We shall continue our discussion of the cleansing of the heart, “The Cleansing of the Gundica Temple,” Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya-lila, Chapter Twelve. I will read the verse again and then the entire purport. We have already discussed the beginning of the purport, which explains the general process of cleansing the heart. Now we shall discuss the specific types of dirt that can lodge in the heart, and how to deal with them.
We read from Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya-lila, Chapter Twelve, “The Cleansing of the Gundica Temple”:
TEXT 135
ei-mata puradvara-age patha yata
sakala sodhila, taha ke varnibe kata
SYNONYMS
ei-mata—in this way; pura-dvara—of the gateway of the temple; age—in front; patha yata—as many avenues; sakala—all; sodhila—were cleansed; taha—that; ke varnibe—who can describe; kata—how much.
TRANSLATION
Outside the gateway of the temple, all the roads were also cleansed, and no one could tell exactly how this was done.
PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada
In commenting on the cleansing of the Gundica temple, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura says that Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, as the world leader, was personally giving instructions on how one should receive Lord Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, within one’s cleansed and pacified heart. If one wants to see Krsna seated in his heart, he must first cleanse the heart, as prescribed by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu in His Siksastaka: ceto-darpana-marjanam [Cc Antya 20.12]. In this age, everyone’s heart is especially unclean, as confirmed in Srimad-Bhagavatam: hrdy antah-stho hy abhadrani. To wash away all dirty things accumulated within the heart, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu advised everyone to chant the Hare Krsna mantra. The first result will be that the heart is cleansed (ceto-darpana-marjanam). Similarly, Srimad-Bhagavatam (1.2.17) confirms this statement:
srnvatam sva-kathah krsna
punya-sravana-kirtanah
hrdy antah-stho hy abhadrani
vidhunoti suhrt satam
“Sri Krsna, the Personality of Godhead, who is the Paramatma [Supersoul] in everyone’s heart and the benefactor of the truthful devotee, cleanses desire for material enjoyment from the heart of the devotee who relishes His messages, which are in themselves virtuous when properly heard and chanted.”
If a devotee at all wants to cleanse his heart, he must chant and hear the glories of the Lord, Sri Krsna (srnvatam sva-kathah krsnah). This is a simple process. Krsna Himself will help cleanse the heart because He is already seated there. Krsna wants to continue living within the heart, and the Lord wants to give directions, but one has to keep his heart as clean as Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu kept the Gundica temple. The devotee therefore has to cleanse his heart just as the Lord cleansed the Gundica temple. In this way one can be pacified and enriched in devotional service. If the heart is filled with straw, grains of sand, weeds, or dust (in other words, anyabhilasa-purna), one cannot enthrone the Supreme Personality of Godhead there. The heart must be cleansed of all material motives brought about through fruitive work, speculative knowledge, the mystic yoga system, and so many other forms of so-called meditation. The heart must be cleansed without ulterior motive. As Srila Rupa Gosvami says, anyabhilasita-sunyam jnana-karmady-anavrtam [Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu 1.1.11]. In other words, there should not be any external motive. One should not attempt material upliftment, understanding the Supreme by speculative knowledge, fruitive activity, severe austerity and penance, and so on. All these activities are against the natural growth of spontaneous love of Godhead. As soon as these are present within the heart, the heart should be understood to be unclean and therefore unfit to serve as Krsna’s sitting place. We cannot perceive the Lord’s presence in our hearts unless our hearts are cleansed.
COMMENT by Giriraj Swami
Srila Rupa Gosvami describes pure devotional service as being anyabhilasita-sunyam: without other desires. Other desires constitute the dirt in the heart, and cleaning the heart means cleaning out the material desires, or purifying them so they are no longer material but spiritual—to serve and please Krishna. If the heart is full of other desires, it is called anyabhilasa-purna. What Rupa Gosvami advises is anyabhilasita-sunyam; he has added the suffix ita to anyabhilasa. Anyabhilasa means “no other desire”; anyabhilasita means “no other intent”—we should have no other intent in devotional service than to please Krishna. For the sake of serving Krishna, we want to keep the body and soul together, and so taking care of the body is not outside of the definition of pure devotional service. It may so happen that under certain circumstances a devotee may pray to Krishna for the protection of the body. For example, someone may come to attack us—our life may be in danger—so we may pray to Krishna to save us. But our general motivation in devotional service is not to get protection or any other benefit for the body; it is to please Krishna. Yet in some dangerous situation, we may pray to the Lord for protection—although that is not our basic motive in engaging in devotional service. That impulse for survival does not place us outside of uttama-bhakti; it is not against the principles of uttama-bhakti.
