Footnotes by Shrila Bhaktivinoda Thakura

Footnotes by Shrila Bhaktivinoda Thakura

(1) Anyone who thinks Lord Krishna'S holy name is made of maya, the dull and inert material energy, will suffer in hell for a long time. If one sees the face of such a person one must immediately remember Lord Vishnu and bathe, still wearing one's clothing.
(2) People possess different levels of qualification to attain Lord Krishna. The primary levels are karma, jnana, and bhakti (devotional service). This the scriptures say. One group is the karmis. They are very materialistic. Their hearts should be purified. Another group is the monist jnanis. They are very attached to an illusion. Pure devotional service should be preached to every spirit soul.
(3) At the time when one attains the perfection of pure devotional service, material karma and other nondevotional activities spontaneously flee far away.
(4) The conditioned souls have no power to renounce ordinary material activities. All their thoughts and deeds are mixed with material things. A person who uses material pious activities (karma) to find pure devotional service, which is beyond the touch of matter, is expert.
(5) The goal is pure love (prema) for Lord Krishna. The means described here is material pious activities. A considerable distance separates this means and goal.
(6) The words "Souls who tend to think in material terms" refer to the spirit souls who, bewildered by ignorance, think that they themselves are material in nature.
(7) Here "different qualification" means that as long as the soul is not attracted to spiritual life the soul will consider the chanting of the holy names as a means to an end. Thus he engages in blissful spiritual activities as the means to attain a goal.
(8) The chanting of the holy name is the primary spiritual means and the performance of material pious deeds is the secondary means. They who know the truth say that chanting the holy name is better than performing material pious deeds.
(9) From faith comes association with devotees. From association with devotees come the activities of devotional service. Again and again performing the activities of devotional service, one becomes free from anarthas. When anartahs are gone one attains pure chanting of the holy name. This is the sequence of events beginning with faith and concluding in spiritual bliss. When engaged in devotional service by the spiritual master's mercy, one should have faith. One who does not have faith commits an offense to the holy name. His anarthas increase.
(10) This impious deed is an offense to the Vaishnavas. The result of this offense is that one becomes attracted to the mayavadis' mistaken ideas about the holy name. By associating with devotees one destroys this offense. Then one attains faith in the holy name.
(11) Rejecting the idea that a Vaishnava is a member of a certain caste, one should devotedly smear on one's body the dust form the feet of a saintly person devoted to the pure chanting of the holy name.
(12) "Here" is the material world. "There" is the spiritual world.
(13) The chanting of the holy name is always the best spiritual activity in every yuga. However, in the Kali-yuga the people have no faith to properly execute material pious activities. Becoming the yuga-dharma (religion of the age), the holy name descended to the material world and rescued the people of the world from their sufferings.

Author: ISKCON Desire Tree

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