Hare Krishna. I welcome you all to our wonderful retreat in Magdalinovka. Let’s greet each other (cries of "Haribol"). 

Before I start my presentation, I’d like to say a few introductory words about why we get together. Any true society, normal society, is based on a simple feeling, on the feeling of gratitude. If people are bound together by gratitude, this is a simple feeling, which can be developed, which can be deepened, which can be expressed somehow or other in numerous possible ways. If people are bound by this simple feeling then staying together and doing something together will benefit them all. And vice versa, if people have not somehow or other learned to show gratitude to each other and don’t understand the importance of this, don’t know to what extent gratitude softens our hearts, then staying together will bring about just degradation. 

And ultimately we get together in order to learn to show gratitude to each other, in order to make this gratitude live, so that this gratitude is not something external or imposed or superficial; so that it becomes the very essence and the core of our heart and our consciousness. And here we get together to express gratitude to one another, to express the highest gratitude to Srila Prabhupada, who has brought us together, and we must never forget that we are all members of his family. I know that in some circles, the phrase “Bhakti Vijnana Goswami’s family” goes around, but in fact we don’t have a separate family. Traditional society is built on the principle of large families where there’s one forefather and he’s got lots of followers, who have children who have their own children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and they all feel unity and belonging to the same family. 

And we are here primarily to express this deep gratitude to Srila Prabhupada, who has founded our family, and to the other previous acharyas. And when we truly express this gratitude, as I said, the heart becomes softer. Don’t be afraid, don’t be stingy, let our hearts be generous with gratitude. You can even make this your sadhana. The Goswamis of Vrindavana made their sadhana the obeisances they paid to the devotees. Anyway, Srila Prabhupada has not established a fixed number of obeisances that we have to pay, although that would’ve been nice – minimum 100 obeisances... 108 on beads (laughs). But in any case, in the form of obeisances or in the form of some other things, gratitude must become the highest and most vital reality of our hearts. Therefore we have gathered here to acquire the experience of such gratitude and realize how beneficial it is to our heart. And then pass this experience further on, because, as I said, this gratitude shouldn’t be confined within a small group of people. Gratitude means spiritual culture. Or rather not that spiritual, but at least the beginning of spiritual culture, which we are learning all together. 

Therefore, let’s once again thank first of all the organizers of this wonderful festival who haven’t slept for many days and nights, who’ve been getting together and thinking about how to do it, who’ve been incurring the curses of other devotees, who’ve been striving to come here but were refused to do so, thus risking their spiritual life and who have endured many other austerities. Let’s thank them from the very beginning (cries of “Haribol”). I also think that we should very sincerely thank all those who prepared these premises for our arrival. A lot of volunteer work days were held here together, people have been coming from other cities, even from Simferopol, the Crimea, Kharkov, Donetsk, Lugansk. Let us thank them all (cries of “Haribol”). I think that Aditi-duhkhaha Prabhu who came here deserves our special thanks (applause). We are actually grateful to tears to him and our best gratitude will be if we cry at his kirtans. And let’s thank each other once again, for we all have undergone some austerities, we have all sacrificed something in order to get here and get together (shouts of “Haribol”). Thank you very much. 

Let’s now pronounce the mantras before we start talking about Krishna (saying the mantras). 

I’ll be speaking on small fragments associated with the initial stages of bhakti. I would like us all to think about what we have to do so that the bhakti in our heart becomes an irreversible fact. Like, Srila Prabhupada translates the word nistha or naishtiki-bhakti as irreversible bhakti; bhakti after which there is no turning back. Up to that point one might somehow or other hesitate, go away for some time, try to look for happiness in other forms of activity. But when one reaches nistha then practically there are no chances for him to turn back. And I’d like us to think a little bit about what obstacles lay in wait for us on this path, what we must do and what we must not do in order to make this path from the initial spark of bhakti, laid in our heart by the spiritual master, by Srila Prabhupada and the other Vaisnavas to the unflickering flame of nistha as short as possible and to overcome the problematic initial stages of bhakti as soon as possible.

Bhakti is a stairway, a stairway leading to the spiritual world. Srila Prabhupada has told us that once Ravana decided to build a staircase leading to the spiritual world ... to the heavenly planets, because he didn’t really want to go to the spiritual world. Ravana was the first democrat. He wanted all people to have equal opportunities and by climbing that staircase to get to the heavenly planets. And he undertook this enterprise, this venture of building a staircase leading there. Unfortunately, what happended to that staircase? It collapsed because any staircase needs some support. 

In “Bhakti-rasamrita-sindhu” Rupa Goswami explains another stairway, a stairway that can truly bring us to the spiritual world, the support of which not material. Because the staircase that Ravana wanted to build was to be based on the ground and it was never sufficient to make the staircase reach the required height. You cannot get into the spiritual world by material means. You cannot change your nature by material means. But Srila Rupa Goswami explains the spiritual stairway or the spiritual path and I’d like very much that we all progress along this stairway, ascending from stage to stage. And it’s this stairway, these stages and small steps on the stairway that we’ll be spaking about. Let us first read the verses describing the whole stairway: 

adau sraddha tatah sadhu 

sango 'tha bhajana-kriya 

tato 'nartha-nivrittih syat 

tato nistha rucis tatah 

athasaktis tato bhavas 

tatah premabhyudancati 

sadhakanam ayam premnah 

pradurbhave bhavet kramah

Rupa Goswami describes the steps of this stairway, and you’ve probably heard these verses, you probably know something, but at the same time I have some doubts that you know everything that’s associated with each of these steps. 

This path described by Srila Rupa Goswami is the most common way of attaining bhakti; it’s not the only one. There are other ways of attaining bhakti, there are other ways of going back to the spiritual world. Are there any instances of living beings that have attained the spiritual world without following this gradual path? Can anyone say? (answers from the audience). Lord Chaitanya, that’s clear. Lord Caitanya doesn’t count. Mrigari did follow this path, Mrigari followed precisely this path. Putana didn’t follow this path. Narada Muni followed this path. Putana didn’t follow this path, no, Putana didn’t. Putana came to poison Krishna and as a result she went to the spiritual world. Kamsa didn’t follow this path ... There were many fortunate living beings who didn’t follow this path. But it’s not for us. We cannot follow in Putana’s footsteps and cannot establish a Putana-Gaudiya-Vaishnava-Sampradaya (laughter), these are not achariyas. 

Srila Rupa Goswami explains the most common or most standard path that can be reproduced because his task consists in giving us the practice, his task consists in explaining to us what we must do to ensure spiritual advancement in our heart. And he explains that, roughly speaking, in the first approximation, this path is divided into two parts: before bhava and after bhava. Which category does bhava fall into? Does it fall into the category of sadhana or practice? That's right, the second answer is correct, it does. It falls into the category of sadhana because ther we still have to make efforts. Sadhana is when I make systematic efforts to achieve a certain state or to achieve the goal. And bhava is still the level on which we still make efforts; but why does it nevertheless stand out? Why does it take an intermediate position? Rupa Goswami says that on the one hand it’s sadhya, or the result, the goal of our efforts but on the other hand it’s still sadhana. Why? No. Listen carefully, because we all want to achieve bhava. Do we want to achieve bhava? On the stage of bhava these efforts become our nature, on the stage of bhava the efforts that we make to reach the next stage are absolutely natural to us. What do we need to do up to the stage of bhava? Make efforts that are against our nature. Up to the stage of bhava we must overcome the external or the imposed nature that we have acquired. That is precisely the difference. Both here and there we still make efforts because this is sadhana, but at the level of bhava sadhana becomes our nature, it becomes the essence of our heart. Up to the level of bhava this is to some extent unnatural. 

And, actually, that’s the reason; because the cause of all our problems is that we have to overcome our material nature which means that up to the level of bhava there is a very powerful force that is constantly pulling us down. As a soul that’s aspiring to the highest, to God, we are making efforts. Are we making efforts? Those who are making efforts, raise both hands up and loudly shout “Haribol”. But at the same time some kind of force is pulling us down. If some force is pulling you down raise two hands and loudly shout “Haribol” (shouting). Congratulations (laughs). 

This is the problem that is addressed by practically all spiritual practices, by all religions. Apostle Paul says that “There are two laws in my heart: one law is the law of flesh, and the other is the law of spirit. And the law of spirit is leading me upwards while the law of flesh is pulling me down”. And bhava is the level on which one ultimately feels that the law of flesh has completely lost its power over him because although he’s still making efforts the desire or the samskaras that have been pulling him down are almost gone, almost destroyed. In other words, another way of putting this is as follows: the farther we are from the stage of bhava the more efforts we have to make, the greater the force that will be throwing us back will be, the more difficult the struggle will be, the more efforts we’ll have to make. Therefore it’s so important to understand on these initial stages what force is pushing us forward. Because the force that will be pushing us back is clear, it’s our samskaras, desires, habits, our taste of material happiness. But there must be another force that exceeds that force. There must always be a balance between the two forces and the balance must be in favor of the spiritual one. The spiritual power or spiritual component must be stronger. And, actually, this entire seminar is about this, about how even at this very first stage to make the spiritual component or spiritual impulse stronger than all the material impulses. 

