Published in The Harmonist (Sree Sajjanatoshani)

2

Some people attempt at acquiring heroism through karma; some again strive for fulfilling other desires, some others (jnanis) for culturing Brahman; yet others (yogis) for getting accomplishment of oneness with God. But we know that worships for dharma, artha, kaama or moksha are mere pretences; these are only connected with base selfishness. They have nothing to do with liberated souls, but are only the ravings of conditioned or fettered souls. Lord Shri Chaitanya gave instructions to people all over India to give every one, whom they would come across, advice to worship Krishna. He thus told them to make endeavour for God, even from the positions they were occupying, irrespective of differences of place, time or person. Now to carry out His commandment there is no other course than to cultivate what we have learnt at the lotus-feet of our Shri Gurudeva. The only work for a worshipper of God is to see that His worship increases more and more. Our prayer should ever be that our attachment towards Krishna may become more and more increased. We do not want power and pelf, no cessation of further births.

The special advice that Shri Chaitanya Deva has given us about the easy way of getting rid of desires, so natural to mankind, is nothing more than taking our shelter in devotion. He has said: [1] “The particular vision, i.e., company, of vishayis i.e., persons sunk deep in worldly affairs, and women is much more harmful and fitter for abandonment than even the sipping up of poison for men who are going to serve God having abandoned every worldly attachment with a desire of crossing the ocean of worldliness (samsara).”

One may take poison and die; but one should never keep company with a visayi and vishaya (object of worldly enjoyment). He, who after beginning Hari bhajana (the service of God Hari) becomes entangled with vishaya, is ruined. It is for this reason that we receive the teaching from the lotus-feet of Shri Gurudeva that we have no other duty to perform than doing service to Krishna, His only blessing has been, “May your mind rest in Krishna!”

Shri Mahaprabhu has given the seekers after true well-being the advice to totally shun the company of the emancipationist seekers after oneness with non-distinct Brahman because they are more insincere than those who are desirous of worldly enjoyments. We should shun all such bad company and associate with true Sadhus (devotees of God). Their only duty is to cut through the kinds of accumulated evil designs of jivas; and only this is their natural motiveless desire.

The worldly people generally cherish doubleness of heart or duplicity, speaking out one thing abroad and concealing a different thing inside. And the funny part of it is that they are anxious to present this doubleness of heart to the public as liberality or the virtue of conciliation. These double-tongued men give to the creeds of persons, who are candid and do not adopt duplicity themselves, the designations of sectarianism, bigotry etc. But we should associate only with those who are candid, and not with the others.

The common decision of men, whether discriminative or otherwise, is not identical with Truth. The common sense of the people of blind following, like dumb-drive cattle, is always defective with errors and mistakes produced only by the faculty of the mind, and there may be in it some appearance of truth; but that is only relative or for the time being and no real truth. Human intellect, driven as it is by rajas and tamas cannot penetrate into the deliberations of unmixed sattva guna. So when one gives the advice to add the attempts of jnana, yoga, karma etc., of the world, born of the gunas, to pure Bhakti free from any of the three gunas of prakriti in order to make it complete it would be to our benefit not to accept such sweet food adulterated with a mixture of mortar. Karma, jnaana, yoga, etc. When, however, these acknowledge the supremacy of Bhakti, then that Bhakti, though mixed up with karma and jnaana, may be helpful to lead one along the road to pure Bhakti. When pure Bhakti is attained, the mixed state is no more there. This has been thus stated in the Pancharatra: “The acts that are prescribed in the Shastras for the service of Hari, constitute ordained Bhakti, through the performance of which true Bhakti is available.” [2]

The shrewd devotees of God must clearly point out to the absolute monists that their principle of naiskarmya or cessation of activities aiming at freedom from all desire for the fruit, is a misnomer, for there is in it ample touch of desire for fruits. Their attempt for peace with emancipation is nothing better than the gratification of their own senses devoid of their attachment to God. The principle of their Mayavada is this: “Inasmuch as we have to remain afflicted with the three kinds of trouble in the world, it is necessary to get rid of the evils of the world having origin in the three gunas (primordial elements, sattva, rajas and tamas, of which matter is composed). If we can do away with the triangle of knowledge, knowable and knower, we shall not have a separate existence and our doctrine of Buddhism in which the annihilation of sentience is emancipation. But the full manifestation of sentience is still in the Real Entity and it will ever remain so. They cannot understand how they got their conditioned state nor what would be their free state. Their conception of emancipation is totally wrong.

