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

[krsna]

CHAPTER I

 

THE LORD AND HIS BELOVED

( Viewed by Empiricists )

 

 

Four centuries ago, about the year 1512 A.D., the western bank of the Godavari at Kovvur, on the most memorable day in the History of the world, witnessed a remarkable march of a band of Vedic Brahmanas chanting mantrams, attended with a performing concert of numerous Indian musical instruments playing before the procession in State of the Governor of Godavari Province of the Empire of thc Ganga dynasty of Utkal. This pompous procession was meant as the accompaniment for a ceremonial bath in the sacred Godavari whose sanctity is well established from time immemorial.

 

 

The bather was a no less conspicuous entity than the Governor of the mighty Emperor of Orissa, Sri Prataparudra Deva the greatest Ruler of the famous Ganga Dynasty whose members bore the proud designation of the Gajapatis or Lords of Elephants.

 

 

The spectacle visualized the fact that the occasion was intended for seeking an accession of Virtue and piety by a great Luminary of the Imperial Firmament who evidently wanted to popularize himself to be a religious personage guiding the reins of the administration of a great King.

 

 

Just before the party was approaching the holy bathing ghat of Gospada opposite to Kotilingam at Rajmundry, an Ascetic was observed to cross the river from the opposite bank to Pushkaram or Gospada. The very desire of having an ablution in the sacred stream fortunately brought One Who is the object of the eternal service of all unalloyed souls. The unbounded mercy that was hidden under the garb of the ascetic was showing unusual aptitude to meet a man of an apparently different caliber possessed of all royal grandeur quite in contravention to conditions of life invited by a sannyasin who deserted all earthly hopes of having any aid from busy sections of mundane meddlers.

 

 

This unusual meeting of those two extremes, as would seemingly appear before the public eye, will not reconcile the conflicting thoughts of an ordinary observer. This spot with its most precious transcendental association has at last been recovered from the dungeon of forgetfulness or oblivion by 6ne of their humble servants after the lapse of forty decades. Naturally the present day observers will look forward to ascertain the details regarding what led the public to the preservation of the memory of the said incident. Why was the mendicant busy to meet a man of ruling position and what led the ablest head of the administration to come in close touch with an unknown figure void of all worldly ambition?

 

 

The Governor had everything to do with the ascetic who also in his turn was travelling throughout the length and breadth of India in search of the Master and His comrades. Both of them found each other in the state which recalls the shrutimantram of the Mundaka as if dva sapurna sayuja, etc.

 

 

Gentle readers! Perchance you may not be able to resist the natural impulse to inquire about the couple. To respond to the call of enquiry, we are furnishing the account which has a historical bearing.

 

 

This ascetic was no other than Sri Krishna-Chaitanya, identical with Sri Krishna with His Consort Barshabanavi. The principal object, the observed of all observers, was no other than Rai Ramananda, identical with the serving maid known as Sakhi Vishakha of Braja-Leela. The damsel of Braja came to serve her Lord and Consort under the garb of exhibiting an easy lucid exposition of the transcendental manifestive phase to the reach of fortunate souls. The Supreme Lord--the Fountainhead of the Predominating Aspect of the Transcendental Region--assumed the phase of a servitor, seeking as if his Lord with all ardor, as well as ready to pick up His old friend, to facilitate an easy access to the solving of an intricate problem of eternal life of felicitous knowledge of the transcendence in phenomena.

 

 

The immanence of both made the devotees alone to conceive them by their seeming features of transcendence. Their meeting disclosed facts which were a sealed book to the frailties of human mentality. So the memory of this place would be adequately immortalized by recollecting the greatest boon offered to the search of eternity.

 

 

The nativity of our hero is alleged to be Bentpur in the District of Puri where his kinsmen are still traced as Choudhury Pattanayakas. He was descended in the Karan caste, which is a mixed caste of vaishya and sudra as Manava Dharma Shastra would tell us in describing the mixed apashadas. His father's name was Bhavananda Rai, who had four other sons. One of the sons, Gopinath, was employed in the service of the king, but was found guilty of embezzling some amount of the royal treasury which penalized his life by the decision of the prince. King Prataparudra, considering the defaulter a brother of Ramananda, granted mercy in sparing his life; whereas, the Supreme Lord exhibited His diffidence to grant him mercy by His devotee, the King. Another brother of his named Vaninath, used to serve faithfully the Supreme Lord in various ways, such as in conveying mahaprasadam, etc.

 

 

Rai Ramananda was in the cadre of the highest service of the realm and he had to act as the Governor of East and West Godavari, being a faithful and trustworthy service-holder of the Emperor of Orissa who had extended his province to the north bank of the river Krishna. Highest reference was given of Sri Ramananda by Vasudeva Sarbabhauma Bhattacharyya, the then erudite professor of monistic Vedanta or Chinmatravada. His devotional activities together with his writings earned for him the fame of the greatest poet of the time. This trait of character was unequalled as well as his maintenance of ethical views was no less.

 

 

The Supreme Lord was hurrying up to meet him in His journey to the South and was very eager to have his unique company of pure highest devotion. Rai Ramananda at the same time also cherished an unknown hope of coming in touch with the all-loving transcendental entity Sri Krishna. So They were united in the tie of love which has a serving aptitude for the one goal--the akhila-rasamrita-murty.

 

 

Rai's excellent work, Sri Jagannath-ballava-natakam, was being written with the skill of a reputed rhetorician, and later on this drama attracted the attention of the Supreme Lord in His manifesting devotional rituals. The style is so very simple that a little knowledge of grammar can help the readers of any other languages originated from Sanskrit in following the same.

 

 

Since his meeting with the Supreme Lord at Kovvur, Rai Ramananda strictly followed the counsel of his Master. He parted with his exalted position and returning to Puri awaited for the Supreme Lord in order to serve Him as a companion. During his period of retirement from the service of the emperor Rai Ramananda lived at the Jagannath Ballava Garden in the town of Puri where he was busily engaged in the practices of the transcendental services of all those girls whom he considered to be identical with the damsels of Braja.

 

 

The blind pedants could not discern his position as a true practical devotee in his swarupa or transcendental absolute position when he sincerely posed as an eternal serving maid of the paraphernalia of the Predominated Transcendental Aspect of the Absolute. The ordinary eyes cannot possibly transcend the worldly phenomena; so their vision is never proselytized by spiritual acquisition. The ordinary brain cannot possibly distinguish between the mundane and the spiritual planes. Their particular angle of vision cannot convince them of the transcendental plane where no sensuous enjoyment is feasible. The ordinary sight of an empiricist can never be expected to to para-vidya when their funds are truly lacking in transcendental treasures. He was and is often confused as a man who was indulging in his senses for his enjoyment by lustful anthropomorphists.

 

 

But the true position of the heart of our hero was not observed by such people in the true light of a devotee. A true devotee has no other ambition to enjoy the frailties of Nature. He is ever engaged in the service of the Master's comrade without any attempt to have a share in the Lord's acquisition. He has been accepted by the Supreme Lord as His best friend; and, not only as a friend, but as an eternal friend in the company of Sri Krishna and His Consort. It is stated by the biographer of the Supreme Lord that the sweet composition of the songs of Rai Ramananda acted as predominating over the transcendental mentality of the Master. His book formed one of the five that occupied the engagement of the Supreme Lord. He has left some songs in the Malthili language which much attracted the love of his Lord. And these songs are the highest specimens of delineations of transcendental love. His integrity and sincerity were fully substantiated at the occasion of the meeting of Pradyumna Mis hra who was asked by the Supreme Lord Sri Krishna-Chaitanya to learn the clue of true devotion from the denizen of the Jagannath Ballava Garden who was fully occupied with the transcendental love of Braja. The Supreme Lord compared his renunciating demeanor with that of the ideal abnegation of the Goswamis Sri Rupa and Sri Sanatana who have shown to the world conduct reaching the acme of deserting platform.

 

 

His time can be safely admitted from the eighth decade of the fifteenth century to the succeeding fourth decade of the Christian era. He greatly exerted himself in securing the favor of the Supreme Lord towards the emperor of Orissa who was in territorial possession of Andhra. The King allowed him to remain in the Garden of Jagannath Ballava and granted him suitable pension during his lifetime. He was one of the two constant companions of the Lord and was the best friend of Damodar Swarup Goswami. He was treated in reverential eye by the proper followings of the Supreme Lord, viz., Sri Raghunath Das Goswami and others. He was also the bosom friend of Sri Rupa and Sri Sanatana.

 

 

The servant's story is not complete unless the Master's account is given at least in a brief compass in order to avoid a partial view of correlation of both. So the Master's advent before Ramananda should enlighten the account. In the first place we are to narrate the previous activities of the Supreme Lord who was loved by one and all, by whomsoever He met. But the Lord had a peculiar affinity for our hero. It has been told of the Supreme Lord that He assumed the platform of a world-teacher for the upheaval of the contaminated mentality of the apathetic bound souls who preferred to have a temporal life in the clutches of time and space to accommodate matter.

 

 

Worldly persons are no doubt busy with the historicity of the Master and Rai Ramananda, so that they may get hold of the activities of the religious teacher in the cadre of other such instructing preachers. To satisfy their curiosity as well as to help them in their advance towards non-mundane plane the Life of the Supreme Lord may be sketched in the following lines:

 

 

Sri Krishna-Chaitanya was born at Sri Mayapur in the District of Nadia comprised in the Province of Bengal in India. Sri Mayapur is situated on the eastern bank of the sacred stream of the Ganges. He was born on the 18th of February in the year 1486 A.D. at the time when there occurred a lunar eclipse in the early evening. In accordance with the custom of the Indo-Aryans the people were seeking after accumulating virtues and expiating their sins on the occasion. They were singing the Name of personal Godhead Vishnu instead of indulging in an abstract idea of Him, void of all nomenclatures.

 

 

Sri Krishna-Chaitanya wanted to dispel the erroneous ideas of people who are busy to target the entity of Godhead into an impersonality. To give relief from such doubts Sri Chaitanya's advent into this world has got the inconceivable trace of His parents. His father was known as Jagannath Mishra who migrated from Sylhet in Assam to sacred Nadia, washed by the sanctifying stream, the center of learning at that time but stubbornly averse to Godly associations. Once this place had been the seat of the capital of the kings of Bengal.

 

 

His mother Sachi Devi had several daughters born before the advent of the Supreme Lord, who had died in their infancy, and had a son before she could get Sri Chaitanya as her boy. Sri Chaitanya's elder brother renounced the company of his kinsmen by assuming the garb of a sannyasin under the help of Advaita-Acharyya of Shantipur, which is also a town in the District of Nadia. Srivas Pandit was an elderly citizen of Nabadwip, close neighbor of Jagannath Mishra and a, man of devout nature.

 

 

The parents of Sri Chaitanya regarded it as a great favor of the Supreme Lord in having Him as the Loving Darling of all their ambition. Sri Chaitanya in His early life had His different Names--Nimai, Gauranga, Vishwambhar, etc. He was found to speak the highest philosophy of the impersonal nature when he was an infant. He inculcated the views of the pantheists in dismissing purity and dirt when He betook Himself to playing with rejected earthen pots in the unclean refuse heap as well as taking earth instead of sweetmeats offered by His mother. The boy heard with rapt attention the admonitions of His mother to the effect that in the manifestive world everything has its propriety and they need not be classed in the same category as the impersonalists view them ignoring the special utility of particular things adaptable as ingredients of the devotees.

 

 

In the manifestive transcendence time, space and the entities need not be confused with the impersonal vague ideas of blank space which is void of all eternal attributes. Though the impersonal conception is derived from the bitter limited experience of the temporal activities and transformations, sensation of miseries, inadequacies and other unsuitable experiences, yet it is a hasty conclusion that summarily rejects the manifestive sight out of its preference for the void of all attributions.

 

 

His kinsmen observed many supernatural feats in Him though He was then a mere boy busy with His childish activities. He lost His father in His infancy. But this does not give Him any opportunity of neglecting His studies. His father and maternal grandfather were both professors and men of learning. Within a short time He picked up versatile knowledge along with His training in the Sanskrit language.

 

 

He had to accost a learned pandit who was seeking the fame of a "Conqueror" of the then learned men. Though Vishwambhar was handled in a neglecting way by that Champion of learning, the latter was compelled to submit to the learning of the young grammar-pandit. This incident gave Nimai Pandit the highest platform among the erudite scholars of the then center of learning.

 

 

Vishwambhar was married in His Early Life, though He was not born in an opulent family. After the demise of His father He wanted to seek for adequate money to maintain His family by His pedagogic activities. So He went to the Eastern parts of Bengal to secure necessary wealth. On his return from the foreign land He found that His Wife was no longer living to enjoy His treasures thus brought from abroad. So He resorted to marrying a second time at the insinuations of His relatives and especially of His mother who required to be looked after by the spouse of her son. The first wife was known by the name of Lakshmipriya and the second was Vishnupriya.

 

 

The practice of offering pinda for one's departed father was in vogue and He submitted to such conventional method of the society in taking a journey to Gaya where He met Iswara Puri, a mendicant devotee of the Madhva School. He submitted to the sage who was reputed disciple of the well-known Madhavendra Puri.

 

 

This initiation turned the tables for mundane aspirations to the love of All-loving Absolute Krishna. The transcendental operation of initiation gave Him to know that the Transcendental Word Krishna is the fullest entity of the widest comprehension of Godhead. So the exploitations of the grammarians, in wrangling words in the fashion of Panini, with different meanings tended to one goal - Krishna - when the enjoying attitude by mundane senses is withheld. Different words of different languages have got distinctive and contending impressions as between one another. He came to the conclusion that the Absolute has no deviation and He can only be had through directing the aural activity to transcendence and immanence.

 

 

This transcendental sound is cogent enough to regulate the receiving instrument of conception of mundane knowledge which has a distinctive feature from the Absolute non-flickering varieties.

 

 

He was found to chant the Name of Krishna night and day without any cessation on His return to Nadia. The pupils who used to get their coaching from Nimai Pandit could not any longer avail the opportunity of aggrandizing themselves with the knowledge of Sanskrit grammar, as they found their Teacher was absorbed in the love of Krishna. The pupils approached Nimai Pandit to induce their professor to teach them grammar as before. But Nimai Pandit would not at all submit to the advice of Gangadas, His teacher, to pay His attention to the entreaties of the students of Nadia. He was busy with inculcating the transcendental message to all His friends. Advaita, Srivas and Thakur Haridas, all were expecting Nimai to take up the cause of pure theism by His marked unusual talents, and by this His conversion Nimai Pandit proved the object of their unending joy and ecstasy. All of them, who had got a theistic tendency, now found in Him their only leader.

 

 

The karma-kandins and persons who indulged in jnana-kanda and other denizens of the town stood against the new propaganda of theism headed by Vishwambhar. They could not win over this party by their talents and arguments. They were fully confident of the unusual merits of Sri Chaitanya. So they could not find their way to put a check to the volcanic activities of this band of workers. Finding no other measures for impeding their course they resorted to the Fouzdar (Magistrate) of the town to chastise the new religious party who had become a nuisance and disturbers of their peace by their shouting of the Name of Krishna. The form of the religious propagation of Nimai held that uttering the Name would bring all facilities of serving Krishna even better than worshipping singly which is not annoying to the neighbors and is non-interfering with the whims of the mob.

 

 

The non-Hindu community of the town headed by the Mohammedan Kazi commenced to offer opposition in various ways. The personality of Vishwambhar attracted attention of many citizens who organized a very large party to accost the Kazi for his interference in their particular religious activities. This was successful and the propaganda went on with all propriety. Mischievous people were on the look-out for impeding the numerical expansion of the following of Vishwambhar by instigating two naughty turbulent brahmana robbers. The cementing policy and assurances of Nimai proselytized their vicious conduct into religious life, though Nimai's co-workers were roughly handled. The following of Vishwambhar met at the premises of Srivas where they held their religious congregation. Some naughty opponents thought it fit to have some dirty articles placed against the doorway of the house of Srivas to show their indignant attitude. This was also pacified by Vishwambhar taking no steps for putting a stop t o such mischievous deeds.

 

 

Certain Hindus of henotheistic culture wanted to annoy Sri Chaitanya. On a particular occasion it so happened that a few students of the community approached Nimai Pandit as He was chanting the names of the consorts of Krishna. They were opposed to Krishna-bhakti and were specially averse to revere and offer their services to Krishna-bhaktas, considering themselves to be on a par with them. This caused Sri Krishna Chaitanya to chastise them with a cudgel, this enraged the community of those hostile atheists. The active opponents of the theistic propaganda now made up their minds to disperse the association of the devotees by a series of disturbances. Nimai patiently observed all this and arrived at the conclusion that He would not be in a position to confer a greater boon on His neighbors unless He renounced their society. Those naughty fellows, through their ignorance had observed that Nimai being a co-sharer of their religious community had deviated from the customary course and was proving hostile to their community. So they were resolved to act in the contrary way simply to discourage His religious culture and work of propaganda.

 

 

Nimai took due note of the situation and thought that it would be wise to leave them alone in their exploits by assuming Vedic mendicancy which all are accustomed to revere and to which they accord their esteemed adoration. At the closing of His twenty-fifth year He went to Katwa, now a sub-divisional town in the District of Burdwan in Bengal, twenty-four miles from Sri Mayapur, with a few select friends with the object of formally giving up for good the life of a householder. ,

 

 

Just after this change He was found to be drawn to Vrindavan where He could meet Krishna and His associates, the only ambition of all true souls who are repelled by the optimistic course of the worldly people. His companions did not allow Him to hasten directly to the locality of Mathura, but diverted Him from His course by a hoax in keeping with His exclusive mood. They managed to conduct Him to Santipur where He had to meet many of His friends of Nadia, who were anxious to have a last sight of Him on the occasion of His departure from their midst, including Sachi Devi and the bhaktas.

 

 

On the eve of His departure from Nadia He addressed His wife and mother and all friends to the effect that He was leaving their society in His search for Krishna and the very act would give them a better opportunity of culturing the habit of search after Krishna. The desertion was a boon to all of them and they should part with Him in all goodwill.

 

 

From Shantipur He took the track on the cast bank of the Ganges, passing through Varahanagar, Calcutta, Atisara, Chattrabhoga and other villages before He entered Orissa. He visited Gopinath at Remuna in the District of Balasore, where His grand-preceptor Madhavendra Puri had the privilege of receiving the special mercy of the Lord Who purloined one of the pots full of preparation of thickened milk and rice boiled in the same which had been offered to Himself by the officiating priest, and presented it to Madhavendra Puri for his use. He went on to Jajpur and visited Sakshi Gopala in Cuttack. He reached Puri by way of Bhuvaneswar.

 

 

At Puri Sri Chaitanya met Vasudev Sarbabhauma who was a professor of impersonal Vedantism and many other bhaktas. After the conversion of Sarbabhauma to theism all of them recommended Him to meet Rai Ramananda in His pilgrimage to the South. He was now bent upon strictly adhering to the rules of the life of a recluse and would not even admit the emperor of Orissa to approach Him. Before His meeting with Rai Ramananda He had visited the Shrine of Alalnath at Brahma-giri, Kurmadeva at Kurmachalam near Chicacole in the modern District of Ganjam, where He engaged Himself in preaching Krishna-bhakti.

 

 

Spending a few days with Ramananda on Krishna topics Sri Chaitanya in His progress through the South visited Mangalgiri in Guntur, Ahobilam in Karnul and Tirupati in Chittur Districts. He visited almost all the shrines of Tamil country. He had been to Conjiveram, Sri Rangam, Madura, Shiyali, Kumbakonam, Tanjore and saw several shrines in the Tinnevelly District and in the Travancore State where He saw Janardana and Ananta Padmanabha, Adikeshava and Kanya Kumari before He visited Payoshni and the Western-coast shrines.

 

 

At Sri Rangam He lived for four months in the house of a Sri vaishnava, who had migrated to that place, named Venkata Bhatta, with whom He had a comparative discussion of the principles of majesty (aishvarya) and mellow attraction (madhurya). It resulted in the conversion of his brother Prabodhananda, a tridandi sannyasin, and his son Gopala Bhatta who turned out to be one of the six principal disciples at Vrindavan. At Tiruvattar He picked up the Fifth Chapter of Brahma Samhita which bore testimony to the highest excellence of Krishna and His pastimes together with a nice delineation of the diverse conception of the kathenotheists, He visited several places on the Western coast including Shringeri, Udipi, Todri, Gokarna, etc. At Udipi He was misunderstood as a mayavadi sannyasin, i.e., as being a recluse of the impersonal school; but theistic discourses turned the tables against the holders of this wrong view. It was stated by the other side that the procedure of fruitive work would lead to salvation. But He established bhakti to be both the means and the end of all activities, which could not be denied by the successors of the Madhva School. He approved their doctrine that the object of worship and the fountainhead of all different aspects of Vishnu is Krishna, the all-embracing resort of all rasas and who is the presiding deity of the Madhva School.

 

 

He went to Kolahpur and visited other places on His way back to Purusottam Kshetra (Puri), including Pandharpur where His elder brother Vishwarupa, known as Swami Sankararanya, left His body on the bank of the river Bhima.

 

 

On returning to Puri He met His former comrades of Nadia, including Thakur Haridas and Damodar Swarup. He rejoined Ramananda Rai and Vasudav Sarvabhauma and His Utkal followers. People from Nadia went to Puri to have a sight of the Supreme Lord Who returned thither after visiting all the shrines of the South, including East and West coast, and after meeting all the then religious heads.

 

 

He now showed the people by His acts how to serve Jagadisha in different capacities, e.g., drawing the Cars with samkirtan in congregations. He was now pleased to grant His permission to see Him first to the son of the emperor and later on to the emperor himself. People from Nadia used to meet Him every year during the time of the Car Festival and enjoyed His Presence by strictly following the dictates of religion of love. Sri Krishna-Chaitanya had always a detestation for mayavada--that phase of pantheism in which the eternal service is practically denied and pedantic aspersions are found to predominate over the aspects of transcendental manifestive Truth.

 

 

The Supreme Lord was not permitted by His devotees to proceed to Vrindavan, lest He would not return. The Lord acceded to the apprehension in curbing His Journey from Malda (Old Gauda), a northern district of the same name in Bengal, as per counsels of His admirers. He was determined to proceed to Vrindavan and this time He would accept only one companion for His journey to the Northwestern province, through wild regions of forests. After crossing over the forest tracks and meeting the ferocious animals by associating Himsdf with them by chanting the transcendental Names He reached Benares and met some two or three admirers there before, He would journey for Allahabad where He met Sri Rupa Goswami, one of the twin stars of the administration of Bengal who He taught all about bhakti--or the procedure how to secure Krishna prema or the final goal of all ambitions. From Allahabad He visited all the vicinities of Vrindavan where Krishna enacted His bhouma lila, to enlighten those freed souls who were entitled to have the same and stayed there for some months. He retraced His footsteps to Allahabad via Soron after chalking out the Ganges route to meet Sanatan Goswami who had escaped from the prison of the then King of Bengal as the King could not spare Sanatana for his services for religious purposes. At Benaras He taught Sanatana all about the sambandha jnanam (i.e., the transcendental relation of the eternal manifestations).

 

 

He paid a short visit to Kurukshetra and some other places which are not specifically noted in His biography, before He again returned to Puri.

 

 

He took vigorous measures in respect of His followings who were found to go astray from His instructions, e.g., the renegade pseudo-Haridas and others.

 

 

From His thirty-seventh year to the close of His lila He did not permit outsiders to perturb Him in His spiritual activities except that His intimate followings had the privilege of serving Him in his Krishha-loving aptitude. Sometimes people observed Him in full entheasmic trance. Sometimes He was observed to run into the waters of the Bay considering its brine to be the spiritual water of the Yamuna where Krishna used to play. l'n all his Spiritual Activities the followers have learnt that separation of the consort is estimated as helping the spiritual culture and not the enjoying association of the Absolute which cannot make any progress.

 

 

His Disappearance is traced to His amalgamation with Gopinath at Tota in Puri. Some are of opinion that He merged into Jagadisha at the Gundicha in Sundarachal. Foolish and unscrupulous men have surmised that His body was mixed in waters of the Bay, but in that case the dashing wave might have returned Him to the shore. There are different spurious stories which go to show that His disappearance came about by the activities of His opponents. But the devotees are confident of His eternal and spiritual body being inseparable from the owner as He is not to be estimated in the light of an incarnation or conditioned soul like the preacher who has to pay the debt to Nature.

 

 

In fact He was identical with the All-love having no mundane reference to signify His entity in particular time and space, though He did not show to delude the, apathetic and rupturous views of a non-loving caliber. This is a short narrative of the Supreme Lord and Rai Ramananda as gauged by mundane spectators known as hagiolaters who search about the accounts of heroes.

 

[krsna]

CHAPTER 2

 

THE LORD AND HIS BELOVED

(Viewed by Devotees)

 

 

We have surveyed in the last Chapter the seeming conception of worldly people about Rai Ramanana. Now we are to enlighten those who are interested in the esoteric aspect of the devotee. Savants of the spiritual manifestations do not corroborate the view of the ordinary observer of mundane phenomena. Conception is carried both in worldly phenomena as well as in transcendental manifestive aspects. A stricter caution may not be neglected in distinguishing the two different planes so as to rescue the true view from confusion.

 

 

Rai Ramananda was far from subscribing to the conception of a pantheist. From what 'he had disclosed about the solution of the manifestive absolute before Sri Krishna-Chaitanya, we come to know that Krishna is the fountainhead of all sounds, all aspects of sight, the creator of spritual and mundane representations, the very center of all sensuous activities and the object of all manifestive phenomena. He is the efficient and material cause of every manifestation and all noumena. Infinite potencies are inherent in Him, and the potencies are set to work by being emanated from the sole fountainhead. He is the essence and flavor of all smelling activity of an enjoyer. He is the relishing and tasteful entity of all active workers who are a part and parcel of the substratum and delegated powers.

 

 

The sentient creation is nothing but a wrapper of the transcendental senses inherent in all spiritual atoms known as jivas. They are adaptable as predominated agents of the predominating aspect of Krisbna. Krishna is Himself svayam-rupa; and other representative aspects of the eternal fountainhead are His non-distinctive manifestations to help the atomic spiritual parts of His borderland potency, viz., the jivas.

 

 

There are five stages which are known as acme of spontaneous function towards the All-love by His loving agents. So we do not find any ritualistic performance by Ramananda, though there was the seeming feature of ablution in the waters of the Godavari accompanied by his karmi councilors who were busy in trying to induce him to submit to the conventional customs of the fruit-seekers. His conversations with the Supreme Lord disclose the fact of his far-off situation from the conception of the ritualists or the designs of the intellectual pedants prone to suicidal commission. The disclosure of the transcendental manifestation through the lips of an eternal devotee was calculated by the following of Sri Krishna-Chaitanya as the pioneer publication of the transcendental Truth in various aspect. So the messenger should not be misunderstood by scrutinizing merely his outward appearance. A devotee is never recognized by his seeming feature and condition.

 

 

The Supreme Lord has taught us by His self-composed verse which runs thus -

 

 

naham vipro na ca nara-patir napi vaisyo na sudro

naham varni na ca grha-patir no vana-stho yatir va

kintu prodyan nikhila-paramananda-purnamrtabdher

gopi-bhartuh pada-kamalayor dasa-dasanudasah

 

 

"I am not a brahmana, nor a ksatriya, nor a vaishya, nor a sudra; neither am I a brahmacari, a grihasta, nor a vanaprasta or sannyasi, but I am the eternal servant of the servant of the servant of the brilliant, unlimited, most blissful, complete emporium of nectar Who is the maintainer of the gopies."

 

 

The Supreme Teacher posed Himself as the audience of the speaker of transcendental Truth as a mere Inquirer. The adamantine mentality could not easily submit to the enlightenment by the eternal observer in his delineation of the eternal fact. An unalloyed observation of the soul should not be contaminated in any way to determine himself as being identical with the over-soul. But an eternal servitor views every manifestation either to be identical with the object of his devotion or traces the eternal relationship with the Same.

 

 

The outward meeting of Sri Chaitanya with Ramananda was quite deceptive to the ordinary spectator, specially the dissimilar combination of the two, one being a mendicant and the other showing affinity for worldly affairs. Unless the spectator is familiar with the keen insight to penetrate into the hearts of both of them he is not expected to discern the actual subjectivity and their real goal. If the spectator is educated in the line of the salvationists he would necessarily be confused in ascertaining the compatibility of the two. In his estimation the Mendicant should not show such affinity for a man in power busy with his pompous attempts in securing popularity and must fall as a true religious man. Ramananda was far from the misleading conceptions of an enjoying impersonalist.

