19810811 Vaiṣṇava Ke? 11-12

The following is a class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on August 11th, 1981 in Calcutta, India. The class is on 'Vaiṣṇava Ke?', Texts 11 and 12.

Jayapatākā Swami: After this we are going to read Vṛndāvane Bhajana which is written by Śrīla Prabhupāda which is following in the line of these verses of instruction. This is basically an instruction for people who have already entered in the path of devotion. On the different types of māyās that can attack the mind. Once one has given up the gross attachment for sense gratification, for fruitive activity, the battle is not over. Then the next stage is that māyā attacks the mind in different ways and these māyās are more dangerous than the gross māyās.

When someone falls down to sex life or to some kind of intoxication or something, with some good preaching he can be easily… and good association, he can be saved. But when one falls into the subtle mental desires and starts to… Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura... explained that there was a certain syndrome where one first of all desires for some position which he compares equal to the stool of a pig. Then the next thing is not getting satisfied, then one starts to envy other devotees and then he is absorbed… there’s a certain flavor. Envying other people gives a certain kind of satisfaction that “I am good. I’m well situated because all these people are off.” Then from there one gives up the association of the devotees. Then one falls into complete illusion.

But all along he is doing, not that he gives up the association of devotees and stops chanting, no he continues chanting, but now he is separate, now he’s in his own small group or in his absolutely separate situation and he says “I am chanting, I am still following.” but actually Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura... describes that this is a very dangerous māyā, illusion. He is praying to his mind, telling his mind, “You materialistic mind, what type of Vaiṣṇava are you? Why are you taking all these bad paths?”

So in continuation of that now reading verse 10:

Text 10

sei du’ṭi kathā, bhulo’ nā sarvathā,
uccaiḥ-svare koro ‘hari-nāma-rava’ 
‘phalgu’ ār ‘yukta,’ ‘baddha’ ār ‘mukta,’ 
kabhu nā bhāviho, ekākār saba

Sei du'ṭi - those few words spoken by Caitanya Mahāprabhu are that one should water the creeper of devotional service with śravaṇa-kīrtana and one should pull the weeds, avoid the offences to the holy name and pull out the unwanted weeds that grow in the heart along with the devotional creeper. These two actions – cultivating and weeding should go on was discussed in the previous verse. sei du’ṭi kathā – don’t forget those two instructions. bhulo’ nā sarvathā – never make a mistake, never forget these instructions at any time. uccaiḥ-svare koro ‘hari-nāma-rava’ – loudly chant the holy name of Kṛṣṇa and in this way remain constantly in that harināma-saṅkīrtana. 

‘phalgu’ ār ‘yukta,’ ‘baddha’ ār ‘mukta,’ kabhu nā bhāviho, ekākār saba – Don’t think… Never think that all is one. That the spirit soul is one with God in all respects. That a living entity in the material world is the same as a liberated soul. Never think that. So here again Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura... he is advising that we should constantly be engaged in loudly chanting the harināma-saṅkīrtana. 

Now he has described that there are two types of saṅkīrtana which is considered to be uccaiḥ-svare or very loud. That saṅkīrtana which has many devotees, khol, kartāla when they chant it can be heard for maybe one kilometer or more, two – it can be heard for quite some distance in the neighborhood. This is one form of loud chanting of the harināma with many devotees. The other type of loud chanting is known as the bṛhat-mṛdanga or the greater mṛdanga, that is the book distribution.

By distributing the books authorized in the line of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, the transcendental literature delivers the glorification or the kīrtana of the holy name to an unlimited distance. Devotees have been met who are in far secluded places, military camps, prisons, frontier outposts where a book written by His Divine Grace Śrīla A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, translation of the original Vedic scriptures with commentary has fallen into their hands, and has changed their lives.

