Развитие осознания Кришны на этапах духовной практики бхакти

0:10Before the sun appears. Yes. And when somebody's chanting, nāmābhāsa. So, is it always the fact that if they chant without any aparādha, then immediately, zoom, the sun appears? No. It goes jātīti pratīta, immediate realization. But it is not, that is the ābhāsa. Remember this morning we were discussing the difference between Viśuddha Sattva, the realization of Krishna made by

1:15the citta is in sattva-guṇa, and the Viśuddha sattva sattva sattva of Krishna is just reflected there, so the jātīti pratīta, that experience is the ābhāsa, because on, and then, gradually, gradually, nāma, rūpa, guṇa, parikāra, like this, and your sattva will come, and then serving internally, manas, manasīkṣetva, then bhāva will come, when bhāva comes, that's the actual sun, so this first realization of the ābhāsa of Krishna, nāma, rūpa, guṇa, and then there is the actual apāvṛta, uncovered experience in the stage of bhāva, that is Viśuddha-sattva.

1:55So this realization of the reflection, this is like in the state of ruci. In the stage of niṣṭhā, the citta has already become steady. So little realization of Krishna rūpa and some guṇa, but not mādhurya. When ruci comes, we said this one, the definition of ruci, ruci hi, pāpa-bīja-nāśād, mādhurya-anubhāvaha, you see in the stage of niṣṭhā, the pāpa is gone, you're steady in your practices and you're not doing any sins, but in the citta there's still some saṁskāras, impressions, they're called the pāpa-bīja, the seed of sins, so by practicing bhajana, that is bhajana-kriyā, in the stage of niṣṭhā, steadiness, those seeds of sins, those fine, they're also removed. And then when they're removed, the citta is clean enough to accommodate

2:51the mādhurya, the sweetness of Krishna, the sweet qualities, and then his associates, that's ruci, and then in āsakti, your own form, and seva begins. And then that will lead to the stage of bhāva. And all that ruci, āsakti, that is a reflection. Yes, it's all about. Because it's not Viśuddha Sattva. Viśuddha Sattva, Viśuddha Sattva, Viśuddha Sattva, Viśeṣātmā, Prema-sūrya, is not coming yet.

3:15It's in the reflection. Okay, good question. Let me clear this into it. Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura has given a nice example in this regard. He said, how can the material mind have a relationship with something transcendental? He said, if you put something inside something else, they have a relationship called ādhāra and ādeya. Ādhāra means the receptacle, and the ādeya is the thing which is contained in it.

3:46He said that bhakti is such that there is actually no relationship of ādhāra and ādeya between the mind and this transcendental experience. But by the acintya-śakti of the Lord, still one experiences this ābhāsa and the bhakti-śakti rubs against the citta. It's called the guṣraṇa, or samardhana, samardhana, rubbing, and he gives an example of pārada, that means mercury, and gandhaka, gandhaka means sulfur, if you take sulfur and mercury and mix them together, actually they don't mix, we have some chemistry students here, no, okay, you get the mercury and sulfur and you try to rub them together, they actually don't mix,

4:51just won't happen. But if you keep rubbing for a long time, then suddenly they mix and they change their nature and it becomes kājala, turns into kājala, black kājala, you know, they decorate your eyes. So, he said, in the same way, the citta and the bhakti-śakti in the form of śravaṇam, kīrtanam, smaraṇam, bhakti-śakti is rubbing on the citta and it produces ābhilāṣa.

5:28Ābhilāṣa, ābhilāṣa is desire, you know, but why doesn't it mix, get a lot of material, we're getting there, we're getting there, we're getting there, so, they're running, and it produces ābhilāṣa, so, ruci, another definition of ruci is ābhilāṣa, desire, what kind of ābhilāṣa, bhagavat-prāpta-ābhilāṣa, bhagavat-anukūla-ābhilāṣa, and so hard ābhilāṣa, that means, the desire to attain Krishna, the desire to render favourable services to Krishna, Krishna, and the desire to have, sohar, ābhilāṣa, ni, surit, bhāva, to have an intimate friendship, relationship with Krishna.

6:09So, these are three types of ābhilāṣa, and that is the ruci. In other words, when the realization of Krishna's fallen qualities and associates is coming in the heart, as nābhāsa, then your greed is developing. Greed is not an abstract thing, I'm really, like, you know, interested, I am a great enthusiast, I'm an enthusiast, I'm an enthusiast, I'm very, I'm very, I'm super enthusiastic, and that's not lobha, that's not lobha, please, that's not lobha, lobha means that in that stage, you are catching the ābhāsa, and Gurudev gave the example, like the dog outside the sweet shop, right, there's a sweet shop, there's a glass, and there's all sweets in there, And there's a stray dog outside, you know, you've seen it in India, like, hairless Wanda.

