After spending one week in Zurich enjoying lively discussions in the association of eager devotees, I flew on to Copenhagen. I had visited here once before five years ago when I came during the pandemic to celebrate Janmastami with the devotees....
Some years ago, ISKCON purchased a nice house in a residential area of Copenhagen, with the temple room being in another building behind the main house serving as the abode of Sri Sri Gaur Nitai. A little court yard between the two buildings increases the temple's facilities. At the moment, a few elderly men are staying in the ashram, and a core team of several grhasthas regularly offer service in the temple. A good size congregation of Russian speaking, Danish, Nepali and Indian members participate in the temple activities.
Some years ago, ISKCON purchased a nice house in a residential area of Copenhagen, with the temple room being in another building behind the main house serving as the abode of Sri Sri Gaur Nitai. A little court yard between the two buildings increases the temple's facilities. At the moment, a few elderly men are staying in the ashram, and a core team of several grhasthas regularly offer service in the temple. A good size congregation of Russian speaking, Danish, Nepali and Indian members participate in the temple activities.
We had lively discussions in various programs at the temple and in devotees' homes. The false ego is an ever-intriguing topic so relevant to us all.
We may realise how often we give in to the false ego’s demands by defending ourselves and having the last word, trying to establish our superior position. We may even wonder how we can free ourselves from these patterns of behaviour that are so strongly ingrained in our hearts and mannerisms. Simply making a resolution not to defend again will not bring about a transformation of our behaviour. The power of the false ego is so strong and we have been obeying its orders for so many lifetimes. Thus it is not entirely in our power and control to now withstand it. We will repeatedly slide into the same patterns of behaviour, whether we like it or not. I like to recommend the following practical steps of internal work which can be applied in any transformational process:
1) Hearing how the false ego manifests, and recognising the fact that it affects us. Hearing will awaken us from our unconsciousness - our spiritual coma. The more we are covered by the modes of material nature, the less we are aware of our own shortcomings. As our heart becomes gradually purified, we will become more perceptive and sensitised to recognise our subtle anarthas.
2) Desiring: Hearing leads to the understanding that we have to become
free from the false ego if we want to enter the spiritual world. As a result, we will develop a strong desire to kick out this ugly troublemaker from our heart.
3) Being introspective and honest: Reflect what we are whispering within our heart. We have to continually check our motives: "Why am I doing this? Why am I saying this? Am I trying to be a humble servant, or am I trying to control, enjoy and be a master?" Without honest introspection and reflection, we cannot really make spiritual progress. As it is so subtle, and as the contaminated intelligence will always find justifications and defence mechanisms, it can easily remain undetected for many years and even lifetimes. We may always cheat ourselves, thinking that we are doing the right thing, and everybody else around us is in the wrong.
4) Catching ourselves doing the wrong thing: Being introspective and honest will lead us to the point where we catch ourselves doing the wrong thing when manifesting our false-ego behaviour. This is already progress, as we had not previously recognised it to be an unwanted behaviour.
5) Regretting and repenting: As a result of catching ourselves in our ego-driven mannerisms, we cry out to Krishna for help. We beg Him to enter our heart to kill this demoniac tendency. Ultimately, only Krishna can kill this Hiranyakashipu demon who resides within our heart, causing cruelty, violence and trouble to others. We can view Hiranyakashipu as the personification of the false ego, becoming more and more intoxicated and maddened by its influence. Lord Nrsimhadeva is very expert in performing heart surgeries with His sharp nails. All we have to do is to urgently request Him to do so. However, our problem is that we hang on to our desire for ego satisfaction within our heart, hoping that it will give us some tasty fruits. We do not want to let go of it – instead we embrace and protect it, thinking it will offer us some enjoyment and satisfaction. We cling onto it. However, if we seriously pray to Krishna to remove it, lamenting: “Oh Krishna, when will the day come when I can finally let go of it all?” then Krishna will reciprocate and do what’s required.
6) Catching ourselves doing the right thing: If we continuously go through these steps mentioned above in deep internal work, sooner or later we will catch ourselves doing the right thing. We will find ourselves in a situation where we would have previously acted in a defensive way, but now, surprisingly, we can let it go by. In this way, Krishna gradually frees us from the behavioural patterns of our false ego, according to our sincere desire and endeavours.
In those moments, when we agree to such internal work, we make spiritual progress. Then we actually become purified. Making progress in Krishna consciousness is not a matter of external success and achievements, and occupying titles and positions. It is a deep and internal matter of the heart. Therefore, His Holiness Gour Govinda Maharaja gave the analogy of an ISKCON temple being a ‘crying-school’, where we learn to cry out to Krishna. It is a wonderful analogy to capture the essence of the process of devotional service. We are meant to chant the holy in the mood of crying out to Krishna.
Parallel to this process, we also have to observe Vaishnava etiquette and culture. As long as we are not spontaneously acting in a humble way, our saving grace is Krishna’s culture. We have to be trained in the etiquette of not defending ourselves and avoiding situations that feed and boost our egos.
