The Sadhu's Symptoms

[Govindaram]

"The Sadhu's Symptoms"

Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.25.21

Bombay, November 21, 1974

 

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Nitai: ("The symptoms of a sadhu) are that he is tolerant, merciful and friendly to all living entities. He has no enemies, he is peaceful, he abides by the scriptures, and all his characteristics are sublime."

 

Prabhupada:

 

titiksavah karunikah

suhrdah sarva-dehinam

ajata-satravah santah

sadhavah sadhu-bhusanah

[sB 3.25.21]

 

In the previous verse Kapiladeva has recommended that sa eva sadhusu krtah. What is that?

 

prasangam ajaram pasam

atmanah kavayo viduh

sa eva sadhusu krto

moksa-dvaram apavrtam

 

There are two things: conditioned life and liberated life. Eight million, four hundred thousand forms of life there are. Jalaja nava-laksani sthavara laksa-vimsati. Nine lakhs forms of life in the water. Jalaja nava-laksani. (aside:) The child may be... Sthavara laksa-vimsati. The trees and plants, they are two million. Sthavara laksa-vimsati, krmayo rudra-sankhyakah. And the germs and insects, reptiles, they are eleven hundred thousand, eleven lakhs. Paksinam dasa-laksanam. Then birds, they are ten lakhs of forms. Then beasts, animals, so they are three millions forms. And then human beings, they are 400,000. Very small quantity. Of all the living entities, the human forms, they are very small number, 400,000. Asitim caturas caiva. Asitim means eighty, and catura means four. So 8,400,000 species of forms.

So prasangam ajaram pasam atmanah. Atma is the same, spirit soul. He has got the same form. But they are different dresses. They are having different dresses. Just like we are sitting so many. As human beings, we are the same, but we have got different dresses. Similarly, atma, the soul, the spirit soul, is the same. There is no difference. Therefore panditah sama-darsinah. One who knows what is the form of atma, he sees... Vidya-vinaya-sampanne brahmane gavi hastini... sama-darsinah [bg. 5.18]. He sees the animal, the cats and dogs, and a learned brahmana-sama-darsinah. Samata means not that brahmana is equal to the dog. No, not that. But he sees that brahmana is also a spirit soul, and the dog is also a spirit soul.

 

So this conditioned life... Dog has got a conditioned life, I have got a conditioned life, you have got a conditioned life. We are all conditioned, under different... And according to the condition, we have got different bodies. Karmana daiva-netrena [sB 3.31.1]. This conditioned life, different forms of life, we have got daiva-netrena, by superior, superior administration. Netrena means netrtva, leadership. So superior leadership. Just like Yamaraja. Karmana, according to my karma, he offers me some body. Daiva-netrena. Jantur deha upapatti. Karanam guna-sango 'sya sad-asad-janma-yonisu [bg. 13.22]. Karma... Guna-karma-vibhagasah [bg. 4.13]. Guna and karma... Just like here, in the practical world, you can work as an engineer, karma, if you have got the qualification. If you have got the qualification of a shopkeeper, you cannot act as engineer. That is not possible. If you have got the qualification of a teacher, educationist, then you can become a teacher.

 

So the whole world is going like that, guna-karma-vibhagasah. So guna means we are, according to our position or according to our mentality, we are infecting some guna, sattva-rajas-tamo-guna. So guna-karma, guna-karma-vibhagasah. Very scientific this is. You can become... If you acquire the qualities of a brahmana, then, and if you work as a brahmana, then guna-karma-vibhagasah, you become a brahmana. If you have the qualities of a ksatriya and if you work as a ksatriya, then you are ksatriya. If you have the qualification of a mercantile man, businessman, and if you work as a businessman or cultivator, then you become vaisya. This is very scientific. Not that one is classified according to the birth. No. According to qualification. Just like there is medical association. Medical association does not mean all the medical men in the association, they are born of the same family. No. They are born in different families. But because they have got qualification and working as medical man, they are admitted as the member of medical association or member of bar association. This is practically. Similarly, if you acquire the qualification of a brahmana and if you work as a brahmana, then you are accepted as a brahmana. Similarly ksatriya, similarly vaisya.

