Yesterday several people asked me, “Are we going to get to anartha-nivritti?” Because the topic of our discussion is anartha-nivritti, and we have just finished dealing with sraddha. Well, I have good news for you – we’ll get to it, at least we’ll start talking a little about what it means to purify our hearts from anarthas in the process of devotional service. But that will be tomorrow. Today our topic is different, although actually, by talking or thinking about these issues we are trying to cleanse our hearts from unwanted things, from all that prevents bhakti to sprout in our hearts. Let’s read this verse: 

adau sraddha tatah sadhu
sango 'tha bhajana-kriya
ato 'nartha-nivrittih syat
tato nistha rucis tatah
athasaktis tato bhavas
tatah premabhyudancati
sadhakanam ayam premnah
pradurbhave bhavet kramah

Yesterday and the day before we reflected on how faith appears in one’s heart. And a most important fact that we shouldn’t stop repeating or which can’t be overstated is that our entire progress on the path of bhakti depends on hearing (Bhagavatam, 1.2.17): 

srinvatam sva-kathah krishnah

punya-sravana-kirtanah

hridy antah stho hy abhadrani

vidhunoti suhrit satam

Krishna is situated in our hearts, hridy antah stho, and when we turn our ears to the stories about Him, when we start hearing about Him or start listening to His words from the “Bhagavad-gita” and start talking about all that in one way or another is related to devotional service, Krishna, who is situated in our hearts, starts Himself cleansing our hearts. Not us, not because we are so nice and so clever – Krishna Himself gets down to the job and cleanses our hearts of all anarthas. 

However, as Srila Prabhupada emphasizes over and over again, we have to hear katha from the right source. We should hear katha from an authorized source, because if katha doesn’t come from a pure source, it may bring along problems for us. Srila Bhaktivinoda compares śraddhā, when it’s still young and newly born, to a little baby-girl. And he says that oftentimes babies get sick, that a baby can get sick very easily. And the risk that the baby will get sick increases if we don’t feed the baby properly, right? Katha from the right source can be compared to mother's milk, because what is the right source for nourishing a child? - only one - the mother's breast. If we feed it on the dry mixture “Malysh”... on the box of which there’s a picture of a child with diathesis cheeks; if we mix in some water and feed the baby on this artificial mixture ... Or, God forbid, if we feed it on something else, on some canned food or sprat, the child will surely get sick. In the same way katha is the nourishment for our sraddha which should grow and become stronger, deeper and firmer. But if it’s canned food, there is a good chance that our sraddha will get sick and this unhealthy sraddha will be a source of problems. Therefore Srila Prabhupada emphasized this point so much – you should find a pure source and hear katha or Krishna’s name from a pure source. 

Srila Sanatana makes the same comparison, he says that milk nourishes but if touched by the lips of a serpent this milk turns poisonous. Sometimes people unwittingly put some poison into their katha, even when speaking about Krishna. And above all, this is the poison of offenses against devotees. If we want to clearly understand the nature of the poison which can be contained in krishna-katha, the nature of this poison is one – some kind of resentment towards the devotees or offenses. If in one form or another this comes through in their katha, you can be sure that by hearing such katha we’ll get infected or get sick. This is to draw a line below the first topic that we discussed, sraddha. 

What comes next, following sraddha? Sadhu-sanga. And sadhu-sanga, in this case, although everything begins with sadhu-sanga, in this case it means a special form of sadhu-sanga. It’s a form of sadhu-sanga when I intentionally place myself at the mercy of a particular sadhu and his katha. It’s not that I just listen to him; rather, I understand that his words are meant to change my life, I allow his words to change my life. Because when I simply listen in a slightly relaxed attitude, lying on the couch and thinking that, “Go on, I’m listening ... the soldier sleeps, the service goes on, everything is okay ... katha enters my ears ...” Sadhu-sanga doesn’t mean that I simply listen, no, I want his katha, his words have changed something in my life, I allow this to happen. 

Sometimes we listen in a selective way, we listen only to those lectures which don’t oblige us in any way, which don’t burden us, right – because there are lectures that burden us – don’t make us change anything. But sadhu-sanga or true sadhu-sanga means that I happily open my heart to the changes that can take place. And I accept a spiritual master, because accepting a spiritual master means placing ourselves at his mercy. Recently a person asked me something and nonplused me by his question, “What does it mean to take shelter?” It’s clear what it means to get initiated, everyone knows that – you, you’ve shaved your head, you sit for a while, throw some grain, you get your beads – this is clear; but what does it mean to take shelter? Taking shelter means exactly this – I understand that I depend on this person, that I must serve him and in this service try to cleanse my heart. And this marks the next stage, bhajana-kriya or devotional practice, which truly begins at the very moment when I’ve felt my dependence on a Vaishnava; when I’ve realized that I won’t be able to progress if I preserve my independence. 

And many interesting things start here, when a person begins bhajana-kriya and today I’ll speak about this. Probably many of you have heard, at the time I was giving a seminar on this subject, stages of bhakti. That was a long time ago, when I myself was at the stage of the first enthusiasm. But it's worthwhile hearing about it over and over again so that we can recognize all these symptoms in ourselves and try to deeply understand their causes and by itself this will be anartha-nivritti, elimination of anarthas. Vishvanath Chakravarti Thakur explains that at the beginning our bhajana-kriya or practice is unstable – anishthita, because the mind is unstable, because the mind has this quality. Srila Prabhupada explains the reason for the mind’s instability. Why isn’t our mind stable? (answers from the audience). Srila Prabhupada gives a much more precise explanation. There’s no goodness? It’s clear that there’s no goodness, that’s a fact, but Srila Prabhupada gives a very precise explanation and a specific reason. He says that instability or agitation of the mind takes place when it comes into contact with the material world and the objects of pleasure in the material world. And of all the pleasurable objects in the material world – and there are lots of them, we’re not going to enumerate them all – Srila Prabhupada points out two. What are the two objects in the material world is? Yes, gold and sex. This is from his purport to the second chapter of the First Canto of “Srimad-Bhagavatam”, to the following verse (1.2.17): 

srinvatam sva-kathah krishnah

punya-sravana-kirtanah

hridy antah stho hy abhadrani

vidhunoti suhrit satam

or to the next verse (1.2.18): 

nashta-prayeshv abhadreshu

nityam bhagavata-sevaya

bhagavaty uttama-sloke

bhaktir bhavati naishthiki

He says that all this agitates the mind, a person gets agitated when he feels the prospective of either obtaining wealth which will then enable him to enjoy, or attaining the supreme pleasure in the material world in the form of sex or enjoyment with the opposite sex. And that makes a person’s mind highly unstable, preventing him from focusing on his practice of devotional service. Therefore, at the beginning it’s practically an inevitable thing which no one avoids – a person engages in devotional service in a not very stable way. 

And Vishvanath Chakravarti Thakur identifies six stages or sih levels of instability: uttsaha-mayi, ghana-tarala, vyudha-vikalpa, visaya-sangara, niyama-aksama and taranga-rangini. Now we’ll try to analyze these six stages one by one. Of these, I’d very much like to get to the sixth one today. I think we’ll be able to do so, we are not going to linger too long on each of them, we are going to analyze the most appropriate – the first three and the sixth one; well, we’ll laso touch on the fourth and fifth ones. 

What does uttsaha-mayi mean? What does mayi mean? Aah, I wanted to confuse you but Vrajarenu didn’t let me do so. Uttsaha-mayi means enthusiasm. The very word uttsaha-mayi doesn’t contain a word meaning “false". A person is full of enthusiasm. We'll see whether it’s false or not, but it is enthusiasm, it’s real enthusiasm that constitutes the life of a devotee at the first stage. But if we translate the meaning of this stage, it means false self-confidence. If we properly and correctly translate everything that Vishvanath Chakravarti Thakur describes, the first stage of devotional service is accompanied exactly by a false sense of self-confidence or enthusiasm, which is caused by our ignorance. And the enthusiasm is quite understandable; because I come across with all these new things – I get new feelings, new friends, new society, new music, new tastes, new impressions – it’s all new. And this novelty gives me great enthusiasm, because actually the mind likes everything that’s new. Why does this enthusiasm arise at the beginning? It’s not because I have a deep faith, faith is not so deep yet – this enthusiasm is due to a natural reason: the mind always likes new things. The mind likes to switch over, and here it finds a whole new realm. Everything is new, it’s a new life! I used to sleep until ten o’clock or until one pm, and now we have to get up at one am. And the very feeling of me getting up at three o’clock is already a source of enthusiasm. True, it doesn’t last long, but ... Or I come to the mangala-arati, as one woman told me, “When I first joined devotional service, I thought I’d never be able to get up for the mangala-arati, never! It’s just impossible! Get up at 4:00 am – it's just madness!” She said, “When I first got up and went to the Deities, the hairs on my body stood up on end, tears flowed from my eyes, I heard this melody: samsara-davanala-lidha-loka-tranaya karunya ghanaganatva ... oh!” Everything is new – new music, new friends, and most importantly, the main source of enthusiasm is that I now there are new ways I can show my pride. This is actually the main source of the surge of enthusiasm, because all the old ways of showing my pride have failed, right? Have we tried to show our pride? Have we tried to enjoy? Has it worked? It hasn’t, has it? And here we start life with a clean slate. And, having started with a clean slate, having joined a new society, where no one knows us, where everyone respects us, where everyone loves us and where everyone tells us, “What a sincere person, oh, what a sincere person!” At the beginning everyone’s sincere, right? Everyone’s sincere and it’s all raptures. A new person joins and everyone’s in raptures, and he’s in raptures because everybody’s in raptures about him and it's just a vicious circle of raptures, an avalanch of raptures. 

