19920429 Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā 10.49-55

(Disclaimer: The following is a machine-generated transcript and may contain errors or inaccuracies. It will be reviewed and verified against the original audio soon.)

The following is a lecture given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on April 29, 1992 – in Heidelberg, Germany. The lecture begins with a reading from Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā 10.49-55.

Jayaj. Sam. Chapter 10. At this time Havana Narai appeared with his four sons and all of them fell down at the lotus feet of Shichai. Tanya Mahathabu Bhavanandarai had five sons, one of whom was the exalted personality known as Ramanam. The Rai Havanam Naray first met R. Caitanya Mahāprabhu after his return from South India. At that time Ramanamdarai were still serving at his government post. Therefore, when Bhavanand Naray went to see Śrī Caitanya Mahgabhu, he went with his other four sons. They were named Vāṇī Natha, Gopīnatha, Kolanidhi and Sudhanidhi. A description of Hawalim naray and his five sons is given in the Adelida 10. 1, 3, 3. Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu when he went to Jagannath Purī at that time he was taught by Sarba Boma Bhattacharya. But instead he finally converted Sarva Bharma Bharacharya into a first five Vaishnava devotee.

And Sarva Boma Bhattacharya told Lord Chaitanyamya that when he went to South India on his way he should see Raman on the right who was a very great devotee of Kṛṣṇa. So when Lord Chaitanya went to the south of Jagamatpuri and he met Raman on the right on the bank of the Godavari river at that time Ramananda rivers of governor of that state under the kingdom of the King of Oisha Prataba Rudra Maharaj and accompanied by many Brahmanas in a procession they were going to the Ganges to the Godavari river which is one of the sacred rivers of India. And on the way Lord Chaitanya met Ramananda Rai. As soon as they met there was a spontaneous attraction for each other. Actually Ramananda Rai is describing the Gorgonom Desha Deepika as Viśākhā, one of the internal expansions of Rādhārāṇī.

So when Lord Chaitanya and Ramananda Rai met, then Lord Chaitanya embraced Ramananda Rai and Ramananda Rai couldn’t help but cry in ecstasy. And Lord Chaitanya was also crying in ecstasy. And all the Brahmanas and pandits and priests present, they were very astonished because although he was the governor, he was not considered he was born in what was considered a sugar family. So there were certain social etiquette that normally a Sannyāsī or a person in regards to order of life wouldn’t so intimately greet an unknown politician or for that matter someone who wasn’t born also in a priestly family of many different considerations. So they couldn’t understand why Ramananda Rai was crying or why this Sannyāsī was crying. The whole thing was completely bewildering to them. They didn’t know what was happening. So Lord Caitanya saw that there are all these people standing there.

Nobody could figure out what is happening. Then he desisted from welcoming Brahmanam Niraya. They decided to meet each other later in a secluded place. So later they met and they discussed Kṛṣṇa Kalaka to its ultimate limit. Very important teaching of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu earlier in the so after Lord Chaitanya traveled for six years in South India and he returned back to Jagannath Purī. Now he was meeting different devotees. So at this time Bhavanandarai with his other four children he came, paid his obeisances before Lord Chaitanya and when Sarvabha Bhattacharya saw Bhavananda right then he started to speak. Sarva Goma Bhattacharya continued, this is Bhavan Narai, the father of Śrī Ramananda Rai who is his first son. Śrī Chaitanya Mahāprabhu embraced Bhavan Naraya and with great respect spoke of his son Ramananda Rai. Ramananda Hina Ratnam J.

Who honored Bhagav Narai by saying the glories of a person who has a jewel of a son like Ramananda Naraya cannot be described within this mortal world. Shakat Pandu, to me. You are Mahaj Pandu himself and your wife is Kunti Devī herself. All your highly intellectual sons are representatives of the five Parmas, Raikohi, Ami Sudram, Vishayi, Adham Kabutumi Sparsalay. After hearing Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s praise, Bhalan on the right submitted, I am in the fourth class of the social order and I engage in mundane affairs. Although I am very fallen, you still have touched us. This is proof that you are the supreme personality of God. The prophet explains how the Supreme Lord said that no matter what one’s birth is, if they take shelter of him then they can achieve the supreme destination.

