Stages of Bhakti. The Law of Reciprocity
Бхакти Вигьяна Госвами · Евпатория · 2008
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Opening remarks and schedule updates
The following class is the third lecture of the seminar called Laws of Bhakti, given by His Holiness Bhaktivigyan Goswami Maharaj, in F. Paturia, Russia, 2009. Bhagavate Vasudevaya.
Oh namo bagavate vasudeva Narayanamnama sritya, Naram Chaiva Narutam. Devim Saraswatiasam, Devi Saraswati Yasam, Tatojayamu Diray, Kanakabadato, Sankirtanaikita, Kamalaya tak so, Vishwambarod Javaro Yugadharma palo Vandejatpriya. Karunavataro.
Today will be our last lecture. Unfortunately, I have to leave tonight. Tomorrow evening.
I have a meeting with the ambassador of India and we're going to have a very important and serious conversation regarding the Moscow temple. Several Indian businessmen have expressed the idea or the desire that this temple is included in the program in the official program of the interrelationship between India and Russia and tomorrow we are going to discuss this particular matter.
So please pray tomorrow evening for the success of the meeting. Today I'll also have to finish early because it turns out that prasāda was delayed every day. So we don't have much time.
Reciprocation in Bhagavad Gita 4.11
As promised, I'll speak about one of the I won't have so much time to do justice to this important topic. But actually Srila Prabhupada has already said all that's needed in
his purpose to the eleventh verse of the fourth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita Yatham prapadya te damsta iba ba jam yaham mama vart manu var tante, manusjah parta sarva shaha.
Eeta maprapadante Tam stataiam. Mam varmanu varante, manusja parta sarvashaam Translation to me, I reward them accordingly. Everyone follows my path in all respects, Osana Pritha.
Everyone is searching for Krishna in the different aspects of his manifestations.
Krishna, the supreme personality of Godhead, is partially realized in his impersonal Brahma Jyoti And as the all-pervading surpersoul, dwelling within everything, including the particles of atoms. But Krishna is fully realized only by his pure devotees.
Consequently, Krishna is the object of everyone's realization. And thus, anyone and everyone is satisfied according to one's desire to have him.
In the transcendental world, also Krishna reciprocates with his pure devotees in the transcendental attitude, just as the devotee wants him.
One devotee may want Krishna as Supreme Master, another as his personal friend, and yet another as his son, and still another as his lover.
Krishna rewards all the devotees equally according to the material world, the same reciprocations of feelings are there, and they are equally exchanged by the Lord with the different types of worshipers.
The pure devotees both here and in the transcendental abode associate with human person and are able to render personal service to the Lord and thus derive transcendental bliss in his love and service.
As for those who are impersonalists and who want to commit spiritual suicide by annihilating the individual existence of the living entity, Krishna helps also by absorbing them into his effulgence.
Such impersonalists do not agree to accept the eternal blissful personality of Godhead. Consequently, they cannot relish the bliss of transcendental personal service to the Lord, having extinguished their individuality.
Some of them who are not firmly situated in the personal existence return to this material field to exhibit their dormant desires for activities.
They are not admitted into the spiritual planets, but they are again given a chance to act on the material planets. For those who are fruiting workers, the Lord awards the desired results
of their prescribed duties as the yajñas and those who are yogis seeking mystic powers are awarded such powers. In other words, everyone is dependent for success upon his mercy alone.
And all kinds of spiritual processes are about different degrees of success on the same path. Once again, all kinds of spiritual processes are but different degrees of success on the same path.
Unless therefore one comes to the highest perfection of Krishna consciousness, all attempts remain imperfect.
As it is stated in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Moksha Kama Udaradih, Tivrena, Bhakti Yogina, Yadita, Purusham Parach.
Whether one is without desire, the condition of the devotee, or is desirous of alternative results or is after liberation, one should with all efforts try to worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead for complete perfection, culminating in Krishna consciousness.
