Bhagavad-gita 14.26
Бхакти Вигьяна Госвами · 2003
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Bhagavad Gita chapter fourteen verse twenty-six
Then we'll read the twenty sixth verse of the fourteenth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita. This chapter is called the modes of material nature.
One who engages in full devotional service, unfailing in all circumstances, at once transcends the modes of material nature, and thus comes to the level of Brahman. Purport.
This verse is a reply to Arjuna's third question. What is the means of attaining to the transcendental position?
As explained before, the material world is acting under the spell of the modes of material nature. One should not be disturbed by the activities of the modes of nature.
Instead of putting his consciousness into such activities, he may transfer his consciousness to Krishna's activities. Krishna's activities are known as bhakti-yoga, always acting for Krishna.
This includes not only Krishna, but His different plenary expansions such as Rāma, Rāma, Nārāyaṇa. He has innumerable expansions.
One who is engaged in the service of any of the forms of Krishna or his plenary expansions is considered to be transcendentally situated. One should also note that all the forms of Krishna are fully transcendental, blissful, full of knowledge and eternal.
Such personalities of Godhead are omnipotent and omniscient, and they possess all transcendental qualities.
So if one engages himself in the service of Krishna or His plenary expansions with unfailing determination, although these modes of material nature are very difficult to overcome, one can overcome them easily.
This has already been explained in the seventh chapter. One who surrenders unto Krishna at once surmounts the influence of the modes of material nature.
To be in Krishna consciousness or in devotional service means to acquire equality with Krishna. The Lord says that his nature is eternal, blissful and full of knowledge.
And the living entities are parts and parcels of the Supreme Lord. As gold particles are apart from the gold mine. Thus the living entity in his original position is as good as gold. As good as Krishna in quality.
The difference of individuality continues. Otherwise, there would be no question of Bhakti Yoga.
Bhakti-yoga means that the Lord is there, the devotee is there, and the activity of exchange of love between the Lord and the devotee is there.
Therefore, the individuality of two persons is present in the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the individual person. Otherwise, there would be no meaning of Bhakti Yoga.
If one is not situated in the same transcendental position with the Lord, one cannot serve the Supreme Lord. To be a personal assistant of a king, one must acquire the qualifications.
Thus, the qualification to become Brahman or freed from all material contaminations. It is said in the vedic literature, brahma-bhūyāya kalpate. One can attain the Supreme Brahman by becoming Brahman.
This means that one must qualitatively become one with Brahman. By attainment of Brahman, one does not lose his eternal Brahman identity as an individual soul.
That is the purport to the twenty-sixth verse of the fourteenth chapter of the Bhagavad-gītā as it is. mām ca yo 'vyabhicāreṇa bhakti-yogena sevate | sa guṇān samatītyaitān brahma-bhūyāya kalpate ||
Psychological effects of three material modes
One who engages in full devotional service, unfailing in all circumstances, at once transcends the modes of material nature, and thus comes to the level of Brahman.
So I will try to say a few words about this very important verse of the Bhagavad-gītā.
Because this particular chapter of the Bhagavad-gītā, as well as other chapters, explains a particular difficulty which living beings experience in this world.
And this difficulty, which is described in this chapter, is called three modes of material nature. Tri-guṇas: sattva-guṇa, rajo-guṇa and tamo-guṇa.
And basically, the problem which is being described here, and which we all have to understand very clearly, is that we are not independent.
That we are living here and being spiritual particles still dependent on nature, on material nature. We have the material body and we have the material mind.
And the modes of material nature have a very severe psychological effect. And every one of us knows this. Every one of us experiences this practically every second of our life. One moment we may be very happy.
We're so happy, we're joyful, we're jumping up and down. And the next moment, somehow or other we cannot move. Not to speak about jumping. We're so morose and so depressed.
And the next moment we're running here and there like mad with round eyes. And the next moment, again something happens. And sometimes it's totally, you know, illogical. You cannot really say why it is.
Sometimes the reason is pretty obvious. Like in this chapter, in this particular chapter, Krishna explains these three psychological effects. Basically, he's speaking or describing three states of mind.
And one state of mind is called Satvik. And Satvik means life. Satvik means knowledge. Satvik means heavy. He explains in this chapter that the effect of this sattva-guṇa or the mode of goodness is that one becomes heavy.
And one becomes enlightened. This state of enlightenment is very nice. And then he says there is this state, rajasic state of mind, which is called passionate.
And in passionate activity, you run everywhere and you want to expand and you want to enjoy by this expansion. You're doing something, you're doing business, you're making money.
And Krishna says that the characteristic of this state is lobha. Lobha means grief. One becomes really greedy, you know. He wants to get more and more and more.
And then the third psychological state which is very much familiar to us. Every morning we experience this. The stomach boom. And we are so heavy, you know. The little tiny spiritual particle has this heavy volume, you know.
And every morning there is this, you know, heavy weight lifting experience. We have to get up. And it doesn't really move. It wants to lay down.
Krishna said that this kind of, you know, inertia or inactivity, which ultimately results in madness, ultimately results in complete ignorance and in sleep.
This is the effect of the third mode of material nature which is called tamas or mode of ignorance. So, these three effects are always there. And everyone is experiencing these effects practically all the time.
And, you know, sometimes, as I said, it's obvious why you experience this. Like, for example, now is sunny. There is a sunny spring day. Everyone is here. Not because of any particular reason, just because the sun is there.
You may wonder what do I have to do with sun? Why the sun has so much effect on me.
But everyone knows, you know, during the long winter, especially here in Scandinavia, everyone wants to commit suicide after after some time. There is no sun for weeks and weeks and weeks.
And one becomes depressed just because there is no sun. And that's the effect, that's the demonstration of the effect of the motes of material nature. The mode of goodness becomes really thick, you know. Especially here.
