KKS LECTURE
We tend to experience the world which is governed by the three modes of material nature as reality because we have been covered over by the three modes of nature since time immemorial, therefore we are responding to them in so many situations and are always calculating our advantages and disadvantages and we are trying to fulfil so many desires which are born from this interaction of the material nature. But the soul is not meant at all to be influenced by the three modes of material nature. The soul is of the same nature of the Supreme Lord and the Supreme Lord is …Sanskrit… satisfied within the self. So the devotee also becomes satisfied within , he’s no longer dependent on the three modes of material nature. Therefore it is said – there are two types of people who are happy in this world, one is in total illusion , who is thinking he is happy, he is simply pushed about by the three modes of material nature and therefore the scriptures consider his intelligence immature or childish and the other person is the self realised soul who is beyond the three modes of material nature. When one is beyond the three modes of material nature then one can actually focus on Krishna – the very purpose. The very purpose of life is to focus on Krishna whether one is beyond the modes of material nature or whether one is influenced by the modes of material nature. It doesn’t matter. Ultimately devotional service to Krishna is the only activity, so in our movement mostly we are not free from the influence of the modes of material nature but nonetheless we have the good fortune of very strong transcendental knowledge. So we know a lot but there is a very big gap from what we know and what we practise, sometimes they say that this is the movement with the highest philosophy and it is amazing how little the members of this movement are following of what they know , and it’s like the greatest gap between knowledge and an actual practice , or between practice and precept. Sometimes it is said there is no movement with a greatest distance between the two. And it may be true because there is no movement which has such high goals therefore it is amazing how we can have such high goals and not become discouraged , not become disheartened and not become somehow or other compromised and not to give up trying for the ultimate goal in life , pure unalloyed devotional service to the Supreme lord. It is a gradual process; we see that there is process within the system of bhakti yoga increasing our commitment in various ways, we have many many guidelines on the path of devotional service and one is always meant to progress to a next stage. There is no such thing that one should not look forward of how I can increase my commitment, that’s what it is – my commitment to serve Krishna, in terms of time and in terms of quality , how can I increase it and if one is not increasing then one is actually no longer on the spiritual path , because the spiritual path is always increasing , at least one is not on the path of spiritual progress I assume. To be stagnated in spiritual life means one becomes temporarily bound up again in the material energy, and one has to stay in the material world for some reason or other. So little by little we take steps, like for example it begins that we have some faith then one comes near the association of devotees, and there comes a point where one surrenders to the devotees and when one begins to place himself under the directions of the devotees – that’s a very difficult stage, that stage is a big step generally we call it joining, one joins or is almost about to join , where he places himself under the direction of the devotees , a very difficult thing to achieve , of course it takes allot of practise for one to do so , but if one person accepts another as more advanced and as being able to guide us , that is the principal. Then one can become situated in bhajana-kriya , then eventually one can be brought to the lotus feet of a spiritual master , and once one tries to take shelter there , then one has to accept the order , first before initiation one has to already obey the order of the spiritual master , only after one has for some time followed the orders of the spiritual master and in that way has passed certain tests then one becomes an eligible candidate and then commitment still increases more and more and it continues more and more and it comes to the point that we have to fully give everything for Krishna so in every discussion the underlying aim of the discussion is to give us insight in how to increase our commitment to Krishna if that’s not the aim of our Krishna-katha ,then we have not actually understand the purpose of Krsna-katha .
If you think that it is merely to relish ,then we should understand that still there is more , whatever internal experiences we may have in Krishna consciousness in terms of ecstasies or deep inspiration and so on , have to translate in to renewed service.
If the consequence of our renewed service is that we are experiencing great deep ecstasy or inspiration that ecstasy is only measured in how much one is then inspired to render service and that is the actual on going process and each time our commitment should increase in that way. It should not just increase in terms of placing ourselves below authority , in terms of taking vows, it should come from experiencing great inspiration for the service and then showing to be very enthusiastic. Just as in one prayer there is a prayer, where it is saying, I am praying to be very enthusiastic just like my spiritual master who is always enthused, that is the quality, always enthused to do devotional service. Not burdened by devotional service, of course in the material world we have material bodies and material minds and these material bodies they have limited capacity, they get exhausted, how long can we work , how much head ache can we take , how much can we take on our shoulders before we become crushed , but we see the pure devotee is always enthusiastic just as I recall how Lokanath maharaja somewhere in the 80’s. At one point he came to me and asked me to help organise certain things for the Pada Yatra during the festival, and I said Maharaja why are you coming to me I am so busy, I have so much service already, I don’t even have time to do what I’m supposed to do. He said No no no, in our village we have a tradition if you want something done you must go to a busy man, I replied what logic is this you go to a busy man, he replied yes you go to a busy man not one who is not busy.
He said the busy man by nature is active, so at least he’ll to do something, whereas the man who is not busy by nature is lazy, will get nothing done at all. I could see here is some old village logic, different, I found it endearing, so he got me with this village logic. If we use this example of this busy man to the pure devotee, may take so much devotional service because the pure devotee just does not take responsibility for worshipping the deity and for making sure that the temple of the Lord is properly cleaned and maintained but he is also taking responsibility for bringing all the conditioned souls to lotus feet of the deity, therefore he is taking responsibility for the conditioned souls wherever he can wherever he can , wherever there is a conditioned soul in need… how can he turn that person away … he cannot … therefore he must also give his energy and this way there is no limit
