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

krsna · January 30, 2005

Q: -- Then, are the sins, that we commit, due to God's Grace?

A: -- No, they are not. The predilection for sins has been given to test us, in the same manner as money, paddy, a copy of the Shrimad Bhagavatam, etc., are placed before an infant at the time of the first-rice ceremony to see what it takes according to its innate tendency.

Before the thread ceremony, too, the Acharya tests the tendency of the boy to be initiated.

God's cruelty is what the human intellect apprehends when it is apathetic towards God. If one takes it to be a punishment, it is to be understood that such a one is wanting in a serving temper and in attraction for God. God is the shelter for all. He sends many obstacles and inconveniences to those who wish for shelter under Him, in order to test their ardour and steadiness. For example, when the Vaidya prescribes bitter and astringent medicines and distasteful diets, or the doctor opens the abscess with his lancet, if the patient, is displeased with them, on the ground that they are cruel and not his well-wishers, his decision is wrong, as he has taken his real friends to be enemies.

The divine potency, maya, has kept tempting objects as exhibits for alluring me, just as the fishing hook or the net, or the rat-trap or the chain, is set to delude fish, rats, elephants, etc. The object is that I may thereby get more and more entangled in the worldly meshes. Misled by these deluding traps, sometimes I become a wanton performer of misdeeds, sometimes a philanthropist doing good deeds, sometimes again consider oneness with non-distinct Brahman as the good for me, feeling a high regard for the doctrines of Buddha, Shankaracharya or Kapila.

Maya Devi has placed in order alluring things according to the diverse temperments of the persons who are deluded by the tenets of karma or jnana due to their having desires to things other than the Truth.

Jiva will attain his true well-being, when he engages himself in the accounts relating to God; there is no other way thereto. God does not set up obstructions against anyone, and He is not the destroyer of chetana-dharma or sentience in him.

It would have been an act of cruelty on His part, if He had placed obstacles against this sentience; He is only informing the sentient entities of what is the proper use of their sentience and what are its abuses.

Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has asked us not to act upon the instructions of the sage Jaimini about worldly elevations, nor upon those of Shri Dattatreya, Shankara, etc., about the culture of non-distinct Brahman; for that is not the proper use of our sentience or independence. Just work for doing service to God and never do a thing which is not meant for it. He has said all this for the true well-being of jivas who have got material perceptions for generating, rather uncovering, their sentience.

No one is engaged in a piece of work being propelled by a desire for distress. The bereaved mother is hitting her chest hard with her hands and hurting her head against a piece of stone only to destroy her grief.

A patient is belching out by disturbing his throat with his fingers, only to obtain a speedy relief.

The Karmis being desirous of the fruit of their karma are making different performances only to get such speedy remedies.

Their inner motive is to secure instantaneous relief. Being duped by matters pleasant for the time being they are running towards the mirage of maya. According to them, the method for the speedy end of worldly troubles is: 'I shall be the overlord of the world, become Indra of the heaven, or enjoy and distribute the various worldly enjoyments.' This is only apathy towards God.

The culture of non-distinct Brahman is only another phase in our attempts to secure a speedy remedy. The fact is that we want some fees (i.e., the return of some good for our exertions) in some shape or another. We run for enjoyments when we think ourselves dissociated from God. Then we think that it is necessary to make the proper use of our canine teeth, to revel in the functions peculiar to youth, to bring round other people to civic order or social civilization, and so forth. Those attempts are only the results of our forgetfulness about God. These predilections are only meant for enjoyment, as God has said:

"All acts are performed by the gunas of nature or maya, and being misled by egotism I thing(sic) myself as the doer. [11]

The jivatma is an entity beyond the gunas; he is above the Mayashakti, for he serves God. But the power of maya is far above.

The aptitude or inclination of a jiva apathetic towards God is to be bound down by maya, to swallow the bait, and bathed in sweat from head to foot due to hard labour and wasting the invaluable life, to gather fuel for the enjoyment of the wives, sons, daughters, grandsons, great-grandsons, many of whom we shall not have any chance even to see, and leave it behind for their sake.

I plant a palm-tree, the fruit of which will be enjoyed by others whom I shall never meet with and who will one day squander away all my hoarded wealth and property. All my efforts are to this end!

There is a Shloka to the effect:

"O Krishna, I have obeyed the wrong commands of karma (desires), etc., numberless and of any type, but yet they are nor [sic] kind to me, nor feel ashamed, and there is no cessation of these. Now I have got true intelligence, and having thrown them up have taken shelter with You with the prayer that I may be employed in Your service."

Those who are given to karma admit God indirectly; those of the jnana-marga wish for being one with God; but we do not cherish any such wrong desire. Our hope is to become the carriers of foot-wear for servants of Hari unlike those who adopt jnana. We do not claim to possess learning, nor intelligence; we mind only the truth received from the lotus-feet of Shri Gurudeva in the capacity of his servants; we do not lay down any new proposition. We say only what we have got to say in favour of the realisation of that one Truth.

What we hear from a true Guru for the first time seems to be revolting. We feel the rise of an inclination in us to make good what appears to be the inadequacy of the Guru's intelligence by means of our empiricism. But the current of thought prevalent in the external or material world cannot assail Shri Gurudeva, who is too heavy for them.

He has been able to keep them at a distance of innumerable crores of miles. He is 'Guru' or the heaviest object, because his position is not shifting. At the outset we think that he sticks to his narrow conceptions on account of his ignorance of the external objects; so we want to widen the scope of his conceptions and ideals by telling him everything about the empiric world. Such an idea is due to the dullness of understanding of the school of empiricism. Our Gurudeva is free from such an idea. My Gurudeva is the servant of the Absolute Truth, not of partial truth.

krsna · January 30, 2005

Q: -- What is the meaning of the word 'anartha'?

A: -- What blockades 'artha' (chief necessity of beings), at the very pith of it, is 'anartha' (mischief). This 'anartha' has been converting us into a group of its servitors.

Q: -- When will this 'anartha' come to its end?

A: -- The things that we can measure with our akshas or senses, those which appear to the senses as good and are, according to the judgment of our senses, preyah or our wished-for objects in the form of duties, are akshaja or empiric.

The service done to plants, to animals, to some people, and to the country, as also the desire for being regarded as intelligent and for acquiring the material fame as a Sadhu, these are services to the akshaja or sense matters.

All the endeavours of the karmis, jnanis, yogis and men of other desires are all services to akshaja; and all this is apathy towards God Krishna.

Q: -- How can it be known that all this is apathy towards God Krishna?

A: -- Shri Vyasadeva has compiled the Satvata Samhita or Shrimad Bhagavatam for men not knowing it (viz., what is apathy to God).

No one had any intention and effort for this knowledge. The non-devotee sects are ever ready to serve the things that are not 'Krishna'.

Shri Vyasadeva, who was grace-incarnate, published the Satvata Samhita for those people who did not know all these matters. In this Satvata Samhita, (Shrimad Bhagavatam) the motiveless service of only Adhokshaja (i.e., Entity beyond the scope of empiric knowledge) has been dwelt on as the highest virtue, leaving off the service of all akshaja or empiric things.

krsna · January 30, 2005

Q: -- What is the thing known as 'Bhakti'?

A: -- 'Bhakti' is the eternal natural function of the soul; and it is this alone which is the eternal virtue of jivas in their svarupa or essential nature (i.e., when not covered by avidya or maya).

There is no other virtue in jivas in their svarupa. The other functions are not the virtues of the jiva-svarupa; they are virtues of contrary natures. These are changeable and ephemeral.

This Bhakti destroys grief, infatuation and fear' [12] It is from dvitiyabhinivesa or an ardent intentness for the second thing i.e., what is different from the One Entity viz. God that fear, grief, distraction, etc. grow.

It is the conception of other entities than Krishna and His objects viz. devotees, which constitute the intentness for the second thing.

"So long as people do not accept as the only shelter the safe and fearless lotus-like Feet of God, they labour under the fear lest their wealth, bodies, relations connected therewith, and friends should be lost, under the grief when they are lost, under desire to get them back, under a hankering thirst after them, etc. [13] Again when these reappear, the material attachment for anatma things (that are not related to the soul with the conception of 'I'-ness and 'mine'-ness) become prominent."

This is the root-cause of Samsara.

The desire for authority arising out of the measuring tendency is an anti-devotional thing. Just as one attacked by intestinal worms cannot get nutrition of the body from any quantity of vitamin food consumed, so when the tendencies for karma and jnana prevail, the function of the soul is obstructed.

krsna · January 30, 2005

Q: -- With Vaishnavism some may be personally benefited; but what benefit does the world derive from it?

A: -- That is not the true position; it may be applicable for archana or ritual worship, and not to those who perform kirtana or recite the glories of God.

The ritual worshipper does his rituals for his own personal good; but a reciter does service to the world, nay to all the creatures of the universe, to all beasts and birds, to men and gods, even to trees, creepers and rocks, too; that service is of the highest type.

Q: -- I do not find any liking of men for this.

A: -- It is meaningless if we expect many persons to come for it. The number of post-graduates is very limited. Lord Krishna has said,

[14] "Among thousands of men, only one or a few endeavour for accomplishment in self-realisation and of these, too, even though accomplished, only one or so may have an insight into My nature."

Lord Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has dilated on it citing a Bhagavata Shloka:

[15] "Even among crores of the accomplished and liberated even a single devotee of Lord Narayana is rare."

Craftiness is the main thing in the world.

krsna · January 30, 2005

Q: -- What benefit has Vaishnavism done to the world?

A: -- Politics will not be able to do even one part of a crore parts, in thousands of eras, of the benefit that the Vaishnavas have done to the world. We are not advising others to be such narrow sectarians as the politicians are.

Q: -- How many people are there who know of Vaishnavism?

A: -- How many post-graduates are being turned out? How many Newtons have been born? Is it a wise principle to give up the culture of science because many Prof. J.C. Boses are not being produced?

krsna · January 30, 2005

Q: -- By what means can devotion to Krishna grow?

A: -- Devotion to the Supreme Lord Krishna is generated when one listens to the accounts of His Glories, etc., attentively with a serving mood from such guileless devotees of God as have nothing to do except incessantly chanting these accounts.

[16] He is Vishnu Who is sustaining the entire universe with the function in which the sattva is the chief element. As He has been making the world chetana or alive to the concerns of Krishna He is known as Krishna Chaitanya.

It is for generating chaitanya (alive-ness) in jivas that were without it that He adopted Sannyasa. But yet we have got chaitanya (i.e., been brought to sense). It is not the virtue of pure chaitanya to make other attempts than that of motiveless service.

In the function of shuddha (pure) chetana there is no service to to [sic] be done to anartha (which is not the true artha or necessary, i.e. God); there is only the service to Artha.

The Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, Shudras, etc., are busy in thinking about the external things in nature; the knowers of Brahman (i.e. the true Brahmanas) have no such engagement; only service to Hari is their duty.

And the Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, etc., should also make all endeavours in favour of that service of those Brahmanas.