Oh, sorry. Not goodness. Darkness, not goodness. Ignorance. It becomes really heavy, you know. The mode of material nature, these ignorances have so much pressure upon your mind.
And then all of a sudden sun comes and you feel good just because the sun comes. That's the influence of these modes of material nature which Krishna is explaining.
And usually, our life means the attempt to enjoy different modes of material nature.
If we look back, we will see that the whole life is basically the attempt to get happiness or enjoyment from different modes of material nature. Like also, you know, Sun is obvious. The influence of Sun is obvious.
Everyone knows that when the Sun is there, one is happy. When the sun is not there, one is morose. Recently, somebody wrote me a letter. And he says, you know, one day, got wrote me a letter. And it's a complaint letter.
He's saying, you know, I don't know why. All of a sudden, I became so morose. Just from one day into another, for a few months I was so happy. I was so high up. You know, I was flying up.
And then the next day I'm totally down and I cannot understand things. Then he said, I looked in my chart, in my horoscope.
And I noticed that at the day when I, you know, noticed this influence on my mind that the Shani, the Saturn, the planet Saturn entered in my first house. And immediately, you know, I became totally bewildered.
You know, some Saturn is somewhere there. You don't even know where he is. Still, it enters somewhere in your life and it starts influencing you. And you don't know what to do. You're unhealthy.
Attempting enjoyment through changing material modes
So, that's the problem which Krishna describes here. And the problem is not only this, but also because we are attached to these effects. This we also have to admit.
We are attached because we want to somehow rather enjoy the effects of this material nature. We want to enjoy the mode of goodness, we want to enjoy the mode of passion, and we want to enjoy the mode of ignorance.
And these attempts are ultimately futile.
That's what one has to understand very clearly. We can see in our life that sometimes everyone has, you know, bright periods. Everyone in his life experienced some bright periods when he's really together. He wants to achieve something and he wants to be, you know, very kind and he wants to take care of his health.
He started jogging in the morning, early, you know, every day. And he lives a very regulated life and he eats some salad every now and then, you know, to get healthy. This is kind of attempt to enjoy the mode of goodness.
The mode of goodness brings some enjoyment. You're happy, you're knowledgeable, you're healthy. But then it becomes a little boring because, you know, the mode of goodness, it means boring, you know.
You get up every day at the same time and you decide that this is not enjoying, you know, this is not very good. You know, after all, who wants jogging every morning?
It's good for some time, but then you want to enjoy the mode of passion. You want to expend and you want to earn some money, you want to do something. But then it also becomes boring.
Then you want to enjoy the mode of ignorance. Want to sleep all the time. Twenty four hours a day, taking some drugs or drinking some vitamin.
So, Krishna explains this in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam where he says that the mode of nature he says in this particular chapter of Bhagavad-gītā that the modes of nature are constantly competing with each other. That one mode of nature in our life changes into another mode of nature. And this competition, this eternal struggle of these modes of material nature within us creates some hope for happiness. When we are in one mode and it becomes boring after some time, we think that if it changes, we will be happy. And then another mode comes and another enjoyment comes. But again, we don't get the real satisfaction.
And again, we get develop some hope that we will be happy if something changes. You know, in this way we're constantly changing one after another, one after another, these modes of material nature.
But ultimately, everything is futile. The main lesson of this chapter, which Arjuna very nicely understood, is that this attempt to be happy by the modes of material nature is ultimately futile.
You may be happy for some time.
You go to discotheque and, you know, the heavy moths are there boom boom boom boom boom boom. It's dark, you know, the smoke is there, everyone is drunk and you're drunk and, you know, great.
But how long for how long for how long you can be hit in this state? Then you change it to something else. But ultimately, therefore Arjuna asked this question.
Krishna, please tell me how to overcome the influences these modes altogether. How to be transcendental to this position altogether. Not to be in the mode of goodness, not to be in the mode of passion, and not to be in the mode of ignorance. He's asking this question.
And particularly here in this verse, Krishna is explaining how to achieve this state. And let's try to understand it very carefully what it means, what Krishna is telling us. How to become eternally happy.
How to exchange the state of continuous, you know, change of psychological modes which we experience here into something which is eternal. Because ultimately, by nature we are eternal.
We cannot find happiness in this world only because everything is changing here. And because we are by nature eternal, we cannot be happy in this changing situation.
You know, we cannot really be happy by living on volcano. Volcano can erupt any moment. If you are living in, you know, some big volcano, you cannot really be happy. And ultimately, we are living in a volcano.
It's called Finland or some other country. So, ultimately, that's the point which Krishna is making. And Arjuna is asking him how to achieve this state which is beyond the modes of material nature.
How to get out of this influence of the modes of material nature.
Root cause of material conditioning
And Krishna says, mām ca yo 'vyabhicāreṇa bhakti-yogena sevate, sa guṇān samatītyaitān brahma-bhūyāya kalpate. He's explaining this particular point to Arjuna.
And in order to understand the recipe or the remedy which Krishna is trying to prescribe to all of us, what we should do, how we should get out of this influence of material nature.
We have to first understand the reason of this disease. First, we have to very deeply understand why we are diseased. Why this condition of constant psychological imbalance is always there in our mind.
Because when you go to a doctor, first the doctor has to make a diagnosis. First the doctor has to say why the reason is there.
If the doctor is only trying to alleviate some effects of the disease, the result will not be lasting. If you want to really achieve lasting results, you have to know the root cause of the disease.
So, let's try to understand the root cause of the disease, of this state, why we're here. Why did we get here in the first place?
This is explained in another places in Vaiṣṇava literature, where it is said that the reason why the soul, which is spiritual by nature... The ultimate reason of our unhappiness, of our distress in this material world is that we are spiritual by nature.