Simply by reading that literature they have begun to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and they have taken a change of heart just by that association. So this is a greater kīrtana because it is going very far. Loud, what is the meaning of loud? Loud means many people can hear. That is the definition that we are taking loud as. If nobody can hear then that means it is quiet. So, loud kīrtana means performing the kīrtana, the glorification of the Lord in such a way that it reaches the ears, the minds of many fallen souls.

So in both of these kīrtanas the group congregational chanting with so many members as well as the book distribution of transcendental literature, it requires teamwork. To distribute books one has to print the books, write the books uh, edit them, print them. Then they have to be shipped out, distributed, and require teamwork of many persons.

To do the saṅkīrtana with the mṛdanga drums and kartāla cymbals, it also requires a team effort. Caitanya Mahāprabhu, He particularly appreciated this group effort for spreading His holy name. So one should never forget this instruction of Caitanya Mahāprabhu and think that “I will simply on my own chant Hare Kṛṣṇa for my own liberation or even for spreading Kṛṣṇa consciousness.” but should stay in the mainstream of the saṅkīrtana movement. Stay along with the Vaiṣṇavas as far as possible. This is the advice.

So, up to now we have been discussing the dangers of leaving the association of Vaiṣṇavas. Here we see one other danger that is Māyāvada. Māyāvādī philosophy is that everything is one. There is no difference, no differentiation between God, a living entity. Between one, the material energy and the spiritual energy, there is a difference. But between the living entity which is the spiritual energy of the Lord and the Lord Himself the Māyāvādīs try to indicate that there is no difference, but when the living entity is in this material world he is conditioned by the laws of karma and these cause and effect reactions bring him to so many situations, different births, different… sometimes he is happy, sometimes he is sad.

Caitanya-caritāmṛta describes,

kabhu svarge uṭhāya, kabhu narake ḍubāya
daṇḍya-jane rājā yena nadīte cubāya
(Cc. Madhya 20.118) 

Sometimes the living entity is raised to the heavenly planet to enjoy blissful material happiness with hardly any obstacles for an incredibly long period of time by our calculation. And then from there sometimes he’s dragged down again into hellish existence. In this way between happiness and distress one is actually being dunked into this material world just like a king used to punish medieval criminals by dunking them into the river until they almost drowned and then lifting them up just for a breath of air. Thus the conditioned soul is forced to suffer in this material world and just brought up sometimes for a breath of air. Then again, dunked back down into the miserable ocean of birth and death.

So this is a very dangerous position that the living entity falls into in the contact of this material world. But the Māyāvādīs think that “Well because this material world is temporary, it is an illusion. Therefore, actually we are all God. When you remove the illusion we will see that we are God.” But if we are God, then how can God be put into illusion? That means that illusion is greater than God. Therefore the name Māyāvādī. Māyā means illusion and vādī means one who propagates. So one who propagates the philosophy that illusion is God, they are in illusion. Therefore they are called Māyāvādī. How can God fall in illusion? Kṛṣṇa, He describes that He is māyādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram (Bg. 9.10) – He is the basis of this illusory energy.

daivī hy eṣā guṇa-mayī mama māyā duratyayā
mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti te 

That this material energy is the divine potency of Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa reassures us that someone who takes shelter at His lotus feet to practice devotional service is guaranteed to be delivered. Otherwise it is practically impossible for anyone to get absolutely free from the danger of falling and remaining in this material energy under the stringent laws that govern those who are imprisoned in this material energy or material prison house.

So it is not that everything is one, everything is two. There is Kṛṣṇa and His energy. There is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the living entity. This we should not forget. Neither we should ever indulge in hearing or thinking about such a philosophy because that will ruin everything. Caitanya Mahāprabhu said one who thinks or hears this type of Māyāvādī philosophy loses his discrimination in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he loses everything there.

Māyāvādīr kathā śunile jīve sarva nāśa: By hearing the words of a Māyāvādī philosopher, the living entity loses everything, becomes grossly materialistic and fallen or subtly polluted. In either case his spiritual life is finished.

