Pancha-upasana. Part 2
Бхакти Вигьяна Госвами · Майапур · 2023
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Opening invocation prayers and seminar welcome
Sri Krishna Pada, Sahanalita, Sri Shakadams, Krishna Krona Sindho, Vinabandhu Jagatpate, Gobisha Gopikakanta, Radakantana Vastute, Taktakanchanagurangi, Rade Vrindava Nishware, Vishavanu Sudade, Pranamami Haripri, Pancha Kapatarubischa, Kripasindhu vicha, patitanampala nebi, Vaishnavyona, Sri Krishna Chaitanya, Prabhuniak, Sriadara, Srivassadivora Bhakta Brinda Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hale Rama, Rama Rama.
Yando pradeci ma mucha mupra Supta, Sandi, Ki wa Shakti, Darah, Swadamna, Anjaam Shahstu, Charna Srahu Nadu, Rhandamu, Bhagawa Dhe, Puru Shaytu, Swasia Stu Vishwaswassi,ya Cala kalah prasidhha tam dean to butani sivam bitodiya, manascha badram bajata doksha ja lescha tum no wati ratya.
So welcome to our second part of the seminar. And yesterday we were talking about the problem, which is quite pronounced nowadays in ISCON, and many people are concerned with this problem.
The problem is that there are so many different ideas, contaminations, emphasis on what we should do in this con. And for new devotees it's sometimes very bewildering.
Somehow or other the focus is not really there anymore and Iskone is a you know a very glorious manifestation of famous and most favorite dish of devotees kitshi.
So there is quite quite a mixture of different ideas, different ideologies, even. And in one sense, as I tried to explain yesterday, it's a natural process.
We grow, the society grows, and because the society grows, people come with their own desires and they try to fulfill their desires in the context of this movement.
So, how to deal with this properly, naturally, without strict restrictions, imposing strict restrictions.
So in this part of our discussion, I will try to provide a solution, and you do whatever you like with this solution. I am not in control here.
Understanding Panchaopasana and the five stages
But I will offer uh some ideas of how this problem uh could and should be solved according to the Bhaktivinoda Thakur mostly.
So I explained yesterday that basically the development of consciousness naturally follows a concept of panchupasana or worshipping five deities.
How it works, the people have some desires, they have some idea of prayajana. Everyone has some prayana, some goal in life, and according to prayojana,
they design their life from this starting point of prayojana and they imagine the supreme power which will help them to manifest this prayana, which will ensure that they will reach the desired goal.
So this is how it works, and therefore this panchopasana, the scheme which Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura adopts and employs to explain this variety of different philosophies, different religions and everything, you know, all over the world, is following this suit there are five basic ideas of prayojana.
And according to five basic ideas of prayojana, we get five deities who manifest the supreme power for people who have this goal in their heart.
And everyone claims that the deity whom they worship either implicitly or explicitly is the supreme. Their concept that this is the supreme truth, supreme absolute truth.
So we can see here, this is Mother Durga, the material nature, and she is very nicely following the Om sign. Because Ohm means supreme, so the followers of Durga they somehow rather try to squeeze her in this om.
And not without success. This is what is going on actually. In reality, this is what is going on in the heart. We try to relate or correspond our desires with the with our concept of the absolute truth.
And of course, you know, Surya is also quite nicely follows the Om sign. We can see it. And definitely Ganesh, no problem with it. We have already seen this.
It's a little more difficult with Shiva, but still it's possible because he likes snakes.
So but anyway, the the idea which I want to say is that uh you know whoever has some idea, he has a corresponding idea of the ultimate supreme power which will help him to fulfill this idea or to reach this goal.
And uh surprisingly I was trying to find uh Vishnu image of Vishnu uh in Om, but I couldn't find it.
But we have of course Vishnu in every atom And that's the fifth stage of the supreme power as Paramatma, as the controlling power of this world. And this is not the highest concept, not the highest spiritual concept.
The highest spiritual concept is, of course, as we know, Krishna.
Evaluating self-worship and demigod desires
And I explained this yesterday.
So, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, while explaining this or giving the conclusion, he says the religious principles taught by Muhammad and Jesus Christ are similar to the religious principles taught by Vaishnava sects.
He says that monotheistic religion they're more or less Vaishnavas uh maybe not pure Vaishnavas but still in uh to a certain extent they're Vaishnavas and Buddhism and Jainism are similar to Shaivadharma.
He just gives the example how to understand this bewildering variety of religions and how to classify them according to this very beautiful scheme which follows again the natural development of the consciousness.
And Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda, he I'm giving this as an example, you know, you may find many similar quotes in Srila Prabhupada's books as well.
He says that when we worship, please listen very carefully, it's an important idea for this seminar.
When we worship the particular deity to fulfill our particular desires without understanding the whole progression, without understanding the ultimate goal, then it's actually self-worship.
He says the worshippers of Ganesha, Surya, Shakti, and Rudra are all self-worshippers because they are worshiping the deities for their egoistic selfish means to reach their goals.
By worshiping the demigods, material obstacles will be destroyed on the path, on one's path for sense gratification, thus becomes unhindered.
Ganesha removes obstacles for sensual worship, Surya removes obstacles to Dharma and so on and so forth. So he's explaining this.
So if we stuck on a particular level, that's not good and we remain self-worshippers or a pasakas or a Ahangrahaupasitas, as Prabhupada puts it.
But he says at the same time, there is nothing wrong with reaching these goals.
