Crises on the Path of Devotional Service. Lecture 2
Bhakti Vijnana Goswami · 2020
Chapters
Introductory prayers and mangalacharan
Jyanam Janasalakay Shaksurum Nitanyana Tasma Shriguravam, Shri Chaitanya, Bisham, stapi tame, swamruyam. Dati Swapantikamandeham
Sri Guru, Sri Tadka Madam, Sri Guru Vaishnavam scham, shreupam Sagrajatam, Saganarabunatamitam Sadvaitam savadutam, parjana sahitam, krishnachaitania devam Shriadha Krishna Padam, Saganalita, Sri Visaka Vitams Krishna
Karuna Sindho Vinabandho Jagatpate Gopesha Gopikakantam Radakantamust, Tapta Kanchanaurangi, Rade Vrvaneshwari Vishavanu Sudevi, Pranamihari, Vanchakupatarudescha, Kripasinducha, Patidanamy, Vaishnavyam,
Shri Krishna Chaitann, Prabhupananda, Sri Advaithara, Srivastadivura Vakta Brinda Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare,
Nam Vishnu Padaya Krishna prestaja buthare, sri bhaktianta swami dynami, naste, wami pracharin, nirvishes Namadi, Paschatyades So
I welcome you to this uh continuation of the uh seminar which I gave on the second day of our ayal sangha and because probably some of you were not there on the 15th, I will make a very short overview of what has been said so far and go a little deeper and tomorrow will be the last part of this seminar where I will go to some other areas Yes.
So basically this little seminar is called Crisis on the Path of Devotional Service, the Psychology of Spiritual Development.
And that's a result of my research and some empirical research when I observe certain things happening in the lives of people and in the hearts of people who are trying to traverse this path of devotional service and of course and the study, in-depth study of the writings of our ācāryas.
And I want to share the results of this research with you because in my opinion it could be very helpful first of all for, our own spiritual advancement, when we understand what the problems we encounter and how to overcome these problems and for sure it will be helpful for those people who are counseling, counseling other people, other devotees, and try to help them in their spiritual team development.
Okay, that's a little introduction.
Progression of stages in devotional service
So we'll go next slide. This is basically what I'm trying to explain in depth explanation of the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu which is given by Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī in Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu.
exciting sort of arrangement when you can hear two seminars at once and be enhanced. So it's the letter of devotion which every one of us knows.
And Śraddhā — Śrīla Prabhupāda very often quoted these two verses. It starts with śraddhā, with the faith, and then sādhu-saṅga, the association of devotees, bhajana-kriyā, the practice of devotional service, anartha-nivṛtti, and the heart becomes cleansed from anarthas and then we reach the level
of stability, then ruci comes, which means pronounced spiritual taste, and after that āsakti follows, which means very strong attachment to Krishna and his associates,
and then bhāva, the preliminary stage of love of God, and ultimately prema, the highest stage of development in this human form of life. And And
last time when I was describing this, some people found my description a little discouraging because I was talking about the problems on the spiritual development and we usually don't like to listen about the problems.
We usually like, you know, when Prabhupada says, and in this way we will dance our way back home, back to Godhead. And everyone is very inspired. Let's dance our way back home, back to Godhead.
And that's true, we are dancing back home, back to Godhead. Sometimes we fall apart by dancing too much and there are some other problems also on the way. And Prabhupada says we will eat our way to Godhead.
It's a good expression, especially in prasādaṁ hall, it makes it more tangible. So this is the last thing which I wanted to do — to discourage you, rather than the purpose of this seminar was to — is to encourage.
Somebody even wrote to me a letter. What hope do I have now after hearing what you said? We have all hopes.
Overcoming difficulties through the process
We should be very hopeful and uh therefore this time to avoid this mistake I'm getting uh some quote from Srila Prabhupada which is very encouraging. He says, yes, difficulties are always there.
Even you go to school, there are so many difficulties. But if you practice with vow and rigidity, you become successful. Difficulties may be there in every field of our activities, there are difficulties.
You cannot say this world is full of difficulties. So difficulties may be there, but you have to struggle against the difficulties and you have to adopt the process.
And that's the most important part of this whole description. You have to adopt the process, the method, the path. Then your difficulties will be over.
If you following properly the path of spiritual development, then all your difficulties will be over because there is difficulty, I shall refrain from it. No. These are the processes.
Just like you have come here with some śraddhā, with some faith. Oh, here is Krishna consciousness. Let me sit down. Let me hear. This is the preliminary stage.
If you become a little serious, then you come daily and try to understand what is this. This is called sadhu sangha.
Then gradually, all these boys they offer themselves, Swamiji, I want to be your regular student, initiate, third stage: ādau śraddhā tataḥ sādhu- saṅgo 'tha bhajana-kriyā. And if he follows the rules and regulations gradually, the difficulties will be over.
Anartha-nivṛttiḥ syāt. And then when the difficulties are over, then he gets faith, tato niṣṭhā. So sometimes Prabhupāda to encourage us would give very liberal definitions of all these stages.
You know, you come first, this is śraddhā. Congratulations. You come second time, this is already sādhu-saṅga. If you came third time, this is niṣṭhā. You became steady.
