Foreword.
Centuries roll by and in the myriad cycles of happenings, nothing endures
unless attuned to the revelation of the Absolute. The events of the
phenomenal world rise and sink in their flow, unsung and uncared for
until some revelation with transcendent outlook appears beacon-like
amongst them. In the History of the world there have been such upheavals
that attracted the attention of all. Man was never slow in these circumstances
to acclaim and greet these phenomena in the terms of his own cultural
measure, cognate to his soul.
Asia, the home of ancient faiths, had to her credit revelations that
had always worked for the redemption of humanity. In course of time
the ancient faiths got out of their gear in their march across the sands
of time and space, and in India, the home of world religions, they seemed
with their stereotyped formulas and rigid intellectual settings, almost
misnomers.
The word 'Veda' is derived from the root 'vid', meaning to know and
feel. The Vedas are Self revealed extensive Divine Words. They make
known the religion and the Paratattva. They come down from Eternity
through the lips of the genuine devotees of the Supreme Lord, Sri Krishna,
the Cause of all causes.
In the Vedas Sri Vishnu is Paratattva, the Prime Cause, and the Religion
relating to Him is Vaishnavism as revealed in the Vedas, Upanishads
and Srimad Bhagavatam. This brochure on Vaishnavism, as propounded,
propagated an practised by Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, is a synthesis
of various schools of Vedic religions which got their meeting ground
of Divine Personality in human form and limitations, as if the divine
teachings of the most sacred book, Srimad Bhagavatam, embodied themselves
in His Life and holy precepts translated into examples in His Career.
The readers will have a glimpse of the sayings of the Scriptures in
it, being written by a true devotee with a soul dedicated to the divine
Lotus Feet of Sri Gurudeva and the Supreme Lord.
It is noticed that the Vedas at one place speak of 'Dharma', and at
another of 'Karma', at a third place of 'Sankhya' or 'Jnana', and of
'Bhakti' in the end, dealing with each elaborately. It is difficult
to study the vast lore of the Scriptures to determine the gradual steps
to be followed by a man of this Iron Age, when life is short and intellect
limited. So a succinct, simple, scientific and definite course of Vedic
principles has been the crying need of the humanity from time beyond
memory.
To begin with: At the command of my revered Guide, out of his affection
for me, a fallen, unworthy soul and humble servitor, in a letter dated
the 20th May 1957 from Puri, I was asked to write a Foreword. I gladly
undertake the service for self-purification, bowing lowly at the Divine
Lotus Feet of our beloved, benign Divine Master Om Vishnupada Paramahamsa
Srimad Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Goswami Prabhupad of revered memory
and at the Holy Lotus Feet of my Guide His Holiness Srimad Bhakti Kevala
Audulomi Maharaj, present President Acarya of Gaudiya Mission, with
prayers for Bliss and Beatitude of the Divine Couple, following the
track as laid down by Sri Srila Kaviraja Goswamipada in the verse: "I
meditate on Sri Sri Radha and Srila Govindadeva Who are seated on a
Throne in a Mansion bedecked with gems under a purpose yielding tree
in Vrindabana and are being served by Their loving confidential attendants.
May the Supreme Lord Sri Gopinatha confer on us the Blessings and Beatitude,
Who inaugurated the Divine Rasa Revels by attracting the damsels of
Vraja by the captivating tune of His Flute, having His seat at the foot
of Sri Vanshivata tree."
The existence of Sri Sri Viswa- Vaishnava Raj-Sabha traces down from
the time of Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu or from a time immediately
after His Ascension, as it has its reference in Sri Bhagavata Sandarbha
of Srila Jiva Goswamipada. It is a Society of pure devotees started
by Srila Rupa Goswamipada for the welfare and benefit of honest and
sincere seekers of Truth and to preserve and maintain the Divine Messages
of the Prophet untarnished. In the present day when the Truth was groaning
in the hands of numerous false persons such as Mayavadins, Panchopasakas,
Polytheists, Atheists and Sceptics, who are given to their own pleasure-seeking
propensities, His Divine Grace Srila Thakur Bhakti-Vinode appeared in
the scene as a Great pioneer of the Chaitanya-movement and reinstated
its pristine glory to its fullest, which is being represented by Gaudiya
Mission. Srila Thakur Bhakti-Vinode entrusted the guidance of the movement
of unalloyed devotion to His Successor Om Vishnupada Paramahamsa Srimad
Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Goswami Prabhupada, who on a bigger scale
in India and abroad, continued the works to revive in the minds of sincere
souls the eternal spirit of love unalloyed and true devotion to the
Absolute Godhead Sri Gaura-Krishna.