Then Sri Rupa says, jnana-karmady-anavrtam. Our bhakti should not be covered by jnana, karma, or any other process. The suffix adi, “beginning with,” in effect means “et cetera, and others.” Jnana and karma are the main processes, but there are others that also are not part of bhakti and that may cause disturbance in the heart.
After listing sixty-four items of devotional service in Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu, Srila Rupa Gosvami discusses other items that one might think could have been included in the list but which he omitted, and he explains why. Two of the items are the cultivation of knowledge and the cultivation of renunciation. He explains that the actual process of bhakti—hearing and chanting about Krishna—makes the heart soft, whereas the cultivation of knowledge or renunciation, although they may be somewhat helpful in the beginning (as the Bhagavatam says), are not really part of the process of devotional service because the cultivation of knowledge or renunciation as separate items can make the heart hard, which goes against the nature of bhakti.
Of course, true knowledge and renunciation follow as a natural consequence of genuine advancement in Krishna consciousness:
vasudeve bhagavati
bhakti-yogah prayojitah
janayaty asu vairagyam
jnanam ca yad ahaitukam
When we engage in bhakti-yoga, devotional service to Vasudeva (Krishna), the son of Vasudeva, causeless knowledge and detachment follow. But to make a separate endeavor to pursue knowledge or detachment, in an impersonal way, can make the heart hard. Still, the effort can be somewhat helpful in the beginning, because if someone is addicted to sinful activities—smoking, drinking, eating flesh, or whatever—he might have to make a special effort to give them up. But once he is able to follow the basic regulations of bhakti-yoga, then his natural progress in bhakti-yoga itself will take care of everything else, without any independent endeavor.
Someone may ask, “Well, if bhakti doesn’t take support from karma, jnana, yoga, or anything else, then how will bhakti progress?” The answer is that one’s present stage of bhakti becomes the cause of one’s advancement to subsequent stages in bhakti. Bhaktya sanjataya bhaktya: bhakti comes from bhakti. Bhava-bhakti comes from sadhana-bhakti; prema-bhakti comes from bhava-bhakti. We don’t need to add anything to bhakti to make it stronger. To the contrary, adding karma or jnana to bhakti makes it weaker. So we want unalloyed devotional service, unmixed with any other process or any desire other than to serve and please Krishna.
Now we shall proceed to some of the more specific discussions.
PURPORT (continued)
A material desire is explained as a desire to enjoy the material world to its fullest extent. In modern language, this is called economic development. An inordinate desire for economic development is considered to be like straws and grains of sand within the heart. If one is overly engaged in material activity, the heart will always remain disturbed. As stated by Narottama dasa Thakura:
samsara visanale, diva-nisi hiya jvale,
judaite na kainu upaya
In other words, endeavor for material opulence is against the principle of devotional service. Material enjoyment includes activities such as great sacrifices for auspicious activity, charity, austerity, elevation to the higher planetary system, and even living happily within the material world.
COMMENT
Samsara visanale: in the fire of the poison of worldliness. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu also prayed, visame bhavambudhau: “in the horrible, poisonous ocean of birth and death.” And Narottama dasa laments, “I have not accepted the means for escape, or relief.”
PURPORT (continued)
Modernized material benefits are like the dust of material contamination. When this dust is agitated by the whirlwind of fruitive activity, it overcomes the heart.
COMMENT
As we have discussed, it is not an offense to have material attachments, but it is an offense to maintain them. What Srila Prabhupada wrote here is significant: the desire may be there, but when we act on the desire—when we act to fulfill the desire—that process acts like a whirlwind that agitates the desire, the dust.
PURPORT (continued)
Thus the mirror of the heart is covered with dust. There are many desires to perform auspicious and inauspicious activities, but people do not know how life after life they are keeping their hearts unclean. One who cannot give up the desire for fruitive activity is understood to be covered by the dust of material contamination. Karmis generally think that the interaction of fruitive activities can be counteracted by another karma, or fruitive activity. This is certainly a mistaken conception. If one is deluded by such a conception, he is cheated by his own activity. Such activities have been compared to an elephant’s bathing. An elephant may bathe very thoroughly, but as soon as it comes out of the river, it immediately takes some sand from the land and throws it all over its body. If one suffers due to his past fruitive activities, he cannot counteract his suffering by performing auspicious activities. The sufferings of human society cannot be counteracted by material plans. The only way suffering can be mitigated is by Krsna consciousness. When one takes to Krsna consciousness and engages himself in the devotional service of the Lord—beginning with chanting and hearing the glories of the Lord—the cleansing of the heart begins. When the heart is actually cleansed, one can clearly see the Lord sitting there without any disturbance. In Srimad-Bhagavatam (9.4.68) the Lord confirms that He sits within the heart of the pure devotee: sadhavo hrdayam mahyam sadhunam hrdayam tv aham.
