Shuddha bhakata charana renu meaning – Delight in devotional stimuli

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Shuddha Bhakata Charanarenu I’ll discuss the meaning of this song. Here, Bhaktivinoda Thakur describes the devotional vision of the world that a devotee has.
How everything in this world becomes for a devotee the impetus to remember Krishna. Shuddha Bhakata Charanarenu Bhajana Anukula Bhakta Seva Parama Siddhi Premalatikara Mola So, Shuddha Bhakata Charanarenu So, the pure devotee is lotus feet, Charanarenu Bhajana Anukula It is what is anukul, favourable for doing bhajans. Now, for doing bhajan, bhajans in plural refers to the songs with which you do bhajans, like this particular bhajan.
But bhajan also refers to the activity of devotional service in general. So, here it is used in that sense, generic sense of Bhajana Anukula Bhakta Seva Parama Siddhi So, how is firstly, how is the lotus, how is the lotus dust of a pure devotee favourable for bhajan? Actually, bhajan is not just an activity. It is a mentality.
Chanting, hearing about Krishna, worshipping Krishna. If we look at the activities themselves, they are not very difficult to do. Now, it is relatively easy for anyone to actually chant Hare Krishna, to hear Krishna Katha.
The challenge is that these are not very easy activities to sustain if one does not have taste for them. Somebody can do it once, twice, thrice, but after some time, the person will get exhausted, will start feeling bored and will give up the activity. If we are to sustain this activity, we need taste and the taste comes by the grace of devotees.
Only when devotees shower their mercy, then from their heart, the desire for bhakti comes into our heart and we are able to absorb ourselves in the process of bhakti. So, that desire comes when we get the dust of the lotus feet of the devotees. So, getting the dust of the lotus feet of the devotees can be an action as well as a disposition.
When we have the opportunity to touch the lotus feet of the devotees to take the dust from their feet on our head, that is excellent, we can do that. But more importantly, when we touch the lotus feet of the devotees that time, we are humbling ourselves before them. We are accepting them as greater than us.
We are subordinating ourselves to them, recognising their glory for their being so purely devoted to Krishna and by that act of humbly submitting ourselves to them, our heart becomes open to receive their mercy and their mercy comes in the form of the attraction for Krishna that they have becoming transmitted into our hearts and in this way, the dust of the lotus feet of the pure devotees is anukul for our bhajan. And then, same point is talked about further. The service of devotees, so first, he talks about, Bhaktivinoda Thakura talks about pure devotees, shuddha bhakata.
There, we should take the dust of their feet. Now, if we start taking the dust of every devotee’s feet, many devotees may find it very embarrassing. So, we serve other devotees.
So, first line talks about shuddha bhakata and then the second line, the third, second half of this stanza talks about in general bhakata seva. Service to devotees is parama siddhi. It is itself the supreme perfection.
Now, we may say that actually Krishna Prem is the supreme perfection, that is, the eternal aspiration of the soul and that it is in Krishna Prem that our longing for happiness is eternally and perfectly fulfilled. So, then why is it being said over here that bhakata seva is the parama siddhi? That service to devotees is the supreme perfection? That is because service to devotees is premalatikara mula. It is the mula, the root of the creeper of love.
So, just as where there is a root, from that root, the shoot will manifest in due course of time. So, where there is service to devotees, that is the root and from that root, the shoot of love for Krishna will soon manifest and that’s why bhakata seva, service to devotees is so valuable. So, in the first stanza, Bhaktivedanta Thakur talks about how we humble ourselves to the pure devotee and that is very favourable and service to devotees is the root of Krishna Prem.
Madhav tithi bhakti janani yatane palan kari krishni vasati vasati bali paramadare bari Now, so basically, in this song, Bhaktivedanta Thakur is talking about various manifestations of Krishna as are accessible to us in this world. So, the foremost manifestation he talks about is devotees because it is devotees who reveal to us the glory of the various manifestations of Krishna and the glory of Krishna himself through their words, through their actions, through their personality, through their character, all that. So, now after talking about devotees, then he talks about other manifestations of the Divine in this world.
So, one is in terms of time and the other is in terms of space that these two he talks about in this world. So, Madhav tithi bhakti janani Madhav tithi is tithi is a period of time. Sanskrit chronometry, in Sanskrit measurement of time, tithi is a specific unit of time, but here Bhaktivedanta Thakur uses it in a more generic sense the days.
