How will I be able to recognize someone as a bona fide spiritual master?

[krsna]

 

VAISHNAVISM--

REAL AND APPARENT

 

INVOCATION

 

Let us bow down at full length to the Acharya or Gurudeva (the preceptor) Who is no

other than the associated counterpart of the Supreme Lord Himself and Who, being kindness

incarnate, is ever busy in kindly operating on the cataractous eye of ignorance of all jivas (souls,

jivatmas) with the spike of true knowledge,

thus openeth their eternal spiritual eyes and anointeth them with the collyrium of pure, disinterested and unsmitten love of Krishna (The Most Pleasing Attractor), stopping further attacks and enabling them to see Him face to face in His

blissful Abode.

 

Let us kiss over and over again the dust of the holy feet of the devotees of Krishna who

like Purpose-trees (Kalpataru) yield the fruition of all our devotional desires, and who are

oceans of kindness and purifiers of the fallen.

 

Let us prostrate before Him Who is the most munificent, the free-giver of the love of Krishna

- Who is Krishna Himself, Whose name is Krishna-Chaitanya, the glow of Whose body dims

the lustre of liquid gold and the graceful glance of Whose lotus-eyes makes the devotees look

upon annihilations (conscious and unconscious) as hellish existences, heaven as a castle in the

air, the unsatiable and unconquerable organs of sense and action as venomous serpents devoid

of poison-fangs and the universe as a blissful abode.

[krsna]

 

 

 

Real Vaishnavism

 

The word 'Vaishnavism' indicates the normal, eternal and natural condition, functions and

devotional characteristics of all individual souls in relation to Vishnu, the Supreme, the All-per-

vading Soul.

 

But such an unnatural, unpleasant and regrettable sense has been attributed to

the word as to naturally make one understand by the word, Vaishnava (literally a pure and self-

less worshipper of Vishnu), a human form with twelve peculiar signs (Tilaka) and dress on,

worshipping many gods under the garb of a particular God and hating another human form

who marks himself with different signs, puts on a different dress and worships a different God

in a different way as is the case with the words 'Shaiva', 'Shakta', 'Ganapatya', 'Jaina',

'Buddhist', 'Mohammedan', 'Christian' etc.

 

This is the most unnatural, unpleasant and regrettable sense of the word, 'Vaishnava',

which literally and naturally means one who worships Vishnu out of pure love expecting noth-

ing from Him in return.

 

Vishnu, the Supreme, All-pervading Soul gives life and meaning to all that is. He is the

highest unchallengeable Truth devoid of illusion everywhere and through eternity. He is Sat -

ever-existing, Chit - all-knowing, Ananda - ever-blissful and fully free.

 

He is in jivas and jivas are in Him,

as are the rays in the glowing sun and the particles of water in the vast rolling ocean. As nothing but heat and light of the sun, and coldness, liquidity etc. of the sea is found

in the constituents of the rays and the particles of water respectively, so nothing but Sat, Chit

or free-will and Ananda is found in the jiva.

 

 

The ingredients and attributes of the whole must remain in the part in a smaller degree.

So the part is identical with the whole when taken qualitatively and different, when taken quan-

titatively. This is the true and eternal relation between jiva and Vishnu. So He always prevails

over jiva who is also ever subject to Him. As the service of the master is the fundamental func-

tion of the servant, so the service of Vishnu is natural and inherent in jiva and it is called

Vaishnavata or Vaishnavism and every jiva is a Vaishnava.

 

As a person possessing immense rich-

es is called a miser if he does not display and make proper use of them, so jivas when they do

not display Vaishnavata, are called falses though in reality they are so.

 

[krsna]

 

Shri Chaitanya Deva once being asked who He was, replied, "I am neither a Brahmin, nor

a King, nor a Vaishya, nor a Shudra, nor a Sannyasin, nor a Vanacharin, nor a Grihastha, nor

a Brahmacharin, but I am the servant of all the servants of Vishnu!'

 

At another time, Shri

Sanatana Prabhu asked Him, "Who am I and why tritapa* - the three kinds of afflictions trouble me?" Shri Chaitanya Deva answered, "Sanatana, you are a jiva, your real self is the eternal

servant of Vishnu; but you have an apparent self - your mind and body with which the real 'I'

in stupor identifies himself. Tritap afflicts this apparent 'I'. The real 'I' or jiva has put on these

two mortal garments, the subtle and ever-changing mind (consisting of ever-increasing unsat-

isfied desires) and the physical body (consisting of five elements - earth, water, fire, air and

ether). The real 'I' forgets his own true self and is, in consequence, wrapped up in these two

wears, inner and outer, and designates himself a Hindu, a Mohammedan, a Christian, a

Brahmin, a male, a female, rich, poor and so on. These designations of creed, caste, rank etc.,

not only change in different births but in one and the same birth; - a Hindu becomes a

Mohammedan or a Christian; a Mohammedan becomes a Hindu, a Brahmin becomes a

'Brahmo' or a Christian! A street-boy becomes a Nawab, a Nawab becomes a beggar. changeability is the prime factor of the mind, it flies like a roaming bee on the wings of desires

and changes at will its name, colour, creed, habitation etc. One frequently goes from 'Log

Cabin to White House', from the seal to the crown. The sweet sixteen changes into bitter sixty.

 

 

*Tritapa - The three afflictions are three kinds of miseries known as the "Adhyatmika" i.e., those that are due to

one's self; the "Adhidaivika" those that arise out of deities or are of supernatural origin, and the "Adhibhautika"

those that arise out of natural causes and beings. For example, fever and other such diseases, anger, desire and

other such passions form the misery known as the "Adhyatmika". Thunder, lightning etc., produce the

"Adhidaivika" misery.changeability is the prime factor of the mind, it flies like a roaming bee on the wings of desires

and changes at will its name, colour, creed, habitation etc. One frequently goes from 'Log

Cabin to White House', from the seal to the crown.

Cabin to White House', from the seal to the crown. The sweet sixteen changes into bitter sixty.

