A Lecture in Brindaban
Time—22nd Kartic, Friday, Afternoon.
I have no capacity to tend to the feet of the denizens of this holy place. Yet by the grace of Sree Gour Sundar and urged by your good wishes, I stand here to speak only if I may thereby serve the servants of Sree Gauranga. Indeed if we can truly serve the feet of the devotees of Sri Gauranga, by whose graceful glance alone all desires, hopes and aims in life are easily fulfilled, then that will be a crowning achievement.
We are proud of our ego. We are either given to judge sinful and pious acts or think how we can lord it over others by acquiring power. These all base self-glorifications. But one devoted to Gauranga says that all desires actuating every object from the pillar to the highest being (Brahma), all labour for worldly possessions, all longing for enjoyment and every kind of renunciation after satiety, are all pseudo-existent and evanescent i.e., subject to change and time. When we lose anything so acquired life seems to be vacant and useless. But it is quite futile to try to straighten the tail of a dog.—such being the end of all enjoyments in the fourteen spheres. All pleasures acquired as the fruits of worldly work are transitory.
Carried away by sense-perceptions of eye, ear, touch, taste and sound we turn into ego-worshippers. In this state the pure activity of the soul lies dormant. Then we also desire the pleasure in heaven. And when such ideas are strong in us we err by identifying ourselves with this mind which thus seems to be the enjoyer of the things of this world. This propensity for selfish enjoyment deadens the pure function of the Soul.
But the Soul knows that Sree Krishna is the One Absolute Truth.
Sree Narayana is the embodiment of His Majesty. Narayana though is the ultimate source of the Absolute Truth, Krishna’s transcendent designation, form, qualities, and sportive activities excel Narayana’s Majesty by His display of sweetening Beauty. In Krishna the fullest majesty is mellowed by the most delicious sweetness which predominates. When we do not know all these and forget our true selves we cannot understand the activities of a Vaisnava and the transcendental truth underlying such activities, and so give ourselves up to wordly enmity and friendship, taking things transitory and illusory as eternal and real.
Secondly, Krishna is completely all-cognisant. Material objects are not self-conscious. God is ever existent. It is, indeed, through mistake that we consider ourselves as Brahman. It is only then that such useless arguments for the efacement of all super-sensuous diversity or variety in Absolute Truth take hold of us. The function of the spirit is clogged and our minds run after worldly enjoyment. The materialised mind thinks that sensual enjoyment is obtained at Krishna’s feet. But at the feet of Krishna everything is spiritual and so not an object for the gratification of our senses. When truth is obscured in us carried away by egoistic tendencies we take things material as of the spirit.
Krishna is bliss. In Him dwells perfect Joy—He is the embodiment of it. Sensual knowledge or joy is not perfect;—there-in all our longings are not realised. Under the spell of sense perceptions we imagine that there might be unalloyed happiness in ego-worship or in the kaibalya state of Patanjali.
All seeking after joy is the function of the soul. When the desire for joy wakes up in our minds we commit a blunder in running after worldly objects and enjoyment. It is only when we receive a spiritual sight of Krishna that we understand that His service must of necessity, be the sole aim in life. As long as we thus hanker after our own pleasures we try to enjoy the world through the senses and are given to hollow argumentation. But this world is not made for our enjoyment. When spiritual bliss will appear in us like the incessant flow of oil then shall we be truly tied to the feet of Krishna.
Such numerical variety as that of one two and three exists only in worldly diversity. This diversity acquires a certain inexpressible sameness in the world of spirit. Then we can appreciate that Krishna alone is the eternal Truth Absolute. When the very existence of Truth and sensiency in our own selves become solely relative to Him only then we are established in our real normal state.
At present many false meanings have been imported into the word devotion. Regard for one’s parents, loyalty to man, obedience to the teacher, etc. pass as Bhakti. But the root means ‘to serve.’ If we do not clearly judge as to what must be the medium of that service then it is sure to be misapplied. As Chaitanya Chandramrita sings.
