Student sanga
Бхакти Вигьяна Госвами · Radhadesh · 2011
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Understanding humility in pure devotional service
Yes.
Um last year I was uh speaking with um a devotee about uh humility and um uh I was thinking like uh if a per if a person if a devotee is a pure devotee and he's a realized soul, then he is not identifying with his body, but he's identifying with his self and the self is pure and because it's connected with Krishna, then he understands that he's uh a servant of Krishna, and then there is an aspect of humility in that relationship.
But then we see like um man manyy examples of exalted souls um who uh kind of uh have um they they say that they are so conditioned and they are so fallen and but they can't be fallen or conditioned because if they really identify that the soul which is pure, they can't feel that they are fallen and conditioned. So that is a kind of like different kind of humility.
So I would like you to like uh explain like what is exactly this humility. And also like if this humility, this kind of like self-destructive humility can be dangerous for Um
My explanation will be somewhat theoretical because to explain the psychology of an exalted soul you have to be one. So uh but anyway you can try.
Um, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu himself says So I I don't have a even a little smell of prema, of love of God, and if you see some tears in my eyes, it's just a show of my fortune.
I will just try to show off the symptoms of fortune. So, what is there in the psychology of the great soul?
Why do they feel themselves so fallen? Because this this particular emotional quality is being experienced when one feels the separation from God. Because the identity of a pure devotee is not so much of a soul.
You can say that Jnani or Yogi is trying to you know to have this clear identity as a spirit soul. But pure devotee, his identity is somewhat different.
They do think that they are spirit soul, but the emphasis is not that they are spirit soul, the emphasis they are part of God and at the same time when they feel separation from God they feel that they are kind of away from God.
And at this moment, uh, this feeling of dainya or, uh, feeling of complete utter humility that I don't have anything to do with God and that's why I am fallen appears in the heart.
So it's it's something like this They feel they are part of God, but at the same time they feel that they're separated from God, and that's why this feeling of uselessness is there, or uh the feeling of it's it's actually normal human psychology. Even today I spoke in a lecture for Russians that when we feel separation with somebody whom we love.
There is a very strong connection between you very strong emotional bond, but uh due to some reasons you are separated, then the humility comes as a natural outcome of this feeling of separation.
So humility is at the same time a feeling
of being very small infinitesimal part of God but also there is because when uh when devotees are with Krishna they don't feel them for in a in a meeting the This feeling of utter humility is is is uh the experience when one feels separation with God.
That's my two cents into this thing.
And it's natural because first of all you feel that you're part of somebody and at the same time you feel that you are separated part and this feeling of separation brings about this this kind of emotion so to speak.
It's like you know if you have a finger, you know if a finger is all of a sudden separated and thrown somewhere, you feel very humble in this position quite useless too.
Spiritual progress despite unfavorable material conditions
Did I answer your question? I have one question regarding the class to the morning. From somebody else more than me becausecause that person felt a bit distressed afterwards.
Because if I if I we we didn't speak in depth, but what I got from from that person was like, okay, my life was not as ideal as you might have described it, like it was not happy family life, it was like marriage twice and the whole chaos and it's like um the person that doesn't feel properly situated but at the same time it's it's like what can I do now?
It's like quite late and the life feels all messed up, so can I still make spiritual progress or um am I? Spiritual progress is possible from any condition of life. And it's perhaps I didn't emphasize it enough.
Spiritual progress is possible. That's not a prerequisite. But the point of the class was that it's easier to do spiritual progress if you're properly situated.
And I must say that you know the situation in the world is far from ideal. And to apply this high standard is unrealistic and more or less everyone is in this mess which is called Western civilization and and
everyone is confused nobody knows what is his identity.
Um and you know we have to you know how Śrīla Prabhupāda used to say we have to make the best use of a bad bargain this is a bad bargain from the beginning, we have to try to use it to maximum propensity. So just start wherever we are, but at the same time uh not neglect kind of material side because if we totally neglect and this is uh this is a mistake of some perverted forms of spirituality when people are trying to negate completely material mind and material body.
And this negation you know you have you ultimately you will have to pay a very high price for this. But you know, i i i if you're devoted and if you're doing okay and you know it doesn't matter.
Well, Bhaktivinoda Thakur says, he makes a very interesting point. He says that bhakti is not dependent on the material environment or material situation you're in. Absolutely not.