The same Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati in another place he says the desire to gain physical health with the sole intention of worshiping Krishna is also favorable for devotional service.
And on devotees endeavor to demand service service from the Supreme Lord, such as becoming cured, so that he can attain the platform of Anartas is not acceptable.
But pray for good health to the destroyer of obstacles, Ganesha, at the lotus feet of the destroyer of obstacles, Lord Vishimha, for the sake of Krishna Bhajana is certainly acceptable.
So we may condemn all this demigod worship, but as Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda explains here, there is a room for this.
And we cannot really completely condemn this because anyway, I tried to do this experiment yesterday. We have this desire.
Prabhupada said that Iskone would be perfect uh if it not for all of us as the members of this card. No how otherwise it could be perfect. So we're bringing uh uh our mentality, our ideas, our understanding here.
And uh it's basically the understanding, this this understanding is very important because if we understand that there are certain natural stages which we have to follow through, then we will reach the ultimate goal.
And I will show how in this little seminar. So we have this this is the same picture which I already showed,
you know, the we're starting with the atheistic philosophy because atheism and the desire to enjoy the senses is synonyms. It's the same. It's basically the same idea.
Then agnosticism comes into question when you understand that you need some morality, but you're not really clear whether there is God or not, and ultimately you don't care unless everyone follows some moral principles.
Then of course, some understanding of higher power as God comes into picture,
and then Seshvaranaitika people appear, the people who are following moral, but not because for the sake of moral, not for the sake of their sense gratification but for the sake of higher principle who is the establishing these morals.
And then in personalism naturally comes and you want salvation and then regulated devotion and then spontaneous devotion as the highest development of human consciousness.
So if we keep this ladder in mind, we will be able to progress. And as I said, there is a big problem. Can devotee immediately be elevated to the highest possible level? Yes, definitely.
But so this but is explained by Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura. He explains very beautifully.
Devotional energy transfer across spiritual stages
That's a very important concept for this part of our discussion. He says concerning the bestowal of devotional energy, very interesting, devotional Shakti, Bhakti Shakti.
By the mercy of the devotees, something should be mentioned. The power of premā-bhakta is unlimited. And thus, the premā-bhakta, if he is merciful, can transfer his power to any type of person.
In other words, a premā-bhakta can immediately elevate anyone to his own level. No matter who, you know.
If if he feels that somebody is an object of my mercy, he can be elevated to the level of premā. He doesn't have to go through this tedious exercise of climbing over this very steep ladder.
So he says the bhāva-bhakta, being merciful can instill power, uh, in the sādhana-bhakta, sādhana-bhaktas, so that they can assume a position
similar to his own. In other words, bhāva-bhakta can, uh, elevate you to the level of bhāva if you already engaged in sādhana. But if you are not engaged in sādhana, he cannot give you bhāva.
And by the strength of his personality, the bhāva-bhakta can raise materialistic people who have gained some qualification due to previous deeds to the level of ruci. He cannot even give to any materialistic person ruci.
But if you have some preliminary qualifications, some adhikāra, he can elevate you to the level of ruci. Not bad too.
I mean, I wouldn't mind to be elevated on a level of ruci without going through this, through this painful anartha-nivṛtti process and being stuck in niṣṭhā. And
then he says vaidhi and rāgānuga-sādhana-bhaktas can instill faith in materialistic people who have attained qualification by previous deeds, by dint of their teaching and example.
So he doesn't give this condition to bhāva-bhakta's teaching example, you know. Bhāva-bhakta doesn't have to teach. Prema-bhakta doesn't have to teach.
Prema-bhakti can just sit there and you will be elevated to the level of premā. Just looks at you, and by looking at you, he can instill this bhakti- śakti within your heart. He doesn't need to open his mouth.
Therefore, people, this, you know, this tradition of darśana is there in Vedic culture. You just come to an elevated person, you leave him and you feel there is some change.
He may be a maunī-vrata, vrati, he is following mauna. Still, you know, you feel some purification is taking place. But because most of the preachers in this con— they belong to sādhaka class.
The only thing which they can do, they can instill faith in some people who have some preliminary qualifications, some adhikāra. Which is good.
There is nothing wrong with it, but it definitely brings the problem that those people who attained faith by listening to the preaching of sādhakas, they have to climb over this ladder.
Unless they are fortunate enough and there is somehow or other some bhāva-bhakta mercifully glances at them or whatever.
Addressing material desire and lower worship
So the majority of people in ISKCON are in this position. We have some faith which is instilled by the hard work of preachers of ISKCON, and here we are, we have to go through all these stages.
And therefore, we have this phenomenon of Pañca-upāsanā and ISKCON, because the constituencies, the people, the members of ISKCON, they really need to do this.
The leaders in ISKCON, they try to cater to their needs, and therefore there is quite prominent. I found quite a few advertisements of Durgā pūjā in different ISKCON temples.
And there is even a beautiful Durgā deity there in ISKCON. And yeah, it's going on. But as I said, it's not necessarily doesn't have to be necessarily take this necessarily formal way of Durga worship.
Even the formal way of Durgā pūjā is there in ISKCON. But we can worship mother material nature by you by frequencing pizzeria. That's also some sort of Durga worship. Or whatever, you know.
There are so many endeavours which are specifically geared to people who really want to enjoy different facilities of material nature.
And then you can see Prabhupāda's picture, that this is not just a yoga studio, this is his ISKCON temple. So you may be surprised. I hope it's not during maṅgala-ārati time. They hope the deities are closed.
