Anartha Nivritti. Lecture 4
Бхакти Вигьяна Госвами · Говардхан · 2025
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Visvasyanatarupa, Bhti Vart Ma Pradarsanat, bhti sakri vartitatva,
Purpose of studying Madhurya Kadambini
chakra Lakjai Pridva prena bhakti sasja vitate, sanjivama ra Ramekamat, Vishwap, Durane Marushakino Kisarasi, Balayaburyatbū, Sikanyakripani, madurija padami, sri Caitania Kripani rangusa, ka Bhtipurva shritant tu, rasam pas jatig, tam nobi satamu pa.
So in studying Madhuri Kadandini, and the goal of our study is is Sri Chaitanya Prabhu Kripani Rankusama Duryakadambini to attract towards us the causeless mercy of Lord Chaitanya.
So that our dry heart, which is growing in the desert of this material world would become again full of life. Now our heart is very dry, and the emotions which we experience are also very meager.
It's actually the emotions of stress, anger, stress, irritation, dissatisfaction, anxiety, fear. These are all emotions which we are mostly capable of experiencing
and elevated emotions, what to speak about spiritual emotions, even the emotions of uh which belong to the realm of sattva are very difficult to attain.
The emotion of gratitude, the emotion of humility, the emotion of compassion.
These are sattvic emotions, uh, but they're very elevated emotions and in our normal state of life, normal quote unquote, we don't experience them.
And Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura speaks about prema, praṇaya, and Sneha, Mana, Raga, Nuraga.
So even the sāttvika emotions, uh, not easy because of the predominance of Rajas and Tamas within our consciousness and the environment which we live in.
And therefore Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura wrote this book for us to give us the way towards these emotions.
Three modes of conditional faith
When our heart will become again enlivened by the mercy of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu.
Now yesterday I finished by describing Shraddha, which is an important part of the second chapter of Maduria Kadanbini. I still want to say a few words about this because it's so important and it is directly connected with the topic which we are about to commence but
having difficulty to commence because we are too much dwelling in the past. So it directly related to the Anartis.
So let's, uh, again, uh, go back a little bit to what is śāstra-śraddhā, I told that there is material Shraddha conditioned Shraddha.
And it's so important: this topic is so important that Śrī Krishna devoted the whole chapter, the whole adhyāya, 17th adhyāya, to describe these three kinds of Shraddha in the modes of material nature.
And there, this important verse in the very beginning of the 17th chapter.
Sattvānurūpa sarvasya śraddhā bhavati Bhārata. Sattva Anurupa. Here sattva doesn't mean sattva-guṇa, although it may mean sattva-guṇa Śrīla Prabhupāda alludes to this in the purport, but primarily sattva here means mind.
Mind is also called sattva because it's creation of sattva gun or it's antaḥ-karaṇa you may say. Sattvānurūpa sarvasya śraddhā bhavati Bhārata. So our śraddhā follows, it's anurūpa.
Our sattva whatever is there within our mind whatever karma we have whatever value system we have uh our shraddha our uh face uh sorry whatever we have in our mind, whatever karma we have, our Shraddha or value system. This is another very important understanding of what Shraddha means.
Śraddhā means what we hold sacred or what we hold valuable. So it's basically a value system. When we believe in God, it means that we value the supreme power which is ruling everything.
When we we believe in some powerful man, it means that this is the the on top of our value system. If we worship some ghost or demons to fulfill our desires, it also reveals what we hold sacred or what we hold valuable.
So sattvānurūpa sarvasya, our śraddhā depends on our sattva
or our mind, and then, uh, next śraddhāmayo ’yaṁ puruṣo ’yaṁ puruṣa uh this purusha or living entity conditioned living entity is made of śraddhā, uh, yo yat-śraddhaḥ sa eva saḥ and he becomes the same as his śraddhā.
Material faith versus spiritual faith
So our Shraddha depends on our mind, and we in other words, our way of living, our speaking, our acting, it all basically derives from śraddhā. So this very intricate and tight connection, bondage between śraddhā and our the form of our śraddhā, conditioned śraddhā and our karma or existence is indicated in this verse.
And Śrīla Prabhupāda, he wrote a beautiful purport. This is an excerpt of from this purport.
When one forgets his relationship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead and comes into contact with the material nature, in conditional life.
He generates his own position by association with different varieties of material nature. So we ourselves generate our own position.
The resultant artificial phase. He calls material or conditioned face artificial phase because it's false ultimately.
The resultant artificial face and its 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 all material contamination that he has acquired in order to regain his relationship with the Supreme Lord.
That is the only pass back without fear.
So in this purport, Śrīla Prabhupāda, excerpt, Śrīla Prabhupāda speaks about artificial Shraddha. False Shraddha, conditioned Shraddha, which is imposed upon us by our association with the modes of nature, and the real Shraddha, spiritual Shraddha, which is supposed to bring us back and re-establish our spiritual relationship with our source.
So and basically when when Krishna says, Yo Yacchraddhaḥ Sa Eva Saḥ, if we understand that śraddhā means something which we revere or which we worship, so we are what we worship.
And if we change the object of our worship due to the association with sādhus, if by saintly association, we understand who is the real object of our worship. We change our existence.
Everything is changed by this change of the object of our worship. So śraddhā is this reverential attitude towards something which we hold sacred or valuable. And therefore, in Bhakti Sandharva, I made a mistake yesterday.
I said that this is the quote from uh Madhuri Kadambini. No, this is the quote from Bhakti Sandharba.
Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī says the same thing. He says in this verses, Shraddha and Bhakti, these two words, means Adara, respect.
Respect as antidote to offenses
So, and why do we need respect? This is a very important topic of today's discussion because offenses which we are hopefully starting to describe today is the opposite of respect.
So Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī says: satu bhāgavat-toṣa-lakṣaṇa- phala-viṣayot-pattau anādara- lakṣaṇa-tad-vighna-vighnātaka-parādhāsya vighnātaka-aparādhāsya nirasanaṁ parā.
So uh he says that uh this respect which we get when we receive Shraddha by meeting with the devotees destroys the offensive attitude. Aparadha.
Which produces disrespect and when this offensive attitude of ours is destroyed, then we get the fall, the fruit of satisfaction of the Lord.
The moment we become reverential, we get this very valuable fruit or result that the Lord becomes pleased with us. And when the Lord becomes pleased with us, what else do we need?
If the Lord is pleased, everything is there. If the Lord is displeased, what do we need? We don't need anything because we're doomed. So that's the only thing, and therefore Shraddha is so extremely important.
And therefore, I said that actually this spiritual Shraddha, the inner desire of us to understand the truth which brings us into the association with saintly people, with sadhus.
Because we want to understand the truth, we come, we're seeking for some saintly association, and in this association, if we are respectful towards those saintly people,
then śraddhā develops and it gives us tonic. It becomes rasāyana, it gives us strength, it gives us the immunity to resist all the unwanted influences and ultimately it rejuvenates our whole being.
