The Monk's Podcast with Chaitanya Charan

Hare Krishna. Recording in progress. Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna. My humble obeisances. Thank you so much for joining the Monk's podcast. It's been a long cherished aspiration for me to have you here. The blend of analytical rigor and devotional depth that you bring in your talks and your writings, it's something that I have deeply appreciated. Also, many of the devotees who appreciate my classes, they also find a lot of inspiration. inspiration and deep analysis in your classes. So, in general, a blend of head and heart together, not so easy to achieve, one tends to go in one or the other extreme. So, I'm grateful not just for what you're doing, but for who you are. I'm very fortunate that I have this opportunity to be of service to you today. I came to know about this book on healing prayers that you have written. so that we could discuss the broad topic of prayers and with a specific focus on what you have done with this book. Welcome once again, Maharaj. Thank you very much. I'm happy to be with you this evening or whatever time of the day it is. And yes, I also appreciate your talks. I listened to some of them and I read your book on reincarnation. So we have mutual respect even though we never interacted personally before. Thank you, Radek. So regarding the title itself, it's Healing Prayers. Now, was there any particular reason you chose that particular title? This book is translated from Russian and the Russian title much better reflects the original idea behind the title, but English title to a certain extent also conveys the same idea. not same but almost same idea. The title itself, the meaning of the title is explained in the book. In the beginning of the book I describe three types of prayers, which are described in Bhakti Rasa Amritasindhu by Shila Rupa Goswami. And I analyzed these three types of prayers as the prayers suitable for different stages of our devotional development. And the initial, the beginning prayer is called Samprarthanatmika. Prarthana, of course, means prayer. and Sam is coming from Sanskrit Samyak, which means completely or... So Samprathana is the prayer, is the type of prayer where we want completely surrender to the Lord by surrendering our thoughts, our speech and our actions. So this idea of completeness, which is expressed in the prayers, is there in the Russian title, where healing is equated with restoring the wholeness, restoring the completeness of our being. What happened in our life due to our previous karma we are divided. We are not whole in a sense because a part of us the spiritual part, the real part wants to be closer with God wants to reestablish the relationship or wants to recreate this connection with the Lord. And there is another part of us which pulls us in a different direction, the material part. Our previous habits, previous impressions of sinful life and so on and so forth. or attachments, not necessarily sinful, but just attachments to material existence. So that makes us divided. And Sampartharnatmika, as I try to explain, I give this explanation, is the prayer to restore the wholeness, to restore the completeness of our being, to heal the dividedness, so to speak, to heal this divided nature. So that's the idea behind the book. And we can all kind of understand this or relate to it because we feel that there is something wrong with us. there is this internal problem which we all experience and healing means restoring our robust or health which basically means restore our wholeness or yeah something like this So again, English title is not 100% accurate to Russian title, but it pretty much reflects the idea. Yes, Nadek. Thank you. This is a beautiful theme. Actually, when you're speaking with it, I just remembered. It seems that healing and cold, they come from the same English roots. The word healing comes from the old English word healing, which means to make old cure the same. Yes. Yes. And the word comes from the old English word, which also comes from ultimately the same root as healing. Yeah. Beasts an entire unheard or unbroken. Yeah, and basically the idea behind this healing is to restore wholesomeness of our nature. You know, we should become wholesome again. And that's the idea of the title. the prayer to restoring our wholesome nature or wholesomeness yes it's quite insightful yeah yes yes exactly yeah So that's basically sampratanatmika, the prayers of surrender, but to surrender completely is not easy because we are not complete. So we are surrendering part of us which wants to surrender and there are some other parts which don't want to surrender and it's very difficult to surrender them because they don't want to surrender. so before we have to reassemble ourselves in our completeness and then we can sincerely pray for this so that's the prayer to restore this to be able to surrender fully that's interesting nowadays in English there's a phrase put together that person appears quite together I think they compose collected integrated that togetherness wholeness that's quite a thing and yeah or yeah another word for this English word is integrity which also conveys the same ideas so to restore the integrity of our being that's that's the idea