We are conscious. And the consciousness is eternal and happy. But because we are in this material, not eternal situation, we are unhappy.
So, the reason of this fall down, of this unnatural, artificial situation which we are in, is envy.
And ultimately, it is explained, it is very beautifully explained in one place, that the spirit soul is a tiny, smallest particle. And the Lord is like sun. The spirit soul is like a glow-worm.
You know these little creatures. They don't really live here in Finland, but it's too cold for them. But it's little bugs.
And these little bugs, when it becomes dark, you know, they become blowing, and they're flying everywhere. And the soul is like this. It's glowing. By nature because it's conscious, it's glowing.
And the Lord is like the sun. The sun is unlimitedly bright. And there are little small particles like glow-worms. And they're there in the spiritual world, in the sun, in the light of the sun.
And at one point the spiritual things, you know, I'm also glowing after all. You know, look at me. But nobody looks at me because, you know, I'm so insignificant here. There is the Lord, you know, with his brightness.
And I'm here, you know, let me go to some dark place so that everyone will see my light. That's basically the original reasoning why we come here. There nobody sees, nobody can appreciate our bright light.
Not here we can, you know, be as bright as we want. So, the soul comes because of this original envy.
The original position and the original situation and the original natural situation of the spirit soul is to serve the Supreme Lord. And the service to the Supreme Lord means basically to be happy with Him.
But we come here and this coming here means that we are limiting ourselves by acquiring this material nature.
The spirit soul acquires this material body and the material body is made of matter and the material nature is limiting us. One of the translations of this word maya, which means illusory energy.
One of the translation is that it limits the spirit soul. What we experience here ultimately because we are spiritual, we are unlimited. In one sense, unlimited.
It is said in the Bhagavad-gītā that the soul is brighter than the sun. That ultimately the brightness of the spirit is brighter than the sun. It's not as bright as God, but still it's very bright.
But we are limiting ourselves by putting ourselves in the material condition. And basically the māyā puts the limit, and we put the limit to ourselves. And this material life means limiting ourselves.
And Arjuna wants to be unlimited, to achieve or to return to his original spiritual position, which means to be unlimited. So, to be unlimited means to be in contact with unlimited, with God, and to serve unlimited God.
And in this way we can achieve or acquire unlimited happiness, unlimited bliss, unlimited knowledge, and unlimited lifespan eternity. That's the way. That's what Krishna recommends here.
But basically, we came here because we didn't want to serve Him. Because we thought that it's better to serve ourselves. We thought, Why should we serve Him? We looked at ourselves and thought, you know, I'm also good.
Let everyone serve me. Let everyone somehow rather serve me. That's the reason. That's the root cause. It's actually interesting.
That basically, any religion, no matter which religion you go, the religion is trying to explain to you or to explain to you that the cause of all your sufferings is the selfishness. The selfish, envious nature which we acquire is the root cause of all our diseases.
And we may understand or may not understand how well it is. We may or may not understand how deep our selfishness is. But it's there. And that's the root cause.
And the spiritual practice is the means to get rid of selfishness. It's the means to get rid of this selfish egoistic mentality. Because actually, the happiness means to give.
The real happiness and the real nature of the living entity is to serve and to give. And when we give, we are much more happy than when we acquire. Once I witnessed a very interesting scene.
Some children were playing ball game. They were little children like this, you know, they were running here and there. And, you know, they were really small and they had a big ball.
And the rule of the game was just to kick the ball. And as soon as you get the ball, you have to kick.
So they were very happy, you know, kicking the ball from one to another as they kicked again and, you know, in this way the fun was there.
But the problem was one ball because as soon as the ball would come to this ball, she would not be able to kick it from the ball. She would grab the ball and run away with the ball. And the whole game was totally destroyed, you know. She would take the ball and run away with the ball.
But basically and everything was destroyed because of this. So the fun and the real happiness in life is to give. Like these, you know, children, they're kicking the ball. You know, it means to give.
And if somebody is running with this, he's destroying happiness.
Devotional service as cure for selfishness
So that's the reason and that's what Krishna is trying to explain here. That ultimately the solution, the remedy from this disease, the medicine from this disease of selfishness is to start serving.
And the service means that you think not about the material activities but you think about vision.
Śrīla Prabhupāda explained this in the beginning of the Purport that the remedy is that to place your consciousness from the activities which is centered around you. Now everything is centered around you.
Everything which you do is centered around you. And that means selfishness. You only think about you. What I will get for this? What good will come for me to do this?
But instead of this, and that's the reason, that's the cause of all our unhappiness, the cause of all our sufferings. So that this is the disease.
And the remedy from this disease, the medicine from this disease is you place your consciousness not in yourself. You stop thinking about yourself. And that's easy to say. You know, I can say it as much as I want.
But it's very difficult to execute. But ultimately that's the solution for all our problems. Ultimately we have to start thinking about Krishna and what to do for Him.
And if we do this, we immediately become transcendent to these modes of material nature.
As I explained, you know, when you're centered around yourself, so much influences of these modes of material nature, you experience it.
But as soon as you think about somebody else like mother, like here we have a father who is happily looking at his child. And you know, he's looking at him. And he's happy because he's looking at him.
Usually, we're happy because we're looking at ourselves in the mirror. That's the happiest moments of our life. The shape of our face. You know, we're looking there with a such nice fellow.
But this is some kind of a happiness. But the real happiness is not to look at ourselves. The real happiness is to look about somebody else's happiness. And, you know, everyone experiences this.
Like, for example, if the mother has a child, the mother is so engaged in the service of the child that she's completely oblivious and forgetful about herself.
And the mother never fell sick because she's taking care of the child. When she starts thinking about herself, she immediately becomes sick.
That people, it is actually psychological fact or medical fact that the more one is selfish, the more one is sick. Because the more you think about yourself, the more diseases you will find there.
