Japa Retreat—Questions and Answer Day 01

Giriraj Swami: So, from the absolute point of view, anything on the material platform, so-called happiness or so-called distress, are all distress. Srila Prabhupada gave the example that if you go to a madhouse, some of the patients are laughing hysterically, some are crying hysterically, but they are all miserable, whether they are laughing or crying. So, on the spiritual platform, or not even on the spiritual platform, but trying to rise to the spiritual platform, when we become aware of our faults, and our primary fault is having turned away from Krishna, that is the basic fault. And in breaking our relationship with Krishna, we alone are at fault. Usually, in the material world, if there is some disruption in a relationship between husband and wife, the counselor will say, ‘There is fault on both sides, you have to see your faults also.’ But in our turning away from Krishna, there is no fault on Krishna’s side. That fault is entirely ours. So, that feeling of regret or remorse is necessary and purifying. But at the same time, the devotee feels happy because Krishna is his eternal father or friend. And although we turned away from Krishna and forgot Him, He didn’t forget us. So, the devotee feels happy because he knows that Krishna is there and Krishna is welcoming him back.

There is a beautiful verse in the Eleventh Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that describes the beginning of pure devotional service, in which a devotee understands that sense gratification is the cause of suffering, and he tries to give up sense gratification. But in spite of his efforts, he becomes entangled in sense gratification, becomes entangled in the very activity that he is trying to avoid. And the Bhāgavatam says that the devotee should repent, do you know what that means? To feel bad about it and resolve to try his best not to repeat his mistake. But at the same time, he should continue in devotional service in a happy mood because his supreme father, his supreme friend, is there. And he feels confident in his relationship with his Lord, even though he has fallen down. But he feels confident in his relationship with his Lord, and he will never give up devotional service for anything. So, he may fall down and repent and try his best not to repeat, but no matter what happens, he will not give up devotional service. And he knows it is really up to the Lord whether he is able to overcome his bad habits or not. He knows he can’t do it on his own strength, so he just continues with his efforts and depends on the mercy of the Lord in a happy mood. Do you understand? Yes.

Devotee: In the morning, we discussed this verse, tṛṇād api su-nīcena. And Maharaja said that when we have niṣṭhā in our consciousness that we are not this body, then automatically these qualities will manifest. So, we also try to cultivate these qualities. So, I wanted to know how does it work? Do we try to cultivate these qualities to get niṣṭhā in our bhajana, or when we get niṣṭhā in bhajana, then these qualities will manifest? Or do they both go together?

Giriraj Swami: Did everyone hear the question? He said that in the morning, His Holiness Sacinandana Swami said that the qualities mentioned in the verse, tṛṇād api su-nīcena develop when one comes to the stage of niṣṭhā. So, his question is, in the meantime, do we also try to cultivate these qualities to come to the stage of niṣṭhā, or do we just try to come to the stage of niṣṭhā and then the qualities appear?

Actually, we do both. We do both. Of course, the primary activity is hearing and chanting without offense, but we also practice. This is sādhana-bhakti, devotional service and practice. So, we practice, and the two go together. But the primary is chanting and hearing without offense, and the secondary is the conscious effort to be humble, to be tolerant, to be compassionate, to be prideless, to be respectful.

Devotee: When we use the word niṣṭhā, does it mean to be fixed in whatever vows you have taken, either for chanting or whatever sadhana you have taken, or niṣṭhā means that you are free from anarthas? What does it mean to use the word niṣṭhā?

Giriraj Swami: Yes.

Devotee: I was thinking it is kind of relative because somebody might take up the vow of chanting thirty-two rounds every day, and one day he is doing thirty-two, one day he is doing twenty-four, and one day he is doing twenty, and then again he is doing twenty-four. And then somebody is taking a while to do sixteen rounds, and then he is doing sometimes twelve, sometimes fourteen, sometimes sixteen. So, when you use the word niṣṭhā, what does it really mean?

