Faith, Anarthas, and the Path of Pure Devotional Service

Bg. 9.3

aśraddadhānāḥ puruṣā
dharmasyāsya paran-tapa
aprāpya māṁ nivartante
mṛtyu-saṁsāra-vartmani

Translation
Those who are not faithful in this devotional service cannot attain Me, O conqueror of enemies. Therefore they return to the path of birth and death in this material world.

Yesterday we were reading about knowledge, about the Queen of Knowledge – that Kṛṣṇa consciousness is the queen of knowledge, the queen of education, the greatest of all secrets, the most wonderful thing. So Kṛṣṇa was advertising; He made a kind of “advertisement” for Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And now, in this verse, He gives a small warning.

He gives a warning while again reminding us that this is the most wonderful thing – the most wonderful knowledge, the perfection of life – but don’t think that it is something cheap.

Śrīla Prabhupāda would sometimes give the example of a precious jewel, a valuable diamond displayed for sale in a jeweller’s shop. One can get many customers for artificial jewellery, but the precious diamonds cost millions and millions of leva. People come, look and think, “Oh, wonderful!”, but then they go away; they don’t buy them, they can’t afford them.

The price of Kṛṣṇa consciousness is śraddhā – faith. This is explained in various songs; I think Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura describes the nāma-haṭṭa, the marketplace of the Holy Name. It is described that Nityānanda Prabhu opened a shop – and what did He sell? He sold the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. And what was the price?
[Audience: “Faith, śraddhā.”]
Yes. And how is that in Bulgarian?
[“Vyara.”]
Yes.

Different degrees of faith give different degrees of the Holy Name. So, in this verse Kṛṣṇa gives a warning, saying aśraddadhānāḥ – if you have no faith; puruṣaḥ – if a person has no faith in this dharma, in this process of self-realization, then aprāpya mām – he does not attain Me, Kṛṣṇa.

Aprāpya – just like the word prāpti. There is a certain kind of siddhi called prāpti, prāpti-siddhi. Prāpti-siddhi means that you can fix your mind on something distant and obtain that thing, you can acquire it.

There was a yogī, a mystic yogī in the Himalayas. A Western reporter went to visit him and brought a small packet – I think it was peanuts. They were peanuts in the shell, in a sealed plastic bag.

The reporter, because he knew a little of Vedic culture, understood that when one comes to a spiritual person one should bring something, something that can be offered. So he brought this bag of peanuts.

The yogī said, “Oh, thank you very much.” He opened it, took out the peanuts and gave them to the reporter, saying, “Go on, take some.” The reporter cracked one open, and inside there were no peanuts at all – there were raisins. [Laughter.]

The mystic yogī simply removed the peanuts and put raisins in their place. This is prāpti, prāpti-siddhi.

So, aprāpya, aprāpya mām – “you will not attain Me” if you have no faith.

Now let us go back and remember what Kṛṣṇa said at the beginning of the Seventh Chapter – manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu… Who knows that verse?

manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu
kaścid yatati siddhaye
yatatām api siddhānāṁ
kaścin vetti māṁ tattvataḥ

He says: “Out of many thousands of people, one may strive for self-realization. And out of thousands of such persons who actually make the effort, kaścin māṁ vetti tattvataḥ – perhaps one person, very few, will understand Me, Kṛṣṇa tattvataḥ – truly, in reality.”

To attain Kṛṣṇa is not such an easy thing. Kṛṣṇa is saying something very serious here. He says: “You will not attain Me – so what will you gain? Mṛtyu-saṁsāra-vartmanī – you will gain only repeated birth and death, birth and death, that’s all.”

So He reminds us that this is a serious matter. Spiritual life means to go beyond birth and death and to attain Kṛṣṇa. And to do this we will need a lot of faith. How do we get faith? Prabhupāda explains this in the purport: “Faith is created by the association of devotees.” Then he says: “Unfortunately, most people, even if they hear about Kṛṣṇa from devotees, cannot have the association of devotees and thus they do not develop faith.”

It is not that they have no faith at all, but they have no faith in Kṛṣṇa. Everyone has faith. Śraddha-mayo ’yaṁ puruṣaḥ – the nature of the puruṣa, the nature of the living being, is to have faith. But what does each person have faith in? People have faith in so many things other than Kṛṣṇa. They have faith in so many temporary arrangements. That is the problem.

So they invest – each person invests his faith in some arrangement made mainly by the mind. Almost everyone invests his faith in his own material body, mind and intelligence. And, like most people, they think: “What do I need this Kṛṣṇa for? I cannot even see Him. But I have faith in myself. I am here, I perceive myself, I can speak, I can see, and if someone attacks me, I can defend myself. I have my air force that will protect me, my army, so many soldiers.”

