Moods of Pray

Very often, most often people think that you pray for something, that they are praying for some divine intervention in their lives: students are praying that they’ll past their exam… different things, different ideas are there… Guru Maharaj referred to that as a plea, pleading, particular type of pleading. And he would mentioned this at the time of initiating, Hari-nam, when we would say that not plea is to be attached to mahamantra.

One particular style of chanting was popular many years ago, in the 60-s people would say, “If you chant this mantra you’ll get what you want.” And different people tried that and got different results. But they would seduce by the notion of “you chant this mantra and you’ll get what you want.”

I remember when I first entered that temple, it was in Haight-Ashbury this temple was called Sri Sri Radha Krishna Temple. This was in December in 1969, and around that time, the Sri Isopanishad was published by ISKCON Press. So, I remember this book. It just came from New-York, which is where ISKCON Press was located, all the devotees were excited, they opened the box and I was the first person to buy the book. In that book each sloka was called ‘mantra 1’, ‘mantra 2’, the word mantra was very popular in that time. So, I remember asking one devotee, foolishly and naively, “Does this have a mantra for whatever you mood is, it expresses that?”

Because previously I’d heard something about another book called The Yì Jīng, which was sometimes called ‘The book of change’, the Chinese book of change. And there is a particular process, by which you create a hexagram, and then you look in the book and at that hexagram, and it says, “Now at this point in your life, there will be a journey over the great water.” Something like that and you think, “wow”, and you can factor that in…

So, since I had heard it in the background I said, “I’m looking for a book that whatever my mood is, there is some mantra in there that expresses that, better than I could express that. That I can express it and give some illumination about my eternal condition.” And anyway, the devotees cleverl said, “Yes, of course!” [laughing] They did not say, “No, this book isn’t like that. This book will require that you’ll dedicate your whole life to the concepts in it and give up you false idea of who you are, what your place is in the world and just put in end your life as you know it…” So I said, “Is there a mantra in here for how I feel inside and it will express that?” And they said, “Yes.”

And I remember having a hard time looking for that mantra that would expressed how I felt, as I looked through the different mantras there. But I found out something more interesting, more relevant to my condition than I could have imagined. So herein lies the predicament, the dilemma that when we pray, who is that self, what is our understanding of who we are, who is submitting these prays or attempting to pray, or to express themselves toward God, Divinity, the Infinite, Krishna.

So we hear from Srila Guru Maharaj for the example, something he refers towards karma-kanda. There are others karma-kanda, jnana-kanda, different types of approach. So karma-kanda, most often referred to, by Srila Guru Maharaj, as imposing the lower, imposing itself upon the higher. Here is the tiny finite soul and they are imposing something upon infinite or divinity. So this is back to that idea: a mantra for what of you want or prayer in the form of a plea or a plea in the form of the prayer.

So we could say just to spell it out on the basis of some misconceive notion of self we are envisioning that achieving something, whether it’d be a person, place or a thing, will bring satisfaction fulfillment, self-actualization, self-realization, whatever you want to call it. So, on the basis of some perceive the absence, whole in ourselves, we are thinking to pray to God, to realize that. But we’re told – that’s a lower type or prayer.

akāmaḥ sarva-kāmo vā
mokṣa-kāma udāra-dhīḥ
tīvreṇa bhakti-yogena
yajeta puruṣaṁ param
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 2.3.10)

The second canto of Srimad Bhagavatam there is a section about worshiping devatas, gods and goddesses. It’s frowned upon there in Bhagavad-gita.