Diseases, it kind of, you know, means to concentrate upon ourselves. You know, you have this and you have this and you're suffering so much and this is so nice, you know. Because this is kind of enjoyment also.
Very perverted state of enjoyment. So, that's what is going on. And the solution which Krishna gives, stop thinking about yourself. Try to think about Krishna and to serve him. Stop thinking about your own happiness.
It is also explained in the eleventh canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. No, in the seventh canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Prahlāda Mahārāja says that everyone can be happy very easily.
But the only condition for this, you stop thinking about your own happiness. That's it. The moment you stop thinking about your happiness, you become happier.
The moment you become thinking about your happiness and concentrated and be absorbed in your own happiness, you become suffering. You become miserable. So, that's how it works.
And Krishna is saying here that this is the solution. You have to serve me and you have to think about me all the time. Mām ca yo 'vyabhicāరేṇa bhakti-yogena sevate | sa guṇān samatītyaitān brahma-bhūyāya kalpate ||
This will bring you to the transcendental plane because when you're thinking about Krishna, who is not material, who is God, who is spiritual, who is that unlimited original spirit, you become spiritual yourself.
And you become free from all the sufferings, from all the problems of material existence.
Chanting Hare Krishna to transfer consciousness
So, this is the solution which Krishna offers. And we can see that this solution works not only in case of human being.
Like Prabhupāda, there is a very famous tape where Śrīla Prabhupāda explains the effect of Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. And this is the first record which Prabhupāda did when he came to the West.
And he's saying that everyone can be engaged in this transcendental service to the Lord just by changing His holy name. Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare / Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma, Rāma, Hare Hare. Name.
Because this is the means to transfer your consciousness from yourself. Being absorbed in yourself to Krishna. By chanting His holy name, you gradually transfer your consciousness to the transcendental plane.
And Prabhupāda is explaining this, that everyone can do this. He is saying it this with a with a full conviction. He says even a child can do this. And even a dog can do it.
Even a dog can transcend the material modes of material nature. Even a dog can be beyond the modes of material nature. How to speak of us, human beings, with the big brains?
The only reason why we're not experiencing this is we don't have full faith. And when we listen to this tape of Prabhupāda, you know, I always think that Prabhupāda says, even a dog can do this.
And I always think about, maybe I also can do it sometimes. Prabhupāda is saying this with such a big conviction. So I wanted to tell a little story which actually illustrates this.
That everyone can achieve this state of eternal happiness in this life just by serving Krishna. One doesn't have to have a big brain. One doesn't have to be a big philosopher. One doesn't have to be anyone.
The only condition for this is to be sincere, is to be simple. And to understand that this is the solution. That this is our original natural position to serve Krishna all the time.
I wanted to tell you a little story from Kerala, from the state of India, from the Temple Of Guruvaya. Perhaps some of us, some of you heard this story or heard about this temple. But it's a story about the elephant.
How the elephant has become a great devotee. And how the elephant has become liberated from the influence of the māyā material nature. They're, you know, creature. Elephants are not very intelligent, you know.
They're not big philosophers. They're not really, you know. And this is this is a very famous elephant. This is the most famous elephant in the history of the human time. And his name was Keśava.
And the study of this elephant is still there in Guruvayur. Guruvayur is the oldest temple in Kerala. The deity which is there in the temple was worshiped in Dvārakā by Krishna himself. Oh, even before Krishna.
Vāsudeva and Devakī were worshiping this deity. It's a four-handed statue of deity of Krishna.
And five thousand years ago when the Dvārakā went down to the sea, Bṛhaspati and Vāyu, the god of wind, being ordered by Krishna. They took this deity and they brought it in Kerala.
Anyway, I'll tell a little bit about the deity and the story about this Keśava. So, this is a very powerful deity. People are coming there by thousands and thousands every day.
Because this deity is famous for curing all kinds of diseases. People are coming and usually they're sick, you know, and they're coming and they pray, please make us healthy.
And the custom in the temple is that you make a little, you know, organ which is diseased. For example, you have a bad liver and you make a little liver from silver or gold. And you give it to the deity.
They say, please take my silver and make, you know, take my liver and make it healthy. And the deity very kindly takes the liver and makes it healthy. Ultimately the deity wants when we give him the heart.
Ultimately Krishna doesn't want our liver. He doesn't need liver. He needs the heart. Guruvayur is there and he's curing all kinds of diseases. But ultimately he wants to cure the disease of the heart.
The disease of selfishness which is there. And one of the customs in this temple is that when you go there, there are different offerings which you can do.
And one very famous offering is that you can give to the deity something which is equal. It is called, what is it, tula-bhāra. The same weight of you. In the temple there is a huge scale.
The priests sent you on one side of the scale, and on the other side of the scale they put some bananas of the equal weight. And all these bananas go to the deity, or some coconuts or something.
So people are happily on one side and the bananas are on their side. But basically, the symbolic meaning of this custom is that the video wants you. He doesn't want bananas. He wants you completely.
As Krishna says here: Mām evaiṣyasi yuvacāraṇam. Yuvacāraṇam means constantly, non stop. You think about him. You try to transfer your consciousness from yourself, from your selfish mentality down to him all the time.
So, this deity has been there for thousands and thousands of years, doing all kinds of miracles. And one of the miracles was written and it was connected with this elephant Keśava.
Because this deity has many elephants, something like forty, fifty elephants. And the deity has the custom. It goes every day, you know, outside, few times, sometimes few times a day around the temple and the elephant.
So, this Keśava, when he was donated to the temple by one king, one mahout, the trainer of the elephants, tried to somehow rather train him. But the Keśava said, No, don't want to be trained. I want to be independent.
He was really stubborn. When you train the elephant, I will tell you a few words about training the elephants because it has a lot to do with us.
