How the ability to forgive is connected with the sweetness of the holy name

Transcript

0:01The best place in the universe

Well then, dear friends, today is our Sunday program, the second part. Thank you all so much for coming here today to spend your time in this wonderful company. But time is like money: it isn’t spent just like that. A person can either waste money or invest it in something valuable. I think that of all the places there are—not only in this city, not only in this country, but in the whole universe—this is the very best place one could be today, at this time.

1:07Because the most wonderful company of Vaishnavas, devotees, servants of the Lord, who are like desire trees, can fulfill everyone’s desire. Why? Because they are full of compassion for everyone, for all conditioned fallen souls without exception. This is the only way to destroy all suffering—to be constantly in the company of devotees. We should understand that real spiritual life means the company of good, genuine devotees. One could say that a devotee is someone who has Vaishnava clothes, tilaka, a shikha, for example.

2:13Tolerance means forgiveness

But our acharyas teach that even in the company of devotees one has to be selective: to associate and receive association—above all to receive the association and mercy of those devotees who are very serious on the spiritual path and who show the qualities described in the verse titikshavah karunikah suhridah.

They are adorned with qualities such as tolerance. Tolerance above all. Tolerance means forgiveness. This is a skill we badly lack. We need to cultivate it constantly, otherwise we can forget about spiritual realizations. If we don’t learn to forgive, the people around us will simply keep biting us. That goes for mosquitoes, for dogs—dogs will bark more than bite, although sometimes they will nip too—but above all for people, isn’t that so? People bite very hard. And we are people too, and we bite too. The ups and downs of fate sting deeply. We can protect ourselves from the ups and downs of fate once we admit, at least in theory, that we have to learn to forgive, to master this skill. Otherwise we won’t be able to chant the holy name.

4:00Or rather, we will chant it, but not for long: a year or two, well, a lifetime or two, no more. Because the mere fact of chanting the Hare Krishna maha-mantra does not yet solve all problems. Fanatical, sectarian thinking simply doesn’t work here: “Because I have believed, all my problems will be solved just because I chant the Hare Krishna mantra”—or the Jesus Prayer, for example. No, no. So said the founder of this movement Himself, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. If anyone had such faith in the holy name, such realization of Krishna’s holy name, it was Mahaprabhu! And His closest associates, such as Rupa Gosvami, composed the most beautiful poetry glorifying the holy name.

4:44The holy name dances on the lips

How sweet it is, O Lord! Rupa Gosvami writes—superbly, just amazingly.

“I want to have thousands of ears”—because it is so sweet, so sweet. Karnarbudebhyah spriham: spriha means desire. Tunde tandavini: tunde literally means “lips,” “mouth,” and tandavini means that the holy name dances in the mouth. It really dances in the mouth—showing various mudras, dance gestures with the fingers. Actually, the very center of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s meditation is the rasa-lila. Rasa-lila means the dance, the rasa dance. And the holy name dances, dances on the lips.

5:55Rati is the most powerful emotional component of love. Love divides into two categories, two components. One of them is activity: I take something and do something. Usually, on our level, that is exactly how love shows itself—through activity. We want to evoke, to awaken emotion: we worship the Deities, chant the holy name, serve the Vaishnavas—this is how we want to awaken rati. Rati means loving feeling, the most powerful emotions, deep, heartfelt, sweet emotions: happiness, fulfillment. And this rati expands and intensifies when the holy name dances on the lips: tunde tandavini ratim vitanute. “That is why I want to have millions and millions of mouths.”

7:01Because it happens so sweetly, this process is so sweet! Karna-kroda-kadambini: karna means “ears.” When the holy name enters the ears... It dances on our lips, it enters the ears: “I want to have millions, millions of ears, millions of ears.” I want to hear “Krishna, Krishna, Krishna”—simply to hear “Krishna.” Well, here we are, hearing “Krishna”...

7:46Then another verse applies to us: tad ashma-saram hridayam batedam.