Srila Thakur Bhakti Vinode had intense desire to propagate the Teachings
of Sriman Mahaprabhu in all the languages of the world. He was anxious
to use especially English language as medium for making the messages
known to the intelligentsia all over the world. In order to translate
it into action, Srila Prabhupada sent out His preachers to the west
to cultivate a friendly feeling of good-will and reciprocal spiritual
understanding between the people of East and West, because it is the
Divine Love alone that can establish unmixed peace in this world and
it is on this transcendental plane of unalloyed love and unalloyed divine
service that the union is feasible. This consummation is in progress
in the shape of expanding activities of Gaudiya Mission. It is hoped
that the religion of Divine Love would survive and the new renaissance
would enlighten a wider horizon.
Men of culture are often found to devote themselves in acquiring knowledge
of various subjects which would serve their needs. So all readers are
not in the same line of thoughts. The scrutinizers and mental speculationists
sail on different boats. Consequently results derivable by their senses
differ.
The writer of the booklet has got the prime object of furnishing a proper
status on Vaishnavism dealing with its real and apparent aspects, the
study of which may generate a better understanding among the readers.
His ambition is to remove the deteriorated mentality of the so called
culturists of the Truth. But the readers have different ways of utilising
the product of their enterprise of perusing books. One class of readers
is fond of criticising the merits and demerits to establish their superiority;
another class is observed to think over the subject matter for gratification
of their curiosity; whereas a third section of the readers means to
profit by reading the book in order to regulate their life for attaining
a better purpose.
The busy people of the world have decided that the gratification of
senses should be essential aim of their enterprises here as well as
in the next world. So they have deemed it fit to adopt the principle
of an ethical religion, supplying their wants and to fulfill whatever
they are in need of. But the Supreme Lord Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu
has encouraged neither the enjoying elevationists nor the renouncing
salvationists. He has prescribed the pure theistic thought of spiritual
devotion to the Personality of the Absolute by loving function of unalloyed
souls, instead of plunging into the ocean of miseries.
The author gives a true aspect of Vaishnavism and tries to formulate
a contrast with seemingly apparent things with strictness and delineates
clearly the offences and errors which have crept in. The transcendental
love should never be compared with the lustful mundane position of an
enjoyer. Prema reaches its acme in consorthood and in neutrality. So
the amorous transcendental love has no comparison with other loving
affinities.
The Truth is not attainable by reasoning available to our finite capacities.
The only way is to submit to the Divine Master, Sadhu or Sad Guru, Who
is in the region beyond time and space by self effacement and surrender
absolutely to the Supreme Lord. Such a personality is rare on the face
of the globe. It is a privilege to us in being able to present before
our readers this booklet from the pen of one who answers the above propositions
though of high lineage possessed of wealth, erudition and beauty. He
was Professor Nishi Kanta Sanyal M.A. alias Mahamaho-padeshaka Sripada
Narayandas Adhikari Bhakti-sudhakar, Bhaktisastri. Sampradayavaibhacharya,
Late Secretary, Gaudiya Mission.
In these days when people being tired of warfare, worries and scarcity
of amenities are looking forward with a keen desire to appetise the
hunger for peace, the brochure based on pure Religion and Truth may
sound as a clarion call to revise the prevalent sordid ways and means
and to awaken mankind to life of unity, fraternity and Divinity. The
feeble attempts to reprint and publish the booklet will be considered
a successful enterprise, if it paves the way to such a happy realm.
Bhababandhachhid Das Adhikari.
