Pancha-upasana. Part 1
Bhakti Vijnana Goswami · Mayapur · 2023
Chapters
Addressing secularization in spiritual movements
So Hare Krishna. Thank you very much for coming to this class. From the very beginning I want to say that this is two-parts presentation. Today is the first part where I try to explain the problem which we are facing.
And basically, the problem which we are facing is quite prominent. You know, gradually but surely we're losing the revolutionary spirit which was there in the school.
I joined this call after the demise of Śrīla Prabhupāda after passing away. But still I could feel this very strong revolutionary spirit, the desire to preach, desire to change the world.
And our movement grows, it's very impressive and it's very good, but there are some problems attached to it, and this problem is basically, you know, that our movement becomes more and more mundane.
So I'm trying to deal with this problem in this presentation, and I will explain the mechanism of secularization in the first part of the presentation that is today. And tomorrow I will hopefully provide some solution.
What we are supposed to do to avoid this process or at least to minimize it or to kind of put it in place because in my humble opinion we cannot completely avoid it, but to a certain extent we can deal with it, we can somehow rather handle this problem. So that's the topic and for this
topic I'm employing a concept which Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura Thakur developed to a certain extent in his first published Vaishnava book, which is Krishna Sankhita.
Krishna Sanghita has dubious reputation because there are obviously in some parts of Krishna Sankhita Bhaktivinoda Thakur kind of you know, trying to achieve some compromise with the prevalent historical use of his time,
which we do not necessarily subscribe, but at the same time, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura definitely ascribed great importance to this book. And there are at least two indications why he considered this book so important.
The indication number one is that he called it Krishna Samhita, which is very presumptuous. Samhita is already, you know, we know Samhitas, Riksamhita, some of the all the original Vedas they are called Sanhitas.
Bhakti Anothakur calls this Krishna Samhita. So he basically places this work on the level of the original Vedas, but explains Krishna and the concept of Krishna consciousness.
And the second very important indication which he gives is that it was his first published book as a practicing Vaishnava and it was his last published book.
It's not that he first published it and then kind of said that this was a mistake. No, that was his last book which he published. And there are very very important ideas in this book, and I
am uh including the idea of you know different demons in Krishna Līlā representing different anarthas, which he elaborates in this book.
And one of these ideas is his brilliant classification of the world religions, all kinds of religious and even philosophical
phenomena in this world, according to the scheme of pañca-upāsanā. And basically, he employs the scheme of pañca-upāsanā and explains that pañca-upāsanā is nothing but the explanation of the gradual development of human consciousness.
So in the first part of this presentation, we will talk about this idea basically.
Idea of the evolution of the consciousness, which is inevitable and which is implying that we should go climb from step to step, from stage to stage, till we reach the highest goal of Krishna consciousness, pure Krishna consciousness.
Yeah, and tomorrow I will explain some something about what we can do to deal with it.
Challenges facing successive generations of devotees
Anyway, so this is the part one, the problem, and the problem is depicted here. It's the crossroads in which we are. You know, there are so many different pointers in different directions.
We can go here, we can go there, and there are so many advertisements there. You know, if you go around Mayapur, you will see so many different directions uh and everyone is calling and saying this is the most important.
Even while coming to the uh ILS you go through these booths and you know and m you're quite bewildered even after going through through this corridor of different ideas and books and everything.
So yeah, there is karma, there is jnana, there is psychology, there is astrology, there is you know whatnot. Everything is there, is gone as a complete whole so nothing is lacking here. And even love of God is also there.
It's still there. So if you really want it, you can take this direction as well.
So So, and uh you know at the same time what we also deal with is that the first generation of Prabhupāda's disciples disappearing, you can see it in this corridor.
You know, there are a few of them presented on this slide. And they, direct disciples of Śrīla Prabhupāda, they were experiencing his enthusiasm and his realizations.
Actually, when we come in contact with somebody who has great realizations, we share these realizations.
Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura explains that this is as if the moon beams from the heart of such a pure devotee they touch our heart and to a certain extent reflect our heart.
So these great stalwarts, the disciples, direct disciples of Śrīla Prabhupāda, who are still many of them present here, they experienced this direct contact with Śrīla Prabhupāda and they definitely knew what he wants.
Unfortunately, with the passage of time, the message and the mood tend to water down. You know, we can see this is in this test tubes. You can see these generations and I'm presenting
on this slide, you know, the problem which we are basically facing on the daily basis. You know, we have the example of Śrīla Prabhupāda, how he dealt with different problems, with different issues.
And when Prabhupada dealt with different problems, different issues, he definitely knew what he wants to achieve. He knew the context.
He gave the instruction according to this context and, this is the first line which is complete. The second generation, his direct followers, they also knew the problem,
the issue which they are facing and they knew the context of this problem and they knew the instruction which Śrīla Prabhupāda gave. They may or may not know his intentions.
They not necessarily pretty or you know knowing what he really wants to achieve. So it's already somewhat watered down. In the third generation, usually people know the problem and
know the instruction which the founder gave and usually they take it out of context. They don't know, you know that, but the instruction is there. Śrīla Prabhupāda gave this instruction. Who cares about the context?
Whereas so many instructions which Śrīla Prabhupāda gave, they have this, they're contextualized. They're given to a particular problem they're not necessarily universal but
now we have this phenomena of people are fighting you know providing different quotes for to prove uh the uh you know the inherent uh right to be right.
So and what happens in the fourth generation, at least the third generation knows the instruction, fourth generation usually doesn't know the instructions.
