We Cannot Enter Krsna Lila with Our Shoes On
"Krsna goes cow herding with his bare feet. From this we are to learn that we cannot enter Krsna lila with our shoes on. Shoes, which we are tracking so much dirt and dust from our material sojourn, must be left aside. No shoes. This is the idea.
Barefoot means walking without any anxiety. Mother Yasoda, of course, is a little anxious about Krsna walking barefoot. But Krsna replies, "You don't have to worry about Me." Because Vrindavan is such that there are beautiful deer that dust the trails, making them soft and sandy just like a beach. And the trees bend down also and sweep and make everything soft. The cows go ahead and they break the ground and soften it for Krsna to walk upon. The whole environment rises to the occasion to serve Krsna in every way.
...The nature of Vrindavan dham is such that the abode of the Lord facilitates in every way the service of Krsna."
Swami Tripurari, From his lecture titled: Krsna Becomes a Cowherd Boy
On Good Association Leading to Doubts
"We constantly need to be prodded, pushed. At a certain stage you may push yourself...But before that we need to be pushed. You need to be near the fire to cook. Good association means to be near the fire. It will push us, challenge us. What will happen in good association-we'll start doubting. We start doubting what we understand. 'I thought I understood Krsna consciousness but now I'm starting to wonder.' That's what's required. That's what Prabhupada did to us. We thought we knew so many things then Prabhupada made us question everything we thought and what we were doing. He created the 'teachable moment', as they say in academics.
As long as you think you know it is difficult to teach you anything. So this is an ongoing thing in spiritual life. Someone comes to preach and starts creating doubts in you. Kind of like self doubts. 'Wow, I'm not sure. This might not be the answer I thought it was. I thought I read that book. I better go back and read that again.' This is good. And then that sadhu creates faith in herself/himself when she speaks or he speaks. And so then we get a kind of confidence at the same time that we're feeling disconcerted. "I don't know where I'm going but I know one thing-catch on to that guy...'. That's how we used to feel about Prabhupada."
Swami Tripurari, in a lecture titled: Q&A: Bhakti and the Enjoying Spirit Part 2
The Different Adhikaris
"Here in the material world we are struggling against material nature to serve Krsna. We're actually moving against the current. When we fully absorb ourselves in Krsna consciousness we observe that nature comes to serve and facilitate. Sridhar Maharaj used to say in his own poetic language that the environment is friendly. We see that the environment is unfriendly. We think that we are friendly but the environment is not cooperating.
But the vision of the great souls, Maha bhagavatas, are just the opposite. The kanistha-adhikari devotee thinks, "I am doing such nice service but the environment is not cooperating. Other people are not cooperating. I could do very nicely, serve very nicely, if other people would stop getting in my way." He thinks, she thinks, "Oh, I am a devotee, everyone else is, to one extent or another, opposed to devotion." An uttama-adhikari thinks just the opposite. He sees everyone as devotees. Everything. Even inanimate things as offering better service to Krsna than myself. "Only I", he thinks, "am not a servant of Krsna."
So we have to move from a kanistha adhikari mentality to an uttama-adhikari mentality by this kind of discrimination that characterizes madhyama -adhikari. By thinking about it-introspection. "I cannot think like uttama-adhikari but I should know theoretically how they think as far as it's understandable as it's described in Bhagavatam." What is their vision? Gopis offering respect to the trees, to the deer, to the earth...What is in our heart, we project that, seeing it in others....Their love of Krsna is so great that they see as if everyone and everything is loving Krsna. And better than them. We should try to cultivate this kind of thinking in a general way as madhyama-adhikari, with some discrimination, with some thoughtfulness and introspection."
Swami Tripurari, from a lecture titled: Krsna Becomes a Cowherd Boy
On Controlling Your Intellect
"We want to lord over the environment. We want to control it. Because we are uncomfortable and in an unnatural position we try to get control of the whole thing but we are off balance. We try to bring everything that we come in touch with under our control. And the point is it's not under our control. That's maya. That's what illusion is.
That's why again, this knowledge is a dangerous thing. This knowing instrument of intellect. Yes, because it's manifest in a prominent way in human society where we're distinguished from the animal species. But we could become a more dangerous beast also. Right? By misusing it. So it's a powerful thing. So is a knife. You can cut yourself or you can butter the bread. So we have to be very careful with how we use our intellect. It is not in and of itself a suitable vehicle for going back to Godhead. The intellect . And if we insist in going in that vehicle we will be repelled from there. We will be thrown back . You can try to enter there like that. What will happen is you will become filled with doubts. That means that environment is pushing back on you. "We don't want you.... That has no currency here."
Just like you have to control your senses, just how you have to control your mind, you have to control your intellect. You have to chasten your intellect. In conjunction with sastra you have to learn how to think spiritually and conjecture philosophically from a spiritual base of knowledge. The intellect can be very dangerous. It should be used but it should not use you."
From Swami Tripurari's Lecture: Q&A: Bhakti and the Enjoying Spirit Part 1
On How Love Requires Specificity
"And the specificity [of the path of bhakti] is important because why? Love requires specificity. The more specifics you know the more you can love. In the Gita, Krsna shows Himself to Arjuna that, "The universe is found in Me. I am everything." And Arjuna has trouble loving that manifestation. But when that all shrinks down into the two-armed chariot driver than he can express himself in love. This is the message there.
The specificity that the form as supposed to the formless provides us which is the fodder for loving. Is fuel for loving. The more you know about someone, the particulars, the details, the more you can love them...So this rag bhakti,which is about loving in a very specific way, it's a very specific, fine-tuned, honed path and it requires good guidance...The principle of the guru becomes much more important in Gauidya Vaisnavism. Because the guru embodies a particular, specific kind of love for Krsna. That is the goal of the student."
Swami Tripurari, From a lecture titled: Surrender
On the Highest Knowledge
"So this kind of knowledge, what Caitanya Mahprabhu has given, bhakti, is a...freedom. Freedom to tie up God, drag Him off of his throne with a rope of prema. Bind Him. Capture Him. To rule over Him by love. So this, Krsna says, is the highest knowledge. That we should pursue it. It doesn't cost anything. It's very easy to do. And if you have no other education, but you have this education, that your life will be perfect. These cow people, this is the idea. They're cow people. They don't have an education. They're lacking in so many things that, from a material point of view, people think that they need in order to be successful. They're lacking all these things. But what do they have? They have Him. And how do they have Him? Because they have love for Him.
The place is sometimes describe as if it is extraordinary. Palaces made of gold, diamonds and so forth. All such descriptions, if we pay attention what do they say to us? That all these things, they are whatever you could want materially, you will have there. You will not miss anything. People hear about a touchstone there. If you touch any metal to it it will turn to gold. It will fulfill all desires...You can pick from any tree anything you want...So people think, "We should go there! We should go there!". It gets attraction. But the teaching is that the people there, they're not interested in anything. That's what's extraordinary. They aren't interested in anything but loving Krsna.
So what is the wealth in that? What kind of freedom is there? When we have this knowledge, then what is the need for any other knowledge? That in one sense, is the teaching. So we don't waste our valuable time in so many pursuits. In pursuing perfect happiness through the acquisition of imperfect knowledge.
Imperfect knowledge means the knowledge of how to acquire temporary things. Things that don't endure. An imperfect knowledge means to discover means to control the environment. The environment appears to be unfriendly so we want to control it so that it becomes friendly. If we put this bhakti in the center, then the impetus to pursue relative knowledge...diminishes. Right? Nonetheless, we have to be practical in our pursuit. And so there's some place for relative knowledge....but that in the context of pursuing Absolute knowledge. Then it will be harmonized. So the teaching is not that you should spend your time acquiring relative knowledge. That will never set you free."
