Bhagavad-gita 17.3
Бхакти Вигьяна Госвами · Ottawa · 2005
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Overview of Bhagavad-gītā chapter seventeen
I will speak on the topic of the 17th chapter of Bhagavad-gītā, which is called the Divisions of Faith. In Sanskrit, this chapter of Bhagavad-gītā is called Śraddhā-traya-vibhāga-yoga,
the yoga of uh distinguishing three kinds of faith. Sattva, Satva, Anurupa Sarvasya Sarva Sradha, Sradhama, Bhavati, Bavati, Bharata, Bharata, Sradhha, Sardhamaya, Iambaiam, Gurusaha, Purusa, Yah,
Yaha, Yam, Sradhaha, Sradhama Sam Satvanu pa sarvasya, Satvanu Sama, Sraddhabavatibarata, Sradibara, Sradhamayampuru showhamayamur show ya chradhanah save sa. Yay chradha save, sadvanupa
sarvasya, sadvanu sarvasya, sadhabhavati Bharatam, Sradhbhava Dibharata, Sradamayam Puruso, Sraddhamayam Purcho, Yay Chradhah Saivasam, Yasya Basva Nurupa Sattva Narupa according to the existence
sarvasya sarvasya of everyone. Of everyone. Sradha Shradha. Faith. Faith. Bavati. Bhavati becomes. Becomes. Bharata. Bharata. Sana Bharata. Sasan of Bharata. Sradha Faith Maya full of full of Iam this Purusha
Purusha Living entity Yaha Who Ya Having Which Having Which Shradha Shradha Faith Saha Thus Eva Suddenly Suddenly Saha Sa He Translation
Osan of Bharata, according to one's existence, under the various modes of nature, one evolves a particular kind of faith.
The living being is said to be of a particular faith according to the modes he has acquired for by his divine grace bhtividanta sana practice. Everyone has a particular type of faith, regardless of what he is, but his faith is considered good, passionate or ignorant, according to the nature he has acquired.
Thus, according to his particular type of faith, one associates with certain persons.
Now the real fact is that every living being, as is stated in the 15th chapter, is originally fragmental part and parcel of the Supreme Lord. Therefore, one is originally transcendental to all the modes of material nature.
But when one forgets his relationship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, that comes into contact with the material nature in conditional life.
He generates his own position by association with the different varieties of material nature. The resultant artificial faith and different varieties, artificial faith and existence are only material.
Although one may be conducted by some impression or some conception of life. Originally he is nirguṇa or transcendental.
Therefore, one has to become cleansed of material contamination that he has acquired in order to regain his relationship with the Supreme Lord. That is the only one path back without fear. Krishna consciousness.
If one is situated in Krishna consciousness, then his path is guaranteed for his elevation to the perfectional stage.
If one does not take the path of self-realization, then he is surely to be conducted by the influence of the modes of nature. The word śraddhā or faith is very significant in this world or in this verse.
Śraddhā or faith originally comes out of the mode of goodness. One's faith may be in a demigod or some created god or some mental concoction.
One's strong faith is supposed to be productive of works of material goodness, but in material conditioned life. No works are completely purified. They are mixed. They are not in pure goodness.
Pure goodness is transcendental. In purified goodness, one can understand the real nature of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
As long as one's faith is not completely in purified goodness, the faith is subject to contamination by any of the modes of material nature. The contaminated modes of material nature expand to the heart.
Therefore, according to the position of the heart in contact with a particular mode of material nature, one's faith is established.
It should be understood that if one's heart is in the mode of goodness, his faith is also in the mode of goodness. If his heart is in the mode of passion, his faith is also in the mode of passion.
And if his heart is in the mode of darkness, illusion, his faith is also thus contaminated. Thus we find different types of faith in this world. And there are different types of religions due to different types of faith.
The real principle of religious faith is situated in the mode of pure goodness. But because the heart is tainted, we find different types of religious principles.
Thus, according to different types of faith, there are different kinds of worship.
Śrīla Prabhupāda. Satvanu Rupa Sarvasya Sradamaya Sradabhavati Bharata Sradamaya Yampurus Yaya Shradha Say Vasaha Hosan of Bharata. This is the third verse of the seventeenth chapter.
Osan of Bharata according to one's existence under the various modes of nature, one evolves a particular kind of faith.
The living being is said to be a particular of a particular faith according to the modes he has acquired.
Namam Vishnu Padaya Krishna Prishtaya Buddha Shrimate Bhaktividanta Swamini Dinamini, Namaste Saras fatidhi, couravani pacharini, nel sesso sunavadi, pachadle scepari, manchakau pataru deschakri, passi duba chakra, ma di tana, Pablity, Vishna Lyon, Djay Sri Krishna, Chaitanya, Prabhupita, Shri Bhaika Badha, Sri Burbakta Brinda.
Explaining the variety of religious faiths
Are you Kishnaikisnak, Rama Rama Hadi, Areekus Nāekus Nakisma Krishna, Ariam Ramamah, Hre Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Krishna Hri, Hriam Hriam Hre.
So I took this verse because this understanding which explains in the purport is extremely important for us. Sometimes people are confused. Oftentimes people are confused.
Sometimes we see a very strong manifestation of faith.
Sometimes people are confused because they see so much variety of faith, so many different religions and so many different varieties of worship in this world is there. So sometimes people ask, what is the point?
And people even become at ease on the pretext that there are so many different religions. And they say, People you religious people don't know anything anyway, so you know you you first come to a conclusion yourself.
Sometimes they even say that religion is not a science. That religion is just a superstition.
It's just a very whimsical kind of conception in mind, and you know, somebody has this religion, somebody has this religion, and this doesn't matter.
But Srila Prabhupada established this religion on a very firm foundation of science. He came to the West, to open our eyes and to say that religious life, spiritual life is a science. It's universal.
It has universal principles. It's conducted according to universal principles and this universal principles are eternal.
And one can see and understand the varieties of faces in this world and understand the reason for this, the cause for these different faces and at the same time understand that ultimately the faith or the worship is one.
That there is a science, there is a scientific face in scientific worship. Therefore, this verse is so important that this whole chapter is so important for us.
Krishna gives this chapter or explains this chapter specifically for this reason. First of all, Krishna in this chapter says that there will always be different religions.
There will never be a time when there will be only one religion. Sometimes we as Hare Krishnas say, yes, yes, there will be only Hare Krishnas. Right, of course. No. Because people have different hearts.
And Krishna speaks very clearly in this verse that people have faith according to their heart, according to the condition of their heart.
They will have different conceptions and different understandings and different modes of worship and this and that. There will always be different religions. Krishna says it's natural.
It would be unnatural if there was one faith, one religion, and if put everyone would do this. And Krishna explains why is it.
Original transcendental faith versus material reflection
But Śrīla Prabhupāda makes it extremely clear in his purport that there is one faith which is real, and there is wide variety of faiths which are to one extent or another contaminated.
Actually, faith or śraddhā is a goddess. It's one of the energies of the Lord. And the energy of the Lord are eternal. The Supreme Lord has so many energies.
