Stages and Crises on the Path of Bhakti. Lecture 1
Бхакти Вигьяна Госвами · Лондон · 2017
Главы
Invocational prayers and opening homage
Om ajñāna-timirāndhasya jñānāñjana-śalākayā cakṣunmīlitaṃ yena tasmai śrī-gurave namaḥ śrī-caitanya-mano-'bhīṣṭaṁ sthāpītaṁ yena bhū-tale svayaṁ rūpaḥ kadā mahyaṁ dadāti sva-padāntikam
vande 'haṁ śrī-guroḥ śrī-yuga-pada-kamalaṁ śrī-gurūn vaiṣṇavāṁś ca śrī-rūpaṁ sāgrajātaṁ saha-gaṇa-raghunāthānvitam taṁ sājīvam sādvaitaṁ sāvadhūtaṁ parijana-sahitaṁ kṛṣṇa-caitanya-devaṁ śrī-rādhā-kṛṣṇa-pādān saha-gaṇa-lalitā-śrī-viśākhānvitāṁś ca
he kṛṣṇa karuṇā-sindho dīna-bandhu jagat-pate gopeśa gopikā-kānta rādhā-kānta namo 'stu te tapta-kāñcana-gaurāṅgi rādhe vṛndāvaneśvari vṛṣabhānu-sute devi praṇamāmi hari-priye vāñchā-kalpatarubhyaḥ ca kṛpā-sindhubhya eva ca
patitānāṁ pāvanebhyo vaiṣṇavebhyo namo namaḥ nama oṁ viṣṇu-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tale śrīmate bhaktivedānta-svāmin iti nāmine नमस्ते सरस्वती देवे गौरवाणी प्रचारिणे निर्विशेष शून्यवादी पाश्चात्य देश तारिणे
jaya śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu 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 kanaka-avadātaḥ saṅkīrtanaika-pitarau kamalāyatākṣau
viśvambharau dvija-varau yuga-धर्म-पालौ vande jagat-priyakarau karuṇāvatārau māyā-vīcitā-mahā-prasuptaṁ mahā-vighnaugha-bhṛtaṁ pradīptaṁ svayaṁ prakāśaṁ nija-śakti-dhāraṁ vande guroḥ śrī-caraṇāravindam shayatu.
Feel very much embarrassed by the presence of His Holiness Bhakti Charu Swami and Kalakanta Prabhu. But as an act of service I will try to say something, but I need your blessings to be able to do this. Thank you.
The path of spiritual development
Um if I knew that you would be here, I'd refuse to give class. The topic of my little presentation today and tomorrow is the path of spiritual development.
And we heard many times from Srila Prabhupada that the path of bhakti is very easy. And it's very joyful. Susukam Kartumadiam. And we definitely have very firm belief in this statement.
But uh we also have to somehow rather bring this firm belief or faith in the statements that it's an easy pass.
We have to bring it together to our practical experience, which is sometimes not so I mean somehow or other we can see that there are some difficulties and uh the whole journey, spiritual journey may not be that uh that easy and that joyful at times.
And uh basically uh uh uh what I'm going to describe is is is based on mostly statements of Śrīla Prabhupāda, Bhaktivinoda Thakura, Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī, dealing with certain aspects, certain problematic aspects of spiritual development.
And originally we know that there is this statement in Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, ādau śraddhā tataḥ sādhu-saṅgaḥ, which describes the stages of bhakti or gradual development in bhakti. of bhakti or gradual development in bhakti.
Somehow rather Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī and the original commentator of Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī, They hardly give any attention to these two verses from Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu. There is no elaboration on the stages of spiritual development there.
Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī gives very short commentary on this. And of course, we know that Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura wrote the whole book commenting on these two verses, Madhurya-kādambinī.
Ideal conditions versus modern reality
So usually you know we have uh courses in ISKCON on this book, many devotees, many Prabhupāda's disciples were explaining this book of Madhurya- kādambinī, but somehow rather even while reading this book there was some sort of dissatisfaction in myself, because certain descriptions in this book seem to be not matching so much with the reality.
And I think that the main reason is that Viśvanātha Cakravartī Thakur, by describing the spiritual development, he takes an ideal case.
He himself gives an example of a brāhmaṇa boy who is brought up in a very pure environment with very good saṁskāras. And somehow or other he gets the śraddhā, and this śraddhā is also very nicely formed.
It's an ideal śāstrīya-śraddhā. An ideal śraddhā based on śāstras. And then you know his path of spiritual development is very nicely being described by Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura in this book Madhurya- kādambinī.
Whereas if we take us or our cases, I mean we are not to start
with not brāhmaṇa boys, maybe some of us, uh uh, but uh even brāhmaṇas of these days, they're mostly, you know, I don't know who they are, but they are not the originally conceived ideal brāhmaṇas of, you know, even two, three hundred years back.
And you know, we will not speak about our sams caras because it may take and you know and of course the case which is being described
there why the śraddhā is so ideal because this brāhmaṇa boy he goes somewhere into the you know holy place and meet with the Mahabhagavata devotee and hears him and immediately he develops śraddhā and this śraddhā is being you know nicely developing within his heart he,
gets a very pure seed of śraddhā in his heart. This bhakti-latā-bīja is very pure. If we analyze our bhakti-latā-bīja, it may not be that pure.
