Three Types of Bhakti. Lecture 1
Бхакти Вигьяна Госвами · 2022
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Omna mo Bhagavateva Sudevaya, Umna Bagavateva Sudeva, Omna mo Bhavavateva Sudevaya Omnamo Om namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Narayanamas kritia naram cheva naratamam devim Saraswati Yasam, Tato Jaya
Seminar overview on types of devotion
Modira yat nashta prayashva wadrishu, nitam Bhagavat sevaya, Bhagavaty tama Yundah pravies ye mamavachamamam prasuptam sanjivaya te kila shakti darah swadamna, hanyam scha hasta charanas rawanat vagadim prananda mahobhagavate Others.
I was asked to give a short seminar which will consist of two parts today and on Saturday we will continue, which was entitled by the Shastrik Committee of Sanyas College as different types of devotion.
And specifically the task uh in front of me is to explain what Srila Jivagaswamy says about this in Bhakti Sandarbha and what is being described by Lord Kapiladef in the third Kant of Simad Bhagavatam specifically in 27th, 28th, and 29th chapter.
It's a very big topic and very important topic.
Obviously, I will not be able to cover all the details of the topic because basically the whole Bhakti Sandarbha, the biggest part of Bhakti Sandarbha, which is the biggest Sandarbha out of all six, is devoted to classification of different kinds of bhakti.
Srila Jivagaswami literally mentions dozens and dozens of different types of bhakti.
But all this with exclusive goal to help us understand what is pure bhakti, we have to know all kinds of impurities to understand what is pure unadulterated bhakti and to be able to distinguish between these two.
Between different kinds of mixed bhakti and the pure bhakti. Because oftentimes in this world we have so many different things which we call bhakti.
Sometimes we call bhakti, sometimes other people call bhakti. Sometimes people don't call it bhakti, but there is some bhakti element in there.
So the greatest achievement and the greatest contribution of Gorye Vaishnava Acharya's is this minute analysis of the impurities within bhakti. Because bhakti is everywhere.
You know, whatever Sila Vishwana Chakravati Takur is bold enough to say that, you know, without bhakti you cannot do anything. Anything will not be successful, especially in a spiritual life if there is not an element of bhakti in it.
We can see the element of bhakti in all kinds of religions, including Buddhism. Nominally, Buddhists don't believe in God, but there is a very strong element of bhakti in Buddhism.
They do arati, they do puja, they do all kinds of things, they even do kirtan, they chant mantra, om Manipadmehum, and all kinds of stuff is there.
So bhakti, there is nothing special about bhakti in one sense, because bhakti is everywhere. Bhakti is as all-pervading as the Lord Himself.
So because the Lord is everywhere, people they do have some sort of devotion, some sort of attachment, that's attachment or devotion or attraction is called bhakti.
But the greatest contribution of Gaudiya Vaishnavacharyas is that they minutely distinguished all kinds of mixed bhaktis from pure bhakti and they showed how powerful pure bhakti is and how rare it is and how difficult it is to achieve, and how prone we are to pause something else for bhakti, to somehow or other to mix pure bhakti with something else. So that's the greatest contribution.
And therefore, in one sense, this consideration, this vichar about what is pure bhakti and what are the other types of bhakti, many many varieties of bhakti is probably the most important topic for our consideration of all other kinds of topics.
You know, we can speak about different philosophical nuances and details, but ultimately, what we have to understand, what is pure bhakti, and try to practice pure bhakti, and try to help others to practice pure bhakti.
Because first of all, we have to understand that we are ourselves prone to practice impure bhakti, to bring in all kinds of mixtures.
And second of all, we definitely should be able to distinguish and to see how other people are mixing bhakti with something else. Cooking bhakti with all kinds of different spices.
Thinking that by adding little chili or you know cumin seeds or whatever they will make bhakti more uh tasteful and more uh more yeah, uh more pleasant.
Kapiladeva on multifarious paths of service
So that's the topic which we are going to discuss, and I will read first
the verse and purport from the third canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam from the 29th chapter, where Bhagavatam from the 29th chapter, where Kapiladev specifically says that bhakti is of many types.
It's verse number seven from the 29th chapter of the third canto, where Kapiladeva says, Śrī-bhagavān uvāca, bhakti-yogaḥ bahu-vidhaḥ. Bhakti-yoga, bahu-vidhaḥ. There are many types of bhakti yoga.
Mairgair, mairgair, bhāminī, bhāvyate. And there are many, many different path. Margayair Bhamini Bhavyate. Swabhava Guna Margina Pumsam Bhava Vidhiyate. Translation by Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Lord Kapila, the personality of God, it replied, O noble lady, there are multifarious paths of devotional service in terms of different qualities of the executor. Purport by Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Pure devotional service in Krishna consciousness is one. Because in pure devotional service there is no demand from the devotee to be fulfilled by the Lord.
But generally, people take to devotional service with a purpose, as stated in Bhagavad-gītā, people who are not purified take to devotional service with four purposes.
A person who is distressed because of material conditions becomes a devotee of the Lord and approaches the Lord for mitigation of his distress.
A person in need of money approaches the Lord to ask for some improvement of his monetary condition.
Others who are not in distress or in need of monetary assistance are but are seeking knowledge in order to understand the Absolute Truth also take to devotional service and they inquire into the nature of the Supreme Lord.
This is very nicely described in Bhagavad-gītā 7.16.
Actually the path of devotional service is one without a second, but according to the devotees condition, devotional service appears in multifarious varieties, as will be nicely explained in the following verses.
So the most important point of this purport is that real devotional service is one. It's pure devotional service. Everything else is not really devotional service. It's some mixture.
The mixtures may be less or more, but pure devotional service is one. And to be able to distinguish it from the mixed forms of devotee, we have to really apply our intelligence. It's like gold. Pure gold is one.
But then there are so many different varieties of gold.
Or if you ever been on the beach in Jagannātha Purī, there are some sellers and they will sell to you different stones. And they will come and say we have a very special diamond for you.
And they will tell you, this is real diamond, just try to smash it and it will, you know, scratch the glass and everything. And you know, the huge diamonds there. Unfortunately, it's not diamond, but they will try to sell it as a diamond.
In the same way, in this material world, we have so many different sellers of bhakti, including ourselves.
And we really have to understand what do we sell to people and what we are buying when we listen to different people. And we have to be very careful.
And therefore, this subject matter is not only important for us as as a practicing devotee who may not be 100% 10% pure, and therefore our mixed motivation will also influence as Śrīla Prabhupāda says.
Why Bhakti has so many varieties? Because of the consciousness of the practitioner. So everyone has specific type of bhakti.
Already we can see there is Russian bhakti, there is Indian Bhakti, there is Chinese Bhakti, there is Bangladeshi Bhakti, all kinds of bhakti already there. So, and everyone thinks that Russian bhakti is the best bhakti.
Chinese bhakti is by far better. So this is all the considerations.
Structure of Bhakti Sandarbha
So let's start. I will mostly base my talk on Bhakti Sandharba and not the whole Bhakti Sandarbha, because there are so many different sections in Bhakti Sandarbha which deal with this subject matter.
But with the section, towards the end of Bhakti Sandarbha. Anuchedas two hundred seventeen two hundred thirty four.
It's eighteen Anuchedas 18 chapters of Bhakti Sandharba, which directly precede the description of the practice of bhakti.
It's very interesting because before Bhakti Sandharba is supposed to describe the process of bhakti, but before taking to the process of bhakti, Jivagaswamy speaks so many chapters, hundreds of chapters, to describe something else.
And only at the very end he starts saying about Shravanam, Kirtanam, Vishnu Smaranam and everything else. Again, because it's very important to be rightly tuned in what is real bhakti. And because it's very easy.
Sravanam is easy, kiranam is easy, but whether it's bhakti or not remains to be seen. So therefore he's not in a rush to say, do this, do this.
First of all, he wants to establish us firmly in a proper consciousness towards what we are doing. To really help us to understand with which consciousness we should perform these practices.
Then only he will describe the practices. The practice is simple. To purify the consciousness in a proper way to perform these practices, that's difficult.
Therefore, Prabhupada says bhakti is very simple, and then he writes, you know, many, many volumes to explain what is bhakti. It's so simple, you know.
And then you need 50 different volumes to explain this simple process. So bhakti is simple in one sense, it's simple in a practical execution. But it's not simple when we're talking about proper execution of bhakti.
Proper execution of bhakti is rare and it's not that simple. So we should not be deceived by the seeming apparent simplicity of the techniques of bhakti. Techniques are simple.
