Subhashita #0027

Vaishnava culture and Indian culture in general is famous for its hospitality towards guests. As devotees, we are expected to feed our guests royally, sumptuously and without any reservations. If we act in a miserly way while feeding guests who come to our home or to the temple, it reflects badly on vaiṣṇava culture and annoys the Lord. A guest is a representative of all the gods, and especially a vaiṣṇava guest is considered as the representative of the Supreme Lord.

On a particular day, a temple organized a feast where varieties of rice, dāl, vegetables etc. were being served. One particular devotee was in-charge of serving pure golden colored ghee on the rice.

Now since pure ghee is an expensive food-item, this devotee wanted to save as much ghee as possible. Thus, he would serve only a few drops on each plate.

A poet was sitting in one of the rows. When the poet saw the tiny amount of ghee being served on his plate, he quickly composed the following witty Sanskrit poem:

sañcāriṇī kāñcana-vallarīva
vidyul-latā vā patitā nabhastaḥ
ghṛtasya dhārā patitā na jāne
divaṁ gatā vā 'tha bhuvaṁ gatā vā

"[The poet said to the ghee-server]: O my goodness! What was that? Was that a golden chain running away from me? Or was that a golden flash of lightning falling from the sky? That stream of golden ghee, where did it go? Did it disappear in the sky or did it enter the earth? [Wherever it went, I am pretty sure that it did not fall on my plate of rice] :-) ".
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— (Composed by an unknown author. Inspired from a Marathi poem composed by Keśava-suta).

Subhashita #0026

When Srila Rupa Goswami retired from government service, he saved a part of his retirement pension for his personal emergency. This is a good practice for sādhūs because in times of emergency, one should not have to borrow a loan from someone. A sādhu who doesn't have any creditors is a happy sādhu, and such a sādhu can perform bhajana peacefully.

The last thing a sādhu would want is to see the angry face of a demanding creditor. Therefore, intelligent souls save enough money so that they may not have to borrow a loan ever in life. The following subhāṣita-verse illustrates this point:

loka-dvaya-prati-bhayaika-nidānam etad-

dhik prāṇinām ṛṇam aho pariṇāma-ghoram

ekaḥ sa eva hi pumān param asti loke

kruddhasya yena dhanikasya mukhaṁ na dṛṣṭam

"Alas! Taking a loan is one of the most disturbing acts in the world. It spoils this life [because one is always in anxiety about paying it back] and [if not paid back] it spoils one's next life [because one gets a severe reaction]. A truly fortunate person in this world is one who never has to see the frowny face of an angry creditor."

— (Subhāṣita-ratna-bhāṇḍāgāra, Ṛṇam, page 98, verse 3)

[PS: If one does not pay back a loan, one has to pay multiple times the same amount in his/her next life. Therefore śāstra suggests that if someone dies while a loan is pending, the son should take responsibility and try to pay it back. This will avoid the sinful reaction for the father.]

Subhashita #0025

One of the most important lessons to be learnt by a devotee in spiritual life is to not be carried away too much by the uncharitable opinions of others. This may also include the uncharitable opinions of devotees who are not like-minded to oneself. The world has become full of people who don't hesitate to find faults in others yet are extremely sensitive when someone finds a fault in them.

We perform Krishna-bhakti for our own purification, and anyone who tries to bring down our enthusiasm for sevā is a person fit to be ignored. Various people have various insecurities in their lives and they may vent it out on us in order to feel secure. The intelligent devotee learns early in spiritual life never to be influenced by any unwanted remarks made by others.

Bhartṛhari — one of the most expert Sanskrit grammarians of all times has framed the following subhāṣita-verse:

jāḍyaṁ hrīmati gaṇyate vrata-rucau dambhaḥ śucau kaitavaṁ

śūre nirghṛṇatā munau vimatitā dainyaṁ priyālāpini

tejasviny avaliptatā mukharatā vaktary aśaktiḥ sthire

tat ko nāma guṇo bhavet sa guṇināṁ yo durjanair nāṅkitaḥ

"[Some people have a way of finding faults in everyone] — they perceive gentle behavior as weakness of character; they perceive a strict follower of rituals/vows as a proud pretender; an honest person as a hypocrite; a brave person as cruel; an introvert as a fool; a sweet talker as a bootlicker; an influential person as haughty; an extrovert as overly talkative and a peaceful sage as incompetent of material progress. Name one good quality that these rascals have not maligned with their fault-finding!"

