Bhagavad-gita 9.3
Bhakti Vijnana Goswami · Dubai · 2017
Chapters
Recitation of verse and purport
Om namo bhagavate vāsudevāya, Om namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Hare Krishna. Om namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Nārāyaṇaṁ namaskṛtya, naraṁ caiva nārōttamaṁ, devīṁ sarasvatīṁ vyāsaṁ, tato jayam udīrayet.
Aśraddadhānāḥ puruṣā dharmasyāsya parantapa, aprāpya māṁ nivartante mṛtyu-saṁsāra-vartmani. Aśraddadhānāḥ puruṣā dharmasyāsya parantapa, aprāpya māṁ nivartante mṛtyu-saṁsāra-vartmani.
Aśraddadhānāḥ puruṣā dharmasya parantapa, aprāpya māṁ nivartante mṛtyu-saṁsāra-vartmani.
Aśraddadhānāḥ puruṣāḥ, dharma-sya parantapa, dharma-sya pa, prāpya māṁ nivartante, māṁ nivartante, mṛtyu-saṁsāra-vartmani, mṛtyu-samsartani, aśraddadhānāḥ.
mamni vartante, Mamni Vante, Vrityu samsaravartmani, britu samatni, Those who are faithless. Those who are faithless. Shall we say? A puruṣaḥ, such persons. Dharmasya towards the process of religion. Asya.
This parantapa, or chastiser of enemies, of the enemies, aprāpya, without obtaining, mām, me, nivartante, come back, mṛtyu, of death, saṁsāra, in the material existence, vartmani, on the path. Translation.
Those who are not faithful in this devotional service cannot attain me, O conqueror of enemies. Therefore, they return to the path of birth and death in this material world.
Purport by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. The faithless cannot accomplish this process of devotional service. That is the purport of this verse. Faith is created by association with devotees.
Unfortunate people, even after hearing all the evidence of Vedic literature from great personalities, still have no faith in God.
They are hesitant and cannot stay fixed in the devotional service of the Lord. Thus, faith is the most important factor for progress in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
In the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, it is said that the śraddhā is the complete conviction that simply by serving the Supreme Lord Shri Krishna one can achieve all the perfection. That is called real faith.
As stated in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, yathā taror mūla-niṣecanena tṛpyanti tat-skandha-bhujopaśākhāḥ prāṇopahārāc ca yatendriyāṇām tathaiva sarvārhaṇam acyutījā. Sarvarhanam Athudija.
By giving water to the root of the tree, one satisfies its branches, twigs, and leaves, and by supplying food to the stomach, one satisfies all the senses of the body.
Similarly, by engaging in the transcendental service of the Supreme Lord, one automatically satisfies all the demigods and all other living entities.
Therefore, after reading Bhagavad-gītā, one should promptly come to the conclusion of Bhagavad-gītā.
One should give up all other engagements and adopt the service to the Supreme Lord Krishna, the personality of Godhead. If one is convinced of this philosophy, that is called faith.
Now the development of that faith is the process of Krishna consciousness. It's a very important statement by Srila Prabhupada. The development of the śraddhā, of that śraddhā, is the process.
The process of Krishna consciousness is nothing but development of śraddhā in this process. These are three divisions. There are three divisions of Krishna conscious men. And the third class are those who have no faith.
Even if they are officially engaged in devotional service, they cannot achieve the highest perfectional stage. Again, very important statement: officially engaged or formally engaged in devotional service.
Most probably they will sleep after some time. Sleep means not sleep but sleep sleep down.
They may become engaged, but because they haven't complete conviction and faith, it is very difficult for them to continue in Krishna consciousness.
They have we have practical experience in the discharging of our missionary activity that some people come and apply themselves to Krishna consciousness with some hidden motive.
And as soon as they are economically a little well situated, they give up this process and take to their old ways again. It is only by faith that one can advance in Krishna consciousness.
As far as the development of faith is concerned, one is well-versed, one who is well-versed in the literature of devotional service and has attained the stage of firm faith is called a first class person in Krishna consciousness.
And in the second class are those who are not very advanced in understanding the devotional scriptures but who automatically have firm faith that Krishna Bhakti or service to Krishna is the best course, and so in good faith have taken it up.
Thus they are superior to the third class who are neither perfect, neither have perfect knowledge nor of the scriptures nor good faith, but by association and simplicity they are trying to follow.
