20241022 Śrī Caitanya Śikṣāmṛta 3.1. Symptoms of Vaidhi Bhakti

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

Third Shower — General consideration of Main rule or Vaidhi-bhakti

First Stream — Symptoms of Vaidhi Bhakti

The dharma that arises from the rule of the śāstra is called the vaidha-dharma. Vaidha-dharma is of two types, i.e. ārthika (pertaining to economic development) or traivargika and paramārthika or āpavargika (pertaining to mokṣa or liberation). The dharma, which is found in these three categories of dharma, artha and kāma is traivargika dharma. By these, there is improvement of the body, mind, society and righteous life and attains heavenly happiness in the next world. Heavenly happiness is temporary. Having enjoyed it, the living entities comes back to karma-kṣetra. The varṇāśrama-dharma as explained earlier is actually ārthika (pertaining to economic development). Dharma, artha and kāma come in cycles. For the living entities, there is no liberation from karma-jaḍa (following the Vedic principles and engaging in ritualistic ceremonies). Money (artha) is the purpose behind this dharma and so its name is ārthika (pertaining to economic development). Whatever by-products of karma is present, all of them are artha.

Jayapatākā Swami: So in this world to be successful, one needs more money. Most people worship the demigods and don’t worship Kṛṣṇa, to get money. And if they follow the rules respectively, then they can go up to the heavenly planets. And after they run out their good karma, they come back down to the karma-kṣetra. So, like this, nothing is permanent. One goes up down, up down, up down. And if anyone down the way does too much bad karma, then he has to suffer. So, like this one is going around and around in this material world. If one does paramārthika-karma then he can go back to Godhead.

Note:

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 2.3.2–11

brahma-varcasa-kāmas tu
yajeta brahmaṇaḥ patim
indram indriya-kāmas tu
prajā-kāmaḥ prajāpatīn

devīṁ māyāṁ tu śrī-kāmas
tejas-kāmo vibhāvasum
vasu-kāmo vasūn rudrān
vīrya-kāmo ’tha vīryavān

annādya-kāmas tv aditiṁ
svarga-kāmo ’diteḥ sutān
viśvān devān rājya-kāmaḥ
sādhyān saṁsādhako viśām

āyuṣ-kāmo ’śvinau devau
puṣṭi-kāma ilāṁ yajet
pratiṣṭhā-kāmaḥ puruṣo
rodasī loka-mātarau

rūpābhikāmo gandharvān
strī-kāmo ’psara urvaśīm
ādhipatya-kāmaḥ sarveṣāṁ
yajeta parameṣṭhinam

yajñaṁ yajed yaśas-kāmaḥ
kośa-kāmaḥ pracetasam
vidyā-kāmas tu giriśaṁ
dāmpatyārtha umāṁ satīm

dharmārtha uttama-ślokaṁ
tantuḥ tanvan pitṝn yajet
rakṣā-kāmaḥ puṇya-janān
ojas-kāmo marud-gaṇān

rājya-kāmo manūn devān
nirṛtiṁ tv abhicaran yajet
kāma-kāmo yajet somam
akāmaḥ puruṣaṁ param

akāmaḥ sarva-kāmo vā
mokṣa-kāma udāra-dhīḥ
tīvreṇa bhakti-yogena
yajeta puruṣaṁ param

etāvān eva yajatām
iha niḥśreyasodayaḥ
bhagavaty acalo bhāvo
yad bhāgavata-saṅgataḥ

One who desires to be absorbed in the impersonal brahma-jyoti effulgence should worship the master of the Vedas [Lord Brahmā or Bṛhaspati, the learned priest], one who desires powerful sex should worship the heavenly King, Indra, and one who desires good progeny should worship the great progenitors called the Prajāpatis. One who desires good fortune should worship Durgā devī, the superintendent of the material world. One desiring to be very powerful should worship fire, and one who aspires only after money should worship the Vasus. One should worship the Rudra incarnations of Lord Śiva if he wants to be a great hero. One who wants a large stock of grains should worship Aditi. One who desires to attain the heavenly planets should worship the sons of Aditi. One who desires a worldly kingdom should worship Viśvadeva, and one who wants to be popular with the general mass of population should worship the Sādhya demigod. One who desires a long span of life should worship the demigods known as the Aśvinī-kumāras, and a person desiring a strongly built body should worship the earth. One who desires stability in his post should worship the horizon and the earth combined. One who desires to be beautiful should worship the beautiful residents of the Gandharva planet, and one who desires a good wife should worship the Apsarās and the Urvaśī society girls of the heavenly kingdom. One who desires domination over others should worship Lord Brahmā, the head of the universe. One who desires tangible fame should worship the Personality of Godhead, and one who desires a good bank balance should worship the demigod Varuṇa. If one desires to be a greatly learned man he should worship Lord Śiva, and if one desires a good marital relation, he should worship the chaste goddess Umā, the wife of Lord Śiva. One should worship Lord Viṣṇu or His devotee for spiritual advancement in knowledge, and for protection of heredity and advancement of a dynasty one should worship the various demigods. One who desires domination over a kingdom or an empire should worship the Manus. One who desires victory over an enemy should worship the demons, and one who desires sense gratification should worship the moon. But one who desires nothing of material enjoyment should worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead. A person who has broader intelligence, whether he be full of all material desire, without any material desire, or desiring liberation, must by all means worship the supreme whole, the Personality of Godhead. All the different kinds of worshipers of multi-demigods can attain the highest perfectional benediction, which is spontaneous attraction unflinchingly fixed upon the Supreme Personality of Godhead, only by the association of the pure devotee of the Lord.

