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by Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura
Introduction
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As the title says
this book is basically a short notes on the Srimad Bhagavatam comprising of two
parts.
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1. Introducing the Subject:
In this section
the author describes what is the proper attitude to study the Bhagavatam by
first explaining the difference between a true and a shallow critic. Then he
discusses the reasons behind Bhagavatam being misunderstood by the scholars and
general populace. Finally, he describes how the Absolute Truth can be perceived
by the study of Bhagavatam by citing from the book itself and clears the
misconceptions pertaining to apparent mundane dealings of the Supreme Lord, Sri
Krishna.
2. Teachings of Srimad Bhagavatam:
In this section
the method of presentation of the teachings of Bhagavatam is discussed. First
the author gives succinct yet perfect explanation of the three features of the
Absolute truth and His three principle energies and then presents the entire
bhagavat philosophy in three divisions of Relationship (Sambandha), function
(Abhidheya) and fruit (Prayojana).
The author
conforms his presentation with that of the Sat Sandarbhas of Srila Jiva Goswami
and hence this work forms a perfect introduction to the study of the
Sandarbhas.
PART I - Introducing The
Subject
The Fruitless Reader & The Shallow Critic
Most readers are
mere repositories of facts and statements made by other people. But this is not study. The student is to read the facts with a view
to create, and not with the object of fruitless retention. Students like
satellites should reflect whatever light they receive from authors and not imprison
the facts and thoughts. Thought is
progressive. The author's thought must
have progress in the reader in the shape of correction or development. He is the best critic who can show the
further development of an old thought; but a mere denouncer is the enemy of
progress and consequently of Nature.
"Begin a new,
because the old masonry does not answer at present. Let the old author be buried because his time
is gone" says the critic. These are shallow expressions. Progress is certainly the law of nature and
there must be corrections and developments with the progress of time. But progress means going further or rising
higher. Now, if we are to follow our foolish critic, we are to go back to our
former terminus and make a new race, and when we have run half the race, another
critic of his stamp will cry out: "Begin anew because the wrong road has
been taken. In this way our stupid
critics will never allow us to go over the whole road and see what is in the
other terminus. Thus the shallow critic
and the fruitless reader are the two great enemies of progress. We must shun them.
The True Critic & The Useful Reader
The true critic,
on the other hand, advises us to preserve what we have already obtained, and to
adjust our race from that point where we have arrived in the heat of our
progress. He will never advise us to go
back to the point whence we started as he fully knows that in that case there
will be a fruitless loss of our valuable time and labor. He will direct the adjustment of the angle of
the race at the point where we are.
This is also the
characteristic of the useful student. He
will read an old author and will find out his exact position in the progress of
thought. He will never propose to burn
the book on the ground that it contains thoughts which are useless. No thought is useless. Thoughts are means by which we attain our
objects. The reader who denounces a bad
thought does not know that a bad road is even capable of improvement and
conversion into a good one.
Thoughts will necessarily continue to be an endless
series of means and objects in the progress of humanity. The great reformers will always assert that
they have come out not to destroy the
old law, but to fulfill it. Valmiki, Vyäsa, Plato, Jesus, Mohamed,
Confucius and Caitanya Mahäprabhu assert the fact either expressly or by their
conduct.
The Bhägavata
Misunderstood
Vrtti: In this section the author presents
different reasons and causes for misunderstanding the Bhägavata. Also he discusses how various philosophers according to
different time, place and circumstances pursued their quest for the one Absolute
truth and finally delineates the attitude of a true critic that can obtain
success in the search of the Absolute Truth.
1. The Bhägavata like all religious works and
philosophical performances and writings of great men has suffered from the
imprudent conduct of useless readers and stupid critics. Men of brilliant thoughts have passed by the
work in quest of truth and philosophy, but the prejudice which they imbibed
from its useless readers and their conduct (i.e., sahajiyas), prevented them from making a candid investigation.
2. Truth does not
belong exclusively to any individual man or to any nation or particular
race. It belongs to God, and man whether
in the Poles or on the Equator, has a right to claim it as the property of his
Father.
3. The Bhägavata has suffered alike from
shallow critics both Indian and foreign.
That book has been accursed and denounced by a great number of our young
countrymen who have scarcely read its contents and pondered over the philosophy
on which it is founded. It is owing
mostly to their imbibing an unfounded prejudice against it when they were in
school [under the British]. The Bhägavata, as a matter of course, has
been held in derision by those teachers who are generally of an inferior mind
and intellect. Oh! What a trouble to get rid of prejudices
gathered in unripe years!
4. As far as we can
understand, no enemy of Vaiñëavism will find any beauty in the Bhägavat. The true critic is a generous judge, devoid
of prejudices and party-spirit. The
critic, in other words, should be of the same disposition of mind as that of
the author whose merits he is required to judge. Thoughts have different ways.... Both the Christian and the Vaiñëava [may for
instance] utter the same sentiment, but they will never stop fighting with each
other because they have arrived at their common conclusion by different ways of
thought.
5. Subjects of
philosophy and theology are like the peaks of large towering and inaccessible
mountains standing in the midst of our planet inviting attention and
investigation. Thinkers and men of deep
speculation take their observations through the instruments of reason and
consciousness. But they take different
points when they carry on their work.
These points are positions chalked out by the circumstances of their
social and philosophical life, different as they are in different parts of the
world.
6. Plato looked at
the peak of the spiritual question from the West and Vyäsa made the observation
from the East; so Confucius did it from further East, and Schlegel, Spinoza,
Kant and Goethe from further West. These
observations were made at different times and by different means, but the conclusion
is all the same in as much as the object of observation was one and the
same. They all hunted after the Great
Spirit, the unconditioned Soul of the Universe, the absolute religion.
7. It requires a
candid, generous, pious and holy heart to feel the beauties of their
conclusions. Party-spirit, that great
enemy of truth, will always baffle the attempt of the inquirer who tries to
gather truth from religious works of other nations, and will make him believe
that absolute truth is nowhere except in his own religious book. The critic, therefore, should have a
comprehensive, good, generous, candid, impartial and sympathetic soul.
What Is the Bhägavat?
Vrtti: The author here gives a lucid description of how people belonging to
different non- devotional backgrounds possess an incorrect outlook of the
Srimad Bhagavatam.
1. The traveling companion of a
European Gentleman newly arrived in India will tell him with a serene look,
that the Bhägavat is a book which his
Oriya bearer daily reads in the evening to a number of hearers. It contains a jargon of unintelligible and
savage literature of those men who paint their noses with some sort of earth or
sandal, and wear beads all over their bodies in order to procure salvation for
themselves.
2. Another of his
companions, who has travelled a little in the interior, would immediately
contradict him and say that the Bhägavat
is a Sanskrit work claimed by a sect of men, the Gosvamis, who give Mantras, like the Popes of Italy, to the
common people of Bengal, and pardon their sins on payment of gold enough to
defray their social expenses.
