Śrī Upadeśāmṛta, Śloka 8
New Braja, 24 May 1997
We have finished our seventh śloka of The Nectar of Instruction. I have given some outline for the eighth śloka but i want to start from the beginning again. This eighth śloka is the sum and substance, the essence, of all the teachings of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu and Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmīpāda.
What is this śloka teaching?
It is teaching how we should cultivate our activities for the pleasure of Kṛṣṇa and how we can advance. First of all, Swāmījī is telling us that we have not come to spiritual life only to remain forever in the kaniṣṭha-adhikāra stage, that we should try to develop our Kṛṣṇa consciousness. We should not still be doing the same practices and cultivating the same mood that we were twenty-five years ago. We should not be satisfied to remain in the same stage. We will have to develop our Kṛṣṇa consciousness. For this reason he is explaining this śloka.
When we first came to this Kṛṣṇa consciousness, we began chanting harināma and today we are still chanting harināma, but it is not the same. It is like the difference between geometry for beginners and for Ph.D.’s.
So now after twenty years, should we still be chanting the same way we were in the beginning?
No!
Our chanting and our mood should be so much more developed.
How can we develop?
For this Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī has given the first seven ślokas. Now he is coming to the internal mood, and he is saying tan-nāma-rūpa.
You should read the translation first and then we will explain.
Devotee reads: The essence of all advice is that one should utilise one’s full time—twenty-four hours a day—in nicely chanting and remembering the Lord’s divine name, transcendental form, qualities and eternal pastimes....
ŚRĪLA BHAKTIVEDĀNTA NĀRĀYAṆA MAHĀRĀJA: Why twenty-four hours?
Why?
You will have to do something to maintain your life—you will have to take some sleep, you will have to care for your families, your children.
So why is he saying twenty-four hours?
How can we reconcile all these things?
You will have to reconcile. This is the difference between your beginning stage of chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa and what you are doing now. Swāmījī will explain further in his purport.
But can we do what is expected of us?
It is possible. For those persons who have difficulty chanting sixteen rounds, Swāmījī said, “I am giving some concession because Western devotees cannot easily do more. They are always engaged in bodily activities.” So for them he is telling sixteen rounds, but this instruction is not for advanced devotees.
What is Swāmījī telling for advanced devotees?
For them he is saying twenty-four hours a day.
Now, senior devotees will ask, “How can this be?
Oh, this is Nārāyaṇa Mahārāja’s idea, not Swāmījī’s. He never told us this.” But Swāmījī has told this very clearly, and because of this wrong understanding I am now telling all these things again. One day you will have to come up to this higher stage; otherwise, your love and affection for Kṛṣṇa will not be strong. For neophyte devotees he has said, “Oh, you should begin from two, three, four, up to sixteen rounds.” But when you progress, you will give up all your worldly attachments, keeping no worldly desires at all. Then you can actually advance. So he is telling us how to do this.
Then, “pastimes, thereby gradually....”
Devotee reads: Thereby gradually engaging one’s tongue and mind in this way one should reside in vraja....
ŚRĪLA BHAKTIVEDĀNTA NĀRĀYAṆA MAHĀRĀJA: Oh, then he is saying that you should all give up your homes and come to vraja? How is this possible?
Oh, it will be possible if you have no worldly desires. Then you will be pure devotees and you will have no reason to be anywhere else. You will only want to be in vraja. Those who are not qualified to be in vraja should live there by mind. This is another concession. But after some time you will have to go to vraja and give up all these worldly desires.
Where will you have to go?
Goloka vṛndāvana. He has written “Goloka vṛndāvana” in brackets: “One should reside in vraja (Goloka vṛndāvana-dhāma).” For a sādhaka it is absurd to think that he can be in Goloka vṛndāvana.
Do you understand this?
A sādhaka cannot go to Goloka vṛndāvana. After liberation, after prema, he can go there. But the sādhaka’s goal is to go there, so Swāmījī has written “Goloka vṛndāvana” in brackets, meaning that our object is to go there. But in sādhana-avasthā we will never be in Goloka vṛndāvana.
