Anartha Nivritti. Lecture 7

Shri Yudha Padakamala Shri Guru Vaishnava Mshchad Shri Rupam Sagrajatham Sahagana Raghunatham Nitham Tamsajivam Sadvaitam Savadotam Parijanasahitam Krishna Chaitanya Devam Sri Radha Krishna Padha Sahagana Ladita Sri Visha Kavita Mstha E Krishna Karnasindo Dina Vandho Jagatpate Gopesa Gopika Kanta Rāda-kanta namo-stute Tāptakañcana gaurāngyī Rāde-kṛtāvanesvai Kṛśānu-sukhe-dehi Prāṇāmi-hari-priye Pāñca-kalpātarubyasca Kripā-sindū-gyavacca Patitanam Panevyo Paisnarevyo Namun Mahā Shri Krishna Chaitanya Prabhu Nithyānda Shri Arvaita Gada Dāra Shri Vāsadhi Gauravākta Vrinda Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Hare Hare. Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Hare Hare. Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. pranam namo bhagavate purushaya tubhyam swasyasthu-viśvasyakalaprasidatam vayantu-budani-sivam-vithodhya manas-ca-vadram-vajatata-dokshajay aves-vitam-no-matir-arbyahaitukhi Hare Krishna. So, you can have some question and answer session. just to remind, today we were talking mostly about the difference between sin and aparato and how offense is actually detrimental for developing sublime feelings or sublime sentiments, which is the sacred goal of all Gaudiya Vaishnavas. Ultimately we want to experience these feelings, pure, completely selfless, very purifying feelings of love. I don't care about myself. The most important for me is that Krishna is happy. And this amazingly elevated state of consciousness, which is incidentally also very pleasing, very enjoyable, but this is not the goal of course. Our goal is to please Krishna, But automatically the happiness of these endeavors is coming to us. So aparada becomes the block, the blockage. It basically blocks or inhibits the power of the holy name. Holy name is immensely powerful. However, aparada has this power to block the power of the Holy Name. As much as the clouds, even though they are much less powerful than the sun, still they can cover the sun for us. So, apparatus. She just wants to hear Harikatha. So, it's inhibiting the power of the Holy Name. The Holy Name being conscious entity withdraws his power due to offense. And therefore we cannot really experience this. So we were talking about the necessity of being innocent. The concept of original sin is actually the concept of original offensive mentality or competitive spirit which unfortunately every conditioned living entity has. And that's the main problem and the main obstacle on the path of bhakti. And therefore, Śrīla Viswāna Čakravartī Thakur pays so much attention to explain the proper way of executing devotional service. That was our today's topic. And we can continue deliberating on this topic by answering your questions. Paraj, like the desire of the soul is affected when we commit offenses. That's how we understand. So there is something for the desire of the soul also. Ultimately, the only conscious entity is the soul. Mind is not conscious. Mind is a mechanical device. So mind is not really conscious. The desire ultimately is coming from the soul and then it's reflected in the mind. the reflection of the mind becomes so many different desires but ultimately it's the desire of the soul the soul wants to enjoy and mind facilitates this enjoyment in the material world but if the soul wants to serve Krishna then gradually gradually everything changes However, if somehow rather we commit offenses, then this pure desire of the soul to serve Krishna or to love Krishna becomes perverted and turns into envy. Like we said, impressions are on the mind. Impressions create the desire. Well, it's a very tricky thing. it's a very difficult philosophical question because from one hand soul is eternal so there cannot be vikar in the soul vikar can only happen in something which is not eternal transformation it's the nature of uneternal things But at the same time, somehow or rather in a very mysterious way, we also say that, yes, like Srila Rupa Goswami says, that there are ordinary samskaras. And then he says there are garha samskaras. And this garha samskaras is a very special kind of samskaras. samskaras. Neither he nor Vishwanath Chakravarti Takur nor Jiva Goswami elaborates what kind of samskara it is. But the very way he describes this in Bhakti Rasa Mreti Sinu indicates that this is some deeper samskaras which are coming from the soul, which belong to the soul. So it's inconceivable and ultimately we know that everything is inconceivable in the ultimate issue. The nature is very mysterious. So you cannot explain everything in completely logical terms. terms. There is a place, there is a room for mystery in the description of reality. Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna Guru Maharaj, please accept my humble obeysences. I've heard, I've heard questions from what I've heard from your lecture and also in past some other lectures. my question is to clarify that how is that everyone has equal opportunity to approach Krishna. So it is stated with a few examples like Haridash Thakur who was from a Muslim family, Kajim Ram who was a animal, a Jamila. But how can we see it in general and not as exceptions because I see that there are a lot of people who are born in different religions or different countries where fish is almost like called as a veggie, meat eating is normal, wine is like a way of life. So they know nothing about vegetarianism or anything like this. So are they all committing sins without even knowing it? And will they all most likely have to keep going through repeated words like that? Yeah, but still, bhakti is available for them too. And the example is sitting in front of you. I am from that culture where vegetarianism is not very prominent. Still, somehow or other, by Krishna's