Presentation of Japa Meditation School. 2nd edition
Bhakti Vijnana Goswami · 2020
Chapters
Opening prayers and introductory remarks
Nam Vishnu Padaya Krishna Prastaya Bhutale, Srimati Bhakti Ridanta Swami Dinalini, Namaste Saswati Devi Gurawani Pracharini, Nirvi Shasunyavadi Paschatadi sata putaru vicha kripa sindu vi wacha patitana mapana viovish yu nama maha, sri Krishna Chaitanya Prabundiamanda Syadvaita Gadatara Sivasadhi Gaura Bhakti Vinda Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare, Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare Hare Krishna.
So let me first uh say a few words about this little uh presentation which I'm going to have. I'm not going to teach you japa. Please don't misread the title of this seminar.
But what I will do, I will introduce to you an approach to teaching Java which we have developed within the last four years.
And unfortunately, this approach is developed in Russian language only, but we're ready and eager to introduce it to English speaking world, but we need your help.
So the main purpose of this presentation is to elicit some interest to this approach. Share some ideas which may be useful in any case whether you follow this approach or not.
And share some experiences and success in this regard, and also see what could be possible to introduce this approach in your country or some in a wider ISKCON area.
Russia is a big area but most of the people unfortunately don't speak Russian. Although it's a PD, it's a nice language. Very complicated.
Anyways, so this approach is based on Bhajana Rahasya by Bhaktivinoda Thakur. Not Thakur. And it combines the modern technologies with the traditional Vedic understanding of what the education should constitute of.
So that's a brief introduction and this approach we call japa Meditation School.
And basically, this approach was developed because we felt that there is well that I'd like to begin first by letting everyone know that uh we're very grateful. That's quite small point. Okay. Something else.
Need for systematic japa education
So that's some ghost. So uh this approach was developed because uh I personally felt that there is certain lack in this core. As we all know, japa is by far the most important element of our practice.
Japa meditation is our daily routine. But at the same time, up to the certain period of time in this our development, there was hardly any education how to do japa. And it's a very specific practice which
is described by Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura in his Bhajana-rahasya and some other books. Then after some time, Sacinandana Mahārāja, who felt certain need for this, he introduced these japa retreats.
And since then japa retreats proliferated, there are many devotees who conduct japa retreats, Girirāja Mahārāja, Gururāja Prabhu, so many others.
Then Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta Mahārāja, many people work in this area, but I personally still was not satisfied because of a very obvious reason.
We come to a japa retreat, we get some experience, we get excited, but usually we go back home not back to Godhead but back to our bad japa. That's
what happens usually: we come back to our old habits and our old mechanical japa, skill does not develop, and moreover, in my humble opinion, seven
days, even if it's a seven days retreat or what to speak about a weekend retreat, it's not enough to really understand what it means. It's a serious education.
So here I am going to present you a different approach to education in this area.
So that's a śāstra-based educational program or educational approach and the main point here is systematic and I will explain shortly in a short while what it means.
But here I say that it's based on Bhajana-rahasya of Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura. After deep study of Bhajana-rahasya, we came up with this idea.
So that's a couple of quotes—there could be many, many more quotes by Śrīla Prabhupāda—simply by chanting the holy name of Krishna: Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. A devotee of the Lord can approach the supreme destination easily and happily, but that destination cannot be approached by any other process of religion.
And uh unfortunately, we know that the reality sometimes differs. Uh uh some time ago we made uh some uh survey in Russian Yatra, and we found out that the average lifetime of a devotee is six years.
Not a very impressive figure. You know, if you are older than six years old in Krishna consciousness movement you're lucky.
But usually people after six years the novelty and the new experiences they vanish and routine doesn't bring the satisfaction.
Even though we hear everywhere in Prabhupada's books, you know, chant and be happy and this and that and you know sometimes people wonder what does it mean chant and be happy.
Shall I artificially express happiness or what does it mean?
Five principles of shastra education
So anyway, so that's the thing, and I was deeply thinking about the philos- And the next slide illustrates my understanding of what the proper education in ISKCON should consist of It's Panchatva of Education.
Five principles of Shastra-based education, which is meant to change the heart. Usually under education we understand the transmission of information.
But we know that real need, real education is the change of the heart, transformation of the heart, transformation of consciousness. And for that, certain principles have to be in place.
