Madhyāhna-kālīya-bhajana - Ruci

O Lord of the universe, I desire neither wealth, followers, beautiful companions, nor elegant poetry. Birth after birth, may I have causeless devotion to You, my Lord.

Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura explains: Home, possessions, disciples, animals, grain, and other wealth; wife, children, servants, attendants, and family; literary ornament and beautiful poetry: these are all matters of the earthly world. I do not hope to obtain any of them. O Kṛṣṇa, mercifully grant me pure devotion.

Śrīla Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī adds: The nature of prema is that whoever is bound to Kṛṣṇa by love thinks, "I do not possess even the fragrance of devotion to Him."

So long as people do not choose the shelter of Your fearless feet, wealth, body, and friends remain causes of fear; lamentation, longing, humiliation, and immense greed remain; and the false grasping of "mine," the root of distress, persists.

Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura explains: Wealth, body, and friends produce sorrow and fear, craving, defeat, and excessive greed. The false idea of "I" and "mine" remains the root of anguish until one takes shelter of Your lotus feet.

As watering a tree's root satisfies its trunk, limbs, branches, and twigs, and as feeding the life force nourishes all the senses, worship of Acyuta worships everyone worthy of worship.

Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura explains: When water is given to a tree's root, its trunk and every branch are naturally satisfied. When life is nourished, the senses grow strong. In the same way, by worshipping Kṛṣṇa, all the gods are satisfied.

Hari alone, the Lord even of all the lords of the gods, is always to be worshipped. Yet Brahmā, Rudra, and the other deities must never be treated with contempt.

Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura explains: First understand Kṛṣṇa to be the Lord of all. Never dishonor any other deity.

One should not bind oneself to many disciples, study an excessive number of books, make a profession of elaborate explanations, or undertake grand enterprises.

Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura explains: Greed for many followers makes one accept unqualified disciples. Study devoid of bhakti ends in sterile argument. Lengthy commentarial disputes and numerous undertakings consume one's time in vain. One who has taste for the Name desires none of these.

Therefore, with undivided attention, one should always hear about, glorify, meditate upon, and worship Bhagavān, the Lord of the devotees.

Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura explains: With exclusive feeling, hear and chant; meditate upon the Name, form, and qualities; and worship Kṛṣṇa. At the same time, work to destroy unwanted habits, and the creeper of devotion will quickly yield fruit.

If food and clothing cannot be obtained or are obtained and then lost, one should keep the mind untroubled and remember Hari alone with one's intelligence.

Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura explains: If food or clothing does not come easily, or if it comes and is somehow lost, the devotee sheltered in the Name remains mentally undisturbed, abandons attachment, and takes refuge in Govinda.

How can Mukunda possibly manifest in a heart overcome by grief, resentment, and similar agitations?

Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura explains: Kṛṣṇa cannot appear in a heart occupied by grief over spouse and children, anger, and wounded pride.

One who knows the true purpose of wealth should accept only as much as is needed for one's own maintenance. By taking either more or less, one falls away from the highest aim.

Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura explains: A devotee is not an enjoyer; he accepts only those things naturally required to maintain life's journey.

Devotion to the Supreme Lord, direct experience of Him, and detachment from everything else arise simultaneously in one who has surrendered, just as satisfaction, nourishment, and relief from hunger arise together with every morsel eaten.

Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura explains: Understand with certainty that three things arise together in a devotee: bhakti, knowledge, and detachment. Knowledge means realizing the relationship among consciousness, matter, and the Lord; detachment is freedom from attachment to everything other than Kṛṣṇa. At every mouthful of food, satisfaction and nourishment arise and hunger recedes; the three occur with the same ease.

O Lord of Vaikuṇṭha, this wicked mind, stained by sin, finds no delight in hearing about You. Tormented by lust, joy and grief, fear and worldly ambition, how can I, wretched as I am, contemplate the path that leads to You?

Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura prays: My unholy mind is polluted by sin and ruled by lust, elation, sorrow, fear, and ambition. How will attraction to Your words arise in me? How, O Kṛṣṇa, will I contemplate Your līlā?

O Acyuta, my unsatisfied tongue pulls me in one direction; the genitals in another; the skin, belly, and ears pull elsewhere; the nose tugs one way, the restless eyes another, and the powers of action still another. Like many rival wives tearing at the master of a house, they tear me apart.

Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura explains: The tongue pulls toward tastes, the genitals toward degradation, and the belly toward eating and terrible harm. The skin pulls toward soft beds, the ears toward worldly talk, the nose toward fragrance, and the eyes toward attractive sights. The active senses drag toward their several works, just as many wives pull their householder husband. O Śrī Nanda-nandana, in such a condition, how shall I remember Your līlā?

O Nātha, may I receive that great fortune in this birth or another, even in the body of an animal: may I become one among Your devotees and serve the tender leaves of Your feet.

Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura prays: Whether in this birth as a human or in another condition, even if I am born as a beast or bird within Your creation, my only hope is to remain with Your devotees and serve Your feet in many joyful ways.

O Lord, what among the four goals of life could remain difficult to obtain for those who worship Your lotus feet? Yet, O Infinite One, eager only for service to those lotus feet, I choose none of them.

Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura explains: What among dharma, prosperity, enjoyment, and liberation is unavailable to one devoted to Your lotus feet, O Kṛṣṇa? Even so, I desire only service to Your feet and have no need of any other goal.

A discerning person should strive for that alone which cannot be obtained by wandering from the highest planet to the lowest. Happiness arrives from elsewhere in the course of time, just as suffering does, borne everywhere by time's profound current.

Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura explains: As sorrow comes without being sought, happiness also arises in due course. Therefore the wise labor only for the treasure unavailable throughout the fourteen worlds: bhakti.

O Nātha, may I have the happiness that embodied beings receive by meditating upon Your lotus feet or hearing accounts of You from Your devotees. Such joy is not found even in impersonal Brahman, despite its self-contained glory, much less in the celestial vehicles from which one falls beneath the sword of death.

Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura prays: I ask always for the happiness of meditating upon Your feet and hearing Your deeds from the devotees' mouths. The bliss of Brahman does not please my mind; what then need be said of the petty and temporary pleasures of worldly or heavenly realms?

O Nātha, I never desire even that supreme state if the honey of Your lotus feet, flowing from the hearts and mouths of the greatest saints, is absent there. Grant me ten thousand ears for hearing it: this is my chosen boon.

Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura prays: I never desire any boon in which the joy of serving Your feet is absent. Arrange for me ten thousand ears with which to hear the singing of Your qualities flowing from devotees' hearts.

O all-auspicious Lord, separated from You I desire neither the highest heaven, the position of Brahmā, sovereignty over the earth, dominion over the lower realms, yogic perfections, nor freedom from rebirth.

Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura vows: Heaven, Brahmā's post, universal sovereignty, lordship over Rasātala, yogic power, liberation, and every similar attainment: if I must abandon Your service, I desire none of them. This is my guileless promise.

Our minds, once absorbed in the happiness of home, have easily been stolen by You, and our hands no longer turn to household work. Our feet will not move one step from the base of Your feet. How can we return to Vraja, and what could we do there?

Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura explains: Our minds were fixed upon domestic happiness and our hands upon household tasks, but You, Lord of our lives, have stolen them away. Our feet cannot leave the shelter of Your feet. Tell us the way: where could we go, and what could we do?

All the divine virtues dwell in one who has pure, possessionless devotion to Bhagavān. But how can a nondevotee possess any great quality? Mounted upon the chariot of the mind, he races outward toward the unreal.

Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura explains: In the body of one who has akiñcanā-bhakti, all virtues and all the gods reside. A nondevotee constantly rides the mind's chariot and wanders externally among unreal things, stripped of genuine qualities.

When you establish supreme devotion to Bhagavān, the inner Self, who is infinite, pure bliss, and endowed with every potency, you will gradually sever the deeply rooted knot of ignorance formed by "I" and "mine."

Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura explains: Manu tells Dhruva, "Practice devotion to Kṛṣṇa, the inner Self, whose nature is bliss and who possesses all powers. Gradually you will become able to cut the most deeply rooted knot of ignorance shaped as 'I' and 'mine.'"

The Bhāgavata declares: Through loving service to the playful petals of His lotus feet, the saints untie the knot of accumulated karma. Ascetics with empty realization, even after restraining the currents of their senses, cannot do so in the same way. Therefore worship Vāsudeva, the refuge of all.

Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura explains: Even great masters of yoga who restrain their minds by withdrawal of the senses can scarcely accomplish what sādhus do: cut the knot of latent karma. By the strength of whose mercy do they cut it? Take shelter of that Lord.

At midday I remember Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa, enchanted by the ornaments of many ecstatic transformations awakened through Their meeting. Restless with contrariness and longing, They find delight in love's festival through Lalitā's and the other sakhīs' playful jokes. They perform pastimes of swinging, roaming the forest, playing in the water, stealing the flute, loving union, drinking honey, and worshipping the sun. Thirsting for one another, They are served by Their assembled companions.

Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura explains: At Rādhā-kuṇḍa the Divine Couple meet, adorned with ecstatic transformations and enchanted by the līlā of contrariness and longing. Their playful union and joking include swinging, stealing the flute, drinking honey, and sun worship. They sport in the water, eat in the forest, feign sleep, wander through the groves, and rejoice in many pastimes together. Surrounded by Their companions, beautifully served Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa are remembered within the mind at midday.

Thus ends the practice for the fourth period in Śrī Bhajana-rahasya.