Introduction
What was sanctioned by Śrī Chaitanya by His descent was intimately known only to Sv
Transcript
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Introduction
What was sanctioned by Śrī Chaitanya by His descent was intimately known only to Svarupa Damodar. It was adored by Sanātan and served by Rūpa and his followers. Raghunāth Dās tasted that wonderful thing fully and enhanced it with his own realization. And Jīva supported and protected it by quoting the scriptures. The taste of that divine truth is aspired for by Brahma, Siva, and Uddhava, who respect it as the supreme goal of life. And what is that most wonderful truth? That the highest nectar of our life is the service of Śrī Rādhā. It is the greatest gift ever known to the world. O Bhakti Vinod, it is within your power to bestow Her grace upon us. Please be kind and grant us your mercy.
Once, as Kṛṣṇa and the cows were returning from the Vṛndāvana forest at the end of the day, a boy had just attained spiritual emancipation and entered Vṛndāvana as a cowherd boy. Seeing His long lost servant, Kṛṣṇa embraced him and both of them fainted in ecstasy.
āmnāyaḥ prāha tattvaṁ harim iha
paramaṁ sarva-śaktim rasābdhiṁ
tad bhinnāmśāṁś cha jīvān prakṛti-
kavalitān tad vimuktāṁś cha bhāvat
bhedābheda-prakāśaṁ sakalam api
hareḥ sādhanaṁ śuddha-bhaktiṁ
sādhyaṁ tat prītim evety upadiśati
harir-gaurachandro bhaje tam
Here, in one verse, Bhakti Vinod Ṭhākur has given the very gist of Gauḍiya Vaiṣṇava philosophy. He says, “We are not interested in the opinion of any one ordinary: there is no value to any opinion other than what is the revealed truth (āmnāya).” Āmnāya means revealed truth or scripture that is coming through a reliable source: the guru-paramparā, a genuine succession of gurus.
And what do they say? They enumerate these facts: Hari is all in all (harim iha paramaṁ). What is His nature? He is the master of all potencies (sarva-śaktim). And He Himself is the ocean of rasa, ecstasy (rasābdhiṁ).
And the jīva-soul is not a direct part of Him, but a part of His potency (tad bhinnāmśāṁs cha jīvān). Not a plenary portion (śvāṁśa), but a partial portion (vibhinnāṁśa). Everything is a part of Hari, but śvāṁśa means an avatār and vibhinnāṁśa means a part of His potency, taṭasthā-śakti. And by nature, some souls are engrossed in the external potency, and we find some in the lap of the internal potency (prakṛti kavalitān tad vimuktāṁs cha bhāvat). By their very existence some souls are within the svarūpa-śakti and some are outside the svarūpa-śakti. Some souls are liberated and some are non-liberated (mukta and amukta). Everything is a part of Hari and has something in common with Him and something different (bhedābheda-prakāsaṁ sakalam api hareḥ). And the only means to attain Him is pure devotion, exclusive devotion (sādhanaṁ śuddha-bhaktiṁ). Hari Himself, in the form of Gaurachandra, is giving us the understanding that divine love is the highest goal of life (sādhyaṁ yat prītim evaty upadiśati harir-gauracandro bhaje tam).
The Lord’s Loving Search for His Lost Servants: Great intensity is expressed here in a simple way. It is a mad search – an urgent campaign. With great earnestness Kṛṣṇa comes to deliver His lost servants. Kṛṣṇa comes to take us home.
In Bṛhad-Bhagavatāmṛta, it is written that once, as Kṛṣṇa and the cows were returning from the Vṛndāvana forest at the end of the day, a boy had just attained spiritual emancipation and entered Vṛndāvan as a cowherd boy (sākhya-rasa). Seeing His long lost servant, Kṛṣṇa embraced him and both of them fainted in ecstasy.
All of Kṛṣṇa’s other cowherd friends were astounded, thinking, “What is this? Kṛṣṇa has lost His senses by embracing this newcomer? How is it possible?” Then, as all of the cowherd boys looked on astonished, Balarāma came to Kṛṣṇa’s relief and somehow managed to rouse Him.
