20101030 Question and Answer Session

20101030 His. Holiness. Jayapatākā Swami gave a  Live  Q & A session in Mumbai, India.

Gurumahārāja:

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ

paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim

yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande

paramānanda-mādhavam

Śrī Caitanya Iswaram

Hari Oṁ Tat Sat.

We are a little late today because we had a Kumbha Konam, we had a special party. One couple they got married and they came here for reception, are they here? So, let’s give them a big Haribol.

[Haribol] (Repeated by everyone)

Next  verse. Read Mahārāja. You have the mike. Give him the mike.

Mahārāja:

atha cittaṁ samādhātuṁ

na śaknoṣi mayi sthiram

abhyāsa-yogena tato

mām icchāptuṁ dhanañ-jaya

Translation and Purport by His Divine Grace A.C.Bhaktivedanta Swami Śrīla Prabhupāda

Translation:

My dear Arjuna, O winner of wealth, if you cannot fix your mind upon Me without deviation, then follow the regulative principles of bhakti-yoga. In this way develop a desire to attain Me.

Purport:

In this verse, two different processes of bhakti-yoga are indicated. The first applies to one who has actually developed an attachment for Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, by transcendental love. And the other is for one who has not developed an attachment for the Supreme Person by transcendental love. For this second class there are different prescribed rules and regulations one can follow to be ultimately elevated to the stage of attachment to Kṛṣṇa.

Bhakti-yoga is the purification of the senses. At the present moment in material existence the senses are always impure, being engaged in sense gratification. But by the practice of bhakti-yoga these senses can become purified, and in the purified state they come directly in contact with the Supreme Lord. In this material existence, I may be engaged in some service to some master, but I don’t really lovingly serve my master. I simply serve to get some money. And the master also is not in love; he takes service from me and pays me. So there is no question of love. But for spiritual life, one must be elevated to the pure stage of love. That stage of love can be achieved by practice of devotional service, performed with the present senses.

This love of God is now in a dormant state in everyone’s heart. And, there, love of God is manifested in different ways, but it is contaminated by material association. Now the heart has to be purified of the material association, and that dormant, natural love for Kṛṣṇa has to be revived. That is the whole process.

To practice the regulative principles of bhakti-yoga one should, under the guidance of an expert spiritual master, follow certain principles: one should rise early in the morning, take bath, enter the temple and offer prayers and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, then collect flowers to offer to the Deity, cook foodstuffs to offer to the Deity, take prasādam, and so on. There are various rules and regulations which one should follow. And one should constantly hear Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam from pure devotees. This practice can help anyone rise to the level of love of God, and then he is sure of his progress into the spiritual kingdom of God. This practice of bhakti-yoga, under the rules and regulations, with the direction of a spiritual master, will surely bring one to the stage of love of Godhead.

Gurumahārāja: Haribol! Who would like to reach the stage of love of Godhead?  (everyone raise their hands)

Thank you.

Translation again.

Mahārāja: My dear Arjuna, O winner of wealth, if you cannot fix your mind upon Me without deviation, then follow the regulative principles of bhakti-yoga. In this way develop a desire to attain Me.

Gurumahārāja: Hari Oṁ Tatsat. So, if you have a natural love for Kṛṣṇa, then you do the... what was described in the previous verse, which is simply think about Kṛṣṇa and engage in Kṛṣṇa’s service. If you don’t have that love yet awakened, then by doing the rules and regulations, the vidhis, the abhyasas, the practice of devotional service, you will awaken your love for Kṛṣṇa.

So, we all have as our nature, we have reverential love for Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa prema nitya siddha sādhya kabhu nai, sravanaadi śuddha citta koroe uday. And if we are increasing our, if we are practicing the nine practices of devotional service, then we are... will naturally awaken that love for Kṛṣṇa. So, this Abhyāsa Yoga tells us to do the things that we will do naturally if we have love for Kṛṣṇa. Rise early, attend the prayers, see the Lord, do some sevā like pick flowers or cook Prasad. All these things are natural for someone who loves Kṛṣṇa. So, by some rules one is advised to do some service. This is in a natural way to awaken your love. It’s like riding a bicycle. You have, sometimes they use trainer wheels so that you don’t fall down.  After a while you don’t need them anymore. You naturally know how to drive the bicycle. So, in the same way initially we need the rules to guide us what to do and what not to do, but later we will develop our love for Kṛṣṇa.