COMMENT
Karmis often think that they can counteract the effects of one karma with another, but ultimately they cannot. The Vedas recommend prayascitta, specific atonements for specific sins or mistakes, which are meant to counteract the reactions to the sins. But prayascitta does not remove the desire to commit sin from the heart. Thus, after neutralizing the effects of the sin by some form of atonement, one will commit the same sin again. Thus Srila Prabhupada quoted a saying, “Every day a thousand prostitutes take bath in the Ganges.” They take bath in the holy river and are relieved of their sinful reactions, but they remain prostitutes: when they come out of the water, they engage in the same activity.
We need a process that will cleanse the heart of the desire to sin, the desire to engage in acts against the orders of God, the injunctions of scripture. Prayascitta, or atonement, is compared to burning the leaves of the weed of sinful actions. The roots of the weed remain, and so the plant will sprout up again. To actually be free from the suffering caused by the weed, you have to pull it out from the roots. And the process to uproot the sinful desires themselves is bhakti-yoga, especially chanting the holy names of Krishna. Pure devotional service removes the ignorance that is at the root of the desire for sinful activities; uttama-bhakti destroys material desires from the root.
Srila Rupa Gosvami explains that there are various stages in the development of sinful actions and reactions: aprarabdha (unmanifest), kuta (about to manifest), bija (barely manifesting), and prarabdha (fully manifest). The seeds of sinful desires will sprout and eventually bear the fruits of sinful actions—and reactions. One may try to cut this growth of sin at different places, but bhakti thoroughly destroys all phases of its manifestation. Of course, devotees who surrender to Krishna refrain from further sinful acts. But even the suffering due to devotees for their past sinful acts, and the traces of sinful desires still in their hearts, are destroyed by bhakti.
That is karma. You cannot be freed from karma by karma—you cannot be freed from materially inauspicious activities by materially auspicious activities—because as long as the tendency to engage in karma (material activities) remains, one is bound to engage in sinful acts and then suffer. The only way to really become free from sin is bhakti. As stated in Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu, suffering is caused by sin, and sin is caused by ignorance. To be freed from sin, we must become free from ignorance. And bhakti illuminates us with the knowledge that will free us from sin—and from all suffering—forever.
So, that is karma. Now, jnana and yoga.
PURPORT (continued)
Impersonal speculation, monism (merging into the existence of the Supreme), speculative knowledge, mystic yoga, and meditation are all compared to grains of sand. They simply cause irritation to the heart. No one can satisfy the Supreme Personality of Godhead by such activities, nor do we give the Lord a chance to sit in our hearts peacefully. Rather, the Lord is simply disturbed by them. Sometimes yogis and jnanis in the beginning take to the chanting of the Hare Krsna maha-mantra as a way to begin their various practices. But when they falsely think that they have attained release from the bondage of material existence, they give up chanting. They do not consider that the ultimate goal is the form of the Lord or the name of the Lord. Such unfortunate creatures are never favored by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, for they do not know what devotional service is. Lord Krsna describes them in the Bhagavad-gita in this way:
tan aham dvisatah kruran
samsaresu naradhaman
ksipamy ajasram asubhan
asurisv eva yonisu
“Those who are envious and mischievous, who are the lowest among men, I perpetually cast into the ocean of material existence, into various demoniac species of life.” (Bg 16.19)
COMMENT
Here Maya comes into play as a servant of Krishna to protect Him. Srila Prabhupada says that when someone comes to render service to Krishna, Maya will test the person to see whether he is really sincere to serve Krishna or whether he has come to disturb Krishna. So when someone engages in devotional service, Maya may send disturbances to test the person’s determination, to see how serious he or she is. And if the person is sincere and serious to serve Krishna, he or she will think, “Never mind. Let the calamities come. No matter what happens, I will continue to follow the principles and chant Hare Krishna.” But if the person has other motives, he or she will think, “Oh, I thought Krishna consciousness was going to make me happy, to make my life easier, to solve my material problems, but now I am finding just the opposite. So I am not going to chant and follow the process. I am going to try something else.” Because they have material motives, they give up the practices of bhakti-yoga, which means that at least temporarily they have failed the test.