Of course, we get original śraddhā from Śrīla Prabhupāda's books, reading books, but at the same time, there is a lot of development of our faith through the social interactions between the devotees.
And this social interaction is not necessarily always very healthy in terms of our spiritual development. And that also influences us.
Mixed instructions and slow progress
In other words, uh you know if I analyze the bhakti-latā-bīja which is there within our heart, it may not be the pure bhakti-latā-bīja, it may be genetically modified bhakti-latā-bīja and we get genetically modified fruit of this bīja, so So uh the scenario is different and we have to take into consideration.
And um uh after that, of course, uh Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, he wrote the whole book, Bhakti-tattva-viveka where he describes mixtures of Tattva Vivek where he describes mixtures of
in bhakti-latā-bīja when it's not so pure. And among other things, he writes a very interesting thing in Caitanya-śikṣāmṛta. It's a very interesting statement which was inspirational for me to get into this topic.
It's from Caitanya-śikṣāmṛta by Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura. On the strength of performing many actions favorable to devotion over many lifetimes, faith in the process of bhakti eventually arises.
This faith through association of devotees yields taste, ruci. by chanting in the association of pure devotees, sadhana bhakti directed
towards premā arises. If by the mercy of those pure devotees he accepts the correct practice of chanting, very quickly he comes to the stage of aspiring for prema. It's a recurrent theme in our scriptures
that this path to prema is a very quick one. But at the same time, again, if we take a real case, then we will see that it may not be that quick. But he writes next, very important and very significant statement.
If, however, he takes instruction from a mixed devotee or a semi-devotee, it will be difficult for him to attain prema.
In other words, if we get the instructions from not so pure source, it will be difficult to attain prema. He cannot become fully surrendered devotee. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says.
As sinful impressions 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, as a kanishta adhikari. Though the kanishta adhikari has faith, it's very tender, swayed often by temptations.
So, in this very telling and significant statement, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says that the development of bhakti may take different roots, so to speak. And sometimes it may take many, many lifetimes.
And it will be very difficult to be surrendered if initial stages of our spiritual development are not properly understood. There was another reason why I got into this topic.
Some time ago I was visiting Oxford and I was speaking with somebody, I believe it was Sridhara Swami, or maybe somebody else, I don't remember exactly.
And he was telling me about his encounter was there was some interface sort of happening there.
And some Christian theologian came to them and he uh specifically asked he he was not sure whether we are bona fide in terms of religious background. So he specifically asked a very interesting question.
He said, Do you have a book which surely describes the stages of spiritual development? And the implied meaning behind this question was: if you do, then you're bona fide. If you don't, you are nowhere.
So and of course, the answer was: yes, we have, it's Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura. But again, uh as I said, Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura describes something which doesn't always match with our reality, unfortunately.
And therefore, I got uh into uh into this topic trying to elaborate on this. Uh and uh uh uh even uh in this book with Madhurya KadamBini, certain stages Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura describes very briefly.
For example, while describing sādh-u-saṅga stage, he just he gives one sentence, only one sentence.
And he doesn't describe, basically doesn't describe anartha-nivṛtti as such. For example, there is bhajana-kriyā and then niṣṭhā. And Anartanyavriti is something which is more or less automatically happening on the stage of Bhajanakriya.
And of course, he describes very elaborately the crises during the stage of Bhajana Kriya, but still it's interesting. He kind of amidst this stage of Anarthanivriti.
Whereas if we take Śrīla Prabhupāda's description or especially Bhaktivinoda Thakur's descriptions, we will see that there are some certain things which are happening in this stage of anarthanivṛtti.
Anyway, that's more or less uh the idea uh behind my little study of this topic. And I want to share with you some of my findings uh during the course of this uh little investigation.
Development of the spiritual ego
Um and specifically I I was uh Studying the first uh stages of spiritual development, and today I will speak a little bit about uh Shraddha and different types of Shraddha which are there.
But also while I was thinking of how to approach this topic, I have a scientific background and therefore I was thinking how to approach this topic.
How to uh what shall we take uh as an initial premise to investigate this topic, and I found a very interesting statement again in the same book Madhuri Kadambini at the end, in the last chapter of Madhuri Kadambini.
Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura says that there are two types of ego: the material ego and spiritual ego.
And he says, ahaṅkāra and mamatā, this is the structure of our ego, who I am, who I think I am, and Mamatha, what I think belongs to me.
And Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura says that basically spiritual development is nothing but the development of spiritual ego as opposed to material ego.
And while describing this, he also makes a very interesting statement.
He describes how this spiritual ego and it's it's a very interesting process according to him because it's not that we have our material ego and this material ego or material ahaṅkāra is being spiritualized. It's a separate development.
We have now material ego or material identification, identification with matter. And at the same time, while we practice bhakti, chant the holy name and listen to scriptures, a separate structure is being developed.
