20240821 Śrī Caitanya Śikṣāmṛta 1.7. The Ultimate Goal of Life

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
paramānanda-mādhavam śrī caitanya īśvaram
Harihi oṁ tat sat

First Shower — Seventh Stream

Jayapatākā Swami: Are we audible? I was told that the online sound is not up to the mark. So can I see the online devotees? Hare Kṛṣṇa koṭi bār! Koṭi koṭi koṭi koṭi bār!

TEXT: The name of this type of vairāgya is phalgu-vairāgya. The Lord forbade it and taught Sanātana about yukta-vairāgya and also taught the same to Dāsa Goswāmī namely (Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya 16.237-239):—

“sthira hañā ghare yāo, nā hao vātula
krame krame pāya loka bhava-sindhu-kūla

markaṭa-vairāgya nā kara loka dekhāñā
yathā-yogya viṣaya bhuñja’ anāsakta hañā

antare niṣṭhā kara, bāhye loka-vyavahāra
acirāt kṛṣṇa tomāya karibe uddhāra

“Be patient and return home. Don’t be a crazy fellow. By and by you will be able to cross the ocean of material existence. You should not make yourself a show bottle devotee and become a false renunciant. For the time being, enjoy the material world in a befitting way and do not become attached to it. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu continued, “Within your heart you should keep yourself very faithful, but externally you may behave like an ordinary man. Thus, Kṛṣṇa will soon be very pleased and deliver you from the clutches of māyā.”

Jayapatākā Swami: Even Raghunātha dāsa approached Lord Caitanya. Lord Caitanya told him to be faithful to Kṛṣṇa. And not be a markaṭa-vairāgī, don’t be a show bottle vairāgī. So Kṛṣṇa put you in a situation where you can enjoy material world. So enjoy it but keep your heard focused on Kṛṣṇa and He will sooner or later deliver you. So even if you approach Lord Caitanya, He might send you away. So one has to be very careful. It is not easy that you just approach Lord Caitanya! He may also tell you to stay at your home. Keep your heart with Kṛṣṇa.

TEXT: If you can live a comfortable life at home with your wife and son and do bhajana keeping strong faith in your heart without attachment, then the material world will gradually disappear. The soul becomes strong by bhakti and is situated in the relationship with the personality of Godhead.

Note:

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.2.9-10

dharmasya hy āpavargyasya
nārtho ’rthāyopakalpate
nārthasya dharmaikāntasya
kāmo lābhāya hi smṛtaḥ

kāmasya nendriya-prītir
lābho jīveta yāvatā
jīvasya tattva-jijñāsā
nārtho yaś ceha karmabhiḥ

All occupational engagements are certainly meant for ultimate liberation. They should never be performed for material gain. Furthermore, according to sages, one who is engaged in the ultimate occupational service should never use material gain to cultivate sense gratification. Life’s desires should never be directed toward sense gratification. One should desire only a healthy life, or self-preservation, since a human being is meant for inquiry about the Absolute Truth. Nothing else should be the goal of one’s works.

Jayapatākā Swami: Śrīla Prabhupāda told me use your [audio break] artha and kāma. Get money and enjoy sense gratification, that is artha and kāma. But the devotees, they want the service of Kṛṣṇa. And they will have money, they want to use it in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Jayapatākā Swami: The devotees completely redirect their desires; they just want to serve Kṛṣṇa. So they want the status that they can serve Kṛṣṇa uninterruptedly. So, the devotees, they don’t want to use their advancement for sense gratification. We have some situation in Bangladesh where we want to help them. Because there many Hindus are taking shelter of the temples. And they are not able to go out and raise funds. So, we are trying to get some finance to help the devotees help the temples in Bangladesh for giving shelter to many of the distressed devotees. So, the devotees don’t want to use money for sense gratification. They want to use it for serving Kṛṣṇa. Haribol!

