This lecture explores the relationship between Sankhya, the path of philosophical analysis, and Bhakti, the path of loving devotional service. While Sankhya provides a theoretical framework to distinguish the soul from matter, Bhakti serves as the practical engine driven by heartfelt devotion to Krishna. Ultimately, the speaker emphasizes that spiritual progress requires a balance of both, as devotion without knowledge leads to sentimentalism, while knowledge without devotion remains dry.
So the... Here, here Śrīla Prabhupāda is talking, Śrīla Prabhupāda is talking, writing and talking about Sāṅkhya. And Sāṅkhya-yoga, one could say, are two different ways within the philosophy of India, in Vedic knowledge. But sometimes they enter into each other, one could say.
And Sāṅkhya, it is the way of knowledge. It's not like bhakti, devotion from the heart, but it is the way of knowledge. And there are six different systems of philosophy in India. And Sāṅkhya is one of them.
And they, the, the Puruṣa means pure consciousness, the soul. It is passive and doesn't change, and it is like a witness. And Prakṛti, according to Sāṅkhya, this is matter, the nature, everything that changes. And it consists of three guṇas: sattva, rajas and tamas.
And what is the goal of Sāṅkhya? To realize that I'm not this body or the thoughts or the mind, which is Prakṛti, but I'm pure consciousness, Puruṣa. And how to accomplish this? Through, through discrimination, meditation by using your intelligence or intellect. It's more like a spiritual, like science, I'm not like a spiritual science, but science.
So what is suffering? Everybody's suffering in this material world. And Sāṅkhya say that suffering, the origin of suffering, the cause of suffering, that we mix together the soul and the body and the mind. And then liberation means to understand the difference, it's like a theoretical knowledge.
But here we have Kapila Muni, who is an incarnation of Kṛṣṇa, and he propounded another kind of Sāṅkhya, which is devotional Sāṅkhya, one could say.
And what is Bhakti? Bhakti is about love, and how to surrender to God, like the Supreme Personality of Godhead, not impersonal but the person God, especially Kṛṣṇa. And therefore God has a form, Īśvara. Īśvara means Supreme Controller. He is active and is loving. Kṛṣṇa is not inactive, He is doing, He is performing pastimes in the spiritual world, which is full of love.
And what is the goal of Bhakti? To, to become the servant of God, to, to unite with God, not become one with Him but in, in, in love, in service. And it is not only theory or knowledge, but it's based on love, it's coming from the heart.
And how to do this, how to accomplish this? When you come to the temple, you hear the, always kīrtana, singing the holy name, Harināma, and prayers, japa, chanting on beads, and pūjā, we do pūjā, pujaris doing pūjā, worshiping the Lord. And we are serving, we're cleaning the floor, and cooking for the Lord, and distributing books about Kṛṣṇa.
So it, it is like, is not that we are sitting and reading the whole day, but it's more like emotional practice. Like we're doing like, instead of cooking for yourself, you cook for Kṛṣṇa. And instead of cleaning your own house, you clean the temple of the Lord. And we worship the Deity in a personal way, like if you have a child, you're bathing the child and cleaning the child and dressing the child, and we do similar things with the Deity, one could say.
So there are nine forms of bhakti. The first one is śravaṇam, to hear about Kṛṣṇa; kīrtanam, to chant His glories; smaraṇam, to remember Him; pāda-sevanam, to worship His lotus feet; arcanam, to worship; vandanam, praying; dāsyam, means serving Him; and sakhyam, friendship; and ātma-nivedanam, surrender everything. There are different devotees who personified these different forms of bhakti. Parīkṣit Mahārāja, śravaṇam; and Śukadeva Gosvāmī, kīrtanam; and smaraṇam, Prahlāda Mahārāja.
So, problem for us in active world is that we have forgotten Kṛṣṇa, and our heart has become impure, it's like a mirror covered by dust. And by engaging in these different activities in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then the heart become purified, it's like cleaning a mirror so it become clear, and then you can see yourself. Ceto-darpaṇa, darpaṇa means mirror, mārjanam means to clean the mirror of the consciousness, citta. And when you become pure, the citta, consciousness is purified, then you can see yourself and Kṛṣṇa.