So, the days which are associated with Lord Madhava Madhava tithi bhakti janani it is the mother of devotion. Just as when there is a mother, the mother gives rise to the infant and the mother also helps in the growth of the infant. So, similarly there are the sacred days on which if we try to do the activities of devotion, then devotion manifests in our heart and devotion grows also rapidly.
Just as infant is in the care of a mother and the mother’s care of the infant grows very nicely. Similarly, bhakti grows very nicely at these times of Madhava tithi and that’s why serious devotees often the Madhava tithi can refer to various things it can refer to the occasions like Ekadashi which comes every fortnight and it can refer to the appearance days of the Lord and His devotees and especially the appearance days of the various incarnations of the Lord and all these are very auspicious. Madhava tithi bhakti janani bhakti janani these are the these give birth to devotion yatane palan kari therefore we should very carefully observe these festivals because to the extent we observe them carefully to that extent we will grow in our devotion will grow and we will move towards existence of supreme treasure and after talking about Krishna’s special manifestation in time in terms of Madhava tithi then he talks about Krishna’s manifestation in terms of space krishna vasati vasati bali paramadhare bari so krishna vasati vasati so krishna resides at certain places those are called as dhams so so krishna vasati so where krishna resides i will make that my residence that is vrindavan now devotee aspires to live in vrindavan and when one is not able to live in vrindavan then the devotee aspires to try to create the mood of vrindavan wherever he is living and in this way this is paramadhare bari this is important it is not just physical residence in vrindavan that is important that is beneficial because the contact with dham is glorious but again paramadhare bari that means it is actually we need to stay in vrindavan with a supremely reverential disposition if we have a casual disposition then often it is possible that we may end up committing offences in vrindavan and that can backfire and injure our spiritual life so appreciation for the dham is as important as the association of the dham and that is why for most of us we may not be able to stay in vrindavan but if we have a healthy appreciation for the dham then we will actually whenever we have the association of the dham whenever we get to go there for pilgrimages we will actually be there with paramadhare with great respect there with such a respectful brief stay in the dhams we will be able to get the benefit of the dham without getting any counterproductive effect in terms of committing offences so now after talking about the holy places the holy places of vrindavan where he desires to reside now he talks about how the lord resides in one place but the lord resided in Kali Yuga as Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and he has gone to various places so the other places where Krishna manifests, where lord Chaitanya manifests Bhaktivinoda Thakur says in the next stanza that I desire to even see those places gauramara ye sab sthane karala brahmana range se sab sthana heriba ami pranai bhakta sange so he says gauramara the lord gauranga is my lord, amara is my gauranga this as in the human heart needs love and love means having a sense of affection reciprocation and even to some extent possession to say that he is my lord now that is not to claim ownership on the lord but it is to express the affection and the deep relationship that is there with the lord so gauramara ye sab sthane the various places karala brahmana range wherever lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu went to travel with great joy Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s ecstatic routine when he travelled was he would dance and sing while travelling and when he would come to a destination, his usual destination his transitional destinations while travelling were some holy temples, some teertha kshetras so he would go, whichever town he would go to he would go to the temple prominent temple of Vishnu over there and dance and sing over there he would even go to temples of Shiva and there dance and sing for the pleasure of the exalted devotee lord Shiva and praise lord Shiva for his exalted devotion to the supreme lord so but the point is Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had an ecstatic routine of dancing and singing while travelling and dancing and singing and discussing krishna ratha after arriving at a destination so it was karala brahmana range range with great joy Chaitanya Mahaprabhu travelled around so all those places which lord Chaitanya travelled I too desire to travel in those places I want to travel with great affectionate devotees with affectionate devotees I want to travel to these places why affectionate devotees because in the presence of affectionate devotees we can relish not just our own taste of Krishna not just the flavour not just the taste of our bhakti’s flavour but we can also relish the taste of the bhakti of other devotees and because Krishna is omni-dimensional Krishna is universally attractive