 

-'The old order changeth yielding place to new.' Jiva in this manufactory of change, in this

whirlpool of birth and death, is called enslaved (Baddha or apparent), ever engaged in forging

the fetters of bondage.

 

 

[krsna]

 

 

Jivas are of two kinds -

 

(1) Nitya-Mukta (eternally free),

 

(2) Nitya-Baddha (eternally enslaved).

 

Free jivas are never enslaved. They are serving the Supreme God in five different

functions* in His eternal blissful abode, where there is no change, no destruction, no misery.

 

Jiva, once entered there never comes back here. The inconceivably narrowest line of demarcation between land and water or the line where land and water meet is called Tata; so also the

meeting line of the Chit world or the eternal abode of the Supreme Lord and the A-Chit world

or the Tata region of Maya is called Tata.

 

The power of the Supreme Lord displayed at the

Tata is known as the Tatastha (lying at the Tata) or marginal power. All the jivas being the display of this power, have the inherent oscillating tendency and capability of going to the Chit

or the A-Chit world. Tata not being a resting place, jivas must go this side or that ; those preferring the A-Chit, fell into the clutches of the Octopus Maya, when these mortal costumes of

mind and body were put on him as a punishment.

 

The satanic frenzy in which the jiva dislikes

the blissful and eternal service of his Master and prefers to quench his thirstful desires of enjoying matter, opens before him a perpetual spring of liquid fire and poison at which he begins to drink deep. Thus in going to lord it over Maya, jiva became enslaved by her.

[krsna]

 

 

One apparent jiva considers himself (mentally and physically) less distressed than another

jiva, feels for his distress and does something in the shape of relief or redress. This is but stop-

ping or diminishing the unending miseries partly, locally or temporarily.

 

It is frequently seen

that a jiva who feels aggrieved and consequently abstains from committing wrong owing to

weakness or inability, recovers, at such relief, strength or ability enough to commit wrong to

other jivas. So it often happens that such apparently kind services not only bring harm to the

recipient but cause indirect injuries to others. This is one aspect of the thing. Let us turn to

the other.

 

As a gardener prunes a growing tree, allowing its root to grow freely and easily, as

a physician treats a patient leaving the prime-disease undisturbed, so this sort of temporary

kindness stops, no doubt, the growth of the present inconveniences for a while but in no way

uproots the cause whence all these afflictions arise. This cause has been identified with the

enslaved condition of jivas.

 

So real and permanent kindness consists in bringing before the

enslaved jivas a true and vivid picture of their natural, free and blissful existence and reinstating them in their true position. Thus real kindness is applicable to the real jiva and apparent

kindness to the apparent jiva.

 

[krsna]

 

 

Should we picture the very sad and deplorable mental and physical condition of the younger generation - the boys of schools and colleges?

 

Ye guardians, parents and well-wishers

of boys, how long will you wink at the stealthy undermining of the vitality of your dear ones

and be cruel to them?

 

While claiming a right over their mind and body for one's own enjoyment, is it not fair that one should look after their proper and natural development ?

 

There is in every soul a strong ardour of religious zeal, which, though pent up, will gush and struggle

out like rain from the throat of the over-flowing spout.

 

How will the plants grow if the preserving fences devour them?

 

Can anybody deny that the generation is going day by day to be mental and thus physical slaves to their senses?

 

Mere artificial restraint and austerity on the body and the mind, a mechanical regulation

of diet and living in a solitary place do not constitute Brahmacharya, for they change their sky

not their mind, who scour across the sea.

Then the animals in the 'zoo' would have been the

best Brahmacharins.

 

Brahmacharya is the powerhouse whence currents of Atma-jnana ( knowledge of one's own self) are generated which illuminates his blinded self, withholds all his evil

propensities and set the whole machinery in motion, so that this frail and rare but accidentally-got raft may get across the sea and anchor in the bay for eternity after carrying its passenger to his own home.

 

As a barren cow looks exactly like a milch cow,

but fails in giving milk to the keeper in return for his most attentive and faithful services which beget only further labour,

so the so-called Brahmacharya, or a knowledge of the scriptures will, in no way, inspire Atma-jnana or real Brahmacharya in jivas.

By means and ways a non-brahmacharin can never be a

Brahmacharin.

 

In essence, the mind and the soul (the jiva) are diametrically opposite - the former being

restless, impetuous, changeable and ever busy in enjoying matter, while the latter is eternal,

unchangeable, stable and incapable of enjoying matter. So real Brahmacharya rests in the soul,

not in the mind.

[krsna]

 

 

 

The mind and the soul are hostile to each other.

There is an eternal enmity between them.

 

In soul the four characteristic errors of the defective mind are totally wanting viz., (1) mistaking

the mirage for water, the rope for the serpent;

(2) misapprehensive intoxication,

(3) knowing

things with imperfect senses;

(4) deceiving itself and others.

 

As the horse can not hold its own reins, so the mind can not guide itself - it is ever being guided by an unending and unsatiable bundle of desires in the shape of enjoyment or indifference - of doing good or evil.

 

Each individual mind differs from the other - no two identical minds are to be found. The proverb goes

- 'so many Rishis, so many minds'.

 

A mind can more easily hold a wolf by the ears than steady

itself in spiritual experience. Beware of this mind which, like a bad guide, appears before you

and others in sheep's clothing with all the ferocity of a ravening wolf and like a professional running thief crying "thief, thief".

 

In the following song of our preceptor the deceptive nature

of the mind has been fully and clearly described:

 

Ye wicked mind! Thou art not a Vaishnava.Thy apparent chanting of Hari's name in a

lonely house is for attaining worldly supremacy;

it is nothing but pure hypocrisy!

 

Dost thou not know that worldly supremacy is as valueless as the dung of a boar and that it is one of the

splendours of Maya or illusion.

 

Why shouldst thou think, year in and year out, of wealth and enjoyment ?

 

These are all fleeting and transitory!

