Steadying Your Life

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
speaking online to devotees in Colombia
22 September 2019, Kolkata, part 2

Srila Rupa Goswami Prabhu says that there are six obstacles in our spiritual life. Among those six obstacles, there is laulancha. Laulancha means chanchalya, having a very unstable mind, being greedy and having many material desires. That is called laulya. It can be chitta-chancalya and it can sometimes also be buddhi-chanchalya—sometimes your heart or mind can be chancal (fickle, unsteady), and sometimes your intelligence can also be chancal (fickle, unsteady). This is very bad for us. A restless mind and a restless intelligence is very bad.

Krishna tells this to Arjun in Srimad Bhagavad-gita also. Who does the mind actually follow? Mind always runs under the guidance of eyes, under the guidance of ears, under the guidance of tongue, under the guidance of nose, under the guidance of other senses. It is said in Srimad Bhagavad-gita (2.67),

ইন্দ্রিয়াণাং হি চরতাং যম্মনোঽনুবিধীয়তে ।
তদস্য হরতি প্রজ্ঞাং বায়ুর্নাবমিবাম্ভসি ॥

indriyanam hi charatam, yan mano 'nuvidhiyate
tad asya harati prajnam, vayur navam ivambhasi

"As a boat on the ocean is thrown off course by an unfavourable wind, similarly, the wisdom of a person lacking self-control is carried away by even one of the roaming senses that the mind might follow."

Suppose you are sailing in a boat from the west to the east—if the wind is blowing from the east side, your boat will be disturbed. In the same way, when your mind always goes in the opposite direction, you become fickle-minded.

Srila Rupa Goswami Prabhu tells,

আদৌশ্রদ্ধা ততঃ সাধুসঙ্গোঽথ ভজনক্রিয়া ।
ততোঽনর্থনিবৃত্তিঃ স্যাৎ ততো নিষ্ঠা রুচিস্ততঃ ॥
অথাসক্তিস্ততো ভাবস্ততঃ প্রেমাভ্যুদঞ্চতি ।
সাধকানাময়ং প্রেম্ণঃ প্রাদুর্ভাবে ভবেৎ ক্রমঃ ॥

adau sraddha tatah sadhu-sango 'tha bhajana-kriya
tato 'nartha-nivrttih syat tato nistha ruchis tatah
athasaktis tato bhavas tatah premabhyudanchati
sadhakanam ayam premnah pradurbhave bhavet kramah

"In the beginning there is faith, then good association, then practising life. After that, the offences gradually go away, faith becomes stronger, taste comes, then attachment, then there arises affection and love. This is how love to God comes to those who practise Krsna consciousness."

(Sri Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhuh, 1.4.15-16)

If you have faith—if some faith in the Lord, faith in the guru comes to you—then you can get the right to worship the Lord. If you have faith, then you can worship the Lord and practise Krishna consciousness. If you have no faith, you cannot start practising Krishna consciousness. It is first necessary to have faith. After that, when you get the right to practise, you will automatically, from within your heart feel, "I need good association now." Then, with the good association, the whole machine—your bhajana-kriya (Krishna consciousness practice) is activated and set into motion (starts working).

At first you will not feel attachment to your service, but if you are eager to worship Krishna, to serve Krishna, to serve Gurudev, then your material desires will slowly, slowly be removed. After that, when your material desires are removed, you will get the taste and attachment to your service—then you can understand that you have attained niscayata (you have become firm).

Srimad Bhagavad-gita also says (4.40)

অজ্ঞশ্চাশ্রদ্দধানশ্চ সংশয়াত্মা বিনশ্যতি ।
নায়ং লোকোঽস্তি ন পরো ন সুখং সংশয়াত্মনঃ ॥

ajnas chasraddadhanas cha, samsayatma vinasyati
nayam loko 'sti na paro, na sukham samsayatmanah

"The ignorant, faithless and doubting person is doomed to misfortune. For the doubting soul there can be happiness neither in this life nor the next."

To have faith means first of all to become fearless, to have all your doubts cleared. If you do not have a great faith (sraddha), then some fear can come, some hesitation or suspicious (সংশয, samsaya) can come—it means you may for example think, "If I come to this line and practise Krishna consciousness, what will happen to me later?" If you have some kind of doubt like that, a great faith cannot establish itself in your heart.

Srila Rupa Goswami Prabhu writes also,

অন্যাভিলাষিতা-শূন্যং জ্ঞান-কর্ম্মাদ্যনাবৃতম্ ।
আনুকূল্যেন কৃষ্ণানুশীলনং ভক্তিরুত্তমা ॥

anyabhilasita sunyam jnana-karmady anavrtam
anukulyena krsnanusilanam bhaktir uttama

"The highest devotion is that which satisfies Lord Krsna, free from the coverings of any pursuits such as action, knowledge."

(Sri Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhuh, 1.1.11)

"My only activity is only what is favourable to devotion, and my entire being, my everything is only for Krishna, nothing else. I have no other desire except for Krishna (anyabhilas). This is my everything,"—such feeling must come. Those who have a material mind cannot understand this. They think in another way—they waste their time not realising that Maya has got them. When I go angling (fishing), I put some food on the hook and when the fish comes to eat the bait, I take the fish out and the fish dies. Maya is also like that—she shows us some beauty, some things, somebody comes to us and shows us something and if we bite the bait, we die.

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