We say, “No, but the Vraja-gopis worshiped Katyayani, the demigoddess.” Yes, when you are a Vraja-gopi, you can do that too. How about achieving bhava-bhakti first? For your imitation the Vraja-gopis:

yānti deva-vratā devān
pitṛn yānti pitṛ-vratāḥ
bhūtāni yānti bhūtejyā
yānti mad-yājino ’pi mām
(Bhagavad-gītā: 9.25)

In Bhagavad-gita Krishna is saying, “You worship the devatas, you get that type of a response…” But worshiping Krishna, praying to Krishna is another thing all together, still people approach Krishna to fulfill mundane aspirations. After all that Bhagavatam sloka, “akāmaḥ sarva-kāmo vā mokṣa-kāma…” Ākāmaḥ says, “If you’re desireless… sarva-kam—full of desire, moksa-kam—you are desiring liberation… go in the direction of Krishna Conception. Because the devotees know, they have faith, when they come in connection with Krishna, they’ll forget all that.

Who was akam, will be full of kam, but toward Krishna. Who was sarva-kam, full of mundane kam, they’ll be relieved of that. Who was moksa-kam, they will get a type of moksa beyond what they desire, what they could ever conceive.

So the devotee like… those devotees at Sri Sri Radha Krishna Temple, on Frederic Street in Haight-Ashbury, they told me, “Yes!” I asked, “Will this…?” “Yes! This book has that what you are looking for is in this book.” I was thinking, “How wonderful it is, just when I was feeling like that, the book arrived.” But I remember one thing that I’d red in that book, every evening in China-town I’s having discussions with a Marxist friend of mine… And we would have these discussions about ‘important things’, ‘deep thoughts’… But when we came to the God issue, I was having some difficulty convincing him.

And I remember reading in the introduction of Prabhupad’s Īśopaniṣad, “…originally delivered as a series of lectures at Conway Hall in London…” As my friend would say, “Show me God, prove that God exist.” Prabhupad said, “People often ask can you show me God?” So he had my attention, and then he said, “But do you have the eyes to see God?” And I jumped out of my seat dancing, I was so happy.“ And whether that man could understand that or appreciate that became almost the irrelevant. And I was very happy to hear that. Yes, do you have the eyes to see God?

Guru Maharaj told, some man, a very serious men highly educated, with highly position in society, wanted to ask Prabhupad a very personal question. So, two chairs were drawn into a private place and Guru Maharaj like Jaimini Rishi in Brihad-bhagavatamritam hiding in the bushes to overhear the conversation of Parikhit and Uttara... their faces got close and that man said to Saraswati Thakur, “Have you seen God?” And Saraswati Thakur told him, “You have to learn the culture, cultivation how to see God. Whether I have or haven’t, it’s irrelevant to your position. You must learn culture, cultivate this type of seeing.” So, we’re told, spiritually speaking, we learn śāstra-chakṣus - to see through the eyes of scriptures. Conventional seeing will not be helpful.

So we want to see through the eyes of the devotees. And Guru Maharaj has given us such an excellent example—the telescopic system. Because normally we think, “I am here, the seer, and the object of my vision is there and something intervenes creates opacity normally. But if what is intervening between me and the object of my vision is a lens, not only it does not create opacity, but it creates clarity. What may be distant and far, far beyond what can’t be seen by the naked eye, with the lens will be brought near and become clear, come clearly into focus.

So he’s compared the lens, the eye of devotion, what we hear in Brahma-samhita,

premāñjana-chchhurita-bhakti-vilochanena
santaḥ sadaiva hṛdayeṣu vilokayanti
(Sri Brahma-samhita: 5.38)

Those who are seeing Krishna, Krishna conception, if we come under the influence of their conception, the lens of their devotional seeing, who is normally abstract, unclear, remote becomes palpable, accessible clearly into focus. And he said, “And the series of such lenses is the telescopic system, known as the Guru-parampara.”

So, that means we put ourselves under the guidance of those who are themselves under the influence of scripture, or beyond the influence of scripture in the case of the raga-marg bhaktas, but I mean who sees through the eyes of scriptures: Sadhu, Sastra, Guru and Vaishnava. That’s how we will see things properly.