If some one raises the point that there is no need of devotion which induces taking shelter at the Feet of God and that one can cross the worldly ocean only by means of the dry-knowledge (of the absolute monists), he is referred to the answer given by Shri Brahma in his panegyric of Shri Krishna [3] : “O Lotus-Eyed God, those who do not take shelter at Your Feet, but cherish the self-conceit of having been emancipated, have dirty minds cherishing no love for You; in spite of acquiring a high position near to emancipation, they undergo a downfall from there on account of their having disdainfully slighted Your Feet. O Lord Madhava, Your devotees, bound to You with ties of friend-like love do not, like them, deviate from the right path, but, being protected by You, they rather fearlessly walk over the heads of the strongest of all interruptions and obstacles.”

The deliberations of devotees are not trifling. Those which point oneness with God are only for the time being, growing out of the desire for giving up the bitter experience of the world arrived at by proceeding with the empiric knowledge gathered with the deliberations about the external world. In the long run it is concluded that nothing will exist at the end. But the Entity of Plenary Sentience is and will ever stay. It is not wise to start an expedition against Him. The light of the sun cannot be destroyed, nor can the sun be covered with a screen, the rays come to the outside of the screen and it cannot be taken near the sun. It cannot be a true proposition that Brahman has become jiva through ignorance, because in that case the existence of a second entity beyond Brahman, viz. His ignorance, has got to be admitted. It is not proper to say that Brahman has got ignorance, having been over-powered by Maya. The human race should be emancipated from such a proposition. Men should expand their power of intelligence and feel the needfulness of devotion. It will not do to turn aside as mere gossip the declaration that the world is not the place for men of intelligence to stay in, and that it is necessary to bid it adieu. But if instead we toil hard from sunrise to sunset for the improvement of this world, what shall we gain thereby? Gold (i.e. money), women, or at best honour and respect as a pious or holy man. But all these things are contemptible. Just before Bhakti (devotion) is generated, men get sufficient intelligence to understand that these are not important things. And what is emancipation too? The thirst after it grows with the inordinate desire that I should be free from all distresses leaving the others to suffer them.

Due to our radical unrighteousness, i.e., our predilection for keeping away from our eternal function of service to God, we are going astray, being misled by some environing affairs, i.e. we are trying to secure pleasures for ourselves in preference to those for God, having been thrown off from our true object. But the saintly personages who are free from all spitefulness do not suffer these inconveniences; they are established in the highest form of righteousness, having taken shelter with God. Spitefulness exists only among those who are averse to remembrance of God. Spitefulness comes when one is engaged as the servant of the five evils, viz. lustfulness, etc. We adopt the principle of clipping one’s own nose for making another’s journey inauspicious, believing in the concept of monopolizing all the pleasure to oneself and enviously hindering others’ pleasure. Every human being should cultivate the highest form of righteousness. It is proper to bid farewell to such ideas as, “I shall be lustful, wrathful, covetous, distracted and proud”; everyone here has got the capability to be all this. When all these accumulate together, spitefulness appears. If we do not serve them, then there will be no spitefulness. But at present, it has become customary to dress up these foes of ours, and serve them, but not to serve God. Those who do not serve God necessarily become servants of the group of six enemies. Those who culture the Eternal Entity should not be servants of this group. So long as men are not free from spitefulness, the instruction about the highest righteousness does not enter their ears.

Devotion to God is attainable through association with those who serve Him and His devotees. They have made the service of God the very essence of their life. They have made the narrations of the Names, Appearance, Attributes and sports of God the mainstay of their existence and are always engaged in discourses about Them. There is not only a great difference between the deliberations about God among the common people and those among the devotees, but they are of quite contrary natures. Many among the common people are inclined to worship God, Whom they know to be the giver of pleasure and happiness for mundane and celestial pleasure; those who are, however, more intelligent, i.e., who are outwardly renouncers, but are, at heart, the topmost enjoyers, pretend to worship God in order to be equal to the All-Enjoyer God and merge in Him. Men, midway between these classes, worship God with the purpose of acquiring eight modes of power for accomplishment of desires, like subtility, lightness, etc. Though there is a pretence of worship in them they have not admitted the eternal Names, Appearances, etc., of God. They regard the Supreme Master of all as governed by karma. The so-called worshippers do not, in particular, serve God for His service and for His pleasure; on the contrary they make the Lord serve them.