But anyway, because again, because this idea is there, this desire is there and this need is there, you know, and going on, this is Sūrya worship and this is sūrya-bhaktas. Some of them have even Gaṇeśa mālā that happens.
And as I said, the third level is when we consider the mind as the supreme. And all kinds of techniques, uh, how to improve our mind are also quite prominent in this ISKCON.
You know, Gaṇeśa has these two beautiful wives, Ṛddhi and Siddhi. Ṛddhi means prosperity, Siddhi means success. And you know, there are so many different enterprises within ISKCON which is about there.
This is, for example, this Art of Mind Control by ISKCON. And of course, mind control is a by-product of bhakti. If we strictly take our philosophy, then mind control, we don't need to control mind by some other means.
The very notion that we should independently strive to control the mind means that we're not yet on the level of very high-powered practice of bhakti.
And of course, you know, the next level of spiritual evolution, the impersonalism, or the desire to get liberated, as I said, you know, brahmacārī ashrams are a very nice example of this.
If you go to Brahmacharya Ashram, you feel like you already merged somewhere. You know, this is one of the There's not much order there. You're already merged in some some sort of idea.
So, as I said, we all worship Krishna, but the idea is that in which mood we worship Krishna. As Śrīla Prabhupāda formulated it, we may worship Krishna rather than Krishna, but in the mood of Lakṣmī-Nārāyaṇa.
And ultimately, Krishna is who? Krishna is Bhāva-grāhi Janārdana. He accepts the mood. So we may think that we worship Krishna, but because our mood is different, because our desire ultimately is different, then ultimately,
even though we think that we worship Krishna in reality we may worship somebody else and therefore we may find out that Durga is playing the flute And Ganesha is also playing the flute.
You may chant Hare Kṛṣṇa but ultimately find out that you're dancing rasa-līlā with Ganas. I don't know if he dances Rasa dance. But of course definitely there is this Nṛtya Ganas. He's a good dancer.
Anyway, so this is another Ganesha. And, you know, Ganesha even dances and Kali is naked, that's how it happens. And believe it or not, Shiva also plays the flute.
So, and the last picture which I wanted to show is actually very interesting. Here we see Krishna with the flute, but if we look more carefully,
we can see that the conception of the artist of Krishna, he thinks it's Krishna, it's actually not Krishna. It's Shiva. You know, Śrīla Prabhupāda, if you would see this picture, he would definitely disapprove this.
You just look at him. First of all, Śrīla Prabhupāda would say if you depict Krishna you need to have Vṛndāvana around him. And here you have what? You know the halo of Brahman. So and you know this anyway.
This is what what I mean to say is that uh this proliferation of different ideas within this school in one sense is natural, but we have to know how to deal with this problem. It's a problem at the same time.
We should not underestimate And what happens actually
Secularization and eclipsing transcendental knowledge
the other ideas they eclipse the main idea, the idea of love of God. So this is the definition of this secularization, the process of secularization.
The secularization is the process of eclipsing parā-vidyā by a paravidya. You know, paravidya is the transcendental science, the science of love of God, the science of Krishna consciousness.
And when this Paravidya exists together with a paravidya, there is nothing wrong with it.
If a paravidya, the material sciences which we need to employ and to live in this world exist together and paravidya rules supreme, it's not a problem.
But if a paravidya starts eclipsing completely the paravidia, then we have a big problem. And people will become confused.
You know, as I said, people, the new people who join this con now, they for them basically because of proliferation of these different secondary ideas and techniques and practices.
For them there's no difference between worship of Rahu and worship of Krishna. You know they they they may chant Hare Krishna and then they chant Om Rahavena Maha or Om Ketavena Maha.
You know, I I bow down to Rahu to Ketu. So this this confusion, this is this is what is wrong.
And you know, we can see when we look at uh other religions, we can see that most majority of people they are very much confused and they only take this externals of the religion.
As Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says, the majority of people will become this Bharavachi, Vaishnavas, Bhavahi basically means religious-minded, ritualistic Vaishnavas.
Who follow the external form of the tradition, but do not have the access to the essence of the tradition. And do not progress according to the ideas of the founder.
And I, you know, I give a very interesting quote from Alice in the Wonderland. You know, this uh beautiful example of somebody who is confused, she's wandering at night and she sees this cat.
And Alice says, Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here? And the cat says, that depends a good deal on where you want to get to. I don't much care where, says Alice.
And then he says, then it doesn't much matter which way you go. And Alice says, as long as I get somewhere. Oh, you sure do that if you only walk long enough. So sometimes we have this idea.
If I really walk long enough, then I will reach somewhere. But it's not a fact.
Unless you really clearly establish sometimes it's very interesting, sometimes the followers of Hindu tradition, they say we are, you know, they in the West and they are orthodox. They are trying to find the proper doctrine. And we are in the East we are ortho-praxis.
We are, you know, we're trying to find the proper practice. But it's not in reality like this. We as Vaishnavas were orthodox. We need to have very properly established doctrines.
Sambandha, abhidheya, prayojana, Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī, Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī was working hard to establish this and we should not you know be you know, like this else. You sure, you should get somewhere. So what
happens you know when the religion grows and when so many people come to this religion it becomes like a sheep with all kinds of shells. And the speed of the religious movement becomes much more, how shall I say this in a very polite way, egregious. It's not a movement anymore, it's just more or less stagnant.
You know, the speed becomes uh, so we can see that uh this revolutionary spirit, I start this seminar from this, we're gradually losing this spirit.
