When the ends are clear, the means become clear. When the end is not clear, neither is the means. In the study of Bhakti, there are two frameworks –

• Shanta Bhakti — when we have the feeling that ‘I am His’ or the jnana perspective.
• Prema Bhakti — when we have the feeling that ‘He is mine’.

Prema Bhakti is a devotion where there is no inhibition, like a child feels this is my mother, my father and they are the best. That child has no inhibition — about clothing, about being dirty, about words they use. In Prema bhakti, we have no sense of balance. Normally, balance implies that the secular and sacred are equally important. We should however be reckless with the sacred, abandon the secular, No inhibition, no balance. These are signs and means to develop Prema bhakti. Giving us more grips to climb –

• Prema bhakti begins with Shraddha or faith — to have faith that He lives AS me. When we have the faith that He lives in me, we will never give ourselves anything that is impure. We won’t think impurely, speak impurely, act impurely. When it is the Divine, then we will be more sensitive. When we have faith, we do away with inputting impurity.
• This evolves to Artha, so from Shraddha to Artha. Artha is defined as meaning or value. We have much more significant value for the Divine, for HIM — sacred, and less value for that which is not Him or not associated with HIM — secular. Our Artha tends to be in our accounts — our investment account, checking account, savings account, retirement account, but Real Artha is when our account is in Punya, Satsanga, Vidya.
• Artha evolves to Yajna. This means the readiness to let go of all that is NOT HIM or not associated with HIM. See how Artha is being dedicated to HIM, but we tend to hold onto both. But Yajna or sacrifice is required to let go, to let go of stress, to let go of control. Vivekji shared a saying — Let go, to let God. If we don’t let go, then we think we are GOD.
• Shradha, Artha, Yajna are all leading to Ananya. Anya means other and Ananya means No Other. Anya is dvaita (duality) and Ananya is Advaita (non-duality). He is MINE or the feeling of ONENESS. This is the vision of Vedanta in Bhagavata.

The Skanda that we are entering has many narrations that are Katha in orientation. To truly appreciate this Katha, we need Vedanta. Vivekji shared some deep Vedantic insights, so that when we read about the Katha, it’s not just a Katha, but we have the Shraddha, Artha, Yajna. Shradha or our faith is catalyzed by Vidya. Our faith is facilitated by knowledge. When we know a car is safe, we have more faith driving it. If we have a very old car, we do not take it on long road trips. We don’t have faith in that car. So Faith is facilitated by Knowledge.

Brahman or Infinity cannot be grasped or understood by that which is finite. Our BMI and definitely the Ego are finite. So what are we supposed to do? We cannot do anything, but what Infinity does is express Itself as Bhagavan or Virtues. So Brahman as Bhagavan, and Infinity as Virtues. Think of this logically and actively. Infinity is oneness, all virtues are so natural, like fearlessness. We are not afraid of ourselves. Like sacrifice — we are ready to sacrifice anything for ourselves. How beautifully Brahman expresses as Bhagavan and Bhagavan is Virtues with a form and name. Virtues are natural to us. Whenever we experience sadness, anxiety, stress, anger, attachment — we don’t like ourselves, how we feel so we try to change that. Shopping, eating, fighting, we don’t like that, so we try to change that, but in terms of virtues, if we are practicing patience, the only thought that comes to mind is if only we could live like this forever. When we are being generous, our feeling is we hope we have more opportunities to be more generous. See how virtues are natural to us? This means that Bhagavan Krishna is living inside of us, that we are Infinite.

When Rishi Prahlada shares with his friends, the nine rungs of Bhakti or nine practices of devotion, the top rungs are Atma (oneself), Dasya (servant), Sakhya (friend). This is exactly how Bhagavan Krishna lives with the people we are about to meet. To some He is a servant, Dasya. In the Bhagavad Gita, is He the warrior or the charioteer? He is the charioteer, the servant. In terms of Sakhya, no one has more spouses than Bhagavan Krishna. He is the Sakhya of all, even those who are insulting him like Shishupala and Dantavakra. We may not know this, but at the end of day in the Mahabharata war, while Arjuna slept, Bhagavan Krishna bathed the horses, combed them and massaged their feet. Those horses were His best friends. And Atma — like Devi Mira merged with Him, or did He merge with her?. Same with Devi Radha. Where did she go? He became every relationship so that we can relate to him.

Throughout His life, He lived in the same world we did, but never became of the world. In the world, but not of the world, to live like Padmaja or Kamala — to grow from the muck, but not be mucky. Bhagavan Krishna had, He HAS endless relationships, starting with two sets of parents. All of the friends in Vrindavana. He was a minister, a priest, He was the king, He was everything. And in every relationship, He is dependable. When we know about the dependability of Bhagavan, what grows is Bhagavan’s lovebility. Think of the people that we respect the most. Aren’t they the most dependable? But if we think of a relationship that frustrates us, that is because there is a lack of dependability. So Dependability in every relationship, just like Bhagavan Krishna.