 

This is... It is, it is the authoritative statement of Narada. Yasya yal laksanam proktam varnabhivyanjakam. In the Bhagavad-gita, varnabhivyanjakam, how to decide to which class or which caste a certain man belongs to, so there are symptoms. Satyam saucam samo damah ksantir arjavam, jnanam vijnanam astikyam brahma-karma svabhava-jam [bg. 18.42]. So Narada Muni says, yasya yal laksanam proktam. These are the symptoms. So if such symptoms are visible in another place, then tat tenaiva vinirdiset [sB 7.11.35]. And Sridhara Svami has given his note that birth is not everything. One has to acquire the quality. Then he'll be classified. So prasangam ajaram. We are attached to some quality and some work. In this way we are getting different bodies, one after another. This body finished, we create another body. This life is creating another body. This is called prasangam ajaram. Attachment to the material qualities, we are conditioned. And suppose we have got now human form of body or in a very rich family, that is all right, but it will not continue. You have to give it up. And any moment, by the superior authority, when it is ordered, "Immediately please leave this position," you have to do it. This is called conditioned life. You cannot stay in any status of life for all the days. If you think that "I am American. I am very happy," that... That's all right. You're American, you're happy, or Indian, you are very happy. You have chalked out your plan how to continue happiness. But nature will not allow you to stay. Daivi hy esa gunamayi mama maya duratyaya [bg. 7.14]. As soon as nature will call back, "Please give up this post. Now take the post of a dog,"... Karmana daiva-netrena [sB 3.31.1]. "You have acted... You were given the most, I mean to say, exalted form of life, human being... You did not act as human being, you acted as a dog. Now you take the body of a dog." This is karmana daiva-netrena.

 

Therefore we must be very careful in this human form of life. Our aim should be how to become a devotee. So to become a devotee, Krsna conscious, because that is the path of liberation...

 

janma karma me divyam

yo janati tattvatah

tyaktva deham punar janma

naiti mam eti...

[bg. 4.9]

 

If you want to stop punar janma... Great, great personalities in India, they used to go to the forest to stop this repetition of punar janma. Just like Visvamitra Muni. Visvamitra Muni, when he approached Maharaja Dasaratha to take with him Ramacandra and Laksmana -- They were boys -- to kill the Tadaka Raksasi... There was some disturbance. So although Visvamitra Muni could kill, but no, that was not the brahmana's business. It was the, to kill, to..., was the, to punish, it was king's business. So therefore they approached. So at that time Maharaja Dasaratha greeted Visvamitra Muni: aihistam yat tat punar-janma-jayaya. Just like when we meet a friend, if he's a businessman... Suppose he comes to see me. I am a sannyasi, and he's a businessman. I ask him, "How your business is going on?" Because he's engaged in that way. And the gentleman who comes to see me, he will ask me, "Swamiji, how your preaching is going on?" He'll not ask me, "How your business is going on?"

 

So the punar-janma-jayaya aihistam. The brahmanas, the learned rsis, sages, they're especially engaged for punar-janma-jayaya, to conquer over the process of repetition of birth and death. That is the highest occupational... So every man is meant for that, punar-janma-jayaya. Unless we conquer this process of punar janma, bhutva bhutva praliyate [bg. 8.19], and if we simply waste our time like animals -- eating, sleeping, sex intercourse and defense -- then it is animal life. So especially in this age they cannot distinguish that what is the animal life and what is human life. They think, "The dog, animal, he is sleeping on the street, and I am sleeping on the twentieth floor of a nice apartment. Therefore I am civilized." The sastra says no. Either you sleep on the street or on the twenty-fourth story of apartment, you are sleeping. You are not doing any other thing. Simply the dog is eating without any plate, and suppose if you are eating in a golden plate. That does not mean the taste of the foodstuff has changed. No. The foodstuff given to the dog on the street, without any plate, and the foodstuff given to me in a golden plate, the taste is the same. And the value, food value, is the same. So we have to see in that way, that to improve the quality of eating, sleeping, mating... The dog is having sexual intercourse in the open street, and if we have sexual intercourse in a very secluded place and very nice bedstead, that does not change the quality. Therefore we should know it that simply by eating, sleeping, defending and sex life, that is animal life. Human life is meant for how to become free from this process of repetition of birth and death. That is liberation.

