Stages of Bhakti. Two Types of Faith
Бхакти Вигьяна Госвами · Алтай · 2008
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Stages of bhakti and mercy
The following class is the second lecture of the seminar called Stagus of Bhakti, given by His Holiness Bhaktivigyan Goswami Maharaj in Haltai, Russia, Omnamo Bhagavate Vasudevaya Omnamo Ohna Bagavate Vasudevaya Let's
read together these two verses from the Bhakti Rasamrita Sindhu Adoshradata Sadu Adosradata Sadu Sangota Bajana Kriya Tato Narthani Vritishat, Vatonartani Vrithishat, Tato Nishta Ruchistata, Uchistat Athasakti Satbavas, Tatahprima Bhyodanchati, Tatah Prima Yodanchati, Sadhakanam ayam prema, Pradur Bav Krama, Hadur Bhavam.
Had os radhataqsum, adoshradata sadhum, sangotha bhajanakriya, sangotamadanakriya, tatonarthani vritishat, Tatonishta Ruchistata, Natonishta Uchistata, Athasakti statobavas.
Tatahpremabyudanchati,ma bhyudanchati, sadhakanamayamprema, prema Pradur Bhavet Kramnah, Pradur Bavit
Kramana, Kramah, Ados Radha Tatah Sadhumg, Sangot Habha Nakriya, Tato Nartani Vritihsyat, Tato Nisharu Chistata, Atha Sakti S Tobavas, Tatbaba,
Tatahprima Bhudanchati, Tathprima Budanchati Sadhakanam Ayampreena, Pradurbhade Bhade Kramah, Pradurbade Bhavet Kraman These
are verses that describe the gradual process of bhakti or the stages by which mercy descends upon us. Because even Shraddha or Faith is a manifestation of Krishna's sadhu or sadhus mercy.
Let's offer the Mangulture and the prayers. Minitinam, Namaste Saraswati Devi Guramani Pracharina Nirvisha Sunyavadi Paschatarina, Vanchakalpataru Besha Kripa Sindu Bevacha Patitanam
Pavane Byovishnave Byo Namon Maha, Jay Sri Krishna Chaitanya Prabunitananda Sri Advaita Gdatara Srivassadhi Gora Bhakta Vrinda Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare
Hare, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Ramahare Hare, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama
Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare Ajanulambita Bujoka Nakavadato Sankirtanaika Bitaroka Malaya Daks Yuga Dharma Palo Vande Jagat Priyakaro Karunavataru Yon
tahisya mamavachy mamamprasubtam sangivaya ta kila shakti daraks Yesterday I spoke a little about the very initial stages of sadhana. We know that sadhana is ultimately what should attract
us to the And what should prepare our heart for the descent of this mercy. Any stage we pass on the path of Krishna consciousness is a manifestation of mercy. These stages described in the present verses are
milestones of qualitative transformation of our consciousness. Every time something is added to our Krishna consciousness, at the beginning a small weak spark or faith arises in us.
After that, to this faith, the desire to listen the understanding that many spiritual life depends on hearing from them. Following the hearing, as we advance spiritually, comes the desire to do something.
The understanding that I myself should do something in Krishna's service.
This gradually leads to the anarthas which being stored somewhere deep in the heart in the form of seeds of unmanifested desires start coming to the surface and we start noticing them, seeing them.
The stage of anarthanivriti is the stage of self-analysis. When an anartha hidden so far starts popping up to the surface, and since they popped up to the surface, we gained the opportunity to uproot them one by one.
After that comes stability or confidence in the path. And this is a very significant milestone on the path because the stage of niṣṭhā is the stage when bhakti truly enters into the heart.
Everything up to then strictly speaking is not bhakti.
This is explained in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, naṣṭa-prāyeṣv abhadrēṣu nityaṁ bhāgavata-sevayā bhagavaty uttama-śloke badrišu nitti bhagvata sevaya bhagavatamas bhaktir bhaktir bhavatii.
Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura commenting on this verse Says that Bhakti enters the heart when problems are still there. But when the main problems were nevertheless overcome through sadhana.
And all that we have obtained through sadhana can save us. In fact, Krishna himself says that even a little advancement on this path can protect one from the most dangerous type of fear. Svalpam means least thing.
Even if one has done something very little, svalpam apy asya dharmasya trāyate mahato bhayāt, this little advancement will give us protection.
Story of protection through small devotion
I would like to tell a small story which illustrates this point in an amazing way how bhakti, no matter how small protects one.
This story was told by Harisauri Prabhu and he himself has heard it from Vishwambhaprabhu Sri Prabhupada's disciple who practiced bhakti for a certain period of time and then went away in search of something else.
He didn't find anything else as it was expected, and came back again.
When he came back, he decided to seriously get down to practice and devotional service and to uh start his coming back to Krishna by doing the Vraj Mandala Parikrama.
Have any of you been on the Vraj Mandala program for a month? There are a few happy songs.
