Chapter TEXT Menus
Chapter AUDIO Playlists
When One Meditates on the Form of Sri Krishna, the Conception That Arises in the Heart is Limited by Time and Space. How Can One Transcend Such Limitations and Meditate on Krishna’s Actual Form? When Can One Receive the Mercy of the Lord and be Granted Such Spiritual Realization? What is Spiritual Experience?
Meditation is an action of the mind, and as long as the mind is not fully spiritualized, one’s meditation cannot be spiritual. Bhakti purifies the mind so that it gradually becomes spiritual, and when one meditates with the mind that has become purified in that way, such meditation certainly becomes spiritual. When pure Vaisnavas chant Krishna’s name, the material world cannot touch them, because they are spiritual. Internally, they are situated in the spiritual world as they meditate on Krishna’s daily pastimes and relish the bliss of confidential service.
When you abandon all material doubts and mundane logic, and constantly apply yourself to sri-nama, spiritual realization will quickly arise within you of its own accord. The more you resort to mundane logic, the more you will subjugate your mind to material bondage. The more you strive to initiate the flow of taste for the Holy Names of the Lord, the more your material shackles will become loosened. The spiritual dimension will then manifest in your heart.
The mind is brought to a standstill when it tries to understand ‘spiritual experience truth” through mundane words. The truth can be realized only through culture of spiritual bliss. Give up all argumentation and simply chant sri-nama consciously every day for several days; for some it may require only several weeks. Then the power of Nama will automatically dispel all of your doubts and you will not have to inquire further from anyone in this regard.
That is surely a spiritual experience; to have your doubts dispelled by chanting the Holy Names of the Lord. Combine the chanting with a sound understanding of sambandha-jnana one will obtain supreme spiritual benefit by drinking the liquid nectar of Sri-Krishna-nama with great faith.
Bhagavat-tattva (the fundamental truth regarding Bhagavan) should now become clear. Bhagavan is the one Supreme Absolute Truth, and brahma and Paramatma are subordinate to Him. Although all pervading, Sri Bhagavan resides in the spiritual world in His unique transcendental form which possesses all potencies, and is the supreme person of concentrated existence, knowledge, and bliss; although the master of all potencies, He always remains completely entranced in exuberant association with His pleasure-giving potency (hladini-sakti).
The tatastha-sakti, or marginal potency, is one of Sri Krishna’s innumerable potencies. Issuing forth from this marginal potency, are the entities who are situated between the spiritual potency and the material energy, and which have the potential to associate with either. These entities are known as jiva-tattva. By composition, the jivas are atomic entities of pure consciousness.
These jivas can be bound in the material world because they are tiny, but since they are constituted of pure consciousness, if they simply acquire a little spiritual power, they can also become eternal residents of the spiritual world and obtain supreme transcendental pleasure.
There are two types of jivas: mukta (liberated) and baddha (bound). The jivas who reside in the spiritual world are mukta, whereas those who are shackled by maya and attached to this material world are baddha. There are two types of baddha-jivas: those who are spiritually awake, and those who are spiritually unconscious. Birds, beasts and human beings who do not seek their supreme spiritual benefit are spiritually unconscious, whereas human beings who have adopted the path of Vaisnavism are spiritually awake, for no one except the Vaisnavas genuinely endeavors to attain the supreme spiritual goal. That is why the scriptures have declared that serving Vaisnavas and associating with them is the best of all activities.
Those who are spiritually awake develop taste for the practice of Krishna-nama, chanting Krishna’s Holy Names, on the strength of their faith in scripture, and from this, they easily develop an attraction for serving and associating with Vaisnavas. However, those who are spiritually unconscious cannot awaken their faith in scripture, and thus do not adopt the practice of Krishna-nama. They only worship the Deity of Krishna as a matter of social custom; in India, there are numerous such jivas. Consequently, the taste for associating with Vaisnavas and serving them is not awakened in their hearts.
“Maya is the material function and is a potency of Krishna. This potency is known as the inferior, or the external potency.”
Maya remains far from Krishna and Krishna-bhakti, just as a shadow remains distant from light. Maya manifests the elements earth, water, fire, air, space, mind, and intelligence; the fourteen divisions of planetary systems; and the egoism by which one identifies the material body as the self. Both the gross and subtle bodies of the baddha-jiva are products of maya. When the jiva is liberated, his spiritual body is untainted by matter. The more he is ensnared by maya, the more he is diverted from Krishna; and the more he is aloof from maya, the more he is drawn towards Krishna. The material universe is created by the will of Krishna, just to facilitate the material enjoyment of the baddha-jivas; it is only a jail, and not the eternal residence of the jivas. Unfortunately, the majority of baddha-jivas are walking away from Krishna, and those buddha-jivas that are walking towards Krishna are rare. This cannot be avoided; a jiva is either heading towards or away from Krishna.