Anartha Nivritti. Lecture 3

Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Rama Rama Hare Hare. Thank you.

So let's stand together.

Vishvasyanatha rupa so bhakti vartma pradashana, bhakti chakra vartitattva chakra vartya kya yevayet. Hridvā pranavā bhakti śāsya vitate, Sanjīvānī svāgamā. Rāmve kāmatā pārtu dāhadamani, Vīśvā pāgolasvini. Durañe Marusha Kino Pisarasi Bhavaya Bhujya. Prabhu Sri Chaitanya Kripani Rankusha Mahā Madhurya Kadambini. Shri Chaitanya Kripaniya Kusamaha Madhurya Padambini. Bhakti hurva-shritatam tu Rasampas yetyadattati. Tam nomi satatam rupa Nama priyajanam hare Hare Kisela. Hare Kisela.

So, we are meditating on the words of Shiva Vishwanath Chakravartita Kuru, explaining the path of bhakti, commenting on the verses from Bhakti Rasamrita Sindhu.

And this morning we talked a little bit about the Mangalacharana verses for this book. How in these verses, Vishwana Chakravarthita Kuru in a poetical form expressed the essential message of the book. How bhakti, which is preached in this world by Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, gives consequently three results, and in this way changing the heart of all those who come in contact with mercy of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. And how Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu expressed his desire to Shri Rupa Goswami and Rupa Goswami explained Bhakti as rasa.

So that's Mangala Chirana verses and then we started talking about the first chapter of Madhuri Kananvini which explains the independent nature of Bhakti. And Bhakti is totally, completely independent as the Lord Himself. And therefore, it's very difficult to find the path. Because to find the path, we have to know the cause and effect relationship. But Bhakti, by definition, is causeless.

So, what are we supposed to do to attract Bhakti-Shakti, the descent of Bhakti-Shakti within our heart? It's called sadhana, but it's a very special kind of sadhana. It's sadhana which does not have the causal relationship with sadhya. Result is not entirely 100% guaranteed, but still there is a general way of manifestation of bhakti within our heart gradually through stages. So that's basically the essence of the first chapter where he was stressing again and again this point: bhakti is independent as much as the Lord is independent and they have six amazing qualities in common and therefore it's maha shakti because it's the full manifestation of the Lord. There is absolutely no difference between the Lord and His great energy of love.

So this is all very lofty concepts. And sometimes it's difficult for us to relate to them or to understand how they are practically applicable in our life. But Vishnana Chakravarti Thakur, when he explains the gradual manifestation of bhakti within our heart, he makes it extremely practical.

So let's accept the second shloka. He says that when the tiny atomic particle of bhakti, shakti, enters our heart, this atomic particle of bhakti is called bhakti-lata bīja. It's called bīja because the whole tree of spiritual relationship is there in this bīja, but still it's tiny and it's practically unmanifest.

So this Bhakti Lata bīja we know, it's basically Śraddhā, faith. And he starts explaining what happens within our heart when we achieve this Bhakti Lata bīja. So first of all, we have to understand what is this seed. And Śrīla Jīva Goswāmī explains in Bhakti Sandarbha while commenting on the verse *Bhavapavargo Brahmato Yada Bhavet*. This verse he explains that seed which we receive from sadhu is a certain kind of intelligence, mati, discriminating intelligence. So this is the first thing which is coming within our heart: the intelligence by which we can ascertain the truth. Certain inclination comes within our heart: I want to do something which is pleasing to the Lord or to this particular sadhu whom I see. So that's the very first manifestation of faith within our heart. We come in contact with sadhu and we feel spontaneous respect towards this sadhu and we feel spontaneous desire to do something which would be pleasing to him. We want to please him. So that's Śraddhā. That's what faith is. And basically as I explained yesterday, it's a very important point which we have to understand very clearly that it's the seed of prema, it's the stages of manifestation of love of God. And to understand how this tiny little seed works within our heart, we have to first understand how it acts within our heart when it's fully manifest.

