Mādhurya Kādambinī – Sri Visvanatha Cakravartipada

Commentaries by Śrī Rādhākuṇḍa’s Mahānta Paṇḍita Śrī Ananta Dās Bābājī Mahārāja
Translation by Advaita das

Second Shower of Nectar

tatrāvidyāsmitārāga dveṣābhiniveśāḥ pañca kleśāḥ. prārabdhāprārabdha rūḍha bīja pāpādayas tanmayā eva. śubhāni durviṣaya vaitṛṣṇya bhagavad viṣaya satṛṣṇyānukūlya kṛpā kṣamā satya sāralya sāmya dhairya gāmbhīrya mānadatvāmānitva sarva subhagatvādayo guṇāś ca ‘sarvair guṇais tatra samāsate surāḥ’ ityādi dṛṣṭyā jñeyāḥ (3)
    
    TRANSLATION: Kleśas are of five types: āvidyā, asmitā, rāga, dveṣa, and abhiniveśa. The four types of sins, prārabdha, aprārabdha, rūḍha, and bīja are also included in kleśa. śubha refers to qualities such as disinterest in material affairs, interest in the Lord, serving the Lord favorably, mercifulness, forgiveness, truthfulness, straightforwardness, evenness of temper, steadyness, gravity, respectfulness, humility, all good fortune, and so on. The Bhāgavata (5.18.12) says,  “All the good qualities of the demigods reside within the devotees.”

    Pīyūṣa kaṇā explanation:

The author has described the two qualities of sādhana bhakti, named kleśaghnī and śubhadā and stated that both of them have equal effect on both vaidhi and rāgānugā bhakti. Now he gives a further definition of kleśa and śubha. In Maharṣi Patañjali’s Yoga-darśana, third sūtra of Sādhana Pāda it is written avidyāsmitā rāga dveṣābhiniveśāḥ pañca kleśāḥ that there are five types of kleśa: avidyā, asmitā, rāga, dveṣa, and abhiniveśa. These five are the main causes of ignorance and the tendency towards karma and akarma (performance or non-performance of Vedic duties). As a result of one’s pious or sinful activities, one receives pleasure or distress. The effects of these five are described below:
avidyā: ignorance, to mistake the transient to be eternal, impure to be pure, distress to be pleasure, and the non-self to be the self. This includes thinking the material body, wife, children, house, wealth, and other sense objects to be eternal though they are all transient. One thinks that the body made out of blood, flesh, fat, bones, stool, and urine is pure and a means of one’s sense enjoyment. The insignificant pleasures of the senses bind one to the terrible distress of going through the cycles of birth and death or getting hellish sufferings. There is no doubt that this sensual pleasure leads to compact misery; to think suffering is happiness is surely ignorance and the symptoms are that one thinks the lifeless body and its products to be spirit.
asmitā: To think the power of sight and the power of seeing is the same. In the Saṇkhya philosophy considering the puruṣa and the pradhāna to be one and the same is called asmitā. The literal meaning of asmitā is the false ego, the bodily identification of I and mine.
rāga: attachment, the desire to attain material pleasure and avoid material sufferings. It also means that one wishes to always have more of the coveted substance.
dveṣa: hatred, aversion to distress and its causes.
abhiniveśa: Even an intelligent person, due to the result of his previous birth’s activities, is deeply inclined to sense enjoyment and attached to his own body and the means for enjoying the senses. Thus he fears death. This is known as abhiniveśa.
Then there are the four kinds of sins, prārabdha, aprārabdha, rūḍha and bīja that are included in kleśa. The definitions of these kinds of sins are listed below.
prārabdha: The fruitive reactions that are ready to give their results, in other words, the sins that are the cause of the creation of this body, and the effects of sins that a person is already undergoing.
aprārabdha: The fruitive reactions that have not yet yielded results, or the accumulated unlimited sins of previous births lying in an inactive state and have not yet attained the kūṭa form.
rūḍha or kūṭa: The subtle sins. Later they will attain seed form and yield fruits. They can also be considered as the aggregate of aprārabdha fruit.
bīja: The seed form of the propensity to commit sins. These sins exist in the form of desires within the heart and eventually mature into prārabdha by the will of the Lord. Something should be learned about this. Ignorance is the cause of all the material desires of the conditioned soul. jīva-souls accept the bodies of demigods, human beings or animals to enjoy these desires, that continue like a stream. Among these bodies, the human body is the complete field for doing all types of karmas, pious or impious. The demigod and animal bodies, however, are meant for sense enjoyment only. The enjoying spirit being very strong in these bodies, the desires arising in them are simultaneously fulfilled along with prārabdha. These desires thus do not have the chance to get transformed into the seed form. Only the human form is suitable for accumulation of new seeds of desires. Duly considered one can understand that a human being is expert in desiring more than he is capable of enjoying.
On the other hand, it is not that all the subtle desires of the human body are accumulated in a seed form. The desires that arise in circumstances favourable to one’s prārabdha are fulfilled along with one’s prārabdha and finally diminish. Some desires, however, arise independently and remain unfulfilled because they arise in circumstances unfavourable to one’s prārabdha. In other words, those desires cannot be fulfilled simultaneously with one’s prārabdha. As these desires are not diminished, they cause a very powerful emotional agitation. These desires lie in seed form within the heart, eventually maturing into prārabdha. If along with sinful desires, some pious desires also arise in the same quantity, then they destroy each other. No seed thus appears in the heart. If, however, they are unable to destroy each other, they remain in a subtle form known as saṁskārābhāsa (shadow of saṁskāra or subtle conditionings). These are enjoyed during dreams.
In any case, sādhana-bhakti is known as kleśaghni because it destroys the five kinds of distress, like avidyā, asmita etc. and the four types of sins like prārabdha. The Bhāgavata says (4.22.39) that sādhana bhakti has the power to destroy ignorance.

