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Archive for January, 2023

Monday Morning Greetings 2023 #5 – Spiritual Momentum

January 30th, 2023

Spiritual Momentum [1]

 

April 3, 2017

Have you ever lost spiritual momentum? It happens to us all. I had a realization about that in relation to my writing that seemed applicable to spiritual life. I would like to share it, but first I think I need to define what I mean by “momentum.”

Momentum means the power gained when moving or continuing something that grows stronger as time passes, a force that is lost when stopping or pausing, and a force that takes time to build up when beginning to move again. A good example of momentum is when you are driving a car. As you are moving you gradually may be able to shift into high gear and gain momentum, allowing you to cruise along at a high speed effortlessly. However, when you stop and have to start again, that momentum has been lost and only gradually restores after some time.

This concept of momentum in relation to spiritual life dawned on me when faced with the weekly demand of writing Monday Morning Greetings. I noticed that when I don’t write every day, I lose momentum and it takes an inordinate amount of time to shift into a reasonable pace of writing when I begin again. In contrast, when I write every day without fail, I seem to remain in high gear and can immediately build on the frame of reference where I left off. It seems that continuity over time in all endeavors gives momentum and enhances productivity.

I then also realized how much this same phenomenon of momentum was applicable to my spiritual practice. While in India this year, I was able to sustain the practice of rising very early every day for my chanting. I noticed how after a while my practice substantially increased both in amount and quality. Since arriving in the United States, a combination of disrupted plans, late night programs, and unexpected travel disturbed my regulation, especially rising early, causing a reduction in the amount and focus of my chanting. When that temporary disruption in schedule passed, my practice had lost momentum and ironically the minimum prescribed amount seemed as daunting as what I had being doing for almost a year, although then I was doing substantially more. Only gradually was I able to gain the momentum to sustain the previous level of practice.

This phenomenon of momentum is alluded to in the Yoga Sutras, where practice is defined as “concentration, without break, for a prolonged time with the right mood.” Here it specifically mentions that practice must be unbroken. In other words, it just can’t be casually done here and there, for even if you do the same amount sporadically, which is unlikely, you will not have the same momentum or gear to focus intensely. And I will add that without such focus, and the consequent realization and taste that follows, even the minimum amount of chanting will remain difficult and arduous. That’s the reason serious practitioners chant their japa at least in concentrated and unbroken bunches of four, eight or sixteen rounds and not haphazardly here and there.

Conclusion: Strictly set aside a time and place for chanting, for without minimum uninterrupted effort, we will never get the momentum to chant spontaneously and with realization. Rather, our chanting will remain a bore and the effort to perfect one’s life hampered.

I am writing this very early in the morning, trying to get back to my schedule. I will now pick up my beads and try to apply what I just wrote. For the next two hours, I will practice without break, confident that momentum will build an realizations will come, and that the thing that is best for me in this world, chanting the holy name, will more and more become the thing that I derive the most pleasure from. That is the glory of momentum.

 


[1] I am sorry I have to offer another reprint. We are in the second week of our Puri/Govardhana retreat and I have no time to write. You should receive a new Monday Morning Greeting next week.

 

 

Monday Morning Greetings 2023 #4 – The Ten Foundational Principles of Yoga

January 23rd, 2023

The Ten Foundational Principles of Yoga [1]

  1. The goal of yoga and all spiritual paths is to end suffering.
  1. Reality is beautiful, and therefore all suffering is caused by illusion. For example, the greatest fear is death, but death itself is an illusion—the illusion of non-existence. Free from illusion, we can see the beauty of the eternal soul.
  1. Illusion is caused by the distorted or impure mind, by the myriad of selfish thoughts.
  1. To free our self from illusion and alleviate suffering, the mind must be brought to sattva. Sattva literally means “the nature of being,” or the true nature of something. What is the true nature of the mind? The mind is like a lens or mirror, and thus its true nature is to be clean, free from distortion, and perfectly perceptive of what is before it. Therefore, when the mind is in sattva we are able to perceive and live in our eternal spiritual nature.
  1. Yoga, or meditation, is the technique, or method, to bring the mind to sattva. Its strategy is simple. As the mind is distorted by a myriad of thoughts, if we can just steadily concentrate on one thought, then all other thoughts will gradually be quelled and the mind will slowly morph into a higher level of perception and contentment.
  1. When for a prolonged and uninterrupted period of concentration the mind is so fixed in meditation that one is not even cognizant of anything outside the object of our mediation, then one has reached samādhi, the goal of yoga.
  1. We can steady the mind in one of two ways: by our intelligence, the strong understanding that it is good for us to fix our mind on the object of our meditation, or by our heart, a strong attachment to the object of our meditation.
  1. To be connected to an object of contemplation through some feeling (emotion) is superior to being connected by our obligation or understanding (the intelligence), because it is naturally more absorbing.
  1. Mantras have thus been the preferred object of meditation for yogis through the ages, because it is God in sound. As described in the Yoga Sutras, God and the expression, or name, of God are nondifferent. Being part of God, we thus have a natural relationship with mantra, and by focusing on mantra our love and absorption for mantra naturally increases. It is also preferred because the mantra is not just an inert prop to help steady the mind; it is an all-powerful Supreme Person who can reciprocate with our meditational devotion by helping us remove the obstacles to meditation.
  1. As the most consummate emotion is devotion or love, bhakti-yoga, the yoga of devotion, is the topmost yoga.

