"Yes" to Krsna, "No" to Illusion (Part 2)

by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

"By rendering devotional service unto the Personality of Godhead, Sri Krishna, one immediately acquires causeless knowledge and detachment from the world."

Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.2.7

...Continued from the last issue...

If you hear about Krishna, if you chant about Krishna, if you think about Krishna, if you worship Krishna, if you render some service to Krishna, if you offer everything to Krishna, you'll see Krishna always, twentyfour hours a day. This is bhakti-yoga. My students in the Krishna consciousness society are following these principles: They are cooking for Krishna, dancing for Krishna, singing for Krishna, talking for Krishna, going around the world for Krishna— everything for Krishna. Anyone can adopt these principles. Where is the difficulty?

vasudeve bhagavati bhakti-yogah prayojitah

SB 1.2.7

And if you practice Krishna consciousness in this way, the result will be janayaty asu vairagyam jnanam ca yad ahaitukam: Very soon you will automatically attain knowledge and detachment.

The mystic yogis are trying very hard to become detached from this material world by the processes of yama (proscriptions), niyama (prescribed duties), asana (sitting postures), pranayama (breath control), pratyahara (withdrawal of the senses), dharana (concentration), dhyana (meditation), and samadhi (trance). This is the eightfold mystic yogic system. And what is the goal? Detachment from the material world. Nowadays people take the goal of yoga to be health. But yoga is not actually meant for that purpose. Yoga is meant to detach us from matter and connect us with the Supreme. That is yoga. There are various types of yoga, but the supreme yoga is described in the Bhagavad-gita (6.47) by Krishna as follows:

yoginam api sarvesam mad-gatenantar-atmana
sraddhavan bhajate yo mam sa me yuktatamo matah

"And of all yogis, the one with great faith who always abides in Me, thinks of Me within himself, and renders transcendental loving service to Me—he is the most intimately united with Me in yoga and is the highest of all. That is My opinion."

So the first-class yogi is he who is always thinking of Krishna, and the easiest and simplest way to think of Krishna is to chant

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

By this process your tongue, voice, and hearing process are all fixed on Krishna. That is samadhi, absorption in thought of Krishna.

This absorption in Krishna, however, can come only if we are detached from the sense objects. As Krishna says in Bhagavad-gita (2.44),

bhogaisvarya-prasaktanam tayapahrta cetasam
vyavasayatmika buddhih samadhau na vidhiyate

Those who are too much attached to material enjoyment and opulence cannot attain samadhi, absorption in Krishna consciousness. They are thinking that material enjoyment and opulence will make them happy, and so they are called apahrta-cetasam, bewildered. But if you practice bhakti-yoga, detachment will automatically come, and absorption in Krishna consciousness will follow.

The whole Krishna consciousness movement is based on the principles of knowledge and detachment. Now we are in ignorance, thinking, "I am this body, and I am attached to my bodily expansions—my wife, children, grandchildren, daughters-in-law, sons-inlaw, and so on." In this way we gather our attachments around us. These attachments should not be rejected at once, but they should be dovetailed in Krishna consciousness. This principle has been enunciated by Srila Rupa Gosvami:

anasaktasya visayan yatharham upayunjatah
nirbandhah krsna-sambandhe yuktam vairagyam ucyate

A man and a woman should live together as householders in relationship with Krishna, only for the purpose of discharging duties in the service of Krishna. The husband, wife, and children should all be engaged in Krishna conscious duties, and then all these bodily or material attachments will disappear.

Every family can worship Vasudeva, or Krishna. You can install a small Deity or a picture of Krishna in your house and perform worship. For instance, everyone has to cook food to eat. So, cook nice vegetarian foods for Krishna, offer them to the Deity form or a picture of Krishna, and then partake of the prasadam, or remnants. This is bhakti-yoga.

It is not that the Deity should be installed only in the temple. Why not in your home? Although Krishna is the virat-purusa, with a form as big as the universe, He can also come within your room as a small Deity. Anor aniyan mahato mahiyan: God is bigger than the biggest and smaller than the smallest. That is His greatness.

So everyone can practice bhakti-yoga under the guidance of a bona fide spiritual master, one who knows the science of Krishna. Don't lose this opportunity of human life. Practice bhakti-yoga, be Krishna conscious, and make your life successful.

Our mission is to teach this science. It is not a business—"Give me some money, and I will teach you." The knowledge is free. We are simply encouraging everyone, "Chant the Hare Krishna mantra." What is the difficulty? Simply chant Hare Krishna and dance. Why go to some club to dance? The whole family can chant and dance at home. You will be happy.

Then you will understand your constitutional position as servants of Krishna. This is the main mission of human life: to understand our position as servants of the Lord. This understanding naturally results in vairagya, detachment.

Two good examples are Sanatana Gosvami and Rupa Gosvami, the foremost disciples of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Before meeting Lord Caitanya they were the chief ministers of a king, Nawab Hussein Shah. They associated with highly aristocratic men. But after they met Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu they decided to retire from the king's service and join Lord Caitanya's Krishna consciousness movement. About them it is said,

tyaktva turnam asesamandala-pati-srenim sada tuccha-vat

Although they were big leaders of society, they quickly gave it all up as very insignificant. Then what did they do?

bhutva dinaganesakau karunaya kaupina-kanthasritau

For the benefit of the whole human society, they became renounced mendicants and taught Krishna consciousness. Here the words dina-gana mean "the general mass of poor people."

