0:01Vitao, vetao probu?
0:27У меня вопрос про доброту.
0:30I have a question about kindness. Kindness about...
0:34Вы как-то говорили, что все наши действия, когда мы находимся в обусловленном состоянии, какими бы нам они не казались чистыми, искренними, они все не лишены корысти.
0:52You told that in this world, because of our conditioned nature, even if we do something for benefit of others, we still have some motivation for ourselves.
1:07Таким образом, вопрос возникает такого плана, существуют ли вообще добрые люди, если мы не говорим про вайшнавов, а просто существуют ли добрые люди, и такие понятия, как искренность и смирение, включены ли в понятие доброты?
1:28Can we find the real, really kind people in this world, even not among Vaishnavas, just kind people and characteristics as sincerity and humility, are they included in the nature of kind person?
2:01And what is the connection between kindness and puruṣa-abhimāna?
2:19So, this question has some parts. First of all, is there real kindness in this world? And do persons, are there persons in this world who have a genuine kindness and act without any personal motivation? And then are there persons who are really sincere and humble? And how does it relate to the puruṣa-abhimāna? Puja of Mahadeva is going. Gopishwa Mahadeva, Keeja.
3:49The meaning is, if a person has bhakti to God, to Bhagavan, then all the samāsate surā, all the great qualities of the sura, the demigods, come to that person. Generally the translation is like this and it's understood in this way. But our Acharya has commented that here the word sura does not mean like sura and asura, the demons and demigods.
4:24Here the word sura means devotees. In other words, yasyāsti bhakti bhagavati akiñcanā, if one has devotion to Bhagavan, akiñcanā, without any sense of being the possessor of anything, nothing is mine, even my own soul is not mine, it belongs to Krishna, akiñcanā bhakti, then for that person, all the qualities of great devotees, that means the qualities of Prahlada Maharaj, the qualities of Ambarish Maharaj, the qualities of Uddhava and Narada and great Vaishnavas, these qualities come to that person, not demigods. Why do you want the qualities like the demigods? You get the quality like Indra, then you can drink the Soma-rasa, you can make offence to Brihaspati, you can try to have an affair with the wife of Gautama Rishi, maybe you can come to Braj and try to smash it and flood and kill everyone.
5:37Why do you want to have all the qualities like the devotees? No. So this verse said, you become infused with all the qualities of great devotees. In fact, sarva-mahā-guṇa-gaṇa-vaiṣṇava-śarīre, kṛṣṇa-guṇa-kṛṣṇa-bhakte-sakale-sañcāri. It means that all great qualities are there in the body of a pure devotee. In fact, Krishna, his own qualities, he infuses his own qualities into the devotee.
6:20Krishna said, the ācārya is myself, because he infuses his own qualities into the devotee. So that's the first part of the verse.
6:40But if someone is abhakta, not a devotee, then kuto mahad-guṇā, where are his great qualities? Does not have great qualities. So if you say, can someone who is not a devotee, have good qualities, then Shastra is saying, no. He has no, that means, He has no eternal, transcendental, permanent qualities. Why? Manorathenāsati dhāvato bahiḥ. Because that person, he is running according to the manoratha, mental speculation. He is identifying with his mind and his mind is just taking him.
7:40Manoratha means chariot. The soul is riding on the chariot of the material mind through the jungle of the sense objects, like this, forever and ever, without any respite, without end. So those who are not devoted to God, they have no good qualities. What about kindness? There is such a thing as sāttvika-dayā, that means showing compassion to others in the mode of goodness, sāttvika-dayā. In Gita, Śrīkṛṣṇa says,
8:53dehātma-viveka, the ability to discriminate between the body and the self. One cannot get any positive
11:28because their own mind doesn't not have any permanent platform and the mind is always changing.
11:38So anavasthita-cittasya of that person whose citta is not steady and that means everyone who is not a devotee, then even if they show kindness to you, be afraid because it will be a trip. One thing, by receiving the kindness of a worldly person, then you get attachment, because the dadāti pratigṛhṇāti, the exchanges of affection between two beings, it binds them together, and that's why the dadāti pratigṛhṇāti, the six exchanges of love and affection, we have to do with devotees, because it will bind us in a relation with the devotee, will lift us up out of the world.
12:30But if we'll have the exchanges of love and kindness with a materialistic person, it will bind us to this world.
