Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.3.44. The Essence of Preaching
Бхакти Вигьяна Госвами · Bangalore · 2021
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Om namo bhagavate vāsudevāya Om namo bhagavate śīvalāya, Om namo bhagavate vāsudevāya, Om namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Nārāyaṇaṁ namaskṛtya naramṁ caiva narottamaṁ devīṁ sarasvatīṁ vyāsaṁ tato jayam udīrayet, naṣṭa
Reading Bhagavatam verses on preaching
prāyeṣv abhadreṣu nityṁ bhāgavata sevayā, bhagavaty uttama-śloke bhaktir bhavati naiṣṭhikī, bhaktir bhavati naiṣṭhikī, yaṁ pravrajantam anupetam apeta-kṛtyaṁ dvaipāyanō viraha-kātara ājuhāva, putreti tanmaya tayor tarabori niduḥ, taṁ sarva-bhūta-hṛdayaṁ munim nato 'smi.
So, since the topic of today's lecture or talk is preaching, I will read two verses and uh purports of Śrīla Prabhupāda in which he encapsulates the essence of preaching from the first canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, the last verse from the third chapter and the first verse from the fourth chapter.
I'll just read the verses without repeating them: tatra kīrtayato viprāṁ prāṁ śrūyatāṁ buddhi-tejasām, aham udhyāgamam tatra niś- niwiṣṭas tatanugrahat, so 'haṁ vaḥ śrāvayaiṣ- śrāvayāmi yathā-dhītaṁ yatāmati tatram there kīrtayataḥ while reciting viprāḥ O brāhmaṇas Vipraśehe from the great brāhmaṇa-ṛṣi bhūri bhūri greatly tejasām powerful aham I ca ca also adya gamamam could understand tatra in that meeting niṣiṣṭaḥ niṣiṣṭaḥ being perfectly attentive. Tatanugrahāt by His mercy. Saḥ, that very thing.
Aham I vaḥ unto you śrāvayāmi shall let you hear yathādhītaṁ yatāmati as far as my realization goes.
Qualifications for hearing Srimad-Bhagavatam
Translation and purport by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda.
O learned brāhmaṇas, when Śukadeva Gosvāmī recited Bhāgavatam there in the presence of Emperor Parīkṣit, I heard him with rapt attention. And thus by his mercy I learned the Bhāgavatam from that great and powerful sage. Now I shall try to make you hear the very same thing as I learned it from him and as I have realized it.
One can certainly see directly the presence of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa in the pages of Bhāgavatam, if one has heard it from this from a self-realized great soul, like Śukadeva Gosvāmī.
One cannot, however, learn Bhagavatam from a Bogus hired reciter whose aim of life is to earn some money out of such recitation and employ the earnings in sex indulgence.
No one can learn Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam who is associated with persons engaged in sex life. That is the secret of learning Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
Nor can one learn Bhagavatam from one who interprets the text by his mundane scholarship.
One has to learn Bhagavatam from the representative of Śukadeva Gosvāmī, and no one else, if one at all wants to see Lord Shri Krishna in the pages. That is the process, and there is no alternative.
Sūta Gosvāmī is a bona fide representative of Śukadeva Gosvāmī because he wants to present the message which he received from the great learned brāhmaṇa of Śukadeva Gosvāmī from the great learned brāhmaṇa.
Śukadeva Gosvāmī presented Bhagavatam as he heard it from his great father. And so also Sūta Gosvāmī presenting Bhagavatam as he had heard it from Śukadeva Gosvāmī. Simply hearing is not all.
One must realize the text with proper attention. The word Niviṣṭa means that Sūta Gosvāmī drank the juice of Bhagavatam through his ears. That is the real process of receiving Bhagavatam.
One should hear it with rapt attention from the real person, and then he can at once realize the presence of Lord Krishna in every page. The secret of knowing Bhagavatam is mentioned here.
No one can give rapt attention who is not pure in mind. No one can be pure in mind who is not pure in action. No one can be pure in action who is not pure in eating, sleeping, fearing and mating.
But somehow or other if someone hears with rapt attention from the right person at the very beginning, he can assuredly see Lord Shri Krishna in person in the pages of Bhagavatam.
Thus ends the Bhaktivedanta Purport of the first canto, third chapter of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam entitled Krishna is the source of all incarnation.
Presentation standards and personal realization
And then Śrīla Prabhupāda continues the same topic in the next verse, the first verse of the fourth chapter, appearance of Nārada Muni. Vāca iti bruvaṇaṁ saṁstutya moninaṁ dīrghasattrāṇāṁ vṛddhaḥ kulapatiḥ sutaṁ vācayiṣyan śaunako bravīt. Shatrinam Vridhad Kulapatih Sutam Bachrichah Sonako Bravit.
On hearing Sūta Gosvāmī speak thus Śaunaka Muni, who was the elderly learned leader of all the rishis engaged in the prolonged sacrificial ceremony, congratulated Sūta Gosvāmī by addressing him as follows:
Purport by Śrīla Prabhupāda: In the meeting of learned men, when there are congratulations or addresses for the speaker, the qualification of the congratulator should be as follows he must be the leader of the house and an elderly man.
So Śrīguru Hari doesn't fit this. He congratulated me, but he's not an elderly man, but the leader of this house. It's okay. He must be vastly learned also.
Śrī Śunaka Ṛṣi had all these qualifications, and thus he stood up to congratulate Śrī Sūta Gosvāmī when he expressed his desire to present Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam exactly as he heard it from Śukadeva Gosvāmī and also realized it personally.
Personal realization does not mean that one shouldn't out of vanity attempt to show one's own learning by trying to surpass the previous acharya.
He must have full confidence in the previous ācārya, and at the same time he must realize the subject matter so nicely that he can present the matter for the particular circumstances in a suitable manner.
The original purpose of the text must be maintained. No obscure meaning should be screwed out of it, yet it should be presented in an interesting manner for the understanding of the audience. This is called realization.
The leader of the assembly, Śaunaka, could estimate the value of the speaker, Śrī Sūta Gosvāmī, simply by uttering yathādhāraṁ yathā mati. And therefore he was very glad to congratulate him in ecstasy.
