Sri Upadesamrta: Text One, Part Two
The following is another installment of our classroom series: Sri Upadesamrta, with Illuminations by Srila B. R. Sridhara Deva Goswami, published by Gosai Publishers, 2009. View past installments, here.
The Impulse of the Tongue
Jihva-vegam – this means the urge for that which is very tasteful. I am a servant to that, a slave to tastefulness. Jihva-vegam means our attraction to a particular taste. One may have attraction for pungent, bitter, sweet or sour. That is jihva-vegam. The tongue always wants to taste that sort of thing. Whatever is tasteful may be detrimental to my health, yet I cannot control my tongue. Out of greed I may take something that may not be the proper diet for me. I take something, and then I take more but it is not necessary for my health. I should try not to fall prey to my tongue and become its slave. How to avoid jihva-vegam? The process is that whatever I am taking, I should think, “How has the sadhu, the guru, or God tasted it?” The material thing should be subservient and our attention should be directed towards the subjective feeling of the higher personalities, how they have tasted it. That is the key to escape from material taste.
Mahaprabhu tried to avoid sweet things, “I am a sannyasi so I must keep a standard. If I take sweet things, then everyone will do like that. It is not proper.” Then Svarupa-damodara said, “That is the negative side, but You will take prasada. That is the positive side. Jagannatha kaichi karyachena bhojana. You must
have direct experience of how Jagannatha tasted it.” From the objective world, to take it to the subjective, all feelings should be collected and applied towards the higher plane, and it must be drawn from the lower plane.
The Impulses of the Belly and Genitals
Jihva-vegam means the urge for that which is palatable to the tongue, and udara-vegam means the urge to fill one’s belly. We think, “No, I have not eaten. I have not taken much food. The belly seems to be very vacant to me. I shall take more.” That is udara-vegam. More and more – then it will swell. We should only take that amount of food that is necessary to keep up the health.
Upastha-vegam is the urge to get a pleasing sensation from the ladies and the desire for the company of women – for the men, the women and for the women, the men. We should try to check that tendency within us. That is mental; it is not even in the soul. That is only in the mind and that is the worst cause of our wandering in this world. Even from the tree to the demigods this sort of tendency is flowing and we must be very cautious not to fall prey to such a flow. It is a universal and very powerful flow and we must try our best to keep aloof from the flow of that plane as much as possible.
tomara kanaka bhogera janaka
kanakera dvare sevaha madhava
kaminira kama nahe tava dhama
tahara malika kevala yadava
Your wealth is simply used for mundane pleasure but you should use it in the service of Madhava. The desire for women is not your business because Krishna is their only true master.1
The enjoying aspect of women is not for you, it is only reserved for Krishna – tahara malika kevala yadava. Krishna is the only enjoyer of the beauty of anything to be enjoyed from the women section. It is mentioned there, literally in this verse.
One gentleman came to our Guru Maharaja in Calcutta and said, “What do you mean by this? Then who are we? Have you written this in the literal sense? That all the women are meant only for the enjoyment of Krishna, only and none else?” Prabhupada answered, “Yes, yes! That is the true naked meaning of this. Such a type of enjoyment is meant only for Krishna, and all others are trespassers.” Kanaka – money. The master of money is Narayana, Laksmipati, and we are all his servants more or less in different ways. And Baladeva, the guru, is the master of name and fame. Kanaka, kamini, pratistha. Kamini is to be adjusted for the Krishna conception, otherwise we are lost. It must be adjusted with him. Any lady consciousness must have connection with Krishna.
Intelligent Adjustment
We are told that this jihva-vegam, udara-vegam, and upasthavegam are in a line. They all help each other. We must be very careful to be rid of them. They cause so much disaster in one’s life and have spoiled so many lives. We should be careful in our dealings with them. We must be very cautious about all these animal tendencies within us. Rather we are slaves to them. These different types of mentalities are masters and I am their slave. We must be independent of all these ‘masters’.
kamadinam kati na katidha palita durnidesas
tesam jata mayi na karuna na trapa nopasantih
utsrjyaitan atha yadu-pate sampratam labdha-buddhis
tvam ayatah saranam abhayam mam niyunksvatma-dasye
For so long I have obeyed the wicked dictates of lust, anger, greed, madness, delusion, and hatred, yet they never took pity on me, and I have felt neither shame nor the desire to give them up. O Lord of the Yadu Dynasty, now that my intelligence has been awakened, I am leaving them behind. I surrender myself unto You who grants fearlessness. Please now engage me in Your service.2
These desires are my lords and they are using me as their slave, and such a helpless life I am leading here. In the name of a human being I have got so many shameful tendencies within me that even an animal cannot come to such a low standard. This is our self-analysis; our real nature will be like this – a shameful nature within. Our real enemies are within, not without. And within, the Lord is there in the heart and the kingdom of the Lord is much higher. We have that consolation, hope and prospect. We must give a bond and try to keep that promise, then help will come from that higher plane and it will drive away all these superficial enemies that are dancing like demons on the surface of our mind. They must be driven away. And help will come from within, if we seek it and if we cooperate.
