1 Six characteristics of bhakti – Basics of relationships

So That’s the idea. I’ll repeat this in another way. You can see that if this is a person so most of the time, our consciousness is centered on ourselves. So this is self centered consciousness. So most people nowadays have followed So if we care for Krishna, then actually we connect with others at a deeper level.

So when our consciousness doesn’t just arise, So So He’s happy. He’s happy that they’re down to him. In fact, he says that because this was 718 and explained the person in the second. It’s placing. Her love for him, not his love for her.

That she wants to be with him. That’s why she’s accepting his purpose. Later on, even if this boy’s situation improves, he has other options, And that time, he still stays with that girl. That will show his love further. Yeah.

So similarly, when we come to Krishna, many times he do, Pranjali say, you But, in But later on, when other things start seem to work for us, that, okay, our maybe our health is not already recovered, our health we lost our wealth, our relationships are not working, job is an issue. Those problems get solved. So, in that sense and now, I’m talking about the difference between say devotional service and pure emotional service. So, devotional service means that we come to Krishna, but we may come to Krishna for our interests. And, if those interests are fulfilled fine, then we may not there are 3 broad factors in existence.

There are b, the soul, then there is the world, and then there is Krishna. So for us in the we could say when we are largely materialistic we will practicing bhakti, but we are materialistic at that time the world is very big for us and Krishna is small. That means, oh I want fame, I want wealth, I want power. That’s what is more important and if God can help me to get that, that’s what that’s good and good for us. So, God is not very important for us.

But, when we become devoted to Krishna, then the dynamic change. The world becomes small and Krishna becomes big for us. So this is the stage of where you’re going towards your habitual service. This that Krishna becomes the bigger reality. We see this in the songs of the Vaishnavacharya’s where they so they say that some where there’s prosperity or adversity.

So that is the level of realization where we can practice pure root resistance. Now what does it mean when you say Krishna becomes the bigger reality? It is it it does our priority. How important do we consider Krishna? Krishna is always the biggest reality, and Krishna even showed Duryodhan.

His wish group how he is the biggest reality. And what happened to the then? Nothing. It’s amazing how the mind can come up with the reasons to continue to believe what we want to do. So when later on, Buddha was reminded Krishna is God.

Krishna showed the Vishwa. Did you see that? I did not have so much responsibility as a prince while growing up, I could also have done the first human, I could have shown a mom bigger than Krishna’s. So, he did even after seeing that form Krishna did not become the bigger reality. So, it is in terms of our triadicalization.

So, we want Krishna to become the bigger reality for us. And, it’s not just that, there’s one more difference. It is that initially for us, Krishna is the means and the world is the ends. That means, I worship Krishna so that I can get good marks in the exam, so that I can, get a better a better good life partner, so that I help them all those things. Now, again this is not a bad thing.

It is good that we are worshiping Krishna for whatever it is, but it is not the best. If a devotee has some ability the devotee will try to find how can I use this ability to serve Krishna? So, in this way the dynamic changes. So, when we are talking about pure devotional service, what does it mean? It means from what we discussed?

Three things that pure devotional service means our relationship with Krishna is it is not transactional, it is transformational. And, the third is that Krishna becomes the ends for us. And, the world is not just a means, but it is a means, okay, whatever we get from the world that is okay. So, Sudhama, even when we had had very little, he brought some just broken rights to what to offer the Lord. So, whatever means he to offer the Lord.

So whatever means he had, he said, let me make some offer to him. So this is the idea of pure emotional service. Now, why should we actually at all practice pure consciousness? So, when we talk about any relationship, so, did you not talk about what does this relationship mean? Now we may we all may have different reasons.

Say, if you want to build a relationship with someone, you want to build a good relationship with our boss. Is it okay then your boss, my job will be secured, maybe I need promoted. So when we say that we’re talking about pure devotion service. So understanding the glory of pure devotion service can inspire us to practice pure truths. So when we start about pure devotion service, there are two ways of understanding this that are other characteristics.

