Understanding the Writings of Bhaktivinode

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By Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura Prabhupada

 

[This article appeared in issue number 29 of Sri Krishna Kathamrita Bindu

the free fortnightly email magazine from ISKCON Gopal Jiu Publications.]

 

We avail of the opportunity offered by the anniversary celebrations of the

advent of Thakura 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. Thakura 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 Thakura 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 Thakura Bhaktivinode has taken the trouble of meeting the

perverse arguments of mental speculationists by the superior transcendental

logic of the absolute truth. It is thus possible 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 Thakura Bhaktivinode will be

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

of the world.

 

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

mental speculationists 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 Thakura 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 Thakura

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

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

favor the method 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 Thakura

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 Thakura Bhaktivinode. The editor of this

journal, originally started by Thakura Bhaktivinode, has been trying to draw

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

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

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

by any mechanical imitation of any practices of Thakura 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 savior and the saved. Those who are really saved can

alone know this. Thakura 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 Thakura Bhaktivinode by the

method of submissive listening to the transcendental sound from the lips of

the pure devotee. The guru who realizes the transcendent 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 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 Thakura Bhaktivinode from memory do not

necessarily understand the meaning of the words they mechanically repeat.

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

are not necessarily also self-realized 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 Thakura 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 Thakura Bhaktivinode and quite another matter to realize the

nature of the holy name of Krishna by the process conveyed by the words.

 

Thakura 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

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 untruth. The wording may have the same eternal appearance In

both cases. The identical verses of the scriptures recited by the devotee

and the non-devotee, may be apparently misquoted by the devotee but the

corresponding values of 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 misfortune 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

the 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.

 

Thakura 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 to

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 Thakura 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 Thakura 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 inquirer 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 Thakura Bhaktivinode we should do well to

reflect a little on the attitude with which as the indispensable

pre-requisite to approach the 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 Thakura Bhaktivinode and for

the same reason.

 

The person to whom the acarya is pleased to transmit his power 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 authorized 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 Thakura Bhaktivinode by the piece-meal

acquisitive method 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 devotee 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 works of Thakura 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 choose 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 Thakura 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 not other than the pure devotee of Krishna, the

concrete personal absolute.

 

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

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

carrying on the movement of unalloyed devotion to the feet of Sri 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 recognize the divine mission of Thakura Bhaktivinode

without aspiring to the unconditional service of those pure souls who really

follow the teachings of the Thakura by the method enjoined by the scriptures

and explained by Thakura Bhaktivinode in a way that is so eminently suited

to the requirements of the sophisticated mentality of the present age, only

deceive themselves and their willing victims by their hypocritical

professions and performances. These persons must not by confounded with the

bonafide member of the flock.

 

Thakura 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 Sri Krishna

Caitanya. The spiritual community is not circumscribed by the conditions of

time and space, race and nationality. Mankind has been looking forward to

this far-off divine event through the long ages. Thakura 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 harmonizes 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 realizable 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 devotee of Godhead.

 

[Originally published in the December 1931 issue of the Harmonist magazine,

under the title of "Thakura Bhaktivinode"]

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