 


[1] Due to his Puri Yatra, Dhanurdhara Swami was unable to finish a new Monday Morning Greetings. Instead we are sharing this one originally published on December 12, 2016.

Monday Morning Greetings 2023 #3 – Śikṣāṣṭakam Verse Three: A Personal Commentary

January 16th, 2023

“One should chant the holy name of the Lord in a humble state of mind, thinking oneself lower than the straw in the street; one should be more tolerant than a tree, devoid of all sense of false prestige and ready to offer all respects to others. In such a state of mind one can chant the hold name of the Lord constantly.”

 

This is arguably the most important verse for those following Śrī Caitanya. When Śrī Raghunātha dāsa inquired from Śrī Caitanya about the goal of life, this was the verse He recited in response, which is significant, for based on Raghunātha’s strict adherence to this verse he was accepted in the Gauḍīya tradition as the ācārya (the main teacher and exemplar) on how to attain its goal of prema-bhakti.

 

The phrase “a humble state of mind” is not a literal translation by Śrīla Prabhupāda of any word or phrase in the third verse of the Śikṣāṣṭakam. I think, however, it is an essential inclusion to the translation of this verse to properly convey its meaning, otherwise one might misunderstand that you can think yourself into being humble rather than develop a humble consciousness, or state of mind. In other words, one should certainly think oneself lower than the straw in the street, but that doesn’t mean humility, or any emotion, can manifest by the force of just one or a few thoughts. Rather, humility must manifest by a process of changing our nature or consciousness, which also entails the practice of praying, thinking, and acting in a humble way.

 

The phrase “a humble state of mind” is also an effective way of categorizing the qualities mentioned in the verse of material insignificance, respectfulness, and tolerance so we can understand them in the context of humility, which is the intent of the verse. It also gives us a frame of reference for the verse’s conclusion and last line—that if you develop this “humble state of mind” symptomized by these qualities, then you can perfect your devotion and chant always.

 

It is not difficult to see the correlation between the humble state of mind and its symptoms. For example: the quality of tolerance. Naturally a humble person who realizes God as the center of their existence and the object of their adoration doesn’t get disturbed when someone or some things do not conform to the way they want, because a modest person no longer has a sense of entitlement and therefore has no demands for how the world moves around them for their own gratification and feels no frustration when it doesn’t.

 

A humble state of mind is also the foundation of respect. A humble person can be fully secure and satisfied in their relationship with God and thus doesn’t think of themself better than others, or, for that matter, harbor any resentment to those who are. Free from envy: it is easy to see the spark of God in others and honor them. If one doesn’t have a lens of humility, however, they will only see in others their conditioning and ordinary dealings, even in people who are exalted, and thus miss their inspired or godly side. In contrast, one with a lens imbued with humility will shun honor, for in awareness of God’s presence expecting honor for oneself is neither reality nor what one desires.

 

I once read a phrase—I can’t remember the source—but it goes something like this: “We don’t think humble to act humble, but rather we act humble to think humble.” So true. Acting modestly, with tolerance and respect—the foundational characteristic of humility—is exactly the process to develop a humble state of mind.

 

Now the conclusion. If you act this way and develop these qualities, you can chant always. Why? Without humility there is no question of experiencing love, which is the essence of happiness—happiness being the reason we sustain any activity—and thus only the truly humble soul with consequent feelings of love and devotion can chant the names of his beloved Lord with joy ceaselessly.

