Yoga of Success. Part 2
We continue to talk about the “Yoga of Success” based on the Bhagavad-Gita. We talked about the fact that this course includes the following topics: “Life without conflicts”, “Believe in yourself”, “The Power of meditation”, “Purpose”, “Purposefulness” and “The development of an intuitive mind”. In the first part, we covered the first two topics. We continue with meditation.
The power of meditation.
You can start with the verse of Bhagavad-Gita 3.10, where it says that “Be happy by performing this yajna [sacrifice], because it will give you everything you want so that you can live comfortably and eventually find liberation.”
Here we are talking about what a yajna is. Yajna is the very first and most important thing from which a person’s spiritual life begins. What does yajna mean? Sacrifice. And here it is said about what benefits yajna brings: happy comfortable life and return to the spiritual world. Not bad at all! Right?
But in order to get something really valuable, you need to sacrifice something. And it is best to sacrifice the temporal in favor of the eternal. What could it be? Everything that relates to the body, to bodily representations: pleasures, false ego, fruits of labor, comfort, etc. An interesting God: He wants everything to be given to Him, and four regulatory principles are also observed! In fact, it protects us from destructive influences, from unwanted communication.
And what do we get? Freedom from addictions, taste of service, relationships, eternal happy life, problem solving. People are killing themselves to solve their problems, and the devotees just take the rosary in their hands: “Hare Krishna – Hare Krishna,” and that’s it — the problems are solved. But why is all this given to us? In order for us to use it in the service of: Guru, Krishna and Vaishnavas.
But where does it all start? Where does any success begin? With desire. Then meditation and visualization. To implement something serious, you need a plan, a blueprint. Srila Prabhupada said that Krishna consciousness is very simple and practical. Simple life, sublime thinking. And in the course of visualization, details may appear, some moments may be drawn, detailing occurs.
So:
1) Desire
2) Meditation
3) Visualization
4) Detail
5) Efforts
If there is enough serious meditation and visualization, then with appropriate efforts we can come to a result. Krishna fulfills desires.
When Srila Prabhupada said “The International Society for Krishna Consciousness”, at first no one took it seriously. But he had a clear visualization, a clear meditation, and we can see that it happened. There was a vision much more global than what we see now, and he talked about it. Before leaving, he said that he had accomplished only half, the first half of his mission: “I gave spiritual knowledge, I gave spiritual practice, but I did not have time to spiritualize the entire planet. I did not have time to create a spiritual and social structure that would contribute to the development of all people.” And Srila Prabhupada left it to us. If we have a specific desire, meditation, Krishna can fulfill all these desires. It’s not a problem at all.
Destiny.
This is also mentioned in the second and third chapters of the Bhagavad-Gita, but it is revealed in more detail in the fourth. For example, verse 3.35 says: “It is much better to perform one’s own duties, even imperfectly, than to perform someone else’s flawlessly. It is better to die doing one’s duty than to try to do someone else’s, because it is dangerous to follow the path intended for others.”
That is, before you start any business, you need to understand whether it will really bring good? Because people don’t think about it, they suffer, and a suffering person cannot develop spiritually. And that’s why there is svadharma, that is, the nature of a living being. For example, a cat’s nature is to catch mice and meow, a dog’s is to bark and guard the owner. And each of us is unique. In the sense that the consciousness of every living being is under the influence of various combinations of the three energies — the three modes of nature: ignorance, passion and goodness.
And there is also a higher purpose. The highest purpose is the development of one’s relationship with God, that is, spiritual practice. But it is important not to separate these two components. Yoga is a connection. As long as the soul is connected to the body, we are alive. And this contact, this connection is extremely important. If a person tries to serve God, ignoring his nature, an artificial renunciation is obtained. A person tries to get away from himself, he will be deeply unhappy. Although, it seems to serve the Happiest. That is, it is something artificial and something that ultimately will not lead to any result. A waste of time. But if a person acts by nature, and dedicates this activity to the service of God, then this is an ideal combination.
That is, the Lord did not create us all different for nothing, because everyone has their own unique purpose. And if we act in accordance with our purpose, the first thing we will have in life is success. Success means we won’t be jealous. Successful people, as a rule, do not envy anyone, losers envy.
We can devote ourselves to the service of God, but this service also includes the good for everyone else. Srila Prabhupada quotes this verse from Bhagavatam many times (SB 4.31.14): By watering the root of a tree, we benefit the whole tree. By putting food in the stomach, we give energy to the whole body. Similarly, by serving the Supreme Lord. Which is the root of the entire universe, we bring good to everyone.
That is, serving God brings good to everyone. The six signs of Krishna Consciousness are described in the Nectar of Devotion. And these same signs are ideally suited for a person who has realized his destiny:
- Kleshagni – getting rid of suffering
- Shubhada – beneficial for everyone
- Sandrananda-visheshatma – that which gives happiness
- Moksha-laghutakrit – inspiration, one of the manifestations of happiness
- Sudurlabha – bhava-bhakti, achieved extremely rarely
- Krsna-karsini is devotional service that attracts even Krsna.