Loknath Maharaj takes the devotees out and over a month the devotees go from village to village, eat anything, sleep anywhere and hear about Krishna.
They go around the Vraj Mandala and stop at every place to hear what Krishna did here. So that remembrance of Krishna becomes unforgettable inside, so that it's always within us.
It's a very purifying and quite an austere procedure. Many of those who've been through it say that the first week they wanted every day to go back and never come back to the most sacred place on earth.
Because it's it's not easy. But after that, the mind settles down and in a way one understands where can you run? You can't run away from Krishna.
He went through that parikrama and at the very end of the parikrama, he came down with a terrible temperature.
He stayed in a bed for a while, and in the end people realized that it won't be over by itself and that you must be urgently rushed to hospital. He was taken to some state hospital.
He went into delirium and he got a fever. In India the people taken to a state hospital are those that might well. This is usually the stage before the crematorium. So that's the same thing.
At the state hospital, he was diagnosed with cerebral malaria. Malaria that has affected the brain.
If this diagnosis is not given within the first thirty-six hours after the onset of symptoms, the probability that the person will survive is approximately ten percent.
Somehow Loknath Maharaj heard about it, transferred him to a more decent hospital, and the doctor said the probability that he will survive is maximum 10%.
He did survive, but he told what happened to him during that time. His entire body in a terrible agony was piloting.
His mind was extremely inflamed And the soul living in that body and mind, identifying itself with that body and mind, has no idea where to go because it's burning this fire.
The man is already in hell. It's impossible to find a single spot where to feel comfortable in some way. Absolute unseasoned agony day after day, day after day, pain, incredible torture. He didn't want anything.
He wanted just to get away from it, to stop it, to leave it, to end all this.
At that point, when the agony reached its peak, he started praying to Krishna, and somehow in his mind, he found out in this scorching desert, which his entire body, mind, and consciousness were like, he found a small oasis.
This oasis was the little territory of Krishna consciousness reclaimed from Maya.
He, he there, even at the time, he literally explained it exactly in this way that the soul found refuge there and from there, from that oasis, watched the agony in which the body was shaken and the mind was burning.
He said that that was the only thing that saved me.
For some time I took refuge there and had the chance to watch what was happening. Then again everything was cut off and he had again to frantically search for where the Krishna consciousness was.
He says that gradually I learned how to. And in which I felt completely safe, in which the pain shaking my body didn't affect me. Only thanks to this I survived. Only thanks to this I was able to.
The doctors were astonished. They said that the man was fortunate. Having gone through all this, he came back with a very deep realisation.
He said that I realized that this tiny spot that I found and that saved me rescued me from that situation. It didn't become bigger as a result. But what I had, what I had earned, was there and it saved me.
And he came out of that disease regenerated with the understanding that Krishna consciousness should be practiced now. We shouldn't postpone it till later.
We shouldn't wait when we will be leaving our body in agony for you never know what. And precisely at that moment, prayatnate mahato bhayat as Krishna says, the little Krishna consciousness that we have obtained can save us.
Like Bhakti Tirka Maharaj, when he was living this world, he was also sharing this same thing.
Urgent need for regular sadhana
He was saying that now I wouldn't change my condition for anything else because I can enjoy the bliss of Krishna consciousness in this terrible condition which my body and my mind are in.
The point here is that we should practice sadhana now that we won't have another chance.
That as long as we are healthy, as long as we are yarned, as long as we have some strength, as long as we have the society of devotees, we must practice sadhana. And by no means take this as a matter of course.
This is mercy. The mere fact that we can practice sadhana is already mercy. The mere fact that we can chant Hare Krishna is mercy. And it alone can save us.
My short speech is exactly about this, how to appreciate Krishna consciousness and how to uh practice Krishna consciousness properly so
that these are won back from Maya from our complete humiliating and slavish identification with the body, mind and senses so that this area is gradually expanded. Um, vyavasthā.
Yesterday I talked about the first stage, Shraddha, and today I'll continue a little further with the description of Shraddha.
Śraddha alīvīra. Śraddha or faith must is a bridge that allows us to move from our material experience into
the realm of spiritual experience. In essence, the whole spiritual practice is a step into the abyss, a step into the unknown. One who makes this step cannot be sure whether he will save or not.
One makes that step blindfolded. He doesn't fall into the abyss which is between the two banks only because one steps on the bridge of śraddhā.
Śraddhā is always a kind of feeling which helps us to obtain something in advance when we have no experience of our own yet.
We don't have yet a clear understanding that Krishna exists, we have no clear experience of who Krishna is, but if we have Shraddha, we will be able to make one step and then another step by step.
Therefore, as I said yesterday, Shraddha gives one the strength and gives one the intelligence to go along this complicated path to cross over this bridge over the abyss.
That is why Patañjali Muni says Śraddhā vīrya smṛti. And what is next stage? Samadhi. Samadhi. One falls into Samadhi. We know we do often see devotees who fall into samadhi especially during lectures
and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. They obtain śraddhā and then skipping the level of theory and smṛti, they fall into a deep samadhi straight away.