Usually elephants they're very, you know, they're dangerous animals because they're so strong. And sometimes they become totally mad and they're very stubborn. They have a very great willpower.
So, the trainer to make the elephant do whatever he likes, he has to really break his willpower. So, what usually the method of training the elephants is that you put this huge elephant.
An elephant eats, you know, hundreds and hundreds of kilos of food every day because he has big stomach.
So you take this elephant and you don't feed him for one day, for two days, for three days, for seven days, for two weeks. And the elephant is totally, you know, you chain him. He's powerful there and he's chained.
And you don't feed him and ultimately, you know, he's totally big, he cannot really move, you know, and he's, you know, he's suffering so much because of this hunger.
And then the trainer comes, and the trainer comes with a huge, you know, bucket of kitchen, of some some, you know, some foodstuff. You know, and he gives it to the elephant.
And the elephant, because at this particular moment he feels the dependence on this, you know, tiny, you know, skinny guy in the world. You know? Realizes this I'm dependent. And in this moment his will is broken.
And this moment he's totally dependent. Since that moment when he realizes his dependence on this little guy, he's ready to do whatever this guy tells.
The guy tells him this huge elephant, you go down and the elephant goes down. The guys tell him you dance and the elephant dances. And he's small and the elephant is so strong.
But because at one point he showed to him or pointed out to him that he is dependent on this little guy. But this Keśava, when he was being trained, they didn't give him food for many, many, you know, weeks in a row.
But still, he didn't want to obey. He was so stubborn. He was unbelievably stubborn. He was totally, you know, he was big and strong and he couldn't be trained.
And then the mahout, the trainer said that this elephant is useless. We should kick him out because he is not going to be, you know, the good elephant.
And the priest said, okay, if you cannot train him, we give him to Krishna and let Krishna train him. After all, you know, he can train anyone. Let's take the strong measures.
You know, if you cannot really pray his will, let's see what Krishna will do.
So, what happened with this Keśava, with this elephant, the priest ordered that this elephant could be brought to the deity every day for maṅgala-ārati. Every morning, in the morning for maṅgala-ārati they would bring the Keśava, their elephant, to the temple. And they would give him caraṇāmṛta.
And they would give him some butter which was offered to the deity. And ultimately, in a few months or in a few weeks actually, Keśava became completely transformed. He became the best elephant ever.
You know, he became so kind, so gentle and so, you know, developed so much service at the end. He felt this heaviness of bliss of service. And he became so, you know, he became so famous because of this attitude.
This Keśava since the time he somehow rather developed such a strong love for this deity, such a personal love for this deity that he was serving the deity day and night. He didn't want to stop serving the deity, you know, all the priests, all the brāhmaṇas in the temple, they were amazed how much eagerness he has for service of the deity.
This Keśava, you know, when the time would come for the elephant procession in the evening, he would become so anxious, he would become trembling. And the chain, sometimes he would break the chain and he would run to the temple.
This is such an eagerness to see the deity. Sometimes I think when I don't develop such an eagerness to run to the temple.
Every time when he would hear the blow of the conch shell, he would run to the deity. He would run there.
And, you know, if somebody if the priest would try to place the deity's guru-pūjā on somebody on somebody else, on another elephant. This Keśava elephant would run and would chase away this elephant and said, No, I will do this. Only me.
And nobody explained him anything. Nobody he was not a very learned scholar of Bhagavad-gītā. He didn't read Bhagavad-gītā. Nobody told him.
But his custom was that he would not really, you know, he would not bow down in front of anyone but for the deity. Whenever he would see the deity, he would bow down to the deity.
Because of the nature of love which was there in the heart.
And nobody explained to him that there is an ekādaśī. And it's a custom on an ekādaśī to completely fast, not to eat anything. And the elephants, they usually, they cannot control themselves.
But Keśava, every ekādaśī, he didn't pick anything. Don't ask me how he calculated which day is an ekādaśī. But he refused to eat on ekādaśī days. He was fasting completely because he knew that he loves it.
And sometimes he would break his iron chains and he would run to the temple and he would just, you know, circumambulate the temple five times and go down to the deity. Nobody told him that he should circumambulate the temple, that this is very auspicious.
He knew it because of this natural inclination in the heart. This is the proof that the spirit soul is there in the heart.
You know, his, you know, his service attitude has become, you know, nobody could understand how so much love he has to this deity. And sometimes he would see the deity and he would cry when he was seeing the deity.
So much love and so much joy he would get when he would serve the deity. So, what happened with this elephant, Keshavan?
That the biggest festival in this for fifty years in a row, for fifty four years, every day of his life, for fifty four years he was serving the baby. He came up to Guru Vaiban. He was 15 years old. He was young.
But then for fifty four years in a row, day, every day he was serving. And ultimately what happened, he became old. He was 70 years old.
And one day, as usually, because he didn't allow anyone to take the Indian procession, only that was exclusive his right. So one day he was brought to take the deity out for the elephant procession.
And he came to the temple. He bowed out to the temple. And the deity was brought and the conscience was blown. But then when the deity was placed on him, he started trembling. He wanted to get up.
He wanted to raise on his feet but he couldn't. And somehow rather, you know, he cried and cried and cried but he couldn't do this.
And ultimately the priest, they took the deity from his head and they placed the deity on another elephant. And the Kesheva was laying there in front of the temple and cried. The tears were coming from his eyes.
And somehow rather he was brought back to his table at night. And for the whole night he was shivering there because he was severely diseased.
And they were trying to bring some doctor, some veterinarian to him, but he refused to take any treatment. And the next day, the next day was Ekādaśī.
And this is the Ekādaśī, Mokṣada Day Ekādaśī in December, when Krishna spoke Bhagavad-gītā. Krishna spoke Bhagavad-gītā in this particular day. And Mokṣadā means the day when you get liberation.