So when it comes to praying, knowing that we have a tendency to pray for things, to plead and that it is not bhakti, that is not devotion. Then where we are going to get the conception of another type of praying? It’s also mentioned in 5th canto of Srimad Bhagavatam,

rājan patir gurur alaṁ bhavatāṁ yadūnāṁ
daivaṁ priyaḥ kula-patiḥ kva cha kiṅkaro vaḥ
astv evam aṅga bhagavān bhajatāṁ mukundo
muktiṁ dadāti karhichit sma na bhakti-yogam
(Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam: 5.6.18)

That easily Krishna gives mukti, but it’s very rare that He gives devotion. So it’s giving a deeper level understanding of what was expressed in Bhagavad-gita,

ye yathā māṁ prapadyante
tāṁs tathaiva bhajāmy aham
(Bhagavad-gītā: 4.11)

The general principle: as they approach Me, I’ll reciprocate.

But here Bhagavatam is going dipper, dives deep into reality, saying, ”Sometimes someone is coming and asking for devotion, but I know in their heart really they want something else—I give them something else. And see, if they go for it—they go away. They’re happily geting mukti. After all this suffering of material existence—get mukti, be happy with that! They take mukti and they are running.” And He said, “But then there are devotees, who come asking Me for some mundane thing, they’re praying for some mundane thing. But I know in their heart they want Me. So I don’t give it to them.” Krishna’s mercy. [laughing]

Parikhit Maharaj asked Shukadev Goswami in The Bhagavatam, “Why is it that Narayana, who’s consort is Lakshmi Devi, the goddess of fortune, the goddess of wealth… His devotees are impoverished. Whereas Siva, who is living naked under a banyan tree, dressed in ashes. His devotees have so much opulence materially. I don’t get it.

And we hear there, it was a famous sloka,

yasyāham anugṛhṇāmi
hariṣye tad-dhanaṁ śanaiḥ
(Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam: 10.88.8)

Srila Prabhupad quoted this about himself, in his own life, “yasyāham anugṛhṇāmi, hariṣye tad-dhanaṁ śanaiḥ…” ‘Hari’ means ‘who want to take away’. If Krishna favors you, He takes everything away from you. And then we are thinking, “I don’t know if I want to sign up for that…” Read the small print when you approach the [lotus feet of Guru], “If Krishna likes me, He will take everything away from me.”

The Christians, one group I forget whether they are Calvinist or whatever they are, don’t send me an e-mail… in America… They are one of these Protestant groups, I forget which one, or all of them, maybe on the certain level. Their idea was: if you had many material things—God’s favoring that person. God must really be pleased with them, that He’s giving them so much.

But here, this is Srimad Bhagavatam, dive deep into reality book, which says, “No, if He favors you, He will take everything away.” Like Saraswati Thakur imploring the pilgrims, the parikramis. As they are leaving the annual festival you should be saying some pleasant parting words and he was saying, “Don’t cheat me! Don’t cheat me!” And Guru Maharaj said, in his way of saying when one person came to him and told, “I wonder why is this gentleman telling all the people ‘don’t cheat me’, he should be saying something like, ‘have a safe journey, it’s been nice’. And he’s saying, ‘don’t cheat me’ and saying, ‘You came in connection with me for Krishna connection’. And Krishna is that,

sarva-dharmān parityajya
mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja
(Bhagavad-gītā: 18.66)

‘Demanding person, give up everything, surrender to Me.’” As Gurudev said, when the preacher came to this village saying, “Your mother is nothing, your father is nothing, this world is nothing, you have to give it all up, better you do it now, dedicate yourself to the lotus feet of Guru and Gauranga.” He said, “Talking all this nonsense!” But that but nonsense talk struck with sympathetic court in his heart.

So Saraswati Thakur was saying, “You came to me for a connection with Krishna that’s how we know each other. That’s why we have come together. So, I say, if your house is on fire—let it burn. Because it is that house and everything in that’s keeping you bound. And just let it burn to ashes. Stay here today, now and dedicate yourself.”

