This is long, but sweet. It is a chapter from Sri Caitanya Siksamrta

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Dear devotees,

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila

Prabhupada. this is written by the seventh Goswami, Srila Bhaktivinoda. Hope

you can read even just a little.

 

Your servant,

bhakta jason

 

Second Chapter

Part Two

HD: Punya karma: Meritorious Action

People's future life is determined according to their activities. Those who

perform punya karma or pious activities in society attain a heavenly abode

after death, and those who perform sinful activities suffer in hell.

Activities that lead to heavenly enjoyment are called punya (piety) and

activities that lead to hellish suffering are called papa (sin). The rules

for accruing punya and the rules for eradicating papa together make up the

rules for determining life after death.

 

In all the punyas and varnasrama activities, there is the factor of the

practitioner's faith, which may be tamasika, rajasika or sattvika. That

faith may be inclined either toward enjoyment of the world or towards

renunciation of the world. Those on the lowest stage are inclined to worldly

enjoyment. Those slightly more advanced are inclined both ways. Those most

advanced dedicate themselves to renunciation of the world. Although there

are provisions for worshipping numerous devatas, the sattvika person

worships only Bhagavan. As Vaisnavas have no motive for sense gratification,

they accept only those actions that lead to the spiritual goal. In the

Gita, Krsna has said that the wise should accept only those actions

favorable to devotion and reject those that are unfavorable to devotion.

 

In attempting to give a brief description and analysis of punya and papa,

it is extremely difficult to classify them methodically. Some sages have

classified papa and punya according to bodily, mental, social and spiritual

emphasis. Others have classified them according to bodily, verbal and mental

involvement. Others have classified them as bodily, sensual and mental.

However, all these classifications are less than perfect. Here they will

simply be divided into two groups: constitutional punyas (pertaining to the

real nature of the jiva) and conditioned punyas (relating to a relative

bodily state).

 

Righteousness, truth, purity, friendship, honesty and affection are punyas

of the first group, as they are found in the jiva's real nature; they are

the eternal ornaments of the jiva. In the conditioned state of the jiva, as

they become grosser in nature, these natural qualities of the soul are

called punya. The rest of the punyas are called conditioned, because they

arise only through the conditioned state of the jiva. In the liberated state

one need not perform these punyas.

 

Sin is not a constitutional factor of the jiva, but rather takes shelter of

the jiva in the conditioned state. Some actions or states are contradictory

to the natural qualities (punyas) of the jiva: for instance, hatred, lying,

cruelty, lust, envy, and injustice. All other sins are contrary to the

relative punyas. As the discussion of papa and punya will be very brief, the

constitutional and conditioned divisions have not been indicated. The papa

and punyas have simply been enumerated with a little discussion. But having

been given these guidelines, the reader can easily make the proper

distinctions.

 

There are 10 kinds of punyas:

o assistance to others

o service to elders

o charity

o serving guests

o cultivation of cleanliness

o celebration of festivals

o performance of vows

o protection of animals

o increase of population

o proper conduct.

 

Assistance to the Needy

Assistance to others is of two kinds: relieving others of distress and

helping others make progress. A person should help others as much as

possible without distinguishing whether they are relatives or not. The same

distress that befalls ourselves also comes to others. When people are in

difficulty, they think that others should give them relief. Thus people

should try to relieve others'distress as if it were their own. They must

attempt to relieve distress by putting aside self-interest, which may

obstruct giving assistance. They should try to remove other people's bodily,

mental, social and spiritual difficulties.

 

Examples of bodily distress are sickness and hunger. Examples of mental

distress are anxiety, envy, lamentation, and fear. Examples of social

distress are an inability to support the family, inability to give education

to the children, inability to get them married, and lack of resources for

cremation. Examples of spiritual distress are lack of faith, atheism, and

desire for sinful acts.

 

Just as you must relieve a person of distress, you should also try to

elevate them. You should help people progress physically, mentally socially

and spiritually by offering monetary, physical, and verbal assistance, and

by engaging that person's relatives as well.