If a person chants the holy name very attentively, with concentration, and yet the ecstatic emotions Rupa Gosvami describes do not arise in him, it means his heart is shackled in iron. A heart of stone, shackled in iron: “Krishna, Krishna... So what?”

8:06Forgiving those who don’t deserve forgiveness

So the process of removing these shackles, this iron, of polishing the heart free of its iron coating, is the process of trinad api sunichena. It is forgiveness above all. When we say “tolerance,” we mean forgiveness. First of all we need to understand this principle. When we say “tolerance,” it doesn’t mean someone is cutting off our leg and we endure it—that is not what we’re talking about. To tolerate means to forgive. And this is something to practice every day and every hour. And to forgive means to forgive those who, from our point of view, don’t deserve forgiveness. Forgiving doesn’t mean forgiving only those who deserve it.

8:48Vancha-kalpatarubhyash cha kripa-sindhubhya eva cha, patitanam pavanebhyo vaishnavebhyo namo namah. Patita means “a fallen person.” Vaishnavas are those who save fallen people. They don’t save saints. It is Krishna who comes into this world to please the saints; with Him it’s a different conversation: paritranaya sadhunam vinashaya cha dushkritam—“To give mercy to the sadhus, that is, to saintly people, and to destroy the wicked, I come into this world.” Krishna has His own special mood. But Mahaprabhu, and we as His followers, have a different mood. So we need to learn to forgive those who don’t deserve forgiveness, who don’t deserve our forgiveness.

9:57They might be relatives, they might be friends, bosses, subordinates, they might be any living beings of any nationality. We have to learn to forgive in the heart. Above all this is a culture of harmony. And a person who practices this, who is simply trying... Someone who has learned to forgive—or rather, someone who is working in this direction—has set himself a priority. Not “I’ll increase the number of rounds I chant,” for example, or “I’ll spend more time in the temple.” Yes, that is good when you understand the essence. It is good if you understand the essence. But if you want to use it to pump up your pride—that is not at all ruled out. You can simply use external religious activity to pump up your pride even more and hate the unbelievers. Atmavat manyate jagat—everyone judges the universe by himself: the external world, other people.

11:01That is why the practice of forgiveness is a very serious practice: trinad api sunichena taror api sahishnuna, amanina manadena kirtaniyah sada harih. Everyone should know this verse and think about it constantly, constantly. In any life situation, under any circumstances, we need to remember this verse.

11:21To be more tolerant than a tree, humbler than a blade of grass, to show respect to everyone, not to expect respect for oneself. But we always think this is some external act. No. The external is good too: there is etiquette, there are rules—how to show respect to whom, how to deal with whom. Yes. But humility shows itself in the heart’s very intense work, in a heroic effort of the heart—daily, hourly, every minute, every second, on the level of mind, speech and body. A person keeps trying. And what then? Kirtaniyah sada harih. Yes, the holy name reveals Himself. And this tunde tandavini awakens fully. That is, the dance of the Lord in the form of the holy name is felt. And then no arguments are needed, no logic is needed. There’s no need to prove where Mahaprabhu’s appearance was predicted and where it wasn’t, whether there are corrections in Srila Prabhupada’s books or not, in which language these scriptures should be heard, and all the rest. There are no questions at all. Simply, when the holy name manifests by itself, there are no questions. A person drowns in sweetness.

12:52Here is Rupa Gosvami: chetah-prangana-sangini vijayate. Vijayate means “conquers.” Chetah-prangana-sangini vijayate—it conquers the consciousness, sarvendriyanam kritim—the activity of all the senses. The sweetness of the holy name is simply so powerful that, dancing on our lips, entering our ears and reaching consciousness itself—chetah-prangana—when it reaches consciousness itself, it conquers the activity of all the senses. The senses cannot act; they lose their ability to act. The senses lose the capacity for action.