yes how to be together is a good good expression too. Yeah. It was said with integrity, it requires integration. Yeah. So that, 2.41 verses, be one pointed, those are not fragmented, almost unlimited. Exactly. That's correct. To the Indian mind, the word healing and prayers has a particular connotation, that in India there's a lot of concern about conversions happening. To some extent, religion is like a marketplace and whoever does better marketing will get people. But in some cases, the marketing can be a bit unscrupulous. So there are these claims of miraculous healing, which some Christian evangelical creatures do. And then that captivates people's hearts. so now when we talk about healing we are talking more about spiritual healing not so much physical healing yes of course so is that to be our problem? yes we are not talking about the physical healing of course the physical disease is an indirect result of unwholesomeness of our nature too so the physical healing may take place when we reintegrate ourselves and become also more wholesome in a sense but that's not the idea the idea is about about spiritual healing you are exactly right I definitely not trying to So I'm definitely not trying to introduce into Vaishnava tradition miraculous healing prayers and all this crap. Crap. Yes, that's a problem. So this brings to a broader topic of prayers. In general, we talk about praying for spiritual growth. For most people, they feel the need to pray when something is wrong in their material life. And even for devotees, I was in UK, and one devotee had come and talked with me that their baby was very sick. And one baby, she was born and came to an ISTU child. And they said that, baby is sick. And I feel like I should pray to Krishna. But is praying for the safety of my baby a material prayer? So, and should I not pray like that? But if I don't pray like that, that's what is occupying my mind the most right now. That's what's on my heart. if I don't take what is on my heart to Krishna so then I gave some explanation but I would like to hear your perspective I said that the word material it encompasses a lot of things and there is sattvic, rajasic and tamasic so when something is tamasic I want to destroy someone else because I am jealous of them I pray to God for that, that kind of prayers are completely anti-devotional and there are prayers which are for I want to become more famous, I want to become more wealthy. Those are more rajasic prayers. And generally, when we're talking about material, and we try to say stay away from material, it is more just rajasic and tamasic. So rajasic is more non-demotional. Something sattvic, it is quite pro-demotional. It is that somebody can say, I am seeking wealth so that I can serve Krishna. But often the desire for the wealth becomes much more than the desire for serving Krishna. But then it's our responsibility, it's our Dharma to take care of our child. And praying at that time to be able to do our Dharma better. But that is not entirely outside the ambit of bhakti. So I mentioned that one principle is pure devotional. But another principle is somehow another fix the mind of Krishna. But this is definitely pro-devotional. So how do you see this difference between material and spiritual prayers? I completely agree with this analysis. Sattva gun is an important springboard to achieve pure devotion. And before we achieve pure devotion, we have to be established in Sattva gun, which means Dharma. And if our prayers are in context of our Dharma, with the idea of bringing us ultimately closer to God, That's fine, that's harmonious. But I think there is a slightly different angle to this idea. That is, see, we are human beings. We naturally have emotions, we have desires. Srila Prabhupada said that to be alive means to have desires, only a stone doesn't have desires. But if we connect these desires or how Srila Prabhupada used to say, dovetail these desires with our devotion, then these desires are not, if they are compatible in general with our devotion, then they will not definitely hamper our devotion. So if you have this very strong desire within your heart, you're preoccupied, your child is sick or you are very sick or whatever, then there's nothing wrong to include it into prayers provided you keep very strongly in your mind the devotional aspect of it and Srila Prabhupada gave the formula for this. He said, if you so desire, my dear Lord, if you so desire. So this, if you so desire, means that we put the desire of the Lord first. the prime. And then our desire, and if the Lord, if our desire is compatible with the desire of the Lord, if it is harmonious with the desire of the Lord, then the prayer is okay. And if not, I give complete freedom to the Lord not to fulfill my desire, because I understand that ultimately He is in control. And in this way, my prayer does not interfere with my understanding or position as a servant of the Lord. So that's another angle which could be, this problem could be seen from. So that's what it is. My dear Lord, if you so desire, please. This is something which is very important and I cannot get rid of it. But if you so desire, that's an important element of this kind of prayer. Yeah, I think that gives a good amount of