Topic: Madhurya Kadambini
I will briefly recount on the topic that we discussed yesterday. The only means to achieve devotion to Krishna is the mercy of a devotee. When one receives the seed of devotional service from a devotee and starts to water it, his field of heart becomes fertile. The four pillars of sinful activities (meat eating, intoxication, gambling and illicit sex) make the heart barren. Srila Prabhupada made it mandatory to follow the four regulative principles i.e., to give up these sinful activities. The seedling develops two tender leaves namely, kleshagni and shuvada. Kleshagni destroys all sins and bestows all auspiciousness. Visvanath Chakravarti points out that there are five kinds of sufferings –avidha (ignorance), ashmitha (bodily conception), raag (attachment to pleasing sense perception), dvesh (aversion to displeasing sense perception) and avinivesh (attachment to the object of sense gratification). One who takes to Krishna consciousness becomes free from these sufferings. As a result, one goes through different stages of devotion. They are the stage of enthusiasm, the intense and dilute, stage of conflict, stage of war with material objects, inability to perform prescribed duties and stage where a devotee floats in the facilities bestowed upon him. Finally, one attains the stage of anartha nivruthi.
There are four anarthas and there are five ways to become free from these attachments namely, ekadesha vartini, bahudesha vartini, prayichi, purnam and atyantik. Ekadesha vartini means situated in one location. It is a partial anartha nivruthi. The major part of anarthas is taken care of when one ceases to commit offenses. The greatest offense is offense to the Holy Name and as soon as one is completely devoid of that offense one naturally comes to the stage of Namabhash. This stage corresponds to liberation platform. In this stage, one has been freed from the attachment to the material nature. One progressively develops a love or taste to chant the Holy Name. The Bahudesha vartini is being situated in many places. In this stage, one becomes fixed in nishta. In the matured stage of Bhajana kriya, anartha nivruthi is called Bahudesha vartini. This stage corresponds to stage where one is almost devoid of anarthas but not completely. This progressively develops into ruchi or taste of love for Krishna. In the stage of prayichi, one develops a spontaneous love for the Supreme Personality of Godhead and it is almost complete. Purna is the perfected stage of prayichi. The absolute perfection is achieved in atyantik, where one reaches the lotus feet of the Lord. These anartha nivruthi stages are all perfect and profoundly complete.
The devotional service is not achieved by the dint of our efforts. It is only through the mercy of a pure devotee that one gets the benediction of devotional service. So we just follow Vaidhi Bhakti. In the spiritual sky, every one aspires to become more humble than a blade of grass. The more one elevates the more one wants to be humble. This is the greatest difference between a materialist and a spiritualist. Material endeavor is for higher and higher position. A kanista adikari thinks that Krishna is the Lord and he is His servant. He doesn’t recognize His devotees. A madhyama adikari begins to recognize His devotees. In uttama adikari stage, one wants to become everyone’s servant.
Thank you all very much. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.