So in verse eleven it is said:

Text 11 

kanaka-kāminī,’ ‘pratiṣṭhā-bāghinī,’
chāḍiyāche jāre, sei to’ vaiṣṇava
sei ‘anāsakta,’ sei ‘śuddha-bhakta,’
saṁsār tathā pāy parābhava

Translation: Kanaka-kāminī – wealth and women and position these are like tigers. One who has given up is a real pure Vaiṣṇava. He is already renounced. He’s really renounced. He is really a pure devotee. To him material illusion accepts defeat.

Jayapatākā Swami: So three types of tigresses are mentioned here. The desire for accumulating wealth and material position, the desire for having a beautiful, obedient wife, association with beautiful women, and the desire for achieving material importance and position.

Tigresses are famous for being one of the most ruthless of animals. Lions are considered to be the king of the cats but actually many believe that tigers are the real kings because the tigers are much more ruthless. At least whether the king or not, they are very dangerous. They have no mercy. When they have their victim, they will strike and they are always hungry, always hungry. So these are, in other words, three great dangers to a transcendentalist on the path of spiritual realization - wealth, women and material position and fame. The desire for these things can devour our devotional service ripping our heart of our devotional service just like a tiger rips out the heart of the animal. So we should be careful. Anyone who wants to make advancement in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, in spiritual life, first thing he has to do is give up these, the desire for these materialistic things.

Someone who gives up the desire for these materialistic activities is actually a Vaiṣṇava. Vaiṣṇava is a great exalted position, it means one who is already connected with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Viṣṇu, Kṛṣṇa. Vaiṣṇava is someone who is on the transcendental platform. To perform devotional service we have to be a Vaiṣṇava. The qualification of being a Vaiṣṇava means to give up desire for wealth, for sex enjoyment and for material position and one’s own importance. The qualification to serve Kṛṣṇa to be a Vaiṣṇava – these are the qualifications to be a Vaiṣṇava. In other words, these are the qualifications to serve Kṛṣṇa.

Sometimes people come to our movement, to the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement and they show tremendous enthusiasm for performing service. They seem to be very eager to do anything that they are asked and they are seen touching the feet of Vaiṣṇavas. But then after a short time, they steal something and run away. Śrīla Prabhupāda has described that there is a Bengali proverb 'ati bhakti caurera lakṣaṇa'. Too much devotion is a symptom of a thief. That normally people have māyā, they have attachment for wealth, they have attachment for sex life, they have attachment for material position, this is natural.

So when someone joins it is expected that there is going to be some subtle and gross attachment for these things but a sincere devotee gives up the desire for these things as illusion and he fights with his illusion, with this tendency with these urges by engaging himself in devotional service. And when his mind comes up with these ideas, he rejects them and again engages his mind in devotional service. But we can see that it is a struggle, in the beginning at least, but he’s somehow or another pushing on and because of that he is getting the mercy of the spiritual master and Kṛṣṇa. So someone comes in and seems to be already a spontaneous devotee, no desire for anything, not even subtle traces of that, already achieved the goal. “No, no I have no desire for these things, very active.” He is probably bluffing for some ulterior motive.

So when we hear this instruction that we should… that someone who has given up these three illusory desires for wealth, attraction for sex life and material position, we shouldn’t become fearful because that is something that happens automatically with the mature practice of devotional service. Attachment may be there but we should give up the desire for that attachment.

We should become situated in a position where we are always afraid of such things and according to the instruction of the spiritual master, according to the instruction of the scripture we are practicing our devotional service in such a way as to avoid it.

Describes that the best way of becoming free from desire for wealth is to always use what wealth we have, in the service of Kṛṣṇa. Then one is freed from that danger. How to get freed from the attachment of beautiful women is either to practice celibacy or to practice regulated householder life in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. By practicing either brahmacarya or gṛhastha-brahmacarya under the guidance of the spiritual master one can become immune from the attachment to sex life, as one is simultaneously loudly chanting and engaging in the saṅkīrtana preaching of Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s holy name and message, and always remaining in the association of strong devotees.

