Sharanagati

(from a lecture of Swami Tirtha, 02.05.2018, Rila) 

(continues from the previous Monday)

Did I promise anything else beyond the bitter drops of theology and philosophy?

You know, the holy name is a practice to be cultivated. And we need a mood for that. A mood where we can enter this vibration, we can enter this circle. Just like Mahaprabhu is surrounded by the holy name – so beautiful! He is dancing! And for me now in this mood this is like a midnight dance. So, if you agree to sing for a little bit the holy name in a special mood, like a midnight mood. But for that we need less light, a little less. Do we have some more candles?

What can you include in your prayers and mantras? You can include your loss. Because we have left this divine reality. We are lost souls. So all your weeping you can add to this prayer: ‘I have committed a grave mistake! It feels like an almost eternal loss. I have lost You.” This is like a feeling of mourning. All the pain, all the bitterness of this separation you can include.

This is a way of reality. This is a diagnosis. But this is not our goal. The bitter feeling of separation is not our goal. So you can also include your hopes: ‘Hare Krishna – I have lost You. Hare Rama – but I will find my way back home, back to You.’ So you can include your hopes, your spiritual prospective.

What more? We have given our feeling of being lost; we have added our hopes of return; what else can we include here? The night is coming, your daily activities are finished. Radha-Govinda’s daily activities are also finished. But the night is approaching. So, you can include, you can enhance Radhika’s dream. What is Her dream? ‘Ah, the night has come, it’s darkness all around – it reminds me of somebody, of His darkness.’ Hare Krishna – this is the dream of somebody; Krishna Krishna – it’s the dream of Radhika.

So if you want to include the service mood of the soul, of your soul being integrated into this divine beauty, to serve that divine mood of meeting and union of divine Beauty and divine Love, please, you can include that as well.

This is very slow, very quiet. Because in the night even a small candle is like an eternal flame, even a small noise is like a thunderbolt. So this cultivation is very soft, very intimate. The drum comes as the beat of your heart. The karatal comes as the music of the spheres, and the strings come like the gentle breeze in the midnight leaves. And you are invited to whisper in bhajan.