So he says, this is explanation of Jīva Goswāmī in Priti Sandarbha and his commentary to Bhakti Rasa Amrita Sindhu. When love of God, what is it? Let's be practical and let's try to understand what is it. This is a very special sort of consciousness in which we want to do something which is pleasing to the object of our love. *Viṣayānukūlya-yātmaka*. So the nature of love and it's actually universal. If we love somebody, the first thing by which we can understand that some love is there within our heart is that we have spontaneous desire to do something which is favorable, which is pleasing to the object of our love. So by its very nature *viṣayānukūlyātmaka*, by its very nature *ātmaka*, it has this *anukūla*, the favorable attitude. If I love somebody in the material world, the same thing happens: I want to do something which is pleasing to him and I do not want to do anything which would be displeasing to him. That's the first manifestation. Of course it has gradations when it becomes very strong then it's real love.

So the second, it's basically the attitude towards the object of our love. The second manifestation or the second feature of love is that this object *anukūla-anugata-tat-spṛhā*. We develop desire, spṛhā, to do something which is dear to him. First is attitude, we just want to please him. Second is just active desire to do something which manifests in our activities. I want to do something which is pleasing, which is favorable to him.

And the third is the most important. It's a special state of mind which is full of enthusiasm due to the experience that the efforts of love actually resulted in the joy of the object. In other words, when we first have the desire to do something which is pleasing, then we do something which is pleasing and dear and then when we see that he is pleased with what we did, we become very happy because of this. So that's what love is. I don't care whether I'm happy or not, but when he is happy or she is happy, I feel extreme happiness and I actively desire to please him and do something for this. And when I feel this, I feel complete experience of bliss. So that's what love is.

And when we get the first tiny seed of love, when this first little experience of love comes to our heart, love of God in form of Śraddhā, this sort of attitude manifests towards Sadhu who is preaching bhakti. We see him and we develop the desire to please him, we do something which is pleasing and when we see that he is pleased, we are extremely pleased. Like disciples of Śrīla Prabhupāda, they said that when he would smile and Śrīla Prabhupāda had a very big smile coming from one ear to another ear. When he would smile like this, they would be extremely happy. So that's what it is. You learn, gradually learn how to experience happiness by giving happiness to the object of your love. And ultimately this experience becomes totally overwhelming and you become completely satisfied by these activities.

So this is what it is. And yeah, so when we don't love somebody, we are self-centered, we only think what is good for me, we only concern what is good coming to me. But when we start doing something for somebody else and we become other-centered, the center of our consciousness becomes different, then immediately our heart starts changing. This is the first thing which Viśvanātha Cakravartī Thākura explains: what happens when we experience Śraddhā. The seed which came to the soil of our heart starts changing the soil. It's like sometimes the soil is not very fertile. Sometimes it's very salty and nothing grows there. But the seed of love, Śraddhā, is a very special seed which changes the nature of the soil. When this sort of little first experience comes to our heart, we feel that we want to manifest the best of our nature. That's universal nature of love. When we love somebody, we want to manifest the best qualities which we have. We turn to the person with the best quality which we have. And basically as Viśvanātha Cakravartī Thākura says, the senses gradually lose their iron-like material qualities and acquire pure golden spiritual qualities. So the Śraddhā comes to our heart and our iron-like heart gradually, gradually transforms into golden heart. We don't have base qualities and very amazing beautiful qualities gradually, gradually manifest.

So, and when we love somebody in this material world, then it definitely has purifying effect on our heart. Everyone knows this. When you only think about the object of your love and you want to do something good for him and you don't care about yourself and you are so selfless and so heroic and you want to do some stupid things to please him or her. But the problem with the material love is that it's temporary. It's only there for a short time, you know, when you present some flowers and chocolate to somebody whom you love. But then ultimately, you know, you don't present flowers and chocolate, you want to take something from it. So, this change in case of material love is there, but it's temporary. But in case of Lord, of the Lord, this change, this transformation of the heart is permanent. The heart becomes golden with all good qualities.

So, and Viśvanātha Cakravartī Thākura explains that how this transformation takes place. When the seed is planted into the soil of our heart, then it sprouts and it gives two leaves, kleśāgni and śubhada. We feel relief of material distress and we feel that something very auspicious is taking place in our heart. So basically we all know, we start doing bhakti and we feel that suffering becomes less. I often tell the story when I became a devotee or not a devotee, I started doing something in the very beginning, all of a sudden I became completely causelessly happy. In the meantime I was kicked out from my job, KGB came to me, I was interrogated, my friends were put in prison, but I was happy. So all my relatives they became very concerned, they said you know something really bad is happening to you and they started saying you know what is going on and I said I don't know, I'm just happy, I don't know about anything else. So so this sort of strange experience is coming to us when the first little tiny seed of love appears within our heart and it gradually, gradually starts growing.

