Second period of Devotional Practice (2nd Yama Sadhan)

Morning Bhajan—Association of devotee-sādhus, taking shelter of pure devotee—bona fide Guru (Spiritual Guide), devotional practice as per direction of Guru and removal of ulterior desires

The first period of devotional practice begins with Sradhha. In the second period, Bhakti Vinod Thakur has written about the gradual progress so that you can get the ultimate end. The second period of practice is sādhusaṅg i.e. association of bonafide sādhus, bonafide sādhu is sadguru, taking shelter of Guru and as per his direction to start bhajan to remove all ulterior desires (anartha nivritti). Anartha nivritti will not happen without bhajan. Anartha is that which is not our requirement. We think we require those things, knowledge of the things of this world. When you perform bhajan then all these ulterior desires will be removed.

nāma grahaner kālākāla-vicāra nāhi
nāma sarvaśakti samanvitā

Chanting of the Holy Names of the Lord can be done anywhere, at any time and in any circumstance, there are no such considerations in Kaliyuga. Characteristics of Kaliyuga are short span of life, disease prone body, and full of difficulties. So Lord has invested all His powers in the Holy Name. Call Me, Call My Name. You can call your son, mother, father, can’t you call the Supreme Lord? It will not cost you anything, not even a paisa.

Second verse of Sri Sikshastaka:

nāmnām akāri bahudhā nija-sarva-śaktis
tatrārpitā niyamitaḥ smaraṇe na kālaḥ
etādṛśi tava kṛpā bhagavan mamāpi
durdaivam īdṛśam ihājani nānurāgaḥ

O Supreme Lord! Certainly, Your Holy Name can bestow all kinds of eternal welfare to the conditioned souls, there is no other way. You have manifested in this world with Your Principal transcendental Names like Krishna, Govinda, Gopinath, etc. These names do not have any connection directly or indirectly with this material world. Brahma, Paramatma, Vishwatma, not these names, Your Principal Names are transcendental spiritual names, the Holy Names. Chanting those Names will benefit immensely. You have invested all powers in Your Names. And no rules and regulations have been imposed on chanting and remembering the Names.

We worry about diseases, want money for various necessities of life, and thus waste a lot of time. We ourselves have increased our requirements which were not there earlier. In our childhood we have seen in everyone's house, some or other worship (puja) was been performed always, not only of Krishna, various other worships. Women would create opportunities for such pujas by calling Brahmins at home. These days such worships are all gone, now seeing television, video conferencing, this and that, so many various ways have been invented for mental diversions. People ask, Swamiji, we wish to perform bhajan, but we cannot do. We only have developed these things, day and night bringing new things for sense enjoyment. This was not Indian culture, being attracted by Western culture we are imitating them. So, it is said here, no conditions regarding time, place and circumstances have been laid for chanting of the Holy Names. You can chant while sleeping, while walking and while eating.

O Lord, You are so merciful to the conditioned souls by thus making it easy for them to chant Holy Names but due to my tenfold offenses it is my greatest misfortune that I have not developed any attachment for the Holy Name.

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is expressing His extreme regret to see the sad plight of the conditioned souls of the world, that it has been made so easy but they have got no aptitude to do Harinam.

aneka lokera vāṣchā aneka prakāra,
kripā te karila aneka nāmera pracāra,
khāite śuīte yathā tathā nāma laya,
deśa-kāla-niyama nāhi sarvasiddhi haya

Just by calling the Lord with love and devotion, Lord will be satisfied. Dhruva called the Lord with love and attained all perfection.

sarvaśakti nāme dila kariyā vibhāga,
āmāra durdaiva nāme nāhi anurāga

Bhakti Vinoda Thakur gave great emphasis on Nama Kirtan by giving evidence from Hari-Bhakti- Vilasa.

