Bhagavad-gita 8.7
Bhakti Vijnana Goswami · Sweden · 2013
Chapters
Umna mo Bhaga Sudeva Sudevanamo bhagavate vasudeva teva sude, omnamo Bhagavate Vasudevaya Sudeva.
Expressing gratitude to devotees
Narayanamamas kritya, rayanamamas kritya, naram chaivana rootamam, namam chavamam, devim sarasvatiama Tatojayamay Tato Jaya Modi Ray Hare Krishna It's
indeed a very great honor for me to speak in front of all of you tonight. As Tapas Prabhu has said, I have some depth I owe some and actually real death in this life is the depth of love.
We ra we are indebted to those people who love us, who invested something in us and I spent some time in Sweden and I really feel very grateful to this place, this Govindas restaurant and the deities here and of course all the devotees here.
Anyway I'll with your permission I will try to speak something. Hopefully it will be of some use.
I will read the seventh verse from the eighth chapter of Bhagavad-gītā, which is in my opinion is a very important verse for all people who are engaged in spiritual practices.
I understand this simple verse, in my opinion, is very important to understand the inner mechanism of the changes which are happening in our heart. In the process of sadhana.
And ultimately, this verse is teaching us how to achieve the goal of our life.
Tasmat, sarvesu, sarve, mamma, anusmar, 2udhya Mai Anarpita Arpita Arpita Arpita Manaha Budiva seamshaya, tasmat Sarvesukalesades Mamanu Smarayudya Mamanu Sarayudes Maya Pitama Buddhi Mamaiva sha sasam, tasmat sarve, sul, mamanu smarayudecha myarpitamanu budhi, mama vasya samsaya, tasmat Sarvesu Kadesu, Sma Sarve Swadesu, Mamanu Smaryudam, Mamanu Smar Yudcha, Mayarpitamanu Buddhi Mama
Vaisa Sams therefore Sarvashu Sarvashu always Kaleshu Kaleshu time Mam unto me unto me Anusmara go on remembering Yudhya fight cha also my unto me, Arpita, Surrender, Manaha,
Mind, buddhi, intellect, mām unto me Ava surely Ashas will attain Asamsha beyond the doubt translation.
Therefore, or Arjuna, you should always think of me in the form of Krishna and at the same time carry out your prescribed duty of fighting.
With your activities dedicated to me and your mind and intelligence fixed on me, you will attain me without a doubt purport this
instruction to Arjuna is very important for all men engaged in material activities the Lord does not say that one should give up his prescribed duties or engagements.
One can continue them and at the same time think of Krishna by chanting Hare Krishna. This will free one from material contamination and engage the mind and intelligence in Krishna.
By chanting Krishna's names, one will be transferred to the supreme planet Krishna Loka without a doubt O
Ma Janati Mirandasya Jyanam Jana Salakaya Chaksurun Miditamyana Tasmahi Sri Gura Venama Sri Chaitanya Manobisham Stapi Tam Y na butale Swamrupa Kadama Yam Dadati Swapadantikam
Namaste Saraswati Devi Gauravani Pracharini, Nirvishe Sunyavadi, Namaste Saraswati Devi Gauravani Pracharini, Nirviche Sunyavadi, Paschatades. Sri Advaita Bedatha Srivassadigura Bhakta Vrinda Hare Krishna
Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Rare Rama Hri Rama Rama Rama Hare Hari Ajaanu Lambi de Vujokana Kavadatu, Sankirtanaya Kapita Rokama Laya Taksa, Vishwam Bara Dja Varu Yuga Dharma Palu Vandi Jagat Priya Karu Karuna Watariandah
Answering Arjuna's question on death
Prady Mam At the end of the seventh chapter, Arjuna asked several questions from Krishna.
And in the beginning of the eighth chapter, Krishna answers all the questions of Arjuna, and if I remember it correctly, there were seven questions, and Krishna answers very
quickly the first six questions and decayes the whole eighth chapter answering the last question of Arjuna, which was Was how to remember of you at the time of death.
It's basically asking this very important and crucial question, and we all have to know very clearly the answer to this question. Of course, if we take Arjuna, he is facing death basically right there.
He is there in the battlefield of Krukshatra. And he can die at any moment. But exactly the same thing is applied to us. We also can die at any moment. And in fact, our whole life is a fight.
In Sweden it may not be felt so acutely. But in Russia it definitely feels like this. Every day is a big struggle. People are trying to make arrangements to alleviate the struggle to a certain extent.
But ultimately, everyone has to fight. Everyone has to face some problems, some difficulties, whether external problems or internal problems.
Śrīla Prabhupāda always calls it the struggle for existence. And of course it's not only Śrīla Prabhupāda, Charles Darwin also speaks about the same thing. It's fight. Life in this world is about fighting.
We have to fight the enemies inside us, outside us, everywhere. And ultimately we will die in the course of this fighting. No one is exempt.
Once Śrīla Prabhupāda came to an interview and the guide to a show, to some sort of a show, TV show, and the host of the show was famous for cutting everyone down, all his guests.
His first question was: "So, Swamiji, why did you come to our country from the country where the death rate is so high?
And Śrīla Prabhupāda says, as far as I am concerned, the death rate is 100% everywhere. So that's indeed true, the death rate is 100% everywhere, no one is exempt and therefore this question
which Arjuna asks, how to remember you at the time of death, is very important.
Viewing death as a victory
Indeed, what we remember at the time of death indicates either victory or defeat. The death itself, inevitable as it is, may be the sign of victory in rare cases and most cases it's a defeat.
Death itself is not necessarily a bad thing, and we know the glorious examples in the history of humanity. Like Jesus Christ, there is a famous saying that he conquered the death by death.
By death itself he has conquered the death.
another example of this, even more prominent, or well not that prominent in the Western world, but more graphic in a sense, the example of Dhruva Mahārāja, who when he died, he stepped over the head of the dead.
And that's basically the picture which symbolizes this fact that our death can be a defeat and in most cases it is. It's a miserable experience of ultimate defeat in the struggle for existence in this fight,
but at the same time, this very same kind of happening may signify the ultimate victory of a living entity.
Why to know the answer to this question is so important, it's exactly because of this fact that if we remember about Krishna at the time of death, our death is the greatest success.
As paradoxically as it may sound, it is. It is set in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam exactly like this. In Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, it is very clearly said that the ultimate success of life.
And success in Sanskrit is called Siddha. Siddha means perfection. Siddha means success. Siddha means you achieved your goal. You really achieved what you are meant for.