yat-pāda-paṅkaja-palāśa-vilāsa-bhaktyā karmāśayaṁ grathitam udgrathayantiḥ santaḥ
tadvan na rikta-matayo yatayo’pi ruddha-sroto-gaṇās tam araṇaṁ bhaja vāsudevam

Śrī Sanat-kumāra told Mahārāja Pṛthu: “O king! The devotees who are engaged in the service of the toes of the lotus feet of the Lord very easily overcome the hard knots of ignorance. This devotion is like ever-increasing effulgence shining from the toes of the lotus feet of the Lord. This means bhakti appears from the lotus feet of the Lord. But the unwise sannyāsīs, that are inclined towards the non-personal Brahman and try to overcome material desires and the senses, are unable to do so. Therefore, you should worship Lord Vāsudeva who is worth taking shelter of.” By the destruction of avidyā, the destruction of the other four kleśas follows automatically since they are all the results of āvidyā. The Bhāgavata (3.33.6) describes the destruction of prārabdha sins through sādhana bhakti as well:
yan-nāmadheya-śravaṇānukīrtanād yat-prahvaṇād yat-smaraṇād api kvacit
śvādo’pi sadyaḥ savanāya kalpate kutaḥ punas te bhagavan nu darśanāt

Devahūti says to Kapiladeva, “What to speak of the fortune of a person who sees the Lord face to face, even a low class person born in a caṇḍāla family of dogeaters, simply by hearing, chanting, praying, paying obeisances, or remembering the Lord, immediately becomes qualified to perform Vedic sacrifices or become most honorable.” It is clear from this text that such a low class person having attained the qualification performing sacrifices, his prārabdha sins have already been destroyed. Even the intellectual spiritual realisation of non-personal Brahman cannot destroy prārabdha. Jñānīs in the state of jīvan-mukti, therefore, have to wait until all their prārabdhas are destroyed before they achieve liberation. It is hard to get rid of prārabdha even through brahma jñāna, but this is easily destroyed by sādhana bhakti, so there should be no doubt about it that aprārabdha, kūṭa and bīja sins are also destroyed by it. In Śrī Padma Purāṇa it is seen:

aprārabdha phalaṁ pāpaṁ kūṭaṁ bījaṁ phalonmukham
krameṇaiva pralīyate viṣṇu bhaktir atātmanām

“All the sins, namely aprārabdha, kūṭa, bīja and prārabdha get gradually destroyed when one’s body, mind, and life are engaged in the devotion of the Lord.”
The fruit of sādhana bhakti is that avidyā, kleśa, prārabdha and other sins are destroyed and all good qualities appear in a devotee. This characteristic of bhakti is known as śubhadā. sarva mahā guṇagaṇa vaiṣṇava śarīre; kṛṣṇa bhakte kṛṣṇera guṇa sakala sañcāre (C.C.) “All good qualities dwell in the body of a Vaiṣṇava. All the qualities of Kṛṣṇa exist in the devotee of Kṛṣṇa.” The author mentions certain good qualities that appear in a practising devotee. First of all he mentions disinterest in miserable material affairs, but interest in the Lord. A devotee who attains even a slight taste in hearing and chanting the Lord’s name, form, qualities and pastimes automatically becomes disinterested in miserable material form, taste, smell and so on. What to speak of material enjoyment, even the bliss of Brahman realization also becomes very insignificant for him: kṛṣṇa pādapadma gandha yei jana pāya; brahmaloka ādi sukha tāre nāhi bhāya (C.C.). “Anyone who gains even a whiff of the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa is not even interested in the bliss of brahman anymore.” All the desires of a devotee are gradually centered on the lotus feet of the Lord. Then favourable service to the Lord becomes the very life of a devotee. The thought of giving pleasure to his worshipable Lord always illuminates the temple of his heart. By the grace of Bhakti devī the heart of the practising devotee is always filled with thoughts favourable to Kṛṣṇa and creates a wonderful beauty within the temple of his heart. Then compassion, forgiveness, truthfulness, honesty, equal-mindedness, patience, gravity, respectfulness, pridelessness and all other fortunate qualities begin to shine brightly within the heart of the practising devotee and shower it with their own pleasant nectar-streams. Then truly a wonderful beauty of peace arises in the devotee’s heart. In Śrīmad Bhāgavata (5.18.12) it is seen—