No learned man should be willing to hear a person who does not represent the original ācārya. So the speaker and the audience were bona fide in this meeting where
Bhāgavatam was being recited for the second time. That should be the standard of recitation of Bhāgavatam so that the real purpose can be served without difficulty.
Unless the situation is created, Bhāgavatam recitation for extraneous purposes is useless labor both for the speaker and for the audience.
Śrīla Prabhupāda kī jaya viṣṇu-pādāya kṛṣṇa preṣṭhāya bhū-tale śrīmate bhaktivedānta-svāmin iti nāmine namaste sarasvate deve gaura-vāṇī-pracāriṇe nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi-pāścātya deśa-tāriṇe vāñchā-kalpatarubhyaś ca kṛpā-sindhubhya eva ca patitānāṁ pāvanebhyo vaiṣṇavebhyo namo namaḥ
Śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu-nītyānanda śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-
Degradation of truth in Kali Yuga
bhakta-vṛnda Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare... [ajañjānumita] Pujokanakabadatu Sankirtanaika Pitarukamalaya Daksha Vishwambaru dvi jāva yu gu dharma palamandei jag priya karu karuna vadhar. yuntah pra visi mammavachimu mapra supta saṅjīvaya te kila śakti darh s vadam nanyam schahasta charana chwana tvagali No Matir Atiya Hai Duki So
thank you very much for coming all together and discussing this very important matter, how to preach, especially to the young audience of Bangalore. We're actually dealing with the warlike situation.
Kali equipped with all the powerful weapons is fighting against Sanatana Dharma. And in most of the places already Kali is victorious.
I heard once a very interesting realization is that this Kali Yuga is very special Kali Yuga. Because the degradation in this Kali Yuga is very fast.
In previous Kali Yugas it was a slow kind of progress, but this Kali Yuga is very special because Lord Chaitanya came and he expedited the whole thing.
You know it's very difficult to imagine what's going to happen the rest of the Kali Yuga because it's already so horrible. 400,000 years is still ahead of us and it's already degraded to the maximum extent.
How it can be more degraded? It's difficult to imagine of course it's possible to imagine, but it's it's really difficult.
So Lord Chaitanya he kind of catalyzed the whole process of degradation because he wanted also to give something very important and very valuable. And there is a fight going on.
There is a Kurukshetra war between the forces of Kali, very powerful forces of Kali.
Now, when the internet was invented, you know, the Kali became much more powerful because the false propaganda which is the main target of Kali. Kali is targeting the last leg of religion.
Are the legs of religion already finished? Who is doing Tapasya nowadays? Nobody is doing Tapasya. Who is truthful? Well, truthful, some people are still trying. Who is pure? Nobody is pure.
So this last leg of religion is people are trying still to hold for the truth. So when the internet was invented, this last leg of religion was given a you know a really final blow.
It was a really heavy uh victory from the age of Kali because now the whole falsity.
The falsity of the essence of life is being spread by internet. What is the falsity? You know the the internet is spreading certain concepts which are false. Asat. Something which is not real.
Something which doesn't have the real importance or real lasting influence upon us. This is what is being spread, you know. Even if you read the news and the internet, you know, the news became
so easily available before at least you had to open the, you know, the newspaper and you know goes through newspaper no no need you know just push one button and you know everything which is happening in America and and you can spend the whole day just by reading what is happening in Brazil.
As if it has anything to do with you. But this is the this is how the mind works. When Yaksha asked Maharaja Yudhiṣṭhira what is the news? That was one of the last questions of Yaksha. Please tell us what is the news.
And Maharaj Yudhiṣṭhira said, here is the news. If you know this news, you know all the news which are there, you don't have to read all this news because the news are all the same.
He said, This world is a big pot with boiling ghee in it or oil in it. And everyone is being fried in this pot. And there is a very good cook who is trying to make us evenly fried from all the sides.
You know, like a good cook is frying pakoras, you know, and pakoras should be evenly fried from all sides. So this cook is called time. So this cook time is cooking us, it's cooking everyone in this world.
So no need to see the news. This is what is going on. Everyone is being nicely cooked in this world. So that's the news. But people are attracted by all this news. It's presented in a very attractive manner.
The falsity of the internet is that it presents any garbage in a very attractive manner. To make your mind completely captivated by this garbage.
And uh uh you know you're taking all this energy inside yourself. You know, there is so much negativity in the internet.
And when we're reading uh all this news and everything else, what is happening, all this negative energy. And Kali Yuga is actually uh you know it's it's surcharged with negative energy.
Everything is just penetrated by negativity, by by the quarrels, by hypocrisy. Everything is and when we read all this news, you know all this negative energy goes inside.
And then we spread this negative, the same sort of negative energy, and we become Kalichellous.
You know, people read all the kind of gossips, this happened or that happened uh this you know this person fell down, that person fell down, you know. What is so interesting about it? Yeah, everyone is fallen in this age.
What is new about it? No, but you you want to know the details. How he is fallen. You're not satisfied with the fact that everyone is fallen. You want to know the details. Why you want to know details?
Because you're fallen yourself.
Because you have the same affinity with the same sort of garbage and you want to, you know recharge your garbage. It's already a little exhausted, so you want to get the new portion of garbage in this way.
So that's going on. That's the battle. And uh here we are, you know, a few strange souls who are trying to fight against this Kali Yuga. And therefore, this preaching is very important.
We are trying to use the same internet, we're trying to use everything. You know, to fight against this the flow of Kali Yuga and it's very difficult. And sometimes we become also wounded in this battle.
So therefore, and Śrīla Prabhupāda was alone. Śrīla Prabhupāda, he actually declared the war against Kali, and he was basically alone. Nobody helped him.
Using sacred scriptures against material influence
And here he explains how what what is our weapon?
The weapon of Kali is very clear. There are so many weapons. He is equipped, well equipped with all this lies and sense gratification and all the drugs which are there. This is all weapons of Kali.
What do we have? We have only one weapon. This is Srimad-Bhagavatam. Well, we have two weapons, Bhagavad-gītā also. We have these weapons to fight against these powerful weapons of the age of Kali.
