Bhagavad-gita 18.56. We have only one difficulty
Бхакти Вигьяна Госвами · Нью-Йорк · 2019
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Recitation and introduction to verse 18.56
Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya, bhagavate, oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya, oṁ namo bhagavate. Vāsudeva. Nārāyaṇam namaskṛtya, naraṁ caiva, narottamaṁ devīṁ sarasvatīṁ vyāsaṁ, tato jayam udīrayet. Hare Krishna.
Good evening to everyone. Ah, today we will read, at least we will start from the 56th verse of the 18th chapter of the Bhagavad-gītā, as it is, entitled The Perfection of Renunciation.
The verse in Sanskrit: Sarva-karmāṇy api sadā kurvāṇo mad-vyapāśrayaḥ Hapi Sada Kurvanaha Mat, Vyabashraya, Mat, mad-prasādād avāpnoti śāśvataṁ padam avyayam. padam avyam, sarva karman pe sadam, sarva karman, kurvan noou mad madvavapashraya, gurvano madvapashraya, mad prasadatavapno team, sadhava noti, sashvatampadamavyam Sarva Karmanya Pisadham, Sarva Karma Pisadam, Kurvanau Madvya Pashraya, Burva no matya pachaya madprasada whapnoti, prasadadam, sashwatampadamavya, padamad sarva all karmani karmani activiti happy although Sadha Always Kurvanaha performing Madvya Pashraha Pashra Under my protection, Mad Prasada by my mercy, by my mercy avapnoti Padam abode avyayam Vyayam imperishable
Translation and purport by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Though engaged in all kinds of activities, my pure devotee, under my protection, reaches the eternal and imperishable abode by my grace.
The word mad-vyapāśrayaḥ means under the protection of the Supreme Lord, to be free from material contamination. A pure devotee acts under the direction of the Supreme Lord or his representative, the spiritual master.
There is no time limitation for a pure devotee. He is always 24 hours a day, 100%, engaged in activities under the direction of the Supreme Lord.
To a devotee who is thus engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, the Lord is very, very kind. In spite of all difficulties, he is eventually placed in the transcendental abode of Kṛṣṇa-loka. He is guaranteed entrance there.
There is no doubt about it. In that supreme abode there is no change, everything is eternal, imperishable and full of knowledge.
Again translation, though engaged in all kinds of activities, my pure devotee, under my protection, reaches the eternal and imperishable
abode by my grace. Namo Vishnu padāya, kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tāʲe śrīmate bhaktivedānta svāmin iti nāmine namaste sārasvate deve gaura-vāṇī- प्रचारिणे निर्विशेष शून्यवादि paścātya-deśa-tāriṇe vāñchā-kalpatarubhyas ca kṛpā-sindhubhya eva ca patitānāṁ pāvanebhyo vaiṣṇavebhyo namo namaḥ
śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya-prabhupā 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-avadātaiḥ saṅkīrtanaika- pitārau kalau kaluṣa-vihṅvau divākarau yuga-dharma-pālau vande jagat-priya-karau karuṇāvatārau — yūyaṁ praviśya
svasti-sāstāro praśasyatām idaṁ dhiyatāṁ bhavadbhiḥ śivaṁ mīḍhiaḥ manasā ca bhadraṁ bhajatādiṁ adhokṣajaṁ a-veṣatāṁ no matir atihaitauḥ
Foundations of the Krishna consciousness movement
Hare Krishna again to everyone. I feel uh special sort of feelings I have now because this is the place where Śrīla Prabhupāda many many years back more than 50 years back, started his movement.
And he based the philosophy of Bhagavad-gītā as the foundation for the whole movement.
And he called his movement Krishna consciousness, which means that the very point or the very essence of the practice which we have to do is to be conscious of God or Krishna all the time.
And here in this section of Bhagavad Gita, Krishna is uh concluding the whole speech and he wants to make sure that we understand everything correctly.
So in this last chapter of Bhagavad Gita, he puts everything in the proper perspective. Because Bhagavad Gita, even though it's a very small book, it only has 700 verses in it, still it touches so many subject matters.
It's really amazing how comprehensive this book it is.
It talks about the modes of material nature, how the modes of material nature manifest differently in different people, in different uh events and uh phenomena of this world.
He talks about different kinds of yoga, he talks about meditation, he talks about renunciation of this world. He talks about so many different subject matters.
It's really amazing how Krishna manages in a very succinct and a very uh at the same time very beautiful way to put everything together in this small book. But now he wants to make everything completely clear.
Because when you speak about so many different subject matters, you know, especially when the audience is little new, then the audience may get bewildered. And usually what happens when somebody speaks, his mind is a little faster than the mind of the audience.
So he's already somewhere ahead and the audience is still somewhere behind and they're still trying to figure out what was said. So concluding this work, Sri Krishna wants to make everything very, very clear.
Overview of three main spiritual paths
And therefore, in this end of the 18th chapter, he more or less summarizes the three main paths of spiritual development. In this day and age we have so much variety of different spiritual paths.
If you go to any esoteric bookshop or you Google s something, you know, you will get thousands and thousands. Even the word yoga, you know, there will be so many different meanings of what yoga means.
And of course, now we are living in this society of consumerism. The consumerism is the religion of the modern day and age. There is no other religion, it's just consumerism.
And therefore, there are so many different offers. The first president of France after the Second World War, General de Gaulle, he said, How is it possible to rule the country which has 40 varieties of cheese?
Since that time, the varieties of cheese and everything else increased incrementally.
So basically, his main point was when the people are so bewildered, you know, and when you go to a supermarket, you become immediately bewildered. You don't know what to do in this place.
I don't know about you, I'm talking about myself. I definitely don't know what to do there.
So the same sort of phenomena takes place in a spiritual quote-unquote area or realm, and there is so much, so many varieties of different paths and you know yogas and methods and practices and you know, so many.
