Bhaktisiddhanta on Bhaktivinoda

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> Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati wrote an English article in the Harmonist

> titled "Thakura Bhaktivinoda" or similar, explaining that Thakura

> Bhaktivinoda could only be understood through pure devotees and that some

> persons who thought they understood Thakura Bhaktivinoda and had memorized

> his works nevertheless did not understand him.

>

> Anyone having access to that article is requested to post it to me.

> Thankyou and Hare Krishna!

>

> dasa, BVS

 

This was printed in the Nityananda issue of Sri Krishna Kathamrita Magazine.

 

I am pasting it again below.

 

Madhavananda Das

 

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Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura Prabhupada

 

THAKUR BHAKTIVINODE

The Harmonist, December 1931, vol. XXIX No.6

 

"We avail of the opportunity offered by the Anniversary Celebrations of the

advent of Thakur Bhaktivinode to reflect on the right method of obtaining

those benefits that have been made accessible to humanity by the grace of

this great devotee of Krishna. Thakur Bhaktivinode has been specifically

kind to those unfortunate persons who are engrossed in mental speculation

of all kinds. This is the prevalent malady of the present Age. The other

Acaryas who appeared before Thakur Bhaktivinode did not address their

discourses so directly to the empiric thinkers. They had been more merciful

to those who are naturally disposed to listen to discourses on the Absolute

without being dissuaded by the specious arguments of avowed opponents of

Godhead.

Srila Thakur Bhaktivinode has taken the trouble of meeting the perverse

arguments of mental speculationists by the superior transcendental logic of

the Absolute Truth. It is thuspossible for the average modern readers to

profit by the perusal of his writings. That day is not far distant when the

priceless volumes penned by Thakur Bhaktivinode will be reverently

translated, by the recipients of his grace, into all the languages of the

world.

The writings of Thakur Bhaktivinode provide the golden bridge by which the

mental speculationist can safely cross the raging waters of fruitless

empiric controversies that trouble the peace of those who choose to trust

in their guidance for finding the Truth. As soon as the sympathetic reader

is in a position to appreciate the sterling quality of Thakur

Bhaktivinode's philosophy the entire vista of the revealed literatures of

the world will automatically open out to his reclaimed vision.

There have, however, already arisen serious misunderstandings regarding the

proper interpretation of the life and teachings of Srila Thakur

Bhaktivinode. Those who suppose they understand the meaning of his message

without securing the guiding grace of the Acarya are disposed to unduly

favour the methods of empiric study of his writings. There are persons who

have got by heart almost everything that he wrote without being able to

catch the least particle of his meaning. Such study cannot benefit those

who are not prepared to act up to the instructions lucidly conveyed by his

words. There is no honest chance of missing the warnings of Thakur

Bhaktivinode. Those, therefore, who are misled by the perusal of his

writings are led astray by their own obstinate perversity in sticking to

the empiric course which they prefer to cherish against his explicit

warnings. Let these unfortunate persons look more carefully into their own

hearts for the cause of their misfortunes.

The personal service of the pure devotee is essential for understanding the

spiritual meaning of the words of Thakur Bhaktivinode. The Editor of this

Journal, originally started by Thakur Bhaktivinode, has been trying to draw

the attention of all followers of Thakur Bhaktivinode to this all-important

point of his teachings. It is not necessary to try to place ourselves on a

footing of equality with Thakur Bhaktivinode. We are not likely to benefit

by any mechanical imitation of any practices of Thakur Bhaktivinode on the

opportunist principle that they may be convenient for us to adopt. The Guru

is not an erring mortal whose activities can be understood by the fallible

reason of unreclaimed humanity. There is an eternally impassable line of

demarcation between the Saviour and the saved. Those who are really saved

can alone know this.Thakur Bhaktivinode belongs to the category of the

spiritual world-teachers who eternally occupy the superior position.

The present Editor has all along felt it his paramount duty to try to clear

up the meaning of the life and teachings of Thakur Bhaktivinode by the

method of submissive listening to the Transcendental Sound from the lips of

the pure devotee. The Guru who realises the transcendental meaning of all

sounds, is in a position to serve the Absolute by the direction of the

Absolute conveyed through every sound. The Transcendental Sound is Godhead,

the mundane sound is non-Godhead. All sound has got these opposite

aptitudes. All sound reveals its Divine face to the devotee and only

presents its deluding aspect to the empiric pedant. The devotee talks

apparently the same language as the deluded empiric pedant who had got by

heart the vocabulary of the Scriptures. But notwithstanding apparent

identity of performance, the one has no access to the reality while the

other is absolutely free from all delusion.

Those who repeat the teachings of Thakur Bhaktivinode from memory do not

necessarily understand the meaning of the words they mechanically repeat.

