Srila Raghunatha Dasa Gosvami

Giriraj Swami:

[Cc Antya 6.198—Purport by Srila Parbhupada]

There are men, especially rich men, who regularly worship the Deity, give charity to brahmans and are pious in every respect, but they cannot be pure Vaishnavas. Despite their outward show of Vaishnavism and charity, their inner desire is to enjoy a higher standard of material life. Raghunatha dasa’s father, Govardhana, and uncle, Hiranya dasa, were both very charitable to brahmans. Indeed, the brahmans from the Gaudiya district were practically dependent on them. Thus they were accepted as very pious gentlemen. However, they presented themselves as Vaishnavas to the eyes of people in general, although from a purely spiritual point of view they were ordinary human beings, not pure Vaishnavas. [Actual Vaishnavas considered them almost Vaishnavas, not pure Vaishnavas.] In other words, they were kaniṣṭha-adhikārīs, for they were ignorant of higher Vaishnava regulative principles. Nevertheless, they could not be called viṣayīs, or blind materialistic enjoyers.

COMMENT

So they were not pure devotees, but at the same time they were not blind materialistic enjoyers. They were in between. So they are called vaiṣṇavera prāya, bhakta-prāya, or kaniṣṭha-adhikārī. They are on the material platform because they want material enjoyment, but at the same time they do have faith in Krishna and Vaishnavas, and they do worship Krishna and serve Vaishnavas. So they are vaiṣṇavera prāya.

TEXT 199

tathāpi viṣayera svabhāva — kare mahā-andha
sei karma karāya, yāte haya bhava-bandha

“Those who are attached to materialistic life and are blind to spiritual life must act in such a way that they are bound to repeated birth and death by the actions and reactions of their activities.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

As clearly stated in the Bhagavad-gītā (3.9), yajñārthāt karmaṇo ‘nyatra loko ‘yaṁ karma-bandhanaḥ: if one does not act as a pure devotee, whatever acts he performs will produce reactions of fruitive bondage (karma-bandhanaḥ). Similarly, in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (5.5.4) it is said:

nūnaṁ pramattaḥ kurute vikarma
yad indriya-prītaya āpṛṇoti
na sādhu manye yata ātmano ‘yam
asann api kleśa-da āsa dehaḥ

“A materialistic person, madly engaged in activities for sense enjoyment, does not know that he is entangling himself in repeated birth and death and that his body, although temporary, is full of miseries.” A viṣayī, a person blindly caught in a web of materialistic life, remains in the cycle of birth and death perpetually. Such a person cannot understand how to execute pure devotional service, and therefore he acts as a karmī, jñānī, yogī or something else, according to his desire, but he does not know that the activities of karma, jñāna and yoga simply bind one to the cycle of birth and death.

COMMENT

In other words, without bhakti no one can be liberated. Not even a yogi or jnani, what to speak of a karmi, can be liberated without the mercy of a devotee, without some touch of devotional service.

TEXT 200

hena ‘viṣaya’ haite kṛṣṇa uddhārilā tomā’
kahana nā yāya kṛṣṇa-kṛpāra mahimā”

“By His own free will, Lord Kṛṣṇa has delivered you from such a condemned materialistic life. Therefore the glories of Lord Kṛṣṇa’s causeless mercy cannot be expressed.”

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

In the Brahma-saṁhitā (5.54) it is said, karmāṇi nirdahati kintu ca bhakti-bhājām. Lord Kṛṣṇa is so merciful that He can stop the reactions of karma for His devotee. Everyone — from the small insect called indra-gopa up to Indra, the King of heaven — is bound by the reactions of fruitive activities.

yas tv indra-gopam atha vendram aho sva-karma-
bandhānurūpa-phala-bhājanam ātanoti
karmāṇi nirdahati kintu ca bhakti-bhājāṁ
govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi

Everyone, whether an insect or the King of heaven, is entangled and bound by the actions and reactions of his karma. However, when one becomes a pure devotee, free from material desires and from bondage to karma, jñāna and yoga, one is freed from material actions and reactions by the causeless mercy of Kṛṣṇa. One cannot express sufficient gratitude to Kṛṣṇa for being freed from the materialistic way of life.

COMMENT

Raghunatha dasa Gosvami is the ideal example for us. When he was a householder he showed the ideal example how to live in household life, how to execute one’s duty perfectly and at the same time be detached from material enjoyment and attached to Krishna. Later, after he joined Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, he showed the ideal example of renounced life. He hardly ate or slept, and he was always engaged in chanting the holy names, offering obeisances, and other such activities. So he is a rare example of a devotee who set the ideal standard for both grihasthas and sannyasis.

Srila Raghunatha dasa Gosvami ki jaya!
Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!