And here is the uh yeah, in a few slides I will show you the possible solution for this.
Karma and jnana contaminations in spiritual practice
But uh, what I want first to say is that basically all these contaminations can be roughly classified into big categories, karma and jñāna. And we know Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī is very emphatic about this.
He says: bhukti-mukti-spṛhā yāvat piśācī hṛdi vartate tāvad bhakti-sukhasyātra katham abhyudayo bhavet.
There is no question of us experiencing bliss of bhakti unless these two witches, the desires of bhukti and mukti, live within our heart. They will basically suck the ability to experience the bliss of bhakti.
So we should be very careful, we should admit that they still exist within our heart, but we should not agree to this.
We should do something about it because otherwise we are depriving ourselves of the highest possible experience. And roughly if we consider this ladder, we will see that first three stages is mostly karma contamination.
And the next two stages, including vaiṣṇava-dharma, has some contamination of jnana.
So the pure bhakti comes only when we are on the highest possible level, when we are very clearly established on this level that you know we have to be at least conceptually, theoretically, we have to understand this is where I want to go. I do not want to, you know, to come to Ganesh playing on the flute. I want to come to Krishna who is playing on the flute.
So you know different ideas are clashing now in Iskone and people are you know saying this varṇāśrama-dharma or some say you know this and that. So many ideas. But ultimately we have to understand.
We can employ everything which is there on this ladder to help us to reach the highest possible level. But we should be very clear that this is where I want to reach.
If we don't do this, whatever it is, it may be varṇāśrama-dharma, it may be astrology, it may be psychology, it may be anything, it will be the hindrance to our progress. Because we will be stuck on this level.
So the prayojana has to be very clearly established.
established. And you know, karma-miśrā bhakti, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura beautifully explains what it is, you know, this is the desire to enjoy this world with the help of the Lord. This is karma-miśrā bhakti.
And the Lord in this way, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says, becomes the limb of karma. He becomes, he doesn't have the independent value in our life. This is what karma mentality is.
I'm more concerned with following all these rules and regulations ultimately to become happy. And the Lord is there, He will help me with this.
And jñāna-miśrā bhakti, jñāna-miśrā bhakti, as Prabhupāda would say, is a spiritual suicide. And very interestingly, here he says it's a very important point also:
that whoever becomes bound by salvation, salvation is jñāna, aims at destruction of the self and performs false renunciation. He neither establishes himself in this world nor does he finally attain a stable non-material position.
This is what Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says about this and we may be quite, maybe very clearly uh if we may say very clearly, that any intermediate position on this ladder is unstable.
There are only two stable positions. One is complete atheism, another one is a spontaneous devotion. Everything else in between is not stable. It's intermediate. You have to go and you either go this way or you go that way.
And I will show how it works. You know, unfortunately, that's the that's the reality, and we have to be very clear about this. That unless we reach the elevated position, you know, there will be tendency.
Why these two positions are stable? Because the experience which someone has on the stages especially on the stage of of course spontaneous devotion is so overwhelmingly good that he doesn't want to move somewhere.
And why atheism is so stable? Because uh I mean you cannot go you know uh lower than atheism so it's stable in this sense, everything else is not so stable because you don't have the full experience.
You know, sometimes people say, I heard some very experienced devotees say that niṣṭhā is a very sometimes we think niṣṭhā is a very, you know, you're fixed up, you're on this niṣṭhā. They say it's a very dangerous position.
Because in niṣṭhā you are neither here nor there. You already left material life, you don't have yet a pronounced pronounced taste for spiritual life so uh you know we have to be very clear about this whole thing and we have to be determined.
Vyavasāyātmikā buddhir ekeha kurunandana. Therefore Śrīla Prabhupāda used to say that this is one of the most important verses.
This deliberation on this verse, according to the commentary of Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, actually moved Śrīla Prabhupāda very much. We have to be determined.
Obstacles on the ladder of spiritual progression
We have to be a ekekurunandanā.
So now I will explain two problems, and basically, I already said that two problems is that it's difficult to progress up. It's always difficult to climb up. This one problem, and another problem is that it's easy to go down. This is the two problems with this ladder.
So that's what it is. When we're climbing up, when we're trying to go up and up and up, there is every chance that we will stuck on a certain level.
The tendency will be there, the tendency of a human being to somehow rather to be comfortably adjusted to the level where he is in and look down to those who are you know, and anyway, we will explain now.
So Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, he quotes Ādi-varāha Purāṇa, and he says that if one worships Ganesha for thousands of births and becomes free from sin, then it is possible to come to the platform of vaiṣṇavism.
So if we normally take this ladder as the traditional ladder which is adopted in Vedic culture, it's a very slow process.
The slow process because you know you are you're sincerely following the rules and regulations of the particular dharma you're following, and some purification is definitely taking place, but at the same time you're clinging to the level of consciousness which you are.
And Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura explains this in a very beautiful way. Listen, this quote which you can very clearly relate to, I'm sure. Some people lament that they have not attained devotion to Krishna.
But at the same time, they do not make any real attempt to raise themselves to the level of Krishna Bhakti. They remain bound to one of the levels without due cause and do not make any attempt to progress. Niyama Agraha.
If a person stops at one step, how he can expect to progress to the top? Many devotees on the level of vaidhi-bhakti, listen carefully, make no attempt to progress to Bhava Bhakti. Does it sound familiar to you?
