বিষয় বিপত্তি জান, সংসার স্বপন মান,
নরতনু ভজনের মূল ।
অনুরাগে ভজ সদা, প্রেমভাবে লীলা-কথা,
আর যত হৃদয়ের শূল ॥ ১০৬ ॥
biṣaya bipatti jāna, saṁsāra svapana māna,
nara-tanu bhajanera mūla |
anurāge bhaja sadā, prema-bhābe līlā-kathā,
āra yata hṛdayera śūla || 106 ||
O mind! You must understand that sense-enjoyment brings trouble. Consider the world to be a dream. The human form is the foundation of bhajana. Always worship with love. Listen with delight to Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes; everything else brings pain to the heart.
The Human Form is the Foundation of Bhajana
Sudhā-Kaṇikā-Vyākhyā: In the previous verse Śrīla Ṭhākura Mahāśaya spoke about the afflictions of the heart. The source of those afflictions is attachment to sense-objects. Recollecting that, he now says, biṣaya bipatti jāna, saṁsāra svapana māna, nara-tanu bhajanera mūla. A person experiences the five worldly sense-objects, meaning form, sound, taste, smell and touch, with respectively the eyes, ears, tongue, nose and skin. As a result of enjoying these sense-objects, the person develops attachment for them. From that, countless more desires are born and he remains constantly engaged in the enjoyment of worldly sense-objects. He engages in various kinds of good and bad actions in order to accumulate more sense-objects. Then, taking those karma-saṁskāras with him, he rotates through 8.4 million wombs. Sense-enjoyment is the only reason one suffers the burning afflictions of birth in countless wombs, death, old age, disease, grief and so on, as well as the terrible miseries of various hells. Therefore, Śrīla Ṭhākura Mahāśaya says, biṣaya bipatti jāna, meaning, “You must understand that sense-enjoyment brings agony.” The human form is suitable for bhajana, is possessed of knowledge and intelligence, and is difficult for even the gods to obtain. Though acquiring such a human form, a person influenced by saṁskāras of past sense-enjoyment engages in various kinds of impious activities to accumulate sense-objects. In this way he becomes like an animal. A person who desires to obtain good fortune must always abstain from sense-enjoyment, understanding it to be merely a source of trouble.
Then he says, saṁsāra svapana māna. saṁ dehaṁ samyak prakāre smarati cintayatīti saṁsāraḥ. This body made of five elements is known as sam,* meaning the māyā-bound jīva has forgotten his own true nature and considers this perishable body created by māyā to be himself. Though being pure spiritual substance and innately joyful, he has forever suffered the pain of saṁsāra, pleased when the body is pleased and miserable when it is suffers. This is the state of the jīva in material bondage. Instructions have been given in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam for giving up the illusory ego by means of discernment. There, the word māyāmaya (illusory) is an adjective describing the word ahaṅkāra (ego). Discernment is used to separate the svarūpa (true form and nature) from the ahaṅkāra. Otherwise, the adjective would have no purpose. It is like saying, “Bring me a white flower,” when there are many kinds of flowers to choose from in the garden. The jīva’s true nature is that he is the eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa, but having forgotten this, he has established the consciousness of “I and mine” in his illusory body and things related to it. Thinking that the happiness, misery, old age and death of that body are his own, he has become a worldly person. This world is like a dream for him. The only difference between this and a dream is that an ordinary dream lasts for a few hours while the saṁsāra dream lasts for a few years. This saṁsāra dream will be shattered along with the destruction of the body. The māyā-bound jīva, burdened by the fruits of endless karma, wanders through various miserable wombs and suffers unbearable hardships and sorrows.
