20211023 Offenses and Weeds to Be Removed to Protect the Bhakti-Latā Creeper

The following is a Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Book Compilation By His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on 23rd October 2021 in Śrīdhāma Māyāpur, India

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
paramānandaṁ mādhavaṁ śrī caitanya iśvaram

Hariḥ oṁ tat sat!

Hare Kṛṣṇa! Dear Devotees! Today is the compilation of Caitanya līlā book, the chapter today is entitled:

Offenses and Weeds to Be Removed to Protect the Bhakti-Latā Creeper

Under the section: Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu Instructs Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī

Caitanya Caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā 19.156

apakkāvasthāya vaiṣṇavāparādhai sādhanapathe sarvapradhāna ‘vighna’:—

yadi vaiṣṇava-aparādha uṭhe hātī mātā
upāḍe vā chiṇḍe, tāra śukhi’ yāya pātā

Translation: If the devotee commits an offense at the feet of a Vaiṣṇava while cultivating the creeper of devotional service in the material world, his offense is compared to a mad elephant that uproots the creeper and breaks it. In this way the leaves of the creeper are dried up.

Purport: One’s devotional attitude increases in the association of a Vaiṣṇava:

tāṅdera caraṇa sevi bhakta-sane vāsa
janame janame haya, ei abhilāṣa

By his personal example, Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura stresses that a devotee must always remember to please his predecessor ācārya. The Gosvāmīs are represented by one’s spiritual master. One cannot be an ācārya (spiritual master) without following strictly in the disciplic succession of the ācāryas. One who is actually serious about advancing in devotional service should desire only to satisfy the previous ācāryas. Ei chaya gosāñi yāra, mui tāra dāsa. One should always think of oneself as a servant of the servant of the ācāryas, and thinking this, one should live in the society of Vaiṣṇavas. However, if one thinks that he has become very mature and can live separate from the association of Vaiṣṇavas and thus gives up all the regulative principles due to offending a Vaiṣṇava, one’s position becomes very dangerous. Offenses against the holy name are explained in Ādi-līlā, chapter eight, verse 24. Giving up the regulative principles and living according to one’s whims is compared to a mad elephant, which by force uproots the bhakti-latā and breaks it to pieces. In this way the bhakti-latā shrivels up. Such an offense is especially created when one disobeys the instructions of the spiritual master. This is called guru-avajñā. The devotee must therefore be very careful not to commit offenses against the spiritual master by disobeying his instructions. As soon as one is deviated from the instructions of the spiritual master, the uprooting of the bhakti-latā begins, and gradually all the leaves dry up.

Jayapatākā Swami: If the devotional creeper is uprooted, it doesn’t immediately dry up but since its root is not getting any more water, the leaves gradually dry up. So, this vaiṣṇava-aparādha is the worst offense and one can by committing a vaiṣṇava-aparādha one’s devotional progress will be checked. Sometimes vaiṣṇava-aparādha may be not respecting the previous ācāryas properly or may be by some direct offense. In any case one should guard against any kind of vaiṣṇava-aparādha.

Caitanya Caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā 19.157

nāmāparādha haite sāvadhānatāi śreyaḥ-kāraṇa:—

tāte mālī yatna kari’ kare āvaraṇa
aparādha-hastīra yaiche nā haya udgama

Translation: The gardener must defend the creeper by fencing it all around so that the powerful elephant of offenses may not enter.

Purport: While the bhakti creeper is growing, the devotee must protect it by fencing it all around. The neophyte devotee must be protected by being surrounded by pure devotees. In this way he will not give the maddened elephant a chance to uproot his bhakti creeper. When one associates with nondevotees, the maddened elephant is set loose. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu has said, asat-saṅga-tyāga, — ei vaiṣṇava-ācāra. The first business of a Vaiṣṇava is to give up the company of nondevotees. A so-called mature devotee, however, commits a great offense by giving up the company of pure devotees. The human being is a social animal, and if one gives up the society of pure devotees, he must associate with nondevotees (asat-saṅga). By contacting nondevotees and engaging in nondevotional activities, a so-called mature devotee will fall victim to the mad elephant offense. Whatever growth has taken place is quickly uprooted by such an offense. One should therefore be very careful to defend the creeper by fencing it in — that is, by following the regulative principles and associating with pure devotees.

Jayapatākā Swami: So, creating a fence around the creeper means avoiding any kind of offense and that can be achieved if you associate with pure devotees. If you give up the company of pure devotees and associate with non-devotees and then ultimately it lets the mad elephant inside and uproots the creeper.

Purport: if one thinks that there are many pseudo devotees or nondevotees in the Kṛṣṇa Consciousness Society, still one should stick to the Society; if one thinks the Society’s members are not pure devotees, one can keep direct company with the spiritual master, and if there is any doubt, one should consult the spiritual master. However, unless one follows the spiritual master’s instructions concerning the regulative principles and chanting and hearing the holy name of the Lord, one cannot become a pure devotee. By one’s mental concoctions, one falls down. By associating with non-devotees, one breaks the regulative principles and is thereby lost.