3. A young Bengali,
chained up in English thoughts and ideas, and wholly ignorant of the
Pre-Mohammedan history of his own country, will add one more explanation by
saying that the Bhägavat is a book
containing an account of the life of Kåñëa, who was an ambitious and immoral
man! This is all that he could gather
from his grandmother while yet he did not go to school!
4. Thus the great Bhägavat ever remains unknown to the
foreigners like the elephant of the six blind who caught hold of the several
parts of the body of the beast! But
truth is eternal and is never injured but for a while by ignorance.
The Bhägavat
Explains Itself
Vrtti: Now the author presents the proper perception
of the Bhägavatam by citing from the excerpts of the Bhagavatam comprising the
revelations gained by Lord Brahma and Vyasa dev in trance.
1. It is the fruit of the tree
of thought (Vedas) mixed with the nectar of the speech of Çukadeva. It is the temple of spiritual love. It is
composed of 18,000 Çlokas. It contains
the best part of the Vedas and Vedanta.
2. The Bhägavata is pre-eminently "the
Book" in India. Once enter into it,
and you are transplanted, as it were, into the spiritual world where gross
matter has no existence. The true
follower of the Bhägavat is a
spiritual man who has already cut his temporary connection with phenomenal nature,
and has made himself the inhabitant of that region where God eternally exists
and loves. This mighty work is founded
upon inspiration and its superstructure is upon reflection. To the common reader it has no charms and is
full of difficulty. We are, therefore,
obliged to study it deeply through the assistance of such great commentators as
Çrédhara Svämé and Çré Caitanya Mahäprabhu and His contemporary followers.
3. Now Çré Caitanya Mahäprabhu,
the great preacher of Nadia, who has been adulated by His talented followers,
tells us that the Bhägavat is founded
upon the four verses which Vyäsa received from Närada, the most learned of the
created beings. He tells us further that
Brahmä pierced through the whole universe of matter for years and years in
quest of the final cause of the world, but when he failed to find it abroad, he
looked into the construction of his own spiritual nature, and there he heard
the Universal Spirit speaking unto him:
4. "...I was in the
beginning before all spiritual and temporal things were created, and after they
have been created I am in them all in the shape of their existence and
truthfulness, and when they will be all gone I shall remain full as I was and
as I am. Whatever appears to be true
without being a real fact itself, and whatever is not perceived though it is
true in itself are subjects of my illusory energy of creation, such as light
and darkness in the material world."
5. Like Brahmä,
Vyäsa also fell back into his own self and searched his own spiritual nature
and then it was that the above truth was communicated to him for his own good
and the good of the world. The sage
immediately perceived that his former works required supercession in as much as
they did not contain the whole truth and nothing but the truth. In his new idea he obtained the development
of his former idea of religion. He
commenced the Bhägavat in pursuance
of this change.
Sambandha, Abhidheya, Prayojana
Vrtti: Now the author delineates the content of
Srimad Bhagavatam in terms of Sambandha, Abhidheya and Prayojana.
1. The whole of this
incomparable work teaches us, according to our Great Caitanya, the three great
truths which compose the absolute religion of man. Our Nadia preacher calls them Sambandha, Abhidheya and Prayojana, i.e., the relation between
the creator and the created, the duty of man to God, and the prospects of
humanity.
2. In these three words is summed up the whole ocean of human knowledge as
far as it has been explored up to this era of human progress. These are the cardinal points of religion and
the whole Bhägavat is, as we are
taught by Çré Caitanya, an explanation, both by precepts and examples, of these
three great points.
Sambandha
1. Throughout the Bhägavat teaches us that there is only
one God without a second, Who is full in Himself and is and will remain the
same. Time and space, which prescribe
conditions to created objects are much below His supreme spiritual nature,
which is unconditioned and absolute.
2. Mäyä intervenes
between us and God as long as we are not spiritual, and when we are able to
break off her bonds, we, even in this mortal frame, learn to commune in our
spiritual nature with the unconditioned and absolute. No, Mäyä does not mean a false thing only,
but it means concealment of eternal truth as well.
3. The creation is
not Mäyä itself but is subject to that principle. The true idealist must be a
dualist also. He must believe all that
he perceives as nature created by God full of spiritual essence and relations,
but he must not believe that the outward appearance is the truth. The Bhägavat
teaches that all that we healthily perceive is true, but its material appearance
is transient and illusory.
4. Nature is
eternally spiritual but the intervention of Mäyä makes her gross and
material. Man, in his progress, attempts
to shake off this gross idea, childish and foolish in its nature, and by
subduing the intervening principle of Mäyä, lives in continual union with God
in his spiritual nature. The Bhägavat
teaches us this relation between man and God. This is called Sambandha-jïäna of the Bhägavat, or in other words, the
knowledge of the relations between the conditioned and the Absolute.
Abhidheya
1. The second great
principle inculcated by the Bhägavat
is the principle of duty. Man must
spiritually worship his God. There are
three ways in which the Creator is worshiped by the created according to the
constitution of their mind: [As brahman, paramätmä, and bhagavän.].
2. Those who worship
God as infinitely great in the principle of admiration call Him by the name of Brahman.
This mode is called jïäna or
knowledge. Those who worship God as the
Universal Soul in the principle of spiritual union with him give Him the name
of Paramätmä. This is yoga. And those who worship God as all in all with
all their heart, body and strength style Him as Bhagavän. This last
principle is bhakti. The book that prescribes the relation and
worship of Bhagavän, procures for
itself the name Bhägavat and the
worshiper is also called by the same name.
3. The superiority
of the Bhägavat consists in the
uniting of all sorts of theistic worship into one excellent principle in human
nature, which passes by the name of Bhakti. This word has no equivalent in the English
language. Piety, devotion, resignation
and spiritual love unalloyed with any sort of petition except in the way of
repentance, compose the highest principle of Bhakti. The Bhägavat tells us to worship God in that
great and invaluable principle, which is infinitely superior to human knowledge
and the principle of yoga.
4. The principle of Bhakti passes
through five distinct stages in the course of its development into its highest
and purest form. Then again when it
reaches the last form, it is susceptible of further progress from the stage of prema (love) to that of Mahäbhäva which is in fact a complete
transition into the spiritual universe where God alone is the bride-groom of
our soul. The voluminous Bhägavat is nothing more than a full
illustration of this principle of continual development and progress of the
soul from gross matter to the All-Perfect Universal Spirit who is distinguished
as personal, eternal, absolutely free, all powerful and all intelligent.
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(Matter As a Dictionary of Spirit):
5. In the Bhägavat comparisons have been made with
the material world, which cannot help but convince the ignorant and the
impractical. Material examples are absolutely
necessary for the explanation of spiritual ideas. The Bhägavat
believes that the spirit of nature is the truth in nature and is the only
practical part of it.
6. The phenomenal
appearance of nature is truly theoretical, although it has had the greatest
claim upon our belief from the days of infancy.
The outward appearance of nature is nothing more than a sure index of
its spiritual face. Comparisons are
therefore necessary. Nature, as it is
before our eyes, must explain the spirit, or else the truth will ever remain
concealed, and man will never rise from his boyhood though his whiskers and
beard grow white as the snows of the Himalayas.
