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13 June 2020
Mantra Meditation takes place in the courtyard of our heart.
Chanting is taking place from 771 locations. Today there is a virtual Ratha-yatra in New York. For 40 years Ratha-yatra is taking place in New York on the streets of Manhattan, 5th avenue. This year it won't be on the streets, but there will be online Kirtana. They have drawn up a schedule for the whole day, according to USA time.Now is night time for them. As they wake up in the morning they will start preparation for Ratha-yatra. I am also getting an opportunity to do kirtana this evening from 7:30 to 8:30 pm IST. Devotees from New York have requested me to do kirtana for the pleasure of the devotees and Lord Jagannatha. Devotees can log onto Facebook and Youtube if they wish to join us.
Madhava Kirti Prabhu is chanting from Australia and all of you who are chanting from 800 different places, towns and villages. I thought that when we do kirtana and Japa and then do smaranam. This smaranam happens antaḥkaraṇa (in the inner conscience). Not only sravanam and kirtana. When different sense objects [shabda(sound), sparsha(touch), rupa(form), rasa(taste), gandha(smell)] come in contact with the senses, the mind experiences it. Hence the mind is one of the major senses.
mamaivamso jiva-loke jiva-bhutah sanatanah manah-sasthanindriyani prakrti-sthani karsati
Translation: The living entities in this conditioned world are My eternal, fragmental parts. Due to conditioned life, they are struggling very hard with the six senses, which include the mind.[BG 15.7]
Experience happens in the mind which is part of the subtle body. When we see, smell, or touch outside things, the experience of all these is internal. It happens in the mind, which is inside. So we do Japa.
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
Experience and realization of this happens in the spiritual mind.
sa vai manaḥ kṛṣṇa-padāravindayor
Maharaja Ambarish would remember the Lord's lotus feet in his mind and that mind became a spiritual mind. After that experience and realization takes place within the soul. The experience of attentive Japa happens within the soul. It does not take place in a false ego. All realization takes place within the soul. The sense objects which are there in form we see them on the outside, but we experience them inside.
Then there is touch and taste. If we have to taste rasgulla then to experience the rasa we have to come in contact with the rasgulla. We can see a form from a distance, but for taste, it is not like that. We can smell it if we go a little closer, not if we are at a distance. But the forms (rupa) which we see outside are experienced within. In chanting too there are spiritual shabda(sound), sparsha(touch), rupa(form), rasa(taste), and gandha(smell).
The four kumaras smelt the Lord’s fragrance in Vaikuntha, experienced it and their Visnu or Krishna Consciousness was awakened. This realization and experiences are taking place within. This can only be realized by the soul. If the soul is not there within you, you are not going to say anything. You are not going to hear anything. There will be no experience. Hearer and seer is the soul. Eyes of some people remain open even after death. They cannot see and count the number of fingers which are shown. Though the dead body has the lips, it cannot speak. Eyes are there which can't see. When there are funeral rites then the body doesn't express trouble. He cannot experience the burning of his body, as there is no soul. So one who experiences is the soul.
When we chant Japa then the immediate result( smaranam) expected is within. Not within our room or village where we are chanting. Experience is there within the soul. It is not experienced on the streets, in the state, country or universe outside. There is an introvert( Antarmukh) and an extrovert( Bahirmukh). We become antarmukh or sanmukha facing the Lord who is there within our hearts. What does the Lord say?
sarvasya cāhaṁ hṛdi sanniviṣṭo mattaḥ smṛtir jñānam apohanaṁ ca vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyo vedānta-kṛd veda-vid eva cāham
Translation: I am seated in everyone’s heart, and from Me come remembrance, knowledge, and forgetfulness. By all the Vedas, I am to be known. Indeed, I am the compiler of Vedānta, and I am the knower of the Vedas. [ BG 15.15]
One who is making us remember about the Lord is the Supersoul[Krsna]. He is reminding us. Is the Lord just taking rest on Ananta Sesa with Mother Laksmi massaging His feet? No, He is active. He is responsible. When we become introverts then we turn towards the Lord and talk with Him face to face. We are the ones who are chanting Japa, but the Lord is one who is giving us remembrance and inspiration. If the Lord is Sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam, can he become the cause of sravanam and kirtana? We may be the immediate cause of sravanam and kirtana. Sravanam and kirtana don't take place only because of one cause, but it happens because of the Lord.
mattah smrtir jnanam apohanam ca
Krsna gives us the intelligence to chant. We are not independent while doing sravanam and kirtana. Then we feel Gurus and scriptures are also the reason.
mali hana kare sei bija aropana sravana-kirtana-jale karaye sechana
Translation: As a gardener, they must plant that seed and water it with practicing: hearing and chanting.[CC, Madhya-lila, 19.152]
Bhakti lata seeds are planted when diksa happens, but the ball is in the disciples’ court. The disciple should do sravanam and kirtana. That seed should be given water and food. This is the order of the sastras. Sastras are spoken by the Lord. The Lord becomes Sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam. In this way there is no limit to the Lord's mercy.