 

 

The devotees are not properly seen by the non-devotees who have got a wrong education and misconception. A non-devotee often thinks himself quite conversant with all the phases of mundane existence. And this unreliable confidence in himself makes him a pedant and deaf to the inculcation of a devotee's temper. So he cannot participate in the same view with a devotee. The difference between a devotee and the following of the school of impersonalists can be traced by the bifurcate view of the former's particularizing the interest of self with that of the hazy consideration of apparently contending impressions of the latter. The devotee is busy with his person and the Personality of the Absolute. Whereas an impersonalist is found to concentrate his conflicting conceptions to an imaginary unity. His synthetic method in many cases leads him to despair.

 

 

Ramananda had one object in view and his object was Krishna and His services in order to please Him. The ordinary eye will consider him to run after different aims to satisfy his senses; but he had only one determination to fulfil. Sri Krishna-Chaitanya and His following could determine his true position as true devotee, meant for his eternal services to Krishna.

 

 

"Though Krishna was observed by the wrestlers as the best champion like the thunder, by the people as the king of men, by the ladies as the attracting center of love, by the cowherds as their near Relative, by the wrong-doing chieftains as their chastiser, by the parents as their Only Child, by the Emperor ( Kamsa ) of Bhoja as Destruction Incarnate, by the fools as Infinity, by the Yogins as the Final Object and by the Brishnis as their Guardians, the eternal brothers (Baladev and Krishna) went up to the platform of Kamsa." Though Krishna was observed as Matsya, Kurma, Varaha, Nrisimha, Vamana, Three Ramas, Buddha and Kalki, and Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshvara, and Vasudeva, Samkarshana, Pradyumna and Anirudha, Manvantaravatara, Yugavatara, Aveshavatara, and as the Instructor or Leader, and Brahman and Paramatman by different sights, He was the only object of devotion of Ramananda as consort. When the Absolute is consort, the reciprocal situation of the servitor can easily be asce rtained as serving-maid. When that object is eternally served by the serving maid who has just attained towards Him, her eternal age has no variation in the rolling round of time. The very beauty and color of the eternal server is exactly dove-tailing the purpose of the object and the eternal garments of the pair are no longer shut off before the following of Ramananda.

 

 

The eternal Name, Form, Color, Abode, Garments, Mentality, Ingredients of service and everything connected therewith are visible to a true devote who aspires to have a similar situation to follow his or her leader. A hazy sight will determine him in the historicity of heroes, locate him in a particular province, and give him as the holder of a particular situation. But a devotee has little to be taught in these lines to ascertain the absolute whereabouts of Ramananda. A devotee knows Ramananda's grove on the bank of the Spiritual Stream Yamuna and particular helpful Pastimes rendered to Krishna.

 

[krsna]

 

CHAPTER 3

 

THEIR CONVERSATION

(For the Beginners)

 

 

The ritualists were amazed to find that the mendicant, coming in contact with a person of lower cast though of high position, showed such ardent love which was not usual. The Supreme Lord thanked His fortune and went on to say that He was cherishing an extraordinary desire to meet him ever since his transcendental serving mood had been spoken to Him by the erudite scholar Sarvabhouma. In response to the mendicant's queries, Ramananda told him that his revered Sarvabhouma has confidence in him and his well-wishing has made him fortunate to have His presence, and shouted "I am an unseeable, untouchable, so quite unworthy of You; but it is the unprecedented mercy of Sarvabhouma that has posed You to extend Your love to an unworthy object like me. I am a slave of my worldly master, whereas You are exhibiting Your lording potency of the fountainhead. You are debarred by the injunctions of the Vedas to see me and to touch me and enjoined to despise me, which You have ignored, as You ar e kindly bent upon extending Your Mercy to me which is not approved by the society of cultured people. But I see, You do not care for these. I am quite worthy of having Your favor as Your wonted generosity found to heave me up and this has caused You to inquire about me and brought You here. I am accompanied by tens of hundreds of brahmanas who are all observed now showing their melted mentality and are found to chant the Name of Hari. A mortal being can never be expected to display such symptoms of Godhead."

 

 

Sri Chaitanya, overjoyed by the talk of Ramananda, addressed him as the best of the generous hearted highest class of devotees. "The conversion to mellowness of the hearts of your dependents is due to your devotional activity alone. I Myself, an illusionist and mendicant, am proselytised as a devotee by your touch. Sarvabhouma, knowing full well My adamantine mentality, has entreated you to rectify Me and to soften My Heart."

 

 

Ramananda said to Mahaprabhu, seeing Him invited to dine at the house of a brahmana and His strong desire to meet him again in connection with Krishna-topics, "I am not satisfied with Your mere sight but want to be regulated by Your transcendental words! I should require to cleanse my heart by Your divine association for a week or so." Though the two eternal friends had no desire to part with each other still they were compelled to detach themselves with a view to meet again towards the evening.

 

 

When they met again in the evening, the dialogue on Krishna-topics went on. The Lord inquired, "Kindly cite the verse that deals with the goal of our activities." Ramananda answered by citing the verse of Vishnu Purana, "Service to Vishnu is rendered by performing the respective duties of an individual. Vishnu is pleased by the actual following of ritualistic duties by a person of his particular status and of his particular condition in the four-fold classification of society. Without sticking to the duties of one's respective occupation and condition, there is no other way to please Vishnu."

 

 

In Reply to Ramananda's statement the Lord did not admit his proposition, but told him to make further progress in elucidating the topic more vividly. "The seeming sights of mundane representations are not in conformity with the actual demonstration of things. The ritualistic performances are but exoteric attempts in which the esoteric phase is simply ignored.

 

 

Having been discouraged in his voluntary citing of the beginner's direction, Ramananda added that people would be profited by surrendering the fruitive results of their performances to Krishna and that this would serve the purpose of all our actions. He quoted a verse from the Bhagavad Gita which was told to Arjuna by his Preceptor Krishna, "Surrender every thing to Me as to whatever you want to do, whatever you want to eat, whatever you want to offer Me in your ritualistic performances, whatever you are to bestow to others and whatever privations you want to practice."

 

 

A man of fruitive actions always tends to work for himself and to monopolize the fruits of his deeds depriving all others for his own personal gain. If these actions are done with a mundane reference, the position of the self is not truly determined as it has reference to the exoteric plane only. The mentality is likely to change its direction if this has reference to a witness.

 

 

With regard to this, the Lord said that a simple witness in the shape of Vishnu would not do, as this has a mundane relativity. So the object of offering has also mundane relativity. The offerer has his location in mundane relativity and in mundane perishable temporal activities and cannot possibly claim to serve the eternal all-blissful knowledge Vishnu. The human scope is restricted more to limited ethical considerations, whereas the Conception of the Full need not be restricted in that line; so this is but an exoteric enterprise. He wanted him to elucidate the matter further.

 

 

Ramananda again taking up the thread said that the sojourner of Theism should leave off his mundane affinity and this will bring the desired result. He culled a sloka from the eleventh and another from the first canto of the Bhagavatam in order to amend his views to have a higher platform in his discourse: Krishna said, "He has attained the highest level who can sever his connection from worldly virtue and sin as dictated by Me to ameliorate his activity in order to serve Me." Again in the Gita, Krishna said to Arjuna, "I call upon you to rely on Me leaving aside all sorts of virtuous activities, even so you will be relieved from the effects of sin and will not have to repent for doing so."

 

 

Persons who engage themselves in endeavors for their own gain, Ramananda classified into three division, viz., (1) enjoyment by not interfering with others will lead one to serve the Personality of Godhead indirectly; (2) surrendering all the fruits of our deeds to the Personality of Godhead; (3)attempting to serve Krishna leaving aside whatever is detrimental or lucrative to us without seeking for any other advantage from any other quarters.

 

 

The first has no mention of service but an acknowledgement of the Personality of Godhead. The second has got reference to the service of Godhead along with our deeds and needs, i.e., mixed-up service. And the third is the preference of the service without making any attempt of mixing that with mundane phenomena. In these three the worker or non-worker has direct or indirect reference as recipient. So the reference of the temporal plane is an associated factor, the question of eternity being ignored. But as the Personality of Godhead is not rightly determined, unalloyed karma with esoteric reference has got some propriety.

 

 

The Lord now asked him to leave off the exoteric side and urged for a better level of the approaching entity for higher desirability. Ramananda went on to say that devotion should be attended not with a blind eye but with an esoteric reference of knowledge of the unadulterated. In support of his statement he culled a sloka from the eighteenth chapter of the Gita, "When a person is set free from limited entities, he is found to be in an undisturbed mood where no want is felt, neither any passionate desire to aggrandize himself; in that case he sees equality in the phenomenal world and thereby avails the opportunity of higher standard of devotion. This has also a relative position of negation of the internal perishable phenomena along with a comparative situation of disturbance and peace. This has a tincture of devotion mixed up with the esoteric reference of phenomena.

 

 

So the Lord was observed to tell him again to go on with pointing out a higher phase, deciding this also to be an outward demonstration of devotion. Along with the direction of the Lord, Ramananda went on to add that devotion which is free from all sorts of esoteric knowledge is considered as a very high form of devotion; and, in establishing such unalloyed devotion, he cited a passage from the fourteenth chapter of the Tenth Skandha of the Bhagavatam: "Empiric knowledge should be thoroughly rejected considering its ephemeral result, and specially as the Whole Truth can never be had by such attempt in our phenomenal scope. We should follow by the three mediums of body, mind and tongue, and audience whatever is passed from the lips of an expert in devotion concerning the transcendental narratives, whatever be our position. The unchallenging mood in exercising our aural receiver permits us to cross over the insurmountable altitude of ignorance by practicing a submissive a ptitude." Of all these five progressive references of the desirability of approaching and serving the Personality of God head the Lord admitted the non-empiric fifth assertion which is free from all sorts of foreign conception mixed up with the activity of animation. The above conversation has been summed up when the Lord spoke about Bhakti to Sri Rupa Goswami at Allahabad. These different stages tend to award dharma, artha, kama and moksha which are not considered covetable of the unalloyed soul who has the innate quality of eternity, knowledge and bliss combined. By undertaking all irregular attempts we are frustrated to have a virtuous and felicitous life as the infant conception of religion has given temperaments to men of religious temper. They were denied to have the full view of unadulterated love to the Absolute as the essential eternal quality of the soul. The wrong conglomeration of our erroneous support with the true function of the unalloyed soul is not preferable in judging the com parative merits of alloyed devotion. People are often dazzled with the light of virtue and morality, when they consider the desirability of their activity in having sensuous enjoyments as altruists by their predilective mood. The consideration of the highest benefit would lead them to hesitate in regard to the adoption of elevating or setting themselves free from the disturbed atmosphere. The fruitive results are but temporal allurements; whereas desertion of the same by dispelling all ignorance due to phenomena was considered to be efficacious in dismissing the temporal manifestations. So the Lord gave His final decision of attaining unalloyed devotion by the method of driving out all passionate mixture of the active workers as well as passive indolent meditators. Determination of self should not be fixed in any of the conception of physical or astral entity, and the object of devotion should not be restricted in any exoteric or esoteric phenomena. The uniting tie between the lover and the loved should in no case be a temporal one, a blind one and an interrupted one. Transcendental love is full manifestation of ecstatic expansion void of all discrepancies and deformities of the mundane phenomena. We will be simply bewitched by following the two temptations of phantasmagoria which will ever deprive us from having a peep into the only function of blissful devotional knowledge. The price offered to us in loving devotion has no comparison with the feeble and dying results of karma and jnanam which, when compared with bhakti, will prove their futility and worthlessness if their respective intensity or magnitude is brought before us. The erroneous determination of our self has gained for us the two degraded attracting tracks which puzzle us in the true selection. So the Lord wanted from the devotee that he should boldly speak out the Truth for the guidance of the true inquirers.

 

 

[krsna]

 

CHAPTER 4

 

THEIR CONVERSATION

(For the Advanced)

 

 

The enlightening hymns of Chandyogya have impressed us that he who can surpass all conceptions of limitation knowing the indestructible Personality of the Absolute, is alone not a kripana but is a brahmana. So the Supreme Lord asked Ramananda to explain his knowledge of transcendence in order to shake off the popular crippled view of ascertaining him by the outward phase. We have surveyed the different aspects of knowledge that are commonly known to people who draw their decision out of their present knowledge derived through the medium of senses.

 

 

The comparative merits of pious seekers of virtue against the fallen creatures who have entangled themselves in sinful acts, have been delineated as the stepping-stone of the staircase of Religion. The second step is known as maintainer of the neutrality of virtue and sin, practitioner of the neutral phase of distinctive temporal specification in dismissal of manifestation, and finally the rejector of the three aspects of observer, observation and observed against the enjoying mood of the religionist. The third step inculcates the process of devotion as the medium free from the indirect method of negation of temporary phenomena. Then comes the fourth step where the ambitious fruits targeted by elevationists and salvationists are not traceable. The supreme teacher admits the claim of loving devotion against the non-loving substratum of clouded and unclouded gains which are in other words rupturous and void of love. We deal here with the different perspective phases of devotional love which has very little to do with the synthetic situation of the numerous shareholders.

 

 

The object of devotion has no co-sharer to dissuade the ambition of a true targetor. The unalloyed free soul has an innate volcanic activity known as love for the one object and he is never to be expected to pick up anything for his own which would rouse up jealousy of birds of the same feather, but to achieve the only success of vesting all interests from their contending activities to the one. This one is not to be supposed to discourage any loved with his particular phase of loving service.

 

 

To determine the object of eternal love by the eternal true servitor, no foreign element is to be tentatively introduced to have a distraction from the Absolute Truth. Love may be effected in the five successively different stages by the lover to the loved. The very embodiment of love has the sole entity of inviting the eternal loved through their five different ratis innate in them. Whenever love is attempted from a lower level it has a necessary tinge of reverence. Love is the principal entity of uniting tie between the two. In mundane phenomena love is described as ephemeral and non-eternal. But when the lover and the loved are both eternally reciprocated, such love is not to be confused with our present experience of denominating the mundane love. The subtle gaseous form, when condensed, is liquefied in the language of the scientist, and the liquid in its turn is solidified in the gradual development. From transcendental non-relativity love is traced to change its subtle form, ta king the shape of unalloyed loving service to loving friendship and then to confidential loving friendship. The love becomes purer to concentrate itself to the filial object and reaches the acme in the object of consort. The tone is not changed, but the magnitude of service is augmented gradually step by step.

 

 

Ramananda, in describing the loving nature of devotion, cited a verse composed by him which showed the gradual increase of felicity in things which are eatable and drinkable as per the degree and quantity of hunger and thirst. This has analogy to adding more sauce to our serving mood of true love, which brings more enthusiasm. Ramananda went on to cite another verse which was also his composition which purported to disclose the fact that no luck arising out of our action could be compared with the intense aptitude for having a service to Krishna and this is the exchanged value to secure in return for the ripe and soft relishing quality of Krishna's devotion and this should be secured at all costs when it could be had. Such a disposition is incomparable, with earned fortunes. This is spoken of as the base of prema bhakti.

 

 

To this the Supreme Lord expressed His approval and asked him to elucidate further. Service with loving temper has got a conspicuous aspect as distinct from the mere base. In this world we invite the objects to serve us and we have got the inner inclination of approving the adaptability of being served by others, as we are quite unaccustomed to find out the All-love Who has concealed Himself from us through our sensuous activities. So Rama-nanda exhibited the glaring phase of the pure service to the Personality of Godhead as the most interesting piece of function of the soul. The soul, now lying in a dormant condition, has delegated powers to the mind in order to take over the charge of meddling with the external world by lording it over mundane entities. But the temporal activity can have the permanent function if the loving aptitude is directed towards the All-love Who is the one without a second. As regards the aspects they will be dealt later on along with our ameliorating function s of love. To support his statement Ramananda culled a passage of the Bhagavatam (9 Sk., 16 ch., 16 sl.) together with a passage from the hymns of Yamunacharya, "Nothing remains unavailable by the servitors who are purified by the aural reception of the transcendental Name of the very entity of holiness". Alavandar, in his lyrics, gave vent to the expression, "When will that day come when I will be in a position to please my Master, considering myself as an eternal unswerving slave, having dispelled all sorts of designs by my innate serving mood constantly."

 

 

The Supreme Lord approved this version of unalloyed service and solicited further progressive elucidation. Ramananda's answer was to target confidential service of a friend to the Personality of Godhead being the highest aim of a devotee. The question of neutrality is amplified in concerning the integral Absolute and the infinitesimal potency in the same line. In support of his statement Ramananda culled a passage from the tenth skanda of the Bhagavatam (12th Chapter, 11th sloka) which ran to disclose the comparative situation of the unexpected fortune that is received by the cowherd-friends of Krishna which have excelled that of the ordinary servitors of the Absolute, the object of the transcendental ecstatic felicity realized by the sojourners of the tract of knowledge.

 

 

The Supreme Lord was showing His approval when He heard of the confidential loving service superior to menial service from the lips of Ramananda. When the normal stage is exceeded it was approved not with toleration but with definite and positive assertion. But the Supreme Lord said, "The confidential service is no doubt better than that of the service-holders. Still you are to advance a little more."

 

 

So Ramananda had to disclose his heart more in speaking out filial love for Krishna which is higher and nobler than the confidential friendship. To bear testimony to his assertion he culled two more verses from the tenth chapter of the tenth skandha of the Bhagavatam, "The glory achieved by the parents in serving the Absolute Personality of Godhead exhibited the two incidents of comparative fortune of the parents. What led Nanda and Yasoda to avail the parental situation of the Son-God and what were the incidents that led the unparalleled luck of Yasoda which induced the Son-God to suck her breast ?" The fortune that was not available to the four-faced Brahma, five-faced Siva, the generating and the destroying entity of the Absolute, nor to His spouse Laksmi who has such unprecedented favor, was received by the milk-maid from the dispenser of liberation. The Supreme Lord approved this disclosure with great sympathy, but asked him to proceed to the climax.

 

 

Ramananda in response to His query gave out that love of consort predominates over all other aspects of devotion. He recited two verses from the tenth skandha of the Bhagavatam to espouse the glorious position of the milkmaids who are the best of His subservients.

 

 

The love for the consort excels that of all loving servitors or loving parents. The intensity of affinity is the greatest in the milk-maids serving their consort. The ecstatic displays that are found in ladies towards their husbands, the temporal but incessant love of the goddesses towards their gods, the strongest affinity of the Laksmis towards Narayana, cannot be compared with the ecstatic enthusiasm that was enjoyed by the milk-maids at the rasa pastime when every one of them were in the arms of each of variegated entities of Krishna. When the Gopis were cast into the depths of the ocean of grief by the conspicuous absence of Sri Krishna, He suddenly appeared before them with a smiling face wearing the yellow apparel, garlanded with flowers. His beautiful appearance was so overwhelmingly attractive that the most sublime beauty completely vanquished the very entity of aesthetic culture.

 

 

The combination of hasya, adbhuta, karuna rasas added to the delicious taste of madhurya which could not be compared with any other representation of the kind. There are various means by which the services of Krishna are attained and these variegated aspects can be judged with their respective merits. A servitor is to select, by his predilection, the acme of the function of his soul. But there is a distinctive reference of comparative study if we are not guided by a definite principle. A comparative scrutinization would certainly give us to know the additional qualities, as we find in examining ether, etc., augmented by successive additional attributes and reach the climax with the association of the five in the solid representation. The Personality of Godhead can only be had to accept our unalloyed loving service through love alone and not by reverential procedure. Sri Krishna being the very fountain-head of all resorts of rasa, He is ever prepared to welcome every ser vitor whoever he and whatever his serving procedure may be.

 

 

But if the object is distorted like our confusing Jehovah with Moloch and Moloch with Jehovah, we would certainly miss the kindly feelings of Krishna. This conception in scrutinizing ourselves will lead us astray from the true object. Our eternal functions and activities if misdirected will give us troubles and if we fall to determine Krishna, Who is the sole attractor of the unalloyed entities of souls, we will certainly miss to apprehend the process inculcated by Ramananda. Our wrong and erroneous promulgation will never enable us to get the best benefit that can be had by us if we fail to single out loving tenor to Krishna against Dharma, artha, kama and moksha, i.e., by our limited propensity of limited elevation and salvation.

 

 

Ramananda, being further asked to subjoin the fullest reciprocity of madhurya rasa, advanced to delineate the counter reciprocal moiety of the whole by fixing the object in Sri Radhika. The highest step of devotion is displayed to serve the Pair and to utilize the full independence of the servitor to espouse the cause of the predominating aspect of the counter-whole by associating oneself in Her company. Ramanananda was found to describe the situation of the paraphernalia and the transcendental duties congenial to confidential service of attending maids of Sri Radhika which completed the full narration of the manifestive position of amorous Pair.

 

 

[krsna]

CHAPTER 5

 

CONCLUSION

 

 

In analyzing the narrative we find that we have got an outward structure apart from the physical sight of things. We have got an inner situation as distinguished from the entire contemplative plane where meditating entities are set apart from us. A holder of the physical body and owner of the contemplating spirit has got a common fountainhead Who or Which is asserted as the owner of the two possessions and this proprietor forms a part of the spiritual whole with Whom the person is fully associated. The spiritual tie between the integral spirit and fractions is roughly known as "meditation". This meditation at the very sight proves to have reference to physical and mental qualities. Both these qualities are shiftable. So the factor of time puts them into different chambers and this location is restricted to finitudinal inadequacies. If the spirit is detached from the integer, the associating tie will be observed to be "meditation"; so the purport of meditation is hampered by the contamination of a different element which is known as matter, being opposite to the spiritual bearing.

 

The very preamble of the Bhagavata school goes to signify the function of the spirit as meditation. If this is judged in the ordinary eye we get the position of the "doer" isolated and joined by a tie or deed which is an instrumental. When love acts as medium between All-love and Love, all the different aspects of bhakti are included in the word dhyanam, or meditation in worldly language. The unalloyed entity will dispel all foreign matters that are included as attributes to suit the relativity of an enjoyer and an enjoyed. The pure unadulterated spiritual attempt of an unalloyed spirit should in no case be confused with the temporal association of material phenomena whether gross or subtle.

 

 

Ramananda belonged to the Bhagavata school, so all his activities were pure and instructive, if they were properly followed. The word "following" should not be confused with inadequate or improper relativities of our enjoying mood, which are but defective. The seeming features of things should not predominate over our weak reasonings. If we indulge in such feeble criticism, we would fail to have the full conception of the object of meditation. The object has been described as "Krishna" or 'Shyama", "Blue Black" or "Dark" i.e. void of all material colors. The hasty sight will deter us to espy the accurate conception. Our bitter experience of relativity will tell us to having the upper hand to get rid of the inadequacy and will instigate our common sense to claim identity with the Whole instead of having firm determination to stick to our real position. In order to get rid of posing as an integer, which is but a tentative adumbration of depriving ourselves from the absolute position, Krishna's mercy was fully displayed in Ramananda; so he was constantly busy with the greatest perfection of eternal blissful knowledge. His entity has been analyzed by his deeds as thoroughly associated with the unalloyed spiritual manifestations. Though his deeds are not approved by the enjoying mood of observers, still a keen penetration and longer sight would surely help the people to learn the Absolute Truth from his pastimes. The Supreme Lord sent Pradyumna Mishra, a brahmana, to pick up some instructions so as to lead him to perfection. The learner was confused to see Ramananda busy with the serving of dancing girls, paying no attention to him. The seeming features did not attract him to accurately observe the divine spiritual deeds of the host. The Supreme Lord gave him to understand to have patience to penetrate into the Real Absolute for which every soul is meant to equip himself for the eternal and transcendental journey.

 

 

Ramananda's trait of character is painted by the Supreme Lord in equality with Sri Rupa and Sri Sanatana who played the part of model ascetics. Ramananda had no affinity of enjoying the world, but he was always on the look-out of rendering service to Sri Krishna by inducing the serving-maids for unalloyed amorous purposes pertaining to the eternal pastimes. Silly observations are often found to misunderstand the whole thing, and they are observed to take the lowest level of non-ethical principles.

 

 

Ramananda's Maithili song has disclosed startling pastimes which are hardly to come under the rationalistic scope of mundane thinkers. And this was fully participated in by the Supreme Lord in the company of His intimate friends. His own verse, "Pida bhirna vakala kuta katubhih" is the full parade of speedy loving service to Krishna, instead of submitting to passionate feats.

 

 

The Supreme Lord has furnished the highest testimonial of the spiritual life in Ramananda. The Supreme Lord spent His last days in the close companionship of this picked-up serving temper with His most confidential associates. His drama served as one of the constant companions of the Supreme Lord's direct service to Krishna. Ramananda was recognized as one of the four mukta purushas of the time of the Supreme Lord and he was certified to be the only friend who had no equal among the bhaktas He met in the South. But alas! the highest platform of a devotee is often taken advantage of by the greatest scoundrels and thereby the providential will is carried fully by preventing intelligent pedants to have access to the eternal world where knowledge is infinity and bliss is incessant. He was not an instructor to teach merely how to get rid of this mundane bondage but served as an advance-guide of eternally unfettered liberated souls in their incessant unalloyed service of the pastimes of Krishna, who have no connection with or reference to the mundane relative service of the Lord.

 

[krsna]

 

 

 

 

Published in The Harmonist (Sree Sajjanatoshani)

 

Spiritual Truth

 

Spiritual Means and End

 

Part 1

 

[Editors note: The first paragraph of this article is very similar to Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati's famous introduction to Sri Brahma-Samhita.]

 

 

 

 

 

The materialistic demeanor cannot possibly stretch to the Transcendental Autocrat who is ever inviting the fallen conditioned souls to associate with Him through devotion or eternal serving mood. The phenomenal attractions are often found to tempt sentient beings to enjoy the variegated position which is opposed to undifferenced monism. People are apt to indulge in transitory speculations even when they are to educate themselves on a situation beyond their empiric area or experiencing jurisdiction. The esoteric aspect often induces them to trace out immanence in their outward inspection of transitory and transformable things. This impulse moves them to fix the position of the immanent to an Indeterminate Impersonal Entity, no clue of which could be discerned by moving earth and heaven through their organic senses. It is therefore necessary to help such puzzled souls in their march towards the Personality of the Immanent lying beyond their sensuous gaze of inspection. This in fact is man's highest objective: Search for TRUTH.

 

 

We have heard from the Divine voice of Shri Guru Deva the following text of the scriptures: "O thou Muni who art given to mental speculation, whatever act is performed, whether it be mundane or spiritual, should be performed in the way that is conducive to the service of Shri Hari, if one is really anxious to acquire the function of spiritual devotion".

 

 

We happen to be servants of the devotees of God. We are not servants of either elevationists or liberationists. We are the bearers of Hari's own footwear. Under the circumstance we do not join issue with the communities that desire any other thing beside the service of Godhead, viz., elevation or liberation. For we know that the worship of Dharma, Artha, Kaama or Moksha is merely deceitfulness. In other words they have a close connection with my addiction to the non-self.

 

 

There was a time when Shri Gaursundar (Chaitanya Mahaprabhu) in the course of His pilgrimage to different parts of India, had instructed the people in these words, "Whomsoever you meet, instruct him about Krishna. Deliver this country by becoming Guru by My command.' At that time the question arose in our minds as to how we were to discourse regarding the supreme object of desire if we were not ourselves Self-realised souls. Thereupon Shri Gaursundar gave us His assurance: "In this matter you will not be obstructed by the current of worldliness. At this very place you will obtain My company once again." Use every endeavor for the service of Divinity. Do so from the position in which you happen to be placed. In whatever country, in whatever age, in whatever body you may happen to be lodged, use all your endeavour for the Divinity. If we have to carry out the command of Shri Chaitanya there is no other alternative but to discuss all those words that we have heard from the prophetic lips of Shri Gurudeva. The only duty of the servant of Godhead is to try to do that by which one's skill in performing the service of Godhead is continuously developed. The only thing that is worth praying for is this, that our mind may be more and more attracted towards Krishna. We do not want riches or followers nor do we desire to be saved from the misery of birth and death. In this world different persons aspire for ends other than the service of Krishna. They desire Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha. They worship various gods for obtaining what they desire. But when we are in the presence of Mahadeva, let us hail the Lord thus: "Glory to the ruler of the realm of Vrindavana, Whose forehead is adorned with the moon, glory to Him who is worshipped by Sanandan, Sanatana and Narada, glory to the Chief of cowherds! O Lord bestow on me unceasing, unconditional love to the twin lotus Feet of the amorous Hero of raja." When we approach Katyayani we say, "I bow to thee, Katyayani who have power to delude, who have power of causing all occurrences, who have power over our selves. May the Devi make the Son of the cow-herd Nanda, my Husband."