Because ultimately success is kind of you know the achieving goal. But the ultimate success is to achieve the goal for what we are meant for.
And in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, this ultimate state of success is formulated in a very beautiful way. Ante Narayana Smritich. This ultimate success of life is to remember about God at the end of life, which is normally not easy.
We know that even in our quote unquote normal state of consciousness. It's not easy to remember about God.
The life with all its necessities and all its urgencies and everything, you know is is designed in such a way to make us forget about God. We always forget about Him. Especially when we chant Hare Krishna.
This is this is the time when we forget about him in a very sorrow way. We remember about everything else.
And this is uh again qu,oteote unqu, in a more or less peaceful and normal state of consciousness, it's difficult. It's difficult to remember about God. It's difficult to remember who we are.
We always forget uh this fact that God is there and we're subordinate to Him, that He is present in our life, that He is watching us. We constantly, you know, on a daily basis, even more often we forget about this.
What to speak about the very dramatic time when we are living this body.
Understanding fear and past lives
It's a very I mean it's a very miserable experience. And we all know it. Vyāsadeva commenting on Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali Muni, he makes a very interesting point as a proof of reincarnation.
He says that everyone, everyone, everyone, every living entity, no matter who they are, little cockroach in a go-down, tiny ant somewhere crawling. Everyone is afraid of death.
And he says, How are we afraid of something if we didn't have experience of this? The little baby was totally completely unconscious and doesn't know anything, he is already afraid of death.
How he is afraid of death if he doesn't know what death is? And what he wants to say basically is that we all know, we all have this experience. We all went through this. When we're stripped of all our identities.
Very dramatic experience exactly because of this. We have a little rehearsals of this during our life by some kind of arrangements and there may be various kinds of arrangements, our identity is changing.
You know, we are more or less deprived or stripped of our identity. And that's a very miserable experience.
This is called age crisis when you change your you know middle age crisis or whatever, or when somebody is kicked out from his job or when some close relative dies and uh you know part of our identity dies with him or whatever it is.
You know, when we change our identity, it's a very miserable experience. What to speak of death? We are used to certain identity. We don't understand how we are used to it.
You know, I'm this and I know what I what it means and so on and so forth. But you know, at the time of death, we don't know who we are. Everything which we have is left behind and you know totally, completely. It's a mess.
The body is a mess. We cannot remember about Krishna properly in a very proper way when we aren't healthy. You know, when we're little sick, it's practically impossible to think about Krishna.
Little fever is there, and you know, forget about everything. What to speak about Krishna? Krishna is the first one whom we forget about.
You You know, little pain is there, and all our consciousness just goes to this place where the pain is. And therefore, I mean, it may sound easy, you know, just remember. Sometimes it sounds little simplistic, you know.
Just chant Hare Krishna at the moment, that's right. Well, yeah, of course I will chant, no problem. No, it's not that easy. It's not that easy.
Cultivating consciousness during life
And uh Krishna basically says about this also, he indicates about this in the previous verse where he says that yam smaran bhāvam tyajaty ante kalevaram, taṁ taṁ evaiti kaunteya sadā tad-bhāva-bhāvitaḥ. Bhavitaha.
He says, basically, he gives the indication, which is a very important connection to the verse which we are now considering.
He says that at the time of death you will remember something only this which you have cultivated in a very systematic way during your life.
Sadā tad-bhāva-bhāvitaḥ, taṁ taṁ evaiti. Whatever bhāva, whatever mood, whatever consciousness you develop during the lifetime, this very consciousness will be the consciousness of your death.
Consciousness which will come to you. It's not by accident. Sometimes people say that the death is the last test, is the last exam. I humbly disagree with this.
Because when the test comes, when the exam comes, you have little freedom. And test there is no freedom. The test is life. During lifetime, we have choices. We have freedom. We can go this way or that way.
We can cultivate this mood or that mood. You know, it's up to us. At the end of death, that's it. The death is not the test. The death is the mark which they put at the end. That's what it is.
And therefore it's very important to have a successful death. Sometimes people think that it's very important to have a successful life. But what is the use of so-called successful life if the end is unsuccessful?
Because everything will be nullified. You will lose everything, all your achievements, all your successes, everything will be just zero. Absolutely, totally zero.
Therefore, Krishna says what you need to do, you have to cultivate śānta bhāva during the lifetime, sadataṁ bhāva-bhāvitaḥ. Sada. Sada means always, all the time. And he says how to do this in this verse.
I said in the very beginning that this verse is important because it basically reveals the very essence, the very meaning of sadhana, the inner meaning of sadhana, what sadhana is.
Sadhana, according to Sanskrit, is the systematic way of achieving certain end. Sadhyati from the verbal root sadh to achieve to come to a certain goal and sadhana is
a very systematic process uh for us to achieve something and krishna indicated that during the lifetime now not postponing it up to death. Up to death you're not free. Nothing accidental will happen at the moment of death.
Death is not a part of our sadhana. Sometimes people in a very mysterious and miraculous way think that, you know, at the moment of that somehow or other I will make it up.
You know, I will uh I will be a little neglectful during my lifetime. But you know, at the time of death no problem, I will make it. No, no, forget it. We have to do it now. This is the time for sadhana.
This life is meant for practice. This whole life, the essence of this life is practice. And Krishna explains what this practice is. What is the essence of this practice?
He says, tasmāt sarveṣu kāleṣu mām anusmara yudhya ca mayy arpita-manō-buddhir mām. budhir mama He says, here it is, here is the secret. I will teach you how to come to me without a trace of doubt. Mām evaiṣyasi.
He basically stresses this two times. Eva means indeed. And then Asamsha, no doubt about it. In other words, he gives a very uh I mean very sure recipe, 100% guaranteed recipe, which we have to understand very
clearly, and he said, tasmāt sarveṣu kāleṣu mām anusmara yudhya ca mayy arpita-mano-buddhir mām. May sound very easy, very simple, but uh there is a very deep science behind this simple advice of Krishna.
He says, tasmāt sarveṣu kāleṣu mām anusmara yudhya ca. He says, you fight. You fight. And Siddharth basically explains what fight means. Fight means you perform your duties.
And you know, as I said, everyone is fighting. We're all fighting with each other, but Krishna doesn't mean this. Krishna doesn't mean that you start fighting.
What Krishna means here, he says you try to do what you're meant to do. Try to perform what you are supposed to do, try to work hard, but this fighting in itself will be a useless exercise.