Many people remain attached to the rules of varnashrama and are indifferent to bhāva and prema, this is an obstacle to their own advancement.
So Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura here he formulates or he explains this phenomenon that it's difficult to climb up. Why? Because we tend to be satisfied on the level which we reached.
You know, we always can see somebody who is lower than us, right? And we say, you know, I'm not so bad. Isn't that? You know, I'm I'm I'm quite good. I'm doing quite good.
You know I'm fixed up you know I'm changing four rounds a day no problem and I'm following three and a half regulative principles whatever you know so there is always that's the danger of the society.
When we are in the society there will be always people who are lower than us. And because we have this false ego and pride, we will look at them. We will not look high up.
We will look up, but with a specific eye. That will be explained in the next slide. But we will look at them and we will say, oh yeah, I'm good, you know, no problem.
So uh Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura explains this phenomenon in an even more important way He says when a person is qualified to ascend to the next step, he must also give up attachment to the old step.
We get attached to the step which we already reached, especially if we reach this step after so much endeavors. You know, we'll close the door and you know and then there's somebody who says, no, you have to go further.
They say, no, no, no, wait a second. I'm okay here. So don't push me around. So he says the tendency to cling to the old stage is called Niyama Agraha, clinging to the outmoded, outmoded rules.
Because of this, the outcasts have no respect to atheistic moralists. Ateistic moralists have no respect to pseudo-theistic moralists. Pseudotheistic moralists have no respect to theistic moralists.
The theistic moralists have no respect to vaidhi-bhaktas, and vaidhi-bhaktas have no respect to rāgātmikā-bhakti.
Overcoming attachment to intermediate spiritual stages
Because of such habit, the followers of varṇāśrama often do not respect vaidī-bhaktas.
Those at the higher stage naturally have compassion to those at the lower stage, but until the lower situated people are fortunate, they cannot give up their stage and develop taste for the higher stage.
Well, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura is explaining here the mechanism why we stay on the same stage.
You know, we're comfortable, we don't want to be pushed, we don't want, we are lazy, we don't want to go further, and we are satisfied with this.
And to explain, to justify our existence on this level, we start disrespecting those people who are higher than us.
We do not have genuine respect, we do not understand, and because we do not have this genuine respect to those who are higher than us, we cannot get their mercy. Prabhupada explains here.
They are ready to give mercy to you. No problem. They want to give mercy to you, but you cannot accept this mercy because you reject. Because you disrespect them. That's the problem.
That's this idea of Niyama Agraha when you cling to certain rules and you do not want or cannot really go further.
So that's one of the problem difficulties of climbing up uh and it's psychologically uh very much justified within ourselves that we should stay there and all kinds of devices are there in the intelligence why we shouldn't go further.
You know, I don't need to go there. You know, what they who they think they are, you know, yeah. Especially this, you know, rāgānugās, they are really off, you know, they don't know what they're doing.
And you know, all kinds of ideas are there floating. And therefore, it's very interesting. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, listen, that's another beautiful explanation.
He's the Supersoul, sac-cid-ānanda, incomparable, and beyond the reach of ordinary living entities. That's from another book, Tattva-sūtram.
From a doubtful person or agnostic to a learned scholar of spiritual topics, all are eligible to worship the Supreme Brahman.
No matter in which level of consciousness you are, which philosophy you ascribe to, everyone can immediately start worshipping the Supreme Brahman.
The symptom of, but the symptom of actual worship is to make advancement on the path of bhakti. So that's the definition of spiritual progress. The spiritual progress is that if you understand that my goal,
my desired goal is to develop attachment to the Supreme Lord, Rādhā, then you will not get stuck on any previous level, and your progress will be steady. My goal is rāga.
Genuine attachment to the holy name, genuine attachment to the deity, genuine attachment to Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, genuine attachment to holy dhāma, and genuine attachment to elevated devotees.
By all means I have to develop prāga, personal relationship with elevated devotees, personal relationship with the deities, personal relationship with the holy name and personal relationship with Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
Then by the mercy of these spiritually empowered personalities and we all know that it's all personal. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is a person, Holy Name is a person, Holy Dhāma is a person. We will develop this.
Aligning qualification sadhana and ultimate prayojana
And basically, it's a very important approach to this ladder.
If we really want to progress on this ladder, you know, usually people, I explained this in my Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam class, people are concerned with the question how, what, but the real question is why?
You know, why is the real question why do I want to do this? What is the ultimate reason? What is the ultimate idea which I want to reach? And basically that corresponds to this why corresponds to prayojana point.
How corresponds to sādhana and what corresponds to adhikāra. What I want to explain here, let me see. No. Let me go a little up here.
The art of spiritual development, the art of sadhana, and the art of preaching, and especially the art of counseling those people who are under care is to first very clearly understand their adhikāra.
The adhikāra is the level where they are, qualification. This is the level where they are. Each level where they are corresponds to the question: what? This is what I have. This is already what is there with me.
This is uh something which I can like you know why while you're going through the stages to go through the stage you first have to have very strong uh how you call it? You have to be established strongly on the lower stage, right?
Before you climb on the next stage. So the adikar should be there. Adikar means I'm strongly established. If I try to jump over there, you know, most probably I will just fall down.
So I establish on one place this is my adhikar, but then I know the higher goal which I have to reach, and I know the highest goal.
And I know the higher goal, the highest goal may not be relevant to me at this present stage where I am living.
It may not be relevant, you know, if you say love of God is your goal, you know, it will be quite legitimate not to believe you. Because it's too high.
