Jayanti » 27 апр 2021, 21:31
TEXT 12
But that sacrifice performed for some material end or benefit or performed ostentatiously, out of pride, is of the nature of passion, O chief of the Bhāratas.
PURPORT
The meaning of worshipping God (including the sacrifice of time, feelings or some objects) is to realize Him Himself, not in anything else. The Vedas speak of some other goals – general religion (dharma), work, sensual life and liberation – only in order to gradually bring one to God Himself.
God surpasses everything and any goals, He is better than all things put together. He is the best of everything we see, and He is the best of everyone and any relationships. The happiness of God-realisation is so strong and sublime that it surpasses even suffering and death many times over. This whole world is nothing compared to God; this is the true result of any spiritual practice and any religion. A person must elevate to the level of God consciousness, and by living in this way, he will always and forever be satisfied and filled with knowledge and happiness.
All we want to get as a result of our preaching is for people to truly realize God. This is the real level of chanting and this is the only real happiness. It is necessary to understand that only such knowledge has value and only such knowledge will solve all problems. We should be grateful to material nature for helping us to realize God by sending sufferings of all kinds. A man who has cognized God will never regret anything and will know the highest happiness. The realization of the greatness of God makes a person completely satisfied, but the realization of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu makes this realization of greatness filled with the feeling of infinite love - such is the higher perfection.
TEXT 13
And that sacrifice performed in defiance of scriptural injunctions, in which no spiritual food is distributed, no hymns are chanted and no remunerations are made to the priests, and which is faithless-that sacrifice is of the nature of ignorance.
PURPORT
Any sacrifice is designed to make people pay attention to God. God does not need any sacrifices, but sacrifices or ritual ceremonies should look like a holiday and point to God, to His greatness and beauty. People worship God for some material goals, but because they turn to God even if they want material success, such worship can eventually lead them to Him.
Worship of God for material goals can be progressive (when it develops and moves to a higher level) and regressive (when it weakens, degrades). When a person tends to focus on the material benefits themselves, the worship of God will ultimately be regressive as, for example, modern civilization, worshipping God in this way, developed sciene, and then, receiving the benefits of science, abandoned religion. If benefits can be obtained in another way, then why do they need God? When people, worshiping God for the sake of blessings, protection, health and prosperity, gradually pay attention to God Himself, they can eventually become cleansed, receive liberation, or develop love for God. That is, in this case the worship of God with an admixture of material goals becomes progressive.
Sacrifices or religious rituals should be performed according to the rules; these rules have no mystical or sacred background, their purpose is to draw people's attention to God. There are descriptions of various rituals, but the point is not in the rituals themselves, but in directing attention to God. Some people tend to look for some innermost meaning in mechanical actions, in which case, looking for them in rituals, they attach their desire to search for mysticism in the performance of rituals dedicated to God. The sacrifice or ritual should focus people's attention on God. One can just sing and think about God, but the ritual adds some external actions to attract and occupy people's senses.
In order to avoid chaos and figments, the scriptures regulate how the ritual or sacrifice should be performed. In the process of performing a ritual, temple service or worship, sanctified food should be distributed. It can be a big feast or some little treats, it all depends on the available funds and the situation. Food occupies people's senses and it is also a form of perception of God. The idea is that when performing certain actions in relation to the Deity or just in the temple, a person begins to think about God or dedicate his senses to Him. God-realisation means that one thinks of God, gradually understands how the material world works, realises oneself and the greatness of God, increases one's devotion to God and attains Him, even while remaining in the material body. This is the path of ideal spiritual development.
In fact, religion does not imply anything else. Having realizing God, a person elevates to the level of perfection, everything else is just a means to this. The problem is people imitate the God realization for the sake of material goals - honor and others. A God-conscious devotee has no material interests, that is the external criterion. A God-conscious devotee knows all spiritual science in practice, which means that he can practically raise other people to the same level. The goal of religion is the realization of God and further - preaching, which would practically elevate those who are preached to the level of knowledge and perception of God. This is the complete formula of all spiritual life. First, a person follows the teachings and eventually elevates to the level of God consciousness. Second, he preaches and helps others to elevate. That is all. This is a complete description of religion, or spiritual life.
