20241026 Śrī Caitanya Śikṣāmṛta 3.2. Rules of Practicing 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

Second Stream — Rules of Practicing Bhakti

Bhakti-yoga, Five types of Vaidhī-bhakti

A devotee practicing vaidhī-bhakti, being situated in varṇāśrama and maintaining his life, will take constant care to direct his mind to the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa; this is called bhakti-yoga.*

Jayapatākā Swami: So practicing bhakti-yoga, vaidhi-bhakti, one is following the rules given by the scriptures and maintaining his body by following his varṇāśrama occupation. At the same time, a devotee also wants to put his mind on the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa. Bhakti-yoga means putting your mind at the lotus feet of Lord Kṛṣṇa.

Note:

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 11.3.23-28

sarvato manaso ’saṅgam
ādau saṅgaṁ ca sādhuṣu
dayāṁ maitrīṁ praśrayaṁ ca
bhūteṣv addhā yathocitam

śaucaṁ tapas titikṣāṁ ca
maunaṁ svādhyāyam ārjavam
brahmācāryam ahiṁsāṁ ca
samatvaṁ dvandva-saṁjñayoḥ

sarvatrātmeśvarānvīkṣāṁ
kaivalyam aniketatām
vivikta-cīra-vasanaṁ
santoṣaṁ yena kenacit

śraddhāṁ bhāgavate śāstre
’nindām anyatra cāpi hi
mano-vāk-karma-daṇḍaṁ ca
satyaṁ śama-damāv api

śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ dhyānaṁ
harer adbhuta-karmaṇaḥ
janma-karma-guṇānāṁ ca
tad-arthe ’khila-ceṣṭitam

iṣṭaṁ dattaṁ tapo japtaṁ
vṛttaṁ yac cātmanaḥ priyam
dārān sutān gṛhān prāṇān
yat parasmai nivedanam

“A sincere disciple should learn to dissociate the mind from everything material and positively cultivate association with his spiritual master and other saintly devotees. He should be merciful to those in an inferior position to him, cultivate friendship with those on an equal level and meekly serve those in a higher spiritual position. Thus he should learn to deal properly with all living beings. To serve the spiritual master the disciple should learn cleanliness, austerity, tolerance, silence, study of Vedic knowledge, simplicity, celibacy, nonviolence, and equanimity in the face of material dualities such as heat and cold, happiness and distress. One should practice meditation by constantly seeing oneself to be an eternal cognizant spirit soul and seeing the Lord to be the absolute controller of everything. To increase one’s meditation, one should live in a secluded place and give up false attachment to one’s home and household paraphernalia. Giving up the decorations of the temporary material body, one should dress himself with scraps of cloth found in rejected places, or with the bark of trees. In this way one should learn to be satisfied in any material situation. One should have firm faith that he will achieve all success in life by following those scriptures that describe the glories of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Bhagavān. At the same time, one should avoid blaspheming other scriptures. One should rigidly control his mind, speech and bodily activities, always speak the truth, and bring the mind and senses under full control. One should hear, glorify and meditate upon the wonderful transcendental activities of the Lord. One should specifically become absorbed in the appearance, activities, qualities and holy names of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Thus inspired, one should perform all of one’s daily activities as an offering to the Lord. One should perform sacrifice, charity and penance exclusively for the Lord’s satisfaction. Similarly, one should chant only those mantras which glorify the Supreme Personality of Godhead. And all one’s religious activities should be performed as an offering to the Lord. Whatever one finds pleasing or enjoyable he should immediately offer to the Supreme Lord, and even his wife, children, home and very life air he should offer at the lotus feet of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.”

Jayapatākā Swami: So this was written 5,000 years ago, in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Sometimes Śrīla Prabhupāda was going to a bank to deposit some money in downtown Calcutta, and that time he did not have any disciples with him. When he came back he said that at the bank the doorkeeper had told him no beggars here. He said, I am not a beggar, I have an account here, Śrīla Prabhupāda said. They called the manager and then he was allowed in. And he said he never wanted to go alone to the bank without some devotees along. So, in Kali-yuga if you are in the street, people snatch stuff from you. People will pick up rags from dead bodies or something. We get stopped on the street or something when preaching, so for preaching we have to dress nicely. Other things we have to do is to offer our activities, whatever is enjoyable we should offer to Kṛṣṇa. Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura wrote a song, mānasa deho geho jo kichu mora arpiluṅ tuyā pade nanda-kiśora [Śaraṇāgati]. So everything, we offer to Kṛṣṇa, whatever we have. So we don’t want take shelter in this material world. Whatever we do, we offer to Kṛṣṇa. Śrīla Prabhupāda, he also taught us that we have to be practical. This was written 5,000 years ago, but now people are very observant of the external things.

patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ
yo me bhaktyā prayacchati
tad ahaṁ bhakty-upahṛtam
aśnāmi prayatātmanaḥ

If one offers Me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower, a fruit or water, I will accept it. (Bg. 9.26)

Practicing service to the Lord is the duty of a devotee practicing vaidhī-bhakti. It is of five types namely:—

1. Bodily practice

2. Mental practice

3. Spiritual practice

4. Material practice

5. Social practice

We will explain the five types of practice one by one. Let me first explain the practice related to the body. There are seven types of bodily practice. All the external senses belong to this category.