mercy, everything is possible. And there is plenty of such examples. If it was only my not so humble self, that could be considered as an exception of the rule. But we have so many other people who are of the same kind. It's available. It's accessible. And amazingly enough, now of course it's kind of established in the West as well. but even before that like there was one disciple of Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati German disciple who came completely on his own to India for search of God he was looking at different temples, his name was Sadhananda and was looking looking, looking and he saw in the temples different deities, Durga with ten weapons and ten hands, and Vishnu with four hands and four kind of two weapons and two. And Hanuman is lifting mountain and Siva is sitting in meditation. And then finally he came to Krishna temple and so Krishna is playing flute and he said, He said, oh, this is God. That must be God. So, it's available. It's actually very natural. Krishna Bhakti is the most natural process. Every other processes are not natural. Meditation is not very natural. It's only natural for God. always meditate about Krishna. For everyone else it's very unnatural. Yoga is not very natural. It's forced. But singing, everyone is singing. Whether they can sing or cannot sing, they anyway sing under the shower or something like this. So it's a very natural, spontaneous manifestation of human nature when we are dating. So it's available, it's accessible to everyone. And we see the examples of people in very strict Muslim countries, they become devotees. People in Iran, they become devotees. It's a very, very strict fanatical Muslim country, but so many devotees are there. They have to hide. So, you can see it's a proven fact. Yes, this Padmavati. There is this question somebody sent to me, but I couldn't really understand the essence of this question. If somebody can explain it. It's your question. Okay, first Padmao again then. Thank you. The question is, we are doing so many things which are supposed to free us from the reactions to our sinful activities, but our Anarthas, which are a result of these sinful activities, is still there. How shall we understand? So what's the question? How shall we understand? How not to consider all the statements from the Shastras as exaggeration. First of all, we have to analytically look inside and reflect and understand that how actually we are much more free from the influences of the sanartas than before. Before we didn't even know we were just acting. We were completely bound by the acquired qualities. Now we have the choice. And sometimes we take advantage of this choice, sometimes we don't. but we can do this. It is said actually that karma of those people who chant the holy name remains but this karma is only the appearance of karma. It has the same shape but it doesn't have the power as much as the silken rope. Silken rope can bind us. And it's very strong. You cannot really cut or tear away the silken rope. But if the silken rope is burned, it still remains, the ashes remain in the shape of the silken rope. but it's not so strong anymore and it cannot really bind us so in the similar way karma is there and we can see the traits which we had before but ultimately we are free not to act according to these traits and qualities and unartas and yeah somebody's karma is completely burned somebody's karma is half burned and it still binds us but anyway you better don't think that it's exaggeration because it's an offense against the holy name At what stage prarabda is burnt? Prarabda is burnt in a very high stage, in a very elevated stage. Prarabda, you have to work a little hard to burn your prarabda. We saw prarabda is very simple. That is, is... At least in the level of Nistha, till the level of Nistha... And even later the traces of your prarabdha will be there. But in the level of vah, there is practically no prarabdha. But then we see, we hear in the shastras that prarabdha is burned when we practice. So this is the stage of Nistha, we should consider. Yeah. Yeah, it is burned. There is no doubt about it, but it's not burned immediately. Bhakti is the only process which can burn our prarabdha karma, karma which already began, which already fructified in terms of this body and mind. But it takes time. So now whatever we are going through, it is prarabdha only. We are going through Krishna's. Yeah. It has the same, yeah. Krishna is not interfering. Krishna... Even if... We should think that he is interfering, yes. Krishna is using, for sure, he is using... If we approach Krishna within our heart, he for sure uses our karma for our benefit. benefit. He is not an indifferent witness of all our activities. He is actively participating. Yes, Krishna is doing his role. Don't worry about Krishna, worry about yourself. When you told in the lecture that, one of the lectures where you mentioned that if you approach Krishna as a person, then he will directly reciprocate or indirectly is a last. Yes. He will definitely directly reciprocate because we are directly approaching him. In which way he reciprocates, that's another thing. If we are very offensive then maybe his reciprocation will not be as per our expectations. But it will be definitely reciprocation from him. Yes. Sir, this is good. Okay. You can ask. Oh, yeah. You can ask. Yes. Krishna Mada. That's my question. My day-to-day activities, 95 to 95 percent of my nailings are with outside form of bhaktas. Okay. And as you also mentioned that, that when we are dealing, most of our time dealing with such kind of people, mentality and attitude also, my behaviour is also somewhat like them. When it comes to dealings and offenses, in that moment, it is a situation where