As the Bhāgavatam says: “I have a wife, I have children – they will protect me. I have a financial balance, and not in leva but in German marks. And not in some Bulgarian bank, no, but in a Swedish bank.”

So we invest – just as businessmen invest money in some enterprise, we invest our faith in so many things. But we have to ask ourselves: “Are these investments of faith reasonable investments? To what extent are they secure? How long will this body keep the promises of everything it is supposed to do? How long will my family be with me? How strong or substantial are these investments of faith?”

When we consider the various objects in which we invest our faith, we may come to the conclusion that they are not very good.

Throughout the whole Bhagavad-gītā Kṛṣṇa explains to Arjuna why he should have faith in Him, in Kṛṣṇa. And especially in the next few verses He will explain His position in connection with the creation of the material world – in what way He is present and at the same time remains apart. And in many places Kṛṣṇa explains that He is the Supreme.

So all of this is meant to help us develop faith in Him, because He wants us to attain Him. He wants us to cross over this mṛtyu-saṁsāra-vartmanī, the path of birth and death.

Prabhupāda quotes the famous verse from the Bhāgavatam in which a wonderful example is given:

yathā taror mūla-niśecanena
tṛpyanti tat-skandha-bhujo ’paśākhāḥ 

Skandha means branches. No – śākhā means branches. A tree has many branches, and it also has its root – mūla. So how do we nourish the branches of the tree? How do we satisfy the branches of a tree? Well, if we had a tree here… We pour water on the roots of the tree.

This gives us something to understand. It is not that faith is something passive: “Oh yes, I believe in Kṛṣṇa.” No – faith is something active. We demonstrate our faith, we demonstrate our love, through service. There is a saying in English: “Talk is cheap.” In other words, you can say many things, but when it comes to action, that is something else. Many people will say, “Oh yes, I believe in God.” Very nice – but what about service to God? Nyama vreme [in Bulgarian: “there is no time”].

Another example is feeding the stomach – nourishing the body by feeding the stomach. It is similar: watering the root of the tree or feeding the stomach of the body. Everything becomes perfect, everyone is satisfied, by feeding the root – that is, Kṛṣṇa.

These two examples show that Kṛṣṇa is not someone separate from everything else. So it is not that by serving Kṛṣṇa we reject or ignore everything else. Some people say, “Why is it that you Hare Kṛṣṇas only serve Kṛṣṇa?” No, it is not “only Kṛṣṇa”. When we say “Kṛṣṇa”, we mean that Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Absolute Truth who includes everything.

This is a fact that is very important for us and can give us much enthusiasm. Even if we are kaniṣṭha, very small beginners – it means that regardless of how much faith we invest in Kṛṣṇa, we can go forward, and that faith will grow over time.

In other words, Kṛṣṇa explains this in the twelfth chapter. He says: “The best thing is to give up everything completely and simply fully engage in serving Me.” Most of us will say, “Oh, that is a wonderful idea, but I cannot do that, forget it, I’m sorry.” At that point we might think, “Well, the Bhagavad-gītā is a wonderful book, but it’s of no use for me.”

And how do you say “wonderful book” here? Khubava kniga.

But Kṛṣṇa is very merciful. In the next verse He says: “All right, if you cannot do that, we have another alternative for you. It is a wonderful investment program.”

Just as sometimes – I don’t know if it is the same here – when you buy something expensive, like a car, and you cannot pay for the entire car at once, you make a down payment and then you pay regular instalments. So it is something like that. Kṛṣṇa says: “All right, if you cannot pay the full price at once, pay it in smaller instalments.”

What is this called? Bhakti-yoga. Ah! Now I feel relief. There is hope for me.

He says: “If you cannot immediately surrender completely, then engage in the regulative principles of bhakti.” What will be the result? What does Kṛṣṇa say – who knows? Hmm… When was the last time you read the twelfth chapter of the Bhagavad-gītā? Four years ago, five years ago – something like that.

So Kṛṣṇa says that by following the regulative practice of bhakti-yoga, you will develop the desire to attain Him. How will you attain Him? How will you attain Kṛṣṇa?

Just as with a precious diamond: you may think, “Yes, wonderful,” but if you then think, “Oh, I must have it!”, then because of that strong desire, in one way or another you will get the money and pay for it.

