Why?

… गिरा अनयन नयन बिनु बानी ॥

… Girā anayan nayan binu bānī.

- Ramcharitmanas, Bal Kand 1.229.1 (partial)

The tongue can describe the beauty, but it does not have the eyes. It cannot see. Then how can it describe? And the eyes, which can see, but they have no tongue. That’s why they cannot describe the beauty of Shree Ram.

Shree Maharaj Ji says, “No. Even if the tongue gets eyes or the eyes get tongues, they cannot describe the beauty of Shri Ram.”

Why? The reason is that the beauty of Shree Ram is equal in all the parts of His being. And number two, the beauty is ever-increasing and ever-new. All the parts of the body are unlimitedly beautiful. Any part of the body (that) you see.

जिनहिन अंगनि नैनन निरखत, तिन हिन कहँ कह, सरस बड़ो री ।

Jinhiṇ aṅgani nainan nirakhat, tin hiṇ kahaṁ kah, saras baṛo rī

- Anupam Roop, Nilamani ko Ri.
Prem Ras Madira: Shree Krishna Madhuri 1
Written by Jagadguru Shree Kripalu Ji Maharaj

Because each and every part of the body is extremely beautiful. And secondly, it is nityanavayaman (ever-new, eternally fresh). You are looking towards the body.

When the English people came to India, they said, ”In India, there is a river, Ganges River, where nobody can take a bath in the same water twice.”

But Maharaj Ji says, “In Ganges River, nobody can take a bath even once. Because when you enter the Ganges River, the water was different. When you dipped your body in the water, that water was different. When you came out, that water was different, because it’s always flowing. You cannot have a bath in the same water even once.”

In the same way, Shree Maharaj Ji says, “His beauty is ever-increasing, multiplying all the time.”

You are seeing towards the eyes of Shree Ram. You are enjoying (them). It’s so beautiful. The eyes are so beautiful. And after that, again, no.

“Was I seeing the same eyes? No! It’s more beautiful than I saw it before, one minute ago! Again, oh no! Now, His eyes are looking more beautiful!”

So every moment, the viewer can enjoy more and more beauty of Shree Ram. Because it is ever-increasing and ever-new. Nobody can get bored. Even if you keep on seeing only one part of the body of Shree Ram, for years and years, you will never be content.

प्यारी जू को रूप महानो, पियास ही को रूप है।

Pyārī jū ko roop mahāno, piyās hī ko roop hai.

It increases the thirst of seeing Him, because the bliss (and) the beauty, both, are ever-increasing in the form of Shree Ram.

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बिनु सतसंग बिबेक न होई। राम कृपा बिनु सुलभ न सोई॥ …
Binu satasaṅg bibēk na hōī, rām kṛipā binu sulabh na sōī. …

- Ramcharitmanas: Bal Kand 2.4 (partial)

(“There is no wisdom without satsang and no satsang without His grace.”)

When we associate with a true Saint it is called satsang. Sat means Saint, sang means association. Both have to be satya (true): satya-sant (true Saint) or satya-sang (true association). The Saint has to be satya, in other words, a bona fide Saint, ‘shrotriya’ (one established in spiritual knowledge) ‘brahmanisht’ (firmly established in Brahm) - mahapurush (great Saint), and the sang has to be satya also. The association has to be correct. We have to associate with faith and reverence, not a doubt in mind.

When you associate with a Saint for some time, a true Saint, in the right way, something will happen to us. Our attachment for the material world, which we could not change even after uncountable lifetimes, will start decreasing. Just by associating with the Saint, our attachment for the material world, the objects and people in the world, will start decreasing by itself. An attachment for Radha-Krishna will start increasing. This is one of the proofs, one of the conditions, that you are associating with the right person, that this is a Saint, if you associate in the right way,

We have met uncountable Saints. Don’t think we haven’t met Saints. Uncountable Saints. Many of us have met a great Saint, Kripalu Ji Maharaj. Do you think it’s the first time you met Him? No. I was in His room one day, and another pracharak (preacher) brought a new devotee to meet Him. And the pracharak said to Shree Maharaj Ji,

“Maharaj Ji, this person is coming for the first time. They are meeting you for the first time.”

Maharaj Ji started to laugh. He said, “No one can meet Me for the first time. You people don’t know.”

Those of us who have met Him, it’s not the first time, especially if you have accepted Him as Guru.

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बड़े भाग मानुष तन पावा …

Baṛē bhāgya mānuṣh tanu pāwā …

- Ramcharitmanas Uttar Kanda: 43.2–3 (partial)

He says, “It is the greatest fortune of a soul to get this opportunity to have birth in the human form.”

We have it, all of us. What are we doing with it? Are we just using it to enjoy the senses, to fill our stomach and our family? Is this why we have been given human birth? Then what differentiates us from animals?

आहार-निद्रा-भय-मैथुनानि सामान्यमेतत् पशुभिर्नराणाम् । …

Āhār-nidrā-bhaya-maithunāni sāmānyam etat paśhubhir narāṇām.

- Hitopadesha 0.25 (partial)

As far as āhāra (eating), nidrā (sleeping), bhay (fear), maithuna (mating) are concerned, human beings, we people, we are equal to animals. Pashu (animal), it doesn’t sound nice that some Saint is calling us animals.

“Well, Maharaji says, he has been very nice to us!”

He has been very nice. We are worse than animals when it comes to these four things. What do we eat? How do we eat? Look at animals, goats, cows, buffaloes. What do they eat? Everything natural, herbs and grass, etc., that God has provided for them.

In the same way, the Lord has provided an abundant variety of natural things for us, too - vegetables, fruits, nuts, you name it. But what do we do?

“I’m not an animal to eat natural food! After all, I’m a human being. I can’t eat natural things.”

We have to destroy all the vitamins and all the minerals, deep-fry and spice up.

Some people hear, you know, that bhaiya, Swamiji has a special diet. He doesn’t like to eat all this kind of thing.

“Ah, he thinks he’s special!”

I’m trying to protect my health. This amount of knowledge my Guru has given to me is to be healthy - boiled takari (vegetables), steamed vegetables.

The Guru says, “Eat steamed vegetables.”

“Maharaji, how can I eat? No taste.”

And then you go to the doctor one day, and the doctor says, “Eh, you’re diabetic. Now, only steamed vegetables.”

“Yes, doctor, anything you say. I don’t want to die.”