 

 

We do not pray either for the cure of disease or for liberation by a process which may mean the simultaneous destruction of both disease and patient. We approach them and say, "May you bless us that our minds may be directed to Krishna." The people of this world pray for being the possessors of things that are other than Krishna. But the ambrosial words of Shri Gurudeva declare that Krishna is the only real possession. We are in the grip of non-spiritual prepossessions. They obstruct our quest of Krishna. It is necessary to discuss how we may be rescued from the clutches of such prepossessions. It is for this reason that our questions were framed. We did not wish to pick others' pockets. We did not intend to inconvenience others. We are above such meanness. Those who are addicted to the service of lust and anger may judge differently. But let us pay heed to what our former Guru Shrila Madhavendra Puri has said regarding our proper duty: "I have indulged, times out of number, in every form of wickedness, yielding to lust and other passions. But the outworn passions have had no pity on my poor self. They continue to trouble me shamelessly and remorselessly. Lord of the Jadus, for this reason, just now, giving them up and knowing truth, I have come to You to throw myself into Your protection which alone can save me from all fear. May You employ me fully in Your Service."

 

 

We are indeed beggars. But for that reason we need not be beggars of desires that pander to the gratification of our senses. It had been our prayer that all communities of 'Sadhus' might profitably seek the mercy of Chaitanya Chandra. They would be filled with the greatest admiration, if they do so. Our prayer has been formulated by one of our Acharyas in the following words: "Holding the blade of straw between my teeth, falling prostrate at your feet and making hundreds of humble supplications, I say this: O, Sadhus, casting away everything to a distance ever practise loving devotion to the Feet of Chaitanya Chandra."

 

 

What Sri Chaitanyadeva has told us in a special manner, the straight path by following which many can be delivered from all sensuous desires, is nothing else but accepting the protection of the service of Godhead. He said, 'For one who is free from all sensuous desires, who is anxious to serve Godhead, who is desirous of getting across the ocean of this world, the contemplation of, or association with, worldly people and carnal women are, alas, worse even than the swallowing of poison.'

 

 

It is better to commit suicide by swallowing poison than to associate with people who desire other things than Krishna, or seek the enjoyment of such things. Having once begun to serve Hari, if such a person becomes attached to things other than Krishna, he is thereby utterly ruined. Bharata became King of Bharatavarsha. He had formerly practised a great variety of endeavours for spiritual progress, had practised asceticism, had made actual progress on the path of the service of Hari. But he had to be born as the young one of a deer. He had conceived a very slight desire for an object other than Krishna. He had wished to perform what is ordinarily known in the world as an act of kindness. It was nothing more serious than a slight desire to serve a helpless animal, but even for this reason Bharata had to be born as a deer. Therefore the lotus feet of our Shri Gurudeva command us to have no duty other than the service of Krishna. 'May you have your mind fixed towards Krishna' is the only proper benediction.

 

 

Advaitacharya at a certain time indulged constantly in preaching the doctrine of undifferentiated union with Brahman. Shri Gaursundar desired to put an end to his activities. For this purpose He set out from Shri Mayapur in the company of Lord Nityananda. They proceeded towards Santipur by way of Lalitpur. At Lalitpur they met a sannyasin who kept the company of prostitutes. The two Lords, full of Divine fervour, sought the hospitality of that profligate sannyasin. The sannyasin blessed Mahaprabhu Whom he considered to be an ordinary boy thus: "May you have riches, descendants, a good wife and learning." On hearing this benediction of the sannyasin Mahaprabhu said it was no blessing at all but a curse. The only real benediction is that one may obtain the favour of Krishna. The adulterous sannyasin, on hearing these words, said to Mahaprabhu, "I have today direct experience of what I have heard before. Now-a-days if anybody desires well of another and says so, that person returns the favour by belabouring his well-wisher with the cudgel. I find the behaviour of this Brahmana boy to be exactly like that. I most gladly blessed him that he may gain riches, followers and good fortune. I had no other object than his well-being. This boy thinks that it is no benefit but an attempt to do him harm. He is ready to blame me for this." Thereupon Lord Nityananda looked wise and displaying the gravity of a guardian of the boy said to that profligate sannyasin, "It is not up to you to argue with this boy. I have understood how great you really are. Do not be offended with this boy, for my sake."

 

 

The adulterous sannyasin was pleased with the words of Nityananda Prabhu. He offered to feed him. Nityananda sanctifies the fallen. Nityananda and Mahaprabhu having bathed in the Ganges ate the fruits given them by the sannyasin at his house. Presently the profligate sannyasin threw out repeated hints to Nityananda Prabhu about accepting "Aananda' meaning 'Wine." The wife of the sannyasin forbade him to annoy the guests in that manner while they were taking their meal. Mahaprabhu asked Nityananda Prabhu, "What does the sannyasin mean by the word 'ananda"? Nityananda Prabhu was acquainted with the behaviour of all kinds of persons. He informed Gaursundar that the adulterous sannyasin referred to wine by the word 'ananda'. No sooner did Biswambhar (Gaursundar) catch his words than, muttering the Name of Vishnu, He at once gave up eating, performed the Achamana and without delay ran to the Ganges with Nityananda Prabhu and plunged into the stream.

 

 

By means of this act Mahaprabhu taught the duty of avoiding bad company. He taught more than this. In the words of Thakur Brindavandas, "The Lord favours the adulterous and the drunkards. Yet He kills one who is versed in the Vedanta if he maligns the Sadhus. This person was a sannyasin. Yet he did not hesitate to drink wine. He also kept company with carnal women. Yet the Lord went to his house. If he is not actually benefited in this birth it will do him good when he is born again. The only persons whom the Lord does not love in His heart, are those who speak ill of others maliciously. All the atheistical sannyasins missed the good fortune of obtaining a sight of the Lord. This is proved by the case of all the sannyasins who lived at Kasi."

 

 

Those who desire liberation and expect to merge in the undifferentiated Brahman are greater hypocrites than even those who desire worldly enjoyment. Accordingly Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has advised all persons, who really seek their own good, by all means to avoid their company.

 

 

Urvashi found that the period when she could gain her selfish purpose was over; she did not hesitate forthwith to desert Pururava or Aila King of Chandravansha. Thereupon Aila, feeling the cruelty of Uravshi, was cured of his hankering after worldly enjoyment. It was in this connection that Shri Bhagavan said to Uddhava, 'Therefore one who is wise should attach himself to the companionship of the good, giving up completely all association with bad men. The very words spoken by the Sadhus have certainly the power of destroying all evil tendencies of one's mind." [1]

 

 

The only duty of the "Sadhus" is to cut away all the accumulated wicked propensities of every individual. This alone is the causeless natural desire of all the Sadhus. Worldly people possess a double nature. They express one kind of sentiment but internally cherish a different purpose. Moreover they want to advertise this duplicity as a mark of liberation or love of harmony. Those who are unwilling to show any duplicity, wish to be frank and straightforward, or in other words to exercise unambiguously the function of the soul; such really sincere persons are called sectarian and orthodox by those who practice duplicity. We will cultivate the society only of those who are straightforward. We will not keep company with any person who is not so. We must by all means avoid bad company. We are advised to keep at a distance of a hundred cubits from animals of the horned species. We should observe the same caution in regard to all insincere persons.

 

 

There was a time when Thakur Narottam was pleased to tell the plain truth to many worthy persons who came of the highest lineage. Thakur Narottam, in the eye of worldly people, had manifested himself just as a member of an Uttaradiya Kayastha family. For telling the truth he became the object of attack by bad people. Those who judge other people by the testimony of their senses, are, as a matter of fact, maliciously disposed. These persons, devoid of sound judgment, began to find fault with Thakur Narottama. Why was he, born in a kayastha family, going to set up as a religious teacher of persons born in Brahmana families and also make them his disciples? When these accusations reached the ears of Narottam Thakur he said that rather than provoke the opposition of any person he would completely desist from instructing anybody. Shri Ramakrishna Bhattacharya and Shri Ganganarayan Chakravarti, who were disciples of Thakur-mahasaya, thereupon said that if he gave up teaching the world will go to the dogs and there will be a great increase in the number of atheistical Pashandas in the world. Saying this one of them put on the garb of a betel-seller and the other attired himself as a potter. Meanwhile the whole body of proud Pandits of the hostile community arrived at Kheturi with the intention of defeating Thakur-mahasaya in open controversy. After their arrival at Kheturi they went to the bazar and proceeded to the potter's shop for purchasing earthen posts in which to cook their food. The potter began to talk with them in the Sanskrit language. From there those Pandits went to the betel-shop for purchasing betel. The betel-seller also talked with the Pandits in pure Sanskrit. At this those proud Pandits thought within themselves that it was a most wonderful country where even potters and betel sellers could talk in the purest Sanskrit. Thakur Narottama was the greatest person of such a place. It was impossible to conceive how great a Pandit he could be. Therefore instead of losing their reputation by approaching him it was better to leave the place without delay. Thinking in this way those Pandits hurriedly left the village. Thus we find that those who obtain the protection of Truth are always liable to be attacked.

 

 

What is ordinarily called unfair judgment or sound judgment, is neither of them the same as Truth. Many persons suppose Truth to be the same as common-sense. That which cannot be harmonised with common-sense is not admitted as Truth by such persons. But what is the nature of persons whose common-sense is supposed to be identical with the Truth? Is it the common sense of souls who are free from the defects of liability to error, inadvertence, defective senses, desire to deceive? Or is it the common sense that is born of the experience of changeable minds subject to all those defects? The common sense of the ordinary run of mankind, who are subject to all those defects, is at best only mental speculation. It may sometimes exhibit a certain impression of relative or temporary truth. But it is not really Truth. The intellectual faculty of persons who are led by the blind active forces of physical Nature cannot understand the topic of the unadulterated, self-revealing function of pure spiritual existence. A certain person is tasting the deliciousness of an excellent preparation of good pudding. Another person arrives there and proposes that a quantity of lime and mortar, which happens to be in his possession, might be mixed with the pudding to complete its deliciousness. If this advice is actually taken one is thereby prevented from getting the pleasure of eating good pudding. The taste of the pudding is bound to be spoiled by such a policy. Bits of stone, lime, etc., scorch and choke the passage of the throat and cause the death of the person who swallows them. Bhakti or service of Godhead is supremely unconditional, self-sufficient, perfectly pure and absolutely devoid of all earthly quality. If any person advises that the pure devotional impulse may be perfected by adulterating it with desires other than service of Godhead, such as fruitive activity, empiric knowledge, attempt to become one with Iswara by means of Yoga, etc., all of which are the products of this material world, then the advice of such a person is exactly similar to that of mixing lime and mortar with good pudding. Lime and mortar are quite foreign to good pudding. The two things never suit one another. Fruitive activity, empiric knowledge, Yoga, are activities of the individual soul in the state of bondage. They are the functions of the material body and mind. On the other hand Bhakti is the natural impulse of the pure soul. It is a spiritual function. It is the activity of the soul who is absolutely free from all worldly defects. It is for this reason that there cannot be any real mixture of the service of Godhead with fruitive work, empiric knowledge and similar worldly activities which are foreign to bhakti by their very nature, being the function of entities that are categorically different from the soul. But when the fruitive work, empiric knowledge, etc., recognize their subordination to Bhakti and are practised in obedience to bhakti then such activity may be termed as bhakti although it may seem to be adulterated with fruitive work and empiric knowledge. Such adulterated bhakti may help a person to attain the path that leads to pure Bhakti which is the transcendental function. When a person attains to the transcendental service of Godhead there is then no longer any adulteration. It is this which finds expression in an oft-quoted Shloka of the celestial sage, Narada, "That activity which is prescribed by the Shastras in reference to Hari is certainly called Bhakti. By its means the transcendental Bhakti is gained."

 

 

We are not prepared to collaborate with those who are given to worldly activities. There are persons who are ambitious of climbing to the top of the Himalaya of progress by means of their mental speculation based on the experience of the external world. We are not prepared to cultivate association with empiricists of this type who profess to be able to approach the Truth by the ascending process from experience to the unknown. 'We will not allow any hostile person among ourselves but will always keep him on the other side of our boundary'. This is the advice of our Gurudeva. We do not want the person who is given to good eating and sensuality. Such persons are not really genuine seekers of the Truth. How will our purpose be served with the help of persons who possess a double nature? There is no correspondence between what they say and do. The tiding that the sweet and healthy words of our Shri Gurudeva have brought us will not be listened to by persons who have a double tongue. They will never lend their serving ear to the message. Lay men connot [sic] understand us. Those who lives have not become identical with that of the devotee, as is very well illustrased [sic] in Shrimad Bhagavatam, will not be able to understand our message.

 

 

It is for this reason that the Bhagavata instructs us, to turn over a new leaf, "Persons of good sense must entirely give up all association with bad company and cultivate close association with the Sadhus. There is not doubt that the words of the Sadhu possess the power of destroying the evil propensities of one's mind. The Sadhus in this way benefit every one who associates with them". There are many things which we do not disclose to the Sadhu. The real Sadhu makes us speak out what we keep concealed in our hearts. He then applies the knife. The very word "Sadhu" has no other meaning than this. He stands in front of the block with the uplifted sacrificial knife in his hand. The sensuous desires of men are like the goats. The Sadhu stands there to kill those desires by the merciful stroke of the keen edge of the sacrificial knife in the form of unpleasant language. If the Sadhu turn into my flatterer then he does me harm, he becomes my enemy. If he gives us flattery then we are led to the road that brings enjoyment but no real well-being.

 

 

It is not proper to hear the exposition of the Bhagavata by one who does not live the life enjoined by the Bhagavata. It is our duty to associate with a Sadhu who is better than ourselves. 'Association with those who are better than oneself is association with Sadhus'. But who really possesses the life of the Bhagavata (God's own)? "He is called 'Free' in this life whose only endeavor is for the service of Hari in every activity of mind and speech and in all circumstances". "May the mind be directed to Krishna" this is the only form of benediction that is uttered by the Sadhus. The contrary form "May the inclination towards Krishna be destroyed giving rise to the ambition to lord over things other than Krishna," is never the form of the benediction of the Sadhus.

 

 

The word bhakti (service of Godhead) cannot be properly used except in connection with the word Krishna. Krishna alone is the only Object of bhakti. Brahman is the object of knowledge. The paramatman (Supreme soul) is the object of the effort to approximate. But Krishna alone is the only object of worship or service. We shall explain later on in the course of our discourse how Krishna alone can be the only Object of worship.

[krsna]

Published in The Harmonist (Sree Sajjanatoshani)

 

 

 

 

The ordinary meaning of the word "Chit" is knowledge. Knowledge possesses the quality of mastership. From the words of Shri Chaitanyadeva we are enabled to know that the Son of the Chief of Braja is the real indivisible Knowledge. Krishna-chandra is specifically the Possessor, Source and Concentrated Embodiment of the Cognitive Power. The source from which all knowledge emanates is of three kinds viz., (a) pure cognition, (b) cognition, adulterated with non-cognition and © non-cognition. Those who hold that direct perception by the senses is the only source of knowledge maintain that knowledge or consciousness is a product of non-cognition or matter. These persons believe that non-cognition is the final principle. The propensity that comes into play as the result of such speculation is called tarka or hypothetical controversy. Those who want to make matter produce the principle of consciousness, find themselves, in the sequel, necessarily occupied with consideration as to how it is possible to gradually neutralise the cognitive principle, how to make it effervesce altogether into the original state of non-cognition. These persons by their austerities try to reduce that temporary consciousness into the state of complete unconsciousness. If a person begins to perform worldly activities, if he continues to do so in a liberal measure, he is liable to become too much fatigued in the course of such activity. It is at such a stage of exhaustion that the desire for becoming unconscious matter, the desire of liberation in the form of annihilation of consciousness described above, makes its psychological appearance. It is a good thing to practice open-handed liberality. It is a good thing to nurse the sick and to help the needy in different ways. Ideas like these make a tempting appeal to our judgment and seem to promise even a temporary relief to sufferers when man is terribly oppressed by the normal condition of existence in the realm of matter. We are then attracted towards processes that are dangled before our eyes by the external world. It is in this manner that we become performers of 'useful' work, we practice 'virtue', we worship a relieving god, we become moral, or, sometimes, we do bad deeds, commit sinful acts, become irreligious or immoral. We are driven into all such predicaments by the hostile pressure of the external world.

 

 

There is no grossness in the subtle material principle. But the subtle owes its birth to gross matter. Subtleness manifests itself by abstracting its ingredients from the gross things of the external world. Gross matter is the parent of the subtle existence.

 

 

In this world the function of non-cognition has become more or less adulterated with that of cognition. The mind and intelligence are occupied in gathering knowledge from the realm of non-cognition. There is a world in which there is no such subject as non-cognition which is professed to be the final reality by the propounders of the theory of the finality of the atom or the material force. In that world everything is cognition. There are some who say that there must be the realisation of utter powerlessness in undiluted cognition. It is true that the possessor of empiric knowledge has bitter experience of material force in this world. It is only when one is anxious to fly from the bitterness of such experience that the opportunity of rendering cognition, of which we stand in need, devoid of all power, presents itself to us. The Gaudiya Vaishnavas have a language of their own. They call the material force "Bahiranga-Shakti," the power that manifests itself in the extraneous members of the Divine Person. The Professors of undifferentiated knowledge want to designate the Entity who is devoid of this extraneous power as the Brahman. They form their idea of the Brahman by repudiating the material force. They have got the experience of that power from the phenomena of radio-activity and molecular movement in this world in which the cognitive principle is found adulterated with the material principle. But the Brahman also means the Great, the Whole. Those who are privileged to have the sight of the Greatness, the Wholeness, know that the word Brahman means only Bhagavan "the Possessor of all Power." In the words of Shri Chaitanya Deva the Primary meaning of the Word Brahman is "Bhagavan".

 

 

The Sankarsana Sutra uses the word Brahman to denote Vishnu. In the concluding portion of the Bhagavatam we find the following Shloka, "The essence of all Vedanta is Brahman Who is identical with the Supreme Soul. He is the only substantive Reality. He is one and without a second. The one thing needful is exclusive and eternal devotion to Him."

 

 

Every Sound has a two-fold potency, viz. (1) the enlightening natural potency and (2) the natural potency productive of ignorance. That potency of the sound which, diverging from Krishna, Vishnu, Shri Chaitanya Deva, points to something else, is the potency that is productive of ignorance. By their enlightening natural potency all words express Krishna, point to Krishna. Those words that obey us as their master, help us in the function of enjoying the things of this world, being promotive of enjoyment, are thereby separated from the Divinity and, therefore, exhibit the natural potency that produces ignorance. The Sound 'Krishna' points to the sabstnative [sic] Reality. In this world made of material, limiting quality, the meaning that is offered of the Sound 'Krishna' and what is understood by the common run of people by the Sound 'Krishna' are neither of them the entity who is the real Meaning of the Sound 'Krishna'. In other languages such sounds as "God", 'Allah' etc., or, even in the Sanskrit language such sounds as 'God' 'Iswara' 'Paramatma', etc., express a certain conglomerate of distinctive power which is an adulterated entity separate from Krishna. Those sounds fail to accommodate the full commanding potency of the Sound "Krishna". The full meaning of the Sound "Krishna" may be thus set out: 'Krishna' is the Supreme Lord. He has a specific Form, the concentrated embodiment of the spiritual principle of Existence, Cognition and Bliss. He has no beginning. He is the beginning. He is nourishing the whole world. He is the Cause of all Causes'.

 

 

The above Meaning of the Sound 'Krishna' was brought from the south of India by Shri Gaursundar and made known to all the people. No other country except Bharatvarsha knows the Meaning of the Sound 'Krishna'. In Bharatavarsha also there are divergent currents of thought in which the sounds: Iswara, Paramatma, Brahman, etc., have manifested themselves. These currents of thought indicate the secondary potencies of the Sound Krishna or even postulate powerlessness of the Divinity. They are also unable to convey the knowledge of the fullness of meaning of the Sound "Krishna". Anything that is seen, heard, smelt, tasted or touched by our senses giving rise to empiric knowledge, is an entity produced by physical Nature. The Sound 'Krishna' has not been used with reference to these products of physical Nature. The Entity Krishna is not comprehensible to knowledge dependent on material senses of absence of material senses. He is an Entity Who transcends physical senses and physical nature. Truth can never be served by the faculty that diverges from the Lord. The service of Truth is the function of the soul. It is incapable of being diverted from the Truth. It is causeless and uninterruptible. Truth is identical with the Teacher of the Truth. There can be no knowledge of the conclusions of the Vedas without undeviating service at the lotus-feet of Shri Guru-deva. No one can be the Teacher of the Truth except the devotee of God. This is not the dogma of irrational orthodoxy. It is the real Truth. One cannot be the Guru although he be descended from the highest lineage, be initiated in all sacrifices, has studied the thousand and one branches of the Veda, if he be not a true Vaishnava.

 

 

In ancient times there was a city called Kanchi in the South of the country. In that city there lived a very famous Professor whose name was Yadavaprakasha. There is a tradition that at that time there was no other Professor in the whole of that part of the country who was his equal in learning. Laksmandesika (Ramanuja) went to him for the purpose of study. He resided with his teacher. He was devoted to his studies with his whole heart. He was perfectly sincere in his conduct towards his teacher. These excellent qualities soon attracted the attention and captured the heart of this teacher. One day Yadavaprakasha following the interpretation of Shankaracharya was explaining the well-known text of the Chandogya that the two eyes of God-head are red like the hind-part of a monkey. This caused intense-pain to the heart of Ramanuja. Ramanuja was at the time engaged in tending the person of this teacher. He felt very much pained on hearing the blasphemy against the Holy Form of God-head. The warm tears from his eyes fell in drops on the back of Yadavaprakasha. This sudden fit of weeping surprised Yadavaprakasha who asked Ramanjua about the cause of his grief. Ramanuja then said that there was no necessity of explaining the word 'kapyasam' in such a filthy and blasphemous manner especially as the word possessed an excellent meaning. Was it not a most highly offensive act to compare the Eyes of God Himself the most Revered Lord and Master of us all, with the worst part of the body of a monkey?

 

 

Yadavaprakasha was very angry on hearing these words of Ramanuja. He reprimanded Ramanuja in most severe terms, 'How highly impertinent for a mere lad to find fault with the interpretation of Acharya Shankara! Was it possible that there could be any other explanation of the text than that of the Acharya'? Ramanuja replied in words that were expressive of modesty: "Yes", said Ramanuja "there is another meaning of the text which augments the happiness of the spiritually enlightened. Acharya's explanation is intended for deluding those persons who are endowed with the unspiritual aptitude. I am telling you the other meaning. Deign to listen to my words".

 

 

There-upon Ramanuja offered this famous explanation of 'Kapyaasam' in the text. 'Kam' means water. That which drinks water is 'kapi'. 'Kapi' is thus no other than the stem of the lotus. That which is placed on the stem is 'kapyasam'. In other words the two Eyes of that Supreme Person are tinged with red like the undimmed lustre of the unplucked lotus on its stem shining on the bosom of the blue waters.

 

 

Yadavaprakasha was filled with the greatest astonishment on hearing this explanation of the Scriptural text. He felt most keenly the disgrace of his defeat at the hands of his own disciple. Maddened with anger he plotted to do away with Ramanuja in secret.

 

 

No teacher of undifferentiated Cognition, or of utilitarian works, or of any worldly state of union with the Supreme Soul (Yoga) or of the performance of activities resolved upon by one-self (vrata) or of asceticism, or of magic, or of hypocrisy can really be designated as the superior Guru. They are all of them only triflers and being really very light-headed indeed, are capable of being easily manipulated. They are never the benefactors of the conditioned soul. They are on the contrary the enemies of themselves as well as of all others.

 

 

But the Maha-Bhagavata, the best of devotees, the Vaishnava Guru, alone is causelessly merciful to all souls, is alone grieved by their misery. It is for this reason that our former Guru Shrila Raghunathadas Goswami Prabhu has instructed us to place ourselves under the guidance of Shri Sanatana Prabhu who alone is really grieved for all of us and can alone impart the knowledge of our relationship with Godhead. The actual words of Shrila Das Goswami Prabhu require to be quoted in full: "I place myself under the protection of my Master Shri Sanatana Prabhu. Shri Sanatana Prabhu is the ocean of mercy. He is always grieved at the misery of others. He makes me drink, with the greatest care, of the liquid-sweet of the service of God-head. The attachment to that service weans one completely from any hankering after any other thing. I was quite ignorant of this and was wholly unwilling to serve God-head. But he, nevertheless, took infinite pains with me and prevailed over my stubborn opposition to his good counsel. Such is Prabhu Sanatana".

 

 

What is really the source from which we derive knowledge of the Truth? Is it pure or mixed cognition? Is it also the only thing needful? It is necessary first of all to decide whether the above propositions have proceeded from the theory of undifferentiated cognition, of undifferentiated non-cognition, or from activities of pure cognition which are full of eternal bliss. To become one with non-animation is the goal of the theory of undifferentiated non-cognition. To merge completely in the featureless existence of undifferentiated cognition is the goal of the theory of undifferentiated knowledge. The realisation of the blissful eternal service of God-head in the realm which is free from all ignorance establishes one in the unconditional safe function of pure cognition.

 

 

The emancipation that is spoken of in the Bhagavatam is not destruction of the triple envelope of the bound soul. It is nothing less than the actual establishment in one's own natural condition. Mukti is establishment in one's own proper condition by discarding the contrary. When one is established in one's own proper condition one gets beyond the reach of ignorance. Then the true function of the cognitive faculty, which is no other than the service of God-head manifests itself fully. The distinctive service that is natural for every individual soul is then uninterruptedly and fully manifested. 'There are different ways in which different persons choose to obey Me. I also serve them in correspondingly different ways. Men, O Partha by every method follow the path that is Mine.' [1] God-head Himself here says in effect that He worships His worshipper in exactly the same way in which the latter worships Him. In the mood of a consort the devotee serves God-head with all his faculties, and accordingly Krishna gives up all His limbs to him. Krishna regards Himself as under obligation to his devotee even after giving Himself completely to him.

 

 

In the Sholka of the Gita referred to above the word "Mam" Me should be specially observed. The word referred directly to Krishna. It is Krishna who is the speaker. He says, "He who worships Me does so in one of five different ways, each one of which is characterised by the quality of utmost submission. But the mood of the consort displays the highest measure of submission. If the submission be not to Myself it would be rendered to My shadow or to My external deluding power (Maya), it is then no submission to Me". It will not do if curd is called milk. Curd is no doubt derived from milk as its source. But the spoilt milk is never curd. It is possible for a person to be able to see the perverted, imaginary from of Vishnu. If such a person submits to his perverted vision it will be no submission to the real Vishnu. Vishnu is not perverted. It is possible for a person to see, to experience a vision of His which may be the product of his own wrong way of looking at Him. If this happens to be the case it is to be understood that the person fails to have any real signs of Vishnu. The Gita has this Shloka, "Those who worship with reverence other Devatas", O son of Kunti, also worship Me, indeed, but by the method that is improper." [2]

 

 

To see any object other than Krishna, is the improper process of seeing. This improper method of seeing is identical with all our evils and disruptive differences. It is possible to get rid of the condition of this improper seeing. Thereafter it is really possible to see Krishna. Krishna is the ocean of infinite undying sweetness. There are twelve rasas (leavening qualities) in Krishna. Five of these rasas are primary. There are seven secondary rasas which help to increase the sweetness of the primary rasas. All these rasas are completely harmonised in Krishna alone.