What does it mean that these are these are what can inspire us? These can inspire us to practice pure devotion service. But secondly it can it be aspire toward those things. That means if your motion service means that, oh, this actually attracts Krishna also. Therefore, I aspire to come to the level of unity by which Krishna becomes a character.

It’s almost like inspiration is something that comes to us. Aspiration is something that we cultivate. Like, I aspire for something. I am inspired by something. So, there is a slight difference between them, but it is not a major difference.

So, at this point are there any questions? Because I would like to clarify the concept of pure emotion surface before we go into its characteristics. Are there any questions at this point? Okay. I just like to know how many questions are there.

Then I decide how many moments. 1, 2. Okay. Okay. So I’ll just introduce the practice of your database.

We’ll take 1 or 2, and then we’ll have a system. So should we go to 10:30 or 10:5? So I was I’ll talk about the details more details more. So now the characteristics of your emotions are less are often described. If we have like a flower, they are described in terms of sets of patterns.

So these coming sets of 2 to each. So the first two, does anyone remember this? Do you know the 6 characteristics? Yeah. So claysh vin.

Claysh vin means remover removes stress, Then Shubhada. Shubhada is it brings auspiciousness. So, I will explain why these come in this kind of sets, they are considered like a couplet. So, it removes the stress, it brings auspiciousness in other. This is more in terms of this this set is it it it is more in terms of effect on us.

How it affects us? So, that that is it will remove stress from our life, it will bring auspiciousness. Now, there is slight difference between auspiciousness and happiness we will talk about the difference it is similar but not exactly the same. Then what are the next two characteristics? So means it makes liberation seem insignificant.

Generally, in the for those who are who know something about spirituality for them moksha is considered to be life’s highest goal. So bad, a t especially pure total service is so glorious So it makes it itself small. So here, it is more in terms of the this is the, it is more like the nature of bhakt itself. 1 is its effect on us but these 2 is more of that a is such that it makes something else which is glorious seem not so glorious. So, that is motion is 2 and what are they last 2?

Akashree. So I’ll explain this. These are concentrated bliss. So, we’ll focus more on these last two characteristics. We’ll talk briefly, but we’ll focus primarily on the first two characteristics because those are what are related with us.

So these 6 characteristics, it’s it’s the way this is described, it’s very interesting description that it’s like, it’s not just the characteristic of Krishna, it’s not the characteristic of the soul, it is the characteristic of the relationship itself. Normally, we don’t think of a relationship as something different from the people in the relationship. It’s like, you say I have a good relationship with that person. If you think I have a good relationship with him, that means you are in a good illusion. So the idea is we think we don’t think of relationship itself having any characteristics.

It’s like when I say I have a good relationship, what it means is that that person’s disposition towards me is good, my disposition toward that person is good. We don’t think of relationship itself generally speaking as having some characteristics to itself. We think of the people in the relationship and what kind of disposition they have. So if there are 2 people in any kind of relationship, so then what does it mean to say the characteristics of the relationship itself? So, here the idea is that it certainly depends on the cookie cutter in any relationship, Now, there are many different relationship in the world, but one characteristic of the parent child relationship is that it brings a sense of responsibility.

You can say responsibility in every relationship, but in the So for example, there is in the western world, nowadays, there is a lot of, intermixing among the genders. Every culture has had some gender boundaries, but what exactly the gender boundaries will be that g has changed with the passing of culture. So, now, often people ask this question, can a man and a woman be friends? So, what is the difference between say a friendly relationship and a romantic relationship? Now, there is in the male female dynamic, there is something intrinsic to the relationship.

Now, we can say yes, a man and woman can be friends. They don’t have to be friends. In that, in friendship it is more like the 2 people share an interest. It is like generally the vision of friendship is 2 people are together looking at something whereas, in a romance they are each other’s interest. So, like, the romance means 2 people are looking at each other.

So, what happened now in friendship it doesn’t mean that we are not interested in other person, but generally friendship okay, you know, we like sports, we are interested in politics, we would like to lose this service. So we have some shared interests and from that, we also become interested in, but the primary thing is in friendship is that there’s something to talk about, something some shared interest. So, but whereas, so that’s why a romantic relationship friendly relationship differences and we can have many friends, but a romantic relationship becomes more exclusive. The idea is that again, what my what I’m talking about over here is that relationships themselves have certain intrinsic characteristics. So, so similarly, the relationship with Krishna also has certain intrinsic characteristics and those characteristics, the more we understand and appreciate them, the more we can become inspired and transformed with it.

