Karma-Bandhan

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Nabadwip Dham
25 November 2010

kintu yadi latara sange uthe 'upasakha'
bhukti-mukti-vancha, yata asankhya tara lekha

"There will, however, appear some unwanted branches on your tree. They are desires for material enjoyment, desire for liberation, and so on (they are too numerous to write all here).

'nisiddhachara', 'kutinati', 'jiva-himsana'
'labha', 'puja', 'pratisthadi' yata upasakha-gana

"Among those unwanted branches are improper practices, deceit, violence towards other souls, desire for gain, worship, prestige, and so on."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 19.158-159)

Nisiddhachara (improper practices) means what is not favourable to devotion, what is an obstacle to devotion. You must avoid it, you must finish such practices. Greed, desire to get something, desire to get some puja ("Oh, somebody will worship me!"), to get name and fame—these are called upasakha (sakha is a branch, and upasakha means a subbranch). There are some fruit trees—you can cut a branch of such a tree, put some medicine on the cut and the branch will grow again.

seka-jala pana upasakha badi' yaya
stabdha hana mula-sakha badite na paya

"If you water and nourish these branches, they will grow stronger, and, interfering with the main branches of your tree, will not let them grow."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 19.160)

"Sek-jal" means if you apply some medicine on the cut, it will grow again, or you can attach a branch of another plant there and it will grow from the tree's branch.

I have told this recently to a devotee. He is seventy-seven years old, and his family called him and asked, "Oh, your granddaughter is getting married, please give some money for the ceremony." His granddaughter is getting married! Granddaughter means his daughter is already married into another family, she got married maybe twenty-five-thirty years ago, and now a daughter of his daughter is getting married, and she is asking her father for money for the wedding festival. Do you see what the illusory environment is, what karma-bandhan is? If he goes again to that place, then again the bondage will come. If you leave everything and avoid contact, then they will not disturb you, but his daughter got married perhaps thirty years ago, and now when her daughter is getting married they are asking him for money—do you see how many years he has to suffer so much? How will he get the money? He is an old man, retired, he does not have any job, only his son gives him some money and he maintains himself with that. When he came to me and said, "Maharaj, I have to go there, my granddaughter is getting married..." I told him, "This karma-bandhan will be with you until your death..." What is the result of karma-bandhan? Narak-yantrana, suffering in hell.

I have also told everyone many times,

ভুক্তি-মুক্তি আদি-বাঞ্ছা যদি মনে হয় ।
সাধন করিলেও প্রেম উৎপন্ন না হয় ॥

bhukti-mukti adi-vancha yadi mane haya
sadhana karile prema utpanna na haya

"If you have material desires, if you want liberation, enjoyment, some mystic powers, and so on, then even if you practise all life, or life after life, prem, divine love, will not come."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 19.175)

I always say this. You are doing some practice, but

bhukti-mukti-sprha yavat pisachi hrdi vartate
tavad bhakti-sukhasyatra katham abhyudayo bhavet

"The ecstasy of devotion to Krishna will never appear in a heart that is haunted by the ghosts of exploitation and renunciation."

(Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu, 1.2.22)

If these two witches, bhukti-sprha (desire of enjoyment) and mukti-sprha (desire of liberation), are there, you will not get proper result...

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