The nature of the true devotees is different from theirs. They do not expect, nor do they regard as necessary, the attainment of pleasure of the body and home in this world, nor in the next, not even of emancipation which is so much praised as the highest attainment for man. They serve God from their very nature in every thought and sentiment of their heart. This strong propensity in them does not yield to any obstruction, but runs with impetuosity, forcibly removing all the obstacles before it, even like the swift and turbulent current of the river Ganga, which rapidly runs towards the sea inundating all the high and low resistance, undergoing no disaster, and never abating anywhere for taking some rest.

The devotees are ever engaged in the service of God. No tendency towards anything else, no other thought or deed, besides that service, finds any opportunity to cast a covering shadow over the souls of those Bhakti-yogis who are incessantly communing with God and are entirely dedicated to Him. The devoted servitors of God are ever engaged in offering service to Him and to His devotees too out of pure love. They have no vitality to devote to their bodies, to those that are related to their bodies like wives, sons, home, etc., to others related to these, to domestic beasts and birds etc., to their occupation, class, etc. Having fallen in love with the Lord of their life, the very life of their lives, the life of all, they have surrendered themselves to Him with all their energies. Such devotees self-dedicated to God, have made Him alone the quintessence of their ambition, and He, too, having been arrested by their devotion, has made them His essential companions, though He Himself is the most essential Being for all.

The religion that the devotees adopt is found in the Shrimad Bhagavatam. That religion is not worldly nor does it pertain to the next world, nor is it means for any class of men, nor to be observed by men of a particular stage of life, nor is it prescribed for the people of a particular country of the world, nor is it special for either boys, or old people or young men, or women or males, or birds or beasts, or insects, or worms, but it is applicable to all countries, all times and all people for it is the religion of the soul, not of the body or the mind. That religion is the everlasting religion, Sanatana Dharma, religion for all creatures.

That religion is free from any craftiness, deceitfulness, or pretence. That religion does not promise to give the performers of its rites any pleasure of the body and the mind, or supernatural power or emancipation. That religion is not the fraudulent religion which at first deludes its observers with the gift of men and money to those who want them, keeps them infatuated with those transients, and eventually snatches these away back from them. Again, the religion that, giving the aspirants for siddhi (accomplishment of esoteric power) opportunities for acquiring the siddhi, makes them intoxicated with the enjoyment of power and pelf, and at last, when their passion for good fortune is finished up, gives them more troubles than before, -- such a religion which destroys the siddhi in the end, is not the religion of the Shrimad Bhagavatam.

That religion, too, is not the Bhagavata religion which, in the beginning, binds the practicant with the bondage of the rules of negation (like ‘not this, ‘not this’), and then takes him to the other side of the accomplishment of enjoyment making his desire all the stronger for being one with God, and through the will of God (whose will is law) confers on him an immovable body either of a tree or stone, etc., as the result of immense greediness. The Bhagavata-dharma is not of the nature of a jar of poison with a little milk floating at the top like such religions, but, on the other hand, it is the highest religion made by the Highest Entity for our guidance, and followed by Only the Paramahamsas (devotees void of all blemishes). This religion not only delivers its followers from the sufferings of three kinds (i.e., those caused by the body and mind, by the gods and by nature), but finally eradicates these obstacles and bestows eternal good. The followers of this religion get the service of the Highest God on the other side of the ocean of greediness and infatuation, instead of falling victims to the temptations of bhukti (enjoyment), mukti (emancipation) and siddhi (esoteric power). For acquiring this religion we should carry out the command of Lord Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu given in the short simple sentence, “Learn the Bhagavatam from a true Vaishnava.” So the service of God is easily available through association with His devotees who have made over their all for His service, who are themselves Bhagavatas (servants of Bhagavan) through the culture of the Bhagavatam in their company, and through the service offered to both the Bhagavatam and the Bhagavatas.

Whenever we talk about aachaara (approved usage), many take it to mean the performance of deeds ordained by the smritis (ritual codes). There is an essential difference between these people and those who observe the usages adopted by the followers of paramartha (the highest object of man, viz. attainment of divine Grace). In trying to determine the usages by means of mundane proclivities, differences are sure to arise among the ordinances derived from the scriptural codes according to the different tastes of different people. One’s taste is generated from one’s nature modified by association with the surrounding environments. Man’s nature is formed from the beginningless standing desire, and that nature of a jiva, being nourished by some unknown accumulated desire, unconsciously gets an association suitable to itself. The old desire endeavours to unite with the new beginning of acts as revealed in the world; the unknown desire, however, when favourable to it, gives fulfillment of the desire in the mundane world. Oftentimes, however, does the old desire offer obstruction to the revealed desire. This mutual impact generates unpleasantness in the world of differences. All classes of people in the world believe the desires to be the root of the worldly troubles. It is the function of every jiva to suppress the desires but all the activities of man aim at the gratification of the desires. Every desire, if not consumed, seeks gratification. The more a follower of Paramartha has been able to curb his desires, the more has he been able to show in his character the easier way for consuming desires.

