‘Vaishnava Ke’

By Shrila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura

 

 

 

 

 

dushta mana! tumi kisera vaishnava?

pratishtara tare,  nirjanera ghare,

tava hari nama kevala kaitava

 

My dear mind, what kind of Vaishnava are you? Simply for false prestige and a material reputation you sit in a solitary place and pretend to chant the Hare Krishna maha-mantra, but this is all cheating.

 

 

jadera pratishtha, shukarer vishtha,

jana na ki tahamayara vaibhava"

kanaka-kamini, divasa-yamini

bhaviya ki kaja, anitya se saba

 

My dear mind, why are you so proud of being a Vaishnava? Your solitary worship and chanting of the holy name of the Lord are based on a desire for cheap popularity, and therefore your chanting of the holy name is only a pretension. Such an ambition for a cheap reputation can be compared to the stool of a hog, because such popularity is another extension of the influence of maya.

 

tomara kanaka, bhogera janaka,

kanakera dvare sevahamadhava"

kaminira kama, nahe tava dhama

tahara--malika kevalayadava"

My dear mind, you are attached to wealth and due to maya's influence you want to use your money simply for the gratification of your material senses, but by this you will get no eternal satisfaction. You should use the wealth at your disposal in the service of the Lotus Feet of Lord Madhava [Krishna], and then only can you experience transcendental bliss from wealth.

Your lusty desires to enjoy beautiful women are not an abode where you can find real shelter! The Supreme Lover is Yadava [Krishna]. He is the Supreme Enjoyer and actual Owner of everyone's love. Offer all your love and devotion to Lord Krishna and you will be completely satisfied.

 

pratishtha-taru, jada-maya-maru,

na pelaravana" yujhiyaraghava"

vaishnavai pratishtha, tate kara nishtha,

taha na bhajile labhibe raurava

My dear mind, beware of your desire to attain material reputation. It is misleading you with its attractive vision like an oasis of green trees, but it is simply a mirage in the desert of this world of repeated birth and death. It will cause your utter spiritual destruction. Remember how Ravana, the powerful demon, was bewildered due to false pride and in spite of all his efforts to achieve temporary material prominence he was destroyed by Raghava (Lord Ramacandra).

The only position you should desire is to become a true Vaishnava, a pure devotee of the Lord. Give all your care and attention for obtaining this! If instead you neglect to purely worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead, due to your offenses, for all your hard endeavors your life will simply be hellish.

 

harijana-dvesha, pratishthasha-klesha,

kara kena tabe tahara gaurava ?

vaishnavera pache, pratishthasha ache,

ta'te kabhu naheanitya-vaibhava"

My dear mind, what kind of Vaishnava are you? In the name of solitary worship you are simply engaged in criticising and committing offenses against the vaishnavas. You have become envious towards the pure devotees of Lord Krishna. Instead of tasting the nectar of being a real Vaishnava you are simply suffering due to your desire to gain flickering material prestige and position. Then, in spite of your fallen condition, why do you remain so proud of your solitary worship?

Now you should try to be a real Vaishnava. To be a pure devotee of Krishna is actually the most glorious position anyone can achieve! If you really desire to achieve perfection, then give up this practice of solitary worship and in the association of devotees practice pure unmotivated devotional service. In the sincere practice of pure devotional service there is no influence of maya.

 

se hari-sambandha, shunya-mayagandha

taha kabhu nayajadera kaitava"

pratishtha-candali, nirjanata-jali,

ubhaye janiha mayika raurava

My dear mind, why are you so proud of being a pure devotee of Krishna? A pure devotee of the Lord performs favorable devotional service in his constitutional relationship as an eternal servitor of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna. A pure devotee's desire to serve Lord Krishna is completely pure and without the influence of even a trace of material motives. Your practice of solitary worship is simply cheating, but actual pure devotional service is ever free from material duplicity and hypocrisy stemming from the material cheating propensity.

My dear mind, beware of both the pratishtha- candali, the treacherous witch who enchants and bewilders devotees with the desire for cheap popularity; as well as the nirjanata-jali, the deadly net of solitary worship, which traps devotees in maya's illusion when they leave the association of devotees to perform solitary devotional service. Know it that both are different aspects of the most hellish material existence known as Raurava.

 

kirtana chadiba, pratishtha makhiba",

ki kaja dhudiya tadúsha gaurava

madhavendra puri, bhava-ghare curi,

na karila kabhu sadai janaba

My dear mind, you want me to give up the congregational chanting of Lord Krishna's holy names to practice solitary worship. Then you want me to annoint myself with the material desires for temporary position and cheap fame! How can you consider these illusory activities of maya to have even the slightest spiritual value or glory in them?

Don't commit the offense of falsely imitating the devotional service of the great spiritual master Madhavendra Puri. He was never a false imitation, but was a fully realized liberated soul. He travelled to spread the glories of Lord Krishna and continuously chanted the holy name of the Lord without the slightest desire for cheap popularity and reputation. Kindly remember his great transcendental qualities.

 

tomara  pratishtha,---shukarer vishtha",

tara-saha sama kabhu na manaba

matsarata-vashe tumi jadarase

majeche-chadiya kirtana-saushthava

My dear mind, your desire for cheap reputation can be compared to the stool of a hog. You are proud of being a Vaishnava, but your actual behavior is less than an ordinary civilized human being! Controlled by envy towards true Vaishnavas, you have secretly been relishing trying to squeeze out some temporary material happiness by gratifying your material desires. How do you remain so proud in spite of your hypocrisy, after having abandoned the eternal nectar of the Hare Krishna sankirtana movement?

 

tai dushta mana,nirjana bhajana,"

pracaricha chalekuyogi-vaibhava"

prabhu sanatane, parama yatane,

shiksha dila yaha, cinta sei saba

My dear rascal mind, now it is evident why you have been spreading the glories of solitary devotional service. You have been acting against the Vaishnava principles and simply cheating to hide the real facts. You have acted just like a false yogi whose only purpose is to mislead and cheat others. To save yourself from this illusion you should remember and carefully study the teachings that Sanatana Gosvami has so mercifully given in this regard for practising devotional service properly in Krishna consciousness.'

 

sei du'ti katha, bhula' na sarvatha

uccaii svare karahari nama-rava"

Iphalgu" arayukta",baddha" aramukta,"

kabhu na bhaviha, ekakara saba

My dear mind, you should never, under any circumstances, allow yourself to forget the two instructions of Sanatana Gosvami. Constantly engage yourself in loudly chanting the glories of the holy names of Lord Krishna!

Never consider dry renunciation and yukta-vairagya (appropriate renunciation) to be equal. Do not confuse actions appropriate for a conditioned soul with the activities of an eternally liberated soul. Never think that everything is one without difference.

 

kanaka-kamini, pratishtha-baghini",

chadiyache yare, sei ta' Vaishnava

seianasakta", seishuddha bhakta",

sansara tatha paya parabhava

The desire for enjoying cheap fame and material distinction acts like a ferocious tigress who devours one's Krishna consciousness. Similarly dangerous are the desires for enjoyment of wealth and women. Someone who has transcended both of these materialistic desires through devotional service is indeed a real Vaishnava.

Someone with such Krishna conscious characteristics is truly unattached to material life. He is actually a pure devotee of Lord Krishna! The material bondage to the repetition of birth and death is easily defeated by a pure devotee of the Lord like him! 

 

yatha yogya bhoga, nahi tatha roga

Ianasakta" sei, ki ara kahaba

Iasakti-rahita",sambandha-sahita",

vishaya samuha sakalimadhava"

Material facilities and gratification of the senses experienced while acting for self-preservation or in the faithful execution of one's duties in Krishna consciousness are not the cause of fall down into materialistic consciousness. Rather, such a purely engaged devotee is truly detached from sense gratification, what more shall I say? 

The pure devotee acts in Krishna consciousness without attachment to the objects of the senses, remaining conscious of his relationship as the eternal servitor of Lord Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The pure devotee is fixed in his attachment to rendering pure devotional service to the Lord and thus he sees all apparently material objects of sense enjoyment as non-different divine energies of Lord Madhava (Krishna), ie. they are seen in terms of how they can be utilized in the devotional service to Lord Madhava (Krishna) and not according to their material sense-gratificatory value. 

 

seyukta-vairagya", taha ta' saubhagya

tahai jadete harira vaibhava

kirtane yahara,pratishtha-sambhara"

tahara sampatti kevalakaitava"

The devotee who engages his material possessions in the service of Lord Krishna while regulating his material activities of sense gratification according to the injunctions of the revealed shastras (refer to previous verse) is actually a yukta-vairagi or a devotee situated in full and appropriate renunciation. He is certainly most fortunate. Even while living in the midst of the material world, whatever opulences he possesses and whatever actions he performs are all aspects of the spiritual opulence and potency of Hari (Lord Krishna), the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

However, if someone is outwardly chanting the holy names of the Lord, or even if he is externally engaged in kirtana, or preaching the glories of the holy name, but actually is motivated by pratishtha desires, ie. is under the control of desires to enhance his own material reputation or temporary position, then whatever apparent opulences or influence he may have achieved by his efforts are simply the products of cheating, and therefore simply temporary products of maya, the illusory energy.

 

vishaya-mumukshu", bhogera bubhukshu,"

 du'ye tyaja mana, duiaVaishnava"

kúshnera sambandha", aprakúta-skandha,

 kabhu nahe taha jadera sambhava.

 

mayavadi jana", kúshne tara mana,

mukta abhimane se ninde Vaishnava

vaishnavera dasa, tava bhakti-asha,

kena va dakicha nirjana-ahaba

 

The mayavadi's (impersonalist's) mentality is totally separate from Krishna consciousness. Although they are fallen souls conditioned by the material nature, due to illusion they imagine they have achieved liberation from material birth and death, and due to their false pride they commit the greatest offense of blaspheming pure devotees of the Lord.

My dear mind, you are a servant of the servant of Lord Krishna! Certainly your desire is to achieve pure loving devotional service to Lord Krishna! Then why do you call me to be trapped in this deadly cage of solitary devotional service (nirjana bhajana)? Why do you want me to imitate the mayavadi impersonalist's practice of making a false show of renunciation and committing offenses against the pure devotees of Lord?

 

phalgu-vairagi", kahe nijetyagi",

se na pare kabhu haiteVaishnava"

haripada chadi',nirjanata badi"

labhiya ki phula,phalgu" se vaibhava

 

Someone, who falsely renounces objects as material, which can actually be utilized in devotional service to Lord Krishna, is known as a phalgu-vairagi. Due to false pride, he claims to be a great renunciate. However, by his practice of dry renunciation, a phalgu-vairagi is never able to become a Vaishnava, a pure devotee of Lord Krishna.

Discarding the eternal shelter of pure devotional service to the lotus feet of Guru and Lord Krishna, the phalgu-vairagi  may practice what may appear to be Krishna consciousness in his separate or solitary "home" away from the Krishna consciousness association of the society of devotees, but what transcendental result does he achieve for all his efforts? Whatever so-called Krishna conscious result he is achieving is simply a form of material illusion with no actual eternal Krishna conscious value!

 

radha dasye rai', chadibhoga-ahi,"

pratishthasha" nahekirtana-gaurava"

radha-nityajana", taha chadi' mana

kena va nirjana-bhajana-kaitava

My dear mind, now, with determination, let us remain eternally in the service of the servant of the servant of Shrimati Radharani, the spiritual Embodiment of the purest love for Krishna! Give up every last trace of attachment for the vicious snake of material desire for sense gratification (subtle or gross). Give up all desires for achieving cheap fame or some position of temporary material importance through chanting the Holy Names of Krishna, as with these material desires one cannot realize the transcendental glories of congregational chanting of the Holy Names of Lord Krishna in sankirtana.

My dear mind, completely give up these illusory attachments and totally surrender yourself in the service of Shrimati  Radharani's eternal devotees! Why shall we leave the transcendental association of confidential devotees to engage in the cheating process of solitary worship (nirjana bhajana)? 

 

vrajavasigana, pracaraka-dhana,

pratishtha-bhikshuka ta'ra naheshaba"

prana ache tanra, sei hetu pracara,

pratishthasha hina krishna-gatha" saba

The Vrajavasis' (eternal associates of Krishna in Vúndavana considered by Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu to be the best and most perfect devotees) personal treasure is preaching the glories of Lord Krishna. They are always glorifying Krishna. They never desire any cheap popularity or temporary material position, which is hankered after by the living dead. These eternally liberated devotees perform the confidential service of preaching the glories of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and His Holy Name, because they possess real compassion and the eternal life of Krishna consciousness. Completely free from all motives for personal material reputation and temporary influence, the pure devotees are completely and irrevocably bound to Lord Krishna through ties of loving devotional service.

 

shri-dayita-dasa, kirtanete asha,

kara uccaihsvare harinama-rava"

kirtana-prabhave, smarana svabhave,

se kale bhajana-nirjana sambhava

This dayita dasa (His Divine Grace Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura - the humble servitor of the all-merciful Shrimati Radharani) simply desires to be absorbed in the nectar of spreading the glories of Lord Krishna's holy names. My dear mind, now let us loudly chant the holy names of Krishna so we can continuously remain in the ocean of transcendental nectar. The congregational chanting of the holy names of Krishna awakens the transcendental quality of natural spontaneous loving remembrance of Lord Krishna (including the Lord's form, qualities and pastimes). At that moment the confidential realization and pure practice of "solitary" loving devotional service to Their Lordships Shri Shri Radha-Krishna is possible.