Question: This question is from Mahesvar Das, London. In the sixth verse of Upadeshamrita written by Srila Rupa Goswami, he explains that we should not see the pure Vaishnava with our material vision. This I can understand up to a certain extent. But going through the verse 9.30 of Srimad Bhagavad Gita, I relate it with some confusion. My question is, at what level of sadhana does verse six of Upadeshamrita become relevant?

Answer: You know the sixth verse of Upadeshamrita,

dṛṣṭaiḥ svabhāva-janitair vapuṣaś ca doṣair
na prākṛtatvam iha bhakta-janasya paśyet
gaṅgāmbhasāṁ na khalu budbuda-phena-paṅkair
brahma-dravatvam apagacchati nīra-dharmaiḥ

“Devotees in this world should not be seen from a material perspective. Any imperfections found in their natures or their appearance should be overlooked for such faults are like the foam and mud in the water of the Ganges. Such things appear due to the nature of water, but the divine nature of the Ganges is never diminished.”

Here Rupa Goswami who is the original guru of our preceptorial channel, and our guruvargas are his followers, has written Upadeshamrita. He is the grace incarnate form of Krishna, he has given a warning. Although seeing or observing defects in the nature or body due to some disease etc. of a devotee, you should not think them as worldly people. Worldly people have got material bodies and material egos and they are devoting their whole energy for the material benefits. Devotee, devotion and Supreme Lord, these three are eternal. All the Vaishnava acharyas had substantiated that. If they are not eternal then that is not shuddha-bhakti, pure devotion. The lotus feet of Supreme Lord are eternal. Devotees who are serving His lotus feet are also eternal, then devotion can be eternal. By the grace of Supreme Lord they are serving Him. You are daily meditating the verse from Rig-veda during your morning and evening sandhya,

oṁ tad viṣṇoḥ paramaṁ padaṁ
sadā paśyanti sūrayaḥ divīva cakṣur ātatam
tad viprāso vipanyavo jāgṛvāṃsaḥ sam indhate
viṣṇor yat paramam padam
(Rig veda 1.22.20)

The lotus feet of Supreme Lord are transcendental, ‘sat’. ‘Hari om tat sat’. Hari is transcendental and His lotus feet are also transcendental, beyond the compression of human material sense organs, mind and intellect, that is called ‘tat’. This body is non-eternal, and so sense organs are also non-eternal. When the body will perish, sense organs will also perish, even during our life time also we may lose our sense organs. So by this non-eternal body and non-eternal sense organs how we can have contact with eternal, transcendental thing. It is irrational, never possible. Diviva chakshur-atatam. Diviva means self-effulgent. You should remember the translation of the verse of Gita by our most revered siksha-guru, Param Pujyapad Swami Maharaj. You have to remember always, we should not think, it has become stale. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu heard the whole biographies of Dhruva and Prahlad from Gadadhar Pandit for hundreds of times, after hearing He would say, “I want to hear again.” Because Supreme Lord is transcendental, His associates are transcendental, His glories are also transcendental and infinite. We may say, “I have already heard, you speak something new to me,” but Chaitanya Mahaprabhu wanted to hear from Gadadhar Pandit again and again to teach the novice votaries, those who want to get spiritual realization, you should go through the biographies of the pure devotees repeatedly. Our Saraswati Goswami Thakur wrote one hymn in Bengali, He mentioned in that,