It is the only duty of jivas to be engaged in the service of God.

krsna · January 30, 2005

Q: -- Is the Vaishnava Dharma acceptable to all?

A: -- It is only the Vaishnava Dharma that is the sole Dharma of all chit entities, it is the only Dharma of the jiva in his own essential nature.

There is no need to call oneself a Christian, Moslem or even a Hindu; all should become Vaishnavas. All should accept the eternal dharma of jivas in their own true nature, all even birds and beasts, plants and stones; deities, demons and men, who need not have their present forms of existence, should be Vaishnavas.

Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu performed this deed; He converted all to Vaishnavism, whomsoever his Lordship met during His South Indian tour, even grass shrubs, creepers, birds, beasts, trees, stones, along the Jharikhanda route through Orissa and Bihar; He did not allow them to stay with their conceits as such against their true nature; all became Vaishnavas including Shaivas, Shaktas, heretic Hindus, Pathans, Bouddhas, Mayavadis, emancipationists, elevationists, yogis, tapasvis, literates, illiterates, those in good or bad health.

His Lordship's only weapon was Krishna-kirtana. Besides, those who were becoming Vaishnavas, at the command of the Lord, were performing the function of Gurus with Kirtana and were converting as Vaishnavas those who came into contact with them.

Shriman Mahaprabhu told them that every man in Bharata (India) should be doing others good and there is nothing so good as loud Sankirtana which helps all creatures attain the highest good possible, just as one who sustains a thousand people, is much better than one who sustains only oneself.

There has not been, there will not be, such benefactors of the highest merit as Mahaprabhu and His devotees have been. The offer of other benefits is only a deception; it is rather a great harm, whereas the benefit done by Him and His followers is the truest and greatest eternal benefit. That is not a benefit lasting only for a few days, being only a timely benefit.

His Lordship or His followers did not delude people by speaking of such benefits as would, after a short time, produce harm, by which some other party would be harmed, just as the benefit of one country connotes mischief to another, just as when I am benefited by driving in a coach the horses are harmed, had when I give another an advantage for the time being, I suffer a proportionate disadvantage. They have spoken of such a benefit, they have given such a thing, as is the highest benefit for all, for all times, for all conditions.

This benefit is not for a particular country causing mischief to another; but it benefits the whole universe. Mahaprabhu's benefit does not produce any evil. For this, from His Grace no evil arises, and for this again His is the highest benevolence, and so are His devotees' too. These statements are the greatest truth, not mere gossip, nor imaginative poetry and literature.

krsna · January 30, 2005

Q: -- What is, then, Vishnu-seva?

A: -- Vishnu is the Adhokshaja Entity Whom I cannot measure with my senses or enjoy. But I am enjoyable by Him.

The name of Shreya (real Truth) is beloved to Vishnu. To gratify His Senses is seva (service). The pretence of Vishnu-seva for maintaining the body is no true Vishnu-seva.

In modern times endeavours are rampant to enjoy Vishnu in the name of Vishnu-seva; Vishnu is being treated as a servant, supplying our needs. Endeavour is made to enjoy Vishnu, when we think ourselves the enjoyers of the river water, the fruits of trees, the beauty of nature, the health-giving open air.

I think that He will sleep on the same side (left or right as I wish,) as if He were a tenant choosing me for His dwelling place. I treat Him as my gardener who will supply me with nose-gays of flowers, so that I may enjoy their agreeable fragrance.

Who is it then that do not want Bhakti? It is they who say, "I shall rule over the country, or I shall remain as a subject, tilling the ground, or I shall be a politician or warrior."

It is they who say, "It is I who am the doer of everything."

krsna · January 30, 2005

Q: -- Shall we, then, give up all avocations and the daily round of our duties?

A: -- We shall do everything as Vaishnavas and not take up the path of karma.

Our former Gurudeva Shri Rupa Goswami Prabhu has said:

[17] "He, whose endeavours are all for doing service to Hari, with body, mind and speech, is called 'jivan-mukta' or 'liberated while living,' in whatever stage of life he may be."

He has also said:

[18] "When one is detached from worldly enjoyments, and with the acceptance of the objects favourable to Krishna's service is ardently attached to Him, one is said to have the proper abnegation."

krsna · January 30, 2005

Q: -- What is the duty of a Vaishnava?

A: -- It is said in the Pancharatra, [19] that those who want to have Bhakti should perform only such secular and Vedic deeds as are favourable to the service of Hari.

It is also said in the Pancharatra, [20] that such acts as are ordained in the Shastras for the service of Hari are called by saintly persons as Bhakti with the performance of which is gradually generated the superior type of Bhakti.

The doctrine of naishkarmya (cessation of karma) is this. Whatever we do should be done as favourable to the service of Hari. The desire of the salvationists is to get rid of all actions, to get rid of Hari's service.

krsna · January 30, 2005

Q: -- How can one do Hari-seva?

A: -- Hari-seva can be done in three ways by acts, by speech, and with the mind.

Q: -- What type of service is done by acts, the mind and the speech?

A: -- When asked by the father about what good study he had done, Shri Prahlada said [21]

"The performance of the nine kinds of Bhakti directly offered to God Vishnu, hearing, chanting, remembering, serving, the Feet, worshipping, saluting with hymns, serving as a servitor, dealing with friendliness and surrendering the self, -- is to be regarded as the best form of study."

Hiranyakashipu, astonished to bear [sic] about the idea of seva from his boy, said,

"You are giving a new type of idea, which we of the school of empiricists do not know."

krsna · January 30, 2005

Q: -- Will not those who serve Hari serve jivas?

A: -- Hari is the Entire Entity; it is the servants of Hari who really serve jivas. Those who being fascinated with the external appearance of jivas think the service of the external body of Hari as the service of Hari or that of jivas are vivarta-vadins or advocates of the theory that the whole creation is a mere illusion; they do not serve the jivas; they serve only maya, the external Body of Hari. By serving maya thus, one benefits neither oneself nor another.

If you impute poverty to Narayana, You serve only maya, neither Narayana, nor His servants, the jivas. The service of vivarta (illusion) is that of the mirage of maya, not of the real substance.

The true substance is only Krishna; the jivas are the associated counterparts of His Entity. We shall serve Hari; we shall serve the Harijanas (i.e., devotees of Hari) and also those who cannot understand the true Harijanas, so that they may have a true understanding of the Harijans; we shall help them mentally and physically, too. We shall serve even those who are against the Harijanas, but that with indifference.

Our best friends are the servants of God with whom we ally. I shall speak about the service of Hari to such friends of mine as are possessed of lesser power of understanding and have taken up the duties of Kshatriyas, Vaisyas and Shudras, if they are not antagonistic.

But we shall declare non-co-operation with them that have become antagonistic, such as the casteless, the Agnostics, the Epicureans and followers of Charvaka who regard their physical pleasures as the summum bonum of life, and such others.

krsna · January 31, 2005

Q: -- What do you mean by the term 'jiva-daya' or kindness to creatures? Is it not the offering of help with the supply of food, clothes, etc?

A: -- We shall offer such help to him who has got faith in God even after several births and has begun service of God.

We should feed and clothe the needy and do them other benefits in order to make them serve Hari; otherwise, what is the need of nourishing a snake with milk and banana?

That is no kindness, rather it would entrap men with maya or tempt them towards nihilism.

The kindness that Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has shown to jivas, absolves them eternally from all wants, from all inconveniences and from all the distresses known as tritapa.

That kindness does not produce any evil and the jivas who have got it will not be victims of the evils of the world; they will rather be swimming in the nectarous sea of Love, eternally enjoying its sweetness

krsna · January 31, 2005

Q: -- How is Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's grace different from other forms of kindness?

A: -- Unlike other forms of kindness, His Lordship's Grace is unproductive of evils.

His Grace has been described by Shri Svarupa Damodara Goswami, His closest associate, as easily scattering away all evils, as clear and unmixed, as extending pure delight like a full-blown flower, as setting at rest all scriptural conflicts, as distributing true tasty sweetness of devotion, as causing of ecstatic mood of the mind like madness (in love of God), as giving the eternal bliss of devotion, as introducing a spirit of equality among the high and the low and as revealing the extreme limit of spiritual sweetness.

Shri Rupa Goswami considers His Lordship as Krishna Himself, bearing the Name Shri Krishna Chaitanya and a fair complexion, as the greatest benevolent Entity, distributing love of Krishna.

Shri Krishna Dasa Kaviraja Goswami, (author of Shri Chaitanya Charitamrita), too, has said:

"Deliberate with discrimation [sic] on the Grace of Shri Chaitanya Chandra and you will be amazed with the highest excellence."

Q: -- How can there be a discriminate deliberation thereof?

A: -- Kaviraja Goswami Prabhu has asked us to make a comparative study between Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's Grace and all the so-called kindnesses that are incomplete and imperfect.

Where there is not the gift of an eternal nature, there must be inadequacy, defect and deception.

If somebody makes a comparative study with impartially, [sic] he will find that Shri Chaitanya Chandra's Grace is plenary kindness, whereas all the other kindnesses are limited and deceptive.

The Incarnations of God, like the Matsya, Kurma, and Varaha Devas, not only They, but even God Krishna Himself, have distributed Grace among the devotees only; but they have killed the antagonists; whereas Mahaprabhu, instead of killing them, has shown them kindness; for example, He has not refrained from distributing His Grace, unproductive of any evil even among the Quazis and the Bouddhas.

He has converted, as pure devotees, also the Ramayets who, though they profess to worship Shri Ramachandra, are really emancipationists.

krsna · January 31, 2005

Q: --- Are not the Ramayets true Vaishnavas?

A: -- The Ramayets belong to the Ramanandi Sects; they do not belong to the correct Ramanuja Sect. As most of them cherish a desire for emancipation, the Shuddha (pure) Vaishnavas count them among the Viddha (adulterated) Vaishnava class. Once Shrila Raghunatha Bhatta Goswami took with him to Shri Mahaprabhu, at Puri, one Ramadasa, teacher of Kavya-prakasa (a famous work on rhetoric in Sanskrit).

Though Ramadasa had a crouching humility and a spirit of doing service to Vaishnavas and Brahmanas, yet Mahaprabhu dealt with him with indifference and apathy, having noticed the desire for emancipation lurking in his heart.

Q: -- What do you think about the Bouddhas?

A: -- 'Bouddha' is another name for 'Vaishnava'; but the present-day men going by the name of 'Bouddhas' are wanting in the true knowledge about the soul.

As the worshippers of Shri Rama are the Ramayets, so the worshippers of Buddha, an Incarnation of Vishnu, are Bouddhas.

But as the Auls, Bauls, Gauranganagaris, Smartas, Caste-Goswami's etc., though professing to be the followers of Shri Gauranga, have fallen off from His teachings, so have the Bouddhas deviated from the path shown by Buddha Deva, though they called themselves Vaishnavas.

When however, they follow the Shuddha Vaishnavas, their true intrinsic nature will be manifested, as it did in the case of the Bouddhas, on their obtaining the Grace of Shri Mahaprabhu.

