Yatra by HG Vaisesika Dasa Adhikari: Day 6

Day 6 : 2/4/2017

Class by HG Satyadeva Prabhu

SB: 11.18.31 – Krsna’s instructions to Uddhava

A saintly person should never let others frighten or disturb him and similarly should never frighten or disturb other people He should tolerate the insults of others and should never himself belittle anyone. He should never create hostility with anyone for the sake of the material body, for he would thus be no better than an animal.

This Trinad api sunicena verse was spoken by Mahaprabhu and it shows how we should chant the Holy Name. We have to treat everyone with great respect, that is the mood of the Vaisnava. This quality of humility, tolerance and respect arises from the soul. When one realizes they are the soul and we are a tiny spark of the super soul, we realize how tiny we are, we are just a tiny tiny ray of Krsna. That will help us get the good qualities of Humility, tolerance and respect for others. Krsna says happiness and suffering come as seasons but all we need to do is tolerate without becoming DISTURBED. Tolerance without connecting to Krsna is just suppression so very important to connect it to Krsna.

This verse trinad api… shows how our mind is stuck/how we are trapped in this material world. Directly perceiving how things are going inside me. K says in the BG in Chapter 7.4-5: Bumir api vayuh.. Sometimes we separate the mind, intelligence and the ego (false ego)- these are my separate energies, but there is a superior energy of mine but it’s conscious. Material energy is not conscious but superior energy is conscious. We start believing this material world is conscious but it’s not we start believing it is because of maya. The mind is like a container, it’s like a background. When you see a picture you need a background. So all experiences even spiritual experiences . When chanting we got a little revelation and then it goes away and that is a picture or a samskar which is created in the mind. A memory is a thought form and based on the memory we imagine what is going to happen in the future. It’s just these samskaras which is our story of life. Where attention goes perception goes. Where we focus that’s the impression we save in our mind.

1. The first aspect is the sound

2. Second aspect is interpretation – where is the interpretation coming from? From our experiences. Everything we interpret is filtered based on our past experiences.

3. The intelligence is strategizing based on our past experiences – based on whom we imagine ourselves to be.

4. Lot of times we strategize what we are going to do in future so we can satisfy our ego and that is what gives us feeling.

5. Ex- Dehahuti said to Kapila Dev = I’m sick of this material world because of the feeling it gives me. Based on this feeling we get happiness or distress. Ex- if I don’t smile at you; I can interpret it in two way – a. he doesn’t even see me b. He is having a bad day. Based on what we interpret, we can get feelings of either distress (oh he doesn’t like me or is judging me) or happiness that no worries he loves me but just having a bad day.

6. That is the fear our ego has given us.

7. 4^th aspect of mind – mind generates a feeling; and the mind then tries to tell us this is real and then we put these impressions in our heart and then we continue to feel that this program is real and this is actually having material consciousness even after so many instructions.

8. So how do we get out: Get the higher consciousness. We can’t tolerate without being disturbed. Disturbance will arise but we need to be aware of it and understand there is disturbance, but we should connect it to the higher consciousness and then we have the choice to either react or not react and that weakens the program and leads to non attachment to this material world.

Icha or dvisa is the cause of this material attachment. For everything coming in – try to connect it to the higher consciousness so instead of having these material impressions constantly getting in the mind. Hence association could be a double edged sword – because if we are associating, we are constantly looking to get praise or happiness. We try to put on good clothes, good words etc – because we want praise, we imagine we are different from Krsna and hence that is our conditioning that we are separate from K and till we have this feeling we will always be materially attached. Ego is always strategizing how to get everything from others. Only we can be conscious of that and try to change that. So we should constantly look for this. For example: when we chant we are chanting unmotivated not for any appreciation. The body is meant for us to use the body to transcend the body. The body is a true reflection of what is going on in the mind. Ego is tricky as it can project other things. When pleasure or pain arises in the false ego we can feel it, but we need to acknowledge it and know that ok it’s me who is generating this pleasure or pain based on the interpretation or perception and we need to see it and then try to connect it to the higher consciousness and even while chanting we should not reinforce this false ego of we are the body, remember we are the soul and hence the chanting should be concentrated on the soul otherwise when water is put not on the water but on the side, then only weeds will grow and the real plant won’t grow. If we keep doing this, we keep reinforcing this material worldly experiences.

