By even a moment of sādhu-saṅga

The following is a transcription of a discourse delivered by Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Mahārāja in Verbania, Italy, on June 22, 2004

Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura has written in his song, Kabe Āhā Gaurāṅga Bôliyā (verse 5):

vaiṣṇava dekhiyā, pôḓibô caraṇe, hṛdayera bandhu jāni’
vaiṣṇava ṭhākura, ‘prabhura kīrtana’, dekhāibe dāsa māni’

[“Seeing a Vaiṣṇava, I shall fall at his lotus feet, knowing him to be the true friend of my heart. Accepting me as his servant, that venerable Vaiṣṇava will cause me to behold the kīrtana performances of Mahāprabhu.”]

Here, Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura is glorifying sādhu-saṅga. Hṛdayera bandhu: there is no one in this entire world more dear than that Vaiṣṇava. Worldly fathers, mothers and other relatives are dear, but not as dear as that Vaiṣṇava. They may also give suffering; but a sādhu will take away all your sufferings. For this reason the scriptures tell us:

‘sādhu-saṅga’, ‘sādhu-saṅga’ — sarva-śāstre kaya
lava-mātra sādhu-saṅge sarva-siddhi haya

Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta (Madhya-līlā 22.54)

[“The verdict of all revealed scriptures is that by even a moment’s association with a pure devotee, one can attain all success.”]

Sarva-siddhi haya. Even by one moment’s association with such sādhus, all of one’s desires will be fulfilled. It is not worldly desires that are referred to here: “O Lord Kṛṣṇa, I want to marry. Please help me.” “All desires” means the best among all desires: “O Lord Kṛṣṇa, please take me to the shelter of Your lotus feet and give me vraja-bhakti.”

This is confirmed in the following verse from Śrī Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta:

mahat-saṅgama-māhātmyam
evaitat paramādbhutam
kṛtārtho yena vipro ‘sau
‘sadyo ‘bhūt tat-svarūpavat

Bṛhad Bhagavātāmṛta 2.7.14

[“The glory of mahat-saṅga, the association of a mahā-bhāgavata, is extremely miraculous. By the effect of such saṅga, the brāhmaṇa Janaśarma immediately became perfect like his gurudeva Śrī Svarūpa (Gopa-kumāra).”]

By the time the Mahābhārata battle was over, Duryodhana and his ninety-nine brothers had been killed. On the side of the Pāṇḍavas, only six were remaining – the five Pāṇḍavas and Lord Kṛṣṇa. On the side of Duryodhana only three remained – Kṛpācārya, Kṛtavarmā and Aśvatthāmā. All others were put to death – top to bottom.

Vidura had left home before the war began because Duryodhana was opposed to his devotion to Lord Kṛṣṇa. Rejecting that place, he gave up his bow and arrow and crown and said, “I have nothing to do with anything or any place that has no relation with kṛṣṇa-bhakti”. He then travelled to Ayodhyā, Dvārakā and Mathurā.

The battle was finished in eighteen days; after that, Vidura returned to Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira’s palace in Indraprastha, and from there he went to Hastināpura. When he arrived, all his family members were very happy, and they felt as if their lives had returned to them. All the Pāṇḍavas had been weeping in separation from him, and now he had returned.

He had come only momentarily, however, because he had left his old life and was now a sannyāsī – and more than that – a paramahaṁsa. He went to meet Mahārāja Dhṛtarāṣṭra, who was now in Hastināpura under the care of Arjuna, Bhīma, Nakula, Sahadeva and Yudhiṣṭhira. He had come in the dead of night, around midnight, and told Dhṛtarāṣṭra, “Why are you still staying here? What do you want? All your sons have been killed. All your divisions of soldiers have been destroyed. What more do you want done to you?” Dhṛtarāṣṭra replied, “What can I do? I am blind!” Vidura replied, “Yes, you are really blind. You are blind externally, by your eyes, and you are also blind internally. From today onwards you should give up this palatial building, and come with me.” “How can I?” “Oh, you can. I will help you. You are like a dog to whom Bhīma throws some bread and calls to you, “Tututututu.” You have no shame at all! No shame at all! You are a shameless person.” Dhṛtarāṣṭra began to weep and asked, “What should I do?” Vidura said, “Come with me; we should leave at midnight. I will take you to Haridvāra and to Ṛṣikeśa, to the very deep jungle forest. And there you will meditate on Kṛṣṇa.” Dhṛtarāṣṭra replied, “I am ready.”

Then Dhṛtarāṣṭra, his wife Gāndhārī, and Kuntī-devī, the mother of the Pāṇḍavas, fled from the back door. They went to Haridvāra, and after that they went to Ṛṣikeśa. They took bath in the Ganges River. Vidura taught him how to meditate on the mantra of Kṛṣṇa, and they began to chant, “Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya.” After fifteen days, they became very lean and thin. They had stopped taking their meals and were now always remembering their mantra – chanting and meditating. While Dhṛtarāṣṭra was meditating, a mystic fire emanated from his body, and his body was consumed in that fire. While outside observing her husband, who burned in the fire of mystic power along with his thatched cottage, his chaste wife entered the fire with rapt attention.

In this way, although Dhṛtarāṣṭra had been an enemy of Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s pure devotees, the Pāṇḍavas, by the mercy of a pure devotee like Vidura, he was delivered.

In Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī’s Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta, Gopa-kumāra (who is known as Svarūpa in Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes) recounts his personal history to his disciple, the Mathurā brāhmaṇa (Janaśarma). Prior to this, like Parīkṣit Mahārāja, Janaśarma had performed no devotional practices to speak of. Parīkṣit Mahārāja heard Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam for only seven days and nights. He was only hearing. He did not practice any of the other nine limbs of bhakti. However, simply by hearing, he received gopī-bhāva.