Jayapatākā Swami: So, one protects devotional creeper by strictly following the instructions of his guru and by associating with pure devotees.

Purport: In the Upadeśāmṛta (2) of Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī, it is said:

atyāhāraḥ prayāsaś ca
prajalpo niyamāgrahaḥ
jana-saṅgaś ca laulyaṁ ca
ṣaḍbhir bhaktir vinaśyati

One’s devotional service is spoiled when he becomes too entangled in the following six activities:

(1) eating more than necessary or collecting more funds than required, (2) over endeavoring for mundane things that are very difficult to attain, (3) talking unnecessarily about mundane subject matters, (4) practicing the scriptural rules and regulations only for the sake of following them and not for the sake of spiritual advancement, or rejecting the rules and regulations of the scriptures and working independently or whimsically, (5) associating with worldly-minded persons who are not interested in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and (6) being greedy for mundane achievements.”

Jayapatākā Swami: These principles of the Upadeśāmṛta are to be adhered to if one wants to make progress in their bhakti-yoga.

Caitanya Caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā 19.158

bhaktira nyāya ākṛti vā sausādṛśya thākileo bhakti nahe, emana abhaktisamūha:—

kintu yadi latāra saṅge uṭhe ‘upaśākhā’
bhukti-mukti-vāñchā, yata asaṅkhya tāra lekhā

Translation: Sometimes unwanted creepers, such as the creepers of desires for material enjoyment and liberation from the material world, grow along with the creeper of devotional service. The varieties of such unwanted creepers are unlimited.

Jayapatākā Swami: It’s very important to focus all our energy on pure devotional activities, and not to be distracted by any of the other creepers which are like weeds and take the energy from the devotional creeper.

Caitanya Caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā 19.159

‘niṣiddhācāra’, ‘kuṭīnāṭī’, ‘jīva-hiṁsana’
‘lābha’, ‘pūjā’, ‘pratiṣṭhādi’ yata upaśākhā-gaṇa

Translation: Some unnecessary creepers growing with the bhakti creeper are the creepers of behavior unacceptable for those trying to attain perfection, diplomatic behavior, animal-killing, mundane profiteering, mundane adoration and mundane importance. All these are unwanted creepers.

Purport: There is a certain pattern of behavior prescribed for those actually trying to become perfect. In our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement we advise our students not to eat meat, not to gamble, not to engage in illicit sex and not to indulge in intoxication. People who indulge in these activities can never become perfect; therefore, these regulative principles are for those interested in becoming perfect and going back to Godhead. Kuṭīnāṭī, or diplomatic behavior, cannot satisfy the ātmā, the soul. It cannot even satisfy the body or the mind. The culprit mind is always suspicious; therefore our dealings should always be straightforward and approved by Vedic authorities. If we treat people diplomatically or duplicitously, our spiritual advancement is obstructed. Jīva-hiṁsana refers to the killing of animals or to envy of other living entities. The killing of poor animals is undoubtedly due to envy of those animals. The human form is meant for the understanding of Kṛṣṇa consciousness (athāto brahma-jijñāsā), for inquiring about the Supreme Brahman. In the human form, everyone has a chance to understand the Supreme Brahman. The so-called leaders of human society do not know the real aim of human life and are therefore busy with economic development. This is misleading. Every state and every society is busy trying to improve the quality of eating, sleeping, mating and defending. This human form of life is meant for more than these four animal principles. Eating, sleeping, mating and defending are problems found in the animal kingdom, and the animals have solved these problems without difficulty. Why should human society be so busy trying to solve these problems? The difficulty is that people are not educated to understand this simple philosophy. They think that advancement of civilization means increasing sense gratification.

Jayapatākā Swami:  There are four perfections in material life, dharma, artha, kāma, mokṣa. Most people are interested in performing some religious activities in order to get more money and to do more sense-gratification, but only very few people are interested in getting mokṣa or liberation and Lord Caitanya taught that beyond these four things, the fifth perfection is love for Kṛṣṇa and that is the actual purpose of human life but human beings are only interested in economic development and sense gratification and they are like sophisticated animals.

Purport: There are many religious propagandists who do not know how the ultimate problems of life can be solved, and they also try to educate people in a form of sense gratification. This is also jīva-hiṁsana. Real knowledge is not given, and religionists mislead the general populace. As far as material profits are concerned, one should know that whatever material profit one has must be abandoned at the time of death. Unfortunately people do not know that there is life after death; therefore mundane people waste their time amassing material profit which has to be left behind at the time of death. Such profit has no eternal benefit. Similarly, adoration by mundane people is valueless because after death one has to accept another body. Material adoration and titles are decorations that cannot be carried over to the next body. In the next life, everything is forgotten.

