Text 14
sammārjita-mahā-mārga-
rathyāpaṇaka-catvarām
siktāṁ gandha-jalair uptāṁ
phala-puṣpākṣatāṅkuraiḥ
Translation
The highways, subways, lanes, markets and public meeting places were all thoroughly cleansed and then moistened with scented water. And to welcome the Lord, fruits, flowers and unbroken seeds were strewn everywhere.
Purport
Scented waters prepared by distilling flowers like rose and keora were requisitioned to wet the roads, streets and lanes of Dvārakā-dhāma. Such places, along with the marketplace and public meeting places, were thoroughly cleansed. From the above description, it appears that the city of Dvārakā-dhāma was considerably big, containing many highways, streets and public meeting places with parks, gardens and reservoirs of water, all very nicely decorated with flowers and fruits. And to welcome the Lord such flowers and fruits with unbroken seeds of grain were also strewn over the public places. Unbroken seeds of grain or fruits in the seedling stage were considered auspicious, and they are still so used by the Hindus in general on festival days.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj :
So this just continues the description of the decorations of the city to welcome Krishna.
And of course, one welcomes anyone and there is similar type of preparations and decorations. For the Supreme Lord, similar type of decorations, but even more elaborate.
Of course, in the material world, there is a limit. So we can worship a person with garlands and flowers, etc. How many flowers and how many garlands we can offer the person is the limit. So in the material world, worship is limited. Of course, the other limitation is the motive behind the worship in the material world. And in the material world, the worship is always accompanied by some sort of conditions. We expect something back. We often see that politicians get worshipped. So they’re given lots of garlands.
When all these people are offering garlands, they’re expecting to get some favors from that minister or whoever. So we know that this is not pure devotion. So when we’re worshipping the Lord, we try to get rid of such motivations and offer simply to please the Lord.
In the material world, of course, there’s still a limitation. Our offering of flowers and garlands and fruit is material. Nothing is perfect. All we can do is try to present the best of those items, the best flowers, the best fruit. So that is a sign of our devotion. We try to offer the best article, the most perfect article, so the Lord will be pleased.This is a practice. And the practice will lead to perfection. So when we are perfect, then the offerings become spiritual and the devotion is perfect.
In the spiritual world, there’s no need to select the perfect fruit and flower because everything is perfect. And the devotees there offer everything to the Lord with pure devotion. If they don’t have that pure devotion they wouldn’t be there in the spiritual world. But all of those offerings are simply an expression of their affection for the Lord. They’re not offering garlands or fruit or food because they want something from the Lord.
So because of that pure devotion, the Lord is very pleased. And because the Lord is pleased, the devotee experiences bliss. But whether the Lord is pleased or not, that is not the motive of the devotee because he doesn’t want to simply think, I’m getting bliss out of this. So his motive is not the bliss, but simply the pleasure of the Lord. So the spiritual world is perfect. The material world is not perfect. So our sadhana also is not perfect. All we can do is try to do our best. But there will be mistakes.
All the things we offer will not be perfect. But we strive to do the best we can. So that is what is acceptable by the Lord. He accepts it because of our particular endeavor. So in that way, we do devotional service. But there has to be a certain type of determination and intensity to that service and then the Lord is satisfied. So when we perform sadhana bhakti, these attitudes are very important. We must always put forth proper effort.
And thus in the Nectar of Instruction, Rupa Goswami mentions, there should be enthusiasm and determination. And this attitude is actually part of bhakti itself. And if these are absent, then the bhakti becomes very weak. And we won’t get the same results.
So that is why we have this example in the Damodar pastime. Krishna was tied up because of the effort of Mother Yasoda. She tried to tie up Krishna. Well, she did not try once. She did not try twice. She tried many, many, many times. And Krishna was pleased because she was trying so hard. We see, of course, her offering was the offering of rope. But her offering was not perfect because it was always too short. But Krishna was pleased with the effort. And thus he agreed to be tied up.