Because if we see how Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura describes this development stage by stage, for example, he says that on a stage of Nishta, which is quite advanced stage of spiritual development, when we achieve Nishta, he says that our identification with matter is still complete.
He says we are more or less completely identified with the matter. But still at the same time the spiritual ego is also somewhat developed. It's not that it's just completely proportionate.
To a certain proportion you diminished your material ego and the same proportion you developed your spiritual ego. It's a different process, it's a parallel process.
Your material ego is being destroyed gradually, and at the same time, spiritual ego is being developed.
So I kind of took it as an inspiration and tried to investigate this topic of spiritual development from this point of view.
How my spiritual ego, my spiritual ahanta and mamata, my spiritual understanding of who I am and what I think is mine, is being developed.
Facing crises during spiritual growth
And in the course of this development, if we take a child, and basically that's the metaphor which uh I I took while thinking about this process.
If we take a child, the development of a child is nothing but development of his ego, of his separate identity.
And uh those uh scientists who are uh into this developmental uh psychology they say that in the course of developing ego, separate identity. A child undergoes certain crises.
And crisis is nothing, it's not necessarily a painful uh sort of event or painful uh internal condition. Crisis is uh a formation of a new structure in your ego.
And a very interesting observation is being made by those people who investigate or study this uh developmental psychology is that uh if the crisis is successfully uh overcome, then the child becomes more integrated into the society.
He becomes more equipped in dealing with the challenges of the life and in dealing with other people.
Whereas if the crisis is not successfully gone through, and still there are some problems, then the different development is taking place. He becomes more estranged from the society.
And what we can see in case of the spiritual development, we also see some certain points, critical points in the course of our spiritual development. And a similar dynamic can be seen in the course of spiritual development.
If this crisis is successfully gone through, then somebody is becoming more integrated or more connected with other people. And ultimately more connected with Krishna.
And vice versa, if the crisis is not really successfully gone through and there are some problems in the course of going through this crisis. Then the same sort of development is taking place, we become more estranged.
We become, the connection with other devotees become more distant and proportionately our connection with Krishna becomes also more distant or our bondage with Krishna becomes weakened.
And bondage and connection with other devotees... So that's basically what was uh inspiring me while I was studying this.
And that was the point of view, the specific point of view from which I was trying to approach this topic. So that's more or less the introduction to the whole topic which I wanted to give.
And of course, we'll start with Shraddha with the first stage, and today I will not touch any crises of spiritual development.
But while studying these stages, we can very clearly see that there are certain crises and this crisis is nothing but the intermediate stage. You know, going from Sradha to Sadhu Sangha, there is a little crisis there.
And if we minutely study how psychologically it's being, you know, that there is a certain crisis and from going from Sadhu Sangha to Bhajanakriya, there is certain crisis which one has to go through.
And again, crisis is not necessarily something bad or painful. Crisis is just the formation of some qualities which need to be there to function on a different stage.
Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura also very interestingly says, I believe in Bhakti-loka that each stage of spiritual development has its own unique rules.
And if we follow these rules, then very quickly we go from one stage to another stage.
Whereas if we don't know these rules and try to function according to the rules of the previous stage, which is the tendency, because we all have our comfort zone and we try to kind of follow the rules of the lower stage, then the progress will be slackened, the progress will be slowed down, and we will not go from stage to stage.
So basically, again, my topic: I wanted to see what should be the rules which we should follow on each stage of spiritual development.
Two types of spiritual faith
And specifically, also I was investigating or studying this topic from the point of view of counselors who are helping other people to develop spiritually.
So and today again I will not deal with all these crises, but today I will deal well I will deal with the first crisis which we have. That is what kind of face we get. What kind of faith or śraddhā we develop.
And we know, probably heard, that there are basically two types of faith of śraddhā. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura very clearly spells it out, but originally it's coming from Bhakti-sandarbha by Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī and even more
originally it's coming from the Bhagavad-gītā itself. Because in the Bhagavad-gītā Kṛṣṇa again very clearly says, O Arjuna actually says, Arjuna asks Kṛṣṇa the question. He says, Kṛṣṇa, please tell me how to what
is it, what kind of faith it is, if somebody has faith? And quite strong faith sometimes. But this faith is not really based on scriptures. It's the question from which the 17th chapter of the Bhagavad-gītā is beginning.
That's the beginning, the foundational question of the 17th chapter of the Bhagavad-gītā. And of course, if we look around, we will see many different varieties of faith.
And I'm not really speaking about this particular room that we should look around and try to see who is bona fide and who is not.
But if we look around in the world, we can see that there are so many varieties of faith, and even though we sometimes say that face is good, we also can see that not every kind of faith is good.
There are so many uh vicious kind of śraddhā in God.
It it may sound very, I mean, radical, but we can see that there are so many people, fanatical people who kill on the name of God and who do all kinds of nonsense in the name of God. So and therefore Krishna, of course,
he says that everyone has some sort of faith. And the faith itself is not something really special because śraddhā-mayo puruṣaḥ. Every human being is made of faith.
