Seminar on Madhurya Kadambini | HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj | Sofia Bulgaria | Oct 11, 2025
jaya rādhā-mādhava kuñja-vihārī
gopījana-vallabha giri-vara-dhārī
yaśodā-nandana vraja-jana-rañjana
yamunā-tīra-vana-cārī
Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare
Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare
Jaya Prabhupāda Jaya Prabhupāda
Prabhupāda Jaya Prabhupāda
nama oṁ viṣṇu-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tale
śrīmate bhaktivedānta-svāmin iti nāmine
namas te sārasvate deve gaura-vāṇī-pracāriṇe
nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi-pāścātya-deśa-tāriṇe
jaya śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu-nityānanda
śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda
Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare
Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj:
Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura wrote one small work to describe the different stages of bhakti. The stages are mentioned in the first canto of the Bhāgavatam. They’re also mentioned in the Nectar of Devotion. But a complete explanation of the different steps are not given there. So in this work he analyzes the different stages with some interesting details. The title Madhurya Kadambini means a sweet group of clouds. So of course this refers to India which is often very hot. And so when it’s hot season or summer season people are praying please let it rain. And if they see a little cloud on the horizon they get very excited [Laughs]. So this great cloud is compared to the mercy of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. And the mercy of Lord Caitanya nourishes the seed of bhakti planted in the heart. So just at the approach of that cloud of mercy of Lord Caitanya the whole world becomes full of joy. So Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura compares himself to a dried up tree in the desert and he hopes to get some of that rain of mercy. And of course if we get the rain the seeds begin to grow nicely.
So of course there’s some comparison of bhakti being a seed planted in the heart is given in Caitanya Caritāmṛta. If there’s no seed, bhakti will not manifest. So someone has to plant the seed. And so therefore it is the mercy of Guru and Krishna that plant the seed of bhakti. And once it’s planted in the jīva, then the jīva himself has to make it grow. And as the plant grows it grows through different stages. The goal ultimately is that it gives flowers and fruit. But to get to the flower and fruit requires some skill, some care. So if we don’t get the mercy, no seed, so no bhakti, no prema. But even if we get the seed, if we don’t take care of it and it dies still we don’t get prema. So definitely mercy is necessary but the effort of the devotee is also necessary.
So in devotional service, the central object of worship, is the Supreme Lord. And through the process of bhakti, we establish a loving relationship with the Lord. And this relationship is called rasa. So manifestation of rasa in the jīva is the fruit. And the Lord himself is rasa. So this of course is explained in detail in Nectar of Devotion of Rupa Goswami. This is also a unique feature of our Sampradaya. We speak of Madhurya rasa, Vatsalya, etc. We don’t speak about that in other Sampradayas [Laughs]. So Rupa Goswami in Nectar of Devotion has analyzed this in great detail. So he’s called the rasa acharya. But this is not some new invention of Rupa Goswami. It’s actually in the Upanishads, the Vedas. So we have this very famous text from Taittiriya Upanishad, ‘raso vai saḥ’. ‘Saḥ’ means he, which means the Lord. The Lord is rasa. And then it says ‘rasaṁ hy evāyaṁ labdhvānandī bhavati’, attaining that rasa, the jīva becomes blissful. If we want eternal happiness, we have to have rasa. To have rasa, we have to recognize the Supreme Lord and establish a relationship with the Lord. And the process of doing that is bhakti yoga.
So in this first chapter, Vishvanatha Chakravarti Thakur glorifies Krishna as rasa. And he quotes this verse from the tenth canto of Bhagavatam. So when Krishna enters the arena of Kamsa, different people see him in different ways. He is one Krishna, but everyone sees him quite differently. Because the rest of them saw him as a thunderbolt. A thunderbolt is a very hard, tough. So though Krishna was only 8 years old or so, 12 years old when he went there. And looked very delicate when he fought with the wrestlers, he was a better opponent than them. And of course, all the other people also saw him in different ways. The men of Mathura looked at Krishna with great astonishment, that’s called adbhuta rasa. The women expressed madhurya rasa for Krishna. The cowherd boys saw him as their relative and their friend, sakhya rasa. And they joked with him, that’s called hasya rasa. The friends of Kamsa, who were all the evil kings, they saw him as a punisher. So he looked very angry, that’s called raudra rasa. Vasudeva and Devaki saw Krishna as their child, that’s vatsalya rasa.
