varnasrama - as leaning on a stick...

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Kadamba Kanana Swami on "how to avoid daivi varnasrama dharma" if at all

posible...

I found it interesting, any feedback about this from our maharathis...

 

 

>VARNASRAMA

 

>I was contemplating a little further about our relation to varnasrama

>because many devotees stress the point that we need varnasrama. They are

>really strong about this that varnasrama is high time. I am not against

>varnasrama, I think it's fine. But what we are going to do with varnasrama,

>what is the value of it?

 

>Then I got this kind of analogy in my mind when I thought, actually a

>devotee stands on the legs of hearing and chanting. Those are his legs. But

>because in the beginning he is not able to get full satisfaction in hearing

>and chanting, he has to lean on a stick - and that's varnasrama. So he uses

>this stick for his support. Of course some people can't walk at all and

>they sit in a wheelchair, so they are right in the middle of it. They

>completely identify with varnasrama.

 

>But the more you become absorbed in hearing and chanting, not only absorbed

>in the sense of the practice of it. Absorbed in hearing and chanting means

>a lot more than the practice of hearing and chanting. If we think of

>Haridasa

>Thakura, he is the personification of chanting, there is no one who is

>chanting like Haridasa Thakura. So in one purport I read Haridasa Thakura

>was chanting for the satisfaction of the Lord. [break] ... pure desires.

>I've chanted because I want to go back to the spiritual world. I've chanted

>out of fear of the material energy. I've chanted for many reasons but have

>I really chanted with the idea I'm going to satisfy the Supreme Lord? No,

>not easy to chant like that.

 

>HOW DO I KNOW IF KRSNA IS SATISFIED

 

>And when the Lord is satisfied one will know that very easily. How do we

>know, how do you know if Krsna is satisfied? This question is sometimes

>asked and people put a very difficult face: "How do you know? How do you

>know if Krsna is satisfied?"

 

>"I do all this service but how do I know if Krsna is satisfied?"

>"Ask your spiritual master."

>"Guru maharaja, is this satisfying?"

 

>Like that. No, it is even more simple than that. You know that Krsna is

>satisfied with your service when YOU are satisfied. It's very easy. When

>you are satisfied then you know that Krsna is satisfied. Of course it's not

>meant to say that "Okay, I'm satisfied, I'm satisfied." Not like that, you

>have to be REALLY satisfied, no

>cheating. The real thing, really satisfied. And I said IN DEVOTIONAL

>SERVICE, not that when you are satisfied with something mundane Krsna is

>satisfied with that. I said, with devotional service. So it's as simple as

>that. Because there is the direct relationship between Krsna and the livign

>entity and it is very simple.

 

>When one is fully absorbed in serving the Supreme Lord, automatically one

>becomes satisfied. That is the nature of devotional service.

>Yayatma suprasidati. Suprasidati is, well, of course you could try to

>translate it like "supersatisfied" because sidhati means the platform of

>complete perfection therefore it is satisfied. Sidhati, all transcendental

>potency is there. And pratistha rupena means

>full-fledged, completely. And su magnifize it once more, so therefore one

>understands, suprasidati is not just satisfied but is like the mother of

>all satisfaction. The ultimate of all satisfaction, nothing more satisfying

>than that. That comes from devotional service.

 

>So that is the principle. So if one chants in such a way then

>naturaly where is the question of leaning on the stick? Such a

>devotee who is suprasidati will take the stick and throw it away. Shew

>[makes a gesture of throwing away a stick] there goes varnasrama. He is

>naham vipra... he is not to be designated. He is simply gopi-bhartuh... he

>is simply designated as the servant of the servant of the servant of the

>gopis who are engaged in the service of Krsna, who are always fixed up in

>their commitment to serving Krsna.

 

>VARNASRAMA IN PERSPECTIVE TO DEVOTIONAL SERVICE

 

>So this is the conclusion, this is where I want to go to. It is a matter of

>commitment. One has to make commitment to satisfy Krsna. One has to be

>completely committed to that, to satisfy guru and Krsna. Then one is

<satisfied in Krsna consciousness. Then Krsna consciousness is very, very

>nice.