Some devotees will say, “Oh, our Guru Mahārāja has written Goloka vṛndāvana, in sādhana-avasthā?
This is for sādhaka-avasthā?”
This śloka is for sādhana.
You know what sādhana means?
It is for one in the stage of bondage.
Then how can one be in Goloka vṛndāvana?
So has Swāmījī written falsely?
No, you will have to reconcile all these things. Otherwise you cannot advance. If you say, “Oh, he has written ‘Goloka vṛndāvana’, so we will go to Goloka vṛndāvana-dhāma in the stage of bondage,” you must ask how this is possible! You will have to use your intelligence, and that intelligence will come from the association of a bona fide vaiṣṇava or guru. Otherwise you will always be confused and have so many doubts. So you will have to reconcile this contradiction. But only highly developed and realised Vaiṣṇavas can reconcile all these things.
Then again, “In this way one should reside....”
Devotee reads: In this way one should reside and serve Kṛṣṇa under the guidance of devotees.
ŚRĪLA BHAKTIVEDĀNTA NĀRĀYAṆA MAHĀRĀJA: What is the difference between devotee and associate, pārṣada, parikara?
Can anyone say?
Devotee: A devotee is a sādhaka and an associate is an eternal nitya-siddha.
ŚRĪLA BHAKTIVEDĀNTA NĀRĀYAṆA MAHĀRĀJA: Eternal, he is liberated.
Who is liberated?
Kṛṣṇa’s associates. They are called parikaras. They are not devotees, they are not sādhakas. If the word “devotee” is used, you should always consider that he is a sādhaka.
How can a sādhaka be in the eternal dhāma, Goloka vṛndāvana?
After liberation, after receiving prema, then Yogamāyā will take him there for eternity. But devotees cannot go there.
When will they go?
When they attain kṛṣṇa-prema — sneha, māna, praṇaya, rāga, anurāga, etc. after that they can go, otherwise not. Only serving cows, only distributing books but not going deeply into them, or only making life members—these activities will create some sukṛti but they are not considered pure devotional activities. But what Swāmījī is referring to here is pure devotion. We will have to come to this platform one day, and then we can attain kṛṣṇa-prema. Otherwise, never, never, even in lākhas and lākhas of births will we get kṛṣṇa-prema and if we do not seriously endeavour for pure devotion, then we are bound to make some offenses. Swāmījī is telling that throughout our whole day, twenty-four hours, we should chant and remember. But some are saying you should not follow this instruction.
Once i went to one of my maṭhas in India and was expressing all these ideas. Everyone became happy to hear this, but afterwards the maṭha commander called all the devotees and said, “Don’t follow what Nārāyaṇa Mahārāja is telling. You should serve the cows. You should go out here and there for bhikṣā (begging), and do all these other activities. Chant only sixteen rounds, not more. If you follow Nārāyaṇa Mahārāja, then you will be deviated. You cannot live, you cannot maintain your life by his instructions and thus everything will be upset.” All the boys came to tell me, “Our maṭha superintendent is saying this.”
“So one should follow....”
Devotee reads: One should follow in the footsteps of the Lord’s beloved devotees, who are deeply attached to his devotional service. Since the mind may be one’s enemy or one’s friend, one has to train the mind to become his friend.
ŚRĪLA BHAKTIVEDĀNTA NĀRĀYAṆA MAHĀRĀJA:
Mana eva manuṣyāṇāṁ
kāraṇaṁ bandha-mokṣayoḥ.
(Bhagavad-gītā 6.5)
Mind is the cause of bondage and liberation. He is our enemy and our friend, so you should try to train the mind first. If your mind is not on friendly terms, then he is your enemy and if you follow the mind when he is your enemy, you will go to hell. In the state of bondage, we cannot take shelter of, or take any advice from, the mind.