and his attractiveness manifests in different ways to different devotees so we relish the way in which Krishna manifests his attractiveness to us and that is wonderful but along with that if you understand how Krishna is manifesting all attractiveness to another devotee then that when we understand it it increases our appreciation for Krishna all the more and in this way Bhaktivinoda Thakura is saying that when I am with devotees then there will be guhyamakhyati pruchyati there will be discussion of Krishna katha machita madgata prana bodhayanta parasparam kathayantashyamam nityam tushyanticharam anticharam so the first verse was from the book Daishya Amrit and the second is from Chatushloki Bhagavad Gita 10.9 where Krishna talks about devotees delighting in exchanging thoughts about Krishna and enlightening each other in great joy so that is the aspiration of Bhaktivinoda Thakura he says I will travel to various places in the association of affectionate devotees with affectionate devotees I will go to all the holy places where Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu performed ecstatic pastimes then after this vihita kirtana shuni anande rdaya nache mrudanga vadya shunite mana so he says when I hear the sound of mrudanga now he is talking about Chaitanya Mahaprabhu performed kirtans wherever he went he danced and sang so now he is talking about that kirtan when he hears in the kirtan normally you would think that in the kirtan it is the sound of the holy name that is most attractive and that is definitely but for a devotee the spiritual stimuli the devotional impressions come from all directions they come not only from the holy name yes they come from the holy name but along with that they come from other sources too so they come from mrudanga mrudanga vadya shunite mana so to hear that mrudanga the sound of the mrudanga shunite mana to hear that the mind what does it do? the mind constantly looks for an opportunity longs for an opportunity gauravita kirtana shuni that so now here when I hear the kirtan that is the way it was performed by lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu anandaya rdaya nache joyfully my heart dances this section this stanza gives us a glimpse into the inner life of a devotee what what does the devotee’s mind aspire for? what does the devotee’s heart cherish? so here he says it is actually kirtan rasa so now mrudanga so mrudanga and the kirtan both are part of the same potent spiritual vibrations which create transformational impressions in the heart so bhaktanath thakur is saying over here that my mind longs to hear the sound of the mrudanga and my heart dances on hearing kirtan now kirtan of the lord in any form is wonderful but lord chaitanya has imbued kirtan with a special rasa and therefore when kirtan is performed in this way there is an ecstasy especially for those devotees, there is an extra ecstasy so unparalleled ecstasy especially for those devotees who are the followers of lord gauranga mahaprabhu and here bhaktanath thakur is saying that anandaya rdaya nache my heart dances so actually we all, when kirtans happen we all dance and sing in the kirtans it’s good to physically dance and sing for the lord’s pleasure but when there is love for krishna in the heart then it is not just the body that is dancing it is the heart that is dancing and the heart’s dancing expresses itself externally as the body is dancing and this way the complete being becomes subsumed in the dance of devotion and that is the ecstasy of the special form of sankirtan nagar sankirtan that lord chaitanya has brought to the world has spread around the world now continuing his list of various devotional stimuli here bhaktanath thakur says sakala prapancha jaya so now when in the previous verse he said that i want to go to the holy places and then in the holy places what do the devotees do? they do kirtans and along with doing kirtans a very potent form of important source of spiritual vibrations is the supreme lord’s eating yugala murthi dekhiya mora and when i behold the beautiful forms of yugala of Radha Krishna then what happens? paramananda jaya i feel supreme ecstasy supreme ecstasy paramananda so actually just as the conditioned soul delights in stories where we identify ourselves as hero and heroines and we think that we will live happily ever after and we delight in that kind of stories but a devotee understands that the innermost aspiration of the human heart is not just in this horizontal love for other living beings it is in the vertical love for the lord and his intimate consort just as Hanuman’s delight was not just in serving Ram yes he wanted to serve Ram but he also wanted to serve Ram according to lord Ram’s desire in a way that would please lord Ram and thus he strove to unite Sita with Ram similarly the devotee’s desire is to please the lord and nothing pleases the lord more than the association of his divine consort that’s why when the devotee sees that Radha and Krishna are together then in the mood of Hanuman who has strived tirelessly to bring the divine couple together the devotee feels great joy in seeing the reciprocation of love of the paramount love between the divine couple and that’s why when he sees those two