I don't know, I'm coming from Russia. I know a few which is popular there. I'm not so familiar what's going on here. But Krishna says that ultimately there is only three paths.
That if we and the rest, of course, the a lot of varieties is there as much as there are three modes of material nature. But by different combination and permutation of different modes. We have the complete spectrum of different phenomena in this world.
So, in the same way, all these different paths they are more or less hybrids of the three basic and main roads to the spiritual realm. Every human being feels that something is wrong in this material world.
That there's some, that there's we feel always little uncomfortable here, even if everything is fine, we still feel that something is rotten in this Danish kingdom, as Shakespeare said. Something is rotten here.
It's really rotten. It smells bad. Something is wrong in this place. And therefore, the spiritual quest uh has always been there. I'm coming from Russia, former Soviet Union.
Most of my life I lived under the Soviet regime, and in the Soviet Union there was no God. God was banned. The very word God was prohibited.
It could only be written with the small g uh, and uh better if it he was not he would not be mentioned. But what happened when the country became free, all of a sudden everyone again believes in God.
For 70 years it was not possible, nobody believed in God, everything. Ev- ev- everyone swore to be an atheist. I did it myself. Well, I was to a certain extent. You know, we would pass exams on scientific atheism.
Everyone was brainwashed from the kindergarten that there's no God. The very powerful argument that there is no God was that, you know, the Gagarin,
the first spaceman went to Kosmos, he didn't so, you know, if he didn't see it's a powerful argument, of course, for stupid people anyway, so uh the the point is that uh uh you may prohibit uh religion or spirituality as much as you like.
You may try to ban it, you might try to erase it or extinguish, but it's innate to the soul. It's innate to human consciousness. We are all believers.
And even if officially we declare that I don't believe in God, you know, you still believe in something, which ultimately is God for you.
You may believe in President Trump or President Putin or whatever, it doesn't matter. You still believe in somebody, something, and you still worship somebody. So, and this quest for spirituality is innate to the soul, to the heart of the human being.
And in fact, I'm reading now a very interesting book about the structure of the brain and neuroscience, and the book is called Why God Won't Go Away.
So and basically the the authors they they try to make this point that uh uh they're not talking about the soul because to talk about the soul is unscientific.
It's you can be excommunicated from the scientific uh community if, you dare to talk about the soul.
But they talk about the brain and the consciousness and the mind, and they say that you know it's wired in such a way that you inevitably have some longing, some desire, some desire to have spiritual experience which is bigger than the material experience, which you normally or commonly can get by interaction between the senses and the objects of the senses in this world.
So, and therefore, Krishna says that if you are to reach this spiritual realm or if you want to have spiritual experience.
Vedic tradition as direct experience
And that's and that's actually the main point. It's very interesting because Vedic tradition is not about the dogma, it's not about theory. It's not about something which you have to believe.
The Vedic tradition is about experience.
You have and and Krishna himself says this in Bhagavad-gītā, he says, Pratyakshava Gamam Dharmyam, Susukam kartu mavyayam, you know the point of following some spiritual path is to get the experience. Not just to believe, not just to change your belief system or whatever.
So, and Krishna says that if you are to reach the new experience, the spiritual experience, if you want to obtain some spiritual experience, there is basically only three paths. And there's three paths.
One is the path of karma yoga, the path of pious activity. When you follow certain rules, quite strict rules, and you more or less try to renounce the fruits of your action.
You understand that you're not the owner of the fruits of the action, there is a huge machinery of this world, you understand the law of karma.
And understanding the law of karma, you're acting, but uh you're trying to develop the dispassionate attitude towards your action. Yes, it's there, you know, I'm doing this, but I'm doing uh I'm duty bound. I'm doing it because of duty, this and that.
And what happens, Krishna speaks about this few verses before the verse which we read.
And he explains the result of this. He says that as a result of following this path, your heart or your consciousness will become purified.
Being purified by his intelligence and controlling the mind with determination, giving up the objects of sense gratification, being free from attachment, hatred, so on so forth, it's there in the verses 51 and 53.
And the idea is that when you develop certain discipline in your action,
you have to be very disciplined in your action and uh that that ultimately you develop certain qualities uh which are called according to Vedic literature and not only all according to Vedic literature but according to any religious or spiritual tradition, as the purity of the heart, your consciousness becomes pure.
You become kind, you become free from lust, you become free from pride, you become, you know, you become a good person. And that's in itself is a sort of new experience because
we are what we are, but you know, if we gradually change, we feel the relief. When the heart is pure, the immediate experience which we have, we feel relief. The life becomes a very joyful journey.
Whereas if we are burdened by all kinds of desires, by all kinds of greeds and anger and this and that. You know, it's it's life is a very it's a very difficult thing to live through, you know.
So basically when you have the pure heart, uh you become relatively happy in this world and on the top of it you prepare your consciousness for the higher practices.
Actually, this path of karma-yoga is not intended to be the ultimate path for spiritual experience is just a preliminary discipline.
Sometimes, very often actually, when you ask people about the spirituality if they if they have if they don't if they don't think that, you know, taking LSD spirituality, if they're little more clear in their ideas about spirituality, they will tell you spirituality is to become a good person, to do good, to be good, to you know, to be a little disciplined.
Krishna says, no, no, no, no, no. It's a preliminary discipline. This is the discipline which you have to do to purify your heart.
Transcending material limits through meditation
But uh the purification of the heart uh it's not the goal in itself. It's a preliminary stage for you to engage in deeper practices or more or less in the practice of meditation.
By karma-yoga, you cannot really reach God because God is transcendental, he's spiritual, and karma is material. And even if you follow all the discipline, you're still within the material realm.
Your consciousness is purified to the extent that you can engage yourself in meditation because the purified consciousness, you easily can concentrate your mind. Meditation means your mind is focused.
And when there is, you know, when when we live our normal life, our mind is not very focused.