This is the first stage of our initial raptures, which ultimately leads to very serious problems, because this is raptures, as I’ve already said, and we should be very well aware of the reason for this raptures; that it’s based on the fact that I'm starting to manifest my pride in new ways here, in the devotees society. And my pride is manifested in numerous ways, but basically there are two forms of how a person manifests his pride at the beginning. In what way? The first thing he starts doing is he starts preaching to everyone, right? In this first upsurge of enthusiasm and raptures, he wants to make everyone devotees right away, right? And the first victims of his preaching is who? Yes, his parents, his relatives, he attacks them like a hawk and he starts tearing them apart and telling them, “What are you doing, rascals, you’ll go to hell, you eat meat, how can you do this? How?” Immediately our closest people become the victims of our pride and we must be well aware precisely of this, that this entire first preaching is based on pride and is just bigotry that makes us try and make everyone else do the same thing we do. Yes, we have obtained faith, we are not denying it, we have obtained true faith, but this true faith isn’t strong enough yet to overcome our pride or to allow us to see this pride. And we start preaching. And usually such preaching is full of bigotry. Please raise hands who’ve sinned in this way? (laughs) Unanimously. 

And what is the second way to show our pride in the association of devotees? It’s the fact that I look around and don’t see any other devotee as pure as me (laughter), because everybody walking around is just who knows who! I jump up, I rush to the mangala-arati, I do my rounds, I do everything right, and everybody around me are just fallen devotees, failed yogis who are like a torn cloud which is neither here nor there. They’re walking with dull faces, with dull eyes and I look around and I don’t see a single person strictly following everything, right? No one, not a single one. Of course, the one and only I see – in the mirror (laughter). A persons starts being proud of himself and it seems to him that he is the purest devotee, that he knows best, that he understands best and when others praise him – and in the beginning we are praised, right – what happens with us? We think, “Finally I’ve found the society I’ve been always looking for! For here I’m praised, here I’ve found myself, here I can look down on others, because I can ...” And in the beginning it’s easy, in this upsurge of enthusiasm, along with this prime pride, with this upsurge of enthusiasm and new sensations, new experiences, a person thinks that it’s very easy to observe everything and that it’ll be like that forever, that this honeymoon of devotional service will last forever. And this is uttsaha-mayi. 

And as someone correctly observed, another way to prove to everyone – I myself do realize that I’m better than the others, that’s clear, I can see that I am enthusiastic and the others are not, I see that I can easily do everything and I don’t see such ease and effortlessness in others in all this – but in order to prove to everyone that I can easily do all this, what does a person start doing? Yes, he starts demonstrating hyper ascetism. At the beginning we all used to be great ascetics. Who used to be an ascetic at the beginning, raise hands? We used to fast, do many rounds – all to one purpose only: so that everyone would see how special I am. We perform all this hyper asceticism – another hyper new star has lit on the sky of devotional service and this hyper new star is burning bright. Because a person wants to draw attention to himself, he wants to say, “Don’t you see, this is bhakti, look, here it is, bhakti’s in me and it’s manifesting, look how special I am! Why am I not given second initiation? Immediately, along with the first one, why am I not appreciated?” 

And even this asceticism is easy to perform because a person is willing to do anything out of pride, one can do any penance. And history knows many sad instances of this kind. Because when a person gets proud of himself, he simultaneously starts offending others. One devotee recently told me her story with tears in her eyes, with tears of sincere repentance. She said, “A year ago I thought” – and don’t think that this first period lasts just a few weeks, it may take years, that’s quite possible. A person may quite remain at this state of euphoric enthusiasm over several years, which is based on ignorance and arrogance. She said, “At one point I thought, ‘Wow, everything is Okay with me! Things are going on with me better than with anyone else. Actually, everything’s perfect with me, I’m doing so well – I chant mantra, my spiritual master is the best ever, I have a husband, I have money, I follow all the principles, I have no problems at all!” And at the same time she was looking at her equals, at those she had joined together with or at some young people and was seeing that they were in trouble. In particular – she’s a very young girl and she was looking at some Gurukula graduates who were having problems or something like that and she said, “Armed with this feeling of doing well, I went out to the masses to give them the gospel, to preach pure devotional service and explain to them what they should do, to try to explain to them that 'how is it, how can you sometimes smoke or use drugs?' or things like that. 

She was crying when she was saying that. She said, “Then I was deprived of everything. Within a few short months I lost everything. I do the same things that they do but worse and I have no taste whatsoever for anything, Krishna has taken away everything! Because of this arrogance Krishna has deprived me of everything, there’s nothing left!” And she said, “I don’t know whether it will come back to me or not, I remember my state, I remember how good I felt, I remember everything I had”. And she’s very well aware of why all this has happened, why all this has gone – precisely because out of arrogance she’d started offending others, looking down on them, thinking that everything’s Okay with me, and with the others it’s not. In fact, when a neophyte sees another devotee and sees that he’s not doing well, he must think that, “This is a senior devotee, he’s more advanced on the path of devotional service. He’s already there, while I’m still here and he struggles with all this, while to me this is just yet to come. He’s, at least, successfully passed the first stage of this initial enthusiasm, and I’ve not”. 

In other words, one must always remain humble. There is another story, I’ve told it, Srila Radhanath Maharaj told it once to me. A story about Osho, about how Osho in his days, in a fit of the same enthusiasm ... He used to be a brilliant speaker, he brilliantly knew the sastras and people gathered by thousands to hear him speak. And it arrived to Gujarat, to Ahmedabad, and a thousand people came to listen to him and he said, “What’s your Gandhi?” – because Gandhi came from Gujarat – “in his autobiography Gandhi admits that he had lust, and I have no lust”. A woman of the ancient trade stepped up (laughter) ... and he made this challenge, he said, “Fie, I have no lust, I can spend the night with any woman – nothing will happen to me!” And a woman stepped up and said, “Come on, let's try?” The next morning he spoke a different philosophy. This is how the philosophy of Rajneesh appeared. Out of this prime enthusiasm and the pride, associated with this prime enthusiasm, with this fall that follows arrogance. Now, that’s the first stage. Have we overcome it? Well, at least we’ve overcome it at the lecture. Shall we move further? 

Actually, how should a person think when he’s in such a state? All that I have I owe to Krishna and my spiritual master. All that ease that I have now, all the enthusiasm that I have now, is not thanks of me. It’s just because I’ve heard words that undid a few knots of karma in my heart, and as these few knots of karma were undone, I felt some relief And as I felt relieved, I immediately thought, “that’s it, I’m already there!” Vishvanath Chakravarti Thakur says it's like a boy who’s just beginning to study and he thinks that he already knows everything. And we’re all neophytes, we're all in the kindergarten and if we have something, and from the very beginning we have a lot, but we should always remember whom we owe having all this, for that all this has come to us. I owe ​​it all to my spiritual master and I can lose it at any time, if I’m not humble. 

