The bhakti journey 2 – Sraddha & Sadhu-sanga Durga puja youth camp Newtown Kolkata

And by that, we start moving forward. And the next thing that is agenda. So that is the stage we’ll discuss today. And depending on the availability of time, what are the next thing after that? And after we put this is where we start experiencing some transformation.

So here, it is curiosity. But from curiosity, we come to commitment. So, what is clear is the stage of commitment to. They hear about some treatment and we need some people who had the treatment and they come to the doctor. And then we could, okay, we can try obviously that treatment generally involves any kind of treatment.

It involves 2 broad things. The specifics name maybe, there are there is one prescribed, and then what is prescribed. So prescribed is use, prescribed is. So the idea that somebody has a disease, then the medicine that make you all the disease, we say yes to that. And the things that aggravate the disease, we say no to that.

So that could be there are people say dos and don’ts. That’s involved in anything. So agenda clear also involves this. Now it’s interesting each other don’ts over here already. Like, what is?

Unconveniently also in one sense, the don’t and also in one sense, isn’t it? But there’s a difference. There is you could say a difference between determination and transformation. The donation is like, if you consider this to be a it’s not a downgrade. There’s a particular event.

But you can just check it. So, if we consider the difference between determination. And transformation, so it was a one sense determination. Is to bring about the transformation. Determination is the change is not happen, but I have decided to change.

Transformation is where the change has actually happened. So determination involves the idea that there is opposition, but we are overpowering the opposition. The determination means, okay, I’m determined to wake up in the morning. I don’t feel like waking up, but I’m determined. But say if we do it for 1 month, we do it for 6 months, we regulate our life so that we are sleeping by 10 o’clock, then 4 o’clock, naturally, we start waking up.

Then transformation means that in one sense, there is no need for determination or rather the need for determination becomes substantially lesser. It just become a habit for me. That’s what I do. So so in one sense, determination leads to purification, and purification will bring about the transformation. So we want so here, an bhajana kriya is the determination to practice.

By that, the will happen, and then the transformation is the Nishtha stage where we have seen the transformation and we have ourselves. Yeah. This thing works for me. So now bhajana kriya, what does it involve? In general, see, there are timeless principles.

And then we don’t we never live in a timeless world. We live at particular times. So there are timely applications of those principles. So those timely applications may vary according to time. Say, for example, we should study about Krishna.

We should hear about Krishna. We should associate with devotees. So part of the sadhu sangha, part of associating with devotees is we hear about Krishna and the association of devotees. Now this is a timeless principle. But say when the pandemic happened, that was a particular time.

Now if somebody says, I won’t hear a class on Zoom unless you give me a from Shastra, that hearing from Zoom will also purify you. Now will we get a from Shastra specifically for that? No. Shastra was written at a particular time. Maybe Zoom was not there at that time.

So the Internet was not there, so then that particular application may not be required. And that’s why that may not be in the context. Then like that, if you want to look for a, you can say, where is the that you speak from a loudspeaker? Isn’t it? Use a mic and amplifier.

Where is that? Swami had no sound system. So the application will vary. So there are timeless principles, and there are timely applications. So for example, Rupa Goswami may say as a part of bhajanakriya, he said we should live in Vrindavan.

Live in Vrindavan. Now at that time, the Goswamis themselves, they changed their life so that they could go and live in Vrindavan. Now is that possible necessary for for everyone? Not necessarily possible. But Prabhupad himself was in Vrindavan, but Prabhupad left Vrindavan.

So the idea is Vrindavan is both a geographical place, but Vrindavan is also a place that has a particular consciousness. And we try as much to create a similar consciousness. So we have a temple. We come to a temple regularly. Then we try to make our home or the place where we stay into a temple.

So that way, we try to apply that. So we try to live in. So the application will vary. If we start taking the literal application at all times everywhere, then most of scripture will become inapplicable. Isn’t it?

So, therefore, there are timeless principles, and there are timely applications of those principles. So there there are 2 opposite kind of statements of Srila Prabhupada. So Prabhupada often is known to say that I’m like a postman. I simply give the message. I didn’t change anything at all.

You heard the statement? So many times Prabhupad says this. Now there is an nectar of devotion, Bhakti Samad. Prabhupad gave a series of lectures in on that. And and there there is a verse.

Somehow or the other, fix the mind on Krishna. And while explaining this verse, Prabhupada says, I have practically invented the entire Krishna consciousness movement. Now now invented what does it mean? Prabhupada specifically uses the word invented. Invent discovery at least when that was there, I discovered.

Invented means I came up with it. So now how do we put these two principles together? Said, I didn’t change anything, and I have practically invented the Krishna conscious in this moment. So what is implying over there? He says that it is not enough for the spiritual master to simply give an instruction to the disciple.

Somehow or rather fix the mind on Krishna. He says it is the spiritual master’s responsibility to come up with ways and means by which the disciple can fix the mind on Krishna. And he’s saying that is what I have come up with. So, for example, going out on the streets and doing distribution of books. Now this was not done so much in the past.

Yes. The principle was that the those who are saintly, those who are spiritually minded, they should associate with materially minded people in some way and give them some spirituality. In the past, it was Bhiksha. They people would go and ask for Bhiksha. And those people, now they might just be thought to beggars.

That’s the English word was mendicants, and Bhiksha is not actually begging. Bhiksha is, like, a spiritual person who when they ask for some help, is actually the giver is helping themselves by giving that help. So it’s a very different dynamic. But that understanding was not there so much in the western culture. Now Christianity, for various reasons, didn’t have a very prominent monastic tradition.

Although Catholics have monks, but the monks were always very few. And there were desert fathers long, long ago in the 3rd, 4th century. But apart from that, there are not that many Christian priests. So the idea of going out and asking for alms was not then the Christian tradition. The Islamic tradition doesn’t have monks at all.

So that’s why this is unfamiliar. Judaism also doesn’t have monks so much. Although all traditions talk about regulating the sexual energy, but the specific monkhood was not there so much. So it is utterly unfamiliar. So Prabhupada said that if you go and distribute books so that’s the way how to fix the mind in Krishna.

Now started the. The is the time download festival, but to do it in the streets of the western world. And, see, for many of the western people, the the counter cultural aspects of Krishna consciousness was was was what attracted them. See, culture means that is the way people we do things. See, culture and tradition has similarity and difference in it.

Culture is this is what we do. Tradition is this is what we have done. So culture is more associated with the present. Tradition is more associated with the past. And both can be, sources of guidance or guidelines for how we behave.

Now you can say culture keeps changing. In India, there is India’s traditional culture. There is Bollywood culture, which has become a tradition of its own. Although that is a deviation from tradition many ways. Then there is western culture, which is its own way of doing things.

Cultures can change, and cultures can conflict with each other also. But there is counterculture. Counterculture is you do the opposite of what people in general are doing. And so the the the people who are following, they’re a part of the counterculture. And the counterculture was a huge moment.

And there are many intelligent people also, thoughtful people who are spiritual seekers in counterculture. Now among them, the most visible people were the hippies. The hippies were not very large in number, but they were very visible. So, anyway, the point that happened was the counterculture people like to do things opposite to the way mainstream people would do things. And many aspects of bhakti culture were very, very strange for them.

Even now, people encounter the bhakti culture. I was in Australia, and I my class was going to start. There was a aarti going on. And then while Aarti was going on behind, I was talking with a Australian lady. She’s in middle age 4050 505060.

And I was talking. And then she said, can I ask you a question? So the Aarti had gone over. So there does was going on. She said, okay.

Yes. He says, when you when that conch is blown, why does everyone kiss the floor? So from our perspective, okay, you know, they have no idea of. So if your head is going down, they can sing the floor. So many aspects of culture, they just can’t understand.