So basically we are not explaining it in very details, basically what is kleśa? Kleśa, the suffering relief of which we experience when the śraddhā appears within our heart is this sinful proclivities. Because sinful proclivities, based on our material consciousness, on the bodily consciousness, is the cause of suffering. Sometimes people think that suffering is the result of sinful activities. It's a big mistake. Actually, sinful activities are suffering. If we understand it very clearly, and if we really analyze it carefully, we will understand that it's not that the sinful reaction is suffering. The sin is suffering. All these activities which we do when we are inclined to break regulative principles, they are suffering from beginning to end. So the kleśāgni basically means that gradually, gradually this sort of sinful proclivities disappear. And it means that our prārabdha karma is being purified. For somebody who is doing Viṣṇu Bhakti, gradually, gradually, all his karmas and all the proclivities, all the tendencies which are there created by our karma, are gradually purified up to the level of Prārabdha karma. We will talk about this later.

So, and there are stages of this. You all know this. I will not talk about this. It's a common knowledge.

And then Śubhā, the second result of Śraddhā or the tiny, not even Śraddhā, the tiny little seed, which is there in the very beginning. It's the appearance of good qualities: disinterest in material affairs, favorable attitude towards the service of the Lord, mercy, forgiveness, truthfulness, simplicity, equanimity, fortitude, gravity, respectfulness, humility and being pleasing to all. This is the list of good qualities which naturally appears within the heart of the devotee. Please do the exercise and check and tell me how many, what is the percentage of your heart being transformed? Basically that's the gradual process which we have to understand and it goes on to a certain extent. We lose interest to material affairs, to a certain extent we develop interest to the service of the Lord. We develop some compassion, mercy, forgiveness. We are more capable of forgiving other people, we develop desire to speak truth and nothing except for truth, simplicity is coming, equanimity, all these qualities are coming. And that's the natural state of pure heart and that's, as I said, just natural result of beginning contact with bhakti, according to Viśvanātha Cakravartī Thākura.

And then the first stage of development of pure devotional services in the heart is this śraddhā. And that's a very important concept which we will speak in little more details. So the very word Śraddhā means Śraddhā. Śraddhā means Sat. Sat means truth. Sat means existence. Sat means something real. And Dha means to uphold. So there is material and there is spiritual Śraddhā. What is material Śraddhā? Material Śraddhā, basically, which is explained in Bhagavad Gītā in the 17th chapter of Bhagavad Gītā. It's the mental attitude which reproduces our existence. Satya's existence. Dha is to maintain the existence. Krishna very clearly says in the 17th chapter of Bhagavad Gītā: everyone has Śraddhā. It's not that only devotees they have some Śraddhā, everyone else doesn't have any Śraddhā. Everyone has Śraddhā. Our existence is based on Śraddhā, on faith. We have to believe in something. If we don't believe, we will not be able to do anything. To come to this room, we have to believe that this room, the floor of this room will not break while we're here. Which is not an obvious statement. To be sure, we should first check whether it is built strongly enough. Anyway, it's a stupid example. The idea is that we believe in something and the set of our beliefs, what we believe in, is exactly reflects our karma. Everyone believes in different things. Somebody believes that he should behave in a very rough way and he should be very rude and he should establish his superiority. Somebody believes that he should be very humble and nice to other people. So we have certain beliefs and the meaning of material Śraddhā is that it reproduces our existence. Everyone behaves in such a way that he more or less reproduces the way he is. He reinforces the conceptions which he anyway believes. He has certain set of conceptions and then he acts based on these conceptions, believing in these conceptions and that basically creates his existence. So Śraddhā is the basis of existence. Therefore Krishna says, *Śraddhā-mayo 'yaṁ puruṣa*. Puruṣa is made of Śraddhā. It's completely made of faith.

But then spiritual faith is something different. Śraddhā or śraddhā here means truth. And dha means hold or uphold. So spiritual śraddhā is the attitude to be devoted to truth. I want to find truth. I want to find real truth. This sort of attitude means that we have some spiritual inclination or spiritual śraddhā. And some people naturally, they want to find truth. And then they become devotees and then they forget about this. Somehow or other. But actually that's the essence, the beginning of our spiritual search. We came here only for this purpose because we wanted to find what is the truth, what is the reality, what is the deeper essence of existence and how we should live.