 

The significance of this verse for Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavas cannot be underestimated, for in this verse Śrī Caitanya Himself outlines His simple four-fold process for achieving love of God, the ultimate goal of life: humility, tolerance, respect and chant the holy name always!

 

 

Monday Morning Greetings 2023 #2 – Entering the Life of Prayer

January 9th, 2023

Akincana Krishna das shared with me a meditation technique he had been using before he came to Krishna consciousness and how he decided to use it. He loved kirtan, but he had one frustration participating in it. He felt his kirtan lacked internal depth, so he turned to something that gave him some of his deepest spiritual experiences before he was a devotee and applied it to his devotional practice.[1] It worked. His focus on the holy name deepened, but he had one doubt. The person he learned that technique from seemed to ultimately have an impersonal goal. Was it alright to adopt a practice from such a divergent path? He sought my opinion. I listened very carefully as he explained what he was doing.

 

The practice Akincana Krishna das was using seemed simple and not controversial. It basically entailed just picking a spiritually inspirational verse or verses that could be practically applied in life and very slowly repeating the verse (or verses) again and again for thirty minutes, dwelling on its meaning until it brought him into a meditative state. He picked the Śikṣāṣṭakam for the practice, and the first thing in the morning every day he would repeat these devotional laden verses for thirty minutes, alternating the Sanskrit with the English translation. He described that doing this would “stain” his consciousness with spiritual impressions that stayed with him the whole day, especially injecting his japa and kirtan meditation with real feeling.

 

Hearing Akincana Krishna das describe what he was practicing brought to my memory something I read in the beginning of my Krishna consciousness in the Nectar of Devotion where Śrīla Prabhupāda described the mental culture of Krishna consciousness.[2] It was also akin to something I learned when taking a seminar by Bhurijana das on prayerful reading, which I have previously written about.[3] Coincidentally, it also ran parallel to a Catholic-inspired practice called Lectio Divina[4] described in Satsvarupa das Goswami’s recent journal. Lectio Divina is a practice of study that entails carefully reading a verse or section of a spiritual text and then mediating, praying and contemplating it in that order. I could see nothing that he was doing that is incongruous with the practice of Krishna consciousness. I decided to try it out myself.

 

I am always looking for ways to alter the consciousness to help me hear the holy name with more concentration. Altering the consciousness means leaving the plane of the chatter of the mind to become focused on the object of one’s meditation ideally up to a point where one is no longer cognizant of the external world, which is called trance or samādhi. It’s standard in meditational practice to first prepare oneself, especially one’s mind, for deeper devotional focus before even beginning to meditate. In this regard, many of us may remember Śrīla Prabhupāda’s strong direction to his disciples to “Sit properly!” on the tape of him chanting japa.

 

I decided to pick just the third verse of the Śikṣāṣṭakam and for thirty minutes very slowly repeat it over and over again, mostly in English but sometimes in Sanskrit:

 

“One should chant the holy name of the Lord in a humble state of mind, thinking oneself lower than the straw in the street, more tolerant than a tree, devoid of all sense of false prestige and ready to offer all respects to others. In such a state of mind one chant the holy name constantly.”

 

Here are my own realizations after adopting the practice, but first with a disclaimer: I am not recommending this process as “the process” because different people, according to their nature, may find different ways that effectively alter their consciousness and help them to focus. This is just my own realization experimenting with it.

 

As I mentioned above, it is common on the path of bhakti to prepare oneself in various ways to become more mindful before meditating on an object of one’s adoration. In deity worship, for example, before entering one’s worship there is bhūta-śuddhi, chanting certain prayers that reaffirm one’s spiritual identity in order to purify oneself of the bodily concept.[5] Similarly, I found that repeating the same prayers over and over again for a period of time before meditating on the holy name is a very effective practice to help one leave the chatter of the mind and enter the plane of meditational focus, the ground on which one can actually hear and relish the holy name.

 

Effectively chanting and hearing the holy name, which ultimately comes by the mercy of Krishna, also depends on how you live your life for the pleasure of Śrī Krishna. I found that by continually repeating the same inspirational verses or prayers for some time, one enters deeper and deeper into their meaning, which helps one to inject into their consciousness a spiritual vision that one carries throughout the day. Specifically, I found by meditating on this third verse from the Śikṣāṣṭakam, which outlines what it means to think and act as a humble devotee of God, I was better able throughout the day to see the world and my interactions with others through the lens of a humble servant of God.