prabhu sanātane, parama yatane,
śikṣā dila yāhā, cinta sei saba

Sambandh-gyan. He did not give any reference from any other scripture, he gave it from Chaitanya Charitamrita. What Chaitanya Mahaprabhu taught to Sanatan Goswami, you remember that. It is the basis. You have already heard it but you have not heard it because you are not established in it. If you hear something but if you are doing just the opposite of what you have heard then it is not called hearing. Foundation should be strong otherwise if you construct a building, it will fall down. You are preaching at different places I know, you have heard it I know. And you are speaking about this I know, yet I would say you are not well established in this knowledge, by your behaviour. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu taught to Sanatan Goswami about Sambandh-gyan: who am I and what my relation with Supreme Lord is. Every time we hear and forget. Supreme Lord is infinite. The words expressing Him are also infinite. They cannot be stale. They can never be stale. If you hear for infinite time, again you want to hear the same. But if you say, “I have already heard, I have no necessity to hear it again”, then you have heard nothing. When actual hearing will be there, then you will desire to hear that again and again. Harinam Mahamantra is one but every step you may have the fresh taste of Hare Krishna, Radha-Krishna mantra. It will never become stale. Here Rupa Goswami have given a warning. By seeing outside behaviour and habits of some Vaishnavas, if you speak anything ill of them then you commit an offence to them. It will be an obstacle to your spiritual realization. There may be some defect in them. What sort of defect? In their nature, there may be peevishness, i.e. some devotees are irritating in nature. By seeing that you should not behave roughly with them. There may be lethargy (in some devotee), but they have dedicated themselves fully for the service of Sri Krishna. There may be some sort of bodily constitutional defects due to some disease etc., his complexion may not be good. He may not be so beautiful, you should not see that. If you see it and behave with them roughly then Supreme Lord will be dissatisfied. Although they have got this sort of irritating nature, they have accepted the sadguru, they are performing bhajan. That you have to see. Inside they are simple hearted. We should very carefully think, outside you may be very polite, you may behave very nicely and you may use very sweet words but inside there is hypocrisy, which you are finding in the whole world now. Such persons are very dangerous and they may harm you. I have heard many incidences in India also. They deceive others by showing kind behaviour, courtesy etc., their motives are not right. But sadhu’s motives are.. They are simple hearted from inside. Outside he may use some harsh or irritating words, but that is not so dreadful to you, he will not harm anybody because he is simple hearted. That is actual necessity of a sadhu. If simple heartedness is absent and outside polite behaviour is there with some evil motive, externally he looks like a sadhu but he is asadhu. I heard, such cases came to me. I warn someone to not trust that kind of person but he said, “No, he is very good,” ultimately he was totally deceived. Those are dangerous persons. God is residing in the heart of devotees, so by seeing some external defects you should not decide to speak to them some sort of ill words. You will commit offence to their lotus feet, by disregarding them or ignoring them. If you do like that then you will be loser, he will not be the loser. So this warning is given by Srila Rupa Goswami. Without simple heartedness, no devotee can perform bhajan. Wherever simple heartedness is absent, bhajan is absent. That is essential, it must be there. We should not see the pure Vaishanava with our material vision. He (Mahesvara Das) is writing, he understands this up to certain extent.

Astavakra Muni was a powerful sadhu. But his body was bending from eight sides and people used to laugh seeing him walking. But he was a great saint. Somebody has said there, “A great saint has come to you and you are laughing by seeing his body, you are committing a great offence. You will be a loser, he will not be a loser. You will be deprived of his grace.”

Here he is saying, he can understand this verse up to certain extent, but again there is another verse in Gita. How to reconcile with Gita? Krishna also has warned us.

api cet su-durācāro
bhajate mām ananya-bhāk
sādhur eva sa mantavyaḥ
samyag vyavasito hi saḥ

kṣipraṁ bhavati dharmātmā
śaśvac-chāntiṁ nigacchati
kaunteya pratijānīhi
na me bhaktaḥ praṇaśyati
(Gita 9.30,31)

“Even if one commits the most abominable action, if he is engaged in devotional service he is to be considered saintly because he is properly situated in his determination. He quickly becomes righteous and attains lasting peace. O son of Kunti, declare it boldly that My devotee never perishes.”

”He was worshiping Me and now he has given up? No, he is still worshiping Me, he is worshiping Me with sincerity.” But due to his previous births, after 80 lakhs of births we have got this human birth and in human birth we did so many bad deeds. Those impressions were there. Due to those impressions, he might have done one wrong thing, very wrong thing; illicit connection with women we may say, but don't disregard him because he will have repentance to the extreme, “I did a great wrong thing,” he will say and he will cry. He will pray for the grace to Guru Vaishnava. You wait for some time, he will become sadhu. He will get absolute bliss and transcendental realm, there it is written. “You should not behave with him harshly then I (Krishna) shall be displeased.” He is trying, he is trying his best. But there are waves of bad thoughts and good thoughts. And sometimes bad thoughts also come, and by bad thoughts he might have done some wrong, because of the influence of that. Do not take decision and ignore him, then you will be loser, “I (Krishna) shall be displeased.” If God is displeased then you will not get the actual benefit. God is seeing that the person is trying, trying, trying, but due to previous bad impressions he might have done something wrong, api cet su-durācāro bhajate mām ananya-bhāk, but he did not give up his bhajan, he is doing bhajan, worshiping, ananya-bhāk with one-pointed devotion (not worshipping any demi-god) or he has not taken another way of worship—yoga-patha, karma-patha, jnana-patha. No, no, he is not doing that. He is doing suddha-bhakti (unalloyed devotion), he is trying to please, yet there may be some mishap. Don't disrespect him. “If you disrespect him, saying something against him then I shall be displeased. Your objective is to please Me.” With that one warning He ordered Arjuna, go to the karmis, to the jnanis, to the yogis and to the worshipers of demi-gods and declare, taking the oath that My, Krishna's devotee, will not be ruined, will never be ruined. Declare it everywhere.