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

A pure devotee who has got one-pointed devotion to Lord has got liking only to perform devotion of chanting and remembering Sri Krishna. He has no taste for any other form of devotion. Although other devotional forms can be practiced, they have to be practiced with kirtan bhakti ‘yadyapi anya bhaktih kalau kartavya, tada kirtanakhya-bhakti-samyogenaiva’, otherwise it will not be fruitful, Jiva Gosvami has written. So a pure devotee has taste for only chanting and remembering (kirtan and smaran).

bhāvera sahita haya śrī kṛṣṇa-sevana,
svārasikī-bhāva krame haya uddīpana

They serve Krishna with delightful relation of love which is fixed (sthayi-bhava), not changing like sometimes in servitude (dasya), sometimes in friendship mood (sakhya), sometimes in parental affection (vatsalya), it is fixed. In this mood they serve with love and attachment, there is no need of any persuasion, they serve naturally and the Object of Worship is satisfied by their service. Where there is no love, such service cannot give satisfaction. Cooking for cooking sake and serving without love does not satisfy the Object of Worship. There is no desire to serve. If you want to eat you eat or else get up. This is not called seva. Vaishnava seva is done with love.

ekānta bhakatera kriyā mudrā rāgodita,
tathāpi sei saba nāhi vidhi viparīta

The pure devotees serve their Object of Worship with great love. We may think that we know all the rules and regulations and they are not serving as per the Scriptural injections. They are just doing the opposite. Ramanujacharya went to Jagannath Dhama and wanted to give teachings on service based on Scriptures when he saw that Jagannath’s servitors were not following Scriptural injunctions properly regarding cleanliness in cooking, personal hygiene, etc. He pointed their irregularities and expressed his dissatisfaction of their service. He spoke so much. In the night he sleeps on his bed and next day morning finds himself in South India. He is not in Puri. There is no need for you to instruct My servitors, Lord Jagannath expressed. So devotees advanced in higher stages serve Lord with deep love which we cannot understand.

Prabhupad prohibited his disciples from going near to Vamsi Das Babaji Maharaj, asking them to offer pranam to him from far. Someone asked, “Are we not supposed to avail sādhusaṅga by going close to him?” In reply Srila Prabhupada said, “You will not understand. He is an anchorite (an avadhoota), you will not understand him and will commit offense. You know the rules and regulations about the devotion so you will get confused.” When Vamsi Das Babaji saw a Banyan tree on his way, he took it to be Vamsi Vata and sat underneath it. He was not ready to get up. There is no hut there, just underneath the tree he camped. He has no big temples for his deities, in one cloth bag (Jholi) he has Nitai Gauranga and in the other, RadhaKrishna. He brings them out and worships them and They are greatly satisfied. Sometimes he will offer tobacco to RadhaKrishna in a hookah, but not to Nitai Gauranga. You cannot understand his feelings, he is avadoot. So it was instructed to offer him pranam from far. Like this, in their love for the Lord, how they serve Him we cannot understand.

Gaura Kishor Das Babaji Maharaj performed bhajan sitting in an old broken boat, sometimes would drink only Ganges water, sometime mud, sometimes something else which no human being can do. In the night suddenly he shouts ‘go away, go away’ (hut.. hut..). Sitting in Navadvip he is chasing a goat who has entered into a temple in Vrindavan. What will you understand? Like this, we cannot understand anything. There is no interruption (vyavadhan) in their bhajan. We cannot understand their activities. They serve with pure love originating from delightful relation.

prabhate gabhīra rātre madhyāhne sandhyāya,
anartha chāriyā lao nāmera āśraya

Giving up all ulterior motive, always chant Harinam.

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

One has to perform kirtan, but in this manner. Then one will attain the objective. Lord sees whether this person has perturbation of heart for Me, whether he wants Me or not. If we pray from within the heart we will get (His grace).