And then liberation is not to understand the diff- only the difference between matter and spirit, but liberation means actually to receive the, the grace of God, and to really have a strong desire to attain Kṛṣṇa. This is liberation, to realize that you are an eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa. This is spiritual activities.
So Sāṅkhya and Bhakti seems to be opposite to each other. But in the Bhagavad-gītā, those who know the Bhagavad-gītā, they mix together. One could give example, like Sāṅkhya is like a map, like a map. And the map, like Svayambhū Bhagavān Kaśyapa, I mean Śiva says, teaching from the... what do you call... Kādambinī. And he said that this is like a map of bhakti.
So Sāṅkhya is also like a map: who am I and what is this world, Puruṣa and Prakṛti. In the Bhagavad-gītā, we find the words Puruṣa and Prakṛti. But bhakti, devotional service, is different. If Sāṅkhya provide the map, bhakti give the engine, motor, motor in English, engine. So like, the engine is like your love and devotion, and how to live according to your realization, walking the talk.
So even Kṛṣṇa says, explain in Bhagavad-gītā in the third chapter, the two ways: the way of knowledge, Sāṅkhya-yoga, and the way of acting, Bhakti-yoga.
So Lord Kṛṣṇa, He explain that pure Sāṅkhya, very theoretical, can dry knowledge, it, without bhakti, it become dry, dry. And, and bhakti without understanding become blind, sentimental, or fanatical. Like, some people even kill in the name of God. So it, it's very dangerous. Philosophical knowledge must be there but mixed with bhakti, devotion.
So how to combine combine them? Use Sāṅkhya for clarity, so you see through the false ego. And the warmth of bhakti to direct the mind to something higher.
And here is an example with the sea. Sāṅkhya... Sāṅkhya, they, maybe it's a bit impersonal, the Sāṅkhya say that you are the sea, like the Pacific Ocean, and not the wave. But bhakti says that, I should love the sea so much... going to like, so we have to engage, is not only to understand that we are in ignorance, but we have to also to engage ourselves in devotional service, otherwise we cannot realize our constitutional position.
So in Sāṅkhya, means like you, you discriminate, not this, not that. And you, you take away everything so at the end only Puruṣa remain, neti neti, is in personal way. But for us, as devotees, we do śaraṇāgati, surrender. So you have to do it with your heart, and you have to do it with love. And sometimes with... and then you become one with God in a way that you are His eternal servant, and is only possible through love.
And we try to... we have Pañca-tattva, ki jaya. We try not to use only our feelings, or our intellect... like the scientists are doing, but to act with our heart is like dancing, singing and serving, that you can only do with your, with the feeling, with love. And anyway, if you are happy, you express it through singing and dancing. So if we are coming from the Pañca-tattva, then we can, if you really feel something within our heart, naturally we dance and sing, and we are happy. And this is the way to become self-realized and liberated, real liberation that you understand your constitutional eternal position, relationship with God.
So what is, what is our enemy? Our enemy is ahaṅkāra, our false ego. This is a feeling that I'm separate from God. Actually, we are not separate from God, but we feel like that, and we act like that, we identify ourselves with the body. I'm a man, or I'm a woman, or I'm Swedish or American, so the false ego. Upādhis, or that mean like, "this is not me".
So in, in Bhagavad-gītā, is the Prakṛti of the, is working through the three guṇas, and the Puruṣa, the soul, is only the witness. If you can understand that, and also, also give your heart to Kṛṣṇa, then you can reach Me. Jñāna-miśrā-bhakti is the goal.
So one could say that Sāṅkhya, they give you the spectacles, so you can see that everything is clear like that, if you have problem with eyesight and you need glasses to read. So through knowledge, you can, śāstra-cakṣus, you can see things as they are.
