Purification of the Heart

Bhakti Vijnana Goswami · Bombay · 2015

Chapters

Invocations and opening prayers

Oṁ ajñāna-timirāndhasya jñānāñjana-śalākayā cakṣunmīlitaṁ yena tasmai śrī-gurave namaḥ śrī-caitanya-mano-'bhīṣṭaṁ sthāpitaṁ yena bhū-tale svayaṁ rūpaḥ kadā mahyaṁ dadāti sva-padāntikam vande 'haṁ śrī-guroḥ śrī-yuta-pada-kamalaṁ śrī-gurūn vaiṣṇavāṁś ca śrī-rūpaṁ sāgrajātaṁ saha-gaṇa-raghunāthānvitam taṁ sājīvam sādvaitaṁ sāvadhūtaṁ parijana-sahitaṁ kṛṣṇa-caitanya-devaṁ śrī-rādhā-kṛṣṇa-pādān saha-gaṇa-lalitā-śrī-viśākhānvitāṁś ca he kṛṣṇa karuṇā-sindho dīna-bandho jagat-pate gopeśa gopikākānta rādhākānta namo 'stu te tapta-kāñcana-gauṅgī rādhē vṛndāvaneśvari vṛṣabhānu-sute devi praṇamāmi hari-priye vāñchā-kalpatarubhyaḥ ca kṛpā-sindhubhya eva ca patitānāṁ pāvanebhyo vaiṣṇavebhyo namo namaḥ śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhupādānanda śrī-advaitādhāra śrīvāsādi-gauḍa-bhakta-vṛndam Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare ājānu-lambita-bujau kanaka-avadātau saṅkīrtanaika-pitarau kamalāyatākṣau viśvambharau dvija-varau yuga- dharma-pālau vande jagat-priyakarau karuṇāvatārau e-ko 'py asau mamā-vācām āmā-prāsupta-saṁjīvayaty akhila-śakti-dharaḥ svadhāmnā anyāṁś ca hasta-caraṇa-śravaṇa-tvag-ādīn prāṇān namo bhagavate puruṣāya tubhyam Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Rama Rama Rare, Ajanu Lambitu Budjoka Nakavadatu, Sankirtanaikapitarokamalayataksam, Vishwam Bro, Vyvar Yu Gadma Palo, Vandeja Gat Priakaro, Karunataro. Eun tahisy Mamavachimam Prasuptam Sandjivayatakila Shakti Darah Swadamna, Anyamcha Hastacharana Sravanatva Gadim, Pranannam Bhagavati Purusatubyam Hare Krishna. It's a great honor and privilege for me to speak in front of all of you. I feel myself completely undeserving. I was listening to the results of your group work and was very impressed. In fact, this is something I've been thinking about for a long time and you probably solved some of my problems by telling this very important points about the duties of a counselor and the challenges which counselor meets in his service. So I'm not at all sure that I will be able to say something which is But I need your blessings for this, please bless me that I will be able to say something it's within your interest so please bless me thank you.

So the topic uh I was asked to speak. I uh presented this topic in a certain way during KLS a couple of years back, and I will try to present it again in front of you.

It's some of the considerations or some of the points of what does it mean to purify the heart? And how does purification of the heart can be expedite.

What we are supposed to do, what is our duty to make our heart as pure as possible in the shortest possible time. So I will share with you a few considerations which I thought could be important for this topic.

And I would like to start with the notion of automatic purification of the heart.

Sometimes we know Śrīla Prabhupāda would speak that if you chant the holy name and if you associate with devotee and if you follow the four regulative

principles then the purification will be automatic. That it will happen on its own so to speak. I would like to say here that nothing strictly speaking is, automatic on the path of bhakti.

Śrīla Prabhupāda not without a reason called our practice or our society society for Krishna consciousness. A consciousness means nothing is automatic.

Because automatic, usually people think that automatic means mechanical. That this is the process which we don't have to take conscious endeavors.

That we don't have apply our consciousness, it will more or less happen on its own. But on the path of Krishna consciousness, nothing is happening without consciousness.

You cannot just say that something is a mechanical result of some mechanical activity. There is no mechanical activity on the path of Krishna consciousness.

So even when Srila Prabhupada says that this is the automatic process, he more or less says that this is a natural outcome of following the program of Krishna consciousness.

But the very fact, the very program of Krishna consciousness is not automatic, it's not mechanical.

You know, to chant Hare Krishna, we know how much conscious endeavors we have to apply to do this properly, to avoid offenses, to you know to associate with devotees.

Can we say that we can associate in a proper way with devotees without being fully conscious and fully aware? If we are not, then the chances of committing aparādhas are very great.

You know, we will just more or less use our acquired nature, conditioned nature, and by employing our conditioned nature and conditioned habits, we will commit offenses.

So I wanted to start with this clarification that it's not an automatic process, the purification of the heart. It's a question, it's a matter of conscious endeavors.

We have to be really clear that this is the goal of my endeavors to purify my heart. And we have to be very much aware of what is the process it involves and what are the stages in this process.

Progression and nature of anarthas

So, this is the first point which I wanted to bring: that this is a conscious endeavor which we have to apply.

And then next I would like to speak a little bit about the progression of an anartha and the nature of an anartha. You just mentioned some of the anarthas.

Lethargy, Dvārakādīśa Prabhu said that sometimes we know, and we even would like to, but this desire is theoretical, we are a little lethargic to help others.

Or sometimes we micromanaging people's life or try to put ourselves in the center of their lives. It's also a manifestation of some anarthas. And uh as you probably know, but I think it would be interesting to

think together about this, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura gave a very beautiful description, which is called Anatomy of the Cloud of Anarthas. He made 16 categories of anarthas.

And I would like to explain their inner connectivity, how they are connected with each other. This I would like to explain the notion of progression of anarthas.

He explained this in a few places. One is Āmnāya-sūtra, one is Harināma Cintāmaṇi, another place where he explains this is Bhajana-rahasya. It's his later works and very important works for us to understand.

And specifically in Bhajana-rahasya, Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says that all other anarthas, usually when we speak about anarthas, what is the first thing which comes to our mind?

What is the first list of anarthas which come to our mind from the scriptures? What is it? Yeah, six anarthas. Six ripus. Yeah, Ṣaḍ-ripu. Kāma, krodha, lobha, mada, so

in Bhajana-rahasya Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says that these six ripus, six enemies within our heart, kāma, krodha, lobha, mada, moha, mātsarya, and six waves or six sorry, not six waves,

six whips, six waves because it was anyway, uh, six, uh, yeah, ūrmis, uh, waves, so six waves of material existence, that is the hunger, the thirst, the you know death, disease, they all coming, they're all steaming in these 16 categories of Anartas.