7:02So there's this mangy dog, you know, with no hair, and he's eating it, and he's outside, no one will let this filthy dog in the shop, of course, and he's looking through the glass, he can smell the sweets, and he's salivating like anything. Why? Because he can see it. So ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam, first clean the mirror, see something, then, we're like that mangy dog.

7:24Well, I am, not you.

7:28You are a great personality, but I don't like that magnitude. Why is the cause reflected if he's actually seen the sweets? The cause is not direct. Cittāri is like a glass. The analogy is not exact. Gurudev is giving this analogy. But Mahāprabhu giving that analogy, Gurudev is giving this analogy. Just try to understand this. But he can access it.

7:53So, he's seen. Huh, huh, I want, I want. Sometimes a person will come out of the sweet shop and he was eating a rasagulla in a leaf plate. and he bit it while a leaf was dribbling down his chin and some drops of his chin into the leaf plate and he came outside and he threw the leaf and the dog jumped on it and licked some, got some taste that means a mahā-bhāgavata Vaiṣṇava, he's tasting the rasa of Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa-līlā, all the juice is coming down and he comes to you outside and by his mercy you can taste a little bit what it's like to actually experience that sweet You see? So by the cleansing of the heart and some internal experience and by the mercy of a pure Vaiṣṇava, a lobha, our greed is growing. And so these three types of ābhilāṣa come. But in the stage of ruci, the ābhilāṣa are buddhi-pūrvaka. Buddhi-pūrvaka means that you have to intentionally seek out that saṁskāra in your heart.

8:59In other words, you're not feeling the ābhilāṣa at every moment, but when you take your japa-mālā, and then you begin to chant, and you remember a verse, How Krishna is decorated with a peacock feather, and he's coming out of Nandagaon in the morning, playing his flute, surrounded by his cowherd boys, making beautiful footprints in the dust of Vraja, So, pada-raṇam, prabhāsa, gīta, kīrti, rei, kuśīta, rei, kip, like this, some volition, volition, intention is there, and when you do that, then, the ābhilāṣa, there's some spurti, and the ābhilāṣa is coming, so it's called buddhi-paraka, preceded by the application of your own volition, but when you come to the stage of āsakti, then it's called svarasikī, the ābhilāṣa is svarasikī, natural, you don't even think about it, you don't have to make an act of volition,

9:54you're so attached now. And it's always that, paraka, ābhilāṣa, anukūla-sevā-ābhilāṣa, so hard ābhilāṣa. So that means now, the śravaṇam kīrtanam smaraṇam is rubbing more, more, more, more, more. And then what happens? Just like the gandhaka, the sulfur, and the pārada, the mercury suddenly mix and become one. So what happens? The citta, on which it was reflected and rubbing, suddenly melts and becomes one.

11:00śolga, ru-tivis, chita, maas-sholga, the heart chita melts, and becomes one, with a soul, ba-haviki, natural, saviour desires, and that is there, to have the stage of a, sudda sat, fami-shayshat, maa, tani shudda na.

11:15Huh? Is it clear now Maharaj? It's clear. You brought up another point.

11:22Sorry, Maharaj. I haven't been asking this for months. You take permission from Maharaj first, because he does. Please, okay, so, on one hand, you said, that, I'm very happy to see you, my dear friend, after a long time, I am fortunate today, he talks about you so fondly, so, yes, Maharaj, on one hand, you say, Say that we should have the mind enter into the mantra and the mantra enter into the mind and don't do any vikṣepa or any other.

12:21Harinām vikṣepa, one of the ten offenses, right? Harinām vikṣepa, to superimpose a material conception onto the name. So all of our conceptions are material, actually, I mean, in the conditioned state. Okay, but now you're saying that in the stage of ruci, that the devotee may, with some volition, with the help of bhāva, you don't know, so when one is doing that, then now it's not just the mantra entering into the mind, the mind entering into the mantra, but you're utilizing something else.

13:00Yes, yes, yes, because, yeah, yeah, because in that stage, really, truthfully, mantra-mayī-upāsanā is not actually really performed until the stage of āsakti, really, you know, I mean, Gurudev would talk about our remember verse and it's not like I couldn't, but one day I said, Gurudev, we were in Lopinath-goban, and I was alone with him in Israel, I said, Gurudev, what's the stage when you could actually do mantra-mayī-upāsanā?

13:32That's it. Āsakti.

