Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Narada Bhakti Sutra 69

tirthi-kurvanti tirthani su-karmi-kurvanti karmani sac-chastri-kurvanti sastrani

SYNONYMS

tirthi -- into holy places; kurvanti -- they make; tirthani -- the holy places; su-karmi -- into auspicious works; kurvanti -- they make; karmani -- works; sat -- pure; sastri -- into scriptures; kurvanti -- they make; sastrani -- the scriptures.

TRANSLATION

Their association makes holy places holy, works auspicious, and the scriptures authoritative.

PURPORT

A tirtha is a place made sacred because the Supreme Lord performed His pastimes there. For example, Vrndavana is sacred because Sri Krsna spent His youth there, Navadvipa because Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu began His sankirtana movement there. Places like Dhruva-ghata or Naimisaranya, where maha-janas performed devotional service, are also tirthas. Devotees like to reside in tirthas and perform their bhajana there, and pilgrims seeking purification go to bathe in the sacred rivers flowing through the sacred sites. But the tirthas become burdened by the sins of visiting pilgrims, who sometimes commit new sins even while traveling on pilgrimage. In all the religions of the world, commercialism tends to spring up and pollute the famous shrines. Because of this, the Gaudiya Vaisnava acarya Narottama dasa Thakura stated that in the Kali-yuga going on pilgrimage creates bewilderment. Srila Prabhupada writes:

In India it is still a practice that many advanced transcendentalists give up their family lives and go to Vrndavana to live there alone and completely engage in hearing and chanting the holy pastimes of the Lord. This system is recommended in the Srimad-Bhagavatam, and the six Gosvamis of Vrndavana followed it, but at the present moment many karmis and pseudo devotees have overcrowded the holy place of Vrndavana just to imitate this process recommended by Sukadeva Gosvami. [Krsna, p. 881]

To purify the tirthas of the influence of the nondevotees, saints occasionally visit them. In fact, it is the presence of the saints that actually makes the places holy. If one visits a tirtha and only does some shopping and takes a ritual bath there, without inquiring from saintly persons, his visit is useless.

When the sage Vidura went to the palace of the Kurus in Hastinapura, Yudhisthira Maharaja praised him with the same words Narada uses here: tirthi-kurvanti tirthani. Srila Prabhupada writes,

By their actions the pure devotees of the Lord can render any place into a place of pilgrimage, and the holy places are worth the name only on their account. Such pure devotees are able to rectify the polluted atmosphere of any place, and what to speak of a holy place rendered unholy by the questionable actions of interested persons who try to adopt a professional life at the cost of the reputation of the holy place. [Bhag. 1.13.10, purport]

In a similar passage, the sage Bhagiratha praised the river Ganges and the saints who bathe in her waters: "When such pure devotees bathe in your water, the sinful reactions accumulated from other people will certainly be counteracted, for such devotees always keep in the core of their hearts the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who can vanquish all sinful reactions" (Bhag. 9.9.6).

If the saints are so influential just by their presence, then we can just imagine how much their acts are worshipable and worth following. Most people's actions result in reactions (karma), but the acts of great souls convert karma into bhakti. Whoever serves a pure devotee gains a permanent spiritual asset, even if he does so unknowingly (ajnata-sukrti). Although we cannot expect to equal the deeds of pure devotees, we should not shy away from trying to emulate them. As Srila Prabhupada used to say, "Do as I am doing."

Narada states that the best devotees add spiritual authority even to the scriptures. A striking example of this is Srila Prabhupada's fulfillment of a prediction of Lord Caitanya's recorded in the Caitanya-bhagavata:

prthivite ache yata nagaradi-grama

sarvatra pracara haibe mora nama

"In every town and village of the world, My name [the holy name of Krsna] will be preached." This statement used to puzzle Vaisnava scholars; some said it was to be taken allegorically. How could mlecchas in Western countries take up the worship of Lord Krsna and Lord Caitanya and chant Hare Krsna in their towns and cities? But Srila Prabhupada proved the skeptics wrong: On his spiritual master's order and by Lord Caitanya's grace, he created the Hare Krsna movement, which quickly spread until newspapers and commentators proclaimed: "Krsna Chant Startles London," and " 'Hare Krsna' has become a household word."

Srila Prabhupada's preaching of the Bhagavad-gita provides another example of how the pure devotees give authority to the scriptures. For more than two hundred years before Srila Prabhupada came to the West with Bhagavad-gita As It Is, the Bhagavad-gita had been known in Western countries as "the sacred gospel of the Hindus." And yet no one had become a devotee of Lord Krsna from reading Bhagavad-gita, although Lord Krsna teaches surrender to Him as the goal of the Gita. But through his realized translations and purports Srila Prabhupada brought life to the text of Bhagavad-gita, and now thousands of non-Hindus throughout the world are recognizing Lord Krsna as the Supreme Personality of Godhead and becoming His sincere devotees.

Narada will now explain why saintly persons are so auspicious and influential.

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Copyright (c) The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International, Inc.
His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Founder Acarya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness
Satsvarupa dasa Goswami
Gopiparanadhana dasa Adhikari