The 16 categories of anarthas is the root and everything else which we see, which we see in our heart and which we see in the hearts of other people, and which we encounter while living in this material world, is more or less a manifestation of these 16 categories.

Therefore, and now I will explain these 16 categories.

And the important thing to understand while we are thinking about this or describing this is that anarthas. It's very difficult for me to say what I am going to say, but I will say it anyway.

Anarthas are not so bad in one sense. Why they're not so bad? Because they are very useful for our life in material world. In fact, anarthas is nothing else but our adjustment to the atmosphere of material world.

That disease, disease of the heart, there is no doubt about it.

But we all know, and especially Vishwarup Prabhu, Madhavananda Prabhu, Giriraj Prabhu, all the doctors of Bhaktivedanta Hospital can confirm this that sometimes disease sometimes people take advantage of a disease.

Disease is not necessarily something people want to get rid of. Some people are clinging to the disease. You know, disease gives many advantages. You don't have to go to work if you're sick, right?

Especially all the school children, they know sometimes we really want to have some little disease. Not to go to school. You know, the disease sometimes can give you the justification for

something for doing something you know sometimes I it's probably not in India but in the West if you have some disease, you can live very happily because the state will give provide you all the necessities of life. And you don't have to do anything for this.

So, what I want to say, while we're thinking about this anarthas it's very important for us to understand that the problem of

dealing with this anarthas is that we are attached to all this anarthas. Oftentimes, we do not even want to get rid of the anarthas because it's, you know, this is how how can I get rid of this?

You know, take kama, you know, people uh they take special medicines to increase their kama. You know, there are so many, the whole range of medicines, you know, to

to make the kama stronger. You know, it's not strong enough. I I need I need to increase it to be uh completely happy in this material world. So, and krodha, is krodha useful? Is anger useful? Of course.

Anger has so many useful applications in this world.

And māda, you know, pride, it's very useful. In a normal society you cannot live without pride. You know if if you are not increasing your pride you will be nobody in the society. So again this is something which

we have to be very realistic if we are talking about an artist. We have to understand that there is attachment to the anarthas, and this attachment is not without a reason. There is a reason to be attached to an anartha.

Four primary categories of anarthas

Again, as I said, they are adjustment, adjustments, nothing but adjustments to this material atmosphere we are living in. So talking about these 16 categories of anarthas

which Bhaktivinoda so beautifully describes, he says there are, uh, he he divides them in four broad categories and then in each broad category he, uh, gives, uh, four subcategories. So four by four multiplied by 4, it's sixteen.

So he says that the four broad categories is Tattva-vibrama, then Asat-tṛṣṇā. Tattva-vibrama means the bewilderment about Tattva, about the truth.

Asat-tṛṣṇā means the thirst for asat, for unreal. The very intense desire for something unreal. And then the third category is aparādha, offenses.

And the fourth category, the crown jewel of all the anarthas, is hṛd-daurbalyam, the weaknesses of the heart.

So in the first and then he divides on this four subcategories each of this broad category and then we will see we will see a very interesting connection between these four broad categories. How they are connected with each other.

Because the order is also very important. So the first, the most subtle anarthas, the root cause of all anarthas, the root of the tree of material existence.

Here Rādhā-Gopinātha Prabhu just depicted a tree of spiritual service. But the tree of material existence is not different, so there is a root there.

And the root of this tree is Tattva-vibrama, and Tattva-vibrama means bewilderment or, uh, more or less, you know, confusion about the truth.

And, uh, that's basically the, the very root cause of our material existence that we don't know

the truth and he basically says he gives a very interesting and very important for our further description the anatomy of this Tattva-vibrama.

He says there are four categories: Sva-tattva-vibrama, bewilderment, or inability to understand who am I. Inability to understand our spiritual nature. Then the next one is paratva vibram.

Please take note of this because I will ask you later. Please at least remember these four categories of Tattva Vibram. So first is Svatatva Vibram. The second is Paratatva Vibram.

The bewilderment or misunderstanding about Paratattva, the nature of God, the nature of Bhagavan, the nature of uh uh you know the goal of our destination.

And then uh he says Sadya Sadhana Vibram, the bewilderment or misunderstanding of what are the means and what is the goal.

So roughly we can well anyway, so some Vandabide prayojana, this design is also there, you can see it. Svatatva vibrah, paratva vibrah, sadhya sadhana vibram, and what is the fourth one? It's very important.

What is the fourth one? What is the fourth Vibram or mistake or misunderstanding? Does anyone remember? Virodi Vishai. Virodi Vishai, yes. What is Virodi Vishai?

Virodi Vishai means something which is opposite, basically, this is the impediment on our path.

If Svatvatvi Brahm, Paratatva Vibrah is understanding who we are and who is God, Sadhya Sadhana is understanding of how to reach Him. The Virodivisha is misunderstanding or bewilderment about the impediments on this pass.

What are the pitfalls? What are the problems in this pass? So this is the Vibram the description of our misunderstanding.

And then and because we don't understand who we are, because we don't understand what is the goal, because we don't understand who is God, then naturally the next category of anarthas uh uh develops. So what is the next category of anartha?

Yeah, asatrishna. Because you don't know that you are Sat, you don't know that God is Sat, you don't know that the relationship which connects you with God is also Sat eternal. Then naturally you will develop what?

Thirst for impermanent. You will develop in your heart thirst for impermanent, not eternal kinds of happiness.

And you know it's very simple this thirst for Asattrishna, it's thirst for material happiness, thirst for in this world, thirst for happiness in the next world, it's uh you know heavenly pleasures, it's a thirst for mystic yoga, and it's a thirst for liberation. It's basically you know All

the paths are here of this material world, the path of you know karma and the path of impious activities just for happiness karma, which brings you to heaven, mystic yoga, which brings you yoga siddhi, and ultimately jñāna-yoga which is bringing you liberation. and ultimately jnana yoga which is bringing you liberation.

So that's asat-tṛṣṇā. You become very thirsty or very eager to get these things which are not really not really congruent, not really related to your eternal nature, contrary to your eternal nature.

And therefore, this connection is very clear.

You don't understand who you are, then you will more or less develop wrong desires, which is coming or stemming from misunderstanding of who you are and what you are doing here.

So you basically will want to achieve material happiness. And then the next category, what is the next category? Aparat, yes. And aparādha means offenses and

again aparādha is when you want to achieve all this impermanent happiness, asat-tṛṣṇā.

