Life changing experiences
Бхакти Вигьяна Госвами · Nasik · 2015
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Introduction of Bhakti Vijnana Goswami Maharaja
Very hearty welcome to all the participants for this month's parana program. And we are especially blessed just uh yesterday I got this pleasant surprise
that we'll be having His Holiness Bhakti Vijnana Goswami Maharaja a personality who is very much renowned all over is ISKCON now for my purification also as well.
Bhakti Vijnana Goswami Maharaja is basically from Russia. Now in India this country Russia is famous for the Russian circus. And we have Raj Kapoor movies. Of course, I have to go to the circus again.
But uh personally I have visited uh Russia, it was a great eye-opener for me many years ago. First time when I visited Russia, Moscow, and seeing over there thousands and thousands of Hare Krishna devotees, Vaishnavas,
practicing our Vedic culture so sincerely, so enthusiastically that at certain point of time I was feeling a little ashamed that
have I come over here to give inspiration or have I been sent over there to take inspiration from there? Because in the Western world, according to my understanding,
Russia is one place wherein ISKCON is really successful in its true sense.
Many other countries in US, UK, if you see, yes, of course, Krishna consciousness is spreading, but mostly you find Indians who are settled over there nowadays coming to Krishna consciousness.
But I found Russia is one place, one country where hardly any Indians live there. Forget about coming to Krishna consciousness over there. The few Indians you will find over there. All local Russians coming for the programs.
And I was surprised there was a program which was organized. And after the talk there was no prasāda.
Now imagine in India we have a pretty number of them for prasāda. You know before the topic we have to announce the menu. That this is the menu by the way. And then you know the topic is this.
So so and you know there was a crowd of four hundred, five hundred of these Russians, and the lecture was translated by the way, line by line. I was speaking in English and then line in Russian language.
And they were so enthusiastic. Why am I saying all this? One person who has been very actively instrumental in the whole of Russia, of course there are many others, but one actively at present who
is instrumental is Bhakti Vijnana Goswami Maharaja. Who himself belongs to that country right now. He has travelled so much worldwide.
In fact, I have been getting so many pleasant surprises small and he started speaking to me in Hindi. Maybe you'll get some glimpses tonight. And I was so impressed that Maharaj can
speak uh such good Hindi and he has been up by listening to the Hindi classes uh from speakers from India and uh basically what we can see in him is this permanent enthusiasm
to not just know more and more about the Vedic culture and explore and present it but he is a person I have seen over the years, a very, very uh sincere pure practitioner of Krishna consciousness.
I have a very wonderful introduction of Maharaj in my hands, like to read out for the pleasure of all of you.
Bhakti Vijnana Goswami Maharaj, he is the president of the Center for Society for Krishna Consciousness in Russia.
From 1973 to 1978, studying at the chemistry department of Moscow State University, then continued his studies at the Institute of Molecular Biology, Academy of Sciences of the USSR at that time.
And in course of his training, he became interested in the Vedic culture, ancient Indian philosophy in particular and that's when he started to take interest and I guess around the 80s you could join his one.
So it's been uh thirty-five years more that Maharaj has been serving this mission and uh being from the scientific background, he's from the family of scientists. I am a big fan of his lectures.
His seminars and his talks are so methodical, so logical, so shastrik
and he's one sannyasi who is an ideal for especially the youngsters, we Indians, you know, who the students who are pursuing studies, he is an ideal example of person a who has been there and now you can have a partner.
So yes, I love his instructions. Do not waste more of your time. So let us very enthusiastically welcome Bhakti Vijnana Goswami Maharaj, I see, by loudly chanting. Am I supposed to speak after such an introduction?
Om namo bhagavate vasudevaya, Om namo bhagavate vasudevaya, Bhagavate Vasudevaya. Hare Krishna. It's a big honor for me to speak to all of you this evening. And I'll try to speak something useful.
Death as a life changing experience
Please forgive me for all the discrepancies which I may commit. And the topic of this evening, this wonderful festival of inspiration, sravana festival, is life-changing experiences.
And since one single most life-changing experience is death. I'll speak about this because you cannot find more life-changing experience than that.
So I will read the verse from Bhagavad-gītā, from the 8th chapter of Bhagavad Gītā, the Krishna speaks and then speak a little bit about this.
Yamyam vapis maram bavam tja jaatan te kali varam tam tami vaiti kaun teya sadata bhava Bhavita. Whatever state of being one remembers when he quits his body or son of Kunti, that state he will attain without fail.
The process of changing one's nature at the critical moment of death is here explained. A person who at the end of his life quits his body, thinking of Krishna attains the transcendental nature of the Supreme
Lord, but it is not true that a person who thinks of something other than Krishna attains the same transcendental state. This is a point we should note very carefully. How one can die in a proper state of mind?
Maharaj Bharata, although a great personality, thought of a deer at the end of his life, so in his next life he was transferred into the body of a deer.
Although, as a deer, he remembered his past activities, he had to accept that animal body. Of course, one thought during the course of one's life accumulated to influence one's thoughts at the moment of death.
So this life creates one's next life. If in one's present life one lives in the mode of goodness and always thinks of Krishna, it is possible for one to remember Krishna at the end of one's life.
That will have one be transferred to the transcendental nature of Krishna. If one is transcendentally absorbed in Krishna's service, then his next body will be transcendental, spiritual, not material.
Therefore, the chanting of Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma, Rāma, Hare Hare is the best process for successfully changing one's
state of being at the end of one's life. Śrīla Prabhupāda... oh, ajñāna-timirāndhasya jana, Salakay, Shaksurun Militany, Tasmaishura Vena, Shriche ma no, biś tam, stapi tam je na buta le, swam rucham, da da risisva Padantikam, Vandham, Sri Guru, Sriudapadakam, Sri Guruam vaisnavams Sri Rupam, Sagrajatam, Saganarabunatam Vitam satiam, sadwaitam savadutam, parijana Sahitam, Krishna Chaitanyade, Sri Radha Krishna Padaam, Sahaganaladita Srivishakavitamsam
Krishna Karuna Sindhu De Navandu Jagatpate, Gobesha Gobikanta, Radakantanaast Taptakanchana Gurange, Rade
Vrhavaneshware, Vrishthanuusadevi, Pranamari, Vanchakalpataru Byascha, Kribasin dubi Vacha, Patitanampavaneby, Vaishnavy Namonama, Sri Krishna Chaitana. Prabhupananda, Sri Advaitara, Srivassadigora Bhakta Brinda.