And they looked at him with a great lamentation, that’s called karuna rasa. Kamsa saw Krishna as death, that’s fear rasa. The unintelligent, that is the priests of Kamsa, saw Krishna as a material body, they looked at him with disgust. The yogis saw Krishna as the absolute truth, santa rasa. The Vrishnis saw Krishna as their worshipable deity, that’s dasya rasa. Simultaneously, for different people, Krishna stimulated different rasas. So there are five primary rasas and seven secondary rasas, and Krishna was all of these [Laughs]. So all of the different forms of the Lord Krishna manifest all these rasas completely. So therefore, Krishna is the ultimate object of worship. Of course, we can establish a relationship with any authorized form of the Lord and have rasa. So we establish this relationship through the process of bhakti yoga.
This process is spiritual, not material. Karma yoga, Varnashrama, Jnana yoga, Astanga yoga are material. They arise from the gunas of material nature. Bhakti arises from Krishna Himself, it is very different. And we should never equate bhakti with other processes. So Bhakti is independent. It does not depend on anyone else, like Krishna does not depend on anyone else. It appears by the will of Krishna. Just as the avatars appear by the will of the Lord, so bhakti also appears in the material world by the will of the Lord. In other words, material punya will not create bhakti. It depends on the Lord only [Laughs]. However that bhakti, though the Lord is very merciful, likes to give to everybody, He gives to the devotees. In Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says, ‘I am equal to everybody, but I am more equal to my devotees’ [Laughs]. [Laughs] So Krishna favors the devotees, despite the fact that He is equal to everybody [Laughs]. Of course, Krishna responds to everybody according to their qualification. So Karmis, Jnanis and Yogis are not qualified, so the Lord does not give bhakti. They don’t want [Laughs]. The devotees are qualified, so He gives to them.
Okay so the devotees get the mercy of the Lord in the form of bhakti. Then those devotees take that bhakti and they distribute it to others. So essentially what the devotees are doing, they are distributing Krishna’s mercy. So of course, we have different types of devotees. In the 11th Canto of Bhagavatham, we have the description of the kanisthas. They are not considered to be real devotees. They are not practicing pure bhakti. They are called devotees because they at least worship the deity of the Lord. But in pure bhakti, we worship the Lord to serve the Lord with pure love to get prema, nothing else. The kanistha worships the Lord, but he has other desires. He may have a desire to get material benefits, so he will worship Krishna. He may be worshipping simply because it’s tradition. His father did, his grandfather did, his great grandfather worshipped Krishna, so he worshipped Krishna. It’s a tradition, so he follows, but he doesn’t know what he’s doing [Laughs]. Or he may think Krishna is nice to worship, but he’s like a devata, like anybody else. So such devotees the kanisthas they worship the Lord, but they don’t have knowledge and they don’t associate with the devotees. So they don’t preach. So, therefore, kanisthas are not qualified to be preachers [Laughs].
So, we have madhyamas and we have uttamas. So, the madhyama, by definition, associates with devotees, consequently he gets knowledge of pure bhakti and practices pure bhakti. He worships the Lord, he avoids the non-devotees. And he gives mercy to the innocent. So, the madhyama is the preacher, he is the one who is giving mercy to those who have no knowledge. He’s not a perfect devotee. He’s doing sadhana bhakti, but he is the preacher. He is the medium of the Lord’s mercy.
Of course, the uttama is even a better medium of the Lord’s mercy. So, the uttama is situated in upper bhava or in prema. No sadhana, no anarthas. So, that bhakti is very strong, very pure, very powerful. So, he is the best person to give out mercy. So, why do we say the madhyama is the person who gives out the mercy? So, the uttama does not make distinctions. He doesn’t see people who are ignorant. Everybody is a great devotee [Laughs]. So, therefore, why we have to preach? So, therefore, it is the madhyama who has this desire to preach, because he sees the ignorant people and he wants to give them mercy. So, this madhyama devotee, is the one, we can say he is like the wire delivering electricity. Of course, the wire has to be a good conductor. So, in this world, we use copper wire usually. There are better conductors. Gold is a better conductor. But we don’t see anybody with gold wires in their house [Laughs]. It’s too expensive, too rare. So, best, but nevertheless, brighter light, but nevertheless rare. So, the copper wire we use because it is practical for us. Not the best conductor, but it’s okay [Laughs]. So, therefore, the madhyama devotee is like the copper wire, okay [Laughs] he can carry the electricity at least [Laughs]. He still has anarthas, he is not like the prema bhakta but he can still let the mercy flow [Laughs]. So, therefore, the madhyama adhikari is the one who is the main distributor of Krishna’s mercy in the form of bhakti. So, this, of course, is also reflected in Lord Caitanya’s teachings. Lord Caitanya is encouraging everyone to be a preacher. Everyone should go out and teach about Krishna. So one who accepts Krishna as his guru, is capable of giving that knowledge to other people.