So, the devotees are encouraged that they should engage naturally, twenty four hours a day in various services to Kṛṣṇa. So, even if we take rest; that we rest so that we can serve Kṛṣṇa better the next day. Everything we do, we take Prasad, not too much, not too little, what we need to do our service. So, in this way we try to always engage in Kṛṣṇa’s service.

So, I was asking different devotees what experiences they had with the deities. Because someone asked a question a few days ago, that how do I develop faith in the Archa Avatar’s? In the Archa Vigraha’s? In the Deitie’s?  So, I was saying how different Deities around the world, they have different pastimes. So, I don’t know what pastimes have happened here, but I am sure that something has happened.

So, does anyone have any experience with some Deities? Here or otherwise? Like they told me in Tirupati. They have Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa and Govinda and the Astha Sakhīs. So, the night guard’s, they heard some sound of dancing at night, and they wondered who is dancing in the temple room? Right? Anything else?

Revatī Raman Prabhu: Yea, after village program few brahmachari’s, they came to the temple to keep the mridangas and the kartāls. It was night 12’O’clock. The two bhaktas, they took the mridanga and kartal to keep in a temple hall. As they walked in they heard the music was on, mridangams, kartāls and that jingle bells and that, ankle bells. Then the two boys got scared. They kept the mridanga and started running from there, from the temple. They ran out. They ran out and told the Temple Commander, “Some music is coming there.” So, he came there. The Temple Commander came there, and even he heard, and he got scared, and he told the Chaukidar, “Something is happening here, some tape recorder, something.” And the Chaukidar, he went with a big stick in his hand. He just checked who is there. He went all around, the music was going on, and after sometime it stopped. Not only one person, there were about twenty brahmacharis and few other devotees, they experienced every night, around one O clock it starts, twelve-thirty, One, it starts. By two thirty it ends.

So, they forced me, “You should come and sleep.” One day I went and slept. Around one O’clock the devotees woke me up. They heard some music. I heard some ankle bells sound. Beautiful ankle bell sound. It was not material, something very transcendental, very beautiful and very nice, and I started studying, I just wanted to check the time. Even to move the hand to check the cell phone was quite very difficult. I was studying, and then I just saw that the time was one-thirty. I was just hearing the music and I just slept off. That’s it.

Gurumahārāja: Haribol.. [Haribol] (everyone)

Like this although we may be on the platform of Abhyāsa Yoga, of this Viddhi Mārga, sometimes the Lord He gives His special blessings to the devotees, and in His deity form He also gives some blessings.

Anyone has something strange they like to share.

Radhagovida Dasi

Radhagovida Dasi: So, whats happening is that, Kṛṣṇa is giving me so many tests and even Rādhā Rasa Bihārī, I arrived here I said, “I really want to advance”, but when I was praying this, I was not really sincere, but then things started happening, and then I started realizing; actually I told Kṛṣṇa, “I want to advance.” So, Kṛṣṇa is giving me all these difficulties, so that I can grow up. I mean I can’t share all the experiences because certain things are personal growing processes, but he is making me suffer so that I can grow. But it is not like physical suffering. But it is like emotionally I can see myself hope, that if this happens then I have to be tolerant, I have to be learning from this, so I can really feel that He is not only giving the difficulty but He is also giving me the strength to see this grow. So, when we pray to Kṛṣṇa and we are conscious of that, then we can really see, anything that happens as it’s good for us, even something that is apparently seemingly materially difficult or wrong, but Kṛṣṇa wants us to go through that so that we can grow on, and we can be prepared to serve him better. This was my experience.

Lady devotee: Gurumahārāja, this is... I mean earlier devotee... and she was not very advanced, but she would wanted to have a nice devotee child. So, one Ratha Yatra day she looked at Jagannath when she was pulling the rope, “I wish you know I could have a nice devotee child.” And the next ratha yatra she came with a child, and she named her son, Jagannath Prasad.

