How to enter Vrindavana. Class 4

Satsang with Mooji Tam sa jīvam, advāya sadvaitam savadutam, parijanā sahitam, krishna-caitanya devam, śrī rādhā, krishna-padām, sahaganā lalitā, śrī viṣakha vidāmśca. He Krishna Karuna Sindho Dina Bandho Jagat Pate Gopesa Gopika Kanta Radha Kanta Namastute Taptakanchanagurangi Radhe Vrindavaneshwari Prishabhānu sute devī Pranāmāmi harī priyē Anca kalpātaru bhyaśca Kripāsindūbya eva ca Patitanām pavanebhyo Vaiṣṇavebhyo namo namah Śrī Kṛṣṇa Chaitanya Prabhu Nityananda Shri Advaita Gadadhara Sri Vasadhi Gaurabhakta Vrinda Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare Hare Rama, Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare Hare Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare Nama Om Vishnu Padaya Krishna Prashtaya Bhutale Shri Matai Bhaktivedanta Swami Niti Namine Namaste Sarasvati Devi Gauravani Pracharine Nirvişe Şaşunyavadi Pashchatyadeşatarine Pranannamo Bhagavate Purushaya Tuvhyam Svasyaastu Vishvasya Kalah Prasidatam Dhyayantu Bhutani Shivam Mithvodhiyam Manascha Bhadram Bajatata Tadokshadja Avishyatam Nomathir Adhyahaitukhi Yam Pravrajanta Manupeta Mapeta Krityam Dvaypayana virahakata rajuhava putretitan mayatayotaravobin edus tam sarva bhuta hridayam munimana to smeyam. So, again, I'm very happy to see all of you here. I'm humbled by your presence. and with your permission and blessings, I will try to speak something. And today we will plunge into the story. But before I wanted to say something. hysterical laughing no, just a few words for three lectures we were trying to understand the principles of the science of bhakti bhakti is a science Srila Prabhupada was very insistent on this point it's not just religion there is a religious aspect in it in the sense that it connects us with God but there is a great deal of difference between common people understanding what religion is and bhakti religion is usually adopted to fulfill our desires it's ritualistic by nature and it's greatly based on the face in miracles that's a very prominent characteristic of any religion in fact miracles supposed to be the proof of the existence of God but Bhakti is not so much concerned with the miracles. Srila Prabhupada never wanted to prove the validity of Bhakti by creating miracles. He was very much against this approach. Bhakti is an experiential science, science which we should experience. and Srila Jiva Goswami very beautifully explained how it works how very deeply in Srimad Bhagavatam specifically but in other scriptures as well but primarily in Srimad Bhagavatam it explained what is happening with our consciousness when the consciousness unwillingly is turning towards God as Srila Prabhupada says unreasonable unwillingness it was such a beautiful phrase of Srila Prabhupada totally irrational unwillingness to surrender to God but this gradual process not without problems but it's a beautiful process and if I understand the science behind it we will be able to practice bhakti with much more depth and much more success. And Srila Prabhupada, of course, explains this again and again and again. But please don't take these explanations as something which is unsettling your practice. Take whatever is useful from these explanations and continue with the practices. and today I will bring a very relieving message that whatever we do in bhakti is actually worthwhile and at the end it will be successful there is no doubt about it so we started the story yesterday how Akrura was called to Kamsa and how Kamsa completely trusting Akrura. Amazingly, he had total, 100% trust in Akrura and confidence that he is on his side. How Kamsa asked him to go to Nanda Gokul, to the village of Maharajananda and bring his two nephews, Krishna and Balaram. And today, we will continue with the same line and today's topic of this class is the five lessons of Akrura's life. Five preliminary lessons which made his journey successful. The whole idea of this seminar which we just started but hardly will finish is that bhakti is a journey and the finishing straight of this journey is exemplified by Akrura but not only. All the preliminary practices we can really deduct from Akrura's life and how ultimately our vivid meditation on Krishna will bear fruits and Krishna who is the object of our meditation will come to us in person and embrace us and say, yes, yes, I'm here. You have been waiting for me for so long. So today we will speak about the five lessons of Akrura's life. And these five lessons illustrate the points which we discussed yesterday. the points of preliminary practice which prepare our heart for meditation and which make our meditation very deep, profound and in the ultimate and successful. So let's chant a couple of verses from the 36th chapter of the 10th kent of Srimad Bhagavatam where Kamsa is taking shelter of Akrura. Akrura was so successful in his service to Kamsa that Kamsa is actually asking him a favor and he wants to take shelter of Akrura as foolish as he is so let's chant together Atas tvama shritah somya Atasthvama Shritakhsomyya Karyagorava sadhanam Yathendro Vishnumashritya Yathendro Vishnumashritya Svartam Abhyagamat Vibh Svartam Abhyagamat Vibh This is the 29th verse from the 36th chapter and let's also chant verse number 30. Gachananda Vrajam Tatra Suthaf Anakadundubhe Asate Tavikhanena Asate Tavikhanena Rathenaya Rathenaya Rathenaya Machiram Rathenaya Machiram So Kamsa speaks. Gentle Akrura, Somya, he calls him Somya. Somebody who is very pleasing like the moon. and who is pacifying all our anxieties. O Somyai, he says, gentle Akrura, I'm depending on you, atas tvam ashritah, I'm taking your shelter, on you to accomplish this important task, just as powerful Indra took shelter of Vishnu to achieve his goals. And the next verse, gachat nanda prajham tatra, Please go to Nanda village, Nandavrajam, to Nandavraj, where the two sons of Vasudeva, Suttaf Anakadundu Bhai, are leaving Asate, and without delay bring them here on this chariot. And he's showing him brand new chariot, golden chariot, chariot which he specifically prepared as an offering for Krishna and which he himself will never use as a prasadam. So that's the that's the two verses to introduce our talk about about accruous life and accruous achievement. So, yes. The meaning of the preliminarily talks, which were there yesterday, day before yesterday, and on the first day of our discussions, is to try to understand how we can get out from the prison of our ego. It is very beautifully described by the Acharyas from Sri Sampradaya and that ego is our prison keeper and we are prisoners in the prison house of our ego. They say that Ravana is the manifestation of our ego and the Sita is manifestation of our poor soul who is suffering in separation from Ram. And the cruel Kamsa is keeping her there as a prisoner. so we also can experience this in our life in our practice of bhakti we are trying to come closer to God we are trying to remember about him but our ego always on guard and always bring us back to ourselves our ego always concentrates our thoughts, our intentions on ourselves what I will get from it, what will be there for me. So we're prisoners of our ego and the process of bhakti is the process of getting free from this by chanting the holy name. But the chanting has to be intense. It has to have certain quality which will ultimately destroy prisoner our ego which is very strong so that's the point and what we will see and the similar metaphor can be used in relationship to this story of Akrura serving Kamsa he voluntarily put himself in prison. When Akashvani, the voice from the sky, declared loudly, Kamsa, you're a fool. You will be killed by the eighth son of Devaki. You are basically driving the chariot and this chariot is the chariot of your death. When this Akashvani, the unembodied voice, declared this, Kamsa became outraged. He completely got rid of the remnants of decency and he put his own father, Ugrasena, in prison. He put Vasudeva and Devaki as prisoners of conscience and he became the ruler of Madhura. And at that time, all the Yadavas and Vrishnis, all the so-called relatives of Kamsa, they flee away from Madhura knowing that they will also have the same fate as Ugrasenan. They will also be put in prison. They will also be tortured. They will also be experiencing all kinds of sufferings. So all the numerous relatives of Kamsa, relatives of Krishna, descendants of Ugrasena, Maharaja Devaka and everyone else, they all flee away. And the only one remained, voluntarily remained there and that was Akrura. and we have to really appreciate his sacrifice and his courage. I was talking about this yesterday and we more or less spoke with you about this first lesson that especially in the beginning to make our bhakti stronger we need to be in not very favorable environment because not favorable environment will help us in the initial stages of our journey. I have seen many times how devotees, neophyte devotees, beginners on the path of devotion, were trying to find some favorable conditions for practice their bhakti. They were leaving Russia, Soviet Union, going to much more free countries. But as a result, they just gave up bhakti. The