TEXT: Otherwise, desiring to be liberated, if the gradual order is abandoned, then markaṭa-vairāgya will come and make the living entity abominable. The meaning of the order, “yathā-yogya viṣaya bhuñja” is that one should not accept things for the sake of sensual pleasure, but accept only the things that are necessary for the establishment of soul’s relationship with Kṛṣṇa. By giving the fruit of the satisfaction of the soul, the sense objects itself will give up the transcendental soul. The body, house, things for Kṛṣṇa’s worship and society can all be instruments for yukta-vairāgya. Only if there is strong faith of the sādhaka in the heart, then that brings all benefits. External faith is merely social custom of common people. If the inner firm faith is sincere without duplicity, then the material bondage and relationship with the material world will be destroyed immediately. To the extent that bhakti attains purity, to that extent pure knowledge and pure detachment must certainly increase.

Jayapatākā Swami: So material opulence may also be a test. If the devotee uses his opulence for serving Kṛṣṇa, then he passes the test. If he uses it for sense-gratification then he fails. So, this māyā may test one by opulence or by suffering. So if we have opulence used it for Kṛṣṇa, when we have suffering, we think this is also a test from Kṛṣṇa. So whatever way, we should be fixed in serving Kṛṣṇa.

In simple devotional life only taking shelter of the holy name of Kṛṣṇa is the topmost sādhana.*

Note:

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 2.1.11

etan nirvidyamānānām
icchatām akuto-bhayam
yogināṁ nṛpa nirṇītaṁ
harer nāmānukīrtanam

O King, constant chanting of the holy name of the Lord after the ways of the great authorities is the doubtless and fearless way of success for all, including those who are free from all material desires, those who are desirous of all material enjoyment, and also those who are self-satisfied by dint of transcendental knowledge.

Jayapatākā Swami: So transcendental knowledge is the way of success for the devotee and Śrīla Prabhupāda has so kindly given us the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, Caitanya-caritāmṛta and many other smaller books. So we can have the knowledge if we want to take it. So my servants are taking their Bhakti-vaibhava studies on. Śrīla Prabhupāda has given us such a nice study that we can read his books and understand the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, Caitanya-caritāmṛta, so nothing is missing! In the material world there is sense gratification which we think is the goal of life. But the real goal is actually to serve Kṛṣṇa. And the material sense gratification is distracting us. Once we had a member of the BBC who came to Māyāpur, and I was taking him on the boat. I remember I said something about sense gratification, but he said what is wrong with that? He thought that was the goal of life. Sense gratification! So if we want to be go-dāsa then māyā gives us a lot of opportunities. And if we want to be go-svāmī then Kṛṣṇa will give a lot of opportunities to use the senses to serve Kṛṣṇa.

TEXT: The Lord said to Sanātana (Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Antya 4.70–71):―

bhajanera madhye śreṣṭha nava-vidhā bhakti
‘kṛṣṇa-prema’, ‘kṛṣṇa’ dite dhare mahā-śakti

tāra madhye sarva-śreṣṭha nāma-saṅkīrtana
niraparādhe nāma laile pāya prema-dhana

Jayapatākā Swami: Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare!

Among the ways of executing devotional service, the nine prescribed methods are the best, for these processes have great potency to deliver Kṛṣṇa and ecstatic love for Him. Of the nine processes of devotional service, the most important is to always chant the holy name of the Lord. If one does so, avoiding the ten kinds of offenses, one very easily obtains the most valuable love of Godhead.

Jayapatākā Swami: Haribol! Hare Kṛṣṇa! So, here we have it directly from our ācāryas, how the nine processes of devotion are the best and of the nine processes, hearing and chanting continuously is unparalleled.

On Balarāma Pūrṇimā, I went to our Rājāpur Jagannātha Temple. There we saw how wonderful Jagannātha, Baladeva and Subhadrā were. And then we went down at the end to see Sīmantinī and Lord Gaurāṅga. So Sīmantinī was taking the dust of Lord Gaurāṅga’s lotus feet and put it on the parting on her hair on her head. So like that in Navadvīpa dhāma even the Prauḍhā Māyā, Māyādevī, she takes the dust from Lord Caitanya’s lotus feet and puts it on the crown of her head. So, if we take the mercy of Lord Balarāma and serve Lord Jagannātha, then everything is very blissful! Hare Kṛṣṇa! Haribol!

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/
Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare

Not only koṭi, koṭi, but koṭi, koṭi, koṭi, koṭi, koṭi . . . Blessings to all the devotees! Hare Kṛṣṇa!