So when devotees young devotees wear wear and sarees. Now in general, for women, there is a greater license. They can wear many different things in the name of fashion. But for men, there is a certain level of expectation of conformity. There’s one devotee.

He said, my first time I saw a dhoti, I thought it was a giant diaper. So for them, many aspects of the culture are very difficult to figure out. So now when Prabhupada said, let us go out and dance, the hippies also like to do crazy things. And among all the far out things you do, going out and dancing on the streets. Now that was really far out.

But then when they said this is an ancient Indian festival, and they couldn’t imagine that now they were dancing on the street streets. Previously, if they would dance on the streets, police would come and arrest them. Now the police were escorting them. So the point was this thing, doing on the streets of America and using a flatbed truck as the chariot for. This is something which Prabhupad came up with.

So this is his invention. So the invention is not, like, coming up with anything new. How the principle can be applied. That is what Prabhupada is saying, that this is what I have invented. So there are timeless principles, and there are timely applications.

And the applications need to be they need needs to come up with those applications according to time, place, circumstance. So, anyway, when I’m talking about this bhajanna Kriya, this is where the how that bhajanna Kriya is to be done. That is something which one has to consider the time, place, circumstance first. That the principle is that in bhajana kriya said there are do’s and don’ts. What is the the do and what is the don’t?

We remember we talked about that for mind manager, there’s abhyasa and vairag. So what does abhyasa mean? What does vairag mean? Yesterday, I used two words for that. Remember?

Abhyasa was practice or what are the vairagya was? Attachment. Detachment. But what are the we used 2 words yesterday. Dist Distance.

Distance means we try to create a distance between us and our mind. And abhyas was diligence. Diligence is do the same thing repeatedly again and again and again. Now another way to understand the same principle would be that abhyas is to create sorry. Vairag is to create boundaries.

And diligence is to create bonds. So in bhakti, what do we want to do? We want to create bonds with Krishna and we want to create boundaries with Maya. So in this journey where for us, the world is very big and Krishna is very Krishna is relatively small. From there, if we are to go here where the world becomes small and Krishna becomes big.

How is this going to happen? We need to create a boundary. Because if there are no boundaries, then the world will be what we will be repeatedly exposed to. And if it that’s what we keep getting exposed to. That’s what will stay big in our consciousness.

Say, if somebody used to watch a lot of TV. And if they’re watching a lot of TV, then if that is what they’re attached to and if they just keep watching TV every day every day every day, then the TV will become more and more important. Isn’t it? See, sometimes the new TV series starts. You know, when 25 years ago, like, once a week.

Now there are so many channels. Some of that the the program is there every day. And every day, people look forward. 1 hour, I’m going to spend on this. And then sometimes what happens?

That becomes the most important part of the day for them. In the past, entertainment was a break from life. Now life is a break from entertainment. Isn’t it? Life is something you get over with so that you can come in front of TV and watch the TV.

So if we keep exposing ourselves to it, then it will it’s not gonna stay big. It’ll become bigger and bigger and bigger. But if we regulate our exposure to it, that’s we create a boundary. Then gradually, it will not be that important for us. Its importance will go down.

Conversely, when we create a bond so what do I mean by bond and boundary? So boundary essentially means in this context, there is regulated exposure. Regulated means we are controlling it. You remember we reduce to remove. That is the idea of purification.

So we regulate the exposure. We keep it regulated in the sense that we keep it limited. On the other hand, bond means there is we make it regular exposure. So regular versus regulated. So regular.

Say, for example, I decide, every day, I’m going to hear one their Bhagavatam class. So even if it’s a half an hour, 30 minutes, 40 minutes, 1 hour, I’m every day, I’m going to hear this. So Prabhupada also says in his Bengali rendition of the, Bhagavatam verses, which we discussed today morning. So the the He says This is non different from you, Krishna. And if we hear it regularly, what will happen is A person will become sober.

Sober means many things. One aspect of it is that the world which seems so big for us will realize, hey. That’s not that big. It’s manageable. I don’t have to become so exposed to it.

So, basically, bhajana kriya involves these two things, the bonds and the boundaries. So, for example, when we take Diksha, what are the bonds and the boundaries? Yeah. Chanting a particular number found that is the bond. And then what are the boundary?

Yes. The four regular principles is the boundary. So now we can say these are the basic level of bonds and boundaries. Now beyond that, there could be some other boundaries also, and there could be some other bonds also. But the idea is there’s a basic level of bonds and boundaries by which the bhajana kriya is done.

And in general, whatever it is that we expose our mind to, that grows bigger in our mind. This is a general this psychological principle. Nowadays, people say that we are living in the word they use is attention economy. What that means is that the whole economy runs on the principle of catching people’s attention. If you can catch people’s attention, then people see our product, then they get the desire for the product, and then they will take the product.

So it’s all about catching people’s attention. So it’s attention economy. And what that means is you could say this is a psychological principle. This is this. Whatever gets our attention whatever gets our attention gets us.

Whatever gets our attention gets us. So it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’ll get us immediately, but it will get us. If somebody catches our attention, that is the first step. And then from there, we will be pulled in that direction. So if you look at an ad, catches our attention.

Hey. What is this? Say maybe there’s some new clothing brand is there. And then next time you go to buy clothes, you’ll remember, oh, do you have clothes from this brand also? And if that brand is a big name, the cloth might be or the clothes might not be special.

But it’s the brand. Because of that, people spend a lot of money for it. So the idea is we are ready to spend the money because that has got our attention. Whatever gets our attention gets us. So that thing becomes bigger and bigger and bigger in our consciousness.

Now with respect to media, sometimes that which is small can be made a bit by big by propagand. However, with respect to Krishna consciousness, it’s not that we are trying to make Krishna big. Krishna is already big, but in our consciousness, he’s small. So it is not so much propagation as it is education. That which it is not that we are trying to make Krishna big, but rather we are making ourselves aware.

We are making ourselves educated so that we realize that Krishna is the biggest reality. So that’s why while this in a negative sense can be used for propagation, any issue can be made very big. You know, one of my friends in journalism, he says that whatever happens does not become news. Whatever is reported becomes news. I know.

Sometimes the big things may happen, but if there’s a media blackout and nobody reports it, then it may never become news also. Mhmm. Like I said, recently, the atrocities in Bangladesh against Hindus. Now if the so alternative media had not been there, if, say, the only the mainstream media had been there, the mainstream media hardly reported anything. Because eventually, in the alternate media, when WhatsApp messages started coming up, social media people started posting.

And then when that became big, the mainstream media just couldn’t neglect it. And then they also started reporting it. So the idea is that something may happen. But if that does not catch people’s attention, if it is not brought to their attention, then it’s like as if it didn’t happen only. So there is propagation, but there is also education.

So propagation means something is very small, but it is many made very big by propagation. But education is that it is big, and it is reported. So but both of them require the exposure. So it is for us in bhajana kriya, what are we doing? We are regulating our exposure to Maya, and we are regularizing our exposure to Krishna.

And by these two things, gradually, the world will start becoming smaller for us, and Krishna will start becoming bigger for us. Now what does this mean that the world becomes bigger and Krishna becomes smaller? So it can mean many different things, but essentially, if something is bigger for us, then, like we talked about, there are 2 faculties. There is our buddhi and there is our mana. There is our reason and then there is our emotion.

So at the level of our buddhi, at least with logic, with philosophy, we understand that Krishna matters most. That Krishna is the most significant reality. At least at the level of buddhi, we understand it. Mhmm. Now we say, yeah.

If you believe in God, you will understand God is the most important thing. But no. Not necessarily. Yeah. Like I said, God is there.

He’s there. I’m here. You know? So, you know, maybe he matters there. I matter here.