And unfortunately, again, this is my observation, oftentimes these principles are not really followed when we administrate or give some educational programs. The first principles if pramanyatva or authoritativeness.
Education should be based, it's a common sense, should be based on sadhu, shastra, and guru.
But oftentimes we hear some ideas and oftentimes especially what is very disturbing for me is that oftentimes in our education we try to substitute this authoritativeness with some sort of new inventions, all kinds of interactive methods. There is nothing wrong with interactive methods, but when they are being sold as the substitute for the classical method of transmission of knowledge from the heart of the teacher to the heart of the disciple, that's not so good.
So and we also know that sometimes you know people they speak not from the Shastra, they speak not from the Guru, they speak from their own speculative mind, this and that.
So that's first principle is easy to understand and relatively easy to apply. Second principle is practicality which is a little more difficult to apply because again I think our education tends to be more theoretical.
We only speak and speak and speak, and we say, you know, just by hearing you get some experience, but we know very well that Vedic education is very experientially oriented. The Vedic education has to give you an experience, and unfortunately, during this Bhagavatam class, oftentimes experience is not being transmitted, or maybe bad experience is being transmitted.
So the stress, the emphasis on applying it into practice and turning jñāna into vijñāna is oftentimes missing in our educational programs like Bhakti Shastri or Bhakti-vaibhava.
Then the third principle in my humble opinion is totally completely absolutely missing in ISKCON. Systematic approach which means education according to the qualification of the student.
I know, I personally know a few bhaktas who already, uh, graduated from Bhakti-vedanta degree. And they didn't even get the simple initiation.
And they're not ready for simple initiation, but theoretically, they are already Bhakti-vedantas in their mind.
And in any sane school of yoga, this accent on being systematic in your approach, giving the knowledge only appropriate to the level of your spiritual advancement or the level of the development of your consciousness is in my opinion is extremely essential because when people know more than they really practice and realize it's detrimental for their spiritual progress.
They have an illusion that they already know everything. You know, we can sometimes speak about sneha, māna, praṇaya, rāga, anurāga, bhāva and ārūḍha-bhāva.
Prahlādānanda Mahārāja gives a very beautiful example of this. He often quotes his first letter to Śrīla Prabhupāda. He wrote to Śrīla Prabhupāda being a bhakta for one and a half year in Buffalo Temple or something like this.
He said, Śrīla Prabhupāda, thank you very much. Everything is clear for me. What is still not very clear for me how do you uh go from the level
of bhāva to the level of premā, and of course the answer of Śrīla Prabhupāda was don't worry about this. It's a little over your head now.
But, uh, uh, na, uh, it's a joke in one sense, but this is a very real joke because oftentimes people they start thinking about themselves that they're on this level.
Whereas the simple requirements of even proper śāstra-śraddhā is not being fulfilled by them. So that's the third principle. It has to be systematic, it has to be systematic.
We shouldn't go further unless and until we are really covered or realize the knowledge which is appropriate to our level of spiritual advancement.
The fourth principle is that the education should be non-dogmatic. It means and that we have to employ the intelligence of people.
We have to really engage the intelligence of people which because sometimes we are you know we tend to go to the trap of brainwashing people using some you know catchy slogans and this and that you know, Jai Hare Bol, you know, and we will dance our way to God, Hare Krishna.
So uh and oftentimes unfortunately the intelligence is not being really utilized properly in our education so that the people would develop the responsibility for their own spiritual progress.
And the last but not the least, perhaps one of the most important out of these principles is the personal approach.
And in our modern day and age, we tend to be impersonal, we tend to use computers, internet media, all kinds of online education and again it's not possible to avoid it nowadays.
I'm not against it, but if we uh 100% substitute the personal interaction between the teacher and the student by this impersonal uh sort of media, uh then the education will not take place.
The change of the heart will not take place because again change of the heart is only possible when your heart is touched by the by By the personal interest of your teacher, by the personal desire, by the prayer of your teacher.
So, how to combine these things, how to make it modern, appropriate, relevant to modern people, and at the same time not lose the essential principles.
You know, these five principles is a seminar on its own. I'm just uh uh very slightly touching them uh and um I'm you know, inviting you for a discussion if you are interested.
But again, as I said, uh in my observation, uh in many of our educational programs, all these five principles are not really properly implemented and because of this we see the failure of education. The change of the heart doesn't take place.
Overview of multiyear japa curriculum
Okay, let's go further.
