Question: Even after doing chanting, reading, and being into bhakti for many years, sometimes, it becomes a very doubtful situation whether really Krishna is there or if He is there, he is watching Me, He is bothered about me or not, or whether it is like this Krishna Conscious process is really true to be followed or not? What to do in such a doubtful situation?

Jayapataka Swami: I didn’t hear the last part (what to do in such a..) No no, I heard that, before that (sometimes, it doesn’t we don’t know if Krishna is there, seeing or not or we are really wondering if this process is true or not). Well, that’s why we have a spiritual master because we may not be able to realize that Krishna is there in the beginning. So, therefore, we take a guru who we see is there and he has his connection with his guru, with the parampara, so that he can answer these doubts. Actually, the doubts are there in the beginning, later one rises above these. Actually, we can see Krishna working at every step and by hearing the pastimes of the Lord we can feel the spiritual bliss. So, devotional service or bhakti-yoga is a gradual process. There are eight levels – Shraddha – faith, you start to hear, then gradually you develop some knowledge, then sat-sanga, you like to associate with devotees and you start to practice devotional service that is called bhajan-kriya and then there is getting rid of the doubts, the misgivings and the other problems, that’s called anartha-nivritti. And then one becomes fixed. That is called nishtha. And then one after being fixed in devotional service gets a taste that is a constant taste, maybe one has got a flickering taste before, but this is a fixed taste, that you get happiness by doing devotional service, then we become attached to the devotional service, that is called asakti, and then you reach the stage of bhava which is ecstatic love of Krishna, when tears come to the eyes, hair stand on end and there is uncontrollable laughter, the eight ecstatic symptoms and then once you are at that point, even before, one realizes that Krishna is definitely present and at that point he can experience that loving ecstasy was beyond anything. So, I hope that this answers your question. We want you to taste that ecstasy of serving Krishna.
28-MAY-2020 SRI MAYAPUR DHAM, INDIA