How to enter Vrindavana. Class 3
Бхакти Вигьяна Госвами · Говардхан · 2024
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Opening invocation prayers
O Magyanati Mirandasya, Jyanam Jana Salakayachurum Militamy, Tasmaishriguravamaha, Sri Chaitanyamano, biś tam, stapi tam je na butale, Swa mrupa, kaya, da da ti swa dantika, Vandeham Sri Guru, Sriutapadakamalaam, Sri Guru
Vaisnavams, Sri Rupam Sagradam, Saganaham Vitaam Sadam, sadvaitam, savadhutam, paridana Sheitam Krishna Chaitanya Deam Sri Krishna Pam, Saganalita srivishamsha Krishna Karuna Sindho, dina bando, jagatpate,
gopisha gopikakanta, radakantamustate, taptakanchurangi Rade Vindavaneshwari Vishabanu Suda Devi Pranamami Hari Privancha Kalpataru, Kripasindu bevacha, patitanameb, Vaishnavyam, Sri Krishna Chaitanya, Prabunitananda,
Sri Dvaitagadarah Shrivasadora Bhakta Brinda Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare
Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare Arade Bhagavan Vrađe Tana Stadu Brindava, Ramyaka Chitupasana
Vrađavadu Vargen, ja, Pida, Sri Madbhagua Damprah, Malamprema Pumarta Mah, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Mama, Tadradaruna Parha. Yandah Pravishy Mamavachamamam Prasuptam Sanji Vayada kila shakti
darakswadhanna anyamsha hasta charanasravanat vagadim,
Reflections on Vrindavan and Godhead opulences
prananda mu Bhagavathe Purushayatubiem, swasastu Vishw So I really considered it the great blessings of, uh, Krishna and Govardhana. The head Srila Radhanat Swami Maharaj in our place on Dvadashi and
he came here and today on Kartik Purnima. it's really amazing because while meditating on the idea of this place, we were uh thinking about six opulences of
Bhagavān, Aiśvaryasya samāgrasya vīryasya yaśasaḥ śriyaḥ, jñāna-vairāgyayoś caiva ṣaṇṇāṁ bhaga itīraṇā.
We were thinking about this and we're trying to write the constitution of this place according to this six opulences. And we also were thinking that each Goswami of the six Goswami represents one of the opulences of Bhagavan and they all together comprise the complete uh concept of the personality of Godhead.
And Pundarigaswami comes here it says the same thing. I didn't tell anything. He just says it on his own. It's confirmed.
And then, yeah, he said also some other things, and I said, Maharaj, you can read my mind what's going on. So what I want to say is that it's a very special place. That's the place where desires are fulfilled,
if it's good desires. Giriraj Maharaj has this amazing quality. So, and of course the our deepest desire is to meet Krishna. Our deepest desire is to come closer to Krishna, if not meet him.
But uh come on a distance where we could maybe see himself. And as uh Satinand
Maharaj was saying, there are five guardians of this place of Vrindavana who is helping us to enter Vrindavana, who should give us permission to enter Vrindāvana. And one of them is Tulasi Devi.
And Tulasi Devi is another manifestation of Yoga-māyā. And that's the reason why we're chanting holy name on Tulasī-beads.
Chanting the Holy Name on Tulasī-beads we're begging Tulasi Devi who is the guardian and who is Yoga-māyā, guardian of this place to allow us to be in Vrindāvana and to remember Vrindāvana while we're chanting the holy name.
And that's why in the ceremony of initiation which Śrīla Prabhupāda established in our society, we usually give new people these tulasī-beads. And in this way we are helping them to remember about Vrindāvana.
Purpose and meaning of initiation
And there are prayers to Tulasi Devi and tulasī-beads before we start chanting to manifest real form of the Holy Name and the real form of holy dhāma throughout chanting.
So we don't have so much time today to speak about the inner meaning of the initiation ceremony. But uh uh to be very brief uh it's
uh the the ceremony which helps somebody to identify himself or herself not with this material body, not with the material mind, not with the roles which we play.
I am the mother of such and such children, I am the wife of such and such husband, I am the citizen of such and such country.
But this is the ceremony which helps devotees to identify with the eternal spiritual reality. With the reality where eternal lilas of Krishna are going on still now, when he manifests in many different forms, and when their love for Him rules supreme.
So that's the meaning, to identify with the eternal reality of the spiritual world and therefore while giving the names we give the main part of the name which is Devidasi or dasy or dasa.
And of course, because we're personal there are different Devidas and dasas. Otherwise we would call everyone Das Dasa.
Like we were we were walking around and there was one sick person and the other people of the Antoras of Pundariga's family would call him Sardar. Hey Sardar, come here.
But we are not just Dasus, we are very concrete Dasas and Dasis.
So we are giving the name, we are giving uh new name and the holy name in this ceremony and of course everything else according to the process of initiation. So you please come one after another and uh give your vows.
Uh you can speak in Hindi, I understand if I don't understand some sramot will tell me yesterday
we were talking about the important preliminary practices of meditation and also about the five stages of meditation according to the purity of the heart.
And we were trying to go deeper into this concept of meditation according to Vaishnava tradition.
It's a very specific special style of meditation, completely different from the meditation which is famous in this world, mindful meditation, although it has some elements in common.
But ultimately the main difference between the two uh kinds of meditation is in the mood and the mood of humility and mood of pride or desire to achieve something by meditation in a case of impersonal meditation.
So and the mood of humility ultimately is there to make us understand that the results of meditation ultimately depend not on us. They are confirmed to us. We are not we cannot demand the results of meditation.
The meditation has to dis the results of meditation, the revelation which is the main result of meditation, the revelation of higher truth and deeper understanding of reality is only coming to us as a gift from above. And that's the main thing.
And even though there are many things in common, like we also use our mind in meditation. And that's why I will answer the question which uh Urmila Devi uh asked uh last time when she was here.
Uh I didn't talk about this uh yesterday. Uh we'll talk a little bit about this. So uh we definitely use our mind, but we don't use our mind whimsically as we like.
The uh impersonal style of meditation very much depends on kalpana, which is imagination. We imagine something, whatever we like.
As I said, according with the mood that I'm the the whole world is my mental creation, so I can do whatever I like, and the fruits will come. But we are not concerned with this.
We are not really into such kind of meditation. We are trying to harmonize our mind with the higher reality.
To bring it into harmony with the higher reality and higher truths and therefore we're trying to purify the mind that's the main point of meditation and then the meditation will become spontaneous.
When we hear about the glorious saints of yore, who achieved the success of meditation and meditation, we can understand that it's not at all forceful meditation.
They're not really forcing themselves to meditate on certain līlās. Certain līlās manifest themselves in their pure mind and in their pure heart.
And that's exactly what Śrīla Prabhupāda also said when somebody asked him, Can I meditate on a particular līlā while chanting uh the holy name?
And Śrīla Prabhupāda said yes, and then said, but only if the līlā comes on its own in your to into your mind. It's not that I sit and force myself, let's meditate on
Dhenukāsura. Vadha. How Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma kill Dhenukāsura and Balarāma is Balarāma and I'm Dhenukāsura or whatever. So the idea is that we understand
that the result of the meditation, the fruit of the meditation is given to us, it's coming to us.
And we are patiently expecting this result, we definitely uh want this result, but we're not demanding uh this result. We are uh patiently waiting when uh it comes.
And therefore, the main emphasis is on the purification of the mind through the chanting of the holy name. That we will repeat again today while studying certain passages
from Bhakti Sandarbha of Srila Jiva Goswami, where he says that meditation starts from the meditation on the holy name, but not only this, uh, with the meditation on the holy name comes, of course, uh at least sixteen rounds but actually sixteen rounds
is just nothing, it's just a concession which Śrīla Prabhupāda mercifully gave to us. Therefore, in my own mind when people give this vow, the main point is not sixteen rounds. The main point is at least.
And usually people omit this part. Which is the most important. At least 16 rounds, not less than 16 rounds.
So we make the emphasis on the purification of the mind through the chanting of the holy name, through the natural potency of the holy name to purify the heart, but we also give the vows of certain niyamas certain vows which will help us to keep our mind and our heart pure.
