Converting Misconception Into Proper Conception

Here's once Guru Maharaj informed us that there's the stere... when you say Tantra, this concept that comes to people's mind, he's saying — “But in this sense this context ... Tantra meant going from unqualified to qualified or just to say converting misconception into proper conception.” And in that sense these things are all thematically connected because we could use the word [lolium] which means hankering, it's one meaning, desire is another. So, in Updeshamritam, which really Guru Maharaj says is really Mahaprabhu but speaking through Rupa Goswami, coz Rupa Goswami is highlighting the essential teachings of Mahaprabhu, we shouldn't think of them as disconnected.

So, and famous sloka there, saying what is favourable what is unfavourable — [Atyaharas санскрит] These are the things that spoil devotion [Atyahara] overeating or being overly acquisitive, acquiring more things that are necessary. Like when Bali Maharaj is offering Vamadev before he knows His full identity, he's offering Him give ... the king should give the brahman something in charity. He's saying —“Whatever you want I can give you that, maybe you need a village, maybe you want to make [Math] or something, you need a few [rye] of land or you need a village ...”

And Vamadev said —“No, three steps of land is sufficient for me.” And he thinks —“Oh, you foolish boy, doesn't understand the ways of the world and ... Three steps of land is nothing and ...” But Vamadev says —“I've heard to ask for more than you need or to get more ... that's not good for spiritual life. So, three steps will be sufficient for me. I don't want to take more than I actually need. (Laughing). Of course with these three steps He's taking everything, with two steps taking everything. And third step [atma nivedanam] taking Bali Maharaj himself. Which was the whole object, really, was to shine a spotlight on [atma nivedanam] offering oneself [diksha kale ... санскрит]

Where told — [Diksha prope] is that time when one offeres oneself to Guru. So, we can understand that's kind of a life-long pursuit. We don't say — “Oh, yes, I did that so many years ago.” We wish we did that so many years ago, we hope we did that, we're trying to do that. Sometimes when I would go in the Ukraine or Russia, people would say like — “Tell us the story how you came to Krishna Consciousness.” I said — “It didn't happened yet. It's like in process.” (Laughing) So, I'm trying to come to Krishna Consciousness, trying to move toward that plane. So, Shrila Guru Maharaj says —“Yes, that's the progressive second class position that you refer to converting misconception into proper conception.”

Because we should say that [непонятно footnote] sidebar the [Mahabhagavata] the highest level devotee, they see everything perfectly adjusted. Nothing needs to be adjusted, they don't see any misconception. Or would I find peculiarly of peculiar interest than the pastimes of Mahaprabhu. That there is [Brahma] illusion but His illusion is the [seed] so-called ordinary or finite and all is seen as representative of the extraordinary or the infinite.

When we were just in Puri we had the opportunity with Shrila Avadhut Maharaj and all the devotees to go to the [Purushatam] Gaudiya Math where Shrila Sarasvati Thakur stayed, including his final days and there're the [chatak parbat]. So, at first when we got there coz each place we go, and it's funny, I tell Maharaj, he starts saying — “Where're we gonna go?” And I said — “Remember, each stop is an hour.” And he says — “No, no you can just say little something ...” But it's never just a little something. Even when we get to [непонятно] Puri is well who's Uddhava suddenly ... and that was after [непонятно] suddenly some new significance occurred to me, that went on for some time. I mean by the grace of Guru [непонятно] So, I try and tell Maharaj —“It's not possible to visit one of this holy places briefly (Laughing)

You have to give ... it will demand your full attention. And that also reminds me when we went on Parikrama in Vrindavan and we heard that Shrila Guru Maharaj, the three places he contemplated, so-called retirement, we know he ended up at [непонятно] in Navadvip [непонятно] but first was [Uddhavkadi] in Vrindavan which is where Uddava delivers the message to Radharani and the vraja gopis from Krishna and the [Brahma] Gita is spoken with a bumblebee comes in Radharani and Her divine madness, expresses so many things. Apparently, finding fault with Krishna. So, this is good for our theme. Right.