When thou claimest wealth as thine own, it creates in thee lusts for enjoyment.

 

Madhava - the Lord of all wealth, should only and always be served with it.

 

Why dost thou trespass on the lusts of women whose only and eternal proprietor is Yadava - Krishna, the charmer of all enjoyers.

 

Ravana - lust-incarnate, fought in vain with Raghava - the Love-incarnate, for the imaginary tree of the supremacy which is but a mirage.

 

The supremacy thou seekest is like quicksand ever receding from thy foothold. Thou canst never stand upon it and if thou insist on doing so, it will lead you to rack and ruin. If thou can place thyself on the steady and solid standing-ground whereon a Vaishnava ever stands, thy feet will never slip.

 

Why dost thou suffer under the false hope of profaning Hari's men - the devotees, and attaining their inherent spiritual eminence and boast of thy fruitless and foolish efforts?

 

 

[krsna]

An unworldly and eternal pre-eminence spontaneously follows the holy heels of a Vaishnava.

 

The relation between a Vaishnava (devotee) and Vishnu (the Lord) does not smell of Maya(illusion) or worldly deceit.

 

Knowest thou that thy seeming supremacy is as treacherous as a woman devouring a dog's flesh and thy feigning loneliness is totally hellish.

 

"I shall give up 'Kirtana' - chanting Lord's name, and besmear myself with supremacy - what is the good in searching for such eminence?" -

if this be thy thought, knowest thou for

certain that Madhavendra Puri did never deceive himself and commit theft in his own store-

house of perception like thee!

 

Thou shouldst never compare the unsolicited eminence following Madhavendra Puri like

an attending maid, with your seeming one which is like the dung of a boar.

 

Thou hast drowned thyself out of envy in the filthy waters of enjoyment and hast abandoned the perfections of kir-

tan.

 

Ye wicked mind, bearest in mind that solitary devotion is propagated in disguise by the adopters of evil means.

 

Thinkest thou over and over again what Supreme Lord Gauranga kindly taught us addressing Sanatana Prabhu with the utmost care.

 

Dost not forget for a moment the two most valuable words He taught - apparent and real, apathy and sympathy, freed and enslaved - never confuse the one with the other.

 

Singest thou the Lord's name aloud.

He is a Vaishnava who is never a victim to the tigress of wealth, beauty and fame. He is indeed apathetic and a pure devotee. The transitory world is to him as a snake is to its charmer.

 

He is indeed apathetic who moderately partakes of things necessary for, and in favour of devotion - neither below nor above par - avoids all enjoyments and is ever free from diseases.

He looks upon every thing as his Lord as well as Madhava's, and not meant for his own enjoyment.

 

This identity with, as well as attachment for, the things of Madhava - is real apathy. Fortunate

indeed is he who is thus attached to Hari and who sees Hari's Lila or splendour in the realm of matter. He is rich in hypocrisy who sings the Lord's name to attain eminence.

 

Forsakers of matter out of fear or desire and enjoyers thereof are both equally Non-Vaishnavas.

Shun the company of both. Thou canst neither own nor disown the things of Vishnu and thus run mad after enjoyment or renunciation.

 

The mind of Mayavadins can never think of Krishna and in a mood of imaginary salvation condemn a Vaishnava.

 

Oh mind! Thou art a servant of the Vaishnavas and thou shouldst always hope for attaining devotion.

 

Why shouldst thou hanker after solitude?

 

A false renouncer calls himself a forsaker - and can never be a Vaishnava, as he abandons

his servitorship and drowns himself in solitude.

 

What's the gain in acquiring that seeming good?

 

Ever engagest thyself in the service of Shri Radha and keepest aloof from the snaky enjoyment.

 

Singest the Lord's name not for glory or supremacy. Why shouldst thou run after false retirement for devotion, leaving aside the worship of Shri Radha, your eternal Object of worship?

 

The dwellers of Braja are the real objects of preaching, and they being living agents and meant for preaching do not aspire after supremacy and are strong enough to instil life into the audience. Preaching is the symptom of vitality. Song of Krishna does not smell of any attempt

for supremacy.

 

The Humble servant of Shri Radha and her Lover always hopes for kirtan and begs of all to sing the name of his Lord aloud. When meditation will spontaneously follow kirtana, then and then only solitary devotion and renunciation will be natural.

[krsna]

 

The mind can never sit idle.

 

It will either create a hell out of heaven

or a heaven out of hell.

It is like drift-wood floating on the ebb and flow of good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice.

 

As good Homer sometimes nods,

it ever commits wrong in cleaving to that which

seems to be evil and abhorring that which seems to be good, and vice versa.

 

Every mind has its own way of looking at things;

so what one mind establishes, the other destroys, nay the

same mind rejects today what it accepted yesterday, as every life is a series of surprises or experiences.

 

The things one now regards as fixed, shall, one by one, detach themselves, like ripe fruits, from one's experience and fall.

 

The wind shall blow them, none knows whither -

the landscape, the figures, Calcutta, London, New York, the Royal Throne, the Presidential Chair

- are facts as fugitive as any institution past or any whiff of mist or smoke, and so is the society

and so the world.

 

Intimately alluring and attractive was a man to you yesterday, a great hope,

a sea to swim in; now you have found his shores,

found it a pond and you care not if you never

see it again.

 

[krsna]

The proverb goes, - "Today king, tomorrow nothing."

 

There are two minds;

one,

the spiritual mind or the mind of the soul or jiva,

the other, the material mind which has willing, feeling and perception of the material world.

 

The spiritual mind can neither attach itself

to, nor detach itself from, the objects of this kingdom of meat and drink nor is it liable to any

change or modification in this world of the senses.

The tongue may stab the material mind and

strike into it a cureless wound, whereas no stab can wound and kill the spiritual mind.

