Psychological effects of the offences, lecture 2
Бхакти Вигьяна Госвами · Бомбей · 2015
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Namo Vishnu Badaya Krishna Krishna Bhutales Bhakti Vedanta Swami Nikinamandamaste Sara Swati Devi Goravani Pachary Sha Sri Navani Pashatari Shah Pancha Papadarues Bcha Kripa Sandu Bhacavati Namana Yoga Sna Yama Mawha, Djai Sri Krishna Chaitanya Prabhuni Tananda Sya Dwaita Padatara Sivasadhi Guru Bhaktavinda Hare Gishna Krishna Krishna Hare, Hare Ram, Hare Ram, Ram, Hare Hari,
Ajannam Bitbujokana Kamadata Sankirtana Putarakamala, Dakshana Bhaga to So then Maratha is already yawning.
Psychological effects of spiritual offenses
Flowers probably want it to be
Okay, so we will continue uh where we stopped our uh little presentation about the psychological effects of the offenses and how it distorts our perception and our attitude towards bhakti and towards the bhaktas devotees of the world.
First I wanted to uh say something in answer to Srivas Pandip Prabhu his question.
In this particular section of Sri Bhtiak Sandarbha, Sivari Vaj Gaswami stresses one very important and encouraging point. He says if somebody doesn't know the nature of offenses and still uh you know commits this offenses, doesn't know this, then offenses act but uh in a much less powerful way.
The offenses become very weak, depending on the level of consciousness, how consciously you're committing these offenses.
And if naturally if you commit offenses consciously, then Krishna doesn't want to have anything to do with you and basically turns away from you.
But if you're doing it unconsciously, as you described as a young devotee full of enthusiasm, then the mercy of Krishna will act and counteract the possible offenses. So don't worry, you didn't waste your time. We
uh stopped at this kuṭila-tva or crookedness and There is an interesting point in this regard about the severity severity of offenses. By
quoting Purāṇas, Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī says that you know if you commit hundred offenses you lose satyam, you lose truth.
And it basically means that the first effect of uh committing apparats or offenses is uh you become hypocritical, you become untruthful, you're not capable of seeing truth face to face so to speak.
Then he says if you commit 1000 aparādhas. Basically means if your apparats are very severe, then you will lose, and we will see in the course of this presentation how it develops, then you lose the capacity to perform austerity in bhakti. Basically, you lose your shakti or power to perform bhakti.
The performance or following of regulative principles becomes very tedious and difficult exercise and practically up to the point that you will not be able to do this.
And then he says if you commit 10,000 offenses, then you completely lose your capacity to perform bhakti.
Categories of ordinary and severe offenses
You become averse to the practice of bhakti, depending on the extent or the power of the offenses you have committed.
And a sort of similar description is given by Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura as well where he says that offenses are categorized Thakur as well where he says that offenses are categorized into two big broad categories.
He says one is Brihat brihad means very severe very deep offenses and then he says the other is samanya samanya means ordinary offences nothing special. And of course the metaphor
or comparison which Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura gives is very interesting because he compares offenses with the cloud. And cloud has the power to block the power of the sun.
And then Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura further categorized the Sāmānya offenses or ordinary offenses into two categories, uh he says it's uh it's all uh belongs to the
Namabas kind of category but there are two categories among Namabas Chāyā-nāmābhāsa and Pratibimba-nāmābhāsa. It's a very interesting notion or a very interesting sort of klassification of the offenses because we
can clearly see the three gradations of the offenses. The weakest one is uh chāyā-nāmābhāsa, and uh
you know if you take the comparison of the sun and the cloud, if the cloud is not so dense, then you still can feel the heat of the sun and the light of the sun. But you don't see the sun.
The very reason why you don't see the sun or basically you don't see God is that you're offensive. Offenses are death.
As soon as all the offenses are removed you will see God as much as you know as long as much as when you remove the cloud you will see the sun very clearly.
But if the offenses are not severe, you still feel the mercy of the Lord, like you see, you feel the warmth, the heat uh of the sun, and uh you definitely see the light of the sun.
So that's chāyā-nāmābhāsa, and chāyā-nāmābhāsa means that you are you know you're clearing the offenses, you want to clear the offenses, you are sincerely striving, and you know that the goal is pure bhakti. Even though you are not capable of performing pure bhakti, but still you are trying to do this.
