I am describing everything in condensed form. There are three important principles in regard to eating: hit bhuk, mit bhuk and rit bhuk
1. Hit bhuk: Eat beneficial things; if I suffer from diabetes then eating sweets is not healthy; eat less of these things.
2. Mit bhuk: Eat less.
3. Rit Bhuk: Eat things, which are truthful. Using false money is untruthful food.
Saint Biharidevaji said, “Everybody fears a killer. But even worse is to eat the food of a killer. Eating food that is cooked by using bad money is immoral. It degrades one and ruins devotion. Even to touch money is dangerous. Sin can enter producing lust, greed and anger and it can destroy knowledge and detachment. It makes one envious of the spiritual master and the Lord.
Therefore one should be very careful about the food one eats.
Ananya bhakti is only possible when one is not entangled in collecting money. However, presently money is found with people who give lectures about ananya bhakti. The activity of the speaker is totally opposite to what he is preaching about.
I will share with you a real incident that happened. There was this person named Bhāvarājaji from Mumbai. He published a book Isha Prāpti in Vṛndāvana a long time ago. He was also the president of a political party BJP. He used to come here to Maan Mandira and later he would go to Vṛndāvana.
One day he asked me a question: “Today I have a doubt. Please help clarify it for me.”
I asked him, “What is your doubt?”
He said, “Some days back a Mahātmā went to Bombay from Vṛndāvana and glorified Vṛndāvana in such away that the entire audience cried. On another day when his program was finished he had to come back to Vṛndāvana. We went with him to see him off bringing garlands and sweets for him. Then Swamiji was saddened.”
I asked him, “Why are you saddened when you are returning to Vṛndāvana? This is a very joyous occasion. We all crave to go there, you are so fortunate.”
He replied, “What to do, because my program has finished, you are sending me back.”
In my mind I was questioning why he could have so much grief when he was returning to Vṛndāvana. So I asked him to clear my doubt.
I told Bhāvarājaji that his doubt was correct. If he had so much love for Vṛndāvana, why was he in grief leaving Mumbai?
My spiritual master said something similar: There was a boy in Braja that used to love my spiritual master so much. Now he has left this world.
Once when this boy came to touch his feet, my Guru asked him, “How are you?”
The boy replied, “Baba, tomorrow I have to go to Delhi for a program.” Then he began to cry, “I have to leave Braja. Baba please please bless me that I will not miss Braja.”
Then my spiritual master said, “You are crying because you are going to Delhi. This is the mercy of the Lord. Some other Brajabāsīs who live in Braja become happy at the opportunity to go to the city and to perform on a stage with thousands of people watching. Sadly so many leave Braja and are so happy. After crying from here you will always go to the outside.”
This boy was very astonished and he said to me, “Why has Bābā said this to me in this way because I am a Brajabāsī? I have a natural love of Braja. I always cry when I have to leave Vraja.”
I replied to him, “Whatever a great saint says is always truth.”
After some time that person went away to Delhi and after some days said, “Bābā in New Delhi I have a permanent place.” Then I understood my spiritual master was right. ‘After crying you are going to Delhi you are crying this is great mercy. After some days even your crying would be finished and after being happy you would go outside of Braja.’
vyasa āsa sagar mein dube āyi bhakti bisāri
Hariram Vyasaji says, ‘That people, who are drowned in the ocean of expectation, all their obtained devotion is finished.’
Before me a girl is sitting. She was going to Chandigarh and then she wept. Her name is Madhurika, her full name is Dipika. She told me, “For two days I am going with Nrsimha Bābā.” Then I remembered my spiritual master’s words, “If you are crying for leaving Braja, that is very wonderful, but after some time you would be happy. God should not do this with you but it happens.”
Slowly, slowly, the human being falls down and slowly, slowly, his devotion is destroyed. Why? This is because one falls into māyā. Then if their food is not pure, the heart does not become purified and love of Kṛṣṇa is destroyed.