 

An iron ball and the fire are two distinctly different things; but when the former is kept - in an intimate

touch with the latter, the former plays the role of the latter by radiating heat and light and

burning other things, so the material mind, though in reality purely a matter and devoid of life

and its attendant energy, having been closely in touch with the spiritual mind from eternity,

exhibits its borrowed activity, like an elephant run amuck, uncontrolled by the driver, through

the ten organs of action and sense in the shape of good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and

vice, philanthropy and self-enjoyment, benevolence and miserliness etc.

 

There is no waking,

dreaming or sleeping in the spiritual mind, whereas the physical one wakes, sleeps and dreams;

it creates, preserves and destroys and "gives to airy nothing a local habitation and a name."

 

In doing so it sometimes busies itself with the fleeting, frivolous and despicable enjoyments of

the world, sometimes it abstains from these things and chooses at will an imaginary god as the

object of meditation and worshipful adoration, considers itself a meditator and plunges itself

in solitary meditation or worships an idol of wood, clay or metal as a workable god - as a means

of attaining (1) Salokya (the existence in the plane of God),

(2) Samipya (proximity to God),

(3) Sarupya (likeness to God),

(4) Sarsti (equal glory of God), and

(5) Sayujya (absorption in

God or annihilation).

 

It thus turns itself an idolater as a meditator or as an idol-worshipper.

 

Like a dwarf uplifting his hands to catch at the moon it sometimes tries to taste the succulent

pastimes of the Supreme Lord in His blissful abode with its passionate senses, identifying the

perverted reflection with the real object.

 

The mind, while giving the bridle to its passions and

desires and being itself fully subject to affliction, grief and distress, considers itself free from

these things and extends its helping hand to an equally suffering mind.

 

Its knowledge of good and bad, happiness and misery, donor and the recipient, law and disorder regarding things

other than the Supreme Lord is nothing but a series of blunders and is like jumping from the frying pan into the fire or like swimming between Scylla and Charybdis.

[krsna]

Its utterance, however sweet and sound, its meditation, however deep, long and undisturbed, though apparently true have no reality and are ever subject to change and destruction.

 

Sometimes it imitates the activities of the spiritual mind and picks its own pocket.

An abnormal heat in the body caused by keeping a clove of garlic under the armpit or exposing the body to the scorching sun, and the heat caused by fever, though similar in perception, are not the

same thing - the former is artificial, empiric and inductive, while the latter is natural, sponta-

neous and deductive; the activity of the germ working within, bursts forth in the shape of feverish heat, headache etc.

 

When the spiritual mind sets about his dormant devotional activities and

his inherent love of God begins to blossom forth at the touch of the eternal, superior ecstatic

Energy incarnate as his deliverer, tremor (Kampa), tears (Asru), stupefaction (Stambha), perspiration (Sveda), horripilation (Pulaka ), pallor (Vaivarnya), humility (Dainya), throbbing,

(Vepathu), exultation (Harsha) etc. appear on the body as spiritual changes (Satvika vikara).

 

 

Sometimes changes of this nature and appearance are noticed on the bodies of emotional persons whose minds are so supple and susceptible as to easily produce those peculiar signs at the clangour of the drum and the cymbal, sweet music or the like.

 

These are mere effects of the

cause; and the effects disappear as soon as the cause is withdrawn, as the fever-looking heat disappears from the body as soon as it is withdrawn from the burning rays or the garlic is removed

from the armpit.

 

As the pendulum oscillates between two extremes, so the mind oscillates

between enjoyment and abstinence. When it gets tired with the meat and drink of this world,

the busy strife of the dinning city, the griefs and woes of sweet home, the guilty mind seems

to awake and exhibits a life of retirement, non attachment or reclusion, oftentimes, vainly

directing its energies to annihilate the imperishable and indestructible devotional energy of the

spiritual mind - to reduce it to nothing so that it can never feel, will or perceive - it may never

come across the fleeting, changeable, and afflicting things of pleasure and pain.

 

Sometimes one

male mind feels the want of a female mind, and thus a male body gets united with a female

body through the bond of wedlock. No sooner is this want fulfilled than fresh wants of wealth

and home and hearth arise.

When it rolls in wealth and the sweet smile of wife and children cheers it, alas, the grim reaper whose name is death, reaps, with his keen sickle the bearded

grain and the flowers that grow between at a breath!

Then it realises that it was drinking poi-

son from a cup of gold. Thus it happens that the spiritual mind feels that it is fallen in an ocean

whose waters of deep woe are brackish with the salt of human tears, and that it is within the

jaws of lusts and anger like so many sharks and crocodiles swimming therein, enchained with

ardent longings, totally unfriended and shelterless.

He shakes off the torpor and realises that

the material mind had so long been vainly playing with the fleshy forms known as the wife, the

son etc. and fleeting joys like so many unsteady limpid drops of water on a lotus-leaf.

 

Had satiation been in strength Myro and Ophellius would have been happy; had it been

in wealth Croesus would have been happy; neither lies it in power nor in all these things

together, for Nero, Sardanapalus and Agamemnon sighed and wept and tore their hair and

were the slaves of circumstances and the dupes of appearances.

 

[krsna]

The spiritual mind realises that

he is living like a double-caged bird which identifies its own living self with the material cages,

that the cages he is living in are ever subject to change and decay and though they look fresh

and alive they are nothing but dust and will crumble into dust.

 

The subtle cage of the material mind is within the gross cage of the physical body. The material mind is dancing like a jack-daw with the borrowed plumes of a peacock. He reflects -

What relish can there be in this decaying body, made up of the five decomposable elements and full of putrescence and impurity?

 

Shall we not mind for a moment that this perishable and ever-changing body is liable to wrath, ambition, illusion, fear, grief, envy, hatred - separation from those we hold most dear and association with those we hate?

 

What relish can there be for material enjoyments when we are exposed to hunger, thirst, disease, decrepitude, ema-

ciation, growth, decline and death?

 

The universe is tending to decay, - grass, trees, animals,

spring up and die.

Mighty men are gone leaving their joys and glories.