 

So here we have discussed last night that prasangam ajaram pasam atmanah. The bondage, conditioned life, more and more tightened. Yajnarthe karmano 'nyatra loko 'yam karma-bandhanah [bg. 3.9]. If you do not engage your life in activities of Krsna consciousness... That is called yajna. Yajna-purusa. Yajna means to sacrifice for the satisfaction of the Supreme Person. That is called yajna. (aside:) Go on.

 

atah pumbhir dvija-srestha

varnasrama-vibhagasah

svanusthitasya dharmasya

samsiddhir hari-tosanam

[sB 1.2.13]

 

If you want perfection of your activities... Different men have got different activities. That's all right. But try to make it perfect, samsiddha. Siddhaye, brahma-siddhaye. We have discussed all these things. And how it can be done? Samsiddhir hari-tosanam [sB 1.2.13]. If you satisfy Krsna, Hari, by your talent, by your activities, then you are successful. That should be the aim of human life. Sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam [bg. 18.66]. You don't try to engage yourself, entangle yourself for repetition of birth and death.

 

So how this can be achieved? That is suggested in the last verse: sa eva sadhusu krtah. The same attachment, as you are attached to these material activities, if you transfer that attachment to a sadhu, then your life is successful. We have got attachment for money, we have got attachment for woman, we have got attachment for nice house, we have attachment for our country, for our society, for our families, and so on, so on, so on. That attachment is called ajaram pasam. Pasam means rope. If you are tied up with a rope, hands and legs, then you are helpless. So we are actually tied up. Daivi hy esa gunamayi [bg. 7.14]. Therefore it is called guna. Guna means rope. We are tied up. We are not free. Just like we are trying to go to the moon planet so many years, but because we are not free, still we have not been successful to go there. So there are so many planets within this material world, we can go. We have got now machine, very speedy machine, but why we cannot go? Because you are conditioned. You cannot go by your whims. You must be qualified to go to certain planets. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gita:

 

yanti deva-vrata devan

pitrn yanti pitr-vratah

bhutani yanti bhutejya

yanti mad-yajino 'pi mam

[bg. 9.25]

 

So if you want to go, you must qualify yourself. Otherwise it is not so easy. Just like if you want to go to America, you must have qualification. You must have your visa, you must have your passport, you must have the... So many things -- if you want to be immigration or if you want to go as a visitor. Similarly, the other conn... If there are so many processes you have to undergo from this country to that country, is it possible that you want to go to another planet without such qualification? This is futile attempt. It is not possible. Therefore you are conditioned. It is called conditioned. We cannot go, we cannot move freely, without being sanctioned by the superior authority. So we generally say, "Not a blade of grass moves without the sanction of God." Similarly, we cannot do anything. Daivi hy esa. God does not take as the supervision personally. Parasya saktir vividhaiva sruyate [Cc. Madhya 13.65, purport]. Na tasya karyam karanam ca vidyate -- in the Vedas, Svetasvatara Upanisad. He hasn't got to do personally, but He has got so many agents to do. Parasya saktir vividhaiva sruyate. He has got so ma... They will do. You are not free even to twinkle with your eyelids. That is also being controlled. That information... You are moving this hand very freely. It can be immediately paralyzed. I am claiming that "I... It is my hand." What is your hand? It can be stopped immediately. Your eyes, it can be stopped.