As SB 5.5.1 states:
ṛṣabha uvāca
nāyaṁ deho deha-bhājāṁ nṛloke
kaṣṭān kāmān arhate viḍ-bhujāṁ ye
tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena sattvaṁ
śuddhyed yasmād brahma-saukhyaṁ tv anantam
Lord Ṛṣabhadeva told His sons: My dear boys, of all the living entities who have accepted material bodies in this world, one who has been awarded this human form should not work hard day and night simply for sense gratification, which is available even for dogs and hogs that eat stool. One should engage in penance and austerity to attain the divine position of devotional service. By such activity, one’s heart is purified, and when one attains this position, he attains eternal, blissful life, which is transcendental to material happiness and which continues forever.
Unless the heart is purified, love for Kṛṣṇa cannot manifest. Love of Kṛṣṇa is ended forever.
I said to that girl, “If you are crying for going to Chandigarh, that is sufficient. If you were happy, that would be a different thing. But you are crying so that means you have some love for Braja. And also I understand that this is the mercy of God upon you.”
One person is leaving Braja happy, that means there is love for the materialistic world. Another is leaving crying; that means there is some love for Braja.
What is love, what is prema? Real love is a relation that is never broken. Even if there is reason for breaking the bond, the bond of love continues. Just like Mirabai was even poisoned to try and break her love for the Lord, but her love could not be broken.
However when we even get a headache, we say, “Today I have a headache, I cannot go to kirtana.”
We sing the songs of Mira, but our activities are opposite because we have no real love.
In real love even if there is suffering of the mind and body the bondage is not broken.
Some days ago I went to a village named Bahin where during the time of Aurangzeb there was a Brajabāsī named Kanha. He was tortured and the Muslims understood his influence upon the locals and they thought that “If Kanha became a Muslim, then without killing, thousands of Hindus would become Muslim.”
This Muslim area of Braja was previously Hindu. This will be written in the second part of the book, the Rasīli Braja Yatra. It would be described that this entire area of Braja, which is now Muslim, is now called Mevāt; that previously these people were Brajabāsīs.
So Kanha had been invited and then tortured, and undergone so much suffering; while standing cement is placed all around the body, higher and higher, till the construction reached his nose and only his eyes were open; it was very difficult for him to breathe.* They would tell him, “You will be protected if you become a Muslim.” But he refused; he had so much love for Braja. Every day he used to say that, “I can not become a Muslim.”
* In ancient times in India, a common practice of the Muslims in the torture of Hindus was to step-by-step construct a cement cocoon around an individual that if acceptance of their religion was not done then one would be buried alive.
Out of love for his Hindu dharma daily he refused to become a Muslim. For this he was given so much torture. He had faith in his Dharma and he had faith in Braja.
Yet people like us, if we have a program outside of Braja we become happy. How much love do we really have for Braja? We do not even possess a scent of real love.
Kumbandasji was invited outside of Braja. Wearing shoes on his feet, he walked to Agra. Akbhar asked him to sing some songs. He asked the emperor, “What can I sing?”
Everyone was expecting him to sing the glories of the King, but instead, he insulted the King. First he said to the King, “I am not even a devotee of the Lord because I have come out of Braja to Agra to be with you!”
First of all he criticized himself. Yet people like us take pride in going out for different programs. That means we have no love for Braja.
Kumbanda dasji used to go on foot because he was very poor. He walked from Braja to Agra, from Govardana to Agra is more than 40 miles. He said, “While coming and going the name of God was missing.” A huge gathering of Muslims had gathered around, listening to the exchange between the King and Kumbhandasji. Never before had the King been spoken to in this way. All the society of Muslims became greatly angry at Kumbhanadasji.
The King was humiliated because Kumbhandasji said, “Akbar, just to look at your face one becomes contaminated by sin.
And still people like us become happy that we have been respected by a well-known politician or minister. We think we are so lucky.”
Kumbhandasji said, “O Akbar by looking at your face I have been contaminated. All this royalty is false. O King, if you die tomorrow, what is the use of all this royalty?”
All the Muslims became outraged and shouted, “This is a great insult to our King. This Kafir Kumban das should be hanged, he should be punished immediately!”
The King then told all the ministers, “No, sit down!”
Kumbandasji said, “For your benefit I have stated this.”
The King then said, “ What can I do to properly respect you? “
Kumbandasji then told the King, “Never call me again because I don’t want to see your face!”
He said this to King Akbar, a Muslim King. This is real love of Braja. And people like us become happy by leaving Braja and receiving money and respect…