As all surrender unto me, I reward them accordingly. Everyone follows my path in all respects, O son of Prithā.
Om ajñāna-timirāndhasya jñānāñjana-śalākayā cakṣununmīlitaṁ yena tasmai śrī-gurave namaḥ Militame Tasma Sri Gura Venaha, Nama oṁ viṣṇu-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tāle śrīmate
bhaktivedānta-svāmin iti nāmine namaste sārasvate deve gaura-vāṇī-pracārine nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi- pāścātya-deśa-tāriṇe Karuna Sindhu, Dinabandu Jagatpate, Gopisa Gopikakanta, Radakanta namus tu te tapaptakanchana Gurangi Rade
Vrindavaneshwari Vishavanu Sutevi Pranamami Hari Vanchakalpatarubyascha, Kripasindubyvacha, Patitanampaneby Vaishnavy Namonama Jai Sri Krishna Chaitanya Prabhunityananda Sri dwaita Gadathara, Shriw Sadigura Bhakta
Vrha Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Yantah
Practical application of bhakti yoga
pravisyamamavachamamam prasupam, sanjiva takila shakti dharaswadam, anjamarana Sravanatva Gadim, Prananamo Bhagavat Purusayatub
The meaning of our short discussion is to understand in what way exactly we must practice bhakti and what the practice of bhakti actually is. This is a very complicated thing.
Yesterday our Indian friend was telling me that he has a sannyasi friend in Rishikesh who says in bhakti. But I'm not going to tell anyone in what way because it's impossible.
I can talk about Kri Yoga, about Vedanta Sutra, about philosophy, about this and that, but how can I explain bhakti? How can I explain how to practice love? Now we're going to love.
Nevertheless, and this is the amazing achievement of our sampradaya.
Specifically, in our sampradaya Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu brought and practiced himself, and Srila Rupa Goswami explained it in such a way as to make it available to us how one can gradually develop love in oneself and not just abstract love.
Because people often speak of love. Love, love, we have to love, divine love. And what divine love is, it's not clear. I just sit in my armchair and love divinely. Shit, fallen sheet.
Dardam Dastakur, praising Rupa Goswami for taking what was in Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's heart and making it available to us.
Each of us has the opportunity to look into Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's heart, touch it, and to some extent feel at least a faint shadow of what he felt in his endlessly deep heart of the supreme personality of Godhead.
And it's an amazing thing associated with our sampradaya.
And of course, our main method that has gathered all of us here on the shore of the Black Sea at the beginning of winter is the joint chanting of the holy names of Krishna when together following the lead by trying to understand what's going on in his heart.
But besides these, there are other ways, of course, which by no means should be neglected, although this matter is the most important one. Because Anukulya says I must accept everything that helps me develop love of God.
I must eagerly grasp at anything that somehow other helps me in this uneasy matter. And our little talk is precisely about this,
about how we should live in this world and what we should do so that love of God gradually rises in our heart.
Modes of nature and living beings
Today I will continue. But first I'd like to recall what we talked about in the previous lectures. And in the first lecture I said that there are three kinds of living beings in this world or three types of people.
What types? Asuras. Asuras. Rākṣasas, who else? Devas and devas. Rākṣasas and asuras are those who are trying to enjoy life in one way or another, using the opportunities provided by Krishna.
Śrīla Prabhupāda explains in this purport that all this was given them by Krishna. These are the opportunities of rajo-guṇa and tamo-guṇa. And in a sense, they are successful in this.
Because Krishna has given them these opportunities. And if you want to enjoy rajo-guṇa and tamo-guṇa, all the opportunities are there.
You can be successful in it, but, and we must clearly know that because we are all a bit of asuras. We are all a bit of demons. This is always, always disappointment, grief, stress, depression. Always.
We must be absolutely clear about it. We must mark it well that this happens not in 99% of the cases, not in 99.9% of the cases, precisely 100%, or even 108%. Always we shouldn't have any illusions about that.