 

Service to Elders

There are three types of service to elders: protection of and service to

parents, teachers, and other superiors or elders. A person must follow the

instructions of parents and serve them as much as possible. A person should

serve those who have protected him as a helpless child (parents), and should

also service those who have given knowledge (teachers), especially those who

have given spiritual knowledge and mantra. Those are considered superiors

who are bigger in body, greater in age or more experienced in knowledge. One

must respect and serve them all. One cannot follow incorrect orders of a

superior but one should also not show hostility towards him, using

disrespectful or harsh words. One should put a stop to their improper

behavior or instructions by using sweet words, humility, and gentle

reasoning at the proper time.

 

Charity

Charity (dana) refers to giving money or materials to a suitable person.

Giving to an undeserving person is a worthless expense, and is considered a

sin. There are twelve varieties of charity: giving water by digging wells,

planting trees to give shade and air, supplying lights, dispensing

medicines, giving education, giving food, building roads, building bathing

places on rivers or lakes, building houses, giving materials, giving the

first portion of a meal, giving a daughter in marriage.

 

Water should be given to those who are thirsty. If a thirsty person comes to

your house, you are obliged to offer drinking water. Thus digging wells and

ponds for drinking water, after selecting a suitable place, is an act of

punya, beneficial for others. Wherever water is necessary, for instance at

tirthas (holy places) where there are no rivers or bodies of water, wells

should be dug.

 

Huge shade trees such as the asvattha should be planted on the sides of the

road or river, or at places of relaxation. Tulasi and other holy trees

should be planted in the house and at pure places. These trees assist in

bodily and spiritual health. Lights should be installed at bathing places,

on roads and narrow paths, to assist night travelers when there is no

moonlight. By giving light in charity a person earns vast amounts of punya.

Raising lights during Kartika month is for beauty but does not aid the

traveler, as they are too high to light the path.

 

In giving medical relief, a person can go to the house and distribute

medicine, or can have the sick persons come to a dispensary and receive free

medicine. A person should perform this punya with sincerity. Students may be

given education from personal funds. Educating children is a very important

service. Food distribution may be done at home or at a designated place for

the public. Roads should be constructed to places difficult to approach or

to inaccessible places. Using stone or brick in the construction gives

additional merit. Bathing places should be constructed on riverbanks or the

banks of other bodies of water for the general public. Constructing a

resting place, a shelter, temple or gardens at the bathing place gives

additional merit.

 

Building a house for a person without money or domicile is a punya karma.

Giving materials should be done to qualified or deserving persons. Before

eating at home, the owner should offer the first portion to another person.

Parents should give their daughter, along with ornaments, to a suitable

person of the same varna.

 

Serving Guests

A person should show hospitality towards his guests and society as a whole.

The householder should carefully serve guests when they arrive. The

scriptures direct that after preparing food the householders should go to

the door and call out three times for those who have not eaten. If anyone

appears, they should feed that person first, and later eat along with the

rest of the family. There is a rule that one should call out about an hour

after noon, but in modern times it is difficult to remain without food till

then. Therefore whenever the food is ready, the householder should call out

for the hungry. This does not refer to feeding professional beggars. Such

hospitality is a necessary activity when one is situated in society.

 

Cleanliness

Purity refers to 1. Personal cleanliness 2.cleaning roads, ghatas, shops,

cowsheds, temples, and house 3.cleaning forests 4.going on pilgrimage.

Personal cleanliness is both internal and external. Internal cleanliness or

purity of mind is accomplished by performance of sinless actions and punyas.

Eating and drinking a regulated amount of food that is sinless and easy to

digest also causes internal purity. By eating or drinking food touched by

alcoholics or other sinful people, the mind becomes impure.

 

Among all the methods for creating purity of mind, the chief is remembrance

of Visnu. For purifying the sinful mind there is prescription of prayascitta

or atonement. By such atonements, however, only the sinful reaction leaves

the person. The root is sinful desire. If a person performs atonement with

genuine remorse, the sinful desire will be removed, but the seed of all sin

- hostility to the Lord - can be removed only by remembering the Lord.

Other books should be consulted for the many aspects of atonement. The mind

is also purified by bathing in sacred rivers such as the Ganga and by seeing

the Deity of the Lord.

 

External cleanliness refers to maintaining purity of body, clothing, and

residence. This external cleanliness is maintained by bathing in fresh

water, wearing clean cloth and eating sattvika food. If the body touches

contaminated objects, you should wash that part of the body.

 

People should not only clean personal houses, ghatas, roads, cowsheds,

temples and yards, but the public roads, ghatas, shops, and temples in the

town. If the town is large, the citizens should together raise funds and

maintain the cleanliness. These acts generate punya. Citizens should keep

their private gardens clean, and contribute the cleanliness of public

forests by the above-mentioned method.