Those who can pass an empiric examination regarding the contents of his

writings are not necessarily also self-realised souls. They may not at all

know the real meaning of the words they have learnt by the method of

empiric study.Take for example the Name "Krishna". Every reader of Thakur

Bhaktivinode's works must be aware that the Name manifests Himself on the

lips of His serving devotees although He is inaccessible to our mundane

senses. It is one thing to pass the examination by reproducing this true

conclusion from the writings of Thakur Bhaktivinode and quite another

matter to realise the Nature of the Holy Name of Krishna by the process

conveyed by the words.

Thakur Bhaktivinode did not want us to go to the clever mechanical reciter

of the mundane sound for obtaining access to the Transcendental Name of

Krishna. Such a person may be fully equipped with all the written arguments

in explanation of the nature of the Divine Name. But if we listen to all

these arguments from the dead source the words will only increase our

delusion. The very same words coming from the lips of the devotee will have

the diametrically opposite effect. Our empiric judgment can never grasp the

difference between the two performances. The devotee is always right. The

non-devotee in the shape of the empiric pedant is always and necessarily

wrong. In the one case there is always present the Substantive Truth and

nothing but the Substantive Truth. In the other case there is present the

apparent or misleading hypothesis and nothing but un-truth. The wording may

have the same external appearance in both cases. The identical verses of

the Scriptures may be recited by the devotee and the non-devotee, may be

apparently misquoted by the non-devotee but the corresponding valuesof the

two processes remain always categorically different. The devotee is right

even when he apparently misquotes, the non-devotee is wrong even when he

quotes correctly the very words, chapter and verse of the Scriptures.

It is not empiric wisdom that is the object of quest of the devotee. Those

who read the scriptures for gathering empiric wisdom will be pursuing the

wild goose chase. There are not a few dupes of their empiric Scriptural

erudition. These dupes have their admiring under-dupes. But the mutual

admiration society of dupes does not escape, by the mere weight of their

number, the misfortunes due to the deliberate pursuit of the wrong course

in accordance with the suggestions of our lower selves.

What are the Scriptures? They are nothing but the record by the pure

devotees of the Divine Message appearing on the lips of the pure devotees.

The Message conveyed by the devotees is the same in all ages. The words of

the devotees are ever identical with the Scriptures. Any meaning of the

Scriptures that belittles the function of the devotee who is the original

communicant of the Divine Message contradicts its own claim to be heard.

Those who think that the Sanskrit language in its lexicographical sense is

the language of the Divinity are as deluded as those who hold that the

Divine Message is communicable through any other spoken dialects. All

languages simultaneously express and hide the Absolute. The mundane face of

all languages hides the Truth. The Transcendental face of all sound

expresses nothing but the Absolute. The pure devotee is the speaker of the

Transcendental language. The Transcendental Sound makes His appearance on

the lips of His pure devotee. This is the direct, unambiguous appearance of

Divinity. On the lips of non-devotees the Absolute always appears in His

deluding aspect. To the pure devotee the Absolute reveals Himself under all

circumstances. To the conditioned soul, if he is disposed to listen in a

truly submissive spirit, the language of the pure devotee can alone impart

the knowledge of the Absolute. The conditioned soul mistakes the deluding

for the real aspect when he chooses to lend his ear to the non-devotee.

This is the reason why the conditioned soul is warned to avoid all

association with non-devotees.

Thakur Bhaktivinode is acknowledged by all his sincere followers as

possessing the above powers of the pure devotee of Godhead. His words have

to be received from the lips of a pure devotee. If his words are listened

from the lips of a non-devotee they will certainly deceive. If his works

are studied in the light of one's own worldly experience their meaning will

refuse to disclose itself to such readers. His works belong to the class of

the eternal revealed literature of the world and must be approached for

their right understanding through their exposition by the pure devotee. If

no help from the pure devotee is sought the works of Thakur Bhaktivinode

will be grossly misunderstood by their readers. The attentive reader of

those works will find that he is always directed to throw himself upon the

mercy of the pure devotee if he is not to remain unwarrantably

self-satisfied by the deluding results of his wrong method of study.

The writings of Thakur Bhaktivinode are valuable because they demolish all

empiric objections against accepting the only method of approaching the

Absolute in the right way. They cannot and were never intended to give

access to the Absolute without help from the pure devotee of Krishna. They

direct the sincere enquirer of the Truth, as all the revealed scriptures

do, to the pure devotee of Krishna to learn about Him by submitting to

listen with an open mind to the Transcendental Sound appearing on His lips.

Before we open any of the books penned by Thakur Bhaktivinode we should do

well to reflect a little on the attitude, with which as the indispensable

pre-requisite, to approach its study. It is by neglecting to remember this

fundamental principle that the empiric pedants find themselves so

hopelessly puzzled in their vain endeavour to reconcile the statements of

the different texts of the Scriptures. The same difficulty is already in

process of overtaking many of the so-called followers of Thakur

Bhaktivinode and for the same reason.