So this we all did yesterday, and I said yesterday I I skipped this but I think it's important to repeat again that
Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura explains that śraddhā has two aspects. One aspect, śāstrīya śraddhā has two aspects. One aspect is believing śāstra. And another aspect is belief in the way which is indicated by śāstra. Two very important aspects of śraddhā.
If you only say believe in śāstra and do nothing, it means you have no śraddhā, zero śraddhā. If you claim or that you have śraddhā, it means that you will have to act according to this śraddhā.
So the first aspect, quote unquote theoretical belief in śāstra is indicated how we should check ourselves whether we have Shraddha or not. Shraddha in Shastra.
So the first feeling which we should notice within our heart is this kind of feeling that if I don't worship the Lord, I feel that my life is wasted. If we get this feeling, that means we have śāstra-śraddhā.
It's like it's also one of my very favourite experiences. I once was talking with two young devotees, two ladies for twin sisters. And they told me the same sort of experience.
They told me that several, many times we tried to give up this path of bhakti. We started chanting and everything is nice, but then you know we had some other priorities, this and that, we became busy and we began.
And they say immediately, but not immediately, one day is okay, two days is okay, three days is uh uh a little strange, and then they say that some strange anxiety comes to our heart. That something is wrong, and this anxiety is just there. And we don't know the cause of this anxiety. The anxiety is there and then we start chanting again and the anxiety disappears.
So this is the feeling when we have little śāstra-śraddhā, uh it basically means that within the heart we feel if I don't worship the Lord I just waste my time. I'm living like a I don't know like a like a mouse.
I'm just eating uh and uh sleeping uh and then dying. This is the essence of material life. Well there are some other fun experiences too. But ultimately the most fun is dying. Eating, sleeping and then dying.
So this feeling should be there. This is the first sign of śāstra-śraddhā. Yes, yes, there is higher purpose of my existence. And then another uh sign of this uh is the hope.
Uh uh hope that I will encounter this beautiful Lord who is embellished by all different beautiful qualities like compassion, mercy, beauty.
So and this hope overshadows our desires to enjoy uh senses our taste for sense enjoyment become less. We still love pizza but um not so intensely or ice cream.
But basically it doesn't become the important part of our life. Yes, of course. It's nice if it's there, but I can live without it. But I cannot live without God. So because we understand it's temporary.
Everything else is temporary, whereas I need something permanent in my life, and the only permanent experience which I can have is the experience of association with God.
And ultimately, the life without worship becomes intolerable and surrender to Krishna becomes very natural. So, this is one aspect.
Tatsra Arti Ridha Pratyayamai, something which reveals our conviction in the meaning of Shastra.
The meaning of Shastra is that God is there and He's beautiful, He's merciful, and what reveals our conviction is this attitude within the heart.
And the second aspect is that desire to attentively follow the process of devotion. Sadharas priha. Not just follow the process of devotion, but to follow it with reverence. Saadaras priha.
The desire to follow the path of devotion prescribed in the scriptures combined with the hope for achieving the goal they describe. So, this is another manifestation of Shraddha.
I get this desire to really carefully, attentively, follow the path described in the scriptures uh and because I believe in scriptures uh and uh uh uh to achieve this we apply concentrated endeavors.
Yatna eka nidana rupa. We become very fixed in our practice of devotional service. So this is the second aspect which should follow.
Process of developing scriptural faith
Anyway, so I gave this very important recipe of Shastriya Shraddha. So first, the beginning of Shraddha is respect. Respect to those who have bhakti. Without this nothing can happen.
Respect makes us very attentive when we hear such person.
You all know, if you don't respect somebody, you hear him and you know, oh this guy, oh my goodness, you know, what is he saying and anyway, you know. And we think about something else.
So without respect, we cannot even hear properly, we cannot even understand properly the shastra.
Respect is necessary to fix our attention cause you know I we all know, we all, you know, studied, if we respect the teacher, we hear him.
If we don't respect the teacher, you know, we just mock at him. The students are sitting somewhere back and just mocking at the professor who is trying to teach them. That's not the way to obtain Shastriya Sradha.
First respect, then attentive hearing. And not only attentive hearing, but systematic hearing. As I explained yesterday, from beginning to end to pakrama samas.
We try to understand the meaning, to extract the meaning of what is being said.
Because again, the tendency of inattentive hearing is to hear something here, something there in the meantime we thought about something else, about some engagement which I have, or about some quarrel which I have, some unpleasant things.
And we lose the meaning. Oftentimes, you know, somebody asked the question and you understand that you didn't understand what you wanted to say.
So it's important to kind of really follow and to try to get the essential message.
And then we should ask the questions to remove doubts if we have you know please explain to me how how Putin grew so high. Whatever else is there.
And uh uh and then the firm phase will be formed in the meaning of Shastra. Then, as Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura says, then then and then the surrender becomes very natural. Because what is surrender?
Surrender means we accept the meaning of the shastra and we want to follow shastra. I will do whatever Krishna says I should do and I should not do whatever He doesn't want me to do. So that Saranagati becomes natural.
If we try to do Saranagati without the previous thing, it will become very artificial and not real. Saranagati is based on a very firm foundation of Shastric knowledge. Then only we can follow this path.
And then uh then we can start acting with a very strong hope. I will achieve this. Not in the next life, uh like Srila Prabhupada used to say, don't become next lifetime Baba. Don't try to postpone it.
Okay, this life didn't work. Next life may be okay. I will get a better birth. No, next life will happen the same thing.
Because the same attitude you will carry the same neglect the same uh thing you will carry with you so therefore this is the recipe this is the past this is how to strengthen our Shastriya Shraddha.
Forced faith versus natural faith
That's the formula of it.
And just very quickly about these two types of Shraddha, that Balatut Padita Shraddha or Logika Shraddha. Logica basically means forced external conventional phase without internal conviction coming from the customs of the society we live in, faith without freedom.
Why is it called Balatut Padita? Because people, there are not so many people who follow this. Sometimes children follow the path of bhakti.
It's not that they want to follow the path of bhakti, but they know that if they're obedient they will get some benefits from their parents. So in a similar way we are dependent on the opinions of others.
Like children, little children they dependent on the opinion of their uh parents because they don't want to be rejected and they know that parents somehow rather parents are very strange creatures sitting and mumbling something.
So maybe I should do the same to get some extra mile uh mileage. Uh but um uh uh in a similar way we are dependent on on the opinion of other people.
We are living in the society and to conform with the customs of the society, we sometimes adopt certain external behavior which is not based on our internal conviction.
But when we do this, we don't feel that we are doing it according to our free will. That's a very important difference between these two kinds of Shraddha.
So, how to recognize this Balatut Padita Shraddha or Force Shraddha, conventional Shraddha, Shraddha, which is based on some external influences.