Sometimes people think that it didn't work out with anybody but it will work out with me. Sometimes we think that we're clever Vaishnavas and we can learn to enjoy everything, this and that. No.
If I try to use Rajaguna, Tamaguna, the result will always be exactly the opposite. I will always be distressed or something. And what happens to such people ultimately, their relationships break down.
Not to speak of their relationship with God. They don't even set such a goal before themselves. Even relationship with people break down because when I try to establish my relationship on the basis of the
mode of passion, that is, I want to get something from a person, get pleasure from him. They don't have to treat him like a piece of meat. Talking piece of meat.
Sometimes it talks, sometimes it talks loudly, flatters something and ultimately old relationships are broken. And this can be seen in children.
Children when they are given a doll, well, that's roughly what people say, attitude to others is it's just another doll and in the beginning when a child's been given a doll, what does the child do?
It dresses her up, oh, what a cute. But then tears off her arms and legs. And in the end, all these dolls with torn-off heads, arms and legs are scattered around.
But the same thing is left behind on the battlefield of our life when it's over whose arms and legs we've tried to tear off because they somehow haven't satisfied our senses.
Therefore, the only way to really attain love— the loss of bhakti and love are one and the same. What we've said in relation to Krishna equally applies to those we associate with.
If we want to get some sort of happiness even in this world, if we want to establish some relationships, and all happiness comes from love alone, from relationship alone.
We must establish them on the principle of the mode of goodness. The mode of goodness means the mode of goodness means patience. It means truthfulness. It means chastity. Mode of goodness means peace of mind.
All these are principles that allow me to be happy even here. The mode of goodness means commitment because my mind isn't so agitated and I can stay focused on my goal longer than for one ten thousandth of a second.
And in dealing with others, the mode of goodness means respect and obedience and clarity, openness, sincerity, unwillingness to cheat. All these are principles which people establish their relationships upon in Sanatana Dharma.
Role of sattva-guna in Sanatana Dharma
Srila Prabhupada, if you remember in the Krsna book we read yesterday about Krishna's appearance when Dharma is in decline, he says that the highest religious principle is Sanatana Dharma because it allows one to gradually develop love of God eventually.
Although in itself it's not yet identical to the love of God, that's the social structure built on the principles of sattva when life becomes a religion. And what do we see in modern life?
I have my wife, my car, my job, my dog, and I have my religion. Approximately with an equal status. The dog's there, the religion is there, wife is there, and the car is there.
But actually Sanātana Dharma means that my every single action must become a religion. Everything I do in this world must become an offering to Krishna.
And that's the principle of Sanātana Dharma. The principle of the eternal religion of the living being.
And this can only be understood by someone who is somehow or other connected with sattva. Yesterday after the lecture, I was given a note with a question.
Bhanu Swami said in his lecture that we're not concerned with sattva, that we don't care about sattva, and that we don't cultivate it, rather we cultivate transcendental qualities. Please solve this contradiction.
This is how the mind of a beginner devotee starts. As a result, he will cultivate neither sattva nor transcendental qualities because Bhaktivedanta Swami said sattva and Bhanu Swami said transcendental qualities, but as a result, I won't do anything. I'll do what I want actually.
There is no contradiction because we do cultivate bhakti by chanting the holy name, by hearing about Krishna. But bhakti will inevitably result in our mind getting gradually purified.
Moreover, when we organize our environment so that it works or influences our consciousness and the laws of sattva, it's easier to think of Krishna.
And sattva helps me focus on Krishna because if I am in complete tamas and I cultivate transcendental qualities, I've, uh, woken up dirty, grimy. What does that mean anyway?
What does it mean that we don't have to cultivate sattva? That we don't have to wash, we don't have to what else? We don't have to to tidy up, we can eat anything
and as a result the transcendental qualities will develop in us by themselves. And we'll be grimy transcendentalists. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura explains that when we take a shower in the morning, is that Bhakti or not?