— (Nīti-śataka of Bhartṛhari, Verse 54)

Subhashita #0024

Association of rogues always brings about a humiliating and distressful situation for the sādhūs (the saintly souls). Sometimes an aspiring sādhu may make friends with such rogues for some temporary benefit, but it always brings upon misfortune on the aspiring sādhu. This is illustrated by the following subhāṣita-verse:

haṁso 'dhvagaḥ śramam apohayituṁ dinānte
kāraṇḍa-kāka-baka-koka-kulaṁ praviṣṭaḥ
mūko 'yam ity upahasanti lunanti pakṣān
nīcāśrayo hi mahatām apamāna hetuḥ

"A swan was tired due to traveling the entire day. [Since he had not yet arrived back to his home], he decided to relieve the fatigue by entering into flocks of ducks, crows, cranes and geese. Wherever he went they all attacked him, roughed up his feathers and laughed on him, calling him a mute. Therefore, taking shelter of rogues is always a source of humiliation for the saintly souls."

— (Subhāṣita-ratna-bhāṇḍāgāra, Asat-saṁgati-nindā, page 88, verse 13)

(Originally posted on Facebook on 15th April 2015).

Subhashita #0023

One can never escape his/her karma. The Purāṇas say that just as a calf is able to locate its mother among a million cows, karma is able to locate its reciever similarly and thus, one can never escape what is destined for him. Those who have nothing but bad karma written in their previous lives have no other option but to suffer the results. Bhartṛhari describes it using the following subhāṣita-verse:

khalvāṭo divaseśvarasya kiraṇaiḥ santāpite mastake

vāñchan deśam anātapaṁ vidhi-vaśāt tālasya mūlaṁ gataḥ

tatrāpy asya mahāphalena patatā bhagnaṁ sa-śabdaṁ śiraḥ

prāyo gacchati yatra bhāgya-rahitas tatraiva yānty āpadaḥ

"A bald man's head was burning by the strong rays of the sun. He decided to find some relief from the heat, and by the arrangements of providence he found shelter under a palm-tree. Even after finding relief with such great difficulty, a coconut fell on him, breaking open his head with a loud cracking noise. Truly, wherever an ill-fated person goes, his misfortunes follow him."

— (Nīti-śataka of Bhartṛhari, Verse 90)

(Originally published on Facebook on 14th April 2015).

Subhashita #0022

As a devotee, Srila Rupa Goswami expects us to be a 'kavi', or an expert in aesthetic taste. Human life is meant for tasting bhakti-rasa. It may be okay if a newcomer in Krishna-bhakti may not be immediately able to appreciate the deeper aspects of Krishna-bhakti and its rasas. However, the same cannot be said about someone who has been practicing for more than a decade or two.

If one remains an arasika — a person devoid of any taste for bhakti-rasa, one has not sufficiently utilized the human form of life.

Once, in an assembly of such expert rasika poets, there arrived a person who had no knowledge of arts, music or literature. This one person was sufficient to single-handedly bring down the entire mood of the assembly. Seeing such an arasika, Bhartṛhari composed the following verse:

sāhitya-saṅgīta-kalā-vihīnaḥ

sākṣāt paśuḥ puccha-viṣāṇa-hīnaḥ

tṛnaṁ na khādann api jīvamānas

tad-bhāgadeyaṁ paramaṁ paśūnām

"Persons devoid of any taste in literature, music or arts are verily like animals without tails and horns.

[but still there is a difference between animals and such people].

The only difference is that the animals eat grass for surviving, while such people do not, and this should be considered the supreme good fortune of the animals [for if such people started eating grass, the poor animals would have nothing left to eat]."

— (Nīti-śataka of Bhartṛhari, Verse 12)

(Originally posted on Facebook on 12th April 2015).

Subhashita #0021

kṛṣṇo devaḥ kali-yuga-bhavaḿ lokam ālokya sarvaṁ

pāpāsaktaṁ samajani kṛpā-sindhu-caitanya-mūrtiḥ

tasmin yeṣāṁ na bhavati sadā kṛṣṇa-buddhir narāṇāṁ

dhik tān dhik tān dhig iti dhig iti vyāharen nu mṛdaṅgaḥ

"Seeing that all the souls in Kali-yuga are addicted to sinful activities, Lord Krishna appeared as Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the ocean of mercy. However, to those people who do not see Mahāprabhu as Lord Krishna, does the mṛdaṅga not criticise them by saying — dhik tān, dhik tān dhik dhik?"

— (Śrī-śaci-nandanāṣṭakam by Srila Narahari Sarakāra, Verse 9)

[Import: The mṛdaṅga produces the sounds dhik tān. Another meaning of the term 'dhik' is 'fie' and another meaning of the word 'tān' is 'upon them'. So 'dhik tān' means 'fie upon them'. Thus, Sri Narahari Sarakara says that even the mṛdaṅga calls out 'dhik tān dhik tān' to those who do not accept Sri Chaitanya Mahāprabhu as Krishna."]

(Originally posted on Facebook on 11th April 2015).