Kṛṣṇa does not stop there. He continues and explains: what if you cannot follow the regulative principles of bhakti-yoga? What then? Should we again just throw the book away—no hope for us? No. Then Kṛṣṇa gives further alternatives. He says: “All right, if you cannot do that, then at least try to work for Me.”

He gives a few other options. He says: “Try to develop renunciation, knowledge, meditation. Gradually you will come to the point where you can make progress.”

And what if someone says: “I have so many obligations and duties in this world. I simply have no time to practise bhakti. Or what I earn I must spend on my family. I barely have enough for the rent, for my family. I can’t. What should I do?”

So Kṛṣṇa actually explains that one can always engage in devotional service by having the mentality of dedication, of offering all one’s activities to Kṛṣṇa.

We hear this many times from younger devotees who are still going to school. They say: “I want to practise bhakti-yoga, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, but I have to go to school. I am so unhappy, I am frustrated, because I have to do all these useless things at school. I could be spending my time in a much better way, by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, performing devotional activities in the temple. But if I stay in the temple, my parents will be angry. (I mean, I hear such stories.) Then my parents – my father – will come to the temple with a pistol and threaten the temple president.”

Yes, sometimes it is like this. Nowadays being a temple president is a dangerous business.

The point is that you can also perform devotional service at school, at home, wherever you are, simply by cultivating the mood of dedicating everything you have to Kṛṣṇa.

Such is Kṛṣṇa’s mercy. He wants us to become attached to Him, to have faith in Him. So in whatever circumstances we find ourselves, we can develop this sense of service to Kṛṣṇa.

The ācāryas give the example of a woman who has a secret lover. In order that her husband suspects nothing, she will very carefully and nicely perform all her household duties. She will clean the house, cook, she will do everything in a very excellent way so that her husband is satisfied and does not suspect that actually her mind is not focused on the home and the husband. Her mind is with her lover.

In a similar way, the devotee will perform many material duties, whatever is expected of him, but his mind will be with Kṛṣṇa. He will serve Kṛṣṇa in his mind.

Kṛṣṇa says:

yat karoṣi yad aśnāsi
yaj juhoṣi dadāsi yat
yat tapasyasi kaunteya
tat kuruṣva mad-arpaṇam 

Yat means “whatever”. He says: “Whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer or give away, whatever austerities you perform – do that as an offering to Me.”

So Kṛṣṇa gives us certain facilities to develop faith in Him, in whatever condition we are presently in. It is not that because my faith is not very strong I should become discouraged. No – we should notice, we should be a bit honest with ourselves and see: “Actually, my faith exists, there is some faith, but perhaps it is not very strong. All right, my faith is not very strong, so let me increase it.”

And how do we increase faith? By serving Kṛṣṇa and by serving in the association of devotees. Devotees are persons who are seriously trying to increase their faith.

People have so many different associations, clubs with various aims. They have card-playing clubs, chess clubs, all these crazy things. And they keep that association in order to inspire faith in that particular activity.

My father and mother are members of a “square” dance club. It is a style of traditional folk dance called square in America. So they have the association of others who also do that. A waste of time. Well, that is their choice. Generally people waste their time developing or investing their faith in useless things.

Many people nowadays waste their time staring at a little electronic box called the television. Everywhere we see satellite dishes. That is their prāpti – they are receiving waves from all the television stations. But in this way they will not attain Kṛṣṇa.

Unless, of course, we start our own television program. That would be wonderful. Perhaps someday we can do that.

In the meantime we must attain Kṛṣṇa by hearing about Kṛṣṇa from devotees and talking with them about Kṛṣṇa. Then gradually our faith in Kṛṣṇa, our engagement in Kṛṣṇa’s service, will increase.

And then Kṛṣṇa says:

teṣāṁ satata-yuktānāṁ
bhajatāṁ prīti-pūrvakam
dadāmi buddhi-yogaṁ taṁ
yena mām upayānti te 

"To those who are constantly devoted to serving Me with love, I give the understanding by which they can come to Me."

Kṛṣṇa says, “I will not keep My distance from you. If you make the effort to come closer to Me, then I will make the effort to come closer to you.”

And in the Bhagavad-gītā Kṛṣṇa helps us to recognize when He is revealing Himself to us. In other words, if Kṛṣṇa reveals Himself but we do not realize it, if we do not see that He is doing so, then what is the use?

By carefully studying the Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad–Bhāgavatam we can develop the sensitivity to see when Kṛṣṇa is revealing Himself, because Kṛṣṇa will not necessarily come and stand right in front of us and shake us, saying, “It’s Me!” No. Kṛṣṇa acts in very subtle ways, and He wants us to become a little sensitive so that we can appreciate His presence.

