Seminar on Pursuit of eternal happiness | HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj | Tamil Gita Online, Chennai | April 16, 2026
nama om vishnu-padaya krishna-preshthaya bhu-tale
srimate bhaktivedanta-svamin iti namine
namas te sarasvate deve gaura-vani-pracharine
nirvishesha-shunyavadi-pashchatya-desha-tarine
Jaya sri-krishna-chaitanya
prabhu nityananda
sri-adwaita gadadhara
shrivasadi-gaura-bhakta-vrinda
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
In our philosophy, we have three Tattvas. Basically, Jiva, Supreme Lord and Matter. And the Jiva is covered by that matter. And the matter consists of gross body with the different organs and the subtle body with mind, intelligence, ego. So, the Jiva itself is conscious but this is modified by the subtle and the gross bodies. So, modification means that we begin to think that we are something else. So, of course, we know about Ahankara or false ego, we identify with our particular body. And this becomes problematic because identifying with that body, we begin to develop desires for that body. And these desires are related to fulfilling the senses. So, we have to satisfy our senses with material sense objects. To do that, then we do activities. And through that activities, we try to satisfy our senses. And then we think I will be happy. So that desire to have happiness originates from the Jiva. But the covering of subtle and gross body makes us identify happiness with material body and material senses.
So, science tells us that we have our senses connected to brain and brain gets stimulated by certain things in our senses and we call that happiness. So, in other words, that happiness is merely an interaction of different molecules and chemicals and this produces a sense of happiness. So, this has got actually nothing to do with the Jiva. It’s just a bunch of chemical, atomic reactions. So, the Jiva is trying to get happiness, but a Jiva is a spiritual particle, not a material particle. However, the Jiva being covered by the subtle body or the gross body thinks it can be happy with that material chemical reaction.
So, all living entities in the material world are doing activity to get their happiness. And basically, it is eating, sleeping, mating, defending. Human beings are trying to get the same happiness. However, human beings also have a more elevated type of happiness. They try to get happiness through relationships with other people. Of course, in higher forms like animals, they have social interactions with each other and they get a little happiness that way. Human beings however, develops this idea of being happy through relationships, to a much higher degree. And in relationship to emotions, in our relationships we develop all sorts of complex emotions. So, one of the primary emotions is love. But we also get the opposite, hatred. And we get other things like fear. We get greed. So, the human being has many many different varieties of emotions, ultimately stemming from two things, that is, the desire to get the happiness and the anger and the hatred when we don’t fulfil our desires. And through all this, we are trying to get happiness.
However, this attempt to be happy in the material world through our relationships is very difficult to achieve. And thus, we find many problems in relationships. People get married, but they are not so happy after all. So, they may end up going to a marriage counsellor. Or they may get divorced. Or they go to a psychiatrist. Ultimately because they can’t get satisfied. Some people get divorced, then they get married again. Then they get divorced again. Then they get married again. I think the record for marriage and divorce is 12, someone in America, 12 marriages, 12 divorces. So, all of this is an attempt to be happy through some sort of relationship. But, it is very very difficult to achieve.
So some people may doubt, ‘Can we actually get happiness in this world at all?’ And if we go to scripture, scripture says, No, you cannot be happy in this world. So, we learn when we start reading scripture, Ok, material world is temporary, body is temporary, it’s all Maya. So, the scripture says, ‘Ok, reject the material world, do not be attached to it, renounce.’ Of course, this is difficult for most people. But we see some people can do it, some people go to the Himalayas, renounce etc., but most people cannot do that, so they keep trying to be happy. So then the problem comes as scripture is telling us ‘the whole world is maya, useless, renounce it etc.’, but nobody can do it, so what is the use of scripture. Okay, for some people, Jnanis and yogis, useful, for others, not so useful. So, scripture gives us a compromise method. So, don’t renounce everything because very difficult for most people, you don’t renounce but you become gradually detached. So this is the system of dharma.
Dharma consists of rules you have to follow. Some things you should do, some things you should not do. So, it doesn’t say don’t do anything but you do some things, other things you don’t do. For instance, it does not say don’t eat’, so you can eat. But then there’s restrictions, you can eat this, you cannot eat that. And in the Vedic system, for the different varnas, sudra, vaisya, kshatriya, brahmana, they can eat certain things, they cannot eat certain other things, so the varnas have slightly different rules. So, by gradually applying rules, we are able to follow more rules. So, birth after birth we get conditioned to following more and more rules, by this we also become more detached.
