Live with love and see what happens
Sri Madhan-Madhuri Kunja Ashram, Vilnius
Hari-katha by Sripad Vasanta Prabhu
2019-05-12
In Bhagavad-gita Arjuna is asking Krishna: “Why should I fight?” and the problem with Arjuna is that even thought he is a warrior, his heart is not on the right place because he is afraid, he is thinking that everything that is going to be done here is for his own result. He is fearful whatever may happen, he is fearful of doing right or wrong and he doesn’t want to take any action because he has no clarity about what he is about to do, where he is about to go and what is he about to engage. His offering is not in the right place, he doesn’t understand that everything he does can be offered to God. Arjuna thinks that it is better if he leaves the battle field, goes to the Himalayas, meditates there and becomes a monk but Krishna tells him: “By your nature in this life you are not a monk, you are a warrior, you must perform your duty”. Arjuna is trying to enjoy the results of his actions and this is why he is suffering. If our heart is in the wrong place then we are afraid. We engage in anything and we are so afraid.
Every time we are going to make a choice we have some level of fair and we are not commited to the path that Guru indicates to us. We are afraid to suffer, to mess up, to make a mistake. We don’t understand that inevitably whatever we have done in our past life good or bad also according to the blessings of Sri Guru we are getting a certain type of life and a certain type of nature and if that nature is not being properly used then it creates disturbance in society.
In Kali Yuga many people are doing what they are not supposed to be doing. There are monks in India and they are supposed to be maintained by the society. Premananda Prabhu’s only duty has to be teaching also to take care of brahmacharis and do bhajan but instead of that he has to take care to pay for the construction of samadhi, he is always dealing with transactions and people’s karma because people are so broken, they don’t properly understand how to respect sadhu. Srila Prabhupada said, that our society is so broken because women are not being respected and protected, people don’t respect sadhus. Our vision of life is so broken and this is why disbalance comes.
On the other side there is a bunch of people who join religious or spiritual movements and they don’t understand that their nature is perhaps to be grihasta, which means to be married or to have a job and then try to advance slowly in a healthy way in spiritual life. Married people are trying to be monks and there are monks that are fulfilling duties of married people because married people are not engaged properly. If you have material tendencies and qualities then you have so much passion. Artists, creators have so much passion and desire to express emotion inside of their hearts and Guru is going to engage that passion in a way that is good and constructive for them, in such a way that they may please Krishna. So Guru is trying to engage the natural tendency of everybody so they can advance because actually the activity is irrelevant, but is relevant is that your heart is in the right place.
Start where you are and then gradually you will purify yourself
In our society people have so much expectations that you must be like a monk or perfect, etc. Nevertheless, it is important to start where you are and then gradually you will purify yourself. The secret of purification and advancement in spiritual life is to take a shelter of an advanced devotee and follow his footsteps. Otherwise if we follow somebody who is not qualified we will be doing good in calm times, but when a challenge comes somebody who is pretending to be Guru but is not qualified will fall and we will fall after, in this way we will commit a spiritual suicide. This is what happens when we are associating with people who are fully involved in material life.
Chapter 3 of Bhagavad-gita proves that Krishna is allowing us to engage in the process called karma-yoga. It is not the highest, but we are in the small simple level so how we engage in the process of bhakti and it is that we start from the beginning.
Only somebody who has a better view can offer you a better choice
If you ask a frog in a pond what is life about the frog will tell you: “Kva Kva Kva”. If you ask frog what do you have to do to be happy a frog will tell you: “Eat a lot of mosquitoes, take a bath in the mud”. If you ask a frog: “Is it better to stay in the mud or is it possible to get out of it?” the frog will say: “You have everything what you need in the mud”. This is frog’s perspective but at some point you will see eagles in the sky and you will begin to wonder what are they doing? The perspective of the frog and of the eagle is going to be very different and if you want to know what is in the sky you have to ask an eagle and if you want to know what is down there you have to ask the frog. The nature is different. We are given a chance – if you have a body of a frog then stay in the lake and perform your duty but know that you can go higher and this is why we are talking about spiritual advancement.