So, what we did so far, we developed an educational program in this japa meditation schools for four years, even though there is only three years on this slide, but the third year actually is longer than one year, it's two years.
So, uh, what you see on this slide is a very succinct description of what does it mean to chant japa on a different levels of spiritual development.
This idea comes from Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura's Bhajana Rahasya, where he says that for a few days one should chant on a level of Shraddha. You know, and then what should go further and further and further, and after a few days, you chant on the level of Brahman.
You know, a few days it's Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura few days. For us, it could be translated into a longer period of time. It should be translated into a longer period of time.
And by studying deeply, the ideas which are uh not so explicitly uh rather implicitly are there in Bhajanarahasi. We developed an educational program uh for the first year on
the level of Shraddha, when we teach people how to chant with Shraddha with faith. This is what Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura himself calls Shraddha Nāmābhāsa.
When you still have an unorthodoxy, when the heart is still contaminated, but you chant on this level of Shraddha, and it's Nāmābhāsa in a sense, it's not a real name, but still it's a very elevated form of Nāmābhāsa.
By the way, that's novelty or the new introduction of Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura. Nobody else before him would speak about Shraddha Nāmābhāsa. So, this first year is how to chant and what it means.
What does it mean in regard to your mood and your knowledge and everything what does it mean to chant on the level of Shraddha?
And the very short description of this stage of spiritual development is to break free from the material context and to understand the spiritual context of life. What is Shraddha? Shraddha means elementary sambandha jñāna.
And what is sambandha? Sambanda means context. Context. The contextual understanding of reality. Not the partial fragmental understanding of reality, but contextual
komplex understanding of reality and Shraddha means a very radical transmission or transition from the material context and material understanding of our life and the meaning of life to the spiritual understanding.
So and basically that means in other words, it means developing śāstrīya-śraddhā as opposed to laukika-śraddhā. Very often people when they come to ISKCON they have laukika-śraddhā. Laukika-śraddhā, it's sāmājika-śraddhā.
It's the śraddhā of faith which is is uh socially determined. Everyone is chanting and I'm chanting, everyone is you know dancing and I'm dancing, I don't know why I'm dancing, I don't know why I'm chanting.
I have so many different ideas in my head. So uh it's um and and therefore practically every religion
which we have on the earth is is falling into the trap of laukika-śraddhā. And one of the most important characteristics of laukika-śraddhā is the emphasis on miracles.
If you go to any temple, any religious institution, they will start listening to you different miracles performed by different saints. And that's it's supposed to create shraddha.
If you need miracles to stay in Krishna consciousness, you have Loki Shraddha.
If you depend on all these miracle stories and everything, it means that Shastriya Shraddha, logical Shraddhas, Shraddha phase based on the intelligence, on Shastra Yukti, logic of the Shastra, is not developed.
So what I mean to say is that even though it may sound to us experienced ILS participants as a very elementary level, it's not so. We may not have really firm and solid Shastri
Shraddha, and therefore many senior devotees who went through this program, starting from the first year, they're very grateful. They said that even though I wasn't ISCON for many years, I learned so many new things.
So this is the first year. The second year is Sadhu Sangha according to the letter of devotional service described by Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī in Bhakti-rasāmṛta- Sindhu. And this is basically that salsa may sound very easy.
Sadhu Sangha, Sadhu Sangha, Sasarravas Sastra Hodi Sarvasidhi Hoy Lava Matra Sadhusangha Sarvasidhi Hoy. But you know really what it means.
Sadhu Sangha means developing very strong sense of dependence on the society of devotees, as opposed to our independent nature, nourishing our independent nature. And that's that's a very practical sort of work.
How to develop positive dependence on the society of devotees.
And on this level we teach how to chant Hare Krishna mantra being dependent on the devotees, being totally dependent on the devotees, respecting the devotees, avoiding all kinds of apparats and understanding that my spiritual progress is entirely 100%, 108% depends on the association with devotees and what it means to associate deeply to open the heart.
So that's all the topics of the second year and corresponding practice of chanting of Hare Krishna mantra.
And the third year we which are in the process of developing, and as I said, the third year, the third program, the third year program will take two years, it's Bhajana Kriya, which basically again, very difficult subject matter.
Because what does it mean bhajana kriya? Bhajanakriya means to do everything which we do in a spirit of service You know, like now we're hearing and we're used to hear in a spirit of enjoyment.