When Guru tells us, then, no, we don’t listen. As our tongue and mind say,

“We’re going to eat. And at 25 years of age, we suffer from the gravest of illnesses. This is the greatness of being a human being? To destroy food and then eat? So, aren’t animals better than us (in) many, many ways? What differentiates us from them?

… ज्ञानं नराणामधिको विशेषो ज्ञानेन हीनाः पशुभिः समानाः ॥

… gyānaṁ narāṇāmadhiko viśheṣho gyānen hīnāḥ paśhubhiḥ samānāḥ.

- Hitopadesh 0.25 (partial)

Gyan (knowledge). The ability to discriminate, to think. God has given that to us in a great amount. This is absent or very little in the other creatures. They can’t think (like we do). They act on instinct.

“Oh yeah, we go to Orlando and we see Shamu (a trained orca whale).”

And we think, “Wow, such a smart animal!”

No, he’s trained. He eats the trainer sometimes. They’re told or trained, these are wild animals. They can do anything they want anytime. They act on instinct. They can’t think. They don’t know this is right or that is wrong.

“I should not eat my trainer.”

They don’t know that.

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So, “Oh Krishna, You have provided us such a powerful tool. Even though we can’t see You right now because we’re not qualified, we have Your name, and we can chant Your name. And You haven’t put any restriction on when to chant Your name or where to chant Your name. We can be anywhere, anytime.”

So, it’s such an easy thing to make use of and it’s so powerful.

“You’re in Your name, and I can chant Your name anytime, anywhere. It means I can connect to You anytime, anywhere I want. I have the perfect connection. And yet, I am so unlucky, I’m so unfortunate that even though You’ve provided this name, but when I chant it, I don’t feel any love for You. I don’t feel excitement! My heart doesn’t melt! I don’t feel a thrill in my body. I have such bad luck!”

What is that bad luck? When God Himself is in His name, why can we not experience the blissfulness of that name?

Tulsidas Ji says,

जासु नाम सुमिरत एक बारा। उतरहिं नर भवसिंधु अपारा॥
Jāsu nām sumirat ek bārā, utarahiṇ nar bhavasindhu apārā.

- Ramayan: Ayodhya Kand

“If someone correctly remembers the name even once, they’ll cross the ocean of maya (material energy, illusion) and reach God.”

But when we take the name, never mind crossing maya and reaching God, many times we don’t feel anything. It’s like just repeating any word. Why is it so? Because we all have the same bad luck. And you know where luck comes from. We create our own luck with our past lives’ actions. It’s called prarabdh (destiny resulting from past actions).

But this is a very particular brand of bad luck. This particular brand of bad luck has been created by doing nām aparādh (offense against the Divine name). Aparādh means a transgression or a crime, and nām means the name.

We have offended against God, God’s name, God’s virtues, God’s leelas (Divine pastimes), God’s abodes, and God’s associates, His Saints - all these six things are one with the name - नाम, रूप, लीला, गुण, धाम, जन - nāma (name), Roop (form), leelā (pastimes), guṇ (qualities), dhām (abode), and Jan (Saints).

So if we have offended against any of these six by thinking negatively against them, we’ve all done it.

Even thinking something like, “Why did Ram send Sita back to the forest?” That is a transgression. It means we’re doubting Ram’s goodness. How dare we? So that type of transgression blackens our heart. It pollutes our heart and blocks our ability to make that connection with God.

It causes Him pain when we do that because He knows we’re His children. He wants us to be able to experience Him. And yet we’re—it’s this self-created blockage by having this negativity in our mind towards God, God’s forms, God’s names, etc.

So in our past lives, we have done all kinds of Naam Aparadh. It’s called spiritual transgressions.

It’s the worst kind of sin because it instantly pollutes the heart and blocks our devotional receptivity. So even though there is unlimited potential in that name Radhe, we say Radhe and we feel very little to nothing because we’ve created that blockage in our heart. The connection isn’t clean.

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You can! The law of attraction.

Be positive. Work towards unconditional, exclusive love towards Shree Radha Krishna. See how fast He will help us and grace us to grow in this samartharati prayer. So don’t negate it. This is where we have to reach. If you want to enter into Maharas, the supreme Maharas, where Gopis (Divine devotees of Krishna) are, where even Lord Shambhu, Shiv, comes as Gopi, where Brahma did 60,000 years of celestial years of tapascharya (austerities), ‘ṣhaṣhṭi-varṣha-sahasrāṇi mayā taptam tapo purā’, but could not enter, could not enter into Maharas.

Where Mahalakshmi, Rukmani, Mahalakshmi, the eternal consort of Narayan, of Vishnu, came, and poor Mahalakshmi even could not get the entrance. Till this day, on the outskirts of Vrindavan, on the other side of Yamuna River, there is a small little hut of Mahalakshmi. She remained there to sweep.

“Let me do some seva (service)! I cannot get entrance into Vrindavan, into maharas. I’ll be sitting here.”

She left Vaikunth. How do we know? When Gopis sing the Gopi Geet (Gopis‘ song). Remember yesterday I told you, 10th Canto, 29th chapter, from 18th verse starts, etc. And there Lord Krishna is trying to tell the Gopis to go, and finally, in 10th Canto, 29th chapter, 27th verse of Bhagavad Mahapura, Shree Krishna is saying,

“You Gopis, now you better go back to your places. Now you have seen Me, you have seen everything, this beautiful decoration. You do shravanam (hearing), darshanam (seeing), dhyanam (meditation), ‘mayi bhavanu kirtanam’ (chanting My glories).

Do shravanam. Listen, like you all are listening to Bhagawatam.

(Shree Krishna says,) “Listen about My Bhagawatam.”

Remember, Bhagawatam is eternal.

“So listen about My glories and pastimes. And darshanam means you make a murti, you make a Deity, and then you can have My darshan.”

Try to drink the Divine beauty through the Divine form from the deities. Darshanam and dhyanam means ‘remember’ - do roopdhyan (meditation on the Divine form). Remember, do remembrance with your mind. And kirtanam means to chant My glories.

“So do all this - go.”

The Gopis are thinking in their mind, “When He is here, why do we need to get the eity? We are not fools.”

So Lord Krishna is just trying to pass the message to the world that when you find God, then you don’t have to have all these things. The Deity is acceptable to worship and when He is there, you worship Him.

