Guidance, Volume 3

Home-interest vs Math-interest

Om Vishnupad Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur wrote in his book Tattva-Viveka, "Selflessness is like a flower in the sky, it is a meaningless word. It is required inasmuch as through it one attains one's own happiness without going to great pains. When selfish people hear the word 'selfless' they will believe me and I easily get what I want. Mother's love, brotherhood, friendship, love between a man and a woman—are these selfless? Unless there is pleasure in it, nobody will get involved into these relationships. Some people even sacrifice their own lives for the sake of their own pleasure. All religions are based on selfishness. Love for God is also selfish. Being selfish is a natural trait because even the very word 'natural' (svabhav) implies 'my nature' ('sva'-bhav). Selfishness is natural, and selflessness is quite unnatural."

Pursuing this idea, we can understand that if being selfish is our intrinsic quality, then we will either seek various objects of enjoyment—wife, sons, wealth, house, etc.—for some fleeting selfish interest; or we will always try to utilise everything in the interest of or pertaining to the supreme and eternal reality, such as the transcendental Supreme Personality of Godhead and His devoted followers.

If one does not get good association of saintly persons who are exclusively surrendered to Krishna and are knowledgeable in Krishna consciousness, or does not get initiation from such saintly persons taking the vow of pursuing Krishna's interest, then it means that such a person is very concerned about his own selfish interest (body, house, etc.). We can see that devotees, who are connected with the highest fortune, try, in a genuine and unobstructed way, to fulfil various interests of the Lord's house or Math—that is to say, the places where the Lord lives, where service of the Lord is practised (where devotees of the Lord always serve Hari, Guru and Vaishnavs and give others various opportunities to engage in service), where there is a monastery of devotees engaged in the kirtan of the Supreme Lord.

If we make a show of taking initiation at the lotus feet of a bona fide guru but our primary concern is with the interests of our own house, and the interest of the Math is secondary, or we are concerned with impressing others, then it means we have not stepped on the path of spiritual benefit yet. Some may think that sannyasis, brahmacharis and vanaprasthas look after the Math, and we are grihasthas, so our duty is to look after our house and from time to time it is sufficient for us to do some minor service(?) for the temple, or pretend to do service for the sake of some material desire or prestige—if we try to do something more than that, sincerely, with heart and soul, then it will be bad for us and the family we live with. This idea is deep-rooted within our hearts. Those who merely make a show of coming to the lotus feet of Sri Guru in fact have not come close to the lotus feet of Sri Guru rather, on the contrary, they are thrown far off from the path of following the Guru's line.

If we become householders, sannyasis, brahmacharis, but our dhyan (thinking), dharana (engaging the mind), dhruvanu-smrti (constant remembrance) and everything we have are not dedicated to the interest of the Math, then we will never be able to leave material life (mayara samsar), and we will never get love for the lotus feet of Krishna. As much as one is genuinely concerned with the interest of the Math, that much love for the Lord, Guru and Vaishnavs one has. If one is not concerned about the Math but has devotion to the Guru or devotion to Krishna, then it is nothing but deceiving oneself and others.

We may call ourselves a 'sannyasi', 'brahmachari', 'vanaprastha' or even a 'Math-resident' or we may try make a huge pompous display of performing various temple activities, but internally we may be putting the interest of our body, house, etc. above the interests of the Math, or we may pretend to have Math's interest at heart to impress people but internally be full of wrong interests. Therefore, if there is such hypocrisy within me, the path to spiritual benefit will always be shut for me.

Caring for the Math implies that I become free, or try to internally become free, from any other material desires and surrendering myself completely, striving to follow the path of love for the Lord, Guru and Vaishnavs. If I get a break from my material job and quickly come to the temple—if I think, "I have increased the number of the disciples of the Math by one, that is sufficient," or, "I live in my own house and follow Krishna consciousness properly, so the Math's purpose is fulfilled. Moreover, I make a monthly donation to the Math, or do some works for the Math. The Math's interest is taken care of in this way," etc.—such behaviour and ideas are not what the real concern for the Math's interest means. Materialist householders recklessly give their life away and becomes slaves of their material life—driven by attachment and love for material life, they always search how to fulfil various interests of their homes. If one, however, has more attachment and natural love for pursuing the interests of the Math, then it is real service. If one does not become enthusiastic (atha) about the Math (matha), if natural affection for the Math does not arise, and as a consequence one does not give one's entire life and internal being, then their external show of doing some service for the Math is the same as trying to cheat the guru and Vaishnavs or trying to cheat a blacksmith by giving him steel—it is just self-deception.