 

So we must know that we are conditioned. So this is conditioned life. How you can improve conditioned life? Therefore our business is how to become liberated from all this condition. And that can be done only by sa eva sadhusu krto moksa-dvaram apavrtam. If you...You have got so many attachment for so many things. If you turn all this attachment to a sadhu... Sadhu-sanga sadhu-sanga sarva-sastre kaya. Caitanya Mahaprabhu advised, sadhu-sanga sadhu-sanga sarva-sastre kaya. In all the sastras they advise that to associate with the sadhu. Tyaja durjana-samsargam bhaja sadhu-samagamam. Even Canakya Pandita, a great politician... Bhaja sadhu-samagamam. Asat-sanga-tyaga ei vaisnava-acara [Cc. Madhya 22.87]. One grhastha Vaisnava, householder Vaisnava, he asked Caitanya Mahaprabhu that "What is the duty of a grhastha, householder Vaisnava?" So Caitanya Mahaprabhu said in two lines: asat-sanga-tyaga ei vaisnava-acara. "Don't associate with nonsense asadhus." Asat-sanga-tyaga ei vaisnava-acara. One line. A Vaisnava's behavior is to give up the association of demons, nondevotee. Because sadhu means devotee. Sadhur eva sa mantavyah [bg. 9.30].

 

So it is very, I mean to say, sincere, to avoid the company of sadhu. But at the present moment it is very difficult to find out the association of sadhu. Therefore our teeny effort is, this Krsna consciousness movement, to create an association of the sadhus so people may take advantage of this association, and then his life becomes liberated. And that is the aim and object of this association. It has no other object. People may say so many nonsense things, but our only object is that, as... Therefore we have given the name "Association of Krsna conscious persons." Krsna conscious means sadhu. Because Krsna says,

 

yoginam api sarvesam

mad-gatenantar-atmana

sraddhavan bhajate yo mam

sa me yuktatamo matah

[bg. 6.47]

 

"He is first class yogi." Who is that? "Who is always thinking of Me." And Krsna is advising, man-mana bhava mad-bhakto mad-yaji mam namaskuru [bg. 18.65]. Four things only. It is not very difficult thing. Always think of Krsna, man-manah. And without becoming devotee, how you can think of Krsna? You can think of your business, you can think of your dog, or you can think of your family, or you can think of your lovable object, woman or man and so many. But Krsna says, man-mana bhava mad-bhaktah: "You think of Me."

 

Because we have to think something. Without thinking we cannot remain. This is the simple process. Instead of thinking so many things, you simply think of Krsna. The sadhu will teach that. Sadhu's business... Why sadhu, to associate with sadhu, sadhu-sanga [Cc. Madhya 22.83]? Now, sadhu will not teach anything else. Adau sraddha tatah sadhu-sangah [Cc. Madhya 23.14-15]. This is the process of making spiritual advancement. If you have got any faith for making spiritual advancement, then you must associate with sadhus. Adau sraddha. Just like here people come. Here there is no other thing because here all the boys and girls and devotees, they are concerned with Radha-Krsna. That's all. The whole business, whole day's business, whole night's business, is Radha-Krsna. From early morning at three o'clock to night, ten o'clock, they have only business of Radha-Krsna. That's all. Therefore they are sadhu. Therefore they are sadhu. This is the symptom of sadhu. And so many people are criticizing. So many enemies we have got. We are not getting the sanction because there are so many enemies. We are creating "nuisance." We are chanting Hare Krsna mantra -- that is nuisance. This complaint is going to the police.

 

So that is very difficult. Therefore a sadhu is advised, titiksavah, tolerate! Tolerate all this nonsense! What can be done? We have no other alternative, to tolerate. Nobody's coming to help us. Our business is so thankless task. Because we are trying to create one temple, so many enemies, they are giving hindrance, "You cannot do it." Therefore titiksava. You have to remain sadhu. You cannot become asadhu. You have to tolerate. What can be done? Titiksavah karunikah [sB 3.25.21]. At the same time, you have to become merciful. You know what has happened in this place, Hare Krishna Land. So much attack by the police, by the Municipality, "Break this temple." So we could have gone, that "What is the use of taking so much botheration? We have got hundreds of temples outside India. If Bombay people are not liking, let us go away." No. Karunikah. We have come to distribute Krsna consciousness movement. We must tolerate and give this message to the people. Karunikah. Very merciful, in spite of all trouble. What is the use of...? These boys, these American boys, they have come to help me -- not that they are hungry, they have come here. No. My mission is that "You American, your, you chant Hare Krsna so that India, people of India will see, 'Oh, Americans, they are also chanting. Why not ourselves? It is our property.' " But unfortunately, so much dull brain. But that is not coming. But still, we have to do it. We have to tolerate and we have to become karunikah.