So So uh oftentimes and the sign of this uh forced Shradha is extreme fanaticism. This is the only right thing everyone else is just if he doesn't do what I am doing, he's a demon and I have to convert everyone else.
Instead of trying to convert oneself, he's trying to convert his relatives. You know, it's a very common phenomenon.
A neophyte devotee, he got some bright idea that he should worship Krishna and then the first thing which he should do which he is doing just to save his relatives Let me save them. You know, please try to save yourself.
So the this this impetus trying to convert everyone else into the right path is a sign of uh very uh forced faith. I remember uh I was in in in the year 2000, I was part of Hindu delegation to the summit of religions. And you know, there were many people from many different it was in the United Nations.
Many different people came and everyone was talking a little bit very politely.
And then one lady, she's the daughter of very famous tele preacher, Protestant preacher, she comes up on the dais and she speaks two sentences and then all of a sudden she starts yelling, just believe in Jesus, otherwise you will go to hell.
This is the sign of forced śraddhā. Because you feel the force, the pressure yourself, and you want to apply the same pressure to everyone else. That's how it works psychologically.
So this kind of self-righteous attitude is uh is one of the science. And then it's usually based on some superstitions in all these forms of conventional śraddhā. Superstitions are more important than scriptural knowledge.
All kinds of strange traditions which are not based on shastra, they appear gradually, we all know we all know the uh the uh tail of of the cat, black cat in the basket which has to be there while you're doing puja.
So all kinds of different uh things they appear. It's based on superstition and it breeds superstiti— superstitions. It breeds some new rituals, and that's very much dependent on the miracles.
You know, if you don't have real śāstriya śraddhā, then you need miracles to be convinced. You know, if somebody doesn't perform miracles, he's not bona fide. I need to find some some miracle maker, another miracle maker.
So that's why all this Sai Baba, you know, and then and they all this is the talk, this is Harikatha, miracle Katha. Just, you know, oh he performed this miracle and that miracle.
And if one day miracle is not performed, you should invent the miracle. You know, you should somehow or other concoct the miracle.
And uh and then also there are some concocted practices which are not really validated by shastras. Severe fasting or severe austerity. It's also a result of this.
And then it's usually very shallow, it's unstable, and it's usually centered around the person. Personality cult, this cultish sort of mentality is a very prominent sign of this balāt-pāriṭa-śraddhā.
You need to believe into somebody to because you don't have inner conviction and the basis in the Shastra. And that's why you artificially inflate some person and place all your faith into this person.
And this whole foundation of this is this relationship, this inflated figure, which is more or less your own creation. So that's Balatut Paditashrada. And the, this cultist mentality is very much there.
Even in ISKCON, you know, there are different cults, uh, they periodically pop out, uh, of nothing, but, uh, it's all lack of śāstriyā śraddhā. You don't need this.
If you have firm śāstriyā śraddhā, you don't need all this stuff. You're just happy and you are respectful and you're respectful to everyone, but you're not cultish.
Importance of genuine saintly association
And Swabhaviki Shraddha is completely different.
Svābuddhi means natural, spontaneous, and it's śāstriyā śraddhā according to the nomenclature of Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī. It's based on śāstra, internal conviction, and it's not dependent on miracles and it gives the stability.
Okay Okay, that's sadhu sangha. More or less there's not much to say about this.
It's just one sentence which Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura gives in Mādhurya Kādambinī, he says that real śraddhā brings us into the association with real sadhus.
And this association is based on uh heart to heart relationship with them. It always has Snigda, Sneha.
The real śraddhā brings us into close association with sādhus. And we inquire from him, ask questions from him, and that's basically this. And we ask him what to do.
And he tells us what to do, and we start bhajana-kriyā. And then bhajana-kriyā has, uh, six unstable varieties: utsāhamayī, ghanatatarā, äh, vyūḍha-vikalpā, viṣaya-saṅgarā, niyamākṣamā, and Tarangarangini.
So we all know this, you probably heard about this.
I, I will not dwell on this, that because initially our mind is not stable, we cannot really completely apply our mind to the practice of bhakti. While we are hearing sravana or while we are chanting kirtana,
or what to speak, while we are remembering the The flow of devotional activity is often interrupted by different desires and thoughts which are still there. And therefore, it has to be unstable in the beginning.
But instability takes different forms.
In the beginning, it becomes very fanatical. This is the first manifestation of instability of mind, fanatical devotee. Or another name for this, synonym for this is the syndrome of a pure devotee.
In the beginning everyone is a pure devotee. Later on he comes back to reality. But in the beginning you are you're full of enthusiasm, but uh this is false enthusiasm, this is not real enthusiasm, utsāhamaya.
And then you become very much uh dependent on the external circumstances and mechanical. You do suddenly in a very ritualistic way, and it doesn't really give you satisfaction.
Sometimes it does when somebody is kind of giving some flattery to you and says, oh you're such a nice devotee, well my goodness, and immediately, yes, yes, yes. Bhakti is the real prize.
But as soon as somebody is not really happy with us, well, we're not very happy with this prāpta-bhakti. I thought the prāpta-bhakti is so nice, but it's not. So and then we become uh undecisive,
we uh become wavering whether I should do this or not, whether I should remain brahmacārī or uh become the gṛhastha.
Uh no, no, in the beginning I should remain brahmacārī and then uh you know uh I'm too old already to become gṛhastha, what shall I do? Like sometimes people say I I gave my best years to Krishna consciousness.
So and my answer to this, why don't you give your worst years So
this kind of wavering whether I should do this or should not do this, He gives this, he gives this example about marriage or not marriage, but there are so many different examples which are there.
Which service I should do, should I distribute books, or should I do this, or should I do that? Again, this is vyūha-vikalpa, this intense, intense speculation of what to do without real determination.
And then uh viṣaya-saṅgaḥ when you uh start fighting with the senses uh and uh uh um every now and then break the principles and then you give some exaggerated vows and you cannot follow these vows, this is the fifth one, and then ultimately taraṅga-raṅgiṇī, you become senior devotee. That's the best out of them.
Everyone respects you, everyone bows down and you have the full plate of prasādaṁ and you think, I always knew that the prāpta-bhakti is very nice. This is not the prāpta-bhakti, this is the prāpta-prasādaṁ.
So then you just enjoy the perks which you gained by remaining in Krishna consciousness for too long, but still you have some unresolved doubts, some perhaps some unfulfilled desires, they are still
internally slackening, weakening the foundation of your bhakti.
Introduction to clearing unwanted desires
So this is the second uh chapter of Madhurya Kadambini and we are coming to the third chapter of this book, Tritiya Amrita Vrishti, the third shower of Amrita. The third installment of Krishna's mercy.
If despite all these instabilities we still follow the path of bhakti, we will find out that anarthas will start vanishing. So this chapter discusses this anartha-nivṛtti or cessation of unwanted desires.
