harih purastāj jagrhe
poorvam devās tato bhavan
(SB 8.7.2)
The Personality of Godhead, Ajita, grasped the front portion of the snake, and then the demigods followed.
tan naicchan daitya-patayo
mahā-purusa-cestitam
na grhnīmo vayam puccham
aher ańgam amańgalam
svādhyāya-śruta-sampannah
prakhyātā janma-karmabhih
(SB 8.7.3)
The leaders of the demons thought it unwise to hold the tail, the inauspicious portion of the snake. Instead, they wanted to hold the front, which had been taken by the Personality of Godhead and the demigods, because that portion was auspicious and glorious. Thus the demons, on the plea that they were all highly advanced students of Vedic knowledge and were all famous for their birth and activities, protested that they wanted to hold the front of the snake.
iti tūsnīm sthitān daityān
vilokya purushottamah
smayamāno visrjyāgram
puccham jagrāha sāmarah
(SB 8.7.4)
Thus the demons remained silent, opposing the desire of the demigods. Seeing the demons and understanding their motive, the Personality of Godhead smiled. Without discussion, He immediately accepted their proposal by grasping the tail of the snake, and the demigods followed Him.
krta-sthāna-vibhāgās ta
evam kaśyapa-nandanāh
mamanthuh paramam yattā
amrtārtham payonidhim
(SB 8.7.5)
After thus adjusting how the snake was to be held, the sons of Kashyapa, both demigods and demons, began their activities, desiring to get nectar by churning the ocean of milk.
mathyamāne rnave sodrir
anādhāro hy apo viśat
dhriyamānopi balibhir
gauravāt pāndu-nandana
(SB 8.7.6)
O son of the Pandu dynasty, when Mandara Mountain was thus being used as a churning rod in the ocean of milk, it had no support, and therefore although held by the strong hands of the demigods and demons, it sank into the water.
te sunirvinna-manasah
parimlāna-mukha-śriyah
āsan sva-pauruse naste
daivenātibalīyasā
(SB 8.7.7)
Because the mountain had been sunk by the strength of providence, the demigods and demons were disappointed, and their faces seemed to shrivel.
vilokya vighneśa-vidhim tadeśvaro
duranta-vīryo ‘vitathābhisandhiḥ
krtvā vapuh kacchapam adbhutam mahat
praviśya toyam girim ujjahāra
(SB 8.7.8)
Seeing the situation that had been created by the will of the Supreme, the unlimitedly powerful Lord, whose determination is infallible, took the wonderful shape of a tortoise, entered the water, and lifted the great Mandara Mountain.
tam utthitam vīksya kulācalam punah
samudyatā nirmathitum surāsurāh
dadhāra prsthena sa laksa-yojana-
prastārinā dvīpa ivāparo mahān
(SB 8.7.9)
When the demigods and demons saw that Mandara Mountain had been lifted, they were enlivened and encouraged to begin churning again. The mountain rested on the back of the great tortoise, which extended for eight hundred thousand miles like a large island.
surāsurendrair bhuja-vīrya-vepitam
paribhramantam girim ańga prsthatah
bibhrat tad-āvartanam ādi-kacchapo
meneńga-kandūyanam aprameyah
(SB 8.7.10)
O King, when the demigods and demons, by the strength of their arms, rotated Mandara Mountain on the back of the extraordinary tortoise, the tortoise accepted the rolling of the mountain as a means of scratching His body, and thus He felt a pleasing sensation.
tathāsurān āviśad āsurena
rūpena tesām bala-vīryam īrayan
uddīpayan deva-ganāmś ca visnur
daivena nāgendram abodha-rūpah
(SB 8.7.11)
Thereafter, Lord Vishnu entered the demons as the quality of passion, the demigods as the quality of goodness, and Vasuki as the quality of ignorance to encourage them and increase their various types of strength and energy.
upary agendram giri-rād ivānya
ākramya hastena sahasra-bāhuḥ
tasthau divi brahma-bhavendra-mukhyair
abhistuvadbhih sumano-bhivrstah
(SB 8.7.12)
Manifesting Himself with thousands of hands, the Lord then appeared on the summit of Mandara Mountain, like another great mountain, and held Mandara Mountain with one hand. In the upper planetary systems, Lord Brahma and Lord Siva, along with Indra, King of heaven, and other demigods, offered prayers to the Lord and showered flowers upon Him.