Swami Tripurari, From a lecture titled: Q&A: What Is Real Education?
Love as The Highest Knowledge
"We pride and value knowledge so much but it's such a small thing. So insignificant. Love just drowns this knowledge. In one sense love is the highest knowledge, that's true. We know that from the Gita. What does Krsna say? In the 9th chapter He says, "I'm going to give you the highest knowledge." What does He say at the end of the chapter? "This is the highest knowledge: be My devotee."
Love is really the highest knowledge. It is like that essential knowledge. No extra baggage. No knowing that you're just carrying that is burdening you. And it burdens you in so many ways. One big way in which knowledge burdens you is that by collecting non-essential knowledge we foster our false sense of identity because we use that knowledge, we show that knowledge off...So knowledge is really a small thing. What is it?... At the end it's not really fulfilling. Love, this is what life's about. There we can find ananda, joy, happiness, fulfillment. And there's essential knowing in that. When you love Him you know what to do. There's automatic knowing."
Swami Tripurari in a lecture titled: Q&A: Bhakti and the Enjoying Spirit 1
On Bhakti Being the Perfect Knowledge
"Bhakti is the perfect action. Bhakti is the perfect knowledge. By bhakti we become perfectly happy. That means we have comprehensive knowing. This is what knowing is about, knowing is to be happy. That's what we're interested in. We're knowing for a purpose. So gopis may be illiterate but they know everything. This is the idea. They know everything. They are depicted like this-uneducated village girls.
The boys in that village are also not educated. They're cowherd people. They don't get an education. They're like country bumpkins, they're just not very sophisticated. They don't have a big education, they don't know how the "big world" works. But they have perfect knowledge. These things seem contradictory but we have to understand that perfect knowledge means what? That knowledge that informs action perfectly and what is that action for? To become happy.
So this is perfect knowledge-to be perfectly happy. You don't have to strain your brain too much to understand every detail. That's not possible. But it is possible to be perfectly happy."
Swami Tripurari, From a lecture titled: Sri Brhad Bhagavatamrta, Mangalacarana, Verse 2 and 3
On Uncertainty in Love
"Love is full of uncertainty but you're certain you don't want to give it up. It's full of a kind of unknowing because it's exciting. What will happen next? And does he love me?
Krsna is no different. He's sitting with his friend Subal on the bank of the Yamuna plucking a clover, 'She loves me, she loves me not...What do you think Subal?'
He needs Subal to say, "Radhe, yes. I think she loves you." He needs some consolation.
Krsna is exemplifying this kind of uncertainty in love that has a certainty that you'll never give up the pursuit. And the pursuit is without end. And it moves, as Rupa Goswami says, "Like a snake." Not in a straight line, but like this, 'She loves me, she loves me not.' So many twists and turns.
We move, as I've said many times before, in pursuit of love and we cannot rest until we get it. And when we get it we find it has a movement of its own. It has an orbit of its own now. So, again I start to move. But that is a different kind of movement, if you will, than the search for fulfillment-moving out of discontent, out of lacking..There's movement out of a sense of fulfillment. Even in that movement there is a kind of healthy and beautiful uncertainty. There's union and separation. In the separation we wonder, in the union we know. And in separation we know and in union we wonder also. (laughter) "
Swami Tripurari, From a lecture titled: Sri Siksastakam, Verse 3: Taking Humility from Theory to Reality
On No Need for Discouragement
"Love is Supreme. That is the idea. So why should we be discouraged at any point? Why should we think logically that the odds against us are insurmountable, that the course is difficult? When our goal, our ideal, the person who we are approaching is controlled by love and affection. Rules by affection. We haven't got to have any power or expertise. Everyone knows how to love. We are born with some capacity to love. We have to exercise that only. And when we do we feel happiness. So we shouldn't feel discouraged to approach the infinite. Then everything is possible. And this is the way we will approach him, with affection. That will attract Him.
So if we want perfect knowledge we should worship perfection. This is the idea. Then perfection will reveal itself to us. This is the idea of revelation. This is the idea of scripture in a broad way. It means that perfect knowing and perfect happiness will be arrived at by a perfect method. And that perfect method is worship. Love. That anyone can do in any condition of life. There's no material requirements. No physical material requirements-no intellectual material requirements. Or mental prowess. Just an exercise of the heart."
Swami Tripurari, From a lecture titled: Demons in Krsna-lila: Introduction
On the Impossible Becoming Possible
"There will be opposition, if not from outside, from within. Opposition from the mind. And the senses who have oppressed us for so long. Kept us as captives, prisoners, chained, shackled, tortured, and not so willing to let us go. Not easily.
In fact, to become free from the shackles of the mind and senses, that is impossible. Krsna said that in the Gita...He said, "The impossible becomes possible when bringing Me into the picture. I can do the impossible. So invite Me into your life, into your heart." And Mahaprabhu showed the way to do this-through nam sankirtan."
Swami Tripurari, From a lecture titled: Demons in Krsna-lila: Introduction
On Sri Guru
"You have some feelings about your life and then you hear from a sadhu and she speaks in such a way that it confirms the things that you were thinking about, feeling about, but you couldn't quite articulate. She said it, or he said it, better than I could say it and so that person knows my heart. They're not different from me. He or she is a manifestation of my heart developed, my heart's prospect coming out.
This is the idea of guru. That kind of feeling. Not some external oppression. You know it is said in the Upanishads, "One must accept a guru." It sounds like a law, "Oh God I better find a guru or I'll be breaking a law." But the spirit of it is more, "I must take shelter here because I'd be crazy not to." My interests, my own heart is going to be forming and it's being voiced in a way that I haven't been able to voice it but it's not unfamiliar entirely. It's not a new thing, an artificial imposition. It's like going home. An all knowing person is required for home going. As I said before...home is in the heart. This is a very extraordinary thing that's coming before me."
Swami Tripurari, From a lecture titled: Braindead Bhakti
On Submissive Inquiry
"Faith means that comprehensive knowledge will be arrived at through revelation. That means, as I've said many times, for perfect knowing a perfect means to know must be employed. Our intelligence is not a perfect means for knowing, neither our mind or our reasoning power. You can reason about anything from any angle of vision. You can start to make anything sound reasonable and that's called modern society. Things that people would never ever imagine could possibly be considered will be right up there with good logic and reasoning if you give it enough time. Such is the nature of reasoning. And of course the senses, another means of knowing, are obviously imperfect as well...
Submissive inquiry, with folded hands, this is the way we can come to know That which cannot be known with the limited material facilities that we have. And there is the sense in human society that when we're faced with a formidable task, it fosters faith. For instance , if we have to go forward and we don't know how but we have to go, which often happens in life, that there's a kind of "trusting" that it will work out.
It sounds simple. It is, but the beauty of it and the profundity of it escapes the kind of complicated people or the people who complicate unnecessarily their lives with the burden of unguided reasoning. So submissive inquiry-this is the heart of Gaudiya Vaisnavism and this is what we call the perfect means to arriving at perfect knowledge.
This means is beyond ourselves. We appeal beyond our limitations. That's what prayer is-we are appealing to that which is beyond our limitations with our very being. "
Swami Tripurari, From a lecture titled: BG 3.1-3:Action and Knowledge 2010
On Prayer
"That's what prayer is-we are appealing to That which is beyond our limitations with our very being."
Swami Tripurari, From a lecture titled: BG 3.1-3:Action and Knowledge 2010
On Submissive Hearing
"It appears by intellectual exercise that we've gone somewhere. We may do this in a spiritual context-gathering information from scripture, repeating it to other people. And other people think, "Just see, she is so advanced." But all you have is some information you are just repeating that's all. No realization. The heart hasn't softened at all. No taste for harinam...
