SB 2.1.11 – The Devotional Creeper and the Unwanted Weed

Giriraj Swami: Reading from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto Two, Chapter One,

TEXT 11

etan nirvidyamānānām
icchatām akuto-bhayam
yogināṁ nṛpa nirṇītaṁ
harer nāmānukīrtanam

TRANSLATION

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.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

In the previous verse, the great necessity for attaining attachment to Mukunda has been accredited. There are different types of persons who desire to attain success in different varieties of pursuits. Generally the persons are materialists who desire to enjoy the fullest extent of material gratification. Next to them are the transcendentalists, who have attained perfect knowledge about the nature of material enjoyment and thus are aloof from such an illusory way of life. More or less, they are satisfied in themselves by self-realization. Above them are the devotees of the Lord, who neither aspire to enjoy the material world nor desire to get out of it. They are after the satisfaction of the Lord, Śrī Kṛṣṇa. In other words, the devotees of the Lord do not want anything on their personal account. If the Lord desires, the devotees can accept all sorts of material facilities, and if the Lord does not desire this, the devotees can leave aside all sorts of facilities, even up to the limit of salvation. Nor are they self-satisfied, because they want the satisfaction of the Lord only. In this verse, Śrī Śukadeva Gosvāmī recommends the transcendental chanting of the holy name of the Lord. By offenseless chanting and hearing of the holy name of the Lord, one becomes acquainted with the transcendental form of the Lord, and then with the attributes of the Lord, and then with the transcendental nature of His pastimes, etc. Here it is mentioned that one should constantly chant the holy name of the Lord after hearing it from authorities. This means that hearing from the authorities is the first essential. Hearing of the holy name gradually promotes one to the stage of hearing about His form, His attributes, His pastimes, and so on, and thus the necessity of the chanting of His glories develops successively. This process is recommended not only for the successful execution of devotional service, but also even for those who are materially attached. According to Śrī Śukadeva Gosvāmī, this way of attaining success is an established fact, concluded not only by him but also by all other previous ācāryas. Therefore, there is no need of further evidence. The process is recommended not only for the progressive students in different departments of ideological success, but also for those who are already successful in their achievement as fruitive workers, as philosophers or as devotees of the Lord.

COMMENT

In the material world, people want to enjoy the material world as far as possible; nūnaṁ pramattaḥ kurute vikarmayad indriya-prītaya āpṛṇoti, that people become mad with the desire for sense gratification, and when they are maddened with the desire for sense gratification, they are ready to transgress all sorts of Vedic injunctions and etiquette. Pramattaḥ means mad, vikarma means activities against Vedic injunctions. So most of the people are in the category of materialists who are maddened by the desire for sense gratification and who therefore act against the Vedic injunctions.

There are other materialists who are not maddened, who also want material enjoyment, but they are ready to pursue their material desires or try to fulfill their material desires within the Vedic laws, and they are karmis. They have so many desires, but they are ready to fulfill them in the prescribed way according to the Vedic injunction. But whether one engages in karma or vikarma, one will ultimately come to the point where he realizes that all attempts to enjoy material life end in frustration and pain. There is a prior step in illusion where the person realizes that he is suffering, but he thinks that the problem is that he just didn’t do it right. If he becomes more expert in material enjoyment, he will be successful. So he keeps trying to improve, but in the end, he is bound to be frustrated. So, out of many thousands and thousands of such persons who are trying to enjoy the material world, one will come to the realization that actually there is no happiness in the material world. There is no value in trying to pursue material desires, and therefore he will want to give up all desires. He is a wise man or jnani. He has realized the futility of trying to enjoy the world, and he wants to have nothing to do with it. Therefore, he is said to be free from desires. The karmi says, “I want, I want this, I want this, I must have it, I must have it. If I don’t have it, I can’t be happy.” And the wise person says, “I don’t want it. Even if I get it, I don’t want it because I know if I get it, I will just suffer anyway. So what is the point of even trying to get it? I want to have nothing to do with it.”

Apart from the karmis and the jnanis are the devotees of the Lord, and they are described as self-satisfied. Self-satisfied doesn’t mean that they are complacent. Self-satisfied means that they are satisfied in the relationship of service between the individual self and the Supreme Self. Prahlada Maharaja says, na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇuṁ, that people are self-interested, but they do not know what their real self-interest is. The real self-interest is to serve Vishnu and go back home, back to Godhead. So such self-interest is really not self-interest in the material sense. It is actually our constitutional position. Srila Prabhupada often gave an example of the different parts of the body. Their interest is to put the food in the stomach, and when they put the food in the stomach, they are automatically satisfied. Srila Prabhupada gave the example that if the hand tries to enjoy rasagullā independently, it cannot enjoy. Trying to absorb the rasagullā through the skin, it cannot enjoy. It has to offer the rasagullā to the stomach, and then automatically all the parts of the body benefit. So the hand, being part of the body, the constitutional position of the hand is to serve the whole body. The living entities, being part and parcel of the Supreme Soul, their constitutional position is to serve the spirit whole. So they are satisfied only in the satisfaction of Krishna. They do not perceive any satisfaction independent of Krishna’s satisfaction, and that is the meaning of self-satisfied here. They want to see that Krishna is pleased in every respect, and when they see that Krishna is pleased in every respect, they feel pleasure. They have no other way of perceiving pleasure. There is a similar verse in the Third Chapter of the Second Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam:

akāmaḥ sarva-kāmo vā
mokṣa-kāma udāra-dhīḥ
tīvreṇa bhakti-yogena
yajeta paramaṁ puruṣa

Akāma means one who is free from all of desires, sarva-kāma means one who full of desires, and mokṣa-kāma means one who is desirous of liberation. Any one of them, or all of them, who is broad-minded, who sees things as they are, if he engages in pure devotional service to Lord Krishna, he can be successful. Srila Prabhupada explain the word tīvreṇa, which means with great force or with great intensity. Devotional service has great force when it is not mixed with other processes like fruitive activities or mental speculation. So even if one is full of material desires or free from all desires, or desirous of liberation, but if he engages in unmixed devotional service, in unalloyed devotional service, he will be successful. A good example is Dhruva Maharaja. Dhruva Maharaja wanted a kingdom bigger than his father’s, and he asked his mother, how he could get the kingdom. And his mother replied that, “Only God can help you.” “And where can I find God?” “Well, I don’t know, but many great sages and saintly persons go to the forest to find God. So maybe you can find Him there.” So Dhruva Maharaja went to the forest to find God, and he was so anxious to find God, so sincere to find God, that God within the heart of Dhruva, sent a spiritual master to guide him.

By the mercy of Krishna, one gets guru, and by the mercy of guru, one gets Krishna. So the Lord sent Narada Muni to act as the spiritual master of Dhruva. Narada Muni instructed Dhruva to chant the holy name, just as the verse says, Hare Krishna or oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Dhruva Maharaja was so faithful to the instructions of his spiritual master that just by following the instructions of his spiritual master for six months, he was able to see God. God Himself came to Dhruva and was ready to offer him any benediction. But when Dhruva actually saw the Lord, he gave up the desire for his kingdom, or the desire for anything except the service of the Lord. And thus, he told the Lord, svāmin kṛtārtho ‘smi varaṁ na yāce, that, “My dear Lord, seeing You, or getting You, I am fully satisfied. I do not desire anything else.”

So, the chanting of the holy name is so effective that even someone with material desires who chants the holy name under the instructions of the spiritual master, without mixing other processes or other activities, he can get the result. And the result will be not that he sees God or realizes God and then bothers Him, “Oh, finally You have come. I want this, and this, and this, and this, and this.” No. One may be sarva-kāma in the beginning, full of lusty desires, but in the end, by chanting the holy name and by the mercy of the Lord, one will become free from all desires, will become akāma, and that is the goal. So, Dhruva Maharaja became so satisfied in Krishna consciousness that he gave up the desire that impelled him to chant in the beginning. And there are many statements in the scriptures, in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and Caitanya-caritāmṛta, where the Lord says that if someone approaches Me for material things, he is certainly very foolish. Because he could be asking Me for the ambrosia of devotional service, but instead, he is asking Me for the poison of sense gratification. So, certainly, he is very foolish. Only a fool would ask for poison when he could get nectar instead. So, Lord Krishna said that he is a fool, but I am not a fool. I am very wise. So, I will deal with him in such a way that I will forcibly drag him to My lotus feet. I will forcibly bring him to My lotus feet, and there he will forget all sorts of material desires and drink the nectar of immortality and love.

So, the Lord is so kind that even if the person approaches Him with some material demand, the Lord will deal with him in such a way that he gives it up, provided that he follows the process of devotional service as given by the spiritual master and Vedic scriptures. Otherwise, if he doesn’t follow the process properly, the result will not be that he becomes free from material desires. The result may be that actually, material desires increase. And this is described by Lord Chaitanya in His instructions to Rupa Gosvami. Lord Chaitanya describes that by the mercy of the spiritual master and Krishna, one gets the seed of devotional service. And after receiving the seed of devotional service, one should water it by hearing and chanting, as described here. So, if we water the seed, definitely the seed will grow and eventually bear fruit; bear the fruit of love of Godhead. But Lord Chaitanya warns us that alongside the devotional creeper, some weeds may sprout. The weeds are material desires, and the weeds can actually absorb or suck the water that is meant to nourish the devotional creeper and thus deprive the devotional creeper of the benefit of the water. And the material desires will actually use the holy name to become stronger, just like weeds use the water which is meant to nourish the creeper to become stronger. And it can happen that the weeds become so strong and so prominent that they practically choke the devotional creeper.

So, we have to be very careful to distinguish between the weeds and the devotional creeper. And Lord Chaitanya says that the weeds almost exactly resemble the devotional creeper in size and shape and all respects. So, if someone is a little bewildered by the external energy, he can think that he is watering the devotional creeper, but actually, he is watering the weed. The weed is becoming stronger and stronger, and the devotional creeper is actually becoming weaker. And then the person becomes surprised that, “I have been chanting for so long, and now look at me. I am more miserable than I was before. I am full of material desires.” Yes, you were chanting, but you weren’t watering the devotional creeper; you were watering the weeds of material desire.

So, therefore, Lord Chaitanya has very strongly advised us that we have to be able to distinguish between the devotional creeper and the unwanted weeds and keep the weeds away so that the water can be utilized by the creeper. Then, Lord Chaitanya explains a further danger that even if one waters the creeper very nicely for a long time, there is a chance that a mad elephant may enter the garden. And when the mad elephant enters the garden, in no time at all, he can completely uproot the devotional creeper and cause complete havoc. So, the mad elephant is compared to offenses against the Vaishnavas or against the spiritual master. Vaishnava-aparādha or guru-aparādha is so serious that in practically no time at all, years of proper cultivation can be completely destroyed. Therefore, we have to be careful of offenses, and the basic offense is disobedience. That is the basic offense.

So, we can get all the benefits of chanting the holy name in whatever condition we are when we begin the process. We may be full of material desires, we may be desirous of liberation, or we may be free from all desires. It doesn’t matter what we are when we begin, as long as we follow the process properly. If we follow the process properly, in the end, we will get Krishna. But if we mix the process with other processes or other activities, we won’t have the strength to get the result. Another example is given in The Nectar of Devotion. Devotional service is said to be so powerful that it can burn up all sinful reactions, and material desires are a type of sinful reaction also. So, devotional service is so powerful that it can destroy all sinful reactions, burn up all sinful reactions, just as a forest fire can burn up the snakes within the forest. But here, the point is that our devotional service should be burning; we should be burning to execute proper devotional service. Then it will have the result of burning up all the snakes of material desire, destroying all reactions to past sins. But if we mix our devotional service with other activities, or we don’t execute devotional service properly, it won’t really be burning like a blazing forest fire; it may be like a little flame, but it won’t be able to consume much.

So again, the process is potent when the process is executed properly. And therefore, Śukadeva Gosvami uses the word aṇu, harer nāmānukīrtanam, aṇu means to follow, to follow the ways of the great authorities, just like we follow Rupa Gosvami. So, we are called rūpānugas, who follow Gosvami. And devotees also use the phrase Prabhupadanuga because we follow especially Srila Prabhupada. So, harer nāmānukīrtanam means that we should chant following the ways of the great authorities. Following the ways of the great authorities means, as we are discussing, Śukadeva Gosvami, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Rupa Gosvami, they are authorities, and if we follow the process according to the ways of the authorities, we will get the result. Aṇu also means always or continuously. Always or continuously means the same thing, that we are always engaged in devotional service. We don’t mix devotional service with other activities like fruitive work or mental speculation. So, we are constantly engaged in devotional service, nothing else, and execute our devotional service favorably, following the ways of the authorities and especially the instructions of the spiritual master, then the result will be that we will attain all success, whether we begin with material desires, or desires for liberation, or no desires.

So, this is a very important verse from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and it is very fortuitous that it has come the first morning of the yoga retreat, and if we can just understand this verse and put into practice this verse, any one of us, whoever we may be, can be completely successful. Hare Krishna.

Any questions or comments?

Devotee: Maharaja, can you give some examples [Unintelligible 00:30:31] that hearing and chanting would water the different weeds growing next to the creeper of devotional service?

Giriraj Swami: There are some examples of how chanting and hearing can water the weeds. Well, there have been devotees who had material desires, and they basically would follow the morning program, chant sixteen rounds, and fulfill the other requirements. But they could not distinguish between material desires and spiritual desires, and they thought that they needed some material facility or apparently spiritual facility for either advancing in Krishna consciousness personally or preaching. So, they would chant, sometimes quite intensely, but they would be chanting, thinking of how to get the thing that they thought they needed for their devotional service. But the thing that they thought they needed for their devotional service wasn’t really needed for their devotional service; it was really needed to fulfill their material desires. And one thing leads to another, so by trying to get the thing that they thought they needed, they began to endeavor, or over-endeavor. And when things didn’t go well, because things don’t go well when we pursue our material desires, especially in Krishna consciousness, so when things didn’t go well, they started to blame other devotees. They started to commit offenses against other devotees, and they just became more and more entangled in pursuing their material desires, actually thinking, that they needed the facility for Krishna consciousness or to preach. And especially when they started to become offensive to other devotees and even become offensive to Srila Prabhupada, to the spiritual master, they became overwhelmed with material desires, because that is the result of committing offenses: that material desires increase. And when the offenses really became severe, the desires really overwhelmed them, and then they just forgot everything else to pursue their material desires.

So, I don’t think I need to mention names, but the history of. . . let us say, the path of devotional service is somewhat littered with the remains of the bodies of such persons. Of course, Krishna is very kind, and in some life or another, they may begin again.

Devotee: Could you kindly elaborate on the last part of the verse, which is following in the footsteps of the acharyas, chanting, following their footsteps? So, could you kind of elaborate on what exactly the implications of this are?

Giriraj Swami: Beyond what I have said?

Devotee: Yes, especially following in the footsteps of acharya.

Giriraj Swami: Well, as I said, the acharyas have told us how to practice chanting without mixing other activities and avoiding offenses. As far as specific instructions, the main consideration when we chant is to hear. We don’t have to make any artificial mental efforts to visualize the form of the Lord or to remember the qualities or pastimes of the Lord. But it is stated here in the purport that if one hears the holy name of the Lord nicely then naturally, the form will be revealed, the qualities will be revealed, and the pastimes will be revealed, without any artificial effort. So, our effort should be, or our concentration should be, just how to hear. And from hearing, everything else will follow. And then, as Srila Prabhupada said, when one hears nicely, one will speak nicely. So from good śravaṇam will come good kīrtanam. The main thing is to hear. And of course, sitting together in the temple, and everyone in a concentrated effort trying to hear, is very favorable. Otherwise, if we chant here and there, we may become distracted.

Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura suggested to avoid distraction, one can lock himself up in a room and close the windows. If he can’t do that, he should just put a cloth over his head, so you are not distracted by anything else. But here, being surrounded by pictures of Krishna, deity of Srila Prabhupada, Tulasi-devi, Vaishnavas altogether chanting, it is quite encouraging, so we don’t have to do the other thing. And of course, we chant on beads to keep count, as well as to engage the sense of touch. Srila Prabhupada explain the necessity for counting in different ways, but just recently I met a person who had asked Srila Prabhupada, I don’t know if it was recorded anywhere, but he asked Srila Prabhupada, “What is the need of the beads?” And Srila Prabhupada explained that we need the beads to count. And he said that it is not enough that the teacher gives the lesson to the student; he wants to see that the student has done the lesson. So it is not enough that we say you should chant Hare Krishna; we want to see that you have actually chanted. And the beads keep track, and they let us know whether we have actually chanted sixteen rounds. But the main thing is to hear.

Devotee: Devotees generally say after chanting and all that, our lusty desires are growing, increasing, all this lust, greed, anger, and pride are increasing. Sometimes, it said that it is cleaning process, everything is coming up. But if it continues after one, two, three, four years also, so should we consider because of cleaning process, everything is coming up or new weeds are growing up?

Giriraj Swami: Yes, it is true. One devotee complained to Srila Prabhupada that he seemed to have more material desires since he started chanting than before. Srila Prabhupada explained that when you are cleaning a room, so much dust and dirt from the room start to come up. It is not that the dust and dirt were not there; it was there, but it was all settled on the floor. But when you actually take the broom and start to sweep and clean the room, then the dust begins to fly, and you might think, “Oh, there is so much dust here; it didn’t used to be like that.” But actually, it was there, but it was lying there. But the result of cleaning should be, obviously, that in due course, one should feel relieved that now the dust is out of the door, now the room is clean, and one should feel more peaceful.

So, if after chanting for many years, one doesn’t actually feel more peaceful, whether one feels harassed by material desires, it could be that one has been watering the weeds. Now, the Fifth Canto of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam gives another example, which is that there may be seeds lying in the earth which fructify only later. So, it could be that there are seeds of material enjoyment in the heart, and at a later stage, they just start to fructify, and we are not able to deal with them just by chanting and hearing. So then, there is varnashrama-dharma that, okay, when one can’t just hear and chant, well, okay, so get married, get a job, do some business, and be situated peacefully, and also chant and hear, and gradually progress. That is our only recourse.

Question note: Yes, how do we decide whether we need a particular thing to preach?

Giriraj Swami: Well, in general, if we are in doubt, or even if we are not in doubt, we should confirm with others. Again, because the weeds and the creeper look very similar, and in the beginning, one may not be able to distinguish. But what generally happens is that if it is a weed, it becomes bigger and bigger and uglier and uglier. So the person who has been watering the weed may not see it due to attachment, but other people around him can see it very clearly. So, we should consult and confirm. It has happened so many times. I will give one example. It was in my mind anyway, and it may make things more clear, of course, this is on a big scale, and we may all experience the same thing in smaller ways. But at one stage, the GBC for France wanted to buy a palace outside Paris, which he thought would be good for preaching. But as time went on, more and more of the devotees in France became convinced that the palace wasn’t really needed for preaching, but that he just wanted to live like a king. And not only were the devotees expected to pay for the palace, but even the public became upset because their concept of a sadhu is a monk, like in the Catholic churches. They live very simply in a monastery, and they pray to God. They may do some cultivation, some garden work, do some simple work just to meet the requirements of the monastery. So, that was their concept of a sadhu. The devotees were disturbed because they were constantly being asked to collect more and more to pay for the castle. And the public, who we were supposed to be preaching to, they were also getting more and more upset because they thought these people are collecting money from the public and they are using the money to buy big palaces and live like kings. Everyone else could see that it wasn’t favorable for devotional service. Rather it was unfavorable, but he had become so attached to it, he couldn’t see it. And in the end to get money for the palace, he started to transgress more and more of Srila Prabhupada’s instructions. He started to take BBT money that never should have been used for the palace. And he mortgaged—there was one castle that Srila Prabhupada saw and approved—so he mortgaged that property to get money, which is also against Prabhupada’s instructions. So he just became implicated in offenses, and because of the offenses, he became overwhelmed with material desires in the grossest form, and he left.

This one case history—it could be with him, it was a palace; for us, it could be a car, it could be rickshaw, it could be anything. So I think the best way for us to be sure is to consult, and not just your friends who will tell you what you want to hear, but people who give mature, impartial advice.

Srila Prabhupada was very careful in India. Actually, we never had cars in ISKCON in India for years. They just started to come in the last year when Srila Prabhupada was here. Then some devotees started to think, “Well, we have cars, and Srila Prabhupada doesn’t have a car, so we should get Srila Prabhupada a car.” Anyway, I won’t go into it, but basically, Srila Prabhupada was quite modest in accepting personal facility. He was concerned that people might criticize, like what happened in France. Even at New Mayapur, the GBC there would have big festivals, and maybe like four days, and then the last day would be for the public, or the second to the last day. And he would have a big fireworks display, and people used to come—the tent used to be completely packed. But although the people came, they didn’t respect us. They came to see the fireworks, but they didn’t respect us. They thought, “Oh, these people have so much money, living in castles and burning money on fireworks.” So they came as a spectacle, but their hearts were not touched with Krishna consciousness.

So what we really have to see is the result; are people becoming devotees? The first devotees who went to England made friends with The Beatles, and then they recorded some hit records—Hare Krishna mantra, Govinda, and so on—and they actually became popular recording artists. They got invitations to perform in nightclubs and other places. And eventually they asked Srila Prabhupada, and Srila Prabhupada said that, “Of course, entering a place where people are smoking, drinking, eating meat, and so on is not very good. But for the sake of preaching, we can go to hell, even.” So it is not that we can’t go there, but preaching means to make devotees. So we have to see, are we actually going to make devotees from going to such places and preaching? If we are going to make devotees, we can go anywhere, even to hell. But if we are not going to make devotees, then what is the preaching? Then we should rather leave it. So, you have to see is the facility really going to help make more devotees, or is it just going to make my life more comfortable? Anyway, that is the basic idea.

Any other questions?

All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

Hare Krishna!