Real and Apparent Jiva
'Apparent jiva.' When I read this expression for the first time, I
felt it was very strong and clear. It defines very nicely the position
of the bounded jiva, who thinks, as in a dream, that she is really conscious
about her environment, her real goodness; that she is correctly perceiving
and feeling, learning and loving. But nothing of this really happens.
Indeed, as a diseased body always feels pain, in the same way the diseased
'apparent jiva' is always suffering continuous anxiety; janma-mrtyu-jara-vyadhi-dukha-dosanudarsanam,
as Krishna says in Bhagavad-gita. Much different is the situation of
the real jiva, because, as Srila Sridhar Maharaj says, the real or liberated
jiva becomes 'siva', or full of auspiciousness. Satyam, Sivam, Sundaram.
Apparent jiva means apparent existence, apparent knowledge and apparent
bliss. Atheistic existentialists like Sartre and Russel tried to sustain
this apparent jiva or apparent existence as to be all in all. And in
doing so, they denied the existence of God. But to the surprise of every
good thinking people, they found that what they were so carefully trying
to support, had really no reason to be! "Everything is chaotic
and with no purpose", they concluded. Asatyam apratistham te/jagad
ahur anisvaram, as Lord Krishna had just anticipated this auric thought
before them. Actually these philosophers are right, because existence
without God has no purpose at all. That is what they are declaring but
without really willing to say so.
Srila B.R. Sridhara Maharaj very nicely explains that both existence
and consciousness are not independent; both of them are looking for
ecstasy. "Existence without consciousness", he says, "is
with no purpose, and consciousness again is looking for its greatest
fortune, this is Akhila-rasamrta-murti, the Supreme Lord full of sublime
rasa." Following this explanation of Srila Sridhar Maharaj we can
conclude that we are in the land of non-existence, because here every
sense object is trying to cover our real enlivening spiritual self,
and everything here is carrying us to some miserable condition, full
of lust, pride, anger and aparadha.
Also in this place, the apparent knowledge that can be obtained pushes
followers to atheistic ideas or to the formless brahman, making them
think that they have become the Supreme... rightly so: the Supreme non-existent
being! In this way we can see that the finest independent thoughts in
this world, coming from the atheists or mayavadis, lead us to the conceptions
that devours our spiritual consciousness, and puts us into the dark
stomach of the 'apparent existence' for the 'apparent jiva'. Spiritual
advancement forces the soul to union. As Sri Krishna says in Bhagavad-gita,
the illuminated sage can see even the trees and animals as pertaining
to the same general spiritual family. At the same time there is variety,
and every soul is unique by her own, in this way the principle of bheda-abheda-tattva
can be applied more and more.
When our Gurudeva gives us a task, it is for an infinite interest, and
always related to the Absolute Good. I humbly think that our common
attempt to re-establish this VVRS is being seen with pleasure by our
great predecessors. Only the mercy of all joined Vaishnavas in good
and universal spirit, can create such a wave as to put everybody out
from this land of apathy, and can bring them into the 'guru-land', the
Vaishnava-land which pertains to the merciful para-dukha-dukhis. Our
president of the VVRS, Pujapad Srila Bhakti Promode Puri Maharaj, said
that even the creators of modern technology get benefits, ajnata-sukrti,
when the Vaishnavas utilise these things in the service of the Lord.
In this way, only Vaishnavas can give a real purpose to everything that
exist..
In Srimad Bhagavatam, Srila Vyasadev invites everyone, especially the
thoughtful men, to come and taste the ripened fruit of the best of all
Vedic literature. Karmis, on their own, cannot go above the miserable
life of cats and dogs; and mayavadis --trying by themselves to catch
the Absolute Truth-- when they finally jump into it as powerful conquerors,
find that nothing was left for them: only an empty room, where somebody
forgot to turn out the light.
In this way we can see that in the world of the apparent jiva, her apparent
knowledge is an enemy that takes us to voidness. We also can see that
when the apparent jiva looks for her own interest and pleasures, she
tries to deny the value and even the existence of other souls, (also
of others spiritual institutions and real Acaryas), and in that way
they become selfish, condemned to solitude and imprisoned by lust; this
lust transforms us into the enemy of our selves and others.