The life of suddha-bhakta is one-pointed devotion to Supreme Lord. That he is sticking to and trying to do. So that life (sadhan) is there, he has not given up. Those who are deceitful they do all these criminal works and they have got no repentance. They are deceitful, hypocrites, they will go to hell. But there may be some devotees very sincere, but unable to check themselves sometimes maybe. “Don't speak ill of them, then I (Krishna) shall be dissatisfied. He is on the right path. He is the part of My potency and he has accepted that and with that relation he is trying to serve Me. He has not given up.” Krishna told in that verse to Arjuna that you declare everywhere that My devotees will never be ruined, nobody can do anything to them. So much affection Krishna has got for His devotees, those who try to serve Him sincerely.

Now here, he is asking, “How I should reconcile?” See, you should not disregard any sadhu who has got some bodily defects or defects in his nature.

api cet su-durācāro
bhajate mām ananya-bhāk

This shows the weakness of Supreme Lord towards the devotees who are trying to worship Him. It is a kind of encouragement to us. While we want to worship sometimes evil thoughts come and we become disappointed that we cannot worship. But Krishna has given this assurance that if you are sincere you will be rescued: “I am at your back. You do not give up steadfastness towards Me.”

He (Mahesvar Das) is saying that he has confusion on this verse. His question is, “At what level of sadhan this shloka of updesamrit becomes relevent?” You see!! At the level of sadhana, how will you understand? It is very difficult. Because we have got the material ego. Therefore in the sadhan-bhakti, arrangement has been given. Our Gurudev and Guruvarga asked us to worship deities. We have no sharanagati. We speak about sharanagati but we do not have sharanagati. Without sharanagati there cannot be any devotion. So you should worship deities, you should engage yourself in the service of guru, give your sense organs and object of sense organs for the service of guru and ultimately, yourself completely. It ends with sharanagati to guru. It also ends in the worship and sharanagati to Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and sharanagati in Radha-Krishna. Then after that you can perform bhakti, before that you cannot perform bhakti. That sharanagati is not so easy, because we have got the mundane relations in the house. We have also got mundane ego and worldly desire are also there. We have to give our energy for them. So we have got connection with them and so it is difficult to think that we are of Krishna. But perform deity worship by uttering the mantra. When a pure devotee gives something to Supreme Lord, there is no requirement of ritualistic performance. Supreme Lord will accept it directly. But generally we do not belong to that group, so we have to take the help of mantra and for that we are to take initiation. After taking initiation, when you offer something to Supreme Lord, Guru, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Radha-Krishna with uttering the mantras, then although I have got no such pure devotion, the mantra is coming in the preceptorial channel through Supreme Lord. So when you utter that mantra and offer then there is the possibility of His acceptance. You drive importance to the preceptorial channel. I have seen myself during Braja Mandal Parikrama at the time when Guru Maharaj was present. That time we used to do Braja Mandal Parikrama on foot. We had been to Nanda-ghat. It is a secluded place. We stayed in the camps. That time one person was bitten by a dog. All advised him to go to Mathura and take injections, otherwise it is dangerous. Two persons had been engaged to take him to Mathura. They were very much disheartened because if they go then there will be a break in their circumambulation of Braja Mandal. It requires two, three days or even more. It may require two, three, four, five days. Nobody can say how many days. They heard from somebody that Srauti Maharaj, elder God brother of our Guru Maharaj, was there, he had the knowledge of removing the poison of dragon bite by mantra. Then all came to him and I was also there and requested him, “If you can do this then they are not to go from here. They will have the opportunity to circumambulate the whole Braja Mandal. Otherwise they will be disappointed.”