So or sometimes he would say, you know, you follow, you you give up smoking. This is anartha-nivṛtti. Because what is smoking? Smoking is an anartha, you gave it up. This is anartha-nivṛtti.
So that's all, and then you get some little taste, and then this is ruci, and then you get little attachment, this is āsakti, and of course prema is very soon just behind the corner. So anyway uh it's definitely certainly
uh true and we shouldn't make it too complicated.
But at the same time what I'm trying to explain to you is uh uh you know welcome uh home uh to reality. And sometimes after giving up smoking, we have some few additional difficulties on the parts of devotional service.
So uh anyways so that's basically the purpose and again uh please don't be discouraged, be encouraged because there is a process.
Ego transformation in spiritual development
And if we follow the process, uh ultimately we will come to the uh final stage which, is the desired stage.
And then I explained at that time that there are difficulties in our case because the description uh which uh Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura gives of all the stages in Bhajana Rahasya sometimes doesn't match with our reality because he deals with completely different set of people and different problems.
But still, the principles are the same, and the spiritual development, according to Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, is the development of real ego or ego of a servant, development of sevā as opposed to bhogāvṛtti. Bhogāvṛtti is the enjoyment spirit and sevā is desire to serve the Lord.
And at the same time, there is a diminishment of shrinking of the false ego, which consists of ahantā and mamatā. And Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura explains that there is spiritual ahantā and mamatā. When we say Krishna is mine and I am his servant, this is ahanta and mamata, mamatā and ahantā uh of uh the spiritual uh servant. And ahantā and mamatā means I'm uh e uh when it comes to false ego means I'm this body and everything which belongs to me, all the matter which is around me is mine. And Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura he explains that there is a gradual process of spiritualization of our ego, or rather, not even spiritualization of ego, but as I explained last time and I will not go into detail this time, there are two parallel processes. One is shrinking of our material ego, and another one is gradual development of spiritual ego they're not exactly the same process. It's two different processes.
The new formation is taking place and this new formation is a very important formation of ego. Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura gradually gradually explains in each stage of spiritual development what is happening.
And we will miss it this time but we will go into detail a little later when we come to the stages of spiritual development.
So, but the most important principle is that spiritual development is the development of ego as much as the development of a child also implies the development of his independent ego formation.
And how to develop spiritual ego, this is actually the process which we are following and this is the seminar which I'm giving.
Role of association in forming ego
Yeah, so the first point which we have to be very clear about is that the spiritual real ego of a devotee can be formed only in the association of devotees.
There is no other way, there is no other way, there is no other way. Śrīla Prabhupāda says: if you think that you can develop spiritually outside of the association of devotees, you are just hallucinating.
You basically, this is a delirium which you have. It's not possible because even if we take a little child and if we abandon this child, he will not develop proper ego because
the ego can be developed in relationship with others, because me and others, the others are influencing my ego, and if I associate with devotees, my spiritual ego gradually develops.
So this is confirmed by Krishna himself in 11th canto. And basically I'm explaining that in this seminar I'm going only up
to niṣṭhā, I'm not going to teach you how to reach from bhāva to brahma and which crisis you will encounter during this very difficult transitional period from bhāva to brahma.
I guess you're all interested in this, but I'm not qualified to teach you this. But niṣṭhā and especially the early stages of spiritual development are extremely important.
And the main metaphor which I use is the metaphor of the child. I will explain it in some details a little later. But we know that the first years of a child are most important.
For the child to properly develop as a mature human being, the first formative years are most important. And even though sometimes we rush into the higher stages of devotion, but we have to be very clear about this point.
If our initial stages are not properly formed, If our initial stages of spiritual development are not really passed sorely and properly, we will not be able to reach the higher stages.
And that's one of the most important points of the seminar. We have to really be careful about forming our Shraddha properly, about entering into sadhu sangha in a very proper mood, about
developing our skills in bhajana-kriyā, uh anartha-nivṛtti, bhajana-kriyā, about cleansing our heart and ultimately reaching the stage of niṣṭhā.
Because again, unless we go through this, we will not be able to reach the higher stages.
And Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, he compared these attempts to reach the higher stages without going through the lower stages with the attempts of newly married girl, to give birth to a child while she is still not really pregnant.
She goes to the labor room and really tries hard and makes all kinds of cries and you know, but it doesn't work somehow. So that's why please don't uh uh underappreciate uh this uh material which I uh came to give to you.
Uh okay yeah this is the supporting quote to this. And this is important. From this point on, I will give more details. Before I was just giving some synopsis of what I have said so far.
Comparing spiritual growth to child development
But this metaphor is very important. I suggest that it's very uh conducive for our understanding to use this metaphor of spiritual development, comparing the spiritual development with the development of a child.
Because there are many, many processes which are very much alike. And we know that this metaphor is used many times. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura compares Śraddhā with the little baby girl.
The common understanding is that the spiritual master gives you the second birth and he becomes your father and you become his little spiritual child. And in other places this metaphor is used,
but I am elaborating on this metaphor and in my elaboration the śraddhā or the first stage of spiritual development is compared with śaiśava or the babyhood when one is a very small baby, completely dependent on his mother's milk.