environment was favorable, but there was no impetus for them to practice bhakti because there was no resistance. So external resistance is very, very important in the beginning. And there are many reasons for this, and I will speak about these reasons. today. So, basically what we see in this situation of Akrura, he was serving Kamsa and the service of Kamsa helped him to concentrate internally on Krishna. And the more unfavorable the circumstances were, And we can see actually in the religious history, in the spiritual history of the world, amazing stories how people who were seeking God were put under immense tortures and sufferings. but ultimately they were grateful for people doing this to them because they knew that it's for their ultimate good so but we have to appreciate the sacrifice of Kamsa of Akrura sorry sacrifice of Kamsa we should not appreciate so much we have to appreciate this because he voluntarily went into the situation where he was treated by traitor all the Yadavas and Vrishnis definitely were talking about Akrura and they were talking among themselves and they were definitely accusing Akrura they were saying look at this rascal Akrura He's staying with Kamsa. What is he doing there? And of course, Kamsa and his entourage, they didn't appreciate what he was doing. So when I was reading about this and thinking about this, I remember the story which actually gave me a lot of courage in the beginning of my journey. the story which Shiloh Radhanath Maharaj told me, it's perhaps one of the most amazing stories. Of course, all his stories are most amazing. And the way how he tells his stories are also very amazing. But when he was telling this, I could very vividly feel what he was going through because when New Vrindavan community was excommunicated from ISKCON, he preferred to stay in New Vrindavan. Even though the Holy Skone, the organization of his Guru Maharaj was against New Vrindavan. And I remember this time still, I still somehow rather was participant of this time and I remember how heated discussions were there. I was listening some lectures from New Vrindavan which were illegally imported into Iskona. And in these lectures of New Vrindavan, they were saying this Sanyasi is a demon and this is more demon and we will kill them. And in Iskona, of course, we were also saying this is their demons. And so it was a very heated situation. But nevertheless, voluntarily, he decided to stay there and when the changes started happening in New Brindavan, when they changed the dress and everything else, he didn't change the dress. He remained in his deity when they started chanting mantras and all the services in English, he didn't do it and they put Jesus Christ on the altar. So he was there and everyone was against him. everyone in their community was against him and everyone in this country was against him. So exactly the same situation we can see here Akrura, he is in the enemy's camp and everyone is against, among the enemies against him and everyone amongst his relatives is against him. so he is there but he knows that this is important this is the way to retain the purity of my internal meditation this is the way to become stronger so that was the first lesson which we spoke about yesterday how to make our devotion stronger and one beautiful comparison is there when the little sprouts are there when the seeds just give rise to the seedlings, to the sprouts, if you take the sprouts out in the sun what will happen with the sprouts? they will die the sprouts have to be kept in dark if the sprouts are not kept in dark they will die so the same thing is with our devotion the initial period of our devotion has to be very secret and very internal otherwise it will not help us and therefore this verse which Chaitanya Mahaprabhu wrote to Rupa and Sanatana is very important Srila Prabhupada translates by your letters, he wrote just a few lines to Rupa and Sanatana by your letters I couldn't understand your heart therefore in order to teach you I sent you one verse which reads as follows Paravyasa nini nari Viagra pi griha karma Viagra pi, Viagra means tiger so the lady who has some illicit love, paramour. She's doing her household duty as a tiger with the intensity of a tiger. Viagra pi griha karma su. She's completely absorbed in this external duties of her life, but at the same time, tad eva as svadayati antar. But that helps her to relish internally. The more external situations are unfavorable, the more they're helpful us to concentrate internally and relish this internal somewhat illicit connection with our eternal lover who is Krishna. Navasangara Sayanam. She is always invigorated. Rasayana means tonic. She is invigorated by this Rasayana of Navasanga, of this real love. So, one more reason is there for hiding and one more reason why Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has written this verse to Rupa and Sanatana Goswami is that this illicit mood of our relationship with Krishna is actually the mood of our sampradaya. We are cultivating illicit relationship with Krishna. Our relationship with Krishna will always be parakya. In Vrindavan, everyone is in parakya mood with Krishna. Nanda and Yaśodā, they are not real father and mother of Krishna. Of course, we know they're real father and mother, but according to the conventional customs, therefore, Krishna is so dear to them. And the friends, they know deep down that Krishna is a king, he's a prince. And they just call him boys. So it's also illicit relationship. And of course, you know, we should not speak about other relationships with young girls, which are totally completely Parakyya. So the mood of Vrindavan is Parakyya, and therefore Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is writing this verse, encapsulating this mood of Aosampradaya, and say, please cultivate internally this mood while serving Hussein Shah. And the time will come when the prison of Hussein Shah's service will, The doors of this prison will open wide and you will be able to get out from this prison. So this internal period is very important. That's the first lesson. The second lesson is even more important. The second lesson is the lesson of patience and growth. so as I said Akrura was in this service for 12 years and sometimes you can ask why so long why do we need to be in this internal period of cultivation for so long time and there is an important reason for this long prolonged period of our preliminary cultivation before our practice of bhakti will bear fruit. And the reason I explained yesterday when I quoted this verse from 11th kanto of Srimad Bhagavatam, , Sanaka for Kumaras, they were teaching this yoga and the essence of this yoga, Sarvataha manakrishya, we have to pull out, tear away our mind from everything else and mayi adveshya teyatha, and enter into Krishna, go into Krishna very deeply. So why do we need such a long period? Because a prolonged period of purification, preliminary purification, because our mind is strongly attached to this material world. And yeah, this is one reason for this. and we have to understand that the natural process of detachment is slow. I've seen many times when people were trying to obtain detachment or rise to the level of complete detachment from this world artificially And inevitably, it fails. You try to jump on this level, which is not really achieved by you in a natural way, and all this detachment ultimately becomes artificial. You practice austerities, you practice, you know, you're fasting, you're not sleeping, you're chanting many rounds. But then all of a sudden somebody who seemed to be so fixed becomes completely fallen. Why? Because it's artificial. One very important lesson which is given to us here is that spiritual life is a long journey. It's not a short journey. You cannot really, through extra endeavors in the beginning, get to the end of the journey because it's a long journey. What will happen if from the beginning you are running and running and running? What will happen with you? You will just fall down, not even in the middle. You're lucky if you will fall down in the middle. You will not reach middle. You will exhaust yourself. we have to prepare ourselves for this long journey and therefore we have to go slow and we have to respect the natural process of detachment which is gradually taking place in our life and we understand that everything else is significant that ultimately love of God is the only real goal so that's a slow process and we have to prepare ourselves for this marathon which is a long thing. We cannot really speed up natural processes. Like Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur Prabhupada, he was or even Gorkishore does Babaji. He was, yeah, that was his joke. He was imitating the Sahajiyas and he used to say that Sahajiyas, the attempts of Sahajaya to cry and to make a show of love. And I'm sure they believe that they have love with all this external science of it. But Gorky Shordas Babaji Maharaj says that it's as if a newlywed girl who just got married would go to the labor room and starts imitating the labor trying to bear the child. and she's there, you know, it's not going