These four regulative principles are nothing but the principles which help us to retain the purity of the mind or increase the purity of the mind.
And ultimately, when the mind becomes purer and purer and purer, it will become more and more sensitive to all the impurities.
It's very difficult, it's a difficult condition, but uh n when the mind is not so pure it doesn't matter you can eat this and that you can say you know om tatsat everything is prasat and this is a new offering mantra.
So but uh it's not uh when your mind becomes pure you become very sensitive.
Yesterday I told this story about Kathakar, who ran away and ran to Yamuna and started basing in Yamune because just one inappropriate thought came to his mind.
And then ultimately it was revealed that he ate some mahaprasadam from a temple, and the mahaprasadam from the temple was cooked on the money from a dubious source.
And because he ate this Mahaprasadam from the temple, which was cooked, uh on perhaps uh purchased the Boga was purchased on some not very clean money, uh it created this disturbance in his mind. His mind was so pure and therefore he became very sensitive.
For us it doesn't matter so much because we can eat anything and the same good old thoughts are coming to our mind.
But what I want to say is that we are making uh special endeavors to purify the mind, understanding that the result of the meditation, the quality of the meditation, the depth of our meditation very much depends on the purity of the mind.
And even ordinary prasadam is not necessarily all the same quality. Everything matters when you reach higher levels of spiritual realization.
Just today I read a very funny story about one person, uh one uh uh one Avadhuta who was living in Navadvīpa uh at the beginning of the 20th century. He was a wandering mendikant.
He was going here and there and he was uh begging food and he usually would come to people, to the homes of people when they just offered Prasad to the deities.
And he would demand them, he was very a demanding person, and he would demand them, give me prasad, give me prasad which you offered. And then he would look at this prasad.
And oftentimes in front of everyone he would start chastising the uh host from whom he begged this uh food and he said uh he he would just throw it away and said this is not prasad.
Your deity didn't take this prasad because you were unclean. Uh you did this or you did that or you were not very careful. Your deity is starving. Cook again. You're doing nonsense.
So some people they become very sensitive to this point. For us, it really doesn't matter so much. But again, the point is that we have to be careful.
According to our level of advancement and try to uh go deeper and deeper and deeper in this process. So what I want to start with, we will definitely start Akrora Katha, I I swear it Today.
But there will be little introduction before
Sequential progression of meditation
we start so uh uh uh I I'll start with a little passage very passage which was quoted repeatedly by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī, he would give very gift uh he would attribute uh great importance to this passage.
This is the passage from Bhakti Sandarbha 256 Anuccheda 256 where Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī explains again Yesterday I was speaking about the increasing depths of our meditation, according to five stages, Smarana, Dharana, Dhyana,
Dhruvanusmṛti, and then finally Samādhi. Explaining that only in the last stage we have uh 10% uh real spiritual experience. Before that, we're kind of approaching to it.
And uh the closer we approach, the more real uh all this experience And
And here Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī now continues, that's the previous Anuccheda. This was Anucheda 275, this is Anuchyeda 256. So he explains very important things here.
He says, «Ātma-śāra na patādi bhiḥ śuddhyatī kāraṇāś ca etan nirvidyamānānām icchatām akutobhayam», ityādi uktam an nāma-kīrtana-aparityāgena ityadi uktaman nama kirtana aparitja gena smaraṇaṃ kuryāt.
So that means that uh first you have this I already explained first you have to preliminarily purify your heart by surrender, by saranapati. But not only.
Śaraṇāpati-ādi Śaraṇāpati-ādi means that you do śaraṇāpati, which basically means surrender to a spiritual master, take the vow.
I will do this, I will uh follow sādhana strictly, kam sekam solamala, brahma-muhurtameḥ. So uh uh uh but uh from
this m many other preliminary practices follow which uh preliminarily purify and prepare our heart for meditation. So this preliminary practices, commentators of this verse, they say
that it should include besides guru-sevā, sat-sevā, the sevā of the genuine devotees. We have to be very respectful, and whenever we see real devotees with pure heart, we should try to serve them and we should try to serve actually any devotees respecting them.
And also hearing is very, very important because hearing increases our faith. The faith is a preliminary quality or qualification for us to become a devotee. And then we should increase our hearing.
And you all I'm sure have this experience when we hear good kathā, after this kathā, uh we feel that the heart has become purer, that the heart has become cleaner than before.
And of course, singing kīrtana is very important. Uh we have to continue singing kīrtana, it's most powerful practice in this Kali-yuga. And we should never uh in uh the our uh
attempts to uh to practice smaraṇaṃ we should never forget kīrtanam.
According uh Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī quotes this verse from the second canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, «Etān nirvidyamānānām icchatām akutobhayam», where it is said the uh that harid-nāma-anukīrtanam is the universal process of the universal recipe, universal recommendation for uh every people.
«Etān nirvidyamānānām icchatām akutobhayam». Whether you icchhatañ y you have all the desires uh or your yogī or you are nirvidyamānānām, you don't have any desires, you already completely pure.
Whatever category you belong to, the akutobhāya. So that's the preliminary practices.
To deepen our ability to meditate, to prepare our heart for meditation, preliminarily we just hear the holy name and chant the holy name loudly.
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama, Rama, Hare Hare and take very humble position. But then listen very carefully. This is something which I didn't say yesterday.
Then Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī continues: Tatrāpy ekatra 'py vyutkrameṇa siddhiḥ bhavati eva tathāpi.
He says, although this process can be done in any sequence, you can start meditating on a līlā of the Lord basically after this preliminary surrender, he says: although you can achieve success in this somewhat chaotic process of meditation of Smaranam, he says, nevertheless, it is recommended to do it in a proper sequence.
This is one of the important points of this seminar. It's a scientific process and even though the process of smaranam is very powerful, still there is a special Krama or sequence
how you should do this and, uh, Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī says: prathamaṁ nāma- -sravaṇaṁ, that I already said yesterday, antaḥ-karaṇa-śuddhim apekṣate.
First uh you should uh chant the holy name to purify the antaḥ-karaṇa, your heart, and basically it means you should try to chant the Holy Name silently. Kīrtana is the loud chanting of the holy name.
Śrīla Prabhupāda never, uh... He said it's possible for you to chant the holy name silently, but only when your heart is clean.
And, uh, the same thing Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī says, uh, you should try to remember the holy name constantly, to keep your mind concentrated on the holy name.
That's the first thing because if the sound, the vibration of the holy name, uh either silent or not silent, but will be uh in your heart constantly. Then the process of purification will start very quickly.
It will expedite. It will be very quick process. And it basically means what does it mean? It means that at one point you will feel that the Holy Name is with you.
It's not that you're willfully chanting the holy name. The Holy Name doesn't leave you. It's there all the time. It's going on internally in your heart and it gives you a very pleasant feeling, very pleasant uh sensation. It's stable in your heart and it always sounds, uh, reverberates in the sky of your heart.
So uh, and when that happens, first you try to force yourself. The initial stages is that we're uh chanting at least sixteen rounds, we're struggling ourselves, we're forcing ourselves.
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama, Rama, Hare Hare. But then the Holy Name remains.
When your heart becomes sufficiently clean, the Holy Name manifests itself or himself in your heart spontaneously. And it reaches the level of dharana.
And when it reaches the level of dharana, uh, amazing thing happens. This amazing thing, I'm, I'm actually sitting here, and I notice some very interesting phenomena i'm speaking with the
intonations of Śacīnandana Mahārāja. He left such a powerful impression of his energy on this seat; without myself willing to do it, I am, I am imitating him but I think it's a good thing to imitate good people.
So, so, uh, uh, Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī explains. I, I try to be myself.
Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī explains the next step, what happens when the heart remains, when the holy name remains in the heart, when it's firmly established in your heart, then from the holy name,
the form of the Lord starts appearing. You will not only listen or hear the sound of the holy name, but spontaneously the form rupa will appear in without so much endeavor.