Sound>perception>interpretation> feeling>reaction (Karma at the best/Maya at the best): This is how the false ego works. These impressions we have gathered all our lives (or even previous lives) is what keeps reinforcing impressions again and again. The spiritual master, helps us remove these impressions but once he opens our eyes, it’s upto us to keep our eyes open and not close them again. He gives you the torch, we need to hold it and shine the light.

We need to see it and then let it go – that is real freedom that then shows that we are this divine consciousness and not this material body. It is the same compared to everyone and as everyone is a spirit soul nobody is better or worse than us, that is the real security, safety – after all we are all the same spirit soul which is a speck of dust at the lotus feet of the lord.

Iso verse 11 = We should see not only what we are but simultaneously we should see what we are not. Just be yourself : Don’t live in this imaginary world. Sanga is a place where we are true and are able to confide in other devotees of our issues and confessions then we can look at our problems as it brings it in our consciousness and then we can do something about it. Feel free to expose yourself in a sanga and then you can make progress in working on our anarthas. If you want to change the world, change yourself first! Find devotees to whom you can reveal your heart!

Try to get close to devotees so you can be authentic and real and be very honest and create that sanga with devotees = swim together, cook together, work together, do service together.

Do things authentically and not mechanically – everything we do. Do it with authenticity without any expectation of praise from anybody.

Siddha Bakul

Class by HG Satyadeva Prabhu:

What is Japa? Ja = Birth, Pa = Sin; In BG, K says of sacrifice, I’m japa. Here we pray to Srila Haridas Thakur that he allows us to chant very purely today and everyday. Need attention. (Intention, Attention and Retention); As soon as you give attention completely to someone for even 5 mins, we can feel and at the same time when someone doesn’t get attention even for 2 mins, they can easily feel that. Chant K’s name means to chant with attention and reverence. All we need to do is just sit down chant and HEAR!

What does just hearing mean? Hearing me I’m here and listening to the Holy Name. To stay here is to be aware of the presence to focus more on the awareness of your presence. Focus on where you are and automatically you will be able to focus on where you are. You can then feel that your life is because of K and then you can chant the Holy Name very nicely. To feel your presence you need your body. It’s a very simple thing but very profound. We have to be very self aware. We have to notice our life in this moment. When we notice our life then we can watch sensations and we will have constant sense of awareness. Then we won’t be tired when we chant.

Difference b/n mind and self .. Mind is just thoughts that we think that we can understand ourselves without thinking. We have to understand we are the watcher. When we put our attention we become conscious. For example think of your right hand – can you feel it now?

Can you feel your right hand yesterday? You can have a memory of how your hand felt like yesterday but you can’t really find it. You can really discover yourself in the present. The present is the consciousness. You can’t also feel your right hand tomorrow. It’s just an image it’s not real. We should be very conscious of what we want to think of.

Spend more time in the reality. Before we chant become aware of your life, life in this moment. Concentrate on the region of your heart, remember you are the spirit soul, a speck at the lotus feet of Krsna. This body is given by K, this life is given by K for us to realize him, a medium through which we can clean the covering of our soul. As soon as we are connected, we realize K has given us everything and then we should chant with gratitude, K loves us, He has given us. Sometimes Satyadeva prabhu thinks, we are just outside Goloka Vrindavan door and I’m standing there, chanting His holy name and I still have some more effort to do and as soon as we are ready K will open the door and take me in. When we remember all the problems aren’t real, we don’t identify with them then we aren’t attached and then we can chant very purely. We are really all the same, we are not greater or smaller than anyone. We are all the soul. When we start identifying with our body, that’s when we get the false ego and start chanting inattentively.

Also can chant with Tulsi devi and give her full attention when chanting.

Class by Gurudeva:

To maintain anything over a long period of time is difficult, because there are waves of change, waves of desire and to have a steady practice we need to have the desire to come back to it at every moment and we might feel displaced or changed. The practice of chanting is effective only when we do it throughout our duration of life.