“Goptṛtve varaṇaṁ tathā…”(Hari-bhakti-vilāsa 11.417) And Krishna will take care of you. He is taking care of everyone else, Prabhupada used to say, “Elephants get their food, the ant gets, everyone… somehow it is going on. So you think, “But if I surrender all to Krishna, how will I eat?”

One man told Gurudev, this man is always talking about sankya-yoga. He was always coming and talking about sankya-yoga. That the real message of Bhagavad-gita is sankya-yoga. Then he said at one point, “But if I become initiated, kīrtanīya sadā hariḥ, I’ll always be taking Krishna-nam. How will I do anything?” One man told, “If everyone is taking Krishna-nam, the airplanes will fall out of the sky. [laughing] How will we get anything done? Everyone will be going around going ‘Hare Krishna’ and you’ll be saying ‘Hare Krishna’. And we won’t even be able to talk to each other anymore.” Bengalis have unique perspectives on things.

If we become Krishna conscious, how will it be, if you surrender to Krishna? We are worried about whether or not, Krishna will take care of us.

So, interestingly, when it comes to prayer… we are fortunate that Srila Guru Maharaj compiled the book on ‘how to pray’. It’s called “Sri Prapanna-jivanamritam.” And in there under the 6 headings of surrender,

ānukūlyasya saṅkalpaḥ prātikūlyasya varjanam
rakṣiṣyatīti viśvāso goptṛtve varaṇaṁ tathā
(Hari-bhakti-vilāsa: 11.417)

He’s compiled going through all these scriptures and selected all these prayers: prayers from devotees, prayers from Mahaprabhu, prayers from the Lord, expressions from the Lord and it’s all about sharanagati (surrender), to become a surrendered soul.

So, in the beginning we heard Srila Prabhupad said as well, explaining Hare Krishna-mahamantra, “‘Hare’, this is vocative, it’s invoking, it’s not for something, it’s not a plea for something. It is a prayer to be engaged in seva.” But we will see in “Prapanna-jivanamritam”, all these slokas compiled there, where devotees are praying to the Lord, or His devotees in varieties of way, but with the end in mind to become sharanagata, or a surrendered soul.

So, they make mention of many different circumstances, life has many different circumstances. We have many bad undesirable acquired tendencies, all of these things. But there if they are praying for relieve from material desires it’s so that they can dedicate themselves in service. One disciple of Srila Saraswati Thakur, who was his personal servitor, who said, “I read ‘Prapanna-jivanamritam’ every day of my life.”

What is Mahaprabhu’s is prayer in Sikshashtakam,

ayi nanda-tanuja kinkaram
patitam mam vishame bhavambudhau
kripaya tava pada-pankaja-
sthita-dhuli-sadrisham vichintaya
(Śikṣāṣtakam: 5)

‘Nanda-tanuja’ means Krishna, the son of Nanda Maharaj, saying, “Although I am Your eternal servitor, somehow or other I faght the ‘bhavambudhau’—the ocean of forgetfulness of this fact and I am suffering on account of that. But You are very merciful—kripaya tava pada-pankaja. So, if You will mercifully give me an atomic presence in the dust of Your holy lotus feet, that will be good for me.

So Guru Maharaj said, “This prayer is expressed from our present position. You know, drowning in the ocean of notions. Because the type of prayer that is appropriate there is different than the type of prayer that is expressed. That prayer having been granted.” So, the songs we sing every day of Bhaktivinod Thalur, Narottam Thakur are primarily may be expressed by the non-liberated section. All these songs:

kṛpā-bindu diyā, koro’ ei dāse,
jogyatā-vichāre, kichu nāhi pāi,
tomāra koruṇā-sāra
(Gurudeva: 1,4)

“I have no good qualities, there is nothing worth salvaging in me. But if You’ll give me some mercy, then I have some hope, some prospect.” Mostly, those songs, that are sung on a daily basis, Ohe Vaishnava Thakura, etc. are expressed from the non-liberated position.

