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Śrīla Prabhupāda's Upadeśāmṛta (The Nectarean Instructions of Śrīla Prabhupāda) (eBook)

Śrīla Prabhupāda's Upadeśāmṛta (The Nectarean 
Instructions of Śrīla Prabhupāda)
Type: e-book
Genre: Religion & Spirituality
Language: English
Price: ₹100
(Immediate Access on Full Payment)
Available Formats: PDF

Description

Questions and Answers
Sr No Question
1 Is kīrtana the best limb of devotional service?
2 What is the duty of householders?
3 What is service?
4 How can we increase our devotion?
5 Can one not render service to Bhagavān by
one’s own effort?
6 How should we view material existence (saṁsāra)?
7 Is there necessity of direct association with, and
service to, Śrī Gurudeva?
8 Are we servants of the lotus feet of the spiritual
master, who is foremost among the followers of
Śrī Rūpa Gosvāmī?
9 What is the highest and most auspicious form of
benevolence?
10 Who has good fortune?
11 Who should we give charity to?
12 What is the conception of pure devotees?
13 Whom should we serve?
14 Does the pure saintly person receive respect
in this world?
15 If one does not receive guru-darśana (vision
of the spiritual master), will one also not receive
Bhagavān’s darśana?
16 Is it a calamity if one forgets the spiritual master?
17 Who sees faults in the Vaiṣṇavas?
18 Is Śrī Gurudeva present in all objects?
19 Who will protect us from attachment to the material world?
20 How should we attract Bhagavān?
21 Is there a special need for service to
a spiritual master (guru-sevā)?
22 Should our life be ideal?
23 What disease do we have?
24 What should a devotee do when experiencing
worldly discomfort or inconvenience?
25 Is Śrī Gurudeva completely free from attachment?
26 Does one get a bona fide spiritual master
(sad-guru) by the mercy of Bhagavān?
27 Does one attain auspiciousness only after completely
surrendering oneself (ātma-samarpaṇa)?
28 Where are we experiencing inconvenience (asuvidhā)?
29 How can one attain devotion?
30 Are we alive or dead?
31 Is it appropriate to see others as equal to guru?
32 What do saintly persons do?
33 What object is śrī-vigraha, the Deity?
34 What is the best worship?
35 What is a natural way to control the mind?
36 Is it appropriate for us to make disciples?
37 If this is so, why did you make many disciples?
38 What is our greatest duty?
39 Who is the real recipient of service?
40 How does one get association with saintly persons?
41 Does one experience obstacles in śreya-patha,
the path for one’s welfare and auspiciousness?
42 What is the difference between a conscious being
(cetana) and an inanimate object (acetana)?
43 Can an ordinary person tell us about Vaikuṇṭha,
the spiritual or transcendental world (para-jagata)?
44 Why do all people not understand spiritual topics
about the ultimate goal of human life?
45 Is varṇāśrama-dharma eternal?
46 Who is Caitanya Mahāprabhu?
47 Why did Mahāprabhu say that one of the most important
instructions of Śrīmad Bhagavad-gītā—sarva-dharmān
parityajya (“Surrender unto Me, giving up all temporary
dharmas related to the body and mind”)—is external?
48 What is an examination, exactly?
49 Why do people go to places of pilgrimage (tīrthas)?
50 Should both renunciation (tyāga) and sense enjoyment
(bhoga) be abandoned?
51 Who is Śrī Rūpa Gosvāmī Prabhu?
52 What is the difference between karma (worldly action)
and līlā (spiritual pastimes)?
53 Is prakṛti (material nature) or māyā (the illusory potency)
the original reason for the creation of the material world?
54 Whose service is best for us?
55 Prabhupāda, please mercifully explain the meaning of the
verse “sarva dharmān parityajya māmekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja”
of Śrīmad Bhagavad-gīṭa.
56 How do we keep unwanted habits (anarthas) far away
from us?
57 How should we live?
58 What is the meaning of tṛnād api sunīcatā?
59 Is everything that Bhagavān does auspicious?
60 What does namaḥ mean in a mantra?
61 How does one receive darśana (vision) of Bhagavān?
62 Why can’t we fully depend on Bhagavān?
63 When will our lives be auspicious?
64 Who are sense gratifiers (viṣayīs)?
65 Is śrī-nāma-saṅkīrtana the main devotional service
(mukhya-bhajana)?