And in the beginning, this rūpa, the form of the Lord, will not be stable. The name is already stable, but the form is not stable. You hear the name, you know that your heart is chanting the name,
and sometimes you see the beautiful form of the Lord.
And Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī says, śuddhyant-antaḥkaraṇa, in this pure antaḥkaraṇa, rūpa-śravaṇena tad-udaya-yogyatā bhavati. He said what happens, your heart will become yogyatā, qualified to remember the form and to hear about the form.
What happens with us now?
We hear all these verses from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam which describe the form of Kṛṣṇa. barhāpīḍaṁ naṭa-vara-vapuḥ karṇayoḥ karṇikāraṁ bibhrad vāsana kanaka-kapiśaṁ vaijayantīṁ ca mālām — and so many other verses of the tenth canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, which describe this uh beautiful form of the Lord, but because we are not qualified to hear, it really doesn't leave lasting impression within our heart.
But when the heart is sufficiently purified by the name, then you hear about the form and the form visibly manifest in front of your eyes, in front of the eyes of your mind.
So Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī says then the yogyatā qualification to hear about the form comes due to the purification of the heart, by the chanting, constant chanting of the holy name.
And then you can hear about this to your heart content, and while hearing this, you will be more and more established in meditation on the form.
And for that, of course, there are plenty of different methodologies developed by our ācāryas. One of these is, of course, to chant the dhyana mantras. In any pūjā that I recommended dhyāna mantra.
There is dhyāna mantra for Lord Rāmacandra, there is dhyāna mantra for Shiva, there is dhyāna mantra for Caitanya Mahāprabhu, and there is beautiful dhyāna mantra, famous, very famous dhyāna mantra, for Gopāla.
Kastūrī-tilakaṁ lalaṭapaṭale vakṣaḥsthale kaustubhaṁ nāsāgre varamauktikaṁ karatale veṇuḥ kare kaṅkaṇaṁ sarvāṅge hari-candanaṁ sulalitaṁ kaṇṭhe ca muktāvalī gopa-strī-parivṛto vijayate gopāla-cūḍāmaṇiḥ.
Very beautifully it is the form of the Lord explained Kastūrī-tilakam. He has the tilakam which is made from the musk and lalata patale on his beautiful forehead and
Vakṣaḥsthale kaustubham on his chest there is kaustubha-maṇi. Nāsāgre varamauktikam in his nose there is a not just a pearl, but the best of the pearls, very big pearl in his nose.
Karatale veṇu, in his hand there is veṇu, and there is flute, kare kaṅkaṇam on his wrist there is bracelet and sarvāṅge hari-candanam his whole body is smeared with candanam, hari-candanam which means very bright yellow chandanam.
Sulalitam kaṇṭhe ca muktāvalī and his very beautiful kaṇṭha, his throat, there is muktāvalī, the necklace of the pearls. Gopa-strī-parivṛto, and of course he is surrounded by gopīs.
Gopa-strī, the women from the gopa-class, vijayate gopāla-cūḍāmaṇi and he is, he is vijayati, he is victorious, he is making his triumph in this world.
So when the heart is pure, the form of the deity will come spontaneously in the heart.
And your addiction to chant these verses will grow more and more and more because these verses will remind you about the form and this will be the second stage of your meditation from nāma to rūpa and of course there are beautiful bhajans which describe the form of the Lord. Sucharu Vaktramandalam Sukarna Ratna Kundalam Sucharitanga Chandanam
Namami Nandanandanam Sudirganetra Pankajam Shekishikandam Urda Jam. Ananda koti mohanam namami nanda nandanam namami nanda nandanam. So uh at this stage uh the form of the Lord will become alive in your heart.
And that means you're qualified to meditate on the Lord. And you hear again and again and again, and by sufficient hearing about the form of the Lord, the form of the Lord will become firmly imprinted within your heart.
Somebody asked a very important question: what is samskara? What is impression? Yesterday I was explaining this process of smaranam. That smaranam is evoking saṁskāras which are there within our heart.
We invoking this saṁskāras we make them alive, and saṁskāras are subtle imprints in chitta. Chitta is the subtlest material element. Uh it's made of almost pure sattva.
In this material world there is no pure sattva, there is no pure rajas, there is no pure tamas, but it's uh uh very, very pure sattvic element uh which can hold subtle forms.
It's very interesting because the modern science confirms this idea of subtle forms which precede the gross form.
There is a very please forgive me if actually I have to beg forgiveness from Akrura for this diversion or digression.
But still, I I will tell you this beautiful biological experiments which are being made in America, one very interesting scientist in Harvard University. He's a biologist. He's studying the process of regeneration.
There are different uh living organisms. Uh you cut them in pieces and uh they uh regenerate their organs in a different way. There are even organism you can cut their head and the new head will grow up.
So the question is uh whether information about these uh organs are recorded. It's not in DNA. In DNA there is no such information.
Whether structure, and they know exactly how it should be, uh how the new organ uh should uh grow according to the old organ. It basically reproduces uh the old organ they can uh
grow it up many times you can cut the head and it's like Ravana. So you cut the head and you had pumps out after some time.
So how the cells know uh how to grow and uh they're completely different cells, they're very divergent uh how the differentiation process? It's a big uh mystery in biology.
Initially, there was a hope when I was doing my PhD, there was a hope that when we really understand how the genome works, we will understand how this differentiation process is taking place.
And why we have a body with so many different varieties of different cells, even though it's all stemming from one cell, how they are so different and they're facilitating different functions.
So his experiments very clearly his name is Michael Levin, his experiments very clearly show that it's not anywhere in DNA, it's not anywhere in the gross structure and
he suggests that there is a subtle um subtle field uh which re in which the form is recorded and this subtle field forms the gross form. So it's basically exactly the same idea, the same Bhagavad idea that
all the forms are recorded, the subtle forms are recorded in citta.
And that's basically what Plato was uh talking uh in his uh famous uh metaphor about the cave that uh uh ultimately there is a world of subtle forms, and the gross forms is nothing but the classification of the subtle forms.
So, what I'm trying to explain: what is samskara? Samskara is the subtle form in citta.
And this forms uh and then ultimately this subtle forms is chitta they are very easily created and they are very easily destroyed in citta.
But when the form becomes very stable, when it becomes very deep and stable in citta, then it can grossify and appear in this in this gross body. There is a process.
The process of our how we obtain this material body is the process of subtle form which is being created the vāsanās which are created in citta and stored in citta.
And when the process of our karma is finished, then this subtle form is poured in the matter is poured in this form exactly like we do the forms in this uh in this uh factory which we have.
So we have the molds. So the samskara is a mold is, a subtle mold which can function on a subtle level and it can ultimately function on a gross level when this mold becomes grossified.
So when the samskara becomes deep and stable, then it's very easy to evoke the samskara. How you say properly and invoke or evoke? Evoke. Invoke. Whatever. See even this I'm imitating Sachi-nandana Maharaj.
So so you invoke this form, and when it's very deep and very stable, it's uh easy for you to invoke this form. So the process of sadhana is actually creating these subtle forms in our citta.
What I explained that when the form becomes very firmly imprinted in the heart and the saṁskāra of this form becomes so deep that it's always there, even when we don't want, even during our sleep, then from the sound of the holy name, the form appears.
And when we hear again and again and again about the form from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, from scriptures, or chanting these dhyāna mantras, or chanting these bhajans, then the form gradually becomes solidified and the saṁskāra becomes stable and then uh
Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī continues, he says, samyak-udite, samyak-udite, very important. When the form uh becomes fully formed, when we don't need to make any endeavors to invoke the form, it's always there within our heart.
He says that from this form, again spontaneously the guṇas, the qualities of the Lord appear.
We not only see the form itself, but we feel something which is within the form but not so easily visible in the form, but which is hidden in the form, the beautiful qualities of Krishna.
And therefore he says, he stresses this, samyak-udite ca rūpe guṇānāṁ sphūraṇaṁ sampadyate.
And they come and it basically means that when the form is established then it's natural for us to deepen our meditation and we not only see we not only hear the name we not only see the form, but we also feel the qualities of the Lord which are within this name and within this form.
