Question: In Narottama dasa Thakur’s prayers in Prema Bhakti Candrika he identifies the six enemies of the mind: lust, anger, greed, illusion, pride (madness) and envy. He says he will use them in their proper way in devotional service.
I have many times heard it stated that there is no place for envy in devotional service, or in the spiritual world. However, Narottama dasa Thakur says:
“I will engage my lust in eagerness to serve Krishna and I will use my anger against those who are envious of the devotees. I will be greedy to hear the topics of Hari in the association of the devotees. I will be illusioned if I fail to achieve my worshipable Lord and I will feel proud to chant the glories of Krishna. In this way, I will engage them in their respective duties.” PBC Chapter 2 Text 10.
Please explain how envy is to be used in the Lord’s service (if at all) and also how the illusion is used in the service of the Lord
Answer by Romapada Swami (Part 1):
Envy –
Yes, it is a fact that Srila Prabhupada consistently spoke of envy as “conspicuous by its absence” in the spiritual world. There is no place for worldly envy in devotional service, nor in the spiritual world.
A direct literal translation of what Narattoma das Thakur says in this verse is that he will engage the 6 enemies in *sthaane sthaane* –their respective places. One view is that the proper, bhakti-utilized place for envy is the garbage heap; it is cast far away. Support for this rendering is the fact that Narattoma das Thakur doesn’t mention it, in his unique dovetailing verse which prompted your question.
However, another approach is to understand the presence of *envy* in the spiritual world to be qualitatively altogether different from the envy found here.
Srila Prabhupada’s analysis is that envy is “indirect appreciation.” You only envy someone who has something better or does something better, not worse; hence, “spiritual envy” may simply mean straightforwardly and positively appreciating another vaisnava and expressing that appreciation.
The ADDENDUM below provides numerous scriptural quotes which support this rendering of “spiritual envy” or “transcendental envy.”
Illusion –
Narattoma das Thakur’s statement or prayer regarding *engaging illusion* is referring to the madness of separation, like that expressed by the six gowamis. As Prabhupada explains the six goswami’s contemplations, “Their mission was always unfulfilled; they never said ‘Now I have attained Krishna’.” Instead: He radhe vraja devike ca lalite he nanda suno kutah.” Likewise, as Mahaprabhu said: sunyayatam jagat sarvam, govinda virahena me.
This is confirmed by Bhaktivinoda Thakur as follows: “I will engage lust, anger, greed, illusion, madness, envy, and pride in appropriate ways, and by defeating these enemies I will feel happiness in my heart as I peacefully worship Govinda. I will engage lust by offering it in Krsna’s service. The anger I will direct towards those who are envious of the devotees. I will be greedy to hear the topics of Hari in the association of devotees. I will feel illusioned without achieving my worshipable Lord. I will be maddened while singing the glories of Krsna. In this way, I will engage these enemies in their proper places.” The confidential meaning of this song is that the duty of an intelligent person is to direct these urges away from their respective subjects and make them favorable to devotional service. That can only be done with patience. (Sri Bhaktyaloka, by Bhaktivinoda Thakur)
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ADDENDUM
Nectar of Devotion, chapter 30, entitled Envy in Ecstatic Love:
“In the Padyavali, one of the friends of Radharani once addressed Her thus: “My dear friend, please do not be too puffed up because Krsna has decorated Your forehead with His own hand. It may be that Krsna is yet attracted by some other beautiful girl. I see that the decoration on Your forehead is very nicely made, and so it appears that Krsna was not too disturbed in painting it. Otherwise, He could not have painted such exact lines!” This is an instance of envy caused by Rädhä’s good fortune.
In the Tenth Canto, Thirtieth Chapter, verse 30, of Srimad-Bhagavatam, there is the following statement: When the gopis were searching for Krsna and Radha after the rasa dance, they thus began to speak among themselves: ‘We have seen the footprints of Krsna and Radha on the ground of Vrndavana, and they are giving us great pain because although Krsna is everything to us, that girl is so cunning that She has taken Him away alone and is enjoying His kissing without sharing Him with us!’ “This is another instance of envy of the good fortune of Srimati Radharani. Sometimes when the cowherd boys used to play in the forests of Vrndavana, Krsna would play on one side, and Balarama would play on another. There would be competition and mock fighting between the two parties, and when Krsna’s party was defeated by Balarama, the boys would say, “If Balarama’s party remains victorious, then who in the world can be weaker than ourselves?” This is another instance of envy in ecstatic love.
Srila Visvanatha Cakravati Thakur points out a similar instance in his purport to SB 10.47.12, referring to Srila Rupa Gosvami’s Ujjvala-nilamani: This and the following nine verses exemplify ten kinds of impulsive speech spoken by a lover. This verse illustrates the qualities of prajalpa, as described by Srila Rupa Gosvami in the following verse from his Ujjvala- nilamani (14.182) [Sanskrit omitted] “Prajalpa is speech that denigrates the tactlessness of one’s lover with expressions of disrespect. It is spoken in a mood of envy, jealousy and pride.”
Srila Prabhupada had on several occasions written the following (or a facsimile) to devotees:
“Even amongst the Gopis there is a competition to please Krishna, and there is envy also. But this envy is not material, it is transcendental. They are thinking, “Oh, she has done something more wonderful than me, that is very nice, but now let me do something even more wonderful, like that.”