The secret how to advance is to associate with a high-class devotees, otherwise our perspective will never change because our hearts have nothing but material desires. The way to change our perspective is to have in our life somebody who has been up there and done that, their perspective is very different.
Do what is natural for you
If you ask Vaishnava: “What should I do with my life?” the Vaishnava is going to share with you his perspective what you should be doing even if you think it is not it. He will look at you and tell: “By the result of your actions this is what you generated and Krishna has organized the program for you so you can burn your karma/desire properly and advance in spiritual life”. If you have material desires but you will try to stay in the ashram you will become frustrated, grey, body will begin to break if it is not natural for you.
We come to bhakti because we have a desire to advance towards self-realization. Everybody is looking for happiness. Absolute, eternal happiness can only come when we embrace the absolute otherwise we can’t have the absolute happiness. If we don’t embrace the absolute we can’t have the absolute, so we need to embrace the absolute and the absolute is Krishna. We can embrace and have a relationship with Krishna according to the nature of our soul. The nature of our body is karmic, yet the nature of the soul is not karmic, it is original. We all have eternal relationship and consciousness with an absolute. We all have a role to play according to Krishna’s desire.
Krishna gives what you want
The logic of the universe is that whatever pleases Krishna or whatever he is dreaming – that is reality. He can dream about anything because he has all the power. What he dreams is reality, makes sense and is logic. Whatever we are dreaming may not be in synchronicity with whatever he is dreaming. His dream is eternal because he is the absolute consciousness and our dream is temporary because it can never bring happiness without the presence of the absolute – that is why it is temporary. Never the less, upon millions of lifetimes we have generated a certain nature but we should understand that this is not our eternal nature, yet we are given the chance to live according to that nature so we can leave out the dream – this is mercy. God is infinitely merciful, he gives free will and it means that you can do whatever you want and you can live whatever dream you want to dream including the dream that I am dreaming. That is Krishna: “You can come and dream with me, but if you don’t want it you can go and dream whatever you want”. This is how nice he is.
Krishna is so kind, he wants everybody to be happy – gives what you want. The problem is that in our ignorance we don’t necessarily want what is the best for us so we mess up and we end up entangled in the material energy.
Align to who you are
If you are not doing your job with love then what karma are you generating for your next life? Still we do things like that: “I need money so I am going to do this even if I don’t like it”. First you really need to align to who you are. Do what do you always wanted to do. Kids are very aligned with what they want and what they like. If they want something, for example a toy, they ask for it and it gives them pleasure. As adults we start doubting because too many times we had what we wanted but we end up with pain. We want something, we get it and we doubt because our hearts is not aligned, it is full of doubts: “Should I do or should I not do?”.
Marriage is not easier than taking saffron, becoming brahmachari. There maybe more relieve of the senses but it is not easier, both brahmachari and grihasta paths are very difficult. Prabhuji says that in spiritual life grihastas also advance because they always remain humble because they are always serving everybody whereas when you are renounciate everybody gives you stuff and there is no way that you can repay them. So if you are renounciate it is very important to have a mindset that you are offering everything for Krishna. Otherwise what happens is that, for example, imagine that you an Lithuania ambassador who works for the president and somebody appoints the ambassador to go somewhere and represent the country but then the ambassador starts collecting everything and the money that he got from the business in foreign country ends up not in Lithuania but in his bank account. The president will ask: “Where is all the money that came from the business in another country?” and ambassador will say: “What money?”… In the same way if we are the renounciate and we are representing renunciation and we don’t renounce then we generate karma. This is why so many renounciates fall down and they get attracted to material life – they generate some karma. So your heart has to be aligned with what are you doing and why are you doing.