to work. There is a natural process. It takes certain time before it will become successful. You cannot really speed it up. And moreover, it's also interesting, we are waiting for fruit of our endeavors and the fruit will come. There is no doubt about it. But if the fruit, if we try to speed up coming this fruit, the fruit will become, it's not really tasty or sometimes even poisonous. I was in Israel and they told me very interesting thing. There is in Israel, there is a big thing. There is the whole ministry of Kashrut and they are proving food according to Jewish traditions. and they told me a very interesting thing which struck me they said that the fruits from apple tree before apple tree is 10 years old are considered to be contaminated the apple tree is bringing fruits even before or you can, especially nowadays there are all kinds of apple trees who can give you the fruits practically immediately But according to Jewish tradition, if the tree is very young and you take the fruits, they are not bona fide, they are not pure, they are not clean. So the same applies to us. we may get some sort of feelings through our extra endeavors, but because they are not obtained in the natural process and they are not really mature in a real sense, then they will not bring us benefit. So this is second extremely important lesson of patience. We should not hurry. spiritual life is a very important process and a very natural process let it take its time and we should do very carefully what we're supposed to do and gradually, gradually the spirit of renunciation will take place so Akrura, he understood very beautifully this principle so basically the incubation period of our devotion we all know that any disease and we know that bhakti is a contagious disease isn't it? it's very contagious and from the point of view of outsiders it's a complete disease so it's a contagious disease but any disease any infectious disease has incubation period before it really manifests externally in a proper way. So the incubation period of bhakti is 12 years. It's my speculation, sorry. Deriving this lesson from accruous life, we can say that 12 years is a good time, and there is astrological reasons for this too. 12 years is a very important period in astrology because 12 years is the time which is needed for Jupiter which is the spiritual planet or indicator of spiritual life for Jupiter to make the complete circle or to go the full zodiac this is exactly 12 years how Jupiter works and that has very important implications. We can see that Chinese calendar, there are 12 animals according to their understanding of zodiac and that's all in connection with the movement of Jupiter. The planet of Jupiter is also in charge of our subconscious mind. so 12 years are necessary to create very deep impressions in our subconscious mind and therefore if we want to learn something very deeply we require 12 years like for learning Sanskrit you need 12 years to know Sanskrit perfectly for usually the school education is 12 years Pandavas were in their exile for 12 years. And they were preparing these 12 years. There were 12 years of preparation for the main battle of their life. And they were learning a lot and experiencing a lot. So these 12 years is very important. and Akrura is also teaching us that 12 years is a good time to change our subconscious mind. And if a devotee practices devotional service 12 years, he will remain a devotee for the rest of his life. Usually, devotees, neophyte devotees, live devotional service before. the average life of a neophyte devotee at least in Russia is 7 years but if they somehow or other try to do it for 5 more years they will remain, no problem because there is some very important internal process taking place and your real understanding of spiritual life can only happen within 12 years and therefore Srila Prabhupada was preaching in the West only 11 years he left his disciples just one year before that and there were problems as we know but of course there were many glorious people who remained and went through this lesson so this is the second important lesson, the lesson of patience, the third lesson extremely important lesson which is connected with the second part of this verse the first part of this verse about meditation that we have to pull out our mind akrishya, we have to pull out mind from the external attachments the attachments to this world, to the values of this world, our dreams our ambitions which are there which are very important anyway I will not I will not spoil your meditation by inappropriate example which came to my mind but the third lesson is connected with the second part of this verse where it is said we have to from one side pull out our mind from external and from the other side simultaneously we have to put or immerse our mind in Krishna. So the third lesson is the lesson of cultivating desire. These 12 years are very important because simultaneously we have to grow internally the desire within us. the desire which will ultimately bring us closer to Krishna and in this connection I wanted to tell you a beautiful story which you probably heard many times but nevertheless please bear with me because the story is extremely beautiful that's the story about Shabari the hunter woman who has become the disciple of Matanga Rishi. And by becoming disciple of Matanga Rishi, she ultimately achieved Darshan of the Lord. That's also very important for us to understand the dynamic because there are many similar traits in the story. So there are different versions of her life before she became disciple of Matanga Rishi. and one version why she started her spiritual journey was that her parents wanted to marry her and because they were hunters, her father brought 1,000 goats and sheep to kill these goats and sheep on occasion of her marriage. she is from this hunter tribe and they are definitely not vegetarian otherwise why would they be hunters so Shabari there is a lot of preparation going on they are going this big Indian marriage and of course everyone is excited and Shabari is asking her father why did you bring so many goats and so many sheep here and he said tomorrow we will kill all the thousand goats and sheep to make your marriage life very happy. And the whole night she couldn't sleep. She was thinking again and again and again, to make me happy, we have to kill all these innocent creatures. How is that proper? How is that my happiness should be based on the foundation of the sufferings of these innocent animals. And ultimately she couldn't sleep, she couldn't really come in peace with this and she ran away from home just in the morning of her proposed marriage. And that's again a very important lesson. Usually in the beginning of our spiritual life, we understand that material life is based on violence. I don't know if you understand this, but it's very clear that in this material world, for you to become happy, you have to inflict sufferings to others. At least this is the common understanding. People are talking about this. How is it Latin saying lupus est? Homo homini lupus est. Lupus. Lupus. Lupus, yeah. Homo homini lupus est. Which is, of course, you know Latin. It means that a man towards man is like a wolf. The relationship between people, they are very cruel. And material life is based on violence. And oftentimes, we become devotees because we want to escape the inevitable violence. We don't want to have anything to do, we don't have anything to do with this business of inflicting pain for me to become happy. So that happens with Shabari. That was very proper beginning of her spiritual life. And then there is another very interesting point of her spiritual life. She started, she's a seeker. She's seeking for spiritual realizations and she's going in the forest. And at that time in India, the forest were inhabited by spiritual people. and she's knocking on the doors of all these sages and saints who are living in the forest. And they open the door and they see a young woman clad in the skin of an animal because she's a hunter woman. And horrified, they would close the door and would say, get out of here. You are outcast. We don't want to have anything to do. So again, that's an important element of spiritual journey because when we become devotees, we become outcasts. People become scared of us. And she was knocking and knocking and knocking and nobody wanted to open the doors. but ultimately she came to ashram of Matangarishi and Matangarishi saw her and he didn't see the skin how do you call it skin skin of skin of an animal there is some other word pelch whatever so he didn't see the skin of an animal, he saw her eyes. He saw the glowing eyes of somebody who is eager to find the truth. And Matanga Muni looked in her heart and he appreciated her and he said, please stay in my ashram. Please do some seva in my ashram. And his other disciples, they became totally, completely indignant and they became agitated and they started blaming their spiritual master. How dare you to give shelter to this dirty hunter lady in our ashram? First of all, she's lady. That's sin in itself. I'm really sorry. I don't mean this. I'm just