As for the rituals, there mantras should be chanted or scripture texts should be read, there should be some distribution of food, then some small payment should be given to the servants so that they have money for the next ritual; a person during the ritual or holiday should experience spiritual uplift, he should have thoughts about God and feelings for Him. Without compliances with such rules, worship is considered to be in ignorance.
In our case, it looks like this: in the first place is the study of Śrīla Prabhupāda's books, understanding philosophy and preaching, in the second place is the chanting and singing of the holy name, then the distribution of prasādam. When the preaching goes "from person to person", the formula looks like a continuous preaching without chanting and singing and without distributing prasādam, but since in this case we directly talk about God, such a preaching is better than any ritual or sacrifice.
During a ritual in the temple, a person in fact may think or may not think about God, but when we directly talk to someone about God, the person thinks about Him one hundred percent, so preaching is the most effective method. Preaching is also better than chanting and singing as such, because it gives the person the basis of spiritual life and convictions, while chanting and singing affects only emotionally. For example, a person hears the singing of Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra and feels happy, tears flow from his eyes, or he sings overwhelmed with great happiness, then under the influence of spiritual feelings he decides to devote his whole life to God. But if he does not have a spiritual education, this impulse of feelings towards God can later take any form or the person may even deviate.
Without training, almost everyone will deviate from the path of pure devotion with a 99% probability, because it is a complex subject. Therefore, Lord Caitanya first raised people to the level of spiritual emotions and then taught them, because without training, people will inevitably deviate. The spiritual world is unlimited, so we can love God by experiencing an unlimited number of feelings for Him in an unlimited number of situations; and we need to elevate to the level of the higher rasas of Gaura-lila - this is our goal.
Preaching and knowledge will always come first, considering that our singing of the holy name does not have a significant impact on people. For these and many other reasons, books and the preaching have a primary and main priority. Not the distribution of prasādam, not the temple worship, not the religious society, not the cult of some gurus, but the books, the books of Śrīla Prabhupāda are the center of everything. This is the only universal formula for preaching in the age of Kali and in all other ages too. And the main acting unit of preaching is the selfless preacher who talks to everyone about spiritual science; the example exactly of such a preacher Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu Himself shows to everyone. He Himself, by His example shows us what is the most important: a wandering preacher who goes everywhere and talks to everyone about God or about spiritual science.
Why is this the main example? Because this is the most effective position and because one such preacher can spiritualize the whole world. And the best example of such a preacher is Śrīla Prabhupāda. In the same way, we write this commentary with the expectation of creating at least one person who would take this path. In fact, we do not take into account anyone else in the commentary – we do not take into account religious materialists, we do not describe or give any gradual paths, we basically describe only the direct path of preaching and look only for those who are aimed at the main thing.
This is the eternal goal of the entire sampradāya: to find one pure devotee or to create many preachers going from person to person. When the main goal is fulfilled, then later society and temples may appear, but all this is secondary; it is important a constant, eternal preaching and then the creation of eternal preachers. This is the main goal. Not the creation of a society, not the creation of temples and not something like that, because without regular preaching no one will be able to understand the highest goal of spiritual life, and in this case all temples and everything else become meaningless.
If a person does not elevate to the highest level of Kṛṣṇa consciousness - to the level of understanding of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu - then the highest spiritual goal is not achieved and all his efforts, although they may be spiritual and useful for society, have not led him to complete success. If a person does not know God, the attainment of all kinds of spiritual rasas is not complete knowledge. Preaching implies the realization of Lord Caitanya who stand above the whole world, above all kinds of spiritual moods. Spiritual knowledge in the highest development is the knowledge about one Him, all-attractive, and devotion to one Him. The attainment or knowledge of all the other rasas, as well as the various expansions of God are just stages of spiritual development. Without following the path pointed by Lord Caitanya Himself and Śrīla Prabhupāda, such a position cannot be achieved.