Characteristics and definition of sadhana-bhakti
Consciousness to tune in consciousness properly is difficult. So, first of all, before Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī says a very interesting thing. He takes the definition in in Anucheda 216,
he takes the definition of Bhakti from Garuda Purana and and of sādhana-bhakti. Not of bhakti itself, but of sādhana-bhakti, because we are talking about sādhana-bhakti.
And he asks what is the what is the svarūpa lakṣaṇa of this definition of sādhana-bhakti and what is taṭastha lakṣaṇa?
Because everything which we define should be defined in accordance with these two lakṣaṇas, these two signs. So taṭastha lakṣaṇa of sādhana-bhakti is yayā sarvām avāpyate.
By sādhana-bhakti you can achieve any purpose you want. In other words, taṭastha lakṣaṇa of bhakti is that it's a very powerful process. It's the most powerful process.
It's an essential element in any process, it's the living force of any processes. And if we achieve success in any path, the devotion is the key to success. If we do Hatha Yoga, devotion is the key to success.
The faith in Hatha Yoga, in the process of Hatha Yoga, is the key of success. So bhakti is most powerful. Bhakti, the element of bhakti, is the most powerful.
You can practice hatha-yoga, but if you don't have devotion to this process, if you don't believe in this process, if you are not ultimately devoted to some higher force behind this, you will not be successful in this process of hatha-yoga or any other process, in fact.
So the tatastha-lakṣaṇa of sādhana-bhakti is that it's powerful. But at the same time, you know, we can see that not always we experience the you know the power of bhakti. Anyway, so he goes further and he describes
what is svarūpa-lakṣaṇa of sādhana-bhakti. And he says svarūpa-lakṣaṇa of sādhana-bhakti is tasmāt sevā buddhayai prāktā. The svarūpa-lakṣaṇa of sādhana-bhakti is sevā, is the spirit of service.
So that's the definition of sadhana. Sādhana is can it by sādhana you can achieve anything, by sādhana-bhakti you can achieve practically anything but the very essence of sadhana is this spirit of service? Seva.
And Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī gives a very important definition of what is sevā. Because again, seva is a very vague term. You know, everyone says I am serving, I am a sevaka. He gives a very interesting definition of seva.
He says, such a sevā, kāyika vācika, mānasātmikā tri vidhaivānugatir ucyate. He says sevā is anugati. Sevā is anugati. Sevā is the ability to follow Krishna by our body, by our words and by our mind. That's sevā.
In other words, what is bhakti? Bhakti is bhakti starts when we relinquish our independence. Everyone in this world is under this illusion of independence. I'm independent. I want to do whatever I want. I will do this.
I know better what I should do. So the seva starts when we relinquish this independence and we firmly say to ourselves, I will do what Krishna wants me to do. I will do what my spiritual master wants me to do.
I will do what Śrīla Prabhupāda wants me to do. Then it's then sevā starts. Before this decision, it's not bhakti. Bhakti only starts when there is this spirit. I want to follow. I am the follower.
I'm not independent anymore. Therefore, this is the first difficulty in the pass of Bhakti. Because everyone wants to remain independent. It's very difficult to become the true follower.
And from the very beginning, you know, the definition of, you know, uh I'm I'm the follower. I'm not I'm not I'm not acting independently, I'm not speaking independently, and I'm not even thinking independently.
Even on the level of thinking process, I should try to learn how to think according to the way Krishna wants me to think.
And of course, I should speak the way Krishna wants me to speak, not only about the subject matters, but the way He wants me to speak. With the mood He wants me to speak. Not only acting, speaking and thinking.
That's sādhana-bhakti. So from the very beginning of this definition, we can see that it's not that easy. At the same time, when, when we see different definitions of bhakti, usually the definitions are quite simple.
So bhakti-yoga just, you know, starts with tad-nāma-grahaṇādibhiḥ. Grahanadi Bih. As soon as you start chanting the holy name, this is Bhakti.
So we we see this sometimes you know there is emphasis on it's easy, just start chanting. Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma, Rāma, Hare Hare. By definition, it's bhakti.
At the same time, you know, there is another more strict definitions. You know, please watch out how you do it, with which consciousness you do it.
Varied definitions of devotional service
So and therefore, again, it's it's very important. And therefore, this is what Śrīla Prabhupāda says here. Why there there are different kinds of bhakti? Because there are different conditions of our consciousness.
And due to this we see that there are uh many different varieties of bhakti, and even the acharyas of bhakti schools give different definitions of bhakti.
The definition which Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī gives in Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu is unique because it's so precise. Madhvācārya gives a different definition of bhakti.
Rāmānujācārya gives a completely—Rāmānujācārya gives a very interesting definition of bhakti. He says that you know he gives an example of Marichi. Marichi when.
Then Marīci when he was thrown by the arrow of Lord Rāmacandra into some into Lanka and, oh, whatever. He was thrown far away, you know, then he was very afraid, and whenever he would look, he would see Lord Rāmacandra.
And Rāmānujācārya says, this is pure bhakti. You're so afraid of God then whenever you you look you see him. So but this is not our definition of bhakti. Madhavācārya gives his definition of bhakti.
He says bhakti is the performance of this with a lot of jñāna. He says that bhakti is jñāna, basically. When you really understand who is God, who is you, how to do this, he gives this definition.
Rūpa Gosvāmī says, no, anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyam jñāna-karma-ādy-anāvṛtam ānukūlyena kṛṣṇānuśīlanam. So, anyway, even different ācāryas give different definitions of bhakti. What to speak about us?
There is a very good chance that we will ourselves start our own school of bhakti. I've seen so many so many people who are doing this.
You know, then, you know, it's it's it's going on. This is the process, eternal process which is going on.
Therefore, again, uh we have our own concepts and conceptions and uh and moreover, we are not sometimes very self-analytical, we are not very introspective, and sometimes we don't see all these tendencies within our heart, how we do this mixture.
You know, it's very important for us to hear from somebody else because ourselves we naturally will add all these motivations and impure mixtures into our process of bhakti because of some tinges of impurities.
There is a very interesting episode in Caitanya-caritāmṛta in Antya-līlā. When this brāhmaṇa from Bengal came and he read his drama to the devotees, devotees were totally completely mesmerized by his poetry.
They were so happy, you know, and they were applauding him and they were saying, this is the best poetry, the best drama we have ever heard.
And then Svarūpa Dāmodara Gosvāmī heard it and he said, this is rubbish, this is garbage. This is all this should be thrown into the garbage because there's so much mixture there.
So even the even the followers of Caitanya Mahāprabhu couldn't distinguish this. What to speak about us? It's not so easy.
They didn't recognize the tinges of karma and jñāna in uh in the presentation of this Brahmana from Bengal. So there is a very good chance that we will add some spices of karma and jñāna into bhakti and destroy the whole process.
Okay, that's more or less uh yeah. And another that's one reason why we should study very carefully. Another reason is that there is a lot of debate going on what is bhakti? You know, is uh food for life pure bhakti or not?
Is Harinama-sankirtana pure bhakti or not? Is remembering about Radha-Krishna lila pure bhakti or not? Śrīla Prabhupāda used to say that it's not necessarily pure bhakti. You know the smaraṇaṁ about aṣṭakālīlā. It's not necessarily pure bhakti.
So there was it, in other words, it's not such an obvious thing which we should really understand. Shower in the morning, is it a part of pure bhakti or not? Or is it something else?
Activity forms and practitioner consciousness
So, all these questions we have to know the very clear answers. And Śrīla Jiva Gosvāmī while analyzing this he puts bhakti between different kinds of bhakti, between two axis.
Like you know in geometry, we have axis, you know, vertical axis and horizontal axis. And then in between these two, we can put different kinds of bhaktis,
and the place of this form of bhakti or that form of bhakti will be defined according to its position in these two axes.
So he basically explaining or classifying different kinds of bhaktis, he takes two axes, and one axis is the form of activity. The external form of activity, what we are doing. That's important.
Because you know the position of particular activ bhakti is activity, bhakti is service, so what is the form? That's one description, one way of describing it.
And in another axis, there is a consciousness of the performer.
So we will have pure bhakti, which is you know the whatever, whether it's there in the somewhere very high up, yeah, probably very high up, when the consciousness is very pure and when the very activity is very pure.
But we can perform something which may look like bhakti, like smaraṇam on Krishna līlā. But it will not be pure Krishna Bhakti because the consciousness, the motivation will be impure.
So again, and I will explain now it will be very clear. One is the form or the activity itself, another one is the consciousness of the performer, motivation of the performer.
And the result of our activity directly dependent on these two considerations. What are we doing exactly? And with which consciousness we are doing what we are doing. So therefore, these two things should be there.
