KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM HH HARIVILAS MAHARAJ’S MORNING BHAGAVATAM CLASS ON SB 3.2.3:
- Transcendental service to the Lord is not mundane. The service attitude of the devotee gradually increases and never becomes slackened.
- Uddhava undoubtedly became old, but that does not mean that his spirit became old. His service attitude matured on the transcendental plane, and therefore as soon as he was questioned by Vidura about Lord Kṛṣṇa, he at once remembered his Lord by reference to the context and forgot himself on the physical plane. That is the sign of pure devotional service to the Lord.
- In the transcendental service there is no satiation, and therefore there is no retirement. Service on the bodily plane dwindles as the body grows older, but the spirit is never old, and therefore on the spiritual plane the service is never tiresome.
- So long as there is any trace of mundane desire in one’s heart, it is the object of worship of Māyādevī (Durgā) who has to be worshiped by such a person; nevertheless the fulfillment of one’s heart’s desire results from the worship of the object of worship of Māyādevī, and not from the worship of Māyādevī herself.
- [SB 2.3.10] Though other gods, as distinct manifestations of the Supreme Lord, are bestowers of sundry specific boons, yet a sensible person should worship the all powerful Supreme Lord, giver of all good, with unalloyed devotion, without worshiping those mundane gift-giving deities.
- True devotion is unalloyed devotional activity free from all mundane desire.
- BS 5.61 – Abandoning all meritorious performances serve Me with faith. The realization will correspond to the nature of one’s faith. The people of the world act ceaselessly in pursuance of some ideal. By meditating on Me by means of those deeds one will obtain devotion characterized by love in the shape of the supreme service.
- The more transparent the faith, the greater the degree of realization.
- The Supreme Lord says, “This world subsists by the constant performance of certain activities. Fill all these activities with meditation of Me. This will destroy the quality that makes those activities appear as acts done by you. They will then be of the nature of My service (bhakti).
- And when these activities are managed to be performed in this way that is conducive to our endeavor for attainment of bhakti they are called jñāna-bhakta-yoga, i.e., the subsidiary devotional practices. But only those activities that are characterized by the principle of pure worship are called bhakti proper.
- My meditation is practiced in every act when bhakti proper is practiced in due time while performing the subsidiary devotional activities in one’s intercourse with the ungodly people of this world. In such position, a jīva does not become apathetic to Godhead even by performing those worldly activities. This constitutes the practice of looking inwards, i.e., turning towards one’s real self,
SB 3.2.3 TRANSLATION:
Uddhava thus served the Lord continually from childhood, and in his old age that attitude of service never slackened. As soon as he was asked about the message of the Lord, he at once remembered all about Him.
Transcendental service to the Lord is not mundane. The service attitude of the devotee gradually increases and never becomes slackened. Generally, in old age a person is allowed retirement from mundane service. But in the transcendental service of the Lord there is no retirement at all; on the contrary, the service attitude increases more and more with the progress of age. In the transcendental service there is no satiation, and therefore there is no retirement. Materially, when a man becomes tired by rendering service in his physical body, he is allowed retirement, but in the transcendental service there is no feeling of fatigue because it is spiritual service and is not on the bodily plane. Service on the bodily plane dwindles as the body grows older, but the spirit is never old, and therefore on the spiritual plane the service is never tiresome.
Uddhava undoubtedly became old, but that does not mean that his spirit became old. His service attitude matured on the transcendental plane, and therefore as soon as he was questioned by Vidura about Lord Kṛṣṇa, he at once remembered his Lord by reference to the context and forgot himself on the physical plane. That is the sign of pure devotional service to the Lord, as will be explained later on (lakṣaṇaṁ bhakti-yogasya, etc.) in Lord Kapila’s instructions to His mother, Devahūti.
Concept – there is no vacation in KC. Speak about Krsna, Cook for Krsna, Sankirtan….
What is KC And what are my needs
My needs – selfish..what is needed for me my wishes.. Not related to Krsna.. If we continue like this we will not experience the unending bliss in transcendental service..
BS 5.24
Then the goddess of learning Sarasvatī, the divine consort of the Supreme Lord, said thus to Brahmā who saw nothing but gloom in all directions, “O Brahmā, this mantra, viz., klīṁ kṛṣṇāya govindāya gopī-jana-vallabhāya svāhā, will assuredly fulfill your heart’s desire.”
The mantra, consisting of the eighteen divine letters prefixed by the kāma-bīja, is alone superexcellent. It has a twofold aspect. One aspect is that it tends to make the pure soul run after all-attractive Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the Lord of Gokula and the divine milkmaids. This is the acme of the spiritual tendency of jīvas. When the devotee is free from all sorts of mundane desires and willing to serve the Lord he attains the fruition of his heart’s desire, viz., the love of Kṛṣṇa. But in the case of the devotee who is not of unmixed aptitude this superexcellent mantra fulfills his heart’s desire also. The transcendental kāma-bīja is inherent in the divine logos located in Goloka; and the kāma-bīja pervertedly reflected in the worldly affairs satisfies all sorts of desires of this mundane world.