The Lord stays with every jiva. No-one is as close to us as the Lord is. Others can be near us, even in our lap, but in the case of the Lord, we can say that He is near us, not physically but spiritually and personally. Om Purnamadah Purnamidam. He is the source of knowledge and He is the one who makes us forget. He is not responsible for remembrance and forgetfulness experienced by us, as He is just the overseer. According to our karma, sometimes we get sweet fruit or sometimes bitter. It has been said in Kathopanishad that this body is like a tree and the heart is one of the branches on which 2 birds are sitting. One is the soul and another one is the Supersoul. This soul keeps on doing pious and sinful activities. We keep on thinking, "This is good and this is bad". But thinking like this is also wrong. Both sinful and pious activities are wrong. When we attain pious credits and we get heaven. But Heaven is also a first-class prison house.
e taṁ bhuktvā svarga-lokaṁ viśālaṁ kṣīṇe puṇye martya-lokaṁ viśanti evaṁ trayī-dharmam anuprapannā gatāgataṁ kāma-kāmā labhante
Translation: When they have thus enjoyed vast heavenly sense pleasure and the results of their pious activities are exhausted, they return to this mortal planet again. Thus those who seek sense enjoyment by adhering to the principles of the three Vedas achieve only repeated birth and death.
From there also as our pious credits are reduced, we get back to Solapur, not Pandharpur. Both are wrong.
Hence it said in Caitanya-caritamrita
‘dvaite’ bhadrābhadra-jñāna, saba — ‘manodharma’ ‘ei bhāla, ei manda’, — ei saba ‘bhrama’
Translation: “In the material world, conceptions of good and bad are all mental speculations. Therefore, saying ‘This is good’ and ‘This is bad’ is all a mistake.[ CC Antya 4.176]
There is also the 8th offence about the holy names. To consider the chanting of the Hare Krishna to be one of the auspicious ritualistic activities offered in the Vedas as fruitive activities (karma-kanda).
śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanaḥ hṛdy antaḥ stho hy abhadrāṇi vidhunoti suhṛt satām
Translation: Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the Personality of Godhead, who is the Paramātmā [Supersoul] in everyone’s heart and the benefactor of the truthful devotee, cleanses desire for material enjoyment from the heart of the devotee who has developed the urge to hear His messages, which are in themselves virtuous when properly heard and chanted.[ SB 1.2.17]
Real piety is to eternally engage in sravan and kirtana. The two birds are the soul and Supersoul. Jiva becomes extrovert and looks outside then experiences sweet or bitter fruits.
yadṛcchā-lābha-santuṣṭo dvandvātīto vimatsaraḥ samaḥ siddhāv asiddhau ca kṛtvāpi na nibadhyate
Translation: He who is satisfied with gain which comes of its own accord, who is free from duality and does not envy, who is steady in both success and failure, is never entangled, although performing actions.[ BG 4.22]
The Lord expects the jiva to live a simple lifestyle. Nowadays people want to die in style, in a five-star hotel. They want to drink fine wine. Lord wants simple living and high thinking.
Yadrcha- labha santusto
Just be happy with the basic needs. With simple living, we will save much more of our time. We will save our money. How many Chapatis do you eat? If you eat more then you will vomit. How much space is required to sleep? If you earn more money then also you require that much space. There is need and greed. In simple living, we can remain satisfied. In today's lifestyle, there is greed. Greed makes us blind. Greedy never becomes happy.
dvandvātīto vimatsaraḥ
Pious activities and sinful activities are a duality of this world. When there is duality there is envy. We need to note down our enemies. There are 6 famous enemies. Lust, anger, greed, attachment, arrogance, and envy are the enemies. Out of them, some enemies trouble us. For some sadhakas, there is no problem with lust, but they are envious. Some are not greedy, but they are attached. These 6 enemies trouble everyone to different degrees. We need to diagnose it. We see many times that some people are number one in anger. Or they may be number one in envy and lust. So the Lord said,
yadṛcchā-lābha-santuṣṭo dvandvātīto vimatsaraḥ
It has been said that the reason for coming over here is envy of the Lord. It continues when we come here. Why does the Lord only play rasa dance? We also want to play. Then they become lusty. They go to a hotel and have a ball dance with their wives or with other's wife. Just like a rasa dance. It goes on in London or New York or Goa. Just as Krsna is having a rasa dance, we will also have our dance. This is envy. Instead of getting pleasure to see the Lord's rasa dance, they start their own dance. Envy business is very dangerous.
sravanam kirtanam visnoh smaranam is mantra meditation. Meditation takes place in the courtyard of our hearts, where both the soul and the Supersoul resides. We experience this in our hearts when chanting. Thank you.
Hare Krishna
