hÄá¸ike ÄniyÄ saba dÅ«ra karÄila
jala-gomaya diyÄ sei sthÄna lepÄila
hÄá¸ike - a sweeper; ÄniyÄ - calling; saba - all; dÅ«ra karÄila - caused to be thrown far; jala - water; gomaya - cow dung; diyÄ - mixing; sei - that; sthÄna - place; lepÄila - caused to be smeared over.
They called for a sweeper [hÄá¸i], who threw all the items of worship far away and cleansed the place by mopping it with a mixture of water and cow dung.
The men in Vedic society who engage in public sanitary activities like picking up stool and sweeping the street are called hÄá¸is. Sometimes they are untouchable, especially when engaged in their profession, yet such hÄá¸is also have the right to become devotees. This is established by ÅšrÄ« Bhagavad-gÄ«tÄ (9.32), where the Lord declares:
mÄá¹ hi pÄrtha vyapÄÅ›ritya ye ’pi syuḥ pÄpa-yonayaḥ
striyo vaiÅ›yÄs tathÄ Å›Å«drÄs te ’pi yÄnti parÄá¹ gatim
“O son of Pá¹›thÄ, those who take shelter in Me, though they be of lower birth — women, vaiÅ›yas [merchants], and śūdras [workers] — can attain the supreme destination.â€
There are many untouchables of the lower caste in India, but according to Vaiṣṇava principles everyone is welcome to accept this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement on the spiritual platform of life and thus be freed from trouble. Neither equality nor fraternity is possible on the material platform.
When Lord Caitanya declares tṛṇÄd api su-nÄ«cena taror iva sahiṣṇunÄ, He indicates that one must be above the material conception of life. When one thoroughly understands that he is not the material body but a spiritual soul, he is even humbler than a man of the lower castes, for he is spiritually elevated. Such humility, in which one thinks himself lower than the grass, is called su-nÄ«catva, and being more tolerant than a tree is called sahiṣṇutva, forbearance. Being situated in devotional service, not caring for the material conception of life, is called amÄnitva, indifference to material respect; yet a devotee thus situated is called mÄna-da, for he is prepared to give honor to others without hesitation.
Mahatma Gandhi started the hari-jana movement to purify the untouchables, but he was a failure because he thought that one could become a hari-jana, a personal associate of the Lord, through some kind of material adjustment. That is not possible. Unless one fully realizes that he is not the body but is a spiritual soul, there is no question of his becoming a hari-jana. Those who do not follow in the footsteps of Lord Caitanya MahÄprabhu and His disciplic succession cannot distinguish between matter and spirit, and therefore all their ideas are but a mixed-up hodgepodge of problems. They are virtually lost in the bewildering network of MÄyÄdevÄ«.