 

By going on pilgrimage, a person gains enormous purity. Although association

with saintly people is the final goal of pilgrimage, by the act of

pilgrimage itself, sinful desire is greatly reduced, and therefore all

people feel purified.

 

Festivals

Festivals are of three types: those centered on Deity worship, those

centered on family affairs and those for public rejoicing. Deity festivals

are often observed, and without doubt they generate punya, as they include a

great gathering of people, feasting, musical performances, shows, food

distribution to the needy, and giving gifts to the learned. If a person is

capable of holding such festivals but avoids doing so, he is an offender.

Especially when these festivals are permeated with devotion to the Lord,

they must not be avoided.

 

There are many family occasions for festivals, such as birthdays,

distribution of grains, marriage, and sraddha rites with sacrifices. A

person is obliged to celebrate these functions to the best of his ability. A

person should also sponsor fairs where the populace can gather for

enjoyment. There are also many social festivals such worship of brothers by

sisters, worship of the brother-in-law, arandhanotsava, navannotsava,

pisthakotsava, and sitalotsava .

 

Vratas

Vratas or vows are of three types: bodily, social and spiritual. Early

morning bath, parikrama, offering obeisances, which relate to exercising the

body, are bodily vows. When one element of the body becomes disturbed, a

person falls ill. To prevent this there are many vows, such as fasting on

the new and full moon day or on Mondays. By fasting and refraining from

normal activities on the prescribed days and controlling the senses, a

person is made to concentrate on the Lord. When it is necessary to fast in

this way, a person gains punya by following the prescribed procedures.

 

The samskara rites may be considered social vows. According to the varna,

these rites are performed with modification. Other rites are prescribed for

all men. Marriage rites, in which one man marries a girl of the same varna,

are prescribed for all varnas. The vow of taking only one wife is essential,

for any other marriage is simply due to lust. This tendency is exhibited in

persons of low nature. In exceptional cases, where there are no offspring, a

second wife is allowed.

 

The monthly vows mentioned in the Mahabharata and other similar vows such as

the 24 Ekadasi fasts and fasting on the six visnu tattva appearance days

(jayanti), such as Janmastami, are spiritual vows. The sole aim of these

vratas is spiritual advancement. These will be discussed along with the

topic of bhakti. Hari-bhakti-vilasa describes these vratas in detail

..

Protection of Animals

A person should strive for the upliftment of animals. Without the help of

animals, human life cannot go on properly. Care should be taken to improve

the form, strength and nature of animals. By selective breeding this can be

accomplished. This particularly applies to the cow. With their help,

agriculture and transport develop. Therefore strong and well-formed bulls

must be selected for mating; for this reasons, during the sraddha ceremony

young bulls are let loose. By freely roaming, they become strong and big,

and are able to produce good offspring. Being of such service to the family,

cows should be protected and nourished with proper food and housing. Cow

protection and rearing is well known in India as a very pious activity.

 

Increasing the Population

As far as increasing the population goes, this is a pious activity under the

following conditions: when the offspring arise from legal marriage, when

they are raised and protected responsibly, when the offspring are led into

stable married life, and when they are given spiritual education. After

marrying a suitable person at a suitable age, a person should affectionately

raise a family, following the rules for maintaining proper health and mind.

By providence, children are born; the parents should raise them with care,

giving training and education. When the children are older, they are taught

a means of livelihood, and when they are of suitable age, they are married

and take up family life. According to age, the children should be taught

rules for bodily maintenance and cleanliness, morality and spiritual truth.

The most important teaching is detachment from material life.

 

Conduct

The following are parts of righteous conduct: forgiveness, gratitude,

truthfulness, honesty, not stealing, not accepting from others, mercy,

detachment, respect for the scriptures, travel to holy places, proper

judgment, courtesy, worship of the Lord and being steadily situated in work

according to ability. Giving up the desire to punish a person for

committing an offense is called forgiveness or tolerance. It is not wrong to

punish the offenders, but forgiveness is an even higher principle. Prahlada

and Haridasa Thakura forgave their enemies and are worshipped as great

examples by all.

