Guidance, Volume 3

Samsara and Bhakti

Many advise us to live our material life with detachment. Some also think that their material life is a place for following the order of the Lord—they console their minds appealing to God and encourage to enjoy life in all kinds of circumstances—despite the misery and suffering of the past life. We are always encouraged by the common people to become more and more engrossed in the material life. Mayavadis preach that since all things of the material world are temporary, the family of Krishna is also temporary. Those who fall into the whirlpool of both kinds of thinking can never get out of the material life, neither can they attain devotion. Some become so pained by the suffering and misery of the material world that they resort to austerities showing temporary material renunciation or 'crematorium' renunciation [fickle renunciation in the face of death]. Great sages like Saubhari Rishi renounced their material life, but later again became attached to material enjoyment. Without attachment to Krishna (without establishing eternal relationship with Krishna), pretence of detachment is just another kind of material life or atheism. Atheists who do not believe in God's existence or followers of the so-called theistic philosophy of doing your duty are miserable jiva souls fallen into the whirlpool of material life.

Attachment to family is a natural religion for the soul: every jiva soul is naturally inclined towards family life. It is impossible to eradicate this natural propensity, or religion, but if one turns back from the perverted or wrong path that one falls prey to following their natural propensity, it brings one natural and genuine eternal peace and spiritual benefit. According to the propensity of our pure consciousness, we are members of Krishna's family and must be attached to the family of Krishna, but at present this propensity is perverted and applied to temporary objects, which results in our conditioned state. Liberated souls are attached to the family of Krishna, and this attachment to the family of Krishna is what real liberation is.

iha yasya harer dasye karmna manasa gira
nikhilasv apy avasthasu jivan-muktah sa uchyate

"A person acting in Krishna consciousness with his body, mind, intelligence and words is a liberated person even within the material world, although he may be engaged in many so-called material activities."

(Sri Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu, 1.2.187)

Transcendental eternal elder gopis of Krishna are attached to Krishna's family. Such great yogis as Siva, Brahma, even Uddhav Maharaj aspire to become servants of a servant in their families. What did these gopis say at Syamanta-panchaka?

ahus cha te nalina-nabha padaravindam
yogesvarair hrdi vichintyam agadha-bodhaih
samsara-kupa-patitottaranavalambam
geham jusam api manasy udiyat sada nah

"O lotus-navelled one, Your lotus feet, eternally held as the object of meditation within the hearts of the greatest yogis of profound intellect, are the only resort for delivering those souls fallen into the well of material life. May those holy lotus feet graciously appear within the hearts of us, the ordinary household ladies."

(Srimad Bhagavatam, 10.82.48)

Gopis do not practise artificial meditation like great yogis. As Krishna is not someone unknown or distant for them, they say to Him:

chitta kadhi' toma haite, visaye chahi lagaite,
yatna kari, nari kadhibare

"I would like to withdraw My consciousness from You and engage it in material activities, but even though I try, I cannot do so. I am naturally inclined to You only."

Gopis have no consciousness of their body, they forget it—how will they stay in family life then? Body is the main thing in a family life. They have given their very life to make Krishna happy. Therefore, when they met Krishna many days later at Syamanta-panchaka, they said:

deha-smrti nahi ya'ra, samsara-kupa kanha ta'ra,
taha haite na chahe uddhara
viraha-samudra-jale, kama-timingile gile,
gopi-gane neha' tara para

"Gopis have no consciousness of their bodies, they do not care to be delivered from the well of material family life, but they have fallen into the ocean of separation, swallowed by the gigantic whale of transcendental lust. Please rescue them from there."

