Happiness beyond Duality

Giriraj Swami: 

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

We read from the Bhagavad-gītā As It Is Chapter Six,

TEXT 20–23

yatroparamate cittaṁ
niruddhaṁ yoga-sevayā
yatra caivātmanātmānaṁ
paśyann ātmani tuṣyati

sukham ātyantikaṁ yat tad
buddhi-grāhyam atīndriyam
vetti yatra na caivāyaṁ
sthitaś calati tattvataḥ

yaṁ labdhvā cāparaṁ lābhaṁ
manyate nādhikaṁ tataḥ
yasmin sthito na duḥkhena
guruṇāpi vicālyate

taṁ vidyād duḥkha-saṁyoga-
viyogaṁ yoga-saṁjñitam

TRANSLATION

The stage of perfection is called trance, or samadhi, when one’s mind is completely restrained from material mental activities by practice of yoga. This is characterized by one’s ability to see the self by the pure mind and to relish and rejoice in the self. In that joyous state, one is situated in boundless transcendental happiness realized through transcendental senses. Established thus, one never departs from the truth, and upon gaining this he thinks there is no greater gain. Being situated in such a position, one is never shaken, even in the midst of greatest difficulty. This indeed is actual freedom from all miseries arising from material contact.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

By practice of yoga one gradually becomes detached from material concepts. This is the primary characteristic of the yoga principle. And after this, one becomes situated in trance, or samādhi, which means that the yogī realizes the Supersoul through transcendental mind and intelligence, without any of the misgivings of identifying the self with the Superself. Yoga practice is more or less based on the principles of the Patañjali system. Some unauthorized commentators try to identify the individual soul with the Supersoul, and the monists think this to be liberation, but they do not understand the real purpose of the Patañjali system of yoga. There is an acceptance of transcendental pleasure in the Patañjali system, but the monists do not accept this transcendental pleasure, out of fear of jeopardizing the theory of oneness. The duality of knowledge and knower is not accepted by the nondualist, but in this verse transcendental pleasure – realized through transcendental senses – is accepted. And this is corroborated by Patañjali Muni, the famous exponent of the yoga system. The great sage declares in his Yoga-sūtras (3.34): puruṣārtha-śūnyānāṁ guṇānāṁ pratiprasavaḥ kaivalyaṁ svarūpa-pratiṣṭhā vā citi-śaktir iti.

This citi-śakti, or internal potency, is transcendental. Puruṣārtha means material religiosity, economic development, sense gratification and, at the end, the attempt to become one with the Supreme. This “oneness with the Supreme” is called kaivalyam by the monist. But according to Patañjali, this kaivalyam is an internal, or transcendental, potency by which the living entity becomes aware of his constitutional position. In the words of Lord Caitanya, this state of affairs is called ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam, or clearance of the impure mirror of the mind. This “clearance” is actually liberation, or bhava-mahā-dāvāgni-nirvāpaṇam. The theory of nirvāṇa – also preliminary – corresponds with this principle. In the Bhāgavatam (2.10.6) this is called svarūpeṇa vyavasthitiḥ. The Bhagavad-gītā also confirms this situation in this verse.

After nirvāṇa, or material cessation, there is the manifestation of spiritual activities, or devotional service to the Lord, known as Kṛṣṇa consciousness. In the words of the Bhāgavatam, svarūpeṇa vyavasthitiḥ: this is the “real life of the living entity.” Māyā, or illusion, is the condition of spiritual life contaminated by material infection. Liberation from this material infection does not mean destruction of the original eternal position of the living entity. Patañjali also accepts this by his words kaivalyaṁ svarūpa-pratiṣṭhā vā citi-śaktir iti. This citi-śakti, or transcendental pleasure, is real life. This is confirmed in the Vedānta-sūtra (1.1.12) as ānanda-mayo ‘bhyāsāt. This natural transcendental pleasure is the ultimate goal of yoga and is easily achieved by execution of devotional service, or bhakti-yoga. Bhakti-yoga will be vividly described in the Seventh Chapter of the Bhagavad-gītā.