66 Is association with saintly persons necessary?
67 How can we obtain the grace of Guru Nityānanda?
68 How can one truly serve Lord Kṛṣṇa?
69 If a householder devotee or devotee residing in a maṭha
(monastery) have wealth but do not use it to serve
Bhagavān, will this lead to offense?
70 How will the living entities achieve auspiciousness
(maṅgala)?

About the Author

The Disappearance Day of *Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Prabhupāda
(From Śrī Prabandhāvalī, *A Collection of Devotional Essays *by Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Mahārāja)
Today is the anniversary of the day of separation from nitya-līlā praviṣṭa oṁ viṣṇupāda aṣṭottara-śata Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Prabhupāda. It is the day of pañcamī, and he also appeared on pañcamī. He took birth in the home of Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, who is an eternal associate of both Śrī Kṛṣṇa and Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Just as the sage Bhagīratha brought the Gaṅgā to this world, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura was the great personality who brought the current of bhakti to this world in the modern era. When the so-called gosvāmīs were making a business out of bhakti while engaging in varieties of worldly enjoyment, when in the name of Mahāprabhu so many kinds of bogus philosophies were prevalent, such as sakhī-bekī, smārta-jāti, sahajiyā, etc. — at that time Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura came. After that, Prabhupāda appeared in the form of his son, Bimalā Prasāda. If these two great personalities had not appeared, then śuddha-bhakti would not exist in the world today. And from the time that they disappeared, society began reverting back to its previous condition. At first there were thirteen known sahajiyā cults, then our Guru Mahārāja, Śrīla Bhakti Prajñāna Keśava Gosvāmī, counted thirty-nine. And how many there are now, no one knows.
I am also seeing how things are gradually changing. We saw how renounced the devotees were before. For instance, we never used to see socks on the feet of any Vaiṣṇava, and we never saw devotees wearing such sweaters and cādaras as we do now. They only wore the bare necessities of clothing and a cheap blanket, even as they attended maṅgala-ārati in the morning cold. It is only after the disappearance of Prabhupāda that devotees can be seen to wear these other things. They would live with such simplicity, eating only śāka-sabjī, rice and a thin dahl, but in comparison to them, just look at the way we are living! And I speak for myself also — their knowledge, their renunciation and their spiritual conception were of such a high standard that in comparison to them we are so inferior.
The period between Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura and Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura was an age of darkness for Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism. Living at that time were some real Vaiṣṇavas who performed real bhajana, but mostly, just as we still see sometimes today, the so-called Vaiṣṇavas only performed rituals for wages. When someone would die, people would call the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava bābājīs, who would come and chant some ceremonial kīrtana and perform other rituals for wages. And there was so much misconduct in their behaviour. Seeing this, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura thought, “These people are Vaiṣṇavas? The conception of Mahāprabhu has completely vanished. What can be done?” He was very worried. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura endeavoured to his utmost, but changes did not come about in his lifetime to the degree that he would have liked. He went from town to town and village to village inaugurating the nāma-haṭṭa. In each village he would assemble four or five of the religious men, form a committee and hold programmes for harināma-kīrtana on Sundays. Gradually it spread from one village to the next, but overall his preaching was limited to Navadvīpa, Calcutta and the rest of Bengal.
He published the magazine Sajjana-toṣaṇī, and through its medium he gradually published ŚrīCaitanya-caritāmṛta and other books in instalments. He made a circle of devotees, and also revealed Navadvīpa-dhāma through his writings, although the scholars of society and the sahajiyās didn’t accept his ideology. Then Prabhupāda appeared in Purī. Because Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura was a district magistrate, he would be transferred here and there, but he would always keep Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu and Caitanya-caritāmṛta with him and explain them to his son. Prabhupāda received so much instruction from him, but we should understand that Prabhupāda is an eternally liberated soul; there was no one in the world like him. Without being educated in school or college he learned all subjects very quickly and became a great scholar in Sanskrit. His English was so high that even professors of English could not understand it. I have been told by some learned Western devotees that when reading his Brahma-saṁhitā, they must repeatedly consult the dictionary. And his Bengali was also of such a high standard that even eminent scholars found it difficult to follow. He said that spiritual language should be like that; it shouldn’t be so simple to understand. As one progresses spiritually by remaining in the company of Vaiṣṇavas, he will be able to understand spiritual vernacular.