Now, if we come to analyse the real jiva, we rightly conclude that real
existence must be something positive. Again the words of Srila Sridhara
Maharaj explain to us about this superior land as being full of guardians
and well-wishers. This is the 'land of gurus', as he says. All of them
are pushing us up, showing us the nectarine and blissful experience
of the soul, the real jiva, in the service of his beloved Lord. All
of them are our gurus and in that place we can surrender ourselves to
our fullest in confidence and happiness.
In remembering this nice explanation about that land of gurus, I feel
in some way or other, a link between that place and our Visva-Vaisnava
Raj-Sabha, because one of its main purposes is to present to the world
that here already we have a land of gurus, a friendly land, ready to
help the suffering souls. There is a great force, the great glance of
merciful Vaishnavas who assembled, as in Naimisaranya, in order to discuss
how to go on with the sublime order of Mahaprabhu and become saviours,
positive particles who deliver divya-jnana and the way to suddha-bhakti
to all the fallen souls.
People all over the world really need to see this union. Real union
in the midst of individual diversity. Each one of us with his own sentiments
and serving his gurus to his hearts content; but at the same time with
the feeling that we are still a bigger family, the family of all Vaishnavas,
those who proclaim right and left that krsnas tu bhagavan svayam, and
na me bhakta-pranasyati.
This union is of a fundamental need, o brothers, please, we must try
to take full consideration of this point. Everywhere people are not
enthusiastic because they don't see a nice camp where many spiritual
realised souls participate together. They cannot really discern which
religion is the main science that will bring humanity to real brotherhood.
I humbly think and feel also that this Visva-Vaisnava Raj-Sabha, established
previously by our Acaryas, is an important way to achieve greater realisations
in the sambhanda-jnana camp, who alone can save people from the level
of non-existence, that is, the level of egotism. We know, this is the
only wish of all pure Vaishnavas, from Prahlad Maharaj and before, until
nowadays, to take everyone to the real spiritual realm, to the Lotus
Feet of the Lord.
So masters and brothers, in this VVRS magazine by which I have now the
opportunity to relate to all of you, jewels at the lotus feet of Srila
Prabhupad, I pray to the Supreme Will of the Lord to maintain us united
in the universal spirit, as is envisioned by the jagad-guru, and work
together in the sublime para-dharma activity of carrying the 'apparent
jiva' to her natural position as the ecstatic sweet servant: the real
jiva!
Praying for the fortune to be your servant, remaining at your lotus
feet,
Sripad Atulananda Das.
The bondage of jiva
Jivas are of two kinds. (1) Nitya-mukta (eternally free), and (2) Nitya-baddha
(eternally enslaved). Free jivas are never enslaved. They are serving
the Supreme God in five different functions in His eternal abode, where
there is no change, no destruction, no misery. A Jiva onces entered
there never comes back here. The inconceivable narrowest line of demarcation
between land and water is called Tata; so also the meeting line of the
Chit world [the eternal abode of the Supreme Lord], and the AChit world
[the region of Maya] is called Tata. The power of the Supreme Lord displayed
at the Tata is known as the Tata-stha (Lying at the Tata) or marginal
power. All the jivas being the display of this power have the inherent
oscillating tendency and capebility of going to the Chit or the Achit
world. Since Tata is not being a resting place, jivas must go this side
or that; those preferring the Achit, fall into the clutches of the octopus
Maya, when these mortal costumes of mind and body are put on him as
punishment. The satanic frenzy in which the jiva dislikes the blissful
and eternal service of his master and prefers to qench his thirstful
desires of enjoying matter, opens before him a perpetual spring of liquid
fire and poison at which he begins to drink deep. Thus in going to Lord
it over maya, jiva became enslaved by her.