upary adhaś cātmani gotra-netrayoh
parena te prāviśatā samedhitāh
mamanthur abdhim tarasā madotkatā
mahādrinā ksobhita-nakra-cakram
(SB 8.7.13)
The demigods and demons worked almost madly for the nectar, encouraged by the Lord, who was above and below the mountain and who had entered the demigods, the demons, Vasuki and the mountain itself. Because of the strength of the demigods and demons, the ocean of milk was so powerfully agitated that all the alligators in the water were very much perturbed. Nonetheless the churning of the ocean continued in this way.
ahīndra-sāhasra-kathora-drń-mukha-
śvāsāgni-dhūmāhata-varcaso surāḥ
pauloma-kāleya-balīlvalādayo
davāgni-dagdhāh saralā ivābhavan
(SB 8.7.14)
Vasuki had thousands of eyes and mouths. From his mouths he breathed smoke and blazing fire, which affected the demons, headed by Pauloma, Kaleya, Bali and Ilvala. Thus the demons, who appeared like sarala trees burned by a forest fire, gradually became powerless.
devāmś ca tac-chvāsa-śikhā-hata-prabhān
dhūmrāmbara-srag-vara-kañcukānanān
samabhyavarsan bhagavad-vaśā ghanā
vavuh samudrormy-upagūdha-vāyavah
(SB 8.7.15)
Because the demigods were also affected by the blazing breath of Vasuki, their bodily lusters diminished, and their garments, garlands, weapons and faces were blackened by smoke. However, by the grace of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, clouds appeared on the sea, pouring torrents of rain, and breezes blew, carrying particles of water from the sea waves, to give the demigods relief.
mathyamānāt tathā sindhor
devāsura-varūtha-paih
yadā sudhā na jāyeta
nirmamanthājitah svayam
(SB 8.7.16)
When nectar did not come from the ocean of milk, despite so much endeavor by the best of the demigods and demons, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Ajita, personally began to churn the ocean.
megha-śyāmah kanaka-paridhih karṇa-vidyota-vidyun
mūrdhni bhrājad-vilulita-kacah srag-dharo rakta-netrah
jaitrair dorbhir jagad-abhaya-dair dandaśūkam grhītvā
mathnan mathnā pratigirir ivāśobhatātho dhrtādrih
(SB 8.7.17)
The Lord appeared like a blackish cloud. He was dressed with yellow garments, His earrings shone on His ears like lightning, and His hair spread over His shoulders. He wore a garland of flowers, and His eyes were pinkish. With His strong, glorious arms, which award fearlessness throughout the universe, He took hold of Vasuki and began churning the ocean, using Mandara Mountain as a churning rod. When engaged in this way, the Lord appeared like a beautifully situated mountain named Indraneela.
nirmathyamānād udadher abhūd visam
maholbanam hālahalāhvam agratah
sambhrānta-mīnonmakarāhi-kacchapāt
timi-dvipa-grāha-timińgilākulāt
(SB 8.7.18)
The fish, sharks, tortoises and snakes were most agitated and perturbed. The entire ocean became turbulent, and even the large aquatic animals like whales, water elephants, crocodiles and timingila fish [large whales that can swallow small whales] came to the surface. While the ocean was being churned in this way, it first produced a fiercely dangerous poison called halahala.
tad ugra-vegam diśi diśy upary adho
visarpad utsarpad asahyam aprati
bhītāh prajā dudruvur ańga seśvarā
araksyamānāh śaranam sadāśivam
(SB 8.7.19)
O King, when that uncontrollable poison was forcefully spreading up and down in all directions, all the demigods, along with the Lord Himself, approached Lord Siva [Sadasiva]. Feeling unsheltered and very much afraid, they sought shelter of him.
