Anartha Nivritti. Lecture 6
Bhakti Vijnana Goswami · Govardhan · 2025
Chapters
Invocations and glorification of spiritual masters
Sri Krishna Chaitana Prabhupana, Shriamitat, Sripoda Papadina Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Rama, Rama Hare Hare, Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare, Rama Hare, Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Ramaare Rama Rama Ramahare visha mamachima mantra subta samživa ja takila shakti dara sadama manjamashravanatbagim, Pramamam Gavate Purusari tubim, svasaspurishwashaka prasidadam, yayandubudani sivamithudya manascha vadrambaja dukschacha avesetam no matrija Kalahka Lir Baline Indriya Variga, Sribhti Marga ihakantaka koti ruda, haaswayani vikala kimahankaromi, chaitanya chandram jadinanya krivam karo shiharandi bagavambraja satanayasta dama brindana ramyaka chidupassana braja vadu var genaya kavitam Sriman bhagavatam prama pramapumartamahan, srichaitannimahapurmatamidam Tatradarama Vishwasyanatarupa sophakti partma pradash tri chakriba shakravat kya So Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati explains the title of Harivalabha Prabhu He is the leader of all people in the universe because he is showing the path of bhakti and Bhakti Chakri Vartita Dwav because he is rotating this uh the uh chakra the bhakti chakra, because he is basically giving the dynamic impetus for Bhakti movement to spread around through his books, through his writings. He is called Chakravarti, the one who is writing the chakra.
Okay, so netras kritwaprenavatiras Ramekamapatudamani Vishwapola Sini Durrany May Sakinokisada sea Ah Mayabu Yakabu Shekanyak Kriripanpaniya Rancosama, Madurya Panini, Sriakripani So he's glorifying the unrestricted mercy of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, because of which even we dried trees in the desert of this material world can obtain the life of bhti.
Bhtik purva sritam Tadir tamovi satamrupa napriajamare. And by paying constantly obeisances to Sri Rupa Gaswami who explain bhakti as rasa,
Obstacles and classification of anarthas
who gave us the intelligence to see the amazing taste of rasa in all activities of bhakti, we are proceeding to study this book. So we are reading Trityamrita Vrishti, the third shower of nectar.
And uh in the beginning Vishwana Chakravati Thakur explained the obstacles on the Pasw Bhakti. Kalach Kalir Valina Indriya by Rivad, or Antaraya Nahijaya, Eta Parama Bhai.
My biggest fear in my heart is not to be able to overcome all these obstacles.
I started this beautiful pasal bhakti, but then because of so many obstacles I can be diverted and go back again to this useless repetition of birth ands deaths in the material world. Yeah, this is one of the obstacles.
So many of them exit and then they get disconnected. Okay. So and then he said uh that let's classify all
the obstacles which we have, all the impediments on our path by its origin because the origin defines the difficulty which is in this obstacle.
Depending on the origin of particular Anarta it could be overcome more easily or with great difficulties. And therefore he Vishwanachakravartipad, he classified uh all the uh anartas according to its origin.
the one uh those who are coming from duskiti from impirus activity those escape escape This is what we're trying to do, we're trying to escape all these problems. I see that screen. No, it isn't this.
The paradise which are uh an artist which are coming from uh Sukriti from pious activities, which is very unusual. Very uh seldom you hear uh the condemnation of Sukriti.
But Sukriti is a selfish activity which is basically meant for our sense enjoyment and therefore ultimately it's not beneficial for bhakti. And then the most formidable one is anartas which are coming from.
And the very peculiar one an artas which are coming because of practice of bhakti. Again, this is very unusual and that actually is evidence of the intellectual honesty of our charyas.
Now not trying to paint the pass of bhakti as totally safe and sure. They say even by practicing bhakti you can create anarthas within your heart. So this is all very important and we dealt already
with those kṛtōtpanna-anarthas which is basically avidyā asmitā rāga dveṣa and abhiniveśa, the skeleton of our material conditioned existence based on avidyā.
And as I explained, this is the description of our internal organ of perception of this world. Citta is the abode of avidyā, false ego, ahaṅkāra is the abode of asmitā, all these conceptions,
who I am, what I am to do, what are my plans, how I will be happy, and what belongs to me, what I'm entitled to enjoy.
Then rāga and dveṣa is the manifestation of manas connected with saṅkalpa and vikalpa with two functions.
And ultimately abhiniveśa, the complete absorption when our consciousness is completely absorbed in the matter and in all the considerations about matter. And all the plans, and ultimately, the fear of death.
Fear of death is the most vivid proof and manifestation of our material absorption.
Even when the body is totally useless, like Prabhupāda, he was telling the story how one man who was very old, he was begging the doctor, please give me two more months to live. What's the use? No, I still have some plans.
So that's abhiniveśa. Plans. And when we die, we think about unfulfilled desires and unfulfilled plans. And sure enough, Krishna says, yes, you want to fulfill them, no problem. You're not frustrated enough, old man.
May you be fully frustrated in the next life. So that's the blessings which we get.
So that's uh uh that's a result of our sinful activity when we try to uh enjoy uh in this material world foolishly by misusing the faculties of our body.
This avidyā, asmitā, rāga-dveṣa and abhiniveśa become reinforced in our consciousness.
And then sukṛti it can also manifest in creating especially raga the attachments and also strengthening avidyā but Sukritta specifically means desire for heavenly pleasure.
The dreams about very nice area of this world where we have apsaras who are always anyway whatever they are this uh yeah some in some religions it's it's very prominent.
This is what we are performing, this religious practice, only to get to this place where we can unrestrictedly enjoy. Here everything is restricted, there everything is unrestricted. This is a very nice place.
No restrictions whatsoever. And desire for liberation, this is a very big anartha because desire for liberation deprives us happiness of bhakti. And the desire of mystic power of course is also a very big obstacle.
So it's basically in correspondence with the pious ways of this life: karma, jñāna, and yoga. And study this verse Bhukti Mukti Siddhiśāvat Piśācī Hṛdi Vart until this witches of desires for
Preeminence of nama-aparadha among offenses
Bhukti Mukti live, we will never be able to experience happiness of bhakti. And now he starts from aparādhās and immediately from the outset says that aparādha means nāma aparādha.
Nāma aparādha is the most important of all aparādhas because everything else will be nullified just by changing the holy name, chanting certain stotras and so on and so forth.
But nāma aparādhās are very sticky. Nāma aparādhās leave very deep impression. And therefore, like in Judaic tradition, there is a lot of fear of pronouncing the name of God.
Jews they don't even put the name of God in written form. You cannot you cannot put it. Even this may be aparādha to neglect.
You have to be really careful and, once a year you can once pronounce the name of God, so powerful it is. So it's a completely different approach because, again, the idea of this Judaic tradition is different.
They want to obtain ultimately heaven. But we want to obtain love of God and there is no question of obtaining love of God without constantly chanting the Holy Name.
Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama, Rama, Hare Hare. But then still the problem remains because when we're so
familiar with this practice, we're so familiar with the holy name, because we are human beings, we tend to be very neglectful.
When it's so easily available and it's so common, we tend to forget the greatness of the holy name. Therefore, again and again and again we have to be reminded about this.
And therefore, he says that other apparatus are not so great because they can be nullified easily.
Bhatiavacikamitudeti Pavatonamaswarupa dvayama purvasmat parameva handakarunata trapi janimahiastasmin vihita parata niva So
if somebody is chanting uh inoffensively, uh even if he commits by some chance some other apparatus, he will be immersed in the ocean of bliss, according to Sri Varupa Gaswani.
Recognizing offenses and the role of innocence
Okay, so this is the new material which we start now. How do we know that we commit offense? Sri Lakrishnadas Goswami explains it very clearly.
Hena Krishna Nama Jadi, Laya Bahubara, Tabu Jari Prema Nahi, Nahi Ash If you just chant Krishna Nam and you don't experience love and you don't cry, it means that you offense offender. Very simple.
Tabijanea parada tahate prachur Krishna Namadija Tahe Nakariankur. So basically he says that because of a paratha, Krishna Namabhija, the seed of Krishna does not give sprouts. Nakariankur.
It does not sprout and it doesn't give an effect. When you are very innocent, then just by chanting Krishna's name, all the symptoms of ecstasy come.
I to be honest with you, to confess to you, I never believed it until I went to Bali. Bali is a very peculiar place where people are still very innocent.
They're following kind of Hindu tradition, worshiping many demigods, but by nature they're innocent. Practically every citizen of Bali spends 70 or more percent of his income to worship for different worship rituals.
Everywhere in Bali, you know you And then there is huge area where they uh sell all kinds of uh paraphernalia, all kinds of fruits and flowers for worship and then uh little area for everything else. So it's a it's an amazing place and people are very innocent there.
So one of such people came to me and first he proudly said, I'm Shiva Bhakta, and he showed the Trishul in his hand.
He said, but I also love Krishna. And he said, I have Bhagavad-gītā in my home, Prabhupāda's Bhagavad- gītā, and it's on my altar.
And then he showed to me his hand and he said, look, as soon as he mentioned Krishna and Bhagavad Gita, his whole you know, body became pulaka-śarīra. Huge, huge. I mean really all the hairs stand on there,
and he said, look, look, look. Very innocently, he said. Not proudly, but still with a lot of natural innocence.
And then next day he came again and again somehow rather he said about Krishna and again said, look, look, look. Every time he mentions Bhagavad Gita and Krishna. He experienced ecstasy. Welcome to Hare Krishna movement.
So that's our problem and we have to understand that this is a problem. It's possible, but it's only possible when we are innocent.
And then the consideration of aparādha is such an important part of our tradition, of our siddhānta. So, so, kṛṣṇa-bīja, lating-aṅkura, the seed of Krishna Nama does not grow in the heart and does not give its effect.
So basically, this is the inference which we should make.
Nature of aparadha and offensive environments
We can infer the presence of aparādhas because of the symptoms. So basically, what is aparādha? It's very important.
We have to try to develop this inoffensive mentality, which is very difficult because we are living in a very offensive environment. Why offenses are so bad? Because they are diametrically opposed to love.
And therefore they are called aparādha. Something apar means apart, something which is far away of. Aparādha means something which is which actually displease other people or ultimately Krishna and his associates.
We will study it a little later. So it's very difficult to be inoffensive because we are living in an offensive environment.
The environment is very aggressive, and offenses are our weapons or our uh arms to counteract this aggressive nature of the environment. We are trying to defend ourselves and therefore we become aggressive.
When we are in an aggressive environment naturally we also become aggressive. Tit-for-tat, we start reacting in the same way, and therefore, modern world is very offensive by nature.
And ultimately, this inoffensive mentality is childlike innocence. Children for some time they are very inoffensive. Then they become teenagers and they make up for their inoffensive years.
But originally by nature they are nice, they are very simple, inoffensive. So therefore Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Mahārāja used to say, saralatā vaiṣṇavatā. Vaishnava is inoffensive. Innocent.
You can see this natural innocence in inhabitants of Holy Dham. Not every one of them, but in many of them you can see this very natural innocence.
And uh but uh if we live in a big cities it's very difficult to be innocent in a big city because of
the environment of this, and therefore it is said in Mahābhārata that Kali Yuga will start in the cities. Kali Yuga is the prerogative of the cities. Because in a village atmosphere you still can be relatively innocent.
And basically, what it is, in Christianity there is this concept of original sin. And according to the Bible, the original sin is this lust or sexual affair which Adam and Eve had? But it's very interesting.
Actually, they are not talking about original sin. They are talking about original offense. The proper understanding of the concept according to our tradition is the original offense because if we study
this kāma, krodha, lobha, moha, mada, matsarya, we very clearly understand Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura explains this: that matsarya is the sum total of all other five: lust, anger, greed, pride, and delusion when they come together, they create matsarya. And matsarya is this malice.
Matsarya means jealousy, envy, malice, and literally matsarya means competitive spirit. I consider myself competing with God. I become His competitor, and that's what original sin is.
Original sin is this understanding that I should enjoy independently of Him. Śrīla Prabhupāda explains very beautifully in the introduction to Bhagavad-gītā that we are entitled to enjoy.
We should enjoy, no problem with enjoyment. It's just the enjoyment has to be in cooperation with God, dependent on God, not independent. The spirit of independent enjoyment is the original seed.
The desire to prove that I am on an equal level with God, and therefore I can dictate my terms of my enjoyment. So, uh, and that's aparādha. This is the fancy attitude which we have because ultimately we want to compete.
This spirit of competition, very prominent in certain areas of the world, is actually a manifestation of this deep problem which we have.
Distinguishing between sin and aparadha
So let's differentiate very clearly what is sin and what is aparādha.
Activities done by the body, words and mind under the influence of false ego of bodily consciousness, the ātmā, buddhi, for enjoying the material senses, are known as sins.
So basically, senses we are acting, we may be acting quite innocently from this conception, I am this body. And if we are trying to squeeze out the enjoyment from the body,
that is called sins, ultimately, sins you know, there are innocent enjoyment and vicious enjoyment.
The difference between the two is that the innocent enjoyment are not so addictive, but vicious enjoyment is very addictive. Eating always brings enjoyment.
But eating certain food is forbidden because it becomes addictive. And it develops, by eating this, we develop bad tendencies in our character. But basically, this addictive nature of sin is very important.
Therefore, sin in Sanskrit is called agha. From the root ha to to kill or to eradicate.
Agha means something which leaves very deep impression within our consciousness. Something which forces us to repeat the same activity again and again and again. That is sin. Just you know, that I innocent enjoyment.
You can eat some vegetables, no problem, but mushrooms are already maybe problematic, especially certain kinds of mushrooms, which gives you special mental illusions or whatever.