14:00No jane janita kiyadbhir amritaih. No jane—Rupa Gosvami says, “I don’t know.” I simply don’t know how much of this amrita, this sweetness, how much nectar there is here—krishneti varna-dvayi, in these two syllables: “Krish-na.” I don’t know how much sweetness is in these two syllables—“Krishna.” This is real spiritual life. Everything else has no significance at all; everything else is just dust. Time will destroy absolutely everything, completely. Time will destroy everything: our hypocrisy, all our false dreams, all our statuses—spiritual and not spiritual. But a person who truly aspires, who is sincere—as the acharyas such as Srila Prabhupada teach—must certainly come to this. He must certainly come to this. We certainly need to come to this. And this is called...

15:28The transcendental madness of Haridasa Thakura

Kirtaniyah sada harih. Then a person cannot help chanting. And how could one not chant? When Haridasa Thakura heard this glorification of the holy name in the company of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, in the company of His other associates—when the Thakura simply heard this verse, he began... And outwardly he was like this, exactly like this he was outwardly. Because not all of Mahaprabhu’s followers and associates were like that outwardly. There were others who were self-willed outwardly. Inwardly all of them were humble; everyone’s character was different, but Haridasa was always very humble outwardly as well. In general he was, well... But when he heard this verse glorifying the holy name, he simply began to roar like a lion and to dance. He simply lost control of himself, completely lost control of himself. This is called transcendental madness. Each of us has to go mad—that is our program in Krishna consciousness. It really works, it’s a fact. Otherwise what is the point of living? For what? For happiness? And what could be more beautiful than the happiness of love for Krishna?

16:56And for whom else? Aham sarvasya prabhavo—Krishna says: “I am the cause of everything material and spiritual; it is I, the prabhava.” Naturally, if a person develops love for Krishna, he will... This is the natural fruit of titiksha. So we have analyzed just one word. The next is karunika. Naturally, such a person, who constantly works on forgiveness, on titiksha, will be karunika—kind and merciful. He will suffer because others suffer and rejoice because others rejoice—truly rejoice. Because joy, like everything else, exists in the three modes. Krishna explains this in the eighteenth chapter: there is counterfeit happiness—in ignorance, in passion—and there is happiness in goodness. Real happiness, this sense of fulfillment, can exist only in goodness.

17:57Why the holy name “doesn’t work”

And of course, when there is an opportunity to associate with such devotees, titikshavah karunikah, you have to drop everything else and seek only sadhu-sanga—to strive for this association greedily, passionately. Rupa Gosvami says that everything else is nonsense; this is the only thing that can save us. The holy name by itself won’t help us. Why? Because in our case it, well, doesn’t dance on the tongue—how can I put it, basically. The holy name itself is absolutely pure—it is Krishna Himself. Nama and nami, that is, Krishna’s holy name and Krishna Himself, are not different from each other. But the problem is that there is this verse in the Bhagavatam: bhakti-yogo bahu-vidho.

Bhakti-yoga comes in many different varieties—bahu-vidha. Here Kapila is addressing His mother, Devahuti. Bhakti-yoga comes in many varieties. Svabhava-guna-margena—everything depends on who practices it. Bhakti-yoga is pure, but everything depends on who practices it. And depending on who practices it, this pure bhakti-yoga divides into many different varieties. Bahu-vidha means “many varieties.”

19:48In other words, the power of the holy name by itself is definitely quite enough to destroy all our suffering. But the mode we live in, our character, our contamination by lower qualities prevent us from grasping the mercy of the holy name, and because of that it doesn’t work. Sort of... It’s you who isn’t working! You think it isn’t working—but it’s you who isn’t working. You think it isn’t working, but in reality it’s you who isn’t working—above all, on forgiveness. Titiksha—humility, forgiveness, tolerance, whatever you call it. People who sincerely try to stand on this path and walk along it are the ones we must seek out in every way, seeking association with such people: titikshavah karunikah suhridah sarva-dehinam—they are friendly toward all living beings.