It becomes like that. We will not immediately understand. So god matters most. That is at the level of we understand that god is the most important person in my life. Now at the level of emotion, we understand Krishna cares most.

That not just god matters most, but I start understanding that Krishna cares for me. So we feel Krishna’s love for us, and therefore, that inspires us to receive it. I care most for Krishna. So, essentially, this Krishna becoming big means we feel that Krishna loves me, Krishna cares for me, and, therefore, I want to love Krishna. I want to care for Krishna.

So both in terms of reason and in terms of emotion, both of these, Krishna becomes bigger for us. And reason and emotion are the two basis for our decision making. So if Krishna is big for someone, what would that mean? That could be seen in their actions. Let’s say, if somebody gets a job, they get a lot of money in the job, but that job involves cow slaughter.

They may not be doing cow slaughter, but they have to do some computer coding for, slaughterhouse. So they’ll be getting a lot of money, but will they take that? No. If Krishna matters for me, now the money matters, but there are things that matter more than money. And although that pays me more, this is something which I won’t do.

So that if Krishna really matters, that will be seen in our actions. So love itself is seen in 2 ways. What we give to our beloved. What the what we give to for our object of love. And then second is what we give up for our beloved.

Both of these show love. Say, if parents love their children, then they may want to their child to have the best education. So even if that school is very expensive, even they give that education to the child. And, say, if in that school, the child can have do a project that will have very good for the career, but that project involves going to another country and international fare has to be provided for that. Then the parent will say, okay.

You know? We had planned to go for this hill station during this vacation, but that is the funds we will use for you. So what we give and what we give up. So same way for us, now when we are trying to practice bhakti, this prescribe and proscribe. What we give to Krishna is, Krishna, if I’m going to do this japa, this much time, everyday I’m going to give to you.

That’s what we give. And what we give up? Okay. Maybe I enjoy eating meat or enjoy doing this, I doing that, but I’m not going to do this for you. For any relationship, this is important.

What we give and what we give up. So when these 2 are seen, then both of these are important. And sometimes what we give may be more important. Sometimes what we give up may be more important. But broadly involves these two things.

Now there are in the Bhakti rasamrut sindhu itself, when bhajana kriya is elaborated, the don’ts are not talked about so much because there is a cultural assumption there that a person who is reading a book like Bhakti rasamrath Sindhu, that that person doesn’t have to be told to give up sinful activities because if a person is doing sinful activity, why would that person be even needing to why would that person be interested in bhakti also? Isn’t it? So in bhakti samura sindhu, the 4 regular principles are not mentioned. Why? Because there, the assumption is this is just basic human culture, and you don’t have to tell people to do these things.

And, like, say, in today’s world, do we have to tell common people don’t murder anyone? What do you mean? You know, if somebody gives us that instruction, we will not feel instructed. We’ll feel insulted. Isn’t it?

Why do you have to tell me such a thing? What kind of person do you think I am that you tell me don’t murder anyone? I said, if you say don’t murder anyone, that makes me feel like I want to murder you. So it’s it’s a redundant instruction. So the boundaries may not be emphasized there because they are not required over there to the audience that he is speaking to.

So he talks about primarily the bonds. And there are many different activities, but there are 64 activities within bhakti or 64 activities that comprise bhakti. And within that broad 64 range, there are few that are prominent. So these few are ways in which we form bonds. What are these?

Does anyone know? Yes. Gurupadasa said the first step, but that’s not exactly a monk. Yeah. Okay.

That is also among the first few steps. Krishna, Diksha, Diksha, Diksha, Diksha, Diksha, Diksha, Diksha, Diksha, Diksha, Diksha, Diksha, Diksha, Diksha, Diksha, Diksha, Diksha, Diksha, Diksha, Diksha, Diksha, Diksha, Diksha, Diksha, Diksha, Diksha, Diksha, Diksha, Diksha, deity worship, yeah, studying the Bhagavatam, bham, and then seva, service of the Vaishnavas. So these are the 5 ways in which bonds can be established. Now, again, I don’t want to go into elaborate glorification of different shastras of each of these limbs. You know, we are trying to understand primarily within the process of Bhakti how this works.

So, essentially, if we consider each of these serves a different aspect of making Krishna bigger in our consciousness. So when we do Vaishnav say let’s look at them 1 by 1. So I earlier also mentioned about how we have various needs. So, basically, when he’s talking about chanting, it is not just japa. It is the holy name.

So you can have japa and both. So now psychologists also assign and analyze. It can be how many different aspects, but these address different aspects of our human needs. If there’s a human being, the association and the service and the association that addresses our social needs. I’ll explain how that happens.

But the social need, dham, it addresses our environmental needs. We need a supportive environment. Then the Bhagavatam, it addresses our intellectual philosophical needs. Now, of course, the Bhagavatam gives Katha, which is nourishing devotion, but there is also philosophy. There is there are lessons over there.

The deity worship in many ways, it addresses our it you could say the the practical aspects of connecting with Krishna. No. When you relate with a person, you wanna do something for that person. So we dress Krishna. We bathe Krishna.

We cook for Krishna. So the personal is a practical in the sense of the personal practical aspect of bhakti that is addressed by, and especially the psych kirtan, it addresses the psychological. Psychological in the sense of the focusing of the mind that immersing the mind specifically through the medium of sound. That is sonic spirituality. The mind is often very attracted by sound.

Like, music can calm the mind like few things. So what is happening is, though there’s kirtan is music. Kirtan is japa. Sorry. The holy name is access to kirtan and japa.

So now this is just a simple analysis. It’s not that in bhagavatam, it’s only the philosophical aspects. You know, Bhagavatam also gives us experience of another world, of how people lived and how people practiced. There also, you may develop a personal connection with the Lord and the devotees. But, basically, these 5 limbs of Bhakti, they 5 key limbs of Bhakti.

In different ways, they make Krishna the bigger reality for us. So, for example, say, if we are working and in our office environment, say, like, if you go to America no. In America, baseball is very big. When devotee told me when he went to America now in India, the word base base means, like, the foundation. Like, what is the basement, or what is the the foundation of?

Base can also mean, like, a base desire or the low desire. So, you know, like, a base. So he said, baseball? I said, what’s wrong with the ball? Why do you call it a baseball?

He just couldn’t understand it. It was actually a game. So so if you go to office and at office, everybody’s talking about baseball. You know, this match happened over there, and this happened like this, that happened like that, that happened like that. Then what will happen?

We will start thinking, you know, I don’t wanna feel left out. So we may also okay. What is this baseball? How is it played? And who are the teams over here?

If everybody is talking about something and everybody treats it as if it’s very important, then we also start treating as important, isn’t it? So when it’s not just associating, so there there there is a if our boss is talking about some subject, then if that boss is in a position of authority, then we’ll also consider the subject at least somewhat important. Isn’t it? So when we come in the association of devotees, we try to serve devotees. Krishna is important for devotees, and Krishna becomes important for us also.

So that mode of service in association ensures that what is big for devotees becomes big for us. See, for devotees says, you know, this food we are cooking, we’re cooking it for Krishna. We’re cooking with extreme caution to make sure that we have the highest quality for this food. Then, oh, really? Yeah.

This is cooking for Krishna. That gravitas. That seriousness comes in us. So that this from the social dimension, something becomes big for us. So the association of devotees is not just, oh, they’re nice people.

You know, they are so sweet. They are so friendly. They’re so polite. I like to be with these people. That’s good.

That’s also better than for no reason I mean, going in associative materialistic people. But in association, Krishna becomes bigger for us. That’s what happens by Vaishnav Seva. When Prabhupad, introduced Jagannath in ISKCON you know where Jagannath appeared in ISKCON first? San Francisco.