And the very word anartha means something which is anartha, which is something which is unwanted, or something which is without value, anartha, something which is useless.
And nivṛtti means to cease, to eradicate and to free. So very important point that anarthas are opposed to paramartha. There is a highest value, paramartha,
the highest possible value which is there, which we can achieve by following bhakti. And anarthas is something which is diametrically opposed to paramartha. And therefore, they have to be removed for us to achieve.
They become the obstacles on our path. They become the vighnas and every one of us has obstacles. Everyone has obstacles and Śrīla Prabhupāda explains uh why these obstacles are there.
It's a very beautiful explanation in the first canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. To become restless in the contact of women and wealth is not an astonishment. For a pure devotee, nothing is an astonishment.
He understands very clearly the reality. Because every living being is associated with such things from a remote time, practically immemorial, and it takes time to recover from this foreign nature.
But if one is engaged in hearing the glories of the Lord, gradually he realizes his real position by the grace of God, such a devotee gets sufficient strength to defend himself from the state of disturbances and gradually all disturbing elements are eliminated from his mind.
Naṣṭa-prāyeṣv abhadreṣu nityaṁ bhāgavata-sevayā. So all this um abhadra, what is an abhadra? This is another synonym of anartha, abhadra which is something which is disturbing our mind.
Like Śrīla Prabhupāda says, pinprick, which is there. And Narottama Dāsa Ṭhākura says, Eta Paramab He says, my greatest fear is that I will not be able to surpass the impediments on the path of devotional service.
Antaraya means sanartha or impediments, vigna. Nahiyaya, nahijaya, eita paramabhaya. So this is we should expect that the obstacles will be there. We should be very, very care very sober about this.
There will be obstacles on our path of devotional service, Kalah Kalir Balina Indri Vari Vardah, Sri Bhakti Marga, Hihakanta Kakoti Rudah.
Prabhupada Nanda Sraswati Tagur Sashda tada. Pasov bhakti, Shri Bhakti Marga, Hakanta Kakoti Rud There is a lot of kantakas, there is a lot of torts on the paths of bhakti.
And Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī explains that the obstacles, internal obstacles. The external obstacles is just the manifestation of internal obstacles. Ultimately, the internal obstacles is what matters.
And Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī says that up to the level of bhāva, including bhāva, he says even on the level of bhāva one has some shadows of obstacles. Only in the level of prema you're completely free from this.
But uh what to speak about us uh sadakas. So uh uh Naratan Dastakur says, Antarayana Hijaya, this is my fear, Paramabhai.
I am very afraid that I will not be able to overcome these obstacles which lead to this Paramartha, to the highest achievement of human life. And therefore, what should I do? Nividana Karona Anuksana.
All the time, every moment I pray to the Lord to remove this obstacles. I pray not to remove, I pray to give me the strength to overcome these obstacles. Hence I pray to you constantly. Anukshan.
Every second, nidan, karuna nukshan. So it basically means that we should not be negligent or we should not be overly confident.
Śrīla Prabhupāda said, in Krishna Balaram Mandir, somebody asked Śrīla Prabhupāda was praying to the deities and somebody asked him what they were praying for. He said, I am praying for not to fall in māyā.
And he said, this is the difference between me and you. You're not afraid of falling in māyā.
And I am so uh this th this is to make us careful because again the tendency unfortunately is there uh to become little negligent.
Classification of obstacles by origin
And from the very beginning, it's very interesting, Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura classifies anarthas from according to their origin. Duskritotha, an artas which are coming from duskriti, duskriti otha utha.
Sukritotha, a paradotha and Bhakti Udha. So anarthas which are coming from duskiti from sinful activities, anarthas which are coming from Sukriti, pious activities, very nice anartas.
And anartas which are coming from aparada and anartas which are coming from practicing bhakti. So the question is, very important question, why does he classify anarthas this way?
Like Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, he gives completely different classification of an anartha. He lists 60 anarthas according to the nature of anarthas.
The anarthas of Brahma, of the mistakes, and an anartha of the weaknesses of the heart and the petty desires which are there.
So it would be much more natural, isn't it, to classify an anartha according to the nature of desires which you have. So why does he give this Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura gives this classification of an anartha.
Very important answer. What do you think? Yes, okay. Okay, you can't some uh can be removed more quickly and easily and some remaining.
Important question we should we should ask ourselves is that it doesn't matter what kind of anarthas we have specifically because anyway the method of removing anarthas is only one.
Anarthas are many, but the method is only one. It doesn't matter whether you have lust or anger or greed or illusion or pride or even envy. You know the and and basically you all have this, no problem.
So in other methods, why I'm saying
this because if you take psychology and you go to psychologists and uh you tell psychologists, dear psychologist, my dear Guruji, please tell me how to get rid of anger. And psychologists will tell you how to get rid of anger.
And even if he will not be able to free you from anger, he will free you from the guilt of being angry. So that's what psychologists are for. So no problem. You I agree, so it happens, no problem. Just be yourself.
But uh uh they will give you specific recipe against specific anartha, bhakti but because we are dealing with bhakti and bhakti is a universal recipe
which is against all kinds of anarthas. That the only factor which is important in this regard is how quickly an anartha will go by the process of bhakti.
Ultimately, all the anarthas will be removed just by the process of bhakti itself, like Śrīla Prabhupāda explains in the purport which we just quoted. But the speed with which and the depths of the anartha is different.
And therefore, even though we apply the same universal method to remove the anarthas, they go away with a different speed. And that's what's important.
He's talking about the pace, and on the pace it is important when we will be free from all the anarthas, and therefore we have to see the origin of these anarthas.
And this is the, uh, the proof of this, this is the verse from the Seventh Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 15th chapter. One must conquer the modes of passion and ignorance by developing the mode of goodness.
And before that, there was different partial remedies for different problems which we have. And then one must become detached from the mode of goodness by promoting oneself to the platform of śuddha-sattva. Sattva.
All this can be automatically done if one engages in the service of the spiritual master with faith and devotion. In this way one can conquer the influence of the modes of nature.
So then again the faith and devotion is the remedy of all the problems. And therefore he, uh, Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura gives this classification.
Impious actions and material bondage
And the most important part which we will, uh, talk today is, uh, this aparādha which are anarthas which are created by offenses. So he very quickly deals with the first type of anarthas, duṣkṛta.
It says basically we already explained what is duṣkṛta. What is duṣkṛti, duṣkṛti or impious activities, these are activities which are performed under the influence of bodily concept of life. I am this body.
And when you act under this influence from this dehātma-buddhi, from this understanding I am this body, then you will strengthen
your avidyā, asmitā, rāga, dveṣa, abhiniveśa. You basically will strengthen your ignorance, your false ego, your attachment, your hatred, and your fear of death. That's what duṣkṛta means.