The day, Mokṣadā means the day when you obtain mokṣa. And Mokṣa means liberation from the conditioning ofebo the material modes of nature.
So, in this particular day, Keśava was waiting, and this is the biggest festival in this temple. And then the Keśava was waiting in his stable, and somehow rather he managed to get up. It was so difficult.
He was still trembling and he was crying. But he somehow rather he got up. And when the time of this elephant procession came, he was for the whole day there.
He didn't feel anything, but when the time of elephant procession was there, he again ran to the temple. Although he was chained and he was in his stable.
From his last, you know, strength, last drops of his strength, he ran to the temple. And he heard this blow of the conchshell. And the deity was brought out of the temple.
And the music was there, the huge crowds of people was there. And all of a sudden they saw this Keśava running towards the temple. And they were little afraid and the crowd, you know, fled away to give the way.
And at the moment when the deity was brought out of the temple, the Keśava, he fell down. And when he saw the deity for the last time in his life, he bowed down.
He bowed down, he kneeled down on his feet and then he bowed down his head.
And at the moment when the deity was out and the consul was blown, the soul of Kesara departed from this world on this Moksha daykadesh. On this particular day.
That's, what it means to be Krishna conscious. That's what it means to serve Krishna. That's what it means to be beyond the modes of material nature.
And since that time it's accustomed, the murtis of this Keśava there in front of this entrance of this temple. So that's the real story and it happened recently. It happened in 1973.
Eternal nature of soul to serve
That's what it means to be servant of Krishna, and that's what it means to obtain liberation. Because, as I said, this service is natural.
As Śrīla Prabhupāda explains in the beginning of the Bhagavad-gītā, that actually this is our sanātana-dharma, this is our eternal nature. That the most miserable position in life when you have nobody to serve.
Like, for example, if you're some kind of pensioner here, living somewhere, you're alone and you have nobody to serve. This is the most miserable situation which you can imagine.
Because our natural dharma, our natural position or our nature, our internal nature, eternal nature is to serve somebody and ultimately to serve the Lord. And that's what Krishna says. We forgot our service.
And if we want to get liberated and therefore we get conditioned by the modes of material nature. Therefore all the problems arose from this conditioning of the modes of material nature.
And therefore, Krishna says, If you want to be free from the influence of the modes of material nature, there is no other solution than this. You start thinking about Krishna.
You stop thinking about yourself and try to think about Krishna and His happiness. Because this is what devotional service and bhakti yoga means.
You don't think about you and you think about your master, about Krishna whom you are supposed to serve. And the means of transferring This is the process. This is the method. And Krishna says, you do it.
And if you do it, your mind will be completely free from all these problems of material life. You will be completely liberated from all this conditioning of material consciousness.
And ultimately, you will come to Krishna, and everyone can do it. Even a child can do it. Even another kid can do it. And even you can do it. Everyone can do it. So, that's the solution which Krishna offers here.
And this is the solution which Prabhupāda offered to us. And this is what we are trying to execute. And everyone who is doing it, he can experience that the dependence on the modes of material nature becomes less and less.
Okay. Thank you very much. I didn't use it. There are some questions. What are the things to think about Krishna? How should I realize some future or what that means to think about Krishna?
I'll try to explain. Ultimately, the picture will come. You don't have to try to really imagine anything yourself. Yourself. To think about Krishna, basically means that you invoke him.
So at the beginning of thinking about Krishna starts when you start calling him. And calling him means, you know, like we chant the holy name. Sometimes we chant him just with the lips. But this doesn't have much effect.
You know, the lips are moving and if the tongue is moving and the cords, voice cords are, you know, vibrating. It doesn't have much effect. This is not what it means to think about this.
So, this is the first level of chanting the Holy Name when you just chant unconsciously. The next level you engage your mind. And that's little better when you try to hear the Holy Name.
And by hearing the Holy Name you're tentatively attuned and you try to concentrate on this Holy Name. That's little better. But the best way is to engage the heart.
Ultimately, to think about Krishna is that you chant the Holy Name with your heart. Not with your tongue, not with your mind, but with your heart. The heart should be there. The heart should be engaged.
Basically, as Prabhupada is explaining in this record, he says that one should call or chant the holy name as the child is crying for his mother. Like a small child is crying, mother, mother, mother.
And you know, we know that when the child is crying for nothing, the mother doesn't care. But when the child is really calling her, when something happened, when the child, you know, is hurt, when the child cries, mama!
And the mama runs to him. So that's what it means to seek Krishna. It means to cry from the heart. From the bottom of your heart, you cry. From the bottom of your heart, you place your mind.
Basically, it means, the problem of our material conditioning and all these states of mind which we experience is because our mind is so uncontrolled. And because it's wandering everywhere.
And it's absorbing the impressions of this material world. And the impressions of this material world is the root cause of our incarnation, reincarnation.
The root cause of transmigration of the soul because we have so much garbage in the mind. So, the method which Krishna recommends here is you place your consciousness within your heart.
And you cry for Krishna from the heart. There is a very nice comparison which explains this. What you should do when you chant the holy name. How you think about Krishna?
The first process, the main process is that you just chant the Holy Name and this chanting of the Holy Name is the purification of the mind. But only if you do it properly.
The mantra, the meaning of this mantra means something which purifies the mind, the sound which purifies the mind.
But sometimes we chant and the mind doesn't get purified. Because it just wanders everywhere and absorbs all the impressions of this material world. The dirt in the mind is all these unlimited impressions.
And sometimes we chant that you know so many thoughts are coming to the mind. So many images. So many, you know, temptations are there in the mind. Let me change everything. It's good, you know, I'm changing.
But and in reality, the very nice comparison is there that when the snake is changing its skin, you know, that the snake sometimes has to change the skin.