So karma-yoga, uh even though it's glorified very much in uh many uh literatures and in Bhagavad-gītā itself, uh Krishna glorifies karma-yoga still, it's a preliminary part preliminary pass to prepare you for the meditation.
Because it's by the meditation, by the rules of meditation you can transcend the material realm to a certain extent. It's also an overstatement, but according to Krishna in Bhagavad-gītā.
But still, still, it's a higher pass. Definitely, dhyāna-yoga: when dhyāna or meditation, meditation on sacred syllable orm or whatever is there, it's a higher pass,
and it gives you much higher and much more rewarding experience. Krishna Himself explains this rewarding experience which people obtain by following the path of yoga or meditation.
Krishna explains in the sixth chapter of Bhagavad-gītā where he says that by purified uh senses uh the the material senses can only interact with the material objects and that's uh you know people are excited about this experience, but according to Krishna, it's very dull.
And it's really dull. It is dull.
Krishna says when in your meditation you develop the mystical ability to be in another realm, in another dimension, and interact with spiritual senses with this world it's it's much more it's amazingly m much more impressive.
You know I read uh sometimes you probably also read some books about near-death experiences. When people leave this mortal body, and still they have senses, still they see, still sometimes they hear.
And or sometimes, you know, and I'm sure you uh reads somewhere, you know, this description and they inevitably say it's it's not possible to describe this.
Because it's such an overwhelming experience when you are interacting with the reality not through these gross material senses. These gross material senses are gross.
And it's really difficult to get the full experience when you're dependent on these gross mechanisms.
It's as if you know, you put yourself, you imagine that you put yourself into a court, you know, it's a thick court, and then you try to interact with somebody, you know, you know, just pet pet uh pet somebody. You don't feel anything, you hardly feel anything, and the other person feels a very mechanical touch.
So in the same way we are dressed, the soul, the spirit soul is dressed in into this very gross sort of costume and this very gross suit and we are, you know, we're interacting with this world and we think we think it's nice.
But Krishna says it's you know, you you people don't know what you're talking about. This is all. This is very dull experience. Just try to get some other higher experience.
You will you will never uh want to do what you were doing before. And that's a fact. So many people who had this near-death experience, they come back and they come back changed people. Why?
Because they did get the different experience. They see this world differently. You know, we only interact with this world and see this world the way we see because we don't have different experience.
So Krishna says by meditation by going beyond the material realm and having a glimpse of spiritual experience, uh y you will you will forget uh the attachment to all this stuff which is going on here.
You know, w why would you be attached if it's just if it's so insignificant? So Krishna explains this in the sixth chapter of Bhagavad-gītā. He says that in this realm of samadhi, when people reach this stage of samadhi,
in the stage of samadhi, by their transcendental senses, they uh you know they see very bright colors, amazing colors. Colors which have nothing to do with the pale colors of this world. And so on and so forth.
So this jñāna-yoga or dhyāna-yoga meditation is already a path and uh Krishna uh speaks about this in uh couple verses before the verse which we read.
He says that brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā na śocati na kāṅkṣati samahayeṣu bhūteṣu mad-bhaktִiṁ labhate param. And he says that bhaktyā mām abhijānāti yāvān yaś cāsmi tattvataḥ tato māṁ tattvato jñātvā viśate tad-anantaram.
He says ultimately if you following this path,
this path of meditation, which is a difficult path, which is not so easy, you know, sometimes people say eat meditation is easy. Fifteen minutes of meditation every day, very good for your life. You know, after breakfast.
Or before breakfast. They have this really cheap recipes of meditation, but meditation is a very difficult discipline. I remember once I was traveling in a mountain area in the south of India, and there was a cave there
Where Śaṅkarācārya, the you know the greatest yogi of the old days, he was meditating. Supposedly he obtained his enlightenment in this particular cave.
It was a nice cave, uh not very deep, uh and there was a shower in this cave. There was um you know a touched shower was there. Something always dripping from the from the ceiling of this cave.
And you know, part of this cave was dry and nice and the part of it was so this was a cosy cave. So we came with a group of people, it's a little difficult to reach and uh
to our surprise there was a yogi sitting in this cave. Uh he was in you know in his lotus posture and he was sitting there with closed eyes. And here's a group of you know pilgrims.
Noisy who basically came there to see some some for sightseeing or whatever. Of course, there was some spiritual purpose also, but we were not really yogis. So and I I was watching him.
He was sitting there really trying to concentrate, but at the same time I could see that it doesn't really work for him because he was always, you know, he was moving slightly and
you know he was a little uncomfortable and and especially when these loud people started you know trying to get the holy water from the from the cave or something like this he was really uncomfortable so I could see he he is definitely not on the samadhi level yet.
So what I want to say is that it's a very difficult thing. It's a very difficult thing. It's not that you know meditate 15 minutes before breakfast or after breakfast, and you're done.
You know, you you get this transcendental experience. No, you just maybe your digestion will be a little better. And even this is doubtful. Even this is not really.
There may be some benefits of these cheap recipes of meditation which are so common in uh in our society, but uh it's not really what meditation means.
Meditation is a difficult practice, and therefore Krishna says, brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā.
He very beautifully explains this. He says, brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā, you reach the spiritual level, and the proof of it is that your prasannātmā, you become completely joyful.
No political problem can uh really uh make you unhappy. You know, you just you just you're prasannātmā. Prasannātmā means uh your soul become very very light, very clear, your consciousness become very clear.
Any grief, uh, you don't have any desire, uh, bhūtiṣu, you look at everyone uh with equal vision. You're not discriminating, you are not really attached or whatever.
And then mad-bhaktִiṁ labhate parām, then you start your real experience. So I'm not going to discuss this too much, but that's a second pass. First pass is karma yoga. Second pass is jñāna-yoga, the pass of meditation.
