Sharanagati

Dani: My question is on the topics that you have discussed on the lecture about eating, drinking, breathing and praying. Without eating man can handle few weeks, then he dies. Without drinking he can live less time, without breathing even less. And if we don’t pay too much attention to praying it turns out that we are actually dead.

Tirtha Maharaj: Correct. We didn’t even take birth.

Dani: So if Gurudev can elaborate on this specific type of death state that we are in now.

Tirtha Maharaj: Ah, I thought that we should discuss life!

Prayer is a very subtle channel of energy. Therefore those, who are too much conditioned by matter, it is very difficult for them to believe that it exists. Still it is there. Truth is never compromised by your lack of knowledge. And if we try to get some inspiration and take some experience on that platform, then we can say it, we can tell it to others.

But all traditions know that without first dying for matter you cannot be born again for spirit. This is the transformation that we are searching for. The more subtle the energy, the greater the achievement. In the beginning we make small steps and we think that we have achieved something great. Later on you will make big leaps and you will think: “Ah, I did not achieve anything.” And this is the correct way, the proper way of progress.

But again I should say: what can we describe by words about this?! Give a try. Chanting mantras or prayers is just like a blessing thunderbolt. When you touch your mala it is just like the universal energies vibrating between your fingers.Krishna is playing the fifth note on His flute, and that is the note of divine love. And we respond to His call. So prayers – it is a great science. Be selfless there. You should not start the story with yourself and end it with yourself. Try to forget about yourself. And then you will see the results.

And actually this is a life and death question. Because whatever is here is part of the illusory game. Everything will be finished here, everything! What will remain? Not so much. But what is not much by the material standard, this is extremely great by the spiritual standards. So we should not run for these fantasies: “I am a great teacher! I am a great saint! I am this and that! We have the biggest temple inSofia! And the greatest ego on the planet earth.” What’s the use of having great material achievements? You will lose them. Whatever you do not give toKrishna, you will lose it. So better we give the surplus of energy that we generate by chanting and prayers by dedicating it to others and offer it back toKrishna.

Therefore the best prayer is the glorification prayer. It is not the prayer when you ask something or when you try to escape something. And if you check the “Shrimad Bhagavatam”, eighty percent of the prayers there are glorifications. And we don’t understand why, it’s so boring, again repeating the same story: “You are great, You are nice, You are high…” Why it is stressed so much? Because this is the best prayer. That is life.

But as it is said, with one ass you cannot ride two horses, you cannot live for the world and for God also. First we have to die and then we can be born again. And when you are born again you will see, that you didn’t really died. First you feel when you are very bold and very strong: “Ah, no risk, no gain!” Then when you are a little less neophyte, you will see: “Ah, all risk, no gain…” This is the sadhaka platform – you practice, you practice and you feel: “Ah, Krishna has taken away this false conception from me, Krishna has taken away that achievement from me; what is He giving?!” But then, later on, when you achieve your goals you will find: “No risk, all gain Because He is a merciful God. Whenever you thought that “I have to risk something”, He was putting the money in your pocket to buy you bread. No risk. And all gain. It’s not only bread, it’s a chapati!