All posts (page 8)

Doer and viewer

What is consciousness? 

Consciousness means ‘self-awareness’, being aware both that we exist and being aware of what is going on around us, both internally and externally. 

Consciousness is a both a very modern word and a very Western idea. Consciousness is what asks the question ‘who am I?’… and then arrogantly answers it. The answer is usually something like ‘I am someone who knows‘, ‘I am someone wants‘, or ‘I am someone who does‘. 

Our modern, Western consciousness is based on an equally modern, Western idea: the ego.  Consciousness is the ego saying: I perceive, I know, I want, I act, I do. It says: The things I make are the product my own creativity; the experiences I have of the world are the result of my own ability to understand it.  

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Perfect love

Verses 10.22-10-30

The closing sequence of Bhagavad-gītā Chapter 10 can seem tedious. 

After Kṛṣṇa declares his affection for Arjuna in the first lines, his disciple again asks for more detailed knowledge about him. God answers him over the final 19 verses of the chapter in the form of no fewer than 58 comparisons of himself to the greatest phenomena of the universe: ‘Of the rich, I am richest’ (10.23), ‘of the mountains, I am tallest’ (10.25), ‘of the rivers, I am longest’ (10.31), and so on. 

But the model used by Kṛṣṇa in these lines never involves just a simple comparison. It is never a simple matter of ‘this’ or ‘that’. Kṛṣṇa’s presentation of himself always takes the form of a progression. It always builds on a quality that can be increased, intensified, or deepened.

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Love and relation

Bhakti-yoga means union with God (yog) sustained through devotional service (bhakti). 

This union is one of miraculous experiences of our practice. For what does it mean to have a relationship with God? The words are easily said, but difficult to measure. To have a relationship with the divine is not to admire it from a distance, to venerate the beauty, the power, the perfection of God. It’s not enough to simply follow the rules and rituals of recognised practice. It’s not enough to obey the commands of a celestial dictator. It’s not an intellectual relation created by reading books or studying verses. 

None of these paths will do because the union of bhakti-yoga is one of love. Bhakti is the practice of devotional service, service to God in and through love. It’s not blind devotion or one-sided adulation. Bhakti-yoga is a true relation with the divine: in its purest expression it takes the form of a divine love affair. Its model is the conjugal love affair of the Rādhā and Mohan. This loving relation is the model not only for the love of God but for the love between all loving, living beings. 

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Bhagavad-gītā: What is prema?

Prabhupād’s ‘Introduction’ to his translation and commentary of Bhagavad-gītā, first published in 1972, is a quiet introduction to Bhakti, to the theory and practice of loving devotion. 

Bhagavad-gītā is widely understood both as a masterpiece of Vedic culture and a handbook for Vaishnavism. This has been made clear by countless commentators. But Prabhupād’s ‘Introduction’ and commentary reveals it as much more. In Prabhupād’s reading, Bhagavad-gītā unfolds as an introduction to the eternal truths of Gaudia Vaishanvism, as a pre-history to the life of Caitanya Mahaprabhu who appeared in 1486, and as a key to the understanding of God as prema, as the embodiment of divine loving devotion, in the eternal form of Rādhāmohan.  

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Bhagavad-gītā: An introduction to devotion

Bhagavad-gītā is a conversation between Bhagavān—God in the form of a loving personality—and Arjuna, a noble prince who finds himself in despair. In the course of an exchange that stretches over 18 chapters the seed of friendship in Arjuna’s heart evolves to love for Kṛṣṇa, then beyond, to sweet surrender, a self-less devotion toward God. Despite its title (Song of God), Bhagavad-gītā is not a song about God, but rather about the liberation of the soul through loving devotion.  

A devotee is someone in a mood of devotion to another. Devotion is a special kind of relationship, one we don’t find in our everyday lives. It’s a kind of relationship that is not recognised or valued in modern social relations. In the modern view we would be foolish to look for devotion in public institutions or business practices. And yet if we peel back the false sophistication and pretences of modern life, we will find it there: inspiring, animating, motivating, generating hope, creating trust.   

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The purification of desires

Verse 1.9.32

Standing at the door of death, Bhīṣmadeva declares that he will turn his undivided attention to Kṛṣṇa. Although Kṛṣṇa is self-sufficient, he sometimes descends to the material world that he created, in order to enjoy transcendental pleasures. 

By turning his mind to Kṛṣṇa Bhīṣmadeva wishes to intensify his devotion, purify his desires, and join in union with God at the moment of his passing. Prabhupad clarifies that the reason for Kṛṣṇa’s occasional return to the material world is precisely to give to those who are pure devotees the full benefits of devotion. Kṛṣṇa is there to given instruction but this instruction can only be heard by devotees. 

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Seeing with spiritual eyes

Verse 66

The desire of my heart is to see the amorous playful enjoyment of Rādhā and Mohan. The fulfilment of my heart lies in the pure fulfilment of the divine loving relation. The realisation of that loving relation is the goal of any jiva. That is the goal of practice: to deepen and enhance the project of Caitanya Mahaprabhu who appeared in order to full understand and feel what loving relation is, understand by feeling, feeling-understanding. 

We, the ‘villagers’, are ‘fortunate souls’ (puṇyātma) in that we are allowed to observe the couple in this way. This good fortune (puṇya) does not come to us because we deserve it. It is mercy. There is no cause or reason for it. Mercy comes to us only through devotion, through loving relation to God. 

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Surrendering nothing

Somehow we aren’t able to think about surrender without thinking about things. Surrendering is always the thought for surrendering something, some thing, of dispensing with something, of renouncing something, of letting go of something that we possess. It inevitably refers to some property we hold, an to which we feel some kind of natural or acquired right . It might be a material thing, what we commonly call ‘private property’, a book or bicycle or a house. Or it might be a non-material thing, an idea or a thought which invented or are the originator of and to which we therefore have a similar kind of right.

This way of thinking about ‘private property’ is distinctly Western in its origins, even if it has spread to become a global norm. Its most puzzling feature is the problem of its origin.

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