But bhakti, devotional service, give you the, direction to go, when you have actually understood that you are not this body. Like you're not stay there, you continue like, said in the Bhagavad-gītā that: bhaktyā mām abhijānāti yāvān yaś cāsmi tattvataḥ tato māṁ tattvato jñātvā viśate tad-anantaram.
When you have understood that you are brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā, brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā means you understand brahma-bhūta, I'm spirit. And prasannātmā, you feel that happiness within, and no hankering and no lamentation. And you are equal to all, you see all living entities equally, then, only then can you really enter into bhakti, Kṛṣṇa says in the next verse.
So to, otherwise we have, in Bhagavad-gītā there are many different, we have Sāṅkhya-yoga also in the second chapter, I think. Karma-yoga, dhyāna-yoga, and different kind, like jñāna-yoga. But, but what Kṛṣṇa want is not only knowledge, He want that we love Him, that we serve Him. And ultimately, He asks us to give up everything, and just surrender unto Him, after explaining the whole Bhagavad-gītā.
So we have to surrender to Kṛṣṇa, to God, even in yoga, Patañjali, in Yoga-sūtras, īśvara-praṇidhāna is the highest, to surrender to God. Because it's so difficult to control the mind, it's not enough with your strength, but if we, we dedicate ourselves to, to Kṛṣṇa, then it's like, then we, we surrender to Kṛṣṇa, then it's an easier process. Prabhupāda said like, sometimes the, the Śaila is very rare, is, is so rare, Bhakti. In one sense, it's due to that it's so simple. But people want something difficult, and here we have a very simple process: singing and dancing and taking prasādam. Therefore, actually, few really understand this as so sweet. Lord Caitanya was singing and dancing, and he was criticized by the sannyāsīs in Varanasi that: "You are a sentimentalist, you are dancing with other sentimentalists".
But he could, he explained very nicely the philosophy of the, Vedic philosophy, to the, to the Māyāvādīs in Varanasi. And they were impressed by his, full jñāna, he looked like Nārāyaṇa himself, it was thought that "I am Nārāyaṇa". And then by his personal example, he, convinced them to become devotees, even Prakāśānanda Sarasvatī also surrendered to Lord Caitanya, because he was so warm, loving, and compassionate, and he showed such a solid example of a perfect spiritual life.
So now, we are reading from the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and here Lord Kapila is giving a new version, a new version of the Sāṅkhya, He is speaking to His mother, Devahūti.
So, liberation doesn't mean only to separate Puruṣa from Prakṛti, but liberation is when Prakṛti give up and surrender to Kṛṣṇa. And this is what Lord Kapila was teaching. We have the whole Third Canto, all His meditation on the form of Viṣṇu. And he also giving like, descript- like explain what happened for a sinful person is going to the hellish planets. And in this way, He's like, and we should learn how to meditate on Lord Viṣṇu, Kṛṣṇa, very beautiful descriptions there.
So, maybe one can also, there is an example sometimes we become angry. And how to deal with anger? According to Sāṅkhya, it mean like: "this anger is not me". Is like, is in the mind, and "I'm only witness to the anger. I don't identify myself with it". So therefore, anger cannot touch you, because you don't identify with it, and then if you don't identify with it, then it will die, disappear, diminish like that.
But in, a devotee, he's thinking in a different way about this anger. Maybe he will say that to Kṛṣṇa, He used anger in, like Hanumān. He became very angry at Rāvaṇa, but he used it in Rāma, Rāmacandra's service, in Kṛṣṇa's service. He used it in... even anger you can use in the service to Kṛṣṇa. If somebody is offending devotees, you become angry at them.
So that Bhakti, devotion, can transform your heart. Even anger, lust, and greed can transform it, you can even use it in Kṛṣṇa's service. It is not that you try to cut it off.
So even Śaṅkara, Śaṅkarācārya, he used Sāṅkhya, discrimination, but at the end of life he wrote Bhaja Govindaṁ, it was like pray to Kṛṣṇa, pure bhakti. So actually, he was a devotee, he was Śiva. Rāmānuja, Bhakti philosopher, also used Sāṅkhya, but only to, prove to show how the soul and matter relate to Lord Viṣṇu.