Appreciating Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s favorite Bhavananda Rai also said, along with my home, riches, servants and five sons, I surrender myself at your lotus feet. Purport by Prabhupāda Rūpa this is the process of surrender. Śrīla Bhakti Vinod Taakwa Singh. When one surrenders unto the lotus feet of the Lord, he does so with everything in his possession. His house, his body, his mind and whatever else he possesses. If there is any obstruction to this surrendering process, one should immediately give it up without attachment. If one can surrender with all his family members, there is no need to take Sannyāsa or the renounced order. However, if the surrendering process is hampered by so called family members, one should immediately give them up to complete the surrendering process.

Bhakti Vinod Thakur in his song Mano so Deho, Geho my mind, deho my body, Geho my house, your kichumur, whatever else there is that is mine or considered to be mine, I offer everything at your lotus feet. Lord Kṛṣṇa, the son of Maharashnanda. This is the process of. The ninth process of devotional service. Ātmā Viedanam, Surrendering everything to the Lord. There are nine processes of devotional service beginning from hearing Shravanam, Kirtanam, chanting, Smarnam remembering, bowing down to the Lord, serving the Lord’s lotus feet, worshipping the deity of the Lord, being a servitor of the Lord, friend of the Lord and finally Atmani Vedana, surrendering everything to the Lord. So this surrendering process is a dynamic process. It’s an ongoing process that I am giving you my house and everything, my mind, my body.

This doesn’t mean that they give everything and then they commit suicide or something. What it means is that when they’re giving the body to the Lord, they’re using the body in the Lord’s service. Giving their house to the Lord means they use the house in the Lord’s service. Giving the family members to the Lord means that to guide and enthuse all the family members, that all the family members are of the same mind. They all want to serve the Lord. So everything is used in a dynamic active service to the Lord. This way actually one’s whole existence becomes spiritualized. Because Kṛṣṇa is transcendental. Everything engaged in the service of Kṛṣṇa also is transcendental. We chant, we read, we hear to maintain our mind in that person Dental attitude.

But the nature of Kali Yuga, the nature of Māyā is to instead of identifying with the soul, to identify with the body. Here you say my mind, my body, my house. But in the Western and the modern world, we are in the illusion that I mind, I body. We think I am the mind, I am the body. But here is very clear. My mind, my body. Who is the I? I is the Ātmā, the self, the soul. So by Using everything in the service of Kṛṣṇa, then everything becomes spiritualized. But sometimes it is seen that even people born in exalted families or people born in the Vedic culture, sometimes they fall into this physical identification what to speak of others. There’s a story about a temple india where the priest who was worshipping in the temple was just doing it as an occupation.

And actually he didn’t have any faith in the deity as a lord, but because he had some basic training as a priest, so he was doing that to get food to eat. So in the temple there are different kinds of deities. These are Gordon Thai deities known ashtad. Eight medals, a special combination of medals. This is Nara, Singapore. So one form of the lord is in this metallic form. Another form is a pitcher. So there’s another special deity which is a self manifested deity. This deity comes naturally without any outside source. That’s called the shaligram Sila. It’s a special stone deity which is a black color in the shape of like a rock. But that will always have some very special signs on it. Normally it will have at least two chakras, sometimes four, sometimes six chakras, sometimes more.

It will have other signs on it. So on the surface or inside a hole of this stone. So this is worshipped india as a special deity of Kṛṣṇa and it simplifies the worship. When you have large deities. It’s not possible to bathe the deities every day with many items. Say in Māyāpur, our deities are almost 6 or almost 1.8 meters high. So if we had to. Bathe the deities in yogurt and milk, it would be very difficult to clean the bean piece every day. So only the initiated Brahmanas to worship the deities. And one of the types of deity worship is the shaligram Śiva. You all seen Shaligram Śiva? They haven’t heard of it. So this Pujari, he was an atheistic type.

