World Vaishnava Association Interfaith Committee Establishment

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WVA INTERFAITH COMMITTEE ESTABLISHMENT PART 1 (MUST BE

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WORLD VAISHNAVA ASSOCIATION TO ESTABLISH INTERFAITH COMMITTEE,

SEEKING UNITY IN NON SECTARIAN DIVERSITY

 

 

HARE KRISHNA !

SRI SRI GURU & GAURANGA KI JAYA !

 

To All Devotees of The Lord,

 

Please accept my most humble obeisances.

 

Establishment of the WVA Interfaith Committee...

One Scholar's Historical Perspective

 

by Bhakti Ananda Goswami

 

The World Vaishnava Association is seeking to establish an Interfaith

Committee, to promote the non sectarian mission of Sri Chaitanya

Mahaprabhu and Sri Nityananda Rama. In the days of Sri Sri Gaura-

Nitai's Earthly pastimes, Their Bhakti Yoga Sankirtan Movement

inaugurated an astounding non sectarian religious revival and social

phenomenon, which has been called by scholars the 'Bengali

Renaissance". This religio-social Charismatic Movement embraced, and

was embraced by, not only various branches of Vaishnavas, but

Shaivites, Devi Worshipers, Buddhists and even Muslims. Its non

sectarian pure bhakti appeal was so overwhelming, that all kinds of

devotees were caught-up in it. Scholars have written about this

Sankirtan Movement's wide-reaching social effects.

 

After Sri Sri Gaura-Nitai's disappearance, Their Sankirtan Movement

was carried on by a Their illustrious followers, a small army of

Saints, whose individual histories are quite amazing themselves.

Their non sectarian Bhakti Yoga Movement stimulated moral

reformation, a spiritual revival of the masses, general literacy and

produced masterpieces of devotional literature, prayers, hymns and

liturgy. It created a revival in all of the sacred arts and sciences

in Bengal. Birth-caste barriers were eased, there was increased

social mobility and the status of women greatly improved. Religious

hostilities were much relieved, contributing to a more peaceful and

prosperous public order.

 

There was a distinct difference between this and the other great

devotional revival movements of history. The earlier Charismatic

Movement of the Indian Alvar Saints had produced a profound effect in

its time, and other great charismatic bhakti yoga movements had swept

across India and the ancient world from age to age. These popular

bhakti devotional movements shared some core doctrines and practices

with Sri Chaitanya's and Sri Nityananda's Sankirtan Movement. In

addition to the Bhakti Movements started by the great Indian

Vaishnava Acharyas like Sri Madhvacarya and Sri Ramanujacarya, there

were also great devotional movements which swept like waves across

North Africa, Europe and Asia. Some of these were the great Bridal

Mysticism and Caroling Religious Fairs of the Middle Ages Catholic

Europe, the Catholic Rosary Devotion to Jesus through Mary, and the

popular Eastern Rite Catholic and Orthodox Christian practice of

constantly reciting 'The Jesus Prayer'. Later there was a great

revival of the Rosary devotion to 'Jesus living in Mary', led by

Saint Louis de Montfort in France, which spread like wild-fire

accross Europe. Beside the great Catholic revivals led by Saint

Francis of Assisi and other Christian Mystics of the 11th and 12th

centuries, also during that era, was the rise of the Sufi Divine Love

Tradition of Rumi, al Ghazali, Suhrawardi and the Woman Saint Rabi'a

al-'Adawiyya. A central practice of this devotion was the invocation

of the 99 Beautiful Names of Allah. In Japan the Pure Land Bhakti

Buddhist Saints Honen, Shinran, Ippen and Nicherin eventually

popularized the constant repetition of Amitabha Buddha's (HRIH's)

Name as the 'Nembutsu', 'Namu Amida Butsu'. In Judaism, devotion to

Hashem, The Holy Name, and the Kabbalistic study of Shekinah (Shakti)

Bridal Mysticism also flourished from time-to-time. There was also a

revival of related Jewish Spirituality in the 11th and 12th

centuries, with the rise of Hasidic and Mediterranean Neo-Platonic

Jewish Mysticism. All of these Movements were actually historically

related to Vaishnavism, and had an inner or esoteric core of Bridal

Mysticism, and an exoteric, outer Charismatic (Charisma is

ATTRACTION, KRISHNA IS ALL ATTRACTIVE) Movement aspect of devotion to

the constant invocation of Godhead through His Holy Name.

