Stages of Bhakti. The Nature of Faith
Bhakti Vijnana Goswami · Altai · 2008
Chapters
Introduction and opening prayers
The following class is the first lecture of the seminar Stages of Bhakti, given by His Holiness Bhakti Vigyan Goswami Maharaj in Altai, Russia on 6 August 200 eight vasude Oh namamo Bhagavate O namo bhagavate vāsudevāya.
Nama oṁ viṣṇu-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tale śrīmate bhaktivedānta- svāmin iti nāmine namaste saraswate deve gaura-vāṇī- प्रचारिне, निर्विशेष-, शून्यवादी-,
paścātya-deśa-tāriṇe, vāñchā-kalpataru-bhyas ca kṛpā-sindhubhya eva ca patitānāṁ pāvanebhyo vaiṣṇavebhyo namo namaḥ. Jaya Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Prabhu Nityānanda Śrī Advaita Gadādhara Śrīvāsādi Gaura-bhakta-vṛnda
Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare / Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rama Rama Hare Hare Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Dama Rama Rama Hare Hare Krishna
Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare Ājānulambita- bhujaka-nakā-da-to, saṅkīrtanaika-pitārau, kamalāyatākṣaḥ, viśvambharod-vijaḥ, yuga-dharma-pālaḥ-priyaḥ karo karuṇāvatāraḥ.
Yor ṭhāhīmā vācaṁ māṁ prāsuptaṁ sañjīvayaty akhila- śakti-dharaḥ svadhāmnā, anyāṁś ca hasta-caraṇa-śravaṇa-tvag-ādīn prāṇān namo bhagavate puruṣāya tubhyam. Pranannam Bhagavat Hare
Purpose of the seminar on bhakti
Krishna Krishna I'm very happy to find myself in this exotic place. I've never thought that I would get this far. In several lectures at this festival, I'll be speaking about the first steps in devotional service.
About the first stages that we must do so that eventually we go along this entire path to its end. The first steps are the most difficult. We all know that when a child begins to walk, it is very difficult for him.
He cannot do it properly. And by all means there must be someone, especially in the beginning, to take him by the hand and lead him.
So that when he falls or breaks his nose, someone picks him up from the ground, reassures him, pats him, and says, Never mind, you will fall another hundred times before you start walking.
We are at the very beginning of this path which should ultimately bring us to the spiritual world.
It is very important that exactly with the first steps that we make Someone helps us and explains to us what dangerous lie in wait for us, what mistakes we can make, what
we should and what we should not do. Mostly this seminar will be about this.
It will be based on the material of Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Chitakur, Madhuri Kadambini and several other books in the Acharya written by the Acharya. He'll be explaining in a verse from Srila Rupa Goswami's
Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu or rather two verses describing the stages of bhakti. Let's read this verse together in Sanskrit.
ādau śraddhā tataḥ sādhu- saṅgo 'tha bhajana-kriyā tato 'nartha-nivṛttiḥ syāt tato niṣṭhā ruicis tataḥ athāsaktis tato bhāvas Tad Sadhakanam Ayah, Tadakaham Vila, Pradurbhaveaveb Bhavit Krama.
Hadosh Radha Tatah Sadu Hados Sangothabhajanakriyam. Sapata Batana Kya. Tatonarthani Britihsyatani Bridishyat. Tato Nishta Ruchistataha. Athasakti S Tobavas, Tatahprema
tataḥ premābhyudañcati sādhānām ayam adhva nirmitaḥ paramaṁ kaveḥ Nah, 2001, Most of us know the meaning of this verse. This verse explains bhakti as a stairway that leads to the spiritual world. And like any stairway, there are steps or stages on the stairway. Moving from stage to stage, one gradually comes off the ground and finds himself in a completely different atmosphere.
In other words, on our spiritual path we have to pass through certain stages of transformation of the heart.
Paradox of bhakti and sadhana
These stages are described here, and in a sense they are described in a paradoxical way.
So they all speak a little about this paradox of Bhaktisadhana. Because strictly speaking, by itself, the expression bhaktisadhana is self-contradictory. Bhakti. Bhakti cannot be a sadhana. Because what is bhakti?
Bhakti is mercy. Bhakti is something that we should receive from above. While sadhana is a technique, a certain technology or a system of actions. That we should perform in order to attain a certain goal.
On the one hand, the goal of bhakti doesn't depend on us. We are told that we should do something in order to attain it. This is serious. And whether bhakti can be a sadhana.
In the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī emphasizes that bhakti is not a sadhya. Sadhya is something that results from a certain pre-planned process.
Na primeira, jeśli mrux gotovim if we're cooking, pred, let's say piloff, to jest open Then there are certain steps. These steps will be called sadhana sadhya and the pillar of sadhya or the goal of this sadna.
