Bhagavad-gita 9.3. The Concept of Faith
Bhakti Vijnana Goswami · Amsterdam · 2022
Chapters
Introduction to Bhagavad-gītā chapter nine verse three
Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya, oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya, oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya, nārāyaṇaṁ namaskṛtya, naraṁ caiva narottamaṁ, devīṁ sarasvatīṁ vyāsaṁ, tato jayam udīrayet. Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna.
I'm very happy to be with all of you this evening. And uh somebody told me that I should speak about Bhakti Yoga. I was very surprised. Such an unusual topic in Hare Krishna temple.
But yes, I will speak a little bit about some basic principles of bhakti. And I will try to base my talk on that verse number 3 from the ninth chapter of Bhagavad-gītā.
Aśraddadhānāḥ puruṣā dharmasyāsya parantapa aprāpya māṁ nivartante mṛtyu-saṁsāra-vartmani. Vartantem Ritiusam Sara Vartmani. Translation. Those who are not faithful on the path of devotional service
cannot attain me or conquer or false, but return to birth and death in this material world. So I thought I will speak a little bit in this verse to explain the concept of faith in Krishna consciousness
and how it is different from the common understanding of what the faith is, because every religion more or less speaks about faith.
But there is stark difference between the understanding what faith means and what is it for. So that will be uh the topic of our discussion tonight. Krishna is very emphatic in this verse.
He says, Aśraddadhānāḥ puruṣā, the man or whatever at that time there was not so much notion of political correctness so he uses masculine gender.
And he says that when somebody does not have faith, he doesn't have śraddhā, in this dharma, dharma asya, parantapa, O conqueror of your enemies, aprāpya māṁ nivartante mṛtyu-saṁsāra-vartmani. He will not be able to attain me, in other words, he will not be able to attain God.
So, just from the first look at this verse, it seems like quite a fundamentalistic statement.
Not much different from the statements of other religions which also say or condemn people who do not have faith in this path. Nevertheless, I will try to explain the difference between Shradha, which is translated as face and face in in the understanding of other religions.
So but first we will read part of the purport and then we'll go further The faceless cannot accomplish this process of devotional service. That is the purport of this verse. Faith is created by association with devotees.
Unfortunate people, even after hearing all the evidence of Vedic literature from great personalities, still have no faith in God. They are hesitant and cannot stay fixed in the devotional service of the Lord.
Thus, faith is most important factor for progress in Krishna consciousness.
In Chaitanya Cheritamritis it is said that one should have complete conviction that simply by serving the Supreme Lord Shri Krishna he can achieve all perfection. That is called real faith.
In the Srimad Bhagavatam, it is stated that by giving water to the root of a tree, its branches, twigs, and leaves become satisfied, and by supplying food to the stomach all the senses of the body become satisfied.
And similarly, by engaging in transcendental service to the Supreme Lord, all the demigods, and all the living entities automatically become satisfied. Okay, let me speak.
Na mam Vishnupadaj, Krishna, Prysty, Bhutale, Srimate, Bhaktividanta, Swami Nitiname, Namaste, Sara Swati Devi, Gurawani, Pracharine, Nirvize Sumy, Paschatia de Shayne, when chakalpatar, Sindu vecha, patita nampanayow, we've never bioned Maha Jay Sri Krishna Chaitanya Prabunitananda Sjadvaita Gadat Hara Sivasa de Gora Bhakta Vrinda Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.
Three fundamental spiritual paths in Vedic knowledge
Yantah praviši mamavachimu pra suktam sangivayata kila shakti darakswadamna hanjam schahasta charana sravanatva gadim pranandambhagavat epurusai tobim Namasrishammanu Mapisa Chiputramatraswarupam Rupam Tasyagrajam, Urupurim Madurim, Goshtavatim, Rada Kundi Girivaramahur, Radi Kamadavasu Prattoya Pratitakri Bayashri Guru tam na to smi Swasya stu Vishwasi Kalah Prasida tam deyan to butani Shiwammi Taudiya, Manaascha Badramba
So let's deliberate little a bit on this statement of Krishna in the context of Bhagavad Gita. Bhagavad-gītā generally gives a review. Krishna takes a very liberal approach in Bhagavad-gītā.
He doesn't force Arjuna to accept a particular path. He explains impartially different ways of self-realization. He starts with karma-yoga and he explains the basic rules of karma-yoga.
It takes a little bit, talks a little bit about jñāna-yoga, Aṣṭāṅga Yoga, which are quite prominent features of spirituality.
And the 11th skandha of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam Krishna very clearly says that actually to realize something sublime, to realize the Supreme Lord, to realize spirit, as opposed
to material experience, one has either to take karma-yoga or jñāna-yoga or bhakti-yoga.
And of course, there are so many different religions, but if we know the science, we will very clearly understand that different paths which are there, or different religions which are there, they're more or less mixtures of these different approaches.
