Anavrittih shabdat. Lecture 1
Bhakti Vijnana Goswami · Radhadesh · 2004
Chapters
Vedanta-sutra on liberation through sound
A little difficult to start with so much between us. I prepared this seminar some time ago and I gave it once in Russia, in Ukraine, in Odessa. And basically, the topic of this seminar is how the sound liberates the soul.
But besides that, there are so many different topics, and I gave the seminar in nineteen ninety nine when there was a lot of turmoil in at least the Russian part of WISCO and a lot of different misconceptions about deliberation will I be saved or not so this particular seminar was to prove the points about our salvation.
And I took the title for the seminar, the last sutra of Vedanta Vedānta-sūtra, which is Anāvr̥tti śabdāt, anāvr̥tti śabdāt. Vyāsadeva concludes his work where he explains very logically the whole system of Vedas,
the whole philosophy of Vedas, by assuring us Anāvr̥tti śabdāt, anāvr̥tti śabdāt.
Which means there is no return, there is no return because of the Vedas, because of the scriptures, or from the scriptures we know that there is no return.
śāstra, from the scriptures we know that there is no return. But we also know that Śrīla Prabhupāda translates this particular sūtra in a very special or peculiar way. He says there is no return because of the sound.
Because the word Shabda you can translate as revelation, you can translate as Vedic scriptures, and you can translate as a sound. So Śrīla Prabhupāda specifically explains this sūtra
in connection with our practice which we do in ISKCON as anāvr̥tti śabdāt liberation from the sound or by the sound. And of course, we know many confirmations of this in
the Vedic literature, specifically in Bhagavad-gītā Kṛṣṇa says, he says that the one who meets with me, and that's actually the
explanation of this sūtra by Rāmānujācārya. He says, as soon as you meet with the Lord, who is the most blissful, the most merciful, the most beautiful, the most attractive person. As soon as you meet with him face to face, there is no return.
Why? Because there is no reason for return. Because it's obvious. Because there is no question of return. Because you are content, you're satisfied. You found what you were looking for.
And this particular issue of salvation or our liberation,
Religious competition over selling salvation
so to speak, and of course it's also confirmed in many other places in Bhagavad-gītā janma karma ca me divyam evaṁ yo vetti tattvataḥ tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma
we have to understand also that this topic of salvation no return or the topic of liberation is the main subject matter of all religions.
Religions specifically deal with this thing. And if we consider or if we analyze how religions deal with this, basically we will understand like now there is a fierce competition between different religions.
And the competition means every religion wants to get the customers if we deal with the subject matter in the terms of business. So what is the product every religion gives on the market?
That's exactly the product which religion gives in the market, salvation. Every religion says you come to us, you be our customer, and you will be saved. And of course they have you know black PR for other religions.
They say the product of other religions are not good. You know you will not get salvation there. You come to us only in our, you know, parish you will get salvation.
And if you go to, you know, to some other religion, you will not get salvation. And this is how they keep the followers.
You know, this is a very ancient technique of keeping the religious followers saying that you don't go to other places because there there is no salvation.
Like recently there was a debate in Russia about Hare Krishna temple and orthodox Christians they became really wild. They went berserk.
They went on TV, on media, everywhere, and they said, you know, don't go to this Hare Krishna, because there is no salvation there. Salvation is only here. There was one man on TV he was you know heavy man.
And he stood there and he said: Everyone knows that you can only be saved in Christianity. No other way. No other way to be saved.
And of course, we also know that within our own, you know, and uh if you go to even to the Christianity you go and you go to Catholic Christians and they will say, Oh, there is no salvation in other Christian denominations.
Salvation is only here. Everyone else goes to hell. Everyone else is doomed. And you go to somebody else and they say the same thing. And we of course know that that within our own tradition, so to speak.
We also see this kind of technique. Sometimes people from one Gaudiya Vaishnava group go to another Gaudiya Weisnova group and they say, What are you doing here? Are you sure you will be saved? You know.