Before the milk is separated, this is the first period of life and of our life as a human being, and it's the first period of spiritual life in parallel which is called śraddhā and I will explain why there are so many similar points.
Then sādhu-saṅga is kaumāra, and usually it's uh until the five years old, uh, which is early childhood.
And this kaumāra stage is compared with sādhu-saṅga, it doesn't mean that sādhu saṅga should last five years. It may, it may last less, it may last more, depending on our abilities.
So don't take these figures literally, but still uh it's quite uh useful actually.
And then bhajana-kriyā uh can be compared to paugaṇḍa or childhood from 5 to 10 years and then anartha-nivṛtti can be compared with teenage period of life from five from 10 to 15.
And as we all know, you know, usually teenage period of life is the most troublesome, and anartha-nivṛtti is by far the most troublesome period of spiritual life.
And then niṣṭhā can be compared with yauvana or youth, which follows after that from uh uh fifteen to uh twenty, and then uh the next stages of development are there. So uh There is something wrong here. Oh, anyway.
Um the first stage: if we take this metaphor more or less literally, we will see that the same sort of development takes place when we uh develop spiritually uh and the uh just uh okay I cannot really do this. Okay.
So uh when a small baby is just born, uh his main activity is just trust. He trusts uh his parents completely because he doesn't have any other things to do.
So and this learning of trusting the devotees is the essence of the stage which we call śraddhā. The face, the essence of our activity on this stage is to learn how to trust devotees.
And I will explain in great details later about this. Then the second stage, sādhu-saṅga, we learn how to understand sādhus and how to speak as a devotee.
As much as little baby, when he grows little up, his main activity is to try to understand what his parents are talking to him. Right? And by understanding how they talk to him, he also gradually learns how to speak.
So the same uh thing is happening when we reach the stage of sādhu-saṅga, we gradually gradually learn how to understand what devotees talk.
In the beginning we just have uh completely irrational trust to them, we just like these people, and therefore we develop śraddhā.
But then we gradually understand what is their message, and in the same way, simultaneously we learn how to speak.
And while speaking, we sometimes we learn the terminology, we learn special terms of Vaishnava Siddhanta, and sometimes we use them quite indiscriminately as much as little babies sometimes bubbles something, you know, he doesn't really understand,
parents are completely in bliss that he's just saying Prabhupāda, Prabhupāda, Prabhupāda, you know, and we are saying Prabhupada Prabhupada without understanding who is Prabhupada, what is it.
So this is basically the essence of this sadhu sanga stage. Bhajana-kriyā when the little baby he grows a little up. Then he becomes very active. He runs around and he...
Initially, he just asks hundreds of questions, but then he starts running around and crushing everything around. So this is bhajana-kriyā. When we go to the altar and do some mess there.
Or when we try to more consistently, you know, chant Hare Krishna or whatever. So this is we learn how to act as a devotee. And then Anartha Nivriti means that we learn how to think as a devotee.
When one reaches this stage of teenage age, you know he starts really sinking more deeply. This thinking capacity develops the last before one matures. And then the last stage which we are going to describe is Nishta.
And that's the stage when we start the feelings start get to our heart. They're not yet there on the niṣṭhā stage or in the early youth stage. The feelings are immature.
But niṣṭhā is a specific stage when we're trying to bring our feelings or emotions, spiritual emotions to maturity. So that's uh and when we come to Ruchi, then the reflection of spiritual emotions comes to our heart.
It's not yet our own spiritual emotions, but it's reflected emotions because the heart becomes completely cleansed, and this clean heart reflects the spiritual emotions of higher-grade Vaiṣṇavas with whom we associate.
Forms of association across devotional stages
So that's uh as far as this metaphor uh is concerned in regard to different skills which we have to develop on each stage of spiritual development. Then, this is very important: the types of association on each stage.
We all know that we have to have association with superiors, equals, and juniors to us. But on every stage, the emphasis is little different.
Like a little child, little baby, he needs only nourishing association with the devotees. In the same way with śraddhā means only nourishing association. It's not very deep.
He just takes and takes and takes, this nourishing association is the first uh part.
The second sādhu-saṅga, plus to this, plus to the nourishing association with the devotees, he should take association giving shelter superiors. Those who are higher than us and who are ready to give us shelter, that's important.
As much as little baby he requires protection and shelter and the main association at that stage which helps to develop is the association with superiors.
Then we know when somebody comes to the childhood the friendship with peers becomes very important for spiritual development.
If a child does not really associate with his peers with other children, he will not be able to develop properly. In the same way, on the stage of Bhajanakriya, there is a lot of emphasis or should be given, a lot of emphasis should be given to association with the equals, with the peers, with other fellow devotees, and friendship
with them and the cooperative service because service means we're serving together. Bhakti this is one of the very important characteristics of bhakti. Bhakti is a cooperative endeavor. Like kīrtana.
You know, it's very difficult to have kīrtana alone. You may, of course sometimes under the shower sing Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna. But it's it's not very exciting here.
But you know, coming together uh it's very important on the stage of Bhajana Kriya.