Only three fundamentally different approaches are there, and different permutations of these approaches exist in human society for the pleasure of human beings and for the service of the Lord.
But ultimately there's only three basic fundamental path. One is karma-yoga. Karma-yoga means that you try to act in this world in a very pious way.
And in a very detached way, without being attached to the fruits of your actions. That's all Krishna explains very elaborately in Bhagavad-gītā.
Karma-yoga means you try to be very pious, you try to do different rituals, and ultimately, the essence of karma yoga is yajña. Which means that you're not doing it for yourself, not for your selfish interest.
Yajña means your sacrifice. And this path of spiritual realization teaches us very important principle that to become happy in this world we should relinquish our selfishness.
Unless we remain, until we remain selfish and only think about our own happiness, we will never be happy. This paradox is explained in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. It's very easy to become happy.
The only condition to become happy is to forget that you should become happy. At the moment when you uh relinquish this idea, I should become happy by all means, you become automatically happy.
As long as you are an anxiety, when I will become happy, you will never become happy.
But of course, the path of karma yoga is much more elaborate than what I'm trying to present, and Krishna gives some details, but basically, he points out that the main problem of a human being is his ahaṅkāra, his false ego, false identity, and false understanding that I'm the doer.
To perform karma yoga, we have to understand that there is also Supreme Lord, who is involved in our actions, and ultimately our actions should be devoted to Him.
That's the first very fundamental path of spiritual realization to learn how to act properly in this world.
Because otherwise when we act improperly, when we act more or less spontaneously according to our faulty understanding of the nature of this world, the result will be our entanglement.
We will be more and more entangled into these meshes of karma. And this is basically what everyone is experiencing here.
We are trying to make a solution, but oftentimes, if not all of our problems, but oftentimes the solution becomes the worst problem than the original problem, which we were intending to solve.
You know, this is the history of human humanity. They are trying to solve the problems of existence, but the more they try, the more difficult and impossible this existence becomes. That's what we see all the time.
People are very hard, trying very hard to solve the problems, but the problems becomes more and more severe. So that's anyway.
I will not give any contemporary examples to be politically correct, but there are plenty of examples when people are trying to solve the problems and instead of solution they get worse problem.
So the path of karma yoga is to teach us how to act without being entangled. How to act without being um enmeshed uh in this uh you know the consequences of our action.
Physical disciplines of aṣṭāṅga-yoga
And that's important, that's very important science. Then Krishna explains parts of aṣṭāṅga-yoga very elaborately.
He even says that, you know, he even explains how the asana of a yogi should be that you should put deer skin there and all this kind of stuff.
But then he comes to this ninth chapter which we are reading, and in the ninth chapter, he more or less starts explaining bhakti yoga.
I will not go into details of Ashtanga yoga although you know it would take a lot of time.
But everyone more or less knows what Ashtanga yoga is, you know you sit, then you do yama-niyama, then you breathe properly, and then you meditate. That's all fine.
But here Krishna comes to the subject matter of Bhakti He starts glorifying it.
He starts description of bhakti, which is the way of devotion, the way of surrender, the way of grace, the way of reliance upon the mercy of God. He starts glorifying it.
He says, Raja Vidya, Raja Guhya, this is the royal pass. This is the pass which will bring you all the success. But then he says, but there is one difficulty, one condition.
Ultimately, the path of bhakti yoga is glorified through all the Vedic literature. Bhakti is again and again stressed and Srimad Bhagavatam is of course the scripture which entirely devoted to the path of bhakti.
The bhakti is there in Rāmāyaṇa and is there in Bhagavad-gītā. But Krishna says there is a difficulty in bhakti. It's a very simple process. You don't need to do any elaborate procedures.
You know, when he describes Ashtanga Yoga, he goes into this nitty-gritty details of procedure. He says how the asana should be, how you should sit erect. For the people of Kali Yuga, even to sit erect is very difficult.
First you have to learn how to sit for a few months or maybe a few years. Because meditation doesn't happen when your spine, when your backbone is not in the proper position.
When your spine is not straight, you will never get the effect of meditation. It is said in Vedānta-sūtra.
In Vedānta-sūtra, it is said that the minimum condition of meditation is that you have to learn how to sit very, you know, without any movements and with erect spine. Very important.
Anyway, we are bhakti yogis, so we can see it whatever way we like. We are not dependent on the erect spine. We have some hope. So uh so uh he
glorifies bhakti-yoga in the beginning of the ninth chapter, saying that it's uh the results are very uh impressive because the results do not depend on our endeavors.
Our only endeavor in bhakti-yoga is to endeavor to surrender, endeavor to relinquish our independent nature, but otherwise, you know, everything else is just, you know, we're dependent on the mercy of God.
And that's basically every religion, big religion in this world more or less, saying the same thing. But Krishna in this verse, in this particular verse, he says there is one difficulty. There is one condition.
