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BY: SUN STAFF
 Feb 08, 2011 — CANADA (SUN) — A serial exploration of Srila Prabhupada's preaching on Srimad Bhagavatam. Today we complete our comparative review of 'A short life sketch and teachings of Lord Chaitanya, the Preacher of Srimad Bhagwatam' as presented in the Introduction to Srila Prabhupada's original Srimad Bhagwatam, and in his first BBT edition of Srimad Bhagavatam. Today's excerpt begins with the Lord's travels to Vrindavan, His instructions to the Goswamis, converting the Mayavadi sannyasis and the Pathans, a description of the five stages of devotional service, and the Sri Siksastakam. the Preacher of Srimad Bhagwatam (Continued) "After some time the Lord again started on his tour towards Northern India and He wanted to visit Vrindaban and its neighbouring places. He passed through the Jungles of Jharikhanda (Madhya Bharat) and all the wild animals also joind with His Samkirtan movement. The wild tigers, elephants, bears and deers all together accompanied the Lord and the Lord accompanied them in His mode of Samkirtan movement. By this He proved that by the propagation of the Samkirtan Movement (congregational chanting and glorifying the name of the Lord) even the wild animals can live in peace and friendship and what to speak of men who are supposed to be civilised. No man in the world will refuse to join the Samkirtan movement nor the Lord's Samkirtan movement has any restriction of caste creed and colour for joining His movement. Herein is direct evidence of His great mission that He admitted even the wild animals to partake in His great movement. On His way back from Vrindaban He first came to Prayag where He met Rupa Goswami along with his younger brother Anupam. Then He came down to Benares. He instructed for two months Sri Sanatan Goswami all about transcendental science. The instruction to Sanatan Goswami is itself a big narration and full presentation of the instruction will not be possible in this note. The gist ideas are given as follows. Sanatan Goswami (formerly known as Dabir Khan) was in the cabinet service of the then Bengal Government under the regime of Nawab Husain Sah. He decided to join with the Lord and thus retired from the service. On His way back from Vrindaban when He reached Varanasi, the Lord became the guest of Sri Tapan Mishra and Chandra Shekhar assited by a Maharastra Brahmin. At that time Varanasi was headed by a great Sanyasi of the Mayavada school and his name was Sripad Prakashananda Saraswati. When the Lord was at Varanasi the people in general became more attracted with Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu on account of His mass movement of Samkirtan. Wherever He visited specially during the time of His going to Vishwanath temple, thousands of pilgrims used to follow Him some being attracted by His bodily features and others being attracted by His melodious songs in glorifying the Lord. The Mayavadi Sanyasins designate themselves as Narayana. And Varanasi is still overflooded with many Mayavadi Sanyasins. Some people who saw the Lord in the mode of His Samkirtan movement, considered Him to be actual Narayana and the report was reached in the camp of the great Sanyasi Prakashananda. In India there is always a kind of spiritual rivalry between the Mayavad and the Bhagwat school and as such when the news of the Lord reached Prakashananda he could know that the Lord was a Vaishnav-Sanyasi and therefore, he minimised the value of the Lord before those who brought him the news of the Lord. He deprecated the activities of the Lord on account of His preaching the Samkirtan Movement which was in his opinion nothing but a religious sentiment. He was a profound student of the Vedanta and he advised his followers to give attention to the Vedanta than indulge in the so called Samkirtan. One devotee Brahmin, who became a devotee of the Lord, did not like the criticism of Prakashananda upon the Lord and he came to the Lord to express His sorry feelings. He said to the Lord that on his utterance of the Lord's Name Chaitanya before the Sanyasi Prakashananda, the latter strongly criticised Him although he heard him uttering several times the name Chaitanya. The Brahmin was astonished to see that the Sannyasi Prakashananda could not vibrate the sound Krishna even for once although he uttered the name Chaitanya several times. The Lord smillingly replied to the devotee Brahman about the reasons of non-utterance of the holy name of Krishna by the Mayawadi Sannyasi. He said as follows: "The