Text 160] The Lord Instructs Srila Rapa Gosvami 343

time of death. Unfortunately people do not know that there is life after death;
therefore mundane people waste their time amassing material profit which has to
be left behind at the time of death. Such profit has no eternal benefit. Similarly,
adoration by mundane people is valueless because after death one has to accept
another body. Material adoration and title are decorations that cannot be carried
over to the next body. In the next life, everything is forgotten.

All these obstructions have been described in this verse as unwanted creepers.
They simply present obstacles for the real creeper, bhakti-lata-bija. One should be
very careful to avoid all these unwanted things. Sometimes these unwanted
creepers look exactly like the bhakti-lata creeper. They appear to be of the same
size and the same species when they are packed together with the bhakti-lata
creeper, but in spite of this, the creepers are called upasakha. A pure devotee can
distinguish between the bhakti-lata creeper and a mundane creeper, and he is
very alert to distinguish them and keep them separate.

TEXT 160

CASH Ahoel Gorse aio’ ara |
SH So) JHA TGS A AAW swe t

seka-jala pana upasakha badi’ yaya
stabdha haha mula-sakha badite na paya

SYNONYMS

seka-jala—sprinkling water; pafd—getting; upasakha—the unwanted
creepers; badi’ yaya—grow luxuriantly; stabdha hafid—becoming stopped; mdla-
sakha—the chief creeper; badite—to increase; na paya—is not able.

TRANSLATION

“If one does not distinguish between the bhakti-lata creeper and the other
creepers, the sprinkling of water is misused because the other creepers are
nourished while the bhakti-lata creeper is curtailed.

PURPORT

If one chants the Hare Krsna mantra while committing offenses, these un-
wanted creepers will grow. One should not take advantage of chanting the Hare
Krsna mantra for some material profit. As mentioned in verse 159:

‘nisiddhacara’, ‘kutinati’, ‘jiva-himmsana’
EU

‘labha’, ‘puja’, ‘pratisthadi’ yata upasakha-gana