Deep desire and steadfastness in service to Krishna's family is called devotion (bhakti), and apathy to it, indifference or renunciation is non-devotion (abhakti), or Maya's family (illusory material life). Usually people have a perverted understanding of the word 'bhakti'. When asked to define devotion (bhakti), some old big scholar pandit will say that devotion is a feeling similar to lust or anger. Just as we feel temporary emotional outburst in the form of lust, anger, etc. within out hearts, in the same way devotion also comes as an emotion or emotional propensity—those who have fallen into the world of non-devotion have this kind of conception. Common people say that devotion is an emotional propensity that implies some formal ritualistic activities or mental ideas, but Bhakti Devi (Goddess of Devotion) is pure and constant (without deviation). The highest devotion does not accept anything except for the holy lotus feet of Sri Krishna, the emporium of all rasas.

Srila Rupa Goswami Prabhu defined the root of bhakti in his Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu (1.1.12) as:

sarvopadhi-vinirmuktam tat-patvena nirmalam
hrsikena hrsikesa-sevanam bhaktir uchyate

"Pure devotion is service to the Supreme Lord which is free from all relative conceptions of self-interest."

When one is completely free from all material designations, purified by exclusive care for Krishna's interest and utilises all senses for the satisfaction of Krishna, that is called devotion. Many become proud considering themselves 'servants of Krishna', but if someone refuses to give up this ego, it means they are obsessed with a material designation—in fact, such knowledge is a sign of belonging to Maya's family and being a non-devotee. Those who pretend to be pure but do not have attachment to the interest of Krishna, have no value. A servant of Krishna is pure intrinsically.

Sri Rupa Goswami Prabhu told about the symptoms of the highest devotion:

anyabhilasita-sunyam jnana-karmady anavrtam
anukulyena krsnanusilanam bhaktir uttamu

"The highest devotion is that which satisfies Lord Krishna, free from the coverings of any pursuits such as action, knowledge."

The highest devotion is the practice of Krishna consciousness utilising everything that is favourable to it and without any material desires except the desire to satisfy Krishna, being indifferent to knowledge, giving up expertise in scriptures, performance of material duties, as well as all practices including renunciation, yoga, and sankhya.

If one is partial to mixing fruitive work, knowledge, yoga, etc. with devotion or manipulating devotion, such a show of liberalism is nothing but advocation of weakness that comes from unwanted habits (anarthas). The truth is that devotion is unbiased, powerful, causeless, unchecked and eternal. It is a spontaneous property of the eternal, liberated, pure soul and the highest religion of the living entity.

sa vai pumsam paro dharmo yato bhaktir-adhoksaje
ahaituky apratihata yayatma suprasidati

"The supreme religion for all living beings is that by which they can attain loving devotional service to the transcendent Lord. Such devotional service must be unmotivated and uninterrupted in order to feel complete satisfaction."

(Srimad Bhagavatam, 1.2.6)

Suppose you prefer to mix a drop of limewater (calcium hydroxide) or some adulterant with milk—even if you see such milk adulteration as liberalism, you will not get the result of drinking genuine milk by that.

The poet Jayadev Goswami wrote in his Gita-Govinda:

kamsarir api samsara-vasana-baddha-srnkhalam
radham adhaya hrdaye tatyaja vraja-sundarih

"Lord Krishna, the enemy of Kamsa, left aside the other gopis during the rasa dance and took Srimati Radharani to His heart, for She is the helper of the Lord in realising the essence of His desires."

Kamadev (Cupid) enacts the rasa-lila of Sri Krishna for the pleasure (sambhoga) and satisfaction of Krishna, and the chief shelter of rasa is Sri Radha. 'Sam' means complete and essential, but the binding link in the Lord's desire to enjoy the rasa-lila is Sri Radhika. When Sri Krishna obtains Her in His heart, He leaves all the other beautiful Vraja gopis for Her.

Srimati Vrisabhanu Nandini, the worshippable embodiment of service to Krishna, is completely, head to toe, absorbed in the service of Krishna; She is Krishna-mayi—inside and outside, Her entire being is in the desire to satisfy Krishna; that is why Her Name is Radha ('worship'). Srila Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami says (Sri Chaitanya-charitamrta, 1.4.87):

krsna-vanchha-purti-rupa kare aradhane
ataeva radhika nama purane vakhane

"Her worship [aradhana] consists of fulfilling the desires of Lord Krishna. Therefore the Puranas call Her Radhika."