Everything you do can be an offering
Sadhu sees if your heart is burning with a desire and if sadhu is not going to help you to burn it in a proper way then you will burn yourself in anger or frustration or criticism. So if you have a desire then sadhu puts you in the place where you can fulfill it in a dharmic way. Dharma is rules and regulations that we follow where we are aware of states of harmony. It means we don’t punch another one, we don’t steal from another one, we don’t eat another one. So we are trying to remember what is right to do it. Also understand how can I fulfill my desires that are selfish but how can I do it in a way that is dharmic and don’t harm others and also can help me advance so I don’t regress in an animal state and I can progress in my humanity.
In Bhagavad-gita Krishna says that important is to understand that everything is yajna or offering. If what you do is not yajna then what are you doing with your life is business, but if it is yajna then it is an offering. Everything you do it can be an offering.
The most important is the change of the heart
In Kali-yuga we don’t remember states of joy, piouty, states of harmony and to be grateful. We have forgotten what is the source of joy and happiness in the world and sadhus come to remind us even if they know that perhaps in this life we can advance just a little bit and sometimes even though they give us so much mercy, our capacity is very limited to advance. Anyhow, some advancement will be there. Our past acts have a certain nature that we have to carry with but important is that even if my mind tells me to do something – has my heart changed?
There was a singer who was heading a heavy metal band and he used to write and sing about grotesque things and he was involved into really dark stuff until he found Jesus. Then he completely changed. Before he was doing drugs and many other things that were disharmonic. He said that when he found Jesus something came into his heart that immediately he left like he had a choice and even he felt the desire to do dark things that he was doing before, he didn’t because his heart has changed. He dropped out from the band and today he is a Christian and he preaches because his heart changed. Did his natural tendencies changed? No. Did his genetic tendencies changed? No, because that is already gross but his heart changed. The main thing in our life and why we are following Guru and Vaishnavas is that we are looking that our heart will change. We are where we are because we have certain desires and until that desire doesn’t change we can offer what we are doing. It relieves us from all stress: “Should I do it or should I not do it?” and if you are already there then just go and do it.
If we want to advance we have to understand why we are here
We come to the temple because we have a desire to advance in the spiritual life and if you advance or not it is in the realm of your choice and your right as a human being, you have a right to advance in spiritual life. Many people come to spiritual path and they expect Guru to do their homework for them or the sadhu to convince them why they should be here. But that is indoctrination, no consciousness here. If you indoctrinate somebody: “You should do this” you may be right but does the person understand? If we don’t understand what we are doing here how can we advance? The only thing that sadhus give us is prasadam: “Sit and eat” but when it comes to a higher grades of advancement sadhu will speak the truth but he will let you find your own river so you must never be afraid of being perfect or imperfect when doing your duties. It is not about the perfection, it is about performance of the task that has been commanded because it is good for you, because in that way you will burn something that would bind you to the material world, but you have to offer it.
The importance of experience
In Bhagavat-gita chapter 3, verse 6, Krishna says: “One who restrains the senses and organs of action, but whose mind dwells on sense objects, certaintly deludes himself and is called a pretender”. For example if you are taking the ropes of renounciate saying: “I renounce ice- cream” but the only thing you think about is ice-cream then where is your mind? Only thinking about the ice-cream. Or what is the result of being in India but the only thing you think is how do you want to come back to Lithuania? You don’t have to put yourself through that – it is a choice you can take. The only way how you will be able to fulfill the choice is if you are under the guidance of the sadhu, because sadhu makes us strong with kirtan, prasadam, their example. When we have sadhu as a model we understand what it looks like.
Srila Prabhupadha comments the verse 6: “ There are many pretenders who refuse to work in Krishna consciousness but make a show of meditation, while actually dwelling within the mind upon sense enjoyment. Such pretenders may also speak on dry philosophy in order to bluff sophisticated followers, but according to this verse these are the greatest cheaters. For sense enjoyment one can act in any capacity of the social order, but if one follows the rules and regulations of his particular status, he can make gradual progress in purifying his existence”.