Jayapatākā Swami: So, what would you like? These verses say how you can achieve all these material things and all the spiritual things. So, what do you want? You want to stay here? So spontaneous attraction unflinchingly fixed upon the Supreme Personality of Godhead only by the association of the pure devotee of the Lord. You see there is nothing given, it is all open. If you want to come back here and to be a great hero, whatever you want, it is all given here. But if you want to go back to Godhead and have spontaneous attraction unflinching faith upon the Supreme Personality of Godhead, you must associate with the pure devotee of the Lord.

Artha later becoming the form of karma produces other artha. Where this kind of dharma and artha cycle ends, this last artha is called paramārtha or apavarga. Traivargika-dharma can be by worshiping many demigods or bhagavān. I will give only one example. Marriage is one karma and procreation is its artha. Procreation becoming the form of karma produces piṇḍadāna as artha. Again, piṇḍadāna becoming the form of karma takes produces artha in the form of the satisfaction of the forefathers. Being satisfied, the forefathers give artha in the form of the well-being of the children. Again, the well-being of the children becoming the form of karma generates other artha. All of these generate temporary fruits.

Jayapatākā Swami: So, by worshiping the forefathers one gets their blessings. All these things are temporary. But, to actually get the paramārtha, the spiritual fruit, we have to worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Note:

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 11.10.26, 28-29

tāvat sa modate svarge
yāvat puṇyaṁ samāpyate
kṣīṇa-puṇyaḥ pataty arvāg
anicchan kāla-cālitaḥ

karmāṇi duḥkhodarkāṇi
kurvan dehena taiḥ punaḥ
deham ābhajate tatra
kiṁ sukhaṁ martya-dharmiṇaḥ

lokānāṁ loka-pālānāṁ
mad bhayaṁ kalpa-jīvinām
brahmaṇo ’pi bhayaṁ matto
dvi-parārdha-parāyuṣaḥ

Until his pious results are used up, the performer of sacrifice enjoys life in the heavenly planets. When the pious results are exhausted, however, he falls down from the pleasure gardens of heaven, being moved against his desire by the force of eternal time. In such a degraded body, he unfortunately continues to perform inauspicious activities that greatly increase his future unhappiness, and therefore he again accepts a similar material body. What possible happiness can there be for one who engages in activities inevitably terminating in death? In all the planetary systems, from the heavenly to the hellish, and for all of the great demigods who live for one thousand yuga cycles, there is fear of Me in My form of time. Even Brahmā, who possesses the supreme life span of 311,040,000,000,000 years, is also afraid of Me.

Jayapatākā Swami: Lord Brahmā’s life span is 311,040,000,000,000 years. Everyone is afraid of Kṛṣṇa because He comes as Time. Some demigods live for many Manus. Each Manu lives so many yuga cycles.

The chain of dharma and artha continues until the happiness of the children and finally the peace due to salvation and the happiness of Brahman. When Brahman happiness is refined and transformed into the happiness of service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, then the chain of artha ends and the only paramārtha is gained as the ultimate result. The word apavarga has two meanings—Mokṣa and Bhakti. After liberation, the soul is freed from matter and gains bhakti in the form of nitya-dharma.

Jayapatākā Swami: So everything we do in the material world – dharma, artha, kāma are for material enjoyment. But the paramārtha means mokṣa and bhakti. This is also called apavarga. Some people want the impersonal mokṣa. Some people are interested in achieving the transcendental bhakti of the Personality of Godhead.