We should use intelligence to collect this kind of information and think about it. I like to say, "Use our head to soften our heart". To apply that. Like you writing down something. Keep that in your heart. Make that part of you. Not that you just use it to repeat to somebody else and think to yourself that you are more important now. You're really somebody because you memorized something. No.
Submissive hearing means I listen because I want to change and grow. When the point comes, I know that's important, that pertains to me, write it down in my heart. Become a part of me. That's how you build a spiritual life. ...Staying in your own position and hearing from guru-parampara submissively... the unconquerable becomes conquerable through this process."
Swami Tripurari, From his lecture titled, Sri Brhad Bhagavatamrta, Mangalacarana, Verse 6 and 7
The Worship of Nature as Bhakti
"With the mystics, devotees, they approach nature in a different way. They approach as lovers. Servants and lovers. Not to exploit the world but to venerate even, to worship the world. Everything. This is bhakti. Not just Krsna. Everything is Krsna. Everything is Krsna sakti. If you have the right frame of mind, orientation and so forth, then any aspect of nature you can worship and become fully Krsna conscious. If you understand it to be a manifestation of Bhagavan. Like he says, "I am the waters, I am bodies of water, I am the ocean. I am mountains. I am immovable things. I am the Himalayas." He says, ..." All of this is but a spark of my splendor....It could go on forever." It means a powerful manifestation of nature is representative of Him.
So we approach nature with a worshipable attitude to show a different face to us. That's why these rishis have described the creation in the poetic way in which they have. Envisioning Visnu...the universe coming from the pores of His body. Visnu coming in each universe. Brahma from which the umbilical cord is a lotus flower. All these things. In Bhakti rasamrta sindhu, Srila Rupa Goswami has advised us worship of sacred trees and worship of cows scratching their necks, giving them fresh grasses. This is all bhakti...So their are sacred rivers and sacred stones and all these things."
Swami Tripurari, From his lecture titled, Sri Brhad Bhagavatamrta, Mangalacarana Verse 6 and 7
Mayavadis Taking Life out of Lila
"This is what Mayavadis do, isn't it? They take the life out of the lila. Dissect it, draw some point out, and it disappears. We will dissect it, draw some point out and enter into it to get something from it that will inform our practice so that we will have a better capacity to go there. To construct our selves, to erect the self, so to speak, based on the knowledge of that place and the feeling of that place."
Swami Tripurari, From his lecture titled, Sri Brhad Bhagavatamrta, Mangalacarana Verse 6 and 7
Generosity of Bhakti/Moving past Guilt and Obstacles
"Bhakti is very generous. For example in the Bhagavatam, Krsna says that, "My devotees sometimes have material desires and they succumb to them and they go beneath the standard that they set for themselves," He says, "It happens. But then they are sincere, they express their remorse and they carry on and it's all taken care of."
.You have to keep your vision on Krsna...You try to understand the nature of Krsna, the nature of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Their personalities. You read the text, you see what they are like...Then you see how kind they are. Your guilt will go away and your tendency to succumb to a standard less than the one you set for yourself will also disappear. Study the person of Caitanya Mahaprabhu carefully, the person of Krsna, and then you will fall in love with Him. Then to follow Them will not be difficult."
Swami Tripurari, From his lecture titled, Sri Brhad Bhagavatamrta, Mangalacarana, Verse 6 and 7
Experiencing Anistha (unsteady) Bhajana Kriya
"Krsna says in the Bhagavatam, 11th Canto, He says, 'Look, My devotees, I love them so much. And some of them have material desires, and they can't give them up. I love them anyway." He says, 'Because those who are actually My devotees who have material desires, they embarrass themselves sometimes on account of those material desires. They feel remorse for that. And that remorse gradually purifies them of those desires. And they become perfect.'...
You might have other interests. We should identify them for what they are, separate interests. And they get the best of us, take over our lives and get in the way of our sadhana. And therefore our sadhana is not nistha, it's anistha. That's a given. There's a learning curve here. To get to nistha you have to go through anistha bhajana kriya. There will be ups and downs. But to learn from them, to grow from them, and to be embarrassed-Mahaprabhu was embarrassed. He said, 'I have no attraction. The Name is very merciful but I have no attraction.' ...'I could be doing more.", one should think. If one understands what has been given then how could he possibly feel otherwise? No matter how much one is giving. And what we find with great devotees, we think they are giving everything, and they are, but they are thinking, 'I am giving nothing.'. So this is the experience of giving oneself. The closer the finite comes to the infinite the more it feels what it means to be finite."
~ Swami Tripurari, from a lecture titled: How to Cultivate Surrender
On Reason
"So here we at best speak the language of reasoning. Not Hindi, not English or Spanish, but reason. But again, this is not a language that will set the heart free...Empiricism, what can we know by it?
I said earlier that sometimes faith is thought of as suspending reason.
But those who have put reasoning on the altar should reason better than
that. You can not know you exist, by reasoning. You can approve it by
reasoning. We have many existentialists to help us in that regard-of
reason unaided by revelation which is a western fashion that has lead
the philosophers in the world to conclude for the most part that
philosophy is dead. It is dead when it is left to run wild unto
itself....
But when reasoning becomes an aspect of faith and serves to foster the argument of revelation, such as the Upanishads, then it has beauty, it has charm, it has power, it has value. It's constructive."
Swami Tripurari in a lecture titled, How to Cultivate Surrender
On Reality
"Reality is something you cannot bring within the fist of your intellect. You cannot catch it there. It is bigger than that. Much bigger than that. So if we are to know, there must be another way to go there. That is the way of heart not head. You can use the head to soften the heart, as I say. So sadhu-sanga, good company, is for this also. To make us reason. That our heart of tender faith may become strong."
Swami Tripurari, in a lecture titled, How to Cultivate Surrender
On the Small World of the Mind"When you look at a thing as if it is to be enjoyed by you, in terms of your mental conception of goods and bads and happies and sads, and that small world of the mind that we live in where we are allowed to feel big. Where we feel everybody else should be comfortable living within even though it's not comfortable for us, as unreasonable as that is.That's how spiritual life is, to come out of that small world. To find that you're small but it's okay. Because there's someone whose big and he's affectionate.
So when we look at the world from that small world of our mind as if, consciously or unconsciously, it is for our purpose, our enjoyment, we take the life out of it, so to speak. That's why the whole vraja-lila is spoken of as animate. We'll hear tomorrow, "The hills started to move and dance." This proper vision gives life to everything. Everything has life in relation to Bhagavan. When we see it independently of Bhagavan, or separately, it has no life....The more we absorb ourselves in matter the more we become matter-like and the less we matter."
Swami Tripurari, From a lecture titled: Q&A: Enjoyment and Renunciation
On Decorating the Deity/Decorating One's Heart"Your question is also, then, "Are we pleasing the deity or there for our purification?" But the two are inseparable because the more you decorate the deity, the more you decorate your heart."
Swami Tripurari, in a lecture titled- Q&A:Am I God?
On Humility
"A humble person is open to possibilities. Ready to learn. And in this school we are students forever. There is no end to that. As soon as we think we become the professor, we've missed it. We go back to kindergarten and start again.
Only relatively speaking we are a professor. I'm sitting six inches above you so I'm looking down. I am the professor for the moment in this setting. But my real vision is to look up and see whatever I says will be a representation of my own teachers..."
Swami Tripurari, From a lecture titled, Sri Siksastakam, Verse 3: Taking Humility from Theory to Reality
But when reasoning becomes an aspect of faith and serves to foster the argument of revelation, such as the Upanishads, then it has beauty, it has charm, it has power, it has value. It's constructive."