Giriraj Swami: Yes, in the progress of devotional service, ādau śraddhā tataḥ sādhu-saṅgaḥ atha bhajana-kriyā tato anartha-nivṛttiḥ syāt, it comes after anartha-nivṛttiḥ. But in the description of these stages in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, it says, naṣṭa-prāyeṣv abhadreṣu nityaṁ bhāgavata-sevayā. Prāya means almost, naṣṭa-prāyeṣv abhadreṣu, inauspicious things are almost destroyed. And in one or two places, Srila Prabhupada has described this almost as 75 percent. Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura in Mādhurya-kādambinī gives a very detailed analysis of different types of anarthas and at what stages they are eradicated and to what degree. Some anarthas are eradicated very early, whereas some linger for a long time. And the one that lingers the most, that is hardest to become free of, is the result of vaiṣṇava-aparādha. Vaiṣṇava-aparādha is the most fearsome of all offenses, so we should really avoid it at all costs.

Devotee: How does one know he is suffering from the result of that, even though now he is not? Like you said, it takes some time to want to overcome that.

Giriraj Swami: No, Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura says that one may not be conscious of what anarthas he has or what offenses he has committed, but he can infer the presence of offenses by the lack of taste. Yes.

Devotee: How, in practice, can one reach to become humble?

Giriraj Swami: How could one practice to become humble? When I joined, I heard Srila Prabhupada told us to address each other as “Prabhu.” Prabhu means master. So, in relation to the Prabhus, we are the servant, the servant of the servants. And I also heard that he said that if anyone asks us to do some service, we should agree. But if someone wants to do some service for us, we should refuse. So, that in a way, is practice.

Yes, humble means to be the servant of the servant. We say it begins from understanding you are not the body, which is the truth. But as Chaitanya Mahaprabhu said, “I am not a brahman, I am not a kshatriya, not a vaishya, I am not a sudra, I am not a brahmachari, not a grihastha, not a vanaprastha, not a sannyasi,” So what am I? Gopī-bhartuḥ pada-kamalayor dāsa-dāsānudāsaḥ. “I am the servant of the servant of the servant of Krishna, the maintainer of the gopīs.” So, we practice. Of course, there is a saying, a common saying that “Being humble does not mean thinking less of yourself, but it means thinking of yourself less.” So, the more we think of Krishna, the holy name, and the devotees, and how to serve them, the less we will think about ourselves. And that is also part of being humble. We are not so absorbed in ourselves. Yes.

Devotee: Maharaja, what does [Unintelligible 00:15:10] and I will give the example why I was embarrassed because we knew previously from the seminars and lectures of Maharaja that dasa means to work with yourself, with your inner wealth, with your qualities. Just now, I have been to Vraja Mandal parikramā, and there were two thousand people. And I was greatly astonished that though all were devotees, but when we, after parikramā, came to our camp and stayed in a queue or in a line to take water or to take prasādam, most of the Indian Matajis, and what is astonishing, Prabhus also, they try to take everything, to stand before you. And if you will tolerate and stand aside, you will have no water, you have no place to sleep, where to sleep, and you have no prasādam. And what is the use? You will be dirty in dusty clothes, you will be hungry, and you will be tired. And you will be a burden to others if you won’t take care of yourself. We were discussing this point among ourselves and we came to the conclusion that in this situation, if you won’t try to maybe not control or somehow to direct that everything must be with honor to each other, that it will be unworthy or it will be bad. What can you say about this? What does tolerance mean, humbleness in this situation? [laughter]

Giriraj Swami: Yes, well, one thing I might add, not a very spiritual comment as such, but there is a difference in training in India and other places. I guess it depends where we come from, but we are taught to stand in queues, not to go ahead of others. But in some places, they don’t have the same training, so they are not used to it. That said, in the association of devotees where we address each other as prabhus, where we are trying to cultivate the quality of amāninā māna-dena, we should not try to jump the queue. If anything, we should offer the person behind to go ahead. But this may happen that people from different cultures and backgrounds are trained in a certain way, and we might take this for granted that people know that you are supposed to wait your turn in queue, but not everyone is trained like that. So then it becomes the responsibility of the leaders to develop that culture that they might not have gotten from their families or their schools.