At the age of seven or eight, Prabhupāda began worshipping a deity of Kūrmadeva, and Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura gave him the mahā-mantra and other mantras for his pūjā. At the age of eighteen, all of the scholars of astronomy in Bengal gave him the title “Sarasvatī”. After that he attended college but quarrelled with the professors, saying, “Will I learn from you, or teach you?” When he abandoned his studies, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura and other family members became concerned, so they took him to Purī where he began studying at Sātāsana Āśrama, which is where Svarūpa Dāmodara and Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī had lived. Vaiṣṇavas used to regularly meet there, and now Śrīla Siddhāntī Mahārāja has a maṭha at that very place. There Prabhupāda began giving readings from Caitanya-caritāmṛta. Present there were some bābājīs who considered themselves rasika, and when they heard Prabhupāda’s explanations, they became inimical to him. Seeing this, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura took him away from there and had him begin teaching the son of the king of Tripura.
Prabhupāda had a great library of Vaiṣṇava literature, and having read through it thoroughly, he began teaching the son of the king in such a way that the boy accepted a chanting mālā and began wearing tilaka. He became detached from the world, and gradually, hearing hari-kathā became his sole interest. Seeing this, the queen became very annoyed and said to the king, “This boy will become useless! Then, after your demise, what will happen? Who will make offerings to our departed souls? He will become a renunciate, and everything will be ruined! Quickly get rid of this teacher. Give him four hundred rupees to go — we don’t need money, we need a son!” That was approximately one hundred years ago, so you can imagine how much four hundred rupees was worth then. The queen put so much pressure on her husband that in the end he approached Prabhupāda and very humbly said, “It is a matter of great unhappiness that our family members are not in favour of you; they are afraid that the boy will take up bhakti and become a renunciate. I consider that it has been our great good fortune to have met a person like you and had our son educated by you, but the others don’t understand.” The king approached Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura and offered the money to him, but without accepting it they left there.
Then Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura started a homeopathic shop. When the shop was unsuccessful, he thought, “I was not made to run a shop anyway,” and he went and purchased some land in Māyāpura. After locating the birthplace of Mahāprabhu, he installed deities there of Gaura, Viṣṇupriyā and Lakṣmīpriyā, as well as small Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa mūrtis. After Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura’s disappearance, Prabhupāda was determined to follow the Navadvīpa-dhāma parikramā that his father had written, and to attract people he invited great kīrtana performers to attend. He set up a large tent, thousands of people came for the parikramā, and there the kathā of śuddha-bhagavad-bhakti commenced.
Gradually, qualified youths of only sixteen, seventeen and eighteen years, whose hearts were soft and pure, came forward, and Prabhupāda made them into brahmacārīs and sannyāsīs. With great ease he was able to train them, but those who were over fifty years old, like parrots could not be taught anything new. Then devotees like our Guru Mahārāja, Bon Mahārāja, Bhakti Pradīpa Tīrtha Mahārāja, Bhakti Vilāsa Tīrtha Mahārāja, Araṇya Mahārāja and Narahari Prabhu came. In the beginning there in Māyāpura, Narahari Prabhu would offer ārati while Prabhupāda played the hand-held gong, and gradually the preaching started. The convention of tridaṇḍa-sannyāsa was established, and the result is that today the name and conception of Caitanya Mahāprabhu are being vigorously preached. Within eleven years, from 1926–37, preaching was spread everywhere, but before that, so much time was spent in merely setting the foundation. Prabhupāda published many magazines — daily, weekly, monthly — in the Sanskrit, Bengali, Hindi, Orissan, English and Assamese languages, and very easily we have all inherited the fruit of his endeavour. He established the Gauḍīya line very strictly with great endeavour, and there were so many difficulties in his preaching campaign that we cannot even imagine them. There was so much opposition to Prabhupāda’s preaching at that time that his disciples were not even allowed to enter the mandiras in Vṛndāvana or Navadvīpa.