20:53How Mahaprabhu said goodbye to His devotees

We read, we read about Mahaprabhu—how much sweetness there is in this book, O Lord! These days, on Thursdays, we are reading with the devotees some verses from the fifteenth chapter of the Madhya-lila—it just happened spontaneously somehow. And it’s an amazing chapter: in it Chaitanya Mahaprabhu says goodbye to the devotees from Bengal. They spent four months together during chaturmasya—chaturmasya lasts four months, and all that time they were together. And now they are in Jagannatha Puri, on the shore of the ocean, near the temple of Lord Jagannatha, and they are saying goodbye. Here it is described how Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu takes leave of each one. And whatever verse you take—pure sweetness.

22:17How interestingly He speaks, for example, to Srivasa Thakura: “Every time kirtans take place in your home, in Bengal, I will always dance at those kirtans, and no one but you will see it.” Can you imagine? Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu gives such a sweet blessing: “No one will see it but you.” To Shivananda Sena He says: “Please organize the pilgrimage to Puri every time—come here every year.”

22:58With each devotee there is an individual relationship. He instructs them. Of course, if we follow the instructions of Rupa, Sanatana and Srila Prabhupada, these individual relationships will develop in us too. First of all, we will come to know who He is. He will stop being a hero for us. Because, as a rule, we relate to Krishna, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, other great devotees or incarnations of the Lord, you know, the way we relate to the heroes of Pushkin or Tolstoy: there they are in the novels, and our perception is kind of... bookish, romantic, I don’t know how to put it—the perception of something nice. Of course.

23:42But in reality Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Krishna—precisely in the form of the holy name... They don’t owe us anything, but ideally the process works in such a way that the Lord reveals Himself. And we perceive Him not intellectually, not as yet another hero from some novel. No, we realize: here He is. Not even “here He is”—we feel, we feel, we sense Him. That is how it should be: it is precisely the world of our perceptions that should change, our sensory experience; that is, the senses themselves should change. Ideally, that is how it should work.

24:27Stagnation in practice: time to sound the alarm

One more big problem. It especially concerns those who have already practiced, so to speak, for five, ten, fifteen years. We need to analyze our state now and, say, ten years ago: how much has this very sense of the Lord’s presence changed, and in which direction—for better or for worse? Ideally, ideally, with every year, as time goes on, meditation should become more focused, and the sense of the Lord should become sweeter and more abundant. Because that is the only difference between a beginner on the path of bhakti-yoga and an advanced Vaishnava—a kanishtha-, madhyama- or uttama-adhikari: in focus and in time, in duration. I think it’s all very simple here.

25:31That is, something bubbled up for someone at a festival—for a few hours or a few days—or a person went on pilgrimage to India, especially when people go for the first time, they have lots of, well, sort of spiritual emotions. That’s good. But then the person goes back to the daily grind: “I don’t want to, I don’t want to, I can’t, I can’t”—all these words, “I don’t like it.” We need to analyze the last ten years, well, depending on the person. If there’s no growth, it means you have to switch on the alarm. That’s it, you have to switch on the alarm: take a bell and ring it in your own heart. There should be no Brezhnev-style stagnation in a person’s yoga. What does Brezhnev have to do with it? Seriously, there should be no stagnation, definitely.

26:39And if it is happening—and I do see such people around me—well, then what: drink, eat prasadam, and that’s it, and whatever will be will be. Watch, keep watching your YouTube with your news, keep watching, go around, eat your so-called... Well, in short, keep convincing yourself that you are, how shall I put it, a Vaishnava. If you don’t see any sadhus around you—I don’t know. Sadhus exist, they are there, you have to recognize them. It’s just not like this: you came to a sadhu and asked your questions.