So in this way we have to develop faith, and ultimately we have to invest all our faith in Kṛṣṇa, because, after all, what else will be there at the time of death?

In one sense, self-realization is a process of learning how to give up, how to renounce all those things we identify with. But that is only the negative side. The positive side is that we accept and take shelter of Kṛṣṇa more and more.

Thus perfection means to have full faith in Kṛṣṇa. And that faith is described in the Sixth Chapter: gurūṇāpi vicālyate — that even in the most difficult circumstances one is not disturbed.

Material life is actually a condition of disturbance, and the most disturbing moment is death, because death means saying “goodbye” to everyone. At that time we must be ready to say, “Hello, Kṛṣṇa!”

Therefore we must practise:

Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare
Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare.

Technically this Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra is what in Sanskrit is called the vocative: it directly addresses someone. There is the nominative, genitive, dative, instrumental, locative—many different cases in grammar. Hare Kṛṣṇa is vocative.

We are directly calling out to Kṛṣṇa. When we say “Hare Kṛṣṇa”, we are saying: “O Lord, O Kṛṣṇa, O Rāma, please engage me in Your transcendental devotional service!”

This mantra is very powerful for increasing our faith in Kṛṣṇa, because we are directly calling to Him. Then Kṛṣṇa will respond: “Oh, he is calling Me! I had better answer.” Kṛṣṇa will say, “I have promised, so I should keep My promise. Since you are coming to Me, I will respond.” When He sees that you are calling very sincerely, He will answer.

Questions:

[inaudible]

ŚKKP: This is explained in the book by Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura entitled Bhajana-rahasya. There are four kinds of anartha. One of them is called hṛdaya-daurbalya, which means “weakness of heart”. This weakness of heart takes various forms. One of them is called tuccha-āśakti. Tuccha means insignificant, and āśakti means attachment – so it is attachment to things that are insignificant, unimportant.

Then he speaks about kuṭināṭī. Kuṭi can mean fault-finding, being critical, being diplomatic. In fact, kuṭināṭī has many meanings, but one of them is something like: “Well, why should I submit? He himself is not submissive.” (laughter) This is weakness of heart.

Another is pratiṣṭhāśā, the desire for recognition or position: “I will be inspired for devotional service only if I get this particular position, or if I am appreciated for my service.”

Then there is mātsarya. Mātsarya means envy. “Oh! Someone is becoming advanced in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and I am not making progress, so I don’t like that person.” Or: “This person is so successful in book distribution, and I am not so successful – I don’t like that person.”

All of this is hṛdaya-daurbalya, weakness of heart.

Then there are aparādhas – four categories of aparādha. There are offences to the Holy Name, offences to Kṛṣṇa, seva-aparādha (especially offences in Deity worship), and then offences to Vaiṣṇavas and, in general, to all living beings. There are very many kinds of offences. I don’t think we need to explain them all now. Of course, each of them can be explained in great detail, but we know, for example, that there are the ten offences to the Holy Name.

Vaiṣṇava-aparādha – we know we must be very careful about this, otherwise there is the hāṭī-matā effect: it is as if we had a huge elephant coming through the doorway and crushing everything.

And seva-aparādha: there is a long list of things we should do and things we should not do before the Deities. They are mentioned in The Nectar of Devotion, and we have also explained them somewhat in our book which I and others have just completed, Pañcarātra-pradīpa. The book has finally been printed. I don’t know, perhaps tomorrow we could place it on the altar and offer it to Gaura–Nitāi.

Then there are offences in general toward living entities. There are so many ways to offend other living beings if one is not careful.

The third category of anartha is called atriṣṇā, which means the desire for something asat, something material. This naturally also appears in four categories. There is the desire to enjoy here, the desire to enjoy on the heavenly planets, the desire for yogic siddhi – powers – and the desire to become liberated. All these desires are anartha, unwanted. They do not help in pure devotional service. If a traveling door-to-door salesman were to come and offer some yogic siddhi for sale, knocking on the door: “I have yogic siddhi for sale here. Cheap, cheap.” We would say: “What are you selling? Oh, no thank you. Goodbye.” Boom.

• Liberation?
• No thank you, goodbye.
• Heavenly planets?
• No, thanks.
• And material pleasures in this world?
• I don’t need them, thanks.

There is also a fourth kind of anartha, called tattva-vibhrama, that is, lack of understanding, lack of knowledge about the particular types of tattvas or truths. One is called sva-tattva-bhrama, that is illusion about oneself. Not understanding who you are, that you are the soul. Then paratattva-bhrama, that is not understanding that Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Then (our translator is already tired, we are almost finished). Then there is the so-called sadhya-sādhana-bhrama, which means not understanding the process of devotional service. And finally there is virodhi-viṣaya-bhrama, which means not understanding the material world, that is, what the actual position of māyā is.