Sometimes people are very proud by the fact that they're fighting, that they're you know they're tough people, they're they're really you know struggling and you know overcoming this.
But uh in itself it's a useless exercise. You know, in Sweden people usually take it easy. You know they they don't they don't like to fight too much.
But anyway, everyone has to fight this way or that way somehow or other. But it's useless exercise. What makes it useful?
What really makes the difference and really gives the essence or makes the fighting meaningful is the first advice of Krishna, Tasmat Sarvesu Kalisu, Mam anusmara, Yudhya. You fight, but first you remember about me.
And anusmara means constantly remember about me. Anusmara. Not just smara.
Remembering relationship with Krishna
Anusmara means you try to remember about me constantly. And that basically what it means, it means that we have to remember about Krishna and it means to remember about who we are in relationship to God.
Sometimes we don't understand what it means to remember about Krishna, you know. I remember the first time I was told just remember about Krishna.
And the only thing which I knew about Krishna was the little picture on the on the little package of incense which I got in an Indian shop. You know, and it was some kind of strange figure. And I was told it's Krishna.
And I and I was trying to remember him and I couldn't figure out how I can remember him and what it really means to remember him. But to remember him basically means to remember who we are in relationship with him.
Remember that God is there, He is great, He created this amazing creation, wonderful creation.
And we are, as big as we may think, we are actually a tiny, tiny speck of spirit, little insignificant creature with a very high opinion about ourselves.
But to remember about God basically means to remember to remember our relationship, remember Him. And ultimately when Krishna says about this it means to give us very important advice is that we have to be conscious.
To remember about Him.
To remember who we are in relationship to Him, to remember all the time, and anusmara means again, remember all the time, constantly, means to constantly struggle about being conscious in whatever we do.
The tendency in a human life unfortunately, and very strong tendency, unfortunately, is to become a little sleepy. According to our philosophy, people, they are sleeping during the lifetime.
They may be technically speaking, awake, but they're still sleeping. And sleeping means that they are more or less following or fulfilling the karmic program which is there.
They are following the unconscious mind or subconscious mind. So many desires are there, so many saṁskāras are there, and people, they are not aware of this.
They are just more or less fulfilling this program, and this is the same as sleep. People are really not conscious who they are, why they're here, why they do what they do, why the desires come to them.
Really, it's not an issue. For most of the people it's not an issue. And therefore, according to Vedic philosophy, the life for the most part, for the great majority of people, is just a dream.
It's just a dream, it's just an illusory kind of thing, and it's not really much different from the very illusory uh creation which we see in our dreams. There is a very nice funny story about one disciple of Lord Buddha.
He once slept and he had a very vivid dream that he became a butterfly. And then he woke up. And then he remembered this sleep dream that he was a butterfly.
And he started wondering Am I his name was Bodhidharma? He was wondering, am I Bodhidharma who dreamt that he was a butterfly? Or am I a butterfly who dreams that I am a Bodhidharma? And he was totally bewildered.
He didn't know how to answer this. You know, what is the dream?
There was some kind of very vivid uh creation and here it is and you know he doesn't know maybe he's a butterfly and he just dreams now that he's a body darm it's possible to but
But basically, where do they say that people they're not really aware? Their awareness is not there.
Even in a so-called waking state, we are. We are not really aware of you know the emotions which we have and it's it's it's kind of very sleepy sort of existence.
What Krishna says when he says to us, when he recommends to us, or rather orders to us, if we want to remember about him at the time of death. And to remember about him at the time of death means to wake up.
Ultimately to wake up to the ultimate eternal reality which is there. If we want to do it at the time of death, we have to try to wake up during our lifetime now.
And it means constantly bringing awareness back to whatever we do. Not just do it because uh you know in a in a very uh automatic mood. You know, like we do it. We do so many things automatically.
Overcoming mechanical material existence
We're eating, you know, in a very automatic way, seeing, watching, even associating with people in a very mechanical way. Because of this very strong karmic influence we became a mechanism.
What happens actually when the soul, the spark of spirit, comes in a very close contact with matter, it becomes like matter.
And we always have this tendency to go as deeply into matter as possible or to become as mechanical as possible. People do so many things mechanically.
Hey, hey, do, you know, smiling, you know, then they don't really mean it. Most of the interactions which have there's no meaning. It's just totally mechanical kind of thing. No awareness.
Who you are, who who I am, who is this people, you know. And therefore there is no love, there is no and there is no juice. The life becomes very dry now ultimately. You know, we become robots, more or less.
And the material life with all its pleasures, so to speak, and enjoyments, makes us more and more and more and more mechanical. And we think it's good, the more mechanical we are, the easy it is. But it's not. It's ultimately very boring.
And the meaning of human life is to awake, to really uh kind of uh come back from this horrible uh nightmare of material existence and for this we have to bring the awareness in every action which we have.
There was this famous Russian author, Leo Tolstoy. And when he was asked, who is the most important person in your life?
You know, he he asked this question, what is the most important thing which you you have to do in your life? And he says, the most important thing which you have to do in your life is the thing which you are doing now.
Not which you will do in twenty years, in one month, or whatever. Usually we are dreaming about what we will do, how we will achieve this, and in the meantime, we are just totally unaware of what we're doing now.
The most important person in our life is the one with whom we are speaking right now, with whom we are dealing right now. If we have this and to have this consciousness basically means awareness,
and basically it's includes in what Krishna says when he says, mām anusmara yudhya because remember about him again means not remember only about that Krishna means, you know, the whole creation, all the living entities and myself that Krishna means, you know, the whole creation, all the living entities and myself also.
Krishna is never alone.
So, you know, remember what Krishna means to remember who we are in relationship to him and who everyone else is in relationship to him and dealing appropriately that's also means includes into remembering about Krishna.
So if we do this, what will happen to us? The result will be very glorious and very deep. The result of such endeavors, such practice will be that gradually, gradually, gradually, mechanical saṁskāras will be weakened.
Inner mechanism of spiritual practice
What I want to say, I want to uh give a definition of sadhana. What is the meaning of sadhana? What is the meaning of spiritual practice? What is spiritual practice? What is the essence?
What is the inner meaning of spiritual practice? The essence of spiritual practice is very simple.
The essence of spiritual practice is it's a systematic practice which facilitates the weakening of material saṁskāras, material impressions which are there in our life in our mind, which creates different desires and which basically makes us into some karmic mechanism.
And bringing in and creating, deepening, making very profound impressions of spiritual impressions.