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. Hare Krishna, all the intelligent students are requested to keep their mobile phone on silent board or please switch their own.
Ajannulam bit buyukana kavadatu sankirtanahi kapitaru kamalaya taksu vishwambaru dvi jabuyoga dharma palu, bandi ja tat prijakaru
How experiences shape current and future life
karnavata Yantah Pravishya Mamavachi Mamamprasuktam Sanji Vayataki washakti darakswadam anyamscha hasta charana shravanatva gati pranandamati purusha tu So
although the topic of our talk today is life-changing experiences. And it implies that there are certain experiences which change our life and there are certain experiences which don't change our life.
In reality, any experience which we have changes our life. Because our life is based on the past experiences. What we are at present. We are nothing but a sum total of the experiences which we had before.
And these experiences they form us. They form our body. According to the law of karma.
If you meet an experienced astrologer, he will tell you what kind of experiences you had to a certain extent, according to your birth chart, or what kind of experiences did you have in a past life?
And our subtle mind definitely is constantly being formed by our present experiences.
And as Prabhupada explains very clearly while commenting on this verse of Bhagavad Gita, our future life is also based on the experiences which we have now.
So we have to very clearly understand that any experience which we have is to one extent or another, changing our life and preparing us for the future.
And we have to really clearly understand this because only by understanding this, we can live our life properly. We all want happiness, right? Everyone wants to be happy. Even Hare Krishna devotees.
Sometimes they don't admit this, but in reality that's the only goal of life. Happiness is the only goal of life. You know, whether it's material happiness, spiritual happiness, that's different.
Spiritual spiritual people are very clever, they want eternal happiness. Material people are little petty minded, they want just some petty happiness. But you know, everyone wants happiness.
But we have to very clearly understand that our happiness, our future happiness, very much depends on what we do now.
What we're acting and uh ultimately you know what uh uh it will basically form uh our future experiences as well and our reactions on the experiences which we have.
And therefore, Krishna he gives a very interesting point in this verse, which is not so clearly kind of comes out from the translation. When he says in the last line of this verse, Sadat Bhava Bhavita. Sadat Bhava Bhavita.
He explains the law of reincarnation. And Srila Prabhupada very clearly explains that the law of reincarnation is that whatever you remember at the time of death will be your future destination.
But in one's own term, whatever you remember at the time of death is something which you practice constantly in this life. Sadat Bhava Bhavita.
This bhava, bhava here is translated as the state of being, and it is state of being, but bhava also means emotion. Bhava means the state of our mind.
So basically, what Krishna says in this verse, he says very clearly that you will remember at the time of death only something which you constantly practice to remember during your life.
Sometimes people say that the death is the last exam.
You all students and you very much can relate to this understanding of what does it mean to have exam, especially last exam I was told that the student population of Iskon temples very much increases just before the exams.
Anyway, exams is something you know but in reality death in one sense is not an exam because during exam you still can change something. At the moment of this there's hardly anything you can change.
Of course, you know some people cannot change anything during exam either. But uh the point which I want to make is that death is more or less a mark which you get for your life. Examine your life.
When you're still in a position of changing something.
Cultivating attachments before the moment of death
So what Kṛṣṇa says very clearly here, sad-bhāvaḥ sādhu-bhāve ca, whatever you practice during your life, whatever you cultivate, whatever thoughts you cultivate, and everyone cultivates certain b[h]āva.
We can see it very clearly, especially when we see when the person grows older, you can see the predominant state of his mind, predominant state of his being. Some people are very angry.
They become so frustrated with life, and they become so angry, and they have so much poison inside and so you know no wonder there are so many scorpions and snakes so it's basically a certain state of mind which you cultivate.
And some people on the contrary they're very satisfied, they're very loving and they're very nice. And this is again certain state of mind.
You know, even though we are bombarded by different experiences and sometimes we don't think you know that there is something predominant, some kind of consistent pattern in our life. But it is.
You know, we are acting in a certain way, we're getting reactions, and in turn, we are reacting on these reactions and so on and so forth. So ultimately, if we are doing it unconsciously, we're still cultivating a certain state of mind.
And we're cultivating certain attachments. And for sure we will remember these attachments at the end of life.
What happens actually now at the end of life is that those samskaras, those impressions which are there in our mind, which are strongest.
And the strongest samskaras is the samskaras which you fed during your life, which you again and again experienced. You know, we have very strong saṁskāras, very strong memories, very strong attachments, very strong things.
So, in the critical moments, all those strong memories, they surface. And the most critical moment of our life is death. So at this moment you are not in control of your mind. Well, most of us it's not in control of our mind even during the lifetime. It's very difficult to, you know, kind of guide and direct the mind.
But you know, just imagine for a second how difficult it is when you die. You have to basically leave everything. There is one little joke.
Two friends are speaking with each other during the burial ceremony of their third friend. The third friend is being you know in a casket and you know one friend is asking other what did he leave behind himself?
And the other friend is answering, he left everything he didn't take with him anything, so so it's
extremely difficult you know, during the lifetime we are experiencing so many things, and all of a sudden we have to leave everything, leave everything behind.
So it's extremely difficult, it's practically impossible to control our mind and this moment of this critical moment.
So only those experiences which are strongest, which are there in our mind in a very prominent position, only those experiences will surface at the time of death.
And therefore, Krishna stresses this point: sadā tad-bhāva-bhāvitaḥ, sadā, always. Tad-bhāva-bhāvitaḥ, whatever state of being you have cultivated, only this state of being will be your state of mind at the time of death.