So maybe we can see here like, example. Sāṅkhya is like to, you understand how the motor of the car work, like, like, so many complicated things in the motor, and you know exactly how everything is working, analytical study. But Bhakti means that you can take the car and you drive it to somebody you love, not only sitting there, you use it in God's service. But you need both, you need a good motor and both car, but you drive it, and you drive it to somebody you love, and you drive it back to Godhead, one could say. Even the body is like that.
We, we need both knowledge and devotion. Even Kṛṣṇa says that in the Bhagavad-gītā.
And in the Bhagavad-gītā, Kṛṣṇa says, 18.55: bhaktyā mām abhijānāti. Only through bhakti, can you understand Me who I am. So only through bhakti, you have, not Sāṅkhya, actually, you want our love, pure love, pure bhakti, uttamā-bhakti, otherwise we can never really come close to Him. So even in jñāna, he has to, if he want to reach his destination, he has to come to bhakti.
So, even like in Deity worship, when we do different rituals, we sing, we offer food, we relate to God as a person, we dress Pañca-tattva, bathing them every day. And this is bhakti.
One can say like, āvāhanam means like to invite the Deity, Kṛṣṇa. Is like to invite Him to enter into the mūrti. Āvāhanam is like, in Deity worship, sometimes they do it only for one day, for one worship, āvāhanam, invite the Deity to come, and then when you have done the pūjā, you ask Him to go away, visarjana, in South India. But when you install Deities, He is there for, for a long time, even the Śālagrāma-śilā, you don't have to install. The Śālagrāma-śilā always there, eternally. It's no installation is necessary, and therefore it is very important to do it every day, you cannot ask Him to go away. If you, you have to give Him away to somebody else, maybe, somebody else to take care, because He's eternally there.
And we have upacāras, means like different items we use for worship: bathing, dressing, feeding, in a loving way. It's not like, like in the shop window you dress a model like that, just standing there, but maybe the Deity is not moving, but it is alive, but unless you have devotion, you will never understand. You really have to offer your heart fully, otherwise it remains like... even the Deity can speak to you, He spoke to Prāpāra, but then you have to be very advanced, but He's there, and we can notice the difference that when we come to, to the darśana, we feel purified, it's very pleasing to sing and dance, and it is purifying for the eyes to see nicely dressed, like on Sundays especially, Pañca-tattva is very nicely dressed. It's, it is like, it is working, it's not, is not a fake, somebody think, but it is working. And we have a relationship, and if you do something wrong, you can feel: I shouldn't have done like that. So Kṛṣṇa wants our love, our devotion, and then we have this upacāras: incense, lamp, and water we offer. It's not a mechanical thing, but it is, we have to offer it with, with your, with your heart.
So Kṛṣṇa eat, what we, we put a plate before the Altar with different preparations, we offer it like, pādya-arghya, we offer to His lotus feet, purified water, ring the bell, and then we go out, and we, we allow Kṛṣṇa, Pañca-tattva, to eat for 20 minutes. But when, He doesn't eat like we do, from a plate in the mouth, but He can eat from the eyes, and from hearing the ringing of the bell, and the prayers. So He's very kind that He, He doesn't eat it up, He leave it for us, so we can become purified.
So even when we ārati, is like welcoming, somebody like, if somebody's coming into your house and you have a lamp, you know, to show the way, so in a similar way we offer lamp to Kṛṣṇa, to welcome, welcome Him, for darśana. And this lamp is illuminating, and illuminating our heart and consciousness also.
And, we are not, we're not only Prakṛti, according to Sāṅkhya, like that matter, but we are spirit soul, sac-cid-ānanda, and we have, we have this loving propensity, and then we have to give it to, to the Supreme, to the Absolute, and it will completely satisfy us. And the fire, the lamp, is also removing the ignorance, tamas.
So, so the Deity is there like support for our mind, so that we can fix our mind on Kṛṣṇa, it would be very difficult to meditate on something impersonal, but the Deity says we can look and we can hear, engage our senses in something practical and spiritual.