We know that Srila Rupa Goswami defines pure bhakti as anyabhilasita-sunyam jnana-karma-dy anavritam anukulyena krisnanu-silanam bhaktir uttama. He has set this, at first glance unthinkable ideal: anya abhilashita shunyam. Anya abhilashita-shunyam means that pure bhakti is the bhakti when one has no other desires; moreover, when one has no inclinations to have other desires. He doesn’t say anya abhilash-sunyam, he says anya abhilashita-sunyam which even reinforces his requirement. One who’s practicing pure bhakti shouldn’t have even the propensity to have others desires. Is such a state possible at the very first stage of spiritual practice? When we don’t have not simply other desires, even the desire to wish for other desires is not there; when there is no thought whatsoever of having any other desire. Is such a state possible at the very first stage of spiritual practice? No? It is, it is, who said that? Come and sit here, you tell us (laughs). The point is that it is possible. The secret of uttama-bhakti is that such a state is possible even at the earliest stages of spiritual practice. And it is in this state that one can advance properly. I’ll try to reveal these secrets to you in my small seminar. Do you want to know these secrets? Somewhat not very confident (cries of “Haribol”). 

Desires remain in us. In fact, if we honestly look, we’ll see that desires may remain in us even at the level of bhava, up to the level of bhava some desires may still appear, but these desires actually have no power any more. As long as the desires are strong, the mind, under the influence of these desires, will constantly fluctuate. Desires are the factor in the mind, which turns the mind into a state of jimjams, into the state of constant shaking, vibration and uncertainty. Therefore, there is another very important milestone, or step on the path of bhakti called nistha. And nistha is the stage where most of the desires not simply have no power over us, but basically go away from our consciousness, from our mind. And my presentation will be exactly about this, about how to achieve the level of nistha. Because, although, as I’ve already said, only at the level of bhava the efforts will become fully natural, but after the level of nistha, generally, it’s a downhill path; it’s a path that goes down by itself. Up to the level of nistha it’s an uphill path. And everyone knows that when we go up the hill, as soon as we stop what starts happenning to us? Yes, we start going down. As long as we go uphill we must not stop because any stop on this path will result in our throwing us back. 

And anartha-nivritti … Srila Prabhupada very nicely defines this level or this stage, the stage of anartha-nivritti – it is the stage on which the attraction of other objects, of everything else in this world is gradually reduced, and, on the other hand, the attraction to Krishna is getting stronger and stronger. Anartha-nivritti is the stage when we feel the gradual weakening of attraction of visaya, the objects of sensual pleasure. 

And we’ll be speaking precisely about this. Then, after anartha-nivritti this power of the other objects to attract becomes so weak, and just the opposite, the taste that permeates our practice, the taste for Krishna, becomes so strong that we can feel completely safe. Up to that level no one must feel completely safe. Srila Prabhupada used to say that “the only thing that distinguishes me from my disciples is that I’m afraid of maya and they are not; they’ve achieved complete fearlessness, they are not afraid of its attraction” but it’s precisely us that must fear maya, because for us the material world, with all its temptations, is still attractive to some extent. When we’ve realized the attractiveness or the sweetness of the ultimate truth, the taste of the ultimate truth, then there will be practically nothing to fear, although there, too, some problems lay in wait for the sadhaka, for the one who’s following spiritual practice. 

I’ll start with the first stage that Srila Rupa Goswami speaks about and today we’ll be talking about it, adau sraddha, everything begins with faith. And, in describing faith, I’ll try to describe material faith and spiritual faith so that we learn to distinguish one from the other, so that we understand which faith is material and which is spiritual. And even on the level of spiritual faith there are various types, there are various categories of spiritual faith and there are categories of spiritual faith that are not the best and there are categories of spiritual faith that are good or recommended. This will be my subject today – so that in our heart we learn to distinguish, to analyze what kind of faith motivates me on this path. At the end of our talk I’ll ask you to get into pairs or slightly larger groups so that we can discuss this material together and think about what kind of faith has brought me to the spiritual path and what kind of faith currently drives my spiritual advancement. So today we are going to have a very interesting, very practical conversation when we’ll be trying to understand or classify the various forms of faith. 

It all begins with what? What gives rise to one’s faith? Yes, the meeting with the devotees, the association, the contact with devotees, with Srila Prabhupada’s books or the live contact with practicing Vaishnavas. Today I read a letter that came to me. A woman is writing that most of her life she’s lived in a Muslim family, though she is Russian, and the Muslim family taught herto believe in a Muslim way. She says that when I saw the devotees these people struck me. We don’t realize the extent to which we are all striking, but it’s a true and undeniable fact: devotees are special people. We have somehow got used to each other, to the other devotees, and sometimes we don’t appreciate what spiritual practice gives us. Sometimes I meet some devotees in a year’s time, and, looking at them, I am struck to see the extent to which they have changed over the year, the extent to which the features of their faces have cleared, the extent to which their eyes have become deeper – amazing changes take place with the devotees as a result of this practice. A person who’s just encountered the devotees and has just heard the devotees, has just heard the Vaisnavas – and this is the most important thing, because a Vaishnava reveals himself first of all in sound. When a person meets the devotees and hears the Vaishnavas and if he feels reverence and respect, if he doesn’t reject it all from the very beginning, if he doesn’t put barriers or screens within himself, then something in his heart moves from the dead point. 

Today we were on a train and there was a young conductor who asked Kanai Gopala, “Are you Buddhists or what?” Kanai Gopal sent Prana Kishor Prabhu to preach to him, because Prana Kishor Prabhu had said, “I am now telling everyone about Krishna”. About half an hour or forty minutes remained to Dnepropetrovsk. As we were leaving I saw Prana Kishor Prabhu writing down in that conductor’s notebooks the Hare Krishna mantra. When I said “Goodbye” to the conductor, he folded his palms and said, “Hare Krishna” (laughter and applause). 

This is how the first faith appears. But this first faith is not the highest type of faith. In Sanskrit this first faith is called samajik-sraddha or sraddha which appears as a result of association, as a result of our contact with the devotees. It’s then, after that that the most important thing begins Here we must understand what the person who has obtained this first faith or this first impulse must do. The first faith, even though it might be a very small spark, it’s the faith that the path of bhakti is the only path one must take up. It’s not for nothing that that person said Hare Krishna. He may still not be aware that he has already believed in the fact that the path of bhakti is the only way one must take up. He may still think that the at the railway he’ll be shown some other ways but actually he’s obtained faith in this path and faith in this practice, because that’s what we say at the beginning when we meet people; this is what we start talking about. We are trying to share our experience with the people and eventually our experience of happiness, our experience of joy. And though some people don’t like it, but generally we want to pull them all to our own path, because we want to explain to them how nice it is, how easy and nice a person feels when he has suddenly acquired meaning in his live. 

I recently talked to a devotee. She’s a serious woman, she’s doing business, she’s rich, wealthy; she brought something for me and I said to her, “Thank you!” She said, “It’s me who must thank you for you gave me the most precious thing, you gave me the meaning of my existence. Until then, in spite of all the well-being that I had, life was completely meaningless. Now I know at least what I’m living for and what I’m doing”. We want to give people faith in this path. From the beginning our faith, the faith we give people is the faith in this path, the faith that bhakti is the only way one should take up. 

And Srila Rupa Goswami says that for a person to go along the path of pure bhakti, ananya-bhakti – and here listen very carefully, here starts something, probably new, something we haven’t heard before – the path of pure bhakti begins with faith, whereas the path of ordinary bhakti doesn’t need to be accompanied by faith. Actually, one can practice bhakti without faith. Have you ever heard such allegations? Surely you have. Perhaps not so obviously, not so openly, not so rudely, not so heretically, as I’m saying it now, but was Ajamila practicing bhakti in reality? He was, because he was chanting “Narayana, Narayana ...” Is chanting of the Holy Name bhakti? It is. Did he have any faith in the holy name? No, he didn’t. Did he reach the results of bhakti? He did. So, maybe we don’t need faith? This is an important point, which I would like remain with you at least from our today’s lecture. Faith is required to enable us to practice pure bhakti or ananya-bhakti, unalloyed bhakti, because it’s the unalloyed bhakti that can bring us where? I’ve cheated you, I lied to you ... for, can impure bhakti bring us to the spiritual world? It can, it can. Bhakti’s is so powerful that even if it’s impure it can bring us to the spiritual world; that even if it’s impure it can give us salvation from all our sins and eventually give us sarupya-mukti or some other mukti – sarsti, samipya, salokya – all this is possible, you don’t have to practice pure bhakti for that. Generally, it’s already in your pocket (laughter). We haven’t gathered here for this (laughs). We have gathered here to practice pure bhakti and as a result of our practicing pure bhakti attain what? Prema, love of God, because attaintment of prema or love of God is possible only by means of pure bhakti. To practice impure bhakti faith is not required. 

