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Archive for the 'Monday Morning Greetings' Category

Monday Morning Greetings 2022 #38 – Kudos to Karma (Yoga)

September 19th, 2022

Kudos to Karma (Yoga)[1]

A Nor’easter slams your town and dumps a ton of snow, and your basement floods. You are knee-deep in ice water, draining it out. It dawns on you how deep a hole this will put in your pocket—thousands of hard-earned dollars. It sounds like hell. What would you be thinking at the time? I was impressed with my friend’s reaction.

 

“You know, initially I was disturbed, but then I thought of my studies of the Gītā and how to apply it: I have family, so it is my duty to fix the house, and my duty ultimately means what God wants me to do. So instead of being frustrated, I was grateful to do my duty and serve God.”

 

My friend is a philosophy professor and studied the Bhagavad-gītā with me over twenty years ago. It has remained the foundation of his life. I was impressed with his realization. Instead of the normal “kvetching” when things go wrong, he shifted his thoughts to the glory of connecting our “worldly” life to God’s will through dharma, which is, simply put, doing what God wants from us in any situation. Overcoming selfishness and seeing God’s will is the foundation of any spiritual path. As we continued to discuss, he opined how karma-yoga, the essence of the Gītā, was often too minimized in a devotee’s life. “After all,” he said, “Krishna asked Arjuna to fight.”

 

As we continued our discussion, my friend shared with me some of his ideas on karma-yoga, based on his study of the Gītā, and on how he applies those teachings personally to his own life as a family man working in the world. I found his realizations insightful, and especially relevant to most people who, like him, work and live in the world. I don’t have to tell my audience how difficult it is to re-orient one’s consciousness to the soul in today’s world, a world that often forces us to adopt the mode of being the controller just to survive. A summary of our discussion:

 

  1. Basic Foundation of karma-yoga
    1. Karma-yoga is based on what the Gītā calls buddhi-yoga, which is the practice of conceptual re-adjustment, changing our thinking from material to spiritual.
    2. Two aspects of conceptual re-adjustment:
      1. To transform one’s motivation from selfishness to the desire for purification/liberation and especially to the service of God.
      2. A conscious effort to re-conceive of oneself as the pure soul, and not the body that is enmeshed in various material designations or identifications.Although one must act within material designation to perform dharma—“I am a mother, a father, a husband, a wife, a guru, a leader, and so on”—one still tries to remember in a deep way that one is playing a role, so to speak.)
  2. The Components of karma-yoga
    1. One should try to live according to dharma, since dharma (doing your duties properly) is the basis for karma-yoga.
    2. While performing one’s dharma (work, family responsibilities, chores, etc.) one should try to be conscious that one’s dharma is service to God and do it conscientiously in that spirit.Ramanuja often remarks that the laws of religion are God’s commands. As such, performing one’s duty is obeying God’s law and can be done lovingly and gratefully.
    3. Serving others—whether family members, co-workers, or members of one’s community or society—can be infused by the consciousness that they are in fact parts of God, and one can (and should) respect and love them as such.
    4. One should try to constantly remember we are the self and as such are a) not constituted of prakṛti (matter), and b) completely dependent on God for everything we do, down to the smallest bodily movements.Ramanuja further notes that, as the world is ensouled by the paramātmā, the world is the body of God and should be seen in that way.)
  3. Daily Mindfulness of the Above
    1. Some kind of early morning prayer, study, and contemplation time to provide focus and alignment for the day.
    2. Centering prayer at various parts of the day, including reading select verses from scripture and reciting key prayers and/or mantras to help one be mindful along the lines mentioned in the last section.This is hard to do unless one designates certain times to take a break from work to do this for ten or fifteen minutes, at least once a day.
  4. Other supportive practices
    1. Regular retreats to concentrate, focus, and absorb one in devotion.
    2. Following a liturgical calendar, in this case, the Vaishnava calendar, in a serious way.[2] This means looking at the year in a spiritually and reformative way rather than seeing one’s week and month in terms of family and social obligations. By following such a calendar dutifully, one’s faith is renewed and the year and consciousness is geared toward devotional transformation. For us, it means observing Ekadasi, the appearance and disappearance of saints, holy days like Jhulana-yātrā,[3] and special months like Kartik and Sravana (and so on).

 

On the path of bhakti we have a rich spiritual tradition to transform our consciousness, including deep practices of devotion and a commitment to a spiritual mission that is our primary spiritual focus. People often ask how to juxtapose that spiritual tradition practically within their modern day-to-day life in the home and workplace. Srila Prabhupada was very concerned about that and often recommended a lifestyle based on developing spiritual communities more conducive to spiritual life. Nonetheless, by family circumstance and present economic situations, most people and adherents to the bhakti tradition still remain in modern-day work and family situations, which are not inherently born to support spirituality. They ask what to do to help spiritualize their situations. I thus am offering kudos to karma (yoga).

 

 


[1] Original published on April 2, 2018.

[2] A liturgical calendar is a calendar of the communal or public worship of a spiritual tradition based on its beliefs and customs.