The third class person in Krishna consciousness may fall down, but when one is in the second class, he does not fall down. And for the first class person in Krishna consciousness, there is no chance of falling down.
One in the first class will surely make progress and achieve the result at the end.
As far as the third class person in Krishna consciousness is concerned, although he has faith in the conviction that devotional service to Krishna is very good, He has not yet gained adequate knowledge of Krishna through the scriptures like Shrimad Bhagavatam and Bhagavad Gita.
Sometimes this third class person in Krishna consciousness has some tendency toward karma and jnana yoga. And sometimes they are disturbed. Sometimes they are disturbed. That's a definite understatement.
But as soon as the infection of karma yoga and jnana yoga is vanquished, they become second class or first class persons in Krishna consciousness.
Faith in Krishna is also divided into three stages and described in Srimad Bhagavatam. First class attachment, second class attachment, and third class attachment are also explained in Srimad Bhagavatam in the 11th canto.
Those who have no faith after hearing about Krishna and the excellence of devotional service, who think that there is simply eulogy, find the path very difficult, even if they are supposedly engaged in devotional service. For them there is very little hope of gaining perfection.
Thus faith is very important in the discharge of devotional service, Śraddhāyāṁ kathitāḥ śāstrāḥ puruṣadharmasya parantapa, aprāpya mām nivartante mṛtyu-saṁsāra-vartmani.
Those who are not faithful in this devotional service cannot attain Me, O conqueror of enemies. Therefore they return to the paths of births and deaths in this material world.
Namaḥ oṁ viṣṇu-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tale śrīmate bhaktivedānta-svāmin iti nāmine. Namaste sārasvate deve gaura-vāṇī-pracārine nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi-pāścātya- deśa-tārine. Vāñchā-kalpatarubhyaś ca kṛpā-sindhubhya eva ca patitānāṁ pāvanebhyo vaiṣṇavebhyo namo namaḥ. Jaya Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Prabhupāda Nityānanda Śrī Advaita Gadādhara Śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda. Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare / Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare.
Ājānulambita-bhujaḥ kaṅka-saṅkīrtanaiḥ pitāro kamala-yātau viśvambharo dvija- varo yugadharma-pālaḥ, jātau tu tau yuga-pravṛttārau.
Significance of faith in spiritual practice
Yandtah pravi mahavachimampra suptaum, sandji vaiatakila shakti darah swadham nanyam shahasta charana sramanat vagadi prananda mmhagada ubihada. Hare Krishna.
So I'm very happy to be here with all of you in Dhamma Dardesh again. And I will try to speak a few words on this very important verse and understanding of the significance of faith in our life.
Śrīla Prabhupāda said different things about faith even in this one purport. In the beginning he says those who have third-class faith, they basically don't have any faith.
And that's a very important statement which I want I will elaborate a little bit in the course of my lecture.
But first of all, I want to say that our understanding of faith is radically different than understanding of faith and the significance of faith in other religions.
If we take practically any other religion, the faith is stressed everywhere.
But in other religious path, the stress on the faith is because faith is indeed everything which is supposedly required for one to come back home back to Godhead, so to speak.
They say that you know as soon as you have faith, Khatam ho gaya, you're done. Everything is finished. You don't need anything else. Basically, if you have faith more or less, you're there. You're already there.
I remember very much one episode when I was just a very, very young devotee. I just started my devotional service and at that time it was Soviet Union, everything was
really had to be hidden with uh something like Abu Dhabi or even more strict than Abu Dhabi at that time. You were not allowed to practice any religious faith uh even at home.
But you know, we were young, enthusiastic, and we were practicing it, and we were visiting uh different other people who were practicing some sort of faith.
Because it was so rare at that time, and we were so eager to associate with some had some sadhu sangha that we thought that you know anyone who believes in God is a sadhu.
So we went to one guy who was a Seventh-day Adventist. Just to see him, to speak to him, how come he believes in God? Because we believed in God and he believed in God. So we decided to have some dialogue.
So it was around midday. And we came to him and we knocked at his door and for a long time he didn't open. Ultimately he opened and we realized that he is sleeping. He was still sleeping in the midday.
And then he was really, I mean, he really in tamo-guṇa.
Practice versus blind belief in religion
And then the first thing which he said, he said, I believe in God, it means that everything is done for me, my name is already there in the book of life. And he looked at us pointedly, and we were supposed to understand that our name is not in the book of life, that our name is in the book of death. So basically what he wanted to say that I uh uh the point of this little story is that you know he doesn't follow any rules and regulations. But because on the basis of his belief, he believes that he is already saved, so to speak.