In order to practice pure bhakti so that our bhakti is purified we need to have faith, sraddha, and faith of special quality. And all the remaining time I’ll be speaking about what kind of faith this is, this sraddha, which can make our bhakti pure even at the very first, the initial stages and steps, and what other types of faith can there be in a person which, unfortunately, are not going to yield the desired result. That’s clear, isn’t it? We have established this very important truth that sraddha is not required in order to practice simply bhakti. Sraddha is required – and this is the only qualification – in order to practice pure bhakti. 

And sraddha, I’ve already explained, starts with our having faith in a devotee and our feeling respect or reverence for a devotee – this is the first step. A little trust in or a little respect for a devotee means a glimmer of sraddha. If this respect is not there ... how many people listened to Srila Prabhupada? – Far not all of them became devotees. How many people met other saints? – Far not with all of them happened something in their heart. A prerequisite for attaining this faith or sraddha is respect or reverence. It’s even said that lava matra sadhu-sanga sarva siddhi haya – that even an instant of association with a devotee can give us sarva-siddhi, all perfections. What kind of perfection can an instant of association with a pure devotee give us? Yesterday or the day before in Alchevsk I was speaking some things about bhakti, about Bhakti Tirtha Maharaja, and a person asked me, “All this is clear, but what about siddhas? How can one obtain siddhas” All the sastras say lava matra sadhu-sanga sarva siddhi haya – one can attain any perfections even in an instant of association with a devotee. Because, ultimately, perfection means that we find ourselves in the spiritual world, perfection means that love of God appears within us – that’s the greatest perfection, everything else is not perfection. 

There is a wonderful story in the Puranas, when Bali Maharaja once met Narada Muni. Narada Muni went to see him in his palace and Bali Maharaja duely received him, he washed his feet, sat him on the throne, sat at his feet and said, “I have one request to you, my heart bleeds when I think of my brother. My brother is a scoundrel, an atheist and a demon. We are all of a demons’ birth, from a demoniac family, so it runs in our blood to be demons. But this demon is a demon of all demons, he’s a drunkard, a rowdy man, he commits all possible sins and I’ve been trying in some way or another do something for him, but nothing works out. But you’re a great saint, a great devotee, you’ll be able to help him”. And Narada Muni said, “Of course, I’m a great saint, I’m a great devotee, I can help him”. And he went to that demon’s palace, to Bali Maharaja’s brother. This demon was sitting there ... He saw Narada Muni, he saw the saffron color and his eyes went red and bloodshot. He said, “Ahh, who’s that? Who’s come here?” He grabbed a bottle and started chasing after Narada Muni to drive him away. Fortunately, he was drunk, so he wasn’t running very fast, Narada Muni was prompter. He ran into a safe distance, he realized that he wont’ be able to do anything with him under such initial circumstances of their meeting, they were not very favorable, but in an impulse of compassion and mindful of his promise to Bali Maharaja, he shouted to him, “When you stand before Yama, before the lord of death, ask him, please, one question: what can association with a devotee give one?” 

This drunk man sobered up a bit – when he was told about Yamaraja, he somewhat came to his senses. And for some reason, these words sank into his heart, for, once again, the sound coming from a devotee, has the power to penetrate into the heart, it has the power to pierce the veil of ignorance, which in all other situations close our ears and our minds to spiritual vibrations. This sound remained with him and in due course he found himself in hell, he appeared before Yamaraja and Yamaraja, tired of his hard work, looked sadly at him. Citragupta read out the long list of his misdeeds and his sins and Yamaraja said, “Well, what shall we do?” Like, sometimes the judges say, “Well, what shall we do, mister Goodman?” They know what is to be done, but appear to give him a choice. And then the demon felt, “That’s my chance!” He said, “Yamaraja, before you sentence me, answer one question: what can association with a Vaisnava give one?”

Upon hearing the question Yamaraja was lost in thought. He began to think and then said, “You know, I don’t know what association with a Vaisnava can give one, because here I have no Vaisnavas. I can not quite understand what it can give, because I need some kind of experience but I have no experience of this sadhu-sanga. Let’s go to Brahma”. And they went together to Brahma to ask him this question, and Yamaraja said, “An inquiring sinner came to me in hell. And usually sinners don’t ask such questions. For some reason this sinner asked me, what can association with a Vaisnava give one?” Upon hearing this question Brahma frowned and began to think intensely with all four heads and then said, “My four heads are not enough to explain this – my mind is too small to fully explain this. Let’s go together to Shiva”. And all the three of them now went to Shiva. 

And Brahma said, “Yamaraja came to me and Yamaraja asked an unexpected question: what benefits can a person get by associating with Vaishnavas? And I couldn’t fully answer it because I started thinking and I couldn’t fathom and fully describe the abyss that opened before me. Per chance you happen to know?” Shiva began to cry. Shiva began, “How can I understand that? Look at my entourage, you see who’s following me! Look at all these goblins. I’m compassionate, I feel sorry for them and I have to carry them all along. How am I supposed to fully know what can sadhu-sanga give one? Vishnu alone can answer that question”. 

And the four of them now went to Vishnu and Shiva said, “Brahma came to me, and before that Yamaraja came to him, and to Yamaraja this sinner came who asked a question that none of us was able to fully answer: what can association with a Vaisnava give one?” Vishnu smiled with His enigmatic smile. When Vishnu realizes that something is impossible to explain, He smiles. He smiled and said, “Association with a Vaishnava can give everything including that one is saved from hell and attains the spiritual world, and since this sinner’s attained the spirit world, I Myself declare: yad gatva on nivartante tad dhama paramam mama (Gita, 15.6) – the one who gets here, never goes back. Therefore, stay here in the spiritual world”. Brahma, Shiva and Yamaraja asked permission to leave because they had many things to do whereas Bali Maharaja’s brother remained in the spiritual world”. (applause) 

But the point of this story is that even a small contact with the Vaishnavas, if we have a small fraction of respect, it can save one. In this case, Bali Maharaja’s brother had enough respect for Narada Muni to listen to him and obey his request. He had asked him, “Please, remember me when you feel utterly bad. And he remembered. Therefore Rupa Goswami says that it all starts with sraddha or with a little respect for the Vaisnavas, which, in the process of our spiritual advancement must consciously deepen. This is a very important lesson of our todays lecture. Sraddha begins with respect, sraddha means respect because sraddha means trust, and trust means respect. And if we want our path to be unimpeded we must deepen our respect for the Vaisnavas. We must see the other Vaishnavas as our saviours. We must feel our dependence on the other Vaisnavas. This is a very important feature of Vaishnava culture or association with Vaishnavas. What do people want in the material world? Independence. All people want independence. What should we want in the spiritual world or in the spiritual society? What should we ask for? Yes, we should ask that our dependence on other Vaishnavas becomes deeper and deeper, becomes more and more sincere. By no means should we consider ourselves independent of other Vaishnavas because that will be the very stimulus that will be strengthening our sraddha. And Rupa Goswami, Sanatana Goswami, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Himself in the “Caitanya-caritamrita”, in their instructions to Sanatana Goswami says: sraddhavan jan haya bhakti adhikari – that in order to practice pure bhakti, one must have sraddha. 

Now I’m going to speak in greater detail about the nature of sraddha. Sraddha is an important qualification on all paths – on the path of yoga, on the path of jnana and on the path of karma one needs sraddha. And Srila Vyasadeva defines sraddha very curiously. Patanjali Muni in his “Yoga Sutras” says that sraddha is the first step on the way to samadhi: sraddha virya smriti samadhi pragya purvakam itaresam. He says that other people, in order to achieve Samadhi, first acquire sraddha or faith; then they acquire viriya or strength because sraddha is the source of strength, then they acquire smriti or strong memory and strong memory brings them to absolute concentration. And Vyasadeva, commenting on this sutra – this is sutra 1.20 from Patanjali’s “Yoga Sutras” – he gives a very interesting definition of sraddha. He says sraddha cetasa sam prasadah. What is sraddha? Now we’ll try to understand the nature of this phenomenon, faith or sraddha. Vyasadeva says cetasa sam prasadah which translated into Russian means that sraddha is a clear state of mind. This is a clarified, absolutely pure, clear state of mind. Sam prasadah means: sam means perfect, prasadah means clear, transparent, light, enlightetened state of mind. Cetasam sam prasadah is the state in which one is freed from the the main contamination, the original contamination. Which is the main contamination in one at the very beginning which prevents him to advance? Doubt, that’s right. Doubts are the main contamination. We have our doubts. Doubts prevent us from making the first step. When doubts somehow or other go away by the grace of a devotee, we feel enlightenment in our mind. Has anyone felt in their mind, when they suddenly came across with a devotee, when he felt that and all of a sudden everything became clear? Suddenly it becomes clear that this is a path, that there is God, that everything is very simple. Has anyone felt this sudden enlightenment, although it seems so simple that we could have known it ourselves? I could have thought of that myself, right? You read Srila Prabhupada’s books and think, “I could have written it”. But for some reason it’s not me who’s written it but him. Who had this enlightenment in the mind when you came into contact with a devotee? Suddenly, everything falls into place. 