Throughout the Bhagavata, Bhagavan Krishna is known as the Redeemer. We generally lack self-confidence. And one expression of this is the feeling that we don’t deserve enlightenment. But that is not for us to decide, but for Bhagavan to decide, as He is the Redeemer. And this is why He is so attractive externally so we get absorbed in Him and there is a logic for this thought process as well.

Do we know who is known as the most ugly Devata? It is Kubera. He is known to have three legs, one eye, he “needed braces” and all those kinds of things. Why? As we are not supposed to be attracted to him. We are not supposed to be absorbed in external wealth. Sanatana Dharma therefore is a vacuum of perfection. So we have seen that Shraddha is facilitated by Vidya. We will know that we are flowing in this direction when our love for Bhagavan is spontaneous, like an instinct. There is no expectation, no calculation. That is how instinctively we should feel that ‘He is Mine’.

Having established more context, we now come back to Bhagavan Krishna’s birth. When Shri Nanda goes to visit Shri Vasudeva, Shri Vasudeva shares a brilliant insight. He says ‘we are like leaves in water’. If we have seen leaves or grass in water, at times the leaves are together and sometimes they are separate and yet again together and separate. ‘Be prepared for that’, he says, as he knows that the Asuras are coming. For us too, be prepared with all the articles, beings and circumstances around us. See ourselves and them as leaves, and time as water. When we see the leaves in water, we smile. So we should do the same in this reality. This preparation that Vasudeva shares with Nanda, he has already experienced, separated from His wife in a different prison cell and His infants murdered. He is sharing reality and not just theoretically as he has already experienced this. This is all a practice in Tapa.

Tapa is when we voluntarily live in an uncomfortable way, by burning down our comfort zones. Another way to look at Uncomfortable, is to NOT Depend, as what we are depending on is also flowing in time as well, and that water is coming and going. Only when we are engaged in practicing independence, will we have enough Titeeksha or endurance for Bhagavan Krishna to be born in us. He was born to Vasudeva and Devaki since they had enough titeeksha because of their tapa.

Bhagavan Krishna is already born inside of us, but if we are always pulled to the outside world where this is uncomfortable or that is changing or no one is dependable, then we won’t know that He lives inside of us. Acharya Shakara has shared this vehemently that in the Sadhana Chatushtaya, one of the qualifications needed is Titeeksha. Without Titeeksha, we cannot think.

The original name of Vrindavana is Brihatvana. Brihat means infinite. Yes, it is a large jungle, but if Bhagavan is there, it has to be Infinite, no? When Bhagavan Krishna arrives in Vrindavana, Kamsa is told that his destroyer has been born, and Kamsa thinks he can destroy his destroyer before he himself is destroyed. So he keeps sending his Asuras. Putana is the first asura, an icon for incompleteness, Avidya or ignorance, but she is made Puta or pure. The next asura is Shakata or cart. Bhagavan Krishna’s mother, Yashoda, puts Him as a sleeping infant under the cart thinking it is safer and cooler as it is hot in August.

Vedanta: What that symbolizes is that when we put articles, beings and circumstances above the Infinite or Divine, our world will come crashing upon us, if not today, tomorrow, if not this lifetime the next lifetime. So we should always put the sacred above the secular. So whatever we get, we should give. When we get something, the feeling we should have is ‘I’m ok’ and when we give something, we should have the exact same feeling, ‘I’m ok’. When Bhagavan Rama is told that He would be the Raja, He smiled. When it was all taken away, what did He do? He smiled. You get, ‘I’m okay’, you give, ‘I’m okay’.

Skanda 10:7:27 — Rishi Shuka continues to share with Raja Parikshita the katha of Bhagavan Krishna. This asura, who is evil, starts to feel that the one close to him feels as heavy as a mountain and as much as he tried to shake off Bhagavan Krishna, the baby, who was holding onto his neck tightly, he could not. And this asura was Trinaavarta, the third asura.