Like, for example, you know, very clear thing, you know, we may chant. And chanting is definitely bhakti by form. But if we chant with offenses, these offenses will block the power of bhakti.
Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī gives the example of candrakāntī-maṇi. Candrakāntī-maṇi is a jewel which has the power of moon. And because moon is cooling, this candrakāntī-maṇi makes the fire cooling, it blocks the power of fire.
The natural power of fire, svarūpa-śakti of fire is to burn. But if candrakāntī-maṇi is present, then the fire will not burn, because this power will be blocked.
In the same way, you know, certain blockages within our consciousness will stop the vastu-śakti of bhakti from acting and the result will be different. So that's the that's the general consideration.
Three categories of devotional practices
And Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī, first let's talk about the form. Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī says that if we take the forms of bhakti, there are three types of different forms of bhakti.
One is called āropa-siddha-bhakti, another one is called saṅga-siddha-bhakti, and the third one is called svarūpa-siddha-bhakti. Siddha Bhakti, and the third one is called Swarupa Siddha Bhakti.
So there are, you know, whatever we do in devotional service falls into category of āropa-siddha-bhakti, saṅga-siddha-bhakti and svarūpa-siddha-bhakti. What is, uh, the, the word siddha here means, uh, becoming.
Āropa-siddha-bhakti, uh, means āropa means, uh— aropa means attributive devotion. Aropa means superimposition. We superimpose bhakti on some activity which is not bhakti itself. This is āropa-siddha-bhakti.
I am doing something. You know, whatever it is. I am doing some karma-kāṇḍa sacrifice. Or I'm I'm brushing my teeth or I'm cooking or whatever or I'm doing some Hatha Yoga I'm doing some exercise.
And at the end I say, Krishna Arpanamastu, my dear Krishna, take this. I did it for you. So that's called Āropa-siddha-bhakti. It can be any activity. We will describe it a little later in more details.
But basically, we attribute the quality of bhakti into this activity.
Any activity which we do, uh but we say I'm doing it for Krishna, so that becomes the saving grace that will become the you know the element of bhakti within this activity.
So that's the first time of activity, Āropa-siddha-bhakti. Anything which we do, but at the end we say, Krishna, this is for you. Or we say, I'm doing this, this is my devotional service. Saṅga-siddha-bhakti.
So this activity becomes bhakti due to aropa. Therefore, it's called Āropa-siddha-bhakti. It becomes bhakti because we are superimposing bhakti onto this activity. It's not seva. It's not really service.
We are not doing it as a service to the Supreme, but we are doing something which we like to do, and we say, yeah, this is for him.
Saṅga-siddha-bhakti, uh from the very definition or from the very name Saṅga-siddha-bhakti, it becomes bhakti because it is connected with bhakti.
It is something which is somewhat connected with bhakti which helps us to perform bhakti. Like for example, you know we know that to perform bhakti we need to concentrate our mind.
So if we cultivate certain qualities in our mind, try to purify our mind, make our mind more concentrated, that's Saṅga-siddha-bhakti. We are doing this to help us to perform devotional service.
Or, for example, we are you know we are we are taking shower. It's not service itself, it's not direct service. Of course, it really depends on the consciousness of the performance. It can be direct service.
But let's say we're taking shower, and at the same time, we think while taking shower.
I'm doing this because I need to be clean to perform my service properly, to chant more properly, to make my mind more calm and more peaceful, you know, I'm doing this, then it is Saṅga-siddha-bhakti.
It becomes bhakti because it helps us to perform our service, to execute our service. And then svarūpa-siddhi bhakti, it's bhakti by its very form. In other words, it's something which is always service.
When we chant the name of God, it's svarūpa-siddhi bhakti because it's service. We're serving the Lord. When we glorify the Lord, when we, you know, when we chant kīrtana, it's svarūpa-siddhi bhakti. Siddha Bhakti.
When we read Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam or listen to lectures of Śrīla Prabhupāda, it's svarūpa-siddhi bhakti because by the very form it is the service. The element of service to the Lord.
The Lord as the object of our service is there in the act of this service. So in the act of doing. So, this is the three categories of things which we can do according
Unmotivated versus cheating motivations
to this classification of Bhakti-sandarbha. And then Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī says that all these three things, āropa-siddhi bhakti, saṅga-siddhi bhakti and svarūpa-siddhi bhakti, can be kaitava or akaitava.
Can be with cheating mentality or with wrong motivation or can be with pure motivation with the proper motivation. With the motivation ultimately to please the Lord or to achieve the Lord, to become closer to Lord.
So that's uh that's so we can see, you know, if we take this whole uh area, then we can see there will be uh you know in a plus if in the horizontal axis we have the form of the activities.
So on the positive part of the horizontal axis, we will have all kinds of activities with pure motive. We don't want to cheat, we don't want to achieve something else.
Ultimately, the purpose of whatever we're doing, whether it is āropa, saṅga or svarūpa, the purpose is to please the Lord. So that's akaitava. And then we can do all these things to cheat the Lord.
We can do with some other motivation to gratify our senses, to aggrandize ourselves, to achieve some position in this world, to get some money, prestige, power, whatever, that's kaitava.
The wrong motivation, which will be displeasing to the Lord, which actually will bring another opposite result will bring ruination to us. Because it's very dangerous to do bhakti with the wrong motivation.
So, and whatever we do, we have to be very careful. Therefore, from the very beginning, Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī says: here we already have six kinds of activities, six kinds of bhakti. Aropa Siddha bhakti, Kaitava Nakaitava.
Kaitava Aropa Siddha Bhakti, Akaitava Rodha Sidpa Aropa Siddha Bhakti. Then we have uh Sangha Siddha Bhakti, Kaitava andhaitava. And then we have svarūpa-siddhi-bhakti, kaitava and akaitava.
Already six kinds of bhakti we have in in a very general way general and understand uh understanding of it. So and ultimately only Swarupa Siddha Bhakti, Akaitava Swarupa Siddha Bhakti is the pure bhakti.
Everything else is mixture. Even aropa siddha bhakti and sangha siddha bhakti is mixture. Akaitava svarūpa-siddhi-bhakti is the ideal, is the goal. And we should really understand what it is.
About this, we will speak probably on Saturday.
Characteristics of aropa-siddha-bhakti
Today we will speak about other stuff. Okay, so let's deal in more detail with what is aropa-siddha-bhakti. It's a very common phenomenon, and it's not necessarily bad, but we really clearly have to understand what it is.
It's actually an inevitable element in our practice of bhakti at a certain period of time. We will always start bhakti with this Aropa Siddha Bhakti mentality, which we will explain in a moment.
But I wanted to share some personal incident in my life.
There was a very difficult period in my life when my Guru Maharaj changed his mind and his you know there was quite a drastic change in his uh activities and behavior and speeches.
Uh and uh there was a lot of confusion and bewilderment. And in the course of this, somebody took me to one very powerful Acharya of Gaudiya Mat.
And he, of course, knew about this situation in Iskon, and immediately as soon as he saw me, he made his diagnosis prescription. He basically defined the reason why did it happen?
And he defined the reason why it happened in three words. He said, aropa siddha bhakti. So that was his immediate like this.
I I uh I must say that I I don't agree with this analysis, but uh why am I telling this episode from my life. It's a little simplistic what he did.
Although, you know, there is definitely some element of this, some some sort of. But it's definitely overly simplistic, not necessarily like this. But what I want to say by explaining this, oftentimes,
people, devotees from the outside, especially from some other Gaudia organizations or Gaudiya groups, they look at this con and they blame us. They say, you're not doing pure bhakti, you're doing āropa-सिद्ध bhakti.
They see two strong elements of āropa or of superimposition in our general practices. So that's their criticism.
And there is some basis to this criticism, although again I don't agree with this entirely, and I think this criticism sometimes misinformed or whatever.
But uh and therefore we have to really know whether what we are doing is āropa or it is svarūpa-siddha bhakti, pure devotional service. So So uh that's uh little anecdote uh in this regard, and um uh
Again, āropa-siddha bhakti is the activity which has nothing to do with service to the Supreme Lord externally. But by our consciousness, we are attributing the element of bhakti into this activity.
And the most common example of this kind of activity is the sacrifices to different demigods.
You know, you you do some yaja to Navagraha, to the nine planets, or Or you do some Shani Yagya, you know. There is Shani Mandir here in Vraj, you know.
You go on Saturday to Shani Dev and you bring your jar of mustard seed oil to Shani Dev.
So it has nothing to do, you know, externally, it has nothing to do with the desire to serve the Supreme Lord, to please the Supreme Lord.