So this effort is very pleasing to the Supreme Lord. Sometimes our Acharyas describe how the Lord looks at the devotees in the material world. And the Lord becomes very, very controlled by those devotees. Because they are endeavoring in this material world to please Him. And to perform devotional service to the Lord in the material world is not always easy. The devotee has to struggle against many obstacles in this world.
And the Lord observes the devotee is doing this life after life. So the Lord feels, what can I do for this devotee? He is so attached to me. He is doing so much to serve me. What can I do for this devotee? So therefore, in our devotional service, we should make this effort.
We see here, the people of Dwaraka are very, very particular about welcoming Krishna in the proper way. Of course, flowers and fruits and grains are readily available. But still, very carefully, they arrange everything to make a proper welcome for Krishna. So all the roads and the sub roads and the lanes and the paths were all thoroughly cleansed. Of course, we know in the spiritual world, everything is clean anyway. There is no dirt. But we have descriptions, even Lakshmi is sweeping the floor there, even though there is no dirt. So they are endeavoring to present everything in the best way for Krishna.
And this endeavor is what is pleasing to Krishna. So when we are doing Sadhana Bhakti, we have opportunity to serve the Lord in many ways. One of the ways is through deity worship.
So the devotees should have the same enthusiasm like the people of Dwaraka in serving the deity. So they have the same enthusiasm for keeping everything clean. And they try to make the best offerings of fruits and flowers and water and foods, etc.
So this is a practice for what we will do in the spiritual world. We should not think, well, I have to wash the floors now, but when I get to the spiritual world, I can relax and sit back and do nothing.
We see in Damodara Lila, Mother Yasoda is personally churning the yogurt, even though she has many servants. So in a perfect state, the devotee is very enthusiastic to engage all of his senses and body in serving the Lord.
Because we are doing sadhana bhakti, then we have to fight against our anarthas. Thus our enthusiasm and endeavor will be interrupted by these anarthas.
So we have to keep pushing and endeavoring for advancing in our sadhana. The more we do bhakti, the less anarthas.
There is an example of Lord Caitanya and his devotees cleaning out the Gundicha temple.
Of all the different devotees, Caitanya Mahaprabhu was the most enthusiastic. He collected the most dirt. So by our constant endeavor, then more the anarthas disappear, more our bhakti will be enthusiastic and intense. Because of our continuous effort, more anarthas will leave us. Our bhakti will be more energetic. So we should follow the example of the people of Dwarka and enthusiastically serve the Lord.
Q & A
1)During Lord Ramachandra’s time and Krishna’s time, was there any temple for them when they were present?
Well, of course, in Vrindavan, there was not a temple for Krishna. Nanda Maharaj had a Vishnu temple. Of course, in Dwarka, the people realized that Krishna is also Supreme Lord. But since he is personally present, they don’t need a deity. But there are stories like I think that the Udupi deity was a Dwarka deity, worshipped by Rukmini or something like that. Whatever like that we hear stories like that but we don’t see anything mentioned in Bhagavatham about a deity of Krishna.
2)But Krishna also said that fools derided me when I come in the human form. There are people who did not realize that Krishna was the Supreme Lord during his presence. So, only devotees who recognized him as the Supreme Lord for worship, right? When Krishna entered Dwarka, in Dwarka, not all of them were Krishna devotees. So, they received him as a king or as the Supreme Lord?
Like Vrindavan, Dwarka is actually part of the spiritual world. So, demons and materialists cannot enter into that place. Unless it is with the permission of the Lord. So the population in Dwaraka largely we can say, most of it is going to be all pure devotees. And of course, we do have Krishna’s own family, which is immense. So, everyone there is a devotee. And we see the people, they all welcome Krishna, and they are all praising Krishna.
3)Maharaj mentioned a few qualities in the course of the class, in the regard like determination, intensity, attitude, effort, enthusiasm. Could we understand, Maharaj, of all this, attitude is the most important, which would help bring about other qualities? Attitude towards devotional service. In fact, in Nectar of Devotion, in the beginning, in the introduction it as also mentioned about the importance of attitude?
