Taror api sahisnuna..

Govindaram · August 29, 2003

Sistashaka

verse 3

tåëäd api sunécena taror iva sahiñëunä

amäninä mänadena kértanéyaù sadä hariù

tåëäd - than a blade of grass; api - even; sunécena - being low; taroù - as a tree; iva - just as; sahiñëunä - being tolerant; amäninä - not being proud; mänadena - by giving honour; kértanéyaù - to be chanted; sadä - always; hariù - Hari.

The holy name of Lord Hari should always be chanted in great humility. One should think oneself to be lower than a blade of grass, one should be as tolerant as a tree, one must offer all honour to others and one should never expect any honour for oneself.

Before revealing this third verse of the Çikñäñöakam, Çréman

Mahäprabhu, the descension who purifies the age of quarrel

(kaliyuga pävanävatära), told Çré Svarüpa Dämodara and Rämä-nanda Räya:

ye rüpe loile näma prema upajäya

tähära lakñaëa çuno svarüpa räma räya

"O Svarüpa and Räma Räya! Listen to the means by which the

holy name can awaken prema!"

The holy name of Lord Hari should always be chanted in

great humility. One should think oneself to be lower than a

blade of grass, one should be as tolerant as a tree, one must offer all honour to others and one should never expect any hon-our for oneself. At the end of the Ädi-lélä of Çré Caitanya Caritämåta, Çréla Kåñëa Däsa Kaviräja Gosvämé writes the following verse:

ürdhva bähu kori çuno sarva loka

näma sütre gäìthi poro kaëöhe ei çloka

"Raise your arms, all you people, and listen: string this verse ona thread and wear it around your neck!"

When a speaker wants to reach people who are far away

from him he speaks out loud with raised hands, so that every-one will notice him and pay attention. In this way Çréla Kaviräja Gosvämé says to all chanters that they should wear this verse around a neck just like one's neckbeads. If one does not follow this formula, it will be difficult to attain the results of näma-saìkértana.

In the previous verse it was discussed that there is nothing

else but offenses that prevents the full power of the holy name to manifest itself. Here Çréman Mahäprabhu teaches all the people of the world that the only way to protect oneself from offenses is to chant the holy name with great humility.

When He instructed Çréla Rüpa Gosvämé, Çréman Mahäprabhu compared offenses committed against the devotees to a mad elephant which uproots the tender vine of one's devotion from the heart. There is no other way than to fence off one's vine-of-devotion with the shield of humility:

yadi vaiñëava aparädha uöhe häthé mätä

upäòe vä chiëòe tära çuki yäy pätä

täte mälé yatna kori kore ävaraëa

aparädha hasté yaiche nä hoy udgama

(Çré Caitanya Caritämåta)

It is also said:

dénatä mäna dattädi çila kÿpta mahävåtiù

bhakti kalpa nåbhiù pälyä çravaëädyämbu secanaiù

"One should build a strong wall of humility and protect one's vine of devotion by giving honour to others around it, sprin-kling the vine with the water of hearing and chanting."

"Humility" means to naturally always consider oneself to be

very unqualified. Çrémat Sanätana Gosvämé defined humility

as follows in his Båhad Bhägavatämåta:

yenäsädharaëäçaktädhama buddhiù sadätmani

sarvotkarñäëvite'pi syäd budhais tad dainyam iñyate

yayä väcehayä dainyaà matyä ca sthairyam eti tat

täà yatnena bhajed vidväàs tad viruddhäni varjayet

"The wise men call humility that feeling which makes the most qualified person consider oneself to be low and unqualified. Intelligent practising devotees should follow in the footsteps of those in whose hearts this humility is fixed, with their words, activities and intelligence, and they should never act contrary to this."