So again sins are only in relations to body and to senses and maybe to the mind. But when we commit aparādhas are against Śrī Kṛṣṇa, His devotee, His Holy Name, Holy Scriptures and Holy Abode, holy dharma.
So uh uh Krishna manifests himself in these five features in this material world,
he can come himself in the form of his arcā. He manifests himself in the form of devotee because bhakta carries the energy, the most important energy of the world, bhakti śakti.
He comes recklessly in the form of holy name, very careless from his side to come so easily and become so easily available.
He comes to the holy scriptures as Bhagavad-gītā, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and he also manifests himself in the form of holy dhāma.
And when we disrespect Śrī Kṛṣṇa in the form of arcā, his devotees, his holy name, scriptures and holy dhāma, then we uh we commit aparādha, why? Because we consider them material.
This This attitude that this is something material, something ordinary, something which we can deal in a usual manner neglectfully. That constitutes aparādha. And this
aparādha is so deep because it is in connection of spirit soul. So later in the same chapter, Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura will give a slightly different definition of sin.
It says, sin refers to those actions condemned by the scriptures requiring remedial measures. So again, very important definition of sin.
The scriptures they list different sins, and with the sins, they also list the remedial measures which try to eradicate to erase the consequences of this sin upon our psyche, upon our mind, citta. So that's the sin.
But uh if we are offensive towards uh those uh features of God in which He uh is manifesting Himself in front of us to save us because of his mercy, then we create an aparadha and that becomes a very serious obstacle in our paths because it basically reinforces those traits of our personality which are completely opposite to bhakti.
Therefore, it is called aparadha. Radha means satisfaction, rad means worship. Rādhārāṇī is called Rādhārāṇī, her name is Radha because she is the best worshipper.
She worships in the best way, and worship basically means satisfying others. It's an activity to please others. And she is the best, she can please Krishna in the most beautiful way.
Anaparadha is something which is completely opposite.
Like this English word opposite or opposition it's coming from apa this prefix apa is in this word opa in somehow rather English it's become opo But in reality it's upper, so it has to be opposition.
Yeah, this is the position which is contrary, which is diametrically opposed to what we want to achieve. So we want to achieve love.
Instead, we are doing some actions which are impelled by hatred, which are impaled by malice, deeply rooted malice within our heart,
Consequences of aparadha on spiritual vision
and therefore aparadha basically dissatisfies the holy name, guru and vaiṣṇavas. And we all know as soon as somebody commits an aparadha towards us, we immediately feel that our heart closes.
When we feel this offense coming from somebody, immediately we feel how we want to become further away from this person.
So, in the same way, when we commit offenses against God or His holy name or His holy dhama or the devotees, the same reaction is also experienced by God. He wants to be further away from us. He doesn't want to have anything to do with us.
His heart, even though it's very soft, and He is ready to give mercy. But if somebody is offensive, He just, He establishes distance which is necessary. And that's why we don't experience the effect of the holy name.
That's why we don't experience the the glorious results of the practice of bhakti described in the scriptures. It's just because something is wrong with us.
And therefore we have to be very, very careful and very clearly understand what we should avoid.
So because aparādha is directly against God, devotees, holy dhāma, holy scriptures, or uh, yeah, holy name, because it is against these transcendental tattvas, it is almost as powerful as bhakti.
Bhakti is powerful because it's original spiritual energy of God.
But because our attitude is against this original spiritual energy, this aparādha becomes very powerful and therefore it causes either disappearance of bhakti or drying up bhakti at the very root. Bhakti is eternal.
Nothing can extinguish bhakti, but aparādha can, because aparādha is also eternal. It's a joke. It's a bad joke. But it's a joke.
Aparādha is not supposed to be eternal, but because it is against uh this transcendental object, it is very, very dangerous.
And therefore, Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī explains that it cannot really uh extinguish bhakti, but it can cover bhakti very deeply.
deeply. Whatever bhakti uh we have, uh nehābhikrama- nāśo 'sti pratyavāyo na vidyate, Krishna is very clear: if you did some advancement, this advancement will always be with you.
but aparādha can cover this advancement for a long, long time. Therefore, it's very important to avoid all aparādhas. And as a result of aparādha, what happens? Our consciousness becomes distorted.
We start thinking of ourselves as very elevated devotees, exalted devotees. That's the result of aparādha. The moment you think you're pure devotee, it basically means that you committed some offense.
Because pure devotee always feels himself very fallen. The moment you feel that you are not fallen, congratulations. That's the manifestation that something is wrong, you committed something wrong.
So because bhakti is such an energy which makes you very humble. By the presence of bhakti within our heart, we become naturally very humble and nice. Actually, humble people are very nice people.
They want to deal with humble people. Of course, sometimes we deal improperly with humble people, unfortunately.
But and we start thinking ourselves as very intelligent, even though we may not be very intelligent. And we start the problem with apparatus is that it's again a vicious circle.
You committed an aparadha. And you heard so much about this, that aparadha is so bad. And then somehow or other, you committed an aparadha and nothing happened.
No lightning bolt uh hit you at this moment, and you're still chanting Hare Krishna and think oh fine oh that's good it means I can continue committing aparadhas. So that's that's very bad.
We have to be very, very conscientious when it comes to our practices and we have to understand that great Vaishnavas, Spiritual Master, all the inhabitants of Holy Dham, Holy Scriptures, they are object of our worship.
We may not understand them, we may see some strange things, but still we should be very, very careful and not committing the aparadhas against this Mahat, against these representatives of Krishna's spiritual energy.
So and when we neglectfully relate to them, we basically displease these people. And what happens? Please listen very carefully. It's a very interesting and very severe effect.
The moment we commit an aparadha, an aparadha materializes our consciousness, our vision. It distorts our vision and deprives us of the ability to see subtle things, to see manifestations of spirit.
And everything becomes ordinary to us. Holy name becomes just ordinary sound, arcana-vigraha becomes just statue, guru becomes just an ordinary man. And we see it like this.
We are deprived because an aparadha deprives us of the ability to see manifestations of spirit even where they are.
Like the other day, we were driving here and Govardhana and uh uh Abhay Charan Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. So this this holy Dham, nothing is like this. Nothing in the three worlds.
I don't know if he traveled in all three worlds, but anyway, right? So that nothing is comparable to it. And you know, if you look with the ordinary eyes, what do you see? Some gehu is growing, some fields,
yeah, some you know few rocks. And you don't feel that this is a holy dumb. You can look at it with completely material vision, and that's fine, that's what everyone else sees.
But a devotee who is little purified, he can feel this is something special. This is this is incomparable with anything else.
We are here in this holy place and we feel it's it's a very pronounced distinct feeling which we have that this is something very very
special, but when we commit aparādha uh we lose this ability. We lose the ability to see that something is special in the Holy Name.