Prabhupāda began culturing the creeper of devotion by cutting off all of the unnecessary branches and sub-branches. How? First of all he revised the guru-paramparā. He said that we are of Mahāprabhu’s line, and he removed the names of those who were not fully perfected. After establishing the names of Brahmā, Nārada and Vyāsa, he went straight to Madhva. Prabhupāda accepted the names of those from whom the people of this world would get the most benefit, and mostly they were brahmacārīs. For the most part he didn’t accept the names of those who had been gṛhasthas for a long time. After Madhva, he recognised some special personalities, and then he went to the name of Mādhavendra Purī. Everyone accepts him, and then from him there is Īśvara Purī, Svarūpa Dāmodara, the Six Gosvāmīs, and then Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī. At this point some had divided into the lines of Nityānanda Prabhu, Advaita Ācārya, Gadādhara Paṇḍita, Vakreśvara Paṇḍita, Lokanātha Gosvāmī and others, but Prabhupāda said, “We accept in our line those who are fully perfected souls, who know the correct siddhānta and who are rasika, wherever they are.” In this way all of the various lines were represented in our paramparā in one place or another.
There are so many lines of disciplic succession, but Prabhupāda said that we will recognise the guru-paramparā, not the disciplic succession. The guru-paramparā is composed solely of those who were bhāgavata-gurus, even if they made no disciples and there is therefore no direct disciplic line coming from them. Some of them may not have initiated any disciples at all, but still they are jagad-gurus. In this way, with all-pervading vision he collected all the mahājanas and made what is known as the bhāgavata-paramparā or guru-paramparā.
After the departure of Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, so many familial disciplic lines arose, but Prabhupāda ignored them and gave recognition to Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa, and then Jagannātha dāsa Bābājī. He accepted only those in whom he detected the real spiritual siddhānta. Simply receiving the mantra in one’s ear and wearing a dhotī or other cloth given by the guru does not qualify one as the guru’s successor. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura did not receive any mantra from Jagannātha dāsa Bābājī Mahārāja, so how was he his disciple? He was a disciple of his conception: his feelings towards Kṛṣṇa, his conception of rasa and his conception of tattva. This is a disciple. Most people can’t understand this, but being able to see with such insight, Prabhupāda declared this to be our line. Gaura-kiśora dāsa Bābājī Mahārāja was also not an initiated disciple of Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, but he embraced all of Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura’s sentiments and conceptions, and due to this his name appears next in the succession. At this point, all of the bābājīs said, “Whose disciple is Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī? Who gave him sannyāsa? Why doesn’t he wear the same cloth as Sanātana Gosvāmī did? In our sampradāya, after Nityānanda Prabhu and Svarūpa Dāmodara, everyone wore white cloth, but we see that he wears saffron cloth and has accepted a daṇḍa. How can he do this?” But what relation does wearing either orange or white cloth have with bhakti? Is there any relation?
kibā vipra, kibā nyāsī, śūdra kene naya*yei kṛṣṇa-tattva-vettā, sei ‘guru’ haya
Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta *(Madhya-līlā 8.128)
Whether one is a brāhmaṇa, a sannyāsī or a sūdra, if he knows kṛṣṇa-tattva, then he is a guru, so what to speak of being a Vaiṣṇava? Prabhupāda was thinking, “We are not qualified to accept the dress that was worn by such great personalities as Rūpa, Sanātana, Jīva and Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja. We will remain in the ordinary dress of sannyāsīs and will not accept the dress of paramahaṁsa-bābājīs. Remaining within the varṇāśrama system as brahmacārīs and sannyāsīs, we will keep the ideal of that paramahaṁsa dress above our heads. Otherwise, if we accept that dress and commit sinful activities, it will be aparādha at the feet of Rūpa and Sanātana.” Some bābājīs criticised him for training brahmacārīs and giving them the sacred thread, but our Guru Mahārāja said that those bābājīs were all fools, like animals. They wore paramahaṁsa dress and gave the elevated gopī-mantra to anyone and everyone who came, yet Prabhupāda was only training brahmacārīs and giving them instructions on how to control the senses — so which is correct? First Prabhupāda wanted us to understand what is siddhānta, i.e. jīva-tattva, māyā-tattva and bhagavat-tattva, and how to avoid māyā in the forms of kanaka (wealth), kāminī (women) and pratiṣṭhā (prestige) — these are the beginning instructions. Gopī-bhāva is very elevated; first we must understand that “I am kṛṣṇa-dāsa” and begin taking harināma. But these bābājīs immediately give their conception of gopī-bhāva to whoever approaches them; then they all chant “I am a gopī, I am a gopī” and in this way create a disturbance in society.