And śraddhā, faith originally has the transcendental nature. It comes from the Supreme Lord. And we know, you know, at least I know, I was an atheist for the biggest part of my life.
And when the faith descends within the heart, it's kind of miraculous event. When somebody who was trained as an atheist, who was brought up as an atheist, all of a sudden became a believer.
This is there is something mysterious there. And in Rigveda, even in Rigveda, there is a hymn in Rigveda, which is devoted to śraddhā, to Goddess śraddhā.
So Prabhupāda, he explains this very clearly that original faith, śraddhā, which is the energy of the Lord, is transcendental. But when it reflects in this world, and all the energies of the Lord ultimately are reflected in this world.
This world is nothing else but a reflection of the Supreme Lord. And all the different energies of the Supreme Lord are pervertedly reflected here.
Prabhupāda explains this in the 15th chapter, in the 15th chapter of Bhagavad-gītā, which is called Puruṣottama-yoga, the yoga of the Supreme Person, it is explained that this world is nothing but a perverted reflection. If you remember 15th chapter of Bhagavad Gita, it starts with this beautiful metaphor of a tree which is reflected in the water.
And Prabhupada explains that this water, but this reflected tree of the material world the water on which the tree of the material world is being reflected, or uh on which we do exist, is the water of desire.
The water of perverted desire of a human being gives birth to this perverted reflection, which we call reality, which we call world, which we call our existence.
And all the energies of the Lord, all the transcendental energies of the Lord
which originates from the Supreme Lord and which originally Nirguna originally have no material qualities, not even trace of material qualities. All of them when they come to this world they become somewhat contaminated.
And what we see as the faith here in this material world is just a reflection of real faith. In most of the cases.
It's not that here we are Hare Krishnas who only have the real faith and everyone else is going to hell more or less. We will not say this, but this is implied.
As usually people do, you know, and they say that everyone is condemned, everyone is doomed, and only we are saved. No, but still there is a science, and the science has to be understood that
there is a contaminated faith, Maya faith, and this faith of Shraddha contaminated faith of materialistic faith is set of the three kinds: sättvika, rājasika and tāmasika.
Interconnection between personal nature and faith
There are three kinds of faith, and we can see that these three kinds of faiths are existing in this world.
And what is most important uh the most important statement or the most important point of this rule or of this verse is that according
to your faith your nature develops your faith is developed according to your nature, and according to your faith, your nature develops. It's a mutual cause and effect relationship.
Sattvānurūpa sarvasya śraddhā bhavati sāmyataḥ. It is extremely important. And Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura explaining this verse, he says basically that ultimately you develop the nature of the object of your worship.
Sometimes people worship, you know, some ghosts. They have this tantric kind of worship. Or sometimes they worship dead body of a demon. Like in Russia they used to worship dead body of Lenin.
There was this big dead body of a big demon entombed in Samadhi in Red Square. And people would go there to have a little glimpse of a darshan of the dead body of a demon, just to get purified within the heart.
But Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura says that you develop the nature of the object of your worship. And if you worship the dead body of a demon, then you can guess what kind of nature you will develop.
You will develop the nature accordingly, according to the object of your worship. What you tell me whom you worship, and I will tell you who you are. Basically, that's the point of this verse.
It's extremely important to see whom we worship. But at the same time, what is being stated here, Sattva Anurupa Sarvasya, that ultimately Sradamaya Yampurusov, Sradha Bhavati Bharata.
Sraddha is developed according to our situation in the modes of material nature. Initially, we have a particular kind of situation in the modes of material nature.
We're being influenced by good modeness, by mode of passion, by mode ignorance. And accordingly our face is developed. It's actually very interestingly explained in the eighth chapter of Bhagavad-gītā.
In the eighth chapter of Bhagavad Gita, again if you remember, Arjuna, Arjuna asks many many questions. And one of the questions which Arjuna asks is what is Adi Atma? Adi Atma. Atma means what? What is Atma? So Soul.
Atma is soul, or Atma is my identification, who I am. Right? Atma means I. Atma means self. At the Atma, Adi means the higher principle, what is higher than the soul.
So Arjuna asks this about this principle: what is Addiatma? What is higher than the soul? Basically?
W ishat the principle which is guiding or controlling the soul? What is the principle which is controlling our self-identification? What is the principle which actually dictates to us our understanding or our conception of ourselves.
That's exactly in clear terms what are Junas. Do you remember what Krishna answers to this very important question? What is a jatma? What is this principle which is guiding our understanding of ourselves?
And it is a very important question because we have to understand why we do consider ourselves be our body. You know, we have heard so many times.
Prabhupada has said so many times, you're not this body, you're not this body, you're not this body. Very good, very nice philosophy. But it doesn't go too far because as soon as we encounter some particular very practical situation in life we completely forget that we are not this body.
We forget that we are spirit soul. We have heard it so many times and sometimes devotees even complain.
I heard them complaining, you know, Prabhupāda, he's always giving this basic thing, we are not this body, we are spirit-soul. This basic thing it takes many lifetimes to understand. It's not that easy.
Because we do identify ourselves with the body. And that's exactly the core of this question which Arjuna asks.
When Arjuna asks, what is adhyātma, what is the guiding principle of our ātmā, of our self-identification, Kṛṣṇa gives a very appropriate answer. He says svabhāva.
And answering this question, what actually tells you who you are? He says svabhāva, he says nature. And it's interesting, and it's even to the point of being paradoxical.
But basically, what Krishna says is very sensible, again, very sensible point
of our philosophy when he says that adhyātma is svabhāva, that adhyātma is our nature, and sometimes svabhāva is being translated as conditioned nature, that he means to say that our nature, uh, is influencing our understanding of ourselves.
In other words, the spirit soul by nature belongs to which energy of the Lord? Marginal. Yes. Tatasthā-śakti. And marginal energy of the Lord, we actually belong to the highest energy of the Lord.
Aparāṁ itas tv anyāṁ prakṛtiṁ viddhi me parām, Kṛṣṇa says that there is a higher energy of the Lord which is consciousness. And we do have consciousness. We are conscious of our own existence.
You know, this nice vyāsāsana is very nice, but it doesn't know that it exists. It does exist, but it doesn't have this knowledge of its existence. It doesn't have this caitanya or consciousness.
We are belonging to the higher nature, do have the consciousness of self-awareness. The self-awareness is there within the spirit soul.
But because we belong to tatasthā-śakti, that means that we have to take shelter either in the higher energy or in the lower energy. We cannot be in between.
We have to take shelter either in material energy or in spiritual energy and depending on which energy we take shelter of, we get our svabhāva.
In other words, when we are placed, when the spirit soul is placed in a particular environment, and now the spirit soul is placed in the material environment. We are little spiritual spark. The spark is there. We are spark of spirit.
But we are placed in the material nature, in the material environment, because we are placed in a material environment, we identify ourselves with native with material nature. We think we are material nature.
We become material nature. And that's exactly what Krishna says. You become uh you borrow the qualities of your environment and you develop the conception of your environment.
It's very clearly can be seen even in this material world, especially in this particular audience, it's it's very uh it's very easy to understand.
You know like in different countries even people have slightly different conceptions of who they are. If you go to Israel, you see they have a particular conception of their ātmā.