The above mentioned humility, which makes the most quali-fied person consider oneself to be low and unworthy, is not

ordinary humility. It is the natural condition of a surrendered soul who has illuminated his spiritual self by returning to his constitutional position. When a fortunate person, who has surrendered to the Lord's lotus feet by the mercy of a bonafide teacher, advances on the path of devotion, he will experience the authority of God more and more as the dense darkness of his false bodily consciousness vanishes and his real identification

as God's servant awakens.

The practising devotee will ulti-mately give up all his own false authority, throwing it into the ocean of God's authority by means of full surrender to the Lord's

feet, and thus becoming a liberated soul. As long as he is in hismaterial body he will have to deal and speak with people of the world, but as soon as he senses even the slightest feeling of personal authority coming up in him, he feels greatly upset. An urge of humility will arise in his heart and he will at once give up his false feeling of authority. That is the natural humility of a devotee, and the valuable treasure of a devotee's sädhana (spir-itual

practice). Çrémat Sanätana Gosvämé says that there is not

much difference between humility and devotion. Both are im-petuses for each other.

The holy name will be pleased with such humility of the

devotee and in this way all offenses to the Vaiñëavas will vanish.

Thus humility attracts the mercy of the holy name. Our

eyes are very tender, yet they are the most important of the

knowledge-aquiring senses, and because even the slightest thing can cause great damage to them, the Lord has created our eye-lids to always protect them. If, by chance, a speck of dust falls on the eye, the fine nerves in the eye immediately produce water to drive the dust out of the eye's realm. In the same way, humility drives out the offenses that hamper our devotion and make our hearts free from them.

With this verse tåëäd api sunécena, Çréman Mahäprabhu teaches the practising devotees how to observe the limit of humility. Humility is the very life-force of the chanting of the holy name. Chanting without humility is lifeless, therefore the chanter must become specifically

aquainted with these great words of Çréman Mahäprabhu.

The Lord said: tåëäd api sunécena -

"The practising devotee should feel as humble as a blade of grass." A blade of grass is a very insignificant thing, but it is still very important since it serves the cows as foodstuff and through that the cows give milk with which the Lord can be served. Roofs of houses and temples can also be made with grass. "But", the devotee should

think, "no service has ever been done through me." In this wayhe considers himself to be even lower than a blade of grass. The devotee should humbly think: "When someone steps on a blade of grass, the grass will rise again after the foot has gone off him, but I never get up so unharmed and unoffended if someone kicks me with the foot."

Certainly these feelings of humility must be developed by the practising devotee. As long as one does not realize one's lowness with one's heart and mind, and only feigns humility on the outside, verbally for instance, the

perfection of this tåëäd api sunécena-mood is not attained. Real humility is mental humility. There is no greater deceit than to feign humility through one's gestures and words and being actually filled with false pride within one's mind. Such false humility will never purify anyone's heart.

Then taror iva sahiñëuëä - The devotee should be as

tolerant as a tree. Even when the tree is cut down, he will not say anything, but will silently tolerate it. He will not consider the cutter to be his enemy, but will even serve him by shading him and offering him his fruits. Chettuù pärçvagatäà chäyäà nopasaàharate drumaù. That is an example of the limit of hu-mility.

Çrémad Bhägavata mentions the story of the brähmaëa-mendicant from Avantépura, and in Caitanya Bhägavata it is

described how Çréla Haridäsa Öhäkura tolerated the beatings

of the Muslims in twenty-two market places. When the Mus-lims tried to beat him to death, Çréla Haridäsa Öhäkura prayed to the Lord for their welfare:

e sab jévere kåñëa koroho prasäda

mora drohe nahu e sabhära aparädha

"O Kåñëa! Be merciful upon all these people, so that they will not offend You by torturing me like this!"

Even if a tree dries up and dies because nobody sprinkles

him with water, he will not ask anyone for water. Rather, hewill serve everyone with his fruits, wood, leaves and resin. The tree patiently tolerates the scorching sunrays in the summer, the pouring rain in the monsoon-time and the freezing cold in the winter. In the same way, the devotees should practise tolerance similar to that of the tree, serving even those who harrass, hurt and insult them without being angry with anyone. The devotee never asks anything from anyone, but rather donates whatever he can give to others, patiently tolerating all the pain

they may give to him.