Three kinds of aachaaras are noticed in men of this world, who gamble with the desires, depending on the worldly or secular conscience as the capital. Among the observers of the worldly aachaaras, the number of the servers of desires is very large. Holding up the desires by all means as most predominant, they regard the gratification of the desires as the aim of their life. The knowledge of their very existence is the indicator of their pleasure. That in which there is no pleasure of self-gratification directly or indirectly, is to be abandoned in every way. In every creature is noticeable the quest for the pleasure of this gratification of desires from the very first day of the appearance of instinct till the end. The very moment a man feels his own existence, that very feeling leads him towards that pleasure. Gradually the inclinations growing out of the desire are fostered in association with the environments. The eyes grow alert in the cultivation of the objects of sight, activity is noticed in the ears towards the objects of audition, the function of the nose is awakened for picking up fragrances, the attempt of the tongue is observed for relishing tastes, and there is seen dermatic activity for appreciating touches. The organs of action like the foot, hand, voice, etc., give expression to their respective functions with the help of those of the organs of sense like the eyes, ears, etc. With the abundance of the feeling of existence, the perception of the nature of the desire terminates in only its own pleasure. The man is then engaged in his worldly activities. He begins work, being prompted by the feeling of egotism as the enjoyers of this mundane world. Being thwarted by the previous desires of former births he is at every step made to roam about from the shelter of one desire to that of another.

When the growing desire is not thwarted by the previous desires the jiva feels gratified at the fulfillment of both the desires. But when the two types of desires are antagonistic to each other, the jiva, hankering after satisfaction, getting dissatisfaction instead, banishes the desire even as a son carrying a wrong name is banished and becomes busy in endeavouring to obtain another son. In some cases, being successful in getting the son after his desire, he is encouraged in worldly matters with efforts for gaining the desired fruit to a large extent. Men with worldly attachments through desires apply the power of the newly grown desires against their own previous desires. This struggle is the quest for pleasures as relished by the new desires.

Being led by their worldly or secular intellect, men are often seen to be on the alert to define non-secular or transcendental intellect depending, as they do, on their simplicity such as is prevalent in the material or secular affairs. When controlled by that alertness, their idiocy in the form of their mundane simplicity takes them towards the company of persons deceived like themselves. Trying in vain to define the transcendental nature and to describe the position free from the covetous spirit born of the desires, they fall into the deep gloom of unpleasantness. The state of apartness from covetousness, too, which they had built in their imagination with their simple intellect, becomes converted to a wave of the ocean of desires. The previous evil desires deceived them in such a way that they, unable to extricate themselves from the clutches of that deception, began to rise and sink in the quag of these desires. A man of simple consciousness, deceived to think himself free from covetousness, but smarting with the poison of desires, makes, out of simplicity, a mechanical distinction between worldly and transcendental things, and the world appears to his deceived faith as divided merely into lives of attachment and detachment. Such a man terms the world of attachment as of mundane nature, and adorns the state of detachment with the glorious appellation of ‘transcendant’.

Man, as distinct from the lower creation, can ponder over the past and the present but we often notice striking difficulties among the decisions reached by human deliberations. Those who are anxious to be considered as civilized are of the opinion that, “If we can observe the civic rules, then there will be no mutual friction and we can live quite in comfort and happiness, even though godless.” Such a consideration finds great favour with the advocates of the path of karma. There are again some others who consider that, “This world is a place of troubles; it is necessary to be ever away from here; for this the perception of non-distinctiveness of the reality is necessary, which means salvation: this salvation is to be wished for.” The devotees of God express no such opinion. Those who want to remove their wants by means of enjoyment are desirous of the fruit of enjoyment, whereas those who want to do it by the process of renunciation are desirous of emancipation. But the devotees of God desire neither enjoyment, nor emancipation. When, for want of an exact knowledge about the truth, we rely on relative knowledge, our want is not removed therewith; all our acts evaporate like camphor. The patch along which there will be neither want nor that merger with non-distinctiveness, is that of chid-vilaasa (pleasure of pure sentience). If we lose all the benefit of liberation, being liberated in name only, that liberation should not be called true liberation; it amounts only to self-destruction. It is not at all indicative of intelligence to do away with both the disease and the patient together.

