Srimad-Bhagavatam 6.3.22. Mantra Meditation
Бхакти Вигьяна Госвами · Цюрих · 2023
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Meaning of dhyana and Vedic process
I'm happy to see all of you here on Sunday program. And you are all probably very eager to taste Krishna
Prasāda, but little hunger helps to experience the taste better so I will delay this experience for some time by talking on the designated topic. And I was asked to speak about japa meditation.
Meditation is a very famous and common word nowadays. Originally it comes from the word dhyana. And the word dhyana is Sanskrit word dhyana. It's coming from the verbal root di, which actually designates the intelligence.
Dhi means the ability to concentrate deeply on some object. If we take Vedic literature or Vedic culture in general, we will be able to understand that the previously people were all very intelligent and they had very
calm and concentrated mind and they were knowing the events of this world not by the means of experiment as people do nowadays by certain mistakes and you know making experiments.
It's a long and arduous process of knowing the truth. In the Vedic culture, people would investigate the world and know exactly how to deal with this world, how to act
in this world in a proper way, and how to use all the things which are surrounding us just by meditation. So the Vedic process of knowing things is to concentrate
mind completely on certain objects and unite with these objects through this process of concentration. And this unification with the objects through the process of concentration
would give them immense deal of information of what this object is all about, what is the use of this object, what can I do with it, so on and so forth. Like for example in Ayurveda there are literally thousands of
different herbs described 3000 years back, 2500 years back, people knew exactly what and how it will affect our consciousness, how it will affect our body. So, how did they do this?
There was no chemical laboratories, there was no modern equipment to do it. The answer is simple: meditation. This process of knowing things is called yogija pratyaksha.
Yogic perception versus modern experimental science
It's the experiment through yoga. And yoga means connection. Yoga means unification. Yoga means the destruction of the impediment between me and the object of my meditation.
Because usually I remain myself, I am in my selfish little world, and therefore I only know very limited whatever my senses allow to come, and even this knowledge which is coming through the senses is quite distorted.
But yogis they knew the secret. How to concentrate on certain things and by uniting the consciousness, the heart with this particular thing to understand what's going on, what is the nature of this particular object I want to investigate.
So this is called yogi pratyaksha. Pratyaksha means experimental knowledge, but it's diametrically opposed to the method of experimental knowledge adopted by the modern science.
But it's definitely not less effective. It's actually much more effective because it can reveal the information which is still hidden by the conventional processes adopted by the science.
But we are talking about special kinds of meditation. What I described right now is the process of meditation on the material objects.
But in the ultimate sense, our inquiry, our inquisitiveness, our desire to know the truth is extended to understand the absolute truth.
Every human being, whoever he may be, he may be Indian, he may be Chinese, he may be Russian, believe it or not, he may be Swiss person, whoever he is, it doesn't matter, by nature, has this deep down in his consciousness, in his heart, this question: who I am and what is the ultimate truth?
This is the innate nature of every human being. We are inquirers. We are seekers of the truth. And we are not satisfied with the partial truth.
Partial truth is available to us through different means, but if we are talking about the absolute truth, then this yogic process is the only process.
As far as the normal events and normal phenomena around us is concerned, we can choose. If we want to choose experimental method, it's fine of the modern science.
But when it comes to God, you cannot make experiments with God. You cannot really, you know, kind of dissect Him by your scalpel or whatever and see what is inside him.
You cannot really adopt the usual means of investigation. I'm talking it with the experience because I was trained like a scientist and I remember with great shame and regret how I was cutting the heads of poor Reds.
They were totally innocent white rats and here I am the seeker of the truth was decapitating them.
Approaching God through holy name meditation
I—I still very ashamed. So but the point is that you cannot do this with God. We are lucky because otherwise we would end the top is God without a head.
In any case, what I want to say to understand God, we need to adopt a completely different means.
And if the method of the material science is to investigate from top-down, looking down at the things which are obviously considered to be less complex than we are and are eligible for this analysis and this section and you know this sort of things then uh God uh is not eligible for this process because of the simple fact he's much more complex than us.
He is much more intelligent than us, and therefore we cannot really capture him, put him in a cage of our mind, and manipulate with him through the means which are available to us.
So therefore this dhyan meditation is the only process.
It's the only process of uniting with God and by uniting, by the means of uniting, the uniting the hearts on the level of the heart, on a level, on a very deep level, on the level of consciousness, then only we can know something about God.
We will never be able to understand Him completely, but if we know, if we want to know something about God, here is the process.
Meditation is the process, and in particular, this is a process this process is called meditation on the holy name.
This is something which is available to us in any stage of our life, on higher levels of spiritual development, there may be some other means of meditation when God becomes more revealed to us, more visible to us, and more tangible reality in our life, then we can meditate on his form, on his qualities, on his pastimes in the spiritual world, we can have some other means of meditation, some other objects of meditation.