Krishna Daska Varaj Gaswami Krishna Daska Varaj Gaswami says Krishna Bhakti Krishna Bhakti Nityasida. Nityasida. Sadya. Sadya Kabunan. Krishna Bhakti. Krishna Bhakti exists eternally. It exists independently of anything.
It is not something that appears as a result of your actions. Sadhya Sadhya is what I have as a result of doing something.
Krishna Daskviraj Goswami says, Krishna Bhakti needs to see the sadhya kabunoi. This is not something created as a result of my own efforts.
In general, this is quite clear because we originally say that bhakti is causeless. This means that there are no material reasons for bhakti to come to us.
Krishna should readily drop it on us from above. Love of God should descend on us. Nevertheless, we practice sadhana. We practice sadhana for several very important reasons.
First of all, because if we're just ascertain that bhakti is causeless, then what does that mean? Does it mean that we should sit down somewhere in the corner and wait until it descends upon us? Good idea.
He sowed and sowed and then sat down on the tree to rest. At that very moment, a rabbit ran out of the woods, been chased by someone, and out of fright it crashed into the tree and fell dead.
The Chinese thought, what a fool I am. I was trying hard, told in so in rice, doing so much work. And it's enough just to sit on the tree and the rabbits are running out by themselves. He's still sitting there.
But no rabbit has come out running yet. The point is that if we just ascertain the fact that bhakti cannot be obtained as a result of our efforts, this will lead us either to despair or to inaction.
Our acharyas want us to act, but at the same time they emphasize that bhakti doesn't come as a result of our efforts because bhakti is causeless. We are on the side of the cogial ocean where everything has a cause.
The spiritual world is on the other side of the casual ocean where everything is causeless.
We are used to the fact that we must end and as a result of this action, something must come out of That is why we must be explained, act, and he will be the cause of bhakti coming to you. Although in reality bhakti is causeless.
A simple example can be given which will help you to understand this. Before getting there, we passed over the Hampag Bridge over the Khartoum River. That was quite a breathtaking event.
Now imagine that some small boy has run away from his parents. Went to that bridge, started playing out there on the bridge, and fell off the bridge.
Having fallen from the bridge into the water, he started shouting, splashing, and pounding in the water with his arms. Oh, help, help.
Some young man who is on the bank sees the boy, feels sorry for him, jumps into the water, pulls him out, and saves him.
Now my question to you is, are the boy's cries the cause of his salvation? Some say yes, some say no. Yeah, and well both yes and no. Dialectic begins. Strictly speaking, they are not the cause of his salvation.
Because if they were the cause, it would mean that every time he starts crying, someone must save him.
For example, if we are certain that in order to reach the Ayah Lake, we need to go two hundred meters or make three hundred steps then having made this three hundred steps, will we reach there?
Can it be so that we go in this direction make three hundred steps and don't come here. No, they come. If we're uh sober, of course. If we go, our walking is our sadhana and we're sure to reach there.
But the boy, having fallen there, might cry for a long time and no one will jump to save him. And he might cry for a while and someone will jump A similar thing happens to us when we perform sadhana.
The boy cries and attracts the attention of the people. Strictly speaking, they are not the cause of his salvation, but he attracts attention.
When we shout out, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.
Strictly speaking by itself, this is... Nevertheless, this is needed in order to attract the Lord's attention.
In other words, the ācāryas explained that despite the causelessness of bhakti, there is something which we must do which will help us to achieve the highest goal.
Krishna Bhakti Krishna Bhakti, which will help us to attract Krishna's mercy. The ācāryas amazingly paved the way where there is none. They paved the way into the realm of causelessness.
But into the realm of causelessness no roads can lead. It should just descend on us. My story will be about this mysterious thing. What this path is, nonetheless, what steps we should make.
We know that bhakti is absolutely causeless. And Krishna can manifest his mercy without any of these. Moreover, he can manifest his mercy in spite of our bad qualities. An example of this is Pūtanā.
Has Pūtanā attained love for God? She has. Has she practiced any sadhana? What kind of sadhana she had? She smeared her breast with poison. She came to Krishna and said, Come on, I'll kill you. Can we follow Pūtanā this way?
Try. Maybe it will work out for you. But the path described by the scriptures is the path for everyone.
Transition from sadhana to bhava
It's a universal path which we'll have to go along. Roughly speaking, it is divided into two big paths or two halves. One half is up to bhāva and other half is after bhāva. Bhāva is ecstatic love.
It's both the sadhana and the sadhya. What does this mean, according to you? Up to it there is just sadhana. Śraddhā, śraddhā, then sādhu-saṅga, sādhu saṅga, bhajana- kriyā, bhajana-kriyā, anartha-nivṛtti, then anartha
nivṛtti. Ruci and āsakti. And then finally bhāva. Before bhāva everything that we do is called sadhana. But in a sense it's also sādhya. What does this mean in reality? Yes, that's right. Thanks, līlā-puruṣa.