13:37But, no, no, what it is, now, remember, that hearing, chanting, and remembering, all three of them, they go along the stage of, if the citta is pure, you do rūpa kīrtan, and the good kīrtan will produce a spurti, and that's rūpa smaraṇam. So it is not like an ordinary person, just speculating, but that person in that stage of ruci or āsakti, if you say, bhāva-bhidam-natamara-bhāpu, which is the best verse in Śrīmad Bhāgavatam for rūpa-dhyāna, right?

14:09Gurudev says, the three verses in Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, which are the best for rūpa-dhyāna, one by Lord Brahma, namidjitei brahapasaita didam-baraya, one by the Yajñapatnīs, And the best one is by the Gopīs, bhāva-bhidamunatavarabha, okay, these are rūpa-dhyāna, so he's not, like, thinking, aṣṭakālīya-līlā, he's qualified, rūpa-śravaṇena, taddoin, yogyatā, bhavati, he's qualified for the awakening of the rūpa, so he's saying a verse, which is relative to his qualification, which is bringing the appearance of rūpa-smaraṇam, and then, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna. So it's appropriate for that stage. A rūpa-jñāna, it's quite appropriate for that stage.

14:59So before that, when one is going to anartha-nivṛtti, then what's appropriate is to really just focus on love. Ah, okay. Now, I'm glad you brought this up, Maharaj. And the reason is this, the other day, our most dear, beloved God, Vrindavan, Viśvadhū Prabhu, he brought up this point. He said, Gurudev, used to tell us, sometimes, oh you should chant right now, and then chant a verse like this, and then chant again, like this, should we do that, or should we just hear the name?

15:30So this morning, I told the pastime when someone asked Gurudev about this, and he turned to a new person and said, can you remember my father? And that new person said, I've never seen your father, how can I remember him? Gurudev then turned to God, you see, exactly, so start with the name.

15:46So Gurudev has given two types of instructions, one, just hear, and on another occasion, Śrīla Prabhupāda used to give that instruction, that was the main instruction that Śrīla Prabhupāda did, he used to say, hear, hear, hear, become clear, clear, clear, constantly giving. In fact, one time a devotee came to Śrīla Prabhupāda and said, oh Prabhupāda, when I'm chanting, then my mind is going here and there, you know, it's hard to control, what should I do?

16:16Prabhupāda said, you chant with your tongue, and you hear with your ear, what does your mind have to do with it?

16:25See, it's such a powerful way to say, you just hear that vibration, that's all. So Śrīla Prabhupāda and Gurudev, other great Ācāryas, you can see in the Upadeśa, of Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura as well, in the last one, is that just chant, and hear the name, and after some time, if you're very persistent, and very determined, After some time, Nāma Prabhu will reveal his beautiful svarūpa. And if you go on chanting gradually, the rest of your anarthas will go and all the līlā and everything will be revealed. It's the last teaching in the Upadeśāvalī of Prabhupāda, Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, so those instructions are there.

17:04But then on the other hand, there are times Gurudev has said, oh you chant this verse, or like when you're chanting you can do Parikrama Govardhan in your mind or something, so why is this? Just like I mentioned before, to really do that actual japa for the very conditioned soul with ignorance is almost unbearable, it's very hard, so just to encourage the neophyte, then Gurudev would say, oh you remember this pastime, remember that pastime, it's not līlā smaraṇam, actually, but it's better than, thinking of Miami Beach, exactly, because if you don't have taste in the name and you're feeling aversion, then even though you might do your best to complete your rounds, but while you're chanting you'll tend to think about your own pastimes, right, and you'll make more nāma-aparādha, so Gurudev used to say these words of encouragement for people, but due to not understanding

18:09śikṣā, daṇḍa, people are thinking, oh, I'm doing līlā smaraṇam. And that's why this morning we were discussing with what Rūḍi, the actual meaning of the word, śravaṇam, the actual meaning of the word, kīrtanam, and the actual meaning of the word, smaraṇam. Okay? So it's like a concession for them to help them just finish their rounds, do their rounds, maybe increase their rounds, have an interest, remember some of the impressions, whatever they have from parikrama and so on, like that.

18:38Yeah, then when they get to a certain stage of purity and understanding, then they actually do japa, then they're just hearing, and then everything opens. Concession. Yeah, it's a concession. Now, but the best way for that concession to take place is in the context of arcan. Let's say, let's say you have dīkṣā, and now you're serving your deities, right?

19:01So you have to serve your deities, you offer 16 articles, this morning you said the verse.

19:38Dhammasa, dhammasa, dhammasa, dhammasa, dhammasa, dhammasa, dhammasa, etatapa, dhammasa, et cetera.

19:43He does 16 articles. So this is arcan. So then when you're doing this arcan, then you have to pray.