What should we do?
Follow Rūpa Gosvāmī, Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī, Gurudeva, and all the disciplic ācāryas. Do not follow what the mind is whispering. Keep a whip and control your mind with it. Ten times daily, take a broom and beat the back of your mind.
Ten times!
Then you may become pure. Otherwise, your mind will always be like a dog’s tail, always curved. If you take one hundred kilos of ghee and rub it on the dog’s tail to make it straight, when you let go it will again become curved. The mind is like this.
So, always weeping and weeping, by taking the shelter of a realised rasika tattva-jña vaiṣṇava, you may be able to bring the mind under control. Otherwise not. You will have to be very careful of the mind. If your mind has become your friend, then it is very easy to remember the pastimes of Kṛṣṇa. So Swāmījī and Rūpa Gosvāmī are telling us that first of all we will have to train our mind. Then all our bodily activities and senses will follow in line.
Go on.
Devotee reads: The Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is especially meant for training the mind to be always engaged in Kṛṣṇa’s business.
ŚRĪLA BHAKTIVEDĀNTA NĀRĀYAṆA MAHĀRĀJA: Jīva Gosvāmī established this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, the Viśva-vaiṣṇava-rāja-sabhā, and all our ācāryas are members of this assembly. Jīva Gosvāmī was the first president, and after him Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja was president. After that came Śyāmānanda prabhu, Narottama Ṭhākura and Śrīnivāsa Ācārya. And then the next famous president of this Viśva-vaiṣṇava-rāja-sabhā was Viśvanātha cakravartī Ṭhākura. This is the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. After some time Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa became another powerful president. After that came a very deep andhakāra yuga, a period of darkness, but that darkness ended when Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura became very prominent. As the Saptama Gosvāmī he became the president of the assembly and he preached everywhere. And after that came Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta sarasvatī, who preached all over the world just by his arms, like Swāmījī. In a very short time his one hand preached all over the whole world.
Swāmījī was one of the very greatest preachers of this Kṛṣṇa consciousness and president of that Viśva-vaiṣṇava-rāja-sabhā. He brought a new bottle but it was the same wine inside. The new bottle was the name of that branch of Kṛṣṇa consciousness—international society for Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Intelligent persons know it is the same wine but in a new bottle. Some of Swāmījī’s followers have now deviated and they don’t want to accept this theory, but i think that they are not very intelligent. The Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is eternal, you should know this. It is not anything new. Its followers are also eternal. Third-class bogus kaniṣṭha-adhikārīs are not members of this movement. They only appear to be doing some bhakti activity. The members of this society are all liberated souls, like Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura. So if you will be like Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, Śrīla Prabhupāda, Bhaktivedānta swāmī Mahārāja and our Gurudeva, then you will also be members. Otherwise, you will be like the simple chaukidāra, gatekeeper, like dogs sitting at the gate, doing some semblance of sādhana.
Does the chaukidāra have the independent power to reject anyone?
Never!
When we become pure, we will remember this Viśva-vaiṣṇava-rāja-sabhā, alias Kṛṣṇa consciousness, as it is!
Then?
Devotee reads: The mind contains hundreds and thousands of impressions, not only of this life but also of many, many lives of the past.
ŚRĪLA BHAKTIVEDĀNTA NĀRĀYAṆA MAHĀRĀJA: Can anyone explain how the mind has hundreds and thousands of impressions? Anyone?
Devotee: The mind contains the impressions of past lives which are carried within that subtle body.
ŚRĪLA BHAKTIVEDĀNTA NĀRĀYAṆA MAHĀRĀJA: How are there thousands and thousands of impressions?
How?
In a moment lākhas and lākhas of impressions are going on in the mind. You may be thinking so many different things, “I will beat that person. He is very wicked.” Or “I love that person.”
You will feel affection for some and have an opposite mood for others, sometimes even abusing them. All these thoughts create impressions in your mind and even for only a moment’s impression you will have to taste some reaction for lākhas and lākhas of births.