They're very aggressive and they're you know and they're very shrewd and and if you go to Russia they're very rough people and tough people. If you go to Canada they're different people because the modes are different.
The modes of material nature are different. And when you're placed in this modes of material nature and the environment of this modes, you borrow these qualities immediately.
You become like the nature. You go to, you know, I was for some time in my life in Sweden. Sweden is a very, you know, cold country. It's uh close to the North Pole almost.
And people are like, you know, like working refrigerators. They are more or less they they acquire the quality of this coldness. You know, it's there within their heart. They did acquire the qualities of the nature.
Because again, this is what Krishna explains. Adhyatma is Svabhava. You're placed in this particular environment, and sooner or later you develop the same kind of qualities.
And then if you take a Swedish person and put him in Italy, you know, and after a while he becomes a passionate, you know, Italian guy and you will not be able to distinguish him from an Italian because he ultimately kind of becomes assimilated with the qualities of nature.
He becomes influenced with the qualities of nature. And it's not a conscious process. It's more or less being developed automatically. You're more or less being dissolved in this material nature.
Universal presence of faith in human life
And in a similar way, of course in a much higher scale, or in a much bigger scale, the same is happening with the soul when the soul is being transferred from the material world to the spiritual world, or from the spiritual world to material world, you immediately acquire these qualities of your environment. And because you acquire the qualities of your environment, correspondingly you develop certain conceptions. And these conceptions of your own existence are called faith.
And that's exactly what Krishna is saying here. He speaks here. Sattvanurupa sarvasya sraddha bhavati bharata. Sraddhamayo 'yam puruso, and Prabhupada starts on this purpose explaining that everyone has faith.
Sraddhamayo 'yam purusah, or Spirit soul, person, personality has to have faith. More or less, Krishna is going as far as saying that Sraddhamayo 'yam purusah, everyone is made of faith.
The very nature of our existence is faith. Because we do believe. We do believe in so many stupid things which we never be able to even check or rationally intelligently understand. You know it just goes without saying.
It's it's something it's a uh it's taken for granted. You know we believe in so many things. Some people say I don't believe in anything. But then he believes that he doesn't believe in anything. He still believes it.
It's his faith. It's his position in life. And he may say that I don't believe in anything, but he still believes. Because Krishna says, Sraddhamayo 'yam purusah. Everyone is made of faith.
Everyone's existence is based on faith. No matter what you say, no matter what you think about yourself.
You know, and it's uh it's it it's very interesting because ultimately uh what Krishna is saying here that ultimately human existence is religious by nature.
You have to have some kind of religion. You have to worship someone. Because you're made of faith. And the explanation here is again very significant. Why we are made of faith.
Why do we have to have faith? The answer is very simple. Why? Because we are very small. If we were big, if our intelligence would be big and all encompassing, then we don't need faith.
But because we are so small, because we are attached to Shakti by nature, we have to have shelter. And faith basically means shelter.
Another synonym of the word faith which Jiva Goswami gives in Bhakti Sandarbha is Saranagati. He says Shraddha means Saranagati. Faith means that you have to surrender.
And everyone, that's what I said just a few minutes before. Everyone, everyone's existence is ultimately religious.
Because everyone takes shelter of something, of some ideas, of some understandings, of some kind of higher force which is there in this material world. Everyone is doing it.
And everyone is basically trying to form his existence according to the principles of some kind of religion.
It's amazing because I was born and I was brought up, as I said, in a in an atheistic country for 70 plus years and in this country the atheism was an official religion. Basically it was a religion.
You know they say there is no God, there is no God. But there was only talk that there is no God. And if God is not there, why do you talk about him so much? That's one question. He's not there. Why should you?
Still, you are trying to make the foundation of your existence in some kind of quasi-religion. It's still religion, it's it's perverted religion, but it's still religion. And what did they do to establish their faith?
They did have scriptures. There was Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels and Vladimir Lenin, you know, and religiously everyone had to you know had to study these scriptures, you know, everyone had to quote the Shastra.
Karl Marx said this, and Friedrich Engels said this. They had their verses and their, you know. It's all religious, you know, and you have to believe in it.
And if you didn't believe in it, you would be burned as a heretic because again you're condemned you are somehow rather you are obnoxious enough not to believe in this very religious and sacred doctrine of atheism.
And then there was supposed to be rituals.
It's also very interesting how it was conducted because in every institution there was kind of a prayer room and in this prayer room there was a deity of Lenin the Murti of Lenin was there it was called the Red Room the Red Room means or red corner, you know, they put as we put Śrīla Prabhupāda there in the corner they would put exactly in the same way the you know the bust uh of Lenin and they would come and they would say some vows, my dear Lenin, I vow to you to be such and such person and to follow such and such principles.
And then they would have exactly the same kind of rituals. Like we have Ratha-yātrā, right? We put the Lord on the cart and we pull the cart. So they put Lenin on the cart and they put the they pulled the cart.
It was it was you know some kind of parade on the red square. They did exactly the same. Not only they put Lenin, Lenin is the supreme lord, he is the supreme son of God.
And then there were so many demigods, you know, this demigod and that denigod and they had their special you know place in the pantheon of this religion and ultimately again the whole existence,
the whole kind of uh how how you say it, the whole kind of structure of existence was uh based on this religious principles.
The same, exactly same things were there, you know, there were kirtans, they were chanting very nice songs, you know, together. I don't remember these songs now, otherwise we would chant.
that's exactly what Krishna is explaining here. Sradamaya Yampurusho. Everyone has some faith. Everyone has some conception.
Artificial faith within modes of nature
And ultimately, this conception is more or less following your situation in the modes of material nature. But what Prabhupada is explaining, he he gives a very genius explanation in this purport.
And he says that ultimately the space, either in the mode of goodness, or in the mode of tamas, ultimately it is artificial. It's artificial faith. Because it's perverted, it's reflected. It has a glimpse of reality.
Because again, the original faith is nirguṇa. The original face is transcendental. It's coming from the spiritual world. And therefore, it gives so much so much enthusiasm.
But it's artificial because it's more or less kind of fixing your position within the modes of material nature. What is happening in this world, how it works, you develop a
certain faith according to your nature, and then because you have this faith in particular principles, in particular way of living, in particular
Faith is the faith in the particular values that this is valuable this thing is valuable this thing is valuable and then because
you believe in these values, you are more or less fixing your situation, your situation within the modes of material nature. Like for example, again, you know, some people do believe that intoxication is good.
There are even books written about this, you know, you take LSD, this is a very good thing.
Or some people, they just don't write books about this, just take intoxication and vodka. Vodka is a very good thing, some people think. So it's totally irrational because what is good about vodka? I'm being born in Russia, I tried it once or twice.
It's the most horrible substance that is in this world. It's not tasty. It's horrible. You know, you really have to believe that it's good to take it.
But people do believe and people take so much you know of this stuff, you know, vodka or gin or this stuff or that stuff.
It's not tasty, it's not nice, you know, the state of mind which you acquire by taking intoxications is horrible. It's a nightmare, you know.