You know, if one devotee told me a story
about another devotee who was in Māyāpur and he was swimming in Ganga and all of a sudden he he felt was a good swimmer, but all of a sudden he felt that Mahāgangā is kind of you know dragging him down. And it was a very critical moment and he practically realized that you know he's dying. Somehow or other he was saved.
But he said, you know what? You know what I remembered at the time of death? I remembered some advertisement of washing powder I don't know what he will become in the next life. If you remember washing powder. Doby Dobby.
What? Dobby. Maybe he said I was very surprised I didn't remember Hare Krishna mantra.
So the what I want to say is that we are in this in this very difficult life and we are constantly bombarded and there is so many modern technologies which are trying to implant in our mind very strong impressions.
Why did he remember advertisements?
Because advertisements are very cleverly designed. They have only two minutes to give you such a strong impression that next moment, the moment you will see the product which they advertise, you will subconsciously, you know, pull out money and buy it.
You know, it's a very clever design. You know, there's music going on and there is some apsarā there. And you always feel like you know this is some heaven which I'll get just for a few rupees.
Anyway, so it appeared that this stupid advertisement was very strong in his mind. Therefore, what I want to say is that we have to be extremely careful what kind of impressions we plant in our mind.
The tendency, especially nowadays with people with undisciplined mind, with internet, you know, available so much of different things, you You know, we tend to be very, how shall I say it, indiscriminate.
You know, we kind of tend to absorb so much garbage in our life. So much garbage in our mind. Our mind is, you know, this machine which is sucking in dust. How you call it? The vacuum cleaner.
Yeah, our mind is just vacuum cleaner. And it's being so much polluted by all these experiences, by all these impressions which are there.
So the Vedic culture I have a privilege to talk to you about Vedic culture. Although I'm from a completely uncultured mlecha background,
Purpose and design of Vedic samskaras
...by the mercy of Śrīla Prabhupāda, I have encountered with this great culture and I wanted to speak a little bit about the amazing design of Vedic culture. You know, in the vedic culture, as we know, there is
Sanskrit and there is saṁskāra. Sanskriti means culture. Culture means a certain way of relating to this world, to the people of this world, to this world, and ultimately to God. This is what culture is.
Culture is how you relate with this world. But how you become cultured? By how you become saṁskṛta by saṁskāras.
And there is an age of samskaras when the children, when the people are most vulnerable, most impressionable. And when the samskaras are deepest ones and the you know childhood there was this uh design of samskara from the earliest possible uh age over children when
they're still in the womb. Even before that. The first samskara is Garbadana samskara which parents are supposed to perform to invite the good child into the womb. So, what is the idea of this samskara?
Is that to give you the strongest impression which will protect you during the life. Because some samskaras can totally degrade us.
If you take some drug it looks very innocent, you know, little drug, and you feel oh, very high, nice, nice, nice. This is life-changing experience. Unfortunately, not such a nice life-changing experience.
Because very easily you can become addicted to this, to this artificial state of you know happiness and excitement which is there.
You know, people drink wine and they oh it's so innocent, you know, we're living in Nasik and it's famous all over India so much grapes is there, winery and you take little little wine and
oh nice. There's nothing nice about it. Because ultimately you will become enslaved by this experience. There are experiences in this life, life-changing experiences, which makes you a slave, total slave, complete slave.
Your mind will go totally out of control. It creates such a strong samskara in your mind that you will become a slave of this samskara and you will try to reproduce this experience again and again and again and again.
Scientists they did this experiment they they found in the in the brain of the rats, a center which is responsible for giving this pleasurable experience.
And they put some little electrode in this in the center of the brain of the rats. And they taught the rat to push the button. And if you push the button, you feel oh very nice, sorry.
So the rats they they would very soon become dead by pushing this button again and again and again and again and again
and again and in the same way, stupid rat-like human beings who get this very cheap experience, totally cheap experience, chemical experience of this cheap chemical happiness, illusion of happiness.
They become slaves of this happiness, so-called happiness, and ultimately they die because of this stupid experience which they have. So this is one sort of experience which we may have.
And this is a saṁskāra which I'm talking about. And this saṁskāra is the saṁskāra which dragging you down, which degrades you.
But the very culture would give you other saṁskāras, other kinds of saṁskāras which would protect you, which would form your mind in a certain way to give you inclination to the good things, to sattvaguṇa, to sāttvik life, to sāttvik experiences.
You know it's amazing how how wise was the design of Vedic culture. The Vedic culture was it it's the only culture in the world. There is no other cultures. Everything else is just polished animals.
You know, I have a right to say this. I am coming from I'm coming from this background. So I have a right to say this.
It's totally animalistic, it may be little sophisticated animals, you know nice animals who eat with the fork and knife very No but it's it's animalistic experience.
So what I want to say is that this saṁskāras the Vedic saṁskāras, the ten main Vedic saṁskāras which were there, they would create a foundation of life, very firm foundation
of life, which would uh really Really create a very strong, it's a strong foundation of life which would ensure that the life will be at least not degrading one. If not progressing, that it's at least not degrading one.
So, this is how the whole Vedic culture was designed. It's actually, I wanted to share with you very interesting definition of saṁskāra which is given by Charaka by the say Charaka and Charaka Saṁhitā in Āyurveda.
In other words, they talk about saṁskāras very much. And he gives a very beautiful definition: what is saṁskāra? What is this? Śrīla Prabhupāda usually translates the word saṁskāra as purification ritual.
So Charaka says that saṁskāra is certain experience, it's life-changing experience basically what he says.
He says saṁskāra is an experience which changes your personality, your persona, in a certain way so that uh you will never go back to the previous state of being.
Like, for example, uh there is this first grain giving saṁskāra. The child on a certain day at a certain age when he's
six months or eight months or whatever age, or one and a half year, or whatever is supposed to be given first grains.
