Hare Krishna! I wanted to record some more words, which would lead us to the conclusion of what we have been talking about in the first two lectures. We said that it is very difficult for a person to change himself, to change himself cardinally, to get rid of the trap of karma, where we all have turned up, because of a very simple reason, for the body is connected with the mind and the mind is connected with the body and this very connection keeps the soul in slavery. When we are trying to change our mind, we are meeting the obstacles because the body is the same, so it influences on the mind, and for that reason our attempts do not seem very effective to us. Trying to change something in your way of life, in your circumstances, in the environment where we are and trying to influence on the mind in this way, again, we do not achieve big result, because the mind continues to influence our outward environment and for this reason some kind of strongly inertial environment appears. 

Although we know, that to start changing something in ourselves we have to start it from the mind, because it is the most variable material. If the soul realized the imperfection of that apparatus, which it used to dominate over the material world, it means that this apparatus has to be fixed, and we must start to fix it from the mind. But anyway, the problem will stay as a problem and this problem as we said, lies in emotions. Therefore, bhakti from the very beginning involves spiritual emotions. This is a very powerful method, it can influence on the mind and on the body instantly and change everything. And we know that at the moment of powerful kirtan, very strong kirtan, and while some katha, when the speaker is transmitting or sharing his experience, his love we feel, that absolutely new dimension opens before us, new spheres are opening as if it were a gulp of fresh air. 

I was saying yesterday, that we need all that as an oxygen, and it’s good. Problem is that, it is very difficult for us to understand its true necessity. There is one misfortune: regardless of the facts that we are getting some glimpses of spiritual emotions while listening kirtan or listening to krishna-katha or while being in Holy Dham, still those emotions are very weak. And material emotions, prevailing in our consciousness are pulling them down, energy of material emotions is much stronger, that’s why in spite of this little experience, which arises in us, and which is the shade of spiritual experience, this experience is not strong enough to overweigh material emotions, although it is very serious in nature. Still material emotions are defeating them and everything returns on its circle. And it is very difficult for a person to get rid of this circle and his karma is also constantly pulling him down again and again. The rope is stretched for him and he is holding on this pulled rope, but at some moment he is unclenching his hands and turns into the bottom of this well again. I am sure, that you are familiar with this picture, when after quite extended period of having some desperate attempts for prevailing something, you give up and return back to the initial point. The consciousness is dragged with leaded clouds of tama-guna or ignorance and here comes apathy, depression and you do not want to do anything… Apathy, depression and all the other things, which are so inherent to material world. 

Anyway, there is nothing terrific in that. Just we have to understand, what we have to do in this case? Even Arjuna experienced this condition of depression. In Sanskrit, in the Sanskrit translation word visada, which we translate as despair, actually means depression. This is clinical ayurvedic term. This is the very condition of the frustrated soul. Visada literally means that I am just sitting exhausted, I do not have any force for fighting. And all the Bhagavad-gita is all about it – to enliven us for fighting in such condition of material depression. When material emotions, primevally fear, were influencing Arjuna and it seemed that they defeated him. 

 What is Bhagavad-gita about? This is saranagati-grantha. This is a book which teaches us saranagati. And saranagati or devotion – this is certain emotion, which we can and must cultivate consciously in order for these spiritual emotions – that we receive from great devotees during kirtana or hari-katha and serving devotees – to be truly ingrained in our heart and to defeat material emotions. In other words, all this process of bhakti is divided into several stages. And first very important stage, very significant stage which is starting with little faith, with very weak faith comes to us in the process of relationship with the devotees, in the process of sadhu-sanga. This is first stage and it ends with nistha or with firm faith, unflinching faith. What is nistha? Nistha – this is the stage on which our endeavors in practicing of bhakti become constant. Until this stage they are presented as some kind of sinusoid. There are ups and downs, but when our endeavor becomes constant, uninterrupted, this stage is called nistha. 

So, this painful beginning stage is characterized with that: we are trying to cultivate certain emotions in ourselves, which Krishna is talking about in Bhagavad-gita. They are emotions of surrender. Srila Prabhupada in the purport of Bhagavad-gita (18.66) is quoting a very well-known verse from tantras, specifically from Pancaratra, which is also quoted by Sanatana Goswami in HBV (11.676) where he comments on the verse sarva dharman parityajya. This verse is familiar to many of you. 

