So long you are perturbed by material disturbances, you should know that your spiritual life has not begun. This is confirmed in everywhere

Expressions researched:
"So long you are perturbed by material disturbances, you should know that your spiritual life has not begun" |"This is confirmed in everywhere"

Initiation Lectures

How I am advancing in chanting will be tested how far you are free from material anxieties. That's all. Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanaṁ bhava-māha-dāvāgni-nirvāpaṇam (CC Antya 20.12). Then real life begins. So long you are perturbed by material disturbances, you should know that your spiritual life has not begun. This is confirmed in everywhere. Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā na śocati na kāṅkṣati (BG 18.54).

Initiation Lecture -- Hamburg, August 27, 1969:

As there is difference between gold and iron, similarly there is difference between the loving affairs of gopīs with Kṛṣṇa and these mundane, so-called lusty affairs between man and women or boys and girls. It is never equal.

Therefore, ataḥ śrī-kṛṣṇa-nāmādi na bhaved (Brs. 1.2.234). These present senses, these impure senses, contaminated senses, cannot understand Kṛṣṇa; therefore we should follow this principle: sevonmukhe hi jihvādau. First of all, engage chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. There is Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa. Hara is Rādhā, and Kṛṣṇa there is. But don't try to understand by the present senses, but simply chant Their holy name, Hare Kṛṣṇa. Then ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12). When your the dust on the mirror of your heart will be cleansed, and it will cleanse by simply chanting, ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanaṁ bhava-mahā-dāvāgni-nirvāpaṇam, and there will be no more any material condition . . .

That is the next stage. If you chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra without any offense, then immediately the stage will be that you are freed from all material anxieties. That is the test. How I am advancing in chanting will be tested how far you are free from material anxieties. That's all. Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanaṁ bhava-māha-dāvāgni-nirvāpaṇam (CC Antya 20.12). Then real life begins. So long you are perturbed by material disturbances, you should know that your spiritual life has not begun.

This is confirmed in everywhere. Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā na śocati na kāṅkṣati (BG 18.54). Prasannātmā. Bhagavad-gītā says, "When one is Brahman realized . . ." Brahman realized means one who understands that, "I am not this body. I am pure spirit soul, eternal servitor of Kṛṣṇa." Simply understanding that, "I am not this body, I am spirit soul" is not enough. That is not sufficient knowledge. Of course, that is good. That is just on the marginal step between matter and spirit. But you have to transcend completely this material existence and come to the platform of spiritual understanding.

So for that purpose you have to go further after Brahman realization. Brahman . . . brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā (BG 18.54). If you are actually Brahman realized, the symptom will be that you are always joyful, no anxiety. Anxiety, why an . . .? Everything is very nicely discussed in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Bhayaṁ dvitīyābhiniveśataḥ syād (SB 11.2.37). When you forget Kṛṣṇa, or God, and if we think there is something else than Kṛṣṇa, then we are afraid. And those who are convinced and realized souls that there is nothing but Kṛṣṇa, where is the cause of fearfulness?

Therefore those who are pure devotees, they are not disturbed even in most distressed condition of life. What they think? They think, tat te 'nukampāṁ: "My Lord, it is Your great mercy that You have put me into this distressed condition." Tat te 'nukampāṁ su-samīkṣamāṇaḥ (SB 10.14.8). So in the distressed condition, the devotees take it an opportunity that "I have got a very nice opportunity to remember God constantly. Kṛṣṇa, You are so kind that You have given me this distressed condition."

So this Kṛṣṇa consciousness is very nice. If we try to make progress on this line, we'll feel even . . . yasmin sthite guruṇāpi duḥkhena na vicālyate (BG 6.20-23). Bhagavad-gītā says if one is situated in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, even in the terrible situation, fearful situation, he is not afraid.