But he says if the material situation or environment is not conducive for your bhakti, Then the practice of bhakti shortens your life. That's what Bhakti says. And he gives an example of Jesus Christ or the Paul.
He says that uh if the surrounding is not conducive uh ideally you know the there is a smooth transition so to speak. Bhakti is anyway um It's not really very smooth continuation from material life.
You have to depart from material life anyway. But if the material situation is conducive, then this departure or this breach is more like it's not so drastic but
if you have to practice bhakti in a very uh hostile environment. And by hostile environment I don't mean the external environment. Hostile environment can be the environment of your own mind.
You know you practice bhakti and bhakti is a practice of the soul. But if the mind is kind of not very conducive or hostile.
Basically, this varṇāśrama is the culture of the mind. It helps people to cultivate the mind in such a way that it becomes, how you say, uh it becomes auspicious or it becomes favorable for cultivation of bhakti.
That's it. And if the mind is not favorable for cultivation of bhakti, you still can practice bhakti, but that will look more difficult, that's it. And I definitely didn't mean to make anyone distressed.
No, but uh it's there um but uh at the same time it's not I mean it's not hundred percent it's not uh it's not an absolute necessity. But it helps.
Sacrifice as the foundation of relationships
And that's why Prabhupāda stresses this point, and Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura maybe uh say something about uh relationships and like friendships and different because as students we they have to deal a lot with uh the relationship with seniors, juniors, peers and maybe So you're more interested in the relationship with the singers or with the peers? Well I guess there's anything. See any relationship is based on uh sacrifice.
Uh there is no relationship without sacrifice. If you are not planning to do any sacrifice for somebody else, uh there won't be any meaningful relationship uh in your life.
And uh the deeper sacrifices, the deeper relationship will be. In other words you have to really, you know, give up something, some of some part of your interest or evil, whatever.
And usually we are not trained uh in this kind of relationship. Of course, it's still very natural for a mother to sacrifice herself for the sake of the child or the child.
And the more she sacrifices, the deeper the relationship, at least from her part. It is a known phenomenon that if the child is sick, You know, if the mother has many children and one is very sickly, she loves him most.
Why? Because she invested most of her time, energy and love into him. The service was more or less, you know, invested into him and therefore the relationship grew deeper in this in this situation.
So, you know, we have to very clearly understand that we are by nature very egocentric and the Western environment creates this egocentricity in people.
But relationship means that I I leave my egocentric situation in the center of the world as a, mm, there's a pole as a pole star around which the universe is rotating.
And uh and and I kind of invite somebody else into my world, and this is not just the world where I am in the center. So the relationship deepens and by sacrifice I mean many different things.
Sacrifice of course can be on a on a f physical level, but it can be also on a on a more subtle level. Like for example, you know, we like to speak. And everyone likes to speak.
And if I sacrifice my propensity to speak for the sake of listening to somebody, that's already a big sacrifice. So in other words, relationship is based on this ability to give.
And if I am programming myself to give into giving something to the other person, the more I give the deeper will be my relationship with him uh
and uh and this is the way to experience uh some emotional security because when people are trained to do this they're very secure emotionally because they get everything.
Like you can see a very, very glorious example of Nanda Mahārāja. He's just giving. He's always giving, always giving, giving, giving, giving.
Sometimes you you feel painful, you know, he's he gives so much, you know, sometimes feel, you know, is there anything left for himself. There's a lot because he gets as a result of this. As a result he gets so much also.
So that's that's the way to establish relations. Just uh program yourself on giving and you will get more than more than that's how reciprocation works.
Um if you would like to tell us uh something um about the the sadhana and uh you notice how sadhana how sadhana uh when you hear from like if you could tell us from maybe from
perspective of your own realization, because when somebody is practicing something for a long time, then there are certain realizations which come and then when when one hears it becomes actual one shares so and um yeah if
I mean connection we're going you're going deep in relationship with Krishna and the s
Maintaining focus and enthusiasm in sadhana
the necessity of having Sadhana and how to actually you know make it personal see the very word sadhana means the practice for achieving certain goal and the problem
with the sadhana is usually the same, you know, when people lose the perspective of the goal but still engage in the sadhana, the sadhana becomes meaningless. Uh Sadhana loses its quality of being sadhana because
sadhana is only sadhana when the goal is very clear. When the sadhya is very clearly established in the mind, then only it's can the practice can be called sadhana.
Otherwise, when the pr the when the goal is lost, uh when the perspective is not sadhana, it's just a ritual. There is a subtle difference between ritual and sadhana.