20:06Tauranam, Tauranam, Takalibaram, Tuihujam, Sarvadevesham, Pradalimitabhikram, there are mantras that you have to say while you're doing the archang.

20:15So this means, now I meditate, I need Brindavan, the river jewellery is flowing, the trees are full of flowers and blossoming creepers, the whole balm is more shining than a million suns, that place is untouched by the six whips of hunger, thirst, fatigue, all the age and so on. There's a beautiful golden throne, Radha Krishna sitting and so on. So this is smaran, right? It's a kind of smaran. But it's actually not the anger of bhakti called smaran. Aha! Yes. So for the neophyte who actually cannot do smaran, his so-called smaran is actually a sublim of the anger of bhakti called archa.

20:59You see, Rupa Goswami describes in Bhakti Rasamrita Sindhu, there are 64 angas of bhakti, some of the angas are one activity, and some of the angas are a complex of activities, so for example, one anga of bhakti is, if the deity is going on procession, you should follow him, so that's just one thing, then another anga of bhakti is archan, but in archan there are many things, putting on tilak, offering bhoga, decorating, cleaning the temple, it's a whole complex of many things,

21:31So, Jiva Goswami, what's it? Very interesting. I think, Bhaktisandarva, Anuja, 309.

22:00The meaning is this, that if a person is engaged in chanting, or remembering, or serving the lotus feet, according to the vidi, the direction, the instructions in the agama, shastra, that means the Vaishnava tantra, the arch and difficult and all these things, the text of archan, then that practice is actually archan, that's actually archan.

22:27So Gurudev said on a few occasions, he said, when I do archan, it's serva, but when you do smaran, it's archan.

22:43It's very deep.

22:44Vajan Mahasam.

22:46In the introduction to Vajan, there's a difference between Vajan and archan, right? So I just quoted the line of Jiva Goswami where he said, even smaran, which is done according, let's say, someone is chanting and thinking, oh, now Krishna's doing this at this time and everything. It's not a spurti, it's not coming from a spurti, they read something in the scripture and they're remembering according to the direction of scripture, that is not actually the anger of bhakti called smaran, that is the anger of bhakti called archa, it's included in archa, so even though the neophytes can do smaran to a limited degree, it's better if he will do it within the context which is recommended for him, the path of archa, and that will, then his remembrance will be directed in a nice way, you know?

23:32Like in Archan, when you wake up in the morning, as soon as you jump out of bed, what do you say?

23:38Jaya-titanam, Jaya-titanam in vaso, Deva-kiri-janma-bado, Yadu-bara-pare-shatva, Doriya-sanatana, and then what do you say? Vidak-gopala, Vlasi-vinam, Samkogu-chi-nam, Kirtasara-gatram, oh, I remember Krishna, he's surrounded by very clever karengokis, and then made marks all over his body.

24:00So that's maran of Krishna in the morning, right there from the beginning of your archan practice. But that's maran, though it's rustic and beautiful, and though it's one pointing towards Vrindavan and your sambandha, but it's actually archan in that stage, gradually, gradually, when one comes mature, and one becomes free from two things, what?

24:22Kadarya shil, implies activities, and vikshita, chitta, distracted consciousness, then you can just chat and hear, and the manifestations of Narukamu, Bhagavad-gita, so Krishna Askaravaji, in the beginning of Chaitanya, Charitamrita, he said,

24:56If a person is chanting, then it's to be understood that that person has many offences. If naam biji is not ankur, sprouting, the name should sprout, the form, the qualities, the associates, the pastimes, and if that sprouting is not taking place, the only reason is, namaparadha is there. So to overcome nama-aparadha, one takes out of shi-guru, receives deksha, is engaged in archan under his guidance, becomes free from the oscillating mind and bad activities, has some sanskars of sambandha gyan, then he can chant, Nashtap, reisho, bat, reisho, nintambag, or seivaya, bhagati, uttama-shtoki, bhakti, bhakti, bhakti, naishtiki, comes in nishta, and then ruchi, tastes, and all the realizations unfold. So this is something of the relationship between Naam, Sravan, Kirtan, and actual Smaran, and how Archan is a preliminary activity, especially to facilitate the neophyte in attaining the actual experience of the neophyte,

26:06Bhakti, shabhi, kirtan, smarna. Therefore it said, The neophyte devotee is somewhat materialistic. What does he do? Archa. He believes in the deity and in his guru. He doesn't know how to properly associate with other Vaishnavas properly. He hasn't developed that understanding of Vaishnava yet. But anyway, he has faith in the Archa and that process.

26:37Gradually, he'll come to the matrim stage, where he has love for the devotees, friendship with all the devotees, prema, maitri, kripo, peksha, sakroti, samatya, maha, gopis.