But we also have to understand that this is the most powerful weapon which we have. Śrīla Prabhupāda gave us these weapons, his books. That's his understanding of how we can stand against the overwhelming forces of Kali,
his books, and his realization, his understanding, which is coming through Parampara system. Srila Prabhupada explains this very beautifully. Why it is so powerful? Because it's as it is, yathārūpa.
Because he didn't adulterate the original purpose of the text. What other people were doing before him there were many preachers. Vivekananda came to Chicago and he preached Vedanta and he impressed people very much.
Western people were very much impressed by Vivekananda. But ultimately we know that he didn't give the original purpose. You know, his idea was it's better to play football than to study Bhagavad-gītā. Gītā.
That's his quote-unquote. His direct statement. So he, you know, he preached Vedic literature, but what is his understanding of Vedic literature?
With all due respect, you know, he is a great leader according to certain powerful movements in India. But I know if he thinks that to play football is more valuable than to read Bhagavad-gītā. So what he can preach?
What he can say? How he can convey the message of Bhagavad-gītā? You know, everyone who hears him will play football after hearing Bhagavad-gītā Gita because that's the hidden message which is which is in his preaching.
Necessity of purity and realized preaching
You know, and here we have Prabhupāda and Prabhupāda, again, with all due respect, but you know, that's his own words. The system of Parampara is that somebody who is preaching has to be realized first.
He has to realize the message: what is he preaching? Otherwise, what is he preaching? Otherwise, the preaching will be just an exploitation of innocent people.
Like Prabhupāda said, you know, there are so many hired reciters of Bhāgavatam or preachers of Bhagavad-gītā who have extraneous purposes, not to convey the message. Prabhupāda was very proud, you know.
Somebody says how he can call his book Bhagavad-gītā as it is. But he's insisting, this is as it is. Because I do not have any extraneous extraneous motive.
The purity of purpose is the most important first thing and first uh uh condition which we have to have. What is my purpose? What is my motivation? That's the first thing. And to have the pure motivation, we have to realize
these truths which are there in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and Bhagavad-gītā.
Otherwise, naturally we are, you know, the built-in motivations which we have are impure after living so many lifetimes in this world and this Kali Yuga, uh we have completely twisted motivations.
We are selfish, we are selfish, we want, you know, and and whatever we do, even if we are preaching, if we are not pure in our preaching, if we didn't realize this message, the motivation will transpire through our preaching.
We will look at a person whom we preach, you know, what he as a resource, not as a spirit soul who is naturally connected with Krishna. The motivation will not be pure.
So the first and foremost, the most important uh condition uh for the preacher, he should be realized.
And realization means reading these books which we received from Śrīla Prabhupāda and trying to really not only read these books, but also live these books.
There was a story then like one person approached Śrīla Prabhupāda and proudly in Bombay and said, you know, Swamiji, I
can recite Bhagavad-gītā within 45 minutes, within one muhūrta. You know, because supposedly according to the historians, uh Krishna recited Bhagavad-gītā within one muhūrta. It was relatively short time, so it must be quite a fast-speaking exercise.
So this person said, you want to hear, I can recite Bhagavad-gītā within 40 minutes or 42 minutes or whatever is. And Prabhupada said, yes, very good, very good, very good. Can you live Bhagavad Gita for one minute.
It's one thing to recite Bhagavad Gita, it's one thing to recite the shlokas of Bhagavad Gita, which we learned just for preaching. Another thing is to live Bhagavad Gita.
And it's more difficult to live Bhagavad Gita just one minute than to uh recite Bhagavad Gita within 45 minutes or 42 minutes or whatever it is. Because I mean it's a heavy duty to live Bhagavad Gita.
It means that we have to be very pure in our motivation.
Overcoming mental distractions during hearing
And Prabhupada explains this whole process. He explains that for that we need to hear very attentively. The point number one which Prabhupada is making here before we start preaching, before we open our mouths.
We first have to hear again and again and again. How to hear with rapt attention. Nivistāḥ. We have to be Nivistāḥ and Prabhupāda explains what does it mean Nivistāḥ? It means that we have to drain this with our ears.
Like Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī, he explains when the cows in Vṛndāvana, When they heard the sound of Krishna's flute.
You know, there were these cows with long ears hanging so they somehow rather they would raise the ears because they wanted to hear every sound, every little sound, and their ears would become like pots.
They wanted to drink the sound of Krishna's flute because of this eagerness to hear. So, you know, luckily for us we don't have to really make these endeavors to put our ears up. They're already up.
You know, it would be very difficult if our ears would be like elephants'. So uh we have already our ears up. Unfortunately they are sometimes closed due to inattentiveness, due to some natural faults of our mind.
What is inattentiveness? Inattentiveness is dosha. Doṣa of the mind. Because the mind is very much flickering, the mind is always wandering, you know, it uh it's oftentimes is not connected with the sound.
For us to understand something, first of all, there has to be contact of the sense, with the sense object, of the sense with sound and the contact of the sense object with the mind. And then the contact of the mind with the soul.
This is the process, this is the chain.
There is a sense object, the sound, the sound has to be connected with the sense object, the sense object has to be connected with the mind, and the mind has to be connected with the soul.
And because the mind is so distracted, you know, the what is inattentiveness? Inattentiveness is this uh phenomenon when uh our mind is not connected with the sense which is perceiving certain sense object.
And because the mind is somewhere else, you know, and because the mind always wants to be somewhere else, that's a very peculiar feature of our mind. The mind always wants to do something else.
It doesn't matter what he's doing now, something else. When he will do something else, he will want to do something else. So it's an illusion.
If you are sitting and chanting you think, you know, let me stand up and chant. And then when you stand up and chant you think let me walk and chant and then you think let me run and chant.
At the moment, the mind somehow or other hates to be at present. He always wants to do something else. He's always in the future.
I'm sitting and chanting and I'm thinking what I will do next week and uh what I will do when I go somewhere and you know it's it's it's it's the nature of the mind. And therefore the mind is inattentive.
It's very difficult to concentrate the mind on what what we're doing. You know, we're sitting here now.
Therefore, Prabhupāda said, you know, it's very good when you preach because at least when you preach you're attentive. When you hear you may not be attentive.