joking or sarcastically saying this. And second of all, she's just dirty. She's outcast. She's shabari. There's no place for her. But Matangari, she protected her. And this is a very also beautiful story. That's exactly what Srila Prabhupada did when he gave shelter to all his disciples and how vigorously he protected his disciples from all these people, Brahmanas and all these caste Goswamis who were saying you lost your caste yourself Swamiji, get out of here. Srila Prabhupada was very offended by this when he encountered this attitude even among his god brothers. His god brothers didn't want to take prasadam in his contemplates because they are cooked by Mlechkas and Yavanas. And this is the followers of Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati who wanted to preach Krishna consciousness all over the world. So this is again a very important thing. You become the spiritual seeker and then you are not really welcome into the faults of spiritual seekers because oftentimes the religious organizations becomes very orthodox very rigid and very caste conscious unfortunately we can see it's happening in ISKCON too we become more and more intolerant to other people and we don't really understand their inner motivation and this intolerance is very bad. So Matangarishi gave her the service in his ashram. And for many years she was doing some menial service and ultimately even his disciples kind of became little peaceful. Still they were despising her, but nevertheless they came in terms with it. But the most important thing happened when Matanga Rishi decided to go back to Godhead. He and all his disciples, he said, we're going back to Godhead, we're ready to this. And the airplanes from Vaikuntha came, Vimanas came, and he was ready to board this airplane from spiritual world. And Shabari said, what about me? dear Gurmaraj will you take me to the spiritual world and she said no you're not ready yet again the same thing you're not ready yet you need more cultivation you need more time she said what will I do how will I continue my life what will I do without you if you leave me and at that time he took the garland from his neck and he said this garland will never fade and you please place this garland in a very prominent place in your cottage and whenever you feel that your face becomes weak look at this garland this garland will remind you that I promise to you before leaving the spiritual world that you will see God. This is my promise. And if you don't believe, look at this garland. This garland will remind you. It's still fresh. It's as fresh as my promise to you. This is my solemn promise. You will see God when the time ripe. Just expect for Him to come. Wait for Him every day of your life. that's the process which he gave to her he said please do sadhana every day of your life and your sadhana will be like this please every day of your life be ready to receive God in your cottage and she was doing this for many many years for 12 years it's not really specified in Ramayana but she was doing this she was cleaning her heart expecting that my Lord will come today. And she was cleaning the path and she was taking all the thorns and she was getting some fruits from the forest and she was placing some water, fresh water from Pampa Lake and she was sprinkling the water in the ground and she was meditating, meditating, meditating. My Lord is coming. He's coming. He's coming. and sometimes for so long time she is doing this and she is not coming and naturally her face is becoming shaken and at that time she again looks in the garment and she says my Guru Maharaj promised he will come so she became crippled she became totally emaciated she became blind but still every morning she would wake up with this meditation. My Lord is coming. He is ready to give his... He will give me darshan today. And one day, sure enough, Rama and Lakshman are coming and they see this beautiful ashram and they see this clean pass sprinkled with water and they see the flowers and Rama is saying to Lakshman, Why don't we go to see who is living in this ashram? And she's practically blind. And Lord Ram is coming to her and she's asking, Who you are? He said, I'm Ram. You were waiting for me. And Ram says, She says, Yes, I was waiting for you. And of course, there is a somewhat contested story whether she gave him the fruits which she tried herself or not. Some people say it's not bona fide. So we will not repeat this part of the story. But this is not so important. The important part of the story is that she was not just patiently waiting, she was cultivating the eagerness, the desire to see the Lord. And meditating on him every day of her life by doing the sadhana which was given to her by her guru Maharaj. And ultimately, Ram asked her the question. By sitting in front of her in her cottage, Ram asked her, how are you doing? And she said, ultimately, did you reap the benefit of your penance and service of your guru? and Shabari replied the fruit of my penance is sitting in front of me it's you and she said a beautiful thing beautiful verse to Ram she said to Lord Ram She also calls him Somya, or blessed ones, or somebody with, or gentle one, or somebody who is fulfilling the desires. So by seeing you, oh, my beautiful Lord with moon-like face, all my heart is completely cleansed. Now I'm totally free from all the little traits of sins which were still there, which were still the impediments. Now I understand why my guru told me that I'm not ready yet. At that time, I didn't understand. At that time, I thought I was ready. But after so many years, I understood that there was some extra dirt which I had to clean from my heart. But now it's all gone. and I am ready to go to Akshayan Lokan, to the eternal world. And in a very useful, beautiful, spiritual body, she left this body and Lord Ram saw her and she gave the farewell to Lord Ram and went to Vaikunthalok. So why I'm telling this story? Because we're talking about the third lesson. The third lesson is the lesson of cultivation, the desire. And very important element of this story is the promise of our Guru. When I was reading about this, I of course remembered that Srila Prabhupada promised to us, do this sadhana. This is the sadhana which you should do, but not mechanically. Do this sadhana by every day expecting that Krishna can come. Krishna may appear in front of you Krishna may appear in front of you in his own original form, Krishna may come in the form of real spiritual name at one point you will chant the Hare Krishna mantra and it will not be usual Hare Krishna mantra it will be very special Hare Krishna mantra with Krishna completely manifesting the sounds of the holy name Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama, Hare Hare. So every day we should expect this. And at the same time we should look at the fresh garland which Srila Prabhupada left to us. The fresh garland is the garland of devotees or whatever it is. He gave us the proof that bhakti works. What is fresh garland? What it symbolizes in this story, the fresh garland which is unfading garland of Matanga Rishi is the symbol of the eternal life which is there in bhakti. When we see how bhakti works. Did you see how bhakti works? That bhakti is real. Did you experience it in, at least in other people? Please chant Haribol if you did. So this is the fresh garland. Look at the fresh garland and if your face is shaken, look at this fresh garland. It works. some people see Lord some people meet him some people are completely ecstatic even if it doesn't happen with you, please be patient and every day of your life continue chant Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Ram Hare Ram, Ram Ram, Hare Hare Srila Prabhupada promised to us so Krishna will come because Krishna cannot really do anything which is... Krishna will fulfill the promise of Srila Prabhupada. He cannot dare to do something which Prabhupada would not approve. So that's definitely his. So this is the third lesson, the lesson of cultivation of desires. This is our sadhana. The sadhana, the essence of sadhana to cultivate desire every day. He's coming. He's coming. This is he's the fruit of all my austerities and my service to Guru. What we're talking about the preliminary purification of our hearts through surrender and by doing this sadhana we're surrendering to the will of our Guru and we have implicit faith into the process which he gave to us. The fourth lesson there are only two lessons left which we still have to learn from Akrura's 12 years of exile in Madhura before he could go directly to Brindavan and see Krishna the fourth lesson is very important lesson this is the lesson how to increase desire of course I did already say what is the method of increasing desire. The method of increasing desire is of course to do sadhana with this goal that I'm cultivating, I'm doing this sadhana I'm practicing the sadhana which is given to me by my spiritual master with this idea to increase my desire make my desire very strong. And Akrura very beautifully will say about this in the 14th verse of his meditation on Krishna in this 38th chapter which we didn't start yet but we will start tomorrow very beautifully Akruja says Please listen to what Akrura says. Today I shall certainly see the Lord, who is attainable by great devotees and gives instruction, who is the joy of all people having eyes, who is most beautiful in all the worlds, whom even Lakshmi desires as her shelter. Now all the mornings of my life have become auspicious. what does it mean now all the mornings of my life have become auspicious why he speaks about mornings specifically because morning is the time for what yeah yesterday one very clever lady said I will chant Kamsa Kamsala Mala Brahma Muhurte so here he specifically says Usha Shah Usha means sunrise Usha means the time before sunrise Usha means dawn right? So he says now all the mornings when we get up early in the morning and it's still dark and still we chant very meticulously the holy name, ultimately they will become auspicious. They will bear the fruit all these mornings. Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Ram, Hare Ram, Ram Ram, Hare Hare. So he's stressing the need. I was listening to one lecture and somebody, the Pethakar in this lecture, he said why Brahma Muhurta is called Brahma Muhurta? Why it is called Brahma Muhurta because it's Muhurta when you can meet with Brahma. Brahma doesn't mean four-headed Brahma. Brahma means God. Brahma means Brahman. So it's called Brahma Muhurta because it's his Muhurta. It's the time which is specifically dedicated to meditation on him and it's a very important element that meditation should be done in a proper way in early morning, ideally while sitting. I know some people have habit of chanting while walking. It's okay, it's not prohibited, but one very wise devotee with a lot of experience, he said, when you chant while walking, it's just for your remembering. it's just for you not forgetting God but the real meditation takes place when you sit when you have proper posture and therefore Srila Prabhupada says sit properly in this famous Japa tape so sit properly it's again it's a scientific process and the chances for us to purify the heart by doing this are more if we qualify ourselves by doing the process meticulously right. And Srila Prabhupada in one lecture, there is a beautiful lecture of him where he explains that this cultivation of desire is the most important qualification to see the Lord Prabhupada gives a very funny example. He says, sometimes, so people, they sometimes say, can you show me God? Have you seen God? These questions, sometimes we meet. So the answer is here. Yes. You can see God. Everyone can see God. I am also seeing God. Prabhupada says, I am seeing God. He is using present continuous. I'm seeing him now. But there must be qualification. And then Prabhupada gives a very beautiful, actually, a little funny example. He says, suppose you have a car, and suppose there is something wrong with your car, and you try to fix the car, you open this up front in your car, and you look there, and you don't understand anything. you look you see everything but you don't see and when qualified people Srila Prabhupada says when some car mechanic looks there he immediately sees what is wrong and he fixes it immediately he says to see the problem with the car you need qualifications so how much qualification you need to see God so he gives this very beautiful example actually which is very appropriate to our topic today that the practice, the intense practice changes your vision, qualifies you by giving you completely different vision because whatever topic we take, especially if it is related with some more subtle sciences, it very much depends on your vision. We have one astrologer, eminent astrologer here now. And you may learn astrology superficially by reading the book, but your vision of the chart, of the horoscope, will be completely different from the vision of somebody who has a lot of experience. You will see the same science, but he will see the complete picture and he will see much more depth in it, which you will never be able to see. And if you don't know astrology, you will look so what? So, or if you are doctor, if you are a good doctor, you look at the person and you immediately can diagnose him. You immediately know what's wrong with him by some very subtle signs, signs which are there in his body or whatever. And if you are layman, you don't see these signs. So Prabhupada explains this very beautifully. You have to change your vision. to see God. And how to change your vision? To change your vision you should do proper sadhana with this desire to develop a very strong desire internally and then you will be able to see God. And Srila Prabhupada concludes this explanation. So if for a machine we require so much qualification and we want to see God without any qualification, just see the fun. That's very Prabhupada. Just see the fun. Prabhupada say, without any qualification, rascal. They are so rascal, so full, that they want to see God with their nuisance qualification. They inquire like, can you show me God? What qualification do you have acquired that you can see God? Here is the qualification. Tāśraddhanāna Munayoga Śrīla Prabhupāda. He quotes this verse from the second chapter of the first kanto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. From the very beginning of Sūta Goswami explaining. Tāśraddhanāna Munayoga Yanavarāgya Yuktaya. That you can see God through the lens of your faith and your desire. because sraddha doesn't mean just face. Sraddha means respect to the past, understanding the past, and very ardent desire or taste for the past, understanding how high is the process of bhakti. And then Prabhupada tells this funny story about the thief who wanted to take the ornaments of Krishna because he heard somewhere that Krishna is walking with very valuable ornaments and he came to Vrindavan and he was always looking where is Krishna, where is Krishna and his desire was growing and growing and growing and I want to see Krishna and Krishna sure enough showed to him and he saw Krishna and he saw the beautiful ornaments and he asked Krishna dear boy can you give me these ornaments and Krishna said no I cannot give Mother Yeshoda will chastise me if I give you the ornaments. And then he looked at Krishna and he said, okay, I don't need ornaments anymore, my dear child, I saw you. So Prabhupada tells this story. So what I want to say is that this verse, which is explaining the essence of meditation, the science of meditation, very preliminarily, it says that you have to withdraw your mind from external and you have to place your mind in Krishna. And this is why you need 12 years, at least 12 years for this internal cultivation. And then you will have Krishna Bhakti Rasa Bhavita Matih Kriyata Vyadiku Topila Vyate because you will pay the price. Tatra Loliama Pi Mulyama Ekalama The price of this Mulyama is only Loliama, only very ardent desire and then the last lesson of Akrura's life his preliminary life is that what is another reason why he wanted to stay in Madhura he definitely was thinking about seeing Krishna this is what explained by Sanatana Goswami who is glorifying Akrura but there was another very important reason why Akrura thought that he would stay in Madhura and not only stay in Madhura but become he was practically like prime minister of Kamsa he was so trusted and so prominent and so influential why do you think he wanted to stay in Madhura what is another reason yeah he wanted to help Devaki and Vasudev he knew that if he will be in the influential position he will be able to soften the terms of imprisonment or he will be able to talk out Kamsa from some crazy things which he was doing so he was purposefully serving kamsa to help the devotees. And that's another extremely important lesson for us that we can only please the Lord if we want to serve the devotees. When we serve the devotees, the Lord is automatically pleased and He will not be able to resist our desire to serve Him. So the important preliminary again, practice to purify our heart, is to serve the devotees of Krishna. And of course, he did serve on many, many occasions Devaki and Vasudev. And I wanted to tell you a beautiful story. Your patience is completely now rewarded. For three lectures you were listening philosophy, and today is just a story class. It's a beautiful story. This story I'm most sure that you probably haven't heard. Because this is the story from Bhaktamala, a very beautiful story. It's a story about Bhakta who is a disciple of Namadev, a great Bhakta from Maharashtra. And the name of this disciple is Trilocena. Oh, sorry, he is disciple of Gyanadev and Namadev is disciple of Gyanadev and Trilocena is godbrother of Namadev. Anyway, so he was a very great devotee of the Lord, but he was from a viceship background. And he had a wife, but they didn't have children. And his main service was service to the devotees. He knew how dear it is to the Lord to serve the devotees, and he wanted to please, and he was serving the devotees. But they were getting cold, and they didn't have any children. and they didn't have any trusted servants. And he started thinking, what will I do when I become old and crippled and