Before this episode happened, Shri Yashoda was feeding Bhagavan Krishna. As she is feeding Him, He is becoming so heavy that she couldn’t hold Him anymore and places Him on the ground, and starts praying that He not be possessed. See how she is sort of lacking faith in Bhagavan Krishna! Kamsa is afraid and is fighting. So he is sending all these Asuras to look for Bhagavan and now he sends Trinaavarta. Once Bhagavan is placed on the ground, Trinaavarta comes in the form of a tornado, fast and hard and quickly lifts Bhagavan Krishna to the top of the tornado. This tornado is at the same time picking up so many stones, and projecting them at everyone around and they all sadly become unconscious. Bhagavan Krishna is on top of the tornado and is actually having fun. As He can see the Asura, He starts hugging him tightly. Trinaavarta then takes Him higher as he sees how strong Bhagavan is, but Bhagavan holds on even tighter till the same manifestation of air suffocates the asura and he falls on a rock with Bhagavan Krishna on top him and breaks into countless pieces. That is the end of Trinaavarta.

One time, Shri Yashoda is breast feeding Bhagavan Krishna and He pulls off and yawns and she sees inside His mouth, the whole universe, the galaxies, the whole solar system, the earth and when she sees all this she closes her eyes. We are like that too. Whenever we are in contemplation and feel very expansive, we become afraid.

Vedanta: Trinaavarta is symbolic for desire, the third vice. The first vice was ignorance, second was materialism and now desire. When we feel incomplete or insecure, what do we do? We look around as we are distracted and we see materials. And once we see all these materials, a storm of plans to procure these materials, these articles (As), beings (Bs) and circumstances (Cs), comes into our personality. So that is why the third asura is desire or kama. Logically, if we feel sad, instead of going inside, we go outside and see so many shiny things and then we want them and need them. That is kama or desire. How do we choke desire? When we desire the Divine, then all of our other desires become quiet and we become desireless. This is the consistent message of the Bhagavad Gita — act for Actionlessness, desire for Desirelessness. That’s why we were pointed to Bhagavan Krishna’s mouth, as it had everything in it.

If we have Bhagavan Krishna, we have everything, but if we have everything, that doesn’t mean we have Bhagavan Krishna.

In a relative way, we should desire Development. We should like and love converting values into virtues, we should like being more patient, we should love being more generous. If we can desire development, we can find our Best friend. Our first best friend is our intellect. Once we befriend our intellect, this then will lead us to Atma. From Sakhya to Artma. Who is Prince Arjuna’s best friend? Bhagavan Krishna, the intellect. And who did Bhagavan Krishna lead Prince Arjuna to? He led him back to Himself or his own Atma. So now we have learned too, to desire Development.

Guided Quietude: Sit comfortably with head, neck and back aligned. Breathe in deeply with our nose, and exhale through the nose. Close our eyes. Visualise or see with our intellect, that our mind has left the top of our head and is floating above our body. Feel the mind. The one that is always thinking and just watching the body sitting where it is. Slowly, let the mind rise higher to the clouds. Visualize being at the height of the clouds and from that position, look around, our body below, our home below, the trees, birds. Slowly raise the mind higher to the atmosphere of the earth, that space where planes fly and look around. Can we see our body or friends? We see no lines. We feel uplifted and free. Slowly raise the mind to the level of the moon and look around and see the earth — 3 colors white, blue and green. We cannot conceptualize where one country starts and ends, where one ocean starts and the other ends. And then we see the sun, brilliant, independent. We see the side of the moon that is facing the sun, has light and the other side doesn’t. What is there to think about with a mind so uplifted and elevated? We enjoy In Joy this clarity. We feel this conviction that the earth is like our body and that the sun is like our spirit. When the mind can see the spirit, we are not shaken or depressed by the body. And we slowly and gently let the mind descend from the moon to the atmosphere, to the clouds, to above the body and now gently actually as the mind returns to the body, by moving the head, neck, chest and upper back, abdomen and lower back, arms and hands, thighs and feet. Breathe in deeply and open our eyes.

Q&A: How to practice Prema bhakti?

Vivekji shared nine practices to practice the presence of Devi or Bhagavan Krishna in all that we do. We do everything we do, but more intentionally as we know Bhagavan lives inside us.

1. Use our articles fully, and when we use them fully, it is like we are purifying them.
2. Simplify everything we do for the body,like shorter showers, less elegant clothes, eating with less condiments.
3. Organise all the places we interact with like our pantry, our kitchen, our inbox.
4. Care about our lifestyle, samskaras like wake up on time, not be late, be mindful and intentional.
5. Direct the senses and not let the senses direct us which is voluntary discomfort or tapa
6. Focus on whatever actions we are engaged in doing. We do so many things passively. During a ritual, your mind should be where your hands are.
7. Equalize opportunity and privilege by dana and resources.
8. Desire development or InJoyfor the contentment of the mind or Santushta.
9. Remember — Remembrance or Vidyathat behind the Ego is the Atma and that helps us to engage in karma puja or nishkama karma. Then all the karma that we do becomes puja as it is selfless.

Notes by Prashanti Gogineni