So Maya is also Krishna’s servant, and she tests devotees and aspiring devotees to see how fixed they are, because she doesn’t want them to come and disturb Krishna with their material motives.
PURPORT (continued)
By His practical example, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu has shown us that all the grains of sand must be picked up thoroughly and thrown outside. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu also cleansed the outside of the temple, fearing that the grains of sand would again come within. In this connection, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura explains that even though one may become free from the desire for fruitive activity, sometimes the subtle desire for fruitive activity again comes into being within the heart. One often thinks of conducting business to improve devotional activity.
COMMENT
This is a little different from the desires that exist within the heart before devotional service, because those material desires have no connection with Krishna consciousness. Even after we become free from those gross materialistic desires, subtle desires related to Krishna consciousness may appear, but if we are not careful, they can deviate us from Krishna consciousness. Prabhupada mentions conducting business to get money for Krishna consciousness, that one can become so overwhelmed in the process of making money that economic development becomes more prominent than Krishna consciousness. It can happen. We have seen it.
PURPORT (continued)
One often thinks of conducting business to improve devotional activity. But the contamination is so strong that it may later develop into misunderstanding, described as kuti-nati (faultfinding) and pratisthasa (the desire for name and fame and for high position), jiva-himsa (envy of other living entities), nisiddhacara (accepting things forbidden in the sastra), kama (desire for material gain), and puja (hankering for popularity).
COMMENT
These are some of the specific anomalies. We have seen them too.
PURPORT (continued)
The word kuti-nati means “duplicity.” As an example of pratisthasa, one may attempt to imitate Srila Haridasa Thakura by living in a solitary place. One’s real desire may be for name and fame—in other words, one thinks that fools will accept one to be as good as Haridasa Thakura just because one lives in a solitary place. These are all material desires. A neophyte devotee is certain to be attacked by other material desires as well, namely desires for women and money. In this way the heart is again filled with dirty things and becomes harder and harder, like that of a materialist. Gradually one desires to become a reputed devotee or an avatara (incarnation).
The word jiva-himsa (envy of other living entities) actually means stopping the preaching of Krsna consciousness.
COMMENT
Jiva means “the living entity” and also “life.” And himsa means “violence,” which also translates as “envy.” Generally we think that violence means harming or killing people, or killing animals and eating their flesh. That is certainly jiva-himsa, but the real life of the living entity is bhakti. There is a series of verses in the Second Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam to the effect that one may appear to be alive but if he is devoid of devotional service he is as good as dead. For example:
jivan chavo bhagavatanghri-renum
na jatu martyo ’bhilabheta yas tu
sri-visnu-padya manujas tulasyah
svasan chavo yas tu na veda gandham
“The person who has not at any time received the dust of the feet of the Lord’s pure devotee upon his head is certainly a dead body. And the person who has never experienced the aroma of the tulasi leaves from the lotus feet of the Lord is also a dead body, although breathing.” (SB 2.3.23)
So the real life of the living entity is devotional service. And if we deprive people of devotional service, in effect we are killing them.
Now, one may argue, “Well, that is pretty strong language. I am not killing them. I am just not giving them devotional service.” But the Fifth Canto says that if a blind man is walking down a wrong path heading to danger, how can a gentleman allow him to continue? It is our duty to stop him. We can’t just let him proceed to his own death.
kas tam svayam tad-abhijno vipascid
avidyayam antare vartamanam
drstva punas tam saghrnah kubuddhim
prayojayed utpathagam yathandham
“If someone is ignorant and addicted to the path of samsara, how can one who is actually learned, merciful, and advanced in spiritual knowledge engage him in fruitive activity and thus further entangle him in material existence? If a blind man is walking down the wrong path, how can a gentleman allow him to continue on his way to danger? How can he approve this method? No wise or kind man can allow this.” (SB 5.5.17)
If someone is starving to death and if by giving him a little food you can save his life, it is your duty to give him some prasada. Prasada means “mercy.” You can’t just let him die of starvation. As devotees, we know that Krishna consciousness is the sustenance of life, real food for the spirit soul, and that if we don’t give people Krishna consciousness they are going to die, spiritually. So it is our duty to feed them, to give them Krishna consciousness. It is our duty to save them, and if we don’t, that is jiva-himsa, envy. If someone is starving at your doorstep and you could give him a little food and save his life but instead you think, “Let him die; it is not my problem,” you are envious. You are not thinking, “Everything belongs to Krishna. Whatever Krishna has given me I will share with my brothers and sisters, who are also Krishna’s children.” You are thinking, “It is mine.” You are envious. You are not giving him the same chance to live that you have. “Let him die. It is not my problem.” That is jiva-himsa. That is against devotional service. Devotional service means the heart is becoming softer.