Then Kṛṣṇa addressed His friend with great affection: “Why did you stay away? Why have you been living away from home for so long? How was it possible for you? How could you bear My separation? You left Me, and you have been passing lives after lives without Me? Still, I know what trouble you took to return to Me. You searched for Me everywhere, and went to beg from house to house, and you were chastised by many, ridiculed by many, and you shed tears for Me. I know all these things. I was with you. And now, after great trouble, you have again come back to Me.” In this way, Kṛṣṇa addressed His long lost servant and welcomed him. And when Kṛṣṇa returned home, He took the newcomer by His side to take prasādam. In this way, a new recruit is earnestly welcomed by Kṛṣṇa Himself.
So the Lord’s search for His lost servants is a loving search; it is not ordinary, but from the heart. And the Lord’s heart is not an ordinary heart. Who can estimate what type of search He is engaged in? Although He is full in all respects, still He feels pangs of separation for every one of us, however small we may be. In spite of His supreme position, He has room for us in a corner of His loving heart. This is the nature of the infinite. Such an absolute autocrat, absolute good is Kṛṣṇa.
An autocrat is not under law. It is not that if Kṛṣṇa gives Himself to one, another will be lacking. The infinite is not like that; rather there is an infinite supply at His command. So He is the emporium of rasa (akhila-rasāmṛta-murtīḥ). And He is searching for His lost servants, to bring them home.
Otherwise we have no hope. Our solace, our consolation in life, is that ultimately we are under the care of such a loving Lord. Kṛṣṇa’s friends think, “What do we care for others? We have our Kṛṣṇa, our friend.” That sort of inner encouragement, that desperate encouragement, comes from within. “Kṛṣṇa is there, He is our friend. What do we care about anything? We can take poison, we can jump on the head of that big serpent Kāliya, we can do anything. With Kṛṣṇa behind us, what do we care? This sentiment is so expressed by Bhakti Vinod Ṭhākur in his Śaraṇāgatī.
rakṣā koribo tuhuṅ niśchaya jāni
pāna korobuṅ hāma yamunā pāni
“Fearless and confident of Your protection, I shall drink the waters of the Yamunā, whether they are poisoned or not.
“I am Your property. You must take care of me; You can’t leave me.”
kāliya-dokha korobi bināsā
śodhobi nadī-jala bāḍobi āśā
bhaktivinod tuvā gokula-dhana
rākhobi keśava! korato jatana
“Although the Kāliya serpent’s venom has poisoned the Yamunā’s waters, I know that poison will not act. Your presence will cleanse the waters and so increase our confidence in Your protection. Bhakti Vinod is now the property of Gokula, Your holy abode, O Keśava. Kindly protect him with care.”
How are we to enter into such a loving relationship with the Lord? Through the grace of Śrī Gaurāṅga. One devotee has said, “If Gaurāṅga had not come, how could we live? And who would inform us about our ultimate prospect in life?” We have such a great prospect. And yet, without Gaurāṅga, who would have come to inform us that we have so much wealth within? And Śrī Gaurāṅga says, “You do not know, but you have such a great magnitude of wealth.” His coming to inform us of our prospect is like the astrologer who reads a poor man’s horoscope and tells him, “Why are you living a poor life? You have immense wealth buried underground. Try to recover it.
You are so great and your guardian is so loving and so high, and yet you are wandering like a poor fellow in the street? What is this! You are not helpless; it is not that you have no guardian. You have only to remember your merciful guardian.”
In the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam (11.5.32), where the Kali-yuga avatār is mentioned, we find evidence of the advent of Śrī Chaitanya Mahāprabhu. There it is said:
kṛṣṇa-varṇaṁ tviṣā ‘kṛṣṇaṁ
sāṅgopāṅgāstra-pārṣadam
yajñaiḥ saṅkīrttana-prāyair
yajanti hi su-medhasaḥ
“In the age of Kali, persons of great piety and intelligence will worship the Lord as Śrī Chaitanya Mahāprabhu. He will appear in a golden form chanting Kṛṣṇa’s name, accompanied by His associates and entourage.”