 

To recognize the help that another person has given is called gratitude. The

Aryan civilization has such gratitude that the children would serve the

parents as long as they lived, and when the parents died, they would undergo

periods of austere restriction (asauca), giving up sleeping and eating, and

would observe the sraddha ceremonies by giving food to others. To express

their gratitude to their parents they would yearly offer sraddha and

tarpana. To show gratitude to all people is also a punya karma.

 

Speaking what you believe to be true is called truthfulness. Truthful people

are respected by the whole world. Having a direct, sincere nature is called

honesty. The more honestly people live their life, the more virtuous they

are. Illegally taking others' belongings is called theft. A person has no

right to objects not earned through labor or not given as gifts. Those who

are lame or blind have a right to beg, but others should receive goods only

through honest work.

 

Begging without right to do so is called parigraha. It should be avoided.

One should show mercy to all living beings. Mercy shown as a matter of duty

is vaidha daya. Mercy, which is displayed spontaneously (from raga), will

be dealt with elsewhere. The idea that compassion should be shown to humans

but not to animals is wrong. One should try to relieve suffering of any

living being.

 

Attachment to material objects is reduced by control of the mind (sama),

control of the senses (dama), tolerance and abstinence. The practice of

resisting the temptation of evil desires is called tolerance. Giving up the

thirst for material objects in general is called abstinence. Detachment is a

punya, for with detachment one is free from sin. Detachment must be

cultivated gradually in the beginning stages, but on the path of raga,

detachment is attained very easily. This will be discussed elsewhere.

Practicing detachment is an act of punya. By repeatedly enduring the

hardships of caturmasya, fasting and staying awake on the new and full

moons, one becomes accustomed to renunciation. By first gradually giving up

the desire for enjoyment of sleeping and eating, one can eventually give up

desire for all material enjoyments. When one becomes perfect at accepting

only what is necessary for maintaining life, one has attained detachment.

Attaining detachment, a person is qualified for sannyasa.

 

All people should respect the scriptures. Scripture refers to those works

that distinguish right from wrong, spirit from matter, truth from illusion.

Those who were properly qualified revealed genuine scriptures. Unqualified

persons who have compiled works attempting to delineate the goal of life and

rules to follow have given the world false scriptures which misguide the

world. Such atheistic works, which have arisen from use of faulty logic,

should not be respected. As the blind leads the blind into the ditch, so

such authors of faulty works lead themselves and their followers on the

wrong path. Genuine scripture means the Vedas and those works that agree

with the Vedic conclusions. To study those works and teach those works is a

punya. By travelling to places of pilgrimage a person gains knowledge and

purifies himself of sin.

 

A person should show their power of discrimination properly. The person who

does not consider questions such as: "What is the world, who am I, who

created the world, what is my duty in life, and what do I achieve?" is not

to be considered a human being. The difference between man and animal is

that a person can consider these questions whereas the animal cannot. The

result of this inquiry is self-realization.

 

Courtesy is another punya. One should follow the conduct of the ancient

sages and follow their instructions on the matter. In different ages

sometimes the conduct changes. For instance, the animal sacrifices performed

in Satya-, Treta- and Dvapara-yugas are forbidden in Kali-yuga. After

intelligently examining all the previous rules of conduct, the proper mode

of conduct should be framed. Proper respect should be given, considering the

person's status. This is called maryada. Not giving proper respect is

considered a great fault. A person should give respect to all human beings,

but should give more respect to a person with position. Most respect should

be given to the brahmana and vaisnava. The following is the order: respect

to humans, respect to those who are civilized, respect to a person in high

position (such as the king), respect to the educated (pandita), respect to a

person with good qualities, respect according to varna (especially the

brahmana), respect according to asrama (especially the sannyasi), and

respect according to devotion (bhakti).

 

Worship of the Lord is considered a punya. Among all rules, worship of the

Lord is the most important. However, the form of worship will differ

according to the level of an individual's consciousness.

 

Performing good acts is punya, and performance of unauthorized acts is sin.

There are three types of actions: karma, akarma and vikarma. Those acts that

are beneficial are called karma; failure to do those acts that should be

done is called akarma. Forbidden action is called vikarma. Punya karmas are

of three types: nitya or daily (such as worship of the Lord), naimittika or

periodic (such as tarpanas to pitrs), and kamya or impelled by personal

desire. Those impelled by personal desire should be avoided, but the other

two, nitya karma and naimittika karma, should be performed.