When ... that's the highest ... highest expression is fault finding with Krishna, we can say. Finding fault with Krishna. But who found them ... who is voicing such sentiments — Shrimati Radharani. So, that Krishna says [непонятно] — Her curse that steals my mind away from reverential hymns of the Vedas, echoing that sentiment Shrila Keshava Maharaj said — “If Shridhar Maharaj curses me I take it as Veda, like a blessing” (Laughing) So, anyway, when we were there we went to [Uddavkari] Shrila Avadhut Maharaj, myself and a group of Russian devotees but it was very hard to find ... had been neglected for so long, there were no markers. And only some old men the village knew — “Oh! they come out —“That's in that direction.”

And when we got there suddenly these cowherd men appeared with the big turbans and ... I don't know where they came from, I'm not sure. But they came and they said — “This place was so great many years ago we saw festivals in our childhood ...” They were lamenting that time had gone, now was neglected and ... — “If you will again ...” you know. So, we were moved by that notion but at any rate in Puri Mahaprabhu in remembrance of Vrindavan when He's seeing the sun dune, He's telling — “[санскрит chatak Govardhan] [Chatak непонятно] He's calling Govardhan. So, when we went there, someone said — “This is Govardhan? ” And I was thinking — “How? ...”

And then I went — “Oh, [Chatak Parvat] Mahabrabhu when He sees the sun dune, His [Brahm] His illusion is to see that as Govardhan. When He sees the ocean, His illusion is to see that ocean as Jamuna. So, not only as He's seeing everything like the [Mahat Bagavat] perfectly adjusted but rather whatever He sees, however finite, He's tracing it back to the central conception of the infinite. And that would be the plane from which everything is judged: favourable or unfavourable; desirable — undesirable. We're told that plane ... how can you take one step in that soil, the Guru soil, the Guru world, if not out of service necessity.

We're told the other day — To step over someone that is an offense [coz of the present] Atma, Paramatma. But ... when in Puri, when Mahaprabhu is going for the darshan of Jagannath, we're told one lady, she's so excited, genuinely excited, spiritually. Her heart leaps up. And she's running and she wants to see Jagannath and Mahaprabhu is so tall, she automatically thinks — “Well, from him you can see very well.” And she climbs up on Mahaprabhu. She's using Mahaprabhu to see Jagannath. Right. She climbed up Mahaprabhu, He's over two meters tall.

And His servitor, Govinda, is ready to drag that lady, like — “You don't know what offence you've done.” And Mahaprabhu turns to him and says —“I wish I had such eagerness. But she's got, I want a drop of that. So, from one perspective — this is offensive, it's very offensive, you'll go to hell for such a thing, but Mahaprabhu, Himself, He says —“Oh, but she's got that's what I want, that's what we want.” So, what is the movement? Is it the foot movement, where the foot landed, what is it? What's inside, what's in a heart! So, Rupa Goswami says — [санскрит anya vilashi tushuniyam ...] “It's all about motive, what is the motive for movement, whether something is divine or mundane.”

So, still we're told for progressive position, is the intermediate position, progressive devotion is inactive from the intermediate plane, vision of [непонятно]. Guru Maharaj also pointed out in Gaudiya Math, he said —“Controversy was kept from the neophyte section. Right. Because they will be unable to handle that [lagu]” Guru means “heavy”, heavier than the Hymalayas. [Lagu] means light — light as a feather. So, we see what is the cliché, stereotype, light as a feather, [непонятно] comes in — “Lift the feathers up [непонятно] around and then [непонятно] Another [непонятно] comes —“Lift the feathers up, drops it in another place.

The plate of the neophyte, hearing one thing, that makes sense and going [in there] hearing another plate — the opposite, going in an... that makes sense going that plane. Confusion. Unable to discriminate between higher/ lower, desirable / undesirable, genuine devotion / faint devotion, counterfeit devotion. What is condemned, cannot understand. What is in their own interest? So, [lagu] has to connect to Guru, why Guru is heavier than Hymalaya is when I heard that ... remember in Bhagavad Gita, first reading and hearing and when it came to ... Krishna saying —“Of this I am this, of that I'm that.” So, I felt, when it comes to mountains I bet He's gonna say — “And of mountains I am mount Everest ...” So, here it comes, He says — “Of mountains I am Sumeru.”

