Harinama Cintamani – Part 3 – by HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj @ ISKCON Japan on Feb 5, 2021
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
So previously in Nāmābhāsa, there was one category is there among the Anarthas of Aparādh. So, there were actually four types of aparādhs there. There was the Nama Aparādh, there was Seva Aparādh, Vaishnava Aparādh, and Jiva Aparādh.
So Bhaktivinoda Thakur now dedicates ten chapters to the ten Nama aparādhas. So, the first aparādh is called Sādhu-nindā. This is a Vaishnava aparādh. And as we know Vaishnava aparādh is like a mad elephant. When an elephant gets mad, it destroys. So, this is offending the Vaishnavas and criticizing them.
So, this phrase is called Sādhu-nindā, which means criticizing the Sadhu. So, who is the Sadhu? Who is this devotee? So, a person who is an illiterate will think, anybody who is doing some sort of worship or austerity is a devotee. However, the word “Sadhu” for the Vaishnava means a devotee of the Lord.
So how do we define the devotee? In the scriptures, there are many qualities of the devotee mentioned. So, we have things like tolerance, detachment, peacefulness, merciful. But the main quality is surrender to Krishna. Of all the other qualities are there, there is no surrender to Krishna, then he is not a devotee.
So, we have many qualities of devotees. And particularly when trying to select a guru, then we may have all sorts of conceptions which are actually not proper standards by which to judge devotees. Of course, many of these may refer to very neophyte devotees, but they judge completely wrong. They will have all sorts of misconceptions. They may judge based on varṇā, which means the brahmana etc. So generally, they will think, oh, he has to be a brahmana in order to be a good devotee. And if he is born in a Vaishnava family, they will say, well, I don’t want to take initiation from that person.
Another consideration is āśrama. We know that of all the āśramas – Brahmacharya, Grahastha, Vanaprastha and Sannyasa, Sannyasa is the highest āśrama. So, the devotee may think, I have to have a Sannyasa Guru. However, if we look at Lord Chaitanya’s Sampradaya, most of the Gurus were Grahastha’s. Some people may think that age is a qualification, so the older the person, the more qualified they are. But we see that sometimes someone may be very young and hardly qualified.
Sukadeva Goswami was 16 years old, but he was so qualified that even Narada Muni and Vedavyasa listened to Bhagavatam. Some devotees may consider strength and beauty to be important, and if the Guru has those things, then they’ll say, He is my guru. Others may think that he has to have a lot of money, so if the Guru has more money, he’s a better guru. And some may consider number of disciples to be qualifications, if the Guru has many disciples, he’s a better Guru than a Guru that has one disciple. All of these are material qualifications, and we should not think of devotees or any Gurus in terms of these material qualifications.
Okay. So, all devotees, unless they have Prema, can show some fault. So, as we progress in Bhakti, the anarthas, the faults, gradually disappear. So, if you reach niṣṭhā stage, some anarthas are destroyed, and Bhakti is quite strong. But the anarthas are there, they manifest.
Translator devotee: Manifest (which one)?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Yeah, the anarthas. So, in this diagram here, the anarthas are the brown part, aparādhaas are the blue part, and the Bhakti part is the purple part. We see that when you are in niṣṭhā, ruci, and āsakti, there is still some brown portion there. So, some anarthas can manifest. But even though devotees may show faults because they are not in prema, still, we don’t like to criticize them. And the sign of an advanced devotee is that he does not criticize other devotees.
So, the devotional creeper grows when we avoid aparādhas, and particularly the sādhu-nindā aparādha. And the opposite, that is, association with devotees, respecting devotees. This is how Bhakti grows.
So, in Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, there it says that one should take the water that has washed the feet of the devotee and drink it. One should take the dust from his feet and smear it on the body, and one should take the food remnants of the devotee and eat it, and one can advance by that. So, the devotees like to give out mercy. The mercy ultimately is coming from Krishna. The devotees are actually distributing Krishna’s mercy.
We can criticize devotees for different things. One may criticize his low birth. He’s born as a sudra, so he’s not a good devotee. One can criticize his life before he became a devotee. Before he became a devotee, he did some very bad activities. One can criticize some slight tendencies that we see faults in the devotee at the moment due to past activities. Or he may committed a sinful activity. So, if we keep criticizing devotees for these different things, then what this does is this interrupt this flow of mercy.