PURPORT
One may question that since the Supreme Personality of Godhead was personally present, why did He accompany all the demigods and people in general to take shelter of Lord Sadasiva, instead of intervening Himself. In this connection Srila Madhvacarya warns:
rudrasya yaśaso rthāya
svayam visnur visam vibhuḥ
na sañjahre samarthopi
vāyum coce praśāntaye
Lord Visnu was competent to rectify the situation, but in order to give credit to Lord Siva, who later drank all the poison and kept it in his neck, Lord Visnu did not take action.
Borrowed property of Krishna
In the process of churning of ocean of milk we find that such a task was impossible, even by the most learned, the strongest of all living being within the universe. We find that at every stage the help of Supreme Personality of Godhead was actually required. We are never the doers of our activities. Whatever we have is the borrowed property of Krishna that is really illustrated in this verse.
Churning of Milk Ocean
Now we come to the subject why are they churning the ocean of Milk. They are performing this great service which is also a very very difficultly satisfied, for the purpose of producing nectar. But, actually, are they producing nectar? The nectar is already there. The process of churning just separates the essence from whatever else is present. Just like when you churn the butter milk, what takes place is what appears to be just one homogeneous liquid, cream. Through the process of churning you separate the essence, the butter from that which is mixed within the butter and due to that mixture the real essence of butter cannot be seen. So the process of churning is the process of separating the essence from anything else that may be present, bringing about the essence that is already there but is hidden. Now the churning of the ocean of milk is similar. Within ocean there is nectar because it is mixed with rest of the ocean. It is deluded in this way. The real life giving nectars must be somehow or other extracted.
Now, here, the greatest of all personalities within the universe could not do it themselves. No matter how harder they tried, despite all the learning, despite all the good karma, despite all their physical, despite all their managerial abilities, they cannot extract the nectar from the ocean. Therefore the Lord Himself as Kurma rupa was at the bottom. In the form of the thousand armed incarnation, He was at the top. In the form of trigunas, the guna avatar, He appeared in the trigunas. He appeared within the demigods and demons in either side. In the form of Ajita, He Himself did the churning, until He actually took the serpent Himself and started churning. Nothing was happening to the ocean.
To become Krishna Conscious
Now to become Krishna conscious is churning the ocean of our consciousness. At this particular time the essence, bhakti, pure devotion is within our consciousness.
Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu has said,
nitya-siddha krishna-prema sadhya kabhu naya
sravanadi-suddha-citte karaye udaya
(CC Madhya 22.107)
Pure love for Krishna is eternally established in the hearts of the living entities. It is not something to be gained from another source. When the heart is purified by hearing and chanting, this love naturally awakens.
That pure love of God is within everyone’s heart. But the problem is our bhakti. Our devotion is utterly deluded and mixed by so many material desires, so many unwanted things and anarthas. And therefore these must be separated from bhakti. Our real consciousness, our pure natural consciousness must be separated but from the illusion that is surrounding it in all directions. And therefore sadhana bhakti is the process of churning of our consciousness. Now when we first start churning it creates great agitation. Just like, here as the demigods and the demons are churning the ocean of milk the alligators, the timingila fish, the sharks and all the other aquatics within that ocean have become very much disturbed, very agitated and they do not like this churning. So similarly when we start churning our consciousness through the process of sadhana bhakti all of our material desires become very fearful. All of our material desires become very much disturbed and agitated. Why? If you want to defeat a tiger, you have to stop feeding him. The more you feed a tiger the more he is powerful and hungry, the more powerful and controlling he becomes. But if you stop giving food to the tiger he becomes very disturbed because he is not getting what he normally gets as a routine. Therefore his mind and senses become very ferocious. If you respond to his roaring demands then you simply go back to the beginning point of dealing with all powerful tiger. But if you can somehow or other tolerate all of his roaring and screaming and all of his agitation, gradually the tiger becomes weaker and weaker until he dies. So the controlling of the mind is the same way. When we take to the sadhana bhakti, viddhi bhakti, we begin to churn our consciousness and the first thing that happens is our material desires that are dormant within our heart because they have not becoming fulfilled, they become very much disturbed and very agitated. They start coming to the surface. So we cannot be disturbed. Also we know that by our own abilities, we cannot extract the nectar because our consciousness, like the ocean of milk, is so vast that it is beyond our capabilities and beyond the capability of all the help of everyone within this world to extract the nectar from our consciousness.
Mercy of Guru and Krishna
It is only by
tad-vignanartham sa gurum evabhigacchet (Mundaka 1.2.12)
tasmat gurum prapadyeta jijnasuh shreyah uttamam
It is only by mercy of Krishna or He especially empowered representative of the spiritual master, with their help the process of viddhi bhakti can be empowered.
rāga-dvesa-vimuktais tu
visayān indriyaiś caran
ātma-vaśyair vidheyātmā
prasādam adhigacchati
(BG 2.64)
Krishna says in Bhagavad-Gita that following the regulative principles which is viddhi bhakti, one can attain the complete mercy of lord and thus one can become free from all attractions and aversions. In the same say the demigods and the demons, simply they had to try. It was beyond them. It was impossible for them but simply they were trying as hard as they could.
ananyāś cintayanto mām
ye janāh paryupāsate
tesāḿ nityābhiyuktānām
yoga-ksemam vahāmy aham
(BG 9.22)
If you try very hard, Krishna comes and He helps. He preserves what you have, He carries what you lack. If you simply absorb the regulative principles to the best of your ability, however difficult and impossible they may be, you attract the mercy of the Lord and by the mercy of the Lord.
mukham karoti väcälam
pangum langhayate girim
yat krpas tamaham vande
sri gurum dinataranam
The Lord’s mercy is coming through gurudeva and if you achieve his mercy nothing is impossible. Even if you are lame, you can cross the mountain. If you are blind, you can see the farthermost distant stars in the sky and even if you are dumb you can speak most beautiful poetry and philosophy. There is nothing impossible for one who attains the mercy of the Lord. Vishnu shakti is all powerful. Krishna says, “In following the regulative principles of devotion, which means, if we simply try as hard as we can, to perform our service to gurudeva then you attain the mercy. Krishna comes, He preserves what we have and He carries what we lack”. If the demigods and the demons never agreed to accept the service of churning the ocean, would Vishnu have incarnated in so many ways to help them? Would the nectar have ever been produced? Never. First of all, they surrendered to the service and not only they surrendered theoretically to the service but also they gave everything within their power to fulfill the desire of the lord in that service. They worked so hard. They gave every drop of their energy and still it was not near enough. Similarly if we want to churn the ocean of our consciousness and produce the nectar of prema bhakti, love of god, we must first accept the service of gurudeva and Krishna and then we must work and try as hard as possibly can to follow the principles of our guru maharaja’s instructions. And the fact is, it is impossible. The guru is telling us, “Just give up all sense gratification to fix the consciousness always in Krishna. It is not possible. And as we try we find all these devouring timingili fishes of lust, envy, anger, greed, and all these things that are coming to the surface. We think oh, my God! This is what I am dealing with? It is impossible.
Krishna in Holy Names Churning Anarthas
Krishna is non-different than his name. When we cry out the name “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare”, the name is non-different than Krishna. The name is non-different than the supreme person, Ajita, who is actually doing the churning. Similarly the holy name is the incarnation of Ajita, in this age of Kali yuga. He is the one who takes the churning rod, takes the rope and churns it for us. It is through the sound of the holy name. There are all the ocean begins to become disturbed and agitated. But this is the process of purification and we find that the first thing that comes out of the ocean is all poison, Halahala visha. It was such a horrible taste for poison. It is just starting to spread in all directions and it created fear and havoc amongst all the demigods and the demons because they knew that this poison was so great that it can destroy the entire universe. There was great danger. They are looking for nectar. They were working so hard for nectar. But what they get is poison. Is not that the same thing that takes place in the life of a devotee with chanting our rounds every day, with following the four regulative principles very strictly, with obediently and humbly serving our guru maharaja, with following the four regulative principles very strictly or obediently or humbly serving our guru maharaja at the expense of everything else in our life, giving up our family, our parents think we are crazy. The society thinks we are so strange. We have practically have no money. We are accepting the position of rejects. We are accepting so much inconvenience simply for the purpose of getting this nectar. And what happens? All these poisons just started pouring out of our minds. We feel more disturbed, more lusty, more envious, more angry, more greedy, more illusioned, we ever did before. What is happening? This is what the demigods and the demons were thinking. Even before the nectar can come out, first of all, all poison has to be extracted and all has to come to the surface that all must be wiped away? So it is a fact.