If you want to achieve this, there will be somebody or some people who will or somebody in this world uh who who will will be viewed as the impediment to achieve this sort of goals.

An aparādha is basically you know if you want to achieve something, and somebody is trying to stop you from achieving this, then what you will do towards these people, or towards this those who are trying to stop you from this, you will offend them. You will apply your anger to them to kind of remove them from your path.

So who are uh what What constitutes the impediments for our material happiness? Who are the culprits who deprive us from our desire to achieve material happiness. It's Krishna right? Is he not? Yes. Yes, he is there.

It's Krishna's holy name. It's definitely great impediment for material happiness in one sense. It's Krishna's devotees, right? And the other living entities they also some sometimes you know uh serve as impediments.

So the the f third category is just you know again natural outcome of our desire to achieve impermanent happiness.

You will offend the holy name, you will offend the svarūpa of God, you will offend the devotees, and you will offend the other living entities.

Because again, you know this thirst for material happiness creates mentality, how you call it, deficit mentality. Or what is the proper word for this? Scarcity mentality. Scarcity mentality, yes, thank you. Will create some scarcity mentality. There is not enough resources for my happiness. You know, and therefore you will try to remove all the impediments from your path.

And of course, devotees, you know, sometimes we we can see that people consciously that uh especially the uh neophyte devotees when they kind of have second thought what am I doing?

Am I in my right mind to take this path which will actually deprive me from my material happiness? They'll start uh offending uh consciously offending uh the devotees.

We know when we start spiritual practice then the source for impermanent becomes less. Somebody noticed it? Your desires become less. You know, you're not so much into this material happiness.

So, but when some people feel that this is happening and then become afraid, you know, I somebody told me the story that one disciple of Prabhupāda was in this category and he decided that no, I don't want to follow this path.

But somehow rather it was already a little too late. And uh you know he he wanted to go back to the material world, to the material happiness, but uh it just didn't work. There was no juice. Ras was not there.

He was trying hard and he thought, let me offend the devotees that will bring me the notion of material happiness back into my heart.

And And he started doing this, but somehow rather you know he somehow rather he always would meet with the devotees and the devotees would somehow rather harass him. Not not rejin haras in den lits av det world. But he smit demands mit holdig names mit propatt båg.

Så he was bli all means, he var tröjing to, you know, get rid of these memories of devotional service. So the story goes like this: then he decided to go to Alaska.

The most remote state of the United States, he was thinking that there I will be totally free from association of devotees. So he flew there and he went down from the plane and was in the airport.

So the first person whom he met in the airport was a devotee who was offering him a book. He said, "Would you like would you like this book?" He became really really angry.

So he went to the hotel, he turned off and he thought, okay, now I'm now totally free, nobody is chasing after me and nobody is harassing me. So he wanted to relax. He turned on the TV.

And the first thing which he saw on TV, in TV, there was a Hare Nāma party going chend Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna.

Anyway, so what I want to say is that sometimes you know it's even a conscious policy, conscious strategy to get rid of the of devotional service to reinstate the source for impermanent within the heart.

And in this case, people conveniently apply these apparatus which will again awaken the desires for impermanent useless happiness in the heart. So, and then the last category: what is the last category of this anarthas?

Hṛdaya-durbalya, yes. The weakness of the heart. And there are also four categories there, also very tightly and logically connected with each other. So the first is what is the first one?

Tucच्छा-sakti, right? Attachment to tucha, to something really insignificant. Tucच्छा-sakti. It's basically uh uh please remember now what I said that anartas are nothing but our adjustments to this material world.

When we live in this material world, we develop thousands and even millions of these little tiny stupid attachments. We attach to so many stupid things. Because this is this is what material life is all about.

You know, sometimes people think that you know attachment means, you know, when you're a little child, you're attached to your dolls, and you attach to your, you know, if you take this doll from a child, he will cry.

So uh, but it's not only the attachment to the stupid things uh that I I would say that uh more important uh in this category of tucच्छा-sakti is the attachments to the negative things.

Sometimes we think that attachment is only attachment to something which brings you pleasure. No.

In reality, we have much more attachments to something which negative attachments so to speak. Like we're all offended, right? And sometimes people, you know, they they carry these grudges within the heart for so long.

Are they attached to the grudge? You tell people you should forgive. And they say, no, I cannot forgive. I can't forgive. Why? Because they're too attached to all these pains of the past.

You know, sometimes people they carry it for years and I mean throughout the whole life.

They're so attached to, you know, to this enemies, this notion of enemies, he's my enemy, he inflicted this pain to me, that pain to me. So this is all dust-asakti.

You know, we have to be very clear how many attachments we have. And they're all trivial attachments, really petty attachments, useless attachments. Useless.

Most of them are useless, but still, as I said, it's a device to live in the material world. And then after that, if you have these attachments, then what happened?

You know, if you have these attachments, then you develop Kutinati. Kutinati means fault finding.

You know, you will anyway, let's not get too much into it, but basically you can very clearly understand how it's all very much tightly connected.

Kuṭi-naṭī means you're trying to find faults in some other people, you know, and you speak bad about them behind their back and this and that, you know, and therefore you're making politics and your duplicitous kuṭi-naṭī means duplicity. It basically means you're smiling at the face of somebody and then you know, when he turns his back, you'll speak what you really think about him.

And then after this, mātsarya, you know, you basically kuṭi-naṭī means you're bringing people down, and if somebody is mātsarya, matsari. know, if somebody is ahead of us in any sphere of material existence, then matsary develops.

The envy that somebody is ahead of me. Because we always want to be the first. I heard a joke that God, before sending a living entity in this material world, he chants a very sacred mantra into his ear.

And for the whole life we're remembering this mantra. Do you know what is this mantra? It's not Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare.

The mantra which God chants into our ear is that you're the best. You're the best.

So Matsarya basically is this envy which naturally awakens in our heart when we see that somebody supersedes us, that somebody is better than us in any sphere of activity we feel, especially in something to which we are attached, to our understanding of who we are, if somebody is better than us, then matsari is there, the envy is there in the heart, and svapratishtata is the last category.

Root attachments behind unwanted qualities

The pride of one's own achievements or you know pride. So as I said, listen, I will go now to the next point, how to get rid of the anarthas.

But before I say this and explain my understanding of what is the quickest and most conscious and pointed out way of achieving this goal of anarthanivṛtti or even higher is is before I say this, I would like to repeat the same thing again. Is that it's very difficult for us to get rid of the anartas because they bring some advantages to our life.