The path of grace is simple because it depends on the Almighty Lord and on His mercy, and because He is Almighty and He is merciful, then it's easy, you know.
We depend on Him and he can do whatever he likes. It's just we have to be sincere. And Krishna exactly says about this in this verse: he says
the difficulty in bhakti-yoga is that you have to be surrendered to Him, you have to believe in Him, and you should not rely too much on yourself.
Challenge of self-reliance versus divine dependence
And that's very difficult. Because we learn from our childhood how to rely upon ourselves. We are programmed more or less to be self-reliant. The whole civilization, the modern civilization, is pushing us in this direction.
We should be self-reliant, we should not depend on anyone. You know, this independence, this so-called independence, is the slogan of modern civilization. Everyone should be independent.
You know, every state should be independent, every individual should be independent. You know, this is stressed again and again and again against the reality. Because in reality, we're all dependent.
No matter how much we try to be independent, it's completely ridiculous. This notion of independence is ridiculous because we are not self-sufficient.
But depending on the air, you know, you may declare your independence, but you know, it means basically that you don't need any supply from outside. And your independence will be finished very soon because you depend on air.
You depend on food, you depend on water, you depend on other living entities, you on this huge human civilization, and ultimately we all dependent on God.
Which is very difficult to recognize, very difficult to admit this truth. And Krishna says that the difficulty in bhakti yoga is that from the very beginning you are not dependent on yourself. And that's very difficult.
In the path of karma yoga, you're dependent on yourself. I will be very pious. You know, I will not perform any sins. You know, I'm I'm so pious. Krishna is even, you know, he's laughing at this attitude.
You cannot be completely pious in this world. Inevitably you commit some sinful activities. Inevitably.
There is no slightest chance for you to live this especially in this day and age, you know. Forget it. Everything is so contaminated in this day and age.
But what I mean to say is that on the path of jñāna-yoga, on the path of aṣṭāṅga-yoga, on the path of karma-yoga, people are relying on themselves, on their skills, on their abilities, on their intelligence, on their purity.
And that's very pleasing to our ego. I'm doing it myself. You know, I'm I'm doing hatha-yoga exercises almost every day. Today I didn't do it.
And I know so much pleasure is there when you somehow or other stretch yourself to the max and you feel that you achieved something. You know, you put this leg under this, you know, ear and you feel great.
It's very painful. It's totally unnatural, but your ego is very satisfied. Look at me. The only problem is this, not many people see how you do it You want to invite everyone to show how great you are.
But the point which I am trying to make is that both on the path of aṣṭāṅga-yoga, haṭha-yoga, whatever you call it, dhyāna-yoga when you try to meditate or karma-yoga, you rely yoga when you try to meditate or karma yoga, you rely on your own endeavors, which is very pleasing to our ego.
I'm doing this and look how great I am. I'm pure, I'm very you know flexible, I'm meditating, I'm achieving this.
And all of a sudden you come to the path of bhakti-yoga and the first thing you are being told, nothing depends on you. And that's the death of false ego. That's the death blow on our ego.
And uh uh that's the difficulty in bhakti-yoga, and that's the cause of our failure in this path.
Because we have been programmed in a different way, all the time we are trying to depend on ourselves and forget about the mercy of God.
Instead of being all the time dependent on him and trying to invoke his mercy upon us.
It's a completely different attitude which is not easy to imbibe. This attitude it's it requires certain uh how shall I say this certain programming of ourselves to be dependent on the mercy of Krishna and on the mercy of devotees.
That's exactly how Śrīla Prabhupāda starts explaining this verse. He says, Krishna here says that if you don't have Shraddha, if you don't have faith, you will not achieve success in this path.
You will have to come back to this world of death and birth. You will have to come back to this world of saṁsāra. Nivartante, nivartante basically means you will be rotating again and and again in this saṁsāra.
Again, birth again, death again, and again new birth and new death and new birth and new death and without end.
Understanding śraddhā as respect and desire
He says the only way to cut this vicious circle of karma, is śraddhā. When you stop relying on yourself, otherwise you will just be rotating in this circle of person death without end.
And Śrīla Prabhupāda, when he starts explaining this, he says that how you get faith, you get faith from others. You get this conviction from others. You cannot really get it yourself because you
have to find somebody who has this complete faith, and I will explain now what is the difference ofсил the concept of faith, which I want to explain in this particular case, with the normal understanding of faith.
Usually when we speak about faith on a religious path, it's not a very nice concept. You know, you just believe. You just believe. And you know what does it mean?
You know, basically it means that you turn off your critical rational intelligence, and you say, yeah, I just believe.
I don't know why, I don't know how, I don't know for what, but I just believe because I want to be saved. It's it oftentimes this is the idea, you know.
I just believe, and those who don't believe in what I believe, they will go to hell, and because I believe in what I believe, I will go to heaven, and this is my belief, and whoever doesn't believe in it, that's their problem, it's not my problem.