The essence of spiritual practice is this: to deprive energy or to weaken as much as possible all the old saṁskāras which we have, old impressions which we have, not to give them new life and new energy, and create new spiritual saṁskāras.
And this saṁskāras uh they define what we remember. What we remember now. We remember now something which uh created lasted impression in our mind.
If the impression is deep, you know we will remember it if we had some, you know, and usually it's some kind of relationship, sex. It gives a very deep impression and therefore people always remember about these things.
And we will remember this inevitably at the time of death.
But spiritual practice is meant to gradually gradually take the energy from all these saṁskāras, from all these past memories, material memories, and to give this energy into the spiritual saṁskāras, spiritual impressions.
And the spiritual saṁskāras, spiritual impressions will only become strong in our mind if we apply our consciousness deeply, if we concentrate.
You know, m many things we don't remember. And usually we don't remember those things when we were not really, you know, conscious of doing them.
But if something really concentrates our mind, you know why we remember some little things in our life and we completely forget some other things?
Only because somehow or other during this little moments in our life we were totally concentrated on this. This this is how memory works. The memory works on concentration.
If we were very composed, concentrated, and really focused on something which we are doing, that it will create a very lasting impression.
So the essence of spiritual practice is to again again and try to concentrate on the spiritual things.
On the holy name, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare Hare Ram Hare Ram Ram Ram Hare Hari on a form of Krishna, on a spiritual philosophy.
If we really apply our consciousness deeply into this, it will create a very strong impression in our heart.
And uh the material impressions which basically bring sufferings in our life all the material impressions material memories it's just continuation of the sufferings, m miseries of this material life.
So if if we want to weaken this, we have to really work vigorously on you know concentrating on the spiritual practices which we are doing. And indeed this will ultimately constitute the success in our life.
Śrīla Prabhupāda, Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu in The Nectar of Devotion gives a very interesting observation. He says, sādhana oghāt. He says, oghāt basically means hosts.
He says, you may be engaged in a host of different sādhana, but they will be all useless if they're done in a mechanical way.
Sometimes people, you know, they they apply at the same kind of mechanical attitude which they're used to in their material life into the spiritual life.
Practicing active Krishna consciousness
They think that we need to learn the technique of spiritual life. What is the technique of spiritual life?
But spiritual life can never become a technique. Because spiritual life by very definition means awareness, consciousness.
What Krishna says here is actually Śrīla Prabhupāda captured the very essence of this verse in a beautiful phrase which he coined: Krishna consciousness.
consciousness. Mām anusmara yudhya: you do whatever you're supposed to do on whatever position of life you are. Do your struggle, do your duty, no problem.
You know, that Śrīla Prabhupāda says in the purport of this verse that you know this verse is applied to anyone who is engaged in material activities, and my question is: who is not? Who in this life is not engaged?
This this verse is applied to everyone because everyone is more or less engaged in some sort of activities, we have to do it. But the most important thing, mām anusmara.
And that means that you know again and again and again and again and again we have to concentrate and to bring awareness and to bring the memory and to try to be as less mechanical as possible.
To be who we are, and we are the spirit soul, spirit soul means lover of God. We are made of love. To be who we are, to remember about Krishna, it basically means to love. It's nothing else. Krishna is love.
He created us because this is an act of love. And to be aware of him means to love.
When we hate, when we you know manifest some other kind of material emotions, that basically means that we are not aware of who we are. We're not aware of Krishna. We forgot about him again.
We're not really, you know, doing what we're supposed to do. And ultimately spiritual practice of sadhana, it's a practice of love. It's nothing else. When we chant Hare Krishna, it's a practice of love.
We forbid about this. Again, we think it's it's a technique. It's a it's an exercise. You know why people like yoga so much?
Because yoga promises such a great result, and uh you know it should be done in a very technical way, in a very you know, you just but even in yoga, if a good teacher is there in yoga, you will be told concentrate on this, you know, just meditate on this triangle pose, and you will become triangle in the next life.
Comparing bhakti yoga to techniques
Or this head down dog, you will be head up dog or whatever it is or snake posture. No, but ultimately, Krishna consciousness, why we say proudly that this is the highest form of yoga, it's not because we are proud people.
We are supposed to be humble. We are trying to be humble. Really try hard. It doesn't work all the time, but we try. But it is the highest form of yoga because it's all spiritual from beginning to end.
Actually in bhakti yoga there is absolutely no room for anything mechanical. In any other sort of yoga, there is a provision for this. You know, if you want to do other yoga in a mechanical way, fine, you can do it.
If you want to do rituals, all these yajñas, chant this mantra, saṁskāras uh the main thing there is just to do it technically correct.
The only thing which you have to do in bhakti yoga, you know there is no technically correct things here. Krishna says, Prabhupāda says, you can you can chant Hare Kṛṣṇa whatever way you like.
Ale Kṛṣṇa, Ale Kṛṣṇa, it doesn't matter. What matters is the state of your consciousness, what you do when you do it. Technically, pronunciation is immaterial in our case.
When people chant other mantras, even if you chant Gāyatrī mantra, so you know now it's very fashionable. You know to chant all kinds of mantras. But mantras is a very formal approach to God.
Therefore, it's in a fourth case in Sanskrit, dative, Oṁ Kṛṣṇāya Namaḥ. Kṛṣṇāya to Krishna. I'm offering my obeisances to Krishna. It's a very formal approach to God.
Like you know when you come and there is some kind of formal gathering and everyone is formal, you know, and you say you know my obeisances to you and to you and this and that.
Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra which is the main mantra for our deliverance in this age is an evocative case. An evocative case means when you just, you know, you just call because you're drowning.
You know, there is a great deal of difference of approaching somebody if you approach somebody in a very formal way yes hey you know hey and if you're drowning and you're you know hey you know, you want to be saved.
So when we chant Kṛṣṇa, it's basically it's a call of love. And the point which I wanted to make is that you know why we say that bhakti
yoga is the highest form of yoga, it's because of this, because it teaches us to be conscious from the very beginning and to be conscious all the time, and it's difficult.
And there will be, you know, there will be struggle, and our struggle will be is that we will always want to go back. You know, basically, uh our life now is uh it's a very
miserable kind of life because you know and everyone knows this miserable moments in the early morning when we're trying to wake up and at the same time we want to go back to sleep.
So our whole human existence is something like this. We're trying to wake up, but at the same time we think it was so nice when I was sleeping. Why do we want to wake up? Just go back.