Therefore, all our efforts are directed only to this one goal. But the point is not that Lord Caitanya lacks worshippers, but that the realization of Him is the highest value and the highest rasa of the spiritual world. We need this to ourselves first - to understand the meaning of the spiritual path. People do not know God, but even those who know something about Him do not know the ultimate goal of spiritual life. Lord Caitanya is God, therefore He rewards the best and the most exalted. He gives the best, but we do not yet understand such values, therefore He establishes His sampradāya, the preachers of which explain to us what the highest value is. That is exactly the kind of people we are looking for or creating; all other, secondary religiosity does not interest us.
As a result should be created a mature, intelligent, unselfish preacher who mainly thinks about preaching and seeks ways to enlighten people. This is a person who may be clean or not quite clean, cleanliness is less important here, but it is important his significant interest in spiritual science. This is a person who reads with adour the scriptures, who can correctly understand the nuances of spiritual science, who is not too attached to matter, including not attached to various formalities within religion. This is the person who by studying the scriptures, practicing, will go everywhere to preach in various forms, and eventually, in the process of such enlightenment of people, he will be able to come under the control of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu. This is the highest spiritual perfection, there is nothing higher than this. This is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
TEXT 14
The austerity of the body consists in this: worship of the Supreme Lord, the brāhmaṇas, the spiritual master, and superiors like the father and mother. Cleanliness, simplicity, celibacy and nonviolence are also austerities of the body.
PURPORT
A spiritual master is a mahā-bhāgavata in the highest stage of spiritual life, or a spiritual master is one who is a follower of the perfect mahā-bhāgavata, Śrīla Prabhupāda. We do not follow any other spiritual masters. There are gurus on the Vaikuṇṭha level, there are gurus on the Kṛṣṇa-līlā level, or some other gurus and we pay our respects to them, but we follow only mahā-bhāgavata guru, a pure devotee of Lord Caitanya. Such a guru knows both Vaikuṇṭha and Goloka Vṛndāvana, but his devotion is directed to Kṛṣṇa, to Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu.
We also respect real brāhmaṇas (thinking people), father and mother, and preach to all of them. We preach to all types of gurus, to all types of brāhmaṇas, and to all fathers and mothers all over the world - this is what we do. We respect everyone, and therefore we go from person to person preaching the message of Śrīla Prabhupāda's books. But in addition to preaching, we also need to continuously learn ourselves in order to realize God for ourselves.
Since the pure devotee and those who follow the path pointed by him are always busy preaching the science of God, in general we are not very interested in the various Vedic regulations, rituals and the like. If one is absorbed in the science of God and the preaching of the science of God, this is higher than the secondary precepts. But such a sermon must be selfless, both in terms of money and in terms of recognition. There may be some elements of self-interest in the preaching, however, if the preaching is conducted mainly for the sake of money or recognition, in this case it can lead to all kinds of anarthas or even to degradation.
Nowadays there are many gurus who preach for the sake of money and eventually become ordinary karmīs. There is no value in self-serving preaching for the sake of money, honor and similar goals. A lot of people preach just to get the title of guru or to have everyone "look in their mouth"; this may be in the beginning, but we must move away from such tendencies, because such a preaching has no value. This kind of problem is solved by paying attention to the scriptures and establishing a network of preachers. All who for some reason decide to start worshipping us or respecting us should learn to preach and practice it regularly.
Our task is not to accept the worship of people, and not to lecture for the sake of lectures, praise each other, or be surrounded by fools grateful to us, but to teach people; thus you can elevate to the level of uttama yourself and elevate others.
TEXT 15
Austerity of speech consists in speaking truthfully and beneficially and in avoiding speech that offends. One should also recite the Vedas regularly.
PURPORT
Since we preach all the time, everything we say is directly or indirectly related to God. Sometimes people like it, sometimes they do not, but we keep on preaching. Preaching is not a sectarian imposition of our point of view on others, preaching is always well-reasoned and can be very multifaceted. Preaching on the street is some kind of short communication with people, which sometimes turns into more detailed dialogues. Preaching on the Internet also has its own specifics.