You know, everyone, you know, if if you see the drunk people on the street, you know, you're horrified by that. And he is blissful, yeah right. Why he's blissful? Because he believes that it's good.
He believes that it's good and he lives accordingly. This is something which is valuable for him.
He is and therefore he conducts his life according to these stupid principles, and therefore he is more or less caught within the modes of material nature. That's it, it's a vicious circle.
You're there and you cannot go out because you already believe in something, and your belief, your faith is your cage. You cannot really cross beyond the limits of your faith.
You more or less reproduce your existence again and again and again.
And because you reproduce your existence, you're being born and again and again and again in the same situation, in the same environment, as the same kind of stupid human being.
So that's exactly what Śrīla Prabhupāda is explaining here when he says that this space is artificial because it's it's within the modes of material nature.
And of course, you know sometimes people I get offended. You know there is a uh there are some people who say yeah everything is nice. You know.
There are some people who say yatamat. Whatever one thing, you know, whatever one believes in, ultimately he goes to Krishna.
You know, if it doesn't matter what you believe, it doesn't matter what you do, it doesn't matter, it's it's just you have to believe in something and then you come to Krishna. How you come to Krishna, why you come to Krishna, it's not clear.
You know, and and they get offended like recently I was in Los Angeles and I was explaining uh I was showing the slideshow maybe I will show it tomorrow about Russian preaching and Krishna consciousness in Russia.
And I saw the encounter of devotees with the Russian Orthodox people, Rassian Orthodox Church, the priests of Russian Orthodox Church.
And it's it's really interesting because when all the priests of Russian Orthodox Church look exactly the same. It's as if they're twin brothers. They have to be fat. They have to be really, you know, gross.
Anyway, we don't want to mock them, but they look the same. And I have a very scientific proof of it. I will show it to you tomorrow. They look exactly the same. They have a particular kind of nature, so to speak.
And then you see the devotees. They have different natures, and there is an encounter. It's inevitable again because there are different natures, and different natures they clash.
One says we are believers in God, and another say we are believers in God. Then they say that they believe in God, and these people say they believe in God.
And some people say that it's all good, that everything is the same, but it's not the same. When you say that everything is the same, it means that you don't have intelligence. Intelligence means Viveka Shakti.
Viveka Shakti means the ability to distinguish or discriminate.
Gradual evolution of consciousness across lives
Viveka Shakti means you know this is this, this is this, this is this, this is sattva, this is tamas, this is rajas. And although again all the religions in one sense are good because they are
coming as Prabhupada explains again in this in this amazing purport, Prabhupada explains that all the religions, all the faiths ultimately is coming from the mode of goodness. Therefore, if you have a very strong faith in something, it elevates you to a certain extent.
But still, because your faith is different, your destination is also different. And you can even see it. Krishna explains in the beginning of Bhagavad-gītā.
He says that actually, the transition in life is not abrupt. There is a very gradual progression.
And he also explains the same in the eighth chapter of Bhagavad-gītā when he says that you know you develop certain mentality, certain bhāva, certain mood within your heart during your lifetime. And your next life is more or less gradual or very consistent continuation of this life.
It's not that in this life you believe in something and you're gross and this and that and the next life you're angel, you know, and you're flying there in the sky.
You cannot become angel unless you you are on the way to become angel. Or sometimes people think you know I'm a manjari in the spiritual world. Especially Brahmacharya, they like to say this.
We have a very special Swarupa, I'm a god in the spiritual world. Um once even you know one Rashman Brahmacharya asked me, do you know how to put on Sari? I said, why do you need it? I'm going to the spiritual world.
I'm a god, you know, I have to know how to put on Zari, otherwise um I will be in a very shameful situation. I'm a cool But the point the the real point this is all this is all nonsense, this is all rabbits.
There is a very again gradual and very scientific development of consciousness. And you become ultimately in the next life, you become what you become in this life. Your next life is the continuation of this life.
And if you didn't develop anything in this life, then you will not become something in the next life. You know, it is Vāsudeva in the 10th canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, he explains this philosophy to Kaṁsa.
He says to Kamsa and that the transition from this life to the next life, from this body to the next body, when the soul is transiting
from this body to the next body is like a caterpillar who is transiting from one leaf to another leaf. The caterpillar is a very clumsy creature. You know, it cannot jump. You know, the caterpillar can only crawl.
It's crawling really, really, really slowly. And when the caterpillar wants to move from one leaf to another leaf, Then he first very slowly puts the first part of his body into another leaf.
And then he gradually, gradually pulls the rest of the body. So Vāsudeva explains to Kaṁsa that in a similar way the soul is being transmigrated now.
It's not that you will transmigrate in another body at the moment of death. No way. You're creating your next body right now. Whatever you do, whatever you think, whatever you add, it's all creation of your next body.
Already now, half of your existence is in the next body. Like the caterpillar who already placed part of his body into the next leaf. Already this next body is in the making.
You're making this next body whatever you think, whatever little things you do, it's all, you know, kind of little investment into the next body. So, uh, in a similar way, uh, we can see that the faith or the particular kind of worship, particular kind of meditation which you have, particular kind of uh you know development which you have is ultimately uh gradually bringing you to the destination which is uh predestined by your present existence
and the mode of your worship, the mode of your faith or whatever you do is ultimately determining your next next destination or next kind of body or next lifetime. Therefore, it's not that all the religions are one.
No, some people, they have, they're living in the in a very, uh, in a very strange world, in a very uh you know, especially some religious people, some fanatical religious people, you know, they think that if they blow up some you know some plane or big building they will go to heaven you know how in the world it is scientific you know you kill other people you do this sinful activity you have the hellish mentality now.
You're fearful because you want to kill other people.
Achieving fearlessness through pure faith
Here, Prabhupada, he actually makes a very nice point, and this is the point of the song which we sang.
Bhaktivinoda Thakura says when you have strong faith and when the faith is real, when your faith is nirguṇa, when your face is really transcendental beyond this material world, then the first quality which you have to acquire is fearlessness.
Abhaya-caraṇāravindare. Oh mind, if you worship the son of Maharaja Nanda, bhajahu re mana śrī-nanda-nandana abhaya- caraṇāravindare, immediately you become fearless. You become totally, completely fearless.
And this is of course His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda because A.C. stands for Abhaya Caraṇāravinda. He became abhaya, which means fearless, because he took shelter of the lotus feet of the Lord, caraṇāravinda.
Abhaya-caraṇāravindare. There was one story that one mm big dog, you
Prabhupāda was walking somewhere in the Beverly Hills or somewhere and then all of a sudden, you know, the huge dog, huge, you know, only in the west there's this, you know, monstrous dogs, you know, which are like, uh, big demons and, uh, very close, you know, all of a sudden jumped, and Prabhupāda had so many disciples behind him and the sannyāsīs strong, young, and, uh, all of a sudden nobody was there, only Prabhupāda was there.
And Prabhupāda was standing there and, uh, and the dog was standing there, and the dog started barking, and Prabhupāda said, “Hūṭ!” And the dog, you know, all of a sudden started, you know, trembling and ran away.
And all of a sudden, the disciples came back and I asked Prabhupāda, how did you do this? He said, you have to know the science.