He said, “No, I used to do this when I was in house. I was with another Guru, their preceptorial channel was different. Now you worship Krishna; why do you want to engage me in this? No I shall not do it.”

But they are pressing him and because of their pressure he agreed to do so. He asked them to bring an earthen pot, a log and other required things. As per his direction they brought everything. After bringing that, that person was asked to sit over the log, he sat on the timber and he stood up and he was also to bring sand from the Jamuna River and other things. And as he uttered mantra, he was moving and that man was also moving. No machine was there, but they both were moving. We were astonished to see. What is this? No, there is no machine, nothing. How they are moving? About one hour or more he did it and said that all poison is removed and you can take him. They all were glad and they surrounded Srauti Maharaj, “Please teach us, please teach us.” “No, No, you will not get it. You have to accept that preceptorial channel. You have to go there and worship and take mantra from them.” That person realized and I was previously realized under him, for that reason this is effective. Even if I teach you, you will not be able to learn it. You have to perform penance. Why you should do this for this mundane benefit? Worship Krishna, you have got the preceptorial channel. You will get the ultimate goal, everything. You should not spoil your time for the question (from Mahesvar Das), at what level of sadhana does the verse is relevant? Sadhana-bhakti, when they are doing sadhan-bhakti they have to start from Upadeshamrita and Sikshastaka. Upadeshamrita will help us to understand Sikshastaka written by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

vāco vegaṁ manasaḥ krodha-vegaṁ
jihvā-vegam udaropastha-vegam
etān vegān yo viṣaheta dhīraḥ
sarvām apīmāṁ pṛthivīṁ sa śiṣyāt
(Upadeshamrita Verse 1)

First it is started from this shloka. You have to control your tongue. You should not speak anything prohibited against Krishna, Vaishnava or anybody. You should not behave like that. You have to control your mind and you should have no other desire. If there is desire and if there is an obstacle in fulfilling that desire then you will be furious, Krodha will come. So the basis is there, in the first verse. Then gradually we will go upwards. It will take time. We have to have patience and you have to go through Upadeshamrita and Sikshastaka in Braja Mandal Parikrama. In relation to this verse also, the conditioned souls often offensive thoughts will manifest due to anartha within our minds. By thinking these bad thoughts, is this still to be considered Vaishnava aparadh? Because for a novice, neophyte, this first stage is a kind of fight with evil thoughts, you have to struggle. When evil thoughts come you have to suppress them. Krishna has advised in the Gita. When Arjuna said to Krishna,

cañcalaṁ hi manaḥ kṛṣṇa
pramāthi balavad dṛḍham
tasyāhaṁ nigrahaṁ manye
vāyor iva su-duṣkaram
(Srimad Bhagavad Gita 6.34)

It is very difficult to control the mind. It is so restless, more restless than wind, air. What Krishna is saying there?

śrī-bhagavān uvāca
asaṁśayaṁ mahā-bāho
mano durnigrahaṁ calam
abhyāsena tu kaunteya
vairāgyeṇa ca gṛhyate
(Srimad Bhagavad Gita 6.35)

I agree with you, it is very difficult, but you are māha-bāho (mighty-armed one). Every living being, if he is sincere, Supreme Lord will come at his back. He will give power, His Grace Incarnate form will come. Impossible can be possible. He is equal to all. Those who surrender to Him, He also comes to help them and He will send His Grace Incarnate form. There is no fear about this. But you should be sincere. But at the time when evil thoughts come, you should try to suppress it, it is possible that again you may do some wrong things. But this time the evil thoughts will come with less momentum. If you try to suppress it, momentum will be less and gradually it will be removed. And good thoughts will come, you have to encourage them, at that time you have to worship as much as you can. When you have tendency to perform Bhajan, you do it because it will not remain for all the time. Again evil thoughts will come. If you do it, then when evil thoughts will envelope you, at that time you will not be able to do Bhajan like the previous time. But next time when that force of desire to serve will come again, it will come with double force. In this way ultimately evil thoughts will be suppressed and good thoughts will prevail. In this way gradually it will be done.