Everyone is working... Even a great economist, Mr. Marshall, he says that economic development begins from family affection. Family affection. So unless one thinks that he has to maintain his wife, children, family, there is no question of economic development. Impetus. So yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke sva-dhīḥ kalatrādiṣu and bhauma ijya-dhīḥ (SB 10.84.13). Bhauma, this earth, as worshipable. Bhauma ijya-dhīḥ yat-tīrtha-buddhiḥ salile: "And for pilgrimage, one who thinks that the water is tīrtha..." Tīrtha means where one can get transcendental knowledge. Sva-dhīḥ kalatrādiṣu bhauma ijya-dhīḥ, yat-tīrtha-buddhiḥ salile na karhicij janeṣv abhijñeṣu. "...but has no interest to associate with persons who is expert in transcendental knowledge. Such, these persons, they are called go-khara." Go-khara means cows and asses. So Arjuna played the part of a go-khara. In the battlefield of Kurukṣetra, he played the part of an ordinary person, go-khara, who is identifying this body as self. Therefore he required instruction.
Tirtha means
Srimad-Bhagavatam
SB Canto 3
With your heart cleansed by properly carrying out My command, resigning to Me the fruits of all your acts, you will finally attain to Me.
Here the words tīrthī-kṛtāśeṣa-kriyārthaḥ are significant. Tīrtha means a sanctified place where charity is given. People used to go to places of pilgrimage and give munificently in charity. This system is still current. Therefore the Lord said, "In order to sanctify your activities and the results of your actions, you will offer everything unto Me." This is also confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā: "Whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you sacrifice, the result should be given to Me only." In another place in Bhagavad-gītā the Lord said, "I am the enjoyer of all sacrifices, all penances and everything done for the welfare of mankind or society." All activities, therefore, whether for the welfare of family, society, country or humanity at large, must be performed in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is the instruction given by the Lord to Kardama Muni. Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira welcomed Nārada Muni: "Wherever you are present, that place becomes sanctified because the Lord Himself is always seated in your heart." Similarly, if we act in Kṛṣṇa consciousness under the direction of the Lord and His representative, then everything is sanctified. This is the indication given to Kardama Muni, who acted on it and therefore received the most excellent wife and child, as will be disclosed in later verses.
SB Canto 4
My dear Kṣattā, Vidura, the celestial damsels come down to those rivers in their airplanes with their husbands, and after sexual enjoyment, they enter the water and enjoy sprinkling their husbands with water.
It is understood that even the damsels of the heavenly planets are polluted by thoughts of sex enjoyment, and therefore they come in airplanes to bathe in the rivers Nandā and Alakanandā. It is significant that these rivers, Nandā and Alakanandā, are sanctified by the dust of the lotus feet of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In other words, just as the Ganges is sacred because its water emanates from the toes of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Nārāyaṇa, so whenever water or anything is in touch with devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, it is purified and spiritualized. The rules and regulations of devotional service are based on this principle: anything in touch with the lotus feet of the Lord is immediately freed from all material contamination.
The damsels of the heavenly planets, polluted by thoughts of sex life, come down to bathe in the sanctified rivers and enjoy sprinkling water on their husbands. Two words are very significant in this connection. Rati-karśitāḥ means that the damsels become morose after sex enjoyment. Although they accept sex enjoyment as a bodily demand, afterwards they are not happy.
Another significant point is that Lord Govinda, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is described here as Tīrthapāda. Tīrtha means "sanctified place," and pāda means "the lotus feet of the Lord." People go to a sanctified place to free themselves from all sinful reactions. In other words, those who are devoted to the lotus feet of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, automatically become sanctified. The Lord's lotus feet are called tīrtha-pāda because under their protection there are hundreds and thousands of saintly persons who sanctify the sacred places of pilgrimage. Śrīla Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura, a great ācārya of the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava-sampradāya, advises us not to travel to different places of pilgrimage. Undoubtedly it is troublesome to go from one place to another, but one who is intelligent can take shelter of the lotus feet of Govinda and thereby be automatically sanctified as the result of his pilgrimage. Anyone who is fixed in the service of the lotus feet of Govinda is called tīrtha-pāda; he does not need to travel on various pilgrimages, for he can enjoy all the benefits of such travel simply by engaging in the service of the lotus feet of the Lord. Such a pure devotee, who has implicit faith in the lotus feet of the Lord, can create sacred places in any part of the world where he decides to remain. Tīrthī-kurvanti tīrthāni (SB 1.13.10). The places are sanctified due to the presence of pure devotees; any place automatically becomes a place of pilgrimage if either the Lord or His pure devotee remains or resides there. In other words, such a pure devotee, who is engaged one hundred percent in the service of the Lord, can remain anywhere in the universe, and that part of the universe immediately becomes a sacred place where he can peacefully render service to the Lord as the Lord desires.
