Anartha Nivritti. Lecture 1

Shri Guru Shri Yodapadapa Shri Guru Vaishnava Mishya Shri Ropa Sagrajata Sadamnara Vinata Vitam Tamsa Jeeva Sadvaitam Savadrutam Parijana sahitam Krishna Chaitanya Devam Sri Radha Krishna Panam Sahagana Narita Sri Visakarita Mishya E Krishna Karna Sindho Dhinavandho Jagatpate Gopeshya Gopita Kanta Rada Kanta Namostate Kapta Vanchana O Rangi Pradevrinavaneshvari Sri Sāvanu Sūnthedevi Rāmi Haripire Vāñcākālpa Taro Vyāścā Vrivājindu Vyavacā Pārita Nām Pārībhyo Vāśmādivyo Namo Nama Shri Krishna Chaitanya Prabhupada Nanda Shri Advaita Drakhara Shri Vasa Diva Rabhaktavinda Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare. Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare Hare I am a person who is a person who is a person who is a person who is a person who is a person who is a person who is a person who is a person who is a person who is a person who is a person who is a person who is a person who is a person who is a person who is a person who is a person who is a person who is a person who is a person who is a person who is a person who is a person who is a person who is a person who is a person who is a person who is a person who is a person who is a person who is a person who is a person who is a person who is a person who is a person who is a person who is a person who is a person who is a person who is a person who is a person who is a person who is a person who is a person who is a person who is a person who is a person who is a person who is a person who is a person who is a person who is a person who is a person who is a person who is a I am very happy to see all of you. Today I looked in Gaudiya Vaishnava calendar of Panchang and found out that today is Mangalvar and Barani Nakshatra and Chaturthi Tiddhi. It's the worst tithi, worst nakshatra and worst vara. So I think it's a very auspicious beginning. I'm sure our retreat will have a great success. because bhakti does not depend on the things. Bhakti is transcendental. And ultimately we are here to talk about Krishna and it's the most auspicious place in the universe to talk about Krishna because Krishna himself lifted Gowardhan Hill and invited the whole world under the shelter of Gowardhan Hill. So I'll start with a little introduction. We'll talk about Madhuri Kadambini. I started this topic in February in the beginning of February in Goa and we covered two chapters of Madhuri Kadamini so tomorrow I will give a brief overview of the previous classes and from the evening or whatever, let's see we will start the next chapter of Madhuri Kadamini which is the most important chapter. The chapter which is describing process of eradicating an artis. How an artis are being washed off our heart and how the original pristine purity is being established within the heart. So this will be the topic of our discussions this year. Hopefully we will cover two chapters, the third and fourth chapter, which is Nishta. and from the next year we will reach Ruchi, Asakti and then easily bow at them. So this year it will be a little difficult but from the next year onwards it will be just very nice. It's a little advertisement for the next year retreat. But I will start from explaining this beautiful bhajan, one of my favorite bhajans, written by Naratam Das Thakur, which is called Lala Samai Pratana. It's a prayer full of eagerness, full of lalasa, intense desire. And actually, this intense desire is the key for our success. our main problem is the lack of intense desire we have a lot of theoretical knowledge we have a lot of different things but ultimately everything will remain dead and useless without of intense desire it will just remain an external show of bhakti and we may deceive others we may even deceive ourselves we may think that everything is fine we are fine you know like little children they just like this and we look at them and we see oh they are pure devotees so and then just wait for a few years you will find out what's the reality on the ground but in the beginning they are like this so in the similar way we as a neophyte devotees as a beginning devotees we are like this and we can make a good show of pure devotion but ultimately it's not a condition it's not a question of the external soul, it's the question of the reality of the heart and heart means desires this is what heart means When we talk about heart, we talk about desires. And if our desires are strong enough, then the path of bhakti is very easy, smooth and ultimately successful. But if desires, spiritual desires are not so strong, then the material desires will be pulling us back. We will try to strive towards Krishna, but there will be very strong force which would be tearing us apart. And that's a big problem. You know, sometimes I receive letters and people say, you know, I'm doing everything, I'm doing everything. Why nothing happens? Why I'm still there? well because we do have desire no doubt about it if we didn't have desire spiritual desire, desire to achieve Krishna desire to come to him desire to love him to serve him we wouldn't be here but this desire is not strong enough and it's only very superficial conscious desire whereas deep down in the subconsciousness there is a lot of very strong desires which we may not even be aware of but they are still keeping us from going forward they are keeping us bound to this place in the material world and if we look in our heart yes we do have some spiritual desires but ultimately it's not so bad here isn't it? it's not so bad it's still not so hot soon it will be very hot but let's see and it's not so bad we have prasadam nice everything is nice so therefore this strengthening of our desire is the most crucial point. See, this is the confirmation. It's the most crucial point and therefore