Opposed to jiva-himsa is jiva-daya, being merciful to all living entities. That is one of the qualifications of a devotee—jiva-daya. And that is the result of proper chanting of the holy name. One develops the mood of jiva-daya.
PURPORT (continued)
Preaching work is described as paropakara, welfare activity for others. Those who are ignorant of the benefits of devotional service must be educated by preaching. If one stops preaching and simply sits down in a solitary place, he is engaging in material activity. If one desires to make a compromise with the Mayavadis, he is also engaged in material activity. A devotee should never make compromises with nondevotees.
COMMENT
I won’t tell the whole story here, but when I was preaching in Madras, some well-meaning friends suggested that I change my approach and stop criticizing others. So I wrote to Srila Prabhupada, and he kindly replied, “The fact is that I am the only one in India who is openly criticizing not only demigod worship and impersonalism but everything that falls short of complete surrender to Krishna. My guru maharaja never compromised in his preaching, nor will I, nor should any of my students. We are firmly convinced that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and all others are His part and parcel servants. This we must declare boldly to the whole world, that they should not foolishly dream of world peace unless they are prepared to surrender fully to Krishna as Supreme Lord.” So, no compromise.
PURPORT (continued)
If one desires to make a compromise with the Mayavadis, he is also engaged in material activity. A devotee should never make compromises with nondevotees. By acting as a professional guru, mystic yogi, or miracle man, one may cheat and bluff the general public and gain fame as a wonderful mystic, but all this is considered to be dust, straw, and grains of sand within the heart. In addition, one should follow the regulative principles and not desire illicit sex, gambling, intoxicants, or meat.
COMMENT
Srila Prabhupada is describing the manifestation of these contaminations in the activities of nondevotees or mixed devotees. Superficially, the examples may seem applicable to them, not to us. But if we are introspective, we may see that we have the same tendencies. They may be disguised in different ways or subdued to varying extents, but we also have desires to become popular, to be worshiped, to be honored, to be rewarded—even materially, financially. We have to be aware of these desires so that we can purge ourselves of them. We must make efforts to purge ourselves of them, and at the same time pray for the mercy of the Lord, depend on the mercy of the Lord.
PURPORT (continued)
To give us practical instructions, Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu cleansed the temple twice. His second cleansing was more thorough. The idea was to throw away all the stumbling blocks on the path of devotional service. He cleansed the temple with firm conviction, as is evident from His using His own personal garments for cleaning. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu wanted to see personally that the temple was thoroughly cleansed to the standard of clean marble. Clean marble gives a cooling effect. Devotional service means attaining peace from all disturbances caused by material contamination. In other words, it is the process by which the mind is cooled.
COMMENT
In other words, we shouldn’t become overheated in our endeavors in devotional service, because overendeavor (prayasah) is unfavorable to bhakti and may indicate mixed motives. We should act only with the motive of pleasing Krishna, under the guidance of Krishna’s representatives, who know what pleases Krishna. And we should know that it is not exactly the external features of the service that please Him, but it is the loving desire and faithful effort to please Him that pleases Him.
In the Adi-lila of Sri Caitanya-caritamrta we have the story of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Himself. His spiritual master instructed Him, “You are a fool. You are not fit to study Vedanta. Just always chant the holy name of Krishna.” And Lord Chaitanya followed the order of His spiritual master and always chanted the holy name. After some time, He found that he was laughing, crying, and dancing like a madman. He thought that by chanting He had become mad. So He presented His situation to His spiritual master, who then replied, “My dear child, I am very pleased with You. You have developed ecstatic love for God, the supreme goal of life. So I am much obliged to you.” And he instructed Him, “Continue chanting and dancing and performing sankirtana with devotees. Further, go out and preach the value of chanting to others, and thus deliver all fallen souls.”
In the purport, Srila Prabhupada writes, “The spiritual master is not actually pleased if the disciple brings him money, but when he sees that the disciple is actually advancing in spiritual life, he is very glad.” Of course, what is important is the consciousness. Offering money can also be done in the mood of pure devotion, to please Krishna, to please Krishna and make advancement by serving a devotee. But it can also be done in another consciousness—wanting recognition, praise, prestige, or prominence. Someone could even think that by giving money he can buy the spiritual master or buy the organization. Such desires are opposed to pure devotional service.