So when the men of the misled sects, like the Auls, Bauls, etc., give up their wrong beliefs and customs and worship Gaur-Krishna under the direction of the Shuddha Vaishnavas, then we shall recognise them as the devotees of Shri Gauranga Mahaprabhu.

Q: -- Do not the Smartas worship Vishnu?

A: -- The worship of Vishnu by the Smartas is another form of their worship of Ganesa, Surya, Shiva and Shakti.

Vishnu is not worshipped thereby. The worship of Vishnu as one of the five deities, makes His highest Dignity, which is without any equal, similar to that of the other deities and His Lordship is counted as one of several deities which is a great spiritual offence.

According to Shri Chaitanya Deva, one who looks on Shri Narayana as equal to the different gods like Brahma, Rudra, etc., surely becomes the lowest heretic (pashandi). He regards also him as a pashandi who counts one Krishna-nama and a crore of asvamedhas (horse-sacrifices). There is much deliberation of these matters in the Brahma Samhita, the most valuable treatise on the Vaishnava doctrine, found by His Lordship in South India. The worship of Vishnu as found in Panchopasana (worship of five deities) do not please Vishnu, and being only the worship of a deity and also heterodox it is highly improper.

Q: -- Why do you call it improper?

A: -- God Himself has said this in the Gita:

"Those who worship other deities worship Me improperly." [22]

Q: -- Though improper, all the same, it is Krishna's worship.

A: -- It is Krishna Who is the only Super-Lord over the entire universe and beyond it of Vaikuntha (i.e., Transcendental Region). As such, no one can raise any obstacle against His Enjoyment. Everyone is offering Him worship, but it is given in an improper manner, and the worshipper gains nothing.

Even they, too, who are worshipping Surya, Ganesa, Shakti, etc., are worshipping the reflectional potency of Krishna; because nothing has a separate existence from Him. But the reflection being worshipped, they do not get the true knowledge of intrinsic nature of their soul and the sambandha-jnana (essential knowledge about the relation between God and the jivas).

When that sambandha-jnana is acquired, they will know that Krishna is the Sole Master, that every jiva is Krishna's eternal servitor and that Krishna-seva is the eternal function of jivas.

krsna · January 31, 2005

Q: -- What deliberation is there in the Brahma Samhita?

A: -- The Brahma Samhita has refuted Pancho-pasana.

It is the eternal duty of all jivas to serve Krishna, the Lord of all Lords. All the other deities are His servitors. Their function is only to carry out Govinda's commands. They will never acquire liberation, who conceive of the deities as the different names and bodies of Vishnu instead of knowing them as His servitors.

In five Shlokas of the Brahma Samhita have been described the natures of the five deities, named above:

(1) "I (i.e., Brahma) adore the Primaeval Lord Govinda, in pursuance of whose order the Sun-God, the King of the planets and the eye of this world, performs his journey mounting the wheel of Time."

[23] (2) "I adore the Primaeval Lord Govinda, Whose Lotus-like Feet are always held by Ganesa on the head in order to obtain power for his function of destroying all the obstacles of the three worlds."

[24] (3) "I adore the Primaeval Lord Govinda, in accordance with whose will Durga, His external potency, conducts her function as the creating, preserving and destroying agent of the world"

[25] (4) "I adore the Primaeval Lord Govinda, Who transforms Himself as Sambhu for performing the work of destruction, just as milk is transformed into curd which is neither the same as, nor different from, milk"

[26] (5) "I adore the Primaeval Lord Govinda, Who manifests Himself as Vishnu in the same manner as one burning candle communicates its light to another candle which, though existing separately, is of the same quality as the first. [27]

krsna · January 31, 2005

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Q: -- What is the distinction between a Brahmana and a Vaishnava?

A: -- The worshipper of Shri Vishnu with distinctive attributes and sentient playfulness is a Vaishnava, whereas the culturist of Attributeless Brahman is a Brahmana.

The name of the knower of Brahman is Brahmana, and when he worships Bhagavan his name is Vaishnava.

The fully manifested Truth is Bhagavan and the insufficiently manifested Truth is Brahman. Consequently it is a Brahmana with the knowledge of relativities who can be a Vaishnava by means of worship. The contrivance of the worship of Brahman by the professors of non-distinction in five forms with an attribution of attributes to Him on the basis of the theory of illusion does not refer to the Truth of the knowledge of singularity.

These illusionists with the self-conceit as Brahmanas think Brahmanism confined to the religion for the attainment of worldly desires, whereas the virtue of the knower of Brahman is eternally innate in the essential condition of jivas.

When a Brahmana is fortunate to get rid of the clutches of maya through Vishnu's Grace, he is able to become a pure Brahmana i.e., a Vaishnava.

In his Bhakti-Sandarbha Shri Jiva Goswami has cited the following from the Garuda Purana:

"A performer of sacrifices is better than a thousand Brahmanas; a scholar of Vedanta is better than a thousand performers of sacrifices; a devotee of Vishnu is superior to a crore of Vedanta scholars; whereas one, solely devoted to Vishnu is superior to a thousand Vaishnavas."

Q: -- Are the Vaishnavas, too, Brahmanas?

A: -- That the Vaishnavas, too are Brahmanas you have learnt in answer to the above question. Brahmanism is the lowest rang [sic] of the ladder of Vaishnavism which is far higher than the other.

A Brahmana is the attendant to a Vaishnava. Just as the owner of a lakh of rupees possesses also a thousand rupees, so one who is a Vaishnava is certainly a Brahmana.

krsna · January 31, 2005

Q: -- Are the Vaishnavas, too, Brahmanas?

A: -- That the Vaishnavas, too are Brahmanas you have learnt in answer to the above question. Brahmanism is the lowest rang [sic] of the ladder of Vaishnavism which is far higher than the other. A Brahmana is the attendant to a Vaishnava. Just as the owner of a lakh of rupees possesses also a thousand rupees, so one who is a Vaishnava is certainly a Brahmana.

Q: -- Now-a-days very few think along this line. Whenever the term 'Vaishnava' is used, people generally interpret it in quite a different manner.

A: -- It is on account of the people's forgetfulness about these deliberations and of the fact that the highest seat of Vaishnavism has been looked down upon with a degree of contumely due to the want of necessary culture and sufficient propagation by means of proper custom and conduct, that, as willed by God, the institution of the Gaudiya Maths has come into existence.

This intitution [sic] has undertaken the task of re-establishing the system of daiva-varnashrama (deistic form of castes and stages of life) for re-instating such persons in the proper functioning of true Brahmanas as have forgotten the principle of the dharma of jivas as servitors to Vaishnavas and have been consequently running after the function of Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, etc.

Mahaprabhu Shri Chaitanya Deva has said:

"He alone can function as a Guru (spiritual instructor) who is conversant with the knowledge of Krishna, whether he is born as a Brahmana or a Shudra, or is a Sannyasi or otherwise." An a-Brahmana (one who is not a true Brahmana) cannot be a Guru, the word 'Guru' implies a Brahmana.

He who knows the truth about Krishna i.e., who is an adept in the full perception of the true knowledge of singularity is certainly not an a-Brahmana, as in him there is the knowledge about Brahman by implication.

Shri Narada says: "If the symptoms indicating the varnas (castes) appear in persons born elsewhere, they should be regarded as belonging to the castes as shown by the symptoms."

Shridhara Swamipada has said: "The ascertainment of castes as Brahmanas, etc., should be made from the presence or absence of the attributes like self-control, tranquility, etc., and not only from births."

If these virtues are seen in a person not born in a Brahmana family, his varna is to be determined as Brahmana. Shri Advaita Acharya honoured his ancestors by offering Shradha-patra to Thakur Haridasa who had been born of a moslem family, telling him: "Crores of Brahmanas are fed by feeding you."

Q: -- But why is not such a custom now-a-days observed in your Vaishnava community?

A: -- Everything is going to be obsolete in course of time. How distorted have become the teachings that were given by Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu!

Now-a-days, trade, lechery, hypocrisy, deceitfulness, etc., have been rampant in society in the name of Vaishnavism.

Though Thakur Haridasa had come out of a moslem family, the devotees of God regarded him as the Guru of Brahmanas. As such, Yadunandan Acharya, Ramananda Basu and other persons born in very respectable families did not in the least feel diffident to become his disciples.

Q: -- By what you are propagating, many people will be rid of their prejudices and the Vaishnava world may be much benefited thereby.

A: -- It is from the teaching of Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu that the world can derive true benefit, for they are not tinged with the colour of narrow sectarianism.

Q: -- I am fully convinced and much delighted at your scholarship and genius.

A: -- Nothing of all this is mine. I only reproduce what I have learnt from Shri Gurudeva. I have only recapitulated the eternal Truth that has come down through the media of Shri Brahma-Narada-Vyasa-Shuka, etc.

FOOTNOTES

[1] Bh 1.1.1

[2] Vide II 5-79

[3] Bh. IV. 3.23

[4] Vide I. 7.4

[5] Gita XVIII-55

[6] Bh. XI. 14-21

[7] Bh. 1.7.4-5

[8] Vide VII. 4-5

[9] Vide X. 14.8

[10] X. 14.18

[11] Gita 111-27

[12] Bh. 1.7.7

[13] Bh. 111.9.6

[14] Gita VII, 3

[15] Bh. VI. 14.5

[16] Bh. 1.7-7

[17] Bh. R.S. 1.2.185

[18] Vide I.2.255

[19] Cited in Bh. R.S. I.2.198

[20] B.R.S. 1.2.13

[21] Bh. VII. 5.29-31

[22] Vide IX.23

[23] Vide V. 52

[24] Vide V. 50

[25] Vide 44

[26] Vide V. 45

[27] Vide V. 46

krsna · January 31, 2005

Published in The Harmonist (Sree Sajjanatoshani)

Two ways are found in the world in order to earn knowledge about some particular object. One is to make an attempt for it with the help of our experience about the world; the other is that, realizing the inefficiency of the worldly experience, we should entirely surrender ourselves to the personage who has come down from the realm to which the required knowledge relates, and acquire it from him through the ear. Some one many [sic] question: “When we are inhabitants of this world, how, after fully relinquishing our experience about it, can we take refuge with some super-mortal being?” In answer it is to be said that it will not do to get afraid of the difficulty; to know the truth, there should be a great strength of mind. You will not learn how to swim, if, seeing the water, you get afraid. Self-surrender is not a very difficult thing: that is rather very natural and easy for the soul. Whatever is contrary to self-surrender, is rather unnatural and difficult. If we want to learn about God, we will have to learn from His agent. When we listen to him, we must stop all our experience about the world and all misleading argumentations. It is by continually listening to the strong and forceful narratives about God’s glories that all the evils like of heart weakness will be liquidated. There will appear an unprecedented courage in the heart. Then will arise, in its full glow, self-surrender which is the natural virtue of the soul. Then will reveal itself in that self-surrendered heart, the self-manifested truth of the transcendental region of the fourth dimension. It is in this way that truth can be known; there is no other way in which can be realized the real truth beyond all deceitfulness. There is a distinction between divine and mundane topics. There are two senses in which a word is used; one refers to a transformable object of the world, creating forgetfulness about God; and the other to an eternal object leading to the conception of an excited feeling towards God’s own divine realm. One acquires fitness to take God’s Names after learning from the Acharya’s mouth about the difference between God as the Word of Vaikuntha or the transcendental World, and the mundane words of this world, limited by maya.