And Vyasadeva says sraddha cetasa sam prasadah. Sraddha means enlightenment, when the cloud of doubt, the darkness of doubt, the fog, the slime, the mold of these doubts go away by the grace of the devotees. And what happens next? Doubt is what prevents one from acting. What’s the Sanskrit word for doubt, who knows? Samsayah. Can anyone translate what the word samsayah literally means? What does sam mean? Fully, absolutely. And saya, sayate means to sleep, right. That’s a nice translation, you’ve made a correct translation. Samsayah means sleep of mind. Samsayah, doubt, is when the mind doesn’t know what must be done; and when the mind is divided we are deprived of power and we don’t really know what to do. 

And when our doubts regarding the spiritual practice go away, when this samsayah goes away, the spiritual mind is awakened and along with this awakened mind we feel … What does one feel when he feels faith, sraddha? Energy. One is filled with energy. Sraddha is the source of energy because doubts go away and immediately there is clarity and understanding of what I should do, there is understanding, there is this source of energy. Therefore it is said that sraddha is sakti, this is one of the Lord’s energies. Together with the descent of sraddha upon us we feel energized and Patanjali Muni writes the same thing. Patanjali Muni says sraddha viriya – sraddha is followed by viriya. Virya means the force, the energy that one feels. Has anyone felt this extraordinary, incredible burst of energy that faith gives? Raise your hands and shout “Haribol!” I know one mataji – I’ve known her for a long time – it’s Mataji Triveni, she’s a disciple of Gopal Krishna Maharaj. She’s a simple woman, very kind-hearted. She’s got an incredible amount of energy, just incredible! I look at her and I envy her with the most innocent envy that I’m capable of (laughs). And I see that this energy goes on and on year after year, the source of this energy; and I gave just one example, you can certainly give many other examples. But this incredible energy that she has, it’s all sourced by sraddha, by faith, which in turn means clarity of mind when doubts are gone. 

Therefore further on Vyasadeva says sahi janani iva kalyani yoginam pati. He says that this sraddha which frees one of doubts and gives one energy, is like a mother to a yogi. What does a loving mother do to her beloved son? She takes care of him, feeds him, protects him. And Vyasadeva says sraddha is like a loving mother to all of us. When the child runs away the mother watches him so that he doesn’t fall down, she warns him, she says, “Don’t go there”, she feeds him, she gives him to drink ... Just in the same way as long as we have faith in our hearts, we can be absolutely safe. We can know that this faith will take care of us, that we’ll be growing, we’ll be happily going along this path and it’s important to understand that without faith we can never truly go along the spiritual path, because we’ll lack this care or protective power that will protect us from all obstacles. What sraddha gives one is that it helps one to overcome all the obstacles that invariably, inevitably will stand up in the way of anyone who’s going along the spiritual path. 

And sometimes we say that our faith is a special faith, it’s not a blind faith. Is it not blind? Faith is always blind. There is no faith that is not blind. That’s why it’s faith. Faith means that I don’t know something. Faith means that I give credit to something, I believe in something, the experience of which I don’t have yet. It’s precisely this faith that can carry us through any obstacles because if we don’t have faith, what will we do when we come across some obstacles? Yes, we’ll start having doubts, we’ll turn back, we’ll lose heart, all our energy will go away, all the desire to follow. As lond as everything’s fine, as long as the sun shines, as long as there’s a nice prasadam and everyone smiles to me bhakti can be practiced without faith. When things get bad – here we need faith. And Vyasadeva says that faith is like a mother. At that moment it will rub you on the head and say, “Don’t worry, everything’s going to be fine, have a little patience, a little more, take one more step, not everything will always be so bad!” That’s why we need faith. But this is just a most preliminary description of the necessity of faith, the very beginning. We are in for another very interesting journey. Are you tired? I’m afraid of overloading you with all these things, but it’s really an important subject matter.

Now quickly together with you, I’ll try to give definition of the four types of faith. What are the four types of faith in this world? That’s right – faith in ignorance, faith in passion, faith in goodness and what kind of faith else? Transcendental faith, faith beyond the modes of material nature. There are these three types of faith, because, as Krishna Himself says, sraddha-maya yam puruso – one consists of faith. To do whatever one has to do, to engage in whatever activity one has to engage in, one needs faith; without faith one won’t be able to do anything. If he doesn’t have any faith, he’ll be sitting in one place and, indeed, he won’t be able even to sit because without faith he’ll always think, “What if everything just collapses beneath me?” He won’t be able to make a single step he needs faith to perform the simplest actions, the simplest actions are based on some kind of faith. Any activity is based on faith. Faith is the source of energy for any activity and when in the material nature it’s perverted, when it takes on perverted forms, transformed by the modes of material nature, it becomes tamasika-sraddha, rajasika-shraddha and sattvika-shraddha. And what is tamasika-sraddha? That’s faith in what? No, that’s faith in godless sinful activities. The faith that if I engage in these things and commit sins, I’ll be happy. Have you ever met such people, who have a firm unshakable nistha in this kind of activity? People think that I’m going to do it, I must do it that’s good, that’s right, they engage in terrible things and yet they have faith in that. Satanists is one such category of people, but there are people who don’t even have any theological justification for this, they just have faith that this is what should be done because that’s a way to live in this world. 

What is rajasika-sraddha or faith in passion? It’s first of all faith in what? In oneself, in one’s own strength, faith in our own mind, in our own intellect, in our own power; in the fact that if I do the right thing I’ll be successful by all means; faith in some kind of karmic activity that yields results. 

And finally, faith in sattva-guna, sattvika-sraddha, what’s that? Yes, that’s faith in purification, faith in the various practices of purification, when one fasts, that’s sattvika-sraddha. One thinks, if I’m fast long enough I’ll become immortal. Actually, he would just die quicker if he fasts too long (laughter). But sattvika-sraddha is the faith in some kind of spiritual practices. When people do yoga, for example, what kind of faith’s that? They don’t really know what yoga is, what the purpose of yoga is, why it should be yoga, but they think, they know that you have to stand on your head. They were told you have to stand on your head and they do stand on their heads. And to stand on your head – especially for a long time – you need to really have faith in it. If you’ve read any books on yoga, in the yoga books it’s written: stand on your head and you will achieve immortality. And people think, “That’s cool!” However, they forget that to achieve immortality you have to stand on your head all the time, 24 hours a day, then may be such a person ... But there is also a huge element of faith, it’s said: you must do this, you must do this pose, you must breathe ... One doesn’t know, but he has faith that this practice will purify him, he has this ideal of purification. These are all possible kinds of spiritual and pseudo-spiritual practices based on sattvika-sraddha. 

Finally, there is transcendental faith. What kind of faith is that? That’s faith in what? In Krishna or not in Krishna? No, not in Krishna. That’s faith in the service of Krishna. Prasadam is included (laughter). Krishna Himself says mad sevaya tu nirgunam. This verse is actually from the Eleventh Canto, chapter 25 of “Srimad-Bhagavatam” where Krishna describes this to Uddhava. He says, “This is the faith that we must serve Krishna, that I must serve the Personality of Godhead.” This is the faith that, offering a flower, patram puspam phalam toyam yo me bhaktya prayachchhati – I’ll be able to achieve something, that just by having picked a small flower and offered it to this little figure made ​​of bronze, I’ll be able to attain all the perfections of this world. This is a special faith, this is a transcendental faith, faith beyond the modes of material nature. This is the belief that God can do anything, that God can be manifested through everything and anything, that God can accept everything we have and, accepting everything we have, He can give us the most important thing that we need – love of Himself. This is a special, amazing, rare faith. 

Okay, we’ve left behind the tamasika-sraddha, the rajasika-sraddha, the sattvika- sraddhs and we are left alone with the transcendental faith. Is this sufficient or not? No, it’s not, that’s the point, that fun starts further on. Okay, somehow we’ve turned lucky and obtained some kind of faith in spiritual activities or in Krishna’s service. Who’s attained some kind of faith in spiritual activity? Everyone, otherwise you wouldn’t be sitting here, otherwise you wouldn’t be wasting your time, otherwise you would’ve been doing something else. We do have some kind of faith. Now starts the most interesting thing. Viswanatha Chakravarti Thakur says that this kind of faith, the transcendental faith, is of two types or two categories. The first is called svabhaviki. What does svabhaviki mean? Natural, it’s the manifestation of one’s own being, one’s own nature. And the second category is called balat-utpadita which means imposed faith. And, once again, this is where the shoe pinches. The question I’ll ask you at the end will consist in your own definition to what extent your faith belongs to the first category and to what extent it has the nature of the second category. There are two categories of faith and what we have is some mixture, because faith is the source or the motive for action, and analysing these two categories of faith, we’ll see that we are driven by mixed motives. And although they both belong to the transcendental category the second category of faith is highly unfavorable. 