The basic motive of the devotee should be to please Krishna, and if one’s brain is not too heated, one can consider, “What does Krishna actually want? Does Krishna really want me to kill myself collecting money for Him day and night? Or does He want me to spend time with Him in the temple, joining in the worship, chanting the holy names, and listening to the class?” And if you consider with a cool brain, you will conclude, “Of course, Krishna wants me to chant Hare Krishna and be happy.” Still, if someone wants to work hard for Krishna, that is welcome. That is also Krishna’s mercy, but one should not work to the extent that one neglects to chant one’s sixteen rounds, to hear Srimad-Bhagavatam and Bhagavad-gita, and to attend the temple programs. Our regular practices must be maintained.
A lady reporter came to meet Srila Prabhupada at Bhaktivedanta Manor in England. She had a material edge to her, and straight away she challenged him, “Why do you shave your head?” Prabhupada never missed a beat. Smart as reporters were, he was always smarter. Quick as they were, he was always quicker. She asked, “Why do you shave your head?” And Srila Prabhupada responded, “Why do you shave your legs? It is better to have hot legs and a cool brain than cool legs and a hot brain. One must have a cool brain to understand this Krishna consciousness.”
PURPORT (continued)
In other words, it is the process by which the mind is cooled. The mind can be peaceful and thoroughly cleansed when one no longer desires anything but devotional service.
Even though all dirty things may be cleansed away, sometimes subtle desires remain in the mind for impersonalism, monism, success, and the four principles of religious activity (dharma, artha, kama, and moksa). All these are like spots on clean cloth. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu also wanted to cleanse all these away.
By His practical activity, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu informed us how to cleanse our hearts. Once the heart is cleansed, we should invite Lord Sri Krsna to sit down, and we should observe the festival by distributing prasadam and chanting the Hare Krsna maha-mantra.
COMMENT
Whenever Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu celebrated a festival in Jagannatha Puri, it culminated in chanting and dancing and taking prasada. And we can expect the same to take place after our cleaning of the temple. When we clean our hearts of all dirt and can actually receive the Lord in a proper place, we can celebrate the occasion by distributing prasada and chanting the Hare Krishna maha-mantra. Again, devotional service is absolute. To cleanse the heart, we chant Hare Krishna, and to celebrate the completion of the cleansing, we chant Hare Krishna more.
PURPORT (continued)
Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu used to teach every devotee by His personal behavior. Everyone who spreads the cult of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu accepts a similar responsibility. The Lord was personally chastising and praising individuals in the course of the cleaning, and those who are engaged as acaryas must learn from Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu how to train devotees by personal example.
COMMENT
If one is surrendered to the spiritual master, he or she will accept praise and chastisement equally. Once, Srila Prabhupada chastised me very severely. Well, when I look back, maybe he didn’t chastise me so severely, but I was such a new devotee then, I took it hard; it had a devastating effect on me. I was the temple president and very new in Juhu. And the Deities then were living under a small shamiana tent outdoors. Anyway, one of the devotees wrote to Srila Prabhupada, saying that the Deities were being neglected, and Prabhupada in turn wrote me, “I have received some reports that the Deities are being neglected. This is most abominable.” His words had a devastating effect on me.
I wrote back saying that I accepted his instructions and was executing them but that I was really struggling, trying to maintain my focus and enthusiasm. Srila Prabhupada replied, “Actually, it is the duty of the spiritual master to find fault with his students so that they may make progress, not that he should always be praising them.” He often quoted Chanakya Pandita, lalane bahavo dosas tadane bahavo gunah: “If you chastise your son or disciple, he’ll improve, and if you say, ‘Oh, you are all right,’ he’ll degrade.” Tasmat putram ca sisyam ca tadayet na tu lalayet: “Therefore you always chastise your son or disciple. Never flatter.” Srila Prabhupada concluded his instruction to me, “So if you find some criticism, kindly accept it in that spirit. I am interested only that you, along with all my other students, should become Krishna conscious.”
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, seeing how the devotees were cleaning, praised some and chastised some. And He Himself showed by example how to clean. He was the best. He collected the most dust and threw out the most dust. So the spiritual master should set the example in cleansing his own heart. Otherwise, as Srila Prabhupada said, “If you are smoking a cigarette and you tell others, ‘Don’t smoke,’ who will listen?” To teach, we must also show by example.
PURPORT (concluded)
The Lord was very pleased with those who could cleanse the temple by taking out undesirable things accumulated within. This is called anartha-nivrtti, cleansing the heart of all unwanted things. Thus the cleansing of the Gundica-mandira was conducted by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu to let us know how the heart should be cleansed and soothed to receive Lord Sri Krsna and enable Him to sit within the heart without disturbance.