Is your guru maha bhagvata? You know, you can only be saved if your guru is maha maha, super maha bhagavata. And in this way they get the customers. They say, you know, this is not good, you go here.
And uh and of course in ISKCON we say, you know, Prabhupada is only here, and therefore you can only be saved here, right? This is how we keep our followers.
In other words, it's it's a very crucial subject matter which I want to consider more closely to analyze how the salvation takes place.
Relying on rituals for spiritual liberation
And I will try to take help of some Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam verses from the 11th canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and also some Jīva Gosvāmī's passages from Bhakti-sandarbha, where he describes this particular subject matter.
And And of course, sometimes even we being devotees develop some doubts. You know, are we saved? In Christianity, everything is simple.
You know, you go to a Christian religion and they say you just believe in Jesus Christ and you're saved.
He has already paid off all your karmic debts, all your karmic reactions, all your sins are absolved, you know, He was crucified, He suffered for you. Haribol. You don't have to worry so much.
So, and basically what, they say, and we see the same basic psychology in our customers, so to speak, or in members of ISKCON, they say you come to us and you get salvation very easily. By the means of you know being a member of this particular group or this particular religion, you're guaranteed to get a salvation.
And uh or you do some particular ritual, you get
uh it's called baptized and by you know if you're baptized that it that's it you know it's more or less it like once I was somebody was trying to convert me into the Muslim religion. That was very funny.
So they were explaining to me the glories of this Muslim faith and everything and and then and they were looking, you know, it was a very fanatical people, you know, they they had big eyes and you know shining eyes and they were looking at me, you know, trying to pierce my stupid heart with their words so charged with transcendental knowledge.
So I was looking at them rather dull, you know, not so much impressed. So so and they explained to me, you know, I I don't remember the arguments.
There was no real arguments, you know, the some trees in Germany grew in a way that it's in Arabic Allah is God, or something like this. You know, that was crazy statement.
Something like this. So, some danish lady went through the graveyard at night and she heard some vojés and she became a Muslim after that, because that was a proof of Muslim religion, something like this.
So at the end they looked at me and they said, are you ready? So I said what should I do?
What and and before that they told me you will be saved even if you are a bad Muslim, you know, it's not the problem. You don't have to be a very good Muslim.
You don't have to follow all these rules, regulations, you know. And so I asked, what what what shall I do? They said, You just you just chant this formula.
And there was some formula in Arabic language, you know I have to pronounce this and that's it, you're Muslim. And then you're saved.
And even if you don't belong to Muslim religion, but even if you're good, if you are so pious and and this that, you will never be saved. You will go to hell for eternity. So that was the rationale behind this. So.
Without being very much convinced, but sometimes we see the same kind of psychology among the devotees. Like I'm being often asked what will happen with somebody who has been following
the regulative principles, who has been chanting Maha-mantra, this and that, but he somehow or rather happened not to get initiation. He didn't get initiation. Will he be saved or not? And how he will be saved?
Is there any chance for his salvation?
And we can see that this psychology is there because people there after the first initiation and you know and they get the first initiation and they think now I'm saved and they you know they feel a little better but then after a while they again develop some doubts.
Maybe because I don't have the second initiation. Therefore there is no progress and there is no real feeling of salvation. And then they get the second initiation.
Sometimes they get the third initiation with the hope to be saved. Again the same the same underlying principle is there that you get saved or liberated through some kind of ritual or through some kind of you know trick.
Some magic trick has to be done for your salvation. And also, of course, this issue about guru, whether my guru is capable of saving me. I'm such a you know difficult case to be saved.
Whether he has enough strength and power spiritual
power to give me this elevated state of salvation, and what is actually what is going on? How the salvation is taking place, or how the liberation is taking place. So, and sometimes, of course, this is again being explored
within ISKCON or within other religions, you know, people say we hear this again and again and again again this this motivating factor of being saved, like, you know, you take part in such and such project.