And unless we are extremely clear that we are attached for anarthas, this is one of the categories, the attachment for the anarthas, it will be difficult for us to consciously work on this.

So the next point which after describing this cloud of anarthas, you know the problem of material life.

Because Kuṭi-nāṭī witness sorry Kapaṭatā Vāñchalā witnesses of the heart is nothing but the description of conditioned state of affairs, conditioned state of our heart. They're all there to a certain extent.

So we all know the process, the general process. And the general process is described by Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī in Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu: ādau śraddhā tataḥ sādhu-saṅgo ’tha bhajana-kriyā tato ’nartha-nivṛttiḥ syāt.

I was thinking that it's very interesting because Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī says anartha-nivṛttiḥ syāt. And syāt, I believe Hindi word śyāt is coming from the Sanskrit word syāt.

Syāt means is, it's there, but syāt has a shade of a meaning, maybe.

So specifically, Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī says, you know, śraddhā is there, then sādhu-saṅga is there, then bhajana-kriyā is there, and then maybe anartha-nivṛtti. It may be, may not be, you know. So it's a difficult process.

Śraddhā is an easy process, very blissful process. And sādhu-saṅga is in the beginning very blissful. It may not be so blissful at the end in a certain point. But you know, anartha-nivṛtti is a difficult process.

Therefore, Syat is there. Maybe. point. If you reach out this Anartanivriti, then after that it's kind of easy.

It becomes, it's like you're climbing, climbing over the hill and anarthanivṛtti is this you know the peak of the hill. And after that you just go down and it's easy. But the climbing is a little difficult.

So after that it's uh it's a very natural process. Before that, it's also a natural process. Bhakti is always a natural process, but because we have double

nature, it's natural from the point of view of spiritual nature we have, and it's totally unnatural from the point of view of material nature which we also have.

So we have to go against our material nature, therefore it's difficult. The fighting is there. And niṣṭhā, niṣṭhā is the peak actually.

When we complete our anartha-nivṛtti and reach niṣṭhā, then this is the peak and then after that practically material nature is not prominent anymore.

It's there, up to the stage of prema, it's still there, still some influence will be there, but it it's insignificant.

So basically, Nishta is the point where two forces, the spiritual force and material force, are more or less on the same level. It's more or less the balance point, therefore, it's called Nishta.

You know, in the beginning, the material force is very strong. And therefore, you know, to go against the grain of material tendencies is difficult.

Niṣṭhā is a balance point and after that you know the spiritual nature becomes more prominent and uh more uh important in our heart.

Intermediate goals on the bhakti ladder

So uh what I want to say next uh how much time do I have is it Oh yeah, okay. I will definitely finish way before that. It's not much uh of what I wanted to say.

So So uh let's uh what I want to offer to you now is the way to look uh into this bhakti ladder.

Usually when we look in the bhakti ladder starting with śraddhā, sādhu-saṅga and bhajana-kriyā, anartha-nivṛtti, niṣṭhā, ruci, āsakti, and bhāva we kind of look at it as um as intermediate goals.

We all know the definition of Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī in Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu. He says sadhana is the systematic activity which we perform in devotional service which we perform with the goal of achieving Bhava. Bhāva actually is the intermediate stage according to the classification of Rupa Gaswami whether Bhav Basically min uh when the love of God bekoms ov nater bå koms wen vet kvar stai bhav and stay bhav means permanent mood and when the love of God it becomes love of Krishna becomes our permanent mood and that's bhav that's the stage of bhav.

And before that, it's different stages of practice. And sometimes different acharyas they classify it in the more minutely.

Like Srila Viswanach Chakravati Thakur he gives 14 stages instead of nine stages uh in this ladder. So it it's uh usually we say it's intermediate goals.

Prabhupada makes a very interesting notion which is important for us in his purport in Bhagavad Gita to the verse 1010, the famous verse Tesham Satata Yuktanam Bhajati Prieti Purvakam Dadami Buddhi Yogam Tam Yana Mamopayant.

He says that we have to understand very clearly that the goal is Krishna. That has to be very clear. The ultimate goal has to be very clear.

And then when the ultimate goal is clear, then we have to see the whole path, how it will be progressively traversed. In other words, Prabhupada makes a very important point.

He says that we will be able to achieve the ultimate goal if we know the whole path and all the intermediate goals.

So, my first thing is which I want to say, which may also sound a little heretical, a little unusual for us is that even though from the very beginning we should be very clear that the goal is Krishna and we have to achieve him.

Sometimes this ultimate goal, especially when when we are in the very beginning stages of our devotional service, this ultimate goal is not very inspiring to us.

It's probably not, you know, it's not about you, but I've seen other people. You know it's too far. It's too I mean it's too idealistic, too I mean it's yeah Krishna may be there, but I'm here. What am I supposed to do?

So, what I want to say for understanding of how to apply the emphasis in different stages of our devotional service we have to be very clear about the intermediate goals which will be the most inspiring for us according to our stage of spiritual development.

Ultimate goal is there. We should not try to minimize it or whatever. But see, you may you know if you have ten rupees in your pocket. Oh okay, hundred rupees.

Okay, thousand rupees in your pocket. Inflation is there, so or maybe 10,000 rupees in your pocket and you want to you know to to buy the BMW, the latest latest and this is your goal.

Sometimes people, you know, all these motivational speakers, they say you just you imagine your goal and you will achieve it. Um Hare Krishna, you may achieve it, you may not achieve it.

What I want to say is that if you only have 1000 rupees in your pocket, then BMW as a goal of all your endeavors may not be relevant at this stage of your life.

This goal may be relevant on a little later stage when you have little more in your pocket.

So, therefore, in my humble opinion, we have to be very clear what are the goals which we should emphasize on a different stages of spiritual development. Like we are dealing with the councilees.

And you know, I've seen that if in the very beginning you emphasize too much, of course I'm sure you're not doing this, but sometimes it's being done unfortunately, emphasize too much all these rasas with Krishna, then the people what do they do?

They're too far away from this goal, but they want to achieve, and the counselor or whoever is teacher, the spiritual master, he is always saying, you know, we have to come to Krishna, we have to come to the spiritual world.

Rasa is our goal. Then what people do? They just imagine that they're already there. It's it's called sahajiyā. You're still very much down here, and somebody is always speaking.

This is the goal, this is the goal, this is the goal. I've seen how people just become 100% sahajiyās. Yeah, oh Krishna, oh, oh, Rādhā, oh. You know you can see it's just pretense. Total pretense. Why?

Because the goal is not, I mean, the emphasis is not correct. This is the goal, no doubt about it.