But in the beginning stages, the only full, complete, and at the same time merciful object of meditation is his name. Why did I say merciful? Because his name is easily available.
It's available, it's there, and anyone can adopt uh the holy name. But there is a trick.
Yamaraja's instructions in Srimad Bhagavatam
So, what I want to do, I will uh read one verse from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, which speaks a little bit one of many verses of this scripture of ancient India.
We will read together we will chant one verse in Sanskrit and then I will explain how important this process and what it implies taking this verse as the root of my discourse.
So this is the 22nd verse of the third chapter of the 6th canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. And this chapter is called Yamaraja Instructs His Messengers.
Etavan. Etava. Eva Loki Asmin Asmin Pumsam Dharmaha Dharma Paraha Smritaha, Bhakti Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Bhagavati, Bhagavati, Tannama, Grahanadibi,
Evan, vowel kessmin. Pum samdharb, parhita. Pum sanddharma, parhita. Bhakti, Yo Bhagavati, Bhakti Yo Bhawti, Tannna grahanadib, Hannah. Etavan nevalokismin. Pumsam dharma parasrita, Pumsam Dharma Parasmritha, Bhakti Yoga Bhagavati, Bhagavati, Tannama grahhanadi, panama rahanadhi soanamam všnu padara, Krishna prašitaja Buta Jes Rimati Bhti Vidanta Swami Dinami,
Namaste Saraswati Devi, Gurawani Pracharini, Nirvisha Shafnawadi, Paschatari. Sri Krishna Chaitanya Prabunita Nanda Sjadvaita Gadatara Srivasta
Diguru Bhakta Brinda Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Yandah praviši mama vachima prasupta musivaya takila shakti darah swadamna hanjam shahastachim prana So
here this verse is spoken by Yamaraj, the Lord of death, in the context of a very beautiful and important story of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, how the great sinner Aja Mila was saved in the last moment of his life because he somehow or other managed to pronounce the name of the Lord.
And therefore all his sins were forgiven, and the messengers of heaven released him from the messengers of hell.
And of course, he had to undergo some sort of purification process further to reach the higher destination, but this near death experience uh was very clearly described in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
And because the death is a very distinct and inevitable reality, which we will face at one point of our life, this story is very relevant to all of us.
And basically, this whole story, the point of this whole story is to impress upon us how important it is to meditate on the holy name, even though imperfectly.
How important for every human being it is to meditate or to chant the holy name, how crucial it is for overall success of our life.
And here, Dharma Raj or Yamaraj, the Lord of Death, who is called Dharma Raj, which means that he knows Dharma, he knows what morality is, he knows what the duty of the human being is, he says that the highest dharma, highest possible dharma, is devotion to God,
which starts from tan-nāma-grahaṇād bhavet, from the chanting of the holy name. He specifically says that the essential duty of a human being is to chant the holy name.
We may believe him, we may not believe him, it's up to us, but it's not his problem, it's our problem. But logically speaking, it's better, because he knows what he's talking about.
Defining dharma as natural service to God
He basically wants to say again that, and he says it clearly: if you don't want to see me, you better chant the holy name. So uh, and he specifically says that this is dharma.
And dharma, the word the very word dharma, also quite famous in the modern culture and the modern world, the word dharma literally means the quality which is innate to us.
Like Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that dharma of sugar is to be sweet. There is no sugar which is not sweet, or if something is not sweet, it is not, it is not sugar. So, you know, sugar is known to be sweet.
So the same way, the dharma of a living entity, the innate nature of a living entity is to serve God. This notion of service God is all pervading.
And even those people who don't believe in God, they still understand that they should serve some higher purpose.
There are so many people who don't believe God, but still they try to find the meaning of their life serving something which is higher than them.
You know, of course nowadays sometimes people say you should love yourself. It's a very ridiculous statement because how you can love yourself, you know? Love means something else.
Love means there is some object of my love, and I am sacrificing something for this object.
And but still, most of the people, even nowadays, even in the modern quite atheistic materialistic context of our culture, they have this notion that there is a higher purpose of my life.
And by serving this higher purpose, I will elevate myself. That will be the means of developing myself as a proper human being. And if I only live for myself, my life will be wasted. Most of the people they understand it.
You know, like people already, especially in Hare Krishna temple, or whatever we like to cook. People, if they invite guests, they usually cook very elaborate feast or at least a few courses to share something with them.
But when they are alone, you know they open the fridge and see what is there and then they eat something. So there is no fun of cooking for yourself, but there is a lot of pleasure when we cook for somebody else.
And again, this is this indicates very clearly that by nature we want to serve somebody else. That this is not something foreign, this is not some you know strange idea. This is a very natural idea.
And therefore, Yamaraja says, this is dharma. Dharma means something which is natural for you.
You know, like even people, that's Prabhupada's example, when they become alone, when they become, you know, retired and uh they have nobody there to do then they get some dog and they serve the dog.