It is in the nature of jiva averse from God to cherish desires to majesty, power, knowledge, indifference to the world, fame and affluence. Man is divested of his virtue of sub-servience to God and Guru by such an enjoying mood as: “I shall remain independent; for dependence means serving the desires of others and my own desires to enjoyment are not fully satisfied thereby.” But such a jiva does not feel that these (majesty, power, etc.) cannot be owned by any jiva whose constitutional nature is eternal servitorship to God. They can stay only in God. These six excellences were glorified when they stayed naturally in Shrila Raghunatha Dasa Goswami, for he never attempted to get them. All majesty, power supernatural, etc., were under his thumb. But he never hankered after these, nor was he anxious to make a display thereof, like the karmis, jnanis, yogis and tapasvis. These were gloried at the feet of Shri Raghunatha, staying there even in an unlimited degree beyond what these people would not be lucky enough to possess, but he never did any trafficking in them; nor even did he ever make any attempt for abnegation like the pithless aspirers thereafter. But the climax of the achievement of all asceticism was glorified in his person.

Why did not Raghunatha attempt abnegation, etc. Every jiva is anxious to get his wished-for object. This is not bad, if it centers round Krishna. He attains to such a status as that of Raghunatha, who loves Krishna a hundred-fold better than himself. In his prayer to Shri Radha, Raghunatha said [1] “Somehow I have spent my life in high expectations of the ocean of nectar; if even yet you do not show kindness towards me, then what is the necessity of my life, of my residence in the Braja or even with Krishna?” Has any one ever heard of such a climax of the attainment of abnegation? He does not want even Shri Krishna without the service of Shri Radha. Such a maximum height of abnegation is not possible for a man of this world unless he has been, like Raghunatha, drenched with the moisture of the Grace of Shri Swarupa Goswami; none else can even explain this standard of abnegation. Is it possible for him to crave for the six terrestrial excellences as above, who does not want Krishna even without service to Radha? What an amount of service done to the highest darling of Krishna and what a degree of the highest love felt for her can endow one with such a spirit?

God has said [2]: “A truly intelligent person should shun evil company but seek association with holy saints who, with their instructions, gnaw the knot of the worldly attachments of our mind.” The meaning is that for our true well-being we should always accept the guidance of the true Guru (spiritual guide) and should not be misled by pseudo-gurus. The Guru never accepts the preyah-panthaa (way to pleasure), but he is a shreyah-panthi (i.e., he follows the way to the true well-being). He gives others (i.e., his disciples) the same instruction to walk along the real path as he has received from his own Guru, of course a true one. If a disciple asks permission of the Guru for drinking, he is sure to disapprove of it and never to grant it. When the Guru does not indulge the disciple in his prayer for things after his mind, he may dismiss the Guru. Such disciples accept only the gurus that are ready to supply fuel for their sensualism. Acceptance of a Guru has become a fashion now-a-days, not for the disciple’s true well-being, but for getting one’s sensual pleasures approved of. Such appointments satisfy only the social or family customs, like those of barbers and washers.

As soon as a truth is ascertained, it should be ardently given effect to then and there. The span of our life being very short, we should not mis-spend even a moment, of what still remains, in attending to our worldly affairs but utilize it in the performance of our service to Hari. King Khattanga and Ajamila attained their highest good by spending only one muhurtha (forty-eight minutes) and only the time of death respectively in Lord Hari’s Serivce. Here is an anecdote to the point. One Sivananda Bhattacharya, a Sakta by faith i.e., worshipper of Goddess Kali or Durga, sent his son Ramakrishna to purchase some sacrificial beasts, goats and buffaloes, and other necessary articles against the coming Durga Puja. When Ramakrishna was returning home with the purchases, he met Shrila Narottama Thakura, a holy saint of the highest order, who after some instructive talk changed the youth’s mind altogether, and the latter let off the beasts to obtain initiation from the Thakura and came back empty-handed. Sivananda, expectantly looking for his son’s return with the goats and buffaloes and other articles for the Devi’s Puja, asked him eagerly about them, seeing him return without them. Shri Ramakrishna replied that he had been blessed to have got the grace of the illustrious Vaishnava, Shrila Narottama, on which the father flared up in excessive wrath and called him a disgrace to the family for accepting one, not born in a Brahmana family as his Guru. Now Ramakrishna was fortunate enough to have been roused up from the worldly mire on hearing the truth from the mouth of the Thakura Mahasaya (Narottama) and to have at once given up the duties of the world as hateful and insignificant in order to be engaged in the service of Hari. We cannot rely on the time even of a breath, for it may be the last one; so we should utilise even this moment for attaining our true well-being, for which we should not listen to any one of this world who may give us contrary advice. In the Bhagavatam [3] God, as Rishbha Deva, teaches us thus: “We are encompassed by death and whoever does not deliver us from it cannot be obeyed as our well-wisher, let him or her be the Guru (like Sukracharya to Bali), or a near relative (like Ravana to Vibhishana), or the father (like Hiranyakasipu to Pradlada), or the mother (like Kaikeyi to Bharata), or a god (like Indra to Nanda) or a husband (like the sacrificial Brahman of Vraja to his wife devoted to Shri Krishna). Such was the case with Shri Ramakrishna Bhattacharya who wisely courted his father’s certain displeasure to secure his true well-being.

Who is the true Guru? He who is constantly engaged in the service of Hari. Who is the truly [4] learned man? He who in the words of God Krishna is well conversant with the correct knowledge of the bondage of a jiva and his deliverance therefrom. We should accept only him as our Guru who employs cent percent of his time in God’s service; otherwise we should fail miserably in following him. The Shri Chaitanya Charitamrita has taught us: “A true Guru teaches his disciple after his own behaviour and practice; one can not be the teacher of Dharma, if one does not perform it himself.” [5]

From the Shruti we get the instruction that an enquirer after the true knowledge about Tat (God), should approach a Guru, with necessary articles for initiation, who is conversant in the Veda and steeped in Brahman (God). This instruction has also been given in the Shrimad Bhagavatam, [6] “An enquirer after the highest well-being should surrender himself to a Guru who is fully versed in the Veda as well as Para-Brahman and who has thereby become the shelter of true peace.”

The platform speakers of improper conduct, skilled in speeches only, or the professional priests cannot be Gurus. When a man does not keep himself engaged all the while in Hari-bhajan (service of Hari), then he is anxious to be occupied with other things on the strength of Shri Nama and committing the great aparaadha (spiritual offence) utilizing Shri Nama in sinful affairs. A stipend-holder or a contractor cannot be a Guru, nor a blind reader of the Shrimad Bhagavatam. First of all refrain from approaching the professional priest. See whether he devotes his time fully to Bhagavata or not. All the time of one who is steeped or accomplished in Para-Brahman is fully occupied with the service of God.

From whom is the Bhagavatam to be heard? The Bhagavatam is to be heard from or to be studied with a true Vaishnava. The Bhagavatam cannot come out of the mouth of one who is not a Bhagavata or true devotee. Pretending to be a reader of the Bhagavatam one such leads others astray. He is deceived himself and, as such, he deceives others. How can the Bhagavatam which is not different from Shri Bhagavan have a full play on the tongues of the professional readers who pose as scholars conversant in reading it before others, but have no true devotion in Him, being engaged in worldly enjoyments? On the plea of discoursing the Bhagavatam, they only gratify their own senses, instead of the senses of Shri Krishna. A person anxious for his true well-being should never come in contact with such professional readers and thereby court their own downfall, falsely thinking that they would get true benefit by accepting them as true Gurus and listening to them as disciples.

How can those act as Jagad-Gurus or true instructors of people who are busy with the maintenance of their wives and children, who give full steps to their desire for enjoyments arising out of illusion, who try to employ God Who is the highest Entity to be adored and served, for supplying them fuel for the fire thereof? What do we see in the Shrimad Bhagavatam and in the conduct and preaching of Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and His devotees? Such people as cherish in their hearts fear, affliction, wrong illusory ideas, desire, greed, feeling of discomfiture, concerning body, wealth, friendly relation, etc., on account of their attachment to some second object besides Him, have not surrendered themselves to God. Such non-dedicated persons cannot advise others to surrender themselves to God. Even if they give verbal instructions therefore, such conduct is not effective. Only such a Mahabhagavata (great devotee of God) as is a nishkinchana (having nothing to call his own in the world) and has sincerely surrendered himself to Krishna or is His exclusive servitor all the twenty-four hours of the day can legitimately occupy the Acharya’s seat.

Those who attend to the service of God’s Name, God’s Dhama (Abodes) and God’s Desire (Kama) are the only persons really adorable in the world. No being can extricate himself from wrong understandings due to maya without doing service to Shri Nama (Divine Name). As the result of service to Shri Nama, men can get rid of all prejudices and be settled in the service of Krishna-Desires (Krishna Kama Seva). From Dharma-Seva one can be rid of the clutches of the tremendously dangerous doctrine, “I am the Lord, there are no eternal Name, Form, Attributes, ‘Sports, Majesty, etc., of God”. And from Krishna-Kama-Seva, one can save oneself from the serious danger in the shape of the desire for gratifying one’s senses; and being free from the temporal lust one can be firmly established in the service of the Transcendental Kama-deva (viz Krishna) and of Kama-Gayatri.

If we are fortunately able to secure attachment towards Krishna-Kama-Seva, then we can change the direction of the course of the different inferior desires that have arisen in us for sensual enjoyments in connection with our material body, and also that of the road we are running along under the direction of our subtle body i.e., the mind, if it has grown apathetic towards attempts for God’s services; they will then take just the contrary trend.’

And that Krishna-Kama-Seva is available, if we engage ourselves in the service of Dhama. Dhama means ‘rays’, ‘prowess’, ‘influence’, ‘home’, ‘place’, ‘body’, ‘birth’, etc. According to the sense accepted by the truly learned savants, Shridhama is that in which there is no malice, jealousy, nor evanescence, and that which is eternally self-manifested, spiritual and blissful. Shri Chaitanya Deva, having made His Advent in that Dhama, has made the world conscious of the spirituality of a holy place.

Failing to realize the dignity of Dhama, we had no predilection for Dhama Seva and not so much faith in the worshippable representative, (murti) of God, having remained engaged in studies, full of the understanding that we shall vanquish the people of the world by means of dialectics, splendour of erudition and glory of exemplary character. But some holy saints engaged in Dhama-Seva have enlightened us saying that it would bring us the highest welfare. He who seeks connection with Dhama, finds his attachment to grama (or domesticated life and connection therewith) soon liquidated. Then Shri Nama Seva, the means of attaining true blessedness, soon brings us our real end viz., Krishna-Kama.