And when the old skin is there, you know, it has somehow rather to be changed. So, to do this, the snake, because the snake doesn't have hands.
You know, he cannot really peel out the skin from the cell, from the So, to do this, the snake goes between the two stones. And narrow stones.
And by, you know, by crawling between these two stones, by squeezing himself between these two stones, he peels out the old skin. So, the method of chanting the holy name is basically the same, has the same effect.
You have to really squeeze your mind within the heart. And it means, because what what does chanting mean? The chanting means you approach God. You ask God. You speak with God. You say Krishna, Krishna, Krishna.
And you do it from the heart. And if you do it from the heart, you immediately feel that the mind becomes lighter. The mind becomes more pure.
Do I have to concentrate more on the heart or No, you certainly, no, the mouth is not, the mouth is only, you know, if you really, like sometimes the devotees they do it very loudly.
But only because by saying it loudly, they want to shut up the mind. Because the mind usually when we chant it softly, the mind is so loud and the mantra is so soft. So, this is just mechanical means.
Ultimately, the work should be on the level of the heart. If the work is there on the level of the heart, then immediately you feel the effect of the purification of the heart.
Immediately you feel the lightness in the heart and in your consciousness and in everything which you do. In Yeah. Like there was one Godbrother of Śrīla Prabhupāda. His name was Akiñcana Kṛṣṇa Dāsa Bābājī.
And he was a great chanter. He loved the holy name. He was chanting even all the time. And once he got sick, and they brought a doctor. And the doctor was trying to find a pulse.
And he was trying to find the pulse because this is the method of diagnosis in Ayurveda. In Ayurveda, they take the pulse and they see what kind of disease you have. What is the excess? What is the problem in your body?
So the doctor was trying to evaluate the problems in the body, and he was trying to take the pulse. But then the doctor said, I don't feel any vāta, kapha, pitta in his body.
The only thing which I hear in his pulse is, because the heart is chanting. Ultimately, you have to train. This is what it means. Maam Chayobya Vicarina. Avya Vicari means to be all the time conscious about this one.
And it means that even if you're not changing, the heart is still changing. The the call from the heart to the world is going because the the soul is there. You do so many other things.
You go to your job, you attend your family service, this and that. But in the heart, this call for the Lord is always there. That's the the only needs.
If it's only on the level of tongue, it's not this kind of bhakti yoga which Krishna recommence here. And even if it's on the level of the mind, it's not that good. It should be on the level of your consciousness.
Removing obstacles through pious activities
By saying heart will kneel the center of the consciousness consciousness, which which is is the clearly earth, coming standing on from the the heart. Heart. See, there is one preliminary qualification.
And this preliminary qualification Krishna explains in the seventh chapter of where he says that what is it? Anyway, he says that there are people who never surrender unto me. And why they never surrender unto me?
Because they are those duṣkṛtinaḥ. And those duṣkṛtinaḥ means somebody who is sinful. The sinful tendencies they create certain conditions in our heart which prevent us from experiencing this bliss.
Everyone, you know, if you have a simple heart and if you do this, you immediately can experience the bliss. But because we have this complicated and hypocritical heart, so many impediments are there.
And therefore, we don't feel the effect of the change. And therefore, you know, people are not so quick. It is also said in Shimat Bhagat manda sumanda mataryo manda bhadi aki padri tahain.
Kani yuge every manda manda means, manda means slow. And this slow, you know, you're slow in the heart. Because there are impediments there. And the impediments are there by the previous scenes which are there.
So, it requires some kind of time and some kind of preliminary qualification. Usually when somebody is little pure, he can very quickly take it. When somebody is sinful, it's difficult.
And the sinfulness may manifest on different levels. It may manifest on the difference of your heart and the difference of on on the level of your heart or on the level of some other problems.
So, you cannot really expect that so many people will take it because look at the people around you. That's you know unfortunate.
But if you give people little chance for some pious activity then sooner or later they will understand this. Yeah, but for that you engage people in some kind of spiritual activities.
You have to plant the seed of piety in their heart. And when we go on Harinam for example, and the people listen the holy name, they hear the holy name. This is already the seed of piety.
They don't know, they don't understand anything. They don't understand what God is at all about. But still the plant or the seed of this piety of of of their future you know success is there.
And sooner or later it will come. Or they take some little prasādam or whatever. I I I have a very interesting experience. This is also first hand experience. It's a very amazing story.
Somebody told me his story, how he became a devotee. And he told me this story on the first day when he came to the company.
So his only pious activity in life was there at once he bought a little book of and on this book on the cover there is a picture of Christmas. And this man he was totally single. He was an artist. And he was a drunkard.
Russian drunkard. Those who know what it means, they know what it means. You know, you be an artist, that's bad enough. And and then you're drunkard on the top. And and he's he was just drinking all the time basically.
And he was, you know, his life was totally went to brain, you know, his wife left him, his children left, he he was just, you know, was completely degraded person.
The only thing which he did, he once he bought it so once he was drinking and drinking and drinking. And at one point, you know, he started listening for started hearing some voices.
And these voices were really nasty and these voices were accusing you. And he wanted somehow rather to get rid of these voices, but the voices were nagging and nagging and they will become more and more insistent.
And then he started hearing that the voices were able to two voices. And the one voice was asking, what did he do?
And another voice said, look what he, what did he do? What he did? And started list listing all his bad activities, sinful activities, which he himself forgot. You know, He was listening through this huge list, you know.
He did this, he did that. He was becoming more and more nervous about this. And he was drunk at at this stage, you know.
And, you know, it went on for some time, for many many hours because there was so many to be said about this. And ultimately this other voice said, did he do something blue? And then he said, yes, he did something good.