So that's you know, I remember I once spoke with one person and he said we came to him, he was very, you know uh he was sleeping, you know, it was already midday and he was still sleeping.
He woke up and I asked him what you're doing. He said, you know, I'm already safe. I don't need to. Because I believe in Jesus and I'm already saved. So I'll go back to sleep.
Because he says, my name is already there in the book of life. You know, and because your name is already there, you know, you can as well sleep the rest of your life.
So, uh, uh, it's—it has some, you know, strange understanding. But the word śraddhā, even though it is translated as faith, it has a completely different emotional content.
Śraddhā, and the verbal root śrad, from which this word is derived basically means two things. Śrat means ādara, ādara means respect and kāṅkṣā, the desire.
In other words, śraddhā means the certain emotional condition when you have respect towards the object of your śraddhā, it's very important to have respect, to have adoration of the object of your belief
and desire to achieve it. That's what śraddhā means. So śraddhā is a very active condition of our consciousness, of our heart. We understand that there is force which is higher than me.
And because it's so much higher and so benevolent, it naturally invokes respect. So belief doesn't mean that you turn on your critical capacity. Belief does not mean that you turn off your intelligence.
Belief does not mean that you become irrational.
Belief means that you know that there is something which demands or commands rather not demands commands respect which you need to respect to approach it to elevate yourself, to elevate your consciousness.
And another aspect of faith, very important aspect of faith, is this kāṅkṣā, which means desire, desire to achieve it. You know, this what faith means.
So if you have this attitude, there is something higher than myself and I adore it. I really, you know, I'm in awe and reverence in front of this force.
And I want to come closer to this particular destination, which is there, if this attitude is there within our heart, then our endeavors will be put in this path.
Basically, Krishna says here in this verse, very simple thing. He says that unless you have śraddhā in this path, you will not have undivided endeavors.
You will not really do something, your mind will be distracted. And oftentimes you will you will think about this and about that.
And naturally, if you are in this condition, you will not achieve the goal of this path. Krishna says not a fundamentalistic thing, he says a very simple thing.
If you don't apply undivided endeavors into this path, if you don't really understand that there is a goal much higher than any goals which are achievable in this world, and a goal which needs to be achieved by a human being.
If you don't understand this, that there is this goal which is worthy to be achieved and which is actually so overwhelmingly beautiful. If you don't understand this, then you will not really do it properly.
You know, you may have some little, you know, little desire, maybe just in case it works, you may chant some Hare Krishna when you feel like chanting. But aprāpyām antaṁ vartante mṛtyu-saṁsāra-vartmani. Sarva-vartmani.
If you have this attitude, you will not achieve Krishna. Just because you don't have the proper attitude, you don't understand how beautiful this goal is, how important this goal is, and how easy it is to be achieved.
And because of this, you will be, your intelligence will be many-branched, as Krishna Himself says that bahu-śākhā hy anantāś ca buddhayo 'vyavasāyinām, those people who don't have faith, they don't have determination.
And because they don't have determination, their intelligence is many branched. You know, today they want this, tomorrow they want something else, and ultimately they only achieve birth and death.
They have normal quote-unquote attitude in this material world, and it basically means to have normal attitude in this material world, it basically means to be distracted.
You know, what is this modern civilization? You know, my Guru Maharaj says that there is a weapon of mass destruction. You know, not destruction, but destruction.
You know, we are attacked by different things which distract our attention in different directions. And because of this, we are not achieving anything.
What we're achieving, we're achieving mṛtyu-saṁsāra-vartmani. We're achieving the birth and death. Because we don't really understand there is the higher goal which we should achieve.
And that's exactly what Krishna says here.
Reciprocal nature of Krishna's mercy
When you have this proper attitude, then you will you will get what this path can give you, and this past can give you so much. Ultimately, this past can give you God Himself.
When you become surrendered to Him, Krishna Himself says in Bhagavad-gītā, in the beginning of Bhagavad-gītā, in the fourth chapter of Bhagavad-gītā, Mamprapayant Gita, in the beginning of Bhagavad Gita, in the fourth chapter of Bhagavad Gita, Mamprapayant AbstathaMi Bhajjamya.
When you understand that there is God and He is benevolent, He is merciful, He is beautiful, and He plays flute, by the way. He's a very good musician. And he's he's loving, he's waiting for you.
And you try to surrender to him. Krishna says, how you surrender to me, Tamstathamya Bhajamya, I am reciprocating with you, I am serving you accordingly.
You know, this is a very beautiful principle which Krishna formulates in the very beginning. He reciprocates with our endeavors. And if we give ourselves to him, what he can do? He will give himself to us.
You know, this is what he himself says. This is what I will do. You know, the only problem is that we don't want to give us to him and therefore he doesn't want to give him to us. It's fair, isn't it?
There is nothing cruel about it, there is nothing unfair. It's very fair. You know, whatever we do, you know, he will reciprocate accordingly to the extent which we do.