And if you take part in such and such project for sure this is guaranteed, you know, this is this is it. Like now I'm engaged in Moscow project and I'm always tempted to use this technique or to apply this technique.
You take part in building this big temple in Moscow and all the you know Acharyas in our sampradaya will come to save you at the moment of this.
So this is uh uh because again this is uh this is our product. This is what people want from religion. That's basically why they come to religion. And sometimes they want it cheaply.
And oftentimes, in most cases, they often this salvation and a very cheap price.
And if you offer them, you know, you take this little ritual, make this little little chant this holy uh sound vibration or this formula or take part. And give some little money.
You know, give not little money of course, you know, for salvation you have to give some substantial money. And that's it. You are saved. So, because this is this is what we are selling on the market.
And therefore, this is a very interesting thing, you know, who saves us? Is our guru saves us?
Will he come at the moment of our death and will he take us through our Shikha or Krishna will Himself come because He himself says, you know, bhava mi na ca mam partha, mrtyu-samsara-sagarat, I will take you out from this ocean of material nations.
Or, you know, who will save us? Jesus Christ will save us, you know. Because we hear this all the time. Jesus saves, Jesus saves, you know. Like Suhotraswami, he always jokes. He says, Jesus saves and Moses invests.
He says that this is the salvation according to the Christian tradition. So, but I wanted to talk a little bit about how the salvation takes place, and how what is the mechanism, and what are the important factors.
Because all these factors are important. The initiation is important. Guru is important. The sound vibration is important. Krishna is, of course, most important. But how it take place?
The soul's deep need for liberation
But first I wanted to speak today specifically about the need for salvation and the different conceptions or misconceptions of salvation which are there.
And also bring closer to the original topic through analyzing some verses in Bhagavad-gītā. I don't know if I have time for this.
But basically the need for salvation is specifically mentioned by Krishna in the verses which I uh uh already quoted, ābrahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ punar āvartino 'rjuna or duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam.
The deep deep rooted need for salvation within our heart, the reason for this is exactly this understanding of the temporary nature of this world and our temporary existence.
In other words, we feel that this is not our final destination. Because we are here temporarily, because everything is temporary and we feel that we are temporary, we feel that something is wrong with it.
That there is some kind of we feel that the state we are in, every human being feels this, has this feeling that the state we are in is not the final. It's transitory.
And you know, you either will go up or you will go down or you will remain here, but you have to do something and you have to come to your final destination. And basically, we are separated from our eternal nature.
The problem, the main problem within our heart, is that we are separated from the eternal nature of the soul.
And because we are separated from eternal nature we don't feel this eternal nature we don't feel the eternal destination and therefore uh we are seeking for some kind of uh means to get to this final destination.
And this state of consciousness is of called call is is of course called avidia or ignorance. And that's exactly what we have to be saved from.
We have to be saved from this avidia, which in turn causes our temporary situation in this material world.
And the result of this temporary situation and uh the result which actually uh makes the need for salvation is even more or liberation even more acute is the fear.
Because we are temporary in this material world, we always feel fear, we're always fearful. Because the very word salvation implies that we are fearful.
And of course there are so many kinds of fear and there are so many reasons for fear, but Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam gives the very profound definition of fear. Which I want to discuss a little bit for a few minutes about.
And Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in the 11th canto says, bhayam dvitīyābhiniveśataḥ syād īśād apetasya viparyayo 'smṛtiḥ. Mr. And basically the root cause of the fear is explained in this verse where
it is said Bhayam Dvitiya Abhiniveshāt syāt. Bhaya or fear is caused by Dvitiya Abhinivesh. And Dvitiya, of course, means duality. But Dvitiya also means or may mean secondary. And abhinivesha means absorption.
And what Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam wants to say to us is that the bhaya or fear, or this psychological condition, of desire to be saved, of fearful condition being in this world is because we are absorbed in something secondary.
We are, of course, absorbed in the duality of this world and heat and cold and men and women, this all kinds of dualities. But we are also absorbed in in this secondary nature.