We call those who are sincerely and exclusively dedicated to the interest of the temple 'liberated', and those who are dedicated to the interest of their house 'conditioned'. Unless it has a lot of good fortune, a jiva soul cannot dedicate its life for the interest of the Math. When a servant of a temple or a kirtan hall comes to some bogus Vaishnavs who want to earn the name of 'a servant of the Lord' by cheating and tricking the Lord, and asks them to contribute for the service of the Math, they always say, "Why must I donate anything to you when we too have Gauranga's or Narayan's service established at home!" Even if they sometimes give something to the servants of the Math and bid them farewell, this donation(?) of theirs does not enter any of the four boundaries of the Math—they give something to the servitors of the Math just because they feel shy to refuse or try to avoid a squabble and bid them farewell, and after that they can again become engrossed in the household chores and breathe freely. Residents of hell are attracted to the interest of their houses and the residents of Vaikuntha have a sincere and natural taste for the interest of the Math.

We pretend to be grihasthas worshipping deities at home, but if, in the name of worshipping a deity, we downplay the service of fulfilling the desire of Math's Sri Gurupadpama, then in the name of worshipping the Deity we actually serve our own house or pursue the interest of our own house—this is very far from the interest of the Math, i.e. the interest of the service to Guru and Vaishnavs—this leaves us in the bondage of the house, unable to become liberated travellers of the path of Vaikuntha. Home worship is no doubt necessary, but if we increase the pomp of home worship with a hidden desire to enjoy the householder's life or become deeper involved in the interests of the house, then the path of liberation from unwanted habits and concern for the Math's interest (which embodies the path of attaining that liberation) become lax. You should not leave home worship, neither should the children of the family forget the proper etiquette if they lose interest in home worship, but what all members must actually practise in everything they do is that the purpose of their home worship, as well as whatever other activities, should be directed to support the Math's interest. If downplaying deity worship, spiritual practice, chanting the Holy Name and any other immediate activity performed for the interest of the home does not encourage us to dedicate ourselves more to the interest of the Math, then the external show of such worship, practice, chanting the Holy Name, etc. definitely becomes an offence.

Whether we are grihasthas, sannyasis or brahmacharis, sincerely seeing the place where the glories of the holy lotus feet of Sri Guru are sung, the place of Hari, Guru, Vaishnavs where Vaishnavs live in the shelter of the lotus feet of Sri Guru, Sri Math as our own is a bridge to our spiritual benefit. If we do not have the natural feeling that the Math is my home, nobody can be forcefully taught to love it because love comes naturally and interest or concern for something also comes naturally. Interest in something does not come through persuasion, it appears and manifests on its own account.

Many do not know about the service of late Sripad Santos Krishna Prabhu, and he himself also during his life often said that he had not been able to become even an insignificant servant of the Math; but seeing how strong his attachment to the interest of the Math was in the many small services he did, it puts us to shame now. He never once even saw the accounts of his material property; neither did he ever try to increase his wealth even by one cent; but it is inconceivable how much this person tried, with heart and soul, to collect and beg for the Math. Nobody ordered him, nobody encouraged him—he took care of the Math's various paraphernalia like an expert householder of his own accord, he would always be seen very busy with all kinds of works of the Math; at the same time, he never once gave anyone even a slightest hint of the service and works he was doing. Some of us help the Math's preaching with some money, etc., give physical labour, but if I do not see any mention about me in a newspaper column, at the preachers' assembly at a holy dham, or in an eulogy written by Sri Guru and Vaishnavs, then I decide, "There is no use serving the Math. They are prejudiced. They do not praise me, do not give me 'jay', so I better rough it at home than waste time, money and life for the interest of the Math." However, the aforementioned great soul gave so much money for the service of 'Jayasri', continuously toiling as a low menial worker—it is impossible to mention everything. But he never once said anything that would give a slightest hint that he wanted to see his praise in a newspaper column or even more so to see his name included in the Math's Calendar; but we have seen that his effort to look after the interests of the Math was gradually making him great.