Different processes of chanting given by acaryas. Uddhav Gita – If someone studies the mantra, then the mind tends to come back to the mantra. There are many beautiful statements written by the acaryas, Rupa Gosvami – Nikhilaja….if you take all the vedas together, Upanishads etc, if you see what they are all doing, they are all worshipping the tips of the toes of K. There is nothing to be had in the 14 worlds than the Holy Name. This is very nice to remember when we chant the Holy Name, remembering this is the most valuable in the 14 worlds. BVT is saying definitely there is nothing else to be had. Everything is available in the Holy Name and nothing else is required. He says Holy Name takes him by his hand and then introduces him to the most beloved in the entire universe. You don’t have to go anywhere, do anything just focus on Holy Name. This is what the liberated souls are doing, others are doing something else. Therefore I surrender to the Holy Name BVT says. Very imp to determine our sankalpa before we start doing our chanting. Fixed sankalpa why are we chanting – making our intention why we are doing this to our mind will help us to chant very purely.

Thakur Haridas gave many glories of the Holy Name:

1. Self effulgent as the sun, but it gets covered due to my clouds and mists of material coverings:

a. Coverings are – avidya : mistaking the body to be the self. State of the self currently is like a dream within a dream. Jayata sango pumsam – Always contemplating what is there something for me, then I am attached and there is a sanga, it’s anything which I want to connect with it and then it becomes my attachment, my problem. Ex – I need to check something online and then hours later I realize, Oh I didn’t do my japa. Smart people don’t do that, as they will be disappointed again and again.

b. Cloud or mist which covers the holy Name is an aparadha – Things which are against worship.

c. Offenses to the Holy Name, devotees and the deities.

d. Offending other living entities is also an offense.

e. Train your eye to spot your offenses and then deliberately try to avoid committing those offenses.

f. Various levels of chanting – offensive chanting, clearing state (Trying to avoid committing offenses when trying to chant – this is nama bhas – effect of the Holy Name is there but still not pure. Even if I can’t see the holy name there are clouds but there is still some effect but not the entire effect ex- how Maharaj went to Ratha Yatra without a hat) and then pure chanting.

g. Low level nama bhas – some how you hear the Holy Name and you say it

h. High level nama bhas – even though I don’t have faith, I have studied it from people I trust and when you chant with Shraddha nama bhas you will definitely come to the pure chanting stage. When you chant, it is very important to hear about my relationship with K – read BG, SB, SO chant and hear at the same time.

i. When we chant, remember rays are coming through but if I lean in and hear attentively then by the mercy of the Holy Name I will get the benefit.

j. Great search of Sincerity – Find your own sincerity when I’m chanting. Find it within your heart. Pray to K, I know I had it but I’ve just lost it somewhere and I need your help to find sincerity.

Listening is very important – The 3 Ps to help this:

k. Posture - First item for good listening is to sit up straight (Posture)

l. Pronunciation - record your chanting and then hearing it will tell me if I’m chanting correctly or not.

m. Prayer – The best ex is what SP has given is cry like a baby for it’s mother. Always pray oh K I’m LOST, Really lost in this material world, I surrender, please save me. Pray to K, K I need help

n. This mantra as we are lost in the bottom of the material world is like the ping (like the black box transponder of an aircraft) which is going back to K. If you want to be picked up when you are lost, keep the SOS signal going which is the Holy Name.

o. Ten = is to stretch like a tendon. So, we need to stretch like Intention, Attention and Retention.

Class by HG Madhavananda Pr:

Rama naam laadhua Krsna naam ghi

Hari Naam khanda Kheera gori gori pi

In Nawadeep mahatmya BVT has shared that Haridas Thakur is brahma. He did an offense = kidnap. He kidnapped K’s dear friends. (Side note – it is interesting that all the gopis in braj got married then). Brahmaji said I keep getting this feeling that I’m the owner of everything so K please help me take birth in a lowly family – so hence he came down as Haridas Thakur a low family.

Ami to adama….tumhi patita pavan:- we should perform honest bhajan, same way Haridas Thakur performed that bhajan. Brahma installed the deities in Puri but when he came down as Haridas Thakur he was forbidden to come inside the temple. Haridas Thakur never had the attitude of entitlement, he just accepted whatever K gave him. K gave him a bhajan kutir under the Siddha Bakul tree and he could see the mandir’s chakra from here and Mahaprabhu used to come to visit him.

One day they gave him the tooth brush of Jagannatha and Haridas Thakur planted it and it started to grow, because he knew it being an associate of Krsna will grow and it is still growing. It is the last living associate of Mahaprabhu.

