Bhagavatam study 25 – 1.6.16-22 – Spiritual desire cleanses material desire

Bhagavatam 1 1660 dhyayatas charanam bhojam bhava nirjita chetasa utkanthayashru kalakshasya hrdi asinmesha naidharihi as a boy in his previous life is describing the experiences that he had then after the sudden and untimely demise of his mother he travelled north going through dangerous forests and people also says eventually after bathing and freshening himself with water he situated himself under a banyan tree and fix his consciousness in the super so as per what he had heard from the strangers so what happened thereafter is now being described in this section dhyayatas charanam bhojam dhyayatas he started meditating charanam bhojam the lotus feet ambhoja ambho is water ja is born ambhoja is that which refers to that is born from water that is the lotus bhava nirjita chetasa bhava nirjita nirjita is transformed conquered bhava by motion as he contemplation as he contemplate on the absolute truth on the supreme he felt attracted to the absolute truth and by that attraction nirjita chetasa the consciousness which normally keeps moving here and there and everywhere that’s it’s random moments were conquered and the path of yoga that is the purpose actually yoga chitta ruti nirodha that the random moments of consciousness need to be conquered and that’s what happened to him over here that those random moments where chakran conquered and outkanthya ashru kalakshasya outkanthya ashru outkanthya great eagerness utkantha transcendental eagerness ashru kalakshasya ashru kala is the tears rolling down in ashru kalakshasya from his eyes so because of the intense eagerness he had for a greater experience of the supreme for a greater contact with the supreme and the great joy that was coming through that normally when we get something delicious to eat want more and more utkantha and when something is delightful beyond expectation delightful beyond expression at that time it gives so much joy that there are tears which come out sometimes the tears are because of sorrow sometimes the tears may be because of joy also ruti aaseen me shanay hari hi ruti aaseen in his heart appeared me shanay in his heart they appeared soon without much delay hari hi the supreme Lord so he meditated on his feet his consciousness become attracted to him he as he started sensing the increasing divine presence within him he started experiencing symptoms of ecstasy and then the Lord appeared in his heart so even before the Lord appears the ecstasy starts appearing the presence the divine presence which captivates it attracts our heart starts manifesting itself ecstasy and then the Lord appeared in the heart so here it is not explicitly described what was the sadhana that Narada performed this was as we will see later this was more of an example of Kripa Siddhi that Narada did not specifically do any elaborate sadhana although he will do such sadhana after getting this wonderful glimpse but at this stage just he sat he sat down for meditation and as he contemplated the Lord appeared in his heart so of course it was not free in the sense that Narada had gone to so many tribulations before this he had lost his mother while he was just a boy of five and then he had travelled through dangerous places so all this indicated that his faith had been tested and had emerged successful he had persevered in his and his explorations spiritual inner explorations through great dangers and now when he sat down for meditation the Lord being pleased with him manifested in his heart Radhasinami Shanayi Hari he in the heart Lord Hari appeared Prematibharanirbhinna pulakango ati nirvrata ha anandasamplave lino na pasyam ubhayamune Prematibharanirbhinna so Prematibharanirbhinna out of grief so he had already was feeling great attraction for it attraction and eagerness for the Lord but when the Lord actually appeared before him he was overwhelmed with love for the Lord sometimes when we long to see someone because of greater we already have affection but when we see that person at that time that affection overflows and it intensifies so much that a person gets overwhelmed we’ve been longing to see someone for a long time and then finally we see that person we may just freeze there is so much joy that that joy causes us to freeze at that time so something like that happened Prematibharanirbhinna overwhelming affection flooded his consciousness pulakango ati nirvrata ha pulakango his bodily parts started manifesting the symptoms of ecstasy and the hair started standing on end and the body started becoming enlivened so Prabhupada explained that every part of his body every became enlivened that was an intense spiritual stimulation ananda samplave lino ananda samplave that in the ocean of ecstasy ananda samplave lino he became absorbed in that ecstasy and thus na pashyam ubhayam mune na pashyam he was no longer able to see ubhayam himself or the Lord mune here muni is Narada Muni is speaking to Vyasadeva and he is addressing him sometimes intense affection and the emotions associated with affection they can cloud our vision so that we just don’t see so the very thing that stimulates our emotion the very thing that immensely attracts our emotions towards the Lord that very thing when it is kindling us and