Gurumahārāja: Haribol.

So, like this we get the mercy of the deities, and we should also see how Kṛṣṇa, He is very much present in our lives. You know He is in our heart, He sees everything we are doing. So, even though we are in the, we maybe in the beginning stage, we may be practicing, Kṛṣṇa also helps us. So, we should be very faithful, like Kṛṣṇa is helping.

How many are on the internet watching?

So, like this we take the different services which are offered, and we try to execute those to the best of our ability. So, this is the way that we advance in our Kṛṣṇa consciousness.  It is easy in one sense and nothing particularly hard, but as some devotees say, maybe I am mostly not sure. Yesterday someone said, “What if we get offended? What if someone criticizes. Can we punch the person? What should we do?” But I see, punching would be easy, but that’s not what Lord Caitanya advised. He advised that we should be very humble, very meek, very tolerant, and we should offer our all respects to others, we should not expect any respect for ourselves. So, like this if have zero expectation, then we will never be frustrated, we will never get less than our... what we expected. Maybe sometimes we will get more, sometimes someone appreciates. So, like this the process of devotional service is very important. So, here in this verse also Prabhupāda tries to say, “We should engage in our devotional service under the guidance of the guru, of a bonafide guru.” So, of course day to day, the guru is represented by various Temple Presidents and senior devotees, who give the service out to the devotees. In this way the guru also hears how they are doing in due course. This way the devotees would often think that the Guru is responsible. So, we have of course – one takes diksha guru. That diksha guru is by initiation, and he is also a siksha guru. But when... we have many siksha guru’s, but one diksha guru. Those who give like a verbal guides in spiritual life, they are called as the siksha guru, and the guru gives the mantra and the initiation, he is called the diksha guru. So, disha guru is one, but he is also a siksha guru. So, Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja, he had one diksha guru of course, and six siksha guru’s. His one diksha guru was Lord Nityānanda, and his siksha guru’s were the six goswami’s. So, he was very well covered.

So, in ISKCON we are all trying to serve Prabhupāda, and read his teachings and we are engaged in his service. So, he is our primary siksha guru for those... who are his initiates, he is both the siksh and diksha guru, but his teachings are the basis of our Kṛṣṇa Conscious movement. Of course he translated Gītā and Bhāgavatam and Caitanya Caritramrita. So, these are the books which are the teachings of Lord Kṛṣṇa. Lord Caitanya said, “bolo Kṛṣṇa bhajo Kṛṣṇa Karo Kṛṣṇa siksha.” So, Kṛṣṇa siksha... Gītā is spoken by Kṛṣṇa, and Bhāgavatam is spoken about Kṛṣṇa. So, both are Kṛṣṇa siksha.

So, before the initiation if you are chanting sixteen rounds, following the principles, they take shelter. They have to do this usually... atleast six months, maybe more, but atleast the six months. Whenever they want they take the step of shelter, and later they take the step of initiation. Prabhupāda waited ten, eleven years to take initiation because he thought that he had to become completely pure, and then he will take initiation. But someone told him, “Listen. You could only become pure by taking the guru, and the guru will refine your rough edges. So, please take initiation as quickly as possible.” So, then he took. So, we have also in ISKCON this system, that one can aspire. That means that if they are not chanting sixteen rounds, or maybe not for six months, or they are not following all the principles, but they hope in the future to take diksha from a particular guru. So, they accept their guru as their siksha guru, and they also aspire to take diksha from him. So in this way they want their guru to know that they are aspiring. So that way he can also help them. So, this is called the aspiring stage. So, you have this siksha, diksha, shelter and aspiring.

So, somehow we should practice this Abhyāsa Yoga under the guidance of a bonafide guru, and in the absence of the guru, the temple of course with or without the guru, the President or the Bhakta leader or whoever. Namhatta leader, bhakti Vriksha leader, they give some services and some basic teachings to the students, and they are very happy when they see that someone becomes mature, and they take shelter and initiation from some guru. So, this is our system here.