Beings still greater than

these have passed away - vast oceans have dried - mountains have been thrown down, the polar

star displaced, the cords that bind the planets rent asunder, the whole earth deluged with flood

- in such a world what relish can there be for fleeting enjoyments?

 

Living in such a world are we not like frogs jumping in a well?

 

To get rid of the deception of this false and treacherous seeming friend, we should be sincerely suppliant before the Supreme Lord and water our couch with tears; He will receive our prayers, have mercy on us and out of His naturally loving kindness, appear before us as the pre-

ceptor, with all the proficiency in the scriptures and fully free from the hankerings of the senses, to rid us from the clutch of the wicked mind, which has flame all around and death within, to cut asunder all its knots and hitches and to dispel all our darkness of the heart as an elephant runs away from the darkest recesses of the jungle at the approach of the lion and the veil

of darkness is withdrawn from the surface of the earth at the advent of Aurora.

Then the mind will brood over its guilty woes like a scorpion girt by fire.

 

[krsna]

 

 

One material mind prays to another material mind (both of whom are being eternally and

equally afflicted by three kinds of miseries) for relief or help.

Its prayers are but hankerings after

enjoyment and are always caused by want, fear and anxiety.

 

There is no material mind -

whether of a king or a tenant, a lord or a servant, a master or a pupil, the strong or the weak,

the rich or the poor, the scholar or the dunce - which can ever be relieved of want or fear;

whereas the spiritual mind never prays for daily bread, any sort of material relief, worldly prosperity, a life devoid of all miseries, a life in heaven dipped in celestial bliss or a peaceful existence in the kingdom of God.

He has no such prayer, but is ever suppliant before the Supreme Lord and insists on the continuity of his loving service which is never at an end.

 

As soon as he perceives the wicked and inimical activities of the material mind, he supplicates thus before a

Vaishnava who has no want, fear or terrors of birth and death and is powerful enough to deliver all spiritual minds from the clutch of the material mind:

 

Vaishnava Thakur, the ocean of kindness,

I take shelter at thy lotus-feet.

Have mercy onme, your humble servant,

and purify me with the cool shade of your holy feet.

 

Check my proneness to pollute myself by

(1) using offensive and hurtful language to others,

(2) floating

adrift with various frivolous and despicable passions,

(3) using harsh words,

(4) coveting palat-

able things,

(5) giving loose to my appetite,

(6) hankering after lasciviousness; - rid my grov-

elling self of the six evils of

(1) putting by things in excess,

(2) going against devotion by adhering to that which is forbidden and abhoring that which is favourable,

(3) indulging in useless

idle gossips,

(4) retarding devotional progress and accelerating the contrary,

(5) keeping company with the non-devotees and remaining aloof from the devotees,

(6) floating with changeable views and transfuse into me the six virtues of

(1) eagerness for walking in devotional ordinances,

(2) firm conviction and sincere faith,

(3) patience and perseverance in devotion,

(4)adherence to the favourable enjoinments and abhorrence for prohibitions in devotion,

(5) forsaking the company of the effeminate tied to a woman's apron-strings and the impious,

(6) following the footsteps of the righteous men.

 

I have been waiting for your company, bereft of

which I am totally powerless to sing the name of the Supreme Lord (Krishna); so be kind

enough to instil in me reverence and enrich me with the wealth of the Lord's (Krishna's) name

as Krishna is yours and you can give Him to me -

 

a beggar, bereft of all worldly wealth and following you chanting 'Krishna', 'Krishna'.

 

Vaishnavas are the wealth of this world.

They who serve the Supreme Lord under his

(Vaishnava's) guidance, walk in the commandments of the Lord and follow His observances,

the rest live and die in vain. The best ornament of our head should be the dust of their feet,

the best food, the remnants of their dish and the best drink, the water that washes their holy

feet - these and only these can renew devotional love in us.

 

Who but a Vaishnava will save our

blinded selves from being led by the blind and from the onsets of ever-increasing insatiable

lusts, anger, covetousness, illusion and egotism?

 

We are groping in the dark labyrinth of this world

and know not whither lies our way.

 

[krsna]

 

 

It was in the year 1486 A.D. that Shri Chaitanya Deva appeared before us at Mayapura in

Antardwipa [the island at the core or centre of the nine (nava) islands (dwipa) of which

Navadwipa consists] on the eastern bank of the holy Ganges and lived there for the first twenty-four years of His stay here playing the part of house-holder.

 

He accepted as his father,

Jagannatha Misra a respectable Brahmin Pandita of Sylhet, then settled at Navadwipa, and

Sachi Devi, an ideal Brahmin lady of the time as His mother. He had a human form so perfectly built, so lustrously complexioned, so highly statured and so lovely as purely inconceivable in a human body, and possessed such a pleasing and overpowering intelligence before

whose effulgence the brightest and sharpest human intelligences burned like glow-worms.

 

With all these superhuman gifts and possessions, He led the life of an ideal Vaishnava and with

a view to establish an exemplar life of a pure and sincere devotee, extremely painful at the separation of His Divine Lover, complaisant and compliant to please Him by doing the highest

good to Himself and to others by Himself adopting the life of an ideal devotee and by making

others adopt a similar life.

 

As propagation and practice or precept and example do rarely go

hand in hand, He himself practised what He preached. He showed practically that devotion

lies in all souls and not in the accompanying minds and bodies and that neither the delible

stamp of birth, worldly knowledge and riches do in any way stand in the way of devotion nor

do low birth, ignorance and poverty help or endanger devotion. The soul obliterates his individuality before the world, and disclaims these designations.

 

He knows that he is lowlier than

the grass, more forbearant than a tree, himself honourless and honours other souls and, that

be sings the praise and glory of Hari day and night whether the material mind sleeps or wakes,

the physical body busies itself or is at rest and even when he gives up for ever these two coils

of the body and the mind.

