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(Science of Devotional Service of the Lord)
(Continued from previous issue)
it spreads dust over the body making the whole thing as unclean as before. There is no effect of such cleansing measure.
The living being is perpetually going on performing this temporary measure of cleanliness but he has to remain unclean in the heart unless and until he takes to the devotional service of the Lord. All the living entities who are within the material universe and leading different grades of material existence are so to say civil disobedient sons of God and they are being punished and promoted in different grades of life by the laws of nature as if under the police actions of the Lord.
A well settled devotee of Godhead cannot continue to be a vicious man for a longer period because he is cent percent engaged in the devotional service of the Lord. This will make him automatically a saintly person by the grace of the Supreme. The Supreme Lord who is within every living being will then act as the Chaitanya Guru or spiritual master from within for a devotee and give him (the devotee) direction so that he may go Back to Godhead. There are thousands and thousands of instructive stories of the like nature in the Ramayana, Mahabharat and Puranas and all of them are supplementaries to the Vedas. To be cent percent engaged in the transcendental service of the Lord is the real process of controlling the senses from the attraction of vices. The different senses of a man are different strategic positions of the enemy vice, which takes us to the miseries of life. The Karmis or the fruitive workers who have been described as the Mudhas or the foolish ignorant, is cent percent engaged in the matter of sense gratification. Because the citadel of Vices with soldiers like desire, anger and avarice is the mind, sense gratification means to follow the dictation of Mr. Vice. The Jnanins or the mental speculator philosopher are thousand and more better than the Karmis because they can understand the real position of sense gratification and therefore try to employ senses in a subtle form restraining the gross activities of the senses. By this action Mr. Vice becomes surrounded and he is stopped for the time being. The Yogins want to control the senses or to make direct attack on Mr. Vice and therefore the Yogins are thousand times better than the Jnanins. The Muktas or the liberated souls are still thousand times better than the jnanins and the yogins for the Muktas are completely free from the attack of Mr. Vice. And above the Muktas are situated the pure Bhaktas who not only drive away Mr. Vice from the citadels of senses but also engage the seats of senses for occupation by the Supreme Lord. The king of the senses is the master mind. Senses are like the horse and the mind is the coach man who directs the sense. The Bhaktas therefore first of all depose Mr. Vice the coach man from the seat of the mind and place the lotus feet of Shri Krishna on the coach. When Shri Krishna becomes the coachman of the chariot of Arjuna there is no fear of the attack by Mr. Vice called by the name Duryodhana. The Bhagwat Geeta confirms this as follows in the words of Sanjaya, “where there is the master of all energies Shri Krishna and where there is a master devotee like Arjuna, undoubtedly there are blessings, victories, influence and morality.”
That is the way how we can drive away the root cause of vices. If we want therefore a peaceful society of men with the blessings of influence, victory and morality the one stroke of devotional service can bring in all in a train as it will be explained by the author next.
Text 25
Yad pada pankaja palasha vilasa bhaktya karmashyam grathitam udgrathayanti santah tadbat na riktamatayo yatayo nirudha srotoganas tam aranam bhaja vasudevam.
English Synonyms
Yad—that, pada—feet, pankaja—lotus, palasha—petals, vilasa—enjoyment, bhaktya—by devotional service, karmashayam—fountainhead of fruitive work, grathitam—deep rooted, udgrathayani—cause uprooting, santah—devotees, tadbat—like that, na—not, riktamataya—freed from material attachment, yatayo—mendicants, niruddha—by controlling, srotoganas—the senses, tam—him, bhaja—do render service, vasudevam—unto the Personality of Godhead.
Translation
One should render devotional service to Vasudeva the Personality of Godhead only. Because the saints and mendicants who have adopted the renounced order of life cannot so easily snub down the fountain source of the impetus for fruitive work so easily as it is possible to be done by the devotees of the Lord always engaged in the enjoyment of serving the lotus feet of Him (Vasudeva).
Purport
This is a statement of confirmation by Sanat Kumar in the Bhagwat Puranam (94/22/39). This is the beginning of the two slokas in which the author wants to describe how by devotional service one can uproot the deep-rooted desire for lording over the material nature. As we have explained above the conditioned living entity has a deep-rooted desire for lording it over the material nature and for the reason of that he is put into action by desire, anger and avarice. He wants to be the lord of all he surveys which is his avarice and thus he desires to work for fruitive result. If the work is successful to his desire he is satisfied otherwise in the absence of satisfaction he becomes angry. And in the cycle of an entanglement of fruitive work he is put into different positions of life barring him from the goal of self-realisation. Such fruitive workers want to be happy in this material world by different material plans but they are so fool that they do not know it cannot be achieved. Such karmis therefore after many attempts and by performing regulated fruitive works as it is enjoined in the revealed scriptures by chance becomes a learned fellow that fruitive work cannot make him happy, then he searches for the Absolute Truth by restraining the senses with great care and becomes either a Jnani or Yogi. Unfortunately such jnanis or yogis also do some time fall down from the goal of self realisation as there are many instances like that. Vishwamitra Muni was a great Yogi but he also fell down from the path when happened to meet Meneka a celestial beauty and gave birth to a beautiful girl as famous as Shakuntala. Therefore any other path save the path of devotional service is not at all safe for self realisation by snubbing down the deep-rooted desire for lording it over the material nature. A practical instance in this connection will not be out of place to mention herewith.
Some times back a news was published in the press as follows:—
“Ever since the beginning of the universe the sun has been shedding huge amount of heat upon the surface of the earth. If this heat is properly utilised it is capable of changing the very face of the earth.” So man’s effort in this direction were not very successful. Nature has been slightly more successful. It concealed a part of this energy in the form of wood, coal, oil etc.
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