasi comes, he has to be assistant of the local authorities.
So this is how we responsibly perform our duties in this regard. We can say, Mahārāja, yourself and Prāṇa Govinda das. Prāṇa Govinda das, you wrote to me that you're not going to be in the class because it's too early.
I read your message this morning. Well, it was such a fascinating. I thought you were reading my life.
I was like, it's so amazing Mahārāja, you are you, the way you spoke it was like experiential knowledge and now you have a realized knowledge that was so effective I really appreciate I do
Marv, wonderful. I wish you would teach this every day to us. Thank you very much. I guess we should finish now. Thank you very much.
Thank you for your attention and for your service and for everything you are doing to inspire other people on the path of devotional service. And I wish you the best in your devotional endeavors. Thank you. Thank you.
Śrīla Prabhupāda kī jai. Hare Krishna.