people to say. We give space also for devotees, that for individuals, this is important. At the same time, we accept the ultimate will of the Lord. The main point of the prayer is to be able to invest the heart. What is the use if I formally pray for pure devotion, which is not relevant to me at this moment of my life, and I cannot invest my heart into this, but I repeat this mechanically. There is no use, but if something is my heart is earning for something very important, it's very beneficial to connect it with our pursuit of bhakti and to pray by investing our heart into this prayer. it's a such an important point that when we are praying unless our heart is invested prayer ultimately the language of the heart where the human heart connects with the divine heart so if we are praying for something that really doesn't have a prominent place in our heart at least at that particular point then the prayer itself will be a bit superficial Yes Maharaj, so going ahead from there, now when you have chosen to focus on the prayers of Queen Kunti, was there any particular reason you chose these prayers? And do we see these as, again, very exalted pure emotional prayers? Some of them seem to be at a very exalted level. So how do you see the relevance of these prayers at the level of investing the heart I definitely have chosen this topic because I think it's relevant and the particular reason why I have chosen this topic was that I gave this this first This book appeared from the seminar which I gave, and the seminar which I gave was in front of the audience which experienced traumatic conditions, traumatic events in the history of their country. I don't want to be too specific in this regard, but basically it was in front of Ukrainian audience, and I could feel that I had to reciprocate with the feelings which they have, the feelings of bewilderment, confusion, at the same time desire to understand what is happening, why it is happening to us, why it is happening on this scale. It's not about the present events, but the events of little past, but of the same nature. So this seminar which I gave to them was exactly to address their emotional state and perhaps to answer some of the questions which were there in front of their minds, in the minds of my listeners. And even though of course Queen Kunti is praying from a very elevated state of consciousness and her elevated state of consciousness is clearly reflected in her prayers, still I think everyone of us can relate to her prayers because everyone of us can relate to the difficulties she had to undergo. Sometimes we think that our life is very difficult. that we have the examples of great devotees in the scriptures whose life was much more difficult than ours. But in this sense we can relate to them and if we try to understand the emotional state and how this emotional state gave birth to the prayers which they offer to the Lord, it will be easy for us also to cope with the difficulties which we undergo and to teach us how to accompany our life and our difficulties with the prayers to the Lord without turning our face from the Lord. Because, you know, to be honest, many people, including devotees, have crisis of faith when severe circumstances come to their life. They really sometimes are shaken in their face and they don't know what to do with the circumstances, how to explain what is it. You know, I'm supposed to be serving the Lord and this is the reward of all my service which I have done. So that is the framework which every one of us can relate to. and yes, and I was actually writing this book when I first decided to turn this seminar into a book form and of course book is much more elaborate than the seminar which I gave before I was also in some critical situation in a sense and reflection on what is going on within my heart and in my life also found some place in this book. So again, you're right, it's very elevated prayers, but still they are very relevant to us. And if we understand how to relate to these difficulties which will fall on every one of us, and how to really undergo these difficulties in a very noble way, in a very dignified way, then it will be a great help in our life. people sharing this background this is inspiring that you could take these prayers and make them relevant for the audience so if any share with some part of any any particular prayer which could address say people's feelings of abandonment or the builderman or dimension or some aspect except because one thing is that the prayer seems to be saying a particular thing and the Acharyas, even Prabhupada has given a particular ambit to the meaning of the prayers. So to some extent when we make it relevant, sometimes we can find ourselves or our position expressed either in the explicit word of the prayers or the explicit word of the commentaries on the prayers. But sometimes we may need to expand the ambit of that particular prayer so that it relates with us so in my i write on the gita every day i relate much more with the gita than any other book so i have also been asked how much can you stretch the ambit so could you give them example of say of a feeling of bewilderment or or something like that which we feel in our level and how some prayer from some some aspect