Anartha Nivritti. Lecture 1
Бхакти Вигьяна Госвами · Говардхан · 2025
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Opening invocation and retreat welcome
Jñānāñjana-śalākayā cakṣur unmīlitaṁ yena tasmai śrī-gurave namaḥ śrī-caitanyaṁ mano-'bhīṣṭaṁ sthāpitaṁ yena bhū-tale svayaṁ rūpaḥ kadā mahyaṁ dadāti sva-padāntikam śrī-guru śrī-yuta-pada-kamalaṁ rūpam, sāgrajātaṁ saha-gaṇa-raghunāthānvitaṁ taṁ sa-jīvam, sādvaitaṁ sāvadhūtaṁ parijana-sahitaṁ kṛṣṇa-caitanya-devaṁ śrī-rādhā-kṛṣṇa-pādān saha-gaṇa-lalitā-śrī-viśākhānvitāṁś ca he kṛṣṇa karuṇā-sindho dīna-bandho jagat-pate lalitā-śrī-viśākhānvitaṁś ca.
he kṛṣṇa karuṇā-sindho dīna-bandho jagat-pate, gopeśa gopikā-kānta rādhā-kānta namo 'stu te. śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu-nityānanda śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda
hare kṛṣṇa hare kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa hare hare hare rāma hare rāma rāma rāma hare hare
Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama Hare Hare, Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Hare,
yo 'ntaḥ praviśya mama vācam imāṁ prasuptāṁ sañjīvayaty akhila-śakti-dharaḥ sva-dhāmnā anyāṁś ca hasta-caraṇa-śravaṇa-tvag-ādīn prāṇān namo bhagavate puruṣāya tubhyam
svasty astu viśvasya khalaḥ prasīdatāṁ dhyāyantu bhūtāni śivaṁ mitho dhiyā bhagavān kaler balina indriya-varga-śāntaye Krishna. I'm very happy to see all of you.
Today I looked in Gaudiya Vaishnava calendar of Panchang and found out that today is Mangalwar and Bharani Nakshatra and Chaturti Titi is the worst Tithi, worst nakshatra, and worst vara.
So I think it's a very auspicious beginning. Sure, our retreat will have a great success. Because bhakti does not depend on the things. Bhakti is transcendental.
And ultimately we are here to talk about Krishna, and it's the most auspicious place in the universe to talk about Krishna because
Overview of Madhurya-kadambini retreat
Krishna himself lifted Govardhana Hill and invited the whole world under the shelter of Govardhana Hill. So I'll start with a little introduction. We'll talk about Mādhurya-kādambinī.
I started this topic in uh February in the beginning of February in Goa and we covered two chapters of Mādhurya-kādambinī. So tomorrow I will give a brief overview of the previous classes and yeah
from the evening or whatever, let's see, uh, we will start the next chapter of Mādhurya-kādambinī, which is the most important chapter. The chapter which is describing the process of eradicating Anarthas.
How anarthas are being washed off our heart and how the original pristine purity is being established within the heart. So, this will be the topic of our discussions this year.
Hopefully, we will cover two chapters the third and fourth chapter which is Nishta and from the next year we will reach ruci, āsakti and then easily prīti.
So this year it will be a little difficult but from the next year once it will be just very nice. It's uh it's uh little advertisement for the next year.
But I will start uh from explaining this beautiful bhajan, one of my favorite bhajans written by Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura, which is called Lālasāmayī Prārthanā. It's a prayer
full of eagerness, full of lālasā, intense Desire. And actually, this intense desire is the key for our success, our main problem is the lack of intense desire.
We have a lot of theoretical knowledge, we have a lot of different things, but ultimately everything will remain dead and useless without proper intense desire. It will just remain an external show of bhakti.
And we may deceive others, we may even deceive ourselves, we may think that everything is fine, we are fine, you know, like little children they just you know like this and we look at them and we see oh they are pure devotees so and then just wait for a few years You will find out what's the reality on the ground. But in the beginning they're like this. So in the similar way we as
neophyte devotees, as beginning devotees, we're like this. And we can make a good show of pure devotion. But ultimately it's not a condition, it's not a it's not a question of the external soul.