Sadhana is something which you do just by the way of habit. Because everyone is doing, because there is some social pressure upon you, and so many other reasons can be there for this.
But um uh some practice becomes uh um strong if you keep focus on the goal of this. And therefore we have to be reminded all the time and remind ourselves about the goal of the practice.
And then you know what else can I say about sadhana? Sadhana. Sadhana is easy if it's practiced every day. Um you can stay on a certain level uh sadhana without any problem but it feels unstable.
Therefore actually Patañjali Muni makes a Vyāsa-deva and commentaries to Yoga Sutra. There is a sutra in Yoga Sutras which explains what is sadhana or what is abhyas.
Sanskrit word abhyas as you may know comes from the root as which means to be, to exist, abyas.
Abyas means to repeat basically. Abyas means repetition, to come into the same state of being, same same kind of state, again and again and again, or in the same condition.
But um Vyāsadeva uh commenting on the sutra about Abyas, what Abyas is, he stresses the point that um that the main um the m the main point of this sutra is yatna, yatana means sadhana is the repetition with endeavor.
Yatna means you try, you endeavor, you invest some some vigor into it, some endeavor. And Vyāsadeva, if I remember, if I remember it properly, he says that what is this endeavor, what kind of endeavor we have to invest.
And he says endeavor in this particular case means enthusiasm uh with some energy with some shakti enthusiasm is a is a main point there uh enthusiasm. Uh uh which anyway, th this is what sadhana means.
Sadhana means you see the goal and you you know, you you apply some some endeavor, some force, some enthusiasm. And then it's not boring.
If it's a ritual, mechanistic ritual, when you lose lost the perspective of the goal and you're not trying anymore really. You're just doing it just because you know you're supposed to do it. Then it's not sadhana.
And it's it becomes a very useless exercise in the ultimate sense of the word. So um but suddenly is a very nice because you are regulated, if you are regulated your mind is very And very you know up.
And it's easy and big uh uh ultimately it becomes very pleasant.
In the beginning you have to really force yourself to get up early and change your habits but ultimately it becomes very pleasant because in reality mind likes rules.
Mind uh when there is no rules mind becomes totally completely confused and just And even though we may
f feel like not having rules, but uh in reality we do like rules. And uh the more regulated the environment is and our life is, the more we like it and it's it's good on all levels on
a physical level on emotional level on all levels My
Studying philosophical systems through devotional perspective
question is about jñāna-miśra-bhaktas. If our nature is um if we are really enjoying the study to explore uh different philosophies comparing to our own and um is it a self is it a sense mind gratification and um how how far should we go into uh it's not jñāna-miśrā bhakti.
Jñāna-miśrā bhakti uh your process becomes jñāna-miśrā bhakti if your goal is really liberation. That's a prerequisite for the lifestyle or for the process to decode the ananya-bhakti.
So you mix bhakti, your goal is not love of God, you just want to be liberated, you just fed up, you just had it enough, and that's why and that's why you're doing it.
But if you like, see the study of the scriptures it's not jnana. It's a big mistake to call this jnana. Jnana is a specific process. Study study of a scripture it can be bhakti, you know, if your goal is bhakti.
It can be jnana if your goal is jnana. But if your goal is really bhakti, then it's bhakti and you can compare, you can go deep, you can explore different philosophies, there's no harm in it.
It's it doesn't really how you say uh doesn't really touches or doesn't really English I started again in English. But anyway, it doesn't really uh degrade the quality of your bhakti.
Your bhakti is still bhakti when the goal is bhakti. In fact, Śrīla Prabhupāda says that anyone who wants to be an ācārya has to know six systems of Vedic philosophy which have nothing to do with bhakti.
But if you s uh if you take for example Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, he sometimes quotes Yoga-sūtra in his commentaries or whatever. He's definitely knowledgeable of other systems.
And um he just studies different systems of philosophy from the point of view of bhakti. And it's not jñāna. It's not jñāna. It has to have fertile mind and it has to be engaged nicely.
But then the the the pleasure um I mean when when we serve devotees like when devotees we can make nice preparations and serve devotees by cooking and doing something else, so in pressure and they really enjoy it and there's not much of uh it seem it seems not much of mercy coming from the Lord to study or is it really
like well Well you can cook your lectures by mixing different things. And if you do it properly it will be enjoyable for you for the Lord as well.
It's also some sort of preparation which you can make for his offering just saying this is for you my God. It really depends on how you treat this process.