But uh believe me there is more pleasure in serving God than serving dog. You will serve anyway, but it's better to serve God.
I mean there is no harm of serving dog as well, especially if you understand his connection with God, but serving Him alone probably is not so beneficial. So anyway, so that's the point.
Yamaraja here says that this is something essential, something natural, and something very important for us to understand.
Power of sacred sound across spiritual traditions
But then he says: how to serve God? What is the means of serving God? We don't know God. He is not easily available. Of course, some say he's in the altar, some may believe it, some may not believe it.
But all the scriptures they say that the human beings are revealed, that the name of God is revealed to the human beings as the means to serve him. As the means to meditate upon him.
This is uh it is stated in uh Bible that you shouldn't chant the name of God in uh in a hurry when you're not concentrated on it. But there it is said that it's it's so important. And this mystical thing is stressed practically in every tradition that the name of God is the means to approach God.
That meditation on repetition of the name of God is the best way to connect with God, to understand God and to feel His presence in our life.
I was Present in the Millennium Summit of Religions in New York in the United Nations. And there were all kinds of religions.
You know, there were some shamans from Africa with big drums and you know very funny clothes and there were some native Indians, American Indians, and they were Hindu tradition, Christian of course, Muslim tradition, Rabis.
And they were all came together in this United Nations, and the idea was let's unite all religion and let's make religious peace and everything else.
But after 15 minutes it was completely clear that these people have nothing in common with them.
Really, you know, one journalist asked me what you think we will achieve at the end of this summit, I said maybe we will finally understand that there is only one God and there is no reason for quarreling.
And this journalist was from Japan and he said, I'm a Buddhist, I don't believe in God. There is no God. That was the end of my, uh inter-religious dialogue.
Because this these people were so different and they they were dressed differently, they had all kinds of differences. There was hardly anything in common. And I was thinking, what is really uniting them?
And one thing I noticed that every person, every speaker who would come on this stage to present his or her views to this esteemed audience, everyone started with the prayer to God.
So the one thing was definitely in common is that you know including these African people they were of course mm beating the drums, you know, so that God would for sure hear them, you know.
You know, and then uh Hindus were there and they were uh conch they were glowing conch and you know but so everyone believed
that to approach God you can approach God through the sound and through the specific form of sound and the specific form of sound is the holy name, is the name of God, and there is a mystery which is revealed in many many religious traditions, many different religious traditions, and the mystery is simple but very difficult to understand.
Simple to say, but very difficult to conceive. The mystery is that the holy name is not different from the Lord.
That this is the full representation of the Lord somehow or other, even though it's not perceivable for us on our present level of consciousness. But nevertheless, the holy name is the absolute truth.
And by meditating, ultimately, going deeper and deeper in this meditation, we will be able to unite with God on a very deep level and understand Him because He will reveal Himself to us, being pleased for performing this duty, this dharma.
So this is the point of this verse where Yamaraj
very clearly says pumsām dharmaḥ paraḥ smṛto in this world, the highest dharma, pumsām dharmaḥ paraḥ smṛto is bhakti-yoga bhagavati, is the bhakti-yoga or devotion to Bhagavān which is based on the chanting of the holy name, tat-nāma-grahaṇādibhiḥ.
So let me speak a little bit about this means and how it works and because that's the main subject of our meditation.
You know the scriptures of different traditions glorify this process and they say that you basically can achieve anything by chanting the holy name.
In our tradition we chant Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare in some other tradition they chant something else.
But it's not a problem because God is unlimited and therefore He has unlimited names. Names, his names can be revealed differently to different people.
But what I want to say here is that even though there is so much glorification of this process, how powerful it is, how transforming it is. Sometimes we may be forced
to think while trying and sincerely believing in this, while trying to do this process, we may doubt if it's true or not.
Does this process really has—this process really does— this process have all these effects which are described, or this is some sort of exaggeration or this is some sort of a trick to engage us in some activity, at least we will not do something harmful to others.
Parable illustrating the value of the holy name
Sometimes this explanation is also given just chant and you know it will not be so bad for others if you spend your time by chanting the holy name.
So, one very important thing, and very important consideration about this process is that if we believe that the Holy Name is not different from God Himself, if the Holy Name is really the person whom we are trying to meditate and it's not just a simple sound, material sound, usual sound which we adopt every now and then, then we also have to understand that the Holy Name behaves like a person.
It's a conscious person. It's not just an unconscious object. It's not just the sound produced by our tongue.
And because we have difficulty to believe in it, because we have difficulty to really to relate to this notion that the Holy name is a conscious subject, not an object, then while trying to meditate on the holy name, we inevitably or unconsciously by habit treat the sound of the holy name as the ordinary sound.
And that's the problem. That's the mistake which practically everyone who is trying to adopt this means of meditation, who is trying to approach God through this meditation, this is the mistake which everyone commits.