So, what Charaka says that before the child would be the whole body of the child, the whole metabolism of the child would be working perfectly in harmony with just milk. Mother's milk would be enough.
You take one little grain, you will never go back to the previous state. Now you need grains. Mother's milk is not enough anymore for the body to develop.
Before the body was developing very strongly just on the mother's milk.
But now, after this saṁskāra, the whole thing that the this little experience uh triggers the change in your complete body and the complete mind. And you become different.
And of course, we all know there is a very nice saṁskāra which is called Vivaha saṁskāra. And after Vivaha saṁskāra you cannot go back. Some people try but it doesn't work.
You know, you regret but it's too late. You're a different person now. It's a saṁskāra.
Saṁskāra means you're a different person now because it gives you very strong experience and this experience will never leave you. It will always be with you.
It will form your uh you know many many years of your life. Next slide.
So basically, what I want to say I want to say that there was this notion or this understanding or this concept of ten samskaras which would place a very firm and very strong foundation for the progressive life.
As a human being we won't be just satisfied just by eating and sleeping and even mating and defending. We have to have some meaning in life.
Finding spiritual purpose amidst hardship
We have to have some higher purpose. You know, this was actually my life-changing experience. Why did I become a devotee? Why did I change my life so drastically? Just because I was not satisfied. I had everything.
I was very, you know, I had best marks and I had very good, you know uh prospects and you know I was from very well to do background and you know but so empty. Was so completely useless. So completely senseless. There was no meaning.
I didn't know what to do. You know, ultimately I thought, okay, well, I may live for a few more years. So what? What difference does it make?
So and at that moment of time when the crisis was the most acute, the crisis of meaning, my life was absolutely useless.
So at that moment of time Krishna arranged that I got Bhagavad-gītā. And this was life changing experience which I had. What I found in Bhagavad-gītā, I found something completely different of what I had before.
And paradoxically, this is how Krishna works. When I got this life-changing experience and I found the meaning of life and I became very happy and you know I started changing a little bit and uh it was very interesting.
Very soon, my whole life from the external point of view turned into complete hell.
You know, the first thing after I started chanting and reading Bhagavad-gītā, the first thing which I experienced was the KGB, the Gita, the first thing which I experienced was the KGB, the secret police of the Soviet Union came to me and said, we will put you in prison, my dear sir. Or you will have to work for us.
And I was thinking and thinking and thinking, and I said, thank you very much, you better put me in prison, but I will not work for you.
And they didn't put me in prison at that time immediately, but it was very difficult and you know so many difficult things.
But the amazing things they you know I I couldn't defend my PhD thesis which was already ready at that time and so many other unpleasant things happened to me.
But the amazing thing was that when everything was okay, I was totally miserable when everything went wrong I was completely blissful
I was so happy I couldn't believe it I was just smiling and saying yeah you're very nice and my you know relatives they became very you know they were so they were saying you know what's wrong with you?
Why are you're smiling? Everything is bad in your life. I said, yeah, nothing is wrong with me. I'm smiling. It means that there's nothing wrong. I'm happy.
True happiness versus material agitation
So, uh anyway, this is a little diversion from the main topic of our lecture. But uh basically, what I want to say, my message to you in this evening is that we have to be very discriminate.
And as Prabhupada beautifully puts it here, he says he gives the two conditions upon which one can achieve the ultimate goal of life.
If in one's present life one lives in the mode of goodness and always thinks of Krishna. It is possible for one to remember Krishna at the end of one's life.
So, Prabhupada, in a very simple way, he explains what is expected from us and he gives the complete formula for happiness. Just sättvic life. There is no need to get all these rājasic experiences.
You know, in the middle of our youth we all you know very much eager to experience some things you know but we all know that all
these experiences according to Bhagavad-gītā we should be intelligent enough to understand that whatever in the rajoguṇa in the mode of passion, whatever is very pleasurable and very happy in the beginning, very
like nectar in the beginning, it turns into what? Poison. Into poison very quickly. Very quickly. People drink some wine. Little syrup. Nice, right?
But for a very short while, then you get a terrible headache and you have to drink more wine and more wine and more wine and you know and cirrhosis of the liver and this and that and so many other problems are there.
It's just, you know, this experience is empty. The experience of rajoguṇa is totally, completely empty and just exhausting your energy. Nothing, nothing is there. Just little agitation in the mind. It's not happiness.
What we think is happiness in this life, it's actually not happiness, it's just a relief from the agitation of the mind. We sometimes think that, you know, food gives us happiness. Does food give happiness or not? Yes.
Does it give? Yes. All the time? No. You know you take the same food which is so pleasurable and increase the quality, the quantity twenty times and try to eat it. Will it be pleasurable?
No! The experience of happiness is that you have the agitation in the mind, you take the food, the agitation is gone, you feel happy. Ultimately, the experience of happiness is the experience of peace in mind.
And when there is no peace, you know you take something which brings down the agitation, you think that this thing is the cause of your happiness. It's not.
You know, if you think that when you can get happiness from food, only when you are hungry. If you're not hungry, food will not give you happiness, right? Does it mean that the happiness is in food? No!
The happiness is not in food. The happiness is to bring this agitation which is created by hunger in your mind. This is the happiness.
To get rid of this agitation, therefore, in Vedic scriptures it's very clearly said what is real happiness. The real happiness is this peaceful state of mind, which can be achieved by a sattvic life.
And this is the real the real happiness which is there which everyone can experience if one lives his life in a certain way.
So therefore, Prabhupāda says sattvic life which doesn't bring so much disturbances in your mind. And in the midst of this sattvic life which is which makes your mind relatively peaceful, you think about Kṛṣṇa.
If you are in this rajasic mood, it's very difficult to think about Kṛṣṇa. It's very difficult to think about Kṛṣṇa even if you are sattvic. But at least there is some chance. At least there is some chance.
You know, the mind is very expert not to think about Kṛṣṇa. Especially when we chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. This is the time when we think about Kṛṣṇa the least, to the smallest degree. We think about everything else.