7. The whole
intellectual and moral philosophy is explained by matter itself.... All spiritual ideas are... pictures from the
material world, because matter is a dictionary of spirit, and material pictures
are but the shadows of the spiritual affairs which our material eye carries back
to our spiritual perception.
8. God in His
infinite goodness and kindness has established this unfailing connection
between the truth and the shadow in order to impress upon us the eternal truth
which he has reserved for us. The clock
explains the time, the alphabet points to the gathered store of knowledge, the
beautiful song of a harmonium gives the idea of eternal harmony in the spirit
world, today and tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, and thus thrusts into us
the ungrasped idea of eternity. Similarly, material pictures impress upon our
spiritual nature the truly spiritual idea of religion.
9. It is on these reasonable grounds that Vyäsa adopted the mode of
explaining our spiritual worship with some sorts of material phenomena, which
correspond with the spiritual truth.
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10. In the Bhägavat we have been advised first of
all, to convert ourselves into most grateful servants of God as regards our
relation to our fellow brethren. Our
nature has been described as bearing three different phases: goodness, passion
and ignorance. Goodness is that property
in our nature which is purely good as far as it can be pure in our present
state. Passion is neither good nor
bad. Ignorance is evil. ...[I]t is our object to train up [our]
affections and tendencies to the standard of Goodness....
11. We are then to
look to all living beings in the same light in which we look to ourselves,
i.e., we must convert our selfishness into all possible disinterested activity towards all around us. Love, charity, good deeds and devotion to God
will be our only aim. We then become the
servants of God by obeying His high and holy wishes. Here we begin to be Bhaktas. All this is covered by the term Abhidheya, the second cardinal point in the supreme religion.
Prayojana
1. What is the
object of our spiritual development, our prayer, our devotion and our union
with God? The Bhägavat tells us that the object is not enjoyment or sorrow, but
continual progress in spiritual holiness and harmony.
2. In the common-place books of the Hindu religion we have descriptions of
a local heaven and a local hell; the Heaven as beautiful as anything on earth
and the Hell a ghastly as any picture of evil.
Besides this Heaven we have many more places where good souls are sent
up in the way of promotion! There are 84
divisions of the Hell itself, some more dreadful than the one Milton has
described in his "Paradise Lost."
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(Controversial Passages Concerning Descriptions of
Hell, etc.):
3. The Bhägavat certainly tells us of a state
of reward and punishment in the future according to deeds performed in our
present situation. All poetic
inventions, besides this spiritual fact, have been described as statements
borrowed from other works in the way of preservation of old traditions in the
book which superseded them and put an end to the necessity of their storage.
4. If the whole stock of Hindu Theological works which preceded the Bhägavat were burnt like the Alexandrian
Library and the sacred Bhägavat alone
was preserved as it is, not a part of the philosophy of the Hindus, except that
of the atheistic sects, would be lost.
The Bhägavat therefore may be
styled both as a religious work and as a compendium of all Hindu history and
philosophy.
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5. The Bhägavat does not allow its followers to
ask anything from God except eternal love towards Him. The kingdom of the world, the beauties of the
local Heavens, and the sovereignty over the material world are never the
subjects of Vaiñëava prayer.
6. The Vaiñëava meekly
and humbly says, "Father, Master, God, Friend and Husband of my soul! Hallowed by thy name! I do not approach You for anything which You
have already given me. I have sinned
against You and I now repent and solicit Your pardon. Let thy holiness touch my soul and make me
free from grossness. Let my spirit be
devoted meekly to Your Holy service in absolute love towards Thee."
7. "I have
called You my God, and let my soul be wrapped up in admiration at Your
greatness! I have addressed You as my
Master and let my soul be strongly devoted to Your service. I have called You my Friend, and let my soul
be in reverential love towards You and not in dread or fear! I have called you my Husband and let my
spiritual nature be in eternal union with You, forever loving and never
dreading, or feeling disgust. Father,
let me have strength enough to go up to You as the consort of my soul, so that
we may be one in eternal love! Peace to
the world."
8. The Vaiñëava does
not expect to be the king of a certain part of the universe after his death,
nor does he dread a local fiery and turbulent hell. Nor is his idea of
salvation (the total annihilation of personal existence). The Vaiñëava is the
meekest of all creatures, devoid of all ambition. He wants to serve God spiritually after
death, as he has served Him both in spirit and matter while here. His constitution is spiritual and his highest
object of life is divine and holy love.
9. The Bhägavat affirms that the Vaiñëava soul when freed from gross
matter will distinctly exist not in time and space but spiritually in the
eternal kingdom of God where love is life, and hope and charity and continual ecstasy
without change are its various manifestations.
10. In considering
the essence of God, two great errors stare before us and frighten us back to
ignorance and its satisfaction. One of
them is the idea that God is above all attributes both material and spiritual
and is consequently above all conception.
This is a noble idea but useless.
If God is above conception and without any sympathy with the world, how
[explain] this creation, this universe composed of properties, the distinctions
and phases of existence, the differences of value, etc.
11. The other error
is that God is conceived to be merely an all attribute, i.e., intelligence,
truth, goodness and power. This is also
a ludicrous idea. Scattered properties
can never constitute a Being. It is more
impossible in the case of opposing principles such as Justice and Mercy and
Fullness and Creative Power.
13. The truth, as
stated in the Bhägavat, is that
properties, though many may be belligerent, are united in a Spiritual Being
where they have full sympathy and harmony.
Certainly this is beyond our comprehension. It is so, owing to our nature being finite
and God being infinite. This is a glimpse of truth and we must regard it as
Truth itself. Often, says Emmerson, a
glimpse of truth is better than an arranged system and he is right.
14. The Bhägavat has, therefore, a personal,
all-intelligent, active, absolutely free, holy, good, all-powerful,
omnipresent, just and merciful and supremely Spiritual Deity without a
second--creating and preserving all that is in the Universe. The highest object of the Vaiñëava is to
serve that Infinite Being forever spiritually
in the activity of Absolute Love.
Criticisms of the Shallow Critic Regarding the
Deity
Vrtti: Here the author addresses the misconceptions
caused because of the mundane perception of the divine pastimes of Supreme
Personality of Godhead, Sri Krishna.
1. The shallow
critic summarily rejects Vyäsa as a man-worshiper. He would go so far as to scandalize him as a
teacher of material love and lust and the injurious principles of exclusive asceticism.
2. Such a shallow
critics mind will undoubtedly be changed if he but reflects upon one great
point, i.e., how is it possible that a spiritualist of the School of Vyäsa,
teaching the best principles of Theism throughout the Bhägavata, and making the four texts quoted in the beginning the
foundation of his mighty work, could have forced upon the belief of men the
notion that the sensual connection between a man with certain females is the
highest object of worship?