I want to tell you a little parable, little story, which very clearly illustrates this point. So the story goes like this: that there was one very great guru,
and he was living in a forest in a little ashram with his few disciples and he was you know teaching them the secrets of spiritual life and the secrets of spiritual practice secrets of yoga and one day he was away from his ashram and his disciples were there.
And one man came to this lonely ashram and he was very morose. And he found a disciple who was who looked very bright and very powerful, and he said, You know, your guru is not here, but maybe you can help me.
I have a big problem. My young son who is a teenager is sick and nobody can help him and his his disease is just you know taking toll and uh inevitably he will die. Can you please do something about it?
And this disciple he smiled very brightly and he said, there's no problem. You know, holy name is so powerful.
You, please, write the holy name of Rāma three times on paper with very pray and meditative mood, and then you take this paper with the name of Rāma and you pour some water on this name and then you give this water to your son and your son will be relieved from his disease.
So this man went home and next day he came there completely joyful. He said it works, it works, it works, it really works. And he found the guru. Guru has come back. And Guru said, What works?
He said, Your disciple is really. I mean, you have a good disciple. He gave me such a good advice. He said to me that I should write My son was very sick.
That I should dry the name of Ram three times and then pour water and give it to my son. And sure enough, my son was cured and when the guru
heard this he became so angry he called his disciples, said, You're an atheist, you're non-believer you don't believe in the power of the holy name. Why did you say to this man to write the name of Ram three times?
Even one is enough. There's no need to write three times. You don't believe in the power completely. You just you just have some doubts and just in case let's write too many times.
So he chastised him and he said, just go away from him. And uh his disciple became very morose and he started begging forgiveness from his guru. And Guru he kind of forgave his disciple,
but he knew that he needs to show something. He needs to teach his disciple a lesson. And therefore, he somehow from some hidden place procured a precious stone very sparkling, bright stone of big size.
and he said, You please take this stone, and you go to the city, and you go to different people in the market, and you ask them what is the price of this stone. But don't sell it. Don't be in a hurry.
Just go to different people and ask what is their estimate, what is the price? What would they give if you were to sell the stone?
So the disciple enthusiastically went to the market and he came to some vegetable cellar, and he showed her the stone and he said, Would you like to have the stone? She said, Yeah, sure, nice stone, looks nice.
So, what would you like to give in exchange for this stone? She said, Yeah, one kilo of potato is fine. Not more than one kilo.
Then he went further, you know, he was asking different people, somebody said a few rupees. It was in India, somebody. You know, then he went to a Goldsmith ultimately.
And Goldsmith looked at it and said, oh, this is a nice stone. You know, I can give you one thousand rupees.
And he went further to jewelers and jewelers, so and he said, Oh, phew! One crore, no problem, I can give you easily one crore.
And every time he would say, Excuse me, this stone is not for sale, this stone is to understand the value of this stone. Then he went to the council of five best jewelers and they were
you know, they were discussing among themselves what would be the proper price, and ultimately they say, uh, you know, ten crores, ten crores means, uh, hundred million rupees. The more the disciple would go from each people to each people, his respect towards the stone would grow more and more and he was this is definitely more than one kilo of potato.
And finally he came to the king and he showed the stone to the king. And the king invited all of his ministers and jewelers,
and they were discussing, discussing, and ultimately they say, if you give half of your kingdom, then maybe this will be the good price.
And of course, the disciple was very afraid that if he refused, then you know will be put in prison.
But somehow rather he said, My guru didn't allow me to sell this stone, and therefore his king very respectfully said, You please go to the guru and please ask if we can buy this stone in exchange of half of the kingdom.
So he came back and he said, Oh, this is amazing stone, everyone values this stone differently. And uh and uh the king asked uh sorry uh his guru asked uh what about your opinion?
How much does this stone uh you think cost. He said half of the kingdom is a good price. I really advise you to go for it. And Guru said, You're a fool.
So he asked the disciple to bring some iron things and he touched this iron things and this iron uh turned into gold and he said, actually this is the philosopher's stone and this philosopher's stone can turn some base metal into gold so uh there is no price in this world which could really be adequate to this stone.
And of course the moral of the story which was explained by Guru to his disciple is that this is the holy name. Holy Name is very precious, but everyone looks at the Holy Name according to the level of his consciousness.
Somebody can say, oh yeah, holy name is as good as one kilo of potato.
You know and that's exactly what me what it means to you know to uh chant the holy name the name of God in vanity, or how you see not in vanity? Anyway, this Bible in Rush or whatever.
In between it really means there is no genuine appreciation and genuine understanding of what holy name is and what it can give.
So the secret of this meditation is simple, but at the same time is difficult to realize is that we should understand the potency, the glory, the real value of the Holy Name. Then only this real glory and the value of the Holy Name will be revealed to us.
The theoretical understanding of the power and importance of the Holy Name should come first.