So he expects from us only this, and he says, please don't blame me. Don't blame me. I am playing a very fair game. You know, I will I will give you everything which you deserve. I'm playing fair game.
So that's a very interesting thing because it really puts blame on us. Whereas, you know the, usual attitude of a human being is to blame everyone else and ultimately to blame God. This is what we are habitually doing.
You know, he is, he is, yeah, no, but I don't even want to speak about him, he's so bad. People always blame God. You know, because it's very difficult for our ego to admit that the problem is this.
We usually try to find problem somewhere else. And we don't really realize then when we're trying to point out the problem outside, then the three fingers uh they point in the right direction. The problem is there.
One finger says this is the problem, three fingers says, no, no, this is the problem. The problem is here. You know.
Ease of giving up false identity
So, you know, this uh attitude it's very interesting. In uh I just read in uh Brihat Bhagavatamrita by Sanatana Goswami. Surprisingly he quotes Vasishta Muni from Yoga Vasishta.
Yoga Vasishta is a great book which is not recommended to be read by Vaishnavas because it's all about impersonal realization about Diana and this and that. I I don't know what it is all about. I only heard about this.
I never read it. But nevertheless, Sanatana Goswami, one of our Acharyas, he quotes a verse from Yoga Vasistha. Taking the authority of this great sage of ancient India that he says that to
give up false ego is as easy as to pluck a flower or as to close the eyes. It's very easy, you just give it up, no problem. I'm the spirit soul, I'm not the body, you know, it's it's easy.
You know, you look inside your heart, you understand, I'm the spirit soul, I'm connected with God. I'm already connected with God, there's no problem, you know.
And uh false ego basically means uh you don't need to be proud of anything. You don't need to be proud that you are, you know, Dutch or Russian or American or Indian or whatever.
You don't need to be proud that you're a human being. You don't need to be proud of anything. You're just tiny little spirit soul, and you're part and parcel
of God, and your you know your only natural condition of your consciousness is to serve the Supreme Consciousness and and to think about Him as Krishna Himself says, man-manā bhava mad-bhakto.
So, you know, it's it's it's very easy, uh, but at the same time, you know, we make it very we we always try to make it look as if it's very difficult.
You know, we always try to prove to everyone, it's so difficult, it's so difficult to give up false ego. No, it's false. What's difficult to give up something which is false.
It's very difficult to give up something which is real and which is part of yourself. False ego is not a part of yourself. It's, you know, it's it's very easy. You know, you don't have to give it up, you know.
This is the thing which is there, you know. It's very difficult to give it up. Why is it difficult to give it up? Only because I, I cling to it, you know. Otherwise, it's not so difficult to give it up.
Because it's not a part of yourself. So uh and uh this is being accomplished by uh this uh understanding, by this phase.
If we really have this proper attitude towards the reality, if we really understand who I am and who is God, then it's very easy. You know, yes, I believe in God and ultimately He will take care of me.
Distinction between bhakti and prapatti
Like it's interesting.
It's not exactly our philosophy, but nevertheless I will explain a little bit how Sri Vaishnavas, they treat—they say that there is difference between bhakti and prapati or saranagati between surrender and bhakti, bhakti-yoga. They describe this fine difference.
Even though it's not our really—our understanding of our concept, nevertheless, I will explain it. Interesting thing which is there.
They say bhakti more or less, but what—what does bhakti mean? Krishna explains the essence of bhakti in two words.
And basically, the essence of the whole Bhagavad-gītā can be condensed just, you know, two words you have to remember. Man-manā. Remember about Me. Think about Me. That's—that's bhakti. Bhakti.
And they say bhakti is very difficult because you have to remember about God all the time. This is the first difficulty. Second difficulty, not only this: you have to remember about God in the moment of death.
Because Krishna himself says that whatever you remember at the moment of death, you become this. And then they say, but there is this path of prapatti or śaraṇāgati or complete surrender.
And then you don't have to remember about the Lord all the time, you don't have to remember about him in the moment of death, you just have to come to him and say, I'm yours. You please remember about me at the moment of my death and everything will be accomplished.
You know. I don't have to remember about you. I, I'm coming to you, you please remember about me. So even though we don't make this distinction,
we say that, uh, there is no bhakti without prapatti, without Śaraṇāgati. That Śaraṇāgati is the first step in the path of bhakti. But the idea is very beautiful. The idea of Śaraṇāgati is nevertheless very beautiful.
Yes. We become dependent on God. And because we become dependent on God, we try to invest this phase which is necessary,
as Krishna says here in this verse, which is necessary to practice bhakti in our chanting of the holy name. We are not chanting mechanically, but we are chanting with this understanding. I'm yours.
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma, Rāma, Hare, Hare. And uh and this creates a connection between us and God.
And, uh, and as Prabhupada says that basically, you know, śraddhā means we believe that by doing this we accomplish everything else.