You know, it's it's kind of you know the state in between. You know, a part of us say, no, wake up, wake up, wake up. And Kṛṣṇa says to us, wake up, wake up. He says to Arjuna.
Upaniṣads say, Kaṭha Upaniṣad says what is jāgrata prāpya varān nibodhata. uttiṣṭhata jāgrata, prāpya varān... Uttiṣṭhata, uttiṣṭhata means. Get up. jāgrata, wake up. This is a waking up call.
Bhagavad-gītā is a waking up call. Upaniṣad is a waking up call. Kṛṣṇa is trying to wake us up. And we say, yes, yes, yes, but let me sleep a little more, Kṛṣṇa. Krishna. It was so nice. So it's a struggle, no problem.
Kṛṣṇa knows. Kṛṣṇa doesn't expect that, you know, immediately Kṛṣṇa, I will do whatever you like. Even for Arjuna, it took some time before he woke up.
He says, you know, naṣṭa-mohaḥ smṛtir labdhvā. After listening for a long time, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa talked the whole Bhagavad, he says, naṣṭa-mohaḥ, all my illusion is destroyed now. smṛtir labdhvā, my memory is back.
I remember about you. I remember who you are. I remember the meaning of my life. I remember what I'm supposed to do now. So Krishna knows that it will take some time before we come to this stage. That's not problem.
But the main thing is that we have to try. What depends on us, everything else depends on Krishna. You know, whatever He will die, He will give.
Ultimately, even to remember about him at the time of death is not up to us, it's up to him. And he may give this mercy.
What is up to us is that we really have to sincerely ask him, please give me, give me this. I really want it. And for this, Mamanus Mara Yudhyacha, for this, we are trying to remember about him again and again and again.
For this we are trying to chant, for this we are trying to interact in a proper way, in a loving way.
Serving Krishna through loving action
This is the topic of the next or next discussion but ultimately it's it's the essence of yoga which we are doing of yoga of devotional service. We are trying to be ourselves who we are.
And we are tiny little specks of spirit which are created from love and love means service. Love doesn't mean anything else. Love means serve.
We want to serve, we want to be servants and we want to be who we really are, we want to wake up. And Krishna says, this is what we are supposed to do.
And he says, Tasmat Sarvesu Kalishu all the time, Mamanus Marayu Decha, Mayy arpita-manوbuddhir, do it with your man, with your emotional mind, and Buddhi with your intelligence. Both of this you have to give to me.
We have to give to him our arpanam, our offering to him should be from our mind and intelligence.
Our service to him basically means to give our mind and our intelligence and our heart uh to Krishna and our mind to give our mind uh basically means to connect our desires with Him. Our desires should be connected with him, we should take prasadam and everything else.
Connect our sensory activities with him and Buddhi, our goals should be for him. Because intellect, intelligence is uh the part of us which can set the goal and achieve the goal.
In my humble opinion this is a very beautiful verse which captures the very essence of the spiritual practice. Spiritual practice is the constant struggle to remember about God.
And as a result of this struggle, at the end, Krishna, as he says here, mayi vaiśeṣya, sorry, you know, asams, you will definitely, without any doubt, any trace of doubt, you will come to me.
As a result of this, of our struggle, when Krishna sees our struggle, He gives us the reward. Remembrance about him at the time of death and sure, sure, coming back to him.
The only thing which we have to do, we have to struggle for him and in connection with him. There is a beautiful little story from Prabhupada's life, which I wanted to tell.
Once Prabhupada received a letter from one disciple of him who was a drug addict before he was a devotee for some time and he again encountered the same problem the old some scarers, old impressions came back awake again due to some kind of you know that's uh separate topic of a separate lecture or seminar how it happens.
But sometimes you know they kind of become dormant and all habits, old desires are not so prominent and then all of a sudden they again become awake and you know drag us forcibly.
And basically, disciple described in a very graphical way how he struggles.
Struggles with these problems and how they really drag him and he's trying, he's trying to chant Hare Krishna, but it's not always possible. And then again he goes back to his old ways,
but still he tries and Prabhupada he started crying. He really started crying. The tears glided down of his cheeks and he said just see how he is struggling for Kṛṣṇa. That was his reaction. Just see.
Not condemning, not anything. And you know, and that's exactly the reaction of Krishna. The reaction of a pure devotee is exactly the same as the reaction of Krishna.
Krishna, you know, he reacts when he sees our weaknesses.
But at the same time, if he sees and feels that we're sincerely trying, without being proud, with all our deficiencies and all our problems we're really trying to remember about Him, even though we're sometimes dragged by our whole things. There is no doubt about it.
He will come to rescue us. He says it again and again and again in Bhagavad-gītā. Very quickly I will come to rescue to this person.
But we have to struggle. It will not come without a little price which we will have to pay that is constantly bringing awareness into our life, awareness of who we are.
And what we do basically is to magnify or to strengthen this awareness. Sometimes people again I I always uh you know encounter this and that's again it's not uh nothing surprising about it.
This mechanical approach to spiritual life. People say, "Can I eat a little chocolate?" What's wrong about eating, you know, whatever? There's nothing wrong. You can eat whatever you like. The whole world is for you to eat.
Kṛṣṇa. Krishna is giving this one to you. That's no problem. It's not a question of what's wrong or you know can I do this? You can. It's a question of what you want to have at the end.
And at the end we want to remember about Krishna. We don't want what we don't want, we don't want to really feed our all some saṁskāras because it's useless.
All those people who come to spiritual life, they more or less understand that it's just a useless game. Chewing of the chewed. Chewing the same thing again and again and again.
So we don't want to we we want to really carefully avoid feeding them, giving them new life, new energy. That's one thing.
And another thing we want to really strengthen carefully in a very systematic way, in a very proper way to feed and to strengthen the spiritual saṁskāras.
And when the spiritual samskars become strong, our spiritual practice will become very easy, joyful. It's a struggle in the beginning because we are torn apart by these different tendencies which are there.
But when the uh when we try to really feed the spiritual tendencies of ours we will become very happy and which is more much more important Krishna will become very happy with us and he will reward us by the gift, the ultimate gift of remembrance of Him during this lifetime and uh especially at the time of death.
So thank you very much. Śrīla Prabhupāda kī jai.
Role of association in transformation
Yes. Yeah. And it's also until they you know bang their heads up against the wall, they get in an accident or something drastic happens in their life, can they take the spiritual life?
Possible? It's not a question of drastic things in our life, although oftentimes it is, but not necessarily, it's uh it's ultimately a question of association.
