Second Period of Devotional Practice (2nd Yama Sadhana)

Morning worship—sādhu sange anartha nivrtti

In the first period, Bhajan at the close of night, we start with Sraddha. Without which devotion cannot start. Faith is the strong belief that by worshiping the Supreme Lord we worship all. In the morning worship, second period, here Bhaktivinoda Thakur has stated about 'sādhu sange anartha nivrtti', association of bona-fide sādhus, pure devotees. Taking shelter of pure bonafide Guru and as per his direction you start bhajan. By doing bhajan you remove all ulterior desires. In the second period Bhaktivinoda Thakur has stated the second stage, developed stage.

nāma grahaner kālākāla-vicāra nāhi
nāma sarvaśakti samanvitā

There is no hard and fast rule about doing Harinam. Any time, any place, you can do it. Holy Name is All-Powerful, everything is there in Harinam.

nāmnām akāri bahudhā nija-sarva-śaktis
tatrārpitā niyamitaḥ smaraṇe na kālaḥ
etādṛśi tava kṛpā bhagavan mamāpi
durdaivam īdṛśam ihājani nānurāgaḥ
(2rd Verse of Sri Shikshastaka)

“O Supreme Lord! Your Holy Name can bestow all kinds of eternal welfare to the conditioned souls. You have Your Principal Names like Krishna, Govinda, Gopinath, etc. You manifest in this world by Your Name and invest all the powers in Your Names. To remember the Names and chant the Names no restrictions have been imposed, no rules and regulations are been imposed. One can chant Your Name any time, in any circumstance and any place. O Lord! You are so merciful to the conditioned souls i.e. out of compassion you have made easy for the conditioned souls to remember and chant Holy Names, but due to my tenfold offenses and my greatest misfortune I have got no liking for Holy Name which has been made so easily obtainable.”

Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is expressing great regret on our behalf saying “Oh Lord! Your Holy Name itself can bestow all kinds of eternal welfare to the conditioned souls. (Krishna, Govinda, Gopinath, etc. are principal Holy Names and Brahma, Paramatma, etc are not principal Names) You have invested all powers and have descended in this world with Them. No restriction of time or space, rules and regulations for utterance and remembrance of the Holy Names have been imposed by You. O Lord! Thus You have been so very merciful and compassionate to the conditioned souls that You made it easy for the conditioned souls to chant Holy Names, but due to my tenfold offences it is my greatest misfortune that I have got no liking for the Holy Name.”

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is expressing His extreme regret in this way. Although Supreme Lord, out of grace, gave all powers to His Name and as heard in the above verse He did not impose any restrictions for taking the Holy Name, but due to my misfortune I have got no aptitude to do Harinam. This is my greatest misfortune.

aneka-lokera vāñchā — aneka-prakāra
kṛpāte karila aneka-nāmera pracāra
khāite śuīte yathā tathā nāma laya,
deśa-kāla-niyama nāhi sarvasiddhi haya,
“sarva-śakti nāme dilā kariyā vibhāga
āmāra durdaiva, — nāme nāhi anurāga!!”
(Sri Chaitanya Charitamrita Antya 20.17-19)

Bhaktivinoda Thakur has written,

ekānta bhaktera mātra kīrtan-smaraṇa,
anya parve ruchi nāhi haya pravartana

Those who have got one-pointed exclusive devotion to Supreme Lord, they will have aptitude only to do Kirtan and Smaran (chanting and remembering Sri Krishna). Even forcibly one cannot engage them in any other forms of devotion.

Vishwanath Chakravartipada has stated that remembrance of the Lord is subservient to Sravan and Kirtan. How we can remember? Remembrance is the ultimate end of what we do in these forms of devotion. To remember, 'smartavyah', always to remember and never to forget. But how to remember? Remembrance depends on Sravan and Kirtan. If you hear about worldly things, how you can remember Krishna? By Kirtan you also hear. So here it is said that those who have got one-pointed devotion and exclusive devotion, they have got no other taste except Kirtan-smaran.

bhāvera sahita haya śrīkṛṣṇa-sevana,
svārasikī-bhāva krame haya uddīpana

Krishna seva is possible and happens with great attachment and transcendental sentiments (sthayi-bhava). There is no question of any force or compulsion for service.

ekānta bhakatera kriyā mudrā rāgodita, tathāpi sei saba nāhi vidhi vipirīta.

"All the actions of a pure devotee are inspired by pure love originating from delightful relations. Such devotee's actions may seem to be against regulated devotion (vaidhi-bhakti), persuaded by reverence, but his purpose of service, to satisfy the object of his worship, is preserved."

