Bhagavatam-daily 54 – 11.07.44 – Bathe in the purifying river of saintly association

Srimad Bhagavatam 11.7.44 Here the avadhut brahmana is telling Maharaj Yadu what he has learned from water.
Srimad Bhagavatam 11.7.44 So sweet or gentle speech Madhuri Srimad Bhagavatam 11.7.44 For human beings a person is just like a place of pilgrimage. Srimad Bhagavatam 11.7.44 The muni the sage punati purifies upon of the water now mitram can mean friend it can mean counterpart. So water just as the water is so the saint is.
Srimad Bhagavatam 11.7.44 And upasparsha means by being respectfully touch. Srimad Bhagavatam 11.7.44 It’s just as water cleanses us of dirt the saintly person association cleanses us of sins. Srimad Bhagavatam 11.7.44 Now in general Srimad Bhagavatam 11.7.44 the characteristic of most of many religious people who are ritually realistic is to give importance to rituals and to give importance to god but they don’t give much importance to the saintly people.
Srimad Bhagavatam 11.7.44 They may give some nominal or whatever required dakshina to those who perform the rituals. Srimad Bhagavatam 11.7.44 But they don’t really want to hear instruction from the ritual performers Srimad Bhagavatam 11.7.44 and the whole idea is okay this is our tradition let us do it but get it over with. Srimad Bhagavatam 11.7.44 So often when people perform religious rituals at that time their goal is not to transform their lives in a spiritual direction.
Srimad Bhagavatam 11.7.44 They want to do the rituals because they want that material life itself to go on uninterrupted. Srimad Bhagavatam 11.7.44 That means whatever goal I have set for my life whatever definition of success I have I should be successful in that. Srimad Bhagavatam 11.7.44 So I do rituals because they are meant to remove obstacles and promote success.
Srimad Bhagavatam 11.7.44 But I’m not interested in rituals at a philosophical level to understand their significance and to understand what is the actual purpose of life apart from the subjective goal of life that I have chosen. Srimad Bhagavatam 11.7.44 However now for such people a ritual bath is also considered very important because their whole idea is rituals bring auspiciousness so bathing in the sacred place they also consider auspicious because they hear it glorified in the scripture as promising freedom from sin or so many blessings or whatever. Srimad Bhagavatam 11.7.44 So the Bhagavatam and the Bhakti scriptures in general in order to help people to rise from the ritual level to the spiritual level from the karma kanda level to the bhakti kanda level often offers comparison between that which is considered valuable by the ritual performers and that which is considered valuable and central in spiritual activities.
Srimad Bhagavatam 11.7.44 So bathing is considered a very important ritual and association of saintly people is considered extremely purifying in bhakti. So the avadhut brahmana who sees people at best doing worldly religious activities remembers how such a level of religiosity can actually become an obstruction to on the onward spiritual path because people who think that rituals are all that they need to do and material success is all that they need to achieve often they they deprive themselves of life’s greatest happiness of life’s greatest achievement eternal love for krishna and it is saintly people whose association transforms such people purifies such people and elevates them without such association these people with people who are ritualistic stay in that form life after life now the saintly people they are filled with remembrance of krishna devotion to krishna and they are trying to share krishna’s compassion with the world and for sharing such compassion they often make great sacrifices traveling or otherwise striving to share krishna’s message and now as is mentioned here that unlike water which actually we have to bathe in to become cleaned if we just see saintly people if we just respectfully take their blessings touch them respectfully or even just offer some words of praise to them that also is purifying of course the ultimate purification comes when we bathe ourselves in the words of wisdom coming from them but even if you don’t do that there is benefit there is purification so to to be truly benefited by saintly association means to have our desires transformed have our definition of success in life transformed not thinking anymore that material success is all that matters in my life but recognizing that more important than whatever ups and downs may be there in my material life is my eternal relationship with krishna and therein i will find shelter there will i find solace therein i will find satisfaction therein lies life’s ultimate goal so this cleansing of the heart means at one level the impurities such as lust, anger, greed go away but another level even the sattvic distractions such as doing dharma for the sake of an artha and karma that also goes away by the association of devotees so just as the water is clean and cleansing similarly the association of devotees who are pure is purifying and to the extent we can get such association and to the extent we bathe especially in the mercy of that association in the form of the sound vibrations that are illuminating and purifying then they transform our life transform our heart transform our desires and help us progress steadily towards a shelter and happiness