I'm you know giving lecture for many many years, know it very well
because when you lecture, you know, people almost, you know, when you give too much philosophy, people you almost physically feel that people wait for a story or for a joke. You know, otherwise they're not satisfied.
Because they came for manorangulum for for entertainment. So that's how the spirit of enjoyment manifests when we hear. What does it mean? How to develop the spirit of service when we hear?
Hearing is our first and foremost service, the first and foremost element of our bhajana kriya.
So these are the topics or the practices which we deal on the third level of our school, when people are practicing how to hear, how to speak in a service mood, how to remember Krishna with this service attitude not just for enjoyment.
Not just imagine some rāsā-līlā going on and I'm somewhere there trying to enjoy.
Core goals of japa school
So and then we are planning to develop the next level which is an art and Iriti uh after a few years, but uh so far we are on this stage uh in our uh project.
Um Okay, I will very quickly go through this goals of this japa meditation school before I come to the real essence to understand how it's going on and what is going on there.
The goals is basically to give the Shastriya-based understanding of Namatattva. That's absolutely the first. And then that's from Sambanda.
But then Abideya is basically to break, to get free, or to break through the habit of mechanical chanting which we all have and developed already and develop the skill of conscious chanting with feelings.
That's the second goal. The third goal is to give very clear understanding of the different stages of chanting.
What does it mean to chant on the level of nāma-ābhāsa, śraddhā nāma-ābhāsa and so on and so forth and on on the level of śraddhā, level of sādhu-saṅga, level of bhajana-kriyā, level of anartha-nivṛtti, level of niṣṭhā, etc., uh they all have different features, so to speak.
And then, of course, to explain and learn how to avoid traps and obstacles on this path.
And as far as prayojana is concerned, then we have two goals that is to give the spiritual experience, real spiritual experience during practice, systematic, according to the level of advancement.
Sometimes we have experience, sometimes we really feel very happy. But to ensure that this experience, of course, the experience is coming from Krishna Himself, but to ensure that experience will be coming. That's the real goal of this approach.
And the sixth goal is very important: to develop the culture of mentorship.
How to teach japa and how to learn japa from those who are more senior, this culture of counseling or mentorship is also a very important element of this approach. So, uh, are you with me still? Yes? Okay.
Uh, uh, okay, let's go further. Uh, let me explain. Uh, this is just a few facts, this is how it's going on, this is, uh, as you see, it's gent and behavior sort of experience.
And the next slide shows the geography of this japa meditation school. It's quite widespread. It's all over the place including Canada and Australia.
But unfortunately, those few people from Canada and Australia they they speak Russian. The rest of it is from Russia and the Russian hemisphere or Russian speaking hemisphere of the world.
But again, we are open and ready to facilitate this development in the English speaking world. And if you have some ideas, please don't hesitate to approach after this seminar.
So it's we have all together more than a thousand students in the school so far, uh all these thousand and fourteen people they're taking education, 326 on the first level, uh around 200 on the second level and around 500 on the third level. It's just because of certain way the school developed there is some unevenness.
But the people who are taking education, they're all taking educations in the school, but they are on different levels. The normal students, and I will explain it's a very essential element or feature of this approach.
The students is of course m majority. Then we have coordinators who are practically the same students
but who has taken little a more responsibility than rank and file student? They don't have to have particular skills or whatever, the only requirement is they're eager to facilitate other people to be in the school.
There are curators, sorry, call yeah, curators who are more experienced and who can share their experience with these two levels, and the most experienced people are among those people who are senior curators.
Very soon you will understand what it means in practice. And this is the management chart, and as you see, it's quite an elaborate enterprise
and the whole enterprise actually is to ensure that the knowledge is transmitted from parampara in non-distorted way to the students.
And there are so many levels and so many check and balances to make sure that this process is going on smoothly.
There is an ideological leader and then the teachers, very experienced people who have a lot of experience in japa meditation. And there are quite a few of them and we are working together on improving our japa.
Then there is executive committee which is managerial board, making sure that everything is going on smoothly.
Then there are supervisors for each year, and the people who specifically are taking care of the needs of the uh older students on each uh year of the school.
And then there is management board with different departments, financial department, educational council, IT department, CRM department, CRM means customer relations management department,
and then council of curators, and then event management division, and then technical support, and finally Dhamma Pilgrimage Department, which I will explain later, which this is a very again very interesting part of the whole educational process.