And it's interesting that basically, Lord Krishna, when he explains the borderline between the demoniac and the divine natures, he takes this particular quality of fear as the as the principle for distinguishing between them.
When he says that divine natures have particular qualities, what is the first quality which he gives. Yeah, abhayam. Abhayam sattva-samshuddhih.
He said that the first quality which uh actually signifies that you have divine nature is that lack of fear is complete absence of fear. You you become totally fearless.
And on the contrary, if we see the demonic people who develop or who cherish these demonic qualities as kāma, lust, krodha, anger and greed lobha. They're always fearful.
The demonic person, they're most fearful people. They always fear. You know if we take any dictator or whatever who wants the power in this material world. He is the most fearful person.
So this Abayam comes from this absorption in the secondary nature. We forget about our primary cause. We forget about Krishna and we turn away from Krishna.
It's amazing to what extent if we analyze again our psychology, if we analyze it, we will see to what extent we are absorbed in this secondary nature and the secondary things. We can't Hare Krishna, right?
Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare
and then the fly flies in front of you and you forget about Krishna you're you're concentrated on the fly sometimes it also happens you know or the you know, little mosquito lands on your head. And you forget about Krishna and you're all you know, you're chasing this mosquito because
you have to retaliate for this Maha aparadha which he did to you. So and that's that's what um in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam it is
explained because it is said there Bahyamdhrithyabini Vesha Taksyat as soon as you turn away from the Lord, as soon as you absorbed in this secondary nature, so to speak. Then what happens with you?
Ishata Peta Sya Viparya Yasmiriti? Your memory or your intelligence, because Krishna makes very uh profound connection in Bhagavad-gītā because between the intelligence and memory.
He says when your memory is perverted or blurry, when your memory is not clear, then you lose your intelligence. And it is at Vipariya yasmritih. Your memory or your intelligence becomes perverted.
Because you turned away from the Lord, because you absorbed in this secondary nature, and this secondary nature actually took place or took precedence within your heart. It's more important for you.
And i if we if we be honest, you know, if we are honest, we can look within our heart and we can understand that there are so many things which are more important for us than God. So many things.
Especially if we go to a s you know shopping center, you know, so many things are more important. They totally block our memory of the Supreme Lord who is the most beautiful and who is the most important.
And therefore viparya smritik your memory uh your intelligence becomes totally perverted. Or as Sridarswami he very interestingly and very actually deeply he gave very profound explanation to this verse.
He said, because of this, you lose the focus. And because you lose the focus, you develop the separate interest.
This absorption in the secondary things is actually this separatist mentality which is again being described in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam as baddhi or the outlook of the world which is separated from the Lord.
And as Shiddarswami says, you develop the provincial interest, you know, like the people who live in the countryside, they have this little strange, very narrow minded interest, provincial. They are living in the province.
So and the same thing. We lost God as the center, and this is the root cause of all our subsequent problems. And that specifically manifests in our sick or diseased consciousness.
This absorption in secondary, not important things, which are sometimes, you know, it's amazing. I I always wonder while looking at my own heart, you know.
You go to some internet site, and of course, internet site is the best illustration for you know being absorbed in something which is not important.
People they surf on the internet for you know some people they die because they forget of eating and they forget of drinking they are just you
know they absorbed and all this news you know this news and that news and this and that amazing you know and you forget all together about the Lord and and therefore Your intelligence becomes subtle. So sick.
This is we have to understand that this lack of absorption or lack of concentration when we try to chant the holy name or when we try to concentrate on sudden on religious practice, on following the rules and regulations, is the condition of disease.
It's the condition of deadly disease which we have, which we developed. And this deadly disease becomes us, you know viparyaya smriti, absent-minded. paryaasmrith absentmindd.
You can translate this, you know, when people when they become when they become old and senile, you know, they develop this disease which Mr. Reagan had. How it's called? Oh yeah, whatever. The difficult name.