What I want to say is that our understanding of faith is completely different. We need faith to follow strictly the scriptures. Faith alone is not enough. You can say I believe in Krishna, that's it.
And I don't follow any rules and regulations, I will not do anything, just leave me alone. Krishna is merciful, he will take me back. Krishna Himself says, no, I will not take you back, my dear sir.
Krishna is very strict about this, he's very straightforward about this. He said, Aprapyamamni Vartante, he will never attain me. If his face is not proper. And in the 17th chapter he says
again about the face, Nashastram Vidy U Sri Javartatea Kamakarata If somebody doesn't follow the Shastra Vidi, the rules of the Shastra, three times he says, nah nah na na. Just to drive point home. Just to stress it.
Na sa se di mawapnati. He will not achieve any perfection. Na su calm, he will not be happy. I'm sorry to say this. This is Krishna who is saying and he knows who will become happy who not.
Nasasidhi Mavapnati, Nasukkam, Naparam Gatim, and he will not come back home, back to Godhead. He will not achieve perfection. So, in our case, it's very important that our faith is not in Krishna as such.
Our faith is in the process of devotional service and the following certain sadhana of devotional service. Because only by sadhana can we really gain the experience. If we only have blind belief in Krishna.
And there are plenty of blind believers in this world, it's not going to help us.
And Krishna himself, at the very end of 17th chapter, says that whatever one does, even if he is doing yagya, and I will add a little bit to this, even if he is chanting the holy name, if he doesn't have proper face, everything which he is doing, the result will be zero.
Sunya. Nothing. And Krishna himself says, and Prabhupada confirms this, he says, if you have third class face, I'm sorry to say third class face is no face.
Like there was a very famous writer in Russia, Bulgakov, he wrote a very famous novel.
And then in Russia during the Soviet Union, when they would sell something which is rotten, they would say that this is second-class freshness. It's fresh but second class freshness.
So, you know it's the same to say that it's rotten, but it is said in a nice way. It's fresh, but second class. Second grade freshness.
So, in exact same way, if you have faith, but it's third class, I mean, I'm sorry to say, you don't have faith.
Etymological meaning of genuine faith
You're just, as Prabhupada very beautifully puts it, you're just officially engaged in the process of Krishna consciousness. Because the very word Shradha is very important.
The uh etymology of the word shradha in Sanskrit is is coming from uh the word uh chrat or krit Shrat uh is the same as Krit and Krit means heart.
Heart and shraddha literally means the place where you uh invest or place your heart. In other words, Shraddha is something, if you believe in something, you should do it, you should practice it with the heart.
And if you're not practicing anything with the heart, it means that you don't have faith.
If you're doing it formally, if you're doing it officially, so to speak, if you're doing it because other people are doing it, because of some social pressure or whatever, then in reality you don't have Shraddha.
And that's exactly the situation of people who are not completely convinced. It is said very interestingly in Caitanya-caritāmṛta and Śrīla Prabhupāda mentions this verse: Shraddhasabde Vishvaso.
Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu himself explains what does the word Shraddha means. Shraddha Shabda Vishvaso It means vishwas. And viswas, it's a very interesting Sanskrit word. Vishvas. Shvas means what? Breath. Breath.
And visvas means vishesha. It means that your breathing when you have— Literally visvas means, as we all know, conviction. Trust. Trust.
But if we take the etymological meaning of this word, vishwas, meaning that this is a special sort of a breath, then the meaning behind this is very important.
Because, as we know from yoga, breath is very much connected with the state of our mind, consciousness.
In other words, Vishwas is a certain state of consciousness and certain breath which is there like it's very calm and peaceful.
If you completely, if you have this face like a little child, if the little child is left alone, he will be frantic. He will be just completely, you know, without mother, he will be crying.
But if the same child is taken on the lap of mother, he will become very peaceful.
And he will just smile and so vishwas means a certain state of consciousness when you're completely convinced that God is there and you are on the lap of God. You are sitting on the lap of God and He's protecting you.
And you are you are very happy. That's Vishwas. That's Shraddha. That's what Shraddha means. That's what real Shraddha means. Shraddha means complete total faith in protection of Krishna.
Actually, if we do something, if we do, if we follow this rules and regulations of the scriptures, uh and if we do it with the heart, not formally, not mechanically, if we do it properly,
then then only we can be convinced and that that ultimately Krishna will be there. And therefore Krishna says that aśraddadhānāḥ puruṣā dharmasyāsya parantapa. He specifically mentions here dharmasya parantapa.