So that's two understandings of Śraddhā. Material Śraddhā reproduces our false identity and false way of living. But spiritual Śraddhā, which we get by association with people, spiritual Śraddhā pushes us, gives us the impetus to find the truth because we feel there is higher truth in this and therefore I have to go this no matter what. From the material point of view, it may be totally pointless or senseless, but from the spiritual point of view, I have to do it because this is my internal inclination. So spiritual Śraddhā actually is the bridge between material experience and spiritual experience. When we have material, we reproduce our material experience. We always confirm the same thing which we already know or which we believe in. If we believe that this world and everyone in the world is evil, we will get plenty of confirmation that everyone is evil again and again and again. We will behave in such a way that we will encounter only evil nature of people. This is Śraddhā. I believe that everyone is evil. I act based on this belief and naturally it is confirmed. This is the reality. So the material Śraddhā reproduces our experience which we already have, confirms our experience. But spiritual śraddhā, when we get it, becomes the bridge to obtain new experience. That's why it is so important. To obtain new experience, not to confirm what we already know, which we already anyway know, but to get something new, we need to get spiritual śraddhā.

And the only source of spiritual śraddhā is the association with Sadhus. So basically what we get when we encounter with the Sadhus, when we meet Sadhus, we get the śraddhā while listening to him, śraddhā in the infallibility of fundamental teachings of the scriptures regarding God, individual soul, universe, Māyā, and the interrelationship final conclusion. That's the quote from one of Śrīla Prabhupāda's God brothers, his definition of Śraddhā.

And also, there are two points in Śraddhā. Śraddhā has always two aspects in its spiritual Śraddhā. First is firm conviction that Śāstras speak truth while describing reality. While investigating the bigger picture of reality described in Śāstra, we feel this is true picture. And another aspect of this is solemn aspiration to attentively follow the process of devotion described in the scriptures. This is actually is here. This is Sanskrit from Madhurya Kāñjanī. So Viśvanātha Cakravartī Thākura says, *ityatra śraddhā bhakti śabdābhyām ādarā eva ucyate*. So the first śraddhā manifest is respect, reverence, ādarā towards the path of bhakti and towards those people who represent the path of bhakti.

So when we get this respect, the respect destroys the disrespect which produce offense. And because it destroys this offensive nature which we have, *anadarālambanatāt*, viṣṇu, the anādar is viṣṇu, is the obstacle towards our path. And the faith basically eradicates or at least weakens our offensive nature. When we come in contact with devotees and we develop the initial respect towards them, immediately we feel this change in the heart that we become less offensive. Of course after some time it comes back, we don't have to worry about this, but the initial result is definitely there. We feel a lot of respect and desire to please others and our offensive nature becomes less prominent. Who can confirm this in his own or her own experience? Please raise your hands. It's definitely there. There is definitely a change of heart. We start speaking differently, behaving differently. That's all very good science of Śraddhā.

And of course Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Thākura explains that Śraddhā is the special qualification to perform Ananya Bhakti, one-pointed Bhakti. And the other aspect of Śraddhā is also very important. We know Kāpiladeva says that Śraddhā, first of all, this is the description from the commentary. Śraddhā is satsaṅga-vāhinī. It rides on satsaṅga. Every spiritual entity and Śraddhā is goddess has its vāhana. So we know that Krishna has his vāhana Garuda, Viṣṇu has Garuda and of course Krishna, his Vāhana is Śrīdam. So that's his Vāhana and Viṣṇu has Garuda and Brahma has Svan and who else? Śiva has Bull and Śraddhā God is Śraddhā, her Vāhinī is Satsaṅga. Satsaṅga-vāhinī. This is the vehicle on which Śraddhā is riding in this world.

