तथैव मत्ता मदिरोत्कटा नरास्तथैव दिव्यागुरुचन्दनोक्षिताः।
तथैव दिव्या विविधाः स्रगुत्तमाः पृथक्प्रकीर्णा मनुजैः प्रमर्दिताः॥
tathaiva mattā madirotkaṭā narās
tathaiva divyāguru-candanokṣitāḥ
tathaiva divyā vividhāḥ srag-uttamāḥ
pṛthak prakīrṇā manujaiḥ pramarditāḥ
tathā eva = in this manner; mattāḥ = became satisfied by the enjoyment; madirā-utkaṭāḥ = intoxicated because of too much wine; narāḥ = the men; tathā eva = in this manner; divya-aguru-candana-ukṣitāḥ = they were smeared with celestial aguru and sandalwood paste; tathā eva = in this manner; divyāḥ = other celestial; vividhāḥ = varieties of; srak-uttamāḥ = fine garlands; pṛthak = other; prakīrṇāḥ = threw about here and there; manujaiḥ = the men; pramarditāḥ = and trampled upon them.
In this manner, the men became satisfied by the enjoyment, intoxicated because of too much wine. In this manner, they were smeared with celestial aguru and sandalwood paste. In this manner, the men threw about varieties of other celestial fine garlands here and there and trampled upon them.
[1] duṣṭaḥ śabdaḥ svarato varṇato vā mithyā-prayukto na tam artham āha / sa vāg-vajro yajamānaṁ hinasti yathendra-śatruḥ svarato ’parādhāt.
[2] ghanaṁ nirantaraṁ sāndram (Amara).
[3] catuḥ-śālaṁ sañjavanam (Halāyudha).
[4] bandhanī bandhana-mālā tu toraṇaṁ parikīrtitam (Halāyudha). The commentator has noted in this regard: vandana-māleti pāṭhāntaram.
[5] śamyā yajñāyudhe tāle maśake ca kriyāntare (Vaijayantī). vahni-tāla-śamyā-tāla-kriyā (Bharata).
[6] udvartanocchādane dve (Amara).
[7] niṣṭhānaṁ vyañjanaṁ smṛtam (Halāyudha).
[8] dvārāpīḍe kvātha-rase nirvyūho nāga-dantake (Vaijayantī).
[9] ukhā sthālī caruḥ kumbhī piṭharaḥ kuṇḍam ucyate (Halāyudha).
[10] takraṁ kapitthaṁ mathitam (Vaijayantī).
[11] apakva-takraṁ savyoṣaṁ caturjātaṁ guḍārdrakam / sajīrakaṁ rasālaṁ syān majjikā śikhariṇy api (Vaijayantī).
[12] samudgakaḥ sampuṭakaḥ (Amara).
[13] kaṅkataḥ keśa-mārjanam (Nighaṇṭu).
[14] yavasaṁ tṛṇam arjunam (Amara).
1 See Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, Chapter 24.
2 Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta explicates the teachings of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
3 Why not “no sex” right from the beginning? Prabhupāda explains the rationale in Bhagavad-gītā 6.13-14 purport: “Children at the age of five are sent to the guru-kula, or the place of the spiritual master, and the master trains the young boys in the strict discipline of becoming brahmacārīs. Without such practice, no one can make advancement in any yoga, whether it be dhyāna, jñāna or bhakti. One who, however, follows the rules and regulations of married life, having a sexual relationship only with his wife (and that also under regulation), is also called a brahmacārī. Such a restrained householder brahmacārī may be accepted in the bhakti school, but the jñāna and dhyāna schools do not even admit householder brahmacārīs. They require complete abstinence without compromise. In the bhakti school, a householder brahmacārī is allowed controlled sex life because the cult of bhakti-yoga is so powerful that one automatically loses sexual attraction, being engaged in the superior service of the Lord.” Prabhupāda refers to the yoga system as the dhyāna system here. The “bhakti school” refers to those carefully following the regulations of bhakti-yoga as presented in Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī’s Upadeśāmṛta and Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu which Prabhupāda has kindly presented in English as The Nectar of Instruction and The Nectar of Devotion respectively. We urge the aspiring practitioners of pure bhakti to peruse these two books to have a clear understanding of how to effectively engage in the process of bhakti.