You got some questions?

Questions: Hare Kṛṣṇa Gurumahārāja. Please accept my humble obeisance’s. Gurumahraja how can we help some devotees who has very offensive mentality? Your spiritual daughter, Nitya Yoginī Devī Dāsī.

Gurumahārāja: By the way, Nitya Yoginī Devī Dāsī made dhoka for us today. So we thank her. Hari bol. I would like to give all you, but it was already given away downstairs.

So, you see, to advance in our Kṛṣṇa consciousness, it says we should be nirmatsarāṇāṁ, we should be without envy, we should be without the fault finding mentality. So, if there is someone who has this bitter mood or the fault finding tendency... somehow all we need to advice that devotee to change if possible, otherwise we are like Ramchandra Purī. He was always finding faults. Even he found fault with guru, he found fault with Lord Caitanya, so often we don’t like to associate with him. So, most new devotees are there... if they have this tendency, then you try to dissuade them from that kind of tendency. Otherwise I noted that some senior devotees, they would... obviously that such a devotee would start to criticize, they would change the subject, Oh, and he would start saying something nice. And usually that devotee, either he engages in some positive discourse or he leaves, and because, but you don’t engage in a tit for tat. You don’t engage in a bitterness with that devotee.

Question: Dear Gurumahārāja, please accept my humble obeisance’s. What is the best way of serving the guru? What is the best service that the disciple can do for his guru. – Vraja Kṛṣṇa Dāsa.

Gurumahārāja: That means maybe you are very... determine... the guru and the other. But apart from that we are trying to engage in Prabhupāda’s... like the services down, he gave us. So, by helping the institution of ISKCON, generally that’s very pleasing to the guru’s. When we asked that question to Prabhupāda, he would say, “Well I like you to be happy, and I want you to make others happy. So, if you can be happy in Kṛṣṇa consciousness and make others happy in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then usually your guru is very happy also.”

Question: This is regarding yesterday’s ... regarding rituals. The same person who challenged me yesterday about not feeling ritual, saying that chanting is also a ritual, today he challenged how do know that you have to read the Vedas, how does one know that whatever is written there is perfect. Every religion says the same thing.

Gurumahārāja: You see, how to respond to the people who are questioning like this? There are many ways. Now we saw that Prabhupāda, he would respond in a way that, he would just say, “Listen, why don’t you...” Some people would say, “Why should I bow down, why should I bow down?” He said, “Do it and you will understand.” (laughter) And then he did, and then he said, “Oh, now I understand.” Jaya Prabhupāda ki.... Jaya.

So, like some people you try to reason with them but they don’t want to listen. So, they are finding some excuse why to avoid. You have to see whether they are sincerely asking or they are just giving some excuse. Now we are like, as far as following the Vedas, we say that the guru is the father, and the Vedas are the mother. So, how do you know that there is God? You know from the Vedas. How do you know that the Vedas are real or so.. like this... If you ... some people they ask this kind of question, ask them, “How do you know that he is your father?” You come to know from your mother; otherwise you don’t have any other way of knowing. If she tells you, “Well he is not really your father, that was your father. Well, I gave the secret.” She is the only one that knows for sure. You can’t test every male in the planet to see who has the DNA that matches. So, you have to believe in you mother that this is your father. So, like that we want to know about Kṛṣṇa. So, we read the śāstras, and the śāstra tells us, “This is Kṛṣṇa.” Now we accept the śāstra because it was written by Vyāsa Deva. He is the incarnation of Kṛṣṇa. We also respect all the other śāstras. The other śāstras of the Christians or Islam, we don’t try to offend them in any way. We also respect them, but the Vedas tend to give us the much broader picture, a much bigger picture. So, we take more inspiration from the Vedas.

