Thoughts on Aparādha

Facebook  January 11, 2015

Visit to Barsana in 2017. Facebook. My account of this visit on this blog.

A couple of conversations of late have made me reflect on the concept of aparadha. Many people seem to want to reject the concept wholesale. No doubt, there are some who overplay the aparadha card, citing verses that talk about cutting out tongues and the such. But it is wrong to say that it is a purely ISKCON idea, when it can be found in the earliest Gaudiya Vaishnava texts. It is the naturally corollary to the understanding that the grace of advanced devotees is the secret to all spiritual progress--mahīyasāṁ pāda-rajo-’bhiṣekam.

The assassination of several cartoonists in Paris the other day for "offensive" cartoons of Mohammad has rightly disgusted people around the world. In fact, there is no need to retaliate for offenses in such a barbaric and counterproductive way. Sati said to Daksha, after he had offended her husband, the greatest of devotees according to the Bhagavatam itself, that the response to offenses will take place within the context of the ordinary course of events. The dust of the devotees' feet will do the work, even though the devotee himself may not personally take offense.
nāścaryam etad yad asatsu sarvadā
mahad-vinindā kuṇapātma-vādiṣu
serṣyaṁ mahāpūruṣa-pāda-pāṁsubhir
nirasta-tejaḥsu tad eva śobhanam

It is not surprising that those who identify with the impermanent material body constantly engage in offending those who are highly advanced spiritually. Those who commit such offenses lose their spiritual power by the dust of such great souls' feet, which is a good thing. (4.4.13)
Prabhupada here writes: "The dust of the lotus feet of great personalities offers all good to the recipient, but the same dust can also do harm. Those who are offenders at the lotus feet of a great personality dry up; their godly qualities diminish. A great soul may forgive offenses, but Kṛṣṇa does not excuse offenses to the dust of that great soul’s feet, just as one can tolerate the scorching sunshine on one’s head but cannot tolerate the *burning sand under one’s feet. An offender glides down more and more; therefore he naturally continues to commit offenses at the feet of the great soul."

We need not comment on the current atheistic civilization, where offensiveness to religious people -- often deserved -- is the currency of exchange. But too many people attempting to live a life of devotion think that they have some God-given right to wantonly denigrate their fellows making the same attempt.

The effects are felt in "the loss of spiritual power" (nirasta-tejaḥsu), symptomized by a lack of spiritual progress, a loss of taste for bhajan, the absence of interest in deepening one's understanding of spiritual truths, but most of all, deprivation of the association and service of the great souls (mahāpūruṣa), the dust of whose feet is the greatest treasure of the aspiring devotee.

One needn't expect lightning bolts from the heavens. But the principal characteristic of the offensive person is that he cannot recognize his own fall from grace.

The same is stated, of course, in the first verse of the Padma Purana's listing of the ten offenses.

Sādhu sāvadhana.

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