Where you really can get some sort of real spiritual experience which Krishna explains in this verses, he says, viśate tad-anantaram. Basically, the goal of this path is Viśate. Viśate means to enter.
Viśate means tattvataḥ jñātvā. When somebody knows me, the origin of everything, God, perfectly, viśate, he enters, enters into me. He uh He becomes, you know, united.
You know, dep depending how you look at this, you know, if you are Hare Krishna devotee, you look at this in a negative way and you said, you know, oh this is nonsense. But you know, some people have very beautiful, bombastic words for this.
You become beautiful and you know you you achieve the super consciousness. Whatever it is, Krishna says, it's a path. It's definitely a path. It's an experience.
It's much higher experience than just the experience which you would get when your heart is purified. But obviously, that's that's really clear. Krishna prefers the third path.
Eternal destination guaranteed through bhakti-yoga
He says, yes, objectively speaking, these three paths are there. They're all good, they're all useful, uh, they're all progressive. They are this is the path for evolution, for the evolution of the consciousness.
If you live different way, the consciousness will be degraded. You will experience, physically experience the degradation of the consciousness.
So these are all elevated paths, paths to reach the higher goal, but still they are not on the same platform. Krishna obviously prefers the third path, which he describes in this verse which we read.
And he says, Matprasada tavapnati sashvatam padamavayam. He says, I I will not speak, but I will speak about the result which Krishna promises. He says, Mat Prasadat because of my mercy, because of the mercy of the of God.
Mat Prasadat in ablative case, which is the causation, it means because of my mercy, by my mercy, avapnati, avapnati means he gets, what he gets, sashvatam padam, avyayam.
Sashvatam means eternal, padam means abode, and avayayam means inexhaustible or imperishable or spiritual abode. So Krishna didn't promise it for the travelers of other paths.
But here he's very clear, he says, by my mercy, I will drag him to the spiritual world.
I will give him the spiritual ability oh sorry, I'm speaking Russian the spiritual this spiritual position and uh in this spiritual position he will get the eternal life. Shashvatam. Shashvatam means eternal.
And Avyayam means imperishable. And Avyam basically means because you may think that eternal and imperishable is almost the same, but it's not the same because avayam also means it's ever new.
Sometimes people they wonder, okay, you know, I know what to do in this world. It's it's a little, you know, boring, but sometimes it's exciting. You know, you may go to Mexico or Brazil or Russia for this.
But what I will do there in the spiritual world, Krishna says, don't worry, you will like it there. It's not boring. It's ever new. It's ever fresh. It's constantly new experience.
Aviyam means that you cannot reach the bottom of it. That's what literally Avam means. Avyam means you you you it's it's eternal but at the same time it's ever new. So Krishna says this is the experience which you will get.
Again, in the path of karma yoga, the experience which you get is purification of the heart, the path of uh dhyana yoga if you reach samadhi, and this is a big if, if you reach samadhi, then you will get some glimpse of spiritual reality.
But here Krishna promises that you will get the full experience of spiritual reality in the spiritual world. Because the word padam means the abode.
The paddam means literally where you could put your foot, it basically means that you will go to the place which is totally completely spiritual because it's imperishable, it's eternal, and you will get the full-fledged experience of spiritual existence in this place,
which is different from the promise or from the result of the other uh kind because you know visat an antaram it's it's nice but it's not the same. You will get the spiritual experience which is full of variegatedness.
That's the message which A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada brought to the Western world. Because before him, people had the understanding of Indian or Hindu or Vedic spirituality from Vivekananda.
And Vivekananda basically he said that the spiritual experience is nice, but it's more or less unified. It's how you say this. I'm sorry, my English is not so good, but mm I'm trying to it's it's little homogeneous.
Homogeneous, yes, exactly. Exactly. That's the word I was uh trying to find. It's homogeneous. You get into this spiritual re it's nice, but it's homogeneous.
And you know for how long you uh you you can stay in this nice homogeneous place being very homogeneous.
Ultimately you will uh you you will want something heterogeneous or you call it something more variegated than being in this homogeneous mush.
You know, it's basically if you have potato mush, you know, you you become the potato mush. It's it's potato muss is nice, but it's mush.
So So and that's exactly what Krishna says here when he says you will get the full-fledged experience of spiritual variegatedness. You will get a different experience than other paths.
Living under the protection of God
But for that you have to follow when should I finish my class? What is the. 7:30-ish. Okay. Yeah, it's no problem.
So Krishna says that if you follow the path of bhakti, the path of love, or the path of emotional involvement with God, then this is the result of it.
And he explains briefly in a very you in a sutra way, in a very aphoristic way what this path involves. How to ultimately get, oh Krishna. Thank you.
He explains ultimately how to get this mat-prasāda, mat-prasāda, the mercy of God. And this is, Krishna himself says, Please, you know, think a little bit about it. God Himself says, this is how you get my mercy.
And he says it's not so difficult. Sarva-karmāṇy api sadā kurvāṇo mad-vyapāśrayaḥ. You do whatever you do. Sarva-karmāṇi. Sarva karmani api. Why he says api? Api means although.
Sarva-karmāṇi basically it means that you don't have to do, uh uh I mean I wouldn't say nothing special but you more or less continue with the same uh with same activities which you do. Otherwise, he wouldn't say api.
Sarva-karmāṇi, if he would mean some special, very special sort of practices, he would say it differently. But he says, sarva-karmāṇi, you do what you do now.
Api, even though you do what you do now all the time, you more or less you don't change radically, drastically, your way of action or your way of living.
Of course you have to change something, but you do, but how you do it? Vyapāśraya. As Prabhupāda explains, mad-vyapāśraya means under my protection or under the direction.
Basically it means that you do whatever you do, but you remember about God.
And under protection basically means that of course you don't do what he doesn't like, you don't commit violence to other people, you don't quarrel with other people, you don't do any nasty activities. But the main thing is that you constantly feel that you are under his umbrella, under his under his protection, under his shelter.