Just like a wife remembers the husband and puts the photo of him when he has gone to England for 10 years. When she cooks anything, when she does anything, she’s only remembering her husband, or her child. The mother remembers her child because of that attachment.

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… तान्यहं वेद सर्वाणि न त्वं वेत्थ परन्तप ॥

… Tāny ahaṁ ved sarvāṇi na tvaṁ vettha parantap.

- Gita 4.5

Bhagwan says, “Arjun, I have taken countless births and you have taken countless births, but I know all of them, while you do not.”

Ah, it’s a difference. It’s a big difference. But all this proves is that God is all-knowing, while we, the individual souls, are ignorant or knowing very little. But He also takes birth just like us.

ज्ञाज्ञौ द्वौ अजावीशानीशावजा ह्येका भोक्तृभोग्यार्थयुक्ता ।
अनन्तश्चात्मा विश्वरूपो ह्यकर्ता त्रयं यदा विन्दते ब्रह्ममेतत् ॥ ९ ॥

Gyāgyau dvau ajāvīhśhānīśhāvajā hyekā bhoktṛbhogyārthayuktā.
Anantaśhchātmā viśhvarūpo hyakartā trayaṁ yadā vindate brahmametat.

- Shvetashvatar Upanishad 1.9

The Vedas say, “God is all-knowing, while we, the individual souls, are ignorant or knowing very little. He’s all-powerful, while we don’t have any power, etc.”

But He also takes birth. I’m sure we are puzzled by this word, birth - janma. What is the meaning of this word, janma, or birth? In Sanskrit, the root word is ‘janī prādurbhāve’ (to manifest, to appear), means ‘prakat hona’ (to be revealed, to appear). So the word ‘birth’ here means ‘to appear, to be revealed’. It means we, the individual souls, also appear, just like the Supreme.

भये प्रगट कृपाला, दीनदयाला, कौशल्या हितकारी।
हर्षित महतारी, मुनि मन हारी, अद्भुत रूप विचारी॥

Bhaye pragat Kṛipālā, Deendayālā, Kaushalyā hitkārī.
Harṣhit Mahatārī, muni man hāri, adbhut roop vichārī.

- Ramayan: Bal Kand, chhand 191 (partial)

So Bhagwan Shree Ram appeared before Mother Kaushalya. This is what the Ramayan is saying. It means we also appear. We also have appeared. The philosophy is that the individual soul is unborn, eternal, beginningless.

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“Okay, this soul can keep their mind engaged in some devotional activity if I allow them to get involved in this way and do this seva.”

So let me offer this opportunity. “Hey, you can do this seva, you can do that seva.”

Does a Divine Saint, part of a Divine plan, need the cooperation and participation of ordinary material souls to move their plan forward? No, absolutely not.

Krishna has unlimited Saints in His Divine abode. He could descend any number of them if He wanted to. You know, whatever He needs done, whatever He needs managed, He can just send a Saint on Earth to do it. And yet He’s giving us the opportunity to get involved and take on certain roles in His mission just as a way to grace us.

So seva and sadhana together make a perfect combination. Seva brings us closer to our Divine Master by allowing us to express our feelings of dedication by offering that seva, whether it be physical seva, financial seva, or the mental seva of doing sadhana. In fact, sadhana itself becomes a form of seva if it’s done with humbleness.

“Oh, my Guru has told me to do this!”

सोइ सेवक प्रियतम मम सोई। मम अनुसासन मानै जोई॥ …

Soi sevak priyatam mam so-ī | Mam anusasān mānai jo-ī…

- Ramayan Uttar Kand: chaupai 43 (partial)

Shree Ram says, “My favorite sevak, my favorite servant, is the one who follows my instructions.”

So thinking that Shree Maharaj Ji has said to do sadhana like this,

“So I want to please Him, so I’m going to do the roopdhyan (meditation on the Divine form) and kirtan (devotional chanting). Then doing sadhana also becomes seva. So sadhana and seva go together.

Doing physical seva or financial seva brings us closer to our Guru by helping us develop humbleness and giving us the opportunity to offer that part of ourselves, that energy or that effort, that we put into that physical or financial seva. It allows us to express our humbleness and dedication and develop it further.

And practicing sadhana, where we sit and make our mind do roopdhyan, helps us to control our mind. It teaches the mind that control and practices the mind to become attached to Radha, Krishna, and Guru over and over and over again. So we need to do both sadhana and seva.

Gita says:

तद्विद्धि प्रणिपातेन परिप्रश्नेन सेवया ।
उपदेक्ष्यन्ति ते ज्ञानं ज्ञानिनस्तत्त्वदर्शिनः ॥

Tad viddhi praṇipātena paripraśhnen sevayā.
Upadekṣhyanti te gyānaṁ gyāninas tattva-darśhinaḥ.

- Gita 4.34

“The Guru has all the Divine knowledge and all the Divine bliss and can give that to anybody, but you have to be ready to receive it.”

So how do you become ready to receive it? You’re not ready to receive everything the Guru is able to give you. So what do you have to do? Sevaya. You have to serve the Guru. By serving the Guru, you purify your heart and you become more and more open to receive the Guru’s teachings and grace.

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After using too much (of our) mind, the satsangis (devotees attending spiritual discourse) of Shree Maharaj Ji can say that we are the souls.

“Oh, so you know that you are soul, yes? So, do you know about yourself? Do you have any idea about soul? What is soul? How does it look like? Do you have any idea of your soul?”

Like, we have some idea of our body, but do we have any idea of the soul as well? Not at all. We heard from the scriptures and we heard from the Saints that we are the soul. That’s why I am telling you that we are the soul. But we have no idea at all about the form of the soul. What is soul? The day when we will know about soul, it means ignorance has gone, which is called atma gyan (knowledge of the soul). As soon as you have atma gyan, knowing about atma (soul), knowing about our soul, it is such a great bliss that sometimes, if you do not have a proper guru, then devotees think,

“I have attained Brahmanand (bliss of Brahm)! I have seen God! I have attained the bliss, the Divine bliss, of God!”

They think that although that is not the Divine bliss of God, it is Divine bliss of atma, but it is not the bliss of God. You have known atma, but you have to know Paramatma (Supreme Soul) as well. And to know Paramatma,

… ते द्वन्द्वमोहनिर्मुक्ता भजन्ते मां दृढव्रता: ॥ 28॥

… Te dvandva-moha-nirmuktā bhajante māṁ dṛiḍha-vratāḥ.