Swami Tripurari in a lecture titled, How to Cultivate Surrender
On Reality
"Reality is something you cannot bring within the fist of your intellect. You cannot catch it there. It is bigger than that. Much bigger than that. So if we are to know, there must be another way to go there. That is the way of heart not head. You can use the head to soften the heart, as I say. So sadhu-sanga, good company, is for this also. To make us reason. That our heart of tender faith may become strong."
Swami Tripurari, in a lecture titled, How to Cultivate Surrender
On the Small World of the Mind"When you look at a thing as if it is to be enjoyed by you, in terms of your mental conception of goods and bads and happies and sads, and that small world of the mind that we live in where we are allowed to feel big. Where we feel everybody else should be comfortable living within even though it's not comfortable for us, as unreasonable as that is.That's how spiritual life is, to come out of that small world. To find that you're small but it's okay. Because there's someone whose big and he's affectionate.
So when we look at the world from that small world of our mind as if, consciously or unconsciously, it is for our purpose, our enjoyment, we take the life out of it, so to speak. That's why the whole vraja-lila is spoken of as animate. We'll hear tomorrow, "The hills started to move and dance." This proper vision gives life to everything. Everything has life in relation to Bhagavan. When we see it independently of Bhagavan, or separately, it has no life....The more we absorb ourselves in matter the more we become matter-like and the less we matter."
Swami Tripurari, From a lecture titled: Q&A: Enjoyment and Renunciation
On Decorating the Deity/Decorating One's Heart"Your question is also, then, "Are we pleasing the deity or there for our purification?" But the two are inseparable because the more you decorate the deity, the more you decorate your heart."
Swami Tripurari, in a lecture titled- Q&A:Am I God?
On Humility
"...Mahaprabhu
told Ramananda Raya and Svarup Damodar, "Now I'm going to tell you how
to chant the holy name in such a way that you will actually get prema."
And then he uttered this verse:
'Trinad api suniceca, taror api sahisnuna...'.
This is the decorum of his devotees. This is the code of behavior for Caitanya vaisnavas. This verse here is so important to us. To be more humble than a blade of grass. This kind of humility, it brings us out of the small world of our mind-of our goods, our bads and happies and sads, and so on and so forth...You come out of the world of the mind and you see how small you are but you see the one who is actually big also. And you find he is very affectionate. It's good to be small. Small is to be big because it brings me in touch with the one who is big. Otherwise, that vision is completely obscured."
Swami Tripurari, From a lecture titled, Sri Siksastakam, Verse 3: Taking Humility from Theory to Reality
'Trinad api suniceca, taror api sahisnuna...'.
This is the decorum of his devotees. This is the code of behavior for Caitanya vaisnavas. This verse here is so important to us. To be more humble than a blade of grass. This kind of humility, it brings us out of the small world of our mind-of our goods, our bads and happies and sads, and so on and so forth...You come out of the world of the mind and you see how small you are but you see the one who is actually big also. And you find he is very affectionate. It's good to be small. Small is to be big because it brings me in touch with the one who is big. Otherwise, that vision is completely obscured."
Swami Tripurari, From a lecture titled, Sri Siksastakam, Verse 3: Taking Humility from Theory to Reality
"A humble person is open to possibilities. Ready to learn. And in this school we are students forever. There is no end to that. As soon as we think we become the professor, we've missed it. We go back to kindergarten and start again.
Only relatively speaking we are a professor. I'm sitting six inches above you so I'm looking down. I am the professor for the moment in this setting. But my real vision is to look up and see whatever I says will be a representation of my own teachers..."
Swami Tripurari, From a lecture titled, Sri Siksastakam, Verse 3: Taking Humility from Theory to Reality
"Humility, in one sense, is giving up the false sense of being the
authority, or the enjoyer. As much as the enjoying spirit is in us that
means we want to use things for our mentally conceived purpose to enjoy
it. It becomes the object to be used in my service. This is the
antithesis, then, of humility in which I am to be used in the service of
another."
Swami Tripurari, from his lecture titled, Sri Siksastakam,Verse 3, Taking Humility from Theory to Reality
On Nistha (+humility)
"So the road, if you will, in nistha becomes straight but it's not narrow. It actually becomes broad. You know where to go. You know what to do. But you also know, 'This is something big I'm involved in', because you actually have some experience of what it is. And that experience starts to become consistent. I am humble enough, tolerant enough, to come outside of the world of my mind and have some experience of what it means to be finite.
' Wow, I'm small in the face of the Infinite.' An infinite affection for that matter. How humbling that is."
Swami Tripurari, From a lecture titled, Sris Siksastakam, Verse 3: Taking Humility from Theory to Reality
On Interaction with Material Objects and One's Sense of Self
"We have objects, matter inanimate, but we don't find experience, consciousness. And we have ourselves, the experiencer. And so when we interact with objects we kind of give them life. We bring meaning to them relative to our conception of what we are and what life means.
And so, a mentally conceived, if you will, sense of self wherein we've got values derived from sense perception-hot, cold, good, bad. I think it's hot, you think it's cold...and we are at odds with one another and we are living in a small world of our mind that these determinations of hot and cold is what makes me... I'm a product of all these false determined readings of the world. They are so false because yours might be just the opposite.
So a false sense of self has been erected and then on the basis of that we are interacting with material objects and, in effect, taking the life out of them. We are not seeing them in the relation to their source. What their full utility is.
So, in Krishna consciousness we learn not to look not at the objective world as much as at the supersubjective. If I'm the subjective element than Bhagavan is the supersubjective element. "
Swami Tripurari, from a lecture titled: Sri Siksastakam,Verse 3, Taking Humility from Theory to Reality
The Story of the Two Policement (Sridhara Maharaj) and the Arresting of the Mind
"Sridhara Maharaj ...tells us a story of two policemen in India.
The two of them were chatting and one of them said, "It's really a shame our God, Krsna, is a thief because we are trying to teach people not to steal and our God is a thief. He is quite mischievous. He thinks that the butter stolen from somebody else's house is better than the butter at his mother's house. And just let him get a little outside the purview of Balaram and he will get even more mischievous."
...
On Attachment to Bhakti Manifesting in the form of Understanding Bhakti
"Attachment is the basis of our identity. Our "my" is our "I". Our desires form our "I". When we are attached to the embrace of Krsna we have another budding, then, identity as we go from sadhana bhakti into bhava bhakti.
Intelligence is lost. Of course, as Prabhupada liked to say, we may come down from there to talk about it and have to use discrimination. Intelligence means the faculty of discrimination to speak to others.
Human life speaks the language of logic and the devotee speaks the language of logic and the language of love. And as much as he or she has developed ruci, then they're starting to become fluent in the language of love.
Therefore, Thakur Bhaktivinod says, "Ruci bhakti means suddha bhakti." The pure devotee...
The term pure devotee means it begins here, with ruci bhakti. There's taste. There's no other desire. There's attachment to bhakti and it manifests in the form of understanding bhakti. An interest in sharing that understanding of bhakti. Radha is Bhakti Devi. We want to give her but we want to give her in a real way. What she's made out of. What does it mean? Her complexion is this, her eyelashes are this, her hair is that...Kaviraj Goswami has talked about them on the basis of the tantra, all in terms of emotions.
So what is the underlying tattva of all of this? This should be approached. This kind of knowledge is important."