It's interesting that also the word vyapāśraya, there is a very specific meaning to this word vyapāśraya in Sanskrit. It also means it is an Ayurvedic term which basically means healing. The process of healing.
And in other words, Krishna says if you do activities by remembering about me, by trying consciously to please or to you know to do it for me uh in connection with me. If you do everything uh that this in itself is healing for the soul.
The healing process will take place, the soul which is a sort of it's it's diseased. Our consciousness we do have, you know, we have so many problems in our consciousness.
And Krishna says, mat-mad-āśraya, under my healing. That's another translation which could be given to here. If if you do it in a very wholesome way, not in an unhealthy way which we usually do.
And basically it means and he will explain it in the next verse. This this and the second verse is the very short and succinct description
of the path of bhakti uh and um uh he basically means and as Prabhupāda also explains in the um uh uh in uh the purport um uh You engage in all your activities under the direction of the Supreme Lord or His representative. You do what they like and you don't do what they don't like.
Shifting motivation to pleasing the Lord
And you're conscious about this. Why am I doing? Now please uh try to understand what is the difference between our actions now at this point and bhakti-yoga because it's not so easy to understand, it's a little subtle.
You know, at this moment of time, what is the deciding factor or impetus for us to act? Why do we act the way we act? Because of one simple consideration, because I like it. Ultimately, that's the main consideration.
What is the deciding factor? I like it, and therefore I do it. You know, and why do you like it? Because of my conditioning, you know, this we think we are free, but actually we're not free in our liking and dislikings.
It's the program which is being you know put upon us or by the society, by the culture we are living. You know, that's why you, know, in in America people like to do some things and in Russia people like to do different things and behave in a different way.
So, but that's the deciding factor. I like it.
Now, very simple, but at the same time, extremely difficult change in our consciousness should take place. The deciding factor should be not I'm doing it, not because I like it, but because God likes it.
And I don't do it why? Not because I don't like it, but because He doesn't like it. In other words, na and in this way I always remember about him. I ask myself whether he will like it or not.
Of course, for that I need to know what he likes or not, and he is very clear about it. He tells it in Bhagavad-gītā as it is, what he likes, what he doesn't like, so many other things are there.
But the very action is not that important. What is important is our consideration before the action. Why do I do? Because I want to please God.
And if I don't know what is pleasing to God or not, I find somebody who is representing him who lives according to the will of God.
That's and uh that's the essence of uh bhakti yoga because basically what Krishna wants us to do. Krishna wants us to act in according to the supreme will of the Lord, which is the supreme reality.
And when we act in accord with this reality, in harmony with this reality, when our actions are harmonious with this reality, we become happy automatically. Because that's His will rule supreme.
There was a little funny joke which I read. One old sādhu was asked, how do you prove the supremacy of the will of God? He said, Oh, it's very simple.
As far as I remember myself, everything goes against my will. It's the best proof that the the the will of the Supreme Lord rules supreme. It never goes my way. It always goes somebody else's way. Whose way it is?
It's God's way.
Aligning personal will with divine reality
And basically, what Krishna wants to say that our conscious endeavors to bring our little independent will in accord with the supreme will of the Lord, which is the eternal reality, is very pleasing to him.
He gave us independence. He gave us freedom. We are free to act the way we like.
But he says, I want you to be happy. And you can only be happy if you act in harmony with the will of the Supreme Lord, which happens to be me.
You can only be happy if your actions are true, in a sense that they correspond to the eternal reality, which is the will of the Lord.
And therefore, this deciding factor, it may sound simplistic, but first of all, it's very difficult to accomplish in reality. And second of all, it's not so simplistic, it's a very profound truth. It's a very profound point.
The deciding factor from now on in my life will be whether it's whether the Lord likes it or not. And how do I know this?
Śrīla Prabhupāda says: if you don't know this, you know, ask ask his representative. He will tell you. What is good, what is not good.
He will tell you that killing of other pe- of other living entities to maintain your life is not good. Therefore, you shouldn't eat meat.
And taking drugs is not good because you are basically destroying your brain and your mind. And he will tell you some other things which you should do, which you should not do.
But again, uh uh what is more important is uh to try to create this internal harmony between our individual will and the supreme Will.
And by creating this coherent situation, when we are coherent with the Supreme Will internally. Ultimately, we will be trained in such a way we that we will always be coherent with His will.
And that gives you immense pleasure in this life because, you know, let's say there is an orchestra, and so many musical instruments are there, and you all know how it sounds when they are trying to.
when before their uh you know the performance they are doing their things. You know it's a complete cacophony. It's totally unpleasant to hear for themselves, for anyone else.
It's just you just want to, you know, block your ears and run away from this. And then all of a sudden, they, you know, the director comes and the director starts doing this stuff, you know, in his own way, you know.
And all of a sudden there is a harmony. Who is this director? Director is God. That's his will. When they were doing their own, you know, thing. It was horrible for them. It was horrible for everyone.
It was very, you know it it it was not good. There was no harmony in in in this um sound w which they were producing. But as soon as they surrendered to the will of the director. Which should be one will.
As soon as they started doing what he wants them to do,
all of a sudden they are very happy, everyone is happy, and everyone has very profound profound experience by listening to this music and this music conveying to you some emotional has some emotional impact and so on and so forth.
So basically that's what Krishna says. It's simple in one sense, but it's very difficult in another sense. Why?
Because we have individual will, and sometimes we think, you know, Krishna is very, you know, I heard this sometimes. You know, who is this Krishna to say to me that I should follow his way? I'm on my own. You know.
But Krishna says, you know, you know, I I'm God. I don't need it. You need it. He doesn't need it, you know. He he created this place for those people who think that they can be happy without him. And they're trying hard.
It usually doesn't work, but you know. But he says if you want to be happy, this is simple. Just try to know my will and act according to my will and be in harmony with my will.