O Parantapa, if you don't have faith in this path, dharma. Dharma means a regulated practice. Dharma means something which you do very diligently.
If you don't have faith in this mṛtyu-saṁsāra-vartmani. aprāpya māṁ nivartante mṛtyu-saṁsāra-vartmani. You will come back. You will come back again and again and again.
And maybe at one point you will develop the first class Shraddha. And the first class Shraddha is the real Shraddha which is required to achieve Krishna. I'm sorry to say this, even second class is not enough.
Impact of devotee association on faith
Second class will have to be upgraded to the first class. And Prabhupada says, what is the source of the real Shraddha?
He says the source of this philosophy is the association of devotees, the proper association of devotees.
And what I want to explain now, I explained it just in London, and I think it's very important, is that uh there are different kinds of association of devotees. As much as there is different kinds of Shraddha, there
is third class Sangha. There is second class Sangha and there is first class Sangha. And the third class Sangha gives third class phase.
The second class, the association with Madhya Madhika on the Madhya level, gives you second class phase. And the first class Sangha, which has certain rules, only can give you the first class phase, complete conviction.
Śraddhā-śabdeḥ viśvāso sūḍhṛḍhaiḥ niścayaḥ, sūḍhṛḍhaiḥ niścayaḥ, complete conviction, very firm conviction.
Because the tendency is, please listen very carefully, the tendency is to be satisfied with the association of devotees, which is good.
I mean, it's definitely the association of devotees is better than any other association. And we all know it by our own experience. But the association has some dangers.
Because in the association the tendency is that we usually try to measure our success against the lowest possible example which we see in front of our eyes.
If somebody chants two rounds and we chant four rounds, we feel that I'm good. I remember I for the first time I visited Chopati Temple in Mumbai and And we were talking about ashram, which is there.
And Śivarāma Swami Mahārāja explained to me that we are very careful about allowing people to live in the ashram because he said that the consciousness of the whole ashram is measured by the lowest consciousness of a person who resides there.
It's not even average. It's definitely not the highest. The tendency will be there, it goes to the lowest possible level, and uh because it's a comfort zone. It's very difficult to climb up the mountain, right?
You have to really endeavor and endeavor and endeavor and you lose your breath. But to go down is very easy, isn't it? It's nice. Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna. It's easy to go down. It's difficult to climb up.
So uh the point which I want to make is that society has dangers. And society of devotees has its dangers, and the danger is that uh we tend to uh kind of uh become complacent in the society of devotees.
Yeah, I'm coming for Sunday feast, yeah, very nice, very nice, very nice. More prasadam, yeah, soon prasadam, very soon. Good news. Prasadam is soon. But in reality, uh the motivation should be different.
I'm coming to learn deeper the scripture, to understand what I'm doing wrong or right. Because ultimately I have to have faith which allows me to have practical experience.
But unfortunately, usually in the society everyone is doing something and I'm doing something and we are fine and we are very good and we are in the book of life. Krishna says no, you are not, not yet. Don't be in a hurry.
You will be in the book of life. But not now, not as yet. So what I want to uh say is that just on
the way here we were driving uh with a very beautiful young devotee, Akinchina Damadhar Prabhu, and he asked these questions. He said, you know, we all know this.
We have heard it so many times, and we are chanting, and we know that at the end of life I have to remember Krishna and I'm chanting. But nothing happens.
Recently in London, I had a very interesting also uh episode uh one devotee came to me and very openly he said for twenty years I have been changing twenty years and he's one of those who chant 20 years usually they're I mean they're quite down. You know and he said nothing happened.
I am openly telling this to you and he said I he said I asked other devotees who also chant for 20 years and they also said nothing happened. Why? Krishna explains this here.
Aprāpya mām anivartante mṛtyu-saṁsāra-vartmani. The reason is that there is no proper faith. The faith is not proper. Therefore, Prabhupāda says that the faith is very important, but not just faith, the proper
faith, the real faith. Not just the shadow faith. Not just śraddhā-ābhāsa. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says that there is śraddhā and there is śraddhā-ābhāsa.
And you have this when you have this ābhāsa, the shadow of a faith, uh then you do something, you know, uh officially formally you're doing something.
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. You're sleeping. You're still sleeping. Your soul is sleeping. We are not awakened.