So what happened was there was a member of the congregation who every day would bring in one bag of nuts in the shell and he would give to that priest. And the priest, he liked to eat nuts very much. So he didn’t know how to break the nuts. He was looking around. So he closed the door of the temple when no one is looking and he took the shaligram, breaking the nuts, which is shalingram. So the owner of the temple, heard the sound. So he looked in the window and he saw here the worshipable deity is being taken using to smash the penis. So he started shouting and screaming, you know what are you doing? You know, and had that person fired and beaten by the people, driven out. So this became a famous story.

The shaligram diya badang banga, breaking the nuts with the shali grab. So that was used by Śrīla Bhakti, Siddhānta, Saraswati, Thakpur. Many times in his examples, he would use these little stories to explain some point that when we are in this process of surrender, we are giving our mind, giving our consciousness, giving our body in the service of the Lord, giving our house, all these things. So anything which we have dedicated to through Kṛṣṇa service, then after that we should be very careful not to use that for material reason. Just like anything that’s been dedicated here for the service of the Lord, whether the photos of the guru or whether some article of the worship also that shouldn’t be used for some mundane purpose. That would be like Shaligram diya badang banga or breaking the peanuts with the Shaligam.

And then you could go on, he would take this example and expand it, just like now we see in the modern world, many times churches or church facilities are used for playing bingo and for other kinds of material things. So in another sense, this is also like breaking the peanuts with the shali ground. Something is dedicated to the Lord. It shouldn’t be used for mundane purpose. In India, there’s a famous temple called Chirupati. And millions of people visit that temple on main days. And in a month, some days, one and a half million people come and thousands of people come every day and people contribute millions and millions of dollars to that temple. But the government has taken over the temple and it takes all the money and uses it. They built one aircraft carrier. They do all kind of unrelated things.

And Prabhupāda, he chastised them. He said, people are giving for a religious purpose and they’re using it for material reasons. So this is actually kind of theft from this point of view. We could also say that it’s a shali grandiya badang bhanga, breaking the peanuts with the shaligram because it was meant for spiritually developing some spiritual service. So you see, india there are like one or two very rich temples. Government is taking over and taking the money, and many poor temples are there. And government gives them 300 rupees a year for the temple maintenance. Because. So 300 rupees a year is about 15 marks, 16 marks. There’s hardly enough to run anything for a day. What to speak of a year. So like this, there’s a Lot of misuse of spiritual things. There are many different practical examples.

So when we are trying to proceed in our devotional service, we have to also be very careful to try to those things which we dedicate to the service of the Lord. Be very strict to keep that in the service of the Lord that we will get the full spiritual benefit. We will get the blessings of the Lord, we will get the spiritual benefit. But if we give something and later on we don’t use it, then it’s again baking peanuts with the celery drink. So. Now Baninath, excuse me, Bhavana on the right, he’s surrendering everything to the service of the Lord and he’s continuing to speak. This son Maninatha will remain at your lotus feet to always immediately attend to your orders and serve you. My dear Lord, please consider me your relative. Do not hesitate to order whatever you desire at any time you desire it.

See, Caitanya Mahāprabhu accepted Bhavanandarai’s offer saying, I accept without hesitation because you are not an outsider. Birth after birth you have been my servant along with your family members. Śrī Ramananda Rai is coming within five to seven days. As soon as he arrives, my desires will be fulfilled. I take great pleasure in his company. Saying this, R. Caitanya Mahāprabhu embraced Bhagavanandarai. The Lord then touched the heads of his sons with his lotus feet. Śrī Caitanya Mahapra then sent Bhavananda Rai back to his home and he kept only Baninath Pattanayaka in his personal service. So that the dealings with Caitanya Mahāprabhu were very personal, very sweet, very nectarian. Lord Chaitanya could see that Bhagavān on the right and his sons were his devotees even from a previous birth. So he said. The Lord Chaitanya was that he was a devotee of the Lord.

