Question: You said, kevala ananda kanda. Sometimes we feel happy sometimes sad in bhakti. Why is that?

Jayapataka Swami: Sometimes we feel happy sometimes sad in bhakti. Why is that? Bhakti is a gradual process. In one year in one life time you can achieve progress. See normally it takes a long time to achieve perfection. There is a verse in the Bhagavad-gita, bahunam janmanam ante – after many, many births, one can understand Krsna. So in this bhakti yoga, one may take 40 years, one may take 50 years, or more to achieve bhakti yoga. In Andhra Pradesh we have sugar cane? We have the sugarcane and we crush it and we get juice. That is like the stage of shradha. Then we have sugarcane juice you cook it and you get gur. Like that we have shradha, we have satsanga, you associate with the pure devotees. Then when you make gur, you take juice and made gur. We get gur, jaggery. That is bhajana kriya, start to practice bhajana. Do japa, arati, come to the temple, eat prasadam, do some seva. Then one takes initiation. Then there is a stage called anarta nivritti. It is like jaggery when we add more clear, it becomes more pure. That is like the anarta nivritti. So we get rid of anartas, in our devotional service. One of the anartas is that sometimes we feel very enthusiastic and sometimes we feel sad. Then with the guidance of guru we achieve nishta, fixed bhakti. We transcend the anartas, fixed bhakti and that is like the kandsari sugar. And then we reach the stage of ruci, taste for bhakti. It is like the sugar. So it is golden and very sweet. Then we have asakti attachment to bhakti. We want all of you to do bhakti yoga not taking sannyas, but engaging all our activities in Krsna’s service. Then we reach the stage of ecstatic love for Krsna. That is like the sugar candy. Or like in British times you had anas, 16 anas was one rupee. One ana, then shradha is 2 anas, bhajana kriya is 4 anas, anarta nivritti like 6 anas, nista is 8 anas, ruci is 10 anas, aasakti is like 12 anas, and ecstatic love of Krsna is like silver coin, and pure love of Krsna, Krsna Prema is like a gold coin! So from Tirumala you can see the .. of the .. Vakula Devi… give to her son, like Yasoda singing to Krsna, five kinds of pure love to Krsna. Santa, dasya, sakya, vatsalya, madurya. So eventually we want to get pure love of Krsna. So some days we feel good some days we feel bad that means we are in the stage of anarta nivritti. Sometimes you don’t feel good. If we do Harinam every day we feel good. I FEEL GOOD EVERY DAY! I FEEL GOOD EVERY DAY! Even though I have physical challenges. We want you all to achieve this pure, ecstatic love of Krsna. By Govinda’s mercy you can achieve Krsna prema! Haribol!
06-OCTOBER-2019 ISKCON TIRUPATI, INDIA