 

>So the other way around also. If one is not satisfied in Krsna

>consciousness then naturally one will immediately start looking

<again, "Where is that stick of varnasrama? Where did I throw it? I threw

>it away before, where did I leave that stick of varnasrama? I want it

>back!"

>And then again you will be more interested in that. But when one is fully

>satisfied in spiritual life, yes, then it is not required.

 

>Of course, in the initial stages we may not be fully satisfied

>therefore we do need varnasrama, I am not speaking against

>varnasrama, but I just wanted to put it in perspective to devotional

>service. I was not making an attempt to pass a judgement about varnasrama,

>say that it is not good and that we should not, and this and that. No, no,

>no. All I was trying to do was I was trying to point out the perspective in

>relation to devotional service. And that devotional service is completely

>transcendental. And that as soon as one becomes completely transcendental

>then one needs no material support at all. Then one can completely find all

>support within the transcendental. So this is really the essence of

>devotional service. And this is where we should go to. So this comes by

>making the commitment and that is our position, that somehow or other we

>are making the commitment.

 

>FAITH IN THE PROCESS

 

>Like Srila Prabhupada says, we should become at least

>madhyama-adhikari, so that means we should at least develop the faith in

>the process that it works. We should have firm faith that the process

>works. And when we have firm faith that it works, then

>naturally we will fully get into it. Madhyama-adhikari has firm faith in

>the scriptures therefore he is ready to trust the scriptures and to arrange

>his life on the basis of the scriptures. The kanistha-adhikari has weak

>faith, therefore he is thinking "Well, these scriptures are not so

>practical. It's

>easier said than done. I will follow that but at the same time I'm also

>making sure that on the material side things are nicely arranged." And in

>this way he is betting on two horses. He is betting on both, right? He is

>making all these material things very certain and sure.

 

>Just like sometimes Prabhupada said there is a man who comes to

>Vrndavana and he takes vanaprastha, and he lives in Vrndavana, but he has a

<big bank balance sitting in the bank from where he gets his pension and

>everything is taken care of. In this way he is maintaining his material

<attachment. So Srila Bhaktisiddhanta

<condemned this as having the anchor out the wedding party

<[indistinct] the boat, it doesn't work, in other words. So one

>cannot try and bet on the material side at the same time.

 

>Again, I am not speaking against making the necessary arrangments but I'm

<saying it's as simple as we can get away with, which in the West is already

<complicated enough. In the West it's quite complicated to live as simple as

<possible. So let us do at least that and not complicate it unnecessary, so

<that we have the maximum time to become absorbed in hearing and chanting to

>a point where we are actually doing it for the pleasure of Krsna,

>associating with Krsna, where we realize that all the devotional

<principles,

>the sixty-four regulative principles of devotional service are designed for

>association with Krsna. Then these activities are the opportunities to

>associate with Krsna.

 

>DEVOTIONAL SERVICE IS NOT A TORTURE

 

>Devotional service gives us the opportunity to associate with Krsna. It's

>not that we are following some process to get it, Krsna consciousness.

>Following this process, this horrible process,

>ninefold torture process of devotional service, where we have to be

>tortured and tortured until the end result is, bloop... Krsna

>consciousness. "Jay!

>Bliss! Nectar! I'm there now!"

 

>No, Krsna is there, this devotional service is an opportunity to

>associate with Krsna. Krsna is right there, right to be found within the

>activities of devotional service. This is the direct connection with Krsna.

>Therefore within that one can find satisfaction. It's not that we engage in

>devotional service and forget to remember Krsna. "I did all this devotional

>service for thirty years, never thought of Krsna." That's not the idea. Our

>process is one of remembering Krsna. And devotional service is meant to

>help us

>remember Krsna. And when you remember Krsna, He is so nice, naturally you

>want to serve Him, out of affection.

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