He said few things, you know, took much shorter time, you know, to stop this and take it. Then the other voice said, what will happen with him? And this accusing voice said, he will go to hell, of course.
What else can happen with him? And at that moment, you know, he became so afraid. He became so fearful, you know. His his heart started trembling and he understood that he's dying.
At this moment he understood, I'm dying now. And he wanted to run. And and in his mind he was running, but his body was still laying there. But in his mind he was running, but somebody was running behind him.
And somebody put some, you know, some rope in him. It was horrible experience, you know. And he was telling me about this just a couple of days after this experience. He was, you know, he was really injured.
So then what happened? At this very moment, when he was about to die.
Somehow rather because he was an artist, because he bought this book on Praupart with Keshava with this picture on the on the cover. Somehow rather this picture of Krishna from He never read a book. He opened the book.
He saw some Devonabari there. He didn't understand anything. Clothe the book. So, because he saw this picture on the cover and this moment all of a sudden he saw this picture.
And all of a sudden he started looking at the beautiful face of Krishna. And there is snake there. And all of a sudden he noticed that it's not a picture because the snake is moving.
And then at this moment he saw that the Christian smiled to him. And at that moment and this moment everything disappeared. And he found himself completely sober.
In his kitchen and he realized I was saved by Krishna. I have to surrender to him. That was his experience. And he started running and looking for three days.
For three days and three nights he was looking for the temple because it was in a city where the temple was at some kind of, you know, some kind of hot. You couldn't really find the temple. Was a small place.
But he found it. He wanted to to to to to get to the source. So that's how it works.
Now only, you know, basically the only pious activity which was there once he looked at Krishna. He thought about Krishna for a split second. But that was enough.
That at the moment of most critical moment when he was about to die, you know, he remembered about Krishna. And then he was given an extra turn to continue. So that's that's how it is. Rational. Yeah, for everybody.
That's, I, I, I didn't explain the miracle. I explained the extreme situation. When somebody just got a little contact for Krishna, this Krishna. Split moment, he just placed a book on his shelf.
And let's say, it was social for everybody. That for everybody, the only solution for everybody is somehow rather to get them little chance. Like in this story with Kesheva. Kesheva was stubborn.
What the priest said, how to solve this problem, somehow rather engage him in this service.
And he was involuntarily, in the beginning, in the first stages, he was involuntarily engaged in this service and then it changed his heart.
In the same way, when people buy a little book of Praurpa, this is service. This is the beginning of their spiritual life.
When people just listen the Holy Name on the street, that's the beginning of their spiritual life. When the people come and compete with devotee and then they smile.
Once there was a story when Prabhupada was walking in London early morning with his students. And then the English people would come and Prabhupada would say, "Good morning" to them. And the English people would say, "Good morning" because they're polite and gentle.
And one disciple asked, "Prabhupada, why you say this mundane greeting, 'Good morning'?" Why you don't say, "Hari Krishna" to them?
That said, because when they, you know, say good morning and smile to me, this is service which they do. They wish good to a saintly person. This is the beginning of the spiritual life. This is the beginning of faith.
Otherwise, what what can you do? Somehow or other people have to be engaged in some faith something. And even if they smile to to a saintly person, this is something. Even if they wish good, this is something.
My worry was how to accelerate the progress. How how to accelerate? And that's... You should worry about this. This is Christians. We worry about this. It goes in a natural pace, so to speak.
We should try to do whatever within the sphere of our influence and Krishna will take care of the rest. We can make it very quickly. There's no problem for Krishna.
Five consequences of offensive chanting
You can just start making puja and arati and then something will happen. Well, it speaks something about the level of his practice.
You know, I mean, sometimes devotees chant Hare Krishna mantra, which is the highest spiritual activity. Which is basically your communion with God.
And at the same time they read newspaper, right? Or look in the computer. And the computer game, this is an offense. And actually the offense against the Holy Name is a very serious offense.
And the offense is that when you don't really try to engage yourself seriously in this process. You take it for granted.
So, this result sometimes this is what I described last time when I came here that that chanting of the Holy Name can bring unlimited fortune to the to the spirit soul.
But the chanting of the holy name, if it's done improperly, can bring bad results.
And I I described the five results which were there, which Jiva Goswami says, and the first result is that you become atheistic. You chant the holy name. You call God. You pray to God. And you develop atheistic mentality in your heart.
Because you are doing it not properly. So, it is science, and science means you have to do it according to the rules. You have to do, you have to be careful, you have to do it properly.
Otherwise, you will become washing powder in the next life. Five years I can explain. See, the first effect is that you become more hypocritical, more doubleless in your heart, more crooked.
And it's understandable because when you chant the Holy Name, at the same time you let your mind loose and the mind is thinking about some other things, then really you're not, you know, and you're not experiencing anything.
And, you know, this is this is what hypocrisy means. Hypocrisy means you pray by your lips and your mind is somewhere else. Hypocrisy means you say something and you think about something else.
So the first effect, this hypocrisy or this hypocritical tendencies in the heart become stronger. And the second, and then this is third effect.
The fourth effect, it will become very difficult for you to follow even simple standard, you know? You know?
It will become more and more increasingly difficult to get up early, to chant, you know, rounds which you used to chant or whatever, because you don't really get the effect, liberating effect of this practice.
And the fifth effect is that you become very proud. Because you have to compensate. Within your heart you know, I'm a spiritual failure. I started some spiritual practice. I was doing it. I was trying. I didn't get anything.
So to compensate for this painful feeling, psychologically compensate to this painful feeling of failure, spiritual failure, you try to find some excuses and say, No, I'm good.
You try to find some excuses and say, No, I'm good. Actually, I'm a great devotee of the Lord. I did this and I did that. You know, this pride becomes more and more prominent in your heart.
So this is the five effects of offensive chanting of the holy name. Ok. Thank you very much.