4 Gītā-bhūṣaṇa 12.5: avyakāsakta-cetasām atisūkṣma-nīrūpa-jīvātma-samādhi-nirata-manasāṁ teṣām adhikarataḥ kleśaḥ. yady api pūrveṣām api tat-tat-mad-bhakty-aṅga-samācāro mad-anya-viṣayebhyaḥ karaṇānāṁ pratyāhāraś ca kleśo’sty eva, tathāpi tatrānanda-mūrter mama sphuraṇān na kleśatayā vibhāti.
This hospitality was not a false magic show.
SUPPLEMENTARY NOTE
It is well known that Bharadvāja Muni is a great spiritually realized sage. In this chapter, he appears to provide or even promote sense enjoyment—wine, women and the like. It is also well known about those learned in the scriptures that no one aspiring to attain liberation from material existence or love of Godhead will indulge himself in such sense enjoyment or offer it to others, knowing well the extreme dangers of sense enjoyment. Had Bharadvāja Ṛṣi provided sāttvika forms of comfort, there would be no confusion about the nature of his hospitality, but women, wine, oil massage by eight women and so on seems radical and extreme to anyone brought up in the culture presented by Prabhupāda, his predecessor-ācāryas in the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava line as well as the foundational ācāryas of the four Vaiṣṇava lines. So how can Bharadvāja’s hospitality be reconciled with the highly restricted culture of the Vaiṣṇavas who are on the path of bhakti?
In answer to this, it should first of all be understood that Vedic scriptures do provide restricted forms of sense enjoyment. This is obvious to anyone who peruses the Manu-smṛti or any other Dharma-śāstra. The purpose behind such restricted allowances is explained in the Bhāgavatam (11.5.11) thus:
loke vyavāyāmiṣa-madya-sevā nityā hi jantor na hi tatra codanā
vyavasthitis teṣu vivāha-yajña-surā-grahair āsu nivṛttir iṣṭā
“In this material world the conditioned soul is always inclined to sex, meat-eating and intoxication. Therefore religious scriptures never actually encourage such activities. Although the scriptural injunctions provide for sex through sacred marriage, for meat-eating through sacrificial offerings and for intoxication through the acceptance of ritual cups of wine, such ceremonies are meant for the ultimate purpose of renunciation.”
In other words, Vedic dharma provides specific forms of restricted meat-eating, restricted intoxication, restricted sex and restricted gambling and these are very much within Vedic culture, for those on the path of karma.
But these restricted allowances are not for those on the path of jñāna for realization of the impersonal Brahman effulgence, those on the path of yoga for realization of the localized Paramātmā form of Viṣṇu or those on the path of bhakti for realization of the all-opulent and all-sweet Bhagavān forms of the Supreme Personality of Godhead in His original form of Kṛṣṇa or in His plenary expansions such as Rāma, Nṛsiṁha, Nārāyaṇa and so on. The jñānīs, yogīs and bhaktas need to get on to the platform of no meat-eating, no intoxication, no sex and no gambling—the platform of sattva-guṇa—in order to tangibly prepare themselves in their journey towards spiritual realization.
We notice in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (Canto 3, Chapter 4) that those members of Kṛṣṇa’s family who were incarnations of demigods went to Prabhāsa, served the brāhmaṇas, drank a kind of liquor with the permission of those brāhmaṇas (and then started quarreling with each other). So these were allowed in Vedic culture.
However, those who want liberation from material existence or love of Godhead are in a very different category—the category of ascetics or tapasvīs and they have been referred to above as jñānīs, yogīs or bhaktas. And such persons are presented with the austerities of sāttvika life from day one by bona fide authorities because the spiritual desires of such aspirants can only be fulfilled if they accept such higher restrictions. For instance, when Nārada Muni instructed Mṛgārī, he had him accept such austerities right from the beginning.1 These values are promoted in Bhagavad-gītā and Mokṣa-dharma in the Mahābhārata, and emphasized and amplified in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.2
Lord Kṛṣṇa notes in Bhagavad-gītā (2.45):
trai-guṇya-viṣayā vedā nistrai-guṇyo bhavārjuna
nirdvandvo nitya-sattva-stho niryoga-kṣema ātmavān
“The Vedas deal mainly with the subject of the three modes of material nature. O Arjuna, become transcendental to these three modes. Be free from all dualities and from all anxieties for gain and safety, and be established in the Self.”
The Vedas’ primary audience are those on the path of karma, the majority of those who accept Vedic authority in the universe, and hence are primarily filled with such restricted allowances. Those who have higher aspirations as jñānīs, yogīs or bhaktas should, however, become indifferent to them as these allowances are not applicable to them.