So Mahaprabhu here, Guru Maharaj is saying, He is also recognizing, “Although I am Your eternal servitor, I have some awareness of that, I am drowning in an ocean of misconception… So My prayer is—please rescue Me from that… if I can get some an atomic presence as a servitor under the guidance of Your eternal servitors…” But then Srila Guru Maharaj says, “But that prayer answered.” Like we say, “Oh my prayer has been answered… “ Like: “emona durmati, saṁsāra bhitore”, song… This evil mind has kidnapped me and holding me hostage in the mundane environment, but Your devotee came with these great news, that Mahaprabhu and Nityananda Prabhu descended in Nabadwip to rescue souls like me.

That prayer granted from giving entrance there. Then a whole new type of prayer or expression will come hankering for seva. Once to get a connection with the seva-mayo ’yam loka, the world of service, withdrawing from the world of exploitation, entering the world of seva, of service. How does it really take place? By entering, by activating the serving tendency automatically the withdrawal is achieved. Just as by going East automatically you withdrawing from West. You don’t have to focus on withdrawing from West—go Est. Like “Go east, young woman…” [laughing]

rasa-varjaṁ raso ‘py asya
paraṁ dṛṣṭvā nivartate
(Bhagavad-gītā: 2.59)

Through superior experience, substantial spiritual experience mundane affinity will diminish until it vanishes.

Really, all of us, everyone has some internal dialog with divinity, the long and short of it. Everyone does, even atheists have a dialog with divinity, but that’s another subject. So, we have this internal awareness also. You know, paramatma, all of that is not just something you read about it in the book or see on an interesting poster. We all have a sense of a presence of another Who is observing our life, our existence, what we think, feel, everything. Everybody does, it’s just a fact. I’m not here to argue at this point, just to acknowledge it.

We have some internal thoughts going on and the sense of an observer.

upadraṣṭānumantā cha
bhartā bhoktā maheśvaraḥ
paramātmeti chāpy ukto
dehe ’smin puruṣaḥ paraḥ
(Bhagavad-gītā: 13.23)

‘Dehe’, dehino and dehini, those who are embodied, have this sense. The word companion would imply some sort of affection, almost… an observer, the overseer.

So, when we read the prayers of great devotees they are articulating what we may not be able to express in so many words. Just if someone reads a great writer, just that they can appreciate that, is something good. It doesn’t mean they could’ve write that themselves or express in that way, but once when the heart resonates to that… As one poet said, ’in the heart’s deep core’, or ‘deep in the heart’s core’, what’s resonating there that’s valuable, indicative of some valuable spiritual substance when the heart resonates to the express prayers of great devotees.

So, if we’ll read that book particularly, I am sure they we’l find there some prayer that expresses what we are feeling [laughing], because I have heard this from spiritual authorities. And when the ‘jnana-karmadyanavritam’, the things that are covering our actual identity started dissolve and disappear, then heart felt expression will come from the devotee, something original. That’s also possible.

Any other question? Does that answer your question? You’ll have to consider these things.

Question: At the end of the day how can we verify that we were dying during this day?

Goswami Maharaj: One poet, Keats, he wrote a sonnet To Sleep and one of the lines, or one expression found there is about drifting off into the realm of curious conscience. This is an original expression of his, because we heard the word curious, we have heard the word conscience, but we didn’t hear them added together before. So, ‘curious conscience’, where one is drifting off in the sleep, leaving the conscious word, entering the dream word, there is this interim state, that he calls ‘curious conscience’, where you are reflecting thinking about different things.