1. Śravaṇa practice

2. Kīrtana practice

3. Smelling practice

4. Darśana practice

5. Touching practice

6. Tasting practice

7. Limbs of the body practice *

Jayapatākā Swami: So there are so many practices. We hear with our ears, kīrtana practice, we have some nice kīrtana here.

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/
Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/
Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare

I did the śravaṇa practice and you did the kīrtana practice. Kīrtana is such one person leads and everyone else follows. So we have śravaṇa and kīrtana going on.

Smelling practice – actually the flower offered to Kṛṣṇa, we smell it, ah! We go to the temple and see the Deities, that is the fourth, darśana practice.

Touching practice – I remember one home minister, he came to see Śrīla Prabhupāda. And he came up and wanted to touch his lotus feet. And Brahmānanda was there, touch his lotus feet, no, no. The home minister is in charge of the Police, you cannot beat him. Śrīla Prabhupāda said, it is okay, it is a custom. So touching practice can be done in different ways. Touch the guru’s feet, do Deity worship and so on. So this is the fifth one.

Tasting practice – How many of you like the tasting practice? One time I got these neem sandeśa. Neem leaves rolled into a ball. Wow! Tastes very bitter! No one like that. First time in Māyāpur, we gave karela and the Western devotees thought this is something which had gone bad. Actually, bitter is one of the tastes mentioned in the śāstra. So Śrīla Prabhupāda, he wanted that we dry bitter melon and send him to the West, because in the West they do not have it. So where you are all sitting now, we used to dry bitter melon there. But you don’t look bitter!

Limbs of the body practice – We bow down, pay obeisances.

Note:

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 11.19.20–24

śraddhāmṛta-kathāyāṁ me
śaśvan mad-anukīrtanam
pariniṣṭhā ca pūjāyāṁ
stutibhiḥ stavanaṁ mama

ādaraḥ paricaryāyāṁ
sarvāṅgair abhivandanam
mad-bhakta-pūjābhyadhikā
sarva-bhūteṣu man-matiḥ

mad-artheṣv aṅga-ceṣṭā ca
vacasā mad-guṇeraṇam
mayy arpaṇaṁ ca manasaḥ
sarva-kāma-vivarjanam

mad-arthe ’rtha-parityāgo
bhogasya ca sukhasya ca
iṣṭaṁ dattaṁ hutaṁ japtaṁ
mad-arthaṁ yad vrataṁ tapaḥ

evaṁ dharmair manuṣyāṇām
uddhavātma-nivedinām
mayi sañjāyate bhaktiḥ
ko ’nyo ’rtho ’syāvaśiṣyate

“Firm faith in the blissful narrations of My pastimes, constant chanting of My glories, unwavering attachment to ceremonial worship of Me, praising Me through beautiful hymns, great respect for My devotional service, offering obeisances with the entire body, performing first-class worship of My devotees, consciousness of Me in all living entities, offering of ordinary, bodily activities in My devotional service, use of words to describe My qualities, offering the mind to Me, rejection of all material desires, giving up wealth for My devotional service, renouncing material sense gratification and happiness, and performing all desirable activities such as charity, sacrifice, chanting, vows and austerities with the purpose of achieving Me — these constitute actual religious principles, by which those human beings who have actually surrendered themselves to Me automatically develop love for Me. What other purpose or goal could remain for My devotee?”

Jayapatākā Swami: So, Kṛṣṇa is advising in the 11th canto how a transcendental devotee is connected with Kṛṣṇa. And so He is saying what things He likes. We have devotees in the temple, all day chanting bhajanas, praising the Lord. So we respect this devotional service. Offering obeisances, with the entire body. The men do daṇḍavats. The ladies do the paṅcāṅga praṇāma. So we see that everyone is paying their obeisances to the Deities. On Janmāṣṭamī, Gaura-Pūrṇimā, we do elaborate worship of Kṛṣṇa. Other days also. Some people watch that. So we also do the abhiṣeka. So, our mind may be affected by different desires. When I was a new devotee, I had a dream went with a person a friend and two girls in a restaurant. And I looked around, I don’t want to be here! I was 18 years old. This is too much of a material situation. So I started chanting aloud – Hare Kṛṣṇa, Govinda, Hare Kṛṣṇa and I was asleep! And I woke everybody up in the temple. They asked what is wrong? So I rejected material desires like going to the restaurants. So, in varṇāśrama, depending on which āśrama you are in different things may be accepted or rejected. Having a Kṛṣṇa conscious child or something, that is allowed in the gṛhastha-āśrama. Kṛṣṇa says, if you do all these things you automatically develop love for Him. That should be our goal. That should be our purpose.

We had a meeting of the SMOVP (Scientific Museum of the Vedic Planetarium) and we decided which designer will go with us. We had a competition and so one was selected. So previously we had a first-class designer from the West. He was very expensive. The trouble was they could not attend the content. What is the use of paying 3 million dollars, but he could not understand the content? So we had a competition between three Indian designers. One was able to understand our content. We said the SMOVP, so one misunderstood, our point was that the Vedic science is scientific. But this one competitor misunderstood and thought that this is science and this is Vedic mythology! So they failed right from the beginning. And there were two other companies. The content team liked one of the companies and they said the other company was dependent on one guy and he was a bit impersonal. So we had the other company which won the vote.

Koṭi, koṭi, Kṛṣṇe matir astu!