 

When the soul, not the material mind, surrenders himself to a Vaishnava and chants the name of 'Krishna' under his guidance and following his devotional

enjoinments,

 

(1) the activities of the material mind eternally prevailing over and enshrouding

the soul or the spiritual mind gradually diminish,

 

(2) the forest-fire caused by the friction of

material minds is put out not to burn any more,

 

(3) the efflorescent beams of Divine Bliss open

the buds of spiritual weal,

 

(4) transcendental wisdom bursts forth the shell of worldly knowl-

edge,

 

(5) the ocean of bliss swells up,

 

(6) the soul tastes at every sip the succus of Divine Love,

 

(7) wherein all souls are immersed casting off the impurities of the material mind.

 

Along with the soul's casting off the torpor of the illusory gloom reigning over him from

eternity, the prayer of the material mind for worldly wealth, for dear ones, and for mental proficiency in worldly knowledge diminishes and he longs for eternal devotion unborn of motive

or desire in whatever situation his Lord pleases to place him.

 

[krsna]

 

 

 

This distinctive inherent activity of the soul,which is called devotion and wafts the spiritual mind above all sordid thoughts, was not only propagated by Shri Chaitanya Deva but He Himself was an embodiment of it and proclaimed that He was a gardener possessing and nurturing the immortal and ever-fruitful tree of Divine Love, the innumerable and succulent fruits

whereof are hanging like figs on a fig-tree and that His business was to distribute these fruits

to the rich and the poor, the high and the low alike without any price and consideration and

thus to play the part of a most munificent giver.

 

He renounced the world and took up the task

of distributing Divine Love to all jivas who were groping after the Spiritual by describing Him

as invisible or were oblivious of their own true selves as well as of the real nature of their most

Pleasing and Loving Attractor.

 

This forgetfulness on the part of jivas is the root of all evils and

sufferings; so He entreated one and all to taste of this divine fruit and contribute their share in

distributing the fruit of Divine Love and enjoined that the best use of their lives lay in doing

the highest and eternal good to themselves and to others and in practising at all times spiritual weal to others with their life, wealth, intelligence and speech.

 

He said, "In so doing the

waves of the world cannot stand in your way as your steps are ordered by the Divine Lover and

He delights in your way.

 

There may be a seeming fall but fear not nor be utterly cast down as

He holds you up with His hand.

 

If you are dumb, you will be a persuasive talker, if your legs are crippled, you will cross the Alps with ease and your words will need no bell to call people

together and no constable to keep them -

these will draw the children from their play, the old

from their armchairs, the invalid from their warm chamber. Those who feel that their hardened

necks are within the guillotine of birth and death will flow in torrents like patients to efficient

doctors and will be effectually cured having received your efficacious remedy which is ever

effective in its working.

 

Your eye is on the eternal, consequently your intellect will grow and

your opinions and actions will have such a beauty and strength which no learning or combined

advantages of other men can rival.

 

Know that Divine Assessors come up with us into life - now

under one disguise, now under another like a police-man in a citizen's clothes - walk with us

step for step through this world of senses to carry us to our ever-blissful abode.

 

"Application of real kindness to jivas"

 

Shri Nityananda Prabhu, Advaita-acharya Prabhu, Shri Rupa and Sanatana Goswamins

and Thakur Haridasa - the dear and ever-associated generals, of Shri Chaitanya Deva were

deputed in rendering practical kindness to the ever-suffering humanity by:

 

(1) spending their whole time and energy in devotional activities,

 

(2) chanting aloud the Lord's name day and

night,

 

(3) singing His praise and glory,

 

(4) compiling volumes of devotional works,

 

(5)reclaiming and restoring the sacred sites,

 

(6) going from door to door and begging of the

sleepers and dreamers thereof to arise, awake and

'worship Krishna, talk about Krishna,

take His name and know that He is their father, mother, wealth and life; that they have no other objects

of worship save and except 'Krishna'.

 

As the twigs, leaves, flowers, fruits and the branches of

the tree - their rest - are actually fed by feeding the roots and as the limbs of the body are properly nourished by putting the food into the stomach, so the innumerable gods, sages, forefathers, kings, animals are fully and properly appeased if Krishna, wherein lie all of them together, is worshipped.

 

As continual showers of rain cannot feed the leaves nor enliven them, unless

and until the rainwater is taken up by the roots and as the limbs are unable to get any nourishment from the food unless it is put into the stomach, so none can accept any present or exact

adoration directly from meat unless all presents are made over to Krishna and He is worshipped.

 

All souls or jivas in their true selves are related to Krishna, the Over-soul, either as

 

(1) His mute servants, - the flute, the rod etc.,

 

(2) His servitors, His gardeners, His sweepers etc.,

 

(3)His friends, playmates,

 

(4) His parents Nanda-Yashoda,

 

(5) His consorts - Shri Radha and her

attendants.

 

This relation being eternally fixed is neither inter-changeable nor transferable.

 

Krishna, the Prime Cause, the Lord of all lords, the Supreme of all Gods, is embued fully with

the six divine pre-essences -

(I) Wealth, (2) Might, (3) Glory, (4) Splendour, (5) Wisdom, (6) Dispassion - dilute in His over-flowing love and all-charming beauty.

 

He is the only Lover and

the only object of love.

 

This love, fully free from all earthly dross of lusts and passion, makes

the Lover serve His beloved ones and the beloved ones their Lover - this love drowns all con-

ceptions of Divine Sovereignty and possession of the above six pre-essences.

 

The eyes of the beloved are always blind to notice the sovereignty or adorability of the object of love.

 

The beloved ones, spontaneously deem themselves either equal or superior to the object of love, in

consequence the former playfully ascends the shoulder of, chastises or takes to task or brings

up with affectionate care, the latter.

 

The love of Krishna is thus characterised. Krishna's loving

beauty is so enamouring that even the god of lusts is charmed by Him and Krishna Himself

being charmed by His own beauty and loveliness covets the pleasure enjoyed by the best of His

lovers Shri Radha, by lovingly serving such Form as His. So anointing Himself with the lustre

and complexion of Shri Radha and having been imbued with Her ardent longings of love,

Krishna is ever dallying as an exemplary lover of Himself as Shri Gauranga.