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma Hare Hare. And therefore this verse from Padma Purāṇa which Śrīla Prabhupāda often quotes: arce śilā-dhīr guruṣu nara-matis vaiṣṇave jāti-buddhiḥ viṣṇor vā vaiṣṇave kalī mala-mathane pāda-tīrthe 'mbu-buddhiḥ
śrī-viṣṇor nāmni mantri sakala-kaluṣa-heve śabda-sāmānya-buddhir Shila Dhi. You have this dhi, this intelligence which by which you cannot see or feel the spiritual power.
Gurusuna Ramatir, you know he's just ordinary human being. Vaishnavati Buddhi o Vaisnava he belongs to certain jati to certain caste. Vishnorva Vaishnava nam Kali Malamathane Pada
Tirthi Ambu Buddhi and you take this kirtha, take this charanamrita, and think all this just ordinary water. viṣṇor nāmni mantri sakala-kaluṣa-hev e śabda-sāmānya-buddhir yaḥ Kalusa this mantra or the
holy name of Krishna which can eradicate all the dirt from your heart. Are you just say oh this is Sabdasamanya Buddhi? This is just Sabdhasamanya. No, this is Hare Krishna.
This is something very very special given to us by Lord Himself. Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. And Viṣṇu
is just he's Sarvaspara, but you think that he's somebody very ordinary.
And therefore it is said, yasyātmā-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke, the person who has this vision, this kind of Buddhi, this kind of intelligence which doesn't allow him to feel the presence of spirit within these entities, this person is living in hell. Already.
He already lives in hell. No need to be afraid of it. You already live.
Sacred culture versus modern sacrilege
This is the hell because this is the you're completely in this material consciousness without any hope to get out from this hell. That's the point. This distortion of our vision is the most grievous
effect of aparadha which we should be very careful and basically, we're living in other words aparadha is sacrilege.
Aparadha is offense against something sacred, and by offending something sacred, you basically drag down these sacred things to your own level. It's just ordinary, normal, material things. And that is called sacrilege.
And we are living in this culture of sacrilege. We are living in a very sacrilegious, I don't know if it's the correct pronunciation of this word culture when nothing is sacred.
As opposite to this, Vedic culture is instilling this sense of sacredness in the hearts of people. Everything is sacred.
The material nature is sacred, rivers are sacred, it's just goddesses are there, we have to understand. That's the proper vision.
And of course the saintly people are sacred, the saintly places are sacred, parents are sacred, women are sacred. This sacredness of women is very prominent in Vedic cultures.
Of course, children are sacred, cows are sacred. So this sense of presence of something which is sacred, something which is directly connected with God, is very prominent in proper culture.
But unfortunately, there is no culture in the modern world. And therefore, we only have this culture of total sacrilege. Nothing is sacred. Nothing is sacred.
Everything is an object of derision. You can just deride it, no problem. So that's unfortunately this modern so-called culture where atheistic values become very prominent. And ultimately it means that nothing is real.
Sacred means something is real, something is eternal. So but ultimately nothing is just real, there is no truth, everything is just dead matter and that matter actually doesn't matter because it's dead anyway.
And everything is just the object of exploitation. Everything is just, it's just, yeah, it's nothing is—if if something is sacred you cannot exploit it. You have to worship it.
If woman is sacred, you cannot exploit her. But if you look at her as a prostitute, then you can exploit her. So that's the difference.
In the Vedic culture, Vedic culture, all the women are sacred and that they have to be revered as mothers. And in the modern culture all the women are supposed to be looked as prostitutes.
And it's very sad, the whole situation is extremely sad. With this leftist attitude that's coming from this leftist communist attitude, nothing is sacred.
Proper etiquette and respect for devotees
And therefore, the first thing which we should learn, this is the lesson number one in our bhakta program, how to respect devotees. Yaninda Sunnyam Ridam Ipsita Sangalabya. This fifth verse from the nectar of devotion.
Oh, nectar of instruction of Upadeśāmṛta is extremely important.
After describing the preliminary things about the sādhana-bhakti, a practice of the sādhana-bhakti, Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī gives this verse and he says, all the devotees have to be respected. Respected in a different way.
We should not be too intimate with neophyte devotees because you know we have enough problems ourselves. We don't need their problems.
When we become too intimate their problems become our problems and we don't really need it. But still we should be respectful. Still, he's a devotee, he's sacred, he's chanting the holy name.
Kṛṣṇeti yasy giri tam manaḥ-sādriyādā, if he just, Kṛṣṇeti, if he just once said Krishna, oh my goodness, uh, such a mahā-bhāgavata, I have to keep distance from him, but manaḥ-sādriyād in my mind, by my mind, I have to respect him in my mind.
But not coming too close perhaps to him. Not uh uh yeah not coming not becoming too intimate because uh when we have like normal association with uh with devotees it's okay, it's fine. We should be.
But when it comes to some intimate association with devotees, then it may be little contagious. Maybe it may some infection from their heart can come to our heart. Therefore we have to keep some distance.
Dīkṣā-sūta-pramāṇeṣu ca bāhvatāṁ ca, if somebody is doing devotional service, chanting the holy name, then we have to pay obeisances to them. We have to bow down to them. And suya vajanadikya mananya many sunya briddam
But for somebody who is com whose heart is completely free from the tendency of offense, who is completely free from the slightest tendency to offend others. Annya Ninda Adi Sunya Mhrida Miksita. Ninda Adi. Yeah.
If you're free from this tendency to offense, all other bad qualities you will also be free from it. But if you are not free from the tendency of offense, all other bad qualities will be welcome to your heart too.
So Ninde will invite. Ninde is a very generous host. If there if it's on our heart. She will invite she says, come in, come in, no problem. Feast. It's nice here. So Nindadi Sunya Khrida Mipsia.
If somebody has this anya ninda ali sunya, if somebody has this heart which is completely free from the tendency to offend others, then we should su shrushaya. And such people are bhajan and vigya.
They are very experienced in bhajan. They know what bhajan means. Because bhajan means to please Krishna by our action. Bhajan means to chant the Holy Name in such a way that it's pleasing to Krishna.
To pronounce the Holy Name in such a way that it really melts the heart of Krishna. Like Kratharani, you know, how she pronounced the holy name.
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare. So he is Bhajanavigya because his heart is completely free, and for that means we have to be eager to follow their commands.
We have to be eager to hear them and we have to be eager to follow what they tell us. And I remember, you know, I had a quite Quite close association with Kopal Krishna Maharaj. And I know how how careful he was.
Never over the years. I never, never, never, ever. You know, he could have been offended. Somebody sometimes offended him. I was a witness unfortunately of these things. He never, never criticized anyone.
And you know, some other people we know, the great devotees among us. That's the sign of real devotee who wants to develop bhakti.
He avoids by all means, by all endeavors, the critical attitude against something which is very sacred.
Seva-aparadha and avoiding deliberate offenses
So we'll go further. That's the text of Madhuri Kadamini. That's the beginning.