Up to the Bhava stage, we need to make efforts. Sadhana, Sadhana means that we make conscious efforts. Why do we need to make this effort? Why do we need to make these efforts? It doesn't happen by itself, right?
And after the bhāva stage we don't need to make efforts. It goes on its own, and it's spontaneous. After that, although it is called sadhana, but bhāva means that the love of God has become our nature.
Before bhāva, you know, we have another nature. This other material nature pulls us down. This other nature resists and hinders us. To overcome the resistance of lower nature, we need to make conscious efforts.
We have two natures. One is the spiritual consciousness that drove us to Krishna. And there is the material nature of mind which is also endowed with the qualities of consciousness or soul.
The soul has projected itself onto the mind, and in the mind there are all sorts of breaks, various obstacles, all sorts of reasons which don't let us come to God,
as the good Russian saying goes, I would be glad to go to heaven, but the sins wouldn't let me do so. I want to go there. I have a desire to come to God. Something pulls me upward. But something too is pulling me down.
Sometimes a person is torn apart between those two forces.
Suddenly the conscious efforts that are required in order to overcome the momentum of our lower nature and to enable us to strengthen our higher nature, which draws us up, which help us to get closer to God.
In fact, in terms of the yoga language, the efforts that we make are required in order to overcome the samskaras remaining in our... The
Apostle Paul says in his letter to the Romans, I think or to the Corinthians, I don't remember. That there are two laws in my body. One is the law of the spirit and the other one is the law of flesh.
The Russian writer of the twenties and there he also contemplates on his dual nature of man. Because one nature pulls us up, done nature.
He says that's probably because humans have two brains a cerebral one and spinal one. One pulls up, the other pulls down.
In fact, they have saṁskāras or imprints on our minds, and they constitute a force of inertia which we need to overcome. The inertia accumulated over many, many lives.
Therefore, Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī in Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu gives a definition of sādhana. He says that the actions that we commit driven by the desire to attain bhāva are called sādhana.
When this desire has appeared in us, I want to attain the ecstatic love of God, I want to love God and nothing else. And when I act very clearly seeing this goal, this is sādhana.
If I just start mumbling, that's not sādhana yet. Sādhana is because I understand that. Sādhana is when I understand why I'm doing this.
My every action becomes meaningful and will lead me to the goal only if this goal is very clearly manifested in my mind.
I must understand very well that the meaning of everything that I do is to ultimately attain bhāva, love of God. But during our small presentation over the next few days, we won't be interested in bhāva.
Although we should very clearly see and understand this goal, we should also very clearly see the path that leads to it and understand that although the efforts that we make will have to be made up to the level of bhāva.
Importance of reaching the stage of nishtha
But up to what level efforts are most difficult to make. Actually, after Nishta it will be like going down the hill. Up to Nishta, we will have to climb the mountain.
And as soon as we stop for a while, we will immediately go downward. We'll have to endeavor all the time because the mind is unstable.
In his purport, the second chapter of the first canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that due to the contact with the agitating elements of the material world,
with gold and women, and the human mind has become agitated. Because the mind is agitated, there is no peace in it, no stability, and this agitated mind constantly jumps. It doesn't allow us to do anything steadily.
The mind has this particular quality that as soon as one starts doing something, it immediately wants to do something else. When we chant mantra, as soon as we take the beats, the
mind immediately thinks, what I didn't hear? You have to do something else. You have to get up, rush somewhere, do something.
But as soon as we stop chanting mantra, the mind will immediately think, oh how nice it is to sit and chant.
Sometimes we sit and think, I would rather read as soon as we open the book and read a couple of lines, we think maybe we can do something else.
This is the instability that has appeared in the mind as a result of the too long contact with the agitating material nature.
That is why up to the level of niṣṭhā, the efforts of the mind should be particularly strong and particularly conscious. Therefore, in a sense, the goal of our sādhana is niṣṭhā.
After niṣṭhā we will run downhills to Kṛṣṇa, singing, and everything will be more or less easy. But up to niṣṭhā, we must be very careful.
That is why when Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī — I do not know whether you paid attention to this peculiarity of the verse or not — when Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī speaks about all the other stages, he says, tataḥ. Tataḥ means after.
Śraddhā tataḥ, sādhu-saṅga tataḥ. Bhajana-kriyā tataḥ. Bhajana Kriya. Bhajana-kriyā tataḥ. And further on he says, anartha-nivṛttiḥ syāt. Syāt means maybe. In all other cases he says after, after, after.
Only in this case he says maybe. In other words, up to the stage of anartha-nivṛtti, our sadhana is problematic. Before the stage of Anarthana Vritti, there still remains a rather real and tangible and frequently used by us in our life probability to fall down.
After Nishta, this probability practically disappears and as a whole everything becomes normal.