Narottam Dastakur, he wrote this song because where do we get desire? we cannot really squeeze out desire we cannot really artificially we can but ultimately it doesn't work desire is not just some hysterical condition yeah, yeah I want, I want, I want no, it has to have very deep roots in our heart. And the association with advanced devotees is the only cause for genuine desire. Naratam Das Takura is expressing this desire and his idea is to transmit this desire to us. Repeating his words which are coming from this place of his heart where he sincerely desires to love Krishna and to understand Krishna if we repeat these words then a little shadow of his desire will come to us therefore it is again and again said in our scriptures that sadhu sangha, sadhu sangha, sadhu sangha so much stress is given to sadhu sangha even very short lava matra sadhu sangha sarva siddhi ho even very short moment of association with sadhu can change the condition of our heart whereas if we just theoretically try to understand bhakti it's the same as to try to theoretically learn how to swim. You may theoretically learn how to swim. It will not save you if you are in the water. You will drown. You will not really swim. So bhakti is a practical discipline and for any practical discipline if you want to excel it, if you want to achieve perfection in any practical discipline, you need some personal association with somebody who is more advanced. There is no question of achieving anything in terms of practical disciplines unless you associate with somebody who is expert in this field. So that's why again and again and again it is stress, sadhu sangha, sadhu sangha. And Naratam Dastakur is giving us his sadhu sangha. It's the best which he can give to us at this moment of time. And while repeating the words of Naratam Dastakura, we should try to really feel what he is feeling while crying. Goranga boli te habe pulaka sharira. He is really crying for this moment when he would say Goranga. not just sometimes we say go Ranga go Ranga go Ranga but no Pula Kachalira so he says when I will say this from the place in my heart in such a way that all my hairs will stand on end it basically means when will I understand who is Gauranga and what he came to give what is the gift of Lord Gauranga what he did give to us to most fallen people of Kali Yuga he gave the most amazing He gave the most elevated experience of love, which is available to us. The most elevated experience of love of Shīmāti Radharāṇī. Unata Ujvala Rasa Svabhakti Srim. Srila Rupa Goswami, he coined this phrase. What he gave? He gave Unata Ujvala Rasa. Ujvala Rasa means Parakyya Rasa. Parakyya Rasa among all the Rasa of spiritual world is the most elevated. But he gave Unata Ujvala Rasa. Not just Ujvala Rasa. Not just Parakyya Rasa. Unata Ujvala Rasa means the Rasa which is experienced by Shri Mati Radharani herself. Svabakti Shriyam, because we cannot experience what she experienced, but we can experience the shadow or the effulgence of her experience. Therefore he says, Unata Ujvala Rasa Svabakti Shriyam, the effulgence of the love of Shri Mati Radharani. and basically he is talking about the most amazing spiritual phenomenon which is explained in Ujjvalani Lamani where Srila Rupa Goswami is explaining how intensity of love of Shri Mati Radharani is so strong that whoever comes close and gets under the influence he will experience the same feelings which she experiences herself. And Goranga Mahabrabhu came to experience this feeling and to give it to us. To give access to the same feelings to all of us. And if we start understanding this, we kind of become familiar. Yeah, yeah, Chaitanya Mahabrabhu. Yes, yes, yes. No problem. Hare Krishna. So, It's a very unfortunate condition of living entities when they become familiar with something and they forget the greatness of what they encounter with. It's very, very unfortunate. And sometimes we need to hear somebody else to explain. Like recently I listened to Katha on YouTube by Rajendra Maharaj from Ramananda Sampradaya. He's famous here in Vrindavan. He gives very sweet Katha. And usually he speaks about Bhaktamal or Ram Katha or sometimes Bhagavad Katha. But I opened his Katha about Chaitanya Mahabhub. and he started speaking about Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and it was so amazingly sweet to hear how he explains the sweetness of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and glory of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and his and his gift and he basically says yes the Lord himself has come he took the fulgence of Shri Mati Radharani and he came as Chaitanya Mahaprabhu And he distributed this love in form of And he says now the whole world is chanting Hare Krishna. Who except for God himself can do it? And of course he said Prabhupada did it. He admitted that it was his Prabhupada's. He's fed it. Anyway, so he says, Gauranga Bolite Habe Pulakasharira. When will I say Gauranga with understanding who is Gauranga? And then at this very moment, Hare Hare Bolite Naya Nebhada Nira. Then I will start chanting Hare Krishna and the tears will flow from my eyes. Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Hare Hare. so now when we chant Hare Krishna we don't have tears but at least we should have tears we should cry because we don't have tears that would be a good good way to get some tears while we are chanting we should understand it's not it's not something ordinary Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare So he basically says when will I understand who is Guranga Mahaprabhu? Then only I will be able to chant Hare Krishna with a proper mood and with a proper eagerness and with the proper desire to or proper understanding that Hare Krishna is non-different from Krishna himself. But then he says how this process of transformation of the heart, change of the heart takes place. Because again, it's not a question of squeezing out tears from our eyes. It's a question of experiencing something not ordinary. And he explains how this is happening, the stages of transformation of the heart, which is basically the subject matter of our retreat. The gradual transformation of the heart. He says that the first thing, he says, The first thing is to get the mercy of Nittai Chant, who is the original spiritual master. The first condition, the first unnecessary condition is to please spiritual master in such a way that his heart would melt and all the blessings which he has within his heart, all the spiritual experience which he accumulated within his heart, by the power of our service and humble mood, would be transferred from his heart to our heart. It's a very special process of downloading information. We all know how to download files from internet. That's not so difficult. But to download mercy from the heart of spiritual master is a little tricky process. It's not just to push the button and then it downloads. No. For that, the whole process is there. You're sincerely trying and you don't want anything. Of course, you do want something. This is mercy. But you don't say this. You just say, I don't want anything. I just want to serve. but if you are insistent enough and sincere enough if it's really you know like sometimes you see how people are trying and you cannot just you cannot help but be moved by their sincere endeavors you see how sincerely they are trying and then even if you don't want your heart anyway melts and when it's melted then the mercy is being downloaded it's not the process is not like this you know give me a shirvat yeah get out of here so that's not the process the process is that I sincerely try to please my spiritual master and by my sincere endeavors he gives me his mercy and then what is the sign that I receive the mercy samsara vasana maura kade tu chahade he says that the next stage when we get the mercy then samsara vasana the vasanas which we have, which keep us tight in this material existence in this samsara which actually bind us to this material world they become tucha they become insignificant the desires to enjoy this material world become very weak to such an extent that they are not anymore able to influence us in our actions, in our words, and even in our thought process. Now we are not really controlling, to a certain extent we may control our actions, to a lesser extent we may control our speech, even to a much lesser extent we may control or we can control our thought process. Because it is controlled by whom? It is controlled by karma. It is controlled by vasanas which we have. It is controlled by the experiences which we have from previous lives. It is some very strong program. And this strong program is basically directing us, pushing us in a certain way. So he says, as soon as we receive the mercy of spiritual master, we achieve freedom. And freedom basically means I can choose. I can still go along with my karma. Follow the program which is there and follow the, you know, the destiny which I have. and any astrologer can tell you what you should do but at the same time he says because it becomes tucha tucha basically means that you don't have to follow it you have the freedom to choose whether you want to follow it or you don't want to follow it and you still may want to follow it but if you are intelligent enough then you will realize that you don't have to do it. This is the meaning of tucha. It's not that all the karma leaves us the moment we receive the mercy of spiritual master. No, karma is still there, but the freedom is also there. Whereas when we only have karma, but no mercy of spiritual master, then there is no freedom, only karma. So, and then he says the most amazing and beautiful thing, the moment when I give up the bishoy, the object of senses, the desire to enjoy material senses, then my mind become clear then immediately my mind become clear and clear mind means the mind which is capable of reflecting reality now our mind is reflecting only distorted version of reality we can only see and observe material reality without really understanding the deeper background of reality. We don't understand, we only have very superficial understanding of reality. We don't understand what is the internal working of reality, how it works, and how ultimately Krishna works. We only have this external vision. And therefore he says that my mind becomes clear and my mind becomes clear basically means that I will be able to see Krishna. The purpose of mind is to see Krishna. Therefore Chaitanya Maprabhu calls our mind as mirror. Chaita dharpa namarjuna. Our heart is a mirror. and ultimately this mirror has to reflect spiritual reality can reflect spiritual reality and spiritual reality means Krishna so he says and then as soon as my heart becomes clear I will see real Vrindavan not before that not before I clean my heart I will be able to see Vrindavan when we go through Vrindavan when we walk around we only see garbage why do we see garbage? because there is a lot of garbage in our heart what else can we see we cannot see anything else we only see garbage because there is too much garbage there so but to see Sri Vrindavan basically means to see Krishna and to see how the inhabitants of Vrindavan how the Vrajavasis love Krishna that's what it means to see Vrindavan It doesn't mean to see shopkeepers and rickshas and what else? Dogs. To see Vrindavan means to see love. To see this prema which is binding the inhabitants of Vrindavan with Krishna. And then he says a very interesting thing. that even if you