But we bring the jar of mustard seed oil to Shani, and we say Kṛṣṇārpanamastu to Krishna, you know, I'm doing it for you. So uh and uh If uh in our Nishama Karma we can be very pure, we can do some Nishama karma.
We don't have any desire, we are doing you know varṇāśrama, we're performing our duties, we don't have any selfish desires. Narada Muni says, useless waste of time. naivopacaryate 'bhūmā varjitaḥ.
If there is no acute bhāva, if if there is no Krishna bhāva, uh desire to please the Lord by this activity, even if it's pure, even if it's very selfless, even if it's service to the humanity, Mānava-sevā Mādhava-sevā, like Vivekananda said. We don't agree with this.
It's not necessarily, it's not by definition Mādhava-sevā. Mānava-sevā is not by definition Mādhava-sevā. Not at all. So basically, Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī says that this āropa-siddha-bhakti can be of three types.
In other words, the activity which has nothing to do with the Supreme Lord but can be designated as bhakti can be three types, can be of three types. The first type is different karmakanda activity, Vaidic activity,
the activity which is recommended by the Vedas. There are so many activities which is recommended by the Vedas, by the Shastras, but they're not necessarily the direct service to the Supreme Lord.
And we can perform this activity and we can say Krishna Arpanamas too. You know, if you go to another, you know, I'm uh I'm quite closely associating with devotees from Madhva Sampradaya, from followers of Madhvacharya.
They often have this phrase: Krishna Arpanamastu. Whatever they do, Krishna Arpanamastu, that's for Krishna. You know. That's basically Aropa Siddha Bhakti, and again it's not necessarily bad.
We have this consciousness I'm doing it for the Lord. So the first type is Vedic activity, Vedika activity. Another type of Aropa Siddha Bhakti can be our daily activities.
Krishna says, Krishna gives this definition of Aropa Siddha Bhakti in
in uh case of our daily activities in the verse of Bhagavad-gītā, 9th chapter, yat karoṣi yad aśnasi yaj juhoṣi dadāsi yat, whatever you do, offer it to me. You know. And why it is āropa?
Because I don't have the consciousness of the servant. I am separate. I am separated myself. I am bhinnadṛk. My vision, my consciousness, my heart is separated. I have this pṛthak-bhāva. I'm not dependent on the Lord.
I'm doing this and then very generously I'm saying, Krishna, this is for you. Yat karoṣi yad aśnasi yaj juhoṣi dadāsi yat. And this is good.
This is some sort of bhakti, āropa-siddha-bhakti in the beginning it's it's necessary. And then the next kind of activity which can be āropa- siddha bhakti is the sinful activity.
Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī says that even sinful activity can be āropa siddha bhakti, can be kind of bhakti.
So the three kinds of activities: Vaidika karma, the daily karma, then you know our ordinary activities, and evil sinful activities, we can do this this trick of designating it as bhakti.
And Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī teaches us how to do this. Even how to how to perform sinful activities as our generous offering to Krishna. So I'm sure you're all intrigued by this prospect. So he says that the
basically, the āropa-siddha bhakti is described in the 11th canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, chapter number 2, verse number 36.
Kāyena vācā manasendriyair vā buddhyātmanā vā anusrṛta-svabhāvāt karoti yat yat sakalam parasmai nārāyaṇāyeti samarpayet sorry. sorry.
So he says uh whatever svabhāva uh it is said in this verse that whatever nature you may acquire by your body, by your speech and by your mind and by your Indria by your, senses, by your Atma, purified
consciousness, you have to worship the Supreme Being, I'm doing all this for the satisfaction of Lord Narayana. That's the definition, the mood, the consciousness of Aropa Siddha Bhakti.
You have certain nature, and this nature impels you to do something. Somebody has kṣatriya nature. And he does some, you know, he wants to control and he has this īśvara-bhāva. He wants to rule and manage.
Somebody has vaiśya nature. Somebody has brāhmaṇa nature. So you can imply your nature svabhāvāt. From this svabhava, you can act, you know, but whatever you do by your body, by your intelligence, by your speech.
You just say Narayana Narayanayati. This is for Narayana. Narayanaya it. You say, you know, Krishna Astu. This is Krishna Svaha. This is for Lord Krishna. This is for Lord Narayana. This is for Samarpayat.
You offer it to him. So, Viswanachakravarti Thakur. Please listen. It's a very interesting point. He explains what is what is āropa-siddha-bhakti in the example of our daily activities? We all do daily activities.
We all brush our teeth, I hope. We all wash our hands, we all you know, take shower, we all eat, we all sleep.
So, Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura says that, you know, if a karmī is doing all these activities throughout the day, you know, we all associate with the members of our family, we all discuss our plans with them.
So if somebody is karmī, he wants to do it by following the prescriptions of this section of the Vedas.
He will do it, but he will have in mind that I'm doing it so that my forefathers would be pleased, demigods would be pleased. I'm doing it with this consciousness, he is doing this.
And, uh, an ordinary person, just you know, rank and file person, he is doing this, uh and uh he is doing this for his own satisfaction.
While he's brushing his teeth, while he's taking shower, he's taking shower and he's thinking, oh, this is nice, you know, I'm so refreshed.
You know, or I'm eating, and he's at the same time thinking, I'm doing this because you know I need a lot of energy to enjoy, to continue enjoying. This is the consciousness behind.
And the devotee is doing this, and he is doing all these daily activities for the satisfaction of the Supreme Lord.
Even while brushing teeth, he's thinking, you know, I'm doing this because I will be chanting Lord's holy name, and if my teeth are not very clean, the holy name will you know will smell the odor of my mouth.
So that's the consciousness, and that's āropa-siddha-bhakti. If we have this consciousness, you know, whatever we do, I'm doing this, I'm doing exercise. For what I'm doing exercise, what is the cause behind my exercise?
You know, ultimately to perform the devotional service, to be more fit you you know, to do this, and that's that will become āropa-siddha-bhakti. That will connect our consciousness while we're performing this activity which is externally disconnected from the Supreme Lord.
And Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī, he gives a very interesting explanation: how to offer duṣkarma, the sinful activities to the Supreme Lord. He gives uh uh He gives a prayer. He gives a few verses which explain the mood.
Somebody is doing some sinful activities. He has this very strong impetus to do something simple, but at the same time he says, Anena Durvasana Dukkha Darśanena Sa Karunamaya Karunam Karotu.
Let the merciful Lord give me His mercy seeing how I am suffering uh by noticing durvāsanā in myself. Anena Durvasana Dukha Darshanena Sa-karunamayah Karunam Karotu.
Let the merciful Lord, Karuṇāmayaḥ, become merciful unto me because He sees how I'm suffering by performing the sinful activities. I know it is sinful. I know it's bad. At the same time, I feel very strong impetus to do it.
I am suffering because of this. I cannot get rid of this, and I'm praying to the Lord, please free me from this durvāsanās, from this, from this, and you know, please be merciful because I am not happy myself.
So in this way even duṣ-karma can become sort of bhakti. By this mentality the sinful activity becomes āropa-siddhi Bhakti. We're turning even sinful activity into the activity of bhakti.
It's not an excuse to perform sinful activities because you really have to feel all this, you have to feel the remorse, but it's the chance to somebody who is just beginning
his devotional path to even purify and sanctify his sinful tendencies by this sort of mentality. He gives some other some other prayers of this uh of this sort.
Mama Sukarmani Dushkarmani Cha Yatra Ca Samanyam Tatsarvatobhavena Bhagavat-vishaya Eva Bhavatu. I want by all my heart I want the attachment which I have to duṣ-karma and su-karma to turn this attachment to you, my Lord.
That's another prayer which turns both su-karma and duṣ-karma into the activity of the Lord. We see I have very strong impetus or desire to do something.
Sinful activity, or even pious activity. But it's not connected with the Lord whatsoever.
But by noticing this impetus within myself, I'm praying to the Lord. Oh my Lord, let the same force, the same impetus which is there, which pushes me to do this activity, let the same impetus will be turned into my service to you.
So this is how we should deal with this.
And Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī says very interesting, many interesting things in this regard. He says, if somebody, if somebody offers the fruits of his karma to the Lord, then the fruits of his karma may exceed all his expectations.
The fruits may become completely amazing.
If if you have this mentality, you're doing this, you're more or less, you you feel that you have to do it, you are forced to do it by maybe social obligations or by some other things.
Uh but if you do it, you know, with this mentality, I'm doing it for the Lord, then the fruit will be more than if you do it with the ordinary consciousness. And another element very important.