And it's Rasāyana. Rasāyana means Śraddhā means Rasāyana gives the strength and it increases the immunity. So the idea here is that when we have Śraddhā, Śraddhā helps us to overcome the obstacles on the spiritual path. When the Śraddhā is very strong, then we can overcome any obstacle. And when Śraddhā is very weak, it's very difficult. Somebody looked at us, some devotee looked at us in a strange way, and already our Śraddhā is shaken. I thought that there are devotees and there are demons. Because again, śraddhā means the faith and respect towards devotees and towards the path of bhakti initially. And when this faith is very strong, no matter what, if somebody is doing something strange, our faith is very strong, this is not an obstacle. Like, I know in my 40 plus years of attempts to do some devotional service, somebody is doing something strange, and devotees become very shaken in their faith, and they lose faith and they go away. Why should you go away if somebody is doing something strange? There was this story with Śrīla Prabhupāda. When devotees started leaving Krishna consciousness, somebody ran into Prabhupāda's room and said, Prabhupāda, Prabhupāda, what happens with them? They are leaving. They are blooping. What happens with them? Śrīla Prabhupāda said, it's normal. Those who remain, that's something strange. To live, it's normal. So, basically, when you have the faith in the path of devotional service, it's very difficult to surprise you. If somebody is doing something strange, you are not surprised. You are just, yeah, it's normal. So you appreciate the devotion and the practice of devotion in other people and because you have this strong faith then it's not an obstacle.

So and there are so many other obstacles. You get some disease and if you get disease you may experience severe faith crisis. How is that? I am a devotee, I'm not supposed to get sick, something is wrong, probably God doesn't you know he's miscalculated something, what's going on or something else happens. We lose some whatever it is. If Śraddhā is strong, we are strong. No obstacles can hinder our progress in devotional service. And another aspect of Rasāyana. Rasāyana gives us the strength and Rasāyana increases immunity. That's the effect of Rasāyana. And basically it means that Rasāyana or Śraddhā protects us from material contamination. We are not affected by all these material things which are going on around us. So, that's another aspect of Śraddhā.

And finally, Śraddhā can also be compared with hunger. And if we have strong hunger, then the spiritual practice which we do, if we have strong hunger, then the food gives us strength. If we don't have strong hunger, the more we eat, the weaker we become. We're supposed to become stronger, but we're becoming weaker because it's not digested. It becomes poison within our body. In the same way, when Śraddhā is strong, then all our spiritual practices give us extra strength. But when Śraddhā is weak, we do spiritual practices. Sometimes people with very weak śraddhā, they try to chant one lakh, two lakhs, three lakhs, and they become weaker spiritually. Because they cannot digest it. It's not the practice which is according to the level of their faith. So it's not appropriate and therefore it's not recommended. That's also a very important thing.

And when our faith is very strong, then it brings us to the proper destination. But basically that's the comparison with this. If the faith is very strong, then it's like the current of Ganga. And Ganga is always pure. When the faith is strong, we feel this current of our consciousness, it always strives towards the Lord and it's always pure and it goes in the proper direction. But when the faith becomes weak, then all kinds of strange processes starts appearing within our heart in a similar way like a little puddle becomes contaminated with all kinds of microbes and fungus and all kinds of bad things. So that's the description of the heart which is not connected with current of Śraddhā.

What to do? The metaphor which is given: when all these little puddles with muddy water, contaminated water is there, but when the rain is pouring then these little puddles can again be connected with Ganga. And this connection with Ganga, this flow of Bhakti is basically the revival of our original nature. And the idea here is that this flow which can completely free our contaminated consciousness, contaminated with different selfish desires, is satsaṅga. When we come in contact with sadhus, the little consciousness which we have is being washed away by the flow of the Harikathā. That's the comparison. If we come to a real current of Harikathā, the Harikathā is going on and you become totally overwhelmed and pleased with the current of it, then you forget about all your selfish little desires and you even physically feel that you're purified in heart, that the purification of heart is taking place.

So again, the śraddhā very much depends on the association and on the hearing process. And I explained also this comparison, I think, this is the last thing which I will explain, let me see. Yeah, yeah, that's where we'll start. Yeah. Anyway, maybe we should just... Yeah. Okay.