Then the next degree of the offenses is this pratibimba-nāmābhāsa. And pratibimba-nāmābhāsa is when the cloud is so dense then it not only blocks uh the vision of the sun but it also blocks the heat of the sun.
You know I'm from Russia. So there is a lot of such clouds there. When there is no heat, the sun is there, you can feel the presence of the sun because of the light.
So, in the same way, when you commit this pratibimba-nāma-ābhāsa, you may still feel the presence of the Lord or have the faith in the Lord.
But you don't feel the mercy of the Lord, you don't feel you know the this this notion of the Lord, the presence of the Lord in your life is not very tangible in one sense.
But still, you have faith and you still have hope. So this is pratibimba-nāma-ābhāsa and pratibimba-nāma-ābhāsa can go both ways because pratibimba basically you use bhakti to nourish or to reinforce some other desires.
Not only do you perform bhakti improperly, but you you more or less consciously use bhakti as a means, not as an end in itself. So when you want to achieve some other ends by performing bhakti like karma, jñāna.
And then the last stage is nāma-aparādha when you consciously commit aparādha, then that basically means you don't see even the light of the sun.
You don't feel when the offenses become severe, then you lose completely the faith in the Lord.
Hypocrisy as an effect of offenses
So that's the three gradations or the three extents how the offense can influence your relationship with the Lord or your understanding of the Lord and His presence.
So coming back to our presentation, the next effect, and and therefore the next effect, according to Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī, first you become somewhat distorted in your perception and in your understanding, you become more crooked.
And basically Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī says that kauṭilatām means that externally you're still respectful to the Lord and to the devotees of the Lord and to the process of bhakti.
You're still performing it, you're still doing this, but internally, your mood or your attitude is changed. You are internally you're criticizing them.
This is the kauṭilatā, therefore, he puts this as the first stage of offenses or the first effect of the offenses.
And basically means that your attitude externally didn't change, but internally there is some very significant distortion in your relationship. You're you know you are doing just lip service to Guru.
He says basically to Guru, to vaiṣṇavas, to Bhagavān and to the process of bhakti. You just you know you twisted it.
And he gives the and he says that you know in such cases Krishna being displeased by this performance never accepts such a bhakti and he gives the example of Duryodhan.
And Duryodhana arranged a very gorgeous reception For Krishna in Hastināpura.
He wanted to feed him, he you know he put hari-nāmas on all the streets and everyone was chanting Hare Krishna and he sprinkled rose water everywhere
and the rose petals were everywhere and the banana arches were there and Krishna came and you know it is said very clearly in Mahabharata that Krishna didn't even look. Krishna didn't hear and didn't look.
And when Duryodhana ultimately confronted him and said that you're neutral you are your relatives and Duryodhana said we love you that's very important Duryodhana you know externally he said we love you, Krishna.
Please take prasādam at our home, at our house. He said, your prasadam is not fit for me to eat because it's full of ill feelings.
And he basically said, because you don't like my devotees, uh Pandavas, I'm not going to do this. And he gave this very nice rule that he says: you know, there are two cases when one eats food.
Either one is hungry or there is some apart situation very you know severe hunger or because of love. And he said I'm not hungry and I don't believe in your love.
And he specifically said in this city the only home where it is proper for me to take food is Vidura's home. There's no other home. Because nowhere else there is this sincere attitude when we want to please the Lord.
So that's basically this Kutilata when you have externally didn't change your attitude towards bhakti and towards the Lord, you might change your attitude towards devotees.
Loss of faith in devotional service
Or you may still be externally respectful to your guru, but internally there is some change or there is some switch. And then Śrīvīra-jīvika Svāmī says then the next stage comes.
Then the aparādha becomes more severe, then aśraddhā comes.
And aśraddhā comes, he says that aśraddhā basically means that you lose the faith in the process of devotional service, and even if you see the glory of devotional service right in front of your eyes, you will not be able to appreciate it.
He says basically that you uh totally lose the uh power to discriminate what is what is the glory of devotional service. And he again gives the example of Duryodhana.
Duryodhana he saw this universal form of Krishna and he says, oh this is just a trick. This is just he's a mystic yogi, you know. He saw the glory of the Lord right in front of his eyes. He couldn't believe it.
He couldn't really understand what's going on.
And that's a very clear trend in the whole of Mahābhārata because in Mahābhārata so many people were trying to convince Duryodhana that Krishna is God, Vidura tried, Bhishma tried, his own father did arrest and tried. He couldn't be convinced. Why?