transcendental personalities together … … … … … when one sees this at that time there is … there is supreme happiness that one gets … … so now the deities they give their darshan and that darshan itself is their prasad at one level but along with that they also give their prasad in another form and that other form is the they accept bhoga and they bless us with prasad so prasad seva karite haya so when I take the prasad then what happens sakala prapancha jaya this is all prapancha, prapancha refers to material existence and especially the attachment to material existence so by honouring Krishna’s prasad by honouring that which has been honoured by Krishna actually we feel ecstatically illumined we feel purified we feel attracted towards Krishna because what has been tasted by Krishna what is the remnants of Krishna that gives us special ecstasy and this way sakala prapancha jaya will be able to conquer over all of material existence all forms of attachment material existence when we take the remnants of Krishna they will be able to conquer over that and uddhava also says in uddhava gita that by accepting your remnants the devotee becomes free from various material attachments and then further he says so now he says over there when I come to my home ye din grihe bhajana dekhi when I come home and I see the devotee my family members engaged in bhajan then I understand this world this family in this is grihe te goloka bhaya that this is like goloka this is just like goloka there’s no different from this and it is not not different from goloka because ultimately what is goloka goloka is definitely a place where the all attractive Lord reciprocates love eternally with his devotees but along with that goloka is also state of consciousness when we have that state of consciousness sooner or later sooner or later we will attain the goloka in the spiritual world also and essentially he says grihe te goloka bhaya charan sindhu dekhiya ganga charan sindhu dekhiya ganga so charan sindhu is what charan sindhu means that here is refers to ganga devi dekhiya ganga this go harkens back to the past time of vaman dev when he expanded his form to encompass the whole universe at that time vaman dev actually brought down the world brought down he caused by the touch of his feet a hole in the universe in the shell of the universe and through that hole he brought the water from the causal ocean down into the world and that water from the causal ocean down of the world called causal ocean along with the water from Brahma’s kamandalu when Brahma washed the lotus feet of the Lord that combined together that became charan sindhu because now we talk about charanamrut anomaly and charanamrut even if it is available in profuse quantity still it is not so much but ganga devi he says is charan sindhu such a profuse quantity that it is like a ocean so that water which is washed in lotus feet of the Lord and is available in an oceanic quantity that is ganga devi so charan sindhu dekhiya ganga when I see this charan sindhu of ganga sukha saasi ma paye sukha saasi ma paye this is my happiness knows no bounds this is this ganga ganga it is a river but the extent of the water in the river is so great that it is almost like a it is almost like an ocean so vast and similarly just as the reverse extent is almost limitless similarly the ecstasy that awakens in my heart on seeing beholding this beautiful ganga that ecstasy is also limitless Bhaktivinod Thakur lived for most of his life at least a later part of his life for a substantial amount of time he lived in Godhrum Dweep and he had his house there which is house is still there it’s preserved to this day and that house was very close to the Ganga so he’s talking in that sense about what applies to his life and what can apply to the lives of all of us also so he’s saying that now he’s not talking about his magistrate he has to deal with criminals he has to deal with lawyers he has to deal with envious colleagues in those days you know the Britishers thought that Britishers were the rulers and by merit some Indians would come and join the services the government services and they would rise to high post some of them would join to the rise to the post of deputy magistrate as Bhaktivinod Thakur but then there was always jealousy the Europeans thought that we are more competent we are better we are the civilised race and later on after Bhaktivinod Thakur retired he devoted himself to God one of his colleagues came and told him that I was so envious of you and I was planning to malign you and spread rumours about you and destroy and assassinate your character and destroy your career but then you were something basically like you were transferred or whatever I found it was not necessary but now that I have come to after he had retired and devoted himself utterly to God he says now you are such a saint I realise that you are a saintly person and that you are not at all interested in worldly good so I didn’t have even plan to do anything like this so Bhaktivinod Thakur writes at that time in his autobiography that I was surprised to hear that this person had such bore such animosity towards me or had borne such animosity towards me and yet he was so gracious that he forgave it all.