- Gita 7.28 (partial)

The Gita is saying, “If you have known yourself, ‘dvandva-moha-nirmuktā’ (द्वन्द्वमोहनिर्मुक्ता) then it means now your maya (material energy, illusion) has gone. Your ignorance has gone, and you have crossed two-thirds of maya as well.”

There are three modes of maya: sattvagun (mode of goodness), rajogun (mode of passion), tamogun (mode of ignorance). So the gyani (one who knows), the one who knows about atma, can get rid of tamasi maya (maya in the mode of ignorance), rajasi maya (maya in the mode of passion), but he cannot get rid of sattvik maya (maya in the mode of goodness), because ‘sattva saṇjāyate gyānam’; Gyan (knowledge) is attained from sattvagun. It has come, and you have attained atma gyan only from sattvagun. So sattvagun is there. It means two-thirds of maya has gone, but one-third of maya is still there. You are not completely free from maya.

But that bliss is also so great, so high, that you have never tasted that bliss in this world, any time, in anything. So, in other words of our scriptures, we have crossed the gunavarika maya (maya that covers through the three modes), but the svarupavarika maya (maya that covers our own self) is still there. There are two parts of maya: gunavarika maya and svarupavarika maya. Svarupavarika maya means ‘that which is hiding our own self from us’. That is svarupavarika maya, and that is rajoguni maya (maya in the mode of passion) and tamoguni maya (maya in the mode of ignorance).

But gunavarika maya means ‘the maya of three modes’. So we have not crossed, the gyani does not cross, the gunavarika maya, the maya of three modes. Sattvagun is still there. That’s why he does not know about God.

So, if you have attained the knowledge of atma, then you have to attain the knowledge of Paramatma. So how would you attain the knowledge of Paramatma? Shree Krishna says in the Gita that

… ते द्वन्द्वमोहनिर्मुक्ता भजन्ते मां दृढव्रता: ॥ 28॥

… Te dvandva-mohanirmuktā bhajante māṁ dṛiḍha-vratāḥ.

- Gita 7.28 (partial)

“Now they will do bhakti (devotion to God)”

Why?

भक्त्या मामभिजानाति यावान्यश्चास्मि तत्त्वतः ।
ततो मां तत्त्वतो ज्ञात्वा विशते तदनन्तरम् ॥

Bhaktyā mām abhijānāti yāvān yaśh-chāsmi tattvataḥ.
Tato māṁ tattvato gyātvā viśhate tad-anantaram.

- Gita 18.55

Bhakti dwara (through bhakti), ’bhaktyā mām abhijānāti’, भक्त्या मामभिजानाति, (one can know Me).

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ते तं भुक्त्वा स्वर्गलोकं विशालं क्षीणे पुण्ये मर्त्यलोकं विशन्ति । …

Te taṁ bhuktvā svarga-lokaṁ viśhālaṁ kṣhīṇe puṇye martya-lokaṁ viśhanti…

- Gita 9.21 (partial)

“Those who go over to swarg (heaven), they do enjoy extensive pleasures, but then they’re bound to be reborn in this world.”

So it means they don’t get ahead spiritually. You don’t gain anything spiritually by going to swarg. You’re right back where you started - right here. Our spiritual goal is to attain supreme God, and you don’t get closer to attaining God by going to swarg. In fact, you have to come back here, get born as a human, then you could attain God. You can’t attain God while you’re in swarg.

So the celestial gods are like Indra, the god of rain, Agni, the god of fire, Vayu, the god of wind, the nav grah devtas (the nine planetary deities in Vedic astrology) These are all different celestial gods. There are many, many of them. You can say that they’re employees of supreme God. They’re mayic powers, but they’re not Divine, and you can’t attain the Divine world by worshipping them.

Shree Krishna summarizes this whole philosophy when He says:

यान्ति देवव्रता देवान् पितॄन्यान्ति पितृव्रताः ।
भूतानि यान्ति भूतेज्या यान्ति मद्याजिनोऽपि माम् ॥

Yānti deva-vratā devān pitṝin yānti pitṛi-vratāḥ.
Bhūtāni yānti bhūtejyā yānti mad-yājino ’pi mām.

- Gita 9.25

He says, “Whatever you worship, that’s where you’ll go.”

If you worship celestial gods, you’ll go to swarg. If you worship supreme God…Krishna says,

“If you worship Him, you’ll go to His Divine abode. If you worship spirits, if you worship material beings of this physical world, then you’ll be reborn in this world, or you’ll go to the spirit world.”

But there’s only one way to go to the Divine world, and that’s by worshipping God directly, bypassing the worship of all other material beings or powers.

This is a very important philosophy of the ninth chapter.

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Now, this brahm is just the light from Radharani’s lotus feet. What to say of Radha Herself? So now we’re going to move in that direction.

So first take brahm.

ब्रह्म हि तत्त्वम् न जानाति वेद

Brahma hi tattvam na jānāti ved.

This brahm, which is only the light of Radharani’s toenails of Her lotus feet, that brahm cannot even be described by Vedas. Vedas says,

… अदृश्यमव्यवहार्यमग्राह्यमलक्षणमचिन्त्यमव्यपदेश्यमेकात्मप्रत्ययसारं प्रपञ्चोपशमं शान्तं शिवमद्वैतं …

…Adṛishyamavyavahāryamagrāhyamalakṣhaṇamachintyamavyapadeśhyamekātmapratyayasāraṁ prapañchopaśhamaṁ śhāntaṁ śhivamadvaitaṁ…

- Mandukya Upanishad Verse 7 (partial)

Vedas saying, “We can’t see brahm, we can’t touch brahm, we can’t think of or conceive of brahm, we can’t grasp brahm with any of our senses, we can’t understand brahm, we can’t interact with brahm in any way.”

In other words, Vedas said, “We can’t tell what is brahm, who is ‘H’e, how is ‘H’e, we can’t tell.”

Vedas gave up, admitting defeat that we can’t tell. The richas of the Vedas are Divine personalities themselves in personal form, and they’re admitting,

“It’s beyond our power to even describe brahm.” Veda is saying that this brahm is beyond even our buddhi (intellect), even our Divine intellect, cannot adequately describe brahm.

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… जुष्टं यदा पश्यत्यन्यमीशमस्य महिमानमिति वीतशोकः ॥
…Juṣhṭaṁ yadā paśhyatyanyamīśham asyamahimānam iti vītaśhokaḥ.