No, it's it's not Bhakti, it's morning shower. Morning shower. But we don't take it. Will we be able to properly practice bhakti? Will we be able to focus on Krishna? No. We will be sleepy.
Therefore, he explains that the principles of sattva help us to understand Krishna more quickly. And when we understand him, sattva naturally establishes in our mind and these are two inseparable things.
Krishna explains that sattva equals dharma and dharma equals sattva. When I develop goodness, I acquire the tendency to think of Krishna. And when I think of Him, goodness naturally develops in me.
These two things cannot be separated. Only those who are trying to find some kind of benefit, see a contradiction between those two. And yesterday we said this is
Purification through hearing Harikatha
a very important point that gradually the lower modes or the attachment to them, the passion for them, the pleasure we derive from the lower modes goes away as we hear about Krishna, read about Krishna, and think about Krishna and tell others about Krishna.
And it's a very powerful method. Krishna himself enters our heart. Krishna in the form of Harikatha enters our heart and starts cleaning it.
Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura says that this is what happens when we hear about Krishna. Krishna, in the form of those sounds, if we hear of him, enters our ear and then remains in our heart.
And yesterday a devotee told me a wonderful story of how he was brought to Krishna consciousness.
A friend of his gave him the first canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and told him, read it every day for one hour and then in a year a miracle will happen to you. He thought, wow.
In some way that friend of his managed to awaken a little spark of faith in him. And over a whole year he read for one hour Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
Whatever the circumstances, when it would be already 11 o'clock at night, he would think that he had only one hour left to read Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. And he would rush home to manage to once a day read Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
And he says the miracle has happened. Here I'm sitting in front of you and asking you for initiation. And this is the miracle that Sūta Gosvāmī is speaking about at the very beginning of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
And that is the way Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is called hari-kathā. And Hari means means thief. This is one of the most important names of God. And what is he stealing from us?
Well at first the dirt, at first everything unnecessary. The anartha, everything that in one way or another disturbs our heart, everything that in one way or another agitates us.
But gradually, step by step, if we hear and read about him, he steals our heart. And I explained yesterday that first comes sattva, this is what hearing about Krishna brings about, and after sattva, what comes?
Or that's sats and ananda. Our consciousness is awakened. Sattvāt sañjāyate jñānam. Krishna explains that jñāna comes out of sattva. Jñāna means consciousness. Not just knowledge.
Jñāna means that I start to be aware that my consciousness starts to get subtle. And it allows me to realize that the others are persons too.
Because until then I treated them like that instruments. People who look at this world in materialistic way, see around just that matter.
And the other people too are dead for the most part, but they don't feel their pain. Because if they felt their pain, how would they hurt others? People in the mode of ignorance do hurt others.
But how would it be possible if I were able to feel the pain myself? I wouldn't be able to do that.
Freedom from karma through spiritual awareness
In a natural way, as one develops spirituality, gradually one acquires this cit, awareness, knowledge or or śivam, kindness, and sensitivity. And what happens at this point when one develops awareness?
At this point one is freed from the power of karma. We all love and all know and repeated many times that devotees are free from karma. As soon as I clap my hands, what happens to the lights on my palms?
They they disappear. There are no lines anymore. For some reason they're they're all still there. Actually it's a fact, an undeniable fact. At a certain level, when my consciousness is free, when I attain or feel freedom.
I stop being a machine that's programmed by its karma. Now I am a programmed machine. My reactions are programmed and everything that happens to me is programmed. I smile with the program. And I'm just a karmic machine.
But at some point when I acquire consciousness because consciousness makes me free, and consciousness means total freedom. But this happens only when one's consciousness has been completely purified.
Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda quotes this verse in the purport of the Caitanya Bhāgavata, and it said that Daiva or Providence rules over everything in this world. That everything is under the control of providence.
And all people are slaves to providence.