We have the mercy flowing from Krishna to devotee to another devotee. But if you start committing all these criticisms of devotees, then that flow of mercy gets blocked. In Bhagavad-gītā, in chapter 9, there Krishna says that even if you commit the most abominable activity, sinful activity, if the person is engaged in devotional service, he is to be considered saintly. He is still a devotee.
And this is just the common theory of Vishwanath Chakravarti on that verse. So, Krishna says that He is very attached to His devotee. And even if the devotee commits a mistake, still, the Lord does not reject him. The Lord makes some arrangements by which he can come to a higher standard.
So, if that person commits some very sinful activity, but he worships Krishna, and he does not worship anybody else, he does not follow any process of Karma and Jnana, and if he has no other desire except Prema, then the Lord accepts him as a devotee. Of course, people may doubt this [Laughs]. How can this be? Because if a person becomes sinful, he may even be a devotee?
So, Krishna says in this verse “sādhur eva sa mantavyaḥ” So, you should respect him as a devotee. Mantavya means you must respect him as a devotee. This is a command of the Lord. And if you don’t follow the command, then you become an offender. Then one may object, or respect his devotional qualities, but then the other part of him, the sinful qualities, will think of that as something else. But then Krishna says, no, “sādhur eva sa mantavyaḥ” – he is only a devotee. That’s all.
Translator devotee: Only a devotee ?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: He is a devotee and he(Lord) don’t look at anything else. No sinful activity. So, why the Lord gives him such respect? Because he is “samyag vyavasito”, he is completely fixed, convinced.
Translotor devotee: Completely fixed?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: hmm, In the Lord. That person has made a vow never to give up the worship of the Lord. So, Krishna appreciates that.
So, what causes Sādhu-nindā or the criticism of the Vaisnavas? The main cause is bad association – asat. So, there are different types of asat people. Associating with a woman outside of marriage, that’s called asat. If someone is married, but is under the control of his wife, that is considered to be asat-saṅga. If we associate with people who associate with other women, that is called asat-saṅga. Māyāvādis are asat people [Laughs]. People who pretend to be devotees, but they’re not, those are asat people. So, atheists and Devata worshippers are considered asat. So, if we associate with these types of people, then we can start to criticize devotees. And therefore, we have to choose our association very carefully.
So, this is actually a verse which is mentioned in Nectar of Devotion (Nod – 1.2.229). So, a person develops the qualities of the people he associates with. Just like if we put a clear crystal near a red flower, it becomes red. So, we have to choose our association carefully.
So, there are different types of devotees, and the kaniṣṭha, he doesn’t associate properly. Then he may associate with a lot of non-devotees. He doesn’t have Sambandha-jñāna, therefore he has abhash. So, it is very possible that the kaniṣṭha can start to criticize devotees, because he doesn’t appreciate devotees. He has association with non-devotees.
So, the next type of devotee is called the madhyma-adhikārī. So, this is actually a very healthy state. This person associates with devotees. Somebody gets Sambandha-jñāna. He serves the advanced devotees. He associates in a friendly manner with the equal devotees. He gives mercy to the kaniṣṭhas. He avoids all the asat people, like bad associates. He chants śuddha nāmā. Therefore, he avoids nāmāparādh and sādhu-nindā. So, he distinguishes the Vaishnavas from the non-Vaishnavas. So, this is more or less summarizes this madhyma-adhikārī. The main item here is that he associates nicely with devotees. He avoids the non-devotees. And therefore, he avoids nāmāparādh and sādhu-nindā. So, this shows the different types of association of the madhyma-adhikārī. He is friendly with the equal devotees. He serves superior devotees. He gives mercy to the inferior devotees, to the kaniṣṭha. He avoids the non-devotees.
So the Uttama-adhikārī sees Krishna everywhere and everything. So, he has realized all knowledge. He realizes Krishna in the name. So, there’s no possibility of committing nāmāparādh. And he does not even distinguish Vaishnava and non-Vaishnava.
Everybody is equal. So, this is just a summary of that Uttama-adhikārī. He realizes Krishna in the name, no nāmāparādh, realizes Sambandha-jñāna, sees Krishna and everything, does not distinguish Vaishnavas.
Translator devotee: This stage is prema bhakta or bhava or .. ?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Yeah, prema.
Translator devotee: Only prema?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Upper bhava.. This is just a description of the Uttama-adhikārī from the 11th canto.
ŚB 11.2.45
śrī-havir uvāca
sarva-bhūteṣu yaḥ paśyed
bhagavad-bhāvam ātmanaḥ
bhūtāni bhagavaty ātmany
eṣa bhāgavatottamaḥ
Translation
Śrī Havir said: The most advanced devotee sees within everything the soul of all souls, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Consequently he sees everything in relation to the Supreme Lord and understands that everything that exists is eternally situated within the Lord.