Even from his previous births. Many devotees had taken birth in this world in order to assist Caitanya Mahāprabhu. When the Lord was preparing to come down from the spiritual world at that time, he told his devotees that they should come down and assist Him. And so they took birth in different countries of the world in different parts at that time. They took birth india, in Purī, in Vrindavan, in Bengal, to assist Lord Chaitani and his preaching. Śrīla Prabhupāda said that even today there are devotees who have taken birth in different countries of the world to help establish. Again, one more time he goes like finally again and again he’s hitting the bottle. He can’t figure out. He doesn’t see the glass. Why is this happening to me? I just want to get to the honey. And so finally he gets like a punch drunk.

He gets a date. They become profoundly touched. Student in navadvip and later as agrihasta. It.

(Side B of the Cassette)

It.

A student, he was living with his parents. And Ishvarapuri came and stayed at the house of Jagannath Miśra. And there Jagannath Miśra was serving Isharapuri. And at that time, naturally he engaged his son in serving Isharpur. So then Lord Chaitanya was able to do some personal service to Ishwarapuri. And they were serving him for Shadam and they were hearing some Kṛṣṇa Koth from him. So as a young boy, Lord Chaitanya already had the opportunity of coming in contact with Ishwarpuri and developing some relationship by doing service. And Bhagavad Gītā says, we developed a relationship with the Guru by serving, by hearing, by surrendering and by taking instruction. So at that time also Lord Caitanya asked some questions and Ishvarpuri got some instruction. He was very satisfied. But at that time he didn’t take any sh.

Lord Chaitanya, when his father passed away then he went to Gaya. Do you know Gaya Gaia is in the state of Bihar india. And actually when you go by train from. From Delhi to Calcutta and now the train goes to Gaya. But in those days the road between Bengal and didn’t go the way the trains are going because that was a very in between there was a very heavy jungle with many tribal people who would sometimes attack passengers, travelers. So generally the people were living alongside the Ganges. So the route that Lord Caitanya took to go there was he went alongside the Ganges up to Patna and then from there he came down to Gaya. So Gaya, there’s ancient temple that’s thousands and thousands of years old called the Vishnupad temple. And that temple is a temple.

The deity of the temple are two lotus footprints of Vishnu. So those are Vishnu pada. Pada means lotus teeth. Sometimes guru is also called Vishnu upon because he’s also representing the lotus feet of the Lord. But here there were the actual lotus feet of the Lord. His footprints were there. Vishnu himself had stood there and those were the impressions of his lotus feet. So people would do worship to those footprint impressions. And especially their. That was the temple where everyone goes to worship the lotus feet of Vishnu in the name of some deceased relative. Like if anybody father dies or mother dies or grandfather, grandmother, anyone and they want to do something for their departed soul, then they can go to that temple and in the name of their deceased relative or friend they can worship.

And all the merit or spiritual benefit of that worship goes to that departed soul. That’s the culture behind it’s. Called Srat, or Pindi. Worshipping in the name of a deceased relative because the soul goes on living. So Lord Caitani went to perform this ritual for his father to perform this worship. So just by that temple is on a small hill. And at the base of that hill there’s an ashram called Jangambari. And that ashram was the ashram of Israpuri. Maharaj Ishwarapuri was actually the disciple of Madhavem Napuri. Madhavendra Purī was the first guru in the line of Madhva and Laina to fully understand the highest ecstasy of love of Kṛṣṇa. Highest ecstasy of love of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa was realized by Madhavindra Purī.