Where else do you get information’s about the supreme personality of Godhead? Now, some people they don’t want to know. That’s why in devotional service we just ask the people, “Try to chant and see how you like it. If you don’t like it you get the money back.” So, it doesn’t cost anything to them. You just try for a week or two or a month. One person he said, “Hare Kṛṣṇa. I don’t feel anything.” I said, “Baba, just try for a while you know. You hardly even got out of your mouth, and already you say, “I don’t feel anything.”” You just chant, and we had here a few men here in the other room. We had people tell their experience. So, someone said, “By changing four rounds a day they are feeling so happy.” That person here? So, like that I was also telling... the very first day I came to the temple. The first day I was chanting, that was Upendra Prabhu. He gave me a set of beads. He told me how to chant. “You go on chanting.” At that time I was practicing Haṭha Yoga. So, I knew how to sit in Padmā, ardha Padma Āsana, and so I thought, then I sat, I started chanting for six hours straight. 22 rounds,  I chanted slow. So, I would feel so much reciprocation when I was chanting. So much ecstasy that I was convinced, This is where.. all the most powerful, powerful of meditation that I ever did.

I came back. That devotee was waiting. He said, “Oh by mistake I gave you Prabhupāda’s chanting beads. (laughter) I have to take those back.” It was not quite the same the next day, but anyway I got the taste the first day.

Śrīla Prabhupāda ki............. [Jay]

Question: Hare Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja. Please accept my humble obeisance’s. More I am trying to follow the principles of devotional service, more I find it tough. For example, like not finding faults with devotees, regulated āhāra and nidrā, reducing subtle desires for name, fame and glory.. Mādhava Sevā Dāsa

Gurumahārāja: I didn’t hear your examples very clearly.

Question: Like he is finding problems in like not finding faults with devotees, regulating principles like ahar, nidrā and reducing subtle desires for name, fame, glory.

Gurumahārāja: Well, at least he is honest. He is honest. Haribol. [Haribol] It takes some guts to admit all this in public. So, that’s also Kṛṣṇa’s mercy that we are trying to see the anarthas in ourselves, we are trying to see. Most people have this anarthas, but they don’t see it. They just go on finding faults, being happy when they get praised, being sad that they are discouraged, like that, but the fact that he sees these things, that shows that he is advancing, and then he by chanting would gradually get purified, and this things will also become purified. So, it’s a good sign that he is seeing these defects in himself. Usually we see the defects in others, and don’t see any defect in ourselves.

So, what’s you name again?

Yea, Mādhava Sevā, all glories to your service. So, just keep practicing and you will get free of this anarthās. It’s said that if you associate with the pure devotees, then you naturally start to get rid also of the false pride.

If you as far as the... what’s the subtle desire for name and fame. If anyone gives you any praise, “Oh you are such a nice devotee.” You say, “Oh, it is all mercy of the guru. It’s the mercy of guru and Kṛṣṇa.” You just give, like a duck that’s water...  over the lotus leaf, let the water just, let the place flow, and give all the credit to guru and Kṛṣṇa. Like that. What’s the other thing?

As far as getting up early. The secret is to get to bed early. That’s why I sit in the class quick, taking bed early, so taking bed early, tomorrow morning I give class in the temple.

So, what is the other thing?

No, other, he  gave three.

Yea, rather than finding faults, you can try to find the good qualities in others, and praise the other devotees. You see, like Lord Caitanya in the third verse of the Śikṣāṣṭakam, He says, amāninā mānadena. We don’t expect any appreciation for ourselves, but we give all appreciations to others. So, trying to find the good in others and thank them and praise them. Like this they have the competition, who can find more good qualities in others? It’s easy. It’s says like the fly, they find the sore. So when we have a fly mentality or ... it’s like Lord Śiva, he is Asustosh, he would see even a very insignificant quality, he would think.... some hunter tied a big deer upon a branch of a tree and the blood was dripping on the liṅga. So, then Śiva he became very grateful. “Oh, thank you. You cooled me down”, but it was a clear accident by the hunter, but he offered him a blessing.

So, like that we should follow in the footsteps of Lord Śiva. He is the greatest Vaiṣṇava. We should rather see the good qualities in others. So, thank you very much.

You got Prasad?

So, they are giving Prasad downstairs. If you like sweet from me I will give you Mahaprasad.

Thank You.