পাপ-পুণ্যময় দেহ, সকলই অনিত্য এহ,
ধন জন সব মিছা ধন্দ ।
মরিলে যাইবে কোথা, ইহাতে না পাও ব্যথা,
তবু নিতি কর কার্য মন্দ ॥ ৬৯ ॥
pāpa-puṇyamaya deha, sakalai anitya eha,
dhana jana saba michā dhanda |
marile yāibe kothā, ihāte nā pāo byathā,
tabu niti kara kārya manda || 69 ||
Bodies are made of sin and virtue; all are transitory. Wealth, followers, all such things are illusion or confusion of reality. Where will you go after death? Does this not trouble you? Yet you still perform harmful acts every day.
Illusion and Confusion
Sudhā-Kaṇikā-Vyākhyā: In the previous verse, Śrīla Ṭhākura Mahāśaya proclaimed that all discussions other than those about the love of Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa or the related bhajana are only useless noise, and he has forbidden the hearing or speaking of such topics. Now, a question may arise: Are philosophical discussions about the transitory nature of the body and all related to it, or about the distinction between matter and spirit, or other such discussions also only useless noise? If that were the case, why would our ācāryas have introduced so many philosophical conclusions, and why are the high-minded bhaktas seen to engage in so much discussion about philosophy? The author has presented this verse in response to such a question.
Hari-bhajana never occurs if one maintains attachment for the body and things related, meaning spouse, children, wealth, other people and so on. The reason is that the mind cannot be attached to worldly sense-objects and Śrī Bhagavān at the same time. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 11.14.27 says, viṣayān dhyāyataś cittaṁ viṣayeṣu viṣajjate, mām-anusmarataś cittaṁ mayy eva pravilīyate. Śrī Kṛṣṇa said to Śrī Uddhava, “The mind of a person who thinks of sense-objects becomes attached to those sense-objects. The mind absorbed at every moment in thinking of me becomes submerged in me.” Furthermore, Śrī Bhagavān has also said this in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 11.21.22: viṣayābhiniveśena nātmānaṁ veda nāparam, vṛkṣa-jīvikayā jīvan vyarthaṁ bhastreva yaḥ śvasan. “A person whose mind is absorbed in sense-objects can know neither himself nor the Supreme Self. As though unconscious like a tree, he uselessly consumes sense-objects to sustain his life and breathes with futility like a blacksmith’s bellows. Therefore, he is as good as dead.” Needless to say, if a person absorbed in the body and related things is unable to worship even in vidhi-bhakti, then rāga-bhakti, the highest and most confidential worship of Śrī Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa, is never possible for him. For this reason, discussions regarding the impermanence of the body and related things along with discussions about the distinction between spirit and matter remain essential.
One may ask, “All those philosophical discussions may be necessary in the beginning stages of bhajana, but why do we see that great devotees who are deeply absorbed in bhajana also discuss those tattvas?” The logical reply to this question is that even those who have understood, by the influence of good association and study of śāstra, that everything other than Śrī Bhagavān is transient are still susceptible to becoming attached to the body and related things by the influence of materialists and by contact with the sense-objects. Therefore, occasional discussions about the utter unreality of all these impermanent things diminish one’s attachment for them. Sometimes the minds of rāgānugā-sādhakas are stolen away from smaraṇa and other limbs of bhajana and they become absorbed in the body and things related to it. If at that time the sādhakas engage with virtuous people in discussions about the impermanence of all these things, they can give up their attachment to transient sense-objects and engage their minds in smaraṇa. Therefore, from time to time, rāgānugā-sādhakas also discuss philosophical topics such as the impermanence of worldly things and so on among their discussions of yugala-bhajana.