The desire for position is something which is very subtle. Everyone in this material world is hankering for his own importance. Sitting here in Calcutta, Śrīla Prabhupāda described that even the rickshaw drivers, they feel themselves very important. One rickshaw driver will consider himself to be more important than the other because he is a faster puller. The other who knows he is a slower puller will think he is important because he is getting the same money with less work. The other person who is somewhere in between the two, he thinks that he is better because he gets more money than the other two because he is able to cheat the people by charging more.

In some way or other, everybody has their own conception of their importance. One may think that he is a great singer, although he is a rickshaw driver he sings more beautiful songs while pulling. Doesn’t matter. Everybody has got that sense of material importance. Now that is expanded when one wants to become a minister, or one wants to become a king, or one wants to become a guru, it goes on, it expands in different ways. Everyone is trying to get some kind of position of importance but actually the position of Vaiṣṇava means to be the servant of the servant of the Lord. That is the real qualification for one’s service to be accepted by Kṛṣṇa.

So it is described that one who has given up the desire for these things, he is actually unattached, he is a pure devotee and such a person who has fully given all his desires to Kṛṣṇa, the devotional yogi does not simply give up desires but he replaces them with a positive alternative to satisfy the transcendental senses of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, . engaging everything in His service, knowing that He is the master of all wealth, He is the master of all fame, He is the master of all conjugal relations, He is the perfection of all personal exchanges of love. So, one directs all energy to Him, taking the focus off one’s material mind and body, taking the focus off one’s individual spiritual self, and putting everything, in the direction of Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa automatically, He reciprocates and glorifies His devotee and provides him with many wonderful situations which are reciprocation of that love given to Kṛṣṇa. But the devotee is not attached to those reciprocations. They more deeply, involve that devotee in intense desire to offer everything to Kṛṣṇa.

So when someone is situated in that position of wanting to give all his material things to Kṛṣṇa, those material things become spiritualized and that transcendentalist, he becomes detached, he becomes, he is a pure devotee. So this spiritual life is like a war where we are battling against the illusory energy, and when someone has achieved that position of being detached and a pure devotee, dedicating everything to Kṛṣṇa, the material energy accepts defeat. Standing with folded hands, she offers her obeisances, “Congratulations! Now you have achieved the success of life. Now you have taken shelter at the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa. Now I am defeated because you are beyond my purview. You are no longer within the range of my attack. So you have won.”

In modern ballistics, they always discuss what is the range of each missile, each warhead. If somehow the intercontinental ballistic warhead can get through the range of the radar or of the defence missile, then it has defeated the enemy and it will detonate on target. So everything has its limit in the material world including the material nature herself. So her dominion for keeping one in illusion is crossed over when one is a pure devotee of Kṛṣṇa, when one is situated in pure devotional service.

So then, she is also a devotee of Kṛṣṇa, this is her duty to keep everyone in her prison house, a prisoner. And she never lets anyone out except when they become a pure devotee of Kṛṣṇa. And she very gladly accepts defeat because that was the whole purpose of this material world - to bring people to surrender to Kṛṣṇa. So although it is her defeat, in another angle it is her success.

She has succeeded in keeping the living entity in illusion until he has come to the real understanding that he is an eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa. Otherwise he was not able to go and create havoc in the spiritual world where everything is in complete harmony.

So, verse twelve:

Text 12

yathā-yogya bhoga, nāhi tathā roga,
‘anāsakta’ sei, ki ār kahabo
‘āsakti-rohita,’ ‘sambandha-sahita,’
viṣaya-samuha sakali ‘mādhava’ 

Translation: Best one should accept what is necessary for this body and mind and in this way one won’t be affected by the material disease and remain unattached to material things. This way one should be unattached from this material world but at the same time see everything with relation to Kṛṣṇa in this way because everything in this world is emanation from Kṛṣṇa’s energy. Nothing is… non-different from Kṛṣṇa.