In a sense, anarthanivṛtti is the stage when our affection or our attraction to objects Other than Krishna is stronger than our desire for Krishna. Krishna is all attractive.
Krishna is a magnet, but we have safely left the field of his attraction. His power of attraction is felt very faintly by us.
Like Śukadeva Gosvāmī, when describing Krishna's pastimes in the tenth canto of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, he particularly describes the pastime with Krishna swallowing the forest fire.
Those who have read the tenth canto of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam or the Krishna book remember how Krishna went to the forest of Vṛndāvana to tend his cows?
The boys were absorbed and playing in the forest of Bhāṇḍīravana, and at some point they started climbing on the trees, jumping and running, when all of a sudden they saw that the cows have gone away. They have gone deep into the thicket.
Śukadeva Gosvāmī describes how the cows while grazing were gradually moving further and further from Krishna. They would spawn, Over there their grass is so green. Oh, there grows a flower. There is some other tasty food.
And step by step they were moving away from Krishna. Śukadeva Gosvāmī calls them the paśu, which means animals. He doesn't call them cows. Cows is a very tender thing. Krishna loves cows.
But the cows stray away from Krishna.
Śukadeva Gosvāmī calls them cats. Similarly, attracted by the grass of material enjoyments, we have gradually, step by step, strayed away from Krishna to a degree so that we stop feeling his attractiveness.
And up to this stage of anarthanivṛtti, Krishna's attractiveness seems to us problematic. Because there are too many other temptations for us, too many other things that attract us.
Please, those of you who have attachments in this world other than Krishna raise your hands. This is exactly why at the first stages of our spiritual life we have so many problems. We have other interests.
We have something that interests us more than After we have passed the stage of anarthā-nivṛtti, other things in essence won't be of interest to us.
And since they won't be of any interest to us, as a whole, our path will be calm and firm. We will obtain niṣṭhā. But up to niṣṭhā, there is another powerful force that pulls up that throws us away from Krishna.
For the half hour which I have left, I'll try to say a few words about the nature of the very first stage or the first miracle which
Origin of faith through sadhu association
happens on the spiritual path about the nature of śraddhā of faith? Here I will need sufficient time to try to describe proper śraddhā and improper śraddhā.
At the first stages, as I repeatedly stated over this small period of time, there is a high probability that we'll be making mistakes.
It's about these mistakes and the correct indicators, the indicators showing that I'm going in the right direction, that I'm progressing in the right direction, that I would like to speak about, starting from the very beginning, from the first glimpse of Krishna's mercy.
Which comes to us in the form of faith, in the form of manifestation of śraddhā. At the beginning, I would like to explain the cause of appearance śraddhā. Śraddhā like everything else in bhakti is causeless as a whole.
But even if we can point out any cause of śraddhā, then the cause of it is only one association with vaiṣṇavas.
Śrīla Sūta Gosvāmī explains that when a person encounters a mahāt and meeting with the mahāt doesn't reject the sādhu whom he met, but accepts him to a certain extent. When even though insignificant by the right attitude of acceptance appears in him, or the understanding that this person is above me and that I need to have faith in him, that I don't need to trust myself, but have faith in him, then this marks up the beginning of spiritual life.
Faith cannot be obtained from anywhere, but from meeting with the devotee and from the understanding that he is right and I'm not. This feeling that appears in me when I meet a devotee
Actually, faith is needed only in order to achieve pure bhakti. Actually, in order to practice bhakti, faith is not required. This is a most radical statement. Is faith needed in order to practice bhakti or not? No.
Is it not needed? Faith is needed. No, it is not needed. Faith is needed in order to practice pure bhakti. Bhakti is so powerful that even if one practices it without faith, it will yield results.
What example does the Shrimad Bhagavatam give? Did he have any faith? No, he didn't have any faith. He cried out, Nārāyaṇa. And that was all.
In the sixth canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, there is a verse which says patita or sleeps. He feels pain.
Or if a person just sneezes, and out of habit, just because he has grown up in a nice Vaiṣṇava culture, says, O predecessor Hari, Hari. O Govinda. O Kṛṣṇa. All his sins immediately disappeared.
At that very moment, he has no faith. He just sneezed and said, Krishna, because he has seen others sneezing and saying, Krishna.
Or having sleep, he was fallen, and at the same time he pronounced Govinda, and all his sins left him. Bhakti is very powerful. It is like fire. It can burn all sins, even if one has no faith. But faith is needed.
Faith is absolutely necessary in order to make our practice pure. And although in a sense Ajamila was saved, he then went to the Himalayas, to Rishikesh, to associate with devotees.
And in the process of that association to obtain purity of his bhakti. Because otherwise, he can even go to the spiritual world, he can attain liberation in the spiritual world.