What was sanctioned by Śrī Chaitanya by His descent was intimately known only to Svarupa Damodar. It was adored by Sanātan and served by Rūpa and his followers. Raghunāth Dās tasted that wonderful thing fully and enhanced it with his own realization. And Jīva supported and protected it by quoting the scriptures. The taste of that divine truth is aspired for by Brahma, Siva, and Uddhava, who respect it as the supreme goal of life. And what is that most wonderful truth? That the highest nectar of our life is the service of Śrī Rādhā. It is the greatest gift ever known to the world. O Bhakti Vinod, it is within your power to bestow Her grace upon us. Please be kind and grant us your mercy.
Once, as Kṛṣṇa and the cows were returning from the Vṛndāvana forest at the end of the day, a boy had just attained spiritual emancipation and entered Vṛndāvana as a cowherd boy. Seeing His long lost servant, Kṛṣṇa embraced him and both of them fainted in ecstasy.
āmnāyaḥ prāha tattvaṁ harim iha
paramaṁ sarva-śaktim rasābdhiṁ
tad bhinnāmśāṁś cha jīvān prakṛti-
kavalitān tad vimuktāṁś cha bhāvat
bhedābheda-prakāśaṁ sakalam api
hareḥ sādhanaṁ śuddha-bhaktiṁ
sādhyaṁ tat prītim evety upadiśati
harir-gaurachandro bhaje tam
Here, in one verse, Bhakti Vinod Ṭhākur has given the very gist of Gauḍiya Vaiṣṇava philosophy. He says, “We are not interested in the opinion of any one ordinary: there is no value to any opinion other than what is the revealed truth (āmnāya).” Āmnāya means revealed truth or scripture that is coming through a reliable source: the guru-paramparā, a genuine succession of gurus.
And what do they say? They enumerate these facts: Hari is all in all (harim iha paramaṁ). What is His nature? He is the master of all potencies (sarva-śaktim). And He Himself is the ocean of rasa, ecstasy (rasābdhiṁ).
And the jīva-soul is not a direct part of Him, but a part of His potency (tad bhinnāmśāṁs cha jīvān). Not a plenary portion (śvāṁśa), but a partial portion (vibhinnāṁśa). Everything is a part of Hari, but śvāṁśa means an avatār and vibhinnāṁśa means a part of His potency, taṭasthā-śakti. And by nature, some souls are engrossed in the external potency, and we find some in the lap of the internal potency (prakṛti kavalitān tad vimuktāṁs cha bhāvat). By their very existence some souls are within the svarūpa-śakti and some are outside the svarūpa-śakti. Some souls are liberated and some are non-liberated (mukta and amukta). Everything is a part of Hari and has something in common with Him and something different (bhedābheda-prakāsaṁ sakalam api hareḥ). And the only means to attain Him is pure devotion, exclusive devotion (sādhanaṁ śuddha-bhaktiṁ). Hari Himself, in the form of Gaurachandra, is giving us the understanding that divine love is the highest goal of life (sādhyaṁ yat prītim evaty upadiśati harir-gauracandro bhaje tam).
The Lord’s Loving Search for His Lost Servants: Great intensity is expressed here in a simple way. It is a mad search – an urgent campaign. With great earnestness Kṛṣṇa comes to deliver His lost servants. Kṛṣṇa comes to take us home.
In Bṛhad-Bhagavatāmṛta, it is written that once, as Kṛṣṇa and the cows were returning from the Vṛndāvana forest at the end of the day, a boy had just attained spiritual emancipation and entered Vṛndāvan as a cowherd boy (sākhya-rasa). Seeing His long lost servant, Kṛṣṇa embraced him and both of them fainted in ecstasy.
All of Kṛṣṇa’s other cowherd friends were astounded, thinking, “What is this? Kṛṣṇa has lost His senses by embracing this newcomer? How is it possible?” Then, as all of the cowherd boys looked on astonished, Balarāma came to Kṛṣṇa’s relief and somehow managed to rouse Him.