I am also feeling self-centred and I feel offended and I react without the thought process that they are also part and parcel of Krishna. I also think someone, like just a material being, can react. In that moment, Maharaj is possible and if so, how can I react with the human? We should not prematurely imitate saintly people. Saintly people on a very high level of saintliness, they don't react. So we should not feel guilty because there is some natural reaction. If somebody offends us, then naturally some sort of reaction appears within our mind. So, in one sense it's okay, but, you know, still we should not become overly angry or malicious against these people. ultimately even if reaction comes when we cool down we should say okay no problem this is the person who actually pointed out my weakness and I reacted so strongly because it's painful because he really you know hit the target so our spontaneous reaction will be there but then when we deliberate about this incident we should try to become little more philosophical and try not to keep this reaction permanent within our heart there is no harm in having this spontaneous reaction in one sense unless we try to solidify this spontaneous reaction for a long time so if it's just some feeling which is in passing it comes and goes it's okay, it's fine so we should try to get rid of this negative reaction which is there so that it would not contaminate our consciousness. Because usually what happens when people interact in an unhealthy way with this unhealthy environment, they accumulate so much negativity inside. So if we want to practice bhakti in a proper way, we should get rid of negativity as much as possible, not to accumulate, not to keep it inside. Okay, it's gone, it's gone, no problem. He's spirit soul. I don't keep grudges against this. So, but don't try to imitate Haridatsa Kuru, Jesus Christ prematurely. It's not going to work anyway. Okay. Maybe you would advise yourself to make yourself better every day, when you live with predate, to repeat some songs or sing, or maybe something else, to remember about it constantly. It's just about the usual predate. It's easier to say, like Guru Krishna, Rupa, Hana, Shastri, Ravramana. It's easier to say with the spiritual teachers, than with the usual predate. The question is, when we live and associate on a daily basis with devotees, we inevitably become a little negligent. We are not really appreciative of them and we tend to look at them as ordinary people and we are not really amazed that they are still practicing Krishna Bhakti. So how to get rid of this mentality? Milamani priest says that reciting different shlokas or bhajanas, they help to establish our consciousness in a proper position. what could be recommended to recite to avoid this sort of mentality. There was this song which is Vaishnava Vandana, right? Yeah. So this is what is recommended to chant, to nullify offenses towards Vaishnavas. There is a special bhajan which is recommended for this specific purpose. It was published by Madhavananda Prabhu with explanations. You can find this somewhere. Vaishnava Vanda. Vaishnava Vanda. Vaishnava Vanda. Yes, under all. You mentioned that non-offensive mentality is sharalata. Could you explain more deeply what it means? Offenses are very much connected with crookedness. Actually, tomorrow I'm going to talk about this, about this interconnection between hypocrisy or crookedness of our heart and offenses. Usually what happens in normal society, this is how quote-unquote normal consciousness manifests in our society. we are nice and polite with people in their face, but in their back we become offensive. So there is always, or most of the time, this element of crookedness or hypocrisy, we are kind of hiding offenses. We are not showing them but they anyway manifest. So we are a little offensive but we are not showing openly offenses in the face of people. So saralata means simplicity. Simplicity means basically you are not hypocritical. You are not hiding anything. You are straightforward. And if you are angry at somebody and there is a legitimate cause for this anger, you just say, you know, I'm a little angry why you're doing this straightforwardly. And so offensive mentality and crookedness is always very deeply interconnected. but when you become very straightforward and you don't feel the need because why do we hide offenses because we deep down in our heart we understand that this is wrong this is something which I should not do therefore we hide the offenses and we try to cover offenses with the nice smiles and external politeness but we hide but when we become not hypocritical but very simple then we can say without any offense that you caused me some pain why did you do this or whatever so the dealings will be completely different without this crookedness so that's why Saralata is the opposite of offenses some sort of innocence it's like in this beautiful Bible story when Adam and Eve they they developed some offensive mentality or some competitive mentality they immediately they immediately wanted to cover themselves. They experience shame for the first time. The experience of shame is the manifestation that we are trying to hide something and that's why they wanted to cover themselves. They felt that they're doing something wrong and they wanted to hide what they're doing wrong. But then again it is said that the metaphorical meaning of this pastime when Krishna was stealing the clothes from goddess standing in Yamuna is that ultimately we have to become very simple and totally open and naked in front of God. We have to become like this. There is nothing to hide. We should not feel that there is something which we have to hide. And that's not easy to stand naked in front