ānukūlyasya saṅkalpaḥ prātikūlyasya varjanam

rakṣiṣyatīti viśvāso goptṛtve varaṇaṁ tathā

ātma-nikṣepa-kārpaṇye ṣaḍ-vidhā śaraṇāgatiḥ

This is the formula of devotion or the formula of saranagati. And what I wanted to say? These 6 elements of devotion are bearing certain emotions in themselves. Surrender is not something intellectual. Sometimes we are saying: “I have surrendered.” But we consider surrender as some intellectual process. Surrender is an emotional process. Particularly the very word surrender is bearing in itself emotional charge. And Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur is describing in his Jaiva-dharma these emotions of surrender. He says, that they are 5. First emotion is the emotion of determination. Krishna is starting His description also about the path of karma-yoga or bhakti-yoga with that, as Srila Prabhupada is saying, vyavasayatmika budhih ekeha kuru nandana (B.G. 2.41), first this is emotion of determination: “I am resolute in my determination. I want to reach the end of this path. I understand, that this is important”. And this determination also means certain disappointment in material life. And that means understanding of that I will not be able to be truly happy only in the material world, but only in spiritual life, when I have spiritual experience. This is first emotion – determination. 

Second emotion is the emotion of confidence in God. “God will protect me.” This emotion is already very difficult. Again, we have to learn all these emotions in the association with devotees, in the process of hearing to spiritual master and in the process of reflecting on Srila Prabhupada’s life. Srila Prabhupada is an ideal example of all these wonderful emotions. The emotion of determination made him meditate constantly for decades how to fulfill the will of his spiritual master. This is the emotion of complete faith, when a person with 40 rupees in his pocket goes across two oceans. What is this if not the emotion of faith? Emotion that: “I totally believe in you Krishna. I do not need anything more.”

And the next emotion, the third emotion, very important emotion, this is emotion of gratitude. These emotions become higher and higher, their quality is rising. Emotion of gratitude is a condition when a person understands, that he is dependent on Krishna, and that Krishna has already given and is still giving him so much. That he already leads him on his spiritual path, even when a person formally has not taken the path, but He Himself led him here, he realizes that he is completely depended on God. This is emotion of gratitude. 

And then – atma-niksepa and karpanya. This emotion of complete self-dedication or self-renouncement, refusal from the very self. I do not belong to myself, atma-niksepa or atma-nivedana. And the next emotion is karpanya. This is emotion or dainya, as Bhaktivinoda Thakura is saying, this means understanding that I am incapable of doing anything. I am really nothing on my own. I am just insignificant little, tiny particle of the soul.

These are five emotions, which we can cultivate, or we have to cultivate for our heart to be cleansed and material emotions to be replaced by spiritual emotions in there. This is very important interim stage and we are learning particularly these emotions from our spiritual master, when we are listening to him, or when we see the example of his life, how he acts. This helps a person to start truly engaging in the practice of bhakti. Although the 5 forms of devotional service are very powerful and a person can feel their power instantly, he can appreciate their power truly and understand what kind of revolution they are running in his consciousness, if he constantly, for a long time, all the time reminds himself about these basic emotions of surrender. 

We should not be hesitant of rehearsing these emotions. Actually, we are always rehearsing material emotions. We have experienced some event in our life which was negatively charged, and we again and again are remembering it, we are brainstorming in our memory all these things in such way that this emotion becomes constant, it turns into the quality of our character, it becomes our sthayi-bhava. Or in essence it becomes the very ourselves, our personality, and actually this is anartha. This is something negative, which will not make me happy. We are suffering again and again experiencing this emotion. But we have rehearsed it basically very well. Many, many times we have lived this very situation, although in our life it happened just once, but in our memory we have been experiencing it again, again, and again. And absolutely like that we are rehearsing these emotions in bhakti again, again and again. We have experience of these emotions. We have experience of trust towards God. We have experience of determination. But somehow or other we have to restore this experience in ourselves. One day we slammed the door saying: “That’s all, I do not want to have any connection with the material world and with the attempts of searching material happiness.” In this decision there was an emotional charge. And we have to keep this emotional charge, we have to live this situation again, again and again.

Srimad-Bhagavatam enables us and helps us to live through these situations, if we are reading Srimad-Bhagavatam properly. Dhruva Maharaja’s story is one of the first stories in the whole Srimad-Bhagavatam, first story from these long stories, with some lessons and with all the rest. And he represents this determination – anukulyasya sankalpa pratikulyasya varjanam. These first two elements of saranagati are very strongly illustrated in this story. And further comes the story of Prahlada Maharaja, this is already complete confidence in Krishna. When he absolutely, completely believes: “Krishna will save me in all circumstances!” He completely lets the situation go in its flow, he does not want to control the situation. And further we can see, how all these emotions are laid down into Srimad-Bhagavatam. Kunti Devi is talking in her prayers, in the very first Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam about the fundamentals, about the ABC of devotion, about dependence on Krishna or about gratitude to Krishna, when she is thanking Him in this way: “Thank you, that you have sent me these dangers. These dangers gave me so much. They became my wealth.” In sanskrit vipadah means dangers. sampadah means wealth. And VCT commenting her famous verse: vipadah santutah sasvat, tatra tatra jagad guro. He says, that she considers her dangers, difficult situations, crises through which she passed as her wealth. Vipadah for her turned into sampadah, because they helped her to surrender unto Krishna. And this is the next wmotion, that of gratitude to Krishna. 