Mayavadis are offenders at the Lotus feet of Krishna although they utter always "Brahman", "Atma", or "Chaitanya" etc. And because they are offenders at the Lotus feet of Krishna, they are practically unable to utter the holy name of Krishna. The name Krishna and the Personality of Godhead Krishna are identical. There is no difference in the Absolute realm between the Name Form or Person of the Absolute Truth because in the Absolute Realm everything is transcendental bliss. There is no difference of body and soul in the Personality of Godhead Krishna distinguished from that of the living being who is always different from the outward body. On account of this transcendental position of Krishna, it is very difficult for a lay man to know actually about the Personality of Godhead Krishna, His holy name and Fame etc. His name fame form and pastimes all are one and the same transcendental identity and they are not knowable by the exercise of material senses." "The transcendental mellow of the Pastimes Of the Lord is the source of still more bliss than one can experience by realisation of Brahman or becoming one with the Supreme. Had it not been so then those who are already situated in the transcendental bliss of Brahman would not have been attracted by the transcendental bliss of the Pastime of the Lord." After this a great meeting was arranged by the devotees of the Lord in which all the Sannyasins were invited including the Lord and Prakashananda Saraswati. In this meeting both the scholars (the Lord and Prakashanada) had a long discourse on the spiritual values of Samkirtan movement and the gist idea is given below. The great Mayavadi Sanyasi Prakashananda enquired from the Lord as to the reason of His diversion to the Samkirtan movement instead of studying the Vedanta Sutras. He said that it is the duty of a Sanyasi to read the Vedanta Sutras and what was the cause that He indulged in Samkirtan. After such enquiry the Lord submissively replied as follows: "The reason of my diversion to the Samkirtan movement from the Study of Vedanta is that I AM A GREAT FOOL. The Lord thus represented Himself as one of the numberless fools of this age who are absolutely incapable to study the Vedanta Philosophy. Fool's indulgence in the study of Vedanta has caused so many havocs in the society and, therefore, He continued to say "And because I am a great fool so my spiritual master forbade Me play with Vedanta Philosophy. He said better I may chant the holy Name of the Lord and that would deliver Me from the material bondage". "In this age of Kali there is no other religion than glorifying the Lord by utterance of His holy name and that is the injunction of all the revealed scriptures. And my spiritual Master has tought me one sloka (from the Brihannaradiya Puranam) which is as follows:
KEVALAM KALAU NASTEYA NASTEVA NASTEVA GATIR ANYATHA." "So on the order of my spiritual master I chant the holy name of Hari and I am now mad after this holy Name whenever I utter the holy Name. I forget myself completely and as such some times I laugh, cry, dance, like a mad man. I thought within myself if I have not gone actually mad by this process of chanting the holy Name and therefore enquired from my Spiritual Master about it. I told him that I have become now mad by chanting the holy Name and what is this please let me know." "My spiritual master informed me that it is the real effect of chanting the holy Name that it produces a transcendental emotion which is a rare manifestation. It is the sign of love of God which is the ultimate end of life. The Love of God is transcendental to liberation (Mukti) and as such it is called the fifth stage of spiritual realisation above the stage of liberation. Actual result of chanting the holy Name of Krishna is to attain the stage of Love of God and it was good that fortunately I was favoured with the blessings." On hearing this statement from the Lord the Mayavadi Sanyasi enquired from the Lord what was the harm if He would study the Vedanta along with the chanting of the Holy Name. Prakashananda Sarsawati knew it well that the Lord was formerly known as Nemai Pandit a very learned scholar of Nabadwipa and His representation as a great Fool was certainly impregnated with some purpose. So on this enquiry by the Sanyasi the Lord smiled and said "My dear sir, if you do not mind it then I can reply your enquiry." All the Sanyasins there were very much pleased on the Lord for His simple dealings and they unanimously replied that they would not mind for whatever He may reply. The Lord