Swami Tripurari, in a lecture titled: Dynamic Revelation
Swami Tripurari, from his lecture titled, Sri Siksastakam,Verse 3, Taking Humility from Theory to Reality
On Nistha (+humility)
"So the road, if you will, in nistha becomes straight but it's not narrow. It actually becomes broad. You know where to go. You know what to do. But you also know, 'This is something big I'm involved in', because you actually have some experience of what it is. And that experience starts to become consistent. I am humble enough, tolerant enough, to come outside of the world of my mind and have some experience of what it means to be finite.
' Wow, I'm small in the face of the Infinite.' An infinite affection for that matter. How humbling that is."
Swami Tripurari, From a lecture titled, Sris Siksastakam, Verse 3: Taking Humility from Theory to Reality
On Interaction with Material Objects and One's Sense of Self
"We have objects, matter inanimate, but we don't find experience, consciousness. And we have ourselves, the experiencer. And so when we interact with objects we kind of give them life. We bring meaning to them relative to our conception of what we are and what life means.
And so, a mentally conceived, if you will, sense of self wherein we've got values derived from sense perception-hot, cold, good, bad. I think it's hot, you think it's cold...and we are at odds with one another and we are living in a small world of our mind that these determinations of hot and cold is what makes me... I'm a product of all these false determined readings of the world. They are so false because yours might be just the opposite.
So a false sense of self has been erected and then on the basis of that we are interacting with material objects and, in effect, taking the life out of them. We are not seeing them in the relation to their source. What their full utility is.
So, in Krishna consciousness we learn not to look not at the objective world as much as at the supersubjective. If I'm the subjective element than Bhagavan is the supersubjective element. "
Swami Tripurari, from a lecture titled: Sri Siksastakam,Verse 3, Taking Humility from Theory to Reality
The Story of the Two Policement (Sridhara Maharaj) and the Arresting of the Mind
"Sridhara Maharaj ...tells us a story of two policemen in India.
The two of them were chatting and one of them said, "It's really a shame our God, Krsna, is a thief because we are trying to teach people not to steal and our God is a thief. He is quite mischievous. He thinks that the butter stolen from somebody else's house is better than the butter at his mother's house. And just let him get a little outside the purview of Balaram and he will get even more mischievous."
...
So the other policeman said, "No, that's not a problem that our God is a thief. That's actually a good thing."
"Why is that?"
"Because a thief does not care for high walls and locked doors and that is exactly what we have erected around our hearts. High walls and locked doors are not letting just anyone in."
Even as I speak to you here and you want to listen to what I say, you might not be sure you will let everything inside. You want to filter it, hold on to it up there, wait a minute, and then maybe let it go in.
But of course if the speaker is effective he or she can overcome that. "Arrest the mind", is what Prabhupada did. He arrested our minds and our intelligence, so we really kind of stopped thinking, then everything could go in. Then we could practice and get experience, and in his absence than we start to think again and it would become problematic-that we need more guidance to help us-maybe not to stop thinking but to think in relation to things he was able to put into our hearts. Prabhupada, or any guru in the parampara, this is the task, so to speak."
Swami Tripurari, in a lecture title, Sri Siksastakam, Verse 3: Taking Humility from theory to Reality
"Why is that?"
"Because a thief does not care for high walls and locked doors and that is exactly what we have erected around our hearts. High walls and locked doors are not letting just anyone in."
Even as I speak to you here and you want to listen to what I say, you might not be sure you will let everything inside. You want to filter it, hold on to it up there, wait a minute, and then maybe let it go in.
But of course if the speaker is effective he or she can overcome that. "Arrest the mind", is what Prabhupada did. He arrested our minds and our intelligence, so we really kind of stopped thinking, then everything could go in. Then we could practice and get experience, and in his absence than we start to think again and it would become problematic-that we need more guidance to help us-maybe not to stop thinking but to think in relation to things he was able to put into our hearts. Prabhupada, or any guru in the parampara, this is the task, so to speak."
Swami Tripurari, in a lecture title, Sri Siksastakam, Verse 3: Taking Humility from theory to Reality
On Attachment to Bhakti Manifesting in the form of Understanding Bhakti
"Attachment is the basis of our identity. Our "my" is our "I". Our desires form our "I". When we are attached to the embrace of Krsna we have another budding, then, identity as we go from sadhana bhakti into bhava bhakti.
Intelligence is lost. Of course, as Prabhupada liked to say, we may come down from there to talk about it and have to use discrimination. Intelligence means the faculty of discrimination to speak to others.
Human life speaks the language of logic and the devotee speaks the language of logic and the language of love. And as much as he or she has developed ruci, then they're starting to become fluent in the language of love.
Therefore, Thakur Bhaktivinod says, "Ruci bhakti means suddha bhakti." The pure devotee...
The term pure devotee means it begins here, with ruci bhakti. There's taste. There's no other desire. There's attachment to bhakti and it manifests in the form of understanding bhakti. An interest in sharing that understanding of bhakti. Radha is Bhakti Devi. We want to give her but we want to give her in a real way. What she's made out of. What does it mean? Her complexion is this, her eyelashes are this, her hair is that...Kaviraj Goswami has talked about them on the basis of the tantra, all in terms of emotions.
So what is the underlying tattva of all of this? This should be approached. This kind of knowledge is important."
Swami Tripurari, in a lecture titled: Dynamic Revelation
Swami Tripurari on Giving is Getting
"Govinda means [one] 'who can actually protect the cows', who can care for the innocent. Who gives shelter to those who are givers. Who embraces those who give and protects them. They give away everything, who will protect them? If you give that away what will your position be? Krsna says...That's me. I'm invisible to the eye of ordinary people but those who give know me. They experience more by giving. They experience fullness by giving. It's mystical. If you give you will get and you will find in time that the giving is the getting.
But can you show it to anybody? 'Look, this is what I've got.' Can you hold it up? 'I gave and I got this.' We cannot even explain it but it exists. We can experience it.
...Giving will be determined by two things. How much it's actually giving. That means how much is lacking of any kind of expectation of getting in the act of giving. And, two, where it is given. Just like if a child is crying and you're babysitting. You don't know the child that well and so you think, 'Oh, she's hungry', so you give her food but she's actually crying because of indigestion.
Then you're giving not the full giving. There's some problem there. So some knowledge is required. Where to give? How to give? What's the best place to give? So two things: knowledge, where to give-tattva, and bhava, the feeling, without any getting expected in my spirit of giving.
So people who give proportionate to the extent that they actually give, the mystery of life is that they get. Because it's not logical, reasonable, that by giving you will get. Life is not reasonable. It transcends reason. Life, I mean, reality. How the world really works is mystical. And very simply put-by giving you get. Giving is getting. It's kind of a zen koan, if you will. ...Think about it. Giving is getting. Give to live, something like that. Just the opposite of how it would appear and, therefore, we are constantly on the take. And even when we do give we attach some getting to that. 'I at least want some recognition that I gave. Just put my name in lights. Just that.' (laughter)...Real giving doesn't involve that.
...Mahaprabhu Sri Caitanya taught us that we should give respect to others and expect no respect for ourselves. He said in practicing life this should be cultivated. Giving honor to others, expecting no honor for myself. And if practice borders perfection, 'na dhanam na janam', he said, you will come to this, "na janam". One thing is to practice giving up getting honor. Another thing is to actually realize what it is. How undesirable it is. We can reasonably talk about it and go, "Yes, it's not a good thing. It's some subtle form of selfishness." But we still want it. We still think practically it has some value. So we might cultivate giving it up, but then one will come to a stage where he will actually realize, 'I have no interest in it whatsoever..' When one comes to this stage, here's bhakti."