He says that we should avoid nāma-aparādha because nāma-aparādha distorts our intelligence and distorts our vision of reality and leave very lasting impressions.
We should be very, very careful and of course, uh, he will, uh, Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura will explain later that uh the main offense is of course sato-nindā, the offense of devotees. We're uh getting little ahead.
So now he says the author Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura says that ācāryas have discerned that sevä aparādhāns do not usually have effect being nullified by changing the name by recitation of stotras. We already read this.
Constant engagement in this activity is practically nips to the bud then the slightest effect of sevā-aparādha. So he says, yes, sevā-aparādha can easily be nullified by chanting all the stotras because the sound is very powerful.
But then he says, however, one should not become careless and take advantage of being protected from all effects of sevā-aparādha by the above measures.
So he now comes to a very important section of Madhuri Kadamini saying that even though some things can be nullified. Even though uh we can uh get rid of the uh certain uh of the consequences of certain actions
by means indicated in the Shastras, we should not nevertheless still never should consciously commit these activities. Inoffensive attitude, this is the root of inoffensive attitude.
Inoffensive attitude basically means I'm very attentive. Escape Yes. Escape. Connect the reason. Please don't pay attention to that because the inattention is the root cause of all aparādhas.
So attentiveness if inattention is the root cause of all of our aparādhas, attentiveness is the uh is the remedy against all apparatus. And it's not without a reason that in English language to serve somebody.
How you say to serve somebody? What is the synonym to serve? To attend. So service and attention is of the same nature.
And therefore, worship or service is called upasana, upasana, you you come close to the object of your worship or to the object of your service to someone whom you want to serve and you become very attentive.
Service means attentiveness. Apparado means inattentiveness.
When you're neglectful, when you're just, you know, completely spaced out and you're doing something which you're usually doing without really paying attention or placing your consciousness within the In the person whom you uh want to serve, then uh it's a parade.
So and we know when we respect somebody, as we explained in the beginning that Shraddha means respect, and when we respect somebody we become very attentive. We become alert.
This alertness is a sign of developing, proper developing of our heart. That's what we should be. But if we by using the measures which are there in the shastras which help us to nullify some Some apparadas.
We misuse these measures, then we become even more offensive. So that's what Viswanachakravati Thakur says. Yes, seva apparadas can easily be nullified by chanting stotras.
Does it mean that we should consciously do seva paradas? No. No. Never. Because if we consciously do seva paradas, it becomes Nama Parada and it cannot be unified so easily.
So sometimes people in uh devotees by hearing so much about glory of the holy name they become little neglectful uh towards other things uh or uh because we are raganuga uh we follow this path of Radhanuga it, basically means that everything is uh is just uh I don't know, everything is just a mess. Radhanuga doesn't mean that everything is mess. Ragamugan means we are very careful inside.
This this attitude very very important for practicing bhakti.
And therefore he, uh, Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, uh, he says that uh if we commit sevā-parādhāh on the pretext that uh they can easily be nullified, then we commit actually the offense of the holy name.
Nam no balatyasyahi papa buddhi na vidya te tasya yamarhi sudi. It's a very strong formulation of this sixth offense. Sixth, seventh, seventh offense. Seventh offense of the holy name.
So if you have this Papa Buddhi sinful mentality which impels you to commit some sins by counting on the purifying strength of the holy name, nā vidyate tasya yamārhi śudi, you will not be purified uh even in hell.
It's very clear said here, Yamaar Hisudi. You will go to hell. It basically means that for a long time you have to be there. Ultimately you will be purified, it's pretty hot there, so all the
toxins will be expelled, but na vidyate ta- sya yamārhi śudi. That's, of course, you can also translate Yamahi as the following the rules and regulations
but yamārhi means that even Yamarāja will not be able to purify you. So we have to be extremely careful against uh consciously committing sinful activities, uh inflicting pain to other people, and
because it becomes this nāma- parādhā. And Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura in Harināma-cintāmaṇi, he explains that devotee may commit sin by accident, but even so he is unable to abide the misery of ritualistic atonements.
It basically says that sometimes devotee commits sin and he cannot really go through this atonement which is there in Dharma Shastra.
The devotees fall into sin is momentary it does not become a habit, it is merely a passing face that is drowned in the nectar of the holy name.
On the other hand, if someone thinks that because of the name, the name is so powerful, he may go on committing new sins, he is fickle and undependable.
Absence of prayaschita in devotional practice
So this is a very important point which Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura is making, explaining this. He says if accidentally you commit sin and uh you don't care about doing some prayaschita, it's fine. No problem.
Just by changing the holy name, all the prayaschitas are accomplished. In bhakti there is no prayaschita. Why there is no prayaschita in bhakti? Because prayaschita strengthens your sinful mentality.
If you know that I have a means to purify myself from committed sins, you become a little less fearful of sins. Bhakti basically means I have the very lofty, very high goal. I want to achieve Krishna.
This is my goal of all my endeavors. This is what I'm doing for uh and therefore yeah sometimes accidentally some you know some previous habit overpowered me uh okay fine let's go on.
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Rama. It's not sinful to think that I should just go on with chanting the Holy Name and all the sins will be purified.
What is sinful is that then I say, oh this is a great great idea. Now I can commit sin and then chant the Holy name.
Now I can kill a brāhmaṇa and then go Yanikani Chapapani Brahmahakya you know Puluside is here no problem. So who is the next brāhmaṇa? So no that that's pāpa-buddhi. That's the sinful mentality.
This sinful mentality should not be there. If accidentally you did this, that's fine.
But if you're doing this and you're developing the habit, if you're more or less strengthening the habit, sinful habit which is there, if you become the habitual sinner and at the same time you're changing the holy name. That's very, very bad.
Like there is this story how Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura was once traveling with Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī who was a kid at the time and they were they came to one uh place in Bengal uh in Navadvipa uh and they were placed in a house which was ghost haunted.
And there was nothing else, so they stayed there at night and in the morning the villagers came and asked Bhaktivinoda how was your night
he said oh it was very nice night they said how how is that uh it was nice because there is a powerful Brahma Raksas who is living here and he just he he really chases and disturbs everyone who is here in the house.
Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura said, no problem, I just chanted Hare Krishna and this Brahma Rakshas went away. Yeah. He came in the beginning and then I chanted Hare Krishna and he went away. So the villagers became even more surprised by hearing this.
They said, by chanting Hare Krishna, this ghost went away. This ghost was a priest, and this priest was always chanting Hare Krishna. And he's probably still chanting Hare Krishna as a ghost.
How you could chase him away by chanting Hare Krishna if he himself chased chant Hare Krishna.
Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says, no, no. He doesn't chant Hare Krishna, he chants nāmāparādha and I chanted the holy name. And that's how he that's why he was chased away.
So if you commit sin and you become a professional sinner by counting on the power of the holy name, and then it's extremely bad. Then you become a ghost. Even Yamarach will not want to see your face.