 

Therefore it is said that para-duhkha-duhkhi. Karunikah. Why karunikah? Why you should, one, you want to be merciful? Now, para-duhkha-duhkhi. Krpambudhir yas tam aham prapadye [Cc. Madhya 6.254]. A Vaisnava's business is para-duhkha-duhkhi. A Vaisnava understands that "These people, they are engaged like cats and dogs in sense gratification. They are misguided, and they'll be, next life they'll be punished for this misguidance. Let us do something for them." This is karunikah. Karuna. Karuna... Out of mercy. There is no question of getting something, money. No. Money we have got sufficient. Just to become merciful upon these fallen, conditioned souls, who are suffering on account of becoming animalistic, without any Krsna consciousness. Therefore the preacher, the sadhus... These are the sadhus. Titiksavah, tolerant. "Never mind. Whatever hindrances and tribulations they are offering to us, never mind. Tolerate." Titiksavah karunikah suhrdah [sB 3.25.21]. Suhrdah, means the heart is so nice. Su means nice, and hrd means heart. They have no other desire. Suhrdah. Suhrdah means... Just like there are different words: mitra, suhrdah, bandhu... And Sanskrit is very perfect language. Suhrdah. Suhrdah means a person who is always thinking of welfare for others. He's called suhrdah. Otherwise kuhrdah. The ordinary persons, they are thinking how to make him subdued, how to make him defeated, in competition. That is the polluted heart. And the Vaisnava, he's always thinking how a man can be saved from the clutches of maya. He's called suhrdah. He has no other desire. Suhrdah sarva-dehinam. Not "For my brother, or family," but sarva-dehinam, for all dehis, all dehis.

 

It is not that, that these human... Just like here-nationalism. What is this nationalism? Nationalism means to take care of the human beings and send the cows and goats to the slaughterhouse. This is going on, "nationalism." What do you mean by national? Nation... The definition is any living being born in that land, he is a national. So the cow is not born? The tree is not born in this land? But because they are not Krsna conscious, they cannot be kind to all the dehis. Sarva-dehinam. Dehi means anyone who has got this body. So somebody has got body human being, somebody has got the cow's body, somebody has a dog's body, somebody has tree's body. So the Vaisnava is so kind that suhrdah sarva-dehinam. He is kind not only to the human being: to the cats, dogs, to the trees, to the plants, to the insects. A Vaisnava will hesitate to kill even one mosquito. Sarva-dehinam. Not that "I shall take care of my brother. I am good, and my brother is good." No. Suhrdah sarva-dehinam. These are the Vaisnava qualifications.

 

Titiksavah karunikah suhrdah sarva-dehinam, ajata-satravah [sB 3.25.21]. Because he is living in that way, why others will be enemy? Or, he does not create enemy. They become enemy out of their own character. We do not create enemy, but due to the demonic qualification... How we can create enemy? Krsna says that sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam saranam vraja [bg. 18.66]. We are simply teaching, "My dear human being, my dear friend, you become a surrendered soul to Krsna." So what is our fault? So we don't create enemy, but they become enemy. We don't create enemy. Why shall I create enemy? Suhrdah sarva-dehinam. Why shall I create enemy? But they become, out of their own nature... Just like serpent. Nobody creates a serpent enemy, but he's already enemy. Sarpah krurah khalah krurah sarpat kruratarah khalah. Canakya Pandita says, "There are two crooked animals, or envious animals." What is that? One man, envious. Without any reason, he becomes envious. And there is one serpent, envious. Without any fault, it will bite, and your death. Sarpah krurah khalah krurah. Similarly, there are men -- without any offense, they'll become enemy. Unnecessarily. So Canakya Pandita says, sarpah krurah khalah krurah. There are two envious entities. Sarpat kruratarah khalah. The crooked man is more dangerous than the serpent. Why? Mantrausadhi-vasah sarpah: Sarpa, the serpent, can be subdued by mantra, by chanting, snake-chanting mantra, or by some herbs. Khalah kena nivaryate: The man envious, it cannot be subdued. Therefore he's more dangerous than the serpent.