For example nowadays there are many courses about enlightenment. Some people say, that: “You don’t need a Guru” and others gather around them because they are very popular but it is like a chicken going to a scarp because they are not self-realized, means they can’t fly. They understand it intellectually or logically and they call it enlightenment but it is not the actual experience. It is like when you are in the plane and the lady asks the passengers: “Who would like to fly the plane?” and we rise our hands: “I would love to fly a plane, I red some books about flying”. Do you think that they are going to let you to fly the plane? Then we go and follow this people, who know only theory – do you want to get on the plane with him who has no flight experience?
The only way to advance is by being honest and by engaging in the process
Prabhupada is saying: “Don’t pretend that you are something you are not”. If you can fly say that you are a pilot and if you can’t fly then sit down, put your seat belt on and it is enough. Prabhupada is saying: “Be yourself and do what you can do”. If you can only sit down and eat then do that. If you can clean the plane – do that. If you can give the drinks and the snacks – do that, but don’t pretend to be a pilot. If you got on the plane with a pilot who doesn’t know how to fly – who’s fault, you have to test, there are requirements.
Srila Prabhupada also comments: “Sincere person who follows this method is far better situated than the false pretender who adopts show-bottle spiritualism to cheat the innocent public. A sincere sweeper in the street is far better than the charlatan meditator who meditates only for the sake of making a living”.
When it comes to Guru or enlightenment many people are not certified for that, but anyway they say: “Follow me, you don’t need a Guru, I will take you to the place of joy and happiness” – but that is just material enjoyment. In reality they are only enjoying their senses, themselves by the followers they are getting but is the plane really going to fly? So if you can’t do it don’t think that you are going to advance by pretending because the only way to advance is by being honest and by engaging in the process. Bhakti is not about what do you have socially – it is not advancement. Doesn’t matter how much power do you have as a Pope, you may be in a very good political position, but if you don’t love Jesus – what is your advancement? Krishna is reminding us: “Don’t pretend that you are more advanced than you actually are and just understand that you are here to do your job because you understand that YOU want to advance and the only way to advance is by practice and engagement in the process”.
Action is better than inaction
In Bhagavad-gita chapter 3, text 8 Krishna says: “Perform your prescribed duty, for action is better than inaction. A man cannot even maintain his physical body without work”. Nothing is wrong with having a job because lazy then crazy.
If you are not brahmachari then just do your activity well, otherwise at the end of your life you will end up without money, angry and dependent on the sadhus, because if you are not behaving as sadhu then why should community maintain you?
If you a mother then your duty and the purpose in this life is to take care of your kids, love them. It is like business – needs time, care, energy, attention, endeavor to maintain. Don’t depreciate the value of mother in your life, appreciate the value and potential that you have by being a mother, you have consciousness in your head, you are no less than Guru for that kid. It is a very important job and yet the society doesn’t value it. Mother usually thinks: “What am I going to do with my life? I need to have a career to feel significant” but just grow your child properly and take care of him and you also can have a hobby if your husband is responsible and takes care of you, then you have time to do what you love and like.
A man in his own dharma should work very hard to maintain that level of living. So remember that we don’t need more than we need, we need enough and home should be balanced in the measure of possibilities. Imagine if you are married, you are a man and you are neglecting your family because now you chanting 64 rounds then the question is why did you get married? If you want to take the path of the monk is okey – leave and serve in the monestry, Gurudeva did that. He spoke to his parents and said: “I cant’ stay here anymore, my job is that of the renounciate” and he really renounced his material life, for the rest of his life he was a servant and he never had anything for himself. He used to say: “I don’t have money or even one fraction of a coin” so not even a fraction of a cent, he didn’t own anything. That is the life of the renounciate that chants 64 rounds daily. But if you are at home and you don’t want to work and you don’t want to take care of your children and wife but chanting 64 rounds then where are you? In this case there will be a disaster because you are not here and you are not there.