So now at that time, Prabhupada had not released. And in the entire, there’s no mention of Jagannath. In the first canto, which was published till then, first canto said there’s no mention of Jagannath. So at that time, in the books, there was no mention of Jagannath. So one devotee, he wrote from San Francisco to Prabhupada.

Prabhupada, I am worshiping the deity very diligently the way you have described, but I have a question. Can I know who is the deity that I’m worshiping? They knew what Krishna, but this is clearly not Krishna. Doesn’t look anything like Krishna. So they said that, you know, for us, the deity was beloved, so we are worshiping.

Prabhupada told us to worship, so we are worshiping. So that was the the their affection for Prabhupada, their desire to serve Prabhupada. So Jagannath became big for them even if they didn’t know who was Jagannath. So that’s how Vaishnava Seva that makes Krishna is big for the devotee, then that that becomes big for us also. So if there is some senior in our class, in our college, you know, that person is good at their study, that person is respected in college, and that person says, you know, okay.

This is coming to give a class, very intelligent devotee. Now if we pass by before meeting that see that boy, that our senior, if we are seeing that in a car, train, or something going by, we would not even notice. There are so many so many sadhus in India. This is also another sadhu. But because somebody whom we respects respects that devotee, so what happens?

We also start respecting that. So the mood the point of Vaishnava is Krishna and things connected with Krishna become bigger for us. Similarly, if you go to a. Now if you go to and if you go to Jagannath Puri, then then Krishna is the center for everyone. If you go to Vrindavan, their people will read as the Radhe Radhe.

Now the rest of the world, Radhe, they will know they will not even know who is Radhe. Many places. Isn’t it? They may know, Rukmini. They may know Sita, but they may know Radhe Rani also much.

So the idea is that is a place where Krishna is the center. So the environment of a place also has a significant impact. Generally, in the material world, we will always feel like when we’re practicing Bhakti, I’m doing something different from the rest of the world. Most of the world is going one direction. I’m going in a different direction.

And, yes, we we want to go in a different direction. We have the courage. We have that conviction. But still, it feels it feel like a lonely path or at least the path less traveled. But when we go to a dham and we see so many people are doing this, and especially there, we may meet some saintly devotees.

We’ve just given up everything for Krishna’s sake and just there’s some time there are devotees. Now some devotees taken a Kshitra Sanya. He says for 40 years, they’ve been just worshiping 1 deity. They’re not even going 1 kilometer away from that deity. And we see such people.

Wow. You know, what must be they they be getting by worshiping the deity? There must be something special over here. And this is also example of association, but it is in a dham. So dham, it creates an entire ambiance where everything becomes everything is centered in Krishna.

So, again, Krishna becomes the bigger reality for us. Now there are, of course, promises given if you go to a dham, your sinful activities will be removed and all that. Now I’m not going in that direction consciously because we are talking about the process by which this purification happens. Similarly, the Bhagavatam, What happens is we hear stories. Now for Prahlad, the entire kingdom was there to be his if he just accepted Hiranyakashipu as the supreme.

And if he didn’t accept that, he was being threatened and insulted and killed. And yet for Prahlad, Vishnu remained the biggest reality. So such examples again show that how devotees treat Krishna as the biggest reality. How Ambrish Maharaj, this giant demon was coming to kill him, and Ambrish Maharaj not even in the least disturbed by it because Krishna was the bigger reality for him. So in this way, in Bhagavatam through narrations of the activities of great devotees, we are reminded of how Krishna is the bigger reality.

And that’s how it’s not just passive hearing. Oh, nice story. I heard the story. It is through the story, Krishna should become the bigger reality for us. Similar, deity worship, what it does is that we may philosophically understand Krishna as a person, but when we tangibly treat Krishna as a person, you know, we do things that we would do for any other person, then that personal bond is established.

So doing regular deity worship creates that sense within us that Krishna is a person, and I need to connect with Krishna as a person. Now similarly with the chanting of the holy names, it is that we could let our mind go in many different directions. But during kirtan, during chanting, and connecting with the holy name, Okay. I just offer my mind to you, Krishna. So so we could go into each of these limbs further, but the principle is what?

We are doing regulated exposure to the things that will make Krishna the bigger reality for us. K? So this is bhajana kriya. Now after bhajana kriya is Anartha Now Anartha has many different aspects to it. So I’ll focus on one particular aspect of an earth and, and tomorrow morning, the various aspects.

So, we will talk about them. I’ll talk about your broader framework for understanding the various stages or various phases of. But right now, since because I’m talking about bonds and boundaries, that I’ll talk about that in one particular aspect. So once if this is, it’s a long phase within it. So within that, there is one phase like that.

There are many different phases, but it’s called Vishaya Sangra. Vishaya is sense objects. Sangra is sangram, fighting. So fighting with the sense objects. So this is one of the prominent challenges for us when we are trying to practice bhakti, that there are certain objects that we are attached to, and the desire for that objects keeps coming up again and again and again.

And that catches us. That drags us down. So among the various aspects of bhakti, this is probably the most challenging. The various aspects of this is among the most challenging. Now means like retirement.

It retires from our life. It goes away. Is the literal word of the meaning anartha is the word artha artha So artha is money. So, like, Bharat karthamantri. So artha can mean money.

It can also mean value. Artha also has meaning. That’s one of the means of artha. So now artha is also purpose. Like purushartha.

The 4 purusharthas are dharma, artha, kama, and moksha. So artha has many different meanings in this sense. So the idea is that for somebody who is sick, the biggest artha is medicine. You know, when the pandemic, somebody may have a lot of money if there’s no oxygen cylinder available. Then what are you going to do?

You know, the price of oxygen cylinders shot up because it was so necessary. So the idea is that artha can refer to that which is a value, that which is meaning, that which is a purpose. Now, artha, we could say it is the opposite of earth, But literally but that that could literal meaning. Literally, the opposite of Earth. But it in terms of philosophy, what it means is philosophically, what it means is that which makes us see Earth in things that have no earth.

That say, for example, alcoholism. That is an. What happens? Alcohol, there’s not much value to it. But somebody sees huge value to it.

It’s the most important thing. Or if you can say anger. Now when anger happens, then we may have cultivated a relationship of 15 years. But 15 minutes, we go on a rant, and you can destroy that relationship, cultivate for 15 years. But when anger what happens?

Anger comes up. What happens is proving that I’m right and you are wrong. That becomes far more important than maintaining the relationship. So now, like, after 5 years, we may remember I quarreled with that person, but I don’t even remember what I quarreled about. He said it only the bad the bad blood remains, but the reason why we quarrel, that is already forgotten.

So trying to prove that I am right and you are wrong, well, it is important to have some importance, but it may not be so important as to risk a relationship. What does become ruin a relationship? That which has no earth or very low earth, anartha makes us see big earth in that. So, again, going back to our diagram, anartha is what makes the small thing appear very big for us. So essentially so is what causes, to go back earlier, the distortion of perception.

When the mind acts as a distorter, it occurs because of the samskaras, which are corresponding with the Anartas. So happens. That means the distortion of our perception goes down. That is the essence of Anartha. When Krishna becomes bigger, how will it happen?

When other things don’t seem so big for us, then Krishna will become bigger for us. Or Krishna will be revealed to be bigger for us. Krishna is naturally big, but he will be revealed to be big when the Anartha goes down. So how do we do this with respect to the sense objects? Now this is subject we’ll talk about in a lot because I said this, fighting with temptations is a major part of.

And when I’m speaking certain things, it is not that I’m purified. I have won the war against temptation. You know, anybody who says that I have won the war against temptation, temptation has already won the war with them. Because that ego has come, and they will fall soon. Pride comes before a fall.