[3] Jhulana-yātrā commemorates the pastime of Radha and Krishna swinging in the summer months. In the temples of Radha and Krishna a beautiful swing is decorated, and the deities of Radha and Krishna are placed in it in the evening. For five days the devotees are invited to visit the temple and swing the deities. It is a good example of a liturgical activity listed in a Vaishnava calendar that helps one look at one’s year in a spiritual way.

 

Monday Morning Greetings 2022 #37 – Is Honesty the Best Policy?

September 12th, 2022

Is Honesty the Best Policy?

 

Of course. Without integrity—matching one’s words and actions with one’s values—how can one make advancement on any spiritual path? And outright lying is a terrible sin:

 

“There is nothing more sinful than untruthfulness. Because of this, mother earth once said, ‘I can bear any heavy thing except a person who is a liar.’” (Bhag. 8.20.4)

 

So yes, honesty is the best policy, but not always. Commentators on the Yoga-sūtras make it clear that as all other yamas (regulations) are subservient to ahimsa, truth must never result in violence, which means not only avoiding the obvious, such as telling a killer where his victim is, but avoiding any kind of truth that harms any creature anytime and anywhere. It is sometimes a fine line gauging when truthfulness should be tempered with the pre-eminence of ahimsa. In my opinion, the challenges of balancing the two is best illustrated in the character of Krishna’s father, Vasudeva.

 

In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, we are introduced to Vasudeva’s diplomacy in a very difficult situation. Kaṁsa, Vasudeva’s very powerful demonic brother-in-law, held his wife’s hair in his left hand while holding a sword over her throat with his right hand. Kaṁsa was ready to kill her after finding out by an ākāśa-vāṇī (an unembodied voice) that her eighth child would be his death. Kaṁsa was much more physically powerful than Vasudeva, so he had to resort to various forms of diplomacy to try to save his wife, beginning with sama, flattery. Although Śukadeva Gosvāmī, the speaker of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, had accurately described Kaṁsa—the man who was willing to kill a woman, who is his sister, on the day of her wedding—as the most sinful, envious person, who was the dirt of his dynasty, Vasudeva, externally smiling, addressed that same Kaṁsa as the shining light of his dynasty who great heroes praised. He didn’t believe a word of what he said. Obviously, honesty is not always the best policy, especially when trying to save your wife from death. Śrīla Prabhupāda explains the principle:

 

“Sometimes one must act duplicitously in a dangerous position, as Vasudeva did to save his wife. The material world is complicated, and to execute one’s duties, one cannot avoid adopting such diplomacy.” (Bhag. 10.1.53, Purport)

 

Vasudeva eventually saved his wife, at least for the moment, by promising to hand over his children as soon as they were born. Due to Vasudeva’s reputation and how strongly the paramount importance of truthfulness was impressed in their society-at-large by the nature of their culture, it wasn’t surprising that Kaṁsa believed that such a man of character as Vasudeva would never deviate from his words. In fact, Vasudeva indeed handed over his children. The Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam describes his worry in not doing so and thus breaking his promise:

 

“Vasudeva was very much disturbed by fear of becoming a liar by breaking his promise. Thus with great pain he delivered his first born son […] into the hand of Kaṁsa […] What is painful for saintly persons who strictly adhere to the truth?” (Bhag. 10.0.57-58)

 

Keeping his word was not the only reason Vasudeva handed over his children to Kaṁsa.[1] In fact, when Sri Krishna, the eighth child Krishna was born, he didn’t hand Krishna over to Kaṁsa as promised, but instead snuck Krishna out of the prison where he and his wife had been incarcerated to bring Him to Vrindavan under the shelter of Yaśodā and Nanda. What is significant, however, is that even in such a situation where truthfulness did not serve ahimsa, the thought of breaking his word and promise stilled weighed on Vasudeva.

 

So, is honesty the best policy? What do we learn from the example of Vasudeva in this regard? Although honesty is not always the best policy, to lie in the name of a higher principle is never taken cheaply. Deep impressions of truthfulness are essential for the development of a spiritual life, and if they are not strongly impressed on one it is too easy to rationalize away the many inconvenient responsibilities one must execute to uplift one in spiritual life. So, in that sense, with very rare exceptions, it is very healthy in this world of dishonesty to strongly embrace honesty as the best policy!

 

 


[1] Vasudeva knew that his eighth child was Krishna so he was also interested as his devotional service to expediate the appearance of Krishna. He had no choice but to turn over his children.

Monday Morning Greetings 2022 #36 – A Decade of Tears

September 5th, 2022

The phrase struck me. I was talking with Bhūrijana Prabhu after the passing of Śrīla Bhakti-caru Swami. We began to reflect on the fact that practically all of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s disciples have just turned near seventy when this decade began, if not before, and that it was evident that as the decade proceeds, the number of our god-siblings that leave us will exponentially increase. We shared some pain at the thought. As our discussion ended his parting comment struck me: “It will be a decade of tears.”

 

Honestly, I never felt this deep sense of upcoming loss before. Maybe it comes with age, or maybe as I mature in spiritual life my heart is softening. I am not sure. What is certain, however, is that as one is advancing in Krishna consciousness, those who sincerely represent that should be valued more and more. It’s śāstra:

 

“Śrī Caitanya asked, ‘Of all kinds of distress, what is the most painful?’