when I will not be able to serve the devotees? How will I live my life? And he developed a very strong desire. He started meditating. Desire means meditation on a certain goal. He was praying to the Lord, but please send to me a very good Vaishnava Sevaka, the very good servant of the devotees who will help me. And some people approached him, but he always was dissatisfied. He saw they're lazy, they're dirty, something. He didn't like them. He didn't like their attitude. and and then his lamentation his desire became even more desperate because it was coupled with lamentation I'm getting cold, my wife is getting cold and the suitable helper is not coming to us and what will we do? How will we continue our life? My life is coming to an end and he was very rich so ultimately Krishna himself decided to become the proper sevaka of the devotees of the Lord, he thought it's a good idea he is looking for a good sevaka of Aishnavas and I'm doing this anyway so let me approach him and maybe he will hire me for this service so he became a boy of 15 years old and he put on a rag on him, some clothes of a poor man and he knocked at the door of this Trilochen Trilochen opened the door and this boy said I know you are looking for a servant of devotees I'm ready to do this I like doing this and Trilochen looked at him with some suspicion in the eyes and said, who are you? Where are you coming from? By looking at you, I can see that you don't have mother and father. And Krishna scratched his head and said, yeah, you may say like this. So, and and Rilochina started his interview of this servant aspiring servant and he said so tell me what you need he said well if you fulfill my requirements I will do the service which you need I'm actually good at this believe me I can do very nice service but I have one condition two conditions I like to eat rice in Jagannath I need at least five or six kilos of rice every day. This is my first condition. And the second condition, you should never complain about me eating so much. I shouldn't hear these complaints in your house. He said, okay, we have enough rice to feed you. It's okay. so he interviewed him and he actually liked him and so and this boy said that people usually get annoyed with me and very upset with me because I eat too much and they don't want to feed me properly therefore I'm ready to serve them but it usually doesn't last long because they don't feed me properly so now you know how to serve the Lord. Five to six kilos of rice at least. It is actually Shastri statement that is said that if you want, if you're serving shalagram, for every shalagram you need to give one kilo of rice every day to shalagram. And if you don't do this, shalagrams are not really happy. I'm trying to institute it in my altar, but it doesn't work. But Krishna is very strong, he is saying, you know. And Trilocin asked you, what's your name? He said, my name is Antaryami. Okay, so Antaryami started serving, and this Antaryami said to him, actually I'm anyway serving these devotees all my life. This is the only thing which I'm doing. So I'm ready to become your devotees. And they started to live together, And this Santaryami proved himself to be the ideal servant. And Trilochina was so happy with him. He was extremely happy. Whoever would come, whatever Vaishnavas would come to Trilochina's house, he would massage their feet, he would serve them so nicely. He would, this Santaryami, he would fend them and he would feed them. So everything was very nice. and for 13 months Krishna was serving in the house of Trilochen to all the Vaishnavas to prove this point Krishna is doing this lila to prove this point how important it is for him service of Vaishnavas and then after 13 months one lady neighbor came to the wife of Trilochen her friend and she saw the wife of Trilochen a little tired and a little sad. And she asked, what happened? And the wife of Trilochen said, don't tell anyone. But this new servant of us, he eats so much. And no matter how much I cook him, he always wants more. And I have to cook him again. And my husband, he's so strict. He told me to cook whatever he likes and give him everything and never complain. And I never complain. You're the first one. I'm trying to complain, but please don't tell anyone. But he's Antaryami. He's in the heart of everyone. So he heard this complaint. And it was his condition. He disappeared from the house of Trilochen. Without any explanation. And Trilochen became very sad. and he got attached to the servant of his, to Antaryami and he started lamenting and crying, what will we do, what will we do now, we are alone, he was such a good servant and ultimately his wife seeing him, she confessed to him, this is because of me, stupid woman, I did this, please forgive me and Trilochen, he stopped eating and drinking And for three days he didn't eat, he didn't drink, and then ultimately the voice from the sky told him, Hey Trilochen, please eat and drink. Don't worry, I was your servant. No, how did he say? He said, yes, one second. Trilochen became very morose and he said, where do I find such an intelligent servant? And the voice from the sky said, take your food and also drink something. I am very pleased with your service mentality towards the devotees and that is why I rendered service to the devotees as your servant. I am actually your servant because I am controlled by your devotion. I eternally reside in your house. If you want, then I can return and serve while staying in your house. And then Trilochen became even momorose. Because he thought, you know, the Lord was with me for 13 months and I didn't recognize him. and he was serving me and I never served him. I considered him my servant and he became very morose and then ultimately he was saying, Dick, shame on me, shame on me. Anyway, so the point which I'm trying to make is that this is the best preliminary service service which we can make is to serve the devotees because we don't see the Lord. We're not clean enough. We're not pure enough. We're not really intelligent even enough to see the Lord face to face. But we see the devotees. And we should see their connection. And if we see the connection of the devotees and serve them as the servants of the Lord, that is the best way to please the Lord and the best way to speed up our spiritual progress. What I was telling today actually is the illustration of what I was telling yesterday. Yesterday I told that Srila Jeevigaswami in Bhakti Sandarbha explains that before you start smaranam, before your meditation becomes really deep and fruitful, you have to do sharanapati, you have to approach your spiritual master, you have to follow his discipline, you have to become his disciple, you have to serve the devotees, genuine devotees, you have to hear about the Lord to nourish your meditation and you have to do kirtan of the holy names, forms, qualities of Bhagavan. If you do this, then ultimately you will qualify yourself for real meditation on the Lord. And that's exactly the dynamic which we see in Akrura's life. These 12 years of his life, when he was serving Kamsa, were dedicated to this kind of service, to the service of devotees, to cultivating sadhana, to cultivating internal desire, to making his heart suitable for meditation. And therefore, it's a very interesting thing. I will again chant with you the verse of Sanatana Goswami dedicated to Akrura. Akrurai namastas mai. It's very beautifully how Sanatanga Swami glorifies Akrura. He says that I'm paying my obeisances to Akrura, although Api, he is the servant of Kamsa. I know he's serving Kamsa, but despite this fact that he's serving Kamsa, I'm paying my obeisances to him. Why? Because he wanted to see Krishna, Krishna Eka, the Drikshaya. He wanted very much to see only Krishna, but not only Krishna. He wanted to see Krishna where? Gokule in Vrindavan. Gopa Gopya Dhyas. He wanted to see Krishna surrounded by the cowherd boys and cowherd girls and all the cowherds of Vrindavan. So he explains why do we worship Akrura. Because he had this glorious desire not only to see Krishna. Krishna to see is easy everyone can see Krishna no problem so many heroes, Indra sometimes sees Krishna they see Krishna but Akrura's meditation was very specific he wanted to see which Krishna? Gokula Krishna, Vrindavan Krishna only Gokula Krishna and not only Ilon Krishna He wanted to see only Krishna, but only Krishna means surrounded by his loving devotees. So that's the glory of Akrura. That's the desire which he cherished and cultivated within his heart for so many years. And for that, he was ready to serve even Kamsa. So there are so many different forms of Krishna. But what is our goal? Our goal is Nanda Nandana Krishna. Our goal is Radharamana Krishna. So that's the secret of this Tatha. And that's why Kamsa, who trusted Akrura so much, he approached him. and he revealed the whole plan to him. He took him by hand and he was speaking so humbly to him because he said, I totally depend on you. And Akrura answered in a very beautiful way to Kamsa to finish this story of Srimad Bhagavatam. When Kamsa revealed his plan to Akrura, Akrura said, Very good plan. Very, very