 

 

Shri Shukadeva Goswami said to Maharaja Parikshit, 'Listen O King I am going to give you an account of some of the rasas of Shri Krishna. Shri Krishna is in Himself the shining sphere of infinite rasas. When Shri Krishna made His appearance in the company of Baladeva in the amphitheatre for the exhibition of feats of strength set up by king Kamsa each one of the spectators saw Krishna according to his own individual disposition. Wrestlers, fond of the martial qualities saw that Krishna was terrible like the thunder. Females, fond of the quality of love, saw that Shri Krishna was the God of Love Himself. The masses of the people saw that Krishna was the only King of all men. The cow-herds, with friendly and paternal love, saw Him as their Kinsman. All the frightened, wicked kings saw Krishna as the Punisher of evil-doers. Every father and mother beheld Him as a most beautiful Child. The king of the Bhoja, Kamsa saw Him as Death himself. Persons, who are saddled with a materialised understanding, viewed Krishna as the vast cosmos. The great yogis with tranquil disposition beheld Krishna as the Ultimate Entity. All the males of the Vrishni race saw Him as the Supreme Object of their worship'. [3]

 

 

Every one will obtain the service of Krishna; even those will obtain it who are wandering in pursuit of other and diverse speculations. There will be in the long run an end of the wanderings of those who have gone astray. Because Krishna is the only Attracter and we are all of us attractable by Him. But there may appear temporarily a barrier between the Attracter and the attractable. As soon as the barrier is removed we shall experience directly the real nature of the attraction of our Attracter.

 

 

There may be companionship with the non-animate. This is called bad company. This bad companionship is practised by means of the physical body and the ignorant mind. It is necessary to give up this bad company. If we do so our real self, whose nature it is to be attracted by Krishna, experiences the direct attraction of Krishna. Krishna attracts the pure cognition. Exclusive devotion is a characteristic of pure cognition. One has no access to the spiritual realm till this quality of exclusive devotion makes its appearance.

 

 

The external world is also a source of one kind of knowledge. This knowledge is nothing but the entities of the external world in a refined form. The attraction exercised by these entities is accordingly also exerted towards the material cases. There is quite a variety of such knowledge, none of which is knowledge of Krishna. The knowledge of the undifferentiated Brahman, or that of the Supreme Soul, or that of the phenomenal world, which is gathered by the cognitive principle independently of the knowledge of Krishna, are all of them only different layers of the same class of knowledge. The Brahman which is a concoction of the mind of the professors of the creed of the so-called undifferentiated Brahman, can afford no glimpse of the real Brahman. The sight of the Supreme soul or undifferentiated union with Ishwara fancied by the pseudo-yogis is even a greater blasphemy than the dogma of the undifferentiated union with the concocted Brahman. The Professors of undifferentiated union with their concocted Brahman do not admit the existence of the Individual soul. The professors of undifferentiated union with Ishwara admit the existence of the individual soul. They want to enable the individual soul to usurp the seat of God-head. This surely is an instance of a far more rebellious attitude towards Godhead than even that of the votaries of the concocted Brahman. It is for this reason that Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has said that union with Ishwara is even more condemnable than merging with the concocted Brahman.

 

 

In order to discuss these subjects it is first of all necessary for us to have the pure source of knowledge. Are these discussions derived from adulterated cognition? Or is pure cognition their source? Are they derived from any source made by man? Or is their source made by Godhead? If the source happen to be made by man there must exist the defects of mistaken judgment, inadvertence, etc.

 

 

What is the entity known as 'I'? Am I the body that I have obtained from my parents? Or am I the mind-intelligence-ego by means of which I am busy making and breaking my resolves? This topic contains a great many issues. We have had the opportunity of listening to these discussions from a very early beginning of our life. We have been discussing these subjects all through these fifty years. We had much time for a good deal of discussion all through the twenty-four hours of the day. We have discussed these topics throughout the whole of the twenty-four hours of every day. We have discussed them while we slept as well as when we lay awake. This body also will fall away in the course of discussing them for its further allotted period.

 

 

It is very difficult to get into the inner apartment of the discussion regarding 'I'. There stand ready at the two consecutive entrances two gate-keepers who are preventing all access to the vicinity of the 'I'. Why can't we get the sweet scent of the Body of Krishna? Why does not the fifth scale note of Krishna's flute enter my ears? Why do the tumult of the streets, the noises of the busy world pour incessantly into my ears? At present the soul is asleep. His agent the mind, as manager of its sleeping master's concerns, is cheating me as intermediary. I am accustomed to go by the function of the mind. The mind who business it is to cheat the soul by its evil counsel is keeping me occupied on the path of selfish enjoyment. The soul is the master of the mind and the body. Speech functions as the foreman of a jury. The speech of pure cognition is of one kind, that of non-cognition is of a different kind. The mind is non-soul. This is borne out by the Gita, 'The earth, water, fire, air, sky, mind, intelligence and ego are My eightfold material Nature. Besides these there is another entity of a quite different kind who is non-material. This last is no other than My manifestation as the individual soul. By means of the individual soul the material universe is maintained.'

 

 

The individual soul, (Jiva) is then super-material. But he is, nevertheless, possessed of the marginal function. He has relationship with the process of birth-life-death. But the individual soul has also his place in the super-material sphere. The activities of the individual soul in this latter condition are called also transcendental. All that is perishable is included under 'Apara-Bidya' (empiric knowledge). All that is imperishable comes under Para-Vidya (transcendental knowledge). Transcendental knowledge stands on 'sumati' or the good disposition. The term 'sumati' occurs in the Veda. 'O Vishnu, we shall serve 'sumati' by simply uttering Thy living Name even with very little knowledge of His real meaning'. [4] May all of us gain this good disposition. May we gain that good disposition which prompts us to serve 'sumati'.

 

 

FOOTNOTES

 

[1] Gita IV-11

 

[2] Gita IX-23

 

[3] Bh. X/43/17

 

[4] Rig. 1-156-3

 

[krsna]

ublished in The Harmonist (Sree Sajjanatoshani)

 

 

 

2

 

 

There is a function which is called 'Upanayana' (bringing near). We come to learn from the words of the shruti that the birth of man is three fold, viz., (1) seminal birth (2) by Gayatri, (3) by initiation. The seminal birth comes first in order of time, from the mother's womb. Then comes the second birth on the attainment of purification by the Gayatri-mantram. The next birth is brought about on receiving Spiritual enlightenment (diksha). We obtain a body from the mother's womb by vital fluid from the father. This is our first birth. The body that we get by this process is one kind of body. The second kind of body is that which is born by the union of the Acharya as father and Gayatri as mother at the time of our investiture with the Holy thread. Then the Acharya-father binds us with the thread of Sacrifice for the purpose of introducing us to the study of the Vedas by means of the Mantras, 'I will lead thee into the presence of the Veda etc.' The birth to which we are thereby subjected in the home of the Acharya is our second birth.

 

 

The ceremony of tying the Sacrificial thread does not import that thereby the physical body may be preserved but that the Veda or true knowledge may be gained by its means. Our third birth takes place on the occasion of the ceremony of imparting spiritual enlightenment by initiation into performance of worship (Yajna). This is spiritual birth proper by attainment of the ceremony of imparting enlightenment is performance of Divine worship, Yajna or Upasana, which latter means 'to live in close proximity', this being the etymological meaning of the word. The performance of Yajna or Upasana is the function that has to be practised subsequent to receiving spiritual enlightenment (diksha). The function which we perform on appearing in the presence of the Holy Form of real knowledge (Veda) is termed Upasana. The Person in Whose presence we dwell on gaining access to His proximity is the Object of Upasana. He is the Veda-Person, Lord of Yajna, Vishnu. The function for the performance of which we dwell with Him is Upasana or worship which is also Yajna or sacrifice. The prescribed method of Yajna is different for the different Cycles (Yugas). For the Satya-Yuga - when virtue was fully prevalent - the method prescribed was that of meditation (dhyana). In the Treta-Age - when the prevalence of virtue had decreased by one quarter - the Yajna took the form of sacrifice by fire (Makha). In the Dwapara-Age when dharma had decreased by one half it took the form of ministering to the person of Godhead as a servant attends to his master's needs (paricharya). In the Kali-Yuga, when virtue has gone under to the proportion of three quarters, the Yajna has the form of preaching or Kirtana. In this Iron Age virtue is totally on its last legs and in consequence the other methods have no chance of success.

 

 

The code of scriptural regulations known as the Veda has come down to this world as Shruti (that which has been heard) from preaching (Kirtana) as its source. The present is the Age of controversy (Kali-kala). In this Age whatever proposition may happen to be put forward, it forthwith provokes active discussion of its pros and cons and raises a storm of reasoned opposition. The chanting or preaching of the Name and Glory of Hari is the only Scriptural method (Shrautapantha). That absolutely consistent expounder of the Shruti, Shrimat Purnaprajna Madhavacharya, in his commentary on the Mundakopanishad quotes the following words of the Narayana Samhita: -- "In the Dwapara-Age Vishnu was worshipped by all people by the method laid down in the Pancharatra (division of the Scriptures treating of their rationale). In the present controversial Age (Kali Yuga) the Supreme Lord Hari is worshipped by means of His Name alone.

 

 

It is needful to consider about the Object of our worship. If we obtain access to the presence (upasana) of any inanimate object or happen to be situated in its vicinity we are thereby induced to put it to some use or in other words, we attempt to extract some service to ourselves from it. But the entity that happens to be self-conscious is necessarily also a free agent. If I make the attempt to get upon his shoulders he is apt to offer his opposition to such activity. We have no power at all whereby we can put to our own service One Who is fully free. On the contrary it is we who find ourselves irressistibly [sic] put to His own service. The current Utilitarian theory is always busy to find a use for every thing: for the natural current of the flowing river, the free air of the atmosphere, for the falls of the Niagara. But we cannot employ any self-conscious entity, -- least of all, the fully Self-conscious and fully free Entity - in the same way in our service. He never submits to us.

 

 

During our sojourn in this world the consideration that other objects may serve our pleasure, that we may become the worshipped, has come to prevail. Is the show of service that we display in the garb of worshippers towards other entities of this world, possessed of a mixed quality or of unalloyed purity? The generations of the Rishis practised sacrifices, (Yajnas, dhyanas) etc. They never entertained the judgment that they are eligible to receive the service of others. They offered their services to their Devatas. In the portions of the Veda treating of worship (upasana) we find them making use of the following mantras (which saves us from thraldom to the mind) in their hymn of praise of the gods: --

 

 

"Thou, fire (i.e. Vishnu), may Thou lead us unto the treasure of the supreme Truth (paramartha) by the good path. Bright One, may Thou lead us in unison with the movement of the whole cosmos and by the method of the knowledge fully directed to Thyself. May Thou destroy all our sins in the forms of nescience and insincerity. We bow to Thee time and again." They praise the gods by means of this and other similar hymns. They consider these hymns as the constituent limbs of the acts of upasana (lit, abiding in the presence of the object of worship). The proof of these statements has been most clearly preserved in the oldest Vedic history. The Rishis did not regard themselves as objects of worship. They were worshippers of the Devatas. This disposes of the allegation that the process which bears the name of upasana is a comparatively modern innovation. The method that is approved by the school of pure knowledge or exclusive Monism is that the proper object of life is to merge in the Brahman. It is found to be the historical fact that in times long before the origin of the method of the desire for service, upasana was the only spiritual impulse which existed among all people while their disposition regained its natural, primitive simplicity. Now-a-days in this Age which is so inordinately fond of discordant controversy (Kali-Yuga), the opinion which is opposed to history has become fashionable, that is the form of upasana, is of recent origin. Such a view is altogether erroneous. Wheresoever the function of the consciousness has been found to exist the tradition of upasana is also seen to have prevailed from the very beginning of history. Brahman or the Entity of real knowledge (Veda) the real Truth, first manifested Himself in the heart of Brahma, the first progenitor of all animate beings of this world.

 

 

The Rishis and the Devatas are offsprings of Brahma. The Devatas possess the quality of self-effulgence in a boundless measure. It is for this reason that the Rishis served the Devatas with infinite devotion. This relationship of the worshipper with the worshipped must have always subsisted between the Rishis and the Devatas.

 

 

We also notice that in the first dawn of our consciousness as well as in the beginning of our cultured state or intellectualism, service or upasana was the universal natural impulse. In the subsequent periods if we carefully consider the diverse forms of religion also in the pre-historic Ages, we find that the impulse of service is always spontaneous in human nature. It is in the present Age of Discord that there has arisen such an amount of disputation on this subject. The reason is that we are now-a-days unhesitatingly occupied in the engrossing task of trying to lord it over one another. The Utilitarian theory has undergone its due expansion and is aspiring to yoke everything into our so-called service. We spare no manner of close endeavour (upasana) - every one of us does it to the best of his power - to become the recipients of service (upasana). This familiar process known as barter made its appearance with the beginning of civilization. If I perform some service for another he pays me its value. Men are thus placed towards one another in the relation of servant and master. In this world we possess different sense organs to the number of eleven for doing service viz., the eye, ear, nose, tongue, skin, speech, hand, anus, leg, generative organ and mind. By means of these instruments we adjust our respective occupations towards one another. One thus becomes the master of another who in his turn becomes the servant or subordinate. One occupies a high, the other a low, position. One is engaged in rendering obedient service to another.

 

 

Every human being - all animate, all conscious and non-conscions [sic] entities - are thus located in the system of the threefold relationship of worshipper, worship and object of worship. Each entity is related to another as servant or master. Wherever we find more than one or many entities, each of them is seen to be engaged in ministering to the wants of another. We observe this process called upasana in constant operation in both animate and inanimate worlds and yet we are anxious to establish the view that the Reality is absolutely devoid of all distinctive features and to congratulate ourselves on possessing sound judgment and wonderful power of argument, by which we are enabled to reach such a grand conclusion. If the knowledge that is devoid of all distinctive features be the object of my worship, the endeavour which I put forward for the purpose of serving such object is itself the process of my specific kind of worship.

 

 

The person who is engaged in the quest of the Undifferentiated Brahman says that at the point where the three separate lines of consideration of knower, object of knowledge and knowledge merge into one indivisible activity of cognition, the logical limit of the cognitive process itself is reached. 'Let the diversity end. One in observing another is showing himself to his observer. Let the functions of both cease.' Such a consummation is called the desirable state of non-activity. If the observer of the light and the process of observing the light could be extinguished it is supposed that such an event could free us from the necessity of worship (upasana), rescue us from the grip of the process of the triple texture. We are in the midst of, we are engaged in the performance of, certain forms of activity. If this process is destroyed we are disposed to imagine that the principle of activity itself is thereby eliminated.

 

 

We are located on the marginal line forming the boundary between that perishable world and the realm of the Absolute (Vaikuntha). All speculations involving any reference to the phenomenal world will cease if we could reach the marginal line. So long as we happen to be engaged in the quest of the principle of non-cognition we are led to think that we might escape the clutches of our evil lot on the cessation of the separate existence of object of knowledge, act of knowledge and knower. The goal to which such a proposition leads is devoid of both categories, there being no reference either to the phenomenal world or to the realm of the Absolute in such a goal. The composite position of knower, knowledge and object of knowledge is evolved from the marginal power. It forms one of the perishable divisions of the Reality. In the marginal position we engage in diverse activities and are enabled thereby to experience the existence of the worshipper, worshipped and act of worship. All of these are also not one but many. In common parlance we say that one cannot serve many masters. When we try to serve the entities of this world we find ourselves committed by such endeavours to the slavery of lust, anger, greed, infatuation, vanity, malice etc. If the object of worship, the act of worship and the worshipper merge into one category a condition of intense maliciousness is found to prevail as the sequel of such consummation which exists only in one's imagination.

 

 

Those who possess sound judgment declare that the activity of service has prevailed at all periods in the history of the world. Every object is always found to be closely bound to every other object by the relationship of servant and master. If any entity adopts on its own account the role of master it thereby falls into the evil condition of such activity.

 

 

Should we be worshippers of worshipped? There is a certain sect which is called "Baul" or insane. The Baul says, "I am enjoyer. This home is for my enjoyment. This tenement is meant to serve myself".

 

 

3

 

 

There are two kinds of Bauls, householder Bauls and recluse Bauls. A number of Bauls renounce the world. They, however, put on the garb of Krishna for the exclusive purpose of enjoying the world. They intend to become Krishna in right earnest. Their point of view is that all other persons should place themselves body and soul at their entire disposal.

 

 

Shri Gaursundar does not endorse the validity of such opinions. He says that the undifferentiated monistic view cannot be considered as the real meaning of the Vedanta or of the Veda. He says that there are found three kinds of propositions in the Veda viz. those regarding the nature of relationship, those regarding the practice of relationship and those regarding the object of such endeavour. These different groups cannot be made to lose their distinctive specification. Mahaprabhu tells us of the process of the evolution of power. He does not advocate any process of mere confusion on one thing for another (Vivarta) as the explanation of the principle of evil.

 

 

The good old Vaishnava Acharyapada Shri Madhava says, "Vishnu Himself is the Ultimate Real Substantive Entity". The seeker of the undifferentiated Brahman maintains that the featureless Great One (Brahman) is the ultimate Principal. But this last is a proposition that can be put forward only by those who are themselves in the conditioned state. In the state of freedom such consideration automatically ceases to be entertained. The Entity Who is the source of everything, is Vishnu. We also notice that the formula (Mantram) saves us from the plight of mental speculation, that we have to utter it at all times, and that in the pure state as well as in the state of defilement, in all conditions, he who recollects the Possessor of the Lotus Eyes (Vishnu) is pure both internally and externally.

 

 

One is higher than another in proportion as his conduct is more in conformity with the requirements of the spiritual standard. The Brahmana is the highest of all the Varnas for the reason that he has learnt to behave properly from the Acharya i.e. one who practices the function of the soul and establishes others in the same. The Kshatriyas (military class) are the protectors of mundane society. They devote themselves exclusively to politics. Those who have similarly to busy themselves very much about knowledge of Brahman and worship of Godhead, have also very little time to spare for other kinds of activities.

 

 

The life of the Brahmana is that of the beggar. It is the duty of society to serve and to help those whose sole profession is to cultivate the knowledge of the Brahman. The Brahmanas also should obtain what they require by the method of begging. If there is left any surplus on their hands over and above what they require for their own daily use they should give it away to others as free gift. They must not accumulate anything as provision for the future.

 

 

In many places, as for instance in the Government census operations, the whole body of destitute beggars have been put into one class with the Sadhus. If the ordinary beggar who is in want of necessaries be regarded as identical with the Tridandi or Sadhu Bhikshu of the Bhagavata it amounts to a political or social travesty of truth.

 

 

The vagrancy act is not applicable to the bonafide itinerant preacher viz., the Tridandi Bhikshu. If the seeker of the knowledge of Brahman has to find much time for getting his food and clothing, the margin of time left to him for finding the knowledge of Brahman is unduly curtailed. It is for this reason that Manu has said that the whole world belongs to the Barhmanas [sic] who are its real proprietors. This is perfectly true. Those who worship Godhead accept what they require at any time by the method of meeting only the requirement of the moment. They entertain no anxiety with regard to worldly needs. The society is under obligation to provide them with neither more nor less than what is necessary for their cultivation of the knowledge of Brahman. The society which does not place itself under the guidance of those who possess the knowledge of Brahman will sink down to the uttermost depths of degeneration.

 

 

The Brahmana, the Kshatriya and the Vaisya are the proper objects of worship of the Sudra. If in this world any one is disposed to entertain any principle of superiority he must go by this rule. He who does not seek for the Entity Who is the object of quest of the Brahmana, is landed into the thousand and one futile topics of this world, that are absolutely different from the quest of the Brahman.

 

 

"The four Varnas with Ashramas sprang from the Face, the Hands, the Thighs, and the Feet of the Supreme Purusha (Indweller). He who does not serve or fails to render due respect to the Purusha Who is the Lord Himself and the source of all souls loses and falls from his possession."

 

 

The Face of the Purusha is the highest of all His Limbs, His Hands are next below His Face in the order of excellence. His Thighs are lower than His Hands and His Feet are lower still. In other words, there is gradation of descent from the higher to the lower, from the Face to the lower portions of the Form of the Purusha. In like manner the Brahmana is the best of all; the Kshatriya is next lower; the Vaishya is lower than the Kshatriya; and the Sudra is the lowest of all. The face is the best of all limbs. In the face are placed the brain, the seat of intelligence, and the mouth, the seat of speech, (Kirtan). That Brahmana who devotes all this time to the chanting of the Name of the best of Purushas viz., Vishnu, the source from Whom he has sprung, alone is properly a Vaishnava. The head performs the function of judging and deciding. The Brahmana who is the brain of the society controls all activities of the hands and thighs of the social body. It is the brain, the Brahmana, who tells the feet in what manner they should move. He tells them where to go and where not to go. It is the Brahmana who tells them to walk on the plane of Krishna in the eternal realm. "It is the function of the house-holder, the husband to betake himself to his wife at the due season. But My worship is obligatory on all."

 

 

If the community of the recluse Bauls proclaims, "We will indulge in the unchecked gratification of our senses by putting on the garb of Krishna," or if the Baul who is addicted to domesticity thinks, "I will enjoy the pleasures of my home", it may be asked how long it would be possible for a servant who belongs to this external word, by his own admission to continue in such service. If the Brahmana does not serve the Supreme Lord Who is the source of all souls, if he does not serve Him Whose eternal servant he is by his proper nature, he gradually sinks lower in the scale of his function, suffering successive degradation in the respective conditions of Kshatriya, Vaishya, Sudra, Antyaja Mleccha and others.

 

 

There is a certain class of persons who are devoid of ordinary common sense who say, "The function of the servant of this world is the worst of all. We have, therefore, no intention of practicing any similar function in the next worlds. We intend to be master, to be objects of worship." As if the transcendental realm is full of unwholesomeness and is tortured by the triple quality as is the case with this world! If one is ignorant of the true meaning of "Vaikuntha" one is liable to fall into this kind of poverty of judgment. He is apt to attribute and imagine the existence of the unwholesomeness of the perverted reflected image even in the undisturbed substantive entity itself. Into that realm where there is no principle of limitation, no question of evil, where there is only unmixed good, it is not our duty to carry from here anything that is productive of evil. The sun is a luminous self-revealing entity. It is not necessary to carry any lamp to the sun.

 

 

There is a popular tale to illustrate such misconceptions. A certain Boatman was troubled by the idea that the operation of pulling at the cord for towing his boat was a miserable job involving great hardships, inasmuch as it required him to trudge painfully along most uneven ground over thorn and brambles which ofter [sic] stuck into the bare soles of his feet. Therefore, if he could manage to get rich somehow he would be in a position to tug at his cord by bestriding quilts and mattresses which he would take care to spread over either bank of the river. The boat-man of the story was so foolish that he intended to carry all the miserable pursuits of his poverty-stricken state into the condition of affluence. The consideration that if he could get rich it might not be necessary for him to tug at the cord at all would not penetrate his foolish pate. Those persons who are bent on journeying to the transcendental realm laden with all the superstitions and material judgments of this world, who are anxious to transport their sense-ridden logic to the transcendental realm, who choose to imagine that in the realm that lies beyond this world there can be any scope for the unavoidable slave mentality of this world or any form of service which is in any way characterised by the factors of the unwholesomeness of this world, are indeed as stuipid [sic] as the foolish boat-man of the story. The function of the servant that prevails in the realm of the Absolute, the servitude of the soul in the state of freedom from the fetters of material bondage, is the natural condition of the soul i.e., perfect subordination to his own proper nature (Swadhinata). By such servitude even unconquerable Godhead himself is subdued - the supreme Lord of all Lords becomes our own.

 

 

A narrative in the Upanishads runs as follows: Once upon a time Indra on behalf of the devatas and Virochana on that of the asuras, repaired to Brahma for the purpose of learning about the nature of the self. Virochana was led by observation of the reflected image to suppose that his external gross body was the soul. Indra without being in a hurry like Virochana, set patiently about the quest of the words of Brahma. His patience was rewarded by making him acquainted with the real nature of the eternal entity viz., the soul who transcends the physical body and mind. The madness of those who direct their intellectual expedition to the external cases, is what is called asura judgment. The war between the devatas and the asuras is going on at all times. By the mode of worshipping (upasana), of devotion (bhakti) the suras were enabled to realise Vishnu as the Best of all entities. When the evil propensity of transgressing against Vishnu made its appearance the non-daiva mode of judgment engulfed the faculty of pure consciousness of the soul (jiva). When man becomes excessively addicted to the needs of the non-self he sets himself against the worship of Vishnu. Then man falls even lower than the status of the devatas. The devatas also offer opposition to the worship of Vishnu. They are apt to think that the asuras are their rivals to frustrate their own attempt of becoming Vishnu. The denizens of the realms of Satya, Mahas, Jana and Tapas are higher in the scale of creation than the devatas who are addicted to the pleasures of the realm of Svah, for the reason that the residents of those higher realms belong to the community who have renounced the pleasures of the flesh.

 

 

According to the judgment of ordinary people Vishnu is only one of the devatas and the other devatas do not derive their powers from Vishnu. If Vishnu is regarded as only one among the devatas such a view gives rise to the cult of the plurality of gods, or polytheism, henotheism (panchopasana) and pseudo-latitudinarianism in effect propose nothing short of ultimate and complete merging in the One viz., the Brahman, of becoming indistinguishable from the Brahman, by breaking all devatas. Persons who are so disposed have a conviction, which they have had prior to the commencement of the process of worship, that the Object of their worship is devoid of all distinctive status of His Own. In other words they seek to prove that there is no need of worshipping Godhead at all. Let us, these creeds say in effect, by way of sheer hypocrisy insincerely admit, for the time being, a process of temporary worship and the temporary objects of our worship. They are led to judge in this manner by their previous bitter experience of this world, in order to escape the bad consequence of committing themselves for good to any position which is likely to undergo change in the future. Shrimad Bhagavatam has the following shloka which inculcates the method of being saved from such difficulty: 'Constant and unforgetful devotion to the lotus Feet of Krishna diminishes all evil and fosters our good in the shape of purification of the ego, attachment to the Supreme Soul and Knowledge attended with distinctive realisation of the Truth and consequent aversion to the phenomenal and the transitory'.

 

 

To be subject to lust, anger, greed, infatuation, vanity and malice is to be in the evil condition. To be opposed to Krishna and His devotees is to lapse into evil. By attaining to the constant recollection of Krishna alone is it possible to be delivered from evil. If the spark of fire of the recollection of Krishna once flashes on the track of memory, or in other words, if the realisation that I am the eternal servant of Krishna, is once aroused, it sets on fire the whole refuse-heap of evils and burns them to ashes.

 

 

If one says even once, 'Krishna, I am Thine', "Krishna delivers him from the bondage of the limiting Energy (maya). If a person chants the Kirthana of Hari in every way it is only then that he can cease to seek honour for himself, can render due honour to every one and be humbler than the blade of grass. In the verse regarding 'Humility greater than that of the blade of grass' the word 'constantly' means undiverted chanting of Hari without offering any opportunity to the operation of lust, anger, etc. A person who is subject to lust, anger, etc., does not possess the utmost humility which is greater than that of the blade of grass and even if he has a taste for limited material enjoyment he is never humbler than a blade of grass. Utmost humility, greater than that of the blade of grass, is the characteristic only of him who is unceasingly given to the quest of Krishna i.e., addicted to the uninterrupted and mellowing process of the agony of loving separation from Krishna.

 

 

'By constant listening to and reciting the deeds of Krishna with faith and reverence Godhead enters the heart in no very long time.' The empiric truth available in this world has a certain characteristic of relativity. The truth that manifests itself in the relative function is not the unalloyed Truth. The service of the Supreme Soul is not service of matter. Krishna alone is the Object of our constant supreme service. Perform always the chant of Krishna; of His quality, of the distinctive personality of His servitors, of His Pastime. The lotus feet of Shri Gurudeva, who advises us to do so, alone should be the constant object of our worship in every way. He is the eternal associated counterpart of Godhead. Vaishnavas who serve Shri Guru are objects of our worship.