3. This is
impossible dear critic! Vyäsa could not have taught the common Vairägi to
set up a place of worship with a number of females! Vyäsa, who could teach us repeatedly in the
whole of Bhägavata that sensual
pleasures are momentary like the pleasures of rubbing the itching hand, and
that man's highest duty is to have spiritual love with God, could never have
prescribed the worship of sensual pleasures.
His descriptions are spiritual and you must not connect matter with them.
4. Yes dear critic,
you nobly point to the immoral deeds of the common Vyragis, who call themselves
the followers of the Bhägavata and
the great Caitanya. You nobly tell us
that Vyäsa, unless purely explained, may lead thousands of men into great
trouble in time to come. But dear
critic! Study the history of ages and
countries! Where have you found the
philosopher and the reformer fully understood by the people?
5. Whether you give
the Absolute Religion in figures, or simple expressions, or teach it by means
of books or oral speeches, the ignorant and the thoughtless must degrade it. "Truth
is good," is an elemental truth which is easily grasped by the common
people. But if you tell a common patient
that God is infinitely intelligent and powerful in His spiritual nature, he
will conceive a different idea from what you entertain of the expression. All higher truths, though intuitive, require
previous education in the simpler ones.
PART II - The Teaching of Çrémad-Bhägavatam:
The Great Divisions: Relationship, Function & Fruit
1. The teaching of Çrémad-Bhägavatam falls into three
distinct parts consisting of: 1) Sambandha
or Relationship; 2) Abhidheya or the Function or Activity that pertains to the
Relationship; and, 3) Prayojana
or the Object or Fruit of such Activity.
2. In the compilation of Vedanta-sutra, the aphorisms of the
Upaniñads, which contain the highest teaching of the Vedic literature, are
presented in the form of a systematic body of knowledge under the headings of Sambandha, Abhidheya and Prayojana. In his Ñat-sandarbha,
Çré Jéva Gosvämé has applied the same method of treatment to the contents of
the Çrémad-Bhägavatam, which is
admitted to be the only authentic bhasya
or exposition of the Vedanta-sutra.
3.The first of the "Six
Sandarbhas," the Tattva-sandarbha,
applies itself to the elucidation of the epistemology of transcendental
knowledge. It has made possible the
comparative study of religion on the only admissible and scientific basis.
Transcendental Epistemology - A Summary of the
Tattva-sandarbha
Vrtti: In this section first the Lord and His three
principle energies are defined and then emphasis is laid on the vulnerable
nature of jivas to become dissociated from the Absolute Person. The nature and
characteristics of the souls who, by their own free will, choose to dissociate
from the Lord and those who choose to be subservient to the Lord is elaborated
afterwards.
Lord Çré Kåñëa and His Three Principle Energies
1. Çré Kåñëa, the
Ultimate Reality, is One without a second.
He is distinct from His energy.
Çré Kåñëa is the predominating Absolute.
His energy is the predominated Absolute in the three positions of antaranga [internal], tatastha [marginal], and bahiranga [external] respectively.
2. Antaranga is that which pertains to the
proper Entity of the Absolute Person.
The literal meaning of the word is "that which belongs to the inner
body." And the word çäkti is
rendered as "power."
3. Tatastha means literally, "that which
is on the border-line as between land and water." This intermediate power does not belong to
any definable region of the Person of Çré Kåñëa. It manifests itself on the border-line
between the inner and the outer body of the Absolute.
4. The power that
manifests itself on the outer body is bahiranga-çäkti. As there is no difference between the Body
and the Entity of the Absolute Person, the distinctions as between the inner,
outer and marginal positions of His Body are in terms of the realization of the
individual soul.
5. Although Çré
Kåñëa is One without a second, He has His own multiple Forms corresponding to
the degree and variety of His subjective manifestations. The subjective entity of Çré Kåñëa is not
liable to any transformation. His
different forms are, therefore, aspects of the One Form manifesting Themselves
to the different aptitudes of His servitors.
6. But the power of
Çré Kåñëa is transformable by the will of Çré Kåñëa. These transformations of power in the cases
of the internal and marginal energies are eternal processes. In the case of the external energy the transformations
of power are temporary manifestations.
7. The phenomenal
world is the product of the external power of Çré Kåñëa. The Absolute Realm is the transformation of
the inner power. Individual souls are
the transformations of the marginal power. These jévas are the eternal infinitesimal emanations of the marginal
power, capable of subservience to the inner power, but also susceptible to
dissociation from the workings of the inner power.
Methods of Approaching the Absolute
8. Çré Kåñëa is advaya-jïäna, or absolute
knowledge. Absolute knowledge cannot be
challenged. He can only be approached by
the method of complete self-surrender, by the reciprocal, otherwise ineligible,
cognition of individual souls.
9. Transcendental
epistemology is differentiated from empiric epistemology with respect to
relationship (sambandha), function (abhidheya), and object (prayojana), for the
reason that it refers to entities that are located beyond the limited range of
the assertive cognitive endeavor normally practiced by the deluded people of
this world for their temporary purposes.
10. By the
peculiarities of their infinitesimality, essentially spiritual nature, and
marginal position, all individual souls have the constitutional option of
choice between complete subservience and active or passive hostility to Çré
Kåñëa. These opposed aptitudes lead them
to the adoption of correspondingly different methods for the realization of the
respective ends.
The Methods of Active & Passive Hostility:
1. Those methods
that are adopted for the practice of active hostility to the Absolute are
termed pratyakña (direct individual
sense perception) and parokña
(associated collective sense perception by many persons past and present).
2. The aparokña method (the method of cessation
from individual and collective sense perception) leads to the position of
neutrality.
3. The pratyakña and parokña methods are diametrically opposed to the methods approved
by the Bhägavata for the search of
the Truth.
4. The aparokña method also tends to an
unwholesome and negative result if it seeks to stand on the mere rejection of
the pratyakña and parokña methods without trying to
progress towards the positive transcendence.
Such inactive policy would indeed be tantamount to the practice of
passive hostility to the Absolute and as such is even more condemnable than
open hostility.
5. No method can be
recognized as suitable for the quest of the Truth that is actuated more or less
by the purpose of opposing the Absolute Supremacy of Çré Kåñëa. In other words, individual souls cannot
realize the subjective nature of the Absolute except by the exercise of their
fullest subservience to Çré Kåñëa and His inner power [internal energy].
6. The failure of
the individual souls to find the Truth is brought about by their own innate
perversity. They possess perfect freedom
of choice as between complete subservience to Çré Kåñëa and the practice of
active or passive hostility to Him.
There is no other alternative open to them. If they chose to refuse to serve they have to
practice hostility or indifference towards the Absolute.
7. The perverse
individual soul is not obstructed in the active exercise of his freedom of
choice. He is enabled to exercise the
functions of hostility and indifference within consistent deterring limits, by
the wonderful contrivance of the deluding power of Çré Kåñëa.
8. The continued
deliberate exercise of such hostility and indifference towards the Absolute by
the perverse individual soul results necessarily in the suicidal abdication of
all activities by the deliberate offender.