Whatever you pray in front of the Siddha Bhakul will come true, say a prayer for everyone who couldn’t come.

Mystery of 1^st initation:

Our mind will go where there is a feeling in our heart. We can control our mind through our heart. Atma kandana – crying of the soul. Process of chanting the Holy Name and that is the mystery of the 1^st initiation. Gurudeva gave me nama shresta. Hence we need to chant with affection, best way to control our mind and to fix our mind on the Holy Name. Before initiation also we have been chanting the Holy Name, Lord Mahaprabhu already gave it to everyone. Great necessity of 1^st initiation still – A person who says he’s my devotee; We have to chant the Holy Name as a service to our Gurudeva. We are saying the name but now when we serve the servant of K then K says he’s more dear to me. So that’s the first mystery of 1^st initiation. Now we have become the servant of the servant of K and when we chant with attention, K becomes very pleased. We are doing this chanting for him our Gurudeva. Gurudeva now accepts us. Now we have a connection to this person and we are chanting as a service and then K accepts this person.

K naam kirtan is the kirtan of Radha Rani and her associates and Mahaprabhu and her associates. Similar to how when taken caranamrta, water flows from the fingers same way this HK maha sankirtan coming down to us is the mercy trickling down from Radharani and Mahaprabhu. When we render service to our Guru, Vaisnava then some love comes. One of the natures of the Holy name is it gives us bhakti to Gurudeva. When we chant as a service to Gurudev, then it’s natural to cry out. This is our connection to Gurudeva. Chanting is our connection to our Gurudeva to Krishna. This is our umbilical cord through which Gurudeva feeds us. This is our service to our Gurudeva. We want to chant with many many mouths. This is the second step, but first step is – to hear the Holy Name/Krsna katha. It’s a service as it brings pleasure to K and our Gurudeva. When we hear that thing, it goes into the ear and into our heart, then the courtyard of our heart where we contemplate the meaning of the name. When we serve a vaisnava then the mood of the meaing of the name comes into our heart and it conquers all our senses and comes out of our mouths and then we can hear.

This tree was planted by Mahaprabhu. This tree has had association with Mahaprabhu, Nityananda Prabhu, Advaita, Haridas Thakur.

Chant steadily - don’t chant too fast, too slow, too little, too much. One should chant according to their capacity number of rounds they can chant. Srila Sanatana Goswami said - when fixed rounds are completed, we should stop and then we can do other services – but then we have heard Kirtaniya sada Hari. He didn’t say japa He said Kirtan – chanting with counting and chanting without counting. Sankhya kirtan is my service to Gurudeva. Guru is very happy when we chant unlimited. Sanatana Goswami explains after chanting is completely we should engage ourselves in other services. Guru’s seva is very important. Seva will save ya, hence Chant as a seva for Gurudeva. So chant with your Gurudeva everytime, chant with feeling. Cry for your Gurudeva, Gurudeva helps us because when you chant alone we can’t make it. Gurudeva gives us service, it’s not separate from naam. From chanting naam we got service, Oh K Oh Radha, please give me service and when we get service, the service is naam.

When we chant, we chant for service>when we get service, the service is also to chant to please Gurudeva.

Evening class by Gurudeva:

- Attitude of the practisioner determines the advancement a person can get

- One should always appreciate someone’s service don’t be envious rather approach the person, enquire with a humble attidute render service and the will to progress. Esp. if the devotee is more advanced.

- What is the heart of a pure devotee? He appreciates his ecstatic symptoms as you chant and then your heart melts and then we experience the relationship with K and then we dance as a mad man without caring for others.

- Heart of the pure devotee = rose apple juice

- Find ppl more advanced and then approach them

- Have a submissive attitude and if you enquire and try to learn from a pure devotee

- It’s like we are getting all the association they have had from all the previous acaryas

- There is a transference of all good qualities from the heart

- But if we are envious then we stop progressing.

- Very imp to stop being envious and look for good qualities of people

- Don’t carry grudges, if you do let it go and instead appreciate the person

- I live to be corrected

- Just accept you are a servant of K and then no more dukh or no more envy/grudge

- Then everywhere you go people will appreciate you.

- Just adjust our attitude and definitely it will change our life.