Bhaktivinod Thakur’s consciousness is seen over here that yes he had heavy responsibilities and it is responsible competently and he did have heavy he did have the struggles of a difficult demanding profession in a difficult environment the profession of a magistrate itself is difficult because you know try criminals and people’s life and death is in your hands and sometimes if some people feel that they have been wrongly sentenced then they can become vindictive and they can send their goons to get back at you which is a difficult job and is a demanding environment because the Britishers did not they wanted to give some some power to qualify Indians so that the Indians were rising increases increasingly in rebellion against the British government they would they would be suppressed to some extent they would stay silent to some extent but at the same time they didn’t want to be upstaged by the Indians so Bhaktivinod Thakur had to be very careful in his job but he doesn’t talk about all that his those are jobs that is all that job which has to be done but a devotee’s consciousness does not get consumed with that he does it and gets it over with and he lets his consciousness it’s consumed with Krishna so he says when when I come from my job to my home then when I see bhajan happening in my home then I feel oh this is Goloka I have come back to Goloka so for a devotee even the house which is so often talked in the scriptures as a place of entanglement as a place where one gets bound in material existence as a Andhakupa as a deep dark well that same place for Bhaktivinod Thakur it is a place of liberation it is a place of it is non-different on the spiritual world and when Bhaktivinod Thakur is going to office coming back from office at that time there is Charanasindh he will see the Ganga and says when I see the Ganga I actually there’s no limit to the ecstasy that I experience when I see this when I see this holy when I see the Ganga and then he says so when I see Tulsi then I feel as if my life has come back I feel enlivened I feel as if I got a new spurt of life Madhava Toshini Jani why because I know that this Tulsi is the satisfier of Lord Madhava is a satisfier of Madhava and a devotee wants to satisfy the Lord always that is a purpose and perfection of a devotee’s life and therefore when a devotee sees someone else who satisfying the Lord the devotee feels ecstatic by that so Bhaktivinod Thakur is saying that just the sight of Madhava sight of Tulsi gives great joy to my heart and here again Bhaktivinod Thakur reveals just a fully devotional vision not at all utilitarian vision nowadays we may talk about in order to help people grasp why we adore Tulsi so much we may talk about how Tulsi has medicinal value and Tulsi gives such a good vibrations and Tulsi removes the air pollution or whatever different we may talk about different things about Tulsi which is okay for giving appreciation of Tulsi to those who do not have any sense of but beyond that if we can just focus on for ourselves and for those who have some devotional sense we should know that we appreciate Tulsi primarily because Tulsi is devoted to the Lord and Madhava Toshini Jani Madhava Toshini that she is the satisfier of Madhava and because she is satisfier of Madhava therefore when we see her we want we remember we get the inspiration that I too can one day live for pleasing Madhava that I too can actually get the blessings of Tulsi seek for her mercy by which I too can eventually come to the level of becoming the satisfier of becoming the satisfier of Madhava I can live for the satisfaction of Madhava as Tulsi is living and thinking like this brings a fresh lease of life to our life and gaurapriya shakasevane jeevan sarthak maan so gaurapriya shakasevane now when Chaitanya Mahaprabhu would love shak and then when I taste the shak that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu tasted what does it mean that the devotee becomes surcharged with remembrance of Krishna and due to that ecstatic remembrance of Krishna, ecstatic remembrance of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu jeevan sarthak maan once life is considered successful life becomes surcharged life becomes energised with success and then I feel that as my life has become successful Bhakti Vinodha Bhajane anukool paaye yaha prati divase parama sookhe switara karaye taha and the last line of the song Bhakti Vinodha Bhajane gives the general principle so he has given in this song the list of various devotional manifestations that enable us to relish devotional ecstasy and he says that Bhakti Vinodha Krishna Bhajane so after giving this list this is an indicator list not an exhaustive list Krishna has so many manifestations and more and more manifestations also come about by his unlimited mercy so he says so whatever is favourable for the bhakti of Krishna for the bhajan of Krishna anukool paaye yaha so whatever is anukool whatever is favourable bhakti vinodha prati divase parama sookhe on each day with great joy switara karaye taha I accept that with great joy so prati divase parama sookhe with great joy I accept it so this is actually the principle of anukool yaha sankalpa which is one of the six items of sharanagati and Bhaktivinoda Thakur is essentially saying that here this is how I will express my surrender to Krishna by accepting whatever is favourable for his devotion so whatever is favourable I’ll accept and he has given a list of the many things that are favourable and that he accepts very joyfully in his life but after giving this list he says that this is that apart from this whatever is there that is favourable and on each day whenever it I encounter that in my life I will accept it and by accepting it I will take and relish my bhakti and I’ll be joyful that I have got an opportunity to choose something which can nourish and expand my bhakti this is the ecstatic disposition of the great Vaishnava Acharya and we can learn from this that we all can actually be proactive, be dynamic, be responsible in accepting whatever is favourable for our bhakti so whatever infuses us with remembrance of Krishna whatever makes us attracted to Krishna whatever makes us remember Krishna that we should know that it is favourable for our bhakti so let me accept it so Bhaktivinoda Paramahamsa says Bhaktivinoda he talks about himself and he says Paramahamsa okay with great joy with supreme joy I will accept whatever is favourable for my bhakti and he gives a list he’s given a list to guide us to understand what are the things favourable for bhakti and then he also points says that this is not a complete list it is an indicative list so we all can take the inspiration to make a list of whatever things are favourable for our bhakti and we can also Paramahamsa