Because of aparādha. He couldn't believe it. It was so clear, it was so obvious, you know, up to the point when he saw it with his own eyes that here is the Lord, he is showing his supreme, his universal form.
Still, the śraddhā was not there.
And that's what Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī says this is this is an aparādha, this is a result of aparādha, and then he says another very interesting thing because he says that the same refers to the devotees.
He says that the problem of offensive person is that he is not capable of recognizing the greatness of a devotee.
And devotee may show or may not show externally his glory but the point is that offensive person is not capable of seeing the devotion itself.
He's not capable of appreciating the devotion and seeing what devotion really means. And Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī gives two examples.
One example is of Prahlāda Mahārāja, when Prahlāda Mahārāja showed the glory of devotion. When he wanted consciously wanted to show this to the demons to prove that the devotion is the most powerful process.
But still they didn't believe it. Hiraṇyakaśipu didn't believe it. You know, you can imagine you know this little boy he was attacked by the huge elephants and still this fool is Hiraṇyakaśipu is trying to kill him.
You know it means he he didn't understand. He didn't really believe he saw the glory, the protective glory of the devotion. Still he he couldn't believe it.
He still he couldn't fathom the depths and the power of the devotion. But then he says that sometimes devotees don't show the power of devotion. And that gives the impetus to other people to kind of ridicule them.
Like he gives an example of Parikshit Maharaj, where he didn't show that Lord protects him. Because he didn't want to show, that was not his purpose.
But the point he's trying to make is that when a devotee shows the glory of devotion and the power of devotion or doesn't show. Whether he demonstrates the protective power of the Lord or doesn't demonstrate,
still you know we have not the external soul but the internal mood of a devotee. And when you have this aśradhā, you're not key you will not be able to distinguish it.
You know sometimes I can also feel it very much, you know. You recently I heard a story, it's an interesting story. There was one lady in one of temples in Russia, in a former Soviet Union
in Azerbaijan, and she was a kind of funny lady, you know, she was living in the temple, she had a lot of deities and she was, you know, she was very shall we say this, very strangely.
You know, and nobody nobody was able to really appreciate her and you know and well she was little strange. But she was devoted, definitely.
She would spend you know hours and hours and hours worshiping the deities, chanting, and you know she was speaking with Satan. She was a very simple lady and nobody took her seriously. So what happened after that?
It's an interesting story.
An old lady from Azerbaijan, she hears a story about a Havalamp, how in a Havalamp there are some temples, abandoned temples, and the forms of Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva is not being worshipped because it's in the jungle. And nobody is there.
So she gives everything up and she goes to Havalamp and starts worshiping Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva's deity somewhere in the whole of it and all the local people consider her a saint you know she's coming and they're worshiping her because she's you know she's manipulating you know so
much devotion but the point which is uh you know which ilu guys one is making is that sometimes we're not we're not capable of seeing, you know, appreciating the devotion in simple people because of our attitude.
And that's a manifestation of aśradhā. When we don't believe that devotional service can manifest anywhere, basically, depending on the sincerity of the attitude, depending on the sincerity of our you know practice.
So that's the second point, the second stage, how the offenses being uh progressively how the offenses progressively distort our consciousness and our um
Absorption in material attachments
understanding and the next point it's little long therefore I will read bhagavad-vastv-antara-abhiniveśa bhagavad-niṣṭhā-cyu-bhāvaś ca vastv-antara-abhiniveśaḥ bhagavad-vastv-antara-abhiniveśa means and that the next point after that,
if you allow the offenses to progress and to develop in your heart, if it goes further, if this disease of offenses becomes more and more prominent,
and you commit offense after offense, then the next stage of this disease is bhagavad-niṣṭhā-cyu-bhāvaś ca vastv-antara-abhiniveśaḥ one more word Antara Bhina Vasha yeah Antara Bhina Vashan means internal absorption internal absorption in the things which destroy your Nishta in Bhagavan.
Bhagavan Nishta Chyava Ka Vastu Antar Abhini Vesha. Your internal absorption, you become all of a sudden you become internally absorbed in some things which are detrimental to your bhakti.
And this internal absorption becomes obsessive. You cannot get rid of this absorption.
You become really even though you know that this is the things which are not helpful to develop your bhakti, you cannot get rid of this.
And the example, of course, obvious example is from Śrīmad Bhāgavatam is Bharata Mahārāja. Then all of a sudden he became totally completely obsessed with this attachment to the deer.