Evolution from social to natural faith
Prajñā. All those are certain stages. Yesterday I explained that this shraddha appears as a result of associating with or hearing Vaishnavas.
But Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī called this first original śraddhā Samājika-śraddhā. Samajikznatj. Samaj means society. Shraddha which just appears in society.
One comes, sees some sādhu, listens to a sādhu, and a little faith since everyone else also sees and listens, he also sits, listens, and something like that arises in him.
It is not enough because it's only the very first time.
After that, after the samajika-śraddhā or shall we say the social śraddhā which results from association should now transform or uh acquire another quality. It's exactly about this that I'll speak today and about what should happen with Shraddha.
If one is favorably disposed, and if a sādhu noticing his disposition blesses him, then his śraddhā as he listens to the vaiṣṇava turns into a faith of different quality that um Viśvanātha Čakravartī Ṭhākura calls svābhāviki-śraddhā. Svābhāviki-śraddhā. Svābhāviki-śraddhā means natural śraddhā.
In the first moment, Shraddha came to us from outside, but actually very quickly we must detect an inner response to it. Svābhāviki-śraddhā means that my nature responds to it.
As I said yesterday, śraddhā is rasana, and rasana regenerates one and uh gives one strength, gives one a new feeling or a new use. This road is precisely the process
that is going on inside because one discovers śraddhā inside, actually bhakti or the potential of bhakti rests within our soul. When we hear about love of God, something inside us responds to it.
Actually we must discover a lot inside ourselves and not merely depend on external sources. Now our inner nature has been distorted
Purification of the mind puddle
by contact with material nature. It has been defiled by all these and the Acharyas
give us an amazing comparison. It is given in the purport to the prayers of uh Queen Kuntī in the um uh eighth uh chapter of the first canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, where she says, let my consciousness be constantly drawn unto you like the Ganges.
Actually, yesterday I was also trying to explain this. Mind naturally aspires towards Krishna. Krishna is a magnet, and our mind feels Krishna's attractiveness and rushes towards him.
But at the same time we see that now he doesn't rush towards him. But what's the matter? Why? Because we have moved too far, because of minds been defiled. So a very interesting comparison of metaphor is given.
It is said that water by nature... There is the ocean and any water, whatever it might be, rushes toward the ocean, and when the river flows into the ocean. It's always clean.
But we know that not any water flows into the ocean. There is a water which can stay somewhere in the form of a puddle.
When the water is in the form of a puddle, then yes, all kinds of worms appear there, bacterium fast, germs, it starts blooming. This is approximately the state of our mind. It's a pool.
Infested with the microbes and worms of material desires and they are germinating in the puddle. But by its very nature, it is water, and water by nature is originally pure.
But it can be pure only when it's connected to the ocean, when it starts rushing to the ocean. How can a puddle rush toward the ocean? No way. That's correct. There are puddles which are totally hopeless. That's fact.
Not certainly. This matter for originals from India, of course. I think we can still appreciate that in summer, puddles left from before, small ponds gradually dry out.
Lakes we know gradually dry out because they are not connected with the ocean. But at a certain point comes the rainy season, monsoons start pouring down torrential rains.
They stand as if a wall, and what happens with all the small puddles? They are washed away. Where to? Ultimately they are washed away into the Ganges. And the Ganges rushes to the ocean.
Almost the same thing happens to our puddles. But what do we need so that our puddles get purified and join the Ganges? So that rain starts pouring, a very heavy rain. What is this rain?
Yes, it's a sādhus' pour. When a sādhu speaks, it's like a monsoon rain, and our little puddle first becomes very agitated, getting perplexed as to what is happening with it.
But then it says, oh, well go to Kṛṣṇa. And it's washed there by some wave. That's exactly what happens when he begins to hear from a sādhu, something inside responds to these words.
Scriptural foundation of natural faith
That is why Vishwana Chakravita calls this shradasvabika shradha or natural, spontaneous shradha. There are two different types of faith in terms of quality. Today I'll speak about this.
Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura says that they can be svābhāvikī śraddhā or natural śraddhā, and they can be balāt-kāra-pūrvikā or imposed artificial one.
We must be very clear about the difference between one and the other faith. And first I'll speak about the nature of śraddhā, which is a reflection of our inner nature.
This śraddhā is inside the soul and it by no means depends on the state of mind. When we hear the sound of the holy name... Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma... ears that hear it.
What else? Our mind hears it. But what do they hear? Do they hear the holy name? They hear material sound. But in the holy name, there is the holy name itself, which our soul responds to.
The mind starts analyzing it and thinking what that Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna... And they start thinking whether it's pleasant to me or unpleasant, whether I like it or not. But the soul responds.
There are people who are not too contaminated by the external layers of the mind, the senses and all the rest. They can immediately feel it.