And next time, next time when they met a dog, you know, one sannyāsī decided to imitate Śrīla Prabhupāda and he ran away towards this dog and said, “Hūṭ!” But the dog couldn't care less.
The dog continued barking, you know, attacking this and yes. What is the science? You know, I said the same thing. I also said, “Hūṭ!” and you have to be totally, completely fearless.
And this fearlessness is coming, and that's also what Prabhupāda explains in this purport.
This fearlessness is coming from the transcendental faith. This is actually the indication how you have to, you can understand whether you have faith or not.
According to the extent of your fears, you know, and some people are so paranoid, you know, they're so they they're fearful of everything, you know, they're fearful of of this, that.
You know, the more fearful you are, the less religious you are. The less uh you know, the more fearful you are, the less you have real faith.
And even though, of course, Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that ultimately faith is coming from the mode of goodness, and if one has a very strong faith, it elevates him. But in the ultimate sense, in the ultimate issue, only
transcendental faith makes a difference. If the faith is material again, if you are just your kind of conception or your kind of religious understanding to your material conditioning, it's ultimately useless.
It is it is ultimately useless.
Limitations of worship without spiritual faith
And uh that's exactly the conclusion of this chapter. At the end of this chapter, Krishna says a very interesting verse.
He speaks a very interesting verse when he says that, you know, if somebody is doing religious rituals, if somebody is performing tapasya, austerity, or if somebody is doing some yajña, or if somebody is even chanting the name of God, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma, Rāma, Hare Hare. Kṛṣṇa says if he does it without real transcendental faith, it is useless.
He says it doesn't have any effect. It doesn't bring any result.
You know, all the austerities which you do, all the rituals which you perform, or whatever things which you do, if it doesn't have this element of transcendental faith which has to come from the spiritual world, which cannot really be obtained uh through your wanderings in this material world.
If it's all based on the relative conceptions of this world, it ultimately doesn't bring you anywhere. Why it is useless? Again, it is explained in this verse.
It is useless because it only fixes or more or less kind of determines or remains you—you only remain in the same situation which you are. It doesn't bring you anywhere.
You are still in this vicious circle where you are in. So where do you get the transcendental faith? The only element in this world which can elevate you beyond the limits of this world.
The only element which can basically—and again this is explained in this purport. This this purport is brilliant. Śrīla Prabhupāda is really brilliant. What can change your existence?
The real faith, if it's coming from the spiritual world, it has to have this ability of completely, totally changing your existence, your outlook of life,
your values in life, your principles in life. Everything has to be changed. Like Prabhupada he calls this revolution. Actually he translates as a revolution.
I was always wondering whether there is this word revolution in Sanskrit, whether there was revolution in Sanskrit. And there is word revolution, he translates the word Viplava as revolution.
It basically means the complete total uh how you say total complete change within your life uh and this is what what the face has to do with you and this is the real miracle.
You know, sometimes people ask, you know, can you show us the miracle? You know, there's so many miracles. Uh and Prabhupada was not in favor of this ridiculous miracles.
You know, like sometimes people they create face or trying to create faith or obtain the followers by making some kind of miracles, miraculous uh stuff.
Like I was in India uh in January of this year and there was a very famous evangelical preacher from America he came to India to save Indians his name was Benishin and there was a big, huge uproar in the whole of India.
Some people said Benny Shin, Kijai, you know.
And there were there were four million people coming to this Benny Shin. He gave four programs there were four million people flocking from all over India just to see this you know guy who flew from America on his own airplane, you know, and why?
Because Benishin would do miraculous healings. He would do this, you know, fired up preaching and you believe in Jesus.
You know, and some people were healed, some people, you know, they were blind and they became you know, they all of a sudden they have eyesight. Maybe I don't know. But anyway, but this is not a miracle.
This is this is ridiculous because ultimately uh this is all cheap. This whole thing is cheap. The religious this this kind of preaching is cheap and uh the followers who are after this preaching are also cheap.
This is uh you know cheaters and those who wanted to be cheated.
There were some other people in India who were so much against this Benishin and they were going there and burning the buses of those people who came to Benishin, you know, because you came to this Benishin you, walk back home, you know, not on the bus or whatever.
The whole thing is is absurd. You know. Those who are, you know, Benishin Kijai, they are ridiculous and and those who are against Ben Shin are equally ridiculous.
Because you know why why do you have to be so uptight about this? This is mm you know normal cheating is going on everywhere on the name of religion or not in the name of religion.
And those who wanted to be cheated, they will be cheated. You know, sometimes people think that religious religion is all about miracles, you know.
Like few years ago there was big thing in India when all the Ganeshas started drinking milk. You know, all the Ganeshas somehow or other they had a s uh particular kind of convention
and they decided on this particular day we will start drinking milk. And all the Ganeses. And then following Ganesis, so many deities started drinking milk and there was huge, huge
uproar, all the newspapers, you know, my Ganesh drank two liters of milk and my Ganesh drank, four liters of milk and this Ganesh drink, this and this, you know, and so
many, you know, for months there was this, you know, kind of news. And then, you know, so what? Did it change the life of one person? No. No. Yeah, Ganesh drank milk. Okay, very nice. Very good. So what? What is the result?
It didn't change anything ultimately.
Heart transformation through pure sound vibration
And when Prabhupada was asked, Svāmīji, can you show us some miracle? He would show to his hippie disciples and he said, This is my miracle, look. They were hippies.
They were hippies, they were drunkards, they were drug addicts, whatnot. Now they're chanting mantras, they're vegetarians, they're following four regulative principles, they're shiny, they're bright.
This is my miracle, this is what I did. This is the result of the real faith which is coming from the spiritual world. It's coming through the agency of a pure devotee.
And when the pure devotee speaks uh and this is this is the indication or this is the how you can determine that this is real face.
When the pure devotee speaks, his words, his sound vibration, which is emanating from his lips, has the potency to penetrate within your heart.
And when it penetrates within your heart, it makes a complete overhaul of your whole existence. The total, complete revolution of your existence takes place and you change your life completely.
And moreover, and this is actually the definition which Madhvācārya gives, he says that ultimately when you hear this the pure soul, when the pure soul speaks about God, the first understanding which you have, the first reaction which you have, the first impression which you get within your heart.
That's it. I always knew it. It cannot be otherwise. You know, of course, you must have remembered this when you read first Prabhupāda's books, you know, this is kind of impressive, kind of understanding. Yeah, that's it.
You know, of course, I always knew it.
You know, when the pure soul speaks from the spiritual platform, from the transcendental platform of the spiritual world about God, then you have this kind of understanding, that's it, I always knew it, it cannot be otherwise, and I will follow this.
And Madhvācārya, he explains when the pure soul speaks and when his sound vibration penetrates your heart within the sound vibration, of course, if you have some desire to hear, this is also a preliminary condition, not everyone will be able to really react to the pure vibration of the pure devotee.
But if you have little eagerness or little desire to hear, then together with this vibration, which will penetrate your heart, he will invest the energy which will help you to obtain to this pure status, to this pure condition of life.
This is the most amazing thing about real Shraddha.