And then senior curators, curators, coordinators, and students. And that's how this knowledge trickled. And you know, this is our teachers. Myself, Sachinan Marathi gave a couple of lectures,
one so far, and others, the rest is Russian devotees who are very senior.
Educational workflow and teaching methods
And this is the most important and interesting. You know, if if you're not bored enough if you require some anecdote or joke I can do it to wake you up. If you don't. So please listen very carefully.
So this is describing the whole approach in great detail, and basically the purpose of this approach is again to make sure that the knowledge is transmitted down the line without distortion, is assimilated by the students and turns into the real skill and experience.
This whole quite complicated approach is for this, to give authoritative knowledge, systematic knowledge, and the knowledge which can be easily uh translated into skill and experience.
So, first, the teachers they brainstorm the syllabus for the year, discuss it very thoroughly, share their experience, discuss the particular chapter of Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura Bhajan Rahasya, appropriate books and everything else, and create a lesson basically, the syllabus for the whole year.
And that takes a few days of very intense face-to-face meetings of very experienced students with different opinions. Sometimes it's not easy, but it's actually a very rewarding experience.
Then you know the designated teacher records a webinar. He studies everything. Sometimes he gets feedback from his peers, from other teachers.
He records the webinar and then it goes to the Educational Council or Educational Department where they work on the webinar,
create the PowerPoint presentation for the webinar, formulates questions, homeworks and everything. So this webinar is being transformed into a very practical lesson, not just a theoretical lesson.
Some other people work on this in consultation with the teachers. Then this webinar is released or aired according to the syllabus and that happens only once every two or three weeks.
One of the features of this approach is that we have a relatively small theoretical component. It's approximately 15 to 19 lectures a year. Not more than this.
That's specifically there you know as opposed to Bhakti Shastri or Godgiven Bhakti Vaibhav or something like this where you have to study one chapter of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam within a day, you know.
Which is in my opinion doesn't give justice to Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Of course Mahārāja Parīkṣit learned the whole thing within seven days.
But again, this approach is for this very reason that we want to make emphasis on practice, not just to give the theory, but to inspire and encourage people to practice deeply.
And then the students hear this webinar and take notes very seriously.
Then the curators who actually had the access to the webinar before time, before this webinar is released, the curators hear this webinar and they discuss it with themselves and some among themselves and with the teacher.
Asking some questions, clearing some unclear points, making it more clear the whole thing. Then the curator has a few coordinators under him, five, six, not more, to keep it personal.
Because again we are talking about one thousand people taking education at the same time, how to keep it personal, how to keep the personal approach. For that the whole system is there.
And and and again coordinators are just normal people, more or less, with little more responsibility than other people. So they discuss it in depth with the leaders of each mini-group.
And then the students discuss this webinar and they discuss it three times.
If it's um, you know, they have once a week meeting uh and because between the webinars there are two weeks meetings so uh uh two weeks gap so first meeting after the webinar they discuss the theory, the content, the information, and they clear it up.
Uh you know, they clear unclear things, they ask some questions, they discuss among themselves and they share their understanding. And while sharing the understanding, it makes the understanding of everyone enhanced.
And then the next week, and then they practice the they they have a homework which they practice and they discuss among themselves the value what did they gain how their Japa changed, what are the changes which they experienced in Japa, what are the difficulties?
And ultimately on the third week they discussed the practice. What worked, what didn't work, and so many other things. So three times the students meet to digest this material of one seminar for three weeks.
And it's not very time consuming because as I said, it's basically one seminar every two, three weeks and one meeting once a week.
So it's affordable time-wise, but at the same time it keeps us so to speak on a certain level of uh how to say this? It doesn't give you room for relaxation.
You know, you are on a regular basis, on a daily basis, you uh practice this japa meditation. And this is the description of the same process but from the student's point of view.
So first the students hear the content of the webinar once every two uh two-three weeks. Uh then they have meetings on Skype, uh, or sometimes in person if it's possible.
Uh then they do daily homeworks which takes 20-30 minutes per day, applying the new knowledge to the everyday practice. The knowledge is given, so what does it mean, how it is transmitted into practice?
Then they keep diary to make their japa more conscious.
Then they have personal communications with both coordinator and curator. Curator is again a more experienced person who is capable of answering their questions, dissipating their doubts, and so on and so forth.