At the Math, we often face heavy duties, difficult tasks or hear different kinds of reproach and rumours coming from various people and decide that it would be wiser to break all connection with the Math; but if we have the Math's best interest at heart (if we sincerely care for the Math), then we will feel pain to even imagine that we could, dead or alive, leave the Math's service and come to any other place or position. If I think that I have another place besides the Math—I have a home, I have some shelter, I have a second place to run to—even a faint presence of such mentality leads to non-devotion. Such bad thoughts never arise in the hearts of those for whom the Math is all-in-all.

Common outside people (those who have not entered the domain of devotion) can think that, according to the moral standards, caring for the Math and not caring for one's own house is wrong; or perhaps such non-devotees can say, "If we give up pursuing independent thinking, self-reliance, altruism and for the sake of increasing or deceasing the bile of Vaishnavs, become attached to social places like a temple, what good result will that bring?" If people do not understand what is service to the Lord, if they enjoy like village dogs and reject things and their only achievement is to get whacked by Maya Devi, then there is no way such people's mentality and conceptions can be appreciated, even if such people take initiation from a bona fide Guru and behave like devotees. If we realise that the 'real truth' lies in service to the holy feet of Sri Guru, which are a holy place of pilgrimage, and in the service to the Guru's Math, a fortress for good association and the place where his kirtan (glorification) is going on, then we must take an eternal vow not to spare our entire life for his purpose. Service to the guru (guru-seva) is for everyone—grihasthas, vanaprasthas, brahmacharis and sannyasis.

We can easily understand that those who do not care for the Math did not have or do not have connection with the Math—neither do they have connection with Sri Gurupadpadma. What is the guru like? What is his conception? What does he practise and preach? What is his heartfelt desire? What example does he show? Those who do not care about the Math cannot understand anything about these things. Such people are like non-devotees and thieves—from time to time they drop into the temple on the way or sometimes come to the temple because they need something for the house; from time to time they come to the temple just to quickly put in an appearance—not understanding the actions of the guru and Vaishnavs who live for the interest of the temple, they become offenders and quickly lose the little previous sukriti they have. Because the temple people (who have the Math's interest at heart) may often not pretend to be welcoming and affectionate to such materialist householders (who have their houses' interest at heart), the materialist householders became upset and lose faith. In short, unless we become intent on the Math's interests, we will never be able to please Sri Gurupadpadma; unless we please Sri Gurupadpadma, we can never get spiritual benefit.

The less you care for the Math, the more wildly Maya Devi will create a chaos in the holes of your unwanted habits. Sometimes she will, perhaps, make your heart weak and force you to behave bad or become materially attached under the influence of bad association; sometimes, she may, perhaps, use even more deceit and teach you bad things just to throw dust in the guru and Vaishnavs' eyes; sometimes she may, perhaps, entice you with the opportunism of self-governed devotion and a mix of religions and gradually turn you into either a hell-dwelling materialist householder or an atheist.

If someone pretends to take initiation, pretends to renounce something or to do service more for the sake of their own independent interest rather than the interest of the Math, they quickly fall down, and for the sake of their own worship and pratistha, they begin their mad dance of offences on their own.

If I get some opportunity at the Math, it will bring benefit for my body, house, etc.—people who think like this are materialist householders who put interests of their homes above all else. Such people have other desires—they do not hanker for the service to Vaishnavs. The practitioners should be careful and make sure that such mood does not enter their hearts—their duty is to submit themselves to the lotus feet of Sri Guru and Vaishnavs at every moment, sincerely and with a great desire, and to hanker for their spiritual benefit. Our true spiritual life lies in caring for the Math, in realising that the Math is our all-in-all. Those who think that their house is their all-in-all and dedicate themselves to the interests of their home are venturing towards death.

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CONTENTS:

• Foreword
• (Preface) Meaning of Festival
• What Is Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math and Its Distinctions
• "Without Lord Krishna Life Is Meaningless"
• The Unrenounceable
• Sri Radhastami
• Proper Renunciation
• Astakala-Lila
• Is Religion the Cause of National Downfall?
• Householders and Renunciates
• Provincialism and Service to the Lord
• Offenders
• Hell
• Devotional Mood (Bhakta-Bhav)
• Home-interest vs Math-interest
• Samsara and Bhakti
• Questions and Answers