But the emphasis, uh, even Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says in the first uh in the beginning stages of our material ex or of our spiritual development uh our goal should be what? Do you know what? He says purification of the heart.

More or less he says that the goal is freedom from anarthas. And this you this is the goal you can relate with very easily. And I want to give you a very interesting way of looking into this letter so that the emphasis

can be uh more clearly defined.

Four required elements for reaching goals

Are you not tired? I am I not shall I close my session you are still with me right okay so uh

so so uh the first to understand this how how to see, how to view this ladder of bhakti from the point of view which I suggest you to look at it. There may be different points of view.

It's uh I mean it's relative in a sense. So it's just one way of looking at this.

Um uh uh uh I want to bring uh to you the notion or the understanding which is coming from Nyaya, that's basically Nyaya uh analysis, and in Nyaya they say we all know this but in Nyaya they use slightly different terms for this.

And they say to achieve the goal you have to know four things. Again, four. So what are these four things which you have to know to achieve the goal? You have to know the goal, the destination, definitely.

But you know uh to achieve the goal uh is it only enough to know the destination? You you have to know the starting point, right? You know, like in GPS. GPS uh it's a global positioning system.

You know, you want your goal, you enter your goal into the GPS system. What GPS does the first thing? Yeah, your current status.

You know, GPS, you you give the GPS, this is the goal I want to achieve. But then to chalk out the path to this goal, the GPS defines where you are now. Okay?

So, and then GPS gives you the path, the most, you know, the shortest path. And if it's a very smart GPS, I I will tell you a little later on what else it should do. So these three things are clear.

The first thing is your current status. The point, the starting point. And the starting point is called adhikāra, right? Your qualification. So then the goal uh and uh the

process is how do we call the process, the process of achieving goal? We have a standard name for this. How is it called? Sadhana. So Adhikar, Sadhana, Prayojana. You can say sambandha, abhidheya, prayojana.

It's basically the same, but for our understanding, these terms are better. Adhikar, Sadhana and Prayanaoj. There is the fourth thing which we should know. What is the fourth thing to achieve the goal?

You know the starting point, you know the path, the way to the goal, you know the obstacles on the path. Obstacles on the path.

I remember once we were traveling in Germany, and the person who was who was driving the car, he was German, but he was actually he was from Russia and he just recently went to Germany.

So the GPS system which he was using, he you know that we very diligently followed all the instructions and then we came to the point where the road was completely destroyed and there was no way and we have to you know and we were driving to the airport.

We were short of time and this GPS you know we came to the point that the the road is blocked. So we were trying to go some other way, and he doesn't know the other way, and GPS always shows him you go this way, this way.

We already know the obstacle is there, we cannot go, but GPS goes, no, no, go this way, go this way. So we we were almost late to the airport because we didn't know the obstacles.

So the obstacles have to be very clearly defined. And that's basically the four things of the first vibhāgas, right? Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says: what are the four problems for Anarthas?

Svātantrya-vibhāga, parātantrya-vibhāga, sādhana- sādhu-vibhāga and viṣaya-virodha-vibhāga. So this the same kind of understanding is there. There's four things we we have to be very clear about.

So uh to m uh what I suggest now uh okay let's take this ladder of bhakti with the intermediate goals. Let's say you know you achieved some intermediate goal.

For example, sādhu-saṅga or bhajana-kriyā or anartha-nivṛtti. So this intermediate goal in regard to the ultimate goal becomes what? In this notion of Adikar, Prayojana, Sadhana. Milestone.

Yeah, it becomes milestone, it becomes your new adhikāra, right? Right? If you achieve certain point on this ladder, that becomes your starting point for the next uh for the rest of the journey, right?

This is becomes your adhikāra. So that's very important. Please remember this. Then we when we achieve certain goal, this goalich before

was a goal for us becomes our adhikāra, our qualification for the rest of the journey, for the next stages of the journey.

Role of association in early practice

So, the way I suggest to look into this ladder, when we clearly minutely study and this design of this ladder which Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī gives. He first says, ādau śraddhā.

And this is my question to you: Is śraddhā a part of Bhakti? Is? Is it? Yes, yes. It's not. This is very clearly explained by Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī that this is a starting point, but this is not yet bhakti.

It's just a preliminary qualification for bhakti. So Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī is very clear that śraddhā is not a part of the process of bhakti, it's adhikāra for bhakti. It's a general adhikāra. Yataḥ śraddhām mat-kathāsu.

Some time ago I gave a seminar here on this farm about adhikāra, the specific you know elements of this adhikāra.

So also Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says, it's all ācāryas they agree with this that śraddhā is the general adhikāra, general preliminary stage.

The bhakti, the practice of bhakti really starts from sādhu-saṅga. And you can only enter sādhu-saṅga if you have śraddhā. The sādhu-saṅga will have meaning, this stage will become meaningful only if you have faith.

And therefore, everyone explains that you know of course Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura says that before sādhana, before śraddhā, there is another sādhu saṅga. There are two sādhu-saṅgas.

First, you meet a sādhu and you develop some respect toward him, and because of this, uh you develop faith. And then the real sādhu-saṅga comes.

So that's what I suggest to you: that we put aside śraddhā as a preliminary general adhikāra, and we start our journey in the realm of bhakti towards

the highest goal of bhakti from sādhu-saṅga, because it's really the starting point as far as the practice is concerned. And we all know there are a lot of problems in sādhu-saṅga as well.

You know, we all have to, you know, people especially uh it may be less in India because people are still more socially connected that's a lot of problems in sādhu-saṅga in Russia, you know, because people are so social.

It's very difficult for them to enter into the society, to be a part of integral part of the society. So it's a practice, it's already a practice.

What I mean to say is that you have to apply some conscious endeavors to be a part of a Sangha and not to destroy or compromise your position in this Sangha. Therefore, listen again, this is just my suggestion.

You may disregard it completely, or if you find it interesting, please uh look at it more carefully. But I I don't I don't proclaim that this is the only way or whatever but

I it's at least it gave me some insight of how the how the emphasis should be applied in uh in our uh journey to bhakti. So I suggest that Shraddha is the general adhikāra that sādhu-saṅga is the first stage.

And if we take the three first stages sādhu-saṅga, bhajana-kriyā, and anartha-nivṛtti, then uh uh when we enter into the stage of sadhu sangha and we are when we are clearly a kind of established or integrated in the society of devotees.

Because sadhu sangha is really the integration into the society of devotees. I'm a part of this society, I want to be a part of this society.