In the yoga system, as described in this chapter, there are two kinds of samādhi, called samprajñāta-samādhi and asamprajñāta-samādhi. When one becomes situated in the transcendental position by various philosophical researches, he is said to have achieved samprajñāta-samādhi. In the asamprajñāta-samādhi there is no longer any connection with mundane pleasure, for one is then transcendental to all sorts of happiness derived from the senses. When the yogī is once situated in that transcendental position, he is never shaken from it. Unless the yogī is able to reach this position, he is unsuccessful. Today’s so-called yoga practice, which involves various sense pleasures, is contradictory. A yogī indulging in sex and intoxication is a mockery. Even those yogīs who are attracted by the siddhis (perfections) in the process of yoga are not perfectly situated. If yogīs are attracted by the by-products of yoga, then they cannot attain the stage of perfection, as is stated in this verse. Persons, therefore, indulging in the make-show practice of gymnastic feats or siddhis should know that the aim of yoga is lost in that way.

The best practice of yoga in this age is Kṛṣṇa consciousness, which is not baffling. A Kṛṣṇa conscious person is so happy in his occupation that he does not aspire after any other happiness. There are many impediments, especially in this age of hypocrisy, to practicing haṭha-yoga, dhyāna-yoga and jñāna-yoga, but there is no such problem in executing karma-yoga or bhakti-yoga.

As long as the material body exists, one has to meet the demands of the body, namely eating, sleeping, defending, and mating. But a person who is in pure bhakti-yoga, or in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, does not arouse the senses while meeting the demands of the body. Rather, he accepts the bare necessities of life, making the best use of a bad bargain, and enjoys transcendental happiness in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. He is callous toward incidental occurrences – such as accidents, disease, scarcity and even the death of a most dear relative – but he is always alert to execute his duties in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, or bhakti-yoga. Accidents never deviate him from his duty. As stated in the Bhagavad-gītā (2.14), āgamāpāyino ‘nityās tāṁs titikṣasva bhārata. He endures all such incidental occurrences because he knows that they come and go and do not affect his duties. In this way he achieves the highest perfection in yoga practice.

COMMENT

Hare Krishna.

This verse describes the perfection of yoga. As we know yoga is very popular now, in yoga studios, but most people have little knowledge of the actual goal of yoga. The perfection of yoga is described in the present verse, that one enjoys transcendental pleasure within. One enjoys transcendental pleasure through transcendental senses, and purified mind and intelligence. And one relishes transcendental pleasure in the relationship between the individual soul and the Supreme Soul. The purpose of yoga or human life in general, is not to try to enjoy the senses of the body. In fact, the Bhagavad-gītā states that one who tries to enjoy the contact of the senses with the objects of the senses, is always frustrated. Verily he lives in vain; he lives in vain because he can never be happy through the contact of the senses with the objects of the senses. And he lives in vain because the real purpose of life, to find eternal happiness, to realize eternal happiness on the spiritual platform in the relationship of the individual soul with the Supreme Soul has eluded him, and so he will die like the animals and be born again like the animals, and continue the almost endless cycle of repeated birth and death in the temporary, miserable existence of material life and death.

Even the yoga siddhis or mystic perfections are not the goal of yoga practice. They are actually byproducts of the yoga practice that are not meant to be enjoyed by the yogi. Srila Prabhupada had a disciple named Rajarama dasa, who was actually a serious yogi before he met Srila Prabhupada. He was originally from Austria but he ventured to the Himalayas as a young man, and actually came into the association of some real genuine, serious practitioners of yoga in the Himalayas, I believe in Nepal. And they were genuinely going through the different stages of the ashtanga-yoga system, the eightfold system. And he explained that these siddhis, aṇimā, laghimā, prāpti, becoming bigger than the biggest, smaller than the smallest, being able to get anything that one wants from anywhere, so many. But in the actual practice of yoga, these siddhis are considered just to be confirmation to the yogi, that he is on the right path and that he is making progress, nothing more. They are not meant to be enjoyed by the yogi. And if one wants to use such siddhis for material enjoyment, he is considered to have been deviated from the path, and he will not reach the goal.

