82 Sri Caitanya-caritamrta [Antya-lila, Ch. 4

PURPORT

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura gives his opinion about how a person
completely engaged in the service of the Lord transforms his body from material
to transcendental. He says: “A pure devotee engaged in the service of Lord Krsna
has no desire for his personal sense gratification, and thus he never accepts any-
thing for that purpose. He desires only the happiness of the Supreme Personality
of Godhead, Krsna, and because of his ecstatic love for Krsna, he acts in various
ways. Karmis think that the material body is an instrument for material enjoyment,
and that is why they work extremely hard. A devotee, however, has no such
desires. A devotee always engages wholeheartedly in the service of the Lord,
forgetting about bodily conceptions and bodily activities. The body of a karmi is
called material because the karmi, being too absorbed in material activities, is al-
ways eager to enjoy material facilities, but the body of a devotee who tries his
best to work very hard for the satisfaction of Krsna by fully engaging in the Lord's
service must be accepted as transcendental. Whereas karmis are interested only
in the personal satisfaction of their senses, devotees work for the satisfaction of
the Supreme Lord. Therefore one who cannot distinguish between devotion and
ordinary karma may mistakenly consider the body of a pure devotee material.
One who knows does not commit such a mistake. Nondevotees who consider
devotional activities and ordinary material activities to be on the same level are
offenders to the chanting of the transcendental holy name of the Lord. A pure
devotee knows that a devotee’s body, being always transcendental, is just suit-
able for rendering service to the Lord.

A devotee on the topmost platform of devotional service always humbly thinks
that he is not rendering any devotional service. He thinks that he is poor in devo-
tional service and that his body is material. On the other hand, those known as
the sahajiyas foolishly think that their material bodies are transcendenial. Because
of this, they are always bereft of the association of pure devotees, and thus they
cannot behave like Vaisnavas. Observing the defects of the sahajiyds, Srila Bhakti-
vinoda Thakura has sung as follows in his book Kalyana-kalpa-taru:

ami ta’ vaisnava, e-buddhi ha-ile,
amani na haba ami
pratisthasa asi’, hrdaya dusibe,
ha-iba niraya-gami
nije srestha jani', ucchistadi-dane,
habe abhimdana bhdara
tdi sisya tava, thakiya sarvadé,

na la-iba puja kara

“If | think | am a Vaisnava, | shall look forward to receiving respect from others.
And if the desire for fame and reputation pollute my heart, certainly | shall go to
hell. By giving others the remnants of my food, | shall consider myself superior and
