Harmonist article of December 1931 by Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati.

[Guest guest]

Here are the 2nd 3rd and 4th paragraphs of his article. If anyone would like

the rest please let me know (they are also pregnant with sidddhanta).

 

This article was adressed to the disciples of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur in

December 1931

 

Serious Misunderstandings

 

There have however arisen serious misunderstandings regarding the proper

interpretation of the life and teachings of Thakura Bhaktivinoda. Those who

suppose they understand the meaning of his message without securing the

guiding grace of the acarya are disposed to unduly favour 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 Bhaktivinoda. 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 those unfortunate

persons look more carefully into their own hearts for the cause of their

misfortunes.

 

Service of the Pure Devotee is Essential for Understanding.

 

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

words of Thakura Bhaktivinoda. The editor of this journal, originally

started by Thakura Bhaktivinoda, has been trying to draw the attention of

all the followers of Thakura Bhaktivinoda to this all important point of his

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

equality with Thakura Bhaktivinoda. We are not likely to benefit by a

mechanical imitation of any practices of Thakura Bhaktivinoda 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 impassible line of

demarcation between the savior and the saved. Those who are really saved can

alone know this. Thakura Bhaktivinoda 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 Bhaktivinoda by the

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

the pure devotee. The guru who realises 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 it's 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.

 

Mechanical repetition condemned.

 

Those who repeat the teachings of Thakura Bhaktivinoda 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 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 'KRSNA'. Every reader of Thakura Bhaktivinoda's

works must be beware 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 the true conclusion from

the writings of Thakura Bhaktivinoda and quite another matter to realise the

nature of the Holy Name of KRSNA by the process conveyed by the words.

 

Thakura Bhaktivinoda did not want us to go to the clever mechanical reciter

of the mundane sound for obtaining access to the transcendental name of

Krsna. 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 judgement 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 value 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.