it is triggering us towards greater and greater depths and heights of emotion at that time we will get so overwhelmed by the emotion that say the tear is coming out they start overwhelming us in the Bhakti Samar Sindhu it is mentioned that chitrak and they when they behold the Lord they are fanning him and they’re beholding him and he’s so beautiful the tears of ecstasy start flooding down their eyes and the devotion is great but their service attitude is greater and because of that greater service attitude they try to reject that they want the tears to go away so that they can serve the Lord properly so that they can see okay where is the Lord sweating where might he feel a little discomfort because of heat where can we offer comfort by fanning him and they want to fan him properly and for them the service of the Lord is more important than our ecstasy but still the point remains that the ecstasy can be so great that it can it can block our vision temporarily of the object of that is causing us such ecstatic emotion and that’s what happened here with Narada he could not perceive himself he could not perceive the Lord that means even in material life there is a concept which is called as flow now this is considered state of peak performance where by psychologists they say that when a person gets into a flow then that person just gets into the action and is not aware of anything apart from the action and that is a state of utter absorption which leads to top performance so that is of course material but in the spiritual context in connection with the Lord that sort of absorption flow and if I say the supreme level where there is only such bhakti that one is not aware of anything else apart from the bhakti. Text 18, रूपं भगवतो यत्तन् मनः कान्तम् सुचापहम् अपश्यन् सहसोत् तसहे वैक्लवयाद् दुर्मणाइव रूपं भगवतो यत्तन् so that form of the Supreme Lord रूपं भगवतो मनः कान्तम् सुचापहम् मनः कान्तम् that which was extremely desired by the Lord by the mind rather normally or मनः कान्तम् the desirable object of the mind is often something apart from Krishna mind has so many attachments but when Krishna becomes our मनः कान्तम् Krishna becomes the desired object of the mind the beloved of the mind then we are as good as purified and liberated मैं आसक्त मनः पार्थ Krishna says in 7.1 that getting the mind to become attached to him is the perfection of yoga and this perfection is the culmination of bhakti so here Narada as we have seen that he was not at the peak of your bhakti but at this particular stage our mind also goes through different moods and sometimes it likes something sometimes it does not like something here he was experiencing such ecstasy by perception of the Lord that even his mind wanted nothing except the Lord so मनः कान्तम् शुचापहम् मनः कान्तम् the Lord had become his मनः कान्तम् his mind aspired for the Lord craved for the Lord we could say शुचापहम् but suddenly he disappeared अपश्चिन् सहसोड तसेहे सहसोड he just got up what happened वैकलव्याद दुर्मणाइव वैकलव्याद out of disturbance दुर्मणाइव because of he lost that which is desirable so just the previous verse it is described that he was so absorbed in ecstasy that he was not aware of anything neither himself nor the Lord but suddenly when the Lord disappeared from within now in the inner territory sometimes we find ourselves powerless because we can’t do much in the inner territory we can’t we can’t really control what appears and what disappears sometimes some thoughts some images they just appear in our consciousness and we may not want them and we have to fight and fight to try to drive them out but just they seem to stay there and other times certain thoughts we may want to summon them but they just don’t appear sometimes we try to think of Krishna but just the thoughts of Krishna don’t appear so actually engaging in the inner territory can often make us powerless because we can’t really control what happens there what appears there what disappears from there so at that time when from the inner territory the Lord had disappeared suddenly he just came to external consciousness that was where he felt he could do something and he was sitting physically so normally physically sitting is a matter of inactivity and physical motion is a matter of activity so he immediately got up oh has the Lord gone somewhere let me see if he has gone I’ll try to beg him to wait I’ll try to catch his feet I don’t want him to go away so he just got up because of great disturbance what has happened something extremely desirable was being relished and suddenly the next moment without any warning without any indication of where it had gone it just disappeared text 19 text 19 text 19 text 19 text 19 text 19 text 19 text 19 text 19 text 19 text 19 text 19 text 19 text 19 he wanted to behold but he could not see anything over there and he was not satisfied he was extremely eager sometimes when we want something very strongly and when we don’t get that we feel extremely agitated so that’s what happened here to Narada that he wanted to seen the Lord but he just couldn’t see and thus he felt extremely agitated. Now when there is no craving for something, when there is no strong desire for something and at that time we don’t see the thing, then we don’t feel so agitated, we don’t feel so disturbed.