Swami Tripurari in a lecture titled: Sraddha: Krsna tu Bhagavan Svayam
"Govinda means [one] 'who can actually protect the cows', who can care for the innocent. Who gives shelter to those who are givers. Who embraces those who give and protects them. They give away everything, who will protect them? If you give that away what will your position be? Krsna says...That's me. I'm invisible to the eye of ordinary people but those who give know me. They experience more by giving. They experience fullness by giving. It's mystical. If you give you will get and you will find in time that the giving is the getting.
But can you show it to anybody? 'Look, this is what I've got.' Can you hold it up? 'I gave and I got this.' We cannot even explain it but it exists. We can experience it.
...Giving will be determined by two things. How much it's actually giving. That means how much is lacking of any kind of expectation of getting in the act of giving. And, two, where it is given. Just like if a child is crying and you're babysitting. You don't know the child that well and so you think, 'Oh, she's hungry', so you give her food but she's actually crying because of indigestion.
Then you're giving not the full giving. There's some problem there. So some knowledge is required. Where to give? How to give? What's the best place to give? So two things: knowledge, where to give-tattva, and bhava, the feeling, without any getting expected in my spirit of giving.
So people who give proportionate to the extent that they actually give, the mystery of life is that they get. Because it's not logical, reasonable, that by giving you will get. Life is not reasonable. It transcends reason. Life, I mean, reality. How the world really works is mystical. And very simply put-by giving you get. Giving is getting. It's kind of a zen koan, if you will. ...Think about it. Giving is getting. Give to live, something like that. Just the opposite of how it would appear and, therefore, we are constantly on the take. And even when we do give we attach some getting to that. 'I at least want some recognition that I gave. Just put my name in lights. Just that.' (laughter)...Real giving doesn't involve that.
...Mahaprabhu Sri Caitanya taught us that we should give respect to others and expect no respect for ourselves. He said in practicing life this should be cultivated. Giving honor to others, expecting no honor for myself. And if practice borders perfection, 'na dhanam na janam', he said, you will come to this, "na janam". One thing is to practice giving up getting honor. Another thing is to actually realize what it is. How undesirable it is. We can reasonably talk about it and go, "Yes, it's not a good thing. It's some subtle form of selfishness." But we still want it. We still think practically it has some value. So we might cultivate giving it up, but then one will come to a stage where he will actually realize, 'I have no interest in it whatsoever..' When one comes to this stage, here's bhakti."
Swami Tripurari in a lecture titled: Sraddha: Krsna tu Bhagavan Svayam
Swami Tripurari on Power Underlying Play
"What underlies the lila of Krsna, which is an expression of the very heart of divinity, where the Absolute is doing whatever it wants whenever it wants whimsically. We want to do that. We want to do whatever we want whenever we want. We are supposed to grow up and find out that's not possible. You have to be realistic and so forth.
But actually there is a way to realize that sense that we have in childhood, in youth, that we should be able to do whatever we want whenever we want. And the way to realize that is to connect our self with the one who does whatever he wants whenever he wants. To make our will one with his will.
Then we have real freedom and real power.
So among all the gods and goddesses and all conceptions of God that have been given to human society this conception of Krsna, we look we see he is depicted by mystics in their heart's eye and then manifested in art and poetry and literature and so forth. This experience of the heart of divinity has been depicted as simply playful.
At a glance you can wonder, 'How can that be the all-powerful God?'
But again, in order to play one has to have power. So all power underlies that lila of play. All jnana, all knowledge. Knowledge is a kind of power. It is said in universities, 'Knowledge will set you free.' So underlying freedom is the power of knowledge. But if freedom reaches its fullest expression-freedom, love, play, it will suppress the knowledge in such a way that it appears to be absent for the sake of that freedom. Just like, for example, in a very powerful country that has a very powerful military, the military will then be hidden. You won't see military bases everywhere. You won't see rockets being paraded in the streets and so forth, all of this power. Because it will get in the way really of the freedom of the people. They will be just a little bit intimidated by that. Better to preserve the freedom, this is just an analogy of course, to preserve the freedom, but keep it [military power] a little out of the way so we don't have to look at it all of the time. But if there is any danger that should come then it can come out.
So there are souls that live in that realm of Krsna who dwell there in their heart of hearts. Sometimes they come here. They appear here. Here there is a need for knowledge because it is a land of ignorance and doubt. So simple village girls, milk maidens, cowherd friends of Krsna, souls in that realm, in that kind of identity participating there should come here. Oh, they have so much knowledge. But there it is not required. It is suppressed by love. But it's there, it underlies that.
So, if we study carefully about Krsna, objectively, we can choose whatever we like in our spiritual pursuit, that is fine. But if we are to take the yard stick of objectivity there is good reason to lay emphasis on Krsna. Simply playing, implication is all-powerful. But you have to think about it to see it. So, Krsna is not so easy to understand. A little difficult. As I mentioned even the gods and goddesses sometimes wonder."
Swami Tripurari, In a lecture titled: Sraddha: Krsna's tu Bhagavan Svayam
On Krsna Deriving Pleasure from Devotees/Not Going Beyond His Svarup Sakti
"The slaying of the demons, this is a secondary thing, a byproduct of protecting the devotees. Krsna really, in a sense, only interacts with his devotees in whom he's reposed his svarup sakti which is his own sakti which as we've said is more one with him than is different from him. And when the devotees experience the ingress of this in their lives they experience a direct, if you will, interaction with Krsna.
He doesn't go outside of Himself, he doesn't go outside of his own svarup sakti, for his pleasure. That's why we say his svarup sakti is more at one with him than is different. He's still atmaram. He's still self-satisfied in taking pleasure from his devotees. Because it means, in the context of that, he's deriving pleasure from his own svarup sakti which is within him but manifests externally. For rasa, in the form of Radhika, whose hladini sakti...is shared with every devotee. Radha is like the mirror in which Krsna's form takes new shapes..."
Swami Tripurari, in a lecture titled: Q&A: Facing One's Shortcomings, and Following Spiritual Inspiration
On the Saragrahi Vaisnava
"Saragrahi is a term Bhaktivinod Thakura coined. Sara means essence. He meant an essence seeking vaisnava could find vaisnavism to whatever extent it was represented in any particular tradition and draw from it the kind of idea that Prabhupada used to speak about. He said, "One could take gold even from a filthy place. If he is intelligent he can understand that that's filth over there but that's gold there and I can take it out and leave the rest behind"...
This is when our spirituality starts to become integrated and it's no longer just in a book, in a bunch of rules. It becomes a living thing. We can learn from the trees, from the birds, from different people, from other traditions, from nonspiritual traditions, from spiritual traditions, from different Vaisnava traditions and monastic traditions and so on and so forth. This is then, the saragrahi vaisnava. You can't just jump and be that. You have to learn the books. You have to learn the rules. But this should be the long term result of that..."
From a lecture titled: "Q&A: Facing One's Shortcomings, and Following Spiritual inspiration
On Attachment to Qualities of Krsna
"These various conditions of the gopis' love in particular, which is showcased there, are described and defined. One of the conditions means madness.
So, Uddhava told Krsna what?
'I saw Radha and she was walking around laughing at nothing and then suddenly crying and rolling on the ground. And going everywhere and talking to animate and inanimate things asking about you.'
This was her condition.
You can imagine how Krsna is listening on the edge of his seat on her madness. Again, these descriptions of the gopis and inhabitants of Vrindavan in Krsna's absence is very telling. They tell us, as I sometimes say, that Krsna is more present in Vrindavan in his physical absence than he is present in his physical presence in Dwarka. Because the love for Krsna in Vrindavan exceeds that of the love in Dwarka. And there can't be Krsna without love of Krsna. The two are one and different at the same time. So wherever we see a great measure of love for Krsna, we know that God is there even though we might not be able to see Him. I often say it is easier to dismiss God than it is love of God. So the hearts of the devotees in Vrindavan,
Uddhava is describing, Radha's condition. Her heart. The idea is here that she speaks in response to her handmaidens, her sakhis, her friends who see her in this condition and say, 'Have you gone crazy? You're just laughing then falling on the ground and crying and talking to inanimate things asking them about Krsna? Conversing with them? What's happened to you?' You can imagine if your friend started acting like that, you would express some concern. So, they are tendering to her condition.
