Review of Bhakti Vriksha Program
March 3, 2001
On this evening we had the great fortune to have Chandrashakara Maharaj host
our program. He spoke on Srimad-Bhagavatam First Canto, chapter two, verses
fifteen through nineteen. He based his talk on the questions composed by
Narottama Prabhu. The discussion went as follows.
Two of the nine processes of devotional service as outlined in the
Bhakti-rasamrita-sindhu are remembering and serving. Remembering Krishna and
serving his lotus feet are two of the ways in which we can always keep ourselves
engaged and to aid in cutting through the binding knots of karma. Hearing the
message of Krishna, as in hearing the Bhagavatam, helps us to minimize some of
our conditioning that has been accumulating millennium after millennium.
As devotees on the path of sadhana bhakti, we can serve Krishna by serving
his devotees. Particularly by serving advanced devotees and surrounding
ourselves with their association we can begin to please them, and in turn, to
please Krishna. We can begin to analyze our spiritual lives by seeing how much
we have the desire to hear about Krishna constantly. This is one test to
evaluate the level of our advancement. Serving the devotees and desiring to hear
about Krishna will come in succession. Our service creates and enforces our need
to hear about Krishna. It is a cyclical process. Crossing over material desires
also comes along with serving Krishna's devotees. Krishna sees our desire to
serve and He helps to cleanse our hearts of material desires.
The very famous verse, (Bhag. 2.2.18) says that "By regular attendance
in classes on the Bhagavatam and by rendering of service to the pure devotee,
all that is troublesome to the heart is completely destroyed…
nasta-prayesv abhadresu/nityam bhagavata-sevaya/bhagavaty
uttama-sloke/bhaktir bhavati naisthiki
What is troublesome to the heart lies in material desires that create a mass
of unnecessary anxieties and perplexities in our lives. Greed, anger, lust,
lamentation, hankering, etc., these are all troublesome to the heart. Through
the bhakti-yoga process, we have the topmost method by which to cross over some
of these barriers to our true spiritual natures. The scripture Bhagavata assists
us in realizing that there is a tradition and a system for devotional service.
The devotee Bhagavata helps us to understand the scriptures and how to execute
the instructions given therein. The devotional process consists of the
following: to approach a bona fide spiritual master, to surrender to a spiritual
master, to ask submissive questions of him and to render service unto him.
By engaging in the bhakti-yoga process, we can hopefully situate ourselves in
the mode of goodness. In the mode of goodness one can become completely happy
because there is less influence by the modes of passion and ignorance which push
us into feeling greed, lust, anger, hankering, laziness, indifference and so
many things that hinder our spiritual growth. The mode of goodness can abolish
our anxieties and keep us peaceful in Krishna's service. By taking shelter of
the Holy Name we can keep our consciousness in the mode of goodness. The mode of
goodness is still a bit binding, because it is one of the modes of material
nature, but of the three this is certainly the best. In the spiritual world,
these modes do not even exist but here in this realm we must learn to transcend
them.
Thank you for your attention to this report. Please excuse the delay, we have
been slightly off schedule. We are now in the process of restructuring our
group. There will be some changes in the near future. Hare Krishna.