If we do this, if we sincerely offer this to the Lord, then there will not be any consequences of this activity. Neither bad nor good. We are removing the poisonous element from karma. We are doing karma.
We are doing karmic activities, but we sincerely within our hearts saying, My dear Lord, this is for you, I'm not going to enjoy the fruits of these activities, please take it.
So the Lord will accept this offering of us and He will free us from the karmic element of it. We will be purified, you know. And again, the key word here is svabhava. Our svabhava pushes us to do something.
We are more or less forced to do it by our svabhāva. And uh and if we do it with this mentality of Āropa-siddhā-bhakti, it will purify us. So, uh, in other words, Āropa-siddhā-bhakti is acceptable. It's not bad.
It becomes akaitava Āropa-siddhā-bhakti if the goal of Āropa-siddhā-bhakti is ultimately to achieve devotion to the Lord, to achieve bhakti to the Lord.
So in all these three sections: Vaidek activity, ordinary activity, or
even sinful activity, if the goal of this is very clearly established. I want to achieve bhakti to the Lord, love and service to the Supreme Lord. And therefore, I'm doing this and offering this to the Lord, then it's okay, then it's a kaitava.
But if I do this and I offer it to the Lord, oh my dear Lord, but at the same time I have this, you know, I heard this that the fruit will be more if I offer to the Lord.
And I am offering to the Lord because I want bigger fruit. Because Jiva Goswami says that, you know, uh, that the fruit fruit will be more, impressive, exceed my expectations. So then it's Kaitava. The motivation is wrong.
So this Āropa-sid-dha-bhakti again, the proper motivation is that I'm doing this uh to achieve the devotion to the Lord. And uh and therefore it's a good starting point in our devotional service.
We have to start somewhere, and that's a good starting point with this Aropa Siddha Bhakti. Yes, Pranga Vinda Prabhu. Uh okay. And Padmanayan Prabhu. The questions.
Maharaj, please accept my obeisances, all glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda. I'm so happy to see you. Hare Krishna, I'm happy to see you. It must be very early in Florida. Where are you?
Yeah, I my class started at uh two thirty in the morning.
Questions on aropa-siddha-bhakti
That's definitely, Svarūpa Dāmodara Mahārāja, your explanation is really excellent in one sense. So I have a few questions, I don't know maybe, I'll ask because one question because others are there.
But in this regarding āropa-siddha-bhakti, I don't I see the similar pattern in karma-yoga, 3.9, Bhagavad-gītā, yajñārthāt karmano, Arjuna says, What if I am qualified for jñāna-yoga? Krishna is still pressuring him to do karma-yoga, not jñāna-yoga.
Even though he may be qualified, because uh what uh assume nature's quality to fight, uh, it has to be purified by engaging. Am I right? Is this similar? Yeah, it is the same. It's it's karma yoga, yeah.
You can call it karma-yoga, karma-miśrā-bhakti. You know, it's it's karma-yoga in a, it's not pure karma-yoga. It's karma-yoga in a sense of Bhagavad-gītā, which is actually not karma-yoga in a pure sense, it's karma-miśrā-bhakti.
Śrī Krishna does not recommend pure karma-yoga, you know, classical karma-yoga, so to speak. He recommends karma-miśrā-bhakti. And therefore I said there is a place of Arupa Siddha Bhakti. It's a good starting point because it purifies our nature and it frees us from all kinds of consequences of our karma. So it's not necessarily bad.
But we should not also insist or continue doing this sarūpa-siddhi-bhakti. Sīda bhakti. After some time we should really understand what is svarūpa-siddhi-bhakti, which will be the topic of our next class session. Okay.
Yes, Padmanayana Prabhu. Hare Krishna. Very happy to see you today. Yes. Happy to see you.
Maharaj, when you are explaining about svarūpa-siddhi-bhakti, yesterday you did mention about this ākaitava, it has to be akaitava. Goal to be to please to exclusively serve the Lord, Krishna.
So then you explain that if the goal is to please Krishna, then that is actually sūrp-siddha and shuddha. Pure. Okay. Okay. That is what actually we're supposed to be doing. We must be doing.
But my question is here when we speak about you know when you discuss
about the definition of your devotional service, ānukūlyasya saṅkalpaḥ prāatikūlyasya varjanam. And Prabhupāda in his commentary he said very clearly here Krishna means Krishna, Krishna sambandhini—it kind of you know connects all those items to Krishna.
So then my question is when we are in a you know society my question is when we are in a you know society where we have to deal with different kind of devotees and when we say we
have to go from sārūpa-siddhi-bhakti that has to be akaitava and then it define in relation to Krishna means Krishna, Krishna is devotee also it's kind of automatically included.
Then my confusion is, in the society all devotees are in kind of you know having their kind of no pure thought and approach because sometimes
you can see there is some sort of duplicitous mentality. I don't whether it is right to say it like that or not, but sometimes it becomes you know very prominent,
very obvious that the devotee comes to you and he speaks in a particular way but from behind you can see he's kind of totally acting in a different way. No, many times we have perceived this.
So then many say our bhakti should be right, our sarūpa-siddhi-bhakti to please with the you know intention, our intention should be to please Krishna means then here, I'm not stopping there. Krishna means Krishna, Krishna devotee.
So when is this pure heart, pure desire, but I can see in his activity, he's kind of you know doing something different, which brings a kind of more question to my faith on what I am practicing or whether I am in a quiet situation or not.
Therefore, you don't have to please him, no problem. You don't have to please him.
You know when we when we talk about we will talk about this on Saturday, more about this pure devotional service, what this svarūpa-siddhi-bhakti is, and you know how to perform it.
But basically, you know, yes, we we have to please the Lord, and we have to please the Lord's devotees.
But you know, if somebody is not pleased and he happened to be devotee, it does not necessarily disqualify us because if our motivation is to please the Lord and we're sincerely trying to please the Lord and by the way, we're displeasing somebody who may not be a bhakta himself, so there's not a big deal, you know, let him be displeased. No problem.
It does not disturb the purity of our motivation. You know, sometimes devotees will be displeased with what we're doing.
And it may be the proper displeasure because they see that we are doing something improperly, but not necessarily so. Sometimes they will be displeased because we are not pleasing their material ego.
Uh and uh okay fine mm you know it's whatever. Yes, Kamala Lochan Prabhu, Hare Krishna.
Vedic sacrifices and proper intent
Yeah uh I when I when I see when I read something that is why Okay, okay, fine, fine, fine, whatever you whatever you uh uh so I just uh I don't know but it happens like that when I when I when I read something and then uh showed it, the picture doesn't come. Yeah.
Uh Marsh, I basically just spawned it's a it's a big question, long question. Uh because a long time confusion for many years. Uh I come from uh I was born in Madhva-sampradaya and
uh uh when I got Prabhupada's books uh uh initially the pingala is there, I started uh going blah blah blah about Madhva-sampradaya, their practices and then say pure devotional, your karma, your tattva-vadi.
But uh in the course of my study of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam a few years back, Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura's commentary on Bhāgavatam, that is five point seven point six, tenth canto, seventh chapter, sixth verse. It describes that Bharata Mahārāja, he performed all the yajñas very skillfully having a priest, a Vedic priest performing the rites.
So there is a purport, Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura says that uh the Lord has said tāvat karmāṇi kurvīta yā na nirvidyeta uh uh completed attraction for Krishna-kathā, we have to perform karma. Now he raises a question: how is that Bharata Mahārāja,
A person who is qualified for pure devotion with deep faith in the topic of Lord Krishna, without any material desire, performed karma-yoga and engaged in the uh and enjoyed results. This verse answers the question.
I will summarize the entire purports. He says that Bharata Mahārāja did not do karma directly, he appointed a ṛtvik. He was only the sponsorer, he was not directly doing that. Number one.
Still a person who is a parama-bhāgavata, he can be in the platform of pure devotional service, even at the level of bhāva, can do karma. If somebody is a sponsor in which the devatās are worshipped.
The uh the translation goes like this.
He thought of Vāsudeva, the enjoyer of the results of sacrifices, Yajña-puruṣa, as a controller of the devatās, who are the gods of Purusha, as a control of the Devatas, who are the gods of
the mantras which reveal the devatās. Sarva-devatā-liṅgānaṁ, so it says. And last, uh one more point, any points are there?
One more point is when Bharata Mahārāja was sitting in the sacrifice, when the āhuti was given, the pūjā is going on: idam indrāya svāhā idam na mamendrāya namaḥ, Bharata Mahārāja was thinking that this is the hand of Krishna, Indra is the hand of Krishna.