But further on it said that Krishna, it turns out, is higher than providence. And it's said there, Daivam vardaktum śaktaḥ, kṣayaṁ kartuṁ Svalilaya. So Krishna, that Krishna can either increase my karma or completely destroy it. By what?
Svalilaya. Svalilaya. It's his Leela that Krishna can do anything. Therefore, it's sad that the devotees worship Krishna, they don't worship Daiva. Everyone else worship providence and trembles in its eyes.
But devotees don't tremble in the eyes of Providence. They don't go to astrologers, at least at level when the lines and their palms have already changed. And further on it said, Chavinashi, Nirguna, devotees are
not bound by daiva, by their fate or karma. Chavinasha, Chanirguna. They never suffer defeat in this world and they are always beyond the influence of the This is the next, the second stage in our path.
First is sattva or satyam, then shivam or chat, consciousness and eventually Sundaram. Sundaram means what does Sundaram mean? Sundaram Krasata. Sundaram means beauty. How do I presently see the world?
What do I see in the world? I see my own bhava in the world. One looks at the world through the prisma of one's resentful and mistrustful mind. One sees no beauty, just offense and pain and grief and things like that.
One doesn't see the world as it is, one sees one's own mind, the defects of one's own mind that projected outwards.
But the pure devotee sees God everywhere, he sees Krishna everywhere, sees this beauty everywhere, Sundaram.
Once some Hindu entered Śrīla Prabhupāda's room and saw Śrīla Prabhupāda submerged in deep silence, the Hindu sat down in awe and waited. Ten minutes passed, fifteen minutes passed, half an hour.
Śrīla Prabhupāda sat motionless. At the end he came to his senses and the Hindu asked him, Swamiji, were you meditating?
Because Srila Prabada was looking at one point and Śrīla Prabhupāda said, Well yes, I was meditating on a mosquito. All the time he was looking at a mosquito.
And the man says, why you're meditating on mosquito? What's so special about it? Śrīla Prabhupāda said, just look how perfectly Krishna has made it. Krishna hasn't attached him a syringe instead of a nose.
How do we look at a mosquito? Our only attitude towards a mosquito is to to kill it. A devotee looks at a mosquito and sees Krishna there, he wonders at the serene chatchat with uh what automatic pump too.
One doesn't see a mosquito, one sees the amazing beauty of Krishna, the beauty of And some people have had uh revelation of that. Dostoevsky Dostoevsky has very clearly understood that.
Though he wasn't a devotee, he understood some things. Listen to what he says about beauty or about the ability to see beauty. Be it in another person or in the world.
He says beauty is the perfect connection to the perfect beauty I start seeing or discerning the beauty in another person only when I truly get at least a little spark of God consciousness.
Therefore, Śrīla Prabhupāda starts the purpose of our today's verse
Understanding the law of reciprocation
with the words everyone is searching for Krishna. Let's repeat it loudly. Everybody is searching for Krishna. Everybody is searching for Krishna. No one is searching for anything else.
Everyone is searching only for Krishna in this world. Although we think we are searching for money, for sex and things like that. Actually we're searching for Krishna.
Therefore one can find satisfaction only when one finds Krishna, not before that. Before that one will be unsatisfied. And here, Krishna, I I don't know, I have ten minutes left or even less, six, six. Krishna formulates.
At the various levels of depth we can see how this very law of reciprocation works. At the level of mechanics, that's the third law of Newton's mechanics, action equals reaction.
What's the more general case of this law of reciprocation? The law of karma. You give me, I give you. Yes, that's that's a particular case of it. But the law of karma is a more general case of that same law, the law of love.
But here Krishna gives the most general formulation of this. The law of karma is the same thing, I've done something and I get the consequences of it. Just like one witty person formulated very nicely the law of karma.
So he says, karma is when we throw a brick over our head and when it falls back on our head, we take offense at God because He didn't catch it. Has anyone taken offense at Krishna when the brick you've thrown up has fallen
back on your head? But the ludia is a very good thing. And generally people to some extent, different people understand this law differently. And they understand it but not completely. Very clearly and thoroughly understand.