of put these prayers can help us at that time? Well, in the very beginning, Queen Kunti, Kunti Maharani, she's in front of Krishna. Krishna is sitting on the chariot. He is about to leave Hastinapur. And Queen Kunti is running towards him and starts expressing her gratitude. But from the very beginning, she, being the aunt of Krishna, being very close associate of Krishna, relative of Krishna, she says, I cannot understand you. You know, what to speak about us, we don't see Krishna in front of us. Of course, we theoretically know that we are related to him, but sometimes our bondage with him seems to be quite questionable even to us. And it was very clear to Kunti that she's bonded with him and he's bonded with her and he's her well-wisher. But still she says, I'm bewildered. I don't know what I'm doing. And rightly so, because Krishna's dealings are mysterious. he saved Arjuna, he saved Maharaja Pariksit, but he didn't save Abhimanyu, son of Arjuna, and no, grandson of Arjuna and grand-grandson of Kunti. He didn't save the sons of Draupadi from five brothers, Pandava brothers, even though the battle was over and they were celebrating the victory. So Queen Kunti, she's right there, she's looking at Krishna's face. Krishna is smiling and she's coming to him with the tears on her eyes and she expresses the gratitude to him despite of everything. but then she says, I can't understand why you're doing this and how you're doing this. But then, after that, she starts offering the prayers, and in the course of prayers, it's become transparent that she understands it better and better and better while praying. So, in one sense, the Kunti's prayers are examples of how to understand what is happening with us in our life by offering prayers. And when we are offering prayers, our heart is purified, and when our heart is purified, it becomes much more easy to understand why it happens, what happens, and so on and so forth. And it is easier to come in terms with it, to become more peaceful. Everyone knows this calming effect of prayers. When we pray, initially, it's usually from a very agitated frame of mind. Oh my Lord, what's going on? Please tell me, please explain to me. But then at the end, we become a little more peaceful. Of course, it may not last long, but still, for the time being, it has a healing effect. This is one striking point that you mentioned, that training can be a means of our understanding. Yes. Many times we think of praying as a means of solving the problem, or praying as a surreptitious means of getting God to do our will. Then happens that sometimes one devotee was telling me that I am afraid of praying because if my prayer is not fulfilled, my faith in Krishna will get shaken. I was telling him that praying is like one of the limbs of bhakti. And focus of praying as Pralad explains about the nine limbs. Now we are not praying to get something. Just like we are not hearing to get something. We are not speaking about Krishna to get something. It's just for connecting with Krishna. Yeah, it sounds... Yeah. So when we connect with Krishna, that relative peace or that calming presence of Krishna which we feel. So sometimes even if we don't get the problem solved, we assure us that Krishna is present, Krishna is in charge, that itself gives us a sense of relief. Most of the time we don't get the problem solved, but the problem solved in a different way. It's solved because the problem is the condition of our heart, and if the condition of our heart has become more positive and beneficial, So then the problem is solved. It's not solved externally, but it is solved on a different level. Yeah, beautiful. So we think the problem is the condition of the world out there. Yes. And the bigger problem is the condition of the heart. Yeah, that can be solved. Yes, that's it. Now regarding this, extending the ambit of prayers, to some extent, if we see something in our words which relates with us, I can't understand you. In one sense, that can refer to the principle of how Krishna is both personal and impersonal, Krishna is, all the all-paralleliness of Krishna. But I think a much more relatable aspect of that we can't understand Krishna is, and what is Krishna doing in my life? That particular example that you made, Krishna's protected one generation, protected the two generations after that. But it seems to be a protection for one generation. So in that sense, not understanding Krishna can also mean that or the most more relatable meaning of not understanding Krishna is that the way Krishna works in our lives is something which we can't understand in that that uses its understanding that even great souls are not understood gives a greater sense of acceptance for our inability to understand also yeah actually this is the point which I'm making in the book if we analyze the prayers of Queen Kunti we can see that she gives a very long introduction before she really asks Krishna for something she does ask Krishna for this for restoring her wholesome nature but at the very end but before that she is expressing her understanding. In the beginning she says, I cannot understand you, but then she starts expressing her understanding, how she understands him, and it becomes very clear that actually she