So basically when I read this thing, then I went to Palimaru Svamiji, and then I had a long discussion. Till now I was just thinking this karma-miśrā-bhakti is what is proposed by your ācārya Madhvācārya.
Then he laughed at me and then explained. The same point. He told, when the Madhvas do karma... he told me what is happening these days, don't ask me.
ask me, but if you go to the pure siddhānta, what Madhvācārya has established is not jñāna-miśrā or karma-miśrā, but it is pure bhakti. or Karma Mishra, but it is pure bhakti.
And then he quoted pretty uh surprisingly, he told when Madhvācārya says jñāna, it is not referring to impersonal jñāna, not just another jñāna. Of course. It is different to bhakti. Yes.
And it was similar to ninth chapter, first second verse. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Where Krishna says... yes. So it is actually bhakti. Yeah yeah. Yeah yeah. So now how do we understand?
Because all my relatives, they are all just into these sacrifices. Uh when when I had to go to uh uh my house and all I I did a mistake for ten years uh just uh criticizing the samprada in which I was born.
Or am I am I confused?
I just want to know about it from your from your uh uh this thing is madva sampradaya madhva acharya is uh talking only about uh uh aravitavakti karma rapit bhakti or uh is he talking about your devotion See
again, let's uh thank you for this question. It's difficult question, but and well, you know, it requires a long answer. I'll I'll try to be short.
You know why we don't call these Vedic sacrifices as such as Swarupa Siddha Bhakti? Because by the form it uh it's not the service to the Lord. It's not the service to the Lord.
It can be the service to the Lord by the consciousness of the performer, as you said. It becomes the service to the Lord through the consciousness of performer.
Performer, you know, as you said, we are doing some sacrifice to Indra and performances.
Yes, Indra is the hand of Krishna, and therefore, or he thinks, and therefore, in his mind, he turns this or he superimposes the pure bhakti into this act which is not directly pleasing to the Lord.
Because the Lord is not sitting in you know goloka dhama Vrindavan and you know thinking you know now forever this this person is doing some sacrifice for Indra. Very good, very good.
So it is a it is a devotional service. And it's not bad. And there is a room for this Aropa Siddha Bhakti in many, many regards. And we should not criticize it. And by the consciousness of the performer, it can be purified.
The only problem is that normally when people do it, they usually don't do this. into pure devotional service.
And they single-heartedly think, you know, okay, let's do this Navagrahayage because I need some protection from these nine planets or this or that.
So therefore Acharyas they're not so much into it but they also say you know they explain what are the relationship with this demigod worship. How we can how the demigod worship is actually acceptable. That it's not bad.
We should not condemn it. We shouldn't offend other people. If people see that the demigods are servants of the Lord, and they worship the demigods as the servants of the Lord, that's fine.
You know, like here in Vraja, we have this Shani temple, and in Vraj, everyone is the servant of the Supreme Lord.
So, you know, if we go to Shani and we worship Saturn with this consciousness that he is the servant of the Lord and I am doing this, that's fine.
You know, it may not be the highest high-class devotional service, but it's a devotional service, and it's you know, depending on the purity of the performer, it can be.
Like Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī also gives the example of a pure devotee who was forced to worship Śiva liṅgam. And while worshipping Śiva-liṅgam, you know, he, he was forced to do it and he started meditating that the Lord
is within the heart of this Shiva-liṅgam.
And then when the and he started offering the mantras of Narasiṁhadeva, Om Narasiṁhāya svāhā, and then this Śiva-liṅgam burst into two and Narasiṁhadeva appeared from this. So it very much depends on the consciousness of the performer.
And if you know if people have the proper siddhānta and proper understanding they can do it. But you know usually people don't do it with this consciousness, and that's also quite clear.
I don't know if I answered you, but we should not criticize others, but we should try to help them to understand how to do it more properly, like you did by
going to this Phalaharī Maṭha Swamiji and asking his understanding.
You know, I'm not criticizing, and definitely when, when Madhvācārya speaks about bhakti and mentions the word jñāna, he doesn't mean it, definitely he doesn't mean it in impersonal jñāna. He definitely means that, that the bhakti becomes pure when it is coupled with the knowledge of the śāstras, with the understanding of the śāstras. Basically, when he says that there is some jñāna. Performance of jñāna, the bhakti becomes pure, he means the knowledge of sambandha-jñāna, the proper knowledge of the śāstras, definitely. There is no doubt about it.
Nevertheless, you know if we analyze very clearly the definition of bhakti is not so clear.
We are not criticizing everyone, but we are glorifying Rūpa Gosvāmī's definition, which is amazing. One more spawn point about that. Yeah.
Now the Gauḍīya Maṭha thing, uh, what you started off with, uh, that, uh, uh is, you know, Rūpānuga bhakti is contained in that. It is very common and a well-known fact because our pujari is a Bengali and he has, he is, he was in the Gauḍīya Maṭha before and joined ISKCON. and joined his con. So we have quite often Shastarata with him.
Um basically they have a point to say uh uh why it is āropa-siddha-bhakti. Uh but at the same time uh the when you see Archana, which is actually pure devotional service.
From a broader perspective, then what we are doing in ISKCON, running even Govinda's, running uh building temples, uh having uh you know parish halls um and um even doing some food for life um uh th this different all these things um uh can be pure devotional service.
Can be. No doubt about it. It can be.
Again, it very much depends on the consciousness of performer and it can be pure devotional service in a sense that it purifies our höring it for pure devotional service and it's it's the same thing which Nārada Muni is Narada Muni says that how you cure the disease, you cure the disease of karma by employing the same karma basically.
You know, we have disease, we have this uh but we cannot call this as āropa siddha-bhakti. Uh because the consciousness consciousness is pure. Uh then how can it be called as a preparation for no no.
No it can be it is a bhakti. If it is if it is by see if we're building the temple for the Lord for the pleasure of the Lord. That's not āropa-siddha-bhakti.
If our consciousness is pure and if we are doing this, this is not. This is Pāda-sevana. This is basically, you know, our humble offering to the Supreme Lord for His pleasure.
But if we are doing some other things which may not be directly connected with the service of the Lord, it can be āropa-siddha-bhakti, but there is nothing wrong with āropa-siddha-bhakti.
They uh in um blaming ISKCON that we are doing too much Aropa Siddha Bhakti, they don't understand that this is a this is a you know very essential part of devotional service due to the whole you know understanding and the goal of it.
much āropa-siddha-bhakti, they don't understand that this is a this word. Whereas in Gaudiya Math it's a bad word. And uh you know what can we do? This is their understanding.
But this is not this is not Jīva Gosvāmī's understanding, and it's definitely not Śrīla Prabhupāda's understanding. It has its place and it has very important place and there's nothing wrong with it.
It's just we have to understand the whole picture and be very clear that this is the activity which I am doing to obtain the pure devotional service. Okay, I'm just thank you. We have many questions. What shall we do?
I don't know, maybe Risikumar Prabhu will ask his question because he's for a long time and the rest—Rukhmini, Krishnananda, Kumarsan, Karsan, Nitaisavya, Sati Prabhu—maybe we can postpone it for a little bit at the end because I want at least to finish with this Āropa-siddha-bhakti and a little bit about uh because you know it's a lot of things to do.
Yes, Rishi Kumar Prabhu. Anadrahman grateful for the association. Privilege to hear from you. Maharaj, my question is uh, prathama-dṛṣṭi, it seems as if uh we
give the definition of uh yukta-vairāgya is nirbandhaḥ kṛṣṇa-sambandhe. So āropa-siddha sounds exactly like that, that which is completely unrelated in a way. You can't think it's something like a force fitting of it. But yet if it is done with a reasonable consciousness, like which is what you just said right now. So how is it different in that sense? It's it's almost like yukta vairagya then. It's just about different things.
Yukta-vairāgya. Uh, the definition of yukta-vairāgya, which Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī gives in Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, is basically the mood. Rasāmṛta-sindhu is basically the mood.
You know what he defines what Vairagya is, and he warns us from prematurely renouncing things which can be used in Krishna's service. Here we are describing it from a different angle.
We are describing it from the angle of understanding how to designate this sort of activity.
You know, if it is because uh in uh in this definition of Yukta Vairagya, where the Vairagya, the the spirit of Vairagya is being defined, you know, there are many different things, not necessarily a āropa-siddha-bhakti. It can be different things.
It's just a different definition, different tatva is being defined. Here we're defining the activity, how to understand what we are doing and what is the consciousness of the performer.
And you know, because the same activity like brushing the teeth can be pure devotional service, can be Sangha Siddha Bhakti, can be Aropa Siddha Bhakti, can be karma, can be karmakanda. It's the same activity.