So many instructions are there, people are bewildered and they, you know, they just read some magazines and we can see that the popularity of Śrīla Prabhupāda's books kind of you know becoming little eclipsed or overshadowed by some other things.
So therefore it's difficult to deal with the issues.
But we need to deal with the issue and exactly the phenomenon which I explained in the first slide is this phenomenon of secularization, of the movement becoming progressively more and more mundane because so many mixtures of different philosophers, different ideas, different practices are coming in a very natural process.
And of course this confusion which we are facing is nothing new. Śrīla Prabhupāda once, somebody asked him, Śrīla Prabhupāda, what will happen with this con? Śrīla Prabhupāda gave a very grave and brilliant answer.
He said, spiritual movement in the material world, difficult proposition. So it's a difficult idea.
It's difficult even to imagine how the purely spiritual movement can function within this mundane world with so much varieties of different ideas.
So I mean we should not be surprised and we should not be disappointed by facing this problem. We should be very clear that we we need some clear direction basically.
Sectarianism as a natural byproduct
So that's the point, the idea of this presentation is to provide some ideas of how this direction can be found.
And in the beginning of this book, Krishna Samhita, Sri Krishna Samhita, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura explains how it is natural for a religious movement to become divided.
And he explains the mechanisms of this division and schisms. He gives a very paradoxical but amazing statement at the beginning of this quote. Sectarianism is a natural by-product of the absolute truth.
Please think about it a little bit. You know, the absolute truth is generating sectarianism. How it is happening when Acharyas first ascertain and instruct the truth, it's not polluted with sectarianism.
But the rules and regulations received through disciplic succession regarding the goal and the method of achieving it are changed in due course of time according to the mentality and locale of the people.
As community gradually develops more respect for its own standards, it develops hatred towards other communities and considers their standard inferior. That's exactly what we can observe now in ISKCON.
You know, Prabhupāda was very proud that we have International Society for Krishna Consciousness, but gradually we can see this international society for Krishna Consciousness becomes localized.
And the local societies for Krishna consciousness, they adopt certain flavors which are not necessarily the same, according to, as Prabhupāda says, locale and mentality of people.
You know, in different countries, in different areas, people tend to emphasize different ideas and definitely different foods. If you go to Italy, you may come to conclusions too that
Krishna's famous... Of course, in Mayapur you can also come to this conclusion. And if you go to Russia, then of course Bors is definitely the favorite of Krishna.
But what I mean to say, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura explains it very beautifully in a very gentle way, but he says that as the community gradually develops more respect for its own standards and develops hatred towards other communities and considers their standards inferior.
And this is unfortunately what we can observe that every community you know I I've seen it within Russia. You know, in Russia there was one powerful preacher who was very protective in his own area.
And you know, something wrong happened with him after some time. But anyway, his line of preaching was: we are the only one who know what Krishna consciousness is. Nobody else knows. Don't even associate with others.
And this line of preaching is there, everywhere. We are the chosen one. We are the only one who knows what the real Krishna concepts. I mean they are also Krishna concepts but they are substandards.
They don't know what the real stuff is. The real stuff is here. You know, the real stuff is here. The other audiences don't go there.
So that's how ego works, and Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says this, and therefore he says sectarianism is a natural byproduct of the absolute truth.
Distinguishing external and essence-seeking devotees
And he gives this idea in Krishna-samhita, as I said, and he says that surprisingly in Krishna-samhita Bhaktivinoda Thakur says that pañcopāsanā, which we usually think as a misconception of māyāvādīs.
So the exact quote by Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura from Krishna-samhita, he says he divides vaiṣṇavas into two big classes, bhāra-vāhī vaiṣṇavas and sāra-grāhī vaiṣṇavas.
And he says: bhāra-vāhī vaiṣṇavas fall into the categories of śāktas, followers of Durgā, sauras, followers of Sūrya, gāṇapatyas, followers of Ganesha, śaivas, followers of Shiva, and vaiṣṇavas followers of Vishnu. We always call ourselves proudly Vaishnavas.
But Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says, of course, there is no bhāra-vāhī vaiṣṇavas here. Bhāra-vāhī basically means bhāra means the load, bhāra-vāhī means the somebody who carries the Lord.
And the kind translator of Krishna Samhita into English translated it as like vaiṣṇavas, which definitely will not make this class of Vaishnavas very popular.
Therefore, I retained the original nomenclature by Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura bhāra-vāhī vaiṣṇavas. It sounds more neutral, you know, because nobody would like to admit that he's as like Vaishnava.
But in reality it has a lot to do with us. Because his idea of Bharavahi Vaishnavas, what does it mean? It basically means Vaishnavas who pay more attention to the externals,
who overload their life and complicate their life, it's all the formalities, all the different little rules, and this and that, and they think that this is the essence.
They they tend to not see the forest behind the trees. They only see the trees, all the details, rules and regulations.
And he says, surprisingly, he says that this Vaishnavas, with more external approach to the religion or to spirituality they are even though they call themselves Vaishnavas they may be in reality followers
of Durga, followers of Surya, followers of Ganesh, followers of Shiva, and at best followers of Vishnu, and even this is not the pure one. And he says, but Sarangrahi Vaishnava was a non-sectarian and therefore rare.
So this is his assertion, this and you know the translator translated Saragrahi Vaishnavas. The Vaishnavas who can extract the essence as swan-like Vaishnavas. So of course they're very rare, they're all here in this room.
It's exceptional assembly of devotees.
Purpose and meaning of Panca-upasana
So let's first see what is Panchyopasana. Usually, as we say, Prabhupada in many places in his works give quite denigrading definition of panchuvasana. For example, the Mayavadis worship five demigods, Panchuvasana.