The Methods of Active & Passive Subservience:
1. The methods that
are adopted for practicing active and complete subservience to the Absolute are
termed respectively as adhokñaja (the
external or reverential method of serving the Transcendental Object of worship)
and aprakåta (the internal or
confidential method of service of the Absolute).
2. Çrémad-Bhägavatam inculcates and divulges the
search of the Absolute by the adhokñaja and aprakåta methods. It condemns the pratyakña and parokña
methods, but recognizes the proper use of the aparokña method [styled as passive subservience].
The Ascending and Descending Processes:
1. The pratyakña, parokña and the [improper]
passive aparokña methods are
collectively called the aroha or
ascending process. The proper aparokña, adhokñaja and aprakåti methods constitute the avaroha or descending process.
2. By adoption of
the ascending process the perverse individual soul strives to realize his suicidal
end by the positive and negative perverse manipulation of mundane experience
gained through direct and indirect sense perception.
3. By the descending
process the soul is enabled to strive for the realization of the unalloyed
service of the Absolute by the honest exercise of his unreserved receptive
aptitude to the Initiative of the Absolute when He is pleased to come down to
the plane of his tiny perverse cognition.
The Fruits or Objectives of the Different Methods
1. The fruits that
are realizable by the different methods of endeavor correspond to the
particular method that is followed.
2. The pratyakña and parokña methods aim at dharma
(virtue), artha (utility) and kama (sensuous gratification).
3. The wrong aparokña method aims at pseudo-mokña (annihilation).
4. The right aparokña method aims at positive
transcendence.
5. The adhokñaja method aims at bhakti or reverential transcendental
service of the Absolute.
6. The aprakåti method has in
view the realization of prema or
Divine Love.
The Dawning of Pure Theism As Opposed to Hostility:
1. Pure Theism
begins with the first appearance of the positive desire for the service of the
Absolute, who is located beyond the range of our sensuous activity. It involves the clear perception of the fact
that all empiric activity is the deliberate practice of perverse hostility
against the Absolute supremacy of Çré Kåñëa.
2. The word adhokñaja which is applied in Çrémad-Bhägavatam to the Object of
worship refers to the fact that Çré Kåñëa has reserved the right of not being
exposed to human senses.
3. The theistic
methods alone thus apply to the proper Entity of the Absolute. Those who are in rebellion against the
supremacy of Çré Kåñëa by the adoption of sensuous activity are prevented from
all access to His presence by the operation of the Lord's deluding power
[external energy].
4. The individual
soul is always susceptible to being thus deluded by mäyä, the limiting or measuring potency. The conditions for the practice of sensuous
activities in this realm of finite existence are provided by Mäyä for the
correction of the suicidal perversity of the rebellious souls.
5. It is in this
manner that a person who is averse to the service of Çré Kåñëa is made to
proceed along the tracks of karma and jïäna by the ascending process, so that
he will gain the bitter experience of the practice of perverse hostility to Çré
Kåñëa and to his own self.
6. This world is
inhabited by persons who are deliberately addicted to this suicidal
course. They are unconditionally
committed to the ascending process for sojourning in this realm of
nescience. The method is further
characterized by the hypocritical assumption of the validity of experience
derived through the senses for providing progressive guidance in the quest for
a state of perfect felicity.
7. The method of
quest in which the Truth Himself takes the Initiative is termed the avaroha or descending process. The individual soul can have no access to the
Absolute by reason of his infinitesimality, dissociable marginal position, and
his own nature as an emanation of power.
He can, however, have a view of the Truth if the Absolute is pleased to
manifest His descent to the plane of his tiny cognition.
8. Real theism
cannot begin till the individual soul is enabled by the descent of the Absolute
to have the opportunity for His service.
The Absolute manifests His descent in the Form of the Name or the
Transcendental Divine Sound on the lips of His pure devotees.
9. Dikña, or the communication of the
knowledge of the Transcendental in the Form of the Sound to the submissive
receptive cognition of the individual soul by authorized agents of the
Absolute, is the Vedic mode of initiation into Transcendental Knowledge.
10. The Name is the
Object of worship of all pure souls. The
transcendental service of the Name, or bhakti,
is the proper function of all souls and the only mode of quest of the
Truth. The pursuit of this right method
of quest leads to a growing perfection of bhakti
and progressive realization of the subjective nature of the Object of worship.
Brahman, Paramätmä & Bhagavän
Vrtti: In this section the three features of the
manifestation of the one Absolute Truth is defined and the process of obtaining
true realization of them is illuminated.
1. The Ultimate
Reality is termed as brahman, paramätmä and
bhagavän.
The Brahman conception stresses the necessity of excluding the
deluded, concrete, limited experience of the followers of apparent truth. The conception of Paramätmä seeks to
establish a tangible connection between this temporal world and the Ultimate
Reality. Both of these conceptions
present not only an imperfect, but also a grossly misleading view of the
Absolute.
2. The conception of
Bhavagän as Transcendental Personality who is approachable by çuddha-bhakti or unalloyed devotion of
the soul, corresponds to the complete realization of the Absolute which
necessarily also accommodates and supplements the rival concepts of Brahman and
Paramätmä.
3. The Brahman
conception is misunderstood by exclusive monists (kevalädvaita of the Çaìkara school) who quite disingenuously assume
that the conception denied the Transcendental Personality and Figure of the
Absolute.
4. The root of the
error lies in the fear of the impersonalists that if concreteness in the
Absolute is admitted, such an admission would lead to the importation of the undesirable
features of apparent truth (experienced by the methods of sensuous perception)
into the transcendental conception of the Absolute Reality favored by the
scriptures.
5. The method of çuddha-bhakti, while recognizing fully
the necessity of admitting the Transcendental Nature of the Ultimate Reality,
does not deny the immanent transcendental connection of the Absolute with
manifest mundane existence (which idea is found in the Yogi's conception of
Paramätmä, but in a wrong and offensive formulation).
6. The conception of
Bhagavän, realized by the process of çuddha-bhakti,
harmonizes these respective requirements as secondary features of the Proper
Transcendental Personality of the Absolute.
The adhokñaja and aprakåta methods of quest, alone tend to
such realization.
Sambandha, Abhidheya, and Prayojana Defined In
Terms of the Bhägavata
Vrtti: In this section the whole Bhagavata philosophy
is explained by the author in terms of the vastu-traya
(Sambandha, Abhidheya and Prayojana) in the similar way as in the Sat
Sandarbhas.
1. Sambandha, or relationship, implies a
numerical reference. The Ultimate
Reality is One without a second, though the aspects of the Absolute may prove
different in different eyes. The unity
of the Ultimate Reality carries a similarity to the integer of mathematical
conception, denoting Himself as the Object of worship (Çré Kåñëa), and
connoting His çakté in her three
aspects and her transformations and products.
2. Under
"relationship," therefore, come all those parts of the teaching of
the Bhägavata that reveal the
knowledge of the subjective nature of Çré Kåñëa, the subjective nature of His çakté, or power, in all her three
aspects, and the subjective nature of the activities of thhe different aspects
of power.