And there he will be one of the laymen of the spiritual world. In the spiritual world, there are lots of laymen too. This is called Salokya Mukti. When someone is liberated and lives in the same city with Krishna, actually
he doesn't care about Krishna.
Rarely once a year Kṛṣṇa rides out on an elephant and he goes out into the street and shouts, Hari bol, jaya, hari bol, and then goes home and watches the spiritual TV, which shows a series about Kṛṣṇa's pastimes in Goloka Vṛndāvana.
But in order to get liberated to attain even sālokya-mukti, there is no need of pure bhakti. But in order to attain pure bhakti, Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī says faith is needed.
Faith can be obtained from one source only, only from a Krishna devotee, only from a sadhu, only from a pure devotee of Krishna. In a sense, faith as
Jīva Gosvāmī explains, commenting on this verse from the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, can appear just by seeing a sadhu. Somefact, the very fact of seeing a sādhu of service is a service in itself.
In a Vedic culture there is a very nice tradition. If a sadhu comes to a village, all people must gather without fail to look at him as we come every morning for the deity's darśana. What is the meaning of this ceremony?
It's that the very fact of seeing the deities is already a service. Darshan means service. We come for a sādhu's darśana, and in the Vedic culture, sādhus are praised for their power.
Just seeing a sādhu already means to make the first step. It means acquiring some faith and devotional service. What to speak of sitting down and listening to sādhus, becoming interested in what they are speaking about.
This feeling that arises in the heart of the sādhu, the sense that he is right.
Story of Narada Muni and sadhu sangha
That he is seeing something important for me is called faith. There is a curious story in the Puranas. I couldn't manage to find out the precise source of this story.
Bhakti Purusottama Swami was telling it once about Bali Mahārāja's brother. Bali Mahārāja had a brother who was a demon. Bali Mahārāja became a devotee and he was very sorry for his brother.
He was a rowdy person and a drunkard. He could have even been Russian by origin. That's not excluded. He was an incorrigible deep so many. Bali Maharaj prayed for him, tried to do something with him, but nothing worked.
Finally, the Nārada Muni came to visit Bali Mahārāja and Bali Mahārāja said, I have a brother. He must be saved. And I know that there is only one salvation for him. Only you can save him.
There is no other salvation for him. Narada Muni felt great enthusiasm. Sādhus like to be praised. Sādhus. Sadhus are pleased when they are told that they can do something for the others.
Without hesitation, Nārada Muni went straight away to the palace of that brawler and drunkard. The drunkard was sitting and drinking.
Nārada Muni went up to him, opened his arms to embrace him and said, My dear, surrender to Krishna. That person grabbed the bottle and dashed after Narada Muni.
For drunkards don't like their ecstasy being disturbed, and devotees can prevent them from experiencing ecstasy in full. He started running after Nārada Muni and Nārada started to run away, trying to escape.
Eventually running off to a safe distance, the drunkard was staggering and for this reason he couldn't hardly catch Nārada. Nārada was sober. From a safe distance, with the last effort and all his bhakti
invested in his words, Nārada said, My dear, my darling, I'm very sorry for you. Please remember my words. When you find yourself in front of Yamaraj, ask him one question.
Ask him to explain to you the potency of sadhu sangha. The man sobered up for a second because Nārada's Muni persistence somewhat bewildered him. He thought that any sane person would have long ago forgotten all
his stupidities and would have faded away. But this one is still insisting. At this moment, a shade, a small shade of faint faith in Nāradamuni's words arousing him. He thought he is given an interesting idea.
What if I suddenly do stand before Yamaraj? What should I do then? And here he has given me a hint. Faith in Nārada Muni's words appeared in his rock on prestalled Yamarāja.
In due time he stood up before Yamarāja. Yamarāja has a chief scrivener was called Chitragupta. Chitragupta. Chitra means picture. And Gupta means hidden. Chitragupta is one of the who photographs us with the hidden camera.
He knows everything we have done. He has got a big hard drive where all those hidden snaps are stored. When we stand before Yamarāja he shows them to us, here, look. He doesn't just announce our verdict.
He's got documentary evidences. We see a film about our life with an outside eye and we start thinking. Oh my god. Is that me? We see from a distance what we did.
Yamarāja showed Bali Mahārāja's brother a film about his life and son. That's it.
You have to suffer for a long time for all the sins that you have committed, for all the pain that you have caused to people, for all the so called
enjoyments that you've defiled yourself by. For all this you will have to pay. But like prior to any judgment, you have several last words that you can say. The man remembered Nāradamuni.
And he remembered Nāradamuni standing before him and telling him when you find yourself in front of Yamarāja, ask him what the importance of sādhu-saṅga is. The man said, Oh, I have a question.
People like when they are asked questions. Yamaraj is no exception either. He says, What's your question? Please explain to me the power of sadhu sangha. Yamaraj was led into a dead end.