Proper attitude and focus in japa practice
And then when this understanding comes to us and we chant the holy name in a proper frame of mind, with the proper reverence, with the proper attitude, then the Holy Name will gradually reveal all its powers to us.
So, you know this, little phase has to be in the beginning because without phase our practice will be very neglectful. Even in the physical practice of Hatha Yoga. People nowadays are very fond of practicing Hattha Yoga.
But even there, they say for having the full effect of doing asanas, you have to be completely conscious of what you're doing.
You cannot really hear something and you know do even you know the real yogis, uh, in yoga studio you go and they play some music there and then you do some yoga.
This is not a yoga, this is entertainment. This is not the real spiritual process. Spiritual process implies complete concentration on what you are doing, with full reverence.
In fact, according to Patanjali Munya, according to Yoga Sutra, the spiritual practice only becomes practice if it is performed with the proper attitude, with the proper frame of mind, with the proper reverence.
So that's the simple secret of this holy name meditation. And of course, you know that when we're neglectful, when we are inattentive, when we are distracted in our mind, it's better not to chant the Holy Name.
And the gravest the gravest offense, one of the most grave offenses against the Holy Name is is to commit the sins considering the holy name as the means of salvation from the sins.
You know we the idea here is that we're chanting the Holy name to please the Lord.
But if we are chanting the Holy Name to please ourselves by committing sins and relieving ourselves from the sins, we're only digging our own grave.
So oftentimes people do this mistake, and oftentimes people they are not properly understanding the gravity of this process.
This process was experienced by many, many people, thousands and hundreds and even millions of people in the history of humanity.
And they know, they testify by their own experience that Holy Name can give you all the mystic powers, can give you intuition, can give you the ability to see the future. It can give you material results.
But first and foremost, the Holy Name can give you attachment to God, can give you this union, mystical union with God, which will make you completely happy because God is the most happiest personality in the creation.
It can give you this amazing power of feeling that you're united with God on the level of the heart. Not united in the improper sense, but you're united with Him as somebody who loves you and somebody whom you love.
You're united with Him through the love. So when we consider the holy name as the giver of some material benefits, it's the same as to exchange this philosopher's stone, this precious stone, and trade it for some potatoes.
Yes, the holy name can give you potatoes, no problem. And it can give you even, you know, better things. Your whole Swiss cheese can also be obtained through a lot of ice cream. No.
But yeah, the Holy Name can give you money, the Holy Name can give you mystical abilities, the Holy Name can purify your heart from the sins. There is no doubt about it.
This is the point which is uh being made in this story, it can relieve you from committed sinful activities. You will feel completely free from all the accumulated impressions of the sins.
But the main benefit of the Holy Name is this attachment to the Lord, which includes everything else. If you have the Lord in your life, you have everything else, your refrigerator will definitely be full as well.
Because God is full of opulences. Uh to fill up your refrigerator is not a difficult thing for him. So you will have whatever you need, there is no doubt about it, but you will have much more than you think you need.
You will have God. You will have this understanding that God is there, and God is there for you personally.
Chanting with gratitude and sense of dependence
So that's the mystery, and that's the simple and most important rule of this meditation.
Meditation is simple, we should just repeat Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.
But not as a tedious and difficult practice not as something which we have forced to do because of the fear, but as something which is natural to us. With some natural feeling of affection.
Natural feeling of initial affection, which is not very deep, but with the feeling of gratitude.
That's a very important point which is again made many times in Srimad Bhagavatam, that the spiritual practice starts at the point when the tiny living entity understands our dependence on God.
If we understand that whatever we need is ultimately given by God and it's ultimately provided to us by God to facilitate our existence in this material world and our creation, then we will chant initially the holy name with little simple gratitude.
This is my dharma. This is what I'm supposed to do. This is what I'm meant to do.
In the 10th canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, this will be the last point which I will make because even though we are Indian religion but still we are in Switzerland and I have to follow the the rules of the land.
So and should not delay this lecture too late. So the last point which I wanted to make by explaining this notion that chanting of the holy name is not optional.
It's dharma, it's our nature, it's something which we should do and which feels natural. Actually, I remember my own experience when I just started chanting the holy name.
And my initial condition, my friend told me, just chant it and let's see what happens. And I, because I was a scientist, I thought, okay, let me do this experiment. I don't mind.
You know, it's my life is miserable enough. Let me try something else. Maybe it will work.
So uh I'll uh I'll started it by my initial condition was that at the moment uh when uh I will become completely sick and tired of it, I will stop it.
You know 43 years later I'm still chanting the holy name. So it was a long experiment. Still didn't reach the end.
Three ultimate purposes of material creation
So, but uh the simple point which uh well maybe not so simple, but uh the point which I want to make at the end.
Uh I want to quote a verse from the 10th canto of Shimad Bhagavatam, quite mysterious verse, and very interesting philosophical verse.