(verse in Sanskrit)
This is the quarrelling age. The senses, which are our enemies, are now very powerful; and crores of thorns choke the path of pure Bhakti. I am quite at a loss to know what I shall do or where I shall go unless Chaitanya Chandra shows mercy unto me.
We live in the Kaliyuga—this is an age of strife. So it happens that the self-luminous path of pure devotion is completely covered up with millions of thorns in the shape of foolish argumentations and wordy wranglings. In these circumstances it is absolutely impossible to have the knowledge of pure devotion without the mercy of Chaitanya Chandra. Sree Chaitanya Chandra is Krishna Himself. He is the God-head. We cannot know God by the exertions of our senses. As the Katha Upanishad says: —
(verse in Sanskrit)
The knowledge about the all-embracing Oversoul cannot be attained either through reasoning, argumentations or hearing the Vedas; only to him does He manifest His person whom He accepts.
God-head is eternal. We cannot attain to Him unless we realise He is bliss Himself. One confined within his psychic range in a hundred ways, cannot know what God is and so accepts things other than God as objects of his worship. Unable to understand the true subject and object of enjoyment, as well as the nature of enjoyment itself he imagines the world as created to afford him every kind of pleasure. This materialised mind strives only after selfish enjoyment. By this fleshy form we cannot serve Krishna. It is possible only in spirit. The atomic theory of the world knows nothing of that service.
In the variety of His manifestations Absolute Truth Himself is to be determined from Narayana. In Krishna exists Narayana Who is His Majestic form. Baladeva is the manifestation of His Self. He is the all-pervading Over-soul. With the revelation of the function of supreme knowledge in our soul, we come to know that Krishna is the Absolute Truth. He is also perfect bliss, reverence does not stand in His way. Intimate service cannot be rendered if one is actuated by reverence. Yet Krishna is the eternal object of the devotees’ whole-hearted service. But He is to be served with the ever-existent senses of the soul. We cannot serve Him through imagination or sentiment. Super-sensuous knowledge of our relation with Him is essential. There is no-body whom I can call my own except one who is solely devoted to Krishna. Krishna alone is the one object of my service. This faith is the one glory of the Vaisnava. This is the supreme necessity of life. Material fame full of the idea of selfish enjoyment is never desirable.
Time is running short. The time for the evening wave-offering ceremony is drawing nigh. I must no longer encroach upon your time of service. If it be Krishna’s wish I shall again try to serve you. A thousand obeisances at the feet of the devotees of Krishna.
The Special Characteristics of the Acharyya
[BY PROF. NISHI KANTA SANYAL, M.A.,]
(Continued from P.17, June, 1928.)
It was only with the object of effecting the descent everywhere of this un-alloyed kirtan of Krishna or the Image of the Divine Logos Sri Radha-Govinda that Sri Gaursundar, the crest-jewel of all the Acharyyas, the transcendental Truth Itself, manifested the lila of the simultaneous practice and preaching of the Word of God. If we try to understand with a patient mind the practice and preaching of Sri Gaursundar and His followers, buttressed on the kirtan of Krishna, for giving away freely to all the World the spiritually sportive Divine Pair, the Image of the Divine Logos, we notice that all of them in their performances as Archaryyas exhibited the ideal of two distinct methods of preaching that were considered to be suitable for all people, both the illiterate and the highly educated, irrespective of varna, asrama, age, sex or race.
The first of these methods is that which was adopted by the group of preachers to which belong the six Goswamins viz. Sri Rupa etc, who, while practising discriminative asceticism, employed themselves in the composition of a number of devotional works and by such means served to bring about the descent of the Image of the Divine Logos. These books establish the superiority, over all other forms of worship, of the loving service of the spiritually sportive Divine Pair, Sri Radha-Govinda, Who are the Objects of the eternal worship of all. They refute the fallacious theories of atheists that are opposed to such devotion. They have made feasible the establishment of Vaishnava, daiva or theistic social order by the codification of the spiritual Smritis. These Acharyyas identified and restored the neglected holy sites and the worship in them of Vishnu which had fallen into abeyance and rescued from oblivion the ancient scriptural works. They also set up Maths and Temples as places of constant service of the Brahman in the form of the Word.
