20241004 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

2. Cleaning road, ghāṭa, cowshed, shop, personal house and deity temples

Sanctification should be achieved by cleaning of road, ghāṭa, cowshed, shop, personal house and Deity temples. It is the duty of every person to keep his house, ghāṭa, road, cowshed, temple and premises clean. Besides, it is everyone's duty to clean all common paths, ghāṭa, markets, temples etc., within the village. If the village is large, the villagers should gather together and collect money voluntarily or with the help of the emperor. Completing all those common tasks is a piety generating act for all the villagers.

Jayapatākā Swami: Śrīla Prabhupāda was telling us that if one wants to be a brāhmaṇa the policy should be cleanliness. So this verse tells us the duties of the village residents.

3. Cleansing the forest

All the forests that are in one's own residence should be kept clean. It is the duty to keep the forest in the common land clear by the means previously mentioned.

Jayapatākā Swami: I don’t know if anyone cleans the forest, but here it is said that keeping the forest clean is also a duty. So this is the area we should look at.

4. Pilgrimage

Humans gain a lot of purity through pilgrimage. Even though the association of sādhus is the ultimate object of the pilgrimage, yet all the pilgrims consider themselves pure in their hearts, since by it the past sins are greatly eradicated.

Jayapatākā Swami: So, one of the activities that one in the vānaprastha āśrama as husband and wife, they visit some holy place. Now since they have built a big temple and have Lord Rāma Deity in Ayodhyā, many people go there to have darśana. So going to some places of pilgrimage is a way to purify. So Māyāpur is also a place of pilgrimage. Few days ago, we had Māhālaya holiday. We had almost 57,000 visitors. And yesterday we had an ordinary day, just 22,000. So when someone visits the holy dhāma you can tell them some pastimes of Lord Gaurāṅga! Brajavilāsa Prabhu was saying that we want to make Māyāpur as a place of festivals. So here we have –

(6) Three types of festival

There are three types of festival namely: —

1. Festival on the occasion of deity worship.

2. Yajña etc., on the occasion of big family events.

3. A festival for increasing the happiness of the general people.

All the festivals on the occasion of deity worship are always observed. Is there any doubt that all those great festivals produce piety? There is no doubt that the activities produce piety that are auspicious to the world, when many people get together to meet each other mutually to eat meals, play musical instruments, advancement of arts and idols, feed the poor, give money to scholars and revive the society. Those who are able to perform all those festivals are guilty of offense if they neglect their duty by being inattentive. Especially when all those great festivals are mixed with godliness, they are not in any way to be abandoned. There are various family events. There are various festivals in family yajña such as birth of son and daughter, annaprāśana (giving of first grain to the baby), saṁskāra (reformatory performances), marriage, śrāddha of father and mother etc. As far as possible, it is the duty to perform these functions. Village people get together and do all the activities that increase the happiness of the common people like yajña, Deity worship and organization of fairs. In those works, everyone learns to do great work by giving some help. Many social festivals such as worship of brother-in-law, arandhanotsava (Note: festival of not cooking; last day in the month of Bhādra, on which cooking is not done. Arandhana literally means the day on which cooking is prohibited which is a traditional Hindu festival. It is mainly celebrated in special regions of West Bengal. The custom of cooking the stale food the night before the pūjā is ritually eating it the next day is ‘arandhana’), worship of brothers by sisters, navānnotsava (harvest festival where the family eats food cooked with the new rice), piṣṭakotsava (eating of various cakes on the last day of the month of Pauṣa) and śītalotsava (worship of Śītalā devī) are scheduled.

Jayapatākā Swami: Śītalā-utsava is especially for avoiding snake bites. In some villages they have the Deity of the demigoddess, Śītalā. Some of these festivals I don’t think we do but concentrate on Bhādra-Pūrṇimā and study of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. So on that day we are not supposed to cook, I just learnt now! You cook on the day before, cakes! There are some very good cake cookers here! Anyway or we could have murukku. I don’t know what preparations last – you have to cook something from Rāghava Paṇḍita’s preps. I saw in Nāthadvāra a special prasāda, it lasts for a month. This prasāda lasts for two months, like that. So I pointed at some yogurt and raita and asked what is the expiry date of this? They said three hours, you can have it. So, we observe mainly the Deity festival. But there are different kinds of festivals. Sometimes we give prasāda, so people get the coupons for prasāda. But I am hungry now!

(7) Three types of vrata

There are three types of vow, namely:—

1. Bodily vows

2. Social vows

3. Spiritual vows (Paramārthika-vrata).

Bodily vows are related to bathing in the morning, circumambulation, saṣṭāṅga daṇḍavat related to exercise etc. Physical disturbances of illness appear when any dhātu (kapha, pitta, vāta) is exited. To remove these illness, there are vows on days such full moon, Monday etc. The best remedy of remembrance of God is prescribed on that particular day, by change of habits related to eating and recreation and abstinence of senses such as fasting. In the case of necessity, by adopting these conditions, piety happens. According to the caste system, there is a social system of vows for each caste and a system of vows for the common people for the vratas such as upanayana, cūḍākaraṇa, marriage etc., are all social. Marriage is prescribed for all the castes. A man will marry a girl of same caste. Monogamy is mandatory. Despite monogamy, desiring a second marriage is only kāmya (scripturally prescribed actions performed with the desire for sense gratification). That is the work of a low natured person. In special cases, if there is no child with one wife, there is arrangement for another marriage. Those monthly vows mentioned in the Mahābhārata and similar vows of the spiritual practitioners, are all spiritual (paramārthika) vows. Twenty-four Ekādaśī and the six Jayantī vratas such as Janmaṣṭamī etc. are monthly vratas. Only striving for spiritual perfection is the main purpose of all these vows. These will be discussed in detail (later) while discussing about bhakti. All these vows are described in Śrī Hari-bhakti-vilāsa.

Jayapatākā Swami: So every Ekādaśī we observe a minimum of not eating of grains, cereals and pulses. Some people do bigger fast. At the time of initiation one takes the vows to chant 16 rounds minimum per day and observe the four regulative principles. So these are for the whole life. I am getting some news that some disciples don’t adhere to their vows. It is very important to chant, this is the yuga-dharma and to avoid sinful activities because in Kali-yuga, Kali has taken refuge. He asked Parīkṣit Mahārāja for some place to live and Parīkṣit Mahārāja told him you can stay in the place of meat, fish, egg eating, intoxication, gambling and illicit sex. So, Kali said, “None of these places exist in your kingdom!” So these are the vows we take during initiation that we are supposed to follow. This is a part of our bhakti-yoga.

Kṛṣṇe matir astu!