 

 

[krsna]

Published in The Harmonist (Sree Sajjanatoshani)

 

 

 

 

There are many persons who profess the opinion 'I am the Brahman' by a distorted interpretation of the famous Scriptural text. They do not practice the forbearance of accepting the comprehensive interpretation of the mantram of the Shruti. We can easily cross over the impossible expense of the Ocean of Maya if we take hold of the support of devotion, and can do so only by such submission. The only method that is open to us for gaining our destination is to follow in the footsteps of those great souls who have preceded us on the same path. They are our only Pole Star on the path of spiritual endeavour. Those great souls of former times are possessors of the true knowledge which is attended with spiritual love and detachment from the world. The heart that is brightly illumined by the pure spiritual essence, bears the name of Vasudeva. It is only in such a heart that knowledge dawns, i.e., the Personality of the pure cognition Vasudeva, super-knowledge or spiritual love and detachment from the world or, practice of devotion in the stage of endeavour, manifests itself. We can get across this realm of un-reason by acting up to such a decision. The word 'Tamas' means 'Mayavada', -- the impure enjoyment approved by the professors of Utllitarianism [sic]. The Sannyasins of the triple staff (Tridandi) ensure their progress in the direction of Truth by accepting the above mode of judgment. Mankind will be assured of progress on the path of spiritual endeavour by acceptance of the triple staff of renunciation and being thereby enabled to join in the chant of the Tridandi Bhakshu of the town of Avanti of the Bhagavata: "Adopting this unceasing attachment to the Supreme Soul, worshipped by the former great souls, I shall get across this abyss of gloom, which is extremely difficult to cross, by serving the Feet of the Bestower of Salvation." [1]

 

 

Krishna is the sole real Object of worship. He is the only Object of worship of all entities that can or will ever be. He attracts His devotee for the purpose of serving His servants. If the function of my mind takes the direction of the service of any other entity than that of the best of the servants of Krishna it should be impossible to find such another fool as myself. He who serves all those who wish to serve Him, is verily that Entity Who has no limit, Who is the Ultimate of the ultimate of ultimates and the Cause of the cause of all causes.

 

 

The Ultimate Reality Krishna has been called Swayamrupa, "Beauty's Own Self", by obtaining portions of Whose Beauty His servants have become most exquisitely beautiful. The community of the servants of Krishna regard the beauty of form as an offering for His service, by means of which the Divinity is to be served. No beauty is comparable to a millionth part of the Beauty of Krishna. When we endeavour to approach Krishna by way of service we have to be possessors of beauty and are actuated by the desire of beautifying ourselves. Then arises the process which is called Abhisara (i.e., proceeding to the secret place of assignation). There are two kinds of Abhisara viz., (1) the sukla or white Abhisara and (2) krishna or dark Abhisara. The Gopis (milk-maids) run to Krishna by one method when the moon is risen, by the other method when the moon does not shine. There is the same secret expedition for the quest of Beauty, of the Good Quality of distinctive individual servitude, or Pastime.

 

 

Krishna is Beauty Himself and Shri Baladeva Prabhu is Krishna's Own Manifest Self.

 

 

'The soul is not realised by one who is without the support of Divine Power, neither by austerities, nor again by the avoidance of all ceremonials. The enlightened person who endeavours to attain to Him by these methods enters the realm of the Brahman'.

 

 

'The lotus Feet of Nitai (Nityananda) are most refreshingly cool like crores of moons. The shade of His Feet relieves from the scorching heat of the world. Leaving out Nitai Who is so merciful, one must not have Radha Krishna. May we ever hold firmly to the Feet of Nitai?'

 

 

Nitai is real Manifestation, but not real beauty. He is not omnipotent or strong by the help of any other entity. It is not possible to separate Omnipotence from Him. He is not devoid of power. The power of Baladeva is the distinctive power of Himself, the Manifestation of Krishna's Own Self. Although in Baladeva the proprietorship of power is predominant He still belongs properly to the category of Divine Power. Baladeva is just next to Krishna in the category of object of worship. In the Maha-Vaikuntha He is manifest as Vasudeva, Sankarsana, Pradyumna and Aniruddha. The topics of the fourth dimension lie beyond the three-fold specification of the linear, superficial and cubical magnitudes of this world. The topics of the fifth dimension are still higher. They are such words as flow from the Flute of Shri Krishna. 'He is the same beloved Krishna with Whom I am united here in Kurukshetra. And Myself also am, indeed the Radha. This is the very same bliss of our meeting with one another. Yet My mind is longing for the woodlands on the sloping banks of the Kalindi with the fifth-scale music of the sweet Flute playing in the heart of the groves'. [2] The Entity Narayana who is the conglomerate of the four-fold expansion of Shri Baladeva as Vasudeva, Sankarsana, Pradyumna and Aniruddha, abides in the Maha-Vaikuntha, being the Primary manifestation of Baladeva. There is associated with Him a certain process which bears the scriptural designation of Vyuha. The object of worship has a five-fold nature of His own. Those who are well-versed in the subject of the five-fold need know all these matters. We cannot obtain real enlightenment from any one who is ignorant of the five-fold need. One cannot perform the function of the Guru if he does not possess the knowledge of the five-fold need.

 

 

Archavatara: -- This is of eight kinds. The Archavatara (descent in the form of the Archa or Visible Object of worship) makes His appearance in the world for the purpose of bestowing His mercy on unfortunate souls like ourselves i.e., on those who possess a stupid judgment. Krishna manifested His Divine Pastimes in this world in the Dwapara Age. But that age is long, long past. Unfortunate souls that we are, we were not privileged to come into the world in that period. We could not obtain the sight of Krishna for this reason. We do not know anything about Krishna. But what an amount of good the Archa of Krishna has been doing to us. This Archa is of all time. We are having the sight of Krishna even by being born after an immense interval of time. Appearing in the form of the Archa Krishna has been arousing the serving impuse [sic] of our souls.

 

 

Antaryami: -- Godhead is present in every single entity formed of His marginal and deluding potencies, in the form of internal Guide (Antaryami) and is regulating us from within. 'Iswara (Ruler, Regulator) abides in the heart, O Arjuna, causing the movement of all entities, set on these bodily appliances contrived for the purpose, by His deluding potency.

 

 

Vaibhava: -- This term points to the causal Appearances of Divinity for specific purposes. 'Whenever the proper function of souls is tainted, O son of Bharata, and unspiritual conduct comes to prevail, I cause the Appearance of Myself on every such occasion'. This and other Shlokas of similar import point to the Descents in the different ages.

 

 

Vyuhu: -- The four Vyuhas viz., Vasudeva, Shankarsana, Pradyumna and Aniruddha are one and the same Entity. By the sight of one quater [sic] the whole integer is seen. The estimation of this world is that based on the view of one quarter of the whole. This is partly intelligible by the Science of Trigonometrical Mathematics of the sphere. We can also nnderstand [sic] the degree of fulness of service of the servitor and the subjective psychology of the Object of worship.

 

 

Paratattva: -- Vasudeva is the transcendental Entity. Baladeva is the super-transcendental Entity. The Ultimate super-transcendental Entity is Krishna. Vishnu is the principle of the Prime Source of the Phenomenal world. He is comparable to the milk and Rudra to the curd. Curd is milk turned sour from its natural wholesome state, by the action of an acid substance. Vishnu is essentially incapable of transformation or perversion. The nature of Rudra corresponds to the perversion that has arisen in my deluded idea of Vishnu. If we ascribe transformability to Shri Vishnu, the particulars of such an ascription of the idea of the original non-transformable entity are to be attributed to the mutilated or distorted form of my defective conception of Vishnu brought about by this process which is the exact principle involved in the representation of Rudra.

 

 

Brahma: Brahma is a reflected form of the Divinity analogous to the reflected image of the sun in different crystal receptacles. 'Just as the sun makes his own energy be manifest to an extent in all the shining stones, in the same way, in the case of Brahma and his power in regard to this mundane world, it is Govinda Whom I serve. Govinda is the Primal Person Whose reflected form is Brahma".

 

 

Surya: The sun travels along his orbit through the twelve signs of the zodiac. He is the form of a Sura or Deva. Time is his extraneous manifestation. 'I bow to the Brahman of inconceivable manifested form devoid of all quality, being quality's ownself, the form which is the support of all this world'.

 

 

Ganesha: He is the destroyer of all dangers and difficulties. The reader of the Lalitavistara is aware how powerful was the rule of this leader of the masses at one time in this land of Bharata. Ganesa is the giver of success of the utilitarian activities of the world, the object of worship of the Vaishya community who concern themselves with economic pursuits. In the sphere of the Vaishyas the function of the demos, the views of the masses or common run of the people, possesses the prevailing force.

 

 

Vishnu: Vishnu is untransformable. He is all-pervasive. He is Lord of the limiting energy. He is not served by the enjoying aptitude of the individual soul. The other devotees, who wield power over this world, are worshipped by the ideas that are conducive to material enjoyment. But the judgment of those who covet the worship of Vishnu, is expressed otherwise. 'I have carried out the evil commands of lust and the other impulses of the senses in every way and at all time. But those masters have proved inexorable and have not been nullified by pits, or satiation, towards my sufferings. Lord of the Yadus, I have only just now found my better judgment and having renounced their service altogether have come to Thee, the Refuge Who frees us from all fear. May Thou employ me in Thy service'.

 

 

The meaning of the word 'atman' is rendered as 'Hari' by virtue of this qualities of 'extension' and 'maintenance'. The atman or the individual soul, is part and parcel of the Supreme Soul. Hari is the part and parcel of the Supreme Soul. Hari is the Supreme Soul. The world literally means the double function of the Godhead viz., those of creation and maintenance even as the mother nourishing her child. The nourishing function of the mother is, as a matter of fact, a tiny distorted reflection of the Function of Hari. Vishnu or Hari, Whose Form is made of spiritual essence, is the Deity Who presides over the function of continuance or existence which is distortedly reflected in the state of temporary existence intervening between the acts of creation and destruction in this world. All entities are nourished, none are destroyed, by the Supreme Soul. The function also points to expansion, the other coordinate activity of the soul denoted by the literal meaning of the word 'Atman'.

 

 

The Shruti says: "The jiva (i.e., the individual soul) is a tiny entity as tiny as the hundredth part of the breadth of the tip of the hair. Know that he is very small in magnitude and also unlimited'. In other words the jiva-soul (jivatma) is an infinitesimally small particle of the Cognitive Potency. But he is unlimited by being of the essence of the Plenary Cognition. All those qualities that inhere in the Plenary Cognition are also present in the jiva-atman in an infinitesimal measure. Whatsoever is there in the plenary entity is also present in the tiny soul. But Plentitude is not tiny, the Integer is never a fractional part, nor a fraction of a fraction, nor a fraction of a fraction of a fraction. In many places in the Scriptures the Supreme Soul, Paramatma, is referred to by the term 'Atman'; and the jiva is also often referred to by the word 'atman'.

 

 

The word 'jijnasa' means inclination to know. The inclination to know about the atman precludes the inclination to learn about divisible entity or fragmentary time. The discourse has in view the whole entity and time in all its fulness. The word 'atman' implies that the entity bearing the name is in a position to fully maintain himself. That which is not able to maintain itself cannot be termed atman. The term atman is used in this sense irrespective of his great or small magnitude.

 

 

Knowledge is located mid-way between the knower and the object of knowledge. Unadulterated knowledge occupies a position that is intermediate between the knower, whose exclusive function is to know, and the object, whose exclusive function is to become known to such knower. If any third function happen to intervene there can be no such thing as pure knowledge. That from which knowledge is obtained, that which supplied the proof of the reality of the cognitive function, can be one of three categories. It may be either pure cognition, a mixture of cognition and non-cognition, or non-cognition. If there intervene any non-cognitional entity in conjunction with cognition, it is mixed cognition.

 

 

'Achit', or non-cognition, is the opposite of the conscious principle. When the object of knowledge is achit (non-cognition) and the knower is a mixture of cognitional and non-cognitional elements the knowledge of such knower constituted of cognitive and non-cognitive elements is knowledge of achit (non-cognition). In such a circumstance the function of pure cognition is dormant, resulting in the consequent dormant condition of the recipiency of pure knowledge. If the object of knowledge were in possession of any cognitive potency it would have made some use of its free initiative.

 

 

When inquisitiveness regarding the nature of the 'atman' or the question 'Who am I?' is asked by the conditional soul he can obtain by way of response only knowledge which is a mixture of cognitive and non-cognitive elements. This must be so because in this case that by whose means the enquirer is to know viz., his knowing aptitude is shrouded in a gross and subtle covering which has imparted to it the condition which is a mixture of cognitive and non-cognitive elements. If the knower as well as the object of knowledge are both of them pure cognitive entities only then can there by any complete knowledge. If the knower happens to be more or less in contact with the external world then knowledge which is more or less of a mixed quality, can alone be attainable.

 

 

The supreme 'Atman' (Paramatman) and the 'Brahman' are one and the same Entity. The nature of the Brahman implies non-duality and greatness. The distinctive characteristic of pervasion of the Universe, that is found in the Supreme Soul (Paramatman), is absent in the Brahman. Each and every limited entity produced by the Material Energy is devoid of the essential characteristic of the 'Brahman'. No limited conception is to be attributed to the unlimited Brahman.

 

 

Both the mundane and transcendental functions are located in the conception of the supreme Soul (Paramatman). The limiting principle is left out in that of the Brahman by the theory of the non-potency of the Absolute. The Supreme Soul implies the consideration of mundane and spiritual potencies. When the non-potent Brahman is regarded as the Absolute it results in the destruction of the quality of distinctiveness represented by the specific existences of seer, seeing and seen. One aspect of the greatness of the Absolute is non-distinctiveness devoid of all distinctive manifestation; the other aspect is that of the Possessor of the Plenary Potency full of distinctive manifestation.

 

 

Seekers of the Truth are divided into two classes. One of these maintains that they did not possess any knowledge previously and that their knowledge had a subsequent beginning. The other class will continue to know till the process of knowing itself automatically ceases at the long end. By the term 'Seeking to know the self' is implied positively the desire to know about the self and negatively the desire to know about the non-self.

 

 

The non-distinctive view of the Brahman expresses only the absence in the Brahman of the qualities of this world. The professor of the distinctive view declares that the non-distinctive view itself is also one of the infinity of the specific features of the distinctive manifestation viz., the conception of the absence of all mundane distinction. The concept that underlies the view that takes into consideration the simultaneous presence of the non-distinctive and distinctive aspects of the Entity is that of the Oversoul or paramatman.

 

 

The Oversoul according to the latter view is the comprehensive vast cosmic form as opposed to mere non-distinctive existence. The aphorisms of Patanjali such as: 'Or by enquiry about Iswara (Ruler of the *Universe)' 'Yoga is suspension of the faculties of the receptive organ of consciousness,' embody a process of thought that is somewhat different from the view that professes the non-distinctive nature of the Brahman. By those aphorisms the falsity of all entities on the basis of a theory of illusion has not be admitted. The view of the potent oversoul also betrays the admission of the internal, marginal and external potencies of the substantive Entity. The consideration of relationship between the living organism and its incorporated limbs involves the recognition of ownership of the limbs by the organism. Limb and organised body, form and possessor of form, potency and possessor of potencies are correlated pairs the first terms supplying evidence of the existence of the entity denoted by the second. The substantive entity is one, its potencies are numberless. The view of the non-potent Brahman which does not recognise any distinctions as within the identical entity, within the same class, as between different classes or between knower, known and knowledge, is located at a long distance from that of Patanjali.

 

 

A certain number of persons think that the cessation of conception and perception should be the objective. In the period subsequent to that of Shakya Singha the view of absence of cognition i.e., imponderable material principle, and still alter that of the finality of non-distinctive cognition, have become current. This last asserts that non-differentiated cognition alone survives while the distinction of seer, seen and sight passes away.

 

 

The Oversoul in His unity is an extended Entity, the incorporated fractional parts are small in magnitude. In the external potency there is present the aptitude for being affected by time, such disruptive characteristics being incompatible with the principle of unity. The internal potency presents the characteristics of permanence and wholesome integral differentiation. In the exoteric potency there is misery, in the esoteric potency everything is unmixed perfection.

 

 

If we give up the non-cognitive element, if we abandon the consideration of even the subtle mental body, we arrive at the view of pure cognition and are no longer influenced by the power of the exoteric potency. But when we proceed to join to our thinking the gross and subtle bodies, we are made aware of the mixed existence compounded of the principles of cognition and non-cognition and of those considerations that underlie the process of Hata-Yoga on the path of fruitive material activity or that of Raja-Yoga on the path of speculative knowledge. By these processes we are instructed in the views of a final principle of truth that is compounded of cognitive and non-cognitive elements.

 

 

When God is actually realised the tiny particle of unmixed cognitive potency finds himself attracted by the Plenary Cognition. The relationship of incorporation or externality in regard to the potency of the substantive Entity, then becomes noticeable. The elements that are made of the measure of mundane quality produce the numeruls [sic] one, two, many. Difference of seer, difference of the seen, difference of sight, vision of plurality, many images of the one entity reflected in many mediums, make their appearance. In the realm of the inner potency all things displaying a unity of significance, the numerals 1, 2, 3, 4 indicative of diversity do not express any mutually contending relationship. The eternal diversity of the realm of the inner potency is not characterised by the qualities of mutual opposition, changeability and destructibility. Temporariness or destructibility is not the proper nature of the eternal natural function, is not the proper Nature of Vishnu, but only the semblance of the spiritual, fashioned by the limiting Energy of Vishnu. In this world the different things are perishable. They are not definable by the term soul or self. They are non-soul, ephemeral.

 

 

The individual soul is not non-soul. The atheist says that the individual soul is non-soul. The theist says that the individual soul is an eternal, spiritual entity, is an unadulterated cognitive entity in his own nature, is akin to the potency of the Plenary Cognition in a small measure is eternally subordinate to and overruled by the Plenary Cognition.

 

 

Godhead possesses one variety of limbs that are internal and another variety that are external. In the external limb the full Cognition is obstructed, there is the aptitude of being affected by time. This mundane world had sprung from the external limb. In this world everything is on the move. Every mundane entity evaporates like camphor. There prevails the quality of changeability in this world. The child grows into a young man, then old age comes, then he falls a victim to decay and death. Man is led to different strata of the mundane existence by the impulse of his desires, he is born in the womb of his mother, through semen and blood. It is our duty to enquire about the nature of our real selves. It is not our duty in this life to engage in the question of the non-self. We have the following in the second chapter of the Gita: 'As a man puts on different and new clothing by casting off his old worn-out apparel, in like manner the in-dweller of the body is born in another new body giving up his old worn-out corporeal frame. Weapons do not pierce the soul, fire does not burn him, water does not drench him, nor does wind dry him up. The soul is incapable of being cut by any weapon. He is permanent, free to inhabit any form, unchangeable in his essence and quality and ever-existent.'

 

 

In the Seventh Chapter of the Gita there occurs the following: -- 'My other and different nature consists of solid, liquid, gaseous states, heat, space, mind (Pradhan -- material principle subtler than space), intelligence (Budhi - prime material principle) and the ego (Ahankar). All this is secondary. Know that My Supreme Nature is different from this. The Potency that is the source of all individual souls who lord it over this world is constituted of My Superior Essence'.

 

 

These and other similar Shlokas give an account of the nature of the individual soul. The jiva soul possesses a certain character when he is in the conditioned state. He has a different character when he is freed from the bound state. He displays a third different nature when he is marginally situated showing an aptitude for both bound and free states. This may be illustrated by the analogy of a gnomon whose opposite sides bear different designations.

 

 

When I desire to be dressed up as 'master', to lord it over others, I become subjected to Physical Nature and profess to be an exclusive Monist, (Mayavadin). The Buddhists are materialistic Monists. The Mayavadins who profess to follow the Scriptures are designated masked Buddhists as they rely on the evidence of their senses and assume an overt attitude of challenging controversy.

 

 

The harmonious adjustment of all differences on the spiritual plane is based on the correct form of Monism (Suddhadwaita). Shripad Shridhara Swami professes the principle of correct Monism. Those who profess the doctrine of exclusive Monism (Kevaladwaita) endeavour to misinterpret the correct monistic views of Shridharswami in terms of their hybrid principle. This motive of the undifferentiated Monist is dishonest. Sarvajna Muni promulgated the doctrine of correct Monism many centuries before the time of Shankaracharya. His native village is Kalayanpur in the District of Madura. Correct Monism was distorted in course of time into the form of exclusive Monism which subsequently attained the position of predominance by the contrivance of a wise providence for confounding the atheist. There has even been an attempt to confuse the popular judgment by identifying Sarvajnatwa Muni, who lived after the time of Shankara, with Sarvajna Muni by the method of deliberate manipulation of evidence.

 

 

Inasmuch as unwholesomeness in the shape of a doctrine of pervertibility would tend to be prominent if the theory of the jiva being a constituent part of the substantive Reality Himsslf [sic] as found in the writings of Shri Madhavacharya, were accepted. Shri Gaursundar has approved the doctrine of Shakti (Potency) as propounded by Shri Lakshman Desika. That this world is not the perversion of the Substance but of His extraneous Potency, has been stated by Shri Gaursundar. The theory of the followers of Jesus Christ that jiva has been created by God within the limits of time, is unsound. The jiva is a differentiated part of the potency of the substantive Reality. In jiva there are present simultaneously the qualities of permanent and temporary existences. All the eternal substantive qualities are present in the inner Potency. The triple qualities of sattwa, rajas and tamas are to be found in the external potency or mundane Nature. The pure sattwa (cognitive existence) is eternally present in Vishnu, the Ocean of blessings in the shape of all permanently existing qualities. In Him there is no conditioned state. This world which is a product of the triple mundane qualities of sattwa, rajas and tamas is characterized by the conditioned existence. The mundane qualities of sattwa, rajas and tamas are mutually dependent categories.

 

 

'All activities in this mundane world', says the Gita, 'are performed by mundane nature (Prakriti) by means of the triple qualities. The conditioned state blinded by the principle of mundane egotism (ahankara), chooses to regard himself as master'. [3] The principle that is diametrically opposed to the mundane world, which is the product of the triple qualities, is that of inaction or the state of deep slumber covered by the theory of non-differentiation. 'I slept at ease'. 'Easy sleep' is retainable by one's memory. A person is conscious of his ego even during deep, easy sleep; otherwise there could be no remembrance of such happy slumber. There is a similar state when a person can remember and give out experiences of his previous births.

 

 

'The state of error is traceable to the misconception that the soul is identical with the physical body'. The conviction that this gross physical body is myself is the cause of mistaking one thing for another. 'I am this physical body which is liable to be damaged by time, -- I have been scolded by such and such persons - these and such-like statements are applicable to the relationship of the gross and subtle physical bodies.

 

 

The real unalloyed 'I' has no beginning nor end. I am neither the gross physical body, nor also the mind. I am not the mind that changes when the morning changes into noon and noon into evening. I am not the mind which is sometimes cheerful and at other times miserable.

 

 

That conception of the truth that undergoes change is a function of the mind. That consciousness which is capable of getting mixed up with the non-conscious, is a product of the marginal Potency. What a wickedness it must be for one who is a product of the marginal potency to entertain the idea that he is himself the possessor or regulator of power. It is such persons who are referred to by the shlokas of the Gita viz., 'prakriti Kriyamaanaani...', Iswaroham...', etc.

 

 

Just as paddy stalk is really quite different from shyama grass and it is necessary to weed out the latter, in exactly like manner spiritual consciousness is substantially different from non-spiritual, and it is no less necessary to get rid of the latter. Those persons who profess the compatibility of the claims of the spiritual with those of the nonspiritual are apt to imagine that association with saint and with sinner, paddy-plant and shyama grass, devotion and aversion to Godhead, are one and the same thing.

 

 

The theory that professes compatibility of the spiritual with the mundane is, indeed, a perversion due to Illusionism. The Illusionists (Mayavadins) profess with the lip that they admit the existence of all entities. But as a matter of fact they disown the existence of Godhead Himself. They do not admit the Eternal Name, Form, Quality, Activity and Individualities of the servitors of the Divinity. They manufacture the processes of anthropomorphism by attributing to Godhead conduct that is applicable to humanity, and conversely support the notion of apotheosis by imagining the possession of Divine Power by mortal men. By these silly methods they seek to bedaub with mundane impurity the substantive Reality who is the Fullness of Existence, Cognition and Bliss, by discarding the Eternal Sacred Name, Form, etc., of Godhead. Zoo-morphism which attributes Divinity to lower animals, is also a concoction of these people. All of them are worshippers of Idols (butparasth.).

 

 

Real Rama-Nrsingha-Varaha-Matsya Kurma etc., are Narayana Himself waited upon by all His distinctive Divine Paraphernalia, -- Each with His Own Eternal Divine Name, Form, Quality, Infinity of individual servitors, and Activity. Each is Lord of the Deluding Potency, all of them being Transcendental Vishnu-Personalities. Every one of them has His own eternal Vaikuntha (Absolute Realm). They descend by Their causeless Mercy at Their own sweet Will to the world of limitations from their own Vaikunthas in order to manifest Themselves to the jivas inhabiting this mundane world, by remaining fully in Vaikuntha and maintaining in tact Their unconditional immunity from all regulative principles. They are not the categories of the objects of worship or heroes of the professors of anthropomorphism, apotheosis, zoo-morphism, idolatry, latitudinarianism that seeks to include spirit and matter in a common category, or illusionism.

 

 

The fancies, hypocrisies, pretences of worship, of those who affect to make no categorical distinction between spirit and matter, like unto the futile endeavours of the demon Ravana in his abduction of the mundane duplicate of Divine Seeta, can never touch the fringe of the Divine Category of Vishnu Who wholly transcends all limiting attempts. Those who possess the knowledge of the soul offer their eternal worship to the Divine Person Who is Eternal, Real and Indivisible, who manifests Full-Existence, Full-Cognition, Full-Bliss, and who has His Eternal Name, Form, Quality, Activity, and distinctive Servitors. Such "Knowers" discard all impurities of this extraneous world, and turn their eyes to the Eternal.

 

 

The Illusionist (Mayavadin) cherishes the evil aptitude of attributing, or carrying, to the Divine Personality the limited unwholesome concepts of this world. The intoxication of his illusion never quits its hold of him. Even when he engages in the worship of Divinity Himself the blunder of confounding the Divinity with limited entities puts in its appearance. It is for this reason that the Mayavadin (Illusionist) attributes the quality of unwholesomeness to things pertaining to the Divinity and fancies the Eternal Name, Form, Quality, Activity and servitors of Godhead to be products of physical nature. A few even among the worshippers of Christ have supposed the chain of our Pauranic religious teachers to be apotheosists or zoo-morphists. Such an attitude is due to absence of full consideration and careful study of Hindu theology on their part.

 

 

Real Sanatan-dharma (eternal function of all souls) the religion preached by Shri Chaitanya is not what such persons think it to be. The fundamental principle has been clearly expressed by an eminent follower of Shri Chaitanya. His words are, "There is no worse blasphemy against Vishnu than to suppose that the Form of Vishnu is anything mundane."

 

 

Vishnu is uninterruptible Cognition, Existence and Bliss. In this world of limitations there is a plurality of substantive objective entities. In Vaikuntha there is One Indivisible Object of worship. In Vaikuntha there is no henotheism, Polytheism or cathonitheism. Maxmuller has applied the term 'henotheism' to convey a part of the significance of the process of worship known as 'panchopasana' (worship of five deities). Sadananda Yogindra has imagined an 'Ishwara' (Ruler of the world) as being the aggregate of inexpressible unknowables starting from the conception of 'sat' (existent) 'a-sat' (non-existent). This ephemeral 'Ishwara' manufactured in the workshop of the imagination of Sadananda Yogindra is never the Entity Who is Real Godhead worshipped by fully theistic persons. If any one imagines the God-head as being different from the Possessor of all potency, or as a limited entity, such speculation will prevent the realisation of Vishnu, the Entity of Indivisible Knowledge. There are many persons who are busy to reduce the Supreme Entity to a principle devoid of all distinctive features. They are anxious to saddle the Supreme Entity with restrictive speculations having their reference to the unwholesomeness of the limited concrete.

 

 

Shri Gaursundar says: "The Indivisible Cognitive Principle is Son of the Chief of Braja in Braja". In Absolute Cognition there is no mundane dualistic cognition. "The apprehension of good and evil in the dualistic state, is wholly a speculation of the mind. 'This is good, this is evil', all such knowledge is 'error'. The line of thought of those who conclude the world to be unreal by depending on realistic speculation derived from the gross external environment, has in view only the consideration of the outcome of our present limited perceptual experiences. Men are debarred from the view of the Substantive Entity. They are spectators of the transformation of the Potency of the Substantive Entity. They are receiving the opposite impression, due to the functioning of time. One particular thought suffers transformation by the operation of other speculative currents. Whatever is sought to be circumscribed within the limits of conception, tends to lose its entity. The process of incarceration within the four walls of limited speculation has engendered numerous diverse mentalities in man.