Alzheimer's, whatever. So uh usually these people it's interesting these people they don't remember something which happened to them two minutes ago. Something which is important.
But they usually remember which is something which is far away. They remember very well the you know the memories of the views or whatever. But something which is there, just in front of them, they don't remember.
And in the same way, this viparyaya smriti, this perverted memory means that we don't remember something which we have to remember all the time. We don't remember the Lord.
But we remember everything else which is far away from us, which has nothing to do with us, which is actually really inconsequential, it's really secondary and really not important.
So this is the this is the symptom of this disease. It's actually much worse than this disease which Mr. Reagan had. Much worse. And every one of us has this symptom of this disease.
And uh because of this disease, the whole material life, the tragedy or drama of material life envelops. And another symptom of our need for salvation. Why do we need salvation? That's one thing.
Because we are because we are fearful.
Four basic desires in Brhadaranyaka Upanisad
And another, of course, feeling which every one of us has within the heart is this feeling of incompleteness. We feel that something is lacking. Why do we need? Ultimately, why do we need God?
Because we feel that something is lacking. And because of this, we develop so many desires. Actually, there is a very interesting description in Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad.
The description of this particular quality of incompleteness of the human being. Or our kind of that we are lacking something in this, in this world.
It is said that every human being has only 4 desires. Everyone has only 4 desires. Would you subscribe to this view? Do you have 4 desires or you have more desires? But
in Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad they said that basically all the desires, all, all the wide range of desires which we may have, basically they boil down to four basic desires, four main desires which are there.
It is said that there are four desires. The one desire, the first desire is that we desire wife. Of course, in uh being politically correct we have to say that we desire wife or husband. Right?
The the first des desireire, the number one, we desire somebody who is near us who will make us more complete.
Basically, the desire for the spouse, for wife, or the husband is the desire again coming from this feeling of incompleteness.
Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad describes these four desires, and then Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad describes how God fulfilled all the desires by giving... Pāṇi-sata, it is said that, and it's a very humorous or ironic description.
It is said that you know everyone here is condemned, everyone here is is feeling this lack of or incompleteness within himself, the lack of
contact with the complete whole, as Prabhupāda translates this verse in the Īśopaniṣad. And it is said there that first of all, to make somebody you know and we came here and God provided us with everything which we need.
We came here because we wanted to turn away from God. We wanted to turn away from Him. We didn't want to be with him, we wanted to be separate, we wanted to develop this separate interest.
So, and God, the Supreme Lord Krishna, He knew how miserable we will be. He knew how completely frustrated we will be.
So first thing he provided for us to feel good about ourselves in this material world, what do you think what is it? The first and most important thing for us to feel good in this material world? Not really false.
It is said there he gave us the mind. So the most glorious gift of the waves to us is the mind. He gave us the mind for what? To feel good about ourselves, right? Because what is the mind?
In the mind we can create the image of ourselves which is much more beautiful than the Lord. Right? In our mind we can create the image of ourselves to be the center of this universe, isn't it?
We are the center of this universe. We don't need God, right?
I am the most beautiful, I am the most intelligent, and I am the most charitable, and I the most pious, and I am the most, you know, and I'm always right. Right? Of course. You are.
What else you could be if you are the Lord? If you came here to pretend to be the Lord for this particular purpose. And you know, we feel good about ourselves. You know, we always feel good about ourselves.
Sometimes we feel bad about ourselves and Sachinandana Swami will come to teach us how to feel bad about ourselves, you know, because this is the first step of Saranagati. But this is a very difficult science, in fact.
But nobody needs to learn how to feel good about ourselves. No matter who you are, you may be the dullest, the most ugly, the most miserable person. You are still so proud about yourself.
You're so loving towards yourself because your mind, in your mind, you created a very attractive feature of yourself. And this is the first gift of the Lord. Because of his compassion.
Being compassionate, he didn't want us to be miserable all the time and he wanted us to be happy and because he knew that we couldn't be happy without him, so he gave us the mind.