So it’s an ongoing war. But there are certain weapons which as we keep fighting a war, we understand these are the weapons that can work. But still we have to use the weapons to actually fight. So I’ll talk about primarily at this stage, we’ll talk about boundaries. So purification is the process.

It takes time. Now while this process is happening, we can use certain support systems. So determination is important, but, you know, determination the problem with determination is twofold. We all need determination, but one problem is it is finite. We don’t have infinite determination.

We are finite beings. And after some time, you know, say if we are dealing with 10 difficult people and each person gets on our nerves, each person makes a like, I wanna I wanna yell at this person. Now maybe 9 people, we contain ourselves. But the 10th person comes and makes an unreasonable request. He just they make an unreasonable request, and what happens is there’s a unreasonable explosion from our side.

So maybe, you know, it’s it is not unreasonable for us to consider that, you know, I already dealt with many difficult people. Today, I cannot deal with this. So our determination is not infinite. So it is finite. And we will need to use determination, no doubt.

But we don’t just want to exhaust the determination on any and every battle. And another problem is that sometimes determination may just be insufficient. That means not only does it get exhausted in terms of time, after some time, you don’t have any determination, but sometimes a temptation may be so big that our determination may just not be big enough. So if somebody tells, you know, today I would chant 16 rounds while looking at, like, a drone filled with sweet rice. Don’t take your eyes away from it and chant attentively.

Okay. I’ll chant attentively, but full attention is on the sweet rice. Isn’t it? Okay. Maybe that sweet rice is a part of the menu, and you’re going to eat it.

But there is no need to have the sweet rice when we are trying to chant. Isn’t it? So it may be too difficult for somebody to have to be looking at the sweet rice and try to chant it. It’s just too unreasonable to expect that for most people. It’s our determination will just be insufficient.

So what do we do? That is where see, one of the ways to deal with temp that means create a safe space where we don’t have to deal with temptation. Say, for example, if you’re chanting, in the temple hall, we won’t keep food. In the temple hall, we won’t keep a big TV with the latest breaking news. Isn’t it?

That breaking news will be constantly breaking our attention then. Isn’t it? So that’s a safe space where the world is put aside. We don’t put the world over there. So Krishna talks about this idea when he in 258.

That is He’s saying that just as a tortoise withdraws its limbs into its hard shell. So that even if some enemies there’s some enemies attacking, what happens? That the hard shell is not vulnerable. It’s not vulnerable. So it’s safe.

So the idea is boundaries can create a safe space so that if there is a boundary, the boundaries can be done in various ways. So then there are sense objects over here, and the senses are over here. But what happens is if there’s a boundary in between, then the sense objects are not rushing into the consciousness. They are not being pursued by the consciousness. And if that happens, then we can protect ourselves.

Now boundaries by by no means the final thing. They are the first step. But I’ll talk about 4 ways in which we can establish boundaries in our life and how that can make fighting against temptations easier. So this is an acronym, CAST, c a s p. So what is CAST?

There are 4 ways in which we can set boundaries. 1 is category. A is accountability. S is space. And t is time.

So let me explain each of these, what it means. Say, when we are trying to set up boundaries, what is the purpose of boundaries? It is to regulate our exposure to the things that agitate our mind, the things that become big in our mind and consume our mind. So category may be, for example, we say, we all eat food. No to that.

Or if we decide that I’m going to take food only that is offered to Krishna. Now that whole cat if we decide to follow that principle and the world is still filled with temptations. But if you’re passing by some shop and we see some sweets there, then, okay, that’s not offered to Krishna. I’m not going to take it. So whole category becomes no.

So sometimes just having a categorical boundary is helpful. And now I’ll talk about the positive and negative about each of these aspects of the setting boundaries. So now category and a positive, it becomes very clear. Okay. This whole thing, nothing doing.

Otherwise, there’s always maybe a little is it a problem? I can do a little, maybe a little more, little more. And when does it become harmful? When it’s not so harmful? We can all have, the always yes, no, yes, no goes on in the mind.

But a clear boundary, finished. So at a positive level, setting boundaries in terms of category can maybe can be very clear. Say, for example, now the male female attraction, the sexual attraction is a very natural feature of human existence. But traditionally, there is a very clear boundary that was dharma. That was marriage.

So that if there is no marriage, then there should not be any sexual contact. Now there are always people who will go beyond that. But, generally, if that boundary is established and accepted, then what happens? Okay. Nothing doing.

Nothing doing outside this. So what happens? That’s a boundary. And even in today’s world, the Prabhupada uses the general word illicit sex. Now we could say there is premarital and there’s extramarital.

Now to in today’s world, people are often quite casual about premarital sex. But even today, extramarital sex is frowned upon. People say that if you you’re getting married, then be serious about the marriage. Don’t fool around. So the idea is when I’m talking about boundaries, boundaries can be in 2 ways.

Boundaries can be individual and boundaries can be social. So now the social boundaries come in 2 ways. 1 is culture and the other is law. So culture means that this is not done in this culture. So there are certain cultural norms of behavior that are set up.

So now we may say today is a very, there is a lot of sexual liberalism, and people are mixing freely. Yes. There is some truth to that. But even now, there is a boundary. Say, for example, the boundary is consent.

You know, if there is forced, sexual contact, then that’s a that’s a serious crime, and there can be serious punishment for them. There should be. So the point is there will always be some boundaries. So now in more traditional societies, the society would itself set up certain boundaries. So the law was always there to some extent, but the culture also set certain boundaries.

Now maybe the culture doesn’t set those boundaries. Culture will set some boundaries. Culture may not set certain boundaries. So but what we are talking here primarily is more about individual boundaries. But I’m talking before we go into that, the I’m talking about boundaries as categories.

So the categorical boundary means this is just not done. That this whole thing, I cannot do it. So when we talk about categorical boundaries, this say, for example, somebody is is an alcoholic, and they decide that I’m gonna give up alcoholism. And then there is one way to do they use the word cold turkey. Cold turkey means just give it up completely.

Absolutely no drinking. Because they say even one drink is one drink too much. Now it may not be easy, but it’s very clear. This whole category, no. And if somehow we that can get into our head, then the whole oscillation, it goes off.

Now on the negative side, category may be impractical. Say, for example, now we can say I won’t eat any sweets. Now that is okay. That’s one category I may say yes. But then how do you define sweets?

Is also a sweet? Somebody say I’ll not take any sweet, but I’ll take one full glass of. So now now sometimes it cannot be practical. If we come broke if we come from somebody comes from. And I’m not going to take because I don’t take sweets.

I’m gonna say this is not sweet. This is Jagannath Prasad. That is it sweet? Is it Jagannath Prasad? Now we don’t know how to offer Jagannath.

We just take a small piece, then small piece becomes a big piece, and then the big piece becomes the whole piece. So the idea is it’s not always practical. You know, say we can say no to certain kinds of foods. We can’t say no to food entirely. Isn’t it?

Now some people may say I won’t use I won’t use any social media at all. Okay. Maybe it’s possible. But then do you include WhatsApp also in social media? Okay.

I will use WhatsApp also. Okay. I won’t use any mobile phone only. Well, generally, people who don’t use a mobile phone, it’s they it’s more than they may be free, but they make others anxious. Isn’t it?

How am I going to contact you? Isn’t it? So now some people may have the privilege by which they can do it. Maybe they have they have services which don’t require immediate attention. Maybe they have some assistant who has a mobile, and that assistant can give urgent messages.

It may be possible, but for some people, it may not be possible. So saying no to an entire category now phone can be very distracting. No doubt. But, entire category saying no, it is not practical in most situations. In many sit not say most.

In many situations, it’s not practical. So if we can, it is it is good. Like, we may say no to no meat. Mhmm. Okay.

