Begging Alms like the bee or Madhukari

All Glories to HDG Srila Bhakti Promode Puri Goswami Maharaj

All Glories to HDG Srila Bhakti Siddhanta  Sarawati Prabhupada

Madhukar means the bee. The devotee by wandering and begging alms performs what is called Madhukari. The bee just gathers enough honey from various flowers  for survival. In the same way, the saintly devotee wanders around and gathers alms from different people for the sustenance of his body. The saintly person even with equanimity often visits the house of sinful people without any qualms.  Factually ,only a sinless elevated person can accept alms in such a manner. But otherwise those who have even a vestige of pride of their high birth, wealth, scholarship or beauty of form will not be able to perform this act of Madhukari. The reasons are as follows for one proud of  his high birth ,will definitely shirk in going to  lower class people for begging alms. On possessing opulence and wealth one's soul is stirred by shame  in begging from others. In having scholarship, he will feel his renowned name will become diminished by the act of begging from others. By being possessed by  good looks, one  will feel  worried that perchance he may have to sacrifice his good looks by the act of begging. In short, only one devoid of all these bonds and without such attachment can be fit to accept alms from others. Sometimes ,people come to the holy place, Vrndavana and practice Madhukari for one or two days. Moreover, of them ,some even  acting as  renounced persons but  with sense of  great prestige of themselves in their mind would often question their Brajabasi donors of alms  on the caste they belonged to without reservation. The pure devotees are able to detect the hypocrisy of such individuals. Narottama has sung how it  difficult to be unalloyed to the service of the Lord until one has renounced family, friendship and followers. Without the unalloyed devotion to the Lord ,one will be beset by bodily attachment, solutions, lamentation, material desires and greed with the strong feeling of me and mine and for such people there is no question of  actual residence in  Vrndavana Dham. Without the desire of transcendental service ,there can be no question of spiritual realization. That type of residence in Vrndavana means to be simple encumbered by the material illusory energy. Thakur Mahasaya  states that  only by being unalloyed in service to the Supreme Lord will one be  able to give up all material desires and lamentation and in that stage can one qualify to reside in Dhama, Vrndavana. He has forewarned all the living entities by singing in this way : When can I give up sleeping in a comfortable bed and roll in the dust of  Vrndavana? When can I give up the six tastes of the tongue to be satisfied with what is obtained by begging alms.? In the Bhagavatam ,it is stated how Prahlada was severely tortured in many ways by Hiranyakasipu.  Prahlada signifies intense joy or awakening of joy  while Hiranyakashipu implies his  defeat seems already inevitable. In short, where Rama is absent then lust is present and vice versa. Hiranya means gold and Kashipu means an excellent bedstead for enjoyment. As long as the living entity is inclined to material enjoyment, he will be far from relishing actual devotion to the Lord. Those who have these lower enjoying tendencies and yet want to relish the highest mellows will be cheated by being propelled in the wrong direction. The bee residing on the outer enclosed bottle of  pure honey can never be able to taste the honey. Similarly, those without taking shelter of the pure  Vaishnava devotees but instead  blindly follow the imposter gurus who hanker after wealth ,women and fame  with the desire to relish and portray these divine mellows will meet the same fate. They will never be able to pierce through the glass covering to taste the honey but rather will be prone to  be implicated in offences to the pure residents of the Dhama. Usually comfortable, restful sleep with tasty ,nourishing food with all the six tastes are yearned  by all living entities. As the instructions of Prahlad Maharaj in the verses : matir na krshna parato va svah va mithyapedeta grhavartanam----- and na te vidur svartha gatim hi vishnum----------

Prahlad instructs  that  devotion to Krishna is  threefold ,firstly by paratah , following the instructions of the spiritual master then  svatah or by one 's spiritual  endeavor and scriptural study and lastly mithya by association with like minded devotees in favorable hearing and chanting. Unfortunately, those who are after women and  gold    will not be able to obtain devotion to Krishna. Grhavrata here means those who have made like a vow that their fulfillment will be in  gaining wealth ,opulence in living with  all enjoyments of household life and working toward  that end only will never be able to attain devotion to Krishna. These class of people may be practicing hearing and chanting for million of years ,hearing scriptures for thousands of years while hearing instructions of guru for hundreds of years will never be able to obtain devotion for they a compared to a foolish boatman who having placed the anchor in a certain spot then attempts to row his boat  in the water for the result will  be no gain but just painful effort as the spiritual efforts of one in material life. In a nut shell ,he is simply the servant of his senses.by his efforts in increasing material paraphernalia, his senses have become restless. In that state of restlessness, he is destined to suffer  material sorrows repeatedly as others before. There is no actual enjoyment but some vague fulfillment of their sensual expectation  in the state of restlessness of the senses but continue in that fashion just as a camel when eating thorns in the desert then come to relish tasting his own blood produced out of that foolish effort. In this way being cheated by their restless senses they are further doomed to the lowest hells.

His father after hearing his instructions scolded him severely saying ,''you fool! , I am who is even worshipped by Indra ,king of the Gods also by all in  this world, presently  who can be  more worthy of respect than me ?Yet you dare to speak in this fashion to me, your father? Sandhamarka is the respected son of  the renowned Sukracharya . He is a great scholar who knows the purports of scriptures  and learned in the Vedas  and Vedanta .Yet you a mere child,  dare to question his understanding of the Vedas ''?To this Prahlada replied ,''so what if  he  the son of the great  Sukracharaya or a renowned scholar? The reason is that he does not have understanding of his real identity nor the actual spiritual goal as he does not have any connection with the Supreme Lord Vishnu nor that type of connecting knowledge. At best his striving in his present contamination  will be by pious activities to be elevated to the heavenly planets  as by the Smrti scriptures .That result will foster due to his fervent outward materialistic outlook .My point if the guru is ignorant of his identity , what can he teach his disciple? Just as one who is blind in his outlook will never be able to reach their disciples in the right way rather they will all  fall in their own dug pit of illusion .Such is the fate of the guru and disciples of this sort bound  by the innumerous, complex knots of the fruitive actions they indulge in. But they will never be able to taste the high joy of devotional service experienced by the denizens of Braja. To serve the lotus feet of Krishna is the highest goal most auspicious and destroyer of all  material contamination. Therefore in spite of reading the Vedas until and unless one takes to faithfully following the instructions of the pure devotees by  giving up  attachment to wife ,family e.t.c. with giving up to simply  indulgence in knowledge and  fruitive work without  taking up to pure devotional service ,he  will never be able to receive the lotus dust of the pure Vaishnavas. Therefore in order to perform madhukari  together with  bliss of actual  service in Braja ,one must surrendered in the footsteps to the  great devotees as Raghunath Goswami,Srila Narottama or Sri Syamananda. To think of these great devotees in terms of their caste of birth will condemn one to countless suffering for million of years in the lowest hells.