Janaśarma heard all philosophical truths and all about Kṛṣṇa’s glories, and he had no realisation of what he had heard. However, when his gurudeva, Svarūpa (in the form of Gopa-kumāra), put his hand on his head and said, “Oh, you should now realise all that I’ve spoken,” at once, in a moment, without any sādhana or bhajana, he saw Kṛṣṇa’s abode and realised, “I am in Goloka Vṛndāvana, in Vraja.” Being situated in sakhya-rasa there, Kṛṣṇa met him, embraced him, and he fainted.

Svarūpavat – he became just like Svarūpa. And, if you will have strong faith in sādhu-saṅga, you can all become like that – by that sādhu-saṅga. So believe in this.

mahat-saṅgama-māhātmyam
evaitat paramādbhutam
kṛtārtho yena vipro ‘sau
‘sadyo ‘bhūt tat-svarūpavat

Bṛhad Bhagavātāmṛta 2.7.14

The glory of sādhu-saṅga is so high, so extraordinary and wonderful, that in a moment Janaśarma became like his guru (Svarūpa) without performing sādhana.

Svarūpa was a personal associate of Kṛṣṇa in Goloka Vṛndāvana, and by the order of Śrīmatī Rādhikā he came to help Janaśarma. He is an eternal associate with no need to have ever done sādhana and bhajana. He is like Mother Yaśodā and Nanda Bābā, and like all the sakhīs of Śrīmatī Rādhikā. It is not a fact that they previously did sādhana-bhajana, as we must, and after that they became mature. However, as Gopa-kumāra, he played the role of a conditioned soul performing sādhana and gradually developing to perfection.

On the other hand, the Mathurā brāhmaṇa was a conditioned soul. By constitution he was an eternal sakhā (cowherd friend) of Kṛṣṇa, and by the mercy of Gopa-kumāra (Svarūpa), he realised his pure form.

By nature, we are all eternal associates of Kṛṣṇa; we are transcendental. But we do not realise that now. Similarly, Janaśarma was not realised, but by the mercy of his guru (Svarūpa), a nitya-parikara (eternal associate of Lord Kṛṣṇa) sent by Rādhikā from Goloka, he became the same as him.

Mother Yaśodā is eternally Kṛṣṇa’s mother. She never had to practice bhakti-yoga to become so. As previously mentioned, Svarūpa was also like that, but as Gopa-kumāra in this world, he showed how conditioned souls can attain perfection through the practice of sādhana coupled with the mercy of the pure devotees.

There are two kinds of mercy (kṛpā): vaiṣṇava-kṛpā and kṛṣṇa-kṛpā. There are two kinds of śraddhā (faith): laukika (material and weak) and pāramārthika (transcendental and powerful). Pāramārthika-śraddhā is also of two kinds: vaidhī (regulative) and mādhurya (spontaneous, with a transcendental greed to enter Vṛndāvana as a gopī). Do you understand? The second kind is very, very difficult and very rare. From that type of śraddhā, niṣṭha, ruci, āsakti, rati and prema comes – and that prema is of the nature of rūḍha, adhirūḍha and mādana.

How can we receive this? Only by the mercy of Kṛṣṇa or His associate. Without mercy, we cannot do anything. Here we see that, like Gopa-kumāra, by sādhana our bhakti can gradually mature over so many births and kalpas (millenniums). And what became of Janaśarma? By his guru placing his hands on his head, he at once closed his eyes, opened them, and saw that he was not in this world but in transcendental Goloka Vṛndāvana. He saw how Kṛṣṇa was returning home from cow-herding; he met Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa embraced him, and he fainted.

How could this occur? One may have such a doubt. We have a guru, and we are chanting, but we are not tasting any spiritual fruit. Why? It is because there are so many defects in our bhakti. So how did it happen that the impossible became possible – that at once, in a moment, in a second, without any sādhana or bhajana, Janaśarma went to Goloka Vṛndāvana and met with his friend Kṛṣṇa, with Śrīmatī Yaśodā-devī and Nanda Bābā, and with the gopīs and all other Vrajavāsīs. Don’t doubt this. This was a miracle; you should believe this. Why should you not doubt? Because if you doubt, your bhakti cannot mature and you cannot become a real devotee.

anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ
jñāna-karmādy-anāvṛtam
ānukūlyena kṛṣṇānu-
śīlanaṁ bhaktir uttamā

Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu (1.1.1)

[“When first-class devotional service develops, one must be devoid of all material desires, knowledge obtained by monistic philosophy, and fruitive action. The devotee must constantly serve Kṛṣṇa favourably, as Kṛṣṇa desires.”]

Hear this very carefully. Whatever you do, do for Kṛṣṇa. Be open; quite open – not covered. If you want to hide anything from anyone, or do something secretly, it means you are ashamed of what you are doing. If you are in sādhu-saṅga and still you want to hide something, this is an offence. You should have an open-book policy – having nothing to hide, being fully surrendered, and not doing anything for yourselves. Then, if you are in sādhu-saṅga, in a moment, by the grace of your gurudeva, this miracle will be possible for you.

But gurudeva should be of the quality of Svarūpa. If gurudeva is not like him, he cannot give such blessings to his disciple. A guru can help his disciple to the degree that he himself is qualified. He can be kind to his disciple to that degree.

I think that you are very, very lucky that you have come in the line of Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Svāmī Prabhupāda. You should hear hari-kathā and become like him – whether you are in family life or you are a brahmacārī or sannyāsī, it doesn’t matter.

Source: Purebhakti.com

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Unless indicated otherwise, all verse translations and quotes are from the books by Śrīla Prabhupāda (Vedabase.com)