SRI PURI DHAM MAHATMYA-MUKTA-MALA

(30) Pastime of Gundicha Marjan

Mahaprabhu told all devotees, ‘Come every year to see Gundicha.’ How could He say Himself, ‘Come to see Me’? He could not. That is why He said, ‘Come every year to Puri to clean Gundicha.’

Where do we go along with the chariots? To Sundarachal. This is the glory of the chariot festival. In Puri, the Jagannath temple is Nilachal, and Gundicha is Sundarachal. When Krishna left Vrindavan and went to Mathura, Dvaraka, all the Vraja gopis came to pull Him back to Vrindavan.

Therefore, those who pull the chariots are compared to gopis. We sing in a kirtan, ‘Sri-Krsna-Chaitanya prabhu jive daya kari’ svaparsada sviya dhama saha avatari. Bestowing His mercy on jiva souls, Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu descends with His associates and abode.’ Vraja gopis appeared in the form of devotees (somebody appeared as Sri Ray Ramananda, somebody as Sri Svarup Damodar, somebody as Sri Rupa Goswami, somebody as Sri Sanatan Goswami, and so on) and performed the same pastimes that Lord Krishna performed in Dvapar-yuga. So, the Lord Himself, taking Sri Radha’s heart and halo, appeared with His associates and performed this pastime of Ratha-yatra, when devotees would pull the chariots and take them to Vrindavan.

The day before going to Vrindavan-Sundarachal, Mahaprabhu and all the devotees cleaned the temple of Gundicha, which is non-different from Vrindavan. This is called Gundicha-marjan lila (the pastime of Gundicha-marjan, or cleaning the temple).

Prabhupad Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur wrote about the mystery of this pastime very beautifully:

The Mystery of Gundicha-Marjan Pastime

(Srila Prabhupad Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur delivered this lecture in Sri Purushottam Ksetra in June 1922, the same year when Sri Purushottam Gaudiya Math was established)

Jagad-Guru Sriman Mahaprabhu taught through this pastime that if some fortunate souls want to enthrone Lord Sri Krishna within their own hearts, first and foremost they should wash away all dirt from their hearts – it is indispensable to make the heart pure, peaceful and effulgent. If there is even a trace of any unspiritual elements (thorny grass, weeds, dust, stones, and so on) in the heart, it is not possible to seat the supremely worshippable Lord there. In the heart, there is nothing except dirt or refuse: other desires, attempts to pursue material activities, knowledge or mystic powers, and so on. Srila Rupa Goswami Prabhu said,

anyabhilasita sunyam jnana-karmady anavrtam
anukulyena krsnanusilanam bhaktir uttama

‘The highest devotion is that which satisfies Lord Krishna, free from the coverings of any pursuits, such as action or knowledge.’

(Sri Bhakti-rasamrita-sindhu, 1.1.11)

If the soul’s eternal natural propensity towards devotion is covered with any aspirations except devotion, with knowledge, material activities, penances or any thoughts or feelings that are unfavourable to devotion, then there is no pure devotion. Krishna never reveals Himself unless there is pure devotion of pure sattvik nature.

‘Other aspirations’ means the desire, ’As long as I am alive in this world, I will live gratifying my senses.’ Such aspirations, like thorny grass, poke and pierce the unalloyed devotion in the tender heart of a pure soul. Pursuing material activities means doing something with the idea, ‘I will engage in yoga, sacrifices, charity, penance and other activities and thereby enjoy a happy life in heaven and other higher planes of life.’ This is like dust. The specks of dust of the desires that swirl in the whirlpool of material activities cover the clear, pure mirror of the heart.

The desires to perform pious and impious activities – these countless specks of dust – birth after birth possess and pollute the hearts of the souls that are averse to the Supreme Lord, that is why their desire to engage in material activities is not gone yet. The souls who are averse to the Lord think that if they engage in material activities, it may, perhaps, enable them to take out the arrowhead of karma, but this idea is wrong; coming under the influence of this idea, they only cheats themselves. If you bathe an elephant, it will again smear dust on itself – in the same way, material desires do not go away by engaging in material activities. All problems of the soul can be removed only through unalloyed devotion – when the Supreme Lord find a proper place for rest on the throne of the soul’s pure heart. That is why Thakur Mahasay sang, ‘Bhaktera hrdaye sada Govinda visrama. Lord Govinda always rests in the hearts of His devotees.’

Attempts to pursue the yoga practice based on the concepts of nondifferentiation and oneness, or the yoga practice based on pursuits of knowledge, are just like stones or pebbles. What to speak of serving or pleasing the Supreme Lord through that, it is actually an assault on the Lord – such attempts are like arrows that are shot to pierce the body of the Lord. Even if one at first – desiring to attain liberation following the impersonal conception of the Lord – indirectly accepts such practices as chanting of the Holy Name of the Supreme Lord, out of pride that arises from pursuing liberation and impersonal God they still do not accept the Lord’s independent existence. Therefore, the Lord does not reveal Himself in the hearts of such unfortunate souls who are proud of their liberation. That is why Sri Gaurasundar did not keep any of this grass, dust, wild plants and other refuse anywhere within the boundary of the Lord’s temple – He gathered it all in His own cloth and threw it outside lest all that garbage gets swept back to the holy temple by some strong wind.

