Chanting is the Method of Expressing Our Love
Bhakti Vijnana Goswami · London · 2016
Chapters
Human desire for connection through yoga
Antah pra visya mamavacima prasuptum sanjibayata kila shakti darah svadam nanyam shahastacharana sravanatva gadim pranandam bhagavate prausadatu nama. Hare Krishna. Very happy to see every one of you.
And I will say a few words about this event and about this method of expressing our love as we all know we all're looking for love. That's the deepest desire of every human being.
In fact, the very word yoga means connection. And connection is something which we all hankering for. All this modern so-called development is all about connecting people: iPhones, internet, social network.
It's all some sort of yoga. Because love is about connection. Love is about yoga. The problem is that in the material world,
when people are trying to connect with each other, it's always somewhat distorted, somewhat contaminated by our selfish nature. This selfishness which manifests us expectations, conditions.
When we enter into relationship or into connection, we always have some conditions. And ultimately, these conditions, they destroy the connection. We want connection. We want to be connected.
We want to feel love and to exchange love. But this selfish nature of ours is a very big impediment, and sometimes we don't even know how it destroys the relationship.
Those people who are who in the beginning would say to each other, I cannot live without you. will say, I don't want to see your face. Only because of these expectations.
It's very interesting, in the beginning when mother has a baby, her love is very pure because naturally she doesn't expect anything from the baby. She just wants to give. And therefore she feels the greatest joy.
She always thinks about the baby, you know, she's so closely connected with the baby. But then the seed of expectation is still there.
It may from the surface look very pure, but because the seed of expectation, seed of selfishness is still there, and this seed grows along with the baby. And the baby grows, the seed grows, and love disappears.
In the beginning it was so pure, she just wanted to do something for the baby, to give something. But then a few years later, you know, sometimes children and parents they hate each other.
Again, the same dynamic is there because of this selfishness or selfish nature of human being, ultimately our connections are being destroyed mercilessly. Even though we don't want it.
Divine inspiration behind material attraction
And we don't know what to do with this. So this bhakti yoga is actually the greatest way to establish the connection with God and ultimately brings us closer to God.
I wanted to uh yeah and uh be because uh why uh this happens with human beings, why this connection of love always uh is uh always uh ultimately corrupted by our expectations because we are conditioned. Our love is conditioned because we are conditioned.
Our karma, our previous saṁskāras, they all create desires, they all create expectations. And if two people are conditioned, their relationship cannot be unconditional.
But God is so great that He gave us little experience, little glimpse of what it means to have unconditional relationship. Everyone has this some experience of it in his life.
When we see somebody and when we experience something which we call love, ultimately it's not that we love this person. We love the divine nature of this person.
For some time, God gives us this experience that we see God in Him. Ultimately, we are looking for God and He's just kind of hinting, you're looking for me, but you're looking in the wrong place.
You know, we look on a boy or on a girl, and we think, you know and we have this experience of love uh for you know sometimes even for a few weeks if we are lucky and
we are totally oblivious of everyone of everything else, and we are completely happy in this experience.
But then uh sooner or later the you know the illusion disappears and we see the ugly face of someebody who is not so divine. But actually, the real experience is that we see the divine spark in this person.
The spark of divine qualities and the spark of divine qualities inspires us so much. And that's inspiration is so great that people are always looking for it again and again and again.
Therefore, in Vedic tradition, in Vedic culture, in Vedic religion or whatever, in Vedic civilization, the name of God is Krishna.
When we're singing this song, we're basically looking or attracting, trying to get the experience of somebody who is attracting everyone. Krishna means all attractive.
Krishna means somebody who has all the attractive qualities. And whatever attraction we feel, whatever experience of attraction we have in this world, it's ultimately for him because he is the center of all attraction.
He is this attractive force around whom everything gravitates. Like the sun has this gravitation force, attraction force. Ultimately it's coming because it's a part of Krishna, part of God. So that's the nature of God.
He is all attractive. He's attracting, he's pulling us to himself.
Three components of pure spiritual love
And whatever attraction we feel is ultimately for him. So I want to say a few words about the nature of this experience in the purest form. It is explained in a great treatise about love,
which is called Priti Sandarbha, that experience of love consists of three things. Whatever experience of love we have, it always has these three components which we have to be very clear about.
And the greatest joy, the greatest uh uh Happiness which we experience is because of these three things. The first thing in love is that when we feel this initial attraction.
When we see somebody who is attracting us and we feel this initial sort of favorable attitude, this is the first thing we want that this person will become happy. This initial feeling: let everything be okay with him.
Let him become happy, let he become very joyful, or whatever. So, this favorable attitude is the beginning of love.
As much as when we hate somebody, then the feeling towards this person is let something wrong will happen with him. And you feel very happy if something wrong happens with him. You feel, yeah, that's right, that's correct.