Then the next stage starts which is called ghana-tarala. What does ghana mean? Ghanaghanatvam .... Ghana means thick and tarala means empty. Ghana-tarala means feast or famine – this is the following stage or the next step – feast or famine. Because at first we have this enthusiasm, we have the desire to do something, and if we translate the meaning, it will be feast or famine. Vishvanath Chakravarti Thakur uses very poetic words ghana-tarala – a feast or famine – but if we translate the meaning, then it would be “sporadic efforts”. When I apply great efforts, I have this enthusiasm to do something, but then all of a sudden this enthusiasm dies out, this enthusiasm vanishes into thin air, it dissolves, fades away. And as it usually happens, our enthusiasm dampens, for the initial enthusiasm is based on what? On pride. Therefore what usually dampens our enthusiasm? The others, yes, who quench our pride, who quench us because they see – a person’s proud and in the society of devotees it’s a dangerous thing. To be proud is dangerous everywhere, pride is a very dangerous state, because people don’t like it when people around are proud. The safest state is the state of humility. As one wise man said about false humility, humility is the safest form of behavior, because it’s least annoying to others. But he meant the mimicry of humility, not true humility. But in the society of devotees pride is even more dangerous, because the devotees know everything, they’ve read all the sastras, they all know how pride is manifested, it’s very difficult to deceive them. We show any, the slightest signs of pride, and they’re immediately pointed out to us. And when we’re pointed this out how do we feel? We are shocked! I’ve never expected this from the devotees – it’s a shock! We are hit on the head with all this. “How could they say that to me? I'm a pure devotee! I'm almost a pure devotee! My whole heart is so pure, I’ve given up everything!” 

We have this feeling: we weren’t truly appreciated here. Like, I was recently told of a devotee, who is now living at Radha-kunda; he met a devotee and started pouring out his resentment towards the others, saying that, “ISKCON will never have a bright future as long as the gurus don’t learn to understand the inner life of their disciples”. Who does he mean? Himself. His inner life hasn’t been understood, he hasn’t been appreciated, he hasn’t been glorified enough, or he’s been hurt by something like this. Actually when devotees point out something to us, first of all, I have to ask myself, “Maybe this really makes sense? Maybe things are not so bad and maybe they wish me well?” And what’s the question that one asks when this initial enthusiasm goes away? When the initial enthusiasm is gone and there’s no enthusiasm whatsoever and we have to go on doing all this and there’s no taste, because nothing fuels our pride, what’s the question that one asks himself? Yes, “Why am I here? Why have I come here? Do I need all this at all or not?” Has anyone asked himself this question? And we are looking for someone who would respond positively to this question, who would tell you, “You don’t need this.” 

Or, another reason why this enthusiasm dies away … We have this enthusiasm to do something, right? We want to do something and we're trying to do something, but what do people do to us? They stand in the way, right? They interfere. One phrase I hear all the time is “Why don’t devotees cooperate with me?” We all want to cooperate, but our understanding of the meaning of cooperation is unambiguous: who should they cooperate with? “With me! Only I have the understanding, only I have the vision, only I know what must be done. I know, I'm an enthusiast, am I not?! I know so many things, I see, Srila Prabhupada wanted it, I’ve realized this, I have all this! No one is cooperating with me! No one is appreciating what I'm doing!” Who has felt in this way, please raise your hands. That no one cooperates with me, that no one appreciates me and I start thinking, “These people have no vision at all! I’d rather go away and start preaching myself! Then no one will interfere with me! Because all the devotees have gathered here for one purpose only – to interfere with me, to destroy my enthusiasm!” Well, admit it, who has thought in this way? 

Actually, it’s a problem. People start doing something enthusiastically, but since they don’t have this internal stability, they don’t have a deep understanding, they don’t have humility and tolerance, their gunpowder doesn’t last long and this enthusiasm dies away, like when someone starts studying some foreign language. Have any of you studied foreign languages? We have this understanding that “I need a foreign language, I need English, I must learn English by all means, because my Guru Maharaj speaks in English, I’m fed up of these translators who always distort the meaning of my words, of my siddhanta ...” And we begin studying the language and what happens to us next? We get bored because language means every day. Anyone can learn a language, but there is only one rule to follow in order to learn the language – you must do it every day. And very quickly we’re bored by all this because we must memorize something, and as soon as we memorize something new, we forget the first thing we memorized in the first place and we only remember “How do you do?” and “How are you?” And we think that we are just about to … At first everything seems very easy, just a little bit of this and that … Ultimately I’ll memorize a few words, and then there is “How are you?” and “How do you do?” and everything’s messed up and we say “How do are you?” or “What are doing?” There are some strange forms, gerunds – ahhh! And you lose all enthusiasm and what does the mind start saying to you? Why do you need all this? Can’t you be a devotee without this? You can perfectly be a devotee without this, can’t you?” Similarly, a person at this stage, feast or famine, he thinks, “Why do you need it? Ultimately, do you need the devotees association? You can be a devotee by yourself. Stay away, you know everything, you have faith, chant Hare Krishna by yourself!” Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. 

And Visvanatha Chakravarti Thakur says that there are two reasons for this stage, why does a person fall into such a state? He says that it’s either because a person doesn’t understand something, he’s come across something that he hasn’t fully understood, he hasn’t fully grasped – either in the sastras or something around, that he can’t explain to himself, or because he doesn’t have enough taste. And the same applies not only to ... The same applies to our activities, sometimes we enthusiastically start worshipping the Deities and we worship and worship Them. We spent hours on puja and think, “Jaya! Haribol!” And then lo! – The enthusiasm has gone and the Deities are covered with dust on our shelves, along with all the paraphernalia of Their worship. And it's all dusty and we look at all this and think, “Damn it! The sastras says that the most important thing is to listen to the Holy Name and to sing kirtan ... “ And so on, one oscillates in this way. And this oscillation is related, once again ... However, if he nevertheless goes on hearing, what happens to him? Yes, at some point he again finds enthusiasm. The enthusiasm is gone, but at some point this enthusiasm comes back, because he’s heard something, he’s realized something and he feels a new surge of enthusiasm until the next disappointment, until the new falldown, until the next misunderstandings. The reason for this is that we don’t have a sufficiently stable and true taste. And most importantly, what must we do in this situation? Yes, we must remain in the devotees association. In all these situations we must stay in the devotees society, we must serve, be as humble as possible. 

We’ve gone through the first two stages, and this is already a great achievement on our way. The third stage now begins which is called vyudha-vikalpa. What does vyudha mean? Vyudha means the possibilities which appear before me, and vikalpla means confusion – of the possibilities that are opening in front of me I can’t choose the one I need. In other words, one cannot understand what he must do, how to proceed, where to direct his steps, what to focus and concentrate on in order to progress. Vyudha-vikalpa means that he reads various statements in the sastras and these various statements of the sastras leave a mess in his head, a complete mess. He reads a little here, a little there, he's a pandit, isn’t he, and he must know everything, he must sometimes put in something from the “Caitanya-caritamrita”. He’s read half of the second chapter of the “Bhagavad-gita” and studied the eighth chapter of the Madhya-lila of “Caitanya-caritamrita” and because of this he’s got a complete mess in his head. And with this mess in his head he starts thinking, “What shall I do?” And usually the first hesitations or oscillations faced by people, are related to the statement of the sastras that one should renounce the material world, right? This is the first thing that catches our eye in the sastras, right? We meet with God on the pages of the sastras and when we’ve met with God, what does that mean? This means that everything else should be left behind. And one looks at what Srila Prabhupada writes, he looks at all these instructions and thinks that I must give up all this. Because this is the first thing that we immediately learn. And besides, as a rule we come into devotional service as a result of what? As a result of a complete disappointment. We’re already disappointed in one way or another and it turns out that there is a nice philosophy which allows us to not just give up and forsake everything, but also draw a philosophical base under this. What does Krishna say in the “Bhagavad-gita”? What is the essence of all Krishna’s teachings in the “Bhagavad-gita”? 

sarva-dharman parityaja 

mam ekam saranam vraja 

aham tvam sarva papebhyo 

moksaysyami ma sucah 

Give up everything, Krishna says, “Give up everything!” And we think, “What has Krishna told Arjuna?” Krishna told Arjuna, ‘Kill your relatives!” (laughter) This is how the “Bhagavad-gita” begins, I must somehow or other deal with all my relatives and I think, “Who cares about all these relatives, they’re just nothing but trouble. They’re just a hindrance in my devotional service”. Is that right, are they a hindrance? They are. They’re nothing but a hindrance, a headache. And we find very clear and vivid confirmations to all this in the scriptures, because, once again, the faith we have is not just some laukika-sraddha, what sraddha do we have? Sastriya-sraddha. Our sraddha has taken deep roots in the scriptures. We read the scriptures, and we find there everything we need. What does Kapiladeva say in the Third Canto of “Srimad-Bhagavatam” (3.31.40)? He says: 

yopayati sanair maya

yosid deva-vinirmita

“The gods have created women to specifically divert me from the path of devotional service!” Kapiladeva doesn’t speak about men but the gods have created men ​​with the same purpose (laughter). Yopayati sanair maya is the illusory creation and the devas have created vinirmita, they’ve created it all so that she gradually creeps up and how does she divert me from the path of devotional service? Kapiladeva says that she starts serving me and, by serving me, she pulls me into a dark pit, the pit of death. This is what Kapiladeva says in the Third Canto of “Srimad-Bhagavatam”. She or he, it doesn’t matter, in this case sex is unimportant. The main thing is that we think ... “Oh, mother,” says Kapiladev, “woman is an image of maya, illusion, created by the gods, who slowly approaches the devotees, sanaya, slowly, and starts serving him. As a result, all his devotion comes to an end, he enters into a dark well, overgrown with grass and therefore the sadhaka must regard a woman to be his spiritual death!” 