They do not actually believe in the form of the Lord, but for the sake of worship they imagine some form of God. Generally they imagine forms of Vishnu, forms of Shiva, forms of Ganesha, Sangha, Durga.
This is called Pancho Pasana. So basically, Prabhupada says this is just misconception, concoction. Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur is even stronger.
He says Vishnu Smarta worship Vishnu is a part of their worship of demigods as Ganesha, Surya and so on, and does not qualify as worship to the Supreme Personality of God.
He says such worship is both offensive and atheistic. So, again, you know, having these quotes, it's very surprising. Says that Vaishnavas sometimes worship Durga and Ganesh.
Of course, you know, I gave this first part of presentation the other day, a couple of days back, and one of the Bengali devotees, he said, yeah, yeah, there are so many Vaishnavas in Bengal who very religiously attend Durga Puja.
They have tilak and everything, but you know, Navratri is their sacred tradition. Of course, we will see that it's not only in Bengal, it's in America too. In Iskon temples, they celebrate Durga Puja as well.
So what do we have to do with the Panchuvasam? Prabhupāda gives beautiful explanation. This is the foundational quote by Śrīla Prabhupāda, which we should understand very clearly.
He explains in this verse, uh Tadashma Saram Hridayam Bhatedam, Navikriya Tathaya da Vikara, what is this, Grichyamana Harinamade,
Navikriya Tatha that the heart of those people still framed who are not feeling the ecstasy and they're not crying while chanting the holy name. So there he explains this in the purport.
He says that the Virāt-rūpa, the gross conception of God through the material manifestation of His energy, one is enabled to spiritualize mind and senses and gradually concentrate the mind upon Lord Vishnu the Supreme.
So he does not reject this, he says it has its place, it has its utility for Vaiṣṇava sevā.
And then he explains the system of pañc-upāsanā recommending five mental attitudes for the common man is also enacted for the same purpose.
So here he accepts pañc-upāsanā and explains that in reality pañc-upāsanā is the description of five mental attitudes which can gradually elevate our consciousness to the highest possible level.
And that's exactly why Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura also explains that this concept is relevant for Vaishnavas.
Balancing material and spiritual tendencies
So pañc-upāsanā is actually the description of natural development of human consciousness. And this is another very important quote from the same Krishna Samhita, which is actually the foundation of today's presentation.
Please try to understand this concept very carefully. So Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura explains in this quote that there are two tendencies in a human being. One tendency is arctic or material tendency.
We have material tendency, we want to enjoy senses, we want to enjoy mentally, we want to have health. We have so many desires, so many tendencies.
We want to have nice family life or uh you know if you're sannyāsī you want to have many followers it's basically the same concept anyway, uh so uh we have this tendency
and we have uh he he calls them arcika tendency and we have paramārtika tendency. Uh paramārtika tendency is basically the spiritual tendency by which we naturally surrender to the higher power.
And this tendency to surrender oneself, to you know, to To pay obeisances to somebody and to take shelter of somebody of some higher power is a paramārtika tendency.
So he says that all the above-mentioned material tendencies become successful when dovetailed with spiritual tendencies, with the spiritual activity. So this is a very interesting conception.
He says that you can fulfill your material aspirations and material you know fulfill your or employ or manifest, express your material tendencies by dovetailing it with the spiritual tendency. And they become successful.
So he basically says that if you try to fulfill your material desires, material aspirations separately, they're not necessarily successful. But if you combine it with the spiritual practice, they will become successful.
For engagement in material activity up to the awakening of spiritual activities, is called the preliminary stage of God consciousness.
From the preliminary stage, from this preliminary stage up to the Uttamadikari stage, there are innumerable levels.
So what Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says here, it's a very interesting and important conception which we should understand. Concept: you know, there is the highest possible level.
On that level, you don't have any aspirations, material aspirations, you are pure devotee, you only want to love God.
But before you reach to this level, you have this material tendency and you should dovetail these material tendencies with your innate spiritual tendency to surrender, and that will create gradual evolutionary ladder by which your consciousness will gradually develop from one stage to another stage.
So this is actually what is happening when we consider this concept of Panchuvasana.
So basically, he says there is Swadharma, or Jaivadharma, Sanatana Dharma, Sattva Dharma, or pure Krishna consciousness. That's the highest possible stage.
But there are preliminary stages which can be called within Vaishnavism, within Krishna consciousness. We all call ourselves, you know, we are Hare Krishna devotees, we are Krishna conscious,
but he says that more correctly and more exactly to call these preliminary stages as Shakta Dharma, Sauradharma, Ganapatya Dharma, Shaiva Dharma, and ultimately Vaishnava Dharma before we reach the highest possible stage.
So before we reach to the level of Svadharma, Sattvata Dharma, Sanatana Dharma, we are practicing something which may not necessarily be bad. I mean we will deal with this later. So that's the ladder.
Here in this ladder there is a natural tendency of human being, and these natural tendencies are kama, dharma, artha, moksha, personal kind of moksha, personal mukti, four kinds of mukti, and ultimately svadharma.
So before you reach to this level of svadharma of pure Krishna consciousness, you know you have to undergo these stages uh karma sense gratification dharma dharma basically here means morality means social Social healthy social interaction.
The desire to live in a nice, healthy, you know, friendly society. That's what dharma means. Dharma means morality for ourselves. Egoistic, selfish sort of morality. And then Artha, Artha means prosperity, well-being.
And then ultimately you become disgusted with it and you try to get moksha and by getting moksha you know you try to
merge somewhere in brahma-sayujya. And then you get the personal liberation, the four kinds of sarupya mukti. Ultimately, if you're lucky, you achieve the higher stage.