But when you preach, uh it's it's difficult to be inattentive when you preach. Unless you start speaking some mundane news and your your your thought process goes somewhere else.
But anyway, the point I'm trying to make is that inattentiveness is is a natural is a natural flow of the dosha of the mind. And therefore the first thing which we have to train ourselves is to be attentive when we hear.
Is to be attentive when we read. Prabhupāda says it's difficult to be attentive. He gives the whole chain, how, why people are not attentive, why the mind is so distracted. He speaks about this.
But he says, if somehow or rather you are attentive, it basically means that somehow or rather, despite of all these difficulties of Kali Yuga and bad influences, all contaminating influences which are influencing our mind and make our mind inattentive. Somehow or other, we still can make it attentive for a short period of time.
Therefore, lectures should not be too long because you know if it's too long it's very difficult to be attentive. But if for a short time we managed to do it, it's already a great achievement.
So if we're talking about the preaching, you You know, it is said that Prabhupada's lectures always 30 minutes, 35 minutes, not more than this.
You know, nowadays somebody speaks for five hours, six hours, and it's such a torture to see for so long. Even if it's nice, still it's difficult. But Prabhupada was very particular in this regard.
He never gave very long lectures. Why? Because the span of attentiveness is short.
You know, naturally, the span of attentiveness of the audience, especially You know, if if you can be attentive for s if somehow rather you can be attentive for thirty minutes, it's the greatest achievement in your life.
Congratulations. For thirty minutes, you still can you know keep your attention or your mind on the subject matter. So and it's possible, even though naturally our mind is in attentive. Prabhupada he finishes this.
He says, if somehow or other one hears with rapt attention from the right person, at the very beginning one can assuredly see Lord Krishna
Achieving realization directly through hearing
in person in the pages of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. So Prabhupada stresses this amazing point. If with attentiveness, with concentration, we can hear the realization will come. It's very, very important point.
Uh, it is explained, uh, by Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī and Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura in the commentaries of Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, they say Śravaṇād vāra kiñcit anubhūti sati. Sati.
Just by hearing you can get realization. You can get experience. Hearing is such a powerful process that it gives you realization.
Usually we know that this is, you know, first of all, ātmā vāre draṣṭavyaḥ. You have to realize God.
So, what is the process which Upaniṣad gives, Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad, ātmā vāre draṣṭavyaḥ, śrotavyaḥ, Mantavyaha, Nididyastavya. So the normal process of realization.
You can only see God, you can only see Atma, God, when you hear first, and then you think for a long time, mananam, you do this mananam, and then nididyasitavyam, you you start meditating.
You heard first, your thought a lot about this whole thing, and then you will see God in you will see how it works, you will see the truth, you know, and then after that you will be able to experience God.
But Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī says this amazing thing. He says, Sravanadvara kinchita nubuddhi sati. Little experience will come just by hearing. If you hear properly. That's the first thing which we have to understand.
If the hearing process, as Prabhupada says, is proper.
If you hear from the right person and if you hear with right attention, with rapt attention, with a lot of concentration, then this is an easy, simple, and very quick way to get realization.
You may realize very highly elevated topics just by hearing, without going through this difficult process of practicing everything. So therefore the hearing is the first thing which the preacher should do.
He should train his mind how to hear the message of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam properly. How to really drink the message of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam with the ears. This is, as Prabhupāda explains this is the uh meaning
of this word nivishtaha, ni vistaha, nitaram vistaha. Ni vistaha uh vish the Sanskrit dhatu vis means to enter. And ni means nitaram, nitaram vishtaha. It means that it completely enters.
When we hear, you know, we all know there is some wax in our ears naturally being produced. There is some something. So it blocks the ears, it just doesn't penetrate the wax.
So Nivishta means you first have to clear up your ears from all the dirt which is there. And what is the dirt? The dirt is it's not literally this wax.
The dirt is the other things which we heard. Because we heard so many other things.
When we hear the pure message of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, it just doesn't go so nicely, uh, nitaram vishtaha means it goes nicely through the uh through the ears. There is no blockage there.
So uh but if there is a lot of stuff which we heard, you know,
we hear something, we heard here there, you know, from different like Prabhupada said that the first thing we have to hear from the self-realized person, from the proper person, from the proper source, and because we heard so many other things from improper sources, then it's difficult.
The message doesn't go deep. It doesn't penetrate this blockage.
So, this is the first most important thing which we have to understand: that if we want to preach, we first have to hear again and again with proper attention trying to really purify our ears from the dirt.
And it means limit our association with the dirty things of this Kali Yuga.
Avoiding mundane inputs to preserve enthusiasm
It means really be very careful with what we are you know taking in.
There is a very good saying which is very appropriate to speak in uh Bangalore because Bangalore is the headquarter of the IT industry and IT engineers they have the saying: garbage in, garbage out.
So that's exactly about our situation. If garbage goes in, the garbage will go out. I remember in the very beginning there was, you know, when devotees were not so experienced, they didn't really know how to,
you know, speak from the śāstras. So they would they would start something from the verse of Bhagavad-gītā, but very quickly go to something which is more familiar, it was some subject matter which was more familiar.
So I remember one devotee, his schedule was to give a lecture once every two weeks or something like this.
śrīmad-bhāgavatam, but every time during his lecture, somehow or other, he would start speaking about Pearl how the Americans uh or my Japanese uh attacked Pearl Harbor. Somehow rather it was so exciting for him.
And already all the audience, you know, while he would start his lecture waiting when the Pearl Harbor story will come up. So that's the illustration. Garbage in, garbage out.
If you get something uh which is not so pure, then you will naturally speak. You will speak about something which is exciting for you.
If you're excited about something, then you will you will speak about this and it's sometimes difficult to be excited about Krishna. Believe it or not.
It's sometimes difficult to be excited about message of Bhagavad-gītā or message of Bhāgavatam. But this is the result of proper hearing. If we hear properly, with proper attention, then we will be excited
about Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Then we will be enthusiastic. This is what Śrīla Bhaktivinoda says. He says in, he's explaining this first word of the verse, utsāha-niścayād dhairyāt. He says, utsāha, what does utsāha mean?