And we read many other verses in “Srimad-Bhagavatam”, there are many other verses. We get to the Fifth Canto of “Srimad-Bhagavatam” and the Fifth Canto of “Srimad-Bhagavatam” speaks of Maharaja Bharata; that, driven by the desire to serve, Maharaja Bharata did what? He abandoned his beautiful wife, his obedient sons, his loving relatives and his great kingdom, turning away from them as if it were what? Yes, garbage, to put it mildly, garbage. He turned his back on them. And one starts thinking, “He had a beautiful wife. And mine is what?” (laughter) He had nice children, and mine are what? He had loving relatives, and mine are what? He had a great kingdom, and I have a one-room apartment! He turned away and gave up all that, what am I to do then? I must all the more give up all this!” And one reads this and thinks ... 

But that’s not all, it doesn’t all end here, this is just the beginning, because further on he comes across another thing ... First he decides in favor of vairagya, he decides to somehow or other renounce, I must renounce, children stand on my way, my wife stands on my way, they don’t let me to do my bhajan! And he begins dreaming, because – I’ve already defined this feature of the mind: the mind is always thinking about something it doesn’t have. It never thinks about what it has. When we live in Dnepropetrovsk, we think of Vrindavan. When we live in Vrindavan, we think of Dnepropetrovsk. Therefore you’d better live in Dnepropetrovsk and think of Vrindavan, than live in Vrindavan and think about Dnepropetrovsk (laughs). One always thinks about what he doesn’t have and one starts thinking, he starts getting ... First, he starts thinking in favor of renunciation, because he starts thinking about what he doesn’t have, he thinks that everything stands in his way. After that he gets scared. When he was just about to renounce – it’s in a civilized society that he gets scared – in the uncivilized society to which we belong he renounces and after that he realizes. In a civilized society one would get scared because he knew: if one renounces there’s no turning back. And in the uncivilized world everything’s simple: we renounce and then we get attached again, then we renounce again. We think, “What’s the problem? I’ve got divorced, then I’ve got married, then I’ve got divorced again. Vishvanath Chakravarti Thakur analyzes all these things on the level of a sadhaka’s mind. Unfortunately, with us this happens not on the level of the mind, but on the level of pure devotional service (laughs). 

First he renounces, and if he has any limits inside, he gets scared and starts, frightened by this, looking in the scriptures for other statements and he does find in the scriptures other statements. There are lots of other statements in the scriptures. Krishna says in the Eleventh Canto of “Srimad-Bhagavatam” – these are also very important words to remember for those who have decided to renounce. In the Eleventh Canto of “Srimad-Bhagavatam” Krishna says that stupid people think in what way? Rather, not stupid people, but it happens so that one renounces everything and, having renounced everything, he starts to lament, starts to cry, starts to think, how will my wife get along without me, how will my children get along, how will my old parents get along, I’ve abandoned them all and they all depend on me! And Krishna Himself says that such a person meditates only on this, he thinks only about this and his death sneaks up to him, and since he hasn’t satisfied his senses to the full, he hasn’t sufficiently enjoyed, he hasn’t gone through all this, his unfulfilled desires remain, and since he’s got these unsatisfied desires he meditates only on this and when he dies in meditation of this, where does he go? Yes, eventually he degrades. Therefore Krishna says that we shouldn’t hurry up, that vairagya will come, but it will come in its turn. What should I do first? First, I should go through everything, I should experience everything. And one thinks, “Yes, I’ll remain here, I’ll do all my duty, I’ll do everything I’m supposed to do”. This feeling comes to him for a while, that it’s better in this way; that one can renounce everything but when this renunciation comes naturally, when I am 50 years old or more – 60, 70, 80 or 90 ... And he thinks, “I'd rather go through all this” also because he sees around him these people who’d renounced when still young and who had spent their best years, as we said, rendering devotional service, and then, at 50 small Nityanandas and Balaramas start appearing and at 50 they’re nursing them, “tyu, tyu, tyu”. One thinks, “How’s that?! That’s terrible! I’d better do everything in time”, and he remains here for some time. But he doesn’t stop reading the sastras, that's the problem. And because he constantly reads the sastras, he’s inevitably faced with some other statements, which again force the pendulum of his mind to swing the other way. 

In Hindi there is an interesting thing – and, by the way, it’s useful, it’s a kind of a sociological observation, which is inherent in the very language of Hindi. It’s said that a person ... ‘Fifty’ in Hindi is pacas. Experts of Hindi interpret this in the following way: pac means five tens, and as is hope. It’s said that up to 50 years of age people still have hope and one thinks, “Yes, I must endure until I’m 50” because even at 50 one cherishes the last hope that I’ll be able to enjoy material happiness. 51 in Hindi is ekavan – a person wants to go to the forest and he thinks, “May I somehow survive until then”. And this is vyudha-vikalpa – he cannot choose among all these possibilities. 

And further on Vishvanath Chakravarti Thakur makes another statement that sometimes a person decides to stay. First, he decided to leave, then he decided to stay and go away later, when he reaches old age, and when everything will be fine with him. In our situation, as I said, everything takes on much uglier forms, because a person leaves one family, renounces and then starts another family. Or he takes sannyasa and then, having taken sannyasa, joins the most progressive ashram, the grihastha ashram – that’s the highest stage, the highest achievement, he can now be a grihastha with a good reason. And further Vishvanath Chakravarti Thakur says that when a person had first renounced and then again decided to stay, all of a sudden a saving thought comes to his mind. He thinks, “Wait, who’s leading the best life of all?” Sannyasis – they don’t have to worry about anything. Wherever they go, they’re fed, they’re ironed, they’re ... Just going around, travelling – nothing but enjoyment!” This is what Vishvanath Chakravarti Thakur writes, that’s not just nowadays. Sannyasis – they’re served first, they’re fed with the best foodstuff and one thinks, “Why am I sitting here in this dark pit, I must fly away from here as free as a bird and fly off preaching!” And then he remembers what Lord Brahma says in the Fourteenth Canto of “Srimad-Bhagavatam”, where he says that actually a devotee doesn’t mind where he is because if he is a devotee the home is a great happiness for him, and if he is a non-devotee the home is like a prison to him and he thinks, “I’d rather stay at home ...” and the pendulum of his mind goes on swinging. This is vyudha-vikalpa or swinging of the mind, the inability to choose between various options. Yes, and a person also thinks that vairagya is a bad thing. Has anyone thought like this? Vairagya is a terrible thing! This is another statement of the sastras. In the Eleventh Canto of “Srimad-Bhagavatam” Krishna says vairagya, renunciation of the world, is an obstacle to bhakti, because it makes one’s heart hard, and how can bhakti enter a hard heart? Bhakti cannot enter it. 

So generally, shortly speaking, you can find a justification for anything you want. And one reads the sastras and he doesn’t know where to go after the sastras. Now let's think about how we should understand all these statements in the sastras. Why are there in the sastras instructions that are clearly opposite? Yes, because the sastras are addressed to everybody, the sastras speak to everybody and the sastras describe the situation of each person, explaining at what point he should take up the spiritual path. And at which point should he take it up? At his own. He shouldn’t try to jump over and above, do something like that, he should start from the point he is at, from the level he is at. Because people always make the same mistake. The sastras are addressed to people of different levels of understanding, of different levels of faith and of different samskaras. And depending on the level of our understanding, the level of our faith and the samskaras we have, different things will be favorable for different people, because the sastras glorify both the favorable family life, which protects one and is like a fortress. Kardama Muni says that a good family life is a fortress in which one can feel safe and there are other statements and with the help of the spiritual master one must understand what he needs. In no case should he try to imitate someone else, because good is what corresponds to my level, and bad is what doesn’t correspond to my level. This is, so to speak, the problem that we face at the level of vyudha-vikalpa. And a person is swung the other way, as I said, when sometimes he does kirtan because someone praises kirtan, and then he starts worshipping the Deity, because Maharaja Ambarisa worshiped Deities. Then he says that one should distribute books because that’s the most important thing and he cannot choose from the various opportunities that are in front of him just because his mind is unstable. All this is a manifestation of instability. 