And so this stages uh you know if you want to fulfill your uh material desires, but at the same time you surrender to the supreme power. It's called Sākta-dharma by Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura's classification.
If you want to fulfill your desire to live in a healthy and nice society, morally you know, organized society, pure society. Then it's called Saura-dharma or worshiping of sun god.
If you want to have prosperous society and live a very prosperous, opulent life, then you are on the level of Gāṇapatya-dharma. Then when you want to achieve moksha you're on the level of Śaiva-dharma.
Now ultimately you may achieve Vaiṣṇava-dharma and if you go further only then you will see or you will reach this level of uncontaminated Krishna consciousness.
So here it's depicted by the pictures of different demigods which are there.
And Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura gives this very brilliant and very bold statement which helps us to look in different phenomena as I said, in spirituality, in esoteric world, in philosophy.
You can classify all the philosophical ideas, all the religious ideas, according to this scheme of Pañca-upāsanā.
Generally, there are five types of pārāmārthika-dharmas or spiritual duties that have been known by different names in different countries at different times.
If one considers all different dharmas that are current in India and abroad, one can see they certainly fall within these five categories.
What Śrīla Bhaktivinoda says here is that there is natural development which we have to go through before we achieve the highest stage of consciousness. Natural evolution.
Evolutionary stages of spiritual consciousness
And therefore, all these phenomena in the spirituality they appear and they can be classified according to this. So this, is what we will do for the rest of this seminar. And we will go very quickly.
I will give a little description, more detailed description of each and every stage for us to relate to it, to identify with it, because it as I said has a lot to do with us, unfortunately.
So Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura in another book in Sri Chaitanya Sri Samrita gives different descriptions of the same stages.
He says that the first stage, the first natural stage where people you know start, this starting point is atheism.
And this atheism, desire to satisfy, gratify one's senses, and I don't care what other feel, what other you know how they react to this. My senses, and the most important. This is the atheistic attitude.
And this is nikki sunya: there is no nikki, there is no rules, there is no morality. The most important thing is that I want to gratify my senses.
Then he says if one goes a little further, then he develops the understanding that one should follow some rules to be successful in this sense gratification.
So this is Nirishvara Naitika. He is not clear whether there is God or not. Basically, he doesn't care.
And this is what agnosticism agnosticism means. Agnosticism means I don't know whether there is God or not God, and I don't even care. It doesn't matter.
He's too far away anyway, so you know let's figure out how we should live here. So this is Nireswara Anaitika or moral atheist. He's an atheist still, he's agnostic, but he's at least moral.
Then if you develop your consciousness to the next level, you become sehvara naitika or moral theist. You believe in God and you believe that we should follow some rules, regulations, dharma, some purity.
So the second and third stage they are respectively Smarta Dharma and Daivi Varnashrama. So they both varnoma. In Indian version of it.
Indian version of morality starts with Varnasama, but smarter varnashama, they are not really concerned with God. There is no notion of God.
But then there is higher form of varnashama, which Bhaktivinoda Thakur calls Daivi Varnashama. That's the third stage of development. Devotion is higher. Devotion to Krishna, to well, even yeah,
this is how he translates here. Devotion is the next stage, but actually the next stage is desire for liberation, but it's kind of included into this stage.
Psychological roots of atheistic tendencies
And then ultimately the spontaneous devotion is the next stage. We will consider it again. But first let's start with the first stage of human development.
Very interestingly, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī explains why people usually start as an atheist. There is a saying that in the war there is no atheist. Why there is atheists outside of war?
The statement that there is no atheist in the war basically means that when we feel some immediate danger, you know, we employ or we start praying to some higher power. I can testify it by my own example.
I was brought up in a very atheistic country, in a very atheistic family. None of my relatives who were around me believed in God. Still, when I was five years old, I clearly remember I was praying every night.
I didn't know to whom I was praying. I was just praying, you know, I don't know, but make me happy.
So So what uh uh the question which I'm posing to you, which I'm asking you, please try to you know get out from your slumber, which is natural after nice breakfast. So the question here,
which is very important, why still is there is atheism? If naturally we feel insecure in this world, if naturally we feel that there is danger, why still atheism is so much prominent in this world?
And why it is the basically the starting point this is the philosophical I mean the thesis from which the philosophy develops atheism.
Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura—sorry, Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī gives a beautiful explanation of this.
I mean it doesn't have much to do with our presentation, but it's such a beautiful explanation I couldn't I couldn't uh resist to give it.
He says that actually he explains that atheism is the fear within the mind that if we accept that there is absolute truth, I become passive. I have nothing to do.
Atheism wants to live on a state of ever-changing activity.
It is the proper negation of the absolute conceived as in action. You know, please think a little bit about it. When we start questioning whether there is an absolute or not.
The first concept of absolute, if there is an absolute it means that it means what? It means that you know I have nothing to do there.
I remember very clearly, as I said, my grandparents were atheists, my parents were atheists, but my grand-grandmother believed in God. So I asked her once before she went to church, I asked her, you know, you know, what will you do when you go to heaven?
And she said to me, I will play on a harp. And I tried to imagine myself playing on a harp for the rest of eternity. I didn't like this idea.
So So basically this is exactly what Bhaktivinoda sorry Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Sarasvatī is saying this. When we try to imagine who is God and we try to imagine
us in relationship to God. He's so big, He's so huge, He's so powerful, and who am you know what am I supposed to do? Nothing. You know, and we become repulsed by this idea of inactivity.