So, now what those characteristics are and how we can better understand them that I will discuss in tomorrow’s session. We will be having this 4 part series tomorrow morning and then Monday Tuesday evenings. So is that Sunday, Monday evening? Yeah. Sorry.

Morning. Sunday, Monday morning. So tomorrow all for morning to you? Tomorrow morning. Today, I’m talking in a topic of the characteristics of your mobile service.

I I talked about first what is pure mobile service, the concept of your mobile service. So first, we discussed about how that the relationship itself, it can be the transaction of transformation. So we discussed how for most people, say, the relationship initially might be self centered. And from being self centered, it grows towards we start caring for someone else. That’s like the more like a horizontal expansion of consciousness.

But as we grow, we don’t just care for others. We also start caring for Krishna. And then, when that happens, it like a holistic expansion of consciousness. So, it is horizontal and vertical both. So, this is where we start connecting with Krishna.

So, we talked about the sequence from 12.8 to 12.11, the arcs we discuss what is this arcs? Do you remember this? Aspenish did not aspenish what is it? Absorbs. Absorbs Shiva that the highest level is absorbed Krishna Otherwise, we try to remember Krishna.

So recollection and repetition of the recollection. And otherwise at least cultivate some selflessness that means, at some level something for something beyond our we do something for someone beyond ourselves. See nowadays there is lot of environment like there is a is there or there is concern for social justice people want to be a part of something bigger. So, this is a sequence from 12.8 to 11 krishna dot sum. So we talked about the characteristic of how relationship with such a dynamic.

And then we talked about the Krishna soul relationship. We we talked about metaphors over there. How that the parent child relationship, now Krishna, he’s happy that we come to him for any reason. He’s in 718, he says that he causes Uddhara and that shows Krishna’s love for us. That what whatever reason we come to him, he is happy.

But then the, say, the boy girl relationship or the young that relationship metaphor, that shows that do we want to be with Krishna even when things are working for us? That shows our love for Krishna. So we discussed how initially the world is big and Krishna is small, but eventually for us, the world becomes big and Krishna becomes the world becomes small and Krishna becomes big. And, and through this, we discussed how not just that Krishna becomes initially is the means, but eventually, it becomes the enemies for us. And then lastly, we discussed the idea of the characteristic of relationship itself.

It’s not just character to Not just character to the relationship, but just like a parenting relationship brings responsibility. So a romantic relationship brings a certain level of exclusivity. A friendly relationship has some kind of shared interests. So like that relationship itself can have characteristics, and the 6 characteristics that are intrinsic to the relationship with Krishna itself, we will be discussing over the next sessions. Thank you very much.

He doesn’t need us, but he wants us. You know, we need Krishna, but we don’t want Krishna. That is the situation. See, need means that actually, that person can’t survive. It’s not like that, but They don’t need anyone over there because they have enough food for themselves, but they want to share that food.

So that is Krishna is so complete in himself that he wants to actually share with us. Is when it doesn’t work. But actually, Krishna gives and forgives. We get and forget it. And specifically, in this country, we are trying to practice Krishna consciousness by spreading the message of Krishna.

But somehow the other, he gets stuck into the infinite position where we try to incline towards Krishna, Yes. It was to her life. So the question is that sometimes when we want to connect with Krishna, but when things become very difficult in our situation in life, then then the just her cloth seem to be mystically expanded. And how it happened nobody could understand that. So when she didn’t see Krishna, because her eyes are closed, she called out to Krishna all those emotions will also come.

But there’s a difference between it’s like it is a serious relationship. Sometimes, But both of them we have a very heated discussion about what to do, but underlying that anger is actually a deep connection. They care for each other, they care for their child and that’s when they’re concerned. So, you know, there’s a serious relationship. A serious relationship means that relationship is big enough to improve with negative emotions.