Śrī Rāmānanda Rāya replied, ‘Apart from separation from the devotee, I know of no unbearable distress.’” (Cc. Madhya-līlā 8.248)

 

True friends and well-wishers should be missed when they pass from this world. They add so much to the development and comfort of one’s life. When they are dedicated Vaiṣṇavas they add even more. They nourish the soul. Their loss to the world and our lives is incalculable.

 

I remember over twenty years ago before The Bhakti Center was secured, we used to host programs in 26 Second Avenue. You can imagine how packed it was when Śrīla Radhanath Swami visited and gave class. I invited one young Jewish lady from Brooklyn to the program whom I had been guiding for the past year. She was a budding professional comedian who even appeared several times as a guest panelist on the very popular television improvisational comedy show Whose Line is it Anyway with Drew Carey.[1] I had introduced her a few months back to Mahārāja, so she was very anxious to see him again, but at the end of the class Mahārāja was mobbed in the front of the room. She was also by nature a very self-conscious person, so she hid towards the back in a little corner where the wall suddenly veered off to the right. When Mahārāja finished giving audience, however, and began walking towards the door, he noticed her to his right. He slowly walked towards her to greet her. She immediately broke down in tears but managed to sob, “I am so fallen, but I feel such relief that people like you are traveling around the globe helping others!” Later Mahārāja shared with me how much he appreciated her sentiment of humble appreciation for devotees. We should also.

 

We may not be attracted to every senior Vaiṣṇava we meet. Some have even failed to live up to the standards we expect and disappoint us, or it may just be that we just fail to see the inspired spiritual and dedicated side of an advanced Vaiṣṇava because they are not like-minded with us. This young lady, hardly a practitioner, however, got it right. There is something very special about sincere devotees who have given their whole life to God whether we are like-minded with them or not. It will certainly a sad day when any of them leave us.

 

Even more tragic is the loss of those people who are not just more dedicated than us, but those whom we deeply relate with and who have affection for us. If we have such people in our lives, whether as friends or mentors, we should consider ourselves very fortunate. When they leave a part of our life will be missing. I do have such people in my life. Sadly, their time with us is in a sense numbered, and as these next ten years go on, more and more of them will sadly leave us.

 

It is an unfortunate phenomenon that often we most appreciate the important people in our lives after they have left us. Let us all now think of the blessings we have and are receiving from those dedicated devotees who have given their lives to uplift others for decades and who have personally touched our hearts. Let this next decade therefore not just be a decade of tears but an epoch of increased appreciation of and service to those who have carried the mission of His Divine Grace into our lives.

 

“Then Śrī Caitanya asked, ‘Out of all auspicious and beneficial activities, which is the best for the living entity?’

Rāmānanda Rāya replied, ‘The only auspicious activity is association with the devotees of Krishna.’’ (Cc. Madhya-līlā 8.251)

 

 


[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whose_Line_Is_It_Anyway%3F_(American_TV_series)

 

Monday Morning Greetings 2022 #35 – EQ, IQ, and the Path of Bhakti

August 29th, 2022

I knew Champak’s work had something so do with leadership seminars at GP Strategies,[1] but until the Cali retreat last week, I didn’t know the specifics of what she did and taught. We finally had time to discuss that in more detail. I was particularly interested in a seminar that she devised and taught called Leading with Emotional Intelligence and its relevance to the path of bhakti.

 

Emotional intelligence is the ability to make heathy choices based on accurately identifying, understanding, and managing your feelings and the feelings of others, an ability based on being self-aware.[2] Obviously, if we are not aware of our emotions and don’t have some sense of their cause, we inevitably will act upon them without awareness of whether they are justified or beneficial. You see all the time well-intentioned people having no idea how what they think, say, and do impacts others. The result is often disastrous. The statistical studies Champak shared with me from Harvard Business Review showed how prevalent this unawareness is. Ninety-five percent of people think they are self-aware, but less than fifteen percent are.

 

I think we can see how pervasive this lack of emotional intelligence is by just observing the present polarized political climate where it seems too many people become trapped in an ideological tribe, left and right, and embrace ill-thought-out views with little awareness of how what they believe, feel and do has more to do with the make-up and root of their psychology than the facts at hand.

 

But what about those on the path of bhakti? To what extent are they naturally self-aware of their emotional make-up and how that affects their opinions and decisions?

 

Of course, as one’s consciousness becomes purified on any legitimate spiritual path, one becomes increasingly equipped with knowledge (jñāna) and detachment (vairāgya) and thus more aware of and less driven by their emotions. While these tools are helpful on the path of devotion, they are not devotion in itself. Bhakti is independent and thus there is not an absolute correlation between devotion and emotional intelligence or any other material quality. Therefore, one in any condition of life can be enthused and proceed with the path of devotion whatever their psychological make-up, while those with little or no devotion can be evolved in the mode of goodness and possess a high EQ.