It's the question of the reality of the heart. And heart means desires. This is what heart means. When we talk about heart, we talk about desires,
and if our desires are strong enough then the path of bhakti is very easy, smooth, and ultimately successful. But if desires, spiritual desires are not so strong, then the material desires will be pulling us back.
We will try to strive towards Krishna, but there will be very strong force which would be tearing us apart. And that's a big problem.
You know, sometimes I receive letters and people say, you know, I'm doing everything, I'm doing everything, why nothing happens. Why am I still there? Well, because we do have desire, no doubt about it.
If we didn't have desire, spiritual desire, desire to achieve Krishna, desire to come to Him, desire to love Him, to serve Him, we wouldn't be here.
But this desire is not strong enough, and it's only very superficial conscious desire. Whereas deep down in the subconsciousness, there is a lot of very strong desires which we may not even be aware of.
But they are still keeping us from going forward. They are keeping us bound to this place in the material world.
And if we look in our heart, yes, we do have some spiritual desires, but ultimately it's not so bad here, isn't it?
It's not so bad, it's not you know it's uh it's still not so hot. Soon it will be very hot, but uh that's let's see. And it's not so bad. We have prasāda. Nice, everything is nice.
So therefore, this strengthening of our desire is the most crucial point. See this is the confirmation. Uh yeah. It's the most crucial point and, uh, therefore Narottama Dāsa Ṭhākura he wrote this, uh, song, uh, because
where do we get desire? We cannot really uh squeeze out desire. We cannot really artificially We can, but ultimately it doesn't work. Desire is not just some hysterical condition. Yeah, yeah, I won't, I won't.
No, it has to have very deep roots in our heart.
Transforming the heart through sadhu-sanga
And uh the association with advanced devotees is the only cause for genuine desire. Narottama Dāsa Ṭhākura is expressing this desire, and his idea is to transmit this desire to us.
Repeating his words which are coming from this place of his heart, where he sincerely desires to love Krishna and to understand Krishna if we repeat these words then a little shadow of his desire will come to us.
Therefore, it is again and again said in our scriptures
that Sadhu Sangha, Sadhu Sangha, Sadhu Sangha, so much stress is given to Sadhu Sangha even very short Lava Matra Sadhu Sangha Sarvasidho, even very short moment of association with sadhu can change the condition of our heart.
Whereas if we just theoretically try to understand bhakti, it's the same as to try to theoretically learn how to swim. You may theoretically learn how to swim. It will not save you if you are on the water, you will drown.
You will not really swim. So bhakti is a practical discipline, and for any practical discipline, if you want to excel it.
If you want to achieve perfection in any practical discipline, you need some personal association with somebody who is more advanced.
There is no question of achieving anything in terms of practical disciplines unless you associate with somebody who is expert in this field.
So that's why again and again and again it is stress, sadhu-saṅga, sādhu-saṅga. And Narottama Dāsa Ṭhākura is giving us his sādhu-saṅga. It's the best which he can give to us at this moment of time.
And while repeating the words of Narottama Dāsa Ṭhākura we should try to really feel what he is feeling while crying. Gauranga Bolitehabe Pulakasharira. He's really crying for this moment when he would say Goranga.
Not just sometimes we say Goranga Goranga Goranga but uh no Pulakasharira. So he says when I will say Say this from the place in my heart in such a way then all my hairs will stand on end.
It basically means when will I understand who is Gaurāṅga and what he came to give? What is the gift of Lord Gauranga? What he did give to us, to most fallen people of Kali Yuga,
he gave the most amazing unnata ujjvala-rasa, svabhakti-śriyam. He gave the most elevated experience of love which is available to us. The most elevated experience of love of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī.
Unnata-ujjvala-rasa-svabhakti-śriyam. Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī, he coined this phrase. What he gave, he gave unnata-ujjvala-rasa. Ujjvala-rasa means parakīya-rasa.
Parakīya-rasa among all the rasas of spiritual world is the most elevated. But he gave unnata-ujjvala-rasa. Not just ujjvala-rasa. Not just parakīya-rasa.
Unnata-ujjvala-rasa means the rasa which is experienced by Śrī- matī Rādhārāṇī herself.