Are you eager to hear what this is? We’re plunging even deeper into the pshychologocal analysis of the devotee, we’re approaching quite dangerous depths of the devotee’s psychology. But first I’ll be speaking on the natural faith, on the faith that is kind of a continuation of the human nature. Why does Viswanath Cakravarti Thakur call it natural faith? Because by its very form, this faith reflects one’s nature, it’s not imposed on him. And, looking ahead, I’ll give the definition of this faith. This is faith that is based on the sastras. It is natural precisely because it’s a reflection of or our response to the spiritual sound. This faith appears as a result of our hearing a message from the spiritual world, of our hearing the holy name, vaikuntha-nama, of our hearing the sastras, of our hearing the “Bhagavad-gita” and our heart’s responded to the “Bhagavad-gita”. Who had the feeling that I already know all that, when we read the “Bhagavad-gita”? That everything is as it should be, that it just cannot be otherwise? That that’s it, everything’s clear, everything’s natural. Therefore, Viswanatha Cakravarti Thakur calls it sastriya-sraddha – this is Jiva Goswami’s term, his predecessor’s, and he says that there is sastriya-sraddha or faith in the scriptures, in the understanding of the meaning of the scriptures – Viswanatha Cakravarti Thakur calls it svabhaviki-sraddha or natural sraddha when one hears this message and responds to it or awakens. Just like to wake up one has to hear a sound. In the same way to awaken from the sleep of material existence one must also hear a sound. What’s the sound one must hear? Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. Yes, when we hear the sound of the scriptures or the sound of the holy name. I remember my feeling when I first heard the sound of the holy name. My mind was saying, “Your mate is crazy!” And my heart was saying: Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. There was something extremely familiar, something inside responded to all that. 

Srila Niranjana Maharaj told an amazing story about how svabhaviki-sraddha works. Recently, I’m sure many of you’ve heard, when they were in Moscow together with Srila Radhanatha Maharaja, he told this story about his spiritual sister Isha Devi Dasi, who was and still is Srila Prabhupada’s disciple, she’s very old, she’s 91. And once she was was found in the doorway, on the porch of her house, completely paralyzed. She was somehow driven to the hospital, she was brought to her senses and there was extensive paralysis due to which she forgot everything. She didn’t even remember how to eat. She had to be taught everything over again – how to eat, where the food is, how to dress. She didn’t even know how to dress – she had absolutely all memory. And Niranjana Maharaja, who loved and loves her very much, was told about this after a while, a week later, and was told that she was completely unconscious and doesn’t remember anything.

He decided to call her immediately. He called and said, “Can I speak to Isha Devi Dasi?” She was told that, “Niranjana Swami wants to speak to you”. She got the phone and when she heard Niranjana Maharaja’s voice she sang into the phone, “Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare”. She didn’t remember how to eat nor how to dress, but as soon as she heard, “Niranjana Swami wants to talk”, she started singing on the phone. Then, when she finished singing, she shouted as loudly as she could, “All glories to Srila Prabhupada!” (laughter) Maharaj then says that he went to visit her and found her being tought how to eat. Her doctor was there teaching her to eat, saying, “This is a plate, you have to do like this and this” just like a small child. And he says that I found an amazing scene: sitting next to her was the doctor and the doctor asked her trying to remind her of something. Her name is Edith. He said, “Edith, where is your home?” She thought for a moment, "My home?! My home is in Vrindavan”. The doctor never heard of Vrindavan. He said, “In Chicago?” She said, “What Chicago? In Vrindavan! My home is ...” He says, “Where is that?” She says, “Where? In Vrindavan, I live in Vrindavan, I come from there!” 

This is, in fact, a reflection of svabhaviki or the deep internal nature of the soul; when one hears the sound of the scriptures and remembers about it and follows precisely the sound of the scriptures in his life, then this sound of the scriptures will ultimately by all means bring him home, to Vrindavan. 

I’ll now give the definition, because we are studying a science and a science means a clear understanding of the definitions. Svabhaviki-sraddha is, as I already said, the sastriya-sraddha, or faith in the words of the scriptures, or, more precisely, if some of you are taking notes, then put down, please, this definition or try to remember it. This is the faith in the infallibility of the fundamental teachings of the scriptures which concerns the nature of God, the individual soul, the universe, the maya and their relationships with each other. This is the faith in the infallibility of the basic or fundamental doctrines of the scriptures regarding the nature of God, the individual soul, the universe, the maya and their relationships with each other, as well as the highest goal of all our efforts. This is the essence of faith. Sastriya-sraddha or svabhaviki-sraddha is the deep faith in the essence of the scriptures, which describes to us the nature of God, the nature of the individual soul, the relationships which connect the individual soul and God, the nature of the material world, the nature of maya. All these truths, if we get them from the scriptures and they are imprinted in our hearts, and if in doing so we are aware that our main goal is to realize love of God, truly, in the highest form, then all this will represent the natural or correct sraddha. Therefore Caytanya Mahaprabhu gave the famous definition of sraddha: Sraddha sabde visvasa kahe sudridha niscaya. There are two translations of these simple words: sraddha-sabde visvasa kahe sudridha nischaya. First is sraddha-sabda. Sabda means word. The word sraddha means visvasa, visvasa means trust. Sudridha nischaya means unwavering trust in the fact that by practicing bhakti, krisne-bhakti kayle sarva-karma crita haya – that just by practicing bhakti one will do everything that is needed, will achieve everything that is required, that there is no need for anything else. But there is another, also obvious translation of this, a little different: sraddha-sabde visvasa. Visvasa means trust, sabdha means what? Yes, scriptures. Sraddha means trust or faith in the scriptures. Sraddhe-sabda visvasa. When we repose our visvas or our trust, our faith in the words of the scriptures, not in anything else. We need nothing else but precisely this overwhelming faith in the words of the scriptures; the faith that will help me to focus on the words of the scriptures.

It’s almost 6:00; can I speak a little longer, because I don’t want to interrupt. Are you tired? Sraddha-sabde-visvasa kahe sudridha nischaya: Sraddha is the faith or trust in sabda, in the words of the scriptures, in the meaning of the scriptures, and not simply faith, but faith of particular quality or particular power when we understand that it is the most important thing. Sraddha is a specific state when I realize that everything else is not that important, when this truth of the scripture is revealed to me from within and suddenly it all becomes clear to me, I realize that nothing else matters. Absorption is the sign of true faith. Faith becomes true when it allows me to fully focus on all this, when everything else ceases to be something significant or important to us; when we hear the scriptures being praised as the most important thing in our life, when we hear with an insatiable thirst. There is an example of this in the scriptures themselves. Who listened with an extraordinary concentration? Yes, Maharaja Pariksit. Why? Because he knew he was going to die soon. Are we going to die soon? No, we’re not going to die soon, so we don’t need to listen in such a way, right? We are also going to die soon. It’s not by chance that he listened for seven days. Seven days means a week, and we know that week after week pass by and death comes very soon. And faith means the understanding that this is the most important thing: what’s happening now is the most important thing. Mind works in a particular way: whatever I’m doing I think that something else is more important. Have you noticed that? No matter what I’m doing ... As soon as I start doing something my mind immediately starts telling me, “Maybe you could do something else?” Especially if I’m chanting mantra – the mind immediately says, “Yes, yes, I have to do so many things!” But the most amazing thing is that as soon as I start doing something else, the mind will say what? Yes, the mind says that there’s something else to be done. If we’are reading sastra, the mind’s saying, “I have to do something else!” But the meaning of sraddha is that sraddha, if this faith or this state, this vritti, this state of consciousness has appeared in one, he realizes that this is the most important thing; that the most important thing for me now is to listen. We want to achieve exactly this state of sraddha – to hear as Maharaja Parikshit was hearing; in such a way as to forget about hunger, about thirst, about everything else. 

Why is it this particular quality that is essential in sraddha and why is it this particular quality that we can and must try to develop in ourselves? This is the kind of sraddha we need. Why? Let’s go back to the very beginning of our presentation. I said that even at the very beginning our bhakti can be pure. How can it be pure? If there is this particular quality of faith. If I have the faith that this is the most important thing, even if there appears some other desire in my heart then what do I say to myself? “You wait a little, I can’t think of you right now!” Therefore Rupa Goswami says that this is the qualification for practicing akincana-bhakti. If I don’t have such faith, my bhakti will be deprived of purity, my mind, my consciousness will be devided by many other things. My many branched mind will be dedicated to this, to that, to something else and so on … Therefore one must ultimately develop in oneself sastriya-sraddha and this sraddha must become so intensive that everything else would stop worrying me, disturbing me, bothering me, so that it wouldn’t impede me, even if these desires somehow or other appear in me. 

And it actually doesn’t take much to do this. To do this we must understand that we are where? On the verge of what? On the threshold of great things (laughter). On the verge of death. This is the question that “Srimad-Bhagavatam” begins with, this is one of the questions when the sages of the Naimisaranya forest ask Suta Goswami, “What is the person on the verge of death supposed to do, what must a person on the verge of death understand?” And we must belief the fact that we are all going to die. Does anyone believe that he’s going to die? Actually, no one believes it, this is the problem – the problem is that we don’t believe that we are on the verge of death, we don’t believe that we’re going to die, we don’t believe that we need it. If we start to strongly believe it, that here is the meaning of the scriptures before us and we can do it now, we’ll be able absorb ourselves in all this. That’s presicely why our bhakti can be very pure when we have this faith which allows us to focus our minds and reject all other interests when all other interests cease to really affect us. Has anyone felt such faith when all of a sudden everything else suddenly becomes insipid? Suddenly you realize that everything else is insipid and that’s faith, that’s real faith. 