So now, the world is very impersonal and nobody like... When you come to India, it's different. In Vṛndāvana, always so many temples, so many mūrtis, so many devotees, but here in the West, it's impersonal, and therefore it is very good that we have a temple. We can see more and more people are coming here every Sunday, especially from India, and it's interest to see when they come, many simple people, families, but it's there within their heart, or within their culture. When they come for ārati, they stand there in reverence, and they sit down, and they, they look, they maybe they come a long way just to visit the temple and see the Deities, and they are very respectful. But in the West, it is not like that, like the churches are empty, and, so we can, now most people who come on Sunday is, some is from India, because it's, it's there maybe within their blood, and they're happy to see, to hear the holy name, to see devotees, to see the Deities.
So we offer a flower, a leaf, a little fruit, water. And Kṛṣṇa doesn't want us to be perfect immediately, He wants our love.
And Sāṅkhya, there are so many mudrās you can do, but, even, so we, I don't do so many mudrās, very few mudrās, as many mudrās, like different with your hands like that, for purific- it's good, but, maybe Kṛṣṇa look more for the love that you don't do things mechanically.
And also, we don't forget that Kṛṣṇa's within the heart of, is not only the Deity, but as Paramātmā within the heart of all living entities. And we try to remember that, that the, body is a temple and Kṛṣṇa's there within the heart, and therefore we should be very respectful to other devotees, to other living entities, and remember that Kṛṣṇa's there within their heart. It's not, like a spiritual vision like that.
Otherwise, if you worship the Deity, you make a sacrifice with ghee, if you don't recognize that Kṛṣṇa's within the heart of all living entity, it is like putting ghee into ashes instead of fire, it doesn't really change everything, anything, or change your heart.
So we can, like we read this morning was beautiful, Hayagrīva, the book on Back to Prabhupāda, he had left Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and maybe he didn't follow any more, but then he wanted to see Śrīla Prabhupāda in Hawaii, I think, because Prabhupāda wanted to continue to make a book about questions and answers about different philosophers, so Hayagrīva also, for the first, was one of the first devotees, came to the room, and he made daṇḍavats and started to cry, and then Prabhupāda said that: "Kṛṣṇa sent Hayagrīva to help me to spread Kṛṣṇa consciousness", and he also started to cry, but he was very soft-hearted.
So if we can do like that, we can cry and we can laugh and sing, it's not, nothing wrong with that, we have to, we have feelings within our heart, we have to show them, and the best person to show them to is to Kṛṣṇa.
Okay. So pujari is like a bridge. You show the people to, to the Deity.
So, okay. I'm sorry, I was reading from the... some people were critical against Sāṅkhya, I, I like it in one sense, but it was so much philosophy, I couldn't grasp it, but the last part of the lecture was about Deity, and maybe that was more personal. Okay, it's 9 o'clock. Is there any question or comment?
Attendee: Thank you for sharing your realizations, Prabhu, it made me think about one thing. When you spoke, how knowledge and bhakti belongs together, and this is, I would say, at the very core of Śrīla Prabhupāda's teachings in this mission, because he wrote and outlined his overall strategy to basically take over the whole world for Kṛṣṇa consciousness. In a famous letter from 1944 to the Deputy Prime Minister, Sardar Patel, in India, he took the opportunity and he presented four different stages. And the first, very first stage was exactly what you were talking about, is introduction of knowledge, the śāstra, the books, that Prabhupāda spent so much time giving it to us, so we can get inspired intelligence, make the right decisions.
- Yes.
Attendee: And the other part is the devotional side, the expression of that knowledge, which was Harināma-saṅkīrtana. Singing and dancing, representing.
- Yes.
Attendee: So, they absolutely belong together, knowledge and, and, and devotion. I think, I remember I think it was Prabhupāda said also that, you know, devotion or emotion without knowledge is just sentimentalism, and knowledge without devotion, is just dry, so they absolutely belong together. Thank you very much.
- Hare Kṛṣṇa.