 

Shri Krishna, the essential nature of the Supreme Being - the only Real and Eternal Truth is the only object of

love and Shri Gauranga the possessor and distribitor of that love Krishna is simultaneously dallying with His dear consort in the groves of Vrindavana and tasting the extract of love-succus

flowing from His consort as Gauranga at Nabadwipa, Himself singing Krishna's name and

teaching others how to Iove Krishna and sing His name.

 

In so doing He distinguishes pointedly the real name, identical with the Object Himself, from the apparent or false one which is

taken profanely, blasphemously or in vain.

 

He emphasises that in this Kali-yuga (era) worldly

people indulge in

(1) duplicity,

2) intoxication,

(3) sensuality,

(4) killing of animals,

(5) mercenariness and so are unable to meditate upon, or worship Vishnu and to perform Vedic sacrifices.

 

So the chanting of Krishna's name is the only meditation, the only sacrifice, the only

worship in this Kali-age - Name is the means, Name is the end.

 

But is should be noted with

the utmost care that Krishna's name is not mere combination or utterance of letters. A similarity in utterance and appearance is not identity.

The fire and the glow-worm though similar

in appearance are not identical.

 

The minutest spark of fire set consciously or unconsciously,

seriously or playfully will instantaneously burn an inflammable thing, whereas a thousand glow-worms will not act in a thousand years.

 

Krishna's name is identical with Krishna Himself and

pregnant with all the properties and attributes of Krishna. So His name, unlike all other names,

is full of energy, perfect, eternal, pure, devoid of illusion and eternally free.

 

Aurora is sufficient

to dispel the darkness of night and to drive the wild animals to their lairs and thieves and

dacoits to their resorts, enables us to distinguish the various objects of senses and ushers the

advent of the glowing lamp of heaven.

So does Namabhasa (the utterance of name avoiding

the ten profanations) stop poverty from planting our pillows with thorns, destroy our worldly

hankerings and dispel the illusory gloom, so that we may see the Name face to face. When the

everburning lamp peeps out of the eastern horizon, its ever-effulgent rays make us see it face

to face and feel its golden rays and enable us to see all objects bathing therein. The sun is seen

and felt by us with its own rays and heat and not with the help of any other glowing object.

 

The brightest candles of the universe put together can not make the sun visible to us. When

our dreamy nights are at an end - when we shake off the torpor, open our eyes, turn them to

the east, we see the Name-sun with all his glory and beauty.

 

[krsna]

 

 

 

Published in The Harmonist (Sree Sajjanatoshani)

 

 

These are answers to the questions put to the Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Thakura by Pandit Shyamasundar Chakravarty, a famous leader of the Independence movement in India and also the then Chief Editor of Servant and Vasumati (eng). - Ed.

 

 

Shyamasundar Chakravarty's Interview

 

 

Q: -- Which is the genuine commentary of the Brahma-Sutra?

 

 

A: -- It is the Shrimad Bhagavatam, which was explained by Shri Suta Goswami before sixty-thousand sages at Naimisharanya, the famous holy place in Uttara Pradesha.

There is a good deal of difference between the Vedantic Schools of Kashi and Naimisharanya.

The followers of the Naimisharanya School are genuine Vedantins since they accept only the genuine commentary of the Brahma-Sutra, and not the other spurious ones.

[krsna]

Q: -- Do not the Pandits of the Kashi School accept the Shrimad Bhagavatam?

 

 

A: -- They look upon the Bhagavatam as only one particular book among others, a particular Purana among other Puranas. They do not adopt it solely. We think there is no need for any other book than the Bhagavatam. Only those other books are acceptable that say something in its favour; the deliberations that go against it, are not worth being called spiritual.

 

[krsna]

Q: -- Is there any deliberation going against the Bhagavatam?

 

 

A: -- There is no deliberation in the world which is not against the Bhagavatam. All the different currents of thoughts of jivas averse to God from time immemorial are against it.

 

[krsna]

Q: -- But has there been any man who has openly stood against the Bhagavata deliberations?

 

 

A: -- Examples of the antagonist against the Bhagavata ideology have been seen since Satya-yuga (golden age). Hiranyakashipu was one among them.

 

Such antagonists are of two types, disguised and unconcealed.

The disguised antagonists are greater enemies than the open ones.

Swami Dayananda, founder of the Arya Samaj, and Kaviraj Gangadhar Sen were open antagonists of the Bhagavatam. But the manner in which the Kashi School is conducted indicates covert views against the Bhagavatam.

 

Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu convinced Swami Prakasananda Saraswati, the then head of the Kashi School, with his followers numbering several thousands, about the indisputable superiority of the doctrine of the Naimisharanya School, so that understanding the evil sectarianism of the Kashi School, he entered to the Naimisharanya School with his followers.

 

[krsna]

 

 

A: -- In other schools, truth is covered under delusion, but in the very beginning of the Vedanta Commentary (Shrimad Bhgavatam) of the Naimisharanya School it has been said:

 

[1] "We always contemplate on the Truth freed from delusions."

 

The plural number 'we' denotes the followers of the Naimisharanya School of Shri Vyasadeva's sect. Here have been indicated the plurality of the contemplators, the non-duality (or singularity) of the Prime Truth and the perpetuality of the connecting link or act, viz., contemplation.

 

This contemplation does not cover the different modes of the thoughts of men.

 

That Prime Truth is incomprehensible and transcendental (i.e., non-empiric).

[krsna]

 

 

 

A: -- Our previous Guru, in the preceptorial line, Shri Rupa Goswami Prabhu, has said in his Shri Bhakti Rasamrita Sindhu:

 

[2] "What, transcending all courses of thought, appears in the heart brightened up with shuddha-sattva and assumes the highest excellence of tasty sweetness, is called Rasa."