 

This doesn’t discount, however, the value of emotional intelligence on the path of bhakti, both in terms of one’s own personal development and in terms of sharing the path of devotion with others. For example, if one is not self-aware of how one is driven by their nature and the cause of that nature, and that includes bhaktas, one will inadvertently be driven by those emotions. Then, as defenders of the faith, they may criticize others in the name of devotion while, in fact, they may just be slaves to their anger and envy caused by the experiences of their upbringing. It is therefore healthy to reflect on what we are doing and the emotions behind it, if for no other reason than to avoid unnecessary offenses driven by a lower self, for the more we are aware of our emotions the more control we have over them.

 

Developing our emotional intelligence seems also essential in sharing bhakti with others. How can we develop the ability to speak and relate in a way that others can hear, unless we are in tune with the way we project ourselves to others and understand the psychology and language of our audience? Often devotees, even relatively advanced on the path of bhakti, are not successful in communicating the path of devotion, at least not as much as they should be, because they lack sufficiently enough EQ to be aware of how they are projecting themselves to others in the name of devotion.

 

Can we develop emotional intelligence? Certainly. The process of devotion itself, although not focused on unraveling one’s psychology, by purifying one’s mind and elevating one gradually to the mode goodness naturally helps one to become more pensive and self-aware. I look back on my own early days on the path of bhakti and shudder at how much of what I was thinking and doing in the name of bhakti was informed by my psychological make-up and upbringing and not, as I thought, purely on the teachings of our tradition. I perceive and trust that after years of practicing bhakti my self-awareness is substantially better than it was, and I hope others who knew me see that also. Indeed, the path of devotion can certainly heighten our emotional intelligence.

 

I am writing this for myself and others because I realize that besides cultivating devotion, our effort to understand basic wisdom from good sources can surely be the impetus for profound change. And that is why when speaking to Champak, I was eager to hear for my own edification and to share with others how she developed her seminar Leading with Emotional Intelligence.

 

“From good thoughts come good actions, from good action comes good habits, from good habits come good character, and from good character comes the right destination.”—Unknown

 

 

 


[1] https://www.gpstrategies.com

 

[2] Champak’s course was based on Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman. Discussing with her I found so much interesting information on the subject that is beyond the scope of the post. For example, self-awareness is demarcated into four divisions: self-awareness, social awareness, self-management, and social management with very perceptive markers of awareness in each category.

 

Monday Morning Greetings 2022 #34 – Monday Morning Metaphysics: Balarama-tattva Made Simple

August 22nd, 2022

It is my conviction that a sincere person will find the theology of Krishna very beautiful and thought provoking whether they are among the faithful or not. One example of this is balarama-tattva—the science of Balarama, who is the elder brother of Krishna. To understand Lord Balarama, however, you must first understand a fundamental principle of divinity: That God must be enjoying.

 

What is the sense of being the supreme controller if your powers do not result in a state of unbounded bliss? The Taittirīya Upaniṣad thus describes the Absolute Reality as raso vai saḥ—the “Supreme Reservoir of Pleasure”. Śrīla Prabhupāda illustrated this point with a charming story about a godbrother name Sadānanda das.

 

Sadānanda was a German intellectual who visited India first in the early 1930s. He visited many temples of India and saw the figures of the different “gods” of India, from the goddess Durgā riding a lion and holding her ten weapons including a mace and a triśūla, to Lord Śiva covered with snakes and ashes. When he saw Govinda (Krishna), however, with his three-fold bending form blowing His flute, he had an epiphany—Krishna must be God, because God must be enjoying! When Śrīla Prabhupāda narrated this story, he laughed and commented: “You never see Krishna in the spiritual world wearing a construction helmet and smoking a cigarette.”

 

But what is a reasonable conception of that enjoyment? I wrote about that previously in a piece called “Sri Krishna: A Reasonable Conception of Divinity”.

 

  1. All of us are seeking pleasure, and our greatest pleasure is found in pure, unmotivated love.
  2. If pure love is our guiding and universal principle, then why should it not be part of its source, the Ultimate Reality?
  3. As pure love entails a mutual exchange, then the one harmonious truth must have a type of discrimination within. There must be personality, beauty, and other qualities to enhance the flow of love.
  4. This flow of love is known as śakti or energy, and like all energy it is devoted to bringing pleasure to its source.
  5. Thus the Vaiṣṇava conception of reality is divine līlā, a drama that stages the perfect expression of love, and exchange of devotion between the source of all energies, Sri Krishna, and the supreme śakti, Sri Radha.

 

So, what does this all have to do with Lord Balarama?

 

As Krishna is fully immersed in the pleasure of rasa, a drama that brings love to its height, to enjoy that work, someone must execute all the affairs of existence and knowledge. That’s Balarama, Krishna’s first expansion who takes up that task eternally so that Krishna never has to leave His ecstatic pastimes in Vrindavan. Wouldn’t many of us, if we had the potency, manifest ourselves in a different form, a job expansion so to speak, so that we could stay at home and enjoy leisurely?

 

Balarama-tattva is therefore, in a sense, simple. Lord Balarama to serve Krishna manifests the spiritual and material worlds and all of God’s incarnations. He even manifests guru-tattva, the principle of knowledge that flows through pure souls who know and represent that Absolute Truth to those persons who repose faith in their knowledge and devotion. On the most intimate level of service, he also assists Krishna in His pastimes in all five rasas.[1]

 

In other words, Lord Balarama is the full manifestation of God, the servitor Godhead, who assists Krishna in all matters of existence, knowledge, and even relationship.

