English
Blessings to all the chanters! You had been seeking blessings - please bless my family, bless my son. So I am blessing you all. My blessings are there. The whole parampara is blessing you. It's Sunday so it's understandable that the number is 508. This is the trend. We go low on Sundays. However whatever talk I give you should not be missed. Some days we have gone up to 580 also and then all the way down to 508. We are fluctuating, but it is good to remember that our target by the end of this month is to cross and be steady with 600. This is responsibility of all of you participants to see how to achieve this goal of 600 by end of this month.
nirodho ’syānuśayanam
ātmanaḥ saha śaktibhiḥ
muktir hitvānyathā rūpaṁ
sva-rūpeṇa vyavasthitiḥ
The merging of the living entity, along with his conditional living tendency, with the mystic lying down of the Mahā-Viṣṇu is called the winding up of the cosmic manifestation. Liberation is the permanent situation of the form of the living entity after he gives up the changeable gross and subtle material bodies. (SB2.10.6)
Giving up all varieties of bodies and forms ultimately we have to situate ourselves in sva-rupena vyavasthitih. Situate in our own svarupa and that is our self the spirit.
atah sri-krsna-namadi na bhaved grahyam indriyaih
sevonmukhe hi jihvadau svayam eva sphuraty adah.
"No one can understand the transcendental nature of the name, form, quality and pastimes of Sri Krsna through his materially contaminated senses. Only when one becomes spiritually saturated by transcendental service to the Lord are the transcendental name, form, quality and pastimes of the Lord revealed to him." (Padma Purana)
The full Lord can't be experienced using our blunt material senses. atah sri-krsna-namadi –rupa, guna, lila adi can't be realized.
Sevanmukhe jiva - we have begin somewhere. Begin using your tongue to realize the Lord. Of course you could also honor prasada. That's nice but you could also use your tongue to chant Hare Krsna or other glories of Lord could be chanted with the help of the tongue. As we chant and chant the glories of the holy name
or chant the holy names with the tongue in this age of kali, you will be purified.
The Lord will reveal Himself unto you, the chanter. So in our existence there is something called antahkaran. That refers to antah(internal or inside) and karan (upakaran - subtle body, mind, intelligence, false ego). Some cetana, some sort of consciousness or realisation that I am living, that I exist. As there is antahkaran
there is also bahyakaran, the external senses. There are five knowledge acquiring senses. These are also upakaran which are external in our gross body. Of course we are not certainly anthakaran. Either as we hear we are not this body does not mean “ I am not this body!” So we are not this gross body consisting of external senses bahyakaran. Neither are we anthakaran. We are not mind, body, intelligence, false go. We are not that either.
As it is said in Bhagavad- Gita [5.8-9]
naiva kiñcit karomīti
yukto manyeta tattva-vit
paśyañ śṛṇvan spṛśañ jighrann
aśnan gacchan svapañ śvasan
pralapan visṛjan gṛhṇann
unmiṣan nimiṣann api
indriyāṇīndriyārtheṣu
vartanta iti dhārayan
While we do different activities with this body, breathing in and out, eating, walking, talking, sleeping. Lord Krsna has given a small list there. Krsna says that the soul does not take part in it. It's not the soul doing all this - you sleeping,talking. whatever you are doing - the eternal body or the subtle body.
Bhagavatam explains many things the hunger and the thirst is because of the praan in us. This is part of the subtle body. Because of praan one feels hungry or thirsty. It's not the soul that's hungry and thirsty. It's the body that is hungry or thirsty. It's the praan that experiences hunger and thirst, not the soul.
We of course identify ourselves with this body and we think I am this body. This is illusion. The bigger illusion, more subtle illusion is caused by the subtle body. We identify more with the subtle body than the eternal body.
hitvānyathā rūpaṁ
sva-rūpeṇa vyavasthitiḥ
This is how mukti or liberation is defined. We have given up so many bodies and now we are in this body. But jivan mukta sa ucyate while you are still in this body, while your soul is still on this body jivan mukta you are mukta. Some souls attain such level while residing in this world and residing in this body. They are jivan mukta, they are free. They do not identify with the gross body. As we hear from Jad Bharat while he was talking with King Rahugan. His self realisation is very clear. Our goal while chanting is try to attain this svarupena - situating our self in our real self. Situating our self in our real self is completed when we keep ourselves at the lotus Feet of the Lord. In the good old days people would enquire “Svastha ho?” How are you? They thought differently. Nowadays we think differently. We think of the body and the health of the body. But knowledgeable people in the ancient days when they asked “Svastha ho?’ they asked - tha means situation like there is grhastha, gramastha stationed in the house, the village. Stha are you situated in yourself? In other words how’s yourself. IS it properly situated at the lotus Feet of Lord or in relationship with Lord? How's your situation? Svastha ho? Are you properly situated in relationship with the Lord. So while chanting the holy names of the Lord while we are chanting our goal is to become svastha healthy, properly situated sva-rupena vyavasthitih.
Situated in our self in our ultimate svarupa. we should situate ourselves in the ultimate relation that we have with the Lord. I was thinking while chanting today that we should be paying attention. We are chanting. I am chanting, but who am I? I am a soul. My soul is chanting and not just my throat or my tongue. In my
mind there are some thoughts of chanting. Some of this is gross and some of it is subtle but ultimately spiritual chanting is that the soul is chanting. Not my tongue, body or anthakaran but the core, my soul is chanting.
Why do we say I think you or congratulate you from the bottom of my heart. That's the place where the soul is. May be antahkaran is at some other place of the heart,but the core of my heart or bottom of my heart that is myself. I am saying this from the soul. You require full attention in order to achieve that goal.
One has to be fully attentive while chanting. Our intelligence in this case, our spiritual intelligence is in action. It is discriminating making sure who is chanting.
Is this body chanting or the throat or am I chanting? NO! I want my soul to chant. Not this! Not this! Yes, this one! This is the soul chanting. I want my soul to chant. I am chanting means my soul is chanting. So in that state of spiritual mind or spiritual intelligence action then the soul will be the chanter who is now chanting with attention, devotion and longing. He will connect with the Lord in form of the holy name. Atma and Parmatma. The Lord in the form of the holy name are connected to bhakti or devotion. That is Japa-yoga. In that state there is no one or nothing in between the soul and the supreme soul in the form of the holy name.
You are fully linked. That is samadhi. This is mantra meditation. That’s the trance which you have transcended all other realm or elements parties. You are beyond this material existence and on spiritual plane with Krsna. I want you to chant more, contemplate on whatever is presented. Keep doing different activities. Share Hare Krsna with others. We can't be selfish now. Think - I have Krsna and let
me share Him with others.