Many, when troubled with the distresses and miseries of the world, think of being delivered from the world, like the old woman of the fable who, while gathering fuel logs from the wood, complained against God for giving her all her distress and hardships, and invoked Pluto (god of death) to come and take her away to his place; when Pluto actually came before her, she did not want to go with him, but asked him only to help her to lift the load to her head. Thus she wished to live among the privations and troubles of the world, though she was given the chance of being relieved there from. Such is the case with those who, being troubled with worldly hardships, want liberation; within them, too, the stream of worldly desires flows like the river Phalgu beside Gaya whose stream of water runs beneath the cover of a sandy surface. A jiva cannot get the eternal well-being, if he adopts the course of those who are desirous of the fruits of worldly enjoyments or of others averse to the enjoyment of the fruit. They are all, self-deceived and are hypocritical. Until they become sufficiently fortunate, their hypocrisy is not exposed before the public, when they may feel their mistake.

Those who have got self-realisation and know the truth about the soul serve God in this world, not busy in the enjoyment of the world like those that are desirous of the fruit of enjoyment, nor thrown off from the track of their true well-being by considering the ways and articles of the service of God as only worldly matters. They serve God in this world and also in the world beyond. They ever announce the truth that jivas have no other duty than to serve God-head. They are truly wise, ever anxious to see jivas acquire the true welfare. The human race mostly consists of mere infants in respect of paramaartha (spiritual outlook). Just as infants do not understand their own good, but at times make efforts to place their hands on flames or get impatient to grasp the moon within their hold, so men, too, always act in various ways like infants. But the wise person, accomplished in soul-realisation, ever make efforts to do good to these infant-like men. Men attain their good, only when they give up the deliberations arising out of their mental nature, take advice from these wise persons, (viz.) the devotees of God who are true well-wishers of all and are ready to accept their guidance in all ways. All may acquire perfect welfare by obeying God’s instructions embodied in the Vedic treatises. Beyond this, men have nothing else for guidance among themselves.

It is only those that can be said to have adopted the Sreya Panthaa or Better Road [4] leading to the true well-being of men, who are bent towards the service of God, being attracted towards Him with the tie of the purest love natural to his essential constitution as purely sentient (chit) jiva. In their heart has grown the true Rasa (pure chit, sentimental sweetness) as considered in relation to the final Reality; and they have had recourse to the Lotus Feet of Krishna as the ultimate refuge to the exclusion even of the good topics of sattva not to speak of rajah and tamah. Shri Syarupa Damodara, the closest associate devotee of the Lord Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has called the plenary Grace of the Lord as the grace generating no evil in its wake, for the awakening of the people whose sentience has been clouded by primordial ignorance, who, having been guided by the mirage of the theory that the world is an illusion, have regarded that the knowledge of the Personality of God is inferior to that of His Impersonality free from any feature of distinctiveness that obtains in matter, as conceived in their own imagination. The knowledge of that final Reality, however, is accessible only in the doctrine of the Shrimad Bhagavatam, in the very first Shloka of which has been shown the mutual relation between God, jivas and matter. The material distinctiveness is, of course, unnecessary. So, when they experience the bitterness of matter, they take leave of material enjoyment, adopting the principle of ‘not this, not that’ in order to get rid of the idea of enjoyment of worldly objects. But those form a group and are included in the class of ignorant people, who labour under the idea that the final word is the cessation of the faculty of perception or the final goal is the exemption from any special research with that faculty; because, as they think distress is in the track of enjoyment or pleasure and the acceptance of the wished-for road brings about the three kinds of human sufferings (caused by the mind and body of creatures) by natural catastrophes [sic]. The most erring people are those who, adopting the doctrine of illusion, cling to matter mistaking it for chit (spirit). There is no reality in it. They wrongly opine that the attempts for acquiring true knowledge through transcendental devotion are of the same class with those for the limited knowledge of material enjoyments. They have erroneously given the highest place to the doctrine of non-distinctive impersonality of disregarding the objects favourable to the service of God and ignorantly keeping aloof from that service. We should be anxiously craving for the real good that Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has shown by declaring the uselessness of their doctrine. They have found themselves in a fix who have indulged in the wrong thirst after showing the Plenary Entity as wanting in fullness. Such people are really miserable who have established themselves in the belief that there is variegation only in the world of matter and that the attribution of variegation to chit is only a phase of the deliberation of the inert nature of matter. The error of considering the distinctiveness of chit as that of matter brings about one’s downfall without fail instead of producing the desired object. The sentimental sweetness of matter will have to be destroyed or dried up. But God Himself is the Embodiment of Tasty Sweetness (rasovai Sah) and, as such, that tastiness of Sachchidananda or Embodiment of Eternity, Sentience and Bliss, must continue for ever; otherwise your deliberation will end in the Buddhistic conception of the morphologists or mere logomachy of the Mayavadis. So long as the principle of material distinctiveness is not destroyed, men will have to keep away from the vicinity of Reality, being satisfied only with materialism; but the moment their sentience is roused up, they will understand the distinctiveness of chit, and it is then that they will acquire competence to listen to the Shrimad Bhagavatam. Other people have to enter either the fold of henotheism or impersonalism. We should cultivate the Transcendental Rasa after getting beyond the region of material distinctiveness. In the Chhandogya Upanishad (Dahar section) there is a list of many desires, for the attainment of each of which a special resolution is to be made. So long as these desires are indulged in, people will get their demands fulfilled in accordance with their desires, as said by God in the Gita [5] that those, who led by their taamasa nature worship Yakshas, Rakshas, Vinayakas and otherbhutas, get their place with these. These desires continue till we get the inclination to satisfy the Desire of God.