One girl wrote to me that I was looking for something, I had no idea what it was.
I was in crisis and all of a sudden at that very moment I heard from the balcony that the devotees have come to our uptown district and have started a harinām. I rushed down from my ninth floor to them.
I stood still, my mouth dropped open, and tears flowed from my eyes. I never heard that.
I never knew, I didn't understand, but tears were flowing from my eyes on their own and inwardly I knew I've got home. I've got what I was looking for.
Because from within, the soul simply responded to the sound of the holy name, passing through the barriers that are there in the mind, because the mind starts analyzing it, fastening all the other barriers, the soul itself responds to it.
We chant as well, when we forget about this initial reaction, this response to the holy name, but it still remains somewhere deep inside in our soul.
Natural one in no way depends on the state of mind. He told us this story of Śrīla Prabhupāda's disciple whose name was and still is Ishadevi Dasi. She's about 90 years old. She became a devotee at a relatively advanced age.
Since then, forty years have passed or thereabouts, and now she's ninety years old. She's a very humble devotee, very sincere. She lived not far from Boston in a small town where there were no other devotees.
She preached there, she would go to the supermarket, and at one point she was stricken by paralysis, as it happens with all people. She was found unconscious on the porch of her house.
She was taken to the hospital and when she regained consciousness, she had forgotten everything. Absolutely everything. People stricken by paralysis are sometimes completely deprived of memory.
Niranjana Maharaja says that she had to be taught how to dress. She was worse than a small child. She didn't know how to go to the toilet, how to dress, how to eat. She had to be taught everything from the very beginning.
She didn't know what her name was, she didn't know anything, absolutely nothing. She didn't remember anything. The nurses had to come remind her. They were literally teaching her how to eat.
Niranjana Maharaja said that — well, we heard of this later because we called the Krishna Consciousness Temple and there we know, you know, the phone is never picked. So they learned about this rather late
and he personally took care of her. He immediately called the hospital and asked what condition
she was in, and he was told, "Well, what can be the condition of a person who is paralyzed, who is 90 years old?" And he said, can she talk at all?
He was told, "Well, mm, she can say something, but generally doesn't." She was laying there in the same ward, and the sick nurse who was talking to him turned to Isha and said,
Niranjana Swami is calling." Isha reached for the telephone receiver, took it, and suddenly Niranjana Maharaja was surprised to hear her voice into the phone. She sang.
"Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare, Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Rāma Hare." And then when she finished, she shouted with all her might, "All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda!"
She had forgotten everything, but the most important thing, she did not.
Because the soul inside remembers, despite the fact that the mind doesn't remember anything, there is nothing in the mind, no reflections, either conditioned or unconditioned. But the mantra has remained.
And the Ranchor Maharaj says that later after some time he came to visit her and she was sitting there and the doctor was teaching her, explaining to her how to eat and other things.
When he came up he heard the doctor speaking to her and asking her, Edit, her current name was Edit, where, where do you live? Look at him in great surprise. Where? In Vrindavan?
The doctor heard the word Vrindavan for the first time. She asks in Chicago? She says, I don't know any Chicago. I live in Vrindavan. My home is in Vrindavan. There are many other cases when people forget everything.
There is another interesting story in those days when Krishna consciousness was just beginning in America. The parents of a young man decided to deprogram him.
They've decided that it's a dangerous sect, that he's been brainwashed, and they gave him to the cruelest sect of deprogrammers where he was subjected to terrible things in order to destroy his faith.
He was evolving with electrical shocks.
It was a real, actually functioning organization and the parents said, do whatever you like, but make him forget that Krishna consciousness. They started treating him and he forgot everything.
The only thing that he didn't forget was that he has to chant the Hare Krishna mantra. And he kept chanting Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.
That is in other words, it's it's an important point when we hear the sound Krishna, when we hear stories of Krishna, something inside responds to the sound and this inner response is actually the nature of faith. The faith that is in our nature.
I would like to um give a definition of this faith. Because Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī gives a synonym for the svabhāva-śraddhā. Kṛṣṇa.
Again, if we if we just say that it's natural, it doesn't give us any understanding of how this faith can be strengthened.
But fortunately for us, the same definition given by Viśvanātha Cakravartī in the Madhurya-kādambinī is differently reformulated in the Bhakti-sandarbha by Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī. Sandharma by Srila Jiva Goswami.
He doesn't call it svabhāva-śraddhā. He says that there is śāstra-śraddhā or faith based on śāstras, on scriptures. Svabhabakishwara is a synonym. Svabhabakishradha is Shastra Shraddha.
And this is Shraddha or faith in the infallibility fundament of the fundamental teaching of the scriptures concerning Krishna, Boga, God, the individual soul, the universe, māyā, and their interrelations.
Actually, the Shraddha which is within us, which is in our innermost being shraddha is that same shradha, all that is described in the scriptures.
When one hears the scriptures, the shraddha inside responds to it. Who has had this feeling that I already know this? We've read the Bhagavad-gītā and thought, wow, what a clever man has written all that.