But when we strongly want a thing and then we don’t get it, at that time we feel agitated. So in this case because Narada had got a intense, intoxicating, unforgettable glimpse of the Lord, he just couldn’t live without another sight of the Lord. So he was atura and he was not trupta.
That was his condition. Text 20, And as he was desperately trying to find out, trying to somehow behold the Lord, at that time, As he was entering Vijane, in that place where there was no one else. And to me he spoke, So go is senses, chara is to move.
So ago chara means that where the senses cannot reach. Gira is voice. So a voice that was inconceivable, a voice that was not reachable by the material senses.
That means it is a divine voice. So he could hear the voice but he could not see the source of the voice. Suddenly he heard that voice.
And the nature of that voice was Gambhir. It was grave. Sometimes when a person is grave, it might be scary.
But this was a voice that was grave and yet it was pleasing. It was enlivening. The message that was going to be imparted was grave.
The tone also indicated that this was not just some frivolous joke or something like that. A serious message was being spoken. But that serious message was being spoken in a pleasing way.
And as he heard that voice, the grief, do not grieve, do not doubt, do not lament. So shama means to calm down. Prashamayan means to properly calm down.
This was a voice which he heard which calmed his grief. As the previous verse said that he was experiencing great utkanta and along with the utkanta he was experiencing avitrupta, So here it’s mentioned that as he heard this voice, the voice itself pacified him substantially. And let’s see what the voice says.
That’s mentioned in the next verses. Hanta asmin janmani bhavan. Bhavan, in the Lord addressing Narada, who is just a small boy, in a respectful second person, not tvam, bhavan.
So he is saying, O you, hanta asmin, I, O Narada, hanta. Hanta is an expression of emotion and it’s a form of address which is associated with some emotion. So it can be positive, it can be negative, that has to be inferred from the context.
Prabhupada explains that here it’s conveying an emotion of regret. Hanta asmin janmani bhavan. Asmin janmani, that in this lifetime, mamam drstum iharati, that you will not be able to see me.
Drstum iharati, you are not qualified, you do not deserve to see me. Avipakva kashayanam. Avipakva is mature, ripe.
Avipakva is that which is not ripe, that which is immature. Kashayanam. Kashayanam refers to contamination.
So this is material contamination, material dirt. Durdarsho aham kuyoginam. Kuyoginam.
So kuyoginam, the word ku is a prefix which conveys some kind of qualification to what follows. So kuyoginam means the yogis who have not yet completed their path or completed the yogic journey, they are incomplete in their practise of yoga. So for such persons, durdarsho aham, I am difficult to be seen.
So for those who are still impure at heart and incomplete in service, they cannot see me. And oh Narada, because you are in that position, so you cannot see me. Now this message is being spoken, not in a dismissive, disheartening sense, but in an objective, pacifying sense.
Narada was mystified and devastated, agitated, that oh he had beheld the Lord and why had the Lord suddenly disappeared like this? So he is being assured here that although the Lord has disappeared, it is not that he has forever disappeared. He can be seen, but certain qualifications have to be acquired. And because he doesn’t have that qualification, so he has not been able to see him.
Now this may lead to the question that okay, then how was he able to see him once? And that will be pointed out by the Lord in subsequent verses. But here there is a significant point for us to meditate that we cannot demand the Lord appear before us. Even in the Vishvarupa Darshan, in the Vishvarupa Darshan chapter Adhyaya, 11th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, there when Arjuna decides to see the Virat Rupa, he says, that if it is possible for me to see my dear Lord, therefore please allow me to see this form.