It is necessary to get rid of the inconveniences of jivas here and of the dirt of the three kinds of human sufferings. Some think it worth while to keep within the evils of the material world and repeatedly come within their region, so that they may, in future, chalk out means to secure enjoyment of pleasures. But this is not the trend of thought with those who are really liberated. If man, waking up from the depth of sleep, becomes alive to sentience and knows his identity with the knowledge of the soul, then he may bid adieu to the drawback of the perception of what is not the soul. All the variegations of Vaikuntha were even then existent, when the functions of maya were dormant and the cosmic evolution of matter did not begin; they are still there and they will continue to stay in the future, too.

When the principle of Ekaayana or intentness with singular concentration was prevalent, i.e., in the Satya-yuga (golden age), only Narayana was worshipped. Ekaayana means no numbering. When that principle was stopped, i.e., in the Treta-yuga, the intent concentration received a set back and misery visited men. Then Trayi (triple form of the Veda) came into existence, originating the Karma-kaanda thereof from Pururava. [6] Shridhara Swamipada in his tikaa (commentary) has thus given the gist of the two Shlokas: “In the Satya-yuga almost all the people, being of the saatvika nature, were given to contemplation; but in the Treta-yuga, when the nature of rajas was predominant, the Veda was divided and the department of karma, the ceremonial rites etc., was introduced.”

Then we have [7] : “What could be got by men meditating on Vishnu in the Satya-yuga, by people performing sacrifices in the Treta-yuga and by persons worshipping God in the Dvapara-yuga is available in the Kali-yuga from Hari-kirtana.” The only resource in the present era is Hari-kirtana. We should know the Reality therefrom. It is not necessary to take the help of what appears to be the truth. Those who adopt the way of karma labour under much trouble, while the idea of their oppositionists is impersonal. In the Gita [8] the Lord says: “The impersonalists have got to undergo a greater amount of difficulty, for the way of impersonalism is available to possessors of bodies only with a good deal of trouble.” The misery of those who are not devoted to Krishna are indescribable. They are suffering misery by their own conceptions. It is necessary to be free therefrom.

The Grace of Shri Chaitanya Deva causes no evil. In it there is no indulgence given to the karma-kanda. His endeavour was to make people keep aloof from worldly and heavenly enjoyments. Again the current of thought of the culturists of jnana devastates the very principle of getting the inner eyes opened up of people blinded by the gloom of nescience with the pencil applying the collyrium of true wisdom; their motto is: “Guru and I are not separate, Guru is not eternal, I shall merge into Brahman, etc.” The attempt to grope in the dark, not being able to get any clue to Reality, is useless. Those, who have carefully studied such Shlokas of the Shrimad Bhagavatam as the following, know very well that one following the Mayavadi current of thought has got to be disappointed in the long run and permanently remain steeped in ignorance. Persons hankering after emancipation, adopting duplicity, waste time in henotheism (polytheism antecedent to monotheism) and, becoming impersonalists, they destroy their own entities and even the very conception of Guru. Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has solved the problem of such contradictory positions.