3. Under abhidheya, or function, are included all
those parts of the teaching of Çrémad-Bhägavatam
which reveal the nature of transcendental worship and, negatively, of the
activity of aversion to Çré Kåñëa.
4. Under prayojana, or fruit, are included those
portions of the teaching of Çrémad-Bhägavatam
that deal with prema, or spiritual
love and, negatively, with dharma
(virtue), artha (material utility), käma (lust), and mokña (merging in the Absolute).
Sambandha or Relationship
1. The worship of
Çré Kåñëa is the only full-fledged, unadulterated function of all souls--the
only complete theistic worship. All
other forms of worship represent the infinity of gradations of approach towards
this complete form of worship.
2. Pure theism,
involving the active reciprocal relationship of the soul with the Divinity,
does not begin until there is actual realization of the Transcendental
Personality of Bhagavän Çré Kåñëa. The
degree of this realization corresponds to that of the loving aptitude of His
worshiper.
(Lord Çré Kåñëa, the Supreme Personality of
Godhead)
3. The Proper Figure
of Çré Kåñëa (Svayam-rüpa) is identical with the Entity of Kåñëa, and is One
without a second. There is an infinity
of Aspects of the Divine Figure that emanate from the Figure-in-Himself
(Svayam-rüpa). These plural aspects of
the Divine Figure are of the nature of Identities, Manifestations, Expansions,
Plenary Parts, Plenary Parts of Parts, Descending Divinities (avatäras), etc. These Divine Aspects, Who are part and parcel
of the Divinity in His fullness, are worshiped by the corresponding aptitudes
of love of Their respective worshipers.
4. Just as a
relationship of service subsists between Çré Kåñëa and His power (çakté) in all her aspects and
transformations, similarly the infinite Aspects of the Divine Personality
Himself, emanating from the Figure-in-Himself (Svayam-rüpa), are related to Çré
Kåñëa as Servitor-Divinities Who are possessors of power.
5. These Divine Persons show an
order of classification into the categories of Svayam-prakäña (Manifestation-in-Himself), Tadekätma-rüpa (Essentially Identical Figure), and Aveña-rüpa (The Figure of Divine
Super-imposition). Of these, Svayam-prakäña is, as it were, the other
self of Svayam-rüpa, and is also One
without a second. Tadekätma-rüpa and Aveña-rüpa
are multifarious.
6. Each of these Divine Persons
possesses His own absolute realm (Vaikuëöha) where He is served by the infinity
of His servitors. These Vaikuëöhas
transcend the countless worlds of finite existence constituting the realm of
the deluding power.
7. Çré Kåñëa is
possessed of 64 Divine Excellences. Çré
Näräyaëa, the Supreme Object of reverential worship, possesses 60 of the full
perfections of Divine Excellence. Brahmä
and Rudra, who wield the delegated powers of mundane creation and destruction,
possess 55 Excellences, but not in their full divine measure. Individual souls (jévas) possess 50 of the Excellences of Kåñëa in an infinitesimal
measure.
8. The clue to the
Supreme Excellence of the Personality of Çré Kåñëa is supplied by the principle
of Rasa which is defined by Çré Rüpa
as "that ecstatic principle of concentrated deliciousness that is tasted
by Çré Kåñëa and in sequel reciprocated by the serving individual soul on the
plane that transcends mundane thought."
Çré Kåñëa is the Figure-in-Himself of the whole compass of the nectarine
principle of Rasa. The Figure of Kåñëa excels all His other
Aspects of His Divine Personality by being the Supreme Repository of all the Rasas.
(The Principle of Rädhä-Kåñëa):
9. The Supreme
Possessor of power, Çré Kåñëa, is inseparably coupled with His antaranga-çakté, or power inhering in
His Own proper Figure. Çrémad-Bhägavatam refers to the service
of one particular gopé (lit., one who
is fully eligible for the service of Çré Kåñëa) being preferred by Çré Kåñëa
above all the other gopés.
10. In other words, antaranga-çakté is one and
all-perfect. She is the
"predominated Absolute." She
has her own specific figure, viz.,
that of Çré Rädhikä. The two aspects of
the antarangä- or svarupa-çakté, namely, tatañthä-çakté and mäyä- or bahirangä-çakté,
reveal themselves in the intermediate and outer regions of the Divine
Figure.
(The Individual Jéva
Soul):
11. Jévas or individual souls are
detachable, infinitesimal emanations of the tatañthä-çakté,
sharing the essence of the plenary spiritual power. They appear on the border-line between the
inner and outer zones of divine power.
They have no locus standi in
their nascent or tatañthä state. They are eternally exposed to the opposite
attractions of svarupa-çakté and mäyä-çakté at the two poles.
12. Their proper
affinity is with svarupa-çakté, but
they are susceptible to be overpowered by mäyä-çakté,
at their option. If they choose to be
the subservients of mäyä-çakté, they
are subjected to ignorance of their proper nature which results in confirmed aversion
to the service of Çré Kåñëa. In this
manner is brought about the deluded condition of individual souls who sojourn
in the realm of mäyä.
13. The constitutions
of individual souls in their nascent state, and the realm of mäyä are comparable to the outer
penumbral and the shadowy zones respectively of the sun, while the position of antarangä-çakté is like the inner ball
of light which is the proper abode of the Sun-god, who corresponds to Çré Kåñëa.
14. Individual souls
are detachable, infinitesimal emanations of the marginal power located on the
border-line and exposed to the opposite pulls of the internal and external
energies. They are distinct from the
plenary emanations, manifestations and multiples of the internal energy on the
one hand, and from the products of the external energy on the other.
15. The individual
soul, in his nascent marginal position, is confronted with the alternative of
choice between subservience to the plenary power on the one hand and apparent
domination over the deluding power on the other. When he chooses the latter alternative, he
forgets his relationship of subservience to the inner power and his
subservience to Çré Kåñëa through such subservience.
16. It is never
possible for the conditioned soul to understand the nature of the service of
Çré Kåñëa that is rendered by His inner power.
There is, therefore, a categorical distinction between the function of
individual souls and that of the inner power, even on the plane of service.
17. In the works of
the followers of Çré Caitanya Mahäprabhu who propounded the school of acintya-bhedäbheda-tattva (simultaneous
oneness and difference) the subject of the working of the inner power and
individual souls has been treated in all its details. The clue to the comparative study of the
working of power on the transcendental plane is supplied by the account of the räsa dance in Çrémad-Bhägavatam.
18. When the
individual soul chooses unreserved subservience to the inner power, he has
access to the service of the untampered Personality of the Absolute. The kaivalya
state, mentioned in Çrémad-Bhägavatam,
is the state of unalloyed devotion to the untampered Personality of the
Absolute.
(How the Monists Misunderstand Kåñëa-lélä):
19. Exclusive monists
imagine that the figure of the object of worship exists only in the mundane
world and that in the final position there is also no activity of worship. In other words, they deny the possibility of
the lélä, or the eternal
transcendental activities of Çré Kåñëa.
20. Çrémad-Bhägavatam flatly denies this
groundless contention in the most explicit terms. There is total absence of all mundane
reference in the transcendental activity of çuddha-bhakti.