She replied like this, basically saying, 'It's the qualities of Krsna.' Something like that...And his qualities are given here... 'Sweeter than the sweet.'... His youth, his kishore, which was discussed in the last verse of Krsna Karnamrita that was cited by Rupa Goswami,.. is 'sweeter than sweetness'
...He is the father of Cupid, the source of passion and agitation in the heart. So, these are the qualities. His kishore is sweet, his romanticism is sweeter than sweet and he is the transcendental cupid. He is that which is behind the force of Cupid that is causing all of the agitation.
This is how she is thinking. These qualities and the attachment to them. You say you want to have attachment to Krsna's qualities, well, it is having a certain affect on her. There has to be some sense in which that is played out. If you have attachment to Krsna's qualities it should be changing the course of your life."
Swami Tripurari, from a lecture titled, "Sri Rupa's Teachings on Bhava-Bhakti, Part 11, Taste for the Names, Attraction To the Qualities, Love for the Dhama
On Bhakti's Charm
"The sadhu illuminates the text in such a way we could not on our own. So these two Bhagavatams together, in that company we can become strong in our bhakti. Our bhakti can become well-informed. It's logically compelling and where it fails logically it wins with its charm... It may be a stalemate from the objective point of view but we have a trump card. The charm.
Dr. Kapur told me once, one of Prabhupada's godbrothers, he told me how he joined Gaudia Math. He was a Mayavadi. So one sanyasi, a disciple of Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur, was preaching to the young Dr. Kapur and he had strong Mayavadi arguments.
He couldn't convince him. He said, 'Okay, I cannot convince you but I'll bring you to our Guru Maharaj, Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur. He can convince you."
So a meeting was arranged for Dr. Kapur to meet with Saraswai Thakur. So Dr. Kapur sat in a room and waited for him to come in. He walked in alone. He sat down and Dr. Kapur said, 'For forty minutes he spoke about the Vraja lila. He got up and walked out. He never made any argument about Mayavada, Vedanta or anything but he spoke with such feeling for the Vraja lila I was convinced this has meaning.'
This is what happened to Sukadev He has his own pleasure, his atmaram. But then he heard those lilas. That changed him.
It's charming when we talk about Krsna lila. This is the trump card of Gaudia Vaisnavasm. 'Well, logically we have a good argument, you have a good argument, but we've got the more charming one.
'Yes, well, nobody can argue with that!'
'....We'll find harmony by doing away with everybody else.' That is not a very charming idea. One note only does not make a concert. Many notes played in harmony, that is a much more charming idea than to have just one note.
So, to study the scriptural arguments, to be charmed by that, by immersion in the Bhagavatam, this will considerably cleanse the heart and give us then the nourishment, if you will, to be the tolerant person...Tolerance like a tree."
Swami Tripurari, In a lecture titled: Sri Siksastakam, Verse 3, Humility Arises from Firm Faith
On Finding a Favorable Environment and Being Tolerant in Bhakti
"To be tolerant in bhakti is to be tolerant in the context of creating a favorable situation for your bhakti. Not that you remain in an unfavorable situation and think, "I have to tolerate it." No, you also are to create a favorable environment for yourself. Find a favorable environment. Find sangha...Affectionate and like-minded.
For there are different temples, therefore, there are different sects of Gaudiya Vaisnavas. And different sentiments also. Sakhya rasa, madhurya rasa. This is not to be done away with to create one way to do everything, 'Our way is the only way", and so forth. There are many minds in the market, destinies, tastes. It's all beautiful. There should be variety. And then we will find that sangha, that association. We feel affection there and we feel it is like-minded. 'I can thrive in this.' We are said to seek this and then in the context of that tolerate whatever comes. Not that if you find yourself in an intolerable, unfavorable place for bhakti, you are then going to be able to tolerate that. We are mandated to find favorable [sangha] where we can hear katha that will nourish us. That will help us to grow and strengthen our understanding. Challenge our understanding. Not just pat us on the back and tell us we know and how we should preach to everybody else...
We should find a sangha that challenges our understanding that we have to grow and to stretch. This is a favorable environment. In a favorable environment where the tree has water and sun and can grow and stand tall and can tolerate the heat and grow in its tolerance to become compassionate. Bhaktivinod sees that the tolerance that Mahaprabhu mandates here to be such that it grows into the extending of mercy to others. Like the tree, even to cut it down it gives you shade while you do so. In the cold it gives warmth underneath it and in the heat it gives shade."
Swami Tripurari, from his lecture titled: Sri Siksastkam, verse 3: Humility Arises from Firm Faith
"What underlies the lila of Krsna, which is an expression of the very heart of divinity, where the Absolute is doing whatever it wants whenever it wants whimsically. We want to do that. We want to do whatever we want whenever we want. We are supposed to grow up and find out that's not possible. You have to be realistic and so forth.
But actually there is a way to realize that sense that we have in childhood, in youth, that we should be able to do whatever we want whenever we want. And the way to realize that is to connect our self with the one who does whatever he wants whenever he wants. To make our will one with his will.
Then we have real freedom and real power.
So among all the gods and goddesses and all conceptions of God that have been given to human society this conception of Krsna, we look we see he is depicted by mystics in their heart's eye and then manifested in art and poetry and literature and so forth. This experience of the heart of divinity has been depicted as simply playful.
At a glance you can wonder, 'How can that be the all-powerful God?'
But again, in order to play one has to have power. So all power underlies that lila of play. All jnana, all knowledge. Knowledge is a kind of power. It is said in universities, 'Knowledge will set you free.' So underlying freedom is the power of knowledge. But if freedom reaches its fullest expression-freedom, love, play, it will suppress the knowledge in such a way that it appears to be absent for the sake of that freedom. Just like, for example, in a very powerful country that has a very powerful military, the military will then be hidden. You won't see military bases everywhere. You won't see rockets being paraded in the streets and so forth, all of this power. Because it will get in the way really of the freedom of the people. They will be just a little bit intimidated by that. Better to preserve the freedom, this is just an analogy of course, to preserve the freedom, but keep it [military power] a little out of the way so we don't have to look at it all of the time. But if there is any danger that should come then it can come out.
So there are souls that live in that realm of Krsna who dwell there in their heart of hearts. Sometimes they come here. They appear here. Here there is a need for knowledge because it is a land of ignorance and doubt. So simple village girls, milk maidens, cowherd friends of Krsna, souls in that realm, in that kind of identity participating there should come here. Oh, they have so much knowledge. But there it is not required. It is suppressed by love. But it's there, it underlies that.
So, if we study carefully about Krsna, objectively, we can choose whatever we like in our spiritual pursuit, that is fine. But if we are to take the yard stick of objectivity there is good reason to lay emphasis on Krsna. Simply playing, implication is all-powerful. But you have to think about it to see it. So, Krsna is not so easy to understand. A little difficult. As I mentioned even the gods and goddesses sometimes wonder."
Swami Tripurari, In a lecture titled: Sraddha: Krsna's tu Bhagavan Svayam
On Krsna Deriving Pleasure from Devotees/Not Going Beyond His Svarup Sakti
"The slaying of the demons, this is a secondary thing, a byproduct of protecting the devotees. Krsna really, in a sense, only interacts with his devotees in whom he's reposed his svarup sakti which is his own sakti which as we've said is more one with him than is different from him. And when the devotees experience the ingress of this in their lives they experience a direct, if you will, interaction with Krsna.