of God. So, yeah. Nari. You mentioned several times about the importance of being in society of devotees with a healthy atmosphere. But now in this point we can see, sometimes I came across myself, There are some communities where women are treated in some weird way in the name of pediculture. When I came across this and seen some examples, it brings much pain to my heart. But who am I and what can I do? So my question is how to relate to this for not being in an offensive mood to senior devotees who engage in such communities? No, the very good remedy against offenses sometimes is a distance. When we are too close with somebody whose actions we don't really understand, whose heart we don't really understand, or whom we think is wrong, the best way is to you know to take the proper distance which is long enough to remain respectful towards this person you know we can be respectful to anyone but the condition should be fulfilled it's a proper distance If the distance is too short and we feel that respect somehow or rather evaporates, disappears from our heart, immediately we have to go a little further away. So, perhaps that's the only thing which we can do in such situations. Yes. Yes. In order to transmit knowledge from spiritual master to disciple, so the heart transformation, there has to be, it is said that the relationship has to establish. transformation will take place. So, Tadvidhi Pranipatthani, if you see in the case of Avakitana, Krishna was there and Arjuna was there, one to one. So, in the case of ISKCON or a larger organization, the disciple is there and the spiritual master is there. So, how this relationship dynamics works? Whether in the same way the personal relationship has to be there or Or the spiritual master gives the instruction and the disciple takes it and goes ahead. Or whether again there is a comeback and the spiritual master knows what is going on and the ups and downs. Again, a few come back to improve whether this exists or how the whole dynamics works. Sometimes the spiritual master has thousands of disciples and sometimes very few disciples. So, this is the transformation of that knowledge as well as the struggle of the disciples at this stage and how this whole dynamics functions. As I said, in relationship between guru and disciple there is always third party which is behind the curtain, which is hidden. Krishna is there. Krishna knows what you are doing. And Krishna appreciates what you are doing. If you are following the instructions of spiritual master very sincerely, if you are really trying in a humble mood, then Krishna will facilitate. Krishna in the form of the Holy Name. There is no shortage. Krishna has all kinds of agents to help you to understand what you need to understand. Spiritual master is his direct representative. We have to be very clear and established in it. But also our spiritual master of Krishna works through other people, can use other people. and we can see that even those disciples of Śrīla Prabhupāda, Śrīla Prabhupāda also had many disciples and some of them had very close association with him some of them didn't still some of them just saw him a few times during the class never had any personal association still we see how determined they are to please Srila Prabhupada, how they are serving you know, 50 years after Srila Prabhupada's disappearance it really means something so if you don't have realization and knowledge it's not possible to do it for such long time so Srila Prabhupada's mercy is coming to them, Guru's mercy is coming to them, Krishna is there and he is making sure that you get what you need to get. So we don't have to worry about what we receive. We have to worry about what we do. And if we do properly, the result will be there. There's no doubt about it. You wanted to ask also? Yes. No? Okay. Okay. Thank you. Yes. Thank you. In that last question, that keeping distance and when we come near and the respective of words that we are telling. So, in relation to that question, how a pure devotee execute, like does this, like what What is in their heart when pure devotee is going to near somebody who is not able to jump off? There are differences in their level also. So, how they deal, how they see and how they execute something? Pure devotees have much greater tolerance capacity than ordinary devotees. This is one consideration. It's easier for those whose hearts are pure to accept something and still remain respectful. Other answer to this question is that because of the qualities of a pure devotee other people also behave differently with them. They naturally become more respectful and more careful in dealings with them and therefore it's much easier to be a pure devotee than to be impure devotees. or it's a good influence for us to become. I'm asking, like, when... because there will be differences in two pure devotees also. Yeah. And sometimes, like, one pure devotee is telling to his disciples who are not associated with other pure devotees or whatever. So how they maintain it in their heart, that's okay, that situation is fine, But how they maintain in their heart the relationship, the respect that you are saying? See, once somebody asked Shiva Radhanath Maharaj, I heard this story from Chaitanya Charan Prabhu. Somebody asked him, you know, these other god brothers of yours who are there, they have a completely different opinion about certain subject matter. And how you deal with this, you have one opinion, they have different opinion, sometimes opposite opinion, and he gave a very beautiful answer. He said, I don't question the integrity of their intent. I may not agree with the way they are conducting themselves, I may not agree with their decisions, I may not agree with even the way they are dealing