Everything else is being achieved automatically because, because by achieving God, there is nothing else to be achieved. There is nothing else to be achieved. If we achieve God, you know, we achieve everything.
You know, if we don't achieve God, we don't achieve anything. That's very simple choice which we have. If we want to achieve everything, we should try to achieve God.
And if we don't achieve him, then we will achieve something else. This is something else, Krishna says here in Bhagavad-gītā, mṛtyu-saṁsāra-vartmani.
You achieve something which you already have, which you don't need to achieve. This path of saṁsāra, of birth and death in this material world. So the choices for us, and I guess, mm, that's enough for this evening.
Uh, you know, that's I told already too much. So if, if you have any questions, I, I will be happy to answer.
Role of śraddhā in concentrated spiritual practice
Yes, Pasha. Guru Maharaj, you always stress, stress too much about śraddhā, which is the first stage of spiritual development according to us. So I'm wondering, does a devotee come to a point after
becoming advanced and already be beyond śraddhā, uh, beyond niṣṭhā and so on. Does he come to a point where, where he doesn't work on śraddhā anymore? Doesn't work on śraddhā. Yeah, you know, we don't try to develop.
No, see again, uh, when, when you say he works on śraddhā, again the concept is there. I have to believe in something. No.
Shraddha is again this emotional attitude when you know that there is some benevolent force higher than you. And it's not I mean usually when people say I work on shraddha, it means basically that I don't know anything.
I don't realize anything, but I believe that in the future I will realize something.
This is not what faith really means because in the previous verse Krishna says pratyakṣāvagamaṁ dharmyaṁ, this path gives you direct realization from the very beginning. You know, we don't believe in God.
In one sense, we realize that God is there. From the very beginning, we have some maybe not so distinct, maybe a little faint, but still realization that there is God in His holy name.
When we chant Holy Name, we feel there is something. You know, so uh we're not dependent on shraddha in our realization.
What we're dependent on shraddha in, uh shraddha gives us the concentration on practicing. Practice gives us realization.
But shraddha is necessary, faith is necessary, faith in this understanding, is necessary to be concentrated on this practice.
So and it's always there, you know, because you know we we we want to be concentrated rather than distracted on this. So it's like a fuel that feeds always. Yeah.
So it's not shraddha is not the prerequisite of realisation, uh the practice is the prerequisite of realisation, but Shraddha gives us the proper attitude towards the practice which we have. Gives us this nirbandha-matiḥ.
Like Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu says that when you practice bhakti, when you chanting should be with nirbandha-matiḥ. Nirbandha-matiḥ means undivided intelligence. Mati means intelligence.
Nirbandha means undivided intelligence. So this is what we get when we meet with somebody who has this undivided intelligence. Then by looking at him we become not envious, but we we become con it's contagious, you know.
We we feel that I also want to be like this. And this undivided intelligence is needed to practice bhakti and to get realization quickly. Otherwise, bhakti, practice of bhakti is not dependent on anything.
It's not even dependent on Shraddha. uh we cannot practice pure bhakti without shraddha. But bhakti we can practice without Shraddha. But the results will be not as impressive.
Harmonizing personal action with divine will
But it's uh Maharaj
I have a question about the concept of surrender and there is an ethical dilemma that I that I often encounter um the concept of surrender is very beautiful and rewarding and um also the to to be liberated from illusion from the illusion that that that that we are independent of that we are independent, uh it's also a b way of relief and to to give us a sense of relief to be in this world. At the same time, often being in the material world, we realize that even the decision not to act has implications.
And living in whatever context work, larger society, global problems, whatever context we talk, there's always this question that okay if I don't act that also has implication
and then is the question and there there is the ethical dilemma comes from me. Is it maybe selfish that me for to protect my spiritual peace and my spiritual path, I decide not to act?
Or do I act but then I get entangled in what you also call this multi branched intelligence because then you really have to go into it.
And and there are causes that are really calling, that there are injustices that just Sure, sure, sure, sure. I I got your point. Yeah. Uh no, surrender doesn't mean that you don't act.
Surrender means that you harmonize your independent will. You independently or voluntarily harmonize your independent will with the Supreme Will.
Surrender means you relinquish your independence in the sense that you know you're only doing what he wants you to do, not what you want to do.
So it's the way of living in this world, being in harmony with the original creator of this world. And it doesn't mean that Krishna himself says you cannot really stop working for a second.
You know, we always work. We always act. So the question is not giving up the work, but to harmonize our independent will with the our minutely independent will with the supremely independent will of the Lord.
That's what it is. And therefore, surrender starts with Sanukulyasi Sankalpah prati kulyasi varjanam.
Surrender starts from this solemn declaration that I will only do something which is pleasing to the Lord, and I will not do something which is displeasing to the Lord.
