Tonight we have the very rare and precious fortune of having the opportunity to ask any questions we may have to this 2 great wonderful Vaishnavas: Srila Bhakti Charu maharaj and Srila Jayapataka maharaj. I am very thankful that they have taken their precious time to be with us tonight. So please ask any questions.
Question: 1
Answer: Yes. This is transcendental anxiety. Bhakti means transcendental anxiety. A devotee never strives for peace. A devotee is not interested in peace. A devotee is interested in service and however much services we render, we always want to do more. A devotee is never satisfied. However well we are chanting, we want to chant more pure, we want to chant more attentively because we want to give more pleasure to Krishna. And that anxiety is actually a transcendental form of ecstasy. And it is that anxiety that will purify our heart and bring us to that state of ecstasy. What is the anxiety: to give more pleasure to our Gurudev, to give more pleasure to Vaishnavas, to give more pleasure to Krishna. We should always be in that anxiety. And this why we chant the Holyname: to give pleasure to Guru, to give pleasure to the Vaishnavas, to give pleasure to Lord Sri Gauranga Mahaprabhu and Krishna. We want to do more and more and more and more forever. In Vrindavan, mother Yashoda, how much she was always in anxiety to do more for Krishna. How the Gopis, when Krishna goes into the forest they are in anxiety that perhaps he may step on a stone with his soft Lotus feet or even a thorn. Sachimata and even Jaganath Mishra here in Navadweep they were always in anxiety. How to keep our Nimai healthy, how to keep our Nimai happy, how to keep him at home? If you want peace, Bhakti is not the proper path. If you are in love, Bhakti is the proper path. And where there is love there is always an eagerness to give more and more and more pleasure to the beloved eternally. When we become complacent, we make no spiritual progress further then the point we are at. So yes be anxiety for Krishna, for Guru and for the Vaishnavas – Anxiety to do more and more and more and more. But do not be in anxiety for your own sense gratification. That is material. When you are in anxiety because your desires are unfulfilled, that is the great the impediment to spiritual progress. But when you are in anxiety to do more service and give more pleasure to your Lord that is transcendental. And that is the price of Krishna consciousness.
Question: 2
Answer: is disciplic succession is unbroken. Although at times it is less manifest.
Wherever we find the essence of unalloyed, unmotivated, uninterrupted surrender to Krishna that is where we find the essence of Parampara. The main thing that you should be concerned with is how to you can become a surrendered soul. Don’t worry about everybody else. You accept a spiritual master. And you surrender to his will. And through purification; which absolutely must come through this process and all of this details are revealed, for until you surrender, until you give up the misuse of your independence. Then all of this others questions and considerations are simply are distraction. We can have Vaishnava relationship with any Vaishnava from any Sampradaya who is following the pure principals of Gita. But that relationship will be superficial and shallow until you surrender to the spiritual master in your line.
Question: 3
Answer: Kapiladev explains that devotion in the mode of ignorance is motivated with envy or pride. Devotion in the mode of passion is when it is motivated by a desire of furtive action and sense gratification. And devotion in the mode of goodness is for relief from suffering and pain- to be freed from furtive activities. And unmotivated transcendental devotion is simply for the pleasure of the Lord. Now how to elevate ourselves from the stages of devotional ignorance, passion and goodness to the transcendental state? It comes by serving those who are in transcendental state and hearing from them.
Nasta prayeshu abhadresu nityam bhagwata sevaya
Bhagawati uttama sloke bhaktir bhavati naishthiki.
By regularly hearing Srimad Bhagvatam, which is a book which deals exclusively with unmotivated uninterrupted devotional service; by submissively hearing Srimad Bhagvatam from a person who is truly living according to these principals and by serving such a personality. The Lord within the heart pleased with that endeavor removes the influences of ignorance, passion and goodness from our heart.
Question: 4
The word separatist must be understood carefully. The Sanskrit words in this connection are being 1;16;53;—–
A separatist is one who sees his interest as separate form that of the Supreme Lord. Mixed devotees or devotees in the mode of passion and ignorance think that the interest of the Supreme Lord is supplying the orders of the devotee. The interest of such devotees is to withdraw from the Lord as much as possible for their sense gratification. This is the separatist mentality. So separateness and oneness is based on the motivation.
sarva-dharmän parityajya
mäm ekaà çaraëaà vraja
Krishna says abandon all variety of religion.
yat karoñi yad açnäsi
yaj juhoñi dadäsi yat
yat tapasyasi kaunteya
tat kuruñva mad-arpaëam
Krishna says all that you do, all that you eat, all that you offer away and all the austerities, all the religious performances that you perform should be done as an offering to me. One who lives by that principal is one with the Lord in interest. But one who performs the religious activities with the desire for something for me that is the separate mentality. The separatist consciousness comes when we desire sense gratification. And the consciousness of true transcendental oneness is when we simply want to please Krishna. So as long as we are performing the service with some material selfish motivation on our heart that is the separatist mentality. How to free ourselves from that mentality? How to become one with the desire of God? Love means, prema means that you have no other the desire except the desire of the beloved of Krishna. Prabhupada explains that the Mayavadis consider that oneness means to have no separate existence from the Lord. But we understand that real oneness is that we are eternally the servant of the Lord for we have no separate desire than to please the Lord. And how to achieve it
Nasta prayeshu abhadresu nityam bhagwata sevaya
Bhagawati uttama sloke bhaktir bhavati naishthiki.
In the verse that we read today it is explained that the devotee begins the stage of transcendental unalloyed devotion through the process of attentively and eagerly hearing the message of Krishna consciousness from those devotees who are genuine and sincere. Through submissively hearing and rendering service, gradually the ignorance and passion and all of these selfish desires within our heart is removed by the grace of Krishna and then we can come to the unalloyed state. And what is the first and most important instruction: that we are hearing from the great souls and what is the most important of all services: to sincerely and attentively chant the Holynames of the Lord in the association of Vaishnavas.
“Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare”
By performing the Sankirtan Yagya of the Holyname in a humble service attitude amongst Vaishnavas, gradually all ignorance, all passion, all goodness is removed from the heart and we come to the consciousness of transcendental prema of unmotivated love. So Srila Prabhupada said, “Just chant Hare Krishna” that is ultimate answer to all of our questions.
Question: 5
Answer: We must know. It is repeated throughout the Shastra: the gravity of offenses against Krishna and his devotees. We must know clearly what’s the reaction will be upon us if we make offenses. In fact, Srila Prabhupada explains in one such purport of the Srimad Bhagvatam that at one time Sambha and some of the children of Krishna offended Narada muni, Parasara muni and by that offense to Vaishnavas the entire Yadu dynasty was destroyed. Even if you are directly the sons of Krishna, if you commit offense against Vaishnavas you and your whole dynasty would be annihilated. What to speak of us? So we must know clearly, how severely the Lord responds to offenses to those of you who have an alliance to him. And with this information we must be very cautious, very careful to control the tongue. And how do we control the tongue by using it in Krishna’s service. By speaking the glories of Krishna and by speaking the glories of his devotees and by chanting his Holynames
“Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare”
And when the tendency comes to criticize or to find false we should know that if I speak it then I am committing spiritual suicide at the same time if I leave my tongue idle it is certain to say something non-sense. So let me keep it busy in glorifying Krishna and glorifying his devotees and glorifying his Holynames.
“Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare”
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