Re: Vani, Temples, Sanga and Naama Bhajana

Respected Swamiji, Hadai prabhu and all Vaisnavas,

       Nityananda! Gauranga! Hare Krishna! Please accept my respectful obeisances!

       Whenever we discuss the importance of one type of spiritual variety, another type catches our attention and seems so glorious. The fact is that each has its own glory. Whether it is vani, vapu or in the 'inner temple', spiritual association in the heart, everything has its own glory and on the absolute level they are not different.

        But according to our own individual time, place and circumstances we find one type of association more helpful for us than another. Ultimately the fact that it is spiritual association is all that ultimately matters. Somehow we get it. The more of it we get, and the more ways we get it, the better.

        I consider associating with the Lord and worshipping him and his devotees by making a nice temple in one's mind or the heart and therby getting the association to be just as powerful as associating with them personally. Its there in the mind or the heart that one can worship them and enjoy their association unbridled and unrestricted by so many limitations of circumstances in this material world. Actually this is one of the 64 processes of bhakti and the Srimad Bhagavatam has a full chapter dedicated to worshipping the Lord in different ways. Its very rare to see as only great devotees were doing this kind of service as mentioned in Caitanya Caritamrta Caitanya Bhagavata.

       I personally been inspired to do that (though it started out very formally) with the Lordships Nityananda and Gauranga and our acaryas and I find its spiritual results to be astonishing. Serving the Lord and chanting his holy name is the best way to keep that huge speculative nature of the mind active in the service of the Lord and it makes our devotion more and more complete. The mind never stops working, and it is a very powerful thing to be used in the Lord's service in a myriad of ways.

      But I do personally agree with Hadai Prabhu that we (I am referring to myself and others like me), we are very expert in the knowledge department of spritual science, but when it comes to actually doing bhakti, we aren't that good, actually not that good at all. We know a lot more theory, with hardly much realisation. But on the practical front there are so many irregularities and that department is quite haphazard. Continuous practice is the only way to bring that department to shape. I cannot and did not learn how to play a violin just from a book. Morever theory is highly limited. The realised part of the knowledge is much superior to the external meaning. Sometimes I have to remind myself that I am not reading an encyclopedia to win a quiz competition, but its all for putting into practice and making it one's life.

       We new-comers therefore do need to start doing rather than just keep discussing. We have stalwart examples of devotees, many of them yourselves, to follow. I would rather say a simplistic and honest approach (If I have to do, I do, that's all) approach is the best thing to those who tend to follow a knowledge based approach to the path of bhakti. Atleast this is my experience. It elimates that number one enemy called mental speculation and mundane logic.

      Actually this putting knowledge to practice is sometimes a feat in itself because knowledge can be a very powerful and very subtle booster to the ego without anyone noticing. The difficulty in putting things into practice is only imaginary, but the problem is the ego likes to speculate and to practice means to surrender that ego down and tolerate that mental agitation (manaso vegam). That's the point, surrendering the ego is the big thing. Our ego likes to sit lazy or do other things, but we must override that ego by beating the mind repeatedly saying that our goal is to act in devotional service, not speculate or do something else. I have had so much bad experience in this matter. Mundane emotion driven practice is very unstable and goes up and down with no consistency or discipline. So its time to call in the military discipline to make things regular. Atleast in my case. In the army its first obey, no room for moods and their fluctuations.

      So to sum up, the whole gist of practice is this, "I have to do it, here's my chance, so let me do it. No first or second thoughts. Nityananda Nityananda ..... Gauranga Gauranga... Hare Krishna... !". That's all. No more consideration. The matter's finished. We act. Instant decision implementation.

       In our music we know what is called asura sadhaka. The earlier musicians used to put in 7-10 hours daily every single day for several years for that. Music became life 24 hours. Atleast 3-4 hours practice they put in these days. They never skip practice. Even if they are too busy in the day, they practice at night, skipping their sleep till late hours. Do we skip our eating or sleeping? That sort of will power is required and that sort of asura sadhaka with that much determination is needed. That's discipline. Let's be inspired by Dhruva Maharaja's example.

        Devotees like yourself are always encouraging us and reminding us that once the spiritual bliss starts flowing, its no longer military. Its bliss!  So then we cannot feel like stopping our bhakti. I am hoping to reach that stage where devotion can become as natural as one's breathing or more, without having to be enforced rigorously.

Learning to stabilise and properly discipline my bhakti sadhana,

Srinath

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