 

 

There is eternal difference between Exclusive Monism and the Doctrine of Inconceivable Distinction-cum-non-distinction. This difference is realisable in the religion of spiritual service of the Divinity. It is unjustifiable to attempt a reconciliation of the eternal difference that separates the unspiritual realisation from the spiritual, the pure cognition of the soul from the erroneous thinking of the non-soul. Such an attempt is opposed to the principle of service of the Divinity.

 

 

In the philosophical literature of the School of Ramanuja we meet the consideration of the Potency of God-head, categories being chit (cognition) a-chit (non-cognition) and Iswara (Rules). In the literature of Gaudiya Vaishnavas we find the terms antarangaa (inner potency), Bahirangaa (outer potency) and Tatasthaa (potency of the line between the inner and outer potencies). If the term chit (cognition) is interpreted in a thorough-going manner it cannot mix with achit (non-cognition).

 

 

FOOTNOTES:

 

[1] Bh. XI, 23.57

 

[2] Padyavali 386

 

[3] Gita III.27

 

 

[krsna]

Explorations of Vedantic Truth

 

 

Published in The Harmonist (Sree Sajjanatoshani)

 

 

 

Introductory

 

 

Derivative Meaning: -- The intellectualism of the sacred India is associated with the importance of Vedanta Philosophy which has been a much talked of Subject among the erudite advocates of transcendence. The derivation of the word is traced to the highest pinnacle of spiritual knowledge embodied in the Holy Scriptures known as the Vedas. The ontological views of the Vedas build up the mansion of the unalloyed spirit purely based on transcendence beyond phenomena. Later on the theme of Vedanta has been cryptically presented in the form of Aphorisms ascribed to have been written by the greatest sage of India - Krishna Dwaipayana Vedavyasa, utilizing all sorts of rationalistic cosmological metaphysic. Some aphorisms speaking for the Vedanta system may be considered as reconciliative roots of the conflicting hymns of the Vedas which deal with the esoteric questions of Pure Knowledge apart from the material structures and their association in accommodable space, signifying a subtlety.

 

The Vedas are the emblematic representations in the shape of hymns dealing with higher knowledge in connection with the present predicament of our intellectual speculation. So Vedanta would inculcate the highest esoteric advancement of the rationalistic view for furnishing the means of tracing a cosmic Fountainhead Who can satisfy all our quests for the Being, non-Being and beings. The Vedas, in other words, are the first information reports of human knowledge which go by the name of Scriptures being unveiling agents of hidden knowledge; and Vedanta is concerned with furnishing the true materials where the exoteric phases of different conceptions find a termination.

 

Different Meanings: -- A certain writer of the so-called monistic school in tracing its fundamental merits went on to establish Vedanta Philosophy as applicable to a subject based on the Scriptures known as Upanishads. The Upanishads are considered as esoteric instructions of the Vedas which form the subject-matter of the treatise dealing with the cosmology of the phenomena, their sustenance and dissolution as well as an attempt at having a peep into the transcendence. A keen observation will tell us that the Aphorisms of Vedanta are meant to meet the apparently conflicting inculcations of the hymns together with a cogent rationalistic view to dispel all erroneous determinations of different scholastic explorations.

 

Eligibility and Designation of Readers: -- Every endeavour in this matter should be successfully carried out by experts and whenever they are found lacking in capacity, the result will be harmful; so we should learn how to grapple with the theme properly. If we are hasty on-lookers of Vedanta, it may lead us to some incorrect determination. We may utilize that very finding for earthly purposes. We may turn ourselves hunters of curiosity and leave it just after our search is completed; but we may receive the true benefit only if we patiently approach it to have the true conception of what is truly desirable for us. The first two readers will surely miss their aim to utilize properly their time and effort in order to become successful. The aim of studying Vedanta is to scale up the tallowy smooth gnomon of phenomena; but if the slippery position does not allow us to reach the summit of the post, then such an attempt will tend to remind us of the observation of the king of the Highlanders towards the unsuccessful spider. Before we are admitted as students of Vedanta, our attention should not be directed to view perishable limited objects, all of which are usually meant to be lorded over by our senses.

 

If we are inclined to accept the delineations of Vedanta in the same line with Nature’s limited productions, we are liable to be too confused to make any progress. If the Transcendence is brought in the same category with the sensible world, no positive knowledge could possibly be imparted to us through the Sounds, which have got transcendental values. Ordinary philosophies could not be easily managed by our sensuous exertions. But when we have no support of transcendent Sounds, we are likely to view the reading of Vedanta in the same light with ordinary philosophy and put it as a convict in the dock to answer the charges for which it is not responsible. I am going to tell you now a few words on the Vedanta. My telling craves a reciprocity of your listening to my sound through the aural reception. Sound is the main substratum of the Vedanta which deals with a subject unapproachable by our present crippled imperfect senses. The ear cannot work as a receptacle unless we are willing to admit a sound and this admittance depends on our taste and previous experience. This prior experience invites affairs within the phenomenal range, but the Vedantic sounds, have a different aim. So a more studied reciprocal situation alone will crown our efforts with success, in matters pertaining to Vedanta.

 

Many of our friends pose themselves as knowers because they have a true taste for knowledge. To acquire such knowledge they utilize their senses for creating their conception of objects and their components. Such knowers claim a subjective position to consider the synthetic as well as analytic values of their determination. The objects before them are known as phenomena which serve to engage their attention while scrutinizing the causes and the laws of all phenomena by their empiric and intuitive reasonings. This is in other words philosophizing the object by mental speculation.

 

When the knowledge of a being is restricted to phenomena, it passes by the name of natural philosophy, but the psychological dealing with sentiments discloses a branch of knowledge known as mental philosophy.

 

All the philosophical speculations in connection with our sensuous perception are no bar to our wrangling over them. The outward representations in all cases, if reasoned, need not exactly identify themselves with the true objective stand; as for instance, our impression of a star is much more augmented when we are conversant with the coaching of an adept in astronomy or when scientific methods predominate over our erroneous convictions. The deceptive outward manifestations are not necessarily to be accepted when such delusions are detected by some deeper activity. The seeming reasons often carry us in a wrong direction and we are not favoured with the Truth; and seeming truths though found to be efficacious in particular circumstances show a susceptibility to transformation. So the ontology of unchangeable formation should not be neglected for alternative changing features.

 

The methods of thinking of different people of different countries are not the same. So we cannot expect identical results in philosophy. Happiness and virtue have been selected as the essence of philosophic speculation by both the Hellenic and Hebraic Schools; whereas in China they were meant for the preservation of a loyal society and local constitutional Government. The mystic philosophy of mediaeval Europe in its different varieties has invited apathetic reflection in the judgment of many thoughtful persons. The animistic conception of Persia as well as the impersonal idea have brought out criticisms from Indian philosophers. The savage conception of philosophy as well has also been discounted by means of critical and ethical arguments.

 

For a long time Indian Philosophy had been mentioned in six different phases bearing dissimilar methods of exposition but in the course of the unrolling evolutionary process we have had a few dozen philosophic views coming to us for our speculative considerations. Mind has been noticed as the functional agent of agreeing or disagreeing with a standard position within the scope of its finitudinal range. It is termed conscience or Buddhi when it is fixed. The egotistic function of mind in respect of mundane objects is called Ahankaar or the subjective tendency of lording it over a partial phenomenal aspect. The Jiva or soul is different from phenomenal denomination, but the fettered condition of an individual soul has association with the material world.

 

The five old schools of philosophy of India do not vouchsafe to bear identical attitudes with the Vedanta philosophy. Some supersensuous methods are revealed in comparative studies, though in the beginning such warnings need not be offered to the students of the Vedanta. The science of the Vedanta philosophy has also dealt with the aspects of the constant changes of form resulting from inevitable development and also elucidated the position of permanent unalterable elements in ever-altering forms.

 

The Vedanta deals with a theme beyond the finite views of phenomena. The subject dealt with in that particular philosophy is not confined to any part of the material space, any definite span of time or any object of sensuous perception made up of any substance of this Universe. The activities of a being are measured in time, the playground of a being either linear, superficial or cubical is accommodated in space and the limited subjectivity or fleshly entity is confined to phenomena. The Vedantic scheme is quite different from such limited structural monuments though some people attempted to bring Vedanta within the prison bars of their senses.

 

Though Vedanta expresses itself in ordinary language quite dove-tailed into the views of our ordinary intelligence, it gradually heaves us up to the super-sensuous regions where the senses cannot work by their present implements or cannot help us with the words of our ordinary commerce with friends. The transcendental topics are imparted slowly through the linguistic and rationalistic attainments by differentiating the plane of transcendence from the undesirable transformable plane of enjoyments. As it help us on this progressive journey of understanding we should not stick to a stagnant view in order to gratify our senses just because the rationality and harmonious language of the Vedanta seem to fit our whims. So the method of studying this particular philosophy involves a process of eliminating all chances of confusing the transcendence with our present plane of thought.

 

Apprehending Community: -- The special feature of Vedanta has a marked distinction from other views of different schools of thought. The epistemology, the cosmology and the ontology of Vedantic views do not necessarily follow the hackneyed path of worldly argumentations based on phenomenal conceptions. Its specifications and special feature do not exactly dovetail into the conceptions of various schools; so there is every possibility of differing views being received with some sort of apprehension, by other schools, for fear of losing their own merits.

 

As there are different views maintained by the non-Vedantic community regarding the nature and essence of metaphysical advancement, we find on every side apprehensions among the ontological explorers.

 

We are naturally victimized by the pressures imposed on us through agents who are inclined only to participate with transformable things and passing thoughts arising out of their association with the transitory positions of different objects they come across. The new phase of thought exhibited by the Vedantists may appear to some of the thinkers to be tampering with the peaceful abode with invincible strong walls which they sought to build round themselves. Some men consider the treatise of Vedanta as a bugbear because it destroys the very root of ignorance in which they are steeped due to their close affinity with natural associations. Among the readers of Vedanta, we shall surely meet men who have vehement oppositions to counter in order to maintain their position. Some of us have become complete slaves of our present senses and find ourselves incapable of grappling with the situation when some new and powerful contending views are offered by Vedantic invasion. Misapprehensions arising from bitter experiences of this world may indicate to us the undesirability of invoking the Vedantic thought among the sensible community. The Time-serving attitude of the common man would never invite Vedantic inculcations as none of us is inclined to disturb our ease-loving aspirations.

 

Appreciating Community: -- As we find different mentalities of people, we may secure friends of Vedanta from the communities who have had an unwelcome experience of this world during their sojourn in life. Scholars of this pessimistic temperament would come forward to pay their full attention to Vedantic thoughts to corroborate their long-nurtured views. The accumulated treasurers of Vedanta would thus acquire a different thought to fill up the shelves of its records of mental speculation.

 

The treatises and discourses on Vedanta may serve also the purpose of the students of knowledge and seekers after Essential Bliss by regulating the temper which would entangle them in temporary situations. The optimists will also show themselves apt to aggrandize their hopeful and aspiring temper; but we are not confident that every optimist will welcome the Vedantic thought. Among these thinkers we cannot hope to secure sympathy of one and all, as there may be a certain section of people who are busy to participate in earthly things for their present needs and would not look after a permanent incoming treasure. The efficacy of Vedanta is truly observed when sentient existences are found to meet all their wants of present life and after. When they can understand that this emporium is a true repository to dove-tail their eternal purpose, a true appreciation will then be found in them.

 

When the Absolute becomes the goal of a sentient being, such sentientism, has got a character not circumscribed by the nature of the phenomenal restrictions. But when it tends to limit activities to finite things and phenomena, it leads to a temper of lording it over the finite things having only mundane relativity among them. All activities of the spirit in the direction of the transcendental Absolute have to come under devotion or Bhakti whereas gratification of the senses leads to an activity known as karma of the actor. The Absolute has an unalterable complete situation void of the three positions of the observer, observation and the observed, according to the conception of the Gnostic or jnanins. The Factor of time cannot have any supremacy over the Absolute.

 

Unlike phenomena where everything is liable to transformation during the course of time, the Absolute does not undergo any change. The Absolute cannot be enjoyed by sensuous activities meant to bring any profit to mind and body. All the profits that accrue by offering our services to the Absolute are never meant for our temporary happiness, depriving others of the benefit. The Vedanta would actually deprive of Bliss the human frame and subtle body, which are wrongly incorporated with the unalloyed absolute infinitesimals. By the word absolute infinitesimal I mean the individuation of the identical quality and not the quantity. The stuff of the Absolute is not liable to any change. No factor of time would have any potency to mutilate it. No space is reserved for it as for material entities. The Absolute when analysed will go to show a division between the parts and the whole. The character of the Absolute will differ from that of the non-Absolute as estimated by the properties of perfection and imperfection. The undesirable experience of regions of imperfection and inadequacies need not be carried over to the eternal aspects of the origin, nature and ontological essence of the Vedanta.

 

The knowledge of the Vedantic field need not be restricted to the more elementary formula that conveys the Smaarta elucidation and to treatises of such workers as have deviated from the strict path of Shruti. In fact the untenable sectional views need not be included at all under the category of the Vedanta. The different explanations of several creative thinkers and destructive explorers should not be confused with the Satwata Puranas and Pancharatras.

 

Besides the Smaarta development of the Vedanta we have got to deal with the various treatises written by the Vedanta scholars to enlighten us on various points in our practical life. So we find that the Vedanta includes four aspects which pass by the names of (1) Shruti Prasthan, (2) Nyaya Prasthan, (3) Smriti Prasthan and (4) Prakarana Prasthan. The first two series are accepted by impersonalists, with a very few quotations from books known as Smriti whereas they do not admit the whole arena of Smriti for their Vedantic advancement.

 

The Upanishads are Scriptures accepted as the Vedas or Shrutis. They are not only the Vedas but considered as the acme of Vedic literature. The rational version of the Upanishads should be considered philosophical in comparison with the adorative songs of the Samhitas towards a pantheon of Vedic gods. Though the various Upanishadic Mantras have apparently conflicting features, they are reconciled by the aphorisms of Shri Vyasa in his Uttar-mimamsa philosophy under different systematic logical categories known as Nyayas or Adhikaranas. Each theme of an Adhikarana has been fully dealt with by Panchanga or five-fold positions of the logical system to meet all opposing controversies. The aphorisms have been subjected to the polemical views of different philosophical systems which may be proved to go against the truth of the Shrutis; and again the aphorisms are supported by the Upanishad-Mantras followed by Smritis and reasons offered in favour of the citatory passages termed as Bhashyas and their commentaries by erudite savants.

 

The leaders of interpretations have given us first hand information regarding the classified subjects, Nyayas or Adhikaranas briefly treated in the Sutras. Among these interpreters we find contending views and explanations. Some of them differed from others in grouping together the Mantras under the same heading of a particular subject, and sometimes their views were found palpably varying with one another due to designed observations. They are all liable to contract the four-fold defects of misconception, inebriation, organic shortcomings and inclination for deception which do not permit them to have correct views.

 

Aim and Object: -- The aim of the Vedanta Philosophy is Transcendental Love of the Absolute, though the Absolute has not been fully explained as “Akhilarasamrita-Moorti” (Ever-manifested Emporium of relational beatitudes); but the subject treated in Vedanta will explain that Vedanta aims at no other object than the Personality of the Absolute - undeviated and unvitiated knowledge. The object of inculcating the unique philosophy of Vedanta can be traced in the first two chapters of “Relativity’ and the third chapter of Procedure to gain the only aim or goal. The object can further be traced in reconciling the apparently conflicting intellectual hymns of the Upanishads, all of which tend to the three-fold aspect of the unity viz., (1) the relative positions of the Absolute, (2) the procedure of uniting the two positions of lover and the loved, apart from the temporal vitiation, deformities of individuation, interception of non-transparent stumbling block and from opaque wrangling intransigentism due to our poor incapable senses, and (3) the incessant beatitude.

 

The restless nature of mental speculation for variegated entities of this temporal experienced through the senses has dissuaded us from having our final rest in indistinctive and undifferentiated manifestation. The erroneous idea of cornering the Absolute in impersonalism in order to avoid the miscomprehension of plurality and temporal position of the objects in our view should not lead us to ‘a zero-making policy’ to get rid of the numerals. The very project of eliminating the concepts of the Absolute, though apparently it leads us to One, will not be satisfied till we banish the idea of Oneness having been troubled by the numerical reference of dualism in our establishment of unity. The impersonal suggestions of dismissing the Knower would end our exploit of discoursing about the Absolute.

 

If we are satisfied with having gained what we wanted, that is to float on the waters of Knowledge, there will be no occasion for opening the question again. An annihilative spirit gets his final rest when he considers himself quite successful to have gained his aim. By the very proposition he has stopped his iterance of an impersonal aspect of the Absolute, so no lien can be traced of any other explanation to be offered in the quest of the Absolute Knowledge. All sorts of being-hood, unalloyed situation of Knowledge and incessant Bliss could have no operation again on his speculation.

 

Before delineating the objects of Vedanta we should have a thorough relative knowledge of being and non-being, knowledge and ignorance, happiness and pain; though these prove to have a temporal mundane reference, still to evade an attack of the opposers, we must explain our position in transcendental region where no such opposition need be confronted. The object may have two-fold aspects - the ingredient or the Material Cause free from mundane association, and the existence of the Manifestive Nature of the Efficient Cause. The two causes are paralysed in the impersonal conception of the indistinctive or undifferentiative monists when they talk of the Absolute, whereas the ontology of Vedanta will show as the Eternal Manifestive Play of the Absolute.

 

The Transcendental Entities eternally represented as the Fountain-head of the two causes will never be found in an indolent mood such as we find in insentient beings void of animation but they will be united by the tie of love for Eternal Manifestive purposes to keep up their reciprocal eternal spotless activities. The Predominating Transcendental Singular Actor will be superimposed on the predominated plural beings who are associated to serve Him and All-love.

 

Whenever we find a dissention between the entities of predominated ingredients, they do not agree with the sole aim of loving the All-love. So they are relieved from eternally working with the same spirit for the singular Predominating Entity. This dissension facilitates their welcoming a vitiated field of work where they get temporal affinity or apathetic feelings among them. The Vedanta has taken the difficult task of imparting instructions to relieve these rapturous tendencies among the ignorant who are prone to succumb to the tempting influence of the deluding Potency, Maya.

 

[krsna]

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.

 

<font color="red"> 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. </font color>

 

 

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]

Part 1

 

Published in The Harmonist (Sree Sajjanatoshani)

 

 

 

 

Shri Krishna Chaitanya, though He came more than four hundred years ago, is present among us when His Words are explained anywhere in this world. His message has little connection with our ordinary ideas. It is something supernatural. It refers to 'transcendence'. There are occasions when many of us also can peep into transcendence, but most of our messages get contaminated with ideas of a worldly nature. Shri Krishna Chaitanya had no ambition to speak anything that would facilitate sensuous activities. Ordinary religionists speak much about things which we grasp by our senses. But Shri Krishna Chaitanya has spoken to us some transcendental words which, although they have affinity to ordinary ideas and things should not be applied to what we find on the mundane plane.

 

 

It is necessary first of all to know His standpoint. He spoke on devotional lines. Devotion is not a mental exploitation in which the words which are used take us to a region which is beyond our sensuous scope. But we can see things in that line of devotion only when its language is an adaptation of what we use in connection with what we meet with in this world. On that score we should not equate the words meant for transcendence with the same category meant for mundane things.

 

 

In the first place He has not departed from the ideas and hymns of the Vedas, the Shrutis and the Upanishads. He had no ambition to talk anything not supported by the revealed Scriptures. He said that the Transcendental Sound has to come in order to regulate the senses which at present are merely working to get some fruit for us through our actions; but whatever results may come out of our outward acts will be only for our individual purposes; our friends are not profited thereby. So some zealous activities are found among our friends which are concerned with fruitive results. The Transcendental Sound regulates the senses which are always troubling us to secure some riches for ourselves which are not shared by others, and so we have to expect some hostility from friends and foes as well. But He says that the Transcendental Sound Will bring Love, an amplitude of love, uniting us with the Absolute. Though We are likely to be unsteady we should not allow ourselves to be disturbed by sense-satisfying performances. He says that love is the principal subject to be roused up, that love which now lies within us in a dormant condition. We are attracted and deluded by outer features of things which tempt us in a greater or lesser degree and captivate our senses. Such things though appearing enjoyable at the moment seem to trouble us in the long run. What we recognize is perfect peace and real severance from painful sensation. Our predilection is always for what is pleasing to our senses. There are deluding aspects which often hide from us the sight of the inner face. We should be cautious not to accept what is presented by the senses. The senses require regulation. Everything is shifting. We can trace nothing here that is permanent in the world. Time changes everything. The Absolute never changes. This should be realized.

 

 

We should hear everything about the Absolute; otherwise we will confuse Him with ordinary things, with perishable things. Our empiric activities will not allow us a permanent standing ground that will not be changed. Our standpoint of the thirtieth year proves false in our fiftieth year. Our growing experience adds more knowledge to our stored-up conceptions. These sometimes undergo a change. This convinces us that what we consider as Truth is really uncertain and as it is meant for the time being only it will not serve us all along.

 

 

Man claims a supreme position among the sentient objects who have transactions with the worldly phenomena, entertaining the future hope of a continuity of such conditions even after the transformation of the present tabernacle. Rationalism is associated with man, and according to our needs we entertain hopes of using our discretion in the fittest way as far as possible. We know we are dependent on entities without whom our rational activities cannot find real display. Dependence is an inseparable element in us, though our ego is always exercising a power inherent in us for dispelling all discomforts of the mundane atmosphere. We are endowed with senses and the senses have no other predilections than to secure felicities in every transaction. When we take up an individual case, we find that gratification of our senses is the principal characteristic in our person. And this attitude of many among us often promotes a further desire to seek our own gratification from our co-sharers. When we actually put ourselves in difficulty in search of sensuous pleasures and expect others to help us we should be able to contribute towards social harmony by some effort. If we do not desire to encroach upon our friends and co-sharers we cannot live, but the obligatory social regulations to control our senses dominate our decisions on civic principles. We find ourselves quite restricted in our movements, though non-restriction is felt as a desirable factor for happy life. We now depend upon the Absolute to guide us to a harmonious solution of this position. The pressure of our needs makes us discuss the merits and demerits of the situation in which we are to take cognizance of the very fountain-head of all phenomenal representations. When we are not satisfied with the conception that this universal demonstrative aspect is a holy shelter to supply our needs, we revert to our previous ratiocination for the hidden treasure behind the exoteric manifestations. But the Esoteric Fountain-Head comes up before our vision, always setting Himself free from being handicapped in the phenomenal region. So we are compelled to consider the situation of the Eternal Blissful Knowledge transcending all regions of mental speculations. This Oversoul claims to incorporate pure uncontaminated souls on His Harmonious Plane. Our mental speculations may trouble us by asking why the principal Transcendental object should not incorporate an all-pervading conception of both non-matter and matter, the conception of parts and the whole, and the inclusion of the two ends of specification. On the other hands the very mental speculation would lead us to rank pantheistic speculation where all sorts of phenomenal exclusions are the principal factors. As individuation is a necessary element in me, and as I find such individual situations to be the objects of our reciprocal activities, and as they are numerous and the various positions, experienced in our present phenomenal range, are found to be rapturous, there should be a uniting tie to cement the positions and we often jump into impersonation and dissociative ideas of relativities for a solution. The Personality of the Absolute can then only pacify the unsympathetic jealousy innate in the view of mundane persons. This would thereby lead to that Highest Magnitude Who is free from all mundane restrictions of temporary aspects and locations in a particular limited space. Again, the phenomenal restrictive views should not be imposed on the Personality of a thoroughly Independent Integer. So the Personality of Godhead is to be approached instead of being considered as an accused in the dock for answering our sensuous inspection. We should allow Him to retain Everything His Own. This method of approach is known as unalloyed theism.

 

 

The Supreme Lord Shri Krishna Chaitanya has asked all sections of the people of this world not to tamper or mutilate the Absolute Truth by their crippled attempts at regulating Him, but to approach Him with an absolutely clean and sincere heart in which will be revealed His Own Phase. He can show different Manifestive aspects of His Own consistent with the eligibility of the approachers.

 

 

The Supreme Lord has mercifully disclosed the Name of the real object of pure theism as Shri Krishna. The conception of an impersonal God, void of all attributes or all possession of different potentialities is included in Shri Krishna, as being one of His partial Phases where all sorts of sensuous attributes are eliminated.

 

 

What Shri Krishna Chaitanya means by Theism He has demonstrated clearly to the people. We find that He has brought home to us the conception of different sorts of Transcendental and Unalloyed services that can be rendered to the Supreme Absolute Shri Krishna as well as a special feature of service which was hitherto quite unknown to theists. And that special aspect of service was given by Him to the people everywhere. The conception of Theism before His disclosure was confined to reverential and lawful principles only. Shri Krishna Chaitanya has taught us that we may approach Shri Krishna with our unconditional services in all sorts of aspects. And He has shown us the comparative excellence of the most confidential relationship between Godhead and human souls. Up to His time, we were quite familiar with the idea of approaching Shri Krishna by our other devotional principle only. We were simply worshipping Him, leaving aside the most attractive aspect in rendering our services to the Lord. We were thinking that the services to the object of our worship should be performed by the upper part of the body and the lower part of our transcendental eternal body cannot possibly offer any acceptable service to the Beloved Whose secondary conception of Omnipotence and Omniscience etc., only were prominent to the theists. We were neglecting that we have got a transcendental entity called 'Soul', however infinitesimal, inside our external frame; or inside our astral body. So, up to that time we were confounding ourselves with a philosophy which meant mental speculation only, always restricted by external views of the world and avoiding the cognisance of our unalloyed ego who is meant for rendering eternal service to the Transcendental Object, as the Sentient Being, I meant the eternal Over-Soul. So the level of Theism that we had reached up to that time was not elevated enough and we were denied service of the Lord in higher aspects, I mean serving Godhead as our closer and more confidential Friend, Godhead as our Son and Godhead as our Consort. Thus we were keeping this transitory relationship with only perishable objects here. But our Theism should not delimit our vision and make us ignore the confidential services which can be offered by a free human soul to Shri Krishna. Hitherto we were not positive as regards the Position and the Entity of the Oversoul, that He alone should be the Object of our devotion in all aspects of Shri Krishna.

 

 

We find that unless the Supreme Absolute Krishna kindly graces us as the willing Recipient of our services, we cannot do for Him all sorts of Confidential service, and in any other Aspects of Krishna i.e., in Matsya, Koorma, Varaha, Nrisingha, Vamana, Rama, etc., our reverential activities are rather limited to a certain extent. Here in this perverted world we can offer our confidential services in all the five rasas (relishing relationship). Shri Krishna and no other is the Centre, the very Fountain-head of all Divine Aspects Whom we could serve with all the aspects of our confidential services. Shri Krishna is 'Akhila-Rasamritamoorti', that is the Fountain-head of all Rasas. And we can approach Him in any one of His five different reciprocal aspects. In engaging all our activities in Him by our transcendent soul's body, we can offer Him our eternal services in five different aspects; whereas, in other Forms of the Entity of Godhead we are debarred from offering our confidential service.

 

 

For instance, in the case of Ramachandra, we cannot offer our services in all the five different aspects. He cannot stand as our Consort, because Seeta might prove that Her devoted husband Ramachandra would be crossing His limits and His ethical Principles, if He did so; and moreover Seeta would never allow any other soul the privilege of rendering that sort of service to Ramachandra. We find the best example in the case of the Dandakaranya Rishis who approached Ramachandra; Ramachandra would not accept them because they had male forms and He was devoted to only one wife; in other words, for fear of violating ethical principles He could not accept that sort of service from them. Ramachandra could accept the services of His subjects, could accept the services of His servant Anjaneya, could accept the services of Lakshmana and the service of others in some aspect other than consorthood; whereas Shri Krishna is eternally lovable and can very easily be called the Bahu-Vallabha. He can accommodate hundreds of His dependents as His consorts whereas Ramachandra can welcome only four dependents, I mean, His parents, His brother-friends, His servants and the neutral subjects of His Realm who render unalloyed service to Ramachandra. All others, except Seeta, are debarred from offering any confidential services to Ramachandra in the capacity of consorts.

