Text 196] The Cleansing of the Gundica Temple 97

SYNONYMS

hena—thus; tomdra—Your; sange—in association; mora—My; ekatre—
together; bhojana—eating; na jani—l do not know; tomdra sarige—by Your
association; kaiche—how; haya mana—My mind will turn.

TRANSLATION

Nityananda Prabhu continued: ‘You are such a monist! And now | am eat-
ing beside You. | do not know how My mind will be affected in this way.”

PURPORT

Sangat safijayate kamah (Bg. 2.62). One develops his consciousness according
to society and association. As Stila Nityananda Prabhu admits, a devotee should
be very careful when associating with those who are not devotees. When asked
by a householder devotee what the behavior of a devotee should be, Sri Caitanya
Mahaprabhu immediately replied:

asat-sanga-tyaga, ——el vaisnava-dcara
‘stri-sangi’——eka asddhu, ‘krsnabhakta’ dra
(Cc. Madhya 22.87)

A Vaisnava, a devotee, should simply discard intimate association with non-
devotees. In his Upadesamrta, Srila Ripa Gosvami has described the symptoms of
intimate relationships in this way:

dadati pratigrhnati
guhyam akhydati prcchati
bhunkte bhojayate caiva
sad-vidham priti-laksanam

The words bhunkte bhojayate indicate that one should eat with devotees. One
should carefully avoid eating food offered by nondevotees. Indeed, a devotee
should be very strict in not accepting food from a nondevotee, especially food
prepared in restaurants or hotels or on airplanes. Srila Nityananda Prabhu’s
reference in this connection is meant to emphasize that one should avoid eating
with Mayavadis and covert Mayavadis like the sahijiya Vaisnavas, who are ma-
terially affected.

TEXT 196

GRAS Foc Vea sertafar |
BisT-BlSs sea Foe, Cla AeA sow i