Shri Vaikuntha-Nama alone has come down to this earth, and it is in Shri Dhama that Shri Nama has been deposited. The presence of Nama-Seva does not give the real end, viz. Krishna-Kama-Seva to one who disconnects oneself from Shri Dhama.

FOOTNOTES

[1] Vilapakusumanjali 102.

[2] Bh. XI. 26/26.

[3] vide V. 5/18.

[4] Bh. XI. 19.41.

[5] Mundaka. 1.2.12.

[6] Vide. XI. 3.21.

krsna · January 31, 2005

Q: Please tell me in brief the doctrine of Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

A: There is an old Shloka which says "Bhagavan Krishna's (Son of the Chieftain Nanda of Braja) own place Vrindavana is the object of worship according to the example of the cowherd-wives of Braja which is glorified in the Srimad Bhagavatam, the stainless Puranam, and Love of God is the highest thing for attainment."

This is the doctrine of Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, for which we have the greatest regard and not for anything else.

The fullest development of the idea about Godship is in Shri Krishna. He reveals Himself to His devotees of different competences in three Forms. All these three are perfect conceptions, not like the partial one of Paramatma and the incomplete one of Brahman. These three perfect conceptions are full, fuller and fullest. These three are revealed in Dwaraka, Mathura and Vrindavana.

At Dwaraka Krishna's manifestation is full, at Mathura it is fuller and in Braja (including Vrindavana) it is the fullest.

We are living in the Bhuloka, one out of the fourteen worlds comprising the seven lower worlds and seven higher ones. Of the latter, this world (Bhuloka) is the first. The Bhu (earth) Bhuvah (between heaven and earth) and Svah (heaven) are the regions of enjoyment for householders performing virtuous deeds with desire; the remaining higher regions, viz., Mahah, Janah, Tapah and Satya are attainable by non-householders. Of these four, the first is meant for those who live and study in the preceptor's house and intend to become house-holders after paying the preceptor a ceremonial present; the second is for the celibates who live with the preceptor for good and ever observe the rules of religious austerities; the third is for the hermits, who after retirement from worldly life live in the forest or in seclusion for meditation; and the fourth for the sanyasis (roaming mendicants). But the devotees of God, who have not the inordinate desire for worldly enjoyments or for merger in Brahman, attain to Shri Vaikuntha which is inaccessible to others. Even beyond that Vaikuntha, there is Dwaraka; higher than that is Mathura and above that too is Goloka-Vrindavana.

These regions are manifested by the potency of existences lying in God's Esoteric Personality. The places that are there in the transcendental Region are revealed in the mundane region. What is non-existent in that region cannot be found in this one. The manifestation of the non-apparent sports of Vrindavana is Goloka. Just as the lotus remains in a lake without connection with water, so does Goloka stay in the world without any touch of the earth.

Those whose mind is not prone to offer service (to God) cannot feel the transcendentality of the region descended on the mundane plane. Ayodhya, Dwaraka, Shri-Purushottam Kshetra of Shri Jagannath etc., are different provinces of Shri Vaikuntha.

The bliss available in Ayodhya is better than that in Vaikuntha; the bliss in Dwaraka is superior to that in Ayodhya; and the bliss of the denizens of Goloka is the climax of all bliss. The difference in the degree of a particular Rasa or sentimental mellowness is the cause of the difference in the degree of the bliss.

Even the afflictions and distresses that may be there in Goloka dance on the crest of all forms of blisses and happinesses; these are rather nourishers of the highest form of bliss.

Shri Chaitanya Deva has demonstrated the superiority of researching the services of the Lord of Vrindavana or of Gokula.

Shri Krishna is God Himself from Whom have emanated all the Incarnations of Vishnu. That Krishna manifests Himself as the Lord of Dwaraka, or of Gokula.

Shri Chaitanya Deva has said about Lord Krishna of Gokula: "In Krishna are present all the five principal Rasas (forms of sentimental mellowness). He is Himself the Ocean of Rasas."

krsna · February 1, 2005

TESTIMONY OF LOVE

by

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura

"Non-forgetfulness of the Twin Lotus Feet of Sri Krishna reduces non-good and augments positive well-being, by promoting purification of the living entity, devotion to the Supreme Soul, knowledge endowed with apprehension of the reality, and non-hankering for the mundane."

It is only if we are in a position to render devoted service to that Entity of the Supreme Soul, constantly remembered in the heart, that well-being would ensue. Hearing is rendered possible by the agency of Chanting (kirtana); and if hearing is maintained in the best manner real well being makes its appearance. In the absence of hearing and chanting (sravan and kirtana) the substantive manifestation is not possible.

The service of the holy Name, of the holy dham (the transcendental Abode) and of the supreme Desire of Godhead is available to all of us. There is no other means of escape from the clutches of worldly inclinations for any creature than the service of the holy Name. The service of the Name enables humanity to free itself from the hold of all superstitions and wrong ideas, and to be rooted in the service of the Desire of Krishna (Krishna-kama). The service of dham frees one from the jaws of Illusion (mayavada), the terribly wrong theory that a jiva or creature is himself God and Master, and that there is no existence, except in the human imagination, of the holy Name, Form, Attributes, Pastimes (lila) and Paraphernalia of Godhead. The service of Krishna's Desire saves one from the hand of the great foe of hankering for one's own sensuous gratification.

One is thereby freed from serving the earthly passions and may be installed in the service of the Desire of the transcendental Despot, in the singing of the saving hymn of transcendental love (kama-gayatri).

As the consequence of putting on this gross physical body, base desires for the gratification of physical senses have cropped up. In consequence of the coil of the subtle material or mental body, indifference to the service of Godhead has grown, and mental speculations are ever driving us in the opposite direction. But this wrong direction is turned towards right if the inclination and taste for the service of Krishna's Desire dawns forth. The service of Krishna's desire is gained if and when we take to the service of sridham.

The Sanskrit word ‘dham’ has different lexiconic meanings. But in the sense in which it is understood by the wise or seers it means that region or place where there is no scope of any desire for injury, of envy and of mortality, and which is ever self-effulgent, spiritual and blissful.

The service of sridham will lead us, as a matter of course, to the service of the holy Name and the holy Desire of Krishna. Relation with sridham being established, the Means of the service of the holy Name soon brings one to the Goal of the service of Krishna's Desire, and this is the only Object of life. Relation with the worldly abode, and hankering after the ordinary worldly life soon cease for one who realizes his relation with sridham.

The only spiritual Entity or Reality, Who has mercifully descended to this world, is the holy Name of Krishna, Who ever dwells in His transcendental realm. That transcendental locality where He manifests Himself and displays His Activities is sridham. By the service of sridham the service of the holy Name and the all-holy Desire of Krishna is attained. Mere pretence to serve the Name apart from the service of sridham, and living aloof from all relations therewith, does never lead to the goal of the service of the holy Desire of Krishna (Krishna-kama).

No good can ever accrue to any jiva or creature except by complete surrender to the lotus Feet of Sri Chaitanya. If it ever comes to our knowledge, even as a flash of lightening, through the causless mercy of Chaitanya's Own servants, as to what the function of the pure cognition, viz., the individual soul, is then and then only we can be saved from the counsels of our fellow mortals in this realm of the darkness of ignorance. But Ah! The curse of our fate! Many are still found to be wholly averse to the investigation of Truth. They are awfully busy with many other activities! But such non-essential activities are but an index of ignorance and of aversion to accept the unmixed blessing.

When He pointed out that Krishna is the only Word and also its only Meaning (the only object of connotation) as well, in all languages, and of all scripts, there was a great consternation among His pupils of secular learning. But lovers and seekers of the Truth began to flock round His lotus feet for education in the transcendental literature. But the service of the holy Name, Who is the Life and soul of this transcendental learning, is not possible unless and until one takes up his abode here in sridham. And the service of the holy Desire of Krishna (Krishna-kama) is not possible without the method of the successful service of Krishna's Name.

I will simply submit to harinama (Name of Hari) and leave off all other practices. I find that all liberated souls serve the Absolute by chanting the Name. I shall have recourse to the Name only by acting as a liberated soul, not as a bound soul. The Name is served by the highest hymns of the Vedas. The feet of the Name are served by the light coming out of the pearls that deck the crown on the head of all the Vedas. The best portions of the Vedas serve the feet of harinama by chanting Him. Persons under the clutches of maya are not ready to accept that process. But the process would relieve them from these hankerings for other activities. Aural activity offers the complete relief. We are meant for incessant felicity. Aural activity would accelerate us to that position. The best relishing food will be offered if we exercise our aural activity for receiving the Transcendental sound from the proper quarters.

People have advanced various performances for dharma, artha, kama and moksha. But we do not want them, we want only prema. Worldly People have got affinity for all other dictations, for all other so-called religionists, but have no desire for the Transcendental sound. The Name is not different from Godhead. The Transcendental Name is equipped with all sorts of Potencies that would regulate our senses and give us the Full-Thing. Every one is eligible. Whether we are sinners, poor or rich, it does not matter. The Transcendental Name welcomes one and all, whoever is willing to submit to hear. We must not disturb a little boy or a person of eighty for any other thing; but we should do so for this purpose. This has no reference to the other senses.

God is ever merciful. He has given us the only way, by means of our aural activity, to have a realization of the transcendental world. But I do not mind these things. I think these are but the mutterings of ignorant people. ‘Do not take the Name of God in vain.’ 'In vain' means 'for our selfish purpose.' We are to chant the Name constantly in the spiritual form. We, the souls, should have no other occupation. The uncontaminated soul has no function but to be in touch with Hari. By the agency of kirtana, or singing, the conditioned aptitude is dispelled. The word of that country, that unlimited Realm (vaikuntha), is a region that transcends the sphere of the measuring aptitude and reaches our ears. The word is song, on listening to that song our eternal well being manifests itself by the elimination of all evil.

'Vaikuntha or aprakrita sabda' may be rendered as 'Transcendental Sound'. The word 'transcend' signifies 'ascent', 'ascent' from the conditioned aptitude. To remain here is equivalent to being confined to the mundane experience, to practice one's masculine egotism or one's vanity of being the master. But there can be no real well-being if one remains entangled in such dominating egotism, for the reason that it is only those persons who are infatuated by the sense of their own superiority that are apt to be entrapped in the fetters of such dominating egotism. "The person whose soul is infatuated by dominating egotism regards himself as his own master." This is the testimony of the Gita and all sruti. "The individual soul perching on the same tree (as the Divinity) undergoes miseries due to his non-divinity and infatuation. When in the act of serving he perceives his companion to be the Divinity, he realizes His Glory being delivered from sorrow.When the perceiv ing entity has sight of the Master, the Supreme Lord, the Person Who is the Cause of the brahmanda, the One Who is of Golden Hue, he is completely cleansed of his virtues and vices, and freed from the obstruction of mundanity and obtaining real enlightenment, attains to the condition of supreme equipoise."

The supreme equipoise is altogether different from the position of equality that is postulated by our sense-originated judgment. The equality that relates itself to limited entities is not absolute. The equipoise in relation to the Great One is a different entity.