 

 

But in Shri Krishna, we find that there is no such restriction. Every soul can offer all sorts of unalloyed services to Shri Krishna. Moreover we find that Shri Krishna welcomes everybody. He does not deny anyone. Though He does not allow anybody to keep that sort of mundane relationship among His temporary pseudo-servants, He admits every servant if he has got such capacity to approach Him in any of the loftiest moods and positions. Shri Krishna Himself would always wish His devotees to accept Him as the Consort. No souls are hindered from making progress towards the confidential services to the Over-soul in that capacity provided the Lord is convinced that, being ever subservient to His Predominated Counter-Whole, they can offer that sort of service to Him. So Shri Krishna never checks any sort of confidential services that we in our unconditioned stage are bent upon offering Him. The thing is that, in His other aspects we are barred from offering such services as are not acceptable to Him because we do confine ourselves in alloyed mentality or in mental speculations.

 

 

If we give up worshipping with our mental speculations, if our independent soul can have a wider and larger scope, we can easily approach that transcendental Being with all our earnest and sincere endeavour. He does not deny any body, neither does He allow anybody to keep that sort of engagement which is meant for some other Aspects of Him, inasmuch as He is the One Who is ever engrossing our soul. So we should scrutinise most minutely whether we should at all utilise and engage some limbs for our personal benefits and some portion of our transcendental body for Godhead! But the real truth is that all our engagements - the whole of our occupation - may be engaged for Shri Krishna, whereas in other Aspects of Godhead we do not have the rarest fortune of performing all these things in the best way possible.

 

 

Shri Krishna Chaitanya has not taught us any anthropomorphic idea. Ordinary people might think that they may indulge in this sort of carrying ideas of this world produced by Nature to that Transcendental Realm, but such anthropomorphic ideas are never enjoined or entertained by Shri Krishna Chaitanya. All that we must know is that Godhead is the Full, Complete and Perfect Being and that He should in His Person have no partial and crippled aspects. We must not be thinking that all that we have here in this world with us - all that might be feasible or practicable and ethical here - we should carry along with us to a region where such imperfect acquisitions are not wanted. We have no such ambition.

 

 

Shri Krishna Chaitanya told us that self-determination is first of all necessary; otherwise we would be confusing the mind with the soul. Mind is quite different from the soul. The thing is that mind is the conductor of the Physical World. Mind gets the impression of nature through the medium of senses and through the working of our body, that is through the former's inter-mingling with external things which are made of matter.

 

 

Though we are used to meddle with those things yet when we take theism for our consideration, that is when we enquire what the actual Figure of Godhead is, we find in the Chatushloki Bhagavatam that the Absolute Fountainhead said to Brahma, the Creator: "If I am to bestow My mercy on anybody, I must expose Myself to him fully. Persons who have wrong aspirations and speculations of mind will be debarred from having any unobscured perception of the actual Size, the Figure and the Colour that I have. They will be simply missing Me if I do not confer on them My mercy". So Shri Krishna Chaitanya has disparaged all mundane thinkers who are busy with high-class philosophies or are sticking to their mundane ethical principles, as well as those persons who are engaged in their altruistic enterprises.

 

 

In substance however we find in our Acharya's writings: "Nobody should misconstrue that we are talking of a wholly different Object Who is not Ramachandra when we talk of Shri Krishna. By the talk of Shri Krishna we do not mean that we are differentiating Shri Krishna from Shri Ramachandra. Shri Ramachandra and Shri Krishna are not substantially different Objects. They are identical. But as we find in this perverted region that one man considers himself as the father of somebody or the son of somebody or the physician of somebody, similarly in Transcendental Realm also we find manifold Aspects of the same Absolute.

 

 

So let nobody imagine that we are talking of wholly different objects when we mention the Avatars. Vasudeva is the same as Lakshmi-Narayana: Lakshmi-Narayana is identical with Seeta-Rama. Seeta-Rama is the same as Krishna. We do not find any differences among Them. There should not be any controversy in this matter, and there cannot be any scope to draw distinction between Shri Krishna and Shri Rama save in the planes of respective Rasas. We want to appreciate the respective positions of the One Absolute.

 

 

We have no ambition to shift our position. But we are to do everything for the confidential services of the Over-soul; and this is safe too. We find a particular worship but we find that all our activities are not engaged hundred percent in Ramachandra. We find another particular worship and in this worship a part of our activities may be kept apart for our selfish personal use, and only some portion of our activities may go to that very adorable object. Such worship is not perfectly disinterested. We often find that a man claims himself to be the master of several dependent things here believing this - 'I have got many servants', 'I have got a big estate', 'I have great learning' and so forth. If one is inclined to confine oneself to a particular Aspect, then it would be rather incompatible with human nature, as he will have nothing to do with the other Aspects of the same Object.

 

 

We need not keep anything for our engagement beyond the Absolute; otherwise we must go under some other name than that of 'Devotees'. For instance, if we serve a horse, we would be called a 'groom', if we treat others with medicine, we would be called a physician. These are different denominations we have here. But these designations are meant for individual beings like us, and we are often found engaged in various objects other than the Absolute.

 

 

Shri Krishna is the Fountain-head of all these manifestations. Therefore, there must not be any such gross ethical idea that He should be crippled or restricted to receive some particular sort of service only. We must not be doing so. We are to approach the Whole Being the one Entire Absolute, the very Fountainhead. He is Satchidananda 'Akhilarasarita-moorty' and cannot be disliked by any perfectly healthy thought. We should not associate ourselves with some other form which may give us self-centered happiness merely. That sort of engagement would be rather detrimental to our Final Cause or Goal. We find that the Fountainhead is possessed of all qualifications with all sorts of aspects; but a particular shape may often be seen in our engagements.

 

 

So Shri Krishna Chaitanya has explained and shown to us the Whole Object. And if we resolve that we are simply to follow Him, we shall then be called higher theists. That theism cannot be restricted and found in a particular aspect only, just as we find in this world. If we can get rid of all our mental speculations, we would be relieved of this mundane conception of the universe with the help of the medium of Transcendental Words. If we confound them with similar words of the mundane lexicon we would be erring; because we cannot at one and the same time use All-pervading Transcendental expressions fully for earthly purposes. The Transcendental Word, Sound, or Concept is identical with that Great Personal Absolute or the Fountainhead.

 

 

We would be known to have advanced well in our theistic aspiration for that Fullest Form, if only the awful and majestic attributes other than All-blissful-ness or All-ecstatic Beauty were taken out from that One Integer. So when we approach Shri Krishna we find that all sorts of Aspects are fully in Him and we can offer all sorts of confidential services to Him with our transcendental and eternal body. We can offer ourselves with all the closest intimacy to Him in all ways.

 

 

We must not think that restricting ourselves in a particular aspect only, would entail a quarrel with some one else dealing with some other school of thought or philosophy or some other religious controversies; there can be little scope for that since our whole-time attention, hundred percent, should be devoted to Him and His Counter-Whole. This is the general outline of the Supreme Lord Shri Krishna Chaitanya's Teachings.

 

 

[krsna]

Published in The Harmonist (Sree Sajjanatoshani)

 

 

Lord Krishna Chaitanya is the combined personality of the predominating and predominated Moieties of the Absolute. We, individual souls, are endowed with a mixed aptitude. Our consciousness possesses a two-fold potentiality. It takes cognisance of the material categories. It is open to the influence of the spiritual as distinguished from the mundane. Lord Chaitanya is our only support and the source of our animation. He is the only Object of our worship. As a matter of fact every activity of ours owes its possibility and existence to His initiative and works as a corollary of his activities. Lord Chaitanya displays the pastime of seeking Himself. All through His Manifestation He is found most anxiously devoted to the exclusive quest of the Absolute Godhead, His predominating Moiety, viz., Krishna. We, His eternal proteges, are conditioned to follow His lead in this matter. If we do so we shall be doing the right thing. By doing so we would obtain the knowledge of the realm of the Absolute. We would no longer have to remain penned within the narrow material scope of three dimensions. But we are hampered by our mixed aptitude. We have the option of meddling with the material as well as the spiritual. As soon as we indulge this mixed aptitude by mistaking it to be our real function we are obstructed by the process. We find ourselves forth-with subjected more or less to the handicaps of insurmountable disqualifications. These disqualifications have been analysed and classified into four groups. They are liabilities to (1) blunder (2) inadvertence, (3) deception and (4) grossness of the senses. These are very serious defects. They make it impossible for us to obtain even a glimpse of the transcendental. Hence there arises the imperative necessity of seeking the help of those who are free from those defects.

 

 

Our present sense-function does not give us any knowledge of the whole Truth. On the contrary it always keeps us away from the Full, the Eternal, the Blissful. We are prevented from all access to uninterrupted existence, uninterrupted knowledge and uninterrupted bliss. These constitute the Reality to be gained by the exercise of our present facilities. We obtain instead the so-called knowledge of the things of this world. We perceive only matter. We can imagine the condition of material negation. But neither of these is the Reality proper. We cannot avoid the consideration of distinctions. But it is not possible to entartain [sic] any proposition regarding distinctive entities except under the operation of the four-fold defects mentioned above. It is, however, incumbent on us to try to be perfectly free from those defects. The method based on sense-experience is useless for this end. It can never free us from those defects.

 

 

Those who live on the resources of the mind express themselves in language. The vocabulary used by them is more or less defective and mutually conflicting. The experience of the moment is different from true experience. We try to gain admission in the realm of true experience. We desire to make progress in such experience. It is our purpose thereby to gain the love of the Real Entity. This is the supreme goal.

 

 

We are now interested in the acquisition of all kinds of worldly facilities. We find it useful to study those sciences that deal with objects that we wish to acquire. But we need not remain confined to such investigation. We are fit to be attracted also by the science of supermundane reality. We are attracted by One who is Existence, Knowledge and Bliss. He attracts us in different degrees. He has given us the fitness to be attracted in different measures. We are subject to His attraction. We can endeavour to attain to realisation of the science of reality to the extent of His attraction. There are many persons who are not exclusively engrossed in the acquisition of worldly facilities. Many wish to progress in the direction of the supreme function, the supreme facility, the supreme object of desire, the supreme position which frees us from all illusion. Different persons try to do so in different degrees. The language of a person is affected by the progress that he makes. It progresses towards the spiritual realm in the proportion of his advance. Soch [sic] a person can respond to questions regarding the supreme goal in the proper spirit. We formulated a number of questions on the subject. We approached those persons who are spiritually inclined with those questions. We hoped for reasonable response from them.

 

 

Persons who are possessed of mixed aptitude are always subject to the fourfold defects. Such is the condition of all those persons who set store by worldly facility. The quest after Krishna is free from the fourfold defect. Persons with the mixed aptitude can know nothing of such quest. We also know this. But we nevertheless cherish the inclination to approach them. We want to be enlightened in our quest of the truth by the positive as well as negative method. We had sought this contact with the spiritually inclined as we know that we shall be gainers by such contact. Such contact helps in our quest of Krishna which is based on the analytic and synthetic methods. It is our greatest desire to succeed in the quest.

 

 

We know that such procedure has also its difficulties. The mixed aptitude is really opposed to the quest of the truth. It is opposed to absolute emancipation, to the supreme function, the supreme need and the supreme goal. Its nature as well as its language is equally opposed to the quest of the truth. They are found to try to baffle our purpose. We know this. We also knew that all this notwithstanding, there is no objection to seek contact with an entity that is so hostile to our purpose. He intended to accept that portion from it which is our due.

 

 

There are non-spiritual Puranas, non-spiritual Pancharatras and non-spiritual philosophical systems and non-spiritual Darshana Shastras. All these are full of varieties of injunctions in the midst of narratives of useful and harmful activities. But they also contain much instruction for the propagation of real good and suppression of evil. The great sages of old times also studied those works. They were not thereby prevented from attaining the object of their desire. We have felt assured by the knowledge of this fact.

 

 

Our purpose is to search for Krishna. We have to consider in this connection two subjects, viz., (1) 'Krishna' and (2) 'His Search'.

 

 

The word 'Krishna' has an ordinary meaning which is intelligible to all of us. This meaning is supported by History and the conditioned intellect of man. This meaning leaves us ignorant of the truth. We shall not accept this meaning. On the contrary we shall know the real, indivisible Truth Himself. There is a meaning which can enlighten us regarding the Truth. The ordinary meaning of the word 'Krishna' is an entity which is different from Krishna. It is something that is enveloped by the deluding energy of Krishna. It is an object which is comprehensible to the other gross senses besides the ear. It is a product of our sensuous perception. We shall not defile the word Krishna by accepting this meaning.

 

 

All the different languages derived from Brahmi, Kharausti, Shanki and Puskarasadi, etc. are the sources of the knowledge which men have gained through the senses of these words. They are guided by the secondary meaning. They are more or less different to the primary meaning of those words. Such desire to attain any visible object of this world by means of such words should be considered as opposed to the supreme goal. There are different words in the different languages to signify the real Truth. These words are the products of intellectual speculation. They point to the Truth. But all those terms are subject to knowledge gained through the senses. Therefore they are entities limited by three dimensions. None of those terms can attain to the level of the transcendental entity.

 

 

The word 'Krishna' points to the real Truth. The real truth is not identical with the secondary meaning Himself. The word Krishna is not used to convey any allegorical sense. The word 'Krishna' uttered by the soul desirous of the supreme goal cannot accommodate the meaning that is productive of ignorance. The meaning or words is narrowed by the eye, the nose, the tongue, the skin and the mind. This narrow meaning expresses other than Brahman (the great undefined nourishing Principle), Paramatma (the supreme Soul) or Bhagavan (the supreme Person possessed of all power). The word "Krishna" points to no such narrow meaning. Such words as 'adhokshaja' (transcendental) aprakrita (non-mundane) and atindriya (supersensuous) etc., are the products of negative speculation. By their means it is possible to draw a picture that exists only in the imagination of man. Such performances are different from the real Truth. They retain the power of producing ignorance, which makes them different from the Truth. The adulterated quality of physical space affects such words. They are hereby separated from the real Entity. They contribute to the elaboration of that entity by the conceptions of the relative and the numerical. The Brihadaranyaka speaks of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division of the complete whole. But those processes do not destroy the unity of the whole.

 

 

All diversity exists by the divisions of object and subject. Mental speculation is based on preference for absence of all distinction. Mental speculation fulfills its purpose by this distinctive achievement. There is no possibility of the elimination of the triple limiting envelope by its means. The truth of the Divinity has His existence in the indivisible cognitive principle. Therefore he does not obstruct the enlightening process of words. The modes of investigation represented by the schools that worship Rudra and Brahma respectively, express a gross kind of difference from the mode of the Vaishnavas. Such procedure is obstructive of indivisible knowledge. It is necessary to consider these speculations with thoroughness and with a dispassionate mind. If we do not do so there will arise a variety of obstacles, in regard to object of meditation, the meditator and the process of meditation. It is necessary to try to remove these obstacles. It is necessary to get rid of them permanently. It is not reasonable to depend on eclipsed knowledge for the purpose of temporary relief. The sun moves in the course in space in due order of time. If the sun is worshipped the object of our worship is an obstacle to our indivisible knowledge. It is not possible to acquaint a person with the nature of the word 'Krishna' by means of language that is conditioned by the triple quality of the phenomenal world. The Name Krishna is identical with the possessor of the Name, the word Krishna is identical with the object expressed by the same. Yet the two are also inconceivably distinct from one another. It is necessary to be able to realise the true nature of this inconceivable simultaneous difference and non-difference. Till we are in a position to realise it, our weak speculation can never enable us to understand the distinctiveness of the inconceivable.

 

 

The word 'quest' signifies a movement which finally merges into the significance of progressive realisation. Till then the object of 'quest' is allowed to drift away on the tide of unchecked imagination. It does not become available for the practice of the process of real quest. It is necessary for attaining such apprehension that the seeker of the Truth feels himself under His protection. When this is so the process of quest no longer goes astray from indivisible knowledge who is Vasudeva. Then also the process of quest loses its difference from the activity of realisation. The process of quest involves the clear apprehension of relationship with the object of search. It is this which in the subsequent stage becomes known as Bhakti of the stage of endeavour. It is Bhakti which supplies us with the clue to the love of Hari. Love of Hari is the complete, constant and exclusive activity of realisation. Love of Hari is realised as the one thing needful.

 

 

There are many obstacles in the way of the search of the Truth. Those obstacles serve to eclipse the real nature of the seer of the truth, of the search, and of the object of search. It is the enlightening potency of words which alone is able to destroy all those obstacles. Therefore it is only when the ephemeral manifestation of the deluding potency of words is resolved into their enlightening function that it does not allow the individual soul to become severed from the indivisible knowledge, the supremely true Entity. It also does not promote the perversion of the oneness of the cognitive principle. On the contrary it tears up by the root the blunder of the speculative theory of undifferentiated cognition. Shri Chaitanyadeva is this one-ness of the subject and object of the indivisible knowledge. Nityananda is the manifestation of this oneness. He is the manifesting aspect of the indivisible knowledge Himself. These two are like the Sun and the Moon. They reveal the cognitive potency of the spiritual soul. Bhakti bestows the quality of oneness and love of Krishna. These two potencies of bestowing oneness and producing the pleasure of the indivisible knowledge are located in Shri Chaitanya.

 

 

In this world we construct various structures by means of our cognitive and active sense-organs. Among these sense-organs the organ of speech is the parent of the hearing of sound. The organ of speech may not be wholly established in the line of the heard transcendental Sound. In such a case there will appear conflict with the heard Divine Sound, which leads astray the other four senses. This is to be distinguished from words free from all limitation which remove the obstructive filth that blocks the path of the auricular cavity. It dissipates the limited perceptual word. By such operation the path of transcendental hearing is not prejudicially affected. There is a ten-fold process of rectifying the defects of the physical body produced by semen in the mother's womb. This satisfies the speculative function of the mind. By such purifactory process our sensuous knowledge is enriched. It may produce indifference to indivisible transcendental knowledge. In such a case it mistakes entities possessing relationship with Godhead for things of this phenomenal world. Under such misapprehension it may renounce such entities by the deluding power of the real entity leading them away from the truth and making them place more reliance upon the nonspiritual reflection of the realm of true cognition.

 

 

In the demonstration of teaching, there are two parties, viz., the 'teacher' and the 'taught'. We find a reciprocal relation between the aforesaid two. The position of the taught has a special signifinance [sic] in that he has to pay his attention to the words and observe the deeds of the teacher as well as perceive the true goal of his attempts. If he is found to be negligent to receive anything from the teacher, he will simply miss the real bearings of the taught. His function as a recipient would vary according to the nature, capacity and degree of whole-hearted attention. When his nature is under consideration we find that he must own himself as a follower of an elevationist or a salvationist or a devotee. By availing himself of the teachings he is expected to make up for his inadequacies by rectifying this wrong notions and assimilating the essence of the knowledge he is going to receive. He can regulate his mentality by any addition to or deduction from his store of intuition.

 

 

The teachings of a teacher are, therefore, meant for enriching, regulating and inviting the impulse of reception of the taught in order to enable the latter to make further progress. If he has an irreverent mood, he will prove himself to be a callous and non-susceptible agent. If he proves himself quite worthy of receiving the teachings and enriching himself, he would be deemed fit for undertaking further mental training. But some amount of diffidence may hamper him in his putiful [sic] advance.

 

 

The theme of teaching has different phases. The teaching that merely elevates the mental power of the audience will no doubt differ from that which seeks to lift us above the phenomenal existence by the process of meditation and shakes off the three mundane positions of the observer, observation and observed. The devotional teachings need not follow any of the two methods that have victimised both elevationists and salvationists. So the teachings of a devotee should neither help any aspiration of these two classes nor advocate their cause. Devotional teaching has already disclosed the fact that any knowledge secured from finite objects could not possibly lead to the Absolute position in a realm where no temporal phenomena are seen to be working. Such dealing with the existence of a field of fourth to infinate demensions [sic] should not be restricted to be brought under intra-mundane speculations. Devotional teaching never s to the policy of altruistic misapprehension for living peacefully in a plane of shifting phenomena. The devotional method does not, however, deviate at all from altruism when it shows a transcendental temperament of the cognisance of the Absolute. The altruistic views of pedants of the atheistic school cannot protect the futile predicament of intra-sentient beings who are very busy to show their predominating influence over devotional thought. Devotional teaching should never confine its theme to the restricted horizon of elevationists and so-called transcendentalists who are ambitious to restrict their activities in every way by annihilating their egoistic intra-mundane attempts.

 

 

As regards the position of a true teacher we have observed that he is never expected to be the possessor of mere mental speculations concerned with phenomena or noumena. The teacher should be unprejudiced and should not be challenged for any seeming fault of his in thought, word or deed. The teacher of some particular department of phenomena or noumena should never be recognised as participating in any teaching of transcendental observation. The unprejudiced nature of a true preceptor who has no other function but to remain eternally under the banner of the Absolute is to impart the ever-existing unshaky position of the Absolute knowledge enriched with Ever-Blissful enthusiasm.

 

 

The All-Blissful Ever-Existing Absolute has emanated the rays of knowledge which can disclose the true transcendental position of the Fountain-head. So the taught should invoke Him to delegate such power to him in order to enable his progressive march in the region of the Absolute Personality where the significance of the First Person has preponderance over the transcendental manifestations of Infinitude. The Fountainhead of Infinitude, the Fountainhead of Infinite Wealths, viz., All-Majesty, All-Prowess, All-Godness, All-Beauty, All-Knowledge and All-Dissociations with flesh and mind, grants the prayers of different actors on this stage of the world who take initiative in the temporal region of space and time. The personality of Godhead has awarded full facility to them in their sojourn of limited knowledge in proportion to their amount of knowledge, eligibility and praying capacity. When we turn to the various activities of seekers of different limited treasures, we observe that those prayer-mongers who want to dove-tail themselves with the object of their prayer are also endowed in proportion to their capacity for enabling them to discover such partial manifestation of the Personal Absolute. So our much-coveted treasures will store for us our respective goals in proportion to our acquisitions. But a true devotee is not satisfied with having the boons from an empiricist whose impoverished knowledge is found to seek for the satisfaction of personal selfish wants merely. And those who are content to pose their location in Infinity are found to enervate themselves in a frenzied mood, while a devotee is always found to disapprove of their intoxicated demeanour in engaging themselves in the futile chase of temporal soapbubbles. So we do not find any frenzied disposition in a devotee like that in an elevationist or a salvationist.

 

 

The essential devotional activities of an unalloyed soul become entirely nugatory in the mentalities of atheists and are often enshrouded with the intellectual activities of agnostics and sceptics, as the latter are always found to hinge their flexibilities of speculation on their imperfect and restricted sensuous knowledge only. A true devotee can be able to see easily the alloyed activities or the so-called knowledge which passes by the name of nescience helping its victims in their march towards a fabricated manifestation of a temporal plane known as 'paradise'. This may be termed the second group where the frenzied ignorance of the aforesaid group is eliminated. Next when we come to examine the third group who are trying to dismiss all intra-mundane thoughts they are seen as located in a peculiarly hallucinating non-manifestative sphere of their self and we may undoubtedly say that this is a self-deception tantamount to an Alnascarian disposition. The owner of the astral and physical bodies has been, by the abuse of his free-will, obligated to remain in a sleeping condition when he has delegated his powers, during his conspicuous activities in the mundane world, to the two different covers which claim to be owned by him.

 

 

A true devotee never submits to any high-sounding reasonings of Elevationists or Salvationists when he is truly realising his own self as a conciliatory ancillary fragment of a particular manifesting Energy, the position of which is on the geometrical line between the mundane phenomena and the transcendental manifestations. So a devotee is not expected to indulge in the method of the so-called speculative philosophers of the world. The oft-disfigured sublime views and the eternal theme of the Vedanta do not go to prove any hallucinative imposition of different sexological questions to be associated with the Ever-Existing Blissful Knowledge. No variety of the knowledge of Finitude must intoxicate and cripple the transcendental march of the presumptuous owner of this world of three dimensions.

 

 

Whenever any inclination is observed in a sojourner for a conception of the Absolute, these sexological questions check his activities, but when his activities are scrutinised they are found to be in a particular chamber of a neuter aspect or a male or female aspect of that Object. The Personality of [sic] the Absolute Ecstatic Knowledge can only be had if the true discernment of the real self shakes off by his free will all finite temporal conceptions.

 

 

Being fully empowered through the mercy of the All-Blissful, the owner of all intra-mundane speculations can easily shake off the chains of the habit of measuring transformable things. An unalloyed soul can only get rid of his deluding conceptions of physico-mental shields. The eternal devotee is emancipated from non-realistic ideas by the causeless help of the Absolute, or in other words, is set free by his love for the latter. No clutches or prisoner's restrictions should be imposed on him like those that are necessary to be put on Elevationists and Salvationists. He has now got the unconditional mercy from the Supreme Fountainhead and he need not be compelled to be classed as a prisoner of the physico-mental.

 

 

So Shri Krishna Chaitanya has disclosed the Transcendental Manifestation which can be approached only by a theist who is confident of his realisation of the Ever-Existing Ecstatic Absolute Transcendent, as he has absolutely no reliance on the seeming activities of a temporal mundane observer, observation and observed. The theist can then approach Shri Krishna as Arjuna did when the latter played his part in the Great Mahabharata War. The elevationist and salvationist warriors had been combating with their physical and mental powers in order to predominate over each other. But the Song of Shri Krishna relieved them from all such gross and subtle undertakings. The War of the Mahabharata has shown us the contending positions of physical and mental heroes busily engaged in this region of mundane speculations. The Mahabharata has disclosed the fact of different positions of elevationists and salvationists, viz., their positions, deeds, and their final goals.

 

 

We have got the true comparative idea in the literary expression of the word "Excellent" i.e., one who has excelled all the rest of the members generally of his community. There can be no question when the final result is designated by the word "excellent". We need not again put that to a controversy. A transcendental harmonising plane would tell us, through transcendental Sounds, that the manifestations in the regions of three dimensions are not to be confused with those in the Manifestive Region of Shri Vaikuntha which in the preamble cannot welcome any challenge of an empiricist when the region itself is endowed with spirit and not with deformed and mutable matter. So, as devotees we have no discussion with an empiricist or a challenger in a mundane measurement, and the position of a devotee need not, therefore, be degraded to the position of an elevationist or a salvationist.

 

 

When we finish the perusal of the Mahabharata which includes the "Mokshadharma", "Sanatsujatiyam" and the "Bhagavat Gita", we can safely be entrusted with dealing with the transcendental book which is revered by both Bhagavatas and Sattwata Pancharatrikas. The best scripture of the Bhagavatas (devotees) is the Bhagavatam which is a narrative offered by Shri Suta Goswami to Shri Shaunaka and a legion of sages who sat for such a valuable teaching in Naimisaranya. The present Book of Shrimad Bhagavatam has incorporated all true Pancharatrika views and is known as the true commentary of the Aphorisms of Badarayana that go on to show the connecting link and consistency of apparently conflicting Mantras of the Vedas.

 

 

The physical aspect of the Vedas would lead people to base their exploits upon the Physico-mental endowments of the Vedas but not upon the permanent and unalloyed knowledge of the Absolute. In order to give men relief from the clutches of physico-mental exploiters some impersonalists have jumped into the pacification of mundane meddlings which the Bhagavatam does not advocate. We see therefore that Bhagavatas incorporate all Pancharatrikas.

 

 

The supreme Lord Shri Krishna Chaitanya has encouraged His followers to learn Bhagavatam in an unalloyed mood. Though the Excellent Teachings of the Full Manifested Transcendent Absolute have been narrated through the medium of words, still a devotee may often engage himself in the outward manifestations which might be dissuading agents for entangling him in the temporal world. So the seeming realisation of Archa (Transcendental Image) of the Icongraphised Transcendentalism need not betray a real 'sadhaka'; nor should the symbolised Transcendental words bring the same into a controversial position.

 

 

The most important and crucial point of the Shrutis has been ignored by the Impersonalists. So they could not make any progress when they impirically perused and interpreted the Mantras of the Vedas. The Super-Excellent Teacher by His Super-Excellent Teachings has given the best and greatest facilities to His disciples who will, in no time, turn out to be serving Agents of the Super-Excelent, [sic] Transcendental Teacher, Who is Himself identical with the concept of the Supreme Godhead. By the word "Super-Excellent" the graduation in the Transcendental Region has been found to reach the climax.