So the sudras follow minimum rules, the brahmanas follow maximum rules. So the brahmanas following maximum rules, they become more detached. Then they become qualified to renounce and they can practice jnana and yoga. So this is a system of gradual renunciation. However, even this system of dharma is difficult to follow in our present time. Who follows what rules, difficult to understand. And progress depends on many many births. To get from strong attachment to no attachment will take many many many many births. So, it is a solution to the problem but it takes a long time.
So, Krishna offers another solution. And that is bhakti yoga. Bhakti yoga also does not require you to renounce completely. So, you can still utilize your body, you can utilize your senses. But you utilize them in a different way. The Jnani and yogi are told to stop their senses, stop their body from functioning. So in bhakti yoga, we say, no, it’s difficult to stop the senses, engage the senses but in a certain way. So, for instance, we don’t say stop eating, you can eat. But again, certain foods you eat, certain foods you don’t eat. However, added to that is, you offer the food, so you can eat Prasadam. So similarly, we can engage all of our senses but it’s directed towards Krishna or related to Krishna.
So in the Bhagavat gita, Krishna says ‘give up all dharmas, just surrender to me.’ So He says, you give up all dharmas but do not stop engaging your senses rather you engage your senses for Krishna. So by doing that, we begin to control the senses. Control the senses by using the senses but offering things to the Lord. So the result of this is, we establish a spiritual relationship. When we offer things to the Lord, we offer it with devotion. So we are practicing developing a spiritual relationship with Krishna. So just as we strive in the material world for happiness through relationship, we strive spiritually for happiness with Krishna. So in this relationship with Krishna, there are also emotions. So there is attachment to Krishna, there is greed for Krishna. We are told in scripture, ‘don’t be materially attached, give up all material greed,’ yes, but we can be attached to Krishna, we could be greedy for Krishna. So instead of material relationship, we have relationship with Krishna. So this is a relationship of spiritual love. We call this Prema.
So, in the material world, we do not have Prema, we have kama. So the process of bhakti yoga is to transform the kama into Prema. And then the Jiva is fully satisfied and he develops eternal bliss.
Ok. Hare Krsna!
Q&A
1) During our discussion you mentioned the point that scriptures are giving some concession for the people how do we understand sastra says always the right thing how is that sometime it gives concession?
So the scripture, of course we have to respect. But we also have to understand the instructions are for different types of people so there is different instructions for different people. Even Krishna in Bhagavad Gita says, you act according to your particular varna and your dharma don’t do anyone’s else dharma. So the scriptures recognize people are at different levels of qualification, some are less capable people in tamo-guna, other people in rajo-guna, people in tamo-guna, other people in sattvaguna, so different instructions are given for different people. So the person in tamo-gun cannot follow the same rules as those given for person in satttva-gun. So scripture is merciful and gives him some easier rules to follow.
At the same time if we are intelligent we are able to see what are the highest rules to follow what is the highest goal. Ultimately all the rules are there to get to what goal, that is surrender to the Lord inorder to that we have got intermediate steps. In Bhagavad Gita Krsna recommends karma yoga, jñāna yoga etc; but finally He says don’t do anything, just do bhakti yoga. Definitely a person not qualified for bhakti may look into different yoga, but if he is intelligent, then he will understand ultimately best thing is to do bhakti. It gives the highest result.
2) Today we learnt in the session that jiva develops desire and then craves for happiness but what about hatred Maharaj ? Is it a parallel feeling – while practicing bhakti yoga you said kama will develop into prema, but what about this hatred and enmity hatred and enmity is it a parallel feeling is it a parallel feeling when love develops for Krishna, that will come down ? how is it Maharaj?
Actually as Bhagavad gita explains – we have two tendencies in the material world raga and dvesha. So raga means we are attached to certain types of enjoyment. So we strive to get that by some means or other. If something or somebody obstructs that, then we develop hatred. So in other words hatred is simply a response to frustration that our desires in the world are not fulfilled. So that hatred may take the form of anger or other negative emotions. So the anger and the hatred are simply by-products of our desire to enjoy and both are based on our false conception that, we think we are this body.