 

On the surface of it, what then was different about the Charismatic

Holy Name Bhakti Yoga Movement of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's and Sri

Nityananda Rama's Bengali Renaissance ? While all of these other

Movements tended to unite the various lineages and sectarian off-

shoots of these Great Religions, Sri Sri Gaura-Nitai's Movement

alone united devotees of the Lord not only across Vaishnava sectarian

boundaries, but across the boundaries of the Great Religions

themselves ! It also drew mere lay followers directly into the

mystical core of devotion to God in the Bridal Mysticism mood of

Divine Conjugal Love. Such 'conjugal' mysticism was generally

restricted to the priests, monks, nuns and ascetics of the other

Bhakti Traditions. However, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and His

followers ultimately made the rarified heights of Divine Love

Mysticism accessable to pious commoners, men, women and householders,

initiates and lay people alike. It was said that Sri Chaitanya and

Sri Nityananda Rama 'plundered the storehouse of love of God, and

distributed its treasure to all, regardless of their

qualification' ! This act of God's unconditional Grace on

undeserving humanity was the essence of the non sectarian Bhakti Yoga

Revival Movement of Sri Sri Gaura-Nitai and Their Saintly Followers.

 

In the ecstatic footsteps of Sri Sri Guru and Gauranga, for the first

time, Humanity had a foretaste of the possibility of a future GLOBAL

NON SECTARIAN BHAKTI YOGA MOVEMENT, WHICH COULD EMBRACE ALL OF

FAITHFUL HUMANITY IN A DEVOTIONAL UNITY OF DIVERSITY. This unity

was only possible, because the realized devotees of the various

Bridal Mysticism Inner Traditions could recognize RADHA KRISHNA as

their own HOLY MOTHER and FATHER GOD, and could appreciate that here

was the essence of both their inner and outer sacred traditions

presented as a NON SECTARIAN EXPRESSION OF PURE BHAKTI YOGA. Sri

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Sri Nityananda were not mere clever

religious syncretists, Who had forged some artificial hybrid of

various traditions. They were re-presenting a Common Tradition so

primal and pure, that it was in fact, at the esoteric revelatory

heart of all the various Great Devotional Traditions. Furthermore,

Sri Sri Gaura-Nitai seemed to embody in Themselves the theology and

ecstatic realization of the Primal Love Tradition and the Primal

Salvific Tradition. Sri Chaitanya's ecstatic private revelation of

the Bridal Mysticism of Radha and Krishna was unmatched in religious

history. Sri Nityananda Rama embodied the entire theology of Sri

Krishna's First Expansion, the Second Person of the Godhead, Sri

Balarama, the Savior, Spiritual Master, Nama-Rupa of God for

Pastimes, and Mercy of Godhead Incarnate. Thus, between the

esoteric Bridal Mysticism of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, and the

exoteric Rig Vedic Varnashrama Dharma Purusha (Vishnu) Mysticism of

Nityananda Balarama, all of the inner and outer traditions of the

other related Great Bhakti Religions were comprehended. Thus there

was an undeniable theological-historical and a mystical-ecstatic

reality underlying the visible harmonization of Sri Sri Gaura-Nitai's

non sectarian unity-in-diversity Movement. The apparent

exoteric 'interfaith' unity of the Movement did not disappear as mere

emotionality or sentiment upon close analysis. Instead, deeper

analysis revealed ever deeper layers of profound historical,

theological, and mystical connectedness between the Great Bhakti

Religions, with Radha-Krishna and Balarama at their historical

revelatory core. This unity is what my own research as an historian

of religion has focused on for over the last 30 years.

 

Thus from its very beginning, the Mission of Sri Sri Gaura-Nitai was

far more than the mere perpetuation of a single specific sectarian

lineage of initiation within Vaishnavism. Nor was it merely a

mission to unite all of the orthodoxed Vaishnava Lineages. Rather,

the complete Mission of Sri Sri Guru (Nityananda Rama and His

Representatives) and Gauranga was nothing less than the global Bhakti

unity of all humanity.....a unity transcendent to race, class,

gender, language, education, occupation and even lineage, diksha or

creed......a unity based on our common heritage of adoration to the

same Original Supreme Personality Of Godhead, One Father HARI, One

Savior BALADEVA, and One Immanent Holy Spirit PARAMATMA , and

veneration to SRI RADHA (Rhoda), Their SHAKTI (Shekinah), the Loving

Holy Mother of us all !