 

What should be clear here is what I am not trying to do—to prove this conception of the Absolute for there is no logical reason for God to be the way He is outside of His own will. What I have tried to do, however, is to demonstrate how delightful and reasonable this theology is, and specifically in the case of balarama-tattva—that God is enjoying and fully duplicates Himself, except for color and function,[2] for the pleasure of rasa without distraction!

 


[1]As Krishna’s older brother, he serves Krishna with affection in a protective mood like a parent (vātsalya-rasa). The older brother can also be a bosom friend (sakhya-rasa) or take the humble mood of servant (dāsya-rasa) of his brother. Balarama also serves in neutrality (śānta-rasa) as he manifests all of Krishna’s paraphernalia, even His bed, house, and shoes, and finally even in the conjugal rasa (śṛṅgāra-rasa) as Anaṅga-mañjarī, Sri Radha’s youngest sister.

 

[2] Lord Balarama is a full manifestation of Lord Krishna. The only difference is that Krishna is dark and Balarama is white, and that Balarama’s function is one of service.

 

Monday Morning Greetings 2022 #33 – The Devotional and the Diabolical

August 15th, 2022

The Devotional and the Diabolical [1]

 

My conversations with Peter are always illuminating. Peter serves his church as an author, lecturer, and retreat facilitator. He was briefly passing through New York at the end of a lecture tour, and we met at Divya’s Kitchen for lunch. I don’t remember how we got there, but somehow our discussion became about the Devil. I was fascinated with Peter’s explanation of the word’s Latin derivative:

 

“The Greek term diabolos is the root for the English word devil. When we speak of ‘diabolical behavior,’ we typically mean actions that are pure evil. The Greek term is from a compound: dia means to scatter (it’s where the term diaspora comes from), and bolos (from the verb ballo) means to throw an object. Together they connote someone taking a vessel and throwing it against a wall so it shatters and scatters into a million pieces. That’s what the Devil does in Judeo-Christian tradition. He kills and destroys (John 10:10). That’s what the world does on a more subtle level. It takes our attention, energy, and affections and scatters them in a million different directions, so we are never quite present, put together, or focused.”

 

I found the concept fascinating, especially the last point: our challenges in spiritual life are devilish, breaking our focus and concentration away from God and selfishly scattering it in different directions. Peter continued by explaining that the term perfection, or wholeness, is derived from another word. Again I appreciated how he illustrated concepts by the root derivatives of a common word.

 

“On the contrary, shalom (peace, wholeness) can mean literally ‘nothing missing, nothing broken.’ It’s our state when we turn to God. He puts us back together, collects the broken pieces, making the broken beautiful like the stunning art of mending in Japanese lacquerware called kintsugi. It’s when skilled artisans take a broken vessel and meticulously restore it. Rather than hide the cracks and imperfections, they fill them with powdered gold.”

 

His explanation of how achieving completeness and peace is becoming whole by turning to God also struck a chord. Finally, he continued his line of thought by describing why an English word was chosen to describe the opening prayer for the Christian Mass:

 

“In the Mass, the opening prayer is called The Collect. The idea is that worship collects, gathers our heart and mind back so we can give God ‘one-pointed attention.’ ”

 

As we were discussing these topics, it was natural for me to think of verses in my own tradition that, not surprisingly, define the same concepts in a similar way. The first verse that came to mind was Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 11.2.37[2] where the great sage Kavi describes that all fear and duality (bhayaṁ dvitīya) arises from turning away from God (īśād apetasya) and thus an intelligent person worships God fully with devotion (ataḥ budha ābhajet taṁ bhaktyā bhaktya). Interestingly, this verse is quoted by Śrī Jīva at the beginning of the Bhakti-sandarbha, where he defines the practice of devotion as reversing the cause of ignorance, which is turning away from God, by worshipping Him or turning toward Him.

 

The next verse that came to my mind that describes this dichotomy was Bhagavad-gītā 2.41.[3] Sri Krishna contrasts one fixed in devotional service, one single-pointed in his attention toward God (vyavasāyātmikā buddhir ekeha), with one who is not, whose mind is thus many branched (bahu-śākhā) or scattered.[4]

 

I very much enjoyed my time with Peter and hearing the perspective he shared from his tradition, which inspired me in my own. If we are here in this world, by definition our consciousness has been shattered and disconnected from our true self and we have falling prey to the “diabolical,” so to speak. Those who are intelligent must therefore seriously take up a devotional practice. By turning our attention to Krishna, we can then become once again peaceful, whole. Shalom!

 

 


[1] This is a reprint, originally published April 9, 2018. I think it is the second reprint in the last month or so. I prefer original posts, although old ones do seem fresh even to me. The problem is that in the last year I have substantially increased my chanting, and if I don’t finish an article by the weekend, or if something comes up, I don’t have the time to finish it. I am determined to keep on producing original posts, so I am seeing how to adjust my schedule.