He says, there were no sadhus here in hell. I would be glad to explain to you the power of sadhasangh, but I myself don't fully know that. How can I know that? We should go to Brahmā. He is the creator of the universe.
He has a tremendous intellect, he will certainly be able to explain it fully. That's a very profound question. I cannot answer it superficially. Together they went to Brahma.
Yamaraj brought this man along and said, this man asked me a question that I couldn't answer. You are my master. I have come to you so that you explain to us the answer to this question.
Please explain to us the power of Sadhu Sangha. Brahma said, What? Look at me. I have only four heads. My four heads are not enough to explain all that.
Let's go to Shiva, for he will probably know the answer to this question, for he is the best of Vaishnavas. They went to Shiva. Shiva started crying when he heard this question.
He said, look at my entourage, who is following me. You're speaking of sadhasanga and there I have just I myself like to know fully the power of Sadasangha. Vishnu alone can explain it to us.
All four of them bent to Vishnu. Yamraj appeared before him and said, I've asked all of them this question. Ultimately we've come down to you. We have come to you, Vishnu. Please explain to us the power of Sadhu Sangha.
Vishnu said, Even I cannot explain the power of Sadhsangha.
One thing I can say for sure that, a mere instant of association with a devotee is enough for one to find himself in the spiritual world, and one who attains the spiritual world but never turns back anymore.
Therefore, the sinner shall remain here and you go back.
Vedic scriptures emphasize this point because ultimately real faith — listen carefully. Real faith that will truly be able to save us can be obtained only by serving a devotee, only by having obtained the mercy of a devotee and his favor.
Characteristics and signs of genuine faith
In the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Kṛṣṇa Dāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī says, «Śraddhānuvāra-bhakti-adhikārī», that śraddhā is the only qualification for practice in bhakti. Adikari that Shraddha is the only qualification for practice in bhakti.
In order to practice pure bhakti, a person needs shraddha. In order to understand whether we have real shraddha or not, I would
like to resort to the authority of Patañjali Muni, asadevas and Patañjali Muni in the Yoga-sūtra says very um interesting things by which we can judge whether real Shraddha has descended on us.
This sūtra in Sanskrit means that when a person obtains śraddhā or real faith, along with it he obtains vīrya, vīrya means power, captains power, enthusiasm, enthusiasm, huge energy, vīrya. Vīrya literally means life force.
And along with it, smṛti, or clear intelligence, clear mind. These are two characteristics always accompanied through śraddhā. When śraddhā rises in a person, along with this he feels energized.
Has anyone felt a surge of extraordinary energy with faith appeared in him? Who has had this feeling? Raise your hand, please. One is ready to move mountains. One can do anything.
When a person has faith, he can do amazing things. Sometimes in the kirtan some eighty-five-year-old people suddenly start dancing. And young people stand in the corners, look at them, and think, why are they danc What's the reason that they are dancing?
They have power. They have faith. When there is faith, there is power. When there is power and faith, there is clarity of mind that allows one to go along this path.
In other words, Vyāsadeva commenting on this sūtra gives a very interesting description explaining this point. Śraddhā-vīrya-smṛti. He says, «Śraddhā cetaḥ-samprasādaḥ».
He says that when Shraddha descends on a person, his consciousness is purified. Samprasada means that his consciousness or his mind becomes very clear and very calm.
Suddenly, at some point, a moment of peace descends on him. Clear understanding that everything is all right with me. There is a goal, and I want to reach that goal. Usually our mind is shaken by whirlwinds.
But even in the most terrible whirlwinds there is a moment of uh lull. Have you heard about it? When there is a hurricane, in the middle of the hurricane there is a moment of lull.
This moment of lull is the feeling of faith that comes down on the person when he meets with the devotees. This is the feeling that I have found, I have obtained, what I've been looking for.
That all my long quests have finally brought me to the goal to which I have been striving after all this time. He went to him and there were storms in his mind.
Of course, those were lilas, we should take all this as a certain līlā. But he had certain concepts about what is to be done. He was saying that we must win independence, we must fight, Gandhi Kijai.
He started arguing with Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī and Bhakti Siddhanta very calmly, very quietly said, This is all nonsense.
Śrīla Prabhupāda said, Yeah, when I was coming back from there, I had the feeling of complete defeat. But there was nothing sweeter than this feeling of defeat. My spiritual master completely defeated me.
They defeated my ideas, all my concepts and I felt completely vanquished. I knew that this was what I always have been striving for.
And this feeling, as I said, the feeling that he is right and I'm wrong, that he knows and I don't know, is called faith. Because people usually think I'm right. And all the press. Well, that's clear. Why? By default.
No arguments are required. I'm right because it's me, and I'm always right by default. This is an axiom, this is something which is not subject to question. Everything else is done on the basis of the starting point.