Shri Brahma says to Shri Krishna - “O Lord, those who spend their life-time in listening to the accounts of Your Glories coming out of the mouths of true saints, with low obeisance and giving up all attempts for acquiring jnana leading to emancipating, bring You under their control, though You are invincible elsewhere. But only the troubles are the dues for such people as giving up Bhakti, the only way to true wellbeing, take troubles for comprehending their oneness with God, just as no grain comes to the lot of persons thrashing the husk.’ [9] Further “O Lord, the intellect of those persons is impure, who think themselves emancipated and shake off devotion to You, and they sustain a complete downfall from their high position acquired with much difficulty, for disregarding their only shelter, viz., Your Feet” [10] Shri Narada tells Shri Vyasa Deva - “Even the perception of Brahman with the highest jnana free from all the dirt of karma is not at all praiseworthy, etc.” [11]

Shri Chaitanyadeva has given men the true chit-rasa, (transcendental tasty sweetness of chit) making them feel its difference from jada-rasa (the material sweetness of this world) and setting at rest all contending principles having their origin in attempts to understand in the inductive way the transcendental things that have come down to this region of maya, viz., the world. Mahaprabhu’s Grace has ever been giving us attachment towards God with a tendency for offering Him service. His Grace brings us real peace, which has been defined by God Himself as the result of fixing the mind with steadiness in Him. He has also said to Shri Brahma [12] “The jnana about Me is the highest and it is perfectly esoteric and mysterious.” Among the jnanas about Bhagavan (God), Paramatma (All-pervading Super-Soul) and Brahman (Absolute Spirit), the jnana “about the Bhagavan” is the highest, the other jnanas are lower than that. There is no jnana of the Distinctive Features (visesha) of God in Impersonal Brahman. There is some in Paramatma, but it is without the esoteric element. In the jnana (about Bhagavan there are four differentiations viz., of jnaana (about His Svarupa or essential nature), vijnaana (about relations with His Potency), rahasya (about His relation with the jivas) and tadanga or jnanaanga (about His relations with Brahman i.e., Nature consisting of the three gunas, sattva, rajas and tamas, which is the first cause of the material world). [13] It is not proper to ascribe the tendency towards material enjoyment, that is so prevalent in religion, to devotion to God. The yogis (culturists of Paramatma) are in favour of Majesty and they practice yoga for acquiring vibhuti (Super-human power). Devotees culture and worship Shri Krishna’s sweetness under which Majesty plays a subsidiary part. Shri Chaitanya Deva, out of His Grace which generates no evil like other graces as pointed out by Shri Svarupa Damodara, has widely propagated these teachings for the highest well-being of man. It is the worshippers of Adhokshaja Krishna who can understand all this; there is no competence for it in the jnanis who are deprived of the power of comprehending this superiority of the tasty sweetness of devotion, or are only immature in this respect.

Lord Shri Chaitanya Chandra, Incarnation of Love with generous magnanimity distributes His Grace among the fortunate jivas in three ways. Jiva being distressed with the privations of the world try to remove them by several means, but they fail therein. God’s Grace is not available with the attempts of jivas. It is when the fragrance of the Lotus-feet of Shri Krishna arises in their hearts through Divine Grace, that the dust of mental agonies easily flies away and the heart becomes free from all dirt. Then is awakened the highest bliss that grows from Shri Krishna’s service. The conflicts arising in the mind from the different interpretations of the scriptures give rise to controversies and interpretations of the scriptures of Divine Grace, the recipient heart becomes intoxicated with the tasty succulence of the love of God. And that intoxication, too, that vies it, owes its growth to the self-same Divine Grace. Consequently the scriptural disputes are all set at rest. The limit of the sweetness of love then gives such jivas constant rest at Shri Krishna’s Feet and, fortunate as they are, they attain true satisfaction with unadulterated devotional Love. Krishna’s Grace is free from all dirt, it gives tasty succulence and is replete with divine intoxication.

When the heart becomes pure with Shri Krishna’s Grace, the dirt of vexation due to wants does no more linger. When through His Grace there grows the tasty sweetness of love, the settled decision about Bhakti becomes strongly firm, all scriptural contests being overcome. Consequently the mind becomes intoxicated with Love of Krishna. Acquiring tranquility through His Grace, one becomes constantly immersed in a feeling of excessive bliss in the glorious suavity of the Love of Krishna.