- Mundak Upanishad 3.1.2 (partial)

The moment a soul becomes sanmukh (turned towards God) to God, he meets God face-to-face and all of his suffering, all of his mayic (related to maya) bondage is finished forever. So we have to become sanmukh to God. We are so small. We’re a tiny fraction, like God is the sun, and we are just one tiny ray of that sun. You see, the metal on this harmonium (Indian musical instrument) is shiny. It’s got an ansh (fraction) of prakash (light, brilliance) in it. But the sun is the maha prakash (great light). When the sun is there, there can never be darkness. When God is there, there can never be maya (material energy, illusion). In other words, if you’re turned towards God, maya cannot affect you, even if you’re living in the mayic world.

But if you’re turned away from God, then maya can affect you, just like right now, this is shiny, right? But if we turn off all the lights in this room, and it’s nighttime, will this piece of metal be able to illuminate this room? No. But even though this has ansh of light in it, the darkness overpowers it, because it is such a tiny fraction of light. We are like that. Yes, we are ansh of God, but we’re such a tiny fraction. We’re called anuchit. Anu means infinitesimal.

Therefore, if we don’t have God enlightening us, if we’re on our own, we’re turned away from God, maya has its way with us, maya overpowers us. And this is the situation since eternity. We’re turned away from God, therefore, since we are only anuchit, maya, even though it’s jaḋ (inert), it takes over.

It keeps us under its bondage. But the solution is, all we have to do is turn towards God, and with His grace, we’ll be free from maya.

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So when Adi Jagadguru Shankaracharya, wrote his bhashya (commentary) on all of these great scriptures, the theory that he set forth is called advaitavad. Other Jagadgurus set forth other theories. Shankaracharya later added more to his theory, which you’ll see in a little bit. But for now, just understand that those who follow that advaitavad of Shankaracharya nowadays, what they say is,

“No, no, no, we don’t need bhakti (devotion)! We can attain God just through thinking, if I remember that I am Brahm (God), then I’ll be liberated!”

That’s their philosophy. That this whole world, it doesn’t actually exist. It is भ्रम, bhram, (illusion, misconception, or mistaken perception). And ‘I am, ब्रह्म, brahm’ (the Supreme absolute truth). See the difference? Brahm means God and bhram means illusion, a confusion, or agyan (ignorance). So they say that ‘I am brahm’, but I have forgotten . That’s why ‘ye sab dikh raha hai’ (all this that is appearing).

You can summarize the whole philosophy in one Sanskrit phrase.

ब्रह्म सत्यं जगन्मिथ्या जीवो ब्रह्मैव नापरः । …

Brahm satyaṃ jagan-mithyā jīvo brahmaiva nāparaḥ …

- Brahmajnanavalimal Verse 20 (partial)

Jeev (individual soul) is Brahm. And the world is mithya (unreal). It doesn’t even exist and there’s nothing else other than that. So it means only brahm exists. That’s why it’s called advait (non-dual) - dvait (dualism) means two. Advait (means) ‘no other’, just one - brahm. So in his advaitavad, Shankaracharya took the three eternal tattva (eternal principles) described in our Vedas. Ved refers to three eternal tattva.

अजामेकां लोहितशुक्लकृष्णां बह्वीः प्रजाः सृजमानां सरूपाः ।
अजो ह्येको जुषमाणोऽनुशेते जहात्येनां भुक्तभोगामजोऽन्यः ॥ ५ ॥

Ajām ekām lohita-śhukla-kṛiṣhṇām bahvīḥ prajaḥ sṛijamānāṁ sarūpāḥ.
Ajo hyeko juṣhamāṇo ’nuśhete jahāty enāṁ bhukta-bhogām ajo ’nyaḥ.

- Shvetashvatar Upanishad 4.5

These three are referred to in many verses of our Vedas. This one is from Shvetashvatar Upanishad.

So Shankaracharya took those three eternal tattva - God, the souls, and maya (material energy) - and he reduced it to one. He said,

“No, no, no. Souls and God are not two separate things. In fact, souls are not many. There’s just one God.”

And there’s a theory called bimbapratibimbavad (the theory of reflection and reflected image). Like the sun is shining in the sky, and if you have a bunch of buckets of water, you see the sun shining in each of those buckets. So does that mean there are many suns? No, there’s only one sun, but it’s being seen in all these places. Similarly, there’s only God, but it seems like there are (many) souls, but actually there’s only one soul, and the soul and God are one and the same. So there he eliminated souls from the picture. And then he said,

“This world is just an illusion. It doesn’t even exist.”

So he eliminated maya from the picture and he said, “Just brahm exists.”

So in this theory, brahm, God, Himself is confused. That’s how He thinks Himself to be a soul. I’m just telling you how it is in this Advait Vad.

“You are brahm.”

So how is it that you find yourself in this illusion of the world thinking you’re a soul when you’re actually God? You’re confused. You are actually God.

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If a lion kills a man, the lion doesn’t go to hell. If we kill somebody, we go to hell. So two things are necessary to attain the ultimate aim of life, God realization. One is gyan (knowledge). Devatas also have that, more or less. But the second one is purusharth. And only in the human birth, in this human form, do we have both of them - gyan plus purusharth. But we should not delay. We keep procrastinating.

न श्वः श्वमुपासीत। को ही मनुष्यस्य श्वो वेद।

Na śhvaḥ śhvo upāsikaḥ, ko hi manuṣyasya śhvaḥ śhvo ved.

The Vedas say, “Hey bhaiya, don’t keep saying tomorrow, tomorrow I will do, śhvaḥ śhvaḥ (do it with every breath).”

We all know what we have to do. This is a big problem we have. We keep procrastinating. We keep putting off. We have always been doing that. We always keep saying,

“I will do it! I will do it. Right now, I’m too busy!”

And then one day death will suddenly come, and then what are we going to do?

You know, Kabir said, a Saint called Kabir, he said something very wonderful. He said,

काल करै सो आज कर, आज करै सो अब। पल में परलै होएगी, बहुरि करैगो कब।

Kāl kare so āj kar, āj karai so ab. Pal meṇ pralaya hoegī, bahuri karaigo kab.

“What you plan to do tomorrow, to worship Bhagwan tomorrow, do today - aaj - and when you plan to worship Bhagwan today, do right now - ab!”