So this is the Sūtra from Yoga Sūtra of Patañjali Muni. *Śraddhā-vīrya-smṛti-samādhi-prajñā-pūrvakaḥ haitareṣa*. So this is the direct way to Samādhi according to yoga scripture. First you get Śraddhā in the very beginning, which means the respect. And then Śraddhā gives Vīrya. Vīrya means concentrated endeavors. That's yoga path. Then Vīrya brings Smṛti, constant remembering or again, very focused mind. Then focused mind naturally brings Samādhi, the complete concentration and absorption of our consciousness and ultimately prajñā, wisdom or realization. So this is how it is described in yoga and if we can look in the path of bhakti, we can see a correlation or extreme similarity with this. First the faith and faith gives the desire to practice, bhajana-kriyā. And then this is vīrya. The desire to practice devotional service then this vīrya turns into firm faith and firm faith corresponds to smṛti, constant remembering. Our faith becomes so strong that we constantly remember I am a devotee, this is the main goal of all my endeavors, I have to achieve Krishna. And then firm faith niṣṭhā turns into bhāva which is samādhi and samādhi is turned into prajñā in the case of yoga and in our case it turns into prema. So it starts with faith. Faith is extremely important and there are two aspects of this. I already said one is faith in the scriptures in the essential message of scriptures and another one is the solemn determination to follow this path. I already explained this and basically this is the last thing which I do today before we finish.

So I said many things about Śraddhā but to summarize it has six aspects. We usually say faith and we think it's just one thing, but it's not one thing. It has six aspects and six features and they are actually the stages of developing śraddhā. In the very first stage, by meeting with the sadhu, you develop respect towards bhakti, the path of bhakti towards bhaktas, towards spiritual master. In the second stage, you start hearing him with the desire to understand śāstra in a systematic manner. This is very important element of developing faith. First, we have initial encounter with sadhu, But then we have to systematically hear from him how he explains Śāstra. This is very beautifully described by Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura in Jaiva Dharma. Then the next stage of developing our faith is that the paralyzing doubts, saṁśayas, which are obstacles in our path, they become clear. Then the firm faith in the meaning of Śāstra, Śāstrīya-śraddhā is firm. Then because of this firm faith, the desire to surrender and complete fearlessness appears within our heart. We are not afraid to surrender ourselves. And ultimately, we start acting with a very strong hope to achieve desired goal, even though we don't have any rational basis for this hope. We still hope to achieve it. So that's the characteristic of faith. Just by meeting with bhaktas and developing some respect, hearing them, we remove all the doubts, the firm faith will appear, surrender will naturally follow, and very strong hope, which is the manifestation of strong faith, will also take place within our heart, and we will perform sadhana with this strong faith. Yes, I will meet Krishna, no doubt about it. He is waiting for me and sooner or later he will reveal himself to me. And Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says that the śāstra which forms our faith is Bhagavad-gītā. Bhagavad-gītā is Mīmāṁsā śāstra. The śāstra which is important for the foundation of forming our faith. So that's part, an important part of the second chapter. And tomorrow, very quickly, we will finish everything else, whatever remains. But for today, it's enough. I think it is. So maybe there is one, two questions. Many questions. Many questions. Okay. You didn't ask.

Hi, Viśvanātha. Maniṭ, you just mentioned the six characteristics of Śraddhā. You also mentioned in the previous, in the process, that this can happen both Svābhāvika as well as Bālābhiprāya. Yeah, that I will explain next. My question is, how these characteristics can be done in some kind of a pressure, in the sense of... If my doubts are gone, if I've heard scriptures, and I have a fear... No, no. This is the description. It's a mistake. This is the description of development of Śāstrīya-śraddhā. Bālābhiprāya, it's a completely different story. So we'll talk about this tomorrow. Thank you.

If we don't have bhāva and we are imitating bhāva, it's also kind of a subtle nama of bhāva. So how to reconcile this? No, we are not imitating bhāva. But we have to be very clear, imitation of bhāva doesn't help. And Śrīla Prabhupāda indeed says that those people who are imitating bhāva, they are just ambience. They are imitating bhāva because they see somebody manifest the real symptoms of bhāva. I become emphasis to them and I start pretending they also have bhāva. So it's not a question of imitating bhāva. It doesn't help. *Kriyā sadhyā bhavet, sadhyā bhavā sa sadhanā vidhā*. On the stage of sadhana, we perform our sadhana with clear understanding and goal that we will achieve bhāva, we should achieve bhāva. But we are not imitating bhāva.