To absorb our anger, to absorb our fear, to absorb our doubts. So it shouldn’t be that because of our fear, our doubts, our anger, our insecurity, it shouldn’t be that we don’t go toward Krishna So as long as what happens is those emotions, they will come and they will go. But underlying that is the steady relation. So sometimes when practicing Bhakti, we feel very happy, sometimes we feel a little unhappy. But that underlying relationship stays steady.

So how do we maintain that faith? I’ll talk about one principle over here. So first first point I have is that emotion going up and down is as natural. But at that time when we talk about faith, faith is ultimately a matter of choice. In our life, there are things that can strengthen our faith, and there are things that can weaken our faith.

So, we can think of time is when by our practice of bhakti, things have worked out positive universe. We have to say bhakti things have worked out positive and we can think of time when things have not worked out positive. So the nature of this world is that it is a place where sometimes the evidence of the world will support our way, sometimes the evidence of the world will not support. So ultimately, it becomes a choice of the evidence. Which evidence will I focus on?

Now you see and then how do I make sense of the times when, say, my faith was not supported? And required some philosophy to understand. But if we shift our focus, it’s a matter of choice. What do I dwell on? Then it is up to us to that’s how we can maintain our feet.

And those who can help us make their choice when we have our association and the association also some new notice if some new notice feeling I’m feeling very Yes. Regarding this, aspiration. So that aspiration comes from the faith and love for the practice. Where does the aspiration come from? That is very difficult.

So where does Brahma Jigyasa come from? It’s it’s a difficult question. So in this taking that point further from generic spiritual inquiring to a specific devotional aspiration. So we the same principle applies. So there is, there’s a lot of analysis, but broadly you can say there are human factors and there are divine factors.

So the human fact the divine factors, of course, gurukrupa, grace of mercy. Among the human factors are our past karma. Some people may have practiced some of the outcomes which are in the previous life and that’s why It can be a a lot of breaking. Say, the way our parent is raised us. Of course, can be extended forward, it can also be our association.

So we come in the association of devotees, and then we see the practice in Bhakti that inspires us. And, ultimately, it is our joys. So our upbringing or our past lives karma, even Krishna’s mercy, they can prompt us in particular directions. But it is ultimately our choice. So now if you consider the Kripa, we don’t know when Krishna will be the Kripa.

We can’t conclude that. Our past karma, whatever it is, it is what it is. We can’t do it. Our upbringing also it is what it is. But we can say if you make this as 2 separate factors, our association our association is what we can change, and that can inspire us to change our choices.

So where does the aspiration come from? It depends. So it’s like sometimes it can be an outside in process. Sometimes it can be the inside out. What does it mean outside?

Sometimes it means we act our way to emotions. That means I just come in the association of devotees and they are praying they are doing kirtan. So, I also start doing kirtan then they are offering me I also start offering me And then by that action, the devotions has come. That’s more like outside. Now sometimes it can be inside out.

That means we feel our way to actions. So whichever way that’s why the operational principle at our level is, somehow there. It can be outside in, it can be inside out, whatever way it works. And the aspiration should be only, done for the pleasure of the Lord. So I’m doing it.

So can I understand it, this way? Inspiration and aspiration. Okay. Yeah. That is definitely one way to understand it.

In one sense, you could say that it’s the same principle of desire that inspiration is when the desire comes to us. Aspiration is when we bring the desire from within. So in that sense, there is a slight difference. Now we could go further and when you talk about aspiration, the aspiration can get various levels. The inspiration can also be at various levels.

You say, those who guide people who are the you don’t need much guiding, but people it’s not that for many people who come more than parikarma is like a weight loss exercise. It is, you know, it’s something biased also, but, you know, it’s not very far from Vrindavan. But far from Delhi, so you come to Vrindavan, it’s natural, it’s scenic. And it is some level of exercise. Now, of course, they don’t have, like, a golden, like, from a marathon or something like that.

It’s not that uncommon. But the idea is now people are coming for that reason. So is that a bad thing? Is it a good thing? It’s a good thing.

