Vaisnava Ke by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Prabhupada

[Guest guest]

My dear mind, what kind of Vaiñëava are you? Simply for false prestige and a

material reputation you sit in a solitary place and pretend to chant the Hare

Kåñëa mahä-mantra, but this is all cheating. *

 

 

My dear mind, why are you so proud of being a Vaiñëava? 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 mäyä.*

My dear mind, while making a show of chanting the Hare Kåñëa mahä-mantra in a

solitary place, you are simply meditating day and night about enjoying

beautiful women and accumulating more wealth. What spiritual value does your

solitary chanting have? On the pretext of performing solitary worship you are

actually entangled in temporary material activities!** *

 

 

My dear mind, you are attached to wealth and due to mäyä’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 Mädhava [Kåñëa], 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 Yädava [Kåñëa]. He is the Supreme

Enjoyer and actual Owner of everyone's love. Offer all your love and devotion

to

Lord Kåñëa and you will be completely satisfied. *

 

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 Rävana, 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 Räghava (Lord

Rämacandra).

The only position you should desire is to become a true Vaiñëava, 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. *

 

My dear mind, what kind of Vaiñëava are you? In the name of solitary worship

you are simply engaged in criticising and committing offenses against the

Vaiñëavas. You have become envious towards the pure devotees of Lord Kåñëa.

Instead of tasting the nectar of being a real Vaiñëava 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 Vaiñëava. To be a pure devotee of Kåñëa 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 practise pure unmotivated devotional service. In the

sincere practice of pure devotional service there is no influence of mäyä. *

 

 

My dear mind, why are you so proud of being a pure devotee of Kåñëa? A pure

devotee of the Lord performs favorable devotional service in his constitutional

 

relationship as an eternal servitor of the Supreme Personality of Godhead,

Kåñëa. A pure devotee's desire to serve Lord Kåñëa 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 pratisthä-candälé, the treacherous witch who

enchants and bewilders devotees with the desire for cheap popularity; as well

as the nirjanatä-jäli, the deadly net of solitary worship, which traps

devotees in mäyä’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. *

 

 

 

My dear mind, you want me to give up the congregational chanting of Lord

Kåñëa'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 mäyä 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 Mädhavendra Puré. He was never a false imitation, but

was a fully realized liberated soul. He travelled to spread the glories of Lord

 

Kåñëa and continuously chanted the holy name of the Lord without the slightest

desire for cheap popularity and reputation. Kindly remember his great

transcendental qualities. *

 

My dear mind, your desire for cheap reputation can be compared to the stool

of a hog. You are proud of being a Vaiñëava, but your actual behavior is less

than an ordinary civilized human being! Controlled by envy towards true

Vaiñëavas, 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 Kåñëa sankértana movement? *

 

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

Vaiñëava

principles and simply cheating to hide the real facts. You have acted just like

 

a false yogé whose only purpose is to mislead and cheat others. To save

yourself from this illusion you should remember and carefully study the

teachings

that Sanätana Gosvämi has so mercifully given in this regard for practising

devotional service properly in Kåñëa consciousness.' *

 

 

My dear mind, you should never, under any circumstances, allow yourself to

forget the two instructions of Sanätana Gosvämi. Constantly engage yourself in

loudly chanting the glories of the holy names of Lord Kåñëa!

Never consider dry renunciation and yukta-vairägya (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. *

 

The desire for enjoying cheap fame and material distinction acts like a

ferocious tigress who devours one's Kåñëa 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

Vaiñëava.