Having ascertained this spiritual truth, Śrīla Ṭhākura Mahāśaya advises his own mind: pāpa-puṇyamaya deha, sakalai anitya eha, dhana jana saba michā dhanda. As the result of sins, a person obtains a body subjected to distress and poverty and pained by endless diseases, bereavement and other afflictions. As the result of piety, one obtains a body suitable for the enjoyment of sense-objects. All these bodies are transitory, like water bubbles that last only for a moment. An intelligent person must constantly remain prepared to give up his perishable body and must always bear in mind that all his wealth, property, friends, relatives and so on are nothing but an illusion or confusion of reality. The work of illusion is to cause the intellect to perceive spirit where there is none. Because of such deception and confusion, a person thinks the source of instability, impermanence, difficulty, suffering, pain and grief is actually the cause of stability, constancy and joy. He claims “my and mine” regarding wealth, people and other perishable things that never belonged to him and to which he has not even the slightest right. In the absence of these things, the person who is captivated by illusion becomes unstable. Always thinking of various sense-objects, he squanders the years of this rare lifetime, which is suitable for sādhana and difficult for even the gods to attain. Śrī Bhagavān spoke to Śrī Arjuna about the poisonous fruit of contemplating the sense-objects in Śrī-Bhagavad-Gītā 2.62-63:
dhyāyato viṣayān puṁsaḥ saṅgas teṣūpajāyate |
saṅgāt sañjāyate kāmaḥ kāmāt krodho’bhijāyate ||
krodhād bhavati sammohaḥ sammohāt smṛti-vibhramaḥ |
smṛti-bhraṁśād buddhi-nāśo buddhi-nāśāt praṇaśyati ||
When a person contemplates objects that are perceivable to the senses, attachment appears. From attachment, the desire to enjoy those objects appears. If the desire for enjoyment is obstructed, anger appears. From anger, illusion appears in the form of loss of judgement regarding what is to be done and what is not. From illusion, loss of memory or forgetfulness of the beneficial instructions of śāstra occurs. From that, intelligence is lost and everything is ruined, meaning the person rotates repeatedly through various wombs and suffers terribly in miserable hells.
Therefore Śrīla Ṭhākura Mahāśaya says, marile yāibe kothā, ihāte nā pāo byathā, tabu niti kara kārya manda. There is nothing in life more certain than death. Everyone knows that death may swallow the jīva at any moment, and that with death, all connections with this world are completely obliterated. Still, māyā has such bewildering power over the world of the jīva that even though a person gets a human body possessed of wisdom and intellect, he forgets death, of which there is nothing more certain. Enchanted by the wonders of the world, he is repeatedly devoured by the dreadful jaws of birth and death. The māyā-bound jīva worries about where he will go after death, fearful about what condition he might fall into in some dark realm. It is appropriate for a māyā-bound person to feel distressed after contemplating these things. Having learned from śāstra about the terrible miseries of hell and so on, he should give up all unfavorable actions and take shelter at the death-preventing lotus feet of Śrī Govinda. A description has been given at the end of the fifth canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam regarding the sinful jīva’s horrible torments in hell.
If one is able to always keep death in mind, it will be impossible for him to ever perform bad actions. I have heard a beautiful example of this: A king was nearly dead after having been stricken by some fatal disease. Though he received different kinds of treatments, he could not be cured and thus gave up hope in living. Meanwhile, a sādhu arrived in the kingdom. To cure the king and help him regain his strength, the sādhu made him drink some juice made from the leaves of a tree. Every day, in the presence of the king, the sādhu would himself drink three times the amount of juice the king drank. By drinking the juice, the king’s disease was eliminated as though by the power of a mantra and he gradually regained his health and strength. His body slowly got stronger, but along with the increase in strength, extremely impure thoughts began to appear in his mind. Gradually, his heart and mind became unsteady from the excitation of his wicked inclinations. One day as he was drinking the juice, he said to the sādhu, “O revered one, because I drank the juice you gave me, my disease is gone and no doubt my body is healthy and strong, but impure thoughts have come to my mind and I am slowly going down the path of destruction. I want to ask you a question: Every day you drank three times the amount of juice that I did; how have you kept your brahmacarya intact?” When he heard the king’s words, the sādhu immediately said, “Mahārāja, I will reply to your question later. Just now I saw your death time in the lines on your palm: you will die one month from today.” After hearing this, the king became extremely alarmed and asked the sādhu if it could somehow be prevented. The sādhu replied, “Mahārāja, your death is certain; if there is a way to prevent it, it will only be with this juice. So you must increase the amount you drink fourfold.” As directed by the sādhu, the king began to drink four times the amount of juice. By the power of the juice, his body began to quickly increase in strength. The bad thoughts were no longer in his mind because it had become so restless from thinking about his death. Two days later, the sādhu asked the king, “Mahārāja, are your evil inclinations oppressing you now? Are you drinking four times the amount of juice?” The king replied, “O saintly one, my mind is now constantly unsteady because I always think of my death; therefore, how can any more wicked inclinations arise in it?” The sādhu said, “Mahārāja, your death will still come in one month; because of this, your bad mentality has vanished. I always see death in front of me, so how can evil thoughts find a place in my mind? Mahārāja, if one always keeps in mind the transitory nature of the body, there will be no place there for evil propensities. To help you realize this, I said you had only one month to live, but actually, you will live for a long time.” By following the instructions of the sādhu, the king was cured of his bodily sickness and he understood the transient nature of the body and all related to it. By taking shelter of Śrī Govinda’s lotus feet, he even obtained freedom from worldly disease.
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