I already knew but couldn't couldn't say. This inner feeling is the convergence of what is written in the scriptures with the nature of the soul itself.
But to make this faith clearer and stronger, we need to study the shastras.
Listen to the shastra and constantly think about shastra all the time. Unfortunately for some reason the the devotee—I don't I don't know why, for some reason devotees— for some, for some negligence they have forgotten about this. At the beginning people rushed for Srila Prabhupada's books.
And now we have all of Srila Prabhupada's books, practically all the books that he has written, except for a few volumes of Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta in in Russian, but no one reads them.
To progress on the path of devotional service, we need to read the Shastras again and again,
read Śrīla Prabhupāda's words and the words of the scriptures. And not just read, but find a response to these words inside in our heart.
First we but we must know the Bhagavad-gītā and know it as Christians know the Bible. Well true Christians don't know the Bible, so this is Śrīla Prabhupāda's comparison.
He told his disciples that they must know the Gita as Christians know the Bible. I don't know what else to compare it with, but we must know the Gita.
We must know the Gita by heart, we must know it all through, understand how. Because Krishna is speaking to us.
Śrīla Prabhupāda writes an interesting thing in the Bhagavad-gītā. He says that people who don't know the Shastras, who don't know the standard sacred scriptures, and for us this tender scriptures are the Bhagavad-gītā, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Śrīla Prabhupāda's books. Śrīla Prabhupāda says in the Bhagavad-gītā that those who don't know the Shastras are like Shila Prabhupada says in the Bhagavad Gita that those who don't know the Shastras are like
like who? Like animals. That the only thing that distinguishes the human form from an animal is the knowledge of Shastra, the understanding of Shastra, the understanding of how Shastra can save me.
Faith is to be built on the foundation of Shastra. A few more words about this before I move on to the description of another form of Shradha. Some of the word shrado is derived from two roots shrad and ha.
Shrad doesn't anybody know what shrad means? Huh? Shrad is the same as sat. Shrad means truth. Dha means to hold. Shradha is our ability to hold on to the truth. Shraddha is our ability to see the truth, feel the truth.
And of course we are talking about true Shraddha, proper Shraddha. Sraddhā is our ability to recognize the truth.
This is an internal instinct which, according to Madhvācārya, the soul has, uh, function, uh, sākṣāt has this function to show Shraddha.
Therefore, Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī gives a very interesting definition. Listen, it's very important to us what what Shraddha gives us. śāstrābhi-dhya-vadhāraṇasyāṅgatad-viśvāsa-rūpatvāt Rupatvat.
He says that śraddhā is the ability to store avadhāraṇa, to store inside the meaning of the shastras or the meaning of the scriptures.
In other words, when we have shraddha we have obtained from association with devotees, we
will be able to preserve the meaning of the śāstras within, and that we will read the scriptures and they won't be something external to us. They will serve as a practical guide in our lives.
Because very often shastras speak about one thing and a person thinks about something else, about who knows what.
Therefore shraddha is needed and shraddha develops as we read the scriptures. They are inseparably linked with each other.
We have to hear Shastra precisely with this understanding that all this can save me. And all this can give me Krishna. These are by no means ordinary books, ordinary words. We have to hear them.
An example of how to hear śāstra is there in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. That is uh what is the example there? Yes, Mahārāja Parīkṣit. He was listening with the awareness that in seven days I'll die.
And in purport, Śrīla Prabhupāda says, he had at least seven days, well, we don't know when we will die. We can die much earlier. We can die in 15 minutes.
I don't want anyone to die, but man is mortal. Man walks on the death's razor. One must understand that he is on this threshold of death. We can die tomorrow. No one is insured against this. No one.
Maharaja Parikshit was listening with an unspervised attention. If at that moment when Maharaja Parikshit was listening, Shukadeva Goswami was relating to him Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, if an apsara suddenly had appeared sent by Indra, what do you think Maharaja Parikshit's reaction would be?
He wouldn't have noticed it. He wouldn't have heard anything because he was hearing Shastra.
He was hearing Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. He knew that I need every word of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, that must inwardly respond to each word of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
It is therefore very important to understand, know and love śāstra and study śāstra all the time.
And that's why Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī explains that when true śraddhā arises in a person, then the sign of such śraddhā is that one develops an aversion to everything else. One understands that I have wasted my life.
The sign of true śraddhā is not the understanding that if I spend it on nonsense, then ultimately I won't be able to attain anything. Along with this, there is sincere hope for Krishna's mercy and compassion.
They understand that Krishna is there and that he can give me a hand of grace in each and every moment. And what does actually this true śraddhā mean? That if I have it, then I feel an aversion to everything else.
I have hope for Krishna's mercy and I have huge respect for everyone else, or it's the ability to control my pride. True śraddhā doesn't allow one to manifest his pride. Pride remains.