good plan. But please remember that no matter how good plan we have, because Kamsi explained to him all the, whatever could happen wrong, he had a solution to this beforehand. He said if he will not be killed by Kuvala Epida, the wrestlers will kill him. If wrestlers could not kill him, I will kill him. and Akrur is listening. Akrur is sitting and Kamsa is very emotional. He's sitting there, Akrur just in front of him and Akrur is listening to him and he says, yes, Kamsa, very good plan. Very detailed plan, strategic plan. Strategic plan. But you know, sometimes even good plans are not fulfilled. Even the good plans sometimes fail. Are you prepared for this?" He said, actually you should be prepared that even the good plan will not be fulfilled and it may fail, and you should be prepared for this and be composed, whatever will happen. So basically, Akrura says, yes, yes, very good plan, but it's not going to be fulfilled. Come, so please be prepared for this. So he says, one may make a very great plan with his fertile brain, but he must know that he will be subjected to the fruits, misery and unhappiness. But I have nothing to do. I have nothing to say against your proposal. Very good proposal. So I will go tomorrow to Vrindavan and bring Krishna and Balarama here. So that's the beginning of our story of Pakrura's journey. He was very pleased with the order received from Kamsa. And tomorrow we'll start the story. and our seminar will will culminate with this so anyway I thought it was important to for us to try to understand what we should do to be able to meditate uninterruptedly to be able to concentrate completely on the holy name and then gradually, gradually on the Rup of the Lord, on the Gunas of the Lord, on Parikaras, his associates, and ultimately on the Lilas of the Lord. That's the process. And today in these five lessons we learned the five preliminary practices necessary to achieve this, to qualify yourself to ultimately do this. So, thank you very much, Hare Krishna. Okay, Namadar Priya. There are some questions which were sent to me. I don't have it was me if you have it. Where? Oh, in, okay. Yes, please. Yesterday, or the day before yesterday, you were speaking about left brain and right brain. And today also you said that if in the beginning you just run and run, then you won't actually achieve spiritual result. At the same time, what I see in practice that often administrative leaders inspire devotees, beginning devotees, to organize such a running competition, kind of, maybe not competition, but to run in the very beginning of their spiritual life and to achieve some tangible results in pursuit of some projects. So how do you see the solution in this situation? I told this, I don't remember because my mind is, by the end of Kartik it's usually not very clear. everything is mixed in my mind but I definitely said it on one occasion that it's important also even in the beginning to give people the taste of surrender it may not necessarily be bad practice because this unforgettable taste of surrender is important. We have to understand that it's not possible to sustain this complete surrender, but to experience this taste of complete surrender is good. So if the environment, and Srila Prabhupada was very expert in this, he would inspire devotees to really surrender completely and get this amazing story about Chaitanya Charitamrita, the printing of finishing Chaitanya Charitamrita within two months. Those people who were part of this marathon, they still couldn't forget this unbelievable taste which they experienced. And I heard Devamritmaraj, who was a part of this marathon, He says that at the end, when they ultimately, within two months, they brought these volumes of Chaitanya Charitamita, which was practically unbelievable. They came to Vrindavan. They offered this to Srila Prabhupada. Srila Prabhupada looked at this and went away, as if nothing happened. so because again he wanted to give the taste of this complete surrender so it's not necessarily bad practice if you in constant marathon then it's mismanagement but sometimes marathons are good and therefore this place was was prepared for this retreat in a very completely surrendered way by all the people some of them couldn't even stay they're so burnt they left they're coming back but they need some break so it's not necessarily bad but if they're good managers they can understand that there are some limits of this, and different people have different capacities, and they have to understand also the natural way of developing devotion. But to have some extreme situations is not bad. regarding being attracted to krishna versus attracting krishna to us please comment on do not try to see god act in such a way that god will want to see you and Bhagavatam gradually even the mind which he used as the means to attract the Lord as one attracts a fish to a hook withdraws from material activity yeah, as I said this is the quote from the third canto where the process of yoga is explained and it is explained not in a positive way. Yog, yogi is trying to attract the Lord and he's using his mind as the hook to attract the Lord. But that's not the proper way. The proper way is explained in the first quote which is Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati's quote. We are not trying to seek God. we hope to see God we aspire to see God but we know that ultimately it will only happen if God will want to see us so yeah, these two quotes are what I basically told that we should not try to attract something artificially or even God, we should not try to attract him but we should behave in such a way that he would be pleased to see us. So I don't see any contradiction. Yeah. And when we clean our heart, then the natural attraction towards the Lord will grow, and this attraction will bring us in the vicinity of the Lord. Because ultimately, that's the greatest force. what is love? love is attraction attraction between two hearts attraction between consciousness and yeah we want to experience attraction and he is the attractor and we are attracted in the development of stages of smaranam is it under Vidi Bhakti or is it rasa okay or a mixture of both Raganuga Raganuga son in the songs go ranga books naratam das go ranga bolite naratam praise turup and raga natha so das kristin das koviraj in chaitanya chiritamrita what is the significance of this why not sanatan Goswami or Raghunatka Bhata Goswami there are two questions here Smaranam can be Smaranam is the life of Raganuga Raganuga is not possible without Smaranam but Smaranam can also be a part of Vaidhi Sadhana Bhakti It is, as I said, is sadhana. So it can be both because all the processes of bhakti are there in Vaidhi sadhana and in Raganuga sadhana. The difference only in motivation, in mood and in qualification. But it's especially important in this practice of Smaranam in Raganuga sadhana, but in Vidi sadhana as well. In the beginning, I said without Smaranam, our practice becomes very mechanical and not satisfying to the heart. So Smaranam should be there. So why does Rupa and Raghunath and not somebody else? First of all, because Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami was the disciple of Raghunath Das Goswami. And because Rupa Goswami is the founder of all our sampradaya and everyone else, every other Goswami or Vrindavana accepts him. as such, as the source of our sampradaya. So Rupa is there because he is the founder. Raghunath is his direct spiritual master of Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami. Of course, it's not clear there was this philosophical question, but it's accepted by many that Raghunath Das Goswami is his spiritual master. At least he is Shikshu Guru for sure, because he was listening his discourses on Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's life in Radha Kund. But the more important reason is that because Rupa Goswami is the foundation. He fulfilled and revealed the desire of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and explained the past of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. And Raghunadas Goswami is the best example of somebody who followed this path and achieved the greatest success. It is said that in Bhakti Ratnakar, in Bhakti Ratnakar it is said that the devotees were thinking that you cannot achieve anything more than Rupa Goswami. Rupa Goswami is such a great bhakta and he has such deep, deep, deep realizations but then to their surprise they realized that ultimately at the end, Raghunath Dasgaswami achieved the same height so Rupa and Raghunath they are absolutely the greatest Vaishnavas in our life line and one is the Abhideyacharya, another one is Prayodjuna Acharya therefore Naratamdasta specifically and all other Goswamis they are included into this Rupa and Raghunath they are there they are servants of Rupa and Raghunath because the Rupa and Raghunath are two main pillars of Sampradaya yes whatever Tadas, Radha Pramod and Achintya Krishna. You start Achintya Krishna, you didn't ask yet questions. You can give microphone to Radha Pramod. I'm not 100% sure that tomorrow, Śrīvāpāda Čitāna, Rami will explain us gap