Spiritual life means warfare
The darkest moment comes before the dawn. Before you see the sweet nectar, first you have to see everything bad that is within you. It is not nice but it is horrible. Before you understand, what love of God is? First you have to understand how much you do not love God, how many interfere between you and love of God. Therefore insincere devotee is very bewildered. He is thinking, “I am taking the process to taste nectar and all I am getting is poison”. Of course somewhere else, I find some spiritual path where I do not have to churn the ocean of my consciousness. I can just keep the ocean real peaceful as far as possible then we think, Oh nice, everything is very calm. We are thinking, this is spiritual life but that is not spiritual life. Spiritual life does not mean peace. Spiritual life means warfare. The real peace comes after the war. As long as the enemy is controlling your camp, how can you find peace? First there has to be war and through that war you have to evacuate the enemy from your camp, then there can be peace. But do not think that the enemy is just going to leave upon your invitation because they have been holding your mind captive for millions of births very attached.
Just like, we are reading in newspaper about Iraq and Kuwait. The dictator of Iraq is very very powerful personality. He just marched his troops into Kuwait and he took over this country and now that he is not going to give up to anyone he is fighting. Even the most powerful forces in the world are saying, “Give up Kuwait” and he is saying, “Now it is mine”. He is only had it for a short time. Can you imagine if it was under their control for millions of years, will they be anxious? They already build their whole civilization on it. Just like when the British came to India they built the VT station and all these nice buildings. They built all these wonderful parliament houses in Delhi. They put so much energy and so much time and so much money and so much man power to India. When India wanted to get away of them they just say, “Yes yes of course. We do not want it any more. Namaste Mahatma Gandhi, We will go”. No, it was not like that. What happened was Gandhiji, Subhaschandra Bose in their different functions, started agitating the situation. They started churning the country. When they started churning the country the British, Oh, my God! They became very angry; they started cutting people thumps up. They started killing people. They started brutally beating people. No, Gandhi and Subhas Chandra Bose, would have said, “Too much trouble, too much trouble, let these things become peaceful and lets just wash the feet of the British people then will be the more nice to us”. No, they knew these are the enemies. These people have completely taken over our country. It is ours. They have taken it and they are polluting it and they are misusing it. Therefore they have to produce agitation first and that agitation created a war. There was so much prosecution, so much horrible politics that they came to hear of the whole world. This went on for years and years and years. And finally because they did not give up, because they kept churning all the poison came out. Ultimately the enemy had to leave.
So this is the same process that takes place in spiritual life. As soon as you take Krishna Consciousness you are declaring war on Maya. Maya has been appearing to be your friend. Providing so much pleasure, just live alone and will be happy. But if you anyway try to go against me be prepared for war. So when we take to the process of following the instructions of the spiritual master, such disturbance starts churning the ocean of your mind and all the enemy troops start coming to the surface, lust, anger, envy, greed, pride and illusion. They all start coming out. All the impurities, all the poison, all the poison as pouring out and you think that unless you are under the direction of a bona fide spiritual master, you will undoubtedly give up. You will think that what is happening. You will loose your faith. This is what separates the sincere from the insincere.
Krishna’s Devotees are Glorified
When the poisons start coming out it’s beyond our control. Therefore what the demigods and demons do is, this great halahal poison when came out, they just had to run to the lotus feet of Vishnu. Similarly when the poison just started pouring out we have to take shelter of Krishna. We have to take shelter of Vani, the words of our spiritual master, the scriptures, and the great sadhus. That is our only hope.
Lord Vishnu, he is so kind and merciful, very symbolic that Lord Vishnu Himself did not want to accept this most glorious service drinking the poison. Krishna takes more pleasure in glorifying His devotees and seeing Himself glorified. In the battlefield of Kurukshetra, Krishna showed the Viratrupa, the Universal form to Arjuna and He proved Him that, “Actually I could kill all the armies within a second by my flaming mouths. But Arjuna I wanted you to have the credit. I want you to be glorified for the rest of the world’s history. Because a father loves to see his son glorified, even more than himself”. So similarly here lord Vishnu whose heart and soul is always captured by the love of Shankara, “Vaishnavanaam yatha Shambho”. He is the most pure hearted of all the vaisnava devotees of the Lord.