Svabhakti-śriyam, because we cannot experience what she experienced, but we can experience the shadow or the or the effulgence of her experience. Therefore he says, unnata-ujjvala-rasa-svabhakti-śriyam, the effulgence
of the love of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī. And basically, he is talking about the most amazing spiritual phenomena which is explained in Ujjvala-nīlamaṇi.
But Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī is explaining how the intensity of love of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī is so strong that whoever comes close and gets under the influence, he will experience the same feelings which she experiences herself.
And Gaurāṅga Mahāprabhu came to experience this feeling and to give it to us. To give access to the same feelings to all of us.
And if we start understanding this, you know, we kind of become familiar. Yeah, yeah, Caitanya Mahāprabhu, yes, yes, yes. No problem. Hare Krishna. So it's uh it's a very unfortunate condition of living entities
when they become familiar with something and they forget the greatness of what they encounter with. It's very, very unfortunate. And sometimes we need to hear somebody else to explain.
Like recently I listened katha on YouTube by Rajendra Maharaj from Ramananda Sampradaya. He's famous here in Vrindavan. He gives very sweet kathaya.
Usually he speaks about Bhaktamal or Ram Katha or sometimes Bhagavad Katha. But I opened his Katha about Caitanya Mahāprabhu.
And he started speaking about Caitanya Mahāprabhu and, I was. it was so amazingly sweet to hear how he explains the sweetness of Caitanya Mahāprabhu and glory of Caitanya Mahāprabhu. And his and his gift.
And he basically says, yes, the Lord Himself has come, he took the effulgence of Rādhārāṇī and He came as Caitanya Mahāprabhu.
And he distributed this love in form of harer nāma, harer nāma, harer nāma eva kevalam kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva nāsty eva gatir anyathā.
And he says now the whole world is chanting Hare Krishna, who except for God Himself can do it. And of course he said Prabhupada did it. He admitted that it was his Prabhupada's His credit.
Anyway, so he says, gauraṅga bolite habe pula-ka śarīra. When will I say Gaurāṅga? With understanding who is Gaurāṅga. And then at this very moment, hari hari bolite nayana baibe nīra,
then I will start chanting Hare Krishna and the tears will flow from my eyes. Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Ram, Hare Ram Hare Hare.
So now when we chant Hare Krishna, we don't have tears. But at least we should have tears. We should cry because we don't have tears. That's that would be a good way to get some tears while we're chanting.
We should understand it's not it's not something ordinary. Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama, Rama, Hare Hari.
Obtaining spiritual master mercy and freedom
So he basically says, when will I understand who is Gaurāṅga Mahāprabhu? Then only I will be able to chant Hare Krishna with the proper mood and with the proper eagerness and with the proper desire to or proper understanding that Hare Krishna is non-different from Krishna himself.
But then he says how this process of transformation of the heart, change of the heart takes place.
Because again, it's not a question of squeezing out tears from our eyes. It's a question of experiencing something not ordinary.
And he explains how this is happening, the stages of transformation of the heart, which is basically the subject matter of our retreat, the gradual transformation of the heart.
He says that the first thing, he says, Arakabi Nitai Chand Korona Karibi, the first thing is to get the mercy of Nitaychand, who is the original spiritual master?
The first condition, the first and necessary condition, is to please the spiritual master in such a way that his heart would melt and all the blessings which he has within his heart, all the spiritual experience which he accumulated within his heart, by the power of our service and humble mood would be transferred from his heart to our heart.
It's a very special process of downloading information. We all know how to download files from internet. That's not so difficult. But to download mercy from the heart of the spiritual master is a little tricky process.
It's not just to push the button and then it downloads. No. For that the whole process is there. You're sincerely trying and you don't But you don't say this. You just say I don't want anything, I just want to serve. But
if you're insistent enough and sincere enough, if it's really, you know, like sometimes you see how people are trying. And you cannot just, you cannot help but be moved by their sincere endeavors.
You see how sincerely they are trying, and then even if you don't want, your heart anyway melts, and when it's melted, then the mercy is being downloaded.
It's not the process, it's not like this, you know, Hashirvat, Ashirvat, give me a Shirvat. Yeah. Hashirvat, get out of here. So that's not the process.