Difference between Ārthika and Pāramārthika dharma

To the extent dharma aims only for artha, to that extent this artha is called ārthika. When this dharma aims to the ultimate, then the name of this dharma is paramārthika (spiritual) dharma. Another name for ārthika-dharma is naitika (moral) or smārta-dharma. The name of paramārthika vaidha (spiritual based on scriptural rule) dharma is called sādhana-bhakti. Worship of the Lord such as ījyā (worship), vandana (prayers), sandhyā-upāsanā (worship at the three junctures of the day viz., dawn, noon and sunset) and yajñeśa-pūjā (worship of the Lord of sacrifice, Viṣṇu) etc., seen in naitika (moral) or smārta-dharma are not transcendental and through the nitya-naimittika worship of God, material nature of the righteous person is nourished or the social improvement is achieved. All those worships are in the form of karma as they produce artha and cease. Worship of God is only one principle among other principles of smārta-dharma and it is not a paramārthika-vidhi that is a sign of eternal subordination to the Lord. That karma which achieves only the welfare of bodily, mental and social world, that karma is naitika (moral). In the traivargika-dharma, there is purification of conduct by accepting moral action in the form of worshiping God, despite factually denying God. Even Compte, an atheist leader in the Western country has made a method of worship of the Lord as a type of purification of the mind. All the worships on the path of karma are almost like that. In yoga-śāstra, there is a system of yoga-siddhi through īśvara-praṇidhāna (abstract contemplation of the Lord), which is also almost of the same type.

But the system of vaidhi-bhakti in the bhakti-śāstra is paramārthika or pure apavargika-dharma. If we think more deeply, it will be seen that there is a very big philosophical difference between the vaidha-ārthika-dharma of smārta opinion and paramārthika-dharma in the form of eternal subordination to the Lord. That philosophical difference is not in the form of action but in the devotional consciousness. The atheistic, moralistic and karpa-priya-smārtas, considering only moral devotion as the main thing, used to destroy the legitimate ārthika-dharma and gave it traivargika form by limiting it to dharma, artha and kāma. On the other hand, vaidha pāramārthika devotees gave a different form to the legitimate ārthika-dharma, by increasing its limits by adding apavarga (liberation) and the limitless result of prema to the results of ārthika-dharma’s dharma, artha and kāma. Therefore, this form appears different. Actually, moral ārthika-dharma is a special branch of paramārthika-dharma. When the vaidha-dharma attains perfection, it acquires the definition of the main rule and becomes the paramārthika-dharma.*

Jayapatākā Swami: So, we basically have two people – those that are interested in transcendental bhakti known as paramārthika-vaidhi-bhakti, and the materialists want a nice material condition, they do the ārthika, which is dharma, artha, kāma. Those people who are seeking pious work and materialistic success and those who want prema and are doing transcendental activities of vaidhi-bhakti.

When the ārtha-vaidha-dharma is elevated it becomes the paramārthika-vaidha-dharma. When the eternal dharma of the living entity in the form of subordination to the Lord is added to the ārtha-vaidha-dharma the bud of ārtha-vaidha-dharma blossoms into pāramārthika-vaidha-dharma. Even if the living entities within the material world accepts pāramārthika-dharma, the vaidha-ārtha-dharma of varṇāśrama-dharma does not leave them. Their body, mind and society will always be nourished with the help of varṇāśrama-dharma, but when one is happy with the body, mind and society and is comfortably situated the soul attains eternal happiness by the worship of the Supreme Lord. Vaidha-ārthika-dharma is called karma-kāṇḍa, vaidha-pāramārthika-dharma is called bhaktior-sādhana-bhakti. Therefore, in scientific judgment, the secondary rule of karma will be considered as a part and the main rule of bhakti will be seen as a part.

Jayapatākā Swami: Some people do religion to get the blessing of material success. But by practicing vaidhi-bhakti or sādhana-bhakti one gets eternal happiness. In ISKCON we try to do sādhana-bhakti. Karma-kāṇḍa, jñāna-kāṇḍa, kevala viṣera bhāṇḍa. So these are the viṣera bhāṇḍa – they are pots of poison. So the paramārtika-dharma or sādhana-bhakti, or bhakti is a source of unlimited transcendental happiness.

