Posted by KASHYAPI DASS on November 20, 2009 at 12:56pm
(Sri Srimad Gour Govinda Swami)Chanakya Pandit has said, “As a snake is very crooked and envious, so is a person like a demon. One can bring a snake under control with mantras, herbs and drugs, but an envious and crooked person cannot be brought under control by any means.” In his purport to Bhāg. 8.9.19, Srila Prabhupada has written, “Such a crooked person is more dangerous, more envious and cruel than a snake. So this crookedness, kāpaṭya, is a great hindrance on the path of devotional service. All the ācāryas, śāstras and mahājanas have said, saralatā ei vaiṣṇavata, “Simplicity is Vaishnavism.” One who is a real vaiṣṇava is as simple as a child.Suppose many people have sat down in rows to accept food. You have also sat down there and others are serving. You want more food because you are a greedy fellow and you have a big belly. You cannot be satisfied with a little food. You are thinking, “Oh, if I take so much food in the presence of other people, what will they think of me? They will think I am a greedy glutton.” So the food is served once, but when it comes around a second time, “No, no, no. I don’t want it. I am satisfied.” That is crookedness. If you say so, you will remain hungry. Why will you not say, “I need more. Please give me more.” One who is very simple says, “Yes, I am in need, I am hungry. Please give me more.” But you say, “No, no. I don’t want more. This is enough for me. I’m satisfied.” This is kāpaṭya, crookedness. You are not a simple-hearted person. You have no simplicity at all.Suppose a teacher is teaching mathematics to the students. Many students are there in the class and they are not all of the same calibre. Some are well developed, whereas others are more dull-headed. There are different varieties of students. After explaining a topic, the teacher asks, “Have all of you understood? Have you? Have you?” “Oh yes.” But the dull-headed student has not understood it. Still, he will never say, “I do not understand.” Rather, he thinks, “If I say I have not understood, what will the others think of me?” He is such a dull-headed fellow that he cannot understand even when the teacher explains things nicely. So, out of shyness or whatever it may be, he says, “Yes, yes. I understand.” Then what will happen? He cannot make advancement and he cannot get promotion to the higher mathematics class. He will fail the examination. So where is the perfection? That is kāpaṭya, crookedness, and it is a great stumbling block on the path of perfection.There is a saying in Bengali, nācte base ghomṭā tāṇile habenā. Generally girls or women come to the stage to perform a dance, such as Odissi dance or Manipuri dance. So you have come to the stage and there are many onlookers in the audience waiting to see you how nicely you can dance. You have to show different postures and mudras. But, having come to the stage, if you put a veil over your head, how will it be? You cannot dance properly. You cannot please the audience and achieve success in your dancing performance. You have come to dance, so take off the veil and dance freely! Then you can achieve perfection in your dance performance. Why are you feeling shy and putting a veil on your head? That is another type of crookedness.Guru and Gauranga never teach this crookedness. Saralatā ei vaiṣṇavata, Simplicity is Vaishnavism. Develop simplicity in your heart, and with this mood you will be able to serve guru and Gauranga. If you have developed some crookedness, if kāpaṭya is there in the heart, then you cannot serve guru and Gauranga. Gauranga Mahaprabhu has ordered, yāre dekha, tāre kaha ‘kṛṣṇa’-upadeśa — “To whomever you meet, tell them what Krishna has said.” Do not manufacture or concoct anything. Simply say, `Krishna has said this....´ Just repeat it as it is. āmāra ājñāya guru hañā tāra’ ei deśa — “So I order you to become guru and deliver the whole world.” Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur has said, “This order has come to my gurupada, and my guru delivers the same order to me. Therefore I am doing the work of guru.” We should not cultivate any duplicity in this regard. We should follow this order with much simplicity. Day and night, twenty-four hours, we should be engaged in the loving service of guru and Gauranga without duplicity. If a crooked person pretends that he is the number one servant of guru and Gauranga, though he is pretending in that way, guru and Gauranga know his heart. He is the number one crooked person. One who is sleeping can be awakened very easily by sound vibration. But one who is pretending that he is sleeping will never wake up. You cannot wake him because he is a crooked pretender.To execute the order of guru and Gauranga as it is, we can kick out anything. If it is required to go to hell, we are prepared to go there. We are prepared to go to hell, but we will not practice any sort of duplicity. “Oh! Why should I go to hell? I will accept some duplicity instead. I will manipulate something to overcome this danger here and that hurdle there. In this way, I will go up.” This is duplicity. Even if such a person goes all the way up to Brahmaloka, the planet where lord Brahma stays, still he cannot be delivered. He will fall down from that position very soon. But, cultivating simplicity, if by chance someone goes to hell, then guru and Gauranga will go to hell to deliver him. Therefore it is said that guru and Gauranga, sādhu-guru and mahājanas, they are patita-pāvana, not kāpaṭa-pāvana. They are the deliverers of the most degraded, but they are not deliverers of the crooked persons. By manipulation, one who develops duplicity in his heart may go up to Brahmaloka, but he cannot be delivered.Those who have a crooked nature are speculators. They never follow an instruction as it is. They add their own deliberation to it and twist it. They never accept the essence, they are not sāragrahis. Rather, like an ass, they simply carry heavy burdens, bhāravāhī, by accepting the unwanted things. They are bhāravāhī, not sāragrahi. They accept asat as sat and sat as asat, unreal as real and real as unreal. Such duplicitous persons cannot understand what is good and what is bad. Because they are speculators, they never follow the instruction of sādhu-guru or mahājana in a simple way. That which is very simple, they make it crooked. They adopt a zig-zag way and avoid the simple way. This is a great stumbling block on the path of perfection.
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