But I think we should be careful about judging them not to be devotees because it may be their conditioning. I read an article about how different differences in cultures affect behavior in children, and the article mentioned an experiment or exercise that was done in a classroom with Chinese children and American children. And there was a, I guess a bowl of candy on the desk, and with the American children, eight years old, they are ten years old, they were told, “Come and get your candy.” So they all rushed forward and each one grabbed as much as he could get. Then they called the Chinese, they did the same exercise with the Chinese children. They immediately formed a queue from senior-most to junior-most in exact order, which is senior-most at the front of the junior-most at the back, and each one took one piece until everyone in the line had got something. So there are cultural differences, but we are trying to develop a Vaishnava culture, and Bhaktivinoda Thakura says that there are different stages of, you could say, reformation, and he said first is religious. So all these devotees, they may have had that religious conversion to accept the philosophy of Vaishnavism and practices of Vaishnavism, but it is later that one develops the culture. So it would not be proper to conclude that because they are defective in some aspect of the culture of Krishna consciousness that they are not devotees.

Devotee: There were no questions about our judging, because we were very cautious. It is karma and everything you are pointing at the others; you also have such drawbacks. But we were interested in how to be humble and to be tolerant in this situation, or it is applicable in some situations that may be different from this one if there is a difference in cultural education. So, we must bridge our behavior. Maybe we came to this conclusion, but don’t let the others be like a mad crowd.

Giriraj Swami: Yes, I would agree with you. I would agree with you.

Devotee: Because it was there will be no order and it will be injustice to the others because you can’t take care about yourself, but you mustn’t tolerate when the other devotees are offended by such behaviors, such deeds. And humbleness. . .

Giriraj Swami: Ultimately, we should be humble before Krishna. That is the main thing. So that is the real test, what will please Krishna? So, to tell a small story, but in the struggle at Juhu in Bombay, it just happened like that that we had to rebuild the temple practically overnight, and there were threats from local enemies that even if we built the temple, they would come and break the temple. So I was in the mood of being humble, and the GBC, Tamal Krishna Goswami told me that, “You should stay up and make sure that the work gets done and that nobody comes and disturbs the work.” So Satsvarupa Maharaja had just visited Bombay, he struck me as very humble, and I liked his mood, he is demeanor, his behavior. So I said to Tamal Krishna Goswami, “I really want to be humble like Satsvarupa Maharaja.” He said, “Your humility will be to stay up all night and make sure the work is completed and no one comes and destroys it.” And when he said that I realized what he said was true. First of all, I have to be humble before guru and Krishna. This is my service to guru and Krishna, to make sure the work is done and that no demons come and disturb them. So that is the main thing, what will please guru and Krishna. We should be submissive to them. Yes.

Devotee: Maharaja, it is said in Caitanya-caritāmṛta that, prema means do everything for the pleasure of Krishna’s senses. So my question is, how can we chant our daily japa for the pleasure of Radha and Krishna?

Giriraj Swami: Did everyone hear?

Devotee: Not really Guru Maharaja.

Giriraj Swami: He said that according to Caitanya-caritāmṛta, prema means to please the senses of Krishna. So how can we chant in such a way that Radha and Krishna are pleased?

Yes, we should be aware that they are present. They are always present everywhere, and they are listening to our chanting. And we should please or chant in the mood of pleasing them. Early, when I first joined, I didn’t know so much about all the details of devotional service, but I did know that I wanted to please Srila Prabhupada. So when I would chant, I would think of how Srila Prabhupada wants us to chant, or be pleased with the chanting, or how Srila Prabhupada wants us to read his books, or he will be pleased if we read His books. And one of my godbrothers, Vishnujana Swami, he had a big picture, a big photograph of Srila Prabhupada’s ear, and on the Radha-Damodara party, he would chant in front of the big picture of Srila Prabhupada’s ear with the consciousness that, “I am chanting for Srila Prabhupada to hear. So I want to chant in such a way that he will be pleased.” And the other aspect, as we discussed, is that when we are chanting, we are spending time with Radha and Krishna. So just spending time with Them will please Them. We are trying to develop our relationship, and then when we are with them, we want to be very attentive, so that will please them. It is not such a mystery what will please them, and we will feel their reciprocation at a certain stage. Yes.