Then Kṛṣṇa addressed His friend with great affection: “Why did you stay away? Why have you been living away from home for so long? How was it possible for you? How could you bear My separation? You left Me, and you have been passing lives after lives without Me? Still, I know what trouble you took to return to Me. You searched for Me everywhere, and went to beg from house to house, and you were chastised by many, ridiculed by many, and you shed tears for Me. I know all these things. I was with you. And now, after great trouble, you have again come back to Me.” In this way, Kṛṣṇa addressed His long lost servant and welcomed him. And when Kṛṣṇa returned home, He took the newcomer by His side to take prasādam. In this way, a new recruit is earnestly welcomed by Kṛṣṇa Himself.
So the Lord’s search for His lost servants is a loving search; it is not ordinary, but from the heart. And the Lord’s heart is not an ordinary heart. Who can estimate what type of search He is engaged in? Although He is full in all respects, still He feels pangs of separation for every one of us, however small we may be. In spite of His supreme position, He has room for us in a corner of His loving heart. This is the nature of the infinite. Such an absolute autocrat, absolute good is Kṛṣṇa.
An autocrat is not under law. It is not that if Kṛṣṇa gives Himself to one, another will be lacking. The infinite is not like that; rather there is an infinite supply at His command. So He is the emporium of rasa (akhila-rasāmṛta-murtīḥ). And He is searching for His lost servants, to bring them home.
Otherwise we have no hope. Our solace, our consolation in life, is that ultimately we are under the care of such a loving Lord. Kṛṣṇa’s friends think, “What do we care for others? We have our Kṛṣṇa, our friend.” That sort of inner encouragement, that desperate encouragement, comes from within. “Kṛṣṇa is there, He is our friend. What do we care about anything? We can take poison, we can jump on the head of that big serpent Kāliya, we can do anything. With Kṛṣṇa behind us, what do we care? This sentiment is so expressed by Bhakti Vinod Ṭhākur in his Śaraṇāgatī.
rakṣā koribo tuhuṅ niśchaya jāni
pāna korobuṅ hāma yamunā pāni
“Fearless and confident of Your protection, I shall drink the waters of the Yamunā, whether they are poisoned or not.
“I am Your property. You must take care of me; You can’t leave me.”
kāliya-dokha korobi bināsā
śodhobi nadī-jala bāḍobi āśā
bhaktivinod tuvā gokula-dhana
rākhobi keśava! korato jatana
“Although the Kāliya serpent’s venom has poisoned the Yamunā’s waters, I know that poison will not act. Your presence will cleanse the waters and so increase our confidence in Your protection. Bhakti Vinod is now the property of Gokula, Your holy abode, O Keśava. Kindly protect him with care.”
How are we to enter into such a loving relationship with the Lord? Through the grace of Śrī Gaurāṅga. One devotee has said, “If Gaurāṅga had not come, how could we live? And who would inform us about our ultimate prospect in life?” We have such a great prospect. And yet, without Gaurāṅga, who would have come to inform us that we have so much wealth within? And Śrī Gaurāṅga says, “You do not know, but you have such a great magnitude of wealth.” His coming to inform us of our prospect is like the astrologer who reads a poor man’s horoscope and tells him, “Why are you living a poor life? You have immense wealth buried underground. Try to recover it.
You are so great and your guardian is so loving and so high, and yet you are wandering like a poor fellow in the street? What is this! You are not helpless; it is not that you have no guardian. You have only to remember your merciful guardian.”
In the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam (11.5.32), where the Kali-yuga avatār is mentioned, we find evidence of the advent of Śrī Chaitanya Mahāprabhu. There it is said:
kṛṣṇa-varṇaṁ tviṣā ‘kṛṣṇaṁ
sāṅgopāṅgāstra-pārṣadam
yajñaiḥ saṅkīrttana-prāyair
yajanti hi su-medhasaḥ
“In the age of Kali, persons of great piety and intelligence will worship the Lord as Śrī Chaitanya Mahāprabhu. He will appear in a golden form chanting Kṛṣṇa’s name, accompanied by His associates and entourage.”