And that's why sinful activities are so bad. Why all the religions they condemn sinful activities because they strengthen our avidyā, ignorance. They deprive us the proper knowledge and understanding of reality
and ultimately the problem with avidya is that it's uh self uh how you call it? Yeah, it's a cycle. It's self self-reinforcing. It's reinforcing itself.
Uh avidya pushes you to act, which in uh and the action which you do impelled by avidya will only uh engross your avidya, will only strengthen your So if you act uh being impelled by your attachments, the attachments will become what? Stronger. And you will again act.
This is the vicious cycle, like the cycle of addiction. You try to some drug once and you get some experience, and then you try twice and then you try thrice and then you cannot stop trying it and then you are enslaved.
So that's the problem with sins. See, duṣkṛti, impious activity enslaves. We become the slaves of this activity. We are forced to repeat them again and again and again and again.
And we cannot really it's it's very difficult to break this vicious cycle.
So and that's why all the scriptures they condemn sinful activities, they differently classify them, they say those shall not kill, and so on and so forth. But basically, the idea is that uh it uh
it is the path of bondage. The path of sinful activity is the path of bondage and we want freedom. And we should clearly understand what is the path, how we can really achieve freedom.
So, avidya is gross ignorance the bodily concept of life and asmita is false ego material conception of eye and mind. Raga is attachment to those things which bring us pleasure.
Dveṣa is aversion to those things which brings us miseries or sufferings. And abhiniveśa is absorption into matter which causes fear of death. So that's welcome to the material world. So that's a beautiful place.
Uh where electricity always breaks and uh other uh supplies of uh So if we differently uh formulate
the same problems which we have, then avidya will become the sum total of all saṁskāras, all accumulated karma. Prārabdha karma, prārabdha karma, sañcita karma, all kinds of karmas which are there that's Abidya?
It's the cloud uh which uh covers our real knowledge, distorts our knowledge. Avidya is the distorted knowledge, distorted understanding. And then asmita is specifically prarabdakarma.
It's vasanas very deep samskaras uh which we brought from previous life and they constitute our personality. Everyone has unique personality. Somebody has Mars in the first house,
and he is very angry and irritated, somebody has Mars in the second house, somebody in the third house, and so on and so forth.
So it's Vasanas, Asmita, my false identity, which is created by uh by repeated actions in the previous life. Not just incidental actions, but repeated consistent actions which we do while working on our personality. Yeah.
According to the false ego, this jiva just wants to manifest his freedom and independence. So he doesn't want to surrender. That's that's the that betrays the lack of śāstra-bandhana. But anyway, no problem. What can we do?
So yeah, and raga it's it's a little more superficial. Avidya is the deepest one. Avidya constitutes all our consciousness, subconscious mind. Asmita or false ego, it's our conscious mind. I am this and I enjoy what I have.
And raga is basically, raga and dvesha are two programs which are there in the manas. I like this, I don't like this. So and then abhinivesha is basically this uh intelligence.
The intelligence which is fearing that we will lose control at the moment of death and this and that. So that's how you can classify this.
According to manas and the intelligence and false ego, and then Avidya is the sum total of Chitta. So if we take these four familiar to us elements
of antaḥkaraṇa, internal sense organ, then avidya corresponds to citta, asmita to of course ahaṅkāra, raga and dvesha, it's description of functions of our mind, which is rejecting and and abhiniveśa is the function of intelligence which always makes plans and And uh and ultimately is fearful of death.
So uh what happens when we have when we have these strong elements within our subtle body, avidyā asmitā rāga dveṣa and abhiniveśa, when we have this uh five in our subtle body, uh then they create the desires for sense enjoyment in our heart uh and uh uh they also create sinful tendencies which we have tendencies for illicit sex, tendencies for violence, tendencies for lying, speaking untruth, tendencies to eat, forbidden food.
So and when we try to do bhakti, then all these desires created by this anartha disturb our mind. Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama Hare Hare.
We try to concentrate but uh the this instability which is created by our previous karma by the impious element of previous karma uh what shall we do?
Escape to models press escape, come out of the PT and then yes I pressed escape. It came out. It's showing your laptop, but not showing you the laptop this one.
Well someone needs to do miracle otherwise They already rebooted it. They rebooted it. Yes, it's a good thing for some shape. Should work. Connect it after that. Okay. Anyway, so let's go further.
So that's why this is an anartha. Anarthas are there, and anartha is disturbance in the mind. And because of this disturbance in the mind, we cannot really perform bhakti. And we all know this, how it works.
The moment we start sometimes devotees says this is, I like chanting because the best ideas I get when I chant.
Basically means that I'm doing all my plans during the chanting period instead of really saying something important or trying to please Krishna by my chanting.
As I said, when we have uh strong Shraddha, then uh whatever we do, we do uh for the pleasure of Krishna, not for our own pleasure. So uh so that's that's why this this kind of anarthas.
Desires arising from pious actions
Okay. Okay. And Anartis which are arising from pious activities, Sukritha Anartas. And sometimes people say that they're the same, Ragadvesha is definitely there.
But more specifically, the pious activities create three kinds of anartas: desire for heavenly pleasures. I will be rewarded. I'm so good. For sure I will be one of the chosen ones in heaven.
Or desire for liberation, desire for liberation is also a result of pious activities. I perform pious activities and ultimately I hope that I will be liberated from all this material existence.
And desire for mystic powers, sometimes people perform pious activities and this desire for mystic powers becomes very strong. So this is also distraction.
Distraction from the goal because the definition of pure bhakti is that, Uttama Bhakti is that you perform it only for the pleasure of Krishna.
And because you're performing it with the wrong idea, with the wrong desire, then you don't feel the pleasure of bhakti.
It is very beautifully described in the verse which was the controversial verse according to some accounts of Srila Jiva Goswami's life when he was trying to defeat the pandit who came to argue with Śrīvīsa Gosvāmī. So Bukti Mukti Sprihayavad Pishhachi Kridi Vartate.
Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī says that in our heart there are two pishācīs, two witches. It's a very strong word. There are two blood-sucking pishages living within the heart of a living entity. And this is Buktia and Mukti Sriha.
According to this story, the Pandit was arguing with Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī. He said, how you can call Bukti and Mukti, especially Mukti as a Pisati?
How you can call Mukti, who is the Mukti Devi, who is being worshipped by the millions of uh pious people in Bharata Pisachi. It's a Mahaparat. Mukti Devi, you call Pisachi. You know what is going on?
Uh. But then Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī says, no, no, it's not Mukti Devi is Pisachi, Mukti Sriha is Pisachi. The desire for Mukti, the desire for bhukti is pischiha. Why is it blood sucking? Because it tav bhakti su kasjar ta katama bjuda yoga bhavad.
How then you will experience the uh happiness of bhakti if uh if you're deprived if your practice of bhakti is uh deprived of proper intensity.
You don't have the proper goal of your practice, you're not applying your mind there uh to the practice, you don't want to please by this practice the Supreme Lord, but ultimately you want bhukti and mukti.