Amäninä mänadena - The devotee never expects any hon-our

from anyone but he honours all other living entities at all

times, knowing that his beloved Lord dwells in all of them.

There is no-one in the world that he should disrespect. Çrémad Bhägavata states:

antar deheñu bhütänäm ätmas te harir éçvaraù

sarvaà taddhiñëyam ékñadhvam eva vas toñito hy asau

"Lord Hari dwells in the hearts of all living beings as their Supreme Self, and as they are His dwelling place, they should also be satisfied."

Each body is the temple of Hari, because He dwells in eve-ryone, therefore everyone is respectable for a devotee. The temple may be broken, misformed, uncultured or dirty, but it is still worshipable for the devotee. In the same way, according to worldy view some people are low or unimportant, but they are still respectable for the devotee. Therefore Çrémad Bhägavata

(11.29.16) states: praëamed daëòavad bhümäv açva caëòäla go

kharam - "One should offer prostrated obeisances even to the

horses, the outcastes, the cows and the donkeys, knowing that the Supreme Self dwells in them."

Brähmaëädi caëòäla kukkura anta kori,

daëòavat koribek bahu mänya dhari

(Caitanya Bhägavata) - "One should offer prostrated obeisances to thebrähmaëas, the outcastes and the dogs, giving them great honour."

In such a humble state a devotee should always do hari

kértana. Such chanting will destroy all offenses committed in this life and in previous lives and will swiftly bless the devotee with the treasure of prema. kértanéyaù sadä hariù.

One may ask here: "Is it possible for any neophyte to be lower than a blade of grass and more tolerant as a tree? Why did Mahäprabhu mention such a difficult condition, whereas His path of devotion is supposed to be so easily practised?" Certainly such a critical question may be asked, but we must consider that the goal of the path of devotion is only attainable by mercy. When the neophyte anxiously takes shelter of the holy name, in order to chant without offenses, then he will become qualified in all respects, simply by the grace of the holy name.

In this regard we have heard a true story from our most worshipable Çré Gurudeva, which occurred in Vraja.

We could not control the desire to write that story down here on this occasion. Long ago one highly educated person came from Ben-gal to Våndävana, desiring to live in Vraja and to receive in-structions and initiation from a genuine Guru. He used to come regularly to a famous bhajanänandé mahätma, (a great saint who loves to worship God) who understood from speaking with him that the aspirant was inwardly proud of his learning. Although the aspirant had asked him for initiation and instruction, the mahätma did not lend an ear to the request.

One day, when the aspirant came to him blubbering about initiation, the mahätma told him that he could get initiated if he brought him within seven days a person or an object that was in all respects inferior

to him (the aspirant).

At first the aspirant thought: "O, what's so difficult about

that? Almost everyone in this world is inferior to me! I can

bring anyone along with me to my guru!" But by the grace of that mahätma the aspirant became more and more aware of his

own faults and others' qualities. After all, all of Lord Brahmä's creatures are a mixture of qualities and faults!

Thinking like this, the aspirant could not find any human being inferior to himself. Then he began to look for an inferior being within the animal and bird world, but there also he was unsuccessful, because each animal and bird has some qualities which even human beings don't have! Finally he searched amongst the trees and vines, but there he was also unsuccessful, because Mahä-prabhu had instructed the Vaiñëavas to be as tolerant as a tree

(so trees were definitely superior to him).

In this way he spent six days searching. There was only one day left, and if he could not find anyone inferior to him today, then he would not get initiated. In the morning of the seventh day, the aspirant went out into the field to pass stool with a very agitated mind. It was, after all, his initiation-day. While he was passing stool, he

thought: "Aw, this stool is inferior to me in all respects!