Emotion of self-dedication is Bali Maharaj, when he is giving himself completely to Him: “Take everything with you, I do not need it.” For the relationships with Krishna he is rejecting the association even with Sukracarya, who had gaven him everything. And at last emotion of karpanya or dainya, humility is laid in all the stories of Srimad-Bhagavatam, because this is the essence of devotion. But probably, the story about Vritrasura characterizes true humility most of all. Humility means I completely trust in Krishna and I absolutely do not consider myself capable of doing anything. In this clash of Vritrasura and Indra emotions of humility are illustrated very powerfully. 

I wanted to say, that we have to practice these emotions. They have to be repeated again and again. We said in the previous lectures that we have to collect these spiritual emotions in the piggy bank, we have to get down to our treasury, like that stingy knight in the famous story or tragedy of Pushkin, who is getting down there in this cellar and is sorting through his jewelry. It is similarly like that with us. We have to go through these precious things constantly, which we have gained through the association with devotees, this little spiritual experience. And obviously this is what Srimad-Bhagavatam teaches us, that’s why we have to read Srimad-Bhagavatam again, again and again. This is our sadhana. 

And there is one more important thing which I’d like to talk about. The thing is that we approach Srimad-Bhagavatam as some material book, from where we have to get some information. If we have acquired a piece of information once, mastered it and have somehow reiterated it becomes boring to us. But let’s remember how the children are reading fairy tales or stories. There so much we can learn from children. They can listen to the same stories again and again. Why? They know everything, they know how everything ends, how everything starts, what will be next. They can retell everything by themselves. But they can listen to it with huge interest, and their interest is not cooling down at all. I remember myself how I used to listen to one and the same recording, for many times. And my mind completely went there, immersed there. Why? Because a child is experiencing all these, he becomes these heroes himself. He is much more able to experience emotionally all these, than we adults with our rational mind. Emotions cannot be boring, but information can. 

Emotions are never boring. And that’s why when we are reading Srimad-Bhagavatam, we have to try not to read it with rational consciousness. Also singing kirtan must not be with rational consciousness, similarly as chanting japa. If we are however trying to analyze it: “Well, what am I doing?” If we are trying to watch ourselves from aside, to price, as sometimes people are being taught on some trainings, and if we deal with japa purely analytically, absolutely nothing will happen. We have to dive into japa, or to convert from our habitual condition, regime of working of our rational mind into another condition – into condition of flow. 

Srimad-Bhagavatam also has to be read with the condition of flow. I suppose the easiest way to do this is kirtan, because kirtan itself transfers us with the help of music energy, with the help of melody of some kind of another state of consciousness. 

I wanted to say something about it to make more clear for us how to strengthen these emotions. And they are strengthened not with intellectual repetition, but particularly by experiencing them. And this is what we are doing when we are upset with someone, we are repeating it in ourselves again and again, experiencing it inside. We are not tired with experiencing it again and again in ourselves, although it brings us extreme pain. 

So, those are some quick thoughts about how to practice this, about how an emotion is highly important in spiritual life, and that there are some interim emotions, which are not still spiritual, they are not yet motions of love, but they are already elevated emotions of surrender, that let us fence the bridge between material sphere of existence, where fear and material emotions are dominating and spiritual sphere of existence, where is dominating bliss with its endless variety of spiritual emotions of love, as described in Nectar of Devotion. This interim stage, saranagati is very important and if we read Bhagavad-gita, we will see how Krishna is enlivening these emotions in Arjuna: “Cheer up, arise, fight o Arjuna!” He is giving him determination, he says: “O son of Kunti, you should say to everyone, My devotee will never perish!” He is talking about that: “You have to be humble. You are not capable of doing anything.” He talks about it. He says: “amanitvam adambitvam ahimsa ksantir arjavam…” And He is describing this emotion of humility partially in 12 th chapter of BG and in 13 th as well, from where this verse is given. And definitely He is talking about self-surrender: “Originally you belong to me: mamaivamsa jiva loke jiva bhuta sanatana.” Jiva, a tiny soul is a particle of God forever.” And further He is saying: “sarva dharman paritiajya, mam ekam saranam vraja…” All these five emotions of surrender are laid in Bhagavad-gita, that is why Srila Prabhupada called Bhagavad-gita an ABC of spiritual life, the very important stage on the path of bhakti, on the way of sacred emotions, emotions of love of God.

 

Thank you very much, Hare Krishna! Hare Krishna!