with this, but I still respect them because I am sure that, this is my interpretation, I am sure that their intentions are pure, they want to please Śrīla Prabhupāda. and even though it's not according to my understanding, still I can remain respectful to them because I don't doubt that they sincerely try to please Siva Prabhupada and that's their way of doing it. So this is how we should understand this respect. Respect is still there so we should not question their integrity alright so, ok, please Hi Krishna Guru Maharaj thank you so much for the wonderful guidance you are giving us through your lectures and associations Maharaj, my question is Mahesh, my question is that… Mahesh, you can hear the people? Mahesh, the cow is so dear to us like a mother, yet in today's Kali Yuga, most of the cows are not treated well. And we, in the cities, we have access only to the milk of these cows, you know, who are tortured. So I understand that when you've asked others this question, they say that cow's milk gives us spiritual intelligence. So that is why you have to have cow's milk. But it's very difficult to explain to my meat-eating friends how it is okay to drink the milk of tortured cows and still make a big deal about eating the lower species of animals. So this is one doubt I am not able to, you know. And there's another question also, Maret. Silk is considered very auspicious in Indian culture. And also for Yajnas and all we are asked for the puja and stuff. But I was wondering, even silk is made by boiling silk ones, at least in today's kind of times. So in the wedding culture, they say silk is auspicious. So was it at that time it was made in the ahimsa way? I'm not such a big expert on silk production, but as far as I know there is this shiny fine silk, which is not ahimsa, but this rough silk which they sell here in Vrindavan, which is not shiny but this little rough, that's supposedly a hymns whether it's really a hymns or not I don't know but I believe what I heard so as far as the silk is concerned that's the answer as far as the milk and your feeling that you need to justify your drinking milk in front of your meat-eating friends, I don't think you should really justify your drinking milk because for them, it's just a cheap excuse to justify their meat-eating. They just want to point out that you're also guilty and please don't get into this guilt trip. let them do whatever they like and you just explain to them that it's I mean it's still horrible to eat meat and as far as the cow's milk is concerned Srila Prabhupada said that we should still drink this cow milk because it's important for our development but at the same time we should also try to protect the cows and even if we cannot protect the cows which necessarily directly give us milk if we help cows maintain cows and go showers that will be okay that will also help us But, you know, don't try to justify all your actions in front of these people. They are not very honest. I think we should finish it. Okay, Dinevanashi Romani and Gavindananda, and that's it. I was asked yesterday in the starting class, I was able to explain about how our Shaddha is also related to the respect for the Lord, for the devotees. But sometimes when we respect the devotees specifically, those who are living with us, living with us, those were senior to us, out of some fear, because we have some conversations that we have to do surveys and other things. So that fear is there. And at the same time, there is like in the mind that I have heard in one of your lectures, fear leads to envy. And it doesn't long for so long, not for good for relationship also. It's not true, yes. And at the same time, that's the principle of Vaishnava's principle of power, and humility is there. So there is a tug of war in the mind, that goes on that how to reconcile between those things, and it becomes totally necessary. You cannot... Fear is not a good foundation for relationship. You cannot really build lasting and genuine relationship if you have fear. So there's something wrong if you feel that you have to fear this. This is not genuine respect. Genuine respect is the beginning stage of love. Because love starts from respect. but fear is something which is totally opposite to love if you have this fear, love will never appear in your heart so yes, we have to be humble we have to be respectful but respect should come not out of fear because if respect is out of fear it will be just external show of respect. It will not be real respect. So, and the moment we feel genuine respect to somebody, we will lose fear because you know, if we're respectful to somebody, then naturally he feels that we're respectful and there is no need to fear him. We are anyway respectful, so why should we fear him? We are anyway ready to do what he wants. Again, it's our attitude. Fear is the manifestation that something is wrong with us. If the moment our respect becomes genuine, fear will disappear from the heart. If it's based on genuine humility and respect and understanding that is respected, yeah, and sometimes people are rough, especially those people who are a little superior to us, but still we should not fear them. I remember I sometimes had some authorities over me who were very, very strong people, to say the least, and quite rough. But what I noticed, as soon as you become genuinely respectful to them, they also change their mood of living with you. they also become much more respectful to you if they feel that there is genuine respect and yes, sometimes they do manifest their impetuous nature that may be there but still, there is no fear real respect drives away fear yes Okay, that's for tomorrow. It's too late for two philosophical questions. Thank you very much. Shilam Prabhupada.