Therefore he says, “O mind! Consider the world to be illusory and transitory like a dream. After investigating your true nature under the shelter of sādhus and śāstra, engage yourself in the worship of Śrī Kṛṣṇa.” Nara-tanu bhajanera mūla. This human body is the foundation or principal support of śrī-kṛṣṇa-bhajana. Animals and so on obtain subhuman bodies due to ignorance. Though possessing knowledge, the form of a deva or god is unsuitable for bhajana and sādhana because of a powerful obsession with sensual enjoyment. Only the human form is suitable for bhajana. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 11.7.74 says, yaḥ prāpya mānuṣaṁ lokaṁ mukti-dvāram apāvṛtam; gṛheṣu khagavat saktas tam ārūḍha-cyutaṁ viduḥ. The purport is that while rotating through 8.4 million wombs in the material world, the jīva eventually obtains a human body, which is difficult for even the gods to attain. Understand that it is like the door to the cage of worldly life has been opened in this birth. If he so desires, a person can easily be liberated from saṁsāra and then go to the realm of Bhagavān. If the cage door is opened for a bird who has been confined for a long time, he has no desire to leave the cage and fly freely in the sky because he is accustomed to a state of bondage or attached to his few grains of rice. In the same way, though getting a human body, which is like a doorway to liberation from māyā, a person attached to worldly life makes no effort to become free due to the influence of saṁskāras from a former birth and the allure of insignificant worldly happiness. A person who is attached to household life is said to be like a bird who ascends to a great height and then falls. Though obtaining a human form, which is the foundation of bhajana, those who do not try to cross the difficult ocean of material life by adopting the path of bhajana are true killers of the soul. Śrī Kṛṣṇa said the following to Uddhava in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 11.20.17:
nṛ-deham ādyaṁ sulabhaṁ sudurlabhaṁ
plavaṁ sukalpaṁ guru-karṇadhāram |
mayānukūlena nabhasvateritaṁ
pumān bhavābdhiṁ na taret sa ātma-hā ||
“The excellent boat of the human body is the source of all desired blessings and is very rare. It has an unwavering helmsman in the form of Śrī Guru, and I propel it as the favorable wind. A person who easily obtains such a body through fate, but makes no endeavor to cross the ocean of material life, is truly a killer of the soul.” Also, in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 11.9.29, Śrī Bhagavān said the following to Śrī Uddhava:
labdhvā sudurlabham idaṁ bahu-sambhavānte
mānuṣyam arthadam anityam apīha dhīraḥ |
tūrṇaṁ yateta na pated anumṛtyu yāvan
niḥśreyasāya viṣayaḥ khalu sarvataḥ syāt ||
“Having obtained after many births this transitory human form, which bestows spiritual knowledge and is very rare, an intelligent person must without delay seek the highest good before the fall of his ever-dying body. Sense-enjoyment can be obtained everywhere, meaning also in the wombs of animals and so on, but only in the human form is it possible to attain the highest truth.” Śrīla Premānanda Ṭhākura sang the following in verse 16 of his Manaḥ-Śikṣā:
e mana! tu baḍa kalira bhūta |
kara bala jāri, śūnye diyā bāḍi, hāsaye tapana-suta ||
bhūtera bāpera, śrāddha kara niti, bhūtera begāra khāṭa |
lāja nāhi mukhe, kāla kāṭa sukhe, calicha yamera bāṭa ||
kāminī-kāñcana, hṛdaya-rañjana, tāhāte magana thāka |
o dike tomāra, ki daśā ghaṭeche, tāra kichu khoṅja rākha? ||
caurāśī narake, yābe eke eke, patha pariṣkāra prāya |
kapālera jora, baḍa baṭe tora, bāhādūrī habe tāya ||
mūrakha barbara, suyukuti dhara, yadi taribāre cāo |
kahe premānanda, manera ānanda, sadā hari-guṇa gāo ||
“O mind! You are thoroughly a creature of kali-yuga. Yamarāja, the god of death, laughs as he plunders your home. You make offerings to the ghosts of your ancestors, serving them without reward. You shamelessly pass your time enjoying pleasures as you tread the path of death. Your desire for charming women and gold overwhelms you. Do you inquire into the things that happen to you? You will go through eighty-four hells, one by one; your path is unambiguous. Moreover, you will no doubt be wealthy and achieve great things. Fool! Barbarian! Accept some good advice. Premānanda says, ‘If you want to go beyond all this, then always sing the glories of Śrī Hari with a joyful heart.’”
Śrīla Ṭhākura Mahāśaya said, anurāge bhaja sadā, prema-bhābe līlā-kathā, āra yata hṛdayera śūla. If one earnestly longs to attain his cherished service to Bhagavān, his bhajana becomes filled with love. Intense yearning for Bhagavān is called prema. As much as possible, the sādhaka’s bhajana should also be filled with yearning. Bhagavān cannot remain calm after seeing his poor bhakta’s intense longing. Those who worship him with true love, filled with enthusiasm and eagerness, belong only to him and he belongs only to them. Śrī-Bhagavad-Gītā 9.29:
samo’haṁ sarva-bhūteṣu
na me dveṣyo’sti na priyaḥ |
ye bhajanti tu māṁ bhaktyā
mayi te teṣu cāpy aham ||
Śrī Bhagavān said, “O Arjuna! I am equal to all creatures. No one is my enemy and no one is my friend, but those who worship me with love become devoted to me and I to them.” From that loving service, higher and higher states are manifest according to the degree of bhakti in the sādhaka’s heart. The sādhaka attains the highest goal of human life and is forever blessed. Śrīman Mahāprabhu’s dear companions Śrī Rūpa, Sanātana, Raghunātha and the other Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava ācāryas took shelter of Vraja Dhāma and performed bhajana with extraordinary dedication and eagerness. This is the highest ideal of loving bhajana.
Rāgānugīya-sādhakas engaged in devout bhajana should always remember and meditate on the pastimes of their cherished deity with great delight. Other than this, everything else is a cause of great suffering for the heart. Having understood this, one should let it all go.
*I think that, in this instance, sam must mean ‘junction,’ as the body connects the soul with the world.