And utsāha means excitement. Utsāha means enthusiasm. He said, where is the enthusiasm coming from? He said, the enthusiasm is coming from the faith. If you have faith, if you have śraddhā, then you will be enthusiastic.
There is no meaning of faith if you say, I believe in Krishna and you are not enthusiastic. You know, sometimes people they speak about Krishna sitting in the
vyāsāsana and they they, you know, are bored themselves. They're not excited about the subject matter they're talking about. It's just a ritual. They just they just have to speak about this.
And Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says, what is the meaning of your śraddhā if you're not enthusiastic? The essence of faith is enthusiasm. This is exactly what Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī said.
If you have life, you will have to preach.
You know, if you have enthusiasm, if you have energy, you know, and if you say I believe in Krishna, I believe in Bhagavad-gītā, and you're not excited about it, it means that you're not really believing it.
There is no real connection between your mind with the subject matter of Bhagavad-gītā or Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. But this can be obtained if you hear with rapt attention. That's the first thing.
This realization can come if you hear with rapt attention.
Because we all know on this phenomenon that when we you know, sometimes we hear certain things and we hear it again and again and again, and we always say, you know, I know it's so boring, I already know this, I know I'm not this body.
And then somebody else comes and you have your bright moment, you are somehow rather attentive and somebody speaks the thing which you already know and which you already heard thousands of times.
And somehow or other it clicks. This particular person somehow or other said something to you which you supposedly knew, but now the different experiences there. Something happened because what he said went through.
So that's how preaching works. If we want to preach, we have to be realized. Otherwise it will be just formality and people will not be changed after our preaching? What is the purpose of our preaching?
The purpose of our preaching is to you know to try to help another person to change their heart. And for that, you know, what is the means which we have?
Compassionate preaching and lifestyle purity
We have only one means, our tongue. You know, this is what the means which we have. And by tongue, by the powerful sound, we can change the heart of a person. But for that, of course, we need to be pure ourselves.
And Prabhupāda says, he explains that to be mm to have the attentive mind we have to be pure in uh the the mind has to be pure. The mind has to be pure for the mind to be pure has to be pure in in action and uh you know if we want to be pure in action we have to maintain the purity sadācāra of eating, sleeping, fearing, and mating.
Uh this is whole thing that we have to, but the the very point of it is that if we want to be preachers, we have to be pure. Otherwise, uh what will happen? We will uh preach to other people, but we
will want something from this other people or from this preaching. What it can be, it can be, you know, I'm such a great preacher. Look, so many people surrender unto me.
I have so many followers who are, you know, who are really oh. Oh, you will try to exploit your followers, or you will want to have some honor among the brahmacārīs.
Look, I am the best preacher out of all of you, and I can distribute more books than all of you. This is all dirt. This is all something which is actually uh which actually constitute violence.
The preaching is the realization of non-violence, Śrīla Prabhupāda said. What is the preaching?
The real preaching is that if it's done in compassionate spirit, it means you are really trying to relieve this particular soul from the violence.
This is the proper realization or the proper manifestation of this principle of Ahimsa preaching. Śrīla Prabhupāda explains this in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta. The preaching means that you're non-violent.
If you're not preaching, you're violent. Because you're letting uh you know all these people to suffer is cycle of birth and death.
But if we preach and the motivation is not proper, we also violate. Because the motivation will be to exploit such a person, to get some resources, to get some prestige, or to get even to get appreciation from him.
You know, sometimes we are enthusiastic to preach. Why? Because we get appreciation. If this is the motivation, if this is the contamination within our motivation, then our preaching will not be as effective.
Everything else is techniques, you know. There is no point of speaking about techniques. Techniques may be different.
But the real essence of preaching is that the purity of the purpose, the purity of the motivation which comes through hearing. If we hear again and again, again with proper motivation, why do I hear?
I hear, why do I want to hear? I hear because I want to purify my heart. Because I want to get some experience which I don't have now at the moment.
Because want to see Krishna in every page of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Therefore I'm hearing. If I hear with this, because sometimes, oftentimes, I know it myself, this is my confession in front of all of you.
Why preachers hear other preachers? Because they want to get some nice points from their preaching. To use them in their preaching. Some nice stories or some nice points or whatever.
And then somehow or other include them in in the preaching, you know, oh yeah, this is nice, very nice, very nice. Let me note it down. Very nice. But this is wrong motivation. This is this is passionate.
This is Rajasic motivation. Yeah, I want to use it for myself ultimately. Because we all preachers here. And uh there are some difficulties in being professional preachers.
Professional preacher means you always want to know something new because he wants to speak something new which is not necessarily based on your realization.
And therefore, you know to, to make your message attractive, you you want to make some points. And this is exactly what Śrīla Prabhupāda says when he says, you shouldn't screw out new meanings of the text.
Because sometimes, you know, to say something new or something attractive or something you know beautiful, we try to get into these things. But no, this is not the point.
The point is that we have to be very conscientious as far as our hearing process is concerned. Because without hearing, we cannot be preaching.
You know, sometimes people are very enthusiastic about preaching, but not very enthusiastic about hearing. And that's exactly what Prabhupada explained about his relationship with Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī.
He said, sometimes I didn't understand what Bhakti what he was saying, because his style of speaking was very elevated and was very, you know, very scholarly.
And Prabhupāda said, oftentimes I didn't understand what he was saying, what he was speaking, but I was hearing with rapt attention. And he appreciated it very much.
He said he can hear nicely, therefore he will be able to preach. That was the criteria by which Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī practically predicted the future of Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Just this one qualification, he can hear nicely. He hears with great interest because what is interest within our heart?
The interest within our heart is this digestion fire which will digest what we heard and turn it into our realization. Give us the energy.
You know, like food, if we take food and food is not digested, the food turns into what? Into poison. It doesn't give any energy. Doesn't give us uh anything. So in the same way we can hear a lot.
But if there is no digestion fire within our mind, toward the matter of which we are hearing, it will not be digested. It means it will not become our realization and it will become just either mechanical repetition or we will be exploiting this thing for our own benefits and this and that.
But if you hear with rapt attention, it becomes yours. It becomes realized and when you realize that and when you speak, the other people will be influenced, will be uh profoundly influenced in what you're talking.