It's little difficult to believe, you know, to relate to this most highest goal you know sometimes you know, uh, you read, read, I I read, I read part of uh, Ujjvala-nīlamaṇi, beautiful book.
And then Rūpa Gosvāmī explains in all details the symptoms of the higher stages, from prema you go to sneha, from sneha you go to mana, from mana you go to praṇaya, from praṇaya you go to rāga, from rāga you go to anurāga, from anurāga you go to bhāva, from bhāva you go to mahābhāva, and amazingly Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī explains all these sthāyī-bhāvas, all these stages. And he gives a very graphic description of every stage, and you know, there is one
verse when you know because the loving ecstasy manifests in a very unusual way. Sometimes you start how you call it hiccupping? That's an ecstatic symptom.
And you think, you know, do I really want to hiccup from love? To say is that it's little difficult for us to relate to these descriptions.
And therefore, Prabhupāda was not, you know, he was not allowing this because we will misunderstand. We will uh when we're reading these descriptions, we will project our present level of consciousness on this highest level and we will be bewildered. And we will not even want to go there.
Therefore, the art of sudden, the art of climbing, to understand clearly my adhikar, to understand the relevant goal which I want to achieve.
And on this level, on this ladder, you know, you can very rationally explain every next goal which is in a way that it's relevant and practical for people.
But at the same time, not to forget about the highest possible goal. Just today morning, by the mercy of Paśu-śreṣṭha Prabhu, we listened to Śrīla Prabhupāda's lecture, which he gave in 73, in April 73 in New York.
And it's amazing. You know, I was thinking through this lecture, Prabhupāda is talking about pure love of God. And what we see here in this con- this sort of preaching is very rare.
Prabhupada is talking to quite near five devotees, but he's talking this is the highest goal, this is the highest goal. You will not be happy on any intermediate levels.
You will not be happy if you control your mind, you will not be happy if you achieve success. You will not be happy if you enjoy senses. You will not be happy if you become healthy.
The only way for you to become happy in the true sense of the world, if you reach to this stage, and you know, for that you need love, and you don't even understand what is love. So, this is what is lacking.
We don't see too much, and we should remind each other. This is our sacred duty, to remind each other. This is our goal. This is our goal. Not Ganesh. Not Durga, not Surya, not Shiva, not Brahmacharyashram. Pure love of God.
When Prabhupada was asked, you know, Prabhupada, how we can please you very much. And the question was asked by book distributor and he definitely knew the answer which Śrīla Prabhupāda should give to this question.
Śrīla Prabhupāda said you can please me very much if you achieve the level of pure love of God. It doesn't matter which means. Means may be different.
Means are different to different people, but that's the highest possible goal. And that's the precondition to climb over and to be successful in this in this endeavor.
And you know, sometimes in this picture you see very small person and he's looking up and he says, you know, where I will be able to climb over this steep wall in front of me.
You know, the love of God seems to be an unachievable ideal, but it is achievable. And therefore we should not be shy by saying about this, by explaining that this is what we need and this is why we're here.
And that's why this in this slide, there is we have to be very
clear about adhikar, we have to be very clear about prayojana. The intermediate prayojana and the highest possible prayojana. And then suddenly will become very clear.
Then the question how will become also be answered very nicely. And therefore, Bhaktivinoda says, listen, this is a good news. So many bad news I already told you.
Now is the gods ultimately. Those who are fortunate to receive the teachings of Lord Chaitanya, however, can progress very quickly in a short life span. A person can easily progress from Varnashram to the highest level of prima, those who
have taken shelter of the rules of gradual development do not have to wait for another birth to elevate themselves.
However, those who act like a dead fish and simply float in the current of fate in the ocean of material existence, advancing and retreating with the ebb and flow of the tide, can hardly attain the desired goal.
It's achievable, it's possible. We're eligible for this. By dint of being the followers of Lord Chaitanya, but we really have to know this. And otherwise we will be like a dead fish in the ocean of Iskone.
Going with the, you know, ebb and flow of the tide.
Causes of spiritual degradation and Vaishnava aparadha
Anyway, so that's uh as I said, there are two problems. One problem it's difficult to climb, another problem it's easy to go down. So not only the elevation of consciousness takes place, you know.
Sometimes we have this false idea that because I'm here, I will always, you know, elevate my consciousness. Not at all. You can degrade your consciousness. Easily.
And we have seen it, and this you can go the same ladder in the opposite different order, and ultimately your consciousness will be degraded, even within this consciousness.
And for that, Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī gives a very severe warning: bhava piya, bhava mayati. Even if you reach the level of real bhāva, the preliminary love of God, it may become abhāva, it may become non-existent.
Bhāva becomes abhāva, it disappears completely. Why? Krishna presta a paradata for those who offend those who are dear to Krishna, kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāparādhāt.
Krishna Preṣṭha, somebody who is, and Krishna Preṣṭha, you know, Mukunda Preṣṭha Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī, he calls the spiritual master Mukunda Preṣṭha, somebody who is teaching us, preṣṭha, somebody who is very dear.
And Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī explains by two types of grave offences, offense to the dearest devotee, Krishna Preṣṭha. Preṣṭha means actually a superlative case.
Not Krishna Priya, Krishna Preṣṭha, the most dear devotee of Krishna. Or to Krishna himself, kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāparādhāt, even real bhāva is destroyed by madhyama-offense.