Ok, what's Sumeru? (Laughing) Not knowing what Sumeru is at the time, still not really knowing. But then He said —“Of immovable objects I'm the Himalayas.” You know. Hmm... that's interesting ... what is that ... why is that important? “Of what cannot be moved I'm the Himalayas.” What is Guru Maharaj saying —“Guru is heavier then the Himalayas.” Coz [санскрит mahat gurum ...] When we're indicated to go to Guru what is ... [санскрит] totally so much sheltered in the spiritual conception cannot be moved by any of this conception. Right. That personality.

Sometimes Guru Maharaj would say this [shika] right, will be, he says —“Take the [shika] and tie, the [lagu] disciples shall tie [shika] to the lotus feet of Guru. ” So, when the winds of misconception come, meaning [toss] this way and that way, still being tied to the lotus feet of Gurudev will survive the onslaught of misconception. So, and just to continue the conceit that [Guru Karna Dar ...] the captain of the boat, human form of life being the boat. Right. The ... Guru being the captain and the winds are Veda, Krishna coming the favour... how to negotiate those winds, is how to fly ... sail the boat properly.

What was when ... I saw the other day, when you ... go into the wind, what is it called? Nautical term, where they decide at some point to turn the boat and [tack] what is it called? [Tack] So, sometimes what appears to be counter-intuitive. Guru will know that, what is favourable, what is unfavourable. [Lagu] needs to be in connection with Guru, the disciple needs to be in connection with Guru, to properly navigate. To understand what is the [непонятно] of the scriptures.

I remember once in ... town called Donetsk, is that a town, in Ukraine. Where there initiated one lady on behalf of Shrila Gurudev and ... she wanted to know what should be her morning sadhana. So, I said —“Well, what are you doing now?” And she said — “I chant the Narayan kavacha.” (Laughing) And I said —“Really? Why did you do that?” And she said —“Oh, Shrila Prabhupad in his book, he's saying how important this is and if you'll do this every day so many amazing things will happen.” (Laughing) And I said —“Oh, yeah, the Narayan kavacha, sixth canto of Shrimad Bhagavatam, yeah ... ” Interestingly, in his lifetime one of his disciple started doing that, they read there —“And one who this Narayana kavacha, this is the supreme ... And one who will do this, they'll ...” And so, they started doing it. When Praphupad heard about it, he said —“Why are you doing this, I never told you to do this.” —“No, in your [непонятно] says how important ...

(Laughing) he said —“You stop this!” So, what really how to proceed we need to get guidance, [so that] superior vaishnav, [Guru achi noti yasha ... санскрит] — who can extract the inner meaning of the scripture. So that will understand the same thing that is unfavourable in one circumstance is favourable in another. So, your original question is about attachment, first question. So, I'm reminded of whom we know affectionately as Malta Malini or god sister from Malta.

When she was leaving Calcutta once, like she's leaving the next day, but the day before at the [Dam dam park math] where's Radha Gov ... [Guru Gauranga Radha ...санскрит] She saw one cat and thought to be affectionate to the cat and there's a little footnote — Cats and dogs and [any] they do not occupy the same position they might in other countries, they're not allowed to [непонятно] in India, you can say (Laughing). So, she's ... so, cats are suspicious of people, they don't come if you call them, they shrink away. But she thought — “Oh, maybe the cat doesn't understand my affectionate nature. No, here kitty ...” And she went like and she thought — “Oh, I'll just grab the cat and like pet and the cat will understand I'm friend.”