Srila Radhanath Maharaj told one amazing story besides all the numerous other stories he was telling. It’s the story Ganeshyama Babaji, his nice good friend, the very one who found the Deities of Radha-Gopijana-Vallabha and who whenever he met him, would say, “I’m your humble servant”. And he wasn’t just saying that, he actually meant it. And he once asked him, “Could you tell me your story? How did you get here, what brought you here, to Vrindavan?” He was embarrassed and said, “But what’s the use of my story?” A Vaishnava doesn’t like talking about himself, a Vaishnava doesn’t like to be the object of glorification or talk. But then he thought for a while and said, “However, the story is worth telling in order to glorify Krishna”. This is a story meaningful because it shows how great Krishna is. However, it’s a simple story. The story consists in the fact that he came from a very rich royal family, a young man once came to Vrindavan. When his family decided to leave Vrindavan, he felt he was unable to leave Vrindavan. That’s the whole story, that’s the end of the whole story. He came to Vrindavan and realized that he wouldn’t be able to leave it, Krishna caught him in His net. The family left in extreme anger, in complete frustration, he was the only heir. And they were writing letters to him, they were threatening to deprive him of any inheritance and everything else. “Inheritance? – One speck of Vrindavan dust is more precious than the entire treasures of this world. I have so many of these dust specks here! I can bathe in the dust!” And that means faith when a little faith appears in one. This little faith is sufficient to burn everything else that’s there inside us. Such a person understands that there’s nothing better than this; there’s nothing more attractive than this, there’s nothing more astonishing than this. And ultimately that’s sastriya-sraddha. 

Now I’d like to ask you a tactless question: Whose faith is so strong that he’s not interested in anything else? Don’t answer this question, but ask it to yourself and listen to the answer that will come from your heart. Do we have faith? We do. It is strong enough? Not really. The best and most wonderful thing is that we can make our faith stronger. How can we strengthen the sastriya-sraddha? Yes, there are two ways to strengthen this sastriya-sraddha. And that’s why, generally, the most important thing we must do now is to listen and Srila Jiva Goswami explains in the “Bhakti-sandharbha” that faith, sastriya-sraddha, by its origin and by its very nature is divided into two categories: vicar-pradhan and ruci-pradhan. Vicar-pradhan is the faith when I listen to the sastras and try to get rid of the doubts that inevitably arise in me with regards to the sastras; when I try to understand the logic of the sastras, when I try to see the overall structure ot the sastras. And, having seen the overall structure of the sastras I realize: everything is perfect, everything is as it is, that’s the way it is; I see this well-composed comprehensive structure of the sastras with all its logic and my doubts are cleared. Because, to be honest, we do have doubts, we do, we cannot comprehend those multi-headed and multi-armed deamons on the various planets ... We’ve never seen all that! But if we see the overall structure, if we feel the logic, if we feel how every little piece of everything that is said in the sastras logically builds up to the complete whole; if we understand that everything is connected, that not a single brick can be removed, that everything is in its place, that everything is as it should be, then we can believe; we see the lower floors of the foundation or the plinth of that building of the sastras, but we can see that all the rest, what we haven’t yet experienced ourselves, also fits in there. Can it be? That we start from something we’re confident on and give credit to all the rest. 

And Srila Jiva Goswami says that this is vicar-pradhan, faith that results from reflection on the sastras. I hear and not simply hear, I try to see, to catch, to feel the logic of what is written in the sastras. And this is actually the most common form of faith. We don’t have to rush off to somewhere else. We must strengthen our faith by hearing explanations of the sastras by those who understand the logic of the sastras, and by no means neglect this, even if we think that everything’s fine with us. Even if we think that everythin’s fine, that “I know everything, why should I need it? I chant Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare and everything’s gona be fine, I’ve got it all, I’ve got faith in the path, everything’s clear, everything’s fine, why should I need all that? I’ve heard that so many times!” Do such thoughts sometimes occur to any of you? Well, we’ve heard it all, haven’t we?! Over and over again? Why?! The problem’s that for the time being everything’s fine with all of you. Tomorrow everything’s gonna be bad. And the day after tomorrow too. Or when you come back from the retreat. Or, when you are left all alone with your mind. Or when someone comes up and says something that suddenly raises the doubts that have never actually disappeared, but were simply hidden somewhere deep inside. Someone will tell you something and that’s it, all your faith will fall into pieces. Again and again one must hear explanation of the sastras. This is very important, you cannot overstate the value of this. I’ll never get tired of repeating: one must hear the sastras. This is not jnana. Sometimes I hear an absolutely terrible offence towards the sastras, when people say, “Those who study the sastras are jnanis”. They’re not jnanis, they’re just smart bhaktas (applause). Those who don’t study sastra are stupid bhaktas and the problem is that ... Srila Jiva Goswami says that. A little later I’ll quote him, he’ll say what happens with those whose faith is not strong enough, because he hasn’t fully understood the logic, because he hasn’t been listening enough, whereas it is exactly listening that is the driving force at the early stages of devotional service. And it’s not simply listening, because listening can be improper. A little later I’ll be talking about the wrong forms of listening. But we’ll get to that point. Listening is the engine that pulls us forward, that enables us to overcome the obstacles that will sooner or later encounter us on our path. And what happens ultimately to the person that has listened long enough, if he’s been listening and thinking about it, listening and trying to understand what is being said, listening and trying to make it a part of his or her own life? He starts seeing this world in a particular way, his meditation becomes continuous, he starts seeing Krishna here, because he becomes sastracaksu, he starts seeing through the prism of the scriptures; he doesn’t just see a birch tree anymore, he sees how this birch tree is connected to Krishna; not just a bird that’s fluttering, he sees the soul. 

Like, one person was telling me recently, too, a mataji has written me a letter. She says, that “Previously I’ve heard many times that Krishna is in the heart of all living beings, I’ve heard many times that all living beings are souls, but many times I didn’t pay any attention to that”. I’m a little embarrassed to speak about this because she’s present here in this room, but nevertheless, she’ll understand who I’m talking about. And she’s writing to me that at some point when she was pulled down by a disease and she started thinking why this disease has come to her? Why has this disease happened to her? Suddenly she realized that the disease has come to remind her that Krishna is in the hearts of all living beings, that she didn’t have the proper attitude towards all living beings on the basis of sastra. This is the meaning of sastriya-sraddha – that I listen for a long time, over and over again. I hear that many times, but don’t understand it. But at some point, since I’ve been hearing many times something happens and all of a sudden I start seeing it. If I hadn’t heard, I would have never seen it. But, since I’ve heard it over and over again, all of a sudden I start seeing that it’s not just some rascal sitting before me, who I have to just push out or come to turms with. No, Krishna’s in his heart, right there. I see it! And this is the advantage or the amazing result of sastriya-sraddha, that ultimately worshipping the Lord as a result of such sraddha, as a result of such hearing becomes my very life, it becomes somewhat natural, as natural as it can be even on the first level, on the level of sraddha. 

And there is faith of another nature, of another type – when we listen to the sastras ... The first is called vichar-pradhan, it results from vicara, or reflection, and the second is called ruci-radhan – I hear about Krishna and what? And I just like it. I love it and love it so much that I’m willing to listen without end. And I listen and I love it all the more, and everything’s fine. 

satāḿ prasańgān mama vīrya-saḿvido

bhavanti hṛt-karṇa-rasāyanāḥ kathāḥ

taj-joṣaṇād āśv apavarga-vartmani

śraddhā ratir bhaktir anukramiṣyati

(Bhagavatam, 3.25.25) 

I’m listening and bhavanti hṛt-karṇa-rasāyanāḥ kathāḥ – and this thing, this sound, just the sound, just the fact that I’m hearing it, just the process of hearing becomes a rasayana to my heart and to my ear. Rasayana is a tonic, the more you take it the more you want it. Tonic is what gives strength. You hear and want to hear more. This is another source of faith or another type of faith. Bhavanti hṛt-karṇa-rasāyanāḥ kathāḥ- taj-joṣaṇād āśv apavarga-vartmani śraddhā ratir bhaktir anukramiṣyati – Kapiladeva says that as a result of such hearing when hearing becomes a tonic or a rasayana, when hearing enlivens us from within and we have learned, we have somehow or other developed a taste for hearing, as a result, there is sraddha first. That is, at the beginning this sraddha might not be there, sraddha appears as a result of this hearing, then rati appears, or attachment to Krishna, and then bhakti appears. 

