Sharanagati

(from a lecture of Swami Tirtha, 08.05.2018, Rila)

(continues from the previous Monday)

Let’s create a favorable environment. Let’s create a favorable environment for our spiritual growth. Decorate the path of the Supreme approaching you. Make His path towards you glorious and beautiful. Because His presence, the presence of the Divine Couple, can turn even a pessimistic hell into an optimistic heaven. It is said that we all have a chance at perfection. All souls are invited for divine bliss. They also say that on the path of purification we start with equal chances. But due to the lifetimes, experience, karma and this and that, we start to develop a kind of handicaps – positive or negative.

So in order to achieve that positive and favorable environment somehow, we need to be connected and we have to invite Him or Them on the throne of our hearts. We are desperately searching for Beauty and Love. Therefore we need to locate where they are. Krishna says to Narada Muni… “My dear Narada, naham vasami vaikunthe yoginam hridaye na cha – so, “I am not there in Vaikuntha. Neither there, nor in the heart of the yogis”; mad bhakta yatra gayanti tatra tishthami narada[1] – “But where My dear devotees glorify Me, there I am, My dear Narada”.

So Krishna first declares where He is not available: ‘I am not in the heavenly realms. And I am not there in the hearts of the yogis’. Naham, na-aham – ‘I am not there’; vasami – live, I don’t live; vaikunthe – ‘in Vaikuntha’. Yoginam hridaye na cha – ‘neither in the hearts of the yogis’. Mad bhakta – ‘where My devotees glorify Me – yatra gayanti; tatra – ‘there’; tishthami narada –  ‘I stay, o Narada!’

So if you want to find any trace of the Supreme, the proper method is glorification. In order to locate Him, first He identifies where you cannot locate Him. ‘Don’t search here, don’t search there. It is not the place. But where My devotees come together and glorify Me, I am there.’ So glorification is the path.

When Lord Brahma was alone at the beginning of creation, he was living in this whorl of the cosmic lotus. He said, ‘I don’t know what is what, I don’t understand this whole environment. I’ll try to search out the roots’. So he started to penetrate deeper and deeper, going down the stem, trying to find the root of the cosmic lotus. He was doing that for a long time, but didn’t find the origin. So he said, “Oh, this is not the way, let’s go back to my seat.” And then he started to meditate and glorify.

Brahma is the most intelligent person in the universe. If instead of this empiric search he decided to apply a different method like meditation and then glorification, then we should take his example. Because, you know, if it is difficult for the first person in the universe to find the roots of the cosmic creation, then what is our chance?

Once there was a lecturer giving a lecture about the cosmic structure – explaining like this and like that, and then one lady commented: “Your explanation was not proper. This universe is on the back of an elephant.” Our lecturer was a patient guy, he didn’t want to crush the comment on the spot, so he said, “And what is the basis of that elephant?” She said: “The elephant is standing on the back of a tortoise.” Then the lecturer asked: “And what about the tortoise – where is he standing?” She said, “The tortoise is standing on the back of another elephant.” Our friend tried to explain, “Oh, then what is next, and what is next?” Finally, the lady commented, “Don’t try, there are innumerable elephants. It cannot be explained, because we have unlimited elephants.”

You see, it’s difficult to explain the structure of the universe. Therefore Brahma gave up this effort and started to meditate and glorify. For innumerable lifetimes we have taken the empiric method, trying to find the root of our happiness, trying to find our spiritual prospect or any goal in life. Now we have another chance of searching for reality. Let’s take it.

(to be continued)

[1] Padma Purana, Uttara-khanda 92.21-22