so in our devotional practice this submission in the form of prayer, whatever we

are doing in the form of chanting, prayer for the blessings of the lord "i am not
qualified, please give me knowledge, this mood is very very essential. therefor
Lord Chaitanya says in the sikshashtaka trnad api sunicena, taror eva sahisnuna
amanina manadena kirtinya sada hari, so prime foundation of our devotional journey
is to develop this culture of trina api sunicena means one must be very humble, the
qualification is the humility, so more humble than the grass, trna is grass/straw,
one must be humbler than the straw on the street, when we walk over the grass, it
never complains, it tolerates.. plus taror api sahisnuna, taror means trees.. all
the beautiful trees stay in so many different weathers but they always tolerate..
more tolerant that the tree, plus amanina mana dena, devoid of all sense of false
prestige and one should not be very arrogant one should be free from ahankar, false
ego, false ego is the root cause of all the troubles in this material world.. all
these different cultural items, these are most essential cultural items that one
should cultivate, therefor Gauranga mahaprabhu summarized in his sikshashtaka, so
when one develop this culture what will be the outcome, the outcome will be
kirtiniya sada hari, the glories of the sankirtan hare krishna maha mantra, sada
hari, sada means always birth after birth, it is not just chanting this one life
time but birth after birth, so this will be the perfection of human life one
develops this culture so therefore the primary prep on the part of the bhakta, so
we are all bhaktas, we have to make our own preparation, individually one must
build our strength, we have to build ourselves, strength by doing my service,
seeing that also i become inspired you become enthusiastic you want to act like
that.. jsut like gopis, in Vrindavan the gopis they compete in the sense that oh
such and such gopi is doing wonderful seva so let me also do like that, never
envious but atleast let me also do that seva for Lord Krishna.. in this way we get
inspiration. similarly in devotional life it is ultimately KC would be
independently thougthful, the defin of KC that SP gave to us is that in KC everyone
should be independently thoughtful and also very understanding how to render this
devotional practice.. so agian you get instructions from spiritual master, from the
sages, from teh scriptures. plus we have to develop the basic qualifications to
render devotional service.. therefore SP encouraged that we should be independently
thoughtful in KC.. so of course in the institution there are certain things the
inst. might like to see but at the same time the independent thinking should not be
sacrificed.. so the inspiration came from the scriptures, from the instructions the
spiritual master, you consult but ultimately to render to make that happen to
actually conduct preaching program is upto the individual. you have to get
strength, the energy, the stamina, the courage, one must be very courageous in
devotional duty. so this is a very essential part of rendering KC. so therefore to
get this strength one must follow the four regulative principles, sastra says to
follow the 4 principles that is a requirement, along with that you start with
sadhana bhakti, sadhan bhakti means following the rules and regulations in
discharging the duties. that sadhana bhakti begins with nava-vidha bhakti, nine
principles of devotional life sravanam kirtanam vishnoh, hearing and kirtanam means
chanting the lords names, and smaranam means remembering so these 3 are the primary
the most important of the nice processes, so by these practice the result is that
all the ahankar all the false ego negative thought in the mind will be completely
cleansed slowly slowly step by step. just like when a mirror is dirty and you clean
with a cloth or cotton then you wipe it becomes cleanse similarly by this chanting
process Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare
by this process all the impurities from the heart, and from the mind will also be
completely removed, in the other words at that time the sesnse become purified,
five gross senses and the mind is the regarded as the king of all senses,
everything comes first to the mind therefore the mind has to be very clean the mind
has to be purified but if the mind is not purified not clean the always some kind
of problem will be coming, the sense will not be controlled
if the mind is not cleaned properly. so the training of the mind, cleaning of the
mind is a very important factor in this KC journey
so by chanting the maha mantra regularly all these impurities will be cleansed
so at that time the result will be that you begin to realize that the importance of
serious connection with the Supreme Lord and of course his servants like the
spiritual master, this realizaiton will come to the individual, then one
assimilates, Prabhupada said assimilation, assimilate means once you realize then
everything is assimilated within your mind and everything is assimilated, spiritual
knowledge, so that becomes part of purity, the senses becoming spiritualized.