then began to say as follows:— "Vedanta Sutra is transcendental words or sounds uttered by the transcendental Personality of Godhead. As such in the Vedanta there cannot be any human deficiencies like mistake, illusion, cheating or inefficiencies. The message of Upanishads is expressed in the Vedanta Sutras and what is said there directly is certainly glorified by themselves." "Whatever interpretations have been given by Shankaracharya have no direct bearings on the Sutras and therefore such commentation makes everything spoiled for the purpose." "The word Brahman indicates the greatest of all, full with transcendental opulences without any one else on the same level. Such Brahman who is ultimately the Personality of Godhead is covered by such indirect interpretations and established as Impersonal". "Every thing that is in the spiritual world is full of transcendental bliss including the Form, body, place and parapharnalia of the Lord; all are eternally cognisant and blissful. But it is not the fault of the Acharya Shankara that he has so interpreted but if somebody accepts it then certainly he becomes doomed. Any one who accepts the the transcendental body of the Personality of Godhead as something mundane, certainly commits the highest order of blasphemy" The Lord thus spoke to the Sanyasi almost in the same line as He spoke tothe Bhattacharya of Puri and by forceful arguments He nullified the Mayavada interpretations of the Vedanta Sutra. And all the Sannyasins present there reclaimed the Lord as Personified Vedas and directly the Personality of Godhead. All the Sanyasins became converted to the cult of Bhakti and all of them accepted the Holy Name of the Lord Sri Krishna. All of them dined together with the Lord in the midst of them. After this conversion of the Sanyasins the popularity of the Lord became more conspicuous at Varanasi and thousands of people assembled to see the Lord in person. The Lord thus established the primary importance of Srimad Bhagwat Dharma and He defeated all other system of spiritual realisation. Since then every one at Varanasi became overwhelmed with the transcendental Samkirtan movement. While the Lord was camping at Varanasi Sanatan Goswami also arrived there after retiring from office. He was formerly one of the state ministers in the government of Bengal then under the regime of Nawab Hussain Shah. He had some difficulty in getting relief from the state service as the Nawab was reluctant to leave him. He came to Varanasi and the Lord tought him all about the principles of devotional service. He tought him about the constitutional position of the living being the cause of his bondage under material conditions, his enternal relation with the Personality of Godhead. He was tought about the transcendental position of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, how He expands Himself in different plenary portions of incarnations and how does He dominate in different parts of the universe and the nature of His transcendental abode. He was tought about the devotional activities, its different stages of development and the rules and regulations for achieving the gradual stages of spiritual perfection. He was tought about the symptoms of different incarnations in different ages and how to detect them with reference to the context of revealed scriptures. The subject of teachings to Sanatan Goswami forms a big chapter in the text and essays of Sri Chaitanya Charitamrita and to explain the whole thing in minute details will require a volume itself. We shall try to put in these special matters in a different chapter conveniently. At Mathura He visited all the important places and then He reached Vrindaban. Lord Chaitanya appeared in the family of a high caste Brahmin and over and above that as Sanyasi He was the preceptor for all the Varnas and Ashramas. But He used to accept meals from all classes of Vaishnavas. At Mathura the Sanodhia Brahmins are considered in lower status of society but the Lord accepted meals in such family also because he (His host) happened to be a desciple of the Madhabendra Puri family. At Vrindaban the Lord took bath in 24 important bathing places and ghats. He travelled all the twelve important Bans (forests). In these forests all the cows and birds welcomed Him, as if He was their very old friend. The Lord also began to embrace all the trees of those forests and by doing so He was feeling the symptoms of transcendental ecstacy. Some times He fell unconscious and He was made to regain consciousness by resounding the holy Name of Krishna. The transcendental symptoms that were visible on the body of the Lord during His travel within the forest of Vrindabana were all unique and inexplicable and we have just given a gist idea only. Some of the important places that were visited by the Lord in Vrindaban are as follows. 