And on the stage of Anartanivriti, helping juniors becomes very important because as I will explain, anarthanivriti means developing introspection.
And when we are helping others who are going through the same difficulties, it helps us to be more introspective and to understand what's going on in our own heart. Okay.
So this three kinds of association help to develop healthy ego of a servant and facilitate the growth of integrity and simultaneous integration into the society of the devotees.
On the contrary, lack of this association, somehow or other it's not finished. He it's an impediment to develop healthy ego.
Again, the healthy spiritual ego can only be developed in healthy spiritual ego can only be developed in the proper association in all three kinds of association.
And as far as the what is developing, also, I said about the development of certain skills, but also one can say it differently. On the level of Shraddha, we develop trust.
On the level of Sadhu Sangha, we develop the commitment, the spirit of commitment, or spirit of surrender. Here it's responsibility, but it's more or less the same thing.
On the level of Bhajana Kriya, uh we develop uh mindfulness or introspection, more thoughtful attitude as opposed to mechanical attitude which was there.
And on the stage of anarthanivṛtti, we really work on developing humility, tolerance and respect in the association of other devotees.
Again, if the time will allow, I will explain later when we go through all these stages in more details.
Adapting rules to higher spiritual stages
And Ṭhākura Bhaktivinoda gives a very interesting principle. Please note it very carefully. He says in Bhakti Loka chapter 4: according to the degree of faith, each level has different rules.
We all know that basically the development, spiritual development can also be said as development of phase, but each level has different rules.
As one leaves behind one level and progresses to the next, he should honor the rules of the later and leave aside those of the former.
Those who do not give up the rules of the previous level are bound by those rules like chains that do not allow him to proceed to the next level.
In other words, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura is talking that sometimes we become attached to a certain level of spiritual development and certain rules which we learned to follow.
But if we want to progress, we really have to give up the lower rules and follow the higher rules. And it's not sometimes easy, and therefore, the crisis takes place.
Actually, what I want to explain in this seminar: the transitional points which are sometimes little difficult because we get attached to a certain level of spiritual advancement, and the next level of spiritual advancement requires completely different, everything different. The commitment is different, the outlook is different, and sometimes it's difficult.
Therefore, we may prefer to remain on a previous level without avoiding the responsibilities of the next level. And that's what Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura is explaining.
It's very important to be steady in our progress in spiritual life. And therefore, the crisis takes place. And as I said, we should not deem or view the crisis as something necessarily bad or evil.
Crisis it's a Greek word and it means decision or turning point. It's basically crisis means that decision which we have to take when we reach certain point of our development. And it's usually a difficult decision.
Sometimes it's not easy for us to decide that yes, we want to go further. Because we're already in a comfort zone. What comes when we just reach certain level of spiritual advancement?
It's a little uneasy and comfortable, but then uh we become comfortable on this stage of spiritual development and at that point all of sudden we have to go further and we don't want to. We just want to stay where we are because it's nice, it's it's really nice.
And sometimes Krishna has to give us little uh you know push or kick uh depending on the level of our stubbornness. And the more stubborn we are the stronger will be the push.
So and it's it's difficult. And therefore we call it crisis. You know, crisis is just a very gentle and loving kick of Krishna. If the kick can be gentle and loving. But it is.
So and therefore we have to be actually very grateful. When the crisis comes, we have to really be grateful to Krishna. And sometimes, you know, through the tears we have to say thank you, Krishna, yeah.
Thank you very much. Why should you do? Why are you doing this to me? Thank you, thank you. So this is what crisis means.
But if you understand it, it will become easier for us to uh tolerate and to uh understand what's going on.
Outcomes of navigating a spiritual crisis
So, and as I explained yesterday uh last time when I was speaking this, there are three possible outcomes. When we go through a crisis, there could be three different scenarios. One is we successfully overcome the crisis,
and another one is that we fail to overcome the crisis. And another one is some sort of compromise. These are three possible scenarios which can take place. And when we overcome the crisis successfully, then what happens?
Our attachment to Krishna increases.
To Krishna means to the devo— to the devotees, I will say, to the practice of devotional service, we become more fixed and more dedicated, then our internal integrity also grows up simultaneously. We become stronger internally and more integrated whole. We become more wholesome, so to speak, inside.
And then simultaneously we become closer to other devotees. Our relationship becomes stronger, and our attachment to the society of devotees becomes stronger.
And then at the same time, as I said, we form a new skill or the ability to follow a new set of rules, which is required When we enter to the new stage of spiritual development. Set of skills, let's say.
You know, if it's simplified just one skill, but usually it's a set of skill. It basically means the skill of associating with other people properly.
Like in the beginning, we may not know how to associate what it means to counsel juniors,
but when we reach this stage of anartha-nivritti, then this skill is gradually developing, and so many other stuff, so many other things is being developed.
But as I said, there is one main skill which we should develop, or one main quality which we should develop on each and every stage of spiritual advancement. So failure to overcome the crisis means exactly the opposite.
Our commitment to the practice of Krishna consciousness does not become stronger. Rather it bec it becomes uh slack, it becomes you know it becomes little less. Sometimes we are not going further.