Pal means when you blink your eyes; it’s called a pal. In the blink of an eye, death will take you. And then what are you going to do? Let us not keep procrastinating. We have been given everything we need to do. We all know what we have to do. We’re too lazy and too careless to do it. This has always been our problem - laziness and carelessness.

We have to become alert, realize any moment death can come. We’re going to lose this wonderful opportunity, this wonderful human birth, this wonderful association of such a great Saint, this wonderful yearning desire. Who knows when we’ll get human birth again? It’s so difficult. We have it now. Every moment, don’t think,

“I’m too old now!”

Okay, now you take care, bhaiya! Where are you going? Every moment we have to utilize it. It’s very valuable. All of us have that opportunity. It’s never too late, never too late. Make the most of the time, the opportunity, we have right now. I’m not saying to forget your family, forget your house, forget your dog. No, just realize,

“Where am I going to find true happiness?”

Nobody’s telling us to divorce your husband or wife or throw away your children or parents. No! We just have to realize just as I belong only to Shree Krishna, so everyone around me belongs only to Shree Krishna also.

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So, again, talking about these misconceptions of karm yog does not mean doing actions without caring about the outcome. We do care about the outcome, but we’re just not personally attached. Here’s the best way to think about it: karm yog means you’re not performing this action because you think that by succeeding you’re going to get happiness out of that. That’s not karm yog. If you think that by doing this,

“I’m going to get happiness!”

You’re not doing karm yog because happiness is involved. So, karm yog means just doing the best with the understanding that your real goal is to attain God, but you do this because you also have to exist in the world. So it’s a very good way to live in the world. You can be calm and balanced. You can react to situations appropriately instead of emotionally reacting.

See, parents say, “How can I take care of my kids without attachment?”

Do you know what attachment is? Attachment is inherently selfish. If you’re attached to your children, it means you expect to get happiness out of them. That’s the basis of attachment. Where we believe we’ll get happiness, that’s where we get attached. So it means you’re selfishly desiring that your kid should behave in a certain way, turn out in a certain way. Why? So it will make you happy, proud. That’s selfish.

So being attached is not helping your kids. Attach your mind to God and then do your duty towards your kids. Duty means educate them, guide them, give them affection. Give them what they need, not what you want. And that’s only possible when you’re attached to God instead of to your kids.

This is our own homemade philosophy when we think, “Oh, wait, I have to be attached here!”

That’s not said in any scripture or by any Saints. We made that up ourselves to justify our own attachment. It’s natural because our mind likes being attached. It’s attached because of its own decision that there’s happiness here. So, of course, it wants to stay attached. It thinks it’s going to lose something by releasing that attachment. But it’s not losing anything, it’s gaining.

Our attachment is what binds us in this world. Release the attachment and you’re free. You’re free to do your duty responsibly and to the best of your ability without the interference of those attachments. And you’re free to attach your mind to God to attain eternal happiness. So you’re not losing by releasing attachments, you’re gaining. Yet, the best approach is still not to try to remove attachments from the mind. The best approach is to reason with the mind and just say,

“You should desire happiness from God. That’s what happiness is.”

Just reason with the mind and let it start to experience happiness from God. Then, it will naturally start to divert from the world towards God. It happens naturally, not forcefully.

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अविद्यायामन्तरे वर्तमानाः स्वयं धीराः पण्डितं मन्यमानाः ।
जङ्घन्यमानाः परियन्ति मूढा अन्धेनैव नीयमाना यथान्धाः ॥

Avidyāyām antare vartamānāḥ svayaṁ dhīrāḥ paṇḍitaṁ manyamānāḥ,
Janghanyamānāḥ pariyanti mūḍhā andhenaiva nīyamānā yathāndhāḥ.

- Mundaka Upanishad 1.2.8

इष्टापूर्तं मन्यमाना वरिष्ठं नान्यच्छ्रेयो वेदयन्ते प्रमूढाः ।
नाकस्य पृष्ठे ते सुकृतेऽनुभूत्वेमं लोकं हीनतरं वा विशन्ति ॥

Iṣhṭāpūrtaṁ manyamānā variṣhṭhaṁ nānyacchreyo vedayante pramūḍhāḥ,
Nākasya pṛiṣhṭhe te sukṛite ’nubhūtvemaṁ lokaṁ hīnataraṁ vā viśhanti.

- Mundaka Upanishad 1.2.10

The Vedas are saying,

“The person who strives to and wants to go to heaven is not only an ordinary fool, but he is the greatest fool, pramūḍh!”

The word ‘mūḍh’ in Sanskrit means ‘murkh’ in Hindi, means ‘stupid, foolish’ (in English). And in Sanskrit, when you put the prefix ‘pra’ before a word, it means ‘the greatest’.

Why?

What does Bhagwan Shree Ram mean in the Ramayana when He say that ‘It (heaven) ends in suffering’? So Bhagwan Krishna gives the answer in Gita. He says,

ते तं भुक्त्वा स्वर्गलोकं विशालं क्षीणे पुण्ये मर्त्यलोकं विशन्ति ।
एवं त्रयीधर्ममनुप्रपन्ना गतागतं कामकामा लभन्ते ॥

Te taṁ bhuktvā svarg-lokaṁ viśhālaṁ kṣhīṇe puṇye martya-lokaṁ viśhanti.
Evaṁ trayī-dharmam anuprapannā gatāgataṁ kāma-kāmā labhante.

- Gita 9.21

You see, when you perform dharm (righteous action), etc., you will go (to heaven), that’s your desire. Somebody may ask,

“Well, if heaven is not the place to go, why is the scripture talking about heaven?”

The scriptures put in greed (for a reason). The Saints and Bhagwan know, especially in Kaliyug, people have no interest in God. To sit down and have a natural yearning and longing for God, to love God, is not natural. So they put greed,

“If you do this, yeah, you will go to heaven. You will get this thing.”

So at least people will be respectful to their elders, they will do good action, or else everybody will just (act without morals); the world will finish in no time. So in order for this world to run smoothly and people to live, you know, in harmony, these things have been written, but it’s not the actual, not the ultimate, aim.