1. Kamyaban, Adiswar, Pabansarobar, Khadirban, Seshsayee, Khela Tirtha, Bhandirban, Bhadraban, Sreeban, Louhaban, Mahaban, Gokul, Kaliyahrad, Dwadashaditya, Keshitirtha, etc. When He saw the place where Rasa dance took place, He at once fell down there in trance. So long He remined at Vrindaban He made His headquarter at Akrur Ghat. From Vrindaban His personal servitor Krishnadas Vipra induced Him to go back to Prayag to take bath during the Magh Mela. The Lord acceded to this proposal and they started for Prayag. On the way they were met with some Pathans amongst whom there was a learned Moulana. The Lord had some talks with the Moulana with his companions and the Lord convinced the Moulana that in the Koran also there is description of Bhagwat Dharma and Krishna. All the Pathans were converted into His cult of devotional service. When He came back to Prayag Srila Rupa Goswami along with his youngest brother met Him near Vindumadhab Temple. The Lord was this time welcomed by the people of Prayag more repsectfully. Ballave Bhatta, who resided on the other bank of Prayag in the Village of Arail, came to receive Him at his place and while going there the Lord jumped on the river Jamuna. With great difficulty He was again picked up in unconscious state and thus visited the headquarters of Ballav Bhatta. This Ballav Bhatta was one of His chief admirers but later on he inaugurated his own party of the Ballave Sampradaya. On the bank of the Dasaswamedh Ghat at Prayag for ten days continually the Lord instructed Rupa Goswami on the Science of Devotional Service of the Lord. He tought the Goswami the divisions of the living creatures in 84 lacs species of life. Then about the human species. Out of them He selected the followers of the Vedic principles. Out of them the fruitive workers. Out of them emperic philosophers. Out of them the liberated souls and out of the liberated souls He said there is only a few only who are actually the pure devotees of Lord Sri Krishna. Srila Rupa Goswami was younger brother of Sanatan Goswami and when he retired from service he brought with him two boatful of gold coins. This means he brought with him some crores of rupees accumulated by the labour of his service. And before leaving the home for Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu he divided the wealth as follows. 50 per cent for the service of the Lord and His devotees. 25 per cent for the relatives and 25 per cent for his personal needs in case of emergency. In that way he set examples to all the householders how to divide the accumulated wealth. The Lord tought the Goswami about devotional service comparing the whole subject with a creeper. And He advised to protect the Bhakti creeper most carefully specially from the elephant of offensive act unto the pure devotees. Besides the giant elephant as above mentioned the creeper has to be protected from the desires of sense enjoyment, monistic liberation and perfection of the Yoga system. They are all detrimental on the path of devotional progress. Similarly violence on the living being, desire for worldly gain, worldly reception and worldly fame all are detrimental to the progress of Bhakti cult or Bhagwat Dharma. Pure devotional service must be freed from all desires of sense-gratification and uncovered by fruitive aspirations and culture of monistic knowledge. One must be freed from all kinds of designations and when one is thus converted into transcendental purity, one can then only serve the Lord by those purified senses. So long there is the desire to enjoy sensually or to become one with the Supreme or to possess the mystic powers, there is no question of attaining the stage of pure devotional service. Devotional service is conducted under two categories namely primary practice and spontaneous emotion. When one can rise up to the platform of spontaneous emotional stage he can make further progress by spiritual attachment, feeling, love, and many other higher stages of devotional life for which there is no English words to express properly We have tried to explain the science of devotional service in our book of the same name based on the authority of Bhakti Rasamrita Sindhu made by Srila Rupa Goswami. Transcendental devotional service has five stages of reciprocation. 