Engage Body and Mind in Devotional Service

Giriraj Swami: “Nārada’s Instructions on Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam,”

TEXT 27 

tasmiṁs tadā labdha-rucer mahā-mate

priyaśravasy askhalitā matir mama

yayāham etat sad-asat sva-māyayā

paśye mayi brahmaṇi kalpitaṁ pare

TRANSLATION

O great sage, as soon as I got a taste of the Personality of Godhead, my attention to hear of the Lord was unflinching. And as my taste developed, I could realize that it was only in my ignorance that I had accepted gross and subtle coverings, for both the Lord and I are transcendental.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

Ignorance in material existence is compared to darkness, and in all Vedic literatures the Personality of Godhead is compared to the sun. Wherever there is light there cannot be darkness. Hearing of the Lord’s pastimes is itself transcendental association with the Lord because there is no difference between the Lord and His transcendental pastimes. To become associated with the supreme light is to dissipate all ignorance. By ignorance only, the conditioned soul wrongly thinks that both he and the Lord are products of material nature. But in fact the Personality of Godhead and the living beings are transcendental, and they have nothing to do with the material nature. When ignorance is removed and it is perfectly realized that there is nothing existing without the Personality of Godhead, then nescience is removed. Since the gross and subtle bodies are emanations from the Personality of Godhead, the knowledge of light permits one to engage both of them in the service of the Lord. The gross body should be engaged in acts of rendering service to the Lord (as in bringing water, cleansing the temple or making obeisances, etc.). The path of arcanā, or worshiping the Lord in the temple, involves engaging one’s gross body in the service of the Lord. Similarly, the subtle mind should be engaged in hearing the transcendental pastimes of the Lord, thinking about them, chanting His name, etc. All such activities are transcendental. None of the gross or subtle senses should otherwise be engaged. Such realization of transcendental activities is made possible by many, many years of apprenticeship in the devotional service, but simply attraction of love for the Personality of Godhead, as it was developed in Nārada Muni, by hearing, is highly effective

Giriraj Swami: So, we have been reading about the spiritual development in the life of Sri Narada Muni. He had a humble beginning as the son of a maidservant who was engaged in the service of Bhaktivedāntas or saintly devotees during the four months of the rainy season. And Narada was just a small boy of five years, still he got the opportunity to serve the saintly devotees, to take the remnants of the foods they had eaten and to hear them discuss topics of the Lord. In the previous verse, we heard how by just taking the remnants of the food eaten by the great sages, the sinful contamination within the heart or the inauspiciousness within the heart was eradicated and by such anartha-nivṛtti, one is able to develop the taste for the topics of the Lord. So, here in the next verse, we read the continuation of Narada’s progress in the stage of ruci which follows anartha-nivṛtti. Well, both are mentioned here, mainly ruci or taste but also niṣṭhā or steadiness, because he mentions he became steady in his attraction for hearing of the topics of the Lord but mainly we hear how his taste developed and increased for the Personality of Godhead.

On the absolute platform, there is no difference between the Lord and Lord’s pastimes, the Lord and the Lord’s qualities, the Lord and the Lord’s names. And therefore, by hearing of the Lord’s pastimes, one is actually associating with the Lord Himself. Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta says that:

kṛṣṇa— sūrya-sama; māyā haya andhakāra

That Krishna is like the Sun and maya or nescience is like darkness. Where there is Krishna, there can be no nescience. 

So, Narada by developing attraction for the Personality of Godhead, by developing taste for the process of hearing and chanting about the Personality of Godhead, gradually began to realize that he and the Lord are both transcendental. They have nothing to do with the material nature and that the gross body made of earth, water, fire, air and ether, and the subtle body made of mind, intelligence and false ego are unnecessary and unwanted because both the Lord, both the Supreme soul and the individual soul are transcendental. But, given the fact that we are covered by the gross body and subtle body, what are we to do? Srila Prabhupada explains that as long as we are covered by the material body, we should engage both the subtle body and the gross body- in the Lord’s service. The gross body can be engaged in the process of temple worship and the subtle body or the mind and intelligence can be engaged in hearing and chanting and remembering the pastimes of the Lord. Of course, one can say one chants with the tongue and one hears with the ear, which is true. But the chanting and hearing are actually perceived, the Lord’s holy name and form and qualities and pastimes and paraphernalia, are perceived within the mind which is the center of the senses but which is a part of the subtle body. 

