SB 3.25.21 – The Qualities of a Sadhu, Sadhu-sanga Retreat

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna.

It is a great honor and privilege to be with all of you, sadhus, at the sādhu-saṅga Retreat, and to honor the occasion and all of you, I will read from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam about the qualities of a sadhu. Please repeat.

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya

We read from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto Three, Chapter Twenty-Five, “The Glories of Devotional Service,” Text Twenty-one. To save time I will just read straight through.

TEXT 21

titikṣavaḥ kāruṇikāḥ

suhṛdaḥ sarva-dehinām

ajāta-śatravaḥ śāntāḥ

sādhavaḥ sādhu-bhūṣaṇāḥ

TRANSLATION

The symptoms of a sādhu are that he is tolerant, merciful and friendly to all living entities. He has no enemies, he is peaceful, he abides by the scriptures, and all his characteristics are sublime.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

A sādhu, as described above, is a devotee of the Lord. His concern therefore is to enlighten people in devotional service to the Lord. That is his mercy. He knows that without devotional service to the Lord, human life is spoiled. A devotee travels all over the country, from door to door, preaching “Be Kṛṣṇa conscious. Be a devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa. Don’t spoil your life in simply fulfilling your animal propensities. Human life is meant for self-realization, or Kṛṣṇa consciousness.” These are the preachings of a sādhu. He is not satisfied with his own liberation. He always thinks about others. He is the most compassionate personality towards all the fallen souls. One of his qualifications therefore is kāruṇika, great mercy to the fallen souls. While engaged in preaching work, he has to meet with so many opposing elements, and therefore the sādhu, or devotee of the Lord, must be very tolerant. Someone may ill-treat him because the conditioned souls are not prepared to receive the transcendental knowledge of devotional service. They do not like it; that is their disease. The sādhu has the thankless task of impressing upon them the importance of devotional service. Sometimes devotees are personally attacked with violence. Lord Jesus Christ was crucified, Haridāsa Ṭhākura was caned in twenty-two marketplaces, and Lord Caitanya’s principal assistant, Nityānanda, was violently attacked by Jagāi and Mādhāi. But still they were tolerant because their mission was to deliver the fallen souls. One of the qualifications of a sādhu is that he is very tolerant and merciful to all fallen souls. He is merciful because he is the well-wisher of all living entities. He is not only a well-wisher of human society, but a well-wisher of animal society as well. It is said here, sarva-dehinām, which indicates all living entities who have accepted material bodies. Not only does the human being have a material body, but other living entities, such as cats and dogs, also have material bodies. The devotee of the Lord is merciful to everyone — the cats, dogs, trees, etc. He treats all living entities in such a way that they can ultimately get salvation from this material entanglement. Śivānanda Sena, one of the disciples of Lord Caitanya, gave liberation to a dog by treating the dog transcendentally. There are many instances where a dog got salvation by association with a sādhu, because a sādhu engages in the highest philanthropic activities for the benediction of all living entities. Yet although a sādhu is not inimical towards anyone, the world is so ungrateful that even a sādhu has many enemies.

What is the difference between an enemy and a friend? It is a difference in behavior. A sādhu behaves with all conditioned souls for their ultimate relief from material entanglement. Therefore no one can be more friendly than a sādhu in relieving a conditioned soul. A sādhu is calm, and he quietly and peacefully follows the principles of scripture. A sādhu means one who follows the principles of scripture and at the same time is a devotee of the Lord. One who actually follows the principles of scripture must be a devotee of the Lord because all the śāstras instruct us to obey the orders of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Sādhu therefore means a follower of the scriptural injunctions and a devotee of the Lord. All these characteristics are prominent in a devotee. A devotee develops all the good qualities of the demigods, whereas a nondevotee, even though academically qualified, has no actual good qualifications or good characteristics according to the standard of transcendental realization.

COMMENT

Every one of us is here today because of the mercy of a sadhu or sadhus. No one can come to Krishna consciousness without receiving the mercy of a sadhu or devotee, and therefore, sadhus or devotees travel all over the world to distribute the knowledge of Krishna consciousness and especially the holy name of Krishna. But although the sadhu is the well-wisher of everyone, the friend of everyone, every conditioned soul in the material world is here because of envy. That is the basic cause of our material bondage. And the nature of envy is that one reacts even if there is no good reason.

Srila Prabhupada would often quote the maxim of Canakya Pandit, kāla-sarpa, that there are two types of envious living entities, the envious man and the snake. But of the two, an envious person is more dangerous because an envious snake can be pacified by mantras and medicinal herbs, whereas an envious person cannot be pacified by any means. Srila Prabhupada himself was the ideal example of a sadhu, and he exhibited his qualities wherever he went. But I will quote one instance where he exhibited those qualities, which was Juhu, Bombay, when he spoke on this particular verse from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and indirectly applied it to himself and indirectly to all of us, his followers. So, the basic principle is kāruṇika, that out of mercy he was trying to distribute Krishna consciousness in Bombay, but there were so many enemies. As he was speaking on this verse he said, “What is our fault? We are simply trying to preach Krishna consciousness, the message of Bhagavad-gītā, As It Is, and we have so many enemies. So many enemies are coming to put obstacles and no one is coming to help us.” And he said, “You know the history of this place, Hare Krishna Land? We applied for permission and the police commissioner refused by saying that the bhajana is a nuisance.”

Now, when Srila Prabhupada received that message, he was in Vrindavan and I was in Bombay, I had to relay the message that the police commission had refused the permission on the grounds that, “There have been many complaints that the bhajans are a nuisance, and if we grant permission for the temple, then the nuisance will continue.” So, when Srila Prabhupada came to Bombay, he drafted a letter to the police commissioner, in which he said, “Police commissioner, you are meant to be a raja-rishi, a saintly ruler, evam paramparā-prāptam imaṁ rājarṣayo viduḥ. And according to the Bhagavad-gītā, satataṁ kīrtayanto mām, that devotees are always supposed to engage in kirtan or bhajana or glorification of the Lord, and those who do so are mahātmās, and anyone who complains against them is a narādhama or asurā, māyayāpahta-jṣānā. So, we are appealing to you, as a raja-rishi, to give protection to the devotees who are mahātmās from the complaints of the narādhamas.” So, there was no reply. [laughter] So, after some time, Srila Prabhupada said I should go down to the commissioner’s office and inquire. So, I went, the commissioner was not there but I met his secretary and she said that the commissioner had received the letter and he had read it and it was the best letter he ever received in his whole life. [laughter] [applause] But he still didn’t give the permission because there was a whole conspiracy that went very high in the government but ultimately, by Krishna’s grace, that was sorted out later.

So, he was speaking and then he said, “What can we do? We have to tolerate.” He said, “I could have thought we have so many temples all over the world, a hundred temples, if the people of Bombay don’t like us, we will leave, we have other places where we could go.” But he said, “No, we will not leave, titikṣavaḥ, we will tolerate and persevere in our mission of kāruṇika.” And he also encouraged us that we should remain sadhus, we should remain peaceful although we have to deal with so many envious elements, enemies, we should remain peaceful. And as stated in the immediately previous verse, Text Twenty, to one who becomes attached to a sadhu, the door to liberation is open. So, even apart from building the temple for Radha-Rasabihari, even before building it, he had manifested the glorious qualities of his sadhu, and it encouraged us to follow.

Now, it is very easy, in a way, not easy, it was not easy in Bombay, but in a way, it is easier to deal with external enemies than internal enemies. “This is blasphemy," as Prabhupada said, “to call the bhajans a nuisance.” But as Lord Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gītā, the mind can be your best friend or your worst enemy. So, fighting with the demons in Juhu, that was exhilarating in a way, and Srila Prabhupada was such a general of the army, he never wavered in his determination or enthusiasm. He said, “Even if we don’t get permission to build the temple, we will turn Hare Krishna Land into a bus stop, we will have buses filled with books and we will send the buses out with books, and we will make Hare Krishna Land a bus stop.” [laughter] Remember, there were so many times when he could have been discouraged and many of us were discouraged, and people were afraid he might give up and go somewhere else because there was so much opposition. And he wrote one letter to Dr. and Mrs. Singhal, “I will be the last man to leave Hare Krishna Land and surrender to that demon, Nair, or whatever his name is. [laughter]

But we also have our internal demons, the mind, which can also tell us things like, “This is a nuisance, all this chanting.” This is getting in the way of our sense gratification. The external demons say, the mind can also give us the same type of message, “Why should you be chanting Krishna’s name? People should be chanting your name. Why should Krishna be the center? You should be the center. People haven’t recognized it yet, but they should recognize that you are the center.” And our false ego creates a whole false identity and false conception of the world. As our dear godbrother Bhurijana Prabhu once said, There are. . . How many billion people on the planet now? Seven? Seven billion people? It is like there are seven billion people on the planet and each one is thinking he should or she should be the center, and everyone else should do what he or she wants. It is like everyone is walking around the planet and internally, they are thinking, Excuse me, I have an important announcement to make. I am the center of the universe and you all should do exactly what I want. [laughter] So, there is all these seven billion imitation gods walking around vying for supremacy and so, it is not a very congenial or harmonious situation. So, what do we do when there are enemies? We take shelter of Krishna. This is the example of every devotee of Krishna and especially, we see in the residence of Vrindavan, whenever there is any difficulty they take shelter of Krishna. So, when our mind gives us difficulty, which may be every day or every hour, could be every minute, we have to take shelter of Krishna. And the devotees of Krishna, the devotees of Krishna are actually more. . . Well, it is Krishna, ultimately, but in a way they are more merciful than Krishna.

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura says that when a person wants to pick up something that has fallen on the ground, he extends his hand. And so, when Krishna wants to pick up a fallen soul that has fallen into a material world, He extends His hand in the form of a sadhu or the devotee. So, kāruṇika, they are very merciful. And so, we can call out to them within our minds or even vocally to save us. Raghunatha dasa Gosvami in Sri Manaḥ-śikṣā, he advises that we cry out to the dear devotees of Lord Chaitanya to protect us from the highway robbers of lust, anger, and greed. And just being in the association of sadhus elevates our consciousness, just being in their presence. I think the first very vivid experience I had of it was when one devotee in Vrindavan, Arca Vigraha devi dasi, left her body and a number of us went to the Yamuna for the cremation. And then after the Yamuna we went into the waters of Yamuna to purify ourselves, take bath, and do Gayatri. So, I was standing in the water, very near to Govinda Maharaja, and I was doing Gayatri and it was one of the best Gayatri I ever did. I was deeply absorbed in it and the meaning of it was clear in the mercy of Gayatri, I was being experienced doing Gayatri, and then around the sixth line, that meditative mood broke and I was thinking, What happened? And I opened my eyes and I looked around and saw Govinda Maharaja had finished and he was walking out of the water, onto the bank, and I thought, Oh, wow, that is powerful.

And the same thing with japa. Some time ago Ṛtadhvaja Swami and I discovered that our japa improved when we chanted with each other. And then it would happen sometimes a third person would come, and immediately you could feel our consciousness is going up, it is even better, and sometimes, depending on the situation, there might be a fourth, any serious chanter, but sannyasi godbrother, and then, when they would join, it would go still higher. And this sādhu-saṅga retreat is just filled with so many elevated sadhus. Just by being in their presence our consciousness is elevated, and our chanting and hearing, the quality of our chanting and hearing improves. But part of that is that we can become more aware of those demons in our minds that come up, and that is also part of the process of purification. We should take it actually as mercy.

The other day I spoke to a devotee who was known for leading kirtan and he was saying, “It is wonderful but when the light of the holy name shines on your consciousness, you see all the other things that are there.” But that is good. It is like when one devotee joined, he told Srila Prabhupada that he felt that he was more Krishna conscious before he joined because he felt he had more good qualities before he joined. And Srila Prabhupada said, “It is like you have a room that is filled with dirt, but because you have never made any effort to clean the room, all the dirt had settled. So, now you are sweeping, you are washing, so all that stagnant dirt is flying everywhere and you are like, "My god, this room is becoming filthy.” But the filth was there but you are cleaning it and so, you are seeing it fly up everywhere but it was there and it is getting cleansed. And then you feel great; it is such a relief to have gotten that dirt out. But there is more, there is gross dirt and subtle dirt, but all of it is cleansed by chanting and especially in the association of devotees.

And Caitanya-caritāmṛta says, kṛṣṇa-bhakti-janma-mūla haya ‘sādhu-saṅga’ - that the root cause of devotional service is the association of sadhus. And, kṛṣṇa-prema janme, teṅho punaḥ mukhya aṅga, even after attaining the love of Krishna, the association of sadhus is still most essential. So, this is not something that we graduate from, but this is eternal. So, we should appreciate this association and take very good care of each other. I think that most of you are aware of most of the examples that Srila Prabhupada gave in the purport, Lord Jesus Christ, Haridasa Thakura, Lord Nityananda Prabhu. In brief, the story of Śivānanda Sena and the dog. Every year, Śivānanda Sena would lead a party of devotees to Jagannatha Puri, and one year, a dog started to follow along with the party. So, he would feed the dog and he accepted the dog as a member of the party. And once they came to a river, the boatman didn’t want to take the dog and Śivānanda Sena gave him extra money to take the dog. So one day, and I am telling this story to illustrate the point of the mercy of the sadhu, that no one is too low or too fallen or too dirty to get the mercy of the sadhu. So, one day, Śivānanda Sena was detained with the toll collector, and the devotee who he had entrusted with the service of feeding the dog forgot to feed him. And when Śivānanda Sena came back, he inquired, “Have you fed the dog?” And when he found out that the answer was ‘no,’ he was very upset and he sent ten men to find the dog and they couldn’t find him. And then, Śivānanda Sena fasted. So, the devotees carried on and then, very soon, they reached Jagannatha Puri, and Lord Chaitanya received them as usual, arranged for their accommodations and prasāda.

And the next day, when they went to visit Lord Chaitanya in the morning, they saw the dog and he was some distance from Lord Chaitanya. Lord Chaitanya was feeding him the pulp of green coconuts, and the dog was eating it. And as Caitanya-caritāmṛta describes, Lord Chaitanya was smiling at the dog, in his own way, and telling the dog, “Chant Hare Krishna,” and the dog, in his way, was chanting Hare Krishna. And Śivānanda Sena, out of his humility, offered obeisances to the dog, considering himself to have been an offender and begging forgiveness from the dog. Then, the next day, when the devotees went to visit Lord Chaitanya, the dog was not to be seen, and Caitanya-caritāmṛta describes that he had attained his siddha-deha, his perfected spiritual body, and gone back home back to Godhead. And in the purport, Srila Prabhupada says, “This is the effect of associating with a sadhu,” referring to Śivānanda Sena. That one eventually gets the shelter of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and ultimately goes back home back to Godhead. And by taking shelter of Srila Prabhupada and other sadhus connected with him, even us, creatures, we can also get the same benefit.

So, we don’t have so much time, but I will just tell a little story that has some practical application here. You all are so fortunate, really, I cannot tell you how fortunate you are to have all this association. When we first came to Krishna consciousness, Srila Prabhupada was pretty much the only devotee who knew anything. And so, we had to figure everything out for ourselves and if we had any questions, we pretty much just had to ask him and he was so patient and tolerant. Whenever my patience and tolerance are tested, it doesn’t take that much to test my patience and tolerance, I think of Srila Prabhupada. I am the type, when I work, I don’t like to be disturbed. And this one time, Srila Prabhupada was giving a lecture in India, I think somewhere in North India. They blocked off the whole street and Prabhupada and the devotees were on this platform and there were hundreds of people all over. And Prabhupada had finished leading the kirtan, and somehow this question popped into my mind because there is this verse, in which Dhruva Maharaja says to the Lord, svāmin kṛtārtho ‘smi varaṁ na yāce, that “My Lord, I do not want any benediction, just by seeing you I am fully satisfied.” So, it just popped into my mind that, “Where is that verse? I haven’t found that verse.” So, right between the kirtan and when Srila Prabhupada was about to begin the lecture, I crawled over next to Prabhupada’s seat and I said, “Srila Prabhupada, you know that verse? Where does that come from?” [laughter] And Srila Prabhupada just looked at me with, I would say, love and compassion, and he said, Hari-bhakti-sudhodaya I think. And then later I found that that is exactly where it was found, but he wasn’t disturbed at all, and then he went on with his lecture.

So, that was one example, there is so many. There is another one, towards the end of Prabhupada’s time with us in Juhu. He was reviewing the whole history of the struggle for the Juhu land, and then, at a certain point, he said, “That dog.” The devotees weren’t sure what he meant, “That dog,” that maybe he was referring to Mr. Nair. [laughter] But it turns out that, at one stage, he was staying with a man who had a big dog, a German shepherd, and the man would drive Srila Prabhupada for his walk on Juhu beach and Prabhupada would have to sit next to this big German shepherd [laughter], but, titikṣavaḥ, he tolerated it. So, anyway, amidst all these activities and practices, somehow it entered my mind, this is one of the better thoughts that entered my mind, What actually pleases Srila Prabhupada the most? And I was thinking about it and somehow, amidst all this array of devotional practices and projects, I got an idea, thought I got an answer. So, I approached Srila Prabhupada during his massage on the balcony in Calcutta, and I said, “Srila Prabhupada, I have been thinking about what pleases you, and I thought of two things.” He looked at me in that grave but compassionate way and I just feel he was taking in every word, he said, “Yes?” I said, “One is distributing your books, and two is building the Mayapur project.” And he smiled very broadly and he said, “Yes, thank you very much.”

So, I am going to take this opportunity, and I took permission from His Holiness Indradyumna Swami, to say two things. One is that this book, the complete set of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, is available, special, during this festival, for only. . . Well, I hope I am not going to get in trouble for understating the price, for only $200 for the complete set of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, plus as a special bonus to participants in the retreat, you can get a copy signed by one of the sadhus. [applause] And the Mayapur project is just something to be aware of; I am sure you are. I remember once, in relation to the Mayapur project, Srila Prabhupada. . . there is a whole discussion but at the end he said, “If you all just build this temple, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura will come and personally take you all back home back to Godhead.” So, there is so much to do. As this saying goes, “So much to do, so little time to do it.” Someone gave me a little sign to put on the refrigerator, one of those magnets, “So much to do, so few people to do it for me.” [laughter] But whatever the case, we have a lot to do, so we should not waste even one moment. We should use every moment to be chanting and hearing about Krishna and taking the association of sadhus and serving the sadhus. And that is why we are all here.

Hare Krishna. [applause]