Recently somebody told me a story that it's a far-out story, one of many which I heard being in school, that somebody experienced some difficulties.
One lady, her husband gave her up, drove her away and she was deprived of anything and then she was kicked out of joke and she was suffering and then she met with one
devotee preacher and devotee told uh told her just repeat all the time, oh my Lord, whatever you want, let it be. Oh my Lord, whatever you want, let it be, let it be, let it be.
So because she was so desperate, she started repeating this mantra, oh my Lord, whatever you want, let it be, let it be, let it be.
And then this preacher himself tells, you know, miraculously, her husband wanted her back, and uh, you know, she was she found a new job where she gets a lot of salary but she doesn't have to do anything and everything removed and and now she with full conviction says, oh my dear Lord, whatever you want, let it be. Let it be. Let it be.
So this is a little tricky mentality. You do not want the Lord, you do not want uh his will, you you don't but you want what you want. You basically want what you want, you want bhukti and mukti.
And um it's maybe okay for the beginning, but ultimately you have
to understand that the real happiness, because when we desire the happiness of the Lord, when our all consciousness is there in the Lord through the media of our connection
with Him through the media of bhakti, our consciousness becomes in him. And can you imagine what happens when our consciousness in the Lord who is the bliss personified? Our consciousness becomes blissful automatically.
We become completely, totally blissful because we are connected with him and we are thinking about him, not about our petty little desires.
How you can be happy if you only think about your petty desires? Can you be happy? No, you cannot. You will be miserable. So, and that's exactly what Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī explains in Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu on this.
And therefore this three kinds of disturbances in mind created by pious activities are also not good. And that's a very important distinction between Gaudiya Sampradaya and every other, practically every other religion.
Because in other religions taught you here, don't perform sin, perform pious activities.
And in Gauḍīya Sampradāya, we say don't perform sin, don't perform pious activities. It's equally disturbing. If not more disturbing. It's equally distracting from the śuddha-bhakti. It's not beneficial for śuddha-bhakti.
If you are just pious person and you are giving alms on ekādaśī. This is ultimately not good. But of course the temptation is very great.
You know, like you want to be pious, and on Amāvāsyā you should go to gośālā and you should donate some money to gośālā and you should do something for your diseased relatives.
That's all fine, but it has very little to do with bhakti. If you want to worship gosh cows, why should you do it only on the Amāvāsyā? You worship cows because they're connected with Krishna, because Krishna likes them.
Not that you know Krishna likes them only on the Amāvāsyā days. He likes them every day. And you should do something for them.
So that's uh a very important distinction between uh our tradition of pure bhakti and other traditions of mixed bhakti.
Offenses and power of holy name
So now next, the most important section of this third chapter of Madhurya Kadambini is aparādha-ja anarthas. Anarthas which are created by aparādhas.
And we will devote a lot of time in deliberating what aparādha means and why and how we should avoid them. So, Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura writes.
Aparādha anarthas which arise from offenses refer to those arising from nāmāparādha, not sevāparādha, such as entering the temple in the palanquin or with shoes.
The ācāryas have discerned that sevāparādhas do not usually have effect, being nullified by chanting the name, by recitation of stotras which have the power to cancel the effect of any sevāparādha, and by constant service.
So basically, in the very beginning, he says, when we're talking about aparādha, we're talking about Nama Parada. There are so many other apparadas, but uh other apparadas are not so dangerous. They don't leave lasting impression.
Seva paradas are basically nullified in the process of devotional service.
Which implies chanting uh like uh after every puja you you have to chant this mantras uh sahastrani and uh you know to huh? Yeah, all these mantras which you're supposed to chant, please forgive me from this apparatus.
And Krishna says no problem. So So uh and uh of course there are different other means to be free from uh severadas. One of them is changing stotras as uh Vishwanachakravaltakun mentions this.
And this is like Vishnu Sahasranam. It is said that recently I heard somebody was explaining Vishnu Sahasranam and they say that Vishnu Sahasranam is influencing all areas of the mind.
They did this as a far out far out feature of modern world, you know now they're trying to see the effect of Vishnu Savasranam on the brain through MRI. So they take the MRI and somebody is changing Vishnu Sahastra Nam.
Everywhere in the brain some very nice uh activities is going on and it purifies the brain. It's actually uh it's very scientific.
Uh all the Vedas are very scientific uh and uh even chanting just om or what to speak about stotras, uh they purify even if you do it automatically, mechanically, even if you do it without really conscious understanding of what you're chanting, still it has an effect.
But Nama paradas are much more difficult. And actually, Sila Rupa Gaswami in Sri Krishna Namastakam he says this. Vachya Vachakam, let's chant together.
Vachyovachami tu de bhavato namaswarupadvayamurvas maat, paramevahan takaruna, takita, ja tasas minlikitta paradaniwa, praanisamatva be siened upassa sol sopi sadhama budhomajadi.
So very beautifully, this is the sixth verse of Namashtakam, where Silarupa Gaswami is glorifying the name, and he says, Vachya Vachakamity Bhavato Namaswarupa
Dvayam, he says that Nam, Krishna Nam has two forms. One form is Krishna himself and another one is his name. It says then the name has the two forms. One form is Krishna. This is the form of the name.
You understand the paradoxical way. It says, Vachya vachya ka mityudeti bawaton namasvarupadvayam. There are two forms of nama.
One is vācya, which is described or named or Krishna or in this case Krishna's form, his mūrti. This is vācya. This is something which is described. And vācakam is the name which is describing this form or Krishna's name.
And he says, Purvasmat Parameva Hanta Karuna, he says, Hanta. He just, he just, he just he just goes like this. Hanta, oh my God.
Purvasmat parameva hanta karunata trati janima he we know that uh the uh the uh that the second one, Vachakam, is more merciful than the first one, vācya.
Because Yastasmin Vihita Paratani Vahah prani samantat bhaved, even if you if you worship the Lord and if you do some Aparadas it's not good.
But even if you worship the Lord and do some aparadas and you chant the holy name, then the holy name becomes the sailing grace, becomes upāsya. Sorry, becomes upa becomes upāya.
If you worship the Lord then the holy name will take you and put you into this anandam Buddhi and you will sadā always be in this sadā ānandam buddha majati. You will be immersed in the ocean of bliss.
If you chant the holy name, even if you perform or commit some offenses against the first one, against the form of the Lord.
So if we constantly worship the holy name. If the holy name becomes our upāsya, the object of worship. Then everything else is solved. Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Yam, Hare Yam, Ram Hare.
Śivarādhanaṭ Mahārāj he describes that he encountered pañca-sādhu and his object of worship. He would go to a solitary place here in Vrindavan. He would clean some little place in the earth and he would do the aksharas of the name, Hare Krishna, he would write it's on the earth and would sit the whole day and worship this form of the Lord in the form of the akṣaras.