And most in most cases this faith is not really it's not really even something special in the sense that it's uh it's just more or less uh goes in the vicious circles of your karma.
That's exactly what Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā when he says that according to your influence of the modes of nature, you develop certain faith. And you are not going beyond the particular combination of the modes of nature by this phase.
You're more or less reproducing your own situation. If you are situated in the mode of, uh, tamas, uh, you will have tamasic bhāva, and this tamasic bhāva will, uh, reinforce your position in the mode of tamas.
It will not bring you any further. It will only help you to develop more thick tamas. You will become more tamasic by this bhāva. So the bhāva itself is nothing, is not anything special.
Śāstra-śraddhā is something very special. So the first topic which I will deal with is how to distinguish between these two kinds of bhāva in our own case, which is the most important for us.
So Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura taking Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī's statement in Bhakti-sandarbha as a lead, he says that there are two types of faiths:
one is Śāstrīya-śraddhā, which is śāstrārtha-viśvāsa, the trust into the statements of Shastra.
And if we take Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's book Madhurya-kādambinī, we can see that his whole very elaborate first chapter of this book is describing what kind of visvas, what kind of trust we should have.
And again, if we see, uh, all these uh, śāstrik statements which Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura quotes there, we can see that it's not necessarily that we have complete trust into this statement.
But contrasting to this type of faith, which is quite rare, quite rare. And very soon we will see that it's not so common.
Contrasting to this kind of bhāva, Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī says that there is what Viśvanātha Cakravartī...
Oh, sorry, what Bhaktivinoda calls laukika-śraddhā, but specific Sanskrit statement in Bhakti-sandarbha is loka... lokāṁparā-prāpta? The bhāva which we get from loka-paramparā.
In other words, the bhāva which we get in the kīrtana. You know, it's a very common place where we get some sort of bhāva or whatever.
In other words, this laukika-śraddhā is sāmājika-śraddhā, Societal śraddhā, or Conventional śraddhā. The śraddhā which we get from our social interactions.
You know, there is very famous you know there is a lot of uh devotional folklore, you know which we get from all these sort of interactions.
There are weird stories which we hear sometimes in the lectures, or especially in the holy places, you know, during parikramās. Very strange stories. Completely not based on anything.
You know, but this is all Loka Parampara Shradha. It's something we uh sorry sorry, loka-parampara-prapta, something which we get from this local loka-parampara, from,
not from bona fide parampara, uh, not from the bona fide uh chain of uh disciplic succession but from you know from hearing from all these strange things which is there.
And what is even more interesting is that and I uh will share with you some of my investigation. Uh there are approximately seven or maybe eight lakshanas which will distinguish one type of face from another type of face.
And which we can very clearly see what is our condition, what is our situation. But what is even more interesting in this regard is a different
Spontaneous faith versus forced faith
uh nomenclature or the different terms which uh Viśvanātha Cakravartī Thākura uses for the same sort for these two types of faith.
Viśvanātha Cakravartī Thākura doesn't use śāstrīya-śraddhā and laukika-śraddhā, but instead he uses different terms. He says, for śāstrīya-śraddhā, he says svābhāvikī śraddhā. And svābhāvikī śraddhā means natural faith.
And it's interesting to understand this point which is included into this or implied by this statement of Viśvanātha Cakravartī Thākura.
And we all can relate to it because when we see, when we look inside And we all can relate to it because when we see, when we look inside our heart, we can see that when we read Shastra,
there is a spontaneous sort of understanding, yes, yes, that's it. Śāstrīya-śraddhā, if we if we study our śāstras Shastriya Shraddha, if we if we study our Shastras
very deeply, we can see that it's very uh congenial to the condition of our heart in one sense. The heart resonates when we hear statements of Kṛṣṇa in Bhagavad-gītā.
It's very naturally, very spontaneously and very naturally comes into our heart and the heart agrees with this. his statement for the laukika-śraddhā. He says laukika-śraddhā is balād-utpāditā śraddhā.
Balād-utpāditā śraddhā means forced śraddhā, śraddhā Balat Utpaditasradha means forced Shraddha, Shraddha which is forced, which is kind of shout into your throat by somebody.
Sometimes you know during the book distribution we kind of use this technique, you know. Or you we can see that in other religious traditions people they try to instill Shraddha through the means of fear.
You will go to hell and you will burn in hell for the rest of eternity. Belief in Jesus or whoever. So that's Balatut Padita.
That's forced, something which is not natural, which is not coming from your intelligence or from your intelligent understanding, which is coming from fear or some other sort of stuff.
And what is even more interesting in this regard, in regard to this Balatot Paditas Radha, which is again another name for Loki Kasrada or for Samadji Kasra, is that that was my observation. My observation.
I had a very interesting personal experience of this. Long ago in 1998 I had my personal crisis, which was connected with the crisis time of my guru at that time. And I was in Russia of course.
And at that time there was you know it was a critical time for practically all the devotees in Russia.
And naturally, I was speaking with many of them, interacting with many of them, and one recurrent topic which was there in the statements of many people, especially those who were choosing to go away from Krishna consciousness was that I was forced.