We are still to go through many points. Organizers should be asked what they have to say about it? Because we can, basically, stop here and shift wrong hearing and wrong things to tomorrow, because here we still have many things. Can I go on speaking? I do not know, maybe it’s better to stop here I’m not asking you, I’m asking the organizers (laughs). Vijay Krishna? (applause) The loud-voiced minority wan over. The majour part was sitting silently thinking, “Ah!” but didn’t dare to admit it. Several people shouted, “Go on, go on!” There is one honest man: we have service to do. Perhaps we’d rather stop here? Okay, those who have to do service can go. Those who are to cut vegetables – follow Vasudevananda! That’s good, we haven’t started talking about the bad things yet, we’ll first talk about the good ones. I don’t know if we’ll have time to start talking about the bad things. This ruci-pradhan is sraddha which appears because there’s ruci – that’s good. We listen to a devotee and we like listening and we want to listen and it becomes a tonic for us. 

Since it seems that we need lots of vegetables for tomorrow, I’ll not speak too long, I wanted to talk about the important things when everyone is listening attentively. I’ll say literally a few more words which are nevertheless very important. We’re thinking and reflecting over the nature of faith, the nature of sraddha. We’ve already said what the nature of sraddha is: that mind is purified of doubts, the energy or desire to do something appears, the understanding that I have to serve Krishna; and when we listen to the sastras, what else appears along with it, along with the desire to do something for Krishna, with the desire to go along this path? The hope that I will very soon reach the goal. There is hope, that’s also a sign of sastriya-sraddha. The sastras are written in a particular way, the sastras are written specifically to strengthen this hope in us, to make it strong and very firm. Especially Srila Prabhupada – he is an expert in this, he presents everything in such a way that it seems: a little more and there it is. He says what anartha-nivritti means – If you’ve stopped eating meat – all anarthas are gone, just give smoking and everything will be fine. Give up all these unnecessary stuff; give up all this nonsense and rubbish and everything will come very quickly. A little more and you start dancing – last time we described how he’s describing the entire path: if you dance at the kirtan that’s already bhava. If you dance for a long time that’s already prema (laughs), and if even longer, then without noticing you’ll find yourself in the spiritual world. And that’s a sign of sastriya-sraddha. Sastriya-sraddha gives faith in attaining the perfection described in the sastras. The sastras speak of perfection, the perfection of prema, the perfection of spiritual love and this faith arises in us. But what’s very important … For what other reason is it so important to study the sastras? – Because along with this faith in the words of the scriptures and the hope that they give us, we have a clear understanding of what ... we start to feel respect that allows us to avoid all obstacle on the path of bhakti, namely the deliberate offences, the desire for fame, honor, and all sorts of other things. And it’s also a feature of sraddha. And why is it so important and why should sraddha be based on sastra? Because when we read the sastras we have a clear understanding of what I need and what I don’t need. Do I need honor, fame, celebrity? … I do, that’s clear, who doesn’t need it? Everyone needs it, that’s a nice pleasurable thing … But we read about this in the sastras and understand: I don’t need it, it’s an obstacle, it’s a nasty thing. The sastras say, it’s a ansty thing – don’t touch it! (laughs) It’s not worth it, you’ll get smeared in all that. It’s actually dirt, it’s dirt. And if I’m not absorbed in the sastras, I won’t be able to understand all that. And all these things will be coming to me, and we’ll be analyzing in the next few days, which I hope will be long and we won’t have so many vegetables so that we are able to hear about all this. We’ll be analyzing how these things will be coming to us and not just coming. Krishna will Himself be coming and offering it to us. Krishna will be cheating us, Krishna will be saying, “Please, take it! Just look here: here’s fame, here’s money, take it, please, take it to please Me, I like giving this to My devotees, take it!”

At this point, we must have sraddha which is strong enough to enable us to tell Him what? I don’t want it, no, I won’t! But this requires faith, because it all will come. This is the good news: all this is sure to come! But when it comes, this is where the fun starts. At this point you must say, “No, I do not need it! It’s not for this that I’ve come here! It’s not for this that I’m doing all this!” And this is the meaning of sraddha: sraddha helps one to avoid offences. Because if I don’t have sraddha, if I don’t have respect, if I don’t have the clear desire to understand that this is the goal and I want to attain this goal, and in order to achieve this goal I must first of all avoid offences on my way, then I’ll be offending the devotees. Do I sometimes want to offend the devotees? Who else is there to offend, they’re all around. Like, a devotee was complaining to me, he said, “The sastras say that the devotees are rare. But what you have all around is just devotees! Krishna says that of thousands and thousands of people, hardly one ... and here there are just devotees!” And this temptation to offend, this temptation to think bad of them will be there. Sraddha will protect us against this. Therefore Vyasadeva says that it’s like a mother who will say, “Don’t do that!” It will give you the clear understanding: here’s the goal, everything else you don’t need, and even if we have this firm faith or firm sraddha that we’ve obtained from the only source, for there’s no other source of the right sraddha – only sastra – sastras, sadhu, guru - if we’ve obtained this firm fatith, then even if we somehow or other stumble or our attachments still stick to us, then what will we be feeling? Repentance. And if sraddha is not there, we won’t feel repentance. Repentance is a sign of sraddha, it’s a sign of faith. If we have a clear understanding of what sastra wants to tell us, when we get attached to something or when we do something that we know well, is not good, we’ll feel repentance. And if there is no faith, then there will be no repentance either. And since there will be no repentance, we won’t be cleansed of all of these things and these attachments will be growing stronger and stronger, they’ll be dragging us back. 

That is why faith is so important at the beginning and faith can be strengthened; there is only one way to strengthen our faith. What should we do for this? Listen to the sastras. Listen to the sastras every day, listen to the sastras all the time and by no means should we think that I already know everything. Does anyone think sometimes that “I’ve already heard all that”? Yes ... We must listen to the sastras every day because faith is the foundation and if we want to build a tall building or a high stairway that will reach the spiritual world, the foundation must be very strong. If this is not there … And one can be practising ananya-bhakti without sraddha. This is another amazing thing I’m going to reveal to you today. First I told you that one can practice bhakti without faith, but I told you that to practice pure bhakti one needs faith, one needs sraddha. Now I say something even more astonishing – that even to practice ananya-bhakti one doesn’t need faith or doesn’t need strong faith. A person can be engaged in pure devotional service without having strong faith. What will happen to such a person? These are Srila Jiva Goswami’s words. Let’s consider this carefully and stop here because I wanted to leave the next piece for tomorrow. He says kadacit kincit pravritta ca niscayati. He says that sometimes, if one is not so deeply absorbed, if he somehow or other has not obtained faith of such quality that I was trying to describe, if one’s not so much absorbed and doesn’t understand the importance of everything that he’s being told now, to the degree that it would cast aside all other interests, then, in this case, niscayati, his focus on the practice of devotional service will sooner or later come to an end. And we have seen such results: a person engages in bhakti and at the beginning he feels an esxtraordinary enthusiasm, great ecstasy, but he lacks faith which is strong enough, because at the beginning there’s a lot of new information, nice people, nice food, nice prasadam, a lot of nice things, he engages in all this and everything is okay with him. Have you seen such devotees, who are perfectly Okay? Everything’s fine with them, it’s just amazing! He’s dressed in a dhoti, in a saree, he’s got a tilaka like an arrow and everything’s fine for a while, but then look he’s disappeared, he’s not there any more. Why is this happening? Because there was no strong faith and one hasn’t taken the care to make this faith stronger, that’s all, as simple as that. At the beginning he had this feeling that that’s it, there’s nothing better than this, that everything’s so attractive here, I don’t even know what attracts me more – everything’s just so nice, so perfect … But if I don’t have the clear understanding, the clear and distinct faith based on sastra, sooner or later, Srila Jiva Goswami says, such a person will go away because faith – and this is one last definition that I wanted to give today: faith is hunger for God . When we read the scriptures, when we realize that there is God, when our mind is suddenly enlightened for a moment and all of a sudden we realize that, “Yes, I must be with God that my place is in Vrindavan”, I start feeling this hunger, and if I listen, then this hunger will be growing, the desire to come to God must become stronger and stronger. But if our hunger is not strong, not that strong, then all kinds of strange, not so nice things can be happening to us. One may be engaged in bhakti … It’s just like when one’s not very hungry but is eating, what will the food turn into? Into poison, into ama. Similarly, when hunger is not intense and I’m practicing devotional service – I get up early in the morning, I chant the mantra and for a while it seems that everyone else eat and I eat, but then I thing, “Well, how long can this go on? I’m fed up” and I stop eating. 

Well, this was the description of sastriya-sraddha. First of all simply sraddha or faith, what faith is. We have covered an extensive material today and I’d like you to try to somehow preserve it with you. Srila Rupa Goswami says that our way to the spiritual world starts with sraddha and sraddha is the faith in the spiritual path, the faith in spiritual practice. We leave behind some material kinds of faith, by happy coincidence, we’ve met with the devotees, we’ve heard from them, some taste for this has appeared in us and we’ve started doing this. Now it’s very important that our faith is the correct one and therefore Visvanatha Chakravarti Thakur says that faith is of two kinds: one is svabhaviki-sraddha and the other is balat-utpadita sraddha, imposed faith. We’ll be analyzing this second category of faith tomorrow, it’s a very important thing, which, unfortunately, many of us have and many of us are impeded by it especially when we get together, but I will not go ahead. 