The rules of etiquette are like the crutches that Krishna gives us to help us move forward and gradually establish ‘humble-servant patterns of behaviour’. The practice of Krishna consciousness constitutes hard internal work. It is not a matter of floating around, enjoying life in a pseudo-spiritual atmosphere, or becoming a big and important person or doing so many important activities. These are external features. We are meant to do internal work in order to kick out our defects from within the heart.
On the 23rd of September I flew to Cologne/Germany.....
Your servant, Devaki dd
Please visit www.theholynameretreat.net
www.therootsofspiritualculture.net
https://www.facebook.com/instituteforspiritualculture/
We may realise how often we give in to the false ego’s demands by defending ourselves and having the last word, trying to establish our superior position. We may even wonder how we can free ourselves from these patterns of behaviour that are so strongly ingrained in our hearts and mannerisms. Simply making a resolution not to defend again will not bring about a transformation of our behaviour. The power of the false ego is so strong and we have been obeying its orders for so many lifetimes. Thus it is not entirely in our power and control to now withstand it. We will repeatedly slide into the same patterns of behaviour, whether we like it or not. I like to recommend the following practical steps of internal work which can be applied in any transformational process:
1) Hearing how the false ego manifests, and recognising the fact that it affects us. Hearing will awaken us from our unconsciousness - our spiritual coma. The more we are covered by the modes of material nature, the less we are aware of our own shortcomings. As our heart becomes gradually purified, we will become more perceptive and sensitised to recognise our subtle anarthas.
2) Desiring: Hearing leads to the understanding that we have to become
free from the false ego if we want to enter the spiritual world. As a result, we will develop a strong desire to kick out this ugly troublemaker from our heart.
3) Being introspective and honest: Reflect what we are whispering within our heart. We have to continually check our motives: "Why am I doing this? Why am I saying this? Am I trying to be a humble servant, or am I trying to control, enjoy and be a master?" Without honest introspection and reflection, we cannot really make spiritual progress. As it is so subtle, and as the contaminated intelligence will always find justifications and defence mechanisms, it can easily remain undetected for many years and even lifetimes. We may always cheat ourselves, thinking that we are doing the right thing, and everybody else around us is in the wrong.
4) Catching ourselves doing the wrong thing: Being introspective and honest will lead us to the point where we catch ourselves doing the wrong thing when manifesting our false-ego behaviour. This is already progress, as we had not previously recognised it to be an unwanted behaviour.
5) Regretting and repenting: As a result of catching ourselves in our ego-driven mannerisms, we cry out to Krishna for help. We beg Him to enter our heart to kill this demoniac tendency. Ultimately, only Krishna can kill this Hiranyakashipu demon who resides within our heart, causing cruelty, violence and trouble to others. We can view Hiranyakashipu as the personification of the false ego, becoming more and more intoxicated and maddened by its influence. Lord Nrsimhadeva is very expert in performing heart surgeries with His sharp nails. All we have to do is to urgently request Him to do so. However, our problem is that we hang on to our desire for ego satisfaction within our heart, hoping that it will give us some tasty fruits. We do not want to let go of it – instead we embrace and protect it, thinking it will offer us some enjoyment and satisfaction. We cling onto it. However, if we seriously pray to Krishna to remove it, lamenting: “Oh Krishna, when will the day come when I can finally let go of it all?” then Krishna will reciprocate and do what’s required.
6) Catching ourselves doing the right thing: If we continuously go through these steps mentioned above in deep internal work, sooner or later we will catch ourselves doing the right thing. We will find ourselves in a situation where we would have previously acted in a defensive way, but now, surprisingly, we can let it go by. In this way, Krishna gradually frees us from the behavioural patterns of our false ego, according to our sincere desire and endeavours.
In those moments, when we agree to such internal work, we make spiritual progress. Then we actually become purified. Making progress in Krishna consciousness is not a matter of external success and achievements, and occupying titles and positions. It is a deep and internal matter of the heart. Therefore, His Holiness Gour Govinda Maharaja gave the analogy of an ISKCON temple being a ‘crying-school’, where we learn to cry out to Krishna. It is a wonderful analogy to capture the essence of the process of devotional service. We are meant to chant the holy in the mood of crying out to Krishna.
Parallel to this process, we also have to observe Vaishnava etiquette and culture. As long as we are not spontaneously acting in a humble way, our saving grace is Krishna’s culture. We have to be trained in the etiquette of not defending ourselves and avoiding situations that feed and boost our egos.
The rules of etiquette are like the crutches that Krishna gives us to help us move forward and gradually establish ‘humble-servant patterns of behaviour’. The practice of Krishna consciousness constitutes hard internal work. It is not a matter of floating around, enjoying life in a pseudo-spiritual atmosphere, or becoming a big and important person or doing so many important activities. These are external features. We are meant to do internal work in order to kick out our defects from within the heart.
On the 23rd of September I flew to Cologne/Germany.....
Your servant, Devaki dd
Please visit www.theholynameretreat.net
www.therootsofspiritualculture.net
https://www.facebook.com/instituteforspiritualculture/
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