This is not a peculiar doctrine espoused in the Bhagavad-gītā, but a standard understanding found in the Dharma-śāstras.
For instance, Manu-smṛti contains abundant statements providing for specific forms of restricted meat-eating, restricted intoxication and restricted sex, and that unrestricted versions of the same simply throw one into hell. But it also states:
pravṛttir eṣā bhūtānāṁ nivṛttis tu mahā-phalā
“These are the activities of all creatures. But abstaining from them brings great rewards.” (Manu-smṛti 5.56)
It should also be noted that brahmacārīs, vānaprasthas and sannyāsīs are enjoined in the same Manu-smṛti to refrain from accepting any of the restricted allowances provided for gṛhasthas on the path of karma. And those who aspire for liberation from material existence also avoid them. This explains why Prabhupāda and his predecessor-ācāryas have begun their presentation of spiritual life with the four regulative principles of no meat eating, no intoxication, no gambling and no illicit sex.3
It should also be remembered that the higher one’s goal is, the more restrictions the aspirant will need to accept. Obviously, the path of karma is restrictive in comparison to adharma. The path of jñāna is more restrictive than the path of karma; this is well known. The path of yoga is more restrictive than the path of jñāna because only one matured in jñāna can engage in ceaseless meditation. And the path of bhakti is even more restrictive than the path of yoga.
But, one might ask, then wouldn’t the path of bhakti be the most painful process? Why is it described as being painless? Is it just an advertising gimmick?
No. As soon as one begins to engage in pure sādhana-bhakti, one begins to experience the bliss of direct experience of the Supreme Lord. Of course, it is very little in the beginning, but it is definitely there right from the beginning.
bhaktiḥ pareśānubhavo viraktir
anyatra caiṣa trika eka-kālaḥ
prapadyamānasya yathāśnataḥ syus
tuṣṭiḥ puṣṭiḥ kṣud-apāyo ’nu-ghāsam
“Devotion, direct experience of the Supreme Lord, and detachment from other things—these three occur simultaneously for one who has taken shelter of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, in the same way that pleasure, nourishment and relief from hunger come simultaneously and increasingly, with each bite, for a person engaged in eating.” (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 11.2.42)
ity acyutāṅghriṁ bhajato ’nuvṛttyā
bhaktir viraktir bhagavat-prabodhaḥ
bhavanti vai bhāgavatasya rājaṁs
tataḥ parāṁ śāntim upaiti sākṣāt
“My dear King, the devotee who worships the lotus feet of the infallible Personality of Godhead with constant endeavor thus achieves unflinching devotion, detachment and experienced knowledge of the Personality of Godhead. In this way the successful devotee of the Lord achieves supreme spiritual peace.” (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 11.2.43)
The bliss of direct experience of the Supreme Personality of Godhead eclipsing the difficulties involved is quite immediately available for the offenseless practitioner of bhakti even in its beginning stages; indeed, Ācārya Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa notes that it is because of this that such practitioners of bhakti do not experience these austerities of refraining from sense enjoyment and forcibly placing their senses on the Supreme Lord as being painful.4
Those on the path of bhakti would do well to remember the following instruction of the Supreme Lord, which according to Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, specifically applies to the bhaktas:
vyavasāyātmikā buddhir ekeha kuru-nandana
bahu-śākhā hy anantāś ca buddhayo ’vyavasāyinām
“Those who are on this path are resolute in purpose, and their aim is one. O beloved child of the Kurus, the intelligence of those who are irresolute is many-branched.” (Bhagavad-gītā 2.41)
Practitioners of bhakti aspiring for the highest goal of life in the form of love of Godhead should not be disoriented or distracted by adharma or even the restricted allowances of Vedic dharma. They should constantly take shelter of Lord Hari in the following manner:
nāhaṁ vande tava caraṇayor dvandvam advandva-hetoḥ
kumbhīpākaṁ gurum api hare nārakaṁ nāpanetum
ramyā-rāmā-mṛdu-tanu-latā nandane nāpi rantuṁ
bhāve bhāve hṛdaya-bhavane bhāvayeyaṁ bhavantam
“O Lord Hari, it is not to be saved from the dualities of material existence or the grim tribulations of the Kumbhīpāka hell that I pray to Your lotus feet. Nor is my purpose to enjoy the soft-skinned beautiful women who reside in the gardens of heaven. I pray to Your lotus feet only so that I may remember You alone in the core of my heart, birth after birth.” (Mukunda-mālā-stotra 4)