When one takes an exclusive vow to fulfil Krishna's desire and enters Krishna's family becoming a follower of Her followers, this is called rupanuga devotion.

In material family life, 'sam' means pretence, there is no reality in it. Such material life brings bitter experience, and many often compare it to an 'apple of Sodom' [a fruit described by ancient writers as externally of fair appearance but dissolving into smoke and ashes when plucked]. There are many folk poems written about the bitter experience of such a life.

Life in Krishna's family is inundated with complete and substantial effort to satisfy Krishna, this is the highest reality. It is only by the mercy of the lotus feet of Sri Guru, an exalted rupanuga follower, that a supremely fortunate soul may enter the seva-kunja family of Sri Radha-Govinda.

Materialists besotted with material desires who do not aspire to enter Krishna's service-family become either atheist or theist moralists—to enjoy their material family life, they become stuck in the stinginess of their minds. Some say, "Religion is fostering high moral and fulfilling one's duties; this is the service to the Lord. Therefore when one wants to live happily in family life (or, in other words, enjoy with the family life), then if they do not follow the socially accepted moral standards, there will be a clash that will prevent family happiness and joy. So, people do their duties and follow moral standards pursuing material happiness, but as they keep on struggling with so many hundreds and hundreds of obstacles that come naturally in the course of such an atheistic material life, their life simply finishes.

There is another class of theistic people who say that this material life is given to them by God. Wife, sons, extended and immediate family, country, society—everything is God's creation. If one does not serve them—does not protect them—then it would mean disobeying the order and desire of the Lord. Those who are under control of their household religion say, "If you attain the cessation of existence or become indifferent to material family life, you will be preventing the maintenance of the world, which is a cherished desire of God." So, when people, swearing by God, enjoy material life in the name of following householders' religion (samsara-dharma) and swear that they follow Brahma and Daksa's duties of preserving the world created by the Lord or continuing the flow of material life, then they only become soiled by the association with women, etc. Fallen into the whirlpool of material life and facing various miseries and fears, to avoid these miseries, people resort to various moral standards and schemes to describe the phantom sky-flower of material happiness. Some swear to be like King Janaka, some smear oil on their hands to clean a jackfruit [so that no dirt sticks or is visible afterwards]. However if one breaks into the interior living quarters of such a lifestyle, they will see that the hunger for enjoyment and family life has turned into a queen, kept beautifully at the house. Such people's highest goal and attachment is in the enjoyment of material life and maintaining their material life intact every day—this is the mantra of the materialist householders' mentality. That is why they say, "How can one practise devotion living with family?"—but these false words are merely self-deception and deception of others, and you can often hear people give many kinds of advice on following material religion, such as to be a 'home brahmachari', 'a family practitioner', etc. If you suffer from such insincerity and greed for material enjoyment, you can never get spiritual benefit. Such duplicitous people can never become detached. If a person has no attachment to the family of Krishna but pretends to be like King Janaka or 'smears oil on their hand to clean a jackfruit,' they only externally preach detachment, but internally they are just a jiva soul that is extremely deceitful, attacked material desires and afflicted by a turbulent hunger for material enjoyment.