1. Only the self realisation stage just after liberation from the material bondage, is called the Santa or neutral stage. 2. After that when there is development of the transcendental knowledge of the Lord's internal potential opulences, the devotee engages himself in the Dasya stage. 3. By further development of the Dasya stage a respectful fraternity developes and above that a feeling of friendship on equal terms become manifest. Both these stages are called Sakhya stage or the devotional service in friendship. 4. Above this there is the stage of filial affection and this stage is called Vatsalya stage. 5. And above this stage there is the stage of conjugal Love and this stage is called the highest stage of Love of God although there is no difference of quality in either of the above stages. The last stage of conjugal Love of God is called Madhurya stage. Thus He instructed all about the devotional science to Rupa Goswami and deputed him to Vrindaban to excavate the lost sight of the places of transcendental pastimes of the Lord. After this He came back again to Varanasi and delivered the Sanyasins and instructed the elder brother of Rupa Goswami which we have already discussed. The Lord left only eight slokas of His instructions in writing and they are known as Sikshastak. All other literatures of His Divine cult were extensively written by the principal followers the six Goswamins of Vrindaban and their followers. The Cult of Chaitanya Philosophy is richer than any other one and it is admitted to be the living religion of the day with potency of being spread as Vishwa Dharma or Universal religion We are glad that the matter is already taken up by some enthusiastic sages like Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Maharaj and His disciples. We shall eagarly wait for the happy days of Bhagwat Dharma or Prem Dharma inaugurated by the Lord Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. The eight slokas completed by the Lord are as follows:— 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. [End of the Introduction to Srimad Bhagwatam] Our comments on the above excerpt: In this last section of the Introduction, we would again like to point out that all the phrases shown in bold text above, from the original Bhagwatam, were later produced in the first BBT edition of Srimad Bhagavatam without any bolding. And again, even the PDF versions of the original Bhagwatams do not show the bolded text that is present in the actual hardcopy editions. Notable among the instances of bolded text is Srila Prabhupada's statement about how Srila Rupa Goswami divided his personal wealth before joining Lord Caitanya: 50 per cent for the service of the Lord and His devotees. 25 per cent for the relatives and 25 per cent for his personal needs in case of emergency. In that way he set examples to all the householders how to divide the accumulated wealth. This is particularly interesting in light of the current discussions taking place in the Sampradaya Sun about ISKCON sannyasis and wealth. In the area of capitalization, we find several more examples where Srila Prabhupada capitalized words in his original Bhagwatam which were changed to lower case letters in the later edition:
In today's excerpt from 'A short life sketch' there are a number of instances where Srila Prabhupada's original spelling of person and place names were revised from the Bhagvatam version (left) to the Bhagavatam version (right):
Among the interesting differences in text found in the two editions, we'd like to point out the following: "Dabir Khan" (former name of Sanatan Goswami) was changed to "Sakara Mallika" "84 lacs species of life" is changed to "8,400,000 species of life" "crores of rupees" is changed to "hundreds of thousands of rupees" "Bhakti cult or Bhagwat Dharma" is changed to "bhakti, or Bhagavata-dharma" [again, 'cult' is omitted] Two of the above examples, changing 'lacs' and 'crores', may be taken as indicative of Srila Prabhupada's focus on preaching in the West, since these general terms were changed to western words. Following are the instances found in today's excerpt from 'A short life sketch' wherein some degree of change in meaning might be ascribed to the revisions (blue from Bhagwatam, red from Bhagavatam): the Lord and the Lord accompanied them in His mode of Samkirtan movement. the Lord accompanied them in sankirtana
nor the Lord's Samkirtan movement has any restriction of caste creed and colour
Nor is the Lord's sankirtana movement restricted to any caste, creed, color or species.