[2] “Fear arises when a living entity misidentifies himself as the material body because of absorption in the external, illusory energy of the Lord. When the living entity thus turns away from the Supreme Lord, he also forgets his own constitutional position as a servant of the Lord. This bewildering, fearful condition is affected by the potency for illusion, called māyā. Therefore, an intelligent person should engage unflinchingly in the unalloyed devotional service of the Lord, under the guidance of a bona fide spiritual master, whom he should accept as his worshipable deity and as his very life and soul.”

[3] “Those who are on this path are resolute in purpose, and their aim is one. O beloved child of the Kurus, the intelligence of those who are irresolute is many-branched.”

[4] In his commentary to this verse, Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti offers the bhakti perspective to this concept by explaining that this one-pointed attention in spiritual life means to take the order of one’s spiritual master as one’s life and soul. Srila Prabhupada credits this specific point in Visvanatha’s commentary of 2.41 for inspiring him to fully take up his spiritual master’s order for him to preach Krishna consciousness in the Western countries.

Monday Morning Greetings 2022 #32 – On Reputation

August 8th, 2022

Should a Vaiṣṇava be concerned with their reputation? Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī, the lineage’s foremost authority on prema, doesn’t seem to think so:

 

“O Mind! How can the highest and purest prema ever touch my heart while desire for prestige dances there like a shameless dog-eating outcaste woman?” (Manaḥ-śikṣā, v. 7)

 

On the other hand, however, there are references that seem to say the opposite:

 

“Whenever there was anything that might touch or taint the character of the Lord, Dāmodara Paṇḍita would immediately point it out, not even considering the exalted position of the Lord.”[1] (Cc. Madhya-līlā 12.25, Purport)

 

So, is reputation something that a Vaiṣṇava shuns, or is it something they should be concerned with? Well, first one must be clear what reputation is.

 

Reputation is a society’s belief or opinion of one’s character, competence, and productivity. A good reputation is therefore arguably one’s most valuable commodity because the widespread belief of one’s good qualities invokes trust, which is an essential element in attaining one’s goals.

 

It is therefore not wrong for a spiritual person to be concerned with their reputation to the extent that it facilitates the execution of their dharma or responsibilities, whether those responsibilities are within their service, business, management or educational occupation, or even related to the development of a meaningful relationship within their ashram as a student, family member, or renunciate. However, to seek reputation simply to enhance prestige ultimately to enjoy and control the world is shunned, for it simply increases the ego and mires one in the bodily concept of life.

 

Reputation is especially important for one in authority, especially as a teacher or guide. Faith is the precursor of knowledge. A marred reputation by careless behavior or failure to sufficiently revise one’s own field of study or competence impedes trust in one and therefore one’s ability to educate or enlighten others by one’s precept and example.

 

For these reasons, even if we sincerely do not seek prestige, our reputation is still important. We should note, however, that it is not to be obtained cheaply, but it is something generally earned after years of hard work developing competency, living up to one’s principles, and proving one’s trust in relationships.

 

A special challenge, therefore, is to not fall prey to the allure of artificially increasing one’s reputation. It is just too easy today to game the reputation system through the internet to claim undeserved moral virtue by joining or leading the bandwagon online against something or someone without doing the hard work of being genuinely productive and caring. Certainly, we should be compassionate and fight for justice, but if our motive is not pure and we haven’t unrooted the “evil” in ourselves, which seems too often the case, such reputation will mostly be among people like ourself and not real or lasting.

 

So, should a Vaiṣṇava care about his reputation? The simple answer: a Vaiṣṇava should never seek respect and should offer all respect to others, but should also, as a representative of guru and Krishna, certainly be concerned with being respectable.

 

And those are my thoughts “On Reputation”.

 

 


[1] Although Dāmodara Paṇḍita’s criticism of his guru was considered impudent, his concern was valid.

 

Monday Morning Greetings 2022 #31 – Is Surrender a Bad Word?

August 1st, 2022

Is Surrender a Bad Word? [1]

 

When I was in my teens a popular and favorite situation comedy on television was called The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. It was about typical young men in the ’50s. The character that amused us the most was Dobie’s best friend, a beatnik, Maynard G. Krebs. Beatniks, like their descendants the hippies, had the reputation of never working. During the show, whenever Maynard was asked if he would like to work, he would shriek nervously, “Work!” We loved it. It was as if work was a bad word.

 

I find almost the same reaction today among some devotees when they hear the word surrender, even though surrender is the foundation of bhakti. Ouch! Why do I hear some of my readers react that way when I say that surrender is the foundation of bhakti? Is surrender a bad word?

 

How can that be? “Surrender” is unquestionably the first thing Arjuna says to Krishna after accepting Him as his guru: “I am a soul surrendered unto you. Please instruct me.”

 

And later, when Krishna describes the responsibly of a disciple, He says “praṇipātena”—that before receiving knowledge, the student must offer prostrated obeisances, which takes the “I surrender” mudrā of hands raised up in the air to the next level, falling flat at someone’s feet.