between this Kamsa and Narada. I will explain tomorrow. But tomorrow, Bhakti Chitani Maraj? Bhakti Chitani Maraj will give class from 4.30 to 5.30, approximately. And then from 5.30 till the next morning, I will explain the rest of the story. No, no, don't be scared. No, I will speak a little bit. I will definitely explain to you the point which you're asking. I will explain to you. Maharaj, you are telling that in the initial stage, there is some resistance needed for devotees to grow them and become more stronger. Now, but when people come, we try to tell them to be in a favorable situation. They have to be in some favorable situation, like stay in the association of devotees, come to temple regularly. Now, sometimes they are in a situation where they are very far and other things. So how to say that, okay, this is good for you? Because there is a risk that they may not continue if they stay in such situation. Well, if there is a risk that they will not continue in an unfavorable situation, it basically means that they are not serious. if they're serious from the beginning if they do have face they will continue and you don't need to invent unfavorable situations because this life is very much unfavorable for devotional service in any case unfavorable situations will come you don't need to pray like Quim Kunti she definitely didn't need to pray for this because it was coming unfavorable situation will come in one way or another Krishna knows which unfavorable situations you need he knows particular problems which are needed or areas of your growth so Kali Yuga is very unfavorable in general and sometimes his contemplates are very unfavorable for practice of devotional service so I know some preachers they do not send their counselees or people in his contemplates so sometimes by sending people into his contemplation, you're sending them in very unfavorable situations. So what I mean to say is that unfavorable situations will come. Don't worry about this. One way or another. We should not make any endeavor to change them? No, endeavors may be there. We should be reasonable. We should use our common sense, which is not so common. But But at the same time, we should not be entirely afraid or scared of any unfavorable situations. Understanding that unfavorable situations are good. They are good in many, many regards. Yes, as much as possible, we should try to change. But not necessarily... What we should not do, we should not make the condition. I will only practice bhakti if everything will become favorable. When I don't have to work, when I don't have family responsibility, when everyone is just so nice to me and everything is good, then only I can practice bhakti. That's wrong. That's false. But as much as possible, according to our understanding, we should make our circumstances favorable. But at the same time, we should not be scared or afraid of unfavorable situations. Like, what happens to their husband or wife or authority? They are not very... they don't treat, so then they become victim mentality. So these things, they undergo such situations, so we should suggest things on them. It's often times, but I've seen if a devotee is mature and if the people around him see that he's really changing in a very positive way, they ultimately become very favorably disposed. posed. I've seen it again and again and again, how initial enmity towards practice of bhakti becomes very encouraging attitude. But of course for that maturity is required and to avoid victim mentality as you said or this lamentation or whatever which is of course we're all prone to you need to have good associations so besides unfavorable I never said that only unfavorable situation will make your bhakti strong it's an element which is important but if at the same time you have good association then the good association of mature people will help you to overcome all these problems in a very mature way and by overcoming these problems you will grow in a very positive way so we need we definitely need help from other devotees that's for sure Thank you. Parikrama. Parikrama. Constant Parikramas. How should we use all this, what is clear, you know, like what we are witnessing every day, how should we use this to reach what you said at the end of the lecture, to reach Radhraman or Nandana Krishna? What is the linkage between Giriraj, which is here, you know, and with Vyana Radharaman. Yeah, Radharaman lifts up Giriraj. That's the link between them. He likes to do it. Giriraj, the famous verse which is glorifying Giriraj and Gopi Gid, and which according to Raghunadas Goswami, Radhika herself pronounced What is this? This verse glorifies Giriraj as Haridasa Varya is the best servant. So Haridas, Girirachis, Haridas is teaching us how to serve. And his teaching to serve us contains many important elements. One is that Girirachis is serving and he is very happy by serving. Yadrama Krishnacharanas Parashapramodha. He becomes Pramodha. He becomes very, very happy by feeling the touch of the lotus feet of Krishna and Balarama. Another lesson is that Manam Tanauti Sahagur Ganyasthayur, that he is not only serving Krishna and Balarama, He is also expanding or extending his respect, Manam Tanoti, to go to the cows, to Krishna's friends and to gopis. So he is doing this. So that's the second lesson. The second lesson is that we should respect not only Krishna but all his devotees. and the third lesson is that he's serving by all means he's providing the grass he's providing the caves he's providing fruits he's providing waterfalls fresh water, everything else so he's trying to do whatever he likes so your question is how how Girirachi is connected with Radha Raman he shows how to please Radharaman by pleasing all his associates by being very happy in devotional service and by trying to serve Krishna by all means so that's the answer to this question yes, you wanted to ask my question is regarding Vaishnava etiquette and respect. Is it appropriate to ask senior Vaishnavas about the level of devotion they're in or their very intimate experiences with Krishna? Because I don't want to offend anybody. Perhaps they wouldn't sound... They want to be humble and... No, it's not appropriate to ask this question. If they like, they will tell you yourself about their experience. but it's not proper to ask you can ask somebody else their god brothers or whatever to to chant their glories but it's not appropriate to ask them you know please tell me you are on the level of Brema or on the level of Baba but be honest with me Yeah, and anyway, not in the level to understand this completely. I remember Prahladanadmaraj, he tells a very funny story. He says that his first letter, which he wrote to Srila Prabhupada, being a bhakta for a few months, he said, Dear Srila Prabhupada, thank you very much. Devotional service is very clear. I understand the philosophy of devotional service very nicely. The only thing which I don't understand, how the process of changing from bava to prema takes place. That's the only thing which I still don't understand. And Prabhupada wrote an answer. Thank you very much for your kind donations. Regarding changing from bava to prema, you will understand it in a new course of time. We should not be so concerned about this. Actually, the donation was not there. Ah, yeah, yeah, right, right. He said, donation was not there. Not in... Okay, so last question, please. thank you for your class my question was you were saying that bhakti is a marathon and that we shouldn't have false detachment and ultimately burn ourselves out but then the other thing that we always talk about is that bhakti has to be intense and we have to really put our determination so what's the fine line between that It should be as intense as to not to burn you out. That's the fine line. It is explained very beautifully by Bhaktivinoda Thakur. Bhaktivinoda Thakur says that it's a human psychology to find a zone of comfort if you are practicing bhakti and you find yourself in a comfort zone something is wrong which you are doing because comfort zone basically means that you are doing whatever is convenient to you so you have to go a little bit out of comfort zone where you exert yourself to a certain extent, but not too much. You don't try to artificially reach the level of practice which is appropriate to people with different qualifications. But at the same time, you should try your best to practice it in such a way that you feel certain exertion. You feel that there is some tension should be there. You're doing whatever you can and a little bit more than you can. Then it's good. If you're only doing whatever I can, the tendency will be you will be able to do less and less and less. But if you do whatever you can and a little more than this, then your ability to do will be more so if you can chant 16 rounds please try to chant 17 rounds it's good I wouldn't recommend you to chant 2 lakhs a day if you are only comfortable with 16 rounds but 17 or even I dare to say 20 it's okay okay thank you very much that was our fourth lecture and tomorrow we start our seminar finally and finish it as well so thank you very much Hare Krishna