In every vaishnava sampradaya there is the worship of Shiva. We find in Vrindavan, Lord Shiva is worshiped as the Gopeswara Mahadeva, the greatest of all vaisnavas, the greatest mahadeva, the greatest of all the demigods, who has taken the form of gopi to assist Krishna in His divine lila, that is Krishna lila. In Rama Lila we find that lord Shankara is the greatest of all devotees and Rama Himself is worshiping Shankara at Rameswaram and Lord Shankara has manifested in his great expansion incarnation as Hanumanji and playing the role of the greatest of all vaisnavas. Lord Ramachandra has spoken and it is especially traced in the Rama charita Manas by Tulasi das that unless one worships Lord Shiva, unless one gets the mercy of Hanumanji and Shankara he cannot approach Ramachandra. It is not possible. In every holydham it is either Hanuman or Shiva, who is the guardian of the dham. In Badrinath, before going to Badrinath you must first get permission of Hanumanji.
In Vrindavan there are Hanuman Mandirs and all the four sides of Vrindavan, there are also temples of Lord Shiva to protect the holy dham. In Chitrakut, on the top of the high mountain above the chitrakut hill there is Hanuman Dwara, where Hanuman is standing majestically with his club guarding Chitrakut for all time to come.
In Ayodhya there is the most famous temple “Hanuman ksheti” which is on the top of the large mountain and there Hanuman stands guarding all of Ayodhya. In Jagannath Puri we have Beri Hanuman, where Hanuman to keep him there as a guard, they have chain his feet but he is always standing their guarding Jagannath Puri from asuras. In Rameswaram the holy place of Lord Rama, you find that the principle temple is Rameswaram. It is a temple of Lord Shankara.
So in this way virtually all the holy places of the vaisnavas they worship Lord Shiva and he always has the most intimate service and you cannot approach the dham and you cannot approach the Lord without first getting the blessings of Lord Shiva. So this is how lord Shiva is to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore he is supremely worshippable. Therefore the Lord wanted to see his devotee getting glorified. So therefore Lord Vishnu, He Himself along with all the demigods and the demons, He directs them, “Let us go to Lord Shankara. He is my devotee. He can save us from great poison.”
Similarly they began to chant the holy name of the Lord and began to follow of the regulative principles of bhakti and the poisons start coming out. The difficulties start arising within our lives. The war begins. It is said, “By the mercy of Krishna, one gets guru and by the mercy of guru, one gets Krishna”. If we are sincere just as Krishna laid the demons and demigods to the feet of the great param guru Shiva, similarly if we are sincere in this process of churning our own hearts then Krishna will lead us to the lotus feet of His devotee, the spiritual master. His divine grace will come through guru deva and by the mercy of guru deva Krishna’s mercy will manifest within our lives. And therefore when we approach the guru maharaja as well as glorify the guru maharaja. Because when we glorify the spiritual master, we are giving the greatest pleasure to Krishna. We sing the glories of our guru maharaja. But the real glorification of his mission is by surrendering to his words.
We chant, dance, and we say jai Srila Prabhupada. That is very nice and necessary to come from our hearts. But if it is actually coming through our heart, it is not in there. The real glorification is through sacrifice, through surrender. When we accept the guru’s orders as our life and soul and we are willing to even accept so much difficulties on his behalf. That is the real glorification of the spiritual master and Krishna is so pleased by that glorification. That, more than anything else, wins His heart.
sādhavo hrdayam mahyam
sādhūnām hrdayam tv aham
mad-anyat te na jānanti
nāham tebhyo manāg api
(CC Adi 1.62)
Lord Narayana has said that the sadhu is My life and My soul because he is always in My heart and I am always in his heart. Because he knows no one but Me and I know no one but him. That is the saddu. So when we take shelter of the lotus feet of the sadhu which is the greatest gift of Krishna, that He has directed us to such a person. That is the real process of getting the complete mercy of the lord.
