VMA 2.17 :: Give up caste identity to dwell in Braj

Sewa Kunj (PC Newsgram)

soḍhvāpi duḥkhāni suduḥsahāni
tyaktvāpy aho jāti-kulādikāni |
bhuktvā śvapākair api thutkṛtāni
vṛndāṭavī-vāsam ahaṁ kariṣye ||2.17||
Tolerating even intolerable sufferings,
leaving behind identity with my caste or kin,
and eating that which is spit out even by untouchables,
but I shall make my residence in Vrindavan.


Here again Prabodhananda is making no differentiation between residing in Vrindavan and renunciation. One who takes sannyāsa must be ready to suffer because he places himself entirely at the mercy of the Supreme. But the price one must pay for spiritual perfection is complete surrender. To achieve any great thing one must persist despite obstacles, and obstacles to the attainment of the goal are always painful. Yet if the goal is good, and one persists with faith, those sufferings always bear the sweetest fruit. Tapasyā means to accept physical hardships because they favor the healthy awareness of the limitations of pleasure possible in this material body, and thus increase detachment from it.

But the real renunciation is even more internal. One must be free from all material ego. The sādhana of Braja-vāsa is a sādhana of identity. It is really "crossing over" from whatever one is not to what one truly is. But that definition of one's true identity is given by Braj dhāma itself.

In Vrindavan, it is best to be a gopa or a gopi rather than a king or a Vedic brahmin. Even kings and brahmins in Vrindavan secretly harbor the desire to be a gopa or gopi and to live among the cows with Krishna.

The Brijbasi is beyond any pride in external identifications. A Brijbasi is spiritual through and through, so who will differentiate between higher and lower? But to be in the Dham and to reside in the Dham, and to become identified with the Dham, one must there see even the lowest in material terms as imbued with the specific divine characteristics of the Dham.

The word thutkṛtāni means "spit out." The spitting may have been done just on seeing the food, in other words, such food as even an outcaste or dog-eater would not touch. Or, it could mean his leftovers, the remains of his meal, which are touched with his spittle. In either case, for a caste Hindu to be ready to eat the food that has been touched by an outcaste is a complete repudiation of the caste mentality.

nāhaṁ vipro na ca narapatir nāpi vaiśyo na śūdro
nāhaṁ varṇī na ca gṛhapatir no vanastho yatir vā |
kintu prodyan-nikhila-paramānanda-pūrṇāmṛtābdher
gopī-bhartuḥ pada-kamalayor dāsa-dāsānudāsaḥ ||

I am not a Brahmin, nor am I a Kshatriya,
I am not a Vaishya, nor a Shudra.
I am not a brahmachari, nora householder,
not a retired man nor renunciate monk am I.
But since Lord Krishna, the lover of the gopis,
and the overflowing ocean of nectar
is the only source of supreme and immortal joy,
I claim to be a servant to the servant
to the servant of his lotus feet.
(Padyāvali 74, CC 2.13.80)

This is the identity change operation that is the essence of Brajavāsa sādhanā. It is for all intents and purposes impossible to fully achieve outside of Braj. But if one is in the land of Braj and remains attached to caste or national identities, then what greater misfortune could there be? Come to Vrindavan, but come as a Brijbasi, not as an American or a Russian or any other caste identity. That is your real price of entry.



VMA 2.16 : I will do violence to anyone who tries to remove me from Vrindavan
VMA 2.15 : I will do violence to anyone who tries to remove me from Vrindavan
VMA 2.14 : Give up chewing the already chewed
VMA 2.13 : Ananta Vrindavan
VMA 2.12 : Vrindavan's trees, vines and deer fulfill the meaning of their names
VMA 2.11 : We bow to the trees and vines of Vrindavan
VMA 2.10 : Radha and Krishna pick flowers in their garden
VMA 2.9 : Serve that pair of divine effulgences
VMA 2.8 : Don't identify with the body, but think of it as spiritual
VMA 2.7 : See Vrindavan with the inner eye

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