Listening but not Hearing

Sravanam kirtanam Vishnu Smaranam ..

This Verse as found in the Srimad Bhagvatam emphasizes the importance of Hearing . It is the first step in progression of Spiritual Life to Hear attentively from the Proper spiritual authority. A person who hears attentively can assimilate the message properly and apply in one's life, thus making his/her life successful. After this follows the other 8 processes of Devotional service namely kirtanam etc. If one has not heard the message correctly he/ she will not be able to make much progress in spiritual life. We see in any gathering there are thousands and millions of people who come and listen to the spiritual talks , but only a few actually hear.

What does it mean to "Hear". Many people today Listen , but do not Hear. Instructions are given  and many listen to them , give a ear to them , but do not assimilate the meaning or do not take them to heart, thus there is no transformation of heart that takes place. After listening to the spiritual topics some simply ignore them  others , some pious minded people feel good about it , but rarely someone assimilates them and desires to put them in practice. It is seen often the Spiritual teachers many a times repeat the same instructions multiple times. For example  Srila Prabhupada often repeated many famous verses from Bhagavad Gita in every lecture he gave. Most of his lectures stress on the same basic principle that we are not this body but the spirit soul . Often devotees wondered why did he  always stress this point  and did not talk anything other than this. The reason for this is because of  the tendency of the mind to automatically accepts things which are favorable for one's sense gratification and reject those which prove to be contrary to it .

Also the attention span of people in Kaliyuga is not more  than a few mins and the flickering mind will take them elsewhere  after a few mins . Hence it becomes necessary to repeat and stress a important point  multiple points , for the people to start acknowledging the importance of the point. If people acknowledge , they would think about it and then put it in action. Unless all the teachings in Bhagavad Gita are put in practice as it is  with guidance from a bonafide spiritual guide, one will not reap any benefit by just reading and listening it superficially . One has to really " Hear" the message from the heart to understand and realize the message . Although the Bhagavad gita is only  the start of a spiritual journey , it is the foundational philosophy which needs to be understood in its true essence . A person who takes this seriously and  applies these teaching in the life , he/ she will experience a sublime happiness which cannot be found by other material means . One will have a purpose in life which is transcendental and full filling , A purpose of the soul, beyond the precincts of the material and mental plane.

It is a human tendency to really become attentive and interested  to listen to philosophy of life when some major crisis is going on in once life, however people in Kaliyuga  have degraded to such an extend that as soon as the crisis is over , they revert back to their old habits. Bhagavad Gita was spoken to Arjuna in a battlefield , where Arjuna was overwhelmed with grief with the thought of killing his kinsmen whom he  adored and loved all this life. Of course Arjuna was a great devotee of the Lord and was representing a common  man on the directions of Krsna.  The situation in which Arjuna was put was nerve breaking for any person and which induced him to  surrender to the instructions of Krsna. In such a situation he was able to  hear attentively and assimilate the message of Bhagavad Gita completely and act upon that.

Most of the people are not in such a crisis situation   and even if they fall into such situations , they tend to resort to other ways like drinking and smoking , instead of turning to the right source  i.e. Krsna. This is the unfortunate state of the people of Kaliyuga. Even people who are pious when in crisis generally approach the Lord for the mitigation of their grief, however after the crisis is over they forget any instructions and resort to their normal ways which leads them to yet another crisis.
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu  says in this age only a very fortunate soul achieves the real purpose of life i.e. devotional service,  by the mercy of  Spiritual Master and Lord Krsna.

It is said mercy of the Lord is causeless, but this should not mean that we should not make any effort to understand and try our best to prove to the Lord that we are eligible for his mercy . If we put little effort to Hear the instructions of the great souls on spiritual topics and apply them in life , Krsna promises that a little effort in this direction will save one from the greatest danger. So why should we waste our time and not pay attention to such important topics  that are been delivered to by us who are compassionate. Srila Prabhupada toiled hard during his old age to give us this knowledge in the simplest possible form, so that we could hear and take advantage of  the facilities he has provided to us , in the form of his temples, books, his devotees, prasadam and ISKCON.

Hearing only a few words attentively and applying will make our lives success full. So next time when we hear a spiritual discourse by bonafide representatives of the Lord , we should shut off all the doors of our mind and concentrate on these sublime words with all the heart trying to understand on instruction thoroughly and apply them in our life.