That’s accessory category. No. But so this is categorical. Now the second boundary is in terms of accountability. Now when I’m using the word boundary, it must become clear it’s not a physical boundary.

Boundaries can be set up in many different ways. So what does accountability means? That accountability can be to 2. It is others and to self. So for example, if we decide that, you know, okay, like, this is a that this is often done in, alcoholics, any kind of addiction.

Now that alcoholics, anonymous, or people are trying to get over alcoholism, they have this program called 12 steps. They use 12 steps as a quite, widely adopted framework to try to deal with, problems. And the first principle there is that, you know, I can’t control my life, and I need some higher power to take control of my life, to help me gain control of my life. So it’s not necessarily devotional, but definitely the the acknowledgment of higher reality. God can be consumed in different ways.

So there are devotees also who try to present Bhagavad Gita wisdom in terms of the 12 steps. So now so one of the the the idea is we everybody who’s trying to recover has to have an accountability partner. That means that if somebody is struggling with alcohol, at the end of the week, maybe they meet their sponsor, their partner once a week, they tell them that, you know, okay, this particular situation, I felt very tempted, and I drank once. Now or I drank twice. I drank too much.

Or say somebody’s dealing with anger. Then they have to tell, you know, I yelled at this person. I spoke this. You know, I did like this. I did like that.

Now just knowing that we have to tell what we are going to do to someone. That itself creates a deterrent. If we just have to report our actions to someone, then what happens? And maybe I don’t want to do this. I know.

I’ll displease the other person. I’ll feel embarrassed. I’ll be chastised. Whatever. There are various motives that come up, but the idea is that that accountability creates a certain boundary within itself.

That’s why you will see when people do something wrong, they are or not as people. We all when if you do something wrong, we try to hide it because we it could be that we don’t want to displease others. We don’t want to fall down in their eyes. Whatever be the reason. But the point is when we are accountable, that creates a sense of boundary for us.

So if we can find someone to whom we can be accountable, that’s extremely helpful. However, the challenge with accountability partner is that it can be the person can be too hard or the person can be too soft. And it’s too hard. What happens is we just end up demoralized. Now we make one mistake, and that person piles on up, like, dropping a 100 ton of chastisement.

And then we feel, you know. We don’t give up the bad habit. We just give up trying to give up the bad habit. We feel I just don’t want this aspect of my life only. So we don’t want that person to be too hard.

At the same time, if that person is too soft, okay. This happened. I’ll try to avoid it next time. Hey, Roy. It’s okay.

Next time again, try to avoid it next time. Then that person is too casual, then we end up becoming complacent. We end up becoming nonchalant. So we want someone who really understands where we are coming from and then either consoles us or chastises us. See, when we will talk about this, dealing with temptation more.

I’m just talking right now about the boundaries. The psychological aspect of dealing with it. It’s a whole different thing. We don’t want to be burdened by guilt and everything. So by so we will talk about the psychological aspect later.

But at this stage, what we want is there has to be a combination of consoling and chastising. Sometimes we just tried our best, but the situation was too much, and we succumbed. So at that time, we need to be consoled. We need to be comforted. We need to be encouraged.

And sometimes, we just took things too casually. We became more confident. We were negligent. Then it’s come that time. We need to be caution.

We need to be chastised. So that finding that is not easy. So the positive of having somebody else as a accountability partner is that it is a powerful deterrent. Deterrent means that it’s something which stops us from doing something. Like, there’s a nuclear deterrent.

The other country has nuclear weapons, and this country will not do much because, you know, they can only use nuclear weapon and destroy. So the deterrent means something stops us from doing something. The negative is that it is elusive. Illusive means finding a partner like that is very difficult. It’s not very easy to find a partner like that.

Now the accountability can also be to ourselves. Ourselves means that every day, we set some time for introspection. Maybe we used to journaling. In some way, our card is a place where we are setting up accountability for ourselves. Now, generally, we may set up accountability more in terms of bonds over there.

Okay. How much do I read? What time do I complete my japa? Or whatever. But we can always customize.

Okay. So, generally, when we do introspection, we may decide. Okay. If during this month, I want to deal with my short temper. So then every day, I will note down the times when I actually felt when I felt angry, the times when I spoke angrily, and then how much time did the anger stay?

What all did I do within anger? So, basically, we could keep track of what we are doing in terms of introspection. So it’s introspection basically means what? Like, I am here, and I go throughout the day. But then for some time in the day, I look at myself from above.

Okay. What did I do? So we can keep a track on ourselves. Now the introspection itself is a big subject, but I’m here, I’m gonna focus on the principle of for accountability. So every day, we can keep a track.

So now it’s very difficult to keep a track on many things. That’s, like, sometimes the new year is when they told me, oh, you know, this new year is going to be a big transformation in my life. I said, how? I have made 108 new year resolutions. I said, Prabhu, with all due respects see, generally, whenever anybody says, with all due respect, what is going to come after that is not going to be very respectful.

So I said, 108 is not a new year resolution. It is a new year wish list. No. We can we can do 1, 2, 3, at the most, 5 resolutions. Otherwise, it just becomes too much.

And after some time, not only we forget to keep the resolutions, we forget even we had made the resolutions to keep. Isn’t it? So 1, 2, 3, 3 is max 5 is the absolute maximum. But, anyway, see, when if you make a resolution, we need to keep watching. Let’s stick to the resolution.

If I couldn’t, what actually happened? What went wrong over there? We have to introspect. We have to evaluate. So the the the idea is every day we take up takes time, some time out, and it’s like if, say, somebody is young, and they’re earning a lot of money, then they may spend a lot of money also.

And they may not even even know where they spend their money. They say, you know, okay. I went to this party, and this happened. And I went there and I went there. Like, some people, they have no awareness of the money.

But then suppose they have to give an account. Okay. You know, sometimes if you have to file income tax returns, and at that time, you say, okay. There’s 2,000 rupees spent over here. 10,000 rupees over here.

25,000 here. Well, 25,000. I don’t know. You don’t know where you spend 25,000 rupee? It oh, just thinking what people will think about us will make us think about how we spend the money.

Isn’t it? So, basically, only when there is accounting, then there can be accountability. Isn’t it? So it’s like it’s like a x y graph. Now only when there is accounting, if I know that I have to keep track of how I spend the money.

Like sometimes when people go for shopping. Like there’s alcoholism, there is something called shopaholism. Shop. Shop. Shop.

Shop till you drop. And then just people keep shopping. And then now nowadays with Amazon online shopping, you don’t even have to go to a shop. Just click a button, and you already bought it. So sometimes sometimes people ask somebody we ask, why did you buy this?

Oh, no. Actually, why did I buy it? I just felt like buying it. And now when we ourselves say I felt like buying it, we are part of ourselves. That’s a stupid reason for buying something, isn’t it?

You should have some reason. So just having some accounting creates some accountability. So what applies to money can also apply to time. That can also apply to other activities. So just keeping some account, especially an account of the issues that we are trying to deal with.

Like, if somebody’s trying to lose weight, then they may keep track of all the food that they eat. Sometimes the people do calorie tracking. Now, you know, it is actually each food that you eat is what devotee was telling me. He was trying very strong to to lose weight. So some people it’s like, you know, the karma also plays a role over here.

Some people, they eat a lot, and they never seem to gain weight only. I should not be eating so much. Just writing down what all I eat. That creates a deterrent. So these are various ways.

So if somebody writes down every day, okay, how much time I spend on social media? Nowadays, when tech while technology creates distraction, technology can also help us create some boundaries that, you know, we can have on our phones or our lap on our devices, some track. Okay. In this particular day, you will spend this much time on this device or on not just on the device. Your screen time was so and so.