There is always a mood of humility when we want to behold the Lord because we understand that we ourselves don’t have any qualification to see him. And it is by his mercy that he may reveal himself to us. And of course, it is not that even when we are pure at heart and we have done lots of service, that time we become qualified.
But that time, the commitment that we have shown in doing service and purification, in that by that we show the Lord our sincerity, our determination, and that pleases him and that inspires him to reveal himself to us. Thus, ultimately, it is the Lord’s mercy by which he reveals himself. But that mercy can be sought, can be besieged by purifying our heart and rendering service.
So, in our devotion, we should focus on the purification and contribution, not on perception. If we focus on perception that, oh, I want to see, I want to see, that perception and expectation, when will I see, when will I see? The desire is good, but we should not expect that we will be able to see. We can focus instead on purifying our heart, trying to cultivate remembrance by which we can purify.
So internally, we try to purify ourselves and make our thoughts focused on Krishna as much as possible. And externally, we try as much as possible to do contribution. We try to serve in such a way that we can move closer and closer to Krishna through the steady practise of Bhakti.
So, the Lord is giving a reason. Because of this, you will not be able to see me once again throughout this life. So then, you may ask, okay, if I was unqualified, then why was I able to see once also? So that, the reason the Lord gives here, that’s the text 22, सक्रुद्यत् धर्षितं रूपं एतत् कामाया तेनगः मत्कामहः शनकै साधु सर्वान् मुझ्यति रुच्ययान् सक्रुद्यत् धर्षितं रूपं That once, you have been able to see me, my beautiful form, Sakrud, once.
एतत् कामाया तेनगः By this, your hankering, कामाया, here the word कामा is used in a general sense to refer to desire, to the power of desire, and not to in the specific sense of desire for a sexual gratification. एतत् कामाया तेनगः Now, O you who are sinless, O you are virtuous, मत्कामहः शनकै साधु As, मत्कामहः शनकै, as my शनकै means to increase, as your desire for me increases more and more, which is auspicious, सर्वान् मुझ्यति रुच्ययान् At that time, सर्वान् मुझ्यति, it will, everything else will मुझ्यति, will be cleansed away, will be washed away, रुच्ययान् Whatever darkness is there in the heart, whatever contamination is there, will be washed away, will be cleansed out, swept out. So, spiritual desire is the best way to counter material desire.
If we try to, if we strive for desirelessness, we try to drive out desires, that is difficult and that is not sustainable for very long. But, if we focus on cultivating spiritual desires, then that cultivation can enable us to move onwards, steadily towards Krishna. Because there is something positive, there is something purposeful that we can strive towards.
When there is something negative, or don’t desire this, don’t desire that, don’t desire that, then that negative is restrictive. There is, without a positive purpose, we cannot move on for long. So, here, Narada is telling, Narada is being told by the Lord, the Lord is not there, but the voice, अगोचर गिराम, that voice which could not be heard, which could not be perceived with the eyes, whoever the source, that was not known.
So, that voice is speaking here and is telling that, I gave you this darshan once, so that your desire for me will increase, and as the desire for me increases, that desire will consume your consciousness, and will leave, it will drive out everything else that might be there in the consciousness. We see that sometimes the mind becomes obsessed with something, some, even maybe a small object also, it might be trivial, it may not be, the object may not give much pleasure also, but when we become obsessed with a particular object, at that time, we become so consumed by it, that we can’t think about anything else. So, the principle of the consumption of consciousness through absorption, that can work positively and that can work negatively also.
Negatively, it can make us obsessed over things that are trivial, but positively, it can fill us with so much spiritual aspiration and spiritual focus, that everything material gets pushed out of our consciousness. And it is for that purpose, does Benedict Narada, to help him accelerate his purification, that the Lord appeared before him, and the Lord spoke to him. So, what he further spoke, and how Narada responded to it all, we will discuss in our future talks.