Every morning in our maṭha we sing the song in which Prabhupāda established the bhāgavata-paramparā: kṛṣṇahaitecatur-mukha... In his composing of this song, he accepted all of the great, perfected personalities from different lines and declared, “This is the line of Gaura.” If Prabhupāda had not come, then today would the name of Mahāprabhu and talks from Bhagavad-gītā and ŚrīmadBhāgavatam be found anywhere? Here in Mathurā, in Vraja and everywhere else, gaura-kīrtana and hari-kathā are still going on and have not vanished. Therefore the world will forever remain indebted to Prabhupāda for his preaching. He never approached wealthy people, but he would take one paisā from each person he met. And our Guru Mahārāja did the same. Although he was from a wealthy family, he would take a wooden box with a slot in it into the market and also onto the trains, trams and buses. He would speak with people from all classes, and in this way the preaching spread in all directions. We should also engage in such a pure form of preaching, and not just remain idle after hearing this. As if giving an injection, you should all encourage others to start taking harināma and hearing this conception, whether you are a man or lady, married or unmarried. And don’t think that because one is not educated he cannot do it. Did Haridāsa Ṭhākura have any college degree? Did Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī and others? But their activities were first class, and their conceptions were extremely high.
We are regularly hearing tattva from scriptures such as Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta, but how will others also get the opportunity to hear it? After hearing it we should take it to many other people, and this is the duty of each and every one of us. With great love we should take harināma and encourage others to chant it. We should hear siddhānta ourselves and then help others to understand it; that will give Prabhupāda great pleasure. To the very end of his life Prabhupāda said, “We are mere labourers; we are the peons of bhagavat-kathā.” He never made himself a permanent living situation in an opulent temple, but always kept moving. These days we do things a little differently, but we should always try to follow not only Prabhupāda’s philosophical conception but the ideal he showed through his own behaviour as well.
These ideas serve as the very foundation of bhakti, and if this foundation is not established, then we will fall from hearing the higher levels of kathā. For instance, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura has written a song entitled Vibhāvarī Śeṣa, which includes lines such as:
yāmuna-jīvana, keli-parāyaṇa,*mānasa-candra-cakora*nāma-sudhā-rasa, gāo kṛṣṇa-yaśa,*rākho vacana mana mora
Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the life of the Yamunā, He is always engaged in amorous pastimes and He is the moon of the gopīs’ hearts. Sing the glories of He whose name is pure rasa — O mind, always remember these words.
In our maṭha we sing this every day, and there is certainly some benefit in it, but do we understand the complete bhāva contained within it? Nothing remains outside these lines — not the rāsa-līlā, not the Bhramara-gīta, not the Veṇu-gīta, nothing. Everything is there, and all of the previous lines of this song are similarly saturated with both rasa and tattva. Phula-śara-yojakakāma — what is the meaning? The complete kāma-gāyatrī has come here. Śara means an arrow, an arrow of kāma (desire) which Kṛṣṇa places on His bow. How many of these arrows does Kṛṣṇa have? Five: His sidelong glances and His eyebrows, cheeks, nose and smile. So tell me, is there anything remaining outside these lines?
Helping the people of the world to understand these topics is the real task of the guru-paramparā — those who are conversant with rasa, the dīkṣā- and śikṣā-gurus. If we examine one line of this song after another, then for so many days so many lectures could be given, and our hearts would become full of rasa and divine bliss upon hearing their full meaning. So much bhāva has been put into each word by Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, and it is the same with the compositions of Narottama Ṭhākura and Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura. To understand what our ācāryas have given, great intelligence and bhāva are required. And if we have such a bhāva in our hearts by which we can understand the poetry and the special characteristics of ācāryas like Prabhupāda, then wherever we may go, it will always remain with us.