All of a sudden, the deer becomes very dear to me. So much so, you know, that to show the extent
of this absorption in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, there is the verse where you know Bharata Mahārāja looks at the moon and he sees the deer in the moon.
And he says, "Thank you very much, my dear friend, moon. You're protecting this little deer, you know." So he's basically delirious,
he's basically he forgot everything. And Jīva Gosvāmī, analyzing this description in the Fifth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, he says that this is the result of previous offense, offense from the previous life.
That all of a sudden the severe offense which you committed in the previous life may manifest in such a way that you become completely oblivious of your devotional service and your emphasis and your point of interest switches to the things which are in fact are detrimental for devotional service.
So that's uh that's the next stage, uh but uh this is not the end of this. And and he gives another example for this. He says that another example is Gajendra who is who
in his previous life was King Indradyumna. And because King Indradyumna offended Agastya Muni, he neglected him, he didn't really pay attention to him, and he became absorbed in sense gratification.
So basically it means that after anartha-nivṛtti, there is a stage when your absorption and sense gratification becomes obsessive. No.
And what it really means is that it's an interesting phenomenon which we can see very clearly, both within our own heart, when sometimes our previous saṁskāras which were dormant for some time, our previous attachments which were not really active again surface.
So we have to understand that this is a result of some offense and I need some remedial measures. I need some urgent sort of program to rectify myself from this offense.
So basically what happens when the Shastra says Aprada Palam papam putam dija palam mukam kraminava praliya And up to the point that even prarabda karma becomes really dormant.
We have to understand that basically when we perform the devotional service, gradually this process takes place and we can clearly see it within ourselves
When the saṁskāras become less powerful. Saṁskāras of the previous sense gratification, previous habits, they become less powerful. But as soon and ultimately up to the point that they become totally inactive.
But the interesting phenomenon is that they're still there. They're just not active, they are in a dormant stage or in some weakened sort of stage.
They're not really bothering so much, but as soon as you commit the offense
then the previous that that saṁskāras become activated. The beautiful comparison which I heard which is actually very pertinent and very proper, very relevant in this regard.
It's the same thing which you do with the files. When you delete a file in your computer, then the file is still there. You just inactivate this, you know, in a catalog or whatever it is.
You know, you can't just access this file with the same name. So it looks as if the file is not there.
But at the same time, we know we go to the dust bin or whatever to the bin, and it's still there, and it says, you know, if you want to activate it, it's you're welcome. Please do it, no problem.
So basically, when we commit the offense, then the all the deactivated five files which were there, all the files which were not really active and were not really, you know, were not really
even accessible to us, all the saṁskāras they again become very active. And that's the stage of this Bhagavan Nishta Shyawaka
Vast Antaravinives The internal absorption and the things which are destroying or disturbing the devotional service or our Nishta, our firm faith in Bhagavan. And then there are two more points. What shall we do?
We should we can finish this two more points and then have the break or we can have a break now and then finish the points. What what is better? Just tell me. Finish. Okay.
Slackening of devotional practice
I will finish two more points which which is the description of this progression, how it goes, how the disease of offenses is taking over our heart and taking us more and more away from Krishna.
So the next is bhakti-śaithilya. Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī doesn't give any example of this from the scriptures, but he gives a very beautiful description of this phenomenon.
He says when you absorb in bhakti, what happens immediately? You become indifferent.
to many material things, like you know you're becoming indifferent to basically, up to the point that you're becoming indifferent to death.
You are not really concerned with birth and death, happiness and distress, honor and dishonor. This is more or less the characteristic of bhakti.
When we see the description of bhakti in the 12th chapter of the Bhagavad-gītā, we can see that this is how Krishna externally describes the behavior of a devotee. That he is not so concerned with this.
And then Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī says while describing this, that when you commit an offense, then the opposite takes place.
All of a sudden, all these things which you already more or less gave up, which became insignificant and irrelevant in your life, again come back with a very strong significance and become very important for you.
You become again very fearful of death, you become very much concerned about your health situation, you spend so much time into this, and he says this is actually the, uh, this is the distortion in the psyche of a devotee which comes because of the offense.
That this glorious and very benevolent attitude: that you're not really concerned with this, you're more or less concerned with the service of the Lord, you're concerned with the service of others, you become again very egocentric and egoistic. You're more or less concentrated on your own needs, your own petty world in which you live.
And Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī explains that this sort of manifestation of this offense is that you're not, you feeling that you are slacking bhakti. Bhakti-śaithilya basically means your practice becomes very weak. You're slackened in your attitude and your practice of bhakti.