It can be very devotional because you know if you prove that actually each and every philosophy is glorifying the Lord in the ultimate sense of the word. What more you know can be called bhakti?
Like there is uh there was a disciple of Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī, a Godbrother of Śrīla Prabhupāda, uh Professor Nishikanta Sanyal. His name was Sadananda, something. I don't remember.
Anyway, but he was a very dear disciple of Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, so much so that he even mentioned him in his last minutes of his life.
He basically gave all his possessions to the Math, to the Gaudiya Math and everything. And he was a philosopher, he was a great philosopher.
I don't know if you read his Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya, his two-volume book. He just, he just, phew, phew, phew.
He knows all the philosophies, but his ultimate point is that Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya is the pinnacle of all the philosophers. And in fact, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu himself was a philosopher. And he did use it.
Uh I mean, maybe not so extensively his emotions used, but still. So there is no harm. You have the point is that this is the point which I was trying to make during today's lecture.
We have something and whatever we have has to be properly engaged in the service of the Lord. If we have some intellectual capacities, these intellectual capacities have to be engaged.
You know, and if you have the intellectual capacities and you just only cook prasāda, that's kind of nice, but um and you may get pure love through this process but sometimes you may need to read something else.
And also uh the The study of the scripture is called svādhyāya, as you know. And svādhyāya means self-analysis. So by studying scriptures and different philosophies you ultimately understand yourself and God.
Overcoming selfish motivation through selfless service
So it's hard.
wondering how to become like really selfless in some way, especially not only dealing with emotions, but also dealing with motives, and with that. If I knew the answer to this question, I would be very happy.
The point is that you know it's a gradual process, you cannot just do it like this. You can just turn some button in your head and you become self-. It doesn't work like this.
You know, we're selfish because we have material body and material mind. The very nature of the body is selfish, and the mind is also selfish.
You know, the human being, the little baby, is selfish, you know, there's no agenda of becoming selfless. You cannot be a selfless, selfless baby. You will die immediately.
So uh You know, it's a it's a condition of the body and the mind. You can only ultimately become selfless if you can send the conditioning of the body and the mind.
Because the nature of the soul is to give, is to love, is to is to be selfless. But in our state of consciousness we practice selflessness by serving others and um uh
by serving others to get some experience, some emotional experience and understand that experience is deeper when we don't expect anything.
And by the way of experience you you kind of you know you go in this direction more and more and more. At least theoretically, we have to understand that we want love and only love. And this is the definition of love.
Love should be selfless. There is no selfish love, that's not love.
So if we understand that we want love, and this is the only experience which will really satisfy us, any anything less than this will not bring satisfaction.
So we can practice and strive for this and you know it will be through the trial and error we will learn something.
So and uh we we are we are basically uh you know we're doomed uh to have some selfish motivations even though sometimes we're not aware of the selfish motivations, we still calculate.
My there's a great there's a great calculator here. It just calculates many, many steps ahead but
when you transcend the mind and the uh when you really become soul then only you get rid of the self selfish nature but you know if even if you you practice and watch yourself and try to be selfless then
you get something you get something very very deep emotional as as far as uh other people are concerned, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura he gives a nice point. He makes a very nice point. He says that um if
If you realize that you are part of God and you are his servant, then you will relate to other human beings also as a parts of God. You will also understand this.
If you ask your own nature, then then the real compassion will be there, and the real compassion means selflessness. So we are selfish because of ego, and ego makes us feel separate from everyone else.
And the only way to work this ego is to first of all make the ego proper, which I was talking today in the lecture, you know, to make the ego healthy, so to speak.
And also and then gradually reduce it, uh reduce the false ego through the way of service. And then you know you will grow and you will you will like it. It's actually much more fun to be selfless than to be selfish.
And there's nothing special in being selfless, but there's something really special. Because we all want to be special. That's the way to become special.
But the purport, um, it gives this explanation of surrender as um avoiding that it is not um good for your devotional life, devotional service. But then on the other hand, we have this um this this uh kind
of like we hear it over and over again don't say your prayers on your knees, stretch a bit, but
Finding proper balance in devotional effort
but then on the other hand how do we know what what is what is dangerous for our devotional life and what will help us grow, so how can we make this this?
your question is uh whether you're pushing yourself too much and giving something up which is not really uh which is not helpful for your well-being. the the explanation which he gives is is interesting.