COMMENT
We are talking about the temple of the heart. We have to cleanse the temple of the heart and install the Deity on the throne of the heart and worship the Lord within the heart. As Thakura Bhaktivinoda sings,
mama mana mandire raha nisi-din
krsna murari sri krsna murari
“Please abide in the temple of my heart both day and night, O Krsna Murari, O Sri Krsna Murari!”
eso nanda-kumar ar nanda-kumar
habe prema-pradipe arati tomar
“Come, Son of Nanda, and then, O Son of Nanda, I will offer Your arati ceremony with the lamplight of my love.”
That is real worship. That is the best worship. Of course, the external worship helps to clean the heart, but the real worship comes when we can enthrone the Lord within our hearts and serve Him in a clean, pacified, cool mandir within the heart. That is achieved by a combination of our efforts and the Lord’s mercy—that combination brings all success.
Hare Krishna.
Are there any questions or comments?
Siddhi-lalasa dasi: How is it possible to have material desires and yet not act upon them?
Giriraj Swami: The Bhagavad-gita explains that just as rivers flow into the ocean but the ocean is not disturbed, in the same way the yogi or the devotee is not disturbed by desires.
apuryamanam acala-pratistham
samudram apah pravisanti yadvat
tadvat kama yam pravisanti sarve
sa santim apnoti na kama-kami
“A person who is not disturbed by the incessant flow of desires—that enter like rivers into the ocean, which is ever being filled but is always still—can alone achieve peace, and not the man who strives to satisfy such desires.” (Gita 2.70)
It is a matter of determination. Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura gives the example that a devotee who vows not to eat on a fast day can conquer the desire to eat, even if he feels hungry, because he is determined. Because he has vowed, “I shall not take food today,” he does not act on that desire to eat. In the same way, if we are determined, we can refrain from sex. That is Sri Visvanatha’s comment on a verse in the Seventh Canto.
asankalpaj jayet kamam
krodham kama-vivarjanat
arthanartheksaya lobham
bhayam tattvavamarsanat
“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.” (SB 7.15.22)
The Seventh Canto lists different disturbances and how to overcome each. For example, one can conquer envy by giving up sense gratification. One can become free from pride by serving great devotees. One can counteract miseries by being merciful to all living entities. And by serving the spiritual master, one can completely transcend the material nature.
Service to the spiritual master means following the orders of the spiritual master, which include, first and foremost, the instruction to chant and hear about Krishna. Chant sixteen rounds, follow the regulative principles, hear the transcendental discussions, and serve in any way that the spiritual master orders. That will counteract all material miseries and overcome all material desires.
Bhakta Ross: Maharaja, does everyone have an equal amount of material desires? Everyone is not acting on them equally. Does chanting destroy those material desires?
Giriraj Swami: Devotional service is a continuous process that may span more than one lifetime. And because devotional service, chanting, does free one from material desires, someone may come into the present life more purified, from the past life, than someone else. Still, however many material desires we have or however strong they may seem—whatever our condition—if we tolerate them and don’t act on them, and instead focus on hearing and chanting, engaging in bhakti-yoga, whatever we bring with us from our past life, in one sense, doesn’t matter, because bhakti-yoga is so powerful that it can completely purify us now. Still, it may be easier for someone in the present life if he has made more advancement in his previous life.
Srila Prabhupada writes in The Nectar of Devotion, based on Rupa Gosvami’s statements in Sri Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu, that devotional service is generally a continuation from one’s past life and that therefore some people are naturally inclined toward Krishna consciousness. Yet although they made advancement in the past life, somehow they were not completely successful—most likely because of an offense to a Vaishnava—and now they are being given a good opportunity in the present life to completely finish their course of service in this world.
He writes, “Devotional service is a continual process from one’s previous life. No one can take to devotional service unless he has had some previous connection with it. . . . For some reason or another it had been temporarily stopped, most probably by an offense committed at the lotus feet of a devotee. Now, with a good second chance, it has again begun to develop. . . . But even if there is no continuity, if only by chance a person takes interest in a pure devotee’s instruction, he can be accepted and can advance in devotional service. Anyway, for persons who have a natural taste for understanding books like Bhagavad-gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam, devotional service is easier than for those who are simply accustomed to mental speculation and argumentative processes.” (NOD Chapters 2 and 18)
In any case, we need not feel, “Oh, I am born with so many material desires.” Whatever it is, we can be completely successful in the present lifetime.