Lectures
Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures
Just like somebody goes to Haridwar, Vṛndāvana. They finish their tīrtha, going, taking so much trouble. Just like in Calcutta there is Ganges, but people will go to Haridwar for taking bath in the Ganges there. Why it is prescribed? Not for the Ganges. The Ganges is there already in Calcutta. But if you go to a holy place, you'll find saintly person. That is required. But if you simply go to the holy places and take bath in the water and finish your business... No. That is not recommended. Tīrtha, going to tīrtha means to find out a learned saintly person and take knowledge from him. That is tīrtha.
Therefore it is said, yat-tīrtha-buddhiḥ salile na karhicij janeṣv abhijñeṣu. Those who are expert in giving knowledge, we should associate.
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
In India you will see, so many people are going to Haridwar, Vṛndāvana, and take their bath and shave their head, and then come back: "I went to tīrtha, holy place." That is not tīrtha. Tīrtha means to meet a high-grade saintly person. Tīrtha. Tīrthī-kurvanti tīrthāni. They make tīrtha holy place. Anywhere a saintly person is there, that is tīrtha. That is holy place. Not that I have to go Haridwar, five thousand miles from here. Wherever there is experienced holy persons, that is tīrtha. But they do not know. They go five hundred, five thousand miles away. Sometimes from your country they go to find out a guru in India. (laughs) And the guru who is canvassing here, he is useless. He is useless. So these things. Anyone who is of such conception of life, they have been described as asses and cows, means an animal.
Tīrtha means holy place of pilgrimage. In every religion there is the system that the followers, they go to the holy place of pilgrimage. Just like in India, there are many holy places: Gayā, Prayāga, Mathurā, Vṛndāvana, Haridvar, Rāmeśvaram, Jagannātha Purī, Navadvīpa. Many. Some of them are very prominent, and still there are many nonprominent. Similarly, the Muhammadans they go to Mecca, Medina.
The Ganges is coming from Hardwar down to the Bay of Bengal, but people will like to go to Hardwar, taking so much hardship, to take bath there, because that becomes tīrtha. In every religion they have got tīrtha. The Muslims, they have got mosque. What is that? Mecca, Medina. The Christians, they have got, where? Jerusalem. Similarly, the Hindus. Then they must travel very long. That will be tīrtha. But actually tīrtha means tīrthī-kurvanti tīrthāni. Where there is saintly person, that is tīrtha. Not to go ten thousand miles and simply take a dip in the water and come back.
The Christians are going to the Jordan, and the Hindus are going to the Ganges or Yamunā. They think, "If I take my bath in this river, Jordan, or in this Ganges or in this Yamunā, then I become immediately perfect religious." Yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke sva-dhīḥ kalatrādiṣu bhauma... (SB 10.84.13), yat-tīrtha-buddhiḥ salile. Salila means water. So they go to take bath in the water. Yat-tīrtha-buddhiḥ salile. Tīrtha means place of sanctuary. So tīrtha-buddhiḥ, yat-tīrtha-buddhiḥ. Real tīrtha is to find out a Kṛṣṇa conscious person. That is the business. Yat-tīrtha-buddhiḥ salile na karhicij janeṣv abhijñeṣu. Janeṣu. Tīrtha means in the holy places many saintly persons live. So if one goes to the holy place, they must find out a holy man who is living there, and take lesson from him. And that is purification. Not that I go and take bath in the water, and I become purified.
General Lectures
Just like people go to Vṛndāvana, Hardwar. Salile. They take birth in the Ganges and the Yamunā, and they think that "Now we have finished our tīrtha." No. Tīrtha is not that. Tīrtha means we have to find out sober person to take instruction from him. So people who are not interested to the sober man and lives like this, that "I am this body, and the bodily production or relation, they are my own men, and if I go to holy place, take bath and then come back..." No. Śāstra says, "No." Yat-tīrtha-buddhiḥ salile na karhicij janeṣu abhijñeṣu. You must approach abhijñaḥ person. That is the meaning of pilgrimage. As the Vedas says, tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum eva abhigacchet, śrotriyaṁ brahma-niṣṭham (MU 1.2.12). You must find out a sober man or guru so that he can instruct you, he can deliver you from ignorance of life.
| Page Title: | Tirtha means |
| Compiler: | Rishab, ParthsarathyM |
| Created: | 23 of Nov, 2011 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=2, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=7, Con=0, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 9 |