So how the madhyama gives out mercy is, he gives out bonafide teachings [Laughs]. And those who are at a lower level, the kanisthas, they are not qualified for giving the mercy. They respect the deity, but they don’t respect other people. So, the uttama, of course, is the best devotee. But he is not so inclined to give out mercy. Because he sees the Lord spread everywhere, giving prema everywhere. And he is also very rare. Of course, Jiva Goswami also explains that sometimes this uttama will make distinctions and he gives the example of Narada Muni. So in any case, this bhakti is coming from Krishna and is channeled through the madhyama devotees.
So as I said, this bhakti is independent, does not depend on Karma, Jnana or yoga or anything else. So, there is often this idea that in order to do pure bhakti, first we have to purify ourself and come to sattva guna. And to come to sattva guna, then we have to do Varnashrama and become a brahmana. So, you cannot do pure bhakti unless you are a brahmana. But this is rejected by the Bhagavatam. Because Bhagavatam says, even the dog-eater, if he chants the holy name of the Lord once purely, he is better than a brahmana. Being a dog-eater he was in tamo guna [Laughs]. But by doing bhakti, he became greater than the brahmana. Bhakti itself is nirguna, beyond the gunas, so by doing bhakti, we transcend even sattva guna. We should never think that to attain prema through pure bhakti, requires us to do Varnashrama or Karma yoga, Jnana yoga or Astanga yoga. Our goal is prema, not sattva guna.
So, as I said, bhakti is from Krishna’s Swarupa Shakti, his internal energy. It is not from the material world. So, it cannot depend on karma, Jnana and yoga, which are in the gunas of the material world. So Bhakti does not depend on other processes. We can do other processes, but it doesn’t depend on it. So for instance the associates of Lord Caitanya, chanting the holy name they were doing bhakti, they were also being brahmanas or kshatriyas or vaisyas or sudras in the varnashrama system [Not clear] karma yoga. But they did not depend upon their varna duties to purify them and make their bhakti better. They performed their duties in varna to support themselves and their families, that’s all [Laughs]. So, it had nothing to do with their bhakti at all [Laughs]. So, we can do these things as long as they don’t interfere with the process of pure bhakti. In Nectar of Devotion, Rupa Goswami also says that this Jnana or Vairagya may be a little bit favorable in the beginning [Laughs]. But if it becomes more than a little bit, then it dries up the heart, hardens the heart. Bhakti melts the heart. Jnana and Vairagya harden the heart [Laughs]. [Not clear] going in opposite directions.
So, we also have to be careful when we start doing other processes that they don’t interfere with the progress of bhakti. So these other processes in the gunas have a lot of rules. The rules are there in order to maintain some physical or mental purity. And if you break any of the rules, the whole process will not give this result. So, of course, in Bhagavatam we have examples, they do a sacrifice, they make one mistake and you get opposite results [Laughs]. So, if you do a yajna, but you don’t take a bath before you do it, then no result. You do the yajna, you forget to do achaman, no result [Laughs]. You do the yajna but before that you touch the dog, no result. You do the yajna before that, you saw a dead body pass, no result. You do a yajna , you do it at the wrong time, you do it at the rahukala or whatever, bad time, then no result [Laughs]. So, the body has to be pure, the mind has to be pure, components have to be pure, ingredients have to be pure. Everything has to have very, very exact qualifications.
Bhakti does not require all these rules. So, whether you are pure or impure, it gives results. Ajamila was not pure at all, he was the most impure, tamasic person, but he chanted the name Narayana and he destroyed all of his karmas. So the effect of chanting the name of the Lord [Not clear] bhakti does not depend on the place, time, purity or anything. Of course, to practice bhakti successfully and seriously, we need faith. But even without faith, bhakti has effect. So, if we get accidental bhakti, like accidentally chanting the name of Krishna, or Ajamila naming his son Narayana, it has effect. Of course, without faith, when we chant, yes, it gives effect, destroys your karmas, it will not give prema. But, the final result of yoga and Jnana is to destroy all your karmas, that’s the extent, nothing more than that. And that is achieved very easily, by chanting the name accidentally, with no faith. So, in other words, without faith, we get great purification, just by chanting the name of the Lord accidentally.