so therefore all the negative thought will not be there and one will not be
bothered with sukha dukha sukha means hapiness and dukha means unhapiness or
sadness sorrow, one will be able to transcend eithe happiness or sadness will not
be able to affect the individual
so at that time when one becomes advanced they will show symptoms of ecstasy means
not affected by the material infuences and so ultimately it is maha-bhava, maha-
bhava is highly spiritually developed individual. pure devotional service begins to
manifest in the life of that person, so this is actually the ulitmate perfection of
human life.
so therefore this KC has the capacity. so this is briefly about why we want to
become a devotee of Krsna, why we like to observe this tapasya. tapasya is the four
regulative principles, actually this is not tapasya, tapasya is very severe
committment, but our tapasya is very little, one should be free from intoxicants,
this is not actually tapasya.. it is actually for my own wellbeing for physical
health as well as spiritual health.. it is necessary if someone is serious about
spiritual life.
dont want to get into disease it is not very useful, rather one should be free from
these things. so therefore this is only for the wellbeing of the individual, it is
not actually tapasya. tapasya means more severe [committment] than that.
so in this way this very lifetime this human form of life it is possible that one
develop this highest perfection of human form of life. so this is actually the
result of KC.
so among all forms of life the sastra says the humna form of life is the most
important birth, even more important that demigods. like lord Brahma or Indra, all
these demigods very powerful and very highly elevated.. compared to that the human
form of life is more important. the reason being although demigods are more
advanced that humans, the trouble with that situation is that demigods are very
opulent they have been given special responsibility, like Lord Brahma is asked by
Lord Krishna to create this entire universe, not only this universe but many many
universe, great responsibility, the situation is very opulent.
so therefore one is put in that situation it is not very easy to give up that
material opulence, want to enjoy, this enjoying tendency is also there. the
demigods are also individuals they are not supreme Lord, they are servants also
this is material platform although highly elevated state they are put.
because of that to give up the highly opulent situation is not very easy so
therefore to come to the pure devotional service is not so easy for them
[demigods].
on the other hand the human beings are not so opulent materially compared with the
demigods but at the same time the human beings develop full consciousness and free
will freedom to act, how to use the free will so that to develop the KC to fullest
extent, that capacity the human beings have.
therefore even Brahma says that he's envious of the human birth, although he is a
demigod he says because of the opulent situation it is not easy for him to develop
pure devotional service of the Lord but human form of life they are so fortunate
because they are not so opulent and at the same time they have full capacity of
consciousness as well as free will.
this is the situation of the human form of life.
therefore the Srimad Bhagavat says
dharma svanusthitah pumsah vishwaksena katha rucih
na utpadayet yadi ratim shrama eva hi kevalam
whatever duties the occupational duties the human being performs, those duties do
not lead to the attraction for the supreme Lord Krishna, those duties will be
regarded as simply wastage of time
shrama eva hi kevalam, kevalam means only, simply wastage of time
this is the verdict of Srimad Bhagavatam.
therefore it is very clear this human form of life is the wonderful gift given by
the Lord due to his unlimited mercy. therefore knowing this the Vedanta, the
conclusion of all the vedic literatures, the first vedanta sutra says athatho
Brahma jignasa
now you have got this human form of life therefore our only duty is to inquire
about my ultimate duty and also the science of the absolute truth - Krsna, about
the science of God, about the science of ultimate reality means God, so this is
called tattva jignasa, the truth, we have to become interested when you get this
human form of life.
therefore the supreme importance is given to this human form of life
the KC provides all these things step by step, only thing necessary is that we have
to be very enthusiastic to do our own duty, humble duty, without performing that
duty it will not be possible to come to any understanding
in other words whatever guna karma is give to us, these are give to individual