Someone with such Kåñëa conscious characteristics is truly unattached to

material life. He is actually a pure devotee of Lord Kåñëa! The material

bondage

to the repetition of birth and death is easily defeated by a pure devotee of

the Lord like him! *

 

Material facilities and gratification of the senses experienced while acting

for self-preservation or in the faithful execution of one's duties in Kåñëa

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 Kåñëa consciousness without attachment to the

objects of the senses, remaining conscious of his relationship as the eternal

servitor of Lord Kåñëa, 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 Mädhava (Kåñëa), i.e. they are seen in terms of how

they

can be utilized in the devotional service to Lord Mädhava (Kåñëa) and not

according to their material sense-gratificatory value. *

 

The devotee who engages his material possessions in the service of Lord Kåñëa

while regulating his material activities of sense gratification according to

the injunctions of the revealed sästras (refer to previous verse) is actually

a yukta-vairägé 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 Kåñëa), 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 kértana, or preaching the glories of the holy

name, but actually is motivated by pratisthä desires, i.e. 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 mäyä, the illusory energy. *

 

My dear mind, due to your false pride you sometimes think, “I am liberated

from all attachments to this material world!”, and other times you think, “I am

 

an expert enjoyer of material sense gratification!” You must reject both

these mentalities as both outlooks are totally “non-Vaiñëava”.

Instead you should remain fixed in your relationship as an eternal servitor

to Lord Kåñëa, performing unmotivated devotional service. This pure devotional

service belongs to the spiritual world which is far beyond the influence of

this material world of birth and death. While thus purely engaged in Kåñëa

consciousness it is not possible for the material illusion or material

contamination to remain. *

 

The mäyävädé's (impersonalist's) mentality is totally separate from Kåñëa

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 Kåñëa! Certainly your

desire is to achieve pure loving devotional service to Lord Kåñëa! 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 mäyävädé impersonalist's

practice of making a false show of renunciation and committing offenses

against the pure devotees of Lord? *

 

Someone, who falsely renounces objects as material, which can actually be

utilized in devotional service to Lord Kåñëa, is known as a phalgu-vairägé. Due

 

to false pride, he claims to be a great renunciate. However, by his practice of

 

dry renunciation, a phalgu-vairägé is never able to become a Vaiñëava, a pure

devotee of Lord Kåñëa.

Discarding the eternal shelter of pure devotional service to the lotus feet

of Guru and Lord Kåñëa, the phalgu-vairägé may practice what may appear to be

Kåñëa consciousness in his separate or solitary “home” away from the Kåñëa

consciousness association of the society of devotees, but what transcendental

result does he achieve for all his efforts? Whatever so-called Kåñëa conscious

result he is achieving is simply a form of material illusion with no actual

eternal Kåñëa conscious value! *

 

My dear mind, now, with determination, let us remain eternally in the service

of the servant of the servant of Çrématé Rädhäräné, the spiritual Embodiment

of the purest love for Kåñëa! 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 Kåñëa, as with these

material

desires one cannot realize the transcendental glories of congregational

chanting of the Holy Names of Lord Kåñëa in sankértana.

My dear mind, completely give up these illusory attachments and totally

surrender yourself in the service of Çrématé Rädhäräné's eternal devotees! Why

shall we leave the transcendental association of confidential devotees to

engage

in the cheating process of solitary worship (nirjana bhajana)? *

 

The Vrajaväsés' (eternal associates of Kåñëa in Våndävana considered by Lord

Caitanya Mahäprabhu to be the best and most perfect devotees) personal

treasure is preaching the glories of Lord Kåñëa. They are always glorifying

Kåñëa.

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 Kåñëa consciousness. Completely free from all motives for

personal

material reputation and temporary influence, the pure devotees are completely

and irrevocably bound to Lord Kåñëa through ties of loving devotional

service. *

 

This Çré-dayita däsa (His Divine Grace Bhaktisiddhänta Sarasvaté Öhäkura-the

humble servitor of the all-merciful Çrématé Rädhäräné) simply desires to be

absorbed in the nectar of spreading the glories of Lord Kåñëa's holy names. My

dear mind, now let us loudly chant the holy names of Kåñëa so we can

continuously remain in the ocean of transcendental nectar. The congregational

chanting

of the holy names of Kåñëa awakens the transcendental quality of natural

spontaneous loving remembrance of Lord Kåñëa (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 Çré Çré Rädhä-Kåñëa

is possible. *