Anarthas remain. True śraddhā comes before anarthas are gone. But śraddhā doesn't allow one to manifest these anarthas. We have anger, we have lust. Who has lust? Raise your hand, please. Jai. Jai, Harimo. And thank God. Yeah.
There is anger, there is greed, illusion, pride. It's all there. All these things are there in our hearts.
Śraddhā doesn't allow one to manifest it. Śraddhā protects and saves one and allows one to remain humble. Has anyone had this feeling when Shraddha appeared in him, together with it came humility or the understanding that I'm nobody.
I have been engaged in God knows what and I have to definitely become bad and pure. That is why real shraddha saves one from offenses.
What hinders one on the spiritual path is the offences that we commit. First of all, offenses of the devotees, when one commits one small offense, another one together with this his shraddha starts to fade, to disappear somewhere, to blur. And instead, ultimately, there are only offenses.
But if I read the scriptures, if I constantly get in touch with the sounds of the scriptures in my mind, then this will protect me and help me practice Krishna consciousness in such a way that everything is right, that I don't commit offenses.
Or Srila Jiva Goswami says in Bhakti-sandarbha that, cit-kiñcit-pravṛttaś ca niścitaḥ, if one doesn't have strong faith in shastra, pravṛttaś ca niścitaḥ, soon or later, everything comes to an end. One loses everything.
One won't be able to preserve his shraddha.
Dangers of artificial and social faith
But if Shraddha is strong, and the point is that at our level we must do everything in our power to make our shraddha strong. So that shraddha in the sound of scriptures become stronger. Then we will overcome all obstacles in our path. We'll get through all impediments and eventually we'll come to Krishna.
But there is another form of shraddha. One feels the weakness of his shraddha and tries to compensate the lack and strength of his straddle by some other methods. Not by shastras.
Listen very carefully. This is another very important point for all of us. We've all experienced this moment of transformation or the moment when we suddenly discovered the path of bhakti for ourselves.
We took this path and along with with it we were filled with this enthusiasm. Enthusiasm has sprung out from somewhere.
We heard Srila Prabhupada's words, we understood everything. What then happens? One wants his faith to become stronger, but he tries to make this faith stronger not by virtue of the scriptures.
Because studying the scriptures is boring, we're not brāhmaṇas, right? We're all śūdras, kalau śūdra-sambhavāḥ, and we know, jñānī, so our path is bhakti. And one who is lazy.
And you you can't call it otherwise, nor is it necessary. A lazy person tries to make his shraddha stronger by all kinds of nonsense. Very soon you'll find out that I'm speaking about us.
In what ways do we try to strengthen our shraddha? Oh, we need stories about miracles, right? Like one was chanting, trying. I don't know what, it doesn't matter. Krishna appeared and healed, some other miracle happened.
Therefore, Divagaswami says that there is Shastyashradha and there is Lokika śraddhā. This shada which one obtains from association with devotees, from all kinds of rumors, all kinds of gossip, stories, all kinds of nonsense.
That same Viśvanātha Cakravartī calls this second form of śraddhā or laukika śraddhā, social śraddhā, or balāduṣpāditā śraddhā, or imposed śraddhā.
Śraddhā which came not as a result of the natural process, but as the result that I've somehow decided to try to strengthen my faith through various rumors that flowed around in the society of devotees.
We know that our śraddhā is very small. Viśvanātha Cakravartī compares to a little girl in Sanskrit śraddhā is in the feminine, she's like she's like a little girl, a baby. And the baby so that it grows up and gets big.
You you have to feed baby, right? There is natural food for the baby, mother's milk.
If we try to feed a śraddhā with mother's milk and what is mother's milk for śraddhā? Śāstra. Śāstra. Śāstra, then our faith will be healthy, strong, and it won't get sick.
If a child is fed on mother's milk, it grows up strong, it doesn't get sick. All vitamins are there. But if it's not fed on mother's milk, then what else can you feed it on?
Yes, there is an infant formula, artificial nutrition. One time there was a infant formula called baby. And there was a picture of a child with diatest with diathesis cheeks which were which are really red.
When because when when a child is fed on this nonsense, this junk on this milk powder where who knows what it's mixed in, then what? It's called accordingly artificial.
Similarly, when our śraddhā—listen carefully because all this is relevant to us, hundred percent to us. We try to feed our faith on all kinds of artificial mixtures.
Instead of reading Srila Prabhupada's books, we start reading everything else. Instead of listening to Srila Prabhupada, we start listening to stories about UFOs. UFOs must strengthen our faith in Krishna.
Because UFOs are real. Wow. Oh, UFO has landed. Why should we need stories of UFOs? Everything is in the Bhagavad-gītā.
Krishna doesn't say anything about UFOs and about vedic literature, but we think that if we listen about this and about some other stuff, all sorts of nonsense, our śraddhā will become stronger. We start cramming it with all this, but instead of getting stronger, it gets sicker and more vulnerable by all kinds of diseases.