They serve Krishna with delightful relation of love. One may serve the Lord as per regulated principles, but an advanced devotee may even serve the Lord beyond regulated principles. Their main object is to give satisfaction to the Lord. A devotee in rāga-bhakti can do this. Govinda, Mahaprabhu's personal sevaka, crossed over Mahaprabhu's transcendental body and served. An ordinary devotee cannot do like this. An extra-ordinary example would be of the gopis whose highest mood is only to give pleasure to their object of worship, Sri Krishna. Their devotion is not opposed to regulated devotion, though externally that may seem so. A kanishta devotee cannot understand this. What is the purpose? Those who have entry into such high moods and relations, they can understand.

Bhaktivinoda Thakur further says,

sarva tyāga karile o chārā sukaṭhina,
pratiṣṭhāśātyāge yatna payibe praviṇa

We can give up everything, but it is very difficult to give up desire for name and fame. That is the last snare of Maya. If you cannot give up that then you cannot have progress in devotional practice.

prabhate gabhīra rātre madhyāhne sandhyāye,
anartha chāriyā lao nāmera āśraya

You do Harinam giving up all ulterior desires. If your target is different then everything will be lost because means are justified by the end. By the end, you can have justification of the means you have adopted. For that reason justification will be judged from the end. We should have the end only for the satisfaction of Krishna and not for any ulterior motives. There are many professional chanters whose objective is to get mundane benefits. But that is not the actual chanting. Always do Harinam for Lord’s satisfaction.

ei rūpe kīrtana smaraṇa jei kare,
kṛṣṇa-kṛpā haya śigrha, anāyāse tare

In this way when you do Kirtan and Smaran then by Krishna's mercy you can easily attain eternal welfare.

śraddhā kari’ sādhu sange kṛṣṇa-nāma laye, anartha sakala jāye niṣṭhā upajaye

Two conditions are to be fulfilled, with śraddhā (firm faith) and in the association of bonafide sādhus, if you do Harinam then all your ulterior desires will be removed and you will get fixation of mind in your object of worship.

prātaḥakāle nityalīlā karibe cintana,
cintite cintite bhāvera haibe sadhana

Simultaneously you have to think about the eternal pastimes of the morning, second period pastimes. Everything depends upon thinking.

Morning pastimes of Radha-Krishna:

rādhāṁ snāta-vibhūṣitāṁ vrajapayāhūtāṁ sakhībhiḥ prage
tad-gehe vihitānna-pāka-racanāṁ kṛṣṇāvaśeṣanām
kṛṣṇaṁ buddham avāpta-ḍhenu-sadanaṁ nirvyūḍha-go-dohanaṁ
susnātaṁ kṛta-bhojanaṁ saha-caraistaṁ cātha tāṁ cāśrye
(Govinda-lila-amritam)

What is morning pastimes in short, it is written here. In the morning, being called by Yashoda Devi, Radharani comes along with Her confidantes (sakhis) from Javat to Nandagram. Yashoda Devi is wishing, let my darling son's life span enhance and He live long by taking the food prepared by Radharani. Thinking that Yashoda Devi has no knowledge of Bhagavat-tattva, if we go to tell her, “What are you doing, you want to increase the life span of Supreme Lord?' then you will not get Vraja-prem, you will go out of the purview of Vraja-prem. She sends to bring Radharani from Javat with the feeling if my darling child eats food prepared by Radharani, His life span will increase. Yashoda Mayya can cook herself, but she does not cook thinking that my child will benefit by accepting the food made by Radharani, and by which she also will benefit and all are benefited. Radharani also has great desire and eagerness to serve and She gets nice opportunity to serve. After taking bath, She comes along with Her sakhis dressing and decorating Herself in beautiful clothes and ornaments which are pleasing to Sri Krishna, and all of them engage their time in cooking at Nandagrama. If we have no love for cooking then we will not get entry into the Krishna-prema. All the Vaishnava whom I have met are all experts in cooking, they can make various nice dishes. They do not cook these days, but in earlier days they were cooking. When we go there (i.e. the spiritual world) we have to be cooking there and if you are afraid of cooking, then you cannot go there. And your position will be outside and you have to cook for worldly people in this world. When the cooking is done Yashoda Mayya will loving serve Krishna and His sakhas, and Radharani will honor remnants of Krishna with great satisfaction and also distribute to Her sakhis. Such are the pastimes of Radharani in the morning. And Krishna has reached home secretly and Nanda Baba and Yashoda Mayya do not know about the happenings of the night. They think that just now our child has woken up and seeing Him arise they are happy and pleased. Krishna goes to the cowshed along with His sakhas to milk the cows and give them satisfaction. After that they take bath together. His sakhas (gwala-bala) do not leave Him for a minute, run behind saying 'Kannaiah where are You? Kannaiah where are You? Come, let us have bath together.’ Then they sit down together for food. Yashoda Devi serves them all food.