I’ll very quickly go through the next two stages, the 4th and the 5th, and then I’ll say a few important words about the last stage, taranga-rangini. 

Next is visaya-sangara. What does visaya mean? Visaya means sense objects, and sangara means struggle. So, at some point, when a person has overcome to a certain extent the instability of his mind, all of a sudden he starts feeling that his senses come out of his control. He sees sense objects and he cannot do anything with himself. Visaya-sangara means that he knows well ... At this level he knows the scriptures well enough to understand that sensual pleasures lead to what? To suffering. 

ye hi samsparsa-ja bhoga

duhkha-yonaya eva te

ady-antavantah kaunteya

na teshu ramate budhah

(Gita, 5.22) 

Krishna says, and a person is convinced by his own experience, he knows that sensual pleasure doesn’t make him happy, that actually, what happens to a person when he’s immersed in sensual pleasure, what happens to his heart, what does he feel at heart? Emptiness and depression, deception, the feeling of being cheated and a person is ware of this. He knows better than anybody else that all this is empty, it will not give him integrity. He knows that when I render devotional service an extraordinary joy and integrity spring up in my heart that I can share with others. Sensual pleasures make me unhappy. But at the same time what does he feels inside? He feels unable to cope with these yearnings. Has anyone felt that? No need to raise your hands. At this level a person… And Vishvanath Chakravarti Thakur refers to very important verses from the Eleventh Canto of “Srimad-Bhagavatam” where Krishna says, “My devotee knows that there is nothing more important than bhakti”. At the same time, seeing the opportunity to enjoy he cannot help but enjoy it, although at the same time he reproaches himself, he feels this duality inside, internally he reproaches himself. 

And this same Vishvanath Chakravarti Thakur, commenting on these verses from the Eleventh Canto of “Srimad-Bhagavatam” describes the devotee’s mentality. The devotee at this level - it is actually a very high level and we shouldn’t think that this is a low level – at this level the devotee thinks that I’ll never give up bhakti! Even if Lord Brahma himself appears before me and starts saying, “Give up bhakti and practice jnana or karma”, I’ll tell him “No!” I know that there is no other way besides bhakti, I know that no other pleasures will fill up my heart, there is one thing only that can fill up the void in my heart – what's that? That’s the love for Krishna. And when this love is absolutely pure, I know this, and when there’re no objects of sense enjoyment before my eyes, I have such resolution, because I know that there is nothing better than a devotee. I know that simply sweeping the floor in the temple or in the ashram or being in the devotees’ association is better than enjoying the heavenly delights on the Hawaii. It’s better, because the heart feels better by doing this, a person knows this, he knows that I’ve come to the devotees and I did something small, and I feel so light-hearted, so pure and so good. I’d gone trying to squeeze these sense enjoyments on the Hawaiian Islands or the Canaries or on some other islands but then I came back from there with an empty heart, nothing changed in my heart. Whereas if I sweep the floor or cut vegetables in the kitchen or do something simple, but with a pure heart, I feel better at heart. Who has had this feeling, raise your hands, please. That I do something simple and I feel easier and better than some subtle pleasures that had previously been available to me. Nevertheless, when I come across the opportunity to enjoy all this, I am unable to reject it. And Vishvanath Chakravarti Thakur says that such a devotee does this, he falls down, but he reproaches himself, he gnaws himself and Krishna tells Uddhava that everything is Okay with such a devotee because I am with him because I see his sincerity. Krishna does appreciate it. 

I have a favorite story about Srila Prabhupada, when Srila Prabhupada in everybody’s presence was read a letter from some devotee, where he was describing his struggle. That devotee used to be on drugs, then he was initiated and at some point all of a sudden, he felt that he couldn’t follow his vows – this happens, too, - and he was describing to Srila Prabhupada how he was struggling, trying hard to somehow overcome this habit but then is fallind down again. Nevertheless, he does not give up his struggle. Srila Prabhupada began to cry, he said, “Just see how he’s struggling for for Krishna!” In no way should we look down upon such a devotee. If a devotee is sincere and he has this ideal – of course, it's not an excuse, this doesn’t mean that we’re now allowed, that we’ve all now understood what it means to be a sincere devotee (laughter) – this means that I'm now going to enjoy and repent. No. But if I do have this true understanding that I want to attain the ultimate goal of bhakti and don’t want anything else and simultaneously something doesn’t work out that’s no problem if I sincerely struggle for it. The spiritual master will understand this, Srila Prabhupada has always understood this, Krishna will understand this if I have this true, genuine sincerity. Vishvanath Chakravarti Thakur says that a person who has this inner determination, who has felt the tangible ideal of bhakti, he says, “I’m ready to go even to hell, but I’m not going to give up this goal, this goal remains with me”. And this is visaya-sangara. 

Next, the fifth stage or the fifth manifestation of instability in our mind is called niyama-aksama and while at the previous stage a person gives in to some sensual temptations, at the next stage he feels that he needs to strengthen his devotional service in what way? Yes, by taking vows. He’s overcome all these initial stages of instability and he takes vows to strengthen and deepen his devotional service and he starts saying, “I will chant more mantra, I’ll restrict myself in some ways” and does it not for the sake of showing off as opposed to the initial enthusiasm. He takes these vows and how frequently does he take these vows? Every day, right, Vrajarenu, thank you. Why does he take vows every day? Because he breaks them every day. Every day he says, “That’s it, from now on … I’ve realized … I’ll chant 64 rounds, one lakh, everything’s become clear to me and he feels easy, he wants it, he can do it. And one day he chants 64 rounds, but the next day he finds lots of reasons not to do it, “I have a practical devotional service, it takes too much time!” Or, he says, “From now I’m not going to miss a single mangal-arati!” Who has taken such a vow? Does this vow last long? It’s very easy to take such a vow, you can do this many times. But the next day it happens so that … and it’s not my fault, I get home late, I had to serve and as I got home late, what could I do? I have to get some sleep, we’re not fanatics! (laughter) No, we are not fanatics, we’re just taking some vows all the time and we’re breaking them all the time, because I’m a master of my word – when I want I give one, when I want I take it back. This is niyama-aksama, the inability to observe the vows I’ve taken. In the first case it’s the person’s inability to resist temptations – and these can even be innocent temptations, we’re not talking about some gross downfalls, rather, about some innocent temptations when one still feels attached to some simple pleasures of life; in the second case it’s the feeling that he cannot accomplish something very important. 

And finally, the sixth stage, taranga-rangini, is a very important one, because we are all preachers and for preachers of Krishna consciousness it’s a very important stage, because at this stage many people put an end to their devotional service. Yesterday I was asked a question which I didn’t answer, I'll explain now – this is taranga-rangini – and I’ll try to answer this question. 

The question was: Please explain how the way a person is appreciated in the devotees’ society affects his faith. How to understand whether my pride increases or not? 