But But uh uh if we uh accidentally commit some sins and uh and and we know that uh you know just by chanting of the holy name everything will be nullified that's not a problem that's why
there is no prāyaścitta in bhakti. The holy name chanting, the holy name is the highest prāyaścitta, but only for those uh who are uh okay, just one second.
Consequences of committing sin on strength of chanting
I will uh go a little uh further away Yes.
Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura explaining this, oh sorry, not Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura explaining this, he says that even according to Dharma Shastra scriptures dealing with the cause of karma, one should not commit sin knowing that he can be exempted from the effect by prāyaścitta remedial measures, then the effect of the sin will not be destroyed but rather increased.
Please listen very carefully. That's a very powerful statement.
He says even in orderly karmakanda, if you consciously commit sin, knowing that after that you can uh perform some prāyaścitta and by prāyaścitta you will be purified from the effects of the sin. If you have this mentality, by doing this and by performing prāyaścitta, the sin will not be destroyed, it will rather increase.
So this crooked mentality, which is again manifestation of our loss, that we lost the innocence, original innocence of the heart, this should be avoided, and that's the manifestation of And
quoted it often and it's quoted in Caitanya-caritāmṛta. quoted it often and it's quoted in Chaitanya Chitavritam. Very interesting.
Namaikam Yasyavachi Smarana Patagatam Srotam Ulamatam Va Sudham Vasudam Varna Yavahitarahitam Tarayat Hevasatyam. Nam is so powerful then even if you say Krish and then da da da da da da and then na it still will work.
Even if it is uh uh disconnected the two syllables of Brahma or Krishna uh are disconnected it still will work.
Even if you pronounce the holy name improperly, like is usually in our kirtans, the following the fashionable style of Bengali Kirtanias and instead of Rama we we can drama more ramo rama more it doesn't matter.
Śrīla Prabhupāda didn't like it. He said, What is Ramon? Who is this Ramon? So we have to be careful because he didn't like it.
But ultimately from the point of view of the holy name holy name uh Krishna in the form of the holy name knows what we mean whom we mean when we call Ramo.
So or sometimes Chinese people there is no r in Chinese, there is only L. So klisna hali klisna hali klisna klisna klisna Hari Hari Hari Lam Hari Lam Lam Lam Hari Hari. Very nice.
So Hare Krishna knows what Chinese devotees mean when they say this. So improper pronunciation is not a problem. Vya Vajita, the separation of the syllables is not a problem. Nama ekam yasya vati smaranapata holy name.
When just you remember the holy name or srotamulam gatamba or when the holy name enters into your ear. Sudamba sudam varnam. The varna the pronunciation could be proper or improper.
Vya wahi tarahi tam it may uh have some impediments. Tarayama Vasatyam, it will save you, it will give you some uh good effect. Tacched dehadravina Janatala Bhapasandamadhy nixiptam sian napala janakam sigram evatravipram.
However, if you pronounce the holy name dehadravina Janata Lobha Pashandha Madhya with this attitude that you are doing this for your Deha for the strengths of your body for the material possessions, dravina, janata, for the relatives, lobha and you have this uh grid.
If you're doing this Pashanda, if you're doing this in a materialistic way, then nikhtam syna naphalajanakam shigram. It will bring an effect but not very soon.
Maintaining attentiveness in all devotional practices
The effect will be delayed of the holy name, and so that's why we should avoid this materialistic approach to the holy name, chanting the holy name for the sake of material aggrandizement.
And Vishwana Chakravittakur explains that here the word Nama in the phrase Nama Parada is used to present all the angas of bhakti that destroy sin and a parada, of which the holy name is the primary anga.
In other words, there are so many other things in our scriptures. You take the holy basanya Muna and you will be purified. You go around Govardhana and you will be purified. You go around Tulisi, you will be purified.
That's fine. You fast on a certain day, you will be purified of all the sins. That's fine, but it's not the reason to commit sins again. It's not an encouragement to commit sins again. Be fearless, no problem.
Govardhana is here. Tulesi is there. So that's uh this is the mentality which should never be there. Never be there.
We have to be very, very attentive and very very careful when it comes to bhakti because in the past of bhakti we are dealing so intimately with all this these features of the Lord, his bhaktas, the spiritual master guru, Archa and holy dham and scriptures.
And therefore, we have to remind ourselves again and again and again. Familiarity breeds contempt, Śrīla Prabhupāda always said this, and therefore again and again and again we have to bow down.
How to avoid offenses against Vaishnavas? Just bow down to them. Just just don't be too stingy. Don't be greedy. Just bow down. Put your hand head down. And your legs and your hands and same thing with everything else.
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam never should be neglectful. Ācāryas, Tulasī always. And the greatest ācārya, Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī, he was paying obeisances to 2,000 Vaishnavas.
And it's not that he's running behind 2,000 Vaishnavas to pay them obeisances mentally he would bring the image of a Vaishnava and would pay dandavat pranama and then another Vaishnava or the name of Vaishnava. Two thousand Vaishnavas.
Two thousand dandavats every day. Good exercise. For the heart to purify the heart from this offensive, neglectful or uh very how to say this scornful mentality which we are unfortunately infected by. So this is what okay.
Question on attentiveness in deity service
Let's not take the next section because shall we ask for questions? So that's the beginning of this uh consideration and uh later he will explain what is not offense.
Uh in the next section uh Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura will say that if we don't uh perform certain uh activities in Bhakti it's not an offence. It's not that we try to do everything perfectly.
We should try to do everything perfectly, but if something isn't, it's not an offense. So that's the next paragraph, and then he'll start describing nāma-aparādhas uh in very great details.
We are serving also and then there are offences also. So it sometimes there is neglect but sometimes we are attentive. So in that case what happens to the duo they are doing so much of service and
but they are neglectful towards maybe some vaiṣṇavas or certain aspects of If they are if they are consciously neglectful, they have to be very careful, you know.
The culture, the Vaishnava culture is actually very strict and very sweet.
When you come into association of real Vaishnava, you feel how elevated they are and how humble they are and how they're not neglectful, how they're very attentive to you and how it's amazing.
It's actually even painful to the heart to be near real Vaishnava to see how how humble, how sincerely humble they are, and how they are ready to accommodate you and to push you forward.
So that's uh that's that's the culture so we have to be attentive. What will happen with them it's not our business to judge, we have to look in our heart.
When we do like for deities and all, sometimes it is in very less time we have to do service and then certain other services, pūjā, chanting and class. So many things come at a time.
So we try to do multitasking and we hear the lecture and also do service to Deities is multitasking bhakti. Multitasking is the manifestation of instability of our mind. Our mind needs several engagements at once because
he cannot find happiness in one engagement. So he needs to be distracted. We psychologically feel the need to be distracted. That should be avoided. That's a bad habit.
So whatever we do, we should do with carefulness and when we are very careful, we can do the same thing in a shorter amount of time.