So, the main element, the most important element is the devotion itself. That’s the attitude, in a sense, favorable attitude, Anukulyena Krishna Anusilanam. Cultivating a relationship with Krishna favorably.
And, along with that, then we’ll have certain factors or elements. So, therefore, we’ll have enthusiasm and perseverance, determination, faith, etc. They’re all intrinsic to bhakti itself.
So, if we take all those things out, where is the bhakti, really? We do bhakti, but there’s no enthusiasm. Is it bhakti anymore? So, all of these things are there. We can say, as we progress in bhakti, they manifest in different ways as qualities of bhakti.
And, their absence will indicate weakness of bhakti. And, opposite, the presence will indicate that the bhakti is going well.
4)In yesterdays class you said that a devotee of Krishna will reach Goloka. We find that in Brhad Bhagavathamrta ,Gopakumara, a devotee of Lord Krishna, reaches Vaikuntha first and then Goloka. So, how to understand this?
Gopakumara is a special case. It is there to illustrate various levels of Prema in the spiritual world. But, if the devotee actually is aspiring for the highest, generally, Krishna will give the highest.
The devotee also will be very satisfied by directly getting the highest thing. And, he’ll be very disappointed if he has to go through a whole process of going to Svarga Loka and Brahma Loka and Shiva Loka and Vaikuntha in order to get to Krishna, when he’s not interested in those things.
For some devotees who are impure, Krishna arranges some sort of gradual purification. But, that’s in the material world itself. So, those devotees who have some material desire, he lets them go to Svarga Loka, then they go to Tapo Loka, then they go to Brahma Loka, then they go to the spiritual world. However, the devotees always prefer a more direct process.
5)Do we decide what is our service towards the Lord or an authority decides? There are times when devotees have no interest in doing service, maybe because they have read all the scriptures.
So, when we’re doing Sadhana Bhakti, we’re in the material world. In the material world, we can decide on our spiritual service to the Supreme Lord. And by practicing and aspiring, then we enter that service in the spiritual world.
While we’re doing Sadhana, however, in the material world, we have many choices of what type of activity we do, the 64 Angas of Bhakti. And our Acharyas have given a preference of which ones we should emphasize.
So, our main service is Nama Sankirtana and Shravanam, hearing Bhagavatham . Other people may choose many things, but if we’re going to accept the Sampradaya of Lord Caitanya, then these are the things we choose. Then, within Lord Caitanya’s Sampradaya, we have an organization called ISKCON.
And here, we have authorities who may tell you to do certain services. These are also Bhakti. But, this in no way negates or overrides the importance of Nama Sankirtana, Shravanam, and all these Angas of Bhakti that are mentioned by Caitanya Mahaprabhu.
All the service we do in ISKCON are there to reinforce these main Angas of Bhakti. Because it’s an organization, we do have to follow authority. If it’s an organization with no authority, it’s not an organization anymore.
So therefore, we do have to do those services according to the authority. So, if we want independence, we don’t join an organization. We do everything on our own. But, scripture also never advises that. So, our freedom is automatically somewhat limited by following the injunctions of scripture, following the Sampradaya.
6)This month, the Gopis did Katyayani Vrata that Krishna should become their husband. The devotees who choose the path of Madhurya Rasa, should they also follow Vrata to make Krishna become their lover?
We don’t see this mentioned as a particular Vrata in Hari Bhakti Vilas. In chapters 14, 15, 16 there, Sanatana Goswami gives the Vratas for the different months of the year. So, of course, these are also general Vratas. We see that the young Gopis did this Vrata, which is, we can say, traditional for them, in order to get Krishna as a husband. And their desire was finally fulfilled. But, as I said, as part of our Sadhana Bhakti, we don’t find that mentioned as one of the Vratas. We find there is, you know, Damodara Vrata, etc., but we don’t find that one mentioned.
Devotees: Grantharaj Srimad Bhagavatam Ki.. Jai ! Srila Prabhupad Ki.. Jai !! HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj Ki.. Jai !!