When the real Shraddha is being born, is being begotten within our heart by the words emanating from the lotus lips of a pure devotee, then together with Shraddha comes a very strong energy, strong enthusiasm, which can carry you out from this material world into the spiritual world, which can give you the real realization
of this truth. It's not just theoretical, not just kind of ethereal you know conception, not this kind of you know theoretical thing.
You know, the real faith has the energy. You know, you hear this and all of a sudden you understand that here I am and I have the potency to realize this truth. It's not just a theoretical truth.
When you hear the truth which is coming as a śraddhā, and one of the meanings of the word śraddhā, the verbal root, the root śrat means truth. And śraddhā means the one who has truth. So when you get śraddhā, faith, it means you're getting the truth.
And it means that you're getting the means or the instruments to obtain to this truth, to get this truth, to realize this truth. This is what it is. This is what real Shraddha is.
And this is, uh, what the real faith is all about. The real face is about changing your existence from the conditioned existence within these modes of material nature to completely different existence.
Changing your experience from this experience, experience of this material world to the experience of spiritual world. Changing your experience of living in the world where there's no God, where you don't see God, where you don't really feel God, to the world where you can speak with God, where you can see God, where you can embrace God.
This is the real experience which is obtainable by the means of faith. Shraddha. If the faith is real, if it's nirguṇa, if it's coming from the transcendental world.
And that's exactly what Krishna consciousness is all about. And therefore Prabhupada says in this purport that Krishna consciousness is the only safe path. Safe means fearless path. The path where you don't have any fears.
And this fearlessness, this condition of complete total fearlessness is coming
to you when uh the faith is descending from the spiritual plane, but there is no fears, because there is no death, because there is no age in old age, there is no pain there. There is only complete bliss.
And when this experience is descending upon you, that's it. You're finished. Your material life is finished. Your conditioned existence within the modes of material nature is finished.
It's it's not interesting anymore. It's boring. You cannot really stand it anymore. You cannot you cannot really value it anymore. You want to go to Krishna.
You want to go to spiritual world and you want to dance with Krishna in eternal dance in Vṛndāvana. And you want to chant the eternal song of liberation. Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa. Hare. Hare Rāma. Okay.
I didn't say anything about Moscow. I didn't say anything about preaching in Russia, but I will say tomorrow.
I will show a very nice video, very amazing video, which actually is about fearlessness and about very strong faith. This state of complete total fearlessness which comes upon you when you have strong faith in God.
It doesn't matter, you know, whether you know that He is Christian or not, but if you have very strong faith, you you really have this fearlessness.
And you know I will show you some other things which may be of some interest and I will explain about the results of complete fearlessness, how the success comes when you have this complete faith in God. At what time? Huh?
At what time? At what time? Six o'clock, brother? Yes, all right. Six o'clock.
Transcending the mode of goodness
Tomorrow we will have video and entertainment and so many other things. Today we had some little philosophy about Krishna. Maybe there are some questions to try to answer if it's something.
It's very interesting and thank you very much for a wonderful explanation. Um, very, yes, throwing a very bright light on Prabhupāda's purpose, so it makes it very clear in many senses.
But still I have one point what I'm trying to understand here is that is that we should go beyond the mode of goodness also. Because goodness is one of the modes of material nature.
If you are in the mode of goodness and you are practicing worship and everything in the mode of goodness, from what you said, you've got to remain in the mode of goodness. So how do you actually translate?
Prabhupada explains very clearly here and this is what this whole chapter
is all about because when Krishna explains what is the faith in mode goodness, he says this is the faith in demigods ultimately, and then before in the ninth chapter he says yānti deva-vratā devān. If you believe in demigods, you come to demigods.
And demigods they live in the realm of the mode of goodness, which is heaven. Within this material world.
If you are a good person, you follow some kind of principles of goodness, then your destination will also be good within this material world in the sphere of material goodness.
And it's actually in the 11th Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam there is a very interesting description which may shed life, uh, light on your particular question. How it is going on?
There is a definition of faith there according to the modes of material nature in a particular application towards the work. It is said that if your faith is in the mode of goodness, then you believe in spiritual life.
Usually when we see people who are in the mode of goodness, they do believe in some kind of spiritual practices. They do practice some kind of religiosity or some kind of practice is there.
New age or whatever, you know, they they have some ideas, some kind of spiritual understanding is there.
It is said there that if your faith is in the mode of passion, then your work uh is for the sense gratification, for sense pleasure.
You believe in sense pleasure because you're so passionate, and then you work for your own gratification. This is, uh, your activity will be conducted by your faith accordingly. If your faith is in the mode of tamas, then your work or your activity will be inflicting pain to others, will be you know tamassic and it ultimately will bring very tamassic result because you will torture people, you
will kill other animals but Krishna also says if
your face is transcendental nirgun if your sradha is nirgun then your activity your faith will conduct you, you will believe in the transcendental in devotional service basically, in the service of the Supreme Lord, in bhakti to the Supreme Lord.
And ultimately, how do you transcend, if this is your question, how do you transcend the mode of goodness?
It is explained by Prabhupada in the purpose to the very last verse of this chapter, where actually Krishna goes beyond the faith in the modes of nature.
The whole chapter is about the modes, the faith in the modes of nature. Because the whole chapter speaks about what do you eat. If you are a satvic person, what is your food? If you are a tamasic person, what is your food?
If you are a Rajasic person, what will be your food? Or if you are a satvic person, what will be your austerities? Which austerities will you perform? Which ritual you perform?
This is all explained here and this is all within the sphere of material world.
Now in the very last verse, when Krishna says that you will not get any result if you don't have real faith, transcendental faith, Prabhupada explains where this transcendental faith is coming and how to transcend beyond this.
And he says it's basically bhakti devotion to whom? To your guru. You have to have Guru, spiritual master, who is beyond this material world, who is Nirgun, who is a devotee of the Lord.
And Yasyadeve Parabhaktir Yadhadevetat Haguro. Sri Tashvatar Upanishad very clearly says this is the concluding verse of Sri Tashvatar Upanishad. You can only understand the spiritual science.
You can only develop spiritual faith if you have Yadhadevetat Hag If you have bhakti uh into Deva, into the Supreme Personality of God, into Krishna, and Yathadevetatha Guru also in your Guru.
If this bhakti, because this is where the bhakti is coming from, this is where the faith is coming from. It's coming from this pure source. You can only get bhakti from somebody who has bhakti.
Bhaktyā sañjātayā bhaktyā, it's 11th Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Krishna explains the same thing. You can only get bhakti from somebody who has the bhakti. And bhakti is the only means to transcend the material nature.
That's again what Krishna explains in the fourteenth chapter of Bhagavad-gītā when he says, māṁ ca yo 'vyabhicāriṇā bhakti-yogena sevate, sa guṇān samatītyaitān vicharina bhakti yogyana sevate, sagunant samatityaitan.
You can become guna atita, it means beyond the modes of material nature, including the mode of goodness, only by avyabichari bhakti, undivided devotional service, not mixed devotional service, but pure devotional service, undivided.
And there is only one source where you can get this pure devotional service. This is bhakti-śakti and Jīva Gosvāmī explains that Bhakti Shakti is the energy of the Lord. And every energy, it's a goddess.