Then they have periodically little retreats, mini retreats, and holy name days, but if possible, that's an optional part.
And then they write mid-term exams and taking final exams at the end of the year. But the peculiarity of this examining system is that it's self-examination.
You yourself should examine whether you really digested and assimilated material, whether you improved your Java, or it's better for you to stay one more year.
Many students actually prefer to stay one more year on the same level and to go through the same material. Of course, it's being enhanced and improved every year, but nevertheless, they, you know, there's no push,
you know, prema chanting ki-jai, Hare Krishna, or you know, let's go to Mahabhava as soon as possible. No, if it's necessary to stay on this level, stay on this level.
And that makes it systematic and that makes it also I mean it's it makes it more practical as opposed to you know seven days retreat or whatever few days retreat which you which you get some experience but uh not develop the skills.
And again to reiterate, this is the important elements of the learning process of this approach webinars, discussion in mini groups, which is very important because by discussing you really get some personal you get in touch with the experience of people even if they they may be not on a very high level, even though you have but you have the approach to more experienced people, but still you're touching the heart of other people and that enhances your own understanding.
And then this is a very important element of the whole school, and we give special emphasis to these people and they invest a lot of time and energy on them making special retreats for them, special programs for them so that they are inspired and they inspire the students.
face-to-face activities whenever possible and then pilgrimage to the holy dhām, which is again a very interesting element to the whole approach.
Future plans for school expansion
Because we're going together with small groups to the holy dhām, and again the emphasis is to be in a particular place, to meditate on certain līlās and to meditate on the holy name and to chant the holy name together and to kind of repeat the same experience which they had during the year, but in the holy sanctified atmosphere of the holy dhām.
Yeah, so it started in the year 2016 and now it's four years we're running four years and that's uh you know that's already set and uh that's the plan, future plans.
We want to develop introductory course for the development of techniques of meditation. What is the posture and so many other things? And some preliminary stuff like ABC of meditation culture and Vaishnava culture.
It will be probably half a year course. Then we're constantly working on this mentorship system as I said, improving the student mentors relationship and deepening the whole you know, relationship in this sense.
We want to increase the number but we're not in a hurry because we're limited, we don't want to lose the quality.
And then regular pilgrimage implementation, better implementation of CRM system, and ultimately starting the japa meditation school for English-speaking devotees.
If it will be possible, as you see, it's not an easy thing. It requires dedication and it requires enthusiasm to do it. But it's a very rewarding experience.
And many people who went through this experience, they said that my change, my life changed. Uh, after so many years of mechanical changing, finally I'm getting into a different uh area of conscious
changing, this feeling according to my particular level of advancement. And so on, so forth.
So, as you see, it's we're trying to take this process seriously and doing whatever uh is necessary according to our limited understanding. This is the uh he's the head of educational council, uh he speaks English.
If you want to be a part of this program in the future when it is, if you want to you know be in loop and to become a student, or if you have some particular skills, please feel free to contact him.
Determining student qualification levels
That's basically it. What I wanted to present to you, I don't know if it was of any value, but I tried it. I don't know if it was of any value, but I tried it. Thank you very much.
So, and um now I'm open for little discussion. We have a few minutes, some ten minutes we can discuss, yes. Thank you very much for this presentation and introducing this about this japa meditation school.
In the beginning you were talking about the five core principles of education. That time you were talking about adhikāra. Unless we have recognized the adhikāra, we should not be giving higher education.
Can you just tell us something a little more about it? How do we recognize where is the particular individual in his Krishna consciousness growth? Tell us systematic, of course, the third point according to the practice.
Actually, uh once somebody told me about principles which were are very strictly followed in Iyengar Yoga School of Yoga. And in this Iyengar school of yoga, uh, and I was very impressed.
First I I was impressed by uh seeing how Prahladananda Maharaja is trying year after year to become the first level teacher Nandamarach is trying year after year to become the first level teacher of the Iyengar School of Yoga.
And then he ultimately shared with me, he said, it's easier to become Jagatguru in Iskon than the first year teacher, the elementary teacher of uh in Iyengar School of Yoga.
They have very, very serious approach to education and they really make sure that if you are a teacher you have the proper presentation skills, you know everything, you practice everything, you know everything to the minutest details.
And one of the principles which they employ is that we don't go with the student further until we are completely 100% sure that they learned something which they have to learn before.