But when we meet the sādhu, we start to have the feeling that I wasn't right. He is right. I'm wrong. I lived in the wrong way. My whole life was meant for nothing. It was wasted on God knows what.
Did anyone have this feeling when śraddhā descended on you? Raise your hand please. Actually this is a miracle. And this is the first act of mercy when a sādhu or a saint imparts śraddhā to us and we feel peace.
This peace is the freedom from doubt. What Shraddha gives at the very first moment is that it frees us from unnecessary, constantly troubling doubts. This doesn't mean that later they won't return.
Doubts will be there up to the level of Nishta. And even at the level of Nishta they will remain. But doubt is something that prevents us from acting.
In Sanskrit doubts are defined as follows, samśayo ātmā vināśyati. Doubt is what sets our mind to sleep. They do not allow us to act. Because has anyone heard of yoga before joining Bhakti Yoga?
Have you heard of other spiritual practices? Have you performed any other spiritual practices? Has it worked out? Well, doubt. As a rule, nothing works out because doubts are in the way.
A person does something and thinks, do I need this yoga or not? A person practices yoga for a week and then thinks, why am I wasting my time at all? Why should I waste my time sitting here?
Because he understands that now he's practicing it but if he is to be serious, he will have to sit in a lotus posture for three hours and he thinks what nonsense and doubt immediately paralyzes him, prevents him from acting.
When faith appears in a person along with this faith, there appears clarity of mind and peace of mind, freedom from doubt, that's why śraddhā realizes some energy in a person who gives him this power.
Further on, Vyāsadeva explains another very interesting point about śraddhā. He says, he says that śraddhā like a loving mother defends. That śraddhā is like a mother who takes the beginner yogi by hand and helps him make the first steps safely.
Has anyone felt the grace that śraddhā gives us? The protection which śraddhā gives us. Faith has descended and suddenly what used to attract us still attracts us, but not that much.
There is a protection from śraddhā that tells us from inside. Vyāsadeva says that there is this very important thing that śraddhā gives, a healing thing.
Strengthening faith through constant hearing
That is why without śraddhā, one cannot really practice bhakti. Śraddhā is highly required.
And in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Kapila-deva calls śraddhā a tonic. He says that when we listen to sādhu and these stories about Krishna, prasaṅga mama vīrya-saṁvido. When our association with the sādhu becomes truly profound, it becomes profound when we start to listen and listen with faith.
When this story is turned into a tonic, rasāyana literally means a tonic. The Sanskrit word which is used in this verse is rasāyana. What does rasāyana do? Is anyone familiar with Ayurveda? Rasāyana, rasāyana rejuvenates.
Yes. But how? What's the purpose of rejuvenivation? It doesn't just nourish. Rasayana has a special quality. It increases immunity. It increases the ojas in one's body. Makes one's resistance very strong.
Śāndhu stories have the same effect on our consciousness. They increase the resistance to the infection of the material world.
When we listen to a sādhu, this means that our consciousness is safe, that we are not going to catch the material infection, not going to catch this material disease.
That is why at the minimum, and this is the first small lesson that I would like that we learn today.
It consists in the fact that the minimal thing we should do so that our faith becomes truly strong and helps us to overcome all obstacles awaiting us on the spiritual path. We should do one simple thing.
Constantly come in contact with sadhus, with saints in the form of sound. Because real association consists in our listening to them.
And listening in particular state of consciousness, we listen with faith and with the understanding that this is indispensable to us. Our spiritual life begins with this. Our spiritual life continues thanks to this.
And our spiritual life will bring us to success thanks to this one single principle.
If we forget about it, at some point, if for some reason out of stupidity, out of misunderstanding, if we interrupt this invigorating flow of Rasāyana in the form of sound coming from the mouth of truly pure devotees, which enters into our ears and enters into our hearts.
If we interrupt this flow, we won't be able to achieve anything on the spiritual path. We must always listen to a devotee. Because that's the only way we can obtain protection from the material infection.
This is the only way we can obtain śraddhā and the only way we can progress. This is the mover on the spiritual path. This is not just a kind of pleasant way of spending time or entertainment.
This is something that gives us strength, faith, clarity of consciousness and faith. Never under any circumstances must we stop listening.
We must constantly again and again, with unfading faith, an unceasing desire, strive for listening about Krishna. If such faith is there, this alone will be enough to overcome everything else.
This is the first thing that I wanted to say today.
Tomorrow I will speak about how we should listen, who we should listen to and who we shouldn't listen to. Because there are two types of nourishment for our śraddhā. There is good nourishment and there is not so good nourishment.
Unfortunately, even in the society of devotees, we sometimes, due to our perverted taste or attachments, start or try to nourish our shraddha with nourishment of not very good quality. What are the consequences?
Pitiful consequences. I was speaking about this tomorrow. Tomorrow we'll have a curious presentation about the two types of shradha that can arise in one in the process of hearing and which we should cherish.