In explaining the line paraṁvijayateśrī-kṛṣṇa-saṅkīrtanam from the first verse of Mahāprabhu’s Śikṣāṣṭaka, Prabhupāda wrote that this is the Gauḍīya Maṭha’s mode of worship. There are three stages: the beginning stage of sādhana, the intermediate stage of bhāva, and the final attainment produced by that bhāva, which is called prema. Sādhana is that practice by which śuddha-sattva-bhāva arises, and if it does not arise, what one is practising cannot be called sādhana. We can all examine ourselves and see if we are practising the sādhana that makes bhāva arise or not. Are the symptoms there, or not? We may not even have the proper aim in our sādhana. If someone is striking a match, what is his aim? To obtain a flame; and if after striking one match a flame is not obtained, then he will take another match and try again. Our endeavour to reach the sādhya (final attainment) through the practice of sādhana is like that. Kṣud-anuvṛtti (spiritual “hunger”), tuṣṭi (satisfaction) and puṣṭi (strength) — these three things should appear, and if they don’t, then we are not really practising sādhana and cannot be called real sādhakas. Whatever we do should be done with this vision: “By performing this activity, bhāva for Kṛṣṇa will arise.” Is the match producing a flame or not? If we see that our sādhana is producing attachment for material results such as pratiṣṭhā, then we are moving in the wrong direction. Therefore we should understand this point well: the sole aim of kīrtana is to make bhāva arise.
Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam: in our practice of nāma-saṅkīrtana, have our minds become purified or not? Are our minds going towards wealth, material enjoyment and prestige? Do we consider material enjoyment to be poisonous or favourable to us? Material enjoyment is poison. Haridāsa Ṭhākura was taking harināma in a solitary place when a very beautiful woman approached him and said, “Prabhu, you will no longer have to cook for yourself. You won’t have to fetch water, and I will also serve your tulasī plant. You can just chant harināma all day and I will perform all of your tasks. And if you become fatigued, I will massage your feet.” But did Haridāsa Ṭhākura accept her?
All types of material enjoyment should be understood to be poison, whether one is a man or a woman. If we consider things like luxurious food and accommodation to be favourable to us, then the mirror of the mind will not be cleansed and the reflection of one’s own spiritual form will not be visible. The mirror should be made pure; there should be no dust or anything on it. We should be able to see what is our illusory body, what is our spiritual body and what all of our faults are; but it is our great misfortune that instead we only see others’ faults. The first type of contamination affecting our minds is thinking that we are the material body. We are eternal servants of Kṛṣṇa, but the most prevalent dust on the mirror of the mind is thinking that we are the material body. Endeavouring for the happiness of the body is dust on the mirror, or contamination on our minds.
There are so many anarthas: svarūpa-bhrama (bewilderment concerning one’s actual form and nature), asat-tṛṣṇā (desire for temporary things), hṛdaya-daurbalya (weakness of heart) and aparādha (offences). Besides these, described in Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura’s Mādhurya-kādambinī, are utsāha-mayī (false confidence), ghana-taralā (sporadic endeavour), vyūḍha-vikalpā (indecision), viṣaya-saṅgarā (combat with the senses), niyamākṣamā (inability to uphold vows) and taraṅga-raṅgiṇī (delighting in the material facilities produced by devotion).
Then there are four types of aparādha: duṣkṛtottha (arising from previous sins), sukṛtottha (arising from previous piety), aparādhottha (arising from offences in chanting) and bhaktyuttha (arising from imperfect service). When all of these are eradicated, then our real selves, the ātmā, will reflect in the mirror of the mind; but for now our vision is distorted. We consider the pain and happiness of the material body to be our own, and our worldly relations and worldly loss and gain to be related to our very selves. Bhava-mahā-dāvāgni-nirvāpaṇaṁ: this is the forest fire of material existence in which we are time and again taking birth.