So the aspiration, maybe they could just go to a gym and they could just, walk on a treadmill, But they can also be at various levels and similar the inspiration can also be at various levels. So, so the inspiration okay my friend he went and did golden barikama or she went and did golden barikama. So, let me also go into it. Now, some of them may have done it out of a more devotional purpose. Some of them may have done it for a more health purpose.

That’s okay. So generally speaking, in spirit that dynamic of inspiration aspiration is independent of the level. So we do want to aspire for pure motor service, and then we seek the inspiration that will give us pure motor service. What happens even in Devotee Association? There are different kinds of devotees.

Some devotees are very interested in gossip. Is it today? There is, you know, when does gossip happen? Gossip in our treasury call it majamba. It’s generally what happens 2 things have come together for gossip to happen.

First is we hear something we like about someone we don’t like. So if we like that person, then we won’t gossip about that. You know, if something bad has happened or So it’s not that devote all devotees come to Krishna consciousness for Krishna consciousness only. It is like the nature of the mind is such that it is always looking for alternatives to Krishna. So even in Krishna consciousness, we start looking for alternatives to Krishna.

So one alternative is a little more tamas it is become in the association and then we start looking for faults, looking for negating those of those that are in association. So, our aspiration and especially we would like them to be more elevated, but it’s a dynamic both. Both are related with the desire how it rises. So thank you so much. Do you have a question?

Yes. Last question. Okay. So when I see the okay. Let’s see if I can explain this in a way you can understand.

First, I’ll confuse you. Okay? See, words have many different meanings. So that’s called the multivalence of what like, in English, the word run has 650 plus meanings. No.

I’m going for a run. I’m running because my car has stopped running. Because this person is running for president, I’m running away from this country. So the word run has different needs. So like that, the word karma also has different needs.

So you are using the word karma in terms of reactions. So reactions to past actions. So, yes, the reactions to past actions can be changed by the way that is that angkams and babi and vouchisham experiences. But karma can also refer to So karma refers to action. So it is a past actions.

So whatever actions we have done in the past, say, if you plan to wake up at 4 o’clock, but we go about 6 o’clock. Now, no matter how seriously we challenge Krishna, we can’t wake up at 4 o’clock today. Even that past action cannot be changed. So in that sense I use the word karma about whatever actions we have done in the past they cannot be changed. Like Krishna’s word see the reactions to them can be changed.

Now, karma can also refer to the like we have karma, akarma, vikarma. So like it it refers to good action. Now karma can actually also refer to duty. This actions means any actions. Meanings.

I was you referring to it in this sense, you are referring to it in this sense. Does it make any sense? So, see suppose we make a mistake, say you’re giving an example and you give a wrong answer next. Then the teacher will say that okay, you know you can use the same thing for again next time and you can do better. So now that exam, the wrong answer we have given, we can’t change that.

But we can have a second chance in which you can do better. So, but sometimes if the teacher is not very helpful or whatever you say you get a wrong answer you have lost the chance you cannot do it differently. So, that is if so Krishna is merciful in the sense that if you have done some bad actions and we are going to get some bad reactions, so we are going to lose the chance, but Krishna will use a chance again. So in that sense the reactions to our past karma can be changed, but the action itself once we have done an action nobody can change that action that Krishna has arranged the world in such a way that time flows forward time doesn’t flow backwards. So, once an action is done we can’t undo the action.

So, so we’re going to go through this, flow, with this lecture and the coming few lectures with, Brody. And, thank you very much, Prabhuchi, for, how should I say? Generally, for people who are practicing Krishna consciousness, it’s mostly to do with, with reading on the surface of what the scriptures say and then somehow making some connections here and there. And then somehow making some connections here and there. But, the way Prabhu presents the Krishna conscious philosophy is that he he makes the connection to what Krishna speaks in the deepest so deeply that, there’s very little room for us to miss the point.

So thank you, Prabhu, for bringing us closer to the teachings of Krishna, which which actually means bringing us closer to Krishna. And So we will, so we will have the next session in the series, tomorrow at 10 o’clock. What have we announced? 10 o’clock, same venue. We request all of you to She’s a new navigator.

So Thankyou very much…