20240830 Śrī Caitanya Śikṣāmṛta 1.7. The Ultimate Goal of Life

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
paramānanda-mādhavam śrī caitanya īśvaram
Harihi oṁ tat sat

First Shower — Seventh Stream

TEXT: If there is some amount of lust in the heart, recognizing and detesting it humbly, without duplicity continue bhajana. In a short time, the Lord sitting in your heart, makes the heart desireless, will accept your love.

Note:

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.2.17

śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ
puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanaḥ
hṛdy antaḥ stho hy abhadrāṇi
vidhunoti suhṛt satām

Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the Personality of Godhead, who is the Paramātmā [Supersoul] in everyone's heart and the benefactor of the truthful devotee, cleanses desire for material enjoyment from the heart of the devotee who has developed the urge to hear His messages, which are in themselves virtuous when properly heard and chanted.

Jayapatākā Swami: Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura is explaining to us how the Lord cleanses our heart if we have the desire to hear about Him. He cleanses the heart from material desires. The process of devotional service works spontaneously. If our desire to hear about the Lord increases, He cleanses the heart at the same time. He cleanses the heart as the Supersoul. So, if the person does devotional service for a long time, the Lord cleanses the heart of material lust.

Sādhya and Sādhana

There are only two words in the teachings of Śrīman Mahāprabhu, that is, taste in the holy name and showing mercy to living entities. The extent to which a person has this quality (dharma), to that extent a person is a Vaiṣṇava.*

Note:

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.41.51

so 'pi vavre 'calāṁ bhaktiṁ
tasminn evākhilātmani
tad-bhakteṣu ca sauhārdaṁ
bhūteṣu ca dayāṁ parām

Sudāmā chose unshakable devotion for Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Soul of all existence; friendship with His devotees; and transcendental compassion for all living beings.

Jayapatākā Swami: So Lord Caitanya and Nitāi, They were very eager to give the mercy out to all the conditioned souls. And the mundaners, they don’t see the Lord, they just see the material existence. So, that is why the devotees, they have to be compassionate in order to deliver other persons. They want to see people become Kṛṣṇa conscious. They showed a video by ISKCON of Śrīla Prabhupāda going to the West, having different festivals like Ratha-yātrā and others. Śrīla Prabhupāda was encouraging the devotees to dance, sometimes he was also dancing. So, in this way we can see how Śrīla Prabhupāda, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, was carrying the message of Lord Caitanya, and he was very happy to see all the devotees dancing.

TEXT: There is no need to try to acquire other good qualities. All the qualities of a devotee arise automatically.

Note:

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 5.18.12

yasyāsti bhaktir bhagavaty akiñcanā
sarvair guṇais tatra samāsate surāḥ
harāv abhaktasya kuto mahad-guṇā
manorathenāsati dhāvato bahiḥ

All the demigods and their exalted qualities, such as religion, knowledge and renunciation, become manifest in the body of one who has developed unalloyed devotion for the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Vāsudeva. On the other hand, a person devoid of devotional service and engaged in material activities has no good qualities. Even if he is adept at the practice of mystic yoga or the honest endeavor of maintaining his family and relatives, he must be driven by his own mental speculations and must engage in the service of the Lord's external energy. How can there be any good qualities in such a man?

Jayapatākā Swami: Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, he is describing the devotee and the materialistic. How the devotee is being purified by the Supersoul and how the materialistic is serving the material energy. So, if we see the material energy or the aspects of the devas, we see them as devotees of the Lord. And thus, we offer our service to the Lord. It may not be seen right away but this is the vision we should see. This is what Lord Caitanya showed us.

TEXT: Devotees by nature, always obtain happiness in beneficial activities.

Note:

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.22.35

etāvaj janma-sāphalyaṁ
dehinām iha dehiṣu
prāṇair arthair dhiyā vācā
śreya-ācaraṇaṁ sadā

It is the duty of every living being to perform welfare activities for the benefit of others with his life, wealth, intelligence and words.

Jayapatākā Swami: I just now received a report from Vraja. How the devotees there are distributing bhoga to the temples and other vraja-vasis. I mean, they are also thinking, how to get a special water pressure machine costing a lakh or two lakhs to clean the kuṇḍas. Like this, people would say don’t think, what the country can do for you, think what you can do for your country. They are country conscious. But we are Kṛṣṇa conscious. But we don’t think what Kṛṣṇa can do for us, we think what we can do for Kṛṣṇa. We want to do something in the name of Kṛṣṇa to liberate all the conditioned souls. Hare Kṛṣṇa!

They do all this sevā in Vraja-maṇḍala. The pāda-pīṭhams that were established, those will be overseen and those that need to be installed they will organize that sevā.

www.vrajadhamaseva.com for cleaning Vraja dhāma.

As we are talking about Vraja-maṇḍala, we know we are in Gaura-maṇḍala and Guru Mahārāja got many instructions from Śrīla Prabhupāda. One of the instructions, which is going to be serving all the Gauḍīyas, which is developing the Gaura-maṇḍala Bhūmi. In order to give an opportunity to all the devotees to take part in assisting Guru Mahārāja in developing these Gaura-maṇḍala Bhūmi śrīpāṭs, we are introducing a fund raising today that devotees can contribute to whatever capacity they can and you can contact Bhaktivedanta Swami Charity Trust office in Cakra Building. The office will be open from 10 am to 2 pm and you can come and visit the office, the Bhaktivedanta Swami Charity Trust office, and can know more details about how you can contribute to this BSCT sevā. We have some collection books, you can collect and engage many devotees in contribution to this Gaura-maṇḍala Bhūmi sevā. Like, Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura collected from many people to construct the Yogapīṭha. Like that we will collect from every devotee, even small contributions and we will develop Gaura-maṇḍala Bhūmi.

Jayapatākā Swami: So it seems we are inaugurating two websites? One for Vraja-maṇḍala and one for Gaura-maṇḍala.

Jayapatākā Swami: Can I see the devotees online? Someone in the Health Forum from my said my throat was sore. But the ENT specialist said my throat is okay, but my tongue has a problem. The specialist said my throat, my vocal cords, everything is okay.

Bhādra-Pūrṇimā is coming up. Śrīvatsa Śyāmasundara dāsa will tell you how to get the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam sets.