And he would go into ecstatic trance where he would become mad almost in love of Kṛṣṇa, in the mood of Adhrani. And he would be crying out to Lord Kṛṣṇa in great separation that all. Merciful Kṛṣṇa, friend of the fallen, have your mercy on me. Different beautiful poems in Sanskrit he composed. And the kind of separation that Rādhā felt for Kṛṣṇa, he was feeling something in that mood. So he had many disciples. One of the disciples was Ramchandrapuri, who was like Māyāvādī. And he was very much into rules and regulations. So when he saw his guru was crying out, hey, Kṛṣṇa, O Lord of Mathurā, O Merciful one. Like that he’s calling out in different ways. He said, what is all this crying? Being a guru, you should be peaceful. You should be equal in fame and infamy and loss and gain.

Why you are being so disturbed? You should give up this weakness of heart. Chant Oṁ. Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. He thought that his guru was materially conditioned or something. And then he was lamenting over losing his bicycle. Of course there were no bicycle. Losing something material, he didn’t at all understand what was going on. So he started to instruct his guru. So this is called Guru Giri. When somebody tries to be the guru for one’s guru, that’s very dangerous. This is a very dangerous thing to do. It’s very offensive. It’s called murjita langana. Over crossing one’s guru, that we not understand what the guru’s realization is. And if we try to judge the guru by our own standard of consciousness, then start to instruct the guru without proper realization, then that would be very offensive. So this Ramchandrapuri, he was that type of disciple.

And when the guru was in this deep love of Kṛṣṇa, feeling so much separation, all of a sudden he starts hearing this disciple talking to him. And finally, what’s he saying? What’s he saying? What, what?

What?

Get out of here. What are you seeing? And I was like, I have been cursed by such a fool. This disciple, I am in ecstasy. And then he’s coming and telling me, you know, don’t cry over your lust. You know this and what? He doesn’t know anything. So that was one type of disciple, but Ishwar Purī was the other type. He was the most dedicated disciple. He would be serving his Guru all the time. Even when Maravendrapuri would be very old and sick, he would clean up his place and sometimes he would be just lying and he’d be like lived over 100 years old or something. So right where he was lying, he was too old to get up. He would just pass stool right there. But he was so pure that even the stool would smell like roses, which we cannot imitate.

But Vishwapudi, other disciples would stay away, think, this is like, I am a great pandit, I don’t need to do all this work. But Isharapudi was very humbly serving the guru, cleaning their place, wiping off the Guru, he was too old to take a bath, so he personally bathe him with a sponge or some cloth and water, like this, doing our nursing. All that Guru was finished. Physically invalid. Spiritually, he was in this highest ecstasy. He wasn’t even aware of what’s going on with his body. But that was misunderstood by some very neophyte disciple. But Ishwarpuri have never doubted his Guru as he was serving like that. So actually we have to also understand that Guru is representative of Kṛṣṇa and Lord Chaitani is Kṛṣṇa.

So the fact that Kishwar Purī served his guru also so nicely was also part of the relationship with Lord Caitanya that in his higher self that Lord Caitanya externally is playing part of devotee, but internally he’s also Kṛṣṇa. So he’s appreciating the service that Vishapudi has done for him through Madhavendrapuri. So therefore he was very grateful to Ishwarapuri. So that was also a reason why he wanted to take initiation from Ishwarapuri. Kṛṣṇa only has to take initiation just to show. He doesn’t have to actually, but he does it just to show others a good example. So he does that from some very intimate devotee. Same with great. Like what type offense? Of course, that type offense, it’s unnatural. In the beginning of spiritual life we are very offensive. We have all material vision.

So that’s where we have to gradually preach to people, get them to see with a more spiritual vision. That’s the time more of an estimate. If a person. Says something indicating their material vision, then preach to them. Kind of. If it’s innocent, if it’s done out of ignorance, then rather than being angry, then you can just patiently explain to them in such way. At least they don’t make any more offense or help them to get over that mentality. If they’re more inimical, then we have to be one. Even Gadar Pandit, he first of all mistook underage virginity. Mayapkur this year I gave a lecture on Premananda Prema Nidhi Kundarik Vijay Nidhi was also known as Prema Nidhi by Lord Caitanya. Ocean of mercy, Ocean of love. But the first time Giddadhara Pandit met him, then.

He.

He saw his material features and his material physical arrangements. And he thought then that he was a materialist, didn’t recognize him as a devotee. Later he could recognize that he was actually a pure devotee. And then he became very sorry that he had made such an offender. So he wanted to get rid of that offense. So he begged Prema Nidhi to give him initiation. Because the guru always forgives the devotee, his disciple. Guru is like a mother or father for the disciple. And so always forgiving the disciples mistakes. So that was the way that the dad Har Prabhu wanted to get free from that offense. So Lord Chaitanya approved and he was given initiation. I gave the whole story in detail. It’s on a tape. It’s quite a long history. But even he made a mistake. Or they can say that’s a Leela.

But materialistic people, they may also misunderstand it. Sometimes they need to be explained. That’s why association with devotees is so essential. Because we may get so many material ideas. And if we associate with devotees and they correct us and they encourage instruct us so we get the proper vision. Just like Sarabharma Bhattacharya. At first he thought Lord Caitanya was just a saintly person. But then by associating with Gopīnathacharya then he was able to understand Lord Caitanya was actually much greater. Eventually by Lord Chaitanus mercy could understand he was Kṛṣṇa himself. Any other question?

I want to know what are the names from these four new sakes in my school? I asked somebody, but they can.

The eight sakhis are Lolita, Bisaka, Champaka, Lota, Tungavidya, Achitra and Tungavidya. Then Hindu Laika, Ranga Devī and Sudevi. So the previous ones that were there was Lavita, Sambakalota, Vidya and Bachitra. And the new ones are Visaka, Indulaika, Ranga Devī and Sude. Very beautiful. Overwhelming. You say that. Guest have any questions?

Because in the moment I see a lot of devotees here also do have some special texts. So I heard that all devotee texts will become text after a few years. After five years or after three years. What is the. But what is the reason why it is after five years? Yeah, we compare to after seven years. I heard such a number. So I am asking him what is the reason why.

There are many tests in devotional service. Just like you graduate from your secondary school, primary, then secondary, then you go to college and University. Bachelor’s, Master’s, PhD in Devotional Service there are also going to be many different tests. And when we pass those tests that brings us further forward in our devotional service. In the beginning it seems like devotees, they have a lot of enthusiasm. It’s very new, interesting. So it’s very easy. But then there’s also, even after six months or a few months, there’s a test. When the mind by nature always wants to do something new, it’s very restless. So then the mind already gets materially, you can say. Distracted to want to do something else new at that time. If a person hasn’t developed enough spiritual knowledge and intelligence to control the mind, it’s a big test because one gets restless.

But then if one is very careful to know the philosophy chain Hare Kṛṣṇa that they can control the mind. And then after that the progress goes on. So like that, each of the levels of devotional service, Anartha, Nirvritti, Vajana, kriya. There are different tests that come up. That depends also on the weeds. It’s not that there has to be tests at one year or seven years or 10 years. It’s a question of weeds. These are the. My grandfather from Germany used to tell me that I am the weed in the garden. Something like that. When I was a naughty boy, you tell me like that. So in devotional service there’s also these unwanted plants. So the main plant is. The main plant is the devotional plant and all the so many other plants may come up.

So if we are careless then gradually this other plant starts to grow and grow. And when that plant starts to obstruct our devotional plant then we have to either pull out that plant or otherwise we get stunned, we get stuck up. So it’s a big problem. So in the beginning we don’t notice it that the weed is growing, that this unwanted plant is growing. But if we don’t take care of it, and if we take care of it in the beginning, then there’s no big test. We don’t feel anything. But if we neglect that, then at some time down the road, down the Autobahn, we’re going to have to face that unwanted plant is going to become so big that we either have to cut it out or otherwise it’s going to smother the main plant.