Therefore, that's that's a very important point which is uh which is given here.
Packaging spiritual truth attractively
And you know the main principle of preaching is that you do what you preach yourself. And because I said that the lecture should be short. I have to stop the lecture now. Otherwise, my preaching will not be effective.
I said that that the lecture should not exceed half an hour and I'm already preaching for more than one hour. So we have to stop now. Some people are already tortured by my topic.
So anyway, I said enough. I said enough for myself to digest it and for you to digest it. So maybe we should answer one or two questions if there is. And then it's like Prabhupada said, what does it mean?
You know he is very excited the whole this purpose and this uh
next purpose is about Yathaditam Yathamati When Sutta Gaswami says that Yatha Adhitam, how I have heard it, how I learned it, and Yathamati, how I realized it.
And Prabhupada explains this, of course, that this is this is what preaching means. First we have to hear, and then if we hear properly, realization will come.
And the realization, if we digested the subject matter, the realization will make us speak in an interesting manner. Make the subject matter about Krishna attractive.
As I said in the beginning, Kali Yuga, that's the weapon of Kali Yuga, makes the garbage attractive. In Kali Yuga, the main thing, you know, there are so many stuff. And they try to package it in a very nice way.
All the companies which are uh producing some garbage they say that the part of the product is the package. They're packaging it in a very attractive and nice way so that the foolish people of Kali Yuga would buy this.
And nobody actually cares what is inside, everyone is caring what is outside. So, and to fight with this tendency, we have to make our preaching also nicely packaged.
Like Patri Prabhu, he is the best thing, he's always packaging it in a very nice way. So, but we have to give the essence of course, but it has to be attractively packaged.
For that, yathamati, for that realization has to be there. If the realization were there you will be able to package it nicely. Without changing the essence of the message.
As Prabhupada says, the original purpose should be maintained. But uh it has to be packaged nicely. So thank you. I cannot control my tongue. The topic of hearing from you. Would you like to suggest some questions? Yeah.
Purifying subconscious motivations through trust
Here is here. Harikishmaharash, thank you. Uh one of the point you said about uh preacher is he should have the purity of purpose. That also refers to intention, motivation.
So now motivation resides in the heart and uh it is difficult for us to access there directly and and to set it right. Maximum we can go till intelligence and we can set we can like change the way we think but intention or motivation it's little deeper so how do we you know reach to the
purity of purpose, rasa, satyān... Whatever we cannot access, uh yes, you're exactly right, the intellect uh intellectual things they may be there, but uh in a deeper layers of our mind, in subconscious layers of our mind, the motivations are there.
And motivations may be hidden even from ourselves sometimes because they are not in the sphere of the conscious mind. The conscious mind we may think that I want this or I want that, but in reality we want something else.
But we can purify on a deeper level therefore this association, especially the close association with people who are pure in their motivations.
When we open our heart, you know, when we hear it's very important to open our heart to the message which we hear because this is also association. Association means hearing also.
But we're hearing on the intellectual level, we understand the logic, we understand the little points.
But if we also open up our heart a little bit more on an emotional level, then we will be able to receive the emotion, the emotional message which is coming from the speaker.
And this emotional message will go deeper, not will stay in the conscious mind, it will go to our subconscious mind and purify it there. This is how it works. But for that, the association has to be close.
And closeness of association is determined by the trust. If there is a trust, then uh we can let the sound vibration go deeper. If there is no trust, then it will only remain on the level of the intellect.
Therefore, it is recommended that we accept spiritual master because it means that we have trust in him and we hear spiritual master. It's more effective because we have some additional points.
You know, if we hear somebody else, it may be nice.
It's good, but when we have deeper and closer relationship, then the message can go much deeper and can purify on a deeper level, because of this element of trust, implicit trust which is there. Then we can be open to this message.
Otherwise we we will be closed on the on the level of conscious mind and it will not go to subconscious layers of our. So
the people whom we trust, from them when we hear the — yeah, and usually we trust people with whom we have relationship. You know, as far as the — you know, if it's of course one thing to hear spiritual master, and we do have relationship with spiritual master naturally. And we want to have relationship, we want to strengthen this relationship.
But otherwise, you know, if we have relationship, close relationship, uh, and we see how person lives and whatever, we develop trust in him. And uh therefore his words will be more effective.
We will be influence and sometimes this question arises you you know we see somebody brahmacārī who undergoes some difficulties and uh and the question is uh how we can try to help him.
The only way to help him is i is if you have relationship with him. If you don't have relationship with him, no matter you may say very nice thing to him, he will not hear.
It will not go deep, because he will be closed, he will not be able to influence. That's the point.
So if there is relationship, then there is because relationship based on trust, any relationship which is there based on trust. And to break the relationship, you know, it means to break the trust.
Why relationships are broken between husband and wife or whatever? Because the trust is broken. So relationship is not there. So through the relationship we can hear deeper.
Cultivating purity through saintly association
Yes. Hare Krishna Rash. Hare Krishna. That beauty rasha. That beauty how it will come. So for that what we need to and uh what should not do first.
I spoke about this for the whole lecture that we should hear and we should not hear garbage. That's basically the essence of what I said. Purity means to lead the pure life and to have pure association.
Because the most contamination it comes through the association. It means gross association like association with the food but
of course you know in Kali-yuga there's no pure food. You know, if you think that you're taking vegetarian food, some rice from the from the store,, no this rice is already not pure.
Because how it was grown, how it was sold, how it is, you know, everything so much garbage is there. So we can forget about purity of food and the purity of air and the purity of water.
But at least we can associate with pure people as much as possible. That should be our conscious endeavor to associate with pure people and stop ourselves from associating with all this
uh from expanding our association with all this contamination of Kali-yuga. Yuga.
Which especially goes through the internet. You know in the internet you nowadays you can get all kinds of garbage easily, no problem. Hare Krishna Maharaj.
Thank you for the class with full of realizations for the realized to hear you. So Maharaj you mentioned about uh when we eat food and the digestion fire is not proper, it becomes poison. Similarly with hearing.