It's exactly a question related to this stage of devotional service, because, as explained by Vishvanath Chakravarti Thakur, a person who practices bhakti becomes very attractive. Bhakti is attractive by itself and any manifestations of bhakti, any manifestations of one’s sincerity, any manifestation of holiness make a person attractive. Has anyone seen a person’s attractiveness growing as he is practicing bhakti? A person becomes attractive, especially if he’s overcome the temptations, especially if he’s overcome all these initial stages of instability and has achieved stability, stability in his vows, there are no downfalls, bhakti works from the inside, and he feels how he’s becoming stronger because bhakti gives strength. A person obtains this power and everywhere, all the scriptures say that bhakti gives everything. Bhakti can give us what? Yes, bhakti can give us sense enjoyment, bhakti can give us siddhas or mystical perfections, bhakti can give us mukti. 

sidhayah paramascarya 

bhuktir muktis ca sasvati 

nityam ca paramanandam 

bhaved govinda-bhaktitah 

(Tantra-sastra, 1.1.31) 

Srila Rupa Goswami quotes a verse from the Tantra, which says that bhakti for Govinda, if a person serves the master of the senses, then that person obtains everything: siddhi paramascarya – the most amazing siddhas, the most striking mystical powers that can ever be. It was said that Srila Prabhupada, near the end of his life, the last year of his life, in 1977, he went to the Kumbha Mela with his disciples. And the Kumbha Mela, as I already said, is a fair of various spiritual perversions. All kinds of yogis of various siddhas go there and once to the devotees’ camp – all groups or all spiritual movements set up their camps there – and some yogi came to the devotees’ camp, to ISKCON’s camp. This yogi didn’t like something and he said, “I want to see your guru”. The devotees told him: “Who are you, on earth? Some unwashed yogi with long hair, you wait here, our Guru is busy with other things”. And when he was answered in this way he looked at the person who told him that and that person was paralyzed, he couldn’t move at all. The man went straight to Srila Prabhupada’s room, there was a guard and the guard was about to stop him from entering, but the man looked at him and he was also paralyzed. He went in and remained there for about 15 minutes. He came out with his head down, un-paralyzed those people, fell down at their feet, started begging for forgiveness and saying, “I’ve seen many, but such a power I've never seen in anybody!” He was actually crying and begging, “Please, forgive me! The guru you have … I’ve never seen such a guru!” And that's a fact, because when a person has bhakti for Govinda and this bhakti is unalloyed then siddhayah paramasharya – a person gets the most amazing siddhas. Bhuktir muktir ca sasvati. How do bhukti and mukti come to a person? Sasvatah – always, constantly, every day bhukti and every day mukti – there’s no suffering. Moreover, nityam ca paramananda – such a person reaches paramananda, the highest bliss. Bhaved govinda-bhaktitah – such a person attains all this by the virtue of having bhakti for Govinda. And this is the last stage of instability in devotional service. 

Visvanatha Chakravarti Thakur calls it taranga-rangini. It comes down to what? To a person starting to enjoy it, he starts liking all this. In fact, the difference ... All this will come by itself, it comes by itself and there is nothing wrong in the fact that some of these things come. Fame did come to Srila Prabhupada, power did come to Srila Prabhupada, some money did come to him. A person gets stuck at this stage for some time, if he starts deriving pleasure from all this, if he takes these things seriously, if he thinks, “Yes, that’s the way it must be, of course, this is what devotion is meant for, I must give the others the opportunity to serve me, right? How else can they be saved? They cannot be saved, if they don’t serve a pure devotee! How else could it be, what’s wrong with this?” And this, again, is the danger that lies in wait for preachers. We all preach more or less. Preaching is a very powerful tool or a method of spiritual advancement. A person who preaches gets rid of many problems and as a natural consequence honor comes to him, labdha comes to him, labdha means money. Visvanatha Chakravarti Thakur says that such a person gets followers, a lot of followers, people feel that they are dependent on him, that they depend on his preaching, they start giving him donations, and this is labdha. Puja – he starts to be honored. When I was coming here, you organized such a reception for me, everybody was showering me with flower petals and I thought, “Wow, even the president of the United States is not welcomed in this way!” And at this point the most natural thing is to take it as granted, the most natural thing is to think that’s cool. At this point the person may inwardly somehow naturally might think that this is what’s needed, that this is bhakti and unnoticeably become attached to it. Labdha, puja and pratistha. Pratistha means that a person starts to be proud of his special, exceptional situation; he begins to distinguish himself willingly or unwillingly, he starts to keep apart from the rest, he stops associating with his equals – this is one of the signs that a person has decided to ride the waves for a while. Because in the association of his equals he doesn’t feel very comfortable. Equals don’t shout “Jaya!” They don’t shower petals on you, whereas he’s now used to petals and there are no petals (laughs) and he goes where there are petals. 

And this is probably the most important thing I wanted to say on the subject; however, I’ll tell you now a very important story from the “Hari-bhakti-sudodhaya” which describes this very stage. But the most important thing to know is that in order to overcome this stage or not to fall into the trap of taranga-rangini, so that our mind is not colored, because taranga-rangini means that my mind is colored in these colors of pleasure, it ceases to be clear and all the coming pleasures become something important to me, something that I then start demanding from others, something that I then try to somehow squeeze out from the others, and if I don’t get it, then a natural indignation arises inside: “How is that, rascals, they have no respect!" And all devotees who preach are faced with this in one way or another, but, of course, in this case it most endangers a spiritual master’s position. And the sign that a person has not overcome this is his desire for isolation and association only with his subjects and his disciples, with those below him, with those who accept him absolutely. And he feels hurt ... And because we have, at a certain level, always have our juniors and we are mentors, but it physically hurts him to associate in a different way, because the other type of association doesn’t give him the same pleasure. That is why at the Sri Sri Radha Gopinath Mandir, at the Chowpati Temple there is a rule. It states that any person who is engaged in preaching, that is, who willingly or unwillingly comes in contact with these aspects – puja, labdha and pratistha, worship, honor, some money or benefits and any special treatment – any person who somehow does this must spent at least 60% of his time with his equals, with preachers of the same level. Or if not the same, at least in the same format, so to speak, when they are engaged in doing something together, when they preach together. And any preacher should be very careful about this and follow this good formula. In other words, association with our equals should take the majour part of our time, because it purifies most, while association with the younger, although at first glance it may seem good, can severely contaminate us by making us proud or something like that. 

And in this regard I’d like to tell an amazing story from the “Hari-bhakti-sudodhaya” (we have a few minutes left, right?), where Prahlada Maharaja, serving as an example of such a devotee, who has passed all the levels of instability and has attained steadfastness in bhakti, is exemplifying by his own behavior how one should react, he’s explaining how one should react when faced with these secondary fruits of bhakti, when all these natural consequences of bhakti come to him. 

The “Hari-bhakti-sudodhayea” describes a story, which is not contained in “Srimad-Bhagavatam”. It tells of Hiranyakasipu plotting to get rid of Prahlada. And the first thing he did – he tried to get rid of him in a gross way. He sent demons with tridents and darts to him, whereas Prahlad was meditating on Krishna, Krishna was his istha-devata, he was thinking of Krishna. And all these demons began attacking him, all their weapons were bouncing off him as if off an armor and were turning back against themselves and as a result they all were injuring themselves and were getting killed; and Prahlad remained sitting, nothing happened to him. They were attacked him from all directions, throwing weapons at him, all the weapons thrown at him were bouncing off him and flying back to them like boomerangs and Hiranyakasipu realized that it didn’t work out. Here a demoness ran to him. With tears in her eyes, the demoness ran up to him and started lamenting; she said, “My husband used to be your loyal servant, he used to be such a demon, the best ever demon you would ever find; he was the best demon! As soon as he heard that you want to kill your son, he decided to do that using mystical powers. He was the type of demon that could enter another person, obsess him and kill him from inside. And my husband entered Prahlada’s body as a ghost and never ever come out of there!” The demoness started saying, “It seems that another ghost is inhabiting his body and this other ghost has strangled him when he entered him, he wanted to destroy him from inside!” 

Hiranyakasipu was terrified. When he heard this story, he realized that not only can’t he be killed on the gross level, he can’t either be killed on the subtle level! He sent him to gurukula, to school and said, “Think of your spiritual master. Go there, Okay? I'm not going to harass you anymore, go, brat, get out of my sight!” But inside, at heart, this poison of jealousy, envy and fear was raging and he could find neither sleep nor rest. Then he realized what was happening. The reason’s that Prahlad constantly meditates on Krishna and because he meditates on Krishna, no one can kill him. Meditation on Krishna protects him. He thought, “I should kill him at night when he’s asleep, because during the day he can meditate and during his sleep – we know what we see in a dream – he should be attacked at night!” And he ordered his demons to attack him at night when Prahlad would be asleep, tie him up and throw him into the sea. And the demons did that very quickly, the ashram was on the shore of the ocean, they tied him up with ropes of snakes and threw him into the sea. But Prahlad didn’t even notice that he was thrown into the see. Not only didn’t he wake up – actually he wasn’t asleep, he was in meditation – he didn’t even notice that they threw him from atop and hurled stones after him. What happened next ... and they hoped that he will now be eaten up by all sorts of animals. 