The desires, most of the desires which we come which we have is a result of our association. Not most, all the desires which we have is a result of association.
And the spiritual desires may also come as a result of association. You know what happens in a proper in a deep association?
If the association reaches a certain level of depthness, which which is possible when people are open, when there is an open line of communication or whatever.
Then, by discussing, talking, you know, people may develop spiritual desires even without going through a very acute or severe crisis in our life in their lives. It's a question of desire.
You know we have strong material desires and some perhaps not so strong, weak uh spiritual desires.
But the spiritual desires may become very strong, even though in the beginning we may not have so much spiritual taste due to association.
If we associate with those who have very strong spiritual desires, we will get these desires from them. Desires are contagious.
Why people, you know, start doing some spiritual practice just by reading Prabhupada's books because you know so much desire is there, so much greed is there in Prabhupada's books.
It's interesting that Narottam Das Thakur, he says that there are two kinds of sadhu-sangha. sangha. He says that one kind of sadhu sangha is a classical, so to speak.
Sadhu-sangha, you know, when we associate with sadhus and you know by associating with sadhus we get their desires, we get enthusiasm, we uh get some taste. Uh you know it's a kind of reflection of their taste.
But he says there is uh another kind of sadhu-sangha because sadhu-sangha means sangha or association, uh closeness to sadhu. Something real.
He says studying the scriptures and reading the scriptures is another kind of sadhu-sangha. So reading scriptures also helps in this regard. Usually people go through this sort of crisis.
But you know, many people go through sort of crisis, it doesn't give them any spiritual desires too. So m m much more important than this is the association.
Understanding Krishna's vision of devotees
And therefore Lord Chaitanya says, "Asat-saṅga tyāgi—vaiṣṇava ācāra." Vaiṣṇava is the one who carefully chooses his association. That's the characteristic of a Vaiṣṇava. We want to associate with those who will improve our spiritual nature. And we don't want to associate with those who will drag us down to the material level, level of sensuality more or less.
Yes. No problem has reaction to this struggle. Mm-hmm. The disciple and um and he was pleased. Pleased with this, yeah. He was pleased.
Is this uh what's a and that the the size of Purewater is like Krishna's or the view vision of a vaiṣṇava is like Krishna's vision.
So this could be an example of, uh, Krishna saying the Bhagavad-gītā, a person may do an abominable action, but if he's a very important sādhu
kṣipraṁ bhavati dharmātmā śaśvac-chāntiṁ nigacchati kaunteya pratijānīhi na me bhaktaḥ praṇaśyati. api cet sudurācāaro bhajate mām ananya-bhāk sādhur eva sa mantavyaḥ samyak vyavasito hi saḥ. Yes. Yes.
Basically he says sādhur eva sa mantavyaḥ. He has to be considered as a sadhu. Such a person has to be considered as a sadhu. It's it's his very strong order, even though he may be doing some abominable action. Yes.
Basically, he just wants to stress or emphasize the importance of this determination, the proper determination. Yeah. Yes.
After that Krishna says that he very swiftly—say what is it? Yeah, in the very next verse Krishna says that he will become a dharmātmā, a very pious soul. Uh and very very quickly he becomes a very pious soul.
Basically means it really depends. It really depends. You know what is one lifetime? It's very it's a very short period of time. It may take a few years.
But it it also a question of how much force we apply to spiritual practice. It mmm, you know, it can be expedited. Usually we are a little Little, you know,
basically as it is said in Bible that we want to serve two masters at the same time.
We are trying to sur littlef a bit here, little bit there, and uh and therefore we are not really applying. It can be very swift. The spiritual progress actually can be very swift.
In Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, there is this famous example of Maharaja Katvanga who was told that you know some demigods gave him some boon. You please choose whatever you like.
And he says, I just want to know when I will die. This is the boon which I want to know. And they said, Oh, that's no problem. In forty-five minutes you will die, Oh, that's good news. I have forty-five minutes, so
he achieved success within forty-five minutes because he just really applied the whole force into this. It it it really depends how how much concentrated we are and how much serious we are and how much focused we are.
What what happens actually is that when we become actually in the very moment we become aware of ourselves we become dharmātmā, very pious in those moments when we are there, we we are very poise.
Next moment we go back to our sleepy sort of situation when our desires rule us, rule over us and guide our lives, and when we completely identify with desires and then at this moment we cannot do anything about it. We just we become slaves of our desires.
And then again, the old things and you know were not so dharmic, so pious. So the point is that when we are aware, uh it's not difficult to be pious, you know. I'm aware, you know, what's what's what's the big deal.
The point is that we don't want to be aware all the time. The awareness, what is the beauty of awareness?
When we are not aware, when we are semi-conscious so to speak, the desires come and we because are totally completely identifying with these desires, we cannot do anything. We we just have to fulfill them.
But when we are aware that I am not these desires, I am not this mind, I am not this body, then you know fine it's a funny desire, you know, interesting desire. You know, such a I I never thought that I could have such a crazy desire. You know, funny, it's gone.
That's it. You know you, you you don't have to fulfill it because you're not identifying with it. You're not this.
You're only a slave of all these desires and all the problems and subsequent, you know, sinful proclivities and propensities only as long as uh you are identifying with them, but when you are aware, immediately therefore Krishna says very quickly. Can be very quick really. much in the future consciousness and also probably uh explains what you are saying now that has to be everything um and I um that's when it bo
what is it because uh how we should think
Perspective on temporary material faults
our people didn't have people because it's a very beautiful story which I like very much. It's about, uh, Bhakti Promode Puri Maharaj, who is a godbrother of Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Somebody came to him in Māyāpur, he had a little math next to Caitanya-candrodaya Mandir and started complaining about one ISKCON prominent person at that time, uh,
saying that you know he's a he's a child abuser, he's a homosexual. Mentioned his name and he said, "Oh, him, that's Bhakti Promode Puri Maharaj, he's a saintly person.
The complaints went on for some time, and Bhakti Promode Puri Maharaj said, "No, no, no, I know him, he's a saint. He said, "Oh, what you're saying, you know, fuck you,
you probably don't know what it means to be a pedophile." He said, "I lived a long life, I know what it means, you know." He's the saint. He says, "You know what you say?" He says, "This is all not important. It will be gone.
It's just some waves it's it's temporarily. What he has done will always remain with him. And Krishna basically says the same thing in Bhagavad-gītā when he says, "nehābhikrama-nāśo 'sti pratyavāyo na vidyate."