And then as it is said that the first characteristic desire, still despite of being so good, you know, we have to have somebody who would appreciate how good we are, right? Because if we are all alone, it's not the happiness is not complete. So the first desire of the human being is to have somebody whom we can always all the time twenty four hours a day explain how good we are. Isn't that the purpose of family life?
Two people get together to have the audience all the time which would be forced to hear how nice we are and how right we are, right, you know this is what the husband tries to prove to the wife that I'm always right and this is what the wife tries to prove to the husband that's feasible, right? So this is another desire which is again betraying our faulty nature, our incomplete nature in this material world.
And therefore in Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad is said, but again we know that despite of this desire, despite of this desire to have somebody nearby with whom we can speak, with whom we can associate, whom we can try to prove something.
Sometimes it doesn't happen. Sometimes you know, exactly because of this reason, because we're so absorbed in ourselves people they get frustrated being with us.
Or sometimes we don't get the wife and the you know husband or whatever.
So and Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad is said that the Lord gave to you something which would substitute this and which would fulfill your desire. What do you think it is?
Which every one of us has, which actually substitutes the company. When you are alone and nobody is with you, what are you doing? You speak with whom? With yourself, right.
And it's always nice to speak with an intelligent person, so it's So you you you speak with yourself and you're engaged in this nice conversation.
So it is said in Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad that the Lord gave to fulfill this desire of the stupid stupid conditioned soul to fulfill the desire in company and association the Lord gave this power of speech. The power of speech is actually the substitute.
And if if you don't have the wife, well it doesn't matter, you know, you can speak with yourself. And and for sure you will understand yourself better than anybody else.
So this is this is another gift of the Lord. He gave the mind and then he gave the power of speech. Then again, another desire which everyone has is uh is desire to have children.
Because in other words, you want to produce something, you want to create.
In other desire which is very deep. And it may not be manifested as as as the you know creation of the children, you may create some you know machine or some invention, this and that, it doesn't matter really.
You know that there is this desire to see that this is something which I have created, right? You know, this is my children, you know.
The dirty little guys who are running all over the place and you're so proud because this is my. I created them.
So and this is again very, very essential desire of or very essential psychology of any human being. They want to create something. You know, like little children.
Little children, what they do? They take this pencil and they take little, you know, something and they you know, they paint something and it's it's really ugly. You know, they you know, they paint something, you know, big, elongated with you know with the hairs all over the place, you know. And they go to you and say, look, this is I created, you know, this is something good.
So, because you want to produce something. Every human being has this desire of psychology to produce something. And very ironically, it is said in Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad therefore God gave you the power to breathe.
You know if you cannot produce anything, you can just produce the hot air. From your throat, you know. So you're doing something, you're engaged.
So then then it is said, and then everyone wants wealth. Everyone wants some to be wealthy, everyone wants money. That's another very basic, very fundamental desire within the heart. Everyone wants to possess something.
And to fulfill this desire of the human being, God gave a very beautiful instrument, what do you think it is, by which we can possess anything in this material world. What is it? Yes, eyes. Exactly.
Eyes are this brilliant creation of the Lord by which you can just look, you know, look at this building and you feel like, you know, it's mine, right?
Eyes are the special device or special instrument for you to be envious or for you to feel good, you know, because by eyes you can feel as if you have something.
And then finally, there is another desire which is actually the most important desire.
Out of all these desires, besides all these desires, yes, you want to have children or, you want to create something, you want to have the spouse, you want to have wealth, but you also want to ensure your future happiness, your future good life.
And for that to fulfill this desire of the human being God gave something very important to us. What is it? Intelligence. Not really by which you can get uh
get this understanding or get this ensure yourself that you will get a good future. Śrotriya. actually that's what uh people need the ears for. Ears they need to see their future.
And this may be the perspective of the religious life, or this may be the perspective of any other promises which they gave, like the politicians, they also they play with this desire for people to have the future, the bright future.
