Bhagavatam-daily 139 – 11.09.14 – Let nothing distract from spiritual purposefulness

11.9.40 ekacharya aniketas jada brahmato guhashayah alakshamana acharair nireko altobhashanah ekacharya, one who moves around alone like we have brahmachari, one who moves in brahman so ekachari or nishachara nishachara is one of those who move in the night that is the rakshasas ekacharya aniketas jada niketan is place of residence aniketas is one who has no place of residence jada should be apramato guhashayah apramato means not being intoxicated not being agitated guhashayah guhashayah means apramato is not intoxicated guhashayah is living in a secluded place so the previous stated has no fixed residence but then we have to live somewhere this cannot live may have not living at one place but it will live at some place it will live at a secluded place not a prominent place alakshamana acharair and when a person acts also alakshamana act in a way that does not draw attention to oneself nireko altobhashanah and the muni alone travels alone eko altobhashanah doesn’t talk much so here this might seem far from the model for a devotee but as we have discussed earlier the bhagavatam in this section is not talking directly about devotees it is talking about gyanis and it is talking to gyanis and attracting them to the path of bhakti gradually so in the Uddhav Gita Vishwanath Chakrathakur explains that overall the the overall emphasis is on getting out of material existence if one can get out by practicing bhakti that is the best but if one cannot practice bhakti for whatever reason then so he says that actually that both sannyasa and karma yoga are good why because both lead one to liberation in this particular race case the bhagavatam is emphasizing the point that a person who decides who desires who is determined to come out of material existence such a person cannot actually live on at the material level of reality or certainly cannot live in a materialistic society because the values are completely different we can get some glimpse of incompatible values when we find ourselves amidst people who are just who are just mad after some particular thing suppose a person comes from say Siberia where the person has never heard about cricket and then comes to a place where there is cricket mania say maybe the cricket world cup is going on and everybody is mad after cricket now the person just cannot comprehend anything now it may well be that the cricket mania may sweep the person and the person may also become mad after cricket after sometime but if the person has no interest in cricket and has no interest in developing interest in cricket and in fact wants to stay disinterested in cricket then the person will definitely feel out of place among people who are cricket maniacs so similarly now of course cricket mania and lack of cricket mania both are within the purview of material existence itself but what we are talking about here is entirely getting out of the purview of material existence by practicing spiritual life seriously so a person who wants to get out of material existence will naturally not want to associate with people who are materialistic because association with materialistic people will only lead to entanglement will only lead to bondage will only lead to distraction from the spiritual focus at the very least and that’s why this particular section is from the point of view of a gyani who has understood the binding nature of material existence and wants to get out of it so therefore all the points in this text are on staying away from that which will entangle once again so ekachari so moving alone and aniketaha now normally when we move with people then we develop relationship with our chitchat with them now often the chitchatting can be mundane the chitchatting can be exhausting can be distracting and the chitchatting can be just regenerated into gossip also which is often nothing more than a waste of time ekachari aniketaha syad so aniketaha is without any fixed residence so now beyond that apramataha so now why no fixed residence? because once we stay in a particular place we become attached to that place we become attached to the people in the neighbourhood of course we may not like some of the neighbours but even that dislike of some neighbours can also consume our consciousness because even in that dislike there is the absorption of the consciousness and then that way there is the consumption of the consciousness certainly when we dislike someone we do think about that person but in a way that does not produce joy to us that causes agitation to us and in a way that we hope that it will cause irritation to others that particular person at least we hope to cause some trouble to that person eventually so then so the point is apramataha the association of materialistic people can make us infatuated and then guhashayaha guhashayaha is is living secluded alakshamanaha alakshamanaha is without being noticed now what happens once we notice others then others notice us and in that way the conversations develop so people who walk and move in ways that call for attention then the people cannot people have to socialize those people have to socialize then often their consciousness gets consumed in that so alakshamanaha act and move around behave in an inconspicuous way and don’t talk too much talk only as much as is necessary so the great saints the great sages when they have a forum to talk and when they have people who are ready to hear then they will talk profusely but when there is no one to when people are not there interested in talking or people are not receptive are not interested in speech subject matters then it is best to be alpabhashanaha so even as devotees whenever we are in devotee association that devotees may be serious devotees or that may be they may be potential devotees then certainly we can associate certainly we can talk and mix around but if we are not having devotee association then it is best that we keep to ourselves because then we will at least be protected from maya, how will we be protected from maya because we will be absorbed in Krishna we will be we may not be absorbed because of the devotees, we will be absorbed because of our own focus we have a devotional intention and we will definitely need some kind of protection why protection? because otherwise we will be misled by our mind so certainly the staying alone is not a matter of principle that one should follow if one is not very advanced and one does not have control on the mind at least at some basic level but if one does not have devotee association or if one has some serious spiritual purpose which can be best achieved by practice by serious commitment to devotional service which requires to some extent keeping to oneself time to oneself then one can take that the point is the point ultimately is not just to be alone or to be with people but the point is to be spiritually purposeful and not let one’s surroundings distract one from the spiritual purposefulness that was the point from the previous verse also how the the arrow maker was so absorbed that even the procession did not distract that arrow maker and similarly the Bhagavatam in the previous verse stated that similarly we should be also absorbed in the supreme lord so when our association is going to distract us from our spiritual purposefulness our devotional purposefulness then it’s best to best to avoid that kind of association and stay focused on our devotional service and move forward in our purposeful service of Krishna Thank you