After that, there are two other verses about Śr Chaitanya Mahāprabhu:
dhyeyaṁ sadā paribhava-ghnam abhīṣṭa-dohaṁ
tīrthāspadaṁ śiva-viriñchi-nutaṁ śaraṇyam
bhṛtyārti-haṁ praṇata-pāla bhavābdhi-potaṁ
vande mahā-puruṣa te charaṇāravindam
Śrīmad Bhāgavatam (11.5.33) explains here, “That same personality who came as Rāmachandra and Kṛṣṇa has again appeared. He has come to direct us to the real fulfillment of life. He is drawing the sweetest nectar from above for the sake of everyone. Meditate only on Him and all your troubles will be finished. He purifies all holy places of pilgrimage and great saintly persons by His touch and by His saṅkīrtan. He draws the highest things down from the highest plane. And even Brahmā and Śiva, puzzled by His noble gift, will begin to praise Him. They will eagerly aspire to take shelter under His lotus feet in surrender. The pains of all who come to serve Him will be removed, and their inner necessities will be fulfilled. And He will take care of those who take shelter of Him; they will be given protection as well as everything they may need. In this world where morality rules, where we are continually experiencing the undesirable changes of repeated birth and death, in this area where no one wants to live, a great ship will come for us and take us within, and carry us away from this unpleasant position. Let us fall at the feet of that great personality who comes to give us the highest nectar.”
tyaktvā sudustyaja-surepsita-rājya-lakṣmīṁ
dharmiṣṭha ārya-vachasā yad agād araṇyam
māyā-mṛgaṁ dayitayepsitam anvadhāvad
vande mahā-puruṣa te charaṇāravindam
“O Supreme Lord, You gave up the goddess of fortune and her great opulence, which is most difficult to abandon and is sought after even by the gods. In order to perfectly establish the principles of religion, You left for the forest to honour a brāhmaṇ’s curse. To deliver the sinful souls who chase illusory pleasures, You search after them and award them Your devotional service. At the same time, You are engaged in a search for Yourself, in a search for Śrī Kṛṣṇa, Reality the Beautiful.”
This verse generally applies to Lord Rāmachandra, who left His kingdom, and after going with Sītādevī to the forest to discharge the duties designed by His father, chased after the māyā-mṛgaṁ – the golden deer. Śrīla Viśvanātha Chakravartī Ṭhākur, however, shows how this verse also applies to Śrī Chaitanya Mahāprabhu. He says that the word māyā-mṛgaṁ means that Śrī Chaitanya Mahāprabhu ran after the souls that are enveloped by māyā or misconception. The word māyā-mṛgaṁ, when applied to Rāmachandra,means that He ran after Marīchi, who had taken the form of a golden deer. When applied in the case of Śrī Chaitanya Mahāprabhu, the words māyā-mṛgaṁ anvadhāvat mean “He chased after those souls who are in illusion in order to deliver them. He ran in pursuit of the fallen soul as a saviour to deliver them from māyā or illusion.”
Viśvanātha Chakravartī Ṭhākur has also given another interpretation: he says that dayitayā ipsitam means “ it is desired by the beloved,” that is, the search for Kṛṣṇa. In this way, He identifies two qualities in the Chaitanya avatār: He relieves the fallen souls, and He searches out Kṛṣṇa in the mood of His beloved (dayitayepsitam anvadhāvat). Inspired by the mood of dayita, His beloved, Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī, He ran after the souls in bondage to deliver them. Here we find the scriptural reference, the seed of this conception. He is in quest of the lost souls, absorbed in a loving search for His lost servants.
And throughout the whole life of Śrī Chaitanya Mahāprabhu and His other self, Nityānanda, it is very clear that They, being the Supreme Entity Themselves, are hunting after the fallen souls to deliver them. This will be the backbone of our conception of the Lord’s loving search for His lost servants.