And every god and every goddess has vāhana. Right? They have some carrier. You know, mm-hmm Vishnu has Garuda and Shiva has Nandi and Kārttikeya has peacock and Ganesha has little rat.
So Jīva Gosvāmī says that bhakti-śakti, the goddess of bhakti, has its vāhana. Its vahana is a heart of a pure devotee. The pure devotee, bhakti shakti rides on a pure devotee.
And the pure devotee is there, he carries with him this Shakti, special energy of the Lord. And when you get in contact with the pure devotee, then this process can take place and then you can cross beyond the modes of material nature.
Well we're talking about ultimately um our faith
Purity of initial devotional practice
if it's not nirguṇa then ultimately it is useless then even within our Krishna consciousness in in practice it's not nirguṇa. If it's not nirguṇa, it's not useless.
So then how so then how do we when we begin our practice which is useless, how does it become useful? Useful exactly.
Because even when we worship the group we won't we won't may we worship him probably we may worship him in a useless fashion but still um uh yeah
I can explain you it's uh thank you very much. It's a very interesting question. It's a very interesting question.
Actually, even in the very beginning, our face or our bhakti can be completely Despite so many contaminations and problems. But it can, theoretically it can.
Sometimes people think that, you know, when I have an artist, can my bhakti be pure?
Yes you can it can even in the very beginning stages of devotional service your service can be completely pure and the proof for this, uh what I'm saying is something you know revolutionary. We usually don't don't hear this. But it's possible.
And uh there is a very clear śāstric proof. Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, Rūpa Gosvāmī, He defines this is mm the main sutra, the main verse of the whole book where he defines uh the pure bhakti.
anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyam jñāna-karma-ādy-anāvṛtam ānukūlyena kṛṣṇānuśīlanaṁ bhaktir uttamā And then he says this is the definition, this is the general definition which is applicable to any stage of bhakti. And then he says that the bhakti, this pure bhakti, and this whole book only about pure bhakti, it's not about mixed bhakti, it's only about pure bhakti. And then he says this pure bhakti develops from Shraddha to Sadhu
Sangha to anartha-nivṛtti, niṣṭhā, bhāva, and ultimately prema. These are all stages of pure bhakti. So it means even in the very beginning, in on the very beginning stages, your bhakti can be completely pure.
and the definition of this pure bhakti is given there: anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyam, means that you don't have other desires. sunya, means that you don't have other desires. Your desire is very much fixed on the Lord.
It means basically that your goal is the Lord. You don't let other goals to you know stand between you and God. My goal is God. I want to come to God. If this fixation or if this understanding is there within your life, it
means that yes, you may have other desires, but these other desires are kind of, you know, it's just by the way, it's secondary, you know, you fulfill them but they're not you know you're not really fixed on this because the real desire means you have only this desire and you just you just you know you just go so if you have this understanding about God,
Anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyam, if God is your goal. This is first condition. Anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyam, jñāna-karma-ādi,
some knowledge or desire for liberation, karma, some material activities which you do, Adi means yoga, so many other things which we do. You know, so anāvṛtam. Anāvṛtam means you do this.
Other desires or other goals should be Sunya, it means you don't have other goals. You're really fixed. This is your goal. You want to come to Krishna. You want to come to God. But uh you have to do so many other things.
You have to do karma, right? You have to do some activity here. You have to eat, you have to earn money, this and that.
Jnana, you have to have some knowledge, you have to have some understanding, yoga you have to you know do some many things. So anāvṛtam means anāvṛtam means it's not covered.
If your main activity is not kind of covered by this and if you don't say that you know karma is the most important, or jnana is most important, or yoga is most important, but you know bhakti is most important. And by the way, you do everything else which is necessary being a reasonable human being, you do what is practical according to your particular situation, but you know that bhakti is still the main practice within your life.
Anukūlyena kṛṣṇānuśīlanaṁ bhaktir uttamā, and then you cultivate this Krishna, then your bhakti is pure. And it means even though you may have so many anartas and problems, still you're
pure and we can see it when people come and when they don't commit offenses they immediately after chanting Hare Krishna mantra they become so bright even though they may have so many problems but they become they they get so much energy, so much enthusiasm, so much fearlessness.
You know, I I I've seen it personally. In the beginning when we were practicing Krishna consciousness in Russia, we didn't have any books. Practically there was no books.
Besides that, practically nobody could speak English. Nobody could understand English.
You know, and even if some people had books, you know, and they would put their books on the altar because uh they didn't know what else to do with the books.
They couldn't read them, there was very little conception, very little theoretical understanding of what Bhakti is. There was only only thing which we knew was Hare Krishna mantra.
Hare Krishna mantra was our main kind of thing and we would chant Hare Krishna mantra very with such a faith. You know there was so much faith in this Hare Krishna mantra.
Somehow or other it was coming from Prabhupada from his pure desire. And I could see that it was, you know, the miracles happened. Really miracles happened.
People, they completely, they they completely have forgotten about their material existence, they are completely changing their lives. They they became totally fearless.
There was a huge KGB, very repressive kind of structure. You know, very oppressive. You know, and people, they they they they didn't they they didn't have the slightest fear, you know.
They would go to prison, they were tortured there. Still they they were very happy. There was one story somebody told me that there was one devotee and he was arrested by the KGB. He was put in prison.
And in prison uh they don't sit in the cells, they sometimes go to work.
And then another devotee, after some time, after a couple of months, another devotee from the same city was arrested by the KGB and was put in a prison.
And when he was put in the prison uh and uh he was you know he was uh taken to to work to his utter amazement what he has seen and this is Soviet Union thirty years ago uh He saw that big column of prisoners who would march to their destination to work.
And everyone was then chanting Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Hare Hare Krishna. Because this one devotee who was put in prison before, somehow or other he forced all other prisoners to chant Hare Krishna. And they were all marching there and chanting Hare Krishna.
Why? Because he had so much faith. And even though he may have so many anarthas, even though he may have so many other problems and this and that, still his bhakti would be pure.
And uh uh and if if it is pure it very quickly proceeds from stage to stage to stage and brings you to the ultimate result. But then the fences are there.
Distinguishing righteous action from material anger
The fences is the main problem, the fences completely destroyed. Or diminish our bhakti, diminish enthusiasm, diminish the energy, diminish the uh experience which we have.
You were giving one example that blowing up plane or something like hellish or violent mentality. Same other like we can compare that Arjuna was while killing on the battlefield. So he's also being violent over there.
Well he was violent because Krishna ordered him to be violent, not because he was violent by nature.
And the difference is that while being in this world and being conditioned in this world, we will have to employ different modes of material nature.
Because we are situated in this world and according to our particular body and situation, environment, we will have to do something which will be tamasik, rajasik or sättvik. It's unavoidable, you know.
Sometimes people become very fanatical, like Jain people. They're trying to avoid all kinds of violence. Therefore they don't eat potato, carrot. But you kill so many animals anyway.
You know, or they sometimes they put them you know the mask around their mouths not to breathe in animals or sometimes they have the you know broom in front of them and they sweep.
