English
9th May 2019
Devotional Services: Relieves is from material existence.
As we keep on chanting, we will develop more and more taste, more and more detached from worldly activities worldly affairs worldly wanderings.
bhaktiḥ pareśānubhavo viraktir anyatra ca[SB 11.2.42]
This is a philosophical statement from Bhagavatam, Srila Prabhupada always quoted this. that says bhaktiḥ pareśānubhavo
As we perform devotional service and experience Param Isha-Parmeshwar, and the first symptom or outcome or result or experience of practicing bhakti or in this case practicing of chanting Hare Krishna is ‘virakti anyatraca’ that you develop virag, virakti, vairagya, detachment, detest from all that is worldly. In fact, the same Bhagavatam statement from 11 canto chapter 2 text no 42, says trika eka-kālaḥ, means three things happen simultaneously, instantly as one chants Hare Krishna or performs devotional service. So, what are those three outcomes or experiences as outcome of devotional service? That Bhagvatam says, gives example of someone eating rice or wheat, what happens as we eat.
yathāśnataḥ syustuṣṭiḥ puṣṭiḥ kṣud-apāyo ’nu-ghāsam
[SB 11.2.42]
anughasam [laughs] anu means as we eat one mouthful after another and another, then that gives us tushtih, you feel satisfied, manashyanti you become peaceful, self-satisfaction as you eat mouthful of food. As we performing devotional service, we stay busy performing Bhakti and in this case chanting Hare Krishna, who is satisfied? Soul is satisfied. Soul is satisfied. One becomes atarama, one gets arama [relived] as one chants. Pustih, we get nourished and we enhance our health. We revive and thrive in fact as we eat food that could happen to our body. We thrive, we are nourished, we get supplemented. We will gradually become mahatma, we are atma we will always remain atma but as we perform devotional service, as we chant, as we are nourished, we become mahatma bigger and bigger mahatma and size or health of atma is improved, so you become bigger and better atma.
Third thing is, kṣud-apāyo, that you become free from hunger; you are relived from hunger with every mouthful. You are so much hungry when you start taking meal and you took few morsels of mouthful you become free from some hunger, relieved from hunger. And if you eat more, more relieved and you eat more anughasam, you become free, and ultimately your hunger and thirst is fully quenched.
So, like this, as we serve Krishna more and more that’s the anubhava,
bhaktiḥ pareśānubhavo viraktir anyatra ca
As we perform devotional service, our anubhav, experience, realization is that we are relieved from this material existence. The influence of this material existence doesn’t act or work on us or acts less and less and less. And final point, we are fully relived, and we develop detachment. So, a person has made progress, how much progress he has made, so how do we measure? That measure is done by seeing how much vairagya or virakti he has developed. So, what is a criterion to measure? It’s the degree of detachment from worldly things. So, we should cultivate this vairagya.
vasudeve bhagavati bhakti-yogah prayojitah
janyayaty asu vairagyam jnanam ca yad ahaitukam
[SB 1.2.7]
This is another siddhanta that we understand from Bhagavatam is, as as one performs devotional service, Vasudeve unto Vasudev, Janyayaty- that bhakti will produce janayayaty , asu- quickly bhakti will produce jnanam and vairagyam, knowledge and vairagya- detachment. So, knowledge and detachment would be two products or outcomes of devotional service. As we become detached, we keep going higher speedily or going forward with speed, otherwise the strings attached, the attachments slow us down. The attachments bind us and we may get stuck at whatever level of devotion, devotional level we are. Attachment doesn’t allow us to move forward.
One interesting example given by Srila Prabhupada, if you do not develop detachment or strings attached if we don’t get rid of them, then you would not reach your destination. Example of marriage party that was crossing river Ganga to go to other side of the river for a marriage. So, everyone was sitting in the boat and boatman was rowing the boat all night long. So, by next dawn, he was expecting to reach final destination as he was looking around how far we have come. But he was surprised to see that boat has not yet started the journey. So, everyone was wondering what happened? And of course, the big blunder was he did not even remove the anchor, boats are usually anchored, tied up to a pole or pillar. So, he had not done so as a result the boat remained there at the same place where everyone had boarded the boat night before. So, we have to look around us whether any of such, or how many strings are around us that are binding us. As Krishna says,
asa-pasa-satair baddhah [BG 16.12]
We are bounded with asa- desires, pasa-ropes, so many desires. Each desire is like one rope that is dragging us, pooling us here and there shopping, cinema this and that. Dragged and pooled and pushed, here and there and that is how they keep making rounds in this world. So, talking about boat and the journey. Bhagavatam also says that this human form of life is like a boat, we are sitting in the boat and spiritual master is boatman and instructions of the shastras are favorable wind and we have decided the destination and we will keep making progress and make sure we are in boat and we have captain and we are following and keeping eye on what is anukul [favorable] and what is pratikul [unfavorable] what is favorable or what is unfavorable for all devotional service and how to move forward .
So, these guidelines or instructions hopefully give you inspiration and guide yourself through in the act of chanting also. Because you have to contemplate, meditate and make up your mind, making your intelligence sharper and sharper. Intelligence will keep an eye on chanting or during chanting. And intelligence will make discrimination for you. Intelligence will discriminate and say no don’t do that, do this is right thing to do, what is favorable and what is not favorable, or do this don’t do this. These guidelines, these tips should be used by you.
Wish you all success, success in bhakti and chanting.
Hare Krsna