So, therefore, the supreme process for everyone is bhakti. It is for everybody, and it is independent. It does not depend on any other process. It is self-manifesting. Bhakti produces bhakti. Of course, we say that for pure bhakti, we need faith. Where does faith come from? Mercy of devotees [Laughs]. Where does mercy of devotees come from? Krishna. So, everything comes from Krishna and bhakti, not from material world. So, bhakti produces bhakti. It is self-manifesting. And, without bhakti, karma, Jnana and yoga will not give the results. It gives life to all the other processes. So if you want svarga loka but you don’t worship Vishnu or Krishna, you don’t get svargaloka. If you do Jnana and yoga and you don’t respect Krishna, you don’t get liberation. So, in other words, all other processes depend on bhakti, even a little bhakti. And, bhakti itself does not depend on anything else.
Bhakti is like the Supreme Lord. So, Krishna, his name, his form and qualities are non- different from Krishna. His name, form and qualities are non-different from Krishna. So, bhakti is also non-different from Krishna. But, karma, jnana and yoga are different from Krishna, they belong to the material world. So, therefore, bhakti is in a very special position. It’s perfect like Krishna.
Okay. Any question there?
Q & A
1) We use Yoga system to preach Krishna consciousness, even though they know the yoga, or karma or other system are not good and they are not perfect as bhakti, but in order to attract people they use yoga platform and then they introduce people slowly to bhakti yoga. Is this correct?
So, we can use many things to attract people. But, in the process, we should not also become attracted to those processes and give up our bhakti. So, yes, we can use anything for Krishna. So, we also use computers for Krishna. We use microphones for Krishna. But, we don’t get too absorbed in these things. In bhakti, we have what is called Yukta-Vairagya.
So, we don’t just reject everything. We try to employ things in the service of Krishna. So, that way, we can employ yoga or any other thing in order to get people to become attracted to Krishna. But, we should never think, well, I have to do the yoga, otherwise, I’m not pure enough to do bhakti. That’s a misconception. Or, if I don’t do my yoga meditation every day, I won’t be able to concentrate on Krishna. So, therefore, we can use anything. But, we have to be careful that we don’t get contaminated by it.
2) So, bhakti is not dependent on anything else. Still, we see that the biological discourse is not dependent on anything else. But, we have different kinds of faith. And, someone is able to accept Krishna consciousness. Someone else gets in contact with the devotee, gets in contact with the process. And, still, he cannot see it. That’s the problem.
So, faith means that a person will accept the bhakti scriptures as true. And, he is willing to follow the instructions given there. So, that faith requires some cause. But, it cannot be a material cause. Otherwise, bhakti would be caused by something material. But, it’s spiritual. So, it cannot be a material cause. So, material punyas will not create faith. They can create a faith, a different faith.One develops faith in sattvic processes. And, through punyas, a person can turn towards dhyana.
So, what produces this faith in the truth, accepting the truth of bhakti scriptures? So, as I said, it’s the mercy of devotees. But, if you don’t have faith, you don’t want to accept mercy. So, then, the first step is to give mercy without the person knowing it’s mercy. Because, they don’t have any faith. So, this means what we call Ajnata sukhrti. They get bhakti without their knowing it’s bhakti. So, they eat some food, it happens to be prasadam, that’s Ajnata sukhrti. If they hear kirtan and don’t know what the sound is, accidentally, that’s Ajnata sukhrti. But, that’s kirtan, that’s Ajnata sukhrti. And, for example, during ratha yatra, sometimes, the wheelchairs stop, block somewhere. They are annoyed by this thing, they are blocked. They look to God, but they get Ajnata sukhrti. So, the mercy of devotees is the cause of this Ajnata sukhrti, which eventually will lead to faith. So, even though it’s not intentional contact with bhakti, it’s accidental, that accidental contact is strong enough to affect the jiva. So, the jiva becomes a little bit favourable. Because it’s accidental and it’s not intentionally seeking out, it may take many lifetimes to get another Ajnata sukhrti. But, by accumulating many Ajnata sukhrtis, the jiva becomes more and more favourable. So, when that favourability becomes strong enough, that becomes faith. So, when we hear bhagavad-gita or bhagavatham or other bhakti scriptures, we say, oh, that’s interesting, that’s nice [Laughs].