Like when we are very attentive while chanting, we can chant one round within four minutes easily. Four minutes for one round? No problem. Usually it's more like six, seven, eight minutes, whatever it is,
but it's only because of the inattentiveness. When the attentiveness is there, then you do the same amount of job in a shorter period of time.
So yes, sometimes we may be pressed to do this, but we should still try to do everything properly. We should try everything properly. Yeah.
Question on false ego and devotee association
Should be careful, we should be attentive and that means to attend to the needs of Krishna. We already started talking about it and I've been really thinking about it for a long time.
Maybe you'll explain it later yourselves. When I think about this uh offensive mentality, it seems like we can't just avoid certain things because mentality can manifest in many different things.
We cannot ever list all of them. And it seems like we will have this mentality until we are completely free of the false ego.
So the the key for all these questions, yes, definitely offensive mentality is very deeply rooted.
But if the association is proper, if the sangha of devotees are very strict uh if the devotees are strictly guarding against this offensive mentality uh ultimately we can unlearn this offensive attitude.
We actually learned it because by nature, like we have this in uh Vraja Vasundhara where I live two dogs. And they were when they were little small puppies, uh devotees somehow or rather they were playing with them. And because they were raised up with so much love and affection.
Now they're grown up but they're still very playful and very innocent. Where you go out and there are some other dogs and they bark and they're very offensive.
So the offensiveness can be learned and can be unlearned. If we are in a protected environment, environment which is firmly based on this loving relationship, then we feel no need to remain offensive.
And we can easily unlearn this habit and it's actually much more pleasant to be inoffensive.
So it's very much depends on the society and therefore Śrīla Prabhupāda said that you cannot become really Krishna conscious without society of devotees.
You can only change yourself in a significant way if the society is there and if this society is proper and the culture in the society is properly established.
That's why it's very important to establish the proper communities of devotees. Because otherwise, you know, we have so many different Sanghas and some Sanghas the politics are there and all kinds of stuff is there.
And offenses are very prominent. So let me clarify just one point. What I mean by offensive mentality which comes from the false ego is this material vision that you describe.
Because if I I mean very deeply inside I still think that I'm the body, so I also think that maybe a devotee is also just bodies. Yeah, again we cannot hope uh
that we will get rid of this mentality and this body immediately but uh but in a proper association uh this uh mentality will
be less and less prominent because um why why it is so difficult to get rid of this understanding I'm this body? One of the reasons, one very important reason is that uh because I am treated as if I'm my body, by others.
Others always reinforce this conception in me by pointing out you are women, you are woman and you are this and you're that and you're bad or this.
Uh and uh you know how you can feel yourself as a spirit soul if uh everyone around you s always says you're this body, you're this body, you're this body, and this is your place.
So, but if we are in the society where everyone is saying you're soul, your beautiful devotee who has so much devotion and so strong connection with the Lord, then naturally
this identification with this body will also be slackened and weakened. So the understanding
I just got this, so I might still have the false ego, but thanks to uh some elevated devotees around me I can catch a glimpse that like of some spirit and that will help.
The false ego completely disappears on the level of premā. Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura is very clear about this. Before that, you still have some material, some traces of material ego.
And the traces of material ego will coexist with your spiritual ego. And sometimes you act in the capacity of your spiritual ego, sometimes you act from the point of view of your material ego. That's inevitable till the level of Brahman and the level of praying there is no material league whatsoever.
But you know it will take little time before we reach this level.
Question on restoring bhakti after severe offenses
Thank you. Maharaj you mentioned how when offense is committed there's almost like disappearance of bhakti. And it is to observe that sometimes uh um very grievous offense is committed, the devotee doesn't come back on it.
And I wanted to know two things.
One is whether, neha-vikramāśo mentioned, whether the devotee has to begin again from, you know, the state of śraddhā to sādhu-saṅga or from where, you know, he left his practice from there he left because many times it is seen that after many years
But he starts from, you know, like from if he has sixteen rounds he comes back to starting with one round and then slowly over many years ago. No, it is like this. It is like this.
Even though the memory is there, the memory about devotional experiences. Experiences in devotion is there, but because it's so covered by material contamination, it's very difficult to invigorate these memories.
The memory becomes an active force in our life and they're impelling us in a certain direction when they are very strong, when they are like little faint, uh, it's difficult.
So what happens, we commitaparādha and it covers our devotional impressions. They become faint. And we sometimes think oh it was just imagination whereas the material thing become very very prominent in our life.
And these faint memories are still there, nothing will happen with them. But because they become weak, they're not influencing our actions, our thoughts and our process of our speech.
But when we come back, yes, gradually, gradually, we can restore and the impressions again become very vivid.
So we are driven by the impressions, by the experience which and the aparādhas they make the spiritual experience very weak and uh kind of deluded Maharaj,
as we uh spend more years practicing devotional service, one can experience those material desires that were very obvious earlier have gone down. But at the same time, one is confronted with more subtle desires and it seems like an endless pit. How can one come out of such a situation?
It's not that the subtle desires were not there. The subtle desires were there before, but they were somewhat overshadowed by these gross desires.
Now gross desires are gone, and therefore subtle desires are more prominent. If you continue, then subtle desires will, uh, wither away gradually. So it's not endless.
It's, it's, uh, there is an end to it, although the end is not very close. But sometimes it feels like it is endless, but it's not endless.
Karma can be finished and it very much depends on determination on and on our association. And what we feel immediately that we can feel from the very beginning from the scratch that karma become- becomes less insistent.
It becomes, uh, we're not so much dependent on the karma.
Yes, desires are there, but you know, there are desires and desires, there are desires which are so insistent that we cannot really resist them. We have to act on them.
And there are some desires and that there are, yeah, it would be nice to have it, but, uh, ultimately I can live without it.
So even though the subtle desires may be there, but they're not really impelling us to act, uh, upon them. That's the difference.
Question on intelligence versus blind submissiveness
Okay, Maharaja. Maharaj, in your essay on, uh, how to prevent this contact becoming a religion.
You write that, uh, that sometimes when people come to ISKCON as a religious organization, there is an overemphasis on submissiveness and obedience.
And you say that this is, uh, in return, you know, of some expectation of salvation or some such thing. But I want to understand it, this is also because of fear of aparadha.
Many a time, uh, there is submissiveness because, uh, there is fear of aparadha and then this there is switching off of intelligence again.
When we're talking about aparadha, we are invoking the intelligence, this discriminating intelligence. The submissiveness is good. If it does not turn off our intelligence.
If the submissiveness becomes like blind attitude, you know, I'm I'm ready to accept everything just save me, you know, I'm that that's not submissiveness we're talking about.
We're talking about the other quality yes we become submissive we become humble we become meek but at the same time, we do not turn off the discriminating intelligence.
If all these qualities turn off our discriminating intelligence, something is wrong. Because we can only practice bhakti if we have intelligence.