And then I will take you, I I will give you the full-fledged spiritual experience which you all deserve.
Overcoming ego to achieve surrender
Being spiritual being, being the spiritual sparks, little tiny sparks of consciousness. But what is the difficulty, which is very difficult for us to understand. The difficulty is our ego.
I want I want to be you know I whatever it is. Everyone else, you know, it's usually it's amazing. People uh usually in their life they really hope. I I can testify it on my own experience.
They really hope that the world will come in harmony in in harmony with their will. It will never happen Yeah, that and people really try hard for this, you know.
Um they start with one person and they call her wife or him husband, it doesn't work.
You know if you try to force somebody else to act according to your will, it m i i you know if it doesn't work with the wife and husband they produce little children and when the children are little small babies it it may be little harmonious but it becomes a complete mess.
Because they're individuals. They have their own will. And nobody of us is eligible to claim that That you know everyone should somehow or other try to adjust to our will.
But there is one person who is eligible to claim this. That's God, that's Krishna. He says, please, and that he says, you know, I have no problem. You can you can do whatever you like.
But if you want to be happy, you better do it. And he very reasonably explains this. And you know, from the very beginning Bhagavad-gītā explains this problem, this this This problem which is there in every living being,
because in the beginning Arjuna wanted to act the way he wanted to act. And he was trying to prove to Krishna that he knows better.
And Krishna was listening silently and Arjuna was giving this argument and that argument and he says, well, yeah, this is what we should do it. Krishna says, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Arjuna, yes, yes.
And then Krishna tells him, My dear Arjuna, if you're so intelligent, why you're so unhappy? Please give me the answer to such a simple question.
You know, you you think you are intelligent, but why you're telling all this nonsense to me and you look at yourself, you look in your mirror, in the mirror, you know if somebody knows the truth he would not look the way you look now.
You're completely morose and you're shaking and trembling, you know. You better do what I tell you to do. And Arjuna says, and that's what I wanted to say,
that Arjuna says in the beginning, he says, yes, yes, I I am bewildered. I realized, I realized that much. I'm completely bewildered. I don't know what to do.
I don't know what is my dharma, what is wrong, what is right. Please guide me. I surrender to you.
Sushyasty Ham Sadimam Twamprapanam, I am your disciple and I am the soul surrendered unto you. And then immediately he says, now your thyaities, but I am not going to fight. So it's really funny. And that's about us.
We come to the point that yes, yes, yes, I need to do something, I need to surrender. And we say to God, yes, I'm ready to surrender. But then immediately we put so many conditions to him.
Yes, I surrender to you, but I will not do this, this, this, this, this. Otherwise I'm surrendered, so and that's
the difficulty, that's the difficulty which we have, the difficulty why bhakti yoga is so difficult. Bhakti yoga, Krishna explains technically, it's the most simple process.
You don't have to follow all these rituals of karma yoga and know so many mantras and this and that. You don't have to, and you don't have to do, you know, charities so much and this and that, you know.
Uh, and you, you don't have to meditate for hours and hours, and uh, you know, fast, and you know, live a very rigid life of jñāna yogi.
It's, it's in one sense simple, and therefore Krishna says sarvākarmāṇy api sadā kurvāṇo mad-vyapāśrayaḥ. You can do practically all the activities which you used to do.
You don't have to leave from the society, you can still be in the society, you can have your friends, this and that, you can have family.
Yeah, uh, but mad-vyapāśrayaḥ. But you have to surrender to me, but you have to take shelter or protection of me, uh, which is difficult for our ego. The ego revolts. Ego.
Ego doesn't like this process to surrender, this surrendering business.
And therefore it's a gradual process and then, you know, first it is explained that we uh we meet a spiritual master and we like him and we think he's a cool guy. Let me listen to him every now and then.
And then gradually we understand he's something special, and then we try to surrender and then ultimately we come to the point and we again officially say, yes,
I surrender unto you, but I will not do this and this and that. But you know, we will not say this.
And we mentally we know the list which we will not do, and then you know gradually gradually uh this is a gradual process of bringing our individual will, uh, to in harmony with the Supreme Will. It cannot be instant.
Even though sometimes it is described that this is a very short path, It is a relatively short path, but it's not such an easy path, because there will be resistance from our ego. And our ego will resist and will say:
There is a beautiful quote from Saint Augustine from his biography, one of Christian fathers. He, in his confession, his book about his early life,
how he became Christian, he says, I was very — I was, you know, when — when I was a young boy, I was, uh, I — I had a hard time I was praying to God. My dear Lord, please free me from this lust.
And then immediately I would say, but not now. But not now. Not too soon.
Divine mercy for sincere spiritual efforts
So I still need some individual — I — I — I still need to exercise my individual desire to do how to live the way I want to live. So it's a gradual process, but what Krishna says it's and it's very generous of him.
He says that sarvathā karmāṇy api sadā kurvāṇo, even if you do all the activities which you used to do, but you do it mad-vyāśrayaḥ, mad-prasādād avāpnoti, still I am very pleased.
So what Krishna wants to say is that I am pleased with your endeavors. He says, I know it's not going to work immediately. I know you will have a difficult time. Once was a very touching story.
Tamal Krishna Goswami, personal secretary of Śrīla Prabhupāda. Usually there was a time of the day when Prabhupada was taking his massage and Tamal Krishna Goswami would read him letters which would come at that time.
And Srila Prabhupada sometimes would dictate his answers.
And at one point, uh, Tamal Krishna started reading a letter from one boy, one disciple of Prabhupada who came to him, and he was describing in this letter his struggle with following regulative principles, in particular taking drugs. And he says I try it, but it's difficult, you know, I try it and
for some time it works, but then I again go into the same stuff. And Prabhupada started crying. He was not angry that, you know, he promised to me not to do this, why he's doing this. He started crying.