Do you understand this clearly or not?
In your own words you should explain.
Devotee: That all the impressions of previous experiences are stored in our mind like a tape recorder.
ŚRĪLA BHAKTIVEDĀNTA NĀRĀYAṆA MAHĀRĀJA: Also the present, whatever you are doing now.
If your age is fifty or sixty, can you estimate how many impressions you have stored in your mind?
Unlimited numbers! No one can calculate. And you will have to taste all these impressions for lākhas and lākhas and koṭis of births.
Unknowingly or knowingly, you killed an ant when you were passing on the road. Will it come as an impression or not?
You were going on a path and so many ants were there. Wearing very hard shoes you unknowingly placed your foot on so many ants. You caused about a hundred ants to die, and you never even noticed. Even if this act was done unknowingly, the impression from it will come. Innocently your son is putting his hand in fire. He does not know that it is fire and that it will burn.
But if he puts his hand in the fire, will it burn him or not?
Even if it is done unknowingly, it will still burn.
If you are keeping some kerosene oil in a tin, will there be some smell or not?
Keeping it knowingly or unknowingly, it will have some bad smell. So if you are doing anything knowingly or unknowingly, you will have to taste the reactions. It will come as an impression.
If a bull came and took you on his horns, injured you and caused some pain, and if you took a very big stick and gave him three, four daṇḍas (blows), will it make an impression or not?
Can you tell?
It will. The bull will have no impression because he is an animal, karma-yonī (animal species). They are all suffering. If the bull butts you like this, this is a reaction coming from your past births’ impressions. If you are silent, thinking, “He has done this because of my past activities,” then you will not incur any new impression. But if you are retaliating with a stick again, then new impressions are made and that bull will come to you as a man, and he will have to beat you. If you are taking the flesh of any cows, the cows will take birth as humans, and you will come as a cow for so many births, and the cows as humans will take your flesh again and again and again. In this way we are tasting impressions coming from lākhas and lākhas of past births and because of these we are also making so many new impressions. Try to avoid making any new bad impressions.
Rather, what impression should you make?
You should always chant and remember Kṛṣṇa. if anyone is disturbing you, no harm. Be like haridāsa Ṭhākura. He was powerful enough that he could have prevented the Muslims from beating him in twenty-two market places, whether he had prayed to Kṛṣṇa or not. He was Brahmā, and he could have easily resisted them. With a curse he could have destroyed those Muslims who were beating him. But he did not exercise his power. So in this way always chant and remember. Swāmījī is explaining that the time of death is especially crucial. If you chant and remember Kṛṣṇa in the last moments, you will be liberated from this world. Otherwise, if you have chanted your whole life, but at the time of death you are thinking of some prostitute or any other bad thing, then you will have to take a lower birth in a miserable condition. So be very careful.
Go on.
Devotee reads: These impressions sometimes come in contact with one another and produce contradictory pictures.
ŚRĪLA BHAKTIVEDĀNTA NĀRĀYAṆA MAHĀRĀJA: What is the meaning?
Devotee: Like a dream. In a dream you may have an impression of a mountain, and another impression may come of gold, so you dream of a gold mountain.
ŚRĪLA BHAKTIVEDĀNTA NĀRĀYAṆA MAHĀRĀJA: In this life?
Devotee: This life and previous lives.
ŚRĪLA BHAKTIVEDĀNTA NĀRĀYAṆA MAHĀRĀJA: How is it that in this life these impressions sometimes come in contact with one another and produce contradictory pictures?
Devotee: One may have performed impious activities and pious or spiritual activities, and by nature they are contradictory.
ŚRĪLA BHAKTIVEDĀNTA NĀRĀYAṆA MAHĀRĀJA: What is an example?
Devotee: I might plant some trees or give some charity, but then I might do something sinful, and perhaps I might come into good association and do something spiritual. So my mind is not fixed. I’m involved in so many contradictory activities.