Devotee: So, if someone has those faiths described in bhagavad-gita, let’s say, he is more influenced by tamo guna or raja guna. So, he can get an Ajnata sukhrti, but it will act for a longer period. Is this how it works?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: So, if we have faith in different gunas, then we’re going to worship other people, devatas or rakshasas or something. And we develop that faith by association. So, if then you get association with the devotee, then that could change. Of course, because they have a different type of faith in the gunas, they’re not going to intentionally try to seek out bhakti. So, therefore, it’s more or less accidental association, which will cause the Ajnata sukhrti. So, if that accumulates, then, of course, that other faith will get less strong, and then they’ll take to bhakti.
Devotee: So, if you go gradually, like, let’s say, you’re a demon, and you have demoniac faith, and then you advance to yogi, and then you get sattvik faith, and then you come to bhakti, or it can go straight from?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Yeah, it does not. It can just go straight to bhakti. If that Ajnata sukhrti piles up enough, then a demon can take to bhakti. Of course, if we do have a great devotee, like Narada Muni in Prema, then they can also, by association, cause remarkable things to happen, even to a low demon, like Mrigari, the hunter.
Devotee: So, can we say, Maharaj, that we have, like, two ways? One is very gradual, but then it could have very powerful effects, and it could be, like ?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Yeah, yeah. Like Kripa siddhi.
3) You spoke about extreme renunciation, which makes the heart very hard. But at the same time, we see Rupa Goswamis, Sanatana Goswamis, all the Goswamis, although they built temples, they didn’t take a room inside the temple, but they lived under the tree. Not only that, they lived under different trees every night, because they didn’t want to be attached to anything. So, how do we explain this in the modern time? Because we say, OK, don’t be too attached to renunciation, but why do Goswamis live, like, in poverty? Drinking every day, one chapatti, and sometimes one lady comes and says, “Oh, I’m hungry.” OK, you eat. I will fast. So, how do we explain this in our context, in our life? Do we need to renounce everything and live under the tree, or how do we balance in our understanding of why there is such a renunciation in life?
In Bhava and Prema, we see that there is complete attachment to Krishna, and consequently, they fully detached to material bodies and every thing in the material world. And the renunciation of the Goswamis is not a sadhana they are practicing, it is simply a natural result of their Prema. So it is simply a symptom that they are not attached to anything in the material world. It has nothing to do with practicing to control your senses or mind.
But in Jñāna and Yoga and other processes, they do intentional austerities of Vairagya. And they do this so that they can control their senses, because they don’t have control of senses. In other words, it is a sadhana. So, of course, in Bhakti itself, we should control our senses. But even there, the way we control the senses is not by renunciation, it is by engaging our senses in Krishna. So this is called natural renunciation. So Bhakti itself produces renunciation. So we don’t have to practice another type of renunciation.
4) Thank you for the lecture Maharaj. Speaking about Ajnata Sukriti, what is it actually, this Sukriti? Is it kind of pious activity or what exactly is it?
It’s an activity of Bhakti which is done, not intentionally, but accidentally.
Devotee: Ajnata sukhrti is because Ajnata is without knowledge, but what is the Sukhrti ?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: So the Sukriti is not a punya, like a material punya, it is Bhakti. So taking prasadam is not a punya, it is Bhakti. But if you eat the prasadam and you don’t know it’s prasadam and you’re not saying I’m taking the prasadam because I want to respect the Lord, you do it because you’re hungry, that’s Ajnata sukhrti. So this is engagement in Bhakti by people who don’t have faith. They’re not doing it because they want to worship the Lord. And in fact, if they think it’s worshiping the Lord, they wouldn’t do it [laughs]. So it’s more or less accidental. And they don’t know it’s Bhakti at all.
Devotee: Does it mean that speaking about Sukriti actually means devotional service?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Yes.
5) So, some family person who is acting on his duties as mentioned in Bhagavatam, Haritoshanam, the verse ending on Haritoshanam. Is this in this case sukhrti or is it punya? Punya. Acting on his duties for the purpose of pleasing the Lord. If he does this, is it ?
Well, it’s not Ajnata sukhrti because he’s doing it to please the Lord. He’s intentionally trying to… He does the activity offered to the Lord that it’s a type of Bhakti. It’s not pure Bhakti but it’s a step towards pure Bhakti. So it’s what we call Niskama Karma Yoga which is offered to the Lord. That’s what is explained in Bhagavad Gita. So this is very purifying. But still, it’s not real Bhakti. Because it’s basically doing your duties in the Varanashrama system. Then you offer it to the Lord.