 

So while diksha lineages should and must continue in all the Great

Bhakti Traditions, and while Gaudiya and other Vaishnavas must carry

on their 'sectarian' sacred traditions, we Gaudiya Vaishnavas also

have another Mission, which is to forge non sectarian alliances with

all of our relatives in the great global bhakti family of SRI HARI

(Jewish and Christian ELI, Muslim ALI, Pure Land Buddhist HRIH,

etc.) This does not mean merging everyone in-together and creating

one super religion by obliterating 'sectarian' differences.

Instead, we must create a unity that leaves our diversity intact, but

transcends it ! This is done through the process of federation or

alliance. The very ancient Great Vedic Civilizations of Varnashram

Dharma unity-in-diversity were based on regional interfaith alliances

or LEAGUES OF DEVOTEES. When H.D.G. A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila

Prabhupada first conceived of the way to globally embody Sri

Chaitanya's non sectarian Movement, he called it a League of

Devotees. This league structure is the Dharmic key to the social

embodiment of a non sectarian, or super (beyond, above) 'sectarian'

movement. In an alliance (league) of mutually respecting Vaishnava

Lineages, Indian Vaishnavism can be united, leaving all the ancient

Lineages intact. In the same way, ever increasing alliances can be

formed with other fundamentally compatible authentic Bhakti Lineages,

respecting their traditions, and leaving respect for their unique

Guru, Shastra and Sadhu intact. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu did not

require anyone to leave their own devotional tradition to take up the

practices of His Bhakti Yoga Movement. Sita-Rama, Lakshmi-Narayana,

Lakshmi-Narasimha, Durga-Shiva, Buddhist and Muslim Devotees did not

all abandon their special and even exclusive 'sectarian' love for the

Lord. Instead, the inclusive ACHINTYA-BHEDABHEDA-TATTVA doctrine of

Sri Chaitanya reconciled peoples' various devotions to the Persons of

the Godhead, Their Multi-Form, and even the impersonal Brahman. In

His theology of inconceivable oneness-and-difference, Sri Gauranga

was able to reconcile all lessor differences and even opposites, by

allowing paradox to exist within the context of a higher and greater

Transcendent Unity in the Mystery of the Godhead.

 

The moral practices of Sri Sri Gaura-Nitai's Movement were also non

sectarian and universally applicable virtuous practices of the

highest personal and social ideals. Thus pious Shaivites, Buddhists

and even Muslims were attracted to take them up. Altogether there

was no theological or moral impediment to any devotee's non sectarian

participation in the Sankirtan Movement. Carrying on in this

inclusive tradition today, the mandate of the World Vaishnava

Association Interfaith Committee therefore has the potential to

foster the global realization of an inclusive League of Devotees.

This is in keeping with the vision of my own beloved Master, A.C.

Bhaktivedanta Swami. For example, when he came to the United States

in the 1960s, he invited all devotees of the Lord to participate in

the Sankirtan Movement. As a devoted Christian, I was welcome to

participate in Sri Sri Gaura-Nitai's non sectarian Bhakti Yoga

Revival by my Saintly Gaudiya Vaishnava Master, His Divine Grace,

Srila A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami. He never required me to renounce my

devotion to Jesus Christ, or the practice of my Catholic faith.

Rather, he challenged me as a Christian to perfect my moral life and

devotion, rooting-out anything from my life that could compete with

my love for God. Thus he was the perfect Spiritual Master for me AS

A CHRISTIAN, directing me into the fullness of realization in my own

Christian devotion. Such devotional inclusivity as exemplified by

H.D.G. A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami is true non sectarianism, and a model

for the unity-in-diversity of all authentic Bhakti Yoga Traditions.

 

So differences in theology today need not be a barrier to our seeking

to build pious Bhakti Yoga alliances with members of the historically

related Great Religions and other sincere devotees of the Lord. The

WVA is taking the bold step to reach-out to the rest of the Indian

Vaishnava community, and the rest of the devotees in the world, to

begin to build such an alliance, a non sectarian League of Devotees

of the Supreme Personality Of Godhead. With the prayers and

blessings of the Vaishnavas, Sri Sri Guru (Lord Baladeva and Srila

Prabhupada and all our Acharyas), and Sri Gauranga, anything is

possible, so let us begin !

 

your aspiring servant, WVA-IC Interim Coordinator, Bhakti Ananda

Goswami

 

WVA-IC

POST OFFICE BOX 213

MYRTLE POINT, OREGON

97458 USA

 

email bhakti.eohn