The “Hari-bhakti-sudodhaya” describes that all the sea monsters saw something shining fall into the ocean and that they all fled in terror because Prahlada emanated such radiance that no one dared to approach him. It's dark in the ocean, and all of a sudden something radiant falls in, an enormous spotlight. Prahlad was lying there in complete meditation, his arms and legs tied up, a pile of stones atop him and it’s said that the stones slept off from him on their own, the stones moved away from him and the news that some shining object of unknown origin has appeared in the ocean reached Varuna. In great concern Varuna decided to find out what it was himself. He approached and saw that it was Prahlad. He pulled Prahlada out onto the shore of the ocean. Prahlad slightly recovered and saw before him bearded Tchernomor. And not only did he take him out, he took along a tray of treasures. All the treasures of the ocean depths – pearls, a huge unwitnessed pearl, a pile of precious stones. He brought it all before Prahlada, put in front of him and said, “You are a great devotee and because you are a great devotee, I feel that I must worship you in some way, this is simply my tribute to you. In my mind you're like a king, and a king should be paid tribute. Here are some of the treasures I possess, please take it, because your fortitude, your steadfastness, I feel that I must, I know I must bow down to a Krishna’s devotee”. (I’m making sure nothing’s missed, I don’t want to spoil it all because there are very important points) And he began praising Prahlada. He said, “Because due to your unwavering devotion you have become such a great devotee, here's my gift to you”.

Listen to what Prahlada replied. With great humility Prahlada folded his palms and said, “Actually, I don’t deserve any honor”. Actually this is the standard response of a devotee, remember it well: “I don’t deserve any honor”. “You're much higher than me. Why? Because the Lord Himself is lying on your waters. I have one wish – to catch at least a glimpse of the Lord, whereas you can see Him at any time for He lies on the waters of the Milk ocean. It’s not me who’s a great devotee but you and I wonder why you should bow down to me, it’s me who should bow down to you. You're the greatest of all devotees!” And the ocean, Sagara Maharaj, Varunadeva, got scared when Prahlad started glorifying him and immediately fled away, leaving before him all those diamonds and jewelry and disappeared to his own abode. And Prahlad was left alone, he didn’t even pay attention to this tray. That's not the whole story. He was submerged in meditation and started praying to Krishna, started crying and thinking that, “How is it that I keep thinking of Krishna all the time and Krishna hasn’t appeared before me, I’ve never ever seen Him!” Because he’s just remembered that “Varuna sees Him, the demigods see Him, they come to the shore of the Milk ocean, they see Him, whereas I just keep thinking of Him, but He’s never came to me”. 

And he began crying, sitting in the dark on the shore of the ocean with this tray of jewels, his eyes closed; he was inwardly praying, reciting prayers to Krishna and at the same time he was reproaching himself that “I must be unworthy of this. For, can Krishna appear before a person of impure heart? Krishna appears only before the yogis who have purified their hearts in meditation, who have been purifying their hearts for many, many years until in the end, on the clear mirror of their hearts Krishna’s darsan appear”. Or then he would say that “Krishna appears before those who, reflecting on the Vedanta-sutra, have also purified their hearts and have attained such steadfastness. And I’m neither the one, nor the other, nor the third, my heart is always agitated by lust, envy, rage, anger, greed, illusion and pride – all these waves are ripples on the surface of my heart! Can I see God in the mirror of such a heart? This is a distorting mirror, it's all completely covered with dust! No, I can’t!” In such humility he was weeping and saying, “Of course, it’s clear, of course Krishna’ll never appear before me for my heart is still impure”.

And, as you might expect, when Krishna heard these prayers, He appeared before him, because when a devotee is sincere and humble … Being sincere is not some kind of a game, it’s the real awareness of one’s fallen state! And when a devotee becomes aware of this as a result of his practice of devotional service and stability, when he steps over the tray of jewels and says that there’s nothing more important to me than getting even a momentary darsan of the Lord, Krishna appears. And Krishna simultaneously appeared in two places – He appeared in his heart and in before him. Prahlada was in meditation, in tears, and he first saw Him in his heart, all of a sudden he saw Him in the heart, this entire beautiful look, with huge eyes, with a garland of forest flowers, with a peacock feather, dressed in a yellow garment, with the Kaustubha jewel, with four arms, Krishna came to him in his four-armed form. At the same time He appeared in front of him and took him up, but Prahlada didn’t see Him, didn’t hear Him, he was oblivious of Him. And He placed him on His lap and began caressing him. Prahlada enjoyed this image of Krishna in his heart when suddenly it disappeared from his heart, Prahlada opened his eyes and saw that he was sitting on the lap of the Lord, that the Lord is there! He jumped up from His knees, he fell onto the ground, he began paying obeisances to Him, saying something in his excited state. He sometimes spoke, sometimes fell on the ground again ... 

And then – listen carefully – then Krishna spoke to him. The first thing He told him was, “Relax, Prahlada, there’s no need for all this, we’re friends with you, aren’t we? You are My friend and I am your friend, friends behave in a simple way, there’s no need for such reverence, for such respect”. And He began to calm him down, he began to explain, “Please, I know, Prahlad, I love you, I have no one but you, and in fact I’m totally submitted to you, by your devotion you’ve proven that for you there’s no one but Me, so I can’t but reciprocate in the same way, for Me there’s no one but you. Please ask Me for anything, Prahlad! Ask Me for some blessings”. This was Vishnu’s or Krishna’s first request, He said, “Ask Me for anything, ask Me for anything you want, I’ll fulfill your every desire!” And Prahlad was initially stumped by this, he didn’t expect this from Krishna. Then Prahlad began saying “Thank You very much for Your proposal, for Your desire that I ask something of You ...” And the fact that this story is described in the scriptures means that this is what will be happening with any bhakta, at some point this is exactly what will happen: Krishna Himself will appear and Krishna Himself will say, “Ask of Me any desire”. 

Listen to what Prahlad replied. To this Prahlad replied that, “Well, I don’t need anything, I see You and I'm happy. The only thing I need is to drink Your beauty with my eyes, and now I’ve got this opportunity. This is what I wanted, I had no other wish, I wanted to see You and be with You, You gave me this, what else can I ask you for? I don’t need a long life, riches or followers. The main thing I wanted is already here right now in front of me”. 

Prahlad parried Krishna’s first request but Krishna wouldn’t give up. Krishna told him, “Yes, yes, you are right, Prahlad. Prahlad, you're right. I know in My heart that you have no other desire but the desire to see Me, therefore I appeared before you. But I do have a desire. You don’t have any desires, Prahlad, you don’t want anything, you just want to see Me. I do have a desire! I don’t want anything, I'm completely Self-satisfied, I have all I need, as soon as I think of something it all is there. But I have one desire – to fulfill My devotee’s desire. Don’t ask for your own sake, ask for My sake. I come to this world only because I’m happy to grant My devotee’s desires. Please, Prahlad, please ask!” 

Can you feel how cunning Krishna is, that it’s not so easy to get off with Him. Being a simple-minded boy, Prahlad says, “Well, if You want to fulfill my desire,” – it all didn’t end here – “if You want to fulfill my desire, I have one desire, so be it. Since You say that You come specifically to fulfill Your devotees’ desires, I’m going to tell You now my wish that You’ll be able to fulfill. Please let me have bhakti life after life. I want to serve You, give me that opportunity. Promise me that I will always serve You and will never give up my service to You”. 

It’s all not that simple, it all didn’t end there. Krishna said, “Perfect, I’ve always known that you want only bhakti. I’ve always known that you want nothing but bhakti. But you already have bhakti, and I promise you that not only you have bhakti now, but you will have it in future. Ask for something else. Oh, please, do me a favor! Prahlad, you are My devotee, aren’t you! For the sake of serving Me please ask for something else!”

Listen to what Prahlad replied and let these words remain in your heart. Prahlad’s reply to this was amazing. Prahlad said, “If I had bhakti in my heart You wouldn’t have proposed all this to me. If I had true bhakti in my heart you wouldn’t have come to me and wouldn’t have tempted me by all this. The very fact that You’re proposing all this to me means that I have no bhakti; therefore, give me bhakti! I’m not going to ask anything else because I know that bhakti depends only on Your mercy, that I can get it only by Your mercy. Everything else is dust, everything else is worthless”. 

This was the dialogue that took place between Prahlad and Lord Krishna, Vishnu, who came to him on the shore of the ocean and I wanted this dialogue to remain with us so that we can think more carefully about what the level of our own devotion is. That’s all, thank you very much. 

Now I’ll answer a few questions and also tonight I’ll have time to answer questions. And tomorrow we'll start anartha-nivritti, less than a few days have passed. 

Question: Is it a problem that I don’t suffer from lack of association with my youngers and my equals and appreciate and need most association with my seniors? 

