Sharanagati

(from a lecture of Swami Tirtha, 10.05.2018, Sofia)

(continues from the previous Monday)

These days, we were trying to remember a few teachings about the power, the beauty and the purifying power of the holy name. And we agreed that our process starts from the initial faith and ends up at the accomplished state of divine love. But what is devotion proper? What is dedication proper? Shrila Rupa Goswami gives a proper definition of pure bhakti, pure devotion to God: anyabhilashita-shunyam gyana-karmady-anavritam anukulyena krishnanu-shilanam bhaktir uttamam[1]. So, “Uttama bhakti, the topmost love of Godhead, is a special type of service to the Supreme Lord, which is not only favorable, but free from fruitful activities, impersonal meditation and all other selfish ambitions”. So, pure devotion is free from any contamination. It’s an eternal practice, not touched by the evils of the present day. Therefore, we have to be careful how we approach this process. Our approach must be pure as well. Try to be as pure in your endeavors as possible; and then a little bit more. One step further, push your limits.

Gyana-karma – no mental speculation and no fruitful results should contaminate our search for Krishna. And anukulya, that means favorable. Anukulya, favorable, means according to the proper order, according to the value hierarchy of things. What does this mean? Let’s take a simple example. It is acceptable if the husband belongs to a higher caste than the wife – this is called anuloma marriage. If the wife is from a higher caste and the husband is from a lower caste, this is pratiloma marriage – against the proper order. Well, how to understand pratiloma? If you have a cat, immediately you will understand. How can you pet a cat? The direction of petting a cat is from the head to the tail – this the cat will like. If you try to pet the cat from the tail to the head, your cat will run away. So, petting the cat from the head to the tail is anuloma – according to the proper order, as the hairs of the cat are growing.

So, what is pratiloma? Pratiloma is the diabolic disorientation – when we don’t know the proper direction. When our service to God, our mentality is against the proper order. If the lower position will take a higher position – that’s against the order. And what is anuloma, the proper petting of the cat? This is the divine orientation – when you do the things as they should be done. There is an order behind things. Nothing is by chance. Sometimes we don’t see this intrinsic order, but it doesn’t mean there is no order.

So, Krishna’s service must be favorable, according to the current. And how to create that more and more favorable environment in our mind, in our consciousness? How to achieve a higher and higher level of harmony between ourself and the Supreme? Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. Pure prayer and later on a pure glorification will purify your heart in the necessary proportion.

Question: You said “pure prayer and later on pure glorification”. Can you say something about this?

Swami Tirtha: What I meant is that at first usually we perform spiritual activities for our own benefit: ‘I want to purify myself, I want to eliminate my karma, I want to get enlightenment’, etc. This is not bad, because it’s a realistic start. Because even in our spiritual endeavors and our spiritual desires we depend on the superior reality, so we want our enlightenment from there, we want our spiritual fulfillment from there. But later on we have to forget about ourselves and turn our prayer into glorification. For a long time the story starts and ends with us. But actually, this story starts and ends with Them. This is where we have to arrive. Then our mantra is not a prayer for self-purification, but rather collecting flowers in the early morning in the meadow, in order to bring these flowers at the lotus feet of the Divine Couple. Perfection, or to eliminate my karma, or liberation has got no place there. I simply collect the flowers, I’m satisfied. Forget about yourself, just dedicate yourself. It’s called devotional service, give yourself. And I wouldn’t call the first one a selfish prayer, because purification is necessary – but it’s about us. We have to come to “it’s about Them”.

(to be continued)

[1] Bhakti-rasamrita-sindhu 1.1.11