There is some stagnation at best, if not going even on the previous stages.
And we become weaker spiritually, our spiritual ego becomes weaker, not more integrated, and we become estranged from the society of the devotees.
We can see it, you know, sometimes people they they come to the society of devotees, they're very enthusiastic, they're very much included into society of devotees, but then the crisis takes place, and then you know, if he doesn't overcome this, he becomes little estranged.
He stops his association with devotees either entirely or he limits it or he associates with similar people who have similar problems as him. So that's how we can see.
The crisis is not really successfully overcome, and therefore, these processes take place. And then the and then, of course, we fail to develop new skill and follow the new set of rules of the higher stage.
And compromise: it basically means that externally we are moving forward, but we didn't resolve our internal problems. It will become very clear when I will explain the details of this. What it means.
But it basically means that we are prematurely, uh, externally trying to go to the next stage of spiritual development, let's say taking initiations, which implies, or second initiation, which implies bhajana kriya or serious introspection, but internally we remain on the same level, and that creates the ground for further problems.
And the crisis will come again for sure, but this time more severely, because uh we didn't really properly resolve the crisis or overcome the crisis.
And as far as the impediments on each stage is concerned, I will also very briefly mention them. On the first stage of development, there is a very strong impediment fear of taking shelter or mistrust.
Because we were betrayed so many times that it's difficult for us to take shelter, on the fear uh on the sadhu sanga the fear of uh accepting commitment or responsibility, on the fear of bhajana kriya, on the stage of bhajana kriya mechanical following, or fear of introspection.
And on the stage of Anartanyvriti, the fear of utter humility and respect. No, it's like a lassi. Yes. Okay. Must be some omen some Akashwani the voice from the sky of the internet.
Okay, so this is the I hope I'm also somewhere there. Anyway, so this is uh some impediments and uh as I said we will uh yeah and here I only mentioned the names of the crisis and
uh on the next uh section we will go deeply into the stages and into this material. So on the stage of Sraddha, there is a crisis of trust. The crisis anyway, you will understand what it means. Just note it.
On the stage of Sadhu Sangha, the crisis of fear of commitment, on the stage of Bhajanakri, the crisis of lack of spiritual taste and substitution of the goal.
When we are trying because we are lacking genuine taste, we try to achieve some subsidiary results from our practice of Krishna consciousness on the stage of Bhajanakriya.
And on the stage of Anartha Nivriti, before we go to Nishta, there is a crisis of complete spiritual failure. Actually, last time when I was giving this seminar, I stopped here. That's that far we could go together.
And one disciple of Srila Prabhupada approached me and he said, Out of all of your seminar which you gave, this last statement was the most relevant to me. I could relate to it.
You know, before we come to the stage of Nishta, actually, there is this there will be a severe crisis of the destruction of the false spiritual persona or personality which we very carefully created ourselves in the society of devotees and it's a very painful crisis.
We will not go into these details, but I was very happy to hear this confirmation when he said this. And he said, after that, my faith and my practice became really firm.
So that means coming to the stage of niṣṭhā. Before that were more or less creating some sort of false spiritual persona or personality.
Meaning and etymology of shraddha
Okay, we only have 15 minutes to go, and I have very important things to say more. So when we come to Shraddha, now we go into details, what's happening in the heart of a person who develops Shraddha.
The very word Shraddha has two different etymologies. One is krat dha or krit dha. Krit is uh krit o krat is the same in Sanskrit, it's the same as heart in English.
Krit och hart it's coming from Sanskrit. So and dha means to to place. So šradha means where I invest my heart, where do I place my heart? Where my heart is being placed firmly.
So that's what the word shraddha means according to the first etymology. According to Nirukta dictionary there is a different etymology of this word from the root srat and srat from the verbal root sru to hear.
Shrad means what is to be heard and shradd in this case means trusting what we have heard. So, these two etymologies, very interesting, both are important and relevant to our discussion.
They, if we think about them, they will give the difference between the word faith in English or Russian vera or whatever and Sanskrit śraddhā.
Usually, when we say faith, we mean the faith into some concept. Into some belief, some sort of idea.
But here we can clearly see that it's rather the investment of the heart and trusting what we have heard, it's rather the trust in some people, not just concept.
And it's very, very important because in the beginning we may or may not understand very clearly what we believe in, but we trust the people who believe what they believe. And we want to believe the same thing which they believe.
In the beginning, when a person just comes, uh, you know, it's hard to underst- to expect from him that he has some comprehensive understanding of faith.
Shraddha does not mean initially a comprehensive understanding of the creed.
Actually this root krat or krat there is also Latin word creed, and creed means I believe what I believe, like credo in Catholic Church. What I believe.
So śraddhā does not mean necessarily initially at the very beginning the creed in this sense, the faith into some belief, belief into some sort of theological system.
śraddhā means trust, respect or strong desire. That's the usage of this word in the dictionary. If you go to any good Sanskrit dictionary, Sanskrit English dictionary.
They say it trust means personal trust. Respect means again towards some persons. Worship again means some personal relationship or strong desire.
