By Hansadutta das
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Text 22
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Wearing clothes made from tattered
rags found lying in the street, a yogi treads the path which
goes beyond piety and impiety. Because his mind is absorbed in thoughts
of the Supreme, he appears to be enjoying exactly like a child or a
madman.
In this connection Shukadeva Goswami says:
When there are ample earthly flats to lie
on, what is the necessity of cots and beds? When one can use his own
arms,
what is the necessity of a pillow? When one can use the palms of his
hands,
what is the necessity of varieties of utensils? When there is ample
covering
or the skins of trees, what is the necessity of clothing?
Are there no torn clothes lying on the common road? Do the trees,
which exist for maintaining others, no longer give alms in charity? Do
the rivers, being dried up, no longer supply water to the thirsty? Are
the caves of the mountains now closed, or above all, does the Almighty
Lord
not protect the fully surrendered souls? Why, then, do the learned
sages
go to flatter those who are intoxicated by hard-earned wealth? (Srimad-Bhagavatam
2.2.4-5)
Thus being fixed, one must render service unto the Supersoul situated
in one's own heart by His omnipotency. Because He is the Almighty
Personality of Godhead, eternal and unlimited, He is the ultimate goal
of life, and
by worshipping Him, one can end the cause of the conditioned state of
existence. (Srimad-Bhagavatam 2.2.6)
In these verses, the necessity of worshipping the
Supreme Personality of Godhead is being stressed. In order to be able
to worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead while in the conditioned
state, we have to learn how to minimize our material activities.
Material activities are those activities which are aimed at maintaining
the temporary material
body. The four material activities are eating, sleeping, defending and
sex indulgence. Although everyone is required to eat, sleep, mate and
defend
himself, still it is advised that one should minimize his energy and
intelligence
in this direction. We should be satisfied with what we get by the grace
of God and be satisfied with that which comes of its own accord.
Formerly, the sadhus, rishis, sages and
yogis simply sat down to practice meditation and depend on the
mercy of the Lord for their food, shelter, clothing and whatever
necessities there are for the maintenance of this body. They would not
even go to beg. They were completely fixed and expected that the
Supreme Lord, knowing
their situation full well, would make the necessary arrangements to
meet
their material demands. Unless we adopt this course of action, we will
not
have any time for practicing spiritual life. We will not have any time
to
render devotional service. We only have so much energy, and we shall
either
use it to take care of this temporary material body, or we shall have
to
sacrifice material comforts and engage our time in serving Vishnu.
In Bhagavad-gita Krishna says, "Yoga
is not for one who eats too much or eats too little, sleeps too much
or does not sleep enough." (Bhagavad-gita 6.16 ) We have
to
eat something, sleep and so forth. So it is recommended that one should
eat half of what he thinks he can eat. One should fill half his stomach
with food, one quarter with water and the rest with air. If we think we
can eat three plates, we should eat one or one and a half. Similarly,
it
is recommended that as far as sleeping is concerned, one should sleep
in
the temple of the Lord and one should sleep only the bare minimum. Five
or six hours is sufficient. One should rise early in the morning, one
and
a half hours before the sun rises. That is called the brahma-muhurta
hour and is a time which is very beneficial for spiritual practices.
Everything
becomes more intensified at that time. We must take rest at a timely
hour
so that we can rise early, take bath, then attend mangala-arati,
chant japa, hear Srimad-Bhagavatam, take prasadam
and perform our devotional service. In this way, we have to minimize
our
material activities to the bare necessity, just enough to keep body and
soul
together. Without practicing a life of austerity, penance, renunciation
and knowledge, no one can make any progress in spiritual life.
In these three verses of the Srimad-Bhagavatam,
Shukadeva Goswami is pointing out what is the necessity of beds if one
can lie on the floor? If one has his own arms to lie on, why should we
spend money to buy pillows? Those who are in the bodily concept of life
are very serious about dressing themselves very fashionably with
expensive
clothing, jewelry, lipstick, hair cream and purchasing expensive beds
for
sleeping. In so many ways they waste their valuable time and energy
just
decorating a dead body.
The body is actually just a lump of flesh, bones, blood,
urine and stool. It actually has no life at any time. Only as long as
the soul is in touch with this body is it animated and apparently
alive, although it is always dead. The inherent ugliness of this body
is revealed as soon as the soul leaves it; then it immediately becomes
repulsive to us, and
we want to dispose of it as soon as possible. The material body is
never
beautiful, but it is the soul within the body that gives it an
appearance of beauty. The beauty is not in the body; it is in the soul,
which is pervading that body temporarily. As soon as the soul leaves
the body, we immediately dispose of the dead material body. Then
Shukadeva says:
For this reason, the enlightened person should
endeavor only for the minimum necessities of life while in the world of
names. He should be intelligently fixed and never endeavor for unwanted
things, being competent to perceive practically that all such endeavors
are
merely hard labor for nothing. (Srimad-Bhagavatam 2.2.3)
The material world is described here as "the world of
names." Everything has a particular name--microphone, table, telephone,
lamp and so on. In fact, everything is nothing but a combination of
atoms. Therefore nothing actually has any permanent existence or
reality. It is just external or apparent, but not actual. The real
substance is the living spirit soul, which gives shape to inert dead
matter. Knowing this, we should not unnecessarily endeavor for false
things just to achieve some temporary prestige in this mundane
existence. We should minimize all our material
endeavors to the bare necessity and endeavor for self-realisation. Hare
Krishna.