I was forced into Krishna consciousness. And I was thinking while speaking with them, you know, how come you were forced? What kind of, you know, who forced you into this?
But I couldn't deny this statement because that was their subjective experience. I can say you were not forced.
I mean maybe from the formal, you know, from from phenomenological point of view, they were not forced, nobody was forcing them, but still there was this internal impression or internal perception that there was some force.
And actually I could relate to this. And I was thinking deeply about this, what kind of force it is.
And ultimately, what I understood, very important thing, is that when we're dealing in the society, there is a social pressure, definitely.
And with definitely being social animals, and we are human beings as social animals, we kind that you know we want to belong to a society. And we always experience this social pressure.
And because we experience this social pressure, we kind of fake or imitate the face. We do many things, not because we believe in it, not because we understand why we are doing this, but because this is the custom in this particular society.
And you know, if we behave in this manner, then there will be some sort of unnatural situation within ourselves. And we will feel that we are forced into it.
And what I can see this, you know, to a certain extent we all are victims of this dynamic, this social dynamic. And that's the main sign or the main lakṣaṇa of
this balāt-pādy-ādi-śraddhā or laukika-śraddhā, is that it's not svābhāvika, it's not really the condition of my free heart, which is striving towards Krishna, and this is a means to achieve him.
But there is some sort of you know pressure on me. And that's the manifestation of a problem which is there within our faith.
That's what the point which I want to say, which I want to make, is that it means that our faith is somewhat improperly placed, Somewhat improperly planted so to speak. Or it's not really proper.
So therefore, this very phrase or this very name for this laukika-śraddhā as balāt-pādy-ādi-śraddhā is very important.
And we have to be very conscientious and very sincere by looking inside our heart and asking, am I free?
Because if I'm not free, if I'm doing this, what I'm doing, chanting or you know, coming for the program, and I'm doing it not because uh uh I want to become completely free, and love is the condition of complete freedom, then it will not bring me to love. Moreover, it will bring me further away from love.
And that's basically the first crisis, what kind of faith do I have within my heart? Is it proper or is it improper?
And I will now list a few lakṣaṇas or few signs of laukika-śraddhā and śāstrīya-śraddhā which are completely opposite to each other. They are uh they have uh different characteristics.
So, the first, the first lakṣaṇa, or the first characteristic of these two types of faith,
different characteristic is that laukika-śraddhā or śraddhā which we get from just social interactions and especially like in our tradition which is quite new in the West it may not be that prominent. Prominent.
But if we take more traditional religions, we will see that most of the people they just believe only because it's just the tradition in their society because their parents believe in it and their grandparents believe in it and they don't have any conscious choice in this matter.
They just inherited the faith, so to speak, with their tradition. It's interesting, I once visited the parish of Russian Orthodox Church in London.
And I asked the head of this Russian Orthodox Church in London, who are the most committed members of your parish? And he said, it's exclusively Englishmen.
He said we have tons of Russians and Ukrainians who come once a year or twice a year to get some water on their head.
But those who are really committed, it's Englishmen, British, native British, because they not inherited the faith. Because it's uh the faith came to them through the conscious process, so to speak.
Mechanical practice versus scriptural understanding
Through the not through this you know some magical logic process. So the first characteristic again of this of this Loki Kashrada is that it's mechanical. And that's exactly what Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says in Jaiva Dharma.
He says: when there is a perfect marriage of Shraddha with transcendental understanding, and that's basically the description of Shastriya Shraddha, perfect marriage
of faith with transcendental understanding. Shastra Artha Vishvas. The trust into the statements or into the meaning of Shastra. Then it's called Shastriya Shraddha, faith based on proper scriptural conclusions.
In contrast, deity worship bereft of clear and correct concept concept of Sambanda Jana is conducted on the level of mechanical ritualistic laukika-śraddhā.
So Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura gives these two very important uh definitions or very important uh lakshanas of this laukika-śraddhā. It's mechanical and it's ritualistic. It's belief in rituals.
You know, and it's a very common phenomena when we believe in ritual itself without understanding, it's basically the belief that the ritual itself, if we perform it diligently, without fail, will somehow or other bring change within our heart. It's actually kind of mystical understanding, very primitive understanding, you know. You have to, you know, you have to really jump in a certain way.
Then only it will work. You know, like all these shamans or whatever it is. And sometimes we are very much concerned about these details of the ritual.
And that's a sign that our Shraddha is not in the essence, it's into external form. And therefore, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura calls it mechanical.
Mechanical means you do some mechanical ritual and that will necessarily bring the result.
As opposed to it, śāstra-śraddhā is a very conscious approach towards everything which we are doing, it's not that we can switch off our brain or put it into a different mood, and at the same time do bhakti.
Bhakti, it's not going to work in this way, you know. And we all know, I'm sure we all have plenty of experience of mechanical sort of things which we are doing.
And the most important one is Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma, Rāma, Hare Hare. When we do it just because everyone else is doing it.
Not because I need it, not because I understand why I'm doing it. Not because I understand what is the goal of it. I already forgot it long ago. Prabhu, I'm a senior devotee. I got initiation twenty years ago.