And it's different from kalpana, from imagination. Imagination is forced. You're sitting there and you try to meditate and uh it doesn't work, but you still try again and again and again.
But this is a very natural, spontaneous, and beautiful and easy process of meditation. And what does it basically mean?
It means that you feel the beauty of the Lord, you feel the kindness of the Lord, the mercy of the Lord.
You feel like sometimes we look at the human being and we look in his face, and we not only see the face but we see some something hidden behind the face. He's a little mischievous.
So we look at the form of the Lord and we understand he is joking with us. He has put us in this situation and that's his joke and he's just enjoying whatever. We can feel the qualities of the Lord.
And then what we do, we hear the verses which describe the qualities of the Lord. The sixty-four qualities of the Lord described in Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, like one of these is gratefulness.
And we hear about this, and we hear the verses which describe this ṛṇaṁ ca tat prāvṛḍ-hṛdayaṁ na mapasarpati yad govindeti cukroṣa kṛṣṇa mām durvāsasaṁ mām Duravasi nam.
This is the verse from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, from Mahābhārata, where Kṛṣṇa himself says that when Draupadī, who was being disrobed in this asat-sabhā, in this impious assembly of people, when she frantically by
raising two hands in the air cried govindeti govindeti cukroṣa, and she cried from the depths of her heart uh and
and I was far away at the time in Dvārakā and krishna said because she said this the depths within my heart growing and growing and growing every day. I still didn't pay this debt.
She called me so sincerely, she called my name, and I didn't do what she
wanted me to do, and I feel myself a debtor. So what I want to say is that when we are established in Rupa, then the meditation on qualities of the Lord becomes very spontaneous and natural.
And then at that moment we are qualified to hear again and again and again about the qualities of the Lord. And it becomes very relevant to us and very real to us.
And then he says, tat-tāteṣu nāma-rūpa-guṇeṣu tat-parikāreṣu ca samyak sphūrteṣv eva līlānāṁ sphūraṇaṁ suṣṭhu bhavati. And then only he says that the real līlā will appear in front of the eyes of our mind when the name becomes established, from the name the form comes, from the form the guṇa comes, and from guṇa the parikaras, the loving associates of the Lord come.
And then naturally we see real līlā. Suṣṭhu. He says, līlānāṁ sphūraṇaṁ suṣṭhu bhavati. Very important that the sphūrti of līlā becomes real, suṣṭhu, and very vivid. Whereas when it's forced, when we are forcing ourselves, yes, we may see something, but it it lacks life. It lacks real muse of life.
So that's uh basically the process uh uh how we should do this and uh basically that's the process of uh increasing our qualification for meditation and uh increasing the gradually increasing the depths of uh meditation uh and as a reward of this uh sincere endeavors to purify the heart, to serve the devotees, and to hear about these particular elements of Krishna lila.
As a reward of this, Krishna reveals to us more and more about himself. And this is real, this is not made up in our mind. So answering the question which Urmila Devis so importantly asked the other day.
The story about Brahmana who was cooking rice in his meditation.
And while cooking rice in his meditation he tried to check whether the rice was properly cooled or not, because uh the sweet rice should be cold before you offer.
So before offering to the Lord and this brāhmaṇa cook who was sitting there and and meditating on this process, he touched this rice, and the rice was too hot. So he took out his finger.
And when he came out from the meditation, he to his surprise saw that there is a burn in his finger. In his real gross finger, there was a burn from his meditation. So, what is it?
Authentic meditation versus mental imagination
And what is the difference uh of of m this story from the forced yes so that's uh she also wants to know about the he about the process of meditation it's a special, though.
So first of all, as I said, our meditation is according to scriptures. The basis of our meditation is not our imagination.
The form of the Lord which we see in the meditation is the authorized form of the Lord described in numerous places in different scriptures, in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and even in Bhagavad-gītā and in other places.
The process of this meditation is with the mind. In his case, it was still on the level of the mind. And yes, meditation in all the stages until the stage of samadhi is on the level of the mind.
Only in samadhi we don't need mind.
In samadhi we leave the mind behind and uh we uh see the spiritual reality and the proof of it Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī explains the proof uh of uh that we don't have mind and the stage of samadhi is that we completely forget about ourselves.
We don't remember ourselves. With our mind we always remember. So up to the stage of samadhi, we use mind for meditation.
But we use it very carefully first of all according to the scriptures and our meditation and the process of meditation is also quite carefully crafted by this Kram, by this sequence.
And we try to facilitate meditation by hearing the authorized scriptures and repeating the mantras which are uh compatible with the level of meditation we're in.
And gradually, gradually, gradually, as Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī explains, our qualification uh becomes higher and higher and higher. And we can meditate deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper realities.
And ultimately we can meditate on the līlās. What this brāhmaṇa was doing, he was actively serving the Lord in his meditation, but he was qualified to do this because his whole mind was completely there.
Like imagine we will cook the rice for the Lord in our mind. How many times during cooking the sweet rice we will be thinking about many different things in this world.
You're cooking something for the Lord, and at the same time you're running here and there. And in the meantime, the mental flies are getting into the rice which you cook.
And ultimately what you will offer to the Lord is just sweet rice with thousands of flies because anytime you distracted yourself the
fly is in so yes this is a bona fide process but you have to qualify yourself and there is a process how to qualify yourself to employ this process.
And basically, it means that on the level of Nishta, you qualify, you're qualified to be stable in your kīrtanīya sadā hari.
This is exactly what uh Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu explains. This this verse, third verse of Śikṣāṣṭaka is this description of niṣṭhā?
And kīrtanīya sadā hari means that sadā all the time the name is imprinted within your heart and you always hear this name. Therefore, it's said kīrtanīya sadā hari.
And then on the level of uh ruci uh you will start seeing the form and when the ruci becomes mature because any of these stages uh is prolonged. It's not just one moment. It has different substages in it.
When the ruchi becomes very pronounced, then the beautiful, sweet form of the Lord is established.
And then on the level of Asakti, you will feel the qualities of the Lord and you will see the Parikaras who are enjoying these qualities or who
are serving the Lord and you will see the interaction and ultimately on uh the level of bhāva you are qualified uh to come to this lilās smaraṇam.
So that's basically the uh gradual process and uh we are all set for this if we do properly. Så det var min introduktion. No. Now we'll start the story.
We'll start a little bit mm because I feel obliged to do it, otherwise it's not so good.
But I thought it was important to explain the Vaishnava style of meditation and how it is different from whimsical meditation when we want to attract something. Anything.
We want to become attracted to Krishna who is all attractive. And now we're not attracted to him and uh if we try to attract something uh this goes completely against the grain of Vaishnava philosophy.
So we want to become attracted, for that we should purify our mind through this process of following sadhana and chanting the holy name.
Narada Muni informing Kamsa about Krishna
So we'll start kathā. I'll speak on, as I said, on the verses from 38th chapter of the 10th canto of Bhagavad-gītā, which describe the meditation of Akrura while he is going to Vrindavan.
But before that, the Katha starts earlier in the 36th chapter. And in 36th chapter, there is a very interesting, peculiar verse.
And without the help of Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī, we would never be able to understand the deeper meaning of this verse.
Without the help of not even just acharyas, there are many different ācāryas, but the followers of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, we would never be able to understand uh what this verse means.
That's the sixth verse of the 36th chapter of the 10th canto. Please repeat after me. Ariṣṭe nihate daitye Kṛṣṇenādbhuta-karmaṇā kaṁsāyāṁtaṁ bhagavān nārado deva-darśanaḥ
So this verse said after Ariṣṭāsura had been killed by Kṛṣṇa, who acts wonderfully, Nārada Muni went to speak to Kaṁsa, to King Kaṁsa, and that powerful sage of godly vision addressed the king as follows.
So this is where the drama starts.
All of a sudden, Nārada Muni, after Kṛṣṇa killed Ariṣṭāsura, gets the brilliant idea to come to Kaṁsa and to tell Kaṁsa that Vasudeva lied to him and his real son is Kṛṣṇa still living in Vrindavan. And it's on one verse.