So, if during that day the devotee had some substantial serving opportunity, they may reflect upon that and consider themselves fortunate. But we drift off in the sleep, wake up the next morning and it’s more difficult coming out of tama-guna from that situation into the wakeful present, we have may totally forgotten ourselves in the evening or in dream. And as we gradually become conscious we are somewhat hunted by what we have just been dreaming…

And Srila Saraswati Thakur according to Guru Maharaj suggested at that time the song Amara Jivana as appropriate, which translates as ‘my life’. The famous song of Bhaktivinod Thakur, where he’s saying, “This is my life, if I see other people happy, it makes me sad, I’m upset, envious. If other people have some misfortune—I am happy. How they call it schadenfreude (ger). In Deutsch, in German it’s also become a literary term, it’s used… It means, this type of aspect of human nature, if other people are suffering and you have kind of feel alright about it.

As we hear, “All the very wealthy person they got arrested, or the beautiful movie stars, the handsome man, the beautiful woman, they split, they are divorcing. The every man of us feels, “Ah, okay.” As I’ve mentioned, you know Aishwarya Rai, the famous Bollywood actress, who at various time she has been described as arguably the most beautiful woman in the world. So when her marriage was arranged with the son of the biggest male movie star in India, Amitabh Bachchan, when the astrologers calculated their charts they discovered that her chart was amangal, which means inauspicious.

So, although she is the most beautiful woman in the world, her chart is inauspicious, whoever she will marry, they will die. The husband will die, and the family will be destroyed. That’s what it says in her chart. So, some of the everyman, will say, “At least, my wife may not the most beautiful in the world, but at least she is auspicious.”

And of course only in India all these things are possible, they consult some brahmins, the brahmins say, “We will arrange a marriage, a mock marriage between her and a peepal tree. And the tree will die, and so that inauspiciousness will be finished and then she can marry the human, abhishek. This is only possible in India, and then they advise different types of brahmanical rituals and they are consulting… mm I see, right here, this is what we will do.

So, my life, Amara Jivana… we are normally overwhelmed by the less than sterling human qualities and characteristics. Saraswati Thakur is saying, “Chant this song in the morning, which is this confessional song written about Bhaktivinod Thakur, “Oh, I’m wasting my life, wasting my time, I’m full of envy, lust, anger, greed, I waste my time.” This sort of negative check-list... And Saraswati Thakur gave the advice, he said, “Take a broom and bit your mind a hundred times.”

So Guru Maharaj in sort of summarizing that, he said, “Oh, I wasted another day, so many opportunities were performed, where I could have served, I wasted my time. I wasted my time, I’m wasting my life. So, today let me use my life for something valuable. That sort of inner dialog will loop in a heart and consciousness of an inspiring servitor.

This ‘die to live’ according to Guru Maharaj means, you’ll have to die as you are to get a life in a higher plane.” Yajna, the fire sacrifice, what was the idea? The self is thrown into the fire. That old self is disintegrated, and a new self appears. The old self characterized by exploiting tendencies is disintegrated and a new self, characterized by dedicating tendency is generated. Or we can say that dedicating tendency generates a new self.

As Guru Maharaj mentioned in the conclusion of perhaps Kalyana-kalpataru, but where Bhaktivinod Thakur is talking about the nama-hatta, the market of the holy name, and Nityananda Prabhu, this beautiful metaphor for the distribution of Krishna-nam. And Bhaktivinod Thakur describes himself: there is Nityananda Prabhu in the market of the holy name, and this Bhaktivinod is a sweeper, that’s his position is here, he’s a sweeper. What is he sweeping out? Undesirable things. And Saraswati Thakur said, “If that plane is so high, that in that plane Bhaktivinod Thakur is a sweeper, then I am one of the straws in his broom.

And Srila Guru Maharaj said, “If we take it, that what he is expressing is the sincere heart-felt expression, then you can understand the unit of construction of the svarup. This type of humility and dedicating tendency is the unit of construction of the svarup, of the spiritual form, identity, personality. So, however we can acquire dedicating tendency in association with our god-brothers and god-sisters under the guidance of guru and vaishnavas, that ‘die to live’ principle can be employed. The old self will disintegrate and the golden dedicating self will manifest.

Hare Krishna