Importance of Association

You are what you associate with, in general our consciousness gets molded based on our association . The more we associate with a particular kind of group more we develop the qualities and characteristics of the people in that group.  This is true for spiritual advancement as well. If one is interested in becoming spiritually strong and attain the ultimate goal of life, Love of Godhead, he has to find out such an association which has like minded people and who are striving for the same goal. One should regularly associate with sadhus and saintly persons, in this way one will develop the saintly qualities of a sadhu and become freed from anxiety. 

Caitanya  Caritamrta says 


’sädhu-saìga’, ‘sädhu-saìga’—sarva-çästre kaya
lava-mätra sädhu-saìge sarva-siddhi haya [ Madhya lila 22.54]


“The verdict of all revealed scriptures is that by even a moment’s association with a pure devotee, one can attain all success.

 The statement from Caitanya Caritamrta is not at all exaggerated  the power of Vaisnava Association is inconceivable, a moments association with saintly person leaves a lasting impression in ones heart. Although one may not see the effect of this right away , but in time this impression in the heart will fructify and bear results. Scriptures give many examples in this regard.

One such story comes to mind is of the Hunter Mrgari, when Narada muni was travelling through a jungle, he saw many animals being pierced with arrows at very strategic points of their body , which was causing them a lot of pain, they were all crying in agony. Narada muni felt compassion for these animals and started thinking who was this cruel man , who was not killing these animals but causing them so much pain . Then he came across a hunter named Mrgarari, he told Narada Muni that he has been shooting arrows to these animals, when Narada muni asked why he was not killing them completely ,hunter replied that this is how his father taught him to kill the animals by giving them pain. On hearing this Narada Muni explained to the hunter the consequences of his action and how he would have to suffer in hell for lifetimes for causing pain to these living entities. Mrgarari immediately asked for a way  be free from this karma . Narada muni instructed him to leave this profession and simply build a small cottage and chant Hare Krsna , he said that all the food that hunter and his family will need he himself will sent it . 

The hunter followed the instructions of Narada Muni and when the people in the village heard that hunter has become a vaisnava they came to see him with offerings of food. After sometime Narada muni visited Mrgarari with his friend Prabat muni, On seeing his spiritual master Mrgarari was happy and ran towards him to offer his obeisances, however he saw some ants crawling in front of him and inorder to not kill any ants he was carefully leaping over them . 

The same hunter who formely was ruthlessly killing animals is now not willing to even hurt a  single ant, this is the power of association of a sadhu . 

In order to make tangible spiritual advancement therefore it is of utmost importance that one regularly associates and hears from Sadhus. This is the very reason why Srila Prabhupada took so much pain to open you various centers all over the world to give everyone chance to associate with devotees and make their lives successful. 

This age of Kali is characterized by hypocrisy and quarrel, we find this almost everywhere , between nations, societies, within the family and even between different religious groups, in such an atmosphere it is very difficult to  find a real sadhu and associate  with them to purify ourselves. Having said that this should be a impetus for us to look for real sadhu's associations even more than before. Instead people use this as an excuse to remain in darkness . 

If one's life is in danger due to a terminal disease one will make every attempt  to find a suitable doctor who can treat  him  and  save him. Even though many doctors promise , not every doctor is successful or truly interested .Similarly we the soul are in a very precarious condition , with todays modern lifestyle everywhere we go we find the agents of Kali freely providing their association, however if we want to save ourselves it is a necessity for us to seek out that association of the sadhus who can save us from this danger.  Just like there are many fake currencies in the market , however, by guidelines issues by the Government one can identify the fake from the real. Similarly using the guidelines from the Vedic scriptures one can identify fake sadhus from the real ones.

There are two kinds of Association  that one can get  Vapuh and vani . Vapuh stands for physical association of sadhus , which means to be in the proximity of  the sadhus in their service like servant or assistants . Another association is that of vani, that is associating with the words of a sadhu. Acharya proclaim that associating with the vani of great souls is more important and effective , since vapuh association is not possible for everyone , however if one takes to heart the words of a sadhu and applies them in ones life with proper direction from the seniors one is truly associating with sadhus and will see the effect of  such association.  With the advancement in the technology it is now possible for everyone to associate with the vani of great souls thru recordings and live transmissions. 

The point is without the proper association of real sadhus , it is impossible to make any spiritual advancement  and one will be stuck in the turmoil of this material world.