Jayapatākā Swami: Someone who enjoys his senses in a regulated manner that is appropriate for maintaining the body and soul together and which is not excessive or against the principles of devotional service is never to be considered as materially contaminated. He is actually unattached. What more can I say? Someone who remains in this unattached condition, always sees everything in relation to Kṛṣṇa, and engaging everything in Kṛṣṇa’s service, according to the instructions of the spiritual master. Because everything which is ordinarily materially enjoyable objects is actually engaged in the service of Kṛṣṇa, so everything is non-different from Kṛṣṇa, everything is on the transcendental platform.

Here is how to achieve real oneness. When everything is engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness is all one on the same platform of spiritual quality. Bhagavad-gītā describes that when performing a fire sacrifice the performer of the sacrifice, the act of ghee into the fire, the ghee being offered into the fire and the fire itself and the sum total of the whole sacrifice, all are situated on the transcendental platform. Just like electricity, everything in touch with electricity becomes electrified. Everything engaged in the service of Kṛṣṇa becomes transcendentalist.

The devotees in Bengal, when they perform the saṅkīrtana-yajña, the congregational chanting of the holy names of Kṛṣṇa, they come and they offer garlands to the mṛdanga drums, they put sandalwood pulp on the drum, on the kartālas, then on the devotees. They say that the drums are only engaged in Kṛṣṇa’s service as are the kartālas. They are never engaged in māyā’s service. A devotee in a neophyte stage may sometimes not be fully fixed up. So they get the second preference. But in any case all are worshipped as being on the transcendental platform – even the material objects are spiritualized, what apparent material objects, they are also spiritualized.

So here it is clearly instructed that performance of material activities according to the religious principles, the higher principles of Kṛṣṇa consciousness should never be considered as a material disease or material activity. Rūpa Gosvāmī has instructed – [sanskrit ślokas] one who engages his mind, words and activities in the service of Kṛṣṇa using different type of materialistic energies, material objects, in that service should never be considered… should be understood that he is already liberated because everything he is doing is for the purpose of serving Kṛṣṇa.

So this is the real platform of being unattached. To give up the association devotees, to go in some secluded place because one thinks that it is too difficult to deal with all the personality difficulties or to deal with the situations that come up is actually a… an attached position. Unattachment means to tolerate all types of difficulties for the purpose of serving Kṛṣṇa. To accept material objects and then not use them for one’s own sense gratification, to accept the apparent material situations but not utilize them for our own sense gratification but to engage those situations and those objects in the service of Kṛṣṇa.

When one sees a beautiful woman the natural physical urge will be, “Oh, this is an object of enjoyment, let me enjoy it, let me try to enjoy with this woman.” But devotee, he sees a beautiful woman and thinks “Oh, here is a nice conditioned soul, how to engage this conditioned soul in Kṛṣṇa’s service who is the master of everyone.” So, even in an apparent situation of temptation because the bhakti-yogi, the devotee in Kṛṣṇa consciousness is rightly situated, he uses every situation, every difficulty, every apparent obstacle to enhance the service of Kṛṣṇa.

Thus there is on obstacle for him. There is no situation that can be brought up by the material world which can stop his progress in devotional service. But here the mind is being addressed because the mind itself can create a dangerous position for us.

When the mind sees these situations, sees the material objects in an enjoying mood and thinks that “I should enjoy this, I should have this, I should be in this position.” the mind becomes our enemy. We have to therefore control the mind, keep it always in the proper consciousness and then there is nothing that can stop the flow of devotional service. Then everything is Mādhava, everything is non-different from Kṛṣṇa, it is under His transcendent… the transcendental shelter of His lotus feet. [paragraph]