The person to whom the Acarya is pleased to transmit hispower is alone in a

position to convey the Divine Message. This constitutes the underlying

principle of the line of succession of the spiritual teachers. The Acarya

thus authorised has no other duty than that of delivering intact the

message received from all his predecessors. There is no difference between

the pronouncements of one Acarya and another. All of them are perfect

mediums for the appearance of the Divinity in the Form of the

Transcendental Name Who is identical with His Form, Quality, Activity and

Paraphernalia.

The Divinity is Absolute Knowledge. Absolute Knowledge has the character of

indivisible Unity. One particle of the Absolute Knowledge is capable of

revealing all the potency of the Divinity. Those who want to understand the

contents of the volumes penned by the piece-meal acquisitive method

applicable to deluding knowledge available to the mind on the mundane

plane, are bound to be self-deceived. Those who are sincere seekers of the

Truth are alone eligible to find Him, in and through the proper method of

His quest.

In order to be put on the track of the Absolute, listening to the words of

the pure devotee is absolutely necessary. The spoken word of the Absolute

is the Absolute. It is only the Absolute Who can give Himself away to the

constituents of His power. The Absolute appears to the listening ear of the

conditioned soul in the form of the Name on the lips of the sadhu. This is

the key to the whole position. The words of Thakur Bhaktivinode direct the

empiric pedant to discard his wrong method and inclination on the threshold

of the real quest of the Absolute. If the pedant still chooses to carry his

errors into the Realm of the Absolute Truth he only marches by a deceptive

bye-path into the regions of darker ignorance by his arrogant study of the

scriptures. The method offered by Thakur Bhaktivinode is identical with the

object of the quest. The method is not really grasped except by the grace

of the pure devotee. The arguments, indeed, are these. But they can only

corroborate, but can never be a substitute for, the word from the living

source of the Truth who is no other than the pure devotee of Krishna, the

concrete Personal Absolute.

Thakur Bhaktivinode's greatest gift to the world consists in this; that he

has brought about the appearance of those puredevotees who are, at present,

carrying on the movement of unalloyed devotion to the Feet of Shree Krishna

by their own wholetime spiritual service of the Divinity. The purity of the

soul is only analogously describable by the resources of the mundane

language. The highest ideal of empiric morality is no better than the

grossest wickedness to the Transcendental perfect purity of the bonafide

devotee of the Absolute. The word 'morality' itself is a mischievous

misnomer when it is applied to any quality of the conditioned soul. The

hypocritical contentment with a negative attitude is part and parcel of the

principle of undiluted immorality.

Those who pretend to recognise the Divine Mission of Thakur Bhaktivinode

without aspiring to the unconditional service of those pure souls who

really follow the teachings of the Thakur by the method enjoined by the

scriptures and explained by Thakur Bhaktivinode in a way that is so

eminently suited to the requirements of the sophisticated mentality of the

present Age, only deceive themselves andtheir willing victims by their

hypocritical professions and performances. These persons must not be

confounded with the bonafide members of the flock.

Thakur Bhaktivinode has predicted the consummation of religious unity of

the world by the appearance of the only universal church which bears the

eternal designation of the Brahma Sampradaya. He has given mankind the

blessed assurance that all Theistic churches will shortly merge in the one

eternal spiritual community by the grace of the Supreme Lord Shree Krishna

Chaitanya. The spiritual community is not circumscribed by the conditions

of time and space, race and nationality. Mankind had been looking forward

to this far-off Divine Event through the Long Ages. Thakur Bhaktivinode has

made the conception available in its practicable spiritual form to the open

minded empiricist who is prepared to undergo the process of enlightenment.

The key stone of the Arch has been laid which will afford the needed

shelter to all awakened animation under its ample encircling arms. Those

who would thoughtlessly allow their hollow pride of race, pseudo-knowledge

or pseudo-virtue to stand in the way of this long hoped for consummation,

would have to thank only themselves for not being incorporated in the

spiritual society of all pure souls.

These plain words need not be misrepresented, by arrogant persons who are

full of the vanity of empiric ignorance, as the pronouncements of

aggressive sectarianism. The aggressive pronouncement of the concrete Truth

is the crying necessity of the moment for silencing the aggressive

propaganda of specific untruths that is being carried on all over the world

by the preachers of empiric contrivances for the amelioration of the hard

lot of conditioned souls. The empiric propaganda clothes itself in the

language of negative abstraction for deluding those who are engrossed in

the selfish pursuit of worldly enjoyment.

But there is a positive and concrete function of the pure soul which should

not be perversely confounded with any utilitarian form of worldly activity.

Mankind stands in need of that positive spiritual function of which the

hypocritical impersonalists are in absolute ignorance. The positive

function of the soul harmonises the claims of extreme selfishness with

those of extreme self-abnegation in the society of pure souls even in this

mundane world. In its concrete realisable form the function is perfectly

inaccessible to the empiric understanding. Its imperfect and misleading

conception alone is available by the study of the Scriptures to the

conditioned soul that is not helped by the causeless grace of the pure

devotees of Godhead."