But depending on the consciousness of the performer, we will have uh we will have different results of it. Uh it can be r it can be pure devotional service.
If if you brush the teeth and you think you know I'm doing it because because Krishna wants me to do it, because this is the order of my spiritual master, because this Sanātana Gosvāmī says I have to do it and this is in line with this, you know, that's that's a part of pure devotional service.
And nothing to do with it. It's not Aropa Siddha Bhakti, it's not Sangha Siddha Bhakti, it's it's Swarupa Siddha Bhakti.
And I'm doing it uh you know connected with the Lord in the consciousness of being the servant, the dasa. So it's just different, different categories being defined. Okay.
So if you allow me, I will quickly go further because there are a few more points which we have to go. So we spoke about Aropa Siddha Bhakti and when Aropa Siddha Bhakti becomes akaitava when it is acceptable.
If the goal of this is to achieve the devotional service and to purify the heart, it's a good start.
But the problem of Arupa Siddha Bhakti is that we still, our consciousness is still disconnected from the Lord. We are separate and the Lord is separate.
Because the very act of offering the results of my activity means that I didn't offer myself to the Lord.
If initially, before doing any activity, I already offered anything which I do myself to the Lord, then automatically whatever I do and all the fruits belong to the Lord.
If I am a slave of somebody, then whatever I do, the fruits of it don't belong to me.
The very fact that I feel that I'm doing something and there is some fruits and I'm entitled to offer these fruits to the Lord means that I'm separating myself from the Lord. There is a separate ego.
And therefore it's it's you know there is some separatedness.
Whereas some prithagbhava, whereas the ideal pure devotional service is this condition of our consciousness when we are I'm Dasa, I'm I'm the servant all the time, and therefore there is no separate fruits which I have to offer to the Lord. Everything anyway belongs to Him and He is the enjoyer of these fruits.
Characteristics of sanga-siddha-bhakti
Okay, so Sangasida Bhakti. You know, as I said, if something which we do can help our bhakti, like control of mind, meditation, understanding that I'm not this body. It's not the service itself by its very form,
but it's helpful in our service. It can help in our service.
And Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī, usually, you know, there is a lot of confusion about this: svarūpa-siddhi-bhakti, saṅga-siddhi-bhakti. Siddha bhakti, saṅga-siddhi bhakti.
Oftentimes people say arūpa-siddhi bhakti, it's karma-miśrā-bhakti, and saṅga- siddhi bhakti is jñāna-miśrā-bhakti.
It's not necessarily like this, at least according to Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī, how he explains this in Bhakti-sandarbha, which is the foundational text for us.
You know, because Sangasiddha Bhakti can belong to the category of jnana and can belong to the category of karma as well.
So, saṅga-siddhi bhakti, it's when I feel that I cannot properly practice my bhakti without doing this or that or this, without you know meditation.
I'm doing some meditation and I feel that I will not properly perform bhakti. In other words, there is a little mixture here.
We don't trust the svarūpa-siddhi bhakti, we don't trust the power of svarūpa-siddhi bhakti to purify and to make us competent to perform bhakti 100%.
But we still have this little contamination that I need to do something else to perform bhakti properly. I need to develop certain qualities in myself. i.e., the quality of compassion.
It basically means that I don't believe that by practicing bhakti the compassion will be developed automatically.
Or I think that I definitely have to develop renunciation, and my endeavor to develop renunciation becomes a separate endeavor.
It's one thing if I'm performing bhakti and I'm really getting into bhakti, and the renunciation becomes the side effect of my uh strong practice of bhakti.
And in another thing is that I think you know no really to to do bhakti, I I to to perform bhakti properly I really have to practice renunciation. I have to fast, you know, very strictly, rigidly, eat only one time a day.
You know, this is Sangha Siddha Bhakti. I'm doing this and I have this little separate mentality that only if I do this I will be successful in my bhakti.
Whereas we know that the success of bhakti lies in the understanding that everything else is the side effect of bhakti, not that we have to do something separate to achieve the success in bhakti, that bhakti is self-sufficient.
Also, like, sorry, Rūpa Gosvāmī says this in Bhakti-rasāmṛta- sindhu. He says inืน the initial stages of bhakti, jnana renunciation and jnana understanding I am not this body
or performing varṇāśrama can be helpful, can be beneficial. So, sādhana-bhakti again, it's not a bad thing, although there is some little you know, tinge of separatist mentality in the performance of this type of bhakti.
But Śrīla Rupa Goswami says it can be helpful. There is nothing wrong with it unless we make undue emphasis on these kind of activities.
Unless we try to, you know, to emphasize separately, yes, I have to develop renunciation. Yes, I have to develop the you know purity of my heart. This and that.
I don't like for example, the classical example of ārōpa- siddha-bhakti, sorry, sāṅga-siddha-bhakti is the verses 8 to 12 from the 13th chapter of Bhagavad-gītā. 13th chapter of Bhagavad-gītā describes the qualities of knowledge, amanitvam, adambitvam, ahimsa kshanti, rjavam, and so on and so forth.
So this is the classical example. And sometimes we can see the description of devotional service which also belongs to this type of bhakti.
It's sāṅga-siddha-bhakti, but it has when the description of the sadhana is being done, it has these elements of some other things which are not really the direct devotional service, but they're not bad and they're included into this sadhana.
Śrīla Jīva Goswami gives as example of this mixed with sāṅga-siddha-bhakti sādhana, the description of bhakti-sādhana by Kapiladeva in the twenty-ninth chapter of Bhagavad-gītā. Oh, sorry, of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
In the same 29th chapter, which we read in the verses 15th Śrī Kapiladeva describes this sāṅga-siddha-bhakti. And he says, for example, the text number 18.
A devotee should always try to hear about spiritual matters and should always utilize his time in chanting the holy name of the Lord. His behavior should always be straightforward and simple.
And although he is not envious but friendly to everyone, he should avoid company of persons who are not spiritually advanced.
So there are some and the previous verse: the pure devotees should execute devotional service by giving the greatest respect to the spiritual master and acharyas. He should be compassionate to the poor and make friendship with persons who are his equals, but all his activities should be executed under regulations and control of the senses. Again, the same kind of stipulations are there.
You know, there is elements of pure devotional service as such. The elements of activities which by the very essence is the devotional service the service to the Lord?
And then there are some other mixtures of other things which are not bad, which are helpful to devotional service, but may kind of shift our emphasis sometimes.
We can see it, you know, sometimes people become too much into, you know, austerities and they perform austerities and you austerities, which ultimately
may not be helpful because we know that vairāgya is good when it is a by-product of devotion. When it's cultivated separately, it may bring about the dryness of the heart and may
become not beneficial for devotional service and will become the subject of pride.
Devotees will become proud because I'm so advanced and I'm so renounced, and you are who you are, who you think you are, and you will just be very haughty and proud and ultimately commit the offences.
So, like Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī, when we glorify the renunciation of Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī, he was sleeping for two hours a day, he was only eating very little buttermilk every second day, this and that, that's fine.
But we should understand that he didn't cultivate it separately. He he was not, you know, performing the special diet, you know, to this. That was the natural outcome, the natural byproduct of his devotion.
He was so absorbed and so blissful because of his devotional activities that he he didn't feel the need to do this. So but we being inspired by this description may shift our emphasis into this.
And that will become our upāsī-bhakti, which again is okay in the beginning, but uh not maybe beneficial at the end of the day. And just one more little thing. What about humility? Because somebody may ask usually when
people say about sādhana-siddha-bhakti, they say sādhana-siddha-bhakti is the attempt to develop certain qualities which will be beneficial for our devotional service. So is it the developing of humility?
Is it svarūpa-siddha-bhakti or is it sādhana-siddha-bhakti? Yes, it can be sādhana-siddha-bhakti. And therefore, the verses 8 to 12
from the 13th chapter of Bhagavad-gītā start with humility. You don't demand you know the uh honor and respect and uh you're not really dambhika, you're not really proud. It can be aṅga-siddha bhakti, but it can
be also Swarupa Siddha Bhakti. If we understand that humility is the natural quality of a servant, and we want to become the servant, we want to serve. Our main motivation is to develop the excellence of service
and to be the, you know, to be the follower, the follower of Krishna, the follower of spiritual master, the follower of Śrīla Prabhupāda, if we uh you
know, if we develop humility in the context of service or as the precondition to service. Not really precondition. Precondition is Aropa Siddha. Āropa Siddha, sorry, Saṅga Siddha Bhakti.