All these anarthas, all these divisions, categories, are somewhat analytical, but all this information, these analyses, are meant to help us understand that there is something we have to work on in order to overcome it. Because we do not want all these anarthas, we want artha – real values. And what is that artha that we want? Prema pum-artho mahān – we want the true value of life, which is love of God.

Question: What is the difference between faith in Kṛṣṇa and faith in the devotees and the spiritual master? When our faith in the devotees and the spiritual master increases, does our faith in Kṛṣṇa also increase?

ŚKKP: Yes, naturally our faith in Kṛṣṇa increases when our faith in the devotees and the spiritual master increases. How was it? brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān jīva guru kṛṣṇa-prasāde pāya bhakti-latā-bīja. So we receive the bīja, the seed of devotional service, from guru and Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is in the heart. And the guru represents Kṛṣṇa from outside. In a natural way there is this connection. 

Through hearing from and serving the guru, our faith in Kṛṣṇa naturally increases. And actually we cannot separate this. In fact, if there is no faith in the guru, no faith in the devotees, then there is no question of faith in Kṛṣṇa. It will not be possible. 

Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura says: chāḍiyā vaiṣṇava-sevā niṣṭāra peyechhe kebā. He says: “What is the question of obtaining liberation if someone gives up service to the Vaiṣṇavas?” Very important. That is why there is association. In a natural way faith will appear if there is association of devotees.

Question: Two questions regarding Deity worship. To what extent is the desire to develop a particular kind of attraction and relationship with the Deities authorized? Is this not sahajiyā?

ŚKKP: Why should the desire to develop attraction for the Deities be sahajiyā? The Deity is Kṛṣṇa, the Deity is Lord Caitanya, Lord Nityānanda. Therefore we should feel attraction to Him. It can become sahajiyā if, instead of following the standard practices of sādhana-bhakti and the procedures of Deity service, we invent our own system of Deity worship. Then it becomes sahajiyā. I have not heard any complaints that something like this is happening here. Right?

Question: Second question. To what extent should we not be attached to the results of Deity worship? They should be worshiped nicely.

ŚKKP: Yes, we should always try to perform the service as nicely as possible. Whether it is direct Deity worship, or book distribution, or whatever we are doing, we should try to do it as well as we can. Because we always want to offer Kṛṣṇa something the best. We should not be like that man who was… There was in India, in Bengal, a certain devotee of Kālī. Do you know this story? Of course, the worship of Kālī is in tama-guṇa. Mainly they offer goats to Kālī, they sacrifice goats. This man was procuring goats in order to offer them to Kālī, but after some time he decided that it was too much trouble, that it was too expensive. So in the end it came to the point that he was offering flies, houseflies. Bzzz… And one day he came before the Deity. It was a hot summer day. And in the temple there were very many flies. They were flying around the Deity. This man came into the temple, saw his worshipable Deity and said: “My dear Kālī, there are already so many flies flying around You here. Why don’t You catch one Yourself? Why should I bother about goats, this or that? You can simply catch one Yourself.” 

We should not be like that. Because Kṛṣṇa is very merciful, He has appeared in the form of the Deity in order to give us the opportunity to serve Him. Other forms of the Lord, when Kṛṣṇa appears, have a tendency to move about. He comes to one place and then goes away again, but when He appears in His Deity form, He is always here, ready to accept our service. 

We should never take His presence, as they say, for granted. Do you know this expression? No, we should feel that we are very fortunate that Gaura–Nitai are here. They are very merciful. They are standing here so that I can serve. Therefore we should give everything of ourselves.

Question: What does it mean that devotional service can be in each of the material guṇas?

ŚKKP: Oh, that is a whole big subject. It is explained in the Third Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Generally it means that there is pure devotional service, but there is also mixed devotional service. Someone may perform devotional service but at the same time be under a great influence of the mode of ignorance. He may be doing some service but at the same time be envious, angry with others. If someone is in the mode of passion, he performs service but is very much concerned about the result, about position. Someone in the mode of goodness performs service and is very conscious to do it out of a sense of duty. And someone who performs pure, spontaneous devotional service is not under the influence of any of the guṇas. It does not mean that he himself has no qualities or particular inclinations to serve Kṛṣṇa in some particular way, but his motivation is pure, with no personal desires. Jaya! Śrīla Prabhupāda ki jaya!