Recently, HH Radhanatha Swami Maharaja was mentioning in a class that the idea of jumping over means I will do WHAT I LIKE. That is a state of bewilderment and illusion, being a product of janasya moho ‘yam aham mameti.
Are there some places where we need to jump over? WE have to take the “LEAP” of faith, we have to take that “HANUMAN JUMP” from having long standing faith in the material world to developing full faith in the spiritual world.
Isn’t it easy to jump over? In our childhood days in school, we used to play a game wherein our stamina was tested, and we would name that game only as stamina. We would repeatedly jump over the iron bars and whoever catches the other person would be termed as the winner. Easier than that was the long jump. Till whatever point you are able to jump, you can try. Once I remember, I was in the finals of the long jump in 8th Standard. As I was running to make my pace and I had aimed for the highest, just at that time, our club captain called my name loudly as she was expecting me to go very long, but I got distracted, and as a result even before taking the jump, I fell down. In a simple jump also, one can get distracted and fall down!
What about Krishna Consciousness? It is also a kind of long jump. But yes, here we are not talking about simple jumps or hops. Jumping over means moving from one project to another, moving from one service to another, moving from one temple to another, moving from one activity to another, moving from one desire to another. When this moving business happens based on our own likes and dislikes, based on the eccentricities of our mind, it is called as jumping.
There is a famous English proverb – “A rolling stone gathers no moss”. Similarly, a jumping person gathers no bhakti. What he or she gathers is only the mental satisfaction of having been able to make so many jumps. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura would give the story of the marriage party. They left in the night to reach the other village by a boat, but because the boatman had forgotten to remove the anchor, whole night their displacement was zero. Their distance covered was also zero. No gain at all.
When Lord Caitanya was small, two thieves became attracted by His jewels, and on the pretext of giving him sweetmeats, they lifted him up and started taking to a secluded place to remove all his valuables. But they got so very bewildered that the place they dropped off Nimai, that was his very own house!! Nimai enjoyed the whole trip, but as regards to the thieves, their net displacement was zero although they supposedly covered a lot of distance.
In bhakti, displacement matters more than the distance covered. That is why Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami writes,
bahu janma kare yadi śravaṇa, kīrtana
tabu ta’ nā pāya kṛṣṇa-pade prema-dhana
This person appears to be travelling a lot, but the net displacement is zero. The same thing happens when one keeps jumping over. Shrila Prabhupada was so unhappy with people who would just go behind him to different places throughout the country. One time when Prabhupada was in Vrindavan, he was leaving for a morning walk, and one devotee would just greet Prabhupada. It happened for 1-2 days, and the next time Prabhupada told him to the effect that why don’t you do something practical? Water has spilled over and the entire floor is wet, why can’t you take a mop and wipe it?
The idea of jumping over arises from the mind. Mind is the storehouse of various thoughts and desires. Mind’s business is to always express dissatisfaction, as mentioned in the Bhagavad Gita.
Real bhakti means we stay at one place – for a sufficient time for purification to happen. We stay in one project, we stay in one house, we stay in one service, we chant the same mantra and keep on consistently doing it. When we do the same, we will see our heart flooded with bliss and filled with realizations. Consistency amidst problems in life is what is expected from a devotee. Arjuna wanted to jump over his duty of fighting and become a beggar. Krishna told him to be in the same service and become purified through that.
The South Indian brahmana didn’t know how to read, but that was the service given to him by his guru. Can you imagine such a service you are expected to do consistently which you don’t know how to do, and other people are just laughing on you? But he got the grace of the Lord, the culmination of everything desired by a devotee. Although Hanuman literally jumped over, from the point of view of his service, he was super focused. He didn’t jump over his authorities, nor did he jump on them. He jumped across all the obstacles and achieved the path of perfection.
We need to understand where to jump over, where to crawl over, and most importantly where to remain steadfast in our life.