Said the cat bit her with the teeth into her arm like heavily. So that she had to get a rabies shot or [непонятно] you know, anyone who knows that's very painful. And so she ... it's the day before she's leaving, right. And the next time she goes to see Gurudev to say goodbye, her arm(Laughing's all wrapped up in bandage, you know, (Laughing) And she comes before him to get some parting words and Gurudev says —“Do not be attached to much to any person, place or thing or animal in this world.” And she sort of smiling and blushing but when he said this list in the end he said — “Or any human being!” (Laughing)

So, there's that how we ... conventionally understand what is attachment. And even we could say in the case of human beings, very often, if not most often, if not all the time — whom we're attached to, we're projecting something onto another person. We're so deeply attached to a person, place or thing but where's the attach is not in them, the attachment is in us. It's some conceptual thing. They symbolically represent something to us that we feel we cannot break that or will somehow undone, be unsafe, full of anxiety, have a meaningless life. Whatever it might be.

But really the seed is within us. So, oh, this reminds me as well when we're making golden volcano, Shrila Guru Maharaj said ... first he kept saying —“Golden volcano — divine lava.” And then he would say — “Is lava love?” Like that. Is lava love? And then he would go on describing a little more —“Golden volcano — divine lava. Is lava love?” And so, he asked me, he said —“Are there any connections between the word love and lava?” So, this is pre-internet, pre-digital, when there were these things called libraries. You probably read about them on Wikipedia. (Laughing)

And so, we lived next to major university with a pretty large library. So, I went there and I thought —“I'm going to consult, they call OED” — the Oxford English Dictionary, it's huge, like each giant book volume for a letter, like A, B. So, I thought — “I'll look up love”, coz I couldn't find any connection with that in lava. So, I find in the book L, love. And this book you read with a magnifying glass, the type is very small. Up and down the page. And at last it said, Sanskrit, from the Sanskrit — lobha [lubiyati] Which means — desire like ... passionate desire.

Like ... we know if you associate with Americans for any particular length of time, you're likely to hear them say soothing like — I love pizza. Right. So, I can say — Is that love? Pizza love, is that love or we're back to hankering, mundane hankering, desire to consume something. When it's pizza we can smile and laugh about it, when it's another person, it's not so funny. If you're the one being consumed or devoured like somebody's lust or desire in the name of love, right, an attachment. They're so attached to this consuming tendency. That Guru Maharaj says is identified in the pages of the Bhavatam as — [hridrogam] right, heart disease.

As he told that man ... —“What is the root cause of suffering, what is this heart disease? This — I want! Thinking if I can acquire something and devour that, consume that. We're called consumers, right. All over the world, you know consumer protection. We're consumers. If I can consume something I'll find happiness and satisfaction and fulfillment. And it's really on the basis of remembering the very high sloka — [санскрит vekreditam braja ...]

So, it's so extraordinary that in this practical dealing in situation that Guru Maharaj would recall this sloka from the Rasa Lila section but used it in practical application by saying — “When and [factoring] in reincarnation, saying — When I was in the body of an elephant I devoured jungles.” Like the other day Paramananda Prabhu and I saw it's one ... we one it's one of the attractions of Chiang Mai. Is this the natural habitat of elephants? They actually lived here before and they still live here. And we saw them. They're just a mother and a calf, you know, eating their daily 80 kilos of ... you know, jungle or forest. So, he's saying —“When I was in the body of an elephant I ate the jungle and that hunger wasn't satisfied. And when I was in the body of a stool-eating pig, I ate a hill of stool and was not satisfied.”

And interestingly when Guru Maharaj [непонятно] smelt like that, the man started to cry coz he was a little embarrassed by what he said before that like — “What is the benefit of establishing so place? It's just talking about Krishna. Why don't we help people?” And Guru Maharaj said —“You'll not help from that way. Only by re-... purposing attachment will you help them.” Right. So, the man started to cry and he said —“Swamiji, I believe in God.” And Guru Maharaj said —“Your eyes are the evidence of that.” So, in one place we're told that [непонятно lolium] that [непонятно] that heart disease, that mundane attachment to person's places, things of this world.

That will be an obstruction on the pass of progressive devotion. Then in this counter sloka Krishna Bhakti rasa [санскрит] — Here, no he's saying lolium is good. He just said lolium is what will spoil devotion, attachment, this type of mundane ... Now, suddenly, there’re some other type of lolium, that's the real thing. And if you've got that, that's your ticket. That's the purchase price of Krishna Consciousness. So, then it means, ultimately desire, hankering attachment all these things, they are not bad, it's ... toward whom ... and where is that ... located. Right.