Sri Rupa Goswamin was authorized by Sri Chaitanya Deva to treat the subject of devotion, lit with the brilliance of the most exquisite deliciousness, in his works viz. the Bhaktirasamritasindhu and the Ujjvala, having Himself taught him the splendour of His own devotion and thereby formally recognising him as the premier Acharyya of the principle of devotion who is to be obeyed by the whole community of His servants. Previously to this Sri Chaitanya Deva had illustrated by listening from Sri Ramananda Rai to very similar teaching the process of spiritual practice thereby vindicating the glory of the good preceptor who is constantly and actively engaged in carrying out the wishes of Sri Radha-Govinda, and also the extreme difficulty of finding such preceptor. Sri Raghunath Goswamin, the follower of Sri Rupa, was similarly declared the Acharyya of the object of devotion to God; Sri Jiva Goswamin was made the Acharyya of our relationship with God and also of regulated devotion; Sri Raghunath Bhatta Goswamin was made the Acharyya as regards the study of the Bhagabat and Sri Gopal Bhatta the Acharyya of Vishnavite Smriti.
The second method of propaganda took the form of door to door preaching in pursuance of the practice of wandering Teachers. To the group that followed this method belonged Sri Nityananda, Thakur Haridas, Sri Bakreswar Pandit and other preachers. They set the example of the ideal of non-evil-producing kindness in the form of cultivation constant devotion to the Brahman as the Word, which brings about the destruction of the opinions of the atheist which are, as it were, the seed of nescience that causes aversion to God, awakens every man to his own proper nature pursuing the function of a Brahman, i.e. of one who really knows the Brahman, who is deserving of universal reverence as the master to be obeyed by the whole world, and, exhibiting the endeavour of effecting happiness by the constant exercise of their voice at a high pitch in order to spread the thirst for the service of the Holy Name,—the expression of Sri Radha-Govinda which is identical with the thing expressed,—above, below and in all the ten directions of the universe. In the role of a Tridanda Goswamin, Srila Probodhananda Saraswati, the undeclared friend of Sri Rupa, has demonstrated the ideal of this form of preaching in his work the ‘Sri Chaitanyachandramrita’ and ‘Sri Radharasasudhanidhi’. Subsequently Srila Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswamin Prabhu in his Sri Chaitanya Charitamrita has elaborated this form of service viz. this worship of the ‘Word Divine’ conformably to the teaching of Sri Rupa. After him the three Prabhus Sri Srinibash, Sri Narottam and Sri Shyamananda spread among the people in general this form of the worship of the holy Image of God, the Object of expression, as taught by Sri Rupa, even more strikingly by the method of dance, song and music than by composition of literary works. The two Prabhus Srila Viswanath Chakrvarti Thakur and Sri Baladeva Vidyabhusan, by reverting to the method of expounding the principles of devotion in their books, upheld the form of service of Hari by dance, song and music as practised by their preceptors. As a matter of fact it was when by reason of the abuse of dance, song and music, this method of the Divine service degenerated into the dissipation of art and stupidity that these two Acharyyas revealed the teaching of Sri Rupa by opening the sealed eyes of the people by the publication of a great variety of original dissertations as also the older Scriptures embodying the true principles in support of the school of pure devotion.
The next two centuries constitute the Dark Age of Gauda. A black curtain was drawn across the front of the stage on which had been played the Divine drama of the Rise of the Moon of Sri Chaitanya. The most astounding vagaries of the Arch-Enchantress—Maya were now depicted on this dark screen and served to delude and amuse the sensuous minds of the spectators. Foul subjects set forth by ill-assorted airs and long drawn tunes were exhibited as the samkirtan of Krishna. The gross and ugly lure of worldly subjects and selfish enjoyment was offered and accepted as the object of life, in place of the sublime teachings of Sri Rupa.