I have no time to understand what this law of reciprocation means, because if we understand it, we will be able to truly benefit from it.
Despite the lack of time, I'll tell you a story that happened to me on the plane on the way here. It's quite instructive.
I was sitting alone and a bad man was sitting next to me who was slightly drunk and started saying Krishna. Are you are you are you Hare Krishna or or what? I said yes, I'm I'm Hare Krishna. Well, what what Hare Krishna is?
I mean I d I don't know Islam I know, Christianity I know, I'm myself myself a Christian, I know everything, but Hare Krishna I don't know. So please tell me what Hare Krishna is.
Well, and to prove to me that he knows Islam and Christianity, he first explained to me what Christianity is. Well, he said, Christianity everything is simple with us. If you if you lead a bad life, you will go to hell.
And if you lead a nice life like me, you'll you'll go to heaven. And what about you? Yeah, but I'll see him. And I tried to explain that soul is eternal and things like that, but I could feel that he didn't get that at all.
And then I asked him. He was slightly drunk, not quite himself. And I asked him, What will happen to you when you die? And he said, To me, what will happen to me? I'll die. I said, well how's that?
You've just said either to heaven or to hell. You said no no no, that will happen to those who have faith. But I'll just die. Nothing will happen to me.
And then I realized that this man, he knows that law of reciprocation. If you have faith, you might go somewhere, but to me nothing will happen. I'll just die.
And in other words, if a person thinks that I'm a piece of matter, what will happen to him? Nothing will happen. One will just die and be buried. After that, he will be born again. True, but he won't remember anything.
Something will happen only if we've developed a kind of reciprocation. And here of course we m we must understand very clearly this law. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam describes Krishna as Viduria. Baidurimani is a special jewel.
When you look at it from different angles, it looks differently. It's of different colors. Sometimes it's green, sometimes blue, sometimes yellow, sometimes it's all the colors of the rainbow, sometimes it's red.
This vaidūrya-maṇi is Krishna himself. In other words that refer to Krishna in Shrimad Bhagavatam are Bahur Murhyika Murchikam. He is the murti of form which contains all forms.
And when a devotee turns to him in a specific mood, when the devotee comes to him and turns to Krishna in this mood. What happens to Krishna? What does he do? He responds and shows the mood or above shown by the devotee.
Developing internal bhava for Krishna
Actually, Krishna depends on our bhāva.
And the most important thing that I wanted to get across by all this seminar is that in the process of devotional service one must ultimately having purified one's consciousness, develop a specific bhāva, a particular mood. And this particular mood will be my eternal relationship with Krishna.
Krishna will respond to my mood and before me I'll see the one whom I want to see and our love will be perfect.
If I purify my bhāva and there are certain stages by which this bhāva is purified, but then gradually I will ultimately be able to make Krishna who is obedient to my own bhāva assume the form that I want to see him in. That's the greatest miracle that that is attainable for each of us.
And I wanted to tell a lot of stories regarding this, but I wouldn't be able to tell any because I have to finish my seminar so as not to delay the next program.
But the the point is is precisely this that's when I chant the holy name when I associate with devotees and when I sing a kirtan or hear about Krishna, I must feel bhāva.
And now when we hear about Krishna and when we read about him, when we hear some stories, for a moment this bhāva or mood can rise in our hearts. Has anyone felt some some semblance of love of Krishna?
And it's long and clear. We don't have to even discuss it. But unfortunately, it's not a permanent bhāva, that's the problem. Bhāva, it's a very rises as a drop of this of this ocean.
We feel it and all of a sudden at some point I think, really, what am I doing here? I really don't need anything. I just want to love Krishna. I need only Krishna and I don't need anything else at all. Do I need anything? No, I don't.