On this path will save us from the greatest danger, from the greatest kind of fear. So it's again it's a it's a quite a technical thing. It's dealt in a very beautiful way in the commentaries
to Yoga Sutras of Patañjali Muni. It is said that there are different samskaras. There is a sutra which explains different states of saṁskāras.
It is said there that saṁskāras or impressions, mental impressions can be fully activated. They can be tanu, which means they are kind of weakened.
They can be flickering, it means that sometimes they are active and sometimes they are it seems like they're not there.
And, uh, there is a state of saṁskāras, uh, uh, mentioned there that they're completely dormant, it means they are sleeping all the time.
The tendencies is maybe there, but you are not you know it doesn't manifest in any way, it's totally completely sleep. And ultimately, uh, the saṁskāra can be annihilated. Material saṁskāra can be totally annihilated.
So while explaining this different states and it's it's a very beautiful psychology, it's actually a very deep level of psychology, yoga psychology.
The commentators they explain all these different states of consciousness when now samskaras how they do, you know when they and then they say that there is certain samskaras which can completely terminate or annihilate other material samskars that is spiritual samskars.
When our deep meditation is on spiritual subject matter like the sound of holy name of Krishna, that will completely eradicate everything else from our consciousness. What happens with this kind of devotees?
They definitely have this experience, but you know, it's not complete, the whole process is not complete, but the experience is there and this experience will be with them no matter what. It will be with them sooner or later.
And the other things it's just, you know, for some time it will be there but it's not nothing special is about this.
But the special thing is always m there because they they did, you know, practice and they did have some experience and this experience is unforgettable.
You can't forget this experience. You can just get data out of your consciousness. And that's Krishna's mercy.
Distinguishing bhakti sadhana from karma
Yes. Um I would like um to ask a question about Savana. I think we could try things. I'm not sure if I understand properly. Um that sadhana means that it we should be uh totally absorbed in the moment when we sell Krishna.
Um that's basically happy. So I was always thinking that if we cannot be totally absorbed that sadhana is still if you fall down on jnana and karma yoga.
I mean if it's if it is the kind of way, you know, like in the middle of the process when they're starting to say, Oh, I'm not thinking of Krishna but I'm offering the result.
Oh I'm cooking, maybe I'm not cooking lovingly, you know, sometimes it it's like multiply unfortunately. So it's uh that's sadhana or isn't it? It's sadhana but it's not a very proper sadhana. It's a sort of sadhana.
But see, it's a it's a karma misra sadhana what you are describing. The bhakti sadhana is different.
Bhakti sadhana is that in the very beginning of the day you wake up and what you have to say to yourself, I belong to Krishna. My identity is I am his.
Those people who do deity worship they know these beautiful mantras which are there, like one of them Aham Bhagavatam Sasmi Sada Sosmi Sarvata Tvatkripek Sako Nityam E nityarpanam Samarpayam.
It's a beautiful mantra and it's simple sloka which can be remembered and it can be said first time in the day. Aham Bhagavatam Susmi Aham I Bhagavata God Amsa part little amsa part of Bhagavat.
Aham Bhagavatamsa Asmi, I'm this Sadada Sosmi Sarvatha, and I'm always servant in all circumstances, and I'm always expecting your mercy because this is the nature of the servant.
Servant is the one who expects the mercy of the master. He wants the mercy of the master. And with this I am offering myself to you.
So the thing is that when you offered yourself to you to to him, whatever you will do will not be karma yoga, you don't have to offer the results of this to Krishna because you already offered yourself to Krishna.
So automatically all the results of what you're doing belong to Krishna. They don't belong to you. So the very essence of bhakti-yoga and sadhana is that we always try to remind ourselves who I am.
And the this I am or concept of who I am is different on the path of bhakti and the path of karma.
On the path of karma I am separate from God. And I am doing something and I am very generous and therefore I am offering the results of my work to him. And he says, very nice, very nice, thank you. I'm very happy.
But on the path of Bhakti from the beginning. It's not that you know sometimes I am I'm his and sometimes I'm not his. No.
I'm offering myself to him and then I I don't have to offer the fruits of my work to him because I already offered myself to him, that's it. I belong to him, I'm his.
So on the path of Bhakti, the sadhana of Bhakti is to remind ourselves who I am really, in reality, not in my imagination, not in anything else, to remind ourselves that I am his.
And even though I I may be mechanically doing work, but it's I'm mechanically doing I I'm his mechanical instrument doing his work. And therefore it's his.
So and it's it's a devotional service. Even though it's it may be a lower grade of devotional service, it's still a devotional service. Because I'm His. You know, I'm I'm not separate.
In karma yoga that's it's much more difficult. Bhakti yoga is actually simple in one sense, difficult in another sense. But all sadhana is only about this remind ourselves who we are.
So this awareness uh can be understood as self-realization. Yeah. Or Krishna consciousness, whatever you call it. I didn't say anything new. I didn't claim that. Yeah.
Ultimately, through this process we will become self-realized, we will realize who we ourselves are. But you know, our problem is that we always forget who we are. We always think that we are something.
Whereas in reality we are nothing. I mean, or maybe not so much. We always think that we are the Lord of all we survey, but we are servant.
Permanence of spiritual realization
Yes. But when you get a permanent, you know, realization, do we always remember it? Yes. Yes.
The thing is that when the spiritual awareness ultimately comes, you know or you established in this, you will never forget because that's the nature.
You know that I already told that spiritual saṁskāras are the deepest ones. It's amazing. Even if we do the spiritual practice in a very inattentive way still the impressions which it leaves are very strong.
I recently spoke with one person. He's a funny type of a person. He's a you know it's new Russian, big businessman, you know. Somehow or other he met with devotees, started chanting, started chanting Hare Krishna mantra.
A little mystical guy, you know, big, you know. So anyway, funny character, so he told me a very interesting thing.
thing. He said, I started chanting Hare Krishna mantra. And I, you know, in the beginning when I heard this and you know he kind of had some faith and revelation, he started chanting sixteen rounds.
He said, no, but very quickly in a couple of days he realized that you know something is wrong. I'm chanting these sixteen rounds and you know, I don't have any material desires. He says, no, it's probably too much.
He said, I immediately uh brought it down to eight rounds. And then he said that's then it's more or less balanced, normal, you know. No, it's not proper, you know, I better do it a little less.
So what I mean to say, even in the very beginning stages, the the spiritual practice gives very strong saṁskāras. About things which create the strongest saṁskāras.
