A Caveat

By Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj

Api cet sudurācāro bhajate mām ananya-bhāk, sadhur eva sa mantavyaḥ.

The underlying meaning is this, “He may be the worst debauch in his outer life, but if he is an ananya-bhāk, a surrendered soul, then he will be considered a real honest man. Who has surrendered to Me, I have accepted him as my own. And as I have got the right over everything, I am not a trespasser, and hence my own man may not be considered to be a trespasser anywhere. Ātma bhūyāya kalpate — he is My own. And the whole thing is My own. The ananya-bhāk, who works by inspiration from Me, he may not be considered a trespasser. He can enjoy anything on My behalf. If he is really a surrendered soul, he should be considered as mine. On my property he has got free access.”

To this, Yayavara Mahārāja once said that if you give an explanation in such a way then in the name of ananya-bhāk all will go on with malpractices. That is a very hidden meaning. You should not express them to the public. Then anyone may say, “Oh, I am an ananya-bhāk” and will go on with their debauchery. So, don’t express it in such a way, explicitly. Yayavara Maharaja came to put an objection, “Don’t be so wide in your meaning, otherwise the people at large will take the name of ananya bhajana and say, ‘Oh! I am a Vaiṣṇava. I am acyuta-gotra. I am amongst His own men. His property is mine too. I can enjoy everything.’ That sort of thought may come.”

Mere professing that I am ananya-bhakta won’t do. A real ananya-bhāk won’t say that I am ananya-bhāk. He’ll say, “I can’t be ananya-bhāk.” That will be his understanding and innate feeling. “Ananya-bhāk is not a small thing. I have not attained that stage. It is very difficult. Rather I am going away from it.” That will be his temperament.

Radhārāṇī Herself says, “The people believe that I am a kalaṅkinī, that I have got illicit connection with Kṛṣṇa. But my grief is this, that I could not be so. That is my trouble. I have no objection for getting a bad name, due to connection with Kṛṣṇa. But what they say is all false. From my heart I could not be wholesale of Kṛṣṇa. That is the trouble.” That sort of opposite tendency will come. The fact is that one who has accepted Me exclusively has got no taste in other things. Therefore, he is not a durācār. Internally he is always connected with Me. In external life he is indifferent. So what he is doing, that he is not doing. Hatvāpi sa imal lokān na hanti na nibadhyate — one may destroy thousands of brahmāṇḍas, and yet he does not do anything. He is in that plane, the nirguṇa plane.

Of course, such devotees (ananya-bhāk) are very rarely to be found and generally a devotee should not venture to do all these things because it will create disturbance in the society.

Bhagavān Śrī Kṛṣṇa says in Gītā, yad yad ācarati śreṣṭhas tat tad evetaro janāḥ sa yat pramāṇaṁ kurute lokas tad anuvartate. Looking at the welfare of the ordinary people, the devotee should go according to general law. Otherwise, there will be chaos in the society and they will be doomed. To save the ordinary society, we abstain from doing lawless things, for the advantage of the ordinary people.

When the exclusive devotee crosses the social law and does something wrong, taking advantage of the society, then he must also be prepared to accept the punishment, without any grudge, from the nirguṇa plane. With a smiling face he will accept the punishment. Even death! Everything accepted as coming from Kṛṣṇa. When enjoying sweetmeat we think, “That is Kṛṣṇa!” and when a bitter thing is given, “Oh no!”, then that will be hypocrisy. Everything that comes from Him is sweet, whatever the formal vibration of it may be in the misconceived world of māyā.

One day, Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura was chanting the Lord’s names and wandering in the sky, at his sweet will. Suddenly he found that he was just near yamālaya where Yama, the lord of death, holds court for judging the sinners of this world. He also found there Braḥma, Nārada, Śiva, and others, discussing with Yamarāja the meaning of two slokas spoken by Sri Kṛṣṇa in Bhagavad-gītā (9.30,31); but they could not solve the problem of discerning the proper meaning of the ślokas.

api cet sudurācaro

bhajate mām ananya-bhāk

sādhur eva sa mantavyaḥ

samyag vyavasito hi saḥ

(BG 9.30)

“Externally, a person may be seen to commit many sins, but if he is exclusively given to My devotion, he should be considered most pure - a saint. Whatever he does, he does cent-per-cent rightly.”

kṣipraṁ bhavati dharmātmā

śaśvac chāntiṁ nigacchati

kaunteya pratijānīhi

na me bhaktaḥ praṇaśyati

(BG 9.31)

“Very soon, he will become religious in his behaviour, and he will be seen to acquire real peace in his life. O son of Kunti, confidently declare to the public that my devotee never meets ruination.”

But one who is engaged in the Lord’s exclusive devotion, ananya-bhajana, has been defined by the Lord in His own words, sarva-dharmān parityajya, mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja: “My exclusive devotee is he who gives up all phases of duties (sarva-dharmān) and surrenders to My feet, accepting only his duty to Me.” How, then, having already surpassed all phases of duties and surrendered to the Lord, can that exclusive devotee (ananya-bhāk) further be seen to become a ‘dutiful’ or an externally ‘pious man’ (kṣipraṁ bhavati dharmātmā)? This is an anomaly.

Yamarāja, Brahma, Nārada, etc., discussed this point, but could not arrive at any solution. How can one become “righteous in the near future” when he has already abandoned all kinds of duties, either righteous or unrighteous, in order to exclusively surrender to the feet of the Supreme Lord? Finding no solution, they sent for Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura who, they noticed, was moving in the sky and taking the name of the Lord: “He is a pure devotee - and not an ordinary devotee - he has deep knowledge of the scriptures, so let him come and explain these verses of Bhagavad-gītā.”

And so, Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura was invited, and he went there. He gave the meaning. Api cet sudurācāro, bhajate mām ananya-bhāk - despite his outer practices, the exclusive devotee (ananya-bhāk) is to be accepted (mantavyaḥ) as a cent-per-cent saint (sādhu). Therefore, the conclusion is that he who can realize this, he who declares that an exclusive devotee of Kṛṣṇa, regardless of his outer practices, is cent-per-cent saintly - he will soon become dharmātmā — virtuous and religious. His statement and conclusion is cent-per-cent correct, and his conduct will soon become very pure and he, too, will have the chance of accepting the path towards eternal truth.

“Dharma means morals, duties, including duties to father, mother, country, society, humanity; etc. But if one neglects all these and keeps a straight relationship towards Me, he will be considered free of any fault. He is in the line of sarva-dharmān parityajya, mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja. He is doing right, and one who can simply appreciate this will also very soon be converted to the same class.” This is the whole purport.

The highest quality in every part of the whole is that everyone must be dedicated towards the centre, even crossing his dutifulness in respect to any other environmental position. And one who can feel, appreciate, and assert this - he will also soon achieve such a position. His inner heart can appreciate, and that is something of a realisation on that path; it will very soon take effect, and the public will see, “Oh, he is also entering this path of ananya-bhajana, the exclusive adherence to the call of the Absolute Centre, and that is all-in-all.”