But if it's concomitant factor of service, if it's
an attribute of service, then it's not, then it's Svarūpa Siddha Bhakti, and therefore, Sanātana Gosvāmī in Bṛhad-bhāgāmṛta he says that humility, dainya, and premā are basically interdependent.
The humility brings prema and prema brings more humility. The prema or bhakti makes you more humble and humility gives you more prema or more devotion or more service attitude. Therefore, humility is different.
Whereas such things as control of the mind, meditation, purity of the mind is āropa saṅga, saṅga Siddha bhakti. So that's a little bit uh little bit about this part of things.
Let me see if I have something else which I missed. Yeah. Anyway, so more or less said everything so
I wanted also to touch today some other things about the mentality of the performer, but apparently we will have to do it next time on uh on on on Saturday.
Questions on pure devotion and conclusion
So let's uh uh answer the other questions which we have. So Nandakumar Prabhu, please. Oh no, Rukmini Krishna Prabhu please. You ask your question. Thank you so much. Thank you so much Maharaj.
It was wonderful and uh very thought provoking. My question Maharaj regarding this Saṅga Siddha Bhakti, if you try to chant with a sambandha-jñāna, it will be Saṅga Siddha or Svarūpa Siddha?
No, no, no, no, see, no, it's Svarūpa Siddha Bhakti.
It's definitely Svarūpa Siddha Bhakti because we're chanting. Our intention uh is the uh you know pleasing to the Lord, we know that if we chant with sambandha-jñāna, it's more pleasing to the Lord because we want to sambandha-jñāna basically the understanding that I am not separate from the Lord. I am already connected with the Lord. So this chanting is more pleasing to the Lord.
No, it's not. It's definitely svarūpa-siddhi-bhakti. Svarūpa-siddhi and like if if I'm trying to control my mind by this analysis, I'm not this body and this uh soul, then it can be saṅga-siddhi-bhakti.
Yeah, that's saṅga-siddhi-bhakti. If if I you know really try to emphasize this point and I try to control my mind by meditating on this, I'm not this body, then it's saṅga- siddhi-bhakti. Thank you so much. Thank you.
Yes, Nanda Kumar Prabhu, Hare Krishna. All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda. Please accept my humble obeisances. Sorry for absence of video because my internet is very poor.
So my question uh regarding these devotees who cannot recognize faults in this poetry of this brāhmaṇa. So can you kindly elaborate a little bit more about
this because looks like that way ignorance don't become obstacles and then become personal associates uh associates
of uh Lord Caitanya or it's uh because to some uh example for example uh what is the way uh distinguish uh way case? What is the difference between um Svarūpānanda, for example? He was also like this uh kind of I don't know how to say nīla particle and uh in these circumstances he manifests this. Or he just uh manifests his free will.
So it means these devotees looks like they also can uh fall in some kind of situation like this. So can you kindly elaborate about this kind of devotees? Nu är det så sorry. Först av allt. Vi ska bli very klar.
För oss alla vård is för Lord Chaitanya are nitya-siddhas. Naratamdas Thakur says that you can achieve the success in devotional service only if you consider the followers of Lord Chaitanya.
If we start distinguishing this is this, this is that, you know, it will be very dangerous for us, especially in our neophyte condition. We should not distinguish among these.
I gave this example only because only to say that you know it's uh all these nuances uh are not so simple and even the pure devotees the direct followers of Lord Chaitanya may not distinguish all this nuances.
It does not really diminish their devotion. They are pure devotees, they are, you know, super pure devotees, no problem.
I just gave this example for us to to emphasize that we should be very sensitive in our approach to devotional service and we should distinguish the, we should develop this very acute sense
of what is pure devotional service. And of course, we shouldn't be paranoid, but we should really clearly understand this is the pure devotional service.
Like for example, you know, we are not talking about these nuances because in the poetry of this Bengali poet. It was a nice poetry, and ultimately Svarūpa Dāmodara Gosvāmī explained it in a very devotional way, too.
But there was some rasa-bhāsa, some little, you know, misunderstanding and the devotees were not sensitive enough. And basically I gave this example only for us to not to judge these devotees.
These devotees are pure, but for us to emphasize that we need to develop this sense.
And you know what it means that you know somebody gives class and he becomes very enthusiastic and he calls us let's do this and let's do this. Okay, fine. That may be good.
But you know we should also we should not criticize this. We should be very respectful and very, you know, very appreciative of his enthusiasm. But not necessarily we should do everything.
You know, sometimes I heard devotees were uh saying, you know, emphasizing for example, you know, austerities, too much austerities, or this or that.
You know, we should have very balanced and proper way uh without going into criticism but at the same time understanding and preaching in a very balanced way. That's that's the whole idea.
Try to preach to others in a balanced way and uh be introspective, understand our motivations, be careful about our motivations, uh, and not to so that's the only purpose, not to criticize the followers of Lord Chaitanya, otherwise we will just go to hell.
Thank you so much, Hare Krishna. Okay. So Savyasachi Prabhu was was had his hand before. Yes. Hare Krishna. Please accept my humble obeisances. Hare Krishna, please accept mine.
Maharaj, will it be correct to say that the aitaita variety of all the three, whether it is Arub Sitta, Sandasitta or Saru Chitta, they are they belong to Anya Vilashitta verse.
The corresponding definition of Rupa Goswami of pure devotional services. It is equivalent to the Atayptava variety of all these three
because when we are in this material body, uh it is in that it we have to have to brush our teeth if they have but a body. But if we are doing it purely to his Apaitava
And then it is also in the category of uh anya birashita shunya verse because in that verse it is said anashita shunya janakarma shiana So this in the Yes.
Yes, it can be categorized as the Utama Bhakti if we employ jnana karma uh in In the service of the Lord, and if our intention, if our motivation is to please the Lord, Krishna Nusilanam, yes,
we can perform jnana and practices of jnana and bhakti and we are performing practices of jnana and bhakti in our daily activities, jnana and karma in our daily activities, but we have to be really clear about our motivation then the motivation should be uh Krishna Nusilanam. That uh this is Anukulyana Krishna Anu Shilanam.
We're doing and and therefore Srila Rupa Gaswami uses this Anu Shilanam because Silajiva Gaswami explains what is Shildhattu. Schild datu basically means any activity. Shildatu, any activity can be classified into this.
Therefore, he he specifically used this very broad datu in this. So, yes, it's definitely like this. So, the main emphasis is the motivation.
If the motivation is pure, then we can m perform uh jnana and karma uh activities uh m and it will fall into this category. Yes.
So uh yeah, uh Padmanain Prabhu uh well uh uh you can ask your question or we're already over time. I don't know this question. Very short question, Maharaj.
I'm not taking time. Um in dativer state Maharaj when we are doing So this is like you know a preparatory act to form to enter into the worship of the project.
So that aspect of our service is can be defined as a sādhya-siddha bhakti?
No, it will become sādhana-siddha bhakti only if we emphasize this as a separate practice, as a separate practice, and we practice it separately, you know, as a separate sort of meditation.
It's a prescribed part of the deity worship of Archana, so it's not. It's a part of Archana, it's an integral part of Archana. Svarūpa-siddhi. Svarūpa-siddha-bhakti, yes.
Okay, so Saṅkarṣaṇa, I had a question, but maybe, uh, Prāṇagovinda — okay, short question, and then we'll — short question, Mahārāja, just to clarify.
Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura on Śikṣāṣṭaka, uh, he gave a commentary that when pure bhakti is performed, four results in the heart appear, and one of them is humility, dainya, dayā. He gives like that sequence.
But that's a means automatically performer is with a pure consciousness following Guru's instruction, then this byproduct I would say, uh, manifest dainya.
But then when Prabhupāda was asked what is the definition of dainya, he said you have to do something bold. So it seems like a separate endeavor, is emphasized by Prabhupada. No, no. Prabhupada emphasizes the mood.
When he says you have to do something bold, he basically says you have to really understand I'm the servant of the Lord, like Hanumān. He has this boldness because he's the servant of the Lord and he knows I'm doing it for the service of the Lord.
So Prabhupāda explains dainya in these terms because he tries to explain to us what is the internal mood. The mood is that I'm the servant of the Lord, therefore why should I be shy? I should be bold.
If this is the boldness, if the boldness is the result of this consciousness that I am the servant of the Lord, so that's that's what it is. That's dainya, yeah. That's the separate manifestation. Thank you very much. Okay.
Thank you very much. I'm sorry for being a little over time. So thank you very much. Okay. So next time Saturday, right? Yes. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Hare Krishna. Śrīla Prabhupāda ki jaya! Śrīla Prabhupāda ki jaya! Hare Krishna.