The jivas here are at first affected with attachment towards the objects of enjoyment due to their being averse from God. Then they become inquisitive about God, and at the end they engage themselves in His service. In the first stage, they are rid of the mischief of worldliness by Divine Grace; in the result the heart becomes clean and pelucide and as a consequence thereof, there is awakened the pleasurable sensation with attachment towards Krishna. In the second stage, they are established in the firm conviction about devotion to God through His Grace; in it is obtained the tasty sweetness of love leading to love-intoxication. In the final stage, through God’s Grace, is achieved the strong attachment to Bhakti and the consequent awakening of the perception of the Divine Sports everywhere from which is available the culmination of extreme sweetness. With Shri Krishna’s Grace, jivas may make their worldly desires inoperative, and thus liberated, may secure abstinence from things other than Krishna, through Krishna-kirtana (i.e., the chanting of His Names and Glories). They may also, when they are desirous of emancipation, give up such desire by taking this antidote against worldliness, may have the perception of God, and, when they are desirous of worldly enjoyments, may be stirred with pure devotion after giving up such desire with Krishna’s Grace by means of the repetition of what has been carefully heard about Shri Hari’s Glories pleasant both to the ear and the mind. Thus it is the Divine Grace that should be adopted as shelter and protection under all circumstances.

It is only those, who have been fortunate enough to have the opportunity of listening to the wonderful teachings of Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu about the universal relativity (sambandha), means or expedient (abhidheya) and need or object (prayojana), that know that men get non-plussed about their spiritual deity in the midst of their attempts for acquiring trivarga (the three main objects of human pursuit, viz., dharma, artha, and kaama, i.e., virtue, wealth and desire,) and that those who hanker after the fourth object, viz., moksha or emancipation, have gone all the more astray than they; whereas the persons who have adopted shelter with Bhagavan, are not only rid of the knowledge about non-distinctive Brahman available by perception, but are also above the craving for the mere vicinity or merger in Paramatma, a partial phase of God, being free from the wrong conception of His plenary character. Engaged, however, in the service of the Plenary Knowledge or Sentience, being well-established in their own eternal position, they have not kept their eternal endeavour, within the mere proximity to Paramatma as conceived with the predilection for non-distinctiveness or notion of the oneness of matter and non-matter. On the other hand they have ascertained, as their object, the need of eternally tasting the sweetness of the full sentient Bliss with their own nature as jivas of atomic eternal existence with sentient bliss. This is not an ephemeral conception generated by any physical or mental ideology. It is through a course of the cultivation of the thoughts about God that the desire, knowledge, and activities of the jivas in their essential and eternal nature become the subject-matter of one’s everlasting conception. Then they are no more dragged into undesirable regions by temporal thoughts about dharma, artha, kaama and moksha (i.e., chaturvarga), while attempting to ascertain the proper object of human pursuit. Then no more do they deviate, under the influence of bodily and mental concerns, from the right rack leading to the ascertainment of the true object of life, nor do they fall off from eternal devotion in order to offer any respect to karma, jnana, etc., by creating some disturbance against the culture of Shri Krishna with a loving disposition, in the garb of karmis, jnanas and men with other desires. The teachings of Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu are abundantly present in the Shrimad Bhagavatam and treatises following in its wake; they are available in the good company of the followers of the Shrimad Bhagavatam and center round the highest object of human pursuit, the achievement of self-conquest i.e., love of God.

The professors of non-distinction of Brahman call the annihilation of conception as emancipation with a desire for effecting a reconciliation between the principles of sattva and tamah (the highest and the lowest of the three properties of matter). That is of two kinds, viz., non-sentience averse to the service of Vishnu or merger into matter, and the state of material conciliation apathetic to Vishnu’s service or merger into sentience. When a jiva gets rid of the Mayavada of the principle of tamah and becomes established in the service of Absolute Sattva (God), he is able to do away with the opposition of the antagonists of the Vaishnavas with the aid of Sudarsana or Vaishnava-Darsana, and blind the eyes, intent on enjoyment and renunciation, of the philosophers of wrong vision by using that weapon (Vishnu’s disc Sudarsana). Then that jiva, freed from the shackles of avidyaa (i.e., identification of the self with the body), gets a strong attachment for the eternal servitorship to Shri Gourasundara (Chaitanya Mahaprabhu) Who is identical with Shri Vrajendra-nandana, Shri Krishna.

FOOTNOTES

[1] C. Chandrodaya VIII.24.

[2] Also Bh. R.S. 1.2.28.

[3] Bh. X.2 32-33.

[4] Vide Katha 1.2.1-2.

[5] Vide IX.25.

[6] Bh. IX.14.48-49.

[7] Bh. XII.3.52.

[8] Vide XII.5-.

[9] Bh. X.14.3-4.

[10] Bh. X.2.32.

[11] Bh. I.5.12.

[12] Bh. II.9.33.

[13] Bh. II.9.32.