But no matter how much you try, you will kill animals. When you drink, you kill animals. When you cook, you kill animals.
When you you know that the whole our whole existence is based on violence. You can't be totally completely non-violent in this existence.
But the teaching of Krishna in Bhagavad-gītā is that you employ the modes of material nature, but you not get influenced by the modes of material nature.
This is the 14th chapter of Bhagavad-gītā, where Krishna explains this, where he says that when the mode of material nature comes to you, the difference is very simple. You know, you do what you're supposed to do.
And sometimes it is it has some faults. Like if you are kṣatriya, you have to kill or you have to uh apply violence. But you're not entangled or you're not implicated by this action.
Usually when people do some rajasic activity or tamasic activity or even satvik activity, they get implicated into this because they're dependent on the results and they enjoy the results.
So if you enjoy the results of this, then you get implicated, and then you get karma, and then you get more and more and more entangled.
But what Krishna recommends you do this but you don't get implicated into this. It means you don't enjoy the results of this. You know, like for example, you know, violence which you said. It's anger.
It's the energy of anger. And the energy of anger is kind of enjoyment. When the person is angry, you know, he just wants to let this anger go.
He he can kill somebody and it's he feels that you know there is some kind of very strong energy. But he's enjoying this energy.
What Krishna is saying to Arjuna, he's saying to Arjuna, you invite this energy, you employ this energy, but you don't enjoy this energy.
You use the mode of rajas to fulfill your duties, but you don't enjoy the mode of rajas. You do it in a very detached way, knowing that you're my servant and you're doing it as my service.
And the difference is like this: you know, sometimes person may get angry.
And if you're angry and you're overwhelmed by this anger, and you're completely mad because of this anger, and you cannot control yourself because of this anger. And you don't really use this anger in a controlled way and you smash everything because you are angry and then you regret why did I do this?
This is mode of passion. But if you know that you have to punish somebody and you're compassionate and you're doing it in a completely detached way as a service to the Lord,
then you invite the mode passion within your mind. And you employ the mode passion. And you kind of not fake anger, you are angry, but you are not implicated with this anger.
Sometimes Śrīla Prabhupāda would get really angry. You know, he would yell and you know, really, really, you know, sometimes the anger of Prabhupāda was tremendous.
But if somebody else would come in who was not an object of his anger and would ask Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Śrīla Prabhupāda would smile to him immediately and said, Because he is not implicated by this anger, because he's not entangled with this anger, because he's not enjoying this anger.
He is using or employing this anger or this energy of rajas in the service of the Lord. He's detached. And therefore he can immediately completely can switch off from this anger into something else.
And we can see the same way Arjuna. Arjuna was, you know, there, was in the middle of the battle and you you you have to be angry to fight. You know, if you're not angry, you you cannot fight, you cannot kill.
You have to you have to do this. But at the same time he was doing it in a very detached way after hearing Bhagavad-gītā. And this is a science. This is not a very easy thing.
It's it's more or less you know the devotional service is like taming the wild animals. You know when the when you tame tiger, you know sometimes the the tamer they he has to you know put his head within the mouth
of the tiger and if if the tiger is not really tame then you there is a big chance you kind of beat off your head. So therefore the advice to us is to be satvik.
We shouldn't really be too much intimate with the modes of rajas and tamas because that's a very wild animal.
You know therefore, um, when Kṛṣṇa says kill, kill, kill and sometimes people say look Kṛṣṇa says kill and all this hare Kṛṣṇas they start killing. No, Kṛṣṇa recommends you you lead a very sāttvika life because it's it's the safest kind of life, safest mode of material nature.
But at the same time even sattva-guṇa can be, you know you can get attached to sattva-guṇa and sāttvika life and so on and so forth.
Exercise of free will under karma
I heard you described that the fate determines our our reality. Yes. And the and the fate is somewhat determined by the circumstances or energy by which we are surrounded. So where's the room for choice?
Not much not really much. The only real choice which the the only choice, real choice which we can do is the choice between, um, between Kṛṣṇa and māyā.
When we meet the the real freedom comes to us if we, um, really analyze it very thoroughly.
The real freedom comes to us when we uh do encounter the philosophy, some spiritual philosophy, or pure spiritual philosophy, and then the choice really manifests in front of us and the more we practice uh this philosophy the more free we become.
In the conditioned life there is not much freedom.
You know the karma is a very it's a very difficult thing you know because karma determines your environment karma determines your bodily structure karma determines your thoughts in a particular situation.
So by karma, you are placed in a particular situation. And also karma more or less determines your reaction on this situation.
So your action in this particular situation on the environment is predetermined because the environment is determined and your mindset is also determined.
But when you encounter this philosophy then in this particular in any particular situation of life you really have choice. You can react as an animal. Like this Pavlov with his theory, you know, the dogs, you know,
he would feed the dogs and all this you know uh reflexes were there.
So most of the people they don't really they don't have enough developed intelligence to really control the emotional reaction in a particular situation and their you know action accordingly.
But uh if you chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, if you practice some kind of spiritual practice, if you pray to the Lord, then uh in this uh uh in uh especially in a very emotionally charged situation you can exercise freedom.
Of course in the beginning you should exercise your freedom in normal circumstances. You have to really lead your life according to the higher principles.
Prabhupāda calls these principles the principles of freedom, regulative principles of freedom, because when you practice these principles, ultimately you you kind of sense what freedom is.
This is the freedom of you to be offended or not to be offended. Very often Krishna explains in these terms, you know, who is a devotee?
Devotee who is not offended by honor and who is not offended by some disgrace or who is not very elated when somebody is honoring him or praising him.
The devotee when the happiness comes, he is not very you know enamored by this happiness.
And when the stress comes he is not very depressed by this distress, why because he is free, he has choice. Otherwise you don't have choice: the happiness comes and you are, ah, I'm so happy and then the stress comes and they are so depressed
and you, you, you, you go to the apotek and you get some kind of, you know, drug to get free from this and and you think this is my freedom you know I take the drug and I'm free from this distress or from this uh stressful condition.
But when you practice devotional service gradually, gradually, gradually you feel, let you free, you're not dependent on this condition. Really you're not. If you want to be happy you have you can be happy even in hell.
There's no problem. What's, what's wrong with hell? You know, it's nice, it's warm, and you can be happy in any circumstances because you're not dependent on the environment. That's the point.
We are dependent on the environment because we more or less identify ourselves with the environment. Whereas if we identify ourselves with the spiritual environment or this with the spiritual nature, then we're not dependent on this material environment. We're only dependent on our relationship with God.
And our relationship with God is always there. That's the beauty of this. Even if you are in prison, you can still be as much related with God as in any other circumstances.
You can still remember Him. You can still chant his holy name. Nobody can stop you from doing this. Any other practices uh you can be stopped from doing, but bhakti you can do anywhere, under any circumstances.
In heaven and hell. You can be a devotee and not depend on these circumstances. Okay, I guess it's oh it's it's very late. I didn't know that it's so late. I'm really sorry for this. Thank you very, very much.
Please do come tomorrow. And please bring your friends so whoever is there we will we will have a lot of fun tomorrow. Thank you very much.