Nārada Muni tried to persuade him, "No, no, you are simply a small child. Why you are so much infected with the insult given by your stepmother?" So he said: "No, I don't want your advice. If you can give me God, just talk of that. You don't talk of compromise. I am not going." This is determination. This is determination. So he, actually, within six months he saw Nārāyaṇa. But when he saw Nārāyaṇa, then his all material desires finished. He said, svāmin kṛtārtho 'smi varaṁ na yāce (CC Madhya 22.42): "I came to ask You for some benefit, material benefit. Now, by seeing You I am so satisfied that I have no more any desire to ask for." This is the ultimate stage: no more desire. We may begin with desire, but perfection is that when there is no more desire. That is the beginning of bhakti.
- anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ
- jñāna-karmādy-anāvṛtam
- ānukūlyena kṛṣṇānuśīlanaṁ
- bhaktir uttama
- (Brs. 1.1.11)
That is bhakti, no more desire.
So here, na adharmajaṁ tad-dhṛdayam. Adharmajam. So long our heart is compact with material desires, we have to take birth after birth to fulfill that desire. It is automatical. So how to become desireless? Not desireless, but no material desire. There is desire—to go back to home, back to Godhead. That is natural. That is natural. To become a devotee, to desire like that, that is wanted. We cannot stop our desires, but desires have to be purified. Sarvopādhi-vinirmuktaṁ tat-paratvena nirmalam (CC Madhya 19.170). So this is the process of bhakti. Therefore even one is infected with these lusty desires, kāma-lobhadayas ca ye, rajo-guṇa, tamo-guṇa . . . rajo-guṇa and tamo-guṇa means lusty desires and greediness, kāma-lobha. So, so long we are influenced by the two material modes of nature, rajo-guṇa and tamo-guṇa, then we will be pushed for fulfilling our lusty desires and greediness. And that will help us to become implicated in sinful activities. The people are becoming implicated in sinful activities only for this kāma-lobha. He is never satisfied, and his greediness increases and we create sinful life.
So there is prescription in the śāstras that, "If you are sinful, you do this prāyaścitta, atonement." Tapo-dāna-vratādibhiḥ. Tapo, tapasya, dāna, and observing some vratās, vows, ritualistic ceremonies, recommended. But here the Viṣṇudutas says that actually, by these processes, tapasya, dāna . . . na tyājyaṁ kāryam eva tat (BG 18.5). Kṛṣṇa also says that . . . what is that verse? I just forget. That tapasya, dāna, vrata . . . just like one has taken sannyāsa. Sannyāsa means he has given up all these obligatory ceremonies. But Kṛṣṇa says that, "Even if you have taken sannyāsa, you cannot give up these processes." What is that? "Tapasya, dāna and vrata." It is pāvanāni manīṣiṇām. Even if you have become manīṣi, very exalted great sage, still, you should continue this tapasya. And tapasya means voluntarily accepting some miserable condition. That is called tapasya. Just like they used to perform austerity in winter season, to go deep into the water. When one tries to avoid water, tapasya means one goes . . . you have seen many persons, they are standing within the water and chanting Gāyatrī mantra. This is tapasya. And in summer season they ignite fire all around and sit down.