And in case of yoga, it's very easy, you know, you don't go you you don't make a more complex asana until you are really perfect in this asana and there are particular lakshanas or signs how how to determine this.
Even though, in case of devotional service it's less clear in one sense, but in my opinion, it's not uh so difficult to determine because Vishwana Chakravarti Thakur explains very thoroughly the stages of spiritual development.
And by the way, uh I want uh to welcome you to my afternoon seminar, which will take place at 3 30, where I will speak about the stages of spiritual development and the crises which one goes through it's basically the psychology of spiritual growth?
The crisis is which one goes through by coming from one stage to another. What is the new skill which is supposed to develop? And what is the new quality which is supposed to develop?
This letter of devotion is according to particular qualities and before you go into this next stage, you should develop a certain skill which is particular to the next stage of development.
And actually Bhaktivinoda Thakur is very clear about this in Sri Chaitanya Sri Shamrita where he says that each stage of spiritual development has particular rules and uh while going to the next stage, you shouldn't stick to the rules of the lower stage and uh you should really know the rules and regulations and uh conditions of the next stage.
Only in this way will the development will be smooth. You will be parti you should be equipped to follow the particular requirement of the next stage.
And uh that's uh uh like like for example I said the first level is Shraddh. Shradan means Shastriya Shraddhash.
Shastriya Shradan means you have to have very clear and complete understanding of Shastra. What is the message of shastra? You know you have to have this hastamalaka you know the the chastamalakanyaya
chastamalakanyaya is a particular proverb, you know, like this Amalaki fruit. It's a very small fruit. You can, you know, grab grab it or grasp it within your hand.
So the knowledge of Shastra has to be, according to Hasta Malakanyay, uh it has to be as clear and accessible to you as this amalaki fruit within your hasta within your hand. So and uh and you can and you can actually uh
check yourself uh is my face really dependent on all kinds of miracle stories, all kinds of speculations which I hear. Do I fall prey to different speculations which people do?
Or sometimes you know if somebody comes to me from some you know some camp Ritwick camp or whatever camp is there there are so many of them and says to you you know why should you take initiation from this guy let's take initiation from Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Do I have some doubts? Do I feel you know it's a good idea to take initiation from him? So, you know, we can really check what kind of doubts we have and which area the doubts are. So that's how to determine.
And that's what we do in exam. In exam we give specific questions which help people to determine uh what is their level of advancement, whether they should go uh on the higher level or should remain on the same level.
School demographics and global expansion
Does anyone have uh other questions? Okay, so then please give microphone after that. Maharaj yes such a large number of students registered in the japa meditation School.
We offer our congratulations to you for this tremendous effort.
And we're interested to know amongst the registered students, are they all students who are already acquainted with our movement or are there new people that you are recruiting via the webinar who are registering and taking to the japa education that are not acquainted with ISKCON
no this is all devotees of ISKCON, most of them are initiated. A few are not initiated, but majority of them are initiated devotees, but we are planning to have a similar program for a completely new people.
That's one of the areas which we just started working on now we have an outreach approach which is called Bhakti Practicum, which is very successful, and within this program we are planning to have a special meditation japa meditation course to attract new people.
But these are all for devotees. So inspired by this presentation and really appreciate very much that you have made this contribution to the devotees in ISKCON.
My question is: it seems that the foundation of your curriculum comes from Bhajan Rahasya.
So theoretically, could senior devotees say in North America also study Bhajana-rahasya and using inspiration from your school create a curriculum that is culturally sensitive to say people in North America.
Absolutely, absolutely. We take uh universal principles but definitely the cultural sensitivities has to be there in any good educational program.
Uh absolutely and we're ready to, you know, to share our experience and it's basically up to the leaders of of a particular area. Thank you. Yes.
Um, Maharaj, how from our local yatra can we participate in this program or how do we utilize this program in our local yatra? Is it possible? It is possible, uh if you speak Russian, you can join right now.
If you don't, wait a little bit, as I said, this, uh, this has wide geographical approach already. Uh due to the modern technology, but at the same time we try to keep the personal approach intact.
But already it's everywhere. People from local yatras, they're joining this, and it's possible. Um, so, but it's just it has to be somehow rather transmitted.
And we're we were talking about this with Sachi-nandana Maharaja, but, uh, I don't know if it's uh so far doesn't start yet. But let's see how it works.
Yes, if there's no more questions, we are right on time. Very punctual. Thank you very much to all of you.