You all know somebody comes, he just he absorbed the society of devotees, the you know the Sangha from outside, but then he develops some desire, he wants to enter, and then with some difficulties he enters.

So I suggest that this is the first achievement on the pass of bhakti when somebody entered the society and wants to be the part.

He's a counselee, he's really green, he's in the very beginning, but still he's enthusiastic and he wants to be part of it, and he's very careful not to offend anyone, uh, to be accepted.

You know, he doesn't know much, but he, you know, he knows the uh external ways of how to be a part of this Sangha.

You know, he dresses in a certain way, he puts tilak, you know, and uh he's definitely not very convinced inside. But he wants to be a part of this society.

So this is the first adhikāra, and I suggest to look at the at these three stages as adhikāra, sādhana, and goal, pūjana, intermediate goal. So in this scheme, sādhu-saṅga will be the first adhikāra. We enter into the adhikāra. And then our sādhana is bhajana-kriyā. And Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, he very clearly says that bhajana-kriyā is not chanting, bhajana-kriyā is not hearing, bhajana-kriyā is not worshiping the deity, bhajana-kriyā is chanting, hearing, worshiping the deity in the society of devotees. That's bhajana-kriyā. Bajana Kriya, you're functioning as a part of the society of devotees, and

in the society of devotees, you're chanting, in the society of devotees, you are hearing, in the society of devotees, you're worshiping the deity, taking part in the festivals. So that becomes your sadhana.

You know, you try to do it in a proper way. And then the goal is anartanivriti, right? That's what I said. This is what uh Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says that in the beginning the goal of chanting is purification of the heart.

In the beginning, the goal of um our chanting is not Krishna Prem. Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanaṁ. Bhava-mahā-dāvāgni-nirvāpaṇaṁ. So in the beginning it's just ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanaṁ.

And I would suggest that in the beginning we have to, and this is exactly what Śrīla Prabhupāda was stressing again and again and again. The purification of the heart is your goal.

Practice of devotional service is your sadhana together with other devotees. It's interesting because uh this is the quote which was given by Prahladananda Maharaj during our uh college seminar

somby complained to Śrīla Prabhupāda about somebody else about some temple president and somebody else and said he's so ambitious. And Prabhupāda said that's good. Ambitious.

What I want to say listen uh carefully what I want to say is that in the beginning we cannot immediately artificially get rid of our ambitions.

Let's dovetail our ambitions to the practice of devotional service in the societies of devotees and devotees very quickly you know very quickly help us to destroy our ambitions. Ambitions will not last for long in the society of devotees.

But you know, this is a very good starting point. What I want to say is that in the beginning with stress purification of the heart and as the process with stress you do whatever you're doing in the society of devotees.

Even if you have desires, no problem. Just do it in the society of devotees. If you're ambitious, do it in the society of devotees. No problem. It will take place. Krishna will take care of it.

But uh the main thing you just remain the sādhaka, uh keep, preserve the sādhaka, do your practice, bhajana-kriyā in the society of devotees. Then the goal of anartha-nivṛtti will be achieved. There is another important stage. Then when we achieve the goal of Anarta Nivriti, and we'll speak a little bit about this, what it means a little later, just a couple of minutes later. But when we achieve the goal of Anartha Nibriti, then Anartanibriti becomes what?

Adhikar for the next goal. And what is the next goal? No. Nishta in this scheme will be sadhana. Right? If Adikar is an artanivrity then Nishta is sadhana. What we're supposed to do, and Ruchi is the goal.

So, what I would say: in the first, in the beginning stages, we have two very clear intermediate goals. And that's exactly what Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda said.

Humility and tolerance as daily practice

He said in the beginning anarka nivriti and then arka praviti. Anarka Nivriti is the goal in the beginning, and then Ruchi is the next stage, next prayana, so to speak, taste.

And then very important notion of the next sadhana. If the first sadhana, the first emphasis is: we emphasize the need of the

society of devotees, we emphasize the need to perform our devotional service in the society of devotees, not outside. devotional service in the society of devotees, not outside.

Śrīla Prabhupāda said that you know he went so far, he said that whoever thinks that he can become Krishna conscious outside of the society of devotees, he is insane. He's you know something like this. He's insane. Huh?

Yeah, he's insane, basically. He's insane.

So in the beginning, we emphasize again and again and again you do your bhajana-kriyā, but in the society of devotees, then anartha-nivṛtti will take place, then in the next stage when you achieve preliminary, because anartha-nivṛtti is actually not complete purification of Anartas.

It's you know, you more or less the anarthas are not so prominent anymore, they are not so pronounced anymore. You know, anartha-nivṛtti is not a very high stage.

It's a stage where Anartas are not very troubling in your heart. Kāma is still there, but it's just it's there, you know, in case you need it. But it's not so much troubling you.

So, but the next sadhana is very niṣṭhā, niṣṭhā as a sadhana. Nishta not as a something which we have achieved, but something which we practice. And what is Nishta as sadhana?

It's basically tṛṇād api su-nīcena taror api sahiṣṇunā amāninā mānadena kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ. manadana kirtaniya sadhahari. That's the practice. And that's exactly what Guru Maharaj always stresses.

Trinada Pisuni Chinatha Rarapi. I I don't know if there is any lecture where he would not quote this verse. Probably in every lecture he would quote this verse. That's the practice.

What I want to say, what I dare to say is that first of all, in the very beginning, like Prabhupada, he was not so much stressing it. He was definitely stressing it, but not to the same extent. Why?

The reason is simple because in the beginning people may become a little discouraged. It's little above their head. In the beginning Prabhupada was encouraging just do something for Krishna, you know, whatever it is.

Just if you're ambitious, very good. Be ambitious, but be ambitious for Krishna. Just do this, do that, you know. And therefore, so much competition was there.

You know, Śrīla Prabhupāda consciously knew that this is what we should stress. Do something for Krishna in the society of devotees, then the purification will take place.

When the preliminary purification takes place, then you know, and

if you start, I know how it is, if you start stressing very much, I mean just hammering on again and again and again, uh on this point of being humble, in the very beginning, people may become discouraged.

In the very beginning, they're still too much ambitious and they don't know. They don't know how to relate to this.

It's different in your case because you have this glorious society where everyone is humble, where everyone is trying to serve. So you know, people they come and they try to adjust to the social norms.

But it's it's not that they're humble in the beginning. I heard from some inside information.

Somebody, I sent some spy to Chowpatty temple, one brahmachari, and he was observing from inside what's going on and he said, yeah, there are there

are really advanced senior brahmachyaris they're really manifestation of this verse and there are some new bhaktas and they are trying to be humble, but you know it's uh it's very superficial.