And this is what we see as the big test. In many devotees life. It’s actually their own. The test is their own creation. It’s not one of the scheduled tests. It’s unscheduled. It’s because they were neglectful in getting rid of all the different weeds or unwanted plants in the garden. And actually when my grandfather used to say, you’re the boy to put in the garden to make the weeds grow, there’s a German saying, nothing. When I was naughty, he’d say that fertilizer. Yeah, weed fertilizer. Only fertilizing for the weeds. So the. The main plant gets fertilized by hearing and chanting. And the weeds, the other unwanted plants, they get fertilized by material desires and misbehaviors and so many other things and material attachments. So depending there’s what? Chaitanya mentioned six weeds, but he said there’s unlimited kind. But six main ones he mentioned.

One was Nishida Char that’s acting against the scriptural injunctions, forbidden activities. Nishida char khuti nati. Then type of political hypocritical type of action where you are politically agītāting the arena, somehow doing some diplomacy or something. Kuti nati then Jīva hingsa envy or harm against other living entities. Then lob prophet motive that in devotional service. We saw Bhavananda Rai. He’s giving everything to Lord Chaitan. He’s not asking anything. I said, I am giving this to you out of love. But if we think I give to Lord Caitanya, what will I get materially out of it? If we’re trying to get some material benefit from devotional service, this is a kind of or weed. Then there’s La pūjā. If we want to get respect in exchange for devotional service, then at some point, if people don’t respect us, we feel, I am doing so much devotional service.

I am doing so much service, why no one respects me, why no one is praising me? Why no one is appreciating me. Then it becomes like a cause of frustration. But actually that whole attitude is the wrong attitude. We shouldn’t be hoping that anybody should have to respect us. We are offering to Kṛṣṇa. That’s our own personal expression of devotion and love. We’re not asking anybody to respect me for that. We’re not doing it for that purpose. But in our mind. Mind is very treacherous. If the mind gets this idea why people aren’t respecting me. There’s a subtle weed that’s growing and growing. And if it grows big enough, someone may get frustrated why people aren’t respecting me. And that’s called pūjā. Desire for respect, for worship. If that becomes an obstacle in our devotional service, then it’s a weed.

People may automatically offer respect to the preacher. Sometimes they may also disrespect. But the devotee will not become distracted from his duties, his devotional service. Whether people are respectful or disrespectful, la pūjā pratishta. Pratishta is another. Someone wants to get some position. I have been devotee so long, why I don’t have position? Why that devotee has position? We get envious or something. We are not in it for position. We want to do service according to each person’s ability. They do service. Someone may be manager or someone may be collector or preacher or pujari. That doesn’t matter. It’s all transcendental. But somehow we feel that I need some position. And that becomes separate from our actual desire of serving Kṛṣṇa. Then that can also become a weed or an unwanted plant. And there’s so many like that. There’s many others.

So when these things grow, they create a kind of a situation where we have to cut out the root, which may be painful. At that point, it’s like a tooth that grows bad. You have to pull it out. It’s painful. You put a filling in the beginning, it doesn’t hurt so much. The longer you let it go, then the more painful it becomes. Finally, when the tooth goes rotten, you have to pull it out. And it’s very painful for many days. It may hurt. So that’s why we should cure that. Pull out the weed when it’s small and then you won’t find these tests. The when we are not careful, say someone’s not chanting their rounds regularly. Everyone is telling you should chant. Chant your rounds. Do very carefully. But person is, I am doing service. I am older. Devotee doesn’t matter.

And gradually this builds up as a kind of obstacle and in the end it becomes a test. So these are tests we create for ourselves. They’re to our own attachments and Mayas. Apart from that, there are also special tests that Kṛṣṇa may give which are just to prove that the devotee is purity, prove the devotee’s dedication to the devotee and to the world. Both are different, just like Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa attested Arjuna. He wanted to speak Bhagavad Gītā to Arjuna. These are Kṛṣṇa oriented tests and the other are due to our own. We have to cross over our own conditioning to go further in devotional service.