Scriptural faith versus conventional faith
Because the face the the the face will give you life and uh the lack of face will give you nice sleep nice sleep during the lecture so you
You know this śraddhā-ābhāsa is a very important thing for us to understand because it looks like śraddhā. Like uh, you know, ābhāsa, ābhāsa means reflection, ābhāsa means shadow, and shadow looks like the real thing.
The only difference is that there is no substance there. It's just shadow. It has no real life.
In the same way, we may have faith and it looks like we are chanting Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Ram Hare Ram, Ram Ram Hare Hare and we are coming to the program and we're eating prasādam and we're associating with devotees, but something is lacking.
So what I want to say, I want to say a few words about this difference between one śraddhā and another śraddhā. And the difference is very simple. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura defines these two kinds of faith.
The real faith is Paramārthika-śraddhā. Or another name for the real faith is Śāstrīya-śraddhā. And Śāstrīya-śraddhā means that you know the logic of the Shastra. Śāstra-yukti. That is explained by Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī.
You know perfectly well how the Shastra is very logical. You know you have very rational understanding of Shastra so that you can explain it to anyone. You you don't have just dogma.
You know if you have this other kind of śraddhā, you believe and you even know some some of the śāstra. But you believe it as a dogma. Yeah, Krishna is the supreme personality of Godhead. Yes, yes, for sure.
What does it mean? I don't know, but I know that he is the supreme personality of Godhead. Yeah. Hare Krishna. This is just blind. Śrīla Prabhupāda says that blind faith is bad.
So we have Śāstrīya-śraddhā or Paramārthika-śraddhā.
Paramārthika-śraddhā means transcendental śraddhā which can uplift you to the transcendental level. Can bring you from this level which you are in to the transcendental level.
But the other kind of shrad, Bhakti Natakur says it's Loki Kaszrada. O samadji kasrada. In other words, it's śraddhā, which you get. Everyone follows and I follow. Why? Because I want to be part of this society.
I don't want to be too different. You know, everyone mumbling something, I will also mumble something blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. You will get to blah blah ward. Not to Vaikuṇṭha, but blah blah blah.
I mean uh doing something mechanically. And as this Prabhu, Akinchana Dāmodara Prabhu said, after some time we become very mechanical and our belief becomes ritualistic. I just follow this, I follow this ritual.
And Śrīla Prabhupāda said that I will go back home back to Godhead. Yeah, Prabhupāda said you will go back home, back to God. But not because you follow the ritual.
In Krishna consciousness, I'm sorry to say this, there is no place of rituals. Because ritual means I follow very diligently the mechanical part of some process and that's it. I'm done.
But the very phrase Krishna consciousness means that there is no room for mechanical following because Krishna consciousness means that there should be some consciousness.
If not Krishna, but at least some consciousness should be there. If there is no consciousness, how you can call something Krishna consciousness if there is no consciousness involved?
If you are just mechanically doing whatever you're doing or just for for the sake of ritual?
I like sometimes people they chant this prayers in Sanskrit or in uh in in Bengali and you ask them what it means, they say I don't know, but this is our religion.
Saṁsāra-dāvānala-līḍha-loka and nobody knows what saṁsāra-dāvānala-līḍha-loka means. You know that's uh that's third class phase about which
Krishna says you will not get me like this, you will come back unless you know what saṁsāra-dāvānala-līḍha-loka means. You will have to come back to learn it to understand the what
what it means because again śraddhā means something which I and which I invest my heart in. If I chant the holy name, I have to chant it with the heart.
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Hare, Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma, Rāma, Hare, Hare. Otherwise, it's third-class practice.
And Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, he very beautifully explains this. He says that this laukika śraddhā, or sāmājika śraddhā. He explains that this Loki Shraddha is Lok Parampara Prapta. It's coming from Lokaparampara.
From some discipline succession, but not necessarily the pure line of great Acharias. It's just you're speaking with somebody, and he says, you should what do we say?
Uh that uh there are so many things uh which we are um uh that uh you should I don't know some crazy things are there, s so many things. And it becomes very important.
He says to you some little detail and then all of a sudden it becomes the essence of Krishna consciousness. So the meaning is of this phrase, Loka Parampara Pratta, is very important.
We get some knowledge from the Shastra, we get some knowledge from our spiritual master and we try to imbibe this knowledge, but a lot of knowledge which we have are coming from our social interactions.
And it's not necessarily the pure knowledge. You know, so many new rituals are coming and so many new haribules are coming and you know so many other things are there and it's all from Lokaparampara.