So what does that fire of digestion uh uh in that context of hearing? Yeah, as I said, attention, interest.
Even when you eat food and you're inattentive, your mind is somewhere else, you're distracted, you're like emotionally affected by something, and you cannot put your attention in what you are doing, it will not be digested.
Even to digest the normal food, you have to be attentive. And I said particularly that the interest, but interest is something which makes you attentive to what you hear.
If you have the interest, if you have this internal realization that you know I need to understand the message of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam very deeply, and therefore I have to hear. And that will, you know, help you to digest it.
Basically, the attention, and attention comes from the interest or in Sanskrit var ruchi which means as we know, taste, also means interest, and ruci literally means the glow, the effulgence. Rucchi.
So something becomes attractive or effulgent for us, like when there is, you know, when something is glowing, uh it immediately attracts our attention.
So if if the subject matter is glowing for us of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, if we have this understanding that this is something, then we will be able to hear it properly. And that will be the fire of digestion.
It does matter I hear.
Testing genuine realization in critical moments
Thank you. Maharaj you said regarding realizations. So many times we hear lecture, many times we read the books, we also get some kind of conclusions. This this should be realized.
But over a period of time, those things also get covered and we may forget also. And some things in our life keep on reminding this they should be like this, they should be like this.
Realization means it should be continuously flowing or it's never get covered by something else or how how we can.
Realization means something which you will turn into your own action. Realization if if you know theoretically something you're not necess you not necessarily will act upon this knowledge. There is one little story which I tell What
is the difference between the deeper realization and the superficial realization so to speak? Once in India and there was a minister and a king in some kingdom. And this minister, he spoke many, many languages.
And he spoke these languages so perfectly that nobody could really understand what is his mother tongue.
He was speaking every language with the proper accent, everything was so perfect, and many people were trying to find out where he what what was his source, what was his mother tongue, and nobody could do it.
And then one other minister he devised a trick how to do it. And when it was dark he was, you know, he attacked him. And at that moment he started crying in his mother tongue.
Because the saṁskāra the realization was the deepest. The purport of this little story is that when you are in a critical situation, that whatever you realized will be will be your action.
You know, if you realize some spiritual truth and you are in a critical situation, if you're in a comfortable situation, you may pretend that you know this.
You may be y you will be speaking yourself, you will be teaching others, you will be doing this and that, and everyone will say, oh, he's so realized.
No, no, wait when you have critical moments. Then only your realization will be shown to yourself.
And Krishna, he sometimes we are an illusion because we're so, as a preachers, we're so used to speak this highly elevated philosophy and we think that I already realized this.
And Krishna, for sure, he will show you what you realized or not. He will arrange a situation in your life uh which will which will be sh uh this situation will show to yourself and to others to a certain extent.
What is the level of your realization? And the real test will come when we will be dying. So many people have crisis of faith. And I mean it's natural, it's natural to have this is a very difficult thing.
We should not be you know we should not be proud or whatever or should not be should not condemn such people. It will be a very difficult time, but ultimately, you know, we have to go through this test as well.
That will that will be that will show the extent of your realization. The most difficult period when when you're leaving the body.
Developing trust and respect for speakers
Hare Krishna. This was a very wonderful class on hearing graph attention. I have two questions.
First part is, uh, when it comes to hearing, on the our there is a level of trust and the level of respect so when we are hearing from speakers, like uh what is the uh uh gradation of level of respect and level of trust?
This trust these two things happen See therefore it's the same thing. Therefore, the word Shraddha means trust and the word Shraddha means respect.
It's synonymous, and Prabhupada sometimes, he explains, śraddhā this meaning is not there in the English word "faith."
But vi not śraddhā-śabdaḥ, viśvāso, kaḥ, suḍhṛḍha-niścayaḥ. Śraddhā-śabdaḥ means trust, viśvāsa.
And śraddhā-śabdaḥ, Śrīla Prabhupāda, very often he explains that this is the original meaning of śraddhā means respect. If you see somebody and you feel natural respect to him, you
know if you see a person and you see his qualities somehow rather attract you. He's a dignified person.
Like Prabhupāda, he was, you know, he was attracting people just by his presence. He was, he had this powerful presence, you know, influence. He was so grave.
And people would have respect, and respect would mean that they would hear him with rapt attention. Because when we have respect, then we will hear. Then this is the person who has to say something very important.
People see somebody and they feel somehow rather they feel the level of realization. It may not be clear all the time, but somehow rather we we can see it transpires.
Like Śrīla Bhakti Rāmaka Mahārāja once told me that when he was first, you know, Prabhupāda's picture. It was way before he met Prabhupāda, and it was during one feast somebody was giving
this, Guṇa-grāhi Mahārāja actually was giving the fruit salad and he gave him this little booklet or brochure from Prabhupāda-līlā, as far as I remember.
And there was a picture of Śrīla Prabhupāda, and Śrīla Bhakti Rāmaka Mahārāja told me that the first thing, when I saw this picture of Prabhupāda, I said, he said that
there was this thought in my mind: if there is a person in this earth who experiences spiritual bliss, this is the person.
This is the understanding which or realization which came to him just by seeing Prabhupada, his picture. He could see, you know, that there is something going on inside this person.
So, and immediately you you develop respect, and when you develop respect, it means trust, it means Respect and trust is the same. Respect, trust, faith is the same thing. It's synonymous.
When when respect becomes deeper, then it turns into implicit trust. Initially you cannot expect complete trust in the beginning. Initially, you can expect respect, you know, if somebody, if you see.
Therefore it's so important. It's you know, to start relationship, when relationships become mature, they become trustful relationship. But to start relationships, you should start with respect.
Even if it's among the brahmacārīs. If you want relationships, first respect has to be there. If there is no respect there will be no relationship. There will never be trust.
Overcoming selective hearing habits
You know first is respect. Second part of the question is uh we are sometimes we have certain uh aspects in bhakti which uh we time and again do it and it nourishes us.
And uh we choose a speaker in such a way that the speakers uh also emphasized the same thing that uh what we do. So uh how to uh whether it is right or uh uh how to come out of this.
attractice and right means the mind correctly focuses that because that's what you you are practicing and that was enhances you and it will very nicely gives up gives up the other aspects which is also a inclusive part of the bhakti.