 

When discussing this point about surrender in my Nectar of Devotion seminar, Sat Hari—one of the students, and a scholar in his own right—shared an insight from one of his teachers on the difficulty for some people with the word surrender. “When you translate words from Sanskrit to English,” he said, “the translated word is pregnant with history [of its usage].”

 

The English word surrender means to capitulate or submit, and its usage in English is almost exclusively to an enemy or opponent.

 

Isn’t there a better word in English for prapatti or śaraṇāgati than surrender? Why use a word with such negative connotations—“to enemy or opponent”?

 

The core meaning of surrender is derived from the Middle English word render, which means “to return or give back,” and the prefix sous, which mean “under,” literally to place oneself under someone else. “To an enemy or opponent” is the implied meaning in English, due to the pre-Renaissance culture in which the meaning of surrender developed. But capitulation or submission does not have to be to an enemy. It can also be done out of great love.

 

In other words, both prapatti and surrender have the exact same meaning. They both describe the act of giving oneself over or to or “under” the control of another party. However, depending on the culture in which that word is used and one’s personal experience with authority in life, surrender will conjure up one of two images or meanings:

 

One hears “surrender” and sees an image of a person waving a white flag and then marching in the hot sun with bayonet in back and hands raised in air. To such a person, surrender means exploitation and abuse.

 

Another hears “surrender” and imagines a child in the arms of his or her loving mother, completely “under” her care. To such a person, surrender means shelter and love.

 

Regardless of how you are conditioned to view the word, the more important consideration for a devotee is whether he or she can accept and embrace the base meaning of surrender, “giving control over oneself to another party,” for without the mood of “I am yours,” one cannot enter the door of bhakti. Isn’t the mood of giving oneself to another by supplicating one’s will to their desires the basis of any relationship with a worthy object of love, especially with one’s guide or protector?

 

There are a few other images that should be clarified before the sense of weakness can be lifted from the word. Surrender—“giving control over oneself to another party”—does not mean that one’s initiative is squelched or that one is micromanaged, provided the person one surrenders to is worthy. One is fully empowered according to one’s ability but always in the mood of dependence and humility.

 

I heard a beautiful analogy that describes the subtlety of balancing full initiative and full dependence: In an Indian extended family, when the father retires, his sons will be given the business and full initiative to run it. The father, however, will come every day and sit there. Although he doesn’t interfere and the sons have full initiative, they feel his presence, shelter, and authority. In a similar way, a mature and educated disciple is given full initiative to practice spiritual life and render service according to his full realization but always with an eye toward his spiritual guardians and their authority.

 

“But what if the guru is not qualified and I am misled or exploited?” The subtleties of dealing with that are another story and another paper, but we can’t change the philosophy about what surrender means on the basis that we have entered into the wrong relationship. Before judging a guru in such a way, we had better be sure that the problem is not mostly with us, the disciple. And it goes without saying that there must be a period of examination between the guru and disciple before one makes such a heavy commitment as surrender.

 

That’s it. Surrender is not a bad word, though the reality of our absolute dependence on God is a challenging one. False ego means we want power to control and enjoy, and accepting authority takes that power from our hands. Naturally we resist it and the words that represent it, but surrender is not a bad word; it is the gateway to the world of bhakti.

 


[1] This Monday Morning Greetings was original published on February 29, 2016.

 

Monday Morning Greetings 2022 #30 – Krishna and Man at Yale

July 25th, 2022

I just love to stroll among majestic old buildings, so an old acquaintance and my host for the afternoon, Dr. Eben Graves, the assistant director of the Yale School of Sacred Music,[1] took me to see the campus when I came last Sunday afternoon to visit him.

 

Of special interest was the Beinecke Library,[2] which houses one the largest collection of rare books and manuscripts in the world. The building is spectacular. When you walk inside your attention is immediately caught by a glass enclosed 10,000 square-foot six story sanctum in the center that houses the collection of one million books. For security reasons, the edifice is cleverly surrounded by a moatlike cavern extended to the floors below, but as you circumambulate this veritable book cathedral you still get a perfect audience of the neatly shelved ancient texts rising several stories above. As you continue around this stately edifice, there are several lounge areas with a smattering of display cases of some of the library’s special treasures, including one with a rare Gutenberg Bible[3] and another with an original copy of the Declaration of Independence.

 

Monday Morning Greetings is grounded in my own realizations—how I see the world based on the perspective of the sacred texts I study. I find that such realizations usually come spontaneously, but on rare occasions when they don’t, I have developed the habit of searching for one. As it was already time to begin my next post and I didn’t have a topic yet, my pleasant Sunday stroll therefore took on a mission. Would I find among the ancient scrolls and the majestic buildings my treasure of weekly truth? Although a few interesting thoughts arose during my tour, I just couldn’t find a topic that I was inspired enough to write about. Therefore, when I left the campus, I scrapped the idea of finding my treasure there. Later in the day, however, some inspiration unexpectedly came.

