Mukunda Mala Stotra 21 – 3 When prescribed duties become like oblations in ashes

purta-vidhayah sarvam hutam bhasmani “[Without remembrance of Krishna’s lotus feet,] execution of prescribed pious duties is like pouring oblations onto ashes”

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
hukum mala stotra verse 3rd 21 part 3 urutavidaya sarvam bhutam bhasmani so kulshikar maharaj in this verse is describing how in the absence of the chanting of the holy names and especially the remembrance of Krishna that results from this chanting in the absence of such remembrance all activities even activities that are normally considered religious and pious are ultimately futile so he is giving the example of doing one’s prescribed duties is like offering ashes in fire if one offers an oblation to ashes instead of on fire then that is of no use so when one offers oblations into the sacred fire which is the manifestation of lord Vishnu then that enables one to satisfy the universal controllers by that and get material piety material fruits in terms of material prosperity and also go at least at a gradual level closer to Krishna closer to Vishnu the supreme lord but he is saying that if one is not remembering Krishna then it is bhutam bhasmani actually it brings no attraction to the supreme lord in any way it does not lead to any tangible spiritual advancement and that is why we have the example of the sages in Naimisharanya who are praying to lord praying to Shukadeva Goswami telling him it is our good fortune that you have come and you are going to speak Krishna katha to us Shukadeva Goswami rather and they are saying that till now we have been performing these yajnas for a long time but we have got nothing except burnt eyes by this black and burnt eyes and it is by your presence that we hope that now we will get a tangible result so all religious activities are actually futile if they do not ultimately lead us towards Krishna and the bhagavatam also speaks the same thing that without remembrance of Krishna without without increasing our attraction to Krishna whatever we do is it is simply a waste of time so now can this principle be applied even to our chanting will our chanting also be a waste of time if we are not remembering Krishna chanting is not just a pious activity it is a devotional activity and so when devotional activity is done without devotional consciousness that does not reduce to punya in the material sense that actually becomes which gradually gets us towards Krishna unknowing pious creates but the rate at which we will move towards Krishna will be extremely slow and it may take many lifetimes for a person to eventually come to Krishna and therefore the much more safer and recommended way is to actually consciously cultivate remembrance of Krishna and cultivating that remembrance is not too difficult if one simply tries to do so in a intense and intelligent way so everyday when we chant the holy names if we try to cultivate this remembrance that actually without my remembrance of Krishna I am underselling myself I am actually cheating myself of getting some what I could have got much much better much much more so therefore if I don’t want that to happen let me absorb myself in the chanting of the holy names with attention and with devotion just as if oblations are put in fire the oblations the fire blazes forward similarly the remembrance of Krishna and then the devotional activity like chanting is performed and that will cause the remembrance to increase much more it will cause the devotion in our heart to blaze forward and that will burn away all the anarthas and that will enable us to become steady and happy in our devotional service