12:43So there is such a thing as the niṣkāma-kāma, that the person is giving in charity and not desiring the results. And from this his jñān will come, but as we mentioned, it's unsteady, they'll go back down again, unless they'll do the bhagavad-arpita-niṣkāma-kāma-yoga. That means they may give in charity without desiring the result, but they're doing it in the name of God.
13:20So there's an element of unmukhatā, there's an element of turning their attention towards the Supreme Lord, though it's technically not bhakti, it's technically not bhakti, but because there's some element of remembrance of the Lord, it will gradually cause their evolution and their tendency to associate with devotees and take up bhakti. So it can be purifying in initial states, in early stages, somewhat purifying. Now, it may be that there are some very sincere persons from another religion, because if you say, if anyone is not a devotee, what does that mean?
14:13In the broadest tense, if someone is dedicating their life and surrendering to God, they're all devotees, doesn't have to be a member of Chaitanya Academy, or the Gaudiya Sampradaya, or even another Sampradaya, a person may be of another religion, and if really they are surrendering to their spiritual authorities, who have some realization, something, then they can also have some good qualities.
14:49Now, look at the example of Bharat Maharaj. Bharat Maharaj helped the deer, the baby deer was drowning, so helping that deer, was it bhakti or karma? Was he obliged to do it? No, it would not make it, he's doing bhajan and the deer drowns, so what? Every day millions of people are dying, every day.
15:33So he did not have any obligation, especially he's come up to the stage of vrati as well. Nevertheless, it's the nature of devotees that they have kindness.
15:51And so he helped with that deer because he was not in meditation at that time. His meditation was broken by the roar of the lion and he saw it. if he were in antardasha, in samadhi, and he didn't see it, and the deer drowned, that's another thing, but he was out of his samadhi, and he saw, so he said, let me help, so that is called sattvik daya, sattvik daya, so activities in the mode of goodness, if there's no attachment, then they don't cover bhakti, because sattva-guna is not bhakti, but it's like a window, Just like from this window, the light from outside is shining in. So Sattva-guna is clear, so the light of bhakti can shine through the window of Sattva-guna, into the heart.
17:04Rajagun, Tamagun is not like, that is like the, Tamagun is opaque. A person, sorry, Rajagun is, someone is in Rajas, but they associate with advanced Vaishnava, or some light of bhakti will come, but it will be distorted. It will be opaque. like a, not a clear glass, like stained glass. If the light shines through the stained glass, its actual quality is not perceived as it is. So Rajagun is opaque, but Tamagun is just like the wall, nothing will, it will block everything. So Satwagun is like glass, it does not necessarily obstruct bhakti unless you become attached.
18:35So you should see in this way. Now, there's another consideration. Srila Bhaktino Thakur and Prabhupada Bhaktisiddhanta Thakur, they have said that if you are a Vaishnava, and you have some wealth, some means, and you see someone, and they are suffering, they're in need, oh, not one person on drugs who is stealing to get money for his drugs, you know, because charity, there has to be a worthy recipient of charity also, because charity can be in the mode of goodness, passion and ignorance, but we're speaking about charity in the mode of goodness, a person who is really in need and it's worthy to help them, then a Vaishnava should not think, I am transcendental, I'll never touch this disgusting mode of goodness, no, he should not think like that, he should not become hard-hearted and turn his face away from that person,
19:46He can do something to help within His means. Be kind. The sattvic daya is not problematic as long as you don't become attached. So in the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says that the genuine acts of kindness, of charity, in the mode of goodness, they should not be given up because they purify even the great souls.
20:16So once there was like a famine and crops had failed and some local villages, they were short of food, but in the mutts, people had given donations and they had grown some vegetables in their garden, they had quite some excess in their store. So some villager, who didn't have enough food for his family, at night, he broke into the Gaudiamat, and he stole something, and the devotees caught him, and they tied him up, and they bought him in front of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur, Prabhupada, we've caught the thief, we should give him to the police, so then Prabhupada said, what happened, and he said, well, crops have failed, and I could not feed my family, and it's not only me, others in the village are in this situation,
21:25So Prabhupada said, untie him. And he told him, you take what you need from our storage. And he told the devotees, oh, you should go and go to his village and give to the villagers there who don't have enough. Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur sen. So don't be so aloof and think, I am a transcendentalist and we should never help anyone. This is wrong. By this, your heart will become hard.