In this verse, God speaks of reading as reciting, speaking out loud what is memorized. However, reading as such (not aloud) is completely analogous to speech, since when a person reads, he pronounces the text he reads inside himself. Therefore, the process of reading itself also refers to the austerity of speech. And reading the books of the guru, Śrīla Prabhupāda, is the speech or perception of the speech of Śrīla Prabhupāda.
We preach to scientists, artists, politicians and all other categories of people, big and small. When we talk to scientists, we switch to their language whenever possible, and when we talk to politicians, we take into account their view of the world and their problems. When we preach to big businessmen, we never ask them for money; and we are suspicious of all great preaching projects that are tied to money. In general, we have no ideas to embody the preaching in gross matter, such as, for example, to build temples or communities, although such proposals come from time to time.
Sometimes devotees can organize a center to gather together, but in general this is not too important and it is always better to go along the path of least investment of money and less dependence on money. We also avoid religious positions in the spiritual society, because they are meaningless. We can take some position, but in this case, everyone should clearly understand that they will have to distribute of Śrīla Prabhupāda's books. We are generally not interested in building temples and organizing temple life, holding festivals, pilgrimages, charity, and distributing prasādam, unless it is directly related to the preaching and distribution of Śrīla Prabhupāda's books.
Some might say that the book distribution implies expanding the functions of society and, therefore, the addition of such activities as the building of temples, the creation of communities, the holding of holidays and the like. There may be some truth in this, but let others do it, and we would better avoid such things and continue to preach. Basically, all formalized societies, communities, charities and other similar ones are either materialistic or corrupt, so there is not much point in dealing with them. Lord Caitanya did not create anything external, and we should mainly aim at this approach.
Śrīla Prabhupāda created temples, communities, schools and much more, but He has set an example for millennia, an example of the embodiment of almost all kinds of spiritual principles and structures. An example is given, experience is gained, including negative ones, something will be created again, sometimes we can participate in this, but in general it is better to stay away from any big money and any projects related to money, except publication of books.
When we are offered money or when we are offered to build a temple, village or city of devotees, we refuse. Someone may build it, we can later preach there; that is all. We basically do not need to participate in such activities. Many gurus and sannyāsīs already have fallen down and are mired in money because of the idea of "expanding" their preaching in that way. They wanted to show the greatness of their religion or their own greatness by increasing the number of disciples and temples; we do not follow such ideas and expand our influence by completely different methods. Moreover, with the help of our methods, all such communities and temples, and even all the temples of the world, can be spiritualized.
Generally in the age of Kali, temples lose their significance and become filled with ignorant cultists disguised as priests, brāhmaṇas, sannyāsīs and congregation. We preach in such temples, but we also preach in factories, offices and everywhere else. There is not much difference for us between a temple or a factory, they are both well suited for preaching.
The followers of modern religions, in fact, are not much different from materialists. The vast majority of priests, brāhmaṇas, sannyāsīs, and congregation are formally declare their devotion to God and seek only their own well-being. Theoretically, such people should be closer to God than ordinary materialists, but in practice it can be the other way around. Also, the followers of various Vaiṣṇava denominations and their gurus are often materialists who profess anything. They quote the scriptures without understanding their meaning and without proper implementation. Such religiosity, perhaps, gives some benefit, but generally, in comparison with the activity of Kali, such religions are helpless and do not change anything anywhere.
Judging by the way Lord Caitanya's goals are realized, He is not very fond of even religious countries, let alone individual religions. Lord Caitanya preaches mainly in the centers of atheism, rather than within any religion. First it was the USA, centered in New York, then the USSR, centered in Moscow, and next will be China, centered in Beijing. Both the USA and the USSR were strongholds of materialism and atheism, not religiosity (despite the formal religiosity of the USA), and exactly there it was a surge of interest in spiritual science. Similarly it will be in China.
One way or another, a devotee preaches everywhere, and everywhere there may be success or a devotee preaches externally without success, in many cases it does not matter. Also, we should mainly preach in our own country, because we know better the mentality of its inhabitants. It is not necessary to imitate the ācārya and strive to go "to the ends of the earth" for the sake of preaching – where we are, there is good.