So He says the atheism, rejection of God is the nature of psychological reaction to this immature understanding of who God is. So that's the starting point. Again, very natural starting point.
Anyway, so you know if by the way, if you need this presentation, it's quite heavy, so I'm skipping some parts of it. I can provide this presentation to you.
Basically, when our material tendency for sense enjoyment, does anyone have some tendency for sense enjoyment. So you know, we have being conditioned living entities, we have natural inquisitiveness.
You know, it's not only, you know, gṛhasthas, you know, usually the common uh philosophy in this con the gṛhasthas there are sense enjoyers. Uh actually no, the greatest sense enjoyers are sannyāsīs. I can testify.
You know, whenever I feel that you know I should preach somewhere, I usually feel, you know, I I I feel like preaching in Bali or in some other nice. I I I don't really like to go to preach in Siberia.
Desires and practices of Sakta-dharma
So anyway, what I want to say is that uh the tendency for sense gratification is basically inquisitiveness of the soul. The soul wants to exploit, or you know,
this world, you know, we want to smell something nice, we want to taste something nice, we want to you know hear something nice. So this is tendency.
When this tendency is dovetailed with paramārthika tendency, it creates śākta-dharma as I already said. And what is Shakta Dharma? Here it is: Shakti or Durga.
You know, I explained Sambhanda the day and Prayojana for each and every stage of this ladder.
So the Sambandha when people the beauty of Vedic culture is that every possible idea which is there is here in Vedic culture and it's in a very systematic way presented.
So this natural tendency to enjoy the senses in other countries it may be represented by some other ideas, but when We take Durga worship, we can understand very clearly what does it mean to enjoy the senses.
If you really want to, you know, to do it full speed, you know, you should definitely do this in the Vedic tradition. No other tradition uh provides such good facilities for this. So so there for Durga worship,
please listen, it's a very beautiful concept. You know, it may not be so familiar for us, especially for those of us who are from the West.
They say that there are nine uh forms of Durga which are celebrated during this uh Navadurga, uh during this Navratri festival, which is in uh September, October before Kartik.
So for nine nights, nine consecutive nights, people worship each form of Durga according to this nine forms. And then the Vijay Dashami comes the tenth day when Ramachandra achieved his victory.
So and and of course Durga worshipers they say that Ramachandra could defeat Ravan only because he worshipped for nine nights to Durga.
So this concept of Navaratri Durga is very interesting because there are nine forms of Durga, three for each of the guṇas of material nature.
The three first one as you see, especially this one on the on the bottom, they are guess to which guna do it do they belong? Yeah, this is Tamagun. This is the starting point.
Then Rajagun is the three forms of Durga on the second day, on the s on the what is it, uh this is the fourth, fi on the fifth day and on the eighth day, uh the Rajagun and then uh Sattvagun is there.
So, and they are called by different names: Shailaputri, Brahmacharini, Chandraganta, and they all have specific functions and they all basically the idea here, please listen very carefully.
The idea here is that when we want to gratify our senses, when we want to fulfill our desires. These desires will necessarily belong to the three categories according to the three gunas of material nature.
We will have some tamasic desires. Does anyone have some tamasic desires? We will have some rajasic desires, we will have some sattvic desires.
For each and every category of your desires, there are three forms of Durga and uh they are there to provide you and if you do this nine nights' service, if you do it properly, you will achieve your desires.
There are some, for example, Katyayani. It's very, very relevant. Katyayani is a special form of Durga which helps one, uh which helps the ladies to get a nice husband. Not useless husband, but nice husband.
Because what is the use to have a bad husband? So and the and ultimately the highest form of Durga,
which is there in the in the bottom and the ninth day, it's she's called Siddhidhatri, the mother of all the success, the mother of all supernatural Siddhidhatri, supernatural powers. Anyway, what is the idea here?
The idea is that if you want to fulfill desires, here it is, the nine forms of Durga are there. The process is there.
And this process, abhideya, is when it is tamasic and rajasic, this tantric worship, animal sacrifices, pañca-makāra, māṁsa, madya, matsya, mudrā and maithuna, meat, wine, fish, mudrā and sex.
And there is of course sattvic worship of Durga is also there. So let's think for a second, let's dwell for a few minutes on this topic. Do we have Durga worship in ISKCON? You know, no?
Somebody not very convincingly nod his head. formal. Even formal is there. Yeah, I will show you the advertisement.
Please come to Durga Puja, in ISKCON, such and such. It's there in India, it's there in America, no problem. There is deity of Durga, everything.
But putting aside this, if we take the essence of Durga Puja, what is the essence of Durga Puja? We want to, you know, we want to achieve some certain you know level of uh facilities, you know.
There is some, you know, if you go around Māyāpur, especially in the community area, you will see many signs of Durga worship here. You know, Durga Mata Beauty Parlour.
Here in Māyāpur it will be called Gaurāṅga Beauty Parlov. But the essence is the same. You want to get a nice husband. Basically, this is the this is the stage of human development
when, we really need, when we really feel that we need to fulfill all these desires, and we try to fulfill these desires through these spiritual practices. And you know, we may chant Hare Krishna, but ultimately,
you know, chanting Hare Krishna, we may, you know, we may call Śailaputrī, Brahmacāriṇī, Chandraghaṇṭī, Kūṣmāṇḍā, and so on so forth. We may actually invoke or try to employ these powers of material nature.
It will become much more clear on the second stage how it is related to us, but even in the first stage, we you know we quite actively employ this tendency. You know, and when we advertise anyway.