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सर्वधर्मान्परित्यज्य मामेकं शरणं व्रज ।
अहं त्वां सर्वपापेभ्यो मोक्षयिष्यामि मा शुच: ॥

Sarvadharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śharaṇaṁ vraj.
Ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo mokṣhayiṣhyāmi mā śhuchaḥ

- Gita 18.66

In Krishna’s final teaching to Arjun in the Gita, he says, basically summarizing everything in the Gita,

“Leaving all other practices, just surrender to Me. If you surrender to Me exclusively and wholeheartedly, I will relieve you from all of your past actions. All of your past karma will be deleted, and you will be liberated.”

Liberated means liberated from the effect of your uncountable past actions, liberated from the bondage of maya (material energy), liberated from the cycle of birth and death. So then what happens when you’re liberated? Your soul is liberated from needing this material body, and your material mind is also left behind, and then you merge into God. What aspect of God? Because God has many aspects, you merge into His formless aspect, which is basically the dormant Divine existence. Dormant in this way that none of God’s characteristics are manifested in His formless aspect - no form, no personality, no activity or actions, just an ocean of Divine peacefulness. And when you merge into that ocean of Divine peacefulness, you do become peaceful, but you are not aware of your own blissfulness, because you don’t have a body or mind or senses with which to know anything or experience anything.

So this is the state of liberation, or moksh, which you hear about a lot in the Hindu scriptures. It’s a state of non-experience. You still exist. You don’t cease to exist, but you cease to experience anything. There’s something beyond this. Many people don’t know this, that the state of liberation is only one type of Divine state. There’s something else beyond this.

The state of liberation doesn’t actually sound very appealing, at least to me. Having a state of no experience is a little scary to me. I don’t want to not experience anything. I don’t want to lose the awareness of my own existence. I want to keep experiencing, but I want that experience to be blissful.

So there is such a state beyond the state of liberation, where you actually get a Divine mind and Divine senses and Divine body, just like you need all of these faculties to experience the material world, so you have material faculties. In the Divine state, you can receive Divine faculties to experience God directly. That’s when you can see, touch, smell, hear, taste everything in the Divine world, if you go beyond this state of liberation.

So the Bhagwatam teaches this, that there is something beyond liberation. Whereas the Gita finished with liberation, the very second verse of the Bhagwatam throws out liberation as a goal.

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We’ve got maya inside of us. We’ve let maya inside of us, and we’re not surrendered to God. So even though God is present in everything we enjoy in this world, we’ve never experienced Him because we’re not surrendered to Him. Our senses, mind, and intellect are made of maya. So how can we experience Divine God? We can’t. So even though He’s omnipresent, we can’t experience Him.

We haven’t experienced Him, but we will experience Him if, through practicing bhakti, we purify our heart, we become surrendered to Him, and we receive His grace. And through His grace, we’ll receive swaroop shakti, that Divine personal power which enters our senses, mind, and intellect and makes them Divine. Then we experience what the Saints experience.

“Oh, you were right.”

It’s like taking the salt out of your mouth - now you can taste the sweetness.

So eliminate maya, and then you realize, “Oh, God was here all along!”

Meaning, eliminate the bondage of maya on you. The world is still here, but you see God in everything and experience Him in everything.

That’s the status of a Saint.

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चेतो दर्पण मार्जनं भव महा दावाग्नि निर्वापणं ।
श्रेयः कैरव चन्द्रिका वितरणं विद्या वधू जीवनम् ।
आनन्दाम्बुधि वर्धनं प्रतिपदं पूर्णामृतास्वादनं ।
सर्वात्म स्नपनं परं विजयते श्रीकृष्ण सङ्कीर्तनम् ॥

Cheto-darpaṇ-mārjanaṁ bhav-mahā-dāvāgni-nirvāpaṇaṁ.
Shreyaḥ-kairav-chandrikā-vitaraṇaṁ vidyā-vadhū-jīvanam.
Ānandāmbudhi-vardhanaṁ prati-padaṁ pūrṇāmṛitāsvādanaṁ.
Sarvātma-snapanaṁ paraṁ vijayate śhrī-kṛiṣhṇ-saṅkīrtanam.

- Shikṣāṣhṭak 1, Chaitanya-Charitāmṛit, antya-leelā 20.12

He (Mahaprabhu Ji) says that Shree Krishna’s name, the chanting of His name, which, of course, doesn’t mean just verbal chanting, but chanting the name while thinking of Whose name it is. So remembering Krishna and chanting His name is such an effective sadhana that there’s nothing comparable to it. There is no other spiritual practice that can compare with the chanting of Shree Krishna’s name. It’s so powerful that if you are on the correct path with the correct guidance and a true Guru, this is what happens. Initially, ‘cheto-darpaṇa-mārjanam’ He refers to our heart as a mirror, and the mirror is dirty, just has a lot of filth plastered on there. Chanting Shree Krishna’s name starts cleaning off the mirror. The heart starts to purify.

The next stage in bhakti: dāvāgni. There is a big wildfire burning inside your heart. It’s the fire of material desires and it stresses us out. It agitates us. It burns our heart.

So these material desires and even the experience of material pleasure, it doesn’t pacify our heart. No, it agitates our heart. So as the devotee progresses in bhakti, that fire of agitation of the material desires starts to subside.

In the third stage described by Mahaprabhu Ji, He says,

श्रयः कैरवचन्दद्रिका वितरणं

Shreyaḥ-kairava-chandrikā-vitaraṇam.

There is a lotus called kumudini. “It blooms in the cool nectar-like light of the moon.”

It doesn’t bloom in the burning hot light of the sun. In other words, the feeling of peace, belonging, security, satisfaction, that doesn’t come from the worldly desires and the worldly pleasures. That’s more like the sun. The lotus stays shriveled up, closed up… this kumudini, this night-blooming lotus. But in the cool light of Shree Krishna’s bhakti in the cool light of the bliss of Krishna’s name, this kumudini, which we call our heart, starts to bloom. It blossoms in that nectar-like cooling light of Shree Krishna’s name, which is being called the moon in this case.

The fourth stage, ‘vidyā-vadhū-jeevanam’. So in true knowledge you have apara vidya, that means knowledge of material things, of gross things, temporary material things. Then you have para Vidya, the knowledge of akshar. Akshar Brahm means Shree Krishna. All the theory that we find in Vedas, Upanishads, Darshan Shastras, Gita, all of the theory of what is God, who am I, what is the soul, how is soul related to God, all of that theory actually gets replaced by experience.

Simply by chanting Shree Krishna’s name, you start actually experiencing the fact that you are a Divine soul and you are eternally related to Shree Krishna. It becomes real for you.

It’s not just theory anymore.