Besides these two types of material enjoyers (theistic and atheistic), there are also several types of souls who pretend to give up material life. Some become irritated by the bitter experience of material life and decide to follow the principle of 'since the bed is broken, I will lie on the ground' and leave the lawful family life; but such renunciation is actually only anger produced by an unfulfilled desire to enjoy material life, i.e. it is another type of attachment to material life. Such people, even if they go to live in a forest, only let their desire sprawl into a 'Gita-samsar', or an unlawful family life. They become vantasi, or vomit-eaters [they renounce, or vomit, something and then again eat it]—some again enter material life. We can see the example of Ray Gunokar: he pretended to become a mendicant Vaishnav but then, due to his immaturity, started making a show of giving lectures on Ujvala-nilamani and again returned to viddha-sakta-dharma (i.e. again felt taste and hunger for material life and enjoyment). After that, transcendental Kamadev (Cupid) displays a perverted reflection of transcendental love and the pastimes of the Lord that destroy the heart disease, and the soul becomes intoxicated by material enjoyment. If one imitates the transcendental pastimes of Rai and Kana, described by Chandi Das and Vidyapati, in one's material family life like prakrta-sahajiyas do, then it is an offence at the feet of that lila, and, as a result, they fall into the pain of unlawful enjoyment of material life. Viddha-sakta, or non-devotees' sakta-dharma [worship of Durga Devi for material gain] is created by the illusory potency of the Lord to inspire and excite people to follow this mode of material life; and when people, engrossed into body consciousness, fall into the well of material life and commit the offence of desiring to enjoy the pastimes enacted by transcendental Kamadev, there arises the lifestyle of prakrta-sahajiyas.

Many praise and speak about the devotion of housewives and, accepting them as gurus of devotion, call them Krishna's housewives, promoting themselves in this way. This gratifies the clan of enjoyers, this gratifies one's own desire, but this does not gratify devotion, devotees and the Lord.

If one does not spend their life constantly conversing about the Lord, taking shelter at the lotus feet of materially detached great souls, does not practise devotion to the Lord, one can never be successful in crossing the material world, no matter how great one may be.

One more important thing is that refraining from material life is not the highest goal. After refraining from material life, the soul must embrace the life in the family of Lord Krishna. Various religions tell about the necessity to refrain from material life, but the religion of Srimad Bhavatam and Sri Gaurasundar explain in many amazing ways that after leaving material life one must enter the life in the family of Krishna. Srivas Pandit, citizens of Kulingram headed by Ramananda Vasu, Raghunanda and his group, citizens of Srikhand, Sivananda Sen and his group, Sri Damayanti Devi or the Vaishnava ladies—they are all examples to this world of how one can leave material life and enter the family of Krishna. The example that Sriman Mahaprabhu Himself showed during His grihastha-lila is the greatest example of living a life in the family of Krishna. There is one particular thing in His grihastha-lila, or samsara-lila, that is worth learning from. One does not have the right, or qualification, to stay in the householder order of life his entire life. In their renounced life, jiva souls should show the example of practising Krishna consciousness. Family life brings about attachment, and living amidst attachment to family life is not a life of a person who seeks spiritual benefit. Therefore, after Mahaprabhu showed the example of householder life in order to teach the people, He revealed His sannyas-lila.

Some people may say, "But Sri Jagannath Misra, Sri Sachi Mata or Vasudev-Devaki, or Nanda-Yasomati actually lived in family life to their old age, to the end of their lives?" "Panchasordhvam vanam vrajet"—it is not necessary for them to follow this scriptural injunction because they are not accused of any crime that would require the kind of punishment that is administered for the non-devotee practitioners. Their family life is an eternally liberated transcendental family life. Every jiva soul, even grass, creepers, etc. aspire for this kind of family life. Will they leave Krishna and go to live in a forest? Will they leave their service to Krishna and show the life of a renunciate averse to Krishna? In this world, the jiva souls attached to enjoyment are simply an illegal imitation and perverted reflection of the mood of these eternally liberated souls. Very materialistic householders remain attached to material enjoyment until a very old age. Fascinated by the futile love of their sons, grandsons, great-grandsons, et al., they stay in their material houses and engage in material affairs until their very last breath. We must not think that the mood of these liberated souls is one and the same as the mood of the souls attached to enjoyment. All these eternally liberated servants of Krishna manifest themselves in the form of Sri Jagannath Misra or Sri Nanda Maharaj in the transcendental mood of vatsalya-rasa (parental love).

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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