How can I become sincere?

[Gauracandra]

This week’s Srila Siddhaswarupananda television program is on ‘sincerity’.

 

Srila Siddhaswarupananda: First thing is maybe there are some people here who have questions. [silence] Anyone? [silence] Ok, now you’re on the hot spot, not me [laughter]

 

Female Audience Member: I would like to know how I can be sincere to please God and why am I not?

 

Srila Siddhaswarupananda: I think you are sincere. You didn’t use to be but now you are. When you were younger you thought you could live loosely and be happy. At that time you came in contact with devotees of the Lord and you thought “I like this…” but you didn’t. You thought you were fooling the devotees.

 

Then you went away trying to enjoy life as a materialist. And you were not happy. So you began to think “He was right…” Is this not a fact? [audience member nods yes]. So there was duplicity and now there is no duplicity. You thought “I have already tried to be the center and it does not work. I now have children and a husband who does not want me to love God. What should I do?”

 

Previously it was easy. Now there is hardship. When things aren’t so easy materially, then it is easier to remember God. Queen Kunti used to pray “Let me always be in a position where I am not secure.” If you think you are secure then you think this material world is your home.

 

My spiritual master Srila Bhaktivedanta Swami said there is only one qualification – “Are you sincere.” Otherwise all your study… Some people act duplicitly with their spiritual teacher and so maneuver to be in charge. They think a guru lords over others and want to be in that position. They always want to be the secretary, or the driver… They think by doing this they can get the inside track. Duplicity can come in all kinds of forms. Some of those who were the closest to Bhaktivedanta Swami, to Bhaktisiddhanta Swami, some of the closest physically never knew them. Though they had this opportunity from a pure devotee still they did not know them.

 

Some think material qualification like learning and scholarship makes them qualified. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati was a great scholar and the spiritual master of my spiritual master. He was so deep and the words he uses I can’t pronounce half of them. You need a dictionary with you when you read his writings. But if you think you must be a scholar like Srila Bhaktisiddhanta to be qualified then you are wrong. His spiritual master was Srila Gaurakishore Das Babaji who was illiterate. And when Srila Bhaktisiddhanta first approached Gaurakishore for initiation he was rejected and told “No, you are too ignorant.” Srila Bhaktisiddhanta kept going back and kept getting rejected. Finally, he made up in his mind that he would ask one more time and if rejected again would leave his body as it wasn’t worth living in this world any longer. This is when Srila Gaurakishore accepted him.

 

There is no material qualification. God will lead you to His representative. Each of you here is hearing a certain amount depending on your sincerity. As you become more sincere you hear more. How many people are posing thinking they can trick God? Caitanya Mahaprabhu gives the condition of how a person can know God. A sincere person can chant the Holy Name of the Lord by being more tolerant than a tree, feeling lower than straw in the street, giving all respects to others and accepting none for oneself. Then you can chant constantly.

 

This goes against all the modern pop psychology. They say “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the greatest one of all?” Then you are to imagine the mirror responding “You are, you are.” This is one of the techniques of a famous positive thinker on PBS. A positive thinker does this because they don’t see they have shelter. A person described by Lord Caitanya as feeling lower than straw in the street and giving respect to others, this person, though feeling lower than straw, does not feel insecure. Thus they can chant constantly. The nature of the Holy Name is that it is the same as God.

 

In this state I can totally admit and open up myself completely. A person in this condition knows 100% with faith and knowledge that God loves them unconditionally. This is a very comfortable position. You feel repentant but secure.

 

Now you are asking “How can I become sincere?” If you weren’t sincere you wouldn’t ask that question. Perhaps you would think you would be rejected. If you felt you would be rejected you would not ask that question. How can an insincere man become sincere? Only by cleaning the heart. So they must chant the Holy Name. The Holy Name is both the end and the means to the end.