Sharanagati

(from a lecture of Swami Tirtha, 09.05.2018, Sofia)

(continues from the previous Monday)

Question of Krishnapriya: I want to ask about this weakness of the heart. Isn’t it similar to the feeling of emptiness?

Swami Tirtha: Emptiness is very good. Emptiness is very good, because that means no filthy things inside. Guruji comes and says: “I want to give you some nectar”, but you say “Oh, my cup is full. Thank you, I have no place for nectar”. First you have to empty the cup. When Mahaprabhu comes and says: “Oh, I have the treasure of divine love. I want to implement this into your heart”, your heart is not empty, but rather full of different curiosities that you have collected through lifetimes – skeletons of lizards, some weird objects of voodoo magic – we have collected so many stupid things. “Sorry, Mahaprabhu, there is no place. I am full.” You are not full, but you are a fool! So emptiness is not bad by itself, but if we perceive this as bad, then it’s bad. Emptiness is also a kind of purification.

But maybe you meant this feeling of loneliness, feeling abandoned or stranded – when we don’t have the spirit, right? In mystic literature it’s called ‘the desert of the soul’. Don’t be surprised if you have to face such an experience. Because this kind of spiritual loneliness and spiritual absence of any fulfilling substance is a natural phase of a spiritual progress. When we feel that ‘I have tried to offer and sacrifice anything and now I have nothing. I’m lost’. Such an inner emptiness is this kind of feeling. It’s called ‘the desert of the soul’. But we shouldn’t be lost in the desert, we should cross this desert.

Premprasad: The television – what is the negative and what is the good in it?

Baladev: Is there any good in it?

Premprasad: I know that there is no good.

Swami Tirtha: Then why do you ask? No, it’s a very good question. Because we were discussing the weakness of the heart, right? And television, or any kind of mass media and communication, is a very strong factor in the weakness of the heart, like an external factor. What is the television called in devotional circles? The one-eyed guru. You see? Because we pay attention there. For hours we are ready to listen. It occupies a very distinguished position in our room. And whatever is transmitted to us, we take it as truth: ‘I have heard it on the television’. So what? If you read something in the Bhagavad Gita or the Bible, they will say: “No, it’s an outdated source of weird information.” But the good thing about the television is that you have to pay the monthly fee.

Baladev: Good for whom?

Swami Tirtha: It is good for our training. If you want to receive a message, you also have to give something. You give your attention, you give your money, you give your faith. Usually all this external information corrupts your inner faith and structure. Because they transmit worldly information. In most cases, the scandals. Why waste our time with such stupid stuff?

(to be continued)