Look at Jagai and Madhai: they were the most sinful of sinful creatures, but they were delivered by the mercy of Lord Nityananda and Lord Chaitanya. Such is the mercy of Sri Sri Gaura-Nitai—and the potency of the holy name. Narottama dasa Thakura sings, dina-hina jata chilo, hari-name uddharilo, tara saksi jagai madhai: “The holy name delivers all who are lowly and wretched. The two sinners Jagai and Madhai are evidence of this.” However sinful we are, we are not as sinful as they were, and they were delivered by the mercy of Nitai and Gaura, by the mercy of the holy name. So why not us? Anyone can be purified.
Otherwise, it can become an excuse: “Oh, they were advanced from their last life. That is why they are able to follow. But I can’t follow. I am not as advanced from my last life.” Anyone can follow. If you have a sincere desire, you can follow. It doesn’t matter what your conditioning is—what your past life was, or your previous experience in your present life. If you have a sincere desire, that is sufficient. “Devotional service is dependent on nothing other than the sentiment or desire for such service. It requires nothing more than sincerity.” (NOD Chapter 12)
Pure devotional service is beyond karma (jnana-karmady-anavrtam). It doesn’t matter what your past karma was, or how much knowledge you have. The only thing required is the sincere desire. That is all you need. There is no other qualification or disqualification. And once you begin the process, you will be dragged to success—as if against your will—if you just keep following. “Devotional service is so pure and perfect that once having begun, one is forcibly dragged to ultimate success.” (NOI 3 purport)
That is why we have our sikhas. Prabhupada said we keep sikhas so Krishna can lift us up and pull us back to Godhead. So keep your sikha on, and you will be successful. There is no reason to lament or feel hopeless or envious.
Sri Radhika dasi: What hinders our determination?
Giriraj Swami: One could say the desires for sense gratification and mental speculation, or one could say past habit. We have the habit, and as Srila Prabhupada said, habit is second nature. Even if we try to overcome it, habit is so strong that at first we might fail. So, as Prabhupada said, that is not a fault. But you should repent, “Oh, I have done this,” and try your best not to repeat the mistake. But if because of some past habit you commit a mistake and then you sincerely repent and try your best to improve, Krishna will forgive you. And, as in almost every other case, associating with pure devotees will help us.
Bhakta David: In relation to Bhakta Ross’s question, you said if one had a sincere desire, things will fall into place. How does one gain the desire?
Giriraj Swami: Yes, if one has a sincere desire to engage in devotional service and begins the process, the potency of the process itself will carry him to the conclusion. So, how does one develop the desire?
Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gita that best is to fix one’s mind on Him, which is possible when we have love for Him, but that if one is unable to do so—to be fully absorbed in Krishna consciousness—one should follow the rules and regulations of bhakti-yoga and thus develop the desire to reach Him.
atha cittam samadhatum
na saknosi mayi sthiram
abhyasa-yogena tato
mam icchaptum dhananjaya
“If you cannot fix your mind upon Me without deviation, then follow the regulative principles of bhakti-yoga. In this way develop a desire to attain Me.” (Gita 12.9)
Once, a disciple asked Srila Prabhupada, “How do we become sincere?” And Prabhupada replied, “By following all of my instructions, however big or small.” By following, we develop the desire.
In the earliest days of the movement, one student told Srila Prabhupada, “I see the other devotees bowing down, but it is not really in my heart to bow down. I don’t really feel like it. Should I still do it?” And Prabhupada replied, “Yes. By bowing down, the feeling will come.” Much of sadhana-bhakti, devotional service in practice, is like that. You don’t feel like dancing in the kirtan, but you force yourself to dance, and then you feel like dancing, once you have started. So we follow, and that makes us more sincere; our desire for Krishna becomes stronger. And Krishna will fulfill our desire.
Thank you very much.
Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!
Nitai-gaura-premanande hari haribol!
[A Talk by Giriraj Swami on May 1, 2007, in Dallas]
Radhanath Swami: In the past thirty years Krishna has blessed us with countless gifts. We passed through truly ecstatic times, and times of painful challenges.
The verse and purport to Srimad-Bhagavatam 4.8.34 describes the envious and non-envious behavior towards seniors, equals and juniors. Srila Prabhupada explains things in simple yet profound terms which are of very practical relevance to us all.
By Acarya Dasa
Adult Education At The Temple
We are planning a wonderful garden that will capture the mood of Vrndavana. In these gardens we will hold our Mayapur Jhulan Yatra, as well as other festivals, thoughout the year.
