Cleaning the heart everyday!

Cleaning the heart everyday! By jalangi on Tue, 2009-11-17 15:28. Because of some unimaginable good fortune, I got a service of cleaning Sri Sri Radha-Madhava’s dressing room. The room is actually very clean plus all the windows are closed all the time. Everyone entering into the room is also very clean. You have to take a bath and wear freshly washed clothes before you enter this room. However, when I am sweeping the floor, I can find some dust, flower petals and grains of sand every day. Therefore, I am wondering where the dirt comes from. Then I found out that outside of the dressing room, the floor is dirty. So when devotees are walking from outside, they carry the dirt on their feet. And they bring the dirt into the dressing room. So every day the floor should be swept and mopped. Sometimes we tend to be lazy, thinking that everything is cleansed today, so no need to clean tomorrow. However, our heart is just like the floor of the dressing room.  It gets dirty every day. Every day there are many things happening in our life. Every day we consciously or unconsciously take association from other people. All these events and other people’s words, thoughts will leave certain impact in our heart. If we are not careful, we may unconsciously take a lot of dirt from outside, and thus make our heart dirty. The best solution is to clean our heart every day by chanting Hare Krishna Maha-Mantra and executing the other aspects of devotional services. Besides, we have to be careful about the impact from outside. Don’t let dirty things lingering in our heart. As soon as we identify them, throw them all out and keep ourselves away from undesirable association. Similarly, I clean the outside of the dressing room a little bit. Then the cleanliness of the room is easier to maintain.   Just like Srila Prabhupada said in a purport in Sri Caitanya Caritamrta, “Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu also cleansed the outside of the temple, fearing that the grains of sand would again come within. In this connection,Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur explains that even though one may become free from the desire for frutive activity, sometimes the subtle desire for frutive activity again comes into being within the heart.” (CC Madhyda lila 135) We are still in this material world, so no wonder dirty things are everywhere. However, if we clean our heart every day, then we are not afraid of the dirty things any more. Just like me, I am not afraid of the floor getting dirty, because I am cleaning it every day. After cleaning, I always feel very happy. Why? The answer is in Sri Caitanya Caritamrta: In this way, all the rooms were cleansed with a hundred waterpots. After the rooms had been cleansed, the minds of the devotees were as clean as the rooms. (CC Madhya 12.105) When the temple was cleansed, it was purified, cool and pleasing, just as if the Lord’s own pure mind had appeared.” (CC Madhya 12.106) All glories to Sri Sri Radha-Madhava! (Jalangi devi dasi is a disciple of HH Umapati Swami)