I would like to enumerate several such diseases so that we can see how this disease of our shraddha takes place.
Pitfalls of miracles and personal cults
I have just a few more minutes for that. What happens to the shradha when one has no true real faith in the scriptures. One begins to invent, to make up things.
One starts living on this katha instead of living a Krishna katha, one lives in all kinds of nonsense. First of all on stories about miracles.
There are people who are trying to strengthen their faith by such stories and and cock-and-bull stories. There are people who are trying to strengthen faith by showing miracles.
Actually, this is the greatest obstacle we can create in one's life if we show miracles. We all know that there is a sadhu in South India. I don't even want to mention his name.
He's constantly showing some kinds of miracles, yes. Great moment. It's one of the largest movements in the world of the followers of that.
The entire half of his followers consist in just what other miracle he has performed. He's performed this miracle, he's performed that miracle, he's given someone a Rolex, another one he's saved, a third one was given traveler's checks, some other things, and that never ends, it keeps going on and on.
They say Yes, yes, Krishna is God. But that baba is a superior god, is greater than even Krishna. Because sometimes Krishna did few miracles. Śrīla Prabhupāda definitely didn't want to show any miracles.
In principle, in 1977, a few months before his leaving this world, Śrīla Prabhupāda and his disciples went to the Kumbha Mela. Kumbha Mela is a place where various sādhus, various magicians and sorcerers and yogis gather in Prayag from everywhere.
I recommend that all devotees go there and see what is not to be done. You can simply see everyone there. A man is lying in thorns, robed in thorns, he lies and sleeps in them, covered all over with prickles.
Another is walking around with a dagger stabbed across his body. Handles sticking out here and a point there. He's he's walking like that. Still another famous man. The last time was there.
The last time I was there, I I well I too have to learn everything by my own experience. Anyway, there is this famous
person there, the the uh nagnabahu sadhu he was naked and for the last twenty years he has never put down his right arm.
He sleeps with his arm raised, he stands with his arm raised, he eats with the left hand and the arms completely dried out.
People came to see him, a tremendous crowd, how he sits in a cage, people crowding around him and there is this dried arm of his and people give him money, there is a pile of money in front of him and he takes it with his left hand.
No listen signs of these so called Logika Shradha. Nowhere in the Shastra it is said that one has to sit with a raised right arm. Where is that sign? Why does Krishna say that in his way? You can attain Krishna What
happens when people do these things? When people perform rituals, when people are fed on all this, ultimately they consequence of the I was telling you about Kumbh Mela and didn't you about Śrīla Prabhupāda.
I I deviated this. Describe it Kumbh Mela. In nineteen seventy-seven, when Śrīla Prabhupāda arrived at the devotees' camp and there every organization sets up their own camp, a
yogi came and said, I want to see your guru. Very early in the morning it was about six o'clock when he came. I want to see your guru. I heard of him and I want to see.
He was quite arrogant, the the devotees told him that you know he gives darśans every evening. You can come at seven PM. He'll be associating now. Now is not the right time.
The man looked at him and he was paralyzed. He couldn't move. The man moved on and came up to Śrīla Prabhupāda's stand. His servant was standing there. He tried to stop him.
But the yogi looked at him and he too was paralyzed. The yogi went into Śrīla Prabhupāda, and 15 minutes later he came out completely different. Not paralyzed.
And then he started going around and paying obeisances to each one of them saying he's got so much śakti. I've never seen anyone with such a great śakti. He's got he's got the power.
But he must be a little bit why am I telling you all this? Because Śrīla Prabhupāda had all the śakti possible. The devotee who worships Krishna can have at his disposal all the shakti which Krishna has.
Śrīla Prabhupāda never made use of that. Never did he perform any miracle.
Once Śrīla Prabhupāda's man was opening a temple in Delhi and he started saying, Swamiji, start telling about stories about all sorts of miracles that Krishna performs here and people will start coming to you.
Śrīla Prabhupāda said, My God needs no bribes. My God takes no bribes. I don't need cheap followers. When he was asked, Swamji show a miracle, Śrīla Prabhupāda would say, I won't. And this is my miracle.
Because if I show a miracle and use it to strengthen someone's faith, this will create obstacles for this person. He will strive for miracle, he will strive for gaining mystical powers and ultimately
he will get confused and will have their own guidelines.
And there is a wonderful story, Satsvarūpa Mahārāja tells it in the Prabhupāda-līlāmṛta, telling how once the devotees went out on a picnic on the first retreat with Śrīla Prabhupāda and they went to some yoga community, they were um singing, there was a big
curtain and after the curtain late at night Satsvarūpa Mahārāja went to bed and fell asleep. And he says, I saw an amazing dream and that dream was real. I found myself in a wonderful place of divine beauty.
And I realized I I was I wasn't in this world. I started walking and at every step the beauty and everything else that I felt was taking my breath away. Somewhere in the distance, I saw a crowd and approached it.