Bhāva becomes bhāvābhāsa, it becomes the shadow of bhāva. You still experience some emotions, but it's just the intensity of emotions becomes much less. It's ābhāsa.
You still remember about very strong emotions, tears, and everything, but because of the offense, your emotional involvement in the process of bhakti becomes uh much more uh lukewarm. You become really senior lukewarm devotee.
No offense in Tempo. This is what we can see, you know. This is sometimes the the notion of the progress, you know, we become indifferent in one sense. And by slight offense, the bhāva degrades in category.
Becoming an inferior type means that there will be degradation in terms of five rasas.
In other words, you might have been you know a bhāva bhakta on the level of śṛṅgāra rasa on the conjugal relationship, and all of a sudden you feel like you know approaching Krishna like a friend. Why?
Because of the offense. The intensity, the devotional involvement, the desire to sacrifice yourself becomes less.
And you know also Sivarama Swami explains that sometimes the devotees from the level of bhāva they can go to the level of Māyāvādī impersonalist. You know, and we can we have seen it. Unfortunately, I have seen it.
Not once, not twice.
They have this very high concept and then somehow rather they become very much attracted to impersonal ideas and start preaching it and start taking some, you know, preaching some, you know, sin it because of their offense.
And this is a beautiful example in this picture, we can see Akrura who is giving Syamantaka jewel back to Krishna. You know, we all know this story. So what happened with Akrora? Akrura was a pure devotee, right?
He was so pure that, you know, he's he's an example of vandana process of bhakti, you know he's perfected this process of bhakti.
Acharya they cite him as an example of somebody who achieved perfection through offering prayers to Krishna while going to Vṛndāvana. And he reached Vṛndāvana and he saw Krishna in Vṛndāvana. Who is most fortunate?
But because he offended gopīs. You know, he became whom? Syamantaka jewel is what what is the level of spiritual advancement it is? Yeah, it's Surya worship.
Patterns of religious decline across history
And this jewel, you know, it produce so much wealth and so much health and so much other good stuff. So this is how the degradation takes place. So we have these two major problems on the path of advancement. And then, you know, we can learn from different religions how the degradation took place in their case.
And again, as I said, it's a separate course to see how they work but I wanted to give the general idea I will not uh give any concrete examples I gave first time when I gave this seminar, but today I will not give.
I will just explain the general dynamic of how the degradation of religion takes place.
Usually religion comes as a very pure non-material idea by the follow by the founder with a very strong energy in this idea to attract people. You know, the great empowered preachers.
They when they preach, people become enthused and inspired to give up their material identification and material ideas and try to reach the highest possible ideal.
But then what happens with the course of time, the first stage of degradation is because people forget the goal. Because the goal becomes overshadowed or eclipsed somewhat,
then the rules become more important than the goal. Have you seen this phenomenon? Perhaps even in this convention you're just talking about the rules. You know, rules for the sake of rules.
This is uh Niyama agraha with a long A. So that's the first stage of degradation where you become too much preoccupied and concerned with the rules, rules, rules. You're only talking about the rules.
And you know Prabhupāda, he made all the rules very simple. Like he said, ekādaśī means you eat nicely no grains. That's ekādaśī.
Then when while he was still present, people started going into these details, what Ikadeshi means, and they started considering what should be eaten, what should not be eaten, and then ultimately they came with the idea that these spices cannot be used, these spices cannot be used, these spices maybe some little trace of wheat flour is there and whatever.
And they asked Śrīla Prabhupāda, Śrīla Prabhupāda said, why do you make this things so complicated? Just don't use turmeric or whatever. It's not an idea. You know, Prabhupāda made it simple. We're making it complicated.
We're adding different rules, additional rules, you know, because why the the idea is there if we don't follow meticulously all the rules we will never get to the goal. No, we will never get to the goal anyway.
Because we forgot about the goal. We only remember about the rules. We're not concerned with the goal. We're concerned with this minute following of this rule or that rule.
And you know, if it's done in a very pure heart, you know, to facilitate our development, that's fine. But if it's done just to get oneself busy with following these rules, which is often the case, then it's not good.
So that's the first stage we can see in Judaism and Christianity, you know quote I will not again uh uh uh explain the details. But it's it's going on.
Uh first uh the rules become uh self-sufficient with the forgetfulness of the goal and then the next natural stage then people reject the rules because people become completely, you know, when and we can see it in ISKCON,
you know, some people become very heavy and they preach, you know, four regulative principles, sixteen rounds and then you know people become sick and tired.
Because that's uh the essence of religion all of a sudden becomes not the love of God but following the rules. And other people they reject it. You know, who cares?
You know, they don't see the good example of somebody who loves God. They only see somebody who is heavy and who is, you know, beating them on the head.
You know, you have to do this, you have to do this, you have to do this. Take our second generation devotees.
They all, you know, they all went through this niyamāgraha and then they went to niyamāgraha with a vengeance, rejecting the rules and regulations. This is how this degradation unfortunately takes place.
And we can see in the history of religion, you know, I'm quoting this every oh this is not the last version anyway. Karma, karma means following rules and regulations. Jnana means rejecting the rules of regulations.
And in every religion we see first, first First step is, and that I will explain in more details, the first step is actually that we forget the personal feature or the personal presence of God.
We try to deprive Him of His personal presence. Like Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura explains that, you know, he's explaining that Kṛṣṇa is Paramātmā, is in everyone's heart.
And then he asks the question: if you are rāgānuga-bhakta, it's a big if, but Let's give the generous if you are rāgānuga-bhakta and you pray to the Lord, Whom do you pray?