So once I was sitting with one devotee in Israel and we had, you know, he he provided a big meal with all kinds of stuff I didn't even know how to enjoy my senses; only now I know how to do it. So,
Krishna consciousness definitely provides uh ample opportunity for this.
Energy focus in Saura-dharma practice
And if our dedication, what I mean to say, if our dedication, if our consciousness lays in this, if we really absorbed in these desires and try to fulfill these desires, in reality we are worshipping Mahādurgā. They are worshipping material nature.
So, but much more relevant is the second stage of the development, which is sūrya-dharma. I'm sure you will be able to relate to it and to identify what it means.
Basically, when we have this material tendency to have the peaceful environment uh and uh you know to have the nice social interactions to lead the healthy life because the second level of development is desire not just to enjoy the senses because for how long can you enjoy the senses before you completely destroy your health? It will not take long.
You know, so and then automatically you will be promoted to the second stage of development of your consciousness. You will become health-conscious.
So, this second stage of development, which is symbolically depicted as sūrya-dharma or worship of sun god, it's the natural development when people go a little further and from the first proposition, first thesis, I'm there, I am here in the material world and I need to enjoy in the material world. They go a little further and they understand there is something which is higher than material enjoyment. This is the enjoyment from the energy.
You know, there is material energy with the varieties of manifestation.
But then if you think a little bit, you will understand that over this material energy, yeah, material energy and material manifestation, there is a source of material energy.
What is the source of material energy? Some. Some. We know. And every one of us knows that actually the enjoyment, there is more enjoyment which is coming from employing the energy.
When we have a lot of energy and we are running here and there, and we are doing all kinds of exercise and we feel really good, we feel really great.
You know, it's much better than to feel sleepy after eating too many pizzas. There's much more satisfaction that when you feel that you are healthy,
that you are so you know, and people they understand that there is more subtle enjoyment than this gross enjoyment. The most subtle enjoyment is the enjoyment of the energy.
You know, you can see what is the most prominent enjoyment now in this material world. It's not sex. It's internet. Almost the same. It's more subtle, but it's the enjoyment you employ the energy.
You know, people who are into all these devices, uh into all these gadgets, you know what they're using? They're using the energy, right? You know, therefore, the second stage is sometimes called pranaya kosha.
First stage is called Manumaya, sorry, Annamaya kosha, the the covering uh which is made of food but the next stage is pranomaya kosha when you experience the energy and when you enjoy by using this energy, employing this energy.
So this is the level of saur dharma. And Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura explains how it happens.
When one considers the energy of work and the superiority of heat over dull matter. And he therefore accepts the sun god who is the source of heat as the worshipable deity. At that time, Sauradharma is awakened.
Basically, when you come to this level of understanding that energy is higher than the matter, that the matter is dull, there is something much more enjoyable and higher.
This is the energy and you try to enjoy this, you will go to this second level, and it definitely has a lot to do with this con. Never in any other community, well I I never been a member
of any other community, but I believe that so many diets are not there uh in any other community you know devotees are so s you know uh after spending a few years by eating uh Sunday feasts uh they really get into diets.
This diet and that diet. And I know all these organizers of the festival, they have a great headache, how to satisfy everyone's dietary preferences. Macrobiotics, raw eating, this and that.
You know, this is the second level. You want to live healthy life, and for that you need to follow rules. What is diet?
Diet is a certain set of rules according to eating, which is the most important and most common activity in this world.
And you know when all these kinds of esoteric groups and sects are there, you know, you you read about this you know what is the Don Juan in, you know, whatever, when you eat some mushrooms and you get into this thing.
So this is all creation of the second level. When esoterics they try to lead the healthy life and enjoy the energy.
And ultimately, you know, this is you know this is in a pure form, in the Vedic culture is called Saura Dharma. Vasambandhi is with the Sun God in his twelve forms. There are nine forms of Durga.
Sun God is even more, you know, more manifested more. And then you know you do Smarta Dharma. Smarta Dharma basically means nitya naimitika karmas. And the most important karma in Vedic culture, uh, nitya
karma, what is the most important karma? Sandy vandana, isn't it? What is sandy vandana? It's worship of Sun God. Om bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ tat savitur vareṇyam.
What the first mantra which all the esoteric groups in the West learn from Vedic tradition?
You know, you go to Goa and the beach and there will be a huge dynamic which will this uh pronounce very loudly this secret mantra of the Vedas. Om bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ tat savitur vareṇyam. So, you know, this is Sauradharma.
Sauradharma is the alternative, the next stage of development when you feel the energy and you want to enjoy the energy, and therefore, you know, yoga is there. Yoga is also classified into this position.
Yoga, when it takes its gross form of physical exercise it's it's sauradharma and therefore surya namaskar is there who is doing Surya Namaskar in Iskon so there are few followers of some god here.
I'm also doing this, I have to admit and confess. So anyway, uh in each and every stage it may take many, many different manifestations. Again, what is most important?
To see where our consciousness is, where our dedication is. If our dedication, if our consciousness is absorbed in this.
If we feel that this is the most important, uh, to do all this yoga exercise or prana exercise, or you know, or yeah, uh I forget uh reiki healing. Somebody is doing reiki healing. So no problem. Everything is going on.
So and what they do actually, you know, we are not you know we are devotees, we just do physical exercise.
But uh in reality w when they uh do the uh Surya Namaskar they're supposed to chant mantras to different forms of Surya. You know, Om Mitraya Namaha, Om Kagaya Namaha, Om what is it? I used to remember it.
So that's worship. That's Surya worship. And we can be devotees. But at the same time a part of our consciousness will be on this level, will remain on this level.