He said, Look how he is struggling for Krishna. He really appreciated his sincerity of his struggle. He knew it's difficult for him. But he also saw that he's sincerely trying and and how difficult it is.
And Krishna says here basically the same thing. You know, I will be pleased if you try. It may not work immediately. If it would work immediately, Krishna would not say Mad Prasadat.
Krishna would not use the word by my mercy. Basically the word by my mercy means that you are not yet perfect in your endeavors.
If you would be perfect, why Krishna would say, you know, he Krishna would say, you know, and then I will take him. He says, by my mercy. It means that you know he's trying.
And uh that's in itself is a very big achievement, uh especially in this day and age. If if people are trying to bring their individual will or individual consciousness in harmony with the Supreme Will, which is the
pass of bhakti, which is the path of love. Because the path of love is this, harmony of of the will when we surrender and we when we basically what love means, love means that I do what the one whom I love wants me to do.
Simple. And what is love of God? I do what God wants me to do because I love Him, because that's my nature, because that's natural for me. And Krishna says, I'm pleased with even little endeavors in this path.
And therefore he says, even if somebody is doing a little bit in this past, it never goes in vain. It always brings some benefit to the human being if he's trying to follow this path.
And then the next verse, fifty seventh verse he will uh continue.
These two verses he is more or less concluding the description of following uh in three paths, spiritual paths, and the resulting or consequent experience which people will get.
And uh by mentioning Bhakti Yoga last, he wants to say that this is what he wants us to do.
and then he will of course say it very clearly at the very end of Bhagavad-gītā, which is just a few verses away from the present verse. That's what I would say tonight. Thank you very much, Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna Yeah.
Discerning divine will amidst practical obstacles
Yeah, if somebody has a question, yeah. So in the beginning I understand I can do what I want, but I should do it for Krishna. Now I should take a step up. I don't want to do what I want anymore.
I really want to do what I want to surrender. I want to do what Krishna wants me to. So circumstances come up and what when I'm well I'm trying to do something with Krishna, but it it becomes a little difficult.
There's obstacles. So I look at Prabhupada's example. So in Jhansi, there was obstacle. The governor's wife wanted. So Prabhupada struggled a little bit, but then he gave up. In Juhu, there was obstacle.
Prabhupada didn't give up. He fought and he fought and he fought. So now I look at myself and I'm trying to understand how do I know how much to fight to go forward and how much not to fight.
And if I can put one constraint on your answer, Maharaj, if you don't mind, the general principle is well, the guru will tell you. But practically speaking, the guru will not be there every time to answer.
So how can we know how much to push we if we're sincerely trying to surrender, how much to push when there's obstacles in what we're trying to do for Krishna?
Well that's why Krishna in the next verse he speaks about Buddha Yogam. Basically, and he says Dadami Buddha Yogam Tam Yana Mamu Bhaiantite in the tenth chapter of Bhagavad-gītā.
He says for those Tesham Satatam Yuktanam Bhajatam Pritipurvakam who are constantly worshipping me with love, Tesham Satata Yuctanam who are constantly engaged, trying to worship me.
Dadami Buddhi Yogam tam, I'll give them the intelligence or the direction.
And basically, ultimately, we will have to develop this intuition, internal intuition, which will help us to determine what is the will of God in this particular circumstances.
Ah I know that you're not happy with my answer, but let me continue for a little while and then I will give you the chance to.
There is a very interesting episode which I recently also rec recalled or retold in Russian in Mahabharata where the five brothers Pandavas are coming back from Svaamvarov
Dropadi and Arjuna he won this trophy, this uh prize uh Dropadi, very beautiful, m the most beautiful and most qualified woman of that time, and uh he's supposed to become the husband.
And uh uh their mother is alone at home and she's nervous because it's so late, and there's and it's it's a dangerous adventure to go where there are so many you know warriors.
So uh she is at home and from behind the door Arjuna says, Mother, look what we brought to you. And she being relieved immediately answers to him, you know, whatever it was just share it between yourself.
And um and then she sees uh what he meant and she becomes horrified.
First of all because uh she never in her whole life said lie. She never uh so she immediately begs Maharaj, she says, do whatever you like, but you have to protect my words.
I said you share, you know, I know it's totally strange, but you know. And Maharaja Yudhiṣṭhira after sometimes says, yeah, yeah, we all marry. And
they asked him, how is it especially his would-be father-in-law, Maharaja Drupada asked him when he suggested to him that we all marry, we all become husbands of your daughter. You know, it's a nice news for her.
Even at this day and age it sounds a little strange. So uh and uh Mahārāja Drupada, the father of Draupadī, he says, how is it proper? And Maharaja Yudhiṣṭhira gives him a very amazing answer.
He says, it's proper because my heart tells me that it's proper. And because I trained my heart in a certain way, my heart never lies me. Because my heart is I I can trust my heart.
You know, if we will s you know, m if we will always say because my heart says this, it may not be so successful, but he trained his heart.
And then he explains on the basis of Shastra, he quotes Shastra, he also asks Vyāsadeva, the Guru, to confirm it.
So he he goes through the confirming process, but what uh what he in essence says that if your heart is trained in this process of surrendering to the Lord, then you can trust your heart.
And then you can get the intuition which is coming from within, and this intuition uh will show you the course of action. Yeah, sure.
Side note, uh Vyāsadeva comes and also tells a story that Draupadī in her past life. Yes. Yes.
So uh I I understand, but I'm not on that um that process And what I'm afraid of is that if I go by my intuitions, my conditioning will guide me in the wrong way.
But if you're still sincere in your endeavours then Krishna will find a way to actually put you on the right track even if you m make a mistake. That's at least uh what would give solace to me?
We are prone to do mistakes. We will inevitably do mistakes. But if we are sincere in our endeavors to do it the way Krishna pleased. Krishna will find a way.
And uh Prabhupāda he was changing his course of actions, he was trying different things, you know, and some things didn't work. Some things worked.