There is mention of one's meeting with the Person with the Golden Hue, and of sin and righteousness. But it is only when we are relieved from all these conditions that we are in a position to know that we are not non-spiritual entities, nor is it the function of our real nature to remain engrossed in the non-spiritual entity. So long as we remain entangled in our perverted self, by going off the track of our soul, it is not possible for us to meditate on the true Object of our meditation. The practice of mediation on limited entities has reduced us to the condition of the frog in the well.

I happen to be an entity dominated by the knowledge of the five mundane categories. I am entrapped in the functions of little-ness by abstaining from the thoughts of the Great One. And it is for the reason that I have preferred to remain confined to the functions of my little-ness that the egotistic sentiment, that I am the master of myself and of all entities, has appeared in me. It has become necessary to get rid of this desire for domination. Nothing is easier than to assert that the little should aim at being identified with the Great. If one allows himself to be mastered by such sense-less ambition and tries to realize his 'oneness' with the Divinity, such egotistic vanity effectively blocks the course of all real well-being.

When we are cast into the state of evil by harboring the hallucination that we are the equals of the Divinity, there appear simultaneously, (1) a condition which is experienced as one of grief, (2) the state of infatuation due to 'forgetfulness' of our real nature and (3) fear. In other words we lament on account of supposing ourselves to be identical with our gross and subtle bodies, being enchanted by the limiting energy (maya) of Godhead. The mischief makes its appearance when I begin dishonestly to think that Godhead, His devotee (vaishnava), the spiritual guide and myself are on a footing of equality, and that I am superior to them. From the wicked thought that I am the equal, of the spiritual guide and the Vaishnavas or that they are less than myself, the dreadful offence in the shape of the contempt for one's superiors gathers strength. This is the real culpable arrogance. The text of the Bhagavatam says, "If one, while worshipping Govinda, abstains on principle from worshipping His devotees, he is called arrogant." This arrogance manifests itself in one who neglects the worship of the devotees of Godhead. When the conviction that all entities connected with Godhead are objects of my worship as much as Godhead Himself, dawns upon our souls, then only we are freed from the clutches of grief, infatuation and fear. The only method by which this desideratum is realizable is the service of Godhead.

The Western savants are naturally trained up with the theistic idea of the Father-hood of Godhead. They have practiced the devotional culture of offering their active enterprise towards an object who at first sight proves to be venerable in every respect. To think in such a light is natural. In human society, we find our parents nurturing their children from the beginning of their existence and they continue to do so till the latter stand on their own legs. From this illustration people may be likely to to the opinion of considering the object of their worship in the Father-hood of Godhead. But there is some other loftier thought that can convince them, as well, of the other counterpart as the true center of devotion. If the epistemological view of bhakti is properly scrutinized, the idea of concentrating their devotion towards their Father may tend to target the very thing to their most loving children. The three different ideas that are prevailing among the enquirers of t he next world in a theistic mood, will tell us the positions of elevationists, salvationists and devotees. In other words, their respective systems may be branded as the medium of actors, of stupefiers of manifestation and of God-lovers. The elevationists are found to secure the fruition of their desires as they are in need of removing their manifold wants, but their proposition would fail when they run fast. When such enterprisers are disgusted with their multifarious trade, they want to cut off all connection with their aspiring engine and they want an eternal peace for their final location. Here we find two different tracks that are trodden by salvationists, viz. (1) one of these surmises to have the final goal in non-specification of material phenomena and (2) the other finds it prudent to target the termination in an unspecified object which has been concealed by extreme temperature. The latter wants to diffuse his plan by asking the people to follow him and to neglect the three different situations of o bserved, observation and observers. The third system of devotion has got a different denotation when the final end is taken into account which can only differentiate his position from the other two. The first two were engaged in ameliorating their condition whereas the last one in view is apathetic to such misconceived selfishness. The former were busy to aggrandize their ugly interests; 'ugly'-because wrong, selfish motives are present in their attempts. But the latter, from the very beginning and during his whole course, clings tenaciously to the interests of the Personal Godhead, incorporating his self with Him; whereas the process of isolation is prominent in the former two. The salvationists may question how they are guilty of advocating the principle of detachment when they are always attempting to merge with the Absolute Impersonality. The very idea of Impersonality is tantamount to innate impression of isolation from the true Personality of Godhead. The limited brain of an elevationist is never given an opportunity, by copperplate inscription, to target a supersensuous thing which he has not experienced by his so-called senses and decisions before; moreover, he was simply driven by the phenomenal reasons that surround him, as he has been fully under the clutch of the octopus, maya. But the case is different with a devotee when we scrutinize the relative position of the three impartially.

The school of devotees may clearly be reached if we study it in reference to the comparative positions along with the other two. The first, viz. the elevationists are busy with their temporal activities; whereas the other sections are eager to have an eternal rest. The latter thoughts have got their distinctive merits in impersonality and vague conception. The prediction of an impersonalist detests the devotee by assigning to him the ever shifting mundane phenomena in the attempt to fix himself on the path of eternal personified standard; but the God-lover is not likely to deviate from the loving Fountain-head. The devotee does not advise the salvationist to give up his claim as a knower, having been tempted and deceived by phantasmagoria of natural transitory phenomena. He does not advise him further to hanker after a hallucinative peace which may have no true existence as per his surmise. All that a salvationist wants is to get rid of the unpleasantness as offered to him by the defective atmosphere of Nature, so he need not be indulging in total abnegation of the eternal world behind the phenomena. The salvationist might be disappointed if he seeks the counsel of an elevationist who has had no more property beyond Nature. The best thing for a salvationist is to seek the counsel of a devotee who has much to do with an atmosphere far off the speculative range of animation which is strictly confined to things of three dimensions. The devotees as well as the salvationists do not confine their visual range within the horizon of phenomena. Limitations of time and space no doubt permit the human scope to conceive a person who creates time and space and objects therein and can keep himself aloof from his created objects. Yet the personality with His Almighty Power conceals Himself from the puppy brains of pedants rejecting the fertility of the poor designing brain. The devotees point out to the agnostics, skeptics and atheists various clues of removing the clutch of the Octopus, which has shackled th em by the iron chains of defective, finite observations. The unsettled conception of space and time, as of objects of more than three dimensions, as well as of the meeting point of hyperbolic and parabolic curves of infinitesimal microscopic objects, of macroscope, is not in a position to appease our hunger of knowledge, though we may deceive ourselves with settled views in our present logic. Reason can prevail on atheists to solve the indeterminate unknown when they experience innumerable miseries in everyday life. They cannot deny the tangible fact of a supersensuous agent whom they can, at the worst, designate as a lifeless thing, but they can as well single Him out whenever they get sufficient light of the cosmic creation. The aphorisms of Vyasa have disclosed many a fact which can enlighten every rationalist in having the tract through which he can proceed towards the personality. Here we find that the salvationist and the devotee differ by their respective views. The former thinks it proper to designate this personality to his hallucinative impersonal views as he cherishes unpardonable aspiration of monopolising the situation of Godhead in him; but it proves to be ineffectual. Such illusory theory is not tenable by the school of devotion which is confident of the Absolute Truth. The extreme idealist may run fast to compromise with the realistic devotees, but the latter cannot agree with him when he confines his method of suggestion to mundane things only.

Hitherto we have been dealing with the three different conceptions to reach three different goals, and in the course of comparison we have shown our predilection to chalk out the path of devotion which will best serve us in the progress of our eternal life. The next thing we are to determine is the object of devotion. As rational men, we have shown the course of our taste to lie in the three directions. If we have confidence in a devotee we are naturally supposed to enquire, 'where does his destination terminate?' Our guide in devotion shows different apparels at different times to help us from our particular phase of love. When the object of love is fixed in the all-embracing figure of the Loving, we naturally show our inattention to worldly phenomena that were guiding us in our human existence. The spontaneous attachment towards ephemeral things requires a change in the guidance of a devotee; so we, in order to follow our guide, should regulate, to adhere to his heart-felt injunctions, th e direction as well as know the final point of our present mission. In the school of devotion we are taught to direct all our energy towards the infinite Fountainhead of everything who has attracted by His love all-detachable elements which consider themselves to be a different integer instead of a part of the all-loving center. Now we naturally ask our preceptor who has had experience of loving Him with all his heart the question of the name, size including the color, His distinctive qualities, His paraphernalia and His exploits. The devotional absolutist in answer to our question delineates the different names, different color and size, the distinctive features, qualifying Him for our comprehension, His different locations, the whereabouts of His satellites and His different achievements, in different atmospheres. These varieties should not puzzle us in targeting the absolute monopoly of the all-pervading Spirit, namely the position of Godhead. Language, circumstances and other similar barricades may stand against our prosecution of the present studies. But with the aid and kind help of the generous director we can tide over these petty difficulties which evil spirits might put in the form of counsels against making our actual progress towards the spiritual Kingdom. Our present empiric atmosphere has compelled us to take recourse to analogical attempts, but this analogy may either help us or stand against our progress. God is one and without a second and this idea need not bar our access to innumerable simultaneous transcendental figures in Him. As our object of investigation was not accepted as a finite sensuous object we should refrain from showing a misdirected activity with our present acquisitional intelligence. If we do not disturb our attention in thoughts detrimental to our cause we are sure to strengthen our position in admitting ourselves to the undisputed region transcendent. Here we are to adopt the process of the descending order of the Absolute Truth and not to make an irregular move towards diver se finite things. If we are relieved by proper instruction not to meddle with sensuous objects we have taken the longest journey to approach the Absolute Truth in Person.

Our dire experience of this dusty atmosphere leads us to submit ourselves to offer reverence to the powerful great and to persons of whom we beg for something. With this idea we make a division of things we come across in a scale of graduations. When we point out one side of a rod we ignore the specification of the other extremity, the intermediate gap is measured by graduated meter. The two extreme points are named and their directions, size, color, attributions, neighboring values and efficacy are also defined. In the present case the object of worship and veneration bar us at the first sight to consider the object in a different mood. In the infinite existence of Godhead it is natural to accept Him as the greatest object of veneration, but this adoration when macroscopically enlarged is metamorphosed into a transcendental predicament which may be called the Ocean of Love. In other words love, when disfigured and contaminated by unhealthy dirts, is worded in a hundred different styles. Lo ve devoid of confidence gives the result of less loving activity from the proffer. Want of love is found in different shapes in the worldly tie which is but a misnomer of the transcendental word, love. When the integer is scrutinized diverse fractional parts or distinctive impressions are offered by the same integral standard. The different fractions are incorporated in the integer by ties which go by the name of tie of love. The idea of absolute monism is confined in an idealist and that idealist cannot keep up his dogma when a stern realist examines his monistic thought. Idealistic monism shows the result of distinctive and differentiative monism in analytical standard. We are speaking of ties just now which are called the tying potency of the All-loving towards His loved millions. If we are not sanguine to investigate the All-loving and His perpetual faculty we will be at a loss to approach Him properly. His transcendental existence, His love and His loved -- all have got the indispensable existence of lov e, and this is to be singled out from varieties of phenomena and of transcendental manifestation. The mundane phenomena have got some distinctive quality by which we can give a direction of eternal manifestation that lies behind the material world in an inexplicable condition. The rupturous condition of the pessimistic view is remedied by his opposite school by the tie which goes by the name of love. Whenever we miss this tie, our existive corporation fails to trace out our connection with the infinite absolute Truth. We cannot but call this to have a chaotic fountainhead.

krsna · February 1, 2005

Golden, Silver, and Iron Shackles

There was once a prince, a minister's son, and a treasurer's son who were all close friends. Once upon a time, all three of them set out on a long journey to different distant lands. On the way they happened to arrive at a royal palace where the king of that land was absent, but his daughter, the princess, was staying there along with her two closest friends - one the minister's daughter and the other the treasurers daughter of that land. Those three ladies were also similarly close friends like the prince, the minister's son and the treasurer's son mentioned above.