Answer: Association with our seniors is a very important. But in associating with our seniors one’s it’s easy to behave in the right way and all our problems may not be revealed, a person himself may not see his problems, may not suspect what his problems are because he wants to look good in the eyes of his seniors and he feels great because he looks good in the eyes of his seniors; he plays some nice proper role in this association and he may not notice or not pay attention, may not understand that the problems still remain in his heart. Therefore, although there must be association with our seniors this association is not sufficient. One must feel the need to associate with his equal because it is in this association that he can truly understand what he’s worth. This is a very important thing - to learn to cooperate. Therefore these were the last words of Srila Prabhupada, practically his last words before leaving this world, this was the most important thing that he wanted to tell us, “You’ll be able to prove your love for me by the ability to cooperate with each other”. And cooperating means to associate on an equal footing, it means doing something together, it means serving together. Not individually, not somewhere out there, establishing our own separate sampradaya, exactly to the degree to which we can collaborate with others. Because for it to be proper ... What’s the advantage of associating with equals? It’ll be proper and give me true joy only if I learn to see the good qualities in them, that is to look up to them. Because it’s easy to look up to those who are my elders. It's hard for me to look up to my equals. And for our association to be correct, I have to learn to look up to those who are my equals. 

To look up to them doesn’t mean to do some strange things, to look up means that I must see their good strong qualities, I must assume that they have something to give me. Because it’s easy to think that my seniors have something to give me, but it’s a poison for my false ego to think that a person who has joined two weeks later than me can give me something; that I can get something from him, and that is what cooperation means. Cooperation means that I see the strengths of this person and try to interact with him on the basis of his strengths, that is, I realize that he’s giving me something, not that I’m giving him. That’s why it’s so important, that’s why it’s such an essential element of our practice. 

Question: If a person who has lost taste due to pride, is making efforts in evotional service, will the taste come back? 

Answer: Surely, it will come back. It will certainly come back if one humbly cries for the taste to come back and if one hears – and, once again, the motive force of our spiritual progress is hearing, hearing of the sastras, when we hear the experience of great devotees that have passed along this way. This is described in the sastras, like, I’ve been telling you the story of Prahlada and other stories – taste will surely come back, because Krishna will give this taste. Everything comes to us by Krishna’s mercy and if the first taste has been poisoned by material pride – having obtained the source of strength we have attributed this strength, this energy to ourselves, the taste that comes when a person is humble is much deeper and more reliable, it will remain with us.

Tomorrow we'll do another workshop to discuss or think about everything we’ve heard. 

Question: Is it appropriate to ask the spiritual master about our own level of development. What is the probability of getting an answer? 

Answer: The spiritual master’s already explaining to you your own level by telling you everything that you’ve heard today (laughs). What more do you need, what other answer do you need? Who has recognized themselves in some of the descriptions made today? A person can very easily recognize himself in all these things, and he doesn’t need to hear anything else, he himself should understand it. 

The relationship with the spiritual master is a secret and we usually know very well what level we're at. However, we come to the spiritual master hoping to hear something else (laughs). We sometimes feel painful to realize the level we are at, because we want, in our dreams we want to rush off somewhere. Therefore, before asking the spiritual master such a question one must ask himself: why am I asking him such a question? Don’t I know myself the answer to this question? Don’t I want to hear him say something that would be pleasing to me? 

Question: Please explain what the ratio should be between practical devotional service, reading Srila Prabhupada's books, listening to lectures and japa, what should be paid more attention to? 

Answer: This is a question of the same series. It all depends on you, there is no general formula, no recipe. Like, I gave the formula of 60% associating with equals. 60% means that I must try and make sure that my association with equals outweighs all other association or, it’s the association in such a format with the other devotees when we associate as equals, as people who work together, who really, truly do something together, this is the meaning of associating with equals. But this is a formula. 

With regard to this, there is no universal formula that works in all cases, because it depends on what? On the person’s level. A certain person can simply ... Like, Bhaktisiddhantha Sarasvati Thakur Prabhupada, he had a disciple, Akincana Krishnadas Babaji, who was always chanting the holy name, many of you’ve surely heard of him. Bhakti Bringa Govinda Maharaja likes telling about him, he knew him well. He would constantly – morning, afternoon, evening, night, no one knew when he slept – he would always chant Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare and he would also laugh, his japa was a special one, you could hear in his words his laughter or joy. And one day his god-brothers complained to Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati about him, of his not doing anything, just chanting the holy name all day, all night, in the morning; all the rest are working hard washing and cleaning and he’s just chanting. Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati said, “If you find another person who can do this ...” He told them: “Put up an ad in the newspaper: If someone is willing to come and live in our asram and always chant the holy name, we’ll provide him with free accommodation, free prasadam, everything free of charge, as long as he comes and does it”. They put up the ad but no one responded! (laughter) But the god-brothers left Akincana Krishnadas Babaji alone and said, “Okay, well, let him do what he’s doing.” 

But is this recipe applicable to us? No. Each person has to find his own formula, because we must have a harmonious understanding of the very method of devotional service. We must pay attention to the practical devotional service, we must make our specific contribution to the mission, without this our practical devotional service or our service will remain a theory. Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur Prabhupada Himself used to say, “If you want to realize the truths of the sastras, you must sweep or wash the floor of the temple or cut vegetables and clean Krishna’s worshipping paraphernalia; otherwise you’ll never be able to understand, this will remain a theory, an empty logic”. Therefore, we must do this. We must hear lectures every day, we must chant japa every day, we must take care of and perform our duties and take care of our family, relatives, friends, because if we don’t take care of them and abandon them, this will ultimately be just consuming more of our energy. But each person, depending on his level, on the level of his faith, on his level of understanding, on his level of spiritual experience should himself determine this. And an important criterion for this is that everyone is happy – I myself am happy, the devotees around me are happy, even though they may not always be happy, but in general they are happy, the spiritual master is happy and Krishna is happy. This is a very important criterion that shouldn’t be underestimated. Krishna from the heart, if He is happy, then we are also happy. And devotees too are usually happy when they see that one is sincerely doing all this. 

And Chaitanya Mahaprabhu glorified His grihastha followers. When He saw that Sevananda Seva’s wife was pregnant, He was in ecstasy, though He was a sannyasi, why should He be so happy? But He was delighted and started congratulating her, just because He saw that he was an honest man. That is, the criterion or the way to find the right formula is our sincerity. Not the desire to jump higher and prove to everyone what I am, but a sincere understanding that I want to serve, I want to grow and do what I can at the level at which I can do it now. 

Question: A devotee has both good and bad qualities. How to adopt the good ones without coming into contact with the bad ones? 

Answer: A very good question. To adopt the good without coming into contact with the bad you have to glorify the devotee for his good qualities. When we sincerely glorify such a devotee for his good qualities, then a bridge appears between us. Through this bridge his good qualities come to us, remaining with him, too (laughs). 

How to adopt his bad qualities? In the same way. We must start blaming him and then a crystal bridge will also appear. Through this crystal bridge his bad qualities will be broadcast to us. Therefore, one should see, one should meditate, one should be sincere, one should very sincerely see these qualities, then they’ll come to us, too. Krishna will give us these qualities. If we’ve recognized them Krishna from the heart will shower His mercy. 

Question: How to find balance between study and activity? 

Answer: I’ve already said how to find balance, each person must find the balance himself and all this should be there, but the combination may vary for each person. Just like Haridas Thakur chanted three lakhs of names but did Rupa Goswami chant three lakhs of names? No. What does this mean? Does this mean that Rupa Goswami was at a lower level than Haridas Thakur? Or does it mean that Rupa Goswami was at a higher level than Haridas Thakur? No, it doesn’t. Rupa Goswami wrote poetry with tears in his eyes and Haridas Thakur chanted mantra with tears in his eyes. Both did what they could and both put all their hearts in it. 

Question: Please tell us whether these six stages of the bhajana-kriya come in sequence, one after the other, or sometimes they are shifted and come in a different sequence. Or sometimes they come and then go away and then reappear? 

Answer: All this is possible. A person may reach a certain level, or he may immediately experience various problems, he may go back to a certain level, all this may take place because, unfortunately, in devotional service, a person doesn’t take the direct way, he takes meandering paths. Why? Because we have a convoluted mind and this convoluted mind makes go through meandering pathways. That is why we sometimes go in one direction, then we go down, do something else and anything may happen, but there is a criterion and that criterion is one: I must always feel humble and if in this humble state I render devotional service, I can always feel internal progress and Krishna’s protection. 

Ok, I think I must stop here because it’s already lunch time, I wanted to do something else. In the evening we’ll have some time for questions and maybe for some workshop.