They come and they say, You please elect me, and if you elect me, I will give you this and that and this and that, and poor living entities, they have these big ears and they listen to this rubbish.
And listening to this rubbish, they develop this belief. Yes, yes, my future will be bright, isn't it?
You know, you listen, any politician or any religious leader or anyone you know in this world and this is what is it all about.
They will uh try to provide you with this understanding that your future will be uh will be bright. And this all together constitute our false situation in this material world.
This is all false illusory illusory happiness in our in this material world and uh therefore uh you know ultimately we are suffering by uh by this and we're missing the point.
Again, the point here is that we turn away from the Lord and we want to compensate our uh incompleteness by all this artificial means. And ultimately we need we need the Lord Himself. And that's what we have to understand.
The religion and the way of religion, the way of religious life is to explain people this basic but the most important idea that to be happy in this material world, you need the Lord.
You need to have the Lord, you need to come closer to Him.
Human motivations for adopting religious practices
That's what has to be there. But again, in this world, because of our perverted intelligence, because of the perversion which is there deep within our heart, because of this.
Even if we understand this idea, the motivation to achieve the Lord or to come closer to Lord or to achieve this liberation or the state of liberation or the state of salvation may be perverted.
Like Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, he explains this in his, uh, Śrī Caitanya-śikṣāmṛta, he says that people who are trying to engage and listen please listen very carefully because this is very important.
This has a very important role in our life because those people who are intelligent, those people who have more or less not so perverted intelligence. They sooner or later they understand I need God.
I have to practice some religion. I have to come to religion. I have to do some religious practices.
But because the perversion is still there, when they come to any religion, they may apply this perverted intelligence towards the religion, and that's exactly the reason why so many perverted religions are there in this material world.
So it's not enough even to come to a good religion, because we may come to a good religion with a bad intentions, with a bad perversions.
And it's not really, of course, the particular religions, and Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura mentions them they're creations of this perverted intentions or perverted desires of the human being.
But we may be in a right place, in the right religion, but still we can miss the point. And this vision of uh the goal, the proper vision of the goal is extremely essential.
So Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says that basically there are four intentions or there are four motivations for people to come to religion. And he says the first and the most basic motivation is bhaya.
The same kind of thing, fear. You have the fear, you feel this need because to be saved, and you come to religion to be saved because of this fear.
And uh this bhaya or fear you can see in many religions it plays very important role.
You go to Christianity, one day will say, They will say, God, you know, yeah, yeah, yeah, God is loving, but you better behave yourself nicely.
Because otherwise you will be condemned to death well not to death, you will be condemned for eternity in hell.
You know any religion or so to speak conventional religion, uh mundane religion, you know, and this factor or this motivation of bhaya, of fear plays very important role. Like if you take Buddhism.
Buddhism actually entirely based on fear. Because it is explained as this whole creation. You know, if if you translate, of course, Buddhists say there is not God. There is no God.
But if you translate Buddhistic religion in terms of God, you will get the picture, horrible picture. There is a cruel God who condemned you for sufferings.
And the only way to escape these sufferings is to become what? Is to become nothing. Is to commit the suicide. There is this cruel God who created this world.
You know, and this is actually this is the idea of religion which many people have.
Many, many people have this idea that this world is bad by nature, and that was intentionally created by a cruel God. And ultimately salvation means somehow or other you escape from this from this world.
If you take Hindu religion, Hindu religion, you know, in its again perverted form as Advaita Vedanta or Advaita philosophy, basically the same idea is there. The same idea. You have to commit your suicide.
Satinandan Maharaj, Hare Krishna. Please continue, continue. How can I continue in your presence? When you are supposed to start your seminar? I heard soon. Do you know the exact year?
Oh, I didn't know, because I heard so, I'm already ten minutes late. No no. I'm I'm talking about salvation and there is no okay so we have to stop now. I'm really sorry.
I, I, I really—I saw that it was later. I didn't do it intentionally. Okay. Thank you very much. We will continue tomorrow. Right.