SB 6.1.13–14

Giriraj Swami: 

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

Reading from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto Six, Chapter One, “The History of the Life of Ajāmila,”

TEXTS 13 and 14

tapasā brahmacaryeṇa
śamena ca damena ca
tyāgena satya-śaucābhyāṁ
yamena niyamena vā

deha-vāg-buddhijaṁ dhīrā
dharmajñāḥ śraddhayānvitāḥ
kṣipanty aghaṁ mahad api
veṇu-gulmam ivānalaḥ

TRANSLATION

“To concentrate the mind, one must observe a life of celibacy and never fall down. Such a life of celibacy, or brahmacarya, is perfect. One should voluntarily give up sense enjoyment. One should control the mind and senses, give charity, speak truthfully, be clean and nonviolent. He should follow regulative principles and chant the holy name of the Lord. These practices certainly bring temporary purification. Thus they are like fire, for although fire clears away the dry creepers beneath the bamboo plant, the creepers grow back again at the first opportunity.”

COMMENT

So, in the previous verses, Śukadeva Gosvami has been answering one question of Maharaja Parīkṣit. Here we are at the beginning of the Sixth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. At the end of the Fifth Canto, Śukadeva described the hellish punishment awarded to the sinful beings. Maharaja Parīkṣit being a compassionate Vaishnava, was concerned about how the sinful living entities will have to suffer in the hellish material world, and he wanted to know how they can be saved from hellish conditions. Śukadeva replied that by performance of atonement, the sinful living entity can be freed from sinful reaction. Actually, atonement comes in the category of furtive activity. Prāyaścitta comes in the category of karma. By performance of atonement, one can become free from the reactions to sin, but one will not become free from the desires to sin, and therefore he will again engage in sinful activities.

We find in the Christian religion, Christians go to the church to confess to the priests, and by such confession, they hope to become freed from sinful reactions. But even if they confess and even if they are freed from sinful reaction, they are not free from the desire to commit sin, and after confessing, they again engage in the same type of sinful activity. There was one Catholic priest in Europe who had practical experience. He was in a small town, and people used to come to the church and confess to him. The priest stays in a cell or a box, and he cannot see the person who is confessing, and the person who is confessing cannot see the priest; only the priest can hear the voice of the confessor. But the town was small and the congregation was small, so gradually the priest learned to recognize the voices of the confessors, and he found that the same people came again and again to confess for the same sins. He thought, What is the use of such confession if the person engages in the same sins again and again?

Here Maharaja Parīkṣit raised the same question after he asked how to get free from sinful reaction. Śukadeva Gosvami recommended the process of atonement. By atonement, one can become free from sinful reaction, but even after becoming free from sinful reaction, one again engages in sinful activities. So Maharaja Parīkṣit compared this to the bathing of the elephant. The elephant goes into the river and takes bath very nicely, but after coming out of the river, the elephant again rolls in the dirt or throws dirt upon his body. So what is the meaning of taking bath and then again throwing dirt on oneself? Srila Prabhupada used to quote the Bengali proverb: “Every day ten thousand prostitutes take bath in the Ganges River.” The purport of the proverb is that they are prostitutes, and they take bath in the Ganges to become free from sinful reactions. But even after taking bath and becoming free from the reactions to sin, they still keep the desire to sin, and they remain prostitutes. And then the next day, they go and take bath again, but still they remain prostitutes. So Maharaja Parīkṣit did not accept Śukadeva Gosvami’s statement that by atonement one can become free from sin and thus free from the punishment for sin because he saw that they atone and again they sin, so what is the use.

Actually, Śukadeva Gosvami did not give him the real answer, but he was testing him to see if he was intelligent enough to find the defect in the process of atonement. And when he found the defect, then Śukadeva Gosvami came to the real point, which is devotional service, that by bhakti-yoga or chanting the holy names of Krishna, one not only becomes free from sinful reactions but also becomes free from the desire to sin, and thus he solves the problem forever. Now we shall read the purport.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

Tapaḥ is explained in the smṛti-śāstra as follows: manasaś cendriyāṇāṁ ca aikāgryaṁ paramaṁ tapaḥ. “Complete control of the mind and senses and their complete concentration on one kind of activity is called tapaḥ.” Our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is teaching people how to concentrate the mind on devotional service. This is first-class tapaḥ. Brahmacarya, the life of celibacy, has eight aspects: one should not think of women, speak about sex life, dally with women, look lustfully at women, talk intimately with women or decide to engage in sexual intercourse, nor should one endeavor for sex life or engage in sex life. One should not even think of women or look at them, to say nothing of talking with them. This is called first-class brahmacarya. If a brahmacārī or sannyāsī talks with a woman in a secluded place, naturally there will be a possibility of sex life without anyone’s knowledge. Therefore a complete brahmacārī practices just the opposite.

COMMENT

So one should practice brahmacharya. This will purify one’s mind and senses. Brahmacharya means not to engage in sex, but we should not only refrain from physical sex but also be free from subtle activities which are related to sex or which may lead to sin. So the scripture mentions eight aspects of brahmacharya that one must follow.

1. One should not think of women.
2. One should not speak about enjoyment with women.
3. One should not pass time with women.
4. One should not look lustfully at women.
5. One should not talk intimately with women.
6. One should not make plans to enjoy with women.
7. One should not make an endeavor to enjoy with women.
8. One should not have contact with women.

These are eight aspects of brahmacharya. The acharya following Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, or the managers of religious institutions following Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, must be very strict. Lord Chaitanya had one disciple named Junior Haridasa who was in the renounced order of life. Junior Haridasa once looked lustfully at one lady, and Lord Chaitanya immediately banished him from his association. He said, “I will never see the face of Junior Haridasa again.” The devotees asked Lord Chaitanya to show mercy to Junior Haridasa, but Lord Chaitanya refused. Again and again, he refused. Finally, Junior Haridasa decided to commit suicide, and he went to the Triveni, to the confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna at Prayag, and he committed Vaishnava suicide by drowning himself in the Triveni, and thus he died.

When the devotees brought the news to Lord Chaitanya that Junior Haridasa had committed suicide, Lord Chaitanya said, “Good, very good. I am glad to hear.” Now, commenting on the incident, Srila Prabhupada quotes to Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, he says that Lord Chaitanya is the ocean of mercy; he is the personification of mercy, yet he did not show mercy to Junior Haridasa. Why did he not show mercy to him? And Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura gives the answer. That the acharyas in Chaitanya Mahaprabhu are the managers of spiritual institutions in the line of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu have to maintain a very high standard of behavior. If Lord Chaitanya had not been strict with Junior Haridasa, then others might have taken advantage of the example of Junior Haridasa and the leniency of Lord Chaitanya and engaged in illicit sex, either in a gross way or even in a subtle way.

So Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura comment that if the devotees of Lord Chaitanya become degraded and engage in sinful activities, then the whole mission of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu will become weakened. The real devotees of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu will become discouraged. So, in order to maintain the highest standard for his devotees in the present and in the future, Lord Chaitanya made the example of Junior Haridasa, and he rejected him from his association just for looking, then what to speak of speaking or meeting or actually engaging in illicit sex. They cannot be tolerated in the ashrama. This is called brahmacharya.

PURPORT (continued)

If one is a perfect brahmacārī, he can very easily control the mind and senses, give charity, speak truthfully and so forth. To begin, however, one must control the tongue and the process of eating.

In the bhakti-mārga, the path of devotional service, one must strictly follow the regulative principles by first controlling the tongue (sevonmukhe hi jihvādau svayam eva sphuraty adaḥ). The tongue (jihvā) can be controlled if one chants the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra, does not speak of any subjects other than those concerning Kṛṣṇa and does not taste anything not offered to Kṛṣṇa. If one can control the tongue in this way, brahmacarya and other purifying processes will automatically follow. 

COMMENT

So, Srila Rupa Svami also gives the same instructions in Upadeśāmṛta, vāco vegaṁ manasaḥ krodha-vegaṁ. One must control six items: vāco vegaṁ, the urge to speak; manasaḥ vegaṁ, the demands of the mind; krodha-vegaṁ, the urge towards anger; jihvā-vegaṁ, the demand of the tongue; udaropastha-vegaṁ, demands of belly and demands of the genitals. Srila Prabhupada explains said that the tongue, the belly, and the genitals come in a straight line, and if one can control the tongue, then he can control the belly and the genitals. But if he cannot control the tongue, then he will not be able to control the other items very easily. So, sevonmukhe hi jihvādau, we begin with the tongue. Control of the tongue means to engage the tongue in service. Instead of discussing material topics like the relationship between men and women, one should use the tongue to discuss Krishna’s consciousness and to chant the holy name of Krishna. Instead of using the tongue to eat opulent food or food which is not offered to Krishna, one should use the tongue to honor kṛṣṇa-prasāda. Here, one should take prasāda just to keep the body and soul together, not for sense gratification. Srila Prabhupada commented that if one goes to some rich man’s house with the idea of eating opulent food, even if it’s vegetarian or even if it’s offered to Krishna, he is coming under the control of the demands of tongue, jihvā-vegaṁ. So, we should not take even vegetarian food or kṛṣṇa-prasādam to satisfy the demands of tongue; we should only take it to keep the body and soul together and fit to serve Krishna.

One time, there was a big fight here between two devotees, and both of them went to Srila Prabhupada to complain about the other. Srila Prabhupada replied that the cause of the fighting was the fact that they were eating too much opulent food. One of them was a pujari, and he was eating too much mahā-prasāda, and the other was a householder, and he would always have his wife cook special for him. So, Srila Prabhupada knew the science that control of the mind and senses begins with control of the tongue. Even if one takes kṛṣṇa-prasāda, if he takes opulent food for the sake of gratifying the tongue, then he won’t be able to control the tongue or anger or the mind or anything else, and he will fall down.

So, we should not eat opulent food, and we should not discuss material topics concerning man and woman. We should control the tongue and engage the tongue only in kṛṣṇa-kathā and kṛṣṇa-nāma and only in taking kṛṣṇa-prasāda in moderation. Then one can control the senses.

PURPORT (continued)

It will be explained in the next verse that the path of devotional service is completely perfect and is therefore superior to the path of fruitive activities and the path of knowledge.

COMMENT

In other words, both karma-kāṇḍa and jñāna-kāṇḍa, one tries to become purified and free from sinful reactions, but actually karma-kāṇḍa and jñāna-kāṇḍa are not strong enough to actually free one from sinful desires. Only bhakti can do so.

PURPORT (continued)

Quoting from the Vedas, Śrīla Vīrarāghava Ācārya explains that austerity involves observing fasts as fully as possible (tapasānāśakena). Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī has also advised that atyāhāra, too much eating, is an impediment to advancement in spiritual life. Also, in Bhagavad-gītā (6.17) Kṛṣṇa says:

yuktāhāra-vihārasya
yukta-ceṣṭasya karmasu
yukta-svapnāvabodhasya
yogo bhavati duḥkha-hā

“He who is temperate in his habits of eating, sleeping, working and recreation can mitigate all material pains by practicing the yoga system.”

In Text 14 the word dhīrāḥ, meaning “those who are undisturbed under all circumstances,” is very significant. Kṛṣṇa tells Arjuna in Bhagavad-gītā (2.14):

mātrā-sparśās tu kaunteya
śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkha-dāḥ
āgamāpāyino ‘nityās
tāṁs titikṣasva bhārata

“O son of Kuntī, the nonpermanent appearance of happiness and distress, and their disappearance in due course, are like the appearance and disappearance of winter and summer seasons. They arise from sense perception, O scion of Bharata, and one must learn to tolerate them without being disturbed.” In material life there are many disturbances (adhyātmika, adhidaivika and adhibhautika). One who has learned to tolerate these disturbances under all circumstances is called dhīra.

COMMENT

So, we have to tolerate. A sober person learns to tolerate. There is one verse that will come in the Seventh Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam: the demands of the senses are like itching and one should tolerate the itching. If one tolerates the itching, then the itching will subside. But if one is not dhīra, if one is not sober, and he tries to scratch or rub his two hands together to relieve the itching, then the itching will become more inflamed. So, the gṛha-medhī, or materialistic householders who want to enjoy sex life are compared to unfortunate fools who want to relieve the itching by scratching, and the itching only increases, and in the end, it becomes painful. Instead of being gṛha-medhī or kṛpaṇa, one should be a brahman for dhīra and tolerate the itch. If one tolerates the itch, it will subside. So, we should not act on the demands of the senses, either the tongue or the belly or the genital, or any, but we should learn to tolerate and become dhīra. That is recommended in this verse of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Otherwise, we cannot control the mind and senses, we cannot become free from sinful activities or offenses, and thus we will not be able to reach the goal of kṛṣṇa-prema. We will remain in the material world to suffer in various hellish conditions.

Hare Krishna.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:33:55]

Giriraj Swami: Yes, in Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, Srila Rupa Gosvami states that if one engages in sinful activity, if one is a devotee and he falls down, then he does not have to engage in prāyaścitta, but he should simply continue to engage in bhakti-yoga, and the force of bhakti-yoga will be sufficient to reinstate him.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:34:53]

Question: He says that we cannot imitate Lord Chaitanya by rejecting people like Chota Haridasa, and we cannot imitate Chota Haridasa by committing suicide in the Triveni. So, what are we supposed to do?

Giriraj Swami: You see, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura’s commentary is actually meant for us. It is meant for us. In the past, some of the leaders of ISKCON fell down into sinful activity, especially into illicit sex life, and when the governing body did not take action against them, the whole society became disturbed because you cannot tolerate such activities. Later, when we read Srila Prabhupada’s purport quoting Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura quoting story of Chota Haridasa, we realized that that was happening in ISKCON, that the devotees were becoming demoralized because the discipline was not being maintained.

So, it doesn’t mean that they were denied the right to engage in devotional service. Everyone has the right to engage in devotional service. But the spiritual authority cannot allow people who engage in sinful activities to make a show of devotional service. They have to be situated in a position which is appropriate for them and not make a show of being a sannyasi or being a brahman or being a brahmachari. If one is not really a brahmachari, but it doesn’t mean that they can’t engage in devotional service. Devotional service is the only means for them, but they should do devotional service in a humble position which is appropriate for them and not make a big show of being a big sannyasi or a big brahmachari. As far as Chota Haridasa, we already answered the question about Chota Haridasa, that we should just continue in devotional service, especially chanting the holy name, and that will rectify the devotee who has fallen if he is really devotee. Not everyone who dresses like devotees is a devotee. Srila Prabhupada said that there are some women—anyway, I won’t say that—but they should be real devotees. And if they’re real devotees and if they accidentally fall down, they should just continue to engage in devotional services.

I think I should finish what I began to say; otherwise, people might have some questions. Srila Prabhupada says that there are some, I think, Bengali women, I am not sure, who think that to have a child by a sadhu is very auspicious. So they go to Haridwar and Rishikesh to have a child by a sadhu. And Srila Prabhupada says there are also men who know about the women who want to have a child by a sadhu, so they dress up as sadhus and go to Haridwar and Rishikesh to victimize the women who are coming to find sadhus there. So this type of cheating is something quite different from someone who is sincerely trying to engage in devotional service and who falls down because of weakness or bad association. Those who are sincere devotees but due to some weakness have fallen down, they should be allowed to continue in devotional service but in the position which is appropriate for them. And those who are not devoting at all, who are just pretending to be devotees for getting some material facility, they shouldn’t be allowed to continue in the ashrama at all. But still, they can also engage in devotional service; anyone can engage in devotional services.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:41:00]

Giriraj Swami: He says that Srila Prabhupada had one sannyasi who fell down and Srila Prabhupada said that he should go back to his wife. He never said that he should drown himself in the Ganges. Because Chota Haridasa was actually very advanced in devotional service and he was feeling separation from Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, he didn’t commit suicide because somebody told him he should commit suicide. He committed suicide because he was in the mood of separation. He didn’t commit suicide as atonement, you understand. He didn’t commit suicide as atonement; he committed suicide in the mood of separation. And because he was in the mood of separation, he was fully absorbed from the thought of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu when he gave up his body. Then he came to Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in his spiritual body. He was a very good kirtan singer, so he used to come to Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in his subtle body and sing to him, and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu used to hear from him and appreciate his kirtan.

If somebody commits suicide as a method of atonement, that is something quite different. He cannot get liberation or the association of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu by such suicide. But in the mood of separation, if one wants to commit suicide. Like Raghunatha dasa Gosvami, in the mood of separation from Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Svarupa Damodara Gosvami and Gadadhara Prabhu, whose disappearance day is today, by the way, he wanted to go to Vrindavan. Raghunatha dasa Gosvami wanted to go to Vrindavan and commit suicide by jumping from Govardhana hill or drowning himself into Yamuna, not as atonement but in extreme separation. But still, if one is a sannyasi and if he breaks the regulated principles, he can atone by drowning himself in the Triveni. But actually, for devotees, atonement is not recommended. They should only continue in bhakti, and then they should become more serious and make greater progress, and bhakti herself will purify the devotee and rectify the devotees.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:44:17]

Giriraj Swami: That is true that one can get bhakti only by the mercy of Krishna or the Vaishnava. One has the right, which actually means that nobody can be excluded from bhakti because he has fallen down or because he has taken birth in such and such a country or from such and such a family. So everyone has the right to devotional service; he is not excluded due to any lack of material qualification. But he does need the mercy of guru and Krishna; guru-kṛṣṇa-prasāde pāya bhakti-latā-bīja, he does need the mercy of guru and Krishna, but he is not excluded from the mercy of guru and Krishna if he is fallen or anything, coming from a low family or anything like that. You can get the mercy of guru and Krishna then, but without mercy, no one can get bhakti. No one can demand it or achieve it by any means; it is only given by mercy. Very true.