Deep in the heart's core? Right. (clearing throat) He's saying — [janmakoti санскрит] — You won't get this type of hankering ... ten million births of doing the right thing. That's amazing! Ten million lifetimes of doing the right thing won't give you this. Where will you get the ... what's required this lolium, this hankering, ashakti otherwise described Rupa Goswami — shradha — faith will lead you to devotees, sadhu sanga — you'll associate with them. In their association sadhu sanga [санскрит] — you'll improve your hankering will improve. It will shift

[санскрит] you can start hankering for real, substantial things. Just as you can here, [санскрит] what do they say [санскрит] as deep, sensual an experience can be in a mandane sense can be even deeper, more intense, greater intensity in magnitude in the spiritual experience . But where will that be waken? [baktya ... санскрит] in the association with those who have that [those] ones that lolium can also be described as hankering, as Guru Maharaj would say —“Earn a sincere hankering!” Not curiosity, should not confuse being curious about something but genuine hankering for a connection with it, substantially.

So, that devotee Shamananda Prabhu, he said to us, then ... he said —“How do you get this hunger?” That was the word being used. And Guru Maharaj said — “Associate with the hungry.” (Laughing) And we know like from being with Shrila Gurudev sometimes Vaishnav Maharaj [Shrida Shrava Prabhu] would point this out —“Even if we've just taken in a feast if Gurudev started describing prasadam, different preparations, he described them in such a way that he'll waken your appetite again. Even if you've just eaten all of suddenly you're ... this ... he stimulated your appetite.” And that's what we're told that will happen in association with those who have some genuine hunger and appetite for Krishna Consciousness.

If you can't follow with their saying, serve them. Right. And what's in them will be transferred to you like an infectious disease but in a good way. That's why they say something —“Don't ... you know ... you ... make sure you clean the glasses and sterilize everything.” And we're saying the opposite of that. If someone's infected with Krishna Consciousness take their [remnants] and you'll be infected too and that's a good thing. [And] serve them and what's in their heart which is not only the love and affection but the ... hunger, hankering, attachment. If you will attachment to Krishna, to devotion, to devotees. That would be awakened in your own heart. Sadhu sanga bhadjana kriya. Under their direction they tell you what to do, how to make your approach.

Anartha nivriti — misconception is gradually being converted into proper conception artha — means, in this sense, meaning. Anartha — the wrong idea, the misconception. Anartha nivriti — that's changing ... what we misconceive in the beginning is now shifting and, and, and moving towards proper conception. [Nishtha] or ... yeah, nishtha. So, what was the laghu light on the superficial soil like the little plants in the nursery. They can't be put in outside soil yet until they get some roots. When become deeply rooted then they can be transplanted to different environments and survive not only survive but srive. Right.

So, the progressive [mudiam adi kari] devotee by converting misconception to proper conception repeatedly and in many varieties of ways, they get some strength, right, and some insight. And some confidence to proceed nishtha [ruchi] Then what was previously been done out of obligation, the order of Guru, sometimes even painfully tapas. Right. Voluntarily inconveniencing oneself for the sake of spiritual realization. Now, there's some actual taste for those things. [For instance] likes to hear about Krishna ... [nologane санскрит] likes, has some taste ... for the Holy name.

[Ruchi] then what? Ashakti. That's attachment. So, now the good ... now being attached to ... right things, to spiritual things, to spiritual association. We tra ... it's alright to transfer attachment to devotees, substantial devotees. We want their association, we want to be in their association, we hanker for their association. Bhav, the bhav [непонятно] at this poin the bhakti lata bij has sprouted, blossomed and is flowering, yielding a sweet fragrance that Krishna finds pleasing.

Krishna actually is attracted to the devotion that's in the heart of that devotee. And that intensifies the bhav put as the fruit prem, like that. Attached to seva.[ Dharuka] Hare Krishna!