But anyway, Prabhupāda gives us the formula and this formula is the real life-changing experience. Because this formula can change your life completely 180 degrees.
Because you will not remain dependent on the material happiness of this life.
Spiritual samskaras and the holy name
You will get the experience, the saṁskāras of spiritual happiness and the spiritual saṁskāras will become the strongest saṁskāras in your life. It's very interesting.
In Patanjali Yoga Sutras there is a very interesting description of this saṁskāra. Patanjali says that there are four or five states saṁskāras can be.
Saṁskāra can be totally awake, some saṁskāras can be fluctuating, sometimes it's strong, sometimes it's very weak, some saṁskāras can be sleeping, some saṁskāras can be weakened, and they are very weak and not very prominent.
And then he says that saṁskāras can be completely burnt out from our consciousness. And the commentators on this particular sutra of Patanjali Yoga Sutra they say that yeah there are different states of saṁskāras.
And saṁskāras are fighting with each other. What is our life? Our life is the fight of different impressions which we have in our mind. Some saṁskāras, some impressions are pulling us in this direction.
And some saṁskāras are pulling us in that direction, and some saṁskāras are pulling us in that direction, and we are completely pulled out. We are torn and many different pieces. So this is what material life is.
Different saṁskāras are fighting with each other for domination. You know, one saṁskāra says, I do no, I I want to be the first one and the other one, no. I'm the first one.
So, but listen very carefully what commentators of this sutra of Patanjali Yoga Sutra have to say. They say that there are certain saṁskāras which they call terminator saṁskāras.
Saṁskāras which terminate any other saṁskāras. Completely put them in a silent mode and they say this is the spiritual saṁskāras.
If you get the real spiritual saṁskāras, the real spiritual experience, you will be totally completely protected from any degrading experiences which you had before in your life.
Because you will have this very strong saṁskāra in your mind which will ultimately help you to remember Kṛṣṇa at the time of death, which is the ultimate perfection of our life.
So our life is about acquiring the proper saṁskāras. And the best saṁskāras which we can get is the saṁskāras of real spiritual experience, which we will get not just by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa.
But by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa with complete absorption. Not just by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, but by putting our heart into this process. Understanding that this is the only thing which will help me at the moment of death.
Nothing else will help you at the moment of death. You will be totally helpless. But the holy name, if you gave proper attention to the holy name during this lifetime. This is not life-changing experience.
This is the life-saving experience. You will get the real life-saving experience if you give proper attention to the chanting of the Holy Name.
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Ram Ram Rama Hare Hare. And we have to be very clear about this. This may sound very simple, but this is the most amazing gift of the Vedic culture.
You know, I can tell you that my life was totally changed, totally transformed just by this encounter with the Holy Name.
And I can tell you a little story from my life which may illustrate this point in a very beautiful way. I'm a little shy to tell story about myself because who am I to you know, impose this?
Protection through the holy name during interrogation
But this is an instructive story, therefore I will dare to tell it. This is from the same period which I was talking about.
Very difficult period in my life, and I was on the verge of being put in prison and I was interrogated in the KGB and so at one point the KGB it was a very powerful organization that they were watching very closely.
It's probably very difficult for you to relate and to understand what was Soviet Union at that time. I just give you a little example to give you a taste. At that time, nobody was supposed to believe in God.
You know, if you're old old 80 years old Russian babushka lady, well it's okay. They would not care.
But if you're a young man and you believe in God, either you would be totally banned and ostracized from the society, you would have no future whatsoever, you would be just a, you know, I don't know, somebody's, you know, just uh you know some stoker somewhere. This is the maximum which you can count on.
Or whatever.
So the the little story, first story, not about me. When I was studying in this Moscow State University, we had there was probably around 20,000 students at that time studying at that time in the university, one of them admitted he believes in God.
It was something unheard of. He was, you know, practically speaking, he was put in a cage.
And, you know, they would, you know, like Shikshastak Prabhu said about Russian circus, so he was like something some attraction in the circus you know they they would bring him from department to department to department and they would say you know they would point out they put point fingers at him and say this guy believes in God look at him he believes
in God and all the students would go ah he believes in God Unhörde of not unhörd of, but something really illegal.
Something really not so anyway, so all of a sudden myself, my humble self there is a changing of the heart and you know we start believing in God not only in God but in God who is Krishna and Krishna is you know a very funny God anyway
so that the whole n the whole department was created in the KGB just to deal with a handful of Hare Krishna devotees which were there in the Soviet Union.
There was m I don't know maybe one hundred devotees of the in the whole country. But there was probably two hundred KGB people working, you know against this one hundred, you know, they were watching, they were, you know. So anyway, so what happened with me?
It was like this. I was called in the KGB and I was told that I have to come every week to them, to their office. And I, you know, and they would speak with me.
And usually how it was, you know, yeah I was, you know, I said, okay I'll come fine so I I would come to them and the guy would sit and would look at me with such a smile in his face, you know. It was scary just to look at his smile, you know.
It was such a smug and he would exude some poison from his eyes, and he started saying some nasty things and this and that and I was and the whole week I was thinking about I have to come and what they would do.
Will they put me in prison? Will they put me in labor camp? What will happen with me? You know, so I was really scary.
So I was there, I was sitting there very humbly, you know, tṛṇād api su-nīcena taror api sahiṣṇunā amāninā mānadena, you know, very respectful. And the guy was sitting and you know asking some questions.
And inevitably it repeated the story repeated itself at least I don't I don't remember how many times but many times five six times this the same scenario was repeated itself and Again and again and again.
At one point, at one point of this very unpleasant experience, I would start hearing very clearly in my mind Mahā-mantra, the Holy Name. In a beautiful tune.
It was not artificial in a sense that I was not calling the holy name, I was not consciously trying to remember it, it would descend upon me.
And I don't I don't know where from it would descend, but it would descend upon me and this experience the holy name living holy name the real holy name in my mind was so strong that I would become all of a sudden very happy.