I looked at it closer and saw that the crowd is standing around a young man of amazing divine beauty, and that everyone was looking at him, worshiping him, bringing him.
Inwardly, I realized it was Swamiji, it was Śrīla Prabhupāda. They're looking completely different. Satsvarūpa Mahārāja says I I started asking him the question, Svamiji? Is that you?
And the young man replied, Yes, it's me. Satsvarūpa Mahārāja. Satsvarūpa Mahārāja said, I asked him, why um why do you look different then? Why didn't you come to this world in this form?
Śrīla Prabhupāda replied, had I come in this form, people would have been after my beauty, not after my teaching. People would have been not after would have come to teach them. I would have confused them.
That would have hindered them. Therefore, I didn't come in this form. I want to give them Krishna. I want to give them Krishna's words.
But still we constantly try to substitute Krishna's words with As a result, very s strange things appear. We can see how they appear, some new rituals appear.
Which is one of the signs of laukika-śraddhā when new rituals appear and when stories of miracles float around particularly malignant form of such miracles is the tales of miracles of gurus.
Laukika-śraddhā has a certain quality. It always turns the person into a cult. All cults of personality that appear in religious movements are the results of improper or distorted material śraddhā.
When people start worshiping a personality, there is an amazing letter by Śrīla Prabhupāda, maybe I'll read it to you tomorrow, addressed to Govindadāsī.
Govindadāsī had written him a letter wherein she displayed some feelings for him. He writes, thank you. I was very happy to read about your feelings that you showed in the letter.
But actually you must understand that uh everything we do in Krishna consciousness we do by the parampara coming down from Krishna.
And to truly respect the spiritual master means to respect the teaching that he has brought and not to confuse it with the outer form.
True respect for the spiritual master means to serve the teaching that he gives, to serve his word. This service to his external material form is included therein.
If I serve his words, if I live in accordance with his words, this is the main form of service that I can render. While we constantly divert into who knows what, we we constantly divert into a cult
of personality, Śrīla Prabhupāda immediately notices this. When he noticed that slightest proud of all this, he said, We don't need any cults. It's not a matter of cults. We have one cult. We worship Krishna.
And for that purpose we must serve his words. For that purpose we need to read what he says in the Bhagavad-gītā. While we constantly have a cult of one personality, another personality, a third personality,
precisely because of the weakness of our śraddhā, because of the misunderstanding, of the sickness of a-śraddhā. All these are problems created for us by ourselves because of the wrong practice of devotional service.
I'll tell you another little story at the end in order to finish our encounter on a more uh positive note. I wanted to tell you something else, but never mind.
Basically uh it can be either sad or not like so many other interesting things there. Anyway, when faith is not based on śāstra. It constantly leads us to the wrong direction.
Simplicity of following core instructions
And we start inventing, making up things, introducing new rituals, again just out of idleness.
Śrīla Prabhupāda very clearly and specifically told us what we need to do. So many things passed by since then and people start again, one focuses on one thing and another one something else.
One says that you mustn't by any means sleep on ekādaśī. Why?
Śrīla Prabhupāda never said that, never stressed that. There is no specific need for that. If you can do it, do it. If you can't, sleep in peace. It doesn't matter.
Śrīla Prabhupāda established a program which we should follow. He said, distribute books and preach to others. Take care of others. Chant sixteen rounds. Follow the four regulated principles and everything will be fine with you.
I've just come back from the festival where um Amala Devī Dāsī, uh Śrīla Kīrti Prabhu's wife told an an interesting story. She was she was a she was a simple devotee and she cleaned
Śrīla Prabhupāda the room and Śrīla Prabhupāda didn't even see her. She didn't even show herself before him. Because when he went for a walk, she would quietly go in and clean his room.
He stayed for a couple of weeks at the Bhaktivedanta [and then he left.] In two weeks she suddenly heard some excitement. The w women were going around excited, shouting something.
She came out for her room's door and they shouted to her, Hey Amekla, Amekla, you've got a letter from Śrīla Prabhupāda. That's a letter from Śrīla Prabhupāda to you. She couldn't believe it.
She thought that Śrīla Prabhupāda didn't even see her, didn't know what her name was, who she was. He never particularly saw her.
She would just go and clean up Śrīla Prabhupāda writing his letter. Dear Amala Devī Dāsī, my dear goddaughter, I'm very pleased with your service. Thank you very much that you clean my room and if you serve the devotees and observe the four regulative principles and every day chant sixteen rounds of the Hare Krishna mantra, then in this very life he will go back to Godhead. That's all.
Everything is simple. Śrīla Prabhupāda's given us a program. We start inventing, we stuff one thing and another th thinging, third. Who knows where? Who knows why? Who knows what?
Well actually well it's clear why, because faith is fed on the wrong thing because faith is not based on Śrīla Prabhupāda's books. As a result, all kinds of things appear.
I'll probably finish with this small story in my today's short account of the two types of śraddhā, the śāstra- śraddhā and the laukika-śraddhā.