So this is what I explained here. It's not necessarily belief of some concept or practice. It's rather the trust into some people who embody the desired ideal and respect to these people. This is what śraddhā means.
And Śrīla Prabhupāda explains this beautifully in this quote. So this appreciation is also a lift for such person. So he says that śraddhā means appreciation.
If he does, doesn't hear, doesn't come, simply one says, even if he doesn't hear, he says, doesn't come, simply says, oh, this is very nice.
Sometimes Prabhupāda said, oh, sometimes they write in the newspapers, this Hare Kṛṣṇa, they're very nice people. He said, these people who say this, they have śraddhā.
Because they have appreciation to Hare Kṛṣṇa, to those people who practice. So simply one says this is very nice. It is very nice. Yes.
Just like a small children, a baby. He's also appreciating, trying to stand up with his symbols, appreciating from the very beginning of life, appreciating this is nice, this is nice.
Faith as genuine appreciation of devotees
Again, Śrīla Prabhupāda compares somebody who has śraddhā with a little baby. And little baby, he doesn't understand any concepts, he just says, oh, but this is nice.
Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare, jaya Prabhupāda. So that's uh he knows or does not know, it doesn't matter. Śraddhā again means appreciation, not necessarily intellectual understanding.
This is the continuation of the quote. Simply appreciation is giving him a touch of spiritual life. It is so nice, śraddhā.
If they do not go against, simply appreciate, oh, they're doing nice, so development of spiritual life means development of this appreciation. That's all. But degree there are appreciations.
So Prabhupada gives a very profound definition of the spiritual development. Development of this appreciation of what other devotees are doing. Those who are more advanced.
If we appreciate this, we develop, and the more we appreciate, the more we develop; if we try to somehow or other offend them or disrespect them or disregard what they're doing, not really appreciating how they are doing, what they are doing, what the essence of their life is, that means falling, the not progress in spiritual life, but falling down, yes.
or devolution, so to speak.
So, śraddhā is not a conscious choice, but spontaneous appreciation based on bhakti-mukti-sukṛti. As much as a baby does not choose his mother but spontaneously pulled into her womb and just accepts her.
So, you know, śraddhā is beyond, sometimes beyond our conscious decision. Shraddha is not a conscious decision. We just see devotees and we like them. And that means we develop Shraddha. Very generous definition.
But what is important, if it was only this, it would be very good. But the śraddhā on this stage should develop and we should uh basically ultimately get
the pure Vedic knowledge and association of the devotees who live according to this principle of Krishna consciousness, spiritual principles. And we have to really associate with them personally.
Śrīla Prabhupāda says devotional service to Krishna consciousness can never be attained by any amount of speculation but by the causeless mercy of a pure devotee of Krishna.
It is a matchless gift bestowed by Mahatma or Great Soul out of compassion for fallen living entities.
It's an extremely important statement, and sometimes we do too much emphasis into this internet interaction, or sometimes into this in personal interactions.
There has to be personal touch, and I will give a very beautiful quote.
Role of pure devotees in awakening faith
Yeah, Prabhupāda says when he directly was asked, "What does mean śraddhā?" what face means, he says, śraddhā means the face into spiritual master. So this relationship is important.
And Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura also says the same thing in Bhakti-tattva-viveka.
The sole cause of the appearance of faith is the association of a sadhu who has deep love for the narrations for the narrations of Krishna's pastimes? Now we have to ask ourselves what happened with me?
How my face developed? Did it develop because I met a sadhu who has uh deep love for the narrations of Krishna's pastimes? Not necessarily, right?
Yeah, it may happen that our śraddhā may develop differently in different association with different devotees of different caliber, then it is written here. But that means that there will be some problems in the future.
It's a sad news. The good news is that you saw a devotee, you said, oh, they are nice, you already have śraddhā. The bad news, it's not that easy.
So, uh, śraddhā means, you know, as much as the baby has to develop what psychologists call safe emotional attachment to the mother, uh, not not a different kind of emotional attachment. In the same way, there should be some emotional attachment which we as a little spiritual baby have to develop towards the devotees. And it basically means that devotees have to behave with us in a certain way like the mother behaves with a little baby, like a good mother behaves with a baby.
No demand, no expectation, no interest, no cause, acceptance and causeless, uh, causeless care, which should come from the preacher, you know. Then only the śraddhā will develop.
So listen, this is a very beautiful quote of Śrīla Prabhupāda. Śrīla Prabhupāda explains in one conversation, how he became a devotee. He said, because his spiritual master said, so I shall make him a disciple.
This was the result that saṅkalpa in the heart of Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī when he met a nice intelligent boy, so I shall make him a disciple.
These very words he said, Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī himself said this to Śrīla Prabhupāda. I, you know, I shall make you my disciple. Actually, I didn't follow him in the beginning.
Follow him means I didn't understand what he was speaking. Again, the same point, śraddhā doesn't mean that you understand anything intellectually. I didn't follow him in the beginning.
High philosophical speaking, and I was a new boy. I couldn't follow him. But actually I was so much glad to hear him. That's all. So that was my qualification. Whatever you may say.
So this is how Prabhupāda very beautifully explains the birth of his own śraddhā and his spiritual master.