B.B. Bodhayan Maharaj
Daya or kindness to jiva
One apparent jiva considers himself (mentally and physically) less
distressed than another jiva, feels for her distress and does something
in the shape of relief or redress. This is but stopping or diminishing
the un-ending miseries partly, locally or temporarily. It is frequently
seen that a jiva who feels aggrieved and consequently abstains from
commiting wrong owing to weakness or inability, recovers, at such relief,
strength or ability, enough to commit wrong to other jivas. So it often
happens that such apparently kind services not only bring harm to the
recipient but cause indirect injuried to others. This is one aspect
of the thing. Let us turn to the other. As a gardener prunes a growing
tree, allowing its root to grow freely and easily, as a physician treats
a patient leaving the prime disease undisturbed, so this sort of temporary
kindness stops, no doubt, the growth of the present inconveniences for
a while, but in no way uproots the cause whence all these afflictions
arise. This cause has been identified by the enslaved condition of the
jivas. So real and permanent kindness consists in bringing before the
enslaved jiva a true and vivid picture of their natural, free and blissful
existence and reinstating them in their true position. Thus real kindness
is applicable to the real jiva, and apparent kindness to the apparent
jiva.
Sripad Tirtha Prada Prabhu
The characteristic defects of
the mind
As the Indian sages have realized from time immemorial, the mind belongs
to the subtle plane of the deformed reality of material nature, and
is therefore to be understood as distinct from our real spiritual nature:
the jivatma or individual soul. As everything evolves from the subtle
to the gross, we can understand that our sense-perception -being at
a lower stage interconnected with the mind- is liable to misrepresent
reality as well. Our material telescopes are simply magnifying the defect
of our own eyes.
The mind and soul are hostile to each other. There is an eternal enemity
between them. In the soul the four characteristic errors of the defectable
mind are totally wanting viz., (1) mistaking the mirage for water, the
rope for the serpant; (2) misapprehensive intoxication; (3) knowing
things with imperfect senses; (4) deceiving itself and others. As the
horse can not hold its own reins, so the mind can not guide itself-
it is ever being guided by an unending and unsatiable bundle of desires
in the shape of enjoyment or indifference -of doing good or evil. A
mind can more easily hold a wolf by the ears than steady itself in spiritual
experience.
Beware of this mind which, like a bad guide, appears before you and
others in sheep's clothing with all the ferocity of a raving wolf and
like a professional running thief crying "thief, thief". We
have to control the mind from within, from the more subtle plane of
intelligence. Our intelligence will guide us to engage the mind in usefull
service activities under a realised soul, such as sravanam, kirtanam,
and smaranam. This will cleanse our consciousnees from material lust
and desires, and there will be no more time for the mind to go wandering
of on its own.
Sripad Bharati Maharaj
Two minds, material and spiritual
The mind can never sit idle. It will either create a hell out of heaven
or a heaven out of hell. It is like a drift wood floating on the ebb
and flow of good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice. Every mind
has its own way of looking at things; so what the one mind establishes,
the other destroys. Nay the same mind rejects today what it accepted
yesterday, as every life is a series of suprises or experiences. The
things one now regards as fixed, shall one by one detach themselves,
like ripe fruits from ones experience and fall. The wind shall blow
them, none knows whither- the landscape, the figures, Calcutta, London,
New York, the Royal Throne, the Presidential Chair- are as facts as
fugitive as any institution past or any whiff of mist or smoke, and
so is the society and so is the world. The proverb goes, "Today
king, tomorrow nothing."
B.V. Sagar Maharaj
Supplication of the spiritual mind
Supplication of the spiritual mind is called smaranam. Yet before we
can consider the process of supplication, we must first determine what
makes a mind spiritual. Sri Chaitanya told Sanatana Goswami that at
the time of initiation the disciple receives a spiritual body. If one
takes this as a reference either to the sadhaka deha or the siddha deha,
the conclusion is the same. Once a devotee is initiated, his body, and
therefor his mind as well, become spiritual in proportion to his surrender.
With the watering of the seed of bhakti through hearing and chanting
(sravanadi), as one's consciousness becomes pure (suddha citte), one
can remember Krsna constantly, thus awakening prema (karaya uday). This
smaranam or remembrance is the perfection of life, ante narayana smriti,
and it is thus the sum and substance of all proscriptions and prohibitions,
smatavyam satatam visnor vismartavya na jatucit sarva viddhi niseda
syur etayor iva kinkara.