has a very profound understanding of Krishna and his dealings. And the idea here is that before we ask something from somebody, we have to let him or her know that we understand him or her. If we just approach somebody and immediately ask him or her, please give me this, we may get our desire fulfilled or may not get the desire fulfilled, but it will not give satisfaction neither to us nor to the person whom we are begging or praying from. So the idea is that prayers, as you rightly said, is our way to enter relationship with God. And to enter relationship with anyone means to understand somebody, to understand his feeling, to understand his nature. And unless we express this, that we understand the person, it will be very rough and impolite to ask him something. But if we understand, if we let him know that we understand him, then it's very legitimate to ask because we know it in our own experience, when we feel that somebody understands us, When we are ready to give everything to this person, we are ready to reciprocate with him. Because reciprocation means mutual understanding of who we are. So that's what it is, that's what's going on. So before asking something, Queen Kunti expresses her understanding of Krishna, his dealings, nature and because it's such a deep understanding then the prayer which she asks in the very end is legitimate in a sense not I mean it will be definitely very efficient and it will be also very satisfying because you know sometimes Sometimes when somebody is just bothering you by begging you something, give me, give me, give me, give me, it doesn't give any satisfaction to you. But the prayer is our way to satisfy the Lord. And the prerequisite of it, the important condition for it is to express how we understand Him and how we appreciate Him. It's a very striking point that in almost all the prayers that we see in the Bhagavatam, it seems there's a very long relude before the actual thing you ask. So, the way you explained it is that it is we expressing our understanding of what the the Lord's purpose is and then we convey after that okay within your purpose this is how I think what I need it can fit it yes so then otherwise it will become even if the Lord fulfills it it just okay it's more like somebody's bugging their causes yeah just to get rid of this of this in our life, yes. This would be a fascinating exercise to see many of the prayers in the Bhagavatam from that perspective. And my understanding was also that when all these prayers are offered before somebody comes to actually asking the Lord, there is a common saying, don't tell God how big your problems are or tell your problems how big God is. so often the prayers that are talking about God's position that is like our way of reminding ourselves that God is big and he is big enough to deal with these problems and he has far bigger problems in the past in that sense it's more of a personal reminder of the Lord's position but it's also a very beautiful way of it fits more in the mood of the prayer that the personal reminder can be done in our mind also But when you are offering it as a prayer, it is showing that we understand the Lord and His vision. Yeah, see, it's very important to put our understanding in the proper perspective. And because we have the tendency always to see the world or reality from improper perspective. It's natural, it's understandable in one sense, because we're little tiny spirit sparks. And, you know, when we see it from our perspective, we see something exaggerated according to our emotional state of mind, something downplayed, which is important in reality. so before praying it's important to bring the proper perspective to our vision of reality and that's exactly what Queen Kunti is doing she is doing this and we have to remind again and again and again ourselves that this is who we are and this is what reality is and it will always be like this it will never be the way we want it to be or the way we see it. So, yeah, to remind us the proper perspective of reality. That's one of the functions of proper prayers. That's interesting. In the 10th chapter of the Rita, the Parapodati Buddha Jnana Masam Moham, Prabhupada says intelligence means to see things in proper perspective. and here now we are saying that one of the results or purposes of prayer is that it helps us to see things with proper perspective so you know in that same 10th chapter later on Krishna says if you are having if you are affectionately then I will give you the intelligence so in one sense it can be both prayer prayer itself begins with remembering that the Lord is bigger than the word but through the act of praying also that understanding becomes more deeply imprinted or deeply situated within us. Exactly. Yes, Nanesh. Beautiful. Continuing with this theme that there are scriptural prayers and personal prayers So sometimes we feel that the prayers that we compose based on our particular situation, they are maybe more spontaneous expression of our heart. So how much is the importance of scriptural prayers? and how much is the room for offering personal prayers in our tradition? Any prayer should be personal. There is no impersonal prayers. So even if we repeat prayers who somebody else prayed before, the prayer