Srila Prabhupada gave the example that chanting, he compared chanting to watching the television, that the ears are like the antenna and the mind is like the television screen and the viewer is the soul. So, although the program is broadcasted from the station, which could be compared to the chanting by the tongue and vocal chords, and the program is received by the antenna, which is compared to the ears, the program is actually broadcasted on the television screen which is the mind and the viewer or the soul watches the broadcast on the television screen or experiences the sound of the holy name in the mind.

So therefore, although chanting and hearing are physical processes that involve the tongue and the ear, but the actual perception of the holy name and the pastimes of the Lord when chanted, takes place through the medium of the mind. And remembering falls exclusively in the jurisdiction of the mind. Yes, we remember what we have heard and chanted but the process of remembering does not depend on the immediate experience of hearing and chanting and therefore, remembrance takes place exclusively within the mind at the time. And because remembrance takes place exclusively within the mind, it is the ultimate goal of all of the sensory activities performed in vaidhi bhakti and therefore, the basic principle of vaidhi sādhana-bhakti is to always remember Krishna and never forget Him. Because if we chant and hear without attention, or in other words, if we chant and hear simply with the tongue and ears but our mind is somewhere else, in a way or at least to an extent, we could be forgetting Krishna while we are chanting. We could actually be more absorbed in some other thought or consciousness.

So, in the injunction to always remember Krishna and never forget Him means that while we are engaged in the devotional service with the senses, the mind should be thinking of Krishna and that thinking of Krishna is actually Krishna consciousness. But, as Srila Prabhupada says in the purport to actually come to the stage of taste for Krishna consciousness takes many years of apprenticeship and devotional service, but if one actually begins to develop some love for the Personality of Godhead, then one becomes eager to hear of Him, and chant of Him, and think of Him and then the whole process is accelerated. But in any case, with or without taste, with or without attraction, we follow the regular processes of devotional services, a matter of duty, and by our sincere efforts and by the mercy of the Lord, eventually we will vanquish the anarthas within the heart and become steady in our practices and actually develop taste for the Personality of Godhead.

Hare Krishna.

Are there any questions or comments?

Devotee: In the purport Srila Prabhupada speaks about many years of apprenticeship (Unintelligible 17:05). Could you elaborate on exactly what he was trying to say? 

Giriraj Swami: Such realization of transcendental activities is made possible by many, many years of apprenticeship in the devotional service. But simply attraction of love for the Personality of Godhead as it was developed in Narada Muni by hearing, is highly effective. Well, the apprenticeship could involve different types of service, like going to the forest to bring wood for the spiritual master for the performance of the sacrifices and so on. And such service does lead on to develop taste. But the type of apprenticeship where the disciple serves the master with the physical senses but without much attraction for hearing is a more preliminary stage and therefore, the stage of actually hearing, developing eagerness to hear and taste for hearing is more quickly effective. Although, one cannot just suddenly develop taste. There is a process to develop taste and the process is to render practical service. So, I mean it sounds like something mysterious, it is not really mysterious but it just takes time to actually develop taste, takes time and until we develop taste, we serve as apprentices and render menial service to the spiritual master and at the same time, hear. But the hearing is not so effective as it is when after years of service we become purified and actually develop taste. Then, the process accelerates.

Devotee: You see in many places in Srila Prabhupada’s writings, he speaks of the heart and the mind. Could guru Maharaja give a more precise definition? In terms of what is the heart, what is the mind.

Giriraj Swami: Well, in the Vedic civilization, the heart is considered the locus of the mind, the subtle body. In the West, people tend to identify the mind with the brain, but in Vedic culture they identify the mind with the heart, but the heart is also the locus of the soul and the Super soul. So, depending on the context the heart could refer to the soul or to the subtle body that covers the soul.

Devotee: I heard you say that Srila Prabhupada said it took him thirty years to perfect his chanting, something like that.

Giriraj Swami: Yes. He said it took him thirty years to be able to chant the way he does now. He didn’t say perfect but I think we assumed that he was chanting perfectly then. But he said, “It took me thirty years to be able to chant the way I chant.”

Devotee: Was there any special context in which he was speaking?

Giriraj Swami: I don’t know the specific context but I can imagine that he was encouraging a devotee to persevere.

Granthraj Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam ki jaya!

Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!

Nitai-Gaura premānande! Hari Haribol!