So Prabhu there, bhāva means enthusiastic bhakti? Bhāva means emotional aspect of bhakti. When we feel overwhelming emotions towards the Lord. We don't feel. No, no, we shouldn't perform with bhāva. I didn't say we should perform with bhāva. I said that we should have very clear understanding that bhāva is the goal. It's not that we should perform with bhāva. Bhāva will come. Bhāva is not in our command. You cannot just order Bhāva. No, we should not perform this Bhāva, but we should be very clear that Bhāva is the goal. The goal is there. What is Bhāva? The word Bhāva, Sanskrit word Bhāva is coming from the word Bhu. Bhu means to be. But more exactly, more specifically, is to become. Bhāva is the state of being. So when we say that a certain stage of our development, spiritual development, is called bhāva, it basically means that we change our status, our existential status. Now our nature, at this moment of time, our nature is being attached to this material world. But achieving bhāva means our nature is completely transformed. We become totally spiritualized in our nature. So there's no question of imitating bhāva. You cannot imitate bhāva.

Yeah. Enthusiasm, yes. Enthusiasm is not bhāva. Enthusiasm is enthusiasm. Enthusiasm means we have a lot of energy and this energy is coming from faith as I said, faith is rasāyana and rasāyana gives strength and gives immunity and helps us to do a lot in devotional service without problems. So that's the faith in bhakti. We are devoted to the truth but in material it goes by experience but in bhakti also we are going by experience. In the present we go by experience, we get so much experience and that gives more impetus to do it. Yeah, what I was trying to explain is that there is material śraddhā. And the essence of material Śraddhā is that it more or less reproduces our status, our level of existence. And it gives us certain experience which we expect to get. And the spiritual Śraddhā gives us completely different experience. So both are experience. And therefore I said that spiritual śraddhā is the bridge from material experience towards the new experience towards spiritual experience. Material śraddhā doesn't give any new experience, it only confirms which you already more or less know. But spiritual śraddhā, it's the search for truth and because it's the search for truth because it gives us a new experience. In material existence we only believe in some sort of distorted reality which we already kind of know because of our karma. So, and therefore, Śraddhā or Śraddhā is just a reproduction of our experience. But ultimately the desire to know the truth is there. And if we encounter with bhaktas and bhakti, we get the new experience, which we will never get in our material life.

Maharaj, you are telling that sinful activity itself is suffering. So sin is cause of suffering. But how is sinful activity from the beginning and end? Because I enjoy doing sinful activities. How is it suffering? You only enjoy doing sinful activities because you don't understand that this is suffering. When you become a devotee, you understand that it's suffering. Eating meat is suffering. You don't understand this because your consciousness is so absorbed in this sinful activities. But when you objectively start absorbing these activities, you understand it's suffering. It's just misunderstanding of people who are doing this, but ultimately it is not enjoyment, it is suffering. Drinking, you know. If somebody is not doing this, somebody, when somebody smokes the first cigarette, he suffers like anything. But then, because of sadhana, it becomes pleasurable. When somebody first drinks this, you know, whiskey or whatever, it's horrible. It's really horrible. But then, you know, you get used to it, and you say, oh, this is very nice. But it's suffering. Smoking is suffering. Drinking all these alcoholic beverages is suffering. This, you know, ungrateful syrup. It's suffering. Sex is horrible suffering. I will not get into details. It is such a hassle. Eating meat is suffering, stealing is suffering. All the sinful activities are suffering. It's just people get used to it and if you get used to it you basically start enjoying anything because this is how the consciousness works. But ultimately it is objective. Watching TV, you know, you're sitting there in front of this screen, what is first of all, watching TV is not sinful activity, it's stupid activity. There is a difference between sinful activity and stupid. There is no regulative principles, don't watch. Okay.

I wanted to understand more deeply between spiritual and material faith. So why is it that very often this material faith is so much stronger? Even in the devotees, when some nonsense concepts appear, they're accepted with a lot of enthusiasm by many devotees. Because, again, as I said, material faith is based on our experience and we just get the confirmation of what we already know and therefore it's very strong. Like for example, this is how propaganda works. We believe in something and then we find a certain kind of propaganda which confirms what we already believe. And we hear them and we become very joyful that they confirm what we already know. But from the very beginning we choose a particular way of presenting the truth. This is how propaganda works. We want to hear this and then we hear and we say oh look they are saying this but ultimately we just want to hear what they what they are saying and because our material faith is based on experience and our spiritual experience is very weak therefore material faith is stronger and therefore the struggle is there and therefore to overcome material faith, we have to strengthen our spiritual faith, the faith in scripture. When scripture says that there is God, and this God is wandering here in Vraj, and he's herding cows, well, we don't have so much experience in this. We just have to believe in it and therefore it's naturally more weak whereas certain things have proven their efficacy in our life therefore our faith in them is stronger but gradually, gradually our spiritual faith also becomes strong as much as we gain some experience.