Srila Prabhupada had personal experience with some yogis in India. He had one friend whose guru was a mystic yogi, and the guru asked the friend or the other disciple what he would like. So the friend or the other disciple said, “I would like a fresh pomegranate from Kabul.” So immediately the yogi produced a branch, freshly cut branch, from a pomegranate tree with a ripe pomegranate on it. Now one of the mystic perfections is to be able to materialize things, create something out of nothing apparently, but this was different. This siddhi, prāpti-siddhi means that one can get something from a distant place, as if one could reach thousands of miles and take what one wants and bring it. So there are so many of these mystic powers, but devotees are not captivated by them, even genuine practitioners of the ashtanga-yoga system or not, but definitely devotees are not. Later, Srila Prabhupada had a friend in Calcutta named Tarun Kantigosh, who was the son of Tushar Kantigosh, who is the publisher of a major newspaper, and his grandfather was a contemporary supporter of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, one of our previous acharyas, and they were known as devotees of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. So one afternoon in the Calcutta ISKCON temple, Tarun Kantigosh came to visit Srila Prabhupada, I happened to be there, and he told Srila Prabhupada about a guru or sadhu or yogi, who had manifested an apple, apparently from nothing. And Srila Prabhupada replied that yes, there are yogis who can do magic but we are not captivated by their magic. We are captivated by Krishna’s magic. And he gave the example that if you plant this tiny apple seed, from that tiny apple seed you can get a whole tree, and that huge tree can produce hundreds of apples, so that is Krishna’s magic. And if one becomes friends with Krishna, then Krishna can do any magic for him. He can produce any amount of apples for him.

And then Srila Prabhupada gave the example that he came to America from India by ship with about seven dollars, which as he said was hardly enough to last one day in New York City. But now, Srila Prabhupada had a hundred centers, and in every center, there were between ten and a hundred devotees, and none of them were going to the office or the factory to work, but still Krishna was providing food for all of them. He was providing apples for all of them. He was providing thousands of apples for the devotees and visitors to the temples every day. And the devotees were not working for the apples; they weren’t cultivating apple trees and they weren’t going to work to earn money to buy apples. So where are the apples coming from? They are coming from Krishna. That is Krishna’s magic. So Srila Prabhupada said we do not have to develop our teeny mystic powers by which we can produce one apple or a dozen apples, but we cultivate our relationship with Krishna who is Yogesvara, the master of all mystic powers. And if we are friends with Him, He can provide any number of apples for us. So the devotee, he does not depend on his own power or resources, but he depends on Krishna. And he experiences happiness in his relationship with Krishna. And he is so firmly fixed in his faith in Krishna, in his relationship with Krishna, that he is not deviated by any calamity. There are so many calamities everywhere in the material world. Every day, it depends on how many people you know and how much they tell you, but every day we hear about calamities; sudden deaths, unexpected deaths. I have heard of a few of those incidents in the last five days, several such incidents just in the last five days. But a devotee or a yogi who has reached the stage of perfection, is never deviated from his duties.

Now there is an incident described in the Mahābhārata, in which the five sleeping sons of the Pandavas were mercilessly killed by Duryodhana. Well that was another incident, but before that there was the incident where Abhimanyu, Arjuna’s son, was surrounded by the Kauravas

 and killed. So when Arjuna heard the news, he was distraught and he was ready to give up his own life. In Mauritius a newspaper publisher came to meet Srila Prabhupada, and he questioned Arjuna’s actions, that he heard the Bhagavad-gītā directly from Krishna, and at the end of the Bhagavad-gītā he told Krishna that he had understood the teachings of the Bhagavad-gītā, but still he acted in a contrary way. He was so upset when he heard about the death of his son, that he himself was ready to enter into fire. So Srila Prabhupada replied that, “We all know theoretically that we are not the body; we are the soul within the body.” Yaṁ na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre, when the body is slain, the soul is not slain. We know that, but still when we receive news that a loved one has died, we feel grief. And Srila Prabhupada said that is natural; everyone will feel grief when he hears that a loved one has died. But Krishna spoke the Bhagavad-gītā to Arjuna, to convince Arjuna to fight. And Arjuna did not give up his duty although temporarily he was overcome by grief, he did not give up his duty and he fought. And that was his success, he did not disobey the order of Krishna to fight.

So this is the position of a devotee. He does not give up his duty under any circumstances. Temporarily he may be disturbed by some temporary occurrence in the world, but he does not give up his duty in Krishna consciousness. And he relishes transcendental happiness within, especially by the chanting of the holy names.