You touch them a little bit and you know it's still there you know it's it's just they're conforming to the norms of the society more or less to to be Whatever.

So but what I want to say is that when we reach this preliminary stage of preliminary purification of the heart, when the anarthas are not so troubling, then the real emphasis is definitely Trinada Pisunicharora Pisa Hishnu Naumanina.

And then the ruchi will become achievable goal. And Rucci, again, is a relevant goal. As much as Anartanivriti is very relevant in the beginning, Rucci becomes relevant on a little higher stage.

I would say this that in the beginning I spoke, I deal with many, many very you know near Phi devotees, beginning devotees. You can very easily to explain to them the need for purification of the heart.

You know because they don't have so much experience of spiritual taste, it's a little difficult, you know, you can say, but they don't relate so clearly. It's not that inspiring.

You know, adhikāra is basically when I gave this example about BMW car. Adhikāra in this example is what? Amount of fruit is in your pocket, right? You know, the goal becomes relevant only when you have certain adhikāra.

You know, the goal is always higher than what you have. But it cannot be too higher. If it's too higher, it's in one sense disempowering.

So, you know, we can see uh that uh i if we uh take this n you know kind of understanding or this view we will see uh what is the progression.

Then definitely the next uh very important emphasis is this uh humility and tolerance uh and uh as a practice uh not yet as as the achieved stage but as a practice uh in this

stage to reach uh the stage of ruchi and then when you achieve ruchi then uh what becomes your ruchi becomes your adikar your practice will become Āsakti, attachment, and your goal will become bhāva.

And then you you go further. When you achieve this, this stage of ruchi, then āsakti, attachment to a certain sentiments of of the inhabitants of Vrindavan, more particular sentiments.

This is the stage where you know your hearing and chanting will become more specified, more selective.

This is, of course, this is a higher stage, higher stages of practice where you you know you already have the taste, but you you don't want this general taste. You're not satisfied with the general spiritual taste.

You want much more pronounced and much more special taste in relationship with Krishna,

then your practice will become listen about certain kind of pastimes of Krishna which will nourish your certain sentiments and then the bhava or sthāyi-bhāva will be achieved as a more higher, you know higher practice.

So if we take this understanding then we will have uh s you know very clear intermediate stages. The first one is sādhu-saṅga, and actually Prabhupāda said once a very beautiful statement.

Somebody asked Prabhupada, what have we done to be engaged in devotional service?

And probably he expected the answer yes you you you have performed all the Vedic rituals and yagyas and this and that and Prabhupada said you have done nothing your only adikar is association with me.

So what I want to say is that uh the first first stage uh very important sādhu-saṅga or ādikāra uh prelimin you know very important stage, then the next stage is anartha-nivṛtti as the goal, as a milestone.

You know, sādhu-saṅga is the first milestone, next milestone is anartha-nivṛtti intermediate stage, bhajana-kriyā is the practice which we stress how to do it properly.

And then the next milestone is ruchi and uh uh niṣṭhā as a practice. Of course you can look differently but this is what I suggest to understand the dynamic of uh this devotional process of purification of the heart.

Association with devotees and scripture

So thank you very much. Based on time. Yes, yes Mahāprabhu. Very wonderful application is definition of sādhanā, which isn't clear.

But I'm exclusive on one point that when you said that sādhu-saṅ now most of the people are and sādhu-saṅga whether he how you can explain that we can have sādhu-saṅga.

We are not having everywhere like a Kwyhla hospital where they can go there and have a program there. Most of the people are outside and in one family there may be five, six devotees also.

But I don't think we are having sādhu-saṅga in our families how to solve that. I humbly disagree. I think you have you know my association with one's wife is a glorious sādhu-saṅga. It's it's sādhvī-saṅga.

But uh I can give you something which will definitely give you a lot of solace and relief. Śrīla Narottama Dāsa Ṭhākura in Prema-bhakti-candrikā he says that there are two kinds of sat-saṅga.

He says one sat-saṅg is general sat-saṅg which we all know when we come into the society of devotees, we associate with devotees, that's definitely sat-saṅg.

He says there are second kind of sat-saṅg because even he, Narottama Dāsa Ṭhākura, 400 years back, he says sat-saṅg is rare.

You know, if Narottama Dāsa Ṭhākura, who was not a gṛhastha, who was a renowned person, who was living a lot of time and renounced

He says, but there is one type of sat-saṅg which is always readily available, no matter where you are. He says: actually, the holy scriptures, śāstras, are also reading of the holy scriptures is also sat-saṅg.

So when you read Prabhupāda's books, it's sādhu-saṅga, no doubt about it. So there are two kinds of sādhu-saṅga, and if you don't too much associate with your wife you can read Prabhupada's books. Any other question or we just finish at this point.

Yes, Prabhupada. Thank you for a very wonderful message. You mentioned the subsequent stages that asakti is the sadhana and uh asakti uh. So can you just explain, as people that you said for for uh the previous one

you said, "Sraddha, nischaya," sraddha is needed in sadhana, so is this what you? Yeah, I try to explain what it means. In my humble opinion, there are you know the sadhana, the changing.

The ways how we perform our bhajana-kriya are different. In the beginning, our bhajana-kriya is of one sort. We are just trying to do everything right.

We are trying to be meticulous, we you know we are trying to concentrate on the holy name, we're trying to preach to other people, to perform kīrtana and we are conscious of doing everything right.

And the next stage when uh niṣṭhā becomes our sadhana, then we are trying to do the we already know the technique, so to speak, how to do it, but we are trying to do it in the correct mood.

We are trying to do it in a mood of humility, tolerance, in a mood of respect towards others, we are working on these qualities. And that will bring us general ruchi, ruchi for spiritual practice.

You know, Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura in Madhurya-kādambinī explains that ruchi, you know, explains the stage of ruchi. There are two substages in ruchi.

You know, you you're very much uh you have you know in the beginning uh you attached to the form. You have very strong ruchi, taste to spiritual practice, but you still attached to the form.

You can only get pleasure if the kīrtana is nicely performed, if a leader is nice, you know, in the higher stages of ruchi, you don't care, you know. If somebody cannot really, you know, even nicely chant, you're still in ecstasy.

You know, if somebody like myself, you know, chanting in a horrible way, then you're still happy, you know, because because uh the ruchi is more strong.

Uh but then when the ruchi becomes, especially this higher form of it, becomes your qualification, your adhikāra. If you already have very strong taste of spiritual practice and reading of the books and everything else, then your reading will become different.