This mantra will fulfill your desire
He was born with desires – He wants to be a controller, creator, manager..
2 types of desire – desire for sense gratification, desire to please Krsna..
If you desire Sense gratification – that will be fulfilled…
If you desire for Krsna – that will be fulfilled..
BS 5.26
Brahmā, being desirous of satisfying Govinda, practiced the cultural acts for Kṛṣṇa in Goloka, Lord of Śvetadvīpa, for a long time. His meditation ran thus, “There exists a divine lotus of a thousand petals, augmented by millions of filaments, in the transcendental land of Goloka. On its whorl, there exists a great divine throne on which is seated Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the form of eternal effulgence of transcendental bliss, playing on His divine flute resonant with the divine sound, with His lotus mouth. He is worshiped by His amorous milkmaids with their respective subjective portions and extensions and also by His external energy [who stays outside] embodying all mundane qualities.”
Although the object of meditation is fully transcendental, yet owing to her nature which is permeated with the quality of active mundane hankering, Māyā, the nonspiritual potency of Kṛṣṇa, embodying the principles of mixed sattva, rajas, and tamas, in the forms of Durgā, and other nonspiritual powers, meditated on the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa as the object of their worship. So long as there is any trace of mundane desire in one’s heart, it is the object of worship of Māyādevī (Durgā) who has to be worshiped by such a person; nevertheless the fulfillment of one’s heart’s desire results from the worship of the object of worship of Māyādevī, and not from the worship of Māyādevī herself. This is in accordance with the śloka, akāmaḥ sarva-kāmo vā mokṣa-kāma udāra-dhiḥ / tīvreṇa bhakti-yogena yajeta puruṣaṁ param [SB 2.3.10]. The meaning of this śloka of the Bhāgavatam is that though other gods, as distinct manifestations of the Supreme Lord, are bestowers of sundry specific boons, yet a sensible person should worship the all powerful Supreme Lord, giver of all good, with unalloyed devotion, without worshiping those mundane gift-giving deities. Accordingly, Brahmā meditated upon Kṛṣṇa in Goloka, the object of the worship, from a distance, of Māyādevī. True devotion is unalloyed devotional activity free from all mundane desire. The devotion of Brahmā, etc., is not unmixed devotion. But there is a stage of unmixed predilection even in devotion for the attainment of one’s selfish desire. This has been fully described in the concluding five ślokas of this work. That is the easiest method of divine service, prior to the attainment of self-realization, by fallen souls.
As long as we have mixed desires we are actually following the Mayadevi and not Krsna.
BS 5.61
Abandoning all meritorious performances serve Me with faith. The realization will correspond to the nature of one’s faith. The people of the world act ceaselessly in pursuance of some ideal. By meditating on Me by means of those deeds one will obtain devotion characterized by love in the shape of the supreme service.
Your position in KC is measured by your Faith in Krsna.
Example- Devotee in Chowpaty. He was a businessman. He was with SP and did not take initiation.. As he wanted to find weakness of SP..
The function characterized by unalloyed devotion is the real function of all individual souls (jīvas). All other varieties of function are activities of the external cases. These exoteric and esoteric dharmas (functions) are manifold, e.g., nondifferential knowledge of the Brahman aiming at extinction of individuality. the aṣṭāṅga-yoga-dharma having as its goal attainment of the state of exclusive existence (kaivalya), atheistical fruitive ritualism aiming at material enjoyment, jñāna-yoga-dharma seeking to combine knowledge with fruitive activity and the practice of the function of barren asceticism. Getting rid of all these, serve Me by pure devotion rooted in faith. Exclusive faith in Me is trust. Faith in the form of trust by the process of gradual purification tends to become a constant engagement (niṣṭhā), an object of liking (ruci), of attachment (āsakti) and a real sentiment (bhāva). The more transparent the faith, the greater the degree of realization. If you ask-How will the preservation and conduct of worldly affairs be feasible if one is continuously engaged in the endeavor for the realization of bhakti? What also will be the nature of the endeavor for the realization of bhakti when the body will perish consequent on the cessation of the function of the body and of society?
SP had complete faith in his Guru’s instructions and KRsna and he thus comes to the US in such old age in spite of all odds he continues to preach until his last moments of life..
In order to strike at the root of this misgiving the Supreme Lord says, “This world subsists by the constant performance of certain activities. Fill all these activities with meditation of Me. This will destroy the quality that makes those activities appear as acts done by you. They will then be of the nature of My service (bhakti).