 

So we are in this society, human society. Because we are spreading Krsna consciousness, the krurah, which is more dangerous than a snake, they are putting, putting so many impediments. But we have to tolerate. We have no other alternative. You see? Ajata-satravah santah. Be peaceful. What can be done? Depend on Krsna. Sadhavah. They are sadhu. They are sadhu. Sadhu-bhusanah. These are the ornament of sadhu. What is that? Titiksavah karunikah suhrdah sarva-dehinam [sB 3.25.21]. Sadhusu krtah. But you must know what is sadhu. First, sadhu is that he must be devotee. And if he's devotee, then all the symptoms are there. All the symptoms are there. These are the symptoms. Now, don't go to a sadhu... Sastra says that this is the sadhu. Now, you find out a sadhu and associate with him. Then your path of liberation will be open.

 

Thank you very much. Haribol. (end)

>>> Ref. VedaBase => Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.25.21 -- Bombay, November 21, 1974

 

[Guest guest]

HOW TO FIND A SADHU

 

Questions and Answers with

Sri Srimad Gour Govinda Swami Maharaja

 

 

Devotee: How does one recognize a sadhu?

 

Gour Govinda Swami:

Cry before Krishna.

Only He can help you to find a sadhu.

You

can’t recognize a sadhu.

You have no vision

to see the sadhu.

If you try by yourself to

recognize sadhu,

then you will be cheated.

If

you are serious,

then cry before Him.

“O

Krishna! I am your servant!”

 

Mahaprabhu has taught us this. This is crying

before Krishna.

“O nanda-tanuja, son of Nanda

Maharaja, I am your kinkara,

your servant.

Somehow or other I am fallen here in this

dreadful ocean of material existence and I have

been drowning from time immemorial.

But I

want to serve you. How can I serve you?

How

can I become a speck of dust at Your lotus feet?

Please help me.”

Just cry.

Without the help of

sadhu you cannot approach Krishna. You can’t

utter Krishna’s name. When you cry like that,

Krishna is there in your heart as paramatma

He will say,

“Oh, now he is crying for Me.”

Then he makes an arrangement.

This is the proper way.

If by your own effort

you try to recognize a sadhu you will be

cheated.

You can’t see a sadhu.

You have no

vision at all.

You see only all outward,

external

things.

You can’t see the real thing.

There are

many persons who are only outwardly sadhus.

You will be enchanted by their external

activities:

“Oh he is a great sadhu! Yes, he is

producing gold!”

You will be cheated.

You can’t get a real sadhu [in this way].

A

real sadhu is one who is completely absorbed

in Krishna, day and night, twenty-four hours.

He has gotten Krishna.

He is with Krishna.

He can give you Krishna.

You can’t see him.

You have no vision.

Only you can cry for

Krishna from the core of your heart.

This is

not an external cry. It is internal.

Then

Krishna, who is in your heart, will see that

you are crying and he will help you.

He will

make arrangement for you to meet such a

sadhu.

That is the arrangement of Krishna.

When you meet such a person you will feel

some spontaneous attraction from the core

of your heart.

That attraction is the proof.

 

Devotee: To meet a sadhu is so rare. How

can one get the opportunity?

 

Gour Govinda Swami:

It’s a fact that it

is rare, but if you are really crying for it

then Krishna can make an arrangement.

It is impossible for you,

but nothing is

impossible for Krishna.

 

— Home program in Vancouver, Canada, May 1993.