20240930 Śrī Caitanya Śikṣāmṛta 2.2. Pious Activity

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

Second Shower — Consideration of secondary rules

Second Stream — Pious Activity

Piety by nature and by relation

We will also consider brief statements of all the respective virtues and vices. It is very difficult to classify them scientifically. Some sages have divided sin and piety into physical, mental, social and spiritual forms. Some have divided them into physical, verbal and mental. Someone has equipped them bodily, by senses and mental. As a result, we have seen that all these divisions are not perfect. We divide all virtues into two categories, namely piety by nature (svarūpagata-puṇya) and piety by relationship (sambandhagata-puṇya). Justice, kindness, truth, purity, friendship, simplicity and love are piety by nature (svarūpagata-puṇya). These are therefore called piety by nature (svarūpagata-puṇya) virtues, because all those virtues take shelter of the svarūpa of the living entity and remain in the form of its ornament for all time.

Jayapatākā Swami: So, vice and virtue, pāpa and puṇya could be by some activity or by one’s nature. And this piety is not enough to take you to the spiritual world. Piety may take one to the heavenly planets. If piety is connected with Kṛṣṇa, then it is spiritual and then one goes back to the spiritual world. (They found that one of the mikes had internal short circuit. Now they said that the mikes work better.)

TEXT: In the conditioned state, it has only obtained the name ‘puṇya’ by becoming gross to some extent. And all the virtues are by relationship, since they are produced by the material relation of the living entity. They are not needed in the perfect state. Sin is never the nature of the living entity. It takes shelter of the living entity in the conditioned state. All those sins that are against the piety by nature (svarūpagata-puṇya virodhī), are called sins against nature (svarūpa-virodhī-pāpa).

Jayapatākā Swami: Some people get influenced by forbidden activities and as such they engage in sinful activities. It is not our nature but by the influence of Kali we give into sinful nature.

Hatred, injustice, lying, delusion, harshness, cruelty, debauchedness, are some of the sins against nature. And all sins are anti-virtue in relation to living entity. Because we will judge very briefly the merits and demerits of sin and piety, we did not show their division in by nature and relationship. I only numbered them and wrote a little consideration. The hint that has been given, the reader with a little effort will easily make the appropriate division.

Jayapatākā Swami: So, Lord Caitanya has a special mercy to turn even sinful people into devotees. But if one has pious qualities then that is easier. Like Jagāi and Mādhāi they had done many sinful activities, but by the mercy of Lord Nityānanda they got delivered.

TEXT: The main chief pious activities (puṇya-karma) are of ten types, namely: —

1.         Welfare activity for others

2.         Service to elders

3.         Charity

4.         Hospitality

5.         Purity

6.         Festival

7.         Vow

8.         Animal husbandry

9.         Population increase

10.       Proper behaviour

Jayapatākā Swami: So having children by doing the garbhādhāna-saṁskāra, that is pious activity. Acting properly is one of the pious activities. Distributing prasāda or doing welfare work for others. Rather than just material, devotees do spiritual welfare activities.

{1} Two types of welfare activity for others

1. Prevent suffering of others. 2. Improvement of others

Should try his best to benefit everyone without considering one’s relatives and others. Just as many kinds of sufferings in the world happen to oneself, similarly all these sufferings happen to others also. When one is suffering, one feels that others should take care to relieve one’s suffering. Therefore, one should take care to relieve other’s suffering just like oneself. Although selfishness interferes with this action, yet it is necessary to stop it as far as possible and be careful to prevent others’ suffering. One should take care to relive all kinds of physical, mental, social and spiritual suffering of others.

Jayapatākā Swami: So, if one thinks I would like to help this person to get rid of his suffering, that is a type of welfare work for others. And devotees try to help other people not because they are relatives or something, that is in the mode of passion. But they are just doing it because they want to help others. So, this is very interesting. Most people, they don’t care about others’ suffering. They are selfish, they think everyone should help me, but he doesn’t think about helping others. But devotees, they naturally help others. Just like in the month of May/June it is recommended that one should give water because it is very hot and people may be thirsty. So, they give out water. Śāstra always advices us how we can do welfare for others.

1)        Bodily sufferings are pain, hunger etc.

2)        Mental sufferings are anxiety, violence, grief and fear.

3)        Social sufferings are inability to maintain family, not being able to provide for sons and daughter’s education and marriage, lack of money and person to do cremation of the deceased.

4)        Spiritual sufferings are doubt, atheism and sinful desire.