He says that how to find a balance in this in any process of surrender.
He says the balance, you know, if it's too easy and you become complacent and lazy and you do something which is, you know, which is which is less than what you can do, you will feel boredom.
And if you do something which is too much for you, really over your head, you will feel miserable. You really will feel miserable.
I I've seen people who are trying to follow very high standards and you just just look at them and you see this something is wrong with this person because he's not happy.
So he he gives a nice definition, you know, if you you stretching yourself as much as it it gives you some challenge in your life and gives you some fresh challenge. You know, when you have some fresh challenge in your life, you feel enthusiastic and nice.
But at the same time uh uh you know it's not too much so that you just become really miserable or pain is there. You know it's it's it's like in yoga.
If you stretch yourself too much, you know, because of your ego, you try to, you know, really then you will get severe pain and ultimately you will injure yourself.
Uh and if you are too lazy, you just don't do this, then you know it's no fun. You get bored. The real yoga, the experience of yoga is that you just you stretch yourself as much as
it's a little painful but not too much painful and you feel that you know there is some enthusiasm is coming from this pain.
So uh this is a very uh good definition that there should be some stress, some pain, some endeavour. Some pain should be there, but little pain when it's still pleasant.
The pain when it's not too much, it's it's pleasant because it it wakes you off. So if you're not sleepy and if you're not really screaming out of pain, but we just awake with little pain, it's fine.
But in such a way we can express our limits. Yeah. This is this is the way to expand our limits yes. This is the way. Otherwise you just stay in a very limited condition where
you are in you are basically you are in māyā because māyā means you've got a little bit. Okay. Yes, yes, please. Actually, thank you for a wonderful class this morning.
Um I was speaking about banishing guns, but I thought it's like it in colour the
Recognizing individual nature and serving others
banana's like the it's difficult to find somebody in the pure banana Yeah,
but see uh in the third canto where there is a description of universal form, it is said that the varṇas appear from the universal form, first the occupation appears from the universal form, and then the particular mentality appears from the universal form.
And even though we definitely have mixed tendencies, we still have some tendencies which can be developed.
You know, the uh how to treat this this question is that yes we have mixed tendencies, but you know I still have some tendencies.
If I apply force in developing certain tendency which is already there then I can still consider myself as properly situated. And it's not that they're mixed in each and every case.
Some people are very clear cut cases in terms of their mental makeup or psychological tendencies. But most of the people they don't know. It's not that we mix.
The problem is not that we're mixed, the problem is that we're not aware of our own tendencies.
We're not really directly in touch with ourselves and because we get so much you know mixed signals and uh you know everything is so confused in Kali-yuga, but that's it's difficult.
Uh you cannot you know uh it's not that in in uh in previous ages people were the natures of people was much more pure. It was pure but uh there was some mixture as well at that time.
However, there was a stress in the society and some kind of social pressure for you to develop certain nature which is there in you.
And if you develop and perfect the certain nature which is there for you, you are still properly situated, your mind is satisfied and and it's just a question of finding this nature which is which you should develop uh to be happy throughout the life.
That's it. So anyone still has the tendency. The same because it's it's a creation of God. And it's very interesting, this is the last thing which I say.
Because in the third canto where the Lord Maitreya explains to Vidura this universal form and how the varṇas, different varṇas appeared from the universal form. He glorifies each one.
He says Brahmanas are the best because they are the head, the mukhya, the main. He says kṣatriyas are the best because they protect others.
And he says vaiśyas are the best because the only vaiśyas can feed others. Nobody else can feed. You know, vaiśyas the only one who can make money.
But then he comes to śūdras and he says, but the real best one is śūdras. The real best one. And he says, specifically he says, why?
Because their occupation, their nature, their nature is service, and by service the Lord is pleased. He doesn't say the Lord is not necessarily pleased by philosophical Brahmanas because they can become proud and selfish.
So if nothing else we can always serve and this is the best occupation anyway, we can develop this nature which is there and it's the most glorious nature.
Ultimately it is the most glorious nature because Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam specifically stresses this. satisfied by this vṛtti, by this occupation which is there on the shoulders. This nature everyone has.
So we can at least prefer this nature and then we are properly situated. Okay, I guess we have to part now. Thank you very much for thank you for taking this course in Bhaktivedanta College. It's uh very fortunate.
As I said yesterday to Yadunandana Mahārāja become really fortunate next lifetime I can become a student in the still got time, right? I don't think it's possible this lifetime.