The agents of the Lord are more powerful. If we really invite them, then the sadhus, the agents of the Supreme Lord, will come and drive away all these things. These demonic demonstrations on the surface of the mind will be driven away forever and we will have happy engagement in the service of the Lord. We will be free from all these demonic masters. That is not a cheap achievement. Gradually it will be controlled. If you want to hunt an animal, it takes some time to kill it. These anarthas are there and to dispense with them, some time is necessary. But the energy to kill them, to remove them, should be gathered by us from higher sources. Then with less energy we can do away with them.
kiba se karite para, kama krodha sadhakare
yadi haya sadhu-janara sanga
What can lust and anger do to the practitioner who takes shelter of saintly association?3
What harm can lust, greed and anger do to a seeker of the truth who is on the path of divine realization, if he can have the intimate association of a sadhu? In other words, they cannot do anything because something is being spent but it is a sideincome. If help is coming from the higher then that supersedes the expenditure to the lower and the lower thing cannot do any harm – kama krodha sadhakare. And there is also kausala. Kausala means intelligent adjustment – we can get relief. In this regard Narottama Thakura says,
kama krsna karmarpane, krodha bhakta-dvesi jane
lobha sadhu-sanga hari katha
moha ista-labdha-bine, mada krsna-guna-gane
niyukta kariba yatha tatha
I will use lust in the service of Krishna, anger against those who are inimical towards the devotees and greed for associating with sadhus and hearing krsna-katha. I will become bewildered only when I cannot attain my worshipable Lord. Madness will manifest when I intensely glorify the divine qualities of Krishna. In this way I will utilize all of these.4
Kama krsna karmarpane – some impulse we feel within. Try to utilize that force and regulate it in the service of Krishna. Krodha bhakta-dvesi jane – try to use anger towards those who are antagonistic to the sadhus, the krsna-bhaktas. Lobha sadhu-sanga– you may try to engage greed by hearing from the lips of the sadhu. Moha ista-labha bine – sometimes depression comes. Try to utilize it when you are separated from the sadhu. Mada krsna guna-gane – sometimes overflowing energy appears within us. Engage that overflowing energy in dancing and chanting the name of Krishna. Niryukta kariba yatha tatha – try to regulate all these things in the service of Krishna. If you do this you will be free from them in no time.
asankalpaj jayet kamam
krodham kama-vivarjanat
arthanartheksaya lobham
bhayam tattvavamarsanat
With strong determination, one should give up lusty desires and anger by rejecting the objective for sense gratification. On should give up greed by evaluation of the obstacles of accumulating wealth and by analyzing reality one should abandon fear.5
In the Bhagavatam it is mentioned by Devarsi Narada, asankalpaj jayet kamam – you have so many designs and plans to carry out. Asankalpa – don’t enter! Don’t allow yourself to enter such ambitious speculations. Don’t allow yourself to be busy with such big ambitious engagements in life. Krodham kama-vivarjanat – bad temper sometimes comes within you, so withdraw from the beginning. Don’t identify yourself fully with a particular plan – if any hindrance comes to you, you will be fully entangled. If you are not addicted to a particular plan then there is no chance of being excited. Arthanartheksaya lobham – you have so much greed for money. You have to discriminate, “What is the charm of money?” Whatever you can construct, that automatically vanishes in course of time, so what is the charm of money? Bhayam tattvavamarsanat – and if you have any fear or apprehension then you have to discriminate – tattvavamarsanat. So many things are combined – matter, water, ether, which come and stay for sometime and then disappears. Birth and death, in the course of nature, is coming and going everywhere. Every second something is born and every second something is dying. Calculating in this way you should leave your fear. A long list is given there in Bhagavatam and in the conclusion it is said:
rajas tamas ca sattvena
sattvam copasamena ca
etat sarvam gurau bhaktya
puruso hy anjasa jayet
Through devotion to the spiritual master one can easily conquer the modes of passion and ignorance by cultivation of the mode of goodness and giving up attachment to those modes.6
Master of the World
Etat sarvam gurau bhaktya puruso hy anjasa jayet – all these undesirable things can be checked only by concentrating one’s attention to the service of guru. “My guru has ordered? Then no fear, because my absolute guide has ordered it.” We may take this advantage and everything will disappear in no time. Very easily you will be able to cross over all these difficulties if you concentrate only on the divine feet of your guru. “He is my guide, I am not my own. I belong to him. Whatever he will instruct I must do without caring for my individual loss and gain.” In this way, whatever we have got, we may try to utilize that as much as possible in the service of the Lord and in that way He may be able to purge these anarthas from our heart very soon and very easily.
Etan vegan yo visaheta dhirah sarvam apimam prthivim sa sisyat – one who can control all these animal tendencies, who is master of his own self and his own mind, can be master of the world. He is a Goswami proper. He is eligible to give instruction and make disciples all over the world and the number of disciples cannot make him deviate from his standpoint. These are the sadhus who come under the flag of Sri Caitanyadeva. All these things are recorded for our benefit and caution in the Upadesamrta which was given by Mahaprabhu through Rupa Goswami to us in detail.
- Vaisnava ke? – 3 [↩]
- Cc.Madhya 22.16 [↩]
- Premabhakti- candrika 2.11 [↩]
- Prema-bhakti-candrika 2.10 [↩]
- Bhag. 7.15.22 [↩]
- Bhag. 7.15.25 [↩]
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Thankyou for printing this beautiful delivery from the master. Simply pure wholsome understanding put forth for our benefit. Iron-clad logic, soft as a rose. Obeisances at his divine lotus feet.
It sounds as if we use our intelligence in the service of common sense, we can realize these illuminations quite clearly. After all, whatever Srila B. R. Sridhara Deva Goswami is presenting is for our ultimate good. Thanks for posting the Sri Upadesamrta.
We are so blessed that Sridhara Maharaja wrote these books for us. I love his practical, focused, loving approach to everything.
“Moha ista-labha bine – sometimes depression comes. Try to utilize it when you are separated from the sadhu.”
Sometimes depression comes. Do you see how he presents it without judgement? He doesn’t say “Oh, you are failing to keep yourself positive! You must try harder!” No. Simply, sometimes this happens, it is a part of life, here’s something you can try to do with it. How incredibly gentle and nurturing.