 

It is through the function of vishudha-sattva (the purest or transcendental sattva) or the highest Guru, that Vasudeva, (the Highest Truth) can be contemplated on. Sattva which is one of the three gunas with rajas and tamas is not 'vishuddha sattva'.

 

Vishuddha-sattva is not something of this world.

 

"The name of Vishuddha-sattva is Vasudeva. The Transcendental Purusa who manifests Himself in it is God Vasudeva. I contemplate on that Adhokshaja (Supra-empiric Entity) with my mind."

[3] Shiva says this to Sati.

 

The term 'Adhokshaja' means what is beyond the scope of material senses.

 

Godhead is He, Who has reserved the absolute right of not being exposed to present human senses.

[krsna]

Q: -- If God is such an Entity, why, then is the phrase 'with my mind' used in the Bhagavata quotation?

 

 

A: -- Bhagavatam says,

 

"The mind, purified with Bhakti-yoga having been thoroughly concentrated, Shri Vyasadeva had a view of the Plenary God with Svarupa-Shakti or Self-Potency also with maya sheltered in a covered manner."

[4]

 

The worldly man's mind is the heart, which is the store-house of decisions and doubts, and the mind which is incessantly engaged in the services of Krishna, giving up the material determination of enjoyments and renunciations, is the pure mind, the sporting ground of the Primary Entity.

 

Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has said:

 

"Others' hearts are minds, but My mind is Vrindavana, I know the mana (mind) and the vana (Vrindavana, place for Krishna's sports) as the same."

 

Our previous Guru, Srila Narothama Thakura, also has said: "When will my mind be purified, having given up vishaya (sensual objects) and when, then, shall I be able to see Vrindavana?" 'Plenary Entity' indicates Omnipotent God.

 

 

We cannot see Him with karma or jnana. With karma can be had what is available in the field of karma and not what is beyond it. What nirbheda (absolutely non-distinct) jnana, too, we cannot see Him, for in it the distinction of the seer, the see-able and the seeing is extinguished.

 

God has said ,

 

[5] "It is with Bhakti that one may know Me in the aspect of truth as regards My Entireness and Entity."

 

He has also said to Shri Uddhava:

 

"I am available with ananya-bhakti (exclusive devotion) to Me alone." [6]

 

[krsna]

 

 

 

A: -- The derivative meaning of maya is what is measurable.

 

Bhagavan is the Lord of maya; He cannot be measured.

 

Where there is attempt to measure God, there is maya and not God.

 

'ma ' means 'not' and 'ya ' means 'what', i.e., 'what is not God', is maya.

 

The 'maya' as said in the Shrimad Bhagavatam is not like the Satan in the Christian theology, a separate entity from God, altogether another entity.

 

According to the Bhagavata school, maya is in Bhagavan (God) in the condemned state [7] in order to award condign punishment on the atomic sentience (i.e. jivas) controlled by maya.

 

In the Gita God has said

 

[8]: "Earth, water, fire, air, sky, the mind, intelligence and egoism - these constitute My separate inferior potency, whereas other than this is My superior potency constituting the jivas by which is supported the universe."

 

This inferior potency is the maya potency. This inferior potency has been stupefying the jivas that are apathetic towards God since before the beginning of time and causing misunderstanding in them, sometimes assuming the form of 'twenty-four items of entity' of Kapila, (the originator of the Sankhya System), sometimes as the 'atom' of Kanada (of the Vaiseshika System), sometimes also as Jaimini's principle of 'elevation' (in the Purva Mimamsa System), sometimes again as the 'sixteen objects' of Gautama (in the Nyaya System), sometimes as 'superhuman power and absolute oneness with God' of Patanjali (of the Yoga System), and sometimes as the pretence of search after Brahman (of the Shankar School).

 

[krsna]

Q: -- Why does such an event happen?

 

 

A: -- Because the jivas have free will of their own.

 

 

Q: -- Then how can this be reconciled with the teaching of the Gita which says: "God stays in the heart of all the creatures and makes them whirl round, in a machine, as it were, by the agency of maya"? [9]

 

 

A: -- This instruction in the Gita rather supports the above statement.

 

It is Shri Vishnu Who is God, the Controller of all beings. God gives the jivas the fruit according as they perform karma.

 

Their nature acts under the direction of God according to their previous karma. Jiva is the doer and God is the Giver.

 

God's authority is seen in the giving of the fruits and governance of the cause and effect. So God is the Giver of the fruit and the jivas, the enjoyers thereof.

 

[krsna]

Q: -- Why is there the independence of the jivas?

 

 

A: -- Jivas are the atomic parts of God, the vibhu-chit (Plenary Sentience).

 

The property of the sea, viz., water, is present in an atomic degree in a drop, too. Vibhu (or Over Lord) God is totally independent; there is independence in anu-chit-jiva (i.e., atomic sentience), too, proportionally.

 

 

Q: -- Is the proper use or abuse of the independence of jivas instigated by God?

 

 

A: -- If it had been God-instigated, then that would have amounted to the service of God and not caused the Jiva's forgetfulness about Him.

 

 

Q: -- Then how can the conclusion be arrived at, viz., 'everything depends upon God's Will'?

 

I am putting these questions not for the sake of discussion, I am asking them, because you are a great scholar and a great devotee at the same time.

 

In the Hindi Gita of Shri Tilaka I read an abhanga (panegyric to God) by Tuka-Rama, the sense of which runs thus:

"O God, if my karma brings me liberation, then what should I have to do with You?"

 

 

A: -- The Shrimad Bhagavatam has given a reply to this:

 

[10] "He is an heir to liberation, O God, who, feeling Your Grace in every thing and enduring the troubles caused by his own karma, bows down to You with mind, speech and body i.e., whole-heartedly".

 

He who has acquired fitness for being freed from the world, understands that if the blame is laid at the door of God, then, on account of the want of the tendency towards doing service to God, liberation is never available, but only that person can easily become the possessor of the position of liberation, who is fortunate in having the tendency for the chit-service aroused in him, and he can be more attracted towards God, considering all the troubles and difficulties as His Grace.