Controlling the Tongue

Written by David Bruce Hughes

The other day we revealed a very confidential spiritual secret, that the key to purifying the consciousness, experiencing transcendental ecstasy and liberation from material existence is controlling the tongue. This is almost unknown in the West, because people are so attached to different polluted material tastes. It is actually very difficult to control the tongue. But the rewards of this practice are very great.

There are so many defects in materialistic civilization. The problems are increasing every day. The leaders are very foolish, full of ignorance; but still, they are passing themselves off as great scientists, great philosophers and great politicians. But they haven’t got any real knowledge. So our duty as students of the Esoteric Teaching is to educate them, give them real spiritual knowledge.

Tatha dehantara-praptih. This is the crucial point, dehantara-praptih. One has to accept another material body. Thus the chain of birth and death, of material suffering, continues. Because as soon as you accept another body, janma, birth, then where there is janma, there is also mrtyu, death. And between janma and mrtyu, birth and death, there is disease and old age.

If you can find out a means so that you do not have to accept another material body, then you are delivered from all suffering. So Kṛṣṇa says [Bhagavad-gita 4.9], tyaktva deham punar janma naiti: “One can avoid accepting another material body.” How? Janma karma ca me divyam evam yo vetti tattvatah:

"One who knows the transcendental nature of My appearance and activities does not, upon leaving the body, take his birth again in this material world, but attains My eternal abode.” [Bhagavad-gita 4.9]

Simply try to understand Kṛṣṇa: what is Kṛṣṇa, why Kṛṣṇa appears, how Kṛṣṇa appears, why Kṛṣṇa takes part in politics, why Kṛṣṇa protects His devotees—all Kṛṣṇa’s activities. Just try to understand. This is the core of the Esoteric Teaching.

The Esoteric Teaching means: try to understand Kṛṣṇa. Simply if you even try to understand, you can be relieved from the necessity of taking another material body. It is not possible for us to understand Kṛṣṇa fully. Kṛṣṇa is unlimited. But we can understand Him to the limit of our intelligence, whatever is possible for us. As stated in Bhagavad-gita, we should try to understand Kṛṣṇa as far as we can. If we simply try our best to understand Kṛṣṇa, His transcendental nature, His transcendental activities, then, as stated in Bhagavad-gita 13.9, you become free from this janma-mrtyu-jara-vyadhi: birth, death, old age and disease.

Kṛṣṇa’s appearance and activities are not ordinary or material. They are divyam... Janma karma me divyam. Divyam means transcendental. Tattvatah, in truth, in fact. If you can simply understand the facts about Kṛṣṇa’s transcendental nature, appearance and activities, you do not have to take another material body. Anyone can do it, simply by hearing from someone who is self-realized.

Therefore try to understand Kṛṣṇa. How you will understand Kṛṣṇa? Kṛṣṇa is so great. Here is a beautiful Sanskrit verse from the Esoteric Teaching:

atah sri-Kṛṣṇa-namadi
na bhaved grahyam indriyaih
sevonmukhe hi jihvadau
svayam eva sphuraty adah

“No one can understand the transcendental nature of the name, form, quality and pastimes of Sri Kṛṣṇa through his materially contaminated senses. Only when one becomes spiritually saturated by transcendental service to the Lord are the transcendental name, form, quality and pastimes of the Lord revealed to him.” [Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu 1.2.234].

You cannot understand Kṛṣṇa by these blunt material senses. That is not possible. You have to purify them first. Here is another important verse from the Esoteric Teaching:

sarvopadhi-vinirmuktam
tat-paratvena nirmalam
hrsikena hrsikesa-
sevanam bhaktir ucyate

“Bhakti-yoga, or devotional service, means engaging all our senses in the service of the Lord, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the master of all the senses. When the spirit soul renders service unto the Supreme, there are two side effects: One is freed from all material designations, and, simply by being employed in the service of the Lord, one's senses are purified.” [Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu 1.1.12]

Simply by Kṛṣṇa consciousness, always thinking of Kṛṣṇa, all your senses will automatically be purified. This is the process. Sevonmukhe hi jihvadau. And you begin this process with your tongue.

Now, this is also very surprising. By utilizing our tongue, we can become perfect. This is also completely unknown and unsuspected by modern science. By utilizing the tongue, one can become perfect. This is the process given in the Esoteric Teaching: sravanam kirtanam visnoh: hearing and chanting about the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

If you engage the tongue to chant the dvadasaksara-mantra, om namo bhagavate vasudevaya, and use the tongue to taste prasadam, pure vegetarian food offered to God with love and devotion, you will become perfect simply by executing these two things. Do not accept anything, do not allow the tongue to touch anything which is impure, which is not offered to Kṛṣṇa. This is one engagement of the tongue. And the other: engage the tongue always in chanting the Holy Names of God. By this simple process you can become perfect in yoga.

Is this a very difficult task? No, anyone can do it. Anyone can chant; and anyone can take nice prasadam. Our students are making great spiritual advancement. They are becoming self-realized simply by the process of controlling the tongue: chant and take prasadam. So we are introducing this process all over the world via the Internet.

If you can do this, maintain this process steadily for some time, Kṛṣṇa will appear to you. In material consciousness you cannot see Kṛṣṇa. You cannot order Kṛṣṇa, “Please come, I want to see You.” No, that will not work. When He is pleased with your service, He will come. “Yes, I am here. See Me.” That is the history of all the great Master Teachers. Just like Dhruva Maharaja. Dhruva Maharaja was meditating, chanting om namo bhagavate vasudevaya and controlling his tongue very strictly; and within six months, he saw Kṛṣṇa, face to face. We also experienced the same thing; and if we can do it, so can you.

So everyone can see God, but you have to know the method. You will be able to see God, provided you utilize and control the tongue. We quoted earlier, sevonmukhe hi jihvadau. Jihvadau means “beginning with the tongue.” We have got so many different senses, and all the senses—eyes, ears, touch, smell—can be engaged in yoga. But begin with the tongue. Try to control the tongue and engage in Kṛṣṇa’s service, and everything else will come to you.

Therefore our predecessor Master Teacher Bhaktivinoda Thakura says, sarira abidya-jal, jodendriya tahe kal: “This body is material body and the senses are our greatest enemies,” jodendriya tahe kal. “So out of all the senses,” ta’ra madhye jihwa ati lobhamoy sudurmati, “of all the senses, the tongue is most formidable.” Lobhamoy, it is very greedy. And sudurmati, it very difficult to control.

So if you can control the tongue, the other senses will automatically be controlled. Simply for the sake of the uncontrolled tongue, so many slaughterhouses are being maintained. People cannot give up eating meat, because they are addicted to the taste. But what is the difficulty? You can create the same taste with milk curd. Prepare milk curd or farmer cheese and deep-fry it in ghee with salt and spices. You’ll get the same taste as meat. But let the animal live, take its milk, and prepare so many nice milk preparations.

But the materialistic rascals will not do even this. They are willing to kill simply for the sake of this tongue. It is so strong, this tongue. The tongue is demanding, “You must give me meat.” So to satisfy this desire, they are committing so many abominable sinful activities. And as a result, they become bound by the law of karma to accept another material body.

But if take up this process of the Esoteric Teaching seriously, control your senses beginning with the tongue, you can be relieved from all material miseries. Simply if you surrender to Kṛṣṇa, if you become Kṛṣṇa conscious, Kṛṣṇa will take care of you, and you will be saved from samsara, the horrible process of material birth and death.