Text 135] The Cleansing of the Gundicd Temple 65

material enjoyment from the heart of the devotee who relishes His messages,
which are in themselves virtuous when properly heard and chanted.”

If the devotee at all wants to cleanse his heart, he must chant and hear the glo-
ries of the Lord, Sri Krsna (srnvatam sva-kathah krsnah). This is a simple process.
Krsna Himself will help cleanse the heart because He is already seated there. Krsna
wants to continue living within the heart, and the Lord wants to give directions,
but one has to keep his heart as clean as Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu kept the
Gundica temple. The devotee therefore has to cleanse his heart just as the Lord
cleansed the Gundica temple. In this way one can be pacified and enriched in
devotional service. If the heart is filled with straw, grains of sand, weeds or dust (in
other words, anydbhildsa-pdrna), one cannot enthrone the Supreme Personality
of Godhead there. The heart must be cleansed of all material motives brought
about through fruitive work, speculative knowledge, the mystic yoga system and
so many other forms of so-called meditation. The heart must be cleansed without
ulterior motive. As Srila Rapa Gosvami says: anydabhilasita-Sanyarh jfana-kar-
mady-andvrtam. In other words, there should not be any external motive. One
should not attempt material upliftment, understanding the Supreme by specula-
tive knowledge, fruitive activity, severe austerity and penance, and so on. All
these activities are against the natural growth of spontaneous love of Godhead.
As soon as these are present within the heart, the heart should be understood to
be unclean and therefore unfit to serve as Krsna’s sitting place. We cannot per-
ceive the Lord’s presence in our hearts unless our hearts are cleansed.

A material desire is explained as a desire to enjoy the material world to its fullest
extent. In modern language, this is called economic development. An inordinate
desire for economic development is considered to be like straws and grains of
sand within the heart. If one is overly engaged in material activity, the heart will
always remain disturbed. As stated by Narottama dasa Thakura:

samsdra visdnale, diva-nisi hiya jvale,
judaite na kainu upaya

In other words, endeavor for material opulence is against the principle of devo-
tional service. Material enjoyment includes activities such as great sacrifices for
auspicious activity, charity, austerity, elevation to the higher planetary system,
and even living happily within the material world.

Modernized material benefits are like the dust of material contamination. When
this dust is agitated by the whirlwind of fruitive activity, it overcomes the heart.
Thus the mirror of the heart is covered with dust. There are many desires to per-
form auspicious and inauspicious activities, but people do not know how life after
life they are keeping their hearts unclean. One who cannot give up the desire for
fruitive activity is understood to be covered by the dust of material contamina-
tion. Karmis generally think that the interaction of fruitive activities can be coun-