The process is that I sincerely try to please my spiritual master, and by my sincere endeavors, he gives me his mercy. And then what is the sign that I received the mercy?
Saṁsāra-vāsanā moh-kāre tūchā habe, he says that the next stage when we get the mercy, then saṁsāra-vāsanā, the vāsanās which we have, which keep us tight in this material existence, in this saṁsāra, which actually bind us to this material world, they become tūchā. They become insignificant.
The desires to enjoy this material world become very weak to such an extent that they are not anymore able to influence us in our actions, in our words, and even in our thought process.
Now we are not really controlling, we to a certain extent we may control our actions. To lesser extent we may control our speech. Even to much lesser extent we may control or we can control our thought process.
Because it is controlled by whom? It is controlled by karma. It is controlled by vasanas which we have. It is controlled by the experiences which we had from previous lives.
This is some very strong program, and this strong program is basically directing us, pushing us in a certain way. So he says: as soon as we receive the mercy of spiritual master, we achieve freedom.
And freedom basically means I can choose. I can still go along with my karma. Follow the program which is there and follow the, you know, the destiny which I have. And any astrologer can tell you what you should do.
But at the same time, he says, because it becomes tucha. Tutcha basically means that you don't have to follow it. You have the freedom to choose whether you want to follow it or you don't want to follow it.
And you still may want to follow it, but if you are intelligent enough, then you will realize that you don't have to do it. This is the meaning of tucha.
It's not that all the karma leaves us the moment we receive the mercy of spiritual master. No, karma is still there, but the freedom is also there.
Whereas when we only have karma but no mercy of spiritual master, then there is no freedom, only karma. So and then he says the most amazing and beautiful thing. Bishoya Chariya Kade Suda Habiman.
The moment when I give up the Bishoy, the object of senses the desire to enjoy material senses then my mind become clear Then immediately my mind becomes clear, and clear mind means
the mind which is capable of reflecting reality. Now our mind is reflecting distorted version of reality. We can only see and observe material reality without really understanding the deeper background of reality.
We don't understand, we we only have very superficial understanding of reality. We don't understand what is the internal working of reality, how it works, and how ultimately Krishna works.
We only have this external vision. And therefore he says that uh my mind become clear and my mind become clear basically means that I will be able to see Krishna. The purpose of mind is to see Krishna.
Therefore, Caitanya Mahaprabhu calls our mind as mirror. Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam. Our heart is a mirror.
Clearing the mind to perceive Vrindavan
And ultimately, this mirror has to reflect spiritual reality, can reflect spiritual reality. And spiritual reality means Krishna.
So he says, and then kadāhaṁ drakṣyāmi śrī- Vrindavan, as soon as my heart becomes clear, I will see real Vṛndāvana. Not before that, not before I clean my heart, I will be able to see Vṛndāvana.
When we go through Vṛndāvana, when we walk around we only see garbage. Why do we see garbage? Because there is a lot of garbage in our heart. What else can we see? We cannot see anything else.
We only see garbage because there is too much garbage there.
So, but to see Śrī Vṛndāvana basically means to see Krishna and to see how the inhabitants of Vrindavan, how the Vrajavasis love Krishna. That's what it means to see Vrindavan.
It doesn't mean to see shopkeepers and rikshas and what else? Dogs. To see Vrindavan means to see love, to see this prema which is binding the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana with Krishna.
And then he says, very interesting thing: that even if you receive the mercy of your spiritual master, by the mercy of your spiritual master you, receive the gift of freedom.
And the gift of freedom helped you to concentrate your mind on spiritual practice.
Because before that, when you don't have this gift of freedom, you cannot really practice properly because your mind will always distract you.
All kinds of different desires will appear in your mind and will always, you know, you will chant Hare Krishna. But Krishna knows what you really mean. He doesn't believe you that you chant Hare Krishna.
He knows what what what is going on within your heart. It means that we're not free. We cannot, we cannot stop our thoughts from going their usual direction. So, first we have to get the freedom.
Freedom means I want and I don't think about anything else, I only think about Krishna. That's what freedom is. These sticky material desires do not disturb us when we don't want them to disturb us.