who somebody else pronounced before us, it has to become our personal prayer. That's the prerequisite. If it didn't become our personal prayer, then it's not a prayer. It's just a parrot repetition of some words of somebody. So if we want to repeat, we should learn from great devotees how to offer prayers. there is a certain etiquette I'm also talking a little bit about this in the book certain etiquette how we should pray properly so that the prayers are efficient but so in the beginning we just try to learn how to do it properly and even in these cases we should try to understand the emotional condition of the person who is praying. Not just repeat the words, but try to connect it with the same emotions, or at least similar emotions which he or she experiences. But then when we learn what it means to pray properly, then we can compose our own prayers and do it spontaneously. But in any case, both prayers should be personal prayers, not impersonal prayers. prayers are of no use. Yeah, that's good. The word personal could mean, it could refer to the source of the composition of the prayers, it could also refer to the investment of emotions. So you are talking about the investment of emotions always has to be there. And now we see Prabhupada also composed prayers, for example, in Cape America, Markini Bhagavad Dharma, that gives us a very moving glimpse into his heart, which we do not necessarily get in his writings as much. So we get it, but I find that a very moving prayer where Prabhupada pours out his heart directly to Krishna. So does it seem that the scriptural prayers are in Sanskrit and the Vaishno songs that are in Bengali, it's a Prabhupada's prayers, some of the prayers which are written within vernacular language, which are a little more recent prayers, you could say, if you use it from a daily perspective, they seem a little more relatable. the scriptural prayers, they seem to be a little more philosophical, so philosophical that they feel a little more forbidden to relate with. So it didn't, probably because of the language or the nature of the text where they come. Like say devotees can very happily sing Vaishnava songs and feel a sense of connection. But with Bhishma's prayers prayers the feeling of connection may seem a little more difficult I don't say it has to be but have you sensed any dynamic like this? yeah you are absolutely right of course it's more difficult to relate to their prayers because of the language barrier, because of cultural barriers. The more recent prayers, it's definitely more easy to relate to, no doubt about it. But that's the job of the commentator, to make these prayers relevant, to remove these language barriers and cultural barriers and so many other barriers which are there. It's not only with the prayers. In general, it's difficult for us to relate to a sacred text. You know, the culture is different, the time is different, so many things are completely different. But the commentator, what he does, he understands the relevance of this particular text, and he explains it to the readers. So yes, absolutely you're right. But still, because the original text is so multifaceted, there are so many dimensions in the original text, especially if it's in Sanskrit. It's important for us to apply some endeavors, or how you call it. It's more difficult, the labor is harder to understand prayers in Sanskrit, but the reward is also greater in a sense because if we understand the depths and the multi-dimensional nature of the Sanskrit verses then it will be very satisfying to our heart. Sanskrit verses are very profound by its very nature and And therefore Srila Prabhupada was so emphatic, therefore he translated each and every word in his translations and then gave the elaborate purports. So he was trying his best to remove the barriers and we are lazy and sometimes we say, no, I cannot relate to it. but it's because we are lazy. We are not laboring hard enough to get deeper into this text. And as you know, when we go deeper, you said, and I know that you are writing this book about the prayers in Bhagavad Gita, when we go again and again and again, read the verses of Bhagavad Gita, They reveal some meanings which we didn't know before, some new angles of vision and some dimensions of these verses. It's almost a miracle. You go to a text which you know, you know by heart, you read it, and again you read it and you find something completely new in this text. That's the nature of the scripture. and especially scripture and Sanskrit written. Whereas vernacular languages, they are much more, much less profound in a sense. In Sanskrit just one word may mean so much and it may have so many different implications. The modern languages, vernacular languages like Bengali or Hindi or English, they are much less profound, so to speak. The meaning is more... Yeah, it's just on the surface. And therefore... Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Mahiraj. This is actually, in some ways, here you have two things that I found striking. One is you, in one way, addressed the earlier question about the ambit of the verse. How much can we expand it? In one sense, if you want to make the scriptural personal, after all, all prayers are meant to be personal. And then, if there are some obstacles, the commentator's job is to remove the obstacles. So, Prabhupada has both removed certain obstacles and he could say he also showed us the example of how to remove obstacles. So, we live say 50-70 years after Prabhupada wrote his books. And now in today's world some other obstacles might come out of the way of the scriptural becoming personal. So in that sense, you could say that it is the job of us who are trying to answer the understanding, share scripture, to see what obstacles are either preventing us or preventing others from developing that personal connection, personal investment in scripture. And then we see how that can be removed. Yeah, otherwise the scripture will remain just a museum, artifact and museum. You know, you sometimes go to the museum and you look at this artifact, it's in a, you know, in a plastic box or in a glass box and it's dusty and it's old and you can't relate to it. You just, yes, oh, very old, very nice. But then your heart is not touched by this artifact in the museum. So it's very easy. I read some translations of Bhagavad Gita or some other scriptures done by academic quote-unquote scholars, and oftentimes it has this feeling that this is something which definitely has nothing to do with your life. It has nothing to do with you. So that's why this is the main duty of the commentator to bring the relevance into the words of scriptures. And that's an ongoing job. And therefore the scriptures, they're living only in the commentarial tradition. That's the life of the scriptures. The scriptures without commentaries, they immediately lose its meaning. So the commentaries have to be written again and again and again with the passage of time, making the eternal words of scriptures relevant to the audience. the profound way Prabhupada said the spiritual master lives on and the spiritual master lives on through the disciples, the follower lives through Prabhupada talked about that the spiritual master lives on through the words, scripture lives on also through the living tradition it's a beautiful point Maharaj maybe one or two last questions I also want to take too much of your time. So when we talk about the living tradition continuing on the prayers, and the connections to share, making, showing the relevance of scripture. So sometimes in trying to find relevance, you know when are we actually reading something from the scripture that was there and we had missed or when are we reading something into the scripture which is not there at all so I may be looking for something and I'm reading something into the scripture say for example there's a commentator on the Gita who presented the Gita as a book supporting its ideology of non-violence but not in that tradition, but there are few scattered references to non-violence, but that's by no means the central teaching of the Gita. So are there some guidelines about the boundaries about seeing relevance? Well, for that you need to pray because the human tendency, the human tendency is of course invest something which is there in your mind into the scriptures. Prabhupada used to say that people, they exploit the words of Krishna for their own interest. Most of the commentators do this. They want to prove their point, but because they are not as important as Krishna is, they are trying to use or exploit Krishna to prove their points. But Krishna is not there to be exploited by us. Krishna is there to enlighten us. And therefore, Srila Prabhupada said, this is Bhagavad-gita as it is. Bhagavad-gita Yadharup. So, this integrity of the initial intent is very important. I want to follow. I don't want to show my own erudition and scholarship. I don't want to impose my own ideas into the scripture. So that's a question of integrity. And to obtain this integrity, again, we need to pray. And that's the explanation of the title of the book. prayers which bring about integrity, which help us to restore the integrity. Otherwise, yes, the temptation is there to invest our own ideas into the scriptures, to put our own ideas into Krishna's mouth. But I don't think Krishna will be very happy because He likes to eat sweets cooked by Mother Yashoda, but not the words which cooked in our mind or thoughts. Okay. Thank you, Vajra. That's right. the dhami buddhi yoga prayer itself will understand yeah how to pray and how not to pray also yeah so would you like to add concluding words of your book or about the broad topic of prayers this has been a very illuminating discussion for me personally and i'm sure illuminating for all the viewers and i feel inspired to We'll give you the description of the book, the link where it can be got also in the YouTube description and the video. Yeah, as I said, this book is written in Russian. Russian is my mother tongue. I'm much more comfortable when I'm speaking in Russian and especially when I'm writing in Russian. and this is the first translated book translated into English so I'm kind of holding my breath I don't know how it will be received but I hope that it will be received kindly by the readers I did get some positive reviews So, yeah, what can I say? I wrote it again because I felt very deeply that this is an important topic for us to reflect upon and to go deeper