saw the Lord in the mode of His Samkirtan movement
saw the Lord in His sankirtana party
they are practically unable to utter the holy name
they are actually unable to utter the holy name
There is no difference of body and soul in the Personality of Godhead Krishna
There is no difference between the body and the soul for the Personality of Godhead
The transcendental mellow of the Pastimes Of the Lord
The transcendental relationship of the pastimes of the Lord
the reason of His diversion to the Samkirtan movement instead of studying the Vedanta Sutras. He said that it is the duty of a Sanyasi to read the Vedanta Sutras
the reason for His preferring the sankirtana movement to the study of the Vedanta-sutra. Prakasananda said that it is the duty of a sannyasi to read the Vedanta-sutra.
the Lord submissively replied as follows: "The reason of my diversion to the Samkirtan movement from the Study of Vedanta is that I AM A GREAT FOOL.
the Lord submissively replied: "I have taken to the sankirtana movement instead of the study of Vedanta because I am a great fool.
and I am now mad after this holy Name whenever I utter the holy Name. I forget myself completely
and I am now mad after this holy name. Whenever I utter the holy name I forget Myself completely,
I thought within myself if I have not gone actually mad by this process of chanting the holy Name and therefore enquired from my Spiritual Master about it. I told him that I have become now mad by chanting the holy Name and what is this please let me know."
"My spiritual master informed me that it is the real effect of chanting the holy Name that it produces a transcendental emotion which is a rare manifestation.
I thought that I had actually gone mad by this process of chanting, and therefore I asked My spiritual master about it. He informed Me that this was the real effect of chanting the holy name, which produces a transcendental emotion that is a rare manifestation.
His representation as a great Fool was certainly impregnated with some purpose
His posing as a great fool was certainly to some purpose.
All the Sanyasins there were very much pleased on the Lord for His simple dealings and they unanimously replied that they would not mind for whatever He may reply.
All the sannyasis there were very much pleased with the Lord for His honest dealings, and they unanimously replied that they would not be offended by whatever He replied.
full with transcendental opulences without any one else on the same level.
full with transcendental opulences, superior to all.
And all the Sannyasins present there reclaimed the Lord as Personified Vedas
All the sannyasis there claimed that the Lord was the personified Vedas
the popularity of the Lord became more conspicuous at Varanasi
the popularity of the Lord increased at Varanasi
the Nawab was reluctant to leave him
the Nawab was reluctant to let him leave
how He expands Himself in different plenary portions of incarnations
His expansions in different plenary portions of incarnations
In that way he set examples to all the householders how to divide the accumulated wealth.
In that way he set an example for all householders.
the creeper has to be protected from the desires of sense enjoyment, monistic liberation and perfection of the Yoga system. They are all detrimental on the path of devotional progress.
the creeper has to be protected from the desires of sense enjoyment, monistic liberation and perfection of the hatha-yoga system. They are all detrimental on the path of devotional service
when one is thus converted into transcendental purity, one can then only serve the Lord by those purified senses.
when one is thus converted to transcendental purity, one can then serve the Lord by purified senses.
the Lord's internal potential opulences
the Lord's internal opulences
In the last two comparative examples we find references relevant to the timeline of Srila Prabhupada's writings and the publication of his work. What was eventually published as Teachings of Lord Caitanya was apparently first earmarked as a separate chapter for Srimad Bhagavatam. In the second example we see that Srila Prabhupada's writing of Nectar of Devotion was done in India, the writing (but not the publication) pre-dating his Bhagwatams. We shall try to put in these special matters in a different chapter conveniently. These are treated in detail in our book Teachings of Lord Caitanya.
We have tried to explain the science of devotional service in our book of the same name based on the authority of Bhakti Rasamrita Sindhu made by Srila Rupa Goswami.
We have tried to explain the science of devotional service in our book The Nectar of Devotion, based on the authority of Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu by Srila Rupa Gosvami.
Finally, we would like to present a side-by-side comparison of the verses of Lord Caitanya's Siksastakam, because there are numerous differences between the two editions and each word is most interesting to consider.
Having now completed the lengthy transcendental Introduction to Srila Prabhupada's Srimad Bhagwatam, tomorrow we will commence our work on the first sloka, first edition of Canto One.
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