21. The word activity is not
expressive of lélä. It corresponds to kriyä or mundane activity.
Transcendental activitiy has neither beginning or end. There is, of course, relativity in lélä, but it is not the unwholesome
relativity of mundane activity or kriyä. The notion that lilä can have an end or termination is due to ignorant confusion
between the conceptions of lélä and kriyä.
22. Çuddha-bhakti belongs to the category of lélä.
In Våndävana the gopés serve
Çré Kåñëa by unconventional amorous love.
The super-excellence of this service cannot be admitted if the
absolutely wholesome nature of all unalloyed activity on the plane of Vraja is
disbelieved, on principle, by one's ignorant perverse judgement.
(The Transcendental Purpose of Varëäçrama):
23. The function of
conditioned souls is of two kinds. The
function that is provided by the varëäçrama
system for conditioned souls is not opposed to çuddha-bhakti. Çrémad-Bhägavatam has treated the varëäçrama system from the point of view
of unalloyed devotion. Thereby it has
provided an intelligent way of viewing the situation of conditioned souls
during their sojourn to the mundane world.
24. The spiritual
value of the varëäçrama system is due
to the fact that it admits the possibility of the activity of conditioned souls
being endowed with reflected spiritual quality by being directed towards the
unalloyed service of the Absolute on the transcendental plane.
25. It is the purpose
of the varëäçrama regulation to
impart this direction to the activity of the conditioned souls. The crucial nature of this theistic purpose
of the varëäçrama arrangement is
fully treated in Çrémad-Bhägavatam. It is not explicitly treated in any other çästric work.
Abhidheya or Function:
(Unalloyed, Varëäçrama and Ignorant Functions of the
Soul):
1. Çuddha-bhakti is the only proper function of
all unalloyed individual souls and is located on the plane of
transcendence. But all animate life
forms are potentially eligible for the transcendental service of the Absolute.
2. Varëäçrama life is not the unalloyed
spiritual life that is led by fully liberated souls. It is the stage preparatory to such
life. Neither is it on a par with the
life of unmixed sensuousness that is led by people outside the varëäçrama society.
3. Every form of
activity of conditioned souls outside the varëäçrama
system is inspired by meaningless malicious hostility to the Absolute. All such activity is necessarily
atheistical. This mundane world is the
congenial sphere for the practice of the deluded dominating activity that is
coveted by conditioned souls for practicing active aversion towards the
Absolute. The conditions for such
activity are supplied by the deluding power.
They constitute the realm of nescience, spiritual ignorance or acit.
4. But as soon as
the activity of cit, or uneclipsed
cognition is aroused in the spiritual essence of the misguided soul, it
dissipates by its appearance such wrong addiction to the ignorant activities of
this world and also the susceptibility of being tempted by the deluding power.
5. There is no
common ground between the unalloyed spiritual function and the activity of
conditioned souls in the grip of nescience.
The one does not dove-tail into the other. It is for this reason that the unalloyed spiritual
function can never be understood by the resources of the archaeologists,
historians, allegorists, philosophers, etc., of this world.
6. Such empiric
speculations tamper with the transcendental Personality of the Absolute. They belong to the realm of nescience and
constitute the active denial of the Entity of the Absolute. By indulging in such speculations our
spiritual nature is deprived of its proper function.
7. Conduct enjoined
by the varëäçrama system is
calculated to counteract the inherent atheistical trend of all worldly
activities which are unavoidable in the conditioned state.
8. Activities that
are prompted by the urge for sensuous enjoyment create the discordant diversity
of this world. One who is addicted to
worldly enjoyment has a deluded way of looking at everything. When such a person is established in the
proper activity of his unalloyed spiritual nature towards his Transcendental
Master, the only Recipient of all willing service in the eternal world, the
true view of everything is revealed to his serving vision. There can be no ignorance and misery if the
world is viewed aright.
9. The urge for
sensuous enjoyment expresses itself in the institutions of family and society
of worldly-minded persons. They are
traps of the deluding energy. But these
very traps are used as instruments of service to the Absolute by the awakened
soul.
10. The hymns of the Bhägavata always reveal the eternal
service of the Absolute on the highest plane, identical with the Personality of
Çré Gaurasundara, to the enlightened soul. The language of Çrémad-Bhägavatam reveals its true meaning only to the enlightened
soul. That meaning is very different
from what even the most renowned linguists may suppose it to be in their blind
empiric vanity.
(The Nature of Transcendental Vraja-lélä):
11. The Bhägavata gives the highest position to
the service of Çré Kåñëa by the gopés
of Våndävana. In its account of the räsa dance, it gives the clue to the
distinctive nature of the services of Çré Rädhikä and the other milkmaids.
12. Çré Kåñëa is
served by Çré Rädhikä by herself and simultaneously by her multiple bodily
forms in the shapes of the residents of Vraja.
The services of the other milkmaids, of Nanda and Yaçodä, of Çrédama and
Sudama, and of all the associates and servitors of Kåñëa in Vraja, are part and
parcel of the service of Çré Rädhikä.
13. Çré Gurudeva
belongs to this inner group of servitors.
He is the divine manifested entity for disclosing the forms and
activities of all eternal servitors of Çré Kåñëa. The function of Çré Gurudeva is a fundamental
fact in the lélä of Vraja where Çré
Kåñëa is served as the emporium of all the räsas. The servitors of Vraja minister to the
gratification of the senses of Kåñëa in every way. Çré Gurudeva is the divine exciting agent of
the serving activity of Vraja.
14. The nature of
Transcendental Vraja Lélä is liable to be misunderstood by the empiric study of
the Bhägavata. The limit of empiric inference is reached by
the speculations of the parokña
method. By the abandonment of
empiricism, represented by the aparokña
method, the Brahman and Paramätmä conceptions are realized. But these also are not objects of worship.
15. We have already
seen that the activity of service is possible only on the plane of adhokñaja, which yields the realization
of the Majestic Personality of the Absolute as Çré Näräyaëa. Aprakåta-vraja-lélä,
the central topic of the Bhägavata is
the highest form of adhokñaja
realization.
(Transcendental and Mundane Sexuality):
16. The dalliances of
Çré Kåñëa in Vraja have a close resemblance to unconventional mundane
amour. Sexuality, in all its forms, is
an essentially repulsive affair on the mundane plane. It is, therefore, impossible to understand
how the corresponding transcendental activity can be the most exquisitely
wholesome service of the Absolute.
17. It is, however,
possible to be reconciled, to some extent, to the truth of the narrative of the
Bhägavata if we are prepared to admit
the reasonableness of the doctrine that the mundane world is the unwholesome
reflection of the realm of the Absolute, and that this world appears in a scale
of values that is the reverse of that which obtains in the reality of which it
happens to be the shadow.
18. In the form of
the narrative of the Bhägavata, the
Transcendental Vraja-lélä manifests its descent to the plane of our mundane
vision in symbolic shapes resembling those of the corresponding mundane
events.