The prince and his two friends exchanged their acquaintances with the princess and her two consorts. And it wasn't long before the three young men proposed to marry those three damsels. But they hesitated as it was custom to get permission from their respective parents for the marriage. However, they decided to marry without further delay, according to the old saying anything auspicious should be hastened.

So their happy marriages were solemnised. Thereafter the king of the land with his minister and treasurer came back from their travels and entered the royal palace only to see in great astonishment that their princess and their two consorts were chatting up with three young strangers. Upon hearing that those three men had trespassed into the royal palace only to flirt with the young women and talk them into an illegal marriage, the king ordered their arrest.

The princess then begged her father to release her husband. The treasurer's daughter and the ministers daughter also respectively fell on their knees in front of their fathers and begged them for their husbands' release. However, the king did not release the young husbands, but ordered that proper respect should be shown to the young prince by tying him up with golden shackles, whereas the young son of the minister should be given silver shackles, and the treasurers son should be bound with iron shackles, all according to their respective status.

PURPORT

The Supreme Lord binds up all living entities similarly in three types of shackles, namely the material modes according to the reactions of their respective fruitive activities. The bondage of goodness may very well be compared to golden shackles, that of passion to silver shackles, and the entanglement in ignorance is tantamount to iron shackles.

Whatever might be the elements or metals with which the shackles are made, they are simply meant for imprisonment. Unless and until one goes beyond these three material modes or entanglements, one can never be considered free and liberated. Only one who completely surrenders unto the lotus feet of the Supreme Lord unconditionally may thus be delivered from such bondage.

The Pauper and the Omniscient Sage

A very poor householder brahmana had to maintain a large number of children. The brahmana was almost a pauper and he lamented his prolonged poverty. The local people never cared to help him but used to ridicule him in many ways, saying that he actually possessed huge wealth and pretended to be a pauper with a motive to misappropriate money from others on false pretexts. Thus the brahmana was being scandalized without the slightest sympathy. As a result, the brahmana lived in utmost depression and wept all the time for his unprecedented misfortune.

It just so happened that an omniscient saintly person once came to the brahmana and listened to his problems. The saintly person was in fact a omniscient sage and told the brahmana, O brahmana, you are lamenting unreasonably without knowing that your father had actually left for you a mass of wealth. Look out for that treasure, and you will find it buried somewhere in your own courtyard.

Upon hearing this, the brahmana immediately started digging a place on the southern side of his house, when the omniscient sage warned him saying, O brahmana! You must be aware that there you will find something more dangerous than the hornet. On that north side, there lives a black snake and it will surely devour you, then there will be no chance of getting the treasure.

Then the brahmana turned to the west side and just started digging in search of the hidden treasure, when the enlightened sage advised him saying, O brahmana! You must be even more careful now. Here a ghost is staying appointed to guard your father's hidden treasure. He will kill you.

Now the brahmana came to his wit's end and entreated the sage, o master! You to are mocking me. As you may know, I am a completely dejected pauper. Please don't harass me like this any more.

The kind-hearted sage told him at last, Don't get impatient. You should know very well that there must be a lot of hindrances before arriving at the ultimate goal. Your father had possessed great intelligence and so he buried the treasure on the east side, while keeping several unusual sentries on all other sides for protecting the wealth. Have a little more patience and just start digging at the east side of your courtyard where you will reach the fortune.

The brahmana was then encouraged to dig on the east side as advised and got the hidden treasure in no time. Thereafter he was wealthy for the rest of his life.

PURPORT

Narrated by Sri Caitanyadeva, this story confirms that our Supreme Father has left enough hidden treasure for us and our spiritual master comes into our life to lead us perfectly to obtain that treasure . But we should be very careful to avoid going in the wrong directions. In case our efforts are directed towards fruitive activities with a material motive then we suffer from unending desires. On the other hand, if we are inclined to renounce everything then it will be suicidal in the field of the transcendental way of living.

And, at the last, if we are interested in the yogic practice, it will simply pollute our spiritual lives. So, the best method is to take up the devotional aspect of living, which surely helps us in achieving the real wealth without any danger.

krsna · February 1, 2005

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Published in "The Harmonist", September 19th, 1934 - Vol XXI No.2

The Fountainhead of all eternal and temporal manifestations is confined in Sri Krsna alone. The non-absolute phases are emanations from a particular potency whose analytical distributions are known as gunas or qualities. In the factor of time, they are branched as past, present and future and their material representations have three characteristics viz. evolution, sustenance and dissolution. The Fountainhead is Absolute and His borderland emanations are absolute infinitesimals, though they are recognised in the same qualities. Their quantitative reference is then considered as apart from the Absolute, but swayed by a quality and their special characteristic is that the infinitesimal bearing should not be confused with the Infinitude.

The resources of manifestive nature have their common origin in the absolute existence of the Fountainhead. The delegation of the power of the Absolute Infinity is traced in the spirit and the matter. The family of qualitative temporal representations possesses numerous isolated entities and so the absolute infinitesimals are grouped together in magnatudinal difference form the Fountainhead.

The present human figure or the figure of a member of the Zoo or of one of the family of the phytographic species has got a restrictive and depending position and it is liable to change in the shape of growth and deterioration. The internal nature of the absolute-infinitesimals is spirit and takes the initiative; whereas, the difference of quality cannot show the power of taking initiative, similar to that of living entities.

The two potencies possessed by the Fountainhead are known as spiritual and material. The frame of the living should never be confused with the life itself. so there is a broad distinction of aspects between the two families of spirit and matter. The predominating phase is exercised in the material atmosphere which is liable to be controlled by animation. The animal world differs from materialistic structure, though it is endowed with a material association in its outward appearance.

We may often distinguish between a living body and a dead one. The generative advent has a smaller beginning to undergo development and growth and the elimination of the life principle from the structure itself has got different denominations.

In the Semitic thought we do not find any metensomatosistic speculation; so they are prone to consider the spirit as a composition of chanced incident, and this material combination as the starting point of the souls. So these thoughts are opposed to the theory inculcated by the conception of seelanwanderung or metempsychosis. The spiritistic view is quite different from the idea of material congregation which is wrongly considered as the composition of the eternal soul. On the other hand, the non-Semitic thoughts make a departure from the Semitic ideas of non-transmigrating accidental composition.

The explanation of the different methods of the two bearings - the tabernacle and the inner temporal animating entity - can lead us to a differing element in the transcendental entity beyond our sensuous conception when we bring into consideration the true eternal position of the absolute infinitesimals, by following the analogy of wrapping the entity by two kinds of garments covering the same as incorporations. The covers, though foreign, are amalgamated to create a confusion of their natural isolated position.

Portions of matter, in the factor of time, are liable to change. But the substratum - the spirit - is not obliged to undergo transformation like the foreign parts attached to the same by conventional practices. The very theory is explained in other words by the encountering attitude of a different potentia of the Fountainhead to effect the conversions by means of temporary decorations. The exercising function of the spirit is more or less impeded by the counteracting agency of a different potency of the Absolute. So the susceptibility of being attacked is an inevitable element in the spirit infinitesimal which is different from the spiritual Infinite.

Conversion in or mixing with the temporary material dust should not and cannot disable or disfigure the Spirit Infinity, as the value of spirits infinitesimals should not and could not be identical with the Fountainhead and His emanation, just like a particular pencil of ray should not be misconceived as the glowing disc from which the rays come. The Absolute Fountainhead of spirit should not be considered to slumber like absolute infinitesimals who are subject to the other potentia of the Absolute.

The nature of the spirits of borderland potency of the Fountainhead need not be affirmed with the objective knowledge of the mixed up conception. The nature of the Absolute Infinite should not be standardised in the same line as His infinitesimals. The spirits are observed in two different stages; whereas the eternal Fountainhead of all spirits has no bifurcation. The Absolute Infinite cannot be expected to be accommodated in the finite reference of phenomena which have limiting merits.

The Fountainhead alone has the reservation of Ubiquity; whereas all ubiquitous aspects are wanting in infinitesimals. So isolation and association of infinitesimals with the Infinite should not be recognised as two different entities. Pleasure and pain are of the same temporary stay and they are counted differently in their gradatory condition.

The eternal and temporal potencies have got their two realms, and on the border of the two, the border-land potentia can easily be traced. The members of the border-land potency can claim one of the two potencies at a time which are double-winged places of their habitation. The mundane phenomena have got a temporal situation; whereas, the eternal manifestations of the Transcendence are not subject to the atmosphere of inadequacy, limit and imperfection of phenomena.

The border-land potency can be traced to exhibit her neutral position which is normal and does not espouse at that time the cause of temporal or eternal manifestation of the Fountainhead. The members of this potency are apt to be forgetful of their eternal situation, when they have stronger affinity to live in this temporal region as lords and by their inherent free-will want not to submit to their eternal functions of the transcendence.

The forgetful demeanor posed by a member of the border-land potency cannot welcome the guidance of the eternal blissful wisdom of a devotee. The misguiding and tempting objects of phenomena often dictate the necessity, in the heart of a weak, cringing forgetful spirit, of his wonted participation in the enjoyment of this material sphere.

The eternal acquisition of the members of the border-land potency cannot be dissociated from their persons. The impersonalist has got a non-differentiative impression of all spirits into one. If an erroneous argument is offered by a silly person of his having been endowed with the susceptibilities of forgetfulness of his eternal function, and therefore, because the Fountainhead is to be blamed for delegating to him inadequate power, he should not have been held responsible for the incomplete investiture on him alone with complete freedom, then this polemic character of the Semitic school can easily be met by an acquaintance of prepossession of spiritual independent element inherent in the border-land potency to entangle themselves in undesirable situation. Free will of an absolute infinitesimal cannot be denied as a limited quality like the material characteristic of phenomenal nature.

The absolute infinitesimal has got his free will, and by his free will he can either pose himself as a forgetful agent or he can awaken himself for his original eternal function of remembering his own eternal exploits. The Fountainhead does never wish to delude nor oblige His parts - the infinitesimal spirits by devoiding them of such free will but allows them the freedom inherent in them.