In place of true religion that assures every well-being was offered a system that was most cunningly devised by its manufactures to secure for themselves an easy abundance of the good things of this world. The practice of trade in the convenient garb of a sadhu was passed off as the service of God that neither extorts nor desires any earthly remuneration as its return. The hearing and the chanting of the Name of Hari was simulated for the purpose of deceiving people and for widening the scope of the operation of sinful propensities. The result was soon evident. The hollow form of the claims of birth soon failed to have any terrors for the educated classes. The works of the six Goswamis and the truths established and promulgated by Sriman Mahaprabhu were stowed away with scant regard as the contents of sealed boxes and moth-eaten piles, or were contemptuously handled as merchandise of commerce by trades-men. Anything of the nature of the rationale of devotion had no existence anywhere. The free speculations of the human mind or even licence was regarded as religion. As the result of the mechanical imitation of the highest ideal, the source of the religion, there soon sprang up the noxious sects of aul, baul, kartabhaja, nera-neri, etc., etc., bent upon passing off as the real religion its perverted and highly-condemned shadow and thereby proclaiming as the religion of the Vaishnavas something which stank in the nostrils of and was spat upon by even the ordinary godless moral people. Men were all the more emboldened to commit sinful acts by the assurance that the holy Name had power to absolve from sin. They cherished the false ego and its earthly possessions, indulged in the denunciation of the true devotees, regarded the minor gods as independent deities and imagined that the worship of the holy Name of God was equal, or even inferior, to the system of morals in the forms of worldly activities and secular knowledge. It was an age of the caricature of the Brahman ideal and gave rise to the class of so-called Brahmans who assiduously imitated the external conduct of the highest sadhus who cherish no malice against any body. New Avatars were manufactured in this world in imitation of Sriman Mahaprabhu, the Real Truth,—whose doings were like the antics of the sparrow that aspired to dance in emulation of the graceful performance of the khanjan. There was a most strenuous attempt to mix up the spiritual and the material by magicians who advocated the reconciliation of all differences; and lured by the bait of this promise of harmony, that had as much reality as is possessed by the aerial flowers, all the people borne along on the current of masked atheism sank deeper and deeper into the bottomless abyss of the deadly ocean of intangible abstraction. Numberless men and women hailed as religion and liberalism such temporary excitement for the commission of useless suicide. Another class of people caught in the murderous jaws of the demoness of foreign culture, manners and customs and bad system of education, set themselves to improvise a variety of novel creeds. Under the dominating influence of this imported impulse a few raised the cry of a new latitudinarianism; some proclaimed the character of Krishna as the type of obscenity; some judged Mahaprabhu as having been guilty of transgressing against the law of duty and even considered that He was of an unsound mind; while others out of pity condescended to recognise Mahaprabhu as having possessed a personality that would certainly mark Him out as a man among ten of the people of this world. Some refused to bestow their serious consideration on the Vaishnava religion regarding it as the glorification of sentimentality, stupidity and immorality. There were found persons who declared the Vaishnava religion to be the worship of man, idolatry or even as the worship of the Devil. Some proved Vaisnavism to be the perversion either of Buddhism or of the Samkhya philosophy. Some affected to view it as a petty creed, limited to an exclusive body of people, made by small persons,—under the impression that the ordinary activities of the mind and the body constitute the eternal and universal religion. Some actually tried to strangle to death the religion of the Vaishnavas imagining that the Vaishnava religion which professes the reality of the supreme spiritual harmony was opposed to the principle of comprehension and to varnasrama dharma. It was while this darkness brooded over the realm of Gauda that Thakur Sri Bhiktivinode set to work to terminate this long night of terrible gloom and inaugurate a white auspicious dawn in the circle of Navadwip.
(To be continued.)