So it's that's a process. But ultimately dadāti buddhi-yogam taṁ, Krishna will give intelligence, Krishna will bring you closer.
Even if initially it may, you know, seem differently, but it's it's a process of coming closely. Maharaj. Prabhupada always used to cite Bhagavad-gītā 2.40. In his own words he said there's no loss or diminution on
In his own words he said there's no loss or diminution on the spiritual course. He would remind me of that all the time. He would punch me. And you'll fall you're falling down again. Yeah.
But uh it's picking yourself back up and getting back up course. Yeah there is no there is absolutely no loss and diminution. That's a solace. Otherwise, you know, on our own.
That's the difference. In the path of bhakti-yoga we depend on the mercy of the Lord. On other paths we depend on our own endeavors.
And you know, who would like to depend on his own endeavors exclusively and a spiritual path. That's a very dangerous proposition.
And there is one beautiful saying which I like very much by Prabhupada, he said, one disciple told him, you know, Prabhupada spiritual life is so difficult, so difficult.
Almost crying, and Prabhupada says yes, spiritual life is very difficult, but material life is impossible. Yes, it's difficult. Yes, you have to struggle. But you have to struggle anyway.
So it's better to struggle with some some result there than to waste your life by struggling uselessly. Okay.
Role of emotional meditation in devotional practice
Than hi. You talked about the difficulty of meditation. Almost as if in a little bit contrast to the process of bhakti.
So I know in the Bhagavad-gītā, at least twice Prabhupada says you have to engage in devotional service and full Krishna consciousness. And I know chanting Hare Krishna for a few years that it's hard to
just, Prabhupada would say, usually, just hear the mantra. But that's very, very difficult. So my question is where does meditation come into our practices?
I know at more advanced stages that Rūpa Gosvāmī is saying that there's written meditation. So at what point should we actually try to begin to meditate on Krishna in our practices?
The meditation comes from the very beginning, but it's a different kind of meditation. And the difference of meditation or the style of meditation which we should try to engage ourselves
from the quote unquote usual meditation or normal meditation or whatever it is is that from the very beginning we try to engage our emotions into the process of meditation.
When there is no emotion involved in the meditative process, it becomes boring.
But when Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu explains the chanting of the Holy Name, the very second verse where he explains the chanting of the Holy Name in the beginning stages.
He explains what should be the emotion: tṛṇād api su-nīcena taror api sahiṣṇunā amāninā mānadena kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ durdaivād īdṛśī jānī nānu-rāgaḥ kutaścana.
So by lamenting or by regretting about our durdaiva, the bad luck which forced us to commit the offenses.
So these sentiments or these emotions help us in this meditation process rather than just trying to do it in a mechanical way, in a yogic style, so to speak. So, and then higher and higher sentiments are being involved.
Or at least there is another emotion which is there in this verse is the emotion of gratitude.
nāmnām akāri bahudhā nija-sarva-śaktis tatrpitā नियमितah smaraṇaḥ kāla etā dṛśī tava kṛpā bhagavan mamāpi durdaivam īdṛśam ihājani nānurāgaḥ. your names.
You you made yourself so accessible, so easily accessible because you are there in the names.
So if we remember about this and we have the gratitude towards the Lord and chant the holy name with this emotion, it's a different exercise and a different result. Yes, sure. Sure, sure. Okay. I can leave it.
Using intelligence and taking personal responsibility
So you had a question. There is one instruction by Śiva Rama Swami that I don't understand.
It's in relationship to following Krishna's will. Radha Govinda Prabhu, his spiritual master, Śivarāma Mahārāja, gave this instruction. So uh he said that um there was a difficult decision
he had to make and that would affect his whole life, and he went to Śiva Rama Maharaj, his spiritual master, and asked, what should I do? do you think that I should tell you? Why are you asking?
And he said that because you're a representative of Krishna, of Krishna, and by your words I can judge what Krishna wants, what is his plan?
And then Swaramahar said that why do you think yourself so significant that why do you think uh Krishna has some sort of specific plan on you? And uh this really humiliated rather well in the trouble.
And then uh he said well what if I and he said uh you should take responsibility for your decision. And then the story goes on he made the wrong decision but he learned from it.
But what does it mean to take responsibility? Even Krishna himself says to Arjuna, you please uh uh carefully think about everything which I told you, and then do whatever you like. He's very clear about this.
You just ultimately you just think about it. Krishna gave him the complete freedom. He says, Yeah, but you you please think about it. Don't act in a hurry, don't do it just by using your karma and saṁskāras.
I gave you this pass, I explained to you this philosophy. You just think about it and then do whatever you like. But first think about it.
So Krishna doesn't want to uh absolve us from the responsibility which we have for our our own actions, but he wants us to do it consciously and uh he explains what he likes, what he doesn't like, and then he gave us the intelligence to use.
So basically, this particular instruction uh means don't uh don't use uh don't uh uh don't forget that you have intelligence. Don't don't become a blind follower.
And once there was a disciple of Śrīla Prabhupāda who was completely surrendered soul and he was a saṅkīrtana marathon, saṅkīrtana leader, and he was always saying, you know, whatever Krishna desires, you know, if we don't put petrol in our, you know, in our cars and the car stops, it means that Krishna wants us to stop.
So we'll stop and we'll take some. So and then uh the devotees under him they uh realized that something is wrong, you know.
They uh but they couldn't, you know, because he was so convincing, you know, we do whatever you know cr what Krishna wants, we do. So they asked him to write a letter to Śrīla Prabhupāda.
And he wrote a letter to Śrīla Prabhupāda asking, you know, what does it mean to surrender? And Śrīla Prabhupāda answered to him, surrender means use your intelligence. That's what surrender means. Given by God.
But by reading the books and you know you you tune up your intelligence. Krishna says, do whatever you like, but first hear what I said. First think about it.
Asheshataha means very thoroughly think about uh what you have heard. Okay.