27:23Tad viddhi pranipatena pariprashnena sevaya: one has to serve, to inquire, to serve humbly—all of this is a whole science. In truth only a sadhu, only a sadhu can save a person who is either stagnating or... We are all beginning devotees, but only a sadhu, only a sadhu’s mercy. If we can’t cope by ourselves, then only a sadhu. Well, what do I mean, “by ourselves”? In principle we can’t cope with anything by ourselves. We can’t even digest our food by ourselves. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is such a personality—a sannyasi—and how He interacted with His devotees! But I never got to begin that topic, unfortunately. That was a little introduction. What can we do—we have ten minutes left. Perhaps there are some questions or additions? Hare Krishna.

28:27Can you punish someone you have forgiven?

QuestionIf we follow the principle of forgiveness, what about a robber who breaks into the house? Can you punish him if you have forgiven him?

29:11Thank you, a good question. Let me repeat it in case not everyone heard. The idea is this: if we are talking about the principles of forgiveness, then why, for example, can a robber who has broken into the house be punished by force? How can you punish once you have forgiven? If you have forgiven, that seems to rule out punishment. But let’s try to understand that the instructions we receive from the shastras are something we digest to a certain degree and understand to a certain degree—on our own level.

29:56As for punishment: danda is a Sanskrit word that literally means “stick,” and so it means punishment. It was always the custom that the one who punishes, the one who fights—the Mahabharata, among others, describes this very vividly, and the Bhagavatam contains it too—a perfect personality did it without attachment, without bringing in his own “I like it, I don’t like it,” “ours, not ours,” “I want, I don’t want,” but exclusively on the platform of sacred duty. Such, for example, is the punishment a king carries out when he executes a murderer. A murderer must be executed, says the Manu-samhita; a murderer must be executed. And in particular, at the end of the First Canto of the Srimad-Bhagavatam, where it speaks about Maharaja Parikshit, it says several times that this is the king’s foremost duty. In general, this is one of the most important duties of a ruler—let’s put it that way, of a ruler: to punish the unrighteous, to punish people guilty of breaking religious laws. Punishment is one of his foremost duties. And here it is important to feel the difference between duty and my emotional involvement. Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gita:

31:48“You will never bring sin upon yourself, Arjuna, if you fight in this mood.” Here He says specifically in what mood one should fight. Sukha-duhkhe same kritva—make happiness and unhappiness the same for yourself. Labhalabhau—whether you gain something or lose it. Jayajayau—whether you win or lose. You must give up these attachments. The Gita speaks about this—it is the very beginning of spiritual life. That is why studying the Bhagavad-gita is so highly recommended. I strongly recommend studying it very carefully, not just superficially: “I’ve read it.” There’s no such thing as “I’ve read the Bhagavad-gita.” “How many times have you read the Bhagavad-gita?”—there is no such question. Error! That’s it, the computer throws an error: invalid question. It is impossible to “read it so many times.” These are Krishna’s words—they must be studied, every syllable, every syllable.

32:30It’s better to learn one Bhagavad-gita in this one lifetime—at least to learn it very thoroughly, at least on the intellectual level—and if you try to apply it all in practice, the result will be perfect. Because the Bhagavad-gita teaches detachment from the fruits; it is precisely the Bhagavad-gita that teaches what life on the platform of duty is. But for us, people of Kali-yuga, it is practically impossible to understand. We are told: you must act without attachment to the fruits, on the platform of duty. Well, yes, it sounds beautiful.

33:11So when it comes to... even if, as in your example, a robber enters the house—a person makes a decision. A perfect person makes the decision on the platform of duty, not simply on the platform of his emotions. Because our trouble—you can just take this and write it down for all eternity—is that very often we make decisions on the platform of emotions. Emotions on—reason off. Because when emotion switches on, it clouds the intelligence, and the intelligence switches off. And we don’t know how to use someone else’s reason, that is, someone else’s good sense, someone else’s intelligence; we don’t know how to turn to it. We think: “How can this be? That’s it, I’ve been hurt, I’ve been hurt! None of you understand me, you don’t understand me!” That is, the person has choked on his own emotions. He’s done for: that’s it, he’s dead, you can light a candle for him.