And I started smiling, and I had this very strange smile in my face.
Just second before, minutes before, I was very morose and very humble and very you know totally completely fearful, and all of a sudden I would just you know I would sit like this and I would look at him and smile.
And what happened with him at that very moment, he would become very fearful.
This powerful guy who was just few minutes before was so you know oppressive and he would look at me and he couldn't understand what happened and I would sit very relaxed and you know the mantra was going on in my mind so asked what do you want
and he was he would become tṛṇād api su-nīcena, he Bisunicharas he would become very humble and you say no no you go home you go home I
tell you it was very real and it it was not that I was counting on this, I was kind of trying to consciously do this. No, the holy name saved me. Really?
Why am telling this story to you because it was the holy name on its own accord, on his own accord. Saving me in the most difficult moment of my life.
Just by coming to me and giving me so much solace and so much peace and so much confidence and so much you know clearness of the mind that even this most difficult situation was not so difficult and ultimately saving me and you know and at one point I I will tell you the end of the story.
So it was repeating again and again and again but still I would go home and again I was thinking oh shoots in one week I have to come and what will happen next week and how it will go, and you know, it would build up the fear and anxiety would build up in my mind, and by the time I have to go and again would become very fearful and I would again calm. And then you know again it would happen.
So few times it repeated itself.
And then at one point, and they were very strong, they said to me, you have to come every week, you have to report, you have to be there at certain time, you have to be there, you know. And it was serious.
So at one point after this this kind of experience, I was thinking, what shall I do?
And then somebody in my mind or in my heart or whatever said, don't go to them there's no need. And I said, oh, that's a good idea. I never thought about that. So I thought that's a good idea. So I never went there and they will never ask me why.
Somewhere it all dissipated, it all just you know it was like illusion created by creation. You know, it was finished. The whole thing was finished. There was no need.
So this is this is one of the life-changing experiences which I had. And I wanted to share with you this life-changing experience. I wanted to tell all of you please take this practice very seriously because
this practice will change your life, will continue changing your life from good to better to best and ultimately it will give you the best experience at the moment of death.
The death will become a very pleasurable experience. You will be dying to die. You will be so eager to die to meet with Krishna and to have this grace of the holy name.
It will be so peaceful and so mm so completely sure what will happen with you if you give proper attention to the simple
practice of the chanting of the Holy Name, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama, Rama Hare Hare. Thank you very much. It was a life-changing experience. Thank you. Thank you.
Overcoming internal frustration through scriptural faith
Anyone, if someone wants to ask questions, they can ask questions to one as the mic will be passed on to you. Thank you for the beautiful class.
I wanted to ask that when we talk about samskaras, which you talked extensively, there are some terminators like you said, the spiritual samskaras. But when we come into Krishna consciousness movement, initially the conditions which we had in our life, they are quite, very strong. So while fighting with those samskaras and the spiritual samskaras coming in, so that fight substance really lose our patience. So that frustration, how to deal with that frustration at that time? So we could persistently as It's inevitable.
There will be some difficult times in our spiritual life when we are pulled in different directions, everyone experiences this. There is nothing wrong with it. We have to be prepared for this.
In the beginning, when we come it's just very nice and very, you know, exciting and you know so many different new impressions and experiences.
But then you know it becomes a little difficult because the all saṁskāras they revive and start pulling. So basically if you want to cope with it, and if you want to overcome this difficult
period of life, uh there is only one thing which you need to have: is a strong faith. Why it is said that in the beginning the faith should be there.
Why Krishna says that without faith people amṛtyu-saṁsāra-vartmani and they will go back to this path of birth and death.
And they will go back to this path of birth and death. Amarā-saṁsāra-vartmani 'śraddadhānāḥ puruṣāḥ. So if you don't have śraddhā, then there
is a good chance that you will go back because śraddhā is the only thing, the faith, strong faith, the only thing which can help you to overcome this difficult period.
You believe that you will get something very valuable, you don't have it yet,
but because your faith is very strong, you will be able to uh you know to overcome all these impediments which will be there, which are there already. So in other religious institutions,
in other religions, the faith, the function of the faith is slightly different. For them, the faith is all in all. For us, the faith is not all in all.
Krishna himself says dharmasya uh how to say this susukhaṁ kartum avyayam, uh so he says that this is uh pratyakṣāvagamaṁ dharmyam. This dharma, this religion should be experienced. Pratyaksha.
You should have the first hand experience of this. But to get this experience you need some initial faith, śraddhā. So and the faith, śraddhā, becomes strong, everyone has some faith.
Even Krishna says that śraddhā-mayo, every human being is made of faith. You know, we believe in something. But it's not just any faith, it's a faith in spiritual practice which is fortified by scriptural logic.
If you understand the logic of If you understand the rationale of the scriptures, then your faith will be strong. We may have faith which is of different nature.
The faith of a different nature is just traditional faith, you know, social faith, samajik śraddhā. No, everyone is doing this and it's a nice society and yeah right right, hari bol, yeah, and prasāda is nice and menu is being announced before the lectures, so this kind of faith
will not help you in this fight. But if you have very strong Shastriya Shraddha. Scriptural faith. And śāstrīya śraddhā means understanding of śāstra-yukti. How it is rational. How shastras are rational.
Because sometimes people they you know they believe in some superstitions. Miracles. This miracle or that miracle and you know they constantly need miracles to reinforce their faith.
I remember a story which Radhanath Maharaja once told was a period when all Ganeshes in India all of a sudden started drinking milk. And oh everyone went crazy, you know, and it was on TV, you know,
Ganesh drinks milk and they would put. And Radhanath Maharaja said, once I caught two of our brahmacārīs who were trying to feed our Ganesh with milk. And he said, but our Ganesh didn't drink milk. On principle.
So what I want to say is that if you don't have strong scriptural śraddhā, you need to reinforce your śraddhā by some miracles. Ganesh drinks. Oh, oh that must be. Well it doesn't mean anything.