Devotee: Maharaja, [Unintelligible 00:29:25] So we take them for granted, so how can we come out of this too much familiar mood?

Giriraj Swami: She said that when we come to Krishna consciousness, we begin to associate with devotees, and then we become too familiar with them, and we take them for granted. So how do we overcome this feeling?

Well, this is a very important point. Sometimes devotees comment that when they first join, they relish chanting and other aspects of Krishna consciousness more, and they have to struggle to be able to relish the same way they did in the early days. And the question is, why? Well, one answer is that in the beginning, Krishna may give you some special mercy so that you know what is there in Krishna consciousness and so that you can dedicate your efforts to making progress in Krishna consciousness. But another reason is that I know when I joined and any of my godbrothers and godsisters when we joined, we saw all the devotees like pure devotees, so advanced, so pure, so sincere, so dedicated.

And then, after a while, we started to see them in more material ways. Seeing their. . . Well, I can’t even say seeing their faults but seeing things that we took as faults. And because of seeing devotees in a mundane way, we, you could say, committed subtle offenses. And as a result of subtle offenses, we lost that taste that we had when we first came. So we have to always see the service. That is the main thing. In the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Srila Krishnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami lists twenty-six qualities of the devotee, and out of them, one is Kṛṣṇa eka saranam, having taken exclusive shelter of Krishna. He finds a devotee, and if someone has that quality, even if he or she lacks other of the twenty-six qualities, he or she is still considered a devotee and should be respected as a devotee. But we might see, “Oh, that person is not humble. That person is not tolerant. That person eats too much. That person talks too much.” And we miss the real point that they have taken shelter of Krishna, and that becomes a type of offense. So we should be aware of the subtleties of the sādhu-nindā, vaiṣṇava-aparādha, and avoid it because it really hurts us.

When we are serious about reviving our relationship with the holy name, we will accept whatever is favorable and reject whatever is unfavorable. And there are many unfavorable things that we want to reject. But out of all of them, offending Vaishnavas should be at the top of the list. Yes.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:34:45] Okay, Mataji is asking, she is also given the instruction that śikṣā from another guru. She is asking, should she  ask personally, may I ask take your śikṣā? Or she just can’t listen to the lectures and just kind of give out personal contact? Or she has to ask the permission, “Can I take this śikṣā?” Can she take instructions?

Giriraj Swami: Yes, the question is: she has her dīkṣā-guru, but she also wants to take instructions from the śikṣā-guru.

Devotee: And if she asks the śikṣā-guru,  in this way, she wants to kind of ask if she has to develop a relationship also with the śikṣā-guru, if it is very important or just listen to the lectures and take the instructions.

Giriraj Swami: So she wants to know whether it is enough just to listen to the lectures and take the instructions from the lecture, whether she should approach him and try to develop a specific relationship with him.

Well, there are different relationships that one could have with the śikṣā-guru, and certainly, by hearing from the śikṣā-guru and following the instructions that you received from him, you have a relationship with him.  And if you have a question, you can ask the question in the class, and he can answer you in class. But if you feel that you have a question of a more personal nature, you can approach him separately. Or if you feel inspired that you want to render some service to him, again, you can find out from some associate of his what service you could do. Or if you do meet him personally, you could ask him. But there is no one way, there is no right or wrong. It is a very individual matter.

I have an idea here, because we have been reminded that prasāda is being served. So, we will officially end and allow you to take prasāda because very soon the next program will begin with kirtan. Personally, I won’t be having prasāda now. So if she wants to pursue this question, I could stay on. But we will officially end now.

Thank you very much. Hare Krishna.

Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!