Chanting is Churning
So as the poison comes out, do not be afraid, do not be surprised, expect it. It will and it must come out. Before the nectar of love of God arises in your consciousness first all the poison must be extracted. Therefore it is said that the Krishna Consciousness is not cheap. People are not willing to tolerate the difficulties and turn to guru and the sadhus to help them in this great process in a humble and helpless state of mind. They just continue on in trying as hard as they can. Some people say, “I cannot chant properly. My chanting, it is so difficult. My mind is running everywhere. Of course, that is the poison coming out. When we start the chanting, the chanting is the churning. When you start churning all the poison starts coming out of your mind. Things that you never knew exist. That is horrible. Sometimes we think, “I am more peaceful when I am not chanting”. The fact that all the poisons come out means that chanting is working. But you have to keep trying. If you are not at all trying to be attentive then chanting will have very little affect. But if you really and seriously trying to be attentive, just like demigods and the demons, as helpless as they are, although they can’t do anything. They are just trying to do it.
Similarly if we just go on with our chanting, go on with our service, then let that poison be removed or come out, by the mercy of Krishna, He will empower us. By the mercy of Guru, it is possible. But it is not easy. It will be as difficult as it can be possibly be. It will take it to the limit of all of your own abilities to tolerate. But if you are willing to just keep going and keep trying then Krishna says, “This person is serious”. Guru maharaja says, “Yes, yes, this person actually is serious and then they take control”. But it does not happen at once. If it would happen once, it would be cheap. They let it go on and on and on for sometimes. Then they say, “Yes, yes now I see this person is really sincere”. Then the poison will be removed and when that poison is removed gradually you can perceive the bhakti, the love within your heart. You see, when the poison is removed, that is mukti that is liberation. But you have to keep churning, even after the poison is removed, before bhava and prema are manifest within your mind.
The Real Bhajana Kriya
Srila Rupa Goswami explains very nicely
ādau śraddhā tatah sādhu-
sańgo ‘tha bhajana-kriyā
tato ‘nartha-nivrttih syāt
tato nisthā rucis tatah
(CC Madhya 23.14)
At the beginning there is a little faith. The first faith comes from the sadhu sanga. The lord first of all gives you the faith. They send you desire. Everything is happening by God’s grace, just like the story. You have a little desire for spiritual life, Krishna provides faith. Krishna says in Bhagavad-Gita, “I supply all faith”. From that faith he directs you to the association of devotees. What is the association? It is none other than Krishna Himself manifesting through the sadhus, through their words, through their actions. They are His instruments. So Krishna through sadhus enlightens by their words, by their examples and gradually we become inspired and then we start taking the process of Krishna Consciousness and gradually we accept the process by the guru and we become surrendered to what he tells to not to do and we surrendered to what he tells we should do. That is called bhajana kriya. Through the bhajana kriya “anartha nivrtti syat” all the poisons that coming out. All the impurities come out from this churning process of bhajana kriya. After all poison comes out then nistha ruchi the higher taste comes. There is peace of mind. There is liberation. There is the higher taste for Krishna Consciousness. There is pure faith. Now it is upto us to stop the churning as soon as there is liberation and thinking the poison is gone, now everything is good, why should I keep working. Therefore there is need for a spiritual master within the vaishnava sampradaya, who tells us, “No! Continue churning, this is not the end”. Mukti is the beginning of spiritual life. We keep churning and we keep working, we keep struggling, we keep striving in this process and gradually bhava, love of God awakens and then ultimately prema. Prema means Krishna reveals your eternal relationship with Him in the spiritual world and you can always taste the sweetness of that loving service at every moment of your consciousness. So do not give up this churning process under the above guidance of the guru, the sadhu, and shastra. Continue this great process of churning. Do not be surprised when the poison comes out. Krishna is right there to help you. You simply have to give everything within your power to do the best you can in His service. And He will preserve what you have. He will carry what you lack. Krishna says in Bhagavad-Gita, “For one who surrenders to Me, I am the swift deliverer from the ocean of birth and death”. Have faith, Krishna will protect you. Continue to fight this great war and know that wherever there is Krishna and Arjuna there is sure to be victory, great opulence, and the perfection of life is guaranteed.
Thank you, very much.
Hare Krishna.