Smaranam follows hearing (sravanam) and chanting (kirtanam). It is nourished
by them,
and it is their fruit. In all four citings in the Bhagavatam in which
hearing, chanting and remembering are mentioned together, the three
appear in this order: hearing, chanting and remembering. Sage Prabhuddha
repies to King Nimi sravanam kirtanam dhyanam (smaranam). Prahlada tells
his father that the best thing he has learned is sravanam kirtanam visnoh
smaranam. Sukadeva Goswami at the outset of his speech advises Maharaj
Pariksit srotavyah kirtitavyas ca smartavyas, and again in the second
canto he reiterates the same, srotavyah kirtatavyas ca smartavyo.
Hearing brings knowledge of the teachings and aquaintance with the lilas
of Krsna. It awakens sraddha and a taste of liking for Krsna. One cannot
proclaim his faith without having heard about Krsna from an authority.
Only after hearing can one chant. Nor can one remember Krsna without
having first heard about him. Hearing thus proceeds chanting and remembering.
In order to appreciate this development, we can view it as movement
from passive to active engagement, the latter being a developmental
stage of the former.
The activity of chanting develops from passive hearing. Hearing is also
an activity, and hearing attentively more so. Yet when hearing gives
rise to chanting, even the most active or attentive hearing is passive
in comparison to hari katha. While chanting is active in comparison
to hearing, it only appears to be more active than remembering. Smaranam
for Gaudiya Vaisnavas is not passive contemplation, rather active meditation
and visualization that the activity of chanting lends support to. Through
smaranam supported by kirtanam the devotee well aquainted with the parameters
of rasa tattva "creates" through his meditation "his
own reality" within the eternal lila of Radha Krsna. When this
perfectional stage is reached, supplication of the spiritual mind is
complete.
B.V. Tripurari Maharaj
Chaitanya Deva as a Gardener
Devotion, the inner life of the soul, was the flag of Chaitanya's selfless
movement of divine love. This very embodiment of bhakti gave Himself
freely to the world and, fully concerned with the tree of prema, planned
to distribute its innumerable fruits to one and all without discrimination.
'I am a gardener', He proclaimed emphatically, and in this way displayed
His audarya-lila. Audarya means generosity and His irresitible giving-tendency
makes room for the foundation of the sankirtan movement. So much we
are to learn from His life and character.
In the ninth chapter of Adi-lila, the author of Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita
has devised a figurative example meant to explain the mission of Sri
Chaitanya. He describes bhakti as a plant and Chaitanya as a malakara,
its gardener. By sowing the seed and sprinkling upon it the water of
His desire, Sri Chaitanya took full responsebility of the plant.
The seed was first sown in Navadwip, His birthsite. Then the plant was
brought to Puri and ultimately to Vrindavan. The seed fructified first
in Srila Madhavendra Puri.
ayi dina-dayardra natha he
mathura-natha kadavalokyasc
hrdayam tvad-aloka-kataram
dayita bhramyati kim karomy aham
This verse was originally spoken by Srimati Radharani and afterwards
became manifest in the poetry of Srila Madhavendra Puri, the first preceptor
in the Madhva-sampradaya to introduce the conception of conjugal love
(madhurya-rasa) as the zenith of transcendental exchange with the Supreme
Absolute Reality. Because Krishna had gone to accept the kingdom of
Mathura, in his seperation Sri Radha was very upset and expressed her
emotions to Uddhava in this way: "O merciful master, Lord of Mathura!
When shall I see you again? My heart has become overly agitated. Love,
without you what shall I do now?"(C.c. Madhya 4.197) Sri Radha
had thought, "Dinadayardra left Me for Mathura! He is not here.".
Krsnadas Kaviraj Goswami envisioned Mahaprabhu lodging a complaint.
Sri Chaitanya said, "I am the only gardener, I need help, unable
as I am to pick and distribute all the fruits of the eternal message
of surrender to the Lord of Love. Please, abandon any hesitation due
to a separatistic mentality and be part of my plan." In order to
facilitate the transcendental desire of Sri Chaitanya, the sankirtan
movement was therefore introduced all around the world. Chaitanya's
satisfaction reposed in His awareness that happiness, peace and prosperity
immediately follow for those who naccept the culture of Krsna-bhakti.