you receive the mercy of your spiritual master by the mercy of your spiritual master you receive the gift of freedom and the gift of freedom helped you to concentrate your mind on spiritual practice because before that when you don't have this gift of freedom you cannot really practice properly because your mind will always distract you. All kinds of different desires will appear in your mind and will always, you know, you will chant Hare Krishna, but Krishna knows what you really mean. He doesn't believe you that you chant Hare Krishna. He knows what is going on within your heart. It means that we are not free. we cannot stop our thoughts of going their usual direction so first we have to get the freedom freedom means I want and I don't think about anything else I only think about Krishna that's what freedom is these sticky material desires do not disturb us when we don't want them to disturb us. When we want them to disturb us, no problem. Let them disturb. But at this moment of time, even if we don't want them to disturb us, they still disturb. They couldn't care less about whether we want to be disturbed or not. They're still disturbing us. And we can't do anything about it. So he says, you know, you get the mercy of spiritual master. You get the gift of freedom by receiving the mercy of spiritual master, then your heart becomes clear. In the clean heart you see Vrindavan, but still you don't understand anything. Because in the next line of this bhajana he says, Rupa Raghunata Padei Hoi Beakuti Ka Behamma Bujavose Jughalapiriti He says that only when I get very strong desire to serve Rupa and Raghunath, then only I will understand Jughalapiriti, the dealings, especially between Radha and Krishna. Jughalapiriti means love of Radha and Krishna. Not again, not before I developed this very strong desire to be at the feet of Rupa Raghunath. basically means to humbly serve their words, to study their books and to be absorbed in the beautiful conceptions which they described in their books. And therefore he concludes this prayer saying that my only desire to always stay at the feet of Rupa Raghunath Rupa Raghunath Apade Rahu Morash always be there Pratha Nakaroya Sadhana Rathamadas he says that always this prayer is within my heart I want to be close to Rupa and Raghunath to ultimately receive what what Goranga has come to give. And then, if I am at the feet of Rupan Dragunath, if I am serving them very humbly, then I will say, Goranga, and then all the hairs on my body will stand on it. And then the tears will flow from my eyes And I chant Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Hare Hare. So at least theoretically we should understand that this is what I want. I want to get a glimpse of what does it mean to love Krishna with the same intensity as Shri Mati Radharani loves him and as Chaitanya Mahprabhu himself showed in his example. and otherwise I will just otherwise I will just remain very very how shall I say without offending anyone very nice devotee just be very nice devotee But we came here not to become very nice devotees. We came here to become completely mad. Completely overwhelmed by this amazing love which Goranga Mahaprabhu came to give. so and because we are studying the book of Vishwanath Chakravarti Thakur he is definitely the one who who is always at the feet of Rupa and Raghun of course some people are of the opinion that Vishwanath Chakravarti Thakur he it's Rupa Goswami himself who came to explain his own words so his position of Vishwanath Chakravarti Takura is extremely elevated and at the same time very much accessible to us in a sense because he wrote so much and he explains so much and this beautiful book Madhuri Kadandini which we are studying is a brilliant example of him showing us or explaining us the inner mood of Srila Rupa Goswami explaining to us what even Srila Rupa Goswami and even Srila Jiva Goswami, his commentator didn't explain revealing very important truths which are important for us to understand thoroughly so we will meet tomorrow in the morning 10 o'clock so at 10 o'clock tomorrow we'll start our little retreat and if you have books with you Madhuri Kadambini books please read we will briefly cover the first and second shower of this book and then start explaining the third chapter of this book the third shower of nectar and what I want to say is that I was not joking when I said that this year's seminar will be a little difficult because especially when we talk about anarchists it may be sometimes painful it actually should be painful it actually has to be painful because without really seeing our weaknesses and deficiencies we will never be able to get rid of them without confronting them without being very honest and very clear about our shortcomings because Because if we don't see or if we pretend of not seeing them, then we will still be under the spell of these anarchists. We will still remain bound by these anarchists. So the first condition, the first preliminary condition is to very clearly see the condition of our heart, the situation of our heart. And then easily release all these Anarthas from there. They are only there because we love them. They are not by chance called anarthas because even though they are anarthas, something which is not really valuable, still we think that they are arthas. They are something which we need and we require and that's why it's so difficult to get rid of them. That's why nothing really happens. But anyway, we have four full days to deliberate about our Anarthas and to say goodbye to them. If we want. so that's the plan and I I really hope that it was a auspicious beginning in this very auspicious Mangal Varcha Turti Bharati Nakshatra day thank you very much Hare Krishna Shila Prabhupada Ki Amen.