Devotee: So it’s basically based on attachment only, Maharaj ? Because why Jiva is desiring for hatred, it’s a bad feeling, no? That’s my doubt. It only desires to be happy, but why this one is developing? What is the use of it?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: The hatred is simply a by-product of our attachment to material enjoyment. So we shouldn’t blame hatred. Blame our desire for material happiness. This is the ultimate cause.
3) I heard that, there is a Yoga ladder – Karma Yoga, Jnana Yoga etc. So in Bhakti yoga, is there any ladder like that (to attain perfection – prema bhakti) ? or there is santa rasa, dasya rasa etc – is this also a ladder ?
So of course we have Karma Yoga, Jnana Yoga, Stanga Yoga. So the topmost part of that ladder is Bhakti Yoga. Within Bhakti Yoga, we have three stages. Sadhana, Bhava and Prema. It’s all Bhakti, but the Bhakti becomes mature. Like the seed of Bhakti, developing into a plant, developing into a flower, developing into a fruit. So Sadhana is, cultivating the plant with all of its leaves and its stem. Bhava Bhakti is the flower and Prema is the fruit. So through Sadhana, we develop a relationship with Krishna. We can see Krishna in Bhava stage. In Prema, we develop our relationship with Krishna completely. Then we experience the highest bliss like eating the mango and tasting the sweetness.
4) Keeping the thoughts on Krishna is also a type of meditation with an impure mind which is full of desire, hatred, jealousy, anger etc., without purifying the mind, how I can keep the thought on Krishna? Because subtle only controls the gross. Senses are gross and mind is subtle. So mind only controls senses. So without purifying the mind, how I can keep the thought on Krishna?
The purpose of Karma Yoga is to purify the mind. Once the mind is purified, you can concentrate. So you become qualified for Jñāna Yoga and Aṣṭāṅga Yoga. So that is one process, but it takes a long time. Other process is Bhakti Yoga. So even if you have impure mind, you start the process of Bhakti and through the process of Bhakti Yoga and chanting the name of Krishna, you gradually get rid of the impurities and you concentrate on the Lord. So this is particularly true of chanting the name of the Lord – Nama sankirtan. So pure or impure, attentive or inattentive, it has effect. And even if you chant accidentally, you can destroy all your Karmas. So Nama Sankirtana is the most powerful process to take even the most impure person and raise them to the highest level.
Devotee: So Nama Sankirtana and Nama Japa are both the solution for it.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Yes.
5) Hare Krishna Maharaj, the children are so attached to the mobile and they become so much bodily concept of life and we couldn’t able to give any advice to them either spiritually or materially. How do we get them from this bodily concept of life to the spiritual life?
One thing is, you have to limit their use of the mobile. They are going to have a very bad material influence. At the same time, we can’t force them to take the spiritual life, but we can expose them nicely to Krishna conscious activities like chanting and hearing and worshipping etc.
6) As you said Maharaj, if some body follows the dharma, he would take many many births then only you attain the perfection. In the process of bhakti, the person may not know many things, many details about bhakti, but the person only do the chanting. By just doing chanting, he can attain all perfection or he needs to endeavour for something else.
So just chanting is good, but generally, we have to avoid offenses. If we avoid offenses, then very quickly we can destroy all of our karmas. However, we also have to have some knowledge. So we have to understand who is Krishna, who is Vishnu, who is Jiva, etc. We have to understand what is pure bhakti, what is impure bhakti. So if we have that knowledge, then we get prema.
7) There are four categories – Brahmana, Vaisya, Kshatriya, Sudra. And somebody has a mentality of Vaishya, he has to attain to the pure devotional service. What are the steps he has to take?
So anyone in any Varna can take to the process of bhakti, if he has faith. Vaisya is technically a mixture of Tamo-guna and Rajo-guna. Still, he is qualified for bhakti, if he has faith. So in any Varna, we can practice bhakti and we can surpass all of the varnas. Bhakti itself is beyond all the gunas and varnas.
So, Bhakti is very flexible. So all we require is, along with whatever you are doing as a Vaisya, you also do bhakti. And then you begin to modify your Vaisya life, so that it is harmonious with the rules of bhakti. And as much as you are able, you practice bhakti.
Hare Krishna!!!