And then at the end of the day he would again clean it and go back. So that's that's the real pass of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.
Worship of the deities is important, but only as much as it helps us to change the Holy Name. It should not overshadow or take over the importance of the changing of the Holy Name.
And we're kind of more used to this ritualistic activity and therefore it's easy. Chanting the Holy Name is a little more difficult, but it's much more important. And that's why Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī, he glorifies this.
I will not go further because okay, I'll okay. Let's uh this is another verse from uh namastakam. Let's do it together.
Jaya namadheya muni vrindage janaranjanaya paramaksharatrite dwamanadaradapana Gudiritam Nikilo Grata Papata Belugasi. So he says that Muni,
Muni is those people who are keeping Maunavrad. So this Muni, when they hear the holy name of the Lord, they start singing it very loudly.
Even though they're munis, they're not supposed to, they're supposed to, but they cannot contain themselves. Jhana Ranjanaya Paramakshara Krite. You came in the form of Aksharas. You made yourself accessible to us.
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Hare Hare Krishna. So easily accessible, you know, even to make the form of the Lord it's difficult.
But you came in this most munificent form just to give the pleasure, jhanaranjanaya, for ordinary people. The munis they become joyful and they start dancing and singing.
But even ordinary people, when they chant the holy name, they feel bliss and they feel some satisfaction.
And he says, Twamadharata Pimanakudiritam nikila Ugra Tapapatalim Vilumpasi even without Adara even without attention if we chant the holy name once nikila Ugratapa Patalimvilumpasi.
You a holy name, he says, Namadeya, you purify from all kinds of ugratapa, all kinds of heavy heavy sufferings so uh holy name is like this but there is one important uh condition you should not commit offenses
but how is that here Rūpa Gosvāmī says Anadharatapi? Even if you pronounce the holy name without other, without respect, what is this?
Questions on offenses and faith
Anyway, about this we will talk a little later for now we will uh finish the class and we'll ask for a couple of questions we can answer the couple of questions
Maharaj yesterday today you covered about the topic of uh shadow. So I presume today also became more clear that the solution that... Yes. So Bhakti Tirtha speaks in the article on Vaiṣṇavas,
when he classifies the Vaiṣṇavas based on the Bhāgavatam perspective: kaniṣṭha, madhyama, and uttama. So there you say that those are kaniṣṭha-adhikārīs, they have laukika-śraddhā, or what is it?
And they are not qualified for practicing śuddha-bhakti only until one comes to the platform of madhyama-adhikārī. Then he has the... and he is qualified to practice the...
So I wanted a clarification of this. I wanted to call clarification on this, what it means. Yeah, so in the beginning when we just start practicing bhakti, we don't have firm śāstriya-śraddhā. And our śraddhā mostly...
śraddhā means a consistent understanding of reality. Śāstriya-śraddhā gives a consistent understanding of reality. In the beginning, we don't have a consistent understanding of reality according to śāstra.
We have a fragmental understanding. Little bit we understand here, little bit we understand there, and the rest is
filled up with either our speculations or, most probably, speculations of other people whom we hear and think that they know what they're talking about.
We hear some lectures and this and that, and we create a semi-śāstriya picture of reality, which is not really according to śāstra, but some elements may be there. So therefore, it's laukika. Why it is laukika? It is
because it's based on the opinion of other people, not on the opinion of ācārya, it's not on the opinion of guru. It's the picture which is created in the mind from our association.
So only after we consistently hear and clarify all our doubts, we can form a very strong śāstriya-śraddhā. And that's called madhyama-adhikārī. So in the beginning we cannot... We do believe in something,
but we also have a lot of strange things, strange superficial things. You know, sometimes you hear something, you know what... Recently I heard something which I never heard before. I don't remember, it was so weird.
Don't remember what was it. Somebody told me with a lot of conviction. I said, where did you hear this? Where did you read this or where did you hear this? And usually the answer to this: I heard it in the kitchen.
In the kitchen or somewhere, you know, in other... And usually the answer to this, I heard it on the kitchen.
In the kitchen or somewhere, you know in the uh in other mm uh respectable places where Harikatha is going, dormitory criticizing the Vaishnavas and I am analysing why. Maybe it's pride or envy.
Will such an analyze help or just I just or should I just pray? No, analysis is only necessary to see something which we would not see without this analysis.
Analysis means the detailed vision of something and when we don't have this and when we don't hear this analysis the vision usually is blurry.
Analysis is needed to take to pay attention to some details which would be skipped of our attention, which was which we would miss without such analysis.
So analysis of aparadhaz are important because we will understand exactly what aparadha means and it will help us to avoid aparadhas.
But ultimately, of course, if we only analyze our aparadhas and don't try to avoid them then it's a kind of very strange devotional service. So we we should not just analyze.
Yes, analysis can make us very proud, no doubt about it. And then we should pray. And therefore, in the beginning, I gave this prayer of Narottama Dasa Thakura.
I always pray to be able to overcome all these impediments which are there.
And the main impediment is our not even offenses but offensive nature which we have, which is uh being nourished by the culture we live in unfortunately. I appreciate the behavior of Vaishnavas.
For example, someone gives the wrong philosophy, I appreciate it. He speaks incorrectly. But then I plunge into criticism. Do not evaluate uh do not evaluate incorrectly. But how can you not criticize?
How can one understand the value of sadhu-anga? Therefore, it is said that kṛṣṇa-tattva-vettā keha nā haya, kṛṣṇa nā bhajile. kṛṣṇa-bhakta-hīna tata adhika ki bale.
Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī very carefully says that you should respect Vaiṣṇava, if it's a neophyte Vaiṣṇava, you should respect him from a distance in your mind.
And if it is a madhyama-adhikārī Vaiṣṇava who is engaged in active service, you should pay obeisances to him.
But ultimately you should only seek association of those people, nīcāvad-gaṇa-sevanam. śūnya-hṛdam īpsita-saṅga-labhi.
You should only always be eager to get association of those people who are completely free from the tendency to criticize others. To be free from this tendency ourselves.
So So and uh and uh you know there's a difference between uh knowing that somebody is saying something incorrectly and criticizing. To say that he's saying something incorrectly doesn't mean that we are criticizing him.
Or to notice to distinguish it's just our intelligence. We still may uh maintain respectful attitude even though he's uh speaks something which is not exactly correct. We can be respectful, we should be respectful.
Uh it doesn't matter whether he's always correct or not. But this sort of analysis is necessary for us to understand whose association we should be seeking for all the time.
Questions on overcoming internal obstacles
Yes. Hi Viṣṇu. Please extract my blog with this. I just wanted to uh understand about anartha-nivṛtti. Is it the stage which anartha-nivṛtti starts after we do bhajana-kriyā or is it like a parallel process?
No no, it's a parallel process. The moment we start uh bhajana-kriyā the anartha-nivṛtti starts. There's no doubt about it. It's not that we do bhajana-kriyā, then we stop bhajana-kriyā and then anarthas disappear.