 

Presently, I am at an Ayurvedic clinic for a pañcakarma detox. Last night I went for dinner at 6:30 PM, but I had an important call at 7:15 PM that I couldn’t reschedule. They are exceptionally respectful to me here because of my age and ashram (sannyāsa), and I wanted to be served quickly, but as others came to dinner before me, they were naturally attended to first. The server saw me sitting at the corner table, and a silly and fleeting thought entered my mind based on my upadhi (material status): “Why aren’t they serving me!” But immediately the third line of the Śikṣāṣṭakam, came into to mind: “devoid of all sense of false prestige.” I witnessed how powerfully that line from the Śikṣāṣṭakam checked my lower thoughts and grounded my consciousness spiritually. I sat and waited patiently.

 

I observed through this technique how in different interactions throughout the day the thoughts of “more tolerant than a tree” and “offer all respects to others” arose in my consciousness to keep me grounded in a humble state of mind, the only platform of consciousness where one can beg for God’s mercy and chant with devotion. It affirmed Akincana’s statement that meditating repeatedly on certain prayers “stains” one’s consciousness with devotional vision.

 

I am no longer chanting the third verse of the Śikṣāṣṭakam thirty minutes before I sit down to chant japa. However, I have certainly added the technique to my repertoire of ways to leave the boring and mindless world of chatter, where the holy name is at best an indistinct whisper, to enter a more meditative state, where the holy name clearly and joyfully appears within the mind. I like this practice, for it re-affirms a simple but very important message: One way or another we need to enter the world of prayer!

 

 


[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passage_Meditation

[2] https://vaniquotes.org/wiki/This_is_the_mental_culture_of_Krsna_consciousness

[3] https://wavesofdevotion.com/2017/11/27/the-talking-book/

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lectio_Divina

[5] It is recommended for bhūta-śuddhi, at least how I have been taught, to chant the following verse to purify oneself of bodily consciousness before beginning the worship of the deity: “I am not a brāhmaṇa, I am not a kṣatriya, I am not a vaiśya or a śūdra. Nor am I a brahmacārī, a householder, a vānaprastha or a sannyāsī. I identify myself only as the servant of the servant of the servant of the lotus feet of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the maintainer of the gopīs. He is like an ocean of nectar, and He is the cause of universal transcendental bliss. He is always existing with brilliance. ” (Cc. Madhya-līlā 13:80)

 

Monday Morning Greetings 2023 #1 – Happy New Year from Monday Morning Greetings!

January 2nd, 2023

I ended my year with a bang! My left hearing aid fell out and was lost somewhere near Govinda Kunda in Govardhana. I missed my flight to Cochin the next day. I had misread the time of departure of 04:55 as being in the afternoon. It was obviously a morning flight! When I arrived at the next destination after an arduous journey, my computer crashed. I am typing this on my phone. Well, I tried to remain positive. Everything was going great in Govardhana, so good that I guess I subtly started to think I was the controller, which can happen on those rare occasions, like this one, when things seem to have a semblance of falling into place. I chuckled a bit with all of this. Krishna just won’t let me think I am the controller and enjoyer! What do you do without a computer when all of your work for service is on it? Chant Hare Krishna! Not so bad. I like it.

To start the new year, I will do what I always do—wish happy birthday to Monday Morning Greetings, which was born eight years ago today, which means I have completed around 350 original articles. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura published a newspaper on Krishna consciousness every day. When he was challenged how that was possible, he responded: “Even small towns sometimes have daily newspapers, so what is to write a newspaper every day about Krishna who has innumerable activities in innumerable places. One could write one every minute!”1 Veda means “knowledge”. The Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is a commentary on the Vedānta-sūtra, which codifies Vedic knowledge. It therefore gives a spiritual perspective on everything. If you look at the world through the eyes of shastra there is plenty to say.

Anyway, that’s not bad for typing on my phone without word processing. Is that this week’s Monday Morning Greeting? Sort of, but I want to give you more—A happy birthday Monday Morning Greeting from January 2, 2017.

 

Happy Birthday, Monday Morning Greetings!