yasyāsti bhaktir bhagavaty akiñcaṇā sarvair guṇais tatra samāste surāḥ
harāv abhaktasya kuto mahad-guṇā manorathenāsati dhāvato bahiḥ

“All the demigods with all good qualities reside within the devotee who is serving the Lord without personal desire. How can there be any good quality in the non-devotees? The chariot of his mind is always rushing through the external world.” A Vaiṣṇava’s heart is thus a storehouse of all good qualities. Śrīman Mahāprabhu says to Śrīmat Sanātana Gosvāmīpāda—

ei sab guṇa hoy vaiṣṇava lakṣaṇa;
sab kohā nā jāy kori dig daraśana
kṛpālu akṛta droha satya sāra sama;
nirdoṣa vadānya mṛdu śuci akiñcana
sarvopakāraka śānta kṛṣṇaika śaraṇa;
akāma anīha sthira vijita ṣaḍ guṇa
mita bhuk apramatta mānada amānī;
gambhīra, karuṇa, maitra kavi dakṣa maunī

“All these transcendental qualities are the characteristics of pure Vaiṣṇavas. They cannot be fully described, so I am just giving a general view of some important qualities. The devotees are merciful, not defiant, truthful, equal to all, faultless, magnanimous, soft hearted, clean, without any material possessions, doing welfare for all, peaceful, exclusively surrendered to Kṛṣṇa, desireless, indifferent to material acquisitions, steady, completely controlled the six bad qualities (lust, anger and so forth), eat as much as required, not inebriated, respectful, modest, grave, compassionate, friendly, poetic, expert, and silent.” (Cai.-caritāmṛta, Madhya 22.77-80)

‘bhaktiḥ pareśānubhavo viraktir anyatra caiṣa trika eka kāla’ ityukta prakāreṇa yugapad api pravṛttayor api tayoḥ patrikayor udgama tāratamyenaiva tat tad aśubha nivṛtti śubha pravṛttitāratamyādastyeva kramaḥ. sa cātisūkṣmo durlakṣyo’pi tat tat kārya darśanaliṅgena sudhībhir avasīyate (4)

    TRANSLATION: śāstras say, “Devotion, realization of the Lord, and detachment to the objects other than the Lord—all these three symptoms simultaneously appear in the devotee.” (Śrīmad-Bhāgavata 11/2/42) This verse confirms the simultaneous appearance of the two leaves kleśaghni and śubhadā on the vine of devotion, as described previously. Although the two leaves appear simultaneously, there is a difference in the process of subtle destruction of distress and appearance of auspiciousness. This difference is due to the appearance of greater or lesser qualities of the two symptoms. Being very subtle, it is difficult to see, but learned scholars have ascertained this fact by observing the process of the appearance of these two qualities.

    Pīyūṣa Kaṇā Explanation:

It has been said before that both vaidhī and rāgānugā bhakti are equally destroying ignorance and suffering and thus cause many auspicious attributes to arise. One may think that it is proper that first distress is destroyed and after that good qualities appear, but then where is the possibility of the two processes occurring simultaneously? The Bhāgavata (11.2.42) replies this question:

bhaktiḥ pareśānubhavo viraktir anyatra caiṣa trika eka-kālaḥ
prapadyamānasya yathāśnataḥ syus tuṣtiḥ puṣṭiḥ kṣud-apāyo’nughāsam

“Devotion, realization of the Lord and detachment from all worldly affairs all these appear simultaneously in the devotee, as a person while eating simultaneously feels satisfaction, nourishment and relief from hunger.” Though the two leaves of the bhakti creeper, kleśaghni and śubhadā seem to appear simultaneously, destruction of distress and appearance of all good qualities depend on the difference of their growth. Thus, there is definitely a sequence in this process, which is very subtle and difficult to perceive. It is not that satisfaction, nourishment, and relief from hunger all three partially appear with every mouth full, but in each grain of rice all three qualities are placed. Since this process is very difficult to perceive, so is the case with bhakti. Therefore although generally this process is hard to perceive and subtle the learned devotees can perceive it by scrutinizing the symptoms, how much destruction of the distress and appearance of the good qualities has occurred by studying the behaviour of the sādhaka in question. (4)