I will not be able to explain all the philosophical implications of this verse, but some simple idea, some superficial idea of this verse I will convey because it's closely related to the topic we're talking about.
This is the verse from 87, the last chapter of Śrīmad- Bhāgavatam, where Śukadeva Gosvāmī, the speaker of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, explains the purpose of this creation. Sometimes people wonder why God created this world.
Didn't He have enough headache?
You know, and that was the reason he wanted to have some you know some people say that he created this world and you know why did he create this world so imperfect uh and some people say that this was a how you say this better version?
You know, like the computer programmers, they make the better version of the program and they they give this program to the users and users find some bugs in the program and then they return it back the programmer to so
some say that God is I mean he is nice, he's well uh meaning but n not really completely perfect and therefore he created this imperfect world.
So this verse beautifully explains the reason of creation and the purpose of this world. And in this verse, Shukadev Gaswami says that there are three purposes of this world.
That this whole creation, our material existence, our life, if we want to understand what is the meaning, what is the purpose, what we are supposed to achieve, then this verse answers in a very beautiful way.
He says that the first purpose is mantratham. Mantratham means mantratham. It's not mantratam matartham. For the purpose of us enjoying this world. It's a nice nice purpose.
I'm sure you're all delighted to hear that God was having our enjoyment in mind while creating this world. This is the first purpose, obvious purpose.
God has created this world and God has created our bodies in such a way that our senses can contact the sense objects of this world and enjoy. There are so many taste, there are so many colors, so many smells, so many nice touches and so on and so forth.
Matra means the senses because they are very inquisitive and they want to experience different material pleasurable experiences. And there is no doubt about it, it's one of the purposes of the world.
But of course, God Himself puts limitation on this.
He says, if you want to only if you want to have a happy life, then please follow certain rules restrict your your desire to enjoy the senses by certain rules. You know you shouldn't do this, you shouldn't do this, you shouldn't inflict harm, you shouldn't kill other living entities, you should not eat meat, and so on and so forth.
So this is implied, but still, you know, because we want to experience this world, God has created this world for us to do. And then Bhavanaya, the next bhavartam, bhavartham, the next uh Mantraya Bavartaya Bavartaya.
The next uh purpose of the creation was uh to evolve. It's very interesting. God has created this world in a very specific way. He did create the world to give us experience which we want. But He also wants us to evolve.
He also wants us to develop our consciousness. He doesn't want us to remain on a very primitive level by just interacting materially.
And Bhavartha means to you know to go from lifetime to lifetime and at the same time developing our consciousness, our understanding, deepening our understanding. This is the second purpose of creation of the world.
And kalpanayacha, the third or akalpanayacha, it doesn't matter. There could be variant readings in this, but the meaning is the same.
And ultimately, He created this world, the third and the highest purpose of God's creating this world is for us when we develop enough through this chain of reincarnation to develop the highest possible fruit of spiritual development which is love of God.
And in this way to change our status, existential status and achieve spiritual status, achieve an understand our spiritual identity, not remain within this temporary and changing identity.
And ultimately, the three purposes, if we keep them in mind, then we will understand all the so-called or apparent uh imperfections imperfections of this world because these three purposes uh have to be achieved, and all the miseries and sufferings which are there.
This is actually impetus for our spiritual development. For us going higher and higher, understanding the deeper purpose, not to remain on this primitive level of simple sense enjoyers.
So the ultimate purpose is to achieve love of God. And the means of achieving love of God is simple. Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma, Rāma, Hare Hare. Hare Rama, Rama, Rama, Hare Hare.
Trying again and again to concentrate our mind on the sound of the holy name with reverence, with understanding the importance of this process,
and ultimately very quickly we will be given the great gifts which Holy Name is capable of give to us.
Dealing with an active mind during japa
So thank you very much. Sometimes or maybe always the mind may be active or overactive while chanting. So which leaves the the idea of meditating on the sound yeah makes it all almost impossible.
So like what is the best meditation when the when the thoughts are active
we like are we praying for beautification? Are we praying for service? Are we praying just for the pleasure of the Lord? You know, we're praying for what we're capable to pray for.
If we don't really feel that we need and we are trying to pray for something which we don't really need, Krishna is not full. He will immediately detect this sort of insincerity in our prayer.
So we should pray for what, you know, Krishna knows what we really want.
We may say, oh my dear Krishna, I want, I want love. Krishna notices the little pause between love and God and he understands that the real object of our love is not him.
So initially purification of the heart is as relevant. If I understand that we need purification, then we need to purify the heart. It's relevant so we can pray meaningfully or with some feelings.
Anyway, something which is relevant to you but at the same time not too far away from what uh uh the Lord would like you to pray for you uh I have a question. Yes, please.
Please accept my humble obeisances. Um so you talked about the holy name.