That you spend this much time on WhatsApp. You spend this much time on Facebook. So that’s some way where the device itself can do some accounting for us. But that accounting is of no use if you are not having accountability. So both accounting and accountability.

Now the self account self accountability, the positive of that is it is easy. It is easy to do means we don’t need some other person. It’s easy for us if we decide to do it. But the negative is that it is also easy to avoid. Isn’t it?

So I can say, okay. Like, the day I over eat, I’ll just not write on that. I said I had no time to journal. So then what happens is our journal will never show anything about the times when we we did something wrong. So it’s easy to avoid.

But but accountability is one way in which we can set a boundary for ourselves. What is the acronym we are discussing? Cast. Cast. S is Space.

Space. Now what does space mean that see, our mind is lazy. So basically, this is the boundaries work for different particular kind of desires. See, the desires can also be of 2 different kinds. And so some are superficial desires and some are deep rooted desires.

So superficial means, like, say, I pass by a shop, and I saw this food. I thought, okay. This looks nice. I want to eat it. So that’s a superficial desire because superficial desire is more like it’s a outside in desire.

Say, it’s you know, we we maybe we had a meeting and the meeting got canceled, and we are sitting at home and then nothing urgent to do. We’re 1 hour free and then think, okay. Let’s see what is on TV. Then we are surfing around looking, oh, is there something interesting on TV to watch? So that is outside in.

But maybe there’s a TV serial we like. We will never miss it. So even if we go to some relative’s place or some acquaintances’ place, they say, hey. Can I watch this TV program? So that is like a deep rooted desire.

Deep rooted is more of inside out desire. That means, outside in means the object comes in front of us, and then we get the desire for it. But in deep rooted is that particular memory of the object is already very deep inside us. It’s strongly rooted. Deep rooted means strongly rooted.

And wherever we go, that desire comes up over there for us. So among these 2, boundaries will work for which he desires? Yes. More for superficial desires. For deep rooted desires, it will not work.

So because see, even common sayings that are there in life, they’re also there there can sometimes be opposite. Like out of sight is out of mind. Now that is one saying. But then there is also another saying, separation makes the heart grow fonder. The separation makes the heart grow fonder.

So when something is not there, then we remember it more and more. We look for it more and more. We pine for it. We long for it. So now separation makes the heart go.

Founder will apply for which desires? Deep rooted desires. So something is not there. Say we like some food item very much. And then we go to some other country where nobody makes that food item, and we don’t know how to make it.

Then as soon as we come back to our country, we’ll we’ll tell the lady, can you make this food item, or we’ll find a shop where we can go and eat it? Isn’t it? So we’re not just because we’ve gone away, we’ve not forgotten it. So boundaries, generally, they work for superficial desires. They don’t work so much for deep rooted desires.

But deep rooted desires also need to be dealt with, and we’ll talk about how to deal with them over a period of time in our next session. But the idea is that boundaries do help. So when we talk about boundaries, I’m talking right now about space. So if we can create some space between us and the tempting object, then that space can act as a deterrent. Say, for example, say we are studying.

We’re studying our academic books, our professional books, our spiritual books. And say our phone is right next to us, and our phone beeps. Maybe some messages come up. And now if the phone is right next to us, we’ll pick up the phone and watch it and see. Let me look at the bottom of the message.

And one message? Okay. Maybe there’s some other message. Like, you say, okay. There you go.

Your friend has updated their Facebook profile photo. Oh, okay. Just let me look at what the photo is. You look at the photo. Hey.

Where did they take the photo? This background looks very special. Then we scroll down the street. Okay. You went there.

He didn’t tell me he was trying to go there. Who all went there? All my friends are leaving me out. They’re not telling me. And they click and they say, hey.

This person is also there. You know, did this person why did they tell me? And then we go in their feed. And I go in their feed. And what happens is that we thought I’ll go for 1 minute and 1 hour goes away.

We don’t realize only. So what happens is but if the phone we decide when I’m going to study, I’m gonna beep the phone in the next room. Then even the phone beeps slightly. Okay. You know, I had to walk till the next room.

Okay. The mind is lazy. Okay. Forget it. Now I’ll do it afterwards.

Or say suppose people sit down to watch TV. Now what happens many time when people have TV, they have something to eat, usually popcorn. You know, that’s a typical food that it’s like what happens when you’re watching TV? The the Shastras talk about any eating, sleeping, mating, defending. But, like, TV and entertainment, it is more like secondhand eating, sleeping, mating, defending.

Isn’t it? Somebody else the hero is the heroine, and all the audiences want dreaming. If I were there, it would be so nice. It’s all secondhand. So what happens is, you know, everything is imaginary.

Something has to be real. That’s why people I have to eat something. Some enjoyment has to be real. That’s all in there. It’s imagination only.

So then sometimes and you’re just watching TV and just eating and eating and eating. Just people keep eating so much. They don’t even realize. So now, if somebody decides that, okay. If I’m gonna watch some TV, I’m not going to eat.

I’m not getting any food nearby. Otherwise, they finish one packet of popcorn, and then there’s other there’s a fridge that’s right next to the the couch only. So just move your hand. You don’t even know when you moved your hand. And then you pick up another packet, and then eat another packet.

And then after that, the fridge is empty, and the stomach is super full. So if there’s a little space okay. Okay. I’m gonna eat this much popcorn, but the other free other bucket is it’s on is in the basement. Okay.

I have to get up and go all the way. Forget it. So now just creating some space is helpful. So space means you’re talking about some distance. So for all of us, we can find out how we can create some space for ourselves.

Where so space basically means it’s like when we have space, it is a temptation free zone. Now we cannot make the world temptation free. There’s also gonna be temptation in the world. But at least I can create a corner that is temptation free. So now, the if the positive the positive of this is that it is very effective.

It is simple and effective if you can do it. But again, the negative is sometimes it’s just not practical. We might be staying in a small house and, you know, there’s no other place where we can keep our phone. We only have a small place where we study. If you’re staying in a hostel in one room, you can’t keep your phone in another room, generally speaking.

So sometimes it may not be practical. We don’t have the space. But space is helpful. Say, for example, this is the place which is my temple hall. This is my temple altar.

So here, I don’t bring my phone. Yeah. I saw 1 cartoon once like this. It like multitasking in Bhakti. So what was it?

There’s one person who was doing Aarti with one hand, hand as a phone, and they’re watching an insta reel on the other hand. No. That’s ridiculous. You know, why do we do Aarti at all? So, generally speaking, if we are this is my this is my sacred space.

So don’t bring the Mandan over there. So use some space. Now similarly, the same applies with respect to time. So for example, we decide is one day where we fast. The fast means we’re not necessarily fasting completely.

We’re fasting from grains. So for a particular amount of time, I will not do this. For this month, I’m going to abstain from this food. The specific food that we abstain from is not as important. It’s important, but more important is the principle.

See, macho I will talk about the psychological side of fighting against temptation tomorrow morning, and you talk about near mark, Shama, but the the inability to follow rules. But here, I’m talking about that if we are able to do something for even a finite amount of time. No. Okay. I have the capacity.

Okay. Some like, nowadays, people have this digital detox. Okay. But for one day, I’m just not going to use my phone. Now I cannot give up my phone completely, but one day, maybe it’s possible.

Or I may decide that, okay, till morning 9 o’clock, I’m not going to look at my phone. Now, again, I’m not saying everybody has to do it or it’s possible for everybody to do it. Sometimes you may have some services. But keeping some time okay. After 9 o’clock at night, I’m not going to look at my phone.

Whatever it is. So we create some boundaries in terms of time for ourselves. Now sometimes in India, there is this tendency to trash the western culture. And I would say it’s not so much a conflict in India and the west. It is more between materialism and spirituality.