Like, Prabhupada he knew this tendency very well.
Once there was an ekādaśī. And uh in the ekādaśī one girl uh came to see Śrīla Prabhupāda and he said, Prabhupāda I was told that you cannot eat asafetida on ekādaśī, hiṅg on ekādaśī, but can we eat kurkuma on ekādaśī, the haldi on ekādaśī? And Prabhupada started yelling at him.
Who told you that you cannot eat hiṅg asafetida in ekādaśī? Did you hear it from me? I never told this. I never told the I never told you this.
You it's Loka Parampara. Prabhupāda Prabhupāda was very upset because you know we are trying to substitute the holes in our Shraddha, in our understanding, in our conception. And we have a lot of holes there by all this second or third class information.
And usually another you know another real charakteristic.
So, one characteristic of this logic shrada is that it's kommer dubs soccer from doubtful sources from not very pure sources and you know from these social interactions.
Another characteristic very important is that it's usually very much based on belief in miracles. When you don't know the logic of Shastra, when you don't understand, you know how Shastra is completely rational, how it brings you to the highest abode, and you don't understand the process which shastra gives, then in order to have the conviction, you need to hear about the miracles.
And people start inventing miracles. I've seen it, you know. There are so many, every religion invents some miracles, you know. I, I, I've seen it, you know, somebody says, my, you know, my deity's there so fantastic.
Last week they ate one date. I offered one date and then in the plate one date was missing, and I was looking and looking and looking, and finally I found the date under the skirts of the deities.
Ah wow, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Hare Hare Krishna. Now we know why we should chant Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna. It's just it's mental speculation, it's all mental invention.
It's complete total rubbish. And people, they start talking about this, yeah, my deity this and my deity this, that. Oh, really, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna. Why?
Because śāstra-śraddhā is lacking. Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī gives very clear definition of śāstra-śraddhā. Śāstrārtha-viśvāsa. Conviction or trust to the meaning of Shastra.
For that you have to understand the meaning of Shastra. But usually we know just certain external things. We don't know, we don't understand the working of the Shastra.
How Shastra works, how it works, what is the mechanism behind it, and how it is supposed to liberate me and to give me Krishna consciousness. And therefore again our practice
Signs of superficial and genuine faith
tends to be very mechanical, tends to be very ritualistic. And and, uh, also, uh, this, uh, laukika-śraddhā. So there is śāstrīya-śraddhā and laukika-śraddhā. And laukika-śraddhā, there is another very important characteristic of this laukika-śraddhā is that it's kind of, it's
a comfort zone. You always want to be in a comfort zone. If you don't have this real Shraddha, then you will tend to
do minimum, minimum, absolute minimum, which you you know, have to do to be admitted in the society of devotees. You know, like oftentimes we say we should chant minimum 16 rounds a day.
People nowadays they don't even tell during initiation ceremony that I promised to you to chant minimum 16 rounds. They say 16 rounds. And I say if you chant 17 rounds, you will break your vow, right?
That's the sign that the śraddhā is not properly formed. That something is wrong with our śraddhā because Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī says if you have real śraddhā, real śraddhā means you will always maximize your endeavors.
He says it's as if somebody is searching for gold. He will never stop. He will always search for gold more and more and more. You know, he got little gold, little spark of gold, little speck of gold.
But if the real śraddhā is there, he will want more and more and more. So he will always try to, you know, to work very hard to maximize his endeavors. And if it's not there, then the tendency
will be that it means that there is no proper bhakti-latā-bīja. We all know the śraddhā is coming from bhaktilata bīja. Bīja means seed. So if we have real seed, then the real plant will come.
And the real plant will bring us to Vaikuṇṭha, to Goloka Vṛndāvana, to Kṛṣṇa's lotus feet. But if we have genetically modified seed of devotional service. service, GMO bhakti-latā-bīja,
which is coming from this, you know, sociological interaction. Interaction in the society, which is not coming from the real source, then it will not bring us there.
We will be comfortably mumbling something here for many lifetimes. Many lifetimes.
There is another characteristic of this śraddhā, laukika-śraddhā, as opposed to śāstrīya-śraddhā, is that if one has laukika śraddhā or conventional faith, hereditary faith one can say, faith which we got without really internalizing this, without really understanding what is it, why I'm doing this.
Do I really have this goal to achieve Kṛṣṇa? Do I want to come to Kṛṣṇa? No. If we're doing this, then the tendencies will be there to become very proud. I am a special one. I am a chosen one.