When the mirror of the mind is purified, then this great fire will be extinguished and we will progress along the path of sādhana for uttama-bhakti, that devotion which is free from any tendencies towards karma or jṣāna. That devotion will be kleśa-ghnī, that which burns away so many types of difficulties. It will not happen all at once, but gradually. First there is śraddhā, then niṣṭhā, and then we will move towards ruci and āsakti when our anarthas will have been mostly eradicated. However, those anarthas may still exist in root form. One may shave his head, but has even one hair completely disappeared? Its roots are still there, and hair will again appear after a couple of days. In the same way, when we have reached the stage of āsakti, only the roots of anarthas will remain; externally they will not be visible. If a favourable environment is given to them — that is, if we keep bad company or offend a Vaiṣṇava — then they will reappear. But upon reaching the stage of bhāva, they will be finished forever.
Then there is śubhadā, which is of many varieties. In the worldly sense, śubha means having wealth, good progeny, position, fame and knowledge, and keeping the body healthy so that the effects of old age will not come prematurely. But what is real śubha? Having ruci for the name and līlā-kathā of Bhagavān and for the limbs of bhagavad-bhajana-sādhana. Having eagerness for these things is śubha, and that śubha is the lotus flower described by the words śreyaḥ-kairava-candrikā-vitaraṇam. If the rays of the moon fall upon it, it will bloom purely and without blemishes. How will such pure bhakti arise in the heart? The śakti of harināma is like the rays of the moon which make the lotus of the heart gradually bloom, taking it through the stages of niṣṭhā, ruci, āsakti and bhāva. When it fully blossoms, that is the stage of prema. But for the śakti of harināma to act in this way, our interest must be drawn away from material life. In the same way as two swords will not remain together in one scabbard, māyā and bhakti will not remain together in one’s heart.
Vidyā-vadhū-jīvanam: nāma-saṅkīrtana is the very life of vidyā-vadhū. Vidyā is that by which we can know jīva-tattva, māyā-tattva, and ultimately Kṛṣṇa; it does not mean knowledge of mundane science or how to make money. Real vidyā is bhakti and ultimately assumes the form of the vadhū, or consort, of Kṛṣṇa. First there is sādhana-bhakti, then bhāva-bhakti, and finally prema-bhakti. After entering prema-bhakti, one’s devotion develops through the stages of sneha, māna, praṇaya, rāga, anurāga, bhāva and finally mahābhāva. The embodiment of mahābhāva is Śrīmatī Rādhikā, who is the vadhū, or consort, of Kṛṣṇa. Over and above the sandhinī-śakti, the saṁvit- and hlādinī-śaktis fully manifest as rādhā-bhāva. This is vidyā-vadhū, and if even one ray of this transcendental potency enters into our hearts, it is called bhāva.
Ānandāmbudhi-vardhanaṁ prati-padam: if we are chanting harināma with this bhāva, then with every step we will experience increasing ānanda, divine joy. In the mahā-mantra, there is kṛṣṇa-nāma and also Hare, which means She who attracts Kṛṣṇa away to the kuñja, Śrīmatī Rādhikā. This bhāva is so deep that it has no end, and this is the nāma, so saturated with rasa, that Caitanya Mahāprabhu brought to this world. When we chant the mahā-mantra with this bhāva, then every step will submerge us deeper into the ocean of divine bliss. Pūrṇāmṛtāsvādanam — what is pūrṇāmṛta, the complete nectar? Prema, and one will perpetually relish it. Absorbed in chanting the name in this way, our ācāryas such as Jayadeva Gosvāmī, Sanātana Gosvāmī and Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura could envision divine pastimes and compose such nectarean literatures. And sarvātma-snapanam — one will never desire to resurface from that ocean of nectar where there is not even a trace of māyā, meaning that they have entered into svarūpa-siddhi. This is the explanation of the first verse of Mahāprabhu’s Śikṣāṣṭaka given by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Prabhupāda, whose return to Śrī Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa’s eternal pastimes we are commemorating on this day.

Book Details

Publisher: Śrī Bhakti-prajñāna Gauḍīya Vedānta University Publication, Hesaraghatta, Bengaluru-560088
Number of Pages: 236
Availability: Available for Download (e-book)

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Śrīla Prabhupāda's Upadeśāmṛta  (The Nectarean Instructions  of Śrīla Prabhupāda)

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