When we want them to disturb us, no problem. Let them disturb us. But at this moment of time, even if we don't want them to disturb us, they still disturb us.
They couldn't care less about whether we want to be disturbed or not. They're still disturbing us. And we can't do anything about it.
So he says, you know, you get the mercy of spiritual master, you get the gift of freedom by receiving the mercy of spiritual master. Then your heart becomes clear.
In the clean heart, you see Vṛndāvana, but still you don't understand anything. Because in the next line of this bhajan he says, Ruga Rupara Gunata Pade Hoi Beakuti Kabi Hamu He says that only when I get very strong
desire to serve Rūpa and Raghunātha. Then only I will understand Yugala-pīriti, the dealings especially between Rādhā and Krishna. Yugala-pīriti means love of Rādhā Krishna.
Not again, not before I developed this very strong desire to be at the feet of Rūpa-Raghunātha basically means to humbly serve their worlds, to study their books and to be absorbed in the beautiful conceptions
which they described in their books. So and therefore he concludes this prayer saying that my
desire to always stay at the feet of Rūpa Raghunātha, Rūpa-Raghunātha-pāde, rahu mora āśa. Always be there, prārthanā kare sadā narottama-dāsa. It says that always this prayer is within my heart.
I want to be close to Rūpa and Raghunātha. To ultimately receive what Gauranga has come to give.
And then if I am at the feet of Rūpānuga-guṇa, if I'm serving them very humbly, then I will say Gaurāṅga, and then all the hairs on my body will stand on that.
And then the tears will flow from my eyes when I chant Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma, Rāma. So at least theoretically we should understand that this is what I want.
I want to get a glimpse of what does it mean to love Krishna with the same intensity as Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī loves him and as Caitanya Mahāprabhu himself showed in his example.
And otherwise, I will just—otherwise I will just remain a very very how shall I say without offending anyone?—very nice devotee. But we came here not to become very nice devotees.
Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura and confronting anarthas
We came here to become completely mad. Completely overwhelmed by this amazing love which Gaurāṅga Mahāprabhu came to give.
So, and because we are studying the book of Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, he is definitely the one who is always at the feet of Rūpa and Raghunātha.
Of course, some people are of the opinion that Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura is Rūpa Gosvāmī himself who came to explain his own words.
So his position as Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura is extremely elevated and at the same time very much accessible to us in a sense because he wrote so much and he explained so much.
And this beautiful book, Mādhurya-kādambinī, which we are studying, is a brilliant example of him Him showing us or explaining to us the inner mood of Śrī Rūpa Gosvāmī. Explaining to us what even Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī
and even Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī, his commentator, didn't explain, revealing very important truths which are uh important for us to understand.
So we will uh meet tomorrow in the morning, but ten o'clock. Ten o'clock. So at ten o'clock tomorrow we'll start our little retreat. And if you have books with you, Mādhurya-kādambinī books, please read.
We will briefly cover the first and second, second shower of this book. And then start explaining the third chapter of this book, the third shower of nectar.
And what I want to say is that I was not joking when I said that this year's seminar will be a little difficult because especially when we talk about an artist, it may be sometimes painful. It actually should be painful. It actually has to be painful.
Because without really seeing our weaknesses and deficiencies, we will never be able to get rid of them. Without confronting them, without being very honest and very clear about our shortcomings.
Because if we don't see, or if we pretend of not seeing them, then we will still be under the spell of these anarthas. We will still remain bound by these anarthas.
So the first condition, the first preliminary condition is to very clearly see the condition of our heart, the situation of our heart, and then easily release all these anarthas from there.
They are only there because we love them. They are not by chance are called anartas because even though they are anartas, something which is not really valuable.
Still, we think that they are artha. They are something which we need and we require. And that's why it's so difficult to get rid of them. That's why nothing really happens.
But anyway, we have four full days to deliberate about our anarthas and to to to say goodbye to them if we if we want. So that's the plan and uh I I really
hope that it was an auspicious beginning and it is very auspicious maṅgala-vāra-caturthī-bharāji-nakṣatra-day. Thank you very much, Hare Kṛṣṇa. Śrīla Prabhupāda.