Chaitanyadev as a gardener is the wellwisher of the suffering humanity.
His appearance is the most auspicious event for the history of the earth
planet.
Mahaprabhu experienced personally the taste of fruit of prema, and became
totally intoxicated by it. Whoever came in touch with Him became also
bewildered by His uncommon deeds and wonderful symptoms of bliss.
yare dekha, tare kaha krsna upadesha
amara ajnaya guru hana tara ei desha
"Whomever you meet, talk about Krsna. Do not hesitate. Do it now.
Do not underestimate the necessity of Krsna-katha. Start 'relief work'
for the welfare of all. Follow this instruction and I shall be with
you very soon." (Cc. Mad. 7.128-129).
This idea is that when a person receives the seed of devotional service,
he should take care of it. One has to become a gardener, sow the seed
in ones heart and water it daily. By repeating the instructions received
by the spiritual master, the seed will eventually begin to sprout. Weeds
may grow beside the original creeper, but the devotee-gardener must
be expert and cut them down as soon as possible. In this way the devotional
creeper will grow nicely and surely reach the lotus feet of Sri Krsna
in the eternal Vrindavan.
B.V. Parivrajak Maharaj.
Application of real kindness to
jivas
The great master neither organized personally His movement, nor wrote
any works on theology, having entrusted this task to his direct disciples,
the legendary Goswamis of Vrindavan. But His very life of intense religious
emotion proved at once the source and impetus of a great spiritual movement.
Mahaprabhu's line was so rich with various exalted personalities, that
it is impossible to enumerate them all. None of them should be considered
lower or higher. The tenth chapter of the Adi-lila describes the different
branches of the Mahaprabhu tree and it is understood that all of them
gave transcendental pleasure to the Lord. One must be respectful to
all the real followers of Sri Chaitanya. Due to envy and immature discremination,
one may consider a devotee to be very great and an other to be on a
lower platform. This material distinction, however, has no place on
the platform of spiritual exchanges.
Furthurmore, in order to bestow fully His blessings upon everyone, Sri
Chaitanya accepted the holy order of sannyasa. Srila Sridhar Maharaja
has described the Lords rapture in his Sanskrit composition, Sri-Sri
Premadhama-deva-stotram, a harmonious synthesis between poetic beauty
and philosophical depth.
sri- yarisha- bhakta- vesha- radha- desha- charanam
krishna-chaitanyakhya-krishna-nama-jiva-taranam
bhava-vibhramatma-matta dhavamana-bhudharam
prema-dhama-devam eva naumi gaura-sundaram
"In his new robes of a renunciate, Sri Krishna Chaitanya rescued
the living entities by offering them Krishna's holy Names. Maddened
by uncontrollable emotions, He appeared like a golden vulcano erupting
the most inconceivable lava, divine love." (verse 17) Sri Chaitanya's
beauty was greatly enhanced by His delirium. Due to his profound absorption,
sometimes he loudly mispronounced the Name of Krsna, and roared and
laughed. Externally Mahaprabhu was devastated by the lava of his love,
incandescent and glowing, internally He was filled with the greatest
joy. Sri Chaitanya underwent an emotional earthquake, His experience
of Krsna consciousness being most complete and profound.
Sri Chaitanya was not one of the intellectual heroes of this world.
In his self-forgetfulness and surrender, he did not suffer of emotionalism,
like some scholars wish to say. No incompletenes could be found in Him,
which made Him long for anything we find here in the mortal world. With
His marvelous deeds, He celebrated gorgeously His fullness, spreading
in a very liberal way the most profound experience ever possible in
this plane of existence. He opened the seal of the treasure-house and
gave away the wealth of Krsna-prema which is always free from any tinge
of exploitation and intellectualism. Through His life He provided a
remedy against the perverse activities of the soul in his corrupted
state. He shared His bliss with His devotees delivering everyone from
the clutches of maya.
Sripad Bhakti Kumud Shanta Maharaj
disciple of Srila Prabhupada Bhaktisiddhanta