You know, yes, Ganesh drinks milk, so what? Krishna eats prasāda, we know that.
The point which I want to make is that, uh, if you have strong scriptural faith, you don't need miracles to strengthen your faith. Whether there is miracles or not.
Therefore, people with a big faith, they all very much depend on this, and their faith is very kind of it's a flimsy, very whimsical kind of ways. They cannot be consistent in their practice.
But if you have very strong and this is uh one thing which I can say with full confidence, uh which distinguish Prabhupada's books from many other beautiful spiritual books which are there.
Prabhupāda gives us completely, totally logical and rational understanding of spiritual life.
Which will help us so much in these difficult situations because you basically, yes, you will be pulled in different directions but uh because you have so much you know your body is so much programmed by this strong scriptural logic explained by Śrīla Prabhupāda, you will be saved.
So one thing I can advise to you, just study the books under the proper guidance, and it will help you very much.
Yes, far as you are right in that case, but not in the letters. At least some degree of experience we need to write in our experience is fine. Experience we must have. We should have.
We should aspire for the experience, definitely.
But you know, there is miracles and there is experience, uh, spiritual experience, and spiritual experience comes when you're very serious and concentrated on your practice. Then you will get experience. You will get it.
Distinguishing material relief from spiritual bliss
Thank you, Maharaj, there's one more question. Um like you talked about uh the food is not giving you pleasure, it is just the agitation going down which gives you pleasure.
So that sometimes when some working professionals like me or the students who are fighting for the survival outside of the material world. They come over here.
So is it not that it may be that an agitation is going down that is giving me happiness rather than the bliss of Krishna consciousness. So how to differentiate between the two? Well, it's very simple.
As I said to you, if you overeat food, instead of giving you pleasure, it will torture you. Right? I'll tell you from my experience, you cannot overeat Krishna consciousness. So it will always give you nice experience.
If your attitude is proper, if you are not offensive in your attitude, there is it's an important if, important condition.
But if in general your attitude is open then it will not just you know calm down your agitation of your mind. It will definitely do this.
And this is a part of the experience which we have, but there is something more to it. And the proof is that you know it never becomes, you know, tiresome experience.
You know, you like I know myself, preaching is one of the spiritual activities because we speak about Krishna and I know you
know sometimes I I'm totally sick and I'm so ah and I drag myself to a seat, speaker's seat and it in five minutes I'm all fired up and I'm speaking about Krishna and I'm feeling so much bliss about this.
And once I decided to make an experiment, because I'm from the scientific background I always want to make some experiments.
So once I decided to speak not about Krishna I thought maybe it's just because I So I decided to speak not about Krishna. I thought maybe it's just because I like to speak and you know I'm just uh you know something.
So I decided to give a series of lectures about Ayurveda. That was the most miserable experience I ever had in my life and I I swear that I will never speak about Ayurveda anymore.
But what I want to say is that you know if you're dealing with Krishna, I want to tell you. I'll tell you one more story, a little story. Not from my life. But from a life of a person who recently wrote to me a letter.
He has written to me a letter and he tells me his story. I love the stories of people who just first come to Krishna consciousness. It's very interesting.
And this is a very great proof that this is not just not just that what you said. He tells that he he just I I will make it very brief, although he wrote a very long letter with all details.
Had very successful life, he was a he was promoted several times, he had beautiful wife, had a nice, comfortable position. His life at one point became empty.
He was trying to find some meaning in life, started taking some drugs. And then something happened. He was selling drugs and the friend said that he is the dealer and all of a sudden he was put in prison.
And he's totally innocent. He didn't sell drugs and they just found some drugs in his flat.
He was put in prison and in prison his source to his desire to understand what's happening, what is the meaning, increased, and he started reading some religious literature, Christian literature. desire to understand what's happening, what is the meaning, increased and he started reading some religious literature, Christian literature.
He said it made everything worse. Because I couldn't find satisfactory answers for my questions.
And then you know somebody gave him Bhagavad Gita. He browsed through Bhagavad Gita, he just saw some, you know, some strange letters. He just closed it down. He said, no, no, no, this is not for me.
Anyway, then he gets somehow rather he gets Science of Self-Realization. He said this was the most amazing experience I ever had. So he he read this.
And then all of a sudden, in prison, you know, he gets all the books of Śrīla Prabhupāda from different sources. Krishna is amazing. He gets this book and that book.
He said, then I read about life of Prabhupāda and then somebody send me this and then somebody left me my co-prisoner gave me Śrīmad Bhāgavatam part one. All sudden it just so happens in his life.
And then he writes to me, he says, You know, I'm the most happy person in the whole universe because as soon as I think about Krishna, I become so happy and I love everyone, I love Krishna, I love his friends, I love everyone.
And I just sit there and I am so happy uh while in prison and then I open my eyes and I realize I'm in prison and I become a little worried, but then I thought, no, it's okay.
I am just thinking about Krishna all the time, and I'm so happy. And he said, There's only one thing I cannot understand. They put me in prison for nine years.
Why one year would be enough because I already know the answer to all my questions. It's the only thing which I can't understand.
And I wrote to him, you know probab,ly you will get more bliss in this nine years, you know, so just be there.
Anyway, what he says, he says, but I cannot come to the temple, I cannot have prasāda, I cannot associate with devotees, I cannot have kirtan, you know, I don't know what it is, I never experienced it in my life.
But still he says I I get so much bliss just by thinking about Krishna and by chanting his holy name that it's just unbelievable how it is.
So this is one another proof. It's not it's not just that, it's something more than this. Um I definitely have that feel that there is something more but
the thing is what is the point when we realize that it is coming from Krishna and not that pants of materialization. So what is that differentiating point? You will understand it. What you are talking about?
You're talking about not just mokṣa, not just relief from the miseries which you have, but about some positive experience.
And I'm sure you already have this positive experience which supersedes the you know just uh negation of your anxieties. So I'm sure you have it. So and you you will be able to discriminate it.