So, he sees the Supreme Lord in everything. And he sees everything in the Supreme Lord. This may look a little impersonal. But the example given for this is the Gopis. So, the Gopis, when they look at the tree, and they are thinking the trees are the greatest devotees of Krishna. If they see the river, they think the river is serving Krishna. If they see the trees, they see the trees are the best devotees because they’re offering fruit to Krishna.
This is just again another verse from the Bhagavatam, and this is a description of the Gopis.
ŚB 10.21.15
nadyas tadā tad upadhārya mukunda-gītam
āvarta-lakṣita-manobhava-bhagna-vegāḥ
āliṅgana-sthagitam ūrmi-bhujair murārer
gṛhṇanti pāda-yugalaṁ kamalopahārāḥ
Translation
When the rivers hear the flute-song of Kṛṣṇa, their minds begin to desire Him, and thus the flow of their currents is broken and their waters are agitated, moving around in whirlpools. Then with the arms of their waves the rivers embrace Murāri’s lotus feet and, holding on to them, present offerings of lotus flowers.
So, they describe the rivers as hearing Krishna’s flute. Then the waves get broken up, and the waters get agitated, and they go in whirlpools. The river gets into ecstasy by hearing Krishna’s flute. So, when Krishna goes into the Yamuna River, then the waves, they grab His lotus feet, and they start to offer lotuses to Him. The great devotees see everything as somehow serving Krishna.
So, if one commits sādhu-nindā, then what do we do? We have to feel repentance or regret. And we have to ask forgiveness of the devotee. So, if we follow this process, then we don’t get the bad effects of sādhu-nindā. But if we don’t follow this procedure, then the offense will grow and our Bhakti will decrease.
Okay. I have to leave at 9 o’clock because I have another conference call.
Translator devotee: Another 15 minutes?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Yeah.
Translator devotee: We have 15 minutes, Maharaj?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Yeah. Yeah.
Q & A
1. Maharaj, what are the different levels of surrendering, surrender to Krishna?
Well, of course we have these levels – bhajana-kriyā, anartha-nivṛttiḥ, niṣṭhā, ruci, āsakti, bhāva, and prema. Those are the general levels.
Translator Devotee: Maharaj, I hear that some devotees say that about association, we should (give some) percentage (to each type of devotees). We have three different associations. Should (we give) 60% association (with) equal devotees.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: What is that?
Translator Devotee: Serving the higher devotees equally and giving mercy etc. In that, 60% give to equal level devotees and 20% serving the higher Vaisnavas. Then 20% give to neophytes..
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Oh, I see [Laughs]. I never heard that. They vary according to the circumstance [Laughs]. If there are no superior devotees, then you can only serve equal devotees.
Translator Devotee: These three levels should be the balance?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Well, I think it’s according to opportunity also. So, sometimes if there is no senior devotees or no junior devotees, you have equal devotees. Sometimes they’re all junior devotees. So, you can’t make a rule like that.
Translator Devotee: Yeah, about opportunities. Because I’m thinking that I’m very, especially now, mostly the case, associate the junior and give knowledge to outside people. I’m thinking then this is a little unbalanced [Laughs]
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Too much kaniṣṭhas, we’ll see. [Laughs]
Translator Devotee: Do you think, this is not so good? [Laughs]
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Yeah, well, we should balance.
2. Maharaj, how can we differentiate between sin and offense?
Sins are generally against the living entities in general. Offence has to do with devotees, Bhakti and Krishna.
3. Dandavat Pranams Maharaj. Maharaj when we don’t have senior devotees around us, when we listen to their videos or read their books, does it also includes in devotee association?
Oh Yes, definitely!!
Of course, you may not be able to ask questions. [Laughs].
Devotee: Thank you, Maharaj.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Hare Krishna.
General conversation:
Devotee: Maharaj, tomorrow, Bhagavatam class?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Oh, no, no. I have a class here. This weekend, I have classes in Melbourne.
Devotee: Oh, ok Maharaj. So, then we can do Monday again, 6 o’clock, Harinam Chintamani?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Monday, Monday, Monday… Yeah, I haven’t got my program worked out with the temple. Okay, Monday is ok.
Devotee: Ok, Maharaj. Thank you, Maharaj.
Devotees: HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj Ki.. Jai !!