He doesn't go outside of Himself, he doesn't go outside of his own svarup sakti, for his pleasure. That's why we say his svarup sakti is more at one with him than is different. He's still atmaram. He's still self-satisfied in taking pleasure from his devotees. Because it means, in the context of that, he's deriving pleasure from his own svarup sakti which is within him but manifests externally. For rasa, in the form of Radhika, whose hladini sakti...is shared with every devotee. Radha is like the mirror in which Krsna's form takes new shapes..."
Swami Tripurari, in a lecture titled: Q&A: Facing One's Shortcomings, and Following Spiritual Inspiration
On the Saragrahi Vaisnava
"Saragrahi is a term Bhaktivinod Thakura coined. Sara means essence. He meant an essence seeking vaisnava could find vaisnavism to whatever extent it was represented in any particular tradition and draw from it the kind of idea that Prabhupada used to speak about. He said, "One could take gold even from a filthy place. If he is intelligent he can understand that that's filth over there but that's gold there and I can take it out and leave the rest behind"...
This is when our spirituality starts to become integrated and it's no longer just in a book, in a bunch of rules. It becomes a living thing. We can learn from the trees, from the birds, from different people, from other traditions, from nonspiritual traditions, from spiritual traditions, from different Vaisnava traditions and monastic traditions and so on and so forth. This is then, the saragrahi vaisnava. You can't just jump and be that. You have to learn the books. You have to learn the rules. But this should be the long term result of that..."
From a lecture titled: "Q&A: Facing One's Shortcomings, and Following Spiritual inspiration
On Attachment to Qualities of Krsna
"These various conditions of the gopis' love in particular, which is showcased there, are described and defined. One of the conditions means madness.
So, Uddhava told Krsna what?
'I saw Radha and she was walking around laughing at nothing and then suddenly crying and rolling on the ground. And going everywhere and talking to animate and inanimate things asking about you.'
This was her condition.
You can imagine how Krsna is listening on the edge of his seat on her madness. Again, these descriptions of the gopis and inhabitants of Vrindavan in Krsna's absence is very telling. They tell us, as I sometimes say, that Krsna is more present in Vrindavan in his physical absence than he is present in his physical presence in Dwarka. Because the love for Krsna in Vrindavan exceeds that of the love in Dwarka. And there can't be Krsna without love of Krsna. The two are one and different at the same time. So wherever we see a great measure of love for Krsna, we know that God is there even though we might not be able to see Him. I often say it is easier to dismiss God than it is love of God. So the hearts of the devotees in Vrindavan,
Uddhava is describing, Radha's condition. Her heart. The idea is here that she speaks in response to her handmaidens, her sakhis, her friends who see her in this condition and say, 'Have you gone crazy? You're just laughing then falling on the ground and crying and talking to inanimate things asking them about Krsna? Conversing with them? What's happened to you?' You can imagine if your friend started acting like that, you would express some concern. So, they are tendering to her condition.
She replied like this, basically saying, 'It's the qualities of Krsna.' Something like that...And his qualities are given here... 'Sweeter than the sweet.'... His youth, his kishore, which was discussed in the last verse of Krsna Karnamrita that was cited by Rupa Goswami,.. is 'sweeter than sweetness'
...He is the father of Cupid, the source of passion and agitation in the heart. So, these are the qualities. His kishore is sweet, his romanticism is sweeter than sweet and he is the transcendental cupid. He is that which is behind the force of Cupid that is causing all of the agitation.
This is how she is thinking. These qualities and the attachment to them. You say you want to have attachment to Krsna's qualities, well, it is having a certain affect on her. There has to be some sense in which that is played out. If you have attachment to Krsna's qualities it should be changing the course of your life."
Swami Tripurari, from a lecture titled, "Sri Rupa's Teachings on Bhava-Bhakti, Part 11, Taste for the Names, Attraction To the Qualities, Love for the Dhama
On Bhakti's Charm
"The sadhu illuminates the text in such a way we could not on our own. So these two Bhagavatams together, in that company we can become strong in our bhakti. Our bhakti can become well-informed. It's logically compelling and where it fails logically it wins with its charm... It may be a stalemate from the objective point of view but we have a trump card. The charm.
Dr. Kapur told me once, one of Prabhupada's godbrothers, he told me how he joined Gaudia Math. He was a Mayavadi. So one sanyasi, a disciple of Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur, was preaching to the young Dr. Kapur and he had strong Mayavadi arguments.
He couldn't convince him. He said, 'Okay, I cannot convince you but I'll bring you to our Guru Maharaj, Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur. He can convince you."
So a meeting was arranged for Dr. Kapur to meet with Saraswai Thakur. So Dr. Kapur sat in a room and waited for him to come in. He walked in alone. He sat down and Dr. Kapur said, 'For forty minutes he spoke about the Vraja lila. He got up and walked out. He never made any argument about Mayavada, Vedanta or anything but he spoke with such feeling for the Vraja lila I was convinced this has meaning.'
This is what happened to Sukadev He has his own pleasure, his atmaram. But then he heard those lilas. That changed him.
It's charming when we talk about Krsna lila. This is the trump card of Gaudia Vaisnavasm. 'Well, logically we have a good argument, you have a good argument, but we've got the more charming one.
'Yes, well, nobody can argue with that!'
'....We'll find harmony by doing away with everybody else.' That is not a very charming idea. One note only does not make a concert. Many notes played in harmony, that is a much more charming idea than to have just one note.
So, to study the scriptural arguments, to be charmed by that, by immersion in the Bhagavatam, this will considerably cleanse the heart and give us then the nourishment, if you will, to be the tolerant person...Tolerance like a tree."
Swami Tripurari, In a lecture titled: Sri Siksastakam, Verse 3, Humility Arises from Firm Faith
On Finding a Favorable Environment and Being Tolerant in Bhakti
"To be tolerant in bhakti is to be tolerant in the context of creating a favorable situation for your bhakti. Not that you remain in an unfavorable situation and think, "I have to tolerate it." No, you also are to create a favorable environment for yourself. Find a favorable environment. Find sangha...Affectionate and like-minded.
For there are different temples, therefore, there are different sects of Gaudiya Vaisnavas. And different sentiments also. Sakhya rasa, madhurya rasa. This is not to be done away with to create one way to do everything, 'Our way is the only way", and so forth. There are many minds in the market, destinies, tastes. It's all beautiful. There should be variety. And then we will find that sangha, that association. We feel affection there and we feel it is like-minded. 'I can thrive in this.' We are said to seek this and then in the context of that tolerate whatever comes. Not that if you find yourself in an intolerable, unfavorable place for bhakti, you are then going to be able to tolerate that. We are mandated to find favorable [sangha] where we can hear katha that will nourish us. That will help us to grow and strengthen our understanding. Challenge our understanding. Not just pat us on the back and tell us we know and how we should preach to everybody else...
We should find a sangha that challenges our understanding that we have to grow and to stretch. This is a favorable environment. In a favorable environment where the tree has water and sun and can grow and stand tall and can tolerate the heat and grow in its tolerance to become compassionate. Bhaktivinod sees that the tolerance that Mahaprabhu mandates here to be such that it grows into the extending of mercy to others. Like the tree, even to cut it down it gives you shade while you do so. In the cold it gives warmth underneath it and in the heat it gives shade."
Swami Tripurari, from his lecture titled: Sri Siksastkam, verse 3: Humility Arises from Firm Faith
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