What we remember actually the strongest impressions which we have.
So what to speak about when when we come to the stage when the spiritual samskara becomes complete, you know we don't remember about anything else. We only remember this and we will never forget it.
Basically, this state which you are talking about, it's a state of bhāva.
In a state of bhāva, there is practically no way back because in the state of bhāva you are completely totally aware who you are in relationship with Krishna and there is no chance to forget.
You know, it's a struggle of gopīs. Gopīs say to Krishna, Krishna, other people want to remember you, we want to forget you. We cannot forget you.
By all means we want to forget you, just just you know, but you you just cannot get out of our consciousness. So it becomes a permanent thing as anything spiritual. Spiritual thing is a permanent thing.
You know, material things, you know, even strongest memories we forget. And even the strongest identity we may create a very strong identity.
Uh, you know, it will be different when the circumstances will change. We will have to create a new identity. Identity constantly changes, it's in a flux. But spiritual identity will never be gone. Will always be with you.
Yeah, I guess it's the last question. Okay, but this is a natural process of Kṛṣṇa-premā. Yeah.
Overcoming neophyte mechanical habits
And the stage of bhāva of course. Yeah, yeah. So it's quite natural to be mechanical in the neophyte. Very natural, but it's not natural it's not good if we are satisfied with this.
The essence of my lecture was not to condemn the mechanical thing. If at all I wanted to condemn anything is this kind of complacency about it. Sometimes devotees become complacent.
Ah yeah, yeah, everyone is mechanical, so let's do mechanics. Somehow or other at the end we will remember about Krishna. No. No. No, it will not work. It's natural, there is nothing wrong with it.
But what is wrong is when we say that that there is nothing wrong with it, this is wrong when we become you know complacent about it. You
believe that aṅga-yoga has any uh use in what the energy is. It has it has a utility. It may be, you know, Prabhupada he says, you know, he m he saw
one people doing some Hadha Yoga in South Africa somewhere in a park and he says it's hotha yoga is very good. And then next day he says joking is also very good. It didn't give too much importance.
But it's a it's a good technique. It's a good technique. It's a good technique to to more or less wake you up, basically, because the Tamagun is very strong, tamasik influences are strong.
And I would say it's good for some, it may not be good for others. I won't and therefore Śrīla Prabhupāda doesn't g For some people it may not be practical at all. For some people it may be too subtle.
For them they need to lift weights to fake little up and you know do something else or box a little bit to you know, utilize the propensities.
I think many people come in contact with the yoga sutra and then they go further. They come in contact with the east. Yoga sutras. Yoga sutras.
It it's a very clear uh piece of literature which uh ultimately uh helps somebody to come closer to personal God. There's no doubt about it. The concept that the author is 100% devotee.
He may not be pure devotee, he may not be naturally mixed devotee, but there is a very strong devotional element in Yoga Sutras, there is no doubt about it. It's very clear.
Is it even possible to come to the clearing stage if one is satisfied No. It's not possible. Why should you come to some other higher stage if you're satisfied with the lower stage? It will not happen.
Krishna will not give you anything you don't want.
Using mantras to increase awareness
If you're satisfied with what you are, what's the what's the need of Krishna to give you something else? itself that some things we do or I do conscious but not all the time, like even the spiritual practices.
It becomes mechanical after time I'm playing ashama or I'm chanting around, offering all the senses. It's just mechanical.
So can you give some practical examples that how we can be how we can increase our awareness to whatever we do.
All the spiritual elements of our sadhana spiritual practice they are connected with mantras and mantras are supposed to remind us what we' doreing really at this moment.
I know that it's not always the fact, but that's the real meaning. The mantra is not just it's not just a kind of incantation for you know to create some sort of a mystical result at the end.
It's it's basically a reminder to us. Therefore, when we pay obeisances which and mantra and mantra is supposed to bring awareness back. A bow is a more mechanical thing, but you know the sound with the meaning in it.
The question is that we we don't meditate on the meaning, but we have to meditate on the meaning. Whatever we say, we have to meditate on the meaning.
When we say good morning, we have to meditate on the meaning of what we say. Good morning, it's not just a mystical formula. It's a wish of my heart to give something good to somebody else.
So I don't think there is anything else. We have to be aware of the importance of awareness and the means to bring awareness is the sound. Because sound is meaningful.
The difference of a human being is that you know, we know what this meaningful sound means. And therefore, you know, all these prayers are there.
And of course, when we chant mantra, and mantra is the same, it's easy to become a mechanical process. But therefore, on the top of mantra, even though it's the main upāya, main means of salvation of spiritual practice.
There are so many other prayers and so many other literatures are there which explain the meaning of this.
Prabhupāda says that, you know, I wrote so many books just to explain to you why you should chant Hare Krishna, what it means to chant Hare Krishna. So we chant Hare Krishna but we also read these books
and we meditate on the meaning of the verses of Bhagavad-gītā, verses of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, different prayers which are there.
And when we see how ācāryas write about these prayers, we see that there is a deep meditation involved. When they explain the meaning of this,
What is Prabhupāda says about his purpose, this is my devotional ecstasy. It basically means it's a result of his meditation. You know, he's meditating deeply about the meaning of this. And this is creating awareness.
And when we meditate on the verses of scriptures of Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, it will you know it will expand our awareness into other areas of life.
So I would say the answer to your question is you know to consciously pronounce mantras which are connected with different parts of our rituals but also meditate on the meaning of scriptures which will expand your awareness.
And it's like this Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura very beautifully explains that the consciousness is like a bud. And the spiritual practice and when it's totally closed, when it's in a very budding state, in a very beginning stage.
You know the consciousness is he says it's kind of it's co how how he says this? It's contracted. The consciousness is really at this moment of time after material life, the consciousness becomes very contracted.
It's a very kind of narrow, small, uh little thing. But uh during the you know spiritual practice, if they are done properly the consciousness becomes blooming.
The little bud which is there becomes blooming and b and when it's fully bloomed, then y you will become fully conscious. So it's it's it's a process, it's a natural process. Gradually it will expand.
Your awareness will expand in a course of spiritual practice if they are done properly. And done properly means with some endeavor. Abhyāsena tu vairāgyeṇa ca.
Krishna explains, abhyās, you know, you have to. Again and again and again. He says the mind will run away somewhere, you bring him down, you say to him that severance is not a way. Okay, I guess it's too late.
Thank you very much. Śrīla Prabhupāda kī jaya.