Even namabhasa, the reflection of the pure holy name, can burn to ashes all kinds of sinful reactions, and all kinds of anarthas. Try to take the name of Krsna very purely and very affectionately, without any worldly desires. Follow this bhakti-sloka of Rupa Gosvami (BRS 1.1.11): anyabhilasita-sunyam-jnana-karmady-anavrtam anukulyena krsnanusilanam bhaktir uttama Emphasise sadhana-bhajana and stay focussed on it. If you are always preaching, but not practising sadhana-bhajana, then your preaching will be like karma. Instead of making progress on this path, you will go down. When you have understood and realised all these teachings of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and the gurus in our disciplic succession, then you can preach something. You must be able to give it to others as a postman delivers a letter, without changing it, and you must not be involved in avidya or material activities. Then you can preach. But if you don’t know anything, what can you preach? Certainly we must try to fulfil Mahaprabhu’s instruction to do good for others: janma sarthaka kari’ kara para-upakara. But first you should realise something in your own heart, and then you should preach if you are qualified for preaching. Otherwise your preaching will only be karma, and it will drag you down. A devotee may establish twenty centres throughout the world, and always be going here and there to manage them. But what will all his preaching and management accomplish if he is not doing any sadhana and bhajana at all, if he has no time to read all these Vaisnava literatures, and if he has no time to associate with advanced Vaisnavas? We should try to follow Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura and preach as he has preached, as Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura has preached, and as Srila Bhaktivedanta Svami Maharaja and our Guru Maharaja have preached. We should follow them and act as they have acted. CLEANSING THE MIRROR OF THE HEART We should follow the instructions of Siksastaka as Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura is explaining them. We should do this sincerely, with great respect and honour, and with all our heart. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura now explains that the eight slokas in Siksastaka correspond to the eight periods of Krsna’s daily pastimes. In Krsna’s asta-kaliya-lila, there are eight different kinds of pastimes: nisanta-lila at the end of night; pratahlila in the morning; purvahna-lila before noon; madhyahna-lila at midday; aparahna-lila in the afternoon; sayahna-lila in the evening; pradosa-lila before mid-night; and nakta-lila in the middle of the night. These eight different kinds of lila correspond to the eight slokas in Siksastaka. If we are performing sadhana-bhajana but we see that we are not making proper advancement, then we should admit that there is some fault, and we should see where this fault lies. The fault may be in ourselves, or it may be that our association is faulty. We have to see where the difficulty is and act accordingly. If we think that the fault is ours, then we should try to reform. Or, if we see that we are not progressing further because our association is not good, then we must give up that association. We need the association of pure Vaisnavas. Sometimes our false ego prevents us from having the association of qualified Vaisnavas, and in that case we should give up that false ego as well. We should begin by trying to do bhajana according to the first sloka of Siksastaka: ceto-darpana-marjanam bhava-mahadavagni-nirvapanam sreyah-kairava-candrika-vitaranam vidyavadhu-jivanam anandambudhi-vardhanam prati-padam purnamrtasvadanam sarvatma-snapanam param vijayate sri krsna sankirtanam Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura explains the significance of this first sloka. Ceto-darpana-marjanam means that by performing bhajana and chanting harinama, our anarthas go away. Then maha-bhava-davagni-nirvapanam: chanting the holy name removes all klesas (sufferings), including all stages of development of sinful reactions: prarabdha, aprarabdha, kuta and bija, as well as the ignorance (avidya) which is the root cause of sinful activity. Then sreyah-kairava-candrika-vitaranam: all kinds of auspiciousness (subha) begin to appear. After that, Krsna’s name is realised in the form of vidya-vadhu-jivanam. Krsna’s name is non-different from Krsna, who is Himself the beloved of Srimati Radhika. Srimati Radhika is the final, topmost vidya: mahabhava svarupini sri radha thakurani (Caitanya-Caritamrta, Adi 4.69). Vadhu means wife or consort, and Srimati Radhika is also the topmost vadhu. This means that vidya-vadhu is Srimati Radhika Herself. Then who is vidya-vadhu-jivanam? Jivanam means life and soul, and Radhika’s life and soul is Krsna. Vidya-vadhu-jivanam is therefore Krsna Himself, and krsna-nama is also the beloved of Srimati Radhika. One of Her forms is bhakti. This explains why Krsna’s name is seen as vidyavadhu-jivanam. Now Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura presents a doubt which should be resolved. If a devotee adopts all these practices, then his jiva-svarupa manifests its sampurna rupena nirmalam, completely pure spiritual form. Now, the jiva is extremely minute, so we may think that his svarupa-dharma and his ananda must also be very minute. But Mahaprabhu says, anandambudhi-vardhanam: “sankirtana increases the ocean of bliss.“ How can this be? The answer is that, as long as the jiva has not taken full shelter of the lotus feet of Krsna, then his dharma and ananda are minute. However, when the jiva takes shelter of the Lotus feet of unlimited Krsna, then his dharma and ananda also become unlimited and infinite. So it is correct to say anandambudhi-vardhanam. At that time, by the mercy of Krsna’s svarupa-sakti, a pleasure-giving potency (hladini-vrtti) comes into the heart of the jiva: hladini-sara-vrtti. By the help of that potency, the ocean of krsna-prema expands in ever fresh and new ways, and the jiva relishes rasa: prati-padam purnamrtasvadanam. He tastes dasya, sakhya, vatsalya and madhurya-rasa. Don’t think that only Krsna’s ananda is unlimited, and that only He tastes all the rasa. No. The jiva also tastes rasa, as Krsna does. He is part of Krsna, so he can also taste the seva-rasa. He can relish the beauty of Krsna. Even though the devotee doesn’t want any ananda, still ananda comes, lakhs and lakhs of times more than he wants. If we have some musk, the aroma will come into our nose, even if we don’t want to smell it. We are bound to smell it. And just as musk always spreads its perfume, similarly there is always pleasure in Krsna’s association, so how can we avoid pleasure when we are with Him? Pleasure will come, even though it is not our intention to have it. Now Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura presents another doubt to be resolved. Any desire (anyabhilasa) other than bhakti is an obstacle. But if the jiva tastes pleasure while performing bhakti, then that bhakti will go away; so how can a jiva taste the pleasure of bhakti, either here or in Goloka Vrndavana? It seems that the pleasure of devotional service opposes the purity of devotional service. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura resolves this doubt as follows. It is true that we find pleasure in serving Krsna. However, sarvatmasnapanam. Krsna-prema is so pure, and purer than pure, that there is actually no sense gratification in it. For example, we see that the gopis meet with pleasure, even when they don’t want it. Some of the gopis, like Rupa Manjari and Rati Manjari, don’t want to meet with Krsna and play with Him, or to have vilasa with Him. But Srimati Radhika wants this to happen, and She arranges their meeting with Krsna. They don’t want any pleasure, but the pleasure comes automatically, and they can’t avoid it.
Posted on: Wed, 12 Mar 2014 17:52:30 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015