Do you pray to Paramātmā in your heart, or whom do you pray? And he says, no, no. If you are really develop some personal attachment to the Lord, when you pray to the God, to the Lord in your heart, it's
not Paramātmā with four hands who is standing in your heart, it's Govinda with the flute who is standing in your heart. He is listening to your prayers.
So the first stage is that we forget the presence of personal and loving God. We forget that He is already present within our heart right now.
And he is listening our prayers to him when we chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Rāma. We think it's Paramātmā, yeah? Right? And we we approach him as Paramātmā.
We already went down.
So it's very difficult for us conditioned living entities to now level of spiritual journey to relate to this very beautiful concept of completely personal God who is not who doesn't even like to be called God,
who doesn't even accept when somebody calls him God, who likes when somebody is climbing over his shoulders. It's very difficult for us to really relate to this to this concept, and therefore we're much more comfortable with God as Paramātmā, isn't it?
We're much more confident when we explain to people all these lower concepts. But what I want to say is that we shouldn't forget that our ideal is love of God. We should not forget it.
We should speak about this, we should remind about this. Bodhayantaḥ parasparam. Literally this line from Bhagavad-gītā, Bodhayantaḥ parasparam means wake up each other.
My dear friend, you're sleeping on your level of advancement. Wake up. Krishna is playing the flute. He's waiting for you. He wants to dance with you. So come. And that's that's that should be our understanding.
And then when the personal when the concept of God is deprived by his very personal features, including his immense love within the heart, which is the most personal feature of God, then it's very easy to follow the rules for the sake of rules, and then it will be even easier to reject the rules completely and to become completely entangled in this material life again.
Balancing regulated principles with pure spontaneous devotion
So this is how the degradation takes place.
And bhakti actually synthesizes karma and jñāna. Normally, karma and jñāna, they are opposite to each other, they are fighting with each other, they are in conflict with each other.
Rules for the sake of rules and rejecting of the rules, they're never together. But actually, Mahaprabhu has taught that man with attachment for worldly enjoyment gets transferred.
It basically Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says that you have to follow the rules of varṇāśrama, but you have to very clearly understand that this is you following this to qualify yourself to perform bhakti, not for the sake of following the rules.
And please, those who following vaidī-bhakti should think of dedication to the Lord as their principal work in life. It is a cultivation performed not from fear or hatred, but with affection and love. It's about us.
We are following vaidī-bhakti, but at the same time we should follow it in a certain mood with affection and love. That is the meaning of favorable. Ānukulyena.
Though it is necessary to maintain the body by following the rules of varṇāśrama, The devotee never allows those rules to overpower his devotion of the Lord.
Those rules always remain as followers of the cultivation of the Lord. That's very important.
Yes, we should very strictly follow the rules. Varṇāśrama system is beautiful, but we should not allow all these rules to overpower our devotion of the Lord. That's the most important. That's what we should remain.
And, uh, and Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura quotes this from, uh, also Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu. He says that even ordinary devotee cannot have such pure attachment to Krishna.
So, so we basically the tendency for karma and jñāna is natural, but, uh, the innate uh desire to achieve love is also natural. And that should be invoked again and again and again.
And that's exactly what Śrīla Prabhupāda did. He was radiating love. He was radiating this very important answer to the question why. And therefore, he could elevate anyone to very high level,
you know, even though you know people may still have to advance but nevertheless uh, you know, we as, uh, preachers of Krishna consciousness movement, we have to we have to be an answer to this question, why? Ourselves.
We have to embody this answer. That's why. I want to become lover of Krishna. I don't want. You know, and I'm using everything to to reach this level.
Solution to secularization through pure Vaishnava dharma
And therefore, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura give the solution. That's the solution. Forgetting Krishna is never allowed. All other prohibitions mentioned in the Shastras, keeping this main prescription in mind, remembering Kṛṣṇa.
While advancing, the practitioner should give up his attachment for the prescriptions of the previous level and accept the prescriptions of the next level.
So Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura explains that the driving force to advance to this ladder is remembrance about Krishna. And if we remember about him and this is very clearly established.
Then we will very smoothly progress, then we will not be stuck in any level. And therefore, that's the solution. That's practically the last slide which I have.
We want to come to the platform of śuddha-vaiṣṇava-dharma, complete dedication to the Supreme Consciousness or Vishnu Tattva Krishna.
Those who are really Paramahamsa are never concerned with the external appearances, practices, and conceptions of the individual. They don't condemn somebody who is on the lower level. Even though he may not follow this.
But they see, rather they see in what direction one's dedication is going.
Your dedication and this level may be here, your consciousness may be conserved, may be absorbed in this particular level, but if you have this direction in which direction your dedication goes if you ultimately want to reach the highest possible goal then they that's acceptable.
In this way the pure Vaishnavas have no sectarian mood. They do not belong to any cult. They do not belong to any sect. They only speak about the pure love of God and they invite everyone to reach to this level.
And for that, we definitely need the personal association with devotees who realize this. It's very important. That's that's the verse which illustrates this.
And basically, yeah, that's another verse which explains that the personal association is very important.
Our Sangha, Vaishnava Sangha is for this, to enthuse and encourage everyone to advance further and for that we have to respect those who are higher than us. That's a very important condition. And in this way we will go through this very narrow path of spiritual realization.
Hopefully pass over these two obstacles and then the spiritual realm will be open for us. Thank you very much.