 

For some reason, the book God and Man at Yale by William F. Buckley, one of their famous alumni, a prominent media figure and intellectual of my youth,[4] came to mind. In his 1951 best seller he criticized the university for trying to break down the students’ religious beliefs by their hostility to religion and their promotion of collectivist and secular ideals. Although I don’t know enough to attest to the validity of his accusations and I don’t support many of his personal views, thinking about the book’s general theme caused me to recall a realization I was trying to formalize during my walk, which only became clear then. While appreciating the immense beauty and grandeur of these facilities, I couldn’t help but feel sad that these institutions seem to be moving from the original purpose of a university, to create the one place in society that is meant to preserve all aspects of a society’s culture and to train and promote people of learning and character who could best serve those ideals.

 

As I began to dwell further on this realization, I started to remember other related thoughts and feelings that I was trying to conceptualize during my campus walk. I also recalled, for no better word, a type of envy. I also represent a mission trying to impact society, but the resources of that mission seem paltry in comparison to Yale, which for the most part is dedicated to ideals directly in opposition to mine. It gave me a sinking feeling. How would our mission ever succeed? I felt hopeless, but then I remembered Śrīla Prabhupāda’s arrival in America.

 

When Śrīla Prabhupāda stepped off the Jaladuta to the shore of Boston, the full brunt of material civilization stood directly before him to the west to a degree he probably could have never imagined. He initially reflected on the utter impossibility of succeeding in his mission to spiritualize the West by his own power[5] but got renewed vigor, despite the odds against him, by dwelling on the books he carried with him in a metal trunk that he would distribute there. He then quoted a series of verses from those books that described the transforming power of bhakti.[6] He had Krishna and His message and continued forward with faith and valor. As described in the Bhagavad-gītā, the advantage was his!

 

“Wherever there is Kṛṣṇa, the master of all mystics, and wherever there is Arjuna, the supreme archer, there will also certainly be opulence, victory, extraordinary power, and morality. That is my opinion.” (Bg. 18.78)

 

So, I walked about one of most powerful educational institutions in the world, one focused increasingly on materialistic goals. I was initially humbled by its grandeur, but then became more inspired by the power of the message of the Bhagavat. And that is the story of Krishna and Man at Yale.[7]

 

 

 

 


[1] https://ism.yale.edu

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beinecke_Rare_Book_%26_Manuscript_Library

[3] To give one an idea how valuable this collection must be, one of the few Guttenberg Bibles still existing is estimated to cost over thirty million dollars.

[4] William F. Buckley hosted a popular public affairs show in the late sixties called Firing Line where he would interview and challenge with his acerbic wit and intellect the leading intellectuals of the day. Here is an excerpt from when he hosted Allen Ginsberg, who chanted the Hare Krishna Mantra for him: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CS8A5IME7aU

[5] https://vedabase.io/en/library/spl/1/markine-bhagavata-dharma/

[6] Bhag. 1.17-24

[7] Obviously, the title is a parody on God and Man at Yale.

Monday Morning Greetings 2022 #29 – Flipping the Switch to Prema

July 18th, 2022

Faith means our goal. It’s where we feel our sublimity rests. I have some faith. Too often, however, I forget the memorable experiences of devotion driving that faith forward. The strength of my practice with the aim of bhāva then wanes. Today, I remember my faith. With renewed vigor I intensify my effort to attain that goal. I start within, but I wallow in complacency. What to do? Can I turn on a switch to at once light my heart with love and devotion? Yes! But first I must walk through the door—the entrance—to true bhakti. I must fully surrender. No! Not that dirty word again!

 

Bad word? To surrender is to take full refuge of a worthy object of love and truth and to serve that fully as one’s purpose. What can be a more beautiful! It is the child who takes full shelter in the mother’s arms. It is the person of character who fearlessly takes full refuge of the highest principles, no matter what the consequences. And most important, it is the devotee who makes himself fully available for the service of God, who, by the power of his own devotion, has the strength to resist the selfish demands of ego.

 

The story of an ancient wedding party comes to mind. The party left at night by boat to reach their destination eight hours down the shore. When they awoke in the morning, they were shocked to find themselves in the same place as where they began. When they berated the boatman, he fiercely defended himself. “You must be mistaken,” he argued, “I rowed all night!” The argument continued until one of the passengers looked over the side of the boat. The foolish boatman had forgotten to lift the anchor!

 

Are my efforts also for naught? Am I hopelessly impeded in my quest for the divine by my failure to fully surrender and to pull up the anchor of my anarthas—those petty attachments that have no (an) value (artha) to my advancement in devotional service? In my pursuit of prema has Krishna still not left me enough joys in life, even attachments, to keep my mind peaceful? So, then what is the difficulty? Enjoy life and just give this one life to Krishna!

 

It is, however, easier said than done. Although any honest soul can surrender at once by committing themself to what they know deep in their heart is the will of God, surrender is ultimately a qualification of heart. One must want to do it. The simple act of renouncing selfishness and giving oneself to Krishna thus often seem insurmountable, and we are left hopelessly begging for mercy.

 

Remembering the goal today and therefore hankering to walk through the door of “surrender”, but seeing my own weakness of heart, I felt despondent. But hope suddenly arose. Does not Krishna come when His devotees are in distress? Then let my distress be the voice of my chanting as I call on His name. Will not then Śrī Caitanya, the deliverer of the fallen, hear my angst and help me flip the switch to enter the path of prema?

 

 

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