We continue bhajana-kriyā and bhajana-kriyā means bhajan. Bhajana-kriyā means imitation of bhajan. Therefore it's called bhajana-kriyā. It's uh like uh uh kriya literally means
purificatory ceremony like uh in yoga it's very clear like kapala-bhati-kriya, some purification things, so we're doing it not as a bhajan because we are not really uh connected so intimately with Krishna, but it's bhajana-kriyā, it's just uh some formal similarity
of bhajan, bhajana-kriyā, which purifies our heart and anarthas starts going away during this process. So that's very closely intertwined. But if if we want to distinguish between the two, we still can do it.
And in my humble opinion, the difference between the first stage of bhajana-kriyā, which is aniṣṭhita-bhajana-kriyā, and the stage of purification, of intense purification of anarthas is when we consciously understand what anarthas are, when we become more conscious or more reflective.
In the beginning, our bhajan or bhajanakriya, our practice of bhakti is not so reflective.
But at one point, because of hearing this and because of deepening our understanding and faith, we uh start noticing certain processes which are taking place within our heart.
And that's uh where real unattenuation will take place. Krishna you were talking about adara, so it's very important towards bhakti or sastras.
How does one build or should I say rebuild this adara when um it's broken because of wrong examples?
How does one rebuild the adara in a way if it's broken by wrong examples, we should come into society and the the social pressure is very important.
If we live in a society where respect uh is valued very much and everyone is respectful and either externally or internally or both, then naturally we try to adopt to this sort of environment and relearn this respectful behavior and respectful attitude towards others.
So that's why the society of devotees is very important. And not only society of devotees is important, the society of devotees which is built on a proper foundation because there are different societies of devotees.
Unfortunately there are groups of devotees where aparadha becomes a fashion. I I don't want to name somebody specifically, but uh
you know there is a the whole publication, I think it's monthly publication, which is somehow or other uh by some mistake it's called back to Prabhupada but in reality it's uh vaiṣṇava-nindā uh vaiṣṇava-nindā monthly where all kinds of juicy details are being described in all with all the gusto and taste. So it becomes some sort of you know the custom in certain sections of Vaishnava society, and we should be very careful about this.
We should be in the society of devotees who are very respectful and uh very fearful of uh nindā.
So uh sometimes we see that um it's not intentional or personal like sometimes some needs are not met and that's why some devotees are angry or they don't they take out offences because some need is not met, like if somebody is not fed well or uh somebody is not in the right health or frame of mind.
So uh how do we take that? Uh as far as we should be very compassionate, as far as the other people are concerned, we should not judge them too severely.
We can understand the psychological nature, it happens. So it's and it's anyway not our position to judge somebody, you know, if he behaves we we just say yeah okay no problem.
So but uh as far as our cells are concerned we should be still very careful. When we automatically or impulsively commit some aparadha because of our psychological state of mind or something.
It basically means that we are still that we are still slaves of our impulses of the mind.
The beauty of Vaishnava practice is that it makes one, it gives one from the very beginning the intelligence by which we can discriminate. This I should do, this I should not do.
And also give some at least some little freedom to avoid something which is wrong. So we should not justify our actions.
Even if we did something by driven by some impetus, we should not justify ourselves so easily uh by explaining it out. We we should still be remorseful. But as far as others are concerned, we should not be judgmental.
Yes, they may have their reasons to behave the way they behave and uh no, who am I to judge then? Okay. Okay. Uh Maharaja, my question is that brahmacārīs in temple also sometimes brahmacārīs face so much of challenges.
So like uh even associated with a woman for more than almost it's going to be two decades now.
So I find the even the brahmacārīs have so much challenge in their temples and sometimes uh it's again could minor issues could be something related to personal issues like personal needs are not being properly met or one person is being favored more than the other by the temple president, or so many things.
So what I feel is for them it becomes even the more difficult also. They cannot even express themselves very explicitly with a fear of a brother and as they keep
suffering from within, they also lose a lot of the stimulus to chant very enthusiastically and sing a lot. So just out of inquisitiveness, want to know how can this issue be solved If
If we want to progress in our path of bhakti, an extremely important condition is that we have to have somebody with whom we can confide and we can admit our weaknesses and we can get advice
and this person obviously he should not be judging us, he should be kind, compassionate and very confidential.
So if this condition is uh fulfilled then uh uh because uh everyone not only Brahmacharis everyone has some problems.
Everyone has some internal problems which sometimes manifest externally also sometimes it's only internal problems. Everyone has problems.
And if the society of devotees is very... Like Śrīla Prabhupāda said, very important thing. He said that the whole varṇāśrama society was destroyed because of its rigidity.
Because the rules of varṇāśrama were applied in a very rigid way, the whole society was destroyed. Somebody committed a little deviation from the past, and he's already outcast.
He's not a brāhmaṇa anymore. He has to commit suicide or become a Muslim. or be converted. Like this ridiculous story so somebody sprinkled you with Muslims
sprinkled you with some water from the pot, already you are Muslims. It's ridiculous. You know, the whole thing was destroyed because of this strictness.
And sometimes the same kind of external strictness comes to our Vaishnava society. Because in a continuation of the same question, Ramji, you said that we can't be happy if we think of our petty desires.
But unfortunately, every human being's life revolves around those fifteen hundred people we meet, and those petty desires keep troubling us. That is the biggest challenge we face while chatting.
So uh the only way I think we can get over it is when we have a higher cause, when we are thinking no,
it is the Krishna conscious movement I'm committed to and I shouldn't think of petty things. But to identify myself with that cause internally, it's not a very easy thing.
It can't happen in a day, so, but if you come with your petty desires to somebody whom you trust and whom you have confidence of and say, you know, I have these petty desires. I want to be very honest to you.
The desires become weaker. Desires are only as bad as they are strong and they push us in the wrong direction or disturb us. But how to make the desires weaker? It's very simple.
Just admit these desires. Just speak loudly, just uh confessing these desires. Yes, I have these desires. And immediately the desires lose the power over you. So there's nothing wrong with desires.
As Shri Prabhupada says, there is nothing astonishing in having this, because we have been in contact with all these energies for too long. So naturally we have these disturbances in the mind.
How to make them weaker, to make them weaker, we can just admit very honestly, I have these disturbances. And somebody who is more senior to you, he will say, okay, fine. You know, you are not this disturbance, you are spirit soul. So don't take it too seriously.
So, yeah, and uh you're right, identification with the highest goal is uh is a very difficult thing to achieve. But in the beginning uh we should we should know how to deal properly with these petty desires.
And yeah, and they're not so only when we pay too much attention to these petty desires they become a problem. If we just say okay petty desires, bye-bye petty desires, no problem, you know. So it's not so difficult.
Okay, thank you very very much, Hare Kṛṣṇa. So I'll see you tonight.