“Mankind live by the threefold activities of body, mind and society. Eating, seating, walking, resting, sleeping, cleansing the body. covering the body. etc., are the various bodily activities; thinking, recollecting, retaining an impression, becoming aware of an entity. feeling pleasure and pain, etc., are the mental feats; marrying, practicing reciprocal relationship between the king and subject, practicing brotherhood, attending at sacrificial meetings, offering oblations, digging wells, tanks, etc., for the benefit of the people, maintaining one’s relations, practicing hospitality. observing proper civic conduct, showing due respect to others are the various social activities. When these acts are performed for one’s selfish enjoyment, they are called karma-kāṇḍa; when the desire for attainment of freedom from activity by knowledge underlies these actions, they are termed jñāna-yoga or karma-yoga. And when these activities are managed to be performed in this way that is conducive to our endeavor for attainment of bhakti they are called jñāna-bhakta-yoga, i.e., the subsidiary devotional practices. But only those activities that are characterized by the principle of pure worship are called bhakti proper. My meditation is practiced in every act when bhakti proper is practiced in due time while performing the subsidiary devotional activities in one’s intercourse with the ungodly people of this world. In such position, a jīva does not become apathetic to Godhead even by performing those worldly activities. This constitutes the practice of looking inwards, i.e., turning towards one’s real self, vide Īśopaniṣad-
īśāvāsyam idaṁ sarvaṁ
yat kiñca jagatyāṁ jagat
tena tyaktena bhuñjīthā
mā gṛdhaḥ kasya svid dhanam
[Īśo mantra 1]
The commentator says in regards to this, tena īśa-tyaktena visṛṣṭena. The real significance being that if whatever is accepted be received as favor vouchsafed by the Supreme Lord, the worldly activity will cease to be such and will turn into service of Godhead (bhakti). So Īśāvāsya says kurvann eveha karmāṇi… karma lipyate nare.
If the worldly acts are performed in the above manner one does not get entangled in karma even in hundreds of years of worldly life. The meaning of these two mantras from the jñāna point of view is renouncement of the fruits of one’s worldly actions; but from the bhakti point of view they mean the attainment of Kṛṣṇa’s favor (prasādam) by their transfer to His account. In this method, which is the path of arcana, you should do your duties of the world by the meditation of worshiping Godhead thereby. Brahmā cherishes the desire for creation in his heart. If that creative desire is practiced by conjoining the same with the meditation of obeying therein the command of the Supreme Lord, then it will be a subsidiary spiritual function (gauṇa-dharma) being helpful for the growth of the disposition for the service of the Divinity by reason of its characteristic of seeking the protection of Godhead. It was certainly proper to instruct Brahmā in this manner. There is no occasion for such instruction in the case of a jīva in whom the spontaneous aversion for entities other than Kṛṣṇa manifests itself on his attainment of the substantive entity of spiritual devotion (bhāva).
Meditating on Krishna or mind focused on Krsna in every activity we do is key for us to be KC.. even when we are working in this material world..
Bhagavad-gītā 2.1-11 Johannesburg October 17 1975 – Looking inwards
Although he was forced to fight by the opposite party who were very near, thick and thin people, and he had to kill them, so it was not very satisfactory to him. Therefore he flatly denied to fight: “Kṛṣṇa, I am not going to fight.” He left his weapon, and then Kṛṣṇa was surprised that “My friend, Arjuna, he is denying to fight in My presence.”
So Sa�jaya, the private secretary of Mahārāja Dhṛtarāṣṭra, he was relaying the message which was going on in the battle of Kurukṣetra by higher process. Nowadays we have got experience of the television, but the another process, antar-dṛṣṭi, that is also television. You can see the reflection of external activities within your heart, and you can explain. So Sa�jaya, the private secretary of Mahārāja Dhṛtarāṣṭra, he explained that Arjuna was denying to fight. So,
Internal network – see and hear things from far away.. Paramatma is in the heart
BG 3.17-20 New York
Practically, in the battlefield of Mahābhārata this Bhagavad-gītā was spoken. And it is… You will be surprised. In those days television was in the heart, television. This, I mean to say, battlefield of Kurukṣetra was television in the heart of Sañjaya. Dhṛtarāṣṭra, the father of one party, Duryodhana, and his secretary, Sañjaya, were sitting in the room, and they were discussing what happened after this. Just like you get television or radio message in the football ground what is going on by sound and picture, so the same thing was being reflected in his heart and he was in the room. He was explaining the activities of the battlefield.
BG 4.39
A faithful man who is dedicated to transcendental knowledge and who subdues his senses is eligible to achieve such knowledge, and having achieved it he quickly attains the supreme spiritual peace.
One is called a faithful man who thinks that simply by acting in Kṛṣṇa consciousness he can attain the highest perfection. This faith is attained by the discharge of devotional service and by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare, which cleanses one’s heart of all material dirt. Over and above this, one should control the senses. A person who is faithful to Kṛṣṇa and who controls the senses can easily attain perfection in the knowledge of Kṛṣṇa consciousness without delay.
BG 4.40
But ignorant and faithless persons who doubt the revealed scriptures do not attain God consciousness; they fall down. For the doubting soul there is happiness neither in this world nor in the next.
Associating with devotees who have strong faith will make your faith stronge