This faith must grow stronger and the only way to strengthen this faith is to hear the scriptures, to try to understand the logic, and even if we don’t understand much of the logic, just try to get a taste of it, just listen, because that’s what our heart and our ears like – hear again and aigan. But if we don’t have this taste, the way to get a taste is to properly think it over, because if we look, in the sastras there are lots of amazing things, amazing treasures, most interesting and wonderful things that are told to us and about us. And if this faith is there, it will help us to focus entirely on the spiritual path and the other desires that are there in our hearts will not disturb us, they won’t have any power over us, no influence. This is, in general terms, what I was trying to tell you about today. That faith is very important and it can be strengthened, but to be the proper kind, faith must be based on sastra. Well, that’s all for today (applause). I’ve got some questions. 

Question: If doubts don’t come up for a long time, do they disappear, are they burnt? 

Answer: No, it means that they don’t come up for a long time. Like, sometimes when a person has drowned, he also lies there on the bottom for a long time, but then it comes up as a corpse. If a person has no particular doubts, but he knows that they are somewhere out there, these worms are somewhere there within, I just pay no attention to them, I shouldn’t wait until they come up, I should try to deal with them, I shouldn’t just pretend that they’re not there. They don’t bother me and that’s Okay. There are no particular doubts, everything’s okay, I know they’re out there somewhere, there’s something I’m not quite aware of, there’s something I’ve misunderstood, but generally everything’s Okay at about 85%, so I can ignore everything else. No, that’s the point of vicara-pradhan, reflection on the sastras, that we have to understand how perfect and complete, how consistent everything is so much so that you can’t find any flaw. This is the faith that will enable us to resolve all our doubts. 

And there’s a question related to that. 

Question: All of us have faith, but where to get the strength to act in accordance with faith? 

Answer: I’ve already explained where to take it in order to act in accordance with faith. Where can I get the strength to act in accordance with my faith? In faith itself. Ultimately strength comes when we have no doubts. If we don’t have strength it means that we don’t really have faith, it means that doubts are depriving us of the opportunity to act. Doubts are a terrible thing, because doubts tear us apart and we think, “Well, I’ll now do it, but what’ll happen next? Who’ll then take care of me? Okay, I’ll now surrender to Krishna, others too have surrendered before me and what’s become of them? And, they too had faith at the beginning, but all faith’s gone, and what will become of me?” And all these doubts just deprive us of the opportunity to act. Like someone said how some devotees are used to complaining that “I’ve given to Krishna consciousness the best years of my life”. There’s a nice answer to this, “Who’s stopping you to give it the worst, if you’ve already given the best? Give the worst, what’s the problem?” (laughter) These are doubts. One cannot act just because something inside him impedes him, therefore the source of power is faith alone, and faith comes from hearing, it comes from the clear understanding of the way and of the coordinates that we are following.

Question: How can we recognize the person who understands the logic of the sastras? 

Answer: Well, how can we recognize him? He can explain it to others. A person who understands the logic of the sastras, sastra-yukti, a person who knows everything, can explain all that. A person who doesn’t understand will be saying, “Krishna that’s cool. And if you do not chant you’ll go to hell, don’t you understand?” One who knows will not, when talking to others, be trying to somehow or other force the other person, he gives the other person the opportunity to think about it himself, because he himself in the process of deep reflection has come to the need of taking up the spiritual path and he realizes that the spiritual path has made ​​him happy, he understands that the spiritual path has given him a lot and he understands in what way the spiritual path gives. And the person who understands the logic of the sastras can be recognized on this very basis – he can explain that logic to others, he can understand what it means and explain it. 

Question: We can see that some charismatic leader preaches and gives people faith but not in Krishna, but in himself. Then such a leader goes away and people too go away. How can we avoid such cheating in preaching and give people Krishna and not ourselves? 

Answer: Very simply. Tomorrow I’ll be speaking precisely about this. I wanted to speak on this today, but sice we have to cut so many vegetables, I decided to postpone it till tomorrow. Because such a person stats speaking not on the sastras. Instead of attracting people to the sastras ... Like Srila Prabhupada – Srila Prabhupada didn’t attract people to himself. People were attracted to him because a devotee becomes attractive, but Srila Prabhupada directed people to the sastras. He gave the “Bhagavad-gita”, he would start speaking on the “Bhagavad-gita” from the very beginning. I’m now listening to Srila Prabhupada’s lectures in Hindi and I love listening to them because everything is clear. I absolutely don’t speak Hindi, but everything’s clear to me because there is no Hindi there, there’s a quote after a quote from the “Bhagavad-gita” followed by an explanation of the quote in Hidni, but I know their translation anyway. Srila Prabhupada explains it all and it’s a great pleasure to hear – there is one quote after another, he gives it all, connecting it all together. Whereas if I do this for my own sake, I’ll be trying in one way or another to attract people’s attention to myself. Srila Prabhupada would point this out, he would tell of a “Bhagavad-gita” commentator who commented on Krishna’s words. Krishna says man-mana bhava mad-bhakto – think of Me. The commentator writes, “Actually one’s supposed to think not about Krishna, one must think about something inexplicable that is contained in Krishna ... and that’s basically me, for all of us are Brahman“. No, Krishna says, „Think of Krishna, think of Me“, and we must give people Krishna, tell them something, share something with them that is in the sastras, and at the same time, naturally, we must be very honest with ourselves. 

Once again, this is tomorrow’s topic, but today we can touch upon it. Such a person starts speaking about something to delight the audience, to meet their needs, because unfortunately, the sastras are not always popular. If we just speak on the sastras it would appear that we won’t be able to attract so many people, and one wants more, one thinks that preaching means when I attract lots of people, that the meaning of preaching is to be heard by as many people as possible. Srila Prabhupada used to say, quoting his spiritual master, that even if one person hears you, that will be a great victory. And when he was on his way to America, he didn’t know who would listen to him, and at some point not a single person was listening, he was sitting at his place among his four walls dictating the introduction to “Gitopanishad” that later became the introduction to the “Bhagavad-gita”. And he was happy with this, because he was alone with Krishna’s words, with the sastras, and for him that equaled being directly with Krishna, talking with Krishna. Whereas if I want to attract people at all costs, that’s another very important point, that not always successful preaching is measured by the number of attracted people. Because people can be attracted but if I attract them by the wrong thing, then I sow in their hearts the seeds of future problems. They come into Krishna consciousness – so to speak Krishna consciousness, but since from the very beginning I try to attract them by something here, “Come to Krishna consciousness, please do, you’ll feel good, you’ll get rid of all your diseases ...”, we sow the seeds of problems in people. Therefore, successful preaching is not measured by the number; successful preaching is measured by purity – by the purity of our motives and our desire to give people exactly Krishna. And we can give people Krishna in one way only, in the form of sastras, in the form of His words, in the form of krisna-katha. And this is the success of preaching. Srila Prabhupada was not concerned with that, he said, “I didn’t know at all whether a single person will be attracted or not.” Yesterday we watched this amazing video about the first period, when Srila Prabhupada was sitting under a tree singing this tune (singing): Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare, and if we just look at Srila Prabhupada, at those people, some kind of hippies dancing there, and at him, he was totally focused on the sound of the holy name. And someone said yesterday that actually it’s unbelievable that it all just happened like that. Indeed, that was truly an absolutely unbelievable scene: an elderly man siting from a completely different culture, from a completely different world, who arrived to the hippies of America. Sitting and chanting Hare Krishna and people chanting after him, people responding to this. And he doesn’t want to take them with any bait. If we look, in fact, that’s the best example of this, if we want to understand what it means to present Krishna purely, the best example is Srila Prabhupada. There was no affectation in his preaching, no flirting whatsoever with the people. He’s just speaking about Krishna. If people listen that’s good, if not - what to do? If people want to hear – I’m giving it to them, if not – that’s their right, that’s their free will. 

We’re talking precisely about this, and it’s precisely the second type of faith when we have forced a person to render so called devotional service or service to Krishna by means of various preaching techniques, and it’s called imposed faith, with the help of various tricks. And this second category of faith is most deplorable and it’s worth talking about in detail, because it carries within itself the seeds of very serious problems, it spreads like a cancer in the society of devotees, when devotees somehow or other start speaking about their own ideas and there are a lot of various other problems or some not very good things appear as a result of such so called preaching or hearing. It appears in the process of hearing, too, it also increases as a result of hearing, but that’s not the faith that we need. Therefore, the simple answer to this question, “How to avoid such substitutes in preaching and give people Krishna and not ourselves? – to do this we have to speak on the sastras and we have to follow Srila Prabhupada; to do this we have to try to understand, to feel his spirit and follow the way he speaks about Krishna. This will be the best way to tell others about Krishna, this is the method that won’t generate unnecessary problems in them. 

Ok, we’re late by a full hour now and I’m not going to give you any interactivities, because we have to sing Gaura-arati. Thank you very much. Srila Prabhupada ki! Jaya! Gaura Premanandeee! Haribol!