Your reading will become more and uh I definitely do not recommend to do it prematurely. That's the whole idea of this class, not to do it prematurely,

but when the taste will become very strong, extremely strong and completely ecstatic, then you want to make your taste more refined.

And in this stage, people develop, this is this was very often described by Srila Gorga Vindamaraj. Śrīla Prabhupāda described it sometimes, not very often because our acharyas are quite conservative about this.

But Bhaktivinoda definitely explained it in later chapters of Jaivadharma and Sri Chaitanya Siksamritam.

Then Āsakti as a sādhana basically means that you're not just hearing and chanting, you're hearing about special kind of pastimes of Krishna to which you have some affinity.

You're chanting about these pastimes, you talk about them or you you perform some lilakirtanas. Of course it's not within the practice of our society, but it used to be very

much prominent in Gaudiya Vaishnavism that people would perform special lilakirtanas. They still do it in Orissa, in many places, you know all this uh Lila Kirtan or Lila Katha. So that's to cultivate your attachment.

Uh attachment means you don't want to be attached to Krishna in a very remote and very general way. You want to be attached to Him in a very specific way. Your attachment becomes specialized, so to speak.

But again, I didn't want to speak about this too much. But it's definitely different kind of practices. One is to do everything right.

You know, second one to do everything is in the right mood and the very right uh with the right kind of attitude. You work on the attitude. First you you you work on the technique, so to speak, on the general thing.

When it becomes more refined, you do it with a, you know your mood becomes more refined so to speak.

Eradicating subtle identity misconceptions

Yes, Madame. So what is it? It's a very struggle and some of my own personality I'm always defeated. So even though you say that we have to, it's a time, it's a process, it's an action.

But now at one point I have sort of given up, okay. I just can't deal with this. So I'm just playing to the video that As I said that the root cause of Anarthas is this Tattvavibrahm.

The gross anarthas are very difficult to overcome, and there is some sort of inertia. But the main point is to deprive these anarthas of their nourishment.

As Radhathnath Prabhu explained, that the nourishment is coming from the from the root to everything. And you know, even if you cut the tree from the roots, for some time

the tree is still there, you know the leaves are still green, you know the trunk is there. The life seems to be there. So in a similar way the most important way

of working with anarthas is to eradicate from this most subtle kind of anartha understanding who I am and who is God and what is the process. And that's exactly what Śrīla Prabhupāda was doing.

This is how he established the society, you know, this body, hammering on this point. Because this is cutting the anarthas at the root. You know, if you have this very clearly established that your identity, so to speak.

That what is my identity? I am spirit soul. I need Krishna. I'm not a part of this material world. Even though by inertia still anarthas have some power over you and they overpower you, it's still okay, it's not a problem.

It will finish at one point and it will become less and less and less. The main point is to stop nourishment of this anarthas from misconceptions.

What happens with us, and this is one of the causes of persistence of the anarthas. What happens with us is that we engage in some practices which reinforce our false conceptions of who we are.

Like we know, jīvera svarūpa haya kṛṣṇera nitya-dāsa. I am eternal servant of Krishna.

But when we behave in the real world, we have a position of leader, leadership and you know sometimes we do behave not as a servant but as a master just by habit or by other things.

And this behavior reinforces the false conceptions. And this conception of the servant is not becoming prominent. I told the story yesterday. It's a beautiful story. It's one of my favorite Prabhupāda stories.

There was a devotee who came to, uh, I think, I believe it was Chicago Temple or maybe Los Angeles Temple during Prabhupāda's time. And he was very—he had very strong controlling tendencies.

He was bossing around from the very beginning, even though he was a new bhakta, so very soon he was promoted as the as a temple commander to dovetail his propensities.

And he was very happy, and he thought, I'm really progressing fast in my devotional service.

So he was temple commander and he was controlling even more people, this and that, and this and that, and you know, he was a terror for the whole temple, more or less. Then there came the time when he was supposed to get initiation from Prabhupada.

You know, and it's a usual scene, so many people are waiting for their turn to come. And uh they come, they pay obeisances to their spiritual master, they give the vows, uh, they say that I will chant 16 rounds.

They are follow for regulative principles. And then Prabhupada gives you the beats and gives the name. So his storm comes.

He comes to seal the Prabhupada and he pays his Dandavata base and says, you know, you can imagine, you know, heavy guy with a to show how obedient he is, you know.

And Prabhupada, at this point, he said, I just, you know, I'm still there in Dandavat, I'm chanting my mantra namah visnu-padaya krishna-presthaya bhutale, and I hear Prabhupada says your name is Such and Such, das not master dash, thousand times das, das, das.

Did you understand this? So Prabhupada, he took the opportune moment, he didn't wait when he will get up.

While he's still there in a very humble position of Dandavat, Prabhupada says, your das, and then he didn't say das, your thousand times das, your das, das, das.

And he says, he himself says this. You know, he didn't get his, he already got his name thus. He didn't remember the first part of the name, you know, it's not there.

He didn't get his beats, but he's still there on the ground. He heard this and he says, There was only one thought in my mind at this moment of time. What am I supposed to do now with this? He was totally bewildered.

He didn't know what to do.

So basically what I want to say is that the most important thing for the anartist to to get rid of the anartists is very clear understanding of who we are, that we are Das, eternal Das, thousand times Das. And we never become anyone else.

We will always become. There will be no, you know, like sometimes people say, Yeah, in the beginning I am das, then I'm Prabhu and I am Mahaprabhu, you know. Then Maha Mahaprabhu.

It's it's not in relationship to you, you are Mahaprabhu das. You know, but I I've seen this so-called spiritual advancement.

You know, there was one senior devotee in Russia. He would always, you know, he when he would speak on the phone, he would say, this is such and such Prabhu speaking. Can I speak with such and such das?

He was very consistent in his You know, so what

I want to say is that we may theoretically understand I'm das, but uh sometimes our practice reinforces this vibrama, this uh and therefore this position of a counselor is a is a blessing definitely,

uh but it can be dangerous because people can I I've seen unfortunately how people you know manifest unwanted behavior and stunt our growth.

Therefore, it's very important what you are doing here to come together and to speak. What is the proper way of performing these duties? I'm very grateful.

And please forgive me if I said something wrong or whatever and thank you very much, you know, that I'm always your servant, and if you need anything from me, please engage me in your service. I will be very happy.

Because I'm always taking your service and I'm getting implicated more and more into the depth.

So when Gauranga Prabhu this morning asked me, I had some other plans to be honest with you, but immediately I agreed because I thought if this is what what you want from me, I'm ready to serve you. Thank you.