And among the west, some for us, America is Hollywood. But actually, America is the most religious country among the in the Western world. America is far more religious than UK or France or Australia or New Zealand. The large parts of America are quite seriously they’re Christian evangelical, but they’re quite religious. And there are other certain amount of culture and boundaries, and all those things are there over there.

So the point I was making is that for people, like, in the Jewish religion, they have a day for Sabbath. The the on that day, they say we won’t use any technology. Now in New York, there’s a whole area where you stay. So on that day, they say that we will not even press the button to to to go in an elevator. So then what do they do now?

If if you are staying in a 25 story building, You cannot climb up. So now the holes the the the the areas where the Jews stay, that it’s arranged in such a way that on that particular day, they have computer control of the elevator. So the elevator automatically keeps going up and down. So they have arranged it like that. See, the it’s here is example of an individual that serious about the boundary, the society also create those boundaries.

Mhmm. So and, and Europe, especially, there is a lot of Islamic immigration that is happening. So in many big supermarkets, they have sections for halal food, and they themselves ride over there. This is a halal section. It’s a label which is there publicly.

So the boundaries of that particular religion are also facilitated by society eventually. But when people become vocal about the boundaries, people become insistent. So the point I’m making is that sometimes certain certain kind of boundaries, we may feel it’s not practical. But if we start doing that, people start accepting it. So, you know, if somebody is at least in as in America, somebody says I’m a Jew.

You know, on this day, I don’t pick up a phone call. The boss will also respect it. I won’t call you on this day. Or if I don’t I don’t expect you to pick up the phone call. In general, the work culture is relatively much healthier in the west.

If your boss calls you on a weekend, the boss will in fact, he’ll never call you on a weekend. And if the boss calls, the first thing is the boss will apologize. Sorry for disturbing you on a weekend. In India, I’ll say, you will be sorry if you don’t pick up my phone. So there is a certain respect for boundaries in terms of time.

So now this may not always be in our control, but just because it is not always in our control, doesn’t mean it is never in our control. So we may decide, okay. This is the time for my japa. Then I’m going to focus on japa at this time. Please don’t disturb me during this time.

So it may not always be possible, but sometimes it is possible. So pay time is also a doable boundary for us. For this much time, I’m going to do this. One of my friends is an author. So he when when he was working from home, he had a small room, which is like his office.

And he showed me a note he had written. He said it was for his own family only. Family and friends, he said that, you know, I’m writing now. If you disturb me with all humility, I will break your legs. So he he said, this I have to be this is my job.

I have to work on writing. So I I cannot let people disturb me. So so the point is sometimes we have to create boundaries in terms of time, in terms of space. So the idea is that when we create boundaries, that becomes like a external support for us in our battle against temptation. There’ll always be going to be a battle, and there are desires inside of which are also there.

But the desires can be triggered by things outside. And at least the triggering can be minimized. In one sense, the bond again, now the positive and the negative, both of these is if the if it’s if it’s positive, it’s in one sense, it’s easy and it’s effective. We can easily decide, okay, till 12 o’clock, I’m not going to do this. Till 12 o’clock every day, I’m not going to open my social media.

Maybe I’ll check my emails, but not social media. So we can decide like that. Now negative is, again, it may not be practical for different people based on different situations, their roles, their responsibilities. Now in one sense, boundaries are generally speaking, before we came to spirituality or you read something about psychology, generally, we talk about boundaries in terms of geography. Like national boundaries.

Like, say, the India Pakistan boundary is a disputed area. There’s actually the boundary. It’s actually on the actually on the geography. But then there are also the actual line of control. The 2 may be different.

But if a country doesn’t have a boundary only, then there is actually, there’s no country only, isn’t it? So if anybody there’s no boundary, anybody can go from one country to another country without any sense of crossing a boundary. Now inside the country, there can be criminals, and they have to fight against them. But there is a difference between the police and the military. The military is meant to deal with invaders.

The military is at the boundary. The police is meant to deal with domestic law and order. So now the military generally has much heavier weaponry because there are bigger dangers that exist outside the boundaries. So for us, yes, there are inside only there are contamination, then we have to deal with the contaminations. But it is like if we consider boundary, there is outside the boundary, and there’s a different approach.

There’s a military over there. So and inside the boundary, there is police. So outside, we if we create boundaries, there is certain kind of battle we need to fight. So if, say, India, Bangladesh has a boundary, then still immigration might happen. Illegal immigration might also happen.

But if at least a boundary is there, there’s some limit understanding. Well, this person has come from across the boundary. But if there are no boundary at all, if there’s nobody at all policing the boundary, anybody can come in at any time. Then the whole idea of nation becomes redundant. So if there are no boundaries, then the whole idea of self control, self discipline, self transformation, it just becomes meaningless.

Krishna says the first step in sense control is set up boundaries. So it’s it’s not the last step, but it is the first step. If there is no boundaries, there cannot be any difference. Boundaries are the first step in the defense. So by setting boundaries, at least we can know when we are being defeated, how often we are being defeated, what are the areas we need to strengthen ourselves.

So in that sense, boundaries, they are the first step in the war against temptations. It’s a complex war. It’s not easy to win, but it’s the first step. Krishnas 3:40. So the one is so the second is how do you deal with the disruptive desire that are already inside that we will talk tomorrow morning.

But I’ll summarize what I discussed today. Today, we discussed 2 main things. We are continuing our bhakti journey, and we discussed the first main thing was about bhajana kriya, the next stage. So in bhajana kriya, I discussed 3 points. 1st is how the principles themselves are timeless.

They are unchanging. Fix the mind on Krishna, that’s the principle. The application of those principles, that is timely. So the Prabhupada, when he says I didn’t change anything, that’s referring to the timeless principles. But with respect to the application, the idea of distributing books, the idea of doing the on these general streets across the world, It’s a timely application.

So then we also discussed it with respect to Bhajan Kriya. The idea is we involve bonds. Bonds is to make Krishna bigger. And then there are boundaries that is to make Maya smaller. So like in a medicine, prescribe and prescribe.

Do’s and don’ts. So you remember the spiritual journey, you wanna make Krishna bigger in our life. And the last one we discussed is, when we say make Krishna bigger, there’s a difference between propagating, which advertisement mind do so that small things are made big. But bhakti is about educating. Krishna is already actually big.

We are simply realizing that He is big. And then Anartha nivrutti. So within that, Anartha is anartha is that which makes us see artha where there is actually no artha. That is anartha. So alcoholism makes us see that alcohol is extremely important, and it has no importance at all.

For example. So in Anartha Naruthi, specifically, we focus on the battle with the sense objects, which are sangra. So which are sangra is sangra. And in that, I talk about specifically boundaries And 4 ways in which boundaries can be set up. What are the acronym?

Caste. Caste. C was category. So we can decide no to an entire category of things. That’s simple in terms of what to say yes and no to, but many times it may not be practical.

Then a was accountability. So we can keep a track of what we are doing. And there are 2 kinds are to others. You can have accountability partner and self. Then s was space.

We can create some geographical distance and tap the laziness of our mind that, okay, I won’t do this in this particular place. And similarly, time. For till this particular time, I won’t do this. So that way so the idea is we we don’t over rely on determination. We need determination, but we don’t want to over rely on it.

Why? Because determination is finite, and sometimes it can be insufficient. So our boundaries can help us without unnecessarily exhausting our determination. So boundaries, they’re not the solution. They are the first step.

And they work against, desires can be of 2 things. They are superficial and then they are deep rooted. So boundaries generally work against superficial desires. So how to deal with deep rooted desires? That we’ll discuss in our next session.

Thank you very much. Hare Krishna.