Yes, there are so many problems, and these problems are created by people who are doing something against the desire of the Lord. And if we have this determination, I will only act in
Recognizing actions pleasing to Krishna
the way which is pleasing to Him. I have a question up also up on this: and how do we feel or know that Krishna is happy with what we are doing and pleased?
So, for example, if we offer our workday or something else or other services, how, how, um, Prabhupada here in the part of the purport, via Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, explains it is that if you water the root of the tree, then all the branches and leaves automatically become watered.
So basically it means when you do something good which is pleasing to Krishna, you also feel satisfied. This satisfaction in your heart is a very strong indicator that Krishna is also satisfied. You're part of him.
And you know, everyone knows you do something good and you feel good after that. You do something which is pleasing to Krishna.
And sometimes it's difficult because we are weak and we are put in some moral dilemma as the previous lady said.
So but still, you know, and mm and always there is a temptation to do something which is easy but not so correct. And if you overcome this weakness of your heart and still do something,
try it even though it's more difficult, you feel satisfaction. You feel stronger at that time. And if you know if if we lead a pure life, we feel satisfied, we feel very peaceful and very happy inside.
So his satisfaction is, and if we still have doubt we can ask somebody who is more advanced than ourselves am I pleasing the Lord, and he will look at you and say, "No, you're not," or maybe he would say yes. Yes, please.
I wouldn't want to go back one to the beginning.
I would like to go back one to the beginning, regarding to the yajñas for the Vedic culture. But as far as I remember reading in the past, it used to be that they referred that the yajña actually not really meant as a sacrifice for God, in the sense that Western cultures normally regarded, but it was actually kind of, um, I don't know how to explain it, but, um, as an act which was I would say even more materialistic than actually spiritual in many aspects.
For example, the Aśvamedha-yajña and others were really kind of ceremonies that meant for the kings and other things rather than the personal activities per se. Uh no, you know this grand bombastic
ceremonies which are described in different scriptures like Mahābhārata or Rāmāyaṇa, and they were there, they were very impressive, but they were not the main part of the Vedic life.
The main part of Vedic life, pious Vedic, you know, members of Vedic civilization, was they would do daily yajna and not even once, several times a day.
And the idea behind this yajna was to return, you know, basically yajna was an act of gratitude. And one of the yajnas was, for example, you know, if any guest would knock at your door, you have to feed him.
That's also yajna. You know, and it's not selfish at all.
You know, and they would do these homas at home, uh, and uh this Homa Yajna, small yajna which they do would actually to purify the atmosphere at home, uh to make it clean from all the you know microbes and all the bacteria and all this kind of stuff.
So the the idea behind every act of yajna. Actually Dharmashastras they explain that every act of yours should be yajna but you have five main rinas, five main debts. And to pay for these debts you have to
do yajna. One of the yajnas was you you have debt to the great sages of the past. How you pay off the debt to them? You study the scriptures which they which they created for you.
And you apply your intelligence by you know thinking and studying what they they wrote. This is also yajna. This is Swadhyaya. So the all this ashvamedha yajnas, that's that's a very special, very rare event.
But because they are so special, they're described there. But this, you know, usually what people do every day.
Doesn't have prominent place in literature like Mahabharata, but it has very prominent place in Dharmashastras.
Yes, as far as I know it's known, it used to be as well that the brāhmaṇas were supposed to be the ones that make it. No no.
Every every every member of uh three higher castes uh was supposed to do yajna every day at his home uh as a way of living to purify heart, to purify the existence. You know, again, this is when they you know invite Brahmins and this is a very special rare occasion. This is not the normal thing.
Normal thing is that every day you do something. And you know, even Pranayama, according to Bhagavad-gītā, Bhagavad-gītā fourth chapter describes different kinds of yagyas. So many yagyas are there.
And it is said when you do pranayama, it's also yagya. You're trying to balance your prana, pana, all this, you know, pranas which are there in the body. This is also yagya, you uh you limit yourself.
So, you know, and it doesn't, you know, you don't invite Brahmins to do pranayam, you know.
So it's again the the simple yagya which uh householders would do every morning and every evening on during Sandhya, you know, f simple fire sacrifice.
It's just, you know, family members for certain purification, what they did during the day. It's it was a very beautiful custom. Of course it's non existent anymore.
But people would come, members of the family, you know, put the fire and chant some mantras and meditate, you know, on what they are going to do during the day in the morning and then meditate what they did during the day. So that was the yagya.
Everything else is just, you know we when when don't really know this, we may get the false impression from reading the books.
Karmic allocation of pleasure and pain
That's why we we need to, you know, interact with people who know Yes. And I wanted to ask regarding um the Brahma prayers to to Krishna.
Uh in that chapter he says you know that material body is programmed for exact amount of pleasure or distress and
that you shouldn't play uh you shouldn't pay any attention to that, you should pay attention just to pleasing Lord because just that action will give you like a real outcome.
So if I understand correctly, this is he speaks about you know the surrender.