Sometimes we feel like when we practice devotion service we feel as if we are in a place like the current of Ganga is so pure and everything but other times we feel as if we have contaminated dirty, muddy water. So how to remain in that pure consciousness all the time? The only way to remain in this pure consciousness all the time is to remain in sadhu-saṅga all the time because our tendency will be like this. We will be kind of isolated and when we are isolated, when we are alone with our mind, then naturally some contamination, some bacteria comes and contaminate the water of our consciousness. Therefore, we have to be in this current. Therefore, we have to be in the sadhu-saṅga.

Hi, I was late to mention about the spiritual śāstra. How to send them to spiritual śāstra? Because even though we are hearing regularly and associating also, but still when we, specifically when we have some material contamination, when we go to breaching and so many things we have to face, but at that time we face, in the reverse sense we become a little weak. So what are the key factors that we have to take care to keep on others? One of the key factors is not just here, it is specifically mentioned by Śrīla Jīva Goswāmī that's from his Bhakti-sandarbha that we should hear in a systematic manner. We usually hear in a very chaotic manner, not in a very systematic way. We hear from here, from there little bit and we don't have the complete picture and therefore this aśraddhā, what is it? Kramahīna. Kramahīna-śraddhā. The śraddhā which is not systematic, which is not according to the system, it doesn't create a very firm foundation for our belief. And therefore we hear something which is apparently contradictory to what we heard before and we develop some doubts. So that's perhaps the most important aspect. We hear very carefully. We try to understand what is being said and we try to systematize it and get a very clear, beautiful, logical structure. That's why there is Śruti-Prasthāna, Smṛti-Prasthāna and Nyāya-Prasthāna. Nyāya-Prasthāna, the logical exposition of the tenets of our belief is very important. These three Prasthānas, they bring us to truth. So, basically that's the most important.

In a practical aspect, what is systematic hearing applies to? We regularly hear lectures and reading, so reading to the Prabhupāda's books and hearing lectures, what exactly? Well, systematic means you know Bhagavad Gītā first and Bhagavad Gītā, as I said, is Mīmāṁsā Śāstra. It is the Śāstra which creates the śraddhā. And you understand very clearly Bhagavad Gītā. If you understand Bhagavad Gītā, your śraddhā will become very strong. Just this one little book is enough. But then if you still have some doubts, now in the beginning if you start, you know, like I remember one disciple of mine, he came to me and he said, I lost my śraddhā. I said, what is the problem? He said, when I read that Putana was one year long, I lost my śraddhā completely. So, if you start from the tenth canto of Srimad Bhāgavatam, they will never develop her śraddhā. Because, you know, the first obstacle in your devotional past will be to imagine how Putana was one Yojana high. And who would be matched to her if she would get married and how big her children would be. All kinds of very important doubts will appear. So therefore first Bhagavad-Gītā. So first Bhagavad-Gītā and then even Bhagavad-Gītā if you read it, you may develop some doubts. I think there is one very important aspect which is missing in our culture is that sincere doubts which we have and the culture of expressing this sincere doubt. Sometimes we're a little shy and we don't want to express our doubts openly and don't want to admit the doubts there. So that's another thing which is important. Sometimes we hide our doubts even from ourselves. We do have doubts but we're hiding. It's not the culture to ask openly about these doubts. So to listen carefully, listen systematically and then ask questions to dissipate doubts. I think this is a good place to finish. Thank you very much.

Oh, Mother, Hare Krishna. For you, I have to answer your question. So Maharaj, how to develop bhāva by doing kīrtana? How to develop bhāva by doing kīrtana? While doing kīrtana. While doing kīrtana. Just do it wildly. He will develop bhāva. It's not a problem. You will have bhāva, no problem. At least somebody should have it. Thank you very much. Śrīla Prabhupāda Ki Jaya.