into. And of course, any topic in Srimad Bhagavatam is of this nature. And one thing I can say for sure that writing this book and thinking about these prayers of Kvinkunti very much enhanced my own understanding and it gave me a lot of positive emotions when I was writing it. And I really hope that a little reflection of these positive emotions will be there with the readers when they read the book. And if you find some faults in it, well, okay. I fully admit that I'm just, yeah. What else can you expect from me? but if something good will come, I'll be very happy. Basically that's what it is. Maharaj, you are only mentioning some positive reviews. Almost everyone who is in our movement has given glowing reviews of the book that comes right in the front only. So I'm sure this book will illuminate many devotees, arts and heads that they can connect more with Krishna. Generally, at the end of a podcast, I tried to summarize what was discussed. You okay if I just do that in 34 minutes? Yes, sure. Then you want to add some final words? Sure. So, today we discussed about broadly the topic of prayers and the fascinating connection between healing and wholeness. So, we become disconnected from our spiritual core And healing is in that sense becoming whole. And when we become whole, our existence also becomes wholesome. That in Russian, the word is more related, but in English also if you go to the roots, that relationship is there. Then when we're talking about healing prayers, we are not so much talking about physical healing in terms of miraculous removal of diseases. It's spiritual healing. And of course, if somebody has some serious issues in their life, and that's not incompatible with bhakti. It's perfect for protecting our dharma. In certain way, we just need to make sure that we conclude the way Prabhupada said that if it is your will, that if you so desire my Lord, then rather than the definition with prayers, with material and spiritual, we can say how they are connectable with Krishna ultimately. You mentioned that in response to my question about how these prayers of kuntit you have selected seem to be so exalted that you addressed devotees who were in a very desolate and disturbed and disoriented state. And from that, the book came out in Russian and then came out in English afterwards. So the fact that kunti Maharani, although she is right in front of Krishna and she has personal bond with Krishna, still she feels that Krishna I can't understand him. But that's something which we can relate with in our feelings of incomprehension about what is happening in our life. Even God is far greater than us, go through such feelings. And then rather than seeing, thinking of praying as a means to get God to do our work, you know, through praying we gain understanding of what is happening. And that way, through praying we become, you mentioned that the Vedic prayer, the Sanskrit prayer seems to have a lot of long introduction. And that introduction is before the actual request that is made as Putimaran does. So that's to make sure that one told the Lord that I understand you. Otherwise our prayers just simply become the botheration, give me this, give me this. And then it becomes a very transactional kind of relationship we don't come closer to the lord so when we show that we understand the lord and then the people are understanding the lord's mission and uh mood we position our prayer then that brings us the law brings us closer to the lord through that prayer also then we discussed about the how much can we expand the ambit of prayers so you mentioned that ultimately prayers are of no use unless there's the investment of the heart otherwise there's just some parity so prayers have to be uh that investment of heart hoping into helping uh devotees to do that is the responsibility of the commentator what obstacles are there what barriers are there and how they can be removed brahupada has done that for us and we need to carry on that tradition and that way in prayer will become personal for us in the sense that we will personally connect with that prayer and then we talked about how the how far can we stretch the ambit to know whether we are reading something hidden in the prayer or we are bringing something hidden in our mind into the prayer into the scripture it is we need to ourselves we pray i like the word you the integrity of intent which we should have and through that prayer we will learn and you know this is i think the way you wrote the book in Russian but now it is manifesting in English. It is itself a journey. So I am looking forward to reading the book myself. I look forward to having some more interactions if possible with you Maharaj. This has been very stimulating and illuminating discussion. Thank you so much for your time. Do you want to add any concluding words? Thank you very much, Etan Charan Prabhu, for inviting me. and yes it's always it's always nice to discuss Krishna consciousness or the philosophy of Krishna consciousness with devotees who are thoughtful and I really liked your questions they are very thoughtful and not formal at all so I feel some joy in my heart and I'm grateful to you for inviting me to this podcast. Thank you so much, Vandai. Thank you. Hare Krishna.