22:08Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur has written a very beautiful Sanskrit poem, I think it's called Gaurangastava, Gaurangastava, I don't remember the exact name, Gaurangastava, something like this, and there in many Sanskrit verses, he has painted a beautiful picture of the life of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, and there it's described that our Sachinandan Gaurahari, when he became a Vaishnava,
22:49his pastime of becoming a Vaishnava, and he was a grihastha, that regularly he would go and he would give some food and some clothing to poor people and people who are in need. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu did it in his grihastha lila as well. So he's come to teach us by his own example. So try to have a nuanced understanding of what it means kindness.
23:25The kindness of a person who is turned away from God is dangerous. It increases the bodily conception of life. But the kindness of a devotee is transcendental. Don't think that when it's said that Vaishnava is poetic, he is merciful, he is friendly to everyone, the 26 qualities of a devotee, that these 26 qualities are the same as the qualities as we think about them just in worldly life.
24:08All the qualities of a devotee, they are prakrita, they are transcendental and those same words that we use in everyday life about the qualities of ordinary people, those qualities and those qualities are not the same and actually if we have the mundane conception of what the worldly qualities like kindness and humility are and think this Vaishnava is great because he has those qualities. This is an offence because you are projecting mundane sattvic qualities onto the supernatural transcendental person. So the humility of the devotee and the humility of a materialist is not the same because he is bahirmukha. He has purusha, even the, his show of good qualities is purusha abhiman. We said it yesterday,
25:13I am very paka grihastha, I do all my duties as husband, and this is my wife, but this is Purush Abhiman, because the Maryada Purushottama, Lord Ramachandra has taken Ekapatnivrata, and he is the legitimate follower of this vow to have one wife, and his wife should serve him, he is the legitimate recipient of the service of his shakti, Sita. But if you are married, is your wife your shakti or not? Is your wife your shakti or not? No, she is not your shakti. You are both shakti. She is not your shakti and you are not her shakti. You are both Krishna's shakti. And therefore, even what appears to be very high moral ethical standard from the material point of view, it is, relatively speaking, it's
26:26superior to being sinful or anything like this. It's better. From the relative perspective. But the relative perspective is not going to deliver your soul from this world. The relative perspective is why our soul is in this world. And therefore it's Purushabhiman, actually. How can you say every day before remembering Gayatri?
26:51I am not a brahmin, kshatriya, vaishya, shudra, I am not a grihastha, vanaprastha, brahmacharya, sanyasi, I am das, das, anudas, servant of the servant of Gopinath Krishna, and then walk around thinking, I am very paka grihastha, I am not a grihastha, and I am also a grihastha, which are you? so outwardly one may play the role if you are grihastha or if you are brahmacharya whatever ashram you are in whatever occupation you have you have to play that role but you have to do it without the abhiman otherwise it's just ignorance it's just bodily identification and so that activities should be done without the abhiman and if you do it with abhiman and you chant harinam and you carry
27:54carry that abhiman into your chanting. Then it will be impossible to enter into the service of Radha and Krishna. So consider these things. Just in summary, there's a difference between the non-devotee and the devotee. The devotee is not limited to one sampradaya or sect, but devotee means someone who's sincere and dedicated to God. Then in addition to that, there's a difference between material kindness and spiritual kindness.
28:36Because when the devotee, like Gauranga Mahaprabhu, when he was a grihastha, if he helped some poor person by giving them food or clothing, then that the person will think, oh, this Gauranga is so nice, and then by remembering him, they become purified. So when a Vaishnava does something to help some person who is in need, then because the common people develop some conception, oh, the devote, this Vaishnava is so nice, let me also support that Vaishnava or associate with that.
29:12it's actually, the kindness is not the actual sattva-daya, but it is to create an atmosphere where the conditioned souls have a favorable move towards the Vaishnavas and the path of bhakti, so their souls can be uplifted, you see, so it's different.
29:35If Sanatana Goswami is talking Prajalpa with the villagers, oh, how is your cow, is your daughter married yet? It's not because he's just trying to make friends with them, it's because being a transcendental person, if they'll have some little attachment for him, then they may also follow him and chant harinama, and so on, it will bring auspiciousness in their life.
30:04So consider all these things. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur and Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur in Sajjan Toshani and the Harmonist, they have written on this subject, very beautiful articles, what's the right behavior and responsibility of Vaishnava, how does he interact with the rest of society in a kind but transcendently kind way?