Just as care should be taken to prevent the suffering of others, so care should be taken to development of others. As much as possible, it is the duty to improve others physically, mentally, socially and spiritually by means of money, body, by advice and by the help of other relatives.

Jayapatākā Swami: This is very interesting. Bodily, mental and social and spiritual sufferings are explained here. So, we want to help people to avoid bodily, mental, social and spiritual suffering.

{2} Three types of Service to elders (guru-sevā)

Service to elders (guru-sevā) is of three types, namely: —

1. Maintenance and service of mother and father

2. Maintenance and service of advisors.

3. Respect and service to all elders.

Obeying the orders of parents and serving them to the best of our ability is the main duty of everyone. It goes without saying, that if one is able to serve those who have in all endeavor protected and nurtured us in childhood while we were destitute and disable, then one should always do so. One should maintain and serve those who impart knowledge and good advice from the time of childhood. Those who impart transcendental subject matter, mantra and knowledge are more honorable and serviceable than all the advisers.*

Jayapatākā Swami: So better you consider guru, your elders, your advisers, any way if they help you, you owe them something. In the West people, they put the elders in old peoples’ home. In India, it is quite common to keep the elders in the house. So we have the duty, that they cared for us as a helpless child, so when they are old and somewhat invalid, we want to serve them. It is a natural reciprocation. Once there was a jet that was flying over the North Pacific and it crashed, had an accident. So then, the parents said, “I sent my son to America so that he will go to college and in old age would support them, but he died in a plane crash. So who would maintain us?” Some people are very materialistic, and they see their children, they expect them to help. Actually, that is why this is a pious activity because we don’t know whether the children will really reciprocate.

Note:

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 7.15.22–26

asaṅkalpāj jayet kāmaṁ
krodhaṁ kāma-vivarjanāt
arthānarthekṣayā lobhaṁ
bhayaṁ tattvāvamarśanāt

ānvīkṣikyā śoka-mohau
dambhaṁ mahad-upāsayā
yogāntarāyān maunena
hiṁsāṁ kāmādy-anīhayā

kṛpayā bhūtajaṁ duḥkhaṁ
daivaṁ jahyāt samādhinā
ātmajaṁ yoga-vīryeṇa
nidrāṁ sattva-niṣevayā

rajas tamaś ca sattvena
sattvaṁ copaśamena ca
etat sarvaṁ gurau bhaktyā
puruṣo hy añjasā jayet

yasya sākṣād bhagavati
jñāna-dīpa-prade gurau
martyāsad-dhīḥ śrutaṁ tasya
sarvaṁ kuñjara-śaucavat

“By making plans with determination, one should give up lusty desires for sense gratification. Similarly, by giving up envy one should conquer anger, by discussing the disadvantages of accumulating wealth one should give up greed, and by discussing the truth one should give up fear. By discussing spiritual knowledge one can conquer lamentation and illusion, by serving a great devotee one can become prideless, by keeping silent one can avoid obstacles on the path of mystic yoga, and simply by stopping sense gratification one can conquer envy. By good behavior and freedom from envy one should counteract sufferings due to other living entities, by meditation in trance one should counteract sufferings due to providence, and by practicing haṭha-yoga, prāṇāyāma and so forth one should counteract sufferings due to the body and mind. Similarly, by developing the mode of goodness, especially in regard to eating, one should conquer sleep. One must conquer the modes of passion and ignorance by developing the mode of goodness, and then one must become detached from the mode of goodness by promoting oneself to the platform of śuddha-sattva. All this can be automatically done if one engages in the service of the spiritual master with faith and devotion. In this way one can conquer the influence of the modes of nature. The spiritual master should be considered to be directly the Supreme Lord because he gives transcendental knowledge for enlightenment. Consequently, for one who maintains the material conception that the spiritual master is an ordinary human being, everything is frustrated. His enlightenment and his Vedic studies and knowledge are like the bathing of an elephant.”

Jayapatākā Swami: If you see how an elephant bathes. He goes in the water and washes himself, he comes out and picks up the dust and throws it on himself. So bathing of an elephant, what is the use? He bathes and throws dirt on his body!

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 7.15.29

yathā vārtādayo hy arthā
yogasyārthaṁ na bibhrati
anarthāya bhaveyuḥ sma
pūrtam iṣṭaṁ tathāsataḥ

As professional activities or business profits cannot help one in spiritual advancement but are a source of material entanglement, the Vedic ritualistic ceremonies cannot help anyone who is not a devotee of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Jayapatākā Swami: Is there anything online? [audio break]

Any questions?

Kṛṣṇe matir astu! Koṭi, koṭi!