Aristani Hate Daity, Krishna Buddha Karmana, Tamsyat nasayathana, Bhagavan, Narada Deva Darsana.
So Bhagavan Narada, the great sage Narada, who is Devadarshana, who sees the demigods and knows the desires of demigods, he comes to Kamsa after Krishna killed Aristasura.
So do you know when exactly in which months at least, uh Narada came to Kamsa. When did Krishna kill Kamsa? Just a few days ago. Uh, n yeah, that's the local, local tradition which is not confirmed by our ācāryas.
Yes, local traditions tend to lump everything in Kārtika time. So they also put Kamsa Vada here on Chaturdashi. No problem. Let him be killed uh in yeah in reality
he was uh killed in the end of winter on Śivarātri, not Śivarātri, the Chaturdashi before Śivarātri, which is there in February, early February. Do you know when Krishna killed Aristasura?
Krishna killed Aristasura and at that time who appeared? Radha Kunda appeared. So when did Krishna kill Aristasura? Don't say just a few days ago. It's a local custom. It's a local tradition.
Put all the festivals in Kārtika mās. Spring. After the toco. Yeah, early spring. So, uh, here in one verse, Śukadeva Gosvāmī lumps these two events, whereas in reality these two events are separated by practically one year.
And without the help of Jīva Gosvāmī, we would not be able to understand why it is and why it is so important. I will explain later tomorrow the
significance and what was happening within this one year and why Śukadeva Gosvāmī didn't want to explain it in all details. He basically kind of went passed by this whole very important year of Krishna's life.
But because of Jīva Gosvāmī and the followers of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, we know what happened after that. And this background story is very important. I will not tell it now because it's too important.
I will start with the story tomorrow. But for now, what is important for us to continue this narration which is there in the 36 chapter uh ja I will tell a little bit about this verse, and I still have few minutes of time.
So it is very beautifully explained by our Acharyas. Krishna is called here adbhuta-karmaṇa. He is the creator or he is the performer of amazing wonderful acts.
Krishna adbhuta-karmaṇa. And our acharyas Jiva Goswami and Sanatana Goswami and Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura they say that Krishna is called adbhuta-karmaṇa.
Sukadeva Goswami, while saying this, he has a very vivid picture of this ariṣṭāsura-vadha. Whatever Sukadeva Goswami speaks, he sees it in front of his eyes. And he is wondering what is happening?
Because Krishna, how Krishna killed Ariṣṭāsura. You know how what was the means or weapon by which Krishna killed Ariṣṭāsura. Huh? No, not fist. His own horn. Aristasura was a beautiful, magnificent daitya with huge horns.
Krishna looked at his horns and he said, Oh, such a nice horns. And the first thing which he did, he just broke the horn of Ariṣṭāsura and killed him with his horn.
And Sukadeva Goswami seeing this, and he says, He is adbhuta-karmaṇa. Because in every other place, in every other līlā, in every other avatāra, Krishna is using weapons. Krishna sometimes is using his chakra, sometimes he is using his uh
śāraṅga bow, like in Rāmacandra. Sometimes as Nṛsiṁhadeva he kills with his beautiful nails, but only in Krishna's līlā he kills without any weapons with his very soft and very gentle, nice hands.
And he uses oftentimes some things
of the demon which are there, and Hari Śauri Prabhu commentator of the 10th Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, he says, by using the horn of Ariṣṭāsura, Krishna wants to show that I'm not killing you, your own karma is killing you.
Your own karma in the form of the horn which grew on your head. So adbhuta-karmaṇa means that in Vṛndāvana Krishna even killing in a very special way.
Without any weapons, with his gentle hands and then you wouldn't believe that with these gentle hands he can kill anyone because they're so soft. So he sees this uh picture of uh Aristasura Vada
and uh he's called here Devadarsana and he's called Devadarsana and Bhagavan and He's coming to Kamsa because Narada knows that devas are incomplete, their impassionate.
They want Krishna to do his business to come out from Vrindavan. Enough is enough. For how long you're going to you know do, this useless thing. You have to do so many other stuff. You have to kill these demons.
So many glorious things you have to do. And therefore Narada Muni is called here Devadarsana. He is going to the planets of the devils, he is going to the heavenly planets and he knows the anxiety which the devils have.
Krishna is terrorizing everything. So they want to speed up the whole drama. And therefore, Kamsa on behalf of the demigods is coming, not Kamsa, sorry, Narada.
Narada on behalf of the demigods is coming to Kamsa and he is disclosing the truth. He's saying, you know that Vasudeva, you believed, you are a little foolish and naive. How can you trust these people?
Yadavas, they hate you. He lied to you. Krishna is his own son. And Balarama is also his son. You should kill them as quickly as possible, and for that you should bring
them here to Mathura because you sent so many demons and it was all useless. They couldn't do this because Vṛndāvana is a very special place and Krishna is very powerful in Vṛndāvana.
But in Mathura you will definitely be able to kill him. Just bring him here. So he's trying to push Kamsa and of course for Kamsa you don't need to repeat this twice. Kamsa becomes really angry.
He becomes really... He always thought that Krishna is something special. He always thought that Krishna is very dangerous. But he never was confirmed.
He was never 100% sure that Krishna is the same eight child of Vasudeva who is destined to kill him. So he became furious and he wants to immediately finish everything.
And immediately the beautiful plan appears in his mind. And Krishna, in a form of super soul, is helping him to create this beautiful plan which will become his end.
So he says he calls his ministers and his ministers, who are his ministers? Caṇūra and Muṣṭika. These stupid fellows who are fighters, who are wrestlers.
He calls Caṇūra and Muṣṭika and he says, Oh, your great heroes, uh, please arrange quickly everything, make this uh arena of sacrifice and uh we will call Krishna and Balaram and you will kill Krishna and Balaram.
First, Kovalya Pida will try to kill. If it doesn't work, then you will kill. If it doesn't work, I will kill them. Somehow or other we will kill them. And he is fantasizing this.
He's doing this Mayyavad meditation on killing Krishna. Believe me, he was in Samadhi by thinking about this. He couldn't sleep the whole night. He was thinking how he will kill Krishna.
So and then, but then the question is: how to bring Krishna here? He's afraid if he goes himself or if he sends Chanura and Mustika, Krishna knowing about this, he will run away.
He is afraid that Nanda Mahārāja will be afraid. So he wants to camouflage this whole uh event very beautifully. He says, let's do some religious ceremony.
All these uh people they are very religious and they like religious ceremonies. So we will make beautiful sacrifice, we will call so many brāhmaṇas here, they will for sure come and then he gets an idea.
Let's send Akrura to Vṛndāvana.
Because Akrura is the relative of Krishna, he is the uncle of Krishna, and he is the only one whom Nanda Maharaj will believe, whom Krishna will believe, he is the only one who will be able to bring Krishna.
So again, this is all of course manipulated by Krishna himself and uh it's a reciprocation of uh Krishna with Akrura's meditation.
Kamsa requesting Akrura to fetch Krishna
It is explained. He says, let's read this verse and then I will explain very important implications of this verse. Kaṁsa called Akrura to his hall where he is sitting as the king.
And he says, Bob Hodanapate Mahyam Kriatam Maitram Adrian Nanyastvato hitamo vidyate boja Vrishni Shu. My dear Akrura, most charitable one. He calls him Danapate. Akrura was famous for giving charity to everyone.
He liked to give charity. And by calling him Dhanapate, a charitable person, Kamsa implies that please do whatever I ask of him. He's very whatever I will ask you. Please do this charity to me. You're very charitable.
Please do this mercy to me. And he's very humble. He's trying to be as humble as possible. He forgets temporarily that he is the king. So he humbly us Bobana Patema Hyam kriyatam maitram Adri Ta.
Please do this friendly favor to me. me. Since I respect you, Ādritāḥ, you're a very respectful person. Nan ya statohitata more. Among the Vṛṣṇis and Bhojas, there is no one else as kind to us as you. us as you.
So uh it's basically the only verse where uh there is uh the second verse, atastvam uh Sritah Sumya Karya Gauravasadhanam uh yatendra Gentle
Akrura, I am depending on you to accomplish this important task just as powerful Indra took shelter of Viṣṇu to achieve his goals. So he says: even I am so powerful. Like Indra.
Still, this Indra uh he asked his younger brother, who is you know little dwarf, to help him. So I am calling you. He is very humble, but at the same time he reminds him who he really is.
I am Indra and you are my little assistant. So like Indra asked Upendra to help him, I am also asking you, please go and please bring Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma here. you, please go and please bring Krishna and Balaram here.
So there is a beautiful story behind this which is not described by Śukadeva Gosvāmī, but which is described in other Purāṇas and especially in Harivaṁśa Purāṇa, that Akrura was for twelve years serving Kamsa very diligently to gain trust.
And actually, Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī explains this in the verse where he glorifies Akrura. Acrurai na maste nakruray namasta mai, yena kamsa bi sevi taha, gokule, gopa, gopya dhy, sri Krishnaika didrikshaya.
I offer my respects to Okrura who served Kamsa on some pretext in order to see and serve his Lord. It's a very beautiful verse.
Sanātana Gosvāmī says that Śrīla Akrura, that Akrura remained for twelve years as a loyal and obedient servant of Kamsa, for one sole purpose to see Krishna.
Didṛkṣayā, Śrī-kṛṣṇaika, Kṛṣṇa Eka, dṛkṣayā, because he wanted to see Krishna so much, he was ready to serve Kamsa. Yena Kamsa Hapi Sevitaha. He became his servant.
So the implication of this was that Akrura knew that if he serves Kamsa very loyally and very faithfully, then at one point Kamsa will send him to Gokula.
The desire of Akrura was to go to Gokula, but instead of going to Gokula he remained in Mathurā to uh come to this moment where his whole uh life life will bring him to Gokula.
So it's a very very important point which we can see is repeated in the history of our sampradāya.
Before we come to Vraj, before we will be able to come to Vraj, before we will be able to come to Gokula, we should be somewhere away from Gokula and meditate on coming to Vraj.
We should make our desire to come to Vraja real and genuine, and for that, unfavorable circumstances are actually very favorable.
When you are in the situation where you have to serve this demon, what could be less favorable than service to Kamsa? What could be less productive in your spiritual life than service to Kamsa?
But Akrura was very intelligent. Akrura knew if I serve Kamsa, at one point, Kamsa himself will send me to Gokula. And he will say this in a very beautiful way.
He will say and actually that's the implication when we are very firm and determined in our services outside of Raj, but at the same time we cherish and grow the desire to come to Vraj, then desire will become so pure and so strong that the faith itself will bring us to Vraja.
We cannot come to Vraja by our whimsical desire in reality. And we can see this in the history of all sampradāya.
When Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī wanted to be with Caitanya Mahāprabhu, he was running away again and again and again. Ultimately he came to Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu told him, Go back. Don't be crazy. Behave yourself very nicely.
The time will come when you're ready, and then you will come to me. And then you will come to Vraj. And it's not the only story which is there.
And there are other stories of the similar uh similar motive or the similar uh nature.
There was the story about uh uh uh Swami Tinkori Goswami, who was who is from Nityānanda Vamsha. He is the descendant of Lord Nityānanda. And he wanted to come to Vraj to do Bhajan.
And he would come here to Manohardas Babaj. And Manohardas Babaji said, No, you're not ready, go back.
And his wife dies and he comes and he says, No, I'm free, my wife died, my child is taken care of, I want to come here to Vraj. He said, no, go back and marry again. He sends him back.
He says, you're not ready to come here. And we see, of course, there is another story which is perhaps the most striking, when Caitanya Mahāprabhu says to Rūpa Gosvāmī and Sanātana Gosvāmī, you're not ready.
They write him letter after letter after letter. And this is Rūpa and Sanātana Gosvāmī, the purest nityasiddhas in our sampradāya. They're writing him letters and begging him, what can we do for you? Can we serve to you?
What shall we start? And he doesn't answer their letters. And ultimately he writes just one verse in the letters: Paravyasanini Nari, Vyagrapi Griha Karmasutat Evaswadyati Antar Navasangara Sainam.
He says that like the lady who has Paramour and she is Grichini, she is Nari, she is serving her husband so nicely so that he would not he would not notice anything wrong, but in her mind she's always meditating on this Navasangarasyanam.
She's always asvadhaati, she's always feeling distaste. So what I want to say is that, and this is my own experience, when the circumstances become too comfortable and too conducive for bhajan, you become lazy.
Sometimes people are in a hurry to move in the temple and before that they were so eager. And I remember when we were under the communist regime and everything was
illegal and the kīrtana was so sweet and so amazing, and we have to hide, and we have to go somewhere in the mountains to have just half an hour of kirtan so that nobody would hear this kirtan and it was so sweet.
And then all of a sudden it became legal and everything became boring. So in the beginning, the resistance of the environment is very important.
Resistance is necessary in this incubation period when your bhakti is not mature yet or is not strong enough yet. Because without resistance, your bhakti will never become strong, your desire will never become strong.
The resistance, the external resistance, the unfavorable circumstances in which you are practicing or beginning practicing your bhakti actually help you like I know many people when their family is not favorable, they become such strong devotees because they have to and they're doing this and, uh, they're always conscious about this.
And for them it's so precious. It's so important to practice bhakti, they know it.
And then if everything is favorable, they, you know, they don't feel like because again when our bhakti is immature, the external resistance helps it to become mature and strong.
And that's the first very important lesson of Akrura. The first very important lesson of Akrura is that you should not be afraid of unfavorable circumstances.
Because this is the nature of the human mind to do everything contrary. If they don't want you to do something, your desire to do this will increase many folds. Especially we know that forbidden fruit is very sweet.
So in the beginning, when bhakti is forbidden, and in case of Akrura, his bhakti was very forbidden.
He couldn't practice it openly, he was there, he was hiding his bhakti, and externally he was showing his loyalty, his faithfulness to Kamsa. So, this is a very important first lesson of Akrura's life.
And he says that the same Kamsa who was so much against Krishna, who was so much against my practicing bhakti and my being loyal servant of Krishna, the same Kamsa is now sending me to Krishna.
And the implication here is that when you're mature, everything which was unfavorable for your practicing of bhakti will just push you towards bhakti, will help you to become Krishna conscious.
I was doing uh my service in very unfavorable circumstances and then at one point Krishna said, "It's, uh, enough is enough, come here," and and all those people who wanted me to be there, they started, they were very much against me and they said get out of here.
And here I am. This is how it works.
Value of unfavorable conditions in bhakti
This is a very important lesson that, uh, uh, Krishna knows when you're ready. Don't be in a hurry. Uh just make your bhakti strong, make your desires strong.
For that, there are some other things and lessons which Akrura will teach us. But this first lesson which I wanted to mention is this lesson of resistance. We should not be afraid.
Resistance is good, and therefore Śrīla Prabhupāda, he was very bold and he was he knew this. And he was saying, don't be in a hurry. Come for Vrindavan for a short while.
The time will come when you will be able to come here and to be absorbed and completely immersed in your bhajan.
Just recently, disciple of Śrīla Prabhupāda Parvat Maharaj passed away in a few days and he was sleeping just for three hours a day, he was chanting many, many luxa day, he was so absorbed.
But before that, he was an active preacher. And he was he was one of the most. But
at one point he just came here and he didn't want to leave this world from any other place but Radhakund. And he left this world from Radhakund.
Even from Vrindavan, he was there in Vrindavan, but he said, bring me back to Radhakund.
And they brought him back to Radhakund, and he left this world on the day of disappearance of Gorukisurda's Babuja on the Kadis of Kartik. So that's the reward, that's how it works. So don't be in a hurry.
The time will come, there's no doubt about it. But for some time it's like this, like a little how you call this caterpillar? The caterpillar.
When the caterpillar is just eating this grass and whatever is there, cabbage or whatever the caterpillar likes, and uh the caterpillar doesn't think about anything else.
But then at one point the desire to fly comes to little caterpillars' mind. Somehow rather, I don't know how it happens.
It happened with us, we were happy caterpillars crawling over the place and eating all kinds of garbage. But then at one point we thought, let's fly and what could
be more insane and absurd than for caterpillar to imagine that he can fly. But still this desire came to the mind and what caterpillar did uh to learn how to fly went into this how you call this? Kokon, yes. Into kokon.
So and it's uh it's not very favorable for flying to be in kokon. It seems very counter intuitive, you know that your uh way to fly goes through cocoon But it does so in the same way it seems like very counter intuitive.
Counterintuitive to serve a to serve Kamsa to see Krishna. But it is it is like this. This is the paradoxical way of spiritual life. Sometimes to reach the goal uh you cannot go straight to the goal.
You have to go this way and this way and do some diversions. And uh uh you will reach the goal uh faster than if you would go straight.
So that's an important lesson of Akrura, which I mentioned and with which I finished this Katha. Thank you very much. Hare Krishna.
There are few other very important lessons, but I just wanted to start with this with this in this place, how we should be patient and how we should embrace the seemingly unfavorable circumstances in our service because the circumstances ultimately will show us how precious bhakti is.
Otherwise, we will not be able to appreciate bhakti properly.
And yes, we were talking about the sequence of meditation, how the meditation in a natural, spontaneous and way it develops in a humble heart, in the heart of somebody who is trying to achieve the Lord through meditation process, through this technique but is not demanding this and is not trying to force Krishna to manifest but humbly and patiently serving him through this process of uh chanting the holy name.
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. Okay.
Discussion on mental impressions and chanting
Okay. Any questions? Yes, I answered one question. What is saṁskāra? There was another very important question and very beautiful.
Does the devotee need to come to the highest level of meditation or samadhi to return back to Godhead? Where will go those devotees who simply follow Śrīla Prabhupāda's instructions? Anyway, that's for tomorrow.
And again, Śrīla Prabhupāda's instruction is not to chant it to... Where will go those devotees who simply follow Śrīla Prabhupāda's instructions to chant 16 rounds?
Śrīla Prabhupāda's instructions to chant at least 16 rounds. Please remember, at least 16 rounds, not 16 rounds.
She will provide us instructions to chant 24 hours a day, that's also his instruction. But we conveniently forget about this instruction and only remember 16 rounds instruction. I will tell this tomorrow.
Continuing with the story of Akrura, there is a very beautiful point about this. Yeah, this is some saṁskāras. I noticed this.
At the level of dharana and dhyana, when the focus is already on the form, it seems that elements of imagination may also play a role in our meditation.
In such cases, should we take extra precautions to ensure that the object of our meditation and the details in which it is revealed to us are authentic? Yes, definitely.
We should definitely take an extra precautions and therefore, as I said, and I will stress it again here, the basis of our meditations are scriptures, not our imagination.
The ground, the foundation of our meditation are the verses of scriptures and therefore we should chant these verses, we should memorize these verses and relish these verses.
And that's the real meditation, as opposed to the meditation which is just a product of our very creative mind fertile mind. Yes. Thank you very much.
Um, I was wondering, is there like, um, we say we go from nāma to rūpa, guṇa, līlā, and is there systematic hearing from the Bhāgavatam? Because obviously not every verse is describing the guṇa, rūpa and līlā
of Krishna, or is it simply — No, see, the process is like this. We should we should definitely nitya sevā. We should attach our heart to hearing Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. But then when we are mature, we will become
partial and we will want to hear certain sections of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam which nourish our meditation, our particular meditation. In the beginning we should not be choosy, and Śrīla Prabhupāda warned us against this.
He said, don't try to go to certain sections of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Just treat Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam as it is, in, uh, in the proper sequence.
But when the qualification is there, then naturally again spontaneously our heart will be attracted to certain sections of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam which nourish this particular kind of meditation, uh, suitable. And we will go there.
At the same time, uh, we will still, uh, continue serving Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and reading Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
Like Goswami Sofrindavan, they would come together and Ragunat Bhatta Goswami would read Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and chant Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and sing Śrīmad Bhāgavatam and they would be in complete samadhi.
But for our special bhajan to nourish our meditation, we can go to certain sections or certain verses, memorize specific verses which uh facilitate our meditation.
Um the other day when uh Śrīla Rādha Can you tell us some Prabhupada story connected with Govardhan? And Śrutakirti told a story which is exactly answering your question. So Prabhupada was in Los Angeles and he was
doing massage and he asked Śrutakirti Prabhu, or it was some other occasion, anyway. He asked Śrutakirti Prabhu to read something from Krishna book.
And Śrutakirti Prabhu started reading from Krishna book and uh he opened the Krishna book on some uh demons uh past time where Krishna is killing demons.
And Prabhupada said he was enjoying so much, he was laughing and laughing and laughing.
And Śrutakirti Prabhu said, Śrīla Prabhupāda especially like the part when it is described that demons were were bloody and you know the blood was oozing. So Prabhupada was enjoying this.
So the next day and Śrutakirti felt very elated and very happy that he pleased Śīla Prabhupāda with the reading about And the next day Prabhupāda again said, please read Krishna book. And Śrutakirti started frantically looking for the stories about killing the demons with a lot of blood in it.
To please Prabhupāda. And he was doing it. And Prabhupāda looked at him and said, read anywhere. It's all sweet.
So uh yes we we should listen everything which is there in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam but uh for certain purposes for certain meditations uh on the level when we're qualified we can go in certain sections and they will become our favorite and we'll meditate very deeply.
Yes, that is not. Thank you very much. I wanted to ask you what is um the relationship between japa and saṅkīrtana? Like thinking together?
And is it possible to choose and progress just in one? L likeike, for example, if you like japa, you just continue with japa and don't pay attention to kīrtana or like otherwise.
No, it's not possible. Kīrtana should be there. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu said that out of nine kinds of bhakti loud kīrtana is the most sarvashveste is the best.
And that's exactly what Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī says you should continue kīrtana because it's uh fearless, akuto-bhayam. It's the fearless uh method. It's the most beneficial method, it's the easiest method.
Uh, but you should also continue with japa because it teaches you smaraṇam. Japa from the very beginning, uh, it should be on the level of upāṃśu when you very softly chant the holy name.
But if it's not supported by the power of kīrtana, it it will be very difficult for you to go into it. Maybe on a certain level. But even we can see even the great saints who still live here or
who used to live here in Vraj, they would do līlā-smaraṇam, they would do japa, they would do first japa, then they do līlā-smaraṇa meditation, and then and then they would always do kīrtanam.
So these two processes they are nourishing each other they are mutually not exclusive, they are complementary to each other and they help each other. They help to strengthen and to purify our mind.
So loud kīrtana and very soft and sometimes silent chanting of the holy name, uh they're all important. And that's what Chaitanya Mahaprabhu showed in his own example.
Yes, rather, from yeah, no, no, please, please continue. Could could you please suggest how to get taste for kirtan?
Because when I sit in kīrtana, I think that I would rather chant in japa. The taste only comes when there is absorption.
If you think about something else—I would rather chant japa—then you will never feel the taste of kīrtana. I explained this yesterday.
If you are not concentrated or not absorbed in eating any food, the most delicious food will not be pleasurable to you. You will not feel the taste.
So the beginning of the taste is to bring maybe a little forcefully your mind into the process, but then the mind will like it.
So but the starting point, the initial point is to bring the mind into the process, to be completely present while you are doing this.
So, so I'm sure that Nāma Prabhu is very happy with your loyalty to japa, but Nāma Prabhu also wants you to become wild in kīrtana.
It's again Sacinandana Maharaja is speaking through me. I just can't feel it's coming from the asana. Going out from the mouse the desire if you have the strong desire then things they start working very quickly and I I see that in in my life in my experience. Like if you really desire something like very very bad then then like I don't know Krishna helps uh Oh yeah, for sure. Krishna helps very fast.
So the question is how to really get that very very strong desire, this is the topic tomorrow's lecture. Okay, Radha-prasad and then Adhrichest. Yeah.
Maharaj, you are mentioning about Chitta, it has that image that is formed. Now my question is like now, when the jīva, when he enters into the body of Mahā-Viṣṇu there is no chitta. So what is that stored in it?