If a person is in slavery, then this is a very sad and rather boring sight. And, therefore, if God is watching us, then let’s live in a way that is interesting to Him. Someone out there is watching our lives, can you imagine? Spiritual television, there are many, many channels, each channel is the life of each of us, and the Lord turns on our channel and watches.
Purposefulness.
The essence of sacrifice is any activity to satisfy the Complete Whole, God. The method of Krsna consciousness means to use everything that is in the service of Krsna. And we must strive for this goal.
It is amazing how sometimes devotees can associate things with Krishna that seem to be completely unrelated to Him. For example, one devotee is engaged in business: antiques related to samurai. And there was an exhibition where they talked about various exhibits, referring to the ancient book “The Wisdom of the Samurai”. By the end of the exhibition, all visitors of the exhibition wanted to have this book! But it has now been lost, and therefore a book was offered instead, which is the source of the “Wisdom of the Samurai”. What do you think, which one? “Bhagavad-gita”!
Krishna says in the Bhagavad-Gita that He gives intelligence to those who serve Him with love. And with love – it means doing what is important, necessary and interesting for this person. Sometimes parents don’t do what children like, but it just seems that way. If parents really love children, they will do what will benefit them, that is, what is useful for them. If parents love children, they will not do anything harmful or meaningless, so if we want to satisfy Krishna, then we have to do what Krishna wants.
Therefore, if we really want Krsna to give us intelligence, then this is possible only when we are focused on Krsna’s desires. If we are not focused on Krishna’s desires, then He will not give us intelligence. And what is the most important desire of Krishna? So that everyone becomes Krsna conscious. This is the most important desire of Krishna. And our goal.
Development of the intuitive mind.
In order to develop intuitive intelligence, that is, to establish contact with the Supersoul, Krishna in the heart, it is necessary to overcome obstacles. And the biggest obstacle for us is the mind! But Krishna in the Bhagavad-Gita says that the mind cannot be controlled, it cannot be conquered. In order to cope with this obstacle, you need a strong mind. That is, we must develop the mind. But it happens that the mind is so strong that it is even stronger than the mind, because behind the mind is the Divine energy, and behind it is the Lord Himself.
Therefore, if we try to conquer the mind by our own efforts, then we simply will not succeed. But if we connect ourselves with Krsna, if we give Krsna the opportunity to do it, then it will become very easy. That is, instead of coping with the mind, we focus on Krishna.
Once, a devotee asked Srila Prabhupada, “It is very difficult for me to chant Hare Krishna, my mind is very disturbing to listen to the Holy Name, my mind is constantly distracting me.” Who has the same problem? And do you know what Srila Prabhupada said? “And what does the mind have to do with it?! We chant the Hare Krishna mantra and listen to it, and that’s it. And the mind has absolutely nothing to do with it. You don’t have to worry about the mind.”
Most might say this is easier said than done. But if we understand the meaning of the Hare Krishna mantra, and not just repeat it mechanically, then it becomes very easy. And therefore all goals, all tasks and aspirations should be somehow connected with the service of Krishna, then there will be no need to fight with the mind and Krishna will give the necessary intelligence for this.
Here is a good example. There is such a martial art – Aikido, where one’s own strength is not used, but the opponent’s strength is used. That is, if someone attacks you, you are not trying to prevent this person. On the contrary, you help him. If a person tries to hit you, then you step aside a little, take his hand and help him move in the direction of the blow, and the person flies. But you have to hold him so that he doesn’t get killed. You hold it, it falls. You press him – he thinks about his behavior. You let him go – see how he has improved or not. If he attacks, you do the same. And he’s flying back and forth like that. And then either he understands himself, or his forces are running out elementary, and you don’t use your forces in any way, you just serve him, he just flies in the direction of his own blows. Of all the martial arts, this is absolutely unique, because it is based on cooperation and compassion.
In Krsna consciousness, the same thing is the relationship with the mind. Instead of trying to counteract the mind, we will cooperate with it. Focus it on Krishna.
That’s the yoga of success. Yoga means connection. We will always live very productively, dedicating our lives to the service of the Lord and changing not only our lives for the better, but helping many other people to change their lives. Everything is very simple. Do you want to be happy in Krishna consciousness? – be! You have all the possibilities for this. To do this, you need the only thing – you need to take responsibility for your life on yourself, and without throwing it off on anyone, without looking for excuses for your problems.
Hare Krishna.
you can listen to the full version of the lectures here: https://brsswami.com/#s=2&search=%D0%B9%D0%BE%D0%B3%D0%B0%20%D1%83%D1%81%D0%BF%D0%B5%D1%85%D0%B0&p=2
The material was prepared by Elasia Anisimkova based on the lectures of E.S. Bhakti Rasayan Sagar Maharaj