All these obstructions have been described in this verse as unwanted creepers. They simply present obstacles for the real creeper, the bhakti-latā. One should be very careful to avoid all these unwanted things. Sometimes these unwanted creepers look exactly like the bhakti creeper. They appear to be of the same size and the same species when they are packed together with the bhakti creeper, but in spite of this, the creepers are called upaśākhā. A pure devotee can distinguish between the bhakti creeper and a mundane creeper, and he is very alert to distinguish them and keep them separate.

Jayapatākā Swami: So, the motivation of the bhakti creeper is to please Kṛṣṇa. The weeds or upaśākhā the objective is for sense gratification, activities that are against devotional life, duplicitous activities, enviousness against living entities, desire for profit for adoration and some mundane importance, all these things are distractions from the real bhakti-latā, the devotional creeper which is to please Kṛṣṇa.

Caitanya Caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā 19.160

praśraya dile abhaktira vṛddhihetu bhaktira śaithilyāvaraṇa-sambhāvanā:—

seka-jala pāñā upaśākhā bāḍi’ yāya
stabdha hañā mūla-śākhā bāḍite nā pāya

Translation: If one does not distinguish between the bhakti creeper and the other creepers, the sprinkling of water is misused because the other creepers are nourished while the bhakti creeper is curtailed.

Purport: If one chants the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra while committing offenses, these unwanted creepers will grow. One should not take advantage of chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra for some material profit.

As mentioned in verse 159:

‘niṣiddhācāra’, ‘kuṭīnāṭī’, ‘jīva-hiṁsana’
‘lābha’, ‘pūjā’, ‘pratiṣṭhādi’ yata upaśākhā-gaṇa

The unwanted creepers have been described by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura. He states that if one hears and chants without trying to give up offenses, one becomes materially attached to sense gratification. One may also desire freedom from material bondage like the Māyāvādīs, or one may become attached to the yoga-siddhis and desire wonderful yogic powers. If one is attached to wonderful material activities, one is called siddhi-lobhī, greedy for material perfection. One may also be victimized by diplomatic or crooked behavior, or one may associate with women for illicit sex. One may make a show of devotional service like the prākṛta-sahajiyās, or one may try to support his philosophy by joining some caste or identifying himself with a certain dynasty, claiming a monopoly on spiritual advancement. Thus with the support of family tradition, one may become a pseudo guru, or so-called spiritual master. One may become attached to the four sinful activities — illicit sex, intoxication, gambling and meat-eating — or one may consider a Vaiṣṇava to belong to a mundane caste or creed. One may think, This is a Hindu Vaiṣṇava, and this is a European Vaiṣṇava. European Vaiṣṇavas are not allowed to enter the temples.” In other words, one may consider Vaiṣṇavas in terms of birth, thinking one a brāhmaṇa Vaiṣṇava, another a śūdra Vaiṣṇava, another a mleccha Vaiṣṇava and so on. One may also try to carry out a professional business by means of chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra or reading Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, or one may try to increase his monetary strength by illegal means. Also, one may become a cheap Vaiṣṇava by trying to chant in a secluded place for material adoration, or one may desire mundane reputation by making compromises with nondevotees concerning one’s philosophy or spiritual life, or one may become a supporter of a hereditary caste system. All these are pitfalls of personal sense gratification. Just to cheat some innocent people, one makes a show of advanced spiritual life and becomes known as a sādhu, mahātmā or religious person. All this means that the so-called devotee has become victimized by all these unwanted creepers and that the real creeper, the bhakti-latā, has been stunted.

Jayapatākā Swami: So, Śrīla Prabhupāda has detailed how one’s actual bhakti-latā came be stunted by the water going to these other desires. If one desires these other things his bhakti-creeper gets stunted. These things are very subtle, but one has to be very careful not to take some upaśākhā or weed to be real creeper.

Caitanya Caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā 19.161

prathamei sādhakera duḥsaṅgotsargera vyavasthā āvaśyaka:—

prathamei upaśākhāra karaye chedana
tabe mūla-śākhā bāḍi’ yāya vṛndāvana

Translation: As soon as an intelligent devotee sees an unwanted creeper growing beside the original creeper, he must cut it down instantly. Then the real creeper, the bhakti-latā, grows nicely, returns home, back to Godhead, and seeks shelter under the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa.

Haribol! Haribol!

Purport: If one is misled by unwanted creepers and is victimized, he cannot make progress back to Godhead. Rather, he remains within the material world and engages in activities having nothing to do with pure devotional service. Such a person may be elevated to the higher planetary systems, but because he remains within the material world, he is subjected to the threefold material miseries.

Jayapatākā Swami: So, pure chanting is transcendental but these upaśākhā or weeds gives some material motivation for chanting and thus if one is chanting for getting pious results, they may get take birth in higher planet. But He cannot go back to Godhead, so to get pure bhakti we need to get cut out any kinds of alternative desires.

Thus ends the chapter entitled, Offenses and Weeds to Be Removed to Protect the Bhakti-Latā Creeper 
Under the section: Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu Instructs Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī