Anartha Nivritti. Lecture 8
Бхакти Вигьяна Госвами · Говардхан · 2025
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Mangalacharan invocation and introductory prayers
Oma Gyanatimirandassya, Vyanam Jana, Salah, Sakura Mikam Vina, Rasmah Sri Budave. Sishaitanyama, Satitamiya Butale, Rambayam, Naratishatantikam, viram, sri guru, Sriudabadakamala, Sri Guru nestampsar Shreupam Sagajat, Sadanadam Sareva, Sarvaitam, Sadukam, Vajana Saritam Krishna Chaitanyadeva, Shri Rad Krishna Pada, Savanavita, Shri Satitamsja e Krishna Karnat Sindho Ninamandho Jabatanta Radakantana most teatamanchana Gorany Rage Vindava Neswari Vishmanu Sudani Damay ple, panchachal, patru bsch, prepa si dubia chá, po di ta namani bio, vaisnave bio noodama, se krishna Shaitana, Braboni dananda. Sriva Tadara, Shrivasi Bora Vatta Brinda, Hre Krishna, Hre Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Rama Lama Rama Ramaare Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Ramaha Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hareela R, Ramama, Yanda Pravishamamavachamprasutam, Sanji Vaya takila shakti d Anjamashramana Badim Pranamu Bhagavad, Purushayatu Yamu, Swasya Kalahpras Ranyaka Chidupasana Brajawad, Srimad Bhagavatam Trama Mamamam Pevapu Marta Mahan Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Mata Veda Dharma praha visvasnataru pasu, bakti vartma prastana, bakti shakri partiatva, shakat jade, pred backish vitade, sangiva is lagama. Rande Pama Tapardu Dabadami, Vishwa Babola Sini Urania maruchakino yakabolo. Seekanyakribusama, Maduryakambi,
sechsanyakama, Maduriakadamini, Bhakti Purva Sritadam, Rastamatad, Tam no misadamrupa Nama Priya
Four categories of anarthas and aparadha
Chanam Hare Krishna
Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura classified all the anarchas which are there, the unwanted programs which keep us attached to this body and to this material existence into four categories according to their origin.
All of these anarthas have the same function. They bind us, keep us in the bondage of our body and therefore facilitate continuing our material existence.
Senselessith repeated births and deaths and sufferings, but still we are attached.
And out of the four kinds of anarthas, the most dangerous and the most persistent programs or anarthas are anarthas which are created by offenses (aparādha). Why the most dangerous, most persistent, deepest one?
because this tendency for offense is coming directly from the soul. Tendency to enjoy or tendency to avoid enjoyment is coming from the mind. But the offensive mentality is ultimately rooted in the soul.
And therefore, whatever we do impelled by these tendencies create very lasting effects on our consciousness. And we briefly mentioned this effect and the effect is twofold.
When we commit aparādha, the first effect of aparādha is that the heart of those who are object of our aparādha becomes closed toward us.
We just want to keep as far away as possible from us, and therefore we do not experience the effects of the holy name.
We do not feel the taste in studying or hearing Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, we do not really feel the reciprocation of the holy dhāma.
We do not feel these exalted feelings which are supposed to come because, uh, holy dhāma, one of the five, uh, powerful, uh, forms of devotional service, can immediately bring one to the level of bhāva.
Effects of offense on human consciousness
So we don't feel all these effects, uh, because of our offense, because, uh, all these powerful, uh, personalities, the holy name, uh, scriptures, Vaiṣṇavas, especially great Vaiṣṇavas, and holy dhām, they are not in a hurry to give us mercy.
And the second effect which we also mentioned at the end of the lecture is that our consciousness becomes more gross. It loses its ability to discriminate or to sense the subtle presence of the spiritual energy.
Pure consciousness can reflect spiritual energy, and pure consciousness is very helpful for our spiritual progress.
It's still material consciousness, but if it's pure, we can through the media of this pure consciousness we can intuit it the existence of God or presence of God.
And we can also feel the power of the holy name and so many other beautiful gifts, the pure consciousness or pure heart can give to us. So, but when our consciousness becomes gross, gross and shrunken, that's the effect.
As much as the fence uh makes the heart of uh uh the offended uh shrunken. In the similar way, uh the heart of the offender is also shrunken.
The consciousness of offender also becomes very narrow and very meager, and because of this, our consciousness become gross. We can only perceive something grossly material.
Anything more subtle is not perceivable for such gross consciousness. And another effect upon our consciousness is that it activates dormant material saṁskāras.
For the time being, we could have been very peacefully perform devotional service, but all of a sudden so much disturbance is there in the mind, and we have to deduct that this disturbance is due to committed offense which activated dormant saṁskāras. And all of a sudden we feel something like lust or anger which we didn't feel for a long time.
So, and uh we quoted this verse from Padma Purāṇa, which explains this manifestation of gross consciousness.
You only see the gross forms, you see the form of the Lord, and you say it's just a stone or metal, and you look at the spiritual master guru, and you only see the ordinary human being with all his faults and mostly you see the faults and deficiencies.
And you look at vaiṣṇava and you judge vaiṣṇava according to their origin, according to their jati, according to their caste or place of birth.
And of course you don't feel that there is an effect of uh Pada Tirtha or Charanamrita. And the most important Sri Vishnor Namni Mantri Sakala Kalushu he sabdasamanya Buddhir. Kalu Shahe Sabdasamanya Buddhir.
You develop the intelligence.
Again, this is all description of the certain type of gross intelligence which considers mantra or the holy name of Lord Vishnu, which is capable of remove all the dirt from our heart, as Shabda Samanya is an ordinary sound.
So and of course, Vishnu who is Sarveshvara, Taditara Samadhira. No, he is equal to somebody else. There are so many gods are there.
So and uh this is the description of the mentality of uh people who live in hell or in other words who live uh in the material world because material world is hell. Dukalaya Mahashvatam.
Who only can interact with the matter and cannot feel the presence of spirit. And Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī gives a beautiful description of it in Bhakti Sandarbha in more details.
What happens with our consciousness when we commit offenses.
Jiva Gosvami on five offensive symptoms
There are five, he lists five very important effects on our consciousness of the offense. When we commit offense, the first effect is crookedness. Basically, the pretension, the tendency to pretend.
I still do my devotional service. I still externally worship Vaishnavas, I externally worship Krishna, I externally pay respect to Guru, but internally I become spiteful. I become negligent or even envious sometimes.
So this crookedness that externally you continue with the same so-called service, but internally you feel uh haughtiness over uh Vaishnavas and spiritual master and so on so forth this is called crookedness.
Another effect is facelessness. I will describe it a little later. So, facelessness absorption in objects that erode one's faith in the Lord, slackness in devotion, and pride arising from one's own devotional service.
And then he writes: very important thing: if one is unable to give this up in spite of being engaged in bhakti rooted in the association of great devotees, one should understand that all these are effects of of offenses to the name in this life and symptoms of offenses committed in past lives as well.
So you know this certain kind of crookedness of hypocrisy, uh the atheistic tendencies, absorption uh in TV and uh uh mobile phones and social media, slackness in devotion and pride, they, uh, they're natural to every human being.
But when we start bhakti, and when this face appears in our heart, when śraddhā comes to our heart together appears in our heart when Shraddha comes to our heart together with respect and so many other beautiful qualities, when bhakti sprouts and we still cannot give up these things, these tendencies.
Normally, in normal circumstances, we should be able to give up all these tendencies and engage in bhakti.
But if we cannot give it up, despite our endeavors, despite understanding that this is not good, it means that there is some offense somewhere hidden within our consciousness and this offense produces these tendencies, reinforces or strengthens these tendencies. So that's a very important point to consider.
So, and he says this could be offense in this life, or it could be an offense from the previous life. But it's there and the offense therefore becomes the cause of our faulty execution of devotional service.
When we continue with devotional service, but devotional service doesn't bring the expected results because there is an obstacle, there is some power within us which deprives the process of devotional service, their natural power.
So that's what Jīva Gosvāmī explains, and we will go in little more details, but basically, what
we can see in this description is that as much as sādhana-bhakti brings us to the condition of love helps us to develop love towards God.
Sadhana results versus consequences of offenses
Offenses result in indifference and ultimately aversion to bhakti. So that's the opposite because offenses are diametrically opposed to love, the result of the offenses is also diametrically opposed to bhakti.
And we can easily find five corresponding qualities which are supposed to be present in our heart when we practice bhakti. Present and flourish in our heart.
When we start practicing sādhana-bhakti, natural tendency will become that will become very straightforward. Honest. There's nothing to hide. I'm a good person, I'm doing what I'm supposed to do, and this straightforwardness
is a very natural tendency of a sādhaka. If there is no offense. And then when we continue with sadhana bhakti, definitely our faith will become stronger.
There's no doubt about it, because we will gain some spiritual experience and the spiritual experience will make our śraddhā stronger.
Then gradually, gradually, the taste that inspires us to be completely absorbed in devotional service will also become more and more pronounced.
And then of course, sādhana-bhakti increases enthusiasm to perform devotional service. And ultimately, sādhana-bhakti makes one humble.
Because no matter how great we are doing in sādhana-bhakti, we understand that I'm just an insignificant worm which is trying to serve my glorious Lord, but who am I?
So we can see that the five natural results of sādhana-bhakti, gifts of sādhana-bhakti upon our consciousness are coming when we perform sādhana-bhakti properly.
But if we don't do this, then these five opposite effects also will come. Kautilya basically, it means that we become more hypocritical. And it's not without a reason that usually
people speak uh no normal uh people uh who are not practicing devotees uh they usually speak about religious people uh as being hypocrites. Religiosity, religions are famous of producing hypocrites. Why?
Because of this reason.
Because we become devotees in this line or that line, but uh because we are careless and we commit offenses, then this tendency uh to uh hypocrisy, the crookedness, kautilya becomes stronger within our heart.
And then amazingly enough, the faithlessness also comes.
We can, if we are honest and if we analyze our heart, we can see that sometimes it seems like in the beginning I was so faithful and now I'm kind of losing my faith. Does Krishna exist or not? Not a fact.
So aśraddhā basically means that even if you encounter something which is miraculous, you still will explain it away by your rational consciousness, that this is no, it is just ah coincidence. Coincidence.
Every time basically the miracles are happening in our life, practically every every day but the will try to explain it away by some aparadha will try to explain it out by some coincidence or whatever is there, or it's just my imagination, or something like this.
So that's again the result of aparadha. And then bhagavat-nishta-chyavakas tu antara abhiniveśa. We become very much absorbed in things which uh chyavaka chyavakas something which destroys our bhagavan-nishta. So like the
other day, Radha Pramoda Prabhu asked, is it sinful to watch TV? It's not sinful, but it definitely destroys our nishta in bhagavan. It destructs our consciousness.
It's not sinful, but we become uh absorbed in it and uh this is what I've seen also.
People come to Krishna consciousness, starts practicing it, and before they had some addictions and they kind of uh give it up, uh sometimes easily give it up, but then after some time uh the addictions return.
They start playing games in computer or whatever is there, or some other addictions start taking drain, so again Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī says that's the result of offense.
As I mentioned before, the offense activates dormant material saṁskāras.
And therefore, this desire to get absorbed in something material and to feel illusory happiness from this absorption becomes very strong and uh impetuous.
And then as a result of it, the force uh the force uh influence upon our consciousness is that bhakti bhakti-śaithilyam, our bhakti, our practice of bhakti becomes very slackened. Instead of chanting good rounds in the morning, we do it during the day while driving a car or while watching TV or while browsing internet.
You know, there's all kinds of very exotic varieties of japa. Facebook japa, TV japa, or driving japa. So people start practicing this and this bhakti shaithilyam, because bhakti
doesn't bring you satisfaction required satisfaction and the most amazing result is the fifth result sva bhakti adi krita manitvam you become very proud of your advancement in devotional service.
I'm so advanced, it's just unbelievable. It's just just just too much advanced. So I'm you become very, very proud. I achieved this and I achieved that and I opened this Namahata or this
bhakti vriksha and uh and uh uh this leader and that leader and at the same time you are emptying heart.
You don't have really taste for bhakti, but uh because you need to compensate and you are in a society of devotees, you need to have some reasons to be proud and then you start boasting of your devotional achievements.
So this is what is unfortunately happening and we
should definitely give it up, but if it still persists, if it's still all these tendencies are still there in our consciousness, then we should understand that there is some offense.
It's very interesting that Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī says that this tendencies should not be there or can be easily given up if we practice the devotional service in the association of great devotees.
It's a very important condition.
When we practice without association with great devotees, then uh this n quote unquote natural tendencies can still be there but in in the association of uh great devotees it's practically impossible to maintain such tendencies.
You just come close to a great devotee and all your crookedness disappears.
You don't feel like pretending because you just you you you naturally feel humble. You naturally feel uh that you know there is no need to to pretend I am what I am and you know how can I pretend in front of such a great devotee?
When we're associating with let's say normal devotees, then it may not be so easy to give this up. But Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī says normally it should be easily given up if we are associating with great devotees.
But if we cannot do this, even though we are in this Sangha, this Mahat, with great devotees, then something is seriously wrong with us.
So that should be very important consideration how offenses twist our consciousness, modify our consciousness and our perception of reality.
So this, um, eccentricity is definitely in the stage of aniṣṭha-bhajanānuṣṭhāna. It didn't reach the stage of niṣṭhā.
Respecting all living beings avoids offenses
There is uh another very important description of uh these effects uh given by Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura in his commentary to the 21st verse of the 29th chapter of the 3rd canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
The Kapiladeva says: Ahaṁ sarveṣu bhūteṣu bhūtātmāvasthitaḥ sadā tam avajñāya mām martyāḥ kurute 'rcā-viḍambanam. So I, the soul of all beings, am always situated in all beings.
He who disrespects me in all beings performs false worship of my deity form.
So, in other words, if we forget that Krishna is situated in the heart of every living entity and become disrespectful, don't pay proper respect according to the position of these living entities, remembering that the Supreme Lord is there in every living entity, then our attempts to worship the
Supreme Lord in form of arcā becomes pretentious, hypocritical.
We can only worship the Supreme Lord even in his form of arcā properly, if this consciousness or remembrance of the presence of the Supreme Lord in the heart of every living entity is firmly established.
And Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura writes a beautiful commentary. He says: In such, however, in such bhakti offense creates restriction. This is exactly what I said.
When we commit offense, that offense influences our bhakti and it restricts our bhakti or constricts our bhakti. Our bhakti becomes powerless, not as powerful as it is described.
Offenses generally, it's very interesting here how Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura explains why do we have to worship and respect every living entity. He says, offense generally stems from disrespect to the great devotees.
Though such devotees are difficult to see, many exist. In order to avoid offenses to them, one should pay respects to all living entities thinking that the Lord is present in all of them.
In other words, just in case somebody could be a great devotee, we should pay respect to everyone. Sometimes we look at somebody and he looks dirty and you know he's just a beggar and you look down at him. Don't do it.
He may be a great devotee, Jaḍa Bharata. Nobody could recognize Jaḍa Bharata. He was a great mahā-bhāgavata. And so everyone derided him.
So he says this habit of being respectful is uh you know, the greater the devotee whom they offend the more pernicious the effects of defense. And therefore we have to be very careful.
Sometimes we look at a new bhakta, but you don't know how many hundreds of lifetimes he practiced bhakti. He's so enthusiastic and he he has come, he's not, he's not really new.
You know, you think he's new and in reality in the eyes of God, you're new. And he's not new, he's old. So he's senior.
So, Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura says, without doing so, even worshipping the deity forms of the Lord will not give any result.
Since He is the Supreme Lord, Kapiladeva speaks in six verses somewhat angrily, out of affection.
So with angry affection, Kapila Deva just pointing out at him and he says, I don't approve this kind of worship of myself to benefit his devotee who does not respect all beings.
In these verses, a very important point: disrespect, disregard, hatred, and criticism are forbidden.
Four grades of offenses and consequences
Basically, Kapiladeva in these four verses he speaks about four extents or four grades of offense. It can be avajñā, it can be upekṣā, it can be dveṣa or it can be nindā. These are the four grades of offense according to the gravity of the offense.
Avajñā basically means disrespect. Avajñā means like this haughtiness or when we look down at somebody or we kind of you know, he's avajñā, ava means we're looking down basically at somebody because ava means down.
Avajñā means we think he is insignificant. So, and he says basically we can deduce from these verses that there are four effects of these four grades of offense. If we are just disrespectful, or yes, it's yudha-vikalpaḥ.
So if again we are disrespectful to other devotees, then the result is pretension or again if uh disrespectful to other devotees then the result is pretension or crookedness, hypocrisy.
and our offensive nature becomes stronger. Even if we slightly neglect—not neglect, slightly look down at other devotees.
The second grade of offense is upeksha. Upeksha basically means we don't want to see that this devotee is there. We are offending him by not noticing his existence.
Have you been in a situation when somebody whom you know passes by you and doesn't even look at you, doesn't say haribol or whatever. Do you feel offended? Yeah, you feel greatly offended.
So Peksha Upeksha, you know I uh you feel completely uh minimized in your dignity because you know you uh uh somebody past you as if you don't exist.
Therefore it's so important to say Hare Krishna, Haribol, or it is just you know bye bye or something like this. Whatever. Whatever to say something.
It may not uh happen uh intentionally consciously but uh we have to understand that this is an offense. Uh what to speak if we're doing it consciously, if we're just passing by and we don't care about other people.
So he said if this this is a upeksha, so if this second grade of offense is there, then as a result God becomes indifferent to us. It's totally reciprocal.
We don't notice the existence of one devotee and God says, okay, I don't notice your existence. I pass by you, no problem without saying haribol.
So uh that's uh that's small grave offense and uh you know we basically feel that by chanting the holy name, we worshiping the Lord, but we don't feel any reciprocation from the Lord.
We don't feel any reciprocation from our devotional service and we should understand that's the result of our neglectful attitude toward other devotees, especially great devotees.
So the third great or the third extent of offense, the third grade of gravity of offense is dvesha, active hatred.
The hatred on a least is the basis of offense. It's there, but when it becomes visible, when we are not so offensive or critical, then we don't really manifest dvesha actively.
But when dvesha becomes very visible, then the result of it is that uh we become internally very much disturbed, we feel anxiety, we lose uh peace, uh and we feel fear. This is basically also a result of an offense.
We committed an offense, and because the offense is grave, Krishna is disturbed. And because Krishna is disturbed, because of our offense, we also become disturbed. It's his reciprocation with our improper actions.
You know, we created disturbance to others by our active hatred and as a result we lose peace completely. So uh this anxiety, fear, all these symptoms,
you know when we are practicing devotional service, we are naturally peaceful. I'm doing everything right. There's nothing to fear. Yes, death is there, but death is very natural.
You know, it's just uh death means that Krishna is calling us to meet with him he is awaiting uh for us uh in uh some kuñjas of Vṛndāvana, but uh uh the
grave offense uh uh is it experienced as a complete agitation, anxiety. And then nindā, nindā basically means we start criticizing the Lord.
No, the Lord, we start criticizing devotees, we start distributing their faults everywhere. Like Siddhar Swami, the quote is there uh later uh he says that what is Ninda? Nindā is doṣa-kīrtanam.
You start glorifying their deficiencies and their vices and their faults. And you cannot stop because it's uh twenty-four hour kīrtan, it's a akhaṇḍa doṣa-kīrtanam. All the time.
You cannot just stop, you're just talking and talking and talking. So the result of it is very active displeasure of the Lord. The Lord is totally displeased and totally withdraws his mercy upon us.
Navigating secondary details in devotional service
So that's what that we can conclude from this explanation of Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura: Four Great Offenses.
Okay, so now we're coming to the next section of Madhurya Kādambinī of the third chapter of Madhurya Kādambinī. And basically, what we read so far in the very beginning of this third
chapter of Madhurya Kādambinī, while describing the anarthas created by our offenses, he immediately mentioned that sevā-aparādhas are not counted among offenses because they're easily nullified or neutralized.
But then immediately he said, but it doesn't mean that we can or entitled to commit sevā-aparādhas.
Please never do this wrong conclusion because this is a grave offense against the holy name and against all bhakti, basically. That's the offense against bhakti.
But then immediately the impression which we get after reading this is that oh my goodness, I should not commit sevāparādhas.
It basically means, uh, impossible because there are so many different tiny details of how we should perform bhakti. Śrīla Gopāla Bhaṭṭa Gosvāmī and Sanātana Gosvāmī still contested. They wrote this Hari-bhakti-vilāsa.
There are twenty vilāsas in Hari-bhakti-vilāsa, and every vilāsa runs from 300 to 400, sometimes more verses. So it's at least 6,000 verses, and each verse is a rule and regulation.
And not to commit sevāparādha, you have to know all six thousand truths and follow them. You know, the, uh, Judaic tradition famous for having 600 six something rules.
And it's, it's supposed to be enormously vast, and nobody actually follows these 600-plus rules. But, uh, welcome to the Hare Krishna movement. Six thousand different rules, and they're heavy.
Like today I looked at Rāma-navamī, Rāmanavamī is coming. So the first verse about Rāma-navamī: foolish person who does not observe full fast on Rāma-navamī will fall down into the hell known as Kumbhīpāka.
This is just one verse. Bhanu Swami already translated Hari-bhakti-vilāsa, so you can purchase it from today on.
Śrīla Prabhupāda, when he was speaking with his first hippie disciples at one point, he said, "So many rules, if you knew, uh, you would run away from here immediately. If you knew about all of them."
So then immediately this doubt comes into our mind: what does it mean not to commit sevāparādhas? Does it mean that now I have to follow the six thousand rules? No, the good news is there.
Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura says, please listen, there's a very important logic behind this. Okay. He says, no, no, no. Don't be afraid of bhakti.
It's basically, uh, like, uh, Upagupta Prabhu, he said that you know, other people, they only're faulty in creating anarthas by, uh, sinful activities, but devotees, they create all kinds of anarthas, all four kinds of anarthas.
So sometimes this fear comes when we hear such descriptions. So Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura says, please don't worry. You came to the right place, don't worry.
So he quotes the verse from the Eleventh Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam where Krishna himself speaks with Uddava and he says my dear Uddhava, Bhakti or Bhagavata Dharma has such a wonderful effect that once one begins practicing it free from material desire and can never be even slightly lost or destroyed.
This is because it was established by me who am beyond the material nature. He says, Maya Vyavasitah Sammyam Nirgunatvath Anasisha.
I am Transcendental Lord, and I establish this Bhagavad Dharma and this Bhagavad Dharma nahi Anu Api Dvamsa, it cannot be lost. Even if you touched little bit this devotional service, it always will be with you.
So, and then he says that simply by reciting this ten syllable mantra of Gopal Mantra, it will give you all perfections.
So there are many statements which speak that actually you don't have to perform all the details of devotional service. It's not possible, and you don't have to perform all details.
There is a difference between active commitment actively committing severaparatus and some uh omission of certain rules. And that's exactly what Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura is trying to impress upon us.
He says if you if you don't perform certain angas of bhakti, it will never produce nāma-parādha.
Committing sin on the strength of the holy name refers to the intentional commission of sin, thinking that the power of devotional service can nullify bad effects. Sin is action condemned in Dharmashastra to be modified by Prayaschita.
So uh committing sins or uh consciously committing sevā-parādhas is nāma-parādha. But if we neglect certain angas of bhakti, that's not a problem. Because bhakti is much more powerful than karma.
In karma, you cannot neglect any tiny detail of karma.
If you do sacrifice, fire sacrifice, you commit slight mistaken ingredients. The ingredient is not exactly pure or slight mistake in pronunciation of mantra, or slight mistake. The result will not be there at best.
At worst, it can be opposite result. You're performing, you know, big sacrifice in a good face, and as a result, the result is disastrous, you're finished. Because you performed it improperly. Bhakti is not like this.
Bhakti is not that particular about this. Bhakti is a much more generous process.
Running with eyes closed in Bhagavata-dharma
So you can avoid certain things and to prove this please listen very carefully. Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura quotes two verses from 11th canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam from the second chapter.
This path of Bhagavata Dharma or Bhakti is spoken by the Lord Himself. Only the Lord Himself can explain Bhakti.
*Upāyā hy atra mālatyā *u *aṅghri-puṁsāṁ *aviduṣāṁ vidhi-bhāgavatāṁ hitān — so he says that even ignorant living entities human beings can very easily know the Supreme Lord
if they are going along this path. The process recommended by the Lord is bhāgavata-dharma, devotional service. And the next verse, the most important verse, which is also often quoted by our Acharyas,
*Yāṁ āsthāya naro rājan — let's chant together. *Yāṁ āsthāya naro rājan na pramāyeta karhicit trīṁl lokān — So he says,
my dear king, one who accepts this process of devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, this person will never blunder on his path in this world.
Even while running with eyes closed, he will never trip or fall. *Nāskhalen nāpaten mūrdhani — he will never, in other words you can perform devotional service with your eyes closed and uh running at the same time.
So what does it mean? It basically means there are two wrong interpretations of this verse. Some people say that what are eyes? What do eyes signify? what does it mean uh closing the eyes?
Knowledge, knowledge, eyes are knowledge. So when one wrong interpretation when it is said that you can *nimīlya rājann close your two eyes, means you don't need any knowledge on the path of bhakti.
Have you heard this philosophy? Yes, bhakti, it's jñāna. We are bhaktas. We avoid jñāna. Jñāna is very bad. This is this is all bhakti means bhakti. I am a bhakta. I am not a jñānī. I should not study scriptures.
No no no. Otherwise, I will become a dry jñānī and end up in some Shankaramat or something like this. This is wrong. Because it is said here that you're not blind you close your eyes.
It basically means that you have eyes, but you close eyes. You know you have the knowledge. The knowledge is there, but uh, you close your eyes.
And uh, uh, another one here, you close your eyes and you run and uh, running basically means if you run you can smash everything on your way or whatever.
Uh, and some people say that bhakti, no, there is no consideration of knowledge and there is no consideration of any aparadha. I can do whatever I like.
There are no real rules, it's all useless. No. This is not what it means. This verse is very important for us to understand because it gives us very clear conception or understanding how we should perform bhakti.
Yes, uh, we can run uh, with two eyes closed and uh, still uh, reach the final destination, no doubt about it. But what does it mean? It basically means two eyes closed means that we may consciously neglect certain
angers of bhakti uh, because they are not so important. And therefore, uh, Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī explains there are five main angas which should not be uh, later, which should not be which should never be neglected.
But there are secondary uh, angas like he mentions you should worship people tree and you should worship that tree, tree and you should do so many other things.
So if you, in your desire to achieve the ultimate goal, concentrate completely on the main angas of bhakti, like chanting,
like uh, studying Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, like worshiping the deity, uh, and uh, being in the holy dhāma and associating with sādhus, then that means that you closed your two eyes. But closing two eyes means basically,
you're not seeing anything, but you're seeing your goal, and you're clearly seeing the direct means of achieving this goal. Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma.
So even if you don't fast completely on Rāma Navamī, of course I spoil this because now you know that you're supposed to fast. But in any case, if your goal is to achieve Krishna Bhakti by vigorous performance of main principles of bhakti, you may omit or not pay so much attention to some secondary details.
And what does it mean that you run?
Closing eyes means you know Shastra and you knowingly don't pay so much attention to details, all these 6,000 rules or whatever. But you pay a lot of attention to the main principles of bhakti. What does it mean to run?
Does it mean that running means that we can? No, running basically means that we have very clear goal. And you know we just run towards this goal.
And while running uh towards this goal we may uh you know step over certain things.
But because we are so eager, running here means if you are real Bhakta and you know how important it is to achieve the goal of Bhakti, then you run and you just run in this path. So and you neglect uh certain angas.
So closing eyes does not mean uh violating or uh not following the rules of Shastra. Uh because we have Shastriya Shraddha. Closing eyes doesn't mean that we break the principles of Shastra.
But certain things we can kind of not pay too much attention to them. And that's why Śrīla Prabhupāda never translated Hari-bhakti-vilāsa. Never even considered translating Hari-bhakti-vilāsa.
Because he knew that it would not be beneficial for us. It would just distract.
Some people are uh have this tendency to follow all the minute details and while following all these minute details they they forget about the main things.
So uh basically, this verse says, yes, uh, the pass of bhakti is given by God Himself.
Uh it's uh it's an easy pass, it's a good pass, but uh you should be uh you should know uh you should discriminate between the principles and details. So that's more or less the next section of Madhurya-kādambinī.
So, yeah, this verse describes a person who has sincerely this verse from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam taken shelter of the process of Bhakti, as outlined by the Lord Himself. And 32 sevāparādhās, beginning with entering the temple on palanquin or while wearing
And 32 sevaparadas, beginning with entering the temple on Palankin or while wearing shoes, one should never be intentionally committed. Of course, you know it's not often that we're entering the temple in Palanquin.
But in our case we should not drive in the temple with our car. That's the modern version of this rule.
So uh and it basically means that under the pretext of following kṛṣṇa-bhakti. We shouldn't we should not neglect the rules which we know. We should know how to perform Achman, we shouldn't, we should put tilak, we should do all these things.
But at the same time we also have to pay a lot of attention to the main principles. So uh yeah,
Neutralizing intentional and unintentional offenses
uh and then uh uh Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura says that maybe nāma-aparādhāḥ were unconsciously committed either long ago or recently. This is important. Let's listen.
He says that among nāma-aparādhas, there are two kinds of nāma-aparādhas. And these two kinds of nāma-aparādhas, why do we have to know that there are two kinds of nāma-aparādhas?
Because the effects of this nāma-aparādhas should be treated differently. One kind of nāma-aparādha is unconscious nāma-aparādha.
We don't know what kind of aparādha I committed, but we know the presence of aparādha from the effects. We can deduce the presence of nāma-aparādha by the effects visible within our heart. And this is one kind.
The second kind is that we know what kind of nāma-aparādha we committed. So the method of neutralizing the effects of these two kinds of nāma-aparādha are different.
And we have to be very clear that there are different methodology we should not apply universal methodology. The universal methodology is described in Hari-bhakti-vilāsa. Welcome to Hari-bhakti-vilāsa again.
So that's 11th vilāsa in two verses. Let's chant together.
Jatena nāma-parāde'pi pramāde'pi, pramāde na kataścana, sadā saṅkīrtayan nāma, tad-eka-śaraṇo bhavet. nāma-parāde yuktānām, nāmāny evāharanty agham, aviśrāntam prayuktāni.
So these two very important verses from Hari-bhakti-vilāsa which describes the way of neutralizing unconsciously committed or unintentionally committed nāma-aparādha.
It is very clearly says here pramādena, pramādena just by the sleep of consciousness, by inattentiveness. Without being conscious, you commit aparādha, it happens with anyone.
So, what to do in this case if some if someone commits nāma-aparādha due to carelessness, pramādena, kataścana, somebody, then he should constantly chant the holy name, taking soul shelter of it.
Sada Sankirtayanna Matad Eka Sharanaobadet. This is my shelter, this is my protection. I know I committed some offense, I don't know what kind of offense.
So I'm changing the holy name to neutralize the effect of offense, to purify myself. And then it is said, Nama Parada yuktanam namandi vaharandyaham. So the holy name destroys the offenses of persons committing
Nama-aparadha, so the holy name himself can destroy. Nāma-mucyeta karhicit, it takes away agham, the impressions or the results of nama-aparadha. How, by which methodology? Aviśrānta-prayuktais tāny evārthāḥ karaṇīni ca.
So constantly chanting the holy name will give us perfection.
That's why we have programs like Nāma-niṣṭhā, where, uh, for one day, for two days or three days, we come together, we chant as, as much as possible without mobile phones and any other distractions.
Trying to nullify aparadhas. And it works. It has an amazing effect. It refreshes your consciousness and rejuvenates your practice of bhakti. So that's recommended to neutralize aparadhas which are committed unintentionally.
But if you commit an offense knowingly, uh, Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura says it's very dangerous.
If someone knowingly commit offense, then the effects are grave and accordingly there are special procedures to nullify them. So for unknowing, unintentional aparadhas, there is a universal procedure.
But if you know what kind of offense you committed, then there are specific procedures to neutralize these specific effects.
Overcoming Vaishnava-ninda through sincere remorse
So, and basically while stating this, stating this, Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, he goes to concrete offenses against the holy name, nama-aparadhas. And the purpose of his description is not so much to describe the offense itself but to describe the method how to neutralize this specific offense.
So, and that's the next section, and he starts with the first offense, Vaiṣṇava-nindā. And we know let's uh chant together. Satām nindāṁ nāma-paramam aparādhaṁ vitanute, yataḥ khyātiṁ yātaṁ katham u sahate tad-vigarham.
So this exclamation, "Oh, oh, sahate! Oh, how the holy name will be able to tolerate, sahate, such a offender who is uh criticizing satam uh Vaishnavas.
Here satam means satam means sādhu, uh somebody who is established in sat in reality. But because it's talking about bhakti, sattam here specifically means great bhakta.
Because on every pass uh sattams are different, and the pass of
yoga, Sattama, great yogis, on the pass of karma, satams are great Rishis who establish these rules, on the pass of jñāna, satama great meditators who meditate on impersonal Brahman.
But here satam means bhakta. Satamninda nam nah, paramama paradam vitannate. This is the most grievous offense. Paramama paradham vitannate. It constitutes the most grievous offense. Why?
How the holy name can tolerate this because somebody is serving the holy name and uh uh you offend him. He is a very close and intimate servant of the holy name and uh you offend him.
And uh as I said, Ninda means Dosha Kirtanam, according to Sridharaswami. Ninda doesn't mean that you speak untruth. Sometimes people say that I'm speaking truth. So it's not Ninda, it's not an offense. I'm speaking truth.
Well, it may not be an offense if you speak truth, uh but most probably it is an offense. Uh because you feel so much pleasure in speaking this truth. You don't find so much pleasure in speaking other kind of truth.
Because you want consciously to pull down somebody by speaking this truth.
Because you have malice within your heart and uh uh because those kirtanam you because you want to spread this truth you don't need to do it but uh you still completely obsessed by speaking this quote-unquote truths.
So therefore, Sridarswami says, Nindanam Dawshakirtanam, if you unnecessarily starts advertising the faults of other people, this is Ninda.
You may have some good reason if you want to warn somebody against associating with such person or this and that, and reluctantly you you speak about uh somebody uh false, uh that's okay, that's fine.
But if by n if uh driven by malice you start propagating their uh faults, then it's it's Ninda. It's offense, and the result of this offense will be very, very serious. So, Viswanachakravarti Thakur says, what is the specific way to
nullify this offense? He says: if by chance this offense occurs, the person should repent. Oh, I am such a low-class person, I have committed an offense to a saintly person.
A person who has been burned by fire seeks relief in fire.
This is a very famous statement, Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, sometimes quotes this line from Ayurveda that if you are burnt, that the remedy from the burn, if you don't want blisters to appear in your hand or wherever, then you have to put it in.
not in fire but in some like in chili or something. Recently one devotee she told me that you know I heard this in your lecture and I tried it.
I burned my hand and immediately I put it in the uh in a box of chili powder and uh amazingly there was no blister on nothing. So it works.
So uh another example can be like when there is a forest fire, and a big forest fire.
So to put down the forest fire from the other side, when there is this uncontrollable raging fire goes in one direction, then from other direction you can put some controlled fire, and this fire will basically burn everything. And then the fire will be extinguished because there's nothing to burn.
So this is how they also fight with the forest fire by by putting counter fire against this fire.
So here it is very clearly said that if you commit a parādha and then to counteract the effect of this aparādha, uh, should be by the fire of remorse.
Remorse, even in Hindi, it's called prāyaścitta, right? Prāyaścitta. Paścātāpa, anutāpa. So remorse means this fire within the heart, fire of remorse, fire of repentance. You become very much aggrieved.
And it should be sincere. Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura says it's not that you pretend that I am. Sometimes people come and they try to beg forgiveness from somebody.
And they're asking, oh, please forgive me, I'm such a rascal.
And you look at them and you say, yes, you're such a rascal, you know. Even now you remain a rascal. Because you don't feel any remorse. It's completely false. It's not it's not the genuine uh remorse, it's just a pretension of remorse.
So therefore Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura says if you understand the grievous effect of uh vaiṣṇava-parādha, uh you should first really try to feel this. How why did I do this?
And only after sincerely feeling the remorse, come to this other and ask forgiveness. So he says that according to this logic that fire nullifies the fire.
He should nullify the offense by lamenting, resolving to come before the Vaishnava, falling at his feet, and satisfying him by offering his obeisances, praises and, respects.
So, this is the proper way to neutralize the parādha, vaiṣṇava parādha.
If the Vaishnava is not satisfied, the person should render favorable service to him according to his desires for many days. This is the recommendation.
You know, if he's not still satisfied, he says please, let me serve you in some way. And then he says, sometimes the offense is so grievous that the Vaishnava's anger does not die.
So what to do in this case, he says, in this case,
in extreme remorse, thinking himself most unfortunate and bound for millions of years in hell for this offense, he should give up everything and take full shelter of continuous nāma-saṅkīrtana. By divine power of nāma-kīrtana, certainly in time that person will be delivered from his offense.
So he says: if all this doesn't work, then you can take shelter of the Holy Name and beg forgiveness from the Holy Name, and then you will be relieved from it.
But then he says, however he should not justify himself by arguing that Śāstra says, nāmāparāda-yuktānāṁ nāmāny eva haranty agham, the holy name alone is sufficient to deliver an offender.
So, what is the need to humbling myself by offering repeated respects and service to the Vaishnava that he has offended? This type of mentality makes him guilty of further offense.
So if you say why why should I humiliate myself by coming, you know, if anyway uh you know I can just chant the holy name and then it will be nullified. No it will, only uh aggravate your offense instead of nullifying it.
So there is a proper way, proper procedure of doing it. If we offended somebody we should beg forgiveness, should become straightforward and honest enough to do this. And then very interesting.
Sometimes we may think you know that of course yes I offended him, but he's not a devotee. He's just a pretender, you know. He's just a yeah, he's a neophyte, you know. He's not a mahā-bhāgavata.
So Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura says, uh, nor should one be of the mentality to think that the offense of sadhu ninda discriminates between the types of Vaishnavas. Sadhu means sadhu.
Sādhur eva hi mantavyaḥ, he should be considered sādhu even if he is committing sins.
So it does not refer only to one who is fully and perfectly qualified with all the qualities mentioned in scripture, such as mercifulness, never harming others and forgiving to all living entities.
Kṛpāluḥ akṛta-drōhaś titikṣuḥ sarva-dehinām. So it says that scriptures, the Padma Purāṇa, please listen very carefully. What Padma Purāṇa has to say about this.
O brāhmaṇa, persons lacking proper behavior who are fallen, deceitful, full of false ego, absorbed in bodily conception, drunkards, cruel, irreligious, lowborn, hard hearted, attached to money, children and wife, and fallen in all respects can also be liberated if they take shelter of the lotus feet of Govinda.
Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura quotes this verse from Padma Purāṇa: sarvācāra-vivarjitaḥ, śaṭhāḥ, dambhāḥ, vraṭyāḥ, jagat-vañcakaḥ, deceitful.
Even a person who has very bad character, a cheater, devoid of all proper behavior, and so on and so forth. If he surrenders to the Lord, he must be considered a sādhu. Sādhur eva sama-mataḥ.
So it's not an excuse to say I'm just, you know, I'm just I'm not an offender because I offend somebody who is an offender himself. No, that's not an excuse. And the last thing which we will study is this other yeah
few more thing about this, two more. So and then he says he considers different scenarios. Normally you should feel remorse, repentance, go back forgiveness. If he doesn't forgive you immediately, you should render service.
Forgiveness of sadhus and saintly mercy
If he still doesn't forgive, you should chant the holy name incessantly. But sometimes the sadhu is not being offended. You offend him and he is not offended. Does it mean that there is no aparādha? No.
Sadhu's there you know I I cannot offend Sadhu because i if he's offended he's not a sadhu. Is it the good logic?
What kind of sadhu he is if he's offended, you know, Sadhu is supposed to be, you know, forgiving and everything else. He says, no, no, no, it's not a good logic.
Sadhu may not be offended, but the dust on his lotus feet will be offended. And the lust from his the dust from his lotus feet will come down to your head, and you will still suffer the consequences of this offense.
Therefore, we should never misuse this sort of attitude. Yes, sadhu may be very forgiving, but it doesn't mean that we can offend him. It doesn't mean that we should not feel remorseful.
We should feel genuinely remorseful if some offense takes place. So and he quotes this verse from Satis' angry speech towards Daksha.
And she came and she started criticizing Daksha, offender of the great Mahabhagata Shiva.
And she says let's chant together nascharyamitatyakasarhada Mahatvinakuna Patavadishu Sresyama Purusapadapam Sudir Nirastatejasuda Devaswhanam. So she very beautifully says, Nirastate.
The glory of that criticism which you committed is that the result which is gives. Tadeva Sobanam. It basically means that the glory of the criticism is that the result will always come to you. That's the glory.
It's inevitably will come to you. You will not be able to avoid uh this result. That's uh that's how serious it is.
So she says it's not na as charyam atad yada satsu sarvada. It's not surprising that materialist, asatsu, people who are absorbed in Asat, in material nature, Mahatvininda, Kunapatma Vadishu, those people who are claiming the gross body of the soul, kunapa, the bag of this body to be the Atma, Kunapatma Vadishu.
It's not it's not surprising that they Mahatvininda constantly criticize great devotees, Sarvada Mahatvininda, Vesandhi, and become deprived of their powers. But they become deprey deprived of their powers.
Mahapurusha Pada Pamsh by the dust from the lotus feet of great devotees. It basically means that somehow or other the result will come to us. We will not be able to avoid the result.
Therefore, we have to be very honest and not to commit offenses.
And then the last thing, this is very last part of this section of Madhuria Kadambini is that, yes, sometimes devotees are not offended, but there are occasions described in Shastra when you offend the devotee and devotee gives blessings to you.
Because the devotees, especially great saints, great sadhus, they are unconventional. They're not following the normal conventions. The rules of ordinary people.
You come to him and you are full of fury and you offend him, and he smiles at you and says, Ashirvad, Ayushman Bava, whatever. So, uh, they say, yes, uh, he says it's there, definitely it's there.
Uh and, uh, the result of this, uh, uh, blessings of a great devotee is that you become a devotee yourself and you will forget about all your offensive mentality.
So actually there are many real stories in spiritual history of the world like there were thieves who were trying to steal some
goods from Jagannatha's Babaji. They came in the middle of night and they started taking everything.
And when they were leaving, he said, oh you forget this, please take this and the next day they came and uh they fell at his feet and because he gave them blessings.
They fell at his feet and started begging forgiveness and they became his sevakas. So also there was a similar story with one Russian Christian saint, Seraphim of Sarov, who was some rogues came to his secluded place, he was in the forest and wanted to kill him. And he started praying for them.
He started really, you know, he was kneeling down and praying for them. And then they were caught and they were brought in front of the judge and he himself came in front of the judge and says, please don't punish them.
Don't punish them. They are protected by me. So and they they became very saintly people at the end. So that happens, and, uh, Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, he gives three examples of this, how it happens.
He says, he gave the example of Jaḍābharata, how with King Rahūgaṇa. King Rahugana severely offended him. He said, You are just stupid fellow, you're pretending why you are faltering in your way, why you are bumping me.
And then Jaḍabharata looked at him and said, no, this guy needs some correction. So and he started preaching to him. And uh King Rahugana was listening, listening, listening.
Then he jumped down from his palanquin and touched the feet of Jaḍabharata. And another story very interesting from Purāṇas about Uparicara Vasu, which is mentioned here. Uparicara Vasu was the king of Mahābhārata fame.
And he was a friend of Indra. He was such a saintly person, and he was performing such severe austerities. Then Indra became very worried. He came to him and he said, What do you want? He said, I don't want anything.
Please don't worry. I'm not going to become Indra. I want to be a sādhu. And Indra became so pleased and he said, Do you I still want to give you my blessings? Do you want something?
And he said, Give me one flying saucer some aeroplane and that's why he became Uparicara Vasu. He was flying up there in the sky, Uparicara Vasu. And then he committed some offense.
He was asked by the demigods and the demons, sorry, not by demigods and brāhmaṇas to be the referee, to be the judge in their argument and their debate, and he made the wrong judgment.
They asked him to give impartial judgment and he ruled in favor of demigods because Indra was his friend. So, and therefore he was condemned and he actually ended up in hell. In Pātāla-loka. So he ended up in hell.
But in Pātāla-loka he still he was a devotee and he was so composed and happy. So he started doing bhajan, and all the demons who live in Pātāla-loka became really worried.
They started attacking him with all kinds of weapons. And all the weapons, he was so powerful saint that all the weapons didn't touch him. So the demons went to Shukracharya. Demons asked Śukrācārya.
One very strange fellow came to our planet. We never seen such a fellow. And he's so powerful. We're trying to harm him and we couldn't harm him. And then Sukracharya says, Oh, he is a Mahabhagavata.
So to overpower him, you should preach atheism. You should actively and loudly preach atheism. And that will destroy his bhakti, and when his bhakti is destroyed, you will destroy him. So, and they became very enliven.
And they came in vicinity of this Uparicaru Vaso and they started actively preaching atheism. God is not there.
It's just all, you know, stories from Purāṇas, uh, it's all useless mythology and Puranas are written in seventh century AD. Max Müller says this.
So they started preaching this well uh established atheistic conceptions about scriptures. And Uparicaruvasu became so compassionate. He started crying. He said, look at these people.
They're already demons and they they're already living in hell uh and they also have this stupid conception so instead of cursing them, he gave them blessings, and they all became devotees and came to Śukrācārya
and said, thank you very much, it was a good, it worked. that's that's the story. But in any case, uh please don't offend a great devotee hoping that he will give you a blessing. It's not.
It's not the way to obtain the blessings of a great devotee. Please be careful with any devotee. Please don't offend anyone.
Transition to the initiation ceremony
And then your progress in bhakti will not be impeded by this aparādha. So by saying this, we can come to the next stage of our program today.
We are supposed to give initiation to eight people for patiently waiting for this moment.
And uh because we are supposed to speak about initiation uh uh and give instruction how we should chant the holy name uh so today's lecture was very appropriate because
it was about how to chant the holy name without committing nāmāparādha and what we should do if in case we, uh, commit some nāmāparādha,
so it was very appropriate and please remember this lecture and then you will always be successful in your endeavours to please the Lord.