The conditioned souls, out of their own discretion, rush into moods quite apathetic for not serving the Fountainhead when He Himself sends His message of delivering them through His messengers who act as spiritual guides to the wrong-doers. Both the Semitic and the non-Semitic people live in the impersonality of the Absolute; whereas, the clear eyes of the devotees can see the personality of Godhead as the Fountainhead of many conflicting and contending energies that foster the whims of different parties. Proneness to forgetfulness is afforded by the free will of non-devotees who are found to adopt wrong processes as their guiding principles.

krsna · March 26, 2005

Narrated by Sri Caitanyadeva,

this story confirms that our Supreme Father

has left enough hidden treasure for us

and our spiritual master comes into our life

to lead us perfectly to obtain that treasure .

But we should be very careful

to avoid going in the wrong directions.

In case our efforts are directed towards fruitive activities with a material motive

then we suffer from unending desires.

On the other hand,

if we are inclined to renounce everything

then it will be suicidal in the field of the transcendental way of living.

And, at the last,

if we are interested in the yogic practice,

it will simply pollute our spiritual lives.

So, the best method is to take up

the devotional aspect of living,

which surely helps us in achieving

the real wealth without any danger.

krsna · April 25, 2005

By Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura

The Reality is a person. He is like man, a most beautiful male human being. This is the nearest analogy supplied by the language of this world to express the Nature of the Divinity as He really is.

The word Vishnu, revealed by the scriptures as the name of Godhead, means etymologically 'one who pervades'. The Personality of Godhead is not any limited conception. He is the One Spiritual Reciprocal to the infinity of individual souls.

Man occupies the highest position among the animate beings of this world. Man is not unalloyed soul in his present state. His soul is overlaid by his physical body joined to a subtle mental casing which are adventitious factors. These two entangle the soul of man in this phenomenal world.

The physical body is subject to birth, growth and dissolution. The mental body is the subtle or causal physical body. Its activity tends to the growth and functioning of the gross physical casing. The mind of man naturally seeks to function through the medium of the gross physical body. Even in dreams, the mind acts on the basis of the stored-up memory of the activities of the gross physical body. Without the help of such memory it seems to be lacking in the complementary part of its existence. If the mind tries to conceive the personality of the soul, it can only suppose him to be an intelligent entity like itself and, like itself, possessing a physical body resembling the human. Even the philosophising tiger of the fairy land is really a human mind wearing, for the time being, the external mask of a tiger, covering a very real human physique. So the human body is the unavoidable basis of any possible human conception of personality. The human body is the visible expression of personality to the human mind.

Godhead cannot have any physical or mental form. He is, however, the transcendental source even of all limited forms. The body of God is declared to be both one, as well as many derived from the one. The one divine form is the reciprocal of the spiritual human body of the soul. The many forms are the reciprocals of the spiritual bodies that correspond to the physical forms of the entities other than man. This spiritual reciprocity between divine and individual personality is expressed by the analogy of sex. Godhead is the only male (dominating Absolute) or master. All individual souls are servitors or manifestations of the dominated moiety of the Absolute. Godhead's one divine form corresponds to the most highly developed physical body of the male human being. His many derivative spiritual forms correspond to the less developed physical bodies of man and of other entities.

Godhead is not to be supposed to be male in the physical nor mental sense. The masculinity of Godhead is spiritual. He is the only spiritual husband or consort of all spiritual females. He is the only master of all souls who depend on His Initiative for their activity. He accepts the services of the latter for His pastimes as the sole enjoyer and master of all active spiritual entities. All neutral spiritual entities depend on the initiative of the Divinity for their equable existence. They wait on His pleasure by abstaining from all function.

It is possible for the soul to serve Godhead only by the help of another serving entity. There is an infinity of eternal servitors of Godhead of all types. If any soul is desirous of serving Godhead by the method of depending entirely on His initiative he is in a position to do so by the causeless mercy of the infinity of other similarly disposed eternal spiritual servitors who are part and parcel of Godhead. The mercy of such entities enables the soul in quest of Divine service to realise his spiritual function to the Absolute person engaged in eternal Blissful Pastimes with His servitors as an accepted subservient of such servitors.

The absolute Person pervades positively and negatively all entities by each and all of His forms. But the pervading character of the Divine Personality does not extinguish the individual personality of any entity. Godhead enables all entities to maintain their individual personalities in all their serving activities. He absolutely dominates, ie - receives the full service of all entities by enabling them to offer themselves to be so dominated.

The soul has his spiritual form, who is identical with his individual entity. The form of the soul is definite without being subject to the conditions of limited space or time or any other form of limitation. The soul functions as an incorporated tiny adjunct of variegated divine spiritual power. The form of the soul is not like any female or neuter form of this world. The individual soul is of the essence of the spiritual power of the Divinity by his true nature. The Sanskrit word for the soul is 'atman' which means the 'entity' possessing the potentiality of unlimited functioning. The soul can assume all serving forms without having to give up his own specific spiritual form. It is for this reason that the terms 'male' and 'female' in their mundane sense are wholly inapplicable to the soul.

For a similar reason, when the functions of the soul are expressed in terms of the mundane vocabulary, they are also liable to be grossly misunderstood by those who are not in a position to receive their real significance to the spiritual plane.

The principle of personality is dimly and pervertedly reflected in our present conception and realisation of human personality. But in spite of an inconceivable similarity between the two, the one is essentially different from the other. Self-realised souls are privileged to be able to speak analogically of the entities' arid occurrences of the spiritual plane in terms of the mundane vocabulary. But the spiritual sense of their words cannot be grasped by those who have no access to their own plane. No amount of rationalistic explanation or argument can impart the faculty for the substantive realisation of spiritual form or activity to a person who has no access to the plane of transcendence.

When, therefore, a person in the conditioned state readily enough admits his belief in the Personality of Godhead, he only commits the offence of supposing the Personality of the Divinity to resemble that of a human being as perceived by his limited mind. The absurdity of such belief is patent to anyone who stops to consider how such conception is to be correlated to one's actual practice.

Those who are eager to ascribe a personality to Godhead, with ill-considered haste, find themselves unable to understand the statements of the scriptures that declare Godhead to be all-pervasive, transcendental and one without a second. There is, for example, a class of speculative thinkers who are extremely anxious to exploit the 'historicity' of Christ for establishing the reality of his divinity. But how can historicity be a proof of reality unless reality is supposed to be an entity within the scope of our mental conception? How would such thinkers distinguish between the mental and the spiritual or between human and Divine?

The scriptures tell us that the Divine Personality bears the name Krishna; that He is a cowboy in Goloka; that He is the eternal consort of the spiritual milkmaids of Braja etc, etc. They tell us at the same time the Name, Form, Quality, Activity, Abode and Entourage of the Divinity are transcendental entities located beyond the scope of the limited mental faculty of human beings. They further inform us that the only way of realising the nature of Godhead is by submitting to be enlightened by the mercy of his eternal servitors who are sent by Godhead into the world for imparting such enlightenment to those who are disposed to seek for the same, in the spirit if unreserved submission.

This absolute humility, does not mean the abdication of rational function. The rational faculty is to be valued, but it is also not to be abused. Those who are perfectly rational are alone aware of the severe and insurmountable limitations under which their present rational nature is placed. It is only such persons who may be said to be really disposed to make the proper use of their present rational faculty, and to be really willing to seek to approach the reality with due sense of their utter incapacity for realising the same with their present resources. This is the right use of the present rational faculty. Those who are averse to make such use of it miss the sight of the Truth by following an irrational course.

There is no meaning in believing or disbelieving the testimony of the scriptures in the case of persons who have no access to the spiritual plane. But it is obligatory on all truly rational persons to lend their ears to the Message of the Absolute from those who are really competent to impart the same under these impossible circumstances. It is both insincere and unprofitable to choose to remain satisfied with the conviction that it is not possible for any of us to know the Absolute Reality. Such conviction contains only half the truth. It does not allow for the initiative of the Truth Himself, who is certainly able and willing to enlighten us about Himself by means of His chosen agents.

The Transcendental Name of Krishna, in the form of the sound appearing on the lips of His pure devotees, can impart even to the present imperfect aural faculty of man the realisation of the Divinity. This truth has been taught by Sri Krishna-Chaitanya as being the sum and substance of the revelations of all the scriptures.

The above proposition states a fact of the spiritual plane and not a conclusion or inference from observation of mundane occurrences. It requires to be tested as to its spiritual validity by reference to its spiritual character. The ordinary worldly tests cannot apply to the spiritual entity. The question, therefore, resolves itself into this: How can the spiritual nature of the name Krishna, that is claimed for the audible sound issuing from the lips of any particular person, be tested as to His spiritual validity with our present cognitive resources? The clear answer is furnished by the scriptures. The name Krishna is identical with the Divinity. He can be approached by the fully serving aural faculty. If, therefore, he is approached in the attitude of being regulated and enabled, by means the spiritual ear restored by His causeless mercy in lieu of full submission for offering one's services to the Divine sound, He promises to reveal Divinity to such listener.

There is nothing irrational about these propositions unless one has the hardi-hood to disallow to the Absolute any real, or in other words, specific initiative. The facts of this mundane world do not stand in need of the sanction of our ignorant approval for beings, what they are. They have, been what they are by a superior dispensation, whose nature passes our tiny understanding. In the case of the facts of this world it has, therefore, been universally recognised as the only useful business of our poor cognitive faculty to seek to understand their real nature instead of idly repudiating their very entities.

In the same way it would be wholly irrational to repudiate an occurrence of the transcendental plane merely for the reason that he chooses to reveal himself to our benighted understanding for being approached by it. Are we not always trying to approach the occurrences of this world by means of experience supplied by the actual occurrences themselves? Does such seeking deprive us of our faculty of perfectly independent thinking?

How can such an apparently unpromising entity as light convey to our brain the tidings of the distant most stars? Why cannot the Transcendental Sound make Himself be heard by us by our submissive ear being mercifully restored the corresponding spiritual function which is now dormant? Is it scientifically and philosophically absurd?

Neither empiric philosophy, nor empiric science proposes to present us with any fact of the transcendental plane. Neither of them has it in their power to do so. Both are strictly confined to mundane occurrences, perceptually, conceptually and inferentially. But the Transcendental Sound is a fact of the spiritual plane and neither percept, concept, nor inference of any mundane experience. Why then should empiric science or empiric philosophy refuse to give the revealed scriptures a hearing on their own terms, provided there is an exponent of transcendence who does not require us to sink below the level of our present paltry rational existence? There should be no ground for refusing to give our attentive hearing to preachers of the Truth who do not propose any suicidal course to our rational faculty.

But how is one to recognise the genuine devotee of Krishna? The devotee of Krishna serves the Absolute Person by all his spiritual faculties. He preaches only what he practices. No one, therefore, should be given a hearing as a bona fide servant of Krishna, who does not actually serve Krishna at all time. The preacher, however, should be given the chance of explaining himself. By this method all our limited rational assets will be preserved to us intact till we are actually relieved of our present unnatural heritage by being restored to the normal spiritual condition by listening to the Transcendental Name of Krishna from the lips of His genuine devotees.

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