13 May 2023 morning – How to Develop Our Sadhana and Bhajana (English) – Bordeaux, France | Srila BV Vana Maharaja
tvdegurudev
Sadhana means practice.
Bhajana means direct service to your istadeva (your lovable deity).
Siddha is the mature, perfect stage of sadhana.
The stages of sadhana (sraddha).
5 stages of siddhi (mantra siddhi, sadhana siddhi, bhava siddhi, svarupa siddhi, vastu siddhi).
Sadhana is the control of the senses.
Concentrate the mind on the object of love. That is the practitioner, the sadhaka.
How do you control the mind? Engage it in service to Hari, the Guru and the Vaishnavas.
Read Sri Manah-siksa, pray for your mind.
Most people glorify someone when there is a personal interest behind it.
The fruits of the actions of your past lives, good or bad, do not always come immediately; they come when the Lord wants them.
When one glorifies the Lord, the Lord hides; the Lord glorifies His devotees when they disappear.
In Gopinatha’s lila, Thakuraji stole rice pudding for Madhavendra Puripada, which let the pujari know that he was an uttama-maha-bhagavata, but not wanting to take credit for himself, he left before the news spread.
In the Madhurya-kadambini it is explained that when the sadhaka enters the stage of prema, glorification is equivalent to a snakebite.
Story of the 3 sons-in-law who went to stay with their in-laws.
When travelling, the shastras recommend that guests stay at the host’s house for a maximum of 5 days (except in the case of an uttama-maha-bhagavata).
When a sadhaka reaches the stage of brava and prema, married life is seen by him as a dark and waterless well.
