Anartha-Nivrtti

Srila Gurudeva: One who has attained nistha, he has crossed over all nama-aparadha, seva-aparadha, and all other kinds of offenses. He has crossed laya, viksepa, apratipratti, kasaya, and rasasvada. He must cross over all these things. What is this? Laya, drowsiness: there is no taste in hearing. And when he hears hari-katha, powerful hari-katha, then he begins to sleep and thus he sleeps. He tries to hear with so much energy, but he cannot. This is called laya. Viksepa: when he is chanting and remembering, so many distractions will come and disturb him. This is called viksepa.

Especially when you will remember your guru-mantra and all other gayatri mantras in the morning and evening. Especially at that time, you will see that you fall asleep or you will see that, “Oh, so many things are coming in my mind.” This is called viksepa, distraction. Then, apratipatti. You want to chant one lakh holy names and for one day you do it, but then the next day you become ill. You cannot do it again. You want to associate, but so many things will come that will prevent you from associating. This is apratipatti. Then, kasaya. What is this?

If you have done something, good or bad, they will come and affect you. Kasaya. Then rasasvada. When he is chanting and remembering or hearing hari-katha, so many worldly things will come and you will be absorbed in that. So many people will come and give you so much respect. They have given you so much respect and they have promised that they will give you so much donation and then you will tell them, “Oh, very good.” Then you will forget all these things, hari-katha and chanting and remembering. So he has crossed over all these things. There are still some other things he has crossed over. What?

Sukrtottha anartha, duskrtottha, bhakty-uttha, and aparadhottha. What is that? Duskrtottha: you want to chant and remember, to associate, but that very day you will be impure, especially with ladies. They cannot associate. A very bad headache will come or you will have somewhat of a fever. Any unfavorable circumstance will come that will prevent you from associating. You know that you should associate, but you cannot because of past impressions. This is duskrtottha. You have performed so many sins and you will have to taste all of these things. They are bound to come, but don’t be disturbed by this.

After that, sukrtottha. So much praise, money, and everything will come. You don’t want any of these things, but still it will come. So many disciples will come and they will create so many problems. So many things will come by sukrtottha. Sukrtottha means you have done so many things in past births that all these things are coming automatically. But if you are affected by them, then you will lose bhakti. Then, bhakty-uttha. This is not referring to pure bhakti. It’s referring to apara bhakti which means sanga-siddha or aropa-siddha-bhakti. Or in other words, bhakti mixed with karma and jnana.

[Spoken by Srila Gurudeva on April 29th, 1998, France, published as part of the Bhakta Bandhav Anthology, Volume 27]

[If you like to order the books, visit our Lulu store: https://www.lulu.com/spotlight/servelove or visit our Patreon to get digital copies: patreon.com/servelove]