So, but in the same way, you know, initial desire or attitude, let everything be alright with him, let him be happy. And this in itself gives joy to you.
So that's the first thing, the first manifestation of love, your attitude, your favorable attitude. Then the next thing, which is very important for the development of love.
If you really want to experience this love, then uh the next step is again very important. If you want that this person should be happy, then you should definitely inquire or desire to know what makes this person happy.
Sometimes when we love somebody you know, and we want to enter into relationship, and we really have this nice attitude, and we try to do something for this person. But then the person is displeased with what we're doing.
And we are trying to do, and we say, you know, I want to do something good for you, and he says, go to hell with all this your endeavors. Because uh we didn't bother to inquire what he really likes, what he needs.
Because the nature of love ultimately is about serving and service means I do something what the other person needs, what he wants. It's not that what I do what I want to do and let him take it. No.
I really have to know. I have to find out what pleases him. And that's the second aspect of love. And the third aspect of love, the second aspect of love is the dynamic active will to make him happy.
And the third aspect of love is the experience when I'm sure that I did something for him I have this favorable attitude.
And because of this favorable attitude, I did something which is pleasing to him. And when I know that he is pleased, I am pleased myself. And the joy which I feel is actually greater than the joy which he feels.
Because of this love, because of this magic of love. This magic of love actually makes me more happy when he is happy than his experience of happiness. My experience is greater.
Mother enjoys more when she sees how her little son eats something which she cooked. More than the son. Son is eating and it's kind of nice, but she enjoys more and her happiness is more pure.
So these three things are the manifestation of pure love. And whenever we have these things towards other people, we are happy. And this is the source of happiness for ourselves.
But unfortunately, very soon this experience is destroyed by our nature. Our nature says that, you know, yeah, he's happy. What about me? How about me? Can I be just happy because he's happy? No.
No, this is this is too dangerous. But this is the safest position.
Because when we are just serving and doing something for somebody else with the pure heart, we are very happy and this is the safest situation in the world. And basically, bhakti-yoga teaches us how to make God happy.
He is the purest unconditional living being. And he is ready to give love.
And ultimately, it's very important also to know if we have this feeling of love, then it's practically hundred percent guaranteed that if our feeling is pure, then the other person will feel the reciprocal feeling towards us.
If we do something in a very pure way, sometimes people they just say, you know, what if I do it and he still doesn't like me. First of all, it's okay. Because you will be happy anyway.
But second of all, love is very powerful. This unconditional love, if you do this, if you serve, and you surf unconditionally, then, uh, it's for sure that the other person will feel some reciprocation with you.
Chanting mantras as communion with God
And for sure, if we express certain favorable attitude towards God, He definitely will feel some reciprocation with us. He wants to give love.
He's actually looking for the moment when we express our love and attitudes towards Him. And this chanting is the highest expression of love, not for us. Ultimately, all these mantras they are ways to communicate with God.
In Sanskrit, uh, there is word rishi. And Rishi means sage. Rishi means somebody who is a very wise person who is... But literally, Rishi means seer. Why he is called seer? Because he has seen, he has seen mantra.
All these mantras which are chanted in kirtans,
they are not just verse. They are way of communicating with God revealed in the trance of this great rishis. And when we repeat mantras, we're more or less trying to reproduce their experience.
Their experience was that in their communion with God through the purity of their heart, they would see the sound manifestation of God.
And when we repeat the same sound, especially when we get the sound from a pure heart, from the mouth of a very pure person who is doing it very selflessly, then the same experience which they had can come to us.
To a certain extent, at least a shadow of the same experience can come to us. And that's the method of kīrtana: with chanting something which they would chant in complete oblivion of love.
But when we repeat it, we have the glimpse of their experience. And ultimately, it's also very important to understand that it's
not that we chant mantra in the higher sense and in a pure purest sense, we are being chanted by mantra. And it's not just a nice sort of way of expressing something. In reality, it is like this.
And there are plenty of experiences of people who chant mantra that ultimately mantra comes from the higher plane, and it's just using you as an instrument.
I have little experience which I wanted to share with you, which is very interesting. I started practicing this In 1980, 36 years back.
And at that time I was in Russia, and then Russia was Soviet Union, and Soviet Union was completely closed and there was no question of doing something religious in this country.
Anything which had any religious connotation was strictly banned from the country.
And as soon as you would do something which had something to do with any sort of religion, with any conception of God, you would be totally ostracized from the society and oftentimes put in prison.
So I was doing my innocently I started chanting, you know, because somebody told me, and you know, very soon I became a center of attraction for KGB.
Of course they didn't know that they were attracted by Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra because Krishna is all attractive. They thought that they're they're trying to but anyway.