ŚRĪLA BHAKTIVEDĀNTA NĀRĀYAṆA MAHĀRĀJA: You have performed so many good and bad activities in your life. If remembrances of both are coming simultaneously, you will be confused and be in doubt as to what you should or should not do. For example, a very beautiful lady, or for ladies a very handsome man caught your eye and you were attracted, but you already had a good, chaste wife. So you are thinking:
“What to do?”
Two feelings are coming from past activities, impressions, and now you are deciding what to do.
“Should I enter a relationship with this new lady and give up my old wife or not?
This new lady is so beautiful and my first wife is somewhat aged and not so good-looking, so what should i do?
It is not right to leave my wife but this new lady is very young, very beautiful, and very sweet.
What should I do?”
Thus you find yourself in a dilemma. It may be that four, five, six impressions will come at a time.
What to do?
That impression which is most prominent will defeat all the others. Your wife tells that you should not follow Kṛṣṇa consciousness and threatens, “If you do that, i will take poison and die.” So you have to decide whether you will follow the bhakti path, chanting, remembering and doing sevā or not and your wife is saying that you should take flesh and eggs and enjoy with her. “If you are not coming to me, and if you are going to be a pure devotee, at once I will take poison and I will give poison to all our children.”
“Oh, what to do?
His is a very big problem!
What should i do?”
This confusion of purpose is coming from your past activities which have created varieties of impressions. They may come one, two, three, four, five at a time, and then it is very hard to discern what is proper behaviour. However, any devotee can save you. So we should try to take the association of any good, realised soul. He will show you the proper path in an instant.
There is the story of Nārada who saw a hunter with his bow and poisoned arrows in a big forest. He shot one deer, which was now doing chaṭ-paṭ, chaṭ-paṭ (flapping around). He was only half-dead and rolling about in pain. When Nārada saw this, he thought, “Oh, the deer is half-dead and is suffering so much, and doing chaṭ-paṭ, chaṭ-paṭ.” A little while later he saw another deer, a rabbit, and some birds that were also flapping like that. At last he approached that hunter who came with bow and arrow in hand and challenged Nārada:
“Why have you come here like this and disturbed me?
All my prey are running here and there and you have frightened them off. I will kill you.”
Nārada replied:
“You cannot kill me. You have no power to do so. You have no power to even touch me. Look around you.” And Nārada took some drops of water from his pot and sprinkled them. The hunter at once saw lākhas and lākhas of these animals ready to kill him. He cried out, “They are killing me and again I am taking birth and again they are killing me. And they are in rows, lākhas and lākhas of them waiting to kill me.” He at once fainted and was rolling on the earth. Again Nārada took some water and sprinkled it. The hunter came back to his senses and fell flat at the lotus feet of Nārada Ṛṣi, “Save me! Save me! Save me!”
Nārada told him to break his arrows and bows.
“Then what will i do?
How will i maintain my life?”
“Oh, do not worry about this. All necessities will come to you in huge quantities, but you should take only a little. First you should distribute all your possessions.”
In a moment that hunter was changed, and he became a great saint. After some days parvata Ṛṣi and Nārada Ṛṣi returned there. Now this hunter had become so pious that he would watch the path so that no ant would be harmed when he offered praṇāma to Nārada Ṛṣi. He had become so pious!
Parvata Ṛṣi asked:
“Who is he?”
“Oh, he is my disciple. He was a very big hunter and so niṣṭhura, cruel-hearted. Now he has become so pious.”
“Oh, you are a touchstone. In a moment you can change anyone.”
So, if a person like Nārada Ṛṣi will touch us, our mind can be controlled, otherwise not. So go to vṛndāvana.
What is the śloka?
Devotee reads:
yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaraṇ bhāvaṁ
tyajaty ante kalevaram
taṁ taṁ evaiti kaunteya
sadā tad-bhāva-bhāvitaḥ
(Bhagavad-gītā. 8.6)
“Whatever state of being one remembers when he quits his body, that state he will attain without fail.”
