2020.02.15 - Crises on the path of devotional service. Lecture 1 - Bhakti Vijnana Goswami

The education in ISCKON should be based on certain principals and one of them is a systematic approach – giving the education according to the spiritual development or adhikar. Otherwise a person may have a false understanding that he knows everything, whereas he may not realize much. Spiritual development means gradual development of a real ego and decrease of a false ego. Ego has two functions: 1) the sense of “I” - ahanta; 2) the sense of “my” - mamata. The path of jnana implies destruction of ego and brings us to liberation, the path of karma implies the expansion of ego, and brings us to bondage. But when we serve the Supreme Lord and His associates it brings pure love, which is distinct from bondage and liberation. Bhakti is the formation of a specific type of ego, and this is called the supreme aim of life. There are levels of development of a new ego: 1) gandha – faint smell of a new personality around 1-5%; 2) eka-desa-vartini – the new formation is partially there 5-30%; 3) bahu-desa-vartini – 30-80%; 4) praiki – 80-95%; 5) purna – 95-99%; 6) atyantiki – 100%. Material attachment on the stage of sadhu-sanga is purna - 100%, but little spiritualisation is there - eka-desa-vartini. At the stage of nistha the spiritualisation becomes detectable around 50% - bahu-desa-vartini, but the materialistic influence is still very prominent - praiki. At the stage of ruchi spiritualisation becomes dominant – praiki 80%, material attachment is eka-desa-vartini, before ruchi we are still materialists. At the stage of asakti spiritualisation is purna, and material aspect becomes gandha. Even at the stage of bhava there is still a shadow of material concepts. In the process of sadhana our ego is gradually becoming spiritualised. Spiritual ego is a very strong ego of a servant, we can only develop ego of a servant in the association of devotees. Comparison of spiritual growth of a person with a growth of a child: 1) sraddha is like babyhood; 2) sadhu-sanga – childhood till 5 years old; 3) bhajana-kriya – till 10 years old; 4) anartha-nivritti – teenage period; 5) nistha – youth. The essence of sraddha – when we learn to appreciate devotees, and try to understand who is the real devotee. At the stage of sadhu-sanga we learn how to speak as a devotee. At the stage of bhajana-kriya we learn how to act as if we were devotees. At the stage of anartha-nivritti we learn how to think as a devotee. At the stage of nistha we learn how to feel as a devotee, some shadow of spiritual emotions can come to us. The impediments on different levels: on the level of sraddha people still fear to depend on someone. At the stage of sadhu-sanga there is a fear of taking responsibility for a service. At the stage of bhajana-kriya there is a fear of introspection. At the stage of anartha-nivriti – fear of humility. All the crises of spiritual development are identity crises, when ego changes. There are three possible outcomes of a crisis: 1) successfully overcome the crisis and go to the next stage; 2) fail to do this and remain at the same stage of spiritual development or degrade and go away; 3) compromise – one externally goes to the next stage, but internally he is not capable to function on this stage of spiritual development. Overcoming the crisis of development means strengthening one’s internal integrity. Crises on different levels: sraddha – the crisis of trust in sadhu, externally it comes like idealization of a sadhu, an example is rithviks. Sadhu-sanga – the fear of dependence, bhajana-kriya – the lack of spiritual taste. Anartha-nivritti – the crisis of spiritual failure.