And everyone else is just — I am chosen one. My path is the best path. You know, everyone else is fallen. You know, every face has this prevalent condition among the followers. We are the only one who know the truth.
Nobody else knows the truth.
Special chosen people and of course we are very special Gaudiya Vaishnavas if we have this understanding it's a very, um, sure symptom that the faith is somewhat improper, that there is some disease.
Because if the faith is proper, this is again Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī explains in Bhakti-sandarbha. If the faith is proper, one becomes very humble, and he says that everyone else is better than me.
Whereas, if the faith is not proper, then you will criticize others. They don't know. They're not, they're just pretenders, they're this, they're that.
You know, but if the faith is proper you will be very much afraid to criticize others. And if the faith is not proper, then you will always look to somebody else. How they're doing.
And if you find some fault in them, oh you will become the happiest bird in the sky. Oh everyone is, is wrong. And I'm right. You know, there was this beautiful story in Śrīla Prabhupāda's life.
Once Prabhupāda was sitting there and Acyutānanda Svāmī at that time, one of the leaders of the society rushed in Prabhupāda's room. And he said, Prabhupāda, what's going on in this cult? What's going on?
Something is wrong in this cult. Have you heard this phrase? Lucky. Come to Russia, you will hear this.
You know, this is again something which is loke paramparā-prāpta. When people are always unhappy, this is bad and this is bad and everything is bad.
So Acyutānanda Svāmī, during Prabhupāda's time, he came to Prabhupāda's room and said, something is wrong in this cult. Prabhupāda said, What? What is wrong?
And he said, Prabhupāda, in the Second World War Germans and Japanese were defeated by Americans. But now the Germans and Japanese they took over this movement. Prabhupāda said, how come?
He said, look, because there is this Svarūpa Dāmodara who is very influential at that time, there was Svarūpa Dāmodara in New York, and there was Hamsadūta, and you know,
and listen what Prabhupāda said to this. He started complaining that Ham Saduta is doing this wrong and Sonia Toyota is doing that wrong, and they are taking over the movement.
Then Śrīla Prabhupāda said, listen, his answer is very important for us. He said, why do you have to look at others? It's their problem.
You have to look in your own heart and you have to really honestly and sincerely ask yourself: am I doing everything right? That's the sign of real śraddhā.
If we have alaukika śraddhā, we will always say he's wrong and she's wrong and they're wrong and uh that means that I'm right. No, you are wrong because you see wrong in others. So that's that's a very important point.
And um so many problems are there because our śraddhā is not is not real.
And about this, this is what Krishna says here: aśraddadhānāḥ puruṣā dharmasyāsya parantapa, aprāpya māṁ nivartante mṛtyu-saṁsāra-vartmani. Purusa, Dharmasya Sya Parantapa, Aprapya Mamni Vartante, Britu Samsara Vartmani.
So so there are some other characteristics of laukika śraddhā and śāstrīya śraddhā. I just gave you certain examples or certain signs by which we can understand what is it? There is another one.
I'll give another one, which is also very important in my opinion. I will finish soon, please bear with me.
Another one is that if you have real śraddhā, properly formed śraddhā, if your śraddhā is very strong, and if it's based on the scriptures, on the śāstra, then then you will be satisfied with whatever situation you are in.
You will be materially, you know, even if it's difficult. And sometimes there are difficult situations in our life, critical situations. Somebody is sick.
So uh you know if if you have real śraddhā you will say this is Krishna's mercy. You will be able to say this. And if you don't have real śraddhā, you will complain at that point. You will say, Krishna is bad.
He didn't save me, he's this and that, and you will you will lose it because you don't have this this this real śraddhā is something very valuable and very rare too.
Because it gives you complete conviction, complete satisfaction, and complete peace in your heart. Krishna is God. I'm His servant. That's his eternal truth. Nothing can change this.
And no matter what is the external situation in my life, I I will I will serve him. I will serve him no matter what, whether he is doing something good for me or not.
Whereas, loka-sangraha is very common, is very pliable, flexible.
Protecting faith from destructive associations
You can very easily change it and you go somewhere else or somewhere and you lose the phase. Anyway, what I wanted to say is that we have to be very careful with whom we associate because
not any association with devotee necessarily is healthy. And we should strive for the elevated association. We should strive.