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

The devotee, he closes his eyes and chants the Hare Krishna maha-mantra, and he focuses his mind on the sound of the Hare Krishna maha-mantra, and many things happen. He may appear to be doing nothing, he might appear to be sleeping from a distance, but he is actually associating with Krishna in the form of transcendental sound, and many things are happening internally. The first thing is ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam; that the dust on the mirror of the mind is being cleansed. Because of the dust on the mirror, we cannot see ourselves clearly, we cannot see the world clearly, we become confused. We are covered by ignorance and we think, I am this body, so and so is my wife, so and so is my son, so and so is my daughter, so and so is my mother, so and so is my father, this is my money, this is my house, this is my car. We have so many anxieties in relation to the body and the extensions of the body, and we are constantly making plans how to protect what we have, or increase what we have. But when we chant, when we go inside and chant the holy names with absorption, then ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam, that dust becomes cleared. And we realize, “I am not the body; I have no real connection with this world; my real connection is with Krishna, with the Supreme Soul. So none of these things are mine, they all belong to Krishna and He is giving me what He thinks I need or can use in His service. It is all meant for His service, and if He wants me to have something to serve Him, I will accept it as His mercy. And if He takes something away, if He thinks I no longer need it or it may be harmful for me to have it, I also accept that as His grace.” And by this process, bhava-mahā-dāvāgni-nirvāpaṇaṁ, the blazing fire of material existence is extinguished, and this is called nirvana, not exactly the Buddhist conception; the Buddhist conception is that nirvana is the goal. But nirvana really means, the cessation of material miseries. It is not the end, but it is a stage on the way to the goal, bhava-mahā-dāvāgni-nirvāpaṇaṁ. We become relieved from the material miseries.

According to Srila Rupa Gosvami, in the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, there are six characteristics of pure devotional service. Two are manifest in the stage of sādhana-bhakti; two more in the stage of bhāva-bhakti; and two more in the stage of prema-bhakti. So kleśagni or the eradication of material miseries, begins to take place in the stage of sādhana-bhakti. You can feel it even in this stage of practice, kleśagni and śubhadā; that also begins in sādhana-bhakti. Śubhadā means that bhakti-yoga bestows auspiciousness, and part of auspiciousness is happiness. Even in the stage of sādhana-bhakti, one experiences a level of happiness. And as one continues chanting and following the regulative principles, by the grace of Krishna and His devotees, one can come to the stage of bhāva-bhakti. And that is the stage of trance or samadhi, in which one relishes the self with transcendental senses, one realizes one’s self. As Srila Prabhupada quoted from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, svarūpeṇa vyavasthitiḥ, one is situated in one’s svarūpa, in one’s original eternal identity. And one can experience exactly what is described in this verse. And it is a natural continuation of the same process of sādhana-bhakti. We just have to persevere seriously, without being deviated or diverted; just like yogis can become distracted by siddhis, devotees also can be distracted.

As one progresses in bhakti-yoga, one gets respect, one gets praise, one gets facility, one gets money. But a pure devotee will not be distracted by these things, and we should avoid being distracted by them. Because if we do become distracted, we will not reach the goal, we will not reach the perfection. We may get name and fame, power and position, prestige, and different types of material opulence, but we won’t get Krishna. We won’t get that real pleasure that we are seeking, ānandāmbudhi-vardhanam, that ocean of ānandā or pleasures, that we can experience by absorbing ourselves internally in the chanting of the holy names. And that alone can satisfy the soul, because we are like fishes; they can be happy in the water. If you take them out of the water, even if you put them in a beautiful golden bowl filled with gems and jewels, but if there is no water they cannot be happy because they are creatures of the water. Similarly, we are spiritual beings; we come originally from Krishna and we can be happy only with Krishna, only in the spiritual atmosphere. No amount of material facility can give us happiness because we are spiritual by nature, and we can feel happiness only in the spiritual environment. We can feel at home only with Krishna, and therefore Srila Prabhupada presented the goal of Krishna consciousness as going back home back to Godhead.