Well, that is a whole and a few words of what I want to say today. You can use the player.
There is a deficiency of live sadhu now. But when there is an opportunity to listen to a live sadhu, you should listen to live sadhu.
Because the effect of presence is much greater due to the fact that in his presence we try to be much more attentive. The power of his word is not reduced by being reproduced by a recorder or player.
Role of humility and pride in receiving faith
But the power of our zeal of attention is abruptly reduced when we associate with a sound in the form of an... Yes, Vishnu Tattva Prabhu. Yes, that's a good and important question that should be understood.
The question is that shradha uh arises as a result of listening to sadhus. But at the same time we know that in some people it does arise and in others it doesn't.
It could be five hundred, a thousand or ten thousand people may come to lecture given by a sadhu. When Srila Prabhupada organized his program sometimes ten thousand people would come to his lecture, but faith arose only in a handful of people.
What actually makes the difference? Vishnu Tattva Prabhu said that we can see even here that we listen to a sadhu, a strong faith does arise in someone while in someone else it doesn't. What makes the difference?
The difference of the reason consists in one thing in the degree of one's sinfulness and the degree to which his sinfulness has made him proud.
As a result of certain sins committed, most people develop pride, and this pride doesn't allow them to hear the sadhu despite they are listening to him. Because to hear means to show a little bit of humility, like
in the story about Bali Maharaja's brother, at a certain point, this glimpse of little humility appeared in him. This glimpse of humility saved him ultimately.
And in most people this humility doesn't appear and, since no reverence or respect for the sadhu appears, uh then accordingly shraddha doesn't appear nor do the effects of hearing.
Srila Prabhupada explains this. He says that the word shrad itself means reverence or respect. If uh person has even a shade of respect for sādhu, then that's already good. And it means that this seed is planted.
It has fallen on fertile soil. If no reverence has appeared, then respectively the seed has fallen on a rock and it won't sprout there. In a sense that is fortune. Sometimes a person, even a very proud one can
feel reverence for sadhu and it will help him further develop faith and progress on this path.
And sometimes a person who even as a whole is quite humble suddenly at some point puts up some blocks or a rejection from within.
We may feel that what the sādhu says threatens our existence in the way we have existed so far. Therefore we will put up a screen and that screen will We should listen with a with an open heart.
That is why the Vedic culture is so important. It explains to people that sādhus are to be respected, even if we The Vedic culture itself in its most basic forms If
we cultivate these two principles, similarly in the society of devotees, this is also ballied for devotees because pride makes us show disrespect to others, offend them, look down on them, calculate their status level
and everything While the Vedic culture helps one respect the other person by default. And it's mm uh highly uh probable that ultimately
we will see a sādhu and look at him with respect and the respect will be first step on our spiritual path. The same thing applies also to the devotees.
We may sometimes listen and at the same time inwardly think, come on, you tell me. I have heard various things, various things are said about various people. This one is materialist, the other one is something else.
When we try to judge other people, especially those who are above us from our own bell tower and judge them, we naturally pull them down below on our own level. In this case, of course, no śraddhā will arise Yes,
he moved to the started respecting him for his persistence. Despite of everything, despite that he was chased in this way and in that way and pursued with bottles.
But at the same time he ran away into safe distance and still insist him. This is also a particular feeling that we feel at seeing the sādhu We
feel that it doesn't come out of ending. This too can be a reason for a shade of respect. symplex, Well, you can't distinguish that in any way. Both are in a sense similar, parallel things.
That's why Caitanya Mahāprabhu says Asatsangatyaga y Vaishnavacharyam that we shouldn't associate when we meet a materialist and he starts moving in his philosophy persistently and very convincingly on us, then because we have a ground for these doubts, the mind starts to uh oscillate
As I already said, there are two creatures inside us. One pulls us up and the other pulls us down. Material mind is uh ready to attain material belief. He's um looking for it. He desires it.
Because material faith in the justification of his life uh here anything. Like today on the way here was quoted some statistics.
It turns out that recently on the TV it's been announced that in the fifteenth century throughout entire Russia, five murders were committed per year, and
each murder case was personally investigated by the king. That used to be a very rare thing. People were dark, ignorant, they believed in God, therefore they didn't murder.
And now people are very progressive, therefore they do whatever they want. Mind has this desire not to believe. And when we encounter a person who presents us strong arguments, the mind cheers up and grasps us.
And on the other hand, some part of our existence still pulls us in the opposite direction. That's why it's very important especially in the beginning, asatsangatyaga, to avoid association with strong materialists.
You can with the weak but not with the strong ones. I think it's time for ārati now. We'll have more opportunities. Līlā Puruṣa, ask you a question tomorrow. Thank you very much. Śrīla Prabhupāda kī jaya.