From one end, the spiritual master has this causeless mercy upon a little baby, which he is about to conceive, and from the other side the appreciation of this little baby. I don't understand what he is talking about.
You know, this Krishna is the supreme Personality of Godhead. You know, I remember when I first read this phrase in English, I was really pondering, I couldn't understand what this Godhead means.
Godhead, I thought, you know, Golden Head, you know, Golden Head, how is that Golden Head?
I translated it, my first translation I used to translate and translated in it into Russian by putting together god and head and you know there's no such word in Russian so I couldn't understand anything but some appreciation was there.
So Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura gives a very important statement. He said the association in the beginning, if associate with mixed devotees, it will mean that at the end there will be problems. We are up to troubles.
Because mixed devotees means those devotees who have some Interest. Some, and not only Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī in Bhakti-sandarbha says the same thing.
He says there are two types of speakers with attachment and without attachment. The speaker with attachment is full of material desire and greed. Lolupaḥ kāmī. And tad-uktam chin-nāsaṁ spṛhet. Very beautiful statement.
It's from Brahma-vaivarta Purāṇa. Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī says, somebody who has greed, some cause, you know, he's a preacher of some sort, but his words don't touch the heart, doesn't really go deeper into the heart.
He teaches in this way without examining the subject matter and the nature of his listeners carefully, what is taught in this way is harmful to the population. Not only it's harmful, he says,
lokānām akṣamaḥ. It really uh brings destruction.
If you have in other words, those who are preaching to the public, those devotees who are endowed with this responsibility to preach to people, they really have to examine their motives.
If they have some motif, some ulterior motives, it's very bad. And Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura explains it even more beautifully. Please listen what he says.
On the strength of performing many actions favorable to devotion, bhakti-unmukha-sukṛti, over many lifetimes, faith in the process of bhakti eventually arises. This phase through association with devotees yields taste,
ruci, by chanting in the association of pure devotees, sādhana-bhakti directed towards premā arises.
And if by mercy of those pure devotees he accepts the correct practice of chanting very quickly, he comes to the stage of aspiring for premā. If, however, please listen very carefully.
However, he takes instruction from a mixed devotee or a semi-devotee, half-devotee, it will be difficult for him to attain premā. He cannot become a fully surrendered devotee.
And sinful impressions still linger in him, still influence him. He does not appreciate the pure devotees. Crookedness appears and his heart becomes deceptive.
In this condition, the practitioner must spend many births as a neophyte, kaniṣṭha-adhikārī.
Though kaniṣṭha-adhikārī has faith, it's very tender, swayed often by temptations. So please understand the gravity of this statement. The Bhaktivinoda says, if you associate with mixed devotees and they're all mixed devotees, very severe consequences are there you will have you will be many births as a kaniṣṭha-adhikārī and you will not be able to appreciate pure devotees.
But basically it's it's to overstress and emphasize the need for pure association. We're running out of time, but I beg you to wait for a few minutes. Are you ready for this?
Moving from initial trust to scriptural faith
Yeah. So, but then from the trust to Vaishnavas, the next stage is thrust to Shastras or books of Śrīla Prabhupāda. So what shall we do?
Immediately we should direct the devotees who somehow or other develop Śraddhā in our association to the books of Śrīla Prabhupāda. To the Vedas. Because in this way we will be able to give them pure milk.
The mother of a little baby has to give the pure milk, and the pure milk should be books of Śrīla Prabhupāda and Great Ācāryas. As soon as possible, we have to direct them in this direction.
We have to take a very humble role without taking too much responsibility books. books. And of course, we have to live according to these books. And it's very interesting.
Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura says that even in the beginning, this tender śāstrīya śraddhā, tender śraddhā on the first stage, it's very strong. If it's based on śāstras, immediately we have to help this
particular person to develop faith in śāstra and the logic of Śrīla Prabhupāda and in this way he will avoid these problems of completely useless laukika śraddhā or conventional faith.
Listen what Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura says. Other persons using scriptural logic can defeat a person with standard faith on a level of śraddhā.
However, the person is not completely unconvinced, because in, uh, that case the person would not be considered a devotee.
In other words, Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura says, unless and until you have śāstrīya śraddhā, you're not a devotee. Faith in śāstra, in books of Śrīla Prabhupāda in our case, is the beginning of real spiritual life.
Weak faith in this verse means temporary unsteadiness of the heart when defeated by strong materialistic opponents. Later, person regains faith in what the Guru has taught by his own judgment.
So that's a very important thing.
So we have to associate with Śrīla Prabhupāda and higher grades of devotees, either through books, ideally personally, and develop this śāstrīya Shraddha which, they only can give. And this is the crisis.
Now we come to the crisis. In the beginning, there is a tendency to idealize one's guru. One needs to feel that my guru is all-powerful. He's a great mystic yogi, he reads my heart.
If you hear some disciples of Śrīla Prabhupāda, you know, he reads my heart, he knows everything, he just he creates miracles. Which is fine. Because a little baby, he has to consider his parents all powerful. Right?
He literally considers my parents they are all-powerful, they are the most powerful creatures in the creation. But it creates a problem.