But when we do Bhakti, we’re hearing, chanting, remembering, it’s already offered to the Lord. It’s all for the Lord to begin with. Intrinsically, it’s connected to the Lord. So the result is different. We can get prema from that.
6) In this regard, if let’s say Bhaktivinoda Thakura is performing his job to satisfy Krishna, is this going to be a pure Bhakti? Or no?
So if he didn’t do any Bhakti, and that was the only Bhakti he did, to do his job and offer the results to Krishna, that would be Niṣkāma Karma Yoga, Krishna Arpanam. That’s all. It wouldn’t be called pure Bhakti. So we see that the great kings like Dhruva, or Prahlad, or who else we have there, the Manus, Ambarish Maharaj, they’re kings, they’re doing their duty, offering it to the Lord, plus they’re also doing Bhakti. They do both.
So as I said, you could do Karma Yoga, Jnana Yoga, Sankhya Yoga, along with the Bhakti, but it should not interfere in any way with the process of pure Bhakti. So these kings are doing it for what purpose? Set an example for other people who don’t have Bhakti, and do Karma Yoga.
7) The question is that because we have Kanishtas, Madhyamas, Uttamas, but are there intermediate stages between these… Example he gives is that somebody may not be exactly Kanishta, because he has association of the devotees and he has… he got some knowledge, he wants to preach but it’s not really Madhyama or something like this, so he’s asking about these… between these stages if there are sub-stages ?
So a person can progress from being a Kanishta to being a Madhyama to being an Uttama. So the Madhyamas preach to the Kanishtas. The Kanishtas are favourable because they’re worshiping the Supreme Lord. So they gradually accept the Bhakti scriptures. So in that way gradually they turn into a Madhyama.
So when they begin practicing pure Bhakti, then we would say they’re a Madhyama. If they’re in Bhava as opposed to Prema then we can say that’s a gradual shift into becoming an Uttama [laughs]. And of course within the Madhyama, then we’re going to have stages, Bhajana Kriya, Anartha nivrutti nistha, ruche, asakthi .
8) Can we consider that only the preachers who are preaching with knowledge are established on the platform of Madhyama? Is this the criteria?
Well, we can say that even if a person’s not preaching, but he accepts the Bhakti scriptures we can say he’s a Madhyama, because he’s worshiping the Lord purely. And this is quite distinct from the Kanishta, that is worshiping but doesn’t know what he’s doing.
9) And what is the… because we understand that Bhakti is totally independent and… But if we often advise to reach Sattva Guna and to get established in Sattva Guna, because this is a very favourable situation to really cultivate Bhakti, because Rajo Guna and Tamo Guna are really serious obstacles to manifest Bhakti. So I’m afraid some of us may get the impression that cultivation of Sattva Guna is not so important. So what is the importance of becoming established in Sattvic atmosphere, so that we can really advance or is it in the modern context not so important or… This is the question.
Within the Gunas, Sattva Guna is definitely more favourable. Because Sattva means you control of the senses. And we can understand the difference between the body and the Atma. And we develop a disinterest in the material world.
But those same qualities will also manifest in a devotee. But when they manifest in a devotee through Bhakti they’re not Sattva. And we say that ‘Subadha’, second quality of Bhakti, all good qualities develop. So if a devotee develops Sattva that would not put him in the Gunas again. So Bhakti doesn’t put him in the Gunas. So these are spiritual qualities.So Krishna has what, 64 qualities? Many of these qualities may look Sattvic. Or whether or not those are spiritual qualities. So by doing Bhakti devotees should develop those spiritual qualities.
Now in the material world of course we do have material Sattvic things. We can’t escape material world because we live in a house, we have clothing, we eat, those are material things. So better eat Sattvic food, have Sattvic environment, listen to Sattvic music, etc. But of course better than that we take prasadam then it’s not even Sattvic, it’s better than… So things favorable for the devotee will be appearing like Sattva in some sense. But actually because they’re used for Bhakti then they become spiritual [laughs].
10) If somebody has material desires he can offer the results of his work to the Lord? And simultaneously to practice the pure Bhakti activities.
So that’s like doing Niskarma Karma Yoga and doing Bhakti. So in the Bhakti we should do pure Bhakti. So we’re hearing and chanting to please the Lord, not to please yourself.
Devotees: Grantharaj Srimad Bhagavatham ki jai!!! HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj ki jai!!!