 

 

In the conversation of Ramananda and the Supreme Lord, we find the Predominated Aspect of the Transcendental Absolute was giving replies to the interrogatories of the Supreme Lord. The true comparative studies of the different positions of devotees could only be made by submitting unconditionally our ownership of intellectual and physical store to the very Fountain-head. We shall then be classed as occupying different stages of devotion. We shall then find that the song of Shri Krishna Ye Yathaa Maim Prapadante [1] could not be mutilated by our mandane [sic] speculationists in their degraded unethical views of approaching Him. We are told of five different Rasas by the erudite professors of Aesthetics in our perusal of Transcendental literature by our spiritual senses which have no ambition whatsoever to meddle with mundane reciprocal situations. The Transcendental Supreme Fountainhead of Absolute Knowledge - Shri Krishna Chaitanya - has disclosed the different moods of predominating "Rasamaya" and predominated "Rasikas". So the Transcendental Super-Excellence of His Teachings would never be available to mundane sages or impersonalists until they absolutely submit to the ending exhortation of the Supreme Lord Shri Krishna in the Gita. [2]

 

 

In courting, therefore, the Love of Shri Krishna Chaitanya we must not be busy with equipping ourselves with troublesome acquisitions of imperfect manifestations, but simply undergo an operation to remove our cataract by the beneficial spike of all His good Teachings. We need not be troubling ourselves with the physical enquiries in order to enable ourselves to indulge in Anthropomorphism or to have recourse to Apotheosis. The unconditional surrender to Shri Krishna or Shri Krishna Chaitanya and to His true functioning of our handicapped organs of senses and enable us to scrutinise the aspects of the different subjects of our knowledge. As true and sincere devotees our spiritual culture would never allow us to indulge in our mental activities as we do in Economics, History, Geography, Chemistry, Physics, Inconagraphy, Archaeology, Chiromancy and Palmistry, different branches of the Vedas, altruism, utilitarianism and other allied subjects. It we take any one or the whole group of the above subjects for examining Shri Krishna Chaitanya, all our labour would be fruitless and take us not an inch nearer to the Supreme Lord. It is Transcendental finite ego to approach the Transcendental Blissful Infinite.

 

 

We should be ready to receive the Transcendental Sounds instead of the mundane sounds that are found in the Lexicons. Ordinary sound is examined by the other senses also. We reserve the right of examining every mundane sound that enters our ear with the aid of the four other senses. If the latter do not admit its validity, it is summarily rejected. These senses are not fit to scrutinize the validity of Transcendental Sounds. Our previous experience will show which sounds should be examined. If they aim at anything of this world, we should have every opportunity of examining them by our other senses. Our previous experience will decide whether they are to be welcomed.

 

 

But when the Transcendental Sound makes His appearance, we must not put ourselves into the challenging mood and suppose that there is any other face. The two sounds are quite distinct from one another. The mundane sound is meant for entities which have figure, odour, taste, etc. Heat, for example can be perceived by the sound produced. But it is the seeming feature which need not tally with the actual snbstratum. [sic] So, there is a distinct difference between the two sounds.

 

 

All Transcendental Sounds go to show One Object, the Absolute. Wherever there is any deviation, that is liable to vanish. Absolute Sound has got His peculiar phase and should be welcomed at all costs. We are vitally interested in that thing. The very description of Transcendental Sound will tell us that the Sound is identical with the Object, Qualities and Activities and is entirely distinct from Mundane sounds and that the Transcendental Sound is equipped with all cogent potencies that will regulate all other senses.

 

 

Mundane sound is invigorating to the senses and enables us to come in contact with the world. When our attempt is for the Absolute, we run no risk. When we want the sound to come to us, we ignore the Absolute, we do not receive the Transcendental Sound. The Transcendental Sound is strictly restricted to the Thing. So the Absolute is to be determined when we determine our self. Any distorted view will not allow us to approach the Absolute.

 

 

First of all, we should examine our self. If we think we are mind and the external body, the Transcendental Sound will have no effect on us. It would be a mundane sound. The sound himself would tell us that the external body is a garment of the inner astral body and both of them are the two wrappers of the soul who, in his dormant condition, incorporates these two which do not determine his own real nature. The external body is perishable; the internal body is transformable. Our mind in the morning, is different from our mind at noon and so on. It is changed with the rolling of time.

 

 

We cannot rely on the mind and our mental speculation. All of us are busy in making our mind control everything relating to ourselves. This does not admit the conception of the Absolute. The mental conceptions are all changeable. The property must not be confounded with the proprietor. Our external body is our property. It is perishable and there is no certainty of its retention. In Egypt, the body was preserved. The process was thought necessary for the reawaking of the soul. The materialists see the externality of things. They observe that the combination of material particles produces animation. So, the external is scrutinised by the materialistic sciences.

 

 

But the idea propounded by intellectual people is that knowledge is eclipsed and obscured by the interception of ignorance (vivartavada i.e., wrong conception of things which deludes us in regard to the Truth). The background of time and space intercepts our visual range. Chinmatra or perfect knowledge is required in order to know what we are. This view is different from that of the materialists who want to establish all knowledge as identical with the background of our conceptions. One party thinks that the spirit comes out of these things by a process analogous to that of effervescence. The other party holds that knowledge is impeded by the material molecules that form the opaque mass which disturbs and prevents us from examining the entity. This gives rise to the conception of Immanence. There is an inner face in regard to which we are liable to be deluded by the operation of the external face.

 

 

In the first place, we should undertake to determine the nature of the self. We should know that we are eternal. Had our life been of a few days duration, our prospects would be very dark, indeed. It is the idea of the Semites that this is the only life we have. According to them, the conception of metempsychosis is a hallucination to dissuade us from the immediate necessity of learning the Absolute Truth.

 

 

The empiric truth is to be carefully distinguished from the Absolute. It is analogous to the distinction between the glow-worm and fire or between the mirage and water. The outward feature is not to be trusted. Lime-water outwardly resembles milk. The apparent face is not identical with the Immanence, the soul or the substratum. In determining the self it is necessary to find our real position. Are we products of material things? Are we the Oversoul? This problem requires to be solved as we shall leave the external body after a time.

 

 

When the question of 'Time' is brought forward we find that, we are eternal. When we attend to the problem of 'Knowledge' we find that our mixed ignorance cannot give us any relief. The soul should be blissful. We do not require unpleasant things. The external body and astral body do not serve our purpose. If they were our sole concern life would be troublesome and we would necessarily be pessimists. There is an optimistic view to oppose pessimism. If both are discarded we would know what we are. It would result in our considering that we are part and parcel of the Absolute liable to foreign invasion. Incorporation with the world requires to be severed for the realisation of our permanent situation.

 

 

Shri Krishna Chaitanya has told us that we are part and parcel of the "Tatastha - Shakti" (Marginal Potency) of the Absolute Who has got numerous potencies. These potencies are classifiable into departments. The human soul is situated in an intermediate position as distinct from the Bahiranga-Shakti (External Potency) which is perishable and that Antaranga-Shakti (Internal Potency) which is eternal. The external potency offers the reflected intercepted view of the Activities of the Absolute. This supplements the system of Vishistadvaita (Distinctive Monism) or rather that system is given some additional knowledge by the introduction of the Tatastha-Shakti (Marginal Potency).

 

 

We are not substratum. Had we been part and parcel of Godhead there would be no misery. As we are realists we cannot think that we should turn idealist, that we should suppose everything to be simply a deluding feature and that observed objects are nothing but delusions and that we should consider ourselves to be the Oversoul. But it is not so. We are not the substance. We are potency. The position of the Jiva is a part of the Tatastha-shakti (Marginal Potency) that can enjoy, cease to enjoy and go back to his original position. In the devotional mood he can offer his services to the Absolute instead of picking up servants from this world which is the plight of the deceptive brain. These are but baits and traps and will not lead us to the Absolute. We are not part and parcel of the substantive entity Godhead but of His Tatastha-Shakti to serve the Absolute. The determination of the self will lead us to that very thing.

 

 

FOOTNOTES

 

[1] Gita IV.11

 

[2] G. XVIII.66

 

 

[krsna]

Published in The Harmonist (Sree Sajjanatoshani)

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shyamasundar Chakravarty's Interview

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

A: -- It is the Shrimad Bhagavatam, which was explained by Shri Suta Goswami before sixty-thousand sages at Naimisharanya, the famous holy place in Uttara Pradesha. There is a good deal of difference between the Vedantic Schools of Kashi and Naimisharanya. The followers of the Naimisharanya School are genuine Vedantins since they accept only the genuine commentary of the Brahma-Sutra, and not the other spurious ones.

 

 

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

 

 

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

 

 

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

 

 

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

 

 

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

 

 

A: -- Examples of the antagonist against the Bhagavata ideology have been seen since Satya-yuga (golden age). Hiranyakashipu was one among them. Such antagonists are of two types, disguised and unconcealed. The disguised antagonists are greater enemies than the open ones. Swami Dayananda, founder of the Arya Samaj, and Kaviraj Gangadhar Sen were open antagonists of the Bhagavatam. But the manner in which the Kashi School is conducted indicates covert views against the Bhagavatam. Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu convinced Swami Prakasananda Saraswati, the then head of the Kashi School, with his followers numbering several thousands, about the indisputable superiority of the doctrine of the Naimisharanya School, so that understanding the evil sectarianism of the Kashi School, he entered to the Naimisharanya School with his followers.

 

 

Q: -- Is there no truth in other schools than that of Naimisharanya?

 

 

A: -- In other schools, truth is covered under delusion, but in the very beginning of the Vedanta Commentary (Shrimad Bhgavatam) of the Naimisharanya School it has been said: [1] "We always contemplate on the Truth freed from delusions." The plural number 'we' denotes the followers of the Naimisharanya School of Shri Vyasadeva's sect. Here have been indicated the plurality of the contemplators, the non-duality (or singularity) of the Prime Truth and the perpetuality of the connecting link or act, viz., contemplation. This contemplation does not cover the different modes of the thoughts of men. That Prime Truth is incomprehensible and transcendental (i.e., non-empiric).

 

 

Q: -- How can the thing be incomprehensible which is capable of being contemplated on?

 

 

A: -- Our previous Guru, in the preceptorial line, Shri Rupa Goswami Prabhu, has said in his Shri Bhakti Rasamrita Sindhu: [2] "What, transcending all courses of thought, appears in the heart brightened up with shuddha-sattva and assumes the highest excellence of tasty sweetness, is called Rasa." It is through the function of vishudha-sattva (the purest or transcendental sattva) or the highest Guru, that Vasudeva, (the Highest Truth) can be contemplated on. Sattva which is one of the three gunas with rajas and tamas is not 'vishuddha sattva'. Vishuddha-sattva is not something of this world. "The name of Vishuddha-sattva is Vasudeva. The Transcendental Purusa who manifests Himself in it is God Vasudeva. I contemplate on that Adhokshaja (Supra-empiric Entity) with my mind." [3] Shiva says this to Sati. The term "Adhokshaja' means what is beyond the scope of material senses. Godhead is He, Who has reserved the absolute right of not being exposed to present human senses.

 

 

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

 

 

A: -- Bhagavatam says, "The mind, purified with Bhakti-yoga having been thoroughly concentrated, Shri Vyasadeva had a view of the Plenary God with Svarupa-Shakti or Self-Potency also with maya sheltered in a covered manner." [4] The worldly man's mind is the heart, which is the store-house of decisions and doubts, and the mind which is incessantly engaged in the services of Krishna, giving up the material determination of enjoyments and renunciations, is the pure mind, the sporting ground of the Primary Entity. Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has said: "Others' hearts are minds, but My mind is Vrindavana, I know the mana (mind) and the vana (Vrindavana, place for Krishna's sports) as the same." Our previous Guru, Srila Narothama Thakura, also has said: "When will my mind be purified, having given up vishaya (sensual objects) and when, then, shall I be able to see Vrindavana?" 'Plenary Entity' indicates Omnipotent God. We cannot see Him with karma or jnana. With karma can be had what is available in the field of karma and not what is beyond it. What nirbheda (absolutely non-distinct) jnana, too, we cannot see Him, for in it the distinction of the seer, the see-able and the seeing is extinguished. God has said [5] "It is with Bhakti that one may know Me in the aspect of truth as regards My Entireness and Entity." He has also said to Shri Uddhava "I am available with ananya-bhakti (exclusive devotion) to Me alone." [6]

 

 

Q: -- What is Maya?

 

 

A: -- The derivative meaning of maya is what is measurable. Bhagavan is the Lord of maya; He cannot be measured. Where there is attempt to measure God, there is maya and not God. 'ma ' means 'not' and 'ya ' means 'what', i.e., 'what is not God', is maya. The 'maya' as said in the Shrimad Bhagavatam is not like the Satin in the Christian theology, a separate entity from God, altogether another entity. According to the Bhagavata school, maya is in Bhagavan (God) in the condemned state [7] in order to award condign punishment on the atomic sentience (i.e. jivas) controlled by maya. In the Gita God has said [8]: "Earth, water, fire, air, sky, the mind, intelligence and egoism - these constitute My separate inferior potency, whereas other than this is My superior potency constituting the jivas by which is supported the universe." This inferior potency is the maya potency. This inferior potency has been stupefying the jivas that are apathetic towards God since before the beginning of time and causing misunderstanding in them, sometimes assuming the form of 'twenty-four items of entity' of Kapila, (the originator of the Sankhya System), sometimes as the 'atom' of Kanada (of the Vaiseshika System), sometimes also as Jaimini's principle of 'elevation' (in the Purva Mimamsa System), sometimes again as the 'sixteen objects' of Gautama (in the Nyaya System), sometimes as 'superhuman power and absolute oneness with God' of Patanjali (of the Yoga System), and sometimes as the pretence of search after Brahman (of the Shankar School).

 

 

Q: -- Why does such an event happen?

 

 

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

 

 

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

 

 

A: -- This instruction in the Gita rather supports the above statement. It is Shri Vishnu Who is God, the Controller of all beings. God gives the jivas the fruit according as they perform karma. Their nature acts under the direction of God according to their previous karma. Jiva is the doer and God is the Giver. God's authority is seen in the giving of the fruits and governance of the cause and effect. So God is the Giver of the fruit and the jivas, the enjoyers thereof.

 

 

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

 

 

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

 

 

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

 

 

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

 

 

Q: -- Then how can the conclusion be arrived at, viz., 'everything depends upon God's Will'? I am putting these questions not for the sake of discussion, I am asking them, because you are a great scholar and a great devotee at the same time. In the Hindi Gita of Shri Tilaka I read an abhanga (panegyric to God) by Tuka-Rama, the sense of which runs thus: "O God, if my karma brings me liberation, then what should I have to do with You?"

 

 

A: -- The Shrimad Bhagavatam has given a reply to this:[10] "He is an heir to liberation, O God, who, feeling Your Grace in every thing and enduring the troubles caused by his own karma, bows down to You with mind, speech and body i.e., whole-heartedly". He who has acquired fitness for being freed from the world, understands that if the blame is laid at the door of God, then, on account of the want of the tendency towards doing service to God, liberation is never available, but only that person can easily become the possessor of the position of liberation, who is fortunate in having the tendency for the chit -service aroused in him, and he can be more attracted towards God, considering all the troubles and difficulties as His Grace.

 

 

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.

 

 

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.

 

 

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.

 

 

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.

 

 

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?

 

 

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

 

 

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.

 

 

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."

 

 

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."

 

 

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.

 

 

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."

 

 

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.

 

 

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.

 

 

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.

 

 

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.

 

 

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]

 

 

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.

 

 

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]

 

Written in December, 1928, and published in The Harmonist (Sree Sajjanatoshani)

 

 

 

 

 

 

The ceremony of diksha or initiation is that by which the spiritual Preceptor admits one to the status of a neophyte on the path of spiritual endeavour. The ceremony tends to confer spiritual enlightenment by abrogating sinfulness. Its actual effect depends on the degree of willing co-operation on the part of the disciple and is, therefore, not the same in all cases.

It does not preclude the possibility of reversion on the novice to the non-spiritual state, if he slackens in his effort or misbehaves.

 

Initiation puts a person on the true track and also imparts an initial impulse to go ahead. It cannot, however, keep one going for good unless one chooses to put forth his own voluntary effort.

The nature of the initial impulse also varies in accordance with the condition of the recipient. But although the mercy of the good preceptor enables us to have a glimpse of the Absolute and of the path of His attainment, the seed that is thus sown requires very careful tending under the direction of the preceptor, if it is to germinate and grow into the fruit-and-shade-giving tree.

 

Unless our soul of his own accord chooses to serve Krishna after obtaining a working idea of his real nature, he cannot long retain the Spiritual Vision. The soul is never compelled by Krishna to serve Him.

 

[krsna]

It is undoubtedly practicable for the initiated,

if only he is willing, to follow the directions of the preceptor that lead by slow degrees to the Absolute.

 

The good preceptor is verily the savior of fallen souls. <font color="red"> It is, however, very rarely that a person with modern culture feels inclined to submit to the guidance of another specially in spiritual matters </font color> .

 

But the very person submits readily enough to the direction of a physician for being cured of his bodily ailments. Because these latter cannot be ignored without consequences that are patent to everybody. The evil that results from our neglect of the ailments of the soul is of a nature that paralyses and deludes our understanding and prevents the recognitions of itself. Its gravity is not recognized as it does not apparently stand in the way of our worldly activities with the same directness as the other.

 

The average cultured man is, therefore, at liberty to ask questions without realizing any pressing necessity of submitting to the treatment of spiritual maladies at the hands of a really competent physician.

[krsna]

The questions that are frequently asked are as these:

 

‘Why should it be at all necessary to submit to any particular person or to to any particular ceremony for the purpose of realizing the Absolute Who by His nature in unconditioned?

 

Why should Krishna require our formal declaration of submission to Himself?

 

Would it not be more generous and logical to permit us to live a life of freedom in accordance with the principles of our perverted nature which is also His creation?

 

Admitting that it is our duty to serve Krishna, why should we have to be introduced to Him by a third party?

 

Why is it impossible for one to serve Sri Krishna directly?’

 

It would no doubt be highly convenient and helpful to be instructed by a good preceptor who is well-versed in the Scriptures in understanding the same. But one should never submit to another to an extent that may furnish a rascal with an opportunity of really doing harm. The bad preceptor is a familiar character. It is inexplicable how those gurus who live in open sin contrive nevertheless to retain the unquestioning allegiance of the cultured portion of their disciples.

 

Such being the case, can we blame any person who hesitates to submit unconditionally to a preceptor, whether he is good or bad? It is of course necessary to be quite sure of the bonafide of a person before we accept him even tentatively as our spiritual guide. A preceptor should be a person who appears likely to possess those qualities that will enable him it improve our spiritual condition.

 

[krsna]

Those and similar thoughts are likely to occur to most persons who have received an English education, when they are asked to accept the help of any particular person as his spiritual preceptor.

 

The literature, science and art of the West, body forth the principle of the liberty of the individual and denounce the mentality that leads one to surrender to however superior a person his right of choosing his own course. They inculcate the necessity and high value of having faith in oneself.

 

 

But the good preceptor claims our sincere and complete allegiance. The good disciple makes a complete surrender of himself at the feet of the preceptor. But the submission of the disciple is neither irrational or blind.

 

It is complete on condition that the preceptor himself continues to be altogether good. The disciple retains the right of renouncing his allegiance to the preceptor the moment he is satisfied that the preceptor is a fallible creature like himself. Nor does a good preceptor accept any one as his disciple unless the latter is prepared to submit to him freely.

 

A good preceptor is in duty bound to renounce a disciple who is not sincerely willing to follow his instructions fully. If a preceptor accepts as his disciple one who refuses to be wholly guided by him, or if a disciple submits to a preceptor who is not wholly good, such preceptor and such disciple are, both of them, doomed to fall from their spiritual state.

 

[krsna]

<font color="red">No one is a good preceptor who has not realised the Absolute.

 

One who has realised the Absolute is saved from the necessity of walking on the worldly path. </font color>

 

<font color="green"> The good preceptor who lives the spiritual life is, therefore, bound to be wholly good. He should be wholly free from any desire for anything of this world whether good or bad. The categories of good and bad do not exist in the Absolute. In the Absolute everything is good. We can have no idea in our present state of this absolute goodness. </font color>

 

<font color="blue">Submission to the Absolute is not real unless it is also itself absolute. It is on the plane of the Absolute that the disciple is required to submit completely to the good preceptor. On the material plane there can be no such thing as complete submission. The pretence of complete submission to the bad preceptor is responsible for the corruptions that are found in the relationship of the ordinary worldly guru and his equally worldly-minded disciples. </font color>

 

 

<font color="orange"> All honest thinkers will realise the logical propriety of the position set forth above. But most persons will be disposed to believe that a good preceptor in the above sense may not be found in this world. This is really so. Both the good preceptor and his disciple belong to the spiritual realm. But spiritual discipleship is nevertheless capable of being realised by persons who belong to this world. Otherwise there would be no religion at all in the world. But because the spiritual life happens to be realizable in this world it does not follow that it is the worldly existence which is capable of being improved into the spiritual. As a matter of fact the one is perfectly incompatible with the other. They are categorically different from one another. </font color>

 

<font color="brown"> The good preceptor although he appears to belong to this world is not really of this world. No one who belongs to this world can deliver us from worldliness. The good preceptor is a denizen of the spiritual world who has been enabled by the will of God to appear in this world in order to enable us to realise the spiritual existence. </font color>

[krsna]

The much vaunted individual liberty is a figment of the diseased imagination. We are bound willingly or unwillingly to submit to the laws of God in the material as well as in the spiritual world. The hankering for freedom in defiance of His laws is the cause of all our miseries. The total abjuration of all hankering for such freedom is the condition of admission to the spiritual realm.

 

In this world we desire this freedom but are compelled against our will to submit to the inexorable laws of physical nature. This is the unnatural state. Such unwilling for forced submission does not admit us into the spiritual realm.

 

In this world the moral principle, indeed claims our willing submission. But even morality also is a curtailment of freedom necessitated by the peculiar circumstances of this world.

 

The soul who does not belong to this world is in a state of open or court rebellion against submission to an alien domination. It is by his very constitution capable of submitting willingly only to the Absolute.

[krsna]

The good preceptor asks the struggling soul to submit not to the laws of this world which will only rivet its chains but to the higher law of the spiritual realm.

 

The pretence of submission to the laws of the spiritual realm without the intention of really carrying them out into practice is often mistaken for genuine submission by reason of the absence of fullness of conviction.

 

In this world the fully convinced state is non-existent. We are, therefore, compelled in all cases to act on make-believes viz. the so-called working hypotheses.

 

The good preceptor tells us to change this method of activity which we have learnt from our experience of this world. He invites us first of all to be really and fully informed of the nature and laws of the other world which happens to be eternally and categorically different from this phenomenal world. If we do not sincerely submit to be instructed in the alphabets of the life eternal but go on perversely asserting however unconsciously our present processes and so-called convictions against the instructions of the preceptor in the period of novitiate we are bound to remain where we are.

 

This also will amount to the practical rejection of all advice because the two worlds have nothing in common though at the same time we naturally fail to understand this believing all the time in accordance with our accustomed methods that we are at any rate partially following the preceptor.

 

But as a matter of fact when we reserve the right of choice we really follow ourselves, because even when we seem to agree to follow the preceptor it is because he appears to be in agreement with ourselves. But as the two worlds have absolutely nothing in common we are only under a delusion when we suppose that we really understand the method or the object of the preceptor or in other words reserve the right of assertion of the apparent self.

 

Faith in the scriptures can alone help us in this otherwise unpracticable endeavour. We believe in the preceptor with the help of the shastras when we understand neither. As soon as we are fully convinced of the necessity of submitting unambiguously to the good preceptor it is then and only then that he is enabled to show us the way into the spiritual world in accordance with the method laid down in the shastras of that purpose which he can apply properly and without perpetrating a fatal blunder in as much as he himself happens to belong to the realm of the spirit.

[krsna]

The crux of the matter lies not in the external nature of the ceremony of initiation as it appears to us because that is bound to be unintelligible to us being an affair of the other world, but in the conviction of the necessity and the successful choice of a really good preceptor.

 

We can attain to the conviction of the necessity of the help of a good preceptor by the exercise of our unbiased reason in the light of our ordinary experience. When once this conviction has been truly formed Sri Krishna Himself helps us in finding the really good preceptor in two ways.

 

In the first place he instructs us as regards the character and functions of a good preceptor through the revealed Shastras.

In the second place He Himself sends to us the good preceptor himself at the moment when we are at all likely to benefit by his instructions.

The good preceptor also comes to us when we reject him. In such cases also it is certainly Krishna Who sends him to us for no reason what-so-ever.

 

Krishna has revealed from eternity the tidings of the spiritual realm in the form of transcendental sounds that have been handed down in the records of the spiritual Scriptures all over the world. The spiritual Scriptures help all those who are prepared to exercise this reason for the purpose of finding not the relative but the Absolute Truth to find out the proper instructor in accordance with their directions.

 

The only good preceptor is he who can make us really understand the spiritual scriptures and they enable us realise the necessity and the nature of submission to the processes laid down in them. But there is still every chance of foul play. A very clever man or a magician may pass himself off as a person who can properly explain the Scriptures by means of his greater knowledge or deceptive arts. It is very important, therefore, that we should be on our guard against such tricks. The Scholar as well as the magician pretend to explain the Scriptures only in terms of the object or happenings of this world. But the Scriptures themselves declare that they do not tell us at all of the thing of this world. Those who are liable to be deluded by the arts of pervert yogis who persuade themselves into believing that the spiritual is identical with the perversion, distortion or defiance of the laws of physical nature. The laws of physical nature are not unreal. They govern the relation of all relative existences.

 

In our present state it is therefore, always possible for another who possesses the power or the knowledge to demonstrate the merely tentative character of what we choose to regard as our deepest convictions by exposing their insufficiency or inapplicability. But such surprises as they belong to the realm of the phenomenal, have nothing to do with the Absolute.

 

Those who have an unspiritual partiality for scholarship or for magic fall into the clutches of the pseudo-religionists. The serious plight of these victims of their own perversity will be realised from the fact that no one can be delivered from the state of ignorance by the method of compulsion. It is not possible to save the man who refuses on principle to listen to the voice of reason. The empiric pedants are no exception to this rule.

[krsna]

The plain meaning of the Shastras should, therefore, be our only guide in the search of the good preceptor when we actually feel the need of his guidance. The Scriptures have defined the good preceptor as one who himself leads the spiritual life.

 

It is not any worldly qualifications that make the good preceptor. It is by unreserved submission to such a preceptor that we can be helped to reenter into the realm that is our real home but which unfortunately is veritable terra incognita to almost all of us at present and also impossible of access to one body and mind alike which is the result of the disease of abuse of our faculty of free reason and the consequent accumulation of a killing load of worldly experiences which we have learnt to regard as the very stuff of our existence.

[krsna]

VAISHNAVISM

—REAL AND APPARENT—

 

Foreword in the First Edition

 

by Sri Srimad Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura Prabhupada

 

(3rd August, 1926)

 

This brochure contains the essence of true Vaishnavism as revealed in the Vedas, the

Upanishads, the Geeta, the Bhagavata etc., and their teachings put into practice by Shri

Chaitanya Deva.

 

Four things may stand in the way of realising the truth laid herein -

the cloaks

of (high, or low) birth and station,

(proficiency or deficiency in) worldly knowledge,

and

(beautiful or ugly, male or female) form.

 

The Over-soul within Whom all individual souls are

contained and to Whom all souls knowingly or unknowingly submit, confutes our tricks-and

talents. The words for every soul who speaks from that life must sound vain to those who do

not dwell in the same thought on their own art.

 

When the walls of time and space are taken

away we lie on one side to the boundless deeps of spiritual nature and attributes of the Supreme

Lord, find that there is another youth and another age than that which is measured from the

year of our worldly birth and realise that the scale of the soul is one and the scale of the sens-

es and, understanding - the agents of the material mind - is another.

[krsna]

The soul in man is not the mind directing the organs of sense and action but the animation of the mind and these organs and the background of our existence.

 

The angle of vision

between these individual souls and the Over-soul is one and the same everywhere, whereas

there is a distinctive variety and multiplicity of the angles of vision between the material minds

and the world of the senses.

 

These lines will probably create a desire to know in all details the essential nature of the

Eternal or Absolute Truth and prompt an honest and sincere enquiry in all who will go

through them.

 

His Divine Holiness Paramahamsa Paribrajakacharya Shri Shrimat

Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Maharaja, the President-Acharya and Organiser-in-chief of

the Viswa-Vaishnava-Raja Sabha is ever ready to send His associated counterparts - ideal devotees to explain at full length the said scriptures in Bengali, Hindi and English in any part of the

world.

 

He has no other work than pouring perpetual benedictions on the suffering humanity

and stopping the perennial springs of triple miseries their flesh is heir to.