śraddhā kari’ sādhu sange kṛṣṇa-nāma lay,
anartha sakala jāy niṣṭhā upajay

Śraddhā and sādhusaṅg, only these two things are needed.

sādhu sange krsna nāma ei mātra cāi
samsāra jinite āra kauna vastu nāi
(Sri Sri Prema Vivarta)

One cannot perform Krishna nama in asādhusaṅg.

asādhu saṅge bhāi kṛṣṇa-nāma nāhi haya
nāmākṣara bāhirāya baṭe tabu nāma kabhu naya
kabhu nāmābhāsa haya, sadā nāma-aparādha
(Sri Sri Prema Vivarta)

“Remember Bhai (my dear brother), Krishna's Name cannot awaken in the association of non-devotees. Only the syllables of the Holy Name will come out of the mouth, but the Name Himself will remain far away. Certainly there is only nāma-aparāadha in their association. Sometimes, by great fortune, there is nāmābhāsa).”

Therefore, perform Krishna's Name in sādhusaṅg, and so sang the glories of sādhu sanga.

prātaḥakāle nityalīlā karibe cintana,
cintite cintite bhāvera haibe sādhana

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-caraistaś cātha tāś cāśraye
(Sri Govindalilamra 2.1)

Daily, Radharani, after waking up in the morning, takes bath, and decorating Herself with beautiful garments and ornaments that are pleasing to Krishna, comes to Yashoda Mayya’s house along with Her friends (sakhis). Radharani is the Absolute Counterpart Complete spiritual potency (purna-aradhika-sakti) of Avatari Sri Krishna. She has got the blessing from Durvasa Rsi that who eats the food prepared by Her, His life span will increase. Learning about this blessing to Radharani and wishing that her son also be blessed by a long life, Yashoda Mayya sends message calling for Radharani to come and cook. She herself did not do any cooking even though she has desire to cook for her son. Yashoda Mayya has no knowledge of the Supremacy, Lordship (Bhagavatta) of her son. You have this knowledge and you go to tell her about this, then you are doing a wrong thing, you are committing an offense. Your condition will be like that of Ramanuja’s. When you speak like that you will be sent out of Vraja. You will not get to know Vraja-prema. It is like that there, Krishna is lovingly nurtured child there (lālya-pālya). They do not see Krishna as Supreme Lord. Radharani got a nice opportunity. Radharani is Krishna’s mercy-incarnation and has Her eyes, Her attention on all and this quality you can see even in Her Expansions.

We can see it in our Gurudev also. Everyone who comes is busily engaged in his allotted seva. But Gurudev sitting in one place knows everything. He has his eyes on everyone. Once he called one person and asked him with concern, "Haven't you got accommodation?" That person said, "No, I have not." Then Guru Maharaj arranged accommodation for him. So sitting in one place he used to look after everyone. He is an expansion of Radharani and Radharani is the Supreme, topmost. Going to Her abode we will be deprived of service, it is not so. She has Her loving attention on all. Some new gopi has come and she is been not getting any service it is not so. She will be called near and given some service like washing vessels etc. Like this there is no fear in following the footsteps of Radharani. She is magnanimous in all respects. Nandanandan Krishna appeared taking the mood of Radharani in magnanimous form (audarya-murti) and distributed Divine Love to all. Radharani is like this. Therefore, She cooks and offers to Krishna and honors His remnant Prasad. Not just eating, but by taking Prasad one gets devotion, Bhakti, Divine Love for Krishna. We take shelter of such Radhika.

And Krishna, in His waking up pastimes gave service to many. This has been mentioned here in brief. After offering of service He woke up. It is good to speak only as much it is given here. After that, taking cowherd boys He goes to milk the cows who are all eagerly waiting for Him. They are not ordinary cows and when they have darshan of Krishna they are very happy. Just by Krishna’s mere touch they give milk and no need for milking them by force. After milking the cows, when He returns many more cowherd boys join Him. When they do not see Him even for a moment they cry out ‘Kannaiah bhai, where are You? Kannaiah bhai, where are You?’ They say, “Oh come here, we all will have bath together.” They have so much love for Him. After bath, they all sit together and Yashoda Mayya feeds them. We take shelter of such Krishna.