And it is also said:
yadā yadā hi dharmasya
glānir bhavati bhārata
abhyuthānam adharmasya
tadātmānaṁ sṛjāmyaham
paritrāṇāya sādhunāṁ
vināśāya cha duṣkṛtām
dharma-saṁsthāpanārthāya
sambhavāmi yuge yuge
“Whenever and wherever religion declines and irreligion becomes prevalent, I advent Myself. In order to protect the saintly and punish the wicked, as well as to reestablish religious principles, I appear millenium after millenium.” Here, Kṛṣṇa says, “I come here now and then to help reestablish the scriptural injunctions, as well as to do away with the demoniac.” These are the references from the scriptures describing how Kṛṣṇa comes in search of His servants. By accepting these statements as our starting point, we can see that He is always coming to this world to help the fallen souls, His own servants.
What is the position of the fallen souls? In Śrī Chaitanya-charitāmṛta, Śrīla Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja records Śrī Chaitanya Mahāprabhu instructing Sanātan Goswāmi:
jivera ’svarūpa’ haya – kṛṣṇera ‘nitya-dāsa’
kṛṣṇera ’taṭasthā-śakti’ bhedābheda-prakāśa’
kṛṣṇa bhuli sei jīva anādi-bahirmukha
ataeva māyā tāre deya saṁsāra dukḥa
“The constitutional nature of the jīva-soul is that of an eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa; the jīva-soul is a manifestation of divinity which is one with Kṛṣṇa and different from Him. The jīva-souls are the marginal potency of the Lord. Though in reality they are servants of Kṛṣṇa, from time immemorial, they have been engaged in misconception, as exploiting agents.” In order to deliver His lost servants, the Lord comes now and then to take them up to His own home.
In other religions we find many messiahs coming to help us to retrace our path from worldly consciousness back to God consciousness. Yet although we see this conception in other countries and other religious traditions, in India it is found in a most profuse and systematic way.
In Śrīmad Bhāgavatam (11.14.3) Kṛṣṇa says:
kālena naśṭā pralaye
vāṇīyam veda-saṁjñitā
mayādau brahmaṇe proktā
dharmo yasyāṁ mad-ātmakaḥ
“By the influence of time, the transcendental sound of Vedic knowledge was lost at the time of annihilation. Again, at the time of creation, I first inspired Brahmā the creator from within his heart. And then, through Brahmā, so many disciples were enlightened. They in turn enlightened their disciples. And in this way, the line of revealed truth descends from Me.”
And in Bhagavad-gītā Kṛṣṇa says:
imaṁ vivasvate yogaṁ
proktavān aham avyayam
vivasvān manave prāha
manur ikṣvākave’ bravīt
evaṁ paramparā-prāptam
imaṁ rājarṣayo viduḥ
sa kāleneha mahatā
yogo naṣṭaḥ parantapa
“First I instructed the sun-god Sūrya in this knowledge, and from Sūrya it passed to Manu, and from Manu to Ikṣvāku; so from the beginning of time, I am giving My tidings to others, transmitting the truth that I am the goal through this system of disciplic succession, generation after generation.”
In this way, Kṛṣṇa appears again and again to reclaim His long lost servants. And, as Śrī Chaitanya Mahāprabhu, Kṛṣṇa is also tasting His own sweetness. When He wants to distribute it to the devotees, the cause is His ecstatic potency (hlādinī-śakti). When Kṛṣṇa combines with His potency as Śrī Chaitanya Mahāprabhu, He becomes the āchārya. So Kṛṣṇa says, āchāryaṁmāṁvijānīyān: “Know that I am the āchārya.” His āchārya-līla is His self-distribution, and thereby He is taking His lost servants home. His recruitment is to distribute knowledge about Himself and devotion for Himself, and then to take them home.
In Vṛndāvan, Kṛṣṇa is tasting rasa within His own circle, and in Nabadwīp, as Śrī Gaurāṅga with His group, He is tasting Himself and distributing that taste to others. His distribution and recruitment are one and the same. By distributing Himself He is drawing our hearts to Him, taking us home. The self-distribution of the Absolute is meant to draw us back home, back to Godhead, and in this way, the Lord is eternally engaged in His Loving search for His lost servants.