But then my question is what happens with um your relationship with um like with your relationship with um leisure and distress because it it doesn't go away. So how should it look in practical ways?
In the material life we tend to pay too much attention to our pleasures and distresses.
And the idea here is that the amount of pleasure and the amount of pain which you will experience is more or less fixed, and to pay too much attention to it or to apply too much endeavors to avoid pain or to obtain pleasures is more or less useless.
Because you cannot really quantitively increase the amount of pleasure or decrease the amount of pain. You will get your share.
You may to a certain extent maybe a little bit here and there by shuffling around in this karmic game, you know, you may.
So and because we are so preoccupied with this pleasure and pain game, we pay too much attention and waste time in this.
What basically Brahmā is saying that you know the pleasure and pain it's more or less for granted. It will come on its own accord. But your endeavors towards God are not really counted in your karma.
They can give you completely different result. You know, this is not something for granted.
If you invest your time and energy there, if you invest your time and energy trying to avoid painful situations or trying to increase pleasurable situation. You know, the result will not be so impressive.
You will end up with the same thing, more or less, uh which is predestined in your karma.
But if you invest your time and energy in achieving God, uh then you you can have very impressive result because it's not within uh your karma and your endeavors in this area in this field will bring uh amazing results.
That's that's what it is. But but then does it mean that like if I like if I try to achieve uh some kind of pleasure like bigger amount of pleasure and faster so does it shorten my life?
And on contrary if I try to avoid like to minimize pleasures and the stresses so that makes my life longer. Your life, the span of your life is more or less predestined.
But you definitely can shorten your life, no problem. It's very easy. You know you just jump from the roof.
And yes you can you can prolong your life by doing certain practices, like you know, pranayam, for example, is one of those. Definitely.
And yes, if you use up the energy which is there in your uh you know in your body too quickly and the you know the karmic uh karmic uh amount of pleasure which you are supposed to experience over the long time. If you use a use it up very quickly, yes, you may shorten your life, yes.
But the basic point of Bhagavad-gītā, Krishna again and again says in Bhagavad-gītā so many times is just unbelievable. He just says, don't pay too much attention to this.
You know, we cannot really, he cannot say don't pay any attention. We naturally will pay attention. But you know, if you get something nice, pleasurable, don't be too elated. And if you get something not nice, don't be too morose about this.
Try to be equipped and try to put your mental energy into something else which will give you better results rather than, you know, making too much out of it. That's our natural human tendency.
Strengthening faith through scriptural study
When we're elated, we have to be elated like anything, and when we're morose or depressed, you know, then the whole world should know that we're depressed and a
great person. And when you say, "I just trust in you because on my own experience I cannot say that this way will lead me, will guide me to the spiritual world.
And uh my question is uh how do we get this experience when I can say oh yeah now I can say that this practice uh
will guide me to the spiritual world." In the beginning, it's okay to base our faith entirely on somebody else's example. But we have to.
Besides gaining the experience, I will I will speak a little bit about gaining experience a little later, but we also have to obtain the rational foundation of our faith by reading scriptures.
You know it's fine if we see somebody whom we trust and he is doing this and I will also be doing this. That's okay.
But you also have to have an independent sort of conviction based on your deliberation and studying the scriptures. It's logical. This is how it is. Everything fits neatly into the worldview.
So that's that's very important because otherwise, you know, something will happen, you know, and then you will be nowhere. You know. It's good to base our faith in personal example of somebody, but not entirely.
We should be independently also strong. When this strong faith will be there, then our practice will also bring the experience which will give us which will strengthen our conviction.
You know, the results of our practice or of our sādhana very much depend on how we are convinced in what we're doing, how concentrated in what we are doing.
And you know, I'm I'm sure like for example, being a vegetarian, you know, in the beginning you need some phase that it's good, but ultimately you very quickly you understand that I don't need this barbecue. You know, there's nothing good about it.
So in the same way, you know, if you do something can you will you will I'm sure you know i i uh it's definitely uh it's very pleasing to my false ego to hear what you said, but uh it's exaggeration.
I don't believe that you don't have any personal experience.
Relinquishing the desire for independent happiness
You definitely have plenty of it, but you know, then the question, last question.
So, Bamaraj, so why is it then after hearing so much about it, after having someone who is guiding you in this path, and then after even having some experience and actually realizing that this is the ultimate goal of life, everything else is just basically doesn't matter because it's temporary.
Why still we endeavor in something else and we are not like, you know, like this, you know? Yeah, because you still have, you know, you believe, but at the same time you think maybe something else will also make me happy.
This hope that I will become happy independently on Krishna is there, so we're just kind of we are doing this: yes, Krishna, yes, yes, I believe in you, but let me try this or let me try that.
And Krishna says, yes, I let you try this, no problem. And he makes sure that you will be frustrated. Thank you very much. Hare Krishna. Thank you. His Holiness Bhaktivaigana Goswami Maharaj ki jaya! Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!