We need only as much as we need
Srila Prabhupada comments chapter 3 section 8: “There are many pseudo-meditators who misrepresent themselves as belonging to high parentage, and great professional men who falsely pose that they have sacrificed everything for the sake of advancement in spiritual life. Lord Krsna did not want Arjuna to become a pretender, but that he perform his prescribed duties as set forth for ksatriyas. Arjuna was a householder and a military general, and therefore it was better for him to remain as such and perform his religious duties as prescribed for the householder ksatriya. Such activities gradually cleanse the heart of a mundane man and free him from material contamination. So-called renunciation for the purpose of maintenance is never approved by the Lord, nor by any religious scripture. After all, one has to maintain one’s body and soul together by some work. Work should not be given up capriciously, without purification of materialistic propensities. Anyone who is in the material world is certainly possessed of the impure propensity for lording it over material nature, or, in other words, for sense gratification.
Such polluted propensities have to be cleared. Without doing so, through prescribed duties, one should never attempt to become a so-called transcendentalist, renouncing work and living at the cost of others”.
You are ready to be a spiritual teacher when your Guru tells you: “It is time for you to teach, that is your duty”, when he gives you an order. If you try to teach out of yourself and you have no parampara, one day you wake up and think that you go and teach others but if you have no parampara, no disciplic succession, then how do you know that you are doing it right? It will not be safe for the others because nobody is taking responsibility for the people that may follow you. Parampara is important because it is a system where a student always has a teacher and you are always connected to a higher authority and this is how you know that this is your job, your duty. At some point Guru may tell you to teach or at some point he will tell you to wash the pots because that is what you are qualified to do and he is trying to help you to burn your propensities. Guru tells to go and teach when you have the propensity to teach but this can happen only under the order of Guru. If you have the power to do it then why don’t you do it? Who is going to do it then? It is called dharma, doing our duty purifies us because anyway we have selfish desires. Selfishness is the believe that: “Everything in the universe is for me, I can enjoy, have my fun and use all the recourse possible to give pleasure to my senses” but that is not the truth because everything belongs to the absolute, to Krishna.
Do it with love and see what happens
If nothing belongs to me, what do I have the right to do? I have the right to perform my role in the movie. How can you notice that it purifies you? I notice when Prabhuji gave me an order that I should do the astrology. In astrology I everyday I see people’s karma, I meditate on the karmic reactions of people, and it is so painful because I see their future and inevitably I see how everybody is going to suffer and I can help by telling people what is the right way to deal with it, so you can get out of it. I know that anyway inevitably there is suffering, because there are malefic planets as Saturn, Mars, Rahu and Ketu and they exist in everybody and they are doing their job. When Saturn needs to slap you he will not slap you, he will punch you because it is his job. So I sit and realize that life is suffering. I know that every human being wants to be happy and those people who are engaged in material life can be happy if Vaishnavas are compassionate to them – it is the only way. Compassion is the only way. To distribute the mercy of the Vaishnavas is the only way.
Don’t doubt, do whatever you have to do. Without the mercy of Vaishnavas humanity is not going to get anywhere good. Somebody who is in love doesn’t doubt. When you have love it is do or die you want to do it and it is a feeling to be aligned, to be appointed, to know what your role is and then to perform it and the most beautiful thing is to be able to be free from the glory that it is going to generate – this is what Vaishnavas teach us. Do your job and offer it. Bhakti is when a person who loves another person gives him a gift that makes him happy. When you get to that level of relationship with Krishna then you are done. This is how Gopis live – they wake up every morning and think: “Krishna must be colorful and happy today”.
When Krishna gives you a very special something that means the game is about to get rough. If your heart is in the right place your friends will show up and your mission will be fulfilled. The mission is what Mahaprabhu wanted – to distribute Radharani’s mercy. Everything is in control of Krishna. Whatever happens just know that you have to trust and do your job. Don’t go back and forth or think two times if you do it right or wrong – if you are under the guidance of Guru – why are you doubting? Do it with love and see what happens.