At the time of death, the mind and intelligence of a living entity create the subtle form of a certain type of body for the next life. If the mind suddenly thinks of something not very congenial, one has to take a corresponding birth in the next life. On the other hand, if one can think of Kṛṣṇa at the time of death, he can be transferred to the spiritual world, Goloka vṛndāvana.
ŚRĪLA BHAKTIVEDĀNTA NĀRĀYAṆA MAHĀRĀJA: Any example for both?
Devotee: Bharata Mahārāja by thinking of a deer, he became a deer.
ŚRĪLA BHAKTIVEDĀNTA NĀRĀYAṆA MAHĀRĀJA: Yes. He was thinking of a deer. So, if you think of Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa’s associates, certainly you will be like that.
Is there any example?
Yes, Ajāmila became like this, and so many others. Śrutis have done like that. Śruti means Veda, and it is not just a book, not only a piece of paper. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is not a piece of paper; Gītā is not a piece of paper. Without these literatures we cannot see, because we are blind, mortal. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Gītā and all Vedas are immortal, like Kṛṣṇa. But at present we cannot see this. His teachings are immortal. We cannot realise all these things now. Only by cultivating all our activities to please Kṛṣṇa can we begin to understand. This realisation will come in the stage of bhāva. Then we can realise a little. So we should try to develop our Kṛṣṇa consciousness and perform our sādhana to develop bhāva. The Vedas and Śruti mantras became gopīs. The Daṇḍakaraṇya ṛṣis became gopīs because they were praying for this at the time of death. From the very beginning they were meditating in this way. In their last moments they thought like this and thus received birth as gopīs.
There are so many lākhas and lākhas of examples of this. So if you are always thinking of and remembering the gopīs, or thinking of Śrīdāmā and subala, you will take birth as gopas. Don’t think of Kṛṣṇa alone. Then you will be annihilated in brahma, and it will go against you. So we should remember Kṛṣṇa with his associates, with special emphasis on Śrīmatī Rādhikā. This is bhakti. Try to realise this fact.
We should chant and remember whom?
We should remember those who are serving Kṛṣṇa. If you want to love Kṛṣṇa like his mother and father, you will have to follow Nanda Bābā and Yaśodā and treat Kṛṣṇa like your son. If you are doing so at the time of death, then you will be the servant of Nanda and Yaśodā, and you will serve Kṛṣṇa like a mother and father.
If you want to serve like the gopīs, then you will have to think in that way. You will have to follow their example and learn how to serve them. You will have to be expert in all these things in this life and gradually develop your thinking of how the gopīs are serving Kṛṣṇa. At the time of death, if you are remembering these things, then you will become a servant of the gopīs. This is the hidden secret.
Swāmījī has not told all these things explicitly, but he has given it in code form. This is like a sūtra.
Go on.
Devotee reads: This process of transmigration is very subtle; therefore Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī advises devotees to train their minds in order that they will be unable to remember anything other than Kṛṣṇa.
ŚRĪLA BHAKTIVEDĀNTA NĀRĀYAṆA MAHĀRĀJA: You should note all these things in your heart if you want to advance. If you are advancing only in worldly desires and meditating on those things, then you cannot progress in bhakti. You are not following Swāmījī. You will have to develop according to the prescribed process, gradually adopting all these teachings and coming in line. “This process of transmigration is very subtle.” Here subtle means sūkṣma. You will have to take to this process. Don’t always focus on externals, adopting all these things only artificially, outwardly. Instead you should go in deeply. Otherwise you cannot understand the teachings of Rūpa Gosvāmī.
Go on.
Devotee reads: This process of transmigration is very subtle; therefore Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī advises devotees to train their minds in order that they will be unable to remember anything other than Kṛṣṇa.
ŚRĪLA BHAKTIVEDĀNTA NĀRĀYAṆA MAHĀRĀJA: Is he saying that half of your thoughts should be on Kṛṣṇa and the other half can be in māyā?