So it was sort of love but distorted by material conditions. So and uh oftentimes, so sometimes uh because they found out that I'm involved in this sort of religious practice.
They would call me, call upon me, and would interrogate me what we're doing, whether we have some kīrtans, because it was totally strictly prohibited. You couldn't do this, you know. It was very strictly banned from the society.
So, and every time, it's a very interesting experience, and I just want to show to share it with you, to encourage you to do what we are doing now this evening.
Every time when I would come to their office, I would be totally, completely scared because it was dangerous.
Really. You would be put in prison for 20 years and would be would be rotting in a labor camp in Siberia. Easily. Not exaggeration to the slightest extent.
So I would come there completely trembling in fear and you know very in anxiety what's going to happen, whether they will put me in prison today or they will just let me live for another week.
So and the guy who would interrogate me he would be sitting like this and he would be very happy and he would say something and ask something, some nasty questions, and he would smile in a very nasty way and you know and
phew. But you know, after some time, little time would pass in our exchange, and all of a sudden, I don't know from where. And it was a repeated experience.
The sound of Mahā-mantra would descend upon me. All of a sudden, without any uh any uh impetus from my side uh all of sudden i would hear very clearly this divine sound Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare.
It was in in some tune, you know, I would hear this this music inside me. And this would give me such joy, immense joy. It was not some sort of, you know, I don't, it was not that I would just imagine something.
Because in this situation, you could only imagine how you would be rotten in Siberia and uh put in prison.
So all of a sudden, this very real spiritual experience would descend upon me and uh and this moment I would become very happy and I would become very you know self-confident and I would look at him and uh all of a sudden he would become very small and he stopped smiling and I would smile at him.
The situation would change 180 degrees. He would be just trembling there all of a sudden, and I would say, so what do you want to ask me? You just ask, no problem. And ultimately I would say, okay, I'll go.
And I would I would go off from him. And that would repeat probably few times.
Experiencing divine protection through holy names
I don't remember how many times, but repeatedly the same experience was there. That the sound of mantra would come upon you.
And when we chant, the same thing happened, uh, you know, with Krishna when we chant his holy name he kind of pretends uh that uh we are doing it but ultimately he is giving us this opportunity to chant his name. It's something like this: if you have a small child, and you are a father, the father of this child. And this small little child is trying to lift a weight.
And he's, you know, sometimes children they are very, you know, they have this ego, you know, I will do it. And obviously they cannot do it. And you're coming from behind and you're just, you know, lifting this weight.
And the little child is, you know, oh, oh, see, I lifted it. But you're there and you're smiling. Yes, yes, you're my child, you're very nice. So exactly the same thing happens when you chant this sound.
Please don't think that you are chanting. If you try to just let the sound go through you. Go through your mind and you know let the sound descend upon you.
And you just flow in the sound, then the real experience will come upon you. You just try to express within your heart whatever little love you have or whatever desire for love you have. We may not have love.
But we all have hankering for love. The love may not be there, may or may not be there. But the hankering, the understanding that we need love is there.
And if when we chant, this desire is there, this hankering is there, let me experience love, let me do something.
Because I know that you want me to do it, then this amazing experience will come upon you, and you will feel that mantra is going through you and you are vibrating in harmony with the whole universe.
Because ultimately, this sound is not just ordinary sound, it's the sound, the vibration which uh upholds the whole universe. And uh it's uh it may sound little you know bombastic or whatever little too exaggerated.
But in reality, we cannot even express what is happening in reality when we chant this holy name. It's really something very significant.
And uh what requires from us is only one thing is that we concentrate our uh heart upon this desire. I want to do something. Oh my Lord. This is how the founder of our movement he translated this mantra.
He says that this mantra is the highest expression of love because love ultimately means service. When we love somebody, as I explained, we want to do something for the person whom we love. And this mantra is this expression of our desire to serve. Because ultimately we all want to serve. Because we all want to love.
And when this attitude will be there in our heart when we chant. Then the experience of kīrtana will be the greatest, will be the most profound, and this experience will always be with you.
Especially in the most dangerous and in the most critical moments of your life.
As I explained, in my case, my little very feeble, very insignificant endeavors to do something, they manifested in this amazing feeling of protection and shelter which I felt in a very awkward and a very dangerous situation.
It just came upon me that I'm completely safe. I am under the divine protection.
Because this sound is there and our little endeavor to serve this sound with a pure heart will give immense benefit to us and ultimately will teach us what the pure love is, because when we chant the sound, we come closer to God, and God is love personified.
And when we are connected with Him through the sound, this experience of His love is coming to us. We feel His love, His experience. And this is the greatest thing which can be there.
So I'm very happy that we are all doing this because this is the best thing which we can do in our life, and this is what our life is all about. So thank you very much.