So this is practical, it is theoretically possible by ashtanga-yoga, but in the present age of Kali-yuga it is not practical. But this is practical, bhakti-yoga, Krishna consciousness. And therefore, we beg people to take to this process; don’t misuse this valuable human form of life. And take it seriously; don’t be chasing after the illusory dreams of the material world, becoming more rich, more famous, more powerful or whatever. And the verse says that even in the midst of the greatest difficulty one is never shaken. And upon gaining this, he thinks there is no greater gain. Depending on who we are and what we have, we might be tempted by a hundred dollars; a poor person, a desperate person, could be tempted by a hundred dollars. Someone else wouldn’t be tempted by a hundred dollars, might be tempted by a thousand dollars; someone else won’t be tempted but he might be tempted by a hundred thousand dollars; someone else might not be they might be tempted by a million dollars or thirty million dollars, fifty million dollars. But a devotee, he is not shaken in the midst of any difficulty and he doesn’t think that anything is greater than Krishna consciousness, not even a hundred million or a billion or a trillion, nothing. Nothing can compare to Krishna consciousness and therefore, he is not deviated by loss or gain, but he remains fixed. And when we are fixed, we can make steady progress. Until then, we may make progress but we are shaky.

Sometimes we go forward, sometimes we go to the side, sometimes we go backwards; it is a very circuitous route. But when we are convinced by personal realization as well as philosophical understanding, that we are part and parcel of Krishna and our real happiness lies in our relationship with Him, not in the things of this world and that in fact, the things of this world can never make us happy, and even if they give us some happiness, we can’t keep them. We cannot even keep the body which is the basis of our material happiness, the basis of our sense of pleasure that will all be taken away from us at the time of death. It is always being taken away to different degrees, different things, but at the time of death everything is taken away. The body itself is taken away and everything related to the body is taken away. The only thing that remains is the soul, and its relationship with the Supreme Soul. And that should be our focus. And again, as we can just close our eyes, forget everything else, and absorb ourselves in the holy name of Krishna, so many things as described in this verse will happen. We will actually feel them happening. We are fortunate to have beautiful deities here. We can also chant in front of the deities, but ultimately Radha and Krishna are the same as the holy names, Hare Krishna, and looking at the deities should serve to help us absorb ourselves in the holy name, not that the holy name recedes into the background. And by chanting and hearing, of course being absorbed in the deities is also purifying. Every way in which we associate with Krishna is purifying, but especially for this age, the holy name is recommended. And we can chant anywhere. To see the deities, we have to go to the temple; to hear Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam or read Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, we need the book. These things are not hard to come by, but the holy name is available anywhere and everywhere. We should take full advantage of it; realize the perfection of yoga; the perfection of Krishna consciousness and enjoy the happiness that we want, the real pleasure that is our birthright as parts and parcels of Krishna. Hare Krishna.

Are there any questions or comments? Yes.

Devotee: You were mentioning that when devotees experience grief due to the death of a loved one, they start chanting the holy name and all these things start happening, and all these things are going on in their state of grief, while he is chanting. So it seems that the devotee is taking advantage of the feeling of grief while he is chanting to enhance japa. I am wondering, what is the role of grief and our chanting?

Giriraj Swami: Very good question. What is your name? Drew, sometimes in our daily lives we may feel grief for something material, or happiness for something material. Can we bring those emotions into our chanting, and is there a chance that doing so may take us away from our chanting? Initially, being conditioned souls and being engrossed in the world, when we pick up our beads and begin to chant there may be, most likely there would be some residue of material sentiments within the mind. But as we chant, ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam, it becomes cleared, it might be happiness or distress. Sometimes the emotion is so powerful that it takes us away from the sound of the holy name. There is so many variables but, in that case, one should try to just let go of the emotion. One may have it when one begins the chanting, but one shouldn’t hold on to it. One should let go of it and just go into that internal space that is beyond the phenomenon of the world. That is the basic principle; to let go of whatever it is.

Devotee: (Unintelligible 00:56:19)

Giriraj Swami: Yes. Can you use an emotion to get into chanting? Another way of phrasing it would be, in grief, we may want to take more shelter of Krishna or if we are afraid. This is most common if we are afraid; we are facing a threat; we take more shelter of Krishna. And similarly, in a sense, all of those sentiments can be translated into fear, and we take shelter of Krishna to become free from fear, because our fear is that we will be distracted. Okay, I get ten million dollars; so on one level I feel happy but on another level I am afraid. I am afraid that I may become diverted from Krishna consciousness and I don’t want to be diverted from Krishna consciousness for anything. So in fear, we take more shelter in Krishna, take more shelter of the holy name, and then when we go deep internally into the holy name, then we go beyond all that.

All right. Thank you very much.

Hare Krishna.