Why should I remember about this? So it's mechanical and it's laukika-śraddhā.
It's just because everyone else is doing it and because I want to belong to this particular society and because I want to be part of it and I have to, you know, I have to somehow rather not to be too much different from the rest of the society, therefore I have to pretend that I'm chanting the holy name.
No. I'm chanting, I'm mumbling something. It has nothing to do with holy name. It's just mumbling. What? It's a nice ritual. And then somehow or other we believe that by this sort of ritual I will go back to Godhead.
Highly questionable. So uh that's uh first and uh very important point which we have to understand is that if my approach to sadhana has become ritualistic or mechanical. There is something wrong with my Shraddha.
Really, I lost it in the way. I might have gotten it in the beginning, but somehow or other it's evaporated now.
And I'm doing it because there is this still this, you know, it's uh it was set in the motion and it's you know, but the real life of it uh is not there anymore. Uh and uh um basically
you know that that's the first the first problem. This sort of mechanical transmission of faith or mechanical following on the path of bhakti.
And you know, of course, śraddhā needs constant nourishment. If we want to really maintain śraddhā, even if we got it in the very beginning, then it requires the nourishment.
Second uh lakṣaṇa, second uh sign of uh laukika-śraddhā is that uh well uh uh I included this. It's that also it may be arguable, but it's coming basically again from Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura and from Śrīla Prabhupāda.
It's that laukika-śraddhā is very weak and it's very susceptible to the external influences. There is a nice statement of Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Now, the question may be that one may take to the service of Supreme Personality of Godhead without understanding the truth by sentiment.
Just like some times, Rabat says, just like sometimes. And then he pauses a little bit and says, it is mostly in this country.
Mostly in this country you take to the process of devotional service just by sentiment, not without very deep understanding.
Some of the disciples, some of the students, they are coming, not that they have that they have understood this philosophy very nicely and he is convinced. Some of them are coming by sentiment.
Alright, let me join this Krishna consciousness movement. So in that case, what happens?
Everyone has got some occupational duty, so he gives it up according to the instruction of Krishna, Charanam Bhujam Hare, and begins devotional service Krishna consciousness.
Then, after some times, just like many, when I came in the beginning, there were many, not many, few, say within five or they were working with me, but now they are not working, Śrīla Prabhupāda says.
So that's the possibility. They come by sentiment.
They come so it's basically Prabhupāda explains that in the beginning, when the faith is not sorely based on some scientific understanding of what is going on, what should be there, it will be very much influenced by the external influences and very quickly people can change it.
And then there is another very interesting significant statement which is coming from Bhakti Sandarbha by Jīva Gosvāmī. Very interestingly, he says: He takes the famous verse from Bhagavad-gītā,
from the ninth chapter of Bhagavad-gītā, api cet sudurācāaro bhajate mām ananya-bhāk sādhur eva sa mantavyaḥ samyag vyavasito hi saḥ. And he's he asks, what kind of sudurācāaro bhajate mām ananya-bhāk?
And uh Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī says that's laukika-śraddhā.
He says that if one has śāstrīya-śraddhā or the faith in the statements of Kṛṣṇa or in the statements of śāstra, in the meaning of śāstra, he will not break the statements, he will not commit any sinful activities
and he specifically refers to this verse that you may get a very strong faith but still if you're committing sinful activities, it means that your faith is not proper. Of course, it may transform into something proper.
kṣipraṁ bhavati dharmātmā, very quickly he becomes a righteous soul. But if this tendency is there, if you're still committing some sinful activities,
it basically very sure indication is that uh it's uh it's improper faith, it's it's uh laukika-śraddhā, it's uh so Because again he says very important thing which we have to understand.
If somebody has a mature understanding of the statements of scriptures, he will not break this statements.
And the very fact that he breaks the statements means that the mature understanding and mature faith in the statements is not there. So that's uh that's another thing. Specifically, what Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī says: he says:
when somebody develops faith which is based on the understanding of scriptures, this very faith does not allow him to commit abominable actions mentioned in this verse.
So that's another interesting lakṣaṇa or another interesting sign of this.
Overcoming doubts through scriptural inquiry
And then the next characteristic of these two kinds of faith is that uh laukika-śraddhā is very dogmatic. It's not, you know, it's irrational, so to speak.
And behind that, behind this facade of faith, there is a lot of doubts in it.
And it's, you know, somebody, and I've seen it again and again and again, people who have this lots of doubts, they don't uh they're afraid to bring it uh into the conscious mind and they're afraid to admit themselves that these doubts are there, and therefore they use some sort of dogma.
This is like this, only like this, and you know don't don't try to speak about this. Don't touch it. This is like this.
We can see so many fanatics are there who have this sort of understanding, who are very much afraid to admit that they have doubts.
And in this regard, Shilajivagaswami while illustrating what is Shastriya Shraddha, he gives a very beautiful example from Brahma Vaivarta Purana. Really beautiful, how the person who have who has kastra kradha.