Two ways to attain bhakti

One more thing needs to be considered here. For the living entity, there are two practices about gaining bhakti,

1. Gradual advancement process,

2. Sudden process

1. Gradual advancement process,

In the Madhya-līlā of Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta 19.144-149, Śrī Śrī Mahāprabhu advises Śrī Rūpa Gosvāmī on the following process of gradual advancement:-

tāra madhye ‘sthāvara’, ‘jaṅgama’ — dui bheda
jaṅgame tiryak-jala-sthalacara-vibheda

tāra madhye manuṣya-jāti ati alpatara
tāra madhye mleccha, pulinda, bauddha, śabara

veda-niṣṭha-madhye ardheka veda ‘mukhe’ māne
veda-niṣiddha pāpa kare, dharma nāhi gaṇe

dharmācāri-madhye bahuta ‘karma-niṣṭha’
koṭi-karma-niṣṭha-madhye eka ‘jñānī’ śreṣṭha

koṭi-jñāni-madhye haya eka-jana ‘mukta’
koṭi-mukta-madhye ‘durlabha’ eka kṛṣṇa-bhakta

kṛṣṇa-bhakta — niṣkāma, ataeva ‘śānta’
bhukti-mukti-siddhi-kāmī — sakali ‘aśānta’ Translation

“The unlimited living entities can be divided into two divisions — those that can move and those that cannot move. Among living entities that can move, there are birds, aquatics and animals. Although the living entities known as human beings are very small in quantity, that division may be still further subdivided, for there are many uncultured human beings like mlecchas, pulindas, bauddhas and śabaras. Among human beings, those who are followers of the Vedic principles are considered civilized. Among these, almost half simply give lip service while committing all kinds of sinful activities against these principles. Such people do not care for the regulative principles. Among the followers of Vedic knowledge, most are following the process of fruitive activity and distinguishing between good and bad work. Out of many such sincere fruitive actors, there may be one who is actually wise. Out of many millions of such wise men, one may actually become liberated [mukta], and out of many millions of such liberated persons, a pure devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa is very difficult to find. Because a devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa is desireless, he is peaceful. Fruitive workers desire material enjoyment, jñānīs desire liberation, and yogīs desire material opulence; therefore they are all lusty and cannot be peaceful.

Immovable living entities such as trees are all ācchādita-cetanā (covered consciousness). saṅkucita-cetanā (contracted consciousness) are tiryak — the living entities who can move in the air (the birds), jalacara —living entities who can move within the water, sthala-cara — living entities who can move on land. The forest dwellers like pulinda, śabara etc., and the mlechchas with science, art and civilization are uncultured human beings. Atheistic humans like Buddhists are only moral. Those who give lip service of following the Vedas are moralists worshiping an imaginary God. Those who follow the religious principles (dharma-ācāris) are factually theistic moralists. Among them, some of them are knowers of the truth (tattva-jñanīs). Among many tattva-jñanīs, some are actually liberated from material intelligence [jaḍa-buddhi-mukta]. Among many such millions and millions of jaḍa-buddhi-muktas, some may accept bhakti. Among theistic moralists, those who accept material enjoyment as the fruit of karma, liberation as the fruit of knowledge or siddhi of the yoga are not peaceful. Only a devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa is mentioned to be peaceful. The purport of Prabhu-vākya (the statement made by Lord Caitanya in the Madhya of Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta 19.144-149) is that forest dwellers should become civilized and learned, and then later on accept moral principles, and then later having faith in the Lord become the followers of the religious principles (dharma-ācāris). Let dharma-ācāris accept kṛṣṇa-bhakti without being bound by the by-products bhukti, mukti and siddhi. This is the authentic step of gradual progress of human life. This is the pure instruction of all scriptures and the path that gives definite result.

Jayapatākā Swami: So, by practicing this gradual process one can reach the transcendental platform of bhakti. So, Lord Caitanya has given us a shortcut. By chanting the holy names and practicing the moral standards, one can eventually achieve bhakti. So who here would like to achieve bhakti? Haribol! Gaurāṅga! And who wants just moral smārtha-dharma? So the smārthas are very regulated but they actually are attached to the material results. So they only do the dharma to get puṇya, to get the heavenly material happiness. They don’t do bhakti. Bhakti is the means to transcend everything. Actually, most of the world doesn’t know about bhakti. Even in India there are also jñānīs, karma-kāṇḍīs and smārthas. Those who are very intelligent, they chant Hare Kṛṣṇa and achieve bhakti. Some people who are not worried immediately about bhakti, they were asked by Lord Caitanya to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, they get purified and then they can then practice bhakti. So this bhakti we can see how it is divided up. As preliminary traivargika. Gradually one gets slowly to paramārthika, sādhana-bhakti. So we hear about the sādhana-bhakti and how to achieve the higher transcendental bhakti.

Why don’t you publish the zoom link?

Koṭi, koṭi, Kṛṣṇe matir astu!