If we don't have intelligence, it's not possible to practice bhakti properly. So when we study Shastra, when we hear, we're basically sharpening our discriminative intelligence.
And then the submissive attitude becomes our free choice, not the brainwashing result of brainwashing techniques.
What I'm talking there is that sometimes you know, some unscrupulous people they misuse this natural submissiveness of religious people and and uh uh push them into this uh sort of uh situation uh condition or mentality uh just to exploit them.
That we should avoid.
Somebody who has very sharp intelligence, he will be able to understand somebody is exploiting me, trying to exploit me, or somebody is trying to uh guide me uh and uh uh uh explain to me how we should behave.
And even at that point he may choose uh yes he is trying to exploit me, but it's fine with me. I'm not he's not exploiting me. I'm still very submissive and I will do whatever he wants.
But not because uh he wants, but because I want to manifest my submissiveness. That's also possible. But the intelligence should never be turned off. turned off there was this beautiful story.
There was one saṅkīrtana leader in early days in Los Angeles Temple, I believe. And he was always explaining everything. Krishna wanted it like this.
We forgot to put Petrol in the cars and we stopped in the midway, but uh oh Krishna wanted it. So let's sit in these cars and read Krishna book or something like this. Always he was always saying this, Krishna wanted it.
All his stupidity he explained by the will of Krishna. And the other devotees they suspected that something is wrong with this mentality and they wrote a letter to Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Śrīla Prabhupāda, could you explain what it means to be completely surrendered to God? So he was explaining I'm totally surrendered, whatever happens, it's just God's will and I just accept it.
And Prabhupāda wrote a letter and they all gathered together to read the answer to the questions, including this uh Śaṅkara and leader Sr. Prabhupāda says, as far as surrender is concerned, surrender means to use one's intelligence in the service of God.
That's surrender. You know how to use your intelligence, God-given intelligence in the service of Him. You know how to discriminate what is right, what is wrong, and use it.
Question on proper etiquette with neophyte devotees
And that's why we study Shastra, that's why we study Madhurika Dhamma. Okay.
I said that it's uh it's not so advisable to intimately associate with neophyte devotees because it may create some extra problems which they have.
Like uh uh could I elaborate on what kind of problems we can receive from them and inherit from them. Uh all kinds of problems.
They may have some desires, some not very nice desires, we can be infected by their desires if we associate too closely. That's the nature of desire. Desires are infectious.
You know, if somebody has very strong desire, we come close to him, we get the same reflection of the same desire.
We can also you know if neophyte devotee, he doesn't know he has still offensive mentality and he will he will speak ill about other people and we will hear and it will also affect our class.
Therefore we should associate, we should be nice with anyone. But the beauty of nice association is that it establishes certain proper distance.
Therefore the rules of etiquette are there and so this offensive mentality is the worst thing which we can get from other people.
And people because they are so habituated to these offenses, therefore we have to be very careful. We should be so polite with them as not to allow them to manifest their offensive mentality towards others.
This politeness is very nice, it's very good. Because politeness means some distance.
But at the same time, it's nice and we we can still have some relationship but as far as the really close relationship and intimacy we have to be only with those people called free from offences. Okay.
It's a very nice ritual to give this kind of word. When I when I look at uh those who are materialists, I see that they are doing only one of the they have only one of the anasas which is Duskritis, coming from Dushkriti.
Whereas those who are practicing Then what is the conclusion we can get out of it that at least it seems like it's more dangerous to follow the solution At least we're dealing with them.
Those who just commit sinful activities, they don't deal with it. So it's not easy for them. Yes, for us it's more difficult because we uh commit
sinful activities, we commit pious activities, we commit aparādhas and we can perform bhakti and everything it's on ātmas. You're right. But we know how to deal with them.
Those who just deal with their sinful activities, they don't know how to deal with them. So it's not easier for them.
So is that like there are other parts, yoga and all do they also have this conception of offenses that is very dangerous or that is more easier in terms of the No offences uh this consideration of of offenses is a very special feature of Gaudiya Vaishnava practice because we are about love.
Others they are about moksha, about liberation. And liberation is easily available. Offenses destroy love. And because we are aspiring for love, uh therefore offenses are so important for us to understand and to avoid.
To achieve mokṣa is not that difficult. Muktidadāti karhicit sma bhajati bhakti-yogam. Krishna himself says yeah, I easily give uh mukti, but bhakti yoga I don't give to offensive people.
At the level of uh citta uh uh the sins are till level of citta, but offenses are till the level of soul is like that. Yeah.
Question on overcoming repeated sinful habits
So it affects the desire of the soul. So we were discussing about that that if one commits sins, so he should not take the shelter of the process or punch it like not use the nāma-aparādha for overcoming it is.
So in the life of a sadhaka like sometimes it happens there are multiple slips against principles or something.
Now it became a very dilemmatic situation for that he he can't take shelter of properly to the spiritual practices if he takes then he is uh like he's committing it again, again, again.
But at the same time, he uh if he will do on the strength of the spiritual practices, then it will reinforce the sinful things.
But at the same time he can't able to overcome his slips or his uh sinful activities propensities. So where where he should head it now Yeah, sometimes the habits are very strong and
the uh the passions which we experience can be very strong and sometimes we do fall victims of this previous passions because the the force of them is very strong and at the same time our practice of bhakti is weak.
We don't our sadhana is not so strong. So, first of all, if we are in association of uh loving association of devotees, all these uh impulses within our heart become less strong. They become less impelling and uh
uh so that's definitely one solution because uh usually it is even explained in uh uh normal uh books, psychological books. Uh people are uh so prone to commit sinful activities only because they are unhappy.
Because they are dissatisfied, because they uh it is actually explained in uh in our veda I believe also uh uh in regard to kama.
Because most probably the implication of this question is Kama is so strong, the desires are so strong.
It is explained in Ayurveda that if you are sad, if you have some sort of shock, some grief, some internal dissatisfaction, then karma becomes strong.
The moment you become happy karma doesn't have so much effect upon you.
So if that's the association of devotees is very sweet and if the song of devotees gives you a lot of satisfaction and happiness, then it already kind of brings down the power of previous habits.
So that's why we can only practice bhakti in a proper way, in a strong way, if we are in the society of devotees but there are different grades of devotees.
Those who are most senior and we can always come to them and confess to them and it also will relieve us from this guilt.
And those who are uh junior to us and we can help them and this uh desire to help them and this activity of helping them also relieves us from all this powerful passions.
And of course, if we have peer association of equal devotees, which is also very close and intimate and nice, that also will help us.
So we take shelter not only in the practice of bhakti, we take shelter in the society of devotees and when we take shelter both in the society of devotees and the practice of bhakti, then we can uh break this vicious circle.
So that's my answer to this. We will have tonight one and a half hour or so for uh uh question and answers so please keep your questions and we will try to answer them in the evening. Śrīla Prabhupāda-kī-jaya! Haribol!