But at last exactly until you start hating prasāda. Then you'll bond Prasam. But the point is that in the process of my devotional service if I'm doing it properly and I'm listening to the devotees and my spiritual
master, this intermediate bhāva can turn into a permanent one. And this permanent bhāva will be the foundation of our spiritual life and of our love for Krishna.
They would promise not to tell any stories, I'll tell one in the ch Just in two words. What should happen when we listen to a story? We unwittingly put ourselves in the place of the character of the story.
Having put ourselves in his place, we feel although well it's a faint shadow of what he feels, but even this shadow is sufficient to make us want to hear about it again and again.
And we start to hear it in a more in a more focused way, so that this bhāva or mood gets thicker and thicker in our heart.
Story of Gopala Kumara's spiritual journey
And when it becomes so thick that it's impossible to get away from it, then it turns into sthāyi-bhāva. And sthāyi-bhāva turns into a real experience of rasa.
And this is a story from Śrīmad-Bhāgavāmrta about Gopālakumāra when during his journey of practicing and practicing vaidhi-sādhana he found himself in Dvārakā. In rich Dvārakā he saw Krishna himself.
There is infinite opulence and the people there love Krishna. He's got four arms and sometimes more. He sits on the throne and everyone worships him, but still he was missing something.
And one he shouted, Hey Gopāla because he himself comes from Vrindavan from a village. And he was hushed. Are you mad? Behave yourself. You're taking the liberties to call him Gopāla? Gopāla? What Gopāla?
But he had that little desire in his heart which he had once received from his guru and at that moment Nārada Muni called him aside and told him, Look, you would better get out of here. You don't have any business here. If you want to start truly loving Krishna, if you really want to find yourself in Goloka and truly love Krishna, and I can see you want that. Then get out of heavenly bark and go back to earth, to Vraj.
And he was born again in the land of Vraj in this village, but what did he do there in that wonderful land of Raj?
He was constantly thinking of Krishna and chanting his names. And in this mood, he was constantly awaiting the appearance of Krishna.
He wanted to be his friend, and he thought, when will I hear the bells of his ankles? When? And when he was thinking like that, he suddenly heard those bells.
At one point he would think, Krishna is God, and then he would forget and would think Krishna is my friend, my best friend. Narodemun told him that Krishna is your friend and he's no one else, he's just your friend.
And he thought, when will my friend come to me? And Sunday he thought, when will I feel his fragments? He knew what Krishna's fragments was. And at some point, that fragments would hit him in the nose.
At another point he thought, maybe one day Krishna will come up to me and touch me on the shoulder. When he thought about it, he thought that Krishna's touch is like the touch of the moon rays.
When the moon touches our body, it starts to rejoice and suddenly this Gupkumar would feel as if Krishna was touching him. Thus he thought and chanted in this mood. Who was he calling?
Not Krishna, he was calling his friend. Ram Ram. And sometimes he wouldn't sleep all night long. Sometimes he would run around Raj shouting, Where are you my friend? Where have you gone? Where have you gone?
And ultimately Krishna came to him. And that's what will happen to each of you. Yes leave it. And if you don't want it, it won't happen.
Because he yatha mapadhyanta, tamstadhaiva bhajamyaha. As one relates to me, I relate to him accordingly. And if we want to see Krishna as a stone, he will be a stone for us.
But if we want to see Krishna as a friend, then he will become a friend. And we will be able to truly understand it when we hear of a spiritual master.
This is in a nutshell, but I wanted to say the material I still have is for approximately three lectures, but that will be some time in the future. Thank you very much.
But I'll I'll tell you just another very short story about the way the master teaches us to see Krishna everywhere One
day recently, someone approached and asked Sachinand Maharaj, how are you doing? Are you sometimes asked that question? How many times a day? Listen to the reply Sachnan Maharaj gave. He heard this question.
How are you doing? And then he said, And you need to be Sajnat Maharaj to say that. I'm missing Krishna so much. I'm missing Krishna so much. That was his answer to the question, how are you doing?
So next time when you asked how you do