Hå he sägs och how he dels vis dås vi surface in uh in his mind. Very interesting. This is the verse from Brahmavaivata Purana quoted by Siladjiva Gaswami in Bhakti Sandarbha 173.
Kim Satyam Kin and uh Kinan uh Kim Satyam Anri Tamchiti uh Vicharah sampravtate. He says uh the beginning of this statement.
He says that when we hear some statement from the scriptures, the first questions which comes to our mind, whether it's true or not. Kim Satyam Anritamchiti. Whether it's satya or anrita.
It's not that, you know, I have to really blindly, you know, close my eyes and say, yeah, it's coming from the scriptures, it means it's true. No, you ask this question. Whether it's true or not.
Kim Satyam Anritam Chiti, Vicharach Sam Pravartate, and one starts thinking. If it's true or not, you have to really examine these statements without taking it blindly.
Vicharepikriti Rajan or King Vicharepikritique after thinking for a long time, uh uh unfortunately uh it's already one second. Uh King uh in the beginning when one hears something uh one questions, one asks this question.
Whether this statement from scriptures, specifically it means glorifying the power of the path of devotional service, whether they are true or they are not true. They're false.
While thinking about this, one comes to a conclusion that it's not false and he deeply understands that they're right.
Siddhim Bhavati Purnasiat, Tadashradhaw Mahapala. He says, if one while thinking about these statements understands that they're right, they're correct, Siddhavati, then he says, only then his Shraddha brings Mahappal. Great fruit.
But if my Shraddha, if my śraddhā is blind, if somehow, you know, you know, I just believe it and leave me alone. I already believe it. What do you want from me? You know, I I follow everything.
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare. Hare Ram Hare Ram Ram Ram Hare Hari.
And at the same time I have all these doubts, something which is unresolved in my mind, all kinds of strange things which is going on, then the result will not be so great.
It may be quite quite meager, quite not as we expect.
And specifically, it is said here that only if the Shraddha or face is based on this thorough understanding of the statements of scriptures, then tadāśraddhā mahā-phala it will bring a very significant fruit.
And there is an interesting statement by Śrīla Prabhupāda in one of his lectures.
He says, so our only request, our only request, Prabhupāda says, is that don't take this Krishna consciousness movement as sentimental religious propaganda. No, no, it's not religious, it's scientific.
So Prabhupada emphasizes this point. He says, our only request, please, and in another lecture he says we are not blindly following, we have not dogmatism. We have got reason, philosophy, and everything, science.
If you want to understand this Krishna consciousness on the basis of philosophy, logic and science, we are prepared to present it to you. And then the next Lakshana, the next sign which I wanted to what is the time now?
I I'll finish soon. Please bear with me.
Continual progress and spiritual ambition
A few more things I I just want to say uh in this regard. The next sign which uh uh is uh very important,
it's again coming from Bhakti-sandarbha by Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī. He says that if we have śāstriya-śraddhā, then one important characteristic of śāstriya-śraddhā is that it's never always developing. It's never satisfied with itself. It's never static.
He specifically says that it's uh he compares it uh with the searching for gold. He says if somebody if somebody gets this real śraddhā or real gold, real treasure, then he will want more and more and more, and he will go further and further and further and will not stay on the same level, so to speak.
Whereas if somebody has this and one will you know one will develop again and again, he will he will have this attitude, I want to know more, I want to go deeply.
Whereas if our śraddhā or faith upon which we are basing our practice is of the different case, different different kind.
If our understanding is this magic, then we'll get to the certain point and we'll say, yeah, everything is fine with me. What do you want from me?
Oh, I already know five ślokas from Bhagavad-gītā, dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā, Yavanam Jara. I'm not this body. Leave me alone. I already know everything.
So this is again a very important uh attitude uh which is the sign uh of proper Sradhad. I want to go deeper. I want to go. I'm not satisfied with the state I am in. But if it's not there, if I am in my comfort zone, so to
speak. And I think I'm okay, I'm fine. You know, you may not be fine. I'm fine. Why do you bother me? Then, uh, it may not be so good.
Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī specifically says it's a very beautiful statement. Moreover, having attained faith, whether still on the practice stage, on the stage of sadhana bhakti, or in the stage of perfection, they always endeavor to imbibe the character of great sages, like a person who is eager to obtain gold.
In other words, you always want to become more and more pure. Perfection here means the inner realization of Lord Hari, which destroys defects such as lust from the heart and bestows the highest limit of bliss.
In that state, while constantly engaged in the means to bring about one's goal, there is absolutely no trace of conduct that is plagued with defects like duplicity and desire for honor.
Consequently, one does not consciously commit offenses such as disrespecting great devotees because such offenses are diametrically opposed to the revelation of Lord in the heart.
So, here Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī describes this attitude which is there and which is the result of our understanding. I want to achieve my goal. And I don't want to exchange this goal with a triple thing like honor in this world. And I want to have this pure gold.
And uh um another uh symptom which I wanted to say is that uh uh Which again externally may seem like something different from what I said before, something even opposite to this. It's interesting.
I I specifically put it next to each other. Uh uh where is it? Yeah, it's again coming from Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī from Bhakti-sandarbha. Sandarbha.