It's just a question of getting it more and more. And for that simple formula is there. Don't offend anyone and try to serve others and you will get more and more.
you You say you came from Russia, uh your culture was different, so you find your own path, your own journey, you change it.
So I uh there are so many books we read, we have also many discovery programs and all the data surrounding in this country and all the university because there are so many talkers, we heard them.
But uh it's about the normal people like us, we are surrounded here, just your excellence So
I want to ask a question that uh I when I first successful but now I become a bigger uh I get older now and the thing uh the faith I had a body is now going to be little dumb and uh I
see the I want to see the every aspect of the life but uh think that uh you find your own destination so how do I understand what is my destination and what is my path and what is the my destination with the holding of karma and karma?
That the Lord Krishna said that you the the bhakti without karma is not possible.
Aligning prescribed karma with spiritual goals
You should do your karmas So first of all, thank you very much for quoting Lord Krishna about this statement. Definitely, Lord Krishna speaks about karma. And he stresses this point.
He says, He even values karma more than sannyas. Usually, you know, in the spiritual circles, sannyas is a very you know high position. But Krishna says no karma is better. Karma is better than karma sannyas.
But I will definitely answer your question, but there is little introduction to it because you mentioned this point, beautiful point of love Krishna. Why Krishna says about karma?
You know, we have to really understand what is the place of karma in our life. The tendency, and this is in your question: the tendency is that I have my karma, and Krishna says about karma and I have my spiritual life.
And I want to have some spiritual experience and I also want to have some kind of fulfillment in my karma and my material life. That's more or less the idea behind your question.
But if you very carefully read Bhagavad-gītā, and this is my humble plea to you, you will see what is the intention of Krishna and why he says karma.
Karma is necessary, it's important. We have to find our own karma and do it, why? Not because it is independently valuable in our life. No.
But because it will help us to get greater spiritual fulfillment and experience. To find our path. There is only one path, which everyone is looking for. This is the path of happiness.
And where the happiness lies in this life, we have to be very clear about this. We have to be extremely clear and scientific about the source of happiness.
By nature, the soul, the consciousness which is real I, real us, is designed in such a way that we find fulfillment and happiness only in love.
So when Krishna says karma, he says karma because if you do your duties properly you will become disciplined and the discipline which you will get by performing your duties will help you to acquire the highest possible experience, experience of love, experience of spiritual love.
So we all, and you are not an exception, all here in this room, and everyone in this world, no exceptions, looking for happiness.
Most of the people are looking for happiness in the wrong place, and many people similar to you trying to you know find happiness here
and there, but we are spiritual, so the happiness, the nature of happiness which we hanker for and which we try to find is the spiritual happiness which is ultimately the experience of love. Ananda.
Ananda means bliss of love. So, and karma is important. But as the servant, to get this experience.
And if we consider it like this, I have to fulfill my duty, I have to find myself, I have to find something, but not as As the end in itself, but as the means for me to help to get spiritual experience.
Then you will very quickly find yourself, find your satisfaction in what you are doing because you will be very clear in your priorities, in your goals. This is what it is.
In Kaṭha Upaniṣad, there is a very beautiful statement which I want to share with you.
In Kaṭha Upaniṣad it is said that we are all thirsty, and the people, the thirsty people of this world they're trying to quench their thirst by drinking salty water.
Can you quench the thirst by drinking salty water for a second, right?
You have terrible thirst, very strong desire to drink, and there is this ocean of salty water, and ultimately you drink the salty water and you get little relief, but immediately your search becomes what? Even stronger.
So, this is what people do, this is the mistake which people do. We have thirst for happiness. And instead of quenching this thirst by drinking the pure sweet water of spiritual experience, of experience of love.
They're trying to quench this thirst by salty water of material happiness. And what happens with them? Just look at these wealthy people. What do you think? Mukesh Ambani. Is he happy or not? Is he fulfilled or not?
I don't know actually. Because I don't know the WhatsApp. I can tell you. He's not. He's not satisfied. No. Because you cannot satisfy the spiritual thirst by material things. Not possible. Mismatch.
The nature of our thirst, of our desire is spiritual. And it's completely useless and futile to try to quench it by different material experience.
You know, I I I had I I never met Mukeshambani, I met some other miserable people of this sort, but I recently had my friend who visited him, he had this this skyscraper which he built as his personal residence in Mumbai.
You know, I don't know how many stories it's sixteen or something like that. Twenty-seven, yeah. Twenty-seven. You know, some modest kind of, you know, dwelling, you know, ten to his to his twenty- seven.
You know the very fact that somebody is trying to find happiness by building for him for his humble self 27 stories building to live, you know, how he can live on 27 stories at the same time?
Even if he's a first-class yogi it will not be possible to enjoy this. It's just it's just crazy fantasy. Totally crazy fantasy. The guy doesn't know what he's doing. Anyway he he he visited him and my friend.
He said the guy's so frustrated, so frustrated, and he doesn't know what to do. I have a friend who is a psychologist. He said, in my practice I counsel many people.
And the consistent pattern which I found is that rich people are much more unhappy than poor people.
And the reason is very simple because poor people they still have hope then when they become rich they will become happy and rich people don't have this hope anymore. Thank you very much.
Vote of thanks and conclusion
Thank you. So I guess uh I don't need to explain to you and uh get your opinion that we definitely can together vouch for this. We had one of the best life-changing seniors.
And the wonderful brilliant point which he made of course the entire class was fantastic with the deep message that we don't just need the life-changing experiences, we need life-saving experiences, you remember?
That was the highlight, high point of the class and we request Bhakti Purushottama Maharaja that since he has already changed our experience and our life by this wonderful association of his so we would request him to come again and again to Nastik Dham to not just give these experiences more and more to us but also what point he made that save our life by sharing his experiences, his practice.
So let us invite him once again to Nasik Dham by loudly chanting. Haribol! Haribol! Srila Prabhupada ki jaya! Maharaja ki jaya!