Um my question is are there any qualifications required to chant the holy name like past past like karmas or any other factors which um uh uh which encourages you to chant the holy name or anybody can chant because I I have seen people even if you tell them hundred times they don't say Hare Kṛṣṇa.
So that's my question, there is no preliminary qualification. The only qualification is to have a tongue. That's required.
But you know I've seen people who who were even deaf and they were chanting the holy name and they developed some ability. But what is the most... but you you definitely mean something else, why some people develop the desire to do it and other people don't.
So the reason actually is not the past karma because if it was for our past karma to be the deciding factor, then the holy name would not be powerful enough to overcome the past karma.
Thinking that the past karma is the deciding factor, we inadvertently are placing past karma over the holy name. So definitely the holy name can overcome our past karma
But of course you know that there need to be some sort of agent which would help the person to understand despite the layer of ignorance of Avidya which is covering the consciousness.
You know, past sins they make us very ignorant. The sinful activities make us very gross and they make our mind attached to repetition of the sins.
You know the people's the the verdict of the scriptures is that uh it's not your pious credits uh which is uh helpful for you to chant the holy name or to understand its uh importance.
And it's not your sinful uh disadvantages uh which uh prohibit you from chanting it. But it's the mercy of those people who want you to chant the holy name. It's the mercy of saintly people.
You know the holy name, the sound of the holy name is also invested by the consciousness of the chanter of the holy name.
The holy name is powerful, but when we are conditioned living entities, hear the holy name, if this holy name is invested with the pure consciousness or pure desire of a saintly person, then it's more powerful.
So still some people may reject the holy name.
It's not a panacea, it's not the universal recipe, but for the real recipe to receive the holy name is to hear the holy name from a holy person, from a saintly person, but to hear the holy name from the saintly person with a proper reverence and proper attitude.
If this condition is there, then very easily people can appreciate or feel some sort of special feeling uh which is coming from the chanting of the holy name.
Role of posture and discipline in meditation
But if uh we consciously neglectful or spiteful uh uh towards the uh holy persons, then you know we will have to wait till the next opportunity and maybe we will become humble enough at that time to receive the holy name from him or her.
Thank you Maharaj Maharaj, should we try to develop this yogi Pratyaksha and then Yogiya Pratyaksha and then the holy name will we feel if we make this fusion association with the holy name?
No, it's not really necessary, but we should try to meditate properly. You know, we should understand that meditation is a scientific process and it requires certain material conditions to be successful.
I mean, especially in the beginning, when we achieve the real experience of the real holy name, in the beginning, we are just chanting the shadow of the holy name, not the holy name itself.
But uh you know meditation is a certain process and uh it's desirable to follow the rules of meditation to achieve a good experience in meditation, especially in the beginning, one of the rules of meditation is that your spine should be straight.
It's almost impossible for modern people you know sitting like this. Used to sit in front of the computer.
But it's important that the spine is straight and that your head is there and then you are in a certain position which helps your prana your energy to move upwards not downwards because we are still very much depend on our body and uh the the rules of meditation uh actually help us to concentrate the mind.
You know and as uh Balaram Pran Prabhu said, our mind is very active, our mind is very, you know, actually mad and running here and there. And therefore, meditation is difficult in this regard.
So these rules they're necessary to preliminary calm the mind, to bring our mind into the condition which is conducive for our meditation. So, in this sense, your suggestion is correct. We should know.
And Prabhupāda, he did give some conditions. He said you should sit properly, you should chant, you should not. You should not be consciously distracted.
You know, if the mind is behaving its own way and you know running here and there, that's fine, but you are not the mind. And you have the ability to bring your mind back onto meditation.
And that's the process, that's the initial struggle which we all have.
You know, the mind is running somewhere with some brilliant ideas usually especially during japa meditation so many brilliant ideas are coming to our mind.
But we say let's wait with these brilliant ideas now I'm doing something very important. Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare. So in this sense you're right.
Personal realizations on the holy name
Yes. Hare Krishna Maharaj, thank you for the wonderful class. I would like to ask if you kindly would care to share with us some of your experience for three years of chanting, and it would be inspiring to hear.
Some special connection. I my my experience is that the holy name is completely independent. And he will do whatever he likes to do. Sometimes he comes in a very unexpected way.
He descends from somewhere and you feel so and and then you become a little proud that you uh look how spiritual I am.
And then the life this the name disappears, leaves you alone with your pride and you are sitting there mumbling something meaningless.
So So uh my experience is that uh when all of a sudden you you become humble and you consider yourself as an instrument, not as the doer of this chanting, but as an instrument.
And if you have some noble ideas and noble you know aspirations, then the holy name becomes merciful. But then you know all of a sudden it leaves you alone and again you are in this desert of your own dry mind.
So So and uh uh you know I gave so many lectures on this topic. And of course it's nice because uh you know if we offend somebody we should glorify the same person to beg forgiveness.