Very often, even when the attempts to pursue material activities, knowledge, and so on are gone, there still remains some very subtle dirt in the heart. That can be compared to ‘deceit’, ‘desire for recognition’, ‘envy’, ‘forbidden practices’, ‘gain’, ‘worship’, and so on. ‘Deceit’ means hypocrisy; ‘recognition’ means hankering for material respect, thinking that if you engage in some secluded practice or charlatanism, then ‘hopefully foolish people will say that I am a great soul or a big sadhu’ – that is, aspiring to disguise yourself as a ‘devotee’ or an ‘incarnation of God’ by showing various artificial sentiments in your calloused heart with a view to enjoy the material world and fulfil your own ambitions. ‘Envy’ means hesitating or being miserly when it comes to preaching about pure devotion and indulging or flattering mayavadis, materialists and people who pursue all kinds of other desires. ‘Gain / worship’ means cheating foolish people while profiting, in the name of religion, from the Harinam mantra, Deities and the Lord, and attaining thereby riches, respect and other gain. ‘Forbidden practices’ implies mixing with women and associating with those who have no devotion for Lord Krishna: materialists, knowledge-seekers, people who nurture other desires, and so on.

In this way, sweeping out with a broom all these large stones, grass, dust and other rubbish accumulated over a long time, Sri Gaurasundar cleaned, double cleaned and then washed with water the entire temple, and after that, in case there was any slightest mark left anywhere, He would take off a dry piece of clothing that He was wearing and start very carefully wiping the temple and the holy throne of the Lord with it.

Having done that, after washing, cleaning and scrubbing the holy temple, there was not even a slightest, barely discernible trace of dust left anywhere – the temple was spotlessly clean; not only that, it also became pleasantly cool. In other words, the heat in the practitioners’ hearts, which were like deserts scorched by the burning sun rays, subsided (i.e. they became free from the agony of the threefold miseries, caused by other souls and other factors, born of their desire to enjoy the material word). In essence, when all other aspirations and desires for enjoyment and liberation that drive their endeavours to pursue material activities, knowledge, mystic powers and other practices are purged from their hearts and their pure devotional propensity is revealed, then the peace and the pleasant coolness set in.

Very often, even when all desires and aspirations are purged, a few subtle stains still remain in some unconscious corners of the heart; foolish souls are not even aware of it. These stains are what is called ‘desire for liberation’. What to speak of the desire to merge with the nondifferentiated aspect of God, Sriman Mahaprabhu rubbed out with His own cloth even the slightest marks of the desire for the four other types of liberation.

In this way, desiring benefit for all souls and posing as a jiva soul Himself, Sri Gaurasundar started to teach, as Jagad-Guru, how practitioners must cleanse their hearts making a jubilant festival and loudly chanting the Holy Names of Lord Krishna to transform their hearts into Vrindavan, to make, out of sincere love and desire to please Lord Krishna’s senses, place for the independent Lord Krishna to enjoy at ease. ‘Yadyapy anya bhaktih kalau karttavya, tada kirtanakhya-bhakti-samyogena iva. Even when other kinds of devotional practices are prescribed in Kali, they all must be done with kirtan.’ Mahaprabhu came up to each devotee, took their hands and started to teach them how to do this service of cleaning the temple. He praised those who did well, and if somebody’s service was not aligned with the Lord’s intrinsic mood imbibing the heart and halo of Sri Radha, who is all about desiring to fulfil Lord Krishna’s wishes, He reprimanded them and then taught them with His own pure hand how to serve Lord Krishna. Not only that, He enthusiastically ordered the devotees whose hearts were pure (who were established in the devotional life pursuant to the knowledge of the non-dual Absolute as well as adept in the trade secrets of the spiritual practices of the followers of Lord Chaitanya’s teachings) to take on the work of an ‘acharya’ with regard to other averse jiva souls. (‘Tumi bhalo kariyachha, sikhaha anyere, ei-mata bhala-karma sei yena kare. You have done well, so teach the others so that they can also do it well.’) So, the more one is able to collect all barbarity and purge it from the heart, the dearer one will be to the Lord; and if one appears to have even a slightest cover of unwanted elements, for them, as punishment, there is a specific prescribed rule called service to the Lord, the guru and the Vaishnavs.

Entrance to Sri Gundicha Devi's Temple.

In the courtyard of Sri Gundicha temple: His Divine Grace partaking in the marjan-lila.

— ☸ ☸ ☸ —

— ☸ ☸ ☸ —

CONTENTS