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आहारस्त्वपि सर्वस्य त्रिविधो भवति प्रियः ।
यज्ञस्तपस्तथा दानं तेषां भेदमिमं शृणु ॥

Āhārastvapi sarvasya tri-vidho bhavati priyaḥ,
yagyastapastathā dānaṁ teṣāṁ bhedam imaṁ śhṛiṇu.

- Gita 17.7

He (Shree Krishna) says,

“In fact, food, yagya (sacrifice), tapas (austerity), and dān (charity) are also classified as sattvic (pertaining to mode of goodness), rajasic (pertaining to mode of passion), and tamasic (pertaining to mode of ignorance). Āhāra (food), food. What we eat also has a classification.”

So He says, “Eating healthy food that’s good for your body and good for your mind is sattvic.”

There’s only one small shlok (verse) for what is sattvic āhāra. There’s much, much more in the Vedas.

So Krishna’s just telling in brief. Of course, we know that sattvic food means vegetarian food, freshly prepared, not over-spiced, because in the next verse, when Krishna’s talking about rajasic food, He says,

“If it’s too tīkha (spicy), it’s too hot, it’s too drying, it’s over-cooked, it becomes rajasic, even if it would have been sattvic.”

So the food, the vegetarian food, should be healthy, fresh, not spoiled by the way we want it to taste, but preserving the good qualities of the food. So rice, dal, grains, nuts, fruits, vegetables, milk, milk products, all of these are sattvic.

Rajasic food, again, is vegetarian, but deep-fried, over-spiced. Spice means chili. He said salt also; salt is rajasic. (If you) make your food salty, it becomes rajasic. (And if you) make your food too hot, too much chili, it becomes rajasic.

And tamasic food is non-vegetarian. Meat, chicken, fish, eggs also come in this category. Here He doesn’t name these things specifically, He says smelly things, rotten things. So think about it, even if you just think about it from a visual perspective or a smell perspective. When you pick a vegetable, or when you pick a fruit, or when you harvest grain, does it smell bad? Is it shocking? Is it, as we say, gross? No. It doesn’t smell bad, it doesn’t look bad. When you kill an animal, it’s shocking, disturbing, smells bad, looks bad. So use your common sense. Why would we eat food that comes from that kind of thing? If you leave a carrot sitting on the kitchen counter, even for 12 hours, is it going to rot? No. Leave some meat sitting on the kitchen counter and then eat that, you’ll end up in the hospital.

So Krishna is just using these general characteristics of food, but what He’s indicating is that sattvic food is vegetarian and non-vegetarian food is tamas. And when we say sattvic, rajasic, or tamasic, it means that it is also having that effect on our mind when we eat it.

Yes, it’s true that the act of killing an animal simply to eat it because we like the taste of that, instead of eating vegetarian food, yes, that is considered a bad action. And there is punishment for doing any bad action, that kind of bad action included. So it is considered a bad action to eat meat. But apart from that, when we eat tamasic food, food in that tamasic category, it actually develops the tamas (mode of ignorance) quality of the mind. It helps to develop that.

When you eat sattvic food, it helps to develop the sattvic quality. Of course, it’s not the only thing you have to do. You can’t just eat sattvic food and then behave like a bad person in the world and think,

“I’m becoming sattvic!”

You combine it with everything

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धर्म: प्रोज्झितकैतवोऽत्र परमो निर्मत्सराणां सतां
वेद्यं वास्तवमत्र वस्तु शिवदं तापत्रयोन्मूलनम् ।
श्रीमद्भागवते महामुनिकृते किं वा परैरीश्वर:
सद्यो हृद्यवरुध्यतेऽत्र कृतिभि: शुश्रूषुभिस्तत्क्षणात् ॥

Dharmaḥ projjhit-kaitavo ’tra paramo nirmatsarāṇāṁ satāṁ.
Vedyaṁ vāstavamatra vastu śhivadaṁ tāpa-trayonmūlanam.
Shrīmad-bhāgavate mahā-muni-kṛite kiṁ vā parair īśvaraḥ.
Sadyo hṛidy avarudhyate ’tra kṛitibhiḥ śhuśhrūṣhubhis tat-kṣhaṇāt.

- Bhagwatam 1.1.2

This verse says that what is taught in the Bhagwatam is ‘kaitav-rahit’ (without deception). ‘Kaitav’ means ‘deception’, and ‘rahit’ means ‘without’. So what is taught, the path that is taught in the Bhagwatam is without deception.

So what are the deceptions which are not allowed in the Bhagwatam? The Saints, all the Saints who have written their explanations of the meaning of this have said that there are four types of kaitav. The four traditional aims of human life that people generally associate with Hinduism are dharm (righteousness), arth (wealth), kam (desire), and moksh (liberation). So this is rather surprising to people when they hear it for the first time. Dharm, arth, kam, moksh. Everybody knows these are the four aims of human life.

• Dharm means you perform good actions.

• Arth means you gain wealth and possessions in this world.

• Kam means you try to satisfy your desires in this world, enjoy the world.

• Moksh is what I just explained, liberation.

But all four of these in the Bhagwatam are said to be deceptions, that there is something else beyond that which you are meant to be aiming for. There is a fifth aim of human life.

Chaitanya Mahaprabhuji, a very famous Divine personality from 500 years ago, said,

পঞ্চম পুরুষার্থ সেই প্রেম–মহাধন ।
কৃষ্ণের মাধুর্য–রস করায় আস্বাদন ॥ ১৪৪ ॥

पंचम पुरुषार्थ सेइ प्रेम-महाधन।
कृष्णेर माधुर्य-रस कराय आस्वादन ॥

Paṇcham puruṣhārth sei prem-mahādhan.
Kṛiṣhṇer mādhurya-ras karāya āsvādana.

- Śhree Chaitanya-Charitāmṛit Ādi 7.144

In other words, there is a fifth aim of human life which is beyond these four - it is the Divine love of God. Divine love is what you experience when you interact with God on a personal level. And that Divine love is an actual power. It is the essence of Divine bliss, which is the essence of His personal power. Bliss is a power in the Divine world, and the essence of bliss is love, or prem (Divine love). So that is the ultimate goal of a soul. If you get that, you got the best thing.

And when you get that, you get a Divine body, senses, and mind so you can experience God and interact with God directly. In other words, you can take part in those leelas (Divine pastimes) forever in the Divine world.

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