Rupa Gosvami and Sanatana Gosvami saw that the people were very poor because they did not know the aim of life or the means for achieving it. One is actually poor who is poor in transcendental knowledge. Material poverty is no consideration. That may come or go, and one has to tolerate: tams titiksasva bharata.

And even if you have enough money, you will still be unhappy if you are poor in transcendental knowledge. Therefore transcendental knowledge is real wealth. That is why in India, the brahmanas—those who were rich in knowledge because they understood the Supreme Brahman, Krishna—were traditionally respected even by kings.

So we must become rich in knowledge and detachment. For so long we have been entangled in the materialistic way of life because of attachment. We live our life in ignorance, and after death we get another life, another body. Then another chapter begins. In this way our life is going on. Therefore we must attain detachment from this materialistic way of life so that we can end this changing from one body to another.

Unfortunately, people are so ignorant that they do not take this process of transmigration very seriously. They think, "Let us go on as we are. We don't mind getting another body. Whatever happens, happens." That is not very intelligent.

You must have knowledge. This knowledge is imparted at the very beginning of Krishna's teachings in the Bhagavad-gita (2.11):

asocyan anvasocas tvam
prajna-vadams ca bhasase.

"Arjuna, you are talking like a big pandita, but all your talk concerns this body, which no one should be overly concerned about."

Gatasun agatasums ca nanusocanti panditah: "Real panditas are not very much concerned with this body, but fools and rascals are simply involved with bodily problems." This is jnana, knowledge. One can achieve this jnana very easily.

How? Krishna explains in the Bhagavad-gita (10.10):

tesam satata-yuktanam bhajatam pritipurvakam
dadami buddhi-yogam tam yena mam upayanti te

If you engage in the devotional service of the Supreme Personality of Godhead—Krishna, or Vasudeva—then Krishna, who is within your heart, will impart knowledge to you. But that service must be rendered with love and faith, as we are teaching in the Krishna consciousness movement.

Since He is situated in your heart, Krishna knows what you are. You cannot cheat Him. When He understands that you are serious about knowing Him, He supplies the knowledge by which you can go to Him. That knowledge is the process of bhakti-yoga, as Krishna clearly says in the Eighteenth Chapter of the Bhagavad-gita (18.55):

bhaktya mam abhijanati yavan yas casmi tattvatah
tato mam tattvato jnatva visate tadanantaram

"One can understand Me as I am, as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, only by devotional service. And when one is in full consciousness of Me by such devotion, he can enter into the kingdom of God."

So, you do not need to make any separate endeavor to acquire knowledge. As stated in the present verse of Srimad-Bhagavatam (SB 1.2.7),

janayaty asu vairagyam jnanam ca yad ahaitukam

"By serving Vasudeva, one acquires causes knowledge and detachment."

Thus a sincere devotee is perfect in knowledge because he is enlightened from within by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. As stated in the beginning of SrimadBhagavatam (1.1.1), tene brahma hrda adikavaye: "From within the heart, Krishna gave Lord Brahma the intelligence to create the universe."

Similarly, He will also give you intelligence if you become His sincere servant. As soon as you acquire this knowledge, you will naturally be reluctant to pursue material sense enjoyment.

In the material world everyone is working in ignorance, trying to increase his own sense enjoyment, but in the spiritual world everyone is working in knowledge, trying to increase sense enjoyment of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In two lines the Caitanya-caritamrta (adi-lila 4.165) very nicely explains the difference between material and spiritual motivation:

atmendriya-priti-vancha—tare bali 'kama'
krsnendriya-priti-iccha dhare 'prema' nama

"Wanting to satisfy the desires of one's own senses is called kama, lust, and wanting to satisfy Krishna's senses is called prema, pure loving devotion." We see the contrast between kama and prema in the behavior of Arjuna. At first he wanted to satisfy his own senses:

"My dear Krishna, I cannot possibly kill my cousinbrothers, my grandfather, or my teacher Dronacarya."

But after Krishna had imparted the instructions of the Bhagavad-gita to Arjuna and then asked him, "Now what is your decision?" Arjuna replied,

nasro mohah smrtir labdha tvat-prasadan mayacyuta
sthito 'smi gata-sandehah karisye vacanam tava

"My dear Krishna, by Your grace all my illusion is now gone and I have regained my original Krishna consciousness."

BG 18.73

And what is his conclusion? "My duty is to satisfy You, not my senses." In this way Arjuna again came to his position as Krishna's devotee and fought the Battle of Kuruksetra.

Krishna consciousness, pure love of God, is not something artificial. In the beginning you must follow the regulative principles of bhakti-yoga. Then after some time you will naturally get spontaneous love of God. As Lord Caitanya explains to Sanatana Gosvami in the Caitanya-caritamrta (Madhya-lila 22.107),

nitya-siddha krsna-prema 'sadhya' kabhu naya
sravanadi-suddha-citte karaye udaya

"Pure love for Krishna is eternally established in the hearts of all living entities. It is not something to be gained from another source. When the heart is purified by hearing and chanting about Krishna, that love naturally awakens."

So, love for God is already there within each of us because we are part and parcel of Him, but that love is now covered by lust due to material association. When a mirror is covered by dust, you cannot see yourself reflected in it, but after you polish it you see your face clearly. Similarly, the process of bhakti-yoga polishes the mirror of your heart, and when it is nicely polished, you will see what you are and how you should work so that you will be happy. Everything will be revealed.

Therefore, our request is that you take this Krishna consciousness movement very seriously and try to apply yourself in the service of Krishna.