“The thoughts of My pure devotees dwell in Me, their lives are surrendered to Me, and they derive great satisfaction and bliss enlightening one another and conversing about Me.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 10.9)

Download as podcast episode (right click and save)

मच्-चित्ता मद्-गत-प्राणा
बोधयन्तः परस्परम्
कथयन्तश् च मां नित्यं
तुष्यन्ति च रमन्ति च

mac-cittā mad-gata-prāṇā
bodhayantaḥ parasparam
kathayantaś ca māṁ nityaṁ
tuṣyanti ca ramanti ca

“Can you at least admit that your presentation sometimes borders on obsessive? We can already prove that it is voluminous, that you are eclipsing the competition in terms of overall weight. Proof is in the total word count. I think if you communicate but once a week, that would be sufficient. Especially given the way things are headed in society, where no one has any patience left, where they cannot pay attention for more than a few seconds, you are losing people fast once you extend the presentation beyond a few minutes.

“But I am not isolating this criticism to you. I think anyone following in the line of the Vaishnavas can be considered guilty of excess. They live in renunciation, vairagya, but their glorification, guna-gao, continues without end. It is almost like they enjoy the process more than the understanding, if that makes any sense. Have you ever considered how lengthy a single work such as Bhagavata Purana is? You could spend an entire day studying a single Sanskrit shloka from it. It would take you forever to reach the end if implementing this routine. By the time you reached the conclusion, you will forget about what happened at the beginning.

“How is that a good thing? Didn’t Shakespeare quip that brevity is the soul of wit? The superior approach is to use the least amount of words to get your point across. That is how a businessman can turn into a politician overnight, succeeding to the point of assuming the highest post in the land. They come up with clever catchphrases. They do not spend too much time explaining their policy positions. The public can consume one or two points. After that, you begin to lose them. They think you are too intellectually minded. They like their slogans.

“Yeah, I think that is what I am saying. Doesn’t bhakti-yoga become too intellectual at a point? Where does the learning stop? Why is there so much learning? Why is there so much content? Why not bring it down? Not by a little, but by a lot. That would make it more appealing, if you ask me.”

This point of view is interesting considering that the leader of the sankirtana movement for this dreaded age of Kali was accused of being too sentimental. The scholars of the day advised Chaitanya Mahaprabhu to spend more time studying and less time dancing. More time pondering the esoteric truths of Vedanta philosophy and less time chanting the holy names: Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.

There is nothing from the material world that is truly analogous to what takes place in bhakti-yoga. From the ascension, the clearing of consciousness, the determination, to the strength in resolve – the entire objective is to reach transcendence. If we have no familiarity with such transcendence, then there is nothing we can use as a reference point for properly understanding why sadhus do what they do. The acharyas speak in such a way for a reason. They produce literature at an unimaginable pace because it makes them happy. At the core, the reception makes no difference to them. Whether you thank them or not, they are only wishing the best for you. Whether their books top the bestseller charts or are read by only a few people, the impact is more at the individual level. In other words, speaking is but one way to practice bhakti-yoga, in associating with knowledge, and Shri Krishna confirms that the religion associated with such knowledge is joyfully performed.

राज-विद्या राज-गुह्यं
पवित्रम् इदम् उत्तमम्
प्रत्यक्षावगमं धर्म्यं
सु-सुखं कर्तुम् अव्ययम्

rāja-vidyā rāja-guhyaṁ
pavitram idam uttamam
pratyakṣāvagamaṁ dharmyaṁ
su-sukhaṁ kartum avyayam

“This knowledge is the king of education, the most secret of all secrets. It is the purest knowledge, and because it gives direct perception of the self by realization, it is the perfection of religion. It is everlasting, and it is joyfully performed.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 9.2)

Another factor to consider is injury. There is the recommendation from the famous philosopher named Machiavelli. He says to never do an enemy a small injury. It appears that corrupt actors in positions of power practically live off this rule. If people should happen to innocently and peacefully protest blatant corruption by the leaders of the nation, those protesters are then tossed into prison. It doesn’t even reach the point of false charges, as the trial gets delayed by years. If an honest doctor happens to notice that their patients who decline poison injections appear to have superior health outcomes compared to those who are injected, they are advised to stay quiet. If the doctor should go public with their findings, they will lose their license to practice medicine. This is the chilling reality. The threat of injury dissuades others from dissenting, from going against the orthodoxy of the day.

We can flip the application by considering that maya is the greatest enemy of the conditioned living being, who is jiva. Maya literally translates to “that which is not.” Practically everyone is suffering under the spell of maya, identifying with the body since the time of birth. The goal of the acharya is to remove the influence of this illusion. It is like going to war with an enemy. If words are necessary to appeal to intellect, to convince others of what they are otherwise unable to notice on their own, then the words will continue to flow until the mission is accomplished.

The words are like weapons to cause injury to the enemy who is maya. At least this is the feeling of the kind and compassionate sadhu, who simultaneously glorifies the Supreme Personality of Godhead through their speaking. As confirmed in Bhagavad-gita, devotees take pleasure in discussing the Supreme Lord. It is one of the most preferred activities for the life in liberation.

In Closing:

If maya as enemy considered,
From whose clutches to be delivered.

Then injury never small,
Thus words in abundance to fall.

Such that jiva finally to awake,
And proper assessment to make.

That this life for transcendence meant,
Blissfully in company of God spent.

Categories: questions

Tags: dailyprompt, hare krishna, poem, poems, poetry, preaching, vedas