That's called selective hearing when we only hear what we want to hear.
When we don't really hear when we listen to somebody we don't hear everything which he has to say, but we only hear what confirms what we already know or what we convinced ourselves. This is your question, right?
So that's called selective hearing, and why the selective hearing is there? You know, we already have some saṁskāras in our mind. And what is actually attractive to us?
The something which is attractive of taste has taste for us is only something which we already have experience of in our mind. The saṁskāras are there.
So when we hear again something which we know, you know, the saṁskāra becomes uh enlightened. Yes, yes, yes, yes. And then when we hear something which we don't know, the we become bored, you know. What is he talking about?
I don't know, you know, what is it? So and therefore this selective hearing takes place. We only hear what we already know. And therefore this type of hearing is useless because we don't hear anything new we deprive
ourselves by this selective hearing we deprive ourselves the chance to To understand something new which we don't know, because we only want to hear something which is already more or less known to us.
Therefore, Prabhupāda says, you know, we have to somehow or other to get this rapt attention, then the change will be there. We will hear something else. You know.
Therefore, initially rapt attention should be there. Then the interest will develop gradually. You know, that's the difficulty.
In the beginning, we have to have rapt attention without having interest, which is normally difficult. When we have interest, direct attention is natural.
But you know, Prabhupāda says, from the very beginning you have to have rapt attention. Even if the interest is not there. So that that means little force. Little you have to force your mind.
Then it then it will very easily come. The realization will will be easily coming.
Preaching as a practice of spiritual growth
Yes. Thank you, Maharaj, for this lecture. So my takeaway, primary two takeaway points from this lecture is preach with realizations and realization comes with theory.
And the second takeaway is present what Prabhupāda has as it is. But I have a small clarification regarding the second part.
There have been instances where Prabhupāda, Śrīla Prabhupāda, highlighted, uh, he took the case of the little Saraswati and he asked him who is the Supreme
Pity of God, who is Kṛṣṇa? And she said, Kṛṣṇa is Supreme Personality of Godhead. So my question is, a child may not have realizations, but Prabhupāda often stressed
uh that you just present the things as it is and your preaching will be perfect. So how to understand this? Especially when we are training new preachers they are already hesitant.
Like we don't have any realizations, we say just present what Prabhupāda has to say. So how to understand this. Thank you for this thoughtful question.
Yeah, as far as I know, Sarasvatī didn't make many disciples, and her preaching didn't make many people follow Krishna. But nevertheless, she was pure in her preaching.
So uh you know th there is preaching and there is preaching, basically.
You can preach the message of, uh, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam purely when you repeat, uh but uh you shouldn't expect that it will have much effect. It's still it's still good. It's purifying for yourself, it will be purifying for people, but the effect may be less.
Therefore, you know when when it comes to new preachers, you know this this sort of preaching is mostly for them. Because when they repeat the same thing, the realization comes. It's beneficial for them.
Therefore, for us, preaching is a method of bhakti, you know, it's a method of spiritual development. It's our practice. We do preaching as sādhana.
You know, and for sādhana we know we may not have you know great realizations ourselves. For sādhana's sake, we have to do it. Therefore, Prabhupāda established this that every devotee should give Bhāgavatam class.
It doesn't matter whether and we have to come to Bhāgavatam class and to hear other people speak. So that's good.
That's you know we repeat the same message uh there is a joke i in Russian at least the teacher is complaining about his students the teacher says I repeated this, you know, once. And I said this once.
I repeated this twice. I repeated three times. I already understood myself and still they couldn't understand. So this is what happens with the preacher. You repeat it once, you twice, three times.
You realize it yourself and these dull people don't understand still.
Developing pure taste in preaching service
So this is how it works. Hare Krishna Mahārāja. Thank you very much for uh sharing your wonderful realizations.
Um you mentioned very wonderful point regarding uh the purity of the purpose uh in uh preaching and uh many times we may have uh other motivations which may be there with which we preach and actually we were mentioning that actually it is a violence the preaching is supposed to uh eliminate the violence
but if you are preaching with other motivations. So Mahārāja we may have heard this multiple times but at the same time also to avoid such other motivations, we may sometimes avoid some things which are like services.
But at the same time, the desire for prestige is still uh it is it doesn't go away.
Though we may we might be doing we may externally uh at least twice and we say externally that I am doing it for as the order, but still the desire is uh there. To be in a limelight. Yeah.
So what the things that we must do for that?
See this ulterior motivation may be there, but if you have primary motivation which you will have if you have taste for this, then they will be more or less overshadowed by this primary motivation.
In other words, if you have taste, if you really like preaching and if you enjoy preaching and you know you may for some time for the time being forget about other motivations because it's pleasurable in itself.
Like Bhakti Charu Swami used to call that there are we know that there are five rasas and he says there is a six rasa, it's preaching rasa. The taste.
So you know this other motivations they only because you you have the taste from you know glorification or you have the taste of being in a limelight, you have the taste for this and that.
But if preaching itself gives you taste and then other things will not be so important ultimately.
Because you will do it because you just want to preach, because it's so nice, because Krishna is so nice, because you you know you while saying this you also get some realisations.
It's also a very important point, again repeating the same point. It's like you know Dhruva Mahārāja, he wanted to speak something about Krishna. Krishna is standing in front of him. Vishnu is standing in front of him.
But he can't speak anything. And then you know Vishnu touches his head with his uh consul and all of a sudden the speech uh goes flows from his mouth.
So when we speak, when we can experience the same phenomena all of a sudden we say something and you know we don't know where it's coming from. I didn't I didn't really and it's coming from the higher source.
You know it's uh the Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupada calls uh this moments uh he said that you know he he said that sa somtims when we speak, you know it's coming from the higher plane. Krishna is using us.
Krishna gives us this. And therefore, it's it's such an exciting and you know important activity when we speak.
And ultimately, by experiencing this again and again and again, we will get the purity of purpose because we will like to do it for the sake of doing it, not for the sake of uh getting something out of it. Okay, I guess that's it.
Thank you very much. Śrīvāsa prabhu ki jaya for helping us to go deep.