When we interact with the devotees, we really have to ask this question, whether he will be able to strengthen my belief, my faith. Whether this is beneficial or this is destructive for my faith.
We come to somebody and he's, you know, making offenses left and right, saying this is good and that this is bad and this is bad and he's bad and this, you know, Like there is this Rtvik people. Horrible people.
They only see all the faults. Only faults, they're completely dwelling in the faults. And they're calling their magazine Back to Prabhupāda. As if by offenses you can come back to Prabhupāda.
By offenses you can go to hell, that's no problem. That's a very good means to go to hell. But you cannot go back to Prabhupāda if you're offensive, if there are offenses there.
So when we interact with each other, it's very important to see what's happening with my faith. Because the faith is the most valuable thing which we have. And it's so delicate.
I remember, I'll tell you one little small story to finish it. know I had a friend of mine and he was into all kinds of mystics. Again, why into mystics? Because of the lack of faith.
You need some mystical confirmation, you know. Astrologers and he would say, and he said, oh, there is such a far out important mystic in Mathurā, you know, you should go with me. I said, okay, I'll go with you.
And my intention was not to really go to this mystic, but just you know to protect him more or less. And listen what happened there.
We came and this mystic started saying something in his you know mystical way and then he said oh you have a very good guru very good guru and this devotee he became very happy oh yeah yeah of course, of course.
Very great Guru. Very great guru. He said, Yeah, yeah, yeah. Very great guru. Very great guru. He said, Can you show me his picture? And this devotee said, now he will say something mystical about my guru.
You know what his svarūpa is or something like this. Oh he had with him some pictures and he showed pictures his guru with this picture and this picture.
He said, yes, yes, very grateful, very gratefully. But then he said, but why does he like to take his own pictures so often? And that's it. He drove this and that's it. This devotee was he lost his faith for one year.
Because he heard this offense and you know the implication of this offences that he is, you know, this and that. He uh, he started doubting in his guru. Why?
Because again, uh because of this interaction and of course because his face was not proper, was not properly formed, was not really, didn't really have the proper foundation of it.
Otherwise, you know what do I care about this stupid mystic in Mathurā? And what he has to say about my Guru. Why do I need to hear confirmation from this mystic about my Guru and this potency?
It it means the complete total lack of proper understanding. So in other words, what Prabhupada says here, the faith is very important because the faith, the proper faith, is the real fuel.
It's a fuel which can bring us to God. And the petrol should be of a good quality. If you put in a good car and Krishna consciousness is a very good car. It's a very good Krishna consciousness movement is a very good car.
If you put in a good car, in a Mercedes car, some diesel What will happen? You will spoil the car and you will not reach your destination. You will not reach your destination. Because the diesel is not right.
So what I want to say is that this faith is the fuel which can bring us to Krishna. But it should be of right quality. And therefore, it's so important to hear from Srila Prabhupada.
Therefore, it's so important to hear from those who strictly follow Srila Prabhupada.
And to read his books and to hear his lectures and to understand the logical structure of the scriptures—not just be blind mechanical follower.
And therefore, Śrīla Prabhupāda says that real faith is coming from the association of devotees, but this association should be proper. It should be on the basis of the scriptures. It should have firm scriptural basis.
Then only you will get śāstra-dṛṣṭi, otherwise you will get some sort of official faith in Krishna consciousness. And that's it. I'm finishing now.
Eradicating subtle manifestations of false ego
Thank you very much. Uh maybe there is one or two questions. How do we, how do we eradicate or stop subtle ego? That's a biggest problem. How to stop or eradicate so subtle? Ego is so subtle.
How to stop subtle manifestation of ahaṅkāra or false ego, which is there? I mean, again, if you have proper understanding of who you are and what is your goal in life, then ego will be subdued.
Even though it may be there, ego is a very dangerous thing. Ego, like we have certain organs, if they cut this organ, it will grow up to the full extent, like liver.
Liver, you can leave like 20% of the liver, and it will still grow again. Ego, if we cut our ego 99% and 1% is left, then it will grow to full size again. In no time. Ego is a very nice organ which we have.
So but uh the real the real thing is that uh you know if if you have uh if you have the proper face proper and and for that for that we need guru.
Actually our relationship with guru if they are real then our ego will not manifest.
But if the relationship are not really proper, then the... Satt... Well, anyway, it's not easy question, but something you can do about it. If you know that I'm dāsa-dāsa-nukān-dāsa. Okay, I guess that's it.
Thank you very much. Śrīla Prabhupāda ki!