Material detachment and compassion
He says another symptom of śraddhā is that although a devotee may be destitute, he or she has complete faith in the Lord's protection and thus never behaves with others in such a manner so as to become an object of their pity.
Indeed, the statements of śāstra inspire this type of faith in the Lord as in the Gītā: For devotees who are exclusively devoted to me, who are absorbed in thinking of me, who worship me constantly and who are thus ever united with me, I provide all necessities and preserve what they have.
So basically, these two statements, the previous one and this one, go together in the sense that one who has the proper face or śāstrīya-śraddhā, he is always spiritually ambitious and totally non-ambitious materially.
And this statement is about this: we don't have material ambitions. Whatever material we have, it's fine. Whatever Krishna wants us to get, we get. Because we believe.
Yoga-kṣemaṁ vahāmy aham. Krishna Himself says, I give whatever he needs, so I don't hanker for all these material things, but uh and I'm satisfied with whatever I have.
That's again the sign of śāstrīya-śraddhā. If I am satisfied with whatever I already get, that's the sign of śāstrīya-śraddhā.
And if I always hanker and uh I always think that, you know, uh something is wrong, maybe, you know, this is wrong mantra which I chant, why Krishna doesn't give me money, you know s so many years of chanting and so less pounds in my bank account so doesn't match with each other.
So that's that's again the sign of wrong faith which we have. We believe in something which we are not supposed to believe.
And very often we can hear all these statements, you know, that uh I heard that uh you know in the early anyway shouldn't mention this. Uh uh Anyway, I uh perhaps I will say one more thing.
Uh there are some other stuff which is already there, but uh I only will mention one more thing which is important.
Is that it's again coming from Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī from his Bhakti-sandarbha, he says that if one has proper faith, that one of the signs of proper faith is that the heart becomes soft.
And very subtle and high sentiments of compassion will awaken within the heart.
And we can see that those people who are very proud of their so-called Sraddha or faith, all these fanatical people, their heart uh is very hard.
It's uh uh there is no compassion in this heart and uh by the name of God uh they are ready to kill everyone who doesn't somehow rather fit the understanding of what it means to believe in God.
So if by uh you know, following this path of bhakti, we don't see that our heart becomes more soft.
If it still remains very hard, maybe something wrong in the initial conditions of the heart, uh, which uh does not uh allow us to develop the proper attitudes towards other people and towards other, you know, whoever is there.
Addressing deficiencies in modern faith
So basically I just wanted to describe these two kinds of faith.
Again taking as a lead the statement by Bhakti Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura that if our faith is not proper to begin with, if it's coming not from the very pure source. And if we try to.
What happens actually in our case, we got some faith, definitely some proper faith. In reality, our faith is a sort of mixture of proper and improper things.
We got very pure faith from Śrīla Prabhupāda, there's no doubt about it. But because it's not complete, because we don't get the complete picture, because the understanding is not comprehensive, so to speak.
And we are not trying to get the comprehensive and very thorough understanding from Prabhupāda's books by studying them systematically and thoroughly, then we get some holes in our faith, some doubts here and there.
So, what shall we do with these uh holes, uh we will somehow rather seal them with laukika-śraddhā.
You know, somebody tells me some weird story about, you know, about some miracle which is happening. I say, oh, that's far out. This is wow. It's very. Okay. Mundo less. So we're trying to sort of uh compensate
the deficiencies, the defects of our śraddhā, instead of forming our śraddhā properly and trying to consistently endeavor to form proper śāstrīya śraddhā, we are getting little pieces of information from here and there, and in this way we we get some sort of uh how you call this when the poor people they have this uh cloth which is stitched from from little pieces.
Patched. Patched, yeah. So we have patched face.
From little piece from here, little piece from there. And it's not very strong and as with the patch clothes it's it's easily being you know can be torn away and it's not very you know warm uh that's that's what it is.
And the most important thing which Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says, if you remember in the first statement which I made, is that what really happens if one has this sort of faith, it will not allow him to surrender completely.
We will call ourselves as devotees, which implies some sort of surrender. But because the faith is not really strong enough, we will always keep little aloof.
We don't have complete trust into Krishna, into spiritual master, into scriptures, and we'll always say, yeah, it's it's good, it's nice, they're nice people. No problem.
Krishna is nice, but surrender to him, it's a little too much. It's uh you know it's I'm not ready yet. So that's exactly what Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says.
He says if your faith is not properly formed, for many lifetimes you will not be able to surrender completely and it means that you will remain as a kaniṣṭha-adhikārī, as a neophyte devotee, without properly surrendering ourselves and chanting with the proper mood, in the proper mood.
And in this way we are hoping, you know, to get premā, but as Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says, it may not happen so quickly. It may take a few more days to get premā. Or maybe a few more lifetimes.
So uh the only point of this uh presentation was to analyze what's going on. And that's the first crisis, the crisis of you know the source so to speak.
It's even not the first one, but the first one will be I will describe tomorrow and a few more tomorrow what's what's happening. I guess I should stop now. Śrīla Prabhupāda kī jaya!