Let me tell that to my Guru!" But by the grace of his teacher his intelligence had become so much trained in seeing others' qualities and his own faults that he began to think: "Brother, just see! You say that this stool is inferior to you, but before this sub-stance came in contact with you, it was divine prasäda offered to the deity. Now, because you wanted to stay alive and you wanted to feed your body, it has become such a disgusting sub-stance!

Is there anybody lower than he who gives himself such a

nice substance for feeding his own body and turns it into something so bad?" Thinking like this, the aspirant became startled and thought to himself: "No, no! This substance is also much better than me!" Meanwhile a worm crawled into the stool and the aspirant thought: "Now I have it! This worm in the stool is inferior to me in every respect!" But then he began to think about the worm, saying to himself: "Brother! You have turned the Lord's prasäda into this stool and you cannot make it pure anymore, but this worm will ultimately make this stool merge with the earth again, and even that you cannot do! In that respect

you are inferior!"

Although Çréla Kåñëa Däsa Kaviräja Gosvämé is praisewor-thy

by the whole world, when he described the mercy of Çréla

Nityänanda Prabhu in Caitanya Caritämåta, he said:

jagäi mädhäi hoite mui se päpiñöha

puréñera kéöa hoite mui se laghiñöha

mora näma çune yei, tara puëya-kñaya

mora näma loy yei, tära päpa hoy

emon nirghåëa more kebä kåpä kore

eka nityänanda vinu jagata bhitore?

"I am more sinful than Jagäi and Mädhäi and i am lower than

a worm in stool. Anyone who hears my name loses his pious

merit and anyone who pronounces my name commits a sin.

Which non-envious person in the world other than Lord

Nityänanda would bestow mercy on such a disgusting person?"

How can such a person, who is praised by the whole world,

experience that he is inferior to a worm in stool? And if he only spoke humble words, and was not really humble within his heart, wouldn't that be the greatest deceit?

Therefore, this experience can only come to a great saint or to a fortunate soul who has received the mercy of a great soul. This can never be experienced by anyone else.

Anyway, the aspirant finished his bath and went to his mas-ter.

The master asked him: "And, did you bring that which is

inferior to you in all respects?" The aspirant offered his pros-trated obeisances and said: "O master! By your mercy I have seen within these seven days that if there is any thoroughly low creature or substance in this world, then it is me! There is no lower creature in the whole world than me!" The mahätma laughed and embraced the candidate, saying:

"You have brought yourself here after giving up your pride and accepting a humble mood. Now there is no more obstacle to your initiation!" By the mercy of that saint, the aspirant was then blessed with a life full of tasteful bhajana.

Çréman Mahäprabhu Himself explained this verse as follows:

uttama hoiyä äpanäke mäne tåëädhama

dui prakäre sahiñëuta kore våkña sama

våkña yeno käö-leo kichu nä boloy

çukhäiyä moile käre päni nä mägoy

yei ye mägoye täre deya äpana dhana

gharma våñöi sohe, änere koroye rakñaëa

uttama hoiyä vaiñëava hobe nirabhimäna

jéve sammäna dibe jäni kåñëa adhiñöhäna

ei mata hoiyä yei kåñëa näma loy

çré kåñëa caraëe tara prema upajoy

"Although the devotee is the most elevated person, he considers himself to be lower than a blade of grass, and he tolerates everything in two ways, just like a tree. Even when a tree is cut, he does not say anything, and even when he dries up and dies, he does not ask anyone for water. Nevertheless, he gives his own wealth for free to anyone who may ask for it, protecting others while tolerating heat and rain. Although the Vaiñëava is the greatest personality, he is devoid of pride and he honours

all living beings, knowing that Kåñëa dwells in them. Whoever chants the name of Kåñëa in this way will attain love for Çré Kåñëa's lotus feet."

By Sri Ananta Das Babaji Maharaja

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