When it comes back, it is still it goes into the body of Mahā-Viṣṇu with its karma, and karma has particular structure, so karma is that is what is the impressions in Chitta is karma. Yeah, so it goes.
Anyway, you can always say acintya. It's a very safe answer. This very subtle remnants of karma are still there attached to jīva.
Certain questions you cannot answer very logically or rationally because ultimately it's it's not possible to understand everything. How there is sitting in the body of Lord Mahā-Viṣṇu with some material elements.
But nevertheless, it's there, because when the jīva comes out, it comes out with its karma.
Or the other answer which you can give to this question again – I don't know which one is right, but give to this question again uh I don't know which one is right but uh
it's a possible answer is that the karma of the jīva is stored in Chitta of Mahā-Viṣṇu. And it's a completely spiritual karma. So but uh it's there.
Mahā-Viṣṇu remembers our karma, and He very mercifully gives us back the karma which we deserved when we come out of his body. So it's somewhere there, don't worry.
But why Narada took so much time for the gap again this time? Narada? He took the gap, like, up.
No, Narada didn't take, yeah, I will explain tomorrow what is the gap, why the whole year passed and why Śukadeva Gosvāmī didn't explain what happened during one year.
That I will explain, yes, this month it was beautiful.
Thank you so much, you said that with our sādhana we're trying to create some saṁskāras, and what is the advance in Krishna consciousness, like, as of my experience and other devotees experience I can see that like ten twelve years you practice you can chant in Brahma Muhurtha very easily so
nicely and looks like some samskaras should create should have been created but after time passes and so difficult it cheers me it so it was loki paschada or again He mentions garha-samskara. He doesn't elaborate on this.
Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī doesn't explain exactly what it is commenting on Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu. It's only said that bhakti leaves this garha-samskara, not just. And garha basically means very deep saṁskāra.
Like gahvan in Gahvaravana in Vṛndāvana.
So this garha-samskara according to some explanations is the spiritual samskara samskaras not in the material citta, but some saṁskāras on the soul proper. So there are saṁskāras and there are saṁskāras.
Material saṁskāras are not so stable, some of them are quite stable, but still by their nature, because material nature is flickering, they may they could be erased or overshadowed by some other saṁskāras. But garha-samskara, very deep saṁskāras, they will always remain with you.
So our practices of bhakti depending on the quality of this practice either remain these very deep special saṁskāras which will always remain with you, or they will remain little superficial saṁskāras, maybe still quite strong, but still superficial and superficial like material saṁskāras, which could be overshadowed, temporarily overshadowed by other material impressions which we have.
The proof of it could be given that those people who have very vivid and very real near-death experience, when they come back into this life, their whole life is completely changed, because the saṁskāras which they got are so deep and they become totally transformed.
Whereas practicing devotees, because sometimes our practice is not so perfect, is not without offenses, the saṁskāras which are created by this, they are not so deep and therefore our character, our personality sometimes is not so drastically changed. We still carry on the traces of our material qualities.
Whereas it is said yasyāsti bhaktir bhagavaty akiñcanā in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that when our bhakti becomes akiñcanā completely pure, then sarvair guṇais tatra samāsate surāḥ, then our qualities completely change, we become divine. So that this is the proof.
And Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura gives a very beautiful explanation of this. He compares this process with alchemical process of purifying the mercury. Mercury is very poisonous. And it's also very difficult to catch.
So Mercury uh is uh can be compared with our mind. Our mind is very poisonous and it's also very difficult to catch. It's very quickly. You've seen Mercury, you try to catch, and it's already there.
In the same way we try to catch our mind that it's already there. And you have to run behind your mind and it's already in different direction.
So, but you can purify mercury and mercury, I actually s I I've seen purified mercury. It becomes solid. In the same way, our mind also becomes solid when it becomes very pure. It becomes very, very stable and solid.
It's amazing. You can feel it's very heavy because it's mercury, but it's completely solid. How they do this, I don't know, but it's a long process. It's a very cumbersome process, very difficult process.
For uh many, many months they have to purify this mercury to uh m make it to achieve this quality. So Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura says that that the process of mm purifying the mercury is to chorn not chorn.
How to do this when you are. Grind. It's to grind it with certain substances. And for some time, the substance and the mercury, despite of your grinding, remain separate.
But then at one point the miracle happened and uh they combine and uh the quality changes.
So he says, in the similar way, when we practice, we have our bhakti, and it's somewhere there and we have our mind with its material qualities and traits, and they are separate still.
And therefore we're practicing bhakti, but at the same time sometimes we do something uh nasty or some offensive thing is happening. So it just means that bhakti did not really penetrate deeply our mind.
And on this stage when the bhakti is not the the mind and bhakti are not really uh glued together, not really penetrated each other,
at this stage you can experience this kind of thing that the bhakti becomes little shuffled away from the forefront of your mind. But it's still there, it comes. Okay.
Uh well I see the I see the hand, but I don't see who is behind the hand. Yeah, you can uh Pranahari Prabhu. Okay. Yes, my friend. I only see your beard. Okay.
I wanted to uh ask and see if I understood this correctly about the uh uh Smarana, the anga of smarana, is it it's it doesn't seem accessible directly uh to the sadhaka because it's dependent on the hearing and chanting and starting with the name.
Is that the correct? No. All this nine processes of bhakti is sadhana. Śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇu-smaraṇaṁ pāda-sevanam.
So it's all it's all sadhana, but it's not the easiest kind of sadhana, very essential, very important kind of sadhana, but not the uh beginner kind of sadhana. In the beginning you should and we all experience this.
In the beginning we hear we cannot speak about Krishna. Then uh the desire to speak about Krishna comes.
And then when we sufficien when we sufficiently spoke about Krishna, then naturally the thought processes help us to remember Krishna. So it requires certain preliminary preparation. But it's sadhana, it's not Siddha.
It is you you can do smarana on the level of your perfection, but it is sadhana.
You can do it in the beginning level and um you will be able to little bit uh kiñcit anusandhānaṁ this little investigation in the mind you can do.
The form appears, the saṁskāra appears in your mind and you investigate. You just you looked at it but then it disappears being overshadowed or being exchanged to another saṁskāra. Okay. Thank you so much. Yes, you.
Hare Krishna Maharaj. You were telling of chitta and sanskaras as well from subtle gross develops just like mortal body develops from subtle and citta sanskara.
So I want to know how this soul forms the blood, just like sarupa of the soul, particular soul. Because everything is made of consciousness.
So how whether by cultivating uh like saṁskāras, as forms of soul develops or something else. Can you please?
No, no, the soul Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that the soul has desires and the desire is the subtle form, the original desire of the soul to enjoy independently on God is the subtlest form of our conditioning.
When uh this desire I can be on my own, I can enjoy without him, I don't need him. When this desire appears then the whole drama starts and
then it develops into some scar and everything else. But again this is a acintya, don't ask me how it happens and why it happens and how the soul fell down from the spiritual world. Thank you. That is a thing.
And not material sense, spiritual sense, because as a sādhaka, so while practicing, so how develops the form of the soul in the spiritual direction, just like Ājīvis mentioned.
Śrīla Prabhupāda said it will be revealed to you, don't worry about this. Sometimes devotees have this existential anxiety. How will I know this when Śrīla Prabhupāda said the holy name is very powerful?
And this is exactly what Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura is explaining in the last song of Śaraṇāgati. And the holy name comes, when the real holy name comes, it reveals my place, my worship, everything else.
It entirely depends on our service to the Holy Name. And when the Holy Name becomes pure, everything will be revealed. And you will not believe it, but it will happen.
So we have to have complete faith in the Holy Name and the power of the holy name or in the self-revelatory process of bhakti. That's very important.
The process of bhakti has this quality of self of, being capable of revealing everything by just the process itself. The process is powerful. Our part in it is proper association, desire, proper sādhana, and humility.
Okay, I guess that's it. Thank you very, very much. Śrīla Prabhupāda ki jaya! Kṛṣṇa-kṛpā-sindhu!