So it is duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam (BG 8.15), and you have to practice tapasya if you want to get out of it. Tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena śuddhyet sattva (SB 5.5.1). We are now accustomed to this miserable condition of life. If you want actual happiness, then you have to undergo austerity, tapasya. Tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena śuddhyet yasmād brahma-saukhyam anantam. You are hankering after happiness. That happiness, brahma-sukha, eternal happiness, you will get by practicing tapasya. So don't believe, don't make friendship with your restless mind. This is the instruction. Don't make friendship. Simply beat the mind with shoes and broomstick; otherwise cannot bring in control. And other alternative is kevalayā bhaktyā. So if you can engage your mind at the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, then it is possible. Sa vai manaḥ kṛṣṇa-padāravindayoḥ (SB 9.4.18). Then Kṛṣṇa will control. Kṛṣṇa means light. Darkness..., you are suffering in the darkness. So somehow or other if you bring a light, there is no darkness.
- kṛṣṇa-sūrya-sama; māyā haya andhakāra
- yāhāṅ kṛṣṇa, tāhāṅ nāhi māyāra adhikāra
- (CC Madhya 22.31)
If you keep always within your mind Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa's lotus feet... You can see Kṛṣṇa's lotus feet, Deity, Baladeva, Balarāma, how He is nicely standing. You can see the nice lotus feet. Don't try to see the face all of a sudden. Try, practice to see the lotus feet constantly. Sa vai manaḥ kṛṣṇa-padāra... This is a chance. This temple means to practice how to think of Kṛṣṇa's lotus feet, Balarāma's lotus feet, always. Man-manā bhava mad-bhaktaḥ (BG 18.65). Immediately you become bhakta. And as soon as you become a bhakta, kecit kevalayā bhaktyā vāsudeva-parāyaṇāḥ, dhunvanti aghaṁ kṛtsnam (SB 6.1.15): all kinds of disturbances will be subsided, dhunvanti. Nīhāram iva bhāskaraḥ. This is the śāstra injunction.
So in this Kali-yuga, to control the mind the yoga practice and this practice and..., this is all failure. It will never be possible. It was possible in the Satya-yuga. Kṛte yad dhyāyato viṣṇum (SB 12.3.52). Now they have manufactured so many meditation. The real meditation is dhyāyato viṣṇu, the Viṣṇu form, four-handed Viṣṇu form, and always try to see Him. That is wanted. These rascals have manufactured something, some light, some this, some that—yoga practice, sleeping. This will not help. Dhyānāvasthita-tad-gatena manasā paśyanti yaṁ yoginaḥ (SB 12.13.1). Yogīs' meditation means to see Viṣṇu mūrti. That is wanted. But they are impersonalists: "Viṣṇu is māyā. Why shall I think of Viṣṇu? Let me see some light." What is that nonsense light? That is also māyā. So what is the wrong there, instead of seeing the light if you see the Viṣṇu form? "No, the light is good. Oṁ is good." But when there is question of personal meditation, they protest.
Therefore tad-vijñānarthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet (MU 1.2.12). In order to learn everything very clearly, he must have the shelter of a bona fide guru. Ādau gurvāśrayam. If we want release from all this disturbance of the material world, then the first and foremost thing is ādau gurvāśrayam. Then,
- tad viddhi praṇipātena
- paripraśnena sevayā
- upadekṣyanti tad jñānaṁ
- jñāninas tattva-darśinaḥ
- (BG 4.34)
Guru means tattva-darśī. Tattva-darśī. Otherwise he's useless, waste of time. One has seen the tattva. Vadanti tat tattva-vidas tattvaṁ yaj jñānam advayam, brahmeti paramātmeti (SB 1.2.11). Guru means one who knows what is Brahman, what is Paramātmā, what is Bhagavān—not partial knowledge. The jñānīs, the so-called jñānīs, they reach up to the brahma-jyotir, that's all. But that is not complete knowledge. The yogīs, they reach, utmost, Paramātmā. That is also not complete. Better than the jñānīs, but it is not complete. Brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti. When he comes to the platform to understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead, then that is bhakti. That is bhakti.