And why do we say that surya is the level, the Surya worship is the level of dharma or the level of following the rules.
There are so many indications, but one very important indication is there because Suri is the father of Yama Raja. And Yama Raja is whom? Dharma Raj. Yeah. He's Dharma Raj.
He is the punisher, and it's coming from whom? From Surya.
So this is a direct lineage, direct level, when you try to follow dharma for the sake of dharma, morality for the sake of morality, not for the sake of God. This is the second level.
When you try to follow the rules uh to basically be benefited from this rules. This is called smarta dharma or uh conventional morality which is there. So that's the second level. Uh when shall I finish my class? Huh?
Okay, let's go, we we are done with the two important stages. Now we'll come to the most important stage, Ganesh worship.
Prosperity and intelligence in Ganapatya-dharma
So what is Ganesh and why he is on the third stage, why he is higher than Surya? Because actually Ganesh, it's a form of smart, very adaptive intelligence.
That's what Ganesha is, and when we want to achieve success in this world, who are two wives, two or sometimes they say three wives of Ganesha? What are the two most prominent wives of Ganesha? Riddhi and Siddhi.
What is Siddhi? Success. What is Riddhi? Prosperity. Money. So, Ganesha is this form of God. This manifestation, this manifestation of God, which actually helps us to achieve this goal of prosperity.
And Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says later, when one considers even the heat as dull matter and animal consciousness as superior, then the third stage, Ganapatya dharma, is attained. Very important concept.
Please let's try to understand what Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura is saying here. First, you see this vast ocean of material energy, of matter, and you try to enjoy it.
You're disappointed with this, you go further, you try to enjoy energy. You understand that what is the higher force, what is the higher power? Consciousness is the higher power.
But you still don't understand the difference between the consciousness and the mind. You identify the mind with the consciousness. Somebody identifies consciousness with the mind?
Somebody thinks that when I think this is my consciousness, and therefore the depiction of this deity, Ganesh, is half man, half animal.
You already have developed consciousness, but it still has some material contamination, strong material contamination. It's not pure consciousness. Pure consciousness you will come to this stage only on this next level.
On this level, you can only understand that I am the mind.
And sometimes, you know, material scientists, they say that you know that there are some scientists, there are some material scientists, many of them, they say that consciousness is just a byproduct of matter.
But there are many of them who say no, consciousness is a different thing. It's a completely different thing. They agree that it cannot develop from the dull matter.
But at the same time, if you ask them what is consciousness, they will say what? Mind. Mind. This is the consciousness. They don't understand that consciousness is different from the mind.
This is the stage of our development, development of our consciousness when we mix or when we you know really confuse the mind and the consciousness.
And therefore it is it has this form and of course Durga had nine forms, Surya had 12 forms, Ganesh has how many forms? So and for the followers of Ganesh, he is Sabuna Brahman.
You can see this is the Om, you know, and when you look at Om, you will see whom? Ganesh. You know, for them, he is the Supreme. He is the Supreme, and they very clearly explain.
This is a very interesting picture, which explains each and every feature of Ganesh as the feature of the properly formed intelligence. You know, the intelligence which guarantees you success in this world.
For example, why does he have a big belly? He has big belly, it is said here. Peacefully digest all good and bad in life.
Your intelligence has to have very good belly because you meet with all these things and if you're not able to digest them then you will be traumatized. Your intelligence will be damaged. So you need a big belly.
You know if you want if you want to be successful in this world you really have to adopt to different condition of this world. And of course, big ears. Why does Ganesh have such big ears?
Because it's very important for intelligent people to listen. To listen more than to speak. You know, I'm the most stupid here because I'm speaking and you're listening. And so on and so forth.
There is a beautiful description of what it means to to what it actually means. And we can see in ISKCON there are so many different seminars of how to become successful in ISKCON.
How to become successful this, successful that, you know, seven habits of most efficient Vaishnavas. So and all the ideas of this seminar are actually is in this picture.
You know, there are so many seminars on how to empathic hearing, how to hear in the most proper way, of how to digest good and bad, and how to deal with people. So this is actually, this is the level.
What I mean to say is that you know we have something to do with it. Do it? Somebody wants some success? Only one honest person. Two.
So the Vaishnavas, yes, our dedication is there, but if we by some misfortune place the majority of our consciousness or our dedication in this, if we think that I cannot really be a Vaishnava unless I achieve this level of success of this level of prosperity
then in reality we are Ganapatya dharmas, Ganapatya worshipers. The worshipers of Ganesh. You know, and of course 32 forms of them, you know, there are so many lakshmi Ganapati. Taruna Ganapati.
If you want to become to be always useful, have a useful body, you know, does somebody want it? Taruna Ganapati is there, you can worship him. Bala Ganapati, you can worship him, you will have a lot of strengths.
You know, Lakshmi Ganapati, you will get a lot of money. And then Nritya Ganapati, you want to dance nicely to attract the opposite sex. Nritya Ganapati is there. All kinds of desires are there.
32 forms of Ganesha are there, no problem. Any one of them will work. Will do the needful. You just have to choose whom you want.
So that's the, and that's the sambandha, and of course prayojana is the prosperous life in this material world. Yeah. Prosperity, well-being, Siddhi, and Riddhi.
Pursuit of liberation through Saiva-dharma
So, anyway, so that's this uh I will finish very quickly. We need to go to Shiva Puja. To desire to get rid of all the sufferings, material sufferings, and who doesn't have?
You know, then we reach the level of Vijnanamaya kosha according to the classification of Taittiriya Upanishad. It's actually about the same stuff.