But you came to the point that you cannot do anything about it. You just in your way down you reach the point when you practically cannot go up.
Because you know you're too much absorbed in other things, you're too much absorbed back in your body, and you're too weak, you're spiritually became very weak, and it's almost you know the last stage.
It's the stage before last, then uh it's very difficult to come back.
And we know sometimes, you know, when the devotees they drift away, they come to the stage when they just you know they they try they try They try to come back again, they try to chant, but it's so difficult to come back.
So difficult to even to restore the simple practice of devotional service which was very easy before.
Pride in personal achievements
So that's uh this stage of bhakti-śaithilya when you are uh losing uh your taste uh towards the practice of devotional service to the extent that you cannot even restore it by any means you are you are already beyond you cross the point.
And then the last stage is actually very interesting. last stage svabhakty-ādi-kṛtā-mānitvam, it means that you become very proud by your achievements in bhakti, that's the last stage of the disease of the heart.
Svabhakty-ādi-kṛtā. I have done so much.
And basically, Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī, while explaining this point, he says that you know at this point a devotee you know this offender who performs devotional service with a lot of offenses, he develops certain attitude which is very, you know, he becomes very boastful. He starts saying how great he is. How much achievements he has. You know, he becomes obsessed with his own glory. And he proclaims his glory very openly. He cannot even control this much, you know.
He always points out that this is my achievement, this is what I have done.
Like I remember one of our great leaders at one point when you know he had some difficulties and in the peak of these difficulties he was saying it's a very interesting statement.
He was saying everyone says Prabhupada, Prabhupada, it's because of Prabhupada, but we also did something. It's not because of Prabhupada. We also did something, we also achieved something.
So it's a very interesting psychology.
You can't really, you know, you have to say this, even though you understand that it's you know you are in you're in difficulty, still you are trying to show and to prove to everyone that you have done so much and you're so great.
And basically that's demonic vritti, demonic type of mentality. You know, Krishna himself quotes the demons in Bhagavad-gītā, you know, I've done this sacrifice and I did this and I did that.
So, this sort of mentality is a result of offense.
And if we catch ourselves in this sort of mentality, uh when we kind of you know very conveniently you know list our achievements and try to convince others in this long list of our achievements, so on and so forth.
And that's basically the result of some offenses which we committed and that's uh more or less the last stage.
And then, uh, Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī says that this sort of this sort of attitude which you develop inevitably will bring another severe offense of other devotee.
It will inevitably on the previous stages, it may or may not happen.
But if you become proud of your achievement and you want to prove to everyone how great you are as a devotee and how great your achievements are, inevitably you will offend other devotees.
And that's unfortunately what happened sometimes we we have seen in our movement when it goes to this extent that you cannot really control yourself and you just go blasting other devotees because your pride becomes totally uncontrollable.
And of course, the obvious example of this is Daksha who committed offenses in one life and continued committing offenses in the next life.
And it is specifically described in the fourth canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that he became very proud of his achievements. I perform so many sacrifices, I am so powerful, I'm so pure, and who you who you think you are.
Four weaknesses of the heart
So that's how it manifests and that' how it progresses. And then the last point, the very last point which I wanted to say is that
I already said that there is a very clear connection between, uh, when, when Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura explains this cloud of anartas which um uh uh basically uh block the power of the holy name, the cover the sun of the Holy name, this cloud of anarchas within our heart, which become the impediment for the power of the Holy Name to manifest within our heart.
He says that after offenses there is this hṛd-daurbalyam, the weakness of the heart.
And he lists four weaknesses of the heart. And you can very clearly see that these four weaknesses is more or less the same as the five stages of this disease described by Jīva Gosvāmī.
He says the first is duḥsaṅga-śakti, which is more or less the same as bhagavad-vastu-cyutikā, bhagavan- niṣṭhā-cyutikā, vastu-antara-viniveśa, the absorption in the things which are detrimental to bhakti; then kuṭinīti, which is obviously cauṭīya, the same word is even used.
And then svākṣiptatā, you become very proud. And then matsaratā, you become envious of other devotees.
So that's the four weaknesses of the heart which is more or less the description of the same disease and the same sort of things, how the offenses by taking fruits within our heart, create hell up there and ultimately destroy the creature of devotion.
So that's that's it for now. We have break now. Now right after the break. Okay. Thank you very much.