19. If we are
disposed, for any reason, to underestimate the transcendental symbolism of the
narrative of the Bhägavata, we are
unable to avoid unfavorable and hasty conclusions regarding the nature of the
highest, the most perfect and the most charming form of the loving service of
the Divinity to which all other forms of His service are as the avenues of
approach.
20. Sexuality symbolizes
the highest attraction and the acme of deliciousness in transcendental
service. In the amorous performances of
Vraja, the secrets of the eternal life are exhibited in their uncovered
perfection in the activity of the love of unalloyed souls.
21. We may notice,
in passing, certain significant differences between Çré Kåñëa's amorous
dalliances and mundane sex activity which should prevent any hasty
conclusions: 1) In Vraja-lélä, Çré Kåñëa
is under the age of eleven years; and, 2) The spiritual milkmaids never
conceive and bear children to Çré Kåñëa (the children born of Çré Kåñëa belong
to the less perfect lélä of Dvaraka).
22. To suppose the
Divine lélä to be a product of
anthropomorphic speculation is the greatest offense. The Bhägavta
declares that the realization of the true nature of the Vraja-lélä, in pursuance of the çrauta method, is the only remedy for all
conditioned souls afflicted with the disease of mundane sexuality.
23. The conventions
of civilized society for the regulation of sexual relationships attain their
ethical perfection in the varëäçrama
arrangement. Thus a person belonging to
the varëäçrama society can readily
appreciate the transparent moral purity of life on the plane of Vaikuëöha and
Ayodhya, although he cannot understand their esoteric nature. In those realms, the Godhead poses as the
ideal monogamous husband.
24. The ethical
restrictions of sex relationships that are imposed at Ayodhya by the form of
the monogamous marriage are relaxed at Dvaraka where the Absolute manifests His
fuller Personality and appears in the guise of the polygamous husband.
25. The conventions
of marriage are abrogated altogether in Våndävana where the sanctity of wedlock
becomes secondary and a foil to the amorous exploits of Çré Kåñëa in His
fullest manifestation.
26. The spiritual
function in its unalloyed form has a real correspondence to mundane activity,
with the distinction that its objective, mode of activity and instrumental are
unalloyed spirit. This makes the inconceivable
difference between the spiritual function and mundane activity. It also supplies a kind of explanation for
the fact that those activities in Vraja which correspond to the most wholesome
performances on the mundane plane, are comparatively speaking the least
pleasing in the sight of Çré Kåñëa.
(The Plane of Mundane Enjoyment and the Plane of
Spiritual Service):
27. The sole object
of all spiritual activity is gratification of the senses of Çré Kåñëa. When Çré Kåñëa is pleased, His servitors
experience unmixed joy. This is the
reverse of what happens in this world.
Activity that yields enjoyment to the person indulging in the same alone
possesses attraction on the mundane plane.
But such selfish pleasure is never coveted on the plane of spiritual
service.
28. The plane of
mundane sensuous enjoyment is thereby sharply differentiated from that of
spiritual service with respect to the quality and orientation of their
respective activities. Desire for
mundane enjoyment is potentially, but uncongenially, inherent in the soul. And it can be cultivated at his option. The practice of it, however, leads to the
abeyance of his truly natural serving function.
29. Modern
civilization does not suspect its own degradation in seeking exclusively for
mundane enjoyment. The mind and body of
man have a natural aptitude for sensuous gratification, and all his ordinary
mundane activities are practiced for its realization. Thus only a few can grasp the fact that the unalloyed
essence of the soul has a natural aptitude for the exclusive service of the
Absolute which is utterly incompatible with mundane sensuous living.
30. In the
transcendental service of the Absolute the aptitude, form, as well as
ingredients are uncovered absolutely wholesome living reality. In this complete uncovering of the proper
nature of a person by the perfection of his serving function, he is enabled to
realize fully the abiding interests of his real entity [or self]. Such unconditional submissive activity
towards the Absolute is also necessarily identical with the realization of the
perfect freedom of the soul, which expresses itself in the highest forms of his
serving activity.
Prayojana or Fruit
1. In the position
of complete realization of the activity of the uncovered soul a person becomes
eligible for participation in the Transcendental pastimes or lélä of Çré Kåñëa.... The realization of this all-absorbing love
for Çré Kåñëa is the FRUIT or prayojana
of the eternal spiritual activities of all pure souls.
2. Çré Kåñëa is
directly served by His plenary inner power as His only consort. The residents of Vraja, the plane of this
inner service, are extensions of the figure of the plenary Divine power. They are the divine participants in the
divine pastimes, as all those entities display the nature of the full
servitorship of the Divinity.
3. Not so the souls
of men, all of whom are susceptible to the temptations offered by the deluding
face of the plenary power for preventing the access of the non-residents of
Vraja to the arena of the Divine pastimes.
We, the sojourners of this mundane plane, have been thus kept out of the
plane of Vraja by the deluding face of the Divine Power.
4. Individual souls
who are not part and parcel of the inner plenary power have no automatic access
to the plane of Vraja. They are also
lacking in spontaneous love for Çré Kåñëa.
It is possible for them to attain to the love of Çré Kåñëa only as
accepted subservients of the inhabitants of Vraja.
5. The first
appearance of the spontaneous loving aptitude for Çré Kåñëa in an individual
soul elevates him to the condition of the madhyam-bhagavata
as distinct from the condition of the mahä-bhagavata
who possesses love for Çré Kåñëa in the plenary measure which makes him
eligible for participating as a subservient of the servitors of Vraja, in the
loving activities of the highest sphere of service.
6. In proportion as
the hesitant, reverential serving disposition of the madhyam-bhagavata is gradually developed, by the practice of pure
service, into one of subserviency to the inhabitants of Vraja in their
unconventional performances of the highest loving services of Çré Kåñëa, such
hesitation and distance are superseded by growing confidence and proximity to
the Object of one's highest love.
Thereby the spiritual vision is perfected, in conformity with the
natural capacity of an individual, and he is enabled to realize the full
function of his specific spiritual self.
7. Goloka-Våndävana
is realizable in the symbolic Våndävana that is open to our view in this world
by all persons whose love has been perfected by the mercy of the inhabitants of
Transcendental Vraja, and not otherwise.
8. The grossest
misunderstanding of the subject of the Vraja-lélä of Çré Kåñëa is inevitable if
these considerations are not kept in view.
All persons under the sinister influence of the deluding power of
Nescience are subject to such misunderstanding in one form or another. They are fated to see nothing but a mundane
tract of country in the terrestrial (Bhauma)
Våndävana, and the practice of the grossest forms of debauchery in the Vraja
pastimes of Çré Kåñëa.
9. But the true
esoteric vision of the mahä-bhagavata
is very different from the realization of deluded humanity. It is described in Çré Caitanya-caritämåta,
Madhya-lélä, 17-55:
"When Çré
Kåñëa Caitanya catches sight of a wood, it appears to Him in the likeness of
Våndävana; and when He looks at a hill, He mistakes it for Govardhana."
***THE END***