This particular quote came from a letter Prabhupada wrote to Jayatirtha prabhu (12/9/71), but he wrote similarly several times.
In one instance, to Atreya Rsi prabhu (2/4/72), he further explained, “That is envy, but it is transcendental, without malice.”
So it would appear that on a less advanced level of Krsna consciousness than that of the residents of Vraja, envy could be used as an impetus for service.
Of course, for most of us, whose heart is not cleansed enough, for envy to be used as an impetus, it would necessitate having the intelligence (in possession of this fact) override the emotions (indicative of an unclean heart) in order for this to take place.
The concept of an “impetus” for devotional service as a use for the 6 enemies seems relevant for illusion also. As you quoted, Srila Narottama dasa Thakur wrote: “I will feel illusioned without achieving my worshipable Lord.” This would seem to be an impetus for striving to achieve the Lord, as it is implicit here that being illusioned is an undesirable quality.
Srila Prabhupada also used the idea of different things being impetuses for the practice of devotional service:
“Unless we have a pessimistic view of this material life, considering the distresses of birth, death, old age and disease, there is no impetus for our making advancement in spiritual life.” (BG 13.8-12)
“For an intelligent person, the appearance of old age is an impetus to spiritual life.” (SB 4.27.27)
“Unhappiness experienced by the devotee on account of feeling himself inferior is not unusual rather such mentality is impetus to further development of devotional service.”(letter to Satsvarupa 2/20/69)
Therefore it would seem those thoughts like “I will feel illusioned if I think I’m chanting very good japa (or I’m chanting the holy name very well)”; “I will feel illusioned if I think I’m advanced in Krsna consciousness”, etc. would be considered using illusion – as an impetus – in Krsna’s service.
Here is another thought about utilizing illusion in Krsna’s service, as per Srila Prabodhananda Sarasvati’s indication. In preaching one may have to flatter in order to engage someone in Krsna’s service. Vasudeva had to do this when dealing with Kamsa, and Srila Prabhupada has indicated this many times, as the following illustrates:
“For instance, a child will sometimes take something important, so we have to flatter him. “Oh, you are so nice. Please take these lozenges and give me that paper. It is nothing; it is paper.” And he will say, “Oh, yes. Take. That’s nice.” Two-paise lozenges — very nice and sweet. So we have to do that. Why? Because a man will go to hell by taking Krsna’s money. So some way or other, take some money from him and engage him in the Krsna consciousness movement.” (PQPA ch. 7)
“So the preaching process is to take a straw in the mouth, dante nidhaya trnakam padayor nipatya, and falling down on your feet, dante nidhaya trnakam padayor, kaku-satam krtva ca aham bravimi. And flattering you: “Sir, you are so great man, you are so intelligent man” This is flattering. Although he is fool number one, we have to flatter him like that. “Oh, there is no greater man like you. You are so intelligent, you are so rich, you are so beautiful.” So all these things. Just like the beggars. Sometimes: “You become king.” And one thinks, “Oh, he is blessing me. All right, you take one paisa.” So this flattering is also required.” (lecture, BG 1.28-29, London 6/22/73)
In instances like these, the devotee is using illusion (“Kamsa, you are the pride of your family, the Bhoja dynasty, and great heroes praise your qualities”; or, “you are so great man, you are so intelligent man”) by saying things to the non-devotee that are simply illusory from the point of view of the absolute truth. But he is using that illusion to accomplish something in Krsna’s service.
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Answer by Romapada Swami (Part 2):
Answer, continued (after further research and discussion with godbrothers) –
Throughout most of the song “Prema Bhakti Candrika” Srila Narottama das Thakura is expressing that he will avoid these six bad qualities, in contrast to just a brief mention in verse 10 of how he may engage some of them. For someone on his elevated level, he may see how to engage these qualities on a regular basis, but I would say for us we should mainly avoid them, precisely as he is advocating, and try to practice our devotional service very nicely in as pure and as regulated a way as we can.
Regarding illusion, Srila Narottama das Thakura doesn’t seem to be advocating “using” it in a particular way, but rather he is saying that this is how it will manifest in his highly-elevated Krishna conscious situation.
Regarding how we might engage envy in our own efforts at our present level of attainment in devotional service, I would say we should be very careful, if at all, as envy is a dangerous thing.
Here is one final additional comment. After a bit of additional research, I found a translation of Prema Bhakti Candrika is a little different from yours. The 10th verse of song 2 looks like this:
10 kama krsna-karmarpane krodha bhakta-dwesis-jane
lobha sadhu-sange hari-katha
moha ista-lablha-bine mada krsna-guna-gane
nijukta kariba jatha tatha
“Lust I will engage in offering the fruits of my work to Lord Krsna. The anger I will direct towards the enemies of the devotees. Greed I will engage by being greedy to hear the topics of Lord Hari in the association of the saintly devotees. Bewilderment will be manifested because I cannot immediately attain my worshipable Lord. Madness will be there when I madly glorify the transcendental attributes of Lord Krsna. In this way I will engage each of these in the service of Lord Krsna.”
