Verse 2.12.31

Bengali text, Devanagari and Unicode transliteration of verse 2.12.31:

পাইযা প্রভুর আজ্ঞা সর্ব-ভক্ত-গণ পরম আদরে শিরে করিলা বন্ধন ॥ ৩১ ॥

पाइया प्रभुर आज्ञा सर्व-भक्त-गण परम आदरे शिरे करिला बन्धन ॥ ३१ ॥

pāiyā prabhura ājñā sarva-bhakta-gaṇa parama ādare śire karilā bandhana || 31 ||

paiya prabhura ajna sarva-bhakta-gana parama adare sire karila bandhana (31)

English translation:

(31) Being ordered by the Lord, all the devotees respectfully tied those pieces of kaupīna on their heads.

Commentary: Gauḍīya-bhāṣya by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura:

By the order of Mahāprabhu all the devotees tied the pieces of kaupīnas on their heads, and by the order of the Lord they took them to their houses and regularly worshiped them with devotion. To consider the clothes that the Supreme Lord or His devotees wear below the navel on the lower parts of their body as equal to the clothes ordinary people wear on the lower parts of their body is completely against the intention of the devotional scriptures. The dust of the feet and clothes for the lower part of the body of worshipable personalities are sources of strength for persons who are hankering after devotional service. If one considers these items abominable or equal to one’s own, then the first level of devotional service known as śraddhā, or faith, is disturbed. In Caitanya-caritāmṛta (Antya 16.60) it is stated: “The dust of the feet of a devotee, the water that has washed the feet of a devotee, and the remnants of food left by a devotee are three very powerful substances.” There is no possibility of one obtaining devotional service to Viṣṇu until one is fixed in the understanding: chāḍiyā vaiṣṇava-sevā nistāra pāyeche kebā—without serving a pure devotee, one cannot advance in spiritual life. It is not proper for a person to consider his own stool and urine, or the stool and urine of those who are inferior to him, to be equal to the stool and urine of an exalted worshipable person. If one develops such a consideration, it will disturb his service to Hari, Guru, and Vaiṣṇava. And if one considers that which is not Hari, Guru, and Vaiṣṇava as Hari, Guru, and Vaiṣṇava, then instead of becoming faithful such a person becomes faithless and

deprived of respectable personalities’ mercy. This is aversion to the service of the Lord or the nondevotional platform.