34:36QuestionIs there anything in the shastras that cannot be forgiven?

No.

QuestionAnd what is the best age to begin the practice?

34:59Zero. No—minus nine! Minus nine months, if the parents performed the garbhadhana-samskara, if the person was born, that is, conceived, in a family of devotees.

35:25Here is your homework: we open it up, read the second chapter and find these words. Anything else? Please.

35:47Why Arjuna did not take revenge

QuestionArjuna had a son, and that son was killed. Why did Arjuna vow to kill the killer?

36:32And what do you think: when Draupadi was being stripped in front of everyone, didn’t they want to tear the offender’s head off? Considering that they could have done it. It’s not like, you know, how we now keep barking at a certain ruler of a neighboring state but can’t do anything—each of us subjectively. They could have just wrung his neck in an instant. Bhima could have torn his head off right away. But why didn’t he do it? A very good question. Even when they vow revenge, they do it within the framework of kshatriya dharma, which permits all this. Emotions are involved there too. But look at Arjuna, at the very first chapter of the Gita. Look—perfection of conduct!

37:17Usually this is counted against him as weakness: he stood there and, so to speak, went to pieces: “How can I... sankhye dronam cha madhusudana—how can I shoot at Bhishma and Drona, who are so dear to me?” He was suffering. And both the end of the first chapter and the beginning of the second show that there was compassion in his heart. He had long since forgiven everyone and worried about only one thing: what is my dharma, what is my duty? That is why he said, in this key verse: karpanya-doshopahata-svabhavah—“I don’t understand what my dharma is, Krishna.” He didn’t want to kill them; he had long since forgiven them, all the sons of Dhritarashtra. As it says there: pramukhe dhartarashtrah—“the sons of Dhritarashtra stand before me.” He had forgiven everyone, you understand? But once he had forgiven, Krishna awakened in him the spirit of a kshatriya—not on the platform of revenge, but on the platform of service to Krishna.

38:44Krishna set out the whole beautiful philosophy of the Bhagavad-gita, and in the end, with Arjuna standing there, He said to him: “That’s it, now do as you see fit.” This is the most powerful moment, I adore this moment: in it everything that goes on between Krishna and Arjuna is revealed. He told him: “I have spoken the Bhagavad-gita to you—this whole sixteenth chapter, the fifteenth, the thirteenth, all of it: that Ishvara is in everyone’s heart, all three modes, the demoniac natures, all of it.” And Arjuna stands there—and still doesn’t understand what his duty is. He stands there just blinking, unable to understand, bewildered. There is a pause. He stands there and can do nothing. Krishna told him: “Do as you see fit.” Do you understand? It’s understandable: Arjuna had understood nothing. I say this right here in front of the Deities.

39:48And then Krishna, out of deep compassion and love for Arjuna, says to him: “All right, I will tell you once more.” And He said: sarva-dharman parityajya—“Give it all up, all dharmas. Just surrender to Me.”

It’s all simple: “I am asking you.” Not all that about “Ishvara in the heart of every living being,” “I have shown you the universal form, that terrifying one,” and everything else. No, forget all that. “I am asking you: give up religions, just surrender to Me.” Mam ekam—“to Me alone.” Forget everything: about Ishvara, about prakriti, about purusha, about everything I have just said—forget it all. “Just surrender to Me. Aham tvam sarva-papebhyo—I will protect you from all the consequences of your sins. Don’t worry that you will break dharma. I will settle these questions, that is My responsibility. Aham tvam sarva-papebhyo mokshayishyami ma shuchah—fear nothing. Come on, Arjuna!” And at that he cheered up at once and said: “Krishna, that’s it!” He cheered up simply because his beloved Lord Krishna had asked him to.

40:55Sri Krishna Bhagavan ki jaya! Hare Krishna. Thank you very much for your attention. Hare Krishna.