Seeing through another's eyes.

As we were studying about Chapter 6: How to Discharge Devotional Service in the Nectar of Devotion, the class reached a discussion on the worshippable rivers like Mother Ganga and Yamuna. The discussion found its way to the topic on being able to see the dham. Seeing the dham requires the mercy of Gopisvara Mahadev who is the gatekeeper of the dham and also that of the Vrajavasis. The question arose "Can we partake the water from River Yamuna or Ganga?" "Can we risk having a dip in the water?" From our viewpoint Yamuna or Ganga is another river that is polluted by tonnes of industrial waste and fecal matter. It is a place where the ashes of the dead find an end, the beginning of a hope that the departed souls move on to an auspicious life in the future!

I remembered a class that I heard by HH Mahanidhi Swami on how every realized soul beginning with Caitanya Mahaprabhu, started parikrama of Mathura Mandal-Vrindavana by having a dip in the Yamuna. Though devotees (aspiring or fanatics), we still tend to forget how Yamnua Mayi is a person, how Ganga Mayi is a person and how they have a spiritual form in the Spiritual world. While we look through our pricey coolers and judge the Yamuna as being filthy, polluted and dirty, Mother Yamuna is looking at us wondering "There he comes with years of filth and he/she is going to dump all of it in my waters."

Description of Yamuna Devi from the KRSNA Book, Chapter 58

While they were resting and drinking water, they saw a beautiful girl of marriageable age walking alone on the bank of the Yamuna. Krsna asked His friend Arjuna to go forward and ask the girl who she was. By the order of Krsna, Arjuna immediately approached the girl, who was very beautiful. She had an attractive body and nice glittering teeth and smiling face. Arjuna inquired, "My dear girl, you are so beautiful with your raised breasts--may I ask you who you are? We are surprised to see you loitering here alone. What is your purpose in coming here? We can guess only that you are searching after a suitable husband. If you don't mind, you can disclose your purpose. I shall try to satisfy you."
The beautiful girl was the river Yamuna personified. She replied, "Sir, I am the daughter of the sun-god, and I am now performing penance and austerity to have Lord Visnu as my husband. I think He is the Supreme Person and just suitable to become my husband. I disclose my desire thus because you wanted to know it."

While we hold our noses for fear of throwing up, Mother Yamuna or Ganga cannot bear the stench of our perspiring bodies, the stench of our inflated ego and the stench of our sometimes diseased and sore bodies.

She who is fragrant with scented ointments from Lord Krishna’s transcendental body has taken on the sins of countless sinners and has become tainted. It is not They who are polluted, it is us, and the reflection of our own lusty impure hearts is the pollution visible today.

As one verse in the Yamunastakam reads:

May Sri Yamuna, the daughter of Suryadeva, who is the famous splendid spiritual river flowing through the Bhuh Bhuvah and Svah planets, who burns away the greatest sins, and who is fragrant with scented ointments from Lord Krishna’s transcendental body, always purify me.

This discussion and my own thoughts made me realize our insignificance and the greatness of the benedictions of Krishna and His many wonderful associates and devotees.