The previous level was Manomaya kosha, Pranamaya kosha. The next level is Vijnanamaya kosha. We achieved the level of consciousness. And basically the idea here, here is Shiva worship.
And the idea here, in the fourth stage, Lord Shiva is worshipped as the pure consciousness of the living entities and Shaiva dharma manifest. The idea here is very important. Please listen.
You know, first, you worship the material energy because you want to exploit the material energy.
Then you worship the energy of the heat, the prana which is there, the energy of work you enjoy by doing something big and you know do something very active. Then you consider the mind as the supreme.
That's the level of Ganesh worship. Basically, the mind, the intelligence as the supreme, you want to become the smartest one.
But if you understand that consciousness is different from the mind, and you are this consciousness. And this consciousness is one in every living entity.
Then you start worshipping Lord Shiva and you understand that any connection with the matter is the cause of suffering.
When you come to this level of very clear understanding that any connection with matter, no matter which matter, you will still suffer, then you
come to the level of consciousness of Shaiva worship, and at that point you will start chanting what? Aham Brahmasmi or Tat tvam asi or you will start doing neti neti or sivoham or soham.
I am this, I am the consciousness, I am the pure consciousness, I have nothing to do with the varieties of this varieties of this world. We want to completely discard all these varieties as illusory, neti neti, neti.
And we basically want liberation by all means and you know I will not dwell on this tomorrow I will show you how it manifests in ISKCON. It manifests in a very glorious way in ISKCON.
Yeah, there is a quote of from Laghu Bhagavatamrita where the forms of Rudra explained there are there are actually 11 forms of Rudra and eight types of forms.
So for each of the eleven forms of Rudra you can have eight varieties. So how many it is? So it's even more. And then we will come to Krishna, and Krishna is only one. So I will just...
Yeah, this is a beautiful quote from Kaivali Upanishad, which explains the mentality. This level of development of our mentality of our consciousness, that you know, people reach to this level when they feel this unity with everyone and they want to really abstract themselves.
And therefore because at that moment the understanding of consciousness as the alternative to matter, then the form of Shiva, what kind of form of Shiva people worship? Lingam. Lingam is what? It's an abstract form.
It's just a symbol. There is no variety. So, what is the idea behind this Shiva Lingam worship is that you know there is the variety on the material level, but when you come to the level of consciousness, no variety.
Just lingam, just symbol.
Ultimate realization of Gaudiya Vaisnavism
So uh yeah, and then ultimately Vaishnava worship and Vaishnava worship here of worshiping ten kinds of Krishna lila, worshiping Lakshmi-Narayana, or rather Krishna in the mood of Laksminaraina.
Actually, that's the level of Vaidhi sadhana bhakti. And practically in every other sampradaya, people worship Vaishnava Sampradaya, people worship Vishnu as the Supreme. Why? Because they want to achieve what? Liberation.
Every sampradaya which you take, no matter which, Ramanuja Sampradaya, Madhva Sampradaya, Nimparka Sampradaya, and every sampradaya, the ultimate goal is liberation. Yeah, personal liberation. Sarupya mukti.
Therefore, according to the goal, the sambandhi is according to the goal which you want to achieve. On this level of your development, you want to achieve liberation.
Okay, for that you need to worship different avatars of Krishna. And you know, you can go to Udupi and see this beautiful worship, or you can go to Srirangam and see the beautiful worship of Lakshmi Narayana.
Ultimately, why? Because you want liberation. You don't really want love of God. It's not relevant. The love of God may be considered as upaya, as the means, not as a goal.
So it's a very important feature of Gaudiya Vaishnava Sampradaya. And we boldly say that this Gaudiya Vaishnava Sampradaya is the highest concept of God.
You know, you may consider the you know the material energy as the superior power, the energy as superior power, the intelligence as superior power, the consciousness as superior power, the personal consciousness as superior power, but there's nothing higher than to consider the sweetest form of Krishna as the superior power.
And that's the next level of worship. Where you can worship only by spontaneous devotion. You cannot worship Krishna by vaidī-sādhana-bhakti.
And therefore it is said that by vaidī-sādhana-bhakti you can only go to Vaikuṇṭha. You cannot go to Goloka Vṛndāvana.
If you want to worship Krishna, you have to develop prāṇa, you have to put your dedication to developing prāṇa. That's the point, that's the whole point.
Where our dedication lies and therefore, you know, and only then you can achieve all these different levels of love of God.
And therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu, that's a beautiful point in Caitanya-caritāmṛta when Caitanya Mahāprabhu speaks with Sanātana Gosvāmī. He explains to him different forms of God, all kinds of Vishnu and everything else.
And then he comes close to Sanātana Gosvāmī and he holds him by hand and tears starts flowing from his eyes. And he says, mādhurya-bhāgavatasāra, rājayikā vaparācāra. What is the essence of God? Who is God?
Who is God in his innermost essence? Madhurya-bhāgavata. Sweetness. Naravat-līlā. Human-like pastimes. This is the essence. This is the highest possible development.
And if this is our goal, if this is our prayojana, then only we can be legitimately called Krishna Bhaktas or Krishna Conscious Devotees.
Before that we are some sort of devotees with some, you know, we are worshipping Krishna on the altar and Durga somewhere in the closet.
By you know it may take concrete forms, it may take some other shapes, you know, but it it will be there. The admixtures will be there.
So that's the problem, and uh I guess uh yeah that's the evolution of consciousness basically. And the question which we may ask ourselves, is it possible to immediately go to the highest possible level?
And the answer is yes. But so that's the end of today's session. The explanation will be given tomorrow. How to get there. Thank you very much, very pleasant.