January 2 , 2017

I began Monday Morning Greetings on this same day, the first Monday in January, exactly one year ago, and in this exact same place, my residence in Sridham Mayapur, the home of Jagadisa and Jugala. It began when Jugala expressed how much she liked my journals and then inquired why I hadn’t written any in over five years. I couldn’t think of a good reason. I immediately began this journal, now named Monday Morning Greetings, neatly on the first Monday of January last year.

I have now completed fifty-two Monday Morning Greetings that I will compile into a book. I have also decided to accept the personal challenge to continue this series for another year, beginning with this entry, Monday Morning Greetings 2017 #1.

Yes, it’s a challenge to write them. Most of the initial posts were ideas I had swimming around my head for some time. I thus questioned whether I would be able to come up with enough fresh ideas to continue throughout the year when that beginning source of inspiration ran dry.

There was also the challenge of keeping the writing to the standard of clarity and force that I was demanding before each journal was to be posted. Satsvarupa dasa Goswami once told me, and I don’t know if it was his own realization or he was quoting a famous writer or artist, that writing is “inspiration, perspiration, inspiration.”2

Unless you have something to say, some inspiration, there is really nothing to write, no matter how expert one is in word craft. And only with hard work, perspiration, will your original realization be manifest in a way in which others can experience your initial realization, or inspiration.

So, in some ways, continuing Monday Morning Greetings was daunting, but by remaining steady a dynamic process of writing unfolded, a process that gave me confidence that I would be able to mine realizations, confront the initial blank page, draft the initial scrambled thoughts on the subject, and eventually every week craft that inspiration in another form—the completed written work.

I now very much enjoy watching that process manifest from my initial realization into something that can inspire my audience. And just as a side note, I want to thank the many readers who have communicated that appreciation to me. It inspires me to write. Now I will share the process.

Inspiration

I generally don’t have a specific idea of what I will write until I finish the piece I am working on, but what I do have is a frame of reference to see God in the world based on shastra, a context that I can immediately activate to find new sources of inspiration. That framework not only helps me to more and more see the world based on what I have gleaned from the sacred texts; it also confirms those realizations in a way that brings them alive and inspires me to write about them.

For example, on the way to Mayapur I stayed the night in Delhi at the home of a very pious Indian family who, among other things, consciously dedicates themselves to karma yoga and a life according to the Gītā. I was very impressed. I saw in them certain Gītā principles personified in a way that deepened my own understanding of them and instilled in me a desire to share what I saw in a future post.

Writing thus forces me to regularly engage with shastra to keep spiritual thoughts in the front of my consciousness. It is the foundation of my process of writing.

Another important part of my process of gaining inspiration is lots of chanting, especially after I have completed a post. Chanting is for love of Godhead, but an important result is ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanaṁ, the mind becomes clear. It is only in that clarity of mind that I can see the world lucidly enough to become spiritually inspired by it.

Chanting is the basis of my life, but it is also now an essential element for my process of writing.

Perspiration

After the day begins, my time is mixed with other responsibilities and I find it difficult to focus on writing. I am also not the type of pure brāhmaṇa that can concentrate for long periods on intellectual work. In fact, in my youth my absorption was sports, and the only two books I ever remembering reading and liking was Animal Farm by George Orwell and The Mouse That Roared.3 Since writing Monday Morning Greetings, I thus have had no choice but to rise many hours before sunrise for at least thirty minutes to an hour for writing, where, in abject solitude, my concentration is very focused.

Thus rising early and writing daily in full focus is very much a part of my writing process, by which I can overcome the sometimes seemingly insurmountable obstacles to clarity and focus that a next paragraph often poses.

So that’s how Monday Morning Greetings was born, and hopefully I can continue this sevā for the pleasure of Srila Prabhupada and my audience.

And to my readers, I remain indebted to you. There are two types of service to a Vaishnava. One is physical service, and the other is hearing. In some ways, hearing is the best service because it engages the person one serves also in service, the service of kirtan, or glorifying the Lord.

So, again, thank you, and I wish all the best for you and your families from Sridham Mayapur at the beginning of the New Year and on the birthday of Monday Morning Greetings.

 


1 This is a paraphrase based on my recollection of what I read that Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarawati Thakura said.

2 I know Thomas Edison is famous for saying that success is 1 per cent inspiration and 99 per cent perspiration, but I remember the phrase I was told as “inspiration, perspiration, inspiration.”

3 I remember now only that I enjoyed the book but don’t even remember what it was about or who the author was.