What is he saying?
If anyone, even a sannyāsī, is not fully devoting his mind to Kṛṣṇa, and is meditating more on worldly affairs, he can fall down—he is bound to fall down. But if someone is a gṛhastha yet is gradually developing his mind towards Kṛṣṇa, he will go up to Goloka vṛndāvana.
Devotee reads: Similarly, the tongue should be trained to speak only of Kṛṣṇa and to taste only kṛṣṇa-prasāda.
ŚRĪLA BHAKTIVEDĀNTA NĀRĀYAṆA MAHĀRĀJA: Is he telling that even in the upper stages you should still be doing all these external activities, āropa-siddha-bhakti, like making a garden or a restaurant or an incense factory?
These instructions were given for the initial stages, only so that the very neophyte devotees could build up some sukṛti, some impressions, but for the advanced stage what is he instructing?
Swāmījī is saying what I am saying, and I am saying what he is saying—we are saying the same thing! There is no difference at all. How some of his disciples are seeing differences I don’t know! We are both giving the same thing, in the same bottle, not even in another new bottle.
I have not brought any new bottle. What I am telling is the same bottle, same wine, the same thing as our whole disciplic line of ācāryas has given.
Devotee reads: Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī further advises, tiṣṭhan vraje: one should live in vṛndāvana or any part of vraja-bhūmi.
ŚRĪLA BHAKTIVEDĀNTA NĀRĀYAṆA MAHĀRĀJA: Why is he saying this and for whom?
For devotees or non-devotees?
Devotees: Devotees.
ŚRĪLA BHAKTIVEDĀNTA NĀRĀYAṆA MAHĀRĀJA: So why are they saying that Nārāyaṇa Mahārāja is stating something different?
I am saying the same thing, but this instruction is not for everyone. Those who are qualified should be in vraja. Those who are giving up all their worldly attachments will gradually come to be in vṛndāvana, forever in vṛndāvana.
Is Swāmījī not declaring this same thing?
Devotee reads: Vrajabhūmi, or the land of vṛndāvana, is supposed to be eighty-four krośas in area. One krośa equals two square miles. When one makes vṛndāvana his residence, he should take shelter of an advanced devotee there.
ŚRĪLA BHAKTIVEDĀNTA NĀRĀYAṆA MAHĀRĀJA: Who will be there? Is any advanced devotee there?
Always it was Swāmījī’s desire that his disciples should hear from the advanced Vaiṣṇavas. It was not his intention that his disciples should set themselves up like kings in a very beautiful rāja palace with all facilities. They should not move in that direction. No, they should give up all desires and develop the mentality only to serve, not to be served.
Only to serve!
To serve whom?
The pure devotees there. They should not seek worldly things in vṛndāvana and should not quarrel. We are only to follow these instructions. It is very harmful to live in vṛndāvana and maintain attachments. If you are doing some sinful activity, it is like a thunderbolt. So don’t do all these things. You should practice all these things here, and then reside in Vṛndāvana.
Go on.
Devotee reads: In this way one should always think of Kṛṣṇa and his pastimes.
ŚRĪLA BHAKTIVEDĀNTA NĀRĀYAṆA MAHĀRĀJA: If a man has so many problems, he will wonder:
“Oh, what to do?
My wife has left me for someone else.
What will happen to my children?
How will I earn my living?
What to do?”
Living in vṛndāvana but always worrying about these things, quarreling with others and being involved in so much diplomacy and politics, then how is he in vṛndāvana?
He is not in vṛndāvana, but rather he is simply engaged in sinful activities.
“This is....”
Devotee reads: This is further elucidated by Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī in his Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu.
ŚRĪLA BHAKTIVEDĀNTA NĀRĀYAṆA MAHĀRĀJA: I will explain it tomorrow. It is a very, very good thing. I wanted to finish this śloka. I will try to finish it tomorrow.
Gaura premānande!
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