Because the beginners usually consider his guru as a powerful mystic yogi and attributes him with all kinds of you know mystical qualities which he may not have.
And that the duty of Guru is to somehow rather get the disciple out of this idealisation. It's a beautiful story Pushtakrishna Prabhu tells about Prabhupada.
During that meeting with Srila Prabhupada, I spoke with him alone and revealed some of the things that were on my mind and my heart.
I said to Srila Prabhupada, Krishna revealed himself to me and that's why I have come to you. He said now and he said to this now you have, uh, Śrīla Prabhupāda didn't really tell this didn't really take it personally.
I came to you, you are like Krishna. Now you must tell them that God is not dead. Again, he put him from this obsession with Guru to preach., yeah And I said, Prabhupada, you're the only person I trust in this world.
And Srila Prabhupada looked at me very kindly and said, don't trust me. I will let you down. Trust Krishna. He will never let you down. So that's what the Guru says.
Don't have this wrong ideas that I'm all powerful, this and that.
And there is another story in this regard, Jayapatākā Mahārāja says once Śrīla Prabhupāda was sitting in a room in Calcutta when a life member businessman said, Can you show us some miracle.
Prabhupāda said some yogi show a miracle by creating some rasagullā. I went to America with 40 rupees, and in the short span we now have temples all over the world was of 400 million rupees. Isn't it a miracle? And the businessman thought a moment and said, yes, that's a miracle.
So the guru has to bring the disciple to the proper level of understanding what Guru really means. Guru is one who teaches shastra, not the one who creates some miracles, rasgullas, or watches or whatever.
And some gurus prefer to do something else. But they are false gurus. The real guru has to bring somebody from this idealization into this level. But what happens uh in a Neophyte disciple uh there
is complete unreal trust into a devotee uh when we ascribe some mystic qualities to a devotee, but he's a human mistress. And therefore, oftentimes idealization, idealization follows deprecation.
The deprecation goes after idealization, and there is a beautiful example from the life of Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī.
Impressed with Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī's personality and presentation of siddhānta in 1916, an educated and renounced young man came to join him at Yoga Pīṭha and started performing intense bhajana.
But upon noting that Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī spent considerable time in keeping careful records of the accounts, the young man harshly criticized him and left to seek another sadhu.
In other words, he saw that Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī looking through the books and he said what kind of guru he is. He's a mystical yogi, he has to know everything by his mystic powers.
And therefore he left him and started criticizing him. There is also a beautiful story about Prabhupāda.
One young hippie came to him in San Francisco and Śrīla Prabhupāda somebody told her that there is a guru and he's from India and he's teaching very far out things and she was looking for a guru.
She came and devotees brought her to Śrīla Prabhupāda, it was San Francisco at the very beginning. And Prabhupada was sitting with Gargamuni. And Gargamuni was his bookkeeper. And Prabhupada said, just wait here.
And Śrīla Prabhupāda was going through the books with Gargamuni. Why did you spend one dollar here? Why did you spend twenty uh twenty cents here? What is this big expense two two dollars for this and they were
going and going and she was sitting and sitting and sitting and she becoming more and more impatient and indignant and ultimately uh she she exploded. She burst it out.
She stood up and she said, I came here to find the truth.
And Prabhupāda looked at her very calmly and said, sit down, you came to the right place, just sit down, don't worry. So that's what I mean, that's that's this crisis where we ascribe some mystical powers and then we see some reality and we develop some doubts.
And this is the last thing which I will say now, because I'm really Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī's... After that happened, this man left him and started criticizing him.
After that happened, this man left him and started criticizing him. He wrote a letter to all his disciples, because he felt that they may be affected with the same sort of faith crisis.
Because he knew they're neophytes and they have exaggerated or wrong understanding of what's happening in the beginning, or what is, who is Guru. And therefore he wrote, please listen.
I don't know what it is, but may Kṛṣṇa forgive his offenses. Though he's a so-called brahmacārī, he's fallen. Such a sad fate awaits those who offend Kṛṣṇa's lotus feet and act independently.
All of you chant Kṛṣṇa's name unceasingly, recite Vaiṣṇava literature without committing offenses. He has fallen into Satan's hands. But we shall not give up hari-sevā.
We wish him all the best in every verse, though we cannot envisage any good fortune for him in this life. He left me in an exceedingly hard-hearted manner. Do not be rattled upon seeing his misfortune.
I know that foolish people will blame me for this incident. I hope that you have passed Satan's test and are fearlessly chanting Harinam, even if without faith, continue chanting most attentively.
So again, he knows this problem. No firm faith yet. All kinds of doubts. Internet, social media. What is this? How it's called? Whatever. All kinds of criticism. Don't do this. Just try to understand who is Guru.
Guru is somebody who gives you the milk of Veda, somebody who teaches you Shastra,
if this is there, he is the real Guru, associate with him, take this faith and develop spiritually, develop your śraddhā and come back home, back to Godhead eventually. Hare Kṛṣṇa. So
tomorrow I will continue with the next stage which is very interesting. So, has it become a little more clear in in this? Thank you very much.