So by speaking about this, I am begging forgiveness from the Holy Name for my conscious and unconscious offenses.
But really and usually the expectation is there, here we are, we will listen this lecture and we will find out some trick by which we can uncover the powers of the holy name. Yeah, there is no trick.
The trick is only one: it's just to humbly chant the holy name again and again and again without expecting anything.
And uh yeah sometimes holy name reveals, you know, I I had fortunate enough uh to have some sort of amazing experience which are totally not of this world when the holy name is just doing amazing things.
When your perception of the world is completely changed because of the holy name and you start seeing the world in a different way, and your heart is completely free from all these petty feelings and emotions, and you are just open to love everyone.
So it's there. But there is no point of describing it, there is a point of serving the holy name so that the holy name would give you this experience.
Cultivating genuine gratitude through daily reflection
Thank you Marj. In your um description you drew a connection between gender appreciation and sincerity.
And um I don't know my question is really a question, but more of a reflection that I find that there is some appreciation, and I think if the appreciation was really genuine, there would have been more sincerity and chanting.
Uh and some sort of sincerity I can still find in Kirtan. In singing with Kirtan I I I I do feel okay there's some sincerity. But with Jappa I feel it's a very difficult experience. Perhaps you could um address this.
I I didn't elaborate on this uh during the lecture, but uh there was a very important point when I was speaking at the end about the three purposes of creation that the Lord has created this world for us to get some nice happy experience and also for us to develop and ultimately,
for us to leave this world by obtaining very amazing spiritual experience which helps us to reject uh all other petty experiences. I was saying this and there uh Śukadeva Gosvāmī says ca ca cha.
Three times he repeats uh the word cha which means and, and this, and this, and this.
And the commentators of this verse they explain that he repeats this word and three times to stress that we are dependent on the Lord in everything.
In our material existence, He provided us with the senses, with the ability to have nice experience with the object of the senses. You know, he gave us such beautiful places.
You know, I'm walking this Zurich and I'm amazed how such a nice city. I I fell in love with this city. I really wasted 16 years of my life not coming here.
The Lord gave us this experiences, material experience, nice material experiences. The Lord gave us the ability and the sense of development, which is also nice,
otherwise we would remain like a like a worm and would be completely happy, but even the worm has some sort of feeling within his heart. I don't know if he has heart or not, but he feels the need to become better worm.
And develop caterpillar or whatever and from caterpillar to butterfly. So he gave us this opportunity and then he also gave us the final opportunity to achieve the highest spiritual experience.
This is the purpose of His creation and if we meditate on this and understand that He is behind this, He is providing us with all this then the gratitude will be natural. Why we don't feel grateful to the Lord?
Because we usually are very conscious of what we don't have. Instead of being conscious of what we already have.
If we would concentrate on what we have and you know be overwhelmed with the gratitude because the Lord has already given to us so much. Then the gratitude would be very natural.
Whereas we always in this mentality, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, why it's not better? Why you know why this world is so bad why it's not better why it's
like this it's like this it's like this come on we don't you know if if we're ungrateful if we're coming, somebody just imagine you have a friend, and this friend is providing you with so many things, and you know, and then ultimately he gave you the house to live and he provided you with the nice furniture and you know the bathroom is there and the kitchen all equipped is there.
And then you come to him and you said you know, "But you forget the turmeric in the kitchen. Why didn't you give me this? And you are very angry with him because he didn't with this.
So the gratitude is actually very simple sort of feeling. It naturally comes if we meditate on what we have. Not if we meditate on something which we lack, which is our habit. I don't have this, I don't have that.
But if this simple you know way of thinking is coming to us. Thank you for this and thank you for that. Thank you for this day. Thank you for my ability to see. Thank you for my ability to hear. I have a disciple of mine.
She's a nice lady and she at one point she
started becoming deaf and uh this deafness was progressing rapidly, rapidly, rapidly, and she imagined how it will be, you know, how her life would be without the ability to hear the holy name, to hear the lectures, to hear.
And she became so immensely grateful that she has this ability still, even though it's impaired. Who of us is grateful that we can hear? No, we are not grateful.
Whereas it's the it's such a great gift which is given to us by God. So if we meditate on this, and ultimately because of your gratefulness, uh she still can hear.
She still, you know, something changed and this disease which was uh her deafness which was inevitable, you know, left her. And she still can hear. So this is what I uh this is what I mean.
If we meditate on what we have, simple gifts that we have. You know, like also I know one person who has asthma. And he said, you don't understand what a great gift it is to breathe.
Unless you all of a sudden lose this gift. And you cannot just you you you feel you cannot breathe.
So if we're grateful to the Lord for what He gave by thinking about it again and again and again, then the chanting in a proper mood will come automatically. Okay, I guess it's too late. Thank you very much.
Śrīla Prabhupāda-ki jaya! Śrī Gaurāṅga-ki jaya!