না করিহ অসৎ চেষ্টা, লাভ পূজা প্রতিষ্ঠা,
সদা চিন্ত গোবিন্দচরণ ।
সকল বিপত্তি যায়, মহানন্দ সুখ পায়,
প্রেমভক্তি পরম কারণ ॥ ২৬ ॥
nā kariha asat ceṣṭā, lābha pūjā pratiṣṭhā,
sadā cinta gobinda-caraṇa |
sakala bipatti yāya, mahānanda sukha pāya,
prema-bhakti parama kāraṇa || 26 ||
Do not engage in mundane endeavors or try to attain profit, adoration and distinction. Always contemplate Śrī Govinda’s lotus feet. All your troubles will go away and you will receive great joy and pleasure. This is the best way to attain prema-bhakti.
Giving up Mundane Endeavors and the Desire for Fame
Sudhā-Kaṇikā-Vyākhyā: In this verse, Śrīla Ṭhākura Mahāśaya discusses some obstacles to bhajana in the form of mundane endeavors and the desire for profit, adoration and distinction, and then he establishes the remedy. nā kariha asat ceṣṭā, lābha pūjā pratiṣṭhā. Asac-ceṣṭā means all endeavors that produce results that are not eternal, are transitory or that perish in a moment. All such endeavors are called asac-ceṣṭā. The meaning is that other than actions related to Śrī Kṛṣṇa, his bhakta and bhakti, all activities concerning the destructible material body and things connected to it are asac-ceṣṭā. The bhakta who desires his highest welfare must give up all such unholy acts and constantly engage his body, mind and senses in transcendental activities, or sac-ceṣṭā, related to Śrī Bhagavān, Śrī Guru, the Vaiṣṇavas and bhakti. A question may be asked here. All the gṛhastha-bhaktas who have taken to the path of bhajana by accepting the shelter of the lotus feet of a true guru generate their livelihoods by doing business, working at jobs, farming the land and so on. Are all those activities asac-ceṣṭā? The answer is no, they are all sac-ceṣṭā or holy because the bhaktas who have taken shelter at Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s lotus feet belong to Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s world. Their houses, wives, friends and relatives, wealth and property have all been offered at Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s lotus feet. Their homes, work and so on are all dedicated to Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s sevā, not for independently maintaining themselves. Therefore, these things are included in the process of bhajana. Actually, all of the sheltered bhakta’s endeavors are dedicated to Śrī Kṛṣṇa and everything is offered for Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s happiness. Even working to earn one’s living and so on can help one to realize prema. Śrī Kṛṣṇa personally said to Uddhava, mad-arthe dharma-kāmārthān ācaran mad-apāśrayaḥ, labhate niścalāṁ bhaktiṁ mayy uddhava sanātane (Bhāg. 11.11.24). “O Uddhava! The bhakta who takes shelter of me and engages in activities of righteousness, economic growth and sense enjoyment for my satisfaction attains unwavering devotion to me, the eternal person.” By these words from the Lord’s lotus mouth, it is clearly understood that if the bhakta dedicates his householder duties, wealth or wealth-producing worldly activities, desires, longings, intentions and so on to Śrī Kṛṣṇa, these actions produce prema. But the sādhaka must be vigilant so that “Theft does not exist in the temple of love.” It is not that one says everything belongs to Śrī Kṛṣṇa and then engages in business for his own happiness. If one performs work for his own happiness, his worldly property and riches become the cause of material bondage. For this reason, we have been directed by the śāstras and the words of the mahājanas to abandon such improper actions.
Like asac-ceṣṭā, the bhakta must renounce profit, adoration and distinction, which are powerful impediments to bhakti. These anarthas are called bhaktyuttha-anarthas, or arisen from the practice of bhakti, because they make themselves known to the bhakta according to the level of his bhajana. Like thieves, they carry the bhakta’s bhajana boat to Rasātala, the lowest of the seven underworlds. Śrīmad Raghunātha Dāsa Gosvāmipāda has called the hope for pratiṣṭhā or distinction a shameless outcaste woman. pratiṣṭhāśā dhṛṣṭā śvapaca-ramaṇī me hṛdi naṭet, kathaṁ sādhu-premā spṛśati śucir etan nanu manaḥ (Manaḥ-Śikṣā 7). “O mind! The desire for fame dances like a shameless outcaste woman in my heart. How can pure love touch such a heart?” Dhṛṣṭā means shameless. This immodesty does not want to leave the heart of the sādhaka for any reason. At the end of Śrī Hari-Bhakti-Vilāsa, the following is written: sarva-tyāge’py aheyāyāḥ sarvānartha-bhuvaś ca ye, kuryuḥ pratiṣṭhā-viṣṭhāyāḥ yatnam asparśane varam (20.370). “Even those who are capable of renouncing everything are not able to give up the root of all anarthas, the desire for fame and distinction. The sādhaka must make a special effort to avoid touching this excrement.” In Śrī Caitanya-Caritāmṛta, profit, adoration and distinction have been called sub-branches of the creeper of devotion. When sprinkled with the water of hearing, chanting and so on, they begin to grow and eventually obstruct the growth of the main creeper of devotion. seka-jala pāñā upaśākhā bāḍi’ yāya, stabdha hañā mūla-śākhā bāḍite nā pāya. prathamei upaśākhāra kariye chedana, tabe mula-śākhā bāḍi’ yāya bṛndābana (CC. Mad. 19.160-161). If the sādhaka is unable to taste the nectar of Śrī Hari’s names, qualities, pastimes and so on, this hope for profit, adoration and distinction expands its influence in his heart. Those sādhakas whose only goal is to please Śrī Bhagavān are desireless, pure-hearted and devoted to bhajana. They are satisfied with whatever they have and are adorned with the qualities of humility, modesty and so on. They easily cast all harmful anarthas far away.
Then Ṭhākura Mahāśaya said, sadā cinta gobinda-caraṇa. After giving up all the harmful impediments to bhajana, the sādhaka who desires the highest blessing always thinks of Śrī Govinda’s lotus feet. The word caraṇa has been written here with great devotion. In fact, the remembrance of Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s wonderfully sweet names, form, qualities, pastimes and so on has been described. Just as the attention of one contemplating the sense objects is absorbed at every moment in those sense objects, in the same way, by remembering Śrī Govinda, the attention of the meditator becomes absorbed in Śrī Govinda. viṣayān dhyāyataś cittaṁ viṣayeṣu viṣajjate, mām anusmarataś cittaṁ mayy eva pravilīyate (Bhāg. 11.14.27). viṣaya-dhyānāsaktaṁ cittaṁ yathā viṣaya-mādhurya-nimagnaṁ dṛṣṭaṁ tathaiva madīya-dhyānāsaktaṁ man-mādhurya-mātra-nimagnaṁ syāt (Sārārtha-Darśinī Ṭīkā). “When someone’s mind is attached to contemplating the sense objects, it becomes submerged in the sweetness of those objects and is unable to think of Śrī Bhagavān. In the same way, the mind that becomes attached to meditating on me is submerged in my sweetness and has no inclination for thinking or knowing about anything else.”
After that he said, sakala bipatti yāya, mahānanda sukha pāya, prema-bhakti parama kāraṇa. The meaning is that if the sādhaka gives up all mundane endeavors along with the desire for profit, adoration and distinction and meditates constantly on Śrī Govinda’s lotus feet, then all his troubles are driven away and he receives mahānanda, or the treasure of extreme joy. It should be understood that this is also the best means to attain prema-bhakti. It could also mean that prema-bhakti is the best means or principal cause of attaining Śrī Kṛṣṇa, and that prema-bhakti itself is attained by the aforementioned process. Therefore, every sādhaka who desires to attain prema must make a serious effort to give up mundane activities and the desire for profit, adoration and distinction and to meditate constantly on Śrī Govinda’s lotus feet. At the end of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Śrī Sūta Muni described the fruit of contemplating Śrī Bhagavān’s lotus feet to the ṛṣis headed by Śaunaka: avismṛtiḥ kṛṣṇa-padāravindayoḥ kṣiṇoty abhadrāṇi ca śaṁ tanoti, sattvasya śuddhiṁ